Strike Them a Blow - Savas Beatie, LLC

Strike Them a Blow
BATTLE ALONG THE NORTH ANNA RIVER
MAY 21-26, 1864
by Chris Mackowski
Chris Mackowski, series editor
Daniel T. Davis, chief historian
Kristopher D. White, emeritus editor
Also part of the Emerging Civil War Series:
The Aftermath of Battle: The Burial of the Civil War Dead
by Meg Thompson
Bloody Autumn: The Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1864
by Daniel T. Davis and Phillip S. Greenwalt
Bushwhacking on a Grand Scale: The Battle of Chickamauga, Sept. 18-20, 1863
by William Lee White
Calamity in Carolina: The Battles of Averasboro and Bentonville, March 1865
by Daniel T. Davis and Phillip S. Greenwalt
Dawn of Victory: Breakthrough at Petersburg, March 25-April 2, 1865
by Edward S. Alexander
Fight Like the Devil: The First Day at Gettysburg, July 1, 1863
by Chris Mackowski and Daniel T. Davis
Grant’s Last Battle: The Story Behind the Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant
by Chris Mackowski
Hurricane from the Heavens: The Battle of Cold Harbor, May 26-June 5, 1864
by Daniel T. Davis and Phillip S. Greenwalt
The Last Days of Stonewall Jackson: The Mortal Wounding of the Confederacy’s Greatest Icon
by Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White
No Turning Back: A Guide to the 1864 Overland Campaign
by Robert M. Dunkerly, Donald C. Pfanz, and David R. Ruth
A Season of Slaughter: The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, May 8-21, 1864
by Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White
Simply Murder: The Battle of Fredericksburg, December 13, 1862
by Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White
That Furious Struggle: Chancellorsville and the High Tide of the Confederacy, May 1-5, 1863
by Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White
To the Bitter End: Appomattox, Bennett Place, and the Surrenders of the Confederacy
by Robert M. Dunkerly
Also by Chris Mackowski:
Chancellorsville’s Forgotten Front: The Battles of Second Fredericksburg and
Salem Church, May 3, 1863 by Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White
The Dark, Close Wood: The Wilderness, Ellwood, and
\PM*I\\TM\PI\:MLMÅVML*W\Pby Chris Mackowski
Seizing Destiny: The Army of the Potomac’s Valley Forge and the Civil War Winter
that Saved the Union by Albert Z. Conner, Jr., and Chris Mackowski
Strike Them a Blow
BATTLE ALONG THE NORTH ANNA RIVER
MAY 21-26, 1864
by Chris Mackowski
Savas Beatie
California
© 2015 by Chris Mackowski
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form
or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording,
or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Printed in the United States of America.
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ISBN-13: 978-1-61121-254-9
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015936796
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For my father
Table of Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
VIII
TOURING THE BATTLEFIELD
FOREWORD by Gordon C. Rhea
PROLOGUE
X
XIII
IXX
CHAPTER ONE: The Campaign
1
CHAPTER TWO: Hancock’s March
11
CHAPTER THREE: The Fog of War
19
CHAPTER FOUR: Leaving Spotsylvania
CHAPTER FIVE: The Night March
25
31
CHAPTER SIX: “Wherever Lee Goes . . .”
