NYCDeac
Arthur Larkins
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4/9/15: 150th anniversary of Lee's surrender
- Thread starter OldGoldBeard
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zqglass
Well-known member
jesus, I thought I was a civil war buff then I read this thread. pretty awesome stuff.
meandmyuncleDeac
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Best speech ever.
I'm going to the lighting of the luminaries at Antietam in a few weeks. Seems pretty cool.
http://dc.about.com/od/specialevents/ss/Antietam-Illumination.htm
http://dc.about.com/od/specialevents/ss/Antietam-Illumination.htm
meandmyuncleDeac
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It is.
marquee moon
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those are the racist folk
OldGoldBeard
A Sorry WR Like Crabtree
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Bump.
A little late on this (the firm actually wanted me to work yesterday), but it's the 150th anniversary of the Overland Campaign, the bloodiest in American history according to some website I saw somewhere. After victories at Vicksburg and Missionary Ridge (Chattanooga), Grant came east and took personal oversight (though Meade retained command) of the operations of the Army of the Potomac. In May of 1864, he began the campaign with the intention of destroying Lee's army. A month and a half later, after three horrific battles, both armies were bogged down in the "siege" of Petersburg.
For Grant and the North, it might have meant Lincoln's defeat at the polls and an armistice were it not for Sherman's victories around Atlanta. For Lee and the South, it meant loss of mobility and an inability to maneuver, all but sealing their fate. It was the Overland Campaign that fixed them into position and ensured that the end of the war, no matter which way it turned, was only a matter of time.
The Wilderness
On May 4, 1864, Grant crossed the Rapidan River, hoping to steal a march on Lee and pass through the vast, tangled forest known as the Wilderness. Lee had different ideas, slamming into the right of Grant's column and bringing him to battle where the rugged terrain would prevent effective use of the superior Northern artillery or manpower (they outnumbered the Confederates almost two-to-one). The first day was marked by hotly contested, back-and-forth fighting.
On the morning of the second day, however, Winfield Hancock led a massive charge against Lee's right/south flank. The Confederates broke and ran, and it seemed like disaster was imminent. Just then, however, the first men of James Longstreet's I Corps came up the road. Lee rode up to them, demanding to know their identity, and was thrilled when he heard they were the famed Texas Brigade. Lee attempted personally to lead the Texans into battle until they forced him back with cries of "Lee to the rear." When Lee finally consented, the Texans charged, 800 against more than 20,000. Over 75% of the brigade was killed, wounded, or captured, but they bought Lee the time he needed to push back Hancock's corps.
Longstreet followed up the attack by sneaking his men through an unfinished railroad cut that led around the Union left (south) flank. The attack was a complete success, routing the troops in that sector. At its height, however, Longstreet was wounded, shot through the throat by his own men only miles and very nearly a year to the day after Stonewall Jackson was mortally wounded in another friendly-fire incident. Meanwhile, on the north side of the line, the Confederates launched another flank attack, breaking an entire Federal division. Grant's men rallied and held, and darkness brought the fighting to an end.
Picture of Texas marker.
Spotsylvania
After the Wilderness, Grant sought to get around Lee's right (south) flank and move on or towards Richmond. Thanks to poor work by Grant's cavalry and a fortuitous night march by one of Lee's corps commanders, the Confederates again managed to get in front of them, digging in at Spotsylvania Courthouse. At this point in the war, the troops were becoming skilled at erecting entrenchments using whatever tools they had available--plates, bayonets, or their bare hands--and quickly the Confederates had a formidable position.
A brilliant Federal brigade commander named Emory Upton devised a means of attacking the fieldworks. Instead of charging in line of battle, in which the brigade was formed with the men shoulder-to-shoulder, two ranks deep, he would arrange them in deep columns. They would charge up to and over the breastworks without firing a shot, and then deploy to the left and right, rolling up the Confederate lines. Upton was given permission to assault, and nearly carried the lines on May 10. Two days later, the Federals tried again, with Hancock spearing the attack. This time, the attack was a rousing success. A salient in the Confederate lines, called the Mule Shoe, was pierced and broken, with the Federals capturing nearly an entire division in the process.
