A Stillness at Appomattox (193 page)

Read A Stillness at Appomattox Online

Authors: Bruce Catton

Tags: #Non Fiction, #Military

9.
References to heavy drinking among Army of the Po-
tomac officers abound in regimental histories and personal
memoirs. Specifically, see
Days and Events: 1860-1866,
by
Colonel Thomas L. Livermore, p. 297;
South After Gettys-
burg,
p. 55;
Camp-Fire Chats of the Civil War,
by Wash
ington Davis, pp. 284-85.

  1. The Life of Ulysses S. Grant,
    by Charles A. Dana and Major General James Harrison Wilson, p. 185;
    The Generalship of Ulysses S. Grant,
    by Colonel J. F. C. Fuller, p. 210;
    The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade,
    Vol. II, p. 201;
    The Life of John
    A.
    Rawlins,
    by Major General J. H. Wilson, pp. 426-27.
  2. Memoirs of a Volunteer,
    by John Beatty, edited by Harvey S. Ford, p. 210;
    History of DurrelVs Battery in the Civil War,
    p. 150.
    1. Recollections of a Private Soldier,
      pp. 36-37
      8
    2. Down in Dixie,
      pp. 180-82.
    3. Letters of a War Correspondent,
      by Charles A. Page, p. 110;
      Musket and Sword,
      p. 198.
    4. There is a good pen picture of Sheridan in Gerrish's
      Army Life,
      p. 249, and Sheridan's crack about the bob-tailed brigadiers is to be found in
      Personal Memoirs of John H. Brinton,
      p. 267. For the cavalryman's complaint about hard work, see
      Deeds of Daring: or, History of the 8th New York Volunteer Cavalry,
      by Henry Norton, pp. 106-7. Other details are in the
      Official Records,
      Vol. XXXIII, p. 711, and
      Under the Old Flag,
      Vol. 1, pp. 331, 374-75.
    5. History of the 10th Massachusetts Battery of Light Artillery in the War of the Rebellion,
      by John D. Billings, pp. 37-38. (Incidentally, this book contains a good account of the assignments and duties of members of a Civil War gun crew, pp. 18-19.) See also
      Recollections of a Private Soldier,
      p. 22.

17.
Official Records,
Vol. XXXIII, p. 907.

  1. Memoirs of Chaplain Life,
    by the Very Rev. William Corby, p. 357;
    Reminiscences of the 19th Massachusetts Regiment,
    pp. 84, 86.
  2. Three Years in the Army,
    p. 316;
    Service with the 6th Wisconsin Volunteers,
    pp. 241-42.
  3. Reminiscences of the War of the Rebellion,
    by Major Jacob Roemer, p. 30;
    The Diary of a Line Officer,
    by Captain Augustus C. Brown, p. 11;
    History of the First Regiment of Heavy Artillery, Massachusetts Volunteers,
    by Alfred S. Roe and Charles Nutt, pp. 124-36;
    History of the 12th Massachusetts Volunteers,
    by Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin W. Cook, p. 126; manuscript letters of Carl Bissell, of the 2nd Connecticut Heavy Artillery.
  4. History of the 2nd Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artillery,
    p. 81;
    Official Records,
    Vol. XXXVI, Part 3, p. 110.

22.
The Road to Richmond,
p. 195.

  1. Official Records,
    Vol. XXXIII, pp. 638-39, 688, 717;
    History of the Second Army Corps,
    p. 400. Soldiers of the Army of the Potomac usually identified themselves first with their regiment and next with their army corps. Brigades and divisions generally (with a few striking exceptions) claimed less of their loyalty.
  2. Correspondence of John Sedgwick, Major General,
    Vol. II, pp. 168, 175;
    Personal Recollections of the Civil War,
    by Brigadier General John Gibbon, pp. 209-10. One of the most fascinating might-have-beens of the Civil War is this move which almost put Sedgwick in charge of operations in the Valley. If he had been there instead of Sigel, the story in 1864 would have been very different. Meade planned to give John Gibbon command of the VI Corps.
  3. Brigadier General Hazard Stevens, in
    Papers of the Military Historical Society of Massachusetts,
    Vol. IV, pp. 178-79 (referred to hereafter as
    M.H.S.M. Papers)
    0
  1. Francis A. Walker, in
    M.H.S.M. Tapers,
    Vol. X, pp. 51
    9
    53, 56-57.
  2. For Warren, see
    Gouverneur Kemble Warren: the Life and Letters of an American Soldier,
    by Emerson Gifford Taylor, pp. 5
    ff.; The Road to Richmond,
    p. 126;
    Days and Events,
    p. 304;
    Three Years in the Army,
    p. 349.
  3. South After Gettysburg,
    p. 73;
    History of the 87th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers,
    by George R. Prowell, p. 117.
  4. Three Years in the Army,
    p. 309;
    History of the 8th Cavalry Regiment, Illinois Volunteers,
    by Abner Hard, pp. 292-93; A
    Little Fifer's War Diary,
    p. 168.
  1. Down in Dixie,
    pp. 165-66.
  2. The Road to Richmond,
    pp. 129-30,

Chapter Two: Roads Leading South

 

where the dogwood blossomed

 

1.
Following the Greek Cross,
p. 182;
Recollections of a
Private Soldier,
pp. 42-43;
Meade's Headquarters,
p. 180;
Army Life: a Private's Reminiscences,
pp. 156-57;
The Road
to Richmond,
p. 130.

2.
Down in Dixie,
p. 206.

 

3.
Discussions of the courses open to Grant at the begin-
ning of the 1864 campaign in Virginia are practically without
number. A good brief summary of the alternatives can be
found in
The Virginia Campaigns of '64 and '65,
by Major
General Andrew A. Humphreys, pp. 9-12. (This book is
authoritative, comprehensive, and unfortunately rather dull;
it is cited hereafter as Humphreys.) For an extended study,
see
The Generalship of Ulysses
S.
Grant,
pp. 209
ff.
Grant
discusses the matter in some detail in the
Official Records,
Vol. XXXVI, Part 1, pp. 12-18. I am greatly indebted to
Ralph Happel, historian, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania
County National Military Park, for the loan of his manuscript
account of the Battle of the Wilderness, which contains an
excellent analysis of the strategy of the Wilderness campaign
and its relation to the grand strategy of the final year of the war.

  1. Down
    in
    Dixie,
    p. 210.
  1. Campaigning
    with
    Grant,
    pp. 42-43.
  1. Recollections
    of
    a
    Private
    Soldier,
    pp. 43-46; M.H.S.M.
    Papers,
    Vol. IV, p. 185;
    The
    Road
    to
    Richmond,
    p. 131. Note the comment by Brigadier General Rufus Ingalls, chief quartermaster: "Our troops are undoubtedly loaded down on marches too heavily even for the road, not to speak of battle,
    o
    . . Our men are generally overloaded, fed and clad, which detracts from their marching capacity and induces straggling."
    (Official
    Records,
    Vol. XL, Part 1, p. 39.)
  2. Campaigns
    of
    the
    146th
    Regiment
    New
    York
    State Volunteers,
    compiled by Mary Genevie Green Brainard, p. 176;
    Down
    in
    Dixie,
    p. 176.
  3. Recollections
    of
    a
    Private
    Soldier,
    pp. 49-51;
    The
    Story of
    the
    Regiment,
    by William Henry Locke, p. 323.
  4. Campaigns
    of
    the
    146th
    Regiment
    New
    York
    State
    Volunteers,
    p. 179.
    10.
    Army
    Life:
    a
    Private's
    Reminiscences,
    pp. 217, 345-46.

11.
Campaigns
of
the
Army
of
the
Potomac,
pp. 420-22;
M.H.SM.
Papers,
Vol. IV, p. 188;
Following
the
Greek
Cross,
p. 183.

  1. Campaigning
    with
    Grant,
    pp. 50, 64-65.
  2. Army
    Life:
    a
    Private's
    Reminiscences,
    p. 161.
  1. The
    Fifth
    Army
    Corps,
    by Lieutenant Colonel William H. Powell, pp. 608, 610.
  2. Colonel Theodore Lyman, in
    M.H.SM.
    Papers,
    Vol
    IV, pp. 167-68; also in
    Meade's
    Headquarters,
    pp. 90-91.
  3. Report of Emory Upton,
    Official
    Records,
    Vol. XXXVI, Part 1, p. 665.
  4. History
    of
    the
    Corn
    Exchange
    Regiment,
    by the Survivors' Association, p. 400;
    Four
    Years
    in
    the
    Army
    of
    the Potomac,
    p. 129;
    Three
    Years
    in
    the
    Sixth
    Corps,
    by George T. Stevens, pp. 309-10;
    Army
    Life:
    a
    Private's
    Reminiscences,
    p. 170.
  5. Campaigns
    of
    the
    Army
    of
    the
    Potomac,
    p. 422;
    Three Years
    in
    the
    Army,
    pp. 329-30;
    Official
    Records,
    Vol.

XXXVI, Part 1, p. 614;
Campaigning with Grant,
p. 72.

  1. There is a good account of Wadsworth's and Crawford's advance in the
    M.H.S.M. Papers,
    Vol. IV, pp. 127-32. For a glimpse of Crawford, see
    The Road to Richmond,
    p. 149.
  2. Campaigns of the 146th Regiment New York State Volunteers,
    p. 195;
    Official Records,
    Vol. XXXVI, Part 1, pp. 601, 610-11, 614.
  3. M.H.S.M. Papers,
    Vol. IV, pp. 189-94; General Getty's report,
    Official Records,
    Vol. XXXVI, Part 1, pp. 676-77.
    22.
    M.H.S.M. Papers,
    Vol. IV, pp. 192-93.
  1. Official Records,
    Vol. XXXVI, Part 1, pp. 696-98;
    Recollections of a Private Soldier,
    pp. 66-67.
  2. A Little Fifer's War Diary,
    pp. 110-11, 302; M.H.S.M.
    Papers,
    Vol. IV, pp. 142, 193-94. For a good discussion of Federal difficulties in adjusting to woods fighting, see
    The Crisis of the Confederacy,
    by Cecil Battine, p. 382.

     

    25.
    The Road to Richmond,
    p. 133.

shadow
i
n
the night

 

1.
Reminiscences of the 19th Massachusetts Regiment,
pp.
87-88;
Official Records,
Vol. XXXVI, Part 1, pp. 218-19;
History of the Corn Exchange Regiment,
p. 403; M.H.S.M.
Papers,
Vol. IV, pp. 101-2;
The Road to Richmond,
p. 133.

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