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Relative to the carnage in Virginia, the Atlanta Campaign had so far been a great deal less violent. General Johnston had abandoned each of his three defensive positions at Rocky Face Ridge, Resaca and Adairsville when General Sherman had maneuvered against the rebel flanks. Each time Sherman's men arrived at the end of their flank marches, they found the entire Army of Tennessee waiting entrenched.
150 years ago today the ongoing waltz had brought the antagonists to New Hope Church where General Hooker's Corps, leading Sherman's advance, came upon what they at last thought was just a portion of Johnston's army. Sherman ordered an attack and Hooker's three divisions went forward, shoving the enemy back for three miles....where they then came upon Johnston's real defensive line and the rest of his army. Blasted back by batteries of waiting artillery, Hooker's advance ground to a halt and the Yankees once more began digging trenches. The fighting had resulted in nearly 1700 casualties to Hooker's Corps while the rebels lost around 350.
Sherman studied his opponent's lines and decided that the weakest point was Johnston's right flank to the north, anchored in a place called Pickett's Mill. Sherman would next try his luck in that sector.
The Western Armies Collide At New Hope Church
Rebel Defensive Works At New Hope Church, Photographed After They Were Abandoned
The unassailable nature of General Lee's defensive posture along the North Anna River meant that there would not be a major battle there. After two days of probing attacks which resulted in another 2600 casualties for the Federals and 1500 for the rebels, Grant determined to disengage and repeat his tactic of moving south around the right flank of Lee's army.
150 years ago this evening they quietly disengaged from the front lines and began their next movement, the target was the next set of crossroads, an area 25 miles to the SE where the battles of the Seven Days had been fought. The crossroads featured an inn which provided shelter for the night but no hot meals. From that policy came the area's name...Cold Harbor.
Despite the horrible casualty totals from his campaign to date, Grant was feeling optimistic. The fact that Lee had remained entirely on the defense in the North Anna encounter persuaded Grant that his opponent had lost his striking power, that the Army of Northern Virginia was losing its fighting spirit. This was reflected in Grant's message to his chief of staff in Washington, General Halleck.
Quote:
Lee's army is really whipped. The prisoners we now take show it, and the actions of his Army show it unmistakably. A battle with them outside of entrenchments cannot be had. Our men feel that they have gained the morale over the enemy, and attack him with confidence. I may be mistaken but I feel that our success over Lee's army is already assured
Events would prove that Grant was overly optimistic in the short term, Lee's army was far from whipped on the battlefield. In the larger picture, he was quite correct. Lee no longer enjoyed the ability to make the sort of lightning strikes which had characterized his brilliant campaigns in '62 and '63. It wasn't just a shortage of men, Lee was also suffering greatly from the loss of his most able sub commanders. The once unbeatable combination of Lee, Jackson, Longstreet and Stuart, was now reduced to just Lee and subordinates he did not trust to execute his orders correctly or show initiative when it was needed.
As the combat venue shifted further south to the old Seven Days battlefields, both armies would be able to make up for some of their losses by drawing troops from the armies facing each other at Bermuda Hundred.
150 years ago today in Georgia it was a repeat of yesterday's futile attacks against the Army of Tennessee.
The venue shifted from New Hope Church to the rebel left at Pickett's Mill. General Oliver Howard's 4th Corps assaulted a position held by General Patrick Cleburne's division, supported by an additional brigade. The attack was easily repulsed and the casualties mirrored the ones from the day before, about 1600 Federal losses to 500 for the Confederates.
In Virginia 150 years ago today both armies continued their marches toward Cold Harbor, and in Georgia things got a bit out of hand for General Johnston, leaving him with a battle he had not intended to fight.
After the unsuccessful attacks at New Hope Church and Pickett's Mill, General Sherman continued to probe Johnston's lines in search of a weakness to exploit. The probes were taking place on the eastern flanks of Johnston's army and he concluded incorrectly that Sherman was shifting his entire army around to the rebel right flank. Johnston reasoned that the buildup must have come at the expense of Sherman's right, and he ordered General Hardee to take his division and "develop the Union right" which meant ascertain the the strength of the position with teasing attacks.
