The Bluffsburg Campaign: Generals' Biographies

Further to my planned American Civil War campaign, here are the biographies of the Union and Confederate commanders.

It is late June, 1862.



General Silas B. Moore, commanding the Third Division, Army of the Tennessee

You are Silas Moore, an Illinois native and a professional soldier. You graduated
20th out of 80 at West Point in the late 1840s, an engineer by training. You served in the Mexican War on the staff of fellow engineer Robert E. Lee, but after the war your army career stalled and you resigned to survey railroads in the midwest. In 1861 you rejoined the army and commanded a division under Buell during the Shilo campaign. Unfortunately for you, a misunderstanding over transport prevented your division from arriving at Pittsburg Landing until after the battle. General Buell attempted to reprimand you for lack of courage and incompetence, and you appealed the matter with General Halleck. While a reprimand was averted, you feel that you are now under a cloud of suspicion.

As Union forces begin to move on the Confederate base at Corinth, you have been given a sideshow assignment, but also the chance to redeem yourself. Your division is to move on the county seat of Bluffsburg, which holds the key to the lower Mississippi River. You have been promised some support from Commander Porter's riverine fleet. Capturing Bluffsburg will outflank the Confederates in Corinth and allow further progress down the Mississippi. As you leave his office, Halleck warns you that if you fail in this endeavour, you will find yourself surveying northern California for the rest of the war.




Major General Theophilus C. Hatcher, commanding Hatcher's Division, Army of the Tennessee

You are Theophilus Hatcher, Mississippi native, the eldest son of a prominent cotton planter, and an amateur but experienced soldier. During the Mexican war you served with distinction as a captain of foot in Jefferson Davis' regiment of Missippi volunteers. After Mexico you continued to soldier as a colonel of state militia, and were active in Mississippi's succession movement. You commanded a brigade at Shilo, and led your troops throughout both days of fighting despite an arm wound from which you are still recovering. Despite constant pain and discomfort, you have refused to take convalescent leave, judging the threat to your native state to be too great.

After Shilo you were chosen by General Beauregard to protect NW Mississippi while he regroups the army at Corinth. You are expected to keep the region free of Yankee incursions, protect the vital port town of Bluffsburg, and, if practical, to recapture Jefferson City before it can become a base of operations for the Union. The more enemy forces you can tie up the better, as this will divert forces from the Oxford/Corinth region until the Confederacy can recover from Shilo. You are to maintain contact with Maj. Gen. McGraw's division in Oxford, east of the Mississippi, and you have been given a letter that allows you to request the assistance of Maj. Gen. Thaddeus Holmes, commander of the garrison at Bluffsburg and of naval forces on this section of the river. Your orders regret that Maj. Gen. Holmes' command is actually part of the Vicksburg military district and so not obliged to cooperate with you. However, it is expected that reason and the common cause of the Confederacy will allow you both to cooperate.