Chapter X Battle of Cedar Creek, October 19, 1864, With Comments Thereon — Also Personal Mention and Incidents
General Early, upon his arrival at Fisher’s Hill with his reorganized army, assumed, on the 13th of October, an aggressive attitude by pushing a division of infantry north of Strasburg and his cavalry along the Back road towards Cedar Creek. This brought on sharp engagements, in which Colonel Thoburn’s division of Crook’s corps and Custer’s cavalry participated. Early seems to have acted in the belief that all but Crook’s command had gone to Petersburg. This action resulted in bringing Wright back to Cedar Creek, as we have seen.
Secretary Stanton, by telegram on the 13th, summoned Sheridan to Washington for consultation as to the latter’s future operations.
Early, having met unexpected resistance, withdrew his forces at night to Fisher’s Hill, and quiet being restored, Sheridan started on the 16th to Washington, via Front Royal and Manassas Gap. He took with him as far as Front Royal his cavalry, under Torbert, intending to push them through Chester Gap to the Virginia Central Railroad at Charlottesville, to make an extensive raid east of the Blue Ridge.
Early had a signal station on Three Top Mountain in plain view of our signal officers, who knew the Confederate signal code. From this station there was flagged, on the 16th, this message:
“To Lieutenant-General Early:
“Be ready to move as soon as my forces join you, and we will crush Sheridan.
“Longstreet, Lieutenant-General.”
Wright, who was left in command of the army at Cedar Creek, forwarded this message to Sheridan, who received it when near Front Royal. Wright, also, in a communication accompanying the message, expressed fear of an attack in the absence of the cavalry. He anticipated that it would fall on his right. Sheridan, deeming it best to be on the safe side, abandoned the cavalry raid, and ordered Torbert to report back to Wright, cautioning the latter to be well on his guard, and expressing the opinion to Wright that if attacked he could beat the enemy.( 1) Sheridan with a cavalry escort proceeded to Rectortown, the terminus of the railroad; there took cars, and arrived in Washington the morning of the 17th. He held a consultation with Stanton and Halleck, and with certain members of his staff left Washington at 12 M. by rail, arriving the evening of the same day at Martinsburg. Here he was met by an escort of three hundred cavalry. He left Martinsburg the next morning (18th), and reached Winchester about 3 P.M., twenty-two miles distant. He tarried at the latter place over night, making some survey of the surrounding heights as to their utility for fortifications.
But to return to his army. Torbert reached Cedar Creek with the cavalry on the 17th. The Longstreet message was a ruse. Longstreet, though in Richmond, was not on duty, not having fully recovered from his wound received in the Wilderness.( 2)
The position of the opposing armies the night of the 18th of October can be briefly stated.
The Union Army was encamped on each side of the turnpike, facing southward, and north of Cedar Creek, a tributary of the Shenandoah, which, flowing in general direction from northwest to southeast, empties into the river about two miles west of Strasburg. The north branch of the Shenandoah flows northward to Fisher’s Hill, thence bending to the eastward at the foot of and around the north end of Three Top (or Massanutten) Mountain, thence, forming a junction with the south branch, past Front Royal to the west and again northward, emptying into the Potomac at Harper’s Ferry.
Crook’s two divisions, Colonel Joseph Thoburn and Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes commanding, were wholly to the east of the pike; Thoburn’s division well advanced, his front conforming to the course of the creek; the Nineteenth Corps (Emory’s), two divisions, lay on each side of the pike, covering the bridge and ford in its immediate front, and the Sixth was on Emory’s right. Ricketts, Wheaton, and Getty’s divisions of the Sixth were encamped in the order named from left to right. Meadow Brook (sometimes called Marsh Run), a small stream, with rugged banks, flowing from north to south and emptying into Cedar Creek, separated the left of Ricketts’ division from the right of the Nineteenth Corps. The Sixth Corps’ front conformed to the line of Cedar Creek; Getty’s division being retired, and consequently much nearer than the others to Middletown. My brigade was the left of the Sixth, and its left rested on Meadow Brook. Merritt’s cavalry was in close proximity to Getty’s right. Custer was about one and a half miles to Merritt’s right, on the Back road beyond a range of hills and near the foot of Little North Mountain. The whole course of the Back road is through a rough country not adapted to cavalry operations. Powell’s cavalry division was near Front Royal. Army headquarters were at the Belle Grove House on the heights west of the pike, immediately in rear of the right of the Nineteenth Corps. Wright’s headquarters were a short distance to the rear of Sheridan’s.
The supply and baggage trains of our army were about one mile behind its right centre and about the same distance from Middletown, a village twelve miles south of Winchester, and about two miles north of the Cedar Creek bridge. Getty and Merritt’s camps were, in general, westward of Middletown. The front of our army covered about two miles; Custer’s and Thoburn’s divisions, on the right and left, being outside of this limit.
The Union Army was not intrenched, save a portion of the Nineteenth and Eighth Corps. Owing to reports that Early had withdrawn southward, Wright ordered a brigade of the Nineteenth Corps to start at daylight of the 19th to make a strong reconnoissance. The Union troops, except only the usual guards and pickets, quietly slept in their tents the night of the 18th of October.
The Confederate Army was encamped on Fisher’s Hill, two miles south of Strasburg and about six miles from the centre of the Union Army, measured by the pike. Three Top Mountain was east and south of a bend of the Shenandoah; its north end abutting close up to the river. General J. B. Gordon and Captain Hotchkiss, from the Confederate signal station of Three Top, on the 18th, with field-glasses, marked the location of all the Union camps, and on their report Early decided to attack the next morning.( 3) Accordingly, Gordon, Ramseur, and Pegram’s divisions and Payne’s cavalry brigade were moved in the night across the river, thence along the foot of Three Top Mountain, and along its north end eastward to and again across the river at Bowman and McIntorf’s Fords below the mouth of Cedar Creek, and thence, by 4 A.M., to a position east of the main camp of Crook’s corps. These divisions were under Gordon. Kershaw and Wharton’s divisions marched by the pike to the north of Strasburg, and there separated; the former moving to the eastward, accompanied by Early. Kershaw crossed Cedar Creek at Robert’s Ford, about one and a half miles above its mouth, which brought him in front of Thoburn of Crook’s corps. Wharton, followed by all of Early’s artillery, continued on the pike and took position in advance of Hupp’s Hill, less than a mile south of the bridge over Cedar Creek. He had orders to push across the bridge as soon as Gordon made an attack on the Union left and rear, and thus bring the artillery into action. Lomax’s cavalry division, theretofore posted in Luray Valley, was ordered to elude Powell’s cavalry, join the right of Gordon, and co-operate with him in the attack. Rosser’s cavalry divisions were pushed up the night of the 18th close in front of Custer, with orders to attack simultaneously with Gordon. The enemy did not know Sheridan was absent from his army, and Payne’s cavalry, which accompanied Gordon, was ordered to penetrate to the Belle Grove House and make him a prisoner.( 4)
Wright was in command of the army for all military operations, but otherwise it was commanded in Sheridan’s name, during his absence, by his staff. Few of the army knew Sheridan was away when the battle opened.
At 4 A.M. the still sleeping Union Army was aroused by sharp firing far off on its right. Rosser had attacked Custer; but though there was some surprise, Custer held his ground. This was the initial attack, but almost at the moment Rosser’s guns were heard came an assault on Thoburn by Kershaw, followed at once by Gordon with his three divisions and Payne’s cavalry on Hayes’ division of Crook’s corps. Besides being surprised Crook’s divisions were largely outnumbered, and, consequently, after a short and desperate resistance, both divisions were broken and somewhat dispersed. Thoburn was killed. The officers heroically did all in their power to rally the men, but some were captured, and seventeen pieces of artillery lost. Early soon joined Gordon with Kershaw, and together they fell on the left of the Nineteenth Corps, which was at the same time assailed in front by Wharton with all Early’s artillery. The Nineteenth shared the fate of Crook’s corps, and was soon broken and flying to the rear. This brought Early’s five infantry divisions and his artillery together on the heights near the Belle Grove House, from whence they could operate against the Sixth Corps. Sheridan’s headquarters were captured, his staff being forced to fly with such official papers as they could collect. Crook and Emory’s commands were routed before it was fully day-dawn. The position of our cavalry was such that it could render no immediate aid against the main attack. Gordon prolonged his line towards Middletown, facing generally to the westward, and was joined on his right by some irregular cavalry, part of which appeared north of Middletown. These forces threatened our ammunition and other trains. A thick fog helped to conceal the enemy’s movements. The disaster sustained must not be attributed to a want of skill and bravery on the part of the troops of the Eighth and Nineteenth. Crook, aided by such gallant officers as Colonels Thoburn, Thomas M. Harris, and Milton Wells of the First, and Colonels R. B. Hayes, H. F. Devol, James M. Comly, and B. F. Coates of his Second Division, and Emory, assisted by Generals McMillen and Dwight and Colonels Davis and Thomas of his First, and Generals Grover and Birge and Colonels Porter, Molineux, Dan. McCauley, and Shunk of his Second Division, did all possible under the circumstances to avert calamity. No braver or more skillful officers could be found. These corps were victims of a surprise. Their position was badly chosen, and not well protected by pickets and guards. There is no necessity to defend the good name of the officers and men who were so ingloriously routed. The battle, so successful thus far for Early, was, however, not over, nor was he to have continued good fortune. Wright had retained the active command of the Sixth Corps, though by virtue of seniority he was in command of the army. He, as soon as the attack was made, turned his corps over to Ricketts, who turned the command of his division (Third) over to me, and I turned my brigade over to Colonel Wm. H. Ball of the 122d Ohio. My division was the next to be struck by Early’s troops. It had time, however, to break camp, form, and face about to the eastward. Before it was fairly daylight, my old brigade, under Colonel Ball, had crossed Meadow Brook by my order and was advancing up the heights near the Belle Grove House. Ball’s brigade was run through by the broken troops of the Nineteenth, and it was feared for a time it could not be held steady. The enemy swung across the Valley pike to my left and rear, and thus completely isolated my division from other Union troops. Notwithstanding this situation the division firmly held its exposed position. To cover a wider front the brigades were fought and manoeuvred separately in single battle line, and often faced in different directions. I soon found I was able to drive or hold back any enemy in front of any part of my command. The fighting became general and furious and promised an early success to our arms. Wheaton, next on my right, and Getty next on his right as camped, likewise faced about and moved eastward towards the pike to meet the enemy already in possession of it immediately south of Middletown. Getty encountered some of Gordon’s infantry and cavalry among our trains. Getty and Wheaton were soon widely separated from each other, and Wheaton, the nearest, was still not within a half mile of my division, which was the farthest south. The broken troops of the Eighth and Nineteenth Corps had retreated as far as Middletown, and some soon reached Newtown, pressing onward towards Winchester, carrying exaggerated reports of disaster to the whole army. Custer’s cavalry was still held in Cedar Creek Valley by Rosser. Merritt came gallantly to the rescue, and by 7 A.M. the enemy were confronted at every point and held at bay. Getty met a strong force along Meadow Brook, near Middletown, but maintained himself, though his right flank was assailed by one of Gordon’s divisions. Wheaton fought his division in the interval between Getty’s and my divisions, he having frequently to change front, as had the other divisions, to meet flanking columns of the enemy. The complete isolation of the divisions of the Sixth Corps rendered it impossible for their commanders to know the real situation throughout the field, and neither of them had any assurance of co-operation or assistance from the others. My division, being the farthest south, was in great danger of being cut off. Each division maintained, from 6 A.M. until after 9 A.M., a battle of its own. Neither division was, during that time, driven from its position by any direct attack made on it, and every change of position by any considerable part of the Sixth Corps was deliberately made under orders and while not pressed by the enemy in front. Wright was with Getty or Wheaton until assured of their ability to cover the trains and to hold their ground. Ricketts, in command of the corps, after directing me to hold my position near Cedar Creek until further orders, left me, promising soon to return with assistance, but about 7 A.M. he fell pierced through the chest with a rifle ball, and was borne from the field.( 5) The command of the corps then devolved on Getty, and the command of his division of General L. A. Grant of Vermont.
About 8 A.M. Wright came to me with information of Getty and Wheaton’s success. He said he would soon have cavalry on the enemy’s right flank, and that he believed the battle could be won. He was tranquil, buoyant, and self-possessed. He did not seem to pay any attention to a wound under his chin, made by a passing bullet, though he was bleeding profusely. He had no staff officer with him, and was without escort.( 6) I ordered Captain Damon of my staff to report to him. Wright repeated Ricketts’ order to hold my division behind Meadow Brook well down to Cedar Creek. This I had been enabled to do when not threatened on my left flank. It must be remembered that after 6 A.M. the divisions of the corps having been faced about, and the Eighth and Nineteenth Corps driven to the rear, Getty’s division became the left, Wheaton’s the centre, and my division the right of the army, the whole line facing, in general, eastward. In this position, isolated as before stated, the divisions maintained the battle. My greatest anxiety arose of the possibility of the ammunition of the men becoming exhausted. One officer conducted to us through the fog, smoke, and confusion a considerable supply of cartridges in boxes strapped on mules. Colonel Ball sent Captain R. W. Wiley of his staff to hasten forward another such mule-caravan. Owing to a change in the location of the brigade, he conducted it within the Confederate lines. Captain Wiley was the only officer of my division captured in the day’s battle.
Getty, who had successfully fought with his division near Middletown, took up a position before 10 A.M. with the left of his division resting on the turnpike north of the town about three fourths of a mile.
My division was fiercely engaged all the morning. Colonel Tompkins, Chief of Artillery of the Sixth Corps, assembled a number of guns on the plateau to my left under Captains McKnight and Adams. They were unsupported by infantry. The enemy approached under cover of the smoke and fog and captured most of them. Under my direction, Colonel W. H. Henry and Captain C. K. Prentiss with the 10th Vermont and 6th Maryland changed front and retook them after a fierce struggle. The guns not disabled were drawn off by hand. My position was in open ground along the crest of a ridge, right resting near Cedar Creek, covering Marsh Run (or Meadow Brook). The enemy forced a crossing of the Run near its mouth, but soon were driven back; then a fierce attack came on my left from a large force. This too was repulsed. The battle raged with alternate assaults on the front and flanks of my division. They were each repulsed with considerable loss to the enemy. The situation grew so promising that about 9 A.M. I ordered a general charge along the whole line. This was promptly made, and the enemy were driven to the east of Marsh Run, and complete success seemed assured, when a large force of the enemy again appeared on my left in the direction of Middletown. The charge had to be suspended and combinations made to meet the new danger. The battle still raged with great fury, my line being frequently compelled to change front to meet the flank attacks. Sometimes a portion of it faced northward, another eastward, and another southward. The enemy was at no time able to drive us. All changes of position were made under my orders and after the enemy had been repulsed in his direct attacks. The importance of uniting the divisions of the Sixth Corps was kept in mind, and as the enemy was driven back on my left, my command slowly moved northward towards Getty and Wheaton’s battles. My battle had been maintained, in general, a mile and more southwestward of Middletown and in the vicinity of our camps of the night before. Getty and Wheaton had thus far fought their divisions near Marsh Run to the south of Middletown. Before 10 A.M., I reached the Woollen Mill road that ran parallel to the general line my troops were then holding and almost at right angles to the turnpike, westward to Cedar Creek from the south end of Middletown. At this time the enemy was in my front, and our flanks were no longer threatened. He had suspended further attacks with his infantry, but concentrated on us a heavy artillery fire which our guns returned. We had lost few prisoners; even the wounded of the division had been brought off. The men were in compact order and no demoralization had taken place. The captured and missing from the division the entire day was two officers and thirty-four men.( 7) From this last position I leisurely moved the division to the left and rear over the Old Forge road (which extended west from the Valley pike at the north end of Middletown over Middle Marsh Brook and a ridge to the Creek), passing Wheaton’s front, and united with Getty’s right. Emerson’s brigade of the division through a mistake temporarily moved a short distance north of the line designated, but the error was promptly corrected. Colonel Ball was then, by me, directed to cover the front of the entire division with a heavy line of skirmishers, and he accordingly deployed the 110th Ohio and 138th Pennsylvania under Lieutenant-Colonel Otho H. Binkley, and moved them about three hundred yards to the front along the outskirts of a woods, with orders to hold the enemy in check as long as possible if attacked. Orders were at once given to resupply the troops with ammunition. Wheaton’s division soon formed on my right, and for the first time after the battle opened the Sixth Corps was united.
