America’s Civil War: Philip Sheridan

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In an effort to escape the closing vise, the Confederate cavalry charged down the road toward Alger’s men. Alger immediately ordered a retreat, and while engaged in a running gunfight with a Confederate trooper, he collided with a tree and was sent crashing to the ground. Most of Alger’s force turned onto a side road and lost the Confederate pursuers. Adams called a halt to the chase after 10 miles because his horses were exhausted. When he encountered a swamp, Coon likewise halted his battalion.

The next day Sheridan informed Maj. Gen. William Rosecrans that he had driven off a force of 5,000 men. This was generous. While that might be a reasonable number of men for seven regular regiments, the Confederate regiments were greatly understrength. If anything, the force Chalmers used to attack Sheridan was probably little larger than the Union force of 900.

For years there was disagreement about the exact number of casualties. ‘Our loss in this affair was: Killed, 1; wounded, 24; missing, 16. Total casualties, 41,’ Sheridan reported. ‘The loss of the enemy must have been severe, as we were occupying good positions all the time and well covered, while they used the open ground for their deployment. They have taken a number of wagons from the people to carry off their dead and wounded. Among the wounded that fell into our hands are two lieutenants, who will die.’ Adams, however, claimed he had only four men wounded, but that was just in his regiment.

Until his death in 1916, Lieutenant William Richards claimed that he was the only Confederate casualty of the battle at Booneville. When he read Sheridan’s report years after the war, he asked Chalmers to make an accurate statement about the number of casualties his force had suffered. The former Confederate general by then was a Republican politician. Not wanting to offend his former Union supporters, he refused to say anything.

Although the engagement was minor, it had two important results. The Union Army continued to expand, continually creating new positions. To protect Washington during the Peninsula campaign, the Army of Virginia was created, and John Pope was sent to command it. Rosecrans took command of the Army of the Mississippi. Henry Halleck arrived in Washington to command all the Union armies.

The brief fight at Booneville solidified Sheridan’s chances of becoming a general. On July 30, Rosecrans and four other brigadier generals — Granger, Elliott, Jeremiah Sullivan and Alexander Asboth — sent a message to Halleck. ‘Brigadiers scarce; good ones scarcer…the undersigned respectfully beg that you will obtain the promotion of Sheridan. He is worth his weight in gold.’ When Sheridan’s promotion to brigadier general came through in September, Halleck saw that it was backdated to July 1 — the date of the fight at Booneville.

The second consequence occurred a year and a half later. By then, Ulysses S. Grant had become the commander of all the Union armies, with Halleck as his chief of staff. During the winter, Maj. Gen. Alfred Pleasonton made himself politically unacceptable to command the cavalry corps of the Army of the Potomac by virtue of his intemperate attacks on Maj. Gen. George Meade before Congress’ Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War. That merely sealed his fate, however, as Grant wanted someone more energetic to command the cavalry.

In late March, Grant met with Secretary of War Edwin Stanton to discuss the situation regarding Pleasonton’s replacement. Grant wanted Maj. Gen. William Franklin, but Franklin’s lackluster performance at the Battle of Fredericksburg had made him unacceptable to Stanton.

Halleck was at the meeting, and he may have been thinking about Booneville. During a pause in the discussion, Halleck suggested, ‘What about Sheridan?’

This article was written by Robert C. Suhr and originally appeared in the May 2000 issue of America’s Civil War. For more great articles be sure to pick up your copy of America’s Civil War.

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Tags: 19th Century, America's Civil War, American Civil War, Historical Conflicts, Historical Figures

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