A Stillness at Appomattox
Page 52
Official Records, Vol. XL, Part 1, pp. 78, 84, 92, 121-22, 701.
Humphreys, pp. 256-57; Major General Ambrose Eo Burnside and the Ninth Army Corps, pp. 439-40; Official Records, Vol. XL, Part 1, pp. 280-81, 567, 574. There is a good account of the work done by the Confederate artillery in The Long Arm of Lee, Vol. H, pp. 865-75.
For testimony on this point, see Official Records, VoL XL, Part 1, p. 122.
21. M.H.S.M. Papers, Vol. V, pp. 214-15.
22. Official Records, Vol XL, Part 1, pp. 48, 55, 80-81,
142-43.
23. Ibid., p. 119.
24. Personal Experiences of a Staff Officer, pp. 18-19,
31; Battles and Leaders, Vol. IV, p. 564; Official Records,
Vol. XL, Part 1, p. 104.
Ibid., p. 105; Battles and Leaders, Vol. IV, p„ 565„
M.H.S.M. Papers, Vol. V, pp. 210-11.
Official Records, Vol. XL, Part 1, pp. 49, 57, 144; The Story of the 48th, p. 239.
Report of Captain Theodore Gregg, 45th Pennsylvania, an unusually vivid picture of the situation in the crater, Official Records, Vol. XL, Part 1, pp. 554-56. See also History of the 36th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers, p. 238; Reminiscences of the War of the Rebellion, p. 249.
Manuscript letters of Henry Clay Heisler.
Grant to Halleck, Official Records, VoL XL, Part 1, p„
17; History of the 36th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers, p. 240; manuscript letters of Henry Clay Heisler. Accurately enough, this young private remarked that the trouble was due to "a mismanage by some of the Brigadier Generals in our corps."
31. The Iron-Hearted Regiment, p. 154; Battles and headers, Vol. IV, p. 564.
Chapter Five: Away, You Rolling River
SPECIAL TRAIN FOR MONOCACY JUNCTION
Details as to Private Spink and his crew, the befuddled guard at Aqueduct Bridge, and the heavy growth of brush on the approaches to the defenses, are in the Official Records, Vol. XXXVII, Part 2, pp. 61, 83. For Lincoln's remark about Halleck, see Fifty Years in Camp and Field: Diary of Maj. Qen. Ethan Allen Hitchcock, edited by W. A. Croffut, pp. 463-64.
Official Records, Vol. XXXVII, Part 2, pp. 339-41, 365-67; R. E. Lee, Vol. IV, pp. 240-41.
Official Records, Vol. XXXVII, Part 1, pp. 555-56, 607; I Rode with Stonewall, by Henry Kyd Douglas, pp. 288, 290.
Diary of Gideon Welles, Vol. II, pp. 70-71, 73.
Official Records, Vol. XXXVII, Part 1, p. 259; Diary of Gideon Welles, Vol. II, p. 84.
Official Records, Vol. XXXVII, Part 1, pp. 231, 254-55.
Ibid., pp. 346-47. Need it be remarked that any reader who has not yet allowed Douglas Southall Freeman to introduce him to Jubal Early, through the three volumes of Lee's Lieutenants, should get on with the ceremony at once?
Personal Memoirs of John H. Brinton, pp. 280-81. There is an artless story of the adventures of one of the 100-day militia outfits in Record of Service of Company K, 150th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, by James C. Cannon.
Following the Greek Cross, p. 222; History of the 2nd Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artillery, p0 83; Three Years in the Sixth Corps, pp. 375-76.
10. Following the Creek Cross, pp. 222-23.
McCook's report, Official Records, Vol XXXVII, Part 1, p. 231; The Vermont Brigade in the Shenandoah Valley9 by Aldace F. Walker, p. 29.
Meigs' report, Official Records, Vol. XXXVII, Part 1, p. 259; Diary of Gideon Welles, Vol. II, p. 75.
Letter of General Wright, printed in Three Years in the Sixth Corps, p. 382.
I Rode with Stonewall, pp. 295-96. It should be noted that when Early made his remark about scaring Abe Lincoln he did not know that Lincoln had been present at Fort Stevens during the fighting.
Following the Greek Cross, p. 224; The Vermont Brigade in the Shenandoah Valley, p. 30; Official Records, Vol. XXXVII, Part 1, pp. 232-33, 247, 259-60, 276-77.
