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Crucible of Command

Page 76

by William C. Davis


  22REL to Floyd, February 1, 1860, Adams, Letters, p. 560–61.

  23Williams to Thomas, March 26, 1861, E. D Townsend to Williams, April 15, 1861, Williams to Thomas, June 6, 1861, Letters Received by the Office of the Adjutant General, RG 94, NA; Post Return, Fort Columbus, New York, May 1861, Returns from U.S. Military Posts, 1806–1916, RG 94, NA; REL to Mildred Lee, April 1, 1861, Adams, Letters, p. 746; Allan, “Memoranda,” p. 10; W. H. Carter, From Yorktown to Santiago with the 6th U.S. Cavalry (Baltimore: Lord Baltimore Press, 1900) p. 36.

  24MCL to Anne Carter Wickham, August 7, 1863, Wickham and Wickham, Memoirs of the Wickham Family, p. 42; Patrick J. Griffin III, “Tragedy of Two Cousins—Adventurers or Spies?” The Montgomery County Story, 34 (November 1991), p. 181. Unless otherwise cited, material in this sketch is drawn from Lawrence Williams Orton CSR, NA.

  25Carter, Yorktown to Santiago, pp. 36–38.

  26Bragg to Cooper, December 6, 1862, Special Orders No. 55, December 6, 1862, William Orton Williams to Cooper, December [15], 1862, Lawrence Williams Orton CSR, NA.

  27Anne Butler Moore Carter Wickham Memoranda, Wickham and Wickham, Memoirs of the Wickham Family, p. 39; Henry T. Wickham recollections, Winchester, Evening Star, February 23, 1940.

  28REL to William Orton Williams, April 7, 1863, Mary Custis Lee Papers, VHS; Special Orders No. 86, April 2, 1863, OR, 52, pt. 2, p. 451.

  29Terry L. Jones, ed., Campbell Brown’s Civil War: With Ewell and the Army of Northern Virginia (Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 2001), pp. 184–85; William B. Richmond to Alexander Polk, April 1, 1863, Swann Auction Galleries Catalog 2163, lot 86, November 18, 2008. The woman was almost certainly Mrs. Francis H. Lamb, who had been resident in Charleston at least the previous winter (Charleston, Mercury, February 27, 1863), and with whom Williams’s companion left his valise before his death to be returned to his family (Fannie H. Lamb to Walter Henderson, October 10, 1863, Armistead Peter Papers, Tudor Hall, Washington, DC).

  30Griffin, “Tragedy of Two Cousins,” p. 182. Even the Confederate press said Williams was “brave to rashness,” but his “courage was not tempered with prudence.” The Richmond, Whig dismissed him as “a hair-brained, reckless soldier of fortune.” While granting his daring, it said “he was all ‘dash’” with “little solidity about him, or ballast,” concluding, “poor fellow! What was he about?” The whole business was “strange, strange, very strange.” Not surprisingly, the Northern press was even less sympathetic, one Washington paper saying that “he died the death of a fool.” (Augusta, Daily Constitutionalist, June 21, 1863; Richmond, Whig, June 30, 1863; Washington, Evening Star, June 10, 1863). The novelist Alfred R. Calhoun published a serialized novella based on the story titled “A Mad Exploit,” in the Canton, OH, Repository, April 7, 14, 21, 1895, and probably syndicated in other papers at the time.

  31Jones, Campbell Brown’s Civil War, pp. 184–85; Carter, Yorktown to Santiago, p. 41.

  32Chattanooga, Daily Rebel, June 17, 1863, in Baltimore, Sun, June 23, 1863.

  33Letter of Surgeon W. H., June 9, 1863, Richmond, Whig, June 19, 1863.

  34REL to MCL, June 14, 1863, DeButts-Ely Papers, LC.

  35REL to MCL, August 17, 1863, ibid.

  36REL to Martha Custis Williams, December 1, 1866, Avery Craven, ed., “To Markie”: The Letters of Robert E. Lee to Martha Custis Williams (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1933), pp. 71–72.

  37REL to MCL, July 7, 1863, Wartime Papers, p. 542.

  38It has been claimed erroneously that the Federals beat Williams Carter to death. Not so. He did not die until August 1864.

