150 Years Ago -- Establishing a Balloon Corps

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Thaddeus Lowe had put his dream of making a transatlantic balloon flight on hold to offer his services to his country.  In June 1861, he had demonstrated the military usefulness of his balloon to President Lincoln, then to a group of skeptical generals.

Lowe hoped to become the "chief aeronaut" of a balloon corps dedicated to aerial reconnaissance, but had competition from several other balloonists, including John Wise, John La Mountain, and the Allen brothers, Ezra and James.  After his successful demonstrations, he was asked to submit an estimate for the cost of making suitable balloons, but was soon informed that he had been underbid by Wise.

In mid-July, Lowe was conducting experiments on the grounds of the Smithsonian Institution when Captain Amiel Whipple of the U. S. Topographical Engineers sent him a message.  General Irvin McDowell was at Centreville, Virginia, and needed a balloon to conduct aerial reconnaissance of the Confederate position at Bull Run.  Wise had not shown up.  Whipple asked Lowe to bring his balloon down.

Since Lowe did not have a portable hydrogen gas generator it was necessary to inflate the balloon in Washington and tow it south.  Lowe was inflating his balloon at a gas main near the Columbian Armory when Wise finally showed up.  Lowe was ordered to disconnect his balloon and make way for Wise to inflate his.

Wise inflated his balloon and twenty men from the 26th Pennsylvania began the task of towing the balloon into central Virginia.  Along the way, Wise's balloon snagged on a low-hanging tree branch and burst.

Lowe inflated his balloon and started south.  He made it as far as Fall Church, where he learned of the Union army's rout at Bull Run.  Lowe remained where he was as the retreating army streamed past him.  When the last of the Federal pickets withdrew, Lowe started back toward Arlington, dragging his balloon in a heavy rainstorm.  He arrived at Fort Corcoran the evening after the battle with the balloon still fully inflated.

Two days later, when the weather finally cleared, Lowe made a free ascent and observed the victorious Rebel army still concentrated around the Manassas area.  The news was welcome in Washington, relieving tensions of an expected invasion.

But before Lowe could get the news back to the city, he had a serious misadventure.  As he returned to the Union lines, soldiers, thinking Confederates were piloting the craft, began firing on Lowe and demanding that he show his colors.  Lowe had no flag to show, so he stayed aloft and finally landed in a grove of trees a couple of miles outside the Union lines.  He was discovered by men from the 31st New York Volunteers, but he had twisted his ankle in the landing and could not walk out with them.  It was up to his wife to rescue him.  She procured a wagon, disguised herself as a farm woman and drove south to pick him up.  Lowe and his balloon were hidden in the bottom of the wagon and driven past Confederate pickets at dusk.

Lincoln ordered General-in-Chief Winfield Scott to form a balloon corps with Lowe as chief aeronaut.  On August 2, Lowe received his orders and instructions:

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF NORTHEASTERN VIRGINIA,
Arlington, August 2, 1861.

Mr. T. S. C. LOWE,
Aeronaut:

        SIR: You are hereby employed to construct a balloon for military purposes capable of containing at least 25,000 cubic feet of gas, to be made of the best India silk, not inferior to the sample which is divided between us, you retaining a part, with best linen network, and three guys of manilla cordage from 1,200 to 1,500 feet in length. The materials you will purchase immediately, the best the markets afford and at prices not exceeding ordinary rates; and the bills you will forward to me through Maj. Hartman Bache, chief of the Corps of Topographical Engineers. When these materials shall have been collected at Philadelphia, where the balloon is to be constructed, you will report to me, that I may send an officer of the corps to inspect them. You need not, however, wait for the inspecting officer, but go on rapidly with the work, with the understanding that it may be suspended, provided that upon examination the materials or work prove unsatisfactory.
        Your compensation from the day of collecting the materials and during the time of making the balloon shall be $5 per day, provided that a reasonable time be allowed for the collection and ten days for making. From and after the day that the balloon shall be ready for inflation at Washington, D.C., your compensation will be $10 per day as long as the Government may require your services.
        Inclosed herewith is an order authorizing the purchase of materials necessary for the operation with which you are charged.

Very respectfully,
A. W. WHIPPLE,
Captain, Topographical Engineers.

[Inclosure.]

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF NORTHEASTERN VIRGINIA.

        Mr. T. S. C. Lowe, aeronaut, is hereby authorized to purchase 1,200 yards of best India silk and sufficient linen thread, cordage, &c., for the construction of a balloon, and all reasonable bills for the same, when presented to me through the Bureau of Topographical Engineers, will be paid.

A. W. WHIPPLE,
        Captain, Topographical Engineers.

Lowe began construction of this new balloon, the Union, and also began assembling and training a group of men in the art of military ballooning.  The Union Army Balloon Corps remained a civilian contract organization without military commissions.  This put the group in a somewhat precarious situation.  If any of the men were ever captured by Confederate troops they could be classified as spies and executed.  The Balloon Corps would eventually consist of seven aircraft.

The Union was completed on August 28, and Lowe was ordered to bring it to Fort Corcoran.  Because he still did not have a portable gas generator, Lowe was confined to operations near Washington, but the balloon stayed in constant use for almost two months.

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150 Years Ago: McClellan Takes Command

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On July 27, 1861, Major General George McClellan was appointed commander of the Federal Division of the Potomac.

The Division of the Potomac consisted of Irvin McDowell's Department of Northeastern Virginia and Joseph Mansfield's Department of Washington.  Nathaniel Banks's Department of the Shenandoah was also added to McClellan's purview.  The armies of these departments were combined to form the Army of the Potomac.

McClellan, 34, was one of the first Northern heroes of the war after his recent successes in western Virginia.  On the day he took command in Washington, he wrote home to his wife Ellen* about his experiences...

