Chancellorsville's Forgotten Front: The Battles of Second Fredericksburg and Salem Church, May 3, 1863
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Chancellorsville's Forgotten Front: The Battles of Second Fredericksburg and Salem Church, May 3, 1863
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Overview
By May of 1863, the stone wall at the base of Marye’s Heights above Fredericksburg, Virginia, loomed large over the Army of the Potomac, haunting its men with memories of slaughter from their crushing defeat there the previous December. They would assault it again with a very different result the following spring. This time the Union troops wrested the wall and high ground from the Confederates and drove west into the enemy’s rear. The inland drive stalled in heavy fighting at Salem Church. Chancellorsville’s Forgotten Front is the first book to examine Second Fredericksburg and Salem Church and the central roles they played in the final Southern victory.
Authors Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White have long appreciated the pivotal roles these engagements played in the Chancellorsville campaign, and just how close the Southern army came to grief—and the Union army to stunning success. Together they seamlessly weave their extensive newspaper, archival, and firsthand research into a compelling narrative to better understand these combats, which usually garner little more than a footnote to the larger story of Stonewall Jackson’s march and fatal wounding.
Chancellorsville’s Forgotten Front offers a thorough examination of the decision-making, movements, and fighting that led to the bloody stalemate at Salem Church, as Union soldiers faced the horror of an indomitable wall of stone—and an undersized Confederate division stood up to a Union juggernaut.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781611211375 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Savas Beatie |
| Publication date: | 02/20/2019 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 433 |
| Sales rank: | 228,155 |
| File size: | 8 MB |
About the Author
Kristopher White is a historian for the Penn-Trafford Recreation Board and a continuing education instructor for the Community College of Allegheny County near Pittsburgh, PA. White is a graduate of Norwich University with a MA in Military History, as well as a graduate of California University of Pennsylvania with a BA in History. For five years he served as a staff military historian at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, where he still volunteers his services. For a short time he was a member of the Association of Licensed Battlefield Guides at Gettysburg. Over the past seven years, he has spoken to more than 40 roundtables and historical societies. He is the author and co-author of numerous articles that have appeared in America's Civil War, Blue and Gray, Civil War Times, and Armchair General. White co-authored The Last Days of Stonewall Jackson with longtime friend Chris Mackowski. The two have authored numerous articles together and are currently working on a book-length study of the Second Battle of Fredericksburg and Salem Church
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Mr. Lincoln's Principal Army:
The Army of the Potomac
A small knot of officers and dignitaries looked out over a vast plain filled with men-at-arms. Two horsemen stood out in particular. One, seated on a fine white horse, wore full military regalia — Maj. Gen. "Fighting Joe" Hooker, now in his third month in command of the Army of the Potomac. The other rider, sitting atop a black horse, looked "pale, haggard and care-worn," one observer said, "but seemed to have a gleam of happiness about him. ... You could discern by his countenance that he felt deeply interested in the army and the salvation of the Union; that his mind was deeply absorbed in the duties devolving upon him as the Chief Magistrate of the Nation."
"Mr. Lincoln is one of the plainest of men," a III Corps soldier said.
He has a kindly expression that made us forget his plainness. Mr. Lincoln on horseback is not a model of beauty such as an artist would select. A more awkward specimen of humanity I cannot well imagine. It shows him off at a horrible disadvantage. There was a fearful disproportion between the length of his legs and the height of his horse. It seemed as if nothing short of tying a knot in them would prevent them from dragging the ground.
Despite his awkward appearance and careworn expression, Lincoln seemed to be enjoying himself immensely. Some 80,000 men from the II, III, V, and VI corps stretched out in front of him in martial glory. "It was a grand sight to see so many soldiers, all with guns and bayonets gleaming in the air," wrote a Michigan soldier in a letter home the next day. A correspondent from the Cincinnati (OH) Daily Gazette described "[t]he proud, elastic, but firm military tread, the exact and uniform movement, as if every company and every regiment were moved by one impulse and inspirited by one soul, demonstrated that these men had the spirit of the true soldier."
The spectacle provided quite a contrast to Lincoln's arrival three days earlier on April 5. He, his wife and son, and a small party of guests that included Attorney General Edward Bates and newspaper correspondent Noah Brooks had arrived during a heavy snow squall. "I only regret that your party is not as large as our hospitality," Hooker had told him. Hooker's chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Daniel Butterfield, installed the dignitaries in three large tents next to Hooker's headquarters.
