Army of Central Kentucky

Last updated

Army of Central Kentucky
Army of kentucky banner.svg
Battle flag of the army
ActiveSeptember 18, 1861–March 29, 1862 [1]
DisbandedIncorporated into Army of the Mississippi March 29, 1862
CountryFlag of the Confederate States of America (1861-1863).svg  Confederate States of America
BranchBattle flag of the Confederate States of America (1-1).svg  Confederate States Army
TypeField army
Engagements Battle of Belmont
Battle of Fort Henry
Battle of Fort Donelson
Commanders
Notable
commanders
Simon B. Buckner
Albert S. Johnston
William J. Hardee

The Army of Central Kentucky was a military organization within Department No. 2 (the Western Department of the Confederate States of America). Originally called the Army Corps of Central Kentucky, it was created in the fall of 1861 as a subsection of Department No. 2, and continued in existence until the end of March 1862 when it was absorbed and merged into the Army of Mississippi, which was then re-organized as the Army of Tennessee on November 20, 1862.

Contents

Background

The Department No. 2 (Western Department) was created on June 25, 1861, under the command of Maj. Gen. Leonidas Polk, and had military jurisdiction and control over parts of Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. On September 2, 1861, the department was expanded to include all of Arkansas and military operations in the state of Missouri, and then on September 10 the area was expanded again to include all of Arkansas, Tennessee, more of Mississippi, and all military operations in Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, and any Indian territories rallying to the Confederate cause west of Arkansas and Missouri.

Command under Brigadier General Simon B. Buckner

Brig. Gen. Buckner assumed command of all forces in central Kentucky during September 1861 after having first served as a major general and commander of the Kentucky Militia. The forces were organized into two divisions with a reserve force. Later a third division under Brig. Gen. John B. Floyd was added. After Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston took command, Buckner continued to command a division of the Army of Central Kentucky at Bowling Green and Fort Donelson, where he surrendered. After being exchanged in August 1862, Buckner was promoted to major general and commanded a division with these same forces in the Army of Mississippi under the leadership of Gen. Braxton Bragg.

Command under General Albert S. Johnston

Gen. Johnston was in command of the Army of Central Kentucky from October 28, 1861, until March 29, 1862, with the exception of a two-week temporary command by Hardee in December. The area of operation for this army was designated as the part of Tennessee north of the Cumberland River and that part of Kentucky west of where the Cumberland River entered Tennessee to the east. On December 26, 1861, part of the Army of the Kanawha was added. On March 29, 1862, the army at about 23,000 men strong was merged into the Army of the Mississippi in preparation for the Battle of Shiloh.

Command under Major General William J. Hardee

Maj. Gen. Hardee took temporary command of the army from December 4 to December 18, 1861.

Notes

  1. Boatner, Mark Mayo, III. The Civil War Dictionary. page 455

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albert Sidney Johnston</span> American army general (1803–1862)

Albert Sidney Johnston was an American military officer who served as a general in three different armies: the Texian Army, the United States Army, and the Confederate States Army. He saw extensive combat during his 34-year military career, fighting actions in the Black Hawk War, the Texas-Indian Wars, the Mexican–American War, the Utah War, and the American Civil War, where he died on the battlefield.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simon Bolivar Buckner</span> Confederate Army general and American politician (1823–1914)

Simon Bolivar Buckner was an American soldier, Confederate military officer, and politician. He fought in the United States Army in the Mexican–American War. He later fought in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. After the war, he served as the 30th governor of Kentucky.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Stones River</span> Major battle of the American Civil War

The Battle of Stones River, also known as the Second Battle of Murfreesboro, was fought from December 31, 1862, to January 2, 1863, in Middle Tennessee, as the culmination of the Stones River Campaign in the Western Theater of the American Civil War. Of the major battles of the war, Stones River had the highest percentage of casualties on both sides. The battle ended in Union victory after the Confederate army's withdrawal on January 3, largely due to a series of tactical miscalculations by Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg, but the victory was costly for the Union army. Nevertheless, it was an important victory for the Union because it provided a much-needed boost in morale after the Union's recent defeat at Fredericksburg and also reinforced President Abraham Lincoln's foundation for issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, which ultimately discouraged European powers from intervening on the Confederacy's behalf.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William J. Hardee</span> Confederate general and businessman

William Joseph Hardee was a career U.S. Army and Confederate States Army officer. For the U.S. Army, he served in the Second Seminole War and in the Mexican–American War, where he was captured and exchanged. In the American Civil War, he sided with the South and became a general. Hardee served in the Western Theater and quarreled sharply with two of his commanding officers, Braxton Bragg and John Bell Hood. He served in the Atlanta Campaign of 1864 and the Carolinas Campaign of 1865, where he surrendered with General Joseph E. Johnston to William Tecumseh Sherman in April. Hardee's writings about military tactics were widely used on both sides in the conflict.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Fort Henry</span> 1862 battle of the American Civil War in Tennessee

The Battle of Fort Henry was fought on February 6, 1862, in Stewart County, Tennessee, during the American Civil War. It was the first important victory for the Union and Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in the Western Theater.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel Ryan Curtis</span> American Union Army general (1805–1866)

