Hearts Touched by Fire

by Harold Holzer

  The biggest campaigns of late 1864 took place in other areas of the Western Theater. While Sherman occupied Atlanta, John Bell Hood attempted to distract his old foe by threatening Union supply lines in Chattanooga. Explaining his strategy for the move on Tennessee, Hood remarked, “I decided to operate at the earliest moment possible in the rear of Sherman, as I became more and more convinced of our inability successfully to resist an advance of the Federal army.” When Sherman did not follow him, Hood and his Army of Tennessee struck out for Nashville, hoping to recapture that city for the Confederacy. On November 30, 1864, the aggressive-minded commander hurled his forces against General John M. Schofield’s Army of the Ohio at Franklin, losing 6,000 men in the effort. Hood then moved his army outside Nashville, where George Thomas was waiting for him. On December 15–16, Thomas unleashed a devastating blow to Hood, effectively ending the Confederate presence in Tennessee. Staffer Charles P. Stone penned a tribute to his commander, praising “the heroic courage and the tremendous force of one man, whose name will yet rank among the great captains of all time.”

  Eighteen sixty-four, the year of “total war,” closed on a grim note for the Confederates. With Lincoln’s reelection in November, the North had demonstrated the will to continue the fight to the finish. Union victory was only a matter of time.

  CHAPTER 1

  FROM THE WILDERNESS TO COLD HARBOR.

  E. M. Law, Major-General, C.S.A.

  On the 2d of May, 1864, a group of officers stood at the Confederate signal station on Clark’s Mountain, Virginia, south of the Rapidan, and examined closely through their field-glasses the position of the Federal army then lying north of the river in Culpeper county. The central figure of the group was the commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, who had requested his corps and division commanders to meet him there. Though some demonstrations had been made in the direction of the upper fords, General Lee expressed the opinion that the Federal army would cross the river at Germanna or Ely’s. Thirty-six hours later General Meade’s army, General Grant, now commander-in-chief, being with it, commenced its march to the crossings indicated by General Lee.

  The Army of the Potomac, which had now commenced its march toward Richmond, was more powerful in numbers than at any previous period of the war. It consisted of three corps: the Second (Hancock’s), the Fifth (Warren’s), and the Sixth (Sedgwick’s); but the Ninth (Burnside’s) acted with Meade throughout the campaign. Meade’s army was thoroughly equipped, and provided with every appliance of modern warfare. On the other hand, the Army of Northern Virginia had gained little in numbers during the winter just passed, and had never been so scantily supplied with food and clothing. The equipment as to arms was well enough for men who knew how to use them, but commissary and quartermasters’ supplies were lamentably deficient. A new pair of shoes or an overcoat was a luxury, and full rations would have astonished the stomachs of Lee’s ragged Confederates. But they took their privations cheerfully, and complaints were seldom heard. I recall an instance of one hardy fellow whose trousers were literally “worn to a frazzle” and would no longer adhere to his legs even by dint of the most persistent patching. Unable to buy, beg, or borrow another pair, he wore instead a pair of thin cotton drawers. By nursing these carefully he managed to get through the winter. Before the campaign opened in the spring a small lot of clothing was received, and he was the first man of his regiment to be supplied.

  WATERING HORSES IN THE RAPIDAN.

  I have often heard expressions of surprise that these ragged, barefooted, half-starved men would fight at all. But the very fact that they remained with their colors through such privations and hardships was sufficient to prove that they would be dangerous foes to encounter upon the line of battle. The morale of the army at this time was excellent, and it moved forward confidently to the grim death-grapple in the wilderness of Spotsylvania with its old enemy, the Army of the Potomac.