...I find myself in a new & strange position here -- Presdt, Cabinet, Genl Scott & all deferring to me -- by some strange operation of magic I seem to have become the power of the land. I almost think that were I to win some small success now I could become Dictator or anything else that might please me -- but nothing of that kind would please me -- therefore I won't be Dictator.  Admirable self denial!  I see already the main causes of our recent failure -- I am sure that I can remedy these & am confident that I can lead these armies of men to victory once more...

Just after the rout and panic at Bull Run, the War Department began the work of gathering up the scattered army by setting up rallying points around the city of Washington and announcing that they would be the only places where rations would be distributed.   The three-month volunteers that did not reenlist were sent home and Northern governors hurried new three-year volunteers to the city.

McClellan quickly went to work shaping his new army -- rounding up stragglers, weeding out incompetent officers and training the new recruits to be soldiers.

*The letters from McClellan to his wife are widely quoted in books on the Civil War, but there is some controversy about their authenticity and accuracy.  The originals are gone, but portions were copied into a notebook by McClellan.  His daughter, working with the original letters, added to the transcripts later.  For more on the letters, check out two posts at Civil War Bookshelf  -- Dimitri Rotov's problems with the letters and Stephen Sears's response.

150 Years Ago: The Aftermath of Bull Run

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Monday, July 22, 1861.  George Templeton Strong declared in his diary, "Today will be known as BLACK MONDAY.  We are utterly and disgracefully routed, beaten, whipped by secessionists."

Union General Irvin McDowell's army had been routed by the Confederates at Bull Run.  The rout met up with the mother of all traffic jams at the bridge over Cub Run, and suddenly the rout had become a panic.  The army practically sprinted back to Washington.  The citizens there were astonished to see this tired, beaten rabble stream back into the city, and feared that a Confederate invasion was imminent.

And the casualties were staggering -- 450-500 killed, 1100 wounded, and a staggering 1500-1800 missing.  The hospitals were quickly filled to overflowing.

The bars were full too.  Walt Whitman wrote in Memoranda During the War,

As afternoon pass'd, and evening came, the streets, the bar-rooms, knots everywhere, listeners, questioners, terrible yarns, bugaboo, mask'd batteries, our regiment all cut up, &c. -- stories and storytellers, windy, bragging, vain centres of street-crowds. Resolution, manliness, seem to have abandon'd Washington. The principle hotel, Willard's, is full of shoulder-straps -- thick, crush'd, creeping with shoulder-straps. (I see them, and must have a word with them. There you are shoulder-straps! -- but where are your companies? Where are your men? Incompetents! never tell me of chances of battle, of getting stray'd, and the like. I think this is your work, this retreat, after all. Sneak, blow, put on airs, there in Willard's sumptuous parlors and bar-rooms, or anywhere -- no explanation will save you. Bull Run is your work; had you been half or one-tenth worthy your men, this would never have happen'd.)

Horace Greeley, whose editorials and "Forward to Richmond" headlines in the New York Herald had helped bring this battle on, was beside himself with grief.  In a few days he would write to Lincoln, "If it is best for the country and for mankind that we make peace with the Rebels at once and on their own terms, do not shrink even from that."

Confederate President Jefferson Davis finished work early on July 21st.  He then chartered a train to Manassas Junction, arriving while the battle was raging.  Coming up from the rear, he encountered the remnants of used up units, stragglers, malingerers, and concluded that the battle was lost.  But he finally met up with his generals, Johnston and Beauregard, and discovered the true magnitude of the victory.  He urged a vigorous pursuit.  Johnston still had a few fresh troops, but nothing ever came of it.

The Confederate army was badly disorganized, and their casualties were staggering too -- 400 killed, 1600 wounded, some mortally, including Barnard Bee, who died on July 22.  He was the one who had given Thomas Jackson the appellation "Stonewall."

There was some controversy about what Bee said, and whether he meant it in a complimentary manner.  One witness claimed that Bee was complaining about Jackson not engaging his men in battle.  "Look at Jackson standing there like a damned stone wall."  Or did he realize that Jackson was forming the final line that must be held.  "Look!  There is Jackson standing like a stone wall!  Rally behind the Virginians!"  Whatever the accurate quote or the meaning behind the quote, the name stuck to Jackson and Bee was not around to settle the controversy.

The Confederate army rounded up a whole horde of prisoners, some 1200, including a U.S. congressman, and collected all manner of equipment that had been abandoned by the Union soldiers in their flight.

This decisive battle would not decide the war.  Far from it.  The North would redouble its efforts.

Lincoln met with General-in-Chief Winfield Scott and his cabinet through the night of July 21-22.  They sent wires to General George McClellan in the mountains of western Virginia first telling him to move his army into the Shenandoah Valley, then to stay where he was and await reinforcements, then telling McClellan to report to Washington.

The day after the battle, July 22, Lincoln signed a bill for the enlistment of 500,000 three-year volunteers, then three days later signed another bill for 500,000 more.  McClellan would soon take command of a new army of these three-year volunteers, the Army of the Potomac.

In the South, the mood was jubilant, with many thinking that independence was just around the corner.  In the coming weeks though, many would wonder why the Confederate army had not finished up the victory and driven on to Washington.  Fingers would be pointed at each of the principals, Johnston, Beauregard, and Davis, and the controversy would swirl for many years.  Each man wrote a postwar memoir that kept the issue alive. 

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A Bull Run Story -- Wilmer McLean

Wilmer McLean lived by Blackburn's Ford, one of a few places where you could wade across Bull Run.  On July 18, 1861, elements of Union General Irvin McDowell's army made a reconnaissance-in-force at the ford and were repulsed by the Confederates.  Much of the action took place around McLean's house; a Federal shell landed in his fireplace during the artillery exchange.

Later, in 1863, McLean moved his family 200 miles away to a tiny one-horse two built up around a crossroads called Appomattox Court House.  On April 8, 1865, a messenger knocked on the door and asked to use the house.  Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant needed a place to meet.  Lee surrendered to Grant in the parlor of McLean's house.  McLean thereafter was able to tell people that the war started in his front yard and ended in his front parlor.

