Inspiring Leaders: General Robert E. Lee Takes Full Responsibility for the Defeat at Gettysburg

This day in history, August 8, 1863 -- Robert E. Lee offers his resignation to Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
                                    
                "Gettysburg was the price the South paid for having Robert E. Lee as commander."
                                                                                                           —Shelby Foote

The Julian Vannerson portrait of Robert E. Lee illustrated by Ron Cole.

A month after Lee's defeat at Gettysburg, the scope of the losses suffered in Pennsylvania was hitting home among the Confederate states. Lee's army was severely weakened by losing 23,000 men during the campaign, about one-third of his army's strength. The Army of the Potomac had returned to Virginia and it was clear the Army of Northern Virginia had suffered a major defeat. The southern newspapers openly questioned Lee's decisions and ability to command.

From the moment Pickett's Charge had failed Lee had taken full accountability for the defeat, telling his men "This has all been my fault." In later days he refused to pin the blame for defeat onto any of his subordinate commanders, even though a few of them had performed poorly at Gettysburg to follow through on his plans of attack or even to obey his orders.

Lee was also suffering from a heart condition and was physically weakened. At Gettysburg he was unable to move about the battlefield as much as he would have liked. He never personally scouted the Union left flank (Little Round Top/Devil's Den) before sending Longstreet's I Corps into the attack there on July 2. General Hood, one of Longstreet's division commanders, later wrote this was the key to their defeat at Gettysburg.

Knowing the public had lost a measure of trust in him and worried about his health and the morale of his army, Lee wrote to President Davis on August 8, offering to resign his command:

"... We must expect reverses, even defeats. They are sent to teach us wisdom and prudence, to call forth greater energies and to prevent our falling into greater disasters. Our people have only to be true and united, to bear manfully the misfortunes incident to war, and all will come right in the end.

I know how prone we are to censure and how ready to blame others for the non-fulfillment of our expectations. This is unbecoming in a generous people, and I grieve to see its expression. The general remedy for the want of success in a military commander is his removal. This is natural, and in many instances, proper. For, no matter what may be the ability of the officer, if he loses the confidence of his troops disaster must sooner or later ensue.

I have been prompted by these reflections more than once since my return from Pennsylvania to propose to Your Excellency the propriety of selecting another commander for this army. I have seen and heard of expression of discontent in the public journals at the result of the expedition. I do not know how far this feeling extends in the army. My brother officers have been too kind to report it, and so far the troops have been too generous to exhibit it. It is fair, however, to suppose that it it does exist, and success is so necessary to us that nothing should be risked to secure it.

I therefore, in all sincerity, request Your Excellency to take measures to supply my place. I do this with the more earnestness because no one is more aware than myself of my inability for the duties of my position. I cannot even accomplish what I myself desire. How can I fulfill the expectations of others?...

Everything, therefore, points to the advantages to be derived from a new commander, and I the more anxiously urge the matter upon Your Excellency from my belief that a younger and abler man than myself can readily be attained..."

President Davis refused the request. He replied, "To ask me to substitute you by someone... more fit to command, or who would possess more of the confidence of the army... is to demand an impossibility."

Indeed, Robert E. Lee was irreplaceable... and he would see his duty to the Confederacy through to the very end.

***

You can read more about the Gettysburg campaign in my new book, "Gettysburg: The True Account of Two Young Heroes in the Greatest Battle of the Civil War" written for teens but a great read for anyone interested in the Civil War, Gettysburg and President Lincoln.

Amazon: http://amzn.to/14oSn9a

Barnes&Noble: http://bit.ly/14s8Vuo

*Also available as an eBook on Nook and soon to be available on Kindle.

(The Julian Vannerson portrait of Robert E. Lee was illustrated by Ron Cole. You can purchase prints of this portrait and of General George Meade and a lot more by this very talented artist at his web site: http://www.colesaircraft.com/

Inspiring Leaders: Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts Infantry

This day in history July 18th 1863, Colonel Robert Gould Shaw is killed leading his 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment against Fort Wagner outside Charleston, South Carolina.

Colonel Robert Gould Shaw 54th MA Infantry

  The 54th Regiment was sent to Charleston, South Carolina to take part in the operations against the Confederates stationed there. On July 18, 1863, along with two brigades of white troops, the 54th assaulted Confederate Battery Wagner. As the unit hesitated in the face of fierce Confederate fire, Shaw led his men into battle by shouting, "Forward, Fifty-Fourth, forward!" He mounted a parapet and urged his men forward, but was shot through the heart and died almost instantly. 1,500 of his men were killed or captured with him.

Storming Fort Wagner by  Kurz & Allison  1890

  The victorious Confederates buried him in a mass grave with many of his men, an act they intended as an insult. Shaw's father publicly proclaimed that he was proud to know that his son was interred with his troops, befitting his role as a soldier and a crusader for emancipation.

