OPPOSING COMMANDERS

The United States Army was one of the few 19th-century institutions bringing United States citizens throughout the country to work together. This was a result of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, established in 1802. Admission was through Congressional appointment, with Cadets nominated by the Representatives and Senators of each state. As one of the few places in the United States offering free education (in engineering, too), it drew highly talented young men from every state in the nation.

West Point provided the bulk of the Civil War’s senior military leadership. Even states drew officers from West Point graduates or trained officers and men using manuals written by West Point graduates, most notably William Hardee’s Rifle and Light Infantry Tactics.

Personally brave and aggressive to the point of rashness, John Bell Hood commanded the Army of Tennessee from July 1864 through January 1865. Invading Tennessee fit Hood’s personality better than fighting defensively. (Author’s collection)

This made the American Civil War a family affair. The leaders of both sides shared the West Point experience. This was true in the Franklin–Nashville Campaign. John Bell Hood, the Confederate Army commander, was a classmate of John Schofield, a Union army corps commander. George Thomas was a West Point instructor when Schofield, Bell, and David Stanley (another Union corps commander) attended. Schofield was an instructor when two other corps commanders, the Union’s James Wilson and the Confederacy’s Stephen Lee, attended.

Benjamin Cheatham and Bedford Forrest were the campaign’s only corps commanders who were not West Point graduates. Cheatham fought besides many West Pointers during the Mexican–American War. Only Bedford Forrest was an outsider. The rest trained together and fought together. Leaders knew their colleagues’ and opponents’ strengths and weaknesses.

CONFEDERATE

General John Bell Hood was born at Owingsville, Kentucky, on June 1, 1831. He attended West Point, graduating in 1853, 44th in a class of 52. He served in New York and California until in 1855 he was promoted to 2nd lieutenant and transferred to the elite 2nd Cavalry in Texas. Over the next six years, he remained with the 2nd Cavalry gaining a reputation as a fighting soldier in action against Comanches in West Texas.

Stephen D. Lee had wider experience than virtually any other Confederate officer. He saw action in most of the major Eastern battles from Fort Sumter through Antietam, participated in the Vicksburg Campaign, served in the Atlanta and Franklin–Nashville campaigns, and closed out the war in North Carolina. (Author’s collection)

Promoted to 1st lieutenant in 1858, he resigned from the army in April 1861. Impatient with Kentucky’s neutrality, Hood declared himself a Texan, and accepted a commission in the Confederate Army. By March 1862, he was a brigadier-general, and in command of Hood’s Texas Brigade in the Army of Northern Virginia. His personal courage at Gaines’s Mill and his brigade’s performance at that battle led to command of a division, which he led at Second Manassas (Bull Run) and Sharpsburg (Antietam). His performance gained him promotion to major-general in November 1862.

Hood’s division was transferred to Longstreet’s Corps. It fought at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and Chickamauga under Hood’s command. Hood was badly injured in the left arm at Gettysburg, rendering it useless. He had just recovered from that wound when, leading the attack at Chickamauga, he was wounded in the right leg, which was amputated. Thereafter, he had to fight strapped to his saddle. Following convalescence, he was promoted to lieutenant-general in February 1864, and joined the Army of Tennessee as a corps commander, which he commanded during the Atlanta Campaign.

On July 18, 1864, Jefferson Davis replaced Johnston in command of the Army of Tennessee with the army’s most aggressive corps commander, John Bell Hood. Promoted to full general, Hood met Davis’s expectations by aggressively launching two counterattacks against Sherman. Both the battles of Peachtree (July 20–22) and Ezra Church (July 28) resulted in significant Confederate defeats.

As a result, Hood was forced back to Atlanta and besieged. He abandoned Atlanta on September 1, to prevent being encircled. After the loss of Atlanta, Hood began attacking Sherman’s lines of communications, in an effort to force Sherman to evacuate Atlanta. Sherman responded by splitting his forces, leaving Thomas to cover Tennessee, and taking the rest on a march across Georgia. Hood countered Sherman by invading Tennessee in an attempt to force Sherman’s return. Instead, Hood destroyed the Army of Tennessee with defeats at Franklin and Nashville.

At his own request, Hood was relieved of command in January 1865. After the Confederacy’s collapse, Hood surrendered to Union authorities at Natchez, Mississippi. Hood moved to New Orleans, set up a business, and died of yellow fever on August 30, 1879.

