by Bruce Catton
Sheridan replied that he was, and Grant said: “Very well. Let’s go up.”26
The little cavalcade went trotting along the road to the village, and all around them the two armies waited in silence. As the generals neared the end of their ride, a Yankee band in a field near the town struck up “Auld Lang Syne.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
IT would be harder to write this kind of book, and the final result would be poorer, if one did not get so much help from so many kindly people. In listing the sources from which material was drawn the writer must express his abiding gratitude for a great deal of generous assistance.
Of particular value has been the opportunity to study various collections of unpublished letters written by Federal soldiers. These letters not only provide useful source material; they leave one feeling that he somehow had personal friends in the Union army—and, now and then, give him the odd illusion that he actually served in that army himself.
The following manuscript collections were made available:
Letters of Edwin Wentworth, of the 37th Massachusetts Infantry, loaned by Miss Edith Adams, of Auburn, Maine. These letters provide a singularly appealing glimpse at the experiences and emotions of a typical New England soldier, and one feels a sense of personal loss upon discovering that the last letter in the collection is a note to next of kin announcing Private Wentworth’s death at the Bloody Angle.
Letters of Lewis Bissell, of the 2nd Connecticut Heavy Artillery, loaned by Mr. Carl H. Bissell, of Syracuse, New York. Extremely valuable as an unrevised, day-to-day account of the experiences of a VI Corps veteran, these letters also provide a useful check on the formal regimental history of this Connecticut regiment, whose author is frequently mentioned in Private Bissell’s letters.
Letters of Henry Clay Heisler, of the 48th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers, loaned by Mr. Donald M. Hobart, of Philadelphia. Written by a soldier in the regiment which dug the famous Petersburg mine, these letters shed a revealing light on that operation and on the reaction of Burnside’s soldiers to Burnside’s last battle. (Interestingly enough, this regiment apparently blamed the fiasco on Burnside’s subordinates rather than on Burnside himself.)
Letters of Sebastian Muller, of the 67th New York Infantry: in the manuscript collection of the Library of Congress. Quaint and stilted in their formal, old-world phraseology, these letters show how the war looked to an immigrant who supposed he had enlisted to fight “the rebels of South America.”
Manuscript diary of Corporal S. O. Bryant, of the 20th Michigan Infantry, loaned by Mr. Donald C. Allen, of Washington. In this diary another of Burnside’s soldiers expresses himself about the war, and in a complaint about Spotsylvania foreshadows the disaster at the crater.
Letter of Sergeant George S. Hampton, of the 91st Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers, loaned by Mr. J. Frank Nicholson, of Manassas, Virginia. Written some years after the war, this letter contains a priceless glimpse of men of the two armies at the moment of the cease-fire at Appomattox Court House.
The writer’s especial thanks are due to Mr. Ralph Happel, historian, the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County National Military Park, for the loan of his excellent manuscript studies of the Wilderaess-Spotsylvania battles, and for guidance in study of the terrain.
Dr. James Rabun, of the Department of History, Emory University, kindly forwarded a reprint of his article, “Alexander Stephens and Jefferson Davis,” in the American Historical Review.
Major General U. S. Grant, III, was most helpful in recalling anecdotes and family recollections about his distinguished grandfather.
Colonel Charles G. Stevenson, state judge advocate, New York National Guard, provided interesting material on the history of the famous “14th Brooklyn” Regiment, and traced that regiment’s lineal descent to the 955th Field Artillery Battalion recently active in Korea.
Finally, a substantial debt of gratitude for many acts of helpfulness is owed to various librarians—specifically, to Dr. David Mearns and Dr. Percy Powell of the Manuscript Division, Library of Congress; to Colonel Willard Webb of the Stack and Reader Division and to Mr. Legare Obear of the Loan Division in that library; to Mr. Paul Howard, librarian of the Department of the Interior, and to Miss Georgia Cowan of the History Division of the Public Library of the District of Columbia.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CHIEF reliance of course has been placed on the invaluable War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, published by the War Department in 1902. Unless otherwise noted, volumes cited in the footnotes are from Series I of this compilation. Reference has also been made to Appleton’s Cyclopedia of American Biography, edited by James Grant Wilson and John Fiske and published in 1888, and to the more modern Dictionary of American Biography, edited by Dumas Malone and published in 1943. In addition, the following works were consulted:
GENERAL HISTORICAL WORKS
“Alexander Stephens and Jefferson Davis,” by James Z. Rabun. American Historical Review, Vol. LVIII, No. 2.
Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, edited by Robert Underwood Johnson and Clarence Clough Buel. 4 vols. New York, 1884–87.
Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, by William Swinton. New York, 1882.
Civil War Atlas to accompany Steele’s American Campaigns: prepared by the Department of Civil and Military Engineering, U.S. Military Academy.
Confederate Operations in Canada and New York, by John W. Headley. New York and Washington, 1906.
The Crisis of the Confederacy, by Cecil Battine. London and New York, 1905.
Divided We Fought: a Pictorial History of the War, 1861–1865, edited by David Donald. New York, 1952.
Experiment in Rebellion, by Clifford Dowdey. New York, 1950.
Foreigners in the Union Army and Navy, by Ella Lonn. Baton Rouge, La., 1951.
The Generalship of Ulysses S. Grant, by Colonel J. F. C. Fuller. New York, 1929.
A History of Negro Troops in the War of the Rebellion, by George W. Williams. New York, 1888.
History of the Shenandoah Valley, by William Couper. 2 vols. New York, 1952.
History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850, by James Ford Rhodes. 9 vols. New York, 1899.
Lee, Grant and Sherman, by Lieutenant Colonel Alfred H. Burne. New York, 1939.
Lincoln and the War Governors, by William B. Hesseltine. New York, 1948.
Lincoln’s War Cabinet, by Burton J. Hendrick. Boston, 1946.
The Long Arm of Lee, by Jennings C. Wise. 2 vols. Lynchburg, Va., 1915.
The Military Genius of Abraham Lincoln, by Brigadier General Colin R. Ballard. London, 1926.
Mr. Lincoln’s Army, by Bruce Catton. New York, 1951.
The Northern Railroads in the Civil War, 1861–1865, by Thomas Weber. New York, 1952.
Numbers and Losses in the Civil War, by Thomas L. Livermore. Boston and New York, 1900.
Papers of the Kansas Commandery, Military Order of the Royal Legion of the United States. 1894.
Papers of the Military Historical Society of Massachusetts, edited by Theodore Dwight 10 vols. Boston, 1906.
Photographic History of the Civil War, edited by Francis Trevelyan Miller. 10 vols. New York, 1911.
President Lincoln as War Statesman, by Captain Arthur L. Conger: Separate No. 172 from the Proceedings of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin for 1916.
The Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events, edited by Frank Moore. 12 vols. New York, 1868.
Regimental Losses in the American Civil War, by Lieutenant Colonel William F. Fox, U.S.V. Albany, 1889.
Report of the Committee to Recruit the Ninth Army Corps, prepared by the Secretary. New York, 1866.
The Shenandoah Valley and Virginia, 1861 to 1865: a War Study, by Sanford C. Kellogg. New York and Washington, 1903.
The Shenandoah Valley in 1864, by George E. Pond. New York, 1885.
Statesmen and Soldiers of the Civil War, by Major General Sir Frederick Maurice. Boston, 19
26.
The Virginia Campaign of 1864 and 1865, by Major General Andrew A. Humphreys. New York, 1883.
War Papers Read before the Commandery of the State of Wisconsin, Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. Milwaukee, 1891.
AUTOBIOGRAPHIES, BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES, MEMOIRS, ETC.
Abraham Lincoln, by Benjamin Thomas. New York, 1952.
Abraham Lincoln: the Prairie Years, by Carl Sandburg. 2 vols. New York, 1926.
Abraham Lincoln: the War Years, by Carl Sandburg. 4 vols. New York, 1939.
Army Life in a Black Regiment, by Thomas Wentworth Higginson. Boston and New York, 1900.
Campaigning with Grant, by General Horace Porter. New York, 1907.
Captain Sam Grant, by Lloyd Lewis. Boston, 1952.
Charles Francis Adams: an Autobiography. Boston and New York, 1916.
Correspondence of John Sedgwick, Major General. 2 vols. Privately printed, De Vinne Press, 1902.
Days and Events: 1860–1866, by Colonel Thomas L. Livermore. Boston, 1920.
A Diary from Dixie, by Mary Boykin Chesnut, edited by Ben Ames Williams. Boston, 1949.
The Diary of Gideon Welles, with an introduction by John T. Morse, Jr. 3 vols. Boston and New York, 1911.
Fifty Years in Camp and Field: Diary of Major General Ethan Allen Hitchcock, edited by W. A. Croffut. New York, 1909.
Following the Greek Cross; or, Memories of the Sixth Army Corps, by Brevet Brigadier General Thomas W. Hyde. Boston, 1894.
