by Bruce Catton
A Little Fifers War Diary, by C. W. Bardeen, pp. 261-62; History of Durrell’s Battery in the Civil War, by Lieutenant Charles A. Cuffel, p. 167; History of the 12th Regiment New Hampshire Volunteers, pp. 156-57.
The reader who wants an extended account of one of these sea voyages is referred to Frank Wilkeson's Recollections of a Private Soldier in the Army of the Potomac, pp. 14—19—one of the most graphic and least romanticized of all
the Civil War reminiscences, with a tone of bitter disillusionment which sounds almost as if it had come out of World War II.
Ibid., pp. 1-14, 20. For the way the bounty men vanished on the way to camp, see The Story of the 15th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, by Andrew E. Ford, p. 290.
Four Years Campaigning in the Army of the Potomac, by D. G. Crotty, p. 141.
Musket and Sword, by Edwin C. Bennett, p. 200; The Irish Brigade and Its Campaigns, by Captain D. P. Conyng-ham, pp. 425-38. The writer of History of Durrell’s Battery in the Civil War remarks (p. 168) that the 79th New York was the only IX Corps regiment which failed to re-enlist that winter. All regiments which re-enlisted were re-enforced by drafts of new recruits. See also the pamphlet, Report of Committee to Recruit the Ninth Army Corps, printed in New York in 1866.
Official Records, Series III, Vol. V, pp. 600, 669. In the summer of 1864 U. S. Grant wrote to Secretary of State Seward that not one in eight of the high-bounty men ever performed good service at the front. (Official Records, Series II, Vol. VII, p. 614.)
History of the 7th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, compiled by Stephen Walkley, p. 150.
Recollections of a Private Soldier, pp. 32-34.
Four Years Campaigning in the Army of the Potomac, pp. 117-18; My Diary of Rambles with the 25th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, by D. L. Day, p. 110; Three Years in the Army, pp. 302-3.
History of the 5th Regiment Maine Volunteers, by the Rev. George W. Bicknell, p. 296. The manuscript letters of Edwin Wentworth of the 37th Massachusetts, made available through the kindness of Miss Edith Adams of Auburn, Maine, show how the high-bounty system could affect a veterans decision. Early in the winter, Private Wentworth was writing to his wife that he would not re-enlist: "There are plenty of men at home, better able to bear arms than I am, and I am willing they should take their chance on the battlefield and have their share of glory and honor." Later, however, he reflected that with the bounty he could buy a home and some land—'it will enable me to provide you a good home and a chance to live comfortably." In the end, Private Wentworth re-enlisted, and was killed at Spotsylvania Court House.
A Brief History of the 100th Regiment, by Samuel P. Bates, p. 21; Service with the 6th Wisconsin Volunteers, by Rufus R. Dawes, p. 235; Official Records, Vol. XXXIII, p. 776.
Reminiscences of the 19th Massachusetts Regiment, by Captain John G. B. Adams, pp. 79, 89.
FROM A MOUNTAIN TOP
Music on the March, 1862-65, by Frank Rauscher, pp. 122, 141, 145, 151; History of the 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry, compiled by the Regimental History Association, pp. 409-11.
Campaigning with Grant, by General Horace Porter, pp. 15, 22, 28.
3. Ibid., p. 30.
For various glimpses of Grant, see Captain Sam Grant, by Lloyd Lewis, pp. 99-100; Campaigning with Grant, pp. 45, 56; Army Life: a Private's Reminiscences of the Civil War, by the Rev. Theodore Gerrish, p. 324; A War Diary of Events in the War of the Great Rebellion, by Brigadier General George H. Gordon, p. 351; Three Years in the Army, p. 315; Following the Greek Cross; or, Memories of the Sixth Army Corps, by Brigadier General Thomas W. Hyde, p. 181.
Meade's Headquarters, p. 81; Correspondence of John Sedgwick, Major General, Vol. II, pp. 177-78.
For soldiers' comments on Grant, see Down in Dixie: Life in a Cavalry Regiment in the War Days, by Stanton P. Allen, pp. 187-88; Four Years in the Army of the Potomac: a Soldiers Recollections, by Major Evan Rowland Jones, pp. 128-29; The Road to Richmond, p. 130.
Campaigning with Grant, pp. 46-47; an incident described to General Porter after the war by Longstreet himself.