CHAPTER SEVEN: Before the Storm
37
45
CHAPTER EIGHT: The Battle for Henagan’s Redoubt
CHAPTER NINE: The Battle of Jericho Mills
CHAPTER TEN: Lee’s Council of War
63
79
CHAPTER ELEVEN: At Mt. Carmel Church
89
CHAPTER TWELVE: Marching into the Trap
95
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: The Battle of Ox Ford
105
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Strike Them a Blow
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: Stalemate
53
113
117
APPENDIX A: The Battle of Wilson’s Wharf by Emmanuel Dabney
APPENDIX B: The Battle of Milford Station by Daniel T. Davis
125
133
APPENDIX C: The Eye of the Storm by Chris Mackowski
137
APPENDIX D: Lee’s Engineer: Martin Luther Smith by Rob Orrison
143
APPENDIX E"8ZM[MZ^QVO6WZ\P)VVI")8MZ[WVIT*I\\TMÅMTL2W]ZVMa
by John F. Cummings III 147
APPENDIX F: Preserving North Anna: The Art of the Battle
by Chris Mackowski 153
ORDER OF BATTLE
156
SUGGESTED READING
168
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
170
Footnotes for this volume are available at
http://emergingcivilwar.com/publications/the-emerging-civil-war-series/footnotes
List of Maps
Maps by Hal Jespersen
6WZ\P)VVI*I\\TMÅMTLXI
The Campaign through May 20, 1864
Hancock’s March
2
12
Advance to the North Anna River
Capture of Henagan’s Redoubt
38
56
Jericho Mills—May 23, 1864: Phase One
68
Jericho Mills—May 23, 1864: Phase Two
72
Lee’s Inverted “V”
80
Lee’s Inverted “V” and Grant’s Deployment
North Anna River to Totopotomoy Creek
Wilson’s Wharf
126
96
122
Acknowledgments
A sketch in the June 18, 1864,
edition of Harper’s Weekly
melodramatized the Federal
advance at North Anna.
Illustrator Thomas Nast titled
his piece “The Campaign in
Virginia—‘On to Richmond!’”
(hw)
Gordon Rhea made a profound impact on me in
the earliest days of my Civil War career. The third
book of his Overland Campaign series—To the North
Anna River¸_I[ \PM ÅZ[\ UQKZW\IK\QKIT JI\\TM [\]La 1
ever read. I started
there because it
seemed to be a
battle
everyone
else skipped over.
Gordon made me
fall in love with it.
More importantly,
he showed me
what well-written
history
looked
like—and he set
the bar very high.
I have spent my
writing career aspiring to live up to his example. My
\PIVS[\WPQUNWZ\PMQV[XQZI\QWVIVLQVÆ]MVKM)VL
if you haven’t read his book yet, go read it now—it is a
must read, and it remains my favorite Civil War book.)
My father, to whom this book is dedicated, taught
me the importance of conservation and preservation.
As individual stewards, we can make an impact. At
North Anna, I have seen that play out through the
remarkable work of historian J. Michael Miller, who
has done more than anyone to save the ground and
tell the story. Mike has made North Anna possible for
all of us today.
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I have spent some great days on the North Anna
JI\\TMÅMTL_Q\POZMI\PQ[\WZQIV[TQSM,IV,I^Q[,WV
Pfanz, Kris White, Sam Smith, and Ryan Quint.
Eric Mink and I and a group of interns got caught
in a particularly heavy downpour there one evening,
much like the soldiers on the evening of May 24.
“Glad we captured that bit of authentic detail,” Eric
deadpanned. “This is the wettest I have ever been on
JI\\TMÅMTL¸IVL\PI\¼[[IaQVO[WUM\PQVOº5a\PIVS[
to all of them for spending time with me exploring.
I am grateful to The Civil War Trust for providing
me with access to the newly preserved Jericho Mills
JI\\TMÅMTL 8TMI[M []XXWZ\ \PM OWWL _WZS \PM <Z][\
continues to do.
Candice Roland and John McClure at the Virginia
Historical Society ensured I had a successful visit there.
Dan Turner was kind enough to show me around the
Fox house property. Donna Neary invited me into her
studio. John Cummings, who has also been gracious
IJW]\ [PIZQVO PQ[ SVW_TMLOM WN \PM JI\\TMÅMTL
provided a neat appendix to this volume. My thanks
to him, Dan Davis, Rob Orrison, and Emmanuel
Dabney for their contributions. Dan, Rob, and Kris
also provided useful editorial suggestions. Greg Mertz
and Eric Wittenberg also provided little bits of useful
logistical support. Hal Jespersen, who continues to
produce wonderful maps for the Emerging Civil War
Series, was a pleasure to work with.
At Savas Beatie, my thanks go to Theodore P. Savas,
Yvette Lewis, Mary Holuta, and the ever-fabulous
Sarah Keeney.
At St. Bonaventure University, my thanks to my
dean, Dr. Paul Hoffmann. I am also grateful for the
patience my students continue to show.
