While Grant and Lee were engaging in non-stop combat in Virginia, a different type of campaign by different types of generals was getting underway. Sherman, leading an army group consisting of the 98,000 men of the Army of the Tennessee, the Army of the Cumberland and the tiny Army of the Ohio, confronted the 60,000 Confederates of the Army of Tennessee under General Joseph Johnston. Both Sherman and Johnston were more strategists than tacticians, military chess players rather than great captains of the battlefield. Johnston especially had good reason to fear the result of a battle going against him. His army, and his army alone, stood between the vital interior of the Confederacy, thus almost entirely untouched by the War, and Union conquest. Sherman understood that there were many excellent defensive positions between him and Atlanta, and if he was going to get there he had to depend more on maneuver than direct attacks. (more…)
After his attacks on May 10, 1864, Grant used May 11 as a planning day. Impressed by the initial success of Upton’s charge on May 10, 1864, Grant decided to use Upton’s tactics of a swift attack along a narrow front, by troops with unloaded rifles, on a much larger scale. Hancocks II corps was to attack the mule shoe salient using Upton’s tactics, while Burnside launched a supporting attack on the Mule Shoe from the east and Wright attacked the Mule Shoe from the west, while Wright launched decoy attacks on the Laurel Hill sector of the Confederate lines west of the Mule Shoe.
Attack preparations showed a complete break down in elementary staff work. Hancock’s corps was completely ignorant of the configuration of the Confederate position they were to attack, the obstacles in their way, or indeed the basic nature of the ground to be covered. Hancock had his attack columns assemble in torrential rain. The attack was to begin at 4:00 AM. Hancock wisely delayed the attack until 4:35 AM, fearing that his men otherwise could not find the Confederate position, let alone attack it, in the rainy dark.
Now luck began to shine on the Union. The rain stopped and dawn broke with a mist to conceal the Union attack. Unbeknownst to the Union attackers, the Confederate division holding the section of the Mule Shoe they were going to attack, had been denuded of its artillery due to a false report received by Lee that the Union army was going to withdraw to Fredericksburg. If this occurred, Lee wanted his artillery to be withdrawn and readied for an attacking that he planned to make on the withdrawing Federals. Confederate Major General Allegheny Johnson, commanding the target division of the Union assault, became fearful of a forthcoming attack and appealed to his corps commander Lieutenant General Ewell for the return of his artillery. Ewell granted the request at 3:30 AM, too late for the artillery to be put back into place before the start of Hancock’s assault.
Hancock’s 15,000 men attacking on a half mile front crashed into the Mule Shoe and overran Johnson’s division. The rain had made useless much of the Confederate and Union gunpowder and the fighting was grim hand to hand combat. Hancock’s men, fighting on such a narrow front, quickly lost all unit cohesion and became an armed mob, wading through the mud to battle the Confederates. General Lee swiftly sent reinforcements to attempt to plug the breakthrough made by Hancock. (more…)
I commend you to God; may God watch over you and grant you grace so that you can maintain the good cause of the Kingdom of France.
Joan of Arc
Something for the weekend. Joan of Arc, They Are Calling You. A hit song a hundred and seven years ago in the US. Music by Jack Wells and lyrics by Al Bryan and Willie Weston. Although the Maid of Orleans would not be canonized until 1920, the French had regarded her as a saint since her death. In World War I French soldiers would usually have an image of Joan of Arc on them as they went into battle in a War most of them regarded as a Crusade to save France.
“I have but to show him my design, and I know that if it can be done it will be done. Straight as the needle to the pole he advances to the execution of my purpose.”
Robert E. Lee on Stonewall Jackson
Of Thomas Jonathan Jackson, nicknamed Stonewall by General Barnard Bee at the battle of Bull Run, it was said he lived by the New Testament and fought by the Old. Certainly throughout his life he was a convinced Christian. As a young man he would attend services of various Christian denominations. In Mexico, during his service in the Mexican War, he attended mass, although he did not convert to Catholicism. Instead he eventually became a Presbyterian. His Bible was his constant companion, and he would often speak of God and theological matters in private conversation.
Jackson in his professional life was a soldier. Just before the Civil War he was a professor of natural and experimental philosophy (science) and artillery instruction at the Virginia Military Institute. As a teacher he made a good soldier. His lectures were rather dry. If his students seemed to fail to grasp a lecture, he would repeat it the next day, word for word.
His home life was a mixture of sorrow and joy. His first wife died in childbirth along with their still-born son, a tragedy that would have crushed many a man less iron-willed than Jackson. His second marriage, like his first, was happy, but heartache also haunted it. A daughter died shortly after birth in 1858. A second daughter was born in 1862, Julia, shortly before Jackson’s own death in 1863. His wife would spend a widowhood of 52 years, dedicated to raising their daughter, cherishing the memory of her husband, and helping destitute Confederate veterans. For her good works she became known as the Widow of the Confederacy. Their daughter Julia would marry and have children before her early death of typhoid fever at age 26. Her two children had several children and there are many living descendants of Jackson.
