Crucible of Command

by William C. Davis

  69REL to Davis, April 25, 1864, Wartime Papers, p. 706.

  70Taylor to Saunders, December 27, 1863, Tower, Lee’s Adjutant, p. 104.

  71Taylor to Saunders, December 5, 1863, ibid., p. 94.

  72General Orders No. 15, February 7, 1864, Wartime Papers, pp. 668–69.

  73Edward Richardson Crockett Diary, April 29, 1864, Center for American History, University of Texas, Austin.

  74Gary W. Gallagher, ed., Fighting for the Confederacy: The Personal Recollections of General Edward Porter Alexander (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1989), pp. 345–46; Lee, 3, p. 267.

  75REL to MCL, April 23, 1864, Wartime Papers, p. 705.

  76REL to MCL, April 9, 1864, ibid., p. 695, REL to Davis, April 19, 1864, p. 704.

  77REL to Blair Robertson, April 30, 1864, Richmond, Times-Dispatch, July 14, 1907.

  78USG to Banks, March 15, 1864, PUSG, 10, pp. 200–201.

  79USG to T. Lyle Dickey, March 15, 1864, ibid., p. 208.

  80USG to Halleck, March 28, 1864, ibid., p. 232.

  81USG to Halleck, March 25, 1864, ibid., p. 222.

  82USG to Sherman, April 4, 1864, ibid., pp. 252–53.

  83USG to Benjamin F. Butler, April 2, 1864, ibid., pp. 246–47.

  84USG to Julia, March 25, 1864, ibid., p. 225.

  85USG to Julia, April 17, 1864, ibid., p. 315.

  86New York, Herald, July 24, 1878.

  87USG to Meade, April 9, 1864, PUSG, 10, p. 274.

  88USG to Meade, April 17, 1864, ibid., p. 309, USG to Butler, April 19, 1864, p. 328.

  89USG to Julia, April 24, 1864, ibid., p. 350.

  90USG to Butler, April 19, 1864, ibid., p. 328.

  91USG to Halleck, April 22, 1864, ibid., p. 340.

  92USG to Halleck, April 29, 1864, ibid., p. 371.

  93USG to Julia, April 30, 1864, ibid., p. 377.

  94USG to Lincoln, May 1, 1864, ibid., p. 380.

  95USG to Julia, May 2, 1864, ibid., p. 394.

  96USG to Halleck, May 4, 1864, ibid., p. 397.

  97Robert K. Krick, Civil War Weather in Virginia (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2007), p. 129.

  98USG to Halleck, May 4, 1864, PUSG, 10, p. 397.

  99USG to Burnside, May 2, 1864, ibid., p. 388.

  100REL to Davis, May 4, 1864, Wartime Papers, p. 719.

  101USG to Meade, May 5, 1864, PUSG, 10, p. 399.

  102C. Marshall to Ewell, May 6, 1864, Wartime Papers, p. 721.

  103Robert K. Krick, “Lee to the Rear,” the Texans Cried,” Gary W. Gallagher, ed., The Wilderness Campaign (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997), pp. 161, 178–86.

  104USG to Halleck, May 6, 1864, PUSG, 10, p. 400.

  105USG to Halleck, May 7, 1864, ibid., p. 405.

  106New York Herald, July 24, 1878.

  107Gordon C. Rhea, The Battle of the Wilderness, May 5–6, 1864 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1994), pp. 435, 440. Rhea’s study is the most detailed narrative to date of this action.

  108USG to Halleck, May 8, 1864, PUSG, 10, p. 411.

  109W. H. Taylor to Stuart, May 7, 1864, Wartime Papers, p. 723.

  110Taylor to Ewell, May 7, 1864, ibid., p. 724.

  111REL statement April 27, 1864, Museum of the Confederacy.

  112USG to Burnside, May 8, 1864, PUSG, 10, p. 413.

  113USG to Halleck, May 9, 1864, ibid., p. 418.

  114REL to MCL, May 16, 1864, Wartime Papers, p. 731.

  115USG to Stanton, May 11, 1864, PUSG, 10, p. 422.

  116USG to Halleck, May 12, 1864, ibid., p. 428.

  117Gordon C. Rhea, The Battles for Spotsylvania Court House and the Road to Yellow Tavern, May 7–12, 1864 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1997), pp. 249–50. For extensive accounts of the Spotsylvania fighting, see this, and also William D. Matter, If It Takes All Summer: The Battle for Spotsylvania (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1988).

