Copyright © Randy Strickland, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011
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General Robert E. Lee, Commander, Army of Northern Virginia: General Lee assumed command of the Army of Northern Virginia, after General Joseph E. Johnston was severely wounded during the Peninsula Campaign, 1862.
After an inconclusive battle at Fair Oaks, and General Johnston receiving a bullet in the shoulder as well as shell fragments to the chest, President Davis appointed General Lee to take General Johnston's place. General Johnston, upon hearing of his replacement, was heard to say,"The shot that struck me down is the very best that has been fired for the Southern cause yet." |
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After observing the field of battle, and learning of General Johnston's fate, Confederate President Jefferson Davis who had been in the company of General Lee, informed him "he would be assigned to the command of the army... and that he could make his preparations as soon as he reached his quarters..."
General Gustavus Smith was still in command on the battlefield, but as the battle continued on the second day, he showed signs of nervous collapse and turned over the Army to General Lee. Lee immediately put his new Army to work, digging trenches and building defensive works around Richmond. His first priority was to defend Richmond, draw General McClellan out, and reinforce General Jackson in the Shennandoah.
At long last, the South had finally gained a leader, one who could see an overall picture of the predicament, as well as one who could make offensive plans. However, all the odds were heavily against any quick successes. | 
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As General Lee assumed command, he issued Special Orders #22. This was the first official use of the name "Army of Northern Virginia". On 11 June 1862, General Lee ordered the gallant General J.E.B. Stuart to reconnoiter the Union positions. This he did, in one of his most daring rides. With 1,000 cavalry troopers, he rode 150 miles around McClellan's army, capturing many prisoners and destroying Union property as they went. Upon returning to report his findings to General Lee, on 15 June 1862... he had created a legend of daring and cavalier, that would follow him throughout the war.
The next morning, General Lee sent orders to General Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson, to bring his 18,000 troops from the Shennandoah Valley and aid in a massive assult on Union General Fitz-John Porters exposed troops along the Chickahominy River. An assult that would begin the Battle of Seven Days at Gaines Mill, Cold Harbor and finally at Malvern Hill. |
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General Lee and General "Stonewall" Jackson were inexperienced at handling large numbers of troops. Their army was mostly untrained, maps were poor, and mistakes were made. Nevertheless, the Union troops were forced to the southern side of the Chickahominy. The fighting continued, at Savage's Station, Frayser's Farm and Malvern Hill. It was only the naval guns from Union Naval Gun Boats, that were able to stop the Confederate advance. The Seven Days Battles were very costly, but resulted in braking Union General McClellan's hold on Richmond, the Confederate capital. | 
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After these costly battles, the highest priority in both the Confederate and Union armies, was to rest, mend, train and reoutfit their troops. The Union had a nearly inexhaustable supply of manpower. However, General Lee had no such benefit. He had to manage with what he had and he knew the already strained army was quickly being outnumbered and that time was against him. His decision, take the offensive. This he would do, choosing General Jackson to spearhead the assult. Union General Pope was building his forces north of Culpepper, Virginia. General Jackson marched towards Gordonsville with nearly 24,000 men. General Burnside was to reinforce the already building Union army, with 12,000 additional troops, from Fredericksburg. Learning that General McClellan was abandoning his Peninsula Campaign, General Lee ordered General James Longstreet to go to the aid of General Jackson. General Longstreet took his ten brigades north to reinforce Jackson's army, who had already had a brief engagement against the Union forces at Cedar Mountain, on 09 August 1862. An engagement that the Confederates easily won, startling the North. Not long after this battle, General Lee met with his Lieutenants... Generals Jasckson, Stuart, and Longstreet, to plan what is now known as Second Mananssas, because it was fought over the same ground as the first.
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It was during this battle, that the differences between Lee's Generals, Jackson and Longstreet became so evident. General Longstreet proved to be reluctant to move until he was certain that the time was ripe for the attack. Whereas, General Jackson was a firestorm eager to force the issue. This should not be misunderstood... General Longstreet was a brave and dauntless fighter. However, he was slow and cautious, unwilling to place his troops in harms way unless he knew the odds and the outcome was surely calculated.
