GeorgeCrecy
01-05-2014, 10:47 PM
Hello again everyone,
Here is the second installment into the information requested for the various battles of the Maryland Campaign, this time covering the Siege of Harper's Ferry.
As Lee and his army were moving into Maryland, he found that there were several Union positions around him that still had garrisons, most notably the important position of Harper's Ferry. On hearing about the Confederate invasion, General McClellan was refused to pull back the Union garrisons by the General-in-Chief Henry Halleck, which left General Dixon S Miles with a little more than 12,000 men in the town of Harper's Ferry with only the orders to defend it as best he could. To Lee, this town was not only an important strategic position, but the railroads that went through were an important supply line for his army and the invasion.
And so, Lee divided his army into three columns, one of which was commanded by General "Stonewall" Jackson. He further divided his command into another three prongs. He took one with 11,500 men and continued heading north until he reached the town of Williamsburg, at which he made a hard left back towards Harper's Ferry that he could cover the northern side of the town. The second prong headed by Major General Lafayette McLaws had 8,000 men and made a direct move west to take the tail end of the Elk Ridge range known as the Maryland Heights east of the town. The last prong was commanded by Brigadier General John Walker with 3,400 men to take the southern Loudon Heights, to which he re-crossed the Potomac River and went south into Virginia before going towards Harper's Ferry.
*As a side note, the prong headed by General Walker tasked with taking the Loudon Heights was being guided by a Loudon County native Colonel E.V. White, who commanded the 35th Battalion of Virginia Cavalry. He had gotten into an altercation with JEB Stuart while the army was at Frederick, and was ordered by Lee to return to Virginia as punishment. Unhappy with this, he led Walker in a meandering route which took four days, prolonging the assault on Harper's Ferry from beginning on the 11th to beginning on the 13th. Whoops.
General Miles, for his part, could be said as taking his orders too seriously, as he took the majority of his 12,000 mostly inexperienced men and converged them in the town itself, rather than focusing on defending the heights that completely surrounded the town. He did leave a token force of skirmishers on both the Maryland and Loudon heights, but both would easily folded over by the Confederates. In effect, the town is in the bottom of a bowl and completely ensconced by hills, which is one of the ways Miles failed in his task.
General McLaws arrived 6 miles east of Harper's Ferry in the town of Brownsville on September 11th, where he sent two brigades under Brig. Gens. Joseph Kershaw and William Barksdale to take the Maryland Heights on the following day while the rest of McLaws' men cut off other escape routes. These men met with the men of the 32nd Ohio Infantry under Colonel Thomas Ford on the 12th, and were forced to stop for the day in response to the Ohio skirmishers deployed a quarter mile from the main position on the crest of the Maryland Heights. They also had to stop considering that the other prongs had yet to arrive on the scene.
On the 13th, at 6:30 in the morning, Kershaw pushed his men directly through the Union skirmishers, then onto the main positions on the Maryland Heights while the other Brigade under Barksdale moved around to flank them on the right. Despite the inexperience of the men - some of which only having been in the army for 21 days and so lacked most basic combat training - were still able to hold back the attack of Kershaw and giving them heavy casualties. However, their commander Colonel Ford had gotten sick the day before and had to retreat two miles behind their position, leaving his second, Colonel Eliakim Sherrill to lead the men. But he was wounded through the cheek and tongue while he was rallying the men, and so was carried off the field. With this, the men began to panic, and when Barksdale's men attacked on the right, they fled their positions. There were still some Union men in reserve and some of the retreating men rallied on them, however orders came from Col. Ford to retreat at 3:30, despite there being 900 New Yorkers also waiting in reserve. The men destroyed the large amount of artillery positioned on the hill and retreated back to the town.
As the fighting on the Maryland heights were going on, the other two prongs of Jackson to the north and Walker to the south also arrived on the scene. They were astonished to see little to no men defending any of these integral positions, but immediately set up artillery and men around the town, including the Maryland Heights once they had been taken. It did not take long for the other Union officers to realize their dire position, and begged Miles to try retaking at least the Maryland Heights, but he refused. He sent nine cavalrymen to slip through the Confederate lines and try to reach McClellan or nearest friendly general about his situation. They did reach McClellan, and he sent a reply saying that a relief force was on the way, and that Miles might try taking the Maryland Heights with all his forces if necessary, though the orders did not reach the town in time.
