Ride Around McClellan

J. E. B. Stuart

On June 10th Lee called JEB Stuart, his cavalry commander, to meet with him at his headquarters. Stuart was a brilliant young officer who had served in Virginia since the beginning of the war. He was known for his bravery and dash in brilliant engagements against the Federals. Now Lee was looking for a way to defeat the army of George B. McClellan, who was facing him just outside Richmond. McClellan's army was divided by the Chickahominy River, and Lee wanted his cavalry to examine the Federal right to get more information about its situation. Stuart asked if he could ride completely around McClellan, and Lee did not forbid it at once. The next day he sent these orders:

You are desired to make a secret movement to the rear of the enemy, now posted on Chickahominy, with a view of gaining intelligence of his operations, communications, &c.; of driving his foraging parties, and securing such grain, cattle, &c., for yourselves as you can make arrangements to have driven in. Another object is to destroy his wagon trains, said to be daily passing.... The utmost vigilance on your part will be necessary to prevent any surprise to yourself, and the greatest caution must be practiced in keeping well in your front and flanks reliable scouts to give you information. You will return as soon as the object of your expedition is accomplished, and you must bear constantly in mind, while endeavoring to execute the general purpose of your mission, not to hazard unnecessarily your command or attempt what your judgment may not approve; but be content to accomplish all the good you can without feeling it necessary to obtain all that might be desired.

Stuart picked his best units, 1,200 men in all. He awakened his staff at 2 am on June 12th, the next day. “Gentlemen,” he said, “in ten minutes, every man must be in the saddle.” The cavalry was soon moving. They rode 22 miles north, camping along the South Anna River. The raid would truly begin the next day.

Battle of Port Republic

After defeating Fremont yesterday at the battle of Cross Keys, Ewell's men set out at dawn to join Jackson. During the night a group of Confederate pioneers had built a bridge out of wagons and boards across the south river at Port Republic. They began crossing this bridge and moving out northwest from Port Republic towards Shields. Along the left side of the road were fields stretching to the south fork of the Shenandoah River. On the right of the road were the forested foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. A few miles from town the Stonewall Brigade encountered three Union batteries on a 70 foot high hill called the Coaling. It was called that because they burned the hill's wood to make charcoal. It was a good artillery position, overlooking much of the area. Jackson realized that the Coaling was the key to the entire field. He sent two regiments of the Stonewall Brigade to move through the woods to flank the Coaling, while the Confederate artillery would engage the batteries on the Coaling as support. The Union cannon were in a much better position, and inflicted many casualties on the Southerners. One battery went in with 150 men and 6 guns and ended the battle with only 50 men and one working gun. Edward Moore, one of the cannoneers later wrote,

"Having gone about a mile, the enemy opened on us with artillery, their shells tearing by us with a most venomous whistle. Halted on the sides of the road, as we moved by, were the infantry of our brigade. ... Again our two Parrott guns were ordered forward. Turning out of the road to the left, we unlimbered and commenced firing. ... We were hotly engaged, shells bursting close around and pelting us with soft dirt as they struck the ground. ... The constant recoiling of our gun cut great furrows in the earth, which made it necessary to move several times to more solid ground. In these different positions which we occupied three of the enemy's shells passed between the wheels and under the axle of our gun, bursting at the trail."

However, the flanking troops encountered serious difficulties. The terrain was very difficult, and it took a long time for them to get into position. When they finally reached their goal, they opened a scattered firing on the Union batteries, driving away the gunners. But the Federals rallied and returned to the pieces, and poured round after round of canister into the woods. The Virginians, unable to stand up to the artillery fire, fell back and reported their reverse. Jackson would need more troops to capture the Coaling. He ordered Richard Taylor's Louisiana Brigade, which had won the day at Winchester, to move on the Coaling. The Confederate troops were very slow in coming up, as they were having trouble with the new bridge. It became unsteady after hundreds of men had crossed, and one many fell into the fast river. After seeing that, the soldiers would only cross one man at a time for fear of getting wet. Robert Lewis Dabney, Jackson's chief of staff, tried to get the column halted so that he could have the bridge repaired, but the troops' commanders refused to halt and pushed forward, one man at a time.

