The battle of Chancellorsville - April 30 through May 6, 1863
In 1991 my son Rob was stationed at Norfolk while his ship the USS Wainwright was in drydock. We took our vacation in Norfolk that summer. While there we visited Williamsburg, and Yorktown. I also took a day by myself to tour several battlefields. Fredricksburg, Chancellorsville, the Wilderness, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg.
Although Chancellorsville is considered Lee's greatest victory he couldn't have pulled it off without Stonewall Jackson. The Confederates were outnumbered more than two to one. General Hooker had a great plan. Hooker hoped to keep Lee pinned down at Fredricksburg while he circled in behind with the bulk of his army through the Wilderness, catching the Confederate Army in a vice between his forces and those of General John Sedgewick at Fredricksburg. Hooker didn't figure on the boldness of Stonewall Jackson who was blocking his way as he came out of the Wilderness. Because of Jackson Hooker lost his nerve, and the initiative. Hooker refused to venture forth any further. The hunter, Joseph Hooker, became the hunted.
It was Jackson's idea to split Lee's forces, encircle Hooker, and fall on his right flank. Had Jackson been able to attack sooner, and had more daylight, it is quite possible that he could have routed the Union Army and captured the whole lot. This is why Jackson was wounded by friendly fire and later died. Night battles were rare in the Civil War but he smelled victory and was determined not to let it slip through his hands. The death of Jackson was a loss that the south would never recover from. In my opinion Jackson was the Souths best strategist and if the powers that be had listened to him he was their best chance for victory.
One hundred and thirty thousand Union soldiers fought at Chancellorsville. Of those more than 17,000 were casualties. Seven thousand five hundred Union soldiers were killed. Out of 60,000 Confederates, more than 12,000 were casualties (three thousand five hundred were killed or reported as missing).
 |
| Jackson & Lee at Chancellorsville |
 |
| The battle around Chancellors House |
 |
| The remains of Chancellors House |
 |
| Remains of the Chancellor House July 2019 |
 |
| July 2019 |
 |
| The remains of Union soldiers after Chancellorsville |
 |
| The wounding of Stonewall Jackson |
 |
| Stonewall Jackson's uniform coat he was wearing when wounded |
 |
| Where Stonewall Jackson died at Guinea Station Virginia July 2019 |
 |
| The Chandler Office |
 |
| Stonewall Jackson death site |
 |
| Stonewall Jackson death site July 2019 |
The Battle of Liberty Gap - The Duck River Line - June 24 - 26, 1863
After the battle of Stones River the Confederates retreated to the Duck River line. Bragg made his headquarters in Tullahoma. The Confederate Army was defending four gaps. Hoovers Gap, Liberty Gap, Bell Buckle Gap, and Guys Gap. Hoovers Gap protected Manchester, Bell Buckle Gap protected the railroad and Guys Gap protected Shelbyville.
The Confederacy suffered three major defeats during the summer of 1863. Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Hoovers Gap and the collapse of the Duck River line. In my view the fall of Vicksburg and the Duck River line were greater disasters for the Confederacy than Lee's defeat at Gettysburg. By the summer of 1863 there was virtually no chance that England and France would side with the Confederacy, even if Lee had scored a decisive victory. The opportunity for that had been lost at Antietam. Gettysburg was a battle fought for political rather than strategic objectives. Lee's incursion into the North cannot be described as an invasion. The definition of an invasion is when the invaders have the ability to occupy the land that they have invaded. The Confederate Army was not strong enough to do that. It would be better defined as a large raid. The only strategic value of this raid was that it drew the invading Union Army northward. Even if Lee had won a great victory, destroyed the Army of the Potomac and captured Washington D.C. there was no guarantee that the North would have surrendered. Remember that the British captured Washington and burned the city, including the White House, and America did not surrender in the War of 1812.
The fall of Vicksburg and the collapse of the Duck River Line were greater Union victories than Gettysburg for various reasons. The loss of Vicksburg meant that the trans Mississippi Confederate states of Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana were cut off from the rest of the Confederacy. There was no way to move troops and supplies in any great volume from west to east or east to west. Prior to the fall of Vicksburg Northern farmers were unable to move their crops to New Orleans for shipment. This helped fuel Democrat Copperhead sentiment against the war in the Midwestern states. Finally, an entire Confederate Army of thirty thousand men was captured at Vicksburg. The fall of the Duck River line opened the deep South to invasion. It would ultimately lead to the fall of Chattanooga which was the gateway to the deep South. Grant's victory at Chattanooga would catapult him into command of all Union armies and the ultimate defeat of the Confederacy. Gettysburg and Vicksburg captured the publics attention then, and has captured that of historians since because of large casualty counts and the more famous commanders. General William S. Rosecrans ignominious defeat at Chickamauga would overshadow his brilliant strategic victory at Hoovers Gap on the Duck River line.