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150 Years Ago: The Battle of Bull Run

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Continued from yesterday's post...

On Sunday, July 21, 1861, the Battle of Bull Run took place in northern Virginia.  Union General Irvin McDowell's Army of Northeastern Virginia moved out of its Washington entrenchments and marched south to confront General P. G. T. Beauregard's Confederate Army just south of Centreville.

Because it was a Sunday, there was a big crowd of sightseers who had driven down from Washington for the day.  There were a few congressmen and senators in the crowd, and even some Union officers who had somehow gotten separated from their men.  They narrated the action for the civilians in attendance.


Beauregard's line stretched along the south side of a stream called Bull Run.  The left of the line guarded a stone bridge where the Warrenton Turnpike crossed the stream.  Far to the east, the right side of the line guarded the Orange and Alexandria Railroad bridge.  Here and there along the line, masses of men guarded the fords, the few places where you could get to the stream to cross it.

McDowell's plan was to move off to his right, to the west, and cross Bull Run upstream at Sudley Springs Ford, far to the left of the Confederate line.  He would then move back to the east and strike the Confederate left flank, hopefully rolling it up and smashing the Rebel army.

Unbeknownst to McDowell though was that General Joseph E. Johnston's army from the Shenandoah Valley had broken free of the Union army confronting it there and had hurried east to link up with Beauregard's army, evening up the odds.  Johnston's Army of the Shenandoah had been coming in for the past two days and was still coming in while the battle was raging.

One thing that was working in McDowell's favor was that Beauregard had planned an attack on the enemy's left flank as well.  To that end, he had the majority of his army on his right side, far away from McDowell's point of attack.

Union General Irvin McDowell had his army in motion by 2:30 a.m. on the 21st.  Some 5000 men were held in Centreville in reserve.  Some were sent to the fords and the stone bridge to make warlike moves, keeping the Confederates focused here instead of upstream where McDowell's main thrust, 14,000 men, would come.

The advance was as bad as the one that had put the army in Centreville, the one that took two and a half days to go 22 miles.  The green troops were still having trouble marching, and there was a lot of starting and stopping, missed directions, snarls and bottlenecks.  It took until 11 a.m. to get the entire flanking force across the stream.

Meanwhile, General Tyler's men moved up close to the stone bridge and opened fire with his artillery.  Historian Bruce Catton describes this as "a slow, desultory cannonade which did little more than announce that the Yankees had got up early."  One consequence of this action though was that a shell ripped through the tent where a young staff officer, Captain Edward Porter Alexander, was sleeping.  Alexander was up quickly and scouted around until he discovered McDowell's flanking attack.

Alexander notified Colonel Nathan "Shanks" Evans, who commanded the extreme left of the Confederate line.  Evans had two small regiments, some cavalry and artillery, about 1100 men in all.  He left four companies to watch the stone bridge and took the rest of his men north.  Around 9 a.m. they were waiting in an open field north of the bridge.  When the Federal column appeared, they opened fire and the battle was underway.

McDowell's officers could never quite get the attack going right.  Instead of a heavy blow, the attack was an uncoordinated series of light taps.  It was proving quite difficult to get the green soldiers from a long marching column of fours into a fighting line four regiments wide.  Evans was badly outnumbered, but holding his own.

But the Union attack gained some momentum.  McDowell finally had his entire flanking force across at Sudley Springs Ford and enough units were getting into the fight now to cut up Evans's regiments.  Evans sent back desperate appeals for help and Barnard Bee's brigade joined the fight.

McDowell sent word to Tyler at the stone bridge to make more of a fight there.  Tyler sent William Tecumah Sherman's brigade forward.  They waded across Bull Run north of the bridge and joined the attack against Evans and Bee and pushed them back south of the turnpike, across a muddy creek, and up an imposing hill.  It was named for the Henry family who had a farmhouse on the crest.
 
Over on the right, the Confederate commander, now Johnston who outranked Beauregard, recognized what was going on and began shuffling more troops to the left.  But it would take some effort for Johnston, even with Beauregard's help, to realign his entire army in the midst of the battle.

Wade Hampton and Francis Bartow added their men to the Confederate forces and the battle suddenly boiled down to a struggle for Henry House Hill.  Evans's brigade was shattered, Bee's was falling back, and Bartow was trying to rally his Georgians when he was shot dead.  Beauregard was suddenly there, rallying the line.  A shell exploded nearby, killing his horse, but he was unhurt.  They just had to hold on until Johnston could get fresh troops up.

Map:  Morning, July 21, 1861

Then, Thomas Jackson's brigade deployed in a line just past the crest of the Henry House Hill.  Jackson had found the perfect place for a defensive line.  His fresh troops waited for the Yankee onslaught.  Bee, his regiments now in almost complete disarray, rode back to Jackson and said, "General, they are beating us back."  Jackson replied, "Sir, we will give them the bayonet."  Bee rode back to what was left of his unit, gestured at Jackson's brigade, and yelled, "Look!  There is Jackson standing like a stone wall!  Rally behind the Virginians!"

That was it for Bee.  A bullet struck him in the abdomen, mortally wounding him, but the name would live on.  From then on, Jackson would be known as Stonewall and the men with him on Henry House Hill would be the Stonewall Brigade.

A mixup in uniforms affected the outcome of the battle.  McDowell sent two regular artillery batteries forward.  These commanders, Captains J. B. Ricketts and Charles Griffin, got ahead of the infantry and were exposed to deadly musket fire, but were blowing Jackson's line apart.  One of their shots went through the Henry house, killing 84-year-old Judith Henry, who was a helpless invalid in one of the bedrooms.  These gunners saw some men in blue approaching.  Thinking it was infantry help they had requested, they held their fire.  The men were from the 33rd Virginia of Jackson's brigade.  They opened fire and a Union officer who witnessed it from afar wrote later that "it seemed as though every man and horse of that battery just laid right down and died right off."

