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The
Army of the Cumberland began life as a collection of
Midwestern and upper-South unionist regiments in central
Kentucky under the overall command of William Tecumseh
Sherman. After Sherman suffered a mental breakdown in
late 1861, Don Carlos Buell was named as his replacement,
while his force became known as the Army of the Ohio.
Under that name, the army captured Nashville (after
U.S. Grant had occupied Forts Henry and Donelson), participated
in the Battle of Shiloh and the siege of Corinth, and
conducted the Union’s most important offensive
operation in the western theater in summer 1862—the
drive on Chattanooga. This same army would retreat rapidly
to northern Kentucky in response to Braxton Bragg’s
invasion of that state in late summer. Buell’s
mixed performance at the resultant Battle of Perryville,
and his failure to follow up on Bragg’s retreat,
caused the Northern commander to be replaced in October
1862 by William S. Rosecrans. With this shift in command,
the name of the army itself was changed to Army of the
Cumberland by War Department order.
Operating as an independent command, the Army of the
Cumberland would participate in three major actions.
In December 1862, it fought Braxton Bragg’s Confederate
Army of Tennessee to a standstill at Stones River, causing
the Southern commander to retreat to Tullahoma. The
following summer, it maneuvered Bragg’s Confederate
army completely out of Middle Tennessee in the Tullahoma
Campaign. Finally, the Army of the Cumberland moved
south of the Confederate forces defending Chattanooga
in September 1863, but was nearly annihilated at the
Battle of Chickamauga late in that month. The Army of
the Cumberland then retreated to Chattanooga, where
it was besieged by Bragg’s forces. Other Union
forces came to join Rosecrans’ troops there (Rosecrans
himself was replaced as commander by George H. Thomas),
and the siege was raised in November. In the spring
and summer of 1864, the Cumberland force, though still
designated an independent command, fought in the Atlanta
Campaign as part of a group of armies under William
Tecumseh Sherman. Later, units from the army, under
Thomas’ command, would take part in the Battle
of Nashville in December 1864. |
