D.H. Hill assumes command of Hardee's Corps

On this date in 1863, Gen. Daniel Harvey Hill is given command of Hardee’s former corps, which has been under the temporary command of Gen. Patrick Cleburne, since on the 14th, Hardee had been ordered to join Gen. Joseph E. Johnston’s army in Jackson, Mississippi. Hill will officially assume command on the 24th.

A Southern scholar and a father of 9, Hill was also known as an austere and aggressive leader. He was a devout Christian, with a dry and sometimes sarcastic sense of humor. He was a brother-in-law to Stonewall Jackson, and a close friend to both James Longstreet and Joseph E. Johnston, but disagreements with both Robert E. Lee and Braxton Bragg eventually cost Hill favor with President Jefferson Davis. Although Hill was well respected for his his military ability, he was underutilized by the end of the Civil War due to politics.

D.H. Hill, descended from patriots in the War for Independence, graduated from the the United States Military Academy in 1842, ranking 28 out of 56 cadets, and was appointed to the 1st United States Artillery. He distinguished himself in the Mexican-American War and was promoted to captain for bravery at the Battle of Contreras and Churubusco, and later promoted to major for bravery at the Battle of Chapultepec.

In 1849, Hill resigned his commission to become a professor of mathematics at Washington College (now Washington and Lee University). While at the college he wrote a textbook, Elements of Algebra. In 1854, he joined the faculty of Davidson College in North Carolina, and in 1859, was made superintendent of the North Carolina Military Institute of Charlotte.

As the War Between the States neared, Hill, like many other Southerners, believed that the Confederacy represented a second American attempt to build a free nation, just as legitimate as its first effort in 1776. When war finally came, Hill joined the Southern cause as a colonel of the 1st North Carolina Infantry, leading his regiment in victory at the Battle of Big Bethel in Virginia in 1861. He was soon promoted to brigadier general and placed in command of troops in the Richmond area. By the spring of 1862, he was a major general and division commander in the Army of Northern Virginia under Robert E. Lee. He participated in the Yorktown and Williamsburg operations that started the Peninsula Campaign in the spring of 1862, leading a division with great distinction in the Battle of Seven Pines and the Seven Days Battle.

In the Maryland Campaign of 1862, Hill led his division at South Mountain, buying Lee's army enough time to concentrate at nearby Sharpsburg. Hill's division saw fierce action in the infamous sunken road ("Bloody Lane") at Antietam. Next, he led his division at the Battle of Fredericksburg. When Robert E. Lee reorganized his army in 1863, however, Hill was passed over as a corps commander. During the Gettysburg Campaign, he led Confederate reserve troops protecting Richmond.

In July of 1863, Hill was appointed lieutenant-general and sent west to command Hardee's Corps, comprised of Cleburne's and Breckinridge's Divisions at Chickamauga. Great Grandfather Nathan Oakes will serve under Gen. Hill in Cleburne's Division throughout the campaign. In the bloody battles that encompassed that struggle, Hill's forces saw some of the heaviest fighting, leading to a Confederate victory. However, afterward, an embittered Hill joined several other generals in condemning Bragg's failure to exploit the victory and destroy Rosecrans's army. President Davis had to come personally to resolve the sharp dispute, but again, he acted in favor of Bragg. The result was another reorganization of the Army of Tennessee, with Hill removed from command. Essentially, Hill was demoted, relegated to the sidelines, although he did command in smaller actions away from the major armies.

Hill was called back to the Army of Tennessee in the closing days of the war. He led a division of Alabamian and South Carolinian brigades against Sherman's army through the Battle of Bentonville, North Carolina, in the last fight of the Army of Tennessee. He surrendered with the rest of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's army on April 26, 1865.

In the years after the war Hill returned to academic life, first editing influential magazines, The Land We Love and The Southern Home, each devoted to important Southern subjects. In 1877-1880, he was president of the Arkansas Industrial University (now the University of Arkansas). In 1885, he was appointed president of the Georgia Military and Agricultural College (now Georgia Military College), serving until August 1889, when he resigned due to failing health brought on by stomach cancer. He died in Charlotte a month later, on September 24, 1889. Gen. Daniel Harvey Hill is buried in Davidson College Cemetery, the college where he was Mathematics Chair from 1854-1859.