"We would not have his body removed from where it lies surrounded by his brave and devoted soldiers....We can imagine no holier place than that in which he lies, among his brave and devoted followers, nor wish for him better company. – what a body-guard he has!"  -- Frank Shaw

  Despite the failure, the battle proved that African-American forces could not only hold their own but also excel in battle. Tens of thousands of African American men were recruited into the Union Army before the end of the Civil War forming 175 regiments or one-tenth the Union Army's strength.

The courage displayed by colored troops during the Civil War played an important role in African-Americans gaining new rights. 

"Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letter, U.S., let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pocket, there is no power on earth that can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship."  --Frederick Douglass

  Shaw's father commissioned the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial, designed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Stanford White, which was built in his memory on Beacon and Park streets in Boston in 1897.

"There they march, warm-blooded champions of a better day for man. There on horseback among them, in his very habit as he lived, sits the blue-eyed child of fortune, upon whose happy youth every divinity had smiled." —Oration by William James at the exercises in the Boston Music Hall, May 31, 1897, upon the unveiling of the Shaw Monument.

Memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and the Massachusetts Fifty-Fourth Regiment, by
Augustus Saint-Gaudens

Iain C. Martin is the author of Gettysburg: The True Account of Two Young Heroes in the Greatest Battle of the Civil War, and The Greatest U.S. Marine Corps Stories Ever Told: Unforgettable Stories of Courage, Honor, and Sacrifice available at Amazon and BN.com.

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Countdown to Gettysburg: June 30th 1863 -- Tillie Pierce Witnesses General Buford's Cavalry Arrive in Gettysburg

  Tillie Pierce witnessed the arrival of the first Union soldiers at Gettysburg on Tuesday, June 30:

  A great number of Union cavalry began to arrive in the town. They passed northwardly along Washington Street, turned toward the west on reaching Chambersburg Street, and passed out in the direction of the Theological Seminary. It was to me a novel and grand sight. I had never seen so many soldiers at one time. They were Union soldiers and that was enough for me, for I then knew we had protection, and I felt they were our dearest friends. I afterwards learned that these men were Buford’s cavalry, numbering about six thousand men.

Tillie Pierce, age 15 in 1863

  A crowd of “us girls” were standing on the corner of Washington and High Streets as these soldiers passed by. Desiring to encourage them, who, as we were told, would before long be in battle, my sister started to sing the old war song “Our Union Forever.” As some of us did not know the whole of the piece we kept repeating the chorus.

  A little less than Tillie’s estimate, Buford had just under 3,000 men in his command and a battery of six cannon. Daniel Skelly also watched on Chambersburg Street as thousands of cavalry rode through town and thought, “Surely now we were safe and the Confederate army would never reach Gettysburg . . . General Buford sat on his horse in the street in front of me, entirely alone, facing to the west in profound thought . . . It was the only time I ever saw the general and his calm demeanor and soldierly appearance . . . made a deep impression on me.”

Daniel Skelly, age 18 in 1863

  General Buford was a West Point graduate and a veteran of the early fighting against the Sioux Indians in Texas. In 1862, Buford had fought at Second Bull Run and Antietam. At Brandy Station he commanded a division of cavalry against Stuart’s troopers. His experience was about to prove invaluable over the next three days. As he moved his troopers into the open fields north of Gettysburg they encountered Confederate soldiers in Brigadier General James Pettigrew’s brigade sent to Gettysburg for supplies. Under strict orders not to bring on a fight, the rebels fell back to Cashtown and reported their discovery of Union cavalry occupying Gettysburg.

Brigadier General John Buford

  Buford sent scouts in all directions to locate and identify what enemy units were in front of him. He knew what was at stake. A half mile behind them, just outside the town, was a low ridgeline called Cemetery Hill. At each end of that ridge were larger hills: Culp’s Hill to the north and two hills at the southern end named Little and Big Round Top. It was well known that in any battle, whoever controlled the high ground possessed a great advantage over an attacking force. Buford knew he had
to delay Lee’s army long enough for the Union infantry to reinforce him and protect those heights, so he deployed his men in a series of two defensive lines centered along a wooded hill north of Gettysburg named McPherson’s Ridge.

  At 10:30 pm he sent a message to Major General John F. Reynolds, who commanded three of the infantry corps that were approaching Gettysburg from the east. He reported that Hill’s entire corps was at Cashtown, nine miles away to the west. Enemy pickets were in sight of his own along the Chambersburg Pike. Longstreet’s corps was behind Hill’s, perhaps by a day’s march. A captured enemy courier told him that Ewell’s corps was advancing toward Gettysburg from Carlisle from the north.

Major General John Fulton Reynolds

  Buford knew that by morning he would face an entire rebel corps of 25,000 men. By all accounts, Buford saw that Lee was concentrating his whole army at Gettysburg. If Ewell’s corps made it to the town by the next day, two thirds of Lee’s army—50,000 soldiers—would advance against whatever Union forces could reach Gettysburg in time. When one of his brigade commanders spoke confidently of whipping any rebels the next day, Buford said, “No, you won’t. They will attack you in the morning; and they will come ‘booming’—skirmishers three deep. You will have to fight like the devil to hold your own until supports arrive.”