To this end, a brigade of dismounted cavalrymen were sent forward. They were easily repulsed by General McPherson's troops who followed with a counter attack. It became obvious to Hardee that the Union right had not been weakened and he canceled further attacks. A communications mixup resulted in only one of the three brigades that were preparing to attack getting the word about the assault having been canceled. The two remaining brigades went forward and were blasted back with heavy casualties. The rebels lost nearly 1200 men to just under 400 casualties for McPherson's troops.
That was the final action in this area, the series of battles became collectively referenced as "The Battle of Dallas." The five days of fighting had resulted in about 3000 casualties for the Confederates to Sherman's loss of 2400. The armies would spend one more day in place watching one another, and on the 1st of June both would disengage, Sherman to move his Federals back closer to the railroad and his line of supply while Johnston marched six miles to the SE to establish his next defensive line around Lost Mountain.
150 years ago today the Union and Confederate cavalry contested for control of the crossroads at Cold Harbor, the same ground bloodied two years earlier in the Battle of Gaines Mill. General Fitzhugh Lee's division, along with a brigade from General Hampton's division, fought against General Sheridan's 1st Division, formerly led by the late Gettysburg hero, John Buford, and now commanded by General Alfred T. A. Torbert.
In the post Stuart era, the rebel cavalry was not the dynamic strike force it used to be. The numbers and quality of the men and horses had been greatly reduced in three years of attrition. By 4 pm Torbert's men had driven Lee's troopers from the crossroads and began to erect defensive breastworks. However, the other Lee, the one who commanded the rebel army, had anticipated just such an outcome and had ordered General Anderson's Corps to support the rebel cavalry. The defensive works were not far along when this large infantry force arrived, causing Sheridan to conclude that it was best to fall back. The day ended as it had begun, with the rebels still controlling the crossroads.
Meanwhile the other units of both armies were arriving and taking up facing positions. Both had inflated their numbers in preparation for this next contest. Drawing on the heavy artillery-made-into-infantry troops he had organized, as well as taking 16,000 men fro General Butler's Army of the James, Grant had made good most of his casualties, the Army of the Potomac now containing about 108,000.
Lee had detached 7000 men from General Beauregard's army which was keeping Butler bottled inside Bermuda Hundred, as well as absorbing the 6000 man Valley army that General Breckinridge had led to victory at New Market, and now was fielding about 58,000 men.
150 years ago today the plan of Generals Grant and Meade was to hit the rebels right away, before they had a chance to construct complex defenses along their line. The target was to be General Anderson's Corps on the rebel right. It had been Anderson's men who had done most of the fighting to clear the Cold Harbor crossroads, so the reasoning went that they would have had the least amount of time to perfect defenses. An attack by the Corps of Generals Hancock, Smith and Wright would throw 31,000 men against the Confederate right. It was scheduled for 8 am this day.
It didn't happen. Hancock's men had to make an all night forced march to reach the battlefield and his troops were too exhausted to go into combat without rest. The attack was postponed until 5 pm., and finally rescheduled for 4:30 am the next morning.
General Lee of course used the time to greatly improve his defensive works. All along the zig zagging seven mile line which was anchored on the left by a creek and the right by a river, making the flanks unassailable, sophisticated breastworks of earth and timber were constructed. Artillery was sighted and protected. Abatis and other barriers were erected in front of the works. It was a formidable a defensive position as any the war had seen.
Having had the experience of assaulting fortified lines at Spotsylvania, a mood of dread descended upon the troops of the Army of the Potomac. The letters home from this night before the attack reflect a pessimistic, fatalistic view of what they were being asked to do. Many of the men wrote their names on pieces of paper and pinned them to their jackets, so that their remains might be more easily identified and their families notified.
Those were the prophetic words found in the diary of a Union soldier written before the ill fated assaults of 150 years ago today.
At 4:30 am three Federal Corps went forward in one of the largest attacks of the war.
