If you start wandering about the battlefields of the American Civil War you might start noticing names appearing on more than one battlefield.  One such name is George Maney of Tennessee.  A recent trip took me out onto the fields of Chickamauga where our group, led by the indomitable David Powell and National Park historian James Ogden, wandered in the footsteps of Maney’s brigade on both 19 and 20 September 1863.  Maney’s brigade fought hard on those two days.  While they did not achieve greatness, turning the tide of the battle in one direction or the other, they stayed steady.

Maney’s brigade was not the focus of our group walks, but they were involved in our morning expedition through the woods and mud.  Just before our battle wanderings, I noticed markers for his brigade on Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge.  Afterwards, I met up with his brigade at the Dead Angle on Kennesaw Mountain.  If I had looked hard enough, I could have seen his men at Resaca and New Hope Church.  Looking in older photos from earlier trips, I found them again at Stones River and Shiloh. 

They fought long and hard with the Army of Tennessee winning some battles while losing others.  Like at Chickamauga, Maney’s men were not the direct causes for either victory nor defeat.  But in following a smaller unit over the course of the Civil War in the West is to come closer to the war on a slightly more personal level.

WALKING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF MANEY

Brigadier General George Maney’s brigade belonged to the division of Major General Benjamin F. Cheatham.   The division was part of the army corps of Lieutenant General Leonidas Polk while everyone served as parts of the Confederate Army of Tennessee commanded by General Braxton Bragg.  Our goal in the morning’s walk was to retrace the steps of Brigadier General Richard Johnson’s Federal division on 19 September as it crashed through the woods of Chickamauga between Battleline Road and Brock Field on Brotherton Road. 

After a day of hard rains, the paths were boggy as we made our way through the hardwood forest still leafless in the late winter gloom.  We passed the mortuary pyramid erected in honor of Brigadier General James Dreshler who died the following morning in a failed attempt on the Federal defenses of Major General George Thomas’ corps along the slight rise where Battleline Road runs with its granite forest of monuments.

19 september

The morning of 19 September in this area of the battlefield was a see-saw affair.  Troops from either side would come into the fight in dribs.  Units would make a sudden impact pushing the enemy deeper into the woods before reinforcements from the other side would counter.  Walking through the woods today is to experience a much denser level of vegetation than existed at the time of the battle.  At that time, if not for the smoke of battle, men could peer through the trees for a hundred yards or so.  The National Park Service is slowly trying to replicate the conditions seen at the time of the battle with attempts to control invasive species of vegetation and recent controlled burns.

Johnson’s Federal brigades of Brigadier General August Willich, Colonel Joseph B. Dodge, and Colonel Philemon P. Baldwin pushed through the now tired and low on ammunition Confederate brigade of Brigadier General John K. Jackson.  Jackson’s men withdrew with Maney’s brigade coming up to relieve them in the fight in the woods.  Maney came forward with about 1,300 Tennesseans opposed by double their number in the brigades of Willich and Baldwin – Dodge’s men were still in reserve at first.

the prussian

Dodge’s men went off to the right to help the men of Brigadier General William B. Hazen whose men, like Jackson’s, were running low on ammunition after their earlier fight in Brock Field.  Meanwhile, we were following Willich’s men.  August Willich formerly served as an officer in the Royal Prussian Army.  He became indoctrinated with the possibility of life without kings serving on the wrong side during the German Revolutions of 1849.  Serving on the wrong side meant no pension in the Prussian army and emigration to America.

He trained his men to attack in “advance fire”.  Normally, regiments lined up in two ranks, but Willich changed that to a four-rank system where the ranks would advance through each other delivering a volley fire as they moved on.  This gave the brigade a rolling fire exceeding that of normal units.  Remember, this was in an era just before breechloading guns became the weapon of choice.  It took time to reload a muzzleloading rifle-musket.  That time difference eliminated having four ranks instead of just two.

through the woods we march

We walk past a tablet dedicated to the division of Major General Patrick Cleburne, but that, like an earlier tablet dedicated to Deshler’s brigade, relates to events for the following day.  Then markers begin to appear for regiments belonging to Maney’s brigade – 4^th, 6^th and 9^th Tennessee marked 1430 hours 19 September.  By now we are coming out on Brotherton Road with Brock Field across the way.

