Reality of the Civil War by Jennifer Thompson

Quill and Musket Lecturer Series Reality of the Civil Warby Jennifer Thompson

The Battle of the Wilderness Wounded escaping from the burning woods of the Wilderness Alfred R.Waud, May 5-7, 1864, Library of Congress

The Battle of the Wilderness occurred in May 1864. Grant wrote: “More desperate fighting has not been witnessed on this continent that that of the 5th and 6th of May….Our losses in the Wilderness were very severe….It may be as well here as elsewhere to state two things connected with all movements of the Army of the Potomac: first, in every change of position or halt for the night, whether confronting the enemy of not, the moment arms were stacked the men intrenched themselves….The second was, the use made of the telegraph and signal corps. Nothing could be more complete than the organization and discipline of this body of brave and intelligent men.” (Grant, 534) • John V. Hadley remembered the aftermath of the Wilderness fire: “A devouring and relentless fire had swept over the field, burning the hair and garments from the dead and the hope of life from the wounded; and now, three weeks after, a thousand skeletons, in black, charred shrouds, with empty eye-sockets and glaring teeth, seemed to mock us and cry out, ‘We died in flames!’” (Hadley, 36)

Spotsylvania • Horace Porter described the fighting that occurred at Spotsylvania on May 12: “The battle near the ‘angle’ was probably the most desperate engagement in the history of modern warfare, and presented features which were absolutely appalling. It was chiefly a savage hand-to-hand across the breastworks. Rank after rank was riddled by shot and shell and bayonet thrusts, and finally sank, a mass of torn and mutilated corpses; then fresh troops rushed madly forward to replace the dead, and so the murderous work went on. Guns were run up close to the parapet, and double charges of canister played their part in the bloody work. The fence-rails and logs in the breastworks were shattered into splinters, and trees over a foot and a half in diameter were cut completely in two by the incessant musketry fire….We had not only shot down an army, but also a forest.” (Commager, 696)

Cold Harbor • On June 3, Grant chose a head-on assault at Cold Harbor and lost about 10,000 men, when the Confederates opened fire with their artillery. CS Brig. Gen. Evander Law stated, “It was not war; it was murder.” (Wright, 186)

Guerilla Warfare John Hunt Morgan • The Confederates used guerrilla warfare tactics. When John Hunt Morgan raided through Indiana and into Ohio, home guards rushed to meet him. “A company of sixty men were formed in Darlington under command of Captain E.P. McClaskey….This company was called the Wallace Blues in honor of Captain Lew Wallace, Indiana’s Adjutant General in charge of raising and organizing troops….In 1863, the mothers, wives, sisters and sweethearts of these men decided to present the company with a flag and chose July 4th as the most appropriate time….When the flag presentation was taking place in Darlington, General Morgan was striving to cross the Ohio River and enter Indiana. Four days after receiving the flag, the Wallace Blues were ordered to Mitchell to assist in driving Morgan from the state, and quite proudly they marched forth beneath their new banner….After this company of men returned from helping check Morgan’s raid, many of them enlisted and went to the front, and through the remainder of the war served with credit to the state.” (140 Years of Darlington Community History, 69)

John Singleton Mosby • John Singleton Mosby created havoc in western Virginia. He stated, “One of the most effective ways of impeding the march of an army is by cutting off its supplies; and this is just as legitimate as to attach in the line of battle….The line that connects an army with its base of supplies is the Heel of Achilles – its most vital and vulnerable spot….My success had been so uninterrupted that the men thought that victory was chained to my standard. Men who go into a fight under the influence of such feelings are next to invincible, and generally are the victors before it begins….It is just as legitimate to fight an enemy in the rear as in the front. The only difference is the danger….I never admired and did not imitate the example of the commander who declined the advantage of the first fire….I fought for success and not for display. There was no man in the Confederate army who had less of the spirit of knight-errantry in him, or took a more practical view of the war than I did. (Wright, 321-322)

The Battle of Petersburg Crater The Battle of Petersburg Crater: The Crater, as seen from the Union side. From a sketch made at the time. 1887, Library of Congress

The city of Petersburg was under siege for several weeks. Lee’s aide Major Giles B. Cooke stated, “The siege became a continuous battle by day. By night spurts of flame along the works showed that Death was vigilant.” (Hendrickson, 45) • The Union army dug a tunnel to Petersburg, and the Confederate army dug a counter tunnel. Cooke recalled, “The men in each could hear the others at work.” (Hendrickson, 78) • The Union tunnel was completed July 23, and preparations began for the explosion, which occur on July 30.