  39REL to MCL, July 12, 1863, Wartime Papers, p. 547.

  40Ibid.

  41Boston, Daily Advertiser, August 12, 1863.

  42REL to MCL, August 2, 1863, Wartime Papers, p. 566.

  43REL to Davis, June 25, 1863, ibid., pp. 530–31.

  44David G. Smith, “Race and Retaliation: The Capture of African-Americans during the Gettysburg Campaign,” Peter Wallenstein and Bertram Wyatt-Brown, Virginia’s Civil War (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2005), pp. 137–51 passim.

  45REL to MCL, October 28, 1863, Wartime Papers, p. 615.

  46REL to MCL, December 27, 1863, ibid., p. 645, July 26, 1863, p. 559.

  47REL to Margaret Stuart, July 26, 1863, ibid., p. 561, REL to Davis, July 31, 1863, p. 565.

  48REL to Davis, August 8, 1863, ibid., pp. 589–90.

  49Thomas Henry Carter to Susan Carter, September 18, 1863, Carter Letters, VHS.

  50REL to Davis, August 22, 1863, Wartime Papers, p. 593.

  51REL to Longstreet, August 31, 1863, ibid., p. 594.

  52REL to MCL, September 4, 1863, ibid., p. 595.

  53REL to Davis, September 11, 1863, ibid., p. 599.

  54REL to Davis, September 14, 1863, ibid., p. 600.

  55REL to Michelbacher, September 20, 1864, Ezekiel and Lichtenstein, Jews of Richmond, pp. 162–63.

  56REL to Davis, September 23, 1863, Wartime Papers, pp. 602–603.

  57REL to Longstreet, September 25, 1863, ibid., p. 605.

  58William H. Perry, Jr. to William H. Perry, Sr., November 3, 1863, William Hartwell Perry Letters, 1860–1865, UVA. Long, Memoirs, p. 311, gives nearly the same quotation.

  59David Gregg McIntosh to Mary G. Lee, November 5, 1863, David Gregg McIntosh Papers, VHS.

  60Thomas H. Carter to Susan Carter, November 10, 1863, Carter Letters, VHS.

  61REL to MCL, October 28, 1863, Wartime Papers, p. 616.

  62REL to MCL, October 19, 1863, ibid., p. 611.

  63REL to Polk, October 26, 1863, ibid., pp. 614–15.

  64REL to MCL, November 11, 1863, ibid., p. 622.

  65REL to MCL, November 21, 1863, ibid., p. 625.

  66Benjamin Wesley Justice to Ann Justice, November 22, 1863, Benjamin Wesley Justice Papers, Emory University, Atlanta.

  67Allen, “Memoranda,” p. 11.

  68Donald C. Pfanz, Richard S. Ewell, A Soldier’s Life (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998), p. 346.

  69Pfanz, Ewell, p. 347.

  70REL to MCL, December 4, 1863, Wartime Papers, p. 631.

  71San Francisco, Bulletin, July 12, 1865; Portland, ME, Daily Advertiser, July 4, 1863.

  72Portland, Oregonian, April 15, 1864.

  73Providence, Evening Press, December 31, 1863.

  74USG to Halleck, July 4, 1863, PUSG, 8, p. 469, July 6, 1863, p. 484–85, USG to Banks, July 4, 1863, p. 472.

  75USG to Halleck, July 18, 1863, PUSG, 9, p. 70.

  76USG to Julia, June 29, 1863, PUSG, 8, pp. 444–45.

  77USG to Julia, February 14, 1863, PUSG, 7, p. 325.

  78USG to Hurlbut, February 13, 1863, ibid., p. 316.

  79USG to Jesse Grant, April 21, 1863, PUSG, 8, p. 110.

  80USG to Thomas Knox, April 6, 1863, ibid., pp. 30–31, USG to Napoleon Buford, April 8, 1863, pp. 37–38, USG to Hurlbut, April 9, 1863, pp. 38–39.

  81USG to Halleck, January 6, 1863, PUSG, 7, pp. 186–87.

  82USG to Lincoln, June 11, 1863, PUSG, 8, pp. 342–43.

  83USG to Lincoln, August 23, 1863, PUSG, 9, pp. 196–97.

