CIVIL WAR ERA
On October 17, 1863 the President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, created the Military Division of the Mississippi and installed as its first commander MAJGEN U. S. Grant. Grant went to Chattanooga, arriving there on October 23, 1863 and established his headquarters "In the field". On March 18th, 1864, at Nashville Tennessee, MAJGEN William T. Sherman relieved LTGEN Grant as commander of the Military Division of the Mississippi. At that time, the Military Division of the Mississippi embraced the Departments of the Ohio, Cumberland, Tennessee, and Arkansas. These Departments were commanded respectively by Major Generals Schofield, Thomas, McPherson, and Steele. Soon afterward, the Department of Arkansas was transferred to the Military Division of Gulf (May 8, 1864). The approximate strength of each army ready for combat service on May 1, 1864 was: Army of the Cumberland......50,000 men Army of the Tennessee............35,000 menArmy of the Ohio...................15,000 men
________
Total 100,000 men
It was the soldiers of "The Federal Western Army", that fought most of the major battles of the western theater from Tennessee through the Atlanta Campaign, the "March to the Sea", the total defeat of Confederate General Hoods' Army on the battlefields of Franklin and Nashville, and ultimately the defeat of General Johnstons' Army in North Carolina.
There are many who believe that it was this Army that sealed the defeat of the Confederacy in the West and lead to the ultimate surrenders of General Lee and General Johnston in the East.
The men of the Western Army were fighters and the "laurels" of many of the major battle victories in Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Alabama belong to the men of and to the regiments in which they fought!
Modern Era
Civil War reenacting in the South has always had the problem of too few reenactors wanting to portray the boys in blue. This is understandable as most of the reenactors in the region are native to it and most of these had ancestors who actually participated in the war as Confederate soldiers. This discrepancy makes a true historical but reduced in size reproduction of the battles almost impossible as the Federal forces usually outnumbered the Confederates in the battles in the Western Theater of the war.
To gain an honest appearance of the forces fighting each other some of the Confederate soldiers have to "galvanize" (wear blue and fight as Federals) so that the numbers are at least more equal during the reenacted battles. Also, economic growth in the South has brought many real Yankees (those born in the North) into the south and some of them are reenactors. So, the galvanizers and the real, now local, Yankees have eliminated the imbalance to a great extent and a few reenactor units doing Federal only have arisen.
From these Federal only units a loose organization was formed early in 1997 calling itself the Military Division of the Mississippi (MDM). The MDM has no formal military command structure as the member units sponsoring or closest to an event simply name the Commander of the MDM for that event and he selects his staff and command structure from the units of the MDM. Three units are the core of this organization: they are the 8th Tennessee (US)(Knoxville), the 9th Kentucky (Nashville), and the 125th Ohio (Atlanta).
The MDM usually forms a battalion or a brigade at battle events where all the member units are present. This usually happens at least 2 to 5 times a year. In addition the MDM has battalion and brigade level drills usually twice a year. In addition a few living history presentations have been attended by the MDM.
Membership was originally intended for Federal only units but several Confederate units have appeared which actually do Federal as often or more often than they do Confederate. While none of these Confederate units are formally members of the MDM they have found that they are welcome and they do fall in with the MDM at reenacting events. Both the MDM and these galvanized units have been satisfied with the results.
If your unit is interested in obtaining more information about the MDM then please check the recruiting section of this website.