For the second time in a week, Lee faced disaster. Troops were shuttled in as the Confederates desperately tried to construct a new line across the base of the Mule Shoe, sealing off the breach and once again presenting a unified front. Lee again tried to personally lead the troops into battle before being forced to the rear. What ensued was the hardest, fiercest combat of the entire war. For almost 24 hours, the men fought hand-to-hand at the Bloody Angle, blasting each other from behind the trenches with cannon fire and musketry. Some men snapped under the strain, jumping up on the breastworks in full sight of both armies and firing loaded muskets as fast as they could be handed up to him before he was shot down. In the end, the Confederates held once more, and Grant had to look for a new avenue to Richmond.
Pictures of the Mule Shoe. US troops would have advanced from the direction of the far treeline.
Interlude
In 1864, three terrible years of war were beginning to take their toll on once-famous units. The US Iron Brigade broke for the first time in its history at the Wilderness. The (CS) Texas Brigade was all but annihilated on May 6. The (CS) Stonewall Brigade was smashed in the attack on the Mule Shoe, and the brigade and division consolidated. (For those particularly interested in organization, the three VA brigades of the Stonewall Division were consolidated, the Pelican Brigade was consolidated with the LA Tigers, brought over from Early's division, and Gordon's GA brigade was transferred over as Gordon took command of the new division. Early's division was compensated by receiving R.D. Johnston's NC brigade from Rodes, and Hoke's former brigade was brought back up.)
One of the war's most famous figures was also killed in this time period. J.E.B. Stuart, the beau sabreur of the Confederacy, was shot and mortally wounded in an engagement outside Richmond at Yellow Tavern, on May 11, 1864. Likewise, one of the Union's best-loved generals, VI Corps Commander John Sedgwick, was shot by a sniper outside Spotsylvania, shortly after telling his men to stop dodging their fire, because, "They couldn't hit an elephant at that distance."
Cold Harbor
Stymied once more, Grant moved yet again around Lee's right flank to maneuver closer to Richmond. Lee again anticipated him, and the two sides faced each other from behind entrenchments for the next two weeks. Finally, Grant lost his patience. Believing that Lee had stretched his lines too thin, he ordered an assault. What followed was one of the most one-sided slaughters of the war. While Hancock's II Corps, on Grant's left, made a very small breakthrough that was quickly contained, the rest of his men were mowed down like wheat. While likely exaggerated, one historian contends that Grant lost 7,000 men in 8 minutes; a more likely estimate is a still-appalling 5,000. In all, Grant lost some 7,000 men on June 3 against perhaps 1,500 Confederate casualties. When one sees the trenches, and the photographs below don't do them justice, especially 150 years after the fact, one can tell why.
CS trenches at Cold Harbor.
After the terrible losses at Cold Harbor, Grant once more disengaged and snuck around Lee's right, this time stretching all the way to Petersburg, a vital rail junction south of Richmond. There, a valiant stand by troops under P.G.T. Beauregard and bungling by the Union high command cost Grant a chance to win the war. Instead, yet again, the Confederates were able to buy the time they needed for reinforcements to arrive, and the armies settled into a siege that would last for over 9 months, the longest in American history.
Indeed, in the first week of April 1865, Lee opposed Federal trenches outside Petersburg and Richmond that stretched to within perhaps 10 miles of the Confederate capital. When he had taken over the Army of the Virginia on June 1, 1862, the Federal army was some 8 miles from Richmond. By contrast, since February of 1862, the Confederate armies in the West had been driven from or forced to evacuate Bowling Green (KY), Nashville, Chattanooga, Atlanta, Savannah, Columbia, and Goldsboro (NC) before eventually surrendering outside Raleigh. Until then, the armies would continue trying to grind each other to dust, searching for the elusive war-ending victory that would never quite come.
A little late on this (the firm actually wanted me to work yesterday), but it's the 150th anniversary of the Overland Campaign, the bloodiest in American history according to some website I saw somewhere. After victories at Vicksburg and Missionary Ridge (Chattanooga), Grant came east and took personal oversight (though Meade retained command) of the operations of the Army of the Potomac. In May of 1864, he began the campaign with the intention of destroying Lee's army. A month and a half later, after three horrific battles, both armies were bogged down in the "siege" of Petersburg.
