THE VIRGINIA CAMPAIGN OF '64 AND '65. CHAPTER I. THE POSITION OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC AND OF THE ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA IN THE SPRING OF 1864-THE REORGANIZATION OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC-GENERAL PLAN OF OPERATIONS FOR THE CAMPAIGN-THE MOVEMENT BY THE LEFT FLANK DECIDED ON-THE COMPOSITION AND NUMBERS OF THE TWO ARMIES. IN the Spring of 1864 the Army of the Potomac lay between the Rapidan and the Rappahannock. The infantry was posted chiefly in the vicinity of Culpeper Court House covering the roads leading from Lee's position, the First and Third Corps about two miles in advance of the Court House, the Second Corps near Stevensburg, the Sixth Corps near Welford's Ford, on Hazel River, and the Fifth Corps guarding the railroad from the Rappahannock River back to Bristoe Station, near Manassas Junction. The Ninth Corps, under General Burnside, began to relieve the Fifth Corps from this duty on April 25th, and between the 1st and 3d of May encamped along the railroad from Manassas Junction to Rappahannock Station. The main body of the cavalry of the Army of the Potomac was about two miles in front of the First Corps, the other part of it near Stevensburg. A chain of infantry pickets, well in advance, encircled the whole army; cavalry pickets extended outside of these to give early notice of any serious movement of the enemy. The Rapidan was carefully watched, especially at the fords and at the railroad bridge. The Army of Northern Virginia lay along its intrenchments on the Rapidan, from Barnett's Ford, about five miles above the railroad crossing of that river, down to the vicinity of Morton's Ford, a distance of eighteen or twenty miles. Ewell's corps held the lower half of these intrenchments, Hill's the upper half. A few brigades guarded the river, the main force being concentrated in the rear ready to advance to the river or to either flank. The fords below and above the intrenchments were watched by small detachments of cavalry, the main force of which lay along the Rappahannock below Fredericksburg, where, in a country scarcely touched by the war, forage was comparatively abundant. Having an intrenched front on the banks of a river, his left partly withdrawn, and the Wilderness on his right flank not far from his return intrenchment on Mine Run, Lee could not use cavalry on his front, and did not need them on his right except in small parties to watch the crossings of the river and the main roads. The return intrenchment on Lee's right, beginning near Morton's Ford, extended up Mine Run to its source near Antioch Meeting House, south of the plank road running from Orange Court House to Fredericksburg. General Lee's headquarters were at Orange Court House, about seventy miles from Richmond. General Longstreet with two of the divisions of his Corps returned to the Army of Northern Virginia in the last part of April, and was held in the vicinity of Gordonsville, a position from which he could better meet an advance of the Army of the Potomac by its right flank than by its left. It was known to General Meade that General Longstreet had returned, but it was reported and believed that his three divisions were with him, Pickett's, Field's, and Kershaw's. On March 4th General Meade recommended to the Secretary of War to consolidate the five infantry corps of the Army of the Potomac and form three corps of them. This consolidation was effected by orders from the War Department dated March 23d, the Second, Fifth, and Sixth Corps being retained, and the divisions of the First and Third Corps transferred to the three retained corps, though preserving their corps and division badges and distinctive marks. This re-organization required brigades and divisions in all the five corps to be consolidated.' The reason given for this reorganization was the reduced strength of nearly all the infantry regiments composing the army; but it caused some dissatisfaction with both officers and enlisted men, owing to the spirit of rivalry between the several corps, the divisions of a corps, and the brigades of a division. The history and associations of these organizations were different, and when they were merged in other organizations their identity was lost and their pride and esprit de corps wounded. At the opening of the campaign of 1864, in the first week of May, the three infantry corps amounted to 73,390 officers and enlisted men, giving an average strength of nearly 25,000 to each. In a country so heavily wooded as that in which the operations were to be conducted, five infantry corps of about 15,000 each would have been a more judicious organization, owing to the difficulty of communication between the corps commander and the subordinate command 1 The new Second Corps consisted of the old Second, formed in two divisions, and the old Third Corps, consisting of two divisions. The new Fifth Corps consisted of the old Fifth, formed in two divisions, and the old First Corps, formed in two divisions. A division that had been united with the Third Corps on July 9, 1863, was transferred to the Sixth Corps, and was the third division of that corps, ers in a battle in such a country, and the consequent difficulty of prompt and efficient control of extensive lines of battle, especially at critical moments, or when unforeseen exigencies occurred. The nature of the appointment of a corps commander, emanating as it did from the President, conferred a much wider discretion on him than that authorized in a division commander, and that discretion was sometimes needed in the division commanders of corps 25,000 strong. A marked case exemplifying this difficulty will be found in the second day's fighting on the left in the Wilderness. General Hancock's lines were so extended, and his troops on the right were so separated from those on the left, owing to the difference in the character of the tasks allotted to each, that on the second day he assigned General Birney to the command of his right wing, and General Gibbon to the command of his left wing, in which commands these officers needed the authority and discretion of corps commanders. The difficulties were greatly increased when, further on in the day, General Hancock had, besides his own corps and Getty's division of the Sixth Corps, two divisions of the Fifth Corps and one division of the Ninth Corps-divisions to which General Birney was a stranger, and the character of whose officers he was unacquainted with. It is well known that the personal character of a general officer in moments of difficulty has a powerful influence upon the result. These criticisms are made in order to a full understanding of the difficulties of the campaign. By an act approved on the 29th of February, 1864, Congress revived the grade of Lieutenant-General in the army, and authorized the President, during his pleasure, to assign the officer of that grade to the command of the armies of the United States. On the 9th of March following, General Grant received his commission as Lieutenant-General, and was assigned to the command of the armies. On the 10th, he visited the Army of the Potomac, the headquarters of which was near Brandy Station, on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, about seventy miles from Washington, and announced to General Meade his intention of making his headquarters with that army. The reasons for this determination mentioned by Badeau in his "Military History of General Grant" (which are supposed to be those of General Grant himself), were, "the transcendent importance of the issues in Virginia upon which the fate of both the national and the rebel capital depended," and the fact that the force opposed to the Army of the Potomac (the Army of Northern Virginia) "was the strongest, the best led, and the best appointed" army in the Confederate service. Another consideration was, that "the political and personal influences of various sorts and of various individuals which centred at Washington had thwarted some generals, and interfered with all who had commanded the Army of the Potomac since the beginning of the war. It was General Grant's duty himself to encounter these difficulties, and to withstand, if he could not prevent, political interference; to remain where he could control all the movements of all the armies, absolutely and independently. . . If he remained at the East this was secured, but with the Generalin-Chief a thousand miles away, the Government might be unable to resist entreaties or threats of interested or anxious outsiders, and the best concerted schemes might come to naught. Unless he was near the capital, he could not control all the operations of all the armies without interruption, and could not carry out the plan that he believed the only one by which the rebellion could be overthrown. In Washington General Grant would not stay in time of |