(to be continued...) 

Read more about the Tillie Pierce and the Gettysburg campaign my new book for teens just published by Sky Pony Press, Gettysburg: The True Account of Two Young Heroes in the Greatest Battle of the Civil War, available at Amazon and BN.com.

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Countdown to Gettysburg: June 29th 1863 -- Lee and Meade Advance Towards Gettysburg

  On June 29th both Lee and Meade gave orders for their armies to advance towards Gettysburg, a town where ten major roads converged like the wheels of a wagon in every direction. The 2,400 people of Gettysburg had no idea that two armies totaling over 150,000 men were converging for battle at their doorstep. 

Major General George Gordon Meade

 

  As Meade took command on June 28, intelligence on Lee’s army became clearer. Spies in Hagerstown, Maryland, estimated the enemy’s strength at 80,000 men and 275 cannons. Meade knew Lee had sent Ewell’s corps north to York and Carlisle while Longstreet’s and Hill’s troops remained in the vicinity of Chambersburg. Orders were given to keep the Federal army marching northwest from Frederick to Taneytown, where Meade set up his headquarters. To screen the advance of the army, Brigadier General John Buford was ordered to take two brigades of cavalry into Gettysburg and defend the town if attacked. 

General Robert Edward Lee

  

  Lee began moving his army east toward Gettysburg on Monday the 29th, with Hill’s Third Corps camping in Cashtown for the night. Longstreet’s First Corps would follow on the 30th as far as Greenwoood, and Ewell’s Second Corps would march south from Carlisle. Major General Henry Heth, commanding the lead division of Hill’s corps, ordered a brigade to Gettysburg on the 30th to find supplies, especially shoes, for his ill-equipped soldiers. 

Major General Henry Heth

  

  Thus, by Tuesday, June 30, the Union and Confederate armies were on a collision course toward Gettysburg. Meade had only been in command of his army for two days; his troops were stretched out along the roads from Frederick— hot and exhausted from hard marching. He was about to face the legendary Robert E. Lee in what could be the decisive battle of the war. Yet Meade did have one precious advantage over Lee—he knew where his enemy was, while Lee, without cavalry, was advancing blindly. 

Gettysburg resident Daniel Skelly age 18 in 1863

  

  Daniel Skelly recalled the growing tension among the people of Gettysburg: “The 28th and 29th were exciting days in Gettysburg for we knew the Confederate army, or a part of it at least, was within a few miles of our town and at night we could see from the house-tops the campfires in the mountains eight miles west of us. We expected it to march into our town at any moment and we had no information as to the whereabouts of the Army of the Potomac.”

(to be continued...)

Read more about the Daniel Skelly and the Gettysburg campaign my new book for teens just published by Sky Pony Press, Gettysburg: The True Account of Two Young Heroes in the Greatest Battle of the Civil War, available at Amazon and BN.com.

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Countdown to Gettysburg: June 27th 6:00 PM -- Arthur Framantle Enters Chambersburg with Hood's Division

  27th June, Saturday.--  I entered Chambersburg at 6 P. M. This is a town of some size and importance. All its houses were shut up; but the natives were in the streets, or at the upper windows, looking in a scowling and bewildered manner at the Confederate troops, who were marching gayly past to the tune of Dixie's Land. The women (many of whom were pretty and well dressed) were particularly sour and disagreeable in their remarks. I heard one of them say, "Look at Pharaoh's army going to the Red Sea." Others were pointing and laughing at Hood's ragged Jacks, who were passing at the time. 

Major General John Bell Hood

  This division, well known for its fighting qualities, is composed of Texans, Alabamians, and Arkansians, and they certainly are a queer lot to look at. They carry less than any other troops; many of them have only got an old piece of carpet or rug as baggage; many have discarded their shoes in the mud; all are ragged and dirty, but full of good humor and confidence in themselves and in their general, Hood. They answered the numerous taunts of the Chambersburg ladies with cheers and laughter. One female had seen fit to adorn her ample bosom with a huge Yankee flag, and she stood at the door of her house, her countenance expressing the greatest contempt for the hare-footed Rebs; several companies passed her without taking any notice; but at length a Texan gravely remarked, "Take care, madam, for Hood's boys are great at storming breastworks, when the Yankee colors is on them." After this speech the patriotic lady beat a precipitate retreat.

Chambersburg, Pennsylvania 1863

  Sentries were placed at the doors of all the principal houses, and the town was cleared of all but the military passing through or on duty. Some of the troops marched straight through the town, and bivouacked on the Carlisle road. Others turned off to the right and occupied the Gettysburg turnpike. I found Generals Lee and Longstreet encamped on the latter road, three-quarters of a mile from the town.