The enemy was now in possession of the camps (except of the cavalry) of our army, and was flushed with success. Wright had given orders for all the broken troops to be re-organized, and for Merritt and Custer’s cavalry to move from the right to the left of the army,( 8) and the division commanders were told the enemy would be attacked about 12 M.
We left Sheridan at Winchester. He remained there the night of the 18th of October. Before rising in the morning an officer on picket duty in front of the city reported artillery firing in the direction of his army. Sheridan interpreted this as a strong reconnoissance in which the enemy was being felt. He had been notified the night before that Wright had ordered such a reconnoissance. Further reports of heavy firing having reached him, he, at 8.30 A.M. started to join his army. When he reached Mill Creek just south of Winchester, with his escort following, he distinctly heard the continuous roar of artillery, which satisfied him his army was engaged in strong battle. As he approached Kearnstown and came upon a high place in the road, he caught sight of some demoralized soldiers, camp followers, and baggage and sutler wagons, in great confusion, hurrying to the rear. There were in this mixed mass sutlers and their clerks, teamsters, bummers, cow-leaders, servants, and all manner of camp followers. The sight greatly disturbed Sheridan; it was almost appalling to him. Such a scene in greater or less degree may usually be witnessed in the rear of any great army in battle. The common false reports of the army being all overwhelmed and in retreat were proclaimed by these flying men as justification of their own disgraceful conduct. Sheridan, notwithstanding his experience as a soldier, was impressed with the belief that his whole army was defeated and in retreat.( 9) He formed, while riding through these people, erroneous impressions of what had taken place in the morning battle which were never removed from his mind. The steady roar of guns and rattle of musketry should have told him that some organized forces were, at least, baring their breasts bravely to the enemy and standing as food for shot and shell. Sheridan mistook the disorganized horde he passed through for substantial portions of a wholly routed army, and this mistake prevented him, even later, from clearly understanding the real situation.
He first met Torbert, his Chief of Cavalry, and from him only learned what had taken place to the left of and around Middletown. Torbert, who had not been to the right, where the battle with infantry had raged for hours, assumed that demoralization extended over that part of the field. Next Sheridan came to Getty’s division (10.30 A.M.),10 and finding it and its brave commander in unbroken line, facing the foe, assumed without further investigation that no other infantry troops were doing likewise. He justly gives Getty’s division and the cavalry credit for being “in the presence of and resisting the enemy.”11 Getty, though theretofore in command of the Sixth Corps, did not pretend to know the position or the previous movements of the army. He had remained constantly with his division, and wisely held the turnpike, covering our left flank and trains. This, too, was according to Wright’s order. When Sheridan arrived Getty was not actually engaged, but the enemy were, at long range, firing artillery. A shot passed close to Sheridan as he approached Getty. After the first salutation, Sheridan said to Getty: “Emory’s corps is four miles to your rear, and Wheaton’s division of your corps is two miles in your rear. I will form them on your division.” Sheridan then said nothing of Crook’s corps, or of the Third Division of the Sixth, which I commanded.12
Up to this time Sheridan had not met Wright, who was on the right of the army, nor could Sheridan see from the pike the troops of my division nor of Wheaton’s, still to my right. My division was at no time as far to the rear as the left of Getty’s line. Wright confirms my recollection of the position of my division at the time of Sheridan’s arrival, but his recollection is that Wheaton had not completed a connection with my right.13
Colonel Ball, in his report dated the day after the battle, speaking of the final movement of the Second Brigade of my division to connect with Getty’s division, correctly says: “We were ordered to move obliquely to the left and rear and connect with the right of the Second Division.” Instead of having to advance to form line with Getty it was necessary to move obliquely to the rear. By about 10 A.M., the divisions of the Sixth Corps were united, the organized troops of our army were in line, and the enemy’s flank movements were over. Thenceforth he had to meet us in front. Our trains were protected, and there was no thought of further retiring. The Sixth Corps had not lost any of its camp equipage, not a wagon, nor, permanently, a piece of artillery. Its organization was perfect, and there were no stragglers from its ranks. A strong line of skirmishers had been thrown forward and the men resupplied with ammunition.
An incident here occurred which came near causing my dismissal from the army. Colonel J. W. Snyder, of the 9th New York Heavy Artillery, on being ordered to hold his command ready for an early advance, notified me his men were practically out of ammunition, and that the ordnance officer reported there were no cartridges to be had of suitable size. This was the only regiment in the command armed with smooth-bore.69 calibre muskets. They required buck and ball. The other troops were armed with rifles,.58 calibre. I ordered the Colonel to instruct his men to throw away their muskets as fast as rifles could be found on the field to take their places. This his men eagerly did, and Colonel Snyder soon reported his regiment ready for action, with rifles in their hands and forty rounds of cartridges. This regiment, a very large and splendid one (three battalions, four companies each), was thus kept in line to participate in the impending conflict. After the incident had been almost forgotten a letter came through the army channels from the Chief of Ordnance at Washington, advising me that the captains of companies of the 9th New York had reported, severally, that their men had thrown away their muskets “October 19, 1864, by order of Colonel Keifer, division commander,” and asking me for an explanation of the reprehensible order. I plead guilty and stated the circumstances giving rise to the unusual order, but soon received a further communication from the same officer informing me that my name had been sent to the President, through the Secretary of War, for dismissal. I was told some correspondence arose over the matter, in which Generals Sheridan and Wright approved my action fully. This incident serves now to enable me to remember that Wright proposed to attack Early at 12 M.
Two or three statements of Sheridan deserve special mention. Speaking of his appearance on the field, he says:
“When nearing the Valley pike, just south of Newtown, I saw about three fourths of a mile west of the pike a body of troops, which proved to be Ricketts and Wheaton’s divisions of the Sixth Corps.”
And speaking of a time after he had met Getty and Wright, he says:
“I ordered Custer’s division back to the right flank, and returning to the place where my headquarters had been established, I met near them Ricketts’ division under General Keifer and General Frank Wheaton’s division, both marching to the front.”14
The distance from Newtown to Middletown is five miles. My division was at no time on that day within four miles of Newtown. This is also true, I am sure, of Wheaton’s division. Sheridan was deceived by false reports received before his arrival, and by the sight of magnified numbers of broken troops of other corps, who had continued to the rear. It was impossible for Sheridan to have met Wheaton and myself leading our divisions to the front; besides, our divisions were not at any time within a mile of his then headquarters. Wheaton’s and the right of my division were farther advanced than any part of Getty’s division. This is proved by the recollection of Wright, Getty, and others, also by the reports written soon after the battle by many officers.15 Sheridan, when he wrote, must have remembered meeting Wheaton and myself when we, together, rode to him from the right to tell him of the position and situation of our respective commands, and to assure him we could hold our ground and advance as soon as ordered. This ride brought Wheaton and me nearer Newtown than we were at any other time that day. Sheridan was so impressed by the circumstances attending his coming to the field, and by his first meeting with Torbert and Getty, and the previous reports to him, that he assumed a condition of things which did not exist. It has been stated that my division joined Getty on his right. It, however, turned out that a portion of Hayes’ division of Crook’s corps had united with Getty’s right, though not at first distinguished by me from the latter’s troops.
Years after the battle, ex-President Hayes referred to some statements in Sheridan’s Memoirs thus:
“In speaking of that fight he says that, passing up the pike, sometimes on one side, and sometimes on the other, coming to Cedar Creek, he struck the First Division of Getty, of the Sixth Corps; that he passed along that division a short distance, when there arose out of a hollow before him a line consisting entirely of officers of Crook’s Army of West Virginia and of color-bearers. The army had been stampeded in the morning, but these people were not panic-stricken. They saluted him, but there was nothing now between the enemy and him and the fugitives but this division of Getty’s. Said he: ‘These officers seemed to rise right up from the ground.’ This was twenty-four years afterward, but he recollects it perfectly well except names. Among them, however, he recollects seeing one, Colonel R. B. Hayes, since President of the United States, and drops the story there, leaving the impression that there were no men there—no privates, no army—simply some color-bearers and some officers.
“The fact is that in the hollow, just in the rear, was a line of men, a thousand or twelve hundred, probably, and they had thrown up a little barricade and were lying close behind it. He came up and saw these officers and did not see the men, or seems not to have seen them; but I had no idea at the time that he did not see the private soldiers in that line. He now tells that singular story of a line of officers, a line of color-bearers, and no force. The fact is that first came Getty’s division, and then mine, and then came General Keifer’s division, all lying down behind that barricade, but in good condition, except that there had been some losses in the morning. General Keifer was next to me, and then came the rest of the Sixth Corps, and farther down I have no doubt the Nineteenth Corps was in line. We had then been, I suppose, an hour or an hour and a half in that position.”16
Passing from disputed, though important, points relating to the battle, all agree that when Sheridan reached his army a battle had been fought and lost to all appearance, and that the Union Army had been forced to retire to a new position. It should also be regarded beyond controversy that the Sixth Corps had been united before his arrival, that broken troops of other commands were being formed on the Sixth, and that the enemy also had been forced to change front, and was arrested in his advance.
Sheridan’s presence went far towards giving confidence to his army, and to inspire the men with a spirit of success. While the army loved Wright, and believed in him, his temperament was not such as to cause him to work an army up to a high state of enthusiasm. A deep chagrin over the morning’s disaster pervaded our army, and had much to do with the subsequent efforts to win a victory. Sheridan showed himself to the troops by riding along the front, and he was loudly cheered. He assured them of success before the day ended. During the lull in the day’s battle some of the broken troops of the Eighth and Nineteenth Corps were reorganized.
Wright resumed command of his corps and Getty his division. Before Sheridan came Wright had instructed his division commanders that he would assume the offensive, and it was understood our army would advance about 12 M., as soon as an ample resupply of ammunition could be issued. Sheridan, however, postponed the time for assuming the offensive until 3 P.M. Early, still filled with high hopes of complete victory, about 1 P.M. pushed forward on our entire front. He did not drive in the strong line of skirmishers, and the attack was easily repulsed. It seemed to me then, as it did to Wright and others, that our whole army should have been thrown against the enemy on this repulse, and thus decided the day. Sheridan, however, adhered to his purpose to act on the defensive until later in the day. A false report that a Confederate column was moving towards Winchester on the Front Royal road caused Sheridan to delay his attack until about 4 P.M.
Early promptly realized that the conditions had changed, that the armies must meet face to face. It will be kept in mind that our army was now fronting southward instead of eastward, and Early’s army was forced to face northward instead of westward, as in the morning’s battle.
Early, hoping to hold the ground already won and thus reap some of the fruits of victory, retired, on his repulse, beyond the range of our guns, and took up a strong position, with his infantry and artillery, mainly on a natural amphitheatre of hills, centre a little retired, extending from a point north of Cedar Creek near Middle Marsh Brook on his left to and across the turnpike near Middletown, protecting his flanks west of this brook and east of the town with his cavalry and horse artillery. Early employed his men busily for the succeeding two hours in throwing up lunettes or redans to cover his field guns. His men were skillfully posted behind stone fences, common in the Valley, and on portions of his line behind temporary breastworks.
Early, before 12 P.M., wired Richmond he had won a complete victory, and would drive the Union Army across the Potomac. At 4 P.M. our army went forward in single line, with no considerable reserves, but in splendid style. Getty, with his left still on the turnpike, was the division of direction. My orders were to hold my left on Getty’s right. Wheaton was to keep connection with my right, and the Nineteenth Corps with the right of the Sixth Corps; and the cavalry, Merritt east of Middletown and Custer on Cedar Creek, to cover the flanks. In verifying my position just before starting, I found troops of Hayes’ command filling a space of two or three hundred yards between Getty’s right and my left. I discovered Hayes temporarily resting on the ground a short distance in rear of his men, with his staff around him. From him I learned he had no orders to advance, whereupon I requested him to withdraw his men so I could close the interval before the movement commenced. He promptly rose, mounted his horse, and said: “If this army goes forward I will fill that gap, with or without orders.” Unfortunately, orders came to him to withdraw, and with others of his corps (Eighth) form in reserve near the turnpike. His withdrawal left, at the last moment, a gap which could only be filled by obliqueing my division to the left as it was moving forward. This produced some unsteadiness in the line, and the right brigade (Emerson’s) continued the movement too long, causing some massing of troops in the centre of the division, and some disorder resulted while they were under a severe infantry and artillery fire. This necessary movement also caused an interval between Wheaton’s division and mine, thereby imperilling my right. Our attack, however, was not checked until we had gone forward about one mile. The enemy’s centre was driven back upon his partially intrenched line on the heights mentioned. This brought my division under a most destructive fire of artillery and infantry from front and flanks. My right flank was especially exposed, as it had gone forward farther than the troops on the right.
The loss in the division was severe, and it became impossible to hold the exposed troops to the charge. They had not fired as they advanced. The division retired a short distance, where it was halted and promptly faced about. In less than five minutes it was again charging the Confederate left centre. The right of Getty’s division and Wheaton’s left went forward with the second charge, and an advance position in close rifle range of the enemy was gained and held. My division was partly protected by a stone fence located on the north of an open field, while the Confederates held the farther side of the field, about three hundred yards distant, and were also protected by a stone fence as well as by some temporary breastworks. The enemy occupied the higher ground, and the field was lower in the centre than on either side. The battle here was obstinate and, for a time, promised to extend into the night. Early’s artillery in my front did little execution, as it was located on the crest of the hills behind his infantry line, and the gunners, when they undertook to work their guns, were exposed to our infantry fire. Wheaton’s division and that part of the Nineteenth Corps to his right, though not keeping pace with the centre, steadily gained ground; likewise the cavalry. Getty, though under orders to hold his left on the pike, moved his division forward slowly, making a left half wheel. In this movement Getty’s left reached Middletown, and his right swung somewhat past it on the west.
Merritt’s cavalry pushed around east of Middletown. At this juncture, Kershaw’s division and part of Gordon’s division were in front of my right and part of Ramseur’s in front of my left. Pegram’s and Wharton’s divisions were in front of Getty, Wharton being, in part, east of the pike confronting our cavalry. Early’s left was held by Gordon’s troops, including some of his cavalry.17 Early now made heroic efforts to hold his position, hoping at night he could withdraw with some of the fruits of victory. Sheridan made every possible exertion to dislodge the enemy, and to accomplish this he was much engaged, personally, on the flanks with the cavalry. Wright, calm, confident, and unperturbed, gave close attention to his corps, and was constantly exposed. I frequently met him at this crisis. He ordered a further charge upon the enemy’s centre. This seemed impossible with the tired troops. Preparation was, however, made to attempt it. The firing in this last position had continued for about an hour, during which both sides had suffered heavily. As the sun was going down behind the mountains that autumnal evening it became apparent something decisive must take place or night would end the day of blood leaving the enemy in possession of the principal part of the battle-field.
So confident was Early of final victory that, earlier, in the day, he ordered up his headquarters and supply trains, and by 4 P.M. they commenced to arrive on the field.
