Confederate Army

Confederate Generals Hill and Heth Doubt Pettigrew’s Report

/ sandramervillehart / 2 Comments

Confederate First Lieutenant Louis G. Young, aide to Brigadier General James J. Pettigrew, accompanied his commander on reconnaissance on June 30, 1863. They planned to search Gettysburg for shoes and other army supplies.

Major General Henry Heth, Pettigrew’s Division commander, ordered him not to attack any portion of the Army of the Potomac. If he encountered a home guard, he could drive them away easily.

While on his way to Gettysburg, a spy of General Longstreet’s warned Pettigrew that Brigadier General John Buford’s Federal cavalry division held the town.

Pettigrew sent a message to General Heth requesting instructions. Heth reiterated his previous orders yet expressed doubt that the Army of the Potomac was in the area. Pettigrew withdrew.

He left Young, his aide, and Lieutenant Walter H. Robertson in the rear to watch Buford’s Cavalry, who followed their retreat from a distance.

Young easily watched them follow on the rolling countryside. The two officers hid on ridges where they could see and not be seen until the Union cavalry was 300 to 400 yards away. Then the pair rode into the open. Union troops halted until the Confederate soldiers rode away before following again.

This happened several times. Both sides observed the other without attacking.

Pettigrew reported what he’d seen to Heth and to Lieutenant General A.P. Hill, the corps commander. Neither believed that their enemy was nearby in force.

They called in Young to question him. He verified that the troops he saw were well-trained.

They didn’t believe him either.

The two generals’ disbelief was so emphatic that Young doubted any of the other commanders believed Pettigrew—including General Archer, who led Heth’s Division with his Tennessee Brigade to Gettysburg the following morning, July 1st.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

Gragg, Rod. The Illustrated Gettysburg Reader: An Eyewitness History of The Civil War’s Greatest Battle, Regnery History, 2013.

 

This Week in History: Civil War Battle of Franklin

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battle-197727_960_720

Wednesday, November 30, 1864

 Jacob Cox led Union soldiers under General Schofield south of Franklin, Tennessee, around dawn where they set up a line of defense as well as along the Harpeth River. Federals wanted to hold the city long enough to repair bridges for crossing.

Confederate General John Bell Hood resolved not to allow the Federals to reach Nashville. He arrived with 30,000 troops around 4 pm and launched an assault on the Union front. Though they almost broke through, the Southerners took heavy losses.

Some of the whole war’s bloodiest fighting happened at the Carter House. Tragically, Confederate soldier Tod Carter was fatally wounded in the frontal assault and died in his childhood home.

The battle that raged well past nightfall claimed the lives of 6 Confederate generals, including Pat Cleburne, tragic losses for the Southerners.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

Long, E.B with Long, Barbara. The Civil War Day by Day: An Almanac 1861-1865, A Da Capo Paperback, 1971.

“Franklin,” Civil War Trust, 2016/08/04 http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/franklin.html.

 

Siege of Chattanooga

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Beautiful view of the Tennessee River and Chattanooga from Point Park on Lookout Mountain

Beautiful view of the Tennessee River and Chattanooga from Point Park on Lookout Mountain

After the Confederates won the Battle of Chickamauga in September of 1863, Union generals anticipated an attack in Chattanooga. Those not working to build up fortifications waited in lines of battle to ward off an attack.

Another major battle didn’t come though some fighting erupted as the two armies met again. Southern soldiers took up positions on Missionary Ridge, which rose to about six hundred feet and formed a wall on the east side of Chattanooga. On the west side of the valley stood the impressive Lookout Mountain. Union General Rosecrans withdrew his troops from this mountain on September twenty-fourth.

Confederate cannons at Point Park Lookout Mountain with a view of Chattanooga and the Tennessee River in the background

Confederate cannons at Point Park Lookout Mountain with a view of Chattanooga and the Tennessee River in the background

The Confederate Army immediately occupied the dominant mountain that rose over two thousand feet above sea level. The southerners placed sharpshooters and artillery along the Tennessee River valley.

This blocked the flow of supplies to the Union Army in Chattanooga and placed them under siege.

Union soldiers waited anxiously for a truce to retrieve the wounded from Chickamauga and bury the dead. Confederate General Bragg allowed Union General Rosecrans to send ambulances and hospital supplies to the thousands of Northern wounded. These ambulance wagons crossed into Confederate lines where southern soldiers took over, picked up the wounded, and returned them as paroled prisoners of war.

Those who stood guard on the picket lines of both sides agreed not to fire on each other. This truce brought about socializing between the soldiers of both lines. They began trading coffee and tobacco or swapping newspapers. Soldiers crossed picket lines to play cards together, building tentative friendships that couldn’t last.

biscuit-crackers-973915_960_720Union supplies dwindled. Soldiers received half-rations of food. They built fortifications and worked harder than normal, but no one received sufficient food. This affected the animals. Mules and horses, so important in moving artillery and supply wagons, started dying by the dozens.

