A Want of Vigilance: The Bristoe Station Campaign, October 9-19, 1863: The Bristoe Station Campaign, October 9–19, 1863 (Emerging Civil War) - Softcover

Backus, Bill; Orrison, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1611213002 ISBN 13: 9781611213003

Verlag: Savas Beatie, 2015

Inhaltsangabe

"The months after Gettysburg had hardly been quiet—filled with skirmishes, cavalry clashes, and plenty of marching. Nonetheless, Union commander Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade had yet to come to serious blows with his Confederate counterpart, Gen. Robert E. Lee.“Lee is undoubtedly bullying you,” one of Meade’s superiors goaded.Lee’s army—severely bloodied at Gettysburg—did not have quite the offensive capability it once possessed, yet Lee’s aggressive nature could not be quelled. He looked for the chance to strike out at Meade.In mid-October, 1863, both men shifted their armies into motion. Each surprised the other. Quickly, Meade found himself racing northward for safety along the Orange & Alexandria Railroad, with Lee charging up the rail line behind him.Last stop: Bristoe Station.Authors Robert Orrison and Bill Backus have worked at the Bristoe Station battlefield, which is now surrounded by one of the fastest-growing parts of Virginia. In A Want of Vigilance, they trace the campaign from the armies’ camps around Orange and Culpeper northwest through the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and along the vital railroad—to Centreville and back—in a back-and-forth game of cat and mouse: the “goggle-eyed snapping turtle” versus “the old gray fox” pitted against each other in one of the most overlooked periods of the war."

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Rob Orrison and Bill Backus both researched and led the interpretation for the Bristoe Station battlefield. Bill currently works as a historian at a 19th century historic site in Northern Virginia.

Rob Orrison and Bill Backus both researched and led the interpretation for the Bristoe Station battlefield. Rob, a contributor to Emerging Civil War, has been working in the history field for more than 20 years. He currently oversees day-to-day operations of municipal historic site program in Virginia.

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A Want of Vigilance

The Bristoe Station Campaign, October 9-19, 1863

By Bill Backus

Savas Beatie LLC

Copyright © 2015 Bill Backus and Robert Orrison
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-61121-300-3

Contents

Acknowledgments, 
Touring the Battlefields, 
Foreword by J. Michael Miller, 
Prologue, 
Chapter One: The Campaign, 
Chapter Two: This Month Won't Pass Away Without a Battle, 
Chapter Three: "A Wild and Exciting Scene", 
Chapter Four: "Lee is Unquestionably Bullying You", 
Chapter Five: The Battle of Auburn, 
Chapter Six: The Approach to Bristoe, 
Chapter Seven: The Battle of Bristoe Station, 
Chapter Eight: The Battle of Bristoe Station, Part II: "Bury These Poor Men", 
Chapter Nine: The Battle of Buckland Mills, 
Conclusion: "We Never Blushed Before", 
Appendix A: "Bury These Poor Men" — Lee and Hill at Bristoe Station by Bill Backus, 
Appendix B: The Adventure-filled Reconnaissance of the 1st Maine Cavalry by John R. Tole, 
Appendix C: "Miserable, Miserable Management": The Battles of Rappahannock Station and Kelly's Ford by Michael Block, 
Appendix D: "A Handsome Little Fight": The First Battle at Bristoe Station by Jay Greevy, 
Appendix E: Remembering the Fall of '63 by Chris Mackowski, 
Appendix F: Chronology of Bristoe Station Preservation Efforts, 
Order of Battle, 
Suggested Reading, 
About the Authors, 

CHAPTER 1

The Campaign

OCTOBER 1863

Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee climbed Clarks' Mountain in central Virginia and looked over the large Federal army before him. This was not the first time during the war Lee had looked out from the popular Confederate signal post, but this time was different. Five months previous, his trusted "right arm," Lt. Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, was mortally wounded at Chancellorsville. His "war horse," Lt. Gen. James Longstreet, was now with Gen. Braxton Bragg in northern Georgia and had contributed to the Confederate victory at Chickamauga. His two present corps commanders, Lt. Gen. Richard Ewell and Lt. Gen. A. P. Hill, were proven division commanders, but had been less than ideal at the corps level.

Also, his army was different. The spring and summer campaign that had been full of so much promise had ended on the fields of Gettysburg in early July. The Army of Northern Virginia suffered heavy losses in men and especially in leaders. Times had been so tough after Gettysburg that Lee offered his resignation to Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Lee's health was also weakened (and historians now know he probably suffered a mild heart attack that summer).

