Robert E. Lee

July 3, 1863, Pickett’s Charge Fails And With It the Hopes for Confederate Victory

By July 3, in the summer of 1863, the battle in and around of Gettysburg had been raging for two days. Casualties on both sides were high. The third day saw the Confederate troops, about 12,500 strong assault across a mile of open terrain to a gently upslope position of the Union forces.

While it is widely known as Pickett’s Charge, George Pickett actually commanded just three of the 11 brigades involved in the assault. His division was joined by Issac Trimble’s and Johnston Pettigrew’s division of North Carolinians.

Their crushing defeat marked the end of the battle and the end of Confederate offensive warfare. Never again would the Confederacy attack in Union territory and the next day, July 4th they withdrew back into Virginia. In the west Ulysses S. Grant captured Vicksburg on the same day, essentially splitting the Confederacy in two and taking control of the Mississippi River. The tide of the Civil War turned in a single day.

Opening Moves: On the first day Confederate forces under General Henry Heth bulled their way thru the town of Gettysburg, but a delaying action fought by BG John Buford’s cavalry delayed the Confederates long enough for John Reynolds’ Corps to come up and slow the advance long enough for the rest of the Army of the Potomac under the command of General George Meade to secure the high ground on Cemetery Ridge, Culp’s Hill and Cemetery Hill, south of town.

Reynolds was killed early in the fight and General Meade still some miles from Gettysburg ordered General Winfield Scott Hancock to take charge of the battlefield until he (Meade) arrived and to determine if the ground was suitable for a major engagement. Neither army had fully deployed to the battle yet and things were just beginning to shape up.

On Day 2, Robert E. Lee’s troops under General Longstreet attacked the Union left flank with concentrated assaults on Little Round Top and the Devil’s Den. Other Confederate divisions under Longstreet attacked across the Wheatfield and the Peach Orchard where the fighting was so fierce the ground changed hands several times.

On the right flank, General Ewell assaulted Union positions on East Cemetery Hill and Culp’s Hill. But all of the Confederate assaults were repulsed, with awful casualties on both sides. The Union III Corps, doing the brunt of the fighting on the left flank, practically ceased to exist after heavy casualties.

The Plan: Lee’s troops had attacked the left and right flanks and he reasoned that the Federal lines were weakest in the center. Longstreet argued for an increased move around the left flank of the Union troops.

Lee’s military secretary, A H. Long wrote about Lee’s assessment of the battle as follows:

There was… a weak point… where [Cemetery Ridge], sloping westward, formed the depression through which the Emmitsburg road passes. Perceiving that by forcing the Federal lines at that point and turning toward Cemetery Hill [Hays’ Division] would be taken in flank and the remainder would be neutralized…. Lee determined to attack at that point, and the execution was assigned to Longstreet.

That same night, Meade was meeting with his officers just a few miles away. And he came to the same conclusion, that Lee’s attack will come at the center of the line. The Union moved reinforcements to the center of the line.

The three Confederate divisions under Pickett, Trimble, and Pettigrew were to attack the center of the Union line defended by Hancock’s Corps. Simultaneously, Anderson’s division of A.P. Hill’s Corps was to attack the Union right flank. Lee sent the Cavalry under J.E.B. Stuart around the right flank of the Union, to attack the rear and support the troops along the Baltimore Pike when they achieved their breakthrough in the center.

The focus point was the “small copse of trees on Cemetery Ridge” that is often used as the focal point was only 10 feet tall in 1863. Lee’s target was probably Ziegler’s Grove on Cemetery Hill about 300 yards behind the copse.

The assault was to proceed after an hour or two bombardment from the massed Confederate artillery commanded by Colonel Porter Alexander. Everything depended upon the timing and the timing went awry from the outset. The infantry troops were slow to arrive at the jumpoff point despite Lee’s orders for the attack to proceed at first light.

The attack on the right flank, the assault on Culp’s Hill raged all morning and was beset by poor coordination as most of the attacks were piecemeal and not en masse. The Confederate troops under MG Edward “Allegheny” Johnson were thrown back and their assaults supposedly timed to coincide with the main assault were over before the troops of Pickett started and just as the artillery barrage began.

Assault across Open Terrain: The battle in the center began with the Confederate artillery opening fire and trying to silence the Union guns in the center. Approximately 300 cannons between the two opposing forces fired for nearly two hours on one another.

However, a common problem that befell the Confederate artillery for most of the war raised its ugly head in Gettysburg. Their artillery fired far too long and the vast majority of their barrage went over the Union artillery and troops in the center and fell behind them.

