Humphreys, "The Virginia of '64 and '65," p. 8. should be captured while the Army of Virginia CHAP. XIV. was still strong enough to keep the field, it might move southward and continue the war indefinitely. A plan of campaign was therefore chosen which Campaign should bring the two armies into collision at once, on a field at some distance from Richmond, where troops might be moved in large numbers by either flank, and where there might be at least a chance of success in destroying or greatly diminishing the military power of the Confederacy, before the two antagonists, in their deadly grapple, should come within sight of the works which guarded the rebel capital. No one dreamed of an easy victory. There was no road to Richmond which would not exact its frightful toll of blood. "Move as we might," says General Humphreys, "long-continued, hard fighting under great difficulties was before us." Yet no one imagined how Ibid., p. 9. many days of desperate battle, how many months of leaguer and march, they were to see before this terrible campaign was to end in the great and final victory. The Army of the Potomac now had a commander, whose purpose was clear and definite, and whose plan was of archaic simplicity, "to hammer continuously against the armed force of the enemy and his resources until by mere attrition, if in no other way, there should be nothing left to him but an equal submission with the loyal section of our common country to the Constitution and laws of the land." The two armies lay in their intrenchments on both sides of the Rapidan. The headquarters of General Grant were at Culpeper Court House, among the main body of his infantry; those of 1864. Grant, March, 1864, to "Personal Memoirs." Vol. II., p. 556. 1864. Hum phreys, "The Virginia Campaign CHAP. XIV. Lee at Orange Court House; the Army of Northern Virginia guarded the south bank of the river for eighteen or twenty miles, Ewell commanding the right half, A. P. Hill the left. The formidable works on Mine Run secured the Confederate right wing, which was further protected by the tangled and gloomy thickets of the Wilderness. Longstreet had arrived from Tennessee with two fine divisions, and was held in reserve at Gordonsville. The two armies were not so unequally matched as Confederate writers insist. The strength of the Army of the Potomac, present for duty equipped, on the 30th of April, was 122,146; this includes the 22,708 of pp. 14-17. Burnside's Ninth Corps.1 The Army of Northern Virginia numbered at the opening of this campaign not less than 61,953. While this seems like a great disparity of strength, it must not be forgotten that the Confederate general had an enormous advantage of position. The dense woods and the thickly timbered swamps in which he was to resist the march of the National army were as well known to him as the lines of his own hand, and were absolutely unknown to his antagonist. Even in a suc of '64 and '65," Ibid. 1 After a careful collation of all the statements at our command, from both National and Confederate authorities, we have adopted the figures of General A. A. Humphreys, chief-of-staff of the Army of the Potomac, as given in his admirable history of the Virginia Campaign. We take this occasion to express our continual obligations to this able and impartial work. The student is fortunate who can find a guide of such intelligence, such technical learning, and such invincible candor, as General Humphreys. He may be followed with perfect confidence, through the devious maze of groping marches and murderous battles, from the Rapidan to the Appomattox. Compared with him, all other critics of this momentous campaign seem charged with color and prejudice; he alone appears destitute alike of friendships and animosities. He has no favorite but the truth; he is as just to his enemy as to himself; and all this without apparent consciousness of his own magnanimity. cessful advance in such a region the lines of the CHAP. XIV. victor become thoroughly broken, and the defeated party, fighting on his own ground, can recover almost as readily as his pursuers. Both armies were of excellent material; the new troops in the National ranks rapidly acquired their education among the seasoned veterans of the Army of the Potomac, and Lee's force was like a well-tempered blade in his practiced hand. On both sides the troops had commanders worthy of them. The Army of the Potomac had been thoroughly reorganized and reduced to three corps: the Second, commanded by Hancock, who had recovered from his wounds received at Gettysburg, and now came back to complete his record of the most brilliant soldier in action that our army has ever known; the Fifth, which Warren led with eminent ability and devotion; and the Sixth, commanded by the beloved and trusted Sedgwick. Burnside, with the Ninth Corps, had at first an independent command; but this was soon found to be an impracticable arrangement, and it was united late in May with the army of Meade. The cavalry was placed under Sheridan, who had been brought from the West for that service. General Grant had not seen Pleasonton's meritorious service from Chancellorsville to Gettysburg; but he had seen Sheridan in that heroic rush up the slope of Missionary Ridge; and he was much given to trusting the evidence of his own eyes. Under these five commanders were many already famous who were to win still greater renown before the year was gone: Humphreys, Parke, Barlow, Gibbon, Birney, Wright, Crawford, Getty, Gregg, J. H. Wilson, Willcox, Griffin, VOL. VIII.-23 1864. |