Lee would have to “defend Richmond with one hand and strike Pope with the other.” Pope also had greater numbers than Lee, which could be increased if McClellan joined forces with Pope. McClellan, still at Lee’s front, outnumbered the Confederates even more than he had before the Seven Day campaign. McClellan’s retreat became affectionately known in the South as “the great skedaddle.”Īfter driving McClellan back from the outskirts of Richmond, Lee’s task, as he saw it, was to continue his offensive and push Union General John Pope out of northern Virginia. However, Lee intended to “change the character of the war.” He led his smaller force on an offensive – known as the Seven Day campaign – until McClellan was driven back a full 25 miles from Richmond. Lee was defending Richmond with a holding force of about 25,000 men out of the total Confederate strength of roughly 70,000 soldiers. General McClellan’s Union force of approximately 100,000 was only five miles from Richmond. Lee took command of the Army of Northern Virginia, the situation looked pretty bleak for the Confederacy. Douglas Cecil, a professor of pastoral ministries at Dallas Theological Seminary, shared this insight on the Civil War: At Nashville, the Army of Tennessee was routed and reduced to a mob of 20,000 men, a sad end for an army that had fought so hard and so well despite its commanders.In the seminary newsletter Connection, Dr. Lower-ranking officers were forced to take charge of larger divisions due to a lack of commanders. Even by Civil War standards, this was catastrophic. Hood's outgunned and outnumbered soldiers suffered over 6,000 casualties (20% of his army), including seven generals (six killed, one captured) and an astounding 63 dead regimental commanders. Unsurprisingly, the battle was a horrific massacre, one that Watkins likened to a harvest by the Angel of Death. Hood's men would pay for their commander's rash decision with their lives. forces on the high ground, who were armed with 16-shot repeating rifles. Confederate forces, without artillery support and armed with single-shot muskets and rifles, stood no chance against the U.S. Among his subordinates who first made his name was a young man who would later become America's most famous outlaw, Jesse James.Ĭonfederate soldier Sam Watkins described the horror of the battle, which he called the "grand coronation of death." Hood threw 23,000 men against Union hilltop positions near Franklin, Tennessee. He now meted out this treatment to his opponents, writing his place in Civil War history as the most brutal commander. Anderson, who had earned his stripes fighting Native Americans on the frontier, had also picked up their practice of scalping dead opponents. While commanders often respected dead soldiers' bodies, Confederate guerrillas observed no such niceties. The unsuspecting men advanced, followed, and were promptly massacred.Ĭentralia was no ordinary massacre. Anderson's men left Centralia and hid behind a hill outside town. But in their haste, the commanders had not even bothered to properly equip the men, let alone train them. After his men massacred a train of unarmed Union recruits at Centralia, local Union commanders sent the 39th Missouri Mounted Infantry to stop the veteran guerrilla force. His pro-Confederate raiders terrorized towns, robbed civilians, and raped and killed slaves. Lincoln learned that he was going to need a real army to win - without interference from politicians.Īccording to American Experience, "Bloody Bill" Anderson lived up to his name. Most famous of all, Representative Alfred Ely of New York was captured and spent nearly half a year in a Confederate prison. Judge Daniel McCook of Ohio was nearly shot, too. Governor William Sprague of Rhode Island was nearly killed after Confederate pursuers shot two of his horses. While most of the spectators emerged unscathed, a few thrill-seekers were not so lucky. Trapped between the spectators and pursuing Confederates, the men panicked and rushed back to D.C. But the American political class, which had been observing the battle like a sporting event, blocked the main line of retreat with their carriages. Beauregard's men before Stonewall Jackson's rally and Confederate reinforcements repelled them. Nevertheless, according to the American Battlefield Trust, McDowell's forces drove back Brigadier General P.G.T. Inexperienced officers allowed McDowell to only deploy a little over half his army.
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