Sources: Stonewall of the West, Craig L. Symonds; Autumn of Glory, Thomas Lawrence Connelly; Daniel Harvey Hill, Dan L. Morrill; Official Records, Vol. 23, Pt. 3

Wood's Brigade moves to Harrison

On today's date, a Sunday in 1863, Gen. Cleburne sent most of Great Grandfather Nathan Oakes's brigade (S.A.M. Wood's) from Tyner's Station to the now former village of Harrison, 11 miles northeast of Chattanooga. The brigade was assigned to guard the river crossings. Great Grandfather's 32nd Regiment, however, remained near divisional headquarters at Tyner's Station.

The next few weeks will be relatively quiet, with some of the time taken up with drill.

Cleburne's Division posted at Tyner's Station

By this date in 1863, traveling almost 100 miles on foot and by rail, Gen. Cleburne brought Hardee’s Corps (except for the 15th Arkansas, which was dispatched by train to Chickamauga Station to guard it) to Tyner’s Station, arriving on the 10th. The village, then 9 miles east of Chattanooga, was on the railroad to Knoxville. Cleburne’s Division, which included Great Grandfather's 32nd Mississippi Infantry Regiment, encamped in and around the village, with Stewart’s Division nearby, and Polk’s Corps in and below Chattanooga. Tyner's Station will serve as Cleburne's divisional headquarters for several weeks.

Location of Tyner's Station today
CivilWarAlbum.com

Soldiers from Gen. Patrick Cleburne's Division had occupied this key rail station since May. Cleburne’s troops built 4 redoubts to guard the station on the East Tennessee & Georgia Railroad and the village. One was built on Tyner Hill. Another redoubt was in the center of the village of Tyner, next to the house that Cleburne used as his headquarters in the coming campaign.

Col. Lowrey set up his regimental headquarters at the Good Springs Baptist Church, across that main road from the village. That Sunday he gathered his flock at the church for a sermon he preached to them, doing the same the following week. The church also served as a hospital for the regiment.

The 32nd Regiment will stay here through the end of the month.

Sources: Pat Cleburne: Confederate General, Howell & Elizabeth Purdue; Civil War Diary of Henry Stephen Archer, Sr.; Official Records, Vol. 23, Pt. 2

The Union Strategy for Chattanooga

For 6 weeks after the Tullahoma operations ended, Union Gen. Rosecrans held his Army of the Cumberland in camps at the foot of the Cumberland Mountains. During this period, he considered various plans for attacking Bragg's army, which had retreated to Chattanooga.

In drawing up his plans for his operations against Bragg, Rosecrans considered two options: One was to attempt a direct attack on Chattanooga and take it by a lengthy siege. The other was to flank Bragg out of Chattanooga and force him to abandon his strongholds one by one, much like he had done successfully in the Tullahoma Campaign.

The first plan was discarded, because it was the one most obvious to Bragg, and therefore the one for which Bragg was prepared. Indeed, from Chattanooga, Bragg was ready to utilize rail lines to all important points under Rebel control. With transportation in his favor, Bragg could quickly move reinforcements where needed, while Rosecrans would have to approach Chattanooga through rough, and inhospitable country, over rocky mountain ranges, far away from his base of supplies. Also, Bragg could concentrate his entire army at the Federals' point of crossing the Tennessee River.

Rosecrans wasn't going to give in to Bragg's expectations for an attack from the north. Chattanooga, the door to the Deep South, was of utmost importance to both armies. Rosecrans's strategy had to win from Bragg this gateway to East Tennessee and Northern Georgia. And to accomplish the task, he was going to need to outthink Bragg.

To understand the magnitude and significance of the campaign, it's important to understand the topography of the country. For this information, I'm relying on an army historian who was there at the time, Henry Martyn Cist,* with additional notations to reflect present day place names.

Panoramic view from Lookout Mountain, overlooking Chattanooga, 1864
By George N Barnard
Source: Wikipedia

From his base below the Cumberland range Rosecrans's army faced Chattanooga to the southeast. However, immediately in his front was the first great barrier—the Cumberland Mountains—a lofty and rocky range dividing the waters flowing into the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers. The range rises far to the north and extends southwest into Alabama. North of Chattanooga the mountains are much bolder, more difficult to cross, with sheer cliffs on either side.

