Bowery and Rafuse: Guide to the Richmond-Petersburg Campaign

This week I purchased the Guide to the Richmond-Petersburg Campaign, the most recent entry in the U.S. Army War College Guides to Civil War Battles, published by University Press of Kansas and edited by Charles R. Bowery, Jr. and Ethan S. Rafuse.  Based on my initial glance, there is much to like in this mammoth (500 page) title.  Similar to other works in the series, the Guide furnishes a useful companion to those touring the battlefields of the 1864-65 campaign.  The book is not intended, however, to provide a detailed campaign narrative or a lengthy discussion of the whys and hows.    

The military actions at Richmond and Petersburg pose a stiff challenge to the editors of such a work.  Stretching over many months and scattered over dozens of locations, the campaign involved a dizzying series of complicated operations and hard-fought battles.  Any effort to catalog these events and organize them in a fashion useful to the visitor is a difficult one. However, in this case, it seems that Bowery and Rafuse have succeeded. 

The book features two parts. The first includes three segments covering events that took place within the Petersburg National Battlefield:  1) the initial Petersburg attacks in June 1864, 2) the Battle of Fort Stedman in 1865, and 3) the Battle of the Crater in July 1864.  The second part contains six separate excursions (i.e., driving tours) in and around Richmond and Petersburg, which lead visitors to the sites of various engagements - including several covered in Richmond Must Fall, such as the fighting at the Darbytown Road and Burgess Mill.

Each of these sections features a short introduction, a list of the key events, driving or walking directions, and lengthy excerpts from important official reports and other primary sources.  The excerpts from these first-hand accounts comprise the bulk of the book's text and provide colorful background that will enhance the experience for those visiting these battlefields.   

The numerous maps are terrific.  Prepared by Steven Stanley, they display modern and period road networks, topographical details including elevations and tree cover, fortifications, and the movements of the units involved in each engagement.  Though the small details sent me reaching for my reading glasses, these maps are handsome and, in some cases, provide tactical details not necessarily discussed in the text. 

Given the nature of the book, I would have liked to have seen a critical, descriptive bibliography (rather than a bare list of titles) to point readers to other sources on this sprawling campaign.  But that's a feeble quibble and I look forward to digging into the volume further. 

150 Years Ago: Stuart at Yellow Tavern (May 11, 1864)

Stuart Monument, Richmond, Va.
(Library of Congress)

"I looked to my left, in which direction Gen. Stuart was, and saw him wheeling his horse around and start towards the rear.  He sat so straight and so firmly on his horse that I doubted whether he had been shot, though I saw him only a moment . . . I asked [Norvell] Harris what made him think Gen. Stuart had been shot.  He replied that he 'saw the dust or lint fly from his coat where the bullet struck him.'  This made an impression on me, because I was not then familiar with the fact (not having been long in the army) that such an appearance of dust, or lint, often accompanied a bullet wound, though afterwards I noticed it frequently."

- Hill Carter, 1st Va. Cavalry, from Vaughan, B.B., "A Trooper's Reminiscences:  Wilderness to Yellow Tavern," in  Civil War Talks: Further Reminiscences of George S. Bernard and His Fellow Veterans.

Richmond Must Fall - Finalist for Harwell Book Award

I learned recently that Richmond Must Fall was a finalist for the 2014 Richard B. Harwell Book Award from the Atlanta Civil War Round Table. The two other finalists were Earl Hess's book on Kennesaw Mountain and Allen Guelzo's Gettysburg title. Guelzo's excellent work earned the prize. I'm honored my book was included in such company.

Browning: The North Atlantic Blockading Squadron

I recently picked up From Cape Charles to Cape Fear, an excellent study by Robert M. Browning, Jr. about the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron.  Browning is a historian with the U.S. Coast Guard and has several other titles under his belt.   In From Cape Charles to Cape Fear, he provides a comprehensive treatment of naval activities in Virginia and North Carolina during the war, including offshore blockade operations and coastal gunboat activities.  Browning writes with a direct, clean style and delivers a well-organized narrative.

Among other things, the study furnishes a revealing analysis of the Confederate counteroffensive at New Bern and Plymouth in 1864.  In discussing these events, Browning notes the lack of cooperation between the Federal navy and army in North Carolina, particularly compared to efforts in the western theater.  He highlights the failure of Union forces, both on water and land, to destroy the rebel ironclads in N.C. before those vessels could float down the rivers and threaten federal coastal strongholds.  Browning also touches on the questionable decision to spread Union forces at multiple coastal enclaves, including Plymouth, Washington (N.C), and New Bern.  I'm happy to have added this title to my collection.

