Crucible of Command

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Crucible of Command Page 72

by William C. Davis


  113Davis to REL, June 1, 1862, OR, I, 11, pt. 3, pp. 568–69.

  114Smith, Seven Pines, pp. 129, 137.

  115REL to Charlotte Lee, June 2, 1862, Lee Papers, VHS.

  116Special Orders No. 22, June 1, 1862, Wartime Papers, pp. 181–82.

  117Davis, Rise and Fall, 2, p. 131.

  118Melton to wife, June 6, 1862, Melton Papers, University of South Carolina.

  119Beth Gilbert Crabtree and James W. Patton, eds., “Journal of a Secesh Lady”: The Diary of Catherine Ann Devereaux Edmondston, 1860–1866 (Raleigh: North Carolina Division of Archives and History, 1979), p. 189.

  120REL to Randolph, June 5, 1862, Wartime Papers, p. 185.

  121Stephen W. Sears, To the Gates of Richmond: The Peninsula Campaign (Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1992), pp. 153–54.

  122Alexandria, Gazette, June 3, 1862.

  123Lee, 2, p. 254 and n.

  124Smith to Johnston, July 18, 1862, OR, I, 51, pt. 2, pp. 593–94.

  125REL to Jackson, June 16, 1862, Wartime Papers, p. 194, REL to Theophilus H. Holmes, June 18, 1862, p. 195.

  126There are no contemporaneous accounts of this council of war, and what we have comes from postwar writings of Longstreet, who is not always reliable.

  127REL to MCL, June 25, 1862, Heritage Auction, Dallas, November 20–21, 2008, item #57137.

  128REL to Davis, June 27, 1862, Wartime Papers, p. 202.

  129REL to Davis, June 29, 1862, ibid., pp. 205–206.

  130REL to Magruder, June 29, 1862, ibid., p. 205.

  131Robert William Sidwell, “Maintaining Order in the Midst of Chaos: Robert E. Lee’s Usage of His Personal Staff” (Master’s Thesis: Kent State University, 2009), pp. 19–20, 25, 29, 31, 33, 36.

  132Ibid., pp. 35, 36, 39, 46.

  133John Goode, Recollections of A Lifetime (New York: Neale, 1906), p. 58.

  134REL to MCL, July 9, 1862, Wartime Papers, p. 230.

  CHAPTER 9: LEE VICTORIOUS AND GRANT FRUSTRATED

  1General Orders No. 34, April 8, 1862, PUSG, 5, pp. 21–22.

  2USG to Halleck, April 8, 1862, ibid., p. 23.

  3See, for instance, Boston, American Traveller, April 12, 1862, and Philadelphia, Public Ledger, April 14, 1862.

  4USG to Julia, April 15, 1862, PUSG, 5, p. 47, March 23, 1862, PUSG, 4, p. 413.

  5USG to George P. Ihrie, April 25, 1862, PUSG, 5, pp. 74–74, USG to Julia, May 4, 1862, p. 111.

  6USG to Jesse Grant, April 26, 1862, ibid., p. 78.

  7Ibid., pp. 48–50n.

  8Ibid., pp. 50–51n.

  9USG to Julia, April 25, 1862, ibid., p. 72.

  10USG to Julia, May 4, 1862, ibid., p. 110.

  11USG to Julia, April 30, 1862, ibid., p. 102.

  12USG to Halleck, May 11, 1862, ibid., p. 114.

  13USG to Julia, May 11, 1862, ibid., p. 116, May 13, 1862, p. 118.

  14USG to Washburne, May 14, 1862, ibid., pp. 119–20 and n.

  15USG to Julia, May 24, 1862, ibid., p. 130.

  16USG to Julia, May 31, 1862, ibid., p. 134.

  17USG to Julia, June 9, 1862, ibid., pp. 140–41 and n.

  18See, for instance, USG to Halleck, June 19, 1862, ibid., p. 169.

  19USG to Hillyer, July 1, 1862, ibid., p. 181.

  20USG to Julia, May 16, 1862, ibid., p. 124.

  21PMJDG, pp. 101, 105. For a thoughtful and persuasive discussion of Julia and slaves, see “Did Julia Grant Own Slaves,” Yesterday and Today, April 2, 2011, http://www.yandtblog.com/?p=298.

