Major General Thomas L. Crittenden (USV)

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Aug 27, 2016
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Hangzhou, China (Wisconsin, USA)
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Major General Thomas Leonidas Crittenden (USV)

Thomas Leonidas Crittenden was born in Russellville, Kentucky on 15 May 1819, the son of U.S. Senator John J. Crittenden. His brother, George, would become a Confederate general, and his cousin Thomas Turpin Crittenden was a fellow Union general. He married Catherine Todd, the daughter of his father’s second wife. Their son, John Jordan Crittenden III, served in the U.S. Army and died with Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876.

Crittenden was admitted to the bar and served in the U.S. Army during the Mexican-American War as a volunteer aide to General Zachary Taylor and as lieutenant colonel of the 3rd Kentucky Volunteer Infantry from 1847 to 1848. After the war’s end, he served as U.S. consul in Liverpool.

When the Civil War began in 1861, Kentucky declared its neutrality. Crittenden and his father remained loyal to the Union, but his brother joined the Confederate Army. Thomas was appointed brigadier general of volunteers in September and placed in command of the 5th Division in the Army of the Ohio. He fought at the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862. After Shiloh, he was appointed major general of volunteers and commanded the II Corps in the Army of the Ohio during the Perryville Campaign.

When Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans assumed command of the army, Crittenden’s forces were re-designated the Left Wing of the Army of the Cumberland and were heavily engaged at the Battle of Stones River. He received a brevet promotion to brigadier general in the regular army in 1867 for his service at Stones River. The Army of the Cumberland was reorganized, and his corps was renamed the XXI Corps. He led the corps through the Tullahoma Campaign and at the Battle of Chickamauga. Crittenden and fellow corps commander Alexander McDowell McCook were blamed for the defeat and relieved of command, but both were later exonerated and cleared of any charges.

During the Battle of Spotsylvania in 1864, Brig. Gen. Thomas G. Stevenson was killed leading the 1st Division, IX Corps. He was immediately replaced by Col. Daniel Leasure, but the decision was made to replace the colonel with a more experienced commander and Crittenden took command of the division on 12 May. He led the division through the Battle of Cold Harbor, before resigning on 13 December 1864.

After the war, Crittenden served as the state treasurer of Kentucky and was appointed colonel and then brevetted brigadier general in the regular army before retiring in 1881. He was elected a member of the Maryland Society of the Cincinnati in 1883. He was also a veteran companion of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. He died in Annadale, Staten Island, New York on 23 October 1893.

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