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William Schouler, A history of Massachusetts in the Civil War: Volume 2 1,239 1,239 Browse Search
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing) 467 467 Browse Search
Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Massachusetts in the Army and Navy during the war of 1861-1865, vol. 2 184 184 Browse Search
Brigadier-General Ellison Capers, Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 5, South Carolina (ed. Clement Anselm Evans) 171 171 Browse Search
Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 33. (ed. Reverend J. William Jones) 159 159 Browse Search
George P. Rowell and Company's American Newspaper Directory, containing accurate lists of all the newspapers and periodicals published in the United States and territories, and the dominion of Canada, and British Colonies of North America., together with a description of the towns and cities in which they are published. (ed. George P. Rowell and company) 156 156 Browse Search
William F. Fox, Lt. Col. U. S. V., Regimental Losses in the American Civil War, 1861-1865: A Treatise on the extent and nature of the mortuary losses in the Union regiments, with full and exhaustive statistics compiled from the official records on file in the state military bureaus and at Washington 102 102 Browse Search
Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 30. (ed. Reverend J. William Jones) 79 79 Browse Search
A Roster of General Officers , Heads of Departments, Senators, Representatives , Military Organizations, &c., &c., in Confederate Service during the War between the States. (ed. Charles C. Jones, Jr. Late Lieut. Colonel of Artillery, C. S. A.) 77 77 Browse Search
Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Massachusetts in the Army and Navy during the war of 1861-1865, vol. 1, Condensed history of regiments. 75 75 Browse Search
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Browsing named entities in William Swinton, Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac. You can also browse the collection for 1862 AD or search for 1862 AD in all documents.

Your search returned 15 results in 10 document sections:

William Swinton, Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, I. The Army of the Potomac in history. (search)
land, either with the view of penetrating Pennsylvania or of manoeuvring towards Washington. It was by this line that Lee issued upon the soil of the loyal States on the occasion of both the Confederate invasions—to wit, the Maryland invasion of 1862, and the Pennsylvania invasion of 1863. This circumstance compelled, throughout the war, the constant presence of a considerable army to guard the debotuche of this great valley and the passes of the Blue Ridge; and the Shenandoah region was the ust be taken with the limitations that belong to it. The most important of these lines are the Peninsula between the York and James rivers, and the route by the south side of the James. The former was adopted by General McClellan in the spring of 1862, and the latter was eventually taken up by General Grant in the summer of 1864, after having, in a remarkable campaign, crossed every possible line of operation against Richmond. But it is manifest that Richmond could be operated against from the
William Swinton, Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, chapter 2 (search)
or a commissariat, or an organized artillery. Being tete-à--tete with McDowell, I saw him do things of detail which, in any even half-way organized army, belong to the specialty of a chief of the staff. .... McDowell received his corps in the most chaotic state. Almost with his own hands he organized, or rather put together, the artillery. Brigades are scarcely formed; the commanders of brigades do not know their commands, and the soldiers do not know their generals. Gurowski: Diary. 1861-2, p. 61. Mr. Russell (My Diary North and South, pp. 424-5) makes some striking statements to the same purpose. The wonder, indeed, is not that he should not have done more, but that he did so much; and the spirit of forbearance and alacrity with which he entered upon and carried through his trying task, entitles him to great credit. In entering upon the special problem assigned him, it was not possible for General McDowell to avoid taking into account not only his immediate enemy at Manassa
William Swinton, Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, chapter 3 (search)
III. the army before Washington. July, 1861-march, 1862. I. Organization of the Army of the Potomac. When the army that so lately had gone forth with such high hopes returned from Manassas shattered and discomfited to the banks of the Potomac, wise men saw there was that had suffered worse defeat than the army—it was thex, and difficult question, not to be entered on here. It has been very severely criticised by Colonel Lecomte in his work, Campagne de Virginie et de Maryland en 1862; and to these animadversions a warm rejoinder has been made by General Barnard in The Peninsular Campaign and its Antecedents. Such is but a faint setting fortich are thought to justify and those which are thought to condemn it. The points of defence of the inactivity of the Army of the Potomac during the winter of 1861-2 may all be included in this summary: the yet imperfect organization, equipment, and discipline of the army; the inadequacy of its force; the difficulty of winter ca
William Swinton, Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, chapter 4 (search)
s necessary, and it did not start till the morning of the 6th, and did not make the landing near White House till the morning of the 7th. It could be of no avail, unless supported by the whole army coming from Williamsburg. Schalk: Campaigns of 1862-3, p. 169. But there was no assurance that this could be, for the existence of the defences of Williamsburg, where the Confederates were sure, if need be, to make a stand, was known. Barnard: Report of Engineer Operations, p. 63. The actiongn from the Rapidan to Richmond, delivered a bloody battle on the same ground. Yet between the circumstances of the two battles, there was one point of difference; and it is a point of difference that epitomizes the whole progress of the war from 1862 to 1864. By the time Lee found himself on the defensive along the Chickahominy, a long experience had taught the enormous advantage of those rude breastworks of logs and earth, which the troops of both armies had acquired such a marvellous facili
William Swinton, Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, V. Pope's campaign in Northern Virginia. August, 1862. (search)
It would appear that General Grant had less respect for General Halleck's views of the danger and impracticability of the plan, seeing that two years afterwards he adopted that precise plan, and took Richmond and destroyed Lee by it! Nor can it be said that circumstances, so far as regards the defence of Washington, differed in the one case from those in the other-excepting that they were such as to warrant the adoption of the plan by General McClellan much more than by General Grant—for in 1862 there were ten men left behind for the defence of Washington to one in 1864. There appears to have been at first an intention on the part of the Administration to adopt this judicious course; but a train of events, partly the work of man and partly the effect of circumstances, presently arose, that not only frustrated this design, but wrenched the army wholly from the Peninsula, and transferred the theatre of operations to the front of Washington and then to the soil of the loyal States.
