A.P. Hill and his Staff at Chancellorsville

   “You have shot my friends! You have destroyed my staff!” In the confusion of the night of May 2, 1863, Maj. Gen. A.P. Hill and members of his staff had followed Stonewall Jackson out in front of Confederate lines just west of the Chancellor House. Jackson was scouting the Federal lines in the darkness. Hill had followed him at a distance and was much closer to the main Confederate lines. It was not a position for either a corps or a division commander. Shots between the main Confederate line, main Federal line, and their respective skirmishers rolled from one side to another. As Jackon and his staff returned to the Confederate lines, someone thought they were being attacked by Federal cavalry – there were remnants of just such a charge earlier in the day scattered about. One officer in the 18^th North Carolina wrote that “the tramp of thirty horsemen advancing through a heavy forest at a rapid gait seemed to the average infantryman like a brigade of cavalry.”[1]

   “Cavalry!” someone cried out. With the intense small arms fire just across the Orange Plank Road to their right, the 18^th North Carolina sent a strong volley into the darkness. Jackson and several members of his staff were stuck. Hill jumped from his horse, prostrating himself on the ground, and escaped unharmed. The staff that rode with a general were paramount to operations. There were medical officers, commissary officers, quartermasters, inspectors, ordinance officers, and volunteer aides, all essential to operations, whether in camp or on campaign. During battle, these were typically the men who relayed orders to those commanders under the general.

   Captain Murray F. Taylor was one of those aides on Hill’s staff that evening. In 1904, his recollections of the events were published. Taylor writes that “eleven of our staff, including Capt. [James K.] Boswell, who were in front of this regiment, were either killed or wounded.” Boswell was a member of Jackson’s staff. Because of his familiarity with the area, he had been temporarily assigned to Hill to serve as a guide. According to Taylor, the only two not wounded among the staff were Taylor and Capt. Watkins Leigh. Taylor was pinned under his horse. He recalled hearing Hill’s voice in the darkness, wanting “to know if any of his staff were alive.” Hill was trying to help extricate Taylor when a courier arrived bearing news that Jackson was wounded. With that information, Hill left Taylor to manage the best that he could and went in search of Jackson.[2]

   Boswell was killed, and his death much lamented. Another of the killed was Capt. James F. Forbes, serving as a volunteer aide-de-camp. The horses of Major Howard and Sergeant Tucker were so unnerved that they carried their riders into Federal lines. Private Richard J. Muse, courier, was killed, and another courier, Eugune Saunders, was struck twice in the face. Possibly another courier, Kilpatrick, might have also been killed. There might have been others wounded. Compiled service records on each of the men who served on Hill’s staff are somewhat thin. Many times, those who were only slightly wounded were not reported as such.[3]

   Replacing Palmer as assistant adjutant general was William N. Starke. Prior to his assignment, Starke had served as Acting Assistant Adjutant General in his father’s brigade. Starke served in this role for the rest of the war. Palmer would return to Hill’s staff and follow Hill when the latter was promoted to command of the Third Corps. It does not appear that another volunteer aide-de-camp was assigned to Hill’s command after the death of Forbes.

   Not long after the volley that killed Boswell and Forbes and wounded Palmer, and after Hill oversaw the evacuation of Jackson from such an exposed position between the lines, Hill himself was wounded by an artillery fragment. While it was not a dangerous wound, Hill was unable to walk or ride and passed command over to JEB Stuart.

   Hill’s statement “You have shot my friends! You have destroyed my staff!” was remembered by Taylor long after the war. As Hill took a roll call of his staff in the darkness and confusion, he could have believed that the volley had been worse than it was. Maybe some of the wounded were members of the 39^th Battalion Virginia Cavalry, an organization that supplied couriers to division, corps, and general staff. Several members of the 39^th Battalion were reported wounded or killed at Chancellorsville, including John Hall, George Smith, and Thomas Williamson (he was wounded and captured). While these soldiers were not considered as belonging to the staff of a particular general, it is possible that Hill might have considered some of them friends or staff.[4]

   When historians write on the battle of Chancellorsville or the life of A.P. Hill, the volley that wounded Jackson and took out several of Hill staff is always mentioned. However, the focus is usually on Jackson. Sears, in his standard work on the battle, neglects details about the volley in relationship to Hill.  Likewise, Schenck neglects this part of the story. In his biography of Hill, Robertson only includes Taylor’s account. Only Lively, in Calamity at Chancellorsville, dives into who was with Hill as the volley wreaked havoc on Hill’s staff in the woods that fateful, dark night at Chancellorsville.[5]                                                                                                                                                                                       

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[1] Robertson, General A.P Hill, 187.