With all of this on his mind, Lee looked out over the Army of the Potomac in Culpeper County, determined to find a way to retake the initiative. Lee believed victory could only be achieved if the Confederates held the initiative. Lee made his intentions known to President Davis, stating, "If General Meade does not move, I wish to attack him."

The Federal army that Lee looked over was also not the same Army of the Potomac it had been at Gettysburg. In victory, they had suffered heavily as well, and many of its recent reinforcements were new draftees and substitutes of questionable quality. Maj. General George Meade, new to command at Gettysburg, was still trying to prove himself to his direct superior, Maj. Gen. Henry Halleck, and to the Lincoln administration. After Gettysburg, Meade had frustrated his superiors with his perceived lack of aggression in pursuing the retreating Confederates.

With the Confederate victory in northern Georgia at Chickamauga, Meade was forced to send two of his corps west. On September 24, the XI and XII corps, totaling 18,00 men, were shipped away. Many of the men remaining with Meade were recent conscripts, and no one knew how they would perform. Both sides had worn-out cavalry, with broken mounts and weary riders. This cavalry would play a significant role in the upcoming campaign.

While the Union war effort was buoyed by the multiple victories in the summer of 1863, resentment of the Lincoln administration's handling of the war still simmered in the Northern electorate. The Federal draft was met with resistance all over the North, with the most famous being the New York City draft riots. On top of this, the anti-war Copperhead movement was gaining such support that the Democratic nominee for governor in Ohio, Clement Vallandigham, was campaigning in exile in Canada after being thrown out of the country for his strong anti-Lincoln views. While Vallandigham was the most prominent member of the anti-war faction running for office that fall, he was not the only one. Horatio Seymour was running for the governorship of New York on an anti-Lincoln platform as well. With anti-war sentiment consolidating in time for the fall elections, the Union war effort could still be defeated militarily if the Confederate army could convince Northern voters that the Southerners would continue to fight.

Knowing the importance of a fall campaign, Meade, ever cautious, felt pressure to move against Lee in Virginia so Lee could not reinforce Bragg's army in the west at Chattanooga. Though Lee's army was reduced by one corps, Meade still believed Lee's army numbered nearly 70,000 — he had no way to know Lee's returns on September 30 only showed 55,000 men present — while Meade's Army of the Potomac still held a numeral advantage at 76,000.

Meade's inaction in Culpeper that fall led Lee to seize the initiative and determine if he could outwit his adversary.

The strategy Lee envisioned was one not much different from a strategy the Federals would use the following summer: Lee wanted Confederate forces in the east to move in concert. Movements on the various fronts would then keep the enemy from reinforcing threatened points.

Lee sought permission from Jefferson Davis to conduct the campaign. With Longstreet and Bragg keeping the Federals busy in Tennessee, Lee wrote later that he wanted to "prevent [Meade] from detaching reinforcements to Rosecrans."

Lee also knew that Meade had lost two of his corps and so believed now was the best time to strike. He was still outnumbered, but that had never been a hindrance for the aggressive commander before.

Meeting with his commanders and staff, he began formulating his overall campaign strategy.

* * *

The army Lee sought to strike was spread out along the northern bank of the Rapidan River from Germanna Ford in the east to Rapidan Station and then along the northern bank of the Robertson River, a branch of the Rapidan. Meade's headquarters were at the Wallach house in Culpeper with signal stations at Mount Pony, Cedar Mountain, and Thorofare Mountain.

To Meade's advantage, the Federals recently broken the Confederate semaphore code and were able to read all the Confederate communications via their signal stations. With cavalry covering his flanks, Meade began using his horsemen to probe for weaknesses in the Confederate lines. Meade was still receiving pressure from Washington to attack Lee and planned to make an offensive of his own.

The Army of the Potomac consisted of five infantry corps with a very different command structure since the summer. The I Corps was commanded by Maj. Gen. John Newton, who replaced the popular John Reynolds, killed at Gettysburg. Newton was unproven at corps command. The II Corps also had a new commander, Maj. Gen. Gouverneur Warren, made famous at Gettysburg for his reconnaissance at Little Round Top. Warren...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Savas Beatie
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2015
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1611213002
• ISBN 13: 9781611213003
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 192
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar