Journey to Armageddon: The Campaign and Battle of Gettysburg, Volume Iii

By Kevin A. Campbell

Once again, the soldiers, officers, and commanders tell the story in this third volume of Kevin Campbell’s comprehensive work on the Gettysburg Campaign, Journey to Armageddon. The hardships, comradery, short rations, and the dance with the enemy’s bullets and shells are all here. Blistering sun, drenching rains, chocking dust, sticky mud, played out horses and men, and the high-level, often inharmoniousness communications between army commanders and their governments are presented in these pages.

Fortunately, not all is despair and doom. Included are the sometimes-humorous interactions with the civilians met along their journey and the acrimony that frequently filled encounters between hungry soldiers and the administrators of the villages and towns they passed through. The tales told by these hardy men about the events of their existence are significant elements within the story of the Gettysburg Campaign, which author Kevin Campbell tells in a clear and concise prose.

Most historians who write of the great crusade gloss over these events in favor of the more prominent proceedings in and around Gettysburg. These often-ignored events and much more are incorporated into his complete treatment of the Union and Confederate armies on their journey to Armageddon.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 5, 2019
• ISBN: 9781796035339

Kevin A. Campbell

N/A

Book preview

The Campaign and Battle of

Gettysburg, Volume III

Journey to Armageddon

Part 1

A Comprehensive Narrative of Military

Operations in the Eastern Armies

10 June to 30 June – 1863

Kevin A. Campbell

Copyright © 2019 by Kevin A. Campbell.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2019906367

ISBN:                 Hardcover          978-1-7960-3535-3

                           Softcover            978-1-7960-3534-6

                           eBook                 978-1-7960-3533-9

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 06/04/2019

Xlibris

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Contents

Preface

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Prologue   The Heart of a Soldier

Book V — The Passage of the Hosts

1     The Gulf Widens

2     An Army on the Move

3     The Rebels Raise the Stakes

4     Hill and Longstreet March

5     Couch Calls for Aid

6     Panic and Preparations

7     A Chance Encounter

8     An Undermanned Reconnaissance Mission

9     Middleburg

10   A Fighting Retreat

11   Climax at Upperville

12  Along the Potomac

13   West of the Blue Ridge

14   The Tip of the Spear

15   Jeb Stuart Rides

16   The West Shore Prepares for War

17   Probing the Pennsylvania Countryside

18   Two Failures

Appendix A – Order of Battle of the Forces During Engagements in the Loudoun Valley

Appendix B – Strengths and Casualties During the Engagements in the Loudoun Valley

Illustrations

MAPS

Hooker Moves – 12 to 17 June

The Rebels Pierce the North 18 to 24 June

Battle of Aldie

First Contact at Aldie

Kilpatrick and Munford Deploy

Fight for the Adam Farm

Munford Blocks the Road to Snickersville

The 1st Massachusetts at the Furr Farm

The Federals Counter

Middleburg

The 1st Maine Attacks

Duffié Reaches Middleburg

Duffié is Dispersed

The Federals Deploy

Gregg Moves In

The Rebels are Driven

Buford Tries to Flank Stuart

Battle of Upperville

The Fight for Battle Knoll

The Day Opens

Stuart Falls Back from the Bittersweet Farm

The Rebel Delaying Actions

Colonel Black Buys Some Time

The Fight for the Goose Creek Bridge, Phase I

The Fight for the Goose Creek Bridge, Phase II

The Fight for the Goose Creek Bridge, Phase III

Fight Along the Millville Road

Fight at Vineyard Hill – Phase I

Fight at Vineyard Hill – Phase II

Fight on the Trappe Road – Phase I

Fight on the Trappe Road – Phase II

PHOTOS

Robert E. Lee

William Gamble

Samuel Henry Starr

John Baillie McIntosh

John C Tidball

Julius Stahel

John McEntee

Henry W. Halleck

Joseph Hooker

Alfred Pleasonton

Colonel George Sharpe

Execution of John P. Wood

Lieutenant Colonel George W. Arrowsmith

Surgeon George T. Stevens

Marsena Patrick

David Birney

George H. Ward

Horatio G. Wright

George G. Meade

Major Shepard Gleason

Joshua L. Chamberlain

Army of the Potomac Headquarters

John S. Mosby

Thomas Nelson Conrad

Jeb Stuart

Lafayette C. Baker

Albert G. Jenkins

Alexander K. McClure

General Robert E. Rodes

General Richard S. Ewell

General Edward Johnson

General George H. Steuart

General Daniel Tyler

Colonel William F. Raynolds

General John Imboden

Captain John H. McNeill

Lieutenant Colonel Elijah White

Gilbert Moxley Sorrel

General Harry Heth

General William D. Pender

General John B. Hood

General Lafayette McLaws

General George Pickett

General Richard H. Anderson

Colonel Henry King Burgwyn Jr

Colonel Abner Perrin

Colonel Porter Alexander

Randolph Abbott Shotwell

General Joseph B. Kershaw

Modern View of Aldie Mill

Goose Creek

Aqueduct at the Mouth of Seneca Creek

Captain Charles W. Deane

Captain Charles R. Lowell

Major John Hammond

General Darius N. Couch

Andrew G. Curtin

Edwin M. Stanton

Colonel Thomas Alexander Scott

Gov Horatio Seymour

Charles W. Sandford

Joseph F. Knipe

James Addams Beaver

William B. Franklin

Granville O. Haller

Simon Cameron

William W. Jennings

Captain Samuel J. Randall

Samuel Pennypacker

Colonel Benjamin L. Trafford

Governor Joel Parker

Colonel Edward Burb Grubb

The Camelback Bridge

Louis Moreau Gottschalk

The Wrightsville Bridge

Colonel Emlen Franklin

Lieutenant Colonel Greeley S. Curtis

Colonel Thomas L. Rosser

Major William Stedman

Thomas T. Munford

Captain Alanson M. Randol

Captain Lucius Manlius Sargent

Major Henry Lee Higginson

Captain John L. Tewksbury

Old Snickersville Turnpike Road Trace

Cobb House Road

Charles Francis Adams

General Hugh Judson Kilpatrick

Lieutenant Colonel Charles H. Smith

Major Stephen Boothby

Major Jonathan P. Cilley

Captain Andrew B. Spurling

Lieutenant Horatio S. Libby

Colonel Calvin S. Douty

Modern View of Stone Wall

Colonel Williams C. Wickham

Colonel Alfred Duffié

Colonel Richard L. T. Beale

General Beverly Robertson

Colonel Peter G. Evans

Colonel Dennis Dozier Ferebee

Major Preston M. Farrington

Major James H. McNeill

Captain Augustus H. Bixby

Lieutenant Colonel John L. Thompson

Colonel John R. Chambliss

Colonel Thomas C. Devin

Colonel John I. Gregg

Lieutenant Colonel William H. F. Payne

Colonel Mathew Henry Avery

Colonel William Emile Doster

Major Heroes von Borcke

Major Alvah D. Waters

Brigadier General John Buford

Heights Above Goose Creek

Goose Creek

Modern View of Pot House

Captain Wesley Merritt

Captain George S. Kimball

General David M. Gregg

Lieutenant Colonel Andrew J. Alexander

General Wade Hampton

Colonel Laurence Simmons Baker

Colonel Pierce Manning Butler Young

Major Thomas J. Lipscomb

Colonel Strong Vincent

Colonel James C. Rice

Lieutenant Colonel Norval E. Welch

Captain Orpheus S. Woodward

Stone Walls in the Loudoun Valley

Lunsford L. Lomax

Goose Creek Bridge

Captain William M. Graham

Private John Townsend Ketcham

Heights above Goose Creek

Sketch of Fighting Near Upperville

Battle of Upperville

Captain Delos R. Northway

Modern View of the Greengarden Road

Colonel James L. Davis

Captain Roger Preston Chew

Field of Trappe Road Fight

Lieutenant Colonel Oliver R. Funsten

Lieutenant Colonel Thomas B. Massie

Private John N. Opie

Lieutenant Colonel Thomas A. Marshall

The Blue Ridge from the Trappe Road

Ashby’s Gap Turnpike west of Upperville

Lieutenant Colonel James Byron Gordon

Lawrence Augustus Gobright

General Robert C. Schenck

General Samuel P. Heintzelman

General Dan Butterfield

General Henry Washington Benham

Colonel William H. Pettes

Colonel Adrian R. Root

Major Wesley Brainerd

Mouth of Goose Creek

Captain Charles N. Turnbull

Upstream Entrance, Lock 25 C&O Canal

Lower Bridge Site at Goose Creek

Downstream Entrance, Lock 25 C&O Canal

Mouth of Goose Creek Maryland Side

John C. Babcock

Harper Ferry

General Alpheus Williams

Captain Charles P. Mattocks

Major Israel P. Spalding

Captain Charles H. Weygant

General John Gibbon

General Alexander S. Webb

General George Stannard

Robert H. Chilton

General Micah Jenkins

General Montgomery Corse

General Pierre G. T. Beauregard

General Daniel Harvey Hill

Colonel David Lang

Colonel Eppa Hunton

Colonel Edward P. Alexander

General William Nelson Pendleton

General William Pender

Lieutenant Colonel David Hunter Strother

Major Harry Gilmor

Lieutenant Colonel Arthur J. L. Fremantle

Mary Greenhow Lee

Colonel Edward Asbury O’Neal

Colonel William Henderson French

Rihl Marker and Fleming Farm

General Jubal Early

Colonel Clement A. Evans

Alexander Swift Sandie Pendleton

Lieutenant Colonel Jacob Szink

McConnellsburg, Pennsylvania

Captain William W. Wallace

Major William Allen

Major Wells Joseph Hawks

General Junius Daniel

Charles Marshall

General James Longstreet

General William Edward Grumble Jones

Captain John Esten Cooke

General William F. Baldy Smith

Colonel Charles M. Prevost

Colonel William Brooke Thomas

Colonel William G. Ward

Colonel Charles Roome

Colonel Lloyd Aspinwall

Brigadier General Philip S. Crooke

Colonel John Blackburne Woodward

Colonel Michael Bennett

Colonel William Everdell Jr

Colonel John Quincy Adams II

Remaining Earthworks at Fort Couch

Lieutenant Colonel James A. Stahle

Colonel Jacob G. Frick

Major Lorenzo Leonard Greenawalt

This work is dedicated

to my father

Richard A. Campbell

Who allowed me to make my own decisions and was always there to help pick up the pieces when I made a poor one.

Preface

As I walk the fields upon which so many men, both North and South, fought, bled and died as a fledgling country conceived in freedom and liberty determined to remain united or fractured, I often wonder who these men were and what would drive them onward. In the face of overwhelming violence and intense suffering, forward these men pressed. In the presence of death and suffering, they continued on their soldierly journey. Why? Was it to remove shackles from an oppressed race or to maintain their bondage? Was their determination and bravery rooted in a deep sense of States’ Rights? Did Southerners fight because their political elitists told them it was necessary to maintain slavery? Did Northerners fight to preserve a Union for which their forefathers had bled and died? Personally, while these issues may have played a minor role, I believe the motivation that formed the foundation upon which so many men endured the hardships of armed conflict runs deeper.

In my opinion three basic essential of human existence drove the farmers, blacksmiths, cobblers, common laborers and others to risk the horrors of war. These basic fundamentals were, duty, honor and home. These character traits, which seem to be sorely lacking within todays deeply divided American society, were staples of a man’s being during the middle of the 19th Century. Many individuals in today’s society would say these qualities are greatly missed and their disappearance from our culture has only assisted in dividing us as a people.

To a Civil War soldier, doing one’s duty, even in the face of death, was an internal struggle which every man experienced. This inner scuffle was fought between a man’s desire for self-preservation and his sense of responsibility to one’s self and his comrades. Internally, this constituted a man’s sense of duty, while externally it was called bravery. To the extent that a man was able to overcome his internal conflict depended greatly upon his moral compass. The core of this internal conflict is driven by an understanding that there are ideologies and institutions greater than one’s self that required a man do his duty so that those beliefs and societal foundations may be protected from harm. Doing one’s duty required a Civil War soldier’s sense of responsibility to defeat his fears because he owed the principles he believed in protection.

