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The Third Corps was a designation used by several military formations in the Army of Tennessee during the American Civil War. In practice, most Confederate corps were referred to by their commanders' name and not by numerical designation. In its various forms, the Third Corps served under William J. Hardee, Edmund Kirby Smith, Simon Bolivar Buckner, Leonidas Polk, and Alexander P. Stewart. ==Formation== The corps was originally formed by the re-designation of Major General William Hardee's division from the Central Army of Kentucky, also known as the Army of Central Kentucky, into a corps. Having previously served in Kentucky and Tennessee, Hardee's division was marched to Corinth in the personal accompaniment of General Albert Sidney Johnston as part of a strategic Confederate concentration leading up to the Battle of Shiloh. On March 23rd, 1862, Hardee's men arrived in Corinth where they joined other Confederates under the command of General P.G.T. Beauregard.〔Cunningham, P. 97〕 When these forces were consolidated into a single army titled Army of the Mississippi, Hardee's division was designated the Third Corps. This "corps" remained a division in structure, consisting of three brigades under Brigadier Generals Thomas Hindman, Patrick Cleburne, and S.A.M. Wood. Additionally, an artillery battalion of three Arkansas batteries under Major Francis Shoup was also attached to the corps. Hardee's effective force numbered 6,789 and was the smallest of the four corps in the army. 〔Cunningham, P. 118, 402-403〕 Hardee's corps was selected to lead one of the two Confederate columns in the march from Corinth. The army would concentrate at Mickey's farmhouse and then launch an attack upon Grant's Army of the Tennessee encamped at Pittsburgh Landing on April 4th. Hardee was to move his corps up along the Ridge Road, followed by the First Corps under Major General Leonidas Polk. However, Hardee's and Polk's troops became inter-tangled in the streets of Corinth, delaying the march. Though they had departed in the morning, it was late into the afternoon by the time the last of Hardee's corps had left Corinth.〔Cunningham, P. 123-124〕 Poor staff work combined with muddy roads and conditions delayed the march, and thus the attack, well past the April 4th target date. It was not until the morning of April 6th that the Confederates were into position to make the attack.〔Cunningham, P. 137〕 Largely because of its position at the head of the line of march and camp, Hardee's corps found itself at the spearhead of the attack on the morning of April 6th. Hardee's corps deployed in single line of battle arrayed from left to right; Cleburne's brigade on the left resting near Widow Howell field, Wood's brigade in the center, and Hindman's brigade under the temporary command of Colonel Robert Shaver on the right. To extend Hardee's frontage, Brigadier General Adley H. Gladden's brigade was attached to Hardee from Major General Braxton Bragg's Second Corps and posted on Shaver's right.〔Cunningham, P. 138. 〕 With this additional brigade, Hardee decided to form his corps into two temporary divisions; the first under Hindman and consisting of Wood's brigade and his own under Shaver. The second division consisted of Cleburne's and Gladden's brigades and reported directly to Hardee himself. The rest of Bragg's corps deployed in a single line of battle behind Hardee's corps, with Polk's corps in column of march behind Bragg's corps, and Breckinridge's corps bringing up the rear. Thus it was Hardee's corps that became the first Confederates engaged in the Battle of Shiloh when a Federal patrol under Major James Powell from Colonel Everett Peabody's brigade stumbled into a cavalry outposts and pickets from Major Aaron Hardcastle's 3rd Mississippi Battalion of Wood's brigade. This skirmish lasted for about an hour before Powell's Federals fell back.〔Cunningham, P. 148-149. 〕 In the meanwhile, the Confederate offensive began. In the initial advance, the elements of the corps became separated, with Hindman's two brigades and Gladden advancing towards the northeast and right into the camps of Brigadier General Benjamin Prentiss's 6th Division, while Cleburne's brigade advanced more northerly and to left, into the camps of Brigadier General William T. Sherman's 5th Division.〔Cunningham, P. 155.〕 Russell's brigade of Polk's corps advanced to fill the gap in between the two widening segments of the corps. It was a similar story elsewhere, and before long the Confederate advance had lost organization, with mixed units of different corps forming ad-hoc commands and advancing without regard to table of organization. Cleburne's brigade advanced Sherman's position, with his skirmishers of the 15th Arkansas and 6th Mississippi wounding an unsuspecting Sherman in the hand and killing his aide Private Thomas Holliday.〔Cuningham, P. 166-167. 〕 However, Cleburne's attack became bogged down in the marshy terrain, briars, and lowground in front of Sherman's position, and his men suffered significant casualties in the attack. Notably, the 6th Mississippi, which started the battle with 425 officers and men, suffered more than 300 casualties in this attack alone.〔Cunningham, P. 175.〕 The corps was later engaged at Bloody Pond and assisted Breckinridge's Reserve Corps in the rearguard. Fighting at Corinth, the corps served successfully for a few more months until the four corps of the Army of the Mississippi were consolidated and the corps discontinued. The brigades which made up the corps later constituted a division under Simon Buckner, and then more famously, Patrick Cleburne. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Third Corps, Army of Tennessee」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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