128 The American Civil WarBy mid-June, with the rivers no longer at
his disposal, Halleck had dispersed his large
army overland and turned his sights to
securing the fruits of his army's labors. He
ordered Buell and his 31,000 soldiers east
toward Chattanooga, an important
Tennessee city on the edge of the
Appalachians, through which passed the
Memphis and Charleston railroad and the
Tennessee River. Because his army would be
marching in the same direction as the
railroad, Halleck considered the use of the
iron horse to be an asset to Buell's campaign.
But the railroad in this case proved to be a
curse, and Buell's army would have serious
difficulty in moving east. In the meantime,
Halleck used Grant and Sherman to police
West Tennessee with the 67,000 soldiers
left in his grand army. The string of
victories ceased.
By mid-July. Lincoln had made Halleck
his chief-of-staff, which left Grant the
command in West Tennessee and Buell the
command of his soldiers stalled in northern
Alabama. Because of the disposition of their
forces, neither commander was prepared to
continue the momentum of offensive
warfare. The recalcitrant temper of the
Southern populace, guerrilla activity, and the
frustration of protecting long and vulnerable
supply lines and railroads all combined to
stall operations.
The Confederate
counteroffensive
During the summer of 1862, in the absence
of offensive Union strikes, the Confederates
seized the opportunity to take the war back
into the Upper South states of Tennessee and
Kentucky. Besides, the federals had held the
upper hand long enough in those states that
civilians might desire Confederate
redemption, particularly in light of the fact
that Northern authorities were directing
their armies to strike at the institution of
slavery. About the same time that Halleck
left the west, so too did Beauregard. Major-
General Braxton Bragg was his successor.
Confederate General Braxton Bragg had a distinguished
prewar career After serving ir the Seminole War Bragg
won three brevets in the Mexican War. He was ordered
to command m the west m earl-/ 1862 and participated m
the battles of Snilon, Fferryville. Stones River
Chicicamauga. and Chattanooga. He was constantly in
dispute with several top commanders, which considerably
weakened his command (Ann Ronan P-cture Library)A West Point graduate and Mexican War
veteran, Bragg enjoyed a prominent
reputation. He was bright, industrious, and
an able administrator, but his argumentative
manner often invited criticism and alienated
him from others. Stilt, once he assumed
command of the Confederate army in the
west, he was determined to redeem the
confederacy's lost fortunes. Having been
driven from the Confederate heartland,
Bragg devised a scheme that would reverse
the war in the west.
Bragg's Kentucky invasion began after the
Confederates retreated south to Tupelo in
June. From there he would move his
22,500-man army by rail to Mobile and then
to Chattanooga before Buell reached the city.
In mid-July, he left Van Dorn at Tupelo and
set out on a circuitous journey that would
take several weeks, finally reaching
Chattanooga by the end of August. From