Confederate Heartland Offensive
Confederate Heartland Offensive Kentucky Campaign | |
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Part of the Western Theater of the American Civil War | |
Operational scope | Strategic offensive |
Location | 37°30′N 85°00′W / 37.5°N 85°W |
Commanded by | Gen. Braxton Bragg |
Date | August 14 – October 10, 1862 |
Executed by | Army of Mississippi |
Outcome | Union victory |
The Confederate Heartland Offensive (August 14 – October 10, 1862), also known as the Kentucky Campaign, was an American Civil War campaign conducted by the Confederate States Army in Tennessee and Kentucky where Generals Braxton Bragg and Edmund Kirby Smith tried to draw neutral Kentucky into the Confederacy by outflanking Union troops under Major General Don Carlos Buell. Though they scored some successes, notably a tactical win at Perryville, they soon retreated, leaving Kentucky primarily under Union control for the rest of the war.
Background
Military situation
Kentucky, being a border southern state, was among the chief places where the "Brother against brother" scenario was prevalent. Southern sympathizers and delegates from 68 counties in Kentucky had already seceded[2] and joined the Confederacy,[3] and controlled more than half the state early in the war, but had been unable to enforce their rule over the state's territory after early 1862. Kentucky officially declared its neutrality at the beginning of the war, but after Confederate General Leonidas Polk unwisely decided to occupy Columbus in 1861, the legislature petitioned the Union Army for assistance against the Kentucky governor's veto. After early 1862 Kentucky came largely under Union control. But Kentucky also had a star on the Confederate flag, and seats in the Confederate Congress. In addition, many Confederate leaders, including John C. Breckinridge, were from Kentucky. (Jefferson Davis was born in Kentucky and grew up in Mississippi.) Abraham Lincoln was also born in Kentucky, living there until age 7 and growing up in Illinois. Most of Mary Todd Lincoln's relatives from the Lexington, Kentucky area were Confederate officers, and about 35,000 Kentuckians served as Confederate soldiers. But an estimated 125,000 Kentuckians served as Union soldiers.[4] Nearly 60 infantry regiments served in the Union armies, versus just 9 in the Confederate. However, a rather large number of cavalry outfits joined the latter.
Campaign
In August, Confederate General Braxton Bragg invaded Kentucky, hoping that he could arouse supporters of the Confederate cause in the border state and draw Union forces under
Once his forces had assembled in Chattanooga, Bragg then planned to move north into Kentucky in cooperation with
Kirby Smith pleaded with Bragg to follow up on his success: "For God's sake, General, let us fight Buell here." Bragg replied, "I will do it, sir," but then displaying what one observer called "a perplexity and vacillation which had now become simply appalling to Smith, to Hardee, and to Polk,"
Aftermath
The invasion of Kentucky was a strategic failure, although it had forced the Union forces out of Northern Alabama and most of Middle Tennessee, and it would take the Union forces a year to regain the lost ground. A writer for the Cincinnati Commercial wrote "It was intended by Jeff Davis as a demonstration to keep the men of the West from being employed beyond the Alleghenies to aid McClellan, while the best of the Southern troops invaded Maryland and flanked Washington." Thousands of Union troops at Louisville, Cincinnati, Cumberland Gap and elsewhere "have been held at bay by no more than 40,000 rebels scattered throughout Kentucky."[7]
Confederate General Joseph Wheeler claimed it was a success, stating "We recovered Cumberland Gap and redeemed Middle Tennessee and North Alabama. Two months of marches and battles by the armies of Bragg and Kirby-Smith had cost the Federals a loss in killed, wounded and prisoners of 26,530. We had captured 35 cannons, 16,000 stand of arms, millions of rounds of ammunition, 1,700 mules, 300 wagons loaded with military stores, and 2,000 horses." Confederate war clerk J.B. Jones recorded that Bragg "succeeded in getting away with the largest amount of provisions, clothing, etc., ever obtained by an army, including 8,000 beef cattle, 50,000 barrels of pork, and a million yards of Kentucky cloth."[7]
Bragg was openly criticized by some newspapers, and privately by two of his own generals, Polk and William J. Hardee, but there was plenty of blame to spread among the Confederate high command for the failure of the invasion of Kentucky. The armies of Bragg and Kirby Smith suffered from a lack of unified command. Bragg can be faulted for moving his army away from Munfordville, out of Buell's path, a prime location for a battle to Confederate advantage. Polk can also be blamed for not following Bragg's instructions on the day before and day of the battle of Perryville. Confederate President Jefferson Davis kept Bragg in command of the Army of Tennessee.
