Lees Lieutenants Volume 3: A Study in Command, Gettysburg to Appomattox - Softcover

Freeman, Douglas Southall

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1451627343 ISBN 13: 9781451627343

Verlag: Scribner, 2011

Inhaltsangabe

An unquestioned masterpiece of the historian's art, and a towering landmark in the literature of the American Civil War.

In Gettysburg to Appomattox, Douglas Southall Freeman concludes his monumental three-volume study of Lee's command of the Confederacy, a dramatic history that brings to vivid life the men in that command and the part each played in this country's most tragic struggle.

Volume three continues the stirring account of Lee's army, from the costly battle at Gettysburg, through the deepening twilight of the South's declining military might, to the tragic inward collapse of Lee's command and his formal surrender in 1865. To his unparalleled descriptions of Lee's subordinates and the operations in which they participated, Dr. Freeman adds an insightful analysis of the lessons that were to be learned from the story of the Army of Northern Virginia and their bearing upon the future military development of the nation.

As in the first two volumes, portrait photographs, military maps, several appendixes, and a bibliography add to the clarity and richness of the book. The complete three-volume study, Lee's Lieutenants, is a classic touchstone in the literature of American biography, and in all the literature of war.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Douglas Southall Freeman, the son of a Confederate soldier, was born in Lynchburg, Virginia, in 1886. He was commissioned to write a one-volume biography of Lee in 1915, but his research and writings over two decades produced four large volumes. Freeman won another Pulitzer Prize for his six-volume definitive biography of George Washington. He died in 1953.

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Chapter 1

Much Pomp Ends in Humiliation

"Jeb" Stuart was to blame. All his enemies said that. The advance of the Army of Northern Virginia toward the Potomac in June, 1863, would not have met that humiliating, initial check if the chief of the cavalry had not been so intent on displaying his increased force. He now had five cavalry Brigades of 9536 officers and men -- more than ever he had commanded. Lee must see them, Lee and all the young ladies of the Piedmont region of Virginia.

After May 20, when Stuart moved his headquarters from Orange to Culpeper, he set his staff to work on plans for such a pageant as the continent never had witnessed. The stage for it fairly thrust itself upon him: It was a long wide field in the vicinity of Brandy Station, between Culpeper and the Rappahannock. At the ideal site on this field was a hillock no craftsman could have excelled in the design of a reviewing stand. To complete perfection, the field was so close to the Orange and Alexandria Railroad that a halted train would offer seats for spectators. Stuart pitched his tents on nearby Fleetwood Hill, overlooking Brandy Station, to supervise everything, and he set June 5 as the date. Each staff officer must provide himself a new uniform and must see to it that mounts were flawless. A ball must be arranged in Culpeper the night before the review and, perhaps, another after the cavalry had shown its magnificence.

Preparation was repaid. From Charlottesville and from the nearer towns on the O. & A. came streams of guests. With Heros von Borcke as his aide, Ex-Secretary George W. Randolph of the War Department arrived to be Stuart's particular guest. Wagons and ambulances distributed beauty at every hospitable gate. All preliminaries were auspicious, though, to be sure, the ball on the evening of the 4th at the Court House was somewhat overpraised by a newspaper reporter as a "gay and dazzling scene, illuminated by floods of light from numerous chandeliers." Von Borcke, who never depreciated anything he planned or shared, reluctantly had to admit that "a few tallow candles" were all that challenged the darkness of the Court House.

By 8 o'clock on the bright morning of June 5, Stuart and his staff, in their new uniforms, started for Brandy Station. Heralded by buglers and welcomed by throngs, the cavalcade rode triumphantly upon the field. One disappointment there was, one only, but it was serious: the commanding General of the Army was concerned with some difficult matters of logistics and could not be present. For General Lee, of course, there was no substitute. Stuart made the best of this. With his staff he started down the front of a line of horses that extended for a mile and a half. On its flank were twenty-four of Beckham's guns, the famous rifles and Napoleons that had been Pelham's. As the reviewing party reached each Brigadier, he and his staff fell in behind. The cavalcade swept to the left flank and then, in regulation manner, rode the length of the line in rear.