On the 14th, Jackson continued to place artillery positions on almost every angle possible towards the town on all three sides. Though Jackson wanted the artillery to all fire at the same time, Walker on Loudon Heights grew impatient and began firing five cannons at the town to little effect a little after 1 PM. At the same time, Jackson moved AP Hill and his men south to the bank of the Shenandoah River in preparation for a flank attack the next day. Unbeknownst to the Union officers in the town, McLaws had left only one regiment of men on the Maryland Heights when he left to help against the attack at South Mountain.
On the 15th, Jackson began an artillery barrage early in the morning, with the infantry assault set for 8:00. By this time, Miles and his brigade commanders met and agreed that they should surrender before the attack began. But, after the agreement was made a shell exploded and blew off Miles' left leg. So disgusted with his actions, it was hard to find a man that would take him to the hospital, though he died the next day. The white flag of surrender was sent up, and the largest takeover of Federal men and supplies of the war began, as 12,419 men, 13,000 small arms, 200 wagons, and 73 artillery positions were taken. Jackson sent a letter to Lee saying, "Through God's blessing, Harper's Ferry and its garrison are to be surrendered."1 However, he quickly received a reply from Lee telling him to get to Sharpsburg with all speed, to which Jackson left AP Hill to parole the captured Union men and supplies while he left with everyone else to help Lee at what would become the Battle of Antietam.
And now, some background information on some of the major characters:
436
General Dixon S. Miles, Union Commander who had distinguished himself in the Mexican-American War and Indian Wars, but as the Civil War began he was accused of being drunk while commanding a brigade at the first Battle of Bull Run. The charges were validated at the following military tribunal, and after eight months of leave, was given a supposedly quieter command defending the Ohio and Baltimore Railroad, before being moved to commanding Harper's Ferry in response to the invasion.
438
Colonel Thomas G. Ford of the 32nd Ohio Infantry. Prior to the war, this man was the Lieutenant Governor of Ohio from 1856 to 1858. Because of his orders to retreat from the Maryland Heights, he was arrested following his parole from capture and sent to Washington to go before a military court. He was found guilty of abandoning the Heights unnecessarily and was discharged from the army. He remained in Washington as a lawyer until he died in 1868.
439
Colonel of the 126th New York Infantry, a congressman of New York from 1846 to 1847, and a senator of the same from 1854 to 1855. As mentioned, he took a nasty shot to the lower jaw that pierced his cheek and tongue, which never fully healed though he re-entered service after recuperating. He continued to fight at Union Mills and later at Gettysburg, where he was mortally shot in the gut and died at 8 am the next day (July 4th). Over 10,000 people attended his funeral when he was buried in Geneva, New York.
437
This is Colonel Benjamin Franklin Davis. As a very neat note, this Colonel of the newly formed 8th New York Cavalry was the mastermind of the first major cavalry victory of the Potomac Army, and indeed one of few examples where Union cavalry defeated Southern cavalry in the early war. Since cavalrymen would have been useless in helping defend Harper's Ferry against the siege, Davis eventually convinced the stubborn General Miles in allowing his men and he to try breaking through the Confederates with 1,200 men. Under cover of night, they escaped across a pontoon bridge crossing the Potomac River, and traveled along the winding road to the south of the Maryland Heights, slipping past or silently taking out the small amount of pickets stationed to protect it. In the pitch blackness, his men stumbled across 40 wagons of reserve artillery ammunition that belonged to General James Longstreet which was intended to help him at Antietam. Davis, being a native Mississippian, used his usual deep Southern accent to convince the officer of the convoy to change direction and accept them as their escort. When the light of dawn fell across the wagon train, it was to the great surprise of the drivers and actual Confederate escort to see pistols trained on them. Davis succeeded in taking his men and the captured supplies to Union lines in Greencastle, PA, for which he was promoted to Major for his daring. He later led the charge with his men at the Battle of Brandy Station, where his men were repulsed heavily by Confederate cavalrymen. Davis refused to retreat, and instead charged headlong into them with saber swirling in his left hand and a Colt pistol in his right. A lieutenant O.R. Allen of the 6th Virginia Cavalry hugged the neck of his horse to avoid the deadly saber while he fired three shots out his pistol at Davis. The third shot hit Davis in the forehead, and he died immediately.
