Strike Them a Blow: Battle along the North Anna River, May 21-25, 1864

By Chris Mackowski

The Civil War historian and author of A Season of Slaughter continues his engaging account of the Overland Campaign in this vivid chronicle.

By May of 1864, Federal commander Ulysses S. Grant had resolved to destroy his Confederate adversaries through attrition if by no other means. Meanwhile, his Confederate counterpart, Robert E. Lee, looked for an opportunity to regain the offensive initiative. "We must strike them a blow," he told his lieutenants.


But Grant's war of attrition began to take its toll in a more insidious way. Both army commanders—exhausted and fighting off illness—began to feel the continuous, merciless grind of combat in very personal ways. Punch-drunk tired, they began to second-guess themselves, missing opportunities and making mistakes. As a result, along the banks of the North Anna River, commanders on both sides brought their armies to the brink of destruction without even knowing it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: May 19, 2015
• ISBN: 9781611212556

Chris Mackowski

Chris Mackowski, Ph.D., is a writing professor in the Jandoli School of Communication at St. Bonaventure University in New York, where he also serves as the associate dean for undergraduate programs. He is also the historian-in-residence at Stevenson Ridge, a historic property on the Spotsylvania Court House battlefield in Virginia. Chris, an award-winning author, has written or edited more than two dozen books, including The Battle of Jackson, Mississippi, May 14, 1863. He is the editor-in-chief of the digital history platform Emerging Civil War and managing editor of the award-winning Emerging Civil War Series published by Savas Beatie.

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© 2015 by Chris Mackowski

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ISBN-13: 978-1-61121-254-9

Digital Edition: 978-1-61121-255-6

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015936796

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For my father

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

TOURING THE BATTLEFIELD

FOREWORD by Gordon C. Rhea

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER ONE: The Campaign

CHAPTER TWO: Hancock’s March

CHAPTER THREE: The Fog of War

CHAPTER FOUR: Leaving Spotsylvania

CHAPTER FIVE: The Night March

CHAPTER SIX: Wherever Lee Goes …

CHAPTER SEVEN: Before the Storm

CHAPTER EIGHT: The Battle for Henagan’s Redoubt

CHAPTER NINE: The Battle of Jericho Mills

CHAPTER TEN: Lee’s Council of War

CHAPTER ELEVEN: At Mt. Carmel Church

CHAPTER TWELVE: Marching into the Trap

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: The Battle of Ox Ford

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Strike Them a Blow

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: Stalemate

APPENDIX A: The Battle of Wilson’s Wharf by Emmanuel Dabney

APPENDIX B: The Battle of Milford Station by Daniel T. Davis

APPENDIX C: The Eye of the Storm by Chris Mackowski

APPENDIX D: Lee’s Engineer: Martin Luther Smith by Rob Orrison

APPENDIX E: Preserving North Anna: A Personal Battlefield Journey by John F. Cummings III

APPENDIX F: Preserving North Anna: The Art of the Battle by Chris Mackowski

ORDER OF BATTLE

SUGGESTED READING

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Footnotes for this volume are available at

http://emergingcivilwar.com/publications/the-emerging-civil-war-series/footnotes

List of Maps

Maps by Hal Jespersen

North Anna Battlefield

The Campaign through May 20, 1864

Hancock’s March

Advance to the North Anna River

Capture of Henagan’s Redoubt

Jericho Mills—May 23, 1864: Phase One

Jericho Mills—May 23, 1864: Phase Two

Lee’s Inverted V

Lee’s Inverted V and Grant’s Deployment

North Anna River to Totopotomoy Creek

Wilson’s Wharf

Acknowledgments

A sketch in the June 18, 1864, edition of Harper’s Weekly melodramatized the Federal advance at North Anna. Illustrator Thomas Nast titled his piece The Campaign in Virginia—‘On to Richmond!’ (hw)

Gordon Rhea made a profound impact on me in the earliest days of my Civil War career. The third book of his Overland Campaign series—To the North Anna River—was the first microtactical battle study I ever read. I started there because it seemed to be a battle everyone else skipped over. Gordon made me fall in love with it. More importantly, he showed me what well-written history looked like—and he set the bar very high. I have spent my writing career aspiring to live up to his example. My thanks to him for the inspiration and influence. (And if you haven’t read his book yet, go read it now—it is a must read, and it remains my favorite Civil War book.)

My father, to whom this book is dedicated, taught me the importance of conservation and preservation. As individual stewards, we can make an impact. At North Anna, I have seen that play out through the remarkable work of historian J. Michael Miller, who has done more than anyone to save the ground and tell the story. Mike has made North Anna possible for all of us today.

