136USG to Sherman, April 27, 1863, ibid., p. 130.
137USG to Julia, April 28, 1863, ibid., p. 132.
138USG to Halleck, April 29, 1863, ibid., p. 133, USG to Sherman, April 29, 1863, p. 135.
139PMUSG, 1, pp. 482–84, 487.
140Bearss, Campaign for Vicksburg, 2, p. 385.
141USG to Porter, May 1, 1863, PUSG, 8, p. 139, USG to Halleck, May 3, 1863, pp. 144–48.
142USG to Porter, May 1, 1863, ibid., p. 139.
143The unnamed member of Jackson’s staff is quoted in D. H. Hill to R. L. Dabney, July 21, 1864, R. L. Dabney Collection, Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, VA. Hill was not present, of course, and said that Jackson pressed the flank movement while Lee preferred a frontal assault. Three years later Lee said that he had wanted to attack Hooker’s exposed flank as soon as possible. REL to Anna Jackson, January 25, 1866, Dabney Collection, Union Theological Seminary.
144New Orleans, Picayune, June 5, 1863.
145Richmond, Examiner, May 19, 1863.
146Two notes REL to Stuart, May 5, 1863, James E. B. Stuart Papers, Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
147REL to GWCL, May 11, 1863, Wartime Papers, p. 484.
CHAPTER 12: JULY 1863
1Lafayette Guild to Samuel P. Moore, May 22, 1863, Jeffrey L. Raw, comp., Outgoing Correspondence of Lafayette Guild, Medical Director, Army of Northern Virginia, Chapter 6, vols. 641–42, RG 109, NA.
2REL to MCL, February 23, 1862, Wartime Papers, p. 118.
3Krick, “‘The Great Tycoon’ Forges a Staff System,” p. 84n.
4REL to MCL, May 23, 1863, Wartime Papers, p. 491, REL to GWCL, December 29, 1861, p. 98, March 29, 1864, p. 686, April 9, 1864, p. 695.
5Mobile, Advertiser & Register, March 16, 1864.
6REL to GWCL, January 5, 1863, Wartime Papers, p. 385, REL to MCL, June 11, 1863, p. 512.
7The author is indebted to Robert E. L. Krick for sharing his opinions and insight on this admittedly subjective area.
8REL to Edward Sparrow, March 20, 1863, OR, IV, 2, pp. 446–47.
9Jeffry D. Wert, “The Tycoon: Lee and His Staff,” Civil War Times Illustrated, 11 (July 1972), pp. 12–13.
10Ibid., p. 13.
11Mobile, Advertiser & Register, March 16, 1864.
12Charles S. Venable to Margaret Venable, June 21, 1863, Venable Papers, UVA.
13REL to Chilton, n.d. [April 22, 1863], REL to Seddon, December 19, 1863, Robert H. Chilton Combined Service Record, RG 109, NA.
14Report of a Board of Officers for the examination of the system of military signals devised by Assistant Surgeon A. J. Meyer, March 12, 1859, Letters Received by the Office of the Adjutant General, 1822–1860, RG 94, NA.
15Jeffry D. Wert, “The Tycoon: Lee and His Staff,” p. 11.
16Sidwell, “Maintaining Order,” pp. 19–20, 25, 26, 29, 33–35, 36, 39, 46.
17Ibid., 53, 73, 79.
18Ibid., p. 12. Sidwell disagrees with most of Freeman’s overall analysis, finding Lee’s staff usually highly capable and emphasizing that it improved in the performance of its duties as the war progressed.
19J. Boone Bartholomees Jr., Buff Facings and Gilt Buttons: Staff and Headquarters Operations in the Army of Northern Virginia, 1861–1865 (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1998), pp. 7–12.
20REL to Edward Sparrow, March 20, 1863, OR, IV, 2, pp. 446–47.
21REL to Davis, March 21, 1863, ibid., pp. 447–48.
22REL to A. P. Hill, May 8, 1863, OR, I, 25, pt. 2, pp. 786–87.
23Unless otherwise cited, much of this discussion is drawn from the excellent Krick, “‘The Great Tycoon,’” pp. 82–106 passim. Some useful information may be found in R. Steven Jones, The Right Hand of Command: Use and Disuse of Personal Staffs in the American Civil War (Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2000), but it is in the main an operational history of the generals dealt with, with relatively little discrete comment on staff operations.
