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The new commander of the Confederate army defending Richmond was asked by President Davis what his plans were. General G.W. Smith said that he had none, for he had no awareness of the distributions of any of his troops outside the soldiers of his own division. This was understandable in that few Confederate units were operating where Johnston's plan would have placed them.
Gustavus Woodson Smith was a professional soldier, West Poing graduate and honored Mexican War veteran. There was nothing about his career or character to suggest anything less than a brave and competent leader, but heading an entire army seemed to overwhelm him. He asked President Davis what course he should take, immediate retreat or an attempt to hold the small amount of ground they had gained on the 31st. Davis sized up his man and decided it would be useless to try and get Smith to resume the attack, so he advised staying in place, that way if the Yankees decided to retreat on the 1st, the South could claim the battle a victory.
The rebel president then turned his horse back toward Richmond and in the course of the journey, he made a determination. Reaching the city he called upon General Lee's headquarters and did not ask Lee if he would like the command, he informed him that it would be his starting June 2nd.
What followed on the 1st day of June was a pointless, fruitless addition to the casualty totals, largey fought without central direction on either side. The last orders from Johnston before his wounding had been to renew the assault in the morning. Receiving no new orders from Smith, Longstreet sent his men forward and discovered that the odds had changed. Two more Union divisions had crossed the river during the night and the line which could not be broken yesterday, was even stronger today.
The Confederates fell back, adopted defensive positions and around 11:30 am it was already all over. It was right at this time that General McClellan finally arrived on the scene. He had been ill and confined to his tent the day before, and only seemed to rally just as fighting ended. It should come as a surprise to no one who has been following this thread that Little Mac surveyed the situation and proclaimed it a victory for the ages.
It was a tactical victory for the Union in that they held their ground while the rebels were forced to fall back, and the Federals had inflicted more casualties than they suffered, ( 6,134 to 5031) but it was a strategic victory for no one. At the end of the fighting everyone was still where they were when it began, except for the casualties...and General Smith who suffered what today would be described as a nervous breakdown of sorts and would need two months of recuperation before he could return to duty.
The one monumental consequence which did arise from the battle was the replacement of Johnston with Lee.
On this same day in the Valley, the Stonewall Division which had lingered the longest outside Harpers Ferry before moving back up the Valley to rejoin General Jackson, arrived in Strasburg. Union General Shields was still at Front Royal demanding reinforcements, General Fremont and the Mountain Army who were supposed to have marched directly to Harrisonburg, were still a day and a half away from Strasburg. Jackson's army had won the race. The way was now clear for Jackson to return to Richmond, but of course Stonewall was not going to do this if he thought that there was still some damage he could inflcit on his hapless opponents.
The loss of the railroad junction town of Corinth began to be felt in the South 150 years ago today. Memphis, due west of Corinth, was now at the end of a line which was controlled by the Federals. With the Union River Navy pressing down closer to the city, General Beauregard concluded that there was little to be gained by an attempt to defend it. He issued orders for the defending garrisons to evacuate and come join his main army.
Memphis was now helpless save for the Northern arm of the Confederate River Defense Fleet. You may recall our last encounter with this unit when the six cottonclad rams had fled without engaging when the Union Navy had pushed passed the forts defending New Orleans. These were merchant ships converted to war vessels by mounting one or two small guns, protecting the ships vital parts with water soaked cotton bales, and relying mainly on their forward rams as their destructive sting. This was an eight ship private navy under contract. All captains and crewmembers were civillians who had been hired for the job.
Coming against them would be the five ironclad gunboats of Flag Officer Charles H. Davis, along with four specially designed and built ironclad rams which carried no guns at all. They were the brainchild of one of America's most accomplished engineers, Charles Ellet, Jr., who had dazzled the world with his suspension bridges which spanned the Schuylkill River near Philadelphia, the Ohio River at Wheeling, WV, and the Niagra River near the falls. His rams were marvels of single purpose efficiency. Heavily reinforced at the bows upon which the rams were mounted, strong engines to provide speed (15 knots) and armoured just in the vital parts so as not to slow them down with weight. Ellet had thought them up on his own, written a pamphlet which included his complex formulas as to why this was the perfect design for ramming, added an essay on why rams were especially useful in fighting in the cramped conditions of a river, and sent it to the War Department.
