Crucible of Command
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45USG to Frémont, September 4, 1861, ibid., p. 186, September 5, 1861, pp. 190–92.
46USG to Frémont, September 5, 1861, ibid., p. 190.
47Proclamation, September 6, 1861, ibid., p. 194, USG to Frémont, September 6, 1861, pp. 196–97.
48USG to Julia, September 25, 1861, ibid., p. 311.
49USG to McKeever, October 9, 1861, PUSG, 3, p. 30.
50USG to Julia, September 8, 1861, PUSG, 2, p. 214, September 22, 1861, p. 300.
51USG to McKeever, October 9, 1861, PUSG, 3, p. 30.
52Richmond, Daily Dispatch, April 23, 1861.
53Davis to Letcher, April 22, 1861, Executive Papers, Virginia.
54Speech to Virginia Convention, April 23, 1861, Wartime Papers, p. 11.
55Alexandria Gazette, April 20, 1861.
56Cassius F. Lee to REL, April 23, 1861, Lee, Lee of Virginia, p. 417.
57James May to Cassius F. Lee, April 22, 1861, Lee, Lee of Virginia, pp. 417–19.
58REL to Cassius F. Lee, April 25, 1861, Lee, Lee of Virginia, pp. 419–20.
59REL to MCL, April 26, 1861, Adams, Letters, p. 758.
60REL to MCL, April 30, 1861, ibid., pp. 760–62.
61REL to “My Dear Little H,” May 5, 1861, Washington, Daily National Intelligencer, August 5, 1861. This letter seems to be genuine as it was published in the Confederacy after first appearing in the New York Express. Context suggests that the addressee was the daughter of an old friend. Lee, 1, p. 475 n9, says that this use of “my section of country” shows how quickly Lee’s loyalty to Virginia “became blended with allegiance to the South.” This seems like wishful thinking. Virginia was part of the Confederacy on May 5 when Lee wrote. Therefore any Virginia soldier took on an automatic allegiance to the larger nation. A more interesting question would be to ask if Lee’s allegiance to Virginia still trumped that to the Confederacy, as it had to the old Union, a question that never arose directly, but which events in 1865 came close to testing, as will be seen.
62REL to MCL, May 2, 1861, Wartime Papers, pp. 18–19.
63REL to MCL, May 2, 1861, ibid., p. 18; REL to MCL, July 12, 1861, Lee, Recollections, p. 36.
64William C. Rives to Judith Page Rives, June 3, 1861, William C. Rives Papers, LC.
65Milwaukee, Journal of Commerce, November 1, 1871. This is an account by Virginian brigadier general John D. Imboden, whose writings are rarely to be trusted entirely, even from this early date, hence his extended account of Lee’s conversation has been summarized rather than quoted.
66REL to Jane Peter, May 11, 1861, George Washington and Jane Peter Papers. In the early 1960s these papers were apparently on loan to the Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore, and were excerpted in an undated essay by Lee Wallace. Their whereabouts today are unknown. Robert K. Krick collection.
67REL to Cassius F. Lee, April 25, 1861, Lee, Lee of Virginia, pp. 419–20.
68REL to MCL, April 30, 1861, Wartime Papers, p. 15
69REL to MCL, May 2, 1861, ibid., p. 18.
70REL to Francis Boykin, April 30, 1861, ibid., p. 16.
71REL to William B. Taliaferro, May 8, 1861, ibid., p. 21.
72REL to Jackson, April 27, 1861, ibid., p. 13.
73REL to Jackson, May 6, ibid., p. 20.
74REL to Jackson, May 9, 1861, ibid., p. 22, May 10, 1861, p. 24.
75REL to Jackson May 12, 1861, ibid., p. 27.
76REL to James M. Mason, May 21, 1861, ibid., p. 32.
77REL to Cocke, May 15, 1861, ibid., p. 30.
78REL to Cocke, May 6, 1861, ibid., p. 19–20, May 10, p. 23.
79REL to George H. Terrett, May 10, 1861, ibid., p. 24, May 15, 1861, p. 29.
