A New Blog

I'm back after another long, long absence. I've decided to close this and my other blogs down and consolidate everything that is still relevant to a new blog: "Life, the Universe, and Everything." If you're here, you need to be there.

War Scrawls Its Autograph

"Within this sweep of grandeur lies a thing whose name shall endure when yours and mine have been effaced by Time, like a writing upon a slate by a wet finger - Chattanooga.

"Once a town with one main business street to give it a little commercial pulsation; residences, some of them beautiful, a few of them stately, sprinkled all around upon the acclivities, interspersed with more structures built up in the true Southern architecture, holes in the middle, or balconies, or the chimneys turned out of doors. A stinted, rusty-looking market house subdued beneath a chuckle-headed belfry, four or five churches of different fashion, two or three hotels whose entertainment has departed with the Boniface, and straggling tenements 'of low degree' are pretty nearly all that remain.

"As you pass along the central street, the dingy signs of old dead business catch the eye. Where 'A. Bake,' attorney at law, once uttered oracles and tobacco juice, Federal stores have taken Blackstone's place; where ribbons ran smoothly over the salesman's fingers, boxes of hardtack are piled, like Ossa and Pelion come again.

"Fences have gone lightly up in camp fires, tents are pitched like mushrooms in the flower-beds, trees have turned to ashes, shrubbery is trampled under foot, gardens are nothing better than mule pens, shot or shell have left a token here and there, and, across the whole, War has scrawled his autograph.

"But never think you have seen the town at one glance; it is down here and up there and over yonder; the little hills swell beneath it like billows; you will gain the idea if I say it is a town gone to pieces in a heavy sea.

"But a new architecture has sprung up; slopes, valleys, hills, as far as you can see are covered with Federal camps. Smoky cones, grander wall-tents, narrow streets of little stone and board kennels, chinked with mud like beavers' houses, snugly tucked into the hillsides, and equipped with bits of fireplaces that sometimes aspire to the dignity of marble, are everywhere. It is nothing but camps and then more camps.

"I wrote about 'dead business,' but I was too fast. It is all business, but conducted by the new firm of 'U.S.' The anvils ring, the stores are filled, wagons in endless lines and hurrying crowds throng all the streets, but the workman and the clerk is each a boy in blue.

"Chattanooga is as populous as an ant-hill. And there is more of the new architecture; breastworks, rifle-pits, forts, defenses of every name, crown the slopes. Here, at your left elbow, is Fort Wood that can talk to Mission Ridge; and there are Negley and Palmer and so on around the horizon. And then, as if they had been poured out of the town like water, spreading away to left and right and south, as you stand facing Lookout, are Federal camps, drifting on almost to the base of the mountain and lying bravely beneath its grim shadow.

"The more you look the more you wonder how it can all be. It overturns your notions of hostile armies, this neighborly nearness. You see two thin picket-lines running parallel and a few rods apart - not so far as you can jerk a peachstone.

"They pass lovingly together from your left, down Mission Ridge, curve to the right along the lowlands and pass the foot of the great mountain. They are the line of blue and
the line of gray."

-- Benjamin F. Taylor, In Camp and Field, quoted in Chattanooga's Story by John Wilson

Confederate Heritage Month

April is Confederate Heritage Month, and Bruce Miller at Old Hickory's Weblog celebrates every year (this is his second year) by debunking the arguments of the neo-Confederates, posting a "counter-commemorative" post every day during the month. Bruce knows what he's talking about and presents very interesting reading for the Civil War enthusiast.
Here's where he explains what's up. Here's an index of posts for the month. Here's his post for today, "Slavery As It Wasn't."

Ohio Monument

Ohio Monument
Originally uploaded by fdtate.

A large Ohio monument at Bragg Reservation, Missionary Ridge, Chattanooga, Tn., done up with sepia and other effects to make it look as old as possible.

Would You Live Here?

Would You Live Here?
Originally uploaded by fdtate.

Prime real estate almost always trumps Civil War battlefield preservation.
This is a house on Missionary Ridge in Chattanooga, Tn. built around the placement of a Confederate battery.

a Kansas Jayhawk

a Kansas Jayhawk
Originally uploaded by fdtate.

The bronze statue atop the 8th Kansas Volunteer Infantry Regiment monument, Missionary Ridge, Chattanooga, Tn.