)[ IT_Ia[ Ua ÅVIT \PIVS[ OW \W \PW[M _PW IZM
ÅZ[\ QV Ua PMIZ\" Ua NIUQTa M[XMKQITTa Ua KPQTLZMV
Stephanie and Jackson, and my wife, Jennifer.
PHOTO CREDITS:
Civil War Trails (cwtrails);;
John Cummings (jc);;
Dan Davis (dd);; Georgia
Division of Archives & History
(gda&h);; Harper’s Weekly (hw);; Sydney King (sk);;
Chris Mackowski (cm);;
Jennifer Mackowski (jm);;
National Park Service (nps);;
1RUWK$QQD%DWWOHÀHOG3DUN
(nabp);; Donald Pfanz (dp)
For the Emerging Civil War Series
Theodore P. Savas, publisher
Chris Mackowski, series editor
Daniel T. Davis, chief historian
Sarah Keeney, editorial consultant
Kristopher D. White, emeritus editor and co-founder
Maps by Hal Jespersen
Design and layout by Chris Mackowski
Touring
the Battlefield
This book covers events that begin at
Spotsylvania Court House and spill down to the
banks of the North Anna River. The easiest way
to get to North Anna from Spotsylvania is to follow
modern Route 1—Jefferson Davis Highway—
from Massaponax Church southward 18.8 miles to
Mt. Carmel Church. Route 1 follows the route of the
old Telegraph Road, which the armies used in 1864.
However, the Emerging Civil War Series’
No Turning Back: A Guide to the 1864 Overland Campaign
by Robert M. Dunkerly, Donald C. Pfanz, and
David Ruth provides an excellent driving tour that
follows the Federal II Corps from Spotsylvania, past
Massaponax Church and Guinea Station, down to
*W_TQVO /ZMMV IVL 5QTNWZL ;\I\QWV IVL ÅVITTa
to Mt. Carmel Church. Parts of the IX Corps’s
UIZKPW^MZTIX[\PMZW]\M\WW<PM\W]ZQ[ÅTTML_Q\P
information about some of the sites along the way,
such as the Tyler House and Bethel Church, and
includes additional accounts from the march.
7N \PMIKZM[WN 6WZ\P)VVIJI\\TMÅMTL
that fall in the hypothetical boundary established
by the National Register and the National Park
Service, fewer than 100 acres had been preserved
prior to 2014. In that year, the Civil War Trust added
another 665 acres. “Portions of the landscape have
been altered,” the NPS reported, “but most essential
features remain. Although commercial and industrial
development along Route 30 has begun to impact
ĔĚėĎēČęčĊĆęęđĊċĎĊđĉĝĎ
\PM [W]\PMZV XWZ\QWV WN \PM JI\\TMÅMTL U]KP WN \PM
historic landscape can still be preserved.”
*MKI][MU]KPWN \PMM`Q[\QVOJI\\TMÅMTLZMUIQV[
in private hands, please respect the rights of property
owners as you explore the area.
)ÅVITVW\M"*MKI][M\PMIK\QWV[ITWVO\PM6WZ\P
Anna happen on multiple fronts along both banks
of the river, the geography does not lend itself to a
chronological exploration of the battle. Therefore, sites
of interest are labeled here in roughly chronological
order without driving directions between them.
Relevant information about each location can be
found the respective chapters.
