Army of Tennessee
The Army of Tennessee was the principal
History
1862
The army was formed on November 20, 1862, when General
1863
Following Stones' River, feuding broke out between Bragg and his corps and division commanders over who was responsible for the Confederate defeat; several officers stated that Bragg had lost the confidence of the army. When he learned of the dispute, Confederate President Jefferson Davis sent Joseph Johnston to inspect the army and take command if he thought it necessary to relieve Bragg. Johnston however refused to take command of the army.
Rosecrans launched the Chickamauga Campaign in late August, staging demonstrations near Chattanooga and upstream of the city along the Tennessee River. This convinced Bragg that Rosecrans was crossing the river to the north; however, Union forces were actually crossing to the south of the city. This forced Bragg to fall back into northern Georgia, abandoning the important railroad hub of Chattanooga on September 8.[6] Over the course of the next several days, Bragg attempted to launch several attacks on isolated parts of the Union army but each attempt failed. On the evening of September 18, Bragg concentrated the army near Chickamauga Creek; he thought that only part of the Union army was nearby but Rosecrans had concentrated his army faster than Bragg had expected. During September 19 at Chickamauga, both sides fed in reinforcements as the day progressed.[7] Longstreet arrived on the battlefield during the night of the 19 and 20; Bragg divided the army into two wings, with Polk commanding one division of his corps along with Hill's and Walker's corps on the right, and Longstreet commanding the other division of Polk's corps with Buckner's corps and his own corps (commanded by John B. Hood), on the left. Polk was ordered to attack at daylight on September 20, with Longstreet attacking immediately afterwards, but Polk didn't launch his attack until midmorning. The left wing failed to dislodge the Union army but Longstreet's wing attacked a gap in the Union army which routed the Union right flank. A portion of the Union army rallied on Horseshoe Ridge and held off multiple Confederate attacks until evening, when it followed the rest of Rosecrans' army into Chattanooga.[8]
After Chickamauga, the Army of Tennessee besieged the Union army in
During the month of September and into early October, the Army of the Cumberland was reinforced by the troops of
1864
During the winter of 1864, the army went through other command changes: John B. Hood took command of the Second Corps, while Polk was transferred to the army in May with the Army of Mississippi, which was re-designated the Third Corps.
Hood then retreated southwest of Atlanta, first to Lovejoy's Station before stopping at Palmetto; there he met with Davis and P.G.T. Beauregard, who had just been appointed commander of the Military Division of the West. Hardee was transferred to take command of the Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, while Frank Cheatham took command of Hardee's Corps.[16] Davis approved Hood's plan to attack Sherman's supply lines north of Atlanta; if Sherman followed him, Hood could then compel Sherman to attack him on ground of his own choosing. Hood started north at the end of September, capturing several Union railroad garrisons and destroying several miles of tracks. When Sherman followed the Confederates, Hood started moving west into Alabama instead of fighting in northern Georgia. By the end of October, Sherman decided to give up his pursuit of Hood and instead launched his March to the Sea. Instead of following Sherman's forces, Hood decided to head back north into Tennessee. Wheeler's cavalry corps was detached to Georgia and the Carolinas to fight Sherman's advance; Forrest's corps was then attached to Hood's army. The army reached Tuscumbia on the Tennessee River but a lack of supplies and the need to repair the railroad to the city in order to accumulate supplies prevented the army from crossing the river until November 20.[17] Hood was faced in Middle Tennessee by Thomas and the Army of the Cumberland. Hood tried to trap part of the Union army under John M. Schofield near Columbia but failed; he then tried to march past Schofield and reach Nashville first before any Union reinforcements reached the city. However, Schofield, detecting Hood's march, ordered a retreat back to Nashville and managed to avoid being cut off at Spring Hill; despite Hood's orders that Confederate forces seize the Nashville Turnpike. Hood caught up with Schofield at Franklin and ordered an immediate frontal assault, despite only having two of his three infantry corps present; he also ignored the advice of his subordinates to outflank the Union fortifications and avoid a head-on attack. During the resulting battle, Hood lost 7,000 men, almost a quarter of his strength, including six generals killed or mortally wounded, another six wounded, and one captured.