  84USG to Halleck, July 24, 1863, ibid., p. 110.

  85USG to Halleck, April 19, 1863, PUSG, 8, pp. 91–92, USG to Richard Taylor, June 22, 1863, pp. 400–401, July 4, pp. 468–69, USG to McPherson, July 5, 1863, pp. 483–84.

  86USG to Washburne, August 30, 1863, PUSG, 9, pp. 218.

  87USG to Lincoln, June 19, 1863, PUSG, 8, p. 395.

  88USG to Lincoln, August 23, 1863, PUSG 9, pp. 195–96, USG to Halleck, July 18, 1863, p. 70, July 24, 1863, p. 109, August 1, 1863, pp. 137–38, USG to Dana, August 5, 1863, p. 146.

  89USG to Lincoln, August 23, 1863, ibid., pp. 195–95.

  90Boston, Saturday Evening Gazette, July 18, 1863.

  91USG to Dana, August 5, 1863, PUSG, 9, pp. 146–47.

  92USG to Dana, August 5, 1863, ibid., p. 146, USG to Washburne, August 30, 1863, pp. 217–18.

  93Dana to Stanton, July 5,
1863, Dana, Recollections, p. 102.

  94USG to Halleck, August 31, 1863, PUSG, 9, p. 219.

  95Portland, ME, Daily Eastern Argus, September 18, 1863. Since Grant was injured and bedridden from September 4 on, he could only have risen from bed September 2 or 3. While this source does not make clear which day it was, September 2 seems the more likely, as he would be tired from the trip, and admirers would most likely gather on his first night in the city.

  96New York, World, September 12, 1863. Many sources erroneously have the levee on the same day as the review where Grant was injured. See, for instance, Springfield, MA, Republican, September 14, 1863; Washington, Evening Union, September 12, 1863.

  97The day after the accident Banks implied that Grant was drunk when his horse fell and that this was the cause of the accident. More likely Banks, knowing the rumors about Grant, just assumed that drink was behind the mishap, a common assumption every time Grant fell or stumbled during the war. Yet all other witnesses and reports agree that Grant’s horse was spooked either by being clipped by a cart or carriage, or by a railroad whistle, both events for which Grant, drunk or sober, was hardly responsible. What Grant did do was keep his seat on a powerful animal as it reacted wildly, not the act of an inebriated man. General Cadwallader Washburn, whose corps Grant and Banks reviewed, wrote the next day to his brother Elihu Washburne (the brothers used different spellings) and said nothing about Grant being drunk either at the review or in the accident. Bruce Catton, Grant Takes Command (Boston: Little, Brown, 1968), pp. 26–27, has a good discussion on the matter. In Benjamin P. Thomas, ed., Three Years with Grant as Recalled by War Correspondent Sylvanus Cadwallader (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1955), p. 117, Cadwallader refers to the accident and states that he was told it was caused by Grant’s being drunk, but makes it clear that he was not himself in New Orleans at the time, and only repeated hearsay. The only reliable source for Grant drinking at all while in New Orleans is Rawlins’s reference to “his New Orleans experience” in a November 17, 1863, letter discussing Grant’s recent alleged drinking. PUSG, 9, p. 475n.

  98USG to Halleck, September 19, 1863, PUSG, 9, p. 221.

  99PMJDG, p. 121; USG to Kelton, September 25, 1863, PUSG, 9, p. 238.

  100USG to Kelton, September 25, 1863, PUSG, 9, p. 237, USG to Halleck, September 30, 1863, pp. 251–53,

  101USG to Halleck, October 15, 1863, ibid., p. 284n, Halleck to USG, October 16, 1863, p. 296n.

  102PMJDG, p. 123; Halleck to USG, October 16, 1863, PUSG, 9, p. 297n.

  103The coolness between Grant and Thomas has never been adequately explained, and virtually no contemporary evidence from either of them or their immediate intimates sheds much light. Catton, Grant Takes Command, p. 40, and Peter Cozzens, The Shipwreck of their Hopes: The Battles for Chattanooga (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994), pp. 45–46, offer brief but inconclusive discussions of the matter.

  104Quoted in Simpson, Grant, p. 231.

  105USG to Halleck, October 28, 1863, PUSG, 9, p. 335.