This internal skirmish which all Civil War soldiers fought encompassed all the sources which drove a soldier’s sense of obligation to these beliefs. First, a man’s struggle on the battlefield to do his duty could be affected by his position in life. A man who was single with no family or home, or a foreigner who was not an American and simply a soldier of fortune, probably were less motivated to do their duty than a man who was a citizen or had a wife and family to protect from the enemy. Second, one’s moral expectations of himself also determined how adept he was at preforming his duty. Third, a man’s character also affected his wiliness to meet his obligation. Finally, just being human was a driver. Watching a fellow soldier and friend be wounded or killed next to you was an excellent motivator to extract a soldier’s full sense of duty.¹

To many prominent historical figures, duty was the primary driver in achievement. General George S. Patton Jr. once commented If I do my full duty, the rest will take care of itself. To Robert E. Lee devotion to duty was everything. To the general, duty trumped all, including reason. Three years after the war, during a conversation with his former cavalry general, Wade Hampton, Lee defined his belief system regarding duty. I did only what my duty demanded; I could have taken no other course without dishonor. And if all were to be done over again, I should act in precisely the same manner.²

This work is about men thrown into unimaginable situations attempting to win their internal battle and do their duty. Born out of the chaos of Civil War combat and the hardships of soldiering are the stories of this internal struggle known only to those who endured such an existence. The boys who marched, bled and died across the soil of Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania during the summer of 1863 are the only men who can, and indeed should, tell the story of Gettysburg. This is what I have tried, in my own feeble way, to accomplish within the pages of this series of books.

I freely admit that I am not a story teller or writer. There are and have been men and women much more adept at crafting a story with their pen or word processor than I. Men such as Foote, Sears, Catton and McPherson have been and, in some cases, continue to be far more skillful at telling the story of the American Civil War than my feeble skills allow. Also, I do not proclaim to be a historian as, in my opinion, a historian is someone who devotes their life and livelihood in the pursuit of understanding history. I would place men such as Dr. James I. Robertson in this category. Although a newspaper man and teacher, I would also classify Douglas S. Freeman as one of these learned men. I consider myself an independent researcher who has a passion for all aspects of the Gettysburg Campaign. Believe me when I tell you that I do not and never could profess to hold a candle to these individuals regarding their knowledge and ability to craft an engrossing narrative.

The goal of my endeavor is to provide a voice to the participants of the Gettysburg Campaign. From the lofty positions within the headquarters of the Army of the Potomac and Army of Northern Virginia, down to the tired, dirty, worn and played out soldiers of both armies. From the soldiers on the battle line struggling to load and fire their weapons as enemy balls wiz by, to the civilians caught up in the life and death struggle of which they wanted no part. This tome, the first part of Journey to Armageddon, attempts to do just that. I feel it is my duty to do nothing less so their stories are preserved to inspire future generations.

Volume Layout and Linear Timing

This volume of my work on the Gettysburg Campaign chronicles the decisions and events of the campaign which occurred during the period between 10 and 30 June 1863. While some events take place outside of this time frame, they are generally required to establish a level of understanding regarding pertinent events or individuals. However, excluded from this volume is coverage of the Battle of Second Winchester which received its treatment within Volume II of this work.

When I began this project in 2008 it was my intention to develop nine general volumes covering various aspects of the Gettysburg Campaign. I envisioned each printed volume containing two books, each of which would be presented in the general order in which the campaign and battle unfolded. I was able to accomplish this with the first two volumes of this work. However, it quickly became apparent as I developed the copy for the third, that keeping the two books to be included to a size that would allow them to be printed within one volume was not going to be achievable. I simply had more information I wished to present than could be contained in one volume. I therefore, early on, determined that there was a real possibility that Volume III would need to be broken into two parts. This is what has indeed been done to keep the size of the individual publications manageable. I felt it was better to develop the work which I had envisioned rather than water down the material to keep it to a practicable size for a single publication. I have chosen to divide the work with each part containing one of the two books which were to originally be included in my conceptually, single volume format. Therefore, the publication you now hold is approximately half of Journey to Armageddon. It contains Book V of my work, The Passage of the Hosts. The second half, which I expect to follow sometime during 2020, will contain Book VI, The Gray Tide Crests.

Taking into consideration the Gettysburg Campaign occurred over a vast geographical area it rapidly became clear that to address the events from 10 to 30 June in a purely linear fashion would be unrealistic and difficult for the reader to follow. Therefore, I have chosen to break the campaign up into manageable time segments with the major events receiving individual treatments. A rough breakdown of these segment is as follows: 10 to 18 June; 19 to 24 June; 25 to 27 June; 28 June; 29 June; and 30 June. This breakdown is generally maintained but there are a few instances in the narrative where this division is not adhered to for flow purposes or to complete the discussion of an event which may bleed over into another partition.

Interspersed between these basic time frames, at their appropriate points, will be the major events of the campaign including the cavalry battles in the Loudoun Valley, Ewell’s move on Harrisburg, Early’s expedition to the Susquehanna River and the Battle of Hanover.

Scope of the Work

The scope of this volume of my work on the Gettysburg Campaign is to document the events from 10 June to 30 June. The previous volumes of this series addressed the character and persona of the participants, the preliminary events of the campaign, planning and the battles of Brandy Station and Second Winchester. The author anticipates nine volumes within this series but has discovered that to limit oneself to such a restriction is probably a somewhat whimsical notion. The general topics of each proposed volume are as follows:

Volume 1 Players Plans and Pawns Contains Books I and II

Preparation, planning and biographical data.

Volume 2 The Opening Battles Contains Books III and IV

The opening engagements of the campaign.

Volume 3, Part 1 Journey to Armageddon Contains Book V

The movements and events of 10 June to midnight 24 June.

Volume 3, Part 2 Journey to Armageddon Contains Book VI

The movements and events of 25 June to midnight 30 June.

Volume 4, Contains Books VII and VIII

Events and fighting which occurred on 1 July.

