Up next (March 14, 2017): the days leading to Appomattox

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Appomattox, Curt Fields, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant

In the last days of March, 1865, Lieutenant General U. S. Grant had planned to assault General Robert E. Lee’s thinly-manned lines around Petersburg, Virginia.

Curt Fields as U.S. Grant

He felt that enough time had dragged by in the nearly year-long campaign and that Lee could not withstand a simultaneous attack all along his lines. However, General Lee, anticipating the assault, attacked Grant first. That attempted break-out failed, and Lee began to fall back, abandoning Richmond in the process. The next few days were a blur as one savage battle after another was fought by a far- from-dead Army of Northern Virginia. But Lee was running out of time and food.

On April 7th, Grant sent the first letter to Lee of what became a short series of exchanges between the two generals, a series that culminating in the surrender meeting in the most unlikely of places for such a momentous event.

At the next KCWRT meeting, General Grant (played by historian Curt Fields) will talk of those letters and what was transpiring during the two days they were exchanged.

The General will also speak about the actual meeting between himself and General Lee, what was said, and what happened in the 75 or so minutes they were together in Wilmer McLean’s parlor. He will address what he said in the surrender letter he wrote to General Lee effectively ending the war, and why he wrote what he did. He will also touch briefly on the unintended ramifications his letter later had on President Andrew Johnson’s Cabinet and administration.

The next KCWRT meeting is Tuesday, March 14. Details are at the left of this page.

Marching Out of Step: Robert E. Lee After Appomattox

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Frank O'Reilly, Robert E. Lee

The next meeting of the Knoxville Civil War Roundtable will be Tuesday, Oct. 11, at 7 p.m. at the Bearden Banquet Hall. The speaker will be Frank O’Reilly, historian of the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania national military park.

* * *

Following the surrender at Appomattox Court House, General Robert E. Lee’s life was fraught with uncertainty.

The man of war who had had thousands of men marching with him for four years now was a man alone.

Robert E. Lee after the war

Without a job, without a home, and without a country, Lee faced indictment for treason and was betrayed by his own failing health.  Despite these setbacks, Robert E. Lee felt a greater obligation to the United States than ever before.  He dedicated the rest of his short life to restoring peace in his own way—through education and personal example.

Turning his back on his military past, the general made a point of “marching out of step” to follow a path of reconciliation. Only then did Robert E. Lee achieve true greatness as a man and as an American.

Come join us as Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania NMP historian Frank O’Reilly introduces us to “the lion in winter,” and we explore a Robert E. Lee few of us know.

Battlelines: Gettysburg: Saturday, July 4, 1863 and beyond

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Abraham Lincoln, Alfred Waud, Army of Northern Virginia, Army of the Potomac, Battlelines: Gettysburg, Edwin Forbes, Edwin Stanton, George Meade, Gettysburg, Robert E. Lee, Vicksburg

Note: The annual anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg was this weekend. To commemorate that, we are posting, with permission, excerpts from Battlelines: Gettysburg, that describe aspects of the battle. Battlelines: Gettysburg contains the battlefield drawings of Alfred Waud and Edwin Forbes, the only two artists who witnessed the battle.

A hard, driving rain drenched Gettysburg on July 4, 1863.

The rain was both merciful and burdensome. It was merciful in that it provided relief from the stifling heat of the previous days. More importantly, it discouraged both armies from attacking each other.

Edwin Forbes drawing of the devastation of the battle of Gettysburg is particularly striking.

It was burdensome because many of the dead and wounded were still lying exposed to the elements or without adequate shelter, and for those still living the rain could not have been helpful. The rain was yet another obstacle in cleaning up the battlefield, finding the dead and wounded, and in getting the army ready to move when the commanders decided it was time.

Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia stood ready to receive an attack from the Army of the Potomac. In some Confederate quarters, there was even hope that this would happen. Southerners still wanted to inflict some pain on their Union counterparts.

Battlelines: Gettysburg: Day 3, Friday, July 3, 1863

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Alfred Waud, Army of Northern Virginia, Battlelines: Gettysburg, Civil War, Culp's Hill, Edwin Forbes, George Armstrong Custer, George Meade, Gettysburg, J.E.B. Stuart, James Longstreet, Pickett's charge, Richard Ewell, Robert E. Lee

Note: The annual anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg is this weekend. To commemorate that, we are posting, with permission, excerpts from Battlelines: Gettysburg, that describe aspects of the battle. Battlelines: Gettysburg contains the battlefield drawings of Alfred Waud and Edwin Forbes, the only two artists who witnessed the battle.

