At Perryville Buell labored under the same disadvantage in the organization of his command that made itself felt on the first two great battlefields of the Army of the Cumberland.That was the inefficiency of his corps commanders.Of Gilbert it is only necessary to say, that a worse appointment as a corps commander was not made during the war.Fortunately, the battle of Perryville was his first and only appearance in that position.Buell, after expressing his thanks for McCook's services on that field and in the campaign, in his official report says: "It is true that only one serious battle has been fought, and that was incomplete, and less decisive than it might have been.That this was so is due partly to unavoidable difficulties which prevented the troops, marching on different roads, from getting on the ground simultaneously, but more to the fact that I was not apprised early enough of the condition of affairs on my left.I can find no fault with the former, nor am I disposed at this time to censure the latter, though it must be admitted to have been a grave error.I ascribe it to the too great confidence of the general commanding the left corps (Major-General McCook), which made him believe that he could manage the difficulty without the aid or control of his commander." Buell was not notified of any attack by the enemy on his left until over two hours after the engagement was begun.He then hurried to the field, and sent the necessary supports forward, at once checking the enemy, and made disposition of his troops for battle.
With a willingness to lay down command that characterized all the commanders of the Army of the Cumberland when the authorities in Washington regarded the good of the service as requiring it, Buell placed the new commander in full possession of all plans and information that he possessed, and without a word left the troops that were to win undying fame on other battle-fields, largely by reason of the training he had given them during the period of his command, half a month less than one year.
The Comte de Paris, in his "History of the Civil War in America,"in writing on the battle of Shiloh, where he refers to the massing of the artillery by Grant's Chief of Staff, Colonel Webster, says:
"The fate of the day depends upon the preservation of these heights, whence the enemy could have commanded Pittsburg Landing," and on the following page adds, "Nevertheless, at the sight of the enemy's battalions advancing in good order, the soldiers that have been grouped together in haste, to give an air of support to Webster's battery, became frightened and scattered.It is about to be carried, when a new body of troops deploying in the rear of the guns, with as much regularity as if they were on the parade-ground, receives the Confederates with a fire that drives them back in disorder into the ravine.This was the brigade of Ammen, belonging to Nelson's division, that rushed forward so opportunely." In speaking of the second day's fight he says: "At a signal given by Buell, his three divisions, under Nelson, Crittenden, and McCook, put themselves in motion at the same time.The soldiers of the Army of the Ohio, constantly drilled for the year past by a rigid disciplinarian, and trained by their long marches across three States, are distinguished by their discipline and fine bearing.The readiness with which they march against the enemy wins the admiration of the generals, who, like Sherman, have had to fight a whole day at the head of raw and inexperienced troops."The greatest service that General Buell rendered to his country was as the organizer and disciplinarian of the mass of the raw, undrilled troops that were hurried to the front under the need of the hour, and who, unaccustomed to military or other restraint, had all the freedom that characterizes the American sovereign both in speech and action.To take these troops by the thousands and make an army of fifty to seventy-five thousand trained skilled soldiers, who, in later days, were to do as splendid fighting as the world ever saw, was a stupendous undertaking.General Buell not only did this, but accomplished the task in time to bring some of these soldiers that he was justly proud of to the field of Shiloh, where, under his eye, they met the enemy like veterans.Buell's military training and habits of life led him, however, to one error.He was so good a soldier himself, that he failed to recognize the distinction between the regular soldier in garrison during times of peace and the thinking volunteer during the active campaigns of the rebellion.The latter could not and would not be made the mere machine the former becomes, and Buell's failure to appreciate this caused great ill-feeling against him at the time in his army.
