Civil War History - The Eastern TheaterDiscuss any and all battles, movements, and events occuring in the Eastern Theater here! This includes any actions in tha area east of the Appalachian Mountains in the vicinity of the river capitals of Richmond and Washington D.C.
An interesting and excellent undertaking...looks good so far although I have no doubt someone will be able to stir up some controversy...OOB's tend to be so flighty, there is always something to nitpick.
This will be a great thing when it is finished.
Respectfully
__________________ Up men, and to your post! And let no man forget today that you are from old Virginia!
An interesting and excellent undertaking...looks good so far although I have no doubt someone will be able to stir up some controversy...OOB's tend to be so flighty, there is always something to nitpick.
This will be a great thing when it is finished.
Respectfully
Oh, I'm sure there will be controversies here and there. Normally, you'd do an OOB on a single battle. The siege of Petersburg was a sprawling, drawn-out affair. I have Ray Sibley's book on the OOBs for the Army of Northern Virginia throughout the war, and even he doesn't know who commanded a lot of brigades during the campaign at any given time. I'm going to basically copy Sibley's OOBs for the nine offensives, and then go through other sources like the Official Records, regimental histories, secondary source on various battles, etc. to try to add on. I doubt I ever finish, at least with accurate troop strengths. I'm struggling just to get accurate OOBs! Still, this has been a lot of fun. I've always been interested in this sort of thing.
More power to you. The Petersburg campaign's individual engagements kind of get lost in the shuffle. Also, I think the OOB's here are especially important to see the command and structural changes going on...which can help explain the fighting performances of units and leaders as compared to eariler in the war.
Respectfully
__________________ Up men, and to your post! And let no man forget today that you are from old Virginia!
From time to time, I've thought that the Union did not want to capture Petersburg or Richmond in 1864. That it really wanted to finish business in Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina,North Carolina, and the Shenandoah Valley, before making a heavy push on Petersburg.
Why no heavy push against Confederate railroads further south, that might have collapsed Petersburg sooner? Why was Benjamin Butler kept in command for so long? Why such a delay in capturing Wilmington?
Was Grant as weak as it seems, or Lee as strong as was thought?
The dominoes seemed to fall in place, in such a sequential way?
Was Grant as weak as it seems, or Lee as strong as was thought?
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One thing that must be remembered where discussing Lee vs. Grant, or Lee vs. any of the commanders of the AOP is the "home field advantage" that the Confederates had in Virginia. At every battle or maneuver, it was almost assured that there were in their ranks men who were familiar with the area (roads, terrain, etc.). Not to mention the assistance of the local population (like the guy who showed Jackson the way around Union troops at Chancellorsville). This advantage was sorely absent at Gettysburg.
As to Petersburg, it is significant that the 3 year enlistees who signed up in the late summer and early Autumn of 1861 were willing and able to go home about this time. Many of their replacements were made up of conscripts, bounty-jumpers, immigrants, etc. -generally the dregs of society, who often had to be kept under guard from recruitment to the battlefield. The battle hardened veterans were few by this time. (For an interesting account of this dimension, see Frank Wilkerson's account in Turned Inside Out - Recollections of a Private Soldier in the Army of the Potomac.)
__________________ -
"It was a very peculiar time." - Franklin D. Cossitt
Ancestors in USA Army: 6th IA Inf, 11th IL Cav, 1st AL Cav; 122nd NY Inf; 6th MI Cav; 35th MA Inf; 100th IL Inf; 1st CO Inf/Cav; 22nd IN Inf
And the AOP, unlike Sherman's armies, didn't have that iron-hard cadre of western veterans.
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
Did anyone happen to catch the article on Reams' Station in Volume 9, Issue 2 of North & South? Allen Guelzo is the author, and I thought he did an excellent job of pointing to the reasons why the Union II Corps was no longer the entity it was at Gettysburg or even on May 4, 1864 at the start of the Overland Campaign. In fact, Guelzo says that Hancock bears the majority of blame for the defeat. It was an interesting read with some new conclusions. I absolutely love when new research is done on this campaign, as it is almost always sorely needed.
Haven't read the article, but I guess I'll have to cough up the six bucks to get the magazine now. New research on the Petersburg campaign is rather hard to come by.
Certainly the II Corps was falling apart in terms of soldier quality. Famous regiments like, say, the 69th NY were filled with raw recruits and to a lesser extent, draftees. Combine that with massive losses in officers and plain exhaustion, and you have a bad situation.
Respectfully
__________________ Up men, and to your post! And let no man forget today that you are from old Virginia!
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Still, this has been a lot of fun. I've always been interested in this sort of thing.
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