Before approving McClellan’s plans for the Peninsula Campaign, U.S. president Abraham Lincoln insisted his general leave behind troops under Union general Irvin McDowell for the protection of Washington, D.C., as well as a possible strike against Richmond from the north. Stonewall Jackson’s soldiers in the Valley were charged with preventing McDowell from reinforcing McClellan, and toward that end, Jackson did his best to keep his army situated between McDowell and McClellan. In the meantime, Lincoln worried that it was dangerous for a Confederate force such as Jackson’s to roam free in the Shenandoah Valley, shaped as it is like a dart aimed at the U.S. capital. The president looked to General McDowell, and additional Union troops under Nathaniel P. Banks and John C. Frémont, to prevent Jackson from either attacking Washington or defending Richmond.
SUMMARY The Stonewall Brigade was a collection of five Virginia infantry regiments and an artillery battery in the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Trained and first led by Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, it was perhaps the most accomplished and certainly one of the most famous units of its kind in American military history. The brigade saw action in many of the bloodiest battles of the war, from First Manassas (1861) to Antietam (1862) to Gettysburg (1863) to Spotsylvania Court House (1864), losing only a single engagement under Jackson’s command but also losing more than 96 percent of its men by 1865.
By ALEX HORTON | The Washington Post | Published: March 11, 2021 It was early September 1864 when Confederate raider John Hunt Morgan, with a reputation among Southerners as a swashbuckling gentleman, was surrounded by federal soldiers outside a Tennessee mansion. Morgan fled across the lawn. A Union bullet shredded the general s heart, a member of his staff wrote to Morgan s wife, ending his campaign of ambushing and capturing U.S. troops. Nearly 160 years later, Morgan s legacy lives within 1st Battalion, 623rd Field Artillery Regiment of the Kentucky National Guard, which traces its lineage through a cavalry unit he commanded. Its members are officially nicknamed Morgan s Men. On the radio, the commander is known by the call sign Morgan 6.
Army continues to honor Confederate unit histories, even as base names draw scrutiny washingtonpost.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from washingtonpost.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
regiment – ten companies, commanded by a colonel
brigade – four to six regiments, commanded by a brigadier general
division – three to four brigades, commanded by a brigadier general or major general
corps – several divisions, commanded by a major general
army – several corps, commanded by a major general or lieutenant general
department – the bureaucratic overseer of armies in the field; Union departments were often, but not always, named for rivers, Confederate departments for states or regions.
Regiments were generally numbered and named for the state in which they were organized and from which most of their soldiers hailed (for example, 1st Virginia Infantry Regiment). Confederate brigades and divisions were generally named for their commanders, past or present (for example, the Stonewall Brigade), which often created confusing circumstances. During Pickett’s Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg (1863), Pickett’s division was commanded by George E. Pickett. Bu