Find out more:
A) Bowling Green:
Chapter Two
B) Hanover Junction
Chapter Seven
C) Mount Carmel Church
Chapter Eleven
D) Henagan’s Redoubt
Chapter Eight
E) South Bank
Chapter Twelve
F) Jericho Mills
Chapter Nine
*1RUWK$QQD%DWWOHÀHOG3DUN
Chapter Thirteen
BY
Foreword
GORDON C. RHEA
The Overland Campaign of 1864 ranks among
the American Civil War’s pivotal campaigns. It
also numbers among the most exciting, pitting the
war’s two premier generals—Ulysses S. Grant and
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time. In his battles against Lee, Grant demonstrated
ÅZU KWUUQ\UMV\ \W IV ]V_I^MZQVO [\ZI\MOQK
objective—the destruction of Lee’s army—in
the face of tactical setbacks in the Wilderness, at
Spotsylvania Court House, at the North Anna
River, and at Cold Harbor. Often depicted as a
“butcher” enamored of hopeless charges against
The descendants of
invulnerable Confederate earthworks, Grant in fact
Cpl. Michael Shortell of the
employed thoughtful combinations of maneuver
7th Wisconsin, killed at
Jericho Mills, erected a
IVLNWZKM\WJZQVOILQNÅK]T\IL^MZ[IZa\WJIa4MM
monument in his honor and in famous for his ability to out-general opponents
honor of “all the valiant men
wielding manpower advantages similar to Grant’s,
who lost their lives on the
demonstrated exceptional skill and daring that
EDWWOHÀHOGVRI1RUWK$QQDµ
served to thwart Grant’s offensives. Lee made
It is the only monument at
mistakes that seriously imperiled his army—the
1RUWK$QQD%DWWOHÀHOG3DUN
battle of the Bloody Angle at Spotsylvania Court
The plaque reads, in part:
House comes to mind—but his uncanny knack for
improvising solutions always redeemed the day.
“No more shall the war cry
sever,
Grant and Lee each favored offensive operations
Or the winding rivers be red;;
and were masters at improvisation; in many
They banish our anger forever respects, they were as evenly matched in military
When they laurel the graves
talent as any two opposing generals have ever been.
of our dead!
The subject of this book—the movement to the
Under the sod and dew,
North Anna River, and the stirring events that took
Waiting the judgment day;;
place there—is the least-known of Grant’s and Lee’s
Love and tears for the blue,
confrontations. In many respects, however, it is the
Tears and love for the gray.”
(cm)
ĝĎěęėĎĐĊčĊĒĆđĔĜǣĆęęđĊđĔēČęčĊĔėęčēēĆĎěĊė
Looking downriver toward
Ox Ford. (cm)
most interesting. The operation began with a catand-mouse game of maneuvers from Spotsylvania
Court House to the North Anna River. Lee assumed
a strong line below the river, protecting Richmond
and its critical rail link
with the Shenandoah
Valley. But part of the
Union army pushed
across the North Anna at
Jericho Ford, and Lee’s
subordinate Ambrose
Powell Hill failed to
drive the Federals back.
With his defensive river
line breached and a
Northern host massing
WV PQ[ ÆIVS 4MM NIKML
his gravest challenge
yet. His response—a
clever defensive formation with intriguing offensive
possibilities—stands as a monument to the
Confederate commander’s ingenuity and ability to
turn a bad situation his way.
Chris Mackowski’s Strike Them a Blow is an
absorbing, fast-paced exposition of this astounding
campaign. In the years following the war, the
Confederate cartographer Jedediah Hotchkiss tried
to understand the North Anna operations but found
himself “wandering about in the entanglement of
KWVÆQK\QVO [\I\MUMV\[ I\ \QUM[ _MTT VQOP TW[\ IVL
inclined to wash my hands of the whole matter,
but am in for it and cannot escape.” We are
fortunate that Mr. Mackowski has tried his hand at
untangling the web of accounts surrounding these
events, and that he, too, stayed “in for it.” His highly
readable book gives us an exemplary roadmap to
this neglected slice of American history.
Gordon C. Rhea
Mount Pleasant, South Carolina
April 12, 2015
OPPOSITE: Near Ox Ford,
the North Anna’s north bank
has a tall guardian watching
over it. (cm)
FOLLOWING PAGES: The
North Anna near Ox Ford (cm)
“If I can get one more pull at [Grant],
I will defeat him.”
— Lee
“Everything looks exceedingly
favorable to us.”
— Grant
Prologue
MAY 24, 1864
“We must strike them a blow,” Lee said. “We must
strike them a blow.”
The Old Gray Fox had once more demonstrated
his cleverness. He and his commanders had laid a
perfect trap for the Army of the Potomac, and the
Federals had stumbled right into it. Now it was time to
spring it. Now it was time to strike them blow.
*]\TaQVOWVPQ[KW\KWVÅVML\WPQ[\MV\_ZIKSML
by dysentery, Robert E. Lee, the commanding
general of the Army of Northern Virginia, was in no
condition to strike anything. Three weeks of incessant
ÅOP\QVOKWV[\IV\UW^MUMV\IVLVWV[\WX_WZZaPIL
left Lee physically and mentally exhausted, made
exponentially worse by a chronic lack of sleep.