  106USG to Julia, November 2, 1863, ibid., pp. 352–53 and n.

  107USG to Halleck, November 6, 1863, ibid., p. 364.

  108USG to Halleck, November 7, 1863, ibid., p. 368, USG to Burnside, November 7, 1863, pp. 368–69, USG to Thomas, November 7, 1863, p. 371.

  109USG to Burnside, November 8, 1863, ibid., pp. 374–75.

  110USG to Sherman, November 11, 1863, ibid., p. 380.

  111USG to Julia, November 14, 1863, ibid., p. 396–97.

  112USG to Burnside, November 14, 1863, ibid., p. 391, USG to Halleck, November 15, 1863, p. 400.

  113USG to Burnside, November 15, 1863, ibid., p. 401.

  114USG to John Riggin Jr., November 18, 1863, ibid., p. 413.

  115USG endorsement, November 20, 1863, PUSG, 32, pp. 178–79; USG to Bragg, November 20, 1863, p. 60.

  116USG to Halleck, November 21, 1863, PUSG, 9, p. 428.

  117USG to Orlando B. Willcox, November 23, 1863, ibid., p. 436.

  118USG to Thomas, November 24, 1863, ibid., p. 443.

  119USG to Halleck, November 23, 1863, ibid., p. 434.

  120The facts of the matter on the assault up Missionary Ridge are still not entirely understood, and most of the testimony comes from memoirs written years after the fact, seasoned with considerable hindsight. It is often stated that Grant was angry when he saw it, demanding to know if Thomas had ordered it, and threatening that someone would pay for it if the assault failed. Montgomery Meigs was with Grant at the time, however, and in his diary that night he wrote only that Grant was surprised, said he had not ordered it, but immediately adapted his plans to the moment and ordered a general attack. PUSG, 9, p. 448n. See also Simpson, Grant, pp. 495–96.

  121USG to Halleck, November 25, 1863, PUSG, 9, p. 446.

  122USG to Julia, November 30, 1863, ibid., p. 478.

  123USG to McPherson, December 1, 1863, ibid., pp. 480–81.

  CHAPTER 14: “IF DEFEATED NOTHING WILL BE LEFT US TO LIVE FOR.”

  1USG to J. Russell Jones, December 5, 1863, PUSG, 9, p. 496.

  2USG to Halleck, December 7, 1863, ibid., pp. 500–502n.

  3USG to Washburne, December 12, 1863, ibid., p. 522–23.

  4USG to Barnabas Burns, December 17, 1863, ibid., p. 541.

  5Easton, MD, Gazette, November 21, 1863.

  6New York, Herald, December 11, 15, 23, 1863.

  7Washburne to Grant, January 24, 1864, PUSG, 9, p. 523n.

  8PUSG, 9, p. 543n.

  9USG to Jesse Grant, December 13, 1863, ibid., p. 524.

  10USG to Halleck, December 17, 1863, ibid., p. 534.

  11Portland, Oregonian, April 15, 1864.

  12USG to Thomas, December 22, 1863, PUSG, 9, p. 549.

  13Portland, Oregonian, April 15, 1864.

  14USG to Halleck, December 23, 1863, PUSG, 9, pp. 551–52.

  15USG to Julia, December 28, 1863, ibid., p. 576.

  16USG to Henry Wilson, February 3, 1864, PUSG, 10, p. 77.

  17USG to Halleck, January 15, 1864, ibid., pp. 14–16.

  18USG to Halleck, January 19, 1864, ibid., pp. 39–41n.

  19USG to?, [August 22, 1847], Emerson, “Grant’s Life in the West,” 7 (April 1897), p. 324.

  20USG to Julia, February 10, 1864, PUSG, 10, p. 100.

  21USG to Isaac Morris, January 20, 1864, ibid., p. 53, USG to Daniel Ammen, February 16, 1864, pp. 132–33.

  22New York, Herald, February 3, 1864.

  23USG to Jesse Grant, January 31, 1864 PUSG, 10, p. 75n.

  24USG to Julia, February 3, 1864, ibid., p. 76.

  25USG to Daniel Ammen, February 16, 1864, ibid., pp. 132–33.