Samuel Ryan Curtis was an American military officer and one of the first Republicans elected to Congress. He was most famous for his role as a Union Army general in the Trans-Mississippi Theater of the American Civil War, especially for his victories at the Battles of Pea Ridge in 1862 and Westport in 1864.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Army of Tennessee</span> Field army of the Confederate States Army

The Army of Tennessee was the principal Confederate army operating between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River during the American Civil War. Named for the State of Tennessee, It was formed in the same state in late 1862 and fought until the end of the war in 1865, participating in most of the significant battles in the Western Theater.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Army of the Tennessee</span> Unit of the Union Army during the American Civil War

The Army of the Tennessee was a Union army in the Western Theater of the American Civil War, named for the Tennessee River. A 2005 study of the army states that it "was present at most of the great battles that became turning points of the war—Fort Donelson, Vicksburg, and Atlanta" and "won the decisive battles in the decisive theater of the war."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Perryville</span> 1862 battle of the American Civil War

The Battle of Perryville, also known as the Battle of Chaplin Hills, was fought on October 8, 1862, in the Chaplin Hills west of Perryville, Kentucky, as the culmination of the Confederate Heartland Offensive during the American Civil War. Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg's Army of Mississippi initially won a tactical victory against primarily a single corps of Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell's Union Army of the Ohio. The battle is considered a strategic Union victory, sometimes called the Battle for Kentucky, since Bragg withdrew to Tennessee soon thereafter. The Union retained control of the critical border state of Kentucky for the remainder of the war.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tullahoma campaign</span> Military campaign of the American Civil War

The Tullahoma campaign was a military operation conducted from June 24 to July 3, 1863, by the Union Army of the Cumberland under Maj. Gen. William Rosecrans, and is regarded as one of the most brilliant maneuvers of the American Civil War. Its effect was to drive the Confederates out of Middle Tennessee and to threaten the strategic city of Chattanooga.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Belmont</span> Battle of the American Civil War

The Battle of Belmont was fought on November 7, 1861, in Mississippi County, Missouri. It was the first combat test in the American Civil War for Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, the future Union Army general in chief and eventual U.S. president, who was fighting Major General Leonidas Polk. Grant's troops in this battle were the "nucleus" of what would become the Union Army of the Tennessee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Mill Springs</span> Part of the American Civil War

The Battle of Mill Springs, also known as the Battle of Fishing Creek in the Confederacy, and the Battle of Logan's Cross Roads or Battle of Somerset in the Union, was fought in Wayne and Pulaski counties, near the current unincorporated community of Nancy, Kentucky, on January 19, 1862, as part of the American Civil War. The Union victory concluded an early Confederate offensive campaign in south central Kentucky.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander P. Stewart</span> Confederate general, mathematician and philosopher

Alexander Peter Stewart was a Confederate military officer during the American Civil War and a college professor. He fought in many of the most significant battles in the Western Theater of the war and briefly took command of the Army of Tennessee in 1865.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western theater of the American Civil War</span> American Civil War area of operations

The western theater of the American Civil War encompassed major military operations in the states of Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, Kentucky, South Carolina and Tennessee, as well as Louisiana east of the Mississippi River. Operations on the coasts of these states, except for Mobile Bay, are considered part of the Lower Seaboard Theater. Most other operations east of the Appalachian Mountains are part of the eastern theater. Operations west of the Mississippi River took place in the trans-Mississippi theater.

The trans-Mississippi theater of the American Civil War was the scene of the major military operations west of the Mississippi River. The area is often thought of as excluding the states and territories bordering the Pacific Ocean, which formed the Pacific coast theater of the American Civil War (1861–1865).

The Department of the Ohio was an administrative military district created by the United States War Department early in the American Civil War to administer the troops in the Northern states near the Ohio River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">S. A. M. Wood</span> American politician

Sterling Alexander Martin Wood commonly referred to as S.A.M. Wood, was an American lawyer and newspaper editor from Alabama. He served as a Confederate general during the American Civil War until 1863, and resumed practicing law, served as a state legislator, and later taught law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chattanooga campaign</span> 1863 series of battles of the American Civil War

The Chattanooga campaign was a series of maneuvers and battles in October and November 1863, during the American Civil War. Following the defeat of Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans's Union Army of the Cumberland at the Battle of Chickamauga in September, the Confederate Army of Tennessee under Gen. Braxton Bragg besieged Rosecrans and his men by occupying key high terrain around Chattanooga, Tennessee. Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant was given command of Union forces in the West which was now consolidated under the Division of the Mississippi. Significant reinforcements also began to arrive with him in Chattanooga from Mississippi and the Eastern Theater. On October 18, Grant removed Rosecrans from command of the Army of the Cumberland and replaced him with Major General George Henry Thomas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George B. Cosby</span> Confederate States Army general

George Blake Cosby was a Confederate general during the American Civil War. He was an 1852 graduate of the United States Military Academy and served in the United States Army until May 10, 1861. After the war he farmed in California, worked as aa sutler in Oregon and held several government positions.

Clark's Missouri Battery was an artillery battery that served in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.

References