But as mid-afternoon approached, it seemed that the Union army might win the day.  The breakthrough was imminent.  Johnston and Beauregard had called in every available man.  But the Union attack had lost all cohesion -- the units had broken down with officers separated from the men and stragglers heading for the rear.

The turning point came around 4 p.m., when the last of the fresh Confederate troops plunged into the battle.  Jubal Early's brigade from the right and Edmund Kirby Smith's brigade, the last of Johnston's men from the Shenandoah Valley, fresh off the train joined Jackson's line.  Beauregard launched a counterattack.

The three-month men in McDowell's army decided they had had enough and began to fall back.  It was orderly at first with pockets of resistance, but suddenly the whole Federal army was in retreat, heading back across the bridges and fords of Bull Run.

The civilian onlookers got caught up in the retreat back to Centreville.  At a bridge over a creek called Cub Run, a Confederate shell arced in and wrecked a wagon, blocking the bridge and adding to the panic and confusion.

From The Coming Fury by Bruce Catton...

"The bridge was blocked. Drivers on the Centreville side of it whipped up their horses to get out of danger, and the drivers on the Bull Run side incontinently did the same, getting guns and wagons and carriages into a complete tangle, with horses rearing and kicking, teamsters swearing, ladies from Washington beginning to scream, the press of civilian vehicles constantly feeding in new elements which killed any faint hope that this traffic jam could be resolved. Some carriages trundled down to the little stream, lurched up on the far side, and made off for Washington as fast as maddened horses could take them. Here and there a mounted officer took fire along with all the rest and tried to ride through everything at a bucketing gallop. People who were on foot began to run, cavalry was coming up to kill and maim -- and, all at once, utter panic descended on everybody in sight.

The great drifting mass of fugitive soldiers, already out from under what little discipline they had ever known, moved faster and faster and became a wild, frantic, scrambling mob which generated its own unendurable pressure. Teamsters cut their horses loose and scrambled on their backs to ride to safety, leaving guns, caissons, and military supplies for anyone who cared to pick them up. Ambulances carrying wounded men to hospitals were left by the roadside. Soldiers who had thought they were too exhausted to do more than put one heavy foot in front of another found they could run very nimbly, and they dropped whatever they were carrying -- muskets, haversacks, canteens, anything -- so that they could run even faster. It was gabbled up and down the wild rout that armed Rebels were close behind; for some odd reason, the pursuing Confederates, believed to be as ruthless as Cossacks, were all thought to be riding black horses and frightened men were forever shouting: "Black horse cavalry! Black horse cavalry!"

The 22-mile trip that had taken two and a half days one way took less than a day the other way. McDowell still had a reserve force in Centreville and hoped to form a line there. Around 6 p.m., he wired Washington to say that he had been driven from the battlefield and "we have now to hold Centreville until our men can get behind it." The men got behind Centreville and kept going. McDowell later wired to say, "The larger part of the men are a confused mob, entirely demoralized. It was the opinion of all the commanders that no stand could be made this side of the Potomac." Even later, after another attempt to regroup at Fairfax Court House failed, McDowell admitted, "Many of the volunteers did not wait for authority to proceed to the Potomac but left on their own decision."

Map:  July 21, 4 p.m. to dusk

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150 Years Ago: The Eve of the Big Battle

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Saturday, July 20, 1861, was the eve of the largest battle to this point in the Civil War, the Battle of Bull Run.

The firing on Fort Sumter and President Lincoln's war proclamation was three months ago, in April, and so far there had not been a lot of action.  Many people, in the North and the South, thought this would be a short, limited war.  One decisive battle would show those damned Yankees (or Rebels, depending on your side) a thing or two, and then all this foolishness would be over.

It just seemed logical that the big battle would take place in northern Virginia between the two capitals, Washington and Richmond, and public opinion on both sides was pushing for the battle to happen soon.  "Forward to Richmond" screamed banner headlines in the North.  Now wasn't soon enough.  Many had hoped that Richmond could be taken by today, July 20, when the Confederate Congress would be convening in their new capital for the first time.

Union General Irvin McDowell had been pushed into this battle.  McDowell knew his army wasn't ready to fight.  The belief that the war would be a quick one had led Lincoln, when he proclaimed war and called for 75,000 militia immediately after Fort Sumter, to sign these initial recruits to three-month enlistments.  Now the three months was ending and the enlistments were expiring and many men in McDowell's army would be going home soon.

New recruits were pouring in to replace them, but it would take time to train them and organize them.  The three-month men weren't even trained properly.  Most of the officers, including McDowell himself, had never led troops in battle.

In late June, McDowell had submitted a plan of operations to the War Department.  He had stayed away from the grandiose plan of taking Richmond and concentrated on the Confederate army in his front.  He estimated that P. G. T. Beauregard had 25,000 men (he actually had closer to 20,000) amassed near Manassas Junction behind a stream called Bull Run, and that was as far as McDowell planned to go for the immediate future.

Two other armies, both called the Army of the Shenandoah, complicated the picture.  The Union Army of the Shenandoah, led by Robert Patterson, faced General Joseph E. Johnston's Confederate Army of the Shenandoah.  McDowell's plan called for Patterson to keep Johnston busy so that he could not rush to Beauregard's aid.

Map: July 1861 -- The Bull Run Campaign Overview

McDowell was ordered to begin his advance on July 9, but that wasn't much time and delays were inevitable.  And McDowell was pushing for more time, knowing that his army was not ready for a fight, until Lincoln finally told him, "You are green, it is true; but they are green, also; you are all green alike."  McDowell began his advance a week late.  

