Ivan Vasilyevich Turchaninov (); December 24, 1822 – June 18, 1901) better known by his Anglicised name of John Basil Turchin, was a Union Army brigadier general in the American Civil War. He led two critical charges that saved the day at Chickamauga and was among the first to lead soldiers up Missionary Ridge. He was court-martialed for allowing his men to perpetrate the "Sack of Athens," and found guilty of all charges, but President Abraham Lincoln promoted him to brigadier general, which invalidated the verdict, as an officer could only be tried by those of equal or greater rank.
Early life and career
Ivan Turchin was born on December 24, 1822, or January 30, 1822, into a Don Cossack family of the nobility of the Russian Empire. He entered the Imperial Russian Army in 1843, and graduated from the Imperial Military School in St. Petersburg in 1852. His father was a Major in the Imperial Russian Army, which gained him entry into schools that led to his eventual military commission. He later served as a Colonel of Staff in the Russian Guards and fought in Hungary and in the Crimean War. While serving as a lieutenant, he took part in the Russian campaign to help Emperor Franz Joseph defeat the Hungarian Revolution of 1848.
Following his graduation, Turchin was posted to the staff of Imperial Guards in St. Petersburg, under the command of Count F.V. Rudiger.
In May 1856, he married Nadezhda Lvov, the daughter of his commanding officer. Later that year, he and his wife emigrated to the United States, where he eventually settled in Chicago and worked for the Illinois Central Railroad.
Civil War
Turchin joined the Union army at the outbreak of the war in 1861 and became the colonel of the 19th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment. Having led his regiment in Missouri and Kentucky, he soon found his unit under the command of Major General Don Carlos Buell in the newly organized Army of the Ohio. Buell was impressed by Turchin and promoted him to command a brigade in the Army of the Ohio's Third Division, commanded by Brigadier General Ormsby M. Mitchel. Buell advanced southward into Kentucky and Tennessee in early 1862.
When Buell headed west to support Grant at the Battle of Shiloh, he left Mitchel to hold Nashville. Turchin urged Mitchel to move southward. Mitchel did so, but not because of Turchin. He took Huntsville, Alabama, as part of a plan with the spy James J. Andrews to capture Chattanooga by cutting it off from Confederate reinforcements. Mitchel blocked them from the west by capturing Huntsville. Andrews was to block them from the south by burning bridges on the Western and Atlantic line. Unfortunately, Andrews failed; after the Great Locomotive Chase, all the raiders were captured, and some, including Andrews, were executed. Nonetheless, Mitchell continued to occupy the line westward from Chattanooga throughout much of northern Alabama.
The occupation of northern Alabama by this division of the Union Army led to attack by combined partisan and Confederate cavalry units. One such attack overran one of Turchin's regiments at Athens, Alabama. Frustration had been building among these Union soldiers for weeks over repeated attacks and Buell's clearly stated conciliatory policy of protecting the rights and property of Southerners. The reported involvement of local citizens in the rout at Athens and the humiliation suffered by the Union soldiers led to the sacking of the town when Turchin brought up reinforcements. According to University of New Mexico School of Law professor Joshua E. Kastenberg, Southern civilians had fired on Turchin's men. General Joseph Keifer, who served as an ad hoc judge advocate, stated "Turchin did not believe that war could be successfully waged by an invading army with its officers and soldiers acting as missionaries of mercy."
After reoccupying the town on May 2, 1862, Turchin assembled his men and reportedly told them, "I shut my eyes for two hours. I see nothing." He did in fact leave the town to reconnoiter defensive positions, during which time his men ransacked the business district. The incident was controversial.
When word reached General Buell, a man much detested by the soldiers, he insisted on court-martialing Turchin. The court proceedings received national attention and became a focal point for the debate on the conduct of the war, related to the conciliatory policy as Union casualties in the war mounted.