80REL to Davis, May 7, 1861, ibid., p. 21.
81REL to Bonham, May 22, 1861, ibid., p. 33.
82Samuel Melton to wife, May 29, 1861, Samuel Melton Papers, South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina, Columbia.
83REL to Joseph E. Johnston, May 30, 1861, Wartime Papers, p. 40.
84REL to Johnston, June 1, 1861, ibid., p. 41.
85REL to Letcher, June 15, 1861, ibid., pp. 51–52.
86REL to MCL, June 9, 1861, ibid., p. 46.
87REL to MCL, May 25, 1861, ibid., p. 36.
88REL to MCL, June 11, 1861, ibid., p. 47.
89REL to MCL, April 30, 1861, p. 15.
90Rives to Judith Page Rives, June 3, 1861, Rives Papers, LC.
91Ibid.
92Charles Bracelen Flood, Lee: The Last Years (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1981), p. 220.
93REL to JEJ, June 7, 1861, Wartime Papers, p. 43.
94REL to Magruder, June 13, 1861, ibid., p. 49.
95REL to MCL, June 24, 1861, ibid., p. 54.
96Charles S. Morton to his mother, July 4, 1861, www.vmb-collection.com/AandDPages/AandDP47.html.
97REL to MCL, July 27, 1861, Lee, Recollections, p. 37.
98Ibid.
99REL to Jane Peter, July 27, 1861, Peter Papers, Krick collection.
100REL to MCL, July 27, 1861, Lee, Recollections, p. 37; REL to Jane Peter, July 27, 1861, Peter Papers, Krick collection.
101REL to MCL, August 4, 1861, Wartime Papers, p. 61.
102His mandate was so understood in Richmond. Richmond Examiner, July 31, 1861.
103REL to MCL, August 4, 1861, Wartime Papers, p. 62.
104REL to William W. Loring, July 20, 1861, OR, I, 2, p. 986.
105Loring to George Deas, July 28, 1861, ibid., p. 1006; REL to MCL, July 27, 1861, Lee Recollections, p. 37.
106John Kennedy Howard to wife, August 4, 1861, Patricia Chatham, “Letters Home,” Newsletter of the North Suburban Genealogical Society 17 (September-October 1992), p. 35; William Preston Johnston, “Reminiscences of General Robert E. Lee,” Belford’s Magazine 25 (June 1890), p. 86.
107Wise to REL, August 7, 1861, OR, I, 5, p. 773.
108No correspondence with Floyd survives from this period, though that is hardly conclusive. Still, copybooks of Lee’s correspondence should contain his communications to Floyd, but do not.
109REL to Wise, August 8, 1861, Wartime Papers, p. 62; Floyd to Wise, August 8, 1861, OR, I, 5, pp. 774, August 9 1861, p. 776, Wise to Floyd, August 8, 1861, pp. 774–76, August 9, 1861, p. 776, August 11, 1861, p. 779, Floyd to Davis, August 11, 1861, pp. 780–81. More of this sort of correspondence continues on pp. 781–93.
110D. H. Hill to John W. Ellis, June 16, 1861, Lee Family Papers Washington and Lee.
111REL to WHFL, September 3, 1861, Wartime Papers, September 3, 1861, p. 69.
112REL to MCL, September 1, 1861, ibid., pp. 68–69.
113REL to WHFL, September 3, 1861, ibid., p. 69.
114Salem, NC, Peoples Press, November 15, 1861.
115There is precious little in the way of relevant contemporary documentation to limn the Lee-Loring relationship at this time. Freeman and Jack Zinn, R. E. Lee’s Cheat Mountain Campaign (Parsons, WV: McLain, 1974), both rely almost exclusively on an account by A. L. Long years after the fact, and Long is not always the most reliable source. Long, Memoirs, pp. 120ff.
116REL to MCL, August 9, 1861, Wartime Papers, pp. 63–64.
