Gettysburg Page 2

  Lee resigned from the United States Army on April 20, and accepted command of the Virginia state forces three days later. He wrote to his sister, “With all my devotion to the Union, and the feeling of loyalty and duty of an American citizen, I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relative, my children, my home. I have, therefore, resigned my commission in the Army, and save in defense of my native State (with the sincere hope that my poor services may never be needed) I hope I may never be called upon to draw my sword.”

  Upon the formation of the Confederate States Army, Lee was promoted to one of its five full generals. A year later, Lee was given command of the Army of Northern Virginia on June 1, 1862, during the fighting against George McClellan’s invasion of the peninsula. In the months that followed, Lee would prove more than a match for a succession of Union generals ordered south to try to capture Richmond.

  An aide to Jefferson Davis once said that “Lee is audacity personified.” The Gettysburg campaign was in every way an extension of Lee’s character as a man of action. By the summer of 1863, the Army of Northern Virginia was at its strongest. Lee must have known that the tide of war would soon crush the Confederacy. He believed the attack into Pennsylvania was their best hope for winning independence while the South retained the initiative to make such a campaign.

  Robert E. Lee, around age thirty-eight, and his son, William Henry Fitzhugh Lee, around age eight. Photo credit: Encyclopedia Virginia.

  Lee had every faith in his men and officers. He wrote of his soldiers before Gettysburg, “There never were such men—in any army before and there never can be better in any army again. If properly led, they will go anywhere and never falter at the work before them.” Lee’s belief in his men was central to his thinking when he ordered Pickett’s Charge on July 3, at Gettysburg. His iron will could not accept the possibility of defeat on such a crucial field of battle.

  When Lee surrendered to General Grant at Virginia’s Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865, they both set a tone for the reconciliation between the states that followed. Lee had refused the desire of many Confederate officers to disband the army and fight a guerrilla war against the federal government. Grant, in turn, gave Lee the most generous terms of surrender possible, allowing his troops to return to their homes. Lee also welcomed the end of slavery saying, “So far from engaging in a war to perpetuate slavery, I am rejoiced that slavery is abolished. I believe it will be greatly for the interests of the South.”

  Lee was revered by his soldiers more than any other American officer in history. An eyewitness to the surrender at Appomattox recorded, “When, after his interview with Grant, General Lee again appeared, a shout of welcome instinctively ran through the army. But, instantly recollecting the sad occasion that brought him before them, their shouts sank into silence, every hat was raised, and the bronzed faces of the thousands of grim warriors were bathed with tears. As he rode slowly along the lines, hundreds of his devoted veterans pressed around the noble chief, trying to take his hand, touch his person, or even lay a hand upon his horse, thus exhibiting for him their great affection.”

  After the war, Lee would go on to great achievements in peace, accepting an offer to serve as the president of Washington College in Lexington, Virginia. Whatever his private misgivings were about the federal government he publicly supported reconciliation with the North and signed an oath of allegiance to the United States. Lee also appealed to President Johnson for an amnesty and pardon for his role in taking up arms against the government. His pardon was not granted until 1975 by President Gerald Ford.

  Lee passed away on October 12, 1870, at the age of sixty-three in Lexington, Virginia. Over the years, Lee’s memory became honored by both sides as a great general, a man of principle, and a man who, in the end, proved he was as equally great in the service of peace as in war. In 1874, Benjamin Harvey Hill described Lee as “... a foe without hate; a friend without treachery; a soldier without cruelty; a victor without oppression, and a victim without murmuring. He was a public officer without vices; a private citizen without wrong; a neighbor without reproach; a Christian without hypocrisy, and a man without guile. He was a Caesar, without his ambition; Frederick, without his tyranny; Napoleon, without his selfishness, and Washington, without his reward.”

  At the request of General Scott, Lincoln approved offering Lee command of the Union Army at the start of the war, but Lee knew that the army Lincoln was forming would be ordered into the southern states to put down the current rebellion. It would require that he turn against the people of his native state of Virginia. Lee decided this was something he could not do, so he resigned his commission in the United States Army and returned home.

