Summary of David A. Powell & Eric J. Wittenberg's Tullahoma

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 Rosecrans was promoted to lead the Army of the Ohio just nine weeks before the Battle of Stones River, and he replaced General Don Carlos Buell, who had fought the Battle of Perryville to an unsatisfying result. The Lincoln Administration decided Buell had to go.
#2 Rosecrans was an innovator, a modernizer, and a bit of a perfectionist. He saw plenty of problems he wanted to address, but he had little time to implement any real changes before initiating the offensive movement that would culminate in the large-scale battle outside Murfreesboro.
#3 Rosecrans was a graduate of the US Military Academy in 1842. He was a brilliant man, and his intelligence bordered on brilliance. He was born in Sunbury, Ohio, in 1819. His father, Crandall Rosecrans, was a recently returned veteran of the War of 1812 who served as an aide to General William Henry Harrison.
#4 Rosecrans was a zealous convert to Catholicism, an anomaly in 19th-century America. He had done well so far in the war, and was instrumental in winning the early successes in western Virginia that propelled fellow West Pointer George B. McClellan to such heights in Virginia in 1862.

Sujets

• Catholicisme
• History
• United States
• Histoire
• Civil War Period

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 16 mai 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798822512245
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on David A. Powell & Eric J. Wittenberg's Tullahoma
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4 Insights from Chapter 5 Insights from Chapter 6 Insights from Chapter 7 Insights from Chapter 8 Insights from Chapter 9 Insights from Chapter 10 Insights from Chapter 11 Insights from Chapter 12 Insights from Chapter 13 Insights from Chapter 14
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

Rosecrans was promoted to lead the Army of the Ohio just nine weeks before the Battle of Stones River, and he replaced General Don Carlos Buell, who had fought the Battle of Perryville to an unsatisfying result. The Lincoln Administration decided Buell had to go.

#2

Rosecrans was an innovator, a modernizer, and a bit of a perfectionist. He saw plenty of problems he wanted to address, but he had little time to implement any real changes before initiating the offensive movement that would culminate in the large-scale battle outside Murfreesboro.

#3

Rosecrans was a graduate of the US Military Academy in 1842. He was a brilliant man, and his intelligence bordered on brilliance. He was born in Sunbury, Ohio, in 1819. His father, Crandall Rosecrans, was a recently returned veteran of the War of 1812 who served as an aide to General William Henry Harrison.

#4

Rosecrans was a zealous convert to Catholicism, an anomaly in 19th-century America. He had done well so far in the war, and was instrumental in winning the early successes in western Virginia that propelled fellow West Pointer George B. McClellan to such heights in Virginia in 1862.

#5

Rosecrans’s arrival was met with general approval in the ranks. The men liked him because he was open and friendly compared to the taciturn exclusiveness of Buell. The fight at Stones River was widely hailed as a Northern victory, coming after the disaster at Fredericksburg.

#6

Rosecrans looked to new men to revitalize the army. He brought in Brigadier General Stanley, who had served under him at Corinth, to lead the Army of the Cumberland’s cavalry.

#7

After the Battle of Stones River, Rosecrans was left with many vacant positions, including divisional and brigade commands. He was able to shift George Thomas into active corps command, a much better use of Thomas’s talents.

#8

Rosecrans’s illness delayed the rate at which he was making demands on the war department, but he still got much of what he wanted in January. He promoted several deserving officers, expanded his staff, and requested more new recruits.

#9

On January 24, Rosecrans asked for another officer, Brig. Gen. William Wallace Burns, whom he knew from their shared service in Virginia. Burns was initially a supply officer on McClellan’s staff, and he was given a brigade command in John Sedgwick’s division of Edwin Sumner’s II Corps, Army of the Potomac.

#10

Rosecrans was also disappointed to hear that Burns had resigned, as he had hoped to promote him to major general. Burns was a victim of numbers, as there were many more eligible officers than slots for major generals of volunteers.

#11

The Army of the Cumberland relied on a river of supplies that flowed down the rails from Louisville to Nashville on the Louisville Nashville Railroad, and then another 30 miles to Murfreesboro via the Nashville Chattanooga Line. Rebel cavalry had repeatedly demonstrated the vulnerability of that lifeline in 1862.

#12

The Army of the Cumberland’s strategic situation was different from either the Army of the Potomac’s in Virginia or the Army of the Tennessee’s in Mississippi. In Virginia, supply lines were short. Only 100 overland miles separated Washington and Richmond, while the eastern seaboard presented the Union navy with unlimited access to supply ports along the way.

