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President Lincoln was at Harrison's landing 150 years ago today, reviewing the Army of the Potomac and conferring with General McClellan.
Lincoln turned out to be very popular with the ranks of the Army of the Potomac, being cheered loudly everywhere he went. Less pleasant was the meeting with Little Mac. Immediately after arriving on the James with his army, McClellan had telegraphed the War Department demanding 50,000 more troops with which he could restore the Union's fortunes. Now the first words out of his mouth to the president were to up that number to 100,000. McClellan then went further, much further, he informed Lincoln that he had a program not merely for winning the war, but doing so with the least damage to the South and the least change to the nation. Lincoln told him to put it in writing and that he would look at it.
Mac did so and it was the same advocacy which he had been promoting all along. Give him command of all the armies in the nation, let him march through the South at the head of an immense united Northern army and cow the South into submission with a minimal need for battles and bloodshed. He would make sure that all Southern property was respected, especially slaves.
The president, who was already deeply engaged in the idea of transforming the war from one to save the Union, to one to save the Union and free the slaves, and had also come to recognize that a heavy hand would be required to get the South to submit, said only "Alright" to Mac after reading it and sticking it in his coat pocket.
The question that needed to be settled was whether to leave the Army in place for another advance against Richmond, or ship it back to the Potomac, fusing it with the newly created Army of Virginia headed by General Pope, for an overland advance.
Mac of course was adamant that the Army should stay in place. He fully recognized that if it was shipped Corps by Corps to join Pope, then Pope would absorb those units until his force was the principal army of the Republic and Mac was left commanding a secondary force, or perhaps none at all.
Lincoln surveyed the Corps commanders. Keyes and Franklin were for evacuation, Porter, Sumner and Heintzelman were for staying put.
The president departed the next morning without announcing any decision, but he had made some. The most important was that the US Army needed someone at the top who could override these bickering, jealous, career minded generals and get orders executed. General Scott had endorsed Henry Halleck as his own replacement when he retired, and now Lincoln decided to take that advice. Halleck would be brought to Washington as the Supreme Commander.
Since the bloodless conquest of Corinth, Halleck had been learning why General Beauregard had given it up so easily. The 120,000 soldiers of the three occupying armies immediately began to suffer illness, and with the worst part of the Mississippi summer still to come, Halleck decided it was pointless to push further South into even swampier territory. Under the assumption that the Confederates were licking their wounds and would not be attempting any offensives that summer, Halleck scattered his forces.
General Buell was sent to rejoin his subordinate General Mitchell, who was still stalled in Northern Alabama after his Andrews Raid aided attempt to capture Chatanooga had fizzled. That city was still the target and Buell was expected to take it. General Grant was removed from Halleck Limbo and restored to command of the Army of the Tennessee. It was sent North to guard the gains along the Tennessee shore of the Mississippi, with Sherman becoming military govenor of Memphis. General Pope's army had been given to General Rosecrans to lead after Pope had gone east, and his assignment was to garrison and guard Corinth.
The Kentucky town of Tompkinsville was a few miles north of the Tennessee border. It was garrisoned by a Union cavalry detachment of about 350. 150 years ago in the early hours of the morning, these troopers were the first to learn that the State was being invaded by raiders. Colonel Morgan's horsemen caught the Yankees by surprise and they fled without mounting an organized defense. Morgan captured the Federal camp and all its stores, that isn't in dispute. As to the casualties...take your pick. Here is Morgan's official report:
Quote:
The enemy fled, leaving about 22 dead and 30 to 40 wounded in our hands. We have 30 prisoners and my Texas squadron are still in pursuit of the fugitives. Among the prisoners is Major Jordan, their commander, and two lieutenants. The tents, stores, and camp equipage I have destroyed, but a valuable baggage train, consisting of some 20 wagons and 50 mules is in my possession; also some 40 cavalry horses, and supplies of sugar, coffee, etc. I did not lose a single man in killed, but have to regret that Colonel Hunt, while leading a brilliant charge, received a severe wound in the leg, which prevents his going on with the command. I also had three members of the Texas squadron wounded, but not seriously. Very respectfully, JOHN H. MORGAN, Colonel, Commanding.