Chickamauga Campaign, 1863
Source: War of the Rebellion Atlas

Beyond the main range, in the direct route to Chattanooga, the Sequatchie River flows south through the Sequatchie Valley, formed by another range, Walden's (or Walling's) Ridge, jutting off to the east from the main range, and between it and the Tennessee River. It connects to the Tennessee River in steep and rocky bluffs.

South of the river, and separated from the mountain ranges north by this river, are the 2 ranges known as Sand and Lookout Mountains. The northern end of Sand Mountain is called Raccoon Mountain. Here the river cuts a great chasm through these mountain ranges, so steep that they connect directly with the water in heavy outcroppings of rock.

The tops of all these mountain ranges were covered in trees, and there was very little water available. There were only a few roads at the time, and those were almost impassable for wagons. The western slope of Sand Mountain reaches nearly to the Tennessee River. Between Sand and Lookout Mountains is Lookout Valley, with Lookout Creek flowing through it into the Tennessee River below Chattanooga. This valley was also known as Wills Valley, and at that time was crossed by a railroad. Today, part of this area includes the Chattanooga Arboretum Nature Center, east of I-24.

Beyond this is the Lookout range, an elevated rise, the highest point of which is some 2,400 feet above sea level. Then, as now, the sides of this range are nearly perpendicular and are heavily wooded. The mountain range ends abruptly in the north on the Tennessee River, which then was only 2 miles south of Chattanooga. Although it can be easily traveled by road now, in 1863 it had only 3 practical wagon roads crossing it south of Chattanooga—one close to the river, another at Johnson's Crook, and the third at Winston's Gap, 26 and 42 miles respectively.

To the east of Lookout Mountain is Chattanooga Valley, with the city at its head, and Chattanooga Creek flowing through, with Dry Creek as a branch emptying into the Tennessee River just south of town. Beyond this to the east is Missionary Ridge, and parallel to it and just beyond is Chickamauga Valley, with its namesake creek running through it to the river above Chattanooga, formed by East, Middle, and West Chickamauga Creeks, uniting with Pea Vine Creek.

Chattanooga and West Chickamauga Creeks have a common source in McLemore's Cove, which is formed by Pigeon Mountain on the east, jutting to the north as a spur of Lookout Mountain, and the West Chickamauga on its west, with Missionary Ridge, extends out from this cove. Then as now, the LaFayette Road extends from Chattanooga to Rome, Georgia, crossing Missionary Ridge into Chickamauga Valley at Rossville. It proceeds south from there, crossing Chickamauga Creek at Lee & Gordon Mills. From the mill, it extends to the east of Pigeon Mountain, passing through LaFayette about 22 miles south of Chattanooga. From there it continues on to Summerville, and 25 miles beyond to Rome.

Beyond these ranges is Taylor's Ridge, with a number of lesser ranges between it and the Atlanta Railroad that ran through Dalton. In 1863, both Pigeon Mountain and Taylor's Ridge were very rough mountain ranges with few roads, and these only through gaps. At Dalton was the junction of the East Tennessee with the Atlanta Railroad, in the valley of the head waters of the Coosa River. The valley at this point is about 10 miles wide, which formed a great natural passageway into East Tennessee from the south, strategic for the control and passage of both armies.

For Rosecrans to follow Bragg to Chattanooga and to cross the Tennessee River above the town, it would involve moving his army either the north of the Sequatchie Valley by way of Dunlap, or by Therman and Walden's Ridge, some 70 miles through rough country with narrow and difficult wagon roads, and without much available water. This route would require that Rosecrans move further away from his base of supplies and line of communication than a route south of the river. He would also need to repair the railroad line, which had been torn up by the retreating Confederates, in order to move supplies to support his army. But even with the railroad in full operation, the army could not feed itself, nor its thousands of animals, without relying upon local forage and the supplies the men carried with them.

It was over this northern route that Bragg anticipated an approach of Rosecrans's army. This would enable him to make a protracted defense of Chattanooga and retard the advance for weeks, if not months.