Lieutenant General James Longstreet

 General Longstreet and his staff at once received me into their mess, and I was introduced to Major Fairfax, Major Latrobe, and Captain Rogers of his personal staff; also to Major Moses, the Chief Commissary, whose tent I am to share. He is the most jovial, amusing, clever son of Israel I ever had the good fortune to meet. The other officers of Longstreet's headquarter staff are Colonel Sorrell, Lieutenant Colonel Manning, (ordnance officer,) Major Walton, Captain Goree, and Major Clark, all excellent good fellows, and most hospitable.

   Having lived at the headquarters of all the principal Confederate Generals, I am able to affirm that the relation between their staffs and themselves, and the way the duty is carried on, is very similar to what it is in the British army. All the Generals--Johnston, Bragg, Polk, Hardee, Longstreet, and Lee--are through soldiers, and their staffs are composed of gentlemen of position and education, who have now been trained into excellent and zealous staff officers.

  Major Moses tells me that his orders are to open the stores in Chambersburg by force, and seize all that is wanted for the army in a regular and official manner, giving in return its value in Confederate money on a receipt. The storekeepers have doubtless sent away their most valuable goods on the approach of the Confederate army. Much also has been already seized by Ewell, who passed through nearly a week ago. But Moses was much elated at having already discovered a large supply of excellent felt hats, hidden away in a cellar, which he "annexed" at once.

Williamsport Crossing by John Paul Strain depicts Robert E. Lee crossing the Potomac River on June 25th 1863 as his army advanced into Maryland heading towards Pennsylvania.

  I was told this evening the numbers which have crossed the Potomac, and also the number of pieces of artillery. There is a large train of ammunition; for if the army advances any deeper into the enemy's country, General Lee cannot expect to keep his communications open to the rear; and as the staff officers say, "In every battle we fight we must capture as much ammunition as we use." This necessity, however, does not seem to disturb them, as it has hitherto been their regular style of doing business.

Lieutenant General Richard S. Ewell

  Ewell, after the capture of Winchester, had advanced rapidly into Pennsylvania, and has already sent back great quantities of horses, mules, wagons, beeves, and other necessaries; he is now at or beyond Carlisle, laying the country under contribution, and making Pennsylvania support the war, instead of poor, used up, and worn-out Virginia. The corps of Generals A. P. Hill and Longstreet are now near this place, all full of confidence and high spirits.

(to be continued...)

Read more about the James Fremantle and the Gettysburg campaign my new book for teens just published by Sky Pony Press, Gettysburg: The True Account of Two Young Heroes in the Greatest Battle of the Civil War, available at Amazon and BN.com.

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Countdown to Gettysburg: June 27th 1863 -- Arthur Fremantle Joins General Longstreet's HQ Entering Greencastle, PA

  27th June, Saturday.-- Lawley was so ill this morning that he couldn't possibly ride. I therefore mounted his horse a little before daybreak, and started in search of the generals. After riding eight miles, I came up with General Longstreet, at 6.30 A. M., and was only just in time, as he was on the point of moving. Both he and his staff were most kind, when I introduced myself and stated my difficulties. He arranged that an ambulance should fetch Lawley, and he immediately invited me to join his mess during the campaign. He told me (which I did not know) that we were now in Pennsylvania, the enemy's country--Maryland being only ten miles broad at this point. He declared that bushwhackers exist in the woods, who shoot unsuspecting stragglers, and it would therefore be unsafe that Lawley and I should travel alone. 

  General Longstreet is an Alabamian--a thickset, determined-looking man, forty-three years of age. He was an infantry Major in the old army, and now commands the 1st corps d'armee. He is never far from General Lee, who relies very much upon his judgment. By the soldiers he is invariably spoken of as "the best fighter in the whole army." Whilst speaking of entering upon the enemy's soil, he said to me that although it might be fair in just retaliation, to apply the torch, yet that doing so would demoralize the army and ruin its now excellent discipline. Private property is to be therefore rigidly protected.

Lieutenant General James Longstreet

  At 7 A. M. I returned with an orderly (or courier, as they are called,) to the farm house in which I had left Lawley; and after seeing all arranged satisfactorily, about the ambulance, I rode slowly on to rejoin General Longstreet, near Chambersburg, which is a Pennsylvania town, distant twenty-two miles from Hagerstown. I was with M'Laws's division, and observed that the moment they entered Pennsylvania, the troops opened the fences and enlarged the road about twenty yards on each side, which enabled the wagons and themselves to proceed together. This is the only damage I saw done by the Confederates. This part of Pennsylvania is very flourishing, highly cultivated, and, in comparison with the Southern States, thickly peopled. But all the cattle and horses having been seized by Ewell, farm labor had now come to a complete standstill.

Dolly Harris -- Civil War Heroine -- Major General George Edward Pickett and Dolly Harris Greencastle, Pennsylvania – June 1863 by Ron Lesser. Impassioned by her sense of patriotism, Dolly Harris is said to have rushed to the street waving a Union flag at Confederate Major General George Edward Pickett as he and his troops passed through Greencastle on their way to Gettysburg. Fearing Dolly might incite a confrontation, General Pickett saluted the courageous young lady and the "Stars and Stripes" thereby averting an uprising in the street. Recognized as a Civil War heroine, she was the only Franklin County, Pennsylvania woman from that era buried with Military Honors.

