Four Years With the Iron Brigade
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147. It is likely that Ray was wounded by a Georgian in John B. Gordon’s Brigade, which launched an assault at this time against the largely isolated Iron Brigade.
148. The fighting seesawed back and forth the rest of the afternoon without either side gaining a lasting advantage. While Ewell’s Southerners were battling Warren’s Fifth Corps and thereafter John Sedgwick’s Sixth Corps, much of the balance of the Army of the Potomac was fighting a mile or so to the south against A. P. Hill’s Third Corps, deployed astride the Orange Plank Road.
149. The battle opened again on both fronts on the morning of May 6, 1864. The most critical fighting that day took place to the south along the Orange Plank Road, where a large Federal attack broke the Confederate lines and routed the right wing of Lee’s army. Only the timely arrival of Longstreet’s Corps saved Lee’s army from what would have been a catastrophic defeat. Division Commander James Wadsworth was mortally wounded later in the day leading an ill-fated charge on the Rebel works. Brigadier General Lysander Cutler, the first colonel of the Sixth Wisconsin, assumed command of the division.
150. Ambrose Burnside’s Ninth Corps was already with the army and joined the fighting on May 6, 1864.
151. By the night of May 7, 1864, the Iron Brigade and its attached artillery, Battery B, Fourth U.S. Artillery, were on the move south down the Brock Road toward Todd’s Tavern and Spotsylvania Court House. Unlike every other commander of the Army of the Potomac, Grant decided to fight it out that summer. Instead of Richmond, Lee’s army was the objective. As he would several times that May and June, Grant moved by his left flank around Lee’s right in an effort to seek favorable terms of engagement.
152. Ray was correct: Grant was indeed “still driving the enemy.” On May 12, 1864, Grant launched one of the largest surprise attacks of the war against a large salient in Lee’s line at Spotsylvania. The attack captured thousands of Confederates, including several generals. The assault almost split Lee’s army in two. The Iron Brigade was involved in the fighting near the Bloody Angle, which fortunately for William Ray, he missed entirely because of his “slight” wound suffered on May 6. The Seventh Wisconsin during the Spotsylvania campaign lost another 19 killed, 58 wounded, and three missing. Fox, Regimental Losses, 397.
153. Unfortunately, Butler was not driving anyone. After muffing an opportunity to cut an important rail link and capture Petersburg or perhaps even Richmond, Butler was fought to a standstill at the battle of Drewry’s Bluff on May 16, after which he withdrew. The Confederates, led by General P. G. T. Beauregard, threw up heavy entrenchments on Bermuda Hundred and “bottled” up Butler and his Army of the James, largely removing the threat to Richmond and interior Virginia. For an excellent account of the Bermuda Hundred Campaign, see William Glenn Robertson, Back Door to Richmond: The Bermuda Hundred Campaign, April-June 1864 (Newark, DE., 1987).
154. General John Sedgwick, commander of the Sixth Corps, was killed by a sharpshooter while visiting the front lines on May 9, 1864. Jeb Stuart was mortally wounded on May 11, 1864, but not captured, and James Longstreet was severely wounded during the fighting on May 6. Neither Robert E. Lee nor A. P. Hill were wounded.
155. The Spotsylvania Campaign was winding down by May 18, 1864. After several Federal attacks were beaten back, General Meade stopped attacking and General Grant decided to begin sliding around Lee’s right flank a second time. His position at Spotsylvania was just too strong to crack.
156. Grant was marching east and south, and Lee was moving to confront him, planning to stop and dig in opposite Grant along the North Anna River.
157. General William S. Walker was actually a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but was raised by his uncle, Mississippi Senator Robert J. Walker. He was a veteran of the Mexican War. Faust, Civil War Encyclopedia, 799.
158. General Sherman’s three armies were enjoying significant success against Joe Johnston’s Army of Tennessee in North Georgia. Johnston, who routinely preferred to withdraw instead of fight, continually fell back or was turned out of his prepared positions.
