Never Call Retreat (72 page)

3. There is little reason to suppose that Lee would have been in serious trouble if McClellan had carried out the plan he was following when relieved of his command. Lee put Jackson in the Valley, with half of the army, to operate against the flank, rear and communications of the Army of the Potomac if it advanced along the line of the Orange & Alexandria Railroad, and there is no doubt that Jackson would have done so effectively. Lee wrote
President Davis that he believed Jackson's presence in the Valley deranged the Federals' plans "and defeated their purpose of advancing upon Gordonsville and Charlottesville." O.R., Vol.
XXI, 1029.

4.         Ibid., 84, 1014-15.

5.
Letter of Daniel Reed Lamed to his sister dated Nov. 27, 1862, in the Daniel Reed Lamed Correspondence, Library of Congress. The dreary tale of the bureaucratic bungling which delayed the pontoons is well set forth in K. P. Williams,
Lincoln Finds a General,
Vol. II, 479-505.

6.
Daniel Larned's complaint, on Nov. 22, "We are actually helpless until our pontoon trains arrive" (Larned Correspondence, Library of Congress), is an overstatement. Burnside could have had Sumner's Right Grand Division ford the Rappahannock (as Sumner wanted to do) letting its engineers find in Fredericksburg material for makeshift bridges to carry artillery and wagon trains. He might also have posted a force in the Warrenton-Culpeper area to keep Lee from concentrating his entire army at Fredericksburg; after all, in the XI and XII Corps Burnside had 30,000 men whom he did not use at all. His reasons for clinging to the original program despite the delay are set forth in his report on the campaign. O.R., Vol. XXI, 84-86.

7.
Personal Recollections of the First Battle of Fredericksburg,
by an unidentified Confederate artillerist, typescript in the Little-field Collection, the Eugene C. Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas; Reminiscences of George W. Shreve of Stuart's Horse Artillery, in the Virginia State Libary, Richmond; Moore's
Rebellion Record,
Vol. VI, 105, citing a dispatch in the Richmond
Enquirer;
Gen. James Longstreet,
The Battle of Fredericksburg,
B. & L., Vol. HI, 79.

8.         Longstreet, op. cit., 81.

9.      Undated memorandum on the battle of Fredericksburg by
Daniel Larned, in the Library of Congress; letter written by
Gen. Humphrey's son, Harry, dated Dec. 18, 1862, in the A. A.
Humphreys Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; Hooker's testimony in the
Report of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War
(cited hereafter as
CCW Report) 1863,
Part One, 668.

10.
CCW Report, 1863,
Part One, 658, 671; George H. Washburn,
A Complete History and Record of the 108th Regiment New York Volunteers,
36-37; Maj. Gen. W. F. Smith,
Franklin's Left Grand Division,
B. & L., Vol. Ill, 138.

11.O.R., Vol. XXI, 71, 89-92. The George G. Meade Papers, in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, have an interesting exchange of letters between Franklin and Meade regarding the orders Burnside wrote. On March 28, 1863, Meade wrote to Franklin: "I have always told Genl. Burnside . . . that I did not think you were impressed with the importance he attached to the attack ordered on the left. Of course he maintained his orders admitted no other construction." Franklin told the Committee on the Conduct of the War that he was not sure that "the mere carrying of the heights" would have won the day because he did not know how much of a force Lee had concealed there. He added the old, old complaint of Army of the Potomac generals: "I know that wherever we appeared we found a great many more men than we had."
(CCW Report, 1863,
Part One, 662.)

12.Letter to Mrs. Meade dated Dec. 20, 1862, in
The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade,
Vol. I, 340. Meade told the Committee on the Conduct of the War that if he had been supported "by an advance of the whole line" he could have held his ground. His immediate superior, Maj. Gen. John F. Reynolds, agreed with him.
(CCW Report, 1863,
Part One, 691, 700.)

13.Burnside's order to Sumner was like his order to Franklin: it told Sumner to advance "a column of a division or more . . . with a view to seizing the heights in the rear of the town." O.R., Vol. XXI, 71, 90.

14.D. Watson Rowe,
On the Field of Fredericksburg,
in
Annals of the War Written by Leading Participants, North and South
(cited hereafter as
Annals of the War),
261-63.

15.Letter of William Noland Berkeley to his wife dated Dec. 17, 1862, in the Alderman Library, University of Virginia; diary of Henry Robinson Berkeley, entry for Dec. 18, in the Virginia

State Historical Society; letter of J. E. B. Stuart dated Dec. 18, in the Duke University Library.

3. The Politics of War

1.
Litter of Congressman Wadsworth to "My Dear Mitchell" dated Dec. 16, 1862, in the S. L. M. Barlow Papers, Huntington Library, San Marino, Calif.; letter of Senator Chandler to Mrs. Chandler dated Dec. 18, in the Zachariah Chandler Papers, Library of Congress; letter of Joseph Medill to Elihu Washburne, in the Washburne Papers, Library of Congress.

