Major General Joseph J. Reynolds And His Division At Chickamauga: A Historical Analysis
Major General Joseph J. Reynolds And His Division At Chickamauga: A Historical Analysis

Author: Cdr David M. Kapaun Jr. USN

Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing

Published: 2015-11-06

Total Pages: 128

ISBN-13: 178625378X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This thesis is a historical analysis of Major General Joseph J. Reynolds and his division during the Battle of Chickamauga. Chickamauga was the division’s first major engagement. Arriving on the battlefield the first day, amidst a fierce Confederate offensive, the division was separated into brigades and regiments. The various units were piecemealed into battle, operating independently of their division commander’s control. Division experiences included a desperate charge and the crushing route of an entire brigade. On the second day, the division withstood an initial Confederate onslaught in which the Union line was cut in half. After an attack south of the division position, the division was forced back, and eventually withdrew. The day ended with another charge, attacking a threat to the retreating Union army. The division’s performance varied during the two-day battle, its reputation neither enhanced or scorned. General Reynolds did not distinguish himself at Chickamauga. Although not a subject of official inquiry, he was never again to command troops in the field during the Civil War. This study analyzes Reynolds and his division at the Battle of Chickamauga and draws conclusions as to the proximate causes of the performance. These causes include division disposition, division control, and a focus on Reynolds’ leadership and decisions.

The Brave Men of Company A
The Brave Men of Company A

Author: Edward S. Cooper

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2015-02-18

Total Pages: 217

ISBN-13: 1611477689

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

On August 26, 1861, one hundred volunteers met at Camp Wood and formed Company A. These men, for the most part, were well educated and left to us a series of letters to families and friends, diaries, letters to their local newspapers, official reports, and talks they gave after the war at reunions. Their correspondence differs from most others in that they do not simply record the temperature and what they had to eat. The story the correspondence of Company A tells allows the reader to know what it was really like to be a volunteer soldier. The men describe what they saw from their vantage points on the parts of the battlefield they could see. Their letters cover their discussions and arguments concerning slavery, the national draft, the right of “citizen soldiers” to confiscate property, and the use of blacks in combat. On a very personal level they describe what it was like to be captured and spend time in Confederate prisons awaiting exchange, what they felt when they had to leave wounded or dead comrades on the field when they had to retreat, whether to reenlist, the punishments they had to endure, the witnessing of military executions, and whether to mutiny. There are marvellous descriptions of the unauthorized truces the men arranged with the Confederates to trade tobacco for coffee or to bathe in a stream separating them.

This Terrible Sound
This Terrible Sound

Author: Peter Cozzens

Publisher: University of Illinois Press

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 704

ISBN-13: 9780252065941

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Vivid narrative about an engagement that was crucial to the outcome of the war in the West. Drawing upon a wealth of previously untapped sources, Cozzens offers startling new interpretations that challenge the conventional wisdom on key moments of the battle, such as Rosecrans's fateful order to General Wood and Thomas's historic defense of Horseshoe Ridge. Chickamauga was a battle of missed opportunities, stupendous tactical blunders, and savage fighting by the men in.