Transcripts For CSPAN3 The Civil War 1864 Shenandoah Valley

Him as an upandcoming young historian in 2004, when he was on our History Panel when we study the 1864 Valley Campaign early that year. He returned to us in 2007, when we studied the second manassas campaign, and again in 2009, when we studied the 1862 Valley Campaign. In 2012, he was with us for a look at the 1863 battle of chancellorsville, and in 2013, when we studied the prelude to gettysburg, the armies moved north. Scott has written numerous articles and books. The forgotten fury, the battle in 1996,nt, published shenandoah summer, the 1864 Valley Campaign, published by the university of North Carolina press in 2009, second manassas, long street attack, published by the potomac press in 2011, and also that year, the battle of piedmont and hunters raid on staten, published by the history press, and in 2013, the last battle of winchester. And sheraton, jubal early, the 1864 shenandoah Valley Campaign, published by bd. In addition to his articles and books, he served for 10 years on the board for the Battle Association and served twice as the president of the soul ar civil war roundtable. Scott has worked with the Shenandoah Valley foundation on updating, and frankly, correcting the battlefield interpretation of the third winchester battlefield. For now, over 600 battles, acres of battlefield have been saved thanks to the good work of the Shenandoah Valley Battlefield Foundation and the civil war trust. An accomplishment that has virtually saved an entire battlefield from certain destruction. Scott has recently completed the editing of the journal of union kernel, a Division Commander and general george crookes eighth corps, which was in service under the army of the sherman donna, shenandoah. He was third leader in the battle of winchester. Scott tells me he is now completing a volume on the battle of jonesboro and shermans capture of atlanta. We look forward to the publication. He is not only an accomplished battlefield guide, but also knows his way around the revolutionary war sites from new york to georgia. We are truly lucky to have him with us on sunday. Let us welcome scott as he tells us about a shenandoah summer from the perspective of the united states. Scott patchin. [applause] scott good evening and thank you for having me back here. It is always a pleasure to be speaking to the Heritage Association here in middleburg. On the morning of july 14, 1864, as the first rays of the sun came through in the eastern horizon, the tired men of the army of the Valley District splashed into the cool waters of the Potomac River and crossed over at whites ferry. The army would spend the next 36 hours resting near big spring north of leesburg, virginia. It had been a Hard Campaign with a lot of hard marching on extremely hot days during the march to washington, d. C. , and the return back to the old dominion. One north carolinians later wrote, if the old gentleman did marches very hard, and if we did say some emphatic things about him at the time when the hot sun was overcoming this, we beg his pardon because he is the only man who has ever given sap get the dome of the yankee capital. Jubal early indeed was a unique personality. I have a couple of anecdotal stories. We will hear a lot about him throughout the weekend. We heard some already. A couple of stories will sum up the type of guy he was. One time during the shenandoah Valley Campaign in 1864 when a group of the Senior Officers were all sitting around and a a lot of these Staff Officers came from prominent virginia families. They refer to their families as f. F. V. The first families of virginia. While early is from kentucky, he was asking these families what f. F. V. s . All these what happened to the second families of virginia . One chimed into jubal early, they moved to kentucky. [laughter] late 1864, early 80s exceed five, jubal early, not known for being a churchgoer, attended a service with a staff officer. Outside of the church was a large graveyard, and as part of the sermon that day, the pastor asked a rhetorical question to the congregation and says, what would you do if the lord came down right now and he raised every man in that graveyard up from the dead . He leans over and he thinks he is whispering into the ear of the staff officer, but he is speaking so everyone else in the church can here and he says, i would constrict every damn one of them into the army. All jubal was certainly a character. One thing i want to say about him, when he was highly motivated to serve robert e lee, and when that commission he was on, he was at his best. Early was 1864, jubal at the pinnacle of his career as a commander in the army of northern virginia. Now, this man pictured on the screen now is Major General Horatio Wright, commander of the six core, placed in command of the troops who had come to washington to save it from his capture. When he slips away from washington on the night of july writes says it takes 21 hours before he can take his troops there almost a full day, so early will have an easy time with the exception of rearguard action. Horatio wright will not only have the sixth floor, but he will have the vanguard of the 19th army corps, which was supposed to go from louisiana to petersburg but was diverted up to washington because of the crisis induced by jubal earlys invasion. Time,t that point in Horatio Wright is going to pursue him out to the Potomac River. He is going to arrive on the maryland side of the potomac on the morning of july 16. Find jubale, he will early has already begun to