2.
O.R., Vol. XXI, 67; Albert D. Richardson,
The Secret Service, the Field, the Dungeon and the Escape,
306.

3.
Letter of Bancroft to Lieber dated Oct. 29, 1862, in the Francis Lieber Collection, Huntington Library.

4.
Basler, Vol. V, 527-30, 534;; Albert Gallatin Riddle,
Recollections of War Times,
207-8.

5.
Letter of T. J. Barnett to Barlow dated Nov. 30, and an undated letter, Barnett to Barlow, telling of a conversation with President Lincoln; both in the Barlow Papers, Huntington Library.

6.         Basler, Vol. VI, 48-49.

7.
Unpublished manuscript biography of McClernand, possibly written by Major Adolph Schwartz, McClernand's chief of staff in the XIII Army Corps, in the Illinois State Historical Library, Springfield; K. P. Williams,
Lincoln Finds a General,
Vol. IV, 147-48. McClernand's orders are in O.R., Vol. XVII, Part Two, 282.

8.
O.R., Vol. XVII, Part One, 468-69, 601; Williams, op. cit, 157 ff;
Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant,
Vol. I, 426-28.

9.
O.R., Vol. XVII, Part Two, 400-2; Williams, 187. McClernand's command was the XIII Corps, Sherman's the XV Corps. Maj. Gen. Stephen Hurlbut was named commander of the XVI corps and Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson of the XVII Corps.

10.        O.R., Vol. XVJI, Part Two, 425.

11.Francis Vinton Greene,
The Mississippi,
67; O.R., Vol. XX, Part Two, 415, 422.

12.Greene, op. cit., 68-70; O.R., Vol. XVII, Part One, 546-99; Robert Selph Henry,
First with the Most: Forrest,
107-21; James R. Chalmers,
Forrest and His Campaigns,
SHSP, Vol. VII, No. Nine, 460.

13. Mss. biography of McClernand as cited in Note 7, above.

14.    Greene, 70-71; O.R., Vol. XVII, Part One, 503; news story
in the Mobile
Register and Advertiser
for Jan. 7, 1863, reprinted
in the Richmond
Dispatch,
Moore's
Rebellion Record,
Vol. VI, Document 79, 281-82. Grant's orders announcing the raid are in O.R., op. cit., 515-16.

15. O.R., Vol. XVII, Part One, 605-10, 625, 666-68; George W. Morgan,
The Assault on Chickasaw Bluff,
B. & L., Vol. Ill, 462-70.

4. In the Mists at Stone's River

1.
William D. Bickham,
Rosecrans" Campaign with the Fourteenth Army Corps of the Army of the Cumberland; a Narrative of Personal Observations,
12; O.R., Vol. XX, Part Two, 422, 453; Stanley Horn,
The Army of Tennessee,
192-93.

2.
O.R., Vol. XX, Part One, 189; Part Two, 6-7, 49, 57, 59; Bickham, op. cit., 13-14.

3.
O.R., Vol. XX, Part Two, 117, 118, 123-24.

4.
Bickham, 28-30, 83; O.R., Vol. XX, Part Two, 6-7, 49.

5. O.R., Vol. XX, Part Two, 457, 458; War Letters of C. I.
Walker, in the Eugene C. Barker Texas History Center, Uni-
versity of Texas; Stanley Horn, 195-96.

6.         Bickham, 137-39.

7. Edwin C. Bearss,
Cavalry Operations in the Battle of Stone's
River,
Tennessee Historical Quarterly, Vol. XIX, No. One, 53;
letter of Bragg to President Davis dated Jan. 17, 1863, typescript
in the J. Stoddard Johnston Papers, Filson Club, Louisville; Horn,
203; O.R., Vol. XX, Part One, 663.

8.         Excellent accounts of the battle are in Horn, 190-208, and

G. C. Kniffin,
The Battle of Stone's River,
B. & L., Vol. Ill, 612-
32. See also Bickham, 203-365, passim; Wilbur F. Hinman,
The
Story of the Sherman Brigade,
355; diary of Charles C. Hood,
entry for Dec. 31, 1862, in the Library of Congress.

9.      There is a graphic account of the swarm of Federal strag-
glers in the manuscript diary of Capt. John D. Inskeep of the 17th
Ohio, Ohio Historical Society, Columbus. Bragg's telegrams are
in O.R., Vol. LH, Part Two, 402, and Vol. XX, Part One, 662.

10.    Journal of Capt. W. L. Trask, Confederate courier at Mur-
freesboro, in possession of Mr. and Mrs. Gordon W. Trask, Oak
Park, 111.; letter of John W. Rabb of the Texas Rangers, in the
Eugene C. Barker Texas History Center; letter of E. John Ellis,
in the Department of Archives, Louisiana State University; W. L.
Gammage,
The Camp, the Bivouac and the Battlefield,.
69.

