Chancellorsville and Gettysburg - Campaigns of the Civil War - VI

Abner Doubleday

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• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 22
• Langue: English

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Project Gutenberg's Chancellorsville and
Gettysburg, by Abner Doubleday
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Title: Chancellorsville and Gettysburg Campaigns
of the Civil War - VI
Author: Abner Doubleday
Release Date: March 7, 2007 [EBook #20762]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG
EBOOK CHANCELLORSVILLE AND
GETTYSBURG ***
Produced by Ed FerrisCHANCELLORSVILLE
AND GETTYSBURG
CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR.—VI.
CHANCELLORSVILLE AND GETTYSBURG
BY ABNER DOUBLEDAY BREVET MAJOR-
GENERAL, U.S.A., AND LATE MAJOR-
GENERAL U.S.V.; COMMANDING THE FIRST
CORPS AT GETTYSBURG.
NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 743
AND 745 BROADWAY 1882
COPYRIGHT BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1882
TROW'S PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING
COMPANY 210-213 East 12th Street
NEW YORK
PREFACE.In writing ths narrative, which relates to the
decisive campaign which freed the Northern States
from invasion, it may not be out of place to state
what facilities I have had for observation in the
fulfilment of so important a task. I can only say that
I was, to a considerable extent, an actor in the
scenes I describe, and knew the principal leaders
on both sides, in consequence of my association
with them at West Point, and, subsequently, in the
regular army. Indeed, several of them, including
Stonewall Jackson and A. P. Hill, were, prior to the
war, officers in the regiment to which I belonged.
As commander of the Defences of Washington in
the spring of 1862, I was, owing to the nature of
my duties, brought into intimate relations with the
statesmen who controlled the Government at the
time, and became well acquainted with President
Lincoln. I was present, too, after the Battle of
Gettysburg, at a very interesting Cabinet Council,
in which the pursuit of Lee was fully discussed; so
that, in one way and another, I have had better
opportunities to judge of men and measures than
usually fall to the lot of others who have written on
the same subject.
I have always felt it to be the duty of every one
who held a prominent position in the great war to
give to posterity the benefit of his personal
recollections; for no dry official statement can ever
convey an adequate idea to those who come after
us of the sufferings and sacrifices through which
the country has passed. Thousands of men—the
flower of our Northern youth—have gone down to
their graves unheralded and unknown, and theirachievements and devotion to the cause have
already been forgotten. It is, therefore, incumbent
upon us, who were their comrades in the field, to
do all in our power to preserve their deeds from
oblivion.
And yet it is no easy task to relate
contemporaneous events. Whoever attempts it
must be prepared for severe criticism and the
exhibition of much personal feeling. Some of this
may be avoided, it is true, by writing a colorless
history, praising everybody, and attributing all
disasters to dispensations of Providence, for which
no one is to blame. I cannot, however, consent to
fulfill my allotted task in this way, for the great
lessons of the war are too valuable to be ignored
or misstated. It is not my desire to assail any of the
patriotic men who were engaged in the contest, but
each of us is responsible for our actions in this
world, and for the consequences which flow from
them; and where great disasters have occurred, it
is due both to the living and the dead that the
causes and circumstances be justly and properly
stated.
Richelieu once exclaimed, upon giving away a high
appointment: "Now I have made one ingrate and a
thousand enemies." Every one who writes the
history of the Great Rebellion will often have
occasion to reiterate the statement: For the military
critic must necessarily describe facts which imply
praise or censure. Those who have contributed to
great successes think much more might have been
said on the subject, and those who have causedreverses and defeats are bitter in their
denunciations.
Nevertheless, the history of the war should be
written before the facts have faded from the
memory of living men, and have become mere
matters of tradition.
In a narrative of this kind, resting upon a great
number of voluminous details, I cannot hope to
