The Battles for Spotsylvania Court House and the Road to Yellow Tavern, May 7–12, 1864

Gordon C. Rhea

• Publisher: LSU Press
• Year: 2005
• Print ISBN: 9780807158166
• eBook ISBN: 9780807158159
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: American Civil War History
• Index: History

The second volume in Gordon C. Rhea's peerless five-book series on the Civil War's 1864 Overland Campaign abounds with Rhea's signature detail, innovative analysis, and riveting prose. Here Rhea examines the maneuvers and battles from May 7, 1864, when Grant left the Wilderness, through May 12, when his attempt to break Lee's line by frontal assault reached a chilling climax at what is now called the Bloody Angle. Drawing exhaustively upon previously untapped materials, Rhea challenges conventional wisdom about this violent clash of titans to construct the ultimate account of Grant and Lee at Spotsylvania.

Notes

Introduction

1. George Meade, ed., The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Major General, United States Army (2 vols.; New York, 1913), II, 154.

2. Horace Porter, Campaigning with Grant (New York, 1897), 98.

3. Louis M. Starr, Reporting the Civil War: The Bohemian Brigade in Action, 1861-65 (New York, 1962), 246.

4. Starr proffers details of Wing’s escape in Reporting the Civil War, 246-49. See also Henry E. Wing, When Lincoln Kissed Me: A Story of the Wilderness Campaign (New York, 1913), and Ida Tarbell, A Reporter for Lincoln (New York, 1927).

5. William Swinton, Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac (New York, 1866), 440n.

6. Theodore Lyman to family, May 18, 1864, in Meade’s Headquarters, 1863-1865: Letters of Colonel Theodore Lyman from the Wilderness to Appomattox, ed. George R. Agassiz (Boston, 1922), 100.

I MAY 7, 1864 Grant and Lee Skirmish in the Wilderness and at Todd’s Tavern

1. Horace Porter, Campaigning with Grant, 74.

2. Ulysses S. Grant to Henry W. Halleck, May 7, 1864, in OR, Vol. XXXVI, Pt. 2, p. 480; Theodore Lyman to family, May 18, 1864, in Meade’s Headquarters, ed. Agassiz, 101-102.

3. Ulysses S. Grant’s report, in OR, Vol. XXXVI, Pt. 1, p. 18.

4. Cyrus B. Comstock Diary, May 12, 1864, in Cyrus B. Comstock Collection, LC.

5. Theodore Lyman Journal, May 6, 1864, in Theodore Lyman Collection, MHS.

6. Charles A. Dana, Recollections of the Civil War (New York, 1899), 190-91.

7. Josiah M. Favill, The Diary of a Young Officer Serving with the Armies of the United States During the War of the Rebellion (Chicago, 1909), 274.

8. Elbert Corbin Diary, May 7, 1864, in Civil War Miscellaneous Collection, USAMHI; J. Finnegan to friend, May 8, 1864, This Regiment of Heroes: A Compilation of Primary Materials Pertaining to the 124th New York State Volunteers in the American Civil War, comp. Charles J. LaRocca (N.p., 1991), 208-209.

9. Robert E. Lee to Jefferson Davis, April 15, 1864, in OR, XXXIII, 1282-83.

10. G. Moxley Sorrel, Recollections of a Confederate Staff Officer (New York, 1917), 249.

11. David French Boyd, Reminiscences of the War in Virginia, ed. T. Michael Parrish (Austin, Tex., 1989), 24-25; Jubal A. Early, Autobiographical Sketch and Narrative of the War Between the States (Bloomington, Ind., 1960), xlvi-xlvii; Sorrel, Recollections of a Confederate Staff Officer, 249.

12. Sorrel, Recollections of a Confederate Staff Officer, 249, 254; Gary W. Gallagher, ed., Fighting for the Confederacy: The Personal Recollections of General Edward Porter Alexander (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1989), 365.

13. Sorrel, Recollections of a Confederate Staff Officer, 249-50; Special Order, in OR, Vol. XXXVI, Pt. 2, p. 967.

14. Butt Hewson, “Battle of Spotsylvania Court House,” in Lee’s Sharpshooters; or, The Forefront of Battle: A Story of Southern Valor That Never Has Been Told, by William S. Dunlop (Little Rock, Ark., 1899), 433-35.