For Grant and the North, it might have meant Lincoln's defeat at the polls and an armistice were it not for Sherman's victories around Atlanta. For Lee and the South, it meant loss of mobility and an inability to maneuver, all but sealing their fate. It was the Overland Campaign that fixed them into position and ensured that the end of the war, no matter which way it turned, was only a matter of time.
The Wilderness
On May 4, 1864, Grant crossed the Rapidan River, hoping to steal a march on Lee and pass through the vast, tangled forest known as the Wilderness. Lee had different ideas, slamming into the right of Grant's column and bringing him to battle where the rugged terrain would prevent effective use of the superior Northern artillery or manpower (they outnumbered the Confederates almost two-to-one). The first day was marked by hotly contested, back-and-forth fighting.
On the morning of the second day, however, Winfield Hancock led a massive charge against Lee's right/south flank. The Confederates broke and ran, and it seemed like disaster was imminent. Just then, however, the first men of James Longstreet's I Corps came up the road. Lee rode up to them, demanding to know their identity, and was thrilled when he heard they were the famed Texas Brigade. Lee attempted personally to lead the Texans into battle until they forced him back with cries of "Lee to the rear." When Lee finally consented, the Texans charged, 800 against more than 20,000. Over 75% of the brigade was killed, wounded, or captured, but they bought Lee the time he needed to push back Hancock's corps.
Longstreet followed up the attack by sneaking his men through an unfinished railroad cut that led around the Union left (south) flank. The attack was a complete success, routing the troops in that sector. At its height, however, Longstreet was wounded, shot through the throat by his own men only miles and very nearly a year to the day after Stonewall Jackson was mortally wounded in another friendly-fire incident. Meanwhile, on the north side of the line, the Confederates launched another flank attack, breaking an entire Federal division. Grant's men rallied and held, and darkness brought the fighting to an end.
Picture of Texas marker.
Spotsylvania
After the Wilderness, Grant sought to get around Lee's right (south) flank and move on or towards Richmond. Thanks to poor work by Grant's cavalry and a fortuitous night march by one of Lee's corps commanders, the Confederates again managed to get in front of them, digging in at Spotsylvania Courthouse. At this point in the war, the troops were becoming skilled at erecting entrenchments using whatever tools they had available--plates, bayonets, or their bare hands--and quickly the Confederates had a formidable position.
A brilliant Federal brigade commander named Emory Upton devised a means of attacking the fieldworks. Instead of charging in line of battle, in which the brigade was formed with the men shoulder-to-shoulder, two ranks deep, he would arrange them in deep columns. They would charge up to and over the breastworks without firing a shot, and then deploy to the left and right, rolling up the Confederate lines. Upton was given permission to assault, and nearly carried the lines on May 10. Two days later, the Federals tried again, with Hancock spearing the attack. This time, the attack was a rousing success. A salient in the Confederate lines, called the Mule Shoe, was pierced and broken, with the Federals capturing nearly an entire division in the process.
For the second time in a week, Lee faced disaster. Troops were shuttled in as the Confederates desperately tried to construct a new line across the base of the Mule Shoe, sealing off the breach and once again presenting a unified front. Lee again tried to personally lead the troops into battle before being forced to the rear. What ensued was the hardest, fiercest combat of the entire war. For almost 24 hours, the men fought hand-to-hand at the Bloody Angle, blasting each other from behind the trenches with cannon fire and musketry. Some men snapped under the strain, jumping up on the breastworks in full sight of both armies and firing loaded muskets as fast as they could be handed up to him before he was shot down. In the end, the Confederates held once more, and Grant had to look for a new avenue to Richmond.
Pictures of the Mule Shoe. US troops would have advanced from the direction of the far treeline.
Interlude
In 1864, three terrible years of war were beginning to take their toll on once-famous units. The US Iron Brigade broke for the first time in its history at the Wilderness. The (CS) Texas Brigade was all but annihilated on May 6. The (CS) Stonewall Brigade was smashed in the attack on the Mule Shoe, and the brigade and division consolidated. (For those particularly interested in organization, the three VA brigades of the Stonewall Division were consolidated, the Pelican Brigade was consolidated with the LA Tigers, brought over from Early's division, and Gordon's GA brigade was transferred over as Gordon took command of the new division. Early's division was compensated by receiving R.D. Johnston's NC brigade from Rodes, and Hoke's former brigade was brought back up.)