I have spent some great days on the North Anna battlefield with great historians like Dan Davis, Don Pfanz, Kris White, Sam Smith, and Ryan Quint. Eric Mink and I and a group of interns got caught in a particularly heavy downpour there one evening, much like the soldiers on the evening of May 24. Glad we captured that bit of authentic detail, Eric deadpanned. This is the wettest I have ever been on battlefield—and that’s saying something. My thanks to all of them for spending time with me exploring.

I am grateful to The Civil War Trust for providing me with access to the newly preserved Jericho Mills battlefield. Please support the good work the Trust continues to do.

Candice Roland and John McClure at the Virginia Historical Society ensured I had a successful visit there. Dan Turner was kind enough to show me around the Fox house property. Donna Neary invited me into her studio. John Cummings, who has also been gracious about sharing his knowledge of the battlefield, provided a neat appendix to this volume. My thanks to him, Dan Davis, Rob Orrison, and Emmanuel Dabney for their contributions. Dan, Rob, and Kris also provided useful editorial suggestions. Greg Mertz and Eric Wittenberg also provided little bits of useful logistical support. Hal Jespersen, who continues to produce wonderful maps for the Emerging Civil War Series, was a pleasure to work with.

At Savas Beatie, my thanks go to Theodore P. Savas, Yvette Lewis, Mary Holuta, and the ever-fabulous Sarah Keeney.

At St. Bonaventure University, my thanks to my dean, Dr. Paul Hoffmann. I am also grateful for the patience my students continue to show.

As always, my final thanks go to those who are first in my heart: my family, especially my children, Stephanie and Jackson, and my wife, Jennifer.

PHOTO CREDITS: Ancestry.com (a.c); Civil War Trails (cwtrails); John Cummings (jc); Dan Davis (dd); Georgia Division of Archives & History (gda&h); Harper’s Weekly (hw); Sydney King (sk); Chris Mackowski (cm); Jennifer Mackowski (jm); National Park Service (nps); North Anna Battlefield Park (nabp); Donald Pfanz (dp)

For the Emerging Civil War Series

Touring the Battlefield

This book covers events that begin at Spotsylvania Court House and spill down to the banks of the North Anna River. The easiest way to get to North Anna from Spotsylvania is to follow modern Route 1—Jefferson Davis Highway—from Massaponax Church southward 18.8 miles to Mt. Carmel Church. Route 1 follows the route of the old Telegraph Road, which the armies used in 1864.

However, the Emerging Civil War Series’ No Turning Back: A Guide to the 1864 Overland Campaign by Robert M. Dunkerly, Donald C. Pfanz, and David Ruth provides an excellent driving tour that follows the Federal II Corps from Spotsylvania, past Massaponax Church and Guinea Station, down to Bowling Green and Milford Station, and, finally, to Mt. Carmel Church. Parts of the IX Corps’s march overlaps the route, too. The tour is filled with information about some of the sites along the way, such as the Tyler House and Bethel Church, and includes additional accounts from the march.

Of the 16,506.26 acres of North Anna battlefield that fall in the hypothetical boundary established by the National Register and the National Park Service, fewer than 100 acres had been preserved prior to 2014. In that year, the Civil War Trust added another 665 acres. Portions of the landscape have been altered, the NPS reported, but most essential features remain. Although commercial and industrial development along Route 30 has begun to impact the southern portion of the battlefield, much of the historic landscape can still be preserved.

Find out more:

A) Bowling Green:

Chapter Two

B) Hanover Junction

Chapter Seven

C) Mount Carmel Church

Chapter Eleven

D) Henagan’s Redoubt

Chapter Eight

E) South Bank

Chapter Twelve

F) Jericho Mills

Chapter Nine

G) North Anna Battlefield Park

Chapter Thirteen

Because much of the existing battlefield remains in private hands, please respect the rights of property owners as you explore the area.

A final note: Because the actions along the North Anna happen on multiple fronts along both banks of the river, the geography does not lend itself to a chronological exploration of the battle. Therefore, sites of interest are labeled here in roughly chronological order without driving directions between them. Relevant information about each location can be found the respective chapters.

The descendants of Cpl. Michael Shortell of the 7th Wisconsin, killed at Jericho Mills, erected a monument in his honor and in honor of all the valiant men who lost their lives on the battlefields of North Anna. It is the only monument at North Anna Battlefield Park. The plaque reads, in part:

"No more shall the war cry sever,

Or the winding rivers be red;

They banish our anger forever

When they laurel the graves of our dead!

