MacArthur is a bit of a mystery to me, perhaps more politician than field commander. I've been rereading the books about Korea, historical fiction in particular by Webb Griffin. The Chosun Frozen did something remarkable I think.
W.E.B. Griffin :: THE CORPS Series (webgriffin.com)He was an Army guy who for some reason fell in love with the Corps.
My Dad for some reason had a very high opinion of the Corps, he was USAAF. He told me they had a Marine on board the night they went down, I don't know why, nor did he, and he thinks the Navy searched for them to rescue the Marine. Only my Dad, the flight engineer named Lamica, and the copilot survived and were picked up.
As to Chickamauga, that was the example I was thinking about. I visited the battlefield twice but it's so wooded I couldn't make much sense of it. Gettysburg is a lot different, as is Antietam.
It seems like a kind of crap shoot.
I had fun in my alternate history book moving Lee's Army in 1863 to Mississippi to face Grant at Memphis. I had to read up on rail transport at the time, it was pretty hilarious really. I sent Jackson off on a flanking move, who woulda thunk, but he got held up by a swollen river, and then Lee being desparate launched a frontal attack on Grant that ended poorly.
I like making up my own history.