Erastus B. Tyler

Meanwhile the Federal commander on the field, Erastus B. Tyler, was making a grievous mistake. He was commanding Shield's vanguard, but in deploying his troops he put them between the Coaling and the road, opposite the Confederate batteries and the majority of the Stonewall Brigade. He left the Coaling, which Jackson had recognized as the key position, weakly defended and open to being attacked on the flank.

Richard Taylor

While Taylor was moving around the Union left flank, the Stonewall Brigade had to hold out on the plan. General Winder ordered his men to charge Tyler's line to gain as much time as possible. They set off with a cheer across a wheat field, and halting at a fence, opened fire on the Union infantry. They fought well and held their own against twice their number for half an hour. Finally the Federals charged and drove back the Confederates, who were running out of ammunition. The Confederates fled across the plain, pursued by cheering Northerners. Ewell, who had arrived with his first brigade, threw it in and was able to stop the Federal pursuit for the moment, but it could not hold for long.

Taylor was in position to attack the Coaling. He heard the cheers of the advancing Federals on the plain below, and realized that if he did not attack, a disaster might be coming with the army divided by a river crossed only by a rickety bridge. Therefore he ordered his men forward, and they charged the Coaling, giving out the Rebel yell. “On the Louisianians dashed,” one of them later wrote,

regardless of the terrific fire of the canister poured into their ranks by the battery.... its only effect is the accelerated the speed of the men in their impetuous charge. The nearer they approached the given point, of which the battery was the center, the less regard seemed paid to the preservation of the line, until finally the regiments became so intermingled as to present a disorganized, but formidable mass.

Taylor's men finally made it up the hill, and, after a brief hand to hand fight, drove back the Yankee gunners, capturing the hill and guns. But this success would not last long. The Federal infantry units in the area came forward and charged, driving back the victorious rebels. The Louisianians charged again and captured the position, but were driven back again by yet another counterattack. For the third time the Confederates came on again.

Panting like dogs-faces begrimed - nine-tenths of them bareheaded - the Federal wave rolls back over the guns, and now there is a grapple such as no other battle ever furnished. Men beat each other's brains out with muskets which they have no time to load. Those who go down to die think only of revenge, and they clutch the nearest foe with a grasp which death renders stronger. The hill was won, and this time Taylor would hold it. They retained five of the six guns that were on the hill. The rest of the Union line soon crumbled with the key to the position lost and their cannon turned on themselves. The rest of Jackson's forces advanced with cheers, driving back Tyler's force for several miles.

Hearing of the defeat, Shield sent forward reinforcements, but they were too late. Fremont also failed to arrive in time to be of any use. He was delayed by Trimble, who was able to make it safely across the bridge, burning it behind him. Fremont was stranded on the other side, and could do nothing but shell the ambulances as they took the wounded off the field. Jackson had won a great victory. It was not just through his troops fighting on the battlefield, but his brilliant maneuvering, which had allowed him to strike two superior armies in turn, prevent them from uniting, and defeat them both. He was assisted in this by the failures of the Federal commanders, who were themselves scared of Jackson and had moved too slowly and cautiously to make use of their greatly superior numbers.

In these two battles, of Cross Keys and Port Republic, the Confederates lost 240 killed, 930 wounded and 100 missing or captured. The Federals lost 270 killed, 850 wounded and 780 captured.