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Even so, the brilliant fighting team of Lee, Jackson, and Longstreet... one which would startle the world with a series of brilliant campaigns, were victorious at Second Manassas. The Confederate armies moved on to Chantilly, where Union Gernerals Phil Kearney and I.I. Stevens, were both killed on 01 Sept 1862. This ended the battle, Union General Halleck retreating to Alexandria and the defensive positions around Washington. Union General Pope was removed from command amd once again the Confederate forces had caused another change in the Army of the Potomac. |
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A British officer remarked of General Pope, "As a tactician...he was incapable. As a strategist he lacked imagination, except in his dispatches. His horizon was limited and he measured the capacities of his adversaries by his own.... He had no conception that his adversaries would cheerfully accept great risks to achieve great ends; he had never dreamt of a General who would deliberately divide his army, or of one who would make 56 miles in two days.
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Once again, General McClellan was placed in command of the Union Army of the Potomac. He immediately began to prepare for the defense of Washington. General Lee knew that his troops were in no condition for such a move. Instead, he needed to feed them, resupply them, and nurture them back to a fighting condition. It was then, in early September, 1862 that General Lee decided to move his army into the state of Maryland. It was his hope to take advantage of the rich farm country, subsisting off the abundant corn and other harvestable fields. It was also believed that Maryland, a southern state, was held to the Union by force. General Lee thought that his army would be liberating the state and that the Marylanders would rise to his support. Upon arriving in the state, Lee found no welcoming population. His army was not met by hordes of Marylanders, assisting their fellow southerners in any way. He wrote to President Davis, "individual expressions of kindness...and general sympathy" he did not expect the Marylanders to rise to support the cause. Knowing that his army would need ammunition and other supplies to be sent by way of the Shennandoah Valley, he must deal with the 12,000 Union troops at Harpersferry, Virginia (now West Virginia). He devised a daring plan, issued in Special Order #191, that would devide his armies into four parts. General Longstreet and General D.H. Hill were sent with their troops to move on Hagerstown; General Jackson was to move on Harpersferry while Generals McClaws and Walker were to take the heights overlooking Harpersferry. General Stuart and his cavalry was to screen these well coordinated movements, fooling the Union forces into believing the entire army was still moving north. Like accidents that occured at Manassas, a copy of Special Order #191 fell into the hands of the Union commander, detailing the Confederates army maneuvering. However, General McClellan failed to act on this information... believing it to be false. Even so, he still moved rapidly enough to cause problems for General Lee. The three passes through South Mountain had to be kept open. Intensive attacks, in the narrow gaps, by the Union troops nearly caused General Lee to cancel his planned campaign. After conferring with Generals Longstreet, D.H. Hill and John Hood, he countermanded his orders for retreat, and moved on Sharpsburg. General Jackson sent word that Harpersferry was about to surrender and he would move to support General Lee. On 16 Sept 1862, the two opposing armies were to do battle near Antietam Creek and around the small town of Sharpsburg.
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Antietam Battlefield as it appeared during the battle, near Union General McClellan's headquarters. The cannon to the left are not engaged and troops may be seen to the right, probably in reserve. |
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The battle was fast and furious. It has been acclaimed as the "Bloodiest Day" of the war. Generals Hood and D.H. Hill bore much of the fighting. General Hood's Texas Brigade fought a terrible fight near a corn field at Dunkers Church, suffering heavy casualties but stopping the Union advance. General Hood was heard to report, his "Division is dead on the field." General D.H. Hill's troops fought at a place now known as "Bloody Lane", because the Confederate corpses were piled so deeply as they fell, covering the soil beneath them.