Union General Henry Hunt tried to lull the Confederates into a false sense of security by gradually reducing his return fire to give the impression they were being neutralized. As the masses of troops were preparing to advance from the woods, Longstreet, who was not in favor of this action, tried to convince Lee to call it off. He wrote after the battle that he told Lee just prior to the charge:

General, I have been a soldier all my life. I have been with soldiers engaged in fights by couples, by squads, companies, regiments, divisions, and armies, and should know, as well as any one, what soldiers can do. It is my opinion that no fifteen thousand men ever arrayed for battle can take that position.

Alexander, by now his ammunition running critically low, sent a message to Pickett, “If you are coming at all, come at once, or I cannot give you proper support, but the enemy’s fire has not slackened at all. At least eighteen guns are still firing from the cemetery itself.”

Pickett asked Longstreet, “Shall I advance?” Overcome with emotion, Longstreet couldn’t answer and instead just nodded his head. The three Confederate divisions, numbering 12,500 men stepped out of the woods a mile away at 2 p.m. They were aligned with Pettigrew and Trimble to the left and Pickett’s division on the right. Their line of troops was stretched a mile long (1600 meters).

They marched in formation at a quick step, they actually wouldn’t “charge” until they crossed the Emmitsburg Pike and got with 300 meters of the Union lines. Before they had advanced a quarter of the way, the troops came under murderous artillery fire. Union artillery high up past Little Round Top ripped into the right flank, while concentrated artillery fire from Culp’s Hill poured into the left.

There were numerous fences that had to be crossed and the advance was at a slight uphill angle which slowed the advance but not the incoming artillery. The shells were then changed to cannister as the troops neared the Union lines. The Union artillery tore huge gaps in the attacking line, where the troops had to fill in the gaps. By the time the divisions reached the Emmitsburg Pike, their mile-long front had been cut in half to just 800 meters.

The concentrated artillery fire from Culp’s Hill and musket fire on their flank decimated Pettigrew’s division so that they never advanced much farther than the Pike.

Trimble’s division fared little better. They too were under murderous fire and didn’t advance beyond the road as the Union troops from the 8th Ohio poured fire into their ranks. As the musket and cannon fire tore into their ranks, one Union officer, Lt. Col. Franklin Sawyer, 8th Ohio wrote,

“They were at once enveloped in a dense cloud of smoke and dust. Arms, heads, blankets, guns and knapsacks were thrown and tossed into the clear air. … A moan went up from the field, distinctly to be heard amid the storm of battle.”

Pickett’s Division: Pickett’s division moved up on the right flank in good order, despite the heavy artillery. Marching in two lines, the brigade of BG James L. Kemper was lined up on the right and BG Richard B. Garnett on the left; BG Lewis A. Armistead’s brigade followed closely behind in reserve After crossing the road, they wheeled slightly left This half-turn left their flanks open to withering fire from artillery on Cemetery Ridge. In front of them lay the Union troops commanded by Abner Doubleday (inventor of baseball).

In the center of the Union line, Hancock was at the front rallying his troops when he was seriously wounded. A Rebel bullet pierced the pommel of his saddle and passed thru and into his inner thigh along with several wood fragments and a nail.

In danger of bleeding to death, his aides fashioned a tourniquet on his leg as he refused to be moved off the field until the battle was decided.

Pickett’s men advanced to a right turn in the stone wall behind which the Union troops defended. This was called the “Angle”. There, the Philadelphia Brigade, commanded by Alexander Webb defended it against the attack.

The Confederates found a gap in the Union line where a unit (71st Pennsylvania) had mistakenly withdrawn from the angle. Another unit, the 59th New York also withdrew. Sensing a breakthrough, the Confederate infantry rushed into the gap. But an alert artillery officer had five cannons drop their muzzles and fire point blank with loads of double canister. It obliterated the Confederate troops to the front.

Armistead’s troops rushed the stone wall and crossed it, they penetrated inside the Union line and captured two cannons and tried to turn them back on their former owners. But they were out of ammunition. Armistead’s troops had what was termed as the “high water” mark of the Confederacy. But fresh Union troops poured into the gap and the Confederates were forced to pull back or got captured in the wild melee in the Angle. Armistead was wounded twice and would die two days later. He asked that his personal effects, including his Bible, be sent to Almira Hancock, General Hancock’s wife. The two officers were very close friends and served in California together before the war started.