  In passing through Greencastle we found all the houses and windows shut up, the natives in their Sunday clothes standing at their doors regarding the troops in a very unfriendly manner. I saw no straggling into the houses, nor were any of the inhabitants disturbed or annoyed by the soldiers. Sentries were placed at the doors of many of the best houses. to prevent any officer or soldier from getting in on any pretense.

(to be continued...)

Read more about the James Fremantle and the Gettysburg campaign my new book for teens just published by Sky Pony Press, Gettysburg: The True Account of Two Young Heroes in the Greatest Battle of the Civil War, available at Amazon and BN.com.

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Countdown to Gettysburg: June 26th 1863 -- Tillie Pierce Witnesses Ewell's Troops Occupy Gettysburg

Friday, June 26, 1863—Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, 3:15 pm

  “The Rebels are coming! The Rebels are coming!” Matilda “Tillie” Pierce looked up from her schoolwork as the shout went from room to room. Rushing to the door, she and the other girls gathered on the front portico of their school. In plain view, marching toward Gettysburg on the Chambersburg Pike, was a dusty mass of Confederate infantry. The teacher, Mrs. Eyster, turned to her students and ordered, “Children, run home as quickly as you can!”

Matilda "Tillie" Pierce

  Tillie ran for her father’s house on Baltimore Street as Confederate riders entered the town. As she reached the front door, men on horseback appeared on her street.

  I scrambled in, slammed shut the door, and hastening to the sitting room, peeped out between the shutters.

What a horrible sight! There they were, human beings! Clad almost in rags, covered with dust, riding wildly, pell-mell down the hill toward our home! Shouting, yelling most unearthly, cursing, brandishing their revolvers, and firing right and left. I was fully persuaded that the Rebels had actually come at last.

Soon the town was filled with infantry, and then the searching and ransacking began in earnest. They wanted horses, clothing, anything and almost everything they could conveniently carry away.
 

Nor were they particular about asking. Whatever suited them they took. They did, however, make a formal demand of the town authorities, for a large supply of flour, meat, groceries, shoes, hats, and ten barrels of whiskey; or, in lieu of all this, five thousand dollars. But our merchants and bankers had too often heard of their coming, and had already shipped their wealth to places of safety.

  The soldiers rounded up all the horses in town, including the one owned by Tillie’s father. Then they returned to the house and asked for something to eat. Mrs. Pierce scolded them, saying, “Yes, you ought to come back and ask for something to eat after taking a person’s horse!” She nevertheless gave them some food. As Tillie recalled, “Mother always had a kind and noble heart even toward her enemies.”

  Michael Jacobs, a professor at Pennsylvania College, witnessed the arrival of Confederate soldiers. Of the 5,000 troops of Brigadier General John B. Gordon’s brigade, most of them “were exceedingly dirty, some ragged, some without shoes, and some surmounted by the skeleton of what was once an entire hat, affording unmistakable evidence that they stood in great need of having their scanty wardrobe replenished; and hence the eagerness with which they inquired after shoe, hat, and clothing stores, and their disappointment when they were informed that goods of that description were not to be had in town.”

Major General John Brown Gordon

  In exchange for supplies that could be found, the troops often paid with Confederate money—

printed bills not worth the paper they were cut from, unless of course, the South won the war. By evening the raiders had moved all the freight cars near Gettysburg out to the railroad bridge east of town, then set it all on fire. In the morning the infantry was gone, marching twenty-five miles northeast toward York where General Ewell hoped to capture a bridge over the Susquehanna River. The townspeople wondered if they would return. 

Confederate Soldiers Raid a Norther Store (Harper's Weekly)

  Were other Confederates likely to pass through Gettysburg? And where was the Union army?

(to be continued...) 

Read more about the Tillie Pierce and the Gettysburg campaign my new book for teens just published by Sky Pony Press, Gettysburg: The True Account of Two Young Heroes in the Greatest Battle of the Civil War, available at Amazon and BN.com.

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Countdown to Gettysburg: June 25th 1863 -- Arthur Fremantle Travels With General Ewell's Corps Into Pennsylvania

25th June, Thursday.--We took leave... and started at 10 A. M. to overtake Generals Lee and Longstreet, who were supposed to be crossing the Potomac at Williamsport. Before we had got more than a few miles on our way. we began to meet horses and oxen, the first fruits of Ewell's advance into Pennsylvania. 

  The weather was cool and showery, and all went swimmingly for the first fourteen miles, when we caught up McLaws's division, which belongs to Longstreet's corps. As my horse about this time began to show signs of fatigue, and as Lawley's pickaxed most alarmingly, we turned them into some clover to graze, whilst we watched two brigades pass along the road. They were commanded, I think, by Semmes and Barksdale, and were composed of Georgians, Mississippians, and South Carolinians. They marched very well, and there was no attempt at straggling; quite a different state of things from Johnston's men in Mississippi. All were well shod and efficiently clothed. 

