This article is about the Confederate army named after the State of Tennessee. For the Union army named for the Tennessee River, see Army of the Tennessee. The Army of Tennessee was the principal Confederate army operating between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River during the American Civil War. It was formed in late 1862 and fought until the end of the war in 1865, participating in most of the significant battles in the Western Theater.
History
1862
The army was formed on November 20, 1862, renaming the Army of Mississippi.[1] Its first commander was General Braxton Bragg, who fought Union Maj. Gen. William Rosecrans's Army of the Cumberland to a draw at the Battle of Stones River on December 31, 1862. However, Bragg was forced to withdraw from Murfreesboro and fall back on Tullahoma.
1863
In the summer of 1863, Rosecrans began an offensive, generally known as the Tullahoma Campaign, a name taken from the Confederate headquarters at the time. Union forces gradually forced Bragg to fall back into northern Georgia, abandoning the important railroad hub of Chattanooga. However, reinforced by Lt. Gen. James Longstreet's First Corps from the Army of Northern Virginia, the Army of Tennessee was able to inflict a significant defeat on Rosecrans at Chickamauga in September 1863.
After Chickamauga the Army of Tennessee besieged the Union army in Chattanooga, taking up defensive positions on the surrounding hills. The Army of the Cumberland was reinforced by the troops of Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's Army of the Tennessee, along with two corps from the Army of the Potomac under Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker, and Grant replaced Rosecrans in command. Bragg then sent Longstreet's forces to Knoxville and nearly all of his cavalry away, reducing his army's strength. The combined Union army was able to inflict a significant defeat on Bragg at the Battle of Missionary Ridge on November 25, forcing Bragg to abandon the siege of Chattanooga and withdraw again into northern Georgia.
1864
Shortly thereafter, Bragg was replaced as commander of the Army of Tennessee by Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, who was much better liked by both troops and high level subordinates than the sour Bragg. In the 1864 Atlanta Campaign, Johnston faced the combined Northern armies of Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman, whose orders were to destroy the Army of Tennessee, with the capture of Atlanta as the secondary objective. Johnston, who felt the continued existence of his army was more important than protecting territory, tended to avoid battle with Sherman, executing a skillful withdrawal, which caused impatience among the Confederate leadership in Richmond, particularly Confederate President Jefferson Davis, who had never gotten on well with Johnston. Following Sherman's outflanking of Johnston at the Chattahoochee River, forcing Johnston back on Atlanta itself, Johnston was replaced by Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood.
Hood's tenure as commander proved disastrous. After several unsuccessful attempts to force Sherman's withdrawal from Atlanta, the city fell to Union troops on September 2, 1864. Instead of continuing to parry against Sherman's forces, Hood now turned west and headed back north into Tennessee, allowing Sherman to turn south unopposed for the March to the Sea. In the meantime, Hood was faced in Tennessee by the army's old enemy, the Army of the Cumberland, under Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas, as well as the Army of the Ohio under Maj. Gen. John Schofield. On November 30, 1864, Hood attacked Schofield's smaller army at the Battle of Franklin, losing almost a quarter of his troops, but continued to advance north into central Tennessee, where he attempted to besiege Nashville. On December 15, Thomas's troops launched their attack, completely routing the Confederates in the Battle of Nashville, the most decisive tactical engagement of the war. The Federals pursued the retreating Army of Tennessee, which left stragglers, cannon, and small arms its wake. When the army stopped its retreat in Tupelo just before the new year, barely half of the men remained who had set out at the beginning of the campaign.
1865
Thereafter, the Army of Tennessee ceased to be an effective fighting force, although its remnants were sent to the Carolinas to provide some opposition to Sherman's continuing advance in that area. The army surrendered to Sherman on April 26, 1865.
Corps organization
Major battles and campaigns
Movements of the Army of Tennessee, 1862 until 1865.
References
- Eicher, John H., and Eicher, David J., Civil War High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
Notes
External links
Further reading
- Connelly, Thomas Lawrence, Army of the Heartland: The Army of Tennessee, 1861-1862, Louisiana State Univ Press, 1967, ISBN 0807104043.
- Connelly, Thomas Lawrence, Autumn of Glory: The Army of Tennessee, 1862-1865, Louisiana State University Press, 1996, ISBN 0807104450.
- Daniel, Larry J., Soldiering in the Army of Tennessee: A Portrait of Life in a Confederate Army, University of North Carolina Press, 1991, ISBN 0807820040.
- Haughton, Andrew, Training, Tactics and Leadership in the Confederate Army of Tennessee, Routledge, 2000, ISBN 0714650323.
- Horn, Stanley Fitzgerald, The Army of Tennessee, University of Oklahoma Press, 1993, ISBN 0806125659.
- Liddell, St. John Richardson, Liddell's Record, American Society for Training & Development, 1997, ISBN 0890293147.
- McMurry, Richard M., Two Great Rebel Armies: An Essay in Confederate Military History, Univ of North Carolina Press, 1989, ISBN 0807818194.
- Woodworth, Steven E., Jefferson Davis and His Generals: The Failure of Confederate Command in the West, University Press of Kansas, 1990, ISBN 0700605673.
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