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

by Michael Hendrick Fitch

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.