by Bruce Catton
3. Three Years in the Sixth Corps, p. 414; manuscript letters of Lewis Bissell; History of the 2nd Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artillery, p. 108.
4. M.H.S.M. Papers, Vol. VI, pp. 48 ff.
5. History of the 17th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry, pp. 135, 217–18; History of the 2nd Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artillery, p. 109; Sabres and Spurs, p. 407; manuscript letters of Lewis Bissell.
6. The Story of the First Massachusetts Light Battery, p. 182; Letters of a War Correspondent, pp. 269–70.
7. I Rode with Stonewall, p. 315. Note that even the historian of the 17th Pennsylvania Cavalry, normally troubled by few qualms, wrote: “If ever troops found an incentive to strike vigorous blows for their ‘homes and firesides’ it was those who fought Sheridan’s destructions from the 6th to the 9th of October, for we do not think the annals of civilized warfare furnishes a parallel to these destructive operations … the blackened face of the country from Port Republic to the neighborhood of Fisher’s Hill bore frightful testimony to fire and sword.” (History of the 17th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry, p. 216.)
8. History of the Shenandoah Valley, Vol. II, p. 954.
9. History of the 2nd Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artillery, p. 109; The Story of the First Massachusetts Light Battery, p. 182; Three Years in the Sixth Corps, pp. 415–16.
10. I Rode with Stonewall, p. 313.
11. Battles and Leaders, Vol. IV, p. 513; Lee’s Lieutenants, Vol. III, p. 597.
12. M.H.S.M. Papers, Vol. VI, pp. 48, 97.
13. Early’s narrative about all of this is in Battles and Leaders, Vol. IV, p. 526. There is a description of the Union position in A Volunteer’s Adventures, pp. 205–6—whose author, incidentally, draws the parallel between Early’s audacity at Cedar Creek and Washington’s at Trenton.
14. History of the 2nd Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artillery, pp. 119–20.
15. Ibid., pp. 120–21.
16. The Vermont Brigade in the Shenandoah Valley, pp. 136–40.
17. History of the 2nd Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artillery, pp. 121–23; History of the 8th Regiment Vermont Volunteers, pp. 215–18. For descriptions of the confused fighting in the heavy fog, and the unavailing attempt to stem the fugitives and their pursuers on the turnpike, see the Official Records, Vol. XLIII, Part 1, pp. 215, 233, 245, 267, 284. General Wright’s report on the battle is in that volume, pp. 158–61.
18. Personal Recollections of Distinguished Generals, by William F. G. Shanks, pp. 340–41; Battles and Leaders, Vol. IV, p. 518; A Volunteer’s Adventures, pp. 210–11, 213–14, 220. The latter work speaks of the flight as taking place “with curious deliberation.” For accounts of the rallying of the soldiers who did not panic, see the Official Records, Vol. XLIII, Part 1, pp. 197, 209–11.
19. Lee’s Lieutenants, Vol. III, pp. 603–4.
20. History of the 17th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry, pp. 115–17; Thrilling Days in Army Life, by General George A. Forsyth, pp. 135–38.
21. Thrilling Days in Army Life, pp. 140–43; Battles and Leaders, Vol. IV, p. 519.
22. The Story of the First Massachusetts Light Battery, p. 189.
23. The Vermont Brigade in the Shenandoah Valley, pp. 147–48; History of the 17th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry, pp. 117–18; Official Records, Vol. XLIII, Part 1, pp. 251, 309.
24. Thrilling Days in Army Life, pp. 155–56, 159–60.
25. History of the 2nd Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artillery, pp. 126–27; The Vermont Brigade in the Shenandoah Valley, p. 152; History of the 8th Regiment Vermont Volunteers, p. 223; A Volunteer’s Adventures, p. 227.