Volume 5, Contains Books IX and X

Events of the morning and early afternoon, Longstreet’s assault on the Federal left and the assault on Cemetery Ridge on 2 July.

Volume 6, Contains Books XI and XII

Fighting on the Federal right, the struggle for Cemetery Hill and the events during the evening of 2 July.

Volume 7 Contains Books XIII and XIV

Cavalry actions, the events preceding the attack on the Union center, Longstreet’s Assault, its aftermath and the evening of 3 July.

Volume 8 Contains Books XV and XVI

The retreat of Lee’s army and Meade’s pursuit.

Volume 9 Contains Books XVII and XVIII

The results of the campaign, its controversies, the lives of the participants through the remainder of the war and post war period.

Kevin A. Campbell

2019

Acknowledgements

Typical of a work such as this, the list of individuals and entities that have aided me and contributed in its development is too long to adequately present. There are a few, however, that deserve to be called out as having provided significant assistance. Anyone who I neglect to recognize, you know who you are. Thanks for your encouragement, support and aid.

I would like to thank the former and current curators of the Doubleday Inn. Since I began my pilgrimages to Gettysburg and the surrounding area, Todd and Christine Thomas hosted me at the Doubleday. It was my home away from home and I thank them from the bottom of my heart for their friendship and hospitality. Christine and Todd sold the inn to new innkeepers Greg and Sue Rosensteel in January of 2018. The Rosensteel family has a storied history in the Gettysburg area. It was a pleasure to meet both Greg and Sue a few months after they took over the inn. It is safe to say that the previous innkeepers left the establishment in good hands.

I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to my friend, fellow writer and Civil War aficionado, Scott Mingus. Scott has taken a sincere interest in my work and I appreciate the support and enthusiasm he has expressed regarding my effort. In addition to him providing moral support, Scott has also assisted me with editorial work and in fact has read every word of this manuscript. He has provided not only editing assistance but, being an expert on the Gettysburg Campaign and the doings in Pennsylvania’s York and Adams Counties during the summer of 1863, has provided me with insight and understanding of the histography of the region. His efforts in assisting me are greatly appreciated. I only wish that I resided somewhat closer to the eastern portion of the country so that I could attend more of his talks on the events of the war and partake in his willingness to share his knowledge with others.

Once again, I would like to express my cordial appreciation to John Heiser and all the incredibly helpful individuals at the Gettysburg National Military Park Library. I have visited the library a number of times over the past ten years. These visits provided me the opportunity to gather significant first-hand accounts of not only the movements of the two armies to Gettysburg, which this volume covers, but of the battle itself. Being provided access to the vast resources at the library, and in particular the vertical files, has contributed to the betterment of this work. Additionally, it has allowed me to greatly expand my own files in relation to the campaign and battle. The as yet unwritten volumes in this series will greatly benefit from these files and I thank John for putting up with my requests to review the library’s holdings.

I would also like to thank Robert J. Wynstra who provided me with additional primary account material regarding Ewell’s march up the Cumberland Valley and the Second Corps’ occupation of Carlisle. Robert cordially volunteered his material and provided me links to additional sources to which I was not privy. I was unable to utilize all of the material he provided but the accounts which made their way into the narrative have improved that particular portion of the work.

Thanks are due the United State Army Heritage and Education Center staff for the assistance they have provided me on my various trips to the archive. They are always pleasant and ready to help when asked.

I would also like to thank Ed Welch, the recorder for the Commandery of Massachusetts MOLLUS for granting permission to utilize photos from the commandery’s extensive collection which is housed at the USAHEC. While permission is generally not required to utilize the MOLLUS photos, I always like to give credit where credit is due.

During the fall of 2018 I sent a copy of the first part of Journey to Armageddon to my brother, Kyle. He was gracious enough to reviewed the manuscript and found a number of typographical and grammatical errors. I greatly appreciate his assistance, interest and thoughts.

Appreciation and motivation come in various forms and methods for both soldier and civilian alike. I have been blessed to received incentive from a number of individuals over the years of this project and a few are listed here. However, another person, who provided me motivation to continue my work, now comes to mind. During the fall of 2016 I journey to Gettysburg to pore through the vertical files at the park’s library. After seven hours of flipping through documents, I determined to relax with a beer and a nice dinner at a local eatery. As I sat sipping my drink and reading through a copy of the second book in this series looking for any typographical errors to correct in my source document, a man, who looked to be in his mid-sixties, approached and asked what I was reading. I handed him the book, which is rather hefty, and explained that I was the writer and was looking for anything I needed to correct in my archived source file. He thumbed through it, spending about fifteen or twenty seconds flipping pages. He then handed it back to me and declared that my tome was simply too large to ever hope it would be of interest to the average person. I thought ‘that’s rather rude.’ The stranger strode off to the bar and, I assume, ordered a drink.

To this day I have no idea as to the identity of this individual. Based on his dress I presumed he was a tourist. I kept my mouth shut. He is entitled to his opinion. But he had leveled his judgement without ever coming to an understanding of why I had written such a book. He seemed of the opinion that the purpose of writing was to appeal to the masses in order to achieve financial gain. This is completely contrary to my belief since I have not staked my wellbeing on the fiscal success of my endeavor. Since I began this journey in 2008, I have had the pleasure of conversing with a number of other individuals who write about various aspects of America’s Civil War. It has been my experience that most of these fine people sit before their word processor not because they are planning to generate a good deal of revenue but because they are passionate about their subject. This is also the reason I write. Whether knowing this would have swayed the stranger’s opinion that evening is unclear. My only response to his unsolicited comment is a hearty thanks for the motivation.

Appreciation is due to my late parents Richard and Vickie who, although I rebelled on many occasions, managed to raise me right. I miss you greatly and will see you again one day.

Once again, I would like to express heartfelt thanks to my wife Susan who has put up with my isolation and seemingly brainless inability to recall things important to her while my mind wanders back and forth from being an author and writer to being a husband and supporter of her wishes and needs. She works hard to keep me on a correct life path and, although sometimes it seems I overlook her efforts and concerns, I appreciate her more than she knows. Love you.

