Help Save the Wyse Fork Battlefield

 Why preserve battlefields? That’s a great question. If we were to present that question to the millions of men who fought during the 1860s, what would they say? Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain once said (at the dedication of the Maine Monument at Gettysburg in 1888) that “In great deeds, something abides. On great fields, something stays. Forms change and pass; bodies disappear; but spirits linger, to consecrate ground for the vision-place of souls… generations that know us not and that we know not of, heart-drawn to see where and by whom great things were suffered and done for them, shall come to this deathless field, to ponder and dream; and lo! the shadow of a mighty presence shall wrap them in its bosom, and the power of the vision pass into their souls.” There is a lot to unpack there: bodies are gone but spirits linger… future generations will come to these “deathless fields, to ponder and dream.” Some battlefields are meticulously preserved. Shiloh, Perryville, and Sharpsburg come to mind as places where a person can stand and see what happened. However, it takes a great deal of work and perseverance to preserve these spots of land for future generations who want to come “to see where and by whom great things were suffered and done for them.”

The battle of Wyse Fork in North Carolina does not carry the name recognition that Gettysburg or Chickamauga does. Yet for the 20,000 plus Confederate and Union soldiers involved, it was just as real as some of the larger campaigns the armies waged. For the 2,600 who were killed and wounded . . . And now, the state of North Carolina wants to build a new interchange with US 70 and Wyse Fork/Caswell Station Road. This new interchange would destroy large portions of the March 10, 1865, battlefield.

Following the capture of Wilmington, Federal General John Schofield was ordered to capture Goldsboro and accumulate building supplies for Sherman’s army moving into North Carolina. Using New Bern as a starting point, Federal forces under the command of Brig. Gen. J. D. Cox advanced. On May 7, Federal forces ran into Confederates under Braxton Bragg at Southwest Creek, just east of Kinston. Bragg was hoping to delay or halt the Federal advance. Reinforced overnight by a division under D. H. Hill, Bragg planned to attack the Federals. The flanking force was a division under Robert F. Hoke, and he successfully flanked the Federal force, capturing artillery. Hill launched an attack later that day toward the Federal right flank and then sought to intercept the retreating Federals, which he never actually found. Bragg ordered Hill to return to his original position. Confederate forces captured over 1,000 Federals that day. Federal reinforcements arrived overnight and dug in. Early on March 9, Hoke again probed the Federal lines. That afternoon, Bragg ordered him to attack on the morning of May 10. Hoke attacked the Federal left, and Hill also advanced, but on finding twice their number, his troops were forced to fall back after the Federal force counterattacked. That night, they crossed the Neuse River and encamped near Kinston. (This summary was drawn from Barrett’s The Civil War in North Carolina. The best book on the subject is “To Prepare for Sherman’s Coming”: The Battle of Wise’s Fork, March 1865 by Mark Smith and Wade Sokolosky.)

While the American Battlefield Trust has preserved a small part of the Wyse Fork Battlefield, the location of the Federal counterattack on March 10 is not preserved and is in danger of being carved up into an interchange. There is an alternative spot to put an interchange that will not destroy a part of the battlefield. This is a state project. Please contact your state representatives in the General Assembly  (house and senate) and ask them to preserve this important piece of battlefield property and stop the proposed by-pass in Lenoir County. You can find your North Carolina representatives here. You can also contact the American Battlefield Trust and ask them to get involved. There is a “Save Wyse Fork Battlefield” group on Facebook.

Site Visit Saturday: Fox’s Gap and Brig. Gen. Samuel Garland, Jr.

    Do lawyers make good generals?  Some of them have. Others, not so much. There were a slew of lawyers who became Confederate generals, such as Lawrence Branch, John B. Gordon, Theodore W. Brevard, Jr., Daniel W. Adams, and Alpheus Baker, just to name a few. Included in the bunch was Samuel Garland, Jr.

   Born in Lynchburg, Virginia on December 16, 1830, Samuel Garland, Jr., was the great-grandnephew of United States President James Madison. His father was an attorney (who died when Samuel was ten years old). Samuel was educated in a private school in Nelson County, then at Randolph Macon College, and finally, the Virginia Military Academy, where he graduated in 1849, third in his class. He went on to study law at the University of Virginia, and after John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry organized a militia company. When the war came, that company became a part of the 11^th Virginia Infantry, and Garland was commissioned the regiment’s colonel. Garland and his regiment fought at the battle of Manassas in July 1861, as a part of Brig. Gen. James Longstreet’s brigade. Following the battle of Seven Pines, in which Garland was wounded in the elbow, he was promoted to brigadier general. He commanded a North Carolina brigade composed of the 5^th, 12^th, 13^th, 20^th, and 23^rd Regiments.

