This Month in the Civil War: Hooker & Grant – By Sandy McBride

In February, 1863, the Union’s mighty Army of the Potomac was in a bad way.  Two ignominious failures at Fredericksburg had disheartened the once-proud but poorly-led Federal troops.  After the debacle of the failed “mud march” to Fredericksburg in late January, many Union soldiers had just walked away, deserting the army.  President Abraham Lincoln, in his quest to find the man who could lead what should be a superior force to victory over the rebels, had appointed General “Fighting Joe” Hooker to the top post, replacing General Ambrose Burnside.

Changes were immediate as Hooker set out to restore order and confidence to the demoralized army.

 

To read more login to The Weekly Paper

PART II – EMANCIPATION AND THE “MUD MARCH” – By Sandy McBride

THIS MONTH IN THE CIVIL WAR - JANUARY 1863

News of the victory at Stones River was greeted with a sigh of relief by President Abraham Lincoln.  He wired General William Rosecrans “I can never forget, whilst I remember anything, that you gave us a hard earned victory which, had there been a defeat instead, the nation could hardly have lived over.”

The president had been under increasing criticism for the failures in the war, and many northerners were grumbling that it should be given up.  The victory in Tennessee gave Lincoln a small measure of support in his determination to save the Union.

 

To read more login to The Weekly Paper

January 1863: Stones River Part 1 – By Sandy McBride

It has been said that “war is hell”.  The American Civil War certainly was, but it did have its lighthearted moments, too.

In the closing days of December, 1862, Union General William Rosecrans with his 40,000-man Army of the Cumberland was approaching Murfreesboro, Tennessee with a plan to drive Confederate General Braxton Bragg and his 35,000-man Army of Tennessee out of the state.  Bragg’s forces were encamped just north of Murfreesboro astride Stones River. On December 30, even though his advancing troops and supply wagons were under continual raiding from Confederate cavalry units who swept around their rear, Rosecrans, whose army had marched from Nashville, had closed to within two miles of Murfreesboro.  He halted his army to make camp just a few hundred yards from the rebel camps.

 

To read more login into The Weekly Paper

DECEMBER, 1862 – The BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG PART 2 – By Sandy McBride

After successfully moving troops and artillery across the Rappahannock River and into Fredericksburg on December 11, General Ambrose Burnside failed to press the attack on December 12, doing nothing more than sending more troops across and pondering what his next move should be.  While the Union command pondered, the Confederate command reinforced.  General Robert E. Lee continued to mass troops in strategic places south of the city and on the heights above to await the battle he knew was coming. He brought in Major General D. H. Hill’s and Brigadier General Jubal Early’s divisions to support General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson on Prospect Hill south of the city, giving Jackson a force of 30,000 men defending a 3, 000 yard wide sector.

To read more login into The Weekly Paper

This Month In The Civil War-Dec. 1862 By Sandy McBride

 

   As the cold days of December, 1862 descended on Virginia, the Federal Army of the Potomac, under its new commander General Ambrose Burnside, was massed on the hills around the town of Falmouth.  Their objective was Richmond, the capital of the rebellious southern states, some fifty miles to the south.  In their path, however, were the rain-swollen Rappahannock River and the city of Fredericksburg.  Adding to the danger to troops attempting a crossing was a half mile of wide-open ground between the river and the town.

Urged by President Abraham Lincoln to move with haste, Burnside had moved the bulk of his officers, men, horses, wagons and artillery 40 miles in just two days.  But his inability to get them across the river in a timely manner had cost him dearly.  While Union troops waited on the north side of the river for the arrival of pontoons on which to build bridges to move men and arms across, 40,000 Confederate soldiers under General James Longstreet had moved in and taken up a strong defensive position along Marye’s Heights behind Fredericksburg on a four-mile stretch of high ground.

To read more login to The Weekly Paper