General Edward Porter Alexander at Fredericksburg: Letters to the Southern Historical Society E-Book

Edward Porter Alexander

• Herausgeber: Krill Press
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 67

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

In the narrative of the Civil War, Edward Porter Alexander has loomed larger in death than in life. Just 25 years old when the war broke out, Porter Alexander had already served as an engineer and officer in the U.S. Army, but the native Georgian resigned his commission in May 1861 and joined the Confederacy after his home state seceded. 

Porter Alexander would continue to serve under Longstreet's corps for most of the rest of the war, and he famously suggested to Lee at Appomattox that the Confederate army should disband and melt away instead of surrender. Porter Alexander would later regret the suggestion, and Lee scolded him for it anyway. 

Though he had served with distinction during the Civil War, it was Porter Alexander's memoirs that have kept his name alive today. While many prominent officers on both sides wrote memoirs, Porter Alexander's were among the most insightful and often considered by historians as the most evenhanded. With a sense of humor and a good narrative, Porter Alexander skillfully narrated the war, his service, and what he considered the successes and faults of others, including Lee, when he thought they had made good decisions or mistakes. As a result, historians continue to rely heavily on his memoirs as a source for Civil War history. 

Before he even wrote his memoirs, he wrote letters that were published in the Southern Historical Society, which kept a literary journal that helped develop the “Lost Cause” and became the clearinghouse for many Confederate writers after the war. In this letter, Porter Alexander narrates his account of the Battle of Petersburg. 

Leseprobe

GENERAL EDWARD PORTER ALEXANDER AT FREDERICKSBURG: LETTERS TO THE SOUTHERN HISTORICAL SOCIETY

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Edward Porter Alexander

FIREWORK PRESS

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

About Firework Press

INTRODUCTION

The Battle Of Fredericksburg

General Edward Porter Alexander at Fredericksburg: Letters to the Southern Historical Society

By

Edward Porter Alexander

General Edward Porter Alexander at Fredericksburg: Letters to the Southern Historical Society

Published by Firework Press

New York City, NY

First published 1904

Copyright © Firework Press, 2015

All rights reserved

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

ABOUT FIREWORK PRESS

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INTRODUCTION

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IN THE NARRATIVE OF THE Civil War, Edward Porter Alexander has loomed larger in death than in life. Just 25 years old when the war broke out, Porter Alexander had already served as an engineer and officer in the U.S. Army, but the native Georgian resigned his commission in May 1861 and joined the Confederacy after his home state seceded.

Though he had served with distinction during the Civil War, it was Porter Alexander’s memoirs that have kept his name alive today. Though many prominent officers on both sides wrote memoirs, Porter Alexander’s were among the most insightful and often considered by historians as the most evenhanded. With a sense of humor and a good narrative, Porter Alexander skillfully narrates the war, his service, and he isn’t afraid to criticize officers, including Lee, when he thought they had made mistakes. As a result, historians continue to rely heavily on his memoirs as a source for Civil War history.

Before he even wrote his memoirs, he wrote letters that were published in the Southern Historical Society, which kept a literary journal that helped develop the “Lost Cause” and became the clearinghouse for many Confederate writers after the war. In this letter, Porter Alexander narrates his account of the Battle of Petersburg.

THE BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG

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Paper No. 1.

CROSSING THE RIVER AND OCCUPYING THE TOWN.

        ON THE 15TH OF NOVEMBER General Burnside put his columns in motion towards Fredericksburg, and on the same day General Lee ordered Lewis’s Battery and a Mississippi regiment of infantry, which had been guarding railroad bridges near Richmond, to reinforce the Fifteenth Virginia Cavalry, under Colonel Ball, which was in observation at that point. This force reached Fredericksburg on the 17th, a short while before the arrival at Falmouth of the head of the Federal column under Major General Sumner, and a small artillery duel occurred between Lewis’s Battery and a Federal rifle battery, under a Captain Petitt, the latter having decidedly the best of it, as Lewis carried but four very inferior guns. Much credit was claimed at the time for this small Confederate force for preventing the crossing of the Rappahannock by the Federals, but, however impudent its intentions may have been, this claim cannot be admitted, for Sumner had positive orders from Burnside not to cross; and these orders were reiterated that night, on Sumner’s asking permission to go over and take Lewis’s guns. Meanwhile, information being received from the calvary of the appearance of Federal gunboats and transports at Acquia Creek, and of large wagon trains moving from Catlett’s Station towards Falmouth, on the 17th General Lee ordered General Longstreet to march rapidly to Fredericksburg with McLaws’s and Ransom’s Divisions of Infantry, accompanied by their battalion of artillery, W.H.F. Lee’s Brigade of Calvary, and Lane’s rifle battery from the Reserve Artillery. At the same time General Stuart was ordered to force a crossing of the Rappahannock at Warrenton Springs, and discover the enemy’s movements. This being gallantly done, the calvary advanced as far as Warrenton, and found that Burnside’s base had been changed to Acquia Creek, and his whole army was on the march towards Falmouth. On receipt of this information, on the 19th the remainder of Longstreet’s corps and the Reserve Artillery was put in motion for Fredericksburg, via Raccoon and Morton’s Fords, and Jackson’s corps was ordered from the Valley to concentrate at Orange C.H.

        On the 20th Burnside’s entire army was concentrated opposite Fredericksburg, and on the same day McLaws’s and Ransom’s Divisions under Longstreet, having just arrived, made hurried dispositions for battle on the hills overlooking the town from the west. On the 21st the Mayor of Fredericksburg was summoned by General Sumner to surrender the town by 5 P.M., or prepare to receive a bombardment at 9 A.M. on the next day. By direction of General Lee, who had now also arrived, a reply was returned that the occupation of the city by Federal forces would be resisted, but that the Confederates would refrain from using it for military purposes, although this promise was no concession, for the town had not been and could not be of any military use, further than to shelter a picket force, which, of course, it was not pretended would be removed, the Federal commander withdrew his threat and the town was never fired upon until the 11th of December, when the desperate resistance of Barksdale’s Mississippians from the cover of the houses induced and justified a bombardment.

        In view, however, of the imminence of a battle, General Lee advised the inhabitants of Fredericksburg to vacate the city, that their presence might not trammel his defence, and although the weather was most inclement, the thermometer being near zero, almost the whole population removed and found the best shelters they could, cheerfully giving their homes to be a battlefield. The neighboring country, houses and churches were filled, sometimes with dozens of families, to whom rations were issued by the commissaries, and many women and children encamped in the forest in brush and blanket shelters, where the sight of their cheerfully borne sufferings nerved many a heart for the coming struggle.

        On the 22nd of November, the whole of the First corps was concentrated and in position as follows: