Lee Moves Towards Gettysburg

The Gettysburg campaign began 150 years ago as Lee began breaking contact with the Federal army at Fredericksburg, Virginia. The Confederates filed off to the northwest, leaving A. P. Hill's Third Corps to cover the movement. Hooker heard of the movement, but Hill's troops were able to skirmish with him and stop him from pressing forward.

Lee's plan for his invasion of the north would be to move through the Shenandoah Valley. The mountain range to the east would screen him from Hooker's army and allow him to easily defend his line of march, using the mountain passes. First Ewell with the Second Corps would clear the Federal forces out of the valley. Then while Longstreet with the First Corps covered the east side of the Blue Ridge, Hill's Third Corps would follow Ewell down the Valley.

Lee Proposes Invasion of North

Lee

Lee had won a glorious victory in the Battle of Chancellorsville, but he had been unable to completely destroy the Union army. The war was not progressing well for the south in other theaters and Grant was making progress towards the capture of Vicksburg, Mississippi. It seemed that unless something was done, the city was doomed. Lee also believed that even only considering Virginia, he would eventually have to go on the offensive again, or the fighting would turn into a siege which the Confederacy would not be able to maintain.

This left the Confederacy with two options. Lee could fall back to the defenses around Richmond and send a large portion of his army to try to help Vicksburg, or he could embark on another invasion of the North. He chose the latter, and went to Richmond 150 years ago today for a multi-day conference with high ranking Confederates.

Jefferson Davis

It was hoped that an invasion would accomplish a few purposes. First, it would demoralize the northern populace, and it might convince the government in Washington to pull troops from Vicksburg to meet Lee's threat. Second, the food supply in Virginia was diminishing, and it was getting harder and harder to find supplies in the places through which the armies and marched and counter marched. Moving north he could live off the enemy's country. And third, always in the back of Lee's mind was the thought that if he gained a great victory on the Union's own ground, he might finally be able to follow up on his victory, capture Washington, and perhaps even end the war. Lee believed continued defeats would mean that Lincoln would loose the election next November, and if Lincoln lost the election doubtless the war would end. He wrote to his wife:

If we can baffle them in their various designs this year, next fall there will be a great change in public opinion at the North. The Republicans will be destroyed & I think the friends of peace will become so strong as that the next administration will go in on that basis. We have only therefore to resist manfully ... [and] our success will be certain.

It was for all these reasons that Lee decided, with the agreement of the government in Richmond, to attempt another invasion of the north.

Lee Invades Maryland

150 years ago today, Robert E. Lee crossed the Potomac into Maryland, beginning his first invasion of the north. He expressed the reasons for it in a letter to president Jefferson Davis:

Mr. President: The present seems to be the most propitious time since the commencement of the war for the Confederate Army to enter Maryland. The two grand armies of the United States that have been operating in Virginia, though now united, are much weakened and demoralized. Their new levies ... will take some time to prepare for the field. If it is ever desired to give material aid to Maryland and afford her an opportunity of throwing off the oppression to which she is now subject, this would seem the most favorable. The army is not properly equipped for an invasion of an enemy's territory. It lacks much of the material of war, is feeble in transportation, the animals being much reduced, and the men are poorly provided with clothes, and in thousands of instances are destitute of shoes. Still, we cannot afford to be idle, and though weaker than our opponents in men and military equipments must endeavor to harass if we cannot destroy them. I am aware that the movement is attended with much risk, yet I do not consider success impossible, and shall endeavor to guard it from loss.

There were several other important factors that Lee did not mention. Most Confederates saw the path to victory through foreign intervention. They hoped a European nation would join the war on their side and turn the ballance in their favor. It was hoped with an invasion of the north they would be able to induce nations to join them, as they had demonstrated that they were militarily viable. He would be coordinating with Braxton Bragg in his invasion of Kentucky. The Confederates would be able to be resupplied from the untouched resources of Maryland and Pennsylvania. Maryland was a slave state, and it was hoped that Lee's army would liberate them and induce them to join his army. And lastly, there was always the hope that they would be able to gain military sucess, capture Washington, and dictate terms to the enemy.

In the coming campaign Lee would be facing an opponent who was both new and old. John Pope, after his decisive defeat at the battle of 2nd Manassas, was removed from command and treated essentially with military exile, in an appointment to quell an Indian uprising (the subject of a future post.) He was replaced with George B. McClellan, who Lee had defeated in the Seven Days. Lincoln's cabinet was very much against this change, as McClellan had demonstrated his reluctance to work actively against Lee. Lincoln replied:

"We must use what tools we have. There is no man in the Army who can man these fortifications and lick these troops of ours into shape half as well as he. If he can't fight himself, he excels in making others ready to fight."

Bragg Moves North

Bragg

The Confederate commanders in Tennessee were Generals Braxton Bragg, and Kirby Smith, each commanding an army. Together, they planned to strike north into Tennessee and Kentucky. They hoped to distract Grant and Buell from moving on Vicksburg by striking north. They were also hoping based that they would be able to pick up many new volunteers for the army from southern sympathizers in Kentucky and Tennessee. But first the armies had to be prepared. Bragg worked in infuse discipline into his men to prepare them for coming battles. Bragg was famous for his short temper. He quarreled very easily. The soldiers told a story of when he was in the United States army as a Lieutenant commanding a company. He was also serving as quartermaster at the post where he was stationed. His company needed supplies, but as quartermaster he knew he could not get them. So he submitted a request as company commander for the supplies, and as quartermaster, he refused to give them. He then referred the matter to his superior. After looking at the notes, the commander said "Mr Bragg, you have quarreled with every officer in the army, and now you are quarreling with yourself!"

Kirby Smith

Before Bragg could move move North, he first had to reach Chattanooga Tennessee. Buell's army was on its way as well, and they had a six week head start. But Bragg had a plan to out wit him. He had been working on repairing the railroad to Mobile, Alabama, and from Mobile to Chattanooga. It was much longer, but it was also much faster. Like Johnston had done at the Battle of Bull Run, Bragg hoped to use the technology of the railroad to make a movement that otherwise would have taken weeks. His men boarded the cars beginning on July 23rd, and withing a week they arrived in Chattanooga, just ahead of the federals. He met with Kirby Smith, who as the Confederate commander in East Tennessee, he would cooperate with in his planned invasion. Together they had 52,000 men, much less that the federal forces. So they intended to follow the example of Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley and destroy the federal armies one by one, moving quickly to avoid being outnumbered.