June 24 – July 3, 1863
The Tullahoma Campaign, also known as the Middle Tennessee Campaign, was a series of military engagements fought in south-central Tennessee from June 24 through July 3, 1863, during the American Civil War. The campaign secured middle Tennessee for the Union.
On October 24, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln relieved Major General Don Carlos Buell of his command of the Army of the Ohio and placed Major General William Rosecrans in charge of the newly-formed Army of the Cumberland. Upon Rosecrans' promotion, Union General-In-Chief Henry Halleck made it clear that "… the Government demands action, and if you cannot respond to that demand some one else will be tried." Rosecrans established headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee and quickly prepared his army for battle. On December 26, he moved his army south to engage Confederate General Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee encamped at Murfreesboro. The two armies met at the Battle of Stones River (December 31, 1862-January 2, 1863), and Bragg was forced withdraw to Tullahoma, Tennessee, thirty-six miles to the south, yielding Murfreesboro to Rosecrans.
After the Battle of Stones River, Bragg deployed his army in a defensive line nearly seventy miles long along the Duck River, north of Tullahoma. He intended to prevent Rosecrans from capturing the strategically important city of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Bragg used small groups of pickets to protect four gaps in the mountains leading to his headquarters in Tullahoma (Liberty, Hoover, Guy and Bellbuckle Gaps), and he deployed his cavalry to secure his flanks.
In the meantime, Rosecrans established winter quarters at Murfreesboro, where his army remained relatively inactive for the next five and one-half months. During that time, Rosecrans resisted pressure from his superiors to press Bragg. Lincoln, Halleck and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton feared that Rosecrans's inactivity would enable Confederate leaders to detach soldiers from Bragg's army to relieve Union General Ulysses S. Grant's operations against Vicksburg. Finally, under threat of being relieved of his command, Rosecrans moved into action on June 23, 1863.
As events turned out, Rosecrans's preparations during the winter and spring were fruitful. Fearing that the Federal cavalry was overmatched, Rosecrans and Colonel John Wilder devised a plan to mount infantry troops on horses, deploy them rapidly to advantageous positions, and then have them dismount for battle. Rosecrans and Wilder added to the firepower of this "Lightning Brigade" by arming them with newly introduced Spencer Repeating Rifles.
On June 23, Rosecrans feigned an attack against the western end of Bragg's line before making his main thrust against the gaps in the mountains. The next day, Wilder's "Lightning Brigade" attacked Hoover's Gap and easily dislodged the Rebel defenders. Wilder resisted several Confederate counterattacks, and by June 26, Bragg's troops were withdrawing toward his headquarters at Tullahoma. With the threat of Wilder's regiment at his rear and Rosecrans's main force bearing down on him after the Union victory at the Battle of Hoover's Gap, Bragg made successive retreats to Decherd and Cowan over the next several days, before withdrawing over the mountains to Chattanooga on July 3.
The Tullahoma Campaign was a brilliantly planned success for the Union forces in Tennessee. Unfortunately for Rosecrans, it was overshadowed by events happening at Vicksburg and Gettysburg at the same time. Although Bragg was able to evacuate his army, Rosecrans succeeded in driving the Confederacy out of Middle Tennessee with very few losses. The Union army suffered a reported 569 casualties (eighty-three killed, 473 wounded, and thirteen captured or missing). Confederate casualties during the Tullahoma Campaign are unknown because Bragg wrote no battle reports, but the Union army captured 1,634 Rebels.
Ohio units that participated in the Tullahoma Campaign included:
Infantry units:
1st Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
2nd Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
6th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
9th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
11th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
13th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
14th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
15th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
17th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
18th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
21st Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
26th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
31st Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
33rd Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
36th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
38th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
40th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
41st Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
49th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
51st Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
59th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
64th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
69th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
89th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
90th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
92nd Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
93rd Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
94th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
97th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
101st Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
105th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
Artillery units:
1st Regiment Ohio Light Artillery
18th Battery Ohio Independent Artillery
20th Battery Ohio Independent Artillery
Cavalry units:
1st Regiment Ohio Volunteer Cavalry
10th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Cavalry
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Related Entries
- Braxton Bragg
- Don Carlos Buell
- Ulysses S. Grant
- William Starke Rosecrans
- Battle of Stones River
- Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- Abraham Lincoln
- Henry Wager Halleck
- Edwin McMasters Stanton
- 40th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 31st Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 33rd Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 59th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 59th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 69th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 51st Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 51st Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 101st Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 105th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 97th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 94th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 92nd Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 89th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 64th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 93rd Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- Army of the Ohio 1861?1862
- 4th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 17th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 26th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 10th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Cavalry
- 49th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 38th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 41st Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 36th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 1st Regiment Ohio Volunteer Cavalry
- Battle of Hoover’s Gap