The Chattanooga Campaign: With especial reference to Wisconsin's participation therein

by Michael Hendrick Fitch

ORGANIZATION

After the battle of Stone’s River and while lying at Murfreesboro, the Army of the Cumberland was reorganized. As previously stated, Rosecrans joined it as the successor of Buell, at Bowling Green, in October, 1862. Stone’s River was the army’s first battle under Rosecrans. In that, the army was called the Fourteenth Corps, Department of the Cumberland; and it was divided into three divisions—the centre, right, and left wings. General George H. Thomas commanded the centre, General Alexander McD. McCook the right, and General Thomas L. Crittenden the left. In the new organization, the command was called the Army of the Cumberland, and divided into three corps, the Fourteenth, the Twentieth, and the Twenty-first. Thomas was assigned to the command of the Fourteenth, General McCook to the Twentieth, and Crittenden to the Twenty-first.

Rosecrans came to the Army of the Cumberland with considerable prestige. He was then forty-three years old, having graduated from West Point in 1842. As brigadier-general he had gained the battle of Rich Mountain, Virginia, in July, 1861; won the battle of Carnifex Ferry, Virginia, in September of the same year; as commander of the Army of the Mississippi was victorious in the battles of Iuka in September, 1862, and of Corinth in October following. He came to the Army of the Cumberland with a record of unbroken successes behind him. He was genial, and had untiring industry. His heart and head were devoted to the Union cause. His troops saw him frequently. He was a lover of approbation, and had the confidence of his generals, and the love of his rank and file. The men affectionately nicknamed him “Old Rosy,” and that was his usual cognomen with the whole army. He was a strategist of high order. A study of his Chattanooga campaign will show his eminent ability, in so maneuvering as to compel the enemy to fight in the open. When an engagement was thus brought on, and the actual combat occurred, he lacked (in those which he fought with the Army of the Cumberland) the proper supervision of his line of battle. He too implicitly relied upon his subordinates. During the whole of the Chattanooga campaign his strategy was of the first order; but at both Stone’s River and Chickamauga, the right of his line was too attenuated; in both engagements, disaster occurred to this part of his troops.

The chief of staff to Rosecrans was General James A. Garfield, who was then thirty-one years old, brainy and very energetic. Although not a graduate of West Point, he was possessed of decided military instincts. Before the war he was an instructor in, and later president of, Hiram College, Ohio; and later was a member of the Ohio Senate. Entering the army as lieutenant-colonel of an Ohio regiment, he defeated Humphrey Marshall in the battle of Middle Creek, Eastern Kentucky, January 10, 1862, and was that year promoted to be a brigadier-general. Able and conscientious as an officer, he was perhaps rather too democratic and academic to become a typical soldier. He became very nervous at the delay in moving from Murfreesboro, and instituted an inquiry into the reasons, both for and against an earlier advance on Tullahoma. A majority of the subordinate generals in the Army of the Cumberland supported General Rosecrans in his delay. Later on, notice will be taken of Garfield’s service in the battle of Chickamauga, and his retirement to a seat in Congress.