  General Lee’s headquarters were two miles north-east of Orange Court House; of his three corps, Longstreet’s was at Gordonsville, Ewell’s was on and near the Rapidan, above Mine Run, and Hill’s on his left, higher up the stream. When the Federal army was known to be in motion, General Lee prepared to move upon its flank with his whole force as soon as his opponent should clear the river and begin the march southward. The route selected by General Grant led entirely around the right of Lee’s position on the river above. Grant’s passage of the Rapidan was unopposed, and he struck boldly out on the direct road to Richmond. Two roads lead from Orange Court House down the Rapidan toward Fredericksburg. They follow the general direction of the river, and are almost parallel to each other, the “Old turnpike” nearest the river, and the “Plank road” a short distance south of it. The route of the Federal army lay directly across these two roads, along the western borders of the famous Wilderness.

  About noon on the 4th of May, Ewell’s corps was put in motion on and toward the Orange turnpike, while A. P. Hill, with two divisions, moved parallel with him on the Orange Plank road. The two divisions of Longstreet’s corps encamped near Gordonsville were ordered to move rapidly across the country and follow Hill on the Plank road. Ewell’s corps was the first to find itself in the presence of the enemy. As it advanced along the turnpike on the morning of the 5th, the Federal column was seen crossing it from the direction of Germanna Ford. Ewell promptly formed line of battle across the turnpike, and communicated his position to General Lee, who was on the Plank road with Hill. Ewell was instructed to regulate his movements by the head of Hill’s column, whose progress he could tell by the firing in its front, and not to bring on a general engagement until Longstreet should come up. The position of Ewell’s troops, so near the flank of the Federal line of march, was anything but favorable to a preservation of the peace, and a collision soon occurred which opened the campaign in earnest.

  UNION TROOPS CROSSING THE RAPIDAN AT GERMANNA FORD, MAY 4, 1864. FROM A SKETCH MADE AT THE TIME.

  General Warren, whose corps was passing when Ewell came up, halted, and turning to the right made a vigorous attack upon Edward Johnson’s division, posted across the turnpike. J. M. Jones’s brigade, which held the road, was driven back in confusion.1 Steuart’s brigade was pushed forward to take its place. Rodes’s division was thrown in on Johnson’s right, south of the road, and the line, thus reëstablished, moved forward, reversed the tide of battle, and rolled back the Federal attack. The fighting was severe and bloody while it lasted. At some points the lines were in such close proximity in the thick woods which covered the battle-field that when the Federal troops gave way several hundred of them, unable to retreat without exposure to almost certain death, surrendered themselves as prisoners.

  Ewell’s entire corps was now up—Johnson’s division holding the turnpike, Rodes’s division on the right of it, and Early’s in reserve. So far Ewell had been engaged only with Warren’s corps, but Sedgwick’s soon came up from the river and joined Warren on his right. Early’s division was sent to meet it. The battle extended in that direction, with steady and determined attacks upon Early’s front, until nightfall. The Confederates still clung to their hold on the Federal flank against every effort to dislodge them.

  When Warren’s corps encountered the head of Ewell’s column on the 5th of May, General Meade is reported to have said: “They have left a division to fool us here, while they concentrate and prepare a position on the North Anna.” If the stubborn resistance to Warren’s attack1 did not at once convince him of his mistake, the firing that announced the approach of Hill’s corps along the Plank road, very soon afterward, must have opened his eyes to the bold strategy of the Confederate commander. General Lee had deliberately chosen this as his battle-ground. He knew this tangled wilderness well, and appreciated fully the advantages such a field afforded for concealing his great inferiority of force and for neutralizing the superior strength of his antagonist. General Grant’s bold movement across the lower fords into the Wilderness, in the execution of his plan to swing past the Con
federate army and place himself between it and Richmond, offered the expected opportunity of striking a blow upon his flank while his troops were stretched out on the line of march. The wish for such an opportunity was doubtless in a measure “father to the thought” expressed by General Lee three days before, at the signal station on Clark’s Mountain.

