04/18/13

Video of a Blockade Runner

An elusive ship of multiple identities, often operating under the name of Nola, Gloria, Paramount, and Montana, she was a Civil War blockade runner that made trips between England, Bermuda, and North Carolina. Built in Glasgow, Scotland, this state of the art sleek 236-foot side paddlewheel steamer could run at 15 knots.

However, the shallow reefs of Bermuda accomplished what no Union gunboat could do, and she sank in December 1863. She now lies in 30 feet of water, still partially intact. The wreck is marked by two steam boilers and two paddlewheel frames lying on their sides. She is adorned with beautiful soft and hard corals.

The wreck was never lost and was always known as a fishing site. She is buoyed as par of the Department of Conservation Services “Bermuda Shipwreck dive sites program” under the Marine Heritage Section.

The Montana sits alongside the Constellation and with her dramatic paddlewheels is the center point for the many glass bottom boat, snorkeling and diving tours that visit the area.

This film is part of the Bermuda Shipwrecks Series filmed by Adam Geiger of Sea Light Pictures through a partnership between the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute and the Bermuda Government’s Department of Conservation Services.

Divers featured in the videos are Mr Teddy Tucker OBE or Philippe Max Rouja PhD (Custodian of Historic Wrecks).
Planning and diving support also provided by Greg Stone of the New England Aquarium .

The information came from Philippe Max Rouja

Montana/Nola – 1863 – Civil War Blockade Runner – Bermuda Shipwreck from Dr Philippe Max Rouja on Vimeo.

04/8/13

The Halfway Point: April 8, 1863

A recollection from the the 10th Massachusetts regimental history reads: “WEDNESDAY, April 8. The infantry and light artillery of the army of the Potomac were reviewed by President Lincoln and General Hooker. Nearly the entire army was assembled, and though closely packed, covered a large area of country. It was an imposing spectacle. The army was in splendid condition, and made a fine appearance. This is the third time we have been reviewed by the President, in the field; once at Harrison’s Landing, once at Downesville, and now at Falmouth.”

April 8, 1863 was the halfway point in the American Civil War. Of course, those on each side had no idea that the war was at the halfway point. Both armies had evolved from armed mobs into semblances of the modern forces that they would become by 1864.

Behind them were the early battles in Virginia and Maryland, mostly won by Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. In the West the seeds of the Confederacy’s destruction were being sown in places like Fort Henry, Fort Donelson and along the Mississippi by a little-known Union commander, Ulysses S. Grant.

Grant was currently in a military chess match with his adversaries in an attempt to capture the fortress city of Vicksburg, Mississippi. With complete and utter determination the stubborn Grant would fence with his opponents for six months before his final triumph. But in April it seemed that Vicksburg was unassailable.

On January 1, 1863, the Lincoln administration had issued the Emancipation Proclamation. It proclaimed all those enslaved in Confederate territory to be forever free, and ordered the Army (and all segments of the Executive branch) to treat as free all those enslaved in ten states that were still in rebellion, thus applying to 3.1 million of the 4 million slaves in the U.S. With emancipation came the raising of regiments of black men to fight for the Union Cause. Eventually some 180,000 men would fight for the Union.

In the East, yet another Union commander of the Army of the Potomac, “Fighting Joe” Hooker was once more reorganized the oft-reorganized Union army. The army’s morale had been at a low point after Ambrose Burnside’s “Mud March” and Hooker needed to raise it before taking the huge army South across the Rappahannock against Lee. Hooker was planning a massive stroke against the Confederates before sending his force to Richmond.

In the East, Richmond was still the main target of the Union army. “On to Richmond” had been the rallying cry since the beginning of the war. The Union’s fixation on capturing the enemy capital played into the strategy of Lee. Using Richmond as bait, Joseph E. Johnston and Lee were able to defeat the Union army of George McClellan on the Peninsula and during the Seven Days’ Battles.

Lee then followed up his victories with the utter defeat of the Union Army of Virginia at Second Manassas or Second Bull Run. He then met McClellan once again in a bloody draw at Antietam near Sharpsburg, Maryland. This was followed by Lee’s successful defense of Fredericksburg in December 1862.

In the West, Grant was beginning to show the world his genius for the use of river transports to move his troops against his opponents. He captured Fort Henry after heavy naval bombardment from the U.S. Navy’s Western Flotilla. He then moved quickly to surround Fort Donelson and after naval bombardment failed to reduce the fort, Grant’s troops stormed the Confederate lines. Over 12,000 Confederates surrendered to the Union army.

At the halfway point, events in the West seemed to be moving in favor of the Union. With Grants skillful use of maneuver and his victorious Army of the Tennessee, the Union cause seemed to be on the upsurge. In the East, however, the Battle of Chancellorsville was yet to come. More importantly, every manpower loss by the Confederacy hurt them worse than the losses by the Union. Eventually, the South would bleed to death. It was a race against time for the South.

