Time and place

[Moe Daoust]

Just curious, does anyone know what time it was on September 13, 1862 when McClellan ordered Burnside to march Sturgis and Wicox's divisions to Middletown or what time it was when those two divisions stepped off? In his 6:20 p.m. order to Franklin, McClellan wrote, "A division [Cox's] of Burnside's command started several hours ago to support him [Pleasonton.] The whole of Burnside's command, including Hooker's corps, march this evening and early to-morrow morning . . . " I'm hoping that someone will have a more fixed time than "this evening." Also, does anyone know where Burnside's remaining divisions stepped off from? I'm aware that the Ninth went through Frederick that afternoon when it got involved in a log jam with the Twelfth Corps. It would make sense to me that they would have continued west in Cox's footsteps. Does anyone know where they encamped? If anyone does have some information to pass on, it would be greatly appreciated if they could also provide the source. Many thanks.

 

[GwilymT]

Paging @Saphroneth

 

[Saphroneth]

To my understanding, the phrasing "the whole of Burnside's command, including Hooker's corps, march this evening and early to-morrow morning" translates to "the whole of Burnside's command will be on the move and I expect them to be moving this evening and early tomorrow morning". It doesn't necessarily indicate any specific time.

I know that (per Gene Thorpe) 1st Corps is reported to have sounded reveille at 3AM and that at that time 9th Corps was still using the route, presumably either through Frederick itself or through a defile further west between there and Braddock Heights. This seems to indicate that 9th Corps was really taking its time (and that 1st Corps at least was encamped), though moving down a single road in the middle of a pre-electricity night would be pretty dark even though it was nearly the full moon.

From Frederick to South Mountain is about 13 miles, which we'd normally expect to be a full day's march and would take several hours even for infantry moving at typical marching speed. (It's almost as far as AP Hill's men moved to reach Sharpsburg.) So there might not necessarily have been a lot of resting in there.


Fortunately I've found the itinerary for Willcox' division of 9th Corps, OR S1 V19 P1 pg 431-2:

So they got moving at 2PM on the 13th (before most estimates of the Lost Order being in McClellan's hands, AIUI, if we dismiss Sears as his main evidence doesn't say what he claims) and camped near Middletown.

Sturgis' report says that he got moving 1PM on the 14th from a camp near Middletown to support Willcox, which means he was behind Willcox in the column.

Fairchild's report (1st bde, Rodman's div - couldn't find Rodman's report) says:

So they moved from near Jefferson to Frederick (6PM to 7PM), and presumably camped there until 3AM when they set off to Middletown (arr. 10AM) then moved to South Mountain.

 

[Saphroneth]

There's a set of campaign position maps in the LOC (their maps and imagees section), which I transcribed onto the GCACW maps a few years ago. The night of the 13th shows:

Though if night movement was going on then these positions might not suggest any particular time chop.

 

[GwilymT]

@Saphroneth you are "the man" as they say.

 

[Moe Daoust]

To my understanding, the phrasing "the whole of Burnside's command, including Hooker's corps, march this evening and early to-morrow morning" translates to "the whole of Burnside's command will be on the move and I expect them to be moving this evening and early tomorrow morning". It doesn't necessarily indicate any specific time.

I know that (per Gene Thorpe) 1st Corps is reported to have sounded reveille at 3AM and that at that time 9th Corps was still using the route, presumably either through Frederick itself or through a defile further west between there and Braddock Heights. This seems to indicate that 9th Corps was really taking its time (and that 1st Corps at least was encamped), though moving down a single road in the middle of a pre-electricity night would be pretty dark even though it was nearly the full moon.

From Frederick to South Mountain is about 13 miles, which we'd normally expect to be a full day's march and would take several hours even for infantry moving at typical marching speed. (It's almost as far as AP Hill's men moved to reach Sharpsburg.) So there might not necessarily have been a lot of resting in there.


Fortunately I've found the itinerary for Willcox' division of 9th Corps, OR S1 V19 P1 pg 431-2:

View attachment 457127
So they got moving at 2PM on the 13th (before most estimates of the Lost Order being in McClellan's hands, AIUI, if we dismiss Sears as his main evidence doesn't say what he claims) and camped near Middletown.

Sturgis' report says that he got moving 1PM on the 14th from a camp near Middletown to support Willcox, which means he was behind Willcox in the column.

Fairchild's report (1st bde, Rodman's div - couldn't find Rodman's report) says:
View attachment 457128
So they moved from near Jefferson to Frederick (6PM to 7PM), and presumably camped there until 3AM when they set off to Middletown (arr. 10AM) then moved to South Mountain.

I am in your debt Sir. Thank you.

 

[Saphroneth]

Once you see the divisional itinerary you start asking why they didn't do that for all the divisions, in all campaigns! It's so useful that even after seeing just one of them you feel the lack.