From Chattanooga to Petersburg under Generals Grant and Butler, by Major General William F. Smith. Boston and New York, 1893.
General Hancock, by Francis A. Walker. New York, 1894.
Gideon Welles: Lincoln’s Navy Department, by Richard S. West, Jr. Indianapolis, 1943.
Gouverneur Kemble Warren: the Life and Letters of an American Soldier, by Emerson Gifford Taylor. Boston and New York, 1932.
“Grant Before Appomattox: Notes of a Confederate Bishop,” by the Right Rev. Henry C. Lay. The Atlantic Monthly, March, 1932.
Jeb Stuart, by John W. Thomason, Jr. New York, 1930.
Jefferson Davis: the Unreal and the Real, by Robert McElroy. 2 vols. New York, 1937.
Kilpatrick and Our Cavalry, by James Moore. New York, 1865.
Lee’s Lieutenants, by Douglas Southall Freeman. 3 vols. New York, 1942–44.
Letters of a War Correspondent, by Charles A. Page. Boston, 1899.
The Life and Letters of Emory Upton, by Peter S. Michie; introduction by James H. Wilson. New York, 1885.
The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, by George Meade, Captain and Aide-de-Camp. 2 vols. New York, 1913.
The Life of John A. Rawlins, by Major General James Harrison Wilson. New York, 1916.
The Life of Ulysses S. Grant, by Charles A. Dana and Major General James Harrison Wilson. Springfield, Mass., 1868.
Major General Ambrose E. Burnside and the Ninth Army Corps, by Augustus Woodbury. Providence, 1867.
Memoir of Ulric Dahlgren, by Rear Admiral John A. D. Dahlgren. Philadelphia, 1872.
Military Memoirs of a Confederate, by E. Porter Alexander. New York 1907.
Pemberton, Defender of Vicksburg, by John C. Pemberton. Chapel Hill, 1944.
Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant. 2 vols. New York, 1885.
Personal Recollections of the Civil War, by Brigadier General John Gibbon. New York, 1928.
R. E. Lee, by Douglas Southall Freeman. 4 vols. New York, 1934.
Ranger Mosby, by Virgil Carrington Jones. Chapel Hill, 1944.
The Rebel Raider: a Life of John Hunt Morgan, by Howard Swiggett. New York, 1937.
A Rebel War Clerk’s Diary, by J. B. Jones, edited by Howard Swiggett. 2 vols. New York, 1935.
Recollections of the Civil War, by Charles A. Dana. New York, 1898.
Recollections of War Times, by Albert Gallatin Riddle. New York, 1895.
Reminiscences of Winfield Scott Hancock, by His Wife. New York, 1887.
The Rise of U. S. Grant, by A. L. Conger. New York, 1931.
Robert E. Lee: the Soldier, by Major General Sir Frederick Maurice. Boston and New York, 1925.
Sheridan: a Military Narrative, by Joseph Hergesheimer. Boston and New York, 1931.
Sherman: Fighting Prophet, by Lloyd Lewis. New York, 1932.
South After Gettysburg: Letters of Cornelia Hancock, from the Army of the Potomac, 1863–1865, edited by Henrietta Stratton Jaquette. Philadelphia, 1937.
Ulysses S. Grant, by William Conant Church. New York, 1897.
Under the Old Flag, by Major General James Harrison Wilson. 2 vols. New York, 1912.
A War Diary of Events in the War of the Great Rebellion, by Brigadier General George H. Gordon. Boston, 1882.
A Woman’s War Record, 1861–1865, by Septima M. Collis. New York, 1889.
REGIMENTAL HISTORIES, SOLDIERS’ REMINISCENCES, ETC.
Annals of the 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry, by the Reverend S. L. Gracey. Philadelphia, 1868.
Army Letters, 1861–1865, by Oliver Willcox Norton. Chicago, 1903.
Army Life: a Private’s Reminiscences of the Civil War, by the Rev. Theodore Gerrish. Portland, Me., 1882.
Berdan’s United States Sharpshooters in the Army of the Potomac, by Captain C. A. Stevens. St. Paul, 1892.
A Brief History of the 100th Regiment, by Samuel P. Bates. Newcastle, Pa., 1884.
Campaigns of the 146th Regiment New York State Volunteers, compiled by Mary Genevie Green Brainard. New York, 1915.
Camp-Fire Chats of the Civil War, by Washington Davis. Chicago, 1884.