26. A Volunteer’s Adventures, pp. 228–29. Sheridan probably got a better reputation out of Cedar Creek than he really deserved, and it has often been argued that Generals Wright and Getty would eventually have pulled the victory out of the fire even if Sheridan had not reappeared at all. Sheridan provided the dramatics and the spur, which had long been missing from the experience of men in the Army of the Potomac. The most unrestrained enthusiasm and admiration came to him from the VI Corps itself, which provided most of the casualties at Cedar Creek, lost the fewest men captured, did most of the fighting—and, all in all, seems to have been quite willing to give to Sheridan the credit which might well have been claimed for its own generals.
27. Manuscript letters of Lewis Bissell.
Chapter Six: Endless Road Ahead
EXCEPT BY THE SWORD
1. For a moving description of the autumn landscape at Petersburg, see Letters of a War Correspondent, pp. 275–76. The account of the fortified lines follows Humphreys, p. 310.
2. History of the 10th Massachusetts Battery of Light Artillery, p. 253.
3. Official Records, Vol. XL, Part 1, pp. 270–71; Series 3, Vol. V, pp. 70–71; Letters of a War Correspondent, pp. 155–59.
4. Official Records, Series 3, Vol. V, pp. 70, 72–73; History of Durrell’s Battery in the Civil War, p. 209; History of the 2nd Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artillery, p. 133; Battles and Leaders, Vol. IV, p. 708.
5. “Grant Before Appomattox: Notes of a Confederate Bishop,” by the Right Rev. Henry C. Lay, in the Atlantic Monthly, March, 1932.
6. South After Gettysburg, p. 144.
7. Recollections of a Private Soldier, pp. 191–92; Army Life: a Private’s Reminiscences, p. 209; Service with the 6th Wisconsin Volunteers, p. 309.
8. The Passing of the Armies, by Major General Joshua Chamberlain, p. 12; Army Life: a Private’s Reminiscences, p. 209. Interestingly enough, one veteran wrote that it was the new regiments, plus the shirkers and bummers who never got on the firing line, who provided most of the vote for McClellan. (History of the 150th Pennsylvania Volunteers, p. 244.)
9. Report of Colonel Henry L. Abbot, Official Records, Vol. XL, Part 1, pp. 664–65.
10. Manuscript letters of Henry Clay Heisler; History of the 12th Regiment New Hampshire Volunteers, p. 427.
11. History of Durrell’s Battery in the Civil War, p. 228; History of the 36th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers, p. 246, 277; manuscript letters of Henry Clay Heisler; The Irish Brigade and Its Campaigns, p. 510.
12. Four Years Campaigning with the Army of the Potomac, p. 160.
13. The Story of the Regiment, pp. 367–68.
14. History of the 198th Pennsylvania Volunteers, by Major E. M. Woodward, p. 25.
15. Ibid., p. 27; History of the Ninth Massachusetts Battery, by Levi W. Baker, p. 155.
16. History of the 24th Michigan, p. 283.
17. South After Gettysburg, pp. 163, 165; History of the 87th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, p. 218.
18. My Life in the Army, pp. 135–36; Music on the March, pp. 203–4; History of the 7th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, p. 176; M.H.S.M. Papers, Vol. VI, p. 413; In the Ranks from the Wilderness to Appomattox Courthouse, p. 97; The Passing of the Armies, pp. 21, 23. For the recruiting and training of an entire new division of first-rate troops, see Military History of the 3rd Division, Ninth Corps, Army of the Potomac, by Milton A. Embick, pp. 1–5.
19. Following the Greek Cross, p. 238.
20. Ibid., p. 240; manuscript letters of Lewis Bissell; History of the 2nd Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artillery, p. 144.
21. Thirteenth Regiment of New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry in the War of the Rebellion, pp. 533, 537–38.
22. Manuscript letters of Lewis Bissell; Musket and Sword, p. 303.
23. Following the Greek Cross, p. 240; History of the 2nd Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artillery, p. 148.