The May rain—seven days of it since the month
began
24 days earlier—had seeped into everyone’s
With the North Anna River
bones
.
. . and bed rolls . . . and uniforms . . . and
ÁRZLQJIDUEHORZWKH2[
shoes,
for
those who had them. Lee had been more
Ford overlook at North
protected from it than most, but dampness like that
$QQD%DWWOHÀHOG3DUNLQ
has a way of settling in.
Hanover County, Virginia,
allows visitors to see the
Lee’s staff had seen it coming, had seen him
commanding position
dragging, had felt the sting of his growing irritability,
Confederates held. The
but Lee tried to push through nonetheless. The
rivers in Virginia all posed
Federals had been at him and his army constantly
VLJQLÀFDQWJHRJUDSKLFEDUULHUV since May 5 and were still not giving him any chance
for the armies to contend with. to catch his breath.
Fortifying on the south bank
The grueling toll of the campaign now lay over
of the North Anna allowed
Lee
like a shroud.
Confederate General Robert
It
had gotten so bad that, for the past two days,
E. Lee to take advantage of
PMPILOQ^MV]XPQ[ÅVMOZIaUIZM<ZI^MTMZIVLPIL
the river’s natural strengths to
create his strongest defensive taken to riding in a carriage. Now he could not even
muster the strength for that. He dared not venture far
position of the war. (cm)
ĝĝęėĎĐĊčĊĒĆđĔĜǣĆęęđĊđĔēČęčĊĔėęčēēĆĎěĊė
from his headquarters tent, unsure when the next bout
would grip him. The fever. The chills. The sweats. The
stomach upset that drained him, sapped his strength,
and left him dehydrated.
Lee was at his most vulnerable.
And without his leadership, the army was too.
The month of May had been hard on the
Confederate army. Lee had lost his dependable “Old
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Longstreet 18 days earlier. Longstreet’s replacement,
Richard Anderson, had proven a capable substitute in
the time since but was still getting his legs under him.
Second corps commander Lt. Gen. Richard
Ewell, Lee’s second in command now due to seniority,
showed signs of the same ailment now crippling Lee.
But something far worse crippled Ewell, too: the onceKIXIJTMÅOP\MZPILNITTMVNZWU4MM¼[NI^WZ\PM[MXI[\
few days, ever since losing his cool during the Federal
breakthrough at Spotsylvania on May 12. Days after
that, on May 19, Ewell nearly lost his entire corps in a
ÅOP\WV\PMZWTTQVOPQTT[WN \PM0IZZQ[.IZU0M[I^ML
PQ[KWZX[J]\PMTW[\4MM¼[KWVÅLMVKM
Third corps commander Lt. Gen. A. P. Hill, just
returning from illness of a different sort, had performed
poorly just the previous day—adding to his already
lackluster resume as a corps commander—and so sat
perhaps even lower than Ewell in Lee’s esteem.
With no one to turn to, Lee tried to direct the
battle on his own—from his cot in his tent.
“We must strike them a blow,” he pleaded more
than ordered, fever-weakened as he was. “We must
strike them a blow!”
OPPOSITE: Anyone trying to
cross Ox Ford would have had
WRGRVRXQGHUZLWKHULQJÀUH
from the artillery pieces once
positioned in the lunettes at
the top of the overlooking
heights. (cm)
Hancock’s March
CHAPTER TWO
MAY 21, 1864
Dedicated in 1906,
a statue honoring Caroline
County’s Confederate
veterans stands in front of
the Hanover County
Courthouse in Bowling
Green. (cm)
After the carnage of the previous weeks, the
nighttime march out of Spotsylvania must have seemed
like a pleasant summer stroll for the men of Hancock’s
II Corps. They had started the campaign by camping
among the disinterred skeletons of their former
KWUZILM[ WV \PM WTL +PIVKMTTWZ[^QTTM JI\\TMÅMTL
“The dead horses had dwindled away to bones and
the dead men to bones and underclothing,” wrote one
soldier. “I found a dozen skulls in twice as many rods
travel and could doubtless have found scores by a little
examination of the thick underbrush.”
