Summary of Bruce Catton's A Stillness at Appomattox

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The Washington’s Birthday ball was the most brilliant event of the winter. It was not held in a tent, but in a special, weatherproof ballroom built by the II Army Corps. The guests were mostly officers’ wives, who were quartered in wall tents.

#2 The war was still going on, and the end was nowhere in sight. The officers and women at the ball continued to have illusions about the war, and the future, despite the facts.

#3 Kilpatrick had ambitions of becoming president of the United States. He was also very anxious to become a major general, and he was doing everything he could to get that promotion.

#4 Kilpatrick had a plan to free the prisoners in Richmond. He wanted to slip through General Lee’s defenses and get down to Richmond before the Army of Northern Virginia could send reinforcements. He wanted to distribute thousands of copies of the President’s proclamation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Jun 13, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822522299

IRB Media

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Insights on Bruce Catton's A Stillness at Appomattox

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The Washington’s Birthday ball was the most brilliant event of the winter. It was not held in a tent, but in a special, weatherproof ballroom built by the II Army Corps. The guests were mostly officers’ wives, who were quartered in wall tents.

#2

The war was still going on, and the end was nowhere in sight. The officers and women at the ball continued to have illusions about the war, and the future, despite the facts.

#3

Kilpatrick had ambitions of becoming president of the United States. He was also very anxious to become a major general, and he was doing everything he could to get that promotion.

#4

Kilpatrick had a plan to free the prisoners in Richmond. He wanted to slip through General Lee’s defenses and get down to Richmond before the Army of Northern Virginia could send reinforcements. He wanted to distribute thousands of copies of the President’s proclamation.

#5

The plan was to take Richmond by a sudden grab. But headquarters could not help remembering that a similar plan had been cooked up by the incompetent Ben Butler a month earlier, and the Army of the Potomac had gotten into a small fight at Morton’s Ford.

#6

Dahlgren was a good soldier, and in the fall of 1862 he led a cavalry raid into Fredericksburg. In the summer of 1863, he was wounded in a fight with Rebel cavalry, and his right leg was amputated. He spent the next few months convalescing at his father’s home in Washington.

#7

The raid was a departure from reality. It was a romantic dream, and glory was out of date. It was the only thing that mattered nowadays. The longer the war lasted, the more victory was going to cost, and a dazzling cavalry raid would not even be the small change of the final purchase price.

#8

The march went on unbroken, and the troops were in high spirits. They were in enemy territory, and they were collecting foodstuffs as they went. But the sky grew cloudy, and when dusk came, there was a cold, gusty wind driving icy rain into their faces.

#9

The battle began as the prelude to a smashing attack, but soon turned into a sparring match as everyone waited hopefully for some indication that Dahlgren had gotten into Richmond and would soon get out again. But the skies and the weather gave no signs.

#10

Kilpatrick’s expedition had been planned out, and now he and his men were at the gate of Richmond, but the weight of responsibility was too much for the worn-out cavalrymen to handle. They returned to the north side of the Chickahominy River.

#11

The raiders reached the James River, but were unable to ford it. They went toward Richmond on the north side, and heard Kilpatrick’s guns. But it was too late now; the Confederates in Richmond were waiting for them.

#12

The expedition was a failure, and there was nothing for it but to ride down the Virginia peninsula and get within Ben Butler’s lines before disaster became absolute.

#13

The raid was a failure, and the men who carried out the attack on Richmond were not kind to the body of Colonel Dahlgren. Someone cut off a finger to get at a ring he was wearing, and others took his artificial leg as a souvenir.

#14

The raid was a sensation, and the newspapers had a field day. The Richmond Examiner called for reprisals, and the New York Times spoke zestfully of what the raiders had seen in war-racked Virginia.

#15

The army had always been impatient of restraint, and it had not yet figured out how to deal with the new reality of having black soldiers. The army had created a myth, and no cruel misuse of sword or noose would quite kill it.

#16

The myth that the