  118USG to Stanton, May 13, 1864, PUSG, 10, p. 434.

  119Ibid., p. 460n.

  120REL, Message to the Army of Northern Virginia, ca. May 14, 1864, Gilder Lehrman Collection.

  121USG to Julia, May 13, 1864, PUSG, 10, p. 444.

  CHAPTER 15: “A MERE QUESTION OF TIME.”

  1USG to Julia, May 19, 1864, PUSG, 32, p. 63.

  2REL to Davis, May 22, 1864, Wartime Papers, p. 746.

  3REL to Davis, May 23, 1864, ibid., p. 747.

  4REL to MCL, May 23, 1864, ibid., p. 748.

  5REL to T. V. Moore, May 30, 1864, Gilder Lehrman Collection.

  6Gordon C. Rhea, To the North Anna River: Grant and Lee, May 13–25, 1864 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2000), pp. 325–26. This is a fine and densely detailed account of the North Anna operations.

  7New York, Tribune, May 25, 1866.

  8USG to Halleck, May 26, 1864, PUSG, 10, p. 491.

  9Pfanz, Ewell, pp. 397–401.

  10USG to Julia, June 1, 1864, PUSG, 11, p. 5.

  11USG to Halleck, June 3, 1864, ibid., p. 9.

  12Krick, Weather, pp. 129, 132.

  13USG to Halleck, June 5, 1864, PUSG, 11, pp. 19–20.

  14USG to Washburne, June 9, 1864, ibid., p. 32.

  15J. William Jones, Personal Reminiscences, Anecdotes and Letters of Gen. Robert E. Lee (New York: D. Appleton, 1875), p. 40, quoting Jubal Early’s January 19, 1872, address at Washington and Lee University.

  16Abner Embry McGarity to wife, June 12, 1864, Edmund C. Burnett, ed., “Letters of a Confederate Surgeon: Dr. Abner Embry McGarity, 1862–1865,” Georgia Historical Quarterly 29 (December 1945), p. 243.

  17REL to Davis, June 14, 1864, Wartime Papers, pp. 777–78.

  18REL to Davis, June 14, 1864, ibid., p. 779.

  19USG to Meade, June 18, 1864, PUSG, 11, p. 78.

  20Frank Buchser Diary, October 1869, quoted in Charles Bracelen Flood, Lee, Last Years (New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1981), p. 220.

  21REL to Davis, July 26, 1862, Wartime Papers, p. 238, August 14, 1862, p. 254.

  22REL to Davis, June 5, 1862, ibid., p. 184.

  23REL to Davis, August 14, 1862, ibid., p. 254.

  24Davis to REL, August 11, 1863, Crist, Papers of Jefferson Davis, 9, p. 338.

  25Stephen R. Mallory Diary, n.d., Stephen R. Mallory Papers, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

  26REL to MCL, August 5, 1855, Adams, Letters, p. 41.

  27Joseph T. Glatthaar, General Lee’s Army: From Victory to Collapse (New York: Free Press, 2008), p. 409.

  28William Harmon to J. H. Pierce, August 16, 1863, William H. Crawford CSR.

  29This figure is very approximate, of course, given the destruction of many records at the end of the war. It is compiled from the surviving general orders and other sources as presented in Thomas P. Lowry and Lewis Laska, Confederate Death Sentences: A Reference Guide (Charleston, SC: Booksurge, 2009), pp. 9–24, 55ff, with the addition of 27 additional cases from Lee’s Special Orders No. 96 of April 7, 1864 (Orders and Circulars Issued by the Army of the Potomac and the Army and Department of Northern Virginia, C.S.A., 1861–1865, M921, National Archives, Roll 4). The figures in Lowry and Laska for those actually executed have been adjusted by examination of the combined service records in the National Archives of the men involved, and the elimination of cases shown to have been pardoned or suspended.

  30Thomas P. Lowry, A Thousand Stories You Didn’t Know About the Civil War (N.p.: Published by author, 2014), pp. 46–50, states that 133 were executed, a figure apparently based on the assumption that if general orders did not announce a reprieve or suspension, then the sentence was carried out. However, examination of the compiled service records of all the 218 men condemned reveal that besides the 53 known to have been shot, almost all of the others were suspended indefinitely with no further action, or the men were returned to their units; the ultimate disposition of a dozen or so cannot be determined. Also, the 27 condemned men given pardon by Lee in Special Orders No. 96, April
7, 1864, cited above have been factored out.