[18] but continued to advance north into Middle Tennessee, where he attempted to besiege Nashville. He deployed the Confederate army along a range of hills and ridges south of the city in a line for a total of four miles and started digging entrenchments and redoubts. Cheatham's corps was on the right, Lee's corps in the center, and Stewart's corps on the left. Since there was a total of 21,000 men present in the army, Hood was unable to completely surround the city; the Confederate left was four miles from the Cumberland River, while the right was one mile from the river. On December 15, Thomas's troops launched their attack, feinting towards the Confederate right while the main assault fell on the Confederate left. Lee's corps was driven from its defensive works, forcing Hood to retreat to another line of hills to the south. Cheatham's corps was on the left, Stewart's corps in the center, and Lee's corps on the right. Thomas attacked again the next afternoon, using another feint against the Confederate right while launching another flanking attack against the Confederate left. Cheatham's and Stewart's corps were routed, while Lee's corps served as the rear guard as the Confederates retreated from the field. Hood decided to abandon the state due to the poor state of the army. Forrest's cavalry, along with eight brigades of infantry, formed the rear guard. The army initially retreated to Corinth but since the railroad was too damaged to supply the army, Hood ordered a further retreat to Tupelo.[19] According to Robert Bevier of the 5th Missouri Infantry, "the Army of Tennessee ceased to exist" after completing the retreat from Nashville.[20] While the army did not actually "cease to exist," Bevier's comment provides insight into the army's morale at that time.
1865
Hood resigned his command in January, and was briefly replaced by Richard Taylor. During late January and February, the army was transferred to the Carolinas, where it joined other Confederate forces fighting against Sherman's troops marching through the Carolinas. Stewart commanded the army during this time, with William W. Loring in command of Stewart's Corps, D. H. Hill commanding Lee's corps, and William B. Bate commanding Cheatham's corps (both Lee and Cheatham were still traveling from Mississippi). Wheeler's cavalry corps operated as part of Wade Hampton's cavalry command. General Joseph E. Johnston was given command of the Confederate forces in the region, which he dubbed the Army of the South.
At this time, the Army of Tennessee was reduced to only 4,500 men and lacked many supplies, including weapons, artillery, and wagons, and suffered from desertion along the way east from Mississippi. In very few weeks Johnston was able to rebuild this army into a force that could provide serious resistance to Sherman's advancing army.
Parts of the Army of Tennessee fought in several small engagements during the
Johnston retreated during the night of March 21 and moved through Morrisville before arriving near Smithfield, North Carolina. During the three-week encampment around Smithfield, Johnston reorganized his force into a single army, adopting the name of the Army of Tennessee for the combined forces. Most of the regiments were consolidated into single units, while the infantry was divided into three corps commanded by Hardee, Stewart, and Lee; Hampton was given command of the cavalry corps, while Wheeler remained in command of the divisions formerly in his corps. The artillery was reorganized from sixteen batteries into seven batteries of four cannons each. Johnston's total strength was about 30,400 men.
When Sherman started after Johnston on April 10, Johnston retreated through Raleigh, North Carolina, abandoning the city on April 12 before continuing westward along the North Carolina Railroad to Hillsborough; he planned to surrender but thought that the Confederacy could get better terms if he negotiated from a position of strength. Johnston and Sherman met and negotiated terms of surrender on April 17 and 18 at the
Corps organization
Major battles and campaigns
- Confederate Heartland Offensive
- Battle of Stones River
- Chickamauga Campaign
- Battles of Chattanooga
- Atlanta Campaign
- Franklin-Nashville Campaign
- Carolinas Campaign
Notes
- ^ Connelly, pp. 27, 30–32.
- ^ Connelly, pp. 54–69.
- ^ Connelly, pp. 72–92.
- ^ Connelly, pp. 129–134, 137.
