by Bruce Catton
6. For these incidents involving punishment for cowardice, see The Story of the 48th, by Joseph Gould, pp. 177–78; Reminiscences of the War of the Rebellion, p. 200; Reminiscenses of the 19th Massachusetts Regiment, p. 94; Berdan’s United States Sharpshooters in the Army of the Potomac by Captain C. A. Stevens, p. 355.
7. Musket and Sword, p. 169; A Little Fifer’s War Diary, p. 119.
8. History of the Philadelphia Brigade, p. 247.
9. The History of the 10th Massachusetts Battery, p. 181.
10. The point is emphasized in Humphreys, p. 118.
11. Army Life: a Private’s Reminiscences, pp. 187–90.
12. Down in Dixie, p. 86.
13. History of the Corn Exchange Regiment, p. 426; History of the 51st Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers, by Thomas H. Parker, p. 555; Letters of a War Correspondent, p. 81; Official Records, Vol. XXXVI, Part 1, p. 405; The Story of the First Massachusetts Light Battery, by A. J. Bennett, pp. 153–54; The Road to Richmond, p. 200.
14. Musket and Sword, p. 238.
15. Three Years in the Army: the Story of the 13th Massachusetts Volunteers, p. 132.
16. History of the Philadelphia Brigade, pp. 255–56.
17. Meade’s Headquarters, pp. 99–100; Gibbon’s Personal Recollections, p. 229.
18. History of the Sauk County Riflemen, by Philip Cheek and Mair Pointon, p. 110.
19. The organization of the Veterans Reserve Corps, and the amazing adventures of the regiment as described in the text, are fully covered in the report made at the end of the war by Captain J. W. De Forest, acting assistant adjutant general, to Brigadier General James B. Fry, provost marshal general. It is found in the Official Records, Series 3, Vol. V; pp. 543–55.
20. Four Years Campaigning in the Army of the Potomac, p. 140; History of the 12th Massachusetts Volunteers, p. 142; History of the 24th Michigan, p. 241.
21. M.H.S.M. Papers, Vol. VI, p. 389.
JUDGMENT TRUMP OF THE ALMIGHTY
1. The enlisted men of the Army of the Potomac referred to this constant shift to the left as “the jug-handle movement.” (History of the Corn Exchange Regiment, p. 432.)
2. Three Years in the Army; the Story of the 13th Massachusetts Volunteers, pp. 356, 364; Major William P. Shreve in M.H.S.M. Papers, Vol. IV, p. 316; Service with the 6th Wisconsin Volunteers, p. 279; manuscript letters of Lewis Bissell; History of the 51st Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers, p. 548. Note the sentiment expressed in History of the 50th Regiment Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers, by Lewis Crater, p. 62: “Notwithstanding the regiment had lost fully 330 men killed, wounded and captured during the month, the very best feeling was exhibited, from the fact that all felt that some progress was being made and that the end of the rebellion was prospectively drawing near.”
3. In the Ranks from the Wilderness to Appomattox Courthouse, by the Rev. R. E. McBride, p. 62.
4. M.H.S.M. Papers, Vol. V, p. 3; Following the Greek Cross, p. 214.
5. M.H.S.M. Papers, Vol. IV, pp. 326–28.
6. Following the Greek Cross, p. 208; Three Years in the Sixth Corps, p. 350; History of the 2nd Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artillery, pp. 54–55.
7. Grant to Halleck, dispatch of May 22, Official Records, Vol. XXXVI, Part 1, p. 7; Grant to W. F. Smith, Official Records, Vol. XXXVI, Part 3, p. 371; Smith to Rawlins, ibid., p. 410.
8. History of the 2nd Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artillery, p. 58.
9. Ibid., pp. 60–62, 65–66; Three Years in the Sixth Corps, pp. 352–53; Official Records, Vol. XXXVI, Part 1, pp. 662, 671.
10. A brief summary of the reasons for attacking at Cold Harbor is given in Humphreys, p. 181. See also Lee, Grant and Sherman, by Lieutenant Colonel Alfred H. Burne, p. 50. For a detailed account of the battle, strongly critical of Grant, see “Cold Harbor,” by Major General Martin T. McMahon, in Battles and Leaders, Vol. IV, pp. 213 ff.
11. An extensive discussion of the way the rifle-trench combination had revolutionized tactics by 1864 can be found in Fuller’s The Generalship of U. S. Grant, pp. 51–52, 57–58, 61.
12. Official Records, Vol. XXVII, Part 1, pp. 761, 775, 778, 831–32; Humphreys, pp. 75–76.
13. History of the 36th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers, by Henry Sweetser Burrage, p.189; M.H.S.M. Papers, Vol. V, p. 9.