So, Rosecrans chose a more hazardous route, although a far speedier one for taking Chattanooga—if it worked. To achieve success it was necessary for him to cross the Cumberland Mountains with supplies and ammunition, plus a train for a bridge crossing of the Tennessee River. After the river crossing, he then would need to move his army over Sand or Raccoon Mountains into Lookout Valley. From there either he could cross Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, if he went directly to Chattanooga, or he could cross Missionary Ridge, Pigeon Mountain, and Taylor's Ridge, to strike the railroad at Dalton. His plan required his army to carry everything it needed for 25 days' subsistence. over what would develop into 2 great battles. And he had to accomplish all this without Bragg figuring out what he was up to.

It was a bold and masterful plan if he could pull it off.

Henry Martyn Cist
Source: Civil War Generals in Black & White

* Henry Martyn Cist's personal Civil War history is entwined with that the Confederate Army of Tennessee. At the outbreak of the war, Cist enlisted as a private in the Ohio infantry and was soon promoted to 2nd lieutenant. He later served as post adjutant at a POW camp set up for Confederate prisoners captured at Fort Donelson in 1862. Later that year, he rejoined the Ohio infantry as a 1st lieutenant. Promoted to captain, in time he was assigned assistant adjutant general on Gen. Rosecrans's staff (along with future U.S. President James A. Garfield). In this position he had a unique insider's view on the operations of Army of the Cumberland in its many conflicts with the Army of Tennessee. By war's end, Cist had risen to the rank of brigadier general. After the war, he became a lawyer and history writer, mingling his scholarship with military experience. He eventually turned his interest in history to working for battlefield preservation, becoming in 1889, one of the first directors of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park.

Sources: The Army of the Cumberland, Henry Martyn Cist; This Terrible Sound, Peter Cozzens; National Park Service

Troop distribution on the Tennessee River | Pat Cleburne's Division

In the retreat from Tullahoma, Patrick Cleburne’s Division, in which Great Grandfather Oakes served, led the Army of Tennessee southward off the Cumberland Plateau, down the north bank of the Tennessee River, where it went into bivouac. The army reached the vicinity of Chattanooga by July 7. 

After arrival, Gen. Hardee turned over temporary command of the corps to Gen. Cleburne, while he left for Chattanooga for discussions with Bragg. On July 6 and 7, Cleburne coordinated the crossing of the river on the pontoon bridge at Kelly’s Ford, about 9 miles west of Chattanooga in Lookout Valley. He will distribute the corps along the line of the Knoxville Railroad, with Tyner's Station as the center.

Over the next week, the corps will move in stages by rail from Loudon to Chattanooga, then to Tyner’s Station east of the city. By August 1, Wood’s Brigade, including my great grandfather's 32nd Mississippi Infantry, will move further east to Harrison’s Landing, 12 miles upriver.

Sources: Stonewall of the West, Craig L. Symonds; The Army of the Cumberland, Henry Martyn Cist; Huntsville Historical Review, Vol 26, No. 2. 1999: Transcription of Capt. Daniel Coleman Diary, Univ. North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Covering the army's retreat | Cleburne's Division

On July 3rd, Gen. Patrick Cleburne's Division, in which Great Grandfather Oakes served, covered the army's retreat from Tullahoma. On today's date in 1863, the division held the Bethpage bridgehead as the army crossed the Elk River. From the high ground, 2 miles above the railroad bridge, Cleburne's men commanded the bridge with artillery placed behind hastily constructed embrasures, while weary troops trudged southward onto the heights of the Cumberland Plateau. The soldiers had to manhandle the wagons over the rough spots before they can bivouac in the open air of the Cumberland Plateau. This was the first time in weeks that the men could light fires and cook a warm meal without concern for rain or the enemy. Cleburne's Division followed to bivouac with the army near the University of the South at Sewanee.

With Hardee’s Corps in front and Cleburne’s Division leading, Bragg's army will march to Chattanooga, arriving there on July 7. The army will "rest" in the vicinity of Chattanooga during July and August, and also receive much needed reinforcements from Mississippi.

