Type of Submission
Podium Presentation
Keywords
Civil War, history, Army of the Cumberland, Rosecrans, Grant, military, Western United States, American
Abstract
There is a chapter missing in the annals of Civil War history. The story of an entire army, the Army of the Cumberland, is not being told. Instead, the army teeters on the verge of absolute obscurity due to three factors: poorly timed battles, personal feuds between Union officers, and the undue emphasis of Civil War historians on Southern Romanticism.
The Army of the Cumberland won numerous victories, including Shiloh, Stones’ River and the Tullahoma Campaign. Yet, because the Eastern army, the Army of the Potomac, fought larger battles at nearly the same times, the Cumberlanders did not receive their deserved attention from the press or public.
As these real battles were waged, a battle of politics was occurring in the Union camps between Ulysses S. Grant and William Rosecrans. Rosecrans, commander of the Army of the Cumberland, had ignited Grant’s jealousy, and the two men feuded until Grant was placed in command over Rosecrans, when he immediately began rewriting the war in his image, first by replacing Rosecrans.
Similarly, at war’s end, Southern Romanticists immediately picked up their pens and began to rewrite it. Because the Army of Tennessee, the Army of the Cumberland’s opponent, did not perform well, its existence was largely looked over, thus also the Cumberlanders were ignored as well.
It doesn’t have to be this way. There is no reason the Army of the Cumberland must fall undeservedly into the abyss of neglect. Instead, perhaps a new look into the Civil War is in order, one that will be much kinder to those who were proud to call themselves Cumberlanders.
Campus Venue
Stevens Student Center, Room 241
Location
Cedarville, OH
Start Date
4-20-2016 3:00 PM
End Date
4-20-2016 3:20 PM
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Not Written in Letters of Blood: The Forgotten Legacy of the Army of the Cumberland
Cedarville, OH
There is a chapter missing in the annals of Civil War history. The story of an entire army, the Army of the Cumberland, is not being told. Instead, the army teeters on the verge of absolute obscurity due to three factors: poorly timed battles, personal feuds between Union officers, and the undue emphasis of Civil War historians on Southern Romanticism.
The Army of the Cumberland won numerous victories, including Shiloh, Stones’ River and the Tullahoma Campaign. Yet, because the Eastern army, the Army of the Potomac, fought larger battles at nearly the same times, the Cumberlanders did not receive their deserved attention from the press or public.
As these real battles were waged, a battle of politics was occurring in the Union camps between Ulysses S. Grant and William Rosecrans. Rosecrans, commander of the Army of the Cumberland, had ignited Grant’s jealousy, and the two men feuded until Grant was placed in command over Rosecrans, when he immediately began rewriting the war in his image, first by replacing Rosecrans.
Similarly, at war’s end, Southern Romanticists immediately picked up their pens and began to rewrite it. Because the Army of Tennessee, the Army of the Cumberland’s opponent, did not perform well, its existence was largely looked over, thus also the Cumberlanders were ignored as well.
It doesn’t have to be this way. There is no reason the Army of the Cumberland must fall undeservedly into the abyss of neglect. Instead, perhaps a new look into the Civil War is in order, one that will be much kinder to those who were proud to call themselves Cumberlanders.