On the Federal right center General Smiths' Corps, having not conducted proper reconnaissance before the charge, found themselves funneled into two ravines. As they emerged they were cut down by massed artillery and rifle fire. They never reached the Confederate lines. At six am General Burnsides Corps was sent in on the far end of this front and in typical Burnside fashion, all was muddled. They drove back the rebel pickets with Burnside concluding that he had penetrated the main defensive line and ruling that this was enough activity for the day.
In the center General Wright's Corps went to ground as soon as they came under fire. No amount of curses and threats from their officers was sufficient to get these men to go forward.
Only on the rebel right were any gains made. General Hancock's Corps was able to seize the first line of trenches from General Breckinridge's Division, but those trenches were now targeted by the Confederate artillery which began taking a heavy toll on the Federals. Then a counter attack by Breckinridge drove them back toward their own lines.
It was all over by 7 am, at least the attacks were over. The suffering of those sent forward would go on until sometime after 2 pm when Grant and Meade finally concluded that there was no way to get the men to attempt any further advance. And for many of the wounded, their suffering would go on for days as Grant would refuse to ask General Lee for a truce so that the wounded could be evacuated and the dead buried. Grant apparently got it into his head that such a request would be an admission of defeat. He had tried to put the best possible spin on the battle in his report to the War Department where he claimed while they had failed to gain a "decisive advantage", casualties had been light.
Casualties had not been light. There seems little agreement among historians on the exact losses suffered by the Union in this assault, but it would appear to have been between six and seven thousand, most of those in the first twenty minutes of the advance. Lee suffered around 1500 casualties in beating back the attacks.
While Grant had tried to put the best face on it at the time it happened, he was more honest when reflecting on it in his memoirs.
Quote:
I have always regretted that the last assault at Cold Harbor was ever made. I might say the same thing of the assault of the 22d of May, 1863, at Vicksburg. At Cold Harbor no advantage whatever was gained to compensate for the heavy loss we sustained
The futile attack jacked the Union losses in the Cold Harbor battles to 12,000 plus, added to the earlier losses that meant that Grant had now suffered 52,000 casualties in the month long Overland Campaign. Lee had lost around 33,000, but this attrition rate was still working in the Federal's favor. Lee's losses represented a higher percentage of his total force, and as noted in previous posts, the North could ultimately replace their dead and wounded while the South was at the end of their rope manpower wise.
This battle was also the final tactical victory in a full scale action for General Lee. There would be no more engagements where both armies were fully participating.
After the Union defeat at New Market in the Valley, General Grant had wasted no time sacking General Sigel and replacing him with General David Hunter.
Hunter had regrouped the beaten army and advanced south once more, this time with little opposition since General Lee had recalled General Breckinridge's army and fused it with the Army of Northern Virginia at Cold Harbor. What was left in the Valley for the rebels was a brigade of cavalry under General John D. Imboden. Unable to check Hunter's advance, nor prevent the despoiling of the Valley by Hunter's troops, Imboden called on Lee for help.
It was sent in the form of a makeshift 4000 man force of infantry and dismounted cavalry under the colorful General William E. "Grumble" Jones. A West Pointer. Jones' nickname reflected his easily annoyed and hot tempered personality. Personal shortcomings aside, Jones had been an effective cavalry leader under the late Jeb Stuart, although Jones had fallen into disfavor with Stuart during the retreat from Gettysburg, largely because Jones had been openly critical of Stuart's decision to swing east of the advancing Army of the Potomac when it was headed north. When Stuart was later mildly rebuked by Lee for going off on his own and leaving his commander blind, this made Stuart even more angry at Jones.
That problem was solved by Stuart's death, and now Jones had a chance to redeem his reputation with an independent command. He took his small force to Harrisonburg, Virginia, on the Valley Turnpike near Piedmont, and there formed a blocking position. He was reinforced to 5500 effectives by Imboden.
150 years ago today Hunter with 8500 troops arrived and assaulted Jones' position. After a couple of hours of indecisive combat, a gap was discovered in Jones' left flank. Hunter concentrated his attacks there and in a short time had broken through and destabilized the entire rebel line which began to fall back. Jones rushed over to his left to try and rally his men, and was shot in the head, dying instantly.