It must be remembered that the two armies had been manoeuvring and fighting for twelve hours, with little food or rest and an insufficient supply of water. Exhausted troops may be held in line, especially when under some cover, but it is difficult to move then in a charge with the spirit essential to success. There remained a considerable interval between Wheaton’s left and my right. An illustrative incident again occurred here in resupplying our men with ammunition. Three mules loaded with boxes filled with cartridges were conducted by an ordnance sergeant through the interval on my right in open view of both armies, and with indifferent leisure to and behind the stone wall occupied by the Confederates. The sergeant and his party were not fired on. Word was passed along the line for my division to make a charge on a given signal, and all subordinate officers were instructed to use the utmost exertion to make it a success. The incident of the sergeant and his party going into the enemy’s line served to suggest to me the possibility of penetrating it with a small body of our soldiers.
Before giving an order to charge, I instructed Colonel Emerson, commanding the First Brigade, to hastily form, under a competent staff officer, a small body of men, and direct them to advance rapidly along the west of a stone wall extending traversely from my right to the enemy’s position, and to penetrate through a gap between two of the enemy’s brigades, with instructions to open an enfilading fire on him as soon as his flank was reached. The gap was between two of Gordon’s brigades. The order was promptly and handsomely executed, and its execution produced the desired effect. Captain H. W. Day (151st New York, Acting Brigade Inspector) was charged with the execution of this order.18
The party consisted of about 125 men, each of whom knew that if unsuccessful death or capture must follow. Colonel Moses H. Granger (122d Ohio) voluntarily aided, and, in some sense, directed the movement of this small party. The gap was penetrated on the run and a fire opened on the exposed flanks of the Confederates which started them from the cover of their works and the stone wall. At this juncture the division, as ordered, poured a destructive fire upon the now exposed Confederates, and at once charging across the field, drove the enemy in utter rout. A panic seized Gordon’s troops, who were the first struck, then spread to Kershaw’s and Ramseur’s divisions, successively on Gordon’s right.19
I quote from the report of Colonel Emerson, commanding my First Brigade, in which he describes the final battle, including the breaking of Early’s line:
“The brigade lay here under a fire of shell until about 4 P.M., when Captain Smith came with an order to move forward connecting on the left with the Second Brigade. The brigade moved through the woods, when it received a very heavy fire on the right flank, under which it was broken, but soon reformed in its old position, and again moved forward to a stone fence, the enemy being behind another stone wall in front with a clear field intervening. There was a stone wall running from the right flank of the brigade to the wall behind which the enemy lay. Some of my men lay scattered along this last named wall. The First Division lay to the right and in advance, nearly parallel with the enemy. Everything appeared to be at a deadlock, with heavy firing of artillery and musketry. At this stage Colonel Keifer, commanding division, came to me and inquired what men were those lying along the wall running from our line to the enemy’s, and ordered me to send them forward to flank the enemy and drive them from their position. The execution of the order was entrusted to Captain H. W. Day, Inspector of the [Second] Brigade, who proceeded along the wall, and getting on the enemy’s flank dislodged them, when the brigade was moved rapidly forward, in connection with the Second Brigade, and did not stop until we arrived in the works of the Nineteenth Corps, when, in accordance with orders from Colonel Keifer, the brigade went into its position of the morning, got its breakfast, and encamped, satisfied that it had done a good day’s work before breakfast.”20
Also from a report of Colonel Ball, commanding Second Brigade:
“About 3 P.M. the whole army advanced in one line upon the enemy. Immediately before advancing the troops were withdrawn to the left, and my left connected with the Second Division, Sixth Army Corps, while my right connected with the First Brigade, Third Division. We advanced half a mile to the edge of the woods, when we were met by a well-directed fire from the right flank. This fire was returned with spirit some fifteen minutes, when the troops wavered and fell back a short distance in some disorder. The Second and Third Divisions gave way at the same time. The line was speedily reformed and moved forward and became engaged with the enemy again, each force occupying a stone wall. Advantage was taken of a wall or fence running perpendicular to and connecting with that occupied by the enemy. After the action had continued here about three quarters of an hour a heavy volley was fired at the enemy from the transverse wall. A hurried and general retreat of the enemy immediately followed, and our troops eagerly followed, firing upon the retreating army as it ran, and giving no opportunity to the enemy to reform or make a stand.
“Several efforts were made by the enemy during the pursuit to rally, but the enthusiastic pursuit foiled all such efforts. Our troops were subject to artillery fire of solid shot, shell, and grape during the pursuit, and we reached the intrenchments of the Nineteenth Army Corps (which were captured in the morning) as the sun set. Here the pursuit by the infantry was discontinued. The first and second, and probably the third colors planted on the recovered works of the Nineteenth Army Corps were of regiments composing this brigade.”21
General Early tells the effect on his army of penetrating his line by the small body of our troops:
“A number of bold attempts were made during the subsequent part of the day, by the enemy’s cavalry, to break our line on the right, but they were invariably repulsed. Late in the afternoon, the enemy’s infantry advanced against Ramseur, Kershaw, and Gordon’s lines, and the attack on Ramseur and Kershaw’s front was handsomely repulsed in my view, and I hoped that the day was finally ours, but a portion of the enemy had penetrated an interval which was between Evans’ brigade, on the extreme left, and the rest of the line, when that brigade gave way, and Gordon’s other brigades soon followed. General Gordon made every possible effort to rally his men and lead them back against the enemy, but without avail. The information of this affair, with exaggerations, passed rapidly along Kershaw and Ramseur’s lines, and their men, under the apprehension of being flanked, commenced falling back in disorder, though no enemy was pressing them, and this gave me the first intimation of Gordon’s condition. At the same time the enemy’s cavalry, observing the disorder on our ranks, made another charge on our right, but was again repulsed. Every effort was made to stop and rally Kershaw and Ramseur’s men, but the mass of them resisted all appeals, and continued to go to the rear without waiting for any effort to retrieve the partial disaster.”22
The charge of the division resulted in the total overthrow of Early’s army. Pegram and Wharton’s divisions on our extreme left near Middletown were soon involved in the disaster, and our whole army went forward, meeting little resistance, taking many prisoners and guns, only halting when Early’s forces were either destroyed, captured, or driven in the wildest disorder beyond Cedar Creek.23 Our cavalry under Merritt and Custer pursued until late in the night to Fisher’s Hill, south of Strasburg, and made many captures.
It often has been claimed that the cavalry on the right is entitled to the credit of overthrowing Early’s army. It is true Custer did make some attempts on Gordon’s left and rear, but the appearance of Rosser’s cavalry on Custer’s right, north and east of Cedar Creek, called him off, and it was not until after Early’s position had been penetrated and a general retreat had commenced that Custer again appeared on the enemy’s flank and rear. His presence there had much to do with the wild retreat of Early’s men. Custer, who claimed much for his cavalry, and insisted that it captured forty-five pieces of artillery, etc., did not in his report of the battle pretend that his division caused the final break in Early’s forces. Speaking of his last charge on the left, Custer says:
“Seeing so large a force of cavalry bearing rapidly down upon an unprotected flank and their line of retreat in danger of being intercepted, the lines of the enemy, already broken, now gave way in the utmost confusion.”24
Part of Early’s artillery and caissons, with ammunition and supply trains, also ambulances and many battle flags, were captured north of Cedar Creek. The cavalry, however, seized, south of the Creek, other substantial fruits of the great victory, including many guns and headquarters baggage and other trains, and some prisoners. A panic seized teamsters on the turnpike; they cut out mules or horses to escape upon, leaving the teams to mingle in the greatest disorder. Drivers of ambulances filled with dead and wounded also fled, and the animals ran with them unguided over the field. The scene was of the wildest ruin. The gloom of night soon fell over the field to add to its appalling character.
The guns lost by the Eighth and Nineteenth Corps were taken in the morning to the public square of Strasburg and triumphantly parked on exhibition. Our cavalry found them there at night. Little that makes up an army was left to Early; the disaster reached every part of his army save, possibly, his cavalry which operated on the remote flanks. In a large sense, Rosser’s cavalry, throughout the day, had been neutralized by a portion of Custer’s, and Lomax had been held back by Powell on the Front Royal road. Dismay indescribable extended to the Confederate officers as well as the private soldiers. Among the former were some of the best and bravest the South produced. Early himself possessed the confidence of General Lee. Early had, as division commanders, General John B. Gordon (since in the United States Senate), Joseph B. Kershaw, Stephen D. Ramseur, John Pegram, and Gabriel C. Wharton, all of whom had won distinction. Ramseur fell mortally wounded in attempting a last stand near the Belle Grove House, and died there. Early fled from the field, surrounded by a few faithful followers, deeply chagrined and dejected, and filled with unjust censure of his own troops.25 The next day found him still without an organized army.26 He seems to have deserved a better fate. His star of military glory had set. It never rose again. A few months later he reached Richmond with a single attendant, having barely escaped capture shortly before by a detachment of Sheridan’s cavalry. He finally returned to Southwest Virginia, where Lee relieved him of all command, March 30, 1865.
His misfortunes in the Valley, doubtless, had much to do with his continued implacable hatred to the Union. Sheridan was his nemesis. Just after Kirby Smith had surrendered in 1865 and Sheridan was on his way to the Rio Grande, the latter encountered Early escaping across the Mississippi in a small boat, with his horses swimming beside it. He got away, but his horses were captured.27
Sheridan, for his great skill and gallantry, justly won the plaudits of his country, and his fame as a soldier will be immortal, but not alone on account of his victory at Cedar Creek, nor on account of “Sheridan’s Ride,” as described by the poet Read.28
My division, at dark, resumed its camp of the night before, as did other divisions of the army.
When the fifteen hours of carnage had ceased, and the sun had gone down, spreading the gloom of a chilly October night over the wide extended field, there remained a scene more horrid than usual. The dead and dying of the two armies were commingled. Many of the wounded had dragged themselves to the streams in search of the first want of a wounded man—water. Many mangled and loosed horses were straggling over the field to add to the confusion. Wagons, gun-carriages, and caissons were strewn in disorder in the rear of the last stand of the Confederate Army. Abandoned ambulances, sometimes filled with dead and dying Confederates, were to be seen in large numbers, and loose teams dragged overturned vehicles over the hills and through the ravines. Dead and dying men were found in the darkness almost everywhere. Cries of agony from the suffering victims were heard in all directions, and the moans of wounded animals added much to the horrors of the night.
“Mercy abandons the arena of battle,” but when the conflict is ended mercy again asserts itself. The disabled of both armies were cared for alike. Far into the night, with some all the long night, the heroes in the day’s strife ministered to friend and foe alike, where but the night before our army had peacefully slumbered, little dreaming of the death struggle of the coming day. To an efficient medical corps, however, belong the chief credit for the good work done in caring for the unfortunate.
The loss in officers was unusually great. Besides Colonel Thoburn, killed in the opening of the battle, General D. D. Bidwell fell early in the day, and Colonel Charles R. Lowell, Jr., was killed near its close while leading a charge of his cavalry brigade. Eighty-six Union officers were killed or mortally wounded.
Many distinguished officers were wounded. Of the six officers belonging to my brigade staff who were turned over to Colonel Ball in the early morning, one only (Captain J. T. Rorer) remained uninjured at night. Two were dead.
All was peaceful enough on the 20th, though on every hand the evidence of the preceding day’s struggle was to be seen. The dead of both armies were buried—the blue and the gray in separate trenches, to await the resurrection morn.
I have no purpose to speak of individual acts of bravery. The number of killed and wounded of each army was about the same. The casualties in my division, excluding 36 captured or missing, were, killed, 8 officers and 100 men; wounded, 34 officers and 528 men; total, 670. Wheaton lost, killed and wounded, 470; and Getty, 677. The killed and wounded in the Sixth Corps were 1926, including 109 of its artillery.
Much credit for the victory was given by Sheridan to the cavalry. Its total loss, in the three divisions under Torbert, was, killed, 2 officers and 27 men; wounded, 9 officers and 115 men; total, 153; not one fourth the number killed and wounded in my infantry division alone. The killed and wounded in my old brigade, under Colonel Ball, were 421.
The casualties of the Union Army are shown by the following official table:29
| Killed. | Wounded. | Captured or | |
| Missing. Aggregate. | |||
| Officers. | Officers. | Officers. | |
| Men. | Men. | Men. | |
| Sixth Army Corps | 23 275 | 103 1525 | 6 194 2126 |
| Nineteenth Army Corps | 19 238 | 109 1127 | 14 776 2383 |
| Army of West Virginia | 7 41 | 17 253 | 10 530 858 |
| Provisional Division | 1 11 | 6 66 | 18 102 |
| Cavalry | 2 27 | 9 115 | 43 196 |
| Grand total | 52 529 | 244 3186 | 30 1561 5665 |
The table includes 156 of the artillery, killed or wounded.
The total Union killed and wounded was 4074.
The dead and wounded in the Sixth Corps, and in some other of the infantry divisions approximated twenty per cent. of those engaged. This was larger by six per cent. than similar losses in the French army at Marengo, where Napoleon won a victory which enabled him, later, to wear the iron crown of Charlemagne; by six per cent. than at Austerlitz, the battle of the “Three Emperors”; by eight per cent. than in Wellington’s army at Waterloo, where Napoleon’s star of glory set; or in either the German or French army at Gravelotte, or at Sedan, where Napoleon III. laid down his imperial crown; and larger by about fifteen per cent. than the average like losses in the Austrian and French armies at Hohenlinden.
“Where drums beat at dead of night,
Commanding the fires of death to light.”
The number killed and wounded in this battle is far below that in some other great battles of the Rebellion, yet the loss for the Union Army alone was only a little below the aggregate like losses in the American army from Lexington to Yorktown (1775-1781), and approximately the same as in the American army in the Mexican War, from Palo Alto to the City of Mexico (1846-1848).30
If either of two things had not occurred prior to the battle, the result of it might have been different. Had Early not precipitated an attack with an infantry division and Rosser’s cavalry on the 13th of October, Wright, with the Sixth Corps, would have gone to Petersburg; and had the fake (Longstreet) dispatch of the 16th not been flagged from the Confederate signal station on Three Top Mountain, Torbert, with the cavalry, would have been east of the Blue Ridge on the intended raid. But for the Longstreet dispatch, Sheridan most likely would have tarried in Washington or delayed his movements on his return trip. Could the Sixth Corps, could the cavalry, or could Sheridan have been spared from the battle?
The principal peculiarities of the engagement were: (1) That an ably commanded army was surprised in its camp, and, in considerable part, driven from it at the opening of the battle; (2) that notwithstanding this, it won, at the close of the day, the most signal and complete field-victory of the war, with the possible exception of those won at Nashville and Sailor’s Creek; (3) the Confederate Army was destroyed, so there was no battle for the morrow. In most instances during the Rebellion, it transpired that the defeated army sullenly retired only a short way in condition to renew the fight.
Cedar Creek, in some respects, bears a striking analogy to Marengo. Both were dual in character, each two battles in one day; the victors of the morning being the defeated and routed of the evening. Sheridan’s victory over Early, like that of Napoleon over Marshal Melas, left no further fighting for the victors the next day. In one other respect, also, the comparison holds good. The commander of each of the finally routed armies sent a message about the middle of the day of battle announcing to his government a great victory, to be followed at sunset with the news of a most signal disaster.
In other respects, how dissimilar? Napoleon was, from the opening to the close of Marengo, on the field, commanding in person, sharing the defeat, then the victory. Sheridan was absent and did not participate in the discomfiture of his army, but was present at the final success. Napoleon, after his repulse, was reinforced by Desaix with 6000 men; but the Army of the Shenandoah, after the disaster of the morning, was reinforced only by its proper commander —Sheridan.