8. Congressional doubts in regard to Grant's drinking, and
the reliance placed on Rawlins, are touched on by General James H. Wilson, who was fairly intimate with both Grant and Rawlins, in Under the Old Flag, Vol. I, pp. 345-46. Dana's comment is cited in Abraham Lincoln: the War Years, by Carl Sandburg, Vol. II, p. 542. The whole question of the extent to which alcohol was a problem to Grant is carefully examined in Lewis's fine book, Captain Sam Grant. (His conclusion: that it wasn't nearly as big a problem as some people have assumed.)
9. References to heavy drinking among Army of the Po-
tomac officers abound in regimental histories and personal
memoirs. Specifically, see Days and Events: 1860-1866, by
Colonel Thomas L. Livermore, p. 297; South After Gettys-
burg, p. 55; Camp-Fire Chats of the Civil War, by Washington Davis, pp. 284-85.
The Life of Ulysses S. Grant, by Charles A. Dana and Major General James Harrison Wilson, p. 185; The Generalship of Ulysses S. Grant, by Colonel J. F. C. Fuller, p. 210; The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Vol. II, p. 201; The Life of John A. Rawlins, by Major General J. H. Wilson, pp. 426-27.
Memoirs of a Volunteer, by John Beatty, edited by Harvey S. Ford, p. 210; History of DurrelVs Battery in the Civil War, p. 150.
Recollections of a Private Soldier, pp. 36-378
Down in Dixie, pp. 180-82.
Letters of a War Correspondent, by Charles A. Page, p. 110; Musket and Sword, p. 198.
There is a good pen picture of Sheridan in Gerrish's Army Life, p. 249, and Sheridan's crack about the bob-tailed brigadiers is to be found in Personal Memoirs of John H. Brinton, p. 267. For the cavalryman's complaint about hard work, see Deeds of Daring: or, History of the 8th New York Volunteer Cavalry, by Henry Norton, pp. 106-7. Other details are in the Official Records, Vol. XXXIII, p. 711, and Under the Old Flag, Vol. 1, pp. 331, 374-75.
History of the 10th Massachusetts Battery of Light Artillery in the War of the Rebellion, by John D. Billings, pp. 37-38. (Incidentally, this book contains a good account of the assignments and duties of members of a Civil War gun crew, pp. 18-19.) See also Recollections of a Private Soldier, p. 22.
17. Official Records, Vol. XXXIII, p. 907.
Memoirs of Chaplain Life, by the Very Rev. William Corby, p. 357; Reminiscences of the 19th Massachusetts Regiment, pp. 84, 86.
Three Years in the Army, p. 316; Service with the 6th Wisconsin Volunteers, pp. 241-42.
Reminiscences of the War of the Rebellion, by Major Jacob Roemer, p. 30; The Diary of a Line Officer, by Captain Augustus C. Brown, p. 11; History of the First Regiment of Heavy Artillery, Massachusetts Volunteers, by Alfred S. Roe and Charles Nutt, pp. 124-36; History of the 12th Massachusetts Volunteers, by Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin W. Cook, p. 126; manuscript letters of Carl Bissell, of the 2nd Connecticut Heavy Artillery.
History of the 2nd Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artillery, p. 81; Official Records, Vol. XXXVI, Part 3, p. 110.
22. The Road to Richmond, p. 195.
Official Records, Vol. XXXIII, pp. 638-39, 688, 717; History of the Second Army Corps, p. 400. Soldiers of the Army of the Potomac usually identified themselves first with their regiment and next with their army corps. Brigades and divisions generally (with a few striking exceptions) claimed less of their loyalty.
Correspondence of John Sedgwick, Major General, Vol. II, pp. 168, 175; Personal Recollections of the Civil War, by Brigadier General John Gibbon, pp. 209-10. One of the most fascinating might-have-beens of the Civil War is this move which almost put Sedgwick in charge of operations in the Valley. If he had been there instead of Sigel, the story in 1864 would have been very different. Meade planned to give John Gibbon command of the VI Corps.
Brigadier General Hazard Stevens, in Papers of the Military Historical Society of Massachusetts, Vol. IV, pp. 178-79 (referred to hereafter as M.H.S.M. Papers) 0
Francis A. Wa
lker, in M.H.S.M. Tapers, Vol. X, pp. 519 53, 56-57.
For Warren, see Gouverneur Kemble Warren: the Life and Letters of an American Soldier, by Emerson Gifford Taylor, pp. 5 ff.; The Road to Richmond, p. 126; Days and Events, p. 304; Three Years in the Army, p. 349.