The Vermont Brigade in the Shenandoah Valley, p. 37; History of the 2nd Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artillery, pp. 86-88.
Three Years in the Sixth Corps, pp. 383-87; The Vermont Brigade in the Shenandoah Valley, pp. 38-48; Following the Greek Cross, p. 228.
History of the 2nd Connecticut Volunteer Heavy ArtiU lery, p. 90.
History of the 19th Army Corps, by Richard B. Irwin^ p. 367.
Grant's Personal Memoirs, Vol. II, pp. 315, 317,
Official Records, Vol. XXXVH, Part 2, pp. 374, 408,
Ibid., p. 558.
Ibid., p. 582.
24. For Grant's move to Washington, his talk with Hunter,
and his order moving the troops to Halltown, see his Personal
Memoirs, Vol. II, pp. 31&-20O
TO PEEL THIS LAND
1. The Shenandoah Valley and Virginia, 1861 to 1865: a War Study, by Sanford C. Kellogg, pp. 214-15; History of the Shenandoah Valley, by William Couper, Vol. I, pp. 140-47, 217-26; M.H.S.M. Papers, Vol. VI, pp. 62, 156.
Official Records, Vol. XXXVII, Part 2, pp. 301, 329.
Annals of the 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry, p. 286.
War Diary of human Harris Tenney, 1861-1865, p. 136.
Official Records, Series 2, Vol. VII, pp. 1014-15.
Ibid., pp. 976, 1012-13.
Ibid., pp. 1092-93.
Ibid., pp. 892-94, 997. As late as the winter of 1865, Senator Ben Wade was urging Congress to adopt a joint resolution prescribing retaliatory treatment on Confederate soldiers in Northern prisons. After much debate, the measure was watered down so that it simply condemned alleged mistreatment of captured Federals and enjoined humane measures on the men in charge of Northern prisons. (Recollections of War Times, by Albert Gallatin Riddle, p. 326.)
This particular estimate is from The Vermont Brigade in the Shenandoah Valley, p. 51. It can hardly be repeated too often that the numbers reported "present for duty" by Federal commanders seldom bore very much relationship to the number that would actually be put into action. Two examples may be cited. The morning report of one regiment in this summer of 1864 showed 708 enlisted men present for duty; but the regimental historian explains that only 472 would go into action. The other 236 would be accounted for by the infinity of details, and by the "present, sick." A less extreme case is shown by a Pennsylvania regiment which reported 343 "present for duty" at Gettysburg but which put only 300 into the fight there. (History of the 2nd Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artillery, p. 118; History of the 106th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, p. 169.)
A Volunteers Adventures, by John W. De Forest, p. 163.
Ibid., p. 165; The Vermont Brigade in the Shenandoah Valley, p. 23.
The Vermont Brigade in the Shenandoah Valley, p. 50; Following the Greek Cross, p. 228.
For the reaction to Sheridan, see Three Years in the
Sixth Corps, p. 391; The Vermont Brigade in the Shenandoah Valley, pp. 54-55; History of the 19th Army Corps, p. 367.
History of the 17th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry, pp. 219-22; Army Life; a Private's Reminiscences^ pp. 249-50.
History of the 17th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry, p. 188.
Rosser to Lee, Official Records, Vol. XXXIII, p. 1081c
Ibid., pp. 1082, 1120-21.
18. Telegram from General E. B. Tyler to Lew Wallace,
Official Records, Vol. XXXVII, Part 2, p. 55.
19. Memoirs of a Volunteer, pp. 108-9.
20. Sabres and Spurs: the First Regiment Rhode Island
Cavalry in the Civil War, by the Rev. Frederic Denison, p.
381.
21. Ibid., p. 381.
22. History of the 17th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer
Cavalry, pp. 211-12.
Ibid., p. 212.
Annals of the 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry, pp. 286-87.
Personal and Historical Sketches . . . of the 7th Regiment Michigan Volunteer Cavalry, p. 263.
History of the 17th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry, p. 228»
ON THE UPGRADE
Lincoln s War Cabinet, by Burton J. Hendrick, pp. 453-59; Abraham Lincoln, by
Benjamin P. Thomas, pp. 441-42.
Abraham Lincoln: the War Years, Vol. Ill, p. 218.