retreat from leesburg. He islizes that potentially in a dangerous situation. Marquette alluded to hunters failed Lynchburg Campaign and what had happened was after they were forced to retreat in the mountains of West Virginia, he will show up in western maryland about the 13th and 14th, and he will be in position coming up around Harpers Ferry and martinsburg, which is above it but off the map, so there will be a large union force of about 14,000 union men approaching early from the west at the same time that Horatio Wright will have a force that will ultimately get up to 15,000 men moving on early, pursuing him out of washington, d. C. Most people do not realize how close of a thing it is at jubal early will escape. On the 16th of july, Major General george crook, this man pictured here, is placed in command of the troops from West Virginias army. That is hunters force, moving in from the west. Hes going to have 8000 men stationed around hillsboro, virginia. His job is to intercept the retreat of the army. He is going to send calvary south, about 500 men, south from hillsborough. He is going to hit the center of jubal earlys retreating column. They will capture and burn about 50 wagons and teamsters before a general comes up drives out the union raiders. I just wanted to show you how close a run it was that you were early escaped. One of the things that is often lost to history is the reason that early is able to escape and doesnt have the entire army blocking his path, the rivers in West Virginia were at low water. When they were treated in that direction, they thought they were going to be able to take riverboats and get on the railroad and the back in time to confront the threat. However, Mother Nature helped the confederacy at that time and cost them several days. It is because of that that jubal early will slip by. At this point, Horatio Wright would have been content to stay on the east bank and head back to washington. His orders were to ensure that the confederate were in full retreat. And to make a Good Campaign of it. Wright just heard get back as quickly as you can to petersburg. But Horatio Wright was a dutiful soldier. When he learned that crook was out with 8000 men going against early with 16,000 men, he would probably crosses force over on the they would unite on the 17th 16th. , and together, the forces would begin advancing toward the stickers cap. On the 17th, crook would send of calvary under the command general alfred, and they would t isover that the for blocked by john gordons division of infantry. And the federals are going nowhere. So they are going to wait until the next day and report back to Horatio Wright who was the overall commander. Wright is going to formulate a plan. George crook is going to take the lead. His orders are to cross the river and attack the enemy if practicable. And then the sixth corps and the rest of the army would follow suit. George crook the next morning writes back to his Department Commander, general hunter, at Harpers Ferry, and tells him i am going to attack enemy. There are no if practicals in george crooks communication. I hasten to say that if it werent for crooks presence, i dont think there would have been much in the way of any military action that would have come out of the pursuit of jubal early. On the 18th, the cavalry is isiving and the calvary already in position, and him and general Horatio Wright will study the layout of the confederate position from high they willluff and conclude, well, the confederates have a strong force in position here at the Shenandoah River crossing, but i think what we should do is march our troops under cover of the bluffs northward about two miles, cross ford, at at island dead center of the map, and once our troops are on the west bank of the Shenandoah River, they south andto head back take john b. Gordons division and its northern flank, drive it away, clear the crossing of the Shenandoah River and the rest of Horatio Wrights army will cross the river and pursue early and attack him as the opportunity persists. Such was the plan. Such was the plan. As we know, plans on the battlefield seldom last once the reality of the situation hits. George crook would place this flanking force of about 5000 men total under the command of a medical doctor from West Virginia. He started the war as a surgeon in the first West Virginia infantry. When it reorganized for the duration of the war later in 1861, he was selected to be the colonel of the regiment. Under hunters command, he would leave his brigade in an attack that broke through the confederate lines at piedmont in a battle that led the way to opening up lynchburg. Is quite an experienced combat officer. July 18, 1864, is his first opportunity as a Division Commander in crooks army. He will make the most of it. And he will find himself with one of the most challenging days of his military life. When he gets down to the river, he is going to get to the River Crossing at 3 30. Hes going to get his troops across. Right away he realizes that he , is getting reports in from skirmishers and scouts that theres large federal Confederate Forces coming into position all around him. He halts any further advance and begins positioning his troops on the bluff immediately in front of the Shenandoah River. He sends a courier back to Horatio Wright and george crook saying this plan is not going as expected i dont have a clear to snickers ferry. I am blocked in by a division approaching from the west and there are dust clouds off to the north which seem to indicate that a large confederate force is moving toward my northern flank. This courier quickly takes the information back to george crook at his headquarters overlooking snickers ferry. And crook is alarmed. He turns to Horatio Wright and asks him for permission to withdraw the division back to the east bank of the river. Horatio wright says no, im going to reinforce him with rick gates division. That division had just come to the gap and its going to be more than an hour to 1. 