Billy1977
Sergeant
- Joined
- Mar 18, 2016
- Location
- Flippin, Arkansas (near Yellville)
Hello everybody, could someone tell me what would be technically correct as for the name of Grant's army at the time of the Battle of Shiloh? I've read that it was actually called the Army of West Tennessee because Grant's department name was Dept. of West Tennessee but then other places I've seen that supposedly the army was rarely called that and that even well before the name was officially adopted of the Army of the Tennessee (as in the river) later in 1862 (?) that it was earlier informally known as the "Army of the Tennessee".
Is that correct? It's weird because in the Official Records I've seen both names used simultaneously, that someone will have a message addressed to the headquarters of the Army of West Tennessee in early April 1862 and then in the order of battle for Shiloh it shows the order of battle for Grant's army as the "Army of the Tennessee". So what would be the exactly correct, technical name for it in that time period whereby nobody could then say that I messed up the name of it, that it was really called the other and that it looks amateurish of me to call it by that name?
Or could this be a case of the Official Records sort of "backdating" the name of it, using the later and much more familiar name of it in the same way I've seen them do with the ranks of certain people, say a Colonel So-and-so is at the Battle of Whatever and gets captured, so he's unable to write his after-action report until he's exchanged months later and in the interim he's been promoted to brigadier general so in the Official Records his report for the Battle of Whatever is listed as the report of Brig. Gen. So-and-so even though he was a colonel at the time of it? Maybe they did this with the Army of West Tennessee when it was later officially renamed the Army of the Tennessee, then they figured since it fought most of the war as the Army of the Tennessee let's just go ahead and "backdate" the name of it and call it that even though it was actually called the Army of West Tennessee at the time?
Many thanks to you experts.
Is that correct? It's weird because in the Official Records I've seen both names used simultaneously, that someone will have a message addressed to the headquarters of the Army of West Tennessee in early April 1862 and then in the order of battle for Shiloh it shows the order of battle for Grant's army as the "Army of the Tennessee". So what would be the exactly correct, technical name for it in that time period whereby nobody could then say that I messed up the name of it, that it was really called the other and that it looks amateurish of me to call it by that name?
Or could this be a case of the Official Records sort of "backdating" the name of it, using the later and much more familiar name of it in the same way I've seen them do with the ranks of certain people, say a Colonel So-and-so is at the Battle of Whatever and gets captured, so he's unable to write his after-action report until he's exchanged months later and in the interim he's been promoted to brigadier general so in the Official Records his report for the Battle of Whatever is listed as the report of Brig. Gen. So-and-so even though he was a colonel at the time of it? Maybe they did this with the Army of West Tennessee when it was later officially renamed the Army of the Tennessee, then they figured since it fought most of the war as the Army of the Tennessee let's just go ahead and "backdate" the name of it and call it that even though it was actually called the Army of West Tennessee at the time?
Many thanks to you experts.
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