Day 85. May 24, 1862.
85
a little swirl of bloody water….
May Saturday 24 1862
Very cool this morning. We had quite a shower last night and it is very cool some rain. I went down to Rapohannock River saw where they had burn two bridges the Rail Road and the pike bridge. The Rail Road Bridge is up and a Pontoon Bridge built over on 15 canal boats. I saw where the Virginia St Nicholas were burnt and one gun boat sunk and several boats burnt sail vessels. I came back some rain this evening or day. We have newformed into a new Brigade the 4th Shields Division the 7 Indiana 1st Virginia 84 & 110th Regt P.V. Our Brigade Gen Carroll* is our Gen. I was over at the Rapanhanoe River to get some fresh Herring but could not get any
*The men Ephraim fought with (& likely Ephraim himself) referred to themselves as “Sam Carroll’s men.” Samuel Sprigg “Red” Carroll (September 21, 1831-January 28, 1893). Maryland native, career officer who rose to Brigadier-General. He commanded the “Gibraltar Brigade” in the Army of the Potomac which was key to defending Cemetery Hill at Gettysburg and was key to defending Pickett’s Charge. On June 8 at Cross Keys Shields will send him ahead to secure the last bridge into Port Republic (the North Fork). He will dash (several accounts use this word) across it to plant two cannons, pitting his tiny force against Jackson’s overwhelming numbers, after which he will chase Jackson into the hills outside of town. He died at 61 of pneumonia; meanwhile, today he’s a mere 29 & commands the entire 4th Brigade of General Shields’ division. A brigade consists of 4,000 men, or four regiments, usually. See May 24, June 8 & 9 for more about Carroll.
The Civil War: The Story of the War With Maps M. David Detweiler P. 30
“By the last week of May, Jackson—joined up with Ewell in the Luray Valley—is in full complement, speeding north down the valley to Front Royal.
Frémont’s Union army looms in the west.
Shields’ Union division, out of the Valley and to the east making southeast for Fredericksburg (there to join McDowell’s Union force and head south to help McClellan), has to turn around and rush back to help try to stop the wizard tactician.
If the Union forces can converge and strike Jackson, he’s done for.
Giving himself, his commanders and troops scant chance for rest and repast, capitalizing on map knowledge furnished by the incomparable Southern cartographer Hotchkiss—every pass, gap, road, shortcut and concealment route detailed, and abetted by the Valley’s loyal Reb denizens, Stonewall mystifies and misdirects. His own overseers Johnston and Lee can’t be sure where Jackson is and what doing.”
Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson S.C. Gwynne P. 282-283
“At about nine o’clock on the cool, drizzly morning of May 24, Banks’s troops moved out. They were not quite aware yet that they were running for their lives, though this was exactly what they were doing. Ahead of them, already strung out for more than fifteen miles along the valley pike, was their enormous train of five hundred army wagons plus another two hundred civilian wagons of one sort or another. Some of the wagons that had left before dawn were already rolling into Winchester as Banks’s infantry started marching. With them, too, were large numbers of escaped slaves they had collected in their travels. Banks no longer commanded just an army but a vast assemblage of refugees and whatever assets they had managed to drag along with them. Many believed that Stonewall Jackson would kill them outright. All were terrified of being sent back to their masters. As one Connecticut soldier saw it, there were “half as many negroes as soldiers.” They, too, traveled with wagons, some of them almost comically overloaded with human cargo. All were headed to Winchester by a single road: the hard macadam of the valley pike. It was a curious exodus, a sort of dark, fearful version of the same army’s confident, triumphal march south in March and April.
Banks himself was deeply pessimistic. The way north was crossed in two places by main roads where his army and train could be intercepted. He had received reports that a Confederate army was already on its way to Winchester. His army could be sliced in half. Or he could arrive in Winchester only to find the town occupied by rebels. Either way, all or part of his army would be cut off. And of course he still believed that the main body of the Confederate army– the strange, aggressive Jackson himself– was very likely closing in on him from behind. Though he did not betray his emotions to his officers, Banks believed that he might not survive the day.”
Note: It is very doubtful that even if McClellan had been sent McDowell’s Corps he would have moved. He would have just asked for more troops. General McDowell receives Lincoln’s order to fall back, and McDowell wires back “This is a crushing blow to us.” Lincoln wires back immediately “The change was as painful to me as it can possibly be to you or any one.”