Thank you for your patience

If you're interested enough in the Civil War to keep coming by here, I'm sorry that posting has been light as of late. I've been wanting to follow up on my post, "Stones River and the Tullahoma Campaign," which began what I hope will be a series of posts on the campaign for Chattanooga. I've had a rough draft of an outline of the next military moves, which culminated in the Battle of Chickamauga, saved here for a couple of weeks. (Which is why I included the organizational charts of the two armies that faced off there.) I wanted to stop first and throw in a brief history of the Chattanooga area up to that point to show why the city was so important to both armies, but I've had difficulty getting the book I needed to help me pin down some key dates from my friendly neighborhood library. I have the book, Chattanooga's Story by John Wilson, now and will begin posting again shortly.

Local history is my main interest in the Civil War. I've lived in the Chattanooga area, surrounded by the nation's oldest and largest military park, for most of my 44 years. From a very young age, I've wondered what happened here and have tried to find out. It's hard to believe that this place where I live used to be a battlefield where thousands were killed or wounded while fighting for what they believed in. I stand on the crest of Missionary Ridge (which is just a few blocks from my home) and look at the beautiful homes around me (some with a cannon or two or a plaque in the front yard marking out a unit's location 142 years ago) and wonder about the men who defended this hill. I look out at the valley below and wonder what possessed those men to charge up the steep slope. I stand there and try to imagine what it was like in that exact same place during that battle. On the other side of the valley is Lookout Mountain, where another battle took place. Between Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain, in the valley, is Orchard Knob, scene of a minor little skirmish that kicked off the Battles for Chattanooga, and the National Cemetary, the burial place of thousands that died in that war and later ones, including some of Andrews Raiders, who were captured and executed after the Great Locomotive Chase. A few miles to the south, across the Georgia state line, is the Chickamauga Battlefield. The history is all around me.

If you're not interested in Chattanooga Civil War history - and you're probably not if you haven't been here - don't worry. That's not all I'm going to talk about here. We'll veer off onto some other topics. Biographies, weapons, tactics, politics, etc., etc., etc. Stay tuned.

What If

The What Ifs? books plunge the reader into the world of alternative history; acclaimed historians examine crucial moments in history and discuss what might have happened if events had not played out as they did. The series contains two volumes devoted to world history and one of American history. This is not the alternative history fiction with spaceships and time travelers like the novels of Harry Turtledove that explore what might have happened if Robert E. Lee had AK-47s at the Battle of the Wilderness. These are essays of the "for want of a nail a shoe was lost, for want of a shoe a horse was lost" variety.

There are some interesting points to ponder in What Ifs? of American History: Eminent Historians Imagine What Might Have Been (edited by Robert Cowley, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2003.) Novelist Caleb Carr discusses how the American Revolution might have ended before it began if the colonialists' main champion in the British Parliament, William Pitt, had not taken ill. David McCullough examines the Battle of Long Island and the whims of weather that allowed George Washington's army to escape annihilation. Tom Wicker discusses the many peculiarities of the presidency of "His Accidency" John Tyler. Other essays tackle the "What Ifs?" of the JFK assassination, Watergate, Pearl Harbor, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and other events.

Four of the seventeen essays take on events of the Civil War. One focuses on popular culture, the other three deal with the fate of the nation.

Victor Davis Hanson writes of "Lew Wallace and the Ghosts of the Shunpike." At the Battle of Shiloh, Wallace was in command of a reserve division a few miles away. When Grant ordered him to bring his force forward to support the battered Union army, Wallace chose the wrong road. He took the short route over a road that was swampy and even underwater in places. The other road, the Shunpike, would have carried him out right where he was needed most - on Sherman's right flank. Wallace finally gave up on the impassable road and had to turn his division around and countermarch back to the Shunpike - a fourteen-mile march to a battle that was five miles away. After the battle was over the fingerpointing began and Wallace was the scapegoat. "What If?" Wallace had chosed the right road? He might have continued on with what was then a meteoric military career and never have written Ben-Hur. That doesn't sound so history-changing until you consider that "Ben-Hur marked a radical change in American letters, as millions of Americans for the first time felt that reading fiction was neither sacrilegious nor the sole esoteric pursuit of intellectuals, but was rightly intended for the secular enjoyment and edification of common people. Lew Wallace, as it turned out, introduced more Americans to reading than any other author of the nineteenth century...But more importantly, Wallace's novel began the strange nexus in American life, for good or ill, between literature, motion pictures, advertising, and popular culture. The novel led to the stage and then to the movies, but in the process it spun out entire ancillary industries of songs, skits, ads, clothes, and fan clubs, ensuring that within fifty years of its publication, nearly every American had heard the word 'Ben-Hur' without necessarily ever reading the book."

