Tullahoma by David A. Powell & Eric J. Wittenberg

Author:David A. Powell & Eric J. Wittenberg [Powell, David A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History / United States / Civil War Period(1850-1877)
Publisher: Savas Beatie
Published: 2020-08-25T05:00:00+00:00

Even for those Federals lucky enough not to be detailed to help with the near-Sisyphean task of hauling cannon, limbers, and army wagons up Gilley’s Hill, two days’ military limbo proved uncomfortable. Food was short. The men had been issued three days’ rations to cook and carry with them on June 23. Even under normal circumstances, those supplies would be exhausted by the 26th; the pervasive rain, however, made matters worse. As William Curry of the 1st Ohio Cavalry observed, “during all this time our blankets were never dried out, and our rations in our old greasy haversacks were a conglomerated mass of coffee, sugar, salt, sow-belly, and hard-tack.” The only available replacements for these ruined rations were in those same wagons back down in Torbert’s Hollow—now seemingly a long way away.24

Reined in by Crittenden and Rosecrans, and with limited prospects for action, Turchin’s cavalry hovered near Lumley’s Stand on June 25 and 26. Colonel Long dispatched “nine companies of my command to assist in bringing forward the wagons,” and on the afternoon of June 27, Turchin shifted Long’s brigade to Pocahontas, presumably (though this was not specified in the reports) to cover Crittenden’s right flank when he resumed his march toward Manchester. Here, a dry wit at brigade headquarters recorded the most interesting event of the day. “Someone stole General Turchin’s coffee pot,” he wrote. “It was of enough importance to send a staff officer in search of it, but he did not find it.” As for the weather, “Rained.”25

Turchin’s and then Palmer’s reduced trains finally cleared Gilley’s Hill by 11:00 a.m. on June 27, after a grueling, nearly nonstop 48-hour effort. But Wood’s division still had to climb the hill. Fortunately, Wood was better prepared and had the advantage of having observed Palmer’s laborious efforts. His trains already had been stripped to the absolute minimum needed for field operations on June 23, and his men set to work with a will. The scene must have been nearly indescribable—the countryside littered with broken wagons, dead mules, and sputtering pyres of discarded equipment, all mired in a sea of sticky mud and washed by constant, steady, annoying rain. In his memoir, General Stanley described how these conditions rendered the roads nearly impassable. “Foot soldiers marching over the pale clay deployed like slow moving skirmishers,” he recorded; “horsemen sought their own course; and as for artillery and supply wagons, they sunk in the mud to the axles and stayed there.”26

Despite these obstacles, “at 2 p.m. on the 27th,” Wood reported with evident pride, “the ascent . . . commenced, and by 1:00 a.m. on the 28th the whole . . . was at the summit. Exactly eleven hours were occupied in the ascent.” Wood credited Brig. Gen. George D. Wagner for his direct supervision of this work, which “was rapidly, energetically, and skillfully done.” Crittenden thought that for his foresight in stripping his divisional baggage before the march began, Wood was “entitled to the commendation of the general commanding.”27

Meanwhile, as Crittenden struggled, Rosecrans set most of the rest of the army into motion.

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