  Writing to his sister on April 20, 1861, Lee explained: “With all my devotion to the Union, and the feeling of loyalty and duty of an American citizen, I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relative, my children, my home. I have, therefore, resigned my commission in the Army, and save in defense of my native State (with the sincere hope that my poor services may never be needed) I hope I may never be called upon to draw my sword.” Three days after writing this letter, Lee accepted command of the military forces of Virginia. Within months he was promoted to one of only five full generals in the newly formed Confederate States Army.

  Lee’s first opportunity to lead an army in the field came a year later, in June 1862. Union General George McClellan had landed the massive Federal army on the Virginia peninsula and was advancing toward Richmond. Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston, commanding the Army of Northern Virginia, was wounded in the early fighting and Lee was given command. Seizing the initiative, Lee attacked in what became known as the Battle of Seven Days, forcing McClellan’s army back to the coast, where they eventually retreated to Maryland.

  “General Lee is, almost without exception, the handsomest man of his age I ever saw. He is fifty-six years old, tall, broad shouldered, very well made, well set up—a thorough soldier in appearance; and his manners are most courteous and full of dignity. He is a perfect gentleman in every respect. I imagine no man has so few enemies, or is so universally esteemed. Throughout the South, all agree in pronouncing him to be as near perfection as a man can be. He has none of the small vices, such as smoking, drinking, chewing, or swearing, and his bitterest enemy never accused him of any of the greater ones. He generally wears a well worn long gray jacket, a high black felt hat, and blue trousers tucked into his Wellington boots. I never saw him carry arms.”

  —Colonel Arthur James Lyon Fremantle

  President Lincoln meets with General McClettan after the Battle of Antietam, October 3, 1862. Photo credit: Ahxander Gardner, Library of Congress.

  McClellans defeat was a humiliating setback for Lincoln’s war effort and a significant victory for Lee. The troops under his command realized they had a brilliant and daring general leading them, and they began calling him “Marse Lee”—a reference of respect as master. Over the next twelve months, three decisive Confederate victories were achieved under Lee’s command: Second Manassas, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville.

  Major General George B. McClellan. Photo credit: Matthew Brady.

  In September 1862, Lee took his army into Maryland on his first invasion of the North. McClellan’s Army of the Potomac attacked them at Antietam in what became the bloodiest day in American history. Lee’s army fought with their backs to the Potomac River, crushing the Union assaults against their lines. Both sides suffered terrible losses, and Lee pulled his army back across the river into Virginia to safety. Lee’s daring and tactical skill saved his army from defeat, but their retreat to Virginia allowed Lincoln to claim this as a major Union victory.

  Even with Lee’s impressive victories, the war approached disaster for the Confederacy by 1863. The Union had seized control of the Upper Mississippi in February 1862, took key forts in Tennessee, and won a defensive battle at Shiloh. And much further to the south, Union forces had captured New Orleans
in May 1862, cutting off the Mississippi to foreign trade and depriving the Confederacy of her most vital port.

  By the summer of 1863, Grant was leading a siege against the fortress city of Vicksburg in Mississippi, defended by 30,000 Confederate soldiers. If Grant were to take this major river city, the entire Mississippi river would fall under Union control, splitting the Confederacy in two. The strength of the Union army and northern industry was growing stronger while the Confederacy weakened. Every battle, victorious or not, cost the South thousands of men that could not be replaced. Time, it seemed, was running out for the South. Their only route to victory lay on the battlefield—so all eyes looked now to General Lee to deliver that victory, the one general who repeatedly crushed the Union armies sent to invade Virginia.

  Major General Ulysses S. Grant. Photo credit: Matthew Brady.

  ... Nothing gave me much concern so long as I knew that General Lee was in command. I am sure there can never have been an army with more supreme confidence in its commander than that army had in General Lee. We looked forward to victory under him as confidently as to successive sunrises.

  —Colonel Edward Porter Alexander

  Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America. Photo credit: National Archives.