have wholly escaped error, and wherever I have
misconceived or misstated a fact, it will give me
pleasure to correct the record.
A. D.
NEW YORK, January, 1882.
CONTENTS.
LIST OF MAPS
CHANCELLORSVILLE CHAPTER I. THE
OPENING OF 1863—HOOKER'S PLANS
CHAPTER II. FRIDAY, THE FIRST OF MAY
CHAPTER III. THE DISASTROUS SECOND OF
MAY CHAPTER IV. THE ROUT OF THE
ELEVENTH CORPS CHAPTER V. JACKSON'S
ADVANCE IS CHECKED CHAPTER VI. SICKLES
FIGHTS HIS WAY BACK—ARRIVAL OF THE
FIRST CORPS CHAPTER VII. THE BATTLE OF
THE THIRD OF MAY CHAPTER VIII. MAYFOURTH—ATTACK ON SEDGWICK'S FORCE
CHAPTER IX. PREPARATIONS TO RENEW THE
CONFLICT CHAPTER X. BATTLE OF BRANDY
STATION (FLEETWOOD)
GETTYSBURG CHAPTER I. THE INVASION OF
THE NORTH CHAPTER II. HOOKER'S PLANS—
LONGSTREET OCCUPIES THE GAPS IN THE
BLUE RIDGE— ALARM IN RICHMOND—
HOOKER SUPERSEDED BY MEADE CHAPTER
III. STUART'S RAID—THE ENEMY IN FRONT OF
HARRISBURG—MEADE'S PLAN CHAPTER IV.
THE FIRST DAY OF THE BATTLE OF
GETTYSBURG, WEDNESDAY, JULY 1, 1863
CHAPTER V. BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG—THE
SECOND DAY CHAPTER VI. THE BATTLE OF
THE THIRD DAY—JOHNSON'S DIVISION
DRIVEN OUT CHAPTER VII. GENERAL
RETREAT OF THE ENEMY—CRITICISMS OF
DISTINGUISHED CONFEDERATE OFFICERS
APPENDIX A APPENDIX B INDEX
LIST OF MAPS.
FIELD OF OPERATIONS IN VIRGINIA
OPERATIONS ON THE FIRST OF MAY, 1863
JACKSON'S ATTACK ON HOWARD, MAY 1
BATTLE OF THE THIRD OF MAY SEDGWICK'S
POSITION FROM THE POTOMAC TO
HARRISBURG DIAGRAMS OF POSITIONS IN
THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG: I. II. III. IV.
GETTYSBURG: FINAL ATTACK OF THE FIRSTDAY AND BATTLE OF THE SECOND DAY
DIAGRAM OF THE ATTACK ON SICKLES AND
SYKES
CHANCELLORSVILLE.
CHANCELLORSVILLE.
CHAPTER I. THE OPENING OF 1863.—
HOOKER'S PLANS.
After the great disaster of Fredericksburg, General
Burnside, the Commander of the Union Army, was
superseded by Major-General Joseph Hooker, a
graduate of West Point, who having formerly held a
high position on the staff of General Gideon J.
Pillow in the war with Mexico, was supposed to be
well acquainted with military operations on a large
scale. He had subsequently left the army, and had
been engaged in civil pursuits for several years. He
was a man of fine presence, of great personal
magnetism, and had the reputation of being one of
our most efficient and successful corps
commanders.
When the campaign of Chancellorsville
commenced, the Army of the Potomac was posted
on the left bank of the Rappahannock, opposite
Fredericksburg, among the Stafford hills, in a
position which was considered almost impregnable.It rested upon the Potomac River, and as all of its
supplies came by water, they were not subject to
delay or interruption of any kind; nor were they
endangered by the movements of the enemy.
At the period referred to, General Hooker had
under him a force of about 124,500 men of all
arms, 11,500 of which were cavalry.
On the opposite side of the river, the Army of
Northern Virginia, under General Robert E. Lee,
numbered, according to their official reports, about
sixty-two thousand men, three thousand of which
were cavalry;* but the difference was amply
compensated by the wide river in front of the
enemy, and the fact that every available point and
ford was well fortified and guarded. General
Thomas J. Jackson, commonly called Stonewall
Jackson, held the line below Hamilton's crossing to
Port Royal. Two out of four divisions of
Longstreet's corps were absent. The fourth, under
Major-General Lafayette McLaws, was posted from
Hamilton's crossing to Banks' Ford. Still farther up
and beyond the front of either army, the crossing-
places were watched by the rebel cavalry under
Major- General J. E. B. Stuart, supported by the
Third Division of Longstreet's corps, that of
Anderson.
[* Napoleon says 100,000 men on the rolls are only
equivalent to about 80,000 muskets in action. It is
doubtful if Hooker had over 113,000 men for actual
combat. Lieut.-Colonel W. T. Forbes, Assistant
Adjutant General, who has had access to therecords, after a careful estimate, places the
number as follows. First Corps, 16,000; Second
Corps, 16,000; Third Corps, 18,000; Fifth Corps,
15,000; Sixth Corps, 22,000; Eleventh Corps,
15,000; Twelfth Corps, 11,000; total infantry and
artillery, 113,000; Pleasanton's cavalry, 1,500; total
effective force, 114,500. He estimates Lee's army
at 62,000, which the Confederate authorities,
Hotchkiss and Allan, place as follows: Anderson's
and McLaws' divisions of Longstreet's Corps,
17,000; Jackson's Corps, 33,500; Stuart's Cavalry,<