Major General Pros And Cons Essay

This paper analyzes the role Major General William S. Rosecrans plays in the Army of the Cumberland’s defeat at the Battle of Chickamauga. Specifically, analysis shows how Rosecrans fails to drive the operations process of his Army through four of the six commander’s activities: understand, describe, direct, and assess. Over the course of the three-day battle period Rosecrans fell short in multiple instances to employ mission command. As a result, the Army of the Cumberland loses a costly battle to the Confederate Army of Tennessee and for no other reason than failure at the highest echelon.
By late summer, 1863, Rosecrans successfully pushes General Braxton Bragg out of Tennessee into Georgia without a single fight. He accomplishes this through

Gen. Thomas’ lead elements and a ‘large force’ in the vicinity of McLemore’s Cove on 10 September. He consolidates his subordinate generals as fast as possible, establishing positions East of Missionary Ridge. Skirmishes begin the morning of the 18th when Bragg sends two divisions to cross the creek at Reed’s and Alexander’s Bridges, and Thedford’s in order to surprise Rosecrans left flank. The majority of the battle breaks out on the 19th when Maj. Gen. Thomas sends Maj. Gen. Brannon to destroy an ‘isolated brigade’ in the vicinity of Jay’s Mill. Instead, Brannon encounters an entire enemy division. By the evening on the 19th, Rosecrans has a solidified line with various intermixed divisions from his subordinate corps commanders. The day ends when Rosecrans issues orders for actions on the 20th to his generals. After he inspects the line the following morning, however, Rosecrans discovers that his generals’ positions are not integrated to the extent he intended. He spends the majority of the late morning issuing fragmentary movement orders to corps, division, and brigade commanders attempting to realign the positions. It is during this reshuffling of his line that he mistakenly creates a gap between his units. His corps commanders and staff fail to bring the gap to his attention in time and the enemy finds it before Federal troops can close it up. Longstreet penetrates and

A clear intent ‘helps-supporting commanders act to achieve the commander’s desired results without further orders.’ He gathered Thomas, Crittenden, and McCook on the evening of the 19th, issued their orders, read them outload, and explained their missions to them. His orders originally ‘were sound, simple, and brought clarity’ to subordinate commanders for the morning of the 20th. But after inspecting their execution of his intent, he began a ‘complex shuffling around of divisions in the late morning’ during which came the ‘fatal order.’ Rosecrans becomes his own greatest foe by issuing too many incomplete and ambiguous orders. The fragmentary orders appear to change his original intent to the irritation of Crittenden. In his point of view, Rosecrans used ‘too many orders while his men were fighting.’ As a result, ‘almost three full divisions of the Federal right wing were in motion at the same time, in the face of a heavily concentrated enemy.’ The shuffling movement of his divisions allowed a considerable gap where Brig. Gen. Wood was formerly located and the lack of shared understanding prevented anyone from catching