“May 24, 1862.
FROM WASHINGTON, 4 P.M.
MAJ.-GEN. GEO. B. McCLELLAN,
In consequence of General Banks’s critical position, I have been compelled to suspend General McDowell’s movements to join you. The enemy [under Stonewall Jackson] are making a desperate push upon Harper’s Ferry, and we are trying to throw General Frémont’s force and part of General McDowell’s in their rear.
A. LINCOLN,
PRESIDENT”
Note: Today General Banks will write what he figures to be his last lines to his wife, lines like Take care of our dear children. They are very fine creatures. It would be a pleasure to live if only to watch them; but life is not worth much. Banks will last until 1894, at 78. For now, he has six months to go until Lincoln asks him to raise 30,000 new recruits and award him command of the Army of the Gulf.
How the South Could Have Won the Civil War: The Fatal Errors That Led to Confederate Defeat Bevin Alexander P. 63-64
“When Banks at last acknowledged his jeopardy at around 10:00 A.M. on May 24, he realized that his eastern exit was closed and that retreat westward over the Alleghenies was impossible because of bad roads and inadequate supply routes. He therefore ordered an immediate withdrawal to Winchester, abandoning mountains of supplies.’
The Shenandoah Campaign of 1862 Edited by Gary Gallagher P. 57
“Yet considering Banks had been set upon by 16,000 men– more than twice the number of his dispersed force– and that of the 500 wagons he pushed northward toward the Potomac he lost only about 50 in the retreat, the idea that he managed his escape from Strasburg creditably does not seem so absurd. Banks lost two small battles and many supplies, but vastly outnumbered and in a weak position not of his choosing, he saved the bulk of his command.”
A Virginia Yankee in the Civil War The Diaries of David Hunter Strother David Hunter Strother P. 39-40
“MAY 24, SATURDAY.—Clouds and rain…. A strong reconnoissance of horse, foot, and artillery was ordered to advance to Cedarville and the fords opposite Front Royal. If this duty had been executed, we should have immediately known our position, but the troops sent, through timidity, utterly failed in their duty. They went down the road, heard a carbine fired, and retreated reporting that the enemy were in large force. The retrograde movement was commanded by starting all the trains toward Winchester. The troops followed and with them the staff. At Cedar Creek we were met by a wagon master at full speed and apparently terrified. The General questioned him and he informed us the head of the train was attacked and the enemy in force was formed across our road. Just ahead several field officers rode by confirming the tidings. This was a shock. I had to that moment been tenaciously incredulous of an enemy in our rear. This seemed proof positive; in fact, I saw a body of troops indicated as the enemy and waited to hear the opening cannon.
We rode forward at dead silence, each heart manning itself for the death struggle. We met wagons and mounted teamsters rushing furiously back while the main line of wagons stood in the road stopped and many of them deserted by their drivers. Still no firing was heard. I rode close to the General summing up our position. I had till this time stoutly denied the possibility of an enemy in our rear. I was mortified at the utter failure of my judgment. I saw little way for any of us but an honorable death, for which Ewell in our front, Jackson must of course be close in our rear. The desperate attempt to cut our way through was all that was left for us…. I saw the General’s countenance betokening this resolution. He said gravely, but kindly, “It seems we were mistaken in our calculation.” It seemed this sentence conveyed a rebuke for my positive incredulity. I merely bowed and replied, “It seems so.’”
The Shenandoah Campaign of 1862 Edited by Gary W. Gallagher P. 33-34
“The foot soldiers slogging in Jackson’s wake awoke to the success of their general and his campaign sooner than did the majority of their officers. The startling, thrilling onfall against the small Yankee garrison at Front Royal opened the eyes of Confederate musketeers to the purpose of the endless marching and lurking. Innocent of the considerations that still furrowed officers’ brows, the enlisted men decided that the Valley operations bid fair to be a rousing success. On the morning after Front Royal, Jackson’s troops enacted a scene that would soon become entirely routine but remained remarkable on May 24: “He [Jackson] took off his cap & galloped in the hot sun near 4 miles to pass us. What hollowering you never heard.” When the triumphant Confederates captured a wagon load of lemons from enemy sutlers’ stores, southerners gloated at drinking Yankee lemonade—and soon began talking of Jackson’s fondness for the acerbic fruit.