South After Gettysburg, p. 73; History of the 87th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, by George R. Prowell, p. 117.
Three Years in the Army, p. 309; History of the 8th Cavalry Regiment, Illinois Volunteers, by Abner Hard, pp. 292-93; A Little Fifer's War Diary, p. 168.
Down in Dixie, pp. 165-66.
The Road to Richmond, pp. 129-30,
Chapter Two: Roads Leading South
WHERE THE DOGWOOD BLOSSOMED
1. Following the Greek Cross, p. 182; Recollections of a
Private Soldier, pp. 42-43; Meade's Headquarters, p. 180;
Army Life: a Private's Reminiscences, pp. 156-57; The Road
to Richmond, p. 130.
2. Down in Dixie, p. 206.
3. Discussions of the courses open to Grant at the begin-
ning of the 1864 campaign in Virginia are practically without
number. A good brief summary of the alternatives can be
found in The Virginia Campaigns of '64 and '65, by Major
General Andrew A. Humphreys, pp. 9-12. (This book is
authoritative, comprehensive, and unfortunately rather dull;
it is cited hereafter as Humphreys.) For an extended study,
see The Generalship of Ulysses S. Grant, pp. 209 ff. Grant
discusses the matter in some detail in the Official Records,
Vol. XXXVI, Part 1, pp. 12-18. I am greatly indebted to
Ralph Happel, historian, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania
County National Military Park, for the loan of his manuscript
account of the Battle of the Wilderness, which contains an
excellent analysis of the strategy of the Wilderness campaign
and its relation to the grand strategy of the final year of the war.
Down in Dixie, p. 210.
Campaigning with Grant, pp. 42-43.
Recollections of a Private Soldier, pp. 43-46; M.H.S.M. Papers, Vol. IV, p. 185; The Road to Richmond, p. 131. Note the comment by Brigadier General Rufus Ingalls, chief quartermaster: "Our troops are undoubtedly loaded down on marches too heavily even for the road, not to speak of battle, o . . Our men are generally overloaded, fed and clad, which detracts from their marching capacity and induces straggling." (Official Records, Vol. XL, Part 1, p. 39.)
Campaigns of the 146th Regiment New York State Volunteers, compiled by Mary Genevie Green Brainard, p. 176; Down in Dixie, p. 176.
Recollections of a Private Soldier, pp. 49-51; The Story of the Regiment, by William Henry Locke, p. 323.
Campaigns of the 146th Regiment New York State Volunteers, p. 179.
10. Army Life: a Private's Reminiscences, pp. 217, 345-46.
11. Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, pp. 420-22;
M.H.SM. Papers, Vol. IV, p. 188; Following the Greek Cross,
p. 183.
Campaigning with Grant, pp. 50, 64-65.
Army Life: a Private's Reminiscences, p. 161.
The Fifth Army Corps, by Lieutenant Colonel William H. Powell, pp. 608, 610.
Colonel Theodore Lyman, in M.H.SM. Papers, Vol IV, pp. 167-68; also in Meade's Headquarters, pp. 90-91.
Report of Emory Upton, Official Records, Vol. XXXVI, Part 1, p. 665.
History of the Corn Exchange Regiment, by the Survivors' Association, p. 400; Four Years in the Army of the Potomac, p. 129; Three Years in the Sixth Corps, by George T. Stevens, pp. 309-10; Army Life: a Private's Reminiscences, p. 170.
Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, p. 422; Three Years in the Army, pp. 329-30; Official Records, Vol.
XXXVI, Part 1, p. 614; Campaigning with Grant, p. 72.
There is a good account of Wadsworth's and Crawford's advance in the M.H.S.M. Papers, Vol. IV, pp. 127-32. For a glimpse of Crawford, see The Road to Richmond, p. 149.
Campaigns of the 146th Regiment New York State Volunteers, p. 195; Official Records, Vol. XXXVI, Part 1, pp. 601, 610-11, 614.
M.H.S.M. Papers, Vol. IV, pp. 189-94; General Getty's report, Official Records, Vol. XXXVI, Part 1, pp. 676-77.
22. M.H.S.M. Papers, Vol. IV, pp. 192-93.
Official Records, Vol. XXXVI, Part 1, pp. 696-98; Recollections of a Private Soldier, pp. 66-67.
A Little Fifer's War Diary, pp. 110-11, 302; M.H.S.M. Papers, Vol. IV, pp. 142, 193-94. For a good discussion of Federal difficulties in adjusting to woods fighting, see The Crisis of the Confederacy, by Cecil Battine, p. 382.