There was not a great disparity of numbers in the opposing armies at Cedar Creek. Probably 20,000 men of all arms were engaged on each side. Relative position and situation of troops must be taken into account, as well as numbers, in determining the strength of one army over another. Early has tried to excuse his defeat by claiming he had the smaller army. In response to this, Sheridan and his Provost-Marshal, Crowninshield, have tried to show that Early lost in captured more men than he claimed he had present for duty.31 After Opequon and Fisher’s Hill Early was reinforced by Kershaw’s division of Longstreet’s corps, Cutshaw’s three batteries, and Rosser’s division of cavalry with light artillery, together with many smaller detachments, all of which participated in Cedar Creek. Sheridan received no reinforcements, and Edwards’ brigade of the First Division of the Sixth, Currie’s of the Nineteenth, and Curtis’ of the Eighth Corps were each detached, after Opequon, on other duties, and were not at Cedar Creek. The surprise and breaking up in the morning of the greater parts of Crook’s and Emory’s corps eliminated them, in large part, from the day’s battle, and left the Sixth Corps and the cavalry to wage an unequal contest.
The war closed on the bloody battle-ground of the Shenandoah Valley, so far as important operations were concerned, with Cedar Creek.
President Lincoln appointed me a Brigadier-General by brevet, November 30, 1864; the commission recited the appointment was “for gallant and meritorious services in the battles of Opequon, Fisher’s Hill, and Cedar Creek, Virginia,” and I was assigned to duty by him as Brigadier-General, December 29, 1864.
Sheridan’s army returned to Kearnstown and went into winter quarters. The Sixth Corps was, however, soon transferred by rail and steamboat, via Harper’s Ferry and Washington, to City Point, rejoining the Army of the Potomac, December 5, 1864.
( 1) Memoirs of Sheridan, vol. ii., p. 64.
( 2) Manassas to Appomattox (Longstreet), p. 574.
( 3) War Records, vol. xliii., Part I., p. 580, Captain Hotchkiss’ Journal.
( 4) War Records, vol. xliii., Part I., p. 580.
( 5) General Ricketts was supposed to be mortally wounded. His wife a second time came to him on the battle-field. He was taken to Washington, his home, and slowly recovered. He was able again to perform some field service near the close of the war. He died of pneumonia, September 22, 1887, and is buried at Arlington.
( 6) Major A. F. Hayden, of Wright’s staff, while the battle was raging in the early morning, was seen galloping towards me with one hand raised to indicate he had some important order. Just before reaching me he was shot through the body and plunged off his horse on the hard ground, rolling over and over until he lay almost in a ball. He was borne off in a blanket for dead. In February following I met him on a steamer on the Chesapeake returning to duty, and I saw him again at the Centennial in Philadelphia in 1876.
( 7) War Records, vol. xliii., Part I., p. 132.
( 8) War Records, vol. xliii., Part I., p. 53.
( 9) Memoirs of Sheridan, vol. ii., pp. 68-82.
“Orders had been given by me for the establishment of the lines, and Getty’s and your divisions (the Second and Third) were in position, and Wheaton’s (First) and the Nineteenth Corps were coming into position when General Sheridan arrived upon the ground. I advised him of what had been done and what it was intended to do, and he made no change in the dispositions I had made. Indeed, as I understand, he fully approved them.... General Sheridan did later make some change in the disposition of the cavalry.”
CHAPTER XI Peace Negotiations—Lee’s Suggestion to Jefferson Davis, 1862— Fernando Wood’s Correspondence with Mr. Lincoln, 1862—Mr. Stephens at Fortress Monroe, 1863—Horace Greeley—Niagara Falls Conference, 1864—Jacquess-Gilmore Visits to Richmond, 1863-4—F. P. Blair, Sen., Conference with Mr. Davis, 1865—Hampton Roads Conference, Mr. Lincoln and Seward and Stephens and Others, 1865—Ord-Longstreet, Lee and Grant Correspondence, 1865, and Lew Wallace and General Slaughter, Point Isabel Conference, 1865.
The war had now lasted nearly four years, with varied success in all the military departments, and the people North and South had long been satiated with its dire calamities. There had, from the start, been an anti-war party in the North, and in certain localities South there were large numbers of loyal men, many of whom joined the Union Army. The South was becoming exhausted in men and means. The blockade had become so efficient as to render it almost impossible for the Confederate authorities to get foreign supplies. It seemed to unprejudiced observers that the Confederacy must soon collapse. Sherman in his march from “Atlanta to the Sea” had cut the Confederacy in twain. It was without gold or silver, and its paper issues were valueless and passed only by compulsion within the Confederate lines. Provisions were obtainable only by a system of military seizure. The Confederacy had no credit at home or abroad; and there was a growing discontent with President Davis and his advisers. There also came to be a feeling in the South that slavery, in any event, was doomed. Lastly, the “cradle and the grave” were robbed to fill up the army; this by a relentless draft. The Confederate Congress passed an act authorizing the incorporation into the army of colored men—slaves. This was not well received, though General Lee approved of the policy, suggesting, however, that it would be necessary to give those who became soldiers, freedom.( 1)
Notwithstanding the desperate straits into which the Confederacy had fallen it still had in the field not less than 300,000 well-equipped soldiers, generally well commanded, and, although forced to act on the defensive, they were very formidable.
The officers and soldiers of the Union Army longest in the field, though confident of final and complete success, desired very much to see the war speedily terminated—to return to their families and to peaceful pursuits. This desire did not show itself so much as in discontent as in a restless disposition towards those in authority, who, it might be supposed, could in some way secure a peace. The credit of the United States remained good; its bonds commanded ready sale at home and abroad, yet an enormous debt was piling up at the rate of $4,000,000 daily, and its paper currency was depreciated to about thirty-five per cent. of its face value. These and many other causes led to a general desire for peace. On both sides, those in supreme authority were unjustly charged with a disposition to continue the war for ulterior purposes when it had been demonstrated that it was no longer justifiable.
This retrospect seems necessary before giving a summary of the various efforts to negotiate a peace. About the first open suggestion to that end came from General Robert E. Lee in a letter to President Davis written at Fredericktown, Maryland, September 8, 1862. This was just after the Second Bull Run, during the first Confederate invasion of Maryland and in the hey-day of the Confederacy. Davis was requested to join Lee’s army, and, from its head, propose to the United States a recognition of the independence of the Confederate States. Lee in this letter showed himself something of a politician. He urged that a rejection of such a proposition would throw the responsibility of a continuance of the war on the Union authorities and thus aid, at the elections, the party in the country opposed to the war.( 2) Nothing, however, came of this suggestion of Lee.
Fernando Wood, who had kept himself in some sort of relations with President Lincoln, though at all times suspected by the latter, pretended in a letter to him, dated December 8, 1862, to have “reliable and truthful authority” for saying the Southern States would send representatives to Congress provided a general amnesty would permit them to do so. The President was asked to give immediate attention to the matter, and Wood suggested “that gentlemen whose former social and political relations with the leaders of the Southern revolt may be allowed to hold unofficial correspondence with them on this subject.”
Mr. Lincoln, whose power to discern a sham, or a false pretense, exceeded that of any other man of his time, promptly responded: “I strongly suspect your information will prove groundless; nevertheless, I thank you for communicating it to me.” He said further to Mr. Wood that if “the people of the Southern States would cease resistance, and would re-inaugurate, submit to, and maintain the national authority within the limits of such States, the war would cease on the part of the United States, and that if, within a reasonable time, a full and general amnesty were necessary to such an end, it would not be withheld.” The President declined to suspend military operations “to try any experiment of negotiation.” He expressed a desire for any “exact information” Mr. Wood might have, saying it “might be more valuable before than after January 1, 1863,” referring, doubtless, to the promised Emancipation Proclamation. Wood’s scheme, evidently having no substantial basis, aborted.( 3)
Others, about the same time, pestered Mr. Lincoln with plans and schemes for the termination of the war. One Duff Green, a Virginia politician, wrote from Richmond in January, 1863, asking the President for an interview “to pave the way for an early termination of the war.” He asked the same permission from Jeff. Davis. His efforts came to nothing.
Alexander H. Stephens, Vice-President of the Confederacy, conceiving, in the early summer of 1863, that the times were auspicious for peace negotiations, wrote Mr. Davis, asking to be sent to Washington, ostensibly to negotiate about the exchange of prisoners, but really to try to “turn attention to a general adjustment, upon such basis as might be ultimately acceptable to both parties, and stop the further effusion of blood.” He assured Mr. Davis he had but one idea of final adjustment—“the recognition of the sovereignty of the States.” Mr. Davis wired Stephens to repair to Richmond, and he arrived on June 22, 1863. Davis and his Cabinet appear to have seconded, with some heartiness, Stephens’ scheme; all thinking it might result in aiding the “peace party” North. The Confederate leaders had been greatly encouraged by the gains of the Democratic party in the elections of 1862; by repeated attacks on the Administration by some of Lincoln’s party friends; by public meetings held in New York City at which violent and denunciatory speeches were listened to from Fernando Wood and others, and by the nomination of Vallandigham for Governor of Ohio. The military situation was critical to both governments when Stephens reached Richmond. Pemberton was besieged and doomed to an early surrender at Vicksburg. On the other hand Lee was invading Pennsylvania, having just gained some successes in the Shenandoah Valley; and there was a great battle imminent on Northern soil. Stephens was directed to proceed by the Valley to join Lee, and from his headquarters try to reach Washington. Heavy rains and bad roads deterred the frail Vice-President. At length the Secretary of the Confederate Navy sent him in a small steamer (the Torpedo) under a flag of truce, accompanied by Commissioner Robert Ould as his secretary, to Fortress Monroe. He wrote from this place a letter to Admiral S. P. Lee in Hampton Roads, of date of July 4, 1863, saying he was “bearer of a communication in writing from Jefferson Davis, Commander-in-Chief of the land and naval forces of the Confederate States, to Abraham Lincoln, Commander-in-Chief of the land and naval forces of the United States,” and that he desired to go to Washington in his own vessel. The titles by which Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Davis were designated had been previously determined on by Davis and his advisers. Anticipating there might be objection to the latter being referred to as President of the Confederacy, the foregoing was adopted as likely to be least objectionable. It was, however, solemnly agreed at Richmond that if the designations or titles adopted were such as to cause Mr. Stephens’ communication to be rejected, he was to say that he had a communication to “President Lincoln from the President of the Confederacy.” If this were objectionable as an apparent recognition of Davis as President of an independent nation, then Mr. Stephens’ mission was to forthwith terminate. Admiral Lee wired to Mr. Lincoln Mr. Stephens’ arrival, his mission, and desire to proceed to Washington. Mr. Lincoln did not stand on punctilio. He was, at first, inclined to send a long dispatch refusing Mr. Stephens permission to go to Washington, and saying nothing would be received “assuming the independence of the Confederate States, and anything will be received, and carefully considered by him, when offered by any influential person or persons, in terms not assuming the independence of the so-called Confederate States.” This was, however, decided to be too much in detail, and the Secretary of the Navy was ordered to telegraph Admiral Lee:
“The request of A. H. Stephens is inadmissible. The customary agents and channels are adequate for all needful communication and conference between the United States and the insurgents.”
This ended Mr. Stephens’ first plans to secure peace. He, in his book written since the war, admits or pretends that the ulterior purpose of his proposed trip to Washington was, through a correspondence that would be published, “to deeply impress the growing constitutional (sic!) party at the North with a full realization of the true nature and ultimate tendencies of the war... that the surest way to maintain their liberties was to allow us the separate enjoyment of ours.”( 4)
Great events took place the day Mr. Stephens reached Fortress Monroe. Vicksburg fell and Lee was, on that memorable Fourth of July, sending off his wounded, preparatory to a retreat from the fated field of Gettysburg.
Horace Greeley, a sincere enemy to slavery, who had somehow become imbued with the notion that the Administration was responsible for a prolongation of the war, became restless and complaining. He, at the head of the New York Tribune, gave vent to much criticism, which encouraged those in rebellion, and their friends in the North. He listened to all sorts of pretenders and, finally, was duped into the belief that a peace could be made through some Southern emissaries in Canada. An adventurer calling himself “William Cornell Jewett of Colorado,” from Niagara Falls, July 5, 1864, wrote Mr. Greeley:
“I am authorized to say to you... that two ambassadors of Davis & Co. are now in Canada with full and complete powers for peace, and Mr. Sanders requests that you come on immediately to me at Cataract House to have a private interview; or, if you will send the President’s protection for him and two friends, they will come on and meet you. He says the whole matter can be consummated by me, you, them, and President Lincoln.( 5)
Mr. Greeley was seemingly so impressed with this as an opening for peace that he wrote a dictatorial letter to Mr. Lincoln reminding him of the long continuance of the war; asserting the country was dissatisfied with the manner in which it was conducted and averse to further calls for troops; avowing that there was a widespread conviction that the government did not desire peace; rebuking the President for not having received Mr. Stephens the year before, and prophesying that unless there were steps taken to show the country that honest efforts were being made to secure an early settlement of our difficulties the Union party would be defeated at the impending Presidential election. Greeley suggested this wholly impracticable and impossible plan of adjustment: (1) The Union to be restored and declared perpetual; (2) slavery abolished; (3) complete amnesty; (4) payment of $400,000,000 to slave States for their slaves; (5) the slave States to have representation based on their total population, and (6) a national convention to be called at once. With a tirade on the condition of the country and its credit and more warnings as to the coming election, Mr. Greeley concluded by demanding that negotiations should be opened with the persons at Niagara.
Mr. Lincoln, though without faith in either the parties in Canada or Greeley’s plan, wrote the latter, July 9th, saying:
“If you can find any persons, anywhere, professing to have any proposition of Jefferson Davis in writing, for peace, embracing the restoration of the Union, and abandonment of slavery, whatever else it embraces, say to him he may come to me with you, and that if he really brings such proposition he shall at the least have safe conduct with the paper (and without publicity if he chooses) to the point where you shall have met him. The same if there be two or more persons.”
The President, thus prompt and frank, utterly surprised and disconcerted Mr. Greeley. Mr. Lincoln had accepted two main points in Greeley’s plan—restoration of the Union and abandonment of slavery, and waived all others for the time being. The next day Mr. Greeley replied by repeating reproaches over what he called the “rude repulse” of Stephens, saying he thought the negotiators would not “open their budgets”; referring to the importance of doing something to aid the elections, and indicating that he might try to get a look into the hand of the Niagara parties. Again, on the 13th, he wrote Mr. Lincoln he had reliable information that Clement C. Clay of Alabama and Jacob Thompson of Mississippi were at Niagara Falls duly empowered to negotiate for peace, adding that he knew nothing as to terms, and saying that it was high time the slaughter was ended. The President, still without the slightest faith in Greeley or his Canada negotiators, but stung with the unjust assumption that he was averse to peace, wired Mr. Greeley, on the 15th:
“I was not expecting you to send me a letter, but to bring me a man or men,” and saying a messenger with a letter was on the way to him.
The letter of Mr. Lincoln was brief, but met the case:
“Yours of the 13th is just received, and I am disappointed that you have not already reached here with those commissioners, if they would consent to come, on being shown my letter to you of the 9th inst. Show that and this to them, and if they will come on the terms in the former, bring them. I not only intend a sincere effort for peace, but I intend you shall be a personal witness that it is made.”