#13

The efforts of those 10,000 men were only partially successful. In December, in two separate affairs, John Hunt Morgan once again demonstrated the vulnerability of the Federal rear area in dramatic fashion. He led 1,300 Rebel cavalrymen against a complacent and inattentive Union garrison of 2,300 troops, and captured over 1,800 prisoners.

#14

Rosecrans intended to reduce his reliance on vulnerable supply routes by creating a series of forward bases. He reasoned that if he stockpiled rations and ammunition close to the front, then his army could survive temporary disruptions in the supply flow from either Louisville or up the Cumberland.

#15

Rosecrans’s most pressing problem was his cavalry, or the lack thereof. By March 1863, his army only had 4,549 officers and men present for duty in Brigadier General Stanley’s cavalry division. If accurate, by March Rosecrans might face as many as 20,000 Rebel horsemen.

#16

The Battle of Corinth demonstrated the importance of cavalry in the Civil War. It was vital in two areas: the semi-partisan raiding war successfully executed by the likes of Van Dorn, Forrest, and Morgan, and also in conducting successful operational movements by scouting, screening, and reconnoitering.

#17

The Army of the Cumberland was essentially besieged in Nashville and Murfreesboro, but was unable to control the surrounding countryside. Augmenting his mounted arm became Rosecrans’s overarching priority.

#18

Rosecrans’s plan to create elite battalions from the Roll of Honor of each regiment was not allowed by the war department, as it would have crossed legal boundaries. The Confederacy passed a specific law granting commanders the right to form sharpshooter battalions from picked men in 1862.

#19

The relationship between Rosecrans and his superiors became increasingly strained as the war went on. Rosecrans’s demands, delivered in such a high-handed tone, reminded them of other generals they had grown tired of, like McClellan.

#20

John T. Wilder was a colonel in the 17th Indiana Volunteer Infantry. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in June 1861, and colonel in April 1862. He was sent to defend a vital rail bridge in Kentucky in September 1862, and had to surrender to Bragg.

#21

The entire brigade was allowed a vote, and all regiments but the 75th Indiana chose to ride rather than walk. The 123rd Illinois was from central Illinois and was sworn in on September 6, 1862. They were assigned to the Army of the Ohio.

#22

The final makeup of the brigade was set around April, and it took about a month for Wilder to mount his entire command and Capt. Eli Lilly’s 18th Indiana Battery. The battery was armed with six Rodman guns, also known as 3-inch ordnance rifles.

#23

The Spencer rifle was a long-barreled breech-loading weapon that could fire seven shots before having to be reloaded. It was used by Wilder’s men to lay down a tremendous amount of firepower at a high speed.

#24

The spring of 1863 was a low point for the Federals in terms of carrying the war forward. Something had to be done to break the stalemates. On March 1, Halleck wired all the Union departmental commanders, tersely announcing that there is a vacant major-generalcy in the Regular Army, and I am authorized to say that it will be given to the general in the field who first wins an important and decisive victory.

#25

The Battle of Stones River was a huge loss for the Union army, and it proved to be the final straw for many generals.

#26

Pope’s Second Bull Run Campaign was a disaster. He was sent to Minnesota to deal with an Indian uprising, and his wife went missing and was presumed to have drowned. He had to find alternative living arrangements for his children.

#27

The Spencer rifle was the first mass-produced repeating rifle. It fired rimfire bullets with brass casings, and it used interchangeable tube magazines of seven bullets per tube. A soldier could fire seven shots before having to reload.

#28

The Battle of Chickamauga was the biggest battle of the Civil War for the Union. It was also the biggest battle for the Confederacy, with over 20,000 casualties.
Insights from Chapter 2

#1

Braxton Bragg was the second largest field army in the Confederacy, and he was made commander because of his long-term friendship with President Jefferson Davis. He was also breveted to lieutenant colonel for his heroism at the Battle of Buena Vista in Mexico in 1847.

#2

Bragg was a good choice for the job, as he was both a competent strategist and logistician. However, he was not a great tactician, and he had a difficult time getting along with others.

#3

The Army of Tennessee faced many challenges, including a commanding general who was in poor health and could not get along with his subordinates, and poor morale in the ranks. When the Federals did not immediately pursue after the Battle of Stones River, Bragg returned to Tullahoma, about 25 miles south of Murfreesboro.

#4

After the Battle of Perryville, Bragg had abandoned Kentucky in the wake of a fight his men thought they won. This move raised many questions within the army and in Richmond. The Kentucky Campaign highlighted differences between Bragg and his fellow departmental commander, General E. Kirby Smith.

#5

Davis appointed an overall theater commander, Joseph Johnston, who did not want the position. Johnston and Davis differed on almost everything from strategy to Johnston’s relative ranking in the Confederate army.