  Lee’s plan was to move the Army of Northern Virginia north through the Blue Mountains using Major General J. E. B. Stuart’s cavalry to screen their movements from the enemy. Once he crossed the Potomac River into Maryland, Lee would take his army into Pennsylvania, where they could “live off the enemy’s land” and capture much-needed supplies. By threatening to occupy Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania, Lee hoped to draw the Army of the Potomac out of Virginia and into the open fields where it could be decisively attacked. A major victory over the Army of the Potomac would likely draw Union forces away from the southern states, win foreign recognition, and even force Lincoln to the peace table.

  Lee had every confidence in his men and in his own ability to defeat the enemy. Writing after his victory at Chancellorsville, Lee noted, “There never were such men—in any army before and there never can be better in any army again. If properly led, they will go anywhere and never falter at the work before them.” An aide to President Jefferson Davis commented that “Lee is audacity personified.” Lee now staked that reputation in an all-out campaign to bring the war to an end by invading the North.

  Map by Hal Jespersen, www.cwmaps.com.

  OPENING MOVES—THE BATTLE FOR BRANDY STATION

  On June 3, 1863, Lee’s army slipped away from their defenses at Fredericksburg and moved northwest toward Culpeper, intending to cross the Rappahannock River and enter the Shenandoah Valley. Two days later, Major General Joseph Hooker, commanding the Army of the Potomac, received intelligence that Lee’s forces were on the move. He telegraphed a message to his superiors in Washington, proposing an attack on Lee’s defenses at Fredericksburg and then to move on to Richmond. President Lincoln immediately replied, “If Lee would come to my side of the river, I would keep on the same side, and fight him or act on the defense ... Lee’s army, and not Richmond, is your sure objective point.”

  Major General James Ewell Brown “Jeb” Stuart. Photo credit: George S. Cook, National Archives.

  Major General Joseph Hooker. Photo credit: Matthew Brady, Library of Congress.

  During those first weeks of June, Lee’s army was protected from Union view behind a screen of cavalry commanded by Major General J. E. B. Stuart. In an effort to break through and gain information on Lee’s intentions, on June 9, General Hooker sent his own cavalry to make a surprise attack on Stuart’s camps across the Rappahan-nock River at Brandy Station. In what became one of the largest cavalry battles in U.S. history, Hooker’s effort almost succeeded. Stuart and his command were caught off guard by the dawn attack, but skillfully rallied a defense. By dusk, the Union cavalry was compelled to withdraw north of the river, thus giving the Confederates a tactical victory.

  Stuart claimed a victory, but the Richmond newspapers criticized his leadership. The Richmond Enquirer wrote that “General Stuart has suffered no little in public estimation by the late enterprises of the enemy.” The Richmond Examiner described Stuart’s command as “puffed up cavalry,” that suffered the “consequences of negligence and bad management.” Stuart was considered by many as the Confederacy’s most brilliant cavalry leader and a national hero, so such harsh words cut him deeply. And this wounding of his pride would have dire consequences for the Pennsylvania campaign in the coming weeks.

  Chapter Two

  The Armies March Toward Pennsylvania

  On crossing the Potomac, the army appears

  to be morally transformed...

  —Régis de Trobriand

  The Army of the Potomac began leaving their camps at Fredericksburg on June 13, marching north toward ?Ü. Frederick, Maryland, to shadow Lee’s army. Thus began a long twenty-seven-day march in blazing hot weather for two massive armies seeking battle. The morale on both sides was high as all men knew the stakes of losing this fight. George T. Stevens, a surgeon in the 77th New York Volunteers, recalled, “The men were eager, notwithstanding their comfortable quarters, for active campaigning. The health and spirits of the soldiers of the corps had never been better, and in spite of the failure at Chancellors -ville, they felt a great deal of confidence. So the order to move was received with pleasure, and we turned away from our pleasant camps willingly.”