  22USG to Julia, March 24, 1862, PUSG, 4, p. 418. See, for instance, Cleveland, Leader, February 26, 1862.

  23USG to Washburne, March 22, 1862, ibid., p. 408.

  24USG to Jesse Grant, August 3, 1862, PUSG, 5, p. 263.

  25USG to Mary Grant, August 19, 1862, ibid., p. 311.

  26USG to Lincoln, February 9, 1863, PUSG, 7, pp. 301–303n.

  27Register of the Officers and Cadets of the U.S. Military Academy, June 1828, p. 22.

  28USG to McLean, August 10, 1862, PUSG, 5, pp. 281–82n.

  29USG to Stanton, March 14, 1862, PUSG, 4, p. 357.

  30USG to McLean, April 21, 1862, PUSG, 5, p. 63.

  31USG to McClernand, August 17, 1862, ibid., pp. 299–301n.

  32USG to Jesse Grant, August 3, 1862, ibid., p. 263.

  33USG to Jesse Grant, September 17, 1862, PUSG, 6, pp. 61–62.

  34USG to Kelton, June 30, 1862, PUSG, 5, p. 178.

  35USG to Halleck July 8, 1862, ibid., p. 199.

  36USG to Washburne, July 22, 1862, ibid., p. 225.

  37Ibid., p. 207n.

  38USG to Washburne, July 22, 1862, ibid., p. 226.

  39USG to Halleck, August 9, 1862, ibid., p. 278.

  40USG to Halleck, August 1, 1862, ibid., p. 257.

  41USG to Hillyer, August 14, 1862, PUSG, 32, p. 35.

  42USG to Julia, August 18, 1862, PUSG, 5, p. 308.

  43USG to Mary Grant, August 19, 1862, ibid., p. 311.

  44USG to Julia, August 18, 1862, ibid., p. 308.

  45USG to Halleck, June 30, 1862, ibid., p. 175.

  46USG to Halleck, September 7, 1862, PUSG, 6, p. 34.

  47USG to Julia, September 14, 1862, ibid., p. 43.

  48USG to Halleck, June 19, 1862, PUSG, 5, p. 169.

  49REL to William C. Rives, July 4, 1862, William C. Rives Papers, LC.

  50REL to Davis, July 9, 1862, Wartime Papers, p. 229, REL to MCL, July 9, 1862, pp. 229–30.

  51REL to Davis, July 18, 1862, ibid., p. 232.

  52REL to Jackson, July 23, 1862, ibid., p. 235.

  53REL to Jackson, July 27, 1862, ibid., pp. 239–40.

  54REL to McClellan, July 21, 1862, Philadelphia, Inquirer, August 14, 1862.

  55REL to Mildred Lee, July 28, 1862, Wartime Papers, p. 240.

  56REL to Jackson, August 4, 1861, ibid., p. 245.

  57REL to Jackson, August 7, 1862, ibid., p. 248.

  58REL to Jackson, August 12, 1862, ibid., p. 251.

  59REL to Davis, August 14, 1862, ibid., p. 254.

  60John H. Chamberlayne to Lucy Parke Chamberlayne, August 15, 1862, Churchill Gibson Chamberlayne, ed., Ham Chamberlayne—Virginian: Letters and Papers of an Artillery Officer in the War for Southern Independence 1861–1865 (Richmond: Dietz Press, 1932), p. 93.

  61REL to Longstreet, August 14, 1862, Wartime Papers, p. 253.

  62John Hennessy, Return to Bull Run: The Campaign and Battle of Second Manassas (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1992), p. 226.

  63REL to Davis, August 29, 1862, Wartime Papers, p. 266.

  64San Francisco, Bulletin, March 20, 1863; Thomas Claybrook Elder letter to unidentified addressee, September 4, 1862, Thomas Claybrook Elder Papers, VHS.

  65REL to Davis, August 30, 1862, Wartime Papers, pp. 266–67.

  66REL to Davis, August 30, 1862, ibid., p. 268.

  67USG to Julia, September 14, 1862, PUSG, 6, p. 43.