Or if you prefer, the official report of the Union commander, Major Maj. Thomas J. Jordan, Ninth Pennsylvania Cavalry.
Quote:
My loss was 4 killed (including Lt. Sullivan), 7 wounded, and 19 prisoners. I also lost my tents, wagons, mules, and personal baggage of my command. On the part of the enemy, I have been informed that 19 were killed or mortally wounded and 28 slightly. Colonel Hunt was mortally wounded and died at Tompkinsville Respectfully Submitted. THOS. J. JORDAN, Major, Ninth Pennsylvania Cavalry.
If you read Jordan's entire report, you will see that he takes pains to clear his name, claiming that he was attacked by 2000 rebels, that his men behaved gallantly, and that his capture was a matter of being cut off while leading from the front, surrendering after a heroic fight against numerous foes. We are probably safe in guessing that most of his account is hyperbole designed to mask humiliation.
When General John Pope arrived from the west and inspected his new command, the Army of Virginia, composed of the often defeated armies of General Banks and The Pathfinder, along with General McDowell's Corps which had done nothing save fruitless marching back and forth for the past two months, he concluded that he was being given command of the second string.
The defeated varsity was with McClellan and Pope was expected to win with the scrubs...or so he saw it. A consequence was Pope deciding that he needed to put some spine into these demoralized troops, and his method was bombast in the form of a written proclamation:
Quote:
Let us understand each other. I have come to you from the West, where we have always seen the backs of our enemies; from an army whose business it has been to seek the adversary and to beat him when he was found; whose policy has been attack and not defense. In but one instance has the enemy been able to place our Western armies in defensive attitude. I presume that I have been called here to pursue the same system and to lead you against the enemy. It is my purpose to do so, and that speedily. I am sure you long for an opportunity to win the distinction you are capable of achieving. That opportunity I shall endeavor to give you. Meantime I desire you to dismiss from your minds certain phrases, which I am sorry to find so much in vogue amongst you. I hear constantly of "taking strong positions and holding them," of "lines of retreat," and of "bases of supplies." Let us discard such ideas. The strongest position a soldier should desire to occupy is one from which he can most easily advance against the enemy. Let us study the probable lines of retreat of our opponents, and leave our own to take care of themselves. Let us look before us, and not behind. Success and glory are in the advance, disaster and shame lurk in the rear. Let us act on this understanding, and it is safe to predict that your banners shall be inscribed with many a glorious deed and that your names will be dear to your countrymen forever
That this pep talk was a bit verbose may be explained by Pope having had the address written for him by his friend and sponsor, Attorney General Edwin Stanton, who by now had come to despise General McClellan and was very anxious to see Pope do well since it would be to Little Mac's mortification.
Despite Pope's bravado and Stanton's turgid prose, the message was not well recieved. The Army of the Potomac, officers and ranks, saw it as a lot of hot air from what General Porter described as...."..what the military world has long known, an ass." The Army of Northern Virginia veterans found the matter amusing and Pope instantly became the fodder of their jokes. And even the intended recipients of the lesson, the ranks of the Army of Virginia, reacted with scorn. They felt that it was insulting and boastful, and right away they lost respect for their new commander.
With one public relations disaster already under his belt, 150 years ago today Pope embarked on another. He issued orders to his troops regarding their conduct in the upcoming campaign. Pope was the anti-McClellan in that he believed that the severest possible hand must be applied to the South to break the rebellion. Consequently his troops would be living off the lands through which they marched, confiscating or destroying the property of non loyal citizens (with an oath of loyalty required to be spared). Local citizens who supported rebel raiders would be held responsible for all damage done by those raiders. Anyone arrested would be tried by a military hearing, presided over by Pope's officers.
