Born to Battle Read online

  Table of Contents

  ALSO BY JACK HURST

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Epigraph

  GLOSSARY OF PARTICIPANTS

  Introduction

  I - GLANCING BACK

  Chapter 1 - LATE WINTER-EARLY SPRING 1862—GRANT

  Chapter 2 - LATE WINTER–EARLY SPRING 1862—FORREST

  II - SHILOH: “THE DEVIL’S OWN DAY”

  Chapter 3 - APRIL 6, FORENOON—FORREST

  Chapter 4 - APRIL 6, FORENOON—GRANT

  Chapter 5 - APRIL 6, AFTERNOON—FORREST

  Chapter 6 - APRIL 6, AFTERNOON—GRANT

  Chapter 7 - APRIL 6, NIGHT—FORREST

  Chapter 8 - APRIL 6, NIGHT—GRANT

  Chapter 9 - APRIL 7—FORREST

  Chapter 10 - APRIL 7—GRANT

  Chapter 11 - APRIL 8—FORREST

  Chapter 12 - APRIL 8—GRANT

  III - MISSISSIPPI AND KENTUCKY: TIDAL EBBS AND FLOWS

  Chapter 13 - MID-APRIL-LATE JUNE 1862—GRANT FROM CORINTH TO MEMPHIS

  Chapter 14 - JUNE-JULY 13, 1862—FORREST AT MURFREESBORO

  Chapter 15 - JULY-EARLY OCTOBER 1862—GRANT IN NORTH MISSISSIPPI

  Chapter 16 - JULY-NOVEMBER 1862—FORREST IN THE CENTRAL SOUTH

  IV - VICKSBURG: IMPREGNABILITY DEFIED

  Chapter 17 - OCTOBER-DECEMBER 1862—GRANT AT CORINTH

  Chapter 18 - DECEMBER 1862—ORREST IN WEST TENNESSEE

  Chapter 19 - DECEMBER 1862-FEBRUARY 1, 1863—GRANT IN MEMPHIS

  Chapter 20 - JANUARY 3-FEBRUARY 3, 1863—FORREST AT DOVER

  Chapter 21 - FEBRUARY-APRIL 1863—GRANT IN LOUISIANA

  Chapter 22 - MARCH 4-MAY 3—FORREST IN MIDDLE TENNESSEE AND NORTH ALABAMA

  Chapter 23 - MAY 1-18, 1863—GRANT FROM PORT GIBSON TO BIG BLACK RIVER

  Chapter 24 - MAY-JUNE 1863—FORREST IN MIDDLE TENNESSEE

  Chapter 25 - MAY 19-JULY 3, 1863—GRANT AT VICKSBURG

  V - CHATTANOOGA

  Chapter 26 - AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 1863—FORREST AT CHICKAMAUGA

  Chapter 27 - SEPTEMBER—OCTOBER 1863—GRANT HEADS TO CHATTANOOGA

  Chapter 28 - NOVEMBER 1863-FEBRUARY 1864—FORREST ON THE MISSISSIPPI

  Chapter 29 - NOVEMBER 1863-FEBRUARY 1864—GRANT AT, AND AFTER, CHATTANOOGA

  EPILOGUE

  Acknowledgments

  NOTES

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  INDEX

  Copyright Page

  ALSO BY JACK HURST

  Men of Fire: Grant, Forrest,

  and the Campaign that Decided the Civil War

  Nathan Bedford Forrest: A Biography

  To the memory of my mom,

  Shirley Jackson Hurst,

  Proud descendant of four Mayflower passengers,

  Commoners all

  “The richest ore is oftenest found deep down, and it is in the low stratum of human life that we will find the jewels that will glisten for ages.”

  —IMMIGRANT INDUSTRIALIST

  ANDREW CARNEGIE

  GLOSSARY OF PARTICIPANTS

  Beauregard, Pierre Gustave Toutant—One of the Confederacy’s five top-ranking full generals; West Point–trained member of the Louisiana Creole elite; brilliant planner of too-complicated battles; dramatic, fiery, and dashing; unloved by President Jefferson Davis for a tendency to preen in the press and argue with his commander in chief.

  Bragg, Braxton—West Pointer and nationally known Mexican War hero who resigned from the army as a lieutenant colonel in 1856 to become proprietor of a Louisiana sugar plantation after marrying into great wealth. He was a highly opinionated and caustic observer of people and events, a favorite of Jefferson Davis, and a great driller and disciplinarian. He commanded at Mobile during the war’s early stages.

