Seward, General Thomas' Scout (mention); Red Clay, Georgia, May 1864

This is just my internal note on some references I'm trying to track down. Among other things, I'm looking for references for a scout of staff member, "Seward," who was under General Thomas. This is not Secretary of State, Seward; it's just a scout or department official under Thomas. I'm not sure of all the facts below, either. My comments are from memory.

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Official Records, Series 1, Vol. 38, Pt. 4, Correspondence, etc., pg. 47, Schofield to Sherman, Red Clay, Ga., May 6, 1864.

"Red Clay, Ga., May 6, 1864.
"Major-General Sherman, Ringgold:
  "Your dispatch is received. I will be ready to move to-morrow morning. Could move to-day if necessary. It will take several days to repair the railroad here, but I can get along until it is done. I have frequent communication with Howard.
  "General Thomas' man Seward says Polk's corps gone to Rome.
            "J. M. Schofield,
               "Major-General.

OR, Ser. 1, Vol. 38, Pt. 4, pg. 47

"Howard" would be Gen. Oliver O. Howard. During or after the siege of Chattanooga, and after the slaughter of Federal mules in the supply train at Anderson's Crossroads on Walden Ridge by rebels about October 2, 1863, O. O. Howard, of the XI Corps, Army of the Potomac, was called in as an added reinforcement, to prevent future losses. The letter above is about seven months later, about the time the Federal Army leaves Cleveland, Tennessee, to move South on the Atlanta Campaign. [He is by then commanding the Fourth Corps, Army of the Cumberland, or Dept. of the Cumberland.]

"Thomas' man, Seward" is mentioned. One reference is specific to story. Another reference to Seward shows that it could be a different person than mentioned in story... I don't have the other specific reference to Seward, but I think it was in some correspondence after the Battle of Chickamauga; just not sure!

Oliver O. Howard Reference:

FOURTH ARMY CORPS: OLIVER O. HOWARD
Headquartered at Cleveland, Tennessee, and nearby Blue Springs, Tennessee.
Partial extract of: Official Records, Ser. 1, Vol. 32, Pt. 3, 551.
(from earlier post) http://musescivilwar.blogspot.com/2016/08/fourth-army-corps-oliver-o-howard_22.html

Cavalry Horses in Bad Shape, Hard to Get New, Trained Horses (links)

Starting a quick list of references to the state of the U.S. cavalry's horses in 1864.

Sherman suggests using some dismounted cavalry.

Nashville, April 6, 1864
Sherman mentions the difficulty of getting horses; suggests mounting the best men and using the remaining cavalry as dismounted cavalry.

Official Records, Series 1, Volume 32, Part 3, (271-272, Sherman to Thomas), 272.
https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth152650/m1/281/

________________________________

Official Records, Series 1, Volume 32, Part 3, 406-407.

Suggestion for Solving Cavalry's Horse Problem
Grierson to Thomas, April 18, 1864.
Suggestion for setting price for northern horses and impressing horses if citizens won't accept the price. Mount all men in unit or else dismount and train them as infantry.
https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth152650/m1/415/

The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union And Confederate Armies. Series 1, Volume 32, In Three Parts. Part 3, Correspondence, etc.

Sherman Gives Control of Army to Thomas. Wants Furloughed Vets to Return, April 1864

Sherman Gives Control of Army to Thomas. Wants Furloughed Vets to Return

Sherman Gives Control of Army to Thomas
Hdqrs. Military Division of the Mississippi, Nashville, April 6, 1864.

Sherman to Thomas (Comdg. Department of the Cumberland, Chattanooga):

 (Army will) "retain control over our furloughed veterans."
"I have ordered, through the State authorities, all absentees to come forward at once, or at furthest at the expiration of their furloughs. I have also sent forward to General Schofield a division of 5,000 infantry (Hovey's), which once at or near Hiwassee will enable you to draw below that river all of the Fourth Corps heretofore detached. These changes simply give you the absolute control of the Army of the Cumberland proper, in a shape that will enable you to handle and control it perfectly."

Official Records, Series 1, Volume 32, Part 3 (Correspondence, etc.), 271-272.
https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth152650/m1/280/

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Men Protest Suspension of Furlough; Offer to Reenlist if Furloughed.

Men protest the army's plan to retain control over furloughed veterans (not allowing reenlisting veterans to furlough). Men say they will reenlist if they can get the furlough.

