XI Corps (Union Army) - Tennessee

Tennessee

Returning to Virginia after Gettysburg, on August 7 the 1st Division (Alexander Schimmelfennig's and later George Henry Gordon's) was permanently detached, having been ordered to Charleston Harbor. On the September 24, the 2nd and 3rd divisions (Steinwehr's and Schurz's) were ordered to Tennessee, together with the XII Corps. These two corps, numbering over 20,000 men, were transported, within a week, over 1,200 miles, and placed on the banks of the Tennessee River, at Bridgeport, without an accident or detention.

During the following month, on October 29, Howard's two divisions were ordered to the support of the XII Corps, in the midnight Battle of Wauhatchie, opening the supply lines to the besieged city of Chattanooga. Arriving there, Col. Orland Smith's Brigade of von Steinwehr's Division charged up a steep hill in the face of the enemy, receiving but not returning the fire, and drove James Longstreet's veterans out of their entrenchments, using the bayonet alone. Some of the regiments in this affair suffered a severe loss, but their extraordinary gallantry won extravagant expressions of praise from various generals, high in rank, including General Ulysses S. Grant. A part of the XI Corps was also actively engaged at Missionary Ridge, where it cooperated with William T. Sherman's forces on the left. After this battle it was ordered to East Tennessee for the relief of Knoxville, a campaign whose hardships and privations exceeded anything within the previous experience of the command.

In April, 1864, the two divisions of the XI Corps were broken up and transferred to the newly formed XX Corps. General Howard was transferred to the command of the IV Corps, and, subsequently, was promoted to the command of the Army of the Tennessee.