  Breckinridge, John C.—Confederate brigadier general; Kentucky-born and Kentucky-based lawyer and politician. US vice president in the administration of James Buchanan, Breckinridge was a sitting US senator and unsuccessful Democratic presidential candidate in 1860 before resigning to join the Confederacy.

  Buckner, Simon Bolivar—Confederate major general; West Pointer; prewar friend and benefactor of Grant; model of rectitude or, put another way, a balky and mulish stickler for the rules. Captured at Fort Donelson, Buckner was eventually paroled to command the Department of East Tennessee. An excellent writer of caustic prose, he briefly founded and edited a Chicago newspaper in the 1850s.

  Buell, Don Carlos—Union major general; West Pointer; Ohio native; commander of the Department of the Ohio and its Army of the Cumberland; distinguished prewar career soldier; Grant’s contemptuous self-styled rescuer at Shiloh; strict disciplinarian but very slow to commit to a fight.

  Chalmers, James R.—Confederate colonel; Virginia native; educated in South Carolina. His wealthy family owned property in northern Mississippi, which his father represented as a senator. The elder Chalmers had approved Forrest’s appointment as constable of DeSoto County; thus, Chalmers and Forrest knew each other—sort of. Early on, Chalmers was colonel of a Mississippi regiment at Mobile under Bragg, whom Chalmers admired.

  Dana, Charles A.—Federal assistant secretary of war; former New York newspaper editor charged with observing and reporting on efficiency and the like to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. Dana was sharply opinionated with pronounced likes and dislikes; the former included, most notably and profoundly, Ulysses S. Grant; the latter, John McClernand. He was seen at different times and by different officers as an indispensable observer and a waspish busybody.

  Forrest, Nathan Bedford—Confederate colonel promoted to brigadier general after Shiloh. Forrest had risen from tending leased fields to wealth as a slave-trader across the western South; he also had a brief but notable political career on the Memphis city council. Although he was a fearless and dangerous military wizard, superiors looked down on him for his lack of education and polish.

  Gould, A. Wills—Confederate artillery lieutenant in Forrest’s cavalry; quieter friend and schoolmate of Forrest artillery notable John W. Morton; brave and knowledgeable but sensitive and ready to resent a slight.

  Grant, Ulysses S.—Federal major general; captor of Forts Henry and Donelson. An Ohio tanner’s son who had reluctantly gone to and graduated from West Point, Grant had resigned from the army with a reputation for drunkenness to fall into poverty as a farmer; he barely got back into the army in 1861 as second choice for colonel of the Twenty-first Illinois Infantry. A reputation for thirst still dogged him.

  Hooker, Joseph “Fighting Joe”—Federal major general; West Point class of 1837; born in Massachusetts of New England elite; glittering Mexican War record; intensely ambitious. Hooker spent most of 1861 to 1863 on the eastern front, where he took a lackluster turn commanding the Army of the Potomac.

  Johnson, Bushrod Rust—West Point–educated Confederate brigadier general from Ohio. Johnson’s self-obscured past included helping his Quaker brothers deliver fugitive slaves up the Underground Railroad and getting cashiered from the army for a smuggling scheme in Mexico. A college professor who kept his own counsel after returning to military life, he escaped surrender at Fort Donelson after two days of hiding out among other prisoners.

  Johnston, Albert Sidney—Confederate western commander; Jefferson Davis’s favorite soldier. A Kentucky native, Johnston had headed the army of the Texas Republic; when Texas joined the Union, he became colonel of the celebrated Second US Cavalry on the frontier. While commanding the Confederacy’s huge Department No. 2, he became reviled after retreating from Kentucky to Alabama following the Union victories at Forts Henry and Donelson.

  Johnston, Joseph E.—Confederate full general; non-Tidewater Virginian. Johnston enjoyed wide popularity that obscured his intense ambition for high rank. He protested to Jefferson
Davis that he deserved supremacy among the generals of the Confederacy, instead of the fifth slot Davis had given him. A brilliant executor of West Point dogma, he was excellent at defense but hesitant to attack.

  Kountz, William J.—Union river transportation official; whisky-hating Pittsburgh steamboat magnate with connections to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and Union general in chief George B. McClellan. Kountz became Grant’s director of river transport in late 1861. He filed charges of drunkenness against Grant on the eve of the Henry-Donelson campaign. Grant, before leaving on the campaign, ordered him fired and arrested.