Unsurprisingly this did not go over well in the South. General Lee, who never indulged in public criticism of public figures, was moved to call Pope a "miscreant" and of him said "He must be suppressed."
Lee would spend the next several days in conference with President Davis and his generals regarding how this suppression could best be brought about.
A month earlier General Sherman had heard that General Grant had applied for a thirty day leave. Suspecting that this was a preliminary step to his friend submitting his resignation, he hurried to Grant's headquarters before he could depart. There he learned that his fears were valid. Grant stated that he had had enough with his useless status as General Halleck's second in command and was going home.
Sherman went into his argumentative mode, using himself as the example. He had been called insane in the newspapers, but after hanging tough at Shiloh, "that single battle has given me new life." Sherman told Grant that if he left, the war would continue and he would be left out, but if he stayed, then "....some happy accident might restore you to favor and your true place."
Grant was impressed by Sherman's reasoning, and agreed to wait. He promised that he would not leave without speaking to Sherman first.
150 years ago today, that "happy accident" took place. Three days previously Halleck had received an order from President Lincoln telling him to report to Washington to assume the duties of General in Chief of the Union armies. He sent word for Grant to "..immediately repair to this place and report to headquarters." With no awareness of the new situation, Grant assumed that he was in trouble again with Halleck, who seemed to go out of his way to find fault with Grant.
Upon arrival, still wondering what sort of reproach he was in for, Grant instead learned about Halleck's promotion and his own restoration to theater command. Grant's department was to embrace portions of Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky. With this territory went the majority of the troops in the western theater, some 80,000 men, presently well scattered by Halleck.
This also meant that the single greatest prize to be taken in the west, Vicksburg, was now Grant's responsibility. It could not be undertaken immediately because at the moment, so many troops were required to garrison the territory taken by Federals in their Spring campaigns, a large enough force to assault and reduce Vicksburg was not yet available.
The blue circle on this map indicates the areas which had been wrested from the rebels in the Shiloh-Corinth-Memphis campaigns. Grant was responsible not only for the ongoing occupation of this area, but was also expected to provide for the defense of western Kentucky as well as the defense of the Tennesse stretch of the Mississippi.
In the American Revolution, Washington had created "Badge of Military Merit" which was the highest American decoration for exceptional performance of duty. The Badge vanished with the end of the war. For the Mexican War there was the "Certificate of Merit" which was later changed to a medal of merit. This too disappeared when the war was over.
So at the start of the Civil War, there was no official supreme award for exceptional military conduct. The Navy acted first, petitioning President Lincoln who supported the idea and passed it on to Congress which created the Navy Medal of Valor. None was created for the army at the time because General in Chief Winfield Scott was against the idea of soldiers receiving individual medals. When Scott resigned his post, this cleared the way for an army decoration to rank with the Navy Medal of Valor.
150 years ago today, Congress so acted, creating the "Medal of Honor Awarded By Congress" (which has never been "The Congressional Medal of Honor" as it is so frequently referenced.)
When the remaining imprisoned Andrews Raiders were exchanged and brought to Washington to meet with Secretary of War Stanton, he was carried away with the moment, spontaneously reached into his desk where he had the first box of the medals which had been produced, and decorated the six men in front of him with the first Medals of Honor. That wasn't the way it was supposed to work, Congress had to vote an ex post facto authorization, but the first winners remained the first winners. Unlike the Badge of Military Merit and the Certificate of Merit, the Medal of Honor would survive the Civil War and remain the nation's highest military honor.
Among famous winners of the medal during the war would be the 18 year old Arthur MacArthur, destined to go on to be a Lt. General and father of Douglas, and Thomas Custer, younger brother of George Armstrong, who would win two medals in the space of three days, April 3-6, 1865.