- ^ Connelly, pp. 151–152, 154, 157–158, 163; Cozzens, p. 56.
- ^ Cozzens, pp. 56, 35–37, 45, 55–56.
- ^ Kennedy, pp. 227–230.
- ^ Cozzens, pp. 299–300; Kennedy, pp. 230–231.
- ^ McDonough, pp. 24–25.
- ^ McDonough, pp. 29–37; Connelly, pp. 249–251.
- ^ McDonough, pp. 76–85, 88–93.
- ^ McDonough pp. 129–142, 143–158, 167–204, 220; Horn, p. 305.
- ^ Castel, pp. 58, 127; Connelly, p. 314.
- ^ Castel, pp. 276, 278, 338; Kennedy, pp. 326–338.
- ^ Kennedy, pp. 338–343; Connelly, p. 434.
- ^ Horn, pp. 371–374.
- ^ Sword, pp. 46, 54–57, 60–64.
- ^ Sword, pp. 77, 93, 95–97, 109, 143–153, 156–159, 177–179, 269.
- ^ Sword, pp. 278–279 319–344, 348, 352–363, 388–389, 404–407, 425.
- ^ Thrasher. Suffering in the Army of Tennessee. p. 261.
- ^ Hughes, pp. 24–27, 47, 54.
- ^ Hughes, pp. 120–125, 129, 138–140, 148–149, 168.
- ^ Bradley, pp. 57, 79–80, 95, 130–131, 159–172, 209, 215–217.
References
- Bradley, Mark L. This Astounding Close: The Road to Bennett Place. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 2000. ISBN 0-8078-2565-4.
- Castel, Albert. Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 1992. ISBN 978-0-7006-0748-8.
- Connelly, Thomas Lawrence. Autumn of Glory: The Army of Tennessee, 1862–1865. Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 1971. ISBN 0-8071-0445-0.
- Cozzens, Peter. This Terrible Sound: The Battle of Chickamauga. Urbanna, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1992. ISBN 0-252-01703-X.
- Eicher, John H., and Eicher, David J. Civil War High Commands. Stanford University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
- Hughes Jr., Nathaniel Cheairs. Bentonville: The Final Battle of Sherman & Johnston. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 1996. ISBN 0-8078-2281-7.
- Kennedy, Frances H., ed. The Civil War Battlefield Guide, 2nd edition. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998. ISBN 0-395-74012-6.
- Sword, Wiley. The Confederacy's Last Hurrah: Spring Hill, Franklin, & Nashville. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 1992. ISBN 0-7006-0650-5.
- Thrasher, Christopher. Suffering in the Army of Tennessee: A Social History of the Confederate Army of the Heartland from the Battles for Atlanta to the Retreat from Nashville. University of Tennessee Press, 2021 ISBN 9781621906414.
Further reading
- Connelly, Thomas Lawrence, Army of the Heartland: The Army of Tennessee, 1861–1862. Baton Rouge, Louisiana Louisiana State University Press. 1967, ISBN 0-8071-0404-3.
- Connelly, Thomas Lawrence, Autumn of Glory: The Army of Tennessee, 1862–1865. Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 1996. ISBN 0-8071-0445-0.
- Cozzens, Peter. This Terrible Sound: The Battle of Chickamauga. Urbanna, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1992. ISBN 0-252-01703-X.
- Daniel, Larry J., Soldiering in the Army of Tennessee: A Portrait of Life in a Confederate Army. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 1991. ISBN 0-8078-2004-0.
- Haughton, Andrew, Training, Tactics and Leadership in the Confederate Army of Tennessee. Routledge, 2000, ISBN 0-7146-5032-3.
- Horn, Stanley Fitzgerald, The Army of Tennessee. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1941 (reprinted 1993). ISBN 0-8061-2565-9.
- McMurry, Richard M., Two Great Rebel Armies: An Essay in Confederate Military History. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 1989. ISBN 0-8078-1819-4.
- ISBN 0-7006-0567-3.