The Jackson legend crafted during a few weeks in the spring of 1862 was far too strong to be unhorsed by the general’s costly failures during the Seven Days battles around Richmond that followed immediately after the Valley. In the aftermath of that bad performance– the only one of Jackson’s career– popular opinion was inclined to blame Lee rather than the new Valley hero, entirely unfair though such a judgment was in relation to the facts of the case. When Stonewall’s troops found triumph after triumph in succeeding months, men on both sides came to savor or fear the appearance of Jackson, depending on their allegiances.”
Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson S.C. Gwynne P. 286-287
“That night, northerners ambush them when they make way up the Valley Pike toward Winchester, specifically the 2nd Mass. “…laid ambushes for them and contested their advance, setting up behind stone walls and opening up with brilliant muzzles flashes that lit up the night.” “Soldiers slept as they walked. Each time the army stopped, dozens simply collapsed.’”
Note: See May 25 for more on the 2nd Massachusetts. Ormand F. Nims (4th grandson of Godfrey Nims, my 10th grandfather was Captain of the 2nd Massachusetts Light Horse Artillery, otherwise known as “Nims Battery.”
Note: And then, this happens:
Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson S.C. Gwynne P. 299
“The sense of panic and dread increased on the southern bank of the Potomac that night, where a thousand campfires burned in the darkness. Teams and wagons, guns and caissons were jammed together and an exhausted army had to figure out how to cross a three-hundred-foot-wide river that was four to five feet deep and moving fast. They spent all night crossing. Men and horses drowned. But by the next morning the army was on the north side of the river.”
A Stillness at Appomattox Bruce Catton P. 323
“Talking things over, the veterans agreed that they had been a better, stronger army in 1862, when McClellan commanded, than they were now in 1864, under Grant. Yet they also agreed that if Grant had commanded in 1862 the war would have been won in that year, while if McClellan had commanded in 1864 “he would have ended the war in the Wilderness– by establishing the Confederacy.’”
A Stillness at Appomattox Bruce Catton P. 25
Note: Catton quotes a Massachusetts soldier as saying, “….the last set of recruits in whom the regiment felt any pride was a detail that came to camp in the fall of 1862.”
P. 28 Note: Northerners shoot own men who try to flee:
“A steamship transporting these recruits from New York or Boston to Virginia was usually a floating bedlam. The steamer’s civilian crew, more often than not, would be in league with the bounty-jumpers, and sometimes the officers likewise had been bribed, and whisky would be hidden in coal bunkers, in staterooms, hatches were usually battened down as soon as the vessel sailed, and the hold was jammed with desperate unwashed men, most of them seasick and the rest of them drunk, high-stake card games going on in the smoking light of swaying lanterns, bitter fights taking places as the more defenseless recruits were openly robbed. Some fairly important money would be involved, on these trips; a draft of a few hundred men each carrying his bounty might easily have a quarter of a million dollars in cash in its collective possession. Sometimes a group of these replacements would try to mutiny, and then the veterans with loaded muskets and fixed bayonets would go into action. When the steamers came up Chesapeake Bay or the Potomac, and land was not far away, men would spring from the decks to swim ashore, and at such times the guards would cooly fire, reload, and fire again until the swimmer sank out of sight in a little swirl of bloody water.”
Living Hell: The Dark Side of the Civil War Michael C.C. Adams P. 140
“Civilian desperation and official intransigence brought about a radical dislocation of civic relations, as noncombatants finally urged their men to desert. A provocative recent study argues the breakdown of the established order in the Confederacy represented a revolution in the political and social structure of the South, helping to bring about the downfall of the planter hegemony.
P. 130
In February 1863, General Henry W. Halleck, at Union headquarters in D.C., calculated that one-third of all military personnel were absent, some on furlough but most without permission. By 1864, Grant estimated that 80 percent of recruits never made it to the front. Many who did arrive, he told Meade, quickly surrendered: “The ease with which our men of late fall into the hands of the enemy would indicate that they are willing prisoners.” Confederates in the west began surrendering at least by Chattanooga, if not before. The hemorrhaging continued in all theaters. By May 1864, the Confederate Bureau of Conscription confessed it could no longer cope with the legions infesting the countryside; 10,000 had gone AWOL from Leonidas Polk’s command alone. Finally, the Rebel forces melted like snow. After Cedar Creek in the east and Franklin in the west, Southern armies simply disintegrated.”