Arthur MacArthur, age 19 in this photo:
Thomas Custer...wearing his two medals:
Also on this date, President Lincoln took another step in his plan to transform the war from saving the Union to a war to completely remake the nation. He had gotten Congress to pass a bill authorizing gradual, compensated emancipation of the slaves in the loyal border states. Lincoln had no problem getting the radical Republican dominated Congress to accept this idea, but now he had to sell it to the slave owners themselves. He sent a letter to the Congressmen of those states where typically he relied on pragmatism as the basis for his argument. He pointed out how the progress of the war to date had already been the cause of the liberation of thousands of slaves. He told him that while he did not know if it would become necessary, there was an awfully good chance that winning the war would require liberating millions more slaves. He argued that once most of the slaves became free, it would not be possible to continue to justify holding any slaves.
Lincoln was giving them a warning...and a chance to protect themselves before the hammer fell. His thrust was...."Look, you are almost certainly going to lose your slaves anyway as a consequence of the war, so why not liberate them now and receive compensation rather than waiting and getting nothing?"
The border state politicians and public widely rejected this program. They were not about to let go of their valued property on the basis of some promised future payment...from a government which was currently spending two million dollars a day to prosecute a war. And Lincoln was proved right...when the time came for the border state slaves to be freed, their owners received nothing.
When Memphis fell to the Federal forces there had been two ironclads under construction in that city's shipyards. One of them , The Tennessee, was considered too incomplete to try and save, so it was burned. The other, The Arkansas, was towed up the Yazoo River to safety.
The ship was given to Captain Isaac N. Brown to complete and arm. Brown proved to be incredibly resourceful and in just five weeks, the Arkansas went from a wooden hulk to an armored war vessel, mounting ten guns. Like all Confederate ironclads, it was an iron covered casemate on a wooden hull.
Vicksburg was under a naval assault at this time. Fleet Commander Davis had brought his gunboats down from Memphis and lurked just north of the city. Fleet Commander Farragut had brought his salt water navy up from New Orleans and run past the batteries to join Davis.
Heading the defensive army was our old friend Earl Van Dorn, last seen when the loss at Pea Ridge had brought about a premature end to his "St. Louis, then huzzah!" campaign to recapture Missouri. Van Dorn occupied the post which would have gone to General Bragg had not General Beauregard intervened. Van Dorn had no means to get at the enemy unless they were running past his shore batteries, so he sent word to Yazzo City for the Arkansas to come and see what it could do. To reach Vicksburg meant running through Davis' and Farragut's fleets.
150 years ago this morning the Arkansas encountered the USS gunboats Carandolet and Tyler and the ram Queen of the West. Being unarmed and having to go against the current to ram, the Queen of the West turned about and headed for the rest of the fleet. The gunboats engaged the Arkansas and an early shot through its boiler knocked the Carandolet onto the banks and out of the fight. The Tyler's guns were unable to dent the armor of the Arkansas, and it too decided to flee toward the rest of the fleet.
The Arkansas pursued, unhurt by the Federal firepower save for Captain Brown himself who directing the fight from the casemate deck in the open, was twice wounded in the head, but both times recovered and returned to duty.
At the Union fleet, the firing had been heard and when the ships appeared in view, it was at first assumed that the Tyler had captured and was bringing in a prize. Thus the Arkansas was able to approach without the fleet gearing up for battle. It wasn't until the rebel ship was in their midsts and began to fire in every direction, that the true nature of the situation became apparent.
The Arkansas continued on through all of the gunboat fleet, and then on into Farragut's huge and heavly armed ships. The ship was struck by an incredible storm of metal, but the casemate was penetrated just once, that shot wiping out a 16 man gun crew. Her boats were shot away, her smoke stack riddled through, her bleeding Captain standing exposed on the casemate deck throughout and miraculously surviving with just the two head wounds. All during this passage the Arkansas was dishing it out with all of her guns, sailing through a field of targets so thick that it was nearly impossible to miss with a shot.