I also wish to thank the resolute historians who documented the events and the soldiers’ experiences, the editors who skillfully polished their work and the dogged documenters who gathered and organized the records. I wish to thank them for the plethora of data and mountains of primary and secondary, published and unpublished sources from which this manuscript was created. The time spent on this project and the experiences it has provided me have been some of the richest events of my life.

Lastly, I would like to express my appreciation to all the gallant soldiers who endured the hardships. These men set aside their lives to march off to experience the adversities of war because they all felt, both North and South, that it was the correct thing to do and their cause was just. Long marches through blistering sun, in some instances, robbed them of their futures. The whirlwind of battle sent even more of those brave men to meet their God while the aftermath of those battles claimed a great deal more. Nearly eighty years after the War of the Rebellion came to its conclusion, another famous American military man, General George S. Patton Jr., summed up the bravery of the American fighting man. His comments, while aimed at the brave men who went to war in the 1940s can also be applied to the men who served during the Civil War. It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.

Thanks to all.

Kevin A. Campbell

2019

Foreword

During the month of June in the year 1863, 175,000 men put their tired and worn feet upon the dusty roads of Virginia. They were headed for the Potomac River. These men, the members of Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and Joseph Hooker’s Army of the Potomac, were headed for a rendezvous of epic proportions at Gettysburg in southern Pennsylvania. But, the hardships of the coming battle and its aftermath, which they all knew was in their future, was of little concern at present. The coming days would be filled with hardships of a different nature. Author Kevin Campbell discusses these hardships and more in this first instalment of Journey to Armageddon.

In the first part of his work, which is contained in this volume, the author discusses not only the hardships of the campaign but the encounters that occurred along the two armies paths to Gettysburg. He discusses the engagements in Virginia’s Loudoun Valley between the Federal cavalry under the glory-seeking Alfred Pleasonton and Jeb Stuart’s vaunted Rebel troopers. Towns such as Upperville, Aldie and Middleburg, which are small dots on a Civil War map, had their names placed in the histography of the Gettysburg Campaign by the brave riders and foot soldiers who fought there.

As the men of the Army of the Potomac and Army of Northern Virginia stepped away from the Rappahannock River in June of 1863, few knew the difficulties they were about to endure. Early summer heat would soon begin beating the men into submission. Their days would consist of twenty-five-mile marches through temperatures approaching triple digits while dressed in woolen uniforms and carrying thirty to forty pounds of soldiering paraphernalia. Those who could not keep up fell behind. Many would not reach their unit’s campsites until the middle of the night. While the days were filled with dust, extreme temperatures, heatstroke and death, hours of darkness were accompanied by little sleep. Those who straggled into camp in the middle of the night would collapse into slumber, only to be awakened two or three hours later to once again endure the heat and dust of the march, having not sufficiently recovered from their previous day’s tramp. Then there was the incessant dust, kicked up by thousands of plodding, sometime bare, feet. When the sun and heat dissipated, they were usually replaced by rain and mud, the latter attaching itself to every part of a marching soldiers’ feet and legs. Scant rations and water often made each day’s journey even more difficult.

The story of these hardy men and the events of their existence is a significant element within the story of the Gettysburg Campaign which author Kevin Campbell tells in a clear and concise prose. Most historians who write of the great crusade gloss over these events in favor of the more prominent proceedings in and around Gettysburg during the first three days of July, 1863. But, the three weeks spent by the officers and soldiers marching northward, and their commander’s efforts in guiding their respective armies to Gettysburg, were difficult in their own right. Campbell documents the events of these long-gone trying days during which men drove themselves to the limits of their physical endurance, and in some instances, beyond those limits, paying for their exertions with their lives. The reader will develop a new appreciation for the fighting man of America’s defining conflict by absorbing the stories which Campbell presents within the pages of the third volume of his Gettysburg series.

Campbell has made a supreme effort in allowing the men who experienced these hardships to relay them in their own words to the reader. There are no better qualified individuals to tell these human-interest stories than the men who lived through them. He utilizes these reminiscences to follow Lee’s Confederates across the mighty Blue Ridge mountains and into the Shenandoah Valley before crossing the Potomac River, opening up southern Pennsylvania to the vanguard of the invasion. He utilizes extensive Federal accounts to track Joseph Hooker’s army from Fredericksburg, Virginia, to the banks of the Potomac and on through Maryland to its encounter with Lee’s legions at Gettysburg.

The story of the march of 175,000 men to their meeting in southern Pennsylvania is one which has not been completely told and, in truth, is too voluminous to be entirely presented in a single work. While the documentation of the battle has been told, retold and will be voiced once again by its participants in the pages of the future volumes of this work, the misery experienced by the soldiers while making their way to Gettysburg was none-the-less real for them. These stories are inspirational in their own right and are presented in Kevin Campbell’s Journey to Armageddon, providing Civil War and Gettysburg enthusiasts with a clearer picture of the full scope of a Civil War campaign.

Maps

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Journey to Armageddon

Part 1

Nothing is more difficult than the art of maneuver. What is difficult about maneuver is to make the devious route the most direct and to turn misfortune to advantage.

Sun Tzu

Prologue

The Heart of a Soldier

"I was met by a face so kind and fatherly."³

Mary Anna Jackson regarding the

first time she met Robert E. Lee.

The health event which struck the future commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, Colonel Robert E. Lee, during the spring of 1860, had become somewhat of a distant memory. Although it had been only three years since the incident that rendered his right arm useless, many life altering events had taken place. He had regained his general health, but the effects of active campaigning and the weight of command had taken a toll on him. With the pressure of command and the heaviness of an upstart but hopeful nation on his shoulders, Lee entered the late spring of 1863 with a firm concept on what was needed from his army to achieve success for the Southern Confederacy.⁴

With his army entrenched on the southern bank of the Rappahannock River, Lee spent the winter days of 1862-63 concerned over the health of his army and the wellbeing of the animals which provided it transportation. But, his own health became a serious question in late March. In a letter to his wife Mary, the general noted he had been suffering from a heavy cold that he felt was beginning to pass away. According to Lee, he had been so ill he had to skip church services and his poor prayers had to be offered in the solitude of my tent. The weather had added to his misery; the rains turning the ground inside his tent almost fluid…even muddy.⁵

A week later Lee once again wrote to Mary and complained about his illness.