  The following day, Lee’s Second Corps, under the command of Lieutenant General Richard S. Ewell, attacked the Federal garrison at Winchester, Virginia, capturing 4,000 prisoners, scores of supply wagons, horses, hundreds of rifles, and twenty-eight cannons. With the Confederate army now well supplied, the road north lay wide open for Lee’s invasion. Ewell ordered his cavalry brigade into Pennsylvania as far north as Cham-bersburg. He wanted the faster moving mounted troops ahead of his corps to help raid and capture supplies.

  Lieutenant General Richard Stoddert Ewell. Photo credit: National Archives.

  Among the fallen from the battle at Winchester was Union Corporal Johnston “Jack” Skelly, a Gettysburg native. Mortally wounded, he wrote a farewell note to his fiancée back home—Mary Virginia Wade. By a stroke of good luck he met a close friend just before he died, Private Wesley Culp, another Gettysburg resident who volunteered for the Confederacy. Wesley had gone to school with both Jack and Mary. When he came across Jack at a field hospital the wounded soldier gave him a note to pass on to Mary.

  “Ewell is rather a remarkable looking old soldier, with a bald head, a prominent nose, and rather a haggard, sickly face; having so lately lost his leg above the knee, he is still a complete cripple, and falls off his horse occasionally.”

  —Colonel Arthur James Lyon Fremantle

  Corporal Johnston “Jack” Skelly

  Mary Virginia “Ginnie” Wade

  The loss at Winchester stunned the North, and Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin raised the call for 50,000 volunteers to defend the state against the Southern army’s move north. Tillie Pierce wrote about Gettysburg’s home grown militia: “I remember one evening in particular, when quite a number of them had assembled to guard the town that night against an attack from the enemy. They were ‘armed to the teeth’ with old, rusty guns and swords, pitchforks, shovels and pick-axes. Their falling into line, the maneuvers, the commands given and not heeded, would have done a veteran’s heart good.”

  Private Wesley Culp

  Lieutenant Colonel Rufus Dawes

  The Union veterans Tillie envisioned were at the moment setting out for Maryland and then Pennsylvania to confront Lee’s army. Colonel Rufus Dawes was commander of the 6th Wisconsin, one of five regiments of the elite “Iron Brigade.” In a letter to his fiancée on June 15, he wrote: “We are to march this morning positively. I think the whole army is going, for the order is from General Hooker ... The regiment will go out strong in health and cheerful in spirit, and determined always to sustain its glorious history. It h
as been my ardent ambition to lead it through one campaign, and now the indications are that my opportunity has come.”

  EWELL’S SECOND CORPS CROSSES THE POTOMAC

  On June 15, Ewell led his Second Corps across the Potomac River near Hagerstown, Maryland. His was the first Confederate corps to enter Pennsylvania a week later on the 22nd. Over the next week they marched through Greencastle to Chambersburg, then east to Gettysburg, where Tillie Pierce saw them for the first time, and northward to York County. Ewell’s corps wanted to be in position for Lee to threaten Harrisburg, the state capital. Along the way, Ewell’s troops levied towns for supplies of all kinds—food for the troops and horses for the cavalry. They took lots of property, even though Lee had ordered that nothing was to be seized or destroyed by his men outside the direct needs of the army. The order was quietly ignored by the hungry soldiers, but for an invading army, they took no revenge against the northern civilians—no homes were burned or families harmed.

  Many of those who lost property in the wake of Lee’s invasion fared better than civilians in the South, who had suffered during Federal occupation. At Fredericksburg in December 1862, undisciplined Union troops had pillaged the town. As the Army of the Potomac left Virginia to pursue Lee that summer of 1863, they left behind a countryside devastated by war.

  The southerners were impressed by the Pennsylvania country through which they were marching. Summer was in full bloom with fields of waving wheat, orchards laden with ripe fruits, and quiet pastures of cattle beside the huge red barns of the Pennsylvania Dutch. Cavalryman James H. Hodam recalled, “The cherry crop was immense through this part of the state, and the great trees often overhung the highway laden with ripened fruit. The infantry would break off great branches and devour the cherries as they marched along.”