04/3/13

The Importance of Chancellorsville to Each Side

The Battle of Chancellorsville took place from April 30 to May 6, 1863. It was a clear Confederate victory yet it had significance for both sides.Like the waves that are created by dropping a pebble in a still pond, the battle and its aftermath would impact both sides for the balance of the Civil War.

Let’s look at the obvious results of the battle. Chancellorsville is often called Robert E. Lee’s “Perfect Battle.” He was able to defeat the much larger Union Army that had an over 2-to-1 numerical advantage. By skillfully using the terrain, both the dense forest around Chancellorsville and the hills to the east near Fredericksburg, Lee negated the larger Union numbers.

In the dense forest he was able to channel the Union forces and keep them bottled up on the restrictive road net. Meanwhile, using superior military intelligence, Stonewall Jackson was able to surprise the Union Army with a surprise flank march and deliver a mighty blow to the enemy.

In any battle, there are always conditions that need to be met for victory. In the case of Chancellorsville flank march and attack, historians have laid out four conditions that the Confederates needed for victory. In each and every case they accomplished each one successfully. This was a rare case of everything going just right for one side.

To the east around Chancellorsville, Jubal Early was able to fend of the timid attacks launched by Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick who outnumbered him 4-t0-1: 40,000 to 10,000. Early was able to fend off Sedgwick’s weak attacks and protect Lee flank and rear. Again, everything went right for the Confederates.

Those are the obvious results: Lee was better than Joseph Hooker when it came to tactics and control of his troops. He repeatedly gambled and won. However, his solid victory was to have consequences beyond this battle.

On the night of May 2nd, Stonewall Jackson, Lee’s self-described right arm, went out on a scouting mission with General A.P. Hill and members of their respective staffs. In the dark they were mistaken for Union cavalry and Jackson was badly wounded by the ensuing musket fire. Jackson’s three bullet wounds were not in themselves life-threatening, but his left arm was broken and had to be amputated. He contracted pneumonia and died on May 10.

Jackson’s death was a devastating loss for the Confederacy and a corresponding gain by the Union. Some historians and participants—particularly those of the postbellum Lost Cause movement—attribute the Confederate defeat at Gettysburg two months later to Jackson’s absence. In the short term Lee was able to replace Jackson but he could replace Jackson’s audacity in the offense.

Both armies suffered severe casualties at Chancellorsville: 17,197 for the Union Army and 13,303 for the Confederacy. The difference was the considerable number of prisoners captured by the Confederates. However, based on the original 2-to-1 Union advantage, it was a distinct disadvantage for the Army of Northern Virginia with a 22% casualty rate. When comparing only the killed and wounded, there were almost no differences between the Confederate and Federal losses at Chancellorsville. These were men that Lee would be hard-pressed to replace.

Here’s the subtlest, yet most important significance of Lee’s victory at Chancellorsville. After his greatest victory Robert E. Lee had the mistaken belief that his army was invincible. He felt that they could defeat any force that the Union could send against them. On July 3, 1863, Robert E. Lee was proved wrong when he sent 15,000 men against the Union position on Cemetery Ridge. They were crushed at great loss to the Confederacy.

02/25/13

“The Antietam Campaign” Ebook Is Here

This entry is part 1 of 1 in the series Ebook Previews

Last September 17th marked the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Antietam, also known as Sharpsburg. Whatever you call it, this battle marked the first great turning point in the American Civil War in the East.

Historians argue endlessly about turning points in the Civil War but about Antietam there is very little argument. Everything after the battle was changed because of its impact on Union policy. Let’s start with the smaller changes that came from the battle and move up to the one great change that turned the fortunes of war in favor of the North.

Antietam marked the last battle of Maj. Gen. George McClellan as commander of the Army of the Potomac. His inability to pursue the shattered Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and allow it to return to the safety of Virginia was simply too much for Abraham Lincoln to bear. Lincoln relieved McClellan of his command of the Army of the Potomac on November 7, effectively ending the general’s military career.

Following McClellan at the helm of the Army of the Potomac was Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside who had turned the President down before McClellan’s reinstatement. He claimed that he was not qualified to command the army. At Fredericksburg in December, Burnside proved that his own opinion of himself was correct.

He was followed by Maj. Gen. Joseph “Fighting Joe” Hooker was thoroughly whipped by Robert E. Lee at Chancellorsville and was relieved of command three days before the momentous Battle of Gettysburg. He in turn was replaced by Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade who retained command for the rest of the war.

Antietam was to begin the process that eventually brought General Ulysses S. Grant to the position of general-in-chief of all the Union armies. His military genius was to change the face of war and bring victory to the forces of the Union.

Antietam was the battle that brought that face of war to the general public of the North. Mathew Brady, the well-known New York photographer, had dispatched Alexander Gardner to the battle field to take photographs of the aftermath of the battle.