14. Meade’s Headquarters, p. 138.
15. History of the Second Army Corps, p. 506.
16. Meade’s Headquarters, p. 139.
17. Official Records, Vol. XXXVI, Part 3, pp. 482, 489, 491–92, 505, 506; Humphreys, pp. 176–78, 182; History of the Philadelphia Brigade, p. 269; Recollections of a Private Soldier, pp. 127–28; History of the 106th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, p. 219.
18. The point is stressed by Captain Charles H. Porter in M.H.S.M. Papers, Vol. IV, p. 339.
19. Letters of a War Correspondent, p. 96.
20. Battles and Leaders, Vol. IV, p. 217.
21. Recollections of a Private Soldier, p. 129; History of the 10th Massachusetts Battery, p. 200.
22. Reminiscences of the 19th Massachusetts Regiment, pp. 98–99.
23. Hancock’s report on Cold Harbor is in the Official Records, Vol. XXXVI, Part 1, pp. 344–46. See also Gibbon’s report, in that volume, p. 433, and Barlow’s, p. 369. Humphreys’ account, accurate but somewhat prosy, is in his book, pp. 182–85. There are graphic glimpses of the II Corps assault in History of the Philadelphia Brigade, pp. 270–72, and History of the 106th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, pp. 220–21. See also Following the Greek Cross, p. 211, and Meade’s Headquarters, p. 144.
24. Army Life: a Private’s Reminiscences, p. 194. The very weight of Confederate fire seems actually to have kept the VI Corps from suffering as many casualties as Hancock’s men had, by pinning the assault waves down from the very beginning. Reading the reports of division and brigade commanders in this corps leads one to believe that June 1 was a worse day for the VI Corps than June 3. Emory Upton’s report, for instance, disposes of the June 3 assault with the simple statement that “another assault was ordered, but being deemed impracticable along our front was not made.” For the VI Corps reports, see the Official Records, Vol. XXXVI, Part 1, pp. 662, 671, 674, 680, 689–90, 708, 720, 727, 735, 739, 744, 750, 753. Most of these reports contain little indication that June 3 was especially different from any other day at Cold Harbor.
25. History of the 12th Regiment New Hampshire Volunteers, pp. 202–8. The account of Cold Harbor in this regimental history is one of the best contemporary battle descriptions in Civil War literature.
26. Offhand, it would seem both difficult and unnecessary to exaggerate the horrors of Cold Harbor, but for some reason—chiefly, perhaps, the desire to paint Grant as a callous and uninspired butcher—no other Civil War battle gets as warped a presentation as this one. It is usually described as a battle in which the entire Federal army attacked “all along the line,” losing 13,000 men thereby. Actually, the 13,000 casualties are the total for nearly two weeks in the Cold Harbor lines, and the June 3 assault involved only part of the army. The V Corps did not attack at all on that day and the LX Corps did little more than drive in the Confederate skirmish lines. The VI Corps, as mentioned above, fared worse on June 1 than on June 3, and the real weight of the June 3 attack was borne by two of Hancock’s divisions and one—Martindale’s—of Smith’s. In those three divisions, of course, the loss was genuinely frightful.
27. Campaigning with Grant, p. 109; manuscript letters of Lewis Bissell.
SECONDHAND CLOTHES
1. Official Records, Vol. XXXVI, Part 3, pp. 672, 870.
2. For trench life at Cold Harbor immediately after the June 3 attacks, see History of the 106th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, pp. 223–24; Army Life: a Private’s Reminiscences, p. 195; History of the 12th Regiment New Hampshire Volunteers, p. 214; In the Ranks from the Wilderness to Appomattox Courthouse, p. 54; Three Years in the Sixth Corps, pp. 357–58.
3. Recollections of a Private Soldier, p. 120; History of Durrell’s
Battery in the Civil War, pp. 190, 229.
4. Official Records, Vol. XXXVI, Part 1, p. 365.
5. Official Records, Vol. XXXVI, Part 3, p. 647.
6. There is a good discussion of this point by Major William P. Shreve in M.H.S.M. Papers, Vol. IV, p. 316.
7. Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light Artillery, by Theodore Reichardt, p. 139.
8. History of the 12 th Regiment New Hampshire Volunteers, p. 214; History of the 106th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, p. 224; History of the Corn Exchange Regiment, p. 469.
9. Service with the 6th Wisconsin Volunteers, pp. 277, 284–85; Meade’s Headquarters, p. 147.
10. Campaigning with Grant, pp. 107–8.
11. Following the Greek Cross, p. 211.
12. The Life and Letters of Emory Upton, pp. 108–9. In view of the violent criticism that has descended on Grant because of Cold Harbor, it might be noted that Upton is specifically blaming the army’s troubles there, not on Grant, but on the various generals of the Army of the Potomac.