Jeb Stuart’s cavalry was thwarted in the north as well. For the first time, the Union cavalry showed themselves to be the equal of their Confederate foes. One young officer who stood out was a young Brigadier from Michigan, George Armstrong Custer.

Pickett’s division was shattered. All of his Brigade commanders fell, Kemper was wounded, captured and then rescued. Dick Garnett had a wound and couldn’t walk, so he rode his horse into battle, knowing he’d be a huge target. He was killed. Of the 40 field grade officers in his division, 26 were casualties. Overall, of the 12,500 men in the assault, 6555 were casualties.

Lee feared that Meade would counterattack across the shattered front of the Confederate line. He tried to rally the men to prepare for an assault. He said to Pickett, that he must look after his division. Pickett in his now famous reply, “General Lee, I have no division.”

Aftermath: Meade wasn’t attacking Lee, the Union Army was as beat up as badly as the Confederates were. The two sides enjoyed a quiet truce on the 4th of July, to gather the dead and wounded. That night, Lee quietly slipped away back into Virginia. The battle of Gettysburg was over and it was a crushing defeat for the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and for Lee.

Casualties were appalling for both sides. The Union suffered 23,049, dead, wounded or missing. The Army of Northern Virginia suffered 28,000. It was the costliest battle in U.S. history.

Never again would the Confederates venture into Northern territory, from this point, until the war’s end, 21 months later, they’d be fighting a defensive war, a war they could not win.

Illustrations: Wikipedia

Remembering Joshua Chamberlain, MOH, The “Last Casualty of the Civil War”

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain was hardly the type of person one would have picked to become a war hero. Prior to the war, Chamberlain was a professor of rhetoric and theology at Bowdoin College in Maine before receiving a commission as a lieutenant colonel of the 20th Maine in 1862.

But he proved to be a skilled, tough and very respected officer, not only by his own men but by his enemies as well. Wounded six times during the Civil War, having had six horses shot out from under him, he was awarded the Medal of Honor for his gallant stand at Little Round Top during the Battle of Gettysburg.

Severely wounded during the Battle of Petersburg on this day in 1864, Chamberlain’s wound was pronounced fatal by his surgeons. But not only did he survive, he returned to active duty and he was also awarded the honor of accepting the Confederate Infantry surrender at Appomattox Court House when General Robert E. Lee surrendered to end the war. He eventually died as a result of complications from his wounds 50 years later in 1914. Thus he’s considered the final casualty from the Civil War.

Life prior to the War: Chamberlain was born on September 8, 1828, in Brewer, Maine, the oldest of five children. His family roots were English and his ancestors could be traced back to the 12th century.

He graduated Bowdoin College in 1852 and was heavily influenced by the writer Harriet Beecher Stowe and regularly attended programs where she would read passages from her book “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” which would shape his views of the coming conflict.

After studying for three more years at Bangor Theological Seminary, he returned to Bowdoin, this time as a professor. In 1855, he married Fanny Adams and the two would remain devoted to another until her death at 1905.

While at Bowdoin, Chamberlain became a professor of rhetoric. He eventually went on to teach every subject in the curriculum with the exception of science and mathematics. Just prior to the war breaking out, he was appointed Professor of Modern Languages. He was fluent in nine languages other than English: Greek, Latin, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Arabic, Hebrew, and Syriac.

He felt all Americans should be involved in the war and wrote to Maine’s Governor Israel Washburn, Jr., “I fear, this war, so costly of blood and treasure, will not cease until men of the North are willing to leave good positions, and sacrifice the dearest personal interests, to rescue our country from desolation, and defend the national existence against treachery.”

Most of Bowdoin’s professors felt differently and the college refused to grant him a leave of absence to serve in the military. So, Chamberlain asked for and was granted a leave of absence for two years to study languages in Europe.

Civil War Hero: He promptly enlisted in the 20th Maine as a lieutenant colonel. He was offered command of the regiment but turned it down to “learn the business first.” The 20th Maine fought at the bloody Union debacle at Fredericksburg during the Battle of Marye’s Heights.

But it was at the Battle of Gettysburg where Chamberlain became famous and may have saved the Union’s bacon during the second day of the battle. After being pushed out of the town in the first day of the battle, the Union controlled the high ground outside of the town. Chamberlain, now the Colonel of the 20th Maine occupied Little Round Top on the far left of the Union line. If the Confederates turned the line, they could roll up the entire defense.

The 15th Alabama Regiment tried five times to turn the line of the 20th Maine in an attempt to get a foothold on top of Little Round Top. Each time they were turned back. They were bolstered by men of the 4th and 47th Alabama Regiments and also the 4th and 5th Texas Regiments. But the Confederates were exhausted having speed marched 20 miles to the battle and entering the fray with no water.

