Retreat from Gettysburg

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RETREAT FROM GETTYSBURG LEE, LOGISTICS AND THE PENNSYLVANIA CAMPAIGN LEE’S ESCAPE WITH THE ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA Produced by Witnessing History, LLC © All Rights Reserved. TMW MEDIA GROUP 2321 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice, CA 90291 (310) 577-8581 Fax: (310) 574-0886 Email: [email protected] Web: www.tmwmedia.com L4841DVD “Mind-Growing Media since 1985” Teachers Guide © 2013 TMW MEDIA GROUP, Inc. PROGRAM OVERVIEW: DISCUSSION TOPICS/QUESTIONS: Based upon the critically-acclaimed and award-win- 1. Why did General Lee determine to construct a 8. What does the retreat from Gettysburg tell you about ning book, Retreat From Gettysburg: Lee, Logistics & defense line between Hagerstown, Maryland and the generalship of Generals Lee and Meade? the Pennsylvania Campaign. the Potomac River on July 7, 1863? 9. Did General Lee achieve the military objective of his Highly praised, this documentary takes the viewer 2. Describe the length and sophistication of General retreat after his loss at Gettysburg, and, if he did, how on the very roads used by Lee’s Army and immense Lee’s defense line between Hagerstown, Maryland was it achieved? wagon trains, as well as the key sites along those and the Potomac River. roads where Lee established defenses that delayed or defeated advances by General Meade’s Union forces. 3. How quickly was General Meade’s Union army able to position itself in front of Lee’s defense line? Magnificent aerial footage takes you to the battlefields, roads, mountain passes and Potomac River crossings. 4. What hindered General Meade’s efforts to pursue This unforgettable documentary is lavishly illustrated General Lee’s army the most? with period photographs, reenactments of critical mo- ments in the retreat, animated battle maps and rare 5. President Abraham Lincoln believed that General works of art. Meade’s army could have destroyed General Lee’s Confederate army after Gettysburg. Was his belief well taken? And, if so, or if not, why? 6. How long did it take General Lee’s army to construct a pontoon bridge across the Potomac River? 7. Describe how General Lee’s army escaped across the Potomac River on July 13 and 14, 1863..

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James Longstreet and the Retreat from Gettysburg
“Such a night is seldom experienced…” James Longstreet and the Retreat from Gettysburg Karlton Smith, Gettysburg NMP After the repulse of Lt. Gen. James Longstreet’s Assault on July 3, 1863, Gen. Robert E. Lee, commanding the Army of Northern Virginia, knew that the only option left for him at Gettysburg was to try to disengage from his lines and return with his army to Virginia. Longstreet, commander of the army’s First Corps and Lee’s chief lieutenant, would play a significant role in this retrograde movement. As a preliminary to the general withdrawal, Longstreet decided to pull his troops back from the forward positions gained during the fighting on July 2. Lt. Col. G. Moxley Sorrel, Longstreet’s adjutant general, delivered the necessary orders to Maj. Gen. Lafayette McLaws, commanding one of Longstreet’s divisions. Sorrel offered to carry the order to Brig. Gen. Evander M. Law, commanding John B. Hood’s division, on McLaws’s right. McLaws raised objections to this order. He felt that his advanced position was important and “had been won after a deadly struggle; that the order was given no doubt because of [George] Pickett’s repulse, but as there was no pursuit there was no necessity of it.” Sorrel interrupted saying: “General, there is no discretion allowed, the order is for you to retire at once.” Gen. James Longstreet, C.S.A. (LOC) As McLaws’s forward line was withdrawing to Warfield and Seminary ridges, the Federal batteries on Little Round Top opened fire, “but by quickening the pace the aim was so disturbed that no damage was done.” McLaws’s line was followed by “clouds of skirmishers” from the Federal Army of the Potomac; however, after reinforcing his own skirmish line they were driven back from the Peach Orchard area.
