Buell, Don Carlos

Buell, Don Carlos, 1818–98, Union general in the Civil War, b. near Marietta, Ohio, grad. West Point, 1841. Buell was appointed brigadier general of volunteers in the Civil War (May, 1861), helped organize the Army of the Potomac, and took command of the Dept. of Ohio (Nov., 1861). He supported Grant's move up the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers by marching on Bowling Green, and after the fall of Fort Donelson he pursued the retreating Confederates to Nashville. In Mar., 1862, he was placed under Gen. H. W. Halleck and made major general of the Army of the Ohio, in which service he played a decisive role at Shiloh (see Shiloh, battle of). He forced the Confederates to retreat from Kentucky at Perryville (Oct. 8, 1962) but was dilatory in his pursuit. He was replaced by Gen. W. S. Rosecrans; subsequently he was investigated by the military and discharged.

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Buell, Don Carlos

(born March 23, 1818, near Marietta, Ohio, U.S.—died Nov. 19, 1898, Rockport, Ky.) U.S. general. A graduate of West Point, he was appointed general of volunteers at the start of the American Civil War, and he helped organize the Union's Army of the Potomac. He was sent to Kentucky to succeed William T. Sherman and to organize the Army of the Ohio. In 1862 he was Union commander in the Kentucky campaign against Confederate forces under Braxton Bragg. Following the Battle of Perryville, he was removed from his command for alleged tardiness in his pursuit of Confederate forces.

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Buell, Don Carlos (1818–98) soldier; born near Marietta, Ohio. An 1841 West Point graduate, he saw combat in the Mexican War, in which he was severely wounded. In mid-1861 he helped organize the Army of the Potomac; he took command of the newly formed Department of the Ohio later in the year. His unopposed entry into Nashville in 1862 followed in the wake of Grant's victories at Forts Henry and Donelson. Buell's forces arrived at Shiloh in April, barely in time to reinforce Grant and assure his victory. After fighting Bragg's Confederate army to a draw at Perryville, Ky., on October 8, 1862, Buell was relieved of command for failing to pursue the retreating enemy. Regarded as overly cautious, he was never again assigned a field command, so he resigned from the army in 1864. He settled in Kentucky after the war, where he worked with an iron company and as a pension agent.