Now that we’re working on wrapping up our retreat manuscript for publication (we’ve been adding some incredibly good new material to it), I’m once again focused on the issue of decision-making by the Union high command during the latter phases of the Gettysburg Campaign.

Let’s assume for a moment that Jeb Stuart, in fact, did something inappropriate during the early stages of the Gettysburg Campaign, although I don’t believe he did. If Stuart somehow disappointed Lee during the days just before the battle, Stuart’s performance during the retreat was nothing short of spectacular. His horsemen pretty much kept the Army of the Potomac at bay with almost no help from the infantry until Lee’s defensive line was ready and Lee was prepared to receive an attack by Meade. To borrow a line from old pal Ted Alexander, the retreat was Stuart’s redemption. Nobody could ever say that Lee’s cavalry let him down during the retreat from Gettysburg.

The same certainly cannot be said of the Union cavalry during the retreat. Buford’s and Kilpatrick’s divisions fought well and effectively, but their fundamental usages were wrong. Gregg’s division was a complete non-factor for the entire retreat. Gregg’s troopers did not participate in any of the significant combat during the retreat.

Why?

Because Alfred Pleasonton, the Union cavalry chieftain, made terrible decisions about the use of his horse soldiers. Instead of massing his cavalry to try to block Lee’s route of march to the banks of the Potomac River somewhere in the vicinity of Hagerstown, Maryland–which would have forced Lee to fight his way through–Pleasonton instead scattered his three divisions across the countryside. There was virtually no coordination between the three commands, and Gregg’s men were almost totally a non-factor. By being reactive and by scattering his command, Pleasonton ceded the initiative to Lee and gave Lee the opportunity to assume the strong defensive positions on the north bank of the Potomac River that he took up around Williamsport, Maryland.

An ideal opportunity was lost to interdict Lee’s line of retreat, which cost the Union an opportunity to bring Lee’s army to bay before it slipped across the Potomac to the safety of Virginia. The blame for that must lay with Alf Pleasonton and not with Abraham Lincoln.

In addition, the scattering of the cavalry forces also meant that they were not used efficiently for gathering intelligence. Other than Buford, whose skills as a gatherer of intelligence were unequaled in the Union cavalry, very little intelligence of any value was brought in by the Federal cavalry. Instead, the northern horsemen were scattered across the countryside performing uncertain duties. If they weren’t going to be used as a blocking force to prevent Lee from reaching the banks of the Potomac River, then they should have been put to good use gathering intelligence.

Instead, they did neither. For want of a nail, a kingdom was lost.

Continue reading

At the beginning of June 1863, the Army of Northern Virginia held the southern bank of the Rappahannock River, while the Army of the Potomac held the northern bank. The armies stared at each other across the river.

Most historians say that the Gettysburg Campaign began on June 9, 1863, when 12,000 horsemen of the Army of the Potomac’s Cavalry Corps splashed across the Rappahannock and pitched into the Confederate cavalry near Brandy Station. It was a fourteen hour slugging match that accomplished little; it delayed the beginning of Robert E. Lee’s movement north by a single day.

Most histories of the Gettysburg Campaign state that the campaign ended with the Confederate crossings of the Potomac on July 14, since that marks the date that the Army of Northern Virginia returned to the safety of the Old Dominion. However, it took another two weeks for the armies to return to their starting points; on August 1, there was another large-scale cavalry fight at Brandy Station, and the two armies sat staring at each other across the Rappahannock River after some more hard marching and some heavy fighting as they marched back down the Loudoun Valley. In short, sixty days later, the armies were right back where they started from.

What’s particularly interesting is that most of the official reports of the campaign go all the way to the return to the banks of the Rappahannock. In other words, the participants believed that the campaign did not end until the armies had returned to their starting points.

Our original draft of the retreat book ended like all the others, with Lee crossing the Potomac. JD pointed out to me that cutting it off abruptly there leaves the reader hanging, and he’s right. Hence, we’ve decided to add a brief epilogue that provides an overview of those two weeks and the return of the armies to the Rappahannock. Our detailed tactical discussion will end with the crossing of the Potomac, but we felt that in order to finish the story correctly and provide some balance to the story of the campaign, we needed to bring the armies back to their starting points. We’re going to cover those two weeks in only three or four pages, but will at least address this two-week period.

So, the question remains: when did the Gettysburg Campaign really end?