11. Thomas B. Van Home,
The Life of Major General George

H.        Thomas,
97; John Lee Yaryan,
Stone's River,
in War Papers

Read before the Indiana Commandery, Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, Vol. I, 173-74. (Hereafter, when these Loyal Legion papers are referred to, they will be cited simply as MOLLUS Papers, with the State Commandery added.)

12.Thomas L. Livermore,
Numbers and Losses in the Civil War,
97, puts the Federal effective strength at 41,400, with total casualties of 12,906. He credits Bragg with 34,732 effectives and puts his losses at 11,739. In all the story of the Civil War there is nothing much more appalling than these Stone's River casualty lists.

13.Bragg gives his reasons for retreat in O.R., Vol. XX, Part One, 669.

14.        Basler, Vol. VI, 424-25.

5.
Paralysis of Command

1. Rowland, Vol. V, 390-95, citing an account in the Rich-
mond
Enquirer
for Jan. 7, 1863.

2.
Ibid., 409, 411.

3.
Edward A. Pollard,
Life of Jefferson Davis,
254-55.

4.
Richard Malcolm Johnston and William H. Browne,
Life of Alexander H. Stephens,
431-32, 435, citing letters from Stephens to his brother Linton dated Jan. 18, Jan. 22 and Jan. 29, 1863.

5.
Johnston,
Narrative of Military Operations,
161-62. The interesting point here is that the darling of President Davis' contemporary critics was Johnston himself.

6.     O.R., Vol. XX, Part One, 669, 682-84; Stanley Horn, 222-23.

7.
Letter of Bragg to Clement C. Clay, dated Jan. 10, 1863, in the C. C. Clay Papers, Manuscript Department, Duke University Library, letter of Bragg to President Davis dated Jan. 17, in the J. Stoddard Johnston Papers, the Filson Club, Louisville; Rowland, Vol. V, 434.

8.
Letter of Johnston to Wigfall dated March 8, 1863, in the L. T. Wigfall Papers, Library of Congress; Johnston to President Davis dated Feb. 3 and Feb. 12, in O.R., Vol. XXIII, Part Two, 624, 632-33.

9.
O.R., op. cit., 626-27, 640-41, 658-59. The relationship between Johnston and Bragg proposed by Secretary Seddon was precisely the one that existed between Grant and Meade during the 1864 campaign in Virginia.

10 Ibid., 674, 684-85, 708; letter of Johnston to Davis dated April 10, 1863, in the Johnston Papers, Duke University Library.

11.  Letters of Johnston to Wigfall dated March 4 and March
8, 1863, in the Wigfall Papers, Library of Congress.

12. O.R., Vol. XXIII, Part Two, 761.

13.Frank Vandiver, ed.,
The Civil War Diary of General Josiah Gorgas,
26; Rowland, Vol. V, 460-62.

14.Johnston and Browne,
Life of Alexander H. Stephens,
440, 441.

6. A Question of Control

1.       Letter of Bates to Winthrop dated Jan. 5, 1863, in the Rob-
ert C. Winthrop Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston.

2.
Lincoln to Green Adams of Kentucky, Jan. 7, in Basler, Vol. VI, 42; O.R., Vol. XX, Part Two, 282, 308; New York
Tribune
for Feb. 11, 1863.

3.
Letter of Nicolay to his wife Therena, dated Jan. 15, in the John G. Nicolay Papers, Library of Congress; letter of Medill to Elihu B. Washburne dated Jan. 16, in the Washburne Papers, Library of Congress; Congressional Globe, 3rd Session, 37th Congress, Part One, 284-90; diary of John A. Dahlgren, entry for Dec. 22, 1862, cited in
Manuscripts from Goodspeed's,
Catalog 510.

4.
It has been said that Lincoln did read Clausewitz, but this writer has been unable to confirm it. The records of the Library of Congress do not show that he ever drew the book from that library. This of course is not conclusive. It does seem obvious that the Clausewitz dictum is one that as good a politician as Lincoln would have understood instinctively.

5.
On Dec. 18 Senator Zachariah Chandler of Michigan wrote to his wife that "The President is a weak man, too weak for the occasion," and he told her: 'The Senate has in caucus commenced the warfare upon Gov. Seward and I think he will have to leave the cabinet before it is over. Seward as you are aware has been the bane of Mr. Lincoln's administration." (Zachariah Chandler Papers, Library of Congress.) It was right at this time that T. J. Barnett was warning S. L. M. Barlow: "So much does he" (the President) "seem influenced by men of will that I feel it a duty to urge Conservatives to storm his mind & carry it if possible." (Letter dated Dec. 22, in the Barlow Papers, Huntington Library.)