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CHAPTER 3 Seeing the Elephant Initially, Buell intended that the Third Division guard the back door as the Union army concentrated in Tennessee. Lovell Rousseau, the forty-four-year-old Kentucky lawyer and Unionist politician who now commanded the division, was no doubt alarmed to hear that he was to hold the Memphis &: Charleston Railroad as long as possible while the remainder of the army marched toward the rendezvous point. Rousseau's men had just begun to feel comfortable in north Alabama. Watermelons and peaches were common in camp during the summer of 1862; many of the slaves from the nearby plantations had small plots of their own and shared their produce with the Federal soldiers. The men indulged freely, supplementing their rations.l As the other divisions left Alabama, Buell briefly considered removing the Third Division as well. On August 22, he ordered the division to be prepared to move immediately. The Huntsville depot was a scene. of chaos that day; rumors ran up and down the streets of the town, the locals celebrated the retreat of the Federal army, and refugees struggled for a place on the trains. The Forty-second Ohio and Third Ohio were to march first; the Tenth Ohio and Fifteenth Kentucky would evacuate that afternoon. Bonfires burned all over town as the Federals tried to destroy what supplies they could before leaving. The Fifteenth Kentucky was nearly ready when a telegram arrived from Buell just after four canceling the move.2 On August 28, Bragg crossed Walden's Ridge northwest of Chattanooga , heading up the Sequatchie Valley. The next day, Buell ordered Colonel Lytle to prepare to move the Seventeenth Brigade out of Huntsville. The last of the commissary stores were shipped out by train on the thirtieth, along with convalescent soldiers and the portion of the rations that the men would not carry themselves. That day, orders 48 Seeing the Elephant 49 went out to the remaining divisions of Buell's army to fall back toward Murfreesboro.3 Early the next morning, the Fifteenth Kentucky, along with the few regiments left in town, marched out of Camp Taylor for the last time, heading north toward Fayetteville. Lytle knew he would have to force the march; Buell had ordered him to be in Shelbyville in four days at the outside. From there, Lytle would march the brigade toward Nashville or Murfreesboro, depending on where the army was located.4 Despite the threat from Kirby Smith, who had whipped a Federal force at Richmond, Kentucky, and taken Lexington and Frankfort, Buell continued to move cautiously. Already, Buell seemed to be far more concerned about not losing a battle to Bragg than he was about the problem of finding him and beating him. He had given up any idea of fighting Bragg before the Confederate general crossed into Kentucky; as the Fifteenth Kentucky raced north with its brigade, passing through Shelbyville a day ahead of schedule, Buell wrote to Halleck that he intended to fall back on his supplies at Nashville. From Nashville, he would head directly up the Louisville &: Nashville Railroad into Kentucky , rather than racing Bragg by the overland route. Halleck's response reflected the growing frustration with Buell in Washington: "March where you please, provided you will find the enemy and fight him."5 Lytle marched the Seventeenth Brigade into Murfreesboro on the evening of September 3, trailing a long wagon train and driving ahead of him about four hundred head of horses and cattle impressed from the north Alabama farmers. Despite expecting a rest at Murfreesboro, the men stayed in camp only a day before marching for Nashville, where the brigade arrived on the evening of the fifth.6 The men were in a foul humor as they shuffled out of camp at Edgefield Springs two days later. They were heading north, covering the same ground they had won in the spring, and they did not understand why Buell was traveling due north, parallel to Bragg, rather than moving to cut Bragg off. As a result, Buell was rapidly losing what little popularity he ever had in the ranks. The brigade crossed the Cumberland Knobs on September 8, bivouacking at Tyree Springs. The next day, they crossed into Kentucky, camping near Franklin.7 The buglers sounded reveille early during the march through northern Tennessee and into Kentucky. The column frequently moved as early as four, hoping to get a good start before the heat became oppres- [3.14.142.115] Project MUSE...

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