The Battle of the Crater (also known as The Mine) took place on July 30, 1864 in Petersburg, Virginia.  Union forces under the command of Major General Ambrose E. Burnside exploded a mine and created a large gap in the Confederate protection of Petersburg.  However, the Confederate Major General William Mahone and his forces responded with various counterattacks that resulted in high casualties for the Union forces, especially the United States Colored Troop Regiments present.  The National Parks Service website provides a detailed summary of the Battle of the Crater that includes several sketches of the battlefield.  The Civil War Preservation Trust’s website offers several resources on the battle such as an article on the Petersburg Campaign and short biographies of Union General Burnside and Confederate General Robert E. Lee.  John F. Schmutz recounted the battle in his book, The Battle of the Crater: A Complete History: 

“Whenever the first division attempted to advance out of the Crater, they were soon met by intense fire from the Confederate infantry, which had by then recovered its composure after the explosion and bombardment, as well as the Rebel artillery, which had found the range on the Federals in the Crater.  Many were hit not only from the exposed flanks, but also from the rear, as the Confederates reoccupied the transverses and entrenchments to the right and left of the Crater.  These men had recovered their equanimity and when the Union attempted to re-form on the Confederate side of the Crater, the Rebels faced about and delivered a fire into the backs of the Federals.  Coming so unexpectedly, this caused the forming line to fall back into the Crater.”

Another resource which may be interesting to browse is Edward Alexander Porter’s Fighting for the Confederacy: the Personal Recollections of General Edward Alexander Porter which provides a firsthand account of the battle from the Confederate perspective.  Also available on Google Books as a preview is Earl Hess’s In the Trenches at Petersburg which gives a summary of the action at the Crater as well as a map of the battlefield.  The Battle of the Crater could be connected to a lesson on United States Colored Troops in the Civil War as a previous post on Blog Divided gives details on the participation of the 43rd USCT Regiment during the battle.  For further reading, Gregory J.W. Urwin’s Black Flag over Dixie and John David Smith’s Black Soldiers in Blue: African American Troops in the Civil War Era both  provide an account of the experiences of black soldiers during the Battle of the Crater.

The Republican Party held its second national convention beginning at noon on May 16, 1860 in Chicago.  The presidential nominees included the veteran statesmen Edward Bates, Salmon P. Chase, Simon Cameron, and William H. Seward, as well as a new senator from Illinois, Abraham Lincoln.  Although Seward was the favorite going into the convention and led the nominees on the first two ballots, Lincoln won the Republican presidential candidacy. Republican delegates had looked to back the candidate they felt could generate the most electoral support.  Horace Greeley, the editor of the New York Tribune, had the ears of 48 delegates.  Greeley’s battle cry was “anyone but Seward!” and initially gave his support to Bates.  According to Greeley’s recent biographer Robert Chadwell Williams, as Lincoln began closing in on Seward in the third ballot, Greeley shifted his 48 votes over to Lincoln, giving him the candidacy.

This Currier & Ives political cartoon shows Seward drowning of the pier after being pushed in by Greeley (the figure in the top hat). Drawn by Louis Maurer and published in 1860, “Impending Crisis” satirizes the influential role of newspapermen in Civil War-era politics.  Henry J. Raymond (in the police uniform), founder of the New York Times, also helped write the charter of the Republican Party in 1856 and later was a New York Representative.  James Watson Webb (on the left dressed as a newspaper boy), editor of Courier & Esquirer, recently threw his support behind the Republican Party.  The title of the cartoon refers the book written by Hinton Rowan Helper in 1857, The Impending Crisis of the South: How to Meet It, which denounced slavery from an economic viewpoint—slavery prevented a diverse economy, disadvantaging poor Southerners. Although Seward is undergoing the crisis of losing the Republican presidential candidacy in this cartoon, he would become Lincoln’s Secretary of State, a member of a cabinet filled with Lincoln’s previous political rivals.

Richard Lee Turberville Beale, born on May 22, 1819 to a wealthy and well-known couple in Hickory Hill, Virginia, began his boyhood education in various academies in Virginia before moving northward to Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. After graduating with the Class of 1838, Beale practiced law before being elected to the United States House of Representatives as a Democrat from Virginia. His two-year term (1847 to 1849) in office did not end his political career, as he served in the Congress again from 1879 to 1881. The intervening years included Beale’s service in the Confederate army. Enlisted in May 1861, Beale served in the 9th Virginia Cavalry until he became the leading colonel of the regiment. He recalled in his self-composed History of the 9th Va. Cavalry (1899), partially available on Google Books, his service during the army’s invasion into Pennsylvania and, later, Carlisle in 1863. The subsequent shelling of the town on July 1st evoked a nostalgic response, for as the “United States barracks blazed…[and] women screamed,” Beale noted that “recollections of boyhood were vividly recalled, as, when a student at Dickinson College, he had hunted over these grounds with his comrades, crossed the Yellow Breeches creek in a cider-trough and eaten lunch at a little spring up on the mountainside.”