Both sides were running low on ammunition, Colonel Chamberlain feared that the next charge would dislodge his men from their position. He ordered the men to fix bayonets and he led them in a charge down the hill where they executed a brilliant flanking maneuver to force the Confederates off the hill. The Confederate commander of the 15th Alabama, Colonel William Oates admitted his troops, ” ran like a herd of wild cattle” during the retreat. Afterward, Oates would describe the conduct of his enemies in eloquent terms.

“There never were harder fighters than the Twentieth Maine men and their gallant Colonel. His skill and persistency and the great bravery of his men saved Little Round Top and the Army of the Potomac from defeat.”

Chamberlain was slightly wounded twice during the battle and was nearly killed. A Confederate officer aimed his pistol at Chamberlain’s head and narrowly missed before running out of ammunition. Chamberlain placed his sword at the Lieutenant’s throat and took him, prisoner, taking his sidearm. That pistol now resides in the Maine State Museum.

Nearly 30 years later, Chamberlain would finally be awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions at Little Round Top.

Medal of Honor citation:
The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism on 2 July 1863, while serving with 20th Maine Infantry, in action at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, for daring heroism and great tenacity in holding his position on the Little Round Top against repeated assaults, and carrying the advance position on the Great Round Top

Petersburg and His “Fatal Wound: Chamberlain would be given command of a brigade, the 1st Brigade, First Division, V Corps. In heavy fighting during the siege of Petersburg on June 18, Chamberlain was shot thru the right hip and groin with the bullet passing thru his right hip.

During the battle, he unsheathed his sword and stuck it into the ground leaning on it so he could remain with his men until he passed out from loss of blood. The surgeons pronounced his wound fatal, and word reached the Maine newspapers that Chamberlain had fallen in battle. General Ulysses S. Grant gave Chamberlain a battlefield promotion to brigadier general.

But despite the seriousness of his wounds, which would hound him for the rest of his life where he’d be forced to wear what today would be termed a catheter, not only did Chamberlain survive, he would return to duty several months later. By November, he was back in command of the brigade and committed to seeing the war to the end. In early 1865, President Lincoln promoted Chamberlain to Brevet Major General.

He was nearly killed again during a battle along Quaker Road, where Grant’s forces were pushing the Confederate forces under Lee steadily back. According to a report of the incident in Wikipedia:

A Confederate shot at Chamberlain. The bullet went through his horse’s neck, hit the picture frame, entered under Chamberlain’s skin in the front of his chest, traveled around his body under the skin along the rib, and exited his back. To all observers Union and Confederate, it appeared that he was shot through his chest. He continued to encourage his men to attack. All sides cheered his valiant courage, and the Union assault was successful.

In early April 1865, the Civil War was winding to a close. Grants forces learned that Lee was going to surrender his troops at Appomattox. Chamberlain was given the honor of accepting the surrender of the Confederate troops as they marched for the last time to Appomattox Court House. What followed was perhaps one of the most moving scenes of the war.

As the Confederate troops marched up the road, Chamberlain, on his own initiative, displayed a respect for his enemies that was remarkable after four years of awful, bloody fighting, the costliest war in American history. Chamberlain ordered his men to attention and to “Carry Arms”, as a salute to the vanquished, but a respected foe. That gesture was not lost on his enemies. General John B. Gordon, one of Lee’s most trusted officers at the end of the war, called Chamberlain, “one of the knightliest soldiers of the Federal Army.”

Gordon, at the head of the marching column, outdoes us in courtesy. He was riding with downcast eyes and more than pensive look; but at this clatter of arms he raises his eyes and instantly catching the significance, wheels his horse with that superb grace of which he is master, drops the point of his sword to his stirrup, gives a command, at which the great Confederate ensign following him is dipped and his decimated brigades, as they reach our right, respond to the ‘carry.’ All the while on our part not a sound of trumpet or drum, not a cheer, nor a word nor motion of man, but awful stillness as if it were the passing of the dead.

Post-war Life: After the war was over, Chamberlain was elected to four straight one-year terms as the Governor of Maine. In his third election, he set the record for the most votes and the highest percentage of the popular vote, (72.1 percent).

Chamberlain in his later years with his awards and decorations.

In 1871, Chamberlain finally returned to Bowdoin College, but this time as its President. The school that wouldn’t release him for military duty had come around to his service. He remained as the President until 1883 when complications from his war wounds forced his resignation.

