CHAPTER XXVI. REVIEW OF MILITARY OPERATIONS IN THE WEST, FROM THE BATTLE OF SHILOH TO THE BATTLE OF CORINTH. In every country save our own, the inability of unprofessional men to command armies would be accepted as a self-evident proposition. Lest, however, the future Presidents and Secretaries of War may be tempted to commit the same blunders as their predecessors, let us glance briefly at the conduct of military operations in the West-first, during the fatal three months when there was no General in Chief, and lastly, till the close of the year. In this great theater military commanders possessed the lucky advantage of being remote from the capital. None of them were accused of political aspirations. The Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War declined to investigate their campaigns. It reported as late as April 6, 1863, that all the causes for the protraction of the war could be charged to the misconduct of the Army of the Potomac." Military scapegoats might serve to divert public opinion from the real causes of disaster East of the Alleghenies, but in the West, free from political entanglements, nearly every reverse can be traced directly to a bad system. It will be remembered that by the order of March 11, 1862, removing or deposing the General in Chief, all the territory west of Knoxville was constituted the Department of the Mississippi, under the command of Major-General Halleck. The wisdom of this part of the order was instantly demonstrated. On the 6th of April, the Armies of the Tennessee and Ohio, under Generals Grant and Buell, effected a junction on the battlefield of Shiloh. The next day they completed the defeat of the enemy and drove him back upon Corinth. The Army of the Mississippi under General Pope, after its success at Island No. 10, was now wisely arrested in its triumphal march down the Mississippi and ordered to join the other two near Shiloh. Other troops were called from Arkansas and Missouri. The masterly concentration of 100,000 men having been effected, operations under the department commander were begun against Corinth, but the enemy saw that the odds were too great. Too slowly approached, he was permitted to decline the battle, and, abandoning the entrenchments on the 31st of May, he fled to central Mississippi. New Orleans had already been captured by the Navy. The army felt invincible. A demoralized enemy halted at Tupello and invited an attack. Officers high in rank had little doubt of the next order. Before them were two lines of railway leading to Vicksburg and aThis reference, contained in the report of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War presented to Congress April 6, 1863 has already been quoted (pp. 330331).-EDITORS. Mobile. A march to either point would open the Mississippi Valley, sever the Confederacy in twain, and restore the supremacy of the Union over more than half the territory in rebellion. But unfortunately, when these results were within easy reach, the policy of concentration was abandoned. From the beginning of the war, an expedition to relieve the loyal people of East Tennessee, had been a favorite plan with the President. Such an expedition, having also in view the seizure of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, was recommended by General McClellan in the memorandum to the President, dated August 4, 1861, the movement to be made through Kentucky, as soon as the loyalty of the State was assured. Nearly a year later-June 5, 1862-on learning of the evacuation of Corinth, he telegraphed to the President: May I again invite Your Excellency's attention to the great importance of occupying Chattanooga and Dalton by our western forces? The evacuation of Corinth would appear to render this very easy. The importance of this move and force cannot be exaggerated.a This plan, however, appears to have been anticipated by General Halleck. June 7, in a despatch replying to one of the President, dated the day previous, he stated: Preparations for Chattanooga made five days ago, and troops moved in that direction. Mitchel's foolish destruction of bridges embarrassed me very much, but I am working night and day to remedy this error, and will very soon reenforce him. With the movement of these troops began the disintegration of the great army at Corinth. Valueless, as compared with the opening of the Mississippi, the mountain region of East Tennessee soon became as fatal to military unity in the West, as the Shenandoah Valley had already been in the East. The commander who had so happily illustrated the utility of concentration, was now the most false to his own principles. Had he decided to concentrate his whole army at Chattanooga with a view to push resolutely upon Atlanta and thence to the sea, he might have left to the Navy the conquest of the Mississippi, while reserving to himself the grand movement which two years later proved the deathblow to the Rebellion.c But now the policy of aggression gave place to one of occupation. Ground had been gained, the mere retention of which the commander subsequently alleged was more important than the possession of three Richmonds. Nothing was to be given up. The central movement into the heart of Mississippi was relinquished, and, instead of achieving an immediate and decisive victory, the commander broke the grand army and sent it to the two extremes of his department. a Scott's Despatches, p. 7. Scott's Despatches, p. 8. As developed in his letter of February 3, 1862, to the President, General McClellan's plan of campaign was to move with all of the Army of the Potomac via the Peninsula upon Richmond, thence upon Raleigh, through the seaboard States to Georgia; Buell in the meanwhile was to advance with the Army of the Ohio to East Tennessee and North Alabama. The next movement was "to advance our center into South Carolina and Georgia; to push Buell either toward Montgomery or to unite with the main army in Georgia." Halleck at the same time was to be thrown forward to meet the naval expedition from New Orleans The plan, of course, depended on striking in Virginia with the Army of the Poto mac entire.-McClellan's Report, p. 47. After explaining that the army had retreated to Okolona, destroying the roads and burning the bridges, he telegraphed, June 9, to the Secretary of War: * * * I do not purpose to pursue him any farther, but to send all the forces not required to hold the Memphis and Charleston Railroad to the relief of Curtis in Arkansas, and to East Tennessee, if this plan meets the approval of the War Department. a The same day the Secretary, without quoting the President, replied: Your despatch of this date has just been received and your proposed plan of operations is cordially approved. I suppose you contemplate the occupation of Vicksburg and clearing out the Mississippi to New Orleans. If it should in any contingency become necessary, can you lend a hand to Butler? b In carrying out his new plans, which also embraced the holding of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad from Memphis to Chattanooga, a distance of 310 miles, General Halleck again telegraphed the Secretary, on the 9th of June, that General Buell with four divisions had been directed to move westward to effect a junction with General Mitchell; that the destruction of the railroad and the bridges would make his movements slow, and that to supply him would require nearly all the transportation of the army. He also added: "It is absolutely necessary to reenforce Curtis." Had there been a General in Chief in Washington responsible for the success of military operations, it is probable that this fatal dispersion might have been avoid ed, but as things were then managed the commander in his signal error had the fortune to please both the President and the Secretary of War. The former urged him to seize East Tennessee, while the latter cordially approved the sending of troops west of the Mississippi. The civilian method of conducting military operations is graphically revealed in another despatch of June 9. Ignoring the department commander, as was so often done in the War of 1812, the Secretary telegraphed direct to General Buell: By General Order of yesterday's date, the Department of the Mississippi was extended over the whole of the States of Kentucky and Tennessee. This territory, I suppose, falls in your district of that Department. * * * This despatch next stated the relations or disposition of the War Department toward military commanders; confessed its amenability to political influence, and explained to the wrong person the irregularity of creating one military district within another, without consulting or notifying the department commander. The despatch continued: * * * It is the disposition of this Department to leave all military operations to the commanding general. At the urgent entreaties of the Kentucky delegation, who represented the State to be in danger, General Boyle was authorized to raise forces in Kentucky and command them under the impression that you were so remote and so fully occupied that you were unable to give attention to their condi * Not to dwell on the confusion and extravagance of such a system, the despatch next showed the independence and irresponsibility of generals, who, supported by political influence, were encouraged to telegraph to the Secretary of War without the knowledge of their military superiors. a Scott's Despatches, pp. 9, 10. |