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William Swinton, Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, chapter 6 (search)
eep gorge in the mountains, the crests of which on each side rise to the height of one thousand feet. The gap itself is unassailable; but there is a practicable road over the crest to the right of the pass, and another to the left. The key-point of the whole position is a rocky and precipitous peak which dominates the ridge to the right of the pass. With a considerable force this position is very defensible; but when the advance of the Union force reached the mountain, on the morning of the 14th, it was guarded only by D. H. Hill's division of five thousand men. Reno's corps arrived near the pass early in the forenoon; but that officer directed all his efforts to the assault of the crest on the left—the key-point being overlooked. After a sharp fight Reno succeeded in dislodging the Confederate brigade opposed to him, and established his troops on the first ridge, but was unable to push beyond. The Confederate brigade opposed to Reno was under General Garland, who was killed ear
William Swinton, Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, chapter 7 (search)
ntal equipoise essential for a commander in the difficult situation in which he found himself. He resolved to form the Ninth Corps (which he had himself formerly commanded) in a column of attack by regiments, and lead it in person to the assault of the heights. All the preparations had been completed, and the attack was about to be made when, moved by the urgent entreaties of General Sumner, Burnside desisted from his purpose. The troops, however, still lay on their arms during Sunday, the 14th, and Monday, the 15th, of December, and, during the night, in the midst of a violent storm, the army was withdrawn to the north side of the Rappahannock. General Lee, unaware of the extent of the disaster the Union army had suffered, hourly expecting a renewal of the attack, and deeming it inexpedient to expose his troops to the fire of the batteries on the north bank, refrained during all this time from assuming the offensive, Lee: Report of Fredericksburg in Reports of the Army of North
William Swinton, Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, chapter 9 (search)
e withdrew the remnant of his fore, with great skill and complete success. It will probably always remain one of those questions about which men will differ—whether General Meade should have attacked or refrained from attacking Lee at Williamsport. The adverse opinion of the corps-commanders will probably not be allowed to count for much, seeing it has passed into a notorious maxim that councils of war never fight. And it may fairly be said that as General Meade determined to attack on the 14th, against the opinion of his lieutenants, it would have been well had he done so on the 12th, without consulting their opinion. No new element was, in the interval, introduced into the problem, excepting that the strengthening of the position by the enemy rendered attack on the 14th much more difficult than it was on the 12th, and the delay would, therefore, appear to have resulted from hesitation and indecision in the mind of the commander, which under the circumstances must be accounted an
William Swinton, Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, chapter 10 (search)
-operate. Now, on the evening of the 13th, when Lee reached Warrenton, Warren reached Auburn, distant only five miles to the east, and there he bivouacked with his corps on the south side of Cedar Run. To cover his rear from attack from the direction of Warrenton, where Lee was that night (unknown to, but not unsuspected by Warren), Caldwell's division with three batteries The batteries of Captains Ricketts, Arnold, and Ames. was placed on the heights of Cedar Run. Before dawn of the 14th, while the head of Warren's column was under way crossing Cedar Run, Caldwell's troops lit camp fires on the hill-top to cook breakfast; and in this duty they were engaged when most unexpectedly a battery opened upon them from their rear and directly on the road prescribed for the movement of Warren's column towards Catlett's Station. Warren's Report. This attack, sufficiently bewildering to those upon whom it fell, will readily be understood in the light of the following rather amusing in
William Swinton, Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, chapter 11 (search)
of the long line. I shall in this note indicate some details of the action from day to day. May 13TH.—The battle of the 12th having ended in Lee's retirement to an inner and shorter line, it was resolved to attempt to turn his right flank. With this view, the Fifth Corps, during the night of the 13th, was ordered to march from its position on the extreme right, take post on the extreme left, to the left of Burnside's corps, and assault in conjunction with that corps at four A. M. on the 14th. The march was begun at ten P. M. The wet weather had, however, badly broken up the roads; and the night being one of Egyptian darkness, the move was made with immense difficulty. The route of march was past the Landrum House [see map] to the Ny River, which had to be waded. Across the Ny the route followed no road, but traversed the fields and a piece of woods where a track had been cut. Here, midway of the journey, a dense fog arose and covered the ground, so that not even the numerous f
William Swinton, Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, chapter 12 (search)
's corps was ferried across at Wilcox's Landing, and landed on the south bank at Windmill Point. During the night of the 14th, the ponton-bridge was laid across the James at Douthard's, a short distance below Hancock's point of passage. This brin an operation that had an important bearing on the campaign. Upon debarking at Bermuda Hundred during the night of the 14th, Smith's column was by General Butler put in motion to seize Petersburg, an abortive attempt to capture which had been maded by the cavalry division of Kautz and the division of colored troops under Hinks, Smith's force, during the night of the 14th, passed to the south side of the Appomattox on a ponton-bridge, and pushed forward, on the morning of the 15th, towards Pe re-enforced to meet this menace, and success was already very problematical. New dispositions were, however, made on the 14th. On the following day General Birney was directed to find the enemy's left flank and turn it, Gregg's cavalry covering th