24. History of Durrell’s Battery in the Civil War, pp. 232–34; History of the 51st Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers, pp. 602–5. For early glimpses of Stephens and Lincoln, see Abraham Lincoln: the Prairie Years, by Carl Sandburg, Vol. I, pp. 378, 382 ff.
25. There is a good discussion of the peace mission and the Davis-Stephens relationship in “Alexander Stephens and Jefferson Davis,” by James Z. Rabun, in the American Historical Review, Vol. LVIII, No. 2. See also Abraham Lincoln:
the War Years, Vol. IV, pp. 39–46, 48, 58–60; Jefferson Davis: the Unreal and the Real, by Robert McElroy, Vol. II, pp. 435–40; Diary of Gideon Welles, Vol. II, p. 237. There is a mention of the return of Lieutenant Murray from his Southern prison in Thirteenth Regiment of New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry in the War of the Rebellion, p. 534.
26. Ibid., pp. 447, 520, 542.
27. History of the Ninth Massachusetts Battery, p. 160.
GREAT LIGHT IN THE SKY
1. History of the 1st Connecticut Artillery, by John C. Taylor, p. 154; Major General Ambrose E. Burnside and the Ninth Army Corps, p. 476.
2. Reminiscences of the War of the Rebellion, p. 262.
3. Memoirs of Chaplain Life, p. 335.
4. Military History of the 3rd Division, Ninth Army Corps, Army of the Potomac, pp. 1–4, 14–16; Battles and Leaders, Vol. IV, p. 584 ff. Hartranft’s report on the fight is in the Official Records, Vol. XLVI, Part 1, pp. 345–49.
5. Grant’s Personal Memoirs, Vol. II, pp. 433–34; Humphreys, pp. 320–21; Official Records, Vol. XLVI, Part 3, pp. 141–42, 171.
6. Personal Memoirs of John H. Brinton, p. 265.
7. Grant’s Personal Memoirs, Vol. II, p. 425.
8. Manuscript letter of Sergeant George S. Hampton, 91st Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers, in the possession of Mr. J. Frank Nicholson of Manassas, Virginia.
9. Sherman, Fighting Prophet, by Lloyd Lewis, p. 524.
10. Sheridan’s report, reprinted in Moore’s Rebellion Record, Vol. XI, p. 634 ff.
11. Army Life: a Private’s Reminiscences, p. 251.
12. Humphreys, pp. 322–25; Official Records, Vol. XLVI, Part 1, pp. 50–51.
13. The Passing of the Armies, p. 34.
14. The Story of the Regiment, p. 381.
15. Annals of the 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry, p. 330; Last Hours of Sheridan’s Cavalry, by Henry Edwin Tremain, pp. 19–24.
16. Grant’s Personal Memoirs, Vol. II, p. 439; Battles and Leaders, Vol. IV, p. 709; Moore’s Rebellion Record, Vol. XI, p. 644; The Life of John A. Rawlins, pp. 309–10.
17. Horace Porter describes the meeting between Grant and Sheridan in Battles and Leaders, Vol. IV, p. 710. See also The Passing of the Armies, p. 62; Grant’s Personal Memoirs, Vol. II, p. 437.
18. There is an engaging description of Devin’s movements, with particular reference to the difficulties of the horse holders on the retreat to Dinwiddie Courthouse, in Last Hours of Sheridan’s Cavalry, pp. 37–45.
19. Ibid., pp. 50–55; Sheridan’s report, Moore’s Rebellion Record, Vol. XI, p. 644; Battles and Leaders, Vol. IV, p. 711.
20. Grant’s Personal Memoirs, Vol. II, p. 442; Battles and Leaders, Vol. IV, p. 711; Official Records, Vol. XLVI, Part 1, p. 380.
21. Last Hours of Sheridan’s Cavalry, p. 56.
THE SOLDIERS SAW DAYLIGHT
1. The Passing of the Armies, pp. 65–78; The Fifth Army Corps, pp. 781–83; Humphreys, pp. 330–34; Official Records, Vol. XLVI, Part 1, pp. 337, 817–18.