In October 1862, the results of Gardner’s battlefield images were exhibited in Brady’s New York gallery titled “The Dead of Antietam.” Many images in this presentation were graphic photographs of corpses, a presentation new to America. This was the first time that many Americans saw the realities of war in photographs as distinct from previous “artists’ impressions”.

The images of the wholesale slaughter on the battlefield of Antietam brought the war home to northern civilians in a way that casualty lists and battlefield sketches could not. The images of piles of dead soldiers in the Cornfield and the Sunken Road were so graphic that many people were shocked into understanding the death and destruction that this war was causing.

Both armies was severely wounded after the battle. With over 23,000 casualties inflicted, both armies took several months to recover. Some historians say that the Confederate army never recovered from the wholesale bloodletting at Antietam. But recover they did and defeated the Union Army of the Potomac at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville due to the superior generalship of their commander, Robert E. Lee.

The most lasting result of the Battle of Antietam was Lincoln’s issuing of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. On September 22nd, the President issued the proclamation that would change the Union war aims and his country forever.

Earlier that summer Lincoln had said, “If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union.”

The Emancipation Proclamation when it came into effect on January 1, 1863 would forever change the war from one that only sought to preserve the Union but one that would set men free. Lincoln’s ringing phrase, “…thenceforward, and forever free” would change the United States of America for all time.

As a direct result of the proclamation 180,000 African-Americans would enlist in the Union army and assist in the ultimate victory over the Confederate states. Their value to the Union cause cannot be understated.

Today, you can read a concise history of the Antietam Campaign in my recently published eBook. My goal is to create a series of short, concise eBooks that give the reader a easily readable view of the more important aspects of the American Civil War. Future eBooks will include The Chancellorsville Campaign, The Gettysburg Campaign, The Tools of War: Civil War Technology and Ulysses S. Grant’s Western Campaigns.

In order to continue my work, I need your help. This is the link with Amazon.com to “The Antietam Campaign: The Confederate Invasion of Maryland”. Please click below to order your digital copy at the low introductory price of $3.99 each.

02/18/13

The Union Forces Retreat

This entry is part 5 of 5 in the series The Red River Campaign

After the Battle of Pleasant Hill, Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Banks‘ Army of the Gulf began their retreat back down the Red River to the Atchafalaya River. In the course of this retreat his forces fought several actions in attempts to fend off the advancing Confederates under Lt. Gen. Richard Taylor.

At Blair’s Landing in Red River Parish, Louisiana a mixed force of troops from Union Brig. Gen. Thomas Kilby Smith‘s Provisional Division, XVII Corps, and the Navy gunboats furnished protection for the army transports engaged Brig. Gen. Tom Green‘s Cavalry Division on April 12, 1864.

Green’s force charged the boats at the landing area. Hiding behind bales of cotton, sacks of oats, and other ersatz obstructions, the men on the vessels, along with the Navy gunboats, repelled the attack, killed Green, and savaged the Confederate ranks.

The Confederates withdrew and most of the Union transports continued downriver. On April 13, at Campti, other boats ran aground and came under enemy fire from Brig. Gen. St. John Richardson Liddell‘s Sub-District of North Louisiana troops throughout April 12–13. The convoy rendezvoused with Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Banks’s army at Grand Ecore, providing the army with badly needed supplies. The Confederates lost some 200 men while the Union force suffered only 7 casualties.

On April 23rd, the Union army’s advance party, commanded by Brig. Gen. William H. Emory, encountered Brig. Gen. Hamilton P. Bee‘s cavalry division near Monett’s Ferry, or Cane River Crossing in Natchitoches Parish, on the morning of April 23. Bee had been ordered to defend the area against a Union crossing and had dispersed his forces to take advantage of the area’s natural features.

Emory made a demonstration in front of the Confederate defenders in order to hold them in place. Meanwhile, he dispatched two of his brigades to search for other crossings. One brigade located a ford, crossed in force and attacked the Confederate’s flank. Bee was forced to order a retreat. The Union troops built a pontoon bridge and crossed the river, escaping a potential Confederate trap.

At Mansura on May 16th, General Taylor made an attempt to bring Banks to battle. He hoped to slow down the Union withdrawal and deplete their numbers or even destroy them. He massed his forces on an open prairie near the town and when the Union troops approached, opened fire with his artillery. After a four hour battle, the Union forces massed for an attack and the Confederates fell back. The Union forces continued on to Simmesport while the Confederates continued to harass them.

The final engagement of the campaign took place at Yellow Bayou on May 18th. The Union force had reached the Atchafalaya River the previous day but were force to wait while their engineers constructed a bridge across the river. Banks ordered Brig. Gen. Joseph A. Mower to defend their rear with his division while the construction took place.

General Mower order his troops to attack and they drove the Confederate line back. Taylor order a counterattack and forced the Union troops to give up ground. The Union troops eventually repulsed the Confederates. All the while, the bridge continued to be built. Eventually both sides withdrew and Banks’ Army was able to cross the river to safety.