  Soon after Ewell became engaged on the Old turnpike, A. P. Hill’s advance struck the Federal outposts on the Plank road at Parker’s store, on the outskirts of the Wilderness. These were driven in and followed up to their line of battle, which was so posted as to cover the junction of the Plank road with the Stevensburg and Brock roads, on which the Federal army was moving toward Spotsylvania. The fight began between Getty’s division of the Sixth Corps and Heth’s division, which was leading A. P. Hill’s column. Hancock’s corps, which was already on the march for Spotsylvania by way of Chancellorsville, was at once recalled, and at 4 o’clock in the afternoon was ordered to drive Hill “out of the Wilderness.” Cadmus Wilcox’s division went to Heth’s support, and Poague’s battalion of artillery took position in a little clearing on the north side of the Plank road, in rear of the Confederate infantry. But there was little use for artillery on such a field. After the battle was fairly joined in the thickets in front, its fire might do as much damage to friend as to foe; so it was silent. It was a desperate struggle between the infantry of the two armies, on a field whose physical aspects were as grim and forbidding as the struggle itself. It was a battle of brigades and regiments rather than of corps and divisions. Officers could not see the whole length of their commands, and could tell whether the troops on their right and left were driving or being driven only by the sound of the firing. It was a fight at close quarters too, for as night came on, in those tangled thickets of stunted pine, sweet-gum, scrub-oak, and cedar, the approach of the opposing lines could be discerned only by the noise of their passage through the underbrush or the flashing of their guns. The usually silent Wilderness had suddenly become alive with the angry flashing and heavy roar of the musketry, mingled with the yells of the combatants as they swayed to and fro in the gloomy thickets. Among the killed were General Alexander Hays, of Hancock’s corps, and General J. M. Jones, of Ewell’s.

  When the battle closed at 8 o’clock, General Lee sent an order to Longstreet to make a night march, so as to arrive upon the field at daylight the next morning. The latter moved at 1 A.M. of the 6th, but it was already daylight when he reached the Plank road at Parker’s store, three miles in rear of Hill’s battle-field.2 During the night the movements of troops and preparations for battle could be heard on the Federal line, in front of Heth’s and Wilcox’s divisions, which had so far sustained themselves against every attack by six divisions under General Hancock. But Heth’s and Wilcox’s men were thoroughly worn out. Their lines were ragged and irregular, with wide intervals, and in some places fronting in different directions. In the expectation that they would be relieved during the night, no effort was made to rearrange and strengthen them to meet the storm that was brewing.

  CONFEDERATE LINE WAITING ORDERS IN THE WILDERNESS.

  As soon as it was light enough to see what little could be seen in that dark forest, Hancock’s troops swept forward to the attack. The blow fell with greatest force upon Wilcox’s troops south of the Orange Plank road. They made what front they could and renewed the fight, until, the attacking column overlapping the right wing, it gave way, and the whole line “rolled up” from the right and retired in disorder along the Plank road as far as the position of Poague’s artillery, which now opened upon the attacking force. The Federals pressed their advantage and were soon abreast of the artillery on the opposite side, their bullets flying across the road among the guns where General Lee himself stood. For a while matters looked very serious for the Confederates. General Lee, after sending a messenger to hasten the march of Longstreet’s troops and another to prepare the trains for a movement to the rear, was assisting in rallying the disordered troops and directing the fire of the artillery, when the head of Longstreet’s corps appeared in double column, swinging down the Orange Plank road at a trot. In perfect order, ranks well closed, and no stragglers, those splendid troops came on, regardless of the confusion on every side, pushing their steady way onward like “a river in the sea” of confused and troubled human waves around them. Kershaw’s division took the right of the road, and, coming into line under a heavy fire, moved obliquely to the right (south) to meet the Federal left, which had “swung round” in that direction. The Federals were checked in their sweeping advance and thrown back upon their front line of breastworks, where they made a stubborn stand. But Kershaw, urged on by Longstreet, charged with his whole command, swept his front, and captured the works.

