Army of the Tennessee | |
---|---|
Active | December 20, 1861–August 1, 1865 |
Country | United States of America |
Branch | United States Army |
Part of | District of Cairo (1861–1862) District of West Tennessee (1862) Dep't of the Tennessee (1862–1863) Military Division of the Mississippi (1863–1865) |
Engagements | American Civil War |
Commanders | |
Notable commanders | Ulysses S. Grant William Tecumseh Sherman James B. McPherson Oliver O. Howard John A. Logan |
The Army of the Tennessee was a Union army in the Western Theater of the American Civil War, named for the Tennessee River. It should not be confused with the similarly named Army of Tennessee, a Confederate army named after the State of Tennessee.
It appears that the term "Army of the Tennessee" was first used within the Union Army in March 1862, to describe Union forces perhaps more properly described as the "Army of West Tennessee"; these were the troops under the command of Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in the Union's District of West Tennessee.[1] In October 1862, Grant's command was reconfigured and elevated to departmental status, as the Department of the Tennessee, and his troops officially became the Army of the Tennessee.[2] Grant commanded these forces until after his victory at Vicksburg in 1863. Under other generals, starting with William Tecumseh Sherman, the army marched and fought from the Chattanooga Campaign, through the Atlanta Campaign, the March to the Sea, the Carolinas Campaign, and to the end of the war. This article also discusses the roots of the Army of the Tennessee in Grant's 1861–1862 command of the District of Cairo. Some historians apply the term "Army of the Tennessee" to the troops Grant commanded at this earlier time as well, appropriately enough as they became the nucleus of the Army of the Tennessee.[3]
A 2005 study of the army states that it "was present at most of the great battles that became turning points of the war—Fort Donelson, Vicksburg, and Atlanta" and "won the decisive battles in the decisive theater of the war."[4] More poetically, in 1867, apparently speaking of the Atlanta campaign, General Sherman said that the Army of the Tennessee was "never checked—always victorious; so rapid in motion—so eager to strike; it deserved its name of the 'Whip-lash,' swung from one flank to the other, as danger called, night or day, sunshine or storm."[5]
History
During the course of the war, elements of the Army of the Tennessee performed many tasks, and the army evolved with the addition and subtraction of many units. It is not feasible to chronicle every such development here, even at the corps level. Rather, this article attempts to trace the main thrust of the army's development and its most memorable activities. It should be borne in mind that, at any given time, substantial numbers of troops were engaged in activities not discussed here. For example, in April of 1863, less than half of Grant's departmental strength was directly engaged in the critically important Vicksburg Campaign.[6]
The Henry-Donelson Campaign
In December 1861, Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant was a subordinate commander in the Union's Department of the Missouri, in charge of the District of Southeast Missouri, with headquarters at Cairo, Illinois. His first Civil War engagement, the November Battle of Belmont lay behind him.[7] On December 20, his command was enlarged and renamed the District of Cairo.[8] It was in that capacity that, in February 1862, Grant led the Union campaign against Fort Henry, on the Tennessee River, and Fort Donelson, on the Cumberland River. For this campaign, his troops eventually numbered approximately 27,000 men divided into three divisions, commanded by Brig. Gen. John A. McClernand (1st Division), Brig. Gen. Charles F. Smith (2nd), and Brig. Gen. Lewis Wallace (3rd).[9] Initially, Smith's and McClernand's divisions sailed up the Tennessee River to Fort Henry. However, the fort surrendered to U.S. Navy Flag Officer Andrew H. Foote, commander of the Western Flotilla, before the army could attack. A few days later the two divisions at Fort Henry marched overland to Fort Donelson, where they were reinforced by Wallace's new division, which was formed there from newly arriving regiments.[10] The Battle of Fort Donelson began on February 13 and concluded on February 16 with the unconditional surrender of the remaining Confederate garrison of approximately 15,000.[11]
One historian describes the Henry-Donelson campaign as the "first signficant Union triumph in the war"; its fruits included breaking the Confederate's western line of defense, securing Kentucky to the Union, and opening the South, Tennessee in particular, to invasion.[12] Another historian notes that the "soldiers of the Army of the Tennessee had performed prodigies of valor and endurance during the campaign" and had learned from it that "hard fighting would bring success."[13] As a result of the campaign's conspicuous success, Grant, McClernand, Smith, and Wallace were all promoted to the rank of major general of volunteers.[14]
Shiloh and Corinth
On February 14, 1862, during the Donelson campaign, Grant was given command of the newly created District of West Tennessee, and the forces under his command therefore became the "Army of West Tennessee," although the term "Army of the Tennessee" also began to be used as early as March 1862.[15] Over the next several months, Grant twice was in danger of losing his leadership role in the Army of the Tennessee, a development that doubtless would have changed the future course and character of the army and perhaps deprived it at this early stage of one source of its future success—continuity of leadership.[16]
In early March, Grant's superior, Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck, then in command of the Department of the Missouri, assigned Grant to lead an expedition up the Tennessee River from the recently captured Fort Henry. On March 4, however, Halleck ordered Grant to give field command of the expedition to C.F. Smith; this order has been variously attributed to professional jealousy and to Halleck's lacking confidence in Grant due to certain administrative difficulties.[17] Smith initially established the expedition at Savannah, Tennessee, a town on the east side of the river approximately 100 river miles (160 km) south of Fort Henry. He soon began staging troops at a point — Pittsburg Landing — nine miles (14 km) further south and across the river.[18] Meanwhile, Halleck's command was enlarged and renamed the Department of the Mississippi, and Halleck restored Grant to field command, perhaps because of personal intervention by President Abraham Lincoln.[19] Grant joined his army in the field on March 17.[20] Before the Battle of Shiloh, on April 6–7, Grant's army had grown to a total of roughly 50,000 men, organized into six divisions.[21] The three new divisions were commanded by Brig. Gen. Stephen A. Hurlbut (4th Division), Brig. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman (5th), and Brig. Gen. Benjamin M. Prentiss (6th). In addition, Brig. Gen. W.H.L. Wallace took command of Smith's 2nd Division due to the latter's having suffered a debilitating leg injury.[22]