Continue reading

I want to take a moment to give kudos to Laurie Chambliss of Civil War Interactive. Each week, Laurie reviews the multitude of Civil War blogs and posts a summary of that person’s postings for the week. It’s got to be a huge job–there are plenty of Civil War blogs out there any more–but Laurie covers each one of them each week. It takes dedication and it takes a lot of patience. Personally, I really appreciate everything that Laurie does to make sure that the blogosphere is a good place to be. Thanks for what you do, Laurie.

Continue reading

I had some clown by the name of William Michael Kemp, a self-professed neo-Confederate who likes to post on white supremacist sites (which should tell you everything you need to know about him), leave an incredibly rude and abusive comment on one of my very early posts on this blog about Nathan Bedford Forrest. I get an e-mail every time someone leaves a comment here (even when I leave the comment), so I know almost immediately whenever one is left. When I read this one, I was genuinely offended, and that takes some doing. He didn’t like my take on Forrest. It’s no secret that I’m no fan of Forrest, and my neo-Confederate “friend” decided to launch a pretty vicious personal attack on me because he doesn’t like my take on his KKK hero.

One of the beautiful things about this blog is that because I pay the bills for this blog, I get to make the rules. One thing that this is not is a democracy. It’s an autocracy, although I am a benevolent despot. Pretty much anything goes, and I really don’t believe in censorship. However, there is one major exception to that rule: nobody has the right to insult me on my own web site, and nobody gets to be rude to my readers. This neo-Confederate clown did both, so I deleted his comment. I am also going to ban his IP address so he can’t play his little game again.

Perhaps your input might be welcome if you knew how to engage in a civil discussion, Mr. Kemp. However, since your means of discussing is to launch rude personal attacks, you will have to find somewhere else to indulge your insecurities, because you won’t be doing it here. Perhaps you might consider learning how to behave so that people take what you say seriously, instead of acting like the ignorant redneck hillbilly that you are.

Continue reading

I have been working on the Dahlgren manuscript for more than 18 months now. For most of the last seven months, it’s been more off than on, but I have periodically worked on it. I was fortunate enough to get some good feedback and editorial suggestions from friends like Scott Patchan, and much of the last few months entailed edits based on suggestions from folks like Scott.

In part, I’ve been a little afraid to pull the trigger on this thing, largely because it’s not placed with a publisher. While I find the story terribly compelling (I had better find it compelling to have invested so much time, money and effort in it, right?), I recognize that the market for biography of a young man who died 34 days before his 22nd birthday will be limited. A limited market means that the commercial publishing houses are not interested in it. Therefore, I have two options: McFarland or a university press. At this point, I’m inclined to go with a university press, and a couple of them have expressed some interest in the project. If I can place it with the University of North Carolina Press or LSU, I think that would be an ideal placement for it.

Today, I finally decided that the time has come to pull the trigger on this thing and put it to bed. I asked old friend Ted Savas to read the manuscript and give me some feedback on it today, and Ted agreed. I will send it along tonight, and when I make any final revisions that Ted might suggest, the thing will then be finished.

At this point, I believe that I have given it my best shot. I’ve looked at several hundred sources and literally hundreds of pages of letters and diary entries written in Ully Dahlgren’s own hand. I’m confident that I have exhausted what’s available to find–with one notable exception, a newspaper article written by Dahlgren and published under the pseudonym “Truth”. I’ve looked at every issue of about a dozen different newspapers but have, to my eternal frustration, been unable to locate it anywhere. I genuinely don’t know where else to look for that article and have given up on finding it. Beyond that, though, I believe that I have exhausted what’s available to me.

It’s time to put it to bed. We shall see how things play out, but I feel good about the final result. I will keep everyone posted as to the progress of the the thing.

Continue reading

I want to welcome my friend Duane Siskey to the blogosphere. Duane lives in Gettysburg and is a Civil War cavalry reenactor. J. D. and I stayed at Duane’s place the last time we were in Gettysburg. Duane has started a new blog that discusses what it’s like to live in the ‘burg. I’ve added a link to Duane’s blog. Welcome to the blogosphere, Duane.

Continue reading

I’ve been suffering from a severe case of motivational deficit for months now. I just haven’t felt like writing all year so far this year. So far this year, I’ve written about 15 pages worth of new material all year. We’ve had so much disruption in our lives that I just haven’t had the motivation to write. I’d come home from work with the best of intentions, and then, when it came time to pull the trigger and try to be productive, I just haven’t been able to do it. I’ve been content to post here, read a bit, and then just hang out.