There is a good account of this Confederate program in the North, and of Captain Hines's activities, in Confederate Operations in Canada and New York, by John W. Headley, pp. 214-20. See also The Rebel Raider, pp. 123-26, 132, 157-58, 167-73. The projected raid on the Johnson's Island prison camp is voluminously covered in the Official Records, Series 2, Vol. VII, pp. 842, 850, 864, 910-16.
Headley, op. cit.y p. 222.
Ibid., pp. 223-28.
Ibid., pp. 229-30. Swiggett (The Rebel Raider, p. 132) remarks that Hines was "by all odds one of the two or three most dangerous and competent men in the Confederacy."
A Volunteer's Adventures, p. 172.
Battles and Leaders, Vol. IV, pp. 506-7; History of the 8th Regiment Vermont Volunteers, by George N. Carpenter, p. 177.
A Volunteer's Adventures, p. 173; Battles and Leaders, Vol. IV, p. 507.
Under the Old Flag, Vol. I, p. 554; Three Years in the Sixth Corps, pp. 401-3; Official Records, Vol. XLIII, Part 1, pp. 173-74, 197, 222.
A Volunteers Adventures, p. 186. This engaging book contains a first-rate account of the battle of Winchester by a Federal participant.
History of the 8th Regiment Vermont Volunteers, pp. 181, 255-56.
Three Years in the Sixth Corps, p. 404.
History of the 8th Regiment Vermont Volunteers, p. 183; A Volunteers Adventures, pp. 187-90; Battles and Leaders, Vol. IV, pp. 509-10.
A Volunteer's Adventures, p. 189; Official Records, Vol. XLIII, Part 1, p. 189.
There is an odd similarity between Sheridan's handling of the battle of Winchester and Stonewall Jackson's conduct
- of the battle of Cedar Mountain. In each case a general of high reputation, enjoying a great numerical advantage over his opponent, put his troops in maladroitly, was rocked hard by an unexpected enemy attack, and for a time was in danger of outright defeat—winning out, finally, because his own driving energy at last made his numerical advantage effective. For a good critique of Sheridan's campaign in the Valley, see "The Valley Campaign of 1864: a Military Study," by Lieutenant L. W. V. Kennon, in the M.H.S.M. Papers, Vol. VI, pp. 39 ff.
17. The Story of the First Massachusetts Light Battery, p.
179; The Vermont Brigade in the Shenandoah Valley, p. 105., 18. Under the Old Flag, Vol. I, pp. 558-59.
NO MORE DOUBT
Thomas's Abraham Lincoln, p. 449; Lincoln's War Cabinet, by Burton J. Hendrick, pp. 45-47; Diary of Gideon Welles, Vol. II, p. 158; Abraham Lincoln: the War Years, Vol. Ill, pp. 237, 244, 246.
Three Years in the Sixth Corps, p. 413; History of the 2nd Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artillery, p. 108.
Three Years in the Sixth Corps, p. 414; manuscript letters of Lewis Bissell; History of the 2nd Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artillery, p. 108.
4. M.H.SM. Tapers, Vol. VI, pp. 48 ff.
History of the 17th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry, pp. 135, 217-18; History of the 2nd Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artillery, p. 109; Sabres and Spurs, p. 407; manuscript letters of Lewis Bissell.
The Story of the First Massachusetts Light Battery, p. 182; Letters of a War Correspondent, pp. 269-70.
I Rode with Stonewall, p. 315. Note that even the historian of the 17th Pennsylvania Cavalry, normally troubled by few qualms, wrote: "If ever troops found an incentive to strike vigorous blows for their *homes and firesides' it was those who fought Sheridan's destructions from the 6th to the 9th of October, for we do not think the annals of civilized warfare furnishes a parallel to these destructive operations . . . the blackened face of the country from Port Republic to the neighborhood of Fisher's Hill bore frightful testimony to fire and sword." (History of the 17th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry, p. 216.)
8. History of the Shenandoah Valley, Vol. II, p. 954.
9. History of the 2nd Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artil-
lery, p. 109; The Story of the First Massachusetts Light Bat-
tery, p. 182; Three Years in the Sixth Corps, pp. 415-16.
10. I Rode with Stonewall, p. 313.
11. Battles and Leaders, Vol. IV, p. 513; Lee's Lieutenants,
Vol. Ill, p. 597.
