Download Voice of the Rappahannock Valley Civil War Round Table

\,
DRUM & BUGLE
Voice of the Rappahannock
Valley Civil War Round Table
January 1993
Vol. 4, No. 1
RETREAT FROM GETTYSBURG
Robert E. Lee Krick
Speaker:
Topic:
The Battle of Falling Waters, July 1863
Locationl
Aunt Sarah's Restaurant, on Route 3, west of 1-95
When: Monday, January 11, 1993.
program at 8100 p.m.
Social at 6:30 p.m., dinner at 7:00 p.m.,
As we start the New Year, RVCWRT is honored to have as its January speaker
Robert Krick the Younger, who so gallantly led our bus tour of the Seven Days
campaign last spring. An NPS historian at Richmond NBP, Bob is well known to
many of you. He will be speaking on the major confrontation between Union and
Confederate forces during the retreat from Gettysburg. Heavy rains in early
July swelled the Potomac to heights that trapped Lee's army on the river's
north bank. The former King of Spades had his men construct an elaborate
system of fortifications that discouraged Union pursuers from anything short
of a major attack. There ensued a period of tense confrontation, relieved
when the Potomac's waters subsided sufficiently to permit Lee to move his men
across the river. On July 14, Union forces attacked the Confederate rear
guard, mortally wounding General Johnston Pettigrew and capturing several
hundred of his men. However, Lee's army remained intact, still a formidable
obstacle between the Army of the Potomac and victory. Join us for Bob's talk
on this interesting, sometimes overlooked followup to Gettysburg.
TIME TO PAY YOUR DUES
Ve_, fellow RVCWRT members, it's that timR again! RateD are $15 for
individuals, $25 for families, and $7.50 for students. Make checks payable to
RVCWRT; send to the address below, or give checks (or real money, we take that
too) to Milt Ford at the meeting. RVCWRT memberships make great belated
Christmas presents, and they're a relatively inexpensive and thoughtful gift
anytime for a friend who's interested in the Civil War.
Drum & Bugle is published monthly by the Rappahannock Valley Civil War RDund
Table, P.O. Box 7632, Fredericksburg, VA 22404. Membership is open to anyone
interested in the study of the Civil War and the preservation of Civil War
sites. Mac Wycf(off, president; Mark Stephens, vice president; Betty Ford,
secretary; Milt Ford, treasurerJ Dane Hartgrove, newsletter editorl Lou
Allahut, Greg Mertz, Julie Olsen, Frank O'Reilly, Lee Ann Williams, and Robert
Williams--executive committee members.
BIGGS TALK ON ATLANTA MAKES HOLIDAY BANQUET 8IG SUCCESS
Greg Biggs held forth for some two hours before a packed house at Aunt
Sarah's on the evening of December 5 on the 1864 Atlanta campaign. He began
by explaining why Georgia Was so important to the Confederacy--the state had
the Etowah Iron Works, rifle and pistol factories at Macon, Columbus, and
Griswoldville, and powder works at Augusta, besides being the true breadbasket
of the Confederacy. Joe Johnston took over the Army of Tennessee in December
1863 and immediately began to get it into shape for the coming campaign.
In Chattanooga, General William T. Sherman began concentrating men and
supplies for the push into Georgia. Because northern Georgia was mountainous
and heavily forested, with no decent road network, the campaign would be tied
to the railroads. Sherman, who greatly feared attacks on his supply line by
Confederate cavalry generals Bedford Forrest and Joseph Wheeler, assigned some
30,000 t~oops to serve as railroad guards in Tennessee and northern Georgia
and constructed an elaborate system of blockhouses to p~otect key points.
The Union advance began on May 4, 1864. Sherman essentially commanded
an army group consisting of the Army of the Cumberland under Thomas (65,000),
the Army of the Tennessee under McPherson (25,000), and the Army of the Ohio
(14,000) under Schofield. Even after Polk brought 15,000 reinforcements from
Mississippi, Johnston still faced long odds. His strategy was to fight and
fall back, always looking for the opportunity to attack Sherman's forces in
detail. The Confederates almost sprang such a trap at CaSSVille, but a Union
cavalry division that had lost its way and somehow slipped through Wheeler's
cavalry screen turned up in the rear of key Confederate units, disrupting
Johnston's plans.