And then she was through, sailing on to anchor under the protection of the Vicksburg batteries.
Twenty eight Federal sailors were dead or missing, another 50 had been wounded in the action. Aboard the rebel ironclad, twelve had died and eighteen suffered wounds.
Artist despiction of the fight,, the Arkansas (center) takes on a gunboat (top) and a salt water frigate (bottom).
Colonel John Morgan's raiders struck again 150 years ago today, this time their target was the 400 man Union garrison in the town of Cynthiana, Kentucky. The Federal force was composed of state guardsmen under the command of Colonel John J. Landram. Morgan spead his 850 men around the town and took the Union pickets by surprise. That the town was under attack was announced to Landram when shells began falling from a gun Morgan had mounted on a rise outside the village.
Despite the surprise, and despite their status as non regular soldiers, the Yankees put up a spirited defense for a time. They had one field piece and they put it to good use sweeping the streets when Morgan's men made a rush for the town. But the attacks were coming from multiple directions, the defenders were scatttered and having to improvise cohesion. A great deal of the fighting was house to house as Union squads took refuge wherever they could. Landram ordered a retreat and it was a brawling affair with fighting taking place in isolated pockets. Landrun was wounded but got away with about a quarter of his men, the rest were killed, wounded or captured. Morgan reported eight of his own killed and thirty wounded.
Twenty two months from this date, Morgan would again be involved in an attack on Cynthiana and it was fated to be his Waterloo.
The war which had been accepted by the North to save the Union, had been warping into one to free the slaves in a series of steps.
The first was when the slaves themselves took advantage of the approach of Union armies to flee from their bondage. The second was when General Benjamin Butler came up with the idea of classifying the runaways as contaband of war. Then Congress passed the first and second Confiscation Acts, upholding Butler's practice. Then Congress and the President had offered gradual, compensated emancipation for the loyal slave states, but had it rejected. Then Congress had ended slavery in Washington, DC.
President Lincoln had made the US the first to recognize the former slave run Republic of Haiti as an independent nation. Since the beginning of 1862, the most popular Union war song had become "The Battle Hymm of the Republic", a poem by Julia Ward Howe put to the tune of "John Brown's Body" which saw the war in unambiguous moral terms, with the North fighting for The Lord against the Satanic backed slaveholders of the South. Freeing the slaves was placed on the same moral level as the death of Jesus in the final verse...
Quote:
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me: As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on.
At the conclusion of the Seven Days Battle, Lincoln had issued a call to the Northern governors for another 300,000 volunteers to put down the rebellion. Inspired by this, songwriter George Frederick Root composed "The Battle Cry of Freedom" which was to become second only to Howe's song in popularity throughout the loyal states. As with "Hymm", "Battle Cry" saw the conflict as a moral struggle with Lincoln becoming "Father Abraham" the war's goal expressed as ...
Quote:
We will welcome to our numbers the loyal, true and brave,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
And although they may be poor, not a man shall be a slave,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
In the first fifteen months of the war, the atmosphere had altered considerably, so much so that 150 years ago today Lincoln first raised the issue of issuing an Emancipation Proclamation with his cabinet officers. He assembled them and read a prelimary draft he had composed, asking for comments.
Secretaries Chase and Stanton were enthusiasts, objecting only that it did not also include the slaves in the loyal states. Secretary Welles thought it too strong and advocated a more gradual approach. Secretaries Blair and Smith were against raising the issue in any manner until after the fall elections.
It was secretary Seward who made the best point with Lincoln. He argued that issuing it now, after the defeat on the Peninsula, would look like "..the last shriek on the retreat." He suggested pocketing the measure until such time that it could follow a Union victory.
The President saw the wisdom of this advice and agreed to wait until the atmosphere was better suited to the announcement.
When General Henry Halleck had dispersed his 120,000 man western army, General Don Carlos Buell had been sent to recollect General Mitchell and drive East with the goal of capturing Chatanooga.