From there they rushed into battle on May 5 at the
extreme southern end of the Federal position. On May
6, they launched the predawn hammer blow that nearly
LM[\ZWaML4MM¼[IZUaJ]\[MM[I_ÅOP\QVO\PZW]OP\PM
rest of the day landed them back where they had begun.
Hunkered behind burning earthworks, they staved off
\PMLIa¼[ÅVIT+WVNMLMZI\MI[[I]T\[
Escape from that inferno lead them, on May 12, to
“Hells Half-Acre.” Others called it “a Golgotha”—a
place of skulls, although some of them would have
sworn they’d camped in such a place already. Most
soldiers would come to know the place as the Bloody
Angle, “A roaring, seething, bubbling hell of hate
and murder,” said one Mainer. The II Corps led the
assault that broke through the Confederate position
there; only after 22 hours of hand-to-hand combat
did Lee’s army repel them and successfully regroup.
Again on May 18, the II Corps charged the
Confederate works. In the six days between those
slaughters, they’d marched and countermarched in
the mud. By May 20, they were deeply battle weary.
ͳʹęėĎĐĊčĊĒĆđĔĜǣĆęęđĊđĔēČęčĊĔėęčēēĆĎěĊė
HANCOCK’S MARCH³:LQÀHOG 6FRWW +DQFRFN·V ,, &RUSV GDQJOHG LWVHOI DV EDLW E\ PDUFKLQJ RQ
a wide arc to the east and south. While Hancock’s orders gave him permission to go farther,
he hunkered down at Milford Station after running into unexpected Confederate resistance at
Milford Station. Confederate Second Corps commander Richard Ewell, meanwhile, slipped over
to Mudd Tavern in Hancock’s rear to block the way for easy Federal reinforcements, forcing
Grant to reevaluate his entire plan.
When they set off on the march for Bowling
Green, it was 10:00 p.m. They were ahead of
schedule, under the cloak of darkness. “It was a
JMI]\QN]TUWWVTQ\VQOP\ºWVM[WTLQMZZMÆMK\ML¹IVL
the tedium of a night march when sleep was much
čĆĕęĊėĜĔǣƒ…‘…ǯ•ƒ”…Šͳ͵
VMMLML _I[ [WUM_PI\ ZMTQM^ML I[ _M ZMÆMK\ML \PI\
during the day the heat and dust would have been
almost intolerable.”
At around 12:30, the infantry arrived at Massapponax
Church at the intersection with Telegraph Road, the
main north-south route between Fredericksburg and
Richmond. There, they waited for their cavalry escort,
commanded by Brig. Gen. Alfred Torbert.
By 2:00 a.m., the column once again marched
on—south this time, along Telegraph Road. A push
straight south would have lead to the North Anna
River and, miles beyond, Richmond. “Had Grant
originally started his movement as a race for the North
Anna, having the initiative, he might easily have won
Q\ºWVMWN 4MM¼[WNÅKMZ[TI\MZ[]OOM[\ML
But Grant never
had any serious designs
on the Confederate
capital; Lee’s army,
not Richmond, was his
stated objective. So,
several hundred yards
down the road, Hancock
struck east again, toward
Guiney Station.
Some have since
lamented
Hancock’s
move as one of the missed opportunities of the
campaign—grousing that started almost immediately.
“There would probably have been more chance of
success had Hancock moved by the Telegraph Road
on the night of the 20th, followed by Warren,” said
Maj. Gen. Andrew Humphreys, acting more as the
armchair-general than Meade’s chief of staff. Winning
the race would have “brought on a collision before
Lee could entrench on new ground,” he believed.
While the North Anna might certainly have
offered a strong defensible position for the Federal
army, Grant almost certainly knew Lee would not
have assailed him there. If Grant’s intentions were to
bring Lee to battle, the position along the North Anna
would have discourage the very thing Grant wanted.
Better for Hancock to look isolated, not invulnerable,
if Grant had any hope of enticing Lee to snap at the
bait. It had to dangle farther away.