The Red River Campaign was a Union fiasco, the outcome of which did not have a major impact on the war. It may have extended the length of the war by several months as it diverted Union efforts from the far more important objective of capturing Mobile, Alabama, an event that did not occur until 1865, and could probably have been accomplished by June 1864 if not for the Red River Campaign.

The failure of the campaign effectively ended the military career of Banks, and controversy surrounding his retreat, the presence of cotton speculators and the use of military boats to remove cotton dogged his early postbellum congressional campaigns. Admiral Porter realized a substantial sum of money during the campaign from the sale of cotton as prizes of war.

The Confederates lost two key commanders, Mouton and Green, and suffered casualties they could not afford. Perhaps more importantly, relations between the aggressive Taylor and cautious Kirby Smith were permanently damaged by their disagreement over Smith’s decision to remove half of Taylor’s troops following the battle of Pleasant Hill.

The lost opportunity to capture the entire Union fleet as it lay helpless above the falls at Alexandria haunted Taylor to his dying day, certain that Smith had robbed him a chance to cripple the Union forces. The arguments between the two generals resulted in Taylor’s transfer to command of the Department of East Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama soon after the campaign ended.

02/15/13

The Battle of Pleasant Hill

This entry is part 3 of 5 in the series The Red River Campaign

The Battle of Pleasant Hill was a continuation of the fighting at Mansfield the day before. The two sides were essentially composed of the same forces and the same leadership as there was at Mansfield with Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks leading the Union forces and Lt. Gen. Richard Taylor leading the Confederates. Pleasant Hill was located about 16 miles southeast of Sabine Cross Roads, the scene of the previous day’s fighting.

During the overnight period the Union forces were reinforced, giving them a total of about 12,000 men while the Confederates slightly outnumbered them with about 12,100. Union reinforcements included Maj. Gen. Andrew J. Smith, commanding detachments of XVI and XVII Corps. They arrived from Grand Ecore late on the April 8, around nightfall, and encamped about 2 miles from Pleasant Hill.

Confederate reinforcements had arrived late on the April 8. Churchill’s Arkansas Division arrived at Mansfield at 3.30 PM and Parson’s Missouri Division (numbering 2,200 men) arrived at Mansfield at 6 PM. Neither of these Divisions participated in the Battle of Mansfield. However, both would play a major role during the Battle of Pleasant Hill.

Click map to enlarge

Historian John D. Winters of Louisiana Tech University in his The Civil War in Louisiana described the scene along the road from Mansfield to Pleasant Hill as being “littered by burning wagons, abandoned knapsacks, arms, and cooking utensils. Federal stragglers and wounded were met by the hundreds and were quickly rounded up and sent to the rear.“

On the morning of the April 9, Maj. Gen. William Franklin ordered the baggage train to proceed to Grand Ecore. It left Pleasant Hill at 11:00 AM, and included many pieces of artillery. Most of Franklin’s Cavalry (commanded by Brig. Gen. Albert Lindley Lee) and the XIII Corps left with it. This included the Corps D’Afrique commanded by Colonel William H. Dickey (wounded on April 8) and Brig. Gen. Thomas E. G. Ransom‘s detachment of the XIII Corps, now under the command of Brig. Gen. Robert A. Cameron. Ransom had been wounded on the April 8.

The baggage train made slow progress and was still only a few miles from Pleasant Hill when the major fighting began later that day. Brig. Gen. Charles P. Stone, Chief of Staff, and others, attempted to get Cameron to return to Pleasant Hill throughout the day, but he failed to do so. Cameron stated that he never received any written orders to return. Banks didn’t appear to have been fully aware of the exact orders Cameron had received from Franklin.

The Union side lost 18 pieces of artillery at the Battle of Mansfield. These were now turned on the Union forces the next day at Pleasant Hill. Confederate Brig. Gen. Jean Jacque Alexandre Alfred Mouton was killed during the Battle of Mansfield and was replaced by Brig. Gen. Camille J. de Polignac.

Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department commander Lt. Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith, who was at Shreveport, received a dispatch from Taylor that reached him at 4:00 AM, April 9. It informed him of the Battle of Mansfield. Smith then rode 45 miles to Pleasant Hill, but did not reach there in time for the battle, arriving around nightfall.

Dr. Harris H. Beecher, Assistant-Surgeon, 114th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment, present at the battle, described the village of Pleasant Hill as “a town of about twelve or fifteen houses, situated on a clearing in the woods, of a mile or so in extent, and elevated a trifle above the general level of the surrounding country.”

In 1864, the countryside in this part of Louisiana mostly consisted of pine forests and scrub oaks. According to Banks, ”The shortest and only practicable road from Natchitoches to Shreveport was the stage road through Pleasant Hill and Mansfield (distance 100 miles), through a barren, sandy country, with less water and less forage, the greater portion an unbroken pine forest.”