Beale married Lucy Brown prior to enlisting in the army and raised six children. Because Beale owned thirty-eight slaves as well as farmland, he could provide for his family. (Of the slaves he owned, eighteen were male and twenty female, which included seventeen children and twenty-one adults.) Before he died on April 18, 1893, Beale saw his eldest son, George William Beale, marry and have children of his own.

After the Civil War ended, Beale’s account of the 9th Virginia Cavalry was found and, with assistance from George, became the published version of History of the 9thVa. Cavalry in 1899. George wrote in the introduction of the memoir that it provided an apt recognition of his father’s service and the “Southern devotion and valor” of other soldiers belonging to the 9th Virginia Cavalry.

George was born to Richard and Lucy between 1842 and 1843. He eventually entered the Civil War alongside his father in Company C of the 9th Virginia Cavalry as a lieutenant. Much of his service can be found in his own memoirs entitled A Lieutenant of Cavalry in Lee’s Army (1918). Much of his account of the war includes letters to his mother, including one that discussed the “conflagration at Carlisle” on the night of July 1st.

George and Mary A. Beale, married in 1879, raised five surviving children. George kept the Beale family’s prominence in Virginia, as seen in an address he gave in Montross, Virginia in 1910.

The Battle of Gaines’ Mill took place on June 27, 1862 in Hanover County, Virginia and was the third of the Seven Days’ Battles and its largest engagement. After the battle of Beaver Dam Creek, Union Major General George B. McClellan determined to change his base to the James River in order to protect his Army of the Potomac from what he felt was a much superior Confederate Army. Confederate General Robert E. Lee unleashed a relentless attack against Union Brigadier General Fitz John Porter throughout the day. McClellan driven by fear and indecision was convinced that his Union Army was vastly outnumbered and failed to provide adequate reinforcements for Porter’s V Corps. As the battle raged, the Confederate Army awaited the arrival of Major General Stonewall Jackson to turn the tide in the battle. Jackson arrived later than Lee expected which proved costly for the Confederate soldiers. By the time Lee executed his all out attack on the Union Army with Jackson present, it was 7 P.M. and darkness was approaching.

The final assault from the Confederate Army was successful in finally breaking Porter’s line. McClellan eventually provided reinforcements but only about one tenth of the forces he had at his disposal. The Union troops arrived just as Porter’s soldiers fell back into a retreat. The Confederate Army pushed McClellan’s army into a further retreat, ending the Union General’s hopes for capturing Richmond and gave Lee his first major victory of the campaign. The battle was not won without staggering losses from both sides. Estimated casualties for the Confederates totaled 8,700 while the Federals suffered 6,800. McClellan avoided a major defeat but felt that his Army was vastly inferior to the Confederacy, something that would plague McClellan and the Union Army for the rest of his tenure as general-in-chief of the Union Army. In a telegram sent to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, McClellan professed:

“I have lost this battle because my force was too small…The Government has not sustained this army….If I save this army now, I tell you plainly that I owe no thanks to you or to any other persons in Washington. You have done your best to sacrifice this army.”

The Civil War Preservation Trust website provides a wealth of information on the battle including images, maps, recommended readings, online resources and scholarly articles. The Official Virginia Civil War Battlefield Guide by John S. Salmon is partially available on Google Books and offers a clear overview of the battle with maps and gives directions and information for visiting the battlefield. One of best reviewed and definitive accounts of the battle is featured in Stephen W. Sears’ To the Gates of Richmond: The Peninsula Campaign. For primary accounts from both sides, consult volume 11 of the Official Records.

The Battle of Petersburg, also known as the Assault on Petersburg, took place from June 15-18, 1864 in the city of Petersburg, Virginia.  Led by Union General Ulysses S. Grant, the Union forces left Cold Harbor and attacked the Confederate forces under the command of General Pierre Beauregard.  General William F. Smith’s failure to take advantage of the low number of Confederate forces initially present allowed General Robert E. Lee to send reinforcements and the Confederates were able to defend Petersburg from capture.  This battle marked the beginning of the siege of Petersburg.  The National Park Service’s website includes an overview on the opening of the fighting as well as short biographies  on the commanding officers for each army.  The website also offers lesson plans, travel trunks, and information for teachers on planning a field trip to the battleground.  The Civil War Preservation Trust’s website  provides a list for recommended reading, historical articles, and quick facts on the Battle of Petersburg.  Beauregard commented  on the mistakes of the Union forces that prevented the capture of Petersburg:

