Buell's Time is Running Out

Patience with General Buell's deliberate pace following the redistribution of Halleck's combined armies at Corinth has come to an end in the War Department.  The following orders were issued on this day in 1862.

Ref.: http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/sources/recordView.cfm?Content=023/0538

WASHINGTON, September 24, 1862.
Colonel J. C. McKIBBIN, Aide-de-Camp:

COLONEL: As the bearer of the accompanying dispatches you will proceed by the most practicable to the army of General Buell in the field.

The Secretary of War directs that if General buell should be found in the presence of the enemy preparing to fight a battle, or if he should have gained a victory, or if General Thomas should be separated from him so as not be able to enter upon the command of the troops operating against the enemy, these dispatches will not be delivered,* and you will in either of the contingence above mentioned telegraph to these headquarters for further instructions.

If while en route to General Buell you should ascertain that either of these contingencies have occurred you will telegraph the facts and await orders.

If neither of these events should occur you will present the dispatches to both General Buell and General Thomas and return to these headquarters.

This mission is strictly confidential, and the nature of your instructions or object of your visit will not be communicated to any one.

If by any accident you should fall into the hands of the enemy you will destroy your dispatches.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

H. W. HALLECK,
General-in-Chief.

Such instructions must clearly accompany orders of the highest priority.  The following were prepared on the 23rd and handed to Col. McKibbin on this day in 1862.

Ref.:  http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/sources/recordView.cfm?Content=023/0539

[Inclosures.]

GENERAL ORDERS, WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJT. GEN'S OFFICE,
Numbers 138. Washington, September 23, 1862.

I. By direction of the President, the State east of the Tennessee River and such parts of Northern Alabama and Georgia as may be taken possession of by our troops will constitute the Department of the Tennessee.

II. Major General George H. Thomas is assigned to the command of the Department of the Tennessee.

By order of the Secretary of War:
E. D. TOWNSEND,Assistant Adjutant-General.

                              *  *  *

WASHINGTON, September 24, 1862.
Major General D. C. BUELL, Commanding, &c.:

 GENERAL: You will receive herewith the orders of the President placing Major General G. H. Thomas in command of the Department of the Tennessee. You will therefore turn over your command to him and repair to Indianapolis, Ind., and await orders. All officers of your staff except your personal aides will report for duty to Major-General Thomas.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

H. W. HALLECK,
General-in-Chief.

                                  *  *  *

WASHINGTON, September 23, 1862.
Major General GEORGE H. THOMAS,Commanding, &c.:

GENERAL: You will receive herewith the order of the President placing you in command of the Department of the Tennessee.

I am directed to say to you that the Government expects energetic operations by the troops placed under your command. In you movements you will pay no regard to State or department line, but operate against the enemy; find him and give him battle. If you form a junction with any troops belonging to the Department of the Ohio take command of them and use them.

Look well to the amount of your transportation and carry nothing with you which is not absolutely necessary. So far as you can subsist your army on the country passed over, paying or receipting for supplies as directed in general orders. The immobility of our armies results from the excess of transportation.

This evil must be immediately remedied.

Send dispatches as often as possible giving information of your movements.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

H. W. HALLECK,
General-in-Chief.

The logic is inescapable.  "The immobility of our armies results from the excess of transportation."  Could these words possibly be emanating from the mind of "Old Brains" Halleck?  Buell's army is moving at a pace of 25-50 miles per day, compared to the 0.8 miles per day of Halleck's own march on Corinth.  Who is really behind this reorganization,  is it Lincoln, himself?  Is the Union Army really plagued by poor generalship in the field, as H.G. Wright complained, or rather a lack of understanding by the generals in the War Department, most of whom had little experience in the frontier states before the war much less in the ever-changing landscape of wartime Tennessee and Kentucky. 

The  suggestion that the army will move much faster without supplies, surviving on forage indicates a tragic lack of understanding by the War Department.  The once bountiful farmlands of Tennessee and Kentucky have already been plundered.  The officials in Washington fail to appreciate that the consumption rate of the combined Confederate and Federal armies in the West far exceed the replenishment capacity of the women, children and slaves who were left behind to tend the fields.  Can they really expect to camp outside a "city" of 2,500 civilians and expect them to sustain an army of 40,000?  It seems the "Belt-Way Mentality" predated the Washington outer loop by nearly 100 years.