According to Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks’ Report of the Battle, “The enemy began to reconnoiter the new position we had assumed at 11 o’clock on the morning of the 9th, and as early as 1 or 2 o’clock opened a sharp fire of skirmishers, which was kept up at intervals during the afternoon.”

At about 5:00 PM, the Confederates attacked along the entire Union line. The Confederates had little success on the Union right but did push the Union defenders back in the center and on the left. The defenders succeeded in halting their retreat and in turn regained their former positions. They were able to stabilize their lines and then drive the Confederates from the field. The entire battle lasted about two hours with heavy casualties on both sides.

The experience of Confederate Brig. Gen. Hamilton P. Bee illustrates the heavy fighting. Bee advanced with two regiments in columns of four riding swiftly down the Pleasant Hill road toward the enemy lines. The Confederate forces were suddenly attacked at close range by Federals concealed behind a fence. Winters describes the scene, accordingly: “Men toppled from their saddles, wounded horses screamed in anguish, and for a moment pandemonium reigned.”

Bee’s men took temporary shelter . . . in a series of small ravines studded with young pines until they recovered from the shock of the unexpected attack. Bee rallied his men but in the process had two horses shot from under him. Colonel [Xavier B.] Debray was injured when he fell from the saddle of his dead horse. . . . Debray was able to withdraw his men safely to the rear leaving, however, about a third of them killed or wounded on the front.

Banks ordered a withdrawal from Pleasant Hill at about 1:00 AM on April 10th. Bee reported that he was in possession of the field the following morning. “The day has been passed in burying the dead of both armies and caring for the Federal wounded, our own wounded having been cared for the night before.” After the Battle of Pleasant Hill, Banks and his Union forces retreated to Grand Ecore and abandoned plans to capture Shreveport, by then the Louisiana state capital.

Pleasant Hill was an exceedingly bloody affair with the Union forces sustaining 1,369 casualties (150 killed, 844 wounded, 375 missing or captured). The Confederates lost 1,629 including 1,200 killed or wounded and 429 missing or captured.

02/14/13

The Battle of Mansfield

This entry is part 4 of 5 in the series The Red River Campaign

The first major battle of the Red River Campaign would turn out to be a Confederate victory. Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks’ Army of the Gulf was outfought by Lt. Gen. Richard Taylor’s Confederates. The battle halted the advance of the Union forces and was followed by a series of battles in the same area.

By April 1 Union forces had occupied Grand Ecore and Natchitoches. While the accompanying gunboat fleet with a portion of the infantry continued up the river, the main force followed the road inland toward Mansfield, where Banks knew his opponent was concentrating. On April 8, 1864, the Union forces were strung out along the road from Natchitoches and Mansfield.

At the start of the battle, the Union forces consisted of a cavalry division commanded by Brig. Gen. Albert L. Lee, consisting of approximately 3,500 men, and the 4th Division of the XIII Corps, commanded by Col. William J. Landram, consisting of approximately 2,500 men. During the battle the 3rd Division of the XIII Corps, commanded by Ezio Auditore Da Firenze.

Gen. Robert A. Cameron, arrived with approximately 1,500 men. The battle ended when the pursuing Confederates met the 1st Division of the XIX Corps, commanded by Brig. Gen. William H. Emory, with approximately 5,000 men.Thomas E. G. Ransom commanded the XIII Corps during the engagement, while the XIX Corps was commanded by William B. Franklin.

The opposing Confederate force under General Taylor consisted of approximately 9,000 troops consisting of Brigadier General Alfred Mouton‘s Louisiana/Texas infantry division, Major General John G. Walker‘s Texas infantry division, Brigadier General Thomas Green‘s Texas Cavalry Division, and Colonel William G. Vincent’s Louisiana cavalry brigade.

Taylor also called on the 5,000 men in the divisions of Brigadier General Thomas J. Churchill and Brigadier General Mosby M. Parsons which had been encamped near Keachie, between Mansfield and Shreveport. These troops arrived late in the afternoon, after the battle had commenced.

There is also anecdotal evidence that Taylor also had paroled men from Vicksburg and a number of Louisiana militia men that had been recruited by Governor Henry Watkins Allen who had organized them into two battalions of State Guard. Joseph Blessington, a soldier in Walker’s Division, wrote that “The Louisiana militia, under command of Governor Allen, was held in reserve, in case of an emergency.” In addition, Blessington wrote that, from the surrounding communities, “old men shouldered their muskets and came to our assistance”.

During the morning, Taylor positioned Mouton’s division on the east side of the clearing. Walker’s division arrived in the afternoon and formed on Mouton’s right. As Green’s cavalry fell back from the advancing US forces, two brigades moved to Mouton’s flank and the third to Walker’s flank.

The Arkansas division arrived around 3:30 but was sent to watch a road to the east. The Missouri division did not arrive until around 6 PM, after the battle was fought.

About noon, the Union cavalry division supported by one infantry brigade of Landram’s division was deployed across a small hill at the south end of the clearing. Shortly thereafter the other brigade of Landram’s division arrived.