After being repulsed at New Hope Church, Sherman moved northeast to get
back to the railroad and his supplies. Johnston's army constructed elaborate
defenses at Kennesaw Mountain, but the Confederates lacked the men to hold
their first 10-mile line. General Polk was killed in an artillery bombardment
on Pine Mountain in early June. The Confederates fell back to a second 6-mile
line, against which Sherman eventually launched a massive frontal assault,
which was repulsed with heavy losses. New flanking moves fo~ced Johnston's
army to fall back behind the Chattahoochee River, along which the Confederates
constructed a system of fortifications with interlocking fields of fire that
foreshadowed the Maginot Line--Johnston's chief engineer designed a diamondshaped redoubt called a shoupade, to be held by one company, that greatly
improved these works. However, Sherman's troops found a way across the river
upstream from Atlanta, forcing Johnston to fall back to Peachtree Creek.
At this point, Jefferson Davis replaced Johnston with John Bell Hood,
who had been serving as one of Johnston's corps commanders. Hood went over to
the attack, and the Battle of Atlanta brought Sherman's eastward encirclement
of the city to a halt. However, poor planning prevented the Confederates from
achieving any real success in this battle, which also saw the death of Union
General McPherson. Sherman shifted his efforts west of Atlanta, but Hood's
attempt to check this movement at Ezra Church was unsuccessful.
Sherman's troops headed east for Jonesboro in an attempt to cut the last
railroad south from Atlanta. Hood send the corps of William J. Hardee and
Stephen D. Lee to block this move, but Sherman's men got there first and threw
up earthworks. Hardee and Lee failed to drive off the Federals, who then went
over to the attack. On September 1, Hardee fought against five-to-one odds
while Hood hastened to destroy Confederate munitions that could not be removed
from Atlanta. The city fell on September 2 1 1864, fairly won by Sherman's
armies, gallantly lost by the longsuffering Army of Tennessee.
LONG ARMS FOR THE CAVALRY
[The following is excerpted from Joseph Bilby's column "Black Powder, White
Smoke" in the December 1992 issue of The Civil War News.)
Before the Battle of Manassas, Union generals thought that the five
regiments of regular army cavalry would be sUfficient, since this was expected
to be an infantry war. Opinions changed after July 1861, and volunteer
cavalry units sprang up throughout the North. Most of these received infantry
weapons, if they received any longarms at all, but long mU2zleloaders were an
awkward weapon to use on horseback. The favored longarm for cavalry was the
shorter breechloading carbine. The few available carbines were carefully
rationed within units. Most of the new breechloading carbines issued were .52
caliber Sharps arms,-since Sharps was the only carbine manufacturer capable of
mass production at the outbreak of hostilities, but some units carried Mexican
War era Hall breechloaders.
The Hall carbine was not unknown in the Confederate cavalry, where some
were issu~d to Virginia units in 1861. However, the Confederates always had
less access to breechloaders, and Southern factories never produced them in
large numbers. Many Confederate horsemen in the east carried double barreled
shotguns along with their sabers and revolvers, weapons which made them
extremely effective in close range shock encounters. Some Mississippi,
Florida, and Georgia units carried Maynard breechloaders, accurate weapons
that used a reloadable brass cartridge. But in late 1862, Forrest's men were
still carrying shotguns, squirrel rifles, and smoothbore flintlocks.
By this point in the war, most of the men in Union cavalry units had
become competent horsemen. The Union had yet to learn how to use cavalry
effectively--that would come in early 1863, when Hooker and Pleasanton finally
made the cavalry corps a separate entity within the Army of the Potomac. It
was fortunate that Northern factories were now beginning to produce Burnside,
Sharps, and Smith carbines in large numbers. On the Confederate side, Enfield
musketoons and rifle muskets, slower to load but of greater range than
carbines and more easily supplied with ammunition, were replacing shotguns and
hunting rifles.
