by Bruce Catton
5. Actually, the Army of Northern Virginia had not yet formally adopted the corps formation, and technically Longstreet commanded one wing of the army. To all intents and purposes, however, this was an army corps and it is so referred to in the text.
6. Brig. Gen. Charles F. Walcott, The Battle of Chantilly: the Virginia Campaign of 1862 under Gen. Pope, Papers of the Military Historical Society of Massachusetts, Vol. II, 143.
7. Letter from Frank Haskell to his brother dated Aug. 31, 1862, in the Haskell Papers, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison.
8. Letter of John F. Sale, 12th Virginia Infantry, dated Jan. 31, 1863, in the Archives Division of the Virginia State Library, Richmond.
9. O.R., Vol. XIX, Part Two, 590; memorandum by Col. William Allan of a conversation with Gen. Lee on Feb. 15, 1868, in the Southern Historical Collection.
10. Letter from Clara Barton to “Mr. Shaver” of Washington, dated Sept. 4, 1862, B. & L., extra-illustrated edition, Vol. VII, in the Huntington Library.
3. To Risk Everything
1. The comment of Jacob Cox is worth recalling: “Pope’s introduction to the eastern army was an unfortunate one; but neither he nor anyone else could have imagined the heat of partisan spirit or the lengths it would run.… There was abundant proof that the wounded amour propre of the officers and men of the Army of the Potomac made them practically a unit in intense dislike and distrust of him. It may be that this condition of things destroyed his possibility of usefulness in the east.” (Military Reminiscences of the Civil War, Vol. I, 248.)
2. Charles E. Davis, Jr., Three Years in the Army: the Story of the 13th Massachusetts Volunteers from July 16, 1861, to Aug. 1, 1864, 156–57.
3. David W. Judd, The Story of the 33rd New York Volunteers, 217; letter of Gen. Pope to Gov. Yates of Illinois dated Sept. 21, 1862, in the John Pope Papers, Chicago Historical Society; sketch of the life of Gen. Doubleday, written by his wife and with notes by the general, sent by him to Frank I. Bramhall of New York on Dec. 18, 1864; now in B. & L., extra-illustrated, Vol. X, Huntington Library.
4. Pinkerton to McClellan dated Aug. 25, 1862, from the Allan Pinkerton Papers, notes by Allan Nevins, courtesy of Howard Swiggett.
5. O.R., Vol. XII, Part Three, 688–89, 691, 709–10, 722–23.
6. Tyler Dennett, ed., Lincoln and the Civil War in the Diaries and Letters of John Hay, 45; letter of Attorney General Bates to Francis Leiber dated Sept. 2, 1862, in the Francis Leiber Collection, Huntington Library.
7. O.R., Vol. XII, Part Three, 773.
8. Ibid., 706, 740; Nicolay & Hay, Vol. VI, 21–22; Diary of Salmon P. Chase, 62–63; Benjamin P. Thomas and Harold Hyman, Stanton, 219–20.
9. O.R., Vol. XII, Part Two, 83.
10. O.R., Vol. XII, Part Three, 787–88. An account of Lincoln’s state of mind at this meeting is in Nicolay & Hay, Vol. VI, 21.
11. O.R., Vol. XII, Part Three, 797.
12. Diary of Gideon Welles, Vol. I, 105; Diary of Salmon P. Chase, 63–65.
13. Letter of McClellan to Mrs. McClellan dated Sept. 2, 1862, in the McClellan Letterbook; Diary of Gideon Welles, Vol. I, 111; Lincoln and the Civil War in the Diaries and Letters of John Hay, 47.
14. The Lincoln-Stanton order to Halleck, and Halleck’s order to McClellan, are in O.R., Vol. XIX, Part Two, 169. For the relief of Pope and the consolidation of the armies see the same volume, 183, 188.
15. For Pope’s furious correspondence with Halleck see his letters to Halleck dated Sept. 30 and Oct. 20, 1862, in the John Pope Papers, Chicago Historical Society. An angry letter to V. B. Horton, the general’s father-in-law, dated March 9, 1863, containing bitter denunciation of Lincoln, is in the Pope Papers, New York Historical Society. A long letter from Halleck to Pope dated Oct. 10, 1862, is in the Halleck Papers, Chicago Historical Society.
16. Memorandum of Col. William Allan, reciting a conversation with Gen. Lee on Feb. 15, 1868, and giving also a memorandum by the Rev. Mr. E. C. Gordon describing a conversation with Lee on the same date; in the Southern Historical Collection. Lee’s letter to Mr. Davis is in O.R., Vol. XIX, Part Two, 590–91.
