The National tribune., 1892-09-08
CUMBERLAND ARMY.
a Comrade Does Not Think il was "SIov
by Habit"

a Comrade Does Not Think il was "sIow
by Habit
EDITOR NATIONAL TRIBUNE:
c~SN your issue of June 16 Comrade G. E.
| GSE9 Doton, of st. Louis, Mo-, brings for
| %SkS3 ward the letter of Gen. Sherman to
! "a Gen. Grant, bearing date June Is, 1864
| e0U'o as a probable cause for the desire to
supersede Gen. Thomas at Nashville in Decem-
Der, 1864
The statement of Gen. Sherman that the
Army of the Cumberland was dreadfully
slow, and slow by habit" should be refuted,
even if the remark was made by our old COM
| mander.
The letters and general orders of command
ers will be read and studied by millions OF
readers whose knowledge of the armies must
necessarily be gained from the reports of the
commanders and all readers are not careful to
investigate and prove the correctness of un-
official letters.
Let us recapitulate, and see if that statement
will bear investigation. The writer was among
the number who assembled at Louisville, KY.
in November, 1861, as an enlisted man, and
was with the army continuously until Novem-
Der, 1865, serving in all four years and nearly
two months. Consequently was in the service
in that department before the organization of
the Army of tho Cumberland, aud was still in
service when the Army of the Cumberland was
disbanded and scattered or mustered out.
When we left Louisville, in November, 1861,
and went South. wintering on the Cumberland
River. and in the Spring marched west to join
Grants army at Pittsburg Landing, where we
rendered aid TO Grant land Sherman as welD,
wrestling victory from their defeat we did so
with no other protection than our flannel
biouses. 1t would have been display of gen.
eralship had there been line of earthworks to
protect their front previous to the advance of
the rebel army.
We will now follow the Army of the Cum
berlaBd through all its marchings and counter
marchings out TO Corinth, Miss, and down
across Alabama, Tennessee. Kentucky, and
again south through Kentucky and Tennessee;
with al its retreats, skirmshes, battles at
Perryville Stone River, Crab Orchard, Liberty
Gap, Shelbyville, Tullahoma, Chattanooga, and
on out to Chickamauga. And where, tell Us,
was the line of earthworlls, the rifc-pits, the
slow movements, habitually slow? Sherman
must have made the discovery at Missionary
Ridge, when with his numerous divisions
and division from Rockers Corps, and one
from Changers Corps, he was three days
Ranking, fighting, pounding and being pounded,
without moving the enemy away from his po-
sition, while the Army of the Cumberland
stood by and looked on, with the fight all
gone out of them, as was supposed, until at
800 on the last days battle, when the four di
visions of Baird, Wood, johnson, and Sheridan
moved out and over two lines of rebel fortifi-
cations and up the nights of Missionary Ridge;
and accomplished in less than two hours. with
half the force, more than Sherman with his
three days of battling. There was nothing
slow in that.
The Army of the Cumberland might have
retired with great honors then and there.
What it could not do was not discovered dur
ing the war. 1t was not until the following
Spring, when Gen. Sherman took command of
u.s. that orders were issued by him which
CURED us to carry our intrenching tools on
the march and not in the wagons previously,
the number. kind, etc, being assigned to each
company, and for which the privates in ranks
were held responsible.
vile with the Fourth and Twenty third Corps,
a few untried colored troops, and the promise
OF another corps, it was apparently az senseless
an act IN military science as can be imagined.
Sherman himself left us with this insignif-
cant force to meet and defeat Hoods army,
that had opposed him from Chattanooga to At
lanta, lasting from May l, 1864, until Sept g
1864, his army being composed of seven we'll
equipped corps. When he left for Savannah
he took with him the Fourteenth, Twentieth,
Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Corps
and large body of cavalry, with only small
force of rebels in front of him. He left
Thomas TO annihilate the army that had baffied
him or eluded capture for four months.
The work we did at Columbia, Spring HILL
Franklin, and Nashville was not slow, and the
Army of the Cumberland can we'll afford to
ignore the imputation.
The letter of June Is, 1864, was uncalled for
and unofficial, and, even if it could be proven
as the basis for Grants desire to remove
Thomas must certainly detract largely from
the reputation Of both Grant and Sherman
JACOB REP Co. G. 18th Ohio