Yankees who had complained in 1862 that they had no carbines complained
in 1863 about the carbines they had. The Cosmopolitan or Union,carbine was
considered worthless, while the Starr, Joslyn, Gibbs, and Gallagher were
regarded as poor, weak, and unreliable. The Smith also had many detractors,
perhaps because many soldiers used the wrong cartridges in it. The Sharps was
indisputably the favorite caplock breechloader in the service, although its
linen and paper cartridges made its use in wet weather problematic. The
Burnside was judged an excellent arm, but not quite strong enough for rough
service--it was the only Civil War breechloader with an ejector of sorts.
Cartridges for breechloaders were occasionally defective and often in
short supply. Ammunition difficulties were often complicated by the fact that
many Union cavalry regiments carried a variety of carbines, even in the last
year of the war. General James Wilson requested Model 1865 Spencer seven shot
carbines for his three divisions in early 1865. When these did not arrive, he
stripped Spencers from some units to arm those he was taking on his Selma
raid. The Union cavalry fought its war in large part with a hodgepodge ai
single-shot percussion breechloading carbines of varying quality. Although
Union longarms were doubtless superior to those of the Confederate cavalry
during the last years of the conflict, larger numbers and better training were
equally important factors in the Union cavalry's improved performance.
This month we say good-bye to Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan.
On the whole\ his tenure has been a positive one for Civil War battlefield
preservation. He is largely responsible for passage of the Civit War
Commemorative Coin Act\ which has the potential to channel some $30 million
into saving this vital portion of our nation's heritage. Secret~ry Lujan also
helped establish the American Battlefield Protection Program and the private
Civil War Trust. For these and other good works\ Secretary Lujan deserves the
thanks of all who appreciate the significance of the Civil War.
The incoming administration will doubtless take a little time to get
control of the reins in Washington\ but the new Interior Secretary might want
to consider the following suggestions. First, restore the Brandy Station
Battlefield's eligibility for the National Register of Historic Places. The
suspension of Brandy Station's eligibility was a blatant political act in an
election yearj let's bury that mistake and get back to the facts in this
situation. Second, go back to Congress for an ~dditional appropriation of $50
million in operating expenses for the National Park Service. The 102nd
Congress, in the throes of an electiDn year, cut almost this same amount from
the NPS budget for FY 1993\ undermining maintenance and repair efforts and
forcing possible cuts in operating hours. Third, halt the construction of
additional horse stables at Manassas NBP. Congress specifically prohibited
expenditure of Federal funds for this project in FY 1992, but Interior gave it
the green light for FY 1993 despite Congressional cuts in NPS operating funds.
We could go on indefinitely, but the principle should be clear: let's restrain
the fat cats and the perk seekers, and put Federal money and legal clout on
the side of the American people and the nation's heritage.
We have learned that the State of Maryland is considering the purchase
of two parcels of land that border the Sharpsburg area farm where President
Lincoln met General McClellan after the Battle of Antietam. One parcel, the
5.3 acres owned by the Sharpsburg American Legion\ would be purchased for
about $75\000 with a combination of federal, state\ and private money.
Another 20 acres owned by David C. Hess, a Gaithersburg developer who wants to
build a shopping center and possibly housing on the site, last changed hands
for $550,000 in 1988, although it was priced at $30\000 in February 1986. The
State of Maryland is understandably perturbed about this property's rapid
appreciation in value. We suggest that the Federal and State authorities
offer Mr. Hess a significant reduction in property taxes, backdated to date of
purchase, and a wash of windfall profits tax against appreciated value. If it
works in Maryland\ maybe the Commonwealth of Virginia could pursue something
similar vis-a-vis Lee Sammis and Associates at Brandy Station.
Then there's the Confederate battle flag controversy in Alabama. With a
few exceptions in the Western theater, the real Confederate battle flag was
five feet square, not rectangular. The rectangular flags that appear on beach
towels and pickup truck bumpers are a product of the desegregation fights of
the 1950s and 1960s. It is this rectangular battle flag that the State of
Alabama wishes to fly over the State Capitol in Montgomery\ which was also the
first capital of the Confederacy. The bottom line on this one is simple--any
battle flag is inappropriate in this context. The appropriate Confederate
color for spring 1861 is the original Stars and Bars, the first Confederate
national flag. The square battle flag is the correct banner for most
Confederate reenactment units. The rectangular battle flag is technically the
correct banner for a very few reenactment units, but it should be left to the
KKK, the NaZis, and other maladjusted social elements. Enough said.