Bragg himself blamed the failure in large part on the Kentuckians themselves, whom he had expected to flock to his banner in droves as he marched through the state. He had even brought along 20,000 additional rifles to arm new recruits. In a letter to his wife, he said "Why should we be expected to conquer the whole Northwest with 35,000 men? Our only hope was in Kentucky. We were assured she would be with us to a man, yet in seven weeks occupation, with twenty thousand guns and ammunition burdening our train, we only succeeded in getting about two thousand men to join us and at least half of them have now deserted."[7]
Although Buell succeeded in driving Bragg out of Kentucky, his failure to achieve a decisive victory in battle or effectively pursue the Confederate army during its retreat ended his military career. President Lincoln removed Buell from command of the Army of the Ohio for being too cautious in pursuit of Bragg, replacing him with Major General William Rosecrans, and he was investigated by a military commission. Though he was acquitted of any misconduct, he did not receive another command before mustering out of service in May 1864.[8]
Notes
- ^ Foote, 1958, p. 25.
- ^ "Kentucky Ordinance of Secession". wikisource.org.
- ^ Finding aid uky.edu Archived August 30, 2017, at the Wayback Machine
- JSTOR 23369562.
- ^ Foote, 1958, p. 740.
- ^ Foote, 1958, p. 739.
- ^ a b c Van Der Linden, Frank (April 17, 2009). "General Bragg's Impossible Dream: Take Kentucky". American Battlefield Trust. Retrieved August 21, 2020.
- ^ "Don Carlos Buell, Biography, Significance, Civil War, Union General". American History Central. November 22, 2023. Retrieved November 29, 2023.
References
- ISBN 0-394-49517-9.
- ISBN 0-307-29025-5.
Further reading
- Broadwater, Robert P. The Battle of Perryville, 1862: culmination of the failed Kentucky campaign (McFarland & Company, 2005.)
- Engle, Stephen D. The American Civil War: The War in the West, 1861–July 1863 (Osprey Publishing, 2001), well illustrated
- Harrison, Lowell. The Civil War in Kentucky (University Press of Kentucky, 2010)
- Harrison, Lowell H. "The Civil War in Kentucky: Some Persistent Questions." The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society (1978): 1-21. in JSTOR
- McDonough, James Lee. War in Kentucky: From Shiloh to Perryville (Univ. of Tennessee Press, 1996)
- McWhiney, Grady. "Controversy in Kentucky: Braxton Bragg's Campaign of 1862." Civil War History (1960) 6#1 pp: 5–42. online
- Noe, Kenneth. Perryville: This Grand Havoc of Battle
- Steely, Will Frank, and Orville W. Taylor. "Bragg's Kentucky Campaign: A Confederate Soldier's Account." The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society (1959): 49–55. in JSTOR
- Wooster, Ralph A. "Confederate Success at Perryville," The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society (1961) 59#4 pp. 318–323 in JSTOR(University Press of Kentucky, 2001.)
External links
- Battle of Perryville: Battle maps, photos, history articles, and battlefield news (Civil War Trust)
- The Battle of Perryville, Kentucky
- History of the Battle of Perryville
- Animated history of the Perryville and Stones River Campaigns
- Modern Perryville photos
- Perryville Order of Battle
- Battlefield Photographs
- Battle of Perryville, Buell in over his head