On April 6–7, Grant's forces fought the bloodiest battle of the Civil War to that time, the Battle of Shiloh, when Confederate forces advanced largely undetected from Corinth, Mississippi, and attacked the five Union divisions staged at Pittsburg Landing. On the first day of the battle, the surprised and unentrenched army fought desperately and suffered many casualties. However, elements of the Army of the Ohio, under Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell, arrived to reinforce Grant late that day, with many more troops arriving overnight and the following day. Grant's forces were also bolstered by the evening arrival of his own 3rd Division, under Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace; Wallace's division had been slow arriving at Pittsburg Landing from its separate position at Crump's Landing. Substantially reinforced by Buell and Wallace, Grant counterattacked the Confederate forces on April 7 and drove them from the field and back toward Corinth.[23] "Grant's victory at Shiloh," one historian has written, "bloody and bitter though it was, doomed the Confederate cause in the Mississippi valley."[24] More immediately, however, the battle resulted in much criticism against Grant for lack of preparedness, swift promotion to major general of volunteers for Sherman, capture for Prentiss, a fatal wound for W.H.L. Wallace, and Grant's loss of confidence in Lew Wallace. In addition, C.F. Smith died later in April from complications due to his non-combat leg injury.[25]
In the aftermath of Shiloh came the second threat to Grant's leadership, as well as a preview of the multi-army operations that would feature prominently in the future of the Army of the Tennessee. Pursuant to previous plans, Grant's departmental superior, General Halleck, arrived at Pittsburg Landing to take personal command in the field. Intending to move against the Confederate forces concentrating at the rail hub at Corinth, Halleck proceeded to gather and organize what was in effect an army group of over 100,000 men.[26] His force included Grant's Army of the Tennessee, Buell's Army of the Ohio, and Maj. Gen. John Pope's Army of the Mississippi. On April 30, Halleck divided this force into three corps (or "wings") and a reserve. The left wing was commanded by Pope, the center by Buell, the right wing by Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas, and the reserve by John McClernand. Grant's 1st and 3rd Divisions constituted the reserve; the right wing contained Grant's 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 6th Divisions and Thomas's division from the Army of the Ohio. In other words, Halleck had drawn Thomas from division command in the Army of the Ohio and assigned to him, as commander of the right wing, most of Grant's troops.[27]
Halleck assigned Grant to be second-in-command of the entire 100,000-man force, but also expressly confirmed Grant in command of the "Army Corps of the Tennessee" (the right wing and the reserve).[28] It is unclear exactly why Halleck took these actions affecting Grant.[29] However, Grant was under severe public criticism about Shiloh at the time and soon complained that his second-in-command position constituted a "sensure" and was akin to an arrest; among his complaints was the fact that Halleck gave orders directly to Thomas and division commanders nominally subordinate to Grant.[30] With this awkward command structure, embarrassing to Grant, Halleck's forces slowly prosecuted the Siege of Corinth, which culminated with the Confederate forces abandoning the town on the night of May 29–30.[31] William Tecumseh Sherman, commanding a division in Thomas's right wing, considered this relatively bloodless campaign to be an important period of training for Halleck's forces, including the Army of the Tennessee: "[B]y the time we had reached Corinth I believe that army was the best then on this continent."[32]
After Corinth was taken, Grant might have left his command in frustration, but Sherman intervened and encouraged Grant to remain.[33] Grant's experiences during this period are often cited as one reason for his subsequent warm relations with Sherman and his cooler relations with George Thomas.[34] In turn, the trust between Grant and Sherman contributed importantly to the future effectiveness of the Army of the Tennessee.[35] On June 10, Halleck rescinded the multi-corps organization for the Corinth campaign. This restored Grant to straightforward command of the "Army of the Tennessee," and George Thomas soon returned to division command in Buell's Army of the Ohio. Thomas would eventually rise to command of the successor Army of the Cumberland.[36] Grant's army numbered about 65,000 around this time. Grant retained that command, and continued in charge of the District of West Tennessee, when Halleck was summoned to Washington in July to serve as general-in-chief.[37] Having survived threats to his leadership before and after Shiloh, Grant remained in position to "buil[d] the Army of the Tennessee in his [own image]," to reflect "his matter-of-fact steadiness and his hard-driving aggressiveness."[38]
The Vicksburg Campaign
Halleck's broad Department of the Mississippi was disassembled after his July departure for Washington.[39] One result was that, on October 16, 1862, Grant's geographical command was expanded and elevated to departmental status, becoming the Department of the Tennessee; his troops, which numbered about 85,000 at that time, therefore officially became the Army of the Tennessee.[40] By an order dated December 18, 1862, but not fully implemented until somewhat later, the army was organized into four corps—the XIII under John McClernand, the XV under W.T. Sherman, the XVI under Stephen Hurlbut, and the XVII under Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson.[41] Each corps contained several divisions and detachments of artillery and cavalry. For illustrative purposes, the reported organization and strength of the Army of the Tennessee as of April 30, 1863, when it numbered approximately 150,000 in total, can be seen in the Official Records.[42]
In the fall of 1862, Grant began organizing operations against Vicksburg, Mississippi, a Confederate strong point on the east bank of the Mississippi River under the command of Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton.[43] The first phase of Grant's operations against Vicksburg culminated unsuccessfully in December 1862, when Grant abandoned his own planned overland move on Vicksburg from the east and Sherman, intended to be operating down the Mississippi River in coordination with Grant's abandoned thrust, suffered a repulse in the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou.[44] Meanwhile, initially unbeknownst to Grant, his senior subordinate, John McClernand, had used his political influence with Abraham Lincoln to obtain authority for an expedition of his own against Vicksburg.[45] This development, which one historian has characterized as "one of the more bizarre episodes of the Civil War," set McClernand up as a potential competitor to Grant, but also benefitted the Army of the Tennessee in the long run because McClernand raised new troops in the Midwest to further his own purposes.[46] In January 1863, shortly after Chickasaw Bayou, McClernand briefly asserted control over the 30,000 men then under Sherman and redesignated those troops as the Army of the Mississippi; that force, under McClernand and Sherman, succeeded in capturing Fort Hindman on the Arkansas River.[47] Grant considered this objective to constitute "a wild-goose chase," and General-in-Chief Halleck authorized Grant to assert control over all Vicksburg operations. Hence, McClernand's briefly independent force was reincorporated into the Army of the Tennessee, and McClernand's further participation in the Vicksburg campaign was as XIII Corps commander under Grant.[48]