Living Hell: The Dark Side of the Civil War Michael C.C. Adams P. 130-131
“By February 1863, General Henry W. Halleck, at Union headquarters in D.C., calculated that one-third of all military personnel were absent, some on furlough but most without permission. By 1864, Grant estimated that 80 percent of recruits never made it to the front. Many who did arrive, he told Meade, quickly surrendered: “The ease with which our men of late fall into the hands of the enemy would indicate that they are willing prisoners.” Confederates in the west began surrendering at least by Chattanooga, if not before. The hemorrhaging continued in all theaters. By May 1864, the Confederate Bureau of Conscription confessed it could no longer cope with the legions infesting the countryside; 10,000 had gone AWOL from Leonidas Polk’s command alone. Finally, the Rebel forces melted like snow. After Cedar Creek in the east and Franklin in the west, Southern armies simply disintegrated.
Authorities did what they could, inflicting carefully orchestrated rituals of humiliation and pain, grim theatricals to awe the troops. They lashed prisoners or branded them with the letter D. private Benjamin Jackson, 33rd Alabama, wrote from Tupelo, Mississippi, in July 1862, about one punishment parade” “I saw three men who, after their shirts were taken off, were tied to a post with their hands stretched as high as they could reach, were given thirty-nine lashes on their naked backs with a leather strap tacked onto a stick. After their beating, the left side of their head was shaved and they were drummed out of the service to the tune of ‘Yankee Doodle.’ It was a bad looking sight. They had deserted and gone home.
Increasingly, the punishment exacted became death by firing squad. As we have seen earlier, executions afforded grisly spectacles, open-air theaters of the macabre. There exist many descriptions of these occasions. Walt Whitman, for example, recorded the shooting of William Grover, a nineteen-year-old boy who ran after fighting through twelve battles had made him “simple.” The killing, adjudged Whitman in a telling phrase, appeared a “horrid sarcasm.’”
Note: I’ll say.
UNION PRISONERS SOUTH.
“Michael Stansbury, 48 years of age, a sea-faring man, a southerner by birth and raising, formerly captain of U. S. light ship Long Shoal, station’d at Long Shoal point, Pamlico sound—though a southerner, a firm Union man—was captur’d Feb. 17, 1863, and has been nearly two years in the Confederate prisons; was at one time order’d releas’d by Governor Vance, but a rebel officer re-arrested him; then sent on to Richmond for exchange—but instead of being exchanged was sent down (as a southern civilian, not a soldier,) to Salisbury, N. C., where he remain’d until lately, when he escap’d among the exchang’d by assuming the name of a dead soldier, and coming up via Wilmington with the rest. Was about sixteen months in Salisbury. Subsequent to October, ’64, there were about 11,000 Union prisoners in the stockade; about 100 of them southern unionists, 200 U. S. deserters. During the past winter 1500 of the prisoners, to save their lives, join’d the confederacy, on condition of being assign’d merely to guard duty. Out of the 11,000 not more than 2500 came out; 500 of these were pitiable, helpless wretches—the rest were in a condition to travel. There were often 60 dead bodies to be buried in the morning; the daily average would be about 40. The regular food was a meal of corn, the cob and husk ground together, and sometimes once a week a ration of sorghum molasses. A diminutive ration of meat might possibly come once a month, not oftener. In the stockade, containing the 11,000 men, there was a partial show of tents, not enough for 2000. A large proportion of the men lived in holes in the ground, in the utmost wretchedness. Some froze to death, others had their hands and feet frozen. The rebel guards would occasionally, and on the least pretense, fire into the prison from mere demonism and wantonness. All the horrors that can be named, starvation, lassitude, filth, vermin, despair, swift loss of self-respect, idiocy, insanity, and frequent murder, were there. Stansbury has a wife and child living in Newbern—has written to them from here—is in the U. S. light-house employ still—(had been home to Newbern to see his family, and on his return to the ship was captured in his boat.) Has seen men brought there to Salisbury as hearty as you ever see in your life—in a few weeks completely dead gone, much of it from thinking on their condition—hope all gone. Has himself a hard, strangely deaden’d kind of look, as of one chill’d for years in the cold and dark, where his good manly nature had no room to exercise itself.” Whitman Poetry and Prose Walt Whitman Penguin Putnam Inc. P. 746-747
Note: The commutation fee was, at first in the South, so expensive a man generally couldn’t pay to get out. Only later in the war could men get out. In the end, 160,000 present & accounted for Confederates on a muster roll of 359,000. 86,724 men paid 300 commutation to get out of war. 42,581 enlisted as substitutes for draftees. About 90k fled to Canada.