I am getting better I trust though apparently very slowly & have suffered a great deal since I last wrote. I have had to call upon the doctors who are very kind & attentive & do every thing [sic] for me that is possible. I have taken a violent cold, either from going in or coming out of a warm house, perhaps both, which is very difficult to get rid of & very disturbing to have.⁶

Lee however, failed to inform his wife of the most alarming symptoms he had been experiencing. He expressed to his doctor, Surgeon Lafayette Guild, medical director for the Army of Northern Virginia, that he was experiencing severe pain in his arms, back and chest. Guild examined Lee and came to the conclusion that the general was suffering from an inflammation of the heart sack or in the modern parlance, acute pericarditis. Since such a condition can be associated with a viral infection or a cold, Guild was probably confident in his diagnosis. But was the pain Lee experienced that spring something more?⁷

Guild was a competent medical man. Born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on 23 November 1826, he had attended the University of Alabama before moving to Philadelphia to enroll at Jefferson Medical College. A United States Army Surgeon from 1849 to 1861, he left his post to join the upstart Confederacy. When Lee took command of the army before Richmond in 1862, he replaced the army’s existing medical director, putting Guild in charge. Guild would remain in his position until the end of the war.⁸

Did Doctor Guild, and the other physicians attending Lee, error in their diagnosis? Another condition known at the time was angina pectoris. The term was used to describe a condition associated with the degeneration of arteries near the heart. Angina pectoris displayed the same symptoms as pericarditis but was more serious. Doctor Guild would have been well informed of the condition since it first entered the medical lexicon at the beginning of the 19th Century. A miss-diagnosis however would have made no difference in Lee’s condition or recovery since medical practices of the day dictated the treatment for both conditions as bed rest, peppermint water and bloodletting, the latter of which evidence indicates Lee never received.⁹

To provide the needed bed rest, Guild instructed Lee to abandon his tent for the more luxurious accommodations at William Yerby’s residence five miles south of Fredericksburg. So they bundled me up on Monday last. Lee wrote to Mary on 5 April, & brought me over to Mr. Yuby’s [Yerby’s] where I have a comfortable room with Perry to attend me. I have not been so very sick, though have suffered a good deal of pain in my chest back and arms. It came on in paroxtsms, [and] was quite sharp… Lee believed he had contracted his illness from his wife and daughter, Agnes, during a previous trip to Richmond. But they have passed [the symptoms] off I hope, Lee continued, some fever remains, & I am enjoying the sensation of a complete saturation of my system with quinine. The doctors are very attentive & kind & have examined my lungs, my heart, circulation, &c. I believe they have pronounced me tolerable sound. They have been tapping me all over like an old steam boiler before condemning it.¹⁰

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By the summer of 1863, Robert E. Lee had led the Army of Northern Virginia to an impressive string of victories. The stress of command, however, seemed to be taking a toll on his health. LOC

Unlike Lee, army business refused to take any time to rest. The Yerby residence was only a mile from his headquarters camp and Lee continued to execute the necessary official procedure for the administration of his army. Aides would ride over from time to time and deliver important messages and ferry reports back and forth from Lee to headquarters. The general would work his way through the documents, sometimes taking until midafternoon to complete his tasks.¹¹

Lee steadily improved. On 11 April he felt well enough to climb aboard Traveller and go for a short ride although he admitted to his daughter Eleanor that his legs were still too weak to stand for an extended period. The following day the pain in his chest and arms was gone and he seemed to be generally on the mend. Although his cough lingered he was feeling much better. On 16 April, he was back in camp although he was still rather feeble and unable to do much.¹²

Four days later, Mary Anna Jackson met her husband on the rainy train platform at Guiney’s Station. Mary took up quarters at Yerby’s in the same room which General Lee had just vacated. She recalled seeing him the following Sunday at services. [H]ow reverent and impressive was… [his] bearing, she remembered, and how handsome he looked, with his splendid figure and faultless military attire. Mary admitted she was somewhat awe-struck when it came time to meet Lee for the first time. "[B]ut I was met by a face so kind and fatherly, and a greeting so cordial, that I was at once reassured and put at ease."¹³

The charming and stately Lee had returned. His illness of the previous days seemingly behind him. Doctor Guild no doubt believed he had provided the proper diagnosis and treated the general correctly. But, the state of mid-19th Century medicine often did not provide accurate analysis and administration of the healing process. In Lee’s case, something more sinister was lurking beneath the surface.

During the coming summer Lee would need all his faculties to wage a successful campaign to win independence for the South. His physical condition would be critical to the success or failure of the effort. A clear mind would be needed to orchestrate the events which would play out during the march north and any major engagements which may develop between his army and Joe Hooker’s Army of the Potomac. Unfortunately for the fighting men of the South’s mightiest army, their commander’s health would become a detriment to his ability to lead them.

Book V

The Passage of the Hosts

Chapter I

The Gulf Widens

This boy knew many of the troops.

I think statement reliable.¹⁴

John McEntee to George Sharpe

regarding intelligence provided

by Charley Wright,

12 June 1863.

As dawn broke on 10 June north of the Rappahannock River, the riders of Brigadier General Alfred Pleasonton’s Federal Cavalry Corps began settling back into their camps. Pleasonton’s boys had given as good as they received the day before near the small railroad siding at Brandy Station. And, while no clear-cut victor had been determined during the battle, Pleasonton had provided his commander, Joseph Hooker, reason to be hopeful. The cavalryman, although failing in his attempt to disperse and destroy the enemy, had, in his mind, been successful in delaying or stopping a rumored cavalry raid which many in the Federal high command believed was imminent.