[2] Taylor, “Stonewall Jackson’s Death,” Confederate Veteran, 12:493.

[3] Krick, Staff Officers in Gray, 130; 236; Palmer, “Another Account of It,” Confederate Veteran, 13:233; Lively, Calamity at Chancellorsville, 52, 57. 
                          

[4] Hardy, General Lee’s Bodyguard, 49.

[5] Sears, Chancellorsville, 295; Schrenck, Up Came Hill, 250; Robertson, General A.P. Hill, 187; Lively, Calamity at Chancellorsville, 52, 57.

 

The Jackson-Pender meeting at Chancellorsville

   The story of Stonewall Jackson’s wounding on the night of May 2, 1863, is well known. During a lull in the fighting after Jackson had rolled up the flank of the Army of the Potomac, Jackson and his staff rode forward into the darkness to scout the Federal lines. How far he rode is not certain. The front Confederate line was held by the 33^rd North Carolina Troops, deployed as skirmishers. To their rear were the other four regiments of Lane’s brigade. It was dark and there was a lot of confusion. There was also a lot of skirmishing as the Federals constructed works. Things were so jumbled up that four or five members of the 7^th North Carolina State Troops were able to capture almost 200 members of the 128^th Pennsylvania Infantry. In the ensuing confusion, Jackson was wounded by his own troops and taken to the rear.

   Capt. James P. Smith wrote an account of the night of May 2 for Century Magazine entitled “Stonewall Jackson’s Last Battle.” Picking up Smith’s account, Jackson, after his wounding was taken behind the lines. The “litter was soon brought, and again rallying a few men, we essayed to carry him farther, when a second bearer fell at my side. This time, with none to assist, the litter careened, and the general fell to the ground, with a groan of deep pain. Greatly alarmed, I sprang to his head, and, lifting his head as a stray beam of moonlight came through clouds and leaves, he opened his eyes and wearily said: "Never mind me, Captain, never mind me." Raising him again to his feet, he was accosted by Brigadier-General Pender: "Oh, General, I hope you are not seriously wounded. I will have to retire my troops to re-form them, they are so much broken by this fire."[1]

   The difficulty with this story is that Pender’s brigade had yet to deploy when Jackson was wounded. Why would they need to retire and re-form if they were only harassed by a little stray artillery fire?

   Who was James P. Smith? Born in Ohio, Smith attended both Jefferson College and Hampton Sidney. When the war came along, he enlisted in the Rockbridge Artillery. On October 8, 1862, he was promoted to lieutenant and transferred to the staff of Jackson as an aide de camp. There is nothing in his record to indicate that he was not with Jackson that night.[2]

   Brig. Gen. William Dorsey Pender was commanding a brigade in A.P. Hill’s Light Division on May 2, 1863. The Light Division was the last of three divisions that accompanied Jackson on his celebrated flank march on May 2. Most historians do not discuss the order of march for the Light Division, save that two brigades, under Archer and Thomas, were left behind to deal with the threat at Catharine’s Furnace. That left Hill with four brigades: those of Lane, Pender, Heth, and McGowan.[3]

   Jackson commenced his attack at 5:30 that afternoon. In his deployment of brigades for the attack, Sears lost Pender’s brigade. In the most popular book on the battle, Sears writes that Jackson’s front line consisted of troops from Rodes’s division: brigades belonging to Iverson, O’Neal, Doles, and Colquitt. In the second line were Ramseur’s brigade from Rodes’s Division, and Warren’s and Jones’s brigades from Colston’s division. A third line, north of the Orange Plank Road, was composed of Nicholls’s brigade of Colston’s Division, and Heth’s brigade of Hill’s Division. “[A]nother of Hill’s brigades, James Lane’s was deployed in column on the Turnpike.” What happened to Pender? And McGowan? Schenck likewise is no help, only adding that as Jackson was deploying, “Hill’s Division was partly deployed and partly in column on the road. The two rear most brigades were still coming up.” Furgurson goes a little further, writing that Heth’s and Pender’s brigades were forming north of the Orange Plank Road, while Lane and McGowan’s brigades (in that order) were still on the road when the attack commenced. However, Furguson provides no source for the disposition of the Light Division.[4]

