Free Terrible Swift Sword by Joseph Wheelan

were marched to the center of a hollow square formed by the division. Sheridan ordered them to surrender their swords—to his black servant, for Sheridan said he would not “humiliate” any soldier by requiring him to touch the sullied weapons. The servant then cut all rank insignia from the men’s coats, and an order was read announcing their dismissal from the service. They were drummed out of the camp. No division officer abandoned his colors after this ritual humiliation, Sheridan wrote. 41
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    DURING THE LONG ENCAMPMENT at Murfreesboro, Sheridan’s command style came into sharper focus. He was like many successful Union generals in his high levels of energy and stamina, and he was able to think clearly even when he had
not slept for days. Leading from the front and exhorting his men from his big gelding, Rienzi, Sheridan was an inspiring figure.
    He was also surprisingly modest. Henry Castle, acting quartermaster sergeant for the 73rd Illinois, one day went to division headquarters seeking information. He nearly rode over a young man in shirtsleeves sitting on a stump, smoking a cigar. The startled man asked, “Who the—are you, anyhow?” Castle replied that he was seeking the division quartermaster’s advice on obtaining cattle.
    The man proceeded to advise Castle on selecting and butchering cattle and distributing the meat. As the man was concluding his soliloquy on these subjects, a staff officer rode up, saluted, and addressed him as General Sheridan. Horrified by his mistake, Castle stammered out an apology for his “unceremonious approach.” It was entirely understandable, replied Sheridan, because he was not wearing rank insignia. He added that Castle should not hesitate to consult him if he had further questions about his military duties. 42
    During the interregnum Sheridan improved his intelligence operations, convinced by the Rebel surprise attack at Stones River of the great importance of gathering accurate information about the enemy. One day, a stranger appeared at his headquarters, offering to supply him with information about the Army of the Tennessee. An intelligent, bustling little man, James Card was from eastern Tennessee, a region of hills and hollows where subsistence farmers eked out a marginal living. Most of them also supported the Union. From selling religious tracts throughout Middle and East Tennessee and Georgia, Card had gained a thorough knowledge of the roads and people. Sheridan hired him to serve as a scout, guide, and intelligence agent. 43
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    THERE WAS A STRATEGIC reason for keeping the Army of the Cumberland idle at Murfreesboro until summertime. With General Ulysses Grant marching on Vicksburg, Bragg’s army must be kept pinned down in Middle Tennessee so that it would not reinforce the Mississippi Rebels. And so, Rosecrans’s army scarcely stirred until June 23, when James Card and his brothers reported that Bragg was on the move. The Union army broke camp and headed south . 44
    The Army of the Cumberland’s march through Middle Tennessee and Bragg’s deft withdrawal were at once a master’s seminar in maneuver and a maddening game of cat and mouse. Every Rosecrans movement designed to place Bragg’s army in jeopardy was foiled by Bragg slipping away. By marching on Liberty Gap, Rosecrans hoped to turn Bragg’s army at Shelbyville. But when the Yankees reached Shelbyville, Bragg was gone. Sheridan approached Tullahoma, halting six miles away so that the army could mass for an all-out attack on the Rebel storage depot. When the Yankees finally pounced, the Confederates were not there. 45

    Sheridan learned that a Rebel cavalry brigade and some infantry had stopped on Monteagle Mountain, where the University of the South had been founded three years earlier by several Episcopal bishops—one of them Confederate general Leonidas Polk. But when Sheridan reached the mountaintop on July 5 with 1,200 cavalrymen