Thomas Fleming's "The Northwest Conspiracy" examines the Copperhead movement that flared up in some of the states that were carved out of the Northwest Territory - Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky. Fleming envisions a civil war within the Civil War, another confederacy of seceded states, and an irreparable Union. It's interesting reading, but I'm not sure if I buy it. His thesis is that the people of these states could have risen up against the oppressive measures undertaken by the Federal government to keep these states in line. The Federal government did a mighty fine job of keeping the people in line in these states and elsewhere (Maryland). And Lincoln was fixated on keeping Kentucky in the Union. He once stated that losing Kentucky would be about the same as losing the entire game. He would have used any means necessary to keep Kentucky in the Union and the other states would have fallen in line.

James McPherson's essay explores the unusual chain of circumstances surrounding Robert E. Lee's lost order. During Lee's Maryland Invasion, a copy of Special Orders No. 191, a detailed order showing the disposition and movements of Lee's forces, was found by Union soldiers in a field where it had been dropped by a careless Confederate commander. Until then McClellan had been floundering around trying to ascertain Lee's motives, but this extraordinary stroke of luck (which included a Union officer on the scene who was familiar with and confirmed the handwritting of Lee's adjutant, Robert H. Chilton) allowed McClellan to get the jump on Lee and turn back the invasion at the Battle of Antietam. If not for the lost order, McCullough envisions the invasion continuing on into Pennsylvania, the Confederates taking the high ground at Gettysburg and fighting the battle in October, 1862 (nine months before it actually happened.) He spins this "What If?" out even further: McClellan is killed while trying to rally his men, the Union Army of the Potomac is destroyed, and Lee's Army of Northern Virginia marches unopposed on Washington. European recognition and Southern independence are the result. I agree with McPherson's point that this scenario is "much more in line with the laws of probability" than what actually happened. "The odds against the sequence of events that led to the loss and finding and verification of these orders must have been a million to one."

Jay Winik ponders the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the end of the war? "How did America avoid the cruel chain of history that consigns far too many civil wars to more turmoil and more bloodshed? How did America not become like the Balkans, or Northern Ireland, or the Middle East?" Winik gives a lot of credit where it is due - to Robert E. Lee, who ignored the advice of many (including President Jefferson Davis) and refused to scatter his defeated army into the hills to fight a guerrilla war. But what might have happened if John Wilkes Booth's plan had succeeded completely and Vice President Andrew Johnson had also been assassinated? There was no clear line of presidential succession at the time. Control of the government would have probably been put on the shoulders of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. Winik paints a "What If?" picture of military rule, riots, chaos, anarchy, a generation of bloodshed. He envisions that Northern anger would have risen out of control and Lee would have had no choice but to approve guerrilla operations. He has Lee dying in prison and Southerners continuing the war for years with the battle-cry "Remember Bobby Lee." As with the McCullough essay, what really happened was even stranger: "In the end, defying the odds of history, all the pieces would tumble into place: after running the government for nearly a day, the secretary of war and the cabinet, would show remarkable discipline and foresight and turn the government over to Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, a man widely written off as a drunk and a buffoon, and a man whom nobody had ever thought of as being presidential material. Robert E. Lee, now safely back in Richmond, would again, quite publicly, spurn any temptation for guerrilla war; rejecting it for all the Confederacy to see, including Davis, he instead called on all Southerners to become good Americans (in short order, the remaining Confederate generals in the field, as well as guerrillas, would follow Lee's example, and not that of the bitter-ender, Jefferson Davis). Lincoln's call for magnanimity and the spirit of Appomattox would prevail over the calls for harshness and revenge; in short order, America would become one.
"But it had been so close."

Organization of the Army of Tennessee at Chickamauga

The organizational chart for the Confederate Army of Tennessee at Chickamauga is more complicated than the chart in the preceding post for the Union Army of the Cumberland. As the Battle of Chickamauga progressed, Braxton Bragg received reinforcements from Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia - General James Longstreet's corps. Longstreet and his men arrived as the battle was going on; some did not arrive until the battle was over. After Longstreet arrived on the battlefield, late on the evening of September 19, 1863, Bragg reorganized his army into two wings, commanded by Longstreet and Corps Commander Leonidas Polk. This caused much reshuffling amongst the various units. Unlike Union units which are numbered, Confederate units are named after commanders. Again, like the Army of the Cumberland organizational chart, this chart shows unit commanders and their successors as caused by the shuffling of the units or casualties. (k)=killed, (w)=wounded, (c)=captured