Mr. Greeley, on this letter being placed in his hands, expressed much embarrassment, but decided to go in search of the Canada parties provided he had a safe conduct for C. C. Clay, Jacob Thompson, James P. Holcombe, and George N. Sanders to Washington, in company with himself. The safe conduct was obtained through John Hay, the messenger. On Mr. Greeley’s arrival at Niagara he fell into the hands of “Colorado Jewett,” his vainglorious correspondent, and through him addressed Clay, Thompson, and Holcombe this letter:
“I understand you are duly accredited from Richmond as the bearers of propositions looking to the establishment of peace; that you desire to visit Washington in fulfilment of your mission; and that you further desire that George N. Sanders shall accompany you. If my information be thus far substantially correct, I am authorized by the President of the United States to tender you his safe conduct on the journey proposed, and to accompany you at the earliest time that will be agreeable to you.”
Mr. Greeley, in this communication, ignored all the conditions in Mr. Lincoln’s letters to him. Notwithstanding this, two of the persons named responded (Thompson not having been with Clay and Holcombe), saying they had no credentials to treat on the subject of peace, and hence could not accept his offer. Clay and Holcombe did say something about being acquainted with the views of their government, and if permitted to go to Richmond could get, for themselves or others, proper credentials. Mr. Greeley reported the situation, asking of the President further instructions. It now became apparent to everybody connected with the farce that if it was kept up further, Mr. Lincoln would be put in the attitude of suing the Confederacy for a peace. Lincoln determined to end the situation and at the same time define his position before the world, clearly. He dispatched John Hay to Niagara with this famous letter:
“To Whom it May Concern: Any proposition which embraces the restoration of peace, the integrity of the whole Union, and the abandonment of slavery, and which comes by and with an authority that can control the armies now at war with the United States, will be received and considered by the Executive of the United States, and will be met by liberal terms on other substantial and collateral points, and the bearer or bearers thereof shall have safe conduct both ways.
“Abraham Lincoln.”
This explicit letter was communicated to Holcombe at the Clifton House by Greeley and Hay. Mr. Greeley seems to have expressed to Jewett his regret over the “sad termination of the initiatory steps taken for peace, from the charge made by the President in his instructions given him.” Nothing could have been more unjust. The Confederate emissaries wrote a long letter to Mr. Greeley, which they gave to the public, arraigning Mr. Lincoln for bad faith. They assumed Mr. Greeley had been sent by the President, on Mr. Lincoln’s own motion, to invite them to Washington to confer as to a peace. It does not appear that Mr. Greeley tried to disabuse the public mind of this error or to make known the truth. He claimed to regard the safe conduct of July 16th as a wavier of all the President’s precedent terms; also of his own previously expressed terms. The President did not think best to publish the whole correspondence, preferring to suffer the injustice in silence. Mr. Greeley continued in a bad state of mind. He refused to visit Mr. Lincoln, as requested, for a conference. He wrote the President on the 8th and again on the 9th of August, 1864, abusing certain Cabinet officers, reiterating his reproaches of Mr. Lincoln for not receiving Mr. Stephens, censuring him for not sending, after Vicksburg, a deputation to Richmond to ask for peace, complaining to him for not sending the “three biggest” Democrats in Congress to sue for peace, saying, however, little of his Niagara Falls fiasco, but adding: “Do not let the month pass without an earnest effort for peace,” and closing his last letter thus:
“I beg you, implore you, to inaugurate or invite proposals for peace forthwith. And in case peace cannot now be made, consent to an armistice for one year, each party to retain, unmolested, all it now holds, but the rebel ports to be opened. Meantime, let a national convention be held, and there will surely be no more war at all events.”
This suggestion of an armistice for one year and the opening of the rebel ports, was equivalent to proposing to give one year for the Confederacy to recuperate at home and from abroad; to strengthen its credit, to arrange new combinations, and to tie the hands of its friends of the Union and the Administration, to say nothing of the confession of failure to suppress the insurrection.
While Mr. Greeley was a Union man and had, throughout his public life, opposed slavery, he had no faith in war, nor did he have any of the instincts of a soldier to enable him to discern its tendencies. He was personally friendly, it may be assumed, to the President, but hostile to Mr. Seward, Secretary of State, and probably intensely jealous of all the distinguished generals of the army. Greeley had long been, through the Tribune, a recognized factor in moulding public opinion, and now that war had come to absorb all other interests, his power and influence through the press had waned. He was wholly impracticable in executive matters. His failure to inaugurate a peace and to attain prominence in administrative affairs during the war embittered him through life towards his old-time party friends.
A review of Mr. Lincoln’s course relating to Mr. Greeley’s attempts to negotiate a peace shows the former acted with the utmost candor, and submitted, for the time, to the latter’s dictatorial course and the unjust charge of wavering and acting in bad faith, rather then crush his old friend or endanger the general cause for selfish glory.( 6)
Though in a sense inaugurated in 1863, another quite as futile attempt to bring about peace was in progress in July, 1864. James F. Jaquess, Colonel of the 73d Illinois, serving in Rosecrans’ army —a Methodist Episcopal clergyman, a D.D.—in May, 1863, wrote to James A. Garfield, Chief of Staff, calling attention to the fact that his church had divided on the slavery question; saying that the Methodist Episcopal Church South had been a leading element in the Rebellion and prominent in the prosecution of the war; that a considerable part of the territory of that church South was in the possession of the Union Army; that from its ministers, once bitterly opposed to the Union, he had learned in person:
“That they consider the Rebellion has killed the Methodist Episcopal Church South; that it has virtually obliterated slavery, and all the prominent questions of difference between the North and the South; that they are desirous of returning to the ‘Old Church’; that their brethren of the South are most heartily tired of the Rebellion; and that they most ardently desire peace, and the privilege of returning to their allegiance to church and state, and that they will do this on the first offer coming from a reliable source.... And from these considerations, but not from these alone, but because God has laid the duty on me, I submit to the proper authorities the following proposition, viz.: I will go into the Southern Confederacy and return within ninety days with terms of peace that the government will accept.”
He further stated;
“I propose no compromise with traitors—but their immediate return to allegiance to God and their country.... I propose to do this work in the name of the Lord; if He puts it in the hearts of my superiors to allow me to do it, I shall be thankful; if not, I have discharged my duty.”
This letter Rosecrans forwarded to Mr. Lincoln, approving Jacquess’ application. The President, seeing the difficulties, wrote Rosecrans saying Jacquess “could not go with any government authority,” yet left to Rosecrans the discretion to grant the desired furlough. The furlough was granted. Jacquess, finding a mere furlough or church influence would not aid him in getting into the Confederate lines, repaired to Baltimore and besought General Schenck to send him via Fort Monore to Richmond. Schenck wired the President (July 13th) Jacquess’ wishes and was answered: “Mr. Jacquess is a very worthy gentleman, but I can have nothing to do, directly or indirectly, with the matter he has in view.” The Colonel, however, persuaded Schenck to send him to Fort Monroe, from whence he reached Richmond through the connivance of officers conducting the exchange of prisoners. In eleven days he was again in Baltimore asking the President by letter to grant him permission to report the “valuable information and proposals for peace” he had obtained. This permission was not granted. Mr. Lincoln well understood that he could have nothing official to report, and that in the brief time he was South he could have gained no reliable information concerning public sentiment. After lingering in Baltimore a little, this preacher-colonel rejoined his regiment. It does not appear that he ever made, even to Rosecrans or Garfield, any detailed report of this his first trip to Richmond. Though his efforts had so far failed, he was not discouraged, but with faith characteristic of his class, resolved upon another effort. He now associated with him one J. R. Gilmore, a lecturer and literary character known as “Edmund Kirke,” who had spent some time in the Western armies. Both were enthusiastic, but their zeal constituted their principal merit in the matter attempted. The President declined a personal interview with Jacquess, but gave, July, 1864, Gilmore a pass, over his own signature, to Grant’s headquarters, with a note to Grant to allow both “to pass our lines with ordinary baggage and go South.” Mr. Gilmore had previously (June 15, 1864) written Mr. Lincoln telling him something of what Jacquess would propose. In substance he would say: “Lay down your arms and resume peaceful pursuits; the Emancipation Proclamation tells what will be done with the blacks; amnesty will be granted the masses, and no terms with rebels. The leaders to be allowed to seek safety abroad, and at the end of sixty days not one of them must be found in the United States.” On the 16th, these two men passed from Butler’s lines and were allowed to proceed, under surveillance, to Richmond. Next day they asked, through Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin, for an interview with “President Davis,” which was accorded them at nine o’clock that night, both Davis and Benjamin being present.
The volunteer envoys were politely received, and the interview lasted two hours. It seems that Jacquess and Gilmore did not even mention the plan referred to in the latter’s letter to Mr. Lincoln. This was, however, immaterial, as they had no authority to submit anything. They asked Mr. Davis if the “dispute” was not “narrowed down to this: Union or Disunion.” Davis answered: “Yes, or independence or subjugation.” The “envoys” suggested that the two governments should go to the people with two propositions: (1) “Peace with disunion and Southern independence,” (2) “Peace with Union, emancipation, no confiscation, and universal amnesty.” A vote to be taken on these propositions within sixty days, in which the citizens of the whole United States should participate; the proposition prevailing to be abided by. Pending the vote there should be an armistice. Mr. Davis promptly said:
“The plan is wholly impracticable. If the South were only one State it might work; but as it is, if only one State objected to emancipation, it would nullify the whole thing: for you are aware the people of Virginia cannot vote slavery out of South Carolina, nor the people of South Carolina vote it out of Virginia.”
The interview proceeded on these lines without approaching agreement. It is evident that the “envoys” were overmatched by Davis and Benjamin, and were subjected to a charge of ignorance of the form of their own government. Davis indulged in some bluff about caring nothing for slavery, as his slaves were already freed by the war; and he declared the Southern people “will be free”—will govern themselves, if they “have to see every Southern plantation sacked and every Southern city in flames.” Davis also announced that he would be pleased, at any time, to receive proposals “for peace on the basis of independence. It will be needless to approach me on any other.”
The interview being over, Jacquess and Gilmore got quickly back into the Union lines, and North. The latter published an account of the interview in the Atlantic Monthly for September, 1864. His account does not materially differ from Benjamin’s sent to the Confederate diplomatic agents in Europe, or Davis’ in his Rise and Fall of the Confederacy.( 7)
On the whole the publication of the story of this visit to Richmond did much good to the Union cause in the pending Presidential campaign. The story closed the mouths of the peace factionists, though a few of Mr. Lincoln’s party friends, fearing the result of the election, continued to demand more tangible testimony of his disposition to negotiate a peace; this largely for the purpose of its effect on the November election.
Henry J. Raymond, Chairman of the Republican National Executive Committee, at a meeting of the committee in New York, apprehensive of McClellan’s nomination and possible election as President, August 22, 1864, indited a panicky letter to Mr. Lincoln, expressing great fear of the latter’s defeat at the polls, giving some unfavorable predictions as to the result of the election by E. B. Washburne, Governor Morton, Simon Cameron, and others, deploring the failure of the army to gain victories, and assigning as a cause for reaction in public sentiment:
“The impression is in some minds, the fear and suspicion in others, that we are not to have peace in any event under this Administration until slavery is abandoned.”
Continuing:
“In some way or other the suspicion is widely diffused that we can have peace with Union if we would. It is idle to reason with this belief—still more idle to denounce it. It can only be expelled by some authoritative act, at once bold enough to fix attention and distinct enough to defy incredulity and challenge respect.”
Raymond was bold enough to ask that a commission be appointed to offer “peace to Davis, as the head of the rebel armies, on the sole condition of acknowledging the supremacy of the Constitution—all other questions to be settled in a convention of the people of all the States.” He stated that if the proffer were accepted the people would put the execution of the details in loyal hands; if rejected “it would plant seeds of disaffection in the South and dispel all delusions about peace that prevail in the North.” He demanded the proposal should be made at once, as Mr. Lincon’s “spontaneous act.” Mr. Raymond seemed to express the concurrent views of his Republican associates.( 8) Three days later he and his committee reached Washington to personally urge prompt action on the President. In the light of recent attempts at Niagara and Richmond the Raymond proposition was inadmissible, yet Mr. Lincoln resolved, if the step must be taken, to again make the proposer the instrument to demonstrate its folly. The President wrote a letter of instructions, which he felt he might have to give to Mr. Raymond, authorizing him to proceed to Richmond, and propose to “Honorable Jefferson Davis that upon the restoration of the Union and the national authority, the war shall cease at once, all remaining questions to be left for adjustment by peaceful modes.” If this proposition were not accepted, Mr. Raymond was then “to request to be informed what terms, if any, embracing the restoration of the Union, would be accepted.” “If the presentation of any terms embracing the restoration of the Union” were declined, then Mr. Raymond was directed to “request to be informed what terms of peace would be accepted; and on receiving any answer report the same to the Government.”
It will be noticed that in the Raymond letter the President left out all reference to slavery. In previous ones he had insisted on the abandonment of slavery by the South as well as the restoration of the Union. On questions of amnesty, confiscation, and all other matters the President was ready to grant everything to the South.( 9)
This letter was never delivered. Mr. Raymond, in personal interviews with Mr. Lincoln, became convinced the latter understood the situation and the sentiment of the country better than he and his committee did, and the matter was dropped.
It must not be assumed that the President for a moment gave up his long settled purpose to insist on the abolition of slavery as a condition of peace. In his annual Message to Congress, December, 1864, in expressing his views and purposes on the subject of terminating the war, he says:
“In presenting the abandonment of armed resistance to the national authority on the part of the insurgents as the only indispensable condition to ending the war on the part of the government, I retract nothing heretofore said as to slavery. I repeat the declaration made a year ago, that ‘While I remain in my present position I shall not attempt to retract or modify the Emancipation Proclamation nor shall I return to slavery any person who is free by the terms of that proclamation, or by any of the acts of Congress.’ If the people should, by whatever mode or means, make it an Executive duty to re-enslave such persons, another, and not I, must be their instrument to perform it. In stating a single condition of peace, I mean simply to say that the war will cease on the part of the government whenever it shall have ceased on the part of those who began it.”
Mr. Lincoln was triumphantly re-elected, but notwithstanding this and the foreshadowed collapse of the Confederacy, Francis P. Blair, Sen., a veteran statesman who had flourished in Jackson’s time, came forward in the hope that he might become a successful mediator between the North and the South. He personally gave the President hints of his wishes in this respect, but received from the latter no encouragement, save the remark: “Come to me after Savannah falls.” Sherman took Savannah, December 22, 1864. Mr. Lincoln, without permitting Mr. Blair to reveal to him his plans in detail, on December 28th, wrote and signed a card: “Allow the bearer, F. P. Blair, Sr., to pass our lines, go South, and return.”
With this credential Mr. Blair went to Grant at City Point, and under a flag of truce sent communications to “Jefferson Davis, President,” etc., etc. The effect of one of the messages was to request an interview with Mr. Davis to confer upon plans that might ultimately “lead to something practicable”—peace. After some vexatious delay, Mr. Blair was allowed to go to Richmond, where, January 12, 1865, Davis accorded him an interview.