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“Never Was I So Depressed”
The Army of Northern Virginia in the Gettysburg Campaign “Never Was I So Depressed” James Longstreet and Pickett’s Charge Karlton D. Smith On July 24, 1863, Lt. Gen. James Longstreet wrote a private letter to his uncle, Augusts Baldwin Longstreet. In discussing his role in the Gettysburg Campaign, the general stated: General Lee chose the plan adopted, and he is the person appointed to chose and to order. I consider it a part of my duty to express my views to the commanding general. If he approves and adopts them it is well; if he does not, it is my duty to adopt his views, and to execute his orders as faithfully as if they were my own. While clearly not approving Lee’s plan of attack on July 3, Longstreet did everything he could, both before and during the attack, to ensure its success.1 Born in 1821, James Longstreet was an 1842 graduate of West Point. An “Old Army” regular, Longstreet saw extensive front line combat service in the Mexican War in both the northern and southern theaters of operations. Longstreet led detachments that helped to capture two of the Mexican forts guarding Monterey and was involved in the street fighting in the city. At Churubusco, Longstreet planted the regimental colors on the walls of the fort and saw action at Casa Marta, near Molino del Ray. On August 13, 1847, Longstreet was wounded during the assault on Chapaltepec while “in the act of discharging the piece of a wounded man." The same report noted that during the action, "He was always in front with the colors.
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PICKETT's CHARGE Gettysburg National Military Park STUDENT
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Did Meade Begin a Counteroffensive After Pickett's Charge?
Did Meade Begin a Counteroffensive after Pickett’s Charge? Troy D. Harman When examining the strategy of Union Major General George Gordon Meade at the battle of Gettysburg, one discovers lingering doubts about his leadership and will to fight. His rivals viewed him as a timid commander who would not have engaged at Gettysburg had not his peers corralled him into it. On the first day of the battle, for instance, it was Major General John Fulton Reynolds who entangled the left wing of the federal army thirty miles north of its original defensive position at Westminster, Maryland. Under the circumstances, Meade scrambled to rush the rest of his army to the developing battlefield. And on the second day, Major General Daniel Sickles advanced part of his Union 3rd Corps several hundred yards ahead of the designated position on the army’s left, and forced Meade to over-commit forces there to save the situation. In both instances the Union army prevailed, while the Confederate high command struggled to adjust to uncharacteristically aggressive Union moves. However, it would appear that both outcomes were the result of actions initiated by someone other than Meade, who seemed to react well enough. Frustrating to Meade must have been that these same two outcomes could have been viewed in a way more favorable to the commanding general. For example, both Reynolds and Sickles were dependent on Meade to follow through with their bold moves. Though Reynolds committed 25,000 Union infantry to fight at Gettysburg, it was Meade who authorized his advance into south-central Pennsylvania.
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1 Longstreet, James. from Manassas to Appomattox: Memoirs of the Civil
Longstreet, James. From Manassas to Appomattox: Memoirs of the Civil War in America. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2020. Hardback: $75.00; Paperback $25.00 . ISBN: 978-0-253-04706-9. Much detail on various commands, and units; much matter of fact accounts and description, often impersonal; good deal of the quoting from the Official records; mild and often indirect in any criticisms of Lee; some sly anti-Jackson comments; much attention to vindicating his performance at Gettysburg; Introduction by James I. Robertson, Jr. 1. Long controversy about Longstreet at Gettysburg 2. Notes Freeman reduced criticism of Longstreet 3. Imposing physically, some deafness, sparse conversation 4. Three children died of scarlet fever early in 1862 5. More dependable than brilliant, not suited for independent command 6. Limited insight but stubbornness 7. Close relationship with Lee 8. Calming influence 9. Favored the defensive 10. Did well at Chickamauga 11. Failure in independent command at Knoxville 12. Ruinous decision to become a Republican 13. Mixed performance at Gettysburg—not good at defending himself after the war 14. Memoir is “unbalanced, critical, and sometimes erroneous,” p. xxiii 15. Mixed record of a dependable general, Lee’s war horse Forward by Christopher Keller ` 1. indispensable narrative about the Army of Northern Virginia 2. praises great eye for detail 3. compares well with Grant’s and Sherman’s memoirs Background, planter’s son, 13 Not much of an academic at West Point, 15-16 Service in regular army, 17ff Mexican War, 19-28 New Mexico, 29-30 Cheering on way to Richmond, 32 Bull Run, Manassas campaign, McDowell and Beauregard criticized, 33-58 Siege of the Potomac, 59ff Richardson invited Longstreet to a dinner party, 59 Skirmishes, 60ff Defenses of Richmond, 64-65 Council of war, Davis, Lee, opinion of McClellan.
