Lincoln and His Generals by T. Harry Williams

Author:T. Harry Williams
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780307948151
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2011-07-05T20:00:00+00:00

Right before he removed McClellan, Lincoln got rid of another general who had the “slows.” Don Carlos Buell got the ax late in October. In September, the Confederate army at Chattanooga suddenly invaded Kentucky. Buell, in order to protect Kentucky and his base at Louisville, had to leave Tennessee and march back to the Ohio River. His retrograde movement, coming after his slow advance on Chattanooga and his failure to take it, angered Lincoln and Stanton. The Secretary induced Lincoln to approve an order relieving Buell from command and appointing General George H. Thomas, then serving under Buell, as his successor. A special courier started west with the order, with instructions not to deliver it if Buell was about to fight the Confederates or had won a victory. Halleck, who still believed in Buell, persuaded the President that Buell should be given a chance to fight the Kentucky campaign. Halleck then telegraphed the courier, who was on his way to Buell’s army, not to deliver the order, but the messenger did not receive the telegrams. He reached Buell’s headquarters and gave the order to Buell, who promptly turned over the command to Thomas. Thomas did not want to take it. He informed Halleck that Buell was ready to attack the enemy and should be retained in command. Halleck replied that the removal order had not been made by him or on his advice and was now suspended by Lincoln’s authority.4

Buell now had a chance to save himself, but he muffed his opportunity. In October he fought a drawn battle with the Confederates at Perryville. After the battle, the Confederates retired to Tennessee. Buell followed them slowly for a distance and then announced that he would go back to Nashville and prepare to resume his advance on Chattanooga. To Lincoln, the escape of the enemy army and Buell’s apparent purpose to move against Chattanooga only after a long period of reorganization seemed like Antietam repeated. He thought that Buell should strike immediately for Chattanooga or Knoxville.5 The President sent Buell an order, through Halleck, that the Federal army must enter East Tennessee before the end of autumn and that it ought to move while the roads were passable. Expressing Lincoln’s thoughts accurately, Halleck said: “He does not understand why we cannot march as the enemy marches, live as he lives, and fight as he fights, unless we admit the inferiority of our troops and our generals.”6 Why can’t we do what the enemy can do? This was the question Lincoln had asked McClellan in his letter of October 13, using much the same words that he now addressed to Buell. The President was determined to get the answer to the question. His patience was worn out with generals who never fought because they never finished preparing. Such generals he intended to remove from the army.

Buell wanted to prepare some more before he fought. He insisted that the best way to secure East Tennessee was to operate on a line from Nashville. He was right.

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