Army of Tennessee
The joining of the Army of Kentucky with the Army of the Mississippi, on
November 20, 1862, was the origin of the Army of Tennessee-the great Confederate
army of the West. There were three Corps and a division of cavalry, with an
effective total of forty-seven thousand. General Braxton Bragg was in command.
This army fought the battle of Stone's River, went through the Tullahoma
campaign, and fought the battle of Chickamauga, assisted by Longstreet's Corps
from the Army of Northern Virginia. It was driven from Chattanooga in November,
1863, by Grant's forces. After the battle of Chickamauga, the corps were
reorganized several times. Bragg was removed from the command on December 2,
1863, and until General Johnston assumed it, on December 27th, both Hardee and
Polk were in temporary command. Polk was sent to the Department of Alabama,
Mississippi and East Louisiana before the end of December. The army spent the
winter around Dalton, Georgia, and faced Sherman's advance in May, 1864, in two
infantry and one cavalry corps. Polk brought back his divisions, which he called
the Army of Mississippi, and these forces were consolidated with the Army of
Tennessee on July 26th, after Polk had been killed. On July 18th, Johnston was
replaced by General John B. Hood. After the capture of Atlanta, the army
returned to Tennessee, and, failing to cut off Major-General Schofield's command
at Franklin, was routed by Major-General Thomas at Nashville (December 15-16,
1864). In February, 1865, General Johnston was again placed in command of the
Army of Tennessee, as well as the troops in South Carolina, Georgia, and
Florida. The army had greatly dwindled. Lieutenant-General A. P. Stewart was at
the actual head of the Army of Tennessee after March 16th, and Johns-ton's
enlarged command included troops from the far South under Hardee, which, in
February, had been organized in a corps, and those in North Carolina under
Bragg. The aggregate present of the old Army of Tennessee was about twenty
thousand. The army surrendered to Sherman in North Carolina, April 26,1865.
General Braxton Bragg (U. S. M. A. 1837) was born
in Warren County, North Carolina, March 22, 1817, and served in the Seminole and
Mexican wars. He resigned from the army in 1859, and became an extensive planter
in Louisiana. On the secession of Louisiana, he was made a brigadier-general in
the Confederate provisional army, and was the first commander of the military
forces of Louisiana. After being appointed major-general in September, he took
command of the forces in Alabama and West Florida from October, 1861, to
February, 1862. He commanded the right wing of the Army of the Mississippi at
Shiloh, and was made general after the death of Albert Sidney Johnston. He surd
as commander of the Army of the Mississippi (or Tennessee), and led it into
Kentucky in September, 1862, and after his retreat therefrom, was defeated by
Rosecrans at Stone's River (January, 1863). He in turn defeated Rosecrans at
Chickamauga, but was driven from Chattanooga by Grant in November, 1863. Bragg
was now relieved of the Army of Tennessee, and, later, was given control of the
Confederate army's military operations at Richmond. As commander of the
Department of North Carolina, he failed in attempts to check Sherman and prevent
the fall of Wilmington. After February, 1865, he cooperated with Johnston and
surrendered with the latter. Later on, he was state engineer of Alabama, and
died in Galveston, Texas, September 27, 1876.
General John Bell Hood (U. S. M. A. 1853) was born
in Owingsville, Kentucky, June 1, 1831, and fought against the Comanche Indians
in Texas. He resigned from the army in April, 1861, to enter the Confederate
service. After serving as captain in the cavalry and colonel of a Texas
regiment, he received the appointment of brigadier-general in March, 1862. He
was made major-general in October, 1862, after taking a conspicuous part in the
Virginia campaigns. At Gettysburg, he commanded the largest division in
Longstreet's Corps. In September, he went to Tennessee with Longstreet's Corps,
which he commanded at Chickamauga, where he lost a leg. After the battle, he was
given the rank of lieutenant-general, and at the head of the Second Corps in the
Army of Tennessee, took part in the Atlanta campaign from May to July 18, 1864,
when he succeeded Johnston in the command of the army with the temporary rank of
general. He lost Atlanta, and, returning to Tennessee, was driven into Alabama
by Major-General Thomas in the middle of December. In January, 1865, he was
relieved of his command and was ordered to Richmond. After the war, he went to
New Orleans, where he died, August 30, 1879.
First Corps- Army of the Mississippi and of Tennessee
Major-General Leonidas Polk commanded from
June, 1861, to March, 1862, the First Division in the Western Department (No.