 

Garland Marker, Fox's Gap

   With the reorganization of the Army of Northern Virginia following the Seven Days campaign, Garland found his brigade in D.H. Hill’s Division, Jackson’s wing. During the Maryland Campaign, while the rest of Jackson’s command invested Harper’s Ferry, D.H. Hill’s command was sent to guard the gaps across South Mountain, protecting the rear of Jackson’s forces capturing the town. At the beginning of the fight, Garland was ordered to take his brigade and defend the National Pike. D.H. Hill wrote after the battle that “The firing had aroused that prompt and gallant soldier, General Garland, and his men were under arms when I reached the pike. I explained the situation briefly to him, directed him to sweep through the woods, reach the road, and hold it at all hazards, as the safety of Lee's large train depended upon its being held. He went off in high spirits and I never saw him again. I never knew a truer, better, braver man. Had he lived, his talents, pluck, energy, and purity of character must have put him in the front rank of his profession, whether in civil or military life.”  During the fighting at Fox’s Gap, Garland was struck in the back by a bullet that passed through his body. His last words were “I am killed. Send for the Senior colonel.”

   Following his death, Garland was interred at the Presbyterian Cemetery in Lynchburg, next to the graves of his wife and son who had passed in June and July 1861 of influenza.

   In September 1993, the Sons of Confederate Veterans erected a commemorative marker near the spot of Samuel Garland’s death. I last visited the site in May 2011.

Purging the Army of Northern Virginia

   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.

Books on North Carolina's Confederate Generals

You've probably figured out that I like lists of books. For several years, I've kept a list of North Carolina counties and their published histories of the War. Well, below is a new list, a list of North Carolina-born general officers of the Confederacy (with one exception). There are several names not on this list, like James H. Lane or William Henry Chase Whiting. They were associated with North Carolina, but came from other states. There are also a couple who are buried in the Tar Heel state but who are not on this list, like William R. Boggs. He came after the war. The only exception that I have made is for Collett Leventhorpe. He was born in England, but when he moved to North Carolina (prior to the war), he never really lived any other place, and is buried in Caldwell County. I have also not included state-appointed generals, like John W. McElroy. These men are only Confederate-appointed generals.

Of the 46 men on this list, 26 have no material published on them, save brief pieces in Warner's Generals in Gray, Powell's Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, or Davis's The Confederate General (6 volumes). Of the 18 who do have biographies, three of those are just sketches, usually presented at a monument dedication or a memorial service. For me, that leaves 16 who have bios. Of that number, six have multiple biographies. Braxton Bragg has eight, William Dorsey Pender, Leonidas Polk, and Stephen Dodson Ramseur have four each, and James Johnston Pettigrew has three. Bryan Grimes had two, and the rest, one each.  

As always, this is a work in progress. If I missed someone, or some book, please let me know. At some point, I will probably update this list to include theses and dissertations, and then maybe articles.

Anderson, George Burgwyn, Brig. Gen.  (1831-1862)

            "A Private" Brigadier-General George Burgwyn Anderson (19--?)
Armistead, Louis Addision, Brig. Gen., (1817-1863)

Baker, Laurence Simmons, Brig. Gen. (1830-1907)

Barringer, Rufus, Brig. Gen. (1821-1895)

            Barringer, Fighting for General Lee (2016)
Barry, John D., Brig. Gen. (1838-1867)

Bragg, Braxton, General (1817-1876)

            Bragg, Braxton Bragg: Military Strategist (1998)

            Hallock, Braxton Bragg and Confederate Defeat, Vol. 2 (1991)

            Hay, Braxton Bragg and the Southern Confederacy (1925)

            Hess, Braxton Bragg: the Most Hated Man of the Confederacy (2016)

            Martin, General Braxton Bragg (2011)

            McWhiney, Braxton Bragg and Confederate Defeat Vol. 1 (1969)

            Seitz, Braxton Bragg, general of the Confederacy (1924)

            Stout, Reminiscences of General Braxton Bragg (1942)

Branch, Lawrence O'B., Brig. Ben. (1820-1862)
Bullock, Robert, Brig. Gen. (1828-1905)

Clingman, Thomas L., Brig. Gen. (1812-1897)

            Jeffrey, Thomas Lanier Clingman: Fire Eater from the Carolina Mountains (1998)

Cox, William R., Brig. Gen. (1832-1919)

            Spruill, A Sketch of the Life and Service of General William Ruffin Cox (1921)

Daniel Junius, Brig. Gen. (1828-1864)

Dockery, Thomas P., Brig. Gen. (1833-1898)

Forney, John H. Maj. Gen. (1829-1902)

            Daugette, The Life of Major General John H. Forney (1925?)
Forney, William H., Brig. Gen. (1823-1894)
Garrott, Isham W., Brig. Gen. (1816-1863)

Gatlin, Richard C., Brig. Gen. (1809-1896)

            Daddis,  Richard C. Gatlin and the Confederate Defense of Eastern North Carolina (2015)
Gilmer, Jeremy F., Maj. Gen. (1818-1883)

Gordon, James B. Brig. Gen. (1822-1864)

            Hartley, Stuart's Tar Heels (1996)
Govan, Daniel C., Brig. Gen. (1829-1911)

Grimes, Bryan, Maj. Gen. (1828-1880)

            Allen, Lee's Last Major General: Bryan Grimes of North Carolina

            Cowper, Extracts of Letters of Maj. Gen Bryan Grimes to his Wife (2014)