  68USG to Halleck, September 15, 1862, ibid., p. 46.

  69USG to Rosecrans, September 18, 1862, ibid., p. 64.

  70Ibid., p. 66n.

  71REL to Davis, September 3, 1862, Wartime Papers, pp. 292–93.

  72REL to Davis, August 14, 1862, ibid., p. 254.

  73REL to Davis, September 12, 1862, ibid., pp. 304–305.

  74REL to Davis, September 4, 1862, ibid., p. 294. It is sometimes stated that one of Lee’s goals was to influence the British cabinet to consider, even grant, diplomatic recognition to the Confederacy, by invading the North to demonstrate the South’s capability of defending its independence. In fact, eight months earlier Lee told his son Custis that he had no expectation of foreign intervention, and nothing suggests that he had changed his mind at this time. Nothing from him survives even mentioning the diplomatic impact of this campaign, and the only hint that he considered political impact at all is the above cited very general mention to Davis in this letter. Three years after the close of the war Lee stated his campaign aims in Maryland as threatening Washington to draw away the combined forces of Pope and McClel
lan, and subsisting his own army off Maryland for a while to relieve Virginia. He said nothing at all about influencing either the fall elections in the North, or diplomatic affairs in England. REL to William M. McDonald, April 15, 1868, New Orleans, Times-Picayune, August 30, 1903.

  75REL to Davis, June 5, 1862, Wartime Papers, pp. 183–84. Despite its sometimes hyperbolic conclusions, James A. Kegel’s North with Lee and Jackson: The Lost Story of Gettysburg (Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1996) is an insightful investigation of the origins and evolution of the dream of invading Pennsylvania.

  76REL to Davis, September 5, 1862, Wartime Papers, p. 295.

  77REL to Davis, September 6, 1862, ibid., p. 296.

  78REL to Davis, September 7, 1862, ibid., p. 298.

  79Broadside, September 8, 1862, Gilder Lehrman Collection.

  80REL to Davis, September 8, 1862, Wartime Papers, p. 301.

  81Davis to REL, Bragg, et al, September 12, 1862, Lynda Lasswell Crust, ed., The Papers of Jefferson Davis (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1995), 8, p. 386.

  82Special Orders No. 191, September 9, 1862, Wartime Papers, pp. 301–303.

  83James Longstreet, From Manassas to Appomattox (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1895), p. 285, claimed that it was intended all along that Davis should accompany the invasion. This is clearly gainsaid by Lee’s September 3 letter to Davis proposing the invasion, and the fact that none of Lee’s correspondence with Davis makes any mention of an expectation of his presence.

  84REL to Davis, September 9, 1862, Wartime Papers, p. 303.

  85R. H. Chilton to Lafayette McLaws, September 14, 1862, ibid., p. 307.

  86Thomas Henry Carter to Susan Carter, October 4, 1862, Thomas Henry Carter Letters, VHS.

  87Ibid. There are several good accounts of the campaign and battle, all of which detail Lee’s movements during the day. See Stephen W. Sears, Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam (New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1983) and Joseph T. Harsh, Taken at the Flood: Robert E. Lee & Confederate Strategy in the Maryland Campaign of 1862 (Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1999).

  88The vaunted fact that the outcome failed to influence Great Britain to intervene on behalf of the Confederacy seems colossally irrelevant since that was never one of Lee’s goals, there being no reason to think he was aware of such discussions, and Britain’s presumed willingness to intervene in the fall of 1862 is open to serious question. On this point see “The Turning Point That Wasn’t: The Confederates and the Election of 1864,” in William C. Davis, The Cause Lost: Myths and Realities of the Confederacy (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1996), pp. 137–39.

  89Sidwell, “Maintaining Order,” pp. 52, 53, 73, 79.

  90This theme is developed in Gary W. Gallagher’s essay “The Net Result of the Campaign Was in Our Favor: Confederate Reaction to the Maryland Campaign,” in Gallagher, ed., The Antietam Campaign (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999), pp. 6–7.

  91USG to Kelton, October 22, 1862, PUSG, 6, pp. 172–73.

  92Ibid., p. 73n.

  93USG to Halleck, September 20, 1862, ibid., p. 72.