5 hours before he is going to arrive on the scene of the battle. Before that can happen, all fury is going to be unleashed on the division. His right flank is going to be attacked by a division of 3500 men strong. It will be smashed. Unfortunately, manning that they were 1000 dismounted cavalry men. They were composed of hodgepodge units and individual men from every regiment in the cavalry corps. They had been sent up to washington, d. C. , as a unit and armed as infantrymen and they broke at the first fire and retreat back across the river in confusion. His entire force is going to be knocked into a position along the riverbank. Theyre going to fall back after taking heavy losses. Theyre going to be in a sunken e path forwas a tot boats. At the top of that road was a stonewall so they had a readymade earthwork. Behind them on the east bank are going to be several batteries of Union Artillery that are going to preclude largescale troop movements by reinforcements and an attempt to move forward. Rhodess men will attempt to charge down and drive him into the river. But they will hold out until darkness. He will leapfrog his troops across the river in darkness, leaving the regiment on the island, and sending another one back across until finally his entire army is safely on the other bank. Now im going to come back and talk about general James Ricketts and george crook. Etts arrives on the scene he is going to find , everything in confusion. The men are coming back across the river in confusion. He has to make a tough military decision. From a military perspective, what was there to gain by taking his 3000 men attempting to cross the river in the face of not only the retreating fugitive but the gunfire of roads men on the west bank . Nothing. Nothing could be saved except that he would get caught up in the confusion. He makes the hard decision. Crook is furious. Crook wanted to pull him back initially and he was told by wright that ricketts would go and help him. He appeals to wright to overrule understoodut wright the situation. The men caught never for gave ricketts for not coming to their aid. It would be something that crook held a bitterness toward the six ps until the day he died. The day after this battle which men theh sides 400 , fight along the riverbank was all that was a clear tactical victory, those men held out until darkness and put an end to the fighting. They had a moral victory that they always relished as they grew older and went to their reunions. The next day, the action is going to shift nine miles to the south as the crow flies. Wright is going to send his calvary to break through the confederate lines where route 50 goes through ashbys gap and crosses the Shenandoah River. Ufia would meet with no Better Success to the south. He would be met by those brigades in that action. At this point, the campaign if its starting to end. Early is feeling pressure from ashby on the southern flank. From the north, hunter is starting to send troops down threatening the flank and rear. He has a brigade under future president rutherford b. Hayes that on the 19th will move south. Brigades moving south towards rutherfords farm on the 19th. Jubal early is feeling the pressure on both his flanks and the rear of his army when he is stationed at berryville. He realizes that to stay there with this gathering large union army approaching nearly 30,000 men strong is a risky business. He decides right then and there that on the night of the 19th of july, he is going to begin a retreat 20 miles to fishers hill slightly off the map in the lefthand corner. Jubal early is going to send one division. The commander will go to winchester. He is an aggressive young tar heel and he has only been a Division Commander for a couple of months. He had a rather costly incident that cost him hundreds of men killed and wounded. Early, knowing of his impetuosity, gives him strict orders to take position in the northern defenses of winchester. Do not go out looking for a fight. Your job is to cover the withdrawal of the wounded men and supplies from the warehouses in the town of winchester. He gets a from the cavalry that there is a small force of federals coming down the pipe toward winchester. Letsvalry convinces him go wife these guys out. He has another 4000 or 4500 cavalry and artillery under his command. The other who is moving southward only has 2000 men. The odds are in his favor. Be that as it may, he goes out against orders, and as he is deploying his troops to attack, he hits the left flank of the line and that is pretty much all she wrote. His men will be ratcheted from the battlefield. They will lose nearly 400 men killed, wounded, and captured. This was the only success that the union had in their pursuit of jubal early. Early rides north toward winchester when he hears of the disaster. One of the commands under him was jubal earlys old brigade and they were mad as when its. Hornets. And they say dont blame us, the other is to blame. A number of the soldiers choked afterwards. They talked about this battle. One virginia cavalryman who was part of the confederate force wrote in his memoirs, he s