Over in the Shenandoah Valley, Patterson was facing the same problem as McDowell with three-month men in his army whose enlistments were ending.  Patterson had also been given vague orders -- he wasn't sure if he was supposed to attack Johnston or just maneuver against him.  Johnston sent his cavalry, led by J. E. B. Stuart, to harass and confuse him, and Patterson maneuvered himself out of the campaign, settling in Charlestown, twenty miles away from the nearest Confederates, where he reported that "it would be ruinous to advance, or even to stay here, without immediate increase of force."  Johnston marched his men to the Manassas Gap Railroad line and began shuffling them east to Beauregard.

That would not have mattered if McDowell had advanced quickly.  He could have dealt with Beauregard's army before Johnston arrived, but his worst fears about his army were realized when they began to move.  The line of advance crept forward with the men spending more time standing around than marching.  Marching for miles with full packs in the hot July sun was beginning to seem much more complicated than marching around a parade ground.

When McDowell's army finally reached Centreville, just two or three miles from the Rebel position, they had eaten all their rations.  McDowell paused for two more days to get his wagon trains and the rest of his army up, and all the while, more and more of Johnston's army was linking up with Beauregard's.

McDowell and his officers had also been spending the time doing reconnaissance of the Confederate position.  Their line on the south side of Bull Run stretched from the stone bridge on the left where the Warrenton Turnpike crossed the stream to the Orange and Alexandria Railroad bridge on the right.  A reconnaissance-in-force on Blackburn's Ford in the center of the Confederate line was repulsed on July 18, convincing McDowell to try a flanking attack.  He would take a substantial part of his force to the right, around the Confederate left, crossing Bull Run upstream at Sudley Springs Ford.

Map:  July 18, 1861 -- The Confederate line, the Union army concentrating at Centreville, the recon and skirmish at Blackburn's Ford

In fact, both commanders would plan attacks on the other's left.  Beauregard had a grand Napoleonic plan to mass his men on his right and wheel them around to catch McDowell in the left flank.  The plan didn't have much hope of success with his green army, but it didn't matter.  McDowell would beat Beauregard to the punch and catch Beauregard with most of his men massed far away from the point of attack.

McDowell began getting his men into motion after dark.  They would all be moving by 2:30 a.m., July 21.

150 Years Ago: Movements and Proclamations

There would be a battle around Bull Run in the area around Manassas Junction soon, but on July 19, 1861, Union General Irvin McDowell was concerned about concentrating his army around Centreville, Virginia, and feeding them.

The Army of Northeastern Virginia had marched from the environs of Washington to within just a couple of miles of General P. G. T. Beauregard's position behind Bull Run, but the 22-mile march had taken two and a half days.  The green troops led by green commanders had marched so slowly that they had eaten all their rations and now McDowell was waiting for wagon trains to resupply them.  The line had also strung out through the north Virginia countryside, and McDowell would have to wait another couple of days for all the stragglers to catch up.

Out in the Shenandoah Valley, Union General Robert Patterson had maneuvered himself completely out of the action, leaving General Joe Johnston free to take his army out of the valley and link up with Beauregard's army at Manassas.  Johnston marched south, then took the Manassas Gap Railroad straight to Beauregard.  Some of his troops were already arriving at Manassas Junction, but some would still be arriving as the battle was raging on July 21.

After yesterday's reconnaissance-in-force at Blackburn's Ford had been repulsed, McDowell was considering a flanking move around the Confederate left.


Also on this date, in western Virginia, Union General George McClellan issued a proclamation praising his army for their recent victories:

Headquarters army of Occupation, Western Virginia, Beverly, Va., July 19, 1861.
soldiers of the army of the West:
I am more than satisfied with you. You have annihilated two armies, commanded by educated and experienced soldiers, intrenched in mountain fastnesses and fortified at their leisure. You have taken five guns, twelve colors, fifteen hundred stand of arms, one thousand prisoners, including more than forty officers. One of the second commanders of the rebels is a prisoner, the other lost his life on the field of battle. You have killed more than two hundred and fifty of the enemy, who has lost all his baggage and camp equipage. All this has been accomplished with the loss of twenty brave men killed and sixty wounded on your part.

You have proved that Union men, fighting for the preservation of our Government, are more than a match for our misguided and erring brothers. More than this, you have shown mercy to the vanquished. You have made long and arduous marches, with insufficient food, frequently exposed to the inclemency of the weather. I have not hesitated to demand this of you, feeling that I could rely on your endurance, patriotism, and courage. In the future I may have still greater demands to make upon you, still greater sacrifices for you to offer. It shall be my care to provide for you to the extent of my ability; but I know now that, by your valor and endurance, you will accomplish all that is asked.

Soldiers! I have confidence in you, and I trust you have learned to confide in me. Remember that discipline and subordination are qualities of equal value with courage. I am proud to say that you have gained the highest reward that American troops can receive — the thanks of Congress and the applause of your fellow-citizens.

Geo. B. Mcclellan, Major-General.

Union General John Pope issued a proclamation to the inhabitants of northern Missouri:

St. Charles, Mo., July 19, 1861.
To the People of North Missouri:
By virtue of proper authority, I have assumed the command in North Missouri. I appear among you with force strong enough to maintain the authority of the Government, and too strong to be resisted by any means in your possession usual in warfare. Upon your own assurances that you would respect the laws of the United States and preserve peace, no troops have hitherto been sent into your section of the country. The occurrences of the last ten days have plainly exhibited that you lack either the power or the inclination to fulfil your pledges, and the Government, has, therefore, found it necessary to occupy North Missouri with a force large enough to compel obedience to the laws. So soon as it is made manifest that you will respect its authority and put down unlawful combinations against it, you will be relieved of the presence of the forces under my command, but not till then.

I, therefore, warn all persons taken in arms against the Federal authority, who attempt to commit depredation upon public or private property, or who molest unoffending and peaceful citizens, that they will be dealt with in the most summary manner, without awaiting civil process.