Making a deal with Ted Savas for the publication of our retreat book finally got me motivated to start working again. The original version of the retreat manuscript was written three or four years ago, and since that time, J. D. and I have both acquired a great deal of new primary source material over those years. I plugged most of my stuff into the manuscript over several nights last week, and now J. D.’s doing the same. I located some more stuff after I sent the manuscript to J. D., so I still have some more material to plug in once J. D. finishes.

For the first time in ages, I feel like writing and being productive again. When we finish up with the retreat and send it off to Ted, I will then finally get going on the Boyd article in earnest and will finally finish the thing after setting it aside for months.

It feels good to be productive again.

Continue reading

John Maass, Ph.D. candidate in history at Ohio State, has maintained a fascinating blog that ties up John’s interests in Irish history, Revolutionary War history, and Civil War history (he is from the Shenandoah Valley). I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading John’s blog. Last week, John stated, “Due to my efforts to complete my history PhD, my upcoming move, and the start of a new full-time job, I will not be posting new items to this site for the forseeable future.”

John will be working with my friend Mark Bradley, acting as a staff historian for the United States Army (which would be my dream job).

Good luck with defending your dissertation and with the new job, John, and we hope to see you around the blogosphere sooner than later.

For now, I’m removing the link to John’s blog. If he resumes posting, I will be very pleased to restore it.

Continue reading

I would be remiss if I didn’t at least acknowledge the 10,000th loss in the history of the Philadelphia Phillies, which occurred on Sunday afternoon while we were driving back to Columbus. Number 10,001 then occurred on Monday night.

As some of you may know, I was born in Philadelphia and raised in the area. My father is a lifelong Philadelphia sports nut (although he was primarily an A’s fan while they were there), and some of my very earliest memories are of watching Richie Allen hit long home runs at Connie Mack Stadium with my dad. I’m a diehard Phillies fan and have been for my entire life. Perhaps it explains why I am such a glutton for punishment.

The team has been around since May 1, 1883, when it lost its first game. That means that it has taken 124 years to reach the magic 10,000 number. It has won only about 8800 games over those years. The next closest team, the Braves, has lost 9600 or so games, meaning that it’s a large gap. In those years, the Phillies have only been to the World Series five times: 1915, 1950 (the Whiz Kids), 1980, 1983 (the Wheeze Kids), and 1993. They’ve won only once, 1980. That’s one world championship in 124 years.

And then there were the Fizz Kids. In a season that featured Jim Bunning’s Father’s Day perfect game and Richie Allen’s incredible rookie of the year accomplishments, the 1964 Phillies had a six game lead with twelve to go. They proceeded to lose ten in a row and finished second. Go figure. To this day, the pain from that episode still lingers in the City of Brotherly Love.

It’s well documented that Phillies fans would boo Santa Claus. If they booed the greatest third baseman to ever pick up a glove–Mike Schmidt–they will boo anyone. At the same time, once they love a player, they love him forever. We’re very loyal. Where else would a team lose 10,000 games and have its fans celebrate such a dubious accomplishment?

Every day, I read the coverage of the Phightin’s in the Philadelphia newspapers, and I watch them whenever I can. I remain as loyal to them as ever, and always will. Thus, I would be remiss if I didn’t join in the celebration of our team’s 10,000 losses. At least we’ve got that distinction to savor: the Phillies are the only professional sports franchise to EVER lose 10,000 games.

Take that, Michael Aubrecht. You and your damned Yankees can’t claim this magical accomplishment. 🙂

Continue reading

No, Michael Aubrecht, the number 500 in this post has nothing to do with Alex Rodriguez and his pursuit of 500 home runs. 🙂

Actually, this is blog post number 500 for me. I started this blog on a whim in September 2005, and it’s very much taken on a life of its own over the course of those nearly two years. I’m genuinely surprised that it’s lasted this long and that I continue to find things to rant about without becoming too redundant. Along the way, I’ve made some wonderful new friends, re-connected with some old ones, and have had some excellent company as we’ve traveled this road we call life.

I can only say that I am humbled and blessed all at the same time to have such wonderful friends. I am likewise humbled and blessed that so many of you think enough of my rantings to give a few minutes of your busy schedules each day to stop by and see what I’m babbling about today. I intend to keep going, and I hope that you all will continue along for the rest of the adventure.

I don’t know where it will lead, but I know that it will be interesting and challenging and all the better for having you all along.

Continue reading