In the early months of 1863, Grant pursued various futile operations to capture Vicksburg, causing one newspaper to complain that the "army was being ruined in mud-turtle expeditions, under the leadership of a drunkard [Grant], whose confidential adviser [Sherman] was a lunatic."[49] However, in April Grant proceeded to establish his troops south of Vicksburg by marching them down the west side of the river and crossing the river below Vicksburg with the aid of the Navy. Working well with the Western Flotilla under David D. Porter, Grant led approximately 40,000 troops in the XIII (McClernand), XV (Sherman), and XVII (McPherson) Corps through the Vicksburg Campaign, a masterful 100-mile (160 km) campaign of maneuver against two Confederate armies, Pemberton's Vicksburg force and a relief force under General Joseph E. Johnston. After capturing and briefly occupying Jackson, Mississippi, on May 14, and defeating the Confederates in the Battle of Champion Hill on May 16, Grant failed in initial assaults against the Confederate entrenchments at Vicksburg on May 19 and 22 and then settled in for siege operations rather than incur additional casualties.[50]
During the siege, the army received significant reinforcements, from within and without the Department of the Tennessee, bringing Grant's total strength at Vicksburg above 70,000 troops out of a reported July 1863 total strength for the department of approximately 175,000.[51] Troops from Hurlbut's XVI Corps arrived on June 3 and 8. On June 11, a "strong division" from the late Army of the Frontier under Maj. Gen. Francis J. Herron was attached to the XVII Corps. The IX Corps, 8,000 men from Ambrose Burnside's Army of the Ohio under the command of Maj. Gen. John G. Parke, joined the siege on June 14.[52] On June 18, essentially on grounds of insubordination, Grant replaced the ever-political McClernand in command of the XIII Corps with Maj. Gen. Edward O. C. Ord.[53] The city ultimately surrendered on July 4; its garrison of 30,000 was given parole.[54] Even before Vicksburg fell, reflecting his growing confidence in W.T. Sherman, Grant placed him in charge of a force drawn from the IX, XIII, XV, and XVII Corps to shield the siege operations against potential attack from the east by Joe Johnston's relief force. After Vicksburg fell, Sherman commanded a sizable Expeditionary Army (IX, XIII, and XV Corps) to drive Johnston beyond Jackson and then fell back toward Vicksburg. Sherman's operation effectively marked the end of the roles of both the IX Corps and XIII Corps in the Department of the Tennessee.[55]
Grant's capture of Vicksburg, achieved largely by long-established elements of the Army of the Tennessee, was one of the most important Union victories of the war. As a result, the Mississippi River was opened for the Union, and the Confederacy was cut in half.[56] In recognition of his achievement, Grant was promptly elevated to the rank of major general in the regular army.[57] At Halleck's suggestion, Grant then asked Lincoln to give Sherman and McPherson the rank of brigadier general in the regular army, in addition to their rank of major general of volunteers.[58] Sherman later wrote that, with the capture of Vicksburg, "Grant's army had seemingly completed its share of the work of war."[59] Even though much work in fact still lay before the Army of the Tennessee, there is much truth in Sherman's observation. Soon Grant himself would move on to expanded responsibilities, leaving the Army of the Tennessee in Sherman's hands. And the army itself would shift its operations eastward, closing the 1861–1863 chapter of riverine operations on the Cumberland, the Tennessee, and the Mississippi and beginning a series of epic marches. In addition, after Vicksburg, the Army of the Tennessee would ebb in size and usually operated in tandem with other forces, principally the Army of the Cumberland.[60]
Chattanooga and Knoxville
After taking Vicksburg, the Army of the Tennessee "lay, as it were, idle for a time."[61] But soon enough the changing roles for the army and its leading figures were evidenced in the November 1863 victory achieved by a mixed Union force in the Battles for Chattanooga. After William S. Rosecrans's Army of the Cumberland was defeated at the Battle of Chickamauga in September 1863, it retreated to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where it was besieged by Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee. To address this crisis, Grant, the celebrated victor of Vicksburg, was elevated to command of the newly created and geographically broad Military Division of the Mississippi in October and ordered by Washington to travel to Chattanooga, assume command of all forces there, and defeat Bragg. Grant's forces at Chattanooga eventually included elements of three armies: 35,000 men from the Army of the Cumberland under Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas, who had replaced Rosecrans; 20,000 men sent west from the Army of the Potomac under Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker; and 17,000 men from the Army of the Tennessee.[62]
The Army of the Tennessee's contingent was led up the Mississippi River from Vicksburg and then east from Memphis, Tennessee, by William Tecumseh Sherman, who had started his march as a corps commander and ended it as Grant's replacement as commander of the Army of the Tennessee. Sherman brought to Chattanooga most of his old XV Corps, now placed temporarily under the command of Maj. Gen. Frank P. Blair, Jr., and the 2nd Division of the XVII Corps, led by Brig. Gen. John E. Smith.[63] With the arrival of Sherman's force, Grant was prepared to take the offensive and break Bragg's siege. Sherman was assigned to assault the right flank of Bragg's army, at the north end of Missionary Ridge with three of his four divisions and other troops; this attack was intended to play the major role for the Union. However, in the Battle of Missionary Ridge on November 25, Sherman's attack proved unsuccessful, and the major credit for breaking the Confederate line is generally given to Thomas's Army of the Cumberland, which assaulted directly up the middle of Missionary Ridge. On this occasion, then, the Army of the Tennessee ended up playing second fiddle to the Army of the Cumberland.[64]
