For
the past two months, I've been writing about Lane's brigade and the battle of
Chancellorsville for two different destinations. The first treatment was the
chapter for the Branch-Lane book. The second was an article, possibly for
inclusion in a new issue of Civil War
Regiments, about how James H. Lane wrote about the battle.
The chapter in the Branch-Lane book is about
10,000 words. It is my belief that this will be the most widely read and
scrutinized chapter of the book. Why? Well, it was Lane's brigade that shot
Jackson. This episode of the war is one upon which a lot of ink has been spilt,
possibly only second to the battle of Gettysburg.
Even
after such an exhaustive study, I still have a few questions. Both the 7th and
37th Regiments voted to bestow upon a member of each company the "Badge of
Honor." Would it not be great to know why their comrades picked each of
these men? Just what did they do during the battle to earn this honor?
There
were a couple of men who were promoted to a high rank on the field, men such as
William Lee of the 7th NC. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel. Did this
really happen on the field, or, did his promotion date to May 3, 1863?
And
lastly, John Crayton , 28th NC, was killed in action. According to the Troops
book series, "a medal was presented to his friends for his bravery." I
wonder what it looked like, how many were struck, who were his friends?
The
article I sent to Civil War Regiment
takes a little different tack. Instead of looking at the role of Lane's brigade
at the battle, I examined the way Lane wrote about the battle, starting with
his official report, and then moving into the post-war years. He wrote a couple
of newspaper articles about the role of his brigade, and corresponded with
Henry B. McClellan, biographer of JEB Stuart, and with Augustus C. Hamlin, a
Federal veteran who wrote a history of the battle of Chancellorsville. Lane's
timeline of events never really strayed from his official report. He did,
though, as time went on, add little details, like his conversation with Jackson
on the Orange Plank Road, about the topography surrounding him, and about how
dark it was.
A
small example would be Lane to Hamlin about May 3, 1863. After being driven out
of the captured Union lines, Lane pulled his men back, resupplied them with
ammunition, and was then ordered to the far Confederate left. Lane wrote that:
" The woods were on fire, shells, dropped loaded muskets
& cartridges were exploding in every direction. The dead, Confederates as
well as Federals, were on fire, & helpless wounded Federals-officers &
men-begged to be removed from the approaching devouring flames but we could
render no assistance. On reaching Colquitt, we had to wait until the
woods on his left was burnt over, before we could prolong his line. There we
remained until the next day in the ashes & the charred scrubby oaks, &
it was hard to tell whether we white or black, Federal or Confederate so far as
the color of our clothes were concerned. When we were ordered back, the
troops in rear received us with boisterous laughter & cheer. My
brigade was in nearly every great battle fought by the Army of Northern
Virginia, but in none did I ever witness so many harrowing scenes as I did at
Chancellorsville."
No
matter how many times I get to explore some of these topics, there is always
some new angle to study, some new direction to consider, and big pile of
questions I would love to have answered.
