GDG- Re: Lee's food

[Biggsk at aol.com]

Hello,

>>>>However, the message traffic leading up to the invasion  is replete with 
Lee's complaints about the need for supplies for his  army.  Which leads to 
the conclusion that this was a major objective of  the invasion.>>>>



I have posted before that by 1864, most of Lee's food is coming up from  
Georgia.  I have since found out that this happened even earlier - as early  as 
May, 1863 in fact (and also from East TN, which is not that big of a food  
growing region as parts of Middle TN and West TN are).  Bragg was actually  having 
troubles feeding his army while at Tullahoma.  His right flank was  on the 
Highland Rim and behind that was the area we call the Barrens.   Limestone comes 
right up to the surface so nothing will grow there - although  you do have 
some animal grazing areas.  His left flank was actually  covering his food source 
to his west.  That was also under Union  threat.
 
Bragg tried to augment his food supply from Atlanta and was told to butt  out 
basically as the food there was for Lee's army.
 
The Confederates equipped thousands of troops with any and all battle field  
captures of weapons, etc..  The Gettysburg Campaign was a huge food  scouring 
success from all that I have seen, but in terms of getting anything  else 
useful for an army, I don't see anything.  Then you have to weigh in  the supplies 
he expended on that campaign, which Goff has covered already as a  major 
disaster.
 
So - if it is a food raid that is one of the major successes of the  
campaign, why not send a division or two instead of the whole army?
 
Greg Biggs