13. Under the Old Flag, Vol. I, p. 400.
14. Four Years Campaigning in the Army of the Potomac, p. 151.
15. The Iron-Hearted Regiment, by James H. Clark, p. 131.
16. A Connecticut soldier in the VI Corps, at about this time, declares himself in respect to civilians: “I suppose that all those miserable hounds who stay at home, that have no more courage than a chicken, who do all they can to encourage others to enlist but stay at home themselves, are marrying all of the smartest girls up there and leave the soldier boys without any or of the poorest quality.” (Manuscript letters of Lewis Bissell.)
17. History of the 12th Regiment New Hampshire Volunteers, p. 208; Letters of a War Correspondent, p. 99.
18. M.H.S.M. Papers, Vol. V, p. 15; Reminiscences of the 19th Massachusetts Regiment, p. 100; History of the Corn Exchange Regiment, p. 469; The Diary of a Line Officer, p. 68.
19. The Diary of Gideon Welles, Vol. II, pp. 43–44.
20. Under the Old Flag, Vol. I, p. 445.
21. Humphreys, p. 194.
22. For diametrically opposite verdicts on Grant’s strategy up to this point the reader is referred to two studies in Vol. IV of the M.H.S.M. Papers—“Grant’s Campaign in Virginia in 1864,” by John C. Ropes, which is highly critical, and “Grant’s Campaign Against Lee,” by Colonel Thomas L. Livermore, which is very laudatory.
23. Grant’s plans and the reasons assigned for them are set forth in his dispatch to Halleck dated June 5, Official Records, Vol. XXXVI, Part 1, pp. 11–12.
24. History of the 2nd Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artillery, p. 69; History of the Philadelphia Brigade, pp. 277–78.
25. Meade’s Headquarters, p. 163.
26. Colonel Theodore Lyman in M.H.S.M. Papers, Vol. V, p. 21.
LIE DOWN, YOU DAMN FOOLS
1. Following the Greek Cross, p. 117; Meade’s Headquarters, p. 148; Days and Events, p. 372; Under the Old Flag, Vol. 1, p. 271. There is a good sketch of Smith’s career in the Dictionary of American Biography.
2. Official Records, Vol. XL, Part 2, p. 595.
3. Butler’s moves are briefly summarized in Grant’s report, Official Records, Vol. XXXVI, Part 1, pp. 20–21. There is a good picture of the way this fumbled campaign looked to the men in the ranks in History of the 12th Regiment New Hampshire Volunteers, pp. 171–85.
4. From Chattanooga to Petersburg Under Generals Grant and Butler, by Major General William Farrar Smith, p. 36.
5. This description is taken from Colonel Livermore’s Days and Events, p. 369.
6. M.H.S.M. Papers, Vol. V, p. 89.
7. “Four Days of Battle at Petersburg,” by General Beauregard, in Battles and Leaders, Vol. IV, p. 540.
8. M.H.S.M. Papers, Vol. V, p. 56.
9. Ibid., p. 90.
10. Ibid., p. 68; Battles and Leaders, Vol. IV, p. 541; Official Records, Vol. XL, Part 2, p. 83.
11. Hancock’s report, Official Records, Vol. XL, Part 1, pp. 303–5; Grant’s report, Official Records, Vol. XXXVI, Part 1, p. 25; M.H.S.M. Papers, Vol. V, pp. 64–72, 93–96; Days and Events, pp. 361–62; History of the Second Army Corps, pp. 527–32.
12. Recollections of a Private Soldier, p. 157: “We were in high spirits.… We knew that we had out-marched Lee’s veterans and that our reward was at hand.”
13. Ibid., pp. 158, 160, 162.
14. Battles and Leaders, Vol. IV, p. 541.
15. M.H.S.M. Papers, Vol. V, pp. 28–29; Official Records, Vol. XL, Part 2, p. 86.
16. Colonel Theodore Lyman in M.H.S.M. Papers, Vol. V, p. 30.
17. Ibid., p. 31. See also History of the Second Army Corps, pp. 532–36. For a detailed and judicious critique of the operations of mid-June, see “The Failure to Take Petersburg on June 16–18, 1864,” by John C. Ropes, in M.H.S.M. Papers, Vol. V.
18. Official Records, Vol. XL, Part 2, pp. 91, 117.
19. Letter of General Beauregard to General C. M. Wilcox, printed in M.H.S.M. Papers, Vol. V, p. 121.
20. Ropes, op. cit., pp. 167–68; Humphreys, pp. 217–18.
21. Ropes, op. cit., pp. 169–72; History of the 51st Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers, pp. 564–70; History of the 29th Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, by William H. Osborne, pp. 304–5; Battles and Leaders, Vol. IV, p. 543; History of the Second Army Corps, p. 539; Humphreys, p. 219; manuscript letters of Henry Clay Heisler.
