Army of West Mississippi
The Army of West Mississippi existed for fewer than four months, yet in that short window it fought two battles that helped seal the fate of one of the Confederacy's last major port cities. Commanded by Major General Edward Canby, this Union force was born out of reorganization rather than from scratch. Its predecessor, the Army of the Gulf, had already endured a punishing campaign on the Red River before the army was renamed and retasked. What drove the creation of a new army from an old one? Why did the Mobile coast become the target? And what happened to the army once its fighting was done?
Nathaniel P. Banks commanded the Department of the Gulf until the Red River Campaign went badly enough that he resigned from his command. General Stephen Hurlbut was handed the department afterward, but the troops that made up the Army of the Gulf saw little in the way of active fighting during his tenure. In August 1864, some of those same units did take part in a land assault at the Battle of Mobile Bay, under the direct command of General Gordon Granger. That engagement kept the army in the fight, even as the organization above it was being rearranged. When the Military Division of West Mississippi was established under General Canby, the XIII Corps and the XVI Corps were transferred into it. Canby gave the field forces of this new division a new name: the Army of West Mississippi. The date was the 18th of February 1865.
Spanish Fort was the first major test for the Army of West Mississippi as a named force. The siege of Spanish Fort formed part of the broader effort to close in on Mobile, Alabama, which remained a functioning Confederate position into the spring of 1865. Fort Blakeley came next. The Battle of Fort Blakeley followed directly from the fall of Spanish Fort, with Canby pressing the campaign against the defenses guarding the eastern shore of Mobile Bay. Both engagements are listed as the army's major battles in the historical record. Together they represented the culmination of Union pressure on the region, pressure that had been building since Granger's forces joined the land attack at Mobile Bay the previous year.
Canby's command of the Army of West Mississippi ran from the 18th of February 1865 to the 3rd of June 1865. That span of roughly three and a half months is the entire lifespan of the army as a distinct named force. When Canby was subsequently appointed commander of the Department of the Gulf, the troops reverted to their earlier identity and once again carried the name Army of the Gulf. The renaming was not a disbandment. The men, the units, the XIII Corps and XVI Corps, all remained. Only the title changed, cycling back to the designation the force had worn before the Military Division of West Mississippi brought them under a new organizational umbrella. The Army of West Mississippi dissolved not in defeat but in promotion, absorbed back into the institution it had briefly stood apart from.
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Common questions
What was the Army of West Mississippi and when did it exist?
The Army of West Mississippi was a Union army that served in the Western Theater of the American Civil War. It operated under Major General Edward Canby from the 18th of February 1865 to the 3rd of June 1865, making it one of the shorter-lived named Union armies of the war.
Who commanded the Army of West Mississippi?
Major General Edward Canby commanded the Army of West Mississippi for its entire existence, from the 18th of February 1865 to the 3rd of June 1865. He named the force himself when he organized the field troops of the Military Division of West Mississippi.
What battles did the Army of West Mississippi fight?
The Army of West Mississippi fought the Battle of Spanish Fort and the Battle of Fort Blakeley. Both engagements were part of the Union campaign to capture the defenses around Mobile Bay in the spring of 1865.
What was the relationship between the Army of West Mississippi and the Army of the Gulf?
The Army of West Mississippi was virtually the same force as the Army of the Gulf under a different name. When General Canby was appointed commander of the Department of the Gulf after the campaign, the troops reverted to the title Army of the Gulf.
Why was the Army of West Mississippi created from the Army of the Gulf?
After the Red River Campaign ended badly, Nathaniel P. Banks resigned command of the Department of the Gulf. The forces in the region were reorganized under the Military Division of West Mississippi, and General Canby renamed the field troops the Army of West Mississippi when the XIII Corps and XVI Corps were transferred to the new division in 1865.
Which corps made up the Army of West Mississippi?
The Army of West Mississippi was composed of the XIII Corps and the XVI Corps, both transferred to the Military Division of West Mississippi under General Canby in 1865.
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1 references cited across the entry
- 1bookCivil War High CommandsJohn H. and David J. Eicher — Stanford University Press — 2001