THE ARMY OF TENNESSEE -- General Braxton Bragg



RIGHT WING -- Lieutenant General Leonidas Polk


Cheatham's Division (Polk's Corps) -- Major General B. F. Cheatham

Jackson's Brigade -- Brigadier General John K. Jackson
Maney's Brigade -- Brigadier General George Maney
Smith's Brigade -- Brigadier General Preston Smith (k), Colonel A. J. Vaughn, Jr.
Wright's Brigade -- Brigadier General Marcus J. Wright
Strahl's Brigade -- Brigadier General O. F. Strahl


HILL'S CORPS -- Lieutenant General Daniel H. Hill

Cleburne's Division -- Major General P. R. Cleburne

Wood's Brigade -- Brigadier General S. A. M. Wood
Polk's Brigade -- Brigadier General Lucius E. Polk
Deshler's Brigade -- Brigadier General James Deshler (k), Colonel R. Q. Mills

Breckinridge's Division -- Major General J. C. Breckinridge

Helm's Brigade -- Brigadier General Benjamin H. Helm (k), Colonel J. H. Lewis
Adam's Brigade -- Brigadier General Daniel W. Adams (w & c), Colonel R. L. Gibson
Stovall's Brigade -- Brigadier General M. A. Stovall


RESERVE CORPS -- Major General W. H. T. Walker

Walker's Division -- Brigadier General States Rights Gist

Gist's Brigade -- Brigadier General S. R. Gist, Colonel P. H. Colquitt (k), Lieutenant Colonel L. Napier
Ector's Brigade -- Brigadier General M. D. Ector
Wilson's Brigade -- Colonel C. C. Wilson

Liddell's Division -- Brigadier General St. John Liddell

Liddell's Brigade -- Colonel Daniel C. Govan
Walthall's Brigade -- Brigadier General E. C. Walthall



LEFT WING -- Lieutenant General James Longstreet


Hindman's Division (Polk's Corps) -- Major General T. C. Hindman (w), Brigadier General J. Patton Anderson

Anderson's Brigade -- Brigadier General J. P. Anderson, Colonel J. H. Sharp
Deas's Brigade -- Brigadier General Z. C. Deas
Manigault's Brigade -- Brigadier General A. M. Manigault


BUCKNER'S CORPS -- Major General Simon B. Buckner


Stewart's Division -- Major General Alexander P. Stewart

Johnson's Brigade* -- Brigadier General Bushrod R. Johnson, Colonel J. S. Fulton
Brown's Brigade -- Brigadier General John C. Brown (w), Colonel Edmund C. Cook
Bate's Brigade -- Brigadier General William B. Bate
Clayton's Brigade -- Brigadier General H. D. Clayton (w)

* brigade attached to Johnson's Provisional Division


Preston's Division -- Brigadier General William Preston

Gracie's Brigade -- Brigadier General Archibald Gracie, Jr.
Trigg's Brigade -- Colonel Robert C. Trigg
Kelly's Brigade -- Colonel J. H. Kelly


Johnson's Division* -- Brigadier General Bushrod R. Johnson

*a provisional division embracing Johnson's Brigade and, part of the time, Robertson's and Anderson's Brigades, as well as Gregg's and McNair's. Attached to Longstreet's Corps under Hood on September 19.

Gregg's Brigade -- Brigadier General John Gregg (w), Colonel C. A. Sugg
McNair's Brigade -- Brigadier General E. McNair (w), Colonel D. Coleman


LONGSTREET'S CORPS* -- Major General John B. Hood (w)

* Corps's organization taken from return of Lee's army for 8/31/63. Pickett's Division was left in Virginia

McLaw's Division -- Brigadier General Joseph B. Kershaw, Major General Lafayette McLaws

Kershaw's Brigade -- Brigadier General Joseph B. Kershaw
Wofford's Brigade** -- Brigadier General W. T. Wofford
Humphreys's Brigade -- Brigadier General Benjamin G. Humphreys
Bryan's Brigade** -- Brigadier General Goode Bryan

** Longstreet's report indicates that these brigades did not arrive in time for the battle.

Hood's Division -- Major General John B. Hood (w), Brigadier General E. McIver Law

Jenkin's Brigade* -- Brigadier General Micah Jenkins
Law's Brigade -- Brigadier General E. McIver Law, Colonel James L. Sheffield
Robertson's Brigade** -- Brigadier General J. B. Robertson, Colonel Van H. Manning
Anderson's Brigade** -- Brigadier General George T. Anderson
Benning's Brigade -- Brigadier General Henry L. Benning

*did not arrive in time to take part in battle
** served part of the time in Johnson's Provisional Division



CAVALRY -- Major General Joseph Wheeler


Wharton's Division -- Brigadier General John A. Wharton

First Brigade -- Colonel C. C. Crews
Second Brigade -- Colonel Thomas Harrison

Martin's Division -- Brigadier General William T. Martin

First Brigade -- Colonel J. T. Morgan
Second Brigade -- Colonel A. A. Russell
Roddey's Brigade -- Brigadier General T. D. Roddey