24New Orleans, Picayune, June 5, 1863.
25D. Lyon Jr. to My dear Annie, May 14, 1863, copy in Krick collection.
26Fayetteville, NC, Observer, in Augusta, GA, Chronicle, June 27, 1863.
27Springfield, MA, Republican, May 30, 1863.
28REL to Longstreet, May 7, 1863, Wartime Papers, p. 458.
29REL to Seddon, May 10, 1863, ibid., p. 482.
30REL to Davis, May 11, 1863, ibid., pp. 483–84.
31REL to CCL, May 24, 1863, transcript, Keith Kehlbeck, Marshall, MI.
32This planning is ably discussed in Stephen W. Sears, Gettysburg (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 2003), pp. 5–9.
33A good essay on this subject is Peter S. Carmichael, “Lee’s Search for the Battle of Annihilation,” in Carmichael, ed., Audacity Personified: The Generalship of Robert E. Lee (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2004), pp. 1–26.
34REL to CCL, May 24, 1863, transcript, Keith Kehlbeck, Marshall, MI.
35David Watson to Susan Watson, April 15, 1863, David Watson Letters, copies at Louisa County Historical Society, Louisa, VA.
36REL to William C. Rives, May 21, 1863, Lee Papers, UVA. Lee expressed almost identical thoughts that same day in REL to John B. Hood, May 21, 1863, Wartime Papers, p. 490.
37REL to Davis, May 20, 1863, ibid., pp. 488–89.
38REL to Hood, May 21, 1863, ibid., p. 490.
39Sidwell, “Maintaining Order,” p. 15.
40REL to Seddon, May 20, 1863, Wartime Papers, p. 489, REL to Davis, May 20, 1863, p. 489.
41REL to D. H. Hill, May 25, 1863, ibid., p. 493, REL to Seddon, May 30, 1863, p. 498.
42REL to MCL, May 23, 1863, ibid., p. 491.
43REL to Davis, May 29, 1863, ibid., p. 495.
44REL to D. H. Hill, May 30, 1863, ibid., 497, REL to Davis, May 30, 1863, p. 496.
45REL to Davis, May 30, 1863, ibid., p. 496.
46REL to Agnes Lee, May 25, 1863, ibid., p. 492.
47REL to MCL, May 31, 1863, ibid., p. 499.
48REL to MCL, June 3, 1863, ibid., p. 500.
49REL to Cooper, June 4, 1863, ibid., p. 501, REL to A. P. Hill, June 5, 1863, p. 502, REL to Davis, June 7, 1863, p. 502.
50REL to Seddon, June 8, 1863, ibid., p. 504.
51REL to MCL, June 9, 1863, ibid., p. 507.
52REL to Davis, June 10, 1863, ibid., pp. 507–509.
53REL to MCL, June 11, 1863, ibid., p. 511.
54REL to A. P. Hill, June 16, 1863, ibid., p. 517, C. S. Venable to Stuart, June 9, 1863, p. 505, REL to Seddon, June 13, 1863, p. 513, REL to GWCL, June 13, 1863, p. 514.
55Richmond, Examiner, June 12, 1863.
56C. S. Venable to Stuart, June 9, 1863, Wartime Papers, p. 505, REL to Cooper, June 15, 1863., pp. 515–16, REL to Mrs. WHFL, June 11, 1863, p. 512.
57REL to Seddon, June 13, 1863, ibid., p. 513; Richmond, Whig, June 12, 1863.
58Charleston, Mercury, June 24, 1863.
59Fayetteville, NC, Observer, in Augusta, GA, Chronicle, June 27, 1863.
60REL to Ewell, June 17, 1863, Wartime Papers, p. 518.
61REL to Longstreet, June 17, 1863, ibid., p. 518.
62REL to Ewell, June 22, 1863, ibid., p. 524.
63REL to Davis, June 23, 1863, ibid., p. 527.
64REL to Stuart, June 22, 1863, ibid., p. 523, June 23, 1863, p. 526.
65REL to Davis, June 23, 1863, ibid., p. 529.