To return to our starting point next to the Texas monument on Battleline Road we walk left on Brotherton Road past the mortuary monument of Brigadier General Preston Smith who died in the evening fighting on 19 September.  Passing monuments remembering the regiments of Dodge’s command, we come upon a tablet describing Maney’s brigade lining up near Brotherton Road, ready to go into action at about 1400 hours on 19 September.

noteworthy

Two things to note.  First, note by this time in the war, regiments had lost a lot of men.  Especially on the Confederate side, recruiting replacements for various regiments was difficult.  In place of replacements, regiments molded together with others.  Here, we have the 1^st and 27^th Tennessee under the command of Colonel Hume R. Field – Field would go onto command the regiment when Maney fell later wounded and then elevated to division command.  There is also the 6^th and 9^th Tennessee consolidated.

Second, the 24^th Tennessee (Battalion Sharpshooters) featured Major Frank Maney as commander – George’s brother.  The 24^th originally hoped to serve as an artillery battery.  They marched to Fort Donelson at the end of 1861 without horses.  They surrendered with everyone else at Fort Donelson on 16 February 1862.  Exchanged in Vicksburg in September, they fought as infantry with the 1^st Tennessee at Stones River.  Afterwards, they re-organized as a sharpshooter battalion. 

Frank survived the war but ended up murdered in 1867 in New Orleans probably because of a duel or disagreement with an “unknown” assailant though former Colonel Philip Noland of Texas ended up arrested as an accessory – later acquitted.  Before signing up for the Confederacy, Frank attended West Point and served with Garibaldi in Italy in 1859. Interesting to sign up for freedom in one country, siding with the side of reaction in another.

OTHER WALKS WITH MANEY

SHILOH

At Shiloh, there are tablets for the regiments of “Stephens’ Brigade” who was the commander of the brigade at the beginning of their battle in the afternoon of 6 April 1862 before Maney returned from the far-right flank of the Confederate army on Lick Creek.  Another tablet shows up just on the north side of the Putnam Stump on the Eastern Corinth Road where the brigade – “Stephens” – fought earlier in the day.  Another marker notes the engagement of the 6^th Tennessee and six companies of the 9^th Tennessee on the far-left flank of the army on 7 April, a day where the brigade fought split apart.  All the regiments are noted at the base of the Tennessee State Monument standing next to Sherman Road and the Water Oaks Pond.

PERRYVILLE AND STONES RIVER

Perryville, where I have not been to, sees Maney’s Brigade heavily involved on Starkweather’s Hill on the west side of the park.  This, the brigade’s heaviest fought day.

At Stones River, the tablets here relate more to the Federal stand of Sheridan’s division whom Maney’s men initially fought against.  One can walk out onto the Cotton Field from the Park Road on the east, another area the brigade moved through.  A last stop would be at the Round Forest in from of the Hazen Monument near the Veterans Cemetery.

KENNESAW MOUNTAIN

Finally, at Kennesaw Mountain – Cheatham Hill, actually – Maney’s Brigade shared defensive duties with Colonel Alfred J. Vaughn, Jr.  There is a tablet or two describing the actions at the Dead Angle along with markers for both brigades and their Federal counterparts.  The main monument here is the towering Illinois Monument erected at the beginning of the 20^th century by Illinois veterans who lost comrades here.

THE MAN

George Earl Maney grew up in Franklin, Tennessee.  His father, Thomas, served as a judge working on the First Circuit of Tennessee.  George graduated from the University of Nashville in 1845, just in time to enlist with the 1^st Tennessee Volunteers for the Mexican War.

MEXICAn volunteers

The Mexican War proved a popular opportunity for Tennesseans.  At the time of the war, the American army consisted of less than 9,000 men.  Following a call for volunteers in which Secretary of War William Marcy called for 2,800 from Tennessee, the call answered by 30,000 men – hence, Tennessee’s nickname, “the Volunteer State”.  A lottery system determined who got the chance to serve.  About 1,000 men from Middle Tennessee formed the 1^st Tennessee Infantry Regiment with George Maney among them.  He served as a second lieutenant.