12. M.H.S.M. Papers, Vol. VI, pp. 48, 97.
Early's narrative about all of this is in Battles and Leaders, Vol. IV, p. 526. There is a description of the Union position in A Volunteer's Adventures, pp. 205-6—whose author, incidentally, draws the parallel between Early's audacity at Cedar Creek and Washington's at Trenton.
History of the 2nd Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artillery, pp. 119-20.
15. Ibid., pp. 120-21.
The Vermont Brigade in the Shenandoah Valley, pp. 136-40.
History of the 2nd Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artillery, pp. 121-23; History of the 8th Regiment Vermont Volunteers, pp. 215-18. For descriptions of the confused fighting in the heavy fog, and the unavailing attempt to stem the fugitives and their pursuers on the turnpike, see the Official Records, Vol. XLIII, Part 1, pp. 215, 233, 245, 267, 284. General Wright's report on the battle is in that volume, pp. 158-61.
Personal Recollections of Distinguished Generals, by William F. G. Shanks, pp. 340-41; Battles and Leaders, Vol. IV, p. 518; A Volunteers Adventures, pp. 210-11, 213-14, 220. The latter work speaks of the flight as taking place "with curious deliberation." For accounts of the rallying of the soldiers who did not panic, see the Official Records, Vol. XLIII, Part 1, pp. 197, 209-11.
19. Lee's Lieutenants, Vol. Ill, pp. 603-4.
History of the 17th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry, pp. 115-17; Thrilling Days in Army Life, by General George A. Forsyth, pp. 135-38.
Thrilling Days in Army Life, pp. 140-43; Battles and Leaders, Vol. IV, p. 519.
The Story of the First Massachusetts Light Battery, p. 189.
The Vermont Brigade in the Shenandoah Valley, pp. 147-48; History of the 17th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunleer Cavalry, pp. 117-18; Official Records, Vol. XLIII, Part 1, pp. 251, 309.
24. Thrilling Days in Army Life, pp. 155-56, 159-60.
History of the 2nd Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artillery, pp. 126-27; The Vermont Brigade in the Shenandoah Valley, p. 152; History of the 8th Regiment Vermont Volunteers, p. 223; A Volunteers Adventures, p. 227.
A Volunteer's Adventures, pp. 228-29. Sheridan probably got a better reputation out of Cedar Creek than he really deserved, and it has often been argued that Generals Wright and Getty would eventually have pulled the victory out of the fire even if Sheridan had not reappeared at all. Sheridan provided the dramatics and the spur, which had long been missing from the experience of men in the Army of the Potomac. The most unrestrained enthusiasm and admiration came to him from the VI Corps itself, which provided most of the casualties at Cedar Creek, lost the fewest men captured, did most of the fighting—and, all in all, seems to have been quite willing to give to Sheridan the credit which might well have been claimed for its own generals.
27. Manuscript letters of Lewis Bissell.
Chapter Six: Endless Road Ahead
EXCEPT BY THE SWORD
For a moving description of the autumn landscape at Petersburg, see Letters of a War Correspondent, pp. 275-76. The account of the fortified lines follows Humphreys, p. 310.
History of the 10th Massachusetts Battery of Light Artillery, p. 253.
Official Records, Vol. XL, Part 1, pp. 270-71; Series 3, Vol. V, pp. 70-71; Letters of a War Correspondent, pp. 155-59.
Official Records, Series 3, Vol. V, pp. 70, 72-73; History of Durrell's Battery in the Civil War, p. 209; History of the 2nd Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artillery, p. 133; Battles and Leaders, Vol. IV, p. 708.
5. "Grant Before Appomattox: Notes of a Confederate
Bishop," by the Right Rev. Henry C. Lay, in the Atlantic
Monthly, March, 1932.
6. South After Gettysburg, p. 144.
Recollections of a Private Soldier, pp. 191-92; Army Life: a Private's Reminiscences, p. 209; Service wit
h the 6th Wisconsin Volunteers, p. 309.
The Passing of the Armies, by Major General Joshua Chamberlain, p. 12; Army Life: a Private's Reminiscences, p. 209. Interestingly enough, one veteran wrote that it was the new regiments, plus the shirkers and bummers who never got on the firing line, who provided most of the vote for McClellan. (History of the 150th Pennsylvania Volunteers, p. 244.)