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Our 44nd
Year |
The
With
Brian Brown
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Brought to us by by our own Brian Brown the battle of Perryville finalized Confederate General Braxton Bragg's famous "Kentucky Invasion" with a tactical victory for the Confederacy. Notes of a Staff-Officer at Perryville By J. Montgomery Wright, Major, Assistant
Adjutant-General, U.S.V. The situation at |
entertained
by many that Bragg would capture the city, and not a few had removed their
money and valuables across the Nelson had sworn that he would hold the city so long as a
house remained standing or a soldier was alive, and he had issued an order
that all the women, children, and non-combatants should leave the place and
seek safety in |
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arrival
changed the situation of affairs. The uncertain
defensive suddenly gave way to au aggressive attitude, and speculation turned
from whether Bragg would capture
The country through which Buell's army marched is almost destitute of water, but at Perryville, a stream flowed between the contending armies, and access to that water was equally important to both armies. Buell accompanied the center corps (Gilbert's),
and the advance reached this stream on the evening of October 7th. From that time, until the stream was crossed there was constant fighting for access to it, and the only restriction on this fighting was that it should not bring on an engagement until the time for the general attack should arrive. An incident will illustrate the scarcity of water. I obtained a canteenful, and about dark on October 7th, after giving myself a good brushing and a couple of dry rubs without feeling much cleaner, my careless announcement that I was about to take a tin-dipper bath brought General Buell out of his tent with a rather mandatory suggestion that I pour the water back into my canteen and save it for an emergency. The emergency did not come to me, but on the morning of October 9th, that water helped to relieve the suffering of some wounded men who lay between the two armies. At Buell's headquarters, on the 8th, preparations were going on for the intended attack, and the information was eagerly waited for that Crittenden had reached his position on the right. Fighting for water went on in our front, and it was understood that it extended all along the line, but no battle was expected that day. McCook was at Buell's headquarters in the morning, and received, I believe, some oral instructions regarding the contemplated attack. It was understood that care would be taken not to bring on a general engagement, and no importance was attached to the sounds that reached us of artillery firing at the front of the center. |
Of course the young officers of the staff, of whom I was one, were not taken into conference by General Buell, but we all knew that the object of attention that morning was the whereabouts of Crittenden's corps, and the placing it in position on the right for the general engagement that was to be brought on as soon as the army was in line. We all saw McCook going serenely away like a general carrying his orders with him. In the afternoon, we moved out for a position nearer Crittenden, as I inferred from the direction taken. A message came from the line on the left center to General Buell, and in a few moments Colonel James B. Fry, our chief of staff, called me up, and sent me with an order to General Gilbert, commanding the center corps, to send at once two brigades to reinforce General McCook, commanding the left corps. Thus, I came to be a witness to some of the curious features of Perryville. I did not know what was going on at the left, and Colonel Fry did not inform me. He told me what to say to General Gilbert, and to go fast, and taking one of the general's orderlies with me, I started on my errand. I found General Gilbert at the front, and as he had no staff-officer at hand at the moment, he asked me to go to General Schoepf, one of his division commanders, with the order. Schoepf promptly detached two brigades, and he told me I had better go on ahead and find out where they were to go. There was no sound to direct me, and as I tried to take an air line, I passed outside the Union lines and was overtaken by a cavalry officer, who gave me the pleasing information that I was riding toward the enemy's pickets. Now up to this time I had heard no sound of battle; I had heard no artillery in front of me, and no heavy infantry-firing. I rode back, and passed behind the cavalry regiment, which was deployed in the woods, and started in the direction indicated to me by the officer who called me back. At some distance, I overtook an ambulance train, urged to its best speed, and then I knew that something serious was on hand. This was the first intimation I had that one of the fiercest struggles of the war was at that moment raging almost within my sight. Directed by the officers in charge of the ambulances I made another detour, and pushing on at greater speed I suddenly turned into a road, and there before me, within a few hundred yards, the battle of Perryville burst into view, and the roar of the artillery and the continuous rattle of the musketry first broke upon my ear. It was the finest spectacle I |
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ever saw. It was wholly unexpected, and it fixed me with astonishment. It was like tearing away a curtain from the front of a great picture, or the sudden bursting of a thunder-cloud when the sky in front seems serene and clear. I had seen an unlooked-for storm at sea, with hardly a moment's notice, hurl itself out of the clouds and lash the ocean into a foam of wild rage. But here there was not the warning of an instant. At one bound, my horse carried me from stillness into the uproar of battle. One turn from a lonely bridle- path through the woods brought me face to face with the bloody struggle of thousands of men. Waiting for news to carry back, I saw and heard some of the unhappy occurrences of Perryville. I saw young Forman, with the remnant of his company of the 15th Kentucky regiment, withdrawn to make way for the reinforcements, and as they silently passed me they seemed to stagger and reel like men who had been beating against a great storm. Forman had the colors in his hand, and he and several of his little group of men had their hands upon their chests and their lips apart as though they had difficulty in breathing. They filed into a field, and
without thought of shot or shell, they lay down on the ground apparently in a
state of exhaustion. I joined a mounted group about
a young officer, and heard Rumsey Wing, one of I asked about Terrill, who now commanded a brigade, and was told that he had been carried to the rear to die. I thought of the accomplished, good, and brave Parsons - whom I had seen knocked down seven times in a fight with a bigger man at West Point, without ever a thought of quitting so long as he could get up, and who lived to take orders in the church, and die at Memphis of the yellow fever, ministering to the last to the spiritual wants of his parishioners, and I asked about Parsons's battery. His raw infantry support had broken, and stunned by the disaster that be thought had overtaken the |
whole army, he stood by his guns until every horse and every man had gone, and the enemy was almost touching him, and had been dragged away at last by one of his men who had come back to the rescue. His battery was a wreck and no one knew then where he was. And so the news came in of men I knew and men with friends about me.