  31Special Orders No. 96, April 7, 1864, M921, Roll 4, NA.

  32General Orders No. 2, February 11, 1865, OR, I, 46, pt. 2, pp. 1229–30.

  33Lowry, A Thousand Stories, p. 48.

  34Circular, January 11, 1864, Olde Soldier Books, Inc. Catalog #192, December 2003, item #118.

  35USG to John J. Abercrombie, May 31, 1864, PUSG, 10, pp. 500–501.

  36PUSG, 6, p. 91n.

  37USG to Lorenzo Thomas, October 28, 1862, PUSG, 10, p. 204 and n.

  38Case files nn1694, mm997, mm995, Court Court-martial Case Files, Records of the Judge Advocate General’s Office (Army), Entry 15, RG 153, NA; USG to Stanton, June 30–July 2, 1864, PUSG, 11, p. 442.

  39Case files mm2377, mm28, mm984, mm980, mm1019, mm98, RG 153, NA.

  40USG to Yates, February 26, 1863, PUSG, 7, pp. 534–35.

  41Endorsement, October 7, 1863, PUSG, 32, pp. 57–58.

  42Case file nn3058, mm992, RG 153, NA.

  43PUSG, 13, p. 521.

  44USG to Thomas Hendrickson, June 26, 1863, PUSG, 8, pp. 432–33.

  45Halleck to USG May 12, 1864, PUSG, 10, p. 428n.

  46Case file nn2163, RG 153, NA.

  47Case file mm189, ibid.; USG Endorsement, March 26, 1863, PUSG, 7, pp. 547–48.

  48Case file oo114, oo111, RG 153, NA.

  49Case file mm971, mm984, ibid.

  50Case files 00307, 00483, nn348, ibid.; PUSG, 13, p. 535.

  51Case file mm1035, RG 153, NA.

  52Edward C. Johnson, Gail R. Johnson, and Melissa Johnson Williams, All Were Not Heroes: A Study of “the List of U.S. Soldiers Executed by U.S.: Military Authorities During the Late War” (Chicago: privately published, 1997), pp. 430–39. In this admittedly incomplete “official” list, only one execution is listed for Grant’s commands from fall 1861 to spring 1864.

  53PUSG, 12, p. 467n.

  54Case file nn1750, RG 153, NA.

  55Case file 11875, ibid.

  56Case files mm358, mm556, ibid.

  57Case files nn355, mm158, ibid.

  58PUSG, 14, p. 148n.

  59PUSG 13, p. 374–75, USG to Stanton February 6, 1865, pp. 378–79.

  60Thomas P. Lowry, Don’t Shoot That Boy! Abraham Lincoln and Military Justice (Mason City, IA: Savas Publishing, 1999), pp. 261–62. While according to RG 153 the number of capital court-martial sentences Grant definitely reviewed totaled just thirty-seven, it seems probable that a few are missing or incomplete. The author is indebted to Thomas and Beverly Lowry for access to the results of their path-breaking work in these files.

  61San Francisco, Bulletin, October 9, 1862.

  62Lowell, MA, Daily Citizen and News, August 6, 1864; Richmond, Whig June 10, 1864.

  63Troy, NY, Times, October 8, 1864.

  64New York, Tribune, May 25, 1866.

  65USG to J. Russell Jones, July 5, 1864, PUSG, 32, p. 176.

  66REL to MCL, June 19, 1864, Wartime Papers, p. 793, November 16, 1864, p. 869, November 30, 1864, p. 873.

  67REL to MCL, September 18, 1864, ibid., p. 855.

  68REL to A. R. Lawton, July 21, 1864, Augusta, GA, Chronicle, November 11, 1903.

  69REL to Lawton, July 27, 1864, in Michael Masters collection as of 2002.

  70Mobile, Advertiser & Register, September 25, 1864.

  71REL to Mildred Lee, July 5, 1864, Wartime Papers, p. 814.

  72REL to MCL, June 30, 1864, Lee Family Papers, VHS.

  73REL to MCL, December 30, 1864, Wartime Papers, p. 880.

  74Proclamation, November 7, 1864, Gilder Lehrman Collection.

  75REL to MCL, July 10, 1864, Wartime Papers, p. 818.