117Lee, 1, pp. 559–60, implies that Lee got word of the promotion on August 31, but in fact cites no source making such a claim. He also states that Lee had been signing letters as “general” for some time, again implying that Lee knew he was to assume that rank. Again this is misleading. Lee signed himself as both “general” and “major general” and with no rank at all in correspondence in late May, and usually as “general commanding” after that, a reference to his immediate position rather than an actually designated rank, especially since Davis did not even put his name forward for full general until August 31.
118Samuel Cooper to Lee, September 4, 1861, OR, I, 5, pp. 828–29.
119Zinn, Cheat Mountain, pp. 112–14, is the best estimate, though adequate sources are almost nonexistent.
120OR, I, 51, part 2, pp. 282–83.
121Easton, MD, Gazette, July 13, 1861. This last appears
to be the main substance of Mary’s August 30, 1861, letter to Lee, not to date found, but referenced in his to her of September 9, 1861, Wartime Papers, p. 71. Neither Freeman nor Pryor dealt with this matter, though both were aware of Lee’s letter. To date, efforts to find any such allegations in the press of the time have failed, which is not to say they were not published.
122REL to MCL, September 9, 1861, Wartime Papers, p. 71.
123Special Order, September 9, 1861, ibid., p. 73.
124REL to MCL, September 17, 1861, ibid., p. 74.
125Special Order, September 14, 1861, OR, I, 5, pp. 192–93.
126Peter W. Hairston to Fanny Hairston, September 28, 1861, Robert J. Trout, With Pen & Saber (Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1995), p. 40.
127REL to Letcher, September 17, 1861, Wartime Papers, pp. 75–76.
128Alexandre DeClouet to Paul DeClouet, September 23, 1861, Raab Autographs, Ardmore, PA, catalog January 2003, p. 12, item #11.
129REL to Wise, September 21, 1861, OR, I, 5, p. 76.
130Wise to REL, September 21, 1861, ibid., pp. 868–69.
131REL to Wise, September 25, 1861, Wartime Papers, p. 77.
132REL to MCL, October 7, 1861, ibid., p. 80.
133REL to Floyd, October 20, 1861, OR, I, 5, pp. 908–909, Judah P. Benjamin to Loring, November 24, 1861, p. 969.
134REL to Jane Peter, July 27, 1861, Peter Papers, Krick collection.
135REL to Edward C. Turner, September 14, 1861, Lee Family Papers, UVA.
136John Kennedy Howard to wife, August 4, 1861, Chatham, “Letters Home,” p. 36.
137Hairston to Fanny Hairston, September 28, 1861, Trout, With Pen & Saber, p. 40.
138USG to Frémont, September 5, 1861, OR, I, 3, p. 169, September 10, PUSG, 2, p. 225.
139For an excellent account of the subsequent campaign see Nathaniel Cheairs Hughes, The Battle of Belmont: Grant Strikes South (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991).
140USG to Mary Grant, September 11, 1861, PUSG, 2, p. 238.
141USG to Julia, October 20, 1861, PUSG, 3, pp. 64–65, USG to Mary Grant, October 25, 1861, pp. 75–76.
142USG to McKeever, October 16, 1861, ibid., pp. 42–43.
143Ibid., p. 79n, USG to McKeever, October 27, 1861, p. 78.
144USG to Julia, October 6, 1861, ibid., p. 23.
145USG to Mary Grant, October 25, 1861, ibid., p. 76.
146USG to Julia, September 25, 1861, PUSG, 2, p. 311.
147San Francisco, Bulletin, September 26, 1868.
148USG to Julia, August 31, 1861, PUSG, 2, p. 161, September 12, 1861, p. 247, September 20, 1861, p. 290.
149USG to Mary Grant, October 25, 1861, PUSG, 3, p. 76.
150McKeever to USG, November 2, 1861, ibid., p. 268.
151USG to Oglesby, November 3, 1861, ibid., p. 109.
152USG to Joseph B. Plummer, October 18, 1861, ibid., p. 57.
153PMUSG, 1, p. 269.
154Frémont to USG, September 5, 1861, OR, I, 3, p. 150.