4. A Town Called Sharpsburg
1. O.R., Vol. XIX, Part Two, 281. The literature on the lost order is extensive. There is a good treatment of the case in Hal Bridges, Lee’s Maverick General: Daniel Harvey Hill, 96–99.
2. Diary of J. R. Boulware, assistant surgeon, 6th South Carolina, in the Virginia State Library, Richmond; Moore’s Rebellion Record, Vol. V, Documents, 444; Alexander Hunter in Southern Historical Society Papers, Vol. XXXI, 40.
3. In his report (O.R., Vol. XIX, Part One, 151) Lee says that he had 40,000 men in the battle. Livermore (Numbers and Losses, 92) thinks the figure too low, arguing that to accept it is to admit that Lee’s army had had fantastic temporary losses from straggling during the fortnight before the battle. The fact is, however, that straggling had been fantastic, and the careful study in Freeman R. E. Lee, Vol. II, 402, indicates that Lee’s total is approximately correct. McClellan gives his own strength as 87,000 (O.R., Vol. XIX, Part One, 67). John C. Ropes, The Story of the Civil War, Part Two, 376, points out that only about 46,000 of McClellan’s men were seriously engaged.
4. “Every stalk of corn in the northern and greater part of the field was cut as closely as could have been done with a knife, and the slain lay in rows precisely as they had stood in their ranks a few moments before”–Hooker’s report, O.R., Vol. XIX, Part One, 218.
5. Cf. Jed Hotchkiss, Confederate Military History, Virginia, Vol. III, 357: “Lee was not only willing but eager to renew the battle, in which he was earnestly seconded by Jackson.” The best appraisal of casualties indicates that the Federals lost upwards of 13,000 men on September 17 and the Confederates rather more than 10,000.
6. O.R., Vol. XIX, Part One, 68; McClellan’s Own Story, 613.
7. Albert D. Richardson, The Secret Service, the Field, the Dungeon and the Escape, 284; dispatch in the Charleston Courier dated Sept. 17, cited in Moore’s Rebellion Record, Vol. V, Documents, 472–75; letter of Frank Haskell dated Sept. 19, in the Haskell Papers, State Historical Society of Wisconsin. It might be noted that the rain which began the day soon ended, and there was clear sunlight throughout most of the battle.
8. Bell Wiley, ed., Reminiscences of Big I,” by Lieutenant William N. Wood; diary of J. R. Boulware, cited in Footnote 2; diary and letters of Capt. John Taggart, 9th Pennsylvania Reserves, in the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Bureau of Research, Publications and Records; David H. Strother, “Personal Recollections of the War, by a Virginian,” in Harper’s Magazine, Vol. XXXVI, February 1868, 282.
9. Strother, A Virginia Yankee in the Civil War, 124.
5. Taking the Initiative
1. Jed Hotchkiss, Confederate Military History, Virginia, Vol. III, 357; O.R., Vol. XIX, Part Two, 626–27.
2. Lee to Davis dated Sept. 25, in O.R., Vol. XIX, Part Two, 626–27; letter of Brig. Gen. John R. Jones dated Sept. 20, in B. & L., extra-illustrated, Vol. VIII, Huntington Library; Allan, The Army of Northern Virginia in 1862, 451. A Sept. 22 return on the army’s strength in infantry and cavalry is in O.R., Vol. XIX, Part Two, 621.
3. O.R., Vol. XIX, Part Two, 348.
4. Letters to Mrs. McClellan, both dated Sept. 20, one marked “9 p.m.,” in the McClellan Letterbook.
5. Barnett to S. L. M. Barlow dated Sept. 19, in the Barlow Papers, Huntington Library. Barnett needs a little study. A friend of Caleb Smith, he held a job of some sort in the Interior Department and served also as a newspaper correspondent and as a lobbyist, devoting much of his time to writing gossipy letters to Barlow on political developments. He apparently knew Lincoln personally, and some of his letters to Barlow reflect his conversations with the President.
6. Diary of Gideon Welles, Vol. I, 143.
7. Nicolay & Hay, Vol. VI, 162–63, quoting Welles in The Galaxy for December 1872, 846–47.
8. Lincoln and the Civil War in the Diaries and Letters of John Hay, 5
0.
9. Frederick Seward, Seward at Washington, Vol. III, 135–36.
10. Strother, A Virginia Yankee in the Civil War, 116–17; letter of Robert Gould Shaw to his mother dated Sept. 25, from the Robert Gould Shaw letters, privately held, transcribed by Allan Nevins; Samuel Butterworth to Barlow, Sept. 23, and Barnett to Barlow, Sept. 25, in the Barlow Papers.