Forward to 1865:
THE GRAND REVIEW.
“For two days now the broad spaces of Pennsylvania avenue along to Treasury hill, and so by detour around to the President’s house, and so up to Georgetown, and across the aqueduct bridge, have been alive with a magnificent sight, the returning armies. In their wide ranks stretching clear across the Avenue, I watch them march or ride along, at a brisk pace, through two whole days—infantry, cavalry, artillery—some 200,000 men. Some days afterwards one or two other corps; and then, still afterwards, a good part of Sherman’s immense army, brought up from Charlestown, Savannah, &c.” Whitman Poetry and Prose Walt Whitman Penguin Putnam Inc. P. 769-770
Reid Ross www.historynet.com/civil-war-grand-review
(Excerpts)
“A few had obtained parts of new uniforms after their arrival at Goldsboro, N.C., but some refused to wear them. If their old clothes were good enough to wear to Washington, they were good enough for the parade. “Their uniforms looked dingy [as if] the smoke of numberless battlefields had dyed their garments, and the soil of insurrectionary states had adhered to them,” remembered the 123rd’s Sgt. Rice C. Bull. They had brushed, mended and washed their mudsplattered, tattered, and for some, bullet-pierced, uniforms in the Potomac, polished their buttons, blackened what was left of their shoes, burnished their leather straps, and cleaned and polished their cartridge boxes, rifles, and bayonets until they glistened.
“Our guns, which were our pride and joy, could not have looked better,” Bull observed.
Brig. Gen. John D. Geary, commander of the XX Corps’ 2nd Division purchased, with his own money, white gloves for his men.
Many in Sherman’s army were convinced they had done more to end the rebellion than the Army of the Potomac while it was trying to capture Richmond. They had taken Chattanooga, Vicksburg, Atlanta, New Orleans and Savannah, and made it possible for the Mississippi to flow “unvexed to the sea,” as Lincoln put it. They had also freed hundreds of thousands of slaves in Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia and the Carolinas.
Nobody in Sherman’s army slept the night before its parade began. The last two days had been spent furiously preparing for their review. They knew that the uniforms of the “Easterners” from Meade’s army would far outshine theirs. The pants, shirts and jackets of the “Potomacs” were newer, and they wore shiny shoes and buttons, paper collars and white gloves. In contrast, the Westerners were mostly a ragtag mob of unkempt ruffians. Some had floppy caps of wool or straw that looked like empty flour sacks, while others wore black slouch hats like Sherman’s. Still others were bareheaded and barefooted. “I think it is a shame that the government does not pay off Sherman’s army so that the officers can appear [decent] for the Review,” an embarrassed Capt. George I. Robinson of the 123rd New York Infantry wrote his wife on the day they arrived in Arlington.
At midnight, the soldiers ate breakfast of hardtack and coffee, still on short rations. They were called into marching order at 2 a.m. The 123rd New York led its brigade, which in turn led the XX Corps and Slocum’s Army of Georgia. Each man marched with his blanket roll over his right shoulder and two days’ cooked rations in his haversack at his left hip.
By 6 a.m., they halted at the Long Bridge spanning the Potomac, about three miles from their Arlington camp. The weather was pleasant; the trees in Lafayette Square were leafing out. As sergeants issued orders, they marched by company across Long Bridge and along Maryland Avenue on the eastern side of the C&O Canal, gaping at the just-completed Capitol dome in the distance. They assembled in rutted side streets around the Capitol grounds, the dust settled by recent rain.