  Lee, Stephen D.—Young, rising Confederate artillery officer; born in secession’s cradle, Charleston, South Carolina; 1854 graduate of West Point. An artillerist in the prewar army, Lee began his Confederate career on the eastern front on the staff of General Beauregard.

  Logan, John A. “Black Jack”—One of Grant’s favorite brigadiers; prewar southern Illinois congressman instrumental in persuading his Southern-leaning district to back the Union. Logan became a hard-fighting colonel and, after Shiloh, a brigadier general. He acquired his nickname from the color of his hair and eyes.

  Longstreet, James—Confederate major general; born in South Carolina; West Pointer. An in-law of Grant who served in Grant’s wedding, Longstreet spent most of his service on the eastern front, where Robert E. Lee called him his “Old War Horse.”

  McArthur, John—Union brigadier general; native Scot. The son of a blacksmith, McArthur founded Excelsior Iron Works in Chicago. His brigade fought with more gallantry than success at Fort Donelson, where it was the rightmost unit on a Federal right wing that was crushed and rolled up by the Confederate assault on the battle’s final day.

  McClellan, George B.—Federal general in chief; Philadelphia native; scion of an elite family; West Pointer. McClellan had been outraged to see Grant drunk on duty in the antebellum army. He left the prewar army to become a railroad entrepreneur. After Fort Sumter, he reentered the service and succeeded aging Winfield Scott as general in chief. He was a wonderful organizer, outfitter, and driller of armies but a timid fighter of them.

  McClernand, John A.—Union brigadier general; prewar southern Illinois congressman; sometime courtroom associate of prairie lawyer Abraham Lincoln. Very friendly and encouraging to Kountz, the filer of drunkenness charges against Grant, McClernand seemed incessantly to seek Grant’s job, often by duplicitous means.

  McPherson, James B.—Union colonel; brilliant young engineer; graduated first in the West Point class of 1853. Henry Halleck sent McPherson to Grant (who already had an engineer) during the Henry-Donelson campaign to clandestinely monitor Grant’s drinking. The two Ohioans immediately took a liking to each other. Grant asked for McPherson’s permanent transfer to his army, where he became, with Sherman, one of Grant’s two foremost favorites.

  Morgan, John Hunt—Confederate cavalry colonel; independent raider par excellence. Alabama-born and Kentucky-educated, Morgan was a Lexington, Kentucky, businessman when the war opened. Utterly fearless, he preferred independent command to working in subordinate positions with higher-ranking commanders.

  Morton, John W., Jr.—Boyish twenty-one-year-old Confederate artillerist; cultivated son of a Nashville physician. Morton performed with heroism at Fort Donelson, where he was captured; after his exchange, he sought service with Forrest, who had refused to participate in the Donelson surrender.

  Pemberton, John C.—Confederate major general. Philadelphia-born but Southern-leaning even during his cadetship at West Point, Pemberton graduated twenty-seventh of fifty in 1837. He was a warm friend of Jefferson Davis, who first gave him command of the Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. His friendship with Davis, more than talent, influenced his rise.

  Polk, Leonidas—Confederate major general. Although a West Pointer, Polk had no army experience prior to 1861. On graduation he had become an Episcopal cleric, and he was bishop of the Southwest when the war opened. He owed his high Confederate commands to closeness with Jefferson Davis since their West Point days together. Whatever his ministerial qualities, his soldierly performance was at best plodding.

  Rawlins, John A.—Union captain; Grant chief of staff; prewar attorney and fellow townsman of Grant in Galena, Illinois; impassioned partisan in behalf of Grant and equally impassioned foe of the bottle; generally considered the only person besides Grant’s wife, Julia, from whom the general would tolerate discussion of his drinking.

  Rosecrans, William S.—Union major general; West Pointer, graduating fifth in the class of 1838. Commissioned a brigadier general in May 1861, Rosecrans fought well in West Virginia under George McClellan before coming west. He was an excellent planner of strategy but high-strung, nervous, and erratic in battle.

  Sherman, William Tecumseh “Cump”—Union major general; son of an Ohio Supreme Court justice; foster son of Ohio US senator Thomas Ewing; member of the elite. Sherman fought with valor at the First Battle of Bull Run or Manassas. He suffered a condition resembling a nervous breakdown while commanding in Kentucky in 1861 and, described as “crazy” by newspapers, was reassigned at his own request. After being gently returned to duty in early 1862 by Henry Halleck, he started to become Grant’s best friend by waiving his higher rank and subordinating himself to push supplies forward to Grant at Fort Donelson.