Mr. Blair explained to Mr. Davis that he came without President Lincoln’s knowledge of his plans but with the latter’s knowledge of his purpose to try and open peace negotiations. After some preliminary talk Mr. Blair read to Mr. Davis an elaborate paper containing his “suggestions.” These covered a reference to slavery, “the cause of all our woes,” saying it was doomed and hence no longer an insurmountable obstruction to pacification, adding that as the South proposed to use slaves to “conquer a peace,” and to secure its independence, “their deliverance from bondage” must follow.10 With slavery abolished, Mr. Blair suggested the war against the Union became a war for monarchy. Reference was then made to Maximilian’s reign in Mexico, under Austrian and French protection, and of its danger to free institutions by establishing a “Bonaparte-Hapsburg dynasty on our Southern flank.” Mr. Davis was complimented over his position being such as to be the instrument to avert the danger. It was suggested that Juarez at the head of the “Liberals of Mexico” could be persuaded to “devolve all the power he can command on President Davis—a dictatorship if necessary —to restore the rights of Mexico.” Mr. Davis was to use his veteran Confederates and Mexican recruits, with, if necessary, “multitudes of the army of the North, officers and men” to drive out the invaders, uphold the Monroe Doctrine, and thus “restore the Mexican Republic.” Mr. Blair further suggested that if Mr. Davis accomplished all this it would “ally his name with Washington and Jackson as a defender of the liberty of the country” and if “in delivering Mexico he should model its States in form and principle to adapt them to our Union and add a new Southern constellation to its benignant sky,” he would attain further glory. This and more talk of like kind seemed to command Davis’ attention, for Mr. Blair says he pronounced the scheme “possible to be solved.” Mr. Davis declared he was “thoroughly for popular government.”
There was nothing agreed upon, though the interview covered much ground as reported by Mr. Blair. Mr. Davis was evidently anxious for some arrangement, for on the 12th of January he addressed to Mr. Blair, who was still in Richmond, a note saying among other things he had “no disposition to find obstacles in forms,” and was willing “to enter into negotiations for peace; that he was ready to appoint a commissioner to meet one on the part of the United States to confer with a view to secure peace to the two countries.” This note was carried to Washington by Mr. Blair and shown to President Lincoln, who, January 18th, addressed him a note saying, he had constantly been and still was ready to appoint an agent to meet one appointed by Mr. Davis, “with the view of securing peace to the people of our one common country.” With Mr. Lincoln’s note Mr. Blair returned to Richmond, and without any authority from any source, shifted to a new project, namely, that Grant and Lee should be authorized to negotiate. This failed to ripen into anything. Mr. Lincoln’s note proffering negotiations looking alone to “peace to the people of our one common country” placed Mr. Davis in a great dilemma. The situation was critical in the extreme. The Confederate Congress had voted a lack of confidence in Mr. Davis; Sherman had not only marched to the sea, but was moving up the Atlantic coast through the Carolinas; Lee reported his army had not two days’ rations; and many of Davis’ advisers had declared success impossible. At last Mr. Davis, on consultation with Vice-President Stephens and his Cabinet, decided to appoint a commission, composed of Mr. Stephens, Senator R. M. T. Hunter, and ex-Secretary of War John A. Campbell. This commission was directed (January 28, 1865) to go to Washington for informal conference with President Lincoln “upon the issues involved in the existing war, and for the purpose of securing peace to the two countries.” Mr. Davis was advised by his Secretary of State, Mr. Benjamin, to instruct the commissioners to confer upon the subject of Mr. Lincoln’s letter. The instructions were not in accordance with Mr. Lincoln’s note, nor were they warranted by anything he had ever said. Notwithstanding this, the commissioners appeared at the Union lines and asked permission to proceed to Washington as “Peace Commissioners.” On this being telegraphed to Washington, Major Eckert of the War Department was sent to Grant’s headquarters, with directions to admit them, provided they would say, in writing, they came to confer on the basis of the President’s note of January 18th. Before Major Eckert arrived, they had, in violation of their instructions, asked permission “to proceed to Washington to hold a conference with President Lincoln upon the subject of the existing war, and with a view of ascertaining upon what terms it may be terminated, in pursuance of the course indicated by him in his letter to Mr. Blair of January 18, 1865.” They were admitted to Grant’s headquarters and Mr. Lincoln was advised of their last request. The latter sent Secretary Seward to Fortress Monroe to meet them. Seward was, in writing, instructed to make known to the commissioners that three indispensable things were necessary: “(1) The restoration of the national authority throughout all the States. (2) No receding by the Executive on the slavery question from the position assumed thereon in the late annual Message. (3) No cessation of hostilities short of the end of the war, and the disbanding of all forces hostile to the government.” On other questions the Secretary was instructed to say the President would act “in a spirit of sincere liberality.” Mr. Seward was not definitely to consummate anything. He started to meet the commissioners on February 1st. Meantime, on the same day, Major Eckert had met them at City Point and informed them of the President’s requirements, to which they responded by presenting Davis’ written instructions. Major Eckert at once notified them they could not proceed unless strictly in compliance with Mr. Lincoln’s terms. This seemingly put an end to the mission of Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell. Grant, being impressed with their anxiety to secure a peace, wired Stanton his impression, and expressed regret that Mr. Lincoln could not have an interview with Stephens and Hunter, if not all three, before their return. The President on reading Grant’s dispatch decided to meet the commissioners in person at Fortress Monroe. Mr. Lincoln joined Mr. Seward at this place on the River Queen, where they were met by the commissioners on the morning of February 3d. The conference which ensued was wholly without significance. The President was frank and firm, standing by his hitherto announced ultimatum. Stephens tried to talk about Blair’s Mexican scheme; about an armistice and some expedient to “give time to cool.” Mr. Lincoln met all suggestions by saying: “The restoration of the Union is a sine qua non;” and that there could be no armistice on any other terms. It is not absolutely certain what was, in detail, proposed or rejected on either side, as no concurrent report was made of the conference and reporters were excluded from it. Mr. Lincoln, according to the commissioners, declared the road to reconstruction for the insurgents was to disband “their armies and permit the national authorities to resume their functions.” The President stated he would exercise the power of the Executive with liberality as to the confiscation of property. He is reported to have said also that the effect of the Emancipation Proclamation was to be decided by the courts, giving it as his opinion that as it was a war measure, it would be inoperative for the future as soon as the war ceased; that it would be held to apply only to such slaves as had come under its operation. Mr. Seward called attention to the very recent adoption by Congress of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution. The commissioners report him as saying that if the seceding States would agree to return to the Union they might defeat the ratification of the amendment.
It is apparent that some coloring entered into the statements of Mr. Stephens and party. About the only good point made in the talk about which there is no controversy was made by Mr. Lincoln. Mr. Hunter, in attempting to persuade the latter that there was high precedent for his treating with people in arms, cited the example of Charles I. of England treating with his subjects in armed rebellion. To this the President answered: “I do not profess to be posted in history. On all such matters I will turn you over to Mr. Seward. All that I distinctly recollect about the case of Charles I. is that he lost his head.”
The commissioners reached Richmond much disappointed, and reported their failure. The effect on the South was depressing. Mr. Stephens seemed to give up the Confederate cause at this time; he departed from Richmond, abandoned the Rebellion and went into retirement.11 Mr. Davis transmitted his commissioners’ report to the Confederate Congress, stating that no terms of settlement could be obtained “other than the conqueror might grant.” The last flicker of the Hampton Roads conference was seen in a public meeting held at the African Church in Richmond, February 6, 1865, at which bravado speeches were made by Mr. Davis and others. Mr. Davis announced a belief that they would “compel the Yankees, in less than twelve months, to petition us for peace on our own terms.”12
General E. O. C. Ord, commanding the Army of the James, about February 20th, attempted to inaugurate another peace conference to be conducted through military channels, aided by the wives of certain officers of the two armies. To this end he secured, on a trivial pretext, an interview with General James Longstreet, then commanding the Confederate forces immediately north of Richmond. Ord, in the interview, referred to the Hampton Roads’ conference, stating (according to Longstreet) that the politicians North were afraid to touch the question of peace; that there was no way to open the subject save through officers of the armies; that on the Union side the war had gone on long enough, and that the army officers “should come together as former comrades and friends and talk a little.” Ord is reported as saying that the “work as belligerents” should cease; Grant and Lee should have a talk; that Longstreet’s wife with a retinue of Confederate officers should first visit Mrs. Grant within the Union lines; that then Mrs. Grant should return the call at Richmond under escort of Union officers, and that thus the ladies could aid Generals Grant and Lee in fixing up peace on terms honorable to both sides. Longstreet took kindly to Ord’s talk. Lee met Longstreet at President Davis’ house in Richmond. Breckinridge (then Secretary of War) was present. At this meeting it was decided that Longstreet was to seek a further interview with Ord and see how the subject could be opened between Grant and Lee. Longstreet summoned his wife from Lynchburg to Richmond by telegraph. About the last day of February, Ord and Longstreet had another meeting at which Ord suggested that if Lee would write Grant a letter, the latter was prepared to receive it, and thus a military convention could be brought about. Longstreet reported the result of the talk with Ord, and Lee, March 1st, wrote Grant that he was informed that Ord, in a conversation relating to “the possibility of arriving at a satisfactory adjustment of the present unhappy difficulties by means of a military convention,” had stated that if Lee desired an interview with Grant on the subject, the latter would not decline, provided Lee had authority to act. Lee, in his letter, said he was fully authorized in the premises, and proposed a meeting at the place proposed by Ord and Longstreet, on Monday the 6th. Accompanying Lee’s letters was the usual “by-play” letter on an immaterial subject. Grant, on receiving Lee’s communication, wired its substance to Secretary Stanton, who laid the matter before President Lincoln at his room at the Capitol whither he had gone to sign bills the last night of a session of Congress. Mr. Lincoln, without advice from any person, took his pen, and with his usual precision wrote:
“The President directs me to say that he wishes you to have no conference with General Lee unless it be for capitulation of General Lee’s army, or on some minor or purely military matter. He instructs me to say that you are not to decide, discuss, or confer upon any political questions. Such questions the President holds in his own hands, and will submit them to no military conferences or conventions. Meantime you are to press to the utmost your military advantages.”
This perfectly explicit dispatch was shown to Mr. Seward, then handed to Mr. Stanton, who signed and sent it the night of March 3, 1865. Grant, the next day, answered Lee in the light of the dispatch, saying:
“In regard to meeting you, I would state that I have no authority to accede to your proposition for a conference on the subject proposed. Such authority is vested in the President of the United States alone.”13
Thus ended the Ord-Longstreet attempt to patch up a peace.
There was one more remarkable attempt made (before Lee surrendered) to bring about a peace in part of the Confederacy. General Lew Wallace was ordered, January 22, 1865, “to visit the Rio Grande and Western Texas on a tour of inspection.” Shortly after his arrival at Brazos Santiago, by correspondence with the Confederate General J. E. Slaughter, commanding the West District of Texas, and a Colonel Ford, he arranged for a meeting with them at Point Isabel (General Wallace to furnish the refreshments), nominally to discuss matters relating to the rendition of criminals, but really to talk about peace. The conference took place March 12th. General Wallace assumed only to negotiate a peace for States west of the Mississippi. He did not profess to have any authority from Washington, nor did he offer to make the terms final. He must have been wholly ignorant of the President’s dispatch to Grant of March 3d. Wallace’s plan was, at Slaughter and Ford’s instance, reduced to writing, and addressed to them, to be submitted to the Confederate General J. G. Walker, commanding the Department of Texas. Here it is:
“_Proposition.
“I. That the Confederate military authorities of the Trans-Mississippi States and Territories agree voluntarily to cease opposition, armed and otherwise, to the re-establishment of the authority of the United States Government over all the region above designated.
“II. The proper authorities of the United States on their part guarantee as follows:
“1. That the officers and soldiers at present actually comprising the Confederate Army proper, including its bona fide attaches and employees, shall have, each and all of them, a full release from and against actions, prosecutions, liabilities, and legal proceedings of every kind, so far as the government of the United States is concerned: Provided, That if any of such persons choose to remain within the limits of the United States, they shall first take an oath of allegiance to the same. If, however, they or any of them prefer to go abroad for residence in a foreign country, all such shall be at liberty to do so without obligating themselves by an oath of allegiance, taking with them their families and property, with privileges of preparation for such departure.
“2. That such of said officers and soldiers as thus determine to remain in the United States shall, after taking the oath of allegiance to the United States Government, be regarded as citizens of that government, invested as such will all the rights, privileges, and immunities now enjoyed by the most favored citizens thereof.
“3. That the above guaranties shall be extended to all persons now serving as civil officers of the national and State Confederate governments within the region above mentioned, upon their complying with the conditions stated, viz., residence abroad or taking the oath of allegiance.
“4. That persons now private citizens of the region named shall also be included in and receive the same guaranties upon their complying with the same conditions.
“5. As respects rights of property, it is further guaranteed that there shall be no interference with existing titles, liens, etc., of whatever nature, except those derived from seizures, occupancies, and procedures of confiscation, under and by virtue of Confederate laws, orders, proclamations, and decrees, all of which shall be admitted void from the beginning.
“6. It is further expressly stipulated that the right of property in slaves shall be referred to the discretion of the Congress of the United States.
“Allow me to say, in conclusion, that if the above propositions are received in the spirit they are sent, we can, in my opinion, speedily have a reunited and prosperous people.
“Very truly, gentlemen, your friend and obedient servant,
“Lew Wallace,
“Major-General of Volunteers, U. S. Army.”14
General Wallace forwarded this pretentious proposition, with an elaborate letter, through General Dix to General Grant, who received both about March 29, 1865, but probably made no response thereto.
The Confederate officers submitted the plan to their chief, who, besides severely reprimanding them for entertaining it, wrote General Wallace, March 27, rejecting the proposition, “as to accede to it would be the blackest treason”; adding, that “whenever there was a willingness to treat as equal with equal, an officer of your high rank and character, clothed with proper authority, will not be reduced to the necessity of seeking an obscure corner of the Confederacy to inaugurate negotiations.”
The whole story of attempts to negotiate a peace is grotesque, yet the conditions surrounding the North and the South and the stress of the times speak in defence of the ambitious spirits who came to the front and essayed, by negotiations, to put an end to the war. Providence had another, more fitting and consummate, ending in store, whereby the war should produce results for the good of mankind commensurate with its cost in tears, treasure, and blood.
( 1) Life of R. E. Lee, White (Putnam’s), pp. 416-17.
( 2) Manassas to Appomattox, p. 204.
( 3) Lincoln (Nicolay and Hay), vol. vii., pp. 367-8.
( 4) War Between the States, vol. ii., pp. 557-62, 780; Lincoln (Nicolay and Hay), vol. vii., pp. 371-4.
( 5) Jewett must have attended school where the master required the class to parse the sentence, “Dog, I, and father went a-hunting.”
( 6) Lincoln (Nicolay and Hay), vol. ix., pp. 184-200.
( 7) Vol. ii., p. 610. Also see Lincoln (N. and H.), vol. ix., pp. 201-2.
( 8) The attitude of the Democratic party caused the political friends of President Lincoln the deepest anxiety. In its National platform adopted at Chicago, August 30, 1864, it demanded, “that after four years of failure to restore the Union by the experiment of war, immediate efforts should be made for a cessation of hostilities, with a view to an ultimate convention of the States, or other peaceable means, to the end that at the earliest practicable moment peace may be restored on the basis of the Federal Union of the States.”
( 9) Lincoln (Nicolay and Hay), vol. ix., pp. 216-21.
CHAPTER XII Siege of Richmond and Petersburg—Capture and Re-capture of Fort Stedman, and Capture of Part of the Enemy’s First Line in Front of Petersburg by Keifer’s Brigade, March 25, 1865—Battle of Five Forks, April 1st—Assault and Taking of Confederate Works on the Union Left, April 2d—Surrender of Richmond and Petersburg, April 3d—President Lincoln’s Visit to Petersburg and Richmond, and His Death
The Sixth Corps, as we have seen, returned from its memorable campaign in Maryland and the Shenandoah Valley to the front of Petersburg about December 5, 1864. It relieved a portion of the Fifth Corps. The right of my brigade rested on the Weldon Railroad, extending to the left to include Forts Wadsworth and Keene. On the night of the 9th, with other troops, the brigade went on an expedition to Hatcher’s Run, returning the next day. Again the Sixth Corps constructed winter quarters. The brigade was moved, February 9, 1865, to the extreme left of the army, near the Squirrel Level road, where it took up a position including Forts Welch, Gregg, and Fisher, of which the first two were unfinished and the last named was barely commenced. The brigade completed the construction of these forts. Colonel McClennan, with the 138th Pennsylvania, also occupied Fort Dushane on the rear line.