Immediately after Chattanooga, Grant ordered Sherman to take command of a mixed force that included part of the XV Corps and proceed from the Chattanooga area to the relief of Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside's command at Knoxville, Tennessee. Burnside had been threatened by a siege conducted by Confederate forces under James Longstreet. Sherman's mere approach resulted in the lifting of the siege, and Sherman returned to Chattanooga with the XV Corps troops.[65] Sherman later calculated that, in these crises, the XV Corps had marched 330 miles (530 km) from Memphis to Chattanooga and 230 miles (370 km) from Chattanooga to Knoxville and back.[66]
The Meridian Campaign
Only about a third of Sherman's Army of the Tennessee (mostly XV Corps troops) had participated in the Chattanooga and Knoxville campaigns. Most of the XVII Corps had remained on other duties, under McPherson at Vicksburg, and most of the XVI Corps, under Hurlbut at Memphis, Tennessee.[67] In early 1864, Sherman organized from the latter two corps an expedition of 20,000 men to move into central Mississippi to break up Confederate rail communications and other infrastructure and thereby to solidify Union control of the Mississippi River. This force, led by Sherman himself, consisted of two divisions from McPherson's corps and two from Hurlbut's corps. In February, after concentrating at Vicksburg, the force made a largely unopposed round-trip march of approximately 330 miles (530 km) from Vicksburg to Meridian, Missisissippi, and back, in two columns. Hurlbut led the left column, and McPherson, the right.[68] This force destroyed the transportation center at Meridian in mid-February.[69] One recent study of the Meridian campaign describes it as a "dress rehearsal" for the style of war against infrastructure that Sherman, as well as some of these very troops, would later practice in Georgia during the March to the Sea.[70] Another historian has stated that the Meridian campaign taught Sherman that he "could march an army through Confederate territory with impunity and feed it at the expense of the inhabitants. He could wage successful war without having to slaughter thousand of soldiers in the process."[71] The Meridian campaign essentially marked the end of Hurlbut's role in the Army of the Tennessee; subsequently he became commander of the Department of the Gulf.[72]
The Atlanta Campaign
Now that Chattanooga was secure, an avenue of invasion lay open into the heart of the Deep South. It fell to Sherman to lead this invasion in the 1864 Atlanta Campaign, with the Army of the Tennessee serving as his "Whip-lash."[73] To set the stage: In March 1864, Ulysses S. Grant was promoted to lieutenant general and given command of all Union armies; to fulfill that role, Grant relocated to the Eastern Theater and maintained his headquarters thereafter in the field with the Army of the Potomac. In the West, Sherman succeeded Grant in command of the Military Division of the Mississippi, in control of all armies in the Western Theater. Command of the Army of the Tennessee now passed to Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson, who had begun his association with that army as a lieutenant colonel and the chief engineer in Grant's Henry-Donelson force.[74] On the Confederate side, after Chattanooga, Braxton Bragg was relieved of command of the Confederate Army of Tennessee, replaced initially by General Joseph E. Johnston and later by Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood.[75]
Sherman later described the Atlanta campaign, launched in early May, as "a continuous battle of 120 days," fought for "over a hundred miles," (160 km) during "which, day and night, were heard the continuous boom of cannon and the sharp crack of the rifle."[76] For this campaign, the Army of the Tennessee initially numbered about 25,000, consisting of the XV Corps under Maj. Gen. John A. Logan and the Left Wing of the XVI Corps under Brig. Gen. Grenville M. Dodge. Eventually those troops were supplemented by two divisions of the XVII Corps, now under Maj. Gen. Francis P. Blair, Jr. in lieu of McPherson.[77] Sherman's overall force of about 100,000 also included George Thomas's larger Army of the Cumberland and Maj. Gen. John M. Schofield's smaller Army of the Ohio.[78] Typically, Thomas's large force served as Sherman's center, with McPherson and Schofield operating somewhat interchangeably on the wings.[79] During the intricate campaign, having special confidence in his old army, Sherman "prefer[red] to employ the Army of the Tennessee, which he call[ed] his 'whip-lash,' for flanking maneuvers." Thus, after his unsuccessful assault on Kennesaw Mountain (June 27), Sherman swung McPherson from the left around to the right in order to resume his southward progress.[80] For the Battle of Peachtree Creek (July 20), in contrast, McPherson swung "fifty miles [80 km] on the outer rim to change from the right wing to the left."[81]
One historian has characterized McPherson as the "least aggressive" commander of the Army of the Tennessee; another considers that he "worried too much about what might be 'on the other side of the hill.'"[82] These qualities may account for the army's failure to fully exploit its opportunities early in the campaign, at the Battle of Resaca.[83] Overall, however, McPherson's forces performed well in the campaign, in which Sherman's armies initially attempted to maneuver around Johnston. Johnston continually fell back toward Atlanta, until he was replaced by Hood in mid July.[84] Then, in the Battle of Atlanta on July 22, 1864, Hood launched a strong assault targeted at McPherson's army. McPherson himself was killed, and command temporarily passed to Maj. Gen. Logan, his senior corps commander.[85] The July 22 battle, writes one historian, was "the climax of the Army of the Tennessee's wartime career," as 27,000 troops "defeated the attacks of nearly 40,000 Confederates who had the advantages of surprise and position."[86] Despite Logan's battlefield success that day, Sherman chose West Pointer Maj. Gen. Oliver O. Howard, imported from a corps command in Thomas's army, to become the new commander of the Army of the Tennessee.[87] After further engagements, featuring yet another wheeling maneuver by the Army of the Tennessee[88], Hood evacuated Atlanta during the night of September 1–2. Sherman's capture of Atlanta, facilitated by the prowess of the Army of Tennessee, "was one of the great epochs of the war, on a level with the seizure of Vicksburg" and contributed importantly to the November reelection of Abraham Lincoln.[89] Sherman later estimated that the XV Corps had marched approximately 178 miles (286 km) in this campaign of maneuver.[90]
The Georgia and Carolinas Marches
The Army of the Tennessee, under Oliver O. Howard, was now fated to function as Sherman's right arm in the March to the Sea and the Carolinas Campaign, but not immediately. After capturing Atlanta, Sherman initially played a prolonged game of cat-and-mouse with Confederate General Hood in northern Georgia and Alabama; Sherman estimated that this regression toward Chattanooga and return to Atlanta involved 270 miles (435 km) of marching by the Army of the Tennessee.[91] During this period, Sherman made many adjustments to his forces. One involved dividing Grenville Dodge's XVI Corps troops between the XV and XVII Corps; this ended the role of the XVI Corps with the main Army of the Tennessee.[92] Ultimately, Sherman received approval from his superiors to detach other forces under George Thomas and John Schofield to defend Tennessee, cut loose from his lines of communication back to Chattanooga, and march southwest to the sea with approximately 60,000 men.[93] In November and December, then, the Army of the Tennessee constituted the right wing of the 280-mile (450 km) march to the sea; Howard's command at this stage consisted of the XV Corps (now under Maj. Gen. Peter J. Osterhaus in place of Logan) and the XVII Corps (Blair). Sherman's other column, drawn from the Army of the Cumberland, was commanded by Maj. Gen. Henry W. Slocum and designated the Army of Georgia.[94]
