Army of Tennessee
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The Army of Tennessee was the principal Confederate army operating between the Appalachians and the Mississippi (the Western Theater) during the American Civil War. It is named after the State of Tennessee, unlike the Army of the Tennessee, which was a Union army, named for the Tennessee River.
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[edit] History
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.
In the summer of 1863, Rosecrans began an offensive, generally known as the Tullahoma Campaign, after the Confederate headquarters. 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 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, advancing to besiege Chattanooga. The Army of the Cumberland was, however, 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, which combined with the Army of the Cumberland 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.
Shortly thereafter, Bragg was dismissed and replaced as commander of the army 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 task was to advance on Atlanta. 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 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.
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.
[edit] Major battles and campaigns
- Confederate Heartland Offensive (Bragg)
- Battle of Stones River (Bragg)
- Chickamauga Campaign (Bragg)
- Battle of Chattanooga (Bragg)
- Atlanta Campaign (Johnston, relieved/Hood)
- Franklin-Nashville Campaign (Hood)
- Carolinas Campaign (Johnston)
[edit] References
- Eicher, John H., and Eicher, David J., Civil War High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Eicher, p. 891.
