Gettysburg's Southern Front

Opportunity and Failure at Richmond
Erscheinungsjahr 2022
ISBN: 978-0-7006-3347-0
Verlag: University Press of Kansas

Buch, Englisch, 424 Seiten, Hardback, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 735 g

On June 14, 1863, US Major General John Adams Dix received the following directive from General-in-Chief Henry Halleck: “All your available force should be concentrated to threaten Richmond, by seizing and destroying their railroad bridges over the South and North Anna Rivers, and do them all the damage possible.” With General Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia marching toward Gettysburg and only a limited Confederate force guarding Richmond, Halleck sensed a rare opportunity for the Union cause.In response, Dix, who had lived a life of considerable public service but possessed limited military experience, gathered his men and began a slow advance. During the ensuing operation, 20,000 US troops would threaten the Confederate capital and seek to cut the railroads supplying Lee’s army in Pennsylvania. To some, Dix’s campaign presented a tremendous chance for US forces to strike hard at Richmond while Lee was off in Pennsylvania. To others, it was an unnecessary lark that tied up units deployed more effectively in protecting Washington and confronting Lee's men on Northern soil.In this study, Newsome offers an in-depth look into this little-known Federal advance against Richmond during the Gettysburg Campaign. The first full-length examination of Dix’s venture, this volume not only delves into the military operations at the time, but also addresses concurrent issues related to diplomacy, US war policy, and the involvement of enslaved people in the Federal offensive.Gettysburg’s Southern Front also points to the often-unrecognized value in examining events of the US Civil War beyond the larger famous battles and campaigns. At the time, political and military leaders on both sides carefully weighed Dix’s efforts at Richmond and understood that the offensive had the potential to generate dramatic results. In fact, this piece of the Gettysburg Campaign may rank as one of the Union war effort’s more compelling lost opportunities in the East, one that could have changed the course of the conflict.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Amerikanische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Militärgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- List of Maps
- Introduction
- Part One: An Opportunity in Virginia
- 1. Lee Heads North
- 2. John Dix and the Department of Virginia
- 3. The Union Raid on Aylett’s Foundry
- 4. Halleck’s Plans to Counter Lee’s Invasion
- 5. Richmond’s Defenders
- Part Two: Spear’s Strike against the Virginia Central
- 6. Dix Begins His Peninsula Campaign
- 7. Spear’s Raid to the South Anna
- 8. Rooney Lee's Capture
- 9. Rebel Diplomacy
- 10. Richmond Prepares
- Part Three: The Blackberry Raid
- 11. Dix Prepares the Second Wave
- 12. Keyes’s Advance to Bottom's Bridge
- 13. The Fight at Crump’s Crossroads
- 14. Getty’s Expedition to the South Anna
- 15. To the RF&P Bridge
- 16. The Attack on the RF&P Bridge
- Part Four: In Gettysburg’s Wake
- 17. The Peace Mission
- 18. The End at Richmond
- 19. Halleck’s Bootless Plans
- Part Five: Conclusion: Looking Back
- 20. The Forgotten Campaign
- 21. Questions of Supply
- 22. The Broader Scope
- Appendix A: Federal Order of Battle
- Appendix B: Confederate Order of Battle
- Acknowledgments
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- Photo gallery appears following page 143

Über Autor(innen)

Hampton Newsome is the author of Richmond Must Fall: The Richmond-Petersburg Campaign, October 1864 and The Fight for the Old North State: The Civil War in North Carolina, January-May 1864.