Over the ensuing days, Lincoln made calls around the army. Aside from meetings with Hooker and Butterfield, Lincoln also met with Maj. Gen. Daniel Sickles, a man of considerable political influence in both New York and Washington who had recently been promoted to command of the III Corps. Lincoln also went to the front lines along the Rappahannock River to view the enemy and then to the rear of the army to see the refugee camps of newly freed slaves. Mrs. Lincoln visited the army's field hospitals, "giving little comforts to the sick, without any display or ostentation, like a gentle, kind-hearted lady, as she is," noted VI Corps commander Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick in a letter to his sister.
Once the ground dried out a bit from the snowfall, Hooker began to assemble parts of his reorganized army for Lincoln's review. On April 6, the reorganized cavalry corps under Brig. Gen. George Stoneman marched by. Now, on April 8, the heart of the Army of the Potomac — the army's four biggest corps — had assembled for him: II, III, V, and VI. "The formation was in three 'lines of masses' of two corps each," wrote the historian of the 140th Pennsylvania. "The length of each line was estimated to be more than a mile, and the depth of the three lines from front to rear, including the spaces between, at about one-fifth of a mile. The number of men present was estimated at 80,000." The I Corps was scheduled for review the next day, April 9, and the army's most recent additions, the XI and XII corps, would march for the president on April 10.
The men looked crisp and refreshed despite their harrowing experience at Fredericksburg in December 1862; the disastrous "Mud March" of January 1863; and a long winter in Stafford County, Virginia. Lincoln saw the life Joe Hooker had breathed back into the army. "In truth," XI Corps commander Maj. Gen. Oliver Otis Howard later wrote in his autobiography, "during February, March, and April, the old, cheerful, hopeful, trustful spirit which had carried us through so many dark days, through so many bloody fields and trying defeats, returned to the Army of the Potomac; and Hooker's success as a division and corps commander was kept constantly in mind as an earnest of a grand future."
Morale was generally as high among the enlisted men as it was among the officers and the president's party. "The army has again got the good old spirit and the enthusiasm of last spring is surely returning, and old Hooker is getting to be a second McClellan," wrote musician Erasmus W. Reed of the 96th Pennsylvania a few days prior to the president's review. "He has a fine army to back him. If it be God's will he must be successful."
"Gen. Hooker is gaining strength and popularity every day with the army," echoed an officer from the 7th Maine, "and we hope and expect that he will not be found wanting when the day of trial comes."
* * *
Lincoln had chosen Hooker for command only reluctantly, in part as a capitulation to radicals in his own Republican party. He believed Hooker to be "a brave and skillful soldier" and praised Hooker because "you do not mix politics with your profession," but he knew of Hooker's role in undermining his predecessor, Ambrose Burnside.
[Y]ou have taken counsel of your ambition, and thwarted him as much as you could, in which you did a great wrong to the country. I have heard, in such a way as to believe it, of your recently saying that both the Army and the Government needed a Dictator. Of course it was not for this, but in spite of it, that I have given you the command. Only those generals who gain successes, can set up dictators. What I now ask of you is military success, and I will risk the dictatorship.
In the same letter, Lincoln warned Hooker to "beware of rashness." It was an admonition Hooker apparently ignored, at least in his boasting. At one point during Lincoln's visit in April, the president began to suggest that if Hooker made it to Richmond. ... "Excuse me, Mr. President," Hooker interrupted, "but there is no 'if' in the case. I am going straight to Richmond if I live." Lincoln later grumbled that Hooker's overconfidence was "about the worst thing I have seen since I have been down here."
Hooker was a Hadley, Massachusetts-born Yankee who began his military career as a member of West Point's class of 1837, in which he graduated 29th out of 49. Commissioned a second lieutenant upon graduation, he was assigned to the 1st U.S. Artillery in Florida, where he served in the Second Seminole War. Later, he was transferred back to West Point to serve as adjutant.
During the Mexican War, he was attached to numerous generals, including Maj. Gen. Gideon Pillow. Though serving as a staff officer, Hooker managed to make his way into the fight somehow, and was brevetted for bravery at the battles of Monterey, National Bridge, and Chapultepec. He also managed to make a few enemies, including Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott, the most famous army officer of his day. During court-martial proceedings against Pillow, who was one of Scott's chief rivals, Hooker testified on Pillow's behalf.
Following the Mexican War, Hooker was assigned to an outpost in California, but the monotony of the peacetime army caught up with him. In 1854, Hooker resigned his commission to take up farming, politics, and militia duty in California and Oregon, where he toiled in relative obscurity. When civil war broke out, Hooker came east and rejoined the United States Army, but the newly re-commissioned lieutenant colonel had difficulties obtaining a command because his former run-in with Scott had left him on the wrong side of an army power struggle. Discouraged, Hooker began thinking of heading back west.