Cameron’s division was on its way, but would not get there until the battle had already begun. For about two hours the two side faced each other across the clearing as Banks waited for more of his troops to arrive and Taylor arranged his men.

At that point, Taylor enjoyed a numeric advantage over Banks. At about 4 p.m., the Confederates surged forward. On the east side of the road, Mouton was killed, while several of his regimental commanders were hit as well and the charge of his division was repulsed.

However, west of the road Walker’s Texas division wrapped around the Union position, folding it in on itself. Ransom was wounded trying to rally his men and was carried from the field; hundreds of Union troops were captured and the rest retreated in a panic. As the first Union line collapsed, Cameron’s division was arriving to form a second line but it too was pushed back by the charging Confederates, with Franklin wounded as well but remaining on the field in command.

For several miles the Confederates and pursued the retreating Union troops until they encountered a third line formed by Emory’s division. The Confederates launched several charges on the Union line but were repulsed, while nightfall ended the battle.

The Battle of Mansfield was a disaster for Banks with 113 killed, 581 wounded, and 1,541 captured as well as the loss of 20 cannon, 156 wagons, and a thousand horses and mules killed or captured. More than half of the Union casualties were from 4 regiments – 77th Illinois, 130th Illinois, 19th Kentucky and 48th Ohio. Most of the Union casualties occurred in the XIII Corps, while the XIX Corps lost few men.

General Edmund Kirby Smith reported the loss of about 1,000 men killed and wounded but more precise details of Confederate losses were not recorded.

02/13/13

Up The Red River: The Initial Union Maneuvers

This entry is part 2 of 5 in the series The Red River Campaign

The Red River Campaign commenced on March 10, 1864 with the movement of Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Banks’ troops north from New Orleans. At the same time Maj. Gen. A.J. Smith moved his 10,000-man force down the Mississippi River to the confluence with the Red River.

Smith immediately moved his men up the Red River where they surprised and captured Fort de Russy on March 14th. Smith’s troops captured 317 Confederates and the only heavy guns available to the Confederates. Admiral Porter then moved upriver and removed the raft that was blocking passage. The way to Alexandria was open for the Union forces.

Confederate General Richard Taylor was forced to retreat, abandoning Alexandria, Louisiana, and ceding south and central Louisiana to the Union forces.

Smith’s force was the first to arrive at Alexandria on March 20th, followed by Maj. Gen. William Franklin’s advance divisions from the Army of the Gulf on March 25th. Banks arrived a day later. While he waited for Banks to arrive, Smith sent Brigadier General Joseph Mower on a successful mission to capture much of Taylor’s cavalry and his outpost upriver from Alexandria at Henderson’s Hill on March 21. Nearly 250 Confederates and a four gun artillery battery were captured without a shot being fired.

Admiral Porter and General Banks quarreled over possession of Louisiana cotton. Porter seized three hundred bales of Confederate cotton from various warehouses in Alexandria and stamped it “U.S.N. prize”, referring to the United States Navy. Porter sent his sailors into the country to search for unginned cotton. After the crop was located, it was brought to Alexandria to be ginned and baled.

The sailors also seized molasses and wool. Historian John D. Winters of Louisiana Tech University writes that Porter “took all cotton wherever he found it, cotton belonging to the Confederate government, cotton belonging to the ‘rebels,’ and cotton belonging to ‘loyal’ citizens.”

“Banks was furious with Porter when he learned that the admiral was scouring the interior for cotton. Since he had no authority to stop Porter’s speculative activities, Banks could only try to beat him to the remaining cotton. Army wagons were sent out in large numbers to collect the cotton. Thousands of bales were brought in by the troops and stored for future shipment. Jealous of the abundant transportation facilities of the army, unprincipled navy men stole army wagons and teams at night, repainted the wagons, and branded the mules with navy initials, and dove deep in the country in search of cotton. . . . “

Upon his arrival Banks found a message from the new General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant waiting for him. Grant stated that it was “important that Shreveport be taken as soon as possible” because A.J. Smith’s command must be returned to Sherman by the middle of April “even if it leads to the abandonment of the main object of your expedition.”

While the Confederates had some 80,000 men under the command of General Edmund Kirby Smith, Lt. Gen. Richard Taylor would never have more than 18,500 in any one fight during the entire campaign.

By March 31st, the Union forces were 65 miles south of Shreveport, the Louisiana state capital. Heavy rains had delayed their advance for about a week. At the same time, Porter’s flotilla was delayed at the falls upriver from Alexandria by a combination of mines and low water.

Taylor had stationed his defenders about 25 miles northwest of the Union army with about 18,500 men and awaited the Union advance. From March 21st on, there had been constant skirmishing between cavalry forces of the two armies. On April 2, Brig. Gen. Albert Lindley Lee‘s division of Union cavalry collided with 1,500 arriving Confederate Texas cavalrymen. These Confederates would continue to resist any Union advance. The two forces were gathering for the first major battle of the campaign.