25. The Road to Richmond, p. 133.
SHADOW IN THE NIGHT
1. Reminiscences of the 19th Massachusetts Regiment, pp.
87-88; Official Records, Vol. XXXVI, Part 1, pp. 218-19;
History of the Corn Exchange Regiment, p. 403; M.H.S.M.
Papers, Vol. IV, pp. 101-2; The Road to Richmond, p. 133.
2. Recollections of a Private Soldier, pp. 52-54.
Meade's Headquarters, pp. 93-94; Official Records, Vol. XXXVI, Part 1, pp. 320-21, 667.
The classic account of this, of course, is Douglas Southall Freeman's, in R. E. Lee, Vol. Ill, pp. 286-88.
Four Years in the Army of the Potomac, p. 130; Official Records, Vol. XXXVI, Part 1, p. 403; The Diary of a Line Officer, p. 35; Humphreys, p. 56.
6. Recollections of a Private Soldier, p. 201.
Ibid., pp. 57, 206; Army Life: a Private's Reminiscences, p. 170; A Little Fifers War Diary, p. 86.
M.H.S.M. Papers, Vol. IV, p. 196; History of the Second Army Corps, pp. 428-29.
9. Official Records, Vol. XXXVI, Part 1, p. 438; M.H.S.Mo
Papers, Vol. IV, p. 151.
10. History of the Second Army Corps, pp. 417, 422,
Brigadier General Alexander Webb in Official Records Vol. XXXVI, Part 1, pp. 437 ft.; also in Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. IV, pp. 159 ff.
"Battle of the Wilderness and Death of General Wadsworth," by Captain Robert Monteith, in the War Papers Read before the State of Wisconsin Commandery, Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, Vol. I, p. 414$ Official Records, Vol XXXVI, Part 1, pp. 477, 934.
History of the Philadelphia Brigade, by Charles EL Banes, p. 231; Meade's Headquarters, p. 95; Official Records, Vol. XXXVI, Part 1, p. 488.
M.H.S.M. Papers, Vol. IV, pp. 154-55, 200; Official Records, Vol. XXXVI, Part 1, p. 624; History of the 150th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, by Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Chamberlin, pp. 187-88.
Hancock discusses all of this in some detail in his report, Official Records, Vol. XXXVI, Part 1, pp. 320-23, 325. After the war a sharp argument over the misunderstanding developed between Hancock and Gibbon; Gibbon tells about it in his Personal Recollections, pp. 387 ff.
History of the 106th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, pp. 201-2; Official Records, Vol. XXXVI, Part 1, p. 514; Recollections of a Private Soldier, p. 73. For a very vivid account of this phase of the battle, see The Crisis of the Confederacy, p. 385.
Grant's Personal Memoirs, Vol. II, p. 20L
Campaigning with Grant, p. 59.
Ibid., p. 52. For glimpses of Grant's earlier relations with Hays, see Captain Sam Grant, pp. 128, 172.
Meade's Headquarters, p. 98; History of the Sth Regiment Maine Volunteers, p. 305; Following the Greek Cross? pp. 186-87; History of the 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry, p. 419.
Letters of a War Correspondent, p. 57; Colonel Theodore Lyman, in M.H.S.M. Papers, Vol. IV, p. 105n.,° Campaigning with Grant, pp. 69-70o
Four Years in the Army of the Potomac, p. 131; Following the Greek Cross, p. 188.
The extent to which Grant was shaken, and the way in which he concealed his alarm, are set forth by his firm admirer, General Wilson, in Under the Old Flag, Vol. 1, pp. 390-91.
24. Campaigning with Grant, p. 74.
History of the Philadelphia Brigade, p. 235; Reminisce
nces of the 19th Massachusetts Regiment, p. 88; Annals of the 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry, p. 237.
The Road to Richmond, p. 134; Campaigning with Grant, p. 79; History of the 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry, p. 421.
27.. Recollections of a Private Soldier, p. 79. Major General U. S. Grant, III, grandson of the Civil War general, says that as a young lieutenant just out of West Point he served under an elderly officer who had been an enlisted man in the Army of the Potomac. This officer one day remarked that the most thrilling moment of the whole war, to him, came when his column turned south at the Chancellorsville crossroads and the men realized that they were advancing instead of retreating. As Historian Ralph Happel says, in his manuscript study previously referred to, Grant's decision to continue south after the Wilderness was "one of the most important decisions in American history."