Read Online Terrible Swift Sword by Joseph Wheelan - Free Book Online

Perryville, Kentucky. His frustrating experience reflected the leadership problems that pervaded the then named Army of the Ohio.
    Upon reaching Louisville from Mississippi on September 14, 1862, Sheridan reported to Major General William “Bull” Nelson. Nelson gave him command of 1,500 infantrymen—the Pea Ridge Brigade, veterans of their namesake Union victory in southwestern Missouri, where Sheridan had played a supporting role. It was composed of the 2nd and 15th Missouri, and the 36th and 44th Illinois. Nelson told Sheridan that Major General Don Carlos Buell, who was shadowing Braxton Bragg’s army through Kentucky, might assign more regiments to Sheridan’s brigade.
    But the command structure changed when Brigadier General Jefferson C. Davis shot Nelson dead in a hallway of the Galt House. The shooting climaxed a dispute that had swiftly metamorphosed from hot words to action, with Davis flinging a balled-up calling card in Nelson’s face and Nelson backhanding Davis. Davis had then borrowed a pistol from a bystander and shot Davis in the chest, killing him. Placed under house arrest, Davis was never prosecuted. He commanded the right wing division beside Sheridan’s at Stones River. 26
    Buell was appointed the Army of the Ohio’s commander and overhauled the command structure. One change rankled with Sheridan—Buell’s promotion of
Captain Charles Gilbert to major general with command of III Corps. Sheridan argued that he deserved at least a division if an officer whom he ranked in tenure got a corps. Buell agreed and assigned Sheridan the 6,500-man 11th Division. 27
    Officers and enlisted men were united in their dislike of Gilbert and Buell. War correspondent William F. G. Shanks of the New York Herald described Gilbert as a “martinet of the worst sort.” Gilbert rummaged through his men’s baggage for contraband, and he had arrested a colonel for allowing his men to climb some persimmon trees. At one point, Gilbert ordered everyone in III Corps to stand at attention every morning from 3 a.m. until daylight.
    Buell, openly contemptuous of the volunteer units, tried to impose army regulations on the independent-minded Westerners. Consequently, he made powerful enemies, including Andrew Johnson and Oliver Morton, the war governors, respectively, of Tennessee and Indiana. One night, two dozen officers met secretly to sign a petition to President Abraham Lincoln seeking Buell’s removal for incompetence and disloyalty. 28
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    BUELL AND BRAGG REACHED the battleground north of Perryville on October 7, both operating under huge misconceptions. Bragg believed he faced only a fragment of Buell’s army, when in fact he faced Buell’s entire 58,000-man force, while Buell was under the impression that he faced Bragg’s 45,000-man Army of the Mississippi, when Bragg had only 20,000 men with him. Bragg confidently planned to attack; Buell cautiously resolved to stay on the defensive until his entire army had assembled and then to attack on October 9.
    October 8 began with one of Sheridan’s brigades, commanded by Colonel Daniel McCook—one of Ohio’s “Fighting McCooks”—seizing Peters Hill in front of Doctor’s Creek, thereby providing fresh water for the thirsty army. The Rebels counterattacked two hours later but were flung back. Sheridan’s men drove them south across Chaplin Creek and captured the next hill.
    But Gilbert feared that Sheridan’s aggressiveness might bring on a general engagement before Buell was ready for one. He ordered Sheridan to pull back to Peters Hill. Sheridan’s men dug rifle pits there. Throughout the late morning and into the afternoon, Gilbert sent Sheridan a stream of nagging signals from the rear reminding him not to advance. 29
    While Gilbert handcuffed Sheridan’s division and the rest of III Corps, I Corps, commanded by another “fighting McCook,” Major General