Continued

The United States’ directive that ultimately precipitated the dramatic crossing of the Tennessee River below Chattanooga had been issued some ten months earlier, in October 1862. In a long message transferring Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell’s command to Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans, Union General-in-Chief Henry W. Halleck gave the new army commander specific directions for future operations. Halleck wrote:

The great objects to be kept in view in your operations in the field are: First, to drive the enemy from Kentucky and Middle Tennessee; second, to take and hold East Tennessee, cutting the line of railroad at Chattanooga, Cleveland, or Athens, so as to destroy the connection of the valley of Virginia with Georgia and the other Southern States.

On October 30, 1862, Rosecrans formally assumed command of the newly created Department of the Cumberland and the troops within it. Initially designated as the XIV Corps, those troops soon became known as the Army of the Cumberland, with subsequent reorganizations reducing the XIV Corps to only one of several corps under Rosecrans’ command. With these forces, Rosecrans moved out of Nashville in December 1862, and fought the Battle of Stones River (or Murfreesboro, December 31, 1862-January 2, 1863). Successfully fending off violent Confederate attacks, Rosecrans held the field while his opponents withdrew southward to a range of hills protecting the Tennessee towns of Shelbyville, Tulla-homa, and Manchester. For six months Rosecrans rested, refitted, and reorganized his command. Then, on June 23, 1863, he launched the four infantry corps and one cavalry corps of the Army of the Cumberland upon a campaign of maneuver against the Confederate forces opposing him. Within one week—a week marked by abysmal weather and seemingly bottomless mud—Rosecrans forced the Confederates entirely out of Middle Tennessee and beyond the twin barriers of the Cumberland Plateau and the Tennessee River. The railroad junction city of Chattanooga lay beyond those barriers, and its capture would fulfill Halleck’s instructions of the previous October. For six weeks Rosecrans paused to repair the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad, gather supplies, and rest his troops. On August 16, the Army of the Cumberland moved again, this time crossing the Cumberland Plateau and settling into the valleys of the Tennessee and Sequatchie Rivers See Map (pdf).2

The man who led the Army of the Cumberland in August 1863 momentarily ranked as one of the Union’s most successful commanders. Born in Ohio on September 6, 1819, William Starke Rosecrans (left) graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1842. A high class standing (5th out of 56 cadets) gained him a commission in the Engineers, but peacetime routine and lack of service in the war with Mexico meant promotion was slow to come his way. Not long after rising to first lieutenant, Rosecrans resigned his commission in 1854 and entered civilian life once more. A succession of positions as civil engineer, inventor, and kerosene refiner paid the bills, but brought him neither fame nor fortune. Indeed, a laboratory accident permanently scarred his face, twisting it into a slight half-smirk. As so many other average, well-educated, but ill-accomplished Americans discovered, the outbreak of civil war opened a variety of opportunities for those with formal military training, and Rosecrans was no exception. Quickly securing a position in Ohio service on the staff of George B. McClellan, Rosecrans parlayed that into the colonelcy of the 23rd Ohio Infantry and a brigadier general’s commission in the Regular Army by June 1861. For the next several months, he commanded a brigade in McClellan’s campaign in western Virginia and rose to department command when McClellan departed. In the eyes of some, McClellan’s successes in this minor theater were due to Rosecrans’ efforts. Success in western Virginia brought a transfer to John Pope’s Army of the Mississippi and, ultimately through a backdated commission, promotion to major general. In the West, Rosecrans participated in Henry Halleck’s advance upon and siege of Corinth, Miss. When Halleck and Pope transferred to the Eastern Theater, U. S. Grant and Rosecrans, respectively, took their positions. Commanding the District of Corinth, Rosecrans fought the inconclusive Battle of Iuka (September 19, 1862) and heroically staved off Union defeat at the Battle of Corinth (October 3-4, 1862). While successful enough in Mississippi to gain the favorable attention of the Northern public and the Lincoln Administration, Rosecrans ran afoul of Grant, his superior, through a series of miscues stemming essentially from a personality conflict. Nevertheless, when the War Department needed a successor to Buell in Tennessee, William S. Rosecrans was the general selected for the task.3

The man now commanding the Army of the Cumberland in what would prove to be its most famous campaign was a highly complex individual. On the positive side of the ledger, Rosecrans was highly intelligent, gregarious and articulate in speech, vigorous and energetic, and physically courageous. A devout Roman Catholic who kept a personal chaplain at his headquarters, he was equally firm in his desire to destroy slavery and crush the Confederacy with force of arms. Beloved by his troops, whom he indulged at the expense of their officers whenever he visited their camps, he was less well liked by many of his senior subordinates. They focused upon Rosecrans’ negative traits, which were also apparent to the most casual observer. He was extremely nervous and excitable, lacking poise, self-control, and dignity in crisis situations. He was also impatient and overly critical of others, often seemingly beyond reason, and expressed