2), the troops of which were scattered along the Mississippi from Columbus,
Kentucky, to Memphis, and in the interior of Tennessee and Mississippi. It
numbered about twenty-five thousand men. On the organization of the Army of the
Mississippi in March, 1862, this division was called the First Grand Division,
and after the consolidation with the Central Army of Kentucky, on March 29th,
the First Corps, Army of the Mississippi. On August 15th, Polk's Corps was
reorganized as the Right Wing in ten divisions, with over fifteen thousand
present for duty. In the Army of Tennessee, the Right Wing became the First, or
Polk's Corps. After the battle of Chickamauga, Polk was relieved of the command,
and both corps of the army underwent reorganization. The leading corps was
thereafter known as Hardee's, or Cheatham's Corps, from the names of its
commanders.
Lieutenant-General Leonidas Polk (U. S. M. A.
1827) was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, April 10, 1806. He left the army for
the church, and eventually became the first Protestant Episcopal Bishop of
Louisiana, in 1841. In 1861, he entered the Confederate army and was made
major-general in June. He was assigned to the command of the Western Department
(No. 2) ; and in September he was replaced by General A. S. Johnston and given
the First Division, Army of the Mississippi, with which he won the battle of
Belmont in November. He led the First Corps at Shiloh, and later had temporary
command of the army itself. In October, 1862, he was given the rank of
lieutenant-general, and accompanied the Western Confederate army until after
Chickamauga, where he commanded the Right Wing when he was temporarily
suspended, but the charge of delay on his part was dismissed by President Davis.
In the winter of 1868-64, he was in command of the Department of Alabama,
Mississippi, and East Louisiana, and brought his forces, which he called the
Army of Mississippi, to Georgia in May, 1864, to assist Johnston in opposing
Sherman's advance to Atlanta. On Pine Mountain, near Marietta, Georgia, he was
killed by a cannon-ball, June 14,1864.
Major-General Benjamin Franklin Cheatham was born
in Nashville, Tennessee, October 20, 1820. He entered the Mexican War, rising to
the rank of colonel after distinguished service at Monterey and elsewhere. At
the close of this war he became major-general of the Tennessee militia, and when
the Civil War broke out he attached himself to the Confederate cause and
organized the entire supply department for the Western troops. As
brigadier-general, he served under Polk at Belmont, and had a division of the
First Corps, Army of the Mississippi, at Shiloh, and was commander of the Right
Wing of the same army during Bragg's invasion of Kentucky in 1862. He led his
division at Stone's River, through the Tullahoma campaign, and at Chickamauga,
and after that battle was head of Cheatham's Corps, an organization formed upon
the departure of Polk from the army, and of which Hardee shortly afterward took
command. In the Atlanta campaign he led a division in Hardee's Corps, and
assumed command of the corps, which later was known as Cheatham's Corps, after
the departure of Hardee for Savannah in October, 1864, with which he continued
until the surrender at Durham Station. After the war he became a farmer in
Tennessee, and was appointed postmaster of Nashville in 1885. He died there
September 4, 1886.
Major-General Patrick Romayne Cleburne was born in
County Cork, Ireland, March 17, 1828. He ran away from Trinity College, Dublin,
and enlisted in the Forty-first Foot. In 1855 he came to America, settling in
Helena, Arkansas, where he practiced law until the opening of the war. He
entered the Confederate service as private, and rose to the rank of
major-general, in 1862. He planned the capture of the United States arsenal in
Arkansas, March, 1861. He was colonel of an Arkansas regiment, and at Shiloh, as
brigadier-general, he commanded a brigade in the Third Corps, Army of the
Mississippi. He was wounded at Perryville. At Murfreesboro an commanded a
division, and his troops formed the rear guard at Missionary Ridge. For his
defense of Ringgold Gap, in the Atlanta campaign, he received the thanks of the
Confederate Congress. Cleburne covered Hood's retreat at Jonesboro, and had
temporary command of Hardee's Corps. He continued to hold his division in
Cheatham's Corps, and at the battle of Franklin was killed, November 30, 1864. A
brilliant charge at Chickamauga earned him the title of " Stonewall of the
West," and it was he who initiated the Order of the Southern Cross and was among
the first to urge the advantages to the Confederates of colored troops.
