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The Annals of the Civil War Written by Leading Participants North and South (ed. Alexander Kelly McClure), The campaign in Pennsylvania. (search)
this latter matter the evidence is against General Meade. General Hooker, on the 27th of June, 1863, telegraphed to General Halleck, from Poolesville: My whole force of enlisted men for duty will not exceed one hundred and five thousand (105,000). ke his total effective force (officers and men) full one hundred and twelve thousand. This dispatch was received by General Halleck at nine A. M. On reaching Sandy Hook, subsequently, on the same day, General Hooker telegraphed as follows, concernicured to-night, and the troops marched to where they could have been of some service. This dispatch was received by General Halleck at 2.55 P. M. It is evident that the garrison at Harper's Ferry was not embraced in the returns alluded to by General Hooker in his first dispatch. Although General Halleck refused these troops to General Hooker, they were immediately awarded to General Meade, on his assuming command when General Hooker was relieved. With t more accurate returns of the two a
The Annals of the Civil War Written by Leading Participants North and South (ed. Alexander Kelly McClure), Van Dorn, the hero of Mississippi. (search)
een fought, and our army, under Beauregard, was occupying the works of Corinth when Van Dorn, with the Army of the West, sixteen thousand effectives, reached that point. We lay near Corinth more than six weeks, and three times offered battle to Halleck, who, with one hundred thousand men, was cautiously advancing as if to attack us. Three times our army, forty thousand strong, marched out of its intrenchments and advanced to meet Halleck and give him battle, but every time he drew back and decHalleck and give him battle, but every time he drew back and declined it. In every council Van Dorn's voice was for war. May 30th, 1862, Beauregard evacuated his works in a masterly manner, and marched south, unmolested, to Tupelo, when he halted the army and held it ready for battle. In June, Van Dorn was ordered to go to Vicksburg, which was threatened with attack, and was in poor condition for defense. He evinced here great energy and ability. He repulsed the enemy's fleet, put the place in a good condition of defense, occupied Port Hudson, and there
The Annals of the Civil War Written by Leading Participants North and South (ed. Alexander Kelly McClure), The mistakes of Gettysburg. (search)
one this, we should either have been attacked — the very thing we had been hoping and mourning for-or we should have dislodged Meade from his position without striking a blow. If we had been attacked, we should have certainly repulsed it. Had Meade deserted his position without striking a blow in its defense, the moral effect in our favor would have been tremendous. To show that one of these results would certainly have followed, I quote a dispatch sent in cipher from General Meade to General Halleck just before my battle on the 2d. The dispatch reads: If not attacked, and I can get any positive information of the enemy which will justify me in doing so, I will attack. If I find it hazardous to do so, and am satisfied that the enemy is endeavoring to move to my rear and interpose between me and Washington, I shall fall back on my supplies at Westminster. If, however, no decisive result had followed immediately upon the flank movement that should have been made on the night of the
The Annals of the Civil War Written by Leading Participants North and South (ed. Alexander Kelly McClure), The battle of Shiloh. (search)
hwest or the cause of the Union materially suffer. The new department commanders-General Buell in that of Ohio, and General Halleck in that of Missouri-united their energies, and the capture of those important strongholds, Forts Donelson and Henry,nses were in course of construction. In February, a new district was formed, called West Tennessee, and by order of General Halleck, General Grant was appointed to its command, with headquarters in the field. The most strenuous exertions were madeecting the ground or disposing the troops, who was responsible when that officer lay prostrate on his death-bed? General Halleck had, in general orders, directed the camp to be fortified, and supposed this had been done, for, in his first dispatn of the forces of General Grant, who, on account of the continued illness of General Smith, and an explanation with General Halleck, was ordered, March 14th, to assume command of the Army of the Tennessee, were as follows: General Sherman occupied
The Annals of the Civil War Written by Leading Participants North and South (ed. Alexander Kelly McClure), Morgan's Indiana and Ohio Railroad. (search)
would have brought the campaign to a glorious end by autumn, and brushed the Confederacy out of Tennessee, North Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, if indeed he had not so weakened it that the whole structure would have tumbled into ruin before the dawn of 1864. But we had no such man at the head of Southwestern military affairs. They were in the hands of three commanders, entirely independent of each other, and probably jealous of each other. These chiefs had no very high opinion of General Halleck, the nominal commander-in-chief at army headquarters, and this last sentiment of the generals was indulged in by all ranks in their several armies. It was a different task to disconcert plans made by or for the heads of armies thus situated from that which would have been necessary to break the back of one of Grant's campaigns a year later. He had ample authority, and the rugged will to enforce his orders. But speculate as we may about what might have been, history will record the fa
