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20 The Army Remodeled Winter at Chattanooga FOR THE EAST TENNESSEE relief column, a bitterly cold New Year's Day came and went with depressinglylittle fanfare. According to John Beatty, murders and robberies in that mountainous area were as commonplace "as marriages in Ohio, and excite about as little attention." The tents would not arrive until the end of January 1864, so ponchos remained the only protection from weather. Wood's and Sheridan 's men wore out their shoes in hard marching, with six hundred of the latter division protecting their feet with a sort of moccasin made from blankets. Yet at the end of the month, Little Phil proudly reported that almost all of his veterans with expiring enlistments had reenlisted. Colonel Sherman nonetheless wrote bluntly: "On half rations; no shoes, hats, shirts, socks, pants, or coats; without tents or blankets ; the earth frozen six inches deep and covered with snow—that sums up in brief the comforts of the men who were at Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge, and no prospect of relief. Is loyal East Tennessee worth the sacrifice? I say No, and the prayer of every man and officer of the 4th Corps is that we may be ordered back to Chattanooga."1 Back in Chattanooga, six trains, each with a dozen cars, now arrived daily. "Everything is quiet here, but Chattanooga is much more lively than it was before the cars ran through," Major Connolly informed his wife. The government sent fifteen hundred civilian mechanics from the East to repair the railroad to Knoxville and another three hundred to four hundred to work on bridges and the steamboats of the Army of the Cumberland. Thomas still complained that too many of his troops had been diverted for repair duty. By February 12 the track as far as Loudon had been opened, with four steamboats also churning the river between that place and Bridgeport. It would nonetheless be the middle of spring before vegetables arrived. Despite a bleak winter and supply problems, the Rebels clearly had it worse—1,048 deserters turned themselves in during January, with another no on February 2 alone.2 1. Rowell, Yankee Cavalrymen, 165;Newlin, Preacher Regiment, 286; Beatty, Citizen Soldier,368; Sheridan , Memoirs, 1:179, 183; OR, 32(2)1484; New York Tribune, Jan. 11,1864; Aldrich, Quest for a Soldier, 98. 2. Morse, Diaries and Letters of Bliss Morse, no; Angle, Three Years in the Army of the Cumberland, 166; New York Tribune, Jan. 25, Feb. 9,1864; OR, 32(2)1437-38, 38(2)123,148. 380 DAYS OF GLORY A number of soldiers (at least those who reenlisted for the duration of the war) received four-hundred-dollar bounties and thirty-day furloughs and went home that winter. Some regiments returned with several hundred recruits, men who wanted to avoid the stigma of being conscripted. Only those outfits with threefourths reenlistments were allowed to retain their original organization. A disappointing 26,838 men would eventually "veteranize" in the IV and XIV Corps and the two Potomac corps—8,000 from Ohio, 4,700 from Indiana, a shockingly low 3,000 from Illinois, a predictably low 2,000 from Kentucky, 1,780 from Michigan, 2,600 from Pennsylvania, 1,300 from New York, and the balance from eastern states in Hooker's corps. These "re-upped" veterans could now wear red, white, and blue chevrons on the lower part of their sleeves. In the 52d Ohio, for example, 418of 440 men reenlisted. The recruits, plus an influx of conscripts, helped fill the ranks of many depleted units. The thousands who opted not to reenlist were dubbed "stotenbottles ," a term not meant as derogatory. Yet it was the veterans who provided the hardcore fighting edge of the army and without whom the upcoming campaign would be nearly impossible.3 Thomas continued to peeve Grant that winter with huge requisitions. On February 5 Lt. Col. Langdon C. Easton, chief quartermaster of the Army of the Cumberland , submitted the needs of the department: 9,000-10,000 cavalry horses, 3,500 artillery horses, 3,000 sets of harness, 3,000 six-mule wagons, 170 ambulances, 45 medicine wagons, 23,200 mules, and 950 horses for ambulances. These requests were in addition to the 2,700 wagons, 450 ambulances, 13,466 mules, 3,174 draft horses, and 16,748 sets of harnesses already on hand. Grant, clearly annoyed by the requests, replied that it was more than was needed in all four of...

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