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Monterey Pass Battlefield Park 14325 Buchanan Trail East, Waynesboro
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“GITTIN STUFF” the Impact of Equipment Management, Supply & Logistics on Confederate Defeat
“GITTIN STUFF” The Impact of Equipment Management, Supply & Logistics on Confederate Defeat BY FRED SETH, CPPM, CF, HARBOUR LIGHTS CHAPTER “They never whipped us, Sir, unless they were four to one. had been captured. For four years they had provided equipment and supplies from If we had had anything like a fair chance, or less disparity of Europe to support the Confederacy and its numbers, we should have won our cause and established our armies. Since the beginning of the war, independence.” UNKNOWN VIRGINIAN TO ROBERT E. LEE.1 Wilmington, North Carolina had been a preferred port of entry for blockade-run- ners because Cape Fear provided two entry the destruction or capture of factories and channels, which gave ships a greater oppor- PREFACE farms in the Deep South and Richmond. tunity for escape and evasion. Also, rail fter defeat in the Civil War, known by The lack of rations at Amelia Court House, lines ran directly from Wilmington to A some in the South as “The War of which has been called the immediate cause Richmond and Atlanta.4 Northern Aggression,” Southerners were in of Lee’s surrender, is examined in detail. By the fall of 1864, Wilmington was a quandary regarding their willingness for Most importantly, the article addresses how one of the most important cities in the war. As discussed in the first article of this the inability of its leaders to conduct pro- Confederacy – it was the last operating series, the North had the overwhelming ductive logistics, equipment, and supply port. Confederate armies depended on advantage in industrial capability and man- management led to the decline and ulti- Wilmington for lead, iron, copper, steel, power.
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The Retreat from Gettysburg Presented by Parker Hills July 11–15, 2021, from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
A 2021 BGES Civil War Field University Program: The Retreat from Gettysburg Presented by Parker Hills July 11–15, 2021, from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania It had been three days unlike any in the history of this great conflict—indeed, in the history of the United States. The violence of the battles at Gettysburg had exhausted the resources of the armies and had bled them practically white. The burden on the medical staffs were unprecedented. Practically every building was a hospital, human and animal debris was everywhere. Units had lost coherence and combat resources were exhausted, as were foodstuffs. Men had been captured; others were in desperate need of surgical care. Yet the two great armies were less than a mile from each other. The challenge of disengagement was extraordinary—the roads to safety seemingly unreachable. The Retreat from Gettysburg has long been overshadowed by the battle that precipitated it, and yet it is one of the most important case studies in leadership and logistics and the principles of war that can be constructed. What is more challenging than leadership in the face of abject adversity? Yet Lee survived and lived to fight for nearly two more years and Meade continued to pursue the destruction of Lee’s army until Grant arrived nine months later to bring on the penultimate campaign of this bloody conflict. There are very few groups that study the retreat from Gettysburg. Indeed, there are only a handful of experts on the subject and two have recently died. Only John Schildt and Kent Masterson Brown remain. Indeed, it is Brown who has given us the most exhaustive and informative narrative of the days of retreat.
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Retreat from Gettysburg
RETREAT FROM GETTYSBURG LEE, LOGISTICS AND THE PENNSYLVANIA CAMPAIGN THE AFTERMATH OF THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG Produced by Witnessing History, LLC © All Rights Reserved. TMW MEDIA GROUP 2321 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice, CA 90291 (310) 577-8581 Fax: (310) 574-0886 Email: [email protected] Web: www.tmwmedia.com L4839DVD “Mind-Growing Media since 1985” Teachers Guide © 2013 TMW MEDIA GROUP, Inc. PROGRAM OVERVIEW: DISCUSSION TOPICS/QUESTIONS: Based upon the critically-acclaimed and award-win- 1. Explain the situation of General Robert E. Lee’s 8. What was General Lee’s first movement of his army ning book, Retreat From Gettysburg: Lee, Logistics & army after the fighting ended at Gettysburg. after the fighting ended at Gettysburg and before he the Pennsylvania Campaign. began his retreat; and why was that movement 2. What was the importance of all the purchased, necessary? Highly praised, this documentary takes the viewer impressed and confiscated goods (cattle, sheep, on the very roads used by Lee’s Army and immense forage, horses, mules, wagons, grains and other 9. What is the military objective of a retreat after a lost wagon trains, as well as the key sites along those items) to General Lee’s army? battle? roads where Lee established defenses that delayed or defeated advances by General Meade’s Union forces. 3. Would General Lee’s Confederate army have sur- vived in Virginia without it invading Pennsylvania, Magnificent aerial footage takes you to the battlefields, and, if not, why? roads, mountain passes and Potomac River crossings. This unforgettable documentary is lavishly illustrated 4. Describe the number and situation of the wounded with period photographs, reenactments of critical mo- soldiers in General Lee’s army, and how did Lee ments in the retreat, animated battle maps and rare determine to take them back to Virginia? works of art.