Official Records, Series 1, Volume 32, Part 3, 60.
https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth152650/m1/69/?q=furlough________________________________________

RELATED: FURLOUGH, STATE OF CAVALRY; OTHER CORRESPONDENCE

Condition of Cavalry, Furloughs, and Horse Problems
Grierson to Thomas, April 18, 1864.
Eight regiments under Grierson's command have furloughed. Suggestion for setting price for northern horses and impressing horses if citizens won't accept the price. Mount all men in unit or else dismount and train them as infantry.

Official Records, Series 1, Volume 32, Part 3, 406-407.
https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth152650/m1/415/


The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union And Confederate Armies. Series 1, Volume 32, In Three Parts. Part 3, Correspondence, etc.

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Governor Andrew Johnson (Tennessee) wants General Thomas to command (not Sherman).

Governor Andrew Johnson wants President Abraham Lincoln to Put General George H. Thomas in charge of the Department of the Cumberland.

Letter from Andrew Johnson, Governor of Tennessee, to Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States. March 21, 1864.

Letter from Andrew Johnson

[BEGIN QUOTE]:
Louisville, Ky., March 21, 1864.
(Received 6 p. m.)
His Excellency President Lincoln:
      The Department of the Cumberland ought to be placed under the command of Major-General Thomas, receiving his instructions and orders directly from Washington.
      I feel satisfied from what I know and hear that placing the command of the department under General Sherman, over Thomas, will produce disappointment in the public mind and impair the public service.
      General Thomas has the confidence of the army and the people, and will discharge his duty, as he has from the commencement of the rebellion. He will, in my opinion, if permitted, be one of the great generals of the war, if not the greatest. I will be in Nashville to-morrow and will dispatch you again.
ANDREW JOHNSON,
Governor of Tennessee.
[END QUOTE]

Official Records, Series 1, Volume 32, Part 3 (Correspondence, Etc.--Union), 105.
https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth152650/m1/114/

Related: Among other things, Sherman called off a scheduled raid into East Tennessee in November 1861, leaving loyal East Tennesseans without support.

Thomas: Lack of Cavalry and Inability to Support More, March 1864

General Thomas: Lack of Cavalry and Inability to Support More, March 1864

Thomas to Sherman, HQ, Dept. of the Ohio, Knoxville, Tenn., March 30, 1864:

"My lack of cavalry and inability to support more makes it the more necessary for me to be superior to the enemy in infantry."

Official Records, Series 1, Volume 32, Part 3 (Correspondence, etc.), 96.
https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth152650/m1/105/

Movements toward Hiwassee River, advancing via Spring Place, Georgia

Sherman orders Schofield to move toward Hiwassee River and break railroad; advance via Spring Place. Send citizens to rear if necessary.

East Tennessee and North Georgia  ̶

Sherman to Schofield, Orders

Ser. 1, Vol. 32, Pt. 3 (Corresp., etc.--Union), 87.

[QUOTE pg. 87-88]:
 [p.87]
Headquarters Division of the Mississippi,
Nashville, March 18, 1864.
Major-General Schofield,
     Commanding Department of the Ohio, Knoxville:

  General: I am just arrived and assumed command. General Grant leaves for the East to-morrow. I have had a full conversation with him, and to enable him to fulfill his plans I can merely foreshadow coming events. You will push Longstreet from up the
 [p.88]
valley as far as you can, and prepare to break up the railroad back toward Knoxville. Hold Knoxville and the gap. Also arrange to have a force of cavalry, infantry, and light artillery on the waters of the Big Sandy in the direction of Prestonburg, which must subsist on the country, and not locate, but act so as to threaten or attack any force coming from the northeast. Your main army should at once be organized for offense, ready at the proper time to drop down to the Hiwassee, to move in concert with the main army. I am aware of the difficulties you have in maintaining your army. Appoint good officers to take charge of this branch of your business, and accumulate stores rather at the Hiwassee than at Knoxville. Your route of advance will be most probably by Spring Place. Keep your own counsel; discourage the presence of all stranger; make the citizens feed themselves, and if they are likely to consume the reserves of the country facilitate their removal to the rear. The necessities of war must have precedence of civilians. Write me fully and frankly always. I will see you in person as soon as I can.
W. T. Sherman,
Major-General, Commanding.
[END QUOTE]

Brief Citation: 
Official Records, Series 1, Volume 32, Part 3 (Corresp., etc.--Union), 87-88.