11. Letter dated Sept. 30, in the Manton Marble Papers, Library of Congress.
12. McClellan to William H. Aspinwall dated Sept. 26, in B. & L., extra-illustrated, Vol. VIII, Huntington Library; McClellan’s Own Story, 655.
13. Jacob Cox, Military Reminiscences of the Civil War, Vol. I, 359–61; O.R., Vol. XIX, Part Two, 395–96.
14. The correspondence on the case of Major Key is in Basler, Vol. V, 442–43, 508–9; Nicolay & Hay, Vol. VI, 186–88. Major Key’s brother, Col. Thomas Key, Democratic leader in the Ohio Senate at the outbreak of the war, was appointed to McClellan’s staff in August 1861, and was in no way involved in Major Key’s difficulties.
15. Strother, A Virginia Yankee in the Civil War, 129. In the John Hay Papers, Illinois State Historical Library, are two newspaper clippings—one from the New York Tribune, undated, and one from the Washington Capital for March 21, 1880, reprinting the Tribune article. This is an interview with Nathaniel Paige, then a Washington lawyer but at the time of Antietam a Tribune correspondent. Paige asserts that Thomas Key, at the time of the battle, told him that members of McClellan’s staff had been talking about “a plan to counter-march to Washington and intimidate the President.” According to Paige, McClellan knew nothing about this, and the harebrained scheme (if it did exist) was dropped because of Key’s opposition.
16. Undated letter to Barlow, apparently written early in the fall of 1862, in the Barlow Papers.
17. Nicolay & Hay, Vol. VI, 164; Basler, Vol. V, 438–39.
6. Nobly Save or Meanly Lose
1. Journal of the Congress of the Confederate States of America, Vol. II, First Congress, Second Session, 231, 469. Jones, Rebel War Clerk’s Diary, 101; O.R., Series Two, Vol. IV, 916. In the end Congress adopted a comparatively mild resolution asserting that Mr. Lincoln wanted to stir up a slave revolt and promising to sustain Mr. Davis in any retaliatory measures he considered necessary.
2. London Times for Oct. 7, cited in Rhodes, Vol. IV, 343, n.
3. A Cycle of Adams Letters, Vol. I, 39.
4. Rowland, Vol. V, 356–7, 361, 366.
5. Basler, Vol. V, 98–99.
6. Letter of John E. Haley to John Martin dated Oct. 19, in the Civil War Papers at the Missouri Historical Society.
7. O.R., Vol. XVI, Part One, 657, 663.
8. O.R., Vol. XIX, Part One, 70.
9. O.R., Vol. XIX, Part Two, 660.
10. McClellan’s Own Story, 627; Lincoln and the Civil War in the Diaries and Letters of John Hay, 218; O.R., Vol. XIX, Part One, 72.
11. O.R., Vol. XIX, Part Two, 52–54, 484–85; Basler, Vol. V, 474.
12. Undated letter written sometime in October, in the McClellan Letterbook.
13. O.R., Series Three, Vol. II, 703–4.
14. Buckingham’s account of this is in the Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America, Vol. II, 555–56. McClellan’s letter, dated Nov. 7, is in the McClellan Letterbook.
15. McClellan’s Own Story, 652; Allan Nevins, ed., A Diary of Battle: the Personal Journals of Col. Charles S. Wainwright, 125.
16. Journal of Col. Mulligan, entry for Oct. 31, Chicago Historical Society.
17. Basler, Vol. V, 537.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The following bibliography for Terrible Swift Sword, Volume II, The Centennial History of the Civil War, has been condensed from the list of research materials used in writing this volume. Only entries not in the bibliography of The Coming Fury, Volume I, The Centennial History of the Civil War, have been included. The bibliography consists of four parts: I. Resources. II. Primary manuscript collections consulted. III. Principal newspapers. IV. Books, pamphlets, and periodicals of which substantial material has been extracted or used as reference. Space has permitted the recording of only the major sources used. Many hundreds of additional manuscripts, newspapers, books, and articles contributed to the research notes for the Centennial History.
SECTION I: Resources
In addition to the institutions listed in The Coming Fury, the following were consulted for Terrible Swift Sword. All the major battlefields and many of the secondary ones pertaining to this volume were visited. Appreciation is extended to all those in the libraries and on the battlefields who so generously aided the research.
Beach, Rufus D., Evanston, Ill., private collection.