Correspondent Cadawaller described the explosion: “The scenic affects surpass all powers of description….I happened to be looking directly at it when the enormous mass of powder was at last ignited. Contrary to the usual expectation, the noise and roar of the concussion…came a few seconds later. My first perception was that of seeing the earth commencing to rise on a line a hundred yards in length, then to split open by fissures, from which emerged a dense volume of smoke, dirt and dust followed by sulfurous flames, as if the whole center of the globe was belching forth some monstrous volcanic masses. The smoke and flames rose perpendicularly at first, then spread out into a great sheet and commenced slowly to fall in the form of a great water spout. This was soon followed by the detonation of the combustibles. The sound of the explosion…came so later that those whose eyes were not turned that way missed much of its sublimity.” (Hendrickson, 81-82)

Union troops rushed into the crater, and many became trapped and fell under enemy fire. For eight hours, many remained trapped in the crater under a blazing sun. Major William H. Powell remembered: “The midsummer sun caused waves of moisture produced by the exhalation from the mass of men to rise above the crater. Wounded men died there begging piteously for water, and soldiers extended their tongues to dampen their parched lips until their tongues seemed to hang from their mouths.” (Hendrickson, 84)

Total Warfare • Total warfare was a new concept during the Civil War. Sheridan described the concept to Otto von Bismarck after the war on September 8, 1870: “The proper strategy consists, in the first place, in inflicting as telling blows as possible upon the enemy’s army, and then in causing the inhabitants so much suffering that they must long for peace, and force their government to demand it. The people must be left nothing but their eyes to weep with over the war.” (Wright, 358) • Sherman used this concept in his Atlanta Campaign and his March to the Sea.

The Atlanta Campaign • Chauncey H. Cooke remembered the night battle of May 29 at Dallas: “It was a night of dazzling, glaring, shrieking sounds…The earth seemed crashing into ten thousand atoms. The sky but an hour ago so pitchy black, seemed boiling with smoke and flame. And the horrid shrieking shot, and bursting shells, then the shouting of commanders and cheering of men, mingled with the sputter of muskets and the roar of batteries, made the world about us seem like a very hell….They may tell of hell and its awful fires, but the boys that went thru the fight of Dallas with all its scenes, are pretty well prepared for any event this side of eternity.” (Hess, 53)

Sherman left the city of Atlanta in ruins. Major George Nichols remembered, “A grand and awful spectacle is presented to the beholder in this beautiful city, now in flames.…The heaven is one expanse of lurid fire; the air is filled with flying, burning cinders; buildings covering two hundred acres are in ruins or in flames; every instant there is the sharp detonation or smothered booming sound of exploding shells and powder concealed in the buildings, and then the sparks and flames shoot away up into the black and red roof, scattering cinders far and wide. These are the machine shops where have been forged and cast the rebel cannon, shot and shell that have carried death to many a brave defender of our nation’s honor.” (Hendrickson, 101-102)

When Sherman started his March to the Sea, Georgia delegates appealed to the people: “Let every man fly to arms. Remove your negroes, horses, cattle, and provisions from before Sherman’s army, and burn what you cannot carry. Burn all bridges and block up the roads in his route. Assail the invader in front, flank, and rear, by night and by day. Let him have no rest.” (Wright, 106) • Sherman ordered his troops on November 9, “In districts and neighborhoods where the army is unmolested, no destruction of such property should be permitted; but should the inhabitants burn bridges, obstruct roads, or otherwise manifest local hostility, then army commanders should order and enforce a devastation more or less relentless, according to the measure of such hostility.” (Wright, 371)

By the time the march was over, Sherman figured they did one hundred million dollars of damage, and most of that was just for the sake of destruction. He planned the same destruction for South Carolina: “The truth is the whole army is burning with an insatiable desire to wreak vengeance upon South Carolina. I almost tremble for her fate, but feel that she deserves all that seems in store for her.” (Wright, 372)