In 1893, he was finally awarded the Medal of Honor, nearly 30 years after his defense of Little Round Top. His original medal was lost and not found until 2013 where it was donated to the Pejebscot Historical Society in Brunswick, Maine. A second recast medal is on display at Bowdoin College.

Five years later at age 70, he once again volunteered for duty during the Spanish-American War. But the Army rejected him due to his war wounds which were increasingly giving him issues.

Chamberlain was a founding member of the Maine Institution for the Blind, in Portland. His wife had become visually impaired and that spurred her husband into becoming involved in that organization.

Until the end of his life, Chamberlain was heavily involved in events and functions for the veterans of the Grand Army of the Republic. He spoke at many of the reunions and revisited Gettysburg many times.

He was involved in getting veterans from both sides to attend the 50th year anniversary of the Gettysburg battle and made several trips there to plan the event. However, due to his war injury, he was unable to attend the actual reunion.

Chamberlain finally did succumb to his war wounds on February 24, 1914, at the age of eighty-five. His “fatal” wounds at Petersburg eventually did kill him, nearly 50 years later. He is buried in the Pine Grove Cemetery in Brunswick, Maine, next to his surgeon at Petersburg, Dr. Abner O’Shaw.

Chamberlain’s exploits became famous during the film “Gettysburg” and was portrayed on the screen by Jeff Daniels. The film was based on Michael Shaara’s Pulitzer Prize-winning historical novel about Gettysburg, “The Killer Angels”.

Chamberlain’s actions at Little Round Top were published as an example of outstanding military initiative in the U.S. Army’s Leadership Manual 22-100 during the 1990s.

Photos: US Archives, Wikipedia

Battle of Fredericksburg, An Opportunity Lost and Disaster for the Union

The Civil War did not go well for the Union during the first two years of the war. They suffered defeat after defeat at the hands of Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia and seemingly had no answer. Backstabbing and in-fighting among the Union’s Army leadership were rampant. President Lincoln went thru a series of Commanders looking for the one who would be able to take on Lee and show enough gumption to beat the talented Southerner at his own game.

By the time the Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862, Lincoln had given the command to Ambrose Burnside. Burnside would have the opportunity to surprise Lee but a series of failures would ultimately cause another Union debacle. Fredericksburg was the largest number of armed troops that would confront one another during the Civil War. Burnside’s army of 120,000 men would engage 114,000 of them in the battle. Lee’s 78,000 troops would have 72,500 engaged.

In September 1862, after the Battle of Antietam in Maryland which was a tactical draw, the President grew increasingly fed up with the slow, deliberate and unaggressive George McClellan, who refused to chase Lee. For the third time during the year, he offered the Command of the Army of the Potomac to Burnside. And this time, the general reluctantly accepted.

Burnside was a graduate of the US Military Academy at West Point in 1847 and upon graduation served out west first in occupation duty as a Lieutenant and then under Braxton Bragg fighting the Apaches. Bragg would later command a corps under Lee. Burnside was wounded in the neck by an Apache arrow during his time in the west.

When the war broke out, Burnside who had left the service was given command of a Brigade. By the time Lee invaded the north at Antietam a year later, Burnside commanded the right wing of the Army, which was two corps (I Corps and the IX Corps).

During Antietam, Burnside was tasked with fording a crossing over a narrow creek. Had he done a proper reconnaissance, he would have found a few places where his troops could have crossed with the water barely knee deep and out of sight of the Rebel gunners. Instead, he focused a narrow concrete bridge. The opposite side was dominated by high ground chock full of Confederate sharpshooters. His men finally took the bridge but couldn’t press home their advantage in time, and Confederate reinforcements arrived to push them back.

He was given command of the Army of the Potomac on November 7. Lincoln wanted a bold plan and Burnside gave it to him. He planned on attacking the South and taking the Confederate capital of Richmond.

Burnside’s plan was sound, however, the execution of it was much less so. On November 15th he quickly moved a Corps down to Falmouth to secure a crossing of the Rappahannock River. Once they had secured the river bank opposite of Fredericksburg on the 17th, the rest of the army soon followed.

Burnside had gotten the drop on Lee and the Confederates were caught by surprise. But there was a major snafu in the Union’s plan. The pontoon bridges that Burnside needed to get across the river were delayed, by bureaucratic bungling. Lee anticipated the Union would push quickly across and he didn’t have the troops in the area to stop them. He planned on defending the next strategic location, along the Anna River, but once he saw how slow the Union troops were moving he ordered all of his troops to Fredericksburg. In fact, the pontoons Burnside needed were nearly two weeks late in arriving. It wasn’t until December 11th, that Union engineers built five pontoon bridges, under fire to get the troops across.