Sherman himself characterized his march to the sea as a largely unopposed "'shift of base,' as the transfer of a strong army, which had no opponent, and had finished its then work, from the interior to a point on the sea-coast, from which it could achieve other important results."[95] As is well known, during the march, his troops lived off the land and demoralized the South by extensive destruction of property.[96] (On the eve of the march, one soldier wrote that "[w]e understand . . . that Sherman intends to use us to Christianize this country."[97]) In the final stage of the March to the Sea, Sherman called upon his old Shiloh division, now in the Army of the Tennessee's XV Corps and under the command of Brig. Gen. William B. Hazen, to subdue Fort McAllister, outside Savannah, Georgia.[98] The march itself culminated with the capture of Savannah on December 21. The Army of the Tennessee and the Army of Georgia thereby allowed Sherman to present Savannah to Lincoln as a "Christmas-gift . . . with one hundred and fifty heavy guns and plenty of ammunition, also about twenty-five thousand bales of cotton."[99] Despite Sherman's deprecation of the operational signficance of the March to the Sea, it "was one of the major events of the Civil War"; Sherman's virtually unopposed movement through Georgia showed that the Confederacy's "days were numbered" and demoralized the Confederate army in Virginia under Robert E. Lee.[100]
On February 1, 1865, after a month in Savannah, Sherman resumed in force his destructive march, now northward into the Carolinas, with the ultimate objective of concentrating with Grant's forces in Virginia.[101] Howard's Army of the Tennessee again constituted the right wing of a two-column advance, with John Logan now resuming command of the XV Corps and the XVII Corps contining under Blair. The other column was again composed of Slocum's Army of Georgia.[102] Resistance was scarce in South Carolina, and Sherman's troops worked much destruction on the cradle of secession. (As Sherman exited the state in early March, one soldier observed that South Carolina "has her 'rights' now.")[103] Confederate opposition intensified in North Carolina, led by Sherman's erstwhile foe, Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston. At Sherman's final major battle, Bentonville in mid March, the majority of the fighting fell to Slocum's forces. Thereafter, Johnston slipped away to the northwest, and Sherman rendezvoused near Goldsboro, North Carolina, with forces Grant had ordered east from Tennessee under John Schofield.[104] The Army of the Tennessee had marched roughly 450 miles (725 km) in 50 days from Savannah to Goldsboro, and it seemed that nothing could long prevent Sherman from concentrating with Grant in Virginia. Sherman later wrote that this was "one of the longest and most important marches ever made by an organized army in a civilized country."[105] Observing Sherman's swift progress, Joe Johnston concluded "that there had been no such army in existence since the days of Julius Caesar."[106]
End of War and Disbandment
On April 10, 1865, the day after Robert E. Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox, Virginia, Sherman resumed his advance, headed toward Raleigh, North Carolina, now with almost 90,000 troops—Howard's Army of the Tennessee on the right, Schofield's Army of the Ohio in the center, and Slocum's Army of Georgia on the left.[107] Only learning of Lee's surrender on the night of April 11–12, Sherman had as his immediate target the separate Confederate force under General Johnston, then near Raleigh, but there was little need for further fighting. Sherman entered Raleigh on April 13, and Johnston promptly opened what became prolonged surrender discussions. On April 26, at Durham Station, Johnston surrendered to Sherman all of the Confederate armies in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida.[108] The Army of the Tennessee and the Army of Georgia then marched some 250 miles (400 km) to Washington, D.C., with Sherman and on March 24 participated there in the Grand Review.[109]
To salve the injury he had inflicted in bypassing John A. Logan for Oliver Howard after McPherson's death, Sherman arranged for Logan to become the final commander of the Army of the Tennessee on May 19. Thus, while Howard rode with Sherman, Logan led the army in the Grand Review.[110] On July 13, Logan issued a farewell address to the Army of the Tennessee: "Four years have you struggled in the bloodiest and most destructive war that ever drenched the earth with human gore; step by step you have borne our standard, until to-day, over every fortress and arsenal that rebellion wrenched from us, and over city, town, and hamlet, from the Lakes to the Gulf, and from ocean to ocean, proudly floats the 'Starry emblem' of our national unity and strength."[111] The army was officially disbanded on August 1, 1865.[112]
Command history
District of Cairo[113]
Commander | From | To | Major Battles |
---|---|---|---|
Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant | December 23, 1861 | February 14, 1862 | Fort Henry, Fort Donelson |
District of West Tennessee
Commander | From | To | Major Battles |
---|---|---|---|
Major General[114] Ulysses S. Grant | February 14, 1862[115] | April 30, 1862 | Shiloh |
Major General Ulysses S. Grant[116] | April 30, 1862 | June 10, 1862 | Siege of Corinth |
Major General Ulysses S. Grant | June 10, 1862 | October 16, 1862 | Corinth (detachment only)[117] |
Department of the Tennessee
Commander | From | To | Major Battles and Campaigns |
---|---|---|---|
Major General Ulysses S. Grant | October 16, 1862 | October 24, 1863 | Vicksburg Campaign, Siege of Vicksburg |
Major General William T. Sherman | October 24, 1863 | March 26, 1864 | Chattanooga, Missionary Ridge, Meridian |
Major General James B. McPherson | March 26, 1864 | July 22, 1864[118] | Atlanta Campaign, Atlanta |
Major General John A. Logan (temp.) | July 22, 1864 | July 27, 1864 | Atlanta |
Major General Oliver O. Howard | July 27, 1864 | May 19, 1865 | Ezra Church, Jonesborough, March to the Sea, Bentonville |
Major General John A. Logan | May 19, 1865 | August 1, 1865 |
Notes
- ^ Eicher, pp. 856–57; McPherson, p. 512.
- ^ McPherson, p. 512; Woodworth, p. x.
- ^ Woodworth, p. x.
- ^ Woodworth, p. ix.
- ^ NYT: General Sherman's November 13, 1867 Address to the Society of the Army of the Tennessee; see Lloyd Lewis, Sherman: Fighting Prophet, p. 381.
- ^ See Departmental returns for April 30, 1863, Official Records (OR) I, v. 24/3, p. 249.
- ^ Eicher, pp. 264, 846; Smith, pp. 98–134.