When the food was cut to quarter-rations, many wondered if they would all starve to death in Tennessee. Men lost too much weight to be healthy.

Ipresident-391121_960_720n mid-October, leaders in Washington combined the Departments of the Ohio, the Tennessee, and the Cumberland into the Military Division of the Mississippi and chose General Ulysses S. Grant to command it. Rosecrans was relieved of his command. Maybe Grant could unlock the siege and open supply lines.

IMG_0127After Union troops captured Brown’s Ferry, a supply route to provide food opened. The soldiers called it the “Cracker Line” for the hard squares of bread known as hard tack, a staple in their diet. A few days later, jubilant soldiers drew full rations. Only after stomachs were satisfied did some realize their dire circumstances. Before the shipment arrived, only four boxes of hard tack remained in the commissary warehouses.

Only then did they realize how close to starving the Union Army had come.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

Korn, Jerry. The Fight for Chattanooga: Chickamauga to Missionary Ridge, Time-Life Books, 1985.

Sword, Wiley. Mountains Touched with Fire: Chattanooga Besieged, 1863, St. Martin’s Press, 1995.

Woodworth, Steven E. Six Armies in Tennessee: The Chickamauga and Chattanooga Campaigns, University of Nebraska Press, 1998.

 

 

 

Battle of Chickamauga

/ sandramervillehart
At the Chickamauga Battlefield Visitor Center

At the Chickamauga Battlefield Visitor Center

In the second week of September, 1863, the Ninety-ninth Ohio regiment marched with the Twenty-first Army Corps under the leadership of Major General Thomas L. Crittenden into Chattanooga after the Confederate Army, under General Braxton Bragg, evacuated without firing a shot.

Crittenden secured the town with troops before heading south to Georgia.

By Sunday, September 13th, the corps reached the area of Lee & Gordon’s Mills, a two-story white building on the Chickamauga Creek.

When fighting started on Saturday, September 19, Major General George H. Thomas’ Fourteenth Corps and Major General Alexander McCook’s Twentieth Corps were also in the Union’s line of defense. A Reserve Corps under Major General Gordon Granger waited to be called if needed. All these army corps made up the Army of the Cumberland with Major General William S. Rosecrans in charge.

The Ninety-ninth Ohio infantry was part of Brigadier General Van Cleve’s division. Divisions were divided into brigades and Colonel Sidney M. Barnes led the brigade for the Ohio regiment.

The woods where the Battle of Chickamauga was fought

The woods where the Battle of Chickamauga was fought

The amount of activity on the Confederate line showed that a large force waited to meet the Union Army in the coming battle. Most realized it would be a fierce fight before the first shot fired.

Confederate soldiers attacked the Union line where the Ninety-ninth Ohio laid waiting under the command of Colonel Swaine. Though unprepared for the swiftness of the assault, their training took over. When Union troops began retreating behind his regiment, Colonel Swaine ordered his men to lie flat until the soldiers in blue passed them.

Wooded terrain around the Battle of Chickamauga

Wooded terrain around the Battle of Chickamauga

Then Swaine ordered an advance. Brave men leaped to their feet to obey the command despite the muskets aimed at them. They checked the Confederate advance as the two sides peppered one another with lead.

Fighting went against them when they were flanked on the right. Swaine ordered his men to fall back to the La Fayette Road. Bullets and cannon fire came in such rapid succession in several areas of the battlefield that it made one continuous uproar. Smoke and the smell of gunpowder surrounded them.

Darkness ended the day’s fighting though gunfire continued on the picket line from those assigned to guard the troops.

landscape-1259711_960_720The night turned bitterly cold. Campfires to make coffee were forbidden as the light would give away their position and make them a target.

The worst part of the long, frosty night for most soldiers was listening to the cries of the wounded that lay between the opposing lines.

Ambulance wheels ambled near to pick up wounded. Artillery creaked to new locations. Troops repositioned. No one slept much.

civil-186719_960_720The next day’s fighting intensified. When the Southerners broke through a gap in the Union line, panic sent the northern army retreating in mass confusion. The withdrawal eventually led to Chattanooga.

The last of the Union soldiers finally reached Chattanooga on September twenty-second. There had been so much confusion during the retreat that many soldiers didn’t find their regiments until reaching town.

The huge battle fought near the Chickamauga Creek in Georgia was a decisive win for the Confederates.

-Sandra Merville Hart

 

Sources

Korn, Jerry. The Fight for Chattanooga: Chickamauga to Missionary Ridge, Time-Life Books, 1985.

 

Swanson, Mark. Atlas of the Civil War Month by Month: Major Battles and Troop Movements, The University of Georgia Press, 2004.

 

Woodworth, Steven E. Six Armies in Tennessee: The Chickamauga and Chattanooga Campaigns, University of Nebraska Press, 1998.