One of the troopers underneath Davis said of him, "When Colonel Davis found the rebels he did not stop at anything, but went for them heavy. I believe he liked to fight the rebels as well as he liked to eat."2
435
Major General Lafayette McLaws, one of the Confederate commanders at the Siege of Harper's Ferry. Throughout the war, he would be characterized by his fellow commanders as a middling general that had some wanting features. On several occasions he was slow to get to the scene of battle, such as at Antietam where he defended the West Woods, and Chickamauga. However, he did fight hard at several battles, such as at the Battle of Fredericksburg in defending the Marye's Heights, and at Gettysburg, where his men took heavy losses in the fighting in the Peach Orchards and Wheatfield. Despite this, he was still court martialed by his long-time friend and former classmate from West Point James Longstreet. While he was acquitted of the charges, it was more because they needed generals, though the court martial did find him guilty of not attacking Fort Sanders in Knoxville. He carried throughout his life the anger of that court martial, and never forgave his former friend of bringing the charges against him.
434
Brigadier General John G. Walker, who led 3,400 men in the attack on Harper's Ferry from the south via Loudon Heights. He served with distinction throughout his military career both in the Union prior to the war and in the Confederacy. After Harper's Ferry, he continued under Longstreet at South Mountain and Antietam before being promoted to Major General and transferred to the Western front. He took command of training 12,000 Texans at Camp Nelson, who he reorganized into a division, and in their ensuing actions were given the nickname of "Walker's Greyhounds" for their speed of deployment. For the most part, his men and he were squandered by his superiors and were not allowed to help in countering Grant's Siege of Vicksburg, and were instead made to patrol western Louisiana. After the war, he fled to Mexico, and returned to serve as the Consul of the United States in Bogotá, Colombia.
433
Colonel Elijah V. White, who led Walker and his attack prong on a four day round-about excursion through upper Loudon County, Virginia on the way to attack Harper's Ferry.
References:
1. Sears, Stephen W. Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1983, p.154.
2. Longacre, Edward G. The Cavalry at Gettysburg. University of Nebraska Press, 1986, p.51.
Here is the second installment into the information requested for the various battles of the Maryland Campaign, this time covering the Siege of Harper's Ferry.
As Lee and his army were moving into Maryland, he found that there were several Union positions around him that still had garrisons, most notably the important position of Harper's Ferry. On hearing about the Confederate invasion, General McClellan was refused to pull back the Union garrisons by the General-in-Chief Henry Halleck, which left General Dixon S Miles with a little more than 12,000 men in the town of Harper's Ferry with only the orders to defend it as best he could. To Lee, this town was not only an important strategic position, but the railroads that went through were an important supply line for his army and the invasion.
And so, Lee divided his army into three columns, one of which was commanded by General "Stonewall" Jackson. He further divided his command into another three prongs. He took one with 11,500 men and continued heading north until he reached the town of Williamsburg, at which he made a hard left back towards Harper's Ferry that he could cover the northern side of the town. The second prong headed by Major General Lafayette McLaws had 8,000 men and made a direct move west to take the tail end of the Elk Ridge range known as the Maryland Heights east of the town. The last prong was commanded by Brigadier General John Walker with 3,400 men to take the southern Loudon Heights, to which he re-crossed the Potomac River and went south into Virginia before going towards Harper's Ferry.
*As a side note, the prong headed by General Walker tasked with taking the Loudon Heights was being guided by a Loudon County native Colonel E.V. White, who commanded the 35th Battalion of Virginia Cavalry. He had gotten into an altercation with JEB Stuart while the army was at Frederick, and was ordered by Lee to return to Virginia as punishment. Unhappy with this, he led Walker in a meandering route which took four days, prolonging the assault on Harper's Ferry from beginning on the 11th to beginning on the 13th. Whoops.
General Miles, for his part, could be said as taking his orders too seriously, as he took the majority of his 12,000 mostly inexperienced men and converged them in the town itself, rather than focusing on defending the heights that completely surrounded the town. He did leave a token force of skirmishers on both the Maryland and Loudon heights, but both would easily folded over by the Confederates. In effect, the town is in the bottom of a bowl and completely ensconced by hills, which is one of the ways Miles failed in his task.
