Month: May 2012
-
DE ARAGON – The Chronicle of a Confederate Surgeon – Part 6
This is the 6th part in the series about Major Ramon T. de Aragon, a surgeon in the Army of Tennesee. This post covers the Battle of Murfreesborough after Bragg brought his army back out of Kentucky following the Battle of Perryville. The journey back to Knoxville was about two hundred miles through country that […]
-
The Affair at Morton’s Ford Part 1
Introduction In the introduction of the opening volume of his fabulous set of works on the Overland Campaign, Gordon Rhea mentions the fight at Morton’s Ford. The brief description of the fight there sparked my curiosity and I thought it would be interesting to look into it further. This short post will describe the action […]
-
The Battle of Belmont Conclusion
On the Water Because the Mississippi River separated the opposing forces from the battlefield water transportation was critical. The Union forces needed to move troops across the river under the guns of the Confederate stronghold at Columbus. The threat of these guns forced Grant to make his landings several miles from his objective. The time […]
-
Take Your Damn Quote Back To Ohio!
We recently passed the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Shiloh which prompts me to discuss a quotation which bothers me. Anyone who has read a modern book on Shiloh has probably seen some variation on “Take your damned regiment back to Ohio. There is no enemy closer than Corinth.” Allegedly this statement was the […]
-
The Battle of Belmont Part 4
Counterattack The first to arrive was BG B. F. Cheatham and staff who gathered the remnants of the 13th Arkansas, 22nd Tennessee, and 13th Tennessee and marched north for a strike against the Union transports. Further north the brigade of COL Preston Smith, with Polk along, landed and moved south against the Federal forces at […]
-
The Battle of Belmont Part 3
The Attack Begins The decision to change the demonstration at Columbus to an attack at Belmont was taken without authorization from Fremont. In fact, it was directly opposed to his order that the operation should be confined to a demonstration and no attack should be made at any point. Nevertheless, Grant felt that the reported […]
-
The Battle of Belmont Part 2
Early Developments The opening weeks of the standoff in western Kentucky were dominated by the powerful misconceptions about the opposing commander’s intent. MG John Fremont believed that the Confederate presence at Columbus posed a serious threat to the Union positions in both Kentucky and Missouri. He directed his subordinate commander, BG Grant, to secure Paducah […]