At 9 A.M., while church clocks chimed, an artillery piece was fired. Sherman’s 60,000 men, accompanied by 14 artillery batteries, uncoiled from around the Capitol like a gigantic 15-mile-long python. At the front of each company were its tallest men, with veterans as left and right guides for each company. Sherman led the parade, accompanied by Howard, an ardent abolitionist who recently had been named head of Lincoln’s newly formed Freedmen’s Bureau. With his empty right sleeve pinned to his jacket, Howard guided his horse with his left hand.
Looking straight ahead and taut with pride, “Uncle Billy” rode slowly and calmly like a Roman emperor on Lexington, his favorite horse, both of them bedecked with flowers. He adjusted the stiff-brimmed hat, part of his unfamiliar new uniform. A New York World reporter claimed the cheering was “greater than the day before…the whole assemblage waved and shouted, as if each was his personal friend….Sherman was the idol of the day.”
Government clerks sat on the Treasury Building roof. Boys perched in trees and on lampposts waved handkerchiefs and flags. By the parade’s start, the crowd lined the street 8 to 12 feet deep, waving miniature flags and shouting, “Sherman, Sherman!” Those with curb tickets were allowed to pass through the line of guards holding back the rest of the crowd. The troops marched under blue skies with light, white clouds, moderate temperatures and a cool breeze.
One reporter wrote that a large number of those who came to witness the Army of the Potomac’s review on the first day stayed over to witness Sherman’s “rough-necked cowboys” on May 24, helping to make the second day’s audience even bigger. Jam-packed as they were, the visitors remained “gay and jovial, ignoring all vexations. Good feelings were aided by the recent, cooling rains and breezes.”
As Sherman passed Lafayette Square on his dark bay, followed by his staff and escort, he recognized and saluted Secretary of State William H. Seward standing at the window of Blair House. Seward, still feeble from the severe wound he received the night of Lincoln’s assassination, returned the gesture.
At the reviewing stand, Sherman saluted with his sword as the band played the popular new song “Marching Through Georgia” in his honor. Everyone in the presidential stand acknowledged his salute by taking off their hats, rising to their feet and cheering. He then dismounted and entered the stand with Howard.
Sherman greeted his wife and son, and shook hands with the president and Grant. Next in line was Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton with his round, whiskered and expressionless face. Sherman, still smarting over Stanton’s interference in his surrender negotiations with Joe Johnston, stiffened as Stanton extended his hand and looked coldly past him long enough to make evident his insult—then moved past to shake hands with the other Cabinet members. Convinced Stanton had wanted to ruin his reputation, Sherman nursed his resentment for years. But on this day, he remained in the stand to review his troops.
The stage-struck country boys of Sherman’s army marched 20 abreast, as straight as tightened twine from curbstone to curbstone. Those who had watched the “White Collar galoots” march the day before knew they were “no great shakes at marching.” Each brigade marched to its own band, some looking like “moving flower gardens,” covered with bouquets the crowd had tossed to them. The troops marched in perfect cadence as each guided left to keep exact alignment. Only a single footfall was heard as boots and bare feet struck the cobblestone pavement in unison.
“The marching was hard on our feet,” one soldier wrote, but “the march had to be in stile [sic].” The interval between companies was maintained with precision as they passed the reviewing stand with long elastic strides, their polished guns at right shoulder shift. There was power and confidence in that long stride, as if they were lords of the world. “We couldn’t look at the reviewing stand,” one private remembered. “If Lincoln had been there, I’m afraid our line would have broken up.”
The spectators and reporters who stayed over on the second day consistently noted that Sherman’s “Wolves” were taller, they looked older and stronger, and their marching stride was several inches longer. Their beards and hair were untrimmed. But even Meade’s officers conceded that Sherman’s men marched better, and their faces were more intelligent, self-reliant and determined. Overall, Sherman’s “slouch hats” overtopped the Easterners in their physical appearance and soldierly bearing.
Spectators also wondered why the soldiers did not seem excited, but marched with an easy, satisfied nonchalance—though with some exceptions. When a shout of “Hurrah for Ohio” came from a group of Buckeyes, or a regimental colonel would call three cheers for the president or Grant, their facial expressions showed instant animation and enthusiasm as dirty caps were tossed by brawny arms and wild whoops as loud as Niagara Falls rent the air. Yet not one in 50 of Sherman’s men would cast his eyes at the adoring audience.