General McLaws arrived 6 miles east of Harper's Ferry in the town of Brownsville on September 11th, where he sent two brigades under Brig. Gens. Joseph Kershaw and William Barksdale to take the Maryland Heights on the following day while the rest of McLaws' men cut off other escape routes. These men met with the men of the 32nd Ohio Infantry under Colonel Thomas Ford on the 12th, and were forced to stop for the day in response to the Ohio skirmishers deployed a quarter mile from the main position on the crest of the Maryland Heights. They also had to stop considering that the other prongs had yet to arrive on the scene.
On the 13th, at 6:30 in the morning, Kershaw pushed his men directly through the Union skirmishers, then onto the main positions on the Maryland Heights while the other Brigade under Barksdale moved around to flank them on the right. Despite the inexperience of the men - some of which only having been in the army for 21 days and so lacked most basic combat training - were still able to hold back the attack of Kershaw and giving them heavy casualties. However, their commander Colonel Ford had gotten sick the day before and had to retreat two miles behind their position, leaving his second, Colonel Eliakim Sherrill to lead the men. But he was wounded through the cheek and tongue while he was rallying the men, and so was carried off the field. With this, the men began to panic, and when Barksdale's men attacked on the right, they fled their positions. There were still some Union men in reserve and some of the retreating men rallied on them, however orders came from Col. Ford to retreat at 3:30, despite there being 900 New Yorkers also waiting in reserve. The men destroyed the large amount of artillery positioned on the hill and retreated back to the town.
As the fighting on the Maryland heights were going on, the other two prongs of Jackson to the north and Walker to the south also arrived on the scene. They were astonished to see little to no men defending any of these integral positions, but immediately set up artillery and men around the town, including the Maryland Heights once they had been taken. It did not take long for the other Union officers to realize their dire position, and begged Miles to try retaking at least the Maryland Heights, but he refused. He sent nine cavalrymen to slip through the Confederate lines and try to reach McClellan or nearest friendly general about his situation. They did reach McClellan, and he sent a reply saying that a relief force was on the way, and that Miles might try taking the Maryland Heights with all his forces if necessary, though the orders did not reach the town in time.
On the 14th, Jackson continued to place artillery positions on almost every angle possible towards the town on all three sides. Though Jackson wanted the artillery to all fire at the same time, Walker on Loudon Heights grew impatient and began firing five cannons at the town to little effect a little after 1 PM. At the same time, Jackson moved AP Hill and his men south to the bank of the Shenandoah River in preparation for a flank attack the next day. Unbeknownst to the Union officers in the town, McLaws had left only one regiment of men on the Maryland Heights when he left to help against the attack at South Mountain.
On the 15th, Jackson began an artillery barrage early in the morning, with the infantry assault set for 8:00. By this time, Miles and his brigade commanders met and agreed that they should surrender before the attack began. But, after the agreement was made a shell exploded and blew off Miles' left leg. So disgusted with his actions, it was hard to find a man that would take him to the hospital, though he died the next day. The white flag of surrender was sent up, and the largest takeover of Federal men and supplies of the war began, as 12,419 men, 13,000 small arms, 200 wagons, and 73 artillery positions were taken. Jackson sent a letter to Lee saying, "Through God's blessing, Harper's Ferry and its garrison are to be surrendered."1 However, he quickly received a reply from Lee telling him to get to Sharpsburg with all speed, to which Jackson left AP Hill to parole the captured Union men and supplies while he left with everyone else to help Lee at what would become the Battle of Antietam.
And now, some background information on some of the major characters:
436
General Dixon S. Miles, Union Commander who had distinguished himself in the Mexican-American War and Indian Wars, but as the Civil War began he was accused of being drunk while commanding a brigade at the first Battle of Bull Run. The charges were validated at the following military tribunal, and after eight months of leave, was given a supposedly quieter command defending the Ohio and Baltimore Railroad, before being moved to commanding Harper's Ferry in response to the invasion.
438
Colonel Thomas G. Ford of the 32nd Ohio Infantry. Prior to the war, this man was the Lieutenant Governor of Ohio from 1856 to 1858. Because of his orders to retreat from the Maryland Heights, he was arrested following his parole from capture and sent to Washington to go before a military court. He was found guilty of abandoning the Heights unnecessarily and was discharged from the army. He remained in Washington as a lawyer until he died in 1868.
