The Meanest and 'Damnest' Job : Being the Civil War Exploits and Civilian Accomplishments of Colonel Edmund Winchester Rucker During and After the War

Being the Civil War Exploits and Civilian Accomplishments of Colonel Edmund Winchester Rucker During and After the War

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• Publisher: NewSouth, Incorporated
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9781588383839
• Edition: 0
• Topic: History
• Index: History

Most Civil War histories focus on the performance of top-level generals. However, it was the individual officers below them who actually led the troops to enact the orders. Some of these were remarkably effective. One such officer was Edmund Winchester Rucker. He was a force to be reckoned with, both during the Civil War and in his post-war business ventures. He was courageous, tough and resourceful, and achieved significant results in every assignment. During the campaign by the United States Army to capture the upper Mississippi River, Rucker and his faithful Confederate artillerists, with only three operable cannons, held off the entire Federal fleet which possessed 105 heavy guns. Later, in East Tennessee, Rucker's duties included punishing saboteurs and conscripting unwilling local citizens into the Confederate Army. He described these assignments as: "The meanest and damnest [sic] duty a soldier had to perform." Following the battles for Chattanooga, he served with General Nathan Bedford Forrest as a cavalry brigade commander, earning high merits for his performance. Rucker's leadership was a major factor in the Confederate victory in the Battle of Brices Cross Roads, which has been called "History's Greatest Cavalry Battle." Subsequent to the Battle of Nashville, Rucker was wounded and captured; although his left arm was amputated, this did not impede his future achievements. After the war, Colonel Rucker and General Forrest became business partners in a railroad-building project. Rucker did well from this venture and became one of the wealthiest early entrepreneurs in Birmingham. In recognition of his many accomplishments, Fort Rucker Alabama was named in his honor. This first biography on his life examines, at a fast-moving pace, the military and business accomplishments of this outstanding leader who left his mark on both the Civil War and Southern industry of the time.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Maps
• Significant Dates in the Life of Edmund Winchester Rucker
• Preface
• Introduction
• 1. A Self-Trained Engineer
• 2. Tennessee Prepares for War
• 3. Fortifying the Mighty Mississippi
• 4. Occupying Columbus: A Strategic Error
• 5. The Kentucky Pro-U.S. ‘Neutrality’
• 6. Grant Takes the Initiative—Seizes Paducah
• 7. Fort DeRussy—‘Gibraltar of the West’
• 8. The Inconclusive Battle of Belmont—‘Seeing the Elephant’
• 9. The Horrific Lady Polk Calamity—She was No ‘Lady’
• 10. Forts Henry and Donelson—Who’s in Charge?
• 11. The Abandonment of Fort DeRussy—‘Goodbye Columbus’
• 12. Fortifying Island Number 10—A Soggy Sandbar
• 13. The Construction of Rucker’s Redan
• 14. The Bombardment of Rucker’s Redan—Three Cannons Hold Off 105
• 15. The Abandonment of New Madrid and the Surrender of Island Number 10
• 16. ‘Bloody Shiloh’ and the Retreat to Corinth
• 17. Rucker Assigned to East Tennessee
• 18. Braxton Bragg and Kirby Smith Invade Kentucky
• 19. Martial Law: ‘The Meanest and ‘Damnest’ Job’
• 20. Rucker Not Re-elected as an Officer by His Men
• 21. Rosecrans vs. Bragg—Two Procrastinators
• 22. Rucker Provides the Rear Guard in the Evacuation of Chattanooga
• 23. Chickamauga—Bragg Snatches Defeat from the Jaws of Victory
• 24. Chattanooga—‘Grant Sprang like a Caged Lion’
• 25. Rucker (Finally) Assigned to Serve with Forrest
• 26. The Battle of Brices Cross Roads—‘The Greatest of All Cavalry Battles’
• 27. The Battle of Tupelo—Confederate Lack of Coordination
• 28. Rucker Returns to Duty—and Controversy
• 29. ‘See the Boat Come ’Round the Bend’—The Horse Marines
• 30. The Cannonade of Johnsonville—A ‘Baby Waker!’
• 31. Onward to Nashville—and Disaster
• 32. The Battle of Nashville—Confederate Misfortune
• 33. Prisoner of War
• 34. Forrest Calls It Quits
• 35. After the War—Railroad Boom and Bust—and Boom Again
• 36. From Railroad Builder to Pig Iron Magnate
• Appendices
• Bibliography
• Notes
• Image Credits and Notes
• Index