Concentration at Nashville Don Carlos Buell, who was placed in command of the Department of the Ohio on Sherman's request to be relieved, had been serving from the early summer of 1861 as Assistant Adjutant-General on the staff of Brigadier-General E.V.Sumner, U.S.A., in command of the Department of the Pacific.He had been promoted to the rank of lieutenant-Colonel in the adjutant-general's department, May 11, 1861.His appointment as brigadier-general in the volunteer force was made May 17, 1861.General Buell was a graduate of West Point, and had been in the army all his life.He was a thoroughly trained soldier, with great pride in his profession, a man of great integrity, with abilities of the first order, animated by high principle.His long training in the adjutant-general's department, added to his natural faculty, made him a first-class organizer of an army.Under his direction the soldiers of the Army of the Ohio received their training in the drill of the camp, the discipline of the march, and learned endurance under fire in the skirmishes and engagements during his command.For all the soldierly qualities that the troops of the later organization--the Army of the Cumberland--possessed, they were indebted in large measure to their first commander in the field, General Buell.He was constant in his endeavors for the care of the troops, and insisted on their camps being carefully selected and well drained.His highest aim was to make good soldiers of his command, and everything that detracted from this, as straggling, pillaging, disobedience of orders, he regarded as unworthy of a soldier, and meriting prompt and stern punishment at his hands.In the earlier days of the war, with the lack of the knowledge that the stricter obedience to orders the better for the soldier, General Buell seemed at times harsh and severe.But as time brought hard campaigns and heavy fighting to the Army of the Cumberland, the older soldiers who were under Buell saw that he was actuated solely for their good and the good of the service in all he did.
The organization of the troops into brigades and divisions first engaged Buell's attention on assuming command.On December 2d, an order was issued creating this organization and designating it the "Army of the Ohio," consisting of six divisions.The brigades were numbered consecutively throughout the army, and not as they were formed in the divisions.General G.H.Thomas was assigned to the command of the First Division, consisting of four brigades.
The entire force of the First Division was at Nashville on March 4th.
The Second Division was organized at Camp Nevin, a camp established by General Rousseau, when left by Sherman in command after the latter assumed the command of the department.General Alexander McD.
McCook, who had relieved Rousseau October 14, by order of Sherman, was assigned to the command of this division, which consisted also of four brigades.
The Third Division was placed under the command of General O.M.
Mitchel, who had been in Cincinnati in command at the "Military Department of Ohio," and who was relieved November 19th, after two months' service there, superintending the forwarding of troops to the armies in the field.This division consisted of three brigades.
General William Nelson, on reporting at Louisville after his Eastern Kentucky campaign, was placed in command of the Fourth Division, consisting of three brigades.
The Fifth Division, consisting of three brigades, was placed under the command of General Thomas L.Crittenden, a son of John J.
Crittenden.
In January, 1862, General Buell organized the Sixth Division, and relieving General T.J.Wood from the command of the Fifth Brigade, assigned him as commander of this division, which consisted of three brigades.
To each brigade was attached a battery of artillery.
In this organization of the "Army of the Ohio," as the new regiments from the North reported, additional brigades and divisions were formed from time to time.Thus organized, the army under Buell, in the early spring entered upon its first campaign.There had been some slight skirmishing during the winter with portions of the command.
A detachment of the Thirty-ninth Indiana, under Lieutenant-Colonel Jones, met a body of the rebel cavalry a few miles beyond Camp Nevin, and routed it with slight loss to the enemy.
On December 10th, General R.W.Johnson moved onward his brigade, and occupied Mumfordsville, sending a detachment of the Thirty-second Indiana to Green River, where a temporary bridge was constructed.
On the 17th, four companies of this regiment, under Lieutenant-Colonel Von Trebra, crossed and took position at Rowlett's Station.General A.S.Johnston had sent Hindman with his brigade from Bowling Green, with instructions to destroy the railroad as far north as Green River.On the same day that the Thirty-second Indiana crossed the river, Hindman reached Woodsonville.On the approach of Hindman, Von Trebra threw out two companies as skirmishers.The enemy fell back with the purpose of decoying the Federals to the point where his main command of infantry and artillery was posted.The cavalry--a squadron of the "Texas Rangers" under Colonel Terry--made a spirited attack.The skirmishers rallied by fours to receive this charge.