One of the war's most famous figures was also killed in this time period. J.E.B. Stuart, the beau sabreur of the Confederacy, was shot and mortally wounded in an engagement outside Richmond at Yellow Tavern, on May 11, 1864. Likewise, one of the Union's best-loved generals, VI Corps Commander John Sedgwick, was shot by a sniper outside Spotsylvania, shortly after telling his men to stop dodging their fire, because, "They couldn't hit an elephant at that distance."
Cold Harbor
Stymied once more, Grant moved yet again around Lee's right flank to maneuver closer to Richmond. Lee again anticipated him, and the two sides faced each other from behind entrenchments for the next two weeks. Finally, Grant lost his patience. Believing that Lee had stretched his lines too thin, he ordered an assault. What followed was one of the most one-sided slaughters of the war. While Hancock's II Corps, on Grant's left, made a very small breakthrough that was quickly contained, the rest of his men were mowed down like wheat. While likely exaggerated, one historian contends that Grant lost 7,000 men in 8 minutes; a more likely estimate is a still-appalling 5,000. In all, Grant lost some 7,000 men on June 3 against perhaps 1,500 Confederate casualties. When one sees the trenches, and the photographs below don't do them justice, especially 150 years after the fact, one can tell why.
CS trenches at Cold Harbor.
After the terrible losses at Cold Harbor, Grant once more disengaged and snuck around Lee's right, this time stretching all the way to Petersburg, a vital rail junction south of Richmond. There, a valiant stand by troops under P.G.T. Beauregard and bungling by the Union high command cost Grant a chance to win the war. Instead, yet again, the Confederates were able to buy the time they needed for reinforcements to arrive, and the armies settled into a siege that would last for over 9 months, the longest in American history.
Indeed, in the first week of April 1865, Lee opposed Federal trenches outside Petersburg and Richmond that stretched to within perhaps 10 miles of the Confederate capital. When he had taken over the Army of the Virginia on June 1, 1862, the Federal army was some 8 miles from Richmond. By contrast, since February of 1862, the Confederate armies in the West had been driven from or forced to evacuate Bowling Green (KY), Nashville, Chattanooga, Atlanta, Savannah, Columbia, and Goldsboro (NC) before eventually surrendering outside Raleigh. Until then, the armies would continue trying to grind each other to dust, searching for the elusive war-ending victory that would never quite come.
OldGoldBeard
A Sorry WR Like Crabtree
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Bump for the 150th anniversary of Lee's Surrender at Appomattox. No time to write anything myself, so I'll instead quote from the (highly romanticized) memoirs of generals Josh Chamberlain (US) and John B. Gordon (CS). Credit for the interweaving goes to http://historicaldigression.com/2015/04/09/generals-joshua-l-chamberlain-and-john-b-gordon-at-appomattox/.
Chamberlain: I was summoned to headquarters, where General Griffin informed me that I was to command the parade on the occasion of the formal surrender of the arms and colors of Lee’s army. ….Taking the assignment as I would any other, my feeling about it was more for the honor of the Fifth Corps and the Army of the Potomac than for myself.
Gordon: As my command, in worn-out shoes and ragged uniforms, but with proud mien, moved to the designated point to stack their arms and surrender their cherished battle-flags, they challenged the admiration of the brave victors.
Chamberlain: The dusky swarms forge forward into gray columns of march. On they come, with the old swinging route step and swaying battle- flags…The momentous meaning of this occasion impressed me deeply. I resolved to mark it by some token of recognition, which could be no other than a salute of arms…Before us in proud humiliation stood the embodiment of manhood: men whom neither toils and sufferings, nor the fact of death, nor disaster, nor hopelessness could bend from their resolve; standing before us now, thin, worn, and famished, but erect, and with eyes looking level into ours, waking memories that bound us together as no other bond…Instructions had been given and when the head of each division column comes opposite our group, our bugle sounds the signal and instantly our whole line from right to left, regiment by regiment in succession, gives the soldier’s salutation, from the “order arms” to the old “carry” — the marching salute.