Under the command of Colonel William Campbell, the 1^st Tennessee joined Zachary Taylor’s army – June 1846 – becoming part of the brigade under John Quitman.  Staying healthy was a major problem that summer.  The regiment took part in the Battle of Monterrey in September.  Both the 1^st and 2^nd Tennessee Regiments – the 2^nd hailed from western Tennessee – joined Winfield Scott’s army in 1847.  The enlistments were only for twelve months, and most Tennesseans went home in the summer of 1847.  Some, including Maney, joined other units.

Maney joined the 3^rd US Dragoon Regiment, serving as a first lieutenant.  The 3^rd Dragoons had been split in half with five companies shunted off to General Taylor serving as a force of occupation while the other five companies marched inland to join Scott for the march on Mexico City.

Another War

With the Mexican War over, Maney returned home taking up the profession of law, passing the bar in 1850.  He set up a practice in Nashville and Franklin marrying a couple years later.  As war clouds began gathering around the South, George became the captain of the Rock City Guards, a militia battalion raised with 327 men in 1860.  By May 1861, the unit, now with three companies, joined the Confederate service as the 1^st Tennessee Infantry with Maney as their colonel.  Maney was soon promoted to brigade command and the 1^st command fell to Colonel Hume R. Feild.

The 1^st joined the 7^th and 14^th Tennessee Regiments in July 1861 forming the Tennessee Brigade.  The brigade served in Brigadier General William W. Loring’s division as a part of the Army of the Northwest – northwestern Virginia – under overall command of Robert E. Lee.  The 1^st served with the Tennessee Brigade until mid-February 1862 fighting under Lee at Cheat Mountain and with Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley early in 1862.  Transferred away from the Tennessee Brigade, the 1^st Tennessee joined the Army of Mississippi in Corinth, Mississippi just in time to take part in the Battle of Shiloh 6-7 April 1862.

Shiloh

Maney’s command at Shiloh was the Second Brigade of Cheatham’s division.  Included were the 1^st, 6^th, 9^th Tennessee, and the 7^th Kentucky regiments along with Melanchon Smith’s Mississippi Battery.  Maney only brought five of his companies of the 1^st with him to Shiloh with the others left behind in Chattanooga.  Originally, the 1^st Tennessee was included in the mostly Mississippi brigade of Brigadier General James R. Chalmers, but Army commander Albert Sidney Johnston moved them into Cheatham’s division with Maney taking command of the brigade because he was the senior colonel.

On the first day of the battle, Johnston sent Maney and his 1^st Tennessee to guard the right flank of the army at Greer’s Ford on Lick Creek.  As the noise of the battle rose and there was no sign of a Federal threat at Lick Creek, Maney returned his unit – Johnston told him, he could return if he was satisfied there was no threat – to the brigade just then pushing north across the Sarah Bell cotton field against the Federals of the brigades of Jacob Ammen and William B. Hazen.  They were among the initial Confederate units pushing the Federals back into what became known as the Hornet’s Nest.

The Federal army survived the first day barely but augmented with Don Carlos Buell’s Army of the Ohio overnight, the second day’s fighting went in the opposite direction.  Maney’s brigade became split up on the battlefield as they fought hard to slow the Federal advance.  When the day was over, the Confederate army retreated towards Corinth, the first big bloody battle of the war over.

PERRYVILLE and STONES RIVER

Maney gained a promotion to brigadier general for his actions at Shiloh on 16 April.  In a slight reshuffle of units, his brigade now consisted of the 1^st, 6^th, 9^th and 27^th Tennessee plus the 41^st Georgia along with Smith’s artillery battery.  With this group, Maney’s brigade figured big in the Battle of Perryville 8 October 1862.  The brigade suffered a casualty rate of 37.5% that day – 170 dead, 502 wounded and 50 missing out of 1,927.  Two of the regiments – 9^th and 27^th – lost over 50% and the 1^st lost 45%.  For more, read – a whole book on the actions of the brigade at Perryville.

