Military Reminiscences of the Civil War, vol 1 (April 1861-November 1863) | Page 3

Address to the Army--Orders to march across the
mountains--Discussion of them--Changed to route by water and
rail--Ninety-mile march--Logistics--Arriving in Washington--Two
regiments reach Pope--Two sent to Manassas--Jackson captures
Manassas--Railway broken--McClellan at Alexandria--Engagement at
Bull Run Bridge--Ordered to Upton's Hill--Covering
Washington--Listening to the Bull Run battle--Ill news travels fast.
CHAPTER XII
RETREAT WITHIN THE LINES--REORGANIZATION--HALLECK
AND HIS SUBORDINATES
McClellan's visits to my position--Riding the lines--Discussing the past
campaign--The withdrawal from the James--Prophecy--McClellan and
the soldiers--He is in command of the defences--Intricacy of official
relations--Reorganization begun--Pope's army marches through our
works--Meeting of McClellan and Pope--Pope's characteristics--Undue
depreciation of him--The situation when Halleck was made
General-in-Chief--Pope's part in it--Reasons for dislike on the part of
the Potomac Army--McClellan's secret service--Deceptive information
of the enemy's force--Information from prisoners and citizens--Effects
of McClellan's illusion as to Lee's strength--Halleck's previous
career--Did he intend to take command in the field?--His abdication of
the field command--The necessity for a union of forces in
Virginia--McClellan's inaction was Lee's opportunity--Slow transfer of
the Army of the Potomac--Halleck burdened with subordinate's
work--Burnside twice declines the command--It is given to
McClellan--Pope relieved--Other changes in
organization--Consolidation--New campaign begun.
CHAPTER XIII

SOUTH MOUNTAIN
March through Washington--Reporting to Burnside--The Ninth
Corps--Burnside's personal qualities--To Leesboro--Straggling--Lee's
army at Frederick--Our deliberate advance--Reno at New Market--The
march past--Reno and Hayes--Camp gossip--Occupation of
Frederick--Affair with Hampton's cavalry--Crossing Catoctin
Mountain--The valley and South Mountain--Lee's order
found--Division of his army--Jackson at Harper's Ferry--Supporting
Pleasonton's reconnoissance--Meeting Colonel Moor--An involuntary
warning--Kanawha Division's advance--Opening of the
battle--Carrying the mountain crest--The morning fight--Lull at
noon--Arrival of supports--Battle renewed--Final success--Death of
Reno--Hooker's battle on the right--His report--Burnside's
comments--Franklin's engagement at Crampton's Gap.
CHAPTER XIV
ANTIETAM: PRELIMINARY MOVEMENTS
Lee's plan of invasion--Changed by McClellan's advance--The position
at Sharpsburg--Our routes of march--At the Antietam--McClellan
reconnoitring--Lee striving to concentrate--Our delays--Tuesday's
quiet--Hooker's evening march--The Ninth Corps command--Changing
our positions--McClellan's plan of battle--Hooker's evening
skirmish--Mansfield goes to support Hooker--Confederate
positions--Jackson arrives--McLaws and Walker reach the field--Their
places.
CHAPTER XV
ANTIETAM: THE FIGHT ON THE RIGHT
Hooker astir early--The field near the Dunker Church--Artillery
combat--Positions of Hooker's divisions--Rocky ledges in the
woods--Advance of Doubleday through Miller's orchard and
garden--Enemy's fire from West Wood--They rush for Gibbon's

battery--Repulse--Advance of Patrick's brigade--Fierce fighting along
the turnpike--Ricketts's division in the East Wood--Fresh effort of
Meade's division in the centre--A lull in the battle--Mansfield's corps
reaches the field--Conflicting opinions as to the hour--Mansfield
killed--Command devolves on Williams--Advance through East
Wood--Hooker wounded--Meade in command of the corps--It
withdraws--Greene's division reaches the Dunker Church--Crawford's
in the East Wood--Terrible effects on the Confederates--Sumner's corps
coming up--Its formation--It moves on the Dunker Church from the
east--Divergence of the divisions--Sedgwick's passes to right of
Greene--Attacked in flank and broken--Rallying at the Poffenberger
hill--Twelfth Corps hanging on near the church--Advance of French's
division--Richardson follows later--Bloody Lane reached--The Piper
house--Franklin's corps arrives--Charge of Irwin's brigade.
CHAPTER XVI
ANTIETAM: THE FIGHT ON THE LEFT
Ninth Corps positions near Antietam Creek--Rodman's division at
lower ford--Sturgis's at the bridge--Burnside's headquarters on the
field--View from his place of the battle on the right--French's fight--An
exploding caisson--Our orders to attack--The hour--Crisis of the
battle--Discussion of the sequence of events--The Burnside
bridge--Exposed approach--Enfiladed by enemy's artillery--Disposition
of enemy's troops--His position very strong--Importance of Rodman's
movement by the ford--The fight at the bridge--Repulse--Fresh
efforts--Tactics of the assault--Success--Formation on further
bank--Bringing up ammunition--Willcox relieves Sturgis--The latter
now in support--Advance against Sharpsburg--Fierce combat--Edge of
the town reached--Rodman's advance on the left--A. P. Hill's
Confederate division arrives from Harper's Ferry--Attacks Rodman's
flank--A raw regiment breaks--The line retires--Sturgis comes into the
gap--Defensive position taken and held--Enemy's assaults
repulsed--Troops sleeping on their arms--McClellan's reserve--Other
troops not used--McClellan's idea of Lee's force and plans--Lee's
retreat--The terrible casualty lists.

CHAPTER XVII
McCLELLAN AND POLITICS--HIS REMOVAL AND ITS CAUSE
Meeting Colonel Key--His changes of opinion--His relations to
McClellan--Governor Dennison's influence--McClellan's attitude
toward Lincoln--Burnside's position--The Harrison Landing
letter--Compared with Lincoln's views--Probable intent of the
letter--Incident at McClellan's headquarters--John W.
Garrett--Emancipation Proclamation--An after-dinner discussion of
it--Contrary influences--Frank advice--Burnside and John
Cochrane--General Order 163--Lincoln's visit to camp--Riding the
field--A review--Lincoln's desire for continuing the
campaign--McClellan's hesitation--His tactics of discussion--His
exaggeration of difficulties--Effect on his army--Disillusion a slow
process--Lee's army not better than Johnston's--Work done by our
Western army--Difference in morale--An army rarely bolder than its
leader--Correspondence between Halleck and McClellan--Lincoln's
remarkable letter on the campaign--The army moves on November
2--Lee regains the line covering Richmond--McClellan
relieved--Burnside in command.
CHAPTER XVIII
PERSONAL RELATIONS OF McCLELLAN, BURNSIDE, AND
PORTER
Intimacy of McClellan and Burnside--Private letters in the official
files--Burnside's mediation--His self-forgetful devotion--The
movement to join Pope--Burnside forwards Porter's dispatches--His
double refusal of the command--McClellan suspends the organization
of wings--His relations to Porter--Lincoln's letter on the
subject--Fault-finding with Burnside--Whose work?--Burnside's
appearance and bearing in the field.
CHAPTER XIX

RETURN TO WEST VIRGINIA
Ordered to the Kanawha valley again--An unwelcome
surprise--Reasons for the order--Reporting to Halleck at
Washington--Affairs in the Kanawha in September--Lightburn's
positions--Enemy under Loring advances--Affair at Fayette C.
H.--Lightburn