August 21, 1862 - Thursday - 160 years ago today

Status - John Baer - 40th Indiana Regiment - Wood's Division - Wagner's Brigade

By the 21st, Buell had learned that Bragg had moved his Confederate army north from Chattanooga, but was having trouble locating him and discerning his plans.  By this time any thought of attacking Chattanooga had gone by the wayside.  Buell is looking for a point of concentration and at this time was thinking of the Tracy City and Altamont area.  General Thomas thought McMinnville was the better choice but was overruled.  

In Kentucky, General Nelson, who had been sent there to oppose the advance of General Edmund Kirby Smith, found few available soldiers and almost none who were trained or experienced.  Worse, an army reorganization, intended to relieve Buell of excess responsibilities, had only clouded the command hierarchy, and thus railroad repairs between Louisville and Nashville, as well as the forwarding and provisioning of new regiments, was hampered.  Nelson would not be able to field an effective force against Kirby Smith's veterans.

There was also skirmishing at Cumberland Gap, where Kirby Smith had posted a sizeable force facing the Union army entrenched there.  The Confederate army in Kentucky was behind the Union force at Cumberland Gap, and might cause it to fall back northward if it could not be supplied.

On the 20th, General Thomas sends this dispatch to Wood:

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HDQRS, FIRST DIVISION, DISTRICT OF THE OHIO,

McMinnville,  Tenn, August 20, 1862

General WOOD, near McMinnville:

   You had better send back an escort to Decherd for your train, as I shall be unable to furnish you with one, having been ordered here before your train was ready.  Get ten day's supply of commissary stores, and if in good camp remain where you are.  If your camp is not a good one you can move to where the Manchester and McMinnville road crosses Hickory Creek, where you will find a good camp and be within a few hours' march of this place.  Have the country explored in the direction of Altamont, and report if a strong position can be taken up near that place, and withal be prepared to march within a day's notice.

GEO. H. THOMAS

Major-General, U, S. Volunteers

  

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 These orders are in line with the proposed concentration near Altamont, TN that is currently being discussed.

More Information:

• Link: War Operations, see Volume XVI, Chapter XXVIII, Part II, Correspondence,  pp. 360-387.
• The Civil War Day by Day, John S. Bowman, Ed. pp. 78-79.
  
• Shelby Foote: The Civil War, A Narrative, Vol 1, Fort Sumter to Perryville, pp. 561-577. 
• Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol 3. The Tide Shifts, pp,4-7, 31-41.
• Kenneth Noe, Perryville: This Grand Havoc of Battle, pp. 32-58.

 

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