Henry,

I definitely agree with your thoughts on this. The real failure on the Chattahoochee/Apalachicola system, I think, was the inability of the Confederates at Columbus to get the Jackson operational. With the Chattahoochee and Viper backing her up, she would have been a formidable weapon and could have created serious problems for the East Gulf squadron. Obviously she couldn't have crossed the bar off Apalachicola, but she definitely could have reopened the bay to blockade runners (since it had three entrances). The Union navy would have had to move significant resources to Apalachicola Bay, which would have created problems at other locations along the coast (Mobile, Savannah, Charleston?).

Would it have been enough to change the outcome of anything? I doubt it. I don't think the Confederates had the infrastructure to sustain a break through, but it might have delayed things.

Dale