Brigadier General William Barksdale

Brigadier General Paul Jones Semmes

  In rear of each regiment were from twenty to thirty negro slaves, and a certain number of unarmed men carrying stretchers and wearing in their hats the red badges of the ambulance corps;--this is an excellent institution, for it prevents unwounded men falling out on pretense of taking wounded to the rear. The knapsacks of the men still bear the names of Massachusetts, Vermont, New Jersey, or other regiments to which they originally belonged. There were about twenty wagons to each brigade, most of which were marked U. S., and each of these brigades was about 2,800 strong. There are four brigades in McLaws's division. All the men seem in the highest spirits, and were cheering and yelling most vociferously.

  We reached Martinsburg (twenty-two miles) at 6 P. M., by which  time my horse nearly broke down, and I was forced to get off and walk. Martinsburg and this part of Virginia are supposed to be more Unionist than Southern; however, many of the women went through the form of cheering McLaws's division as it passed. I dare say they would perform the same ceremony in honor of the Yankees to-morrow.

  Three miles beyond Martinsburg we were forced by the state of our horses to insist upon receiving the unwilling hospitality of a very surly native, who was evidently Unionist in his proclivities. We were obliged to turn our horses into a field to graze during the night. This was most dangerous, for the Confederate so dire, in spite of his many virtues, is, as a rule, the most incorrigible horse-stealer in the world.

(to be continued...)

Read more about the James Fremantle and the Gettysburg campaign my new book for teens just published by Sky Pony Press, Gettysburg: The True Account of Two Young Heroes in the Greatest Battle of the Civil War, available at Amazon and BN.com.

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George Gordon Meade: The Unsung Hero of Gettysburg

Batteries are all about us; troops are moving into position;
new lines seem to be forming, or old ones extending. Two or three
general officers, with a retinue of staff and orderlies, come galloping
by. Foremost is the spare and somewhat stooped form of the
Commanding General. He is not cheered, indeed he is scarcely
recognized. He is an approved corps General, but he has not yet
vindicated his right to command the Army of the Potomac.

                                                        —Whitelaw Reid, Cincinnati Gazette 

 Major General George Gordon Meade, illustrated by Ron Cole.

  One of the great unsung heroes of Gettysburg is Major General George Gordon Meade.  In the pre-dawn hours of June 28, 1863, a special messenger reached Meade, who was encamped with the army near Frederick, Maryland. So stunned was Meade, in his sleepy mind, that he thought the officer had come to place him under arrest. Instead he was delivered a letter from General Halleck in which Meade was promoted to command the Army of the Potomac with orders to confront Lee as he invaded Pennsylvania. Unknown to anyone, that confrontation was only three days away.

  Although Meade was known for his temper, nicknamed a damned "goggle-eyed snapping turtle" by some on his staff,  he was an inspired choice by Lincoln. Meade was a proven combat leader, one without political ambitions, and Lincoln knew he could count on Meade to defend his home state of Pennsylvania from Lee’s invasion. Where other generals had shown timidity in opposing Lee aggressively, Meade knew his duty was to seek battle. This was well understood by General Lee, a fellow West Pointer and engineer, who found out Meade had taken command about twenty-four hours later. Lee said to his corps commanders, “General Meade will commit no blunder in my front, and if I make one he will make haste to take advantage of it.”

  Meade also had the confidence of his fellow officers, especially Major Generals John Reynolds and Winfield Scott Hancock. That same trust was returned by Meade giving Reynolds command of the left wing as they advanced towards Gettysburg with authority to act in Meade's stead on the battlefield.  When word of Reynold's death reached Meade, he turned to Hancock to take command of the field and confront Lee until the situation developed. By the time Meade arrived on the battlefield before dawn on July 2, his army was in possession of the high ground from Culp's Hill, along Cemetery Ridge to the Round Tops. Hancock's presence had been a major factor in rallying the survivors of the First Corps and placing reinforcements into line along Cemetery Ridge.

  On the night of June 30, just before the battle, he wrote his wife: “All is going on well. I think I have relieved Harrisburg and Philadelphia, and that Lee has now come to the conclusion that he must attend to other matters. I continue well, but much oppressed with a sense of responsibility and the magnitude of the great interests entrusted to me . . . Pray for me and beseech our heavenly Father to permit me to be an instrument to save my country and advance a just cause.” 

 Commanders of the Army of the Potomac, Gouverneur K. Warren, William H. French, George G. Meade, Henry J. Hunt, Andrew A. Humphreys, and George Sykes in September 1863.