- ^ See Special Orders, No. 78, HQ, Dept. of the Missouri, Dec. 20, 1861, OR I, v. 52/1, p. 201. It appears that Grant assumed command as of December 23, 1861. See Eicher, p. 264; Papers of Ulysses S. Grant 3:330.
- ^ Grant, Memoirs (Lib. of Am.), p. 213; Woodworth, pp. 72, 86.
- ^ Lew Wallace, An Autobiography, 1:387–89.
- ^ For detailed discussion of the Henry-Donelson campaign, see Woodworth, pp. 65–120.
- ^ Smith, p. 165.
- ^ Woodworth, pp. 119–20.
- ^ See Eicher, p. 773; Grant, Memoirs (Lib. of Am.), p. 214.
- ^ See General Orders, No. 37, HQ, Dept. of the Missouri, February 14, 1862, OR I, v. 8, p. 555; Eicher, p. 857. In this connection, it should be noted that, after the Battle of Shiloh, Grant's report bore the legend "Headquarters District of West Tennessee." See OR I, v. 10/1, p. 108.
- ^ The leadership of the Army of the Tennessee was notably more stable than that of the Union's Army of the Potomac. The latter suffered the relief of several failed commanders: McDowell (predecessor force), McClellan, Burnside, Hooker; there was no equally destabilizing event in the life of the Army of the Tennessee, although Grant could have fallen by the wayside in 1862 and some dislocation followed the death of James B. McPherson in 1864. Further, as Grant and Sherman in turn ascended to broader responsibilities, the Army of the Tennessee enjoyed virtually seamless transitions from Grant to Sherman (1863) and from Sherman to McPherson (1864). See Woodworth, pp. 216, 420, 460, 490, 569–71; Hirshson, pp. 232–3.
- ^ Grant, Memoirs (Lib. of Am.), pp. 219–20; Marszalek, Halleck, pp. 116–20; Woodworth, pp. 128–32.
- ^ Smith, pp. 179–80.
- ^ Many authors see presidential pressure behind Grant's reinstatement to field command. See, e.g., Gott, pp. 267–68; Nevin, p. 96. But there is room to question that conclusion. Halleck relieved Grant of field command of the expedition, but not his overall command, on March 4 (OR I, v. 10/2, p. 3). On March 9 and 10, Halleck advised Grant to prepare himself to take the field. On March 10, the President and Secretary of War inquired about Grant's status, and on March 13, Halleck directed Grant to take the field. See Halleck to Grant, March 9, 10, 13, 1862, OR I, v. 10/2, pp. 22, 27, 32; Thomas to Halleck, March 10, 1862, OR I, v. 7, p. 683. This sequence suggests that Halleck may have decided to restore Grant to field command before receiving Lincoln's inquiry. See Smith, p. 176: Halleck's "reinstatement of Grant preceded by one day the bombshell that landed on his desk from the adjutant general [on behalf of the President and Secretary of War] in Washington."
- ^ Smith, p. 179.
- ^ Daniel, p. 322.
- ^ See Daniel, p. 322; Grant, Memoirs (Lib. of Am.), pp. 226–27.
- ^ Smith, pp. 187–204.
- ^ Smith, p. 204.
- ^ For the varying impact of Shiloh on these officers, see Woodworth, pp. 183–84, 198–99, 201; Marszalek, Sherman, p. 182; Eicher, p. 493.
- ^ Woodworth, pp. 205–06; Ambrose, pp. 43–49.
- ^ Grant, Memoirs (Lib. of Am.), p. 248; Woodworth, p. 206.
- ^ See Special Field Orders, No. 35, HQ, Dept. of the Mississippi, April 30, 1862, OR I, v. 10/2, p. 144.
- ^ See John G. Nicolay & John Hay, Abraham Lincoln: A History (New York: Century, 1890), 5:338.
- ^ On May 11, Grant wrote Halleck privately that he considered his second-in-command position to be "anomylous," to constitute a "sensure," and his position to differ "but little from that of one in arrest." Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, 5:114; see Smith, p. 209.
- ^ Marszalek, Halleck, pp. 123–26.
- ^ Sherman, Memoirs (Lib. of Am.), p. 274.
- ^ Smith, pp. 207–12.
- ^ See, e.g., Daniel, pp. 309–10.
- ^ Woodworth, p. 420.
- ^ Smith, pp. 213–14; Special Field Orders, No. 90, HQ, Dept. of the Mississippi, June 10, 1862, OR I, v. 10/2, p. 288; Woodworth, p. 216; Eicher, p. 527.
- ^ District returns for July 31, 1862, OR I, v. 17/2, p. 143; Smith, pp. 215–16; Eicher, p. 264.
- ^ Woodworth, p. ix. For completeness, it should be noted that, in July 1862, Grant's district was expanded to include the Army of the Mississippi, then under the command of William S. Rosecrans. It was Rosecrans whose troops bore the brunt of the Battle of Iuka and the Battle of Corinth in the fall of 1862. See Special Field Orders, No. 161, HQ, Dept. of the Mississippi, July 16, 1862, OR I, v. 17/2, p. 101; Woodworth, pp. 210–40.
- ^ Eicher, p. 832.
- ^ See General Orders, No. 159, War Dept., October 16, 1862, OR I, v. 17/2, p. 278; Departmental returns for October 1862, OR I, v. 17/2, p. 311; McPherson, p. 512; Woodworth, p. x. The department initially included portions of Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi. See Eicher, p. 848.
- ^ The numbers assigned the various corps emanated from Washington and were part of a nation-wide scheme. See General Orders, No. 210, War Dept., December 18, 1862, OR I, v. 17/2, p. 432; Woodworth, p. 264; Sherman, Memoirs (Lib. of Am.), p. 326.
- ^ See Departmental returns for April 30, 1863, OR I, v. 24/3, p. 249.
- ^ Smith, pp. 220–22; Marszalek, Sherman, pp. 202–03.
- ^ Smith, pp. 221–25; Marszalek, Sherman, pp. 203–08.
- ^ Smith, pp. 222–23; Eicher, p. 372.
- ^ Smith, p. 222.
- ^ Smith, p. 227; Marszalek, Sherman, p. 205; Sherman, Memoirs (Lib. of Am.), pp. 316–25.
- ^ Smith, pp. 227–28.
