Booknotes: Sherman's Other Army

New Arrival:

• Sherman's Other Army: The Second Army of the Ohio 1863-1865 by Michael J. Klinger (Little Miami Pub, 2023).

The first iteration of the Union Army of the Ohio (1861-62) was dissolved during the major transition period between the mixed results of the 1862 Kentucky Campaign causing its commander, Don Carlos Buell, to fall out of favor and the appointment of William S. Rosecrans to lead the successor Army of the Cumberland. In anticipation of the long-awaited (and frequently aborted) campaign to seize control of East Tennessee, the Army of the Ohio was revived in 1863 under the leadership of Ambrose Burnside. Its infantry strength was composed of Ninth and Twenty-Third Corps, though Burnside was forced to await the return of the former from Vicksburg.

Earl Hess authored the most recent (and only major) military account of the Confederate campaign to reverse Burnside's achievements in the region and just this year a fine study of Union cavalry operations in East Tennessee was published inside Dennis Belcher's The Cavalry of the Army of the Ohio: A Civil War History, but we still do not have a single volume designed to represent a comprehensive history of the Army of the Ohio's successful capture of Knoxville in 1863 and occupation of the region surrounding it. Michael Klinger's Sherman's Other Army: The Second Army of the Ohio 1863-1865 is not that book, but it does devote a significant portion of its just under 300-page narrative to those operations.

After describing the 1863 organization of the second Army of the Ohio, Klinger recounts the aforementioned operations in East Tennessee, the army's integral role in the 1864 Atlanta Campaign, and the Twenty-Third Corps's part in both the Franklin/Nashville Campaign and 1865 denouement in North Carolina. In our brief email exchange, the author hinted that his book contains some unique observations related to Spring Hill and Franklin.

The volume is heavily illustrated. Klinger reproduces from other publications a large collection of battle maps, encompassing actions both large and small. Two organizational tables are provided, and period and modern photographs are sprinkled about. Bibliography and chapter notes feature published primary and secondary sources, marking the study type as one of synthesis.

Released last year, Sherman's Other Army is only available direct from the linked publisher plus a few select outlets. I can't find the email to confirm, but I seem to recall that the author told me that copies can be obtained from one or more of the relevant NPS bookstores.