The brigade, a third time for the winter, constructed quarters.
Discipline in the army continued in all its severity. During my entire service but one instance occurred where I was required to execute a Union soldier of my command. Private James L. Hicks, of the 67th Pennsylvania, a boy nineteen years old, was found guilty of desertion. He had deserted to go to Philadelphia, his home, in company with a soldier of another command, much his senior, who had forged a furlough for himself and Hicks. Both were arrested, returned to the army, and convicted and sentenced to be shot. General Meade ordered me to execute the sentence as to Hicks, February 10, 1865. The man who was largely responsible for Hicks’ desertion succeeded, through friends, in inducing President Lincoln to commute his sentence to imprisonment at the Dry Tortugas. I was aware of efforts being made to have Hicks’ sentence likewise commuted, and I tried to reach the President with communications asking the same leniency for Hicks. So certain was I that Lincoln had or would reprieve Hicks that I failed to have him shot on the day named. Some officious persons reported my dereliction to Meade, who thereupon (with some censure) ordered me to shoot Hicks on the next day, and to report in person the fact of the shooting. This order I was obliged to obey. The brigade was drawn up on three sides of a square, with ranks opened facing each other, and in the centre of the fourth and open side a grave was dug and a coffin was placed beside it. The condemned soldier was marched between the ranks of the command, preceded by a drum and fife band, playing the “dead-march,” and then was taken to the coffin, where he was blindfolded and required to stand in front of six men armed with rifles, five only of which were loaded with ball. At the command “Fire!” from a designated officer, the guns were discharged and poor Hicks fell dead. He was placed in the coffin and forthwith buried. On the same day word came that Lincoln had pardoned Hicks.
Wright’s corps became the left of the besieging army, and all the troops were constantly on the alert, never less than one tenth of them on guard or in the trenches.
The several corps of the Army of the Potomac were then commanded as follows: Second, by General A. A. Humphreys; Fifth, by General G. K. Warren; Sixth, by General H. G. Wright; the Ninth, by General J. G. Parke. The last named was on the right and in part south of the Appomattox. The Army of the James was north of Richmond and the James, commanded by General B. F. Butler, until relieved, on the request of General Grant, January 8, 1865, when General E. O. C. Ord succeeded him.
The army under Grant had been engaged since June, 1864, besieging Richmond and Petersburg with no signal success. It had, however, held the main army of the Confederacy closely within intrenchments where it could do little harm, and was difficult to provide with supplies. Prior to this siege the Army of the Potomac had met the enemy, save at Gettysburg, on his chosen battle-fields, and in its forward movements had been forced to attack breastworks, assail the enemy in mountain passes or gaps, force the crossings of deep rivers, always guarding long lines of communications over which supplies must be brought, and it was at all times the body-guard of the Capital—Washington.
The Confederate Army under Lee, when the last campaign opened, was strongly fortified from the James River above Richmond, extending around on the north to the James below Richmond; thence to and across the Appomattox; thence south of Petersburg extending in an unbroken line westward to the vicinity of Hatcher’s Run, with interior lines of works and forts for use in case the outer line was forced. Longstreet commanded north of the James. Generals R. S. Ewell, R. H. Anderson, A. P. Hill, and John B. Gordon commanded corps of the Army of Northern Virginia south of Petersburg and the James, the whole under Lee. At the last, Ewell commanded in Richmond and its immediate defences. The Confederates had water-batteries and naval forces on the James immediately below Richmond. Their forts and connecting breastworks had been laid out and constructed by skilled engineers, on a gigantic scale, with months, and, in some places, years of labor. On most of the main line there were enclosed field-forts, a distance of a quarter to a half mile apart, connected by strong earthworks and some masonry, the whole having deep ditches in front, the approaches to which were covered by abattis composed of pickets sunk deep in the ground close together, the exposed ends sharpened, and placed at an angle of about forty-five degrees, the points of the pickets about the height of a man’s face. There were in place chevaux-de-frise and other obstructions. These fortifications could not be battered down by artillery; they had to be scaled. They contained many guns ranging from 6 to 200-pounders, all well manned. The Union lines conformed, generally, to the Confederate lines and were near to them, but, being the outer, were necessarily the longer. Richmond and Petersburg were twenty miles apart. The Union works were substantially of the same structure and strength as the Confederate.
Forts Welch, Gregg, and Fisher, and connecting works, held by six of my regiments, formed a loop on the extreme left, to prevent a flank attack. These forts were about nine miles from City Point, Grant’s headquarters. In the centre of the loop was a high observation tower.( 1) In our front the Confederates had an outer line of works to cover their pickets, and we had a similar one to protect ours. The main lines were, generally, in easy cannon range, in most places within musket range, and the pickets of the two armies were, for the most part, in speaking distance, and the men often indulged in talking, for pastime. Except in rare instances the sentinels did not fire on each other by day, but sometimes at night firing was kept up by the Confederates at intervals to prevent desertion. During the last months of the siege, circulars were issued by Grant offering to pay deserters for arms, accoutrements, and any other military supplies they would bring with them, and to give them safe conduct north. The circulars were gotten into the enemy’s lines by various devices, chief among which was, by flying kits at night when the wind blew in the right direction, to the tail of which the circulars were attached. When the kites were over the Confederate lines the strings were cut, thus causing them to fall where the soldiers might find them.( 2) So friendly were the soldiers of the two armies that by common consent the timber between the lines was divided and cut and carried away for fuel. Petersburg was in plain view, to the northeast, from my headquarters. In front of my line an event took place which brought about the speedy overthrow of the Confederacy.
With Sherman moving triumphantly northward through the Carolinas the time was at hand for the final campaign of the Army of the Potomac. President Lincoln and General Grant were each anxious that army should, without the direct aid of the Western army, overcome and destroy the Army of Northern Virginia, which it had fought during so many years with varying success.( 3)
Grant issued orders, March 24, 1865, for a general movement, to commence the 29th; the objective of the movement to be the Confederate Army as soon as it could be forced out of the fortifications.
At the time Grant was writing these orders, Lee was planning an assault to break the Union lines, hoping he might gain some material success and thereby prevent an aggressive campaign against him. General Gordon, accordingly, at early dawn, March 25th, assaulted Fort Stedman, and, by a surprise, captured it and a portion of our line adjacent to it; but Union troops, from the right and left, assailed and recaptured the works and about four thousand of Gordon’s command, the Union loss in killed, wounded, and captured being about twenty-five hundred. This daring attack, instead of delaying, precipitated the preparatory work of opening the campaign. About 1 P.M. I received an order to send two regiments to my advanced line with orders to charge and carry the outer line of the enemy. The latter was strongly intrenched and held by a large number of men, besides being close under the guns of the Confederate main works. The 110th and 122d Ohio were moved outside the forts, and Colonel Otho H. Binkley was ordered to take command of both regiments and the picket guard. He charged the enemy, but being unsupported on the flanks and being exposed to a fierce fire from guns in the enemy’s main works, was forced to retire after suffering considerable loss. I protested, vehemently, against the renewal of the attack with so small a force. General Wright thereupon ordered me to assemble the number of men necessary to insure success, take charge of them in person, and make the desired capture. I added to the Ohio regiments mentioned the 67th Pennsylvania, portions of the 6th Maryland and 126th Ohio, and a battalion of the 9th New York Heavy Artillery, and under a severe fire, at 3 P.M., without halting or firing, charged over the enemy’s first intrenched line, capturing over two hundred prisoners. Notwithstanding a heavy artillery fire concentrated upon us the captured works were held. Our loss was severe and hardly compensated for by the number of the enemy killed and captured. For my part in this affair I was complimented by Meade in general orders.
It turned out that the section of works taken was more important to us than first estimated.
Sheridan, with his cavalry, having recently arrived from the Shenandoah Valley via the White House, moved to the left on the 29th of March in the direction of Dinwiddie Court-House, where he encountered a considerable force. A battle ensued on the 30th and 31st, in which Sheridan with his cavalry, in part dismounted, fought some of the best cavalry and infantry of Lee’s army, the former commanded by Fitzhugh Lee and the latter by Pickett of Gettysburg fame. By using temporary barricades, Sheridan, though outnumbered, repulsed the attacks of Fitz Lee and Pickett, and at nightfall of the 31st was in possession of the Court-House.
In consequence of incessant rain for two days Grant, from his headquarters, then on Gravelly Run, issued orders the evening of the 30th to suspend all further movements until the roads should dry up; but he was visited by Sheridan and persuaded to continue the campaign. Sheridan asked that the Sixth Corps should be ordered to follow and support him.( 4) He claimed this corps had served under him in the Valley and its officers were well known to him. His request was not acceded to, as other work was already assigned to Wright. Grant ordered Meade to send the Fifth Corps under General G. K. Warren to reinforce Sheridan. Meade was directed to “urge Warren not to stop for anything.” Sheridan, April 1st, determined to press the enemy, regardless of bad roads and his isolated position. Pickett and Fitz Lee, heavily reinforced from Lee’s main army, concentrated in front of Five Forks, where they intrenched.
Warren was ordered to push rapidly on the left of the enemy. Sheridan promptly opened battle, but he was hard pressed throughout the day. Warren, for some not satisfactorily explained cause, did not arrive on the field and bring his three infantry divisions into action until late in the day, but yet in time to strike the enemy on his left and rear, as had been planned. Just at night a combined assault of all arms completely overthrew Pickett and Fitz Lee, taking six of their guns, thirteen battle-flags, and nearly six thousand prisoners. The Confederates who escaped were cut off from the remainder of Lee’s army and thrown back on the upper Appomattox.
Warren, in the full flush of the victory, was, by Sheridan, with Grant’s previous authority, relieved on the battle-field from the command of his corps for the alleged dilatory march to the relief of the imperilled cavalry. Warren had long commanded the Fifth Corps, and was beloved by it. But the fates of war were inexorable. The removal of Warren was perhaps unjust, in the light of the previous conduct of the war. He had not been insubordinate. He had imbibed the notion too often theretofore acted on, that in the execution of an important order, even when other movements depended on it, the subordinate officer could properly exercise his own discretion as to the time and manner of its execution. Warren was a skilled engineer officer and held too closely in an emergency to purely scientific principles. He had none of Sheridan’s precipitancy, and did not believe in violating, under any circumstances, principles of war taught by the books. Before a subsequent court of inquiry Warren produced what appeared to be overwhelming testimony from experienced and distinguished officers of the army to the effect that he had moved his corps to Five Forks with the energy and celerity usually exhibited by an officer of ordinary skill and ability.
Sheridan was called as a witness before the same court, and when interrogated, corroborated the other officers’ testimony, adding, that it was not an officer of ordinary skill and ability that was required to meet an emergency when a battle was on, but one of extraordinary skill and ability; that officers of the former class were plenty, but they were not fit to command an army corps in time of battle. Sheridan wanted an officer like Desaix, who, by putting his ear to the ground, heard the thunder of the guns at Marengo, though far off, and marched to their sound without awaiting orders, and to the relief of Napoleon, arriving in time to turn defeat into victory, though losing his own life. Warren had many friends and sympathizers, but he died many years after the war of a broken heart.
In anticipation of Sheridan’s success, orders were issued for the Sixth Corps to assault Lee’s main fortifications on Sunday morning, April 2d. The place selected for the assault was in front and a little to the left of Forts Fisher and Welch and directly opposite the intrenched line taken by me on March 25th.( 5) Other corps to the right of the Sixth were ordered to be ready to assault also. It was originally intended the troops should be formed in the quiet of the night, and that the assault should be made, as a surprise, at four o’clock in the morning. Grant, fearing that Lee, in the desperation of defeat at Five Forks, would strip his fortified lines of troops to overwhelm and destroy Sheridan, now fairly on Lee’s right flank, at 10 P.M. on the night of the 1st ordered all his guns turned loose from the James to the Union left, to give the appearance of a readiness to do just what had been ordered to be done. This fire brought a return fire all along the lines. The night was dark and dismal, and the scene witnessed amid the deafening roar of cannon was indescribably wild and grand. Duty called some of us between the lines of cross-fire when the screaming shot and bursting shell from perhaps four hundred heavy guns passed over our heads. The world’s war-history described no sublimer display. Being near the end of the Rebellion, the Confederacy, and the institution of slavery, it was a fitting closing scene. It was supposed that in consequence of this artillery duel, which lasted about two hours, the assault ordered would be abandoned, as a surprise was not possible. But at 12, midnight, the order came to take position for the attack. The Sixth Corps, in the gloom of the damp, chilly night, silently left its winter quarters and filed out to an allotted position within about two hundred yards of the mouths of the enemy’s cannon, there to await the discharge of a gun from Fort Fisher, the signal for storming the works. There were no light hearts in the corps that night, but there were few faint ones. The soldiers of the corps knew the strength and character of the works to be assailed. They had watched their completion; they knew of the existence of the abattis and the deep ditches to be passed, as well as the high ramparts to be scaled. The night added to the solemnity of the preparation for the bloody work.
The Second Division was formed on the right, the Third Division on the left, each in two lines of battle, about two hundred feet apart. The First Division (Wheaton’s) was in echelon by brigades, in support on Getty’s right.( 6) The corps was formed on ground lower than that on which the enemy’s fortifications were constructed. There was an angle in the enemy’s line in front of the corps as formed at which there was a large fort. Getty’s division was to assault to the right and Seymour’s to the left of this fort. My brigade was to assault between it and the fort about a third of a mile to its left. The connecting breastworks were strong, as has been explained, with a deep ditch and formidable abattis in their front, and well manned and supplied with artillery. The enemy was alert and opened fire on us with artillery and musketry before we were completely formed, inflicting some loss. Long before the hour for the signal the corps was ready. Much preparation is necessary for a well delivered assault. Every officer should be personally instructed as to his particular duties, as commands can rarely be given after the troops are in motion. The pioneer corps with axe-men were required to accompany the head of the column, to cut down and remove obstructions and to aid the soldiers in crossing trenches and scaling the works. The abattis was to be cut down or torn up, and, wherever possible, used in the ditches to provide means of crossing them.
A narrow opening, just wide enough for a wagon to pass through, was known to exist in the enemy’s line in front of my brigade, though it was skillfully covered by a shoulder around it. The existence of this opening was discovered from the observation tower, and deserters told of it. I determined to take advantage of it, and therefore instructed Colonel Clifton K. Prentiss of the 6th Maryland when the time for the attack came to move his regiment by the flank rapidly through this opening without halting or firing, and when within, open on the Confederates behind the works, taking them in flank, and, if possible, drive them out and thus leave for our other troops little resistance in gaining an entrance over the ramparts.
