Union Command Failure In The Shenandoah

Download or read book Union Command Failure in the Shenandoah written by David Powell and published by . This book was released on 2018-12-19 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Battle of New Market in the Shenandoah Valley suffers from no lack of drama, interest, or importance. The ramifications of the May 1864 engagement, which involved only 10,000 troops, were substantial. Previous studies, however, focused on the Confederate side of the story. David Powell’s, Union Command Failure in the Shenandoah: Major General Franz Sigel and the War in the Valley of Virginia, May 1864, provides the balance that has so long been needed. Union General Ulysses S. Grant regarded a spring campaign in the Valley of Virginia as integral to his overall strategy designed to turn Robert E. Lee’s strategic western flank, deny his Army of Northern Virginia much needed supplies, and prevent other Confederates from reinforcing Lee. It fell to Union general and German transplant Franz Sigel to execute Grant’s strategy in the northern reaches of the Shenandoah while Maj. Gen. George Crook struck elsewhere in southwestern Virginia. Sigel’s record in the field was checkered at best, and he was not Grant’s first choice to lead the effort, but a combination of politics and other factors left the German in command. Sigel met Confederate Maj. Gen. John C. Breckinridge and his small army on May 15 just outside the crossroads town of New Market. The hard-fought affair hung in the balance until finally the Union lines broke, and Sigel’s Yankees fled the field. Breckinridge’s command included some 300 young men from the Virginia Military Institute’s Corps of Cadets. VMI’s presence and dramatic role in the fighting ensured that New Market would never be forgotten, but pushed other aspects of this interesting and important campaign into the back seat of history. Award-winning author David Powell’s years of archival and other research provides an outstanding foundation for this outstanding study. Previous works have focused on the Confederate side of the battle, using Sigel’s incompetence as sufficient excuse to explain why the Federals were defeated. This methodology, however, neglects the other important factors that contributed to the ruin of Grant’s scheme in the Valley. Union Command Failure in the Shenandoah delves into all the issues, analyzing the campaign from an operational standpoint. Complete with original maps, photos, and the skillful writing readers have come to expect from the pen of David Powell, Union Command Failure in the Shenandoah will satisfy the most demanding students of Civil War history.

Download or read book Call out the Cadets written by Sarah Kay Bierle and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2019-06-18 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Civil War historian recounts a significant yet smaller battle in the Shenandoah Valley—showing how it changed the war and the lives of those present. The battle of New Market came at a crucial moment in the Union’s offensive movements. It would also be the last major Confederate victory in the Shenandoah Valley. The outcome altered campaign plans across the North and South, while the bloody battle changed the lives of those who witnessed or fought it. In the spring of 1864, Union Maj. Gen. Franz Sigel prepared to lead a new invasion into the Valley. Confederate Maj. Gen. John C. Breckinridge scrambled to organize a defense. Young cadets from the Virginia Military Institute were called to the battle lines just days after leaving their studies. When the opposing divisions clashed on May 15th, 1864, local civilians watched as the combat unfold in their streets and churchyards and aided the fallen. In Call Out the Cadets, Sarah Kay Bierle traces the history of this battle, covering its military aspects and shedding light on the lives it forever changed. Youth and veterans, generals and privates, farmers and teachers—all were called into the conflict or its aftermath, an event that changed a community, a military institute, and the very fate of the Shenandoah Valley.

Download or read book All Hell Can’t Stop Them written by David Powell and published by . This book was released on 2018-06-19 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To many of the Federal soldiers watching the Stars and Stripes unfurl atop Lookout Mountain on the morning of November 25, 1863, it seemed that the battle to relieve Chattanooga was complete. The Union Army of the Cumberland was no longer trapped in the city, subsisting on short rations and awaiting rescue; instead, they were again on the attack. Ulysses S. Grant did not share their certainty. For Grant, the job he had been sent to accomplish was only half-finished. Braxton Bragg’s Confederate Army of Tennessee still held Missionary Ridge, with other Rebels under James Longstreet threatening more Federals in Knoxville, Tennessee. Grant’s greatest fear was that the Rebels would slip away before he could deliver the final blows necessary to crush Bragg completely. That blow landed on the afternoon of November 25. Each of Grant’s assembled forces—troops led by Union Generals William T. Sherman, George H. Thomas, and Joseph Hooker—all moved to the attack. Stubbornly, Bragg refused to retreat, and instead accepted battle. That decision would cost him dearly. But everything did not go Grant’s way. Despite what Grant’s many admirers would later insist was his most successful, most carefully planned battle, Grant’s strategy failed him—as did his most trusted commander, Sherman. Victory instead charged straight up the seemingly impregnable slopes of Missionary Ridge’s western face, as the men of the much-maligned Army of the Cumberland swarmed up and over Bragg’s defenses in an irresistible blue tide. Caught flat-footed by this impetuous charge, Grant could only watch nervously as the men started up . . . All Hell Can’t Stop Them: The Battles for Chattanooga—Missionary Ridge and Ringgold, November 24-27, 1863—sequel to Battle Above the Clouds—details the dramatic final actions of the battles for Chattanooga: Missionary Ridge and the final Confederate rearguard action at Ringgold, where Patrick Cleburne held Grant’s Federals at bay and saved the Army of Tennessee from further disaster.

