Don Carlos Buell, who was placed in command of the Department
of the Ohio on Sherman's request to be relieved, had been serving
from the early summer of 1861 as Assistant Adjutant-General on the
staff of Brigadier-General E. V. Sumner, U.S.A., in command of the
Department of the Pacific. He had been promoted to the rank of
lieutenant-Colonel in the adjutant-general's department, May 11,
1861. His appointment as brigadier-general in the volunteer force
was made May 17, 1861. General Buell was a graduate of West Point,
and had been in the army all his life. He was a thoroughly trained
soldier, with great pride in his profession, a man of great integrity,
with abilities of the first order, animated by high principle. His
long training in the adjutant-general's department, added to his
natural faculty, made him a first-class organizer of an army. Under
his direction the soldiers of the Army of the Ohio received their
training in the drill of the camp, the discipline of the march,
and learned endurance under fire in the skirmishes and engagements
during his command. For all the soldierly qualities that the troops
of the later organization--the Army of the Cumberland--possessed,
they were indebted in large measure to their first commander in
the field, General Buell. He was constant in his endeavors for
the care of the troops, and insisted on their camps being carefully
selected and well drained. His highest aim was to make good
soldiers of his command, and everything that detracted from this,
as straggling, pillaging, disobedience of orders, he regarded as
unworthy of a soldier, and meriting prompt and stern punishment at
his hands. In the earlier days of the war, with the lack of the
knowledge that the stricter obedience to orders the better for the
soldier, General Buell seemed at times harsh and severe. But as
time brought hard campaigns and heavy fighting to the Army of the