Not only did they respond positively and commission eight of the rams to be built by Ellet, they named him commander of the ram fleet despite his zero experience as a warrior.
The rebel fleet was under over all command of James E. Montgomery, who while captain of his own ram, was a civillian like everyone else and held no military rank. It was obvious to these men that they were hopelessly outmatched on the water by their enemy, but they had no where to go. Memphis had depended on the railroad which ran through Corinth to bring in its coal. With that source cut off, the local supplies quickly were exhausted and there was not enough available for the River Defense Fleet to reach any friendly port, the nearest of which was Vicksburg.
The civillian captains huddled and discussed whether to scuttle their vessels and flee, or stay and make a stand. Surprisingly, in light of their mercenary status, they elected to remain and put up a fight.
150 years ago today things got noisy on the Mississippi. Union Fleet Commander Charles Davis and his five ironclad gunboats, accompanied by recently commissioned Colonel Charles Ellet and two of his specially built rams, came within two miles of Memphis Tennessee. The fleet carried 64 heavy guns.
Standing, or floating I suppose, between the Union force and the city were the eight cottonclad rebel rams, mounting a total of 28 light artillery pieces.
This was to be a naval clash where neither side's official navy was involved. Davis and his ironclads were attached to, and a part of the Union army and answered to General Halleck. Ellet and his rams had been a special War Department commission and never assigned to any specific branch of service. Ellet answered directly to the Secretary of War.The rebel fleet was mercenary, Confederate paid civillains as captains and crews.
As you might be guessing from the above, the command structure in this battle would be chaotic on both sides.
As the fleets neared one another, Ellet commanding The Queen of the West, signaled to his brother, Alfred W. Ellet, in command of the Monarch, to go to full steam and leap out ahead of the gunboat line and target some rebel ships. At 15 knots the Queen of the West suddenly was bearing down on the rebel ship the Colonel Lovell. It tried to swerve away but instead wound up broadside to the attacker and was cut nearly in two, sinking within a few minutes.
Two rebel rams, the General Price and the General Beauregard converged on either side of the Monarch. Alfred Ellet cleverly held his course until they were almost upon him, and then went to full speed to dart neatly between the Confederate vessels which both turned in and collided with one another. The G. Price lost one of her paddlewheels and had to run aground near shore. The G. Beauregard was still afloat, but just then took a shell in her boiler which disabled her engines, forcing her to surrender.
Meanwhile the other five rebel rams were enduring a murderous bombardment from Davis' gunboats and one by one they were knocked out of action. One caught fire and was wrecked, three surrendered and one, the General Van Dorn, turned around and fled the scene safely.
The quick and one sided affair had only lasted thirty minutes. Half of the rebel fleet had been captured and would be repaired and turned into Union ships. Three had been destroyed and one escaped. Thousands of cheering Tennessee rebel civillians had lined the banks of the river to watch the spectacle and cheer on their side. Quickly after the firing had begun an immense bank of smoke was produced and spectators could only see the flashes of the guns as they fired, and hear the crashing of ships as they ran into one another, by design or accident. A gust of wind came along and cleared the smoke away and the Confederate fans were stricken by the sight of their fleet in ruins. Their city was now without defense and would surrender to Davis around noon that day.
Since this wasn't an offical Confederate navy action, exacting records on the rebel losses were not kept, but it is approximated that there were 180 casualties. On the victorious Union side, there was but a single casualty, unfortunately a big one. When the Queen of the West had rammed Colonel Lovell, there had been a brief exchange of small arms fire between the crews while in such close proximity. One rebel ball found its way into the kneecap of Colonel Ellet. It did not seem a serious wound and Ellet had continued in command throughout the battle. The wounded knee later became infected, and Ellet died aboard a ship taking him to a hospital in the North. Command of the ram fleet would pass to his brother.
The Mississippi River was now open for the entire length of Tennessee. All that was left under rebel control was the stretch or river from Vicksburg south to Port Hudson in northern Louisiana.