155See, for instance, Springfield, Daily Illinois State Journal, October 21, 1861.
156USG to McClernand, November 5, 1861, PUSG, 3, p. 113.
157USG to Smith, November 6, 1861, ibid., p. 120.
158USG to Oglesby, November 6, 1861, ibid., p. 123, USG to W. H. L. Wallace, November 6, 1861, p. 124.
159USG to Oglesby, November 8, 1861, ibid., p. 135 and n; Grant’s Report of Belmont, November 17, 1861, OR, I, 3, p. 269. This report was actually written in 1864.
160Smith to Grant, November 8, 1861, PUSG, 3, pp. 134–35n. This is of course only conjecture as to Grant’s intent after Belmont, but such a plan is exactly what he employed in the spring and summer of 1863 against Vicksburg. Further support is that Grant sent orders to Fort Holt outside Paducah to send about 1,000 men on a day’s march toward Columbus on November 7. By that time he would know the outcome of his Belmont move, after which they were to return unless Grant sent them further instructions. At the same time another column was to move out of Cape Girardeau toward Charleston and then return (USG to John Cook, November 6, 1861, PUSG, 3, p. 121, USG to Marsh, November 6, 1861, p. 123).
161Grant Report, November 17, 1861, OR, I, 3, p. 269.
162For a fine discussion of this supposed note, see PUSG, 3, pp. 149–52n, and Hughes, Belmont, pp. 51–55. The consensus suggests that the message never existed, and was perhaps invented by Rawlins and others in April 1864 as a justification for the attack when they compiled Grant’s revised report. The fact that by that time Grant’s success made him virtually untouchable begs the question of why they would bother, especially when the report was not submitted until the war was over. Moreover, Grant’s September 8, 1861, message to McKeever, written just two days after the battle, spoke of learning that Polk had “a large force” ready to cross the river to join Confederates confronting Frémont in southwestern Missouri (PUSG, 3, p. 133). That is not the same as a threat to one of Grant’s columns in south eastern Missouri. Yet the basic matter of Confederates crossing, or preparing to cross, to endanger Federals in Missouri is a common thread. This suggests that some such threat was perceived by Grant as real at the time, and since garbled or confused in his memory and his staff’s. See also William B. Feis, “Grant and the Belmont Campaign: A Study in Intelligence and Command,” in Steven E. Woodworth, ed., The Art of Command in the Civil War (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1998), pp. 17–49. Brooks D. Simpson in Ulysses S. Grant: Triumph over Adversity (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 2000), p. 477 n.7, says the message was perhaps oral or maybe written, though there is no evidence either way.
163Much of the foregoing narrative has been drawn from Hughes, Belmont.
164USG to McKeever, November 7, 1861, PUSG, 3, p. 128.
165USG to McKeever, November 8, 1861, ibid., p. 133.
166Hughes, Belmont, pp. 184–85 provides casualties unit by unit taken from contemporary newspapers, which seem more accurate than the official figures for both sides given in PUSG, 3, p. 129n, USG to Smith, November 8, 1861, p. 134.
167Report to Seth Williams, November 10, 1861, ibid., pp. 141–43.
168Orders, November 8, 1861, ibid., p. 130.
169USG to Jesse Grant, November 8, 1861, ibid., pp. 137–38.
170November 11, 1861.
CHAPTER 7: LEE FRUSTRATED AND GRANT VICTORIOUS
1REL to Annie Lee, November 15, 1861, Wartime Papers, p. 86.
2Special Orders 206, November 5, 1861, OR, I, 6, p. 213, Benjamin to Pickens, November 9, 1861, p. 313.
3William K. Scarborough, ed., The Diary of Edmund Ruffin, Volume II: The Years of Hope April, 1861–June, 1863 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1976), November 28, 1861, p. 177.
4Thomas Henry Carter to wife, December 11, 1861, Thomas Henry Carter Letters, VHS.
5REL to Mildred Lee, November 15, 1861, Wartime Papers, p. 86.
6REL to Annie Lee, December 8, 1861, ibid., p. 91.
