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Authors: Bruce Catton

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A Stillness at Appomattox (198 page)

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Chapter Five: Away, You Rolling River

 

special train for monocacy junction

  1. Details as to Private Spink and his crew, the befuddled guard at Aqueduct Bridge, and the heavy growth of brush on the approaches to the defenses, are in the
    Official Records,
    Vol. XXXVII, Part 2, pp. 61, 83. For Lincoln's remark about Halleck, see
    Fifty Years in Camp and Field: Diary of Maj. Qen. Ethan Allen Hitchcock,
    edited by W. A. Croffut, pp. 463-64.
  2. Official Records,
    Vol. XXXVII, Part 2, pp. 339-41, 365-67; R.
    E. Lee,
    Vol. IV, pp. 240-41.
  3. Official Records,
    Vol. XXXVII, Part 1, pp. 555-56, 607;
    I Rode with Stonewall,
    by Henry Kyd Douglas, pp. 288, 290.
    1. Diary of Gideon Welles,
      Vol. II, pp. 70-71, 73.
    2. Official Records,
      Vol. XXXVII, Part 1, p. 259;
      Diary of Gideon Welles,
      Vol. II, p. 84.
    3. Official Records,
      Vol. XXXVII, Part 1, pp. 231, 254-55.
    4. Ibid.,
      pp. 346-47. Need it be remarked that any reader who has not yet allowed Douglas Southall Freeman to introduce him to Jubal Early, through the three volumes of
      Lee's Lieutenants,
      should get on with the ceremony at once?
    5. Personal Memoirs of John H. Brinton,
      pp. 280-81. There is an artless story of the adventures of one of the 100-day militia outfits in
      Record of Service of Company K, 150th Ohio Volunteer Infantry,
      by James C. Cannon.
    6. Following the Greek Cross,
      p. 222;
      History of the 2nd Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artillery,
      p
      0
      83;
      Three Years in the Sixth Corps,
      pp. 375-76.
      10.
      Following the Creek Cross,
      pp. 222-23.
  1. McCook's report,
    Official Records,
    Vol XXXVII, Part 1, p. 231;
    The Vermont Brigade in the Shenandoah Valley
    9
    by Aldace F. Walker, p. 29.
  2. Meigs' report,
    Official Records,
    Vol. XXXVII, Part
    1,
    p. 259;
    Diary of Gideon Welles,
    Vol. II, p. 75.
  3. Letter of General Wright, printed in
    Three Years in the Sixth Corps,
    p. 382.
  4. I Rode with Stonewall,
    pp. 295-96. It should be noted that when Early made his remark about scaring Abe Lincoln he did not know that Lincoln had been present at Fort Stevens during the fighting.
  5. Following the Greek Cross,
    p. 224;
    The Vermont Brigade in the Shenandoah Valley,
    p. 30;
    Official Records,
    Vol. XXXVII, Part 1, pp. 232-33, 247, 259-60, 276-77.
  6. The Vermont Brigade in the Shenandoah Valley,
    p. 37;
    History of the 2nd Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artillery,
    pp. 86-88.
  7. Three Years in the Sixth Corps,
    pp. 383-87;
    The Vermont Brigade in the Shenandoah Valley,
    pp. 38-48;
    Following the Greek Cross,
    p. 228.
  8. History of the 2nd Connecticut Volunteer Heavy ArtiU lery,
    p. 90.
  9. History of the 19th Army Corps,
    by Richard B. Irwin^ p. 367.
  1. Grant's
    Personal Memoirs,
    Vol. II, pp. 315, 317,
  2. Official Records,
    Vol. XXXVH, Part 2, pp. 374, 408,
  3. Ibid.,
    p. 558.
  4. Ibid.,
    p. 582.

24.
For Grant's move to Washington, his talk with Hunter,
and his order moving the troops to Halltown, see his
Personal
Memoirs,
Vol. II, pp. 31&-20
O

 

to peel this land

 

1.
The Shenandoah Valley and Virginia, 1861 to 1865: a War Study,
by Sanford C. Kellogg, pp. 214-15;
History of the Shenandoah Valley,
by William Couper, Vol.
I,
pp. 140-47, 217-26;
M.H.S.M. Papers,
Vol. VI, pp. 62, 156.

  1. Official Records,
    Vol. XXXVII, Part 2, pp. 301, 329.
  2. Annals of the 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry,
    p. 286.
  3. War Diary of human Harris Tenney, 1861-1865,
    p. 136.
  4. Official Records,
    Series 2, Vol. VII, pp. 1014-15.
  5. Ibid.,
    pp. 976, 1012-13.
  6. Ibid.,
    pp. 1092-93.
  7. Ibid.,
    pp. 892-94, 997. As late as the winter of 1865, Senator Ben Wade was urging Congress to adopt a joint resolution prescribing retaliatory treatment on Confederate soldiers in Northern prisons. After much debate, the measure was watered down so that it simply condemned alleged mistreatment of captured Federals and enjoined humane measures on the men in charge of Northern prisons.
    (Recollections of War Times,
    by Albert Gallatin Riddle, p. 326.)
  8. This particular estimate is from
    The Vermont Brigade in the Shenandoah Valley,
    p. 51. It can hardly be repeated too often that the numbers reported "present for duty" by Federal commanders seldom bore very much relationship to the number that would actually be put into action. Two examples may be cited. The morning report of one regiment in this summer of 1864 showed 708 enlisted men present for duty; but the regimental historian explains that only 472 would go into action. The other 236 would be accounted for by the infinity of details, and by the "present, sick." A less extreme case is shown by a Pennsylvania regiment which reported 343 "present for duty" at Gettysburg but which put only 300 into the fight there.
    (History of the 2nd Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artillery,
    p. 118;
    History of the 106th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers,
    p. 169.)
  9. A Volunteers Adventures,
    by John W. De Forest, p. 163.
  10. Ibid.,
    p. 165;
    The Vermont Brigade in the Shenandoah Valley,
    p. 23.
  11. The Vermont Brigade in the Shenandoah Valley,
    p. 50;
    Following the Greek Cross,
    p. 228.
  12. For the reaction to Sheridan, see
    Three Years in the

Sixth Corps,
p. 391;
The Vermont Brigade in the Shenandoah Valley,
pp. 54-55;
History of the 19th Army Corps,
p. 367.