Download or read book The War Within the Union High Command written by Thomas Joseph Goss and published by Modern War Studies. This book was released on 2003 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As this book reveals, professional generals viewed the war as a military problem requiring battlefield solutions, while appointees (and President Lincoln) focused more emphatically on the broader political contours of the struggle. The resulting friction often eroded Northern morale and damaged the North's war effort. Goss challenges the traditional idea that success was measured only on the battlefield by demonstrating significant links between military success and the achievement of the Union's political objectives. Examining commanders like Benjamin Butler, Nathaniel Banks, John McClernand, John Fremont, and Franz Sigel, Goss shows how many filled vital functions by raising troops, boosting homefront morale, securing national support for the war--and sometimes even achieving significant success on the battlefield.

Download or read book The Union Cavalry Comes of Age written by Eric J Wittenberg and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2018-05-14 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An award-winning cavalry historian shares a myth-busting look at how the Union cavalry surpassed its Confederate counterpart and helped win the Civil War. The Army of the Potomac’s mounted units suffered early in the Civil War at the hands of the horsemen of the South. However, by 1863, the Federal cavalry had evolved into a fearsome fighting machine. Despite the numerous challenges occupying officers and politicians, as well as the harrowing existence of troopers in the field, the Northern cavalry helped turn the tide of war much earlier than is generally acknowledged. In this expertly researched volume, historian Eric J. Wittenberg describes how the Union cavalry became the largest, best-mounted, and best-equipped force of horse soldiers the world had ever seen. The 1863 consolidation of numerous scattered Federal units created a force to be reckoned with—a single corps ten thousand strong. Wittenberg’s research thoroughly debunks the narrative that the Confederate “cavaliers” were the superior force.

Download or read book Crisis of Command in the Army of the Potomac written by Jay W. Simson and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2008-08-28 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With the ascendancy of Ulysses S. Grant in late 1863, the command tone of the United States Army underwent a dramatic change. While Grant's predecessor George McClellan had been overly cautious about committing troops and resources to fight the South, Grant held the philosophy that a war fought for total ends required total means. Philip Sheridan set about reorganizing the army to reflect Grant's new style. During the last six months of the war, he relieved three generals of their commands because of their inability to follow his orders precisely. William Averell, Alfred Torbert and Gouverneur Warren found themselves and their careers casualties of Sheridan's intense determination to bring an end to the hostilities. Only Ranald S. Mackenzie managed to survive Sheridan's search for effective leaders, proving himself the ideal subordinate.

Download or read book The War of the Rebellion: Formal reports, both Union and Confederate, of the first seizures of United States property in the Southern States (53 v. in 111) written by United States. War Department and published by . This book was released on 1880 with total page 1530 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Series I: Contains the formal reports, both Union and Confederate, of the first seizures of United States property in the Southern States, and of all military operations in the field, with the correspondence, orders, and returns relating specially thereto, and, as proposed is to be accompanied by an Atlas. In this series the reports will be arranged according to the campaigns and several theaters of operations (in the chronological order of the events), and the Union reports of any event will, as a rule, be immediately followed by the Confederate accounts. The correspondence, etc., not embraced in the "reports" proper will follow (first Union and next Confederate) in chronological order. Volume XIV. 1885. (Vol. 14, Chap. 26) Chapter XXVI - Operations on the coasts of South Carolina, Georgia, and Middle and East Florida. Apr 12, 1862-Jun 11, 1863