2. Campaigns of the 146 Regiment New York State Volunteers, p. 292; History of the Corn Exchange Regiment, p. 574; Humphreys, pp. 337–40; The Passing of the Armies, pp. 90–96; Official Records, Vol. XLVI, Part 1, pp. 820, 822. In his report on Five Forks Warren explained that since his troops were so close to the enemy it was impossible to summon them out by drum or bugle; verbal orders had to pass down a long chain which began at corps headquarters and ended with non-coms arousing individual soldiers by shaking them. For the confusing series of orders Warren got that night, see the volume just cited, pp. 365–67, 410, 419–20.
3. The Passing of the Armies, pp. 104, 121.
4. Humphreys, p. 356; Battles and Leaders, Vol. IV, p. 723.
5. The Passing of the Armies; introduction, pp. xii–xiv.
6. Grant’s Personal Memoirs, Vol. II, p. 445.
7. In the Ranks from the Wilderness to Appomattox Courthouse, pp. 193–94.
8. The Fifth Army Corps, pp. 800–4; Humphreys, pp. 346–48; M.H.S.M. Papers, Vol. VI, pp. 249–52.
9. The Passing of the Armies, pp. 129–30.
10. Battles and Leaders, Vol. IV, p. 714.
11. Ibid., p. 713; The Passing of the Armies, pp. 133–34.
12. Very loyal to Warren but impressed by Sheridan in spite of himself, General Chamberlain describes all of these exchanges in The Passing of the Armies, p. 142. There are very extended descriptions of the battle of Five Forks, with particular reference to the movements of the V Corps, and with strong defense of Warren’s actions, by Captain Charles H. Porter and Brevet Lieutenant Colonel William W. Swan, in M.H.S.M. Papers, Vol. VI, pp. 211–34, 237–55, 259–408.
13. Chamberlain, op. cit., pp. 143–44, 151.
14. Ibid., pp. 152–53.
15. Battles and Leaders, Vol. IV, pp. 714–15.
16. Following the Greek Cross, pp. 249–50; Humphreys, p. 364; “The Storming of the Lines at Petersburg,” by Brevet Brigadier General Hazard Stevens, in Vol. VI, M.H.S.M. Papers, pp. 412–13, 418. The latter work has an exceptionally good description of the formidable Confederate defenses.
17. General Stevens, M.H.S.M. Papers, p. 422; Red, White and Blue Badge, by Penrose G. Mark, p. 321.
18. Following the Greek Cross, p. 252; History of Durrell’s Battery in the Civil War, pp. 241–42; manuscript letters of Lewis Bissell; History of the Corn Exchange Regiment, pp. 282–83.
19. M.H.S.M. Papers, Vol. VI, p. 423.
20. Ibid., pp. 426–28; History of the 5th Regiment Maine Volunteers, p. 344; General Wright’s report, Official Records, Vol. XLVI, Part 1, pp. 902–4.
21. Following the Greek Cross, p. 253; History of the 5th Regiment Maine Volunteers, p. 345; Battles and Leaders, Vol. IV, p. 717.
22. History of the 2nd Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artillery, pp. 159–60. The break-through of the VI Corps was by no means inexpensive, the corps losing 1,100 men in fifteen minutes. The Confederate works at Petersburg were all but literally invulnerable, despite the extreme attentuation of Confederate manpower, and General Wright said later that the spot his corps attacked, which was the weakest place in the entire Confederate line, was the only place where an assault could possibly have succeeded. See Humphreys, p. 365.
THE ENORMOUS SILENCE
1. Letters of a War Correspondent, pp. 308–10; Days and Events, pp. 439–40.
2. Music on the March, p. 227.
3. History of the 198th Pennsylvania Volunteers, p. 53.
4. The Story of the Regiment, p. 394; Last Hours of Sheridan’s Cavalry, p. 115; Official Records, Vol. XLVI, Part 1, p. 510.