William Mumford was a 42 year old North Carolina native who made his living as a drifting professional gambler. The outbreak of war had found him in New Orleans pursuing his trade and he was still there when the Union Navy arrived to sieze the town. As such he seems an unlikely war hero, but that is what he was to become.
If you recall our tale of New Orleans capture, Flag Officer Farragut had brought the town under the guns of his fleet, and sent two officers ashore to receive the surrender of the city. The mayor of the town had claimed he had no authority to surrender and there never was a formal ceremony where the city was yielded. Farragut simply sent more men ashore and they raised the US flag over the post office and US mint..Federal property reclaimed.
Mumford was apparently more of a Confederate patriot than his lifestyle suggested. He took an ax, chopped down the flagpole at the mint, and then dragged the Stars and Stripes through the streets where the natives were invited to spit on it and rip off fragments. Farragut was made aware of the situation and brought the ceremony to a quick conclusion by having a broadside of grapeshot directed toward the party.
All of that took place before the official occupation had begun. Despite that, when General Butler arrived and took command, he heard about Mumford and the flag desecration and ordered him arrested for treason. A military tribunal found Mumford guilty, and 150 years ago today he was executed by hanging.
This provoked another outrage fest with Butler at the center of the storm. President Davis was so infuriated that he issued an order condemning Butler to death, declaring him a criminal exception to normal code which defined treatment of captured enemy officers. Then he was still so angry that he modified it to include all of Butler's officers.
After winning the race to Strasburg, General Thomas Jackson no longer had federal troops south of him to block his escape from the Valley. The Seven Pines/Fair Oaks engagement which failed to break the siege of Richmond, created more urgency for Stonewall to return to reinforce the defense of the capitol.
Desite this, Jackson's continued retreat had been spread over a five day period. It began with a killer 40 miles in 36 hours, but after that, Jackson slowed his pace and kept the pursuit by Generals Fremont and Banks from getting too close by using his cavalry as the rear guard. It was in one such action that Jackson lost his cavalry commander, Colonel Turner Ashby, killed in a skirmish with Fremont's troopers on the 6th, three days after he had been promoted to Brigadier.
On the 7th Jackson's force was positioned so that it could have exited the Valley via Brown's Gap with no one in a position to stop him. Jackson, however, wanted to inflcit a parting wound on his foes before leaving the stage he had commanded so brilliantly over the past six weeks.
If you look at the above map you see that The Pathfinder and his Mountain Army were moving south on the Valley Pike west of Massamuten Mountain, while General Shields was bringing his force south on the opposite side of the Mountain, east of the river. The small town of Cross Keyes was located where the two Federal armies would converge once past the mountain. Jackson recognized that if he could occupy that town, he could prevent the conjunction of the Union forces, keeping them on opposite sides of the river, and deal with them one at a time, just as he had throughout the entire campaign.
Fremont's army arrived on the 7th, Shields was still badly strung out on the march due to muddy roads. Jackson set his defensive dispositions to receive an attack by Fremont, and 150 years ago this morning he got a very nastly surprise when advance elements of Shields' cavalry forded the river and made a dash into Port Republic itself. Jackson and his staff had to make an emergency abandonment of their headquarters and flee across the bridge in their rear to safety. The cavalry was driven off by artillery fire and Jackson sent a brigade to hold the town and discourage further unwanted callers.
While this was taking place, Fremont was positioning his army for an attack. The Pathfinder was going for an ambitious double envelopment of Jackson's flanks, but being Fremont, completely misjudged where Jackson's flanks were. When the attack went forward, it was actually marching straight into the center of rebel line and exposing its own flanks to exploitation.
That exploitation wasn't long in coming, the Federal advance passed at a right angle to General Isaac Trimble's brigade. With the range just 60 yards, Trimbles men rose up and began discharging volleys, bringing the advance to a halt. A Union battery was quickly brought into position to deal with Trimble's force, but they had just unlimbered when they were attacked by the 15th Alabama who emerged as a surprise from the woods.
Trimble ordered a general advance and Fremont's men made an orderly retreat, while the Pathfinder himself raced about trying unsuccessfully to organize a counter attack. Recognizing that he could do nothing further, Fremont had his men retreat to the heights north of the town where an artillery line could protect them.