Lee’s original plan for the third day of battle was similar to that of the second day: attack both sides of the Union line. But early in the morning, instead of just holding his position, Meade ordered troops at Culp’s Hill to clear out the Confederate forces that had captured Union positions the day before. So, rather than storming Culp’s Hill – as Lee had planned – General Richard Ewell’s troops had to fight to hold their own position.

When Lee realized that Ewell’s troops were occupied, he changed his plans and told Longstreet to prepare of an attack on the center of the Union line. The attack would require soldiers to cross nearly a mile of open fields that gradually sloped up toward a copse of trees that stood just behind the center of the Federal forces. Longstreet argued against the assault, but Lee was a gambler and felt this was a chance worth taking.

By 11 a.m., Ewell’s troops had been flushed out of their positions at Culp’s Hill and could offer no support for the advance that would later occur. At 1 p.m. Confederate artillery opened up on the Union line, but many of their shots were aimed too high and fell harmlessly behind the lines. Union artillery answered for a while until the order came to cease firing in order to conserve ammunition. By not answering the Confederate fire, Union artillery units were able to conceal their positions in some instances.

Edwin Forbes’ painting of Pickett’s charge

After two hours of bombardment, the cannons ceased, and more than 12,000 Confederates advanced on Union lines in what has become known as Pickett’s charge. In addition to the field being open and often exposing the troops to direct and flanking fire, the troops had to cross fences that further exposed them to Union musketry. The center of the Union line held fire for a time, leading Confederate leaders to believe that the artillery bombardment had been successful.

They were wrong.

Battlelines: Gettysburg: Day 2, Thursday, July 2, 1863

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20th Maine division, Alfred Waud, Battlelines: Gettysburg, Culp's Hill, Edwin Forbes, George Meade, Gettysburg, Gouverneur Warren, Harper's Weekly, James Longstreet, Joshua Chamberlain, Little Round Top, Robert E. Lee, sketch artists, video

Note: The annual anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg is this weekend. To commemorate that, we are posting, with permission, excerpts from Battlelines: Gettysburg that describe aspects of the battle. Battlelines: Gettysburg contains the battlefield drawings of Alfred Waud and Edwin Forbes, the only two artists who witnessed the battle.

Lee kept his army at Gettysburg because he believed he could win. The first day of the battle had been a good one for the Confederates, and Lee’s experience had been that given the right amount of pressure at the right time, Union forces would collapse. He believed that a second day of battle with the Confederates hitting hard at the Union lines could make that happen again.

Lee had developed a special relationship with his battlefield commanders, people like James Longstreet, Richard Ewell and A.P. Hill. His orders to them were often general and sometimes vague – deliberately so, because he want to give them room to make their own decisions and because he believed they could understand his purposes.

The fierce fighting around Devil’s Den, depicted by Alfred Waud.

But this method of command put enormous pressure on these generals to understand Lee and carry out his vague plans. It also assumed that when the actions of these general had to be coordinated, they would work together in a mutually cooperative way.

But that didn’t happen.

Battlelines: Gettysburg: Day 1, Wednesday, July 1, 1863

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Abraham Lincoln, Alfred Pleasonton, Alfred Waud, Army of North Virginia, Army of the Potomac, Battlelines: Gettysburg, Cemetery Hill, Edwin Forbes, George Meade, Gettysburg, Henry Heth, J.E.B. Stuart, John Buford, John Reynolds, McPherson's Ridge, Richard Ewell, Robert E. Lee, William Pender

Note: The annual anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg is this weekend. To commemorate that, we are posting, with permission, excerpts from Battlelines: Gettysburg, that describe aspects of the battle. Battlelines: Gettysburg contains the battlefield drawings of Alfred Waud and Edwin Forbes, the only two artists who witnessed the battle.

Lee had wanted to avoid any major engagements with Union forces until he could determine where they were and could choose a battleground that would give his smaller force an advantage. But, as often happens, the plans of the generals dissipate into the realities of the battlefield.

Early on July 1, Confederate generals Henry Heth and William Pender rode with their forces down the Chambersburg Road toward Gettysburg in order to drive Union forces out of the town. They did not expect to encounter much resistance. Instead, they found Union General John Buford’s division of Federal cavalry about three miles northwest of Gettysburg. That division had no intention of being moved, at least not without a fight.

Heth committed his lines to the fight, and Buford’s lines stiffened. The battle was joined.

Alfred Waud’s drawing of the seminary near Gettysburg.