Lieutenant-General Stephen D. Lee was born on September 22, 1833 in Charleston, South Carolina (he was not related to the famous Virginia Lees). Lee attended West Point, graduating in 1854, 17th in a class of 46. He received an artillery commission, but his first assignment was with the 4th Infantry. He served as the regiment’s quartermaster from 1858 through 1861.

Benjamin Cheatham was not a professional soldier, but developed into a competent corps commander during the Civil War. Hood blamed Cheatham for allowing the Union Army to escape at Spring Hill, yet the fault there lay as much with Hood’s inattention as Cheatham’s reluctance to attack during darkness. (Author’s collection)

He resigned from the US Army in February 1861, accepting a Confederate commission. Securing a field post in November 1861, he fought at the battles of Seven Days, Second Manassas, and Sharpsburg. In 1862, he was promoted to brigadier-general. Sent to Vicksburg, he was at Chickasaw Bluff and Champion Hill, and was captured at Vicksburg’s surrender. Following exchange, Lee, promoted to major-general, commanded the cavalry in Mississippi and Alabama in 1864.

Promoted to lieutenant-general, Lee took Hood’s corps when Hood assumed command of the Army of Tennessee. As corps commander, Lee fought at Ezra Courthouse, Atlanta, Franklin, and Nashville. His corps was the only corps still organized after Nashville. Despite injuries, Lee remained in command until organizing the withdrawal. He finished the war in North Carolina, surrendering in April 1865.

After the war, Lee settled in Columbus, Mississippi, becoming a planter, politician, and college president. He died in Vicksburg, Mississippi on May 28, 1908.

Lieutenant-General Alexander P. Stewart was born October 2, 1821 in Rogersville, Tennessee. Stewart graduated from West Point in 1842, 12th in a class of 56. He served at Fort Macon, North Carolina, before returning to West Point as mathematics instructor in 1843. He resigned in 1845, becoming a mathematics professor in Tennessee. From 1855 until the start of the Civil War, he was Nashville city surveyor.

Accepting a Confederate commission in May 1861, by November he was a brigadier, after commanding a battery at the battle of Belmont. His brigade was in Cheatham’s Division at Shiloh, Perryville, and Murfreesboro. In June 1863, promoted to major-general and command of a division in Hardee’s Corps, he fought in the Tullahoma Campaign, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, and as part of Hood’s Corps in the Atlanta Campaign.

Following Leonidas Polk’s death, during the Atlanta Campaign, Stewart was promoted to lieutenant-general and given Polk’s corps. Stewart commanded the corps in the Atlanta and Nashville campaigns, and in North Carolina in 1865.

At war’s end, Stewart returned to education as mathematics professor at (1868–74) and chancellor of (1874–86) the University of Mississippi. He died in Biloxi, Mississippi on August 30, 1908.

Major-General Benjamin F. Cheatham was born in Nashville, Tennessee on October 20, 1820. Cheatham came from a planter family. When the Mexican–American War started, Cheatham volunteered in the Tennessee Militia, rising from captain of the 1st Tennessee Regiment to colonel of the 3rd Tennessee Regiment. He saw combat at Monterrey, Cerro Gordo, and Mexico City. He joined the California Gold Rush in 1849, but soon returned to Tennessee, becoming a planter.

Nathan Bedford Forrest had no military experience prior to the Civil War but became the Confederacy’s best cavalry commander. Despite this, he was never fully accepted by his fellow Confederate generals He fell outside the club of officers who went to West Point or served together in the Mexican–American War. (Author’s collection)

In May 1861, he was appointed brigadier-general in the Tennessee volunteers, transferring in July to the Confederate Army. Commanding a division in the Army of Mississippi (later renamed the Army of Tennessee), he saw combat at Shiloh, Perryville, Stones River, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, and in the Atlanta Campaign. He was wounded at Shiloh and Stones River.

Cheatham inherited Hardee’s Corps after William Hardee transferred out following the battle of Jonesboro. Cheatham commanded the corps during the Franklin–Nashville Campaign, seeing action at Spring Hill, Franklin, and Nashville.

After that campaign, he moved his corps to North Carolina, where he surrendered in April 1865. He resumed farming after the war, and served as Tennessee’s superintendent of prisons and postmaster of Nashville. He died in Nashville on September 4, 1886.

Major-General Nathan Bedford Forrest was born July 13, 1821, near Chapel Hill, Tennessee. Forrest received no formal education. Despite poverty, Forrest worked up from farmhand to well-to-do planter prior to the Civil War. His businesses included slave trading. Unschooled in the military arts, he demonstrated a genius for cavalry tactics and strategy.