  26PUSG, 9, pp. 475–76n. William F. Smith wrote at the time that Grant broke up Lagow’s spree but made no mention of Grant drinking as well. Wilson agreed, and David Hunter shared a room with Grant at the time and wrote that Grant was sober throughout and “seldom drinks,” having no more than two drinks in three weeks.

  27Ibid., p. 476n.

  28USG to Alvin P. Hovey, February 9, 1864, PUSG, 10, pp. 96–97, USG to Halleck, February 11, 1864, p. 101.

  29USG to Julia, February 17, 1864, ibid., p. 138.

  30USG to Sherman, March 4, 1864, ibid., pp. 186–87.

  31USG to Francis Preston Blair, Jr., February 28, 1864, ibid., pp. 166–67.

  32USG to Julia, February 17, 1864, ibid., p. 138.

  33USG to Sherman, March 4, 1864, ibid., pp. 187–88n.

  34PMUSG, 2, pp. 122–23; Interview, May 9, 1878, PUSG, 28, p. 382.

  35New York, Herald, July 24, 1878.

  36REL to Davis, December 3, 1863, Wartime Papers, pp. 641–42.

  37Davis to Lee, December 5 [6], 1863, OR, I, 31, pt. 3, p. 785.

  38REL to Davis, December 7, 1863, Wartime Papers, p. 642.

  39Davis to REL, December 8, 1863, Lynda Lasswell Crist, ed., The Papers of Jefferson Davis: Volume 10, October 1863–August 1864 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1999), p. 104.

  40REL to Stuart, December 9,
1863, Wartime Papers, p. 642.

  41These several reports will be found calendared in Crist, Davis Papers, 10, pp. 105–109.

  42Polk to Davis, December 8, 1863, OR, I, 31, pt. 3, pp. 796–97.

  43Taylor to Bettie Saunders, December 20, 1863, R. Lockwood Tower, ed., Lee’s Adjutant: The Wartime Letters of Colonel Walter Herron Taylor, 1862–1865 (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1995), p. 101.

  44REL to Davis, January 2, 1863, Wartime Papers, p. 647.

  45REL to Lucius B. Northrop, January 5, 1864, ibid., pp. 647–48.

  46General Orders No. 7, January 22, 1864, ibid., p. 659.

  47REL to Seddon, January 22, 1863, ibid., pp. 659–60.

  48REL to MCL, January 24, 1864, ibid., p. 661.

  49REL to James L. Kemper, January 29, 1864, ibid., pp. 663–64.

  50REL to MCL, January 24, 1864, ibid., p. 661.

  51Boston, Daily Advertiser, May 13, 1864, taken from the Mobile Register.

  52Milwaukee, Journal of Commerce, November 1, 1871.

  53Taylor to Saunders, December 20, 1863, Tower, Lee’s Adjutant, p. 101.

  54Taylor to Saunders, February 21, 1864, Tower, Lee’s Adjutant, p. 123; REL to MCL, February 21, 1864, Wartime Papers, p. 671.

  55REL to WHFL, April 24, 1864, Gilder Lehrman Collection.

  56Taylor to Saunders, December 20, 1863, Tower, Lee’s Adjutant, p. 101.

  57REL to Davis, February 3, 1864, Wartime Papers, p. 667.

  58REL to Davis, February 18, 1864, ibid., p. 675.

  59REL to Seddon, April 30, 1864, in the Michael Masters collection as of 2002.

  60REL to Davis, March 25, 1864, Wartime Papers, pp. 682–84.

  61REL to Longstreet, March 28, 1864, ibid., pp. 684–85.

  62REL to GWCL, March 29, 1864, ibid., p. 686.

  63Taylor to Bettie Saunders, April 3, 1864, Tower, Lee’s Adjutant, p. 148.

  64REL to Bragg, April 13, 1864, Wartime Papers, p. 698.

  65REL to Seddon, April 12, 1864, ibid., pp. 696–97.

  66REL to Davis, April 15, 1864, ibid., pp. 699–700.

  67REL to Davis, April 30, 1864, ibid., p. 709.

  68Thomas J. Goree to Sarah Goree, April 26, 1864, Thomas W. Cutrer, ed., Longstreet’s Aide: The Civil War Letters of Major Thomas J. Goree (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1995), p. 123.

 

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