Welcome to the latest entry of our Civil War Rewind Series, where we mark the major and not so major events of the War Between the States - exactly 150 years after they occured. This one is a continuation of our 17th post, and perhaps the biggest event that turned the tide of the Civil War..
Like we said earlier, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston was wounded in battle, and while returning from the field, Jefferson Davis decided that his friend Robert E. Lee needed to get out from behind his desk in Richmond, and in command of the field. It was perhaps the best decision he ever made as President of the Confederacy...
First, we need to take a step back for a second, and give you an idea of just how tight things had gotten for the South. Though Northern Gen. George McClellan's Virginia Creeper campaign was slow, it did still progress... At over 120,000 men, it was a moving behemoth, which was supplied all the way from DC, Baltimore and Philadelphia. Though the Southern generals were aggressive, they fought a mostly defensive and small attack campaign. Eventually, McClellan got within 9 miles of the Southern capital. They were so close, the Yankee troops could hear the Richmond church bells toll... Then came Lee.
The first thing Lee did was rename his army the Army of Northern Virginia. Next, he needed a game plan... Like any traveling army, McClellan's troops required a huge fortification plan,which was based mostly on rail. Lee needed to interfere with the rail lines and disrupt the Union's ability to refortify easily... the second thing he noted was that the Union was split on both sides of the Chickihominy River, which made it harder for troops to aid and support each other. Lee had three choices: evacuate Richmond, set up a defensive ring around the capital, or attack. To Lee, the choice was clear: split his outnumbered troops if need be, and attack McClellan whenever he could...
McClellan thought the exact opposite of Lee.. He felt the new commander would be tentative at first - after all, even his own troops called him 'Granny Lee' and other derogatory names - so McClellan actually started the Seven Days Battles with a small victory at Oak Grove on June 25, 1862. Then McClellan did what he usually did - he fell back slightly, rather than keeping pressure on Lee. That was a big mistake... With McClellan not quite all reset from the day before, Lee attacked at Beaver Dam Creek on the 26th, despite Stonewall Jackson being late for an expected flank attack from the North. However, Jackson's prescence still did what Lee wanted - McClellan retreated back from the field. And so it began.....
Unlike McClellan, Lee kept the pressure on... His goal was to catch the Union troops in whole, and though there were skirmishes at Golding Farm and Garnett's Farm, the 28th was a day or movements and positioning to stop the North from reaching the James River.. Jackson was again supposed to attack a supply depot at Savage's Station with Gen. John Magruder on the 29th, but the orders Stonewall got were confusing, and Magruder's 14,000 men took on Union Gen Edwin Sumner's 26,000 men alone. Clearly, Jackson was having a bad week. Still, Magruder inflicted 1000 casualties, while having only 400, and Sumner also retreated to White Oak Swamp....
Day Six on June 30,1862 was perhaps the most important of all the Seven Days... Both amries positioned around the town of Glendale, where three crossroads met, two of which went to the James. If Lee took Glendale, and cut McClellan off, he could pin him and have a major victory... Again, Lee's plans didn't go according to plan. Lee had 70,000 men, but only 21,000 of them made it to Glendale. Jackson couldn't get past White Oak Swamp, due to a hard artillery barrage. The same thing happened to Maj. Gen. Benjamin Huger on Charles City Road. Rather than a three-pronger attack, all Lee had was DH Hill and James Longstreet in a straight ahead attack, which started late at 400PM, and continued until well past dark..
True to his famous temper that when he got in a fight, it was hard for him to quit, Lee fumed over the blown opportunity at Glendale, and he decided he had one last chance the next day at Malvern Hill. Just like he would later learn at Gettysburg, the Federals managed to reform defensive positions further east in a horseshoe shape on densely wooded, steep terrain, except for an gently sloping section near a wheat field. McClellan heavily assembled artillery in the only spot the South could come from.... and Lee came.
Lee and Longstreet felt that a hard artillery attack, follwed by a swift infantry manuever, could breach the Union line at that spot. However, the superior Union artillery pounded the Confederates, and the troops were decimated by fire when they advanced. If this sounds all too much like Pickett's Charge on Day Three at Gettysburg, you're not the only one thinking that. As usual, Lee's troops fought valiantly, inflicting 3000 Union casualties, but they paid a heavy price, losing 5000 of their own. As DH Hill later wrote, 'It was not War - it was simply murder'. The next day, McClellan finally reached the James River. The Seven Days Battles were over...
Now simply by reading this, you would think that this overall was a Union victory. Battle to battle, six of the seven went to the Union. However, when you look at the map, you see who actually won. Lee did exactly what we wanted to - he got the Union out of Richmond. All of the Union's gains on the field in the past year were wiped out in a week. Keep in mind, Richmond and Washington are only 100 miles apart. Lee managed to move the field from his backyard almost all the way to the Union's... Even though most of his plans went wrong, Lee managed to get into McClellan's head, almost knowing what he would do, and then formulating an attack plan based on that, he kicked him back far from Richmond...
Even more scary for the North, the South finally found the general that they were searching for to lead them. It also began a winning streak for them in the Eastern Theater, with one exception, for the next twelve months. The low point for the Union had begun - the long war was here. Very long.... Thanks for reading our latest entry, and check in real soon. Have a great weekend. We have a floor to install!
.
No comments:
Post a Comment