Next to Rosecrans, the most important figure among the subordinate commanders was Thomas. He was then forty-seven years old, and a graduate of West Point in 1840. Between that time and the Civil War, he served in the war with Mexico, and against the Indians in the West. At the beginning of the War between the States he was major of the Second Cavalry, of which Albert Sidney Johnston was colonel, Robert E. Lee lieutenant-colonel, and William J. Hardee senior major. Thomas was the only field officer of that regiment who remained loyal to the Union. He was commissioned colonel of the regiment, reorganized it, and during the first battle of Bull Run served in General Patterson’s detachment, in the Shenandoah Valley. He was commissioned brigadier-general in August, 1861, and was sent to Kentucky to serve in the then Army of the Ohio (afterwards the Army of the Cumberland), under General Robert Anderson of Fort Sumter fame. Thomas organized the first real little army of that department at camp Dick Robinson, Kentucky, between Danville and Lexington; and in January, 1862, with this force defeated the Confederate troops under Zollicoffer, at Mill Springs, Kentucky, on the Cumberland River. This force and this place were then the extreme right of the Confederate line of defense, of which Forts Donelson and Henry, in Tennessee, and Paducah, Kentucky, constituted the left. This line was fortified, and extended through Bowling Green. A month after General Thomas had turned its right at Mill Springs, General Grant also turned its left, by capturing both Forts Donelson and Henry. This necessitated the establishment of a new Confederate line farther south, the evacuation of Kentucky, and the eventual loss to the Confederates of Middle Tennessee. Just before the battle of Perryville, Kentucky, the President offered General Thomas, on September 29, 1862, the command of the Army of the Cumberland at Louisville, but he declined it. Buell was in command of the army during the battle of Perryville; after which he was superseded by Rosecrans. Thomas was a soldier, pure and simple, having never resigned from the army after his graduation from the Military Academy. He had shown great ability in the recent battle of Stone’s River, as well as in every position in which he was placed, prior to that battle. It will be seen, further on, what important movements he directed in the battle of Chickamauga, which saved the Army of the Cumberland from imminent disaster.

General McCook, who commanded the Twentieth Corps, belonged to the younger class of West Point graduates, of which General Sheridan was a type. He graduated in 1853, and was thirty-two years old in April, 1863. He was a handsome man, of striking presence, and commanded with some dramatic effect.

General Crittenden, commanding the Twenty-first Corps, was then a year older than Rosecrans—forty-four years. He was not a graduate of West Point, but had served as a volunteer in the Mexican War. He was a son of U. S. Senator John J. Crittenden, of Kentucky.

The Fourteenth Corps was made up of four divisions. These were commanded respectively by Major-General Lovell H. Rousseau, Major-General James S. Negley, Brigadier-General John M. Brannan, and Major-General Joseph J. Reynolds. Each of these divisions contained three brigades, and three light field batteries. The brigades were generally composed of four regiments, but sometimes of five.

The Twentieth Corps contained three divisions, commanded respectively by Brigadier-General Jefferson C. Davis, Brigadier-General Richard W. Johnson, and Major-General Philip H. Sheridan. These were made up of brigades of four and five regiments of infantry and three batteries of artillery.

The Twenty-first Corps likewise was organized into three divisions, commanded by Brigadier-General Thomas J. Wood, Major-General John M. Palmer, and Brigadier-General Horatio P. Van Cleve, each with three brigades and several batteries. The artillery of each division of the army was commanded by a chief of artillery.

All of the cavalry were organized into a separate corps, commanded by Major-General David S. Stanley. This was divided into two divisions; the First was composed of two brigades, and commanded by Brigadier-General Robert B. Mitchell; the Second, also of two brigades, was commanded at first by Brigadier-General John B. Turchin. Prior to the battle of Chickamauga, Turchin was assigned to an infantry brigade. These cavalry brigades were much larger than the infantry brigades, for they contained five or six regiments. Generally there was a battery attached to each brigade of cavalry.

On June 8, 1863, a reserve corps was organized, with Major-General Gordon Granger in command. It contained three divisions, commanded by Brigadier-General James D. Morgan, Brigadier-General Robert S. Granger, and Brigadier-General Absalom Baird, respectively. The last-named was afterwards transferred to the First Division, Fourteenth Corps, being succeeded by General James B. Steedman. It was the duty of this reserve corps to guard the communications in the rear of the army; but it was also subject, in emergency, to be ordered to the front, as will be seen further on—for example, when General Granger with three brigades, marched from Bridgeport, Alabama, to Rossville Gap, Georgia, and assisted very greatly in the battle of September 20, at Chickamauga. In this reserve corps should also be included certain miscellaneous troops, scattered in forts along the line of the Louisville & Chattanooga railroad, such as Nashville, Clarksville, and Gallatin, Tennessee. At this time Colonel Benjamin J. Sweet of the Twenty-first Wisconsin Infantry was in command of the forces at Gallatin. He had been wounded severely in the battle of Perryville, Kentucky, on October 8, 1862, and was not able to endure active service at the front.