In 1972, after I was discharged from the Air Force, I began hunting Civil War relics.around Middle Tennessee. During the Spring of 1972 we found a couple of good spots near Bell Buckle Tennessee where the battle of Liberty Gap was fought. One spot was where Liddell's Arkansas Brigade fought the battle on June 24, 1863. A very nice elderly man in his eighties named Webb Lynch owned a farm there. My brother-in-law and myself became very good friends with him. He told us that we could hunt on his place any time and we didn't have to ask for permission. Unfortunately the man who owned the farm across the road wasn't so nice and he forbade us to hunt on his property. His sisters owned the farm directly behind him but they were very nice. They allowed us to hunt a high hill on their property where we found many relics. These farms were not only fought over during the Civil War but mock battles were conducted there during the Tennessee maneuvers in WW2. We found almost as many WW2 relics as we did Civil War. I can safely say that my brother-in-law Hulon Helms, and myself, found a good third of our collections at Liberty Gap. Between the two of us we found a multitude of minie balls, a Union cartridge box plate, a Union breast plate, two bayonets, numerous Union buttons, artillery shrapnel, and half of a Confederate ID tag. It had the last name of Leach and Boro Tn on it. We also found a WW2 mess kit with Pvt. Dabbs, Oct. 1941 etched into it. A WW2 whistle, Army Signal Corps ring and numerous M1 Garand blank cartridges.
Hoovers Gap at Beech Grove Tennessee was the primary target of Rosecrans and is where he would turn Bragg's right flank. The attack on Liberty Gap was a feint to take attention away from the real goal of the Union Army. In the six months prior to the attack on Hoovers Gap Rosecrans continued to probe toward Guys Gap on the Shelbyville Highway in an attempt to convince Bragg that would be the ultimate direction of attack. Bragg fell for it and was not prepared for the attack on Hoovers Gap. Wlilders Lightning Brigade of mounted infantry took the gap, even though they were outnumbered, because they were armed with the Spencer repeating rifle. This was one of the first battles in the Civil War where this rifle was used. When Hoovers Gap fell Bragg had to retreat in order to protect his rear and the railroad to Chattanooga. Casualties are unknown for the Hoovers Gap campaign. Although greater strategic gains were made at Hoover's gap than at Gettysburg for the North, there were far fewer casualties and far less attention was given to the victory at the time.
 |
| General August Willich at Liberty Gap |
 |
| The New York Times in 1863 |
 |
| The New York Times 1863 |
 |
| Monument to the battle of Liberty Gap in Wartrace Tn. |
 |
| Liberty Gap in the 1970's |
 |
| Mr. Webb Lynch |
 |
| Me hunting at Liberty Gap in the 1970's |
 |
| My brother-in-law Hulon Helms at Liberty Gap |
 |
| A minie ball that Hulon found lying on top of the ground |
 |
| Hulon after finding two six pounders |
 |
| Union Eagle button |
 |
| Half of Confederate ID found at Liberty Gap |
 |
| Part of my collection |
 |
| Part of My collection |
 |
| WW2 mess kit found at Liberty Gap |
 |
| Etching on mess kit |
 |
| October 1941 etched on mess kit |
 |
| Army Signal Corps |
 |
| Confederate Polygonal shell |
 |
| The Confederate Polygonal shell breaks up into pentagon shaped shrapnel. Found at Liberty Gap |
Gettysburg- July 1st through the 3rd 1863
Gettysburg was not Lee's finest hour. Longstreet tried to talk him into flanking the Union Army. He urged Lee to find favorable for the rebel army on ground between Washington D.C., or Baltimore, and force the Union Army to waste itself in fruitless charges trying to dislodge the Confederates. Lee decided instead to waste his army attacking the Union Army on the high ground at Gettysburg. He might have had a chance at victory if Richard Ewell had taken Culps Hill when he had the chance. Or Longstreet hadn't dragged his feet on July 2nd and attacked Little Round Top before Warren ordered it occupied.