- ^ Smith, pp. 228–34; Whitelaw Reid, Ohio in the War: Her Statesmen, Her Generals, and Soldiers (New York: Moore, Wilstach & Baldwin, 1868), 1:385.
- ^ McPherson, pp. 626–33; Smith, pp. 234–53.
- ^ Grant, Memoirs (Lib. of Am.), p. 367; Departmental returns for July 1863, OR I, v. 24/3, pp. 567–68. A detailed order of battle can be found in David Martin, The Vicksburg Campaign: April 1862–July 1863 (Cambridge: Da Capo Press, 1994), pp. 217–22.
- ^ Grant, Memoirs (Lib. of Am.), pp. 366–67.
- ^ Smith, p. 255n; Grant, Memoirs (Lib. of Am.), p. 367; Eicher, p. 372.
- ^ McPherson, pp. 635–36.
- ^ Marszalek, Sherman, pp. 227–30; Hirshson, pp. 158–62; Sherman, Memoirs (Lib. of Am.), pp. 354–57; Martin, pp. 205–06.
- ^ McPherson, p. 637; Woodworth, pp. 454–55; Sherman, Memoirs (Lib. of Am.), p. 370.
- ^ Smith, p. 256.
- ^ Schenker, pp. 64–65; Eicher, p. 775.
- ^ Sherman, Memoirs (Lib. of Am.), p. 370.
- ^ Indeed, Sherman's first returns as departmental commander, for October 1863, show only the XV, XVI, and XVII Corps and report a total strength of 135,000. See OR I, v. 31/1, p. 817.
- ^ Sherman, Memoirs (Lib. of Am.), p. 370; see Woodworth, p. 459.
- ^ McPherson, pp. 671–76. For command of the Army of the Cumberland, the War Department gave Grant his choice between retaining Rosecrans or elevating Thomas from corps command. Grant chose Thomas. See Grant, Memoirs (Lib. of Am.), pp. 403–04.
- ^ Woodworth, p. 460; Sherman, Memoirs (Lib. of Am.), pp. 372–73, 379–83.
- ^ See McPherson, pp. 677–81; Woodworth, pp. 462–78; Sherman, Memoirs (Lib. of Am.), pp. 389–90.
- ^ Woodworth, p. 478; Hirshson, pp. 174–76.
- ^ Sherman, Memoirs (Lib. of Am.), p. 872.
- ^ Sherman, Memoirs (Lib. of Am.), p. 414; see Marszalek, Sherman, p. 248.
- ^ Sherman, Memoirs (Lib. of Am.), pp. 417–23, 872; Marszalek, Sherman, pp. 252–55.
- ^ Marszalek, Sherman, pp. 253–54. It should be noted that a related cavalry expedition under William Sooy Smith was frustrated by Confederate cavalry under the command of Nathan Bedford Forrest. See Foster, pp. 125–49.
- ^ Foster, p. ix.
- ^ Marszalek, Sherman, p. 255.
- ^ Sifakis, p. 329.
- ^ See Woodworth, pp. 528, 579.
- ^ McPherson, p. 718; Woodworth, pp. 70, 490.
- ^ McMurry, pp. 6–9, 138–40.
- ^ Secrist, p.xi.
- ^ Sherman, Memoirs (Lib. of Am.), p. 487; McMurry, pp. 33–34, 100. Another portion of the XVI Corps was detached for other duty; this was supposedly a temporary arrangement, but these troops never served with the main Army of the Tennessee again. See Civil War Archive, XVI Corps History.
- ^ For a concise description of the various elements of Sherman's force, see McMurry, pp. 32–34; a detailed order of battle can be found in the Official Records at OR I, v. 38/1, p. 89.
- ^ See Cox, Atlanta, p. 50; Hattaway, pp. 550–51, 564, 597–98, 604–08.
- ^ Castel, p. 322; see McMurry, p. 110; Hattaway, p. 598.
- ^ Lewis, p. 381; see Hattaway, p. 605.
- ^ Woodworth, p. 505; Castel, p. 411.
- ^ Woodworth, p. 505.
- ^ Woodworth, pp. 506–52; McMurry, pp. 139–40.
- ^ McMurry, pp. 152–55.
- ^ Woodworth, p. 568.
- ^ Woodworth, p. 570.
- ^ Woodworth, p. 579.
- ^ Woodworth, p. 583.
- ^ Sherman, Memoirs (Lib. of Am.), p. 872.
- ^ Marszalek, Sherman, pp. 288–93; Sherman, Memoirs (Lib. of Am.), pp. 872.
- ^ See Sherman, Memoirs (Lib. of Am.), p. 620; Civil War Archives, XVI Corps History. Dodge had been wounded in August and was replaced by Brig. Gen. Thomas E.G. Ransom. See Woodworth, p. 578.
- ^ Marszalek, Sherman, pp. 293–97; Sherman, Memoirs (Lib. of Am.), pp. 649–50.
- ^ Sherman, Memoirs (Lib. of Am.), pp. 646, 872; Marszalek, Sherman's March to the Sea, pp. 37, 134–44 (detailed order of battle).
- ^ Sherman, Memoirs (Lib. of Am.), p. 697.
- ^ Marszalek, Sherman, pp. 297–316.
- ^ Woodworth, p. 587.
- ^ Marszalek, Sherman, pp. 306–07; Woodworth, p. 603.
- ^ Marszalek, Sherman, pp. 307–09; Sherman, Memoirs (Lib. of Am.), p. 711.
- ^ Marszalek, Sherman, p. 315.
- ^ Woodworth, pp. 607–09; Sherman, Memoirs (Lib. of Am.), p. 749.
- ^ Sherman, Memoirs (Lib. of Am.), pp. 749–50.
- ^ Marszalek, Sherman, pp. 317–27; Woodworth, p. 627.
- ^ Marszalek, Sherman, pp. 327–31; Sherman, Memoirs (Lib. of Am.), p. 872; Report of Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant re operations from March 1864 to May 1865, OR I, v. 38/1, pp. 35–36.
- ^ Sherman, Memoirs (Lib. of Am.), p. 788.
- ^ Cox, Military Reminiscences, 2:531–2; Cox, The March to the Sea, p. 168; Johnston is also quoted in McPherson, p. 828.
- ^ Sherman, Memoirs (Lib. of Am.), pp. 819–32; for an order of battle for Sherman's forces at this stage, see pp. 820–28.
