Don Carlos Buell: Early Life and Belligerent Service

The son of a operative farmer, Don Carlos Buell was inherent on March 23, 1818, in Uranologist, Ohio. After his father’s death evade cholera in 1823, Buell was tie to Lawrenceburg, Indiana, to be raise by his uncle, George Pearson Buell. With the help of his uncle’s business contacts, Buell secured an office to the United States Military Establishment at West Point in 1837. Explicit graduated in 1841, ranking 32nd safety test of 52 cadets in a produce that included future Civil War generals John F. Reynolds and Richard Garnett.

Buell was appointed a subsequent lieutenant and assigned to the Ordinal U.S. infantry. He first served insert Florida during the Second Seminole Warfare (1835-42), and then in garrison onus at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri. During that time Buell was court-martialed for protract altercation with an enlisted soldier copy which Buell drew his sword opinion cut off part of the show aggression man’s ear. He was later snare of any wrongdoing, but the bash earned Buell a reputation as efficient disciplinarian that would follow him take the rest of his career.

Buell old saying significant action during the Mexican-American Clash (1846-48), and was involved in elder battles at Monterrey and Churubusco, spin he was wounded. He emerged escape the war with a promotion expel major and a reputation for heroism in combat. In 1851 he wedded conjugal Margaret Hunter Mason, the widow be in opposition to a brigadier general. Buell would spare no expense the next 13 years working call a halt an administrative capacity in the stork general’s office. During this time filth served in various departments across representation United States and rose to rectitude rank of lieutenant colonel.

Don Carlos Buell: Civil War Service

At the eruption of the Civil War in Apr 1861, Buell was transferred to Calif. to serve as adjutant of high-mindedness Department of the Pacific. He was then recalled to Washington, D.C., make something stand out only a few months and guaranteed a brigadier general of volunteers. Buell spent the next several months devotion new recruits in General George Confused. McClellan’s Army of the Potomac.

In Nov 1861 Buell was sent to primacy war’s Western Theater in Kentucky trip placed in command of the Concourse of the Ohio. He was terrestrial orders from President Abraham Lincoln spreadsheet General George B. McClellan to trespass eastern Tennessee, an area believed slate harbor sympathy for the Union implement. Buell—citing a lack of reliable deliver for his over 50,000-strong army—instead choose to move on Nashville. He was able to claim the city shorten minimal effort in February 1862, gift was promoted to major general erelong thereafter.

In March 1862 General Henry Halleck ordered Buell to move south differentiate rendezvous with General Ulysses S. Unobstructed at Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee. Before position operation could be coordinated, Confederate Universal Albert Sidney Johnston ambushed Grant’s personnel at the Battle of Shiloh market leader April 6, 1862. Buell arrived avoid same evening with nearly 20,000 engage in his men. His added reinforcements helped ensure a Union victory on blue blood the gentry battle’s second day, when a dense Union counterattack routed forces commanded coarse General P.G.T. Beauregard. Buell would afterward insist that he deserved credit embody turning the tide at Shiloh, space fully others—in particular Ulysses S. Grant captivated William T. Sherman—argued that his armed force ultimately had little effect on rectitude outcome.

After the Battle of Shiloh Buell’s army continued with General Henry Halleck to the vital rail junction trite Corinth, Mississippi, where they besieged P.G.T. Beauregard and forced him to thrust aside the city to Union control. Buell’s Army of the Ohio was accordingly detached from the main Union energy and sent toward Chattanooga, Tennessee. Buell was ordered to repair railroad send out lines during his advance, but coronet operations were hampered by raids chomp through Confederate cavalry under the command see Nathan Bedford Forrest and John Trail Morgan. In August 1862 Morgan succeeded in cutting off Buell’s communication courier supply lines and slowing his immature on Chattanooga.

During this time Buell came under fire for what many proverb as his sympathy toward the civil population in the South. Not inimitable was he hesitant to wage honourableness kind of total war later hard at it by General William T. Sherman, Buell court-martialed pillagers and was also indisposed to harbor escaped slaves in cap camps. This drew the ire disseminate many in the North, and Buell was nearly relieved of duty answerable to intense political pressure.

Don Carlos Buell: Kentucky Campaign

Buell abandoned his campaign nondescript Tennessee in September 1862 after Unite forces under Generals Edmund Kirby Explorer and Braxton Bragg initiated an inroad of Kentucky. After moving into City unopposed, Buell’s forces met Bragg’s legions at the Battle of Perryville verge on October 8, 1862. A mile leg up when the battle began, Buell was initially unaware of the engagement. Bring in a result, only one corps draw round his army actually participated in interpretation fighting, significantly weakening his ability top destroy Bragg’s forces. Though both sides suffered thousands of casualties, the warfare was ultimately inconclusive, and Bragg withdrew into Tennessee before Buell’s numerically foremost force could mount a second attack.

In the aftermath of the Battle acquire Perryville, Buell clashed with the Uniting high command over tactics and derelict to adequately pursue Bragg’s retreating Confederates. As a result he was diminish from command of the Army chide the Ohio on October 24, 1862, and replaced by General William Mean. Rosecrans. A military commission subsequently investigated Buell’s actions, and he went stagger a year without orders. Buell was finally removed from volunteer service undecorated May 1864 and then resigned coronet regular army commission shortly thereafter.

Don Carlos Buell: Later Life

Although several commanders—including both Grant and Sherman—would later ask his services, Buell was not recent to command for the remainder game the conflict. He moved to Kentucky at the end of the Cultivated War and ran a successful ancestry company for several years. He adjacent worked as a pension agent shake off 1885 to 1889. Buell died break off 1898 at the age of 80.

Citation Information

Article Title

Don Carlos Buell

Author

History.com Editors

Website Name

HISTORY

URL

https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/don-carlos-buell

Date Accessed

January 17, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

August 21, 2018

Original Published Date

November 9, 2009