Civil War Echoes: Character Sketches and State Secrets, by Hamilton Gay Howard. Washington, 1907.
Deeds of Daring: or, History of the 8th New York Volunteer Cavalry, by Henry Norton. Norwich, N.Y., 1889.
The Diary of a Line Officer, by Captain Augustus C. Brown. New York, 1906.
The Diary of a Young Officer, by Josiah M. Favill. Chicago, 1909.
Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light Artillery, by Theodore Reichardt. Providence, 1865.
Down in Dixie: Life in a Cavalry Regiment in the War Days, by Stanton P. Allen. Boston, 1888.
The Fifth Army Corps, by Lieutenant Colonel William H. Powell. New York, 1896.
First Connecticut Heavy Artillery: Historical Sketch, by E. B. Bennett. Hartford, 1904.
The 48th in the War, by Oliver Christian Bosbyshell. Philadelphia, 1895.
Four Years Campaigning in the Army of the Potomac, by D. G. Crotty. Grand Rapids, 1874.
Four Years in the Army of the Potomac: a Soldier’s Recollections, by Major Evan Rowland Jones. London, 1881.
The Fourteenth Regiment Rhode Island Heavy Artillery in the War to Preserve the Union, by William H. Chenery. Providence, 1898.
Henry Wilson’s Regiment: History of the 22nd Massachusetts Infantry, by John L. Parker and Robert G. Carter. Boston, 1887.
History of Durrell’s Battery in the Civil War, by Lieutenant Charles A. Cuffel. Philadelphia, 1904.
History of the Corn Exchange Regiment, by the Survivors’ Association. Philadelphia, 1888.
History of the 8th Cavalry Regiment, Illinois Volunteers, by Abner Hard, M.D. Aurora, Ill., 1868.
History of the 8th Regiment Vermont Volunteers, by George N. Carpenter. Boston, 1886.
History of the 87th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, by George R. Prowell. York, Pa., 1903.
History of the 5th Regiment Maine Volunteers, by the Rev. George W. Bicknell. Portland, 1871.
History of the 50th Regiment Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers, by Lewis Crater. Reading, Pa., 1884.
History of the 51st Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers, by Thomas H. Parker. Philadelphia, 1869.
History of the First Connecticut Artillery, by John C. Taylor. Hartford, 1893.
History of the First Regiment of Heavy Artillery, Massachusetts Volunteers, by Alfred Seelye Roe and Charles Nutt. Worcester and Boston, 1917.
History of the 19th Army Corps, by Richard B. Irwin. New
York, 1892.
History of the Ninth Massachusetts Battery, by Levi W. Baker. South Framingham, Mass., 1888.
History of the 9th Regiment Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, by Thomas Hamilton Murray. New Haven, 1903.
History of the 150th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, by Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Chamberlin. Philadelphia, 1895.
History of the 198th Pennsylvania Volunteers, by Major E. M. Woodward. Trenton, N.J., 1884.
History of the 106th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, by Joseph R. C. Ward. Philadelphia, 1883.
History of the Philadelphia Brigade, by Charles H. Banes. Philadelphia, 1876.
History of the Sauk County Riflemen, by Philip Cheek and Mair Pointon. Privately printed, 1909.
History of the Second Army Corps, by Francis A. Walker. New York, 1886.
History of the 2nd Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artillery, by Theodore F. Vaill. Winsted, Conn., 1868.
History of the 7th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, compiled by Stephen Walkley. Southington, Conn., 1905.
The History of the 10th Massachusetts Battery of Light Artillery in the War of the Rebellion, by John D. Billings. Boston, 1881.
History of the 17th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry, by H. P. Moyer. Lebanon, Pa., 1911.
History of the 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry, compiled by the Regimental History Association. Philadelphia, 1905.
History of the 3rd Regiment of Wisconsin Veteran Volunteer Infantry, by Edwin E. Bryant. Madison, 1891.
The History of the 39th Regiment Illinois Volunteer Veteran Infantry, by Charles M. Clark., M.D. Chicago, 1880.
History of the 36th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers, by Henry Sweetser Burrage. Boston, 1884.
History of the 12th Massachusetts Volunteers, by Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin F. Cook. Boston, 1882.
History of the 12th Regiment New Hampshire Volunteers, by Captain A. W. Bartlett. Concord, N.H., 1897.
History of the 24th Michigan of the Iron Brigade, by O. B. Curtis. Detroit, 1891.
History of the 29th Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, by William O. Osborne. Boston, 1877.