""About sundown it began to rain cats & dogs," wrote E. Porter Alexander, General Longstreet's Chief of Artillery. He was writing about the night of the 4th, the night that the Confederates besieging Knoxville, Tennessee began their swift departure for the hills to the northeast. Longstreet had learned that William Tecumseh Sherman was bounding his way from Chattanooga with 30,000 troops. Rather than wait for a battle he was almost certain to lose, the Rebel general decided to break off the siege. Rather than attempting to break through to the south to reunite with Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee (where he had never really been wanted), he decided to march north with an eye upon getting back to Virginia.
Alexander had limbered the last of his howitzers, shortly after bidding the Yankees a bitter farewell. Soon, they were on the road. "It was a hard night's march," he remembered. "Not that the distance covered was great, but the killing feature is perpetual halting and moving, and halting and moving, inseparable from either night marching or bad roads, and at its maximum when both fall together. It was quite cold too, and the officers were obliged to relax discipline, and let the men burn fence rails at will, whenever a regular rest was made. The men would set fire to the fences as they stood, at the angles where the rails crossed. In spite of the rain they seemed to have no trouble in starting fires in these corners, and during that night we frequently saw miles of fence on fire at a time. We marched all night, and until about 11 o'clock on Saturday [this date], when we camped at Blain's Crossroads, 18 miles from Knoxville."
At Blain's Crossroads, Longstreet's men bivouacked, and there they stayed until the following morning. They also took on more infantry in the form of General Robert Ransom's Division, in from southwest Virginia. Traveling with Ransom's column was a message from President Davis urging Longstreet to slide back into Virginia. Originally, he had wished for him to reunite with Bragg, but now the President thought better…"
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Question: If Longstreet succeded in joint Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee, what could change the war in that zone?
Could Longstreet take command in some point of that Army?
As the article mention, there were not much to choose.
Thanks in advance for your guidance.
Amicalement
Armand
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