  1. History of the 17th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry,
    pp. 219-22;
    Army Life; a Private's Reminiscences^
    pp. 249-50.
  2. History of the 17th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry,
    p. 188.
  1. Rosser to Lee,
    Official Records,
    Vol. XXXIII, p. 1081c
  2. Ibid.,
    pp. 1082, 1120-21.

18.
Telegram from General E. B. Tyler to Lew Wallace,
Official Records,
Vol. XXXVII, Part 2, p. 55.

 

19.
Memoirs of a Volunteer,
pp. 108-9.

20.
Sabres and Spurs: the First Regiment Rhode Island
Cavalry in the Civil War,
by the Rev. Frederic Denison, p.
381.

 

21.
Ibid.,
p. 381.

 

22.
History of the 17th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer
Cavalry,
pp. 211-12.

  1. Ibid.,
    p. 212.
  2. Annals of the 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry,
    pp. 286-87.
  1. Personal and Historical Sketches . . . of the 7th Regiment Michigan Volunteer Cavalry,
    p. 263.
  2. History of the 17th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry,
    p. 228»

on the upgrade

  1. Lincoln s War Cabinet,
    by Burton J. Hendrick, pp. 453-59;
    Abraham Lincoln,
    by Benjamin P. Thomas, pp. 441-42.
    1. Abraham Lincoln: the War Years,
      Vol. Ill, p. 218.
    2. There is a good account of this Confederate program in the North, and of Captain Hines's activities, in
      Confederate Operations in Canada and New York,
      by John W. Headley, pp. 214-20. See also
      The Rebel Raider,
      pp. 123-26, 132, 157-58, 167-73. The projected raid on the Johnson's Island prison camp is voluminously covered in the
      Official Records,
      Series 2, Vol. VII, pp. 842, 850, 864, 910-16.
      1. Headley,
        op. cit.
        y
        p. 222.
      1. Ibid.,
        pp. 223-28.
      1. Ibid.,
        pp. 229-30. Swiggett
        (The Rebel Raider,
        p. 132) remarks that Hines was "by all odds one of the two or three most dangerous and competent men in the Confederacy."
        1. A Volunteer's Adventures,
          p. 172.
        2. Battles and Leaders,
          Vol. IV, pp. 506-7;
          History of the 8th Regiment Vermont Volunteers,
          by George N. Carpenter, p. 177.
        3. A Volunteer's Adventures,
          p. 173;
          Battles and Leaders,
          Vol. IV, p. 507.
  1. Under the Old Flag,
    Vol. I, p. 554;
    Three Years in the Sixth Corps,
    pp. 401-3;
    Official Records,
    Vol. XLIII, Part 1, pp. 173-74, 197, 222.
  2. A
    Volunteers Adventures,
    p. 186. This engaging book contains a first-rate account of the battle of Winchester by a Federal participant.
  3. History of the 8th Regiment Vermont Volunteers,
    pp. 181, 255-56.
    1. Three Years in the Sixth Corps,
      p. 404.
    2. History of the 8th Regiment Vermont Volunteers,
      p. 183;
      A Volunteers Adventures,
      pp. 187-90;
      Battles and Leaders,
      Vol. IV, pp. 509-10.
    3. A
      Volunteer's Adventures,
      p. 189;
      Official Records,
      Vol. XLIII, Part 1, p. 189.
    4. There is an odd similarity between Sheridan's handling of the battle of Winchester and Stonewall Jackson's conduct

- of the battle of Cedar Mountain. In each case a general of high reputation, enjoying a great numerical advantage over his opponent, put his troops in maladroitly, was rocked hard by an unexpected enemy attack, and for a time was in danger of outright defeat—winning out, finally, because his own driving energy at last made his numerical advantage effective. For a good critique of Sheridan's campaign in the Valley, see "The Valley Campaign of 1864: a Military Study," by Lieutenant L. W. V. Kennon, in the M.H.S.M.
Papers,
Vol. VI, pp. 39
ff.

 

17.
The Story of the First Massachusetts Light Battery,
p.

 

179;
The Vermont Brigade in the Shenandoah Valley,
p. 105., 18.
Under the Old Flag,
Vol. I, pp. 558-59.

 

no more doubt

  1. Thomas's
    Abraham Lincoln,
    p. 449;
    Lincoln's War Cabinet,
    by Burton J. Hendrick, pp. 45-47;
    Diary of Gideon Welles,
    Vol. II, p. 158;
    Abraham Lincoln: the War Years,
    Vol. Ill, pp. 237, 244, 246.
  2. Three Years in the Sixth Corps,
    p. 413;
    History of the 2nd Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artillery,
    p. 108.
  3. Three Years in the Sixth Corps,
    p. 414; manuscript letters of Lewis Bissell;
    History of the 2nd Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artillery,
    p. 108.
BOOK: A Stillness at Appomattox
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