The First Brigade of the Third Division, reserve corps, was stationed at Fort Donelson, Tennessee, and commanded by Colonel William P. Lyon, of the Thirteenth Wisconsin Infantry, that regiment being a part of the garrison. The First Wisconsin Cavalry, commanded by Colonel Oscar H. LaGrange, was attached to the Second Brigade of the First Division of the cavalry corps. Captain Lucius H. Drury, of the Third Wisconsin Battery, was chief of artillery to the Third Division of the Twenty-first Corps.

This organization of the Army of the Cumberland remained substantially the same, until after the battle of Chickamauga. Sometime in the latter part of July, or first part of August, General Rousseau received leave of absence, and General Absalom Baird was assigned on August 24 to command the First Division of the Fourteenth Corps in his stead. Baird remained in command of this division until after the battle of Chickamauga, when Major-General Lovell H. Rousseau again took the command. Rousseau was a loyal Kentuckian, who at the very beginning of hostilities had raised a regiment for the service of the Union. He was then forty-five years old and had served in the Mexican War. He was a spectacular officer of great bravery, who is entitled to much credit for his unflinching devotion to the Union, under circumstances which made other men desert our cause.

Major-General John M. Palmer of Illinois, a lawyer of eminence in his State, was an officer of more than usual ability. He was not a West Point graduate, and was forty-six years old.

General Granger was then forty-two years old, a graduate of West Point in the class of 1845, and had fought in the Mexican War. It will be noticed that many of the general officers of the Army of the Cumberland served in the Mexican War. The experience they then acquired in the field, in actual campaigning, and by some of them in actual battle, undoubtedly served to give to the Army of the Cumberland much of its esprit de corps, and its general success in winning battles and in holding the territory over which it marched. General Granger was an unusually able and gallant officer. Later on, it will be told what important service he rendered General Thomas in the battle of Chickamauga.

Major-General Philip H. Sheridan was then thirty-two years old. He graduated at West Point, rather low in his class, in 1853. At the outbreak of the war he was promoted to a captaincy. In May, 1862, he was commissioned colonel of cavalry in the volunteer service, and brigadier-general of volunteers July 1, 1862, being made a major-general on December 31, 1862. He had commanded a division in the battle of Perryville, Kentucky, in October, 1862, and was at Stone’s River December 31, 1862, to January 3, 1863. He is entitled to this special notice more for what he became, than for what he had done prior to the Chattanooga campaign. He had as yet shown no extraordinary ability as a commander. His age was the same as that of his corps commander, General McCook, and they graduated in the same class at West Point.

Generals Absalom Baird, John M. Brannan, Jefferson C. Davis, Thomas J. Wood, R. W. Johnson, and David S. Stanley were all officers of the old regular army, soldiers by profession, whose minds were not distracted from their duties in the field by politics or academic proclivities. They were brave and always at the front, working for success with military spirit. All of them served faithfully until the close of the war. Davis, Wood, and Stanley afterwards commanded corps—commanded them ably and with notably unassuming manners. There was no taint about these officers of “playing to the galleries.” They were not expecting applause, and did their work without brass bands or reporters to sound their achievements to the country. Such were the officers of this great central army.