   What of the reports in the Official Records? A. P. Hill gives the slimmest of details, and nothing about the disposition of his division on the march or the battle on May 2. Heth, after his skirmish on the morning of May 2, writes that he was ordered to disengage, “crossing the plank road and [follow] the rest of division.” On reaching the stepping-off place for the late afternoon attack, Heth was ordered to “form line of battle on General Colston’s left.” However, Colston “advanced his line before” Heth could deploy. Heth then was ordered to deploy off Pender’s left. “This was done.” At some point, Heth and Pender advanced “1 ½ miles on the left of and parallel to the Plank road.” Heth makes no more mention of Pender’s brigade until after Jackson is wounded. Lane, in his official report, makes no mention of the order of march. Pender, in his report, does not write about the order of march, but does write that they were formed in support of Colston’s division on the left of the road. “In this order we advanced some distance, when orders were received to enter the road again and push on by the flank, in which order I moved until reaching the advanced position of our troops.” Since Lane’s brigade was in the lead at this point, Pender’s brigade must have been somewhere behind Lane’s men.[5]

   Both Lane and Pender write about the artillery bombardment. After Lane had been ordered to deploy, but before he could execute his orders, the Federals “opened a terrific artillery fire, which was responded to by our batteries.” It was Lane who suggested that Hill order his batteries to stop fire, and when they did, the Federals also stopped their fire. "All old soldiers know how difficult it is to maneuver the bravest troops in the dark under a murderous fire, through scrubby oaks & pine thickets, & over the abatis of the enemy's abandoned works," Lane wrote after the war. Pender, someplace further down the road behind Lane, writes that he was ordered to move to the left and deploy his troops. “Here, after my men were subjected to a most galling and destructive shelling from the batteries near Chancellorsville, I moved my regiments in to the left and formed line of battle…” Lane writes that the artillery duel lasted fifteen minutes. Once it ended, Lane deployed his troops, looked for Hill for further orders, found Jackson instead and received orders from him. Then Jackson and his staff rode maybe half a mile forward and partway back before being wounded by Lane’s men, who were still in front of Pender.[6]

   There was some Federal artillery fire later. Shrapnel hit Jackson’s litter bears at least once, forcing them to stop another time. Is this the “galling and destructive shelling” that Pender mentions?  Furthermore, most accounts have Capt. Benjamin Leigh being sent to the rear to find a surgeon and ambulance for Jackson. Leigh rode back 100 yards (through Lane’s brigade) where he found “Pender marching up the road with his brigade.” It is important to note that Leigh is writing on May 12, 1863. The events are still fresh in his mind. Pender, in both his official report, and in his letters home, made no mention of Leigh.[7]

   Back to Smith--He recalled Pender telling Jackson: “I will have to retire my troops to re-form them, they are so much broken by this fire." Much of this boils down to timing. How much time passed between the severe artillery fire that both Lane and Pender made mention of, and Pender encountering Jackson on the stretcher being carried to the rear in the darkness? Fifteen minutes? Half an hour? How far back was Pender’s brigade? If Leigh is correct in finding Pender still stacked in the road, then why the need to fall back and reform? Lane’s brigade survived the artillery bombardment and was successfully deployed. Pender was someplace behind him, and had Lane’s brigade to provide cover while they reformed from an artillery barrage fifteen or thirty minutes before. Of course, we know that Pender did not retire. He went in on Lane’s left just a short time later. Smith’s account is often repeated or alluded to. Stephen Sears, Mathew Lively, and Ernest Furgurson all mention this account. The timing just seems odd. Maybe Pender compressed the timing and the artillery barrage into one event, without all of the gaps.

   Pender seems more interested in writing to wife about his prospects for promotion than about the battle. I understand wanting to protect his loved one from the atrocities of war, but history could have used a little more detail, detail we could use, nearly a hundred and sixty years later, to help us understand the movements of long-dead men on a dark, confusing battlefield.

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[1] Johnson and Buel, Battles and Leaders, 3:212.

[2] Krick, Staff Officers in Gray, 269.

[3] Sears, Chancellorsville, 256; Schenck, Up Came Hill, 248.

[4] Sears, Chancellorsville, 260-61; Schenck, Up Came Hill, 248; Furgurson, Chancellorsville, 1863, 167, 168.

[5] Official Records, Vol. 25, 1:885, 890, 915-16, 935.

[6] Official Records, Vol. 25, 1:916, 935; James Lane to Marcellus Moorman, "Narrative of Events and Observations Connected with the Wounding of General T. J. (Stonewall) Jackson," SHSP, 30:111-13.

[7] Leigh, “Wounding of Stonewall Jackson,” SHSP, 6:233; Lively, Calamity at Chancellorsville, 72.

