Longstreet, East Tennessee, and the weather of 1863-64

   In September 1863, Longstreet took part of his command and moved via railroad from Virginia to Northern Georgia, arriving in time to play a pivotal role in the battle of Chickamauga. After several weeks near Chattanooga, Longstreet moved his men to Knoxville, attempting to wrest control of the city away from the Federals. After the failed attack at Fort Sanders, Longstreet moved into East Tennessee. His force spent the winter there, occasionally battling with the enemy and trying to procure food. (You can read about some of their attempts to supply the army here.)

East Tennessee ca.1863 (LOC)

   Longstreet’s men spent the next five or so months in east Tennessee. They were often cold and hungry, and the weather played a role in the war as it frequently did.

   In December 1863, Longstreet’s men moved from Knoxville toward Bean’s Station. Lewellyn Shaver, a member of the 60^th Alabama Infantry, reported that it rained on December 14, and that the men marched “ankle deep in mud and inclining their heads to the rain as it fell. . . A more dismal day, or a condition more uncomfortable and forlorn can scarcely be conceived: blankets, wet and heavy—clothes, ditto. . . the temperature cold and penetrating…” After the battle of Bean’s Station, Shaver recalled the dead, “their pallid faces drenched and beaten by the rain-drops.”[1] After the war, Longstreet wrote that following the Confederate victory at Bean’s Station, “the weather grew very heavy and the roads, already bad, became soft and impracticable for trains and artillery… As winter had broken upon us in good earnest, it seemed necessary for us to give up the game of war for the time, seek some good place for shelter, and repair railroads and bridges, to open our way back to Richmond.” [2]

   Following the battle, Longstreet’s command moved to the vicinity of Morristown where they constructed winter quarters. Shaver wrote that for the next four weeks, it was intensely cold, with blankets and warm clothing in scant supply. The men had to travel in the snow to cut trees for their camp.[3] Moxley Sorrel, on Longstreet’s staff, stated that at the end of December, the “cold was intense, the record showing the lowest temperature for many years… the glass went down to zero and the entire army was quiet in the effort to keep warm.”[4] James Longstreet complained of a “bitter freeze of two weeks [that] had made the rough angles of mud as firm and sharp as so many freshly-quarried rocks…”[5]

   It was through the snow that the soldiers moved, arriving in Dandridge on January 29, 1864. Sorrel also wrote that the affair at Dandridge was conducted while it was “bitter winter weather, the ground sharp with ice…”[6] William R. Montgomery, 3^rd Batt. Georgia Sharpshooters, wrote that they moved twenty miles through the mud and snow. “Had to lay out 3 nights without any covering (in the snow) save the wide expanded arch of Heaven which you may imagine was by no means pleasant.” On the day he wrote (January 19, 1864), the ground was covered with snow and the wind blowing.[7]

   After a skirmish and remaining in the area several days, they moved to Brabson’s Ferry. Shaver recalled that the camp would be remembered because of the “intensity of the cold.” They soon returned to their camp near Dandridge where they built a bridge over Lick Creek. He also reported more rain during this time.[8] Montgomery wrote on January 20 that it had rained for three or four days. Snow prior to that had been 10 inches in some places.[9]

   There was more of the same in February. Lt. Richard Lewis, 4^th South Carolina, wrote on February 21 that those in camp were exposed “to the cold and chilling blast of winter.”[10] The weather moderated some over the next couple of weeks. Around March 1, the 60^th Alabama moved to Zollicoffer and stayed there several weeks. The weather had improved enough for the men to resume drill. Lieutenant Lewis wrote again of rain on March 9.[11]

   W. R. Stillwell, 53^rd Georgia Infantry, writing on April 3, 1864, recalled moving from Greeneville to Bristol. It took four days to cover the fifty-hour miles, in the snow.[12] After reaching Zollicoffer, Lieutenant Lewis wrote of his tramp, echoing Stillwell. Their march started with snow and sleet, then more snow and blistering winds. On reaching the camp at Zollicoffer, he and his comrades were able to “lay down and bask in sunshine for an hour or two” before pitching camp.[13]

   From these few glimpses we can make some logical deductions. While there were some good days (which get mentioned less in correspondence home), the weather was rough on Longstreet’s men during the winter of 1863-64. Frequent cold fronts passed through the area, bringing snow and sleet. On the nice days, warmer temperatures and sunshine thawed the roads, making travel difficult for supply wagons. Many letters and reminisces mentioned broken-down commissary wagons and artillery pieces sunk to their hubs. A more probing question is: was this all normal, east Tennessee weather? Judkin Browning and Timothy Silver argue that since the 1850s, the Tennessee River Valley area had been in a La Nina cycle. The Tennessee River, which had frequently flooded, was quiet.  However, in 1862, there were heavy rains. The rising Tennessee River allowed the capture of Forts Henry and Donelson.[14] Kenneth W. Noe writes that the winter of 1863-64 in East Tennessee was “exceedingly harsh.”[15] The poor weather taxed animals charged with bringing supplies, and the lack of clothing and shoes hurt the chances of Confederate forces wanting to advance on Knoxville or into Kentucky. From these accounts, we might surmise that the winter of 1863-64 was a little on the unusual side. We may also find a greater appreciation of the terrible hardships faced by these men as they fought a foe much more fearsome than the Union army: Mother Nature.

 

 

 

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[1] Shaver, A History of the Sixtieth Alabama Regiment, 31-32, 36.

[2] Longstreet, From Manassas to Appomattox, 515.

[3] Shaver, A History of the Sixtieth Alabama Regiment, 37.

[4] Sorrel, Recollections of a Confederate State Officer, 220.

[5] Longstreet, From Manassas to Appomattox, 526.

[6] Sorrel, Recollections of a Confederate State Officer, 219.

[7] Montgomery, Georgia Sharpshooter, 100-101.

[8] Shaver, A History of the Sixtieth Alabama Regiment, 40.

[9] Montgomery, Georgia Sharpshooter, 103.

[10] Lewis, Camp Life of a Confederate Boy, 82.

[11] Shaver, A History of the Sixtieth Alabama Regiment, 41.

[12] Hattaway, The Stillwell Letters, 246.

[13] Lewis, Camp Life of a Confederate Boy, 86, 88.

[14] Browning and Silver, An Environmental History of the Civil War, 46-51.

[15] Noe, The Howling Storm, 353.