The Battle of Collierville

                 Implications of the Battle of Collierville                               

                                By John Weeks

Many Southern cities struggle with the conflicting priorities of preserving their history and growing their future. Collierville is facing that dilemma to a greater degree than most people are aware. Preserving the history of Collierville and an opportunity to create a valuable Civil War tourist attraction far outweighs the small amount of tax revenue that a plot of land once holding a Civil War Battlefield could ever generate. It is worth investigating. Just to give you some idea of how interesting and important the Battle of Collierville was, consider the following historical implications. Union troops in Collierville protected a key rail line during the Civil War. The Confederate Calvary decided to mount a raid on the city to disrupt rail service.  They expected light resistance and had the strength to win the day if they would have pressed.  They chose to retreat fearing nonexistent Union artillery support and encountering some unexpected Union Forces.  Unbeknownst to them the most important General in the Western Theater and his staff had literally wandered into a surprise attack.  Sherman himself directed the order of battle and it was the closest he ever came to being killed or captured during the Civil War. He lost his horse and they burned his train. Over 200 soldiers die in Collierville, which is a significant number even in Civil War calculations.  It was the most intense fighting in Shelby County and contrasts with the history of Memphis where they surrendered to a 19 year-old medical cadet without a fight.  If Sherman had been captured it would have changed the course of the war dramatically.  There are some factual reasons for this assertion. Sherman had experience in fighting Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston in battles around Jackson Mississippi during the Vicksburg campaign. He learned about Johnson's propensity for withdrawal from these experiences. This was a key factor when Sherman faced this same General in the battles that led up to the fall of Atlanta.  Any other general would likely have taken a much longer time to defeat Johnson and take Atlanta. President Lincoln himself was convinced he could not be reelected before Atlanta fell.  Victory at Atlanta was the key to the successful reelection of President Lincoln and occurred just in time to have a positive impact on the election for him.  If Atlanta had not fallen when it did, then it is likely that McClellan would have won the election. It is also likely that he would have allowed the South to successfully sue for peace since ending the war was the cornerstone of his political campaign thus ending the war as a divided country.  Another major factor in the importance of the Battle of Collierville, and the survival of Sherman, is that if the Confederates had pressed on and certainly won this battle then there would never have been the “March to the Sea” which destroyed central Georgia and South Carolina. Grants strategy at that point in the war was to wear down the Confederacy by attrition.  Grant wanted to be continuously engaged with the enemy because the North had a much greater capacity for both men and materials.  Even a tactical loss for the North was a strategic win as long as they were fighting.  After the Atlanta campaign Sherman had to convince Grant that it was better not to pursue the Confederates north towards Nashville and instead destroy the bread basket of the South using total warfare tactics. No other general had the kind of relationship that Sherman had with Grant, and no other general would have proposed such a tactic especially considering the strategy in place at the time. The Battle of Collierville also impacted Sherman's strategic thinking about railroads in general. This was reflected in some of his dispatches to Grant.  He was less inclined to rely on them as a supply mechanism and refined his technique of living off Southern spoils. This is also a key element in the “March to the Sea” and shaped Sherman’s tactics. Another major impact this had on our country is what happened after the war.  If the North would not have conducted the “March to the Sea”, reconstruction would still have been difficult, for example Vicksburg didn't celebrate the Fourth of July until 1945, but it probably would not have reached the negative degree to which it ultimately did.  The North was plagued with poor military leadership throughout the war and the principal reason for Southern victories up until Gettysburg was this leadership deficit. The North only had two truly great generals and one of them was almost captured in Collierville before he would have been able to have a strategic impact on the outcome of the war. Tennessee had the second-highest number of battles fought during the Civil War so it is easy for us to take this history for granted.  Consider the number of States and Communities that have no treasured Civil War heritage to preserve.  Over 200 men lost their lives in 3 skirmishes and the main Battle. Collierville was eventually burned to the ground. It is the apex of local Civil War history east of the Mississippi River.  Most communities would consider this a significant factor in their history and well worth saving. Our success as a nation in the future is tied to what we have learned in the past.  The Civil War is the ultimate microcosm of how a free democracy can survive against incredible odds. The political dynamics of war that were evident then, are remarkably similar to the situation we are facing today. Many of our Military traditions and major military organizational structures can be traced back to lessons learned in the Civil War. The possibilities of future tourist and educational opportunities an authentic Civil War site offers to the people of this community and our country at large are limitless.

John Weeks

Collierville, Tennessee