Gettysburg July 1

 

Gettysburg July 1 is the title of a 1996 book I read recently by David G. Martin. Its 736 pages provide a detailed, readable and exhaustive account of the first day of the battle, the 161st anniversary of which is fast approaching. (Martin includes several citations of the work of Mark Dunkelman, historian of the 154th NY Volunteer Infantry, and my host in Providence, RI, when I spoke at the Civil War Round Table there.)

As is well known, in the late afternoon of July 1, 1863, the Confederates broke through, first against the Union XI Corps commanded by O.O. Howard, and then against the I Corps commanded by Abner Doubleday, who had moved up from divisional command that morning when the preceding corps commander, John Reynolds, was killed. Army commander George Meade replaced Doubleday with John Newton (his junior in rank) as corps commander the next day, which is odd because Doubleday did an excellent job, as Martin's record demonstrates. He held the corps together to repel several strong assaults, retreating in good order from one defensive position to another until finally being outflanked and forced to rapidly withdraw through the town by the more numerous Confederates. The two battered Union corps established a last redoubt along Cemetery Ridge, with some reinforcements trickling in along with Meade in the evening. Doubleday resumed command of his division for the rest of the battle, but was then out of combat assignment for the rest of his career. Maybe he'd seen enough of war, firing literally the first Union shot of this one from Fort Sumter, and seeing much hard action since, including at Antietam.

Martin shares the conventional wisdom that the Confederates might have won the battle had they pressed harder to take Cemetery Hill late in the day. I am skeptical, preferring Longstreet's advice that evening to Lee to outflank Meade and get between him and Washington. (But then I'm prejudiced in Longstreet's favor because he was a pro-Reconstruction friend of Grant.)

Speaking of Grant, July 4 is the anniversary of the surrender of Vicksburg, which along with the great defensive victory at Gettysburg marks the military turning point of the war. (July 4 was also Nellie Grant's birthday in 1855.) Flag Day seems to have come and gone, but there will be a parade so designated, followed by a concert and fireworks, starting at 5 p.m. Thursday July 4 in Saratoga Springs, NY, and I'll be marching(?) along with a Grant Cottage contingent.

The photo above is of Doubleday's birthplace in nearby Ballston Spa, and the one below of a historical marker a few blocks away. Whatever his connection to baseball, Doubleday fought well at Gettysburg (he was wounded July 2, but stayed on the field through the next day).

The end photo is of my wife Barbara last October 5 on the roof of a pizza bar called The Speckled Pig; the Doubleday house is in background at far left.

 

Dart on Dart

 

I mentioned Clarence Dart on this blog a couple of years ago, and on Memorial Day this week I snuck away from my volunteer duties at Grant Cottage to attend a talk given by his son Warren, a retired schoolteacher and coach from Saratoga County.

Dart senior, a pillar of his Saratoga Springs church and community after the war, was a Tuskegee airman. He survived 95 combat missions in Europe in World War II, and was shot down twice. He later worked as a draftsman for General Electric Co. for 37 years, in Schenectady and at KAPL in Niskayuna.

African-American troops first served (in significant numbers) in the US military during the Civil War, when they were in segregated units. That segregation remained in place through World War II.

Salisbury, MA talk coming up Wednesday

 I will be speaking and PowerPointing this Wednesday May 8 at the Civil War Roundtable of the Merrimack, Hilton Senior Center, 43 Lafayette Road, Salisbury, Massachusetts. The meeting runs from 7:30 to 9:30 pm.

As usual these days, I'll be speaking mostly on the Montgomery biography, but no doubt Generals Granger and Grant, the central figures in my other two books, will also enter the mix. The event is open to the public and free of charge. 

X'ing (aka Tweeting) Prewar Kansas

 

Social Media

 

Apologies for light posting lately on this blog. I fear, as you can see above, I've been seduced by X (formerly Twitter), where you can find the context of this and other debates that I've been engaged in about the Civil War and other topics. (The contemporary illustration of the Combahee River raid is from Harper's Weekly.) By all means follow me there, or on Facebook where on The Civil War Era Historian's Page I was recently arguing with a guy named Lloyd Klein about who wrote Grant's Memoirs. I of course think the question answers itself, but he was more inclined to finger Mark Twain or Adam Badeau. I did take the opportunity to say that the issue is at the heart of my 2018 novel, The Last Circle of Ulysses Grant.  

RIP Gordon Granger IV

 

Gordon Granger IV died on January 6, aged 96, at his home in Earlysville, Virginia. 

He was a great help to me in writing the 2013 biography of his great-grandfather, General Gordon Granger: The Savior of Chickamauga and the Man Behind Juneteenth.

From Letchworth, NY, to Brunswick, Maine

 The casualty numbers listed above, 294 fatalities out of 1,414 who served in one regiment, the First New York Dragoons, are a reminder of the war's horrifying cost. I'd barely heard of Todd's Tavern, a cavalry engagement in Grant's Overland Campaign between the much bloodier battles of Wilderness and Spotsylvania. 

The wife took the photo of me in a red shirt taking the photo above, of one of the informative tablets at base of the impressive obelisk which memorializes the regiment in Letchworth State Park. I'd never been to the park before and hadn't known the monument was there, just stumbled across it on August 5 this year, when we happened to be in Western New York. (I was actually feeling a bit guilty about failing to attend the annual reunion on that date of the 154th New York Infantry, the "Hardtack Regiment", held this year in Delevan.)

This week it's off to Brunswick, Maine, where I have been before to visit the home museum of General Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. On Thursday evening I'll be speaking to the Joshua Chamberlain Civil War Round Table at 7 o'clock in the Brunswick Library, mostly about James Montgomery: Abolitionist Warrior. Be there or be square.