  Meade should be remembered as one of the great Civil War generals. He was one of the few combat leaders who appreciated changes in technology and tactics that made frontal assaults a tragic waste of human lives. At Gettysburg, when the country needed fighting leader, Meade was there. His trust in his subordinates, his careful movement and deployment of vast numbers of men, guns, and supplies to Gettysburg, and his foresight in sensing Lee would attack his center line on July 3, were all marks of a great general. He was one of the few Union generals to face Robert E. Lee in open battle and to defeat him. 

***
Look for my new book on Gettysburg for teens this June from Sky Pony Press: Gettysburg: The True Account of Two Young Heroes in the Greatest Battle of the Civil War. It can be pre-ordered at Amazon, BN.com and Indiebound.

Elizabeth Salome Myers: A Gettysburg Hero Part Two

Do not be afraid; our fate
Cannot be taken from us; it is a gift.

                                                                   ― Dante Alighieri, Inferno 

Elizabeth "Sallie" Myers

...Continuing the true story of Sallie Myers, the fighting in and around Gettysburg had subsided by late afternoon. Wounded from both sides were being brought into any structure that would shelter them in town--thousands of casualties.

Sallie Myers was called along with other women to assist the wounded. The Catholic church was just down the street from her father’s home and she went to volunteer however she could. She had always feared the sight of blood and was terrified what might be asked of her. From her diary:

On pews and floors men lay, the groans of the suffering and dying were heartrending. I knelt beside the first man near the door and asked what I could do. “Nothing,” he replied, “I am going to die.” I went outside the church and cried. I returned and spoke to the man—he was wounded in the lungs and spine, and there was not the slightest hope for him. The man was Sergeant Alexander Stewart of the 149th Pennsylvania Volunteers. I read a chapter of the Bible to him, it was the last chapter his father had read before he left home. The wounded man died on Monday, July 6th.

Sergeant Stewart was the first wounded man brought in, but others followed. The sight of blood never again affected me and I was among wounded and dying men day and night. While the battle lasted and the town was in possession of the rebels, I went back and forth between my home and the hospitals without fear. The soldiers called me brave, but I am afraid the truth was that I did not know enough to be afraid and if I had known enough, I had no time to think of the risk I ran, for my heart and hands were full.

I went daily through the hospitals with my writing materials, reading and answering letters. This work enlisted all my sympathies, and I received many kind and appreciative letters from those who could not come. Besides caring for the wounded, we did all we could for the comfort of friends who came to look after their loved ones.

I would not care to live that summer again, yet I would not willingly erase that chapter from my life's experience; and I shall always be thankful that I was permitted to minister to the wants and soothe the last hours of some of the brave men who lay suffering and dying for the dear old flag.

Elizabeth received a letter from Alexander's younger brother after the battle, Henry Stewart who was a preacher. He arrived in Gettysburg the following summer with his mother to see to Alexander's grave. Elizabeth had become close to Henry through their letters and a romance began after they met. They were married in 1867, and although Henry was not to live for more than a year, she had a son in 1869 named Henry Alexander Stewart.

Nationally recognized for her efforts to help the wounded at Gettysburg she eventually returned to teaching and worked with the National Association of Army Nurses. She passed away in 1922 and is buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Gettysburg. She never remarried. Her son Henry became a doctor. Her account of Gettysburg was published in 1903: How A Gettysburg Schoolteacher Spent Her Vacation in 1863.

Look for my new book on Gettysburg for teens this June from Sky Pony Press: Gettysburg: The True Account of Two Young Heroes in the Greatest Battle of the Civil War. It can be pre-ordered at Amazon, BN.com and Indiebound. 

Elizabeth Salome Myers: A Gettysburg Hero Part One

Courage is grace under pressure.

                                        ― Ernest Hemingway

     People are always moved by the courage of everyday people doing a heroic act to help someone. A few years ago, a 50-year-old construction worker named Wesley Autrey became a New York hero when he rescued a man who had fallen onto the subway tracks. With total disregard for his own safety he leaped into the path of an onrushing train to save a complete stranger. He later told the New York Times, "I don’t feel like I did something spectacular; I just saw someone who needed help. I did what I felt was right.”

     That is raw courage, to put oneself in harm's way to save the life of another person.

     But there is another kind of courage--the courage to face down one's own fears. Some of us fear the dark, or fire, while others cringe at the even the suggestion of a spider. If we had to face one of our own greatest fears in order to help someone, would we all have the same courage to do what is right in the event of an emergency?

     Elizabeth Salome Meyers was just like most of us. She was from a well-to-do family that lived in Gettysburg in 1863. Just 21 years old, she was a devoted school teacher. "Sallie" had never been witness to much suffering in life. She was terrified by the sight of blood. Yet she would take part in the battle of Gettysburg and overcome her fears to do whatever was required to assist the wounded. Gettysburg would become the defining moment of her entire life, and she would devote all her remaining years to the study and practice of nursing.

