>> the original commander for the south was albert sidney johnson. he was the western department. after it is any johnson was the highest ranking confederate and very distinguished career. indian fighter in the regular army before the war. he was department commander in the pacific right before war and came across the prairie. he had a tough job. the south had a departmental system in their -- in how they work things. johnson was responsible for raising aries, equipping them, dealing with all the governors, getting supplies from the governors. he was a military guy. he was also a politician. you know, he had to deal with the politicians. hard, hard job. the union had a far more extreme line central authority here. general johnson will catch heck for the failure of fort henry and he is scrambling to recover from that which leads to the battle shiloh. he is forming the -- after fort donelson and fort henry fall, the union, army of the tennessee, will move to pittsburgh landing. general johnston, albert sidney johnson is collecting every force he can out of bowling green national sym

you had albert sidney johnson in bowling green in charge of the whole western department. ft. henry fell, we have to reinforce ft. donelson, you take your brigade, you take your division, you take your division and go. oh, i have four brigadier generals at donelson? figure out. whoever is senior, just take command. and the communications between all those, of the four brigadier generals, johnson, lowest ranking one, he was kind of forgotten. many of you are wondering, four? i didn't know there were four. he was forgotten. buckner, next junior guy, he didn't communicate directly as far as we know with albert sidney johnson in the west but the two others, giddy and john floyd, they were sending the -- their commander updates. if you can imagine the theater commander gets two updates from two generals up there going, what the heck? and they're both saying different things. before e-mail, but you could relate. if you have an e-mail from two guys and saying different thing, who do you believe? well, and general johnson's -- to his credit, he never firmly established a chain of comm

>> the overall regional commander for the south was albert sidney johnson, the western department. and yes, he did catch a lot of flack for it. and albert sidney johnson was actual lit second highest-ranking confederate general in the army at that time. very distinguished career. indian fighter, been in a regular army before the war. was department commander in the pacific right before the war and came across the prairie to fight in the civil war. he had a tough job. the south had a departmental system in how they worked things. so johnson was responsible for raising armies, equipping them, dealing with all the governors, getting supplies from the governors. he was a military guy but he was also a politician. or he had to deal with the politicians. hard, hard job. where the union had a far more line of central authority here. general johnson will catch heck for the failure of ft fort henry, fort donelson and he's scrambling to recover from that which leads to the battle of shilo. he is forming the -- after fort donelson, fort henry fall, the new union army of the tennessee will move

you had albert sidney johnson in bowling green in charge of the whole western department. ooh, fort henry fell. we have to reinforce fort donelson. you take your brigade, you take your regiment, and oh, you take your division and go. and oh, i have four brigadier generals at donelson? whoever is senior just take command. and the communications between all those, of the four brigadier generals, one johnson the lowest-ranking one was kind of forgotten. many of you are probably wondering four? i didn't know there were four. he was kind of forgotten. general buckner, the next junior guy, he didn't communicate as directly as far as we know with albert sidney johnson in the west. but two others, gideon pillow and john floyd, they were sending their commander -- updates from two different generals down there. are going what the heck? and both saying different things by the way. the day before e-mail but you can relate. if you have an e-mail from two guys and they're saying different things, who do you believe? well, and to general johnson's to his credit, he never firmly establis

general albert sidney johnson is collecting every force he can, bowling green, nashville, and this is his counterstrike. that's where the battle of shilo comes about. someone else? you already asked one. you already asked one, too. come on. >> when they made their breakout, there were a lot of other people that went along with him. now, did they -- the different grig a brigade generals say you want to go? >> it was a case by case basis. the question is when nathan bedford forest escapes, he takes his own command but what about the other guys that went with him? about 800 to 1200 guys went with forest. the question is, was it -- well, i'll just say. it was a case by case basis. word got out that forest was going to make a run for it, break out. if you had a horse, like if you're an artilleryman and you had a horse, get on the dang horse and follow him. if you're on foot, that's kind of tricky. a lot of guys would have loved to have break out but they were on foot. they knew they had to cross the creek down there and then once they even got clear of ft. donelson, the fear was being over