Jno. Pope, Brigadier.General U. S. A., Commanding.

 

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Armies: The Army of the Shenandoah (CSA)

Image of Joseph E. Johnston by BattlefieldPortraits.com via Flickr

The Confederate Army of the Shenandoah was a short-lived unit.  It began as Virginia state troops that captured the U.S. Arsenal at Harper's Ferry in April 1861 and quickly grew into a 12,000-man force under the command of General Joseph E. Johnston.  The army merged with Beauregard's Army of the Potomac at the First Battle of Bull Run, and eventually this new, larger Army of the Potomac would become the foundation of the Army of Northern Virginia.

On April 18, 1861, with 360 Virginia state troops advancing, the U.S. Army garrison abandoned the United States Armory and Arsenal at Harper's Ferry after an attempt to torch the buildings and destroy the machinery.  Harper's Ferry residents doused the flames and saved the machinery.  The state troops quickly occupied the arsenal and sent the gun-making machinery south. 

Major General Kenton Harper of the Virginia Militia was placed in command, and some 2000 state troops were quickly concentrated in the area.  Brigadier General Thomas Jackson succeeded Harper in command on April 28.

In May 1861, Virginia transferred her state forces to the Confederate government, and General Joseph E. Johnston took command of this force in the Shenandoah Valley.  By July, he had almost 12,000 men under his command.

The Army of the Shenandoah was organized into four brigades with J. E. B. Stuart's cavalry and artillery support.  The brigades were led by Brigadier General Thomas Jackson, Colonel Francis Bartow, Brigadier General Barnard Bee, and Brigadier General Kirby Smith.

This army was needed at Manassas to try to even up the odds as Union General Irvin McDowell advanced with the 35,000-man Army of Northeastern Virginia against the 20,000 men of General P. G. T. Beauregard's Confederate Army of the Potomac.

Johnston slipped away from the Union army in his front, also called the Army of the Shenandoah and led by General Robert Patterson, and transferred his men by rail to Manassas.  The Army of the Shenandoah linked up with the Army of the Potomac on the battlefield, with most of Johnston's army arriving as the battle was raging.

After the Confederate victory, the merger was made permanent.  On October 22, 1861, the Department of Northern Virginia was created with Johnston commanding.  It combined the District of the Potomac (Beauregard), the Valley District (Jackson), and the Aquia District (Holmes), and officially ended the Army of the Shenandoah.  Johnston's original Army of the Shenandoah would be a vital part of the new, larger Army of Northern Virginia.  Johnston commanded until he was seriously wounded at the Battle of Seven Pines when he was replaced by Robert E. Lee.

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• 150 Years Ago: Johnston Withdraws from Harper's Ferry (civilwarmeanderings.blogspot.com)
• 150 Years Ago: Patterson Crosses the Potomac (civilwarmeanderings.blogspot.com)
• 150 Years Ago: The Bull Run Campaign (civilwarmeanderings.blogspot.com)
• 150 Years Ago: Developments in the Bull Run Campaign (civilwarmeanderings.blogspot.com)

150 Years Ago: Blackburn's Ford

Map via Wikipedia (Click to enlarge)

On Thursday, July 18, 1861, around noon, Union troops under Irvin McDowell approached Centreville, Virginia.  Expecting to find the enemy there, McDowell sent a brigade from Daniel Tyler's division, some 3000 men, to reconnoiter.  They advanced into Centreville, found it empty, and marched on to Bull Run.

At Blackburn's Ford, one of the many crossings of Bull Run, Tyler ordered Colonel Israel Richardson to probe the position.  This was the center of Beauregard's line, and Richardson ran into James Longstreet's brigade hidden in the dense woods south of the stream.  Tyler had a hard time disengaging from the enemy, but eventually retreated back to Centreville with news for McDowell about the Confederate postion.

The Battle of Blackburn's Ford, a reconnaissance-in-force, was a fairly meaningless skirmish, a prelude to the much bigger First Battle of Bull Run on July 21.  The skirmish led McDowell to decide against a frontal assault on the Confederate line.  He would try to flank the left side of the Confederate line, crossing farther upstream to the north.


Also on this date, at Richmond, Virginia, Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory provided a report on the cost of converting the captured U.S.S. Merrimack into an ironclad.

The frigate Merrimack has been raised and docked at an expense of $6000, and the necessary repairs to hull and machinery to place her in her former condition is estimated by experts at $450,000.  The vessel would then be in the river, and by the blockade of the enemy's fleets and batteries rendered comparatively useless.  It has therefore been determined to shield her completely with 3-inch iron placed at such angles as to render her ball-proof, to complete her at the earliest moment, to arm her with the heaviest ordnance, and to send her at once against the enemy's fleet.  It is believed that thus prepared she will be able to contend successfully against the heaviest of the enemy's ships and to drive them from Hampton Roads and the ports of Virginia.  The cost of this work is estimated by the constructor and engineer in charge at $172,523, and as time is of the first consequence in this enterprise I have not hesitated to commence the work and to ask Congress for the necessary appropriation.

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Armies: The Army of the Potomac (CSA)

The Confederate Army of the Potomac was short-lived.  It merged with the Army of the Shenandoah during the First Battle of Bull Run, and eventually became the First Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia.

The army began as state troops mobilized along an "Alexandria line," a long front stretching across northern Virginia from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Chesapeake bay.  These troops were organized and Brigadier General Milledge Bonham was placed in command.  He was soon replaced with General P. G. T. Beauregard, who was tasked with organizing and training the raw troops from throughout the South and planning a response to the Northern invasion around Alexandria.

In July 1861, Beauregard had some 20,000 troops massed around Manassas Junction behind a sluggish stream called Bull Run.  They were organized into eight brigades with artillery and cavalry support.  The brigades were commanded by Bonham, Richard Ewell, David Jones, James Longstreet, Philip St. George Cocke, Jubal Early, and Nathan Evans.  Theophilus Holmes commanded the reserve brigade. 

