Albany. He spent his career preserving military history with the National Park service, new york state government. Rensselaer. Civil War Preservation trust. Kentucky state parks and u. S. Arm. Hes written books on various aspects of military leadership from 1775 to the present. Published to books with the civil war at perryville and stone river and Tullahoma Campaigns and studied the 1941 and 42 entitled last day in bataan released in 2016. In september of 2016 the arm published his volume on virginia campaigns as part of the series on the civil war. Last year at this event friday night i bought this book and i spent all night reading it. Highly recommended. Last about chris he is a great researcher, he knows an amazing amount of almost anything military, havent writer and, most importantly he is a really good guy who will share anything with you which i think is the most important thing. He is also getting ready to get married. So without further ado, chris kolakowski. [applause] good morning. I think it is great to be here. Ive year the audience gets larger. I dont know if we can get much larger but that is a great problem to have. If you are here for the first time raise your hands. That also is fantastic. Welcome welcome. If you would like what we are doing, we are doing mini version with my Current Employer in norfolk the reunion of blue and gray personified. Look at the mcarthur civil war ancestors. How many have ever been to tullahoma, tennessee . That is a lot more than i thought. How many of the rest of you know there was a place called tullahoma . That is also really good. There must be a bunch of air force people because the Arnold Air Force base where they do a lot of testing old camp forest. That is really good. I want you to see if you can name this operation . It was late june and early july of 1863, drove a major Confederate Army back in defeat and secured a major Geographic Area for the United States. Are there any guesses . That is a rhetorical question. Im referring to the Tullahoma Campaign of 1863. That sis where we will spend the next 40 to 45 minutes discussing the Tullahoma Campaign. The Tullahoma Campaign is june 24 to july 4 of 1863. It is part of what turns out to be a very wantful series of weeks for both wantful for both sides. It is overshadowed. One other piece of logistics did everybody get a hand copy of the map . The paper copy of this i dont expect you to strain your eyes looking at it and you have your copy. I will refer to it. The Tullahoma Campaign was fought between the army of cumberland under rosecrans and 45,000 arm of tennessee general Braxton Bragg. You can see the different corps they will be deplored. Rosecrans will take the four and cavalry each 15,000 to 20,000 and reserve carp to Gordon Grange were and mccooks 20th, thomas 14th and tommy crittentons 21st. I will talk more about them. Bragg for his part has two infantry corps under polk and hardee and cavalry under joe wheeler and other damped elements under Nathan Bedford forrest. A lot of these are familiar because it is the second round of ballots between rosecrans and bragg that will be fought in middle 10 and southeastern tennessee and northern georgia through late fall of 1862 through the fall of 1863. This is round two in many ways. Understand story of tullahoma. We have to understand the context in which it is fought and continuum. We should never forget whatever campaign you study always remember it is part of a continuum of the story of that particular campaign. Sometimes you think it starts this day and ends this day but you often forget what went before sometimes overshadows and influences what is coming. Having said, that let me explain the context of tullahoma. In many ways to understand particularly braggs army you have to understand that context. Let me rewind from june of 1863 to early january of 1863 january 5. When bragg leaves stones river of murfreesboro having fought stenson river and been advised by his corps commanders that there are only three reliable divisions left in the army. The yankees have more reinforcements and we have to withdraw. Bragg withdraws down southeast from murrayfreesboro to the area of high happened high land rim. They will spend their time there in middle 10 until the operation in june of 1863. Almost immediately confederate press goes after bragg because on new years eve he had confidently predicted victory and said we drove the federals back except the extreme left appear rosecrans is finished. Was not finished and he was there a couple more days but to the confederate popular mind we had this victory and bragg is retreating. Why is that when the armies in mississippi and virginia have won great victories and are holding their ground if not advancing. So newspaper reports and editorials come out about bragg and impugning the performance of the army of tennessee. That causes general bragg to light a fuse, to plant ill seeds that will bear ill fruit. On january 11, against the advice of his staff he sends message to his corps commanders and bake will i basically advised me to retreat. Put it in writing. We had a conference. You told me about it. We put it in writing and let us stand together against the approbrium from the press and that is a close paraphrase. He also said something else. He said if i find that i have lost the good faith and confidence of my generals i will retire without a murmur. By the way, please talk to your division and brigade commanders and got their opinions before responding. I dont care who you are or what organization if you are a c. E. O. And you put yourself in front of your subordinates for a referendum on your fitness for leadership and your conduct of operations up to this point, even if you win that vote of confidence you can never command the same respect. This is a capital error on the part of Braxton Bragg. The replies are very quickly coming. Polk is on leave. He