The Federals lost 664 casualties, Jackson's force 287. It was a battle which need not have been fought at all, Jackson's ability to return to Richmond had never been at stake, only whether some more men on both sides would die before campaign was concluded.
Having twice taken the measure of General Fremont and found him wanting, 150 years ago today Stonewall Jackson was confident that The Pathfinder would be too demoralized by yesterday's defeat at Cross Keyes to intervene in any contest with General Shields army.
Jackson left but General Issac Trimble's single brigade to hold Fremont in place, and moved the bulk of his army SE to Port Republic on the other side of the river, to deal with Shield's advance. Jackson was not content to wait for an attack by Shields, but instead met the Union forces with an attack.
Jackson was eager to get the fight started and his attack began with very little in the way of scouting preparation. The rebel advance went forward into a fog bank and stumbled upon a well fortified artillery position. Punished by these guns, the Confederates had to fall back. Jackson fed more men into the frontal assault while sending General Richard Taylor on a flanking march to fall on the Federal left. The Union line was doing a good job of holding off the frontal attacks, but fell to pieces around 10 am when Taylor's men materialized on their left and began rolling up the line. The men in blue held on for a half an hour, but then were forced to retreat under a shower of artillery fire from their own guns which had been captured by Taylor's men. Shields ordered a general withdrawal and lost several hundred prisoners as the Confederates pressed the pursuit.
And of course around noon, 90 minutes after it would have done Shields any good, The Pathfinder suddenly realized that he should be helping out. He marched his men to the river and spent some time staring at the battle's aftermath. Fremont's only contribution was a long range harrassing bombardment which had no impact on Jackson's movements. This was Fremont's final chance to make a fool of himself on the field of batle, and he did not disappoint. President Lincoln would remove him from command and The Pathfinder would resign from the army in a huff.
Both Fremont and Shields retreated back down the Valley the next day and the curtain came down at last on the Valley Campaign. It had been a brilliant operation, but bookended by Jackson's two worst battles. It had begun with the loss at Kernstown, and ended with Stonewall's least artistic victory. As with the fight the day before at Cross Keyes, there had been no strategic need to fight at Port Republic, Jackson's line of exit from the Valley was completely open and it was only his decision to delay leaving which brought on these final conflicts.
Port Republic was costly to the rebels, 816 casualties, their biggest loss in any of the Valley engagements. They had inflicted 1002 casualties on Shields, the majority of them prisoners taken during the retreat.
But overall the Valley Campaign had been a masterstroke. In 48 days, Jackson's army had marched 646 miles and won five major engagements. Though Jackson never had more than 17,000 men under his command, he so cleverly outmaneuvered the combined 50,000 of the enemy, that in all of the engagements after Kernstown, the Confederates had always outnumbered their opponents on the field. Jackson caused the Union forces to suffer 5,735
casualties while losing 2,441 of his men. Most importantly, the campaign accomplished its primary goal, that of tying up as many Federal troops as possible and keeping them from being moved to reinforce General McClellan.
General McDowell's Corps, 35,000 men, had been treated like a yo-yo for the past six weeks. Ordered twice to join McClellan on the Peninsula, they were twice turned around in mid march and ordered back into the Valley. Then they were ordered to the protection of Washington, they wound up doing a great deal of useless marching and no fighting of any consequence, of help to neither the Union Valley forces nor the Army of the Potomac. All of that futility was courtesy of the aggressiveness, high energy and cleverness of the most eccentric general officer in the Confederate army.
And there was to be a further, long range consequence, one which had already been partly felt in the battle at Seven Pines. General Johnston had been able to attack a smaller portion of the Union army because it was divided by the Chickahominy River, three Corps on one bank and two on the other. The reason that the army straddled the river was not due to a decision by McClellan, but rather an order from President Lincoln. Since the plan was to march McDowell's Corps overland to join the Army of the Potomac, Mac had been ordered to keep a portion of his army on the northern bank of the river in order to link up with McDowell when he arrived. Of course that arrival had been postponed several times, and now even after the rebels had tried to capitalize on the divided Federal positioning, they were still waiting for McDowell and still had to retain troops on the northern bank.
Just as General Johnston had decided to exploit this situation, so to would the new commander, General Robert E. Lee.