Battle of Cross Keys

 On the morning of June 8th at 8:30 Fremont began moving cautiously against Ewell, who was near Cross Keys. He outnumbered Ewell two to run, but did not know it. He encountered the Confederates in a strong position along Mill Creek, with Steuart’s brigade on the left, Elzy in the center and Trimble on the right. Fremont had his line of battle formed by 10:00, and an artillery duel began. On the Confederate side, Trimble decided to advance his brigade ¼ mile forward to a better defensive position. Trimble was a sixty year old West Pointer and had turned his brigade of troops from four different states into a well trained fighting unit. Trimble's advance could have been dangerous because it opened up his flank, but it actually was safe because he was covered by artillery posted on the ridge he had left.

Cross Keys battlefield via CWT

Trimble placed his troops along a fence on the edge of a rolling field. They hoped to catch a Federal unit by surprise, and that is just what happened. As Julius Stahel's brigade advanced toward Trimble it was making a serious mistake. Although he had served in the Austrian army and on the staffs of several European generals, he made the elementary mistake of advancing without skirmishers out in front. Skirmishers are a thin line of troops ahead of the main body. Their is to detect threats, fire a few shots, and fall back to the main body. Without those skirmishers, Stahel walked right into a trap. The 8th New York came over the hill toward the Confederate line completely ignorant of its position. At 40 yards Trimble's men stood up and fired a volley. The New Yorker's lines melted before the Confederate bullets. The Southerners continued to pour in volleys, and the Federals had no choice but to run in retreat. The 8th suffered terrific casualties. They lost 180 killed and wounded and 80 prisoners, making these volleys some of the most deadly of the war. These were about half of the Union casualties for the entire battle.

The aggressive Trimble was not content with his victory over the 8th New York. Reinforced by two of Elzy's Virginia regiments under Colonel Walker, he moved forward to attack the position from which the 8th had attacked. He moved troops around the Federal's left flank and after several attacks broke the Union line. Moving on, he next encountered William Bohlen's brigade. He attacked those four regiments, and after a fight Bohlen retreated. Trimble, forming his brigade on top of the hill, sent back to Ewell for orders. In the center and left of the Confederate line, the artillery duel had continued fiercely all this time. The men laid down to avoid getting hit, until finally the barrage came to an end when the ammunition ran out. Both Steuart and Elzy were wounded by the Union artillery fire. Milroy and Schenck's brigades moved forward toward Ewell's line when the barage ceased. There were several charges and counter charges, but no progress was made against the Confederate position. Fremont finally ordered his men to retreat. This lack of success was because Schenck had not fully engaged Ewell, and he had only done some light skirmishing. He only had one tenth of Milroy's casualties. The Confederate position was too strong to be taken by the Union commanders unless they had real initiative in making their attacks.

Issac R. Trimble

Fremont, however, did not have that initiative. This was his first real battle. He decided to retreat, even though he had no real reason to. He had not tried a real attack, and his left had only been pushed back by Trimble, not completely broken. He still greatly outnumbered Ewell. But he was cautious, which overwhelmed all other considerations. Trimble requested permission from Ewell to continue his attacks, but Ewell refused. He had met with Jackson and it was decided that the two divisions would unite the next day and turn on Shields, leaving Trimble as a rear guard to hold off Fremont until the bridge at Port Republic was burnt. However, Trimble was so persistent that Ewell sent him on to Jackson. Jackson told him that he had to get Ewell to agree, so Trimble's attack was never made. The Confederates gathered up their dead and wounded and went to sleep to prepare for the next day.

Port Republic Raid

Port Republic House. Photo via CWT

As Jackson's army arrived in the Port Republic area, he divided to face both armies. Dick Ewell and his division were placed at Cross Keys facing Fremont, while Jackson's division in Port Republic faced Shield's force. On the morning of June 8th, 150 years ago today, a very embarrassing event occurred for the Confederates. The Southern cavalry under Ashby's leadership was not a model of discipline, and with his death they fell apart. This allowed a Union raiding party to penetrate the Confederate lines. They were nearly upon the Confederate headquarters before they were discovered, and Jackson and his staff had to leap to their horses in order to avoid being captured. Although Jackson escaped safely, several of his staff were in fact captured, although they were later able to make their escape. The raid was soon turned back with a last ditch defense by the small Confederate force and the arrival of troops from Jackson's main body, who were able to cross the river and brush away the Union forces. This was one of Jackson's closest shaves of the war.