  94USG to Rosecrans, September 22, 1862, PUSG, 32, p. 39.

  95USG to Halleck, October 1, 1862, PUSG, 7, pp. 96–97.

  96USG to Rosecrans, October 2, 1862, ibid., p. 99.

  97USG too Hurlbut, October 3, 1862, ibid., p. 103.

  98USG to Hurlbut, October 3, 1862, ibid., pp. 104–106.

  99I. N. Haynie to USG, October 3, 1862, OR, I, 17, pt. 2, pp. 257–58.

  100Haynie to USG, October 3, 4, 1862, ibid., p. 258.

  101USG to Hurlbut, October 4, 1862, PUSG, 6, pp. 112–13, 114.

  102Ibid., p. 108n.

  103USG to Rosecrans, October 4, 1862, ibid., p. 114.

  104Ibid., p. 115n.

  105USG to Rosecrans, October 5, 1862, ibid., p. 123.

  106Ibid., 123n.

  107USG to Rosecrans, October 7, 1862, ibid., p. 131. For modern works on Iuka and Corinth see Peter Cozzens, The Darkest Days of the War: The Battles of Iuka & Corinth (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997) and Timothy B. Smith, Corinth, 1862: Siege, Battle, Occupation (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2012). Though they do not always agree, both are fine studies.

  108USG to Rosecrans, October 6, 1862, PUSG, 6, p. 129.

  109USG to Halleck, October 8, 1862, ibid., p. 134.

  110USG to Julia, September 15, 1862, ibid., p. 51.

  111USG to Mary Grant, October 16, 1862, ibid., p. 154.

  112USG to Halleck, October 8, 1862, ibid., pp. 133–34. Frank P. Varney, General Grant and the Rewriting of History: How the Destruction of General William S. Rosecrans Influenced Our Understanding of the Civil War (El Dorado Hills, CA: Savas Beatie, 2013) has some good background on the development of the breakup of the Grant-Rosecrans friendship and working relationship thanks to Iuka and Corinth, but is often unconvincing due to its unrelenting defensiveness over criticism of Rosecrans. Grant was not objective toward Rosecrans in PMUSG after more than two decades of hearing and reading “Rosey’s” attacks on himself, but to thereby condemn Grant’s entire memoir oversteps reasonable bounds.

  113USG to Mary Grant, October 16, 1862, PUSG, 6, pp. 154–55.

  114USG to Halleck, October 26, 1862, ibid., p. 200.

  CHAPTER 10: “WHAT HAVE WE TO LIVE FOR IF NOT VICTORIES?”

  1Springfield, Daily Illinois State Journal, December 8, 1862.

  2General Orders No. 88, October 7, 1862, OR, I, 17, pt. 1, p. 159, Rosecrans to USG, October 11, 1862, p. 165.

  3PUSG, 6, p. 167n.

  4J. Cutler Andrews, The North Reports the Civil War (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1955), pp. 438–39.

  5Keene, New Hampshire Sentinel, October 16, 1862.

  6Milwaukee, Sentinel, November 8, 1862.

  7See PUSG, 6, p. 87. The letter purports to be by Franklin A. Dick, dated September 28, and telling a story secondhand from Congressman Henry T. Blow of seeing Grant “as tight as a brick” on September 26. In fact, on that date Grant was in Corinth, having left St. Louis the day before. In October 1863 Blow denied having made any such statement, in November Dick denied any recollection of writing the letter, and Bates stated he had never received such a letter. Sacramento, Daily Union, December 7, 1863. Blow and Grant were friends both before and after the war, and Dick did not mention the incident in his surviving journals, but was highly complimentary of Grant as a commander. Gari Carter, Troubled State: Civil War Journals of Franklin Archibald Dick (Kirksville, MO: Truman State University Press, 2008), p. 77.

  8PUSG, 6, p. 167n.

  9USG to Rosecrans, October 21, 1862, ibid., pp. 163–64.

  10USG to Rosecrans, October 21, 1862, ibid., p. 166n.

  11USG to Halleck, September 20, 1862, ibid., p. 72.

  12USG to Kelton, October 22, 1862, ibid., pp. 168–76.

