Chapter One Hundred and Sixteen Corking the Bottle
Chapter One Hundred and Sixteen
Corking the Bottle
Corking the Bottle
From “Kearny the Magnificent” by Roger Galton
NorthWestern
“General Kearny’s rage on receiving confirmation from Washington was unparalleled in his career. He utterly opposed the indictment of several senior Confederate officers currently held prisoner. They were military prisoners and should be dealt with primarily by the military. Those cases of treason that were most clear from the investigations of OMI were of United States Officers “conspiring” with domestic enemies while still in uniform. Such treason was a matter for military justice. Furthermore if the Confederate leaders were certain that they would face charges and an execution then they would fight to the last drop of their blood…
General Kearny considered the indictments an "ill-timed, foolish maneuver... that will extend the war"
Kearny’s outrage focused on the Radicals who were clearly positioning themselves in advance of the fall elections. By their actions they almost guaranteed a bloodier end to the war. How many good Union soldiers would die because the rebels would not surrender to a certain death…?
Kearny’s response was predictable. As O.S. Halstead observed “nobody could muzzle Phil Kearny when he had something to get off his chest”. Kearny wrote to the President; to Edward Bates, the Attorney General, to General John Sedgwick in Virginia, and to General Joseph Holt, the Provost Marshal for the whole army. While Phil Kearny was commander of the armies of the Republic, no Confederate prisoner would be handed over to any “civilian tribunal” until he had either “faced justice at the hands of a properly constituted military tribunal or… the proper military authorities had confirmed no charges would be pressed against that officer”. General Kearny went on to express himself publicly in those terms to the Press declaiming the action by a politically motivated and self-interested section of politicians in the North who “have offered a choice to the Rebels: to fight and die or to surrender and be executed. Men being men they will choose to fight and to die, and so our gallant desk bound politicians; men who have never climbed an earthwork in the face of canister; men who have never bled on a battlefield; men who have bought substitutes and exemptions for themselves, their sons and their friends, these same politicians have, in the name of their ambition, signed the death warrant of 10,000 of our gallant boys; our sons...”. Kearny called them "our fire-eaters. Men who would build careers on the bodies of our nation's bravest". General Kearny had formally declared war on the radicals and Senator Ben Wade in particular…”
From “The North Carolina Campaign” by Thomas R. Yetters
Buffalo 2006
“The reports General Longstreet was receiving from Stuart, Hampton and other sources were troubling. It had been over a week since what was being called the Battle of Charlotte and no further attacks had been made. The Army of the Potomac had however extended its position around the city. General Humphreys had local control over three corps west of the Catawba River (his own V Corps, Stevens’ IX Corps and Williams’ XII Corps). Their position stretched from the Killen Farm in the north to Rock Hill in the south. The recent extension of Humphreys’ line to Rock Hill and the establishment of a battery there had the potential to threaten Longstreet’s line of retreat. The remaining four corps (Hancock’s I, Smith’s II, Sickles’ III and Wallace’s IV) remained tightly clustered north of the city from the Catawba River around to Pharr’s Mill in the north east. Beyond the Pharr’s Mill flank there was an impenetrable screen of Union cavalry as far as the Pee Dee River…
General Jackson had, privately, aired his discontent with General Longstreet’s surrendering initiative to the Union commanders. General Longstreet had hoped that they would try another direct assault on his works. However the extension of their lines and the realization that the Union army continued to bring up larger pieces of ordnance began to erode General Longstreet’s confidence in the position. One dramatic move by Kearny behind his cavalry screen with no more than two of his corps could place the Army of Northern Virginia in a difficult position. Although Kearny probably didn’t have enough troops to completely encircle the city without serious risk of a Confederate breakthrough or breakout, becoming involved in even a partial siege was anathema to Longstreet’s intentions. On 18th July he gave orders for stocks of supplies, ammunition and some artillery to be prepared for immediate movement to Lancaster and Camden. Longstreet knew if he decided to withdraw he might not find another defensible position north of Columbia, South Carolina…”
General Jubal Early was looking for a scrap. He found one.
