In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

193 ed two days later at Yellow Tavern near Richmond . But back in 1860, when the journalist of the expedition wrote on August 15 that they “arrived with joyous tramp at our own doors at Fort Riley, taking our families completely by surprise,” neither man could possibly have imagined the fate that would soon befall them and the small Army in which they served.3 When Sedgwick and Stuart were in the field in the summer of 1860, it had been twelve years since the Army had fought a war. Its last grand hurrah had been a decisive victory over Mexico . The bulk of the American forces in Mexico were militia and Volunteers, but most of the Regular Army regiments also saw service. New Volunteer and militia regiments were constantly moving in and out of Mexico according to their terms of enlistment, but the Regulars were there from beginning to end, giving junior officers combat experience that complemented their West Point education. In December 1860 all of the Army’s infantry and mounted regiments were stationed west of the Mississippi River conducting small operations that rarely involved more than a few companies. Of the Army’s forty-eight artillery companies, thirty were stationed west of the Mississippi with few of them actually manning guns. The Army’s primary mission was to keep the peace. Regulars were stationed in small garrisons to protect and assist the settlers who flocked into the newly acquired territory. As the secession crisis deepened in 1861, the Army had a limited capability to influence In the summer of 1860, Maj. John Sedgwick (usma 1837) of the 1st Cavalry led four companies from his regiment and two from the 2d Dragoons on an expedition to conduct “active operations” against hostile Comanche and Kiowa Indians in the Great Plains. An officer in Company G, 1st Cavalry, 1st Lt. J. E. B. Stuart (usma 1854), was the “Journalist of the Expedition ,” keeping notes in a diary that reflect a generally pleasant trip. On June 7 he mentions “birds singing at the greatest rate,” and on June 27 he was able to “loll in the shade of the gigantic cottonwoods all day.” The column covered 1,404 miles between May and August, with only one small skirmish that involved a detachment of twenty men led by Stuart.1 Major Sedgwick and Lieutenant Stuart had served together since 1855 when they both joined the newly formed 1st Cavalry regiment. They formed a close bond while serving on the frontier, but during the Civil War they served on opposite sides, both rising to the rank of major general in their respective armies before they were killed in action. Sedgwick died at Spotsylvania on May 9, 1864, when a sharpshooter ’s bullet struck him in the head. A favorite among Union enlisted men who referred to him as “Uncle John,” Sedgwick’s aides had warned him against exposing himself to enemy fire that day, but he dismissed their caution, remarking, “They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance,” just before the fatal shot struck him.2 Stuart, probably the most famous cavalryman in the Civil War, was mortally woundTransition to War 194 The Army in the Field marched to Washington, easily overwhelmed the American defenders, and burned the White House and other structures. Encouraged by their success in Washington, the British attempted to attack Baltimore in September, but Fort McHenry, which guarded the narrow entrance to the harbor, kept them away from the city. The successful defense of Fort McHenry stimulated interest in the improvement of the nation’s coastal defenses, and in 1816 Congress appropriated $838,000 for a systematic study of how to protect the coasts.4 The board assigned to the study recommended building some fifty coastal forts. Congress appropriated the necessary funds, and between January 1817 and September 1830, the Army Corps of Engineers spent $3 million on the program. In 1851 the chief of engineers, Joseph G. Totten (usma 1805), recommended increasing the coastal fortifications to 186, 28 of which were to be on the Gulf Coast of Texas and along the Pacific Coast. Between 1815 and 1861, the Corps of Engineers focused on building permanent coastal forts. Plans called for an integrated system of forts on the mainland and in the harbors to ensure that all approaches could be covered by cannon fire. For example, at Charleston, South Carolina, there were several individual fortifications, including Fort Moultrie on the mainland and Castle Pinckney and Fort Sumter...

Share