  76REL to GWCL, July 24, 1864, ibid., p. 825.

  77REL to Seddon, August 23, 1864, ibid., pp. 843–44.

  78REL to Davis, June 26, 1864, ibid., pp. 807–808.

  79REL to Davis, September 2, 1864, ibid., pp. 847–49.

  80Venable to Taylor, March 29, 1878, Walter Herron Taylor Papers, duPont Library, Stratford.

  81William K. Boyd and William H. Wannamaker, eds., “Reminiscences of General Robert E. Lee, 1865–1868, by George Taylor Lee,” The South Atlantic Quarterly, 26 (July, 1927), pp. 236–37.

  82REL to Louis T, Wigfall, February 8, 1865, Gilder Lehrman Collection.

  83REL to Haywood Brahan, January 30, 1865, Houston, Telegraph, May 17, 1865.

  84REL to Henry A. Wise, February 4, 1865, Richmond, Daily Dispatch, February 17, 1865.

  85REL to Davis, September 2, 1864, Wartime Papers, pp. 847–49.

  86REL to Andrew Hunter, January 11, 1865, OR, IV, 3, pp. 1012–13.

  87REL to Davis, March 10, 1865, Wartime Papers, p. 914.

  CHAPTER 16: MEETING AGAIN

  1USG to Jesse Grant, July 5, 1864, PUSG, 32, p. 65.

  2USG to Julia, July 12, 1864, PUSG, 11, p. 226.

  3USG to Julia, August 1, 1864, ibid., p. 371.

  4USG to Julia, September 7, 1864, PUSG, 12, p. 136, USG to J. Russell Jones, October 4, 1864, p. 278, USG to Julia, August 25, 1864, p. 90, USG to Julia, October 2, 1864, p. 262.

  5USG to Julia, October 24, 1864, ibid., p. 345.

  6USG to William W. Smith, January 1, 1865, PUSG, 13, p. 204.

  7USG to Julia, November 25, 1864, ibid., p. 26.

  8Providence, Evening Press, June 3, 1864.

  9USG to Isaac N., Morris, August 10, 1864, PUSG, 11, pp. 396–97.

  10Lowell, MA, Daily Citizen and News, March 18, 1865.

  11USG to Washburne, September 21, 1864, PUSG, 12, p. 185.

  12USG to Stanton, September 27, 1864, ibid., pp. 212–13.

  13USG to J. Russell Jones, November 13, 1864, ibid., p. 416.

  14USG to Julia, September 30, 1864, ibid., p. 250.

  15Lincoln to USG, August 17, 1864, PUSG, 32, p. 184.

  16Dunbar Rowland, comp., Jefferson Davis, Constitutionalist (Jackson, MS: Mississippi Department of Archives and History, 1923), 7, p. 284.

  17USG to Halleck, July 24, 1863, PUSG, 9, p. 110, USG to Sherman, March 4, 1864, PUSG, 10, p. 190. PUSG, 9, pp. 583–84.

  18USG to Sherman, April 4, 1864, PUSG, 10, p. 255.

  19USG to Stanton, February 26, 1865, PUSG, 14, p. 55.

  20USG to Stanton, July 15, 1864, PUSG, 11, p. 250, USG to Halleck, July 24, 1863, PUSG, 9, p. 110, USG to Julia, July 1, 1863, PUSG, 8, p. 454, USG to Lorenzo Thomas, July 11, 1863, PUSG, 9, p. 23, USG to Halleck, August 19, 1864, PUSG, 12, pp. 38–39, USG to Ord, August 26, 1864, p. 95.

  21USG to Elias S. Dennis, June 15, 1863, PUSG, 8, p. 375.

  22USG to Taylor, July 4, 1863, ibid., p. 468.

  23USG to Lorenzo Thomas, July 11, 1863, PUSG, 9, p. 24.

  24USG to Richard Taylor, June 22, 1863, PUSG, 8, pp. 400–401.

  25USG to REL, October 2, 1864, PUSG, 12, p. 258, REL to USG, October 3, 1864, p. 263.

  26USG to REL, October 20, 1864, ibid., pp. 323–26n.

  27USG to Thomas, December 22, 1864, PUSG, 13, p. 151, USG to J. Russell Jones, December 26, 1864, PUSG, 32, p. 73.

  28USG to Canby, February 27, 1865, PUSG, 14, p. 62.