But, while Pleasonton was pleased with himself for having averted fabricated danger, events from the coming days would prove that the battle at Brandy Station had done little to discourage the Confederates. Over the course of the campaign, Pleasonton would prove he was nearly devoid of the attributes that made a good cavalry officer. His failings were not lost on some of his troopers. Writing to his father five days after the battle, Captain Charles F. Adams noted he was sure a good cavalry officer would have whipped Stuart out of his boots; but Pleasonton is not and never will be that. The cavalry general’s shortcomings would assist in exacerbating the tension which had existed between Washington and army headquarters since the defeat at Chancellorsville.¹⁵

Resetting a Corps

Pleasonton’s position at the head of Hooker’s cavalry had initially been a temporary assignment. He must have felt his success across the river had solidified his situation for the day after the battle he began to express ideas to Hooker regarding the reorganization of the Cavalry Corps. Sometime during that day, or perhaps early the following morning, he presented his plan to Hooker. He offered his concepts in writing at 10:30 a.m. on 11 June and Hooker responded through his chief of staff, General Dan Butterfield. Yours, relative to forming cavalry into two divisions, received. If you consider it essential for the efficiency of your corps and the good of the service, make the change. Whether Pleasonton felt the change would be good for the army and would allow him to better perform his primary task of information gathering is unclear. However, the advancement-seeking Pleasonton no doubt felt the reorganization would be good for his own career.¹⁶

The current three-division organization was rather cumbersome and contained a somewhat poor distribution of the corps’ forces. All three divisions possessed only two brigades instead of the typical three. At Brandy Station, the First Division’s brigades contained seven regiments. However, many of them were under strength; with a number of companies having been shuffled off on detached duty or being employed as headquarters escorts within the Army of the Potomac. The Second Division, although possessing only six regiments in its two brigades, was fairly strong as most of them were close to full strength. The Third Division possessed another six regiments which were also near full strength. Ironically, the strongest brigade at Brandy Station was the Reserve Brigade which contained five regiments, all of which were close to having all their companies present.¹⁷

Wasting little time, the usually sluggish Pleasonton prepared a general order which put forth his intentions. The directive provided an outline for the general structure of the revamped corps and the men who would command its two divisions.

General Order, No. 18.

Headquarters Cavalry Corps, June 11, 1863

The following arrangement of the Cavalry Corps will take effect as soon as practicable.

I. The First Division will be composed of the cavalry now belonging to Pleasonton’s division and Buford’s reserve brigade, and will be formed into three brigades, to be named the First, Second, and Third. This division to be commanded by Brig. Gen. John Buford.

II. The Second Division will consist of the cavalry of the present Second and Third Divisions, to be formed into three brigades to be named First, Second and Third. This division will be commanded by Brig. Gen. D. McM. Gregg.

III. Division commanders will form their brigades as soon as possible, and report the regiments and companies belonging to each to these headquarters, without delay.

IV. The Horse Artillery Brigade will furnish the batteries to each division, to be under the orders of the divisional commanders until further orders.

By command of Brigadier-General Pleasonton:

A. J. Alexander,

Assistant Adjutant-General.¹⁸

Both Buford and Gregg were the obvious choices for division command. Each man had proven his abilities at that level, and Buford was probably the best horse officer in the army. To place any other officers in command of his new divisions would not only have been folly but looked upon with disdain from not only the army’s officer corps but possibly Washington as well.

Command of the First Division’s First Brigade would be given to Colonel William Gamble. He had been on leave during the fight at Brandy Station, the late Grimes Davis commanding the brigade in his stead. Although he would not return until 13 June, his brigade would be waiting for him as he was the organization’s ranking officer.¹⁹

Gamble was not a native of the United States, having been born in Duross, County Tyrone, Ireland, on the first day of 1818. He studied engineering and briefly practiced the trade before immigrating to the United States at the age of twenty. Once in America, on 10 March 1839, he enlisted in the Regular Army and eventually rose to the rank of sergeant major in the 1st Dragoons before being discharged in 1843. Returning to civilian life, Gamble traveled to Chicago and began work as a civil engineer, a profession he practiced until he went to war. In September 1861, he signed the rolls of the 8th Illinois Cavalry and was made the regiment’s lieutenant colonel. On 5 December of the following year he took over the regiment as its colonel.²⁰

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William Gamble commanded John Buford’s First Brigade. LOC

Gamble’s regiment was transferred to the Peninsula where it saw action during The Seven Days. At Malvern Hill, while leading the regiment in a charge, he was severely wounded in the chest. It was December before he was back with his regiment. Brigade command came in 1863 on the last day of January. While Gamble may have lacked the drive and intensity of Grimes Davis, he was an above-average commander and had received praise for his exploits on a number of occasions. Like Buford, he was not prone to self-promotion and was not in the habit of drawing attention to himself. His gruff exterior, scruffy beard and sideburns made him look like a soldier. Even though he had not passed through the hollowed gates of West Point, he was a capable commander and would perform well for his division commander during the coming campaign. His brigade would retain the regiments which fought at Brandy Station and expand by one, the 12th Illinois, as it finally returned after its delay south of Fredericksburg.²¹

Buford’s Second Brigade would remain in the capable hands of Colonel Thomas C. Devin. Its composition would be unchanged from its allotment of regiments from the old corps’ organization.²²

The Third Brigade, the old Reserve Brigade, would be commanded by Regular Army veteran Samuel Henry Starr. Starr had just returned from a leave of absence during which he had organized and trained the 5th New Jersey Volunteers. Born in 1813, Starr enlisted as a private in 1832 and was initially placed in Company G of the 4th U.S. Artillery. By the time the Civil War began, he had been in the service for nearly three decades. He served as a foot soldier and with the engineering branch, spending time in Florida fighting the Seminoles and south of the border during the war with Mexico. He was commissioned a second lieutenant and transferred to the 2nd Dragoons on 28 June 1848 before being sent to Texas. While in Texas, Starr was promoted to first lieutenant. He continued his service at various outposts on the frontier, participated in the Utah Expedition and received his captain’s bars on 5 June 1858.²³

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An old army man, Samuel Henry Starr had no use for undisciplined soldiers. LOC