Had they known their role, perhaps Hancock’s
men might have been less sanguine about their march.
*
*
*
TOP: Martial but already
VKRZLQJWKHÀUVWVLJQVRIWKH
dark circles under his eyes
that would give him a weary
and haunted look later in life,
:LQÀHOG6FRWW+DQFRFNZDV
nonetheless described by
several admirers as looking
“every inch the soldier.”
ABOVE: Hancock, his division
commanders, and their staffs
had seen plenty of action thus
far in the campaign. Grant had
consistently used the II Corps
as his main hammer because
of their effectiveness as a
ÀJKWLQJXQLW (loc)(loc)
ͳͶęėĎĐĊčĊĒĆđĔĜǣĆęęđĊđĔēČęčĊĔėęčēēĆĎěĊė
The full moon dropped from sight, and the trees,
pressed so close to the road during the early part of
the trip, dropped away into a more open landscape.
Caroline County had not yet been touched by war.
As Hancock’s column marched across the county
TQVMPW_M^MZIÅOP\I_IQ\ML\PMU"PWZ[MUMVWN \PM
9th Virginia Cavalry—local boys, all of them—set to
defend the land they lived on.
<PM ÅZ[\ PWUM\W_V _MTKWUM
came when the Virginians ambushed
Torbert’s cavalry at about 4:30 a.m.,
just as the Federals approached
Guiney Station. While no one was
hurt, it snapped Torbert’s men into a
state of alert, enabling them to avoid
a second ambush a few minutes later.
Soon, the two cavalry units were
MVOIOML QV I ÅOP\ W^MZ KWV\ZWT WN I
small bridge over the Mattapony,
Guinea Bridge. A few miles later, the
Hancock’s route of march took two units scrapped over a second bridge, Downer’s
his men past some of Caroline Bridge, which Torbert again left to the Confederates.
County’s grandest Antebellum Torbert, content to protect Hancock’s column rather
homes, including Nyland
than get into an all-out brawl, let the Confederates
(above) and La Vista (below).
keep control of both bridges. Hancock concurred,
(cm)(cwtrails)
and onward they went.
*
*
*
Twilight
came,
gradually
unveiling what one soldier called “an
earthly paradise.” Another marveled
that “the corn now was miles high.”
Although there were still “swamps,
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IXXZWIKPM[º I .MLMZIT WNÅKMZ TI\MZ
noted, the country was generally
“now more open, and presented
many clearings, and the range of
vision was largely increased. The
roads were broad, the land was well
cultivated, and the crops were abundant.” The deep
gloom of the Wilderness, he said, had been left behind.
It was “a feast to the eye and a joy to the soul,”
a soldier said.
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more sudden change of feelings and prospects . . .”
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\PM [KMVM[ WN \PMQZ \MZZQÅK [\Z]OOTM[ I\ ;XW\\[aT^IVQI
[sic], and were no longer confronting formidable
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earthworks.” They “seemed to breathe a new
atmosphere, and were inspired with new hope.”
“It was again ‘on to Richmond,’” he said.
The weeks of battle weariness melted away with
the miles. Men sang as they marched. “All knew there
was an important point to be gained, and the men
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the 125th New York. “The men never
marched with so little complaining,
or so little straggling.”
“The day was a warm and
pleasant one,” one soldier said, “and
our march, through a country as fresh
and bright as any we had seen since
our march into Pennsylvania the
year before, was more like a picnic
excursion than a trial of speed with
our enemy.”
One New York artillerist called it the best
agricultural region he had seen in Virginia. “We,
the every-hungry, predatory enlisted men, quickly
discovered that we were marching through a cornand tobacco and stock-raising country,” he wrote,
“and we raided tobacco barns in a quiet manner, and
killed some sheep and many chickens, and much food
was stolen from the farm-houses.”
By 7:00 a.m., the cavalry reached Bowling Green,
followed by the infantry at 9:00. Hundreds of slaves
greeted them as liberators.
Hancock’s men ransacked the
town—“Our army, operating in
hostile territory, was like a swarm
of locusts,” one of them said—then
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march to Milford Station. There,
Torbert had to chase off units of
Confederate reinforcements bound
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Hancock’s arrival around noon
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outs to surrender.