159. On May 23, 1864, Lee and Grant fought a battle on the North Anna River near Hanover. The engagement was not decisive in any sense, but it did reveal to Grant that his own position there was not a good one, and he determined to sidle east and south once again.
160. Grant was steadily wearing down Lee’s army and getting a bit closer to Richmond with each major move, as Lee attempted to keep the Army of the Potomac on the outside of the arc of maneuver. Richmond was still firmly in Confederate hands, however.
161. Grant’s main force at this time was along the Topopotomoy River and confronted Lee’s line along the Chickahominy River. By this time Grant was only a handful of miles from Richmond—just as close as McClellan had been in the late spring of 1862.
Volume 12
162. The battle of Cold Harbor to which Ray refers took place on June 3, 1864, just a few miles outside Richmond near the field of the Seven Days’ Battles. Tiring of flanking operations and believing that Lee’s army was weaker than it really was, Grant ordered a massive full frontal assault against the enemy lines. In about one hour’s time he lost at least 6,000 men to all causes, while Lee’s losses are estimated at about 1,500. Unlike so many of the battles since the beginning of May 1864, the Iron Brigade did not materially participate at Cold Harbor. Since the opening of the 1864 campaigning, the brigade had lost 902 killed, wounded, and missing. Nolan, Iron Brigade, 274.
163. The soldier Ray mentions was a member of the 28th Massachusetts, which was one of the regiments of another legendary outfit—the Irish Brigade. The brigade’s soldiers “fell in heaps” at Cold Harbor and its commander, Colonel Richard Byrnes, was killed there. OR 36, pt. 1, 390-391.
164. Using a ruse, Grant stole a march on Lee by crossing the James River and moving against the vital railroad center of Petersburg, without which the Confederate capital could not be held. He constructed a long pontoon bridge over the wide river and began shifting his men out of their lines toward the James on June 12, 1864, with the actual crossing beginning two days later. It was one of history’s greatest military movements.
165. William “Baldy” Smith’s men had not taken Petersburg, although they had an excellent opportunity to do so. After successfully fooling Lee, the vanguard of Grant’s army under Winfield Hancock marched for Petersburg. Smith, whose corps belonged to Butler’s army on Bermuda Hundred, had orders from Grant to assault the city, and Hancock’s corps could have assisted. Unfortunately, confused orders and other events, including excessive timidity, prevented the capture of the lightly defended Petersburg on June 15. Heavier fighting took place on June 16, but no full scale determined assaults to capture the place were made. Additional attacks and fighting took place on June 17, although by this date Lee was convinced Grant was below the river and had begun reinforcing Petersburg. The best opportunity to end the war in the East that summer slipped away. The Seventh Wisconsin lost 17 men at Petersburg on June 18, 1864, and 10 more in the fighting on the Petersburg line over the next few days. Fox, Regimental Losses, 397.
166. Chipman, Cassville, enlisted February 6, 1864, wounded Wilderness, transferred to Veteran Reserve Corps, April 24, 1865. Wisconsin Roster, 559.
167. Weber, Potosi, enlisted March 3, 1864, died of disease July 28, 1864. Wisconsin Roster, 561.
168. After the initial effort to capture Petersburg fizzled, both sides rushed up additional reinforcements and dug in. Grant’s efforts were intended to extend his lines south and west of the city, stretching Lee’s thin army and severing the several rail lines that fed the capital and enemy army.
169. Ray has confused the names of the engagements and areas of Sherman’s battles in Georgia. At this time the Federal armies in Georgia were pressing against Joe Johnston’s Kennesaw Mountain defenses, which were just a handful of miles from Marietta, Georgia. Sherman assaulted Johnston’s men on Kennesaw on June 27, 1864, and was repulsed with heavy loss. Lookout Mountain, in Tennessee, fell to Joe Hooker’
s men the previous November during the fighting around Chattanooga.
170. Fort Monroe was erected during the 1820s and 1830s for the coastal defense of the United States. Its guns swept the waters of Hampton Roads, where the James River reaches the Chesapeake Bay. Faust, Civil War Encyclopedia, 277.