Forrest enlisted as a private in the 7th Tennessee Cavalry when the Civil War started. In October 1861, he raised a cavalry battalion. Commissioned as its lieutenant-colonel, he participated in the defense of Fort Donelson in 1862. Refusing to surrender with the garrison, he escaped with his
regiment.

Over three years, he experienced a meteoric rise to lieutenant-general, fueled by his native talents. He served with distinction at Shiloh. Master of the cavalry raid and pursuit, Forrest bedeviled both Union opponents and his own commanders. His achievements included defeat of superior Union forces at Brice’s Cross Roads, and his raid on Johnsonville during the Franklin–Nashville Campaign.

Controversies surrounding Forrest included accusations he massacred black soldiers at Fort Pillow in 1864 and postwar leadership of the Ku Klux Klan. Postwar, he was president of the Selma, Marion, and Memphis Railroad. Forrest died in Memphis, Tennessee on October 29, 1877.

UNION

George Thomas was a Virginian who stayed loyal to the Union. Phlegmatic, unflappable, and persistent, he was one of the Union’s most reliable generals. Despite his ability, Thomas was almost relieved by Grant, who believed Thomas was too sluggish. (Author’s collection)

Major-General George H. Thomas was born in Newsom’s Depot, Virginia on July 31, 1816. Thomas secured an appointment to the US Military Academy at West Point in 1836, graduating 12th in a class of 42 in 1840. Commissioned in the artillery, he served in the Seminole Wars and Mexican–American wars, distinguishing himself, receiving four brevet promotions.

Assigned to West Point as an instructor in 1851, Thomas established a close relationship with its superintendent, Lieutenant-Colonel Robert E. Lee. He remained at West Point until 1854, receiving promotion to captain in 1853. In 1855, he was sent to California with the 3rd Artillery, before being promoted to major and transferring to the 2nd Cavalry in Texas, where he served until November 1860; he then received a one-year leave of absence.

The Civil War started while Thomas was on leave. He remained loyal to the United States. Thomas quickly rose in rank and position through sheer competence. He became colonel of the 2nd Cavalry, was promoted to command of a brigade of Pennsylvania volunteers in the Shenandoah Valley in 1862, and took command of the 1st Division of the Army of the Ohio, participating in the battle of Shiloh. By late 1862, he led the XIV Corps of the Army of the Cumberland.

Thomas showed a genius for stubborn defense with the XIV Corps. He held the Union center during the battle of Stone’s River and led the main Union column during the Tullahoma Campaign. At Chickamauga, Thomas saved the Army of the Cumberland. Unsupported by the rest of the Army, Thomas’s corps held and fell back in good order. Afterwards, Thomas organized the defense of Chattanooga.

Thomas gained the nickname “The Rock of Chickamauga” and command of the Army of the Cumberland. He commanded that army through the Chattanooga Campaign, holding Chattanooga through the subsequent siege, and overseeing the successful assault on Missionary Ridge on November 25, 1863. He became second-in-command of the Military Division of the Mississippi under William T. Sherman following Chattanooga, and through the subsequent Atlanta Campaign.

After Atlanta fell, Sherman split the Military Division of the Mississippi, giving two infantry and one cavalry corps and residual Union forces garrisoning Tennessee, northern Alabama, and northern Georgia to Thomas. When Sherman started his March to the Sea, Sherman assigned Thomas to cover Hood’s Army of Tennessee. When Hood invaded Tennessee, Thomas concentrated his Union scattered forces at Nashville and in a two-day battle destroyed the Army of Tennessee. Frequently criticized for being slow, Thomas was a master of battlefield timing, the only Union general to destroy a Confederate field army in open battle. He was transferred to command of the Division of the Pacific in 1869, and died in San Francisco on March 28, 1870.

Major-General John M. Schofield was born September 29, 1831 in Gerry, New York. He attended West Point, graduating 9th out of 52. Suspended due to a disciplinary infraction, he was reinstated upon appeal. Schofield served in Florida against the Seminole Indians, returning to West Point as an instructor in 1855, teaching there through 1860.

In St Louis on leave when the Civil War started, Schofield joined as a major in the 1st Missouri Volunteer Infantry (US). Rising to major-general by November 1862, from 1861 through 1863 he served in the Trans-Mississippi, rising to command of the Army of the Frontier.