5. Army Life: a Private’s Reminiscences, pp. 247–48; History of the Corn Exchange Regiment, p. 583; Gibbon’s Personal Recollections, p. 302; The Story of the Regiment, p. 395.
6. Last Hours of Sheridan’s Cavalry, pp. 97–101.
7. Meade’s Headquarters, pp. 345–46.
8. Battles and Leaders, Vol. IV, pp. 719–20; The Generalship of Ulysses S. Grant, p. 351.
9. “A Recruit Before Petersburg,” by George B. Peck, Jr., from Rhode Island Soldiers and Sailors Society, Personal Narratives, Second Series, p. 52; History of the 2nd Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artillery, p. 160.
10. Last Hours of Sheridan’s Cavalry, pp. 133, 149–52.
11. Four Years in the Army of the Potomac, p. 199.
12. Following the Greek Cross, pp. 262–63. There is an unforgettable glimpse of what Lee himself saw of this disaster in R. E. Lee, Vol. IV, pp. 84–86. For Meade’s anger at what he considered Sheridan’s attempt to assume sole credit for this victory, see Meade’s Headquarters, p. 351.
13. Days and Events, p. 449; manuscript letters of Lewis Bissell.
14. Battles and Leaders, Vol. IV, pp. 729–30; History of the Second Army Corps, pp. 681–83.
15. Army Life: a Private’s Reminiscences, pp. 251–52; In the Ranks from the Wilderness to Appomattox Courthouse, p. 212; History of the Corn Exchange Regiment, p. 587. Looking back from his old age, Grant wrote glowingly that “straggling
had entirely ceased” (Personal Memoirs, Vol. II, p. 481), but the men who did the marching made no such claim.
16. Army Life: a Private’s Reminiscences, p. 253. This unpretentious book has a very good description of the march to Appomattox, the final scene there, and the surrender ceremonies. The artillery-infantry fight on the dark road is also depicted in History of the Corn Exchange Regiment, p. 587.
17. Last Hours of Sheridan’s Cavalry, pp. 214–18, 228 ff.; History of the 17th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry, p. 315.
18. Army Life: a Private’s Reminiscences, p. 254; The Fifth Army Corps, p. 849; In the Ranks from the Wilderness to Appomattox Courthouse, p. 213.
19. The Sunset of the Confederacy, by Morris Schaff, p. 214; Gibbon’s Personal Recollections, p. 315.
20. Ibid., pp. 316–17; Sabres and Spurs, p. 456.
21. Army Life: a Private’s Reminiscences, pp. 255–56.
22. The Sunset of the Confederacy, p. 215.
23. Army Life: a Private’s Reminiscences, p. 257. The author of Last Hours of Sheridan’s Cavalry says (p. 427): “We were too sleepy to move rapidly. We were too cross to be shoved by bullets.”
24. The Sunset of the Confederacy, pp. 219–20; History of the 198th Pennsylvania Volunteers, p. 57; Last Hours of Sheridan’s Cavalry, pp. 252–53.
25. Thirteenth Regiment of New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry in the War of the Rebellion, p. 587; manuscript letter of Sergeant George S. Hampton, of the 91st Pennsylvania. For an interesting account of the presentation of the flag of truce, and a postwar letter from the Confederate officer who carried it, see History of the Corn Exchange Regiment, pp. 589–91.
26. Thrilling Days in Army Life, p. 187. The reference to the playing of “Auld Lang Syne” is from History of the 198th Pennsylvania Volunteers, p. 58.
BRUCE CATTON
Bruce Catton (1899–1978) was America’s foremost historian of the Civil War. Born in Michigan, he began his career in journalism and became Director of Information for the War Production Board during World War II. His experiences as a federal employee prepared him to write his first book, The War Lords of Washington, in 1948. He is most famous for the Army of Potomac trilogy, of which the third volume, A Stillness at Appomattox, won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. In later life Mr. Catton was senior editor of American Heritage magazine.