15. Samuel Finley Harper to father, May 7, 1864, in Samuel Finley Harper Collection, NCDAH; George S. Bernard Diary, May 7, 1864, in George S. Bernard Collection, UV; Carrie Ester Spencer, comp., A Civil War Marriage in Virginia: Reminiscences and Letters (Boyce, Va., 1956), 216; Walter H. Taylor, Four Years with General Lee (New York, 1877), 129.

16. The reporter Swinton claimed that Grant’s purpose was to “plant himself between Lee’s army and Richmond, by a movement upon Spotsylvania Court House” (Swinton, Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, 440-41). A correspondent with the New York Daily Tribune reported Grant’s goal as “either to reach Richmond before the enemy, or, if we should be unable to turn his flank and the enemy should succeed in presenting himself in force upon our front, that we might gain so complete a victory over him as to render the capture of Richmond a comparatively easy task” (“The Great Contest,” New York Daily Tribune, May 12, 1864). Grant later explained that his “object in moving to Spotsylvania was two-fold: first, I did not want Lee to get back to Richmond in time to crush Butler before I could get there; second, I wanted to get between his army and Richmond if possible; and if not, draw him into the open field” (Ulysses S. Grant, Personal Memoirs [2 vols.; New York, 1885], II, 211).

17. Adam Badeau, Military History of General Ulysses S. Grant, from April, 1861, to April, 1865 (3 vols.; New York, 1881), II, 131-32; Frank Wilkeson, Recollections of a Private Soldier in the Army of the Potomac (New York, 1887), 79.

18. Porter, Campaigning with Grant, 76.

19. Ulysses S. Grant to George G. Meade, May 7, 1864, in OR, Vol. XXXVI, Pt. 2, p. 481. Grant apparently labored under a misapprehension, shared by Meade, that Piney Branch Church Road continued south to Spotsylvania. It entered Brock Road a few miles below Todd’s Tavern, which meant that the entire Union army would be funneled back onto one roadway. The erroneous positioning of Piney Branch Church Road on Union war maps is discussed by William D. Matter in If It Takes All Summer: The Battle of Spotsylvania (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1988), 23-24.

20. Grant to Meade, May 7, 1864, in OR, Vol. XXXVI, Pt. 2, p. 481; Meade’s General Orders, ibid., 483-84.

21. James H. Wilson, Under the Old Flag (2 vols.; New York, 1912), I, 389.

22. Philadelphia Inquirer, May 12, 1864; Badeau, Military History of General Ulysses S. Grant, II, 133.

23. Lyman to family, May 18, 1864, in Meade’s Headquarters, ed. Agassiz, 101; Harold A. Small, ed., The Road to Richmond: The Civil War Memoirs of Major Abner R. Small of the Sixteenth Maine Volunteers (Berkeley, Calif., 1939), 134.

24. George W. Pearsoll to wife, May 7, 1864, in George W. Pearsoll Collection, NCDAH; Austin C. Dobbins, ed., Grandfather’s Journal: Company B, Sixteenth Mississippi Infantry Volunteers, Harris’ Brigade, Mahone’s Division, Hill’s Corps, A.N.V. (Dayton, 1988), 191; Porter Farley, “Reminiscences of the 140th Regiment New York Volunteer Infantry,” Rochester Historical Society Publication, XXII (1944), 246; John O. Casler, Four Years in the Stonewall Brigade (Girard, Kans., 1906), 208; Terry L. Jones, ed., The Civil War Memoirs of Captain William J. Seymour: Reminiscences of a Louisiana Tiger (Baton Rouge, 1991), 116-18.

25. “Opening of Saturday’s Work,” New York Daily Tribune, May 10, 1864; Hyland C. Kirk, Heavy Guns and Light: A History of the 4th New York Heavy Artillery (New York, 1890), 180; Stephen D. Burger Diary, May 7, 1864, in FSNMP.

26. Morris Schaff, The Battle of the Wilderness (New York, 1910), 330-31.

27. James W. Latta Diary, May 7, 1864, in James W. Latta Collection, LC; Schaff, The Battle of the Wilderness, 330; Thomas W. Hyde, Following the Greek Cross; or, Memories of the Sixth Army Corps (Boston, 1894), 188.

28. Alfred M. Apted Diary, May 7, 1864, in Civil War Miscellaneous Collection, USAMHI; William Y. W. Ripley, Vermont Riflemen in the War for the Union, 1861 to 1865: A History of Company F First United States Sharpshooters (Rutland, Vt, 1883), 154; Joseph J. Bartlett to Catharinus B. Mervine, May 7, 1864, in OR, Vol. XXXVI, Pt. 2, p. 503.

29. Eugene A. Nash, A History of the Forty-Fourth Regiment New York Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War, 1861-1865 (Chicago, 1911), 186; Apted Diary, May 7, 1864; D. P. Marshall, History of Company K, 155th Pennsylvania Volunteer Zouaves (N.p., 1888), 157; John D. Vautier, History of the 88th Pennsylvania Volunteers in the War for the Union, 1861-1865 (Philadelphia, 1894), 175; J. L. Smith, History of the Corn Exchange Regiment: 118th Pennsylvania Volunteers, from Their First Engagement at Antietam to Appomattox (Philadelphia, 1888), 404-405.

30. Gouverneur K. Warren to Andrew A. Humphreys, 7:00 A.M., 7:40 A.M., May 7, 1864, in OR, Vol. XXXVI, Pt. 2, p. 499.

31. Ambrose E. Burnside to Ulysses S. Grant, May 7, 1864, in OR, Vol. XXXVI, Pt. 2, p. 511; Frederick W. Swift Diary, May 7, 1864, in Gregory Coco Collection, USAMHI; Winfield S. Hancock to Andrew A. Humphreys, May 7, 1864, in OR, Vol. XXXVI, Pt. 2, p. 486.

32. Winfield S. Hancock to Andrew A. Humphreys, May 7, 1864, in OR, Vol. XXXVI, Pt. 2, p. 487.

33. George G. Meade to John Sedgwick, May 7, 1864, in OR, Vol. XXXVI, Pt. 2, p. 507; George G. Meade to Winfield S. Hancock, May 7, 1864, ibid., 487.

34. John Sedgwick to Andrew A. Humphreys, May 7, 1864, in OR, Vol. XXXVI, Pt. 2, p. 507; John Sedgwick to Andrew A. Humphreys, May 7, 1864, ibid., 508; Judson Knight, “How Scouts Worked,” National Tribune, March 23, 1893. The two cavalry units belonged to the 9th Corps but were on loan to Sedgwick. A third regiment, the 3rd New Jersey Cavalry, remained north of the Rapidan. Around 8 A.M., the cavalryman Wilson had explored the region between Sedgwick and the river and found “no sign of enemy” (Wilson, Under the Old Flag, I, 388).

35. Meade to Sedgwick, May 7, 1864, in OR, Vol. XXXVI, Pt. 2, p. 507; Charles E. Pease to John Sedgwick, May 7, 1864, ibid.; John Sedgwick to Seth Williams, May 7, 1864, ibid.

36. John Sedgwick to Andrew A. Humphreys, May 7, 1864, in OR, Vol. XXXVI, Pt. 2,508.

37. Favill, The Diary of a Young Officer, 291; Charles N. Walker and Rosemary Walker, eds., “Diary of the War by Robert S. Robertson,” Old Fort News, XXVIII (1965), 165; John Gibbon to Winfield S. Hancock, May 7, 1864, in OR, Vol. XXXVI, Pt. 2, p. 494; Nelson A. Miles’s report, in OR, Vol. XXXVI, Pt. 1, p. 370. Captain William ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• I May 7, 1864 Grant and Lee Skirmish in the Wilderness and at Todd’s Tavern
• II May 8 The Armies Meet at Laurel Hill
• III May 9 Grant and Lee Shift for Position and Sheridan Starts South
• IV May 10 Grant Feels for Openings at the Po and Laurel Hill
• V May 10 Grant Attacks Across Lee’s Line
• VI May 11 A Cavalryman Dies and Grant Prepares to Attack Again
• VII May 12 Grant Captures the Salient
• VIII May 12 The Armies Reach Stalemate at the Bloody Angle
• Epilogue
• Appendix: The Order of Battle
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index