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The casualties in this battle were very very heavy. In one days fighting, more than 25,000 had been killed, wounded or were missing. That night, General Lee met with his Lieutenants to confer on what the next action musat be. In the Union camp, General McClellan, ever concerned for the well being of his troops more than beating the enemy, had had enough. The Confederates quietly but quickly returned to Virginia. General McClellan failed to pursue them, once again the Command of the Army of the Potomac changed hands. This time to General Ambrose Burnside. Even so, both armies were in horrific shape, neither able to fight the other. Once back in Virginia, stragglers began to return to the Army of Northern Virginia. Conscription laws had been passed by the Confederate legislature, and eventually General Lee was commanding 78,000 troops. More than he had when he invaded the North in Maryland. By this time, winter was beginning and it seemed that the best thing to do was to go into camp, rebuilding, reorganizing and training for the fighting which was sure to come in the Spring. General Ambrose E. Burnside, trained at West Point but reluctant to accept the command given him, was being pressured to take action against the Confederates. Usually, winter meant bad weather, bad roads and difficulty in moving armies. He planned to renmew the attack aginst Richmond, this time from the North through Fredericksburg. A sleepy town south of the Rappahannock River. General Lee had encamped his troops along the North Anna River, between Frefericksburg and Richmond. Once he learned that the Union army was on the move, he split his army again. This time sending General Jackson to protect the Shennandoah Valley. As his scouts reported that the Union troops were moving on Fredericksburg, he ordered his army into action towards the Rappahannock River. Upon reaching Fredreicksburg, 20 November 1862, General Lee found the Union army forward elements to alredy be encamped on the heights across the river from the town. General Burnside was waiting for pontoon boats to arrive so his army could cross the river. In the mean time, there was little to no action between the opposing forces. While strengthening his position, General Lee sent for General Jackson and his troops. On 29 November 1862, General Jackson arrived. At the time of his arrival, a snow storm marked the beginning of the only major Civil War battle to be fought in the dead of winter. By 13 December 1862, General Burnside had forged the river and had 80,000 troops ready to attack the 78,000 Confederates entrenched on the heights above the town. The Confederate defenses were impenetrable, nearly seven miles long, with more than 300 pieces of artillery ready to assist in repelling the invading troops of the Army of the Potomac.
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General Longstreet's Corp was at Mayre Heights, entrenched in a sunken road behind a stonewall. A position that would prove to be the breaking point of the Union army. Here General Cobb's Legion was among the troops of Mcclaws Division. The Confederate soldiers were four deep and through rotating files of infantry, were able to keep up an almost continuous fire into the advancing troops. During this seige, not one Union attacker was able to get within 100 feet of the wall. More than 12,000 Union troops were casualties that day. That number was more than twice that of Confederate losses.
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The opposing armies went back to their encampments at the end of this battle. Union General Burnside was to make another ill conceived troop movent, known as the "Mud March", but to no avail. This fiasco was the final straw and General Burnside was relieved of his command and replaced by General Joseph Hooker. Now, late in April 1863, General Hooker placed his army in motion. He too, started to cross the Rappahannock River, towards Richmond. This time, however, the crossings were made to either side of the town of Fredericksburg. The quiet town would once again see some of the fighting, but most of the battle would be about eight miles west near the large country home of the Chancellor family. General Hooker separated his army into two parts, the larger part went west of Fredericksburg, to later turn east towards General Lee's army. The smaller part, under the command of General Sedgwick was to go east of Fredericksburg, forging the river and moving west against the Confederates. He was not going to make the same mistakes of the previous winter, no frontal assult against a well entrenched enemy. His plans were found out by General Stuart's scouts and once General Lee learned of these movements, he sent word to General Jackson for a war council that evening. The conference that Generals Lee and Jackson had the night of 01 May 1863, to plan their troop movements against the Union forces, was their last. General Lee was to hold the entrenched positions in front of the Union army, while General Jackson made his flanking movement with 26,000 troops. The assult on the Union army was to take place at Chancellorsville. At about 5:00 PM, the evening of 02 May 1863, General Lee heard firing from the west that told him General Jackson had begun his assult. He put his troops in motion to keep the Union troops busy on their front. The fighting was heavy until around midnight. It was near 2:00 AM, 03 May 1863...when General Lee was awakened with the terrible news of General Jackson being wounded, returning from a reconnoiter of the Union positions. Lee learned that his "Right Arm", General Jackson, was still alive but had been shot three times. General Jackson's left arm was amputated, and his condition was grave. That evenings battle had been a great victory for the Confederate army, but at what a terrible cost. General Lee wrote to General Stuart, "it is necessary that the glorious victory thus far achieved be prosecuted with the utmost vigor, and the enemy be given no time to rally...Endeavor, therefore, to dispossess them of Chancellorsville, which will permit the union of the whole Confederate army."
 During the early evening of 10 May 1863, General Jackson, incoherent much of the time, was heard to mumble, "Order A.P. Hill to prepare for action! Pass the infantry to the front! Tell Major Hawks....", apparently refighting old battles in his delirrium. At a quarter after three he said, "Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees." Those were his last words. General Lee was devistated by the loss of his devoted Lieutenant, General Thiomas J. Jackson. However, he realized the war would not pause for his mourning, he had to prepare for the next campaign. He realized that he must reorganize the command structure of his army. It is hard to believe that the loss of one man could change things so drastically, but the indomnitable Stonewall Jackson, was not just any ordinary man.
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