It was to o'clock or after when Stuart wheeled from the right flank and took his position on the knoll, beneath a gallantly flying Confederate flag. Again the bugles sounded. The troopers farthest on Stuart's right moved out in columns of squadrons and passed at a walk. Then, when the cavalry had ridden the whole length of the front and had doubled back, the second "march past" began at the trot. A hundred yards from the reviewing stand, the men spurred to a gallop, drew sabres, raised the "rebel yell" and dashed by the admiring "Jeb" at a furious gait. On the ridge west of the branch, Beckham opened with blank charges as if to repel attack.

d

It was thrilling even to those who had seen those same squadrons yell and thunder past when shells were emptying saddles and the smell and smoke of battle were in the air. For the ladies, the gallop, the excitement, the foxhunters' call from nearly 10,000 throats were overwhelming. Those feminine spectators who had handsome male companions put their handkerchiefs to their eyes and swayed and gracefully swooned. It was observed, strangely enough, that those girls who had come with parents and those who were attended by awkward swains, did not faint, Every one went home to praise the cavalry and its commander. At night, there was another ball; but it was danced more comfortably, if less deftly, under the sparkling heavens, on the greensward, and to the crackling and pungency of great fires.

To the men in the ranks, unbidden to dances, the whole review was a bother. It was a bore even, except for that high moment when each soldier was approaching the stand furiously as if he were going to seize the fairest girl on the hill and bear her off across the pommel of his saddle. Officers, though more favored, had to admit that a long review and all the prologue and aftermath were enough of display. It was not, therefore, with responsive ears that officers heard these orders on the 7th: Prepare for review tomorrow by the commanding General on the same field at Brandy Station. Lee had arrived and wished to see in what condition were officers and men for the next hard adventure across the Potomac.

Had there been zest; there was not time for many invitations, The only one of record served the purpose of thousands. "Come and see the review," said Fitz Lee to John Hood and added politely, "and bring any of your people." On the 8th, perhaps before the commanding General appeared, Hood arrived -- with his entire Division. The Texan rode out and joined some of the cavalry officers. "You invited me and my 'people'," said Hood, with a laugh, "and you see I have brought them!"

Fitz Lee knew how jealous the infantry were of every man who had a mount of any description. In particular, at the moment, the jest-loving Fitz wished to make reservation concerning a favorite jibe by the foot soldiers at all evidence of poor horsemanship on the part of the cavalry. So, instantly, young Lee, in cheerful banter, answered Hood: "Well, don't let them halloo, 'Here's your mule!' at the review."

"If they do," laughed Wade Hampton, "we will charge you!"

Stuart now had the satisfaction of welcoming formally the notables he had missed at the first review. General Lee rode magnificently on the field. After him came Longstreet and the other leading figures of the First and Second Corps. Soon all were ready for the ride down the long, long line. A lively clip was set by the commanding General. It was not too brisk for "Jeb," of course, but it was unpleasant for General Pendleton and, no doubt, for all the awkward riders. When the cavalcade had gone down the front and back to the hillock, Stuart prepared to have his Brigades pass in review, but as he looked to his flank, he noticed that "Grumble" Jones's men were out of place. They were loitering as if they had been given "at ease." Quickly Stuart sent Lieut. Frank Robertson to ask why Jones was not in the saddle and on the alert for the movement of the Brigade next him. When Robertson arrived, he found "Grumble" lying comfortably on the ground as if a review was last and least of the concerns of the Laurel Brigade. Anger and reviling greeted the inquiry from Stuart, but as young Robertson rode off in silent wrath, he observed that "Boots and Saddles" was sounded promptly for Jones's men.

The review went well enough as far as it went. That is to say, Stuart could see that Lee observed keenly and proudly the marching squadrons, but there was no gallop, no yelling and no service of the guns. Lee forbade that. The horses needed their flesh, the gunners their powder. Let the march past be at a walk.

It was a vast show of strength to those who remembered the few mounted battalions that had fought at First Manassas; but m comparison with the display of the 5th, it was tame and, in at least one particular, it might have produced riotous...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Scribner
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2011
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1451627343
• ISBN 13: 9781451627343
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 912
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Van Ditmar Boeken, VDB Sales; sales@vanditmar.nl; ; Hondiuslaan 44; Utrecht; 3528 AB; Niederlande