“Strange to say, General Smith contented himself with breaking into our lines, and attempted nothing further that night.  All the more strange was this inaction on his part, since General Hancock, with his strong and well-equipped Second Army Corps, had also been hurried to Petersburg, and was actually there, or in the immediate vicinity of the town, on the evening of the 15th.  He had informed General Smith of the arrival of his command and the readiness of his two divisions- Birney’s and Gibbon’s- to give him whatever assistance he might require.  Petersburg at that hour was clearly at the mercy of the Federal commander, who had all but captured it, and only failed of final success because he could not realize the fact of the unparalleled disparity between the two contending forces.”

Some other resources that may be useful are Armistead Long’s Memoirs of Robert E. Lee: His Military and Personal History and Ulysses S. Grant’s Personal Memoirs which could provide opposing views of the Battle of Petersburg from the Union and Confederate commanding generals.  In terms of modern scholarship, James McPherson’s Battle Cry of Freedom is available as a preview on Google Books and contains a concise summary of the events of the battle.  The Battle of Petersburg could be related to a lesson on black soldiers and their role in the Civil War as the 6th and 43rd United States Colored Troop  Regiments either fought in this particular battle or in the following battles during the siege of Petersburg.  The National Park Service also provides an article on black soldiers at the siege which may be helpful to browse.

The Election of 1860 mirrored the divided nature of the United States both in the presidential candidates and the voting results.  The four major candidates represented three parties, a result of sectional discord: Stephen Douglas (northern Democratic party), John Breckinridge (southern Democratic party), Abraham Lincoln (Republican party), and John Bell (Constitutional Union party).  This pro-Breckinridge political cartoon shows Douglas (on the left) and Lincoln (on the right) duking in out in a boxing ring, while Breckinridge points towards the White House with one hand and thumbs his nose (a sign of disrespect) at the boxers with the other.  The boxers’ coaches reflect the stereotypical perception of their constituency: an Irishman backs Douglas, reflecting the northern Democrats, while a black man coaches Lincoln, the antislavery-Republican candidate.  According to the artist, who may have published this cartoon in Cincinnati, Breckinridge could slip into the White House while Douglas and Lincoln were preoccupied with their “political prize fight.” Although the cheering line of gentlemen on the path to the White House would reflect the lower-Southern states’ unanimous support of Breckinridge, the split nature of the Democratic party helped enable Lincoln’s electoral victory.

American Political Prints, 1766-1876 (1991) catalogues Library of Congress’s collections, giving a brief contextual summary as well as the date and place of publication for their political images.  The book’s introduction briefly explains the history of American printmaking and also includes a selected bibliography for further research.

Early on the morning of July 1, 1863 Union soldiers met Confederate General Robert E. Lee in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania after his initial invasion into the state. The first of three days of battle centered around Gettysburg and saw a promising start for the Confederate force. Confederates successfully pushed Union soldiers out of the town and left the latter force with one of the only remaining defensive positions in the area – Cemetery Hill – located southeast of Gettysburg. After the fighting ceased around 4:30PM, Union General George G. Meade and other military leaders oversaw the arrival of Union reinforcements and prepared for the next day’s battle. Meanwhile, Lee’s forces began securing their occupation of the town and planning the logistics for the new offensive strategy the general had undertaken.

A broad research engine will yield several thousand resources and images pertaining to the Battle of Gettysburg and its first day of combat. Navigating through these sources only highlights a select few that offer a clear, accurate, and useful resource for lesson plans and scholarly research. Fortunately, the National Archives collection of Civil War photographs includes those taken of casualties in the battle and the House Divided record of the battle offers historical maps of the area. Military dispatches from the first day contained in The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, as provided by Cornell University’s Making of America collection, cover the preceding day through to the last dispatch on the evening of July 1^st. By combining each of these online resources into a short film on the Battle of Gettysburg, the U.S. Army’s website offers educators an easily navigable and short exploration of how the battle began and concluded.

Some historians separate the first day of combat in Gettysburg from the rest of the battle. Educators and scholars can view many of these close explorations in part on Google Books, including Warren W. Hassler, Jr.’s The First Day at Gettysburg: Crisis at the Crossroads (1970) and The First Day at Gettysburg: Essays on Confederate and Union Leadership (Edited by Gary W. Gallagher, 1992). More recent publications do not treat the first day as a separate entity, but they expand the historiography of the battle, as seen in Margaret S. Creighton’s The Colors of Courage: Gettysburg’s Forgotten History (2005) and its focus on immigrants and women affected by the