Sources: Stonewall of the West, Craig L. Symonds; Pat Cleburne: Confederate General, Howell and Elizabeth Purdue

The Tullahoma Campaign concludes, 1863 | Pat Cleburne's Division

On today's date in 1863, while the first shots were being fired on the Gettysburg battlefield in Pennsylvania, Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg began withdrawing his army from Tullahoma, south across the Elk River, covered by Cleburne's Division. When Union General Thomas learned of Bragg's departure, he immediately occupied the town with a portion of his corps. He sent the rest of his force to cut off Bragg before the Confederates crossed the Elk River. Gen. Benjamin Franklin Cheatham was placed in command of the Confederates' river crossing near Estill Springs, with orders to destroy the road and bridges once the troops were across.

On July 2nd, Union Gen. Crittenden's corps moved down the Hillsboro road from Manchester. After a some skirmishing with Confederate cavalry, Crittenden was able to force a crossing there. In the meantime, Bragg ordered his army to continue its retreat to Cowan.

Gen. Ivan Turchin's division made a second Federal attempt at Morris Ferry to stop Bragg's army crossing the Elk River. His advance was forced back by the 51st Alabama Cavalry, the 25th and 26th Tennessee Infantry, and Darden's Battery. The Federals then advanced on Decherd, but arrived too late to prevent the Confederates from crossing there.

On July 3rd, Union Gen. Phil Sheridan's division made a river crossing upstream of the main Confederate force, crossing the Rock Creek, then fording the Elk River near there. A skirmish with Confederate cavalry ensued, but they were driven off. Bragg now must contend with an enemy force (Crittenden's and Sheridan's) on both of his flanks.

Rosecrans's army continued to press forward as the Bragg's army retreated on July 3rd. Sheridan captured Winchester after a small skirmish, then occupied Cowan at the foot of the mountains that offered about the only Confederate hope of a place to make a stand. Instead of fighting, however, Bragg chose to continue his retreat to Chattanooga, now guarded by Wheeler's cavalry.

On the 3rd, after camping overnight at the Episcopal University of the South* at Sewanee, the march order of the day was Hardee's Corps in front with Cleburne's Division leading. The division will begin arriving on July 7, to take up its position at Tyner's Station, 9 miles east of Chattanooga.

Henry Cist, a member of Rosecrans's staff who wrote years after the war, had this to say about the campaign's results:

The Tullahoma campaign... was the most brilliant of the great strategic campaigns carried to a successful issue by General Rosecrans. The movements of the army occupied nine days, during which time the enemy was driven from two strongly fortified positions, with a loss in prisoners captured of 1,634, eleven pieces of artillery, and a large amount of stores and supplies. The result of this campaign gave to Rosecrans possession of Middle Tennessee, and placed the armies back in the relative positions occupied by them prior to Bragg's advance into Kentucky, a little less than one year previous.

Author Stanley F. Horn agrees,

[Rosecrans's] strategy was a masterpiece of offensive strategy. He maneuvered the Confederate army entirely out of Tennessee almost without firing a shot, except in the preliminary cavalry brushes as he unexpectedly pressed through the thinly held mountain passes. Bragg, placing too much reliance on the strong defenses in his front and taking it for granted that Rosecrans would obligingly advance that way, did not realize what was happening to him on his right flank until it was too late to do anything about it. Though he had been in position for six months, he seems never to have thought of the possibility of a flank attack, and in the early stages of the turning movement he showed a fumbling in decision and action that filled his corps commanders with dismay.

Reflecting on the Southern attitude, historian Michael R. Bradley writes:

[Honors] go the enlisted men of the Army of Tennessee. They knew their officers were clueless, had been outsmarted; they knew they were facing an ever increasingly better armed and fed enemy whose leaders were maturing in the art of war; yet they remained faithful to the cause to which they had dedicated themselves, the cause of defending family and fireside and faith, and they went on to shed their blood and to expend their valor at Chickamauga, winning for themselves and their army its finest hour. These men, they endured. Better cannot be said of any.

On July 4th, the last shots were fired in the Tullahoma Campaign as the Federals gave up pursuit. On the same day, Gen. Robert E. Lee began his retreat from the Battle of Gettysburg, and Gen. Ulysses S. Grant accepted the surrender of Gen. John C. Pemberton's Confederate army at Vicksburg. At Tullahoma, "The wave of the Confederate cause had reached and passed its crest. From then on it was all ebb tide" (Horn).

Finally, Cist offers this perspective: "Brilliant campaigns, however, without battles, do not accomplish the destruction of an army. A campaign like that of Tullahoma always means a battle at some other point." Indeed, the next confrontation, Chickamauga, is only a couple of months away.