Reburying Confederates

    This past weekend, the decade-long task of disinterring Nathan Bedford Forrest from a park in Memphis and reburying him in Columbia, Tennessee, came to a close. Some people view this as a good thing: placing the famed Confederate cavalry general in a spot where people actually care. Others view this as a dangerous precedent. If one Confederate can be disinterred and moved, then how about the others? While this post does not usually support the idea of moving the remains of old soldiers from their resting spots, it has actually happened several times before.

   Forrest, following the war, returned to Tennessee, became president of a railroad, and then died in October 1877. He was originally buried at Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis. Later, the remains of both he and his wife were interred under an equestrian statue in Forrest Park. In September 2021, their remains were reinterred at Elm Springs in Columbia, Tennessee.

   Stonewall Jackson was mortally wounded by his own soldiers on the night of May 2, 1863, during the fighting near Chancellorsville, Virginia. He lingered for several days before dying at Guinea Station on May 10. His body was transported to Lexington, Virginia, where he was interred in a family plot in the Presbyterian Cemetery. Later, his remains and those of his wife were removed to a different plot in the cemetery and reinterred under a monument bearing his likeness. The Presbyterian Cemetery was renamed the Stonewall Jackson Cemetery in 1949, and then the Oak Grove Cemetery in 2020.

   Ambrose Powell Hill must be one of the most well- traveled post-mortem generals. Following his death near Petersburg, Virginia, on April 2, 1865, Hill was originally interred in the old Winston Family Cemetery near Coalfield, Chesterfield County. In 1867, Hill’s remains were moved to Hollywood Cemetery. In June 1891, the remains were again moved, this time to the intersection of Laburnum Avenue and Hermitage Road. Thanks to a recent ruling by the Richmond City Council, it appears that Hill is going to be moved once again, possibly to Culpeper, Virginia.

   Patrick Cleburne, Hiram Granbury, and Otho Strahl were all Confederate generals killed at the battle of Franklin. All three were originally interred in the potter’s field at Rose Hill in Columbia, Tennessee. Shortly thereafter,  they were removed to St. John’s Episcopal Church in Ashwood, Tennessee. Many years later, all three were exhumed and reburied in different cemeteries. Patrick Cleburne was reburied in Helena, Arkansas. Otho Strahl was reburied in Dyersburg, Tennessee. Hiram Granbury was reburied in Granbury, Texas.

   Albert Sidney Johnston, killed in April 1862 at the battle of Shiloh, was originally interred in New Orleans. In January 1867, he was buried in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin, Texas.

   William Barksdale was mortally wounded in the fighting on July 2, 1863, at Gettysburg. He died the following day and was buried in the yard of the Hummelbaugh House. In January 1867, Barksdale was reburied in the Greenwood Cemetery, Jackson, Mississippi.

   Richard Garnett was killed during killed in a skirmish at Corrick’s Ford, Virginia (now West Virginia) on July 13, 1861. He was originally interred in Baltimore, Maryland. He was later reinterred next to his wife and a child in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York.

Jefferson Davis reburial in Richmond, 1893. (The Valentine)

   It is not only some generals who have been reburied. Confederate president Jefferson Davis died in New Orleans on December 6, 1889. His body was laid to rest in a vault in Metairie Cemetery. After many requests, his widow agreed to allow his remains to be reinterred in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia. He was reburied there in 1893.

   Confederate Senator Landon Carter Haynes passed away in Memphis on February 17, 1875. He was originally buried in Elmwood Cemetery, but later (1902) his son had those remains removed to Jackson Cemetery, Jackson, Tennessee, where he lies in an unmarked grave.

   There are doubtless many others whose remains have been moved over the years, such as the eight members of the crew of the C.S.S. Hunley who were reburied in the Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2004. It would be nice to know how many of the 425 Confederate generals have been moved at least once. Of course, there are a handful whose current resting places are still a mystery anyway. We’ll save that for another post.

How tall were Confederate generals?

 

 Have you ever noticed the W.B. Matthews lithograph of Confederate generals published in 1907? There stands Lee surrounded by some of the Confederacy’s best generals: Ewell, Bragg, Hampton, A.P. Hill, Joe Johnston, and many others. All the generals are about the same height, except Lee, who is a couple of inches taller than the others.  But how tall were they really? Was Lee really taller than all the others?  Here is a brief look. For some generals, they are simply described as being of medium height in their biographies, probably around five feet eight inches. Those who did not have an exact height listed are not included in this list. (For example, Earl Van Dorn is described as “About medium height,” and he is not included.)[1]

 

Who was over six feet tall?

