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Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, The Passing of the Armies: The Last Campaign of the Armies., Chapter 6: Appomattox. (search)
18, 1864, I was left for dead under their eyes! It is by miracles we have lived to see this day,--any of us standing here. Now comes the sinewy remnant of fierce Hood's Division, which at Gettysburg we saw pouring through the Devil's Den, and the Plum Run gorge; turning again by the left our stubborn Third Corps, then swarming up the rocky bastions of Round Top, to be met there by equal valor, which changed Lee's whole plan of battle and perhaps the story of Gettysburg. Ah, is this Pickett's Division?-this little group left of those who on the lurid last day of Gettysburg breasted level cross-fire and thunderbolts of storm, to be strewn back drifting wrecks, where after that awful, futile, pitiful charge we buried them in graves a furlong wide, with names unknown! Met again in the terrible cyclone-sweep over the breastworks at Five Forks; met now, so thin, so pale, purged of the mortal,--as if knowing pain or joy no more. How could we help falling on our knees, all of us
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, The Passing of the Armies: The Last Campaign of the Armies., Chapter 9: the last review. (search)
pal staff: chivalrous Andy Webb, in earlier days familiar friend, inspector of our corps,--since that, meeting with his superb brigade the death-defying valor of Pickett's charge,--now rightly chief-of-staff of the army; grim old Hunt, chief of artillery, whose words were like his shot, whose thundersweeps had shaken hearts and hiterrible charge at the Dunker church at Antietam, and that still more terrible up Marye's Heights at Fredericksburg, and the check given to the desperate onset of Pickett and Pettigrew in the consummate hour of Gettysburg. We think, too, of the fiery mazes of the Wilderness, the deathblasts of Spottsylvania, and murderous Cold Haruseum of history. Here passes, led by staunch Spaulding, the sterling 19th Maine, once gallant Heath's, conspicuous everywhere, from the death-strewn flank of Pickett's charge, through all the terrible scenes of Grant's campaign, to its consummation at Appomattox. In its ranks now are the survivors of the old Spartan 4th, out
John Esten Cooke, Wearing of the Gray: Being Personal Portraits, Scenes, and Adventures of War., To Gettysburg and back again. (search)
tely sustained no injury. Having failed in this charge the enemy did not attempt another; the lines remained facing each other, and skirmishing, while the long thunder of the artillery beyond, indicated the hotter struggle of Cemetery Hill. Pickett's Virginians, we afterwards knew, were making their wild charge at that moment: advancing into that gulf of fire from which so few were to return; Kemper was being shot down; Armistead was falling as he leaped his horse over the Federal breastws unshaken, their confidence in Lee and themselves unimpaired. Longstreet said truly that he desired nothing better than for General Meade to attack his positionthat his men would have given the Federal troops a reception such as they had given Pickett. The stubborn resolution of the Army of Northern Virginia was thus unbroken-but the game was played for the time. The army was moving back, slow and defiant, to the Potomac. The cavalry protected its flanks and rear, fighting in the passes
John Esten Cooke, Wearing of the Gray: Being Personal Portraits, Scenes, and Adventures of War., chapter 3.33 (search)
ith the enemy-at Leesburg. The town was their favourite arena for combat. They delighted to visit, and early established a dining acquaintance there-selecting those houses where, between the courses, they could gaze into fair eyes, and tempt their fate. When they returned after these expeditions in search of horseshoes, they revelled in descriptions of ham and turkey and dessert-making ration-beef tougher, and camp flat-cake more like lead than ever. On the main street of Leesburg, near Pickett's tavern, the Third especially congregated. They wore the snowiest shirt bosoms, the bluest gray jackets, and the reddest cuffs imaginable. Thus armed to the teeth, and clad for war and conquest, they would separate in search of young ladies, and return at evening with the most glowing accounts of their adventures. Ii. A glance at the headquarters of the Third, and a brief notice of one of those worthies, may prove of interest to the descendants of these doubty Revolutionnaires.
Robert Lewis Dabney, Life and Commands of Lieutenand- General Thomas J. Jackson, Chapter 14: the Richmond campaign. (search)
treet was bringing up his division simultaneously, to storm this desperate line; and, after other brigades had recoiled, broken by a fire under which it seemed impossible that any troops could live, was just sending in his never-failing reserve, Pickett's veteran brigade. These troops, after advancing heroically over the shattered regiments of their friends, within point blank range of the triple lines before them, unfortunately paused to return the fire of the concealed enemy. The entreatiesss of the night, escaped across the Chickahominy. The next morning, as Jackson inspected this position, and saw the deadly disadvantages under which the Texans had carried it, he exclaimed; These men are soldiers indeed Here, and in front of Pickett's charge near by, all the Confederate dead were on the north side of the gorge. Just as soon as the enemy saw them determined to advance, in spite of their fire, and the first line was dislodged from the channel of the rivulet in front, the oth
Robert Lewis Dabney, Life and Commands of Lieutenand- General Thomas J. Jackson, Chapter 18: Fredericksburg. (search)
t of McLaws in the front line, supported by that of Ransom, in reserve. To the brigade of General T. R. Cobb, of Georgia, from McLaws's division, was assigned the post of advanced guard, along the road and stone wall which has been described as skirting the base of that hill. Upon another, still more commanding height, in its rear, were planted other powerful batteries, designed to sweep the Federalists from its crest, should they succeed in gaining it. Next to McLaws came the division of Pickett, occupying the edge of the highlands opposite to the widest part of the plain; and next to him the division of Hood. On the right the country was less elevated; it offered every way fewer difficulties to the enemy; and it was flanked by the wide and smooth valley of the Massaponax,which was so favorable to the operations of his vast masses. Here, therefore, General Jackson strengthened himself with a triple line of battle, to compensate for the weakness of his ground. His front line was
Robert Lewis Dabney, Life and Commands of Lieutenand- General Thomas J. Jackson, Chapter 19: Chancellorsville. (search)
disaffected and scattered, and that with his vast numbers he would easily surround and crush the remainder, leaving no organized foe between him and Richmond. In his usual boastful spirit, he exalted the invincibility of his host declaring it to be the finest army upon the planet. To meet this tremendous force, General Lee had the corps of General Jackson, and two divisions of the corps of General Longstreet, those of Anderson and McLaws. The other three, with Longstreet, under Hood, Pickett, Ransom, were absent in Southeastern Virginia, making a demonstration against Suffolk, whither they had been directed by,the scarcity of forage and food in Spottsylvania. The corps of General Jackson now consisted of four divisions,--those of A. P. Hill; D. H. Hill, commanded by Brigadier General Rhodes; Trimble, commanded by Brigadier General Colston; and Early.--General D. H. Hill had been detached to another and more important command, and Major-General Trimble was detained by infirmity
Robert Lewis Dabney, Life and Commands of Lieutenand- General Thomas J. Jackson, Chapter 20: death and burial. (search)
to the Governor's gates, and hidden for the time, from the eyes of the multitude, of which the major part were wet with tears. For the next day, a great civic and military pomp was devised, which was thus described in a cotemporary publication. At the hour appointed, the coffin was borne to the hearse, a signal gun was fired from near the Washington monument, and the procession began to move to the solemn strains of the Dead March in Saul. The hearse was preceded by two regiments of Gen. Pickett's division, with arms reversed, that General and his Staff, the Fayette artillery, and Wren's company of cavalry. Behind came the horse of the dead soldier, caparisoned for battle, and led by a groom; his Staff officers, members of the Stonewall Brigade, invalids and wounded; and then a vast array of officials, headed by the President of the Confederate States, and members of his Cabinet, followed by all the general officers in Richmond; after whom came a mighty throng of civic dignitari
Thomas C. DeLeon, Four years in Rebel capitals: an inside view of life in the southern confederacy, from birth to death., Chapter 29: over again, to Gettysburg. (search)
her women the people rejoice at the advance public belief in its result Washington to fall; the war to end the prelude to disaster second day at Gettysburg Pickett's wonderful charge some one has blundered? how the story came South revulsion and discontent Lee not blamed Strictures on non-retaliation the Marylanders. and their wild whoo! made one continuous song through the sultry noon. Forth from the canopy of smoke and their screen of trees, comes the chosen storming party-Pickett's division of Virginians; supported on the right by Wilcox and on the left by Heth's division under Pettigrew, its own general having been wounded in the head therom Gettysburg rolled back over Richmond, darkened and made dense a hundred fold in the transit. The terrible carnage of that field was exaggerated by rumor. Pickett's gallant division was declared annihilated; it was believed that the army had lost 20,000 men; and it was known that such priceless blood as that of Garnett, Pet
Thomas C. DeLeon, Four years in Rebel capitals: an inside view of life in the southern confederacy, from birth to death., Chapter 30: the Confederacy afloat. (search)
w trusty men and picked officers; glide silently out from Richmond, where his duties as colonel of cavalry on the President's staff chained him most of the time. Soon would come an echo from the frontier, telling of quick, sharp struggle; victorious boarding and a Federal gunboat or two given to the flames. I have already alluded to his dashing raid upon the fishery fleet; but his cunning capture of the gunboats in the Rappahannock, or his cool and daring attack on the Underwriter, during Pickett's movement on Newberne, would alone give him undying reputation. The United States had a navy in her waters that would class as the third maritime power of the world; and this she rapidly increased by every appliance of money, skill and energy. She bought and built ships and spent vast sums and labor in experiments in ordnance, armoring and machinery. As result of this, the Federal navy, at the end of the second year of the war, numbered some 390 vessels of all grades, carrying a fra
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