Confederate sharpshooters from Mississippi under the command of General Barksdale were pouring lethal fire on the engineers. Burnside ordered 150 guns on his side of the Rappahannock to open fire. They were largely ineffective as the Rebs just took cover in the basements and cellars of the town. Burnside then ordered troops to cross the river in pontoon boats to push the Mississippi men out of the town. It was the first amphibious river crossing operation under fire in the US Army’s history. Barksdale’s men eventually had to retreat up the heights in town but by then, Lee’s army was there. General James Longstreet’s corps occupied the long sloping heights that dominated the town known as Marye’s Heights. The rest of the army crossed on the 12th but the element of surprise was long gone and the Confederates had control of the high ground.

The Battle Begins in the South: Burnside’s verbal orders on the 12th indicated that the main attack was to come in the south by General Franklin’s “Grand Division”. But Burnside didn’t use his numerical superiority, in fact rather than attacking with all of Franklin’s 60,000 men, the Union decided to attack with one division, the smallest of just 4500 men under General Meade. Meade’s men had initially broken thru a gap in the Confederate lines. Had they been supported on time and with enough men, they could have turned the Confederate line. By the time Meade’s men were joined by General Gibbon and his men, the Rebs had solidified the lines and pushed them back with heavy casualties. Nearly every high ranking officer under Meade was either killed or wounded. Burnside’s hope for a breakthrough in the south had disintegrated.

Massacre at Marye’s Heights: Burnside then turned his attention to the center of the Confederate’s line in the middle of town. About 600 yards west of Fredericksburg was a ridge that rose out of the plain about 60 feet above the open fields that led to it in town. The Telegraph Road, known after the battle as the Sunken Road—was protected by a 4-foot stone wall, built up in places with log breastworks, making it a perfect infantry defensive position. There the Southerners could fire into the advancing troops virtually impervious to return fire.

Sunken road stone wall at Fredericksburg

As the Union troops began to move up the slope, the open terrain made them easy targets for the Confederate gunners and they were cut down mercilessly before they could advance no nearer than 125 yards from the defensive position. Some of the troops got to within 40 yards of the enemy lines but they were forced to hug the ground as they were blasted by withering fire. Casualties rates were between 30-50 percent for the first units attempting to take the heights. The Irish Brigade, the 69th New York made several charges only to meet the same fate. And got a hurrah from their Irish Confederate enemies from Georgia behind the Stone Wall. (Clip from the film “Gods and Generals)

Burnside stubbornly kept at it, sending seven Union divisions and making 14 charges against the heights, using a brigade at a time and each one failed, resulting in carnage for the Union troops. When darkness fell, the Union troops assaulting Marye’s Heights had suffered 8000 casualties. Burnside railed at his subordinates and announced that he’d personally lead his former XI Corps in a bayonet charge the next day. His generals thankfully talked him out of that folly.

That entire day, December 14, the two armies stayed put in their lines. That night Burnside asked for a truce from Lee to attend the wounded. And then the Union began slipping back across the Rappahannock. Fredericksburg had been a disaster.

Casualties:
The Union army suffered 12,653 casualties (1,284 killed, 9,600 wounded, 1,769 captured/missing).Two Union generals were mortally wounded: Brig. Gens. George Bayard and Conrad Jackson. The Confederate army lost 5,377 (608 killed, 4,116 wounded, 653 captured/missing), with the majority of their casualties in the early fighting on Jackson’s front. Confederate Brig. Gens. Maxcy Gregg and T. R. R. Cobb were both mortally wounded.

Burnside was relieved of his command about a month later. He tried an abortive second attempt at invading the South in January that bogged down in the winter mud, derisively described as the “Mud March” by his detractors.

Photos: US Archives, Wikipedia

October 16, 1859, John Brown Raided the Arsenal at Harpers Ferry

On this day in 1859, the abolitionist John Brown and a group of over 20 men, raided the US Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia) in an attempt to start a slave uprising and destroy slavery in the United States.

His plan would fail and Brown would ultimately be hanged his actions, even while considered foolish by even the most fervent anti-slavery people in the north was generally approved of by most on the northern side of the Mason-Dixon Line. It showed how deeply divided this country had become and soon the nation would be thrust into Civil War. While his plan failed, his ultimate aim, to erase slavery would come to fruition just a few years later.