66REL to Davis, June 23, 1863, ibid., p. 527, REL to Davis, June 25, 1863, pp. 530–31, REL to Davis, June 25, 1863, p. 532.
67REL to Davis, June 25, 1863, ibid., pp. 530–31, REL to MCL, May 31, 1863, p. 499, June 3, 1863, p. 500.
68REL to Ewell, June 28, 1863, ibid., p. 534.
69REL to MCL, June 30, 1863, ibid., pp. 535–36.
70Sidwell, “Maintaining Order,” pp. 105, 108; Robert K. Krick, The Smoothbore Volley That Doomed the Confederacy: The Death of Stonewall Jackson and Other Chapters on the Army of Northern Virginia (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2002), pp. 69–70.
71Wert, “The Tycoon,�
�� p. 16.
72Justus Scheibert, Seven Months in the Rebel States During the North American War, 1863 (Tuscaloosa, AL: Confederate Publishing Company, 1958), p. 75n.
73Sidwell, “Maintaining Order,” pp. 109, 112.
74Ibid., 117.
75Ibid., pp. 85–86, 115, 119, 120.
76Ibid., pp. 127–28, maintains that Lee’s reluctance to let staff officers give orders in his name was due to the Southern culture of resistance to authority, as he did not want to risk having mere captains delivering orders, which might be offensive to prickly generals. The argument is unconvincing.
77REL to William M. McDonald, April 15, 1868, New Orleans, Times-Picayune, August 30, 1903.
78Allan, “Memoranda,” February 19, 1870, Gallagher, Lee the Soldier, p. 18.
79USG to Sherman, May 3, 1863, PUSG, 8, p. 152.
80USG to Halleck, May 3, 1863, ibid., p. 148.
81USG to Sherman, May 9, 1863, ibid., p. 183.
82USG to Sherman, May 3, 1863, ibid., pp. 151–52, USG to Sullivan, May 3, 1863, p. 153, USG to Hillyer, May 5, 1863, p. 163.
83USG to Hillyer, May 5, 1863, ibid., pp. 162, 163.
84USG to Halleck, May 6, 1863, ibid., p. 169.
85USG to Sherman, May 9, 1863, ibid., p. 183–84.
86USG to McClernand, May 10, 1863, ibid., p. 193.
87USG to Sherman, May 9, 1863, ibid., p. 183–84.
88USG to Julia, May 9, 1863, ibid., p. 19.
89General Orders No. 32, May 7, 1863, ibid., p. 171.
90USG to Halleck, May 11, 1863, ibid., p. 196.
91USG to McPherson, May 11, 1863, ibid., p. 200.
92USG to McClernand, May 12, 1863, ibid., p. 205.
93USG to Sherman, May 13, 1863, ibid., p. 212.
94USG to Halleck, May 15, 1863, ibid., p. 220.
95USG to McClernand, May 13, 1863, ibid., p. 208.
96USG to Blair, May 16, 1863, ibid., pp. 222–23, USG to McClernand, May 16, 1863, p. 224.
97USG to Sherman, May 16, 1863, 5:30 a.m., ibid., pp. 227–28.
98USG to Sherman, May 16, 1863, ibid., pp. 228, 229.
99USG to Sherman, May 17, 1863, ibid., p. 232.
100Special Field Orders No. 134, May 19, 1863, ibid., p. 237, USG to Porter, May 19, 1863, p. 239.
101USG to McClernand, May 19, 1863, ibid., p. 240–41.
102General Field Orders, May 21 1863, ibid., pp. 245–46, USG to Porter, May 21, 1863, pp. 246–47.
103USG to Porter, May 23, 1863, ibid., p. 257.
104USG to Halleck, May 22, 1863, ibid., p. 249.
105USG to Hurlbut, May 31, 1863, ibid., p. 297.
106USG to Banks, May 31, 1863, ibid., p. 294.
107USG to Halleck, May 25, 1863, ibid., p. 267, May 29, 1863, p. 283.
108USG to Sherman, May 22, 1863, ibid., p. 255.
109USG to Halleck, June 3, 1863, ibid., p. 304.
