Thomas Leonidas Crittenden

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Thomas Leonidas Crittenden (May 15, 1819 – October 23, 1893) was a lawyer, politician, and Union general during the American Civil War.

Crittenden was born in Russellville, Kentucky, the son of Senator John J. Crittenden, brother of Confederate general George B. Crittenden, and cousin of Union general Thomas Turpin Crittenden. He married Catherine Todd, the daughter of his father's second wife. Their son, John Jordan Crittenden III, served in the U.S. Army and died with Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876.

Crittenden was admitted to the bar and served in the U.S. Army during Mexican-American War as an aide to General Zachary Taylor and as colonel of the 3rd Kentucky Volunteer Infantry. After the war's end he served as U.S. consul in Liverpool.

When the Civil War began in 1861, Kentucky was a state that declared its neutrality and was at risk of supporting the Confederacy. Crittenden and his father remained loyal to the Union, but his brother joined the Confederate Army, a sad, but common, occurrence in this border state. Crittenden had been a major general in the Kentucky militia since 1860. He was appointed brigadier general of volunteers in September and placed in command of the 5th Division in the Army of the Ohio. He led the division at the Battle of Shiloh in 1862. After Shiloh he was appointed major general of volunteers and commanded the II Corps in the Army of the Ohio during the Perryville Campaign although his corps was only lightly engaged in the fighting.

When William S. Rosecrans assumed command of the army, Crittenden's forces were redesignated the Left Wing of the Army of the Cumberland and were heavily engaged at the Battle of Stones River. (He received a brevet promotion to brigadier general in 1867 of regulars for his service at Stones River.) The Army of the Cumberland was reorganized and Crittenden's corps was once again renamed, this time the XXI Corps. He led the corps through the Tullahoma Campaign and at the Battle of Chickamauga. Crittenden and fellow corps commander Alexander McDowell McCook were blamed for the defeat and relieved of command, but both were later exonerated and acquitted of any charges. In 1864 he assumed command of the 1st Division, IX Corps, and led it in the Eastern Theater during the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House and the Battle of Cold Harbor, before resigning on December 13, 1864.

After the war Crittenden served as the state treasurer of Kentucky and was appointed as a colonel and then brevetted to brigadier general in the regular army before retiring in 1881. He died in Annandale, Staten Island, New York, and is buried in Frankfort, Kentucky.

[edit] References

• Eicher, John H., & Eicher, David J.: Civil War High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3