“We could look back from the hill tops and see
the long steel-tipped column stretching for miles
behind us,” one Federal said as they made the last
leg of the march.
Meade’s orders to Hancock empowered the
II Corps commander to go all the way to the
Confederate supply base at Hanover Junction, but
suddenly Hancock thought better of it. What had
“Everybody seemed to agree
that we were having an easier
time because Jackson was
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Maine as the column marched
through Guiney Station and
past the building where
Jackson had died. (cm)
Crossing the Mattapony:
“This river, which together
with the Pamunkey goes to
form the York, is itself formed
by four branches of nearly
equal size, the Mat, Ta, Po and
Ni;; whether the river gets its
name from uniting those of its
branches or vice versa I do
not know;; but the arrangement
is both clever and pretty.” (loc)
ͳ͸ęėĎĐĊčĊĒĆđĔĜǣĆęęđĊđĔēČęčĊĔėęčēēĆĎěĊė
As Federals marched into
town, residents came out
of their homes and shops
to watch the spectacle.
Hundreds of slaves did, too.
“If you are Yankees, where are
your horns?” one asked. (sk)
started out as a pleasant day for marching had curdled
into something sweltering and oppressive—and not
just the weather.
Far from the rest of the army, his men exhausted
by their 14-hour march, with an unexpectedly strong
force of Confederates in the area and poor lines of
communication to his rear, Hancock decided to
protect himself by hunkering down and waiting for
Grant to spring his trap. The Army of the Potomac’s
hardest-hitting commander, worn down by weeks of
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“[T]he work of entrenching was continued until
formidable earthworks frowned upon the horizon in
every direction, giving courage to the men,” a New
Yorker said. Only after the men settled in did they
realize what they’d accomplished—although not all
of them saw it triumphantly.
“[A] long, weary, dusty march,” one Bay State
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which was very scarce, and the roads were very heavy
with dust.” It had been “the longest and most trying
[march] of all we made,” said another. The boneweariness began to creep back in, another complained:
“[T]he ceaseless marching by day, and sometimes by
VQOP\\PMLQOOQVOIVL\PMÅOP\QVO_MZM\MTTQVO]XWV
our men, in some cases almost as seriously as wounds.”
They had no way of knowing that their grueling
day’s work had already come to naught.
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At Bowling Green
First known as New Hope when it was founded
in the mid-1740s, Bowling Green was incorporated in
1837, shortly after the Caroline County Courthouse
was built to serve as the county
seat. Prior to the war, the village
of 300 inhabitants had a pair of
churches, a pair of mills, and three
stores, as well as the courthouse.
A Confederate monument now
stands outside the building. Known
as the “cradle of American horse
racing,” the town also boasts the
second-oldest Masonic Lodge in
the country.
A highlight in Bowling Green
is the Sidney E. King Arts Center,
located at 121 North Main Street.
King, who lived just outside
of town, created dozens of oil
paintings for a number of national parks, which used
them as the centerpieces of their interpretation. King
XIQV\ML _MTT QV\W PQ[ VQVM\QM[ ÅVITTa XI[[QVO I_Ia
in 2002. Around that time, as many parks began to
modernize their interpretation, they began to retire
his paintings. Fourteen of his Civil War paintings have
since been collected by the King Arts Center, which was
established in 2013 in cooperation between the town,
Caroline County, and Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania
National Military Park.
King also painted a mural, now on display on
the village green, of the Federal occupation on May
21, 18164.
Milford Station, three miles to the west of
town, served as the local stop for the Richmond,
Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad. It consisted
of a depot, engine-house, a few scattered dwellinghouses, out-houses, and shops. It was also “the furthest
point to which the train ran,” said a member of
Pickett’s Division, sent there on May 20, 1864, “and
this was the last train that reached there that season.”
Bowling Green on May 20,
1864—the day before the
Federals came to town—
as depicted by artist Sydney
King. The painting is on
display on the town green next
to the country courthouse. (sk)
The Sidney E. King Arts
Center showcases the work
of an artist whose work has
been seen by generations of
visitors at dozens of national
parks. (dd)