William Swinton, Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, chapter 7 (search)
leled by Dumourier's conduct in Holland in 1793, respecting which Jomini remarks, that he foolishly abandoned the pursuit of the allies in order to transfer the theatre from the centre to the extreme left of the general field. Art of War, p. 106. But such instances are for the warning, rather than the imitation of commanders. The project of changing the line of operations to Fredericksburg was not approved at Washington, but it was assented to; Halleck: Report of Military Operations, 1862-3. and on the 15th of November, General Burnside put his columns in motion from Warrenton. In the march towards Fredericksburg, it was determined that the army should move by the north bank of the Rappahannock to Falmouth, where by a ponton-bridge, the boats for which were to be forwarded from Washington, it would cross to Fredericksburg and seize the bluffs on the south bank. It had been also designed to march a force by the south side of the Rappahannock to anticipate the possession of t
William Swinton, Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, chapter 9 (search)
Harper's Ferry, and thence began griefs for Hooker, and an imbroglio more and more involved till it resulted in his supersession from command at the critical moment when the two armies were manoeuvring towards a collision the weightiest of the war. The circumstances under which this took place are as follows. At the time Lee's advance was set on foot, the distribution of the Union forces showed the same vicious amorcellement under independent commanders that had marked the worst period of 1862. General Heintzelman commanded the Department of Washington, with a force of about thirty-six thousand men; General Heintzelman's tri-monthly report for June 10, showed thirty-six thousand six hundred and forty men. General Schenck controlled the Middle Department, east of Cumberland, including the garrisons at Harper's Ferry, Winchester, etc.; while General Dix, with a considerable force, lay for some purpose inconceivable on the Peninsula. Now, about the time Hooker crossed the Potomac,
William Swinton, Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, chapter 11 (search)
Brigadier-General Hinks. which General Q. A. Gillmore had lately brought from the coast of South Carolina. General Butler had in addition a division of horse, under General Kautz; this division was, at this time, at Norfolk and Portsmouth. The strength of the army was somewhat above thirty thousand of all arms. At Yorktown, Butler was in position to move by land up the Peninsula in the direction of Richmond; to use the line of the York River for an advance similar to that of McClellan, in 1862, or to take up the line of the James and threaten the Confederate capital from the south side. The last was the move actually intended, but the real destination of this column was kept secret; and feints of striking in both the other directions were made. The 1st of May, Butler dispatched a detachment of his force (Henry's brigade of Turner's division) by water to West Point, at the head of the York, and at the same time he sent a force of eighteen hundred cavalry to move, by way of West Po
William Swinton, Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, chapter 12 (search)
they laid in ashes. Upon this, the Sixth Corps, which had been retired to Washington en route for the James, was returned to Harper's Ferry, to unite with the Nineteenth Corps and the Federal forces of West Virginia in an effort to clear the Valley of the Shenandoah. The distribution of the Union force in the region of Northern and West Virginia, and along the frontier of the loyal States, was at this time as little conformable to military principles as it had been in the worst period of 1862. Washington and Baltimore, and the country adjacent, formed the Department of Washington; Eastern and Central Pennsylvania and Northern Maryland, the Department of the Susquehanna; Northwestern Virginia and Western Pennsylvania, the Department of West Virginia; and the region of the Shenandoah, and eastward to the Bull Run Mountains, the Middle Department. These several military bailiwicks were under control of independent military commanders, whose petty jealousies and want of harmony of a
William Swinton, Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, Index. (search)
tion of, on McClellan assuming command, 62; strength available for advance, 70; army corps, McClellan's intentions, 64; first disposition of the, 27; first crossed into Virginia, 30; Manassas campaign —see Manassas; inactivity during winter of 1861-2, reasons advanced for, 71; comparative discipline in 1861 and 1862, 72; organization into four corps by the President, 88; resumes its positions of previous to battle of Fair Oaks, 139; strength, June 26, 1861, 142; Gaines' Mills battle, 149; right1862, 72; organization into four corps by the President, 88; resumes its positions of previous to battle of Fair Oaks, 139; strength, June 26, 1861, 142; Gaines' Mills battle, 149; right wing on the south bank of Chickahominy River, 153; retreat to the James commenced, 154; order of march across White Oak Swamp, 155; concentrated at Malvern Hill —the battle of, 160; withdraws from Malvern Hill to Harrison's Bar, 164: its bravery and endurance on the Peninsula, 166; number brought back to Harrison's Landing, 167; ordered to withdraw to Aquia Creek, 171; transferred to Aquia Creek and Alexandria, via Fortress Monroe, 174; Army of Virginia absorbed into, 193; movement towards Fred