Gordon: One of the knightliest soldiers of the Federal army, General Joshua L. Chamberlain of Maine…called his troops into line, and as my men marched in front of them, the veterans in blue gave a soldierly salute to those vanquished heroes — a token of respect from Americans to Americans…
Chamberlain: Gordon at the head of the column, riding with heavy spirit and downcast face, catches the sound of shifting arms, looks up, and, taking the meaning, wheels superbly, making with himself and his horse one uplifted figure, with profound salutation as he drops the point of his sword to the boot toe; then facing to his own command, gives word for his successive brigades to pass us with the same position of the manual, — honor answering honor.
Gordon: When the proud and sensitive sons of Dixie came to a full realization of the truth that the Confederacy was overthrown and their leader had been compelled to surrender his once invincible army, they could no longer control their emotions, and tears ran like water…
Chamberlain: On our part not a sound of trumpet more, nor roll of drum; not a cheer, nor word nor whisper…but an awed stillness rather, and breath-holding, as if it were the passing of the dead!..They fix bayonets, stack arms; then, hesitatingly, remove cartridge-boxes and lay them down. Lastly, — reluctantly, with agony of expression, — they tenderly fold their flags, battle-worn and torn, blood-stained, heart -holding colors, and lay them down;…And only the Flag of the Union greets the sky!
Chamberlain: I was summoned to headquarters, where General Griffin informed me that I was to command the parade on the occasion of the formal surrender of the arms and colors of Lee’s army. ….Taking the assignment as I would any other, my feeling about it was more for the honor of the Fifth Corps and the Army of the Potomac than for myself.
Gordon: As my command, in worn-out shoes and ragged uniforms, but with proud mien, moved to the designated point to stack their arms and surrender their cherished battle-flags, they challenged the admiration of the brave victors.
Chamberlain: The dusky swarms forge forward into gray columns of march. On they come, with the old swinging route step and swaying battle- flags…The momentous meaning of this occasion impressed me deeply. I resolved to mark it by some token of recognition, which could be no other than a salute of arms…Before us in proud humiliation stood the embodiment of manhood: men whom neither toils and sufferings, nor the fact of death, nor disaster, nor hopelessness could bend from their resolve; standing before us now, thin, worn, and famished, but erect, and with eyes looking level into ours, waking memories that bound us together as no other bond…Instructions had been given and when the head of each division column comes opposite our group, our bugle sounds the signal and instantly our whole line from right to left, regiment by regiment in succession, gives the soldier’s salutation, from the “order arms” to the old “carry” — the marching salute.
Gordon: One of the knightliest soldiers of the Federal army, General Joshua L. Chamberlain of Maine…called his troops into line, and as my men marched in front of them, the veterans in blue gave a soldierly salute to those vanquished heroes — a token of respect from Americans to Americans…
Chamberlain: Gordon at the head of the column, riding with heavy spirit and downcast face, catches the sound of shifting arms, looks up, and, taking the meaning, wheels superbly, making with himself and his horse one uplifted figure, with profound salutation as he drops the point of his sword to the boot toe; then facing to his own command, gives word for his successive brigades to pass us with the same position of the manual, — honor answering honor.
Gordon: When the proud and sensitive sons of Dixie came to a full realization of the truth that the Confederacy was overthrown and their leader had been compelled to surrender his once invincible army, they could no longer control their emotions, and tears ran like water…
Chamberlain: On our part not a sound of trumpet more, nor roll of drum; not a cheer, nor word nor whisper…but an awed stillness rather, and breath-holding, as if it were the passing of the dead!..They fix bayonets, stack arms; then, hesitatingly, remove cartridge-boxes and lay them down. Lastly, — reluctantly, with agony of expression, — they tenderly fold their flags, battle-worn and torn, blood-stained, heart -holding colors, and lay them down;…And only the Flag of the Union greets the sky!
19deac92
You are a meathead.
My wife's great-great-great grandfather, Sergeant Ab Anderson, 1st Battalion, N.C. Sharpshooters, fought the entire war and surrendered at Appomattox. The family still has his parole certificate issued to him at the Surrender Triangle on April 12, 1865.