Why was general johns on fired during the civil war?

Answer 1

Pursued by Sherman in the Tennessee/Georgia mountains from May '64, Joe Johnston had been conducting a long tactical retreat, so skilful that it is studied in military academies to this day.

Logically, he had little choice. He knew the Confederates were running out of recruits by this stage in the war, so his priority was to conserve manpower, deny the enemy any major victories, and prolong the campaign so that the Northern public would become war-weary and vote Lincoln out in the upcoming elections.

But unfortunately, logic was not the Confederates' strong point, nor their biggest priority. Tactical retreats were just not the 'Confederate thing to do.'

Also Johnston had been engaged in a bitter feud with the Confederate president, Jefferson Davis, since the outbreak of war, when Davis had ranked him only fourth out of five of the regular army Generals who had resigned to join the Confederates, even though he was actually the most senior.

Now Davis lost patience and fired Johnston, replacing him with John Bell Hood, someone more dashing and 'Confederate' in style and spirit, but who turned out utterly wrong for the top job, and would lead the Army of Tennessee to disaster.