Don Carlos Buell
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| Don Carlos Buell | |
|---|---|
| March 23, 1818 – November 19, 1898 | |
 Don Carlos Buell |
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| Place of birth | Marietta, Ohio |
| Place of death | Rockport, Kentucky |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Years of service | 1841 – 1864 |
| Rank | Major General |
| Commands | Army of the Cumberland |
| Battles/wars | Seminole War Mexican-American War American Civil War |
| Other work | President of Green River Iron Company, Pension Agent |
Don Carlos Buell (March 23, 1818 – November 19, 1898) was a career U.S. Army officer who fought in the Seminole War, the Mexican-American War, and the American Civil War.
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[edit] Early life
Buell was born near Marietta, Ohio, and lived in Indiana for a time before the Civil War. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1841 and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the infantry. In the Mexican War, he served under both Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott. He was breveted three times for bravery and was wounded at Churubusco. Between the wars he served in the U.S. Army Adjutant General's office and as an adjutant in California.
[edit] Civil War
At the start of the Civil War, Buell was an early organizer of the Army of the Potomac and briefly commanded one of its divisions. In November 1861, he succeeded William T. Sherman as head of the Department of the Ohio (which was eventually designated the Army of the Ohio and then the Army of the Cumberland), for operations in eastern Tennessee, an area with Union sympathies and considered important to the political efforts in the war. However, Buell essentially disregarded his orders and moved against Nashville instead, which he captured on February 25, 1862, against little opposition. (Confederate attentions were elsewhere at this time, as Ulysses S. Grant was capturing Forts Henry and Donelson.) On March 21, he was promoted to major general of volunteers.
At the Battle of Shiloh, Buell reinforced Grant, helping him defeat the Confederates on April 7, 1862. Buell considered that his arrival was the primary reason that Grant avoided a major defeat and Grant developed a professional grudge against Buell that would haunt his future career. Buell continued under Henry W. Halleck in the Battle of Corinth. In June and July, Buell started a leisurely movement of four divisions towards Chattanooga, but his supply lines were disrupted by Confederate cavalry under Nathan Bedford Forrest and his offensive ground to a halt.
Buell got himself into more political difficulties during this period. Some Northerners suspected that Buell was a Southern sympathizer because he was one of the few Federal officers who was a slaveholder (he inherited the slaves from his wife's family). Suspicions continued as Buell enforced a strict policy of non-interference with Southern civilians during his operations in Tennessee and Alabama. A serious incident occurred on May 2, 1862, when the town of Athens, Alabama, was pillaged by Union soldiers. Buell, noted for his iron discipline, was infuriated and brought charges against his subordinate on the scene, John B. Turchin. President Abraham Lincoln succumbed to pressure from Tennessee politicians and ordered General George H. Thomas to replace Buell on September 30, 1862. However, Thomas refused the command and Lincoln relented, leaving Buell in command. Turchin avoided court-martial and was in fact promoted to brigadier general.
In the fall of 1862, Confederate General Braxton Bragg invaded Kentucky and Buell was forced to fall back as far north as the Ohio River. Buell fought Bragg at the indecisive Battle of Perryville on October 8, 1862, which halted the Confederate invasion and forced them back into Tennessee, but he failed to pursue Bragg's withdrawal. Because of that decision, he was relieved of command on October 24, replaced by William S. Rosecrans. Buell spent the next year and a half in Indianapolis, in military limbo, hoping that a military commission would exonerate him of blame; he claimed he had not pursued Bragg due to lack of supplies. Exoneration never came and he left military service on May 23, 1864. Although he had in fact been offered a command at the express recommendation of Grant, Buell declined it, saying that it would be degradation to serve under either Sherman or Canby because he ranked them both. In his memoirs, Grant called this "the worst excuse a soldier can make for declining service."
[edit] Postbellum
Following the war Buell lived again in Indiana, and then in Kentucky, employed in the iron and coal industry as president of the Green River Iron Company. From 1885 to 1889 he was a government pension agent. He died at his home in Rockport, Kentucky, and is buried in St. Louis, Missouri, at Bellefontaine Cemetery. Buell Armory on the University of Kentucky campus in Lexington, Kentucky, is named for him.
[edit] References
- Eicher, John H., and Eicher, David J., Civil War High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
- Grant, Ulysses S., Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Charles L. Webster & Company, 1885–86, ISBN 0-914427-67-9.
- Engle, Stephen Douglas Engle, Don Carlos Buell: Most Promising of All, University of North Carolina Press, 1999, ISBN 0-8078-2512-3.