James Longstreet, Lee’s Old War House, was an astounding six feet, two inches.[2]

Nathan Bedford Forrest was described as around six feet or six feet two inches tall.[3]

Wade Hampton, considered a “giant,” also came in at six feet.[4]

John C. Breckinridge, both general and cabinet member, stood six feet, two inches.[5]

James B. Gordon was thought to be between six feet three or four inches.[6]

Micah Jenkins was six feet two inches.[7]

Stephen D. Lee stood six feet tall.[8]

Collett Leventhopre, British born, “stood nearly six and one-half feet in height.”[9]

John H. Morgan “nearly six feet in height.”[10]

William N. Pendleton “was fully six feet in height.”[11]

Matt Ransom “stood a little over six feet in height.”[12]

Henry Sibley “Lean six feet.”[13]

Albert Sidney Johnson “was six feet and an inch in height”.[14]

John B. Magruder came in at six foot four inches.[15]

Robert F. Hoke – “Nearly six feet.”[16]

 

Who was a little taller than average, say between five feet ten and eleven inches?

Robert E. Lee was considered quite tall for the time, coming in at five feet ten and a half or five foot eleven inches tall.[17]

Stonewall Jackson was taller than Lee, “a little over five feet eleven inches.”[18]

Braxton Bragg, considered the most-hated man in the Confederacy, was five feet, ten inches in height.[19]

E. Kirby Smith was five feet, ten inches in height.[20]

Ambrose Powell Hill came in at five feet ten inches.[21]

J.E.B. Stuart was reported as five feet, ten inches tall.[22]

Patrick Cleburne stood about five foot, ten inches.[23]

Basil Duke was described as being five feet ten inches.[24]

Henry A. Wise was recorded as “five feet eleven inches.”[25]

 

Who was average?

Joseph E. Johnston was considered “of medium height: about five foot seven.”[26]

P.G.T. Beauregard “was five feet seven inches in height.”[27]

Richard Ewell was either five feet eight inches or five feet ten and one-half inches tall.[28]

Rowell Ripley “was five feet eight inches tall.”[29]

 

 

Who was below average?

Joseph Wheeler was considered “Small, only five feet, five inches tall…”[30]

Daniel Harvey Hill “was small in stature, barely five feet tall…”[31]

John B. Gordon was but five feet two inches. [32]

Thomas C. Hindman was “just barely five feet tall.”[33]

William Mahone was five feet five inches.[34]

Dabney Maury – five feet three inches.[35]

 

 

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[1] Hartje, Van Dorn, 60.

[2] Wert, General James Longstreet, 24.

[3] Hurst, Nathan Bedford Forrest, 261; Wyeth, Life of Nathan Bedford Forrest, 628.

[4] Andrew, Wade Hampton, 28.

[5] Davis, Breckinridge,

[6] Hartley,  Stuart’s Tarheels, 417n.3.

[7] Fox, General Micah Jenkins and the Palmetto Sharpshooter

[8] Hattaway, General Stephen D. Lee

[9] Cole, Collett Leventhorpe, 238.

[10] Ramage, Rebel Raider

[11] Lee, Memoirs of William Nelson Pendleton, 10.

[12] Marlow, Matt W. Ransom, 17.

[13] Gilman, Henry Hastings Sibley, 20.

[14] Johnson, The Life of Albert Sidney Johnson, 72.

[15] Casdorph, Prince John Magruder, 2.

[16] Barefoot, General Robert F. Hoke, 76.

[17] Blount, Robert E. Lee: A Life, 170.

[18] Smith, Stonewall Jackson’s Little Sorrel, 40.

[19] Martin, General Braxton Bragg, 9.

[20] Parks, General Edmund Kirby Smith, 93.

[21] Hassler, A.P. Hill, 3.

[22] Pavlovsky, Riding in Circles, 559.

[23] Nash, Biographical Sketches of Pat Cleburne, 142.

[24] Matthews, Basil Wilson Duke, CSA, 165.

[25] Wise, The Life of Henry A. Wise, 38.

[26] Symonds, Joseph E. Johnston, 10.

[27] Williams, P.G.T. Beauregard, 51.

[28] Pfanz, Richard S. Ewell, 552n.30.

[29] Bennett, Resolute Rebel.

[30] Martin, General Braxton Bragg, 104.

[31] Martin, General Braxton Bragg, 270.

[32] Tankersley, John B. Gordon, 212.

[33] Neal, The Lion of the South, 33.

[34] Blake, William Mahone of Virginia, 271.

[35] Waugh, The Class of 1846, 64.