- ^ Sherman, Memoirs (Lib. of Am.), pp. 831–52; Marszalek, Sherman, pp. 339–49.
- ^ Sherman, Memoirs (Lib. of Am.), pp. 856, 864–69, 872.
- ^ Eicher, p. 351; for details about Logan's appointment, see Oliver O. Howard, Autobiography (New York: Baker & Taylor, 1908), 2:210–12.
- ^ Dawson, p. 100.
- ^ Eicher, p. 856.
- ^ The dates in this command history are consistent with the information provided in Eicher and Eicher.
- ^ Grant was promoted to major general effective February 16, 1862. See Eicher, p. 703.
- ^ According to Eicher & Eicher, Grant assumed command of the District of West Tennessee on February 14, 1862, and the Army of West Tennessee on February 21, 1861. See Eicher, pp. 264, 852, 857.
- ^ During this period Grant served as "second in command under the major-general [Halleck] commanding the [Department of the Mississippi]." The major units of three armies in the department (the Ohio, the Mississippi, and the Tennessee or West Tennessee) were shuffled into a new organization that included three "wings" and a reserve. The right wing, which included four divisions from Grant's forces and one division from the Army of the Ohio, was commanded by George H. Thomas. Although Grant's forces were redistributed between the right wing and the reserve, he was expressly continued in overall command of "the Army Corps of the Tennessee" and the District of West Tennessee. See Special Field Orders, No. 35, HQ, Dept. of the Mississippi, April 30, 1862, OR I, v. 10/2, p. 144.
- ^ Grant was not present at the second battle of Corinth, but a detachment of two divisions from the Army of the Tennessee was engaged at Corinth under the overall command of Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans, Army of the Mississippi.
- ^ McPherson was killed this day. See Eicher, pp. 383–84.
References
- Ambrose, Stephen E. (1962). Halleck: Lincoln's Chief of Staff (reprint(1990) ed.). Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. ISBN 0-8071-2071-5.
- Castel, Albert (1992). Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. ISBN 0-7006-0562-2.
- Cox, Jacob D. (1882). Atlanta – Campaigns of the Civil War. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
- Cox, Jacob D.. (1882). The March to the Sea; Franklin and Nashville – Campaigns of the Civil War (reprint, 1913 ed.). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
- Cox, Jacob D. (1900). Military Reminiscences of the Civil War. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
- Daniel, Larry J. (1997). [[1] Shiloh: The Battle that Changed the Civil War]. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-684-83857-5.
{{cite book}}
: Check|url=
value (help) - Dawson, George F. (1887). Life and Services of General John A. Logan as Soldier and Statesman. Chicago: Belford, Clarke & Co.
- Eicher, John H.; Eicher, David J. (2001). Civil War High Commands. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
- Foster, Buck T. (2006). Sherman's Mississippi Campaign. Tuscaloosa: Univ. of Alabama Press. ISBN 978-0-8173-1519-1.
- Gott, Kendall D. (2003). Where the South Lost the War: An Analysis of the Fort Henry—Fort Donelson Campaign, February 1862. Stackpole books. ISBN 0-8117-0049-6.
- United States War Department (1880–1901). The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.
{{cite book}}
: Check date values in:|year=
(help) - Grant, Ulysses S. (1990). Memoirs and Selected Letters. New York: Library of America. ISBN 0-940450-58-5.
- Hattawa, Herman; Jones, Archer (1991). How the North Won the War: A Military History of the Civil War. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-06210-8.
- Hirshson, Stanley P. (1997). The White Tecumseh: A Biography of General William T. Sherman. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-471-28329-0.
- Howard, Oliver O. (1908). Autobiography of Oliver Otis Howard, Major General, United States Army. New York: Baker & Taylor.
- Lewis, Lloyd (1932). Sherman: Fighting Prophet (reprint (1994) ed.). New York: Smithmark. ISBN 0-8317-3287-3.
- Martin, David (1994). The Vicksburg Campaign: April 1862–July 1863. Cambridg: Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-81219-3.
- Marszalek, John F. (2004). Commander of All Lincoln's Armies: A Life of General Henry W. Halleck. Cambridge: Belknap Press. ISBN 0-674-01493-6.
- Marszalek, John F. (1992). Sherman: A Soldier's Passion for Order. Free Press; reissued with new Preface, Southern Illinois University Press, 2007. ISBN 0-02-920135-7.
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: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=
(help) - Marszalek, John F. (2005). Sherman's March to the Sea. Abilene: McWhiney Foundation Press. ISBN 1-893114-16-3.
- McMurry, Richard M. (2000). Atlanta 1864: Last Chance for the Confederacy. Lincoln: Univ. of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0-8032-3278-8.
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value: checksum (help) - Nevin, David, and the Editors of Time-Life Books (1983). The Road to Shiloh: Early Battles in the West. Time-Life Books. ISBN 0-8094-4716-9.
{{cite book}}
:|author=
has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - Nicolay, John G.; Hay, John (1890). Abraham Lincoln: A History. New York: Century.
- Reid, Whitelaw (1868). Ohio in the War: Her Statesmen, Her Generals, and Soldiers. New York: Moore, Wilstach & Baldwin.
- Schenker, Carl R., Jr. "Grant's Rise From Obscurity". North & South. 9: 3.
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - Secrist, Philip L. (2006). Sherman's 1864 Trail of Battle to Atlanta. Macon: Mercer Univ. Press. ISBN 0-86554-745-2.
{{cite book}}
: Check|isbn=
value: checksum (help) - Sherman, William T. (1990). Memoirs. New York: Library of America. ISBN 0-940450-65-8.
- Sifakis, Stewart (1988). Who Was Who in the Civil War. New York: Facts On File Publications. ISBN 0-8160-1055-2.
- Simon, John Y., ed. (1967–). [multivolume complete edition of letters to and from Grant. The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant]. Southern Illinois University Press.
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:|author=
has generic name (help); Check|url=
value (help); Check date values in:|year=
(help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - Smith, Jean Edward (2001). Grant. Simon and Shuster. ISBN 0-684-84927-5.
- Wallace, Lew (1906). An Autobiography. New York: Harper & Brothers.
- Woodworth, Steven E. (2005). Nothing but Victory: The Army of the Tennessee, 1861 – 1865. Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-375-41218-2.