Waud's Combat Sketch at the Darbytown Road, October 27, 1864

Waud, "Battle of Darby Town Rd. Gen'l Butler & his staff," Library of Congress

Here's a look at an eyewitness sketch of the fighting outside Richmond on October 27, 1864.
On that day, Grant launched his sixth offensive of the Richmond-Petersburg Campaign. During this operation, General Benjamin Butler's Army of the James tested Richmond's defenses east of the city, while George Meade's Army of the Potomac attacked the Confederate lines at Petersburg in an effort to seize the vital South Side Railroad.

Early in the morning on the 27th, Butler and his staff rode west along the Darbytown Road and set up headquarters at Dr. Johnson's house, which stood on what is now Dorey Park.  Just to the north and west of the house, Alfred Terry's Tenth Corps troops, more specifically the men of Adelbert Ames's division, deployed to push against Richmond's defenders to the west. 

Looking north from Dr. Johnson's house, English-born artist William Waud captured the scene:
 
Waud, along with other artists during the war, created hundreds of sketches, which, in the absence of combat photography, provided first-hand impressions of the battlefield. William's older brother, Alfred, also created many well-known drawings during the conflict.  In 1864, both brothers worked for Harper's Weekly, published in New York.  In fact, the Library of Congress catalog identifies Alfred, incorrectly in my opinion, as the artist of the piece displayed here.  In my view, William is likely the artist because: 1) he prepared other sketches outside Richmond and Petersburg that day, including one at Dr. Johnson's house;  2) his brother Alfred had been in Washington, D.C. as recently as October 23rd after several weeks in the Shenandoah Valley; and 3) Alfred frequently wrote his initials on the bottom right hand corner of his work - initials missing from this drawing.

Left (West) Half of Sketch

Right (East) Half of Sketch

Waud appears to have prepared his sketch from the second floor window of Dr. Johnson's house, looking north toward the Darbytown Road, which runs through the middle of the drawing immediately in front of the stand of trees on the right.

LC Civil War Maps (2nd ed.), 632.7

This particular drawing reveals a trove of information about the October 1864 battles in this area.  It displays the location of the Union skirmish line on the 27th, supporting artillery that morning, key landmarks north of Darbytown Road (most notably the "Gerhardt" house), and the landscape surrounding Dr. Johnson's Farm (or "Plainfield").  The sketch not only uncovers valuable details about the October 27, 1864 operation, but also shows the ground over which other battles occurred earlier that month.  In an October 7 engagement at the Darbytown Road, Robert E. Lee's infantry swept over August Kautz's cavalry division, pushing the Union troopers toward the viewer in Waud's sketch and south to the safety of the Union lines on the New Market Road.  In addition, on October 13, the Union Tenth Corps conducted a costly reconnaissance advancing right to left across this scene in an effort to locate new Confederate trenches to the east.

Is this sketch entirely accurate?  Probably not.  It was not uncommon for the battlefield artists to take liberties with the scenes they rendered due perhaps to time constraints or the desire to create drawings that their editors would want to print.  In fact, the scene here probably depicts a composite of events that occurred over the course of the morning.  For example, it is unlikely that Butler, not one to rush forward, rode out with this staff so near the heat of the skirmish line, as suggested in the sketch (see #1 below).  Any excursion conducted by Butler probably occurred later in the day, after the Union troops had pushed further west (i.e., to the left of the sketch). 

Waud often scribbled copious notes on his drawings to help the engravers and editors back north.  Here are four of the more notable messages from the sketch:

#1 "Butler's Staff & Body Guard"

#2  "1st Connecticut Battery - Capt. Clinton"

#3  "Our skirmish firing at the rebels in the woods; the Gerhardt-House"

#4  "Cavalry going out to support the Battery (over coats - on)"

A correspondent from the New York Times also witnessed the day's events from Dr. Johnson's house and provided the following description, which augments Waud's sketch:

"From the upper windows of Dr. Johnson’s house, a very fair view of the skirmish line could be had. Our pickets were lying behind a small breastwork, about one hundred yards from the edge of trees, and all day long a desultory firing was kept up. There was nothing very exciting in all this. One becomes even tired of watching the little puffs of blue smoke that invariably follows the sudden rising of one of the crouching black specks whom we know to be men lying down along the distant parapet, as well as of noting the little clouds of gray dust that are thrown up by the rebel bullets which strike the ground in front of our boys, who are snug under shelter of the ridge of earth."  - New York Times, October 31, 1864.