Brown was born in Connecticut but was raised in Springfield, Massachusetts as well as Ohio. He was raised in a very strict Calvinist, anti-slavery household. Brown in his early life had tried…and failed at several business ventures. He had as many as 20 lawsuits against him when he claimed bankruptcy. But all of that changed once Brown attended an anti-slavery meeting in 1842. That thought would consume him the rest of his days. Reportedly, he planned on conducting a slave insurrection as early as 1848.

Brown went from the planning and talking phase to taking an active role in hostilities. After having moved to Kansas, Brown, his sons and others retaliated for a pro-slavery raid in Lawrence, Kansas in 1856. Looking for blood, Brown and his men crossed the Pottawatomie Creek and attacked three family cabins, murdering five men with swords. These actions kicked off a summer of guerrilla-style attacks that would present an omen of what was to come in the area for several years.

He moved back east and dreamed a grandiose plan of igniting a slave insurrection. He secured the backing of six influential anti-slavery abolitionists who became known as the “Secret Six” His raiding party grew to a 22-man assault team and would consist of himself, five free Blacks and his three sons. His Harpers Ferry mission became a reality.

The Raid Plan: Brown and his men rented a small farm 4 miles away in Dargan, Maryland in the name of Isaac Smith and waited to raid the arsenal until they were ready. He tried to recruit Frederick Douglass as a liaison with the slaves they hoped to free and arm. Douglass declined, believing that Brown was making a futile attempt. Brown’s plan was “an attack on the federal government” that “would array the whole country against us.” “You will never get out alive,” he said to Brown to no avail.

Brown was well-armed with 198 breech-loading .52 caliber Sharps carbines and 950 pikes that Northern abolitionists furnished him. The arsenal, one of six for the United States Army and had about 100,000 muskets and rifles. Brown didn’t plan on raiding the arsenal and melting away into the mountains. His plan was to use the weapons they would take in the raid and lead an uprising of slaves in the area (up to 250 he believed would join his force) and lead them into Tennessee and perhaps all the way to Alabama.

The small farmhouse was crowded and the men kept indoors during daylight hours. His daughter and daughter-in-law would cook and keep watch. The men would only leave the house in darkness to drill. He was convinced the slaves would flock to his banner and fight the slaveholders of the area. He was wrong.

The Raid on Harpers Ferry: On the night of October 16, Brown set off with his plan. He left four men as a rearguard at the farm, including one of his sons. He sent a small detachment under John Cook Jr. to grab capture Colonel Lewis Washington, great-grandnephew of George Washington, at his Beall-Air estate and take him hostage. Brown also wanted some of his slaves, and two relics of General George Washington, a sword allegedly presented to Washington by Frederick the Great and two pistols that were given by Marquis de Lafayette. Brown considered these two prizes as talismans.

The rest of the men went with him into Harpers Ferry where initially things went well. The raiders captured several night watchmen, cut the telegraph wires, and grabbed a train that had pulled into the station. The first casualty of the raid was a harbinger of the bad things to come. In a cruel twist of fate, Hayward Shepherd, a free black man was working as a baggage handler on the train was shot and killed by the raiders. Brown let the train continue on, believing that word of their raid would ignite the slaves in the area, with them rushing to his aid…he was wrong again.

Brown’s men were able to take the armory although the townspeople were beginning to array against him.

On October 17, the local militia was alerted and captured the bridge across the Potomac. Brown’s escape route was cut. The locals and militia soon were pushing around the armory in an attempt to surround the raiders. The shooting began and four civilians, including Harpers Ferry’s mayor, were killed.

Realizing his situation was becoming hopeless, Brown took nine hostages and moved into the small engine house, which later became known as John Brown’s Fort. He and his men barricaded the doors and windows and began sporadic gunfire with the militia. Brown sent his son Watson and another man out with a white flag for an official parlay. The militia was having none of it and shot them down, mortally wounding Watson and taking the other man, Aaron Dwight Stevens prisoner. During the following firing, Brown’s other son, Oliver was also mortally wounded and would die the next day. One of his men, William Leeman, just 20 years old, panicked and tried to swim the Potomac to safety. He was killed without getting far.