While Hooker languished, the Union army came to grief on the plains of Manassas, Virginia. In the wake of the July 1861 defeat, the lieutenant colonel gladly took on the role of armchair general, telling anyone who would listen, including the president, that if he had been in charge, the battle would have been a victory. "I was anxious to pay my respects to you, sir, and express my wish for your personal welfare, and for your success in putting down the rebellion," Hooker told Lincoln when they finally met. "And, while I am about it, Mr. President, I want to say one thing more, and that is, that I was at the battle of Bull Run, the other day, and it is neither vanity nor boasting in me to declare that I am a bettergeneral than you, sir, had on that field." Lincoln placed his hand on Hooker's shoulder and told the transplanted Californian: "Stay. I have use for you and a regiment for you to command."
By the end of August 1861, Hooker found himself newly minted as a brigadier general of volunteers. He at first assumed command of a brigade near Bladensburg, Maryland, but was quickly promoted to head the 2nd Division of the newly created III Corps under then-Brig. Gen. Samuel P. Heitzelman. Hooker's division defended the approaches to the capital in southern Maryland.
The following spring, the division joined the largest troop movement ever undertaken on the continent up until that point, relocating to the Virginia Peninsula and joining the Army of the Potomac, then commanded by Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan. On the Peninsula, Hooker led his men with distinction at the battle of Williamsburg in May 1862, where his division at first stood alone against Confederate Maj. Gen. James Longstreet's brigades. Hooker's men fought well but were roughly handled until reinforcements arrived on the field.
Following Williamsburg, Hooker's division fought in the subsequent Seven Days battles around Richmond. It was there on the Peninsula that Hooker earned his famous nickname. A newspaper correspondent sent a dispatch of Hooker's that concluded "I am still fighting — Joe Hooker," but the telegrapher left out the dash. As a result, the final headline read "Fighting Joe Hooker." Hooker lost his punctuation but gained dash of another sort, although the general hated it. "People will think I am a highwayman or a bandit," he said. His men loved it, though, because they felt the name captured their hard-fighting spirit and that of the man who led them.
Hooker's reputation as a fighter continued to grow after his men performed well in late August 1862 at the battle of Second Bull Run, even though they were again roughly handled. Hooker earned promotion to command of the I Corps. Less than a month later at Antietam in Maryland, Hooker opened the action in the Miller cornfield and North Woods. As the action seesawed on the north end of the field, Hooker was wounded in the foot and had to be evacuated from the field.
When Burnside rose to command of the Army of the Potomac in early November, he reorganized the army into "Grand Divisions" and appointed Hooker to command the Center Grand Division, which consisted of the III and V corps. When the battle of Fredericksburg unfolded in mid-December, Hooker had to split his Grand Division, so he ended up sending corps to both major sectors of the field: most of the III Corps fought at the southern end of the field in the Prospect Hill sector, helping to stem a Southern counterattack by Lt. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson; the V Corps fought on the northern end of the field, in the Marye's Heights sector, where, like so many other Federal troops, they bled out in front of Longstreet's divisions.
The battle of Fredericksburg was a debacle for Burnside, and it cost the army commander the confidence of the men and generals under his command. "The three months he exercised the command of the Army it never degenerated so rapidly," Hooker later recalled of his predecessor. "His administration was a blunder, and worse than a blunder for not less than one third of his Army had disappeared from the field [through desertion], and those that remained were despondent and disheartened. ... The trouble with Burnside appeared to be that his thoughts were always woolgathering. ... "
Convinced that the Army of the Potomac's "end was close at hand," Hooker began to surreptitiously but actively campaign against Burnside. He was not alone. In fact, generals John Newton and John Cochrane went to Lincoln directly to press the campaign.
The weather, as much as anything, finally proved to be Burnside's undoing. He planned a wide flank march to the north and west, from where he could drop down behind the Confederate army still ensconced on the far side of the Rappahannock River. No sooner did the movement get underway, though, than a downpour started, bogging down the entirearmy. At first, Burnside insisted on pressing forward, but it soon became apparent that was impossible: "it rained as if the world was coming to an end." Confederates on the far side of the river mocked the Federals by mounting a wooden sign with big letters that read, "Burnside stuck in the Mud."
The Mud March, as it became known, was the last straw. Burnside asked to be removed and Lincoln quickly took him up on the offer. The Army of the Potomac's top leadership was shuffled. On January 26, 1863, Hooker got the nod from Lincoln. "Beware of rashness," Lincoln counseled — an admonition he repeated twice in the letter, and which surely must have rankled "Fighting Joe" — "but with energy and sleepless vigilance, go forward, and give us victories."
