Portraits of Conflict: A Photographic History of Alabama in the Civil War

6. Retreat and Defeat in the East

Chapter  In the spring of ,theArmy of NorthernVirginia braced for the North’s most powerful drive of the war. Gen. Robert E. Lee had repelled four previous invasions, but he now faced the Union’s best commander , Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. As the new general in chief, Grant implemented a grand strategy that called for simultaneous offensives on multiple fronts, a plan that promised to stretch Confederate resources to the breaking point. While an army group under Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman advanced toward Atlanta in the western theater, Grant would personally supervise the Army of the Potomac’s ongoing confrontation with the Army of Northern Virginia. Augmenting these efforts were two supplementary operations: a sweep down the Shenandoah Valley to cut Confederate supply lines and a thrust westward along the James River against Richmond. By May some , Union soldiers were in action in Virginia alone. Rebel defenders in the area amounted to , men,with slightly more than , serving directly under Lee. Numerical inferiority was nothing new to the Army of Northern Virginia, but mathematically speaking, the Rebels simply could not afford further heavy losses. Alabamians still answered the morning roll call in sixteen infantry regiments that boasted proud combat histories, although the men looked weary after more than two years of grueling warfare.While the th Alabama continued to fight in James Archer’s mostly Tennessee brigade, the other regiments were divided among three brigades: the rd, th, th, th, and st Alabama, under Brig. Gen. Cullen Battle, served in Lt. Gen. Richard Ewell’s II Corps; the th,th,th,th,and th Alabama, under Brig. Gen. Abner Perrin of South Carolina,served in Lt.Gen.Ambrose P.Hill’s III Corps; and the th, th, th, th, and th Alabama, under Col. William Perry (temporarily replacing General Law), served in Lieutenant General Longstreet’s I Corps. The three brigade commanders were new to their positions, but their men were mostly veterans. Only the st Alabama, a conscript regiment that replaced the transferred th Alabama, was untested in battle. Toward the end of April, Lee conducted a grand review of his forces and came away satisfied with  Retreat and Defeat in the East their state of readiness. Morale was high: a majority of the rank and file had recently reenlisted for the duration of the war, many out of a devotion to their beloved commander that rivaled their patriotism for the Confederacy. Nonetheless, the government specifically honored the Alabama brigades of Battle and Perrin, whose reenlistments en masse displayed “a spirit undaunted, a heroic determination to battle ever until the independence of their country is established, and a consecration to the cause of liberty worthy of imitation.”1 Their mission in the upcoming campaign,along with the rest of Lee’s army, was straightforward: hold on and bleed the Federal army until defeatism in the North brought down the Lincoln administration in the November elections. On  May nearly , bluecoats crossed the Rapidan River and commenced marching through an area known as the Wilderness, a dense forest due west of Chancellorsville, where the two sides had clashed exactly a year earlier.Lee immediately sought an opportunity to attack. Two Confederate corps, each moving eastward down two parallel roads, made contact with Union forces late on the morning of  May. By early afternoon, fierce fighting erupted along a line of battle more than three miles long. Despite the dense foliage, the Yankees pitched into their adversaries. The Confederate left wing on Orange Turnpike was especially hard pressed. At a small clearing called Saunders’Field,Battle’s Brigade reached the scene just as a Union division routed a brigade of Virginians to its front. With terrified soldiers fleeing through their formation, the Alabam ians momentarily buckled,“each man appearing as if to halt between two opinions,” one private wryly noted.2 Bellowing commands to stand firm, Battle peremptorily resolved the dilemma and then lived up to his surname by conducting a vigorous holding action that helped thwart any further enemy penetration. With the arrival of additional Confed erate units, Battle’s Brigade participated in a large counterattack that stabilized the line. For their part, the Alabamians smashed up several New York regiments . Well into the evening the staccato of gunfire reverberated throughout the forest as the combatants jockeyed for improved positions. At dawn on  May, a reinforced Union army resumed its attack. Hammering the...