What of the musket bearers? Who were they? Where did they come from? Were they soldiers by profession or merely citizens in arms for a special purpose? I have already said that very many of the general officers of the Army of the Cumberland were of the regular army. The United States regular army was represented only, however, by one brigade of the regular troops, namely, the Third Brigade of the First Division of the Fourteenth Corps, commanded by Brigadier-General John H. King. Thus almost the entire rank and file of the army were volunteers. The regiments were filled and officered by the executives of the different states. The men were mustered into the service of the General Government as volunteers for three years or during the war. These volunteers were citizens of the states, and each company elected its officers among those who had originally enlisted as privates. The musket bearers were men from all callings in life—farmers, mechanics, merchants, teachers, students, and laborers. They were the voters who made up the political divisions of the townships, counties, and states, whose ultimate power lay in their voting franchise which they shared with the men, who—for various reasons—remained at their homes during the war. The volunteer-regiments which composed the Army of the Cumberland were mostly from the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Kentucky, Wisconsin, and Minnesota; Pennsylvania had three infantry and two cavalry regiments; Missouri had two regiments, and Kansas one; Tennessee was represented by several regiments. The great bulk of the troops came, however, from the states north of the Ohio River—the Northwest Territory. No drafted men in the army partook in the Chattanooga Campaign of 1863. These volunteers sought the service and understood what it involved. Very few of them knew what regimentation meant, and the great majority had never before handled a musket. But they were young and teachable. They readily learned the drill, and became good marksmen. These soldiers realized very soon that a clean musket, plenty of ammunition, and obedience to orders, composed the military moral code of efficiency. By the laws of their states, they were entitled to vote for officers and affairs at home, and to have their votes counted, just as if they had been cast at home. The soldiers received during the prolonged war as many furloughs as were compatible with the exigencies at the front, and thus they were occasionally enabled to visit the folks at home during their strenuous service. The intelligence of the private soldier was often superior to that of his officer. Nevertheless he obeyed faithfully that officer’s commands, because he fully understood that discipline could be maintained only by implicit obedience and the object of his service, viz: the suppression of a rebellion be accomplished. Many of these volunteers enlisted directly from the public schools, which they were attending. They had been taught the history of their country; how its independence from the tyranny of a foreign power had been gained by the valor and patriotism of Washington and his volunteers, that by the discipline and perseverance of the revolutionary soldiers the sovereignty of a foreign king had been transferred to the citizens of their native land; that a new foe was now trying to dismember the nation, and that the corner stone of the Union was the principle, that all power is derived from the people. These volunteers were convinced that no power had the right to protect the maintenance and perpetuation of slavery. They were soldiers therefore until the Union was re-established; and they tacitly resolved to fight until slavery was abolished. Such was the personnel of the Army of the Cumberland.

Wisconsin was well and ably represented in this army by the following organizations, viz: The First, Tenth, Fifteenth, Twenty-first, and Twenty-fourth volunteer infantry; the First Cavalry; and the Third, Fifth, and Eighth light batteries.

The First Wisconsin Infantry was a noted regiment in more than one way. It served as the only three-months regiment from Wisconsin, and was organized under President Lincoln’s first call for 75,000 men. It was mustered out after the ninety days’ service August 21, 1861, and reorganized under the second call for three years’ service. This second mustering was completed October 19, 1861. The regiment proceeded from Milwaukee to Louisville, Kentucky, and the volunteers served during the next three years in the Army of the Cumberland. It was active in various parts of Tennessee during the first year of its service, marching as far as Bridgeport, Alabama, to which place it returned during the campaign of Tullahoma. John C. Starkweather was its first colonel. He was made commander of the brigade when it was reorganized at Murfreesboro, and Lieutenant-Colonel George B. Bingham commanded the regiment. This regiment had fought in both the battles of Perryville and Stone’s River. It was assigned to the Second Brigade of the First Division of the Fourteenth Corps.

The Tenth Wisconsin Infantry was mustered into the service October 14, 1861, at Milwaukee. Alfred R. Chapin was its first colonel. Proceeding to Louisville, Kentucky, it became part of the future Army of the Cumberland, and advanced with General O. M. Mitchell’s forces to Stevenson and Huntsville, Alabama, in the spring and summer of 1862. The regiment returned to Louisville in September with Buell’s army and engaged in the battles of Perryville and Stone’s River. When the reorganization at Murfreesboro took place this regiment became a part of Scribner’s Brigade of Rousseau’s Division of the Fourteenth Corps. Almost side by side with the First and Twenty-first infantries, it took part in all engagements.