In February 1864, he was reassigned to Central Tennessee, commanding the Army of the Ohio (principally the XXII Corps). Turning in a lackluster performance during the Atlanta Campaign, his command was left to screen Thomas, when Sherman moved south. Schofield performed creditably during Hood’s invasion, avoiding a Confederate ambush at Spring Hill, defeating Hood at Franklin, and participating in the battle of Nashville.

While courageous and competent, John Schofield was as skilled in military politics as military tactics. He was awarded a Medal of Honor based on his own recommendation while serving Secretary of War. He attempted to undercut Thomas before the battle of Nashville in hopes of replacing Thomas. (Author’s collection)

He remained in the military after the war, rising to command the US Army in 1888, as a lieutenant-general. He died in St Augustine, Florida on March 4, 1906.

Major-General David S. Stanley was born June 1, 1828 in Cedar Valley, Ohio. Stanley attended West Point, graduating 9th of 43 in the class of 1852, with a cavalry commission. He served in cavalry regiments in Texas, Arkansas, Kansas, and Nebraska between 1853 and 1860, fighting Indians and quelling disturbances between free-soil and pro-slavery settlers in Kansas.

Despite being a slave-owner and being offered a colonel’s commission by Arkansas, Stanley remained with the Union. He fought at Wilson’s Creek, New Madrid, Island Number Ten, and Corinth in 1862. Promoted to brevet major-general following Corinth, he commanded the Army of the Cumberland’s cavalry in 1863. He was cited for gallantry and meritorious service at Stones River. Serving in the Tullahoma Campaign, he fell ill, missing Chickamauga and Chattanooga.

He was assigned command of a division of IV Corps during the Atlanta Campaign, and then promoted to IV Corps commander in July 1864. He led IV Corps during the Franklin–Nashville Campaign. He was instrumental to Union victory at Franklin, where he personally led a successful counterattack. While wounded, his gallantry earned a Medal of Honor. He remained with the army after the Civil War, retiring in 1892, and died March,13, 1902.

Andrew Jackson Smith took command of what became the Right Wing, XVI Corps after the corps was divided during the Chattanooga Campaign. He defeated Confederate forces commanded by Stephen Lee at Tupelo, shattering Forrest’s Cavalry Corps in the battle. (Author’s collection)

Major-General Andrew J. Smith was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania on April 28, 1815. Smith entered West Point, graduating with the class of 1838, 36th out of 45. After garrison duty at Carlisle Barracks, he was sent west in 1840, where he remained until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. He saw active service against Indians in Missouri, Kansas, California, and the Pacific Northwest. During the Mexican–American War, Smith fought in California.

Smith came east in 1862, becoming the Department of the Missouri’s chief of cavalry. He served as chief of cavalry for the Department of Mississippi during the Corinth Campaign, an infantry division under William T. Sherman in the Yazoo River Expedition, and commanded a division at Arkansas Post and during the Vicksburg Campaign. He was sent to the Army of the Cumberland in 1864, where he handed Forrest a rare defeat at Tupelo, Mississippi on July 14, 1864.

En route to Missouri when Hood invaded, Smith and his forces were recalled by Thomas. Arriving in Nashville before the battle, Smith commanded one wing. After the Civil War, Smith became colonel of the 7th Cavalry, but retired in April 1869. He died in St Louis, Missouri on January 30, 1897.

Major-General James H. Wilson was born September 2, 1837 near Shawneetown, Illinois. Wilson graduated from West Point in 1860, 6th in a class of 41. He was commissioned in the Topographical Engineers, serving in the Washington Territory. Promoted to 1st lieutenant in November 1861, he served as chief topographical engineer during the Port Royal, South Carolina, and Pulaski, Georgia expeditions. He participated in the battles of South Mountain and Antietam as aide to General George McClellan.

In November, promoted to lieutenant-colonel, he became the Army of the Tennessee’s chief engineer under Grant. He participated in the Vicksburg and Chattanooga campaigns and the relief expedition to Knoxville, Tennessee. Following Grant to Washington, DC, Wilson became chief of the Cavalry Bureau, and as brigadier-general commanded the 3rd Division of Sheridan’s Cavalry Corps. He saw action in the Overland Campaign and Sheridan’s Valley Campaign.

Promoted to major-general, in October 1864 Wilson was made chief of cavalry for the Military Division of the Mississippi. Wilson sent one cavalry division with Sherman, keeping the rest to cover Thomas and Schofield, playing a conspicuous part in repelling the Confederate invasion of Tennessee. He led an active career in the post-Civil War army, retiring in 1901 and dying February 23, 1925.