AFTER ACTION REPORT The 2008 officers were elected at the November meeting: President Rick Meadows Vice President Jan Sarna Secretary Chas. Durnett Treasurer Brian Brown Charles Durnett Don Hamilton reported that the
five missing panels had been discovered in a
warehouse in They were part of the backup panels that we have describing the Battle of Little Rock. Ron Kelley reported a plaque has been erected on the CACWHT reported that the Civil
War Sesquicentennial Commission has approved the building of a scaled down
replica of the
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FUTURE PROGRAMS January 22 -- Brian Brown The February 26 – Connie
Langum March 25 – George Davis April 22 --Miss Ellie The Wound Has Never Healed May 27 – Cal Collier TBA June 24 – Mark Christ Recruiting Black Regiments July 22 -- Brig. Gen. Parker
Hills (ret) of August
26 – Dr. Michael B. Dougan Christian missionaries and
Indians -- slavery and related themes September 23 -- Dr. Ruth
Hawkins Restoration of the Lakeport
Plantation near Lake Village October 28 -- November 25 We Who Study
Must Also Strive To
Save!
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United
Confederate Veterans
The United Confederate Veterans (UCV) formed in 1889 with
a goal of keeping alive the memory of the men who fought for the South during the Civil War and to bring national attention to the needs
of the aging veterans. The annual reunion was one of the group’s
major projects, and towns across the country vied to host the event. Judge William M. Kavanaugh chaired An estimated 6,000 veterans were expected
to attend the reunion. The city erected a veterans’ camp at the Events at the reunion included speeches by Little Rock
Mayor Charles E. Taylor and Arkansas Governor George W. Donaghey. Various
groups in |
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The reunion concluded that evening at the end of the Veterans’ Ball, which approximately 5,800 people attended. Little documentary information
is available about the reunion, but it was featured in
newspaper articles and recorded in a series of postcards done by local
photographers. These postcards, which include scenes of Ray Hanley
General Order № 11 (1862) General
Order № 11 is the title of General Ulysses S. Grant's order of The order was issued as part of a campaign led
by Grant against a black market in Southern cotton. Eventually he became
convinced that it was being run, "Mostly by Jews and other unprincipled
traders." General Order No. 11 decreed as follows: The Jews, as a class violating every
regulation of trade established by the Treasury Department and also
department orders, are hereby expelled from [the "Department of the
Tennessee," an administrative district of the Union Army of occupation
composed of the portions of Kentucky and Tennessee west of the Tennessee
River, and Union-controlled areas of northern Mississippi] within twenty-four
hours from the receipt of this order. Post commanders will see to it that all of this class of people be
furnished passes and required to leave, and any one returning after such
notification will be arrested and held in confinement until an opportunity
occurs of sending them out as prisoners, unless furnished with permit from
headquarters. No passes will be given these people to visit headquarters for the purpose of making personal application of trade
permits. |
Similar orders from Grant There were also at least two other cases before General Order No. 11:
FROM
THE IN
Thanks to efforts of The grant will go to create a
hands-on interactive Titan II Missile exhibit that will employ a 42-inch LCD
flat-screen TV and a remote console.
In addition to a dynamic launch sequence of a Titan II Missile, museum
visitors will have the option of taking an interactive tour of a Titan
Missile site and learn the history of the weapon system. The Titan II Missile Program has been credited as one of the many factors that brought
about the end to the Cold War with the U.S.S.R. www.jaxmilitarymuseum.org |
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Civil War Voices
from the Home
Front The book is
interesting collection of stories from across the country during and after the
war. Depicting a side of the war that we seldom see; considering the huge
number of stories our there, the author compiled some interesting ones,
including Slavery in the south......Durnett The author of an acclaimed account of the lives of children in the Civil War, Marten here provides a more comprehensive introduction to the civilian history of the Civil War. Concise, vividly written chapters describe the home front through the lives of individuals and the histories of events and institutions in the North and South. The stories are organized around five broad themes: the Northern home front, the Southern home front, children, African Americans, and the war’s aftermath. The case studies feature voices of the famous, like Edmund Riffin and Booker T. Washington, but more often they offer the testimony of ordinary men, women, and children. A superb
blend of traditional narrative, case studies, and individual stories, Civil
War JAMES
MARTEN is Professor and Chair of the History Department at $28.00 Book (Paperback) October 2007 |
A
Guide to the Matt,
and Lee Spruill From |
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ANNOUNCEMENT Upcoming Seminar The Long Road to April 20-25, 2008 The Long Road to Program tuition includes all hotel lodging, meals, and admission fees. For additional information or to register for this week long program, call the William and Mary Elderhostel office directly at 757-221-3649 or email elderh@wm.edu. Please note that this program is sponsored solely by the William and Mary office and is not an Elderhostel program.
David O. Dodd Memorial January 2008 |
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN
I try to maintain a list of scheduled events at www.civilwarbuff.org on the DISPATCHES page. Please let me know if you have any to add. David O. Dodd Memorial Mt Holly Cemetery Annual Gen. Robert E. Lee Parade Cabot Gen Patrick Cleburne Memorial Confederat Flag Day Confederate Memorial Day Celebration Capital Grounds May 3-4 Chalk Bluff Reenactment July 4 - 6 Civil War http://www.gettysburgreenactment.com/ August 22-24, 2008 Assault on The TIME TO PAY YOUR 2008 DUES That will
be $15 please. GOD
BLESS Copyright ©1997 Civil War Round Table of |
A FEW OF THE EVENTS THAT HAPPENED IN
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