22. Official Records, Vol. XL, Part 2, p. 120.
23. Ibid., pp. 167, 179, 205; Battles and Leaders, Vol. IV, p. 544.
24. History of the First Regiment of Heavy Artillery, Massachusetts Volunteers, pp. 173–75; History of the Second Army Corps, pp. 541–42.
25. Recollections of a Private Soldier, pp. 166–67, 180–81.
26. Official Records, Vol. XL, Part 2, pp. 156–57.
27. History of the 2nd Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artillery, p. 74.
28. Ropes, op. cit., p. 184.
Chapter Four: White Iron on the Anvil
CHANGING THE GUARD
1. Manuscript letters of Lewis Bissell; History of the 10th Massachusetts Battery, pp. 228–29; The Diary of a Line Officer, p. 91; A Soldier’s Diary: the Story of a Volunteer, by David Lane, p. 177; manuscript letters of Henry Clay Heisler; M.H.S.M. Papers, Vol. V, p. 29.
2. A Soldier’s Diary: the Story of a Volunteer, p. 225; Musket and Sword, p. 291; Campaigns of the 146th Regiment New York State Volunteers, p. 230; Army Life; a Private’s Reminiscences, pp. 203–4.
3. Days and Events, p. 377; Ten Years in the U.S. Army, by Augustus Meyers, p. 323.
4. Meade’s Headquarters, pp. 181–82.
5. The Story of the 48th, p. 281; In the Ranks from the Wilderness to Appomattox Courthouse, pp. 93–94; Thirteenth Regiment of New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry in the War of the Rebellion: a Diary, by S. Millett Thompson, p. 529.
6. In the Ranks from the Wilderness to Appomattox Courthouse, p. 97; manuscript letters of Lewis Bissell.
7. Humphreys, pp. 230–35, 243; Battles and Leaders, Vol. IV, pp. 233–39.
8. Under the Old Flag, Vol. I, pp. 457–82.
9. From Chattanooga to Petersburg under Generals Grant and Butler, pp. 5, 52–53, 174–78; Official Records, Vol. XL, Part 2, pp. 558–59.
10. My Diary of Rambles with the 25th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, p. 109. Theodore Lyman described Butler as “the strangest sight on a horse you ever saw … with his head set immediately on a stout, shapeless body, his very squinting eyes, and a set of legs and arms that look as if made for somebody else and hastily glued to him by mistake.” (Meade’s Headquarters, p. 192.) For an understanding of what Colonel Lyman had in mind the reader is urged to study the photograph of Butler in Divided We Fought, edited by David Donald, p. 95.
11. A War Diary of Events in the War of the Great Rebellion, by Brigadier General George H. Gordon, pp. 359, 365.
12. Official Records, Vol. XL, Part 2, pp. 131–32, 188.
13. Official Records, Vol. XXXIV, Part 3,
pp. 332–33. For an illuminating exchange of letters between Grant and Halleck on the general subject of politics and military appointments, with especial reference to General Banks, see that same volume, pp. 252–53, 293, 316, 332, 409–10.
14. Official Records, Vol. XL, Part 1, p. 28.
15. Ibid., p. 35.
16. Recollections of the Civil War, p. 227.
17. Grant to President Lincoln, Official Records, Vol. XXXVII, Part 2, p. 433. It should be pointed out that in suggesting Meade as commander in the Valley Grant warmly endorsed him: “With General Meade in command of such a division I would have every confidence that all the troops within the military division would be used to the very best advantage from a personal examination of the ground.”
18. Gibbon’s Personal Recollections, pp. 243–44, 248–51.
19. History of the Second Army Corps, pp. 544–47; Official Records, Vol. XL, Part 2, pp. 304, 330, 468. The corps’ historian calls this “perhaps the most humiliating episode in the experience of the Second Corps.”
20. Gibbon’s Personal Recollections, pp. 227–28; Official Records, Vol. XL, Part 1, p. 368.
21. History of the Second Army Corps, p. 556; Recollections of a Private Soldier, p. 194.
22. Official Records, Vol. XL, Part 2, pp. 444–45; History of the 106th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, p. 232.
23. Official Records, Vol. XL, Part 1, p. 474.
24. History of the 24th Michigan, p. 275; History of the 12th Regiment New Hampshire Volunteers, p. 229; My Life in the Army, p. 95.
25. Service with the 6th Wisconsin Volunteers, pp. 299–300; History of the 150th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, pp. 197–98.
26. Musket and Sword, p. 183; History of the 39th Regiment Illinois Volunteer Veteran Infantry, p. 208.
27. Manuscript letters of Lewis Bissell; Meade’s Headquarters, p. 232.
28. A Soldier’s Diary: the Story of a Volunteer, p. 150.
29. Manuscript letters of Sebastian Muller, Library of Congress.