110Rawlins to Grant, June 6, 1863, ibid., pp. 322–23n. Rawlins refers to “the condition of your health” as a reason Grant should have been in bed. In 1898 Dana (Recollections, p. 83) said that Grant was ill at this time and went to bed early on June 6, and was unable to make a decision when told it was too dangerous to go on to Haynes’ Bluff. Yet Grant wrote to Julia, June 9, 1863, ibid., p. 332, that “I have enjoyed most excellent health during the campaign.” In 1887, recounting the same trip, Dana said Grant was “stupidly drunk.” Wilson’s diary entry would seem to be conclusive, and is the only directly contemporary source.
111PUSG, 8, p. 325n. Wilson’s diary entry is dated June 7, yet both of Dana’s accounts indicate that whatever Grant did it happened on the evening of June 6, and Grant arose on June 7 in perfect control and feeling fine.
112USG to Julia, June 9, 1863, ibid., p. 332.
113USG to Julia, June 15, 1863, ibid., pp. 376–77.
114USG to Jesse Grant, June 15, 1863, ibid., p. 376.
115USG to Halleck, May 24, 1863, ibid., p. 261.
116Ibid., pp. 81n, 254–55n.
117USG to Thomas, June 26, 1863, ibid., p. 428.
118Dana to Stanton, June 19, 1863, OR, I, 26, pt. 1, p. 103.
119General Orders No. 72, May 30, 1863, OR, I, 24, pt. 1, pp. 159–61.
120McClernand to Grant, June 4, 1863, ibid., pp, 165–66.
121McClernand to Grant, June 9, 1863, OR, I, 24, pt. 2, p. 48. The earliest identified appearance of the questioned report is in Springfield, Daily Republican, May 25, 1863.
122Sherman to Rawlins, June 17, 1863, OR, I, 24, pt. 1, pp. 162–63, McPherson to Grant, June 18, 1863, pp. 163–64.
123USG to McClernand, June 17, 1863, PUSG, 8, pp. 384–85.
124McClernand to USG, June 17, 1863, OR, I, 24, pt. 1, p. 162.
125Report of Maj. Gen. John A. McClernand, June 17, 1863, ibid., pp. 137–57.
126USG Endorsement, July 19, 1863, ibid., p. 157.
127Special Orders No. 164, June 18, 1863, ibid., pp. 164–65, USG to Halleck, June 19, 1863, p. 43, Charles A. Dana to Stanton, June 19, 1863, pp. 102–103.
128USG to Julia, May 3, 1863, PUSG, 8, p. 155.
129USG to Kelton, August 9, 1861, PUSG, 2, p. 91, August 11, 1861, p. 98, USG to Julia, August 10, 1861, p. 96, August 26, 1861, p. 141.
130USG to Thomas, August 31, 1861, ibid., p. 156, General Orders No. 4, September 8, 1861, p. 206.
131Jones, Right Hand of Command, p. 61, argues unconvincingly that Grant made these first staff selections because of a need for “familial comradeship,” yet excepting Rawlins, Grant had not been really close with any.
132USG to Mary Grant, September 11, 1861, PUSG, 2, p. 238.
133USG to Julia, May 24, 1862, PUSG, 5, p. 130.
134General Orders No. 22, December 23, 1861, PUSG, 3, p. 331, USG to Simon Cameron, September 16, 1861, p. 268.
135General Orders No. 21, March 15, 1862, OR, I, 10, pt. 2, p. 41.
136USG to McLean, April 9, 1862, PUSG, 5, pp. 34–35.
137USG to George G. Pride, April 23, 1863, PUSG, 8, p. 113.
138USG to Thomas, April 14, 1863, ibid., p. 69.
139Jones, Right Hand, pp. 86ff.
140General Orders No. 9, November 11, 1863, PUSG, 6, pp. 294–95.
141Jones, Right Hand, p. 97.
142USG to Kelton, January 23, 1863, PUSG, 7, p. 246.
143USG to Julia, February 9, 1863, ibid., p. 309.
144USG to Halleck, December 14, 1862, ibid., pp. 28–29.
145Endorsement May 23, 1863, PUSG, 8, p. 548.
146Ibid., 219n.
147USG to Julia, June 15, 1863, ibid., p. 377.
148Jones, Right Hand, pp. 117–18.
149USG to Silas Hudson, November 16, 1862, PUSG, 6, p. 320.
150USG to Washburne, March 10, 1863, PUSG, 7, p. 409.