It was noon before the Army of Georgia began its march around the Capitol onto Pennsylvania Avenue, with a tremendous roar of welcome from the crowd. Slocum’s staff followed in a single line that stretched across the avenue. Behind the staff, Slocum’s escort was led by Lt. Walter F. Martin of the 123rd New York. He had been captured on the skirmish line during Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign, escaping twice with the assistance of slaves. After returning to the regiment in Atlanta, Martin refused an offer of leave so he could participate in Sherman’s March to the Sea.
The XX Corps led off, looking even better, some of its men believed, than any other corps. “An army like that could whip the world,” observed the Prussian ambassador. Former Ohio Sen. Tom Corwin concluded, “They marched like lords of the world.”
Brig. Gen. H.A. Barnum of Syracuse, commander of the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Division, XX Corps, was roundly cheered. In his first battle, he was left on the field, dying. But he recovered to fight four more battles before he was wounded again. When he arrived in Washington for the review, he brought 35 enemy flags that his men had captured.
Apprehension finally overcame Sherman as the column of troops turned right to pass the Treasury Building. He glanced once over his shoulder to see how well his men were aligned, noting how the “glittering muskets [with fixed bayonets] looked like a solid mass of polished steel swinging with the regularity of a pendulum.” His eyes were wet. The sight, he said, was the most satisfying moment of his life. They were his war-torn warriors, at their best fighting weight and strength.
The crowds had cheered and wept for the more than six hours it took Sherman’s army to complete the review. Not a soul departed. None seemed weary of gazing at the troops. Sherman stood for the entire review. Spectators who had been glued to the spectacle lingered after it was over. Sherman, with his wife and son, did not leave until 4:30 p.m., after the last of the pack mules and their riders were out of sight. Then the street and fire departments took on the task of cleaning up the aromatic manure from thousands of horses.”
Note: Toni Morrison: “Language can never live up to life once & for all. Nor should it; language can never “pin down” slavery, genocide, war. Nor should it yearn for the arrogance to be able to do so. Its force, its felicity is in its reach toward the ineffable.”
Note: As noted on P. 667 of The Battle Cry of Freedom, an estimated 300,000 Union soldiers deserted; 2/3rds of all deserters were on the Union side. The South executed 147 men during the war for desertion. Deserters would fake being deserters to go to the other side to give false information, and these occurrences affected entire campaigns.
Note: 1861: Union officer Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth shot dead while taking down a Confederate flag from the roof of the Marshall House Inn in Alexandria, VA. “Remember Ellsworth” is a rallying cry you can still spot occasionally on a bumper sticker. The man who shot Ellsworth was bayonetted right after he shot him. Ellsworth was a friend of the Lincolns, & his death sparked new levels of outrage in the U.S. Lincoln wrote his mother, “….a boy only, his power to command men, was surprisingly great.” The National Park Service reenactment of Lincoln’s train trip to D.C. includes an actor playing Elmer Ellsworth.
Lincoln Day by Day: A Chronology 1809-1865 Volume III: 1861-1865 C. Percy Powell P. 43
“May 24, 1861: Learning of tragedy through War Dept. telegram, Lincoln weeps openly over death of young friend, Col. Ellsworth, shot by proprietor of Marshall House in Alexandria, Va., for removing Confederate flag flying over building. Calls cabinet meeting at noon to discuss incident. Drives with Mrs. Lincoln to Navy Yard to view Ellsworth’s body. Receives reporter and Sen. Wilson (Mass.) at White house, but excuses himself as unable to talk.”
fresh Herring but could not get any….
The men dive down. The men make it down to water then they shoot them. They shoot them dead on the spot. And they’re going around in the same direction. While they’re all out tromping circles with the hand-held on the set of the Blair Witch Project, driving the men to their last nerve, Gary W. Gallagher will later call the last week of May the “most dramatically charged of the war.” The Valley Campaign! That the North was in the best position to win the war, in the best position ever. Jackson in a come-hither pose looking over his shoulder, Jack when he exits & all McClellan’s got’s a jackknife. Skip forward two years & it’s come down to shooting men like rats bailing out of a sinking ship. Summary executions. Coldly intent on doing it.
Today, 2022, Uvalde, Texas, Robb Elementary.
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