In this initial battle, the Confederates had the advantage in numbers and position, and the Union forces gradually dropped back. General John Reynolds, hearing that the battle was unfolding, brought his brigades up to join the Union lines on ground known as McPherson’s Ridge. As the fighting began to intensify, Reynolds commanded the lines from his horse and was hit by a bullet at the base of his skull. He died instantly.

Battlelines: The Road to Gettysburg

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Abraham Lincoln, Aldie, Alfred Pleasonton, Alfred Waud, Army of the Potomac, Battlelines: Gettysburg, e, Edwin Forbes, George Meade, Gettysburg, J.E.B. Stuart, Joseph Hooker, Robert E. Lee, Thomas J. Jackson, Upperville

Note: The annual anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg is approaching this weekend. To commemorate that, we are posting, with permission, excerpts from Battlelines: Gettysburg, that describe aspects of the battle. Battlelines: Gettysburg contains the battlefield drawings of Alfred Waud and Edwin Forbes, the only two artists who witnessed the battle.

The story of the battle of Gettysburg begins – if it begins anywhere – with the battle at Chancellorsville on May 1-3, 1863. The Union’s Army of the Potomac, with fresh troops and a new leader in General Joseph Hooker, ran into Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia in what amounted to a surprise attack by Lee. In three days of fighting, Lee won an important and surprising victory against vastly superior force, further demoralizing the North and demonstrating, once again, the limits of Northern generals.

But, in his victory, Lee had suffered a devastating blow himself. His best general, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, was wounded on the second day of the battle and died several days later after his arm was amputated. Jackson had proved himself on several occasions in the previous two years of fighting to be a creative and irreplaceable part of the Army of Northern Virginia. Few single casualties of the war were as important as the death of Stonewall Jackson.

Alfred Waud’s drawing of the battle at Upperville on June 21, 1863. The battle occurred as Lee’s army moved north toward Gettysburg.

Despite this loss, Lee had the advantage at least for the moment, and he decided to press that advantage with an invasion of the North.

Civil War Trust provides excellent video introduction to Gettysburg

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Abraham Lincoln, Civil War Trust, George Meade, Gettysburg, Gettysburg Address, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Vicksburg, video

With the approach of the anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3), KCWRT.org will be providing some information about the battle during the next couple of weeks.

A great place to start is the video introduction to the battle produce by the Civil War Trust, which you can see below.

 

Historian Garry Adelman gives a quick run-through of the battle with lots of animation and supplementary footage.

Gettysburg is so iconic — particularly because of the Gettysburg Address that Abraham Lincoln delivered four months after the battle — that we tend to lose sight of what it meant to the people who lived during the war.

Dorothy E. Kelly: General Who? William P. Sanders

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Ambrose Burnside, Antietam, Battle of Fort Sanders, Belle Boyd, Chattanooga, E. Porter Alexander, Fort Dickerson, George McClellan, James Longstreet, James M. Shackelford, Joseph Kershaw, Joseph Wheeler, Lamar House Hotel, Orlando Poe, Peninsula Campaign, Robert E. Lee, William P. Sanders

By Dorothy E. Kelly

ddkelly@earthlink.net

Civil War historians outside the East Tennessee area know little or nothing about the Federal general who gave his life at Knoxville. But how much do WE know about this man whose name adorns modern buildings, hospitals, and even a neighborhood?

Born under the Southern skies of Kentucky and raised in the humid Mississippi river town of Natchez, William Price Sanders was a young Federal officer on his way up when he died at Knoxville in 1863. He had been a general one month and one day.

Sanders was the sixth child of Margaret and Lewis Sanders, a prominent Mississippi attorney. According to his sister, Elizabeth J. Sanders Haggin, William Price was named for a physician uncle and was known as “Doc” to family and friends, a nickname which was later adopted by his fellow officers.

William Price Sanders

Sanders’ politically connected father secured his appointment to West Point in 1852. His career at West Point was somewhat rocky. A May, 1854 letter from West Point Commandant, Robert E. Lee, announced his impending dismissal for want of application, deficiency in academics and accumulation of numerous demerits. With the aid of a fellow Mississippian—Secretary of War Jefferson Davis— Sanders avoided dismissal and went on to graduate in 1856. In addition to Sanders, two of his West Point classmates played important roles in the Civil War in East Tennessee: Orlando M. Poe, Burnside’s Chief Engineer and designer of the Knoxville fortifications, and E. Porter Alexander, Longstreet’s Chief of Artillery.