439
Colonel of the 126th New York Infantry, a congressman of New York from 1846 to 1847, and a senator of the same from 1854 to 1855. As mentioned, he took a nasty shot to the lower jaw that pierced his cheek and tongue, which never fully healed though he re-entered service after recuperating. He continued to fight at Union Mills and later at Gettysburg, where he was mortally shot in the gut and died at 8 am the next day (July 4th). Over 10,000 people attended his funeral when he was buried in Geneva, New York.
437
This is Colonel Benjamin Franklin Davis. As a very neat note, this Colonel of the newly formed 8th New York Cavalry was the mastermind of the first major cavalry victory of the Potomac Army, and indeed one of few examples where Union cavalry defeated Southern cavalry in the early war. Since cavalrymen would have been useless in helping defend Harper's Ferry against the siege, Davis eventually convinced the stubborn General Miles in allowing his men and he to try breaking through the Confederates with 1,200 men. Under cover of night, they escaped across a pontoon bridge crossing the Potomac River, and traveled along the winding road to the south of the Maryland Heights, slipping past or silently taking out the small amount of pickets stationed to protect it. In the pitch blackness, his men stumbled across 40 wagons of reserve artillery ammunition that belonged to General James Longstreet which was intended to help him at Antietam. Davis, being a native Mississippian, used his usual deep Southern accent to convince the officer of the convoy to change direction and accept them as their escort. When the light of dawn fell across the wagon train, it was to the great surprise of the drivers and actual Confederate escort to see pistols trained on them. Davis succeeded in taking his men and the captured supplies to Union lines in Greencastle, PA, for which he was promoted to Major for his daring. He later led the charge with his men at the Battle of Brandy Station, where his men were repulsed heavily by Confederate cavalrymen. Davis refused to retreat, and instead charged headlong into them with saber swirling in his left hand and a Colt pistol in his right. A lieutenant O.R. Allen of the 6th Virginia Cavalry hugged the neck of his horse to avoid the deadly saber while he fired three shots out his pistol at Davis. The third shot hit Davis in the forehead, and he died immediately.
One of the troopers underneath Davis said of him, "When Colonel Davis found the rebels he did not stop at anything, but went for them heavy. I believe he liked to fight the rebels as well as he liked to eat."2
435
Major General Lafayette McLaws, one of the Confederate commanders at the Siege of Harper's Ferry. Throughout the war, he would be characterized by his fellow commanders as a middling general that had some wanting features. On several occasions he was slow to get to the scene of battle, such as at Antietam where he defended the West Woods, and Chickamauga. However, he did fight hard at several battles, such as at the Battle of Fredericksburg in defending the Marye's Heights, and at Gettysburg, where his men took heavy losses in the fighting in the Peach Orchards and Wheatfield. Despite this, he was still court martialed by his long-time friend and former classmate from West Point James Longstreet. While he was acquitted of the charges, it was more because they needed generals, though the court martial did find him guilty of not attacking Fort Sanders in Knoxville. He carried throughout his life the anger of that court martial, and never forgave his former friend of bringing the charges against him.
434
Brigadier General John G. Walker, who led 3,400 men in the attack on Harper's Ferry from the south via Loudon Heights. He served with distinction throughout his military career both in the Union prior to the war and in the Confederacy. After Harper's Ferry, he continued under Longstreet at South Mountain and Antietam before being promoted to Major General and transferred to the Western front. He took command of training 12,000 Texans at Camp Nelson, who he reorganized into a division, and in their ensuing actions were given the nickname of "Walker's Greyhounds" for their speed of deployment. For the most part, his men and he were squandered by his superiors and were not allowed to help in countering Grant's Siege of Vicksburg, and were instead made to patrol western Louisiana. After the war, he fled to Mexico, and returned to serve as the Consul of the United States in Bogotá, Colombia.
433
Colonel Elijah V. White, who led Walker and his attack prong on a four day round-about excursion through upper Loudon County, Virginia on the way to attack Harper's Ferry.
References:
1. Sears, Stephen W. Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1983, p.154.
2. Longacre, Edward G. The Cavalry at Gettysburg. University of Nebraska Press, 1986, p.51.