  Nearly at the same moment Field’s division took the left of the road, with Gregg’s brigade in front, Benning’s behind it, Law’s next, and Jenkins’s following. As the Texans in the front line swept past the batteries where General Lee was standing, they gave a rousing cheer for “Marse Robert,” who spurred his horse forward and followed them in the charge. When the men became aware that he was “going in” with them, they called loudly to him to go back. “We won’t go on unless you go back,” was the general cry. One of the men dropped to the rear, and taking the bridle turned the general’s horse around, while General Gregg came up and urged him to do as the men wished. At that moment a member of his staff (Colonel Venable) directed his attention to General Longstreet, whom he had been looking for, and who was sitting on his horse near the Orange Plank road. With evident disappointment General Lee turned off and joined General Longstreet.

  CAPTURE OF A PART OF THE BURNING UNION BREASTWORKS ON THE BROOK ROAD ON THE AFTERNOON OF MAY 6. FROM A SKETCH MADE AT THE TIME.

  The ground over which Field’s troops were advancing was open for a short distance, and fringed on its farther edge with scattered pines, beyond which began the Wilderness. The Federals [Webb’s brigade of Hancock’s corps] were advancing through the pines with apparently resistless force, when Gregg’s eight hundred Texans, regardless of numbers, flanks, or supports, dashed directly upon them. There was a terrific crash, mingled with wild yells, which settled down into a steady roar of musketry. In less than ten minutes one-half of that devoted eight hundred were lying upon the field dead or wounded; but they had delivered a staggering blow and broken the force of the Federal advance. Benning’s and Law’s brigades came promptly to their support, and the whole swept forward together. The tide was flowing the other way. It ebbed and flowed many times that day, strewing the Wilderness with human wrecks. Law’s brigade captured a line of log breastworks in its front, but had held them only a few moments when their former owners [Webb’s brigade] came back to claim them. The Federals were driven back to a second line several hundred yards beyond, which was also taken. This advanced position was attacked in front and on the right from across the Orange Plank road, and Law’s Alabamians “advanced backward” without standing on the order of their going, until they reached the first line of logs, now in their rear. As their friends in blue still insisted on claiming their property and were advancing to take it, they were met by a counter-charge and again driven beyond the second line. This was held against a determined attack, in which the Federal General Wadsworth was shot from his horse as he rode up close to the right of the line on the Plank road. The position again becoming untenable by reason of the movements of Federal troops on their right, Law’s men retired a second time to the works they had first captured. And so, for more than two hours, the storm of battle swept to and fro, in some places passing several times over the same ground, and settling down at length almost where it had begun the day before.

  About 10 o’clock it was ascertained that the Federal left flank rested only a short distance south of the Orange Plank road, which offered a favorable opportunity for a turning movement in that quarter. General Longstreet at once moved Mahone’s, Wofford’s, Anderson’s, and Davis’s brigades, the whole under General Mahone, ar
ound this end of the Federal line. Forming at right angles to it, they attacked in flank and rear, while a general advance was made in front. So far the fight had been one of anvil and hammer. But this first display of tactics at once changed the face of the field. The Federal left wing was rolled up in confusion toward the Plank road and then back upon the Brock road.

  This partial victory had been a comparatively easy one. The signs of demoralization and even panic among the troops of Hancock’s left wing, who had been hurled back by Mahone’s flank attack, were too plain to be mistaken by the Confederates, who believed that Chancellorsville was about to be repeated. General Longstreet rode forward and prepared to press his advantage. Jenkins’s fresh brigade was moved forward on the Plank road to renew the attack, supported by Kershaw’s division, while the flanking column was to come into position on its right. The latter were now in line south of the road and almost parallel to it. Longstreet and Kershaw rode with General Jenkins at the head of his brigade as it pressed forward, when suddenly the quiet that had reigned for some moments was broken by a few scattering shots on the north of the road, which were answered by a volley from Mahone’s line on the south side. The firing in their front, and the appearance of troops on the road whom they failed to recognize as friends through the intervening timber, had drawn a single volley, which lost to them all the fruits of the splendid work they had just done. General Jenkins was killed and Longstreet seriously wounded by our own men. The troops who were following them faced quickly toward the firing and were about to return it; but when General Kershaw called out, “They are friends!” every musket was lowered, and the men dropped upon the ground to avoid the fire.