The new commander of the Confederate forces gave his army a new name, and set them to work. The Army of Northern Virginia, as it was to be called through the end of the war, was now fighting with the pick and the shovel. General Robert E. Lee had already formed a plan to capitalize on the Federal Army still straddling both banks of the Chickahominy River outside Richmond. He instantly made a favorable impression on President Davis by doing the opposite of the replaced commander...he confided all of his plans in the Confederate leader and provided the reasons as to why the things being done, were being done.
Lee understood that his opponent General McClellan was fighting a battle of posts. The Union heavy guns would smash one rebel position after another and Richmond would ultimately have to be evacuated. The only hopeful option was to attack and break the siege before it was too late.
When General Johnston had made this same decision, two of McClellans five Corps were south of the river and three on the opposite bank. The situation was now reversed, with two Union Corps on the northern bank, stationed there to link up with General McDowell when his 30,000 man Corps finally arrived, and three on the Southern bank facing rebel entrenchments. Lee would strike on the northern bank, first building heavy defenses which could be held by a reduced number of men on the south side, while the majority of his army went over to the offensive against the two isolated Federal Corps.
Lee was unwilling to move until he had a complete profile of the defensive dispositions of the Union army. To that end he called in his cavalry commander, the dashing, flamboyant 29 year old James Ewell Brown (JEB) Stuart, and ordered him to conduct a reconnaissance of the area north of the river.
At 2 am, 150 years ago this morning, Stuart led 1200 troopers NW out of Richmond, appearing for all the world to be headed for the Valley to join with General Jackson's command. They would camp that night near Hanover Courthouse, and then make a dramatic turn back toward the Army of the Potomac.
That turn was the start of the making of a hero.
By way of background, related to these events but not to any specific day, it is worth noting that the change in command for the rebel army was by no means being welcomed as the arrival of a Messiah. Lee's reputation, which was very lofty before the war began, had suffered terribly since the outbreak of hostilities. He had been sent to western Virginia to save that area and had arrived just in time to preside over its loss by his bickering and incompetent subordinates. The blame fell on Lee. Then he had been placed in charge of coastal fortifications on the Atlantic, and when the Union Army/Navy combined operations struck at Hatteras and then Port Royal, the coastal fortifications had been easily overcome. Lee was blamed for this.
General Johnston had been a big hero of Bull Run and there was a great faith in his genius widely held in the South, a glaring exception being its President. Thus the wounding of Johnston and the subsequent replacement by Lee, was viewed by most as a severe blow to the cause. Lee had gained the nickname "King of Spades" from the entrenchment work he presided over in the coastal areas, and that moniker was revived when he set the Army of Northern Virginia to work beefing up the defenses around the capitol. His other nickname was "Granny Lee", a sarcasm arising from what was perceived as his fussiness. A month from now one would be thinking to use either of those names.
Lee's opponent, Little Mac, was numbered among those who thought the south ill served by Lee's promotion. Showing that serial inability to see anything other than what he wanted to see, Mac wrote:
Quote:
"I prefer Lee to Johnston...the former is too cautious & weak under grave responsibility - personally brave & energetic to a fault, he yet is wanting in moral firmness when pressed by heavy responsibility & is likely to be timid & irresolute in action"
150 years ago this morning, General Stuart had his 1200 cavalrymen up early, turned then around and headed SE toward General McClellan's right flank. Among Stuart's officers were Fitzhugh Lee, the nephew of the commanding general, and Rooney Lee, his son, both now regimental colonels in the Virginia Cavalry. It was Rooney Lee who saw the first action of what General Lee called "an expedition" in his orders to Stuart. Shortly after midday, Rooney Lee's horseman were in the lead when they encountered a detachment of the 5th US Cavalry. Lee ordered a charge and the enemy was quickly scattered. Stuart's force then continued on to Old Church crossroads where a Federal cavalry camp was found and burned, its occupants taken prisoner.
At this point Stuart had penetrated 14 miles into the rear of the Army of the Potomac and had obtained the precise information that Lee had requested. There was no Federal force of any consequence on the Pamunkey River watershed down which he had ridden. The Federal right flank, containing two Corps, was "up in the air" as flanks not anchored on impassable geographical features are known.