--/
CHANCELLORSVILLE 1863:
THE SOULS OF THE BRAVE.
By
Furgurson.
Alfred A. Knopf: New York, 1992.
$25.00.
A Book Review by Hac Wyckoff
B.
Four score and two years ago John Bige low, Jr-. wrote The
Campaign of Chancellorsville.
Some historians consider Bigelow's
classic to be the finest study ever- written on an American military
campaign.
However, the $200.00 price tag scares off all but the
most devoted student of the battle.
Futhermore, in the eight
decades since Bigelow's work first appeared, much new information
has surfaced.
While the press and general public remain obsessed with
Gettysburg, many serious students of the war find Lee's masterpiece
a more fascinating battle.
Yet perhaps intimated by Bigelow's
work, few writers have tackled the challenge of this immensely
large and complicated campaign.
In 1958, General Edward J.
Stackpole wrote a book and several years later a magazine length
summary of the battle.
However, General Stackpole's lack of
research skills and his mid-twentieth century military experience
distorted his ability to analyze a mid-nineteenth century event.
No competent writer has stepped forward to put his infor-mation to
use in filling the vast void between Bigelow and Stackpole.
Into this gap newspaperman Ernest Furgurson daringly stepped.
How well did he succeed?
As Professor James M. McPherson wrote,
Furgurson's book "captures both the human drama and the tactical
complexity of the battle in lucid sparkling prose."
Yet as wi th a 11 books, Furgurson s work contains room for
criticism.
While a brief sketch of generals Lee, Jackson and
Hooker gives the reader insights into their performances at
Chancellorsville, the author devotes 66 pages to the lives of these
three men. This pr-obl em is compounded by the author-' s use of
thirteen percent of the book on the aftermath of the battle.
Logically, Furgerson needed to cover the important and compelling
tragedy of Jackson's death, critically analyze Hooker's and Lee's
performances, explain the overall significance of the campaign and
mention that Chancellorsville "set the table" for the Gettysburg
campaign.
But why the need to rehash the Pennsylvania campaign?
with 117 pages tied up in the introduction of characters and
conclusion, the narrative of the campaign is squeezed into the
remaining two-thirds of the book. Furgerson covers and covers well
all aspects of this complicated campaign.
Furgerson realizes that
understanding Chancellorsville is like viewing a scenic picture
puzzle. To see the beauty of the puzzle requires putting all the
pieces together.
The author ties in the usually neglected action
north of the Orange Turnpike on the morning of May 3rd w~th the
action near Hazel grove, south of the road.
However, the role of
Anderson's and McLaw's Divisions on May 2nd and the fighting at 2nd
Fredericksburg and Salem Church could have been further developed.
Problems also exist with The Order of Battle that only goes
down to brigade instead of the standard regimental level and with
the footnotes that are not up to professional standards.
Overall though, Furgerson's book fills a major hole in Civil
War literature by providing a well researched and written book at
a reasonable price.
I
~.
Ernest
COMING EVENTS
January 24 -- Fredericksburg-Spotsylvania NMP launches its Civil War Film
Festival, based on the theme "Beyond the Civil War: Military Figures Go West.~
A different film each Sunday through February 14. Chancellorsville Visitors
Center, 2:00 p.m. Call 786-2880 for information.
January 31 -- Civil War Film Festival continues. Chancellorsville Visitors
Center, 2:00 p.m. Call 786-2880 for information.
February 7 -- Civil War Film Festival continues. Chancellorsville Visitors
Center, 2:00 p.m. Call 786-2880 for information.
February 8 -- RVCWRT.meeting, Aunt Sarah's. Speaker will be a member of the
54th Massachusetts reenactment unit, who will discuss the lives of some of the
original regiment's members.
February 14 -- Civil War Film Festival concludes.
Center, 2:00 p.m. Call 786-2880 for information.
March 8 -- RVCWRT meeting, Aunt Sarah's.
Chancellorsville Visitors
Speaker confirmation pending.
March 27-28 -- RVCWRT hosts conference on preserving Virginia's Civil War
heritage, Sheraton Inn, Fredericksburg.
Rappahannock Valley Civil War Round Table
P.O. Box 7632
Fredericksburg, VA 22404
/