  13Rosecrans to Halleck, October 22, 1862, OR, I, 17, pt. 2, pp. 286–87; Halleck to USG, October 23, 1862, PUSG, 6, p. 182, USG to Rosecrans, October 23, 1862, p. 182.

  14USG to Ord, October 24, 1862, PUSG, 6, p. 184.

  15USG to Washburne, November 7, 1862, ibid., p. 275.

  16USG to Halleck November 10, 1862, ibid., pp. 288–89n.

  17USG to Sherman, November 14, 1862, ibid., pp. 310–11.

  18General Orders No. 1, October 25, 1862, ibid., p. 186.

  19USG to Halleck, October 17, 1862, ibid., p. 155.

  20USG to Rosecrans, September 22, 1822, PUSG, 32, p. 39; USG to Halleck, October 26, 1862, PUSG, 6, p. 200–201n.

  21USG to McPherson, November 1, 1862, PUSG, 6, p. 235, November 2, 1862, pp. 244–45, USG to Halleck, November 2, 1862, p. 243.

  22USG to Halleck, November 4, 1862, ibid., p. 256, USG to Sherman, November 6, 1862, pp. 262–63.

  23USG to Halleck, November 7, 1862, ibid., p. 268.

  24Springfield, MA, Republican, November 29, 1862.

  25USG to Sherman, November 10, 1862, PUSG, 6, pp. 291–92.

 
26Special Field Orders No. 1, November 7, 1862, ibid., pp. 266–67.

  27Special Field Orders No. 6, November 16, 1862, ibid., pp. 321–22.

  28USG to Webster, November 13, 1862, ibid., p. 304, USG to Isaac F. Quinby, November 18, 1862, p. 331.

  29John Eaton, Grant, Lincoln and the Freedmen: Reminiscences of the Civil War (New York: Longmans, Green, 1907), pp. 10–15. Writing forty-five years after the fact, Eaton’s recollection may well be influenced by subsequent events, attributing greater forecast to Grant than he actually had in 1862, but the outline presented here fits with Grant’s thinking processes and what little he wrote at the time.

  30USG to Halleck, November 15, 1862, PUSG, 6, p. 315.

  31USG to Halleck, November 9, 1862, ibid., p. 279, General Orders No. 6, November 11, 1862, pp. 294–95.

  32USG to Kelton, December 3, 1862, ibid., pp. 377–85, 391–92.

  33Porter claims this, at least, though his memoir is heavily fictionalized in places, and he could be quite loose with facts. David D. Porter, Incidents and Anecdotes of the Civil War (New York: D. Appleton, 1885), p. 125.

  34The date of this meeting is confirmed in Springfield, Daily Illinois State Journal, November 22, 1862.

  35USG to David D. Porter, November 22, 1862, PUSG, 6, p. 340, USG to McPherson, November 21, 1862, p. 338.

  36USG to Jesse Grant, November 23, 1862, ibid., p. 345.

  37USG to Halleck, November 24, 1862, ibid., p. 346,

  38USG to Hamilton, November 26, 1862, ibid., pp. 350–51.

  39USG to Sherman, November 29, 1862, ibid., pp. 360–61, November 30, 1862, pp. 364–65.

  40Springfield, MA, Republican, November 29, 1862.

  41USG to Halleck, December 3, 1862, PUSG, 6, p. 371–72.

  42Ibid., p. 372n.

  43USG to Halleck, December 5, 1862, ibid., p. 390.

  44USG to Halleck, December 7, 1862, ibid., p. 401.

  45Halleck to USG, December 9, 1862, OR, I, 17, pt. 1, p. 474.

  46USG to Halleck, December 8, 1862, PUSG, 6, p. 403.

  47USG to Sherman, December 8, 1862, ibid., p. 404.

  48Ibid., pp. 406–407.

  49USG to Commanding Officer, December 8, 1862, PUSG, 6, p. 411, USG to Frederick Steele, December 8, 1862, pp. 408–409.

  50USG to Halleck, December 9, 1862, PUSG, 7, p. 6.

  51USG to Halleck, December 14, 1862, ibid., p. 29.

  52USG to McClernand, December 18, 1862, ibid., pp. 61–63.

 

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