7REL to Benjamin, November 9, 1861, ibid., pp. 85–86.
8Lawton to REL, November 10, 1861, OR, I, 6, pp. 313–14.
9Trapier to Benjamin, November 10, 1861, ibid., p. 313.
10Brown to Benjamin, November 11, 1861, Pickens to Benjamin, November 11, 1861, ibid., p. 315.
11Benjamin to REL, November 11, 1861, ibid., p. 314.
12Special Orders 1, November 16, 1861, ibid., p. 322, Special Orders 2, November 17, 1861, p. 323.
13REL to Annie and Agnes Lee, November 22, 1861, Wartime Papers, p. 9.
14William C. Davis, “A Government of Our Own”: The Making of the Confederacy (New York: Free Press, 1994), p. 373.
15Pickens to Milledge L. Bonham, July 71, 1861, Milledge L. Bonham Papers, South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina, Columbia.
16REL to William Elliott, Edmund Rhett, and Leroy Youmans, December 3, 1861, Wartime Papers, p. 90.
17REL to Andrew G. Magrath, December 24, 1861, ibid., pp. 93–94.
18Ibid., p. 95.
19REL to Benjamin December 20, 1861,
ibid., pp. 92–93
20REL to Annie Lee, December 8, 1861, ibid., p. 91.
21REL to Cooper, January 8, 1861, ibid., p. 102.
22Special Orders 17, December 10, 1861, OR, I, 6, pp. 344–45.
23States Rights Gist to REL, December 12, 1861, ibid., p. 345.
24REL to MCL, December 25, 1861, Wartime Papers, p. 96.
25Ibid., p. 95
26REL to GWCL, January 19, 1862, ibid., p. 106.
27REL to GWCL, December 29, 1861, ibid., p. 98.
28REL to Annie and Agnes Lee, November 22, 1861, ibid., p. 88, REL to MCL, December 25, 1861, p. 96, REL to Annie Lee, March 2, 1862, p. 122.
29REL to MCL, December 25, 1861, ibid., p. 96.
30REL to GWCL December 29, 1861, ibid., p. 99.
31REL to Annie Lee, December 8, 1861, ibid., pp. 90–91.
32REL to MCL, January 28, 1862, ibid., p. 107, January 18, 1862, pp. 103–104, REL to GWCL, January 19, 1862, p. 106.
33REL to MCL, December 25, 1861, ibid., p. 96, REL to GWCL, December 29, 1861, p. 98.
34REL to MCL, January 18, 1862, ibid., pp. 103–104, January 28, 1862, p. 107.
35REL to Annie Lee, December 8, 1861, ibid., p. 91.
36REL to Benjamin, December 3, 1861, OR, I, 6, p. 335.
37REL to GWCL, January 4, 1862, Wartime Papers, p. 101.
38REL to GWCL, January 19, 1862, ibid., p. 106.
39REL to MCL, January 28, 1862, ibid., p. 107.
40REL to Joseph R. Anderson, January 28, 1862, ibid., pp. 108–109.
41REL to Benjamin, February 6, 1862, ibid., p. 110.
42REL to MCL, February 8, 1862, ibid., p. 111.
43Ibid., REL to Benjamin, February 10, 1862, p. 112.
44REL to Brown, February 10, 1862, ibid., p. 113.
45REL to MCL, May 11, 1861, ibid., p. 26.
46REL to Cooper, February 18, 1862, ibid., p. 115; Portland, ME, Weekly Advertiser, March 15, 1862; REL to Brown, February 18, 1862, OR, I, 6, p. 391, Brown to Lee, February 21, 1862, p. 396.
47REL to Ripley, February 19, 1862, Wartime Papers, p. 116, REL to Trapier, February 19, 1862, p. 117.
48REL to John Milton, February 24, 1862, ibid., pp. 119–20.
49REL to MCL, February 8, 1862, ibid., p. 111.
50REL to GWCL, February 23, 1862, Museum of the Confederacy.
51Benjamin to REL, February 18, 1862, OR, I, 6, p. 390.