Civil War Commissions. The United States Civil War Centennial Commission, Allan Nevins, James I. Robertson, and others, along with many of the state and local Centennial Commissions.
Civil War Institute, Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, Pa., John Howard Knickerbocker.
Colorado Historical Society, Denver.
Columbia University Library, New York.
Fitting, Mrs. Robert D., Midland, Texas, private collection.
Hoffman, Mal, Park Forest, Ill., private collection.
Louisiana Historical Association, Confederate Memorial Hall, New Orleans.
New York, Museum of the City of, Philip Rees.
New York State Library, Manuscript and History Section, Albany, Charles F. Gosnell, Donald C. Anthony, Stephen A. Powell.
Otis, Mrs. J. D., Oak Park, Ill., private collection.
Shiloh National Military Park, Pittsburg Landing, Tenn., manuscript collection.
Trask, Mr. and Mrs. Gordon W., Oak Park, Ill., private collection.
U. S. Army, Corps of Engineers, Vicksburg, Miss.
Vicksburg National Military Park, manuscript and map collection, Edwin C. Bearss.
Wilgus, Walter, Arlington, Va., private collection.
SECTION II: Manuscript Collections
This lists only a portion of the major manuscript collections consulted:
Allan, William, Conversations with Lee, William Allan Collection, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina.
Ammen, Jacob, Diary, Illinois State Historical Library.
Bailey, J. B., The Story of a Confederate Soldier, 1861–1865, Texas State Archives.
Barlow, S. L. M., Autograph Collection, Huntington Library.
Barstow, Wilson, Papers, Library of Congress.
Barton, Clara, Letter, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, extra illustrated, Huntington Library.
Beauregard, P. G. T., Papers, Columbia University Library, New York.
Berkeley, Henry Robinson, Diary, Virginia State Historical Library.
Bishop, Charles William, Log of a Cruise in the Gunboat Port Royal in 1862, Yale University Library.
Blair Papers, Library of Congress.
Boulware, J. R., Diary, Virginia State Library.
Bourlier, Emile, Letters, Western Reserve Historical Society.
Bradford, Jeff D., Letter, Confederate Memorial Literary Society.
Bragg, Braxton, Papers, Western Reserve Historical Society.
Bragg, Braxton, Papers, Duke University Library.
Bragg, Braxton, Papers, Huntington Library.
Bragg, Edward S., Papers, The State Historical Society of Wisconsin.
Braxton, Fannie Page (Hume), Diary, Virginia State Historical Society.
Brock Collection, Huntington Library.
Buchanan, Franklin, Letterbook, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina.
Burrus, John C., and Family, Papers, George Lester Collection, University of North Carolina.
Butler, Benjamin F., Eldridge Collection, Huntington Library.
Butler, Benjamin F., Letter, Ralph G. Newman Collection.
Cameron, Simon, Papers, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, microfilm from Historical Society of Dauphin County, Harrisburg, Pa.
Chamberlain, Joshua L., Papers, Library of Con
gress.
Chandler, Zachariah, Papers, Library of Congress, Nevins’ Notes.
Chase, Salmon P., Miscellaneous File, Huntington Library.
Chase, Salmon P., Papers, Chicago Historical Society.
Chase, Salmon P., Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
Chew, Francis T., Reminiscences, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina.
Civil War Papers, Missouri Historical Society.
Cox, Jacob D., Letter, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, extra illustrated, Huntington Library.
Cram, George F., Letters, Loring Armstrong Collection.
Curtis, Samuel Ryan, Papers, Huntington Library.
Dana, Charles A., Papers, Library of Congress.
Dana Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society.
Davis, Jefferson, Letters to Marcus Wright, Palmer Collection, Western Reserve Historical Society.
Davis, Jefferson, Letters to Varina H. Davis, Confederate Memorial Literary Society.
Davis, Lawson L., Account of Mumford Flag Incident, Louisiana Historical Association.
Dawes, Rufus, Papers, Courtesy Rufus D. Beach, Evanston, Ill., and Ralph G. Newman.
de Coppet, Andre, Collection, Princeton University Library.
Dinwiddie, James L., Letters to his Wife, 1862, Virginia State Library.
Doolittle, James R., Papers, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Nevins’ Notes.
Doubleday, Abner, and Mrs. Doubleday, Sketch of his life, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, extra illustrated, Huntington Library.
Douglas, Henry Kyd, Papers, Manuscript Department, Duke University Library.
DuPont, S. F., Miscellaneous Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society.
Ellis, E. J., and Family, Papers, Louisiana State Department of Archives, Louisiana State University.
English, Edmund, Papers, Huntington Library.