Don Carlos Buell: Difference between revisions

{{Quote|General Buell was a brave, intelligent officer, with as much professional pride and ambition of a commendable sort as I ever knew. ... [He] became an object of harsh criticism later, some going so far as to challenge his loyalty. No one who knew him ever believed him capable of a dishonorable act, and nothing could be more dishonorable than to accept high rank and command in war and then betray the trust. When I came into command of the army in 1864, I requested the Secretary of War to restore General Buell to duty. ... The opportunity frequently occurred for me to defend General Buell against what I believed to be most unjust charges. On one occasion a correspondent put in my mouth the very charge I had so often refuted—of disloyalty. This brought from General Buell a very severe retort, which I saw in the New York World some time before I received the letter itself. I could very well understand his grievance at seeing untrue and disgraceful charges apparently sustained by an officer who, at the time, was at the head of the army. I replied to him, but not through the press. I kept no copy of my letter, nor did I ever see it in print; neither did I receive an answer.<ref>Grant, vol. 1, pp. 295-96.</ref>}}

 

In September, Confederate armies under [[Edmund Kirby Smith]] and [[Braxton Bragg]] invaded Kentucky and Buell was forced to take action. Buell wired Halleck that he planned to march on [[Louisville, Kentucky|Louisville]], but Halleck, already frustrated with his glacial movements in Tennessee, replied back that he did not care where Buell marched just as long as he was doing something to take the fight to the enemy. The Kentucky campaign did have the effect of re-energizing Buell's demoralized soldiers who were excited to finally be going somewhere and march into a state that had been mostly untouched by war. Louisville was occupied by the Army of the Ohio on September 25, but despite learning that Bragg's army was in nearby [[Munfordville]], Buell, convinced that he was outnumbered, declined to pursue Bragg. A single corps of Buell's army was attacked by Bragg at the [[Battle of Perryville]] on October 8, 1862, while Buell, a couple of miles behind the action, was not aware that a battle was taking place until late in the day and thus did not effectively engage the full strength of his army to defeat the smaller enemy force. Buell was urged by his officers to counterattack the next day, but he refused on the grounds that he did not know exactly how many Confederates he was facing. By morning, Bragg ordered a retreat from the field. Although Perryville was tactically indecisive, it halted the Confederate invasion of Kentucky and forced their withdrawal back into Tennessee.