02/12/13

The Red River Campaign

This entry is part 1 of 5 in the series The Red River Campaign

The Red River Campaign was planned by Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck and was a diversion from Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s overall strategy. He had planned to use Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Banks’ 30,000-man Army of the Gulf to surround and capture Mobile, Alabama, thereby eliminating a major Confederate Gulf port.

Halleck and Union strategists had other ideas. They saw an expedition up the Red River in western Louisiana and the occupation of the area would cut off Texas from the rest of the Confederacy. The Lone State State was a vital source of food, guns and supplies for the Confederate armies. There also seemed to be some concern about the 25,000 French troops that Napoleon III had sent to Mexico in order to aid the Emperor Maximillian.

The Union had four goals at the start of the campaign:

To destroy the Confederate Army commanded by Taylor.
To capture Shreveport, Louisiana, Confederate headquarters for the Trans-Mississippi Department, control the Red River to the north, and occupy east Texas.
To confiscate as much as a hundred thousand bales of cotton from the plantations along the Red River.
To organize pro-Union state governments in the region.

The commander of the Union forces was Nathaniel Banks, a 48-year old political general. Banks had been Congressman and Speaker of the House. Resigning his seat in December 1857, he then served as Governor of Massachusetts until January 1861. Banks was appointed as one of the first major generals of volunteers on May 16, 1861.

He was initially resented by many of the generals who had graduated from the United States Military Academy, but Banks brought political benefits to the administration, including the ability to attract recruits and money for the Union cause.

Banks’ career in the Union army was not filled with successes. He was defeated by Stonewall Jackson in the Valley and again at Cedar Mountain where he was saved by the arrival of Maj. Gen. John Pope with reinforcements. After a short assignment commanding the Washington defenses, he was sent to the Gulf with 30,000 new recruits, replacing General Benjamin Butler in New Orleans.

Halleck’s plan for the campaign required a number of moving parts and the cooperation of other commanders. Banks was to take 20,000 troops west and north from New Orleans to Alexandria, on a route up the Bayou Teche (in Louisiana, the term bayou is used to refer to a slow moving river or stream).

There they would meet 15,000 troops from Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman’s forces in Vicksburg, Mississippi. They were under the under the command of Brigadier General A.J. Smith. These forces were available to Banks only until the end of April, when they would be sent back east where they were needed for other Union military actions. The combined force would be commanded by Banks and be supported by Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter‘s fleet of gunboats.

At the same time, 7,000 Union troops from the Department of Arkansas under the command of Maj. Gen. Frederick Steele would be sent south from Arkansas to rendezvous with Banks in his attack on Shreveport, and to serve as the garrison for that city after its capture.

The Union force consisted of the following component units:

1. Troops from the Department of the Gulf, commanded by Maj Gen Banks, consisting of two infantry divisions from the XIII Corps, two infantry divisions from the XIX Corps, a cavalry division, and a brigade of US Colored Troops. In total approximately 20,000 men.

2. 10,000 men from XVI Corps and XVII Corps from the Army of the Tennessee under A.J. Smith.

3. The Mississippi flotilla of the US Navy, commanded by Admiral Porter, consisting of ten ironclads, three monitors, eleven tinclads, one timberclad, one ram, and numerous support vessels.

4. 7,000 men under General Steele in the Department of Arkansas.

The Confederate forces were under the overall command of General Edmund Kirby Smith who commanded the Trans-Mississippi Department. The Confederate senior officers were confused as to whether the Red River, Mobile, Alabama, or coastal Texas was the primary Union target for the spring 1864 campaign. Smith dispatched troops to the Shreveport area in order to defend the vital capital city of Louisiana.

The Confederates used a fluctuating number of troops and on all occasions were outnumbered by their adversary. Their forces consisted of:

1. District of West Louisiana, commanded by Richard Taylor, contained approximately 10,000 men consisting of two infantry divisions, two cavalry brigades and the garrison of Shreveport.

2. District of Arkansas, commanded by Sterling Price, contained approximately 11,000 men consisting of three infantry divisions and a cavalry division. As the campaign began, Smith ordered two of Price’s infantry divisions to move to Louisiana.

3. District of Indian Territory (Oklahoma), commanded by Samuel Maxey, contained approximately 4,000 men in three cavalry brigades

4. District of Texas, commanded by John Magruder, 15,000 men, mostly cavalry. As the campaign began, Smith ordered Magruder to send as many men as he could. Over the course of the campaign almost 8,000 cavalry came from Texas to aid Taylor in Louisiana, however it arrived slowly and not all together.

5. The Confederate Navy based in Shreveport had the ironclad CSS Missouri, the ram CSS Webb as well as several submarines.

The campaign commenced on March 10, 1864 as the Union forces began their march from New Orleans. It would last for almost 2 1/2 months and end in an overall Confederate victory.