151USG to Sherman, April 24, 1863, PUSG, 8, p. 118, April 27, 1863, p. 130.
152USG to Joseph B. Plummer, October 18, 1861, PUSG, 3, p. 57.
153USG to Julia, April 20, 1863, PUSG, 8, p. 101.
154“Our New President,” Atlantic Monthly, 23 (March 1869), p. 380.
155USG to Prentiss, February 21, 1863, PUSG, 7, p. 347, USG to Hillyer, February 27, 1863, p. 368.
156General Field Orders, June 19, 1863, PUSG, 8, p. 394.
157USG to Sherman, June 25, 1863, ibid., p. 423, USG to Halleck, June 27, 1863, p. 434.
158USG to Julia, June 29, 1863, ibid., p. 444–45.
159USG to Pemberton, July 3, 1863, ibid., p. 455.
160USG to Pemberton, July 3, 1863, ibid., p. 457.
161USG to Pemberton, July 4, 1863, ibid., p. 467.
162Special Orders No. 180, July 4, 1863, ibid., pp. 464–65.
163USG to Porter, June 22, 1863, ibid., p. 402.
164USG to Pride, June 15, 1863, ibid., p. 379.
165USG to Sherman, July 3, 1863, ibid., p. 460, July 4, 1863, p. 476.
166USG to Sherman, July 4, 1863, ibid., p. 477.
167USG to Halleck, July 4, 1863, ibid., p. 469.
CHAPTER 13: HINTS OF THE INEVITABLE
1REL to
MCL, July 12, 1863, Wartime Papers, p. 547.
2REL to Davis, July 4, 1863, ibid., pp. 538–39.
3REL to Davis, July 8, 1863, ibid., p. 543.
4REL to MCL, July 12, 1863, ibid., pp. 547–48.
5REL to MCL, July 15, 1863, ibid., p. 551.
6REL to Davis, July 16, 1863, ibid., pp. 552–53.
7REL to MCL, July 26, 1863, ibid., p. 560.
8REL to GWCL, August 18, 1863, ibid., p. 592.
9Order No. 44, Office of the U.S. District Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Confiscation and Seizure Book, box 207, Alexandria Public Library.
10Salem, MA, Register, January 18, 1864.
11REL to MCL, February 8, 1863, Wartime Papers, p. 401.
12The Putnam letter, dated Fort Albany, VA, April 16, 1863, first appeared in an extract in the May 13, 1863 Springfield, MA, Republican, and then in full on May 14, 1863 in the Hartford, CT, Daily Courant.
13Lee to William G. Webster, September 23, 1852, Bowery and Hankinson, Correspondence, p. 288.
14Alexandria, Gazette, May 27, 1863. Webster had little reason to love his former friend Lee after the war commenced. His son Calvert Stuart Webster served in the 15th New York Engineers and died August 9, 1862, of disease. His other son William E. Webster supposedly idolized Lee so much that he enlisted in the Confederate army, and was killed at the battle of Cold Harbor, June 27, 1862. Thus the Websters lost two sons in a span of six weeks. This is what Webster refers to in his letter of May 10–12, 1863, when he says “bitterly and immediately as I have suffered from Gen. Lee’s defection from his former loyalty, in the loss of everything that made life dear to me.” Boston, Liberator, May 29, 1863.
15Boston, Liberator, May 29, 1863.
16Putnam to Editor of the Boston, Journal, May 17, 1863, Boston, Liberator, May 29, 1863.
17Washington, PA, Reporter, July 1, 1863.
18Greenfield, MA, Gazette & Courier, June 15, 1863. This comes from a blog post at http://southernhistorian.wordpress.com/2011/06/11/12/. The writer somewhat confuses things himself by referring to the newspaper with the story as the Greenfield, MA, Courier & Gazette, whereas its actual name was the Gazette & Courier.
19REL to MCL, June 14, 1863, DeButts-Ely Papers, LC.
20Richmond, Examiner, June 13, 1863.
21Anne Butler Moore Carter Wickham Memoranda, Henry T. Wickham, comp., and Lois Wingfield Wickham, ed., Memoirs of the Wickham Family of Hickory Hill, Hanover County, Virginia, 1791–1988 (N. p.: privately published, 2008), p. 39.
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