The Fifteenth Wisconsin Infantry was a Scandinavian regiment, and its first colonel was Hans C. Heg. It was mustered into the service on February 14, 1862, at Madison. It had taken part in the siege of Island Number Ten. It did not join the Army of the Cumberland until just before the battle of Perryville, in which it took active part, as in the battle of Stone’s River. In the reorganization at Murfreesboro, it became a part of the Third Brigade—and was commanded by its colonel, Hans C. Heg, of the First Division, Twentieth Corps.

The Twenty-first Wisconsin Infantry was organized at Oshkosh, in August, 1862, and on September 11, 1862, it joined the Army of the Cumberland at Louisville, Kentucky. Benjamin J. Sweet was its first colonel; he was so severely wounded in the battle of Perryville as to be disabled for further field service. This regiment was brigaded with the First Wisconsin Infantry at Louisville, and served also in the battles of Perryville and Stone’s River. At the time of the reorganization at Murfreesboro it was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Harrison C. Hobart, and it was assigned to the Second Brigade of the First Division of the Fourteenth Corps.

The Twenty-fourth Wisconsin Infantry was mustered into the service at Milwaukee, August 21, 1862. It proceeded to Louisville, where it became a part of the Army of the Cumberland. This regiment engaged in the battles of Perryville and Stone’s River, and was assigned to the First Brigade, Third Division, Twentieth Corps in the reorganization at Murfreesboro; its commander was Lieutenant-Colonel Theodore S. West.

The First Wisconsin Cavalry was mustered into the service at Kenosha, on March 8, 1862, with Edward Daniels as its first colonel. It was sent to Benton Barracks, near St. Louis. There and in various parts of Missouri its first year of service was performed. On June 14, 1863, at Nashville, it was made a part of the Army of the Cumberland, with which it was from that time identified until the close of its service. This regiment’s activity in the Tullahoma campaign, the Chickamauga campaign, and in pursuit of Confederate cavalry in the Sequatchie Valley on October 2, 1863, and along the line of communication during the battles around Chattanooga is mentioned in more appropriate places, relating to the general movements of the army. It was commanded by Colonel Oscar H. LaGrange, and assigned to the Second Brigade, First Division, Cavalry Corps, during the reorganization.

The Third Wisconsin Light Battery was mustered into the service at Racine, Wisconsin, October 10, 1861. Lucius H. Drury was its first captain. The regiment went first to Louisville, then to Nashville, whence it marched with Buell’s army in order to reinforce General Grant at Shiloh. It was engaged in the battles of Perryville and Stone’s River. The regiment was assigned to the Third Brigade, Third Division of the Twenty-first Corps, and was commanded by Lieutenant Courtland Livingston.

The Fifth Wisconsin Battery was mustered into the service at Racine, October 1, 1861. Oscar F. Pinney was its first captain. March 16, 1862, it arrived at St. Louis. Afterwards it proceeded to New Madrid, Missouri (on the Mississippi River), and became a part of General John Pope’s army, in the reduction of Island Number Ten. It was also active at the siege of Corinth, and marched about two hundred miles from Iuka, Mississippi, to Nashville, Tennessee, where the regiment joined the forces of General Buell. On the northward march in September, 1862, these forces engaged in the battles of Perryville and Stone’s River; the service of the Fifth Wisconsin Battery was of the most active and valuable kind. It was commanded by Captain George Q. Gardner, and was assigned to the First Brigade, First Division, of the Twentieth Corps.

The Eighth Wisconsin Battery was mustered into the service on January 8, 1862, and moved to St. Louis on March 8, 1862. Its first captain was Stephen J. Carpenter. It formed a part of the force that moved to Forts Leavenworth and Riley, Kansas, in April and May, 1862, whence it moved to Columbus, Kentucky, and finally took part in the campaign at Corinth and Iuka, Mississippi. From there it marched to Nashville, and Louisville, engaging in the battles of Perryville and Stone’s River. It was commanded by John D. McLean, lieutenant, and was assigned to the Third Brigade, First Division of the Twentieth Corps.