Hill, Daniel H., Lt. Gen. (1821-1889)

            Bridges, Lee's Maverick General: Daniel Harvey Hill (1991)

Hoke, Robert F., Maj. Gen. (1837-1912)

            Barefoot, General Robert F. Hoke: Lee's Modest Warrior (1996)

Holmes, Theophilus H., Lt. Gen. (1804-1880)

            Hilderman, Theophilus Hunter Holmes: A North Carolina General in the Civil War (2013)

Johnston, George D. Brig. Gen. (1832-1910)

Johnston, Robert D., Brig. Gen. (1837-1919)

Kirkland, William W., Brig. Gen. (1833-1915)

Leventhorpe, Collett, Brig. Gen. (18815-1889)

            Foley and Cole, Collett Leventhorpe, the English Confederate (2006)

Lewis, William G., Brig. Gen. (1835-1901)
MacRae, William, Brig. Gen. (1834-1882)

Martin, James G., Brig. Gen. (1819-1878)
McNair, Evander, Brig. Gen. (1820-1902)

Pender, William D., Maj. Gen. (1834-1863)

            Hassler, One of Lee's Best Men: The Civil War Letters of Gen. William D. Pender (1999)

            ----The General to His Lady: The Civil War Letters of W. D. Pender to Fanny Pender (1965)

            Longacre, General William Dorsey Pender: A Military Biography (2001)

            Willis, Confederate General William Dorsey Pender: The Hope of Glory (2013)
Pettigrew, James J., Brig. Gen. (1828-1963)

            Bauer, The Long Lost Journal of Confederate General James Johnston Pettigrew (2001)

            Wilson, Carolina Cavalier: Life and Mind of James Johnston Pettigrew (1990)

            Wilson, The Most Promising Man of the South... (1998)

Polk, Leonidas, Lt. Gen. (1806-1864)

            Parks, General Leonidas Polk, CSA (1992)

            Polk, Leonidas Polk; Bishop and General 2 volumes (1915)

            Robbins, The Bishop of the Old South: (2006)

            White, Confederate General Leonidas Polk: Louisiana's Fighting Bishop (2013)

Polk, Lucius E., Brig. Gen. (1833-1892)
Rains, Gabriel J. Brig. Gen. (1803-1881)

Ramseur, Stephen D., Maj. Gen. (1837-1864)

            Cox, Address on the Life and Character of.... Ramseur (1891)

            Gallagher, Stephen Dodson Ramseur: Lee's Gallant General (1995)

            Kundahl, The Bravest of the Brave: The Correspondence of Stephen D. Ramseur (2014)

            Schenck, Sketches of Maj. Gen. Stephen Dodson Ramseur (2015)

Ransom, Matt W., Brig. Gen. (1826-1904)

            Marlow, Matt W. Ransom, Confederate General from North Carolina (1996)

Ransom, Robert, Jr., Maj. Gen. (1828-1892)

Richardson, Robert V., Brig. Gen. (1820-1870)

Roberts, William P., Brig. Gen. (1841-1910)

Scales, Alfred M., Brig. Gen. (1827-1892)

            Conner, Address on Alfred Moore Scales (1907)

Toon, Thomas F., Brig. Gen. (1840-1902)
Ticker, William, Brig. Gen. (1827-1881)

Vance, Robert B., Brig. Gen. (1828-1899)

Wilcox, Cadmus M., Maj. Gen. (1824-1890)

            Patterson, From Blue to Gray (2001) 

Where was D. H. Hill?

My next "Stump the historian question" came this past Saturday at the Bennett Place State Historic Site. A gentleman from the audience wanted to know where Confederate Lt. Gen. Daniel Harvey Hill was during the surrender negotiations between Johnston and Sherman at the Bennett Place.

First, I turned to Hal Bridges's biography of D. H. Hill, but found nothing. Next I looked at Mark Bradley's This Astounding Close: The Road to the Bennett Place.

We know that Hill spent a lot of late-1864 sitting out the war at his home in Charlotte. On Jan. 21, 1865, he assumed command of the District of Georgia and in the Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. In February, he rejoined the Army of Tennessee. Bradley writes that Hill was in Smithfield on March 22, 1865. D. H. Hill was a guest of William Hardee on April 4, at Hardee's grand review. Robert Dunkerly writes in The Confederate Surrender at Greensboro that this review took place at the Stevens house, near Selma. After these accounts, Hill seems to disappear from both Bradley’s and Dunkerly's accounts.

Next, I went to the official records, but I only found mentions of the General, with nothing about where he personally was during the time frame of the Bennett Place negotiations. Next I browsed through Hill's Compiled Service Record from the National Archives. There are 117 items in his folder, and I will admit that I did not read every page, but I saw nothing pinning him down after April 4, 1865.

Also, I tried to look through various newspapers online, but turned up nothing.

The only other entry is in July 1865, when Hill wrote to US President Andrew Johnson, concerning his presidential pardon. This letter was written from Davidson College.

So for now, I am still stumped about just where Hill was between April 4, 1865, and May 1, 1865, when he was paroled in Greensboro. Maybe someone else knows of Hill's whereabouts.