Link to s1, v32, pt3, page 87
https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth152650/m1/96/


REFERENCES: By the time of these events, Union troops were stationed in Calhoun, Charleston, and Cleveland, Tennessee. Johnston's Confederate Army of Tennessee was at Dalton, Whitfield County, Georgia. Spring Place is in Murray County, Georgia. It was, and is, the location of the historic Chief Vann House.

The source of the Hiwassee River is in Towns County, Georgia. The river flows north into North Carolina, then runs in a northwesterly direction into Tennessee to Delano, then down to Benton, and west to Charleston, Tennessee. The bridge across the Hiwassee River at Charleston, Tennessee goes north to Calhoun, Tennessee. That bridge was one of the bridges burned in the East Tennessee raid, November 8, 1861. From the Calhoun-Charleston area, the Hiwassee River runs northwest almost to Dayton, Tennessee, where the Hiwassee empties into the Tennessee River.

This area was important for the East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad.

William T. Sherman, General Orders No. 8, Nashville, April 1864: Provisions will no longer be issued to citizens at military posts south of Nashville.

Sherman, General Orders No. 8, Nashville, April 1864

William T. Sherman, 19 April 1864, Nashville: General Orders No. 8

Quote: " Provisions will no longer be issued to citizens at military posts south of nashville... "

Official Records, Series 1, Vol. 32, Part 3, 420 (Sherman, Gen. Ord. No. 8, 19 Apr. 1864), 420.

http://bit.ly/OR-s1-v32-pt3-pg420-Apr1864-Sherman-Gen-Orders-8
___________________

Comments about the order not to issue provisions.

Blake: Pictorial History, pg. 593

Partial Quote: " ... a single railroad could not feed the armies and the people too, ... "

William O. Blake, Pictorial History of the Great Rebellion, Vol. 2, (n.p.: Gilmore & Segner, 1866), 593.

http://bit.ly/Blake_Pictorial-History-Great-Rebellion-1866-pg593

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From: Personal Recollections of President Abraham Lincoln, General Ulysses S. Grant and General William T. Sherman

Abraham Lincoln writes to General Sherman concerning Order No. 8 

" I have an imploring appeal from the citizens, who say your order, No. 8, will compel them to go north to Nashville. This is in no sense an order, nor is it even a request that you will do anything which in the least shall be a drawback upon your military operations, but anything you can do consistently with the appeals of these suffering people I should be glad of."

Reply from Sherman, May 5, 1864:

"... the railroad cannot supply the army and the people, too--one of them must quit--and the army does not intend to unless Joe Johnston makes us.The issues to citizens have been enormous, and the same weight of corn and oats would have saved thousands of mules whose carcasses now corduroy the roads, and which we need so much in war. I will not change my order... "

Grenville Mellen Dodge, Personal Recollections of President Abraham Lincoln, General Ulysses S. Grant and General William T. Sherman, (Glendale: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1914), ("Personal Recollections of Sherman."), 144.

http://bit.ly/Dodge_GM-Personal-Recollections-of-Pres-A-Lincoln-etc-p144

Sherman to Thomas (Correspondence, April 1864) Organization of Army. Furloughed Veterans Recalled.

Correspondence of William T. Sherman to George H. Thomas, April 1864: Organization of the Army of the Cumberland, with Discussions of Cavalry (Furloughed Veterans Recalled) and Corps (Plans for Placement of Three Wings, Cleveland, Chattanooga, and Stevenson):

On April 6, 1864, Major-General William T. Sherman writes from Headquarters, Military Division of the Mississippi, to Maj. Gen. Geo. H. Thomas, Comdg. Department of the Cumberland, Chattanooga, advising him of changes in Thomas's command. Furloughed veterans are retained. Hovey's Division of 5,000 infantry will move to the Hiwassee River, relieving the previously detached Fourth Corps. Thomas will have complete control of the army. His left will be Cleveland [Tennessee], his Center will be Chattanooga, and his right will be Stevenson [Alabama]. He discusses communication routes (Nashville to Columbia [Tenn.]). Reserve mounted-cavalry positions for the best men.

Official Records, Series 1, Vol. 32, Pt. 3 (Correspondence, Etc.--Union), Chp. 44, 271-272 (Sherman to Thomas, Nashville, 6 April 1864).

http://bit.ly/OR_1-32-3-Sherman-to-Thomas-1864-army-organization