Second Corps- Army of the Mississippi and of Tennessee
Major-General Braxton Bragg was given
command of the Second Corps of the Army of the Mississippi on its organization,
March 29, 1862. There were ten divisions, composed chiefly of Alabama,
Mississippi, and Louisiana troops. In July, Major-General Samuel Jones had
command, and on August 15th, when General Bragg resumed command of the whole
army, his former corps passed to the control of Major-General Hardee. There was
an aggregate present of about sixteen thousand men. On November 7th, the Left
Wing, in an organization that had a short existence after August 15th, again
became the Second (or Hardee's) Corps. In July, 1863, Lieutenant-General Hardee
was relieved by Lieutenant-General D. H. Hill, who commanded at Chickamauga, and
the later commanders were Major-Generals J. C. Breckinridge, T. C. Hindman,
Lieutenant-General J. B. Hood, Major-General C. L. Stevenson and
Lieutenant-General S. D. Lee. After 1864, the corps was known as Hood's, or
Lee's Corps, Hardee having assumed command of the other corps.
Lieutenant-General William Joseph Hardee (U. S. M.
A.. 1838) was born in Savannah, Georgia, October 10, 1815, and served in the
Seminole and Mexican wars. He resigned his commission of lieutenant-colonel in
January, 1861, to join the Confederate forces, in which he was appointed a
brigadier-general in June. He was given command of Fort ay, in March, and later,
as major-general, was transferred to the Central Army of Kentucky, of which he
had command from December, 1861, to February, 1862. He was given the Second
Corps in the Army of the Mississippi and led the advance at Shiloh. He took part
with this army as corps or wing commander in Bragg's invasion of Kentucky, at
Stone's River, and at Chattanooga, having been made lieutenant-general in
October, 1862. In the summer of 1863 he had charge of the defenses of
Mississippi and Alabama. He had temporary command of the Army of Tennessee after
Bragg was removed in December, 1863. He had a corps during the Atlanta campaign,
and in October, 1864, he was placed in command of the Department of South
Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. He was unable to prevent the capture of
Savannah, and, in February, 1865, joined Johnston, serving in the Army of
Tennessee, at the head of a corps formed from the troops in his department,
until its surrender. After the war, he lived at Selma, Alabama, and died at
Wytheville, Virginia, November 6, 1873.
Lieutenant-General Daniel Harvey Hill (U. S. M. A.
1842) was born at Hill's Iron Works, York District, South Carolina, July 12,
1821. He resigned from the army after the Mexican War, in which he had received
the brevet of major, and was engaged in teaching until he entered the
Confederate army, in 1861. As colonel of the First North Carolina Infantry, he
showed marked talent at Big Bethel, June 10th, and was made brigadier-general
the following month. As major-general, he had a division and later a command, or
corps, in the Army of Northern Virginia, and fought through the Peninsula
campaign. He was assigned to the Department of North Carolina in July, but
fought with his division at South Mountain, where he held the Federal forces in
check, and at Antietam. In July, 1863, he was made lieutenant-general, and
replaced Lieutenant-General Hardee in command of the Second Corps, Army of
Tennessee, which he led at Chickamauga, and of which he was relieved in
November. With the rank of major-general, he took command of a division in Lee's
Corps, Army of Tennessee, in March, 1865, and at the battle of Bentonville he
led the corps itself. After the war, he became an editor, and from 1877 to 1884
was president of the Arkansas Industrial University. He died at Charlotte, North
Carolina, September 25, 1889.
Major-General Carter Littlepage Stevenson (U. S.
M. A. 1838) was born near Fredericksburg, Virginia, September 21, 1817. He was
dismissed from the army in June, 1861, having entered the Confederate service as
lieutenant-colonel. He did duty at Cumberland Gap, from which he drove
Brigadier-General G. W. Morgan away, and commanded a division in the Army of
Tennessee. He rose to the rank of major-general in October, 1862. His division
was with Pemberton's forces in the battle of Chickasaw Bayou, December 26, 1862.
He fought at Chickamauga and in the Atlanta campaign onward with the Army of
Tennessee, having on July, 1864, temporary command of Hood's Corps, before the
appointment of Lieutenant-General S. D. Lee. He also assumed command of Lee's
Corps, when the latter was wounded after the battle of Nashville, until the army
had crossed the Tennessee. He died August 15, 1888.