Longstreet was urging a strategy similar to the one that Stonewall Jackson excelled at. A rapid march around the enemies flank in order to occupy the ground of his choosing. To paraphrase Jackson, he said that he had seen positions that he could not take but he had never seen a position that he could not hold. He believed in defense in depth. I used to think that Lee was a greater general than he actually was. His strategy was too wasteful. It might have worked if Lee had commanded the Union Army with it's nearly unlimited amount of men and material. In the early days of the war the North, especially in the East, could have won with a bold an aggressive commander like Grant. The Confederacy, however; could not afford the heavy casualties produced by Lee's aggressiveness. His casualties at Gettysburg made it the costliest battle of the war for the Confederates. There were 23,049 casualties for the Union (3,155 dead, 14,529 wounded, 5,365 missing). Casualties for the Confederacy were 28,063 (3,903 dead, 18,735 injured, and 5,425 missing), this amounted to more than a third of Lee's army.
 |
| Mary Thompson House |
 |
| Mary Thompson House |
 |
| Lutheran Seminary |
 |
| Three captured Confederate Soldiers near the Lutheran Seminary |
 |
| John Burns |
 |
| McPherson's Ridge |
 |
| Dedication of the Oak Hill peace monument by franklin Roosevelt |
 |
| Emmitsburg Road & Baltimore Pike during the Civil War |
 |
| Elizabeth Thorn |
 |
| Nashville Inglewood Baptist bus tour @ the Tennessee monument |
 |
| Lee's position on Seminary Ridge |
 |
| Pickett - Pettigrew Charge |
 |
| Picketts Charge from the Angle |
 |
| Armistead leading the charge at the High Water mark |
 |
| Leister House |
 |
| Hole that the family moved to safety after Jennie was killed |
 |
| Place where Jennies body was laid |
Vicksburg May 18 to July 4, 1863
Vicksburg was Grants finest hour. Beginning in the Spring of 1862 he would set his sights on the capture of Vicksburg. Grant, like Lincoln, evolved in his thinking about the war. Shiloh taught him that the war would not be short but long and bloody. Not only Southern armies but the people themselves would have to be defeated. This would evolve into a grand strategy placing equal pressure on all Southern armies simultaneously. Before Grant took command of all Union forces in the Spring of 1864 individual armies would fight big battles.Whether they won or lost they would withdraw or remain in place until they could replenish and resupply. It would be weeks and sometimes months before active campaigning began again. After the Union victory at Gettysburg Lee was not attacked again until May of 1864. After the Union Army won at Stones River Bragg was not attacked for six months. When Grant took command he insured that Confederates forces would be under constant pressure until the end of the war.
Vicksburg taught Grant that supply lines were not necessary in fertile regions of the South like Mississippi. This lesson was learned the hard way during Grants first overland attempt to capture Vicksburg. Earl Van Dorn captured Holly Springs Mississippi on December 20, 1862 and Nathan Bedford Forrest disrupted his supply lines in West Tennessee in late December and early January. This forced Grant to turn back and temporarily give up his first attempt to take Vicksburg. He learned a valuable lesson during his withdrawal. His army was able to live off of the land. This lesson would ultimately serve him well when he approached Vicksburg from the western side of the Mississippi River. After Porters flotilla of gunboats ran the heavy guns at Vicksburg Grant was able to cross the Mississippi River to Bruinsburg. From there he defeated the Confederates at Grand Gulf, Raymond and captured Jackson. From there he marched toward Vicksburg. On the way Grant defeated the Confederates at Champion Hill, Big Black River and laid siege to Vicksburg. The city surrendered on July 4, 1864. He did all of this without supply lines. Sherman would pull this feat off again during his Meridian campaign which was a dry run for the March to the Sea. The casualties for the battle and siege of Vicksburg were 4,910 Union soldiers. The Confederates lost 32,697 of which 29,620 were captured. The full campaign, since March 29, claimed 10,142 Union and 9,091 Confederate killed and wounded. In addition to his surrendered men Pemberton turned over 50,000 rifles and 172 cannon.
 |
| Vicksburg |
 |
| Porter runs the Vicksburg batteries |
 |
| USS Cairo |
 |
| Colorized USS Cairo |
 |
| Caves near the Shirley |
 |
| The Tennessee Battery |
 |
| A Vicksburg Mine Explosion |
Comments
Post a Comment