Robert Lewis Dabney, Life and Commands of Lieutenand- General Thomas J. Jackson, Chapter 14: the Richmond campaign. (search)
of his apprehensive temper were patent, even to his own Government. He states that his own force was reduced to eighty thousand effective men. It must be remembered that during the campaign before Richmond, the motives of McClellan's policy dictated a studied depreciation of his own numbers. In the returns given by himself in another place, his effective force present for duty is set down at one hundred and six thousand men, inclusive of the garrison of Fortress Monroe under General Dix. Halleck declared, in his letter of Aug. 6th, that McClellan still had ninety thousand men at Berkeley, after all his losses I These McClellan had estimated at fifteen thousand, how truthfully may be known from this: that he places the men lost by desertion and capture under six thousand, whereas the Confederates had in their hands more than ten thousand prisoners; and the woods of the peninsula were swarming with stragglers. Whatever may have beer his numerical superiority, it is indisputable that
Robert Lewis Dabney, Life and Commands of Lieutenand- General Thomas J. Jackson, Chapter 16: second Manassa's. (search)
xperiment was verified. On that day, General Longstreet commenced his march for Gordonsville, and the remainder of the troops were moved in the same direction, the division of General D. H. Hill bringing up the rear, near the end of the month. Halleck, the new Federal generalissimo, was also eagerly dictating the same movement to McClellan. He found the Grand army divided into two widely separated fragments, and trembled before the activity of Jackson, and the danger of his Capital. McClelltery upon the left, announced the purpose of the Federalists to contest it with him, and a brigade made its appearance advancing along the railroad from Alexandria. This was the detachment of Brigadier-General Taylor, of New Jersey, sent out by Halleck to re-open Pope's communications, and to brush away what they supposed was a mere inroad of cavalry. They advanced with all the confidence of ignorance, until they found themselves almost enveloped in the toils. The captured guns were turned a
Robert Lewis Dabney, Life and Commands of Lieutenand- General Thomas J. Jackson, Chapter 17: the campaign in Maryland. (search)
ties of cavalry. The other consequence, the evacuation of Harper's Ferry and Martinsburg, would also have followed, if the sound discretion of McClellan had prevailed. No sooner had he fully discovered General Lee's drift, than he requested of Halleck that the troops there and at Harper's Ferry, useless and in peril where they were, should be withdrawn and brought into connexion with him. His advice was disregarded, and the speedy capture of both those detachments evinced at once the soundneer's Ferry by the Confederates. The blunder of the Federalists in remaining there, did, indeed, exert an unforeseen and indirect influence in favor of their army, as will appear in the sequel; but, as it was one which was not designed by either Halleck or McClellan, it does not acquit the former of these Generals from the charge of an error of judgment. This commander was now seized with a panic for the safety of Washington, which obfuscated his own senses, and obstructed, for a time, every e
Robert Lewis Dabney, Life and Commands of Lieutenand- General Thomas J. Jackson, Chapter 18: Fredericksburg. (search)
on, he immediately appreciated their importance, and sent the division of Early to the place, which began diligently to fortify the southern bank. The reports of the Federal Generals subsequently disclosed the. importance of these precautions. Halleck had himself selected the Hop Yard as the place for crossing, and Burnside had planned a surprise there, which was relinquished when they perceived that the ground was pre-occupied. Meantime the Federal Government was urging that unhappy commnot been forwarded to him from the upper Potomac. Twenty days were spent in these mutual criminations. Of the merits of the quarrel, it is enough to say, that the delay of the bridge trains probably evinced the incompetency both of himself and Halleck. But the interval was diligently improved by him in perfecting his communications at Acquia Creek, fortifying the heights north of the Rappahannock, and arming them with the most potent equipment of heavy guns ever marshalled in the field by an
he day. Outnumbered and shattered, but unconquered still, the Confederates could not advance from the field they had held at such bitter cost. And when night stopped the aimless; carnage, each army, too crippled to renew the fight, withdrew toward its base. McClellan could not pursue; and the Confederates fell back doggedly, sullenly, and recrossed into Virginia. As usual in the North, a wild howl went up against McClellan. In response to this brutumfulmen, he was promptly removed by Halleck, for not conquering an army that had proved itself invincible! Bitter indeed was the hour that brought to Richmond the story of Sharpsburg. Flushed with hope, undoubting of triumph, her citizens; only listened for the wild cheer that would echo back from conquered Washington. But the sound that reached their ears was the menacing roar from retreating ranks that left near one-third their number stark and ghastly on that grim field, where the Death Angel has so darkly flapped his wings.