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

in command, the Army of the Ohio might have destroyed Bragg’s army. In his Personal Memoirs , Sheridan wrote, “The battle of Perryville remains in history an example of lost opportunities.” 35
    In the first report of the battle sent to Northern newspapers, Sheridan was listed among the dead. Concerned that his family in Ohio might see the false report, he eagerly read the newspapers that reached the army a few days later—and was relieved to find “that the error had been corrected before my obituary could be written.” 36
    In the battle’s aftermath, Buell and Gilbert were sacked. Neither held field command again during the war.
    Buell’s successor, General William Rosecrans of the Army of the Mississippi, pursued Bragg into Tennessee. He rechristened his force the Army of the Cumberland, reflecting its new theater of operations. 37

    AFTER STONES RIVER, DURING the 169 days between January 9 and June 23, 1863, the Army of the Cumberland did little active campaigning. It remained in its camps near Murfreesboro. Bragg’s army occupied positions thirty miles to the south along the Duck River, straddling the roads and railroads connecting Nashville and Chattanooga. Bragg’s chief operating base was Tullahoma, fifty-five miles northwest of Chattanooga and a primary Rebel supply depot.
    Confederate officers clamored for Bragg’s removal. At Perryville, he had attacked when he should not have, and at Stones River, he had retreated when he should have stood fast. Despite the dissident officers’ best efforts to get Bragg fired, he remained in command. 38
    Because Stones River was heralded as a great Union victory, Rosecrans and his command escaped criticism for having allowed Bragg to catch the army napping—Sheridan’s 3rd Division excepted—and narrowly avoiding a crushing defeat.

    After fighting two major battles in three months, the Army of the Cumberland had time to recuperate. During the long hiatus, Rosecrans made some organizational changes; for one thing, he renamed the center and the right and left wings. Alexander McCook’s right wing became XX Corps; George Thomas’s center was now XIV Corps; and Thomas Crittenden’s left wing was renamed XXI Corps. 39
    The divisions also underwent changes, some superficial, some substantial. Sheridan’s 3rd Division remained under McCook’s XX Corps, but with new brigade commanders to replace the men killed at Stones River: Brigadier General William Lytle and Colonels Bernard Laiboldt and Luther P. Bradley.
    Â 
    WHEN HE BECAME A division commander weeks before Perryville, Sheridan had to learn quickly how to manage his 6,500 men. After Stones River, Sheridan was able to school himself properly in divisional command, and he applied himself with his habitual intensity. “I had to study hard to be able to master all the needs of such a force, to feed and clothe it and guard all its interests,” Sheridan wrote. “When undertaking these responsibilities I felt that if I met them faithfully, recompense would surely come through the hearty response that soldiers always make to conscientious exertion on the part of their superiors.”
    Toward that end, Sheridan dedicated himself to their comfort, inasmuch as it was possible for an army in the field to be comfortable. He selected good campsites and made sure that his men had enough food, forage for the livestock, good clothing, and proper equipment to do their jobs. His background as a quartermaster and commissary general—and even his Texas experiences as a hunter—proved valuable. His men approved of his efforts. 40
    In return, Sheridan expected obedience and discipline. Mistakes he might tolerate but never cowardice—especially in his officers. In such cases, he did not hesitate to make a “mortifying spectacle” of their disgrace.
    After Stones River, four 3rd Division officers who had abandoned their colors and regiments