Wednesday, June 11, 2014

June 12, 1864---The Battle of Trevilian Station (Day Two)



JUNE 12, 1864:                
The Battle of Trevilian Station  (Day Two):          
General Philip Sheridan U.S.A. renews the attack on C.S. Generals Wade Hampton and Fitzhugh Lee, whose men are fighting from entrenchments. Sheridan is forced to dehorse his men who approach the Confederate lines on foot. The expectable happens. The entrenched Confederates blast holes in the Union lines.

Although this is not Cold Harbor nor The Bloody Angle, the battle costs Sheridan 735 killed, wounded and missing. Confederate losses are at least 1,000. After darkness, Sheridan decides that he is victorious, and his men mount up and ride off. Within three days, the Virginia Central R. R. is delivering supplies to The Army of Northern Virginia. 


The Battle of Cold Harbor      (Day Thirteen):    Grant gives the order for The Army of The Potomac to move on Petersburg. Their immediate destination is the James River, Robert E. Lee’s “red line” after which “it will only be a matter of time.” The Union crosses the wide river on a 2,100 foot long pontoon bridge. 


While Grant’s men are undoubtedly thanking God that they can finally abandon their heartbreaking trenches at Cold Harbor, it is a bedraggled, befouled, and mentally exhausted force that begins moving south. Almost two weeks in the trenches following the slaughter of June 3rd has not improved the army’s morale. The force that cheered Grant after the brutal Battle of The Wilderness is a grumbling, swearing mass of men with no taste for any further combat. Individual men --- even whole units --- are refusing orders.

Part of the problem is that for the Union Army the end of the Battle of Cold Harbor coincides with the expiration of the first of the mass of three year enlistments of 1861. Many, too many, men are dead. A good part of the survivors are short-timers, who are refusing to risk their lives in what has become, and is apparently going to remain, an abattoir. Almost 200,000 men of the Union’s total strength of 300,000 are looking forward to their discharge papers. 


All sorts of inducements --- signing bonuses, higher pay, extra stripes, field commissions, 90-day furloughs, drink, prostitutes, and even threats --- are being offered to encourage men to re-enlist. Briefer enlistment periods are promised, and better conditions. “The war will be over soon!” is a promise repeated thousands of times. In the end, 110,000 Union soldiers choose to stay and fight.  The Federal government begins to organize a summer draft.


Lee has a similar but far more insoluble problem. He has reached the bottom of his manpower barrel and needs men desperately. But there is nobody to cajole, no bonuses to pay, no better food, no pool of draftees; there is nothing to be done but fight on with his increasingly gaunt armies. Exactly when Lee realizes that the war will end in a Confederate defeat is unknown. Right now, he is outwardly concerned about what he assumes will be Grant’s battle for Richmond.   
In the interests of history, disregard the disclaimer you will see when you click this link, and listen to the rare full version of this song. The disclaimer is the kind of Politically Correct stupidity that makes me furious. While posting tonight's "Civil War Timeline," I included this link to the song "Bonnie Blue Flag," one of the two unofficial anthems of the Confederacy (the other is "Dixie"). Click on the link and it will give you a warning about "Offensive and inappropriate content" before you hear the song. All there is is a video (with some nice artwork) and the song (with full lyrics). Yes, there are Confederate flags in the video --- it's a Confederate song, after all!  But how is displaying a Confederate flag in proper historical context "offensive" or "inappropriate"?  That's precisely the proper place for them.  The poster includes a blurb that talks of "heritage." Forget that. But "history" is another matter. All Americans share the history of the Civil War by dint of just being Americans --- Konrei