Battle of Memphis

Charles Ellet

 After their embarrassing defeat at the Battle of Plumb Run Bend, the Union fleet on the Mississippi River under Charles Davis moved out against the cottonclads of James Montgomery. Davis also had a new weapon, the rams of Charles Ellet. He was an engineer who had been approved by the War Department to build a fleet of nine rams. They carried no armor or guns, their only tactic was to strike the enemy ship hard and fast and send it to the bottom. They were commanded by Ellet, and he had appointed all the captains of the ships and they all happened to be his very close relatives. They had joined the ironclads just over a week before, and this battle would be the first test of the rams and their commanders.

The Federal fleet moved out to battle Montgomery on June 6th, 150 years ago today. They met just off of Memphis, Tennessee. In front was Davis's five ironclads and behind four of Ellet's rams. The other five rams misinterpreted their orders and never entered the battle. The battle began with the ironclads firing on the Confederates steamers at long range as they advanced towards each other. Then the rams ran past them at full speed, charging towards the cottonclads. Charles Ellet's flagship, the USS Queen of the West struck first, cutting the CSS Colonel Lovel in two. From that point on the battle became confused with smoke obscuring the vision of the observers. But everyone agreed that the Federals got the better of the engagement. A ram knocked the sidewheel off the CSS General Price, and then came around and rammed the CSS General Beauregard. The CSS Jeff Thompson was set on fire. And three others hit by shells from the ironclads. Only one Confederate gunboat, the CSS Van Dorn, was able to make its escape. The battle had been quick and bloodless for the Union fleet. In fact, the only suffered one casualty. That one was Charles Ellet himself. He was hit with a pistol ball while directing the attack, and died of infection a few days later. With the defeat of the small Confederate fleet, Memphis fell to the Union. The Federals had made one more small step toward victory in the west.

Jackson Retreats up the Valley

After defeating Nathaniel Bank's army at the battles of Front Royal and Winchester, Stonewall Jackson moved north threatening to capture Harper's Ferry, at the foot of the Shenandoah Valley. His mission was to threaten a movement on Washington, and it worked wonderfully. Abraham Lincoln, fearing that Jackson would make a quick swoop on the capitol with a large army, diverted troops from McClellan's attack on Richmond to converge on Jackson. He planned to have three armies to trap Jackson. The army of John C. Fremont in West Virginia would move into the valley from the west, capturing Harrisonburg and cutting Jackson's supply line. Bank's regrouped army would move south toward Jackson again on the front, and troops moving west from McDowell's corps in Fredericksburg would be ready to pounce on Jackson as he retreated. He thought these columns converging from three directions were sure to capture Jackson, but he was wrong.

Jackson

Jackson received word on May 30th of the movements being made against him, but he did not retreat in disorder. He made sure all the prisoners and supplies he had captured were gotten to safety. He was even thinking of moving on the offensive. He sent his friend, colonel Alexander Boteler, a member of the Confederate Congress in Richmond, telling him:

"McDowell and Fremont are probably aiming to effect a junction at Strasburg, so as to cut us off from the upper Valley, and are both nearer to it than we are. Consequently, no time is to be lost. You can say to them in Richmond that I'll send on the prisoners, secure most if not all of the captured property, and with God's blessing will be able to baffle the enemy's plans here with my present force, but that it will have to be increased as soon thereafter as possible. You may tell them, too, that if my command can be gotten up to 40,000 men a movement may be made ... which will soon raise the siege of Richmond and transfer this campaign from the banks of the Potomac to those of the Susquehanna."

