The Smoke at Dawn: A Novel of the Civil War (2 page)

I am frequently asked about the sources for research for these stories. The following is a
partial
list of the original voices whose firsthand accounts were of considerable help in completing this story.

My deepest appreciation to the following, who contributed invaluable information and assistance:

My sincerest thanks to the following historians whose published works proved extremely useful in the telling of this story:

By mid-1863, the Civil War has turned decidedly in favor of the Union. In July of that year, Federal forces win two monumental victories, at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and Vicksburg, Mississippi. Gettysburg is far closer to the great media centers of the day, including Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Richmond. Thus, most of the public’s attention is drawn to the events there, including the astounding casualty count. More than fifty thousand soldiers are killed, wounded, or missing, after a three-day fight that many now believe will prevent Southern forces under Robert E. Lee from ever again challenging any Union army for dominance on the field. With so much newspaper and photographic coverage of Gettysburg, overlooked by many is what the capture of the Mississippi River town of Vicksburg has done to Southern fortunes. Whereas Gettysburg crushes Lee’s hopes to end the war by posing a threat to Washington, D.C., the North’s victory at Vicksburg accomplishes three things that in the long term have a far greater impact. With unobstructed control of the Mississippi River, Federal armies can now travel freely from the great cities of the North and Midwest directly to the Gulf of Mexico. Supplies and equipment can be fed to Federal forces now in nearly every part of the South, and there is very little that Confederate armies can do about it. Worse for the Confederacy, they lose the enormously valuable lifeline of men and resources from those states beyond the river, including Texas, Arkansas, and most of Louisiana. But there is another notable story told at Vicksburg, as important to the outcome of the war as the battle itself. It is the ascendancy of the Federal commander there, Ulysses S. Grant.

For two miserable years, Abraham Lincoln has struggled to find a general,
any
general, with the ability to confront his Confederate counterparts, and
win
. Though the Northern armies have on occasion been victorious, none of the Federal commanders can drive home those successes in a way that brings the war to an end. Some, especially in the East, fall flat on their faces, in stunning defeats where Federal forces greatly outman and outgun their adversaries.

West of the Appalachian Mountains, it is a different story. The enormously superior resources of the Union overpower what the Confederacy can put in the field. So far removed from Richmond, the Confederate commanders are often given second-class status by their leadership, denied supplies and manpower adequate to hold the Federal armies away.

For much of the war, both sides are concerned with a game of “capture the flag,” as though by either capturing or preserving the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, the war will be won or lost. In the West, the conflict rarely involves major cities at all. In 1862, the bloodiest battle yet fought on American soil takes place at Shiloh, in southern Tennessee, where no real town even exists. The crucial city of Nashville, Tennessee, is surrendered by the Confederates without a fight, and Memphis and New Orleans fall into Federal hands by the superior strategies and maneuvers of the Federal navy. At first, President Lincoln is no more impressed by the Federal commanders out west than he is by McClellan, Burnside, Pope, and Hooker. Early in the war, the Federal armies west of the mountains are commanded by Henry Halleck, and despite several victories, Halleck proves unable to press home his successes, allowing Confederate forces to rally and rally again. Lincoln recognizes that Halleck, though a capable administrator, is not a warrior. In mid-1862, after Halleck squanders the enormous Federal victory at Shiloh, he is called to Washington to serve as Lincoln’s chief adjutant general, a role that seems far more suited to his talents. After his success at Shiloh, Ulysses Grant is elevated in Halleck’s place. The next twelve months prove to Lincoln that his decision is the right one. Grant’s star continues to shine, reaching a pinnacle after the fall of Vicksburg, where Grant accepts the surrender of thirty thousand Confederate troops.

In the cities of the North, the twin victories in mid-1863 produce a euphoria that the end of the war is a simple inevitability, that Southern hopes have been crushed. But dangerous Confederate armies still roam the great middle ground between the mountains and the Mississippi.

Grant’s authority does not extend into eastern Tennessee. That command rests in the hands of Major General William Starke Rosecrans. During the 1840s, while most of his West Point contemporaries earn valuable combat experience in the Mexican War, Old Rosy, as his troops call him, pursues a career in academia, becoming a professor of engineering at the United States Military Academy. But his reputation is sound, and at the start of the war he immediately goes into service as subordinate to George McClellan. Rising through the ranks, Rosecrans is given command of the Army of the Cumberland, following a poor performance by Don Carlos Buell. Rosecrans now commands an area that includes eastern Tennessee, and parts of Alabama and Mississippi. But Rosecrans is a man who studies details better than he relates to his fellow officers. His unfortunate temperament makes enemies, including Grant, and Rosecrans never receives the attention, nor the respect, he feels he deserves.

His adversary is Confederate lieutenant general Braxton Bragg, who has risen to command following the death of his superior, Albert Sidney Johnston, killed at Shiloh. Bragg’s reputation has been built upon a solid foundation of discipline, and his own troops learn to fear the severity of his punishment for offenses common to any army. But the Confederate troops benefit enormously from Bragg’s discipline, and become an effective fighting force, easily capable of handling itself in the face of any Federal army. Still, he is never embraced by his officers, and survives in his position only because of his friendship with Confederate president Jefferson Davis. Like Rosecrans, Bragg is difficult at best, and is quick to pass negative judgment on his colleagues, which damages his ability to supply his army or gain preferential treatment when his campaigns require it. That kind of dismissal only adds to Bragg’s hostility toward the ranking commanders throughout other theaters of the war.

Rosecrans faces off against Bragg at the Battle of Stones River, near Murfreesboro, Tennessee, over the New Year 1863. The battle is one of the bloodiest of the war, and though Rosecrans claims victory, neither side dominates the other. The victory in many ways is handed to Rosecrans, as Bragg chooses to retreat southward, though Confederate forces prove superior in many of the battle’s engagements. For the next six months, neither man makes an aggressive move, inspiring vigorous protests from their respective governments.

In June 1863, Rosecrans finally moves, and engineers a tactically brilliant deception around Bragg’s army that causes Bragg to abandon the city of Chattanooga. But Rosecrans’s great triumph is severely overshadowed in the press and among Northern civilians by the twin victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg. Rosecrans takes advantage of the momentum he has been given, and flush with confidence, he pursues Bragg into Georgia. Both armies now stumble into confused maneuvering and inept positioning, caused by incompetence among commanders, as well as the difficult mountainous terrain. By September 1863, the two armies settle down to face each other west of Dalton, Georgia, along Chickamauga Creek. The resulting bloodbath severely weakens both armies, but when Rosecrans makes a catastrophic blunder in repositioning his lines, Bragg’s field commanders, notably James Longstreet, take advantage. The result is the complete collapse of the main Federal position, and a stampeding retreat back toward Chattanooga. Bragg refuses to grasp the magnitude of his victory, and thus does not order a full-on pursuit. Though Rosecrans is swept away by the panicked retreat, the Federal troops make good their escape in part by the solid wall of defenses put in the Confederates’ path by Rosecrans’s subordinate George Thomas.

With a lull falling upon both the armies in Virginia, and the forces spread closer to the Mississippi River, the theater between the two now takes the focus. Whether by the genius of the commanders or by the tenacity and fighting spirit of the soldiers, the campaign in southeastern Tennessee will determine if the Federal army can recapture its momentum, or whether the Confederate army can still win the war.