As the war commenced, Starr saw service as aide-de-camp to General Joseph K. Mansfield and as provost-marshal in Washington DC, but gave up his administrative position to train the 5th New Jersey. He led the regiment’s brigade briefly at Yorktown but was back in command of the Jerseymen at Williamsburg where he was wounded. His injuries were evidently not serious for he once again led the brigade at Seven Pines and during The Seven Days. Resigning his colonelcy in October 1862, Starr began a stint on recruitment duty in Washington before he was promoted to major on 25 April 1863 and assigned to the 6th U.S. Cavalry. However, he had not join the regiment by the time the fighting at Brandy Station commenced. Once he arrived he replaced Charles Whiting who was relieved of command of the renamed Reserve Brigade which retained is current compliment of Regular Army cavalry regiments and the 6th Pennsylvania.²⁴

Starr was a tough old army man who possessed no tolerance for misbehavior of any kind from both enlisted men and officers alike. One of his favorite disciplinary actions was to force a guilty soldier to sit straddle a fence rail, have his feet bound beneath him while his hands were tied behind his back. Often, to accentuate the insult, a horse’s feed bag would be strapped over the poor man’s head. His soldiers took to calling him Old Nose Bag in reference to his harsh punishments. He was also well versed in the art of swearing and would not hesitate to provide an expletive-laced tirade against any man who he felt had not performed to his standards.²⁵

Starr’s disciplinary extremes often got him into trouble with his superiors. One day, during his time with the 5th New Jersey, he evidently observed someone in the camp guard conducting themselves in a manner which displeased the old army man. Riding up, Starr pulled out his sword, hit the poor soldier over the head with the flat of the blade and proceeded to call him a son-of-a-bitch. For his actions, Starr was charged with abuse of the guard and removed from command. He resigned his commission with the volunteers shortly thereafter.²⁶

The consolidation of the Second and Third Divisions into a single, larger force eliminated one brigade but produced a tighter, more cohesive structure than the cumbersome left wing which David Gregg had commanded at Brandy Station. To lead the division’s First Brigade, Pleasonton and Gregg selected Colonel John Baillie McIntosh. McIntosh was born at Fort Brooke, Florida, on 6 June 1829. His father was a Regular Army officer who would lose his life during the Mexican War. Prior to the Civil War, McIntosh served in the Navy and when hostilities broke out he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 2nd Cavalry on 8 June 1861.²⁷

McIntosh’s lineage possessed a strong military background, and John proved during the early stages of the war that he was a capable leader of men. The McIntosh clan was a fine example of the variable loyalties which divided families during the war. John’s brother James had been killed earlier in the war at Pea Ridge while in command of a group of Confederate horsemen.

Less than two months after receiving his commission John was transferred to the 5th U.S. Cavalry and promoted to first lieutenant. A year later he received a major brevet before being promoted to colonel and transferred to the 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry. Pleasonton new McIntosh’s quality since John had commanded a brigade in his division during the fighting at Kelly’s Ford and in the Chancellorsville Campaign. With Sir Percy Wyndham having been wounded at Brandy Station, McIntosh seemed the perfect man to take over the injured Brit’s brigade. Its complement of regiments would include the 1st New Jersey, 1st Maryland and the 1st and 3rd Pennsylvania.²⁸

To command Gregg’s Second Brigade, the services of Colonel Judson Kilpatrick would be retained. He had always been a favorite of Pleasonton and would now reap the benefits of his association with his corps commander. Two days after being assigned command of the brigade, Kilpatrick received a promotion to brigadier general. Although he would retain command over his coveted Harris Light Cavalry, four new regiments, the 1st Massachusetts, 4th New York, 6th Ohio and 1st Rhode Island, would also be under his control.²⁹

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John Baillie McIntosh took over General David Gregg’s First Brigade after Colonel Percy Wyndham was wounded at Brandy Station. LOC

Gregg’s final brigade would be command of his cousin, John Irvin Gregg. Long John Gregg’s command would contain four regiments, the 1st Maine, 10th New York and the 4th and 16th Pennsylvania. All would be new to him.³⁰

The final element of Pleasonton’s reorganization, his horse artillery, was a more difficult situation to resolve. The artillery wing had taken a pounding at Brandy Station, specifically Martin’s 6th New York, which had been decimated in both men and equipment on the slopes of Fleetwood Hill. Instead of trying to reorganize his battered elements, Pleasonton sent a request to army headquarters to have the entire brigade replaced with a brigade from the Artillery Reserve. On the morning he received permission to restructure his corps, Pleasonton was handed a reply to his appeal from Assistant Adjutant General Seth Williams. Tidball’s brigade of horse artillery has been ordered to relieve Robertson’s brigade in the Cavalry Corps, as requested by you, Williams informed the cavalryman. The batteries now here will report to you as soon as possible, and, on their arrival, you are desired to send Robertson’s brigade to the Artillery Reserve, to refit. When Captain Tidball arrived with his batteries, as ordered, Robertson was sent off to the reserve but the condition of his command was so dire that it was soon transferred to Washington for a complete overhaul. It would eventually return but for the next three weeks it would have its lost and broken guns replaced, its horses reinvigorated or replaced and its ammunition and equipment replenished. Tidball’s brigade brought the 1st U.S. Artillery’s Batteries E, G and K, the captain’s old Battery A from the 2nd U.S. and the 3rd Artillery’s Battery C.³¹

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John C Tidball’s brigade of horse artillery was assigned to the Army of the Potomac’s Cavalry Corps to replace Captain James M. Robertson’s brigade which had seen heavy action at Brandy Station. LOC

Pleasonton also took the opportunity while revamping his corps to restructure his headquarters staff. On 13 June a general order was issued establishing his new organization. While a number of men would retain their positions, a good deal more would be added to his expanding group of personnel. To provide an administrative element to his group of staff members, he retained Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Jonathan Alexander. Alexander was an officer in the 3rd U.S. Cavalry and had previously served on the staff of General Stoneman. He would be charged with performing chief of staff duties as well as those of assistant adjutant general. To perform provost marshal duties, Pleasonton selected the son of a preacher, Captain Thomas Drummond of the 5th U.S. Cavalry. To head his commissary department he chose Lieutenant Colonel Albert S. Austin. Surgeon George L. Pancoast was placed in charge of the medical department while Lieutenant Colonel Charles Ross Smith of the 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry was assigned the responsibilities of chief of ordinance. First Lieutenant Woodbury M. Taylor, of Company L, 8th Illinois, was made the corps’