FORREST'S CORPS -- Brigadier General Nathan B. Forrest


Armstrong's Division -- Brigadier General Frank C. Armstrong

Armstrong's Brigade -- Colonel J. T. Wheeler
Forrest's Brigade -- Colonel G. G. Dibrell

Pegram's Division -- Brigadier General John Pegram

Davidson's Brigade -- Brigadier General H. B. Davidson
Scott's Brigade -- Colonel J. S. Scott



same source as previous post, Downey's Storming of the Gateway

Organization of the Army of the Cumberland at Chickamauga

THE ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND -- Major General William Starke Rosecrans


FOURTEENTH ARMY CORPS -- Major General George H. Thomas

First Division -- Brigadier General Absalom Baird

First Brigade -- Colonel Benjamin F. Scribner
Second Brigade -- Brigadier General John C. Starkweather
Third Brigade -- Brigadier General John H. King

Second Division -- Major General James S. Negley

First Brigade -- Brigadier General John Beatty
Second Brigade -- Colonel Timothy R. Stanley (w), Colonel William L. Stoughton
Third Brigade -- Colonel William Sirwell

Third Division -- Brigadier General John M. Brannan

First Brigade -- Colonel John M. Connell
Second Brigade -- Colonel John T. Croxton (w), Colonel William H. Hays
Third Brigade -- Colonel Ferdinand Van Derveer

Fourth Division -- Major General Joseph J. Reynolds

First Brigade* -- Colonel John T. Wilder
Second Brigade -- Colonel Edward A. King (k), Colonel Milton S. Robinson
Third Brigade -- Brigadier General John B. Turchin

* brigade detached and serving as mounted infantry



TWENTIETH ARMY CORPS -- Major General Alexander McD. McCook

First Division -- Brigadier General Jefferson C. Davis

Second Brigade -- Brigadier General William P. Carlin
Third Brigade -- Colonel Hans C. Heg (k), Colonel John A. Martin

Second Division -- Brigadier General Richard W. Johnson

First Brigade -- Brigadier General August Willich
Second Brigade -- Colonel Joseph B. Dodge
Third Brigade -- Colonel Philemon P. Baldwin (k), Colonel William W. Berry

Third Division -- Major General Philip H. Sheridan

First Brigade -- Brigadier General William H. Lytle (k), Colonel Silas Miller
Second Brigade -- Colonel Bernard Laiboldt
Third Brigade -- Colonel Luther P. Baldwin (w), Colonel Nathan H. Walworth



TWENTY-FIRST ARMY CORPS -- Major General Thomas L. Crittenden

First Division -- Brigadier General Thomas J. Wood

First Brigade -- Colonel George P. Buell
Third Brigade -- Colonel Charles G. Harker

Second Division -- Major General John M. Palmer

First Brigade -- Brigadier General Charles Cruft
Second Brigade -- Brigadier General William B. Hazen
Third Brigade -- Colonel William Grose

Third Division -- Brigadier General H. P. VanCleve

First Brigade -- Brigadier General Samuel Beatty
Second Brigade -- Colonel George F. Dick
Third Brigade -- Colonel Sidney M. Barnes



RESERVE CORPS -- Major General Gordon Granger

First Division -- Brigadier General James B. Steedman

First Brigade -- Brigadier General Walter C. Whitaker
Second Brigade -- Colonel John G. Mitchell

Second Division --

Second Brigade -- Colonel Daniel McCook



CAVALRY CORPS -- Brigadier General Robert B. Mitchell

First Division -- Colonel Edward M. McCook

First Brigade -- Colonel Archibald P. Campbell
Second Brigade -- Colonel Daniel M. Ray
Third Brigade -- Colonel Louis D. Watkins

Second Division -- Brigadier General George Crook

First Brigade -- Colonel Robert H. G. Minty
Second Brigade -- Colonel Eli Long



The Army of the Cumberland had an estimated 56,965 men at the Battle of Chickamauga. Thomas's 14th Corps had an estimated 20,000; McCook's 20th Corps, 11,000. Crittenden reported 12,052 men in his 21st Corps; Granger, 3913 in his Reserve Corps. The organizational chart shows officers killed (k) or wounded (w) in the battle. Union losses in the battle numbered 16,179 men. 1656 killed, 9749 wounded, 4774 missing.

source: Downey, Fairfax, Storming of the Gateway: Chattanooga 1863, David McKay Co., Inc., 1960