A courageous stand by the rear guard of Jones' retreating force checked the pursuit, but it was a complete defeat for the Confederates who lost 1500 men, a thousand of them captives. Hunter suffered about 900 casualties. The victory allowed Hunter to advance and occupy Staunton. Virginia, the first time that town had endured Yankees during the war. From there he would spend the next two weeks on a long raid of destruction, outlined on the map below. There was no one available to stop him, one more sign of the manpower crisis which was becoming more and more severe.
General "Grumble" Jones..Piedmont Ended His Griping
Last edited by Grandstander; 06-04-2014 at 06:17 PM..
The last few days had not been the the finest hours for Generals Grant and Lee. 150 years ago today, after four days of prideful bickering, they at last agreed to a cease fire so that the dead and wounded from the failed June 3rd attack might be retrieved and treated.
And of course by now the wounded were mostly dead, those still alive had suffered with their wounds, lying between the lines while Grant refused to admit defeat and Lee refused to allow him a cease fire unless he did so.
The two commanders had exchanged a series of notes, the first from Grant the day after the assault where he proposed a mutual cease fire so that the casualties could be handled. Lee had replied that he had no casualties to retrieve, but did General Grant wish to have a cease fire granted to him?
And that was the way it went for days, Grant continued to make the request, but always wording it in such a manner as to make it appear that both sides needed this cease fire, and Lee continuing to refuse unless Grant requested a cease fire just for his own casualties. Whatever points of honor both men thought that they were making, it came at the expense of those suffering horribly between the lines, and at the expense of their fellow soldiers who had to listen to their pitiful cries for water and mercy of any kind. Either man could have ended that suffering much sooner had he placed pride second to humane concerns.
Grant finally caved and on this day 150 years ago, he at last sent a note to Lee where only Union casualties were referenced. Lee granted him two hours. There were few left to save, many to bury. Those who had survived had been pulled off the field at nighttime by courageous comrades willing to risk sneaking into no man's land under cover of the dark.
Abraham Lincoln was nominated for president 150 years ago today, but not by the Republican Party, at least not by that name.
The more radical of the Radical Republicans were further out in advance of the Republican party on the issue of the abolition of slavery, advocating constitutional amendments to abolish the institution and make blacks equal citizens under the law in all respects.
Those ideas did not yet represent the will of the majority of the Republicans, and especially did not represent the desires of the War Democrats whose support for the war Lincoln considered absolutely critical. The consequence was a party split.
The Radical Republicans, billing themselves as the The Radical Democracy Convention , had met in Ohio at the end of May and nominated their own candidate for the White House. Their choice was The Pathfinder, John Charles Fremont, who had made such a hash of all of his assignments in the war, first in Missouri and later in the Valley. The second most votes for the nomination were received by General Grant, who had already made it clear that he had not the slightest interest in politics.
To counter this, the remaining Republicans along with their War Democrat allies, met in Baltimore the first week of June, and to foster unity, renamed themselves The National Union Party. War Democrats who could not bring themselves to vote for a Republican, had less of a problem supporting a National Unionist. Lincoln was renominated with no opposition, but the price of the support of the cross over Democrats was replacing vice President Hannibal Hamlin, the radical from Maine, with a Democrat. There was a perfect political candidate available, Senator Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, the one senator from the states in rebellion who did not resign and go south. The idea was to produce a ticket which stressed national unity and having a Democrat from a southern state as the running mate certainly achieved that.
Lincoln had received all but 22 of the 516 nomination votes cast at the convention, the other 22 had gone to.....U.S. Grant. After the first ballot it was made unanimous by voice acclamation.
Support for the Radical Democrats never materialized in significant numbers, and Fremont would ultimately drop out of the race in September, but not before extracting some concessions. After the Democrats nominated General McClellan in August, a man who opposed abolition in all forms, the radicals realized that all that they could accomplish by opposing Lincoln was the probable election of McClellan who represented the antithesis of their ideas.
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