At 4.40 A.M., while still dark, a gray light in the east being barely discernible, Fort Fisher boomed forth a single shot. All suspense here ended. Simultaneously the command, “Forward,” was given by all our officers, and the storming column moved promptly; the advance line, with bayonets fixed, guns not loaded, the other line with guns loaded to be ready to fire, if necessary, to protect those in advance while passing the trenches. A few only of the officers were on horseback. The enemy opened with musketry and cannon, but the column went on, sweeping down the abattis, making use of it to aid in effecting a passage of the deep ditches and to gain a footing on the berme of the earthworks. Muskets and bayonets were also utilized by thrusting them into the banks of the ditches to enable the soldiers to climb from them. Men made ladders of themselves by standing one upon another, thus enabling their comrades to gain the parapets. The time occupied in the assault was short. Colonel Prentiss with his Marylanders penetrated the fortifications at the opening mentioned. They surprised the enemy by their presence and a flank fire, and, as anticipated, caused him to fall back. The storming bodies swarmed over the works, and the enemy immediately in their front were soon killed, wounded, captured, or dispersed. Ten pieces of artillery, three battle-flags, and General Heth’s headquarters flag were trophies of my command. The Third Division gained an entrance first, owing to the shortness of the distance it had to pass over. Getty’s division (Second), however, promptly obtained a foothold within the fortifications to the right of the angle, followed on its right closely by Wheaton’s division. The fort at the salient angle was quickly evacuated, and the corps charged forward, taking possession of the enemy’s camps. Some hand-to-hand fighting occurred on the ramparts of the fortifications and in the camps, in which valuable lives were lost. A Confederate soldier emerged from a tent, shot and killed Captain Henry H. Stevens (110th Ohio), and immediately offered to surrender. One week before a like incident occurred in my presence, where a Confederate officer shot, with a pistol, a Union soldier, then threw down his arms and proposed to surrender. Officers seldom restrained soldiers from avenging, on the spot, such cowardly and unsoldierly acts. Such incidents were, happily, very rare.
Though thus far the assault had been crowned with success, the greatest danger was still before us. Experience had taught that the fate which one week before befell Gordon at Fort Stedman was a common fate of troops who, in a necessarily broken state, gained an entrance inside of an energetic enemy’s lines. Our position was not dissimilar to Gordon’s after he had taken Fort Stedman. To our left was a strong, closed star-fort, well manned and supplied with cannon. It was impossible at once to restore order. Many of our men passed, without orders, far to the north, some as far as the Southside Railroad leading into Petersburg, which they began to tear up.
One important incident must be mentioned.
Corporal John W. Mouk (138th Pennsylvania), with one comrade, having penetrated in the early morning some distance in advance of our other troops, was met by a Confederate general officer, accompanied by his staff. The general demanded his surrender, whereupon the corporal fired and killed him. He proved to be Lieutenant-General A. P. Hill, then in command of Lee’s right wing, and one of the ablest officers the Confederacy produced. The corporal and his comrade escaped, and Hill’s staff bore his body away. It has been claimed the corporal deceived Hill by pretending to surrender until the General was in his power, then shot him. I investigated this incident at the time and became convinced the corporal practised no deception, and that his deliberate conduct—natural to him—led Hill and his staff to assume he intended to surrender.
But to return to the captured works. I entered them on horseback, with some of my staff, close after Colonel Prentiss. Up to this time no general orders had been given, save those promulgated prior to the assault. The ranks were much broken, regiments were intermingled, and excitement prevailed. I was charged with the duty of carrying the next fort to our left. The steady fire on us from this fort helped to recall the troops to a sense of danger. Day was just dawning. I ordered Major S. B. Larmoeaux (9th New York Heavy Artillery) to man such of the captured artillery as was available. He soon had four guns firing on the fort, under cover of which I ordered a general rush of the still disordered Union troops on the fort. This charge resulted in its capture with six more guns and a number of prisoners. The real danger was still not passed. It was soon discovered that a Confederate division was advancing on us from a camp to our left. As the men now in the captured fort were in a disorganized state I made, with the aid of other officers, every effort to withdraw the surplus men for the purpose of formation and to relieve it of a too crowded condition for defence. We also tried to man the guns of the fort. Before we were prepared the enemy was upon us in a counter charge, and the fort, with its guns, was lost, and some of our men were taken; the greater number, however, escaped to a position still within the captured lines. In this affair not many were killed or wounded. The final ordeal was now on us. From the fort again came shot, shell, and rifle-balls on our unprotected men. Under cover of the fire of the before-mentioned captured artillery (having, by that time, discovered an ample supply of ammunition) we succeeded in making a somewhat confused formation, and again charged the fort. The resistance was obstinate, but it was now light enough to distinguish friend from foe. Though of short duration, the most determined and bloody fight of the day took part on the ramparts of and in this fort, resulting in our again taking it, and with it its guns and most of the Confederate division. The brave Colonel Prentiss as he led a storming column over the parapet of the fort, was struck by a ball which carried away a part of his breast-bone immediately over his heart, exposing its action to view. He fell within the fort at the same moment the commander of the Confederate battery fell near him with what proved to be a mortal wound. These officers, lying side by side, their blood commingling on the ground, there recognized each other. They were brothers, and had not met for four years. They were cared for in the same hospitals, by the same surgeons and nurses, with the same tenderness, and in part by a Union chaplain, their brother. The Confederate, after suffering the amputation of a leg, died in Washington in June, 1865, and Colonel Prentiss died in Brooklyn, N. Y., the following August.
Our hard fighting and bloody work for the day ended with the struggle just described. We, a little later, with others of the corps, swept to the left to the vicinity of Hatcher’s Run, carrying everything before us. We then, with the other divisions of the corps, turned back towards Petersburg, reaching an inner line of works by 10 A.M.
General Parke with the Ninth Corps made a vigorous assault in front of Fort Sedgwick near the Jerusalem plank-road at the same time the Sixth made its assault, and with some success, but failed to gain a permanent footing inside of the enemy’s main fortifications. The Sixth Corps alone made a secure lodgment within Lee’s lines. It made a rift in the Confederacy.
The army then believed the end of the war was near, but blood enough had not yet been spilled to destroy human slavery.
General Ord, who had been transferred from the front of Richmond, met and drove back some troops on Hatcher’s Run, and Sheridan advanced from Five Forks to the Appomattox, thence, uniting with Ord, proceeded down it towards Petersburg. The left of Grant’s army was thrown across the Southside Railroad to the Appomattox above Petersburg, and some isolated inner forts were taken, and the enemy was crowded into his last line in the suburbs of Petersburg. Grant ordered a general assault to be made at 6 A.M. of the 3d. Thus far, since the general movement commenced, Lee had lost about 12,000 prisoners and about 50 guns. The killed and wounded were not proportionately great. Lee had been forced to withdraw Longstreet from north of Richmond, leaving his lines there very slimly defended.( 7) General Weitzel had been left with a division north of the James to threaten Richmond. Lee, early on the 2d, realized the critical situation, and at 10.30 of that memorable Sabbath morning wired Mr. Breckinridge, Secretary of War, at Richmond:
“I see no prospect of doing more than holding our position here until night. I am not certain I can do that. If I can I shall withdraw to-night north of the Appomattox, and, if possible, it will be better to withdraw the whole line to-night from James River. I advise that all preparations be made for leaving Richmond to-night. I will advise you later according to circumstances.”
This was handed to Mr. Davis while at church. He arose quietly and retired, but the portent of the message was soon known and caused great consternation among the inhabitants of the Confederate Capital. For almost four years Richmond had been the defiant centre of the rebellion. Now it was to be abandoned on less than twelve hours’ notice.
Jefferson Davis wired Lee:
“The Secretary of War has shown me your dispatch. To move to-night will cause the loss of many valuables, both for the want of time to pack and of transportation. Arrangements are progressing, and unless you otherwise advise the start will be made.”
Lee responded:
“I think it absolutely necessary that we should abandon our position to-night. I have given all the necessary orders on the subject to the troops, and the operation, though difficult, I hope will be performed successfully. I have directed General Stevens to send an officer to your Excellency to explain the routes to you by which the troops will be moved to Amelia Court-House, and furnish you with a guide and any assistance you may require for yourself.”( 8)
Richmond and Petersburg were evacuated the night of April 2d. The troops in and around the two cities commenced to retire at 8 P.M., and were directed to concentrate at Amelia Court-House, about sixty miles distant, where Lee had ordered supplies for his army to be collected. Ewell withdrew the troops north of Richmond and the marines from the James. There was insufficient transportation for the archives and other valuables of the several departments of the Confederacy, to say nothing of other public and private property. Army supplies had to be destroyed or abandoned. A panic seized the city, and in burning some public stores it took fire in two places, and but for the arrival, about 8 A.M. of the 3d, of Union troops from Weitzel’s command, it would have burned down. Petersburg suffered little in the evacuation. Its mayor and council surrendered it about 4 A.M. of the 3d. The besieging army, so long striving for its possession, was not permitted to enter it.
President Lincoln was at City Point when the movement of Grant’s army commenced, and remained until Richmond and Petersburg fell. Grant, on the 2d, in anticipation of further success, suggested that the President visit him at the front next day. Mr. Lincoln accordingly met Grant in Petersburg the morning of its surrender and held an interview with him of an hour and a half. Secretary Stanton, learning that the President contemplated going to the front, wired from Washington on the morning of the 3d, protesting against his exposing “the nation to the consequence of any disaster to himself in the pursuit of a dangerous enemy like the rebel army.”
The President answered from City Point at 5 P.M.:
“Yours received. Thanks for your caution, but I have already been to Petersburg. Staid with Grant an hour and a half and returned here. It is certain now that Richmond is in our hands, and I will go there to-morrow. I will take care of myself.”( 9)
Mr. Lincoln made his entry into Richmond on the 4th (on foot from a boat), almost without personal protection, and excited the highest interest of the people, especially of the slaves, who looked upon and adored him as their savior. There were no bounds to their rejoicing. He, while there, in consultation with Judge J. A. Campbell and other former Confederate leaders, talked of plans of reconstruction, and went so far as to sanction the calling of the Confederate Legislature of Virginia together with a view to its withdrawing the Virginia troops from the army.10
He was in a generous mood, willing to concede much to secure a speedy restoration of the Union.
Mr. Campbell reports the President’s position thus:
“His indispensable conditions are the restoration of the authority of the United States and the disbanding of the troops, and no receding on his part from his position on the slavery question as defined in his message in December and other official documents. All other questions to be settled on terms of sincere liberality. He says that to any State that will promptly accept these terms he will relinquish confiscation, except where third persons have acquired adverse interests.”11
Abraham Lincoln returned from Richmond to Washington filled to overflowing with hope, joy, and thoughts of generous treatment of his rebellious countrymen. He, too, was soon to become a sacrifice in atonement for his nation’s sins. He fell, at the apex of human glory, by the hands of a disloyal assassin, April 14, 1865.12 The great and the humble friends of freedom, not only of his own country but of the world, wept. He had been permitted, however, to look through the opening portals of peace upon a restored Union with universal freedom, under one flag.
( 1) See map, and Battles and Leaders of the War, vol. iv., p. 538.
( 2) One enterprising Confederate managed to escape to our lines with a wagon and six mules from a party gathering wood. His outfit was valued at $1200.
( 3) Grant’s Memoirs, vol. ii., p. 460.
( 4) Memoirs of Sheridan, vol. ii., pp. 145-7.
( 5) General Wright, speaking of this position in his report of the storming of the fortifications at Petersburg, says:
“It should here be remarked that, but for the success of the 25th ultimo, in which was carried the intrenched line of the enemy, though at a cost in men which at the time seemed hardly to have warranted the movement, the attack of the 2d inst. on the enemy’s main lines could not have been successful. The position thus gained was an indispensable one to the operations on the main lines, by affording a place for the assembling of assaulting columns within striking distance of the enemy’s main intrenchments.” War Records, vol. xlvi., Part I., p. 903.
( 6) War Records, vol. xlvi., Part I., p. 954.
( 7) Manassas to Appomattox, pp. 603-5.
( 8) War Records, vol. xlvi., Part III., p. 1378.
( 9) War Records, vol. xlvi., Part III., p. 509.
An attempt was made the same night to assassinate Secretary Wm. H.
Seward, which came near being successful. He was, also his son
Frederick, terribly wounded and beaten.
Notes
10 In one account Sheridan fixes his arrival at 9 A.M. In his Memoirs at 10.30 A.M. (p. 86). Getty, in his report of November, 1864, says, “Sheridan arrived at between 11 A.M. and 12 M.” I made a note (still preserved), of the time Sheridan was seen by me riding up to the rear of Getty’s division.
11 Memoirs, p. 82.
12 These facts are as stated in a private letter from General Getty to the writer, dated December 31, 1893.
13 Here is an extract from a letter of General Wright to me, dated July 18, 1889:
14 Memoirs, vol. ii., pp. 82, 85.
15 Colonel Moses M. Granger, of the Second Brigade, Third Division, says: “It is plain that our brigade was in line on Getty’s right a considerable time before Sheridan’s arrival.”— Sketches War History, vol. iii., p. 124.
16 This extract is from remarks of General Hayes made at a Loyal Legion banquet in Cincinnati, May 6, 1889. Sketches War History, vol. iv., p. 23.
17 War Records, vol. xliii., Part I., p. 581.
18 War Records, vol. xliii., Part I., p. 228, 234, 251-2, 202.
19 Ibid., p. 562 (Early’s Report).
20 War Records, vol. xliii., Part I., p. 234.
21 War Records, vol. xliii., Part I., p. 250-1.
22 Battles and Leaders, etc., vol. iv., p. 528.
23 War Records, vol. xliii., Part I., pp. 562-3, 580.
24 Ibid., p. 524.
25 War Records, vol. xliii., Part I., pp. 562-3.
26 Napoleon once remarked, “How much to be pitied is a general the day after a lost battle!”
27 Memoirs of Sheridan, vol. ii., p. 211.
28 The distance from Winchester to Middletown is twelve miles.
29 War Records, vol. xliii., Part I., pp. 131, 137.
30 Great events in war are not always measured by the quantity of blood shed. Sherman’s dead and wounded list on his march from “Atlanta to the Sea” was only 531. Life of Grant (Church), pp. 297-8.
31 Battles and Leaders, etc., vol. iv., p. 532.
10 If the reader is curious to know what effort was made by the Confederate authorities to enlist slaves and free negroes as soldiers, he will find interesting correspondence on the subject between Davis, Lee, Longstreet, and others. War Records, vol. xlvi., Part III., pp. 1315, 1339, 1356, 1348, 1366, 1370.
11 Alexander H. Stephens had a small body, small head, and his whole appearance was that of a most emaciated person. For many years of his life he was in most delicate health; so feeble he could not stand or walk. He was moved about in a chair with wheels. His intellect, however, was strong and elastic, and his voice was sufficient to enable him to make a public speech. He wrote much. He was not always consistent in his views. He opposed secession, then advocated it; then again denied that secession was warranted by the Constitution. I knew him well in Congress after the war. He asserted when some of his Democratic brethren were denying Mr. Hayes’ title to the Presidency, that it was superior to the title of any President who had preceded him—that by virtue of the decision of the commission, it had become res adjudicata.
12 Lincoln (Nicolay and Hay), vol. x., pp. 113-31; Lost Cause (Pollard), pp. 684-5; War between States (Stephens), vol. ii., pp. 597, 608-12.
13 Manassas to Appomattox (Longstreet), pp. 584-7; Lincoln (Nicolay and Hay), vol. x., pp. 157-8.
14 War Records, vol. xlviii., Part I., p. 1281.
10 Ibid., pp. 612, 655-7, 724-5.
11 War Records, vol. xlvi., Part III., p. 723.
12 Abraham Lincoln, on the evening of March 14, 1865, attended Ford’s Theatre in Washington in company with Mrs. Lincoln, Miss Harris, and Major Henry R. Rathbone (daughter and stepson of Senator Ira Harris of New York), and while in a private box (at 10 P.M.) was shot by John Wilkes Booth. The bullet entered his head on the left side, passed through the brain, and lodged behind the left eye. He was carried to a house across the street, where he died (never being conscious after the shot) at twenty-two minutes after seven the morning of April 15, 1865. Secretary Stanton, standing by him as his life went out, more than prophetically said: “Now he belongs to the ages.”