  Smith, Charles Ferguson—Federal brigadier general; one of the US Army’s most eminent antebellum officers; Philadelphia-born career soldier; one of Grant’s instructors at West Point and his most valued—and valuable—confidant in 1861 and early 1862. At Fort Donelson, Smith’s assault breached the Confederate lines and brought on the surrender. His advice to offer no terms except unconditional surrender made Grant a popular sensation.

  Smith, William F. “Baldy”—Union colonel; member of the staff of General Irvin McDowell at the First Battle of Bull Run; Vermont-born West Pointer, graduating fourth in the class of 1845; exceptional engineer officer who spent the war’s first half on the eastern front and was a close friend of General in Chief McClellan.

  Streight, Abel—Federal colonel; Indiana transplant from a rural New York farm via a ten-year sojourn in Cincinnati; daring. With little education, Streight became a miller, then a lumberman and a carpenter. On the eve of war, he wrote a pamphlet strongly espousing unionism and was appointed colonel of the Fifty-first Indiana Infantry.

  Thomas, George H.—Federal major general; born to Virginia slaveholders; stolid and intensely honorable, but somewhat stiff-necked and quietly aloof. Sherman’s roommate at West Point, Thomas graduated twelfth in their class, six places behind Sherman. He was first-ranked below Sherman in Kentucky in 1861. He won the obscure but highly important Battle of Mill Springs or Logan’s Crossroads in Kentucky in January 1862.

  Van Dorn, Earl—Mississippi plantation scion; West Pointer, graduating fifty-second in a class of fifty-six; antebellum career soldier; brave and dashing, but more attentive to other men’s wives than to his own or to such vital military duties as reconnaissance; another Jefferson Davis friend and favorite.

  Wallace, Lewis “Lew”—Union major general; antebellum attorney; son of an Indiana governor. Along with John McClernand, Wallace was one of the two Grant subordinates who appeared most thirsty for glory and whose political connections seemed to make Grant most wary. As commander he took it upon himself to go to the aid of McClernand’s collapsing division, thereby saving what was left of Grant’s right wing on the climactic day at Fort Donelson.

  Wharton, John A.—Nashville-born Confederate colonel leading the hard-fighting Eighth Texas Cavalry; hot-headed but polished; educated at South Carolina College; member of the Texas Secession Convention.

  Wheeler, Joseph—Twenty-six-year-old Confederate infantry colonel in early 1862; Georgia-born son of a Connecticut-rooted Augusta banker. Wheeler spent portions of his early life in Connecticut and New York City and graduated near the bottom of his West Point class. Dashing and fearless but officious and humorless, he would become an errati
c cavalry leader.

  INTRODUCTION

  SCOUTING THE GROUND

  Bloody autumn, 1863. After a disastrous summer, the Confederate States of America’s prospects were fading fast.

  Defeat had dogged its armies. Starved-out Vicksburg, the Confederacy’s last hold on the Mississippi River, fell to Ulysses S. Grant in July, a day after George Pickett’s annihilated charge crowned Robert E. Lee’s crushing defeat at Gettysburg. Down a vital railroad connecting Lee’s Virginia base to its Deep Dixie breadbasket, the valiant but ill-led Army of Tennessee won a September victory at Chickamauga in Georgia, sending its Union foe fleeing to Chattanooga. But the Confederate commander, General Braxton Bragg, had pursued laxly, and the Federals had entrenched. And Nathan Bedford Forrest neared the end of his patience.

  Forrest was a violent, unschooled, but brilliant brigadier general of cavalry. He had a lengthening record of battlefield wizardry and an obsessive will to win, and he had urged Bragg to stay on the Federals’ heels after Chickamauga. When Bragg did not, Forrest rode to headquarters to find out why—and returned still puzzled. “What does he fight his battles for?” aides overheard him mutter.1

  Having risen from a leased Mississippi hill farm to self-proclaimed millionaire status before the war, Forrest had seen his fierce intelligence and much Confederate blood squandered by Bragg and other high-toned Southern aristocrats and West Pointers. For most of the seventeen months that Bragg had commanded the Confederacy’s primary western army, he had demeaned and slighted Forrest. Influenced by the wife whose immense family wealth he had married into, Bragg disliked Tennesseans, regarding those in his ranks as unreliable, and Forrest had been born and raised in the Tennessee backwoods before becoming a Memphis businessman. He also was a volunteer, a soldier class that Bragg the professional held in sour contempt.2