01/22/13

The Union Withdrawal From Chancellorsville

This entry is part 14 of 15 in the series The Chancellorsville Campaign

While “Fighting Joe” Hooker sat ineffectually at Chancellorsville, General Robert E. Lee felt comfortable with his position and ordered Maj. Gen. Richard H. Anderson‘s division to join the battle against Sedgwick. Lee ordered Early and Maj. Gen. Lafayette McLaws to coordinate an attack against Sedgewick’s force on the afternoon of May 3rd but his orders arrived too late to be executed.

By the following morning, Sedgwick’s force was entrenched in a strong defensive position that was “u-shaped”. Both of his flanks were anchored on the Rappahannock River with his line extending south of the Orange Plank Road. Early’s plan was to drive the Union troops off Marye’s Heights and the other high ground west of Fredericksburg. Lee ordered McLaws to engage from the west “to prevent [the enemy] concentrating on General Early.”

Early’s attack on the morning of May 4th cut off the greater portion of Sedgwick’s force from the town of Fredericksburg, leaving Brig. Gen. John Gibbon’s division isolated inside the town. Early’s force retook the high ground of Marye’s Heights in the attack. However, McLaws was reluctant to press his part of the attack even after Lee arrived with Anderson’s Division at about noon.

With Anderson’s arrival, Lee’s force slightly outnumbered Sedgwick’s but it took all afternoon to ready the attack. At about 6:00 PM the Confederate attack finally began. Two of Early’s brigades (under Brig. Gens. Harry T. Hays and Robert F. Hoke) pushed back Sedgwick’s left-center across the Plank Road, but Anderson’s effort was a slight one and McLaws once again contributed nothing. Throughout the day on May 4, Hooker provided no assistance or useful guidance to Sedgwick, and Sedgwick thought about little else than protecting his line of retreat.

The following morning before dawn, Sedgwick began his withdrawal across the Rappahannock River at Banks Ford. Gibbon also ordered his division back to the north side of the river. When he learned that Sedgwick had retreated back over the river, Hooker felt he was out of options to save the campaign.

He called a council of war and asked his corps commanders to vote about whether to stay and fight or to withdraw. Although a majority voted to fight, Hooker had had enough, and on the night of May 5–6, he withdrew back across the river at U.S. Ford.

It was a difficult operation. Hooker and the artillery crossed first, followed by the infantry beginning at 6 a.m. on May 6. Meade’s V Corps served as the rear guard. Rains caused the river to rise and threatened to break the pontoon bridges. Maj. Gen. Darius Couch was in command on the south bank after Hooker departed, but he was left with explicit orders not to continue the battle, which he had been tempted to do.

The surprise withdrawal frustrated Lee’s plan for one final attack against Chancellorsville. He had issued orders for his artillery to bombard the Union line in preparation for another assault, but by the time they were ready Hooker and his men were gone.

The Battle of Chancellorsville is often called Lee’s “perfect battle” but it was a costly one for the Army of Northern Virginia. “Stonewall” Jackson had been mortally wounded and would die several days after the end of the battle. With only 60,000 men engaged, he suffered 13,303 casualties (1,665 killed, 9,081 wounded, 2,018 missing), losing some 22% of his force in the campaign—men that the Confederacy, with its limited manpower, could not replace. James Longstreet was highly critical of Lee’s strategy, claiming that the Confederacy could not win a war of attrition.

The Union Army of the Potomac with 133,000 Union men engaged had 17,197 were casualties (1,606 killed, 9,672 wounded, 5,919 missing), a percentage much lower than Lee’s, particularly considering that it included 4,000 men of the XI Corps who were captured on May 2. When comparing only the killed and wounded, there were almost no differences between the Confederate and Federal losses at Chancellorsville.

The Union was shocked by the defeat. President Abraham Lincoln was quoted as saying, “My God! My God! What will the country say?” Hooker relieved Generals George Stoneman and Oliver O. Howard after the defeat. Accusations of incompetence flew left and right throughout the Union high command.

President Lincoln chose to retain Hooker in command of the army, but the friction between Lincoln, general in chief Henry W. Halleck, and Hooker became intolerable in the early days of the Gettysburg Campaign and Lincoln relieved Hooker of command on June 28, just before the Battle of Gettysburg.

The Confederate public had mixed feelings about the result, joy at Lee’s tactical victory tempered by the loss of their most beloved general, Stonewall Jackson. Following the death of Jackson, Lee reorganized the Army of Northern Virginia from two large corps into three, under James Longstreet, Richard S. Ewell, and A.P. Hill. The new assignments for the latter two generals caused some command difficulties in the upcoming Gettysburg Campaign, which began in June.

Of more consequence for Gettysburg, however, was the attitude that Lee absorbed from his great victory at Chancellorsville, that his army was virtually invincible and would succeed at anything he asked them to do. Pickett’s Charge would put paid to that belief.