Major-General Thomas Carmichael Hindman was born
in Tennessee, November, 1818. He became a lawyer and served in Congress. He
fought in the Mexican War, and in 1860 was a member of the Charleston
Convention. He went to the Civil War as colonel of an Arkansas regiment, and
served in the armies of the West and of the Mississippi. For his conduct at
Shiloh he was made major-general. He was, at different times, division commander
in the Army of Tennessee, and a temporary commander of the Second Corps, and was
also at the head of the Trans-Mississippi District and that of Arkansas. He was
defeated at Prairie Grove and at Newtonia. After the war, he went to Mexico, but
returned to Arkansas and was murdered by one of his former soldiers at Helena,
September 28,1868.
Lieutenant-General Stephen Dill Lee (U. S. M. A.
1854) was born in Charleston, South Carolina, September 22, 1833. He resigned
from the army in February, 1861, to enter the Confederate service as captain in
the artillery, and rose to the rank of lieutenant-general June, 1864. He was one
of the three men who called on Major Anderson, April 12, 1861, and demanded the
surrender of Fort Sumter. He had a battalion in the Washington Artillery, and
was prominent at Second Bull Run and at Antietam. He was then sent to the West
and commanded a division at the battle of Chickasaw Bayou, December 27, 1862,
driving back the Federal troops with great slaughter. He was among those who
surrendered at Vicksburg, July 4, 1863, and in August was put at the head of the
cavalry in the Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana, and
fought at Tupelo and other places. In May, 1864, he succeeded Lieutenant-General
Polk at the head of this department, remaining there until July, when he was
assigned to the command of Hood's Corps, Army of Tennessee, General Hood having
been placed at the head of the whole army. Henceforth it was known as Lee's
Corps. He was wounded December 17, 1864, while protecting the rear of the army
in the retreat from Nashville. After the war he became a planter in Mississippi
; a member of the State legislature; and in 1880 he became president of the
Mississippi Agricultural and Mechanical College. He was also at the head of the
Vicksburg National Park, and was commander-in-chief of the United Confederate
Veterans, after the death of Lieutenant-General John B. Gordon, in 1904. He died
at Vicksburg, Mississippi, May 28, 1908.
Wheeler's Cavalry Corps- Army of Tennessee
On January 22, 1863, Major-General Joseph Wheeler was assigned to
command all the cavalry in Middle Tennessee. On March 16th, the cavalry
divisions in the Army of Tennessee were designated as corps, and were given the
names of their respective commanders. Wheeler and Van Dorn. The corps were
organized into divisions and brigades, and Wheeler's Corps, sometimes known as
the Second Corps, had an aggregate present of nearly twelve thousand. It
displayed great activity in Tennessee, making numerous raids and guarding the
flanks of the army. After the battle of Chickamauga, it made a famous raid on
Rosecrans' communications, October, 1863. It also operated on the flanks of the
army during the Atlanta and other campaigns until the close of the war.
Lieutenant-General Joseph Wheeler (U. S. M. A.
1859) was born in Augusta, Georgia, September 10, 1836, and entered the mounted
infantry, resigning, in 1861, to join the Confederate army, in which he reached
the rank of major-general (January, 1863), and commander of the Second Cavalry
Corps, Army of Tennessee. He was conspicuous as a raider, and was constantly
employed in guarding the flanks of the army, cutting the Federal communications,
covering retreats, and obtaining information for the army commanders. He was
appointed lieutenant-general, February 28, 1865. After the war, he was a member
of Congress from 1881 to 1899. He was commissioned major-general of volunteers
in 1898, and went to the Spanish War, commanding the troops at Las Guasimas, and
was senior field-officer at the battle of San Juan Hill. He was senior member of
the commission which negotiated the surrender of Santiago. He served with the
American troops during the insurrection in the Philippines from August, 1899, to
January 24, 1900, and on June 13, 1900, was appointed brigadier-general of the
United States army, being retired the following September. He died in Brooklyn,
New York, January 25, 1906. General Wheeler made a unique reputation for himself
as a cavalry leader, and in the Spanish war his services won universal
acknowledgment as typical of the complete reunion of the North and South.
Van Dorn's Cavalry Corps- Army of Tennessee
On March 16, 1863, Major-General Van Dorn's Cavalry Division in the Army of Tennessee was called Van Dorn's, or the First Cavalry Corps. It had an average aggregate present of about eight thousand, and was a valuable adjunct to General Bragg's army.