He and his second wife established and taught a Sunday school for black slaves. At the time it was against the law in Virginia to teach slaves to read, but apparently that is precisely what Jackson and his wife did. One of the last letters he ever posted was his regular contribution he mailed off throughout the war for the financial support of the Sunday school for slaves he and his wife had founded.
I rode with old Jeb Stuart, and his band of Southern horse,
And there never were no Yankees, who could meet us force to force.
No they never did defeat us, but we never could evade,
Their dirty foreign politics, and cowardly blockade.
Waylon Jennings
A good video on the diplomatic aspect of the Civil War. Considering how often conflicts had sparked between Great Britain and the United States over the years, and that Secretary of State Seward had the hare brained notion at the beginning of the conflict that war with Britain would re-unify the nation, it is remarkable that the Lincoln administration was able to avoid European intervention in the conflict. Of course the Union was helped that such intervention would have been an arduous undertaking, and that any possible payoff for such intervention simply would not have been worth the blood and treasure it would have cost. Although the Confederacy elicited a fair amount of sympathy abroad, no European nation wanted to get into a war with the United States in a trans-oceanic conflict of little practical value to any European state. It also helped that France was no longer competing with Great Britain for global dominance, unlike during the American Revolution, and that the Pax Britannica was well-established. A more turbulent Europe at that time might have produced a different result.
Grant, undaunted by his losses at the battle of the Wilderness, sent his army racing down Brock Road on the night of May 7-8 to seize the crossroads of Spotsylvania Court House and get between Lee and Richmond.
Lee was unsure of Grant’s plan, reasoning that Grant would either be heading east towards Fredericksburg or moving south. In either case it was obvious to Lee that the Spotsylvania Court House crossroads would be essential and sent his cavalry ahead to delay the advance of the Union troops and to seize the crossroads. He also ordered the First corps under its new commander General Richard Anderson to seize the crossroads.
Union cavalry under Sheridan was bogged down during the nights in running battles with the Confederate cavalry.
By dawn on May 8 the Confederates had control of the crossroads. Fighting ensued throughout the day as Confederate and Union arriving units were fed into battle with the Confederates beating off badly coordinated Union attacks. As night fell, both armies began to dig in and prepare fortifications.
The Union and Confederate armies would spend another 11 days at Spotsylvania, with more bloody fighting to come. Here is Lee’s brief reports to the Secretary of War regarding the fighting on May 8. (more…)
Since he sat, with a glass, by the stove in a country store,
A stumpy, mute man in a faded Army overcoat,
The eldest-born of the Grants but the family-failure,
Now, for a week, he shines in the full array
Of gold cord and black-feathered hat and superb blue coat,
As he talks with the trim, well-tailored Eastern men.
It is his only moment of such parade.
When the fighting starts, he is chewing a dead cigar
With only the battered stars to show the rank
On the shoulderstraps of the private’s uniform.
Stephen Vincent Benet, John Brown’s Body
Fighting was not resumed at the Battle of the Wilderness on May 7, 1864. The Confederates had fortified their positions and further Union assaults would have been fruitless. Veteran Union troops knew what was going to happen next. The latest offensive under the latest General had been stopped, with over 17,000 casualties, the same as at the Union defeat at Chancellorsville the year before. The army would retire north for a period of rest and recuperation before trying again. Likely Grant would be removed and a new General brought in to try his luck. The Union troops had been through this many times before over the past three years. (more…)
..”Attention Texas Brigade” was rung upon the morning air, by Gen. Gregg, “the eyes of General Lee are upon you, forward, march.” Scarce had we moved a step, when Gen. Lee, in front of the whole command, raised himself in his stirrups, uncovered his grey hairs, and with an earnest, yet anxious voice, exclaimed above the din and confusion of the hour, “Texans always move them.” …never before in my lifetime or since, did I ever witness such a scene as was enacted when Lee pronounced these words, with the appealing look that he gave. A yell rent the air that must have been heard for miles around, and but few eyes in that old brigade of veterans and heroes of many a bloody field was undimmed by honest, heart-felt tears. Leonard Gee, a courier to Gen. Gregg, and riding by my side, with tears coursing down his cheeks and yells issuing from his throat exclaimed, “I would charge hell itself for that old man.”
Private Robert Campell, 5th Texas Infantry
The fighting erupted early on the second day of the Battle of the Wilderness. Grant assumed that Hill’s corps had been fought out on the first day and could be overrun with a strong attack. At 5:00 AM Hancock attacked with three divisions, with two in support. By 6:00 AM Hill’s corps was in full retreat and disaster loomed for Lee. At that time the 800 man Texas Brigade, perhaps the elite fighting unit in the Army of Northern Virginia, the vanguard of Longstreet’s corps arrived and saved the day. Longstreet launched a two division counterattack up the Orange Plank Road, with the Texans, who suffered 650 casualties, leading the attack on the north side of the Road. By 11:00 AM Hancock’s corps was in full retreat after Longstreet launched a four brigade attack against the left wing of Hancock’s line. Hancock’s men rallied behind fortifications along the Brock Road. In an episode reminiscent of Jackson’s fatal wounding a year ago, Longstreet was shot in the neck by a group of Virginians who thought he and his party were Union troops. Longstreet, unlike Jackson, would survive his wounding, but he would be unable to rejoin the army until October. Lee the next day would place General Richard Anderson in command of the First Corps in place of Longstreet.
