Walking Hallowed Ground

21 October 1861

After the Union defeat at Bull Run, McClelland replaced McDowell.  He sent orders to General Stone to inspect across the Potomac around Leesburg.  The next day, acting on faulty information, he sent 200 men across the river.  They ran into a company of Mississippi Infantry.  Unable to reinforce due to a lack of boats, the federal soldiers pushed back into the river as the Confederates fed more and more units into the battle.

Though a small engagement, this battle convinced McClelland that he should attack Richmond from the Peninsular. This beautiful and well-protected battlefield is minutes off Highway 15, northeast of Leesburg.

"(Ruggles' Battery)-62 cannon, hub to hub, unleashing a fierce cannonade, striking across 500 yards of open field into the ranks of the Blue line . . . continuing in full force for well over and hour . . . literally darkened the sky with smoke.  They had delayed the Confederate advance most of the day and had occupied the attention of virtually the entire Confederate army." ~ James Lee McDonough, Shiloh - In Hell before Night, p. 164-167.

This small force of Union soldiers gave the rest of Grant's army time to consolidate in a defensive line, a base for the arrival of reinforcements and the following day's counterattack and victory.

Since the kids moved to Frederick, I have been planning to visit South Mountain.  It took me a while, but I finally got around to it.

Like Wilderness, this is a hard battle, actually, three battles, to visualize.  Plus, it was hot as hell.  No fun was had.

After the successes of the Spring of 1862, Lee took his Army into Maryland to drum up support, give the Virginia Farmers a break, and convince Europe to show their support for the Cause.  Strategically, this entire campaign was a Lee failure.  McClellan was handed a copy of Lee's orders showing the Army of Northern Virginia stretched out from Harper's Ferry to Hagerstown. Rightfully emboldened, he sent his units to cross South Mountain to split the Confederate forces in two, intending to defeat them in detail.

He was too slow, giving Lee the time to become aware that his plan was compromised and time to fortify the passes over South Mountain to delay the Yankees.  The defense of Turner's, Fox's, and Crampton's Gaps, which I like to think of as The Southern Thermopile, delayed the Yanks long enough to take Harper's Ferry and consolidate at Sharpsburg, along Antietam Creek.

2-505 Officer Staff Ride, July 1986

This trip began my love for going to battlefields.  I was invited to go because I was the Platoon Leader of the Scout Platoon.

The officers and I walked all three days of the battle after studying each phase and the men who led each.  I had William C. Oates and the 15th Alabama at Little Roundtop.

The Battle of Gettysburg, fought in July 1863, was a pivotal moment in the American Civil War.  Robert E. Lee shattered his army, attacking George Meade's army in a three-day clash. This battle marked a turning point in the war.  Lee withdrew back to Virginia, followed closely by the Union Armyy, now under the command of U. S. Grant.

The battles that followed, called the Overland Campaign, were some of the bloodiest of the war, signaling the end of the Confederacy.

Gettysburg remains one of the most studied battles in American history.

"They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance." ~ The last words of General John Sedgwick ay the battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse.  Having been wounded during the Seven Days and again at Antietam, I think Uncle John should have known he was a bullet magnet.

The North and South fought on this line for over a week in some of the most brutal fighting, much of it hand-to-hand, of the war.  This battle claimed over 32,000 casualties.

"I have always regretted that the last assault at Cold Harbor was ever made."  ~  General U. S. Grant

For 13 days, the Grant attacked the heavily fortified Confederate position, with over 1800 killed and over 9000 wounded.  Lee lost about 788 killed and over 3000 wounded.

I have often sat near this gun watching the sun set and listening to the battlefield.  It is my favorite field of battle.  It is always quiet; few visit it these days.

Appomattox is not fun for me.  It is not that I wish the South had won the war, but I wish it had ended differently  Such valor and dedication to duty displayed by Southern soldiers for four years should not have been beaten into submission.

It is too bad that the better angels of our nature didn't emancipate the people we enslaved, compromised as a nation on the other causes of the conflict, and saved our country from this period of our history that still haunts us today.

But You have to visit Appomattox and know the story to understand the South as it is today.  You see, we were never defeated, only beaten into submission.

While Lincoln expected a "chorus of the Union," it was a Confederate officer at Appomattox who spoke the true feelings of the South - "You may forgive us but we won’t be forgiven. There is rancor in our hearts which you little dream of.  We hate you, sir.”