Stuart could have turned around at that point, made his way back with his handful of prisoners and important inteligence report. Stuart was a dandy, dressing himself in plumes, colored capes and scarfs, and thought of himself as a throwback to the 17th Century English Cavaliers. What he had accomplished was not enough to suit his taste for adventure and fame. Before he had even departed, he had set his mind on the idea of a grand stunt...riding completely around McClellan's army and returning safely.
Lee's orders had stressed that Stuart was to be protective of his men, that should a blocking force of infantry be encountered before all the desired information was gathered, Stuart was to abandon the attempt to gather further information and return. But Lee's habit was to issue orders in the form of suggestions or endorsements of certain actions, not specific conduct to be followed to the letter. He always left some discretion to the man on the scene. Stuart decided to capitalize on that wiggle room. He rationalized that the territory he had already passed through had now been alerted to his presence, so any pursuit would be assuming he would be going back that way. Therefore, the most reasonable course of action was to go the other way...which happily also was the glory road all the way around. Stuart even had the nerve to characterize this move in his report as "...the quintessence of prudence."
So in a somewhat naughty schoolboy mood, Stuart's force continued SE. Many of the troopers had homes in the area they were now passing through and a festive atmosphere prevailed as numerous relatives appeared, bringing food and drink. They pushed on to Tunstall's Station on the Richmond and York River Railway where the Yankees had established a large supply station. Stuarts men whooped down upon them, captured the handful of startled guards and set to looting and wrecking. From there they moved on to Talleysville, camping near a Union field hospital which they left completely unmolested, but they did loot a store set up by a Yankee sutler to service the patients and staff.
After a few hours of rest at Talleysville, General Jeb Staurt had his cavalrymen up at 12 am 150 years ago this morning. This time he turned the column due South, heading for the lower Chicahominy River. Stuart's troopers had spent the last two days in the saddle with very little sleep and the pace of the march was sluggish, made even more so by having to drag along the 165 prisoners they had captured the day before. The captives rode double on the captured horses and mules. At the head of the column, troopers kept seeing Stuart's hat plume bobbing up and down as their leader continuously dozed and snapped back awake.
Despite Stuart's later description of the ride around as a move made out of prudence, the Confederates were now riding into the unknown. They did not know the dispositions of the Federal troops in the area, did not know the condition of the Chickahominy River where they would have to cross, and did not know if they were being pursued from behind.
In fact they were. Federal Cavalry under Brigadier Phillip Cooke had taken up the chase and were about a half dozen miles behind. Cooke was a Virginian who had remained loyal to the Union. One of his daughters was married to a Confederate general. That general' s name was Jeb Stuart.
At sunrise the rebel column had covered just seven miles and upon arriving at the banks of the Chickahominy, discovered it was unfordable due to heavy rains. Stuart turned his troopers parallel to the river and headed downstream looking for a place to cross. After a mile they came upon an abandoned skiff. Anchoring it in the middle of the forty foot wide river, Stuart had his men pull down a nearby warehouse and construct a crude bridge from one bank to the skiff, and from the skiff to the other bank. The work took three hours and the supply of building material was exhausted just as the last needed plank was laid. The rebel horsemen and their prisoners made it across on the makeshift bridge and Colonel Fitz Lee set it on fire as the last man touched soil. He lingered to make sure the bridge was beyond saving and as he was mounting and preparing to leave, he saw General Cooke's lead troopers come thundering down the road toward the bridge, about ten minutes late to their commander's son in law's party.
Stuart was content to just put some miles between his men and any pursuit and after swinging NE toward Richmond, he finally allowed his weary men to make camp and get a night's sleep. His glorious return to the capitol could wait until tomorrow morning...when there were more likely to be crowds up and about and available to give him and his men a hero's welcome.
I havent posted in quite a while but have still been reading the history forum regularley. WWII is my personal favorite subject so I had just come accross this thread and read the whole thing in two days. This is by far my favorite thread ever. I have always wished for a book or documentary to go day by day regardless of which theatre it was. This shows just how close in time major battles or situations that had an effect on the outcome of the war were to each other. I would love to see this type of thread for ww2, I would but am not as knowledgable as many so it wouldnt be as good.
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