Union General Irvin McDowell was advancing with some 35,000 troops, the Army of Northeastern Virginia.  Beauregard needed General Joseph E. Johnston's Army of the Shenandoah, some 12,000 men, to even up the odds with McDowell.

Johnston slipped away from the Shenandoah Valley and joined up with Beauregard.  The two armies linked up on the Bull Run battlefield, with some of Johnston's army arriving as the battle was raging.  Johnston outranked Beauregard, but mostly deferred to Beauregard's arrangements and plans for the upcoming battle.  After the Confederate victory, the merger of the two armies was made permanent.

On October 22, 1861, the Department of Northern Virginia was created with Johnston commanding.  It combined the District of the Potomac (Beauregard), the Valley District (Jackson), and the Aquia District (Holmes), and officially ended the Army of the Potomac.  Beauregard's original army would comprise the First Corps of this new army, which would eventually become known as the Army of Northern Virginia.  Johnson commanded until he was seriously wounded at the Battle of Seven Pines on May 31, 1862, and was replaced by General Robert E. Lee.

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150 Years Ago: Developments in the Bull Run Campaign

On July 17, 1861, the advance guard of Union General Irvin McDowell's Army of Northeastern Virginia occupied Fairfax Court House, Virginia, on its way toward its encounter with P. G. T. Beauregard's Army of the Potomac at Manassas.  Meanwhile, over in the Shenandoah Valley, Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston began to move away from the Union army in his front, that of General Robert Patterson, to make his way to Manassas to link up with Beauregard.

At Fairfax Court House, advance elements of McDowell's army occupied the town without incident.  The Confederates, the advance units of Beauregard's army, evacuated the town just prior to the Federals arrival, leaving behind a quantity of supplies, and settled in just south of the town.  Federal cavalry ran them off, but the infantry was too tired to take up the chase.

Beauregard had asked for help.  He needed Johnston's army in the Shenandoah Valley to join up with him to even up the odds against McDowell for the impending battle at Manassas.  Confederate President Jefferson Davis ordered Johnston to move over to Manassas, and Johnston began on this day.

Johnston had to break away from Patterson's Union army in his front, but that was no problem.  J. E. B. Stuart's cavalry was keeping Patterson busy, and Patterson, in violation of his vague orders to contain Johnston, had moved over to Charles Town instead of advancing directly on the Confederate position.  Johnston moved his troops to the nearest railhead and began moving them to Manassas Junction.

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Armies: The Army of Northeastern Virginia (USA)

Image of Irvin McDowell and George McClellan via Wikipedia

The Department of Northeastern Virginia was created on May 27, 1861, and Brigadier General Irvin McDowell was placed in command of its army.

McDowell was responsible for the area of Virginia in front of Washington.  He was expected to take the raw volunteers that were streaming in, the first units to respond to Lincoln's call for militia after Fort Sumter, and somehow organize them into an army.  Before he could do this, the government and popular opinion prodded him into an advance on General P. G. T. Beauregard's Confederate Army of the Potomac.

The Army of Northeastern Virginia was routed at the First Battle of Bull Run on July 21, 1861.  After the defeat, on July 25, the Department of Northeastern Virginia was abolished and merged into the Military Department of the Potomac, then formed the nucleus of Major General George McClellan's Army of the Potomac.

Prior to the First Battle of Bull Run, the Army of Northeastern Virginia was the largest ever assembled in American history, some 30,000-35,000 men.  Many of these early recruits were signed to three-month enlistments, limiting McDowell's options.  Some units' enlistments ran out on the eve of the battle, and they returned home to muster out rather than fight.

The Army of Northeastern Virginia consisted of five divisions led by Brigadier General Daniel Tyler, Colonel David Hunter, Colonel Samuel Heintzelman, Brigadier General Theodore Runyon, and Colonel D. S. Miles.  Runyon's Fourth Division was held in reserve.

There was also a unit from the United States Army Corps of Engineers and another from the United States Topographical Engineers, a balloon detachment.

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150 Years Ago: The Bull Run Campaign

Image of Irvin McDowell via Wikipedia

On July 16, 1861, the Bull Run campaign began when Union General Irvin McDowell moved his Army of Northeastern Virginia out of Washington area, southeast into Virginia toward General P. G. T. Beauregard's Confederate Army of the Potomac.  The advance would lead to the first major battle of the Civil War, the First Battle of Bull Run, on July 21.

McDowell's army was the largest ever assembled in American history to that point, some 35,000 men.  Facing him, Beauregard had 20,000 encamped at Manassas Junction behind a small stream called Bull Run.

Two other armies complicated the campaign.  Union General Robert Patterson's Army of the Shenandoah had crossed the Potomac and moved south to confront General Joseph E. Johnston's army, also known as the Army of the Shenandoah.  Patterson's vague orders called for him to keep Johnston busy in the Shenandoah Valley and prevent him from moving east and reinforcing Beauregard.  If Joe Johnston could reach Beauregard with his 12,000 men, the odds would be a lot more even.

McDowell was being pushed into a battle that he didn't think his army was ready for.  He wanted more time to organize and train them, but he was under intense time constraints.  Almost everyone, North and South, thought this would be a short war.  The Northern public especially was clamoring for an advance on Richmond and a decisive battle that would win the war.

Another time constraint:  McDowell's army (and Patterson's too) would soon be unraveling.  A product of the belief in a short war, the first wave of Union volunteers after the firing on Fort Sumter were signed to three-month enlistments.  Now the three months was almost up.  If McDowell was going to use this army, he would have to do it soon.

McDowell wanted more time, expressing the need for more training for this still green army.  Lincoln had tried to reassure him, saying, "You are green, it is true, but they are green also; you are all green alike."  This was true enough, but the Confederates weren't having to make a grueling march to get to the battle.  Lincoln had directed McDowell to move out by July 9.  Arrangements had taken longer than expected, but McDowell was finally on the road a week late.

