December 1863 to August 1864

The winter had been hard and the spring was not any easier and much busier. The summer was more of the same, lots more. General Joseph E. Johnson's assumption of command in late December 1863 had brought change. Joseph Wheeler was retained as chief of the now Army of Tennessee (changed in name from the Army of Mississippi under General Bragg). A reorganization of responsibilities, territory and strategy had been put in place. Johnston, a master academic military leader, assumed that Grant and Sherman would be intent on the destruction of the Confederate Army and its' will to fight. Territory, he assumed, would not be as vital as the grinding down of the rebel military. So give them territory not chance destruction of the second most important army except Lee's. He planned accordingly; no full "big" offenses for his command. It would be jab, feint, wait; jab, pester, move and wait. Give ground to get Union casualties.

Maneuver and rabbit punch. Don't get into a full blown "great battle". No gambles, just patient, technical hide and seek. The fifty-seven-year-old Johnston, native of Virginia and 1829 graduate of West Point had thirty-two years of impressive service in the US Army before Fort Sumner. At the Civil War's opening he was a brigadier general and chief quartermaster in the old army.

Johnston knew his numbers - 63,408 soldiers including some 8,000 cavalry under Wheeler, with 189 pieces of artillery could not out-brawl William T. Sherman's muscle bound Yankee army.