None the less, Jackson needed to avoid being destroyed, so he began pulling back. However, a disaster struck. He received news that the 12th Georgia, one of his best regiments which had been left to guard supplies at Front Royal, had been surprised and driven back. He continued to move his troops south up the valley as quickly as possible. Fremont and McDowell were very close by. But when they were only a few miles from Jackson they stopped pressing to close the trap. Jackson was allowed to move by while they sat idle. After the inept Northern commanders allowed Jackson to slip by they finally resumed the pursuit. They had a long hard march after Stonewall Jackson. One of Bank's staff officers put it this way:

"From what I can learn here, Jackson is gone beyond pursuit. Thus culminates this disgraceful affair, the most disgraceful to the Federal armies that has occurred during the whole war. I am utterly humiliated to have been mixed up in it."

As Jackson was retreating, his cavalry rearguard under Turner Ashby skirmished with the Union forces. In one of these small fights, 150 years ago today, Ashby was killed on Chesnut Ridge near Harrisonburg, Virginia. He was shot at the head of his men, who pushed on beyond their fallen leader and won the skirmish. Ashby, who was known as the Black Knight of the Confederacy, was very good in combat, although his men's discipline off the field was not ideal. "As a partisan officer I never knew his superior;" Jackson said, "his daring was proverbial; his powers of endurance almost incredible; his tone of character heroic, and his sagacity almost intuitive in divining the purposes and movements of the enemy."

Turner Ashby

Jackson did not just rejoice that he had avoided destruction, he looked for a way to turn back and strike at his pursuers. Studying the maps that Jedediah Hotchkiss had made for him, he determined that he would halt at Port Republic, where the North and South Rivers combined to form the South Fork of the Shenandoah River. If he burnt the few bridges across the rain swollen rivers he could prevent the Federal forces from combining on him, and instead he could defeat them in detail. That is just what he planned to do.

Battle of Seven Pines – Day 2

The Confederates renewed the battle at Seven Pines on the morning of June 1st. The day before their attacks had been uncoordinated, and D. H. Hill finally attacked before all the troops were in position. The command situation was in turmoil, with Joseph E. Johnston wounded, G. W. Smith in command and Robert E. Lee soon to take over. The Confederate attacks were renewed, but the Federals held strong positions and had been reinforced. Two Union divisions counterattacked, stopping the Confederate advance. The Southerners eventually broke off the battle, retreating at 11:30 am. The North had lost 790 killed, 3,594 wounded and 647 missing, the Confederates 980 killed, 4,749 wounded and 405 missing. Although the attack was unsuccessful, it shook McClellan and he made no attempt to launch a counterattack while the Confederates were still reeling from their defeat.

The most important effect of the battle was the wounding of Johnston and the appointment of Lee to lead the army. The reaction at first was not very positive. "I prefer Lee to Johnston." McClellan said, "The former is too cautious and weak under grave responsibility. Personally brave and energetic to a fault, he yet is wanting in moral firmness when pressed by heavy responsibility, and is likely to be timid and irresolute in action." However, this view soon changed. Looking back one Northern officer wrote:

"The shell ... which wounded ... General Johnston, although it confused the Rebels, was the saddest shot fired during the war. It changed the entire Rebel tactics. It took away incompetence, indecision and satisfaction and gave skillful generalship, excellent plans and good discipline.... Before the battle of Fair Oaks, Rebel troops were sickly, half fed and clothed, and had no hearts for their work. ... [After Lee took command], the troops improved in appearance. ... The discipline became better; they went into battles with shouts, and without being urged, and, when in, fought like tigers. ... A more marked change for the better never was made in any body of men than that wrought in his army by the sensible actions of General Lee."

Lee soon won over the hearts of officers and men. This was one of his best qualities. While others, such as Jackson and A. P. Hill, frequently quarreled with their subordinates, Lee was able to work graciously even with those who he would rather not deal with. Even Johnston recognized that the change fo commanders was for the better, saying, "the shot that struck me down was the best every fired for the Confederacy..."