And as McDowell was beginning to move, Johnston was parrying with Patterson in the valley, sending J. E. B. Stuart's cavalry against Patterson's advance units and forcing the old general to sit this one out.  Johnson would soon slip away, but would not reach Beauregard until July 20-21.

McDowell should have had enough time to reach Beauregard and give battle before Johnston showed up, but his misgivings about his army would be realized as soon as they were on the move.

The advance was a mess.  The men had never marched in formation for hours in July heat with full gear, and officers had never led men in a long march.  It was a vastly different experience than marching for an hour or so around a parade ground.  Bottlenecks and long halts quickly developed.  By the evening of the 16th, McDowell's advance was in Fairfax Court House, where they drove off enemy skirmishers and made camp.  The next day, the troops were exhausted and could only cover six miles.  It took until July 18 for the advance to reach Centreville, close to the Confederate position, and would take another two days for McDowell to get the rest of his army up.  He would finally be ready for an attack on July 21.

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150 Years Ago: Sullivan Ballou's Letter

On July 14, 1861, one week before the Battle of Bull Run, Major Sullivan Ballou of the 2nd Rhode Island Regiment penned a letter to his wife Sarah.  An edited version was featured in the Ken Burns documentary The Civil War.  There are several versions with minor differences, but the original letter is gone, perhaps buried with Sarah.

July the 14th, 1861

Washington DC

My very dear Sarah:

The indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days - perhaps tomorrow. Lest I should not be able to write you again, I feel impelled to write lines that may fall under your eye when I shall be no more.

Our movement may be one of a few days duration and full of pleasure - and it may be one of severe conflict and death to me. Not my will, but thine 0 God, be done. If it is necessary that I should fall on the battlefield for my country, I am ready. I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in, the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how strongly American Civilization now leans upon the triumph of the Government, and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and suffering of the Revolution. And I am willing - perfectly willing - to lay down all my joys in this life, to help maintain this Government, and to pay that debt.

But, my dear wife, when I know that with my own joys I lay down nearly all of yours, and replace them in this life with cares and sorrows - when, after having eaten for long years the bitter fruit of orphanage myself, I must offer it as their only sustenance to my dear little children - is it weak or dishonorable, while the banner of my purpose floats calmly and proudly in the breeze, that my unbounded love for you, my darling wife and children, should struggle in fierce, though useless, contest with my love of country?

I cannot describe to you my feelings on this calm summer night, when two thousand men are sleeping around me, many of them enjoying the last, perhaps, before that of death -- and I, suspicious that Death is creeping behind me with his fatal dart, am communing with God, my country, and thee.

I have sought most closely and diligently, and often in my breast, for a wrong motive in thus hazarding the happiness of those I loved and I could not find one. A pure love of my country and of the principles have often advocated before the people and "the name of honor that I love more than I fear death" have called upon me, and I have obeyed.

Sarah, my love for you is deathless, it seems to bind me to you with mighty cables that nothing but Omnipotence could break; and yet my love of Country comes over me like a strong wind and bears me irresistibly on with all these chains to the battlefield.

The memories of the blissful moments I have spent with you come creeping over me, and I feel most gratified to God and to you that I have enjoyed them so long. And hard it is for me to give them up and burn to ashes the hopes of future years, when God willing, we might still have lived and loved together and seen our sons grow up to honorable manhood around us. I have, I know, but few and small claims upon Divine Providence, but something whispers to me - perhaps it is the wafted prayer of my little Edgar -- that I shall return to my loved ones unharmed. If I do not, my dear Sarah, never forget how much I love you, and when my last breath escapes me on the battlefield, it will whisper your name.

Forgive my many faults, and the many pains I have caused you. How thoughtless and foolish I have oftentimes been! How gladly would I wash out with my tears every little spot upon your happiness, and struggle with all the misfortune of this world, to shield you and my children from harm. But I cannot. I must watch you from the spirit land and hover near you, while you buffet the storms with your precious little freight, and wait with sad patience till we meet to part no more.

But, O Sarah! If the dead can come back to this earth and flit unseen around those they loved, I shall always be near you; in the garish day and in the darkest night -- amidst your happiest scenes and gloomiest hours - always, always; and if there be a soft breeze upon your cheek, it shall be my breath; or the cool air fans your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by.

Sarah, do not mourn me dead; think I am gone and wait for thee, for we shall meet again.

As for my little boys, they will grow as I have done, and never know a father's love and care. Little Willie is too young to remember me long, and my blue eyed Edgar will keep my frolics with him among the dimmest memories of his childhood. Sarah, I have unlimited confidence in your maternal care and your development of their characters. Tell my two mothers his and hers I call God's blessing upon them. O Sarah, I wait for you there! Come to me, and lead thither my children.

Sullivan

Ballou and 93 men of his regiment were killed or mortally wounded at the Battle of Bull Run.  Ballou was on a horse in front of the regiment when a six-pounder solid shot struck him in the leg and killed the horse.  He was carried off the field and the shattered leg was amputated.  He died a week later and was buried at Sudley Church.

In March 1862, Rhode Island Governor William Sprague, a personal friend of Ballou's, traveled to the battlefield to retrieve the bodies of several Rhode Island officers.  The body of Sullivan Ballou was missing.  Witnesses claimed that the body had been exhumed, decapitated and desecrated by soldiers of the 21st Georgia Regiment the previous winter.  Sprague found ashes, bones, a blanket with tufts of hair, and two shirts that he claimed belonged to Ballou.  The remains were transported back to Rhode Island and reburied in Providence at Swan Point Cemetery.

The letter was never mailed.  It was found in Ballou's trunk after the battle.  Sprague later reclaimed it and delivered it to Sarah.  She never remarried.  She died in 1917 and is buried next to her husband.

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