Under the sod and dew,

Waiting the judgment day;

Love and tears for the blue,

Tears and love for the gray." (cm)

Foreword

BY GORDON C. RHEA

The Overland Campaign of 1864 ranks among the American Civil War’s pivotal campaigns. It also numbers among the most exciting, pitting the war’s two premier generals—Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee—against one another for the first time. In his battles against Lee, Grant demonstrated firm commitment to an unwavering strategic objective—the destruction of Lee’s army—in the face of tactical setbacks in the Wilderness, at Spotsylvania Court House, at the North Anna River, and at Cold Harbor. Often depicted as a butcher enamored of hopeless charges against invulnerable Confederate earthworks, Grant in fact employed thoughtful combinations of maneuver and force to bring a difficult adversary to bay. Lee, famous for his ability to out-general opponents wielding manpower advantages similar to Grant’s, demonstrated exceptional skill and daring that served to thwart Grant’s offensives. Lee made mistakes that seriously imperiled his army—the battle of the Bloody Angle at Spotsylvania Court House comes to mind—but his uncanny knack for improvising solutions always redeemed the day. Grant and Lee each favored offensive operations and were masters at improvisation; in many respects, they were as evenly matched in military talent as any two opposing generals have ever been.

The subject of this book—the movement to the North Anna River, and the stirring events that took place there—is the least-known of Grant’s and Lee’s confrontations. In many respects, however, it is the most interesting. The operation began with a cat-and-mouse game of maneuvers from Spotsylvania Court House to the North Anna River. Lee assumed a strong line below the river, protecting Richmond and its critical rail link with the Shenandoah Valley. But part of the Union army pushed across the North Anna at Jericho Ford, and Lee’s subordinate Ambrose Powell Hill failed to drive the Federals back. With his defensive river line breached and a Northern host massing on his flank, Lee faced his gravest challenge yet. His response—a clever defensive formation with intriguing offensive possibilities—stands as a monument to the Confederate commander’s ingenuity and ability to turn a bad situation his way.

Looking downriver toward Ox Ford. (cm)

Chris Mackowski’s Strike Them a Blow is an absorbing, fast-paced exposition of this astounding campaign. In the years following the war, the Confederate cartographer Jedediah Hotchkiss tried to understand the North Anna operations but found himself wandering about in the entanglement of conflicting statements, at times well nigh lost and inclined to wash my hands of the whole matter, but am in for it and cannot escape. We are fortunate that Mr. Mackowski has tried his hand at untangling the web of accounts surrounding these events, and that he, too, stayed in for it. His highly readable book gives us an exemplary roadmap to this neglected slice of American history.

Gordon C. Rhea

Mount Pleasant, South Carolina

April 12, 2015

Near Ox Ford, the North Anna’s north bank has a tall guardian watching over it. (cm)

The North Anna near Ox Ford (cm)

If I can get one more pull at [Grant], I will defeat him.

— Lee

Everything looks exceedingly favorable to us.

— Grant

With the North Anna River flowing far below, the Ox Ford overlook at North Anna Battlefield Park in Hanover County, Virginia, allows visitors to see the commanding position Confederates held. The rivers in Virginia all posed significant geographic barriers for the armies to contend with. Fortifying on the south bank of the North Anna allowed Confederate General Robert E. Lee to take advantage of the river’s natural strengths to create his strongest defensive position of the war. (cm)

Prologue

MAY 24, 1864

We must strike them a blow, Lee said. We must strike them a blow.

The Old Gray Fox had once more demonstrated his cleverness. He and his commanders had laid a perfect trap for the Army of the Potomac, and the Federals had stumbled right into it. Now it was time to spring it. Now it was time to strike them blow.

But lying on his cot, confined to his tent, wracked by dysentery, Robert E. Lee, the commanding general of the Army of Northern Virginia, was in no condition to strike anything. Three weeks of incessant fighting, constant movement, and nonstop worry had left Lee physically and mentally exhausted, made exponentially worse by a chronic lack of sleep.

The May rain—seven days of it since the month began 24 days earlier—had seeped into everyone’s bones … and bed rolls … and uniforms … and shoes, for those who had them. Lee had been more protected from it than most, but dampness like that has a way of settling in.

Lee’s staff had seen it coming, had seen him dragging, had felt the sting of his growing irritability, but Lee tried to push through nonetheless. The Federals had been at him and his army constantly since May 5 and were still not giving him any chance to catch his breath.

The grueling toll of the campaign now lay over Lee like a shroud.

It had gotten so bad that, for the past two days, he had given up his fine gray mare, Traveler, and had taken to riding in a carriage. Now he could not even muster