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Marching Through Pennsylvania
MARCHING THROUGH PENNSYLVANIA: THE STORY OF SOLDIERS AND CIVILIANS DURING THE GETTYSBURG CAMPAIGN by JASON MANN FRAWLEY Bachelor of Arts, 2000 Georgia Southern University Statesboro, Georgia Master of Arts, 2003 Georgia Southern University Statesboro, Georgia Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of AddRan College of Humanities and Social Sciences Texas Christian University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2008 Copyright by Jason Mann Frawley 2008 Acknowledgements This has always been the section I looked forward to writing most. Not only does it signify that I have completed my project but also that I have not traveled the weary path toward completion alone. While I certainly enjoy the pursuit of knowledge and find great pleasure in composing the narrative of history, I admittedly much prefer the opportunity to shine the light of appreciation on those people who have helped me through the difficult process. Granted, I will likely forget someone, and to him or her, I extend my deepest apologies Now, allow me thank the people who have helped me in what has been the most arduous journey of my academic career up to this point. First and foremost, I must thank my academic advisor, Dr. Steven E. Woodworth. He has been both a benevolent taskmaster and a generous friend. While our lunch-table conversations often diverged from the topic of history and led us into arguably more interesting and certainly more important areas of discussion, we always managed to find our way back to the task at hand. I could not have asked for a better mentor, and while I had the opportunity to go elsewhere, I know that I made the correct decision in choosing to study at Texas Christian University.
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A Midnight Battle Along the Mason Dixon Line the Battle of Monterey Pass W
Monterey Pass Battlefield Park A Midnight Battle along the Mason Dixon Line www.montereypassbattlefield.org The Battle of Monterey Pass w During the early morning hours of July 4, 1863, Confederate Major General Robert E. Lee ordered the withdraw of his Confederate Army from Gettysburg. General Lee had decided to use Monterey Pass as the main route for the retreat. Monterey Pass was the shortest and most direct route from Gettysburg, PA to Williamsport, MD, for access to the Potomac River. The first to leave Pennsylvania were the wagons trains. At Monterey Pass, the reserve wagon train under the command of Major John Harman was the first to move. Following behind was the wagon train of General Richard Ewell’s Corps. A portion of a wagon train belonging to General A. P. Hill’s Corps was bringing up the rear. A total of about fifty miles worth of wagons would travel through Monterey Pass. During the same afternoon, seven miles to the east of Monterey Pass at Emmitsburg, Maryland, Union General Judson Kilpatrick's cavalry division came into town. Kilpatrick’s cavalry division was ordered to locate, harass, and block the avenue of retreat at South Mountain. By 3:00 p.m., Kilpatrick’s cavalry, consisting of 5,000 mounted soldiers and sixteen pieces of rifled artillery, left Emmitsburg and headed toward the mountain. Union General Judson Kilpatrick Toward evening, at Fountaindale, Charles H. Buhrman, a local farmer, learned of the Confederate retreat at Monterey Pass, as well as the capture of several local citizens. He mounted his horse and traveled toward Emmitsburg looking for Federal soldiers in area.
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Charles H. Buhrman 11
Charles H. Buhrman 11 Charles H. Buhrman (1837-1912) Methodist Layman Methodist layman and entrepreneur Charles H. Buhrman was the oldest of 3 children of Samuel and Mary (Gordon) Buhrman. When his father died in 1861, he inherited the Monterey Inn. He also established a general store in Rouzerville in 1871. A wealthy and generous man, he provided a furnished house and a horse and buggy as a wedding present for each of his four children that lived to adulthood. He was a long-time member and trustee of the Rouzerville Methodist Episcopal Church and maintained a key leadership position in the congregation. He supported the church in every way and donated the parsonage. His Monterey resort connected him with many of America's most famous families, and it was in a cottage owned by Buhrman that Bessie Wallis Warfield (1896-1986) [better known as Wallis Simpson, for whom Edward VIII abdicated the throne of England in 1936] was born! Buhrman was also the chief financial backer of George Frick – the Mennonite businessman who founded the large Frick Manufacturing Company of Waynesboro that produces boilers, refrigeration equipment, steam engines and other machinery. He is buried at Burns Hill Cemetery in Waynesboro with his first wife Anna Maria Green Buhrman (1836-1879), his second wife Eliza J. (1851-1899), and his final wife Molly J. Flanagan Buhrman (1859-1944). Also in the family plot are the graves of 2 daughters: Dean F. (1877-1894) [yes, Dean was a female!] and Fanny (1861-1863), whose cradle-shaped tombstone once contained a marble infant that has since been stolen.
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