A couple of weeks ago, while filming a short interview with Chris Mackowski of Emerging Civil War (we were at the American Battlefield Trust's Teacher's Institute), I made a comment about the purging of officers from the Army of Northern Virginia after Robert E. Lee was assigned command in June 1862. I had never really counted until today, but fifteen men who were brigade or division commanders during the Seven Days battles were not with the Army of Northern Virginia when it surrendered at Appomattox Court House in April 1865 (this excludes those who died or were killed in action). Did Lee have these officers transferred on purpose? A good question.
Here are the fifteen and what became of them:
John B. Magruder - sent to Trans-Mississippi Department
after the Seven Days.
William H. C. Whiting - reassigned to the Military District
of Wilmington. Died as a prisoner of war in New York on March 10, 1865.
Richard Taylor - transferred to the Trans-Mississippi
Department July 1862.
Bradley Johnson - with the Army of Northern Virginia until
1864, when consolidation removed him from command. Finished the war as
commander at Salisbury Prison.
D. H. Hill - shuffled back to North Carolina in February
1863. Commanded a corps in the Army of Tennessee during the
Chickamauga-Chattanooga Campaign. Had further run-ins with high command, but
finished the war commanding a corps at Bentonville.
Boswell Ripley - bounced around between South Carolina and
the Army of Northern Virginia. Commanded a division in the Army of Tennessee
during the battle of Bentonville.
Robert Toombs - resigned March 4, 1863, after not getting
the promotion he thought he deserved. Later served in the Georgia militia.
Howell Cobb - in November 1862, transferred in November 1862
to the District of Middle Florida. Later in the Georgia Militia.
Stephen D. Lee - November-December of 1862 transferred to
Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana. In mid-1864 was a corps commander
in the Army of Tennessee.
Roger Pryor - brigade was broken apart in the spring of 1863
and Pryor resigned.
William S. Featherston - transferred to Vicksburg in early
1863, and later commanded a brigade in the Army of Tennessee
Ambrose R. Wright - wounded in 1864, and transferred to
Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.
John G. Walker - transferred to the Trans-Mississippi
department after the Maryland campaign.
Benjamin Hunger - relieved of field duty July 12, 1862, and
spent most of the war as an inspector of artillery in the Trans-Mississippi
department.
Theophilus Holmes - transferred to Trans-Mississippi
department July 30, 1862.
Did Lee have some of these men transferred to get them out
of his hair? All four most senior major generals in the army when Lee took
command were soon elsewhere. While Margruder did an outstanding job fooling
McClellan at Yorktown, there were numerous complaints leveled at him following
the Seven Days battles, mostly for being drunk. He was very quickly assigned to
the Trans-Mississippi Department, but on returning to Richmond to answer the
rumors against him, he leveled charges against Lt. Col. R.H. Chilton of Robert
E. Lee's staff. That surely did not help his cause.
William Whiting's feud was with Jefferson Davis They had
butted heads in late 1861, declining command of a Mississippi brigade. Whiting
was gone on sick leave, and when he returned, found his division under the
command of John B. Hood.
Benjamin Huger feuded with Joseph E. Johnston over the Seven
Pines battle. Johnston claimed that Huger was not ready to attack when ordered.
Huger wanted charges preferred. Richard Taylor wrote that "Magruder is
charged with incompetency and loss of head, and much blame attached to both his
and Huger's slowness." (Davis, The
Confederate General, vol. 3, 129)
Lee might have been trying to get rid of Theophilus Holmes prior
to the Seven Days battles. There is a letter from Lee to the Secretary of War,
dated June 19, 1862, stating that Lee "recommended General Huger's orders
to be issued from the Adjutant and Inspector General's Office." (OR 1, vol.
11, pt. 3, 609.)
Lee, of course, was remaking the Army of Northern Virginia.
He wanted younger, more aggressive
commanders to take charge of his divisions.