On the Orange Court House Turnpike inconclusive fighting raged all day. Shortly before dark General John B. Gordon launched a divisional assault against Sedgwick’s right that made good progress until Union reinforcements restored the Union line. That brief crisis elicited this famous event: a nervous Union officer stating his fears to Grant: “General Grant, this is a crisis that cannot be looked upon too seriously. I know Lee’s methods well by past experience; he will throw his whole army between us and the Rapidan, and cut us off completely from our communications.” Greatly annoyed, Grant responded , “Oh, I am heartily tired of hearing about what Lee is going to do. Some of you always seem to think he is suddenly going to turn a double somersault, and land in our rear and on both of our flanks at the same time. Go back to your command, and try to think what we are going to do ourselves, instead of what Lee is going to do.”
If you take a flat map
And move wooden blocks upon it strategically,
The thing looks well, the blocks behave as they should.
The science of war is moving live men like blocks.
And getting the blocks into place at a fixed moment.
But it takes time to mold your men into blocks
And flat maps turn into country where creeks and gullies
Hamper your wooden squares. They stick in the brush,
They are tired and rest, they straggle after ripe blackberries,
And you cannot lift them up in your hand and move them.
Stephen Vincent Benet, John Brown’s Body
One assumes that there would be worse places for an attacking army to attempt to fight a battle than the Wilderness, but none come readily to mind. With the dense shrubs and trees it was like trying to fight a battle blindfolded, determining where the enemy was more by sound than sight.
The battle of the first day of the wilderness was effectively divided into two actions.
On the Orange Court House Turnpike, Warren and his corps attacked Ewell’s corps. Warren was rightfully concerned that his right flank was in the air and wanted to delay his attack until Sedgwick’s corps moved to support him on his right. Meade was irritated by the delay and ordered Warren to attack before Sedgwick could arrive. Warren’s attack at 1:00PM was hampered from the start due to Confederate attacks on his right flank as he advanced. Ultimately the attack was repulsed with heavy loss. Sedgwick’s corps attacked at 3:00 PM and was beaten back after an hour of fighting. Piecemeal attacks by the two corps ensured that their attacks would fail.
South along the Orange Plank Road Hill’s corps beat off repeated Union attacks with fierce fighting continuing to nightfall.
The battle had been a day of bewildering confusion to all involved, with generals often being unable to locate their own forces in the dense undergrowth, let alone enemy units. The woods quickly caught fire and smoke obscured what little visibility existed. The screams of the wounded as the fire reached them added a Hellish quality to the battle that many survivors never forgot.
Lee had held his ground and now was in position to attack with Longstreet’s corps the next day.
Lee at 11:00 PM of a very long day sent a succinct description of the day’s fighting to the Secretary of War:
HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA, May 5, 1864—11 p.m. (Received 6th.)
Hon. SECRETARY OF WAR.
The enemy crossed the Rapidan yesterday at Ely’s and Germanna Fords. Two corps of this,army moved to oppose him Ewell’s, by the old turnpike, and Hill’s, by the plank road. They arrived this morning in close proximity to the enemy’s line of march. A strong attack was made upon Ewell, who repulsed it, capturing many prisoners and four pieces of artillery. The enemy subsequently concentrated upon General Hill, who, with Heth’s and Wilcox’s divisions, successfully resisted repeated and desperate assaults. A large force of cavalry and artillery on our right flank was driven back by Rosser’s brigade. By the blessing of God we maintained our position against every effort until night, when the contest closed. We have to mourn the loss of many brave officers and men. The gallant Brig. Gen. J. M. Jones was killed, and Brig. Gen. L. A. Stafford, I fear, mortally wounded while leading his command with conspicuous valor.
Squadron Leader Adams: Well, at least the rockets won’t happen.
Air Vice Marshal Davis: Of course they’ll happen. But they won’t start tomorrow, or this month or on D-Day, and that’s important.
Squadron Leader Adams: Then what’s it all add up to? All their sacrifice?
Air Vice Marshal Davis: A successful operation.
Squadron Leader Adams: But they’re probably all dead. All 633 Squadron.
Air Vice Marshal Davis: You can’t kill a squadron.
Ending, 633 Squadron (1964)
Something for the weekend. The theme song from 633 Squadron. In my misspent youth I spent endless hours watching old war movies on TV. One of my favorites was the British flick 633 Squadron (1964) which recounted the fictional tale of a British Mosquito bomber squadron and their self sacrificial attempt to take out a well-defended Nazi V2 rocket fuel plant in occupied Norway. The film won praise for its aerial sequences, cutting edge in 1964 and George Lucas has cited the squadron’s attack on the plant as influencing the trench run sequence attack on the Death Star in Star Wars. (more…)
Donald R. McClarey
Paul Zummo
Almost Chosen People 