  29USG to Banks, July 11, 1863, PUSG, 9, p. 31.

  30USG to Lincoln, July 25, 1864, PUSG, 11, p. 309, USG to Sherman, August 7, 1864, PUSG, 11, p. 381.

  31USG to Julia, July 18, 1864, ibid., p. 278.

  32USG to Rawlins, October 29, 1864, PUSG, 12, pp. 363–65n.

  33USG to Stanton [January 1–3, 1865], PUSG, 13, pp. 199–200. A report of a conversation with Grant in the Cleveland, Plain Dealer, March 3, 1865, had him saying Rosecrans took thirty days to obey the order, which was not true, but it does reflect the special impatience Grant showed toward him.

  34USG to Washburne, July 23 1864, PUSG, 11, p. 300.

  35USG to Sherman, December 6, 1864, PUSG, 13, p. 73.

  36USG to Thomas, December 6, 1864, ibid., p. 77, USG to Stanton, December 7, 1864, pp. 78–79.

  37USG to Thomas, December 8, 1864, ibid., p. 88, December 9, 1864, p. 96, December 11, 1864, p. 107.

  38
USG to Thomas, December 15, 1864, ibid., p. 124, USG to Logan, December 17, 1864, p. 127.

  39USG to Halleck, August 29, 1864, PUSG, 12, p. 102.

  40USG to Edward R. S. Canby, February 9, 1865, PUSG, 13, p. 397.

  41USG to Sherman, December 18, 1864, ibid., p. 129–30.

  42USG to Sherman, March 16, 1865, PUSG, 14, pp. 173–75.

  43USG to Lydia Slocum, August 10, 1864, PUSG, 11, p. 397.

  44USG to Julia, January 1, 1865, PUSG, 13, p. 203.

  45USG to Sherman, September 10, 1864, PUSG, 12, p. 144, September 12, 1864, p. 155, USG to Stanton, October 13, 1864, pp. 302–303.

  46USG to Halleck, November 30, 1864, PUSG, 13, pp. 35–36.

  47USG to Sherman, September 12, 1864, PUSG, 12, p. 155

  48USG to Irvin McDowell, January 8, 1865, PUSG, 13, pp. 250–51.

  49USG to Washburne, February 23, 1865, PUSG, 14, p. 31.

  50USG to James L. Crane, January 2, 1865, PUSG, 32, p. 73.

  51Meade to Margaretta Meade, December 20, 1863, George Meade, ed., Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade (New York: Scribner’s, 1913), 2, p. 162.

  52Meade to Margaretta Meade, March 10, 1864, ibid., 2, p. 177, March 14, 1864, p. 178, March 16, 1864, p. 181, March 22, 1864, p. 182, March 24, 1864, p. 183.

  53Meade to Margaretta Meade, March 26, 1864, ibid., p. 183 March 27, 1864, p. 184, April 23, 1864, p. 190.

  54Meade to Margaretta Meade, April 18, 1864, ibid., p. 190.

  55Meade to Margaretta Meade, April 24, 1864, ibid., p. 191.

  56Meade to Margaretta Meade, May 19, 1864, ibid., p. 197.

  57Meade to Margaretta Meade, May 23, 1864, ibid., p. 198, June 5, 1864, p. 201, June 9, 1864, p. 202.

  58Meade to Margaretta Meade, September 15, 1864, ibid., p. 228, November 24, 1864, p. 246.

  59USG to Julia, December 22, 1864, PUSG, 13, pp. 152–53.

  60USG to Julia, December 24, 1864, ibid., p. 163.

  61USG to Jesse Grant, September 5, 1864, PUSG, 12, p., 130, USG to Julia, October 28, 1864, p. 362.

  62USG to Sherman, December 18, 1864, PUSG, 13, p. 129–30.

  63USG to Isaac N. Morris, February 15, 1865, ibid., p. 429.

  64REL to MCL, July 31, 1864, Wartime Papers, p. 828, August 7, 1864, p. 829.

  65REL to MCL, August 14, 1864, ibid., p. 837.

  66REL to MCL, October 25, 1864, ibid., p. 865.

  67REL to MCL, August 7, 1864, ibid., p. 829.

  68J[ohn]. W[illiam]. J[ones]., “General Lee’s Letter to His Son,” University Monthly, 2 (March 1872), pp. 68–69.