Shenandoah Valley Campaign • Sheridan did similar damage in the Shenandoah Valley. CS Lt. Randolph H. McKim remembered, “The valley of Virginia was for four years a constant battle ground. Up and down, all the way from Staunton to Sheperdstown the two armies swept, till at the end it was reduced to a scene of desolation.” (Wright, 315) • The rebels attacked Sheridan’s army while he was returning from Washington. The surprise attack caused the Union army to panic and retreat until Sheridan’s approach caused them to rally and win the victory. A Connecticut officer remembered the aftermath, “Here and there were splashes of blood, and zigzag trails of blood, and bodies of men and horses…I never on any other battlefield saw so much blood as on this of Cedar Creek. The firm limestone soil would not receive it, and there was no pitying summer grass to hide it.” (Hess, 38)

Sheridan’s Ride Alfred R. Waud, Oct. 19, 1864, Library of Congress

Sheridan’s Ride Poem by Thomas Buchanan Read (1822-1872) • “Up from the South, at break of day, • Bringing to Winchester fresh dismay, • The affrighted air with a shudder bore, • Like a herald in haste, to the chieftain’s door, • The terrible grumble, and rumble, and roar, • Telling the battle was on once more, • And Sheridan twenty miles away.

And wider still those billows of war • Thundered along the horizon’s bar; • And louder yet into Winchester rolled • The roar of that red sea uncontrolled, • Making the blood of the listener cold, • As he thought of the stake in that fiery fray, • With Sheridan twenty miles away.

But there is a road from Winchester town, • A good, broad highway leading down; • And there, through the flush of the morning light, • A steed as black as the steeds of night • Was seen to pass, as with eagle flight; • As if he knew the terrible need, • He stretched away with the utmost speed; • Hills rose and fell, but his heart was gay, • With Sheridan fifteen miles away.

Still sprang from those swift hoofs, thundering South, • The dust, like smoke from the cannon’s mouth; • Or the trail of a comet, sweeping faster and faster, • Foreboding to traitors the doom of disaster, • The heart of the steed and the heart of the master • Were beating like prisoners assaulting their walls, • Impatient to be where the battlefield calls; • Every nerve of the charger was strained to full play, • With Sheridan only ten miles away.

Under his spurning feet, the road • Like an arrowy Alpine river flowed, • And the landscape sped away behind • Like an ocean flying before the wind; • And the steed, like a barque fed with furnace ire, • Swept on, with his wild eye full of fire. • But, lo! He is nearing his heart’s desire; • He is snuffing the smoke of the roaring fray, • With Sheridan only five miles away.

The first that the general saw were the groups • Of stragglers, and then the retreating troops; • What was done? what to do? A glance told him both. • Then striking his spurs, with a terrible oath, • He dashed down the line ‘mid a storm of huzzas, • And the wave of retreat checked its course there, because • The sight of the master compelled it to pause. • With foam and with dust the black charger was gray; • By the flash of his eye and the red nostril’s play, • He seemed to the whole great army to say, • ‘I have brought you Sheridan all the way • From Winchester down to save the day!’

Hurrah! hurrah for Sheridan! • Hurrah! hurrah for horse and man! • And when their statues are placed on high, • Under the dome of the Union sky, • The American soldier’s Temple of Fame, • There, with the glorious general’s name, • Be it said, in letters both bold and bright, • ‘Here is the steed that saved the day, • By carrying Sheridan into the fight, • From Winchester, twenty miles away!’” (Marius, 184-186)

Sources: • Commager, Henry Steele, ed. The Civil War Archive: The History of the Civil War in Documents. New York: Black Dog & Levanthal Publishers, 2000. • Grant, Ulysses S. Memoirs and Selected Letters: Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant, Selected Letters 1839-1865. New York: The Library of America, 1990. • Hadley, John V. Seven Months a Prisoner. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1898; reprint, Hanover, IN: Nugget Publishers, 1998. • Hendrickson, Robert. The Road to Appomattox. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1998. • Hess, Earl J. The Union Soldier in Battle: Enduring the Ordeal of Combat. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1997.

Marius, Richard, ed. The Columbia Book of Civil War Poetry. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994. • 140 Years of Darlington Community History. Crawfordsville, IN: Suburban Press, 1976. • Wright, John D., ed. The Oxford Dictionary of Civil War Quotations. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 2006.

Reality of the Civil War by Jennifer Thompson