Union army blowing up
the University's cornerstone
Source: Civil War Travel Blog

* When Union pursuers arrived at the University of the South where the Confederate army had camped, they discovered a 6-ton marble cornerstone, laid down in 1860, and dedicated by Bishop Leonidas Polk, one of the founders, now a corps general in Bragg's Army of Tennessee. Having missed the general at Tullahoma, they blew up the cornerstone instead. The pieces were collected and kept as souvenirs by the soldiers. Later, a few pieces were donated back to the university, and a large fragment was eventually installed in a wall of the university's All Saints' Chapel. Apparently, there also is a stained glass window installed in the chapel that depicts Union troops blowing up the University’s cornerstone.

Buried in the chapel cemetery are several prominent Confederate generals and soldiers, including Lieut. Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith and Brig. Gen. Francis Shoup. Bishop Charles Quintard, who served in the Army of Tennessee as chaplain, is buried there, too. There are also unmarked graves in the cemetery belonging to Confederate soldiers killed during the Tullahoma Campaign.

After the war, the university offered Robert E. Lee the position of vice-chancellor, but he declined, choosing instead the same position at Washington College (now Washington and Lee University) in his beloved Virginia.

Sources: Tullahoma: The 1863 Campaign for the Control of Middle Tennessee, Michael R. Bradley; The Army of Tennessee, Stanley F. Horn; Stonewall of the West, Craig L. Symonds; Pat Cleburne: Confederate General, Howell and Elizabeth Purdue; The Stones River and Tullahoma Campaigns, Christopher L. Kolakowski; The Army of the Cumberland, Henry Martyn Cist

Battle of Gettysburg, July 1-3, 1863

150 years ago on today's date in 1863, a legendary battle began at the crossroads of the county seat of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It will be known as the Battle of Gettysburg, and it will become the battle with the largest number of casualties in the war.*

After his success at Chancellorsville, Virginia, in May, Lee led his victorious army through the Shenandoah to begin his second invasion of the North. He intended to shift the focus of his summer campaign away from war-damaged Virginia, and he hoped his penetration into Pennsylvania would influence Northern politicians to give up on the war. It is one of the few times in the North-South conflict that the ravages of warfare were brought home to Northern states.

Gen. Robert E. Lee concentrated his full strength against Maj. Gen. George G. Meade’s Army of the Potomac at Gettysburg. On July 1, Confederate forces converged on the town from west and north, driving Union defenders back through the streets to the low ridges of Cemetery Hill. During the night, reinforcements arrived for both sides.

On July 2, Lee attempted to envelop the Federals, first striking the Union left flank at the Peach Orchard, Wheatfield, Devil’s Den, and the two Round Tops with Longstreet’s and Hill’s divisions, and then attacking the Union right at Culp’s and East Cemetery Hills with Ewell’s divisions. But by evening, the Federals retained Little Round Top and had repulsed most of Ewell’s men.

During the morning of July 3, the Confederate infantry was driven from its last toehold on Culp’s Hill. In the afternoon, after a preliminary artillery bombardment, Lee attacked the Union center on Cemetery Ridge. The famous "Pickett’s Charge" momentarily pierced the Union line, but it was driven back with severe casualties. To the east and south, Stuart’s cavalry attempted to gain the Union rear but was repulsed.

On July 4, Lee was forced to begin withdrawing his army toward Williamsport on the Potomac River. His train of wounded stretched more than 14 miles.

Not so well known is another important conflict between Northern and Southern armies, the Tullahoma Campaign, fought over the same period in Middle Tennessee. As Lee was retreating from Gettysburg, the last shots were fired in the Tullahoma Campaign as Gen. Braxton Bragg withdrew his army from Tennessee. And yet a third Confederate defeat took place on July 4: Gen. John C. Pemberton surrendered his army at Vicksburg to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. July 4th, 1863, will prove to be one of the darkest days for the Confederacy.

Gen. Robert E. Lee

Gen. Braxton Bragg

Gen. John C. Pemberton

     

* To see an excellent animated map of the Battle of Gettysburg, visit the Civil War Trust webpage.

Sources: CWSAC Battle Summaries; The Army of Tennessee, Stanley F. Horn