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A. P. Stewart, a West Point Graduate who became the Highest Ranking officer from Tennessee. Stewart taught mathematics at West Point following his graduation and taught math in a number of schools, but principally in Cumberland University at Lebanon, Tenn. He joined the Confederate forces as a Major of Artillery. He was in the Battle of Belmont, Mo., and was fought at the Hornet's Nest at the battle of Shiloh. He commanded troops at Stone's River, Missionary Ridge, and in the Atlanta Campaign of 1864 from Dalton to the Chattahoochee River. He was wounded at Ezra Church. He was held in high regard by his superiors, and July of 1864 General Joe Johnston gave him command of Polk's Corps leading it though the Army of Tennessee's remaining marches and battles. He was a remarkable officer who made friends easily. His men called him 'Old Straight' as a matter of respect, because they knew he could be relied upon and when he told them something, that was the way it was. After the war he taught at Cumberland University, was Chancellor of the University of Mississippi and the Confederate commissioner of the first Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park. |
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