171. By the time Ray returned to the lines, the Fifth Corps under General Warren was holding a stretch of entrenchments southeast of Petersburg, with its right near the Jerusalem Plank Road, and its left near the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad.
172. This area of the line was part of Burnside’s Ninth Corps sector. Unbeknownst to Ray, Federal engineers were at this time extending a lengthy tunnel under the works there with the intention of packing its end gallery with tons of gunpowder and blasting open a breach in the enemy works.
173. The Confederate raider CSS Alabama was sunk by USS Kearsarge off Cherbourg, France, on June 19, 1864. Faust, Civil War Encyclopedia, 3.
174. Ray is referring to a large detachment of Confederates under Jubal Early sent by Lee to the Shenandoah Valley to thwart Federal efforts there and hopefully drain off Federals from around Petersburg. This column, about 14,000 men, moved north of the Potomac River and was operating in Maryland and threatening Washington, D.C. Horatio Wright’s Sixth Corps was dispatched by Grant to counter the threat and protect Washington.
175. The battle to which Ray is referring was Monocacy, fought on July 9, 1864, southeast of Frederick, Maryland. There, Early’s Confederates, about 10,000 strong, were confronted by General Lew Wallace’s scratch force of about 6,000. The Federals were routed after a spirited fight, but the engagement delayed Early’s advance toward Washington. Wallace lost about 2,000 men, most of them captured or missing, while Early lost about 700 men to all causes.
176. On July 11, Early’s exhausted Confederates approached the outskirts of Washington, D. C. Skirmishing broke out there, primarily around Fort Stevens. Since it was late in the day, Early ordered an assault for the following morning. Troops from the Nineteenth Corps had recently arrived from New Orleans, and elements of Wright’s Sixth Corps (from Petersburg) were pouring into Washington just in time to confront Early. Once he realized he was outnumbered by Army of the Potomac and other veterans better than two-to-one, Early decided to withdraw, ending the threat to Washington.
177. By July 17, 1864, General Sherman was below the Chattahoochee River just a handful of miles from Atlanta. On that day President Davis, unable to get a firm answer from Joe Johnston as to how he planned to arrest Sherman’s relentless march into Georgia, sacked him and elevated General John B. Hood in his place. The news from Georgia was decidedly in favor of the Federals.
178. Gabions were cylindrical baskets about three feet high and two feet in diameter. Facines were bundles of saplings used mostly for the sides of trenches.
179. By July 22, 1864, Sherman had waged two major battles against Hood’s Confederates, the first at Peach Tree Creek on July 20, and the second two days later called the battle of Atlanta. Casualties on both sides were high, but Hood could not afford the losses he suffered. Ray’s news about William Sooy Smith was incorrect. Smith led a cavalry expedition from Tennessee into Mississippi and was beaten by General Nathan B. Forrest at both West Point and Okolona, Mississippi. The disaster embarrassed and enraged Sherman.
180. Sherman had not yet captured Atlanta.
181. The mine was originally the brainchild of Lt. Col. Henry Pleasants, a Pennsylvania officer and former coal miner. Pleasants convinced his superiors that the plan to dig a 500-foot shaft and fill it with explosives undetected was possible, and the plan eventually secured the blessings of General Grant. The men began digging the shaft on June 25, 1864, which was completed on July 23, 1864. Several more days were needed to place the powder charges. The Confederates knew the Federals were digging a mine and unsuccessfully sunk a number of countermines in an attempt to locate it. For an excellent account of this engagement, see Michael Cavanaugh and William Marvel, The Horrid Pit: The Battle of the Crater (Lynchburg, VA., 1989).
182. The fuse failed at a splice and two brave members of the 48th Pennsylvania Infantry volunteered to enter the shaft and light it.
183. The explosion took place about 4:45 a.m. when four tons of gunpowder blew a hole in the Confederate lines about 170 feet long and 60 to 80 feet wide. The blast carried men, horses, dirt, rocks, and artillery pieces high into the sky in a giant mushroom cloud of debris. The unfortunate Southerners surprised in this manner comprised some nine companies of South Carolinians from the 19th and 22nd regiments. About 300 of them were killed or wounded instantly.