The brigade saw action at Stones River at the end of the year, as well.  The last brigade of Cheatham’s to go into action during the battle on 31 December, fighting against the Federal division of Phil Sheridan.  This position was in front of another cotton field.

CHICKAMAUGA and CHATTANOOGA

Maney’s brigade figured in the fighting on both the 19^th and 20^th at Chickamauga.  They were involved in an attack through the woods north of Brock Field which like all the other attacks made by both sides was turned back.  Then, the next day, they were involved in an attack just before midday on the line set up by General George Thomas on what is now Battleline Road and Poe Field.  That attack featured fancy maneuvers on the part of his various companies within regiments.  The movements did not come off perfectly and those attacks faced a similar end as the day before.

During the fighting at Chattanooga, Cheatham’s division deployed to defend Tunnel Hill against William T. Sherman’s large Federal force.  Maney’s Brigade was held in reserve, helping to defend.  Late in Sherman’s attacks, they featured during a counterattack which quieted the action on Tunnel Hill just as the real show started to the south along the main part of Missionary Ridge.

The Confederate debacle on Missionary Ridge forced the entire Army of Tennessee to scramble for its very life.  As part of Cheatham’s division, Maney’s men helped slow down the Federal pursuit.  On the next day – 26 November – the brigade was involved in an action at Cat Creek – Mackey Branch – where Maney suffered a severe wound to an arm which put him out of the battle.  It would be some time before he was able to return to duty.

ATLANTA CAMPAIGN

At the opening move in front of Dalton, Georgia, Maney – back in action – and his men defended atop Rocky Face Ridge.  They were relatively untested during at that time.

Split off from Cheatham into the division of A. P. Stewart as the Army of Tennessee took up a position just to the north of Resaca.  This was a couple of days after Sherman successfully flanked Confederate commander Joseph E. Johnston out of his strong positions around the Rocky Face Ridge.  Maney’s men covered the far right of the Confederate line between the rails of the Western & Atlantic and the Connasauga River.

They were detached again from Cheatham’s division going with the division of William B. Bate to take part in battles of New Hope church and Dallas in late May.  At Kennesaw Mountain, the brigade was in the center of the battle helping with Vaugh’s Brigade to defend the little bulge in the Confederate line atop Cheatham Hill at the Dead Angle.  Following Johnston’s retreat from the Kennesaw line, he was supplanted by John Hood as the Army of Tennessee commander.  Maney’s men fought several times during the battles around Atlanta.  Maney was bumped up to command Cheatham’s division when Cheatham took over corps command following Leonidas Polk’s death.

disability

After the 31 August fight at Jonesboro – the first day of the battle, Maney took a convalescent leave which he extended with time due to continued pain from his earlier wound. Maney would not return to field command.  There is some evidence he may have acted as an advisor to Cheatham, but the pain from his arm kept him from returning to actual command during the Franklin-Nashville campaign.  He did take another two months leave from Tupelo, Mississippi after the remnants of Hood’s army retreated from Nashville.  Maney ended up getting parole with the rest of what was left of the Army of Tennessee in North Carolina 1 May 1865.

POSTWAR CAREER

Returning to Franklin after the war, Maney spent a decade as president of the Tennessee & Pacific Railroad, a small line hoping to open the coal fields of eastern Kentucky to the riverports on the Mississippi.  Only 29 miles of line was completed between Lebanon and Nashville.  The line went bankrupt and absorbed into the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway.

Maney became one of the few Southerners who joined the Republican Party after the war.  He worked to help reconcile Tennessee to the new world of Reconstruction, becoming a state senator for a term in 1887 until 1889.  His daughter Frances married a former officer of the 15^th Massachusetts Infantry Henry Clay Ward.   Ward continued into postwar times gaining a commission in the Regular Army.  He eventually retired as a brigadier general.

From 1881 until 1883, Maney served as US minister to Colombia and as Consul General to Bolivia.  He spent four years from 1890 to 1894 as an ambassador to Uruguay and Paraguay.  Finally, February 1901, Maney died from a stroke and is buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Nashville.