General Braxton Bragg and the Army of Mississippi were still at Tupelo to the SE of Buell and seemingly in no position to interfere with Buell's operations.
But.....
While the direct rail route to Chatanooga, 150 miles from Tupelo, was in Union hands, Bragg studied the maps and crafted a 726 mile roundabout route for his troops. They would first go South by rail all the way to Mobile on the Gulf of Mexico. There they would go by steamboat across Mobile Bay, landing at Tensas, Alabama, the southern terminus of another rail line which ran from there to Montgomery where the troops would be transferred to a different gauge rail line, to Atlanta where the rebel soldiers would transfer to the line to Chatanooga, the same railroad that the Andrews Raiders had tried to wreck.
And there they would present General Buell with a nasty surprise.
150 years ago today, Bragg got this movement in motion. By coincidence, at this same time he received a telegram from General Kirby Smith who commanded the Confederate forces in Knoxville. In what looked like clairvoyance, Smith was requesting that Bragg bring the majority of his troops to Chatanooga to combine with his, with Bragg in overall command, Smith courteously added.
Smith had more than the defense of Chatanooga in mind. Buell could be checked by their combined forces, or even better, if Bragg and Smith marched North toward Kentucky, Buell would be forced to abandon his advance on Chatanooga and rush North to defend Nashville.
The generals would meet on July 31st to plan such a campaign.
The first half of the year had seen a relentless advance by Federal forces in multiple areas of the Confederate west. New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Nashville and Memphis, Corinth, all now occupied by Northern troops.
And that was a problem. The same immensity of territory which had made it so difficult for the late General Albert Sydney Johnston to defend, now was consuming so many Yankee soldiers to control that further attempts at advancing suffered for lack of men. Only General Don Carlos Buell and his Army of the Ohio was still on the offense, albeit Buell's sluggish notion of offense as it approached Chattanooga.
Generals Bragg in Tupelo, and Smith in Knoxville, simultaneously decided that this stagnant Yankee posture could be exploited by the Confederates going over to the offensive.
And so did the commander of the third rebel army in the west, General Earl Van Dorn who was charged with the defense of Vicksburg.
Van Dorn was by nature: A) A big thinker and B) An incurable optimist. This had already been demonstrated by Van Dorn's shattered dream of the reconquest of Missouri, marching off with the battle cry "St. Louis, then huzzah!", but failing to even get out of Arkansas after the check at Pea Ridge. Van Dorn had explained in his report on the battle that it had not been a defeat, only that he was ".... foiled in my intentions. I am yet sanguine of success, and will not cease to repeat my blows whenever the opportunity is offered."
Van Dorn had his already considerable confidence boosted greatly by the success of the ironclad Arkansas in running through two Union fleets. Fleet Commander Farragut had been embarrassed by this and had made a couple of attempts to destroy the Arkansas while it was at anchor under the protection of Vickburg's shore batteries. Both attempts failed miserably, enhancing Farragut's anger and humiliation. He decided to take his saltwater fleet back to New Orleans and leave Vicksburg to Fleet Commander Davis and his gunboats.
Van Dorn the optimist decided to interpret all this, along with the continuing failure of the attempt at digging a Vicksburg bypass canal, as indicating that the Yankees were on the retreat in the west. The time was ripe for reconquest, begining with retaking the Louisiana capitol, Baton Rouge, and then, in Van Dorn's prose..."Ho for New Orleans!"
150 years ago today he dispatched a 4000 man divsion under the command of former US vice president John Breckinridge. They were to march to Jackson, Mississippi where they would be loaded aboad trains which would bring them to within 60 miles of Baton Rouge.
General Earl Van Dorn. Poetry lover, painter, infamous womanizer, highly emotional. He has less than a year left to live, but would not be killed in battle, rather his end would come from a bullet fired by the enraged husband of one of his conquests.
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The Happy Accident
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