184. General Burnside had been training a division of black troops under the command of General Edward Ferrero to rush and enlarge the expected breach in the line, but Generals Meade and Grant believed that if the attempt failed they would be accused of recklessly using black troops in a desperate affair. As a result, just before the attack was to begin, Burnside was ordered to use a different (white) division of troops. Burnside’s most inept subordinate, James Ledlie, a notorious drunkard, drew the short straw. Although his men bravely charged into action, Ledlie remained behind in a bombproof shelter, imbibing alcohol. The white soldiers were not trained for the task, and instead of bypassing the large hole in the ground and driving forward, they poured into it, where they soon found themselves trapped.
185. Once the Confederates recovered from the initial shock of the massive explosion, they promptly coordinated to strike the flanks of the attackers and contain the breach. Southern artillery was fired into the attackers from several directions and infantry began smothering the area with musket fire. Burnside, meanwhile, continued feeding troops into the small space (including Ferrero’s black division), which simply packed them into and around the smoking crater so tightly that they could barely move. The Southern counterattack was led by General William Mahone, whose division sealed off the tear in the line and held the attackers in place. Many atrocities took place in and around the Crater, especially when the Southern troops discovered that many of the trapped attackers were black. Much of this was clearly visible to William Ray.
186. By 1:00 p.m. the attack was over and those Federals who could ran the gauntlet of fire back to their lines. Casualties were extremely heavy. Federal losses totaled almost 4,000 from all causes, while Confederate losses probably came in around 1,500. Another excellent opportunity to divide Lee’s thin army in two was wasted.
187. On July 28, Sherman fought the third of the three large scale battles for Atlanta in eight days at Ezra Church, a hard-fought defensive victory. Atlanta was now all but doomed.
188. Ferrero’s black soldiers fought exceptionally well that day, and indeed “barbarities” took place; many of the blacks were shot after they surrendered, or were not allowed to do so.
189. Confederate cavalry under the command of John McCausland burned part of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, on July 30, 1864.
190. On August 4, 1864, Admiral David Farragut guided a fleet of wooden warships and iron monitors past Confederate forts and defeated a smaller Confederate fleet. The battle for Mobile Bay shut an important Southern port and led to the capture of the ironclad CSS Tennessee.
191. Cook [Webster], Beetown, enlisted August 19, 1861, wounded Wilderness, mustered out July 3, 1865. Wisconsin Roster, 559.
192. Federal operations to cut the Weldon Railroad, which ran south from Petersburg into the deep South, began on June 22, 1864. After the first attempt to cut the line failed, Grant suspended operations until mid-August, when Warren’s Fifth Corps (including the Iron Brigade) left its entrenchments on August 14-15 and headed south and west. Early on the morning of August 18, Warren’s four divisions advanced against weak opposition and seized Globe Tavern, about six miles south of Petersburg, and the heavy fighting began. The Iron Brigade was led at this time by Colonel Edward S. Bragg, who had replaced Colonel Robinson in June 1864. The brigade moved north against Henry Heth’s Confederates with its left flank near the railroad.
194. The Iron Brigade had been pulled back and was now facing west parallel and on the west side of the railroad after element’s from Burnside’s Ninth Corps replaced Warren’s troops near the previous day’s fight. The brigade’s position was strong and behind good field works. The attack repulsed by Ray and his comrades was led by Johnson Hagood’s South Carolinians. Dennis Dailey was in command of the two companies of the Second Wisconsin that remained with the brigade after the Second was mustered out. At the battle of Weldon Railroad on August 21, 1864, Dailey rode into the Confederate line demanding Johnson surrender. He was shot from his horse by General Hagood (Hagood was not wounded in the encounter). Dailey recovered from his wound and was among the Second Wisconsin men merged into the Sixth Wisconsin in November 1864. William J. K. Beaudot, ‘The Bravest Act of the War,” Virginia Country’s Civil War Quarterly, Vol. VI, 1986. Federal losses in the attack were minimal compared to Southern casualties.