The men of the army, jaded by a string of battlefield disappointments that dated back to the start of the war, greeted the news of Hooker's ascension with mixed reaction. "Burnside, Sumner, and Franklin relieved and Hooker assumes the command. The news creates no excitement, is hardly a subject of gossip," wrote Capt. Sewell Gray of the 6th Maine in his diary. I Corps artillery chief Charles Wainwright shared Gray's ambivalence. "The appointment of 'Fighting Joe Hooker' to the command of the Army of the Potomac has given great satisfaction and raised great expectations in the civilian world; the papers are loud in praise," Wainwright wrote in his diary. "I cannot say that my own expectations are so high."
Captain Henry Abbott of the 20th Massachusetts had lower expectations even than that of his fellow Bay Stater. "Hooker is nothing more than a smart, driving, plucky Yankee, inordinately vain & I imagine from the way he has converted himself to the Administration, entirely unscrupulous," he said.
It came as a huge surprise, then, when Hooker quickly proved himself a master of administration and morale. He reorganized the army, abolishing the failed Grand Divisions and bringing back the old corps system: 7 infantry corps in total, plus a massive artillery reserve of 12 batteries, consisting of 56 light and heavy guns. He also organized the cavalry into a single corps, instead of breaking it into small squadrons, regiments, and brigades and spreading them among the army infantry corps. Hooker then assigned each of the corps an identifying insignia, the forerunner of the modern-day divisional patch, which gave the men in each corps a common symbol to rally behind. The patches quickly boosted esprit de corps. II Corps historian Francis Walker said the badges "became very dear to the troops, as a source of much emulation on the part of the several commands, and a great convenience to the staff, in enabling them, quickly and without troublesome inquiries, to identify a division upon the march or along the line of battle."
Hooker improved the quality and quantity of supplies and rations, and he had bake ovens installed to provide fresh bread to the men in the camps and on picket duty. The general health of the camps improved, too, due largely to Dr. Jonathan Letterman, the army's chief medical officer, to whom Hooker gave free rein to upgrade campsites, properly place latrines, and implement an innovative way of dealing with the wounded by introducing what we know today as triage. Hooker granted furloughs, allowing men who had not seen home in months — some more than a year — to get much-needed time with their families. And new uniforms were issued; many of the men who had participated in the failed "Mud March" were in need of such clothing.
According to the historian of the 140th Pennsylvania, "During the three months which were spent in winter quarters, under command of Major-General Hooker, the men of all branches of the service gained greatly in discipline, effectiveness, military bearing, and the army as a whole was hopeful, loyal and in splendid condition."
Other officers and men agreed. "When Hooker ... was placed in command of the army, many of us were very much surprised," wrote Maj. Gen. Darius N. Couch, commander of the II Corps.
I think the superior officers did not regard him competent for the task. He had fine qualities as an officer, but not the weight of character to take charge of that army. Nevertheless, under his administration the army assumed wonderfulvigor. I have never known men to change from a condition of the lowest depression to that of a healthy fighting state in so short a time.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Chancellorsville's Forgotten Front"
by .
Copyright © 2013 Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White.
Excerpted by permission of Savas Beatie LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Foreword Donald Pfanz viii
Acknowledgments xv
Prologue xxi
Chapter 1 Mr. Lincoln's Principal Army: The Army of the Potomac 1
Chapter 2 The Bedraggled Foe: The Army of Northern Virginia 19
Chapter 3 Under the Greek Cross: The Federal VI Corps 31
Chapter 4 Bridging the Rappahannock: The Federal River Crossing 47
Chapter 5 To Call Hooker's Bluff 79
Chapter 6 The Enemy in Front and Rear 91
Chapter 7 Lee's "Bad Old Man" 107
Chapter 8 The Errant Order 123
Chapter 9 Calling on Uncle John 145
Chapter 10 The Failed Reconnaissance 165
Chapter 11 Across the Old Battlefield 183
Chapter 12 Taking the Gibraltar of the South: The Fall of Marye's Heights 199
Chapter 13 Forcing Sedgwick's Hand: Wilcox's Delaying Action 225
Chapter 14 Fighting in the Churchyard: The Battle of Salem Church 239
Chapter 15 With Their Backs to the River 271
Chapter 16 A Fighting Withdrawal: The Battle of Banks' Ford 289
Chapter 17 "We might have gained a great victory." 309
Appendix A Orders of Battle: Chancellorsville 333
Appendix B The Chancellorsville Campaign by the Numbers 359
Appendix C The Road Well Traveled: The Postwar History of Fredericksburg's Sunken Road 365
Appendix D Medal of Honor Recipients at the Battles of Second Fredericksburg, Salem Church, and Banks' Ford 368
Appendix E Whatever Happened To…? 371
Bibliography 378
Index 389
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