A second militia company arrived at 1500 hrs and freed the hostages (about 24) from the guardroom while suffering eight men wounded. By 1530 hrs, President James Buchanan had ordered Marines (the closest Federal troops) to Harpers Ferry to put down the raid. Under the command of Colonel Robert E. Lee, who was on leave from Texas with the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, Lee arrived with the Marines to take charge of the situation. Accompanying Lee was another officer who would also gain fame in the Civil War, for the Confederacy. Lt. J.E.B. Stuart was assigned to the new 1st Cavalry in the west. He was under the command of John Sedgwick, who would be the highest ranking officer killed in the upcoming Civil War. Stuart had designed a new saber attachment for the cavalry and was given a patent. Sedgwick granted him leave so that Stuart could sell his patent to the Army. When Stuart heard what was going on in Harpers Ferry, he volunteered as the aide de camp for Lee, an officer at that time, he had never met. But the two would be inexorably intertwined in the war soon after.

On the morning of the 18th, Lee sent Stuart under a white flag to offer Brown’s men a chance to surrender. If they refused, the Marines under the command of Lt. Greene were to attack the small engine house. Brown refused to surrender and walking away, Stuart waved his cap signaling their refusal. Greene’s men stormed the small engine house and Brown and the remaining surviving raiders were taken prisoner.

Lee sent an after-action report to Washington, stating that Brown was “a madman” and that the plan to raid the arsenal was that of a madman. Lee also exonerated the blacks and slaves in Brown’s presence stating, “The blacks, whom he (Brown) forced from their homes in this neighborhood, as far as I could learn, gave him no voluntary assistance.”

A letter that Stuart wrote to his mother after the incident gave some incredible insight into what happened. Some historians argued that it was Stuart who led the attack on the final fort of Brown’s. Stuart quickly put that to rest and his recollections to his mother could be from really any time frame.

Colonel Lee was sent to command the forces at Harper’s Ferry. I volunteered as his aid. I had no command whatever. The United States Marines are a branch of the naval force,–there was not an enlisted man of the army on hand. Lieutenant Green was sent in command. Major Russell had been requested by the Secretary of the Navy to accompany the marines, but, being a paymaster, could exercise no command; yet it was his corps. For Colonel Lee to have put me in command of the storming party would have been an outrage to Lieutenant Green, which would have rung through the navy for twenty years. As well might they send him out here to command my company of cavalry ….
      I, too, had a part to perform, which prevented me in a measure from participating in the very brief onset made so gallantly by Green and Russell, well backed by their men. I was deputed by Colonel Lee to read to the leader, then called Smith, a demand to surrender immediately; and I was instructed to leave the door after his refusal, which was expected, and wave my cap; at which signal the storming party was to advance, batter open the doors, and capture the insurgents at the point of the bayonet. Colonel Lee cautioned the stormers particularly to discriminate between the insurgents and their prisoners.
      I approached the door in the presence of perhaps two thousand spectators, and told Mr. Smith that I had a communication for him from Colonel Lee. He opened the door about four inches, and placed his body against the crack, with a cocked carbine in his hand: hence his remark after his capture that he could have wiped me out like a mosquito. The parley was a long one. He presented his propositions in every possible shape, and with admirable tact; but all amounted to this: that the only condition upon which he would surrender was that he and his party should be allowed to escape. Some of his prisoners begged me to ask Colonel Lee to come and see him. I told them he would never accede to any terms but those he had offered; and as soon as I could tear myself away from their importunities I left the door and waved my cap, and Colonel Lee’s plan was carried out ….
      When Smith first came to the door I recognized old Osawatomie Brown, who had given us so much trouble in Kansas. No one present but myself could have performed that service. I got his bowie-knife from his person, and have it yet.
      The same day, about eleven or twelve o’clock, Colonel Lee requested me, as Lieutenant Green had charge of the prisoners and was officer of the guard, to take a few marines and go over to old Brown’s house, four and a half miles distant, in Maryland, and see what was there. I did so, and discovered the magazine of pikes, blankets, clothing, and utensils of every sort. I could only carry off the pikes, as I had but one wagon. The next day I was occupied in delivering the various orders of Colonel Lee, and in other duties devolving on an aid-de-camp. The night after, Colonel Lee, Green, and myself, with thirty marines, marched six miles and back on a false alarm among the inhabitants of a district called Pleasant Valley.
      The prisoners having been turned over to the United States Marshal, Colonel Lee and the marines were ordered back to Washington. I went with him, and this terminated my connection with the Harper’s Ferry affair.

Trial And Execution: John Brown was brought to Charles Town and was put on trial for treason against the State of Virginia. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. On the day of his execution, December 2, he wrote his final will where he stated an omen that would come true: ‘I John Brown am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty, land: will never be purged away; but with Blood. I had as I now think: vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed; it might be done’

Four other raiders were executed on December 16, two more on March 16, 1860.

Photos: Wikipedia