     When the Confederates moved to occupy Gettysburg on the morning of July 1, they were opposed by two brigades of Union cavalry. The Federals were soon reinforced by an entire corps of 20,000 men. By mid afternoon both armies were locked in a savage fight for control of the lands just outside town. When the Union army began to fall back through Gettysburg, the people realized their streets would soon become the next battlefield. Trapped between two massive armies, the townspeople took shelter in their cellars and prayed.

Elizabeth Salome "Sallie" Myers

From her diary of July 1, 1863:

     While our elders prepared food, we girls stood on the corner near our house and gave refreshments of all kinds to ‘our boys’ of the First Corps, who were double-quicking down Washington Street to join the troops already engaged in battle west of the town. After the men had all passed, we sat on our doorsteps or stood around in groups, frightened nearly out of our wits but never dreaming of defeat. 

"Water for the Marching Troops", from Clifton Johnson's Battlefield Adventures, 1915.

     At 10 o'clock that morning I saw the first blood. A horse was led past our house covered with blood. The sight sickened me. Then three men came up the street. The middle one could barely walk. His head had been hastily bandaged and blood was visible. I grew faint with horror. I had never been able to stand the sight of blood, but I was destined to become used to it.

     Then came the order: ‘Women and children to the cellars; the rebels will shell the town.’ We lost little time in obeying the order. My home was on West High Street, near Washington (Street) and in the direct path of the retreat (of the Union Army).

     We knelt, shivering, and prayed. The noise above our heads and from the distance, the rattle of musketry, the screeching of shells, and the unearthly cries, mingled with the sobbing of the children shook our hearts. Three soldiers crept down into the cellar, and we concealed and fed them.

     After the Rebels had gained full possession of the town, some of our men who had been captured were standing near the cellar window. One of them asked if some of us would take their addresses and the addresses of friends and write to them of their capture. I took thirteen and wrote as they requested. I received answers from all but one, and several of the soldiers revisited the place of their capture and recognized the house and cellar window. While the battle lasted we concealed and fed three men in our cellar.

... to be continued.

Look for my new book on Gettysburg for teens this June from Sky Pony Press: Gettysburg: The True Account of Two Young Heroes in the Greatest Battle of the Civil War. It can be pre-ordered at Amazon, BN.com and Indiebound. 

The American Civil War: The Crossroads of Our Being

Through our great good fortune, in our youth our hearts were touched with fire. It was given to us to learn at the outset that life is a profound and passionate thing.

                                  Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.--Memorial Day Speech, Keene, NH, 1884.

     I have started this journal to share some of the things that inspire me as a writer. For the last year or so I have been working on a new book for teens to mark the 150th anniversary of the battle at Gettysburg in July 2013. The project is entitled, Gettysburg: The True Account of Two Young Heroes in the Greatest Battle of the Civil War. Essentially it is the Gettysburg story as told by those who were there, but especially from the memoirs of two teenagers caught in the epic struggle--Tillie Pierce, the 15 year old daughter of a well-to-do family, and Daniel Skelly, an 18 year old country store clerk. Each witnessed great moments of the battle and participated in events that helped shape the course of history. More on them later...

     I thought it might be worth starting this journal by reflecting on why history is so important. The American Civil War is now an event 150 years in the past. Why should we care? Is the Gettysburg epic nothing  but a dusty story of an age long gone? What relevance does the study of history give us in our modern age? In regards to this new book, why should young people care about our shared past as Americans?

 The High Water Mark by Don Troiani

     Bruce Catton was a great Civil War historian who won the Pulitzer Prize for history in 1954. As a young boy growing up in the small town of Benzonia, Michigan, he would sit on the front porch of his neighbor’s house and listen to the stories of Union veterans. Speaking in 1961 on the meaning of the Civil War, Catton noted, “It was the biggest single event in our national history. In a way it is the central theme of our existence as a people; it is our Iliad, our Odyssey , the one tremendous legend which expresses what we are and what we mean. We can no more ignore it than we can ignore the American Revolution itself. Here was our most significant and tragic experience.”

Bruce Catton

     If we are to understand ourselves as Americans and as a unified nation, we must have an understanding of the Civil War. Shelby Foote, an eminent historian from Mississippi, put it this way: “The Civil War defined us as what we are and it opened us to being what we became, good and bad things . . . It was the crossroads of our being, and it was a hell of a crossroads.”

Shelby Foote

     Gettysburg was one of the great turning points of American history. Certainly there were other battles and other turning points of equal importance that decided Union victory. Yet Gettysburg is the one battle Americans seem to remember the most. For the South, it was a supreme moment of honor, courage, and sacrifice for their cause of independence. For the North, it was another step toward what Lincoln called “a new birth of freedom.” And what ultimately emerged from the Civil War was a united country free of slavery. Today, looking back, we understand that the war between North and South is the American story and in every way worth knowing so that we might better understand ourselves and our country.

Look for my new book on Gettysburg for teens this June from Sky Pony Press: Gettysburg: The True Account of Two Young Heroes in the Greatest Battle of the Civil War. It can be pre-ordered at Amazon, BN.com and Indiebound.