This Date 1865 with the Army of Tennessee (new stuff)

[larry_cockerham]

January 13, 1865 No orders of importance.

From the History of the 33rd Mississippi:

On 13 Jan 1865 the men moved the camp 3 to 4 miles south and camped near the railroad at Verona, Mississippi. It had been raining and sleeting almost constantly for several days. The remainder of January, 1865, was spent moving from Verona to Okolona to West Point, and then to *******n.

[larry_cockerham]

January 14, 1865 General Beauregard arrived at Tupelo, on visit to the army, late at night. Union Cavalry under General James Wilson arrived at Gravelly Springs, Alabama this same day. The 5th Division, 1st Brigade US moved from Waterloo, AL to Gravelly Springs, AL and remained there during the month.

January 15, 1865 A system for furloughing the Confederate troops was established. (See General Orders, No. 1, 1865, and circular letter to corps commanders, field dispatches, N. 542.) On this day Samuel Robinson of the 63rd Virginia wrote a letter to his wife from Tupelo, Mississippi.

January 16, 1865 .--The army including Lee’s Corps still in same camp at and near Tupelo. Whit Parker must have been here.

[larry_cockerham]

January 17,1865 (Tuesday)

General Beauregard arrives in Tupelo with instructions, from Secretary Seddon, to grant General Hood's request to be relieved of command and to send as many troops "as may be spared" to Augusta, Georgia. Beauregard immediately approved a "judicious system of furloughs" for the men in Hood's army "to prevent disorder and desertion in [the] Army of Tennessee." John Bell Hood sends two dispatches to President Davis, one offering "to command a corps or division," and the second requesting that he be assigned "west of the Mississippi River." According to Hood, "I think I can be of more service there than east of the river."

Although Beauregard is satisfied that the army "requires immediate reorganization and consolidation" and believes that "to divide this small army at this juncture to re-enforce General Hardee would expose to capture Mobile, Demopolis, Selma, Montgomery, and all the rich valley of the Alabama River," he organizes the "first shipment of about 8,000 troops" for the long and arduous train ride to Georgia.

[larry_cockerham]

General Beauregard then wrote the following response:

TUPELO, January 17, 1865. (Received 3 o'clock 24th.) - Hon. J. A. SEDDON, Secretary of War:

Telegram of the 15th instant received. I will leave for Georgia and South Carolina soon as practicable after having placed General Taylor in command of the Army of Tennessee, and take, after conference with him, as many troops as can be spared from here.

G. T. BEAUREGARD.

[larry_cockerham]

Where were the 63rd and 54th Virginia in this logistical nightmare attempting to move 18,000 soldiers east at short notice? Calvin Livesay’s diary describes a train ride south. Apparently he and his immediate comrades had been separated from the main body of the regiment. If Whitfield Parker were an ineffective at that time, he would have stayed with the main wagon train and would have perhaps have required assistance in moving about. Placing these men on trains would have been the logical move. I suspect the 54th and 63rd Regiments went with the main body. More study will hopefully reveal the order the Corps were transported.

[larry_cockerham]

"Cump" Sherman gives instructions to General Howard regarding the next phase of their campaign. "As soon as possible we will cast off, and then for another cruise that will, in my judgment, do more to bring matters to a crisis than the last. Choose the best points you can find to land stores for Pocotaligo. Don't cross the Salkehatchie [River], but hold all the ground up to it, as though we intended to break across. The next movement I want the enemy to feel is from the left flank."

General Hardee informs President Davis of the latest movements of Sherman's army. "Enemy seems to be concentrating at Pocotaligo. A force reported to be moving up the Coosawhatchie." Hardee continues, "Deserters from the enemy concur in stating that the force which crossed at Port Royal Ferry, and which is now [in] vicinity of Pocotaligo, consists of Fifteenth and Seventeenth Army Corps; also that their destination is Charleston."

[larry_cockerham]

HEADQUARTERS CAVALRY CORPS, Near Steep Bottom Church, January 17, 1865--9.15 a.m. - General L. McLAWS, Commanding, near Salkehatchie Station:

- GENERAL: There were captured..., near Station No. O, three Yankee prisoners who belong to the Eighteenth Missouri Regiment, Sheldon's brigade, Mower's [division], Seventeenth Corps. They state that the Seventeenth Corps was near Station No. 6, and that the Fifteenth...is at Beaufort....They do not know the amount of artillery or number of wagons with them, but say their wagon train is small; say the talk in camp is that Charleston is their destination....They say the Fourth [Fourteenth] and Twentieth Corps were to march from Savannah to Charleston by the line of the railroad. A scouting party of about fifty men came up a short distance this side of Gillisonville yesterday, and was driven back toward Grahamville....

Respectfully, general, your obedient servant, J. WHEELER, Major-General.

[samgrant]

Larry, I just went to Wikipedia, and changed the "Confederate Army of Tennessee" entry from "The Confederate Army of the Tenessee was ..." to "The Confederate Army of Tenessee was..."

Never did a Wiki edit before.

If you look for the Army of Tennesse in Wikipedia, you will find ... not much. Maybe you would like to fill in that entry.

[rock city guard]

better than "army of the Tennessee"

[larry_cockerham]

Yep,

Army of Tennessee CSA = Johnston, Hood

Army of the Tennessee USA = Sherman