From “The Blue Eyed Prophet of War” by Robert Lee Thomas
Carlotta Press 1906
“Ever a loyal subordinate General Jackson did not voice his objections but they were apparent nonetheless. His staff reported him as stalking around his headquarters like a caged tiger. This was not the kind of war that appealed to General Jackson. He received further extremely disturbing news after the Battle of Charlotte. Federal newspapers trumpeted the capture of his wife and daughter and reported that they had been “shipped north” without further detail. General Jackson was visibly distraught. Furthermore news arrived that General Edward Johnson had been indicted for treason by a Federal Grand Jury in Richmond. John Pemberton was already the subject of such an indictment in Pennsylvania, and the newspapers heralded a similar indictment in preparation against Braxton Bragg by the hastily formed Unionist State Government of North Carolina under Bartholomew F. Moore. It appeared that the Federal Government meant to hang every Confederate for following his principles and his state…”
He sought any opportunity to strike a blow at the Federals. Thus when it became clear that General Longstreet planned to move supplies and ordnance out of the city, General Jackson saw an opportunity. With the railroad via Chester cut by the Federal move to Rock Hill, the supplies would have to move by wagon south down the Lancaster Road. Jackson expected they would be harassed either by Humphreys’ infantry if a way could be found across the river, or more likely by cavalry from the east…
Jackson ensured that General Early’s division, which now formed his corps reserve, would accompany the initial supply trains as far as the Rock Hill Crossing…”
General W.L. Elliott's Cavalry Division patrolling south and east of Charlotte
From “The North Carolina Campaign” by Thomas R. Yetters
Buffalo 2006
“General Kearny had no issue with the Confederate’s denuding Charlotte of supplies, of ammunition; his commanders had orders to leave any such train unmolested. However his commanders had explicit orders not to allow the withdrawal of any troops from Charlotte. When Jubal Early’s division marched out with the first large wagon train it appeared to the local Union cavalry commanders that a retreat had begun…”
From “The Fighting Lambs – The Army of the James” by Geoffrey T. W. Werner
Radical Press 1928
“Brigadier General Washington Lafayette Elliott’s division of cavalry had been ordered to support the cavalry of the Army of the Potomac. The cavalry of the Army of the James had only faced militia so far in this campaign and now they faced a real challenge. Attached to the extreme left [south] of the Union cavalry screen they had the most important task of watching the Lancaster Road out of Charlotte. It was their videttes who spotted the column of infantry marching south. General Elliott was faced with a dilemma. It would take time for summoned help to come from Buford or Humphreys yet his orders were to stop any troops marching south…
Rather than launch a direct attack on a full division of infantry with his own small division of cavalry, he would straddle the road and slow the rebels down. Fight and retreat; fight and retreat; until help came up or he could maintain the fight no longer…
At least he had received some reinforcement in the last month in the form of two unusual regiments – the 1st North Carolina Mounted Infantry Regiment, a band of Red Strings now organized under Major W. Rollins and the 2nd Virginia Cavalry (as it would be known, as the Army of the James preferred state titles to the United States Colored Corps designation) made up of former slaves and freemen from Virginia under Colonel Jeptha Garrard, the first of its kind with the Army of the James…”
From “The North Carolina Campaign” by Thomas R. Yetters
Buffalo 2006
“Elliott’s delaying tactics on the Lancaster Road reflected the vast improvement in the confidence, training, and firepower of the Union cavalry over the course of the war. With a small cavalry division he successfully delayed Jubal Early’s division for much of the day. As Early brought sufficient force to bear, Elliott’s troopers would simply mount up and retire a short distance. A frustrated Early and sent back to the city and Jackson had dispatched two cavalry brigades to him (barely 400 poorly mounted men) under General Wade Hampton…
As night fell Early was confident of reaching Lancaster in the morning. Further, although the Union cavalry had harassed and annoyed his column, there appeared no serious threat from Humphreys on the west bank of the Catawba. Perhaps the noise from the wagon-drivers and their teams, encamped amongst the column, shielded Early from the noises of the night or perhaps it was one of the those strange acoustical anomalies common in war, but come the dawn it was a very surprised Early who surveyed the outskirts of Lancaster…”
From “The Life and Letters of John J. Peck” by John Watts de Peyster Jr.
Buffalo 1892
“Of the all the rebel formations I was glad it was Early, with his thrice cursed South Carolinians, we surprised…We had hard marching from Rockingham to Lancaster, but during the last day we could hear the sounds of W.L. Elliott’s fight and that spurred the men on… Now as General Kearny had explained it to me, my men and I were to put the stopper back in the rebel bottle…”
A rare picture of Peck's troops on the eve of battle
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