has a couple of lawyers in his corps and they say is bragg really asking two questions or one of the so they wait until late january to get back. Hardee and breckenridge and stuart get back and say we advise retreat we are happy to say that and we are convinced that a change in the command of this army is necessary unquote. Polk gets back at the end of january and writes to bragg saying the feedback we are getting is this one request or two. He says i only meant one question in there. Tries to submit it down. Shut it down. Polk thinks it is a good idea to write to president davis and packages this correspondence and sends a message to davis and says we didnt give our response about the fitness of the command of the army but our opinions con side with toes those of the other corps. When davis gets this he is angry. He said what is this . Why bragg would submit himself to that tribunal is beyond me. He told joe johnston the commander of the west who polk said replace bragg with joe johnston. Go to tullahoma figure out what is going on. In early february joe johnston rivers arrives and meets the commanders and they provide views and some say bragg wanted to be relieved but he doesnt force the issue. What johnston finds is moreal among the ranger rank is pretty good and they feel confident go going against the dastardly yankees and im sure those terminals were used at terms were used. He figures out some of the commanders but people putting on a pretty good face because even though bragg may be cantankerous person he got the job and they have to show some loyalty. So johnston writes a favorable report and disappears. You think it is smoothed over, right . Now comes the time to do the paperwork and battle reports for the battle just concluded. It is time to refight the stenson river campaign. Stenson river campaign. Has stones river campaign. This spilled back out into the open. The records for stones river are interesting for two parts. First of all, several allow their feelings about the emancipation proclamation to show up in their description of the enemy and talk about the emancipationist friends and horrible language about the enemy that make sense when you consider they are written in february of 1863. But the big thing to understand is that bragg who gets the reports and writes his own, cannot resist the opportunity to strike back at those people and painting the people that were most against him in that referendum of sorts in january in worst possible light. To the point i have seen this nowhere else in the official records John Breckenridge of kentucky writes his divisional report bragg writes an addendum and proceeds to use the polite equivalent of lie as much as he can and pointing out where breckenridge was wrong and at fault and pins the whole loss of the battle on John Breckenridge. He doesnt care for kentuckians because of what happened in the campaign the year before when he advise the jeff davis we must leave the garden spot of kentucky to its cupidity. And breckenridge is from lexington kentucky doesnt help matters. All of there when it gets to the Confederate Senate which will publish the reports once again puts publicly this fissure that hassed on in the arm of the has opened in the arm of the tennessee high command. J says to johnston go take command and send bragg to richmond for consultation. I think we can read between the lines. Johnston is going to be in and bragg out. Joe johnston, because of his he would later pin it on ace overdeveloped sense of honor do not like to create the impression that he doesnt like to create the impression he is pulling down the brother officer to take command in the field. When he shows up he has the excuse not to execute the order. Why . In is bragg with the army. Eliza bragg and has drunk some bad water and is down with typhoid. It is a very serious illness. She cant travel for a few weeks. So johnston says mrs. Bragg cannot travel, bragg cant travel to richmond, so we are going to suspend the orders for the time being. For the next six weeks, until mid april from the beginning of march to mid april here is the situation in the army of tennessee headquarters in tullahoma. You have joe johnston Supreme Commander of the weese nominally in command and Braxton Bragg is present and he is not officially relieved from the arm of tennessee command though Everybody Knows he is supposed to be. But he is still there. Who is in charge . I dont think they figured it out. Who is the one person that could referee that and cut that knot and solve the problem . Jefferson davis. The fact that he doesnt is a severe indictment on him as a commander in chief of the confederacy. I call it in my book and i do not withdraw the comment now dereliction of duty. When mrs. Bragg is ready to travel it is early april of toward mid april of 1863. The problem is now Joe Johnstons virginia wounds have flared up. He is unfit for field duty. We he finally is mid april is anything else going on in the west that might demand his attention . That is when grant runs the batteries at vicksburg and it becomes clear the mississippi front is about to get active and it does with the vicksburg campaign. Johnston is ordered away with elements of braggs army to counter that. That is the army that will be defeated at battle of jackson in may of 1863. Where are we as an organization in the army of tennessee at this point . Do you think this is a function ing happy organization a good team of leaders . No. Emphatically no. The wounds begin to heal again once johnston leaves and everybody realizes bragg will still be here and we have to continue to work together. The wounds begin to heal, but a few weeks later the scabs are ripped off again. I invite you to look at the Kentucky Campaign official records and half the reports were in the fall of 1863 the other laughhalf in the spring of 1863 and braggs was spring of 1863. It rips all of those scabs back off again. At this point bragg, even though in 1862 he had no problem with polks decision to act on his own decision bragg decides it is best of the service well consideredcourt partial polk. Gathers the information, gets everything together and at the last month decides we are not going to courtmartial general polk. Im hearing some chuckles in the background. That is the only reaction you could have. You have to laugh because it is a tragedy because so many mens lives would depends on this command to function and you can see what is happening to it. Do you know when the last actual correspondence relating to the Perryville Campaign was dated. June 20, 1863. This is going on literal right up to 96 hours before rosecrans moves to begin the Tullahoma Campaign and there is a letter in the perryville record between polk and hardee dated may of 1863 and hardee tells polk if you want to rip up the Kentucky Campaign now is time. Polk says it is not the time to do that but you are right, that we need to watch tullahoma as much as we watched murrayfreesboro . Why is that important . Who is in murfreesboro . The federal army, the enemy. You need to watch them because you know they are going to advance and you are going to fight another battle with them. But who is in tullahoma . Where is the army of tennessee headquarters . Tullahoma. What hardee and polk are saying we have two enemies. One in the front and an enemy in the rear, our boss Braxton Bragg. The seeds that were planted in january of 1863 are bearing bitter fruit and they will bear bitter fruit as the Tullahoma Campaign progresses. In murfreesboro, all is not well with the United States forces either. Rosecrans, after january of 1863, doesnt move out of murray murfreesboro in force although he will sends infantry raid parties and sometimes they get the better of the confederates, a lot of times they dont. But they wont move until june of 1863. How does that look in washington . Seconds largest army in the federal service do not move for practically six months. That doesnt look good. Rosecrans gets in trouble with washington. He can manage people around him but one of the spbgs elements of a essential elements is manage relationships above you with the superiors. Rosecrans finds time to electric clear the commanding lecture the commanding general and secretary of war about weararfare. How does that go done in the wake of what George Mcclellan did the year before . Although there is considerable evidence rosecrans didnt entertain the personal animosity thwart lincoln and toward lincoln and stanton that mcclellan did. He is planning a campaign and he does have a couple of points. The first point is most of the cavalry need remounts. They are not in very good shape. Most came back from prison having been captured the previous year. But he has another problem and there is something i think we people consider the army of the cumberland they neglect to point this out. How far is the army of the potomacs line of communication at any point in its career . 50 miles to washington or one of the river ports in eastern virginia virginia. How about grants army in mississippi . They can rely on the United States navy up and down the mississippi river, right . Good short, secure lines of supply. What about the arm of the cumberland . The army of the cumberlands forward base is nashville 30 miles northwest of murfreesboro. You can supply in through the Cumberland River but it is, can be very fickle shall we say and there are times because of the shoals downstream from nashville you cant get steamers up. What are the other options . The only one is the louisville louisvillenashville railroad which parallels interstate 65 and picks up the nashville and chattanooga and is paralleled by interstate 24. Basically everything you need will ride the rails and ride that single track railroad. Once you leafve louisville from louisville to nashville 183 miles at best you are going through neutral territory even though kentucky has voted to remain loyal to the United States it is at best neutral. John hunt morgan has been a year at this point of cutting that railroad. As a matter of fact from july 1, 1862 to june 30 1863 you know how much that road is operational . S seven months and 12 days. So almost five full months it is not operational. It is not just bridges or rails. There is a 2,000foot tunnel north of gallatan 30 miles north nashville that morgue will blown up and morgan will blown up and burned and was out of Commission Two months in the fall of 1862. Whenever you think about the africanamerican of the cumberland the army of cumberland they say why does he spend so much time Building Supplies it is because of the tenuous nature of his life line. Back to nashville and back to louisville. That is why his arm always stops to to repair railroads and bring up supplies. He needs it. The other thing about that railroad is what does it do to the Army Reserves . During the winter of 1862 it is down to three days of reserves in their warehouses. This is an army not far from starvation because of railroad insecurity. Rows glance is not going rows glance wont move before he has good cavalry and suffer supplies. Suffer supplies. You have forrest who is south, to the west of shelbyville, west of the army of tennessee. Who is on often flank . On the eastern flank. John hunt morgan. Two of the great raiders in the history of the confederate cavalry. Joe wheeler is not bad. I would be worried about my railroad, too. One thing rosecrans builds up he builds up three weeks of supplies in murfreesboro, creates fortress rosecrans. It is part of the battlefield. More importantly when his troops leave murfreesboro they will take 11 days of supplies with them. He is going banking on a big reserve. He is going to ride on a big cushion of supplies and that is prudent on his part. He knows theres a pretty good chance he will lose com