Episode 81: The Politics of Command 1

In early 1862, Joe Johnston began to plan a withdrawal before he fell to a planned Union attack. This he did, but at the cost of worsening his relationship with Jefferson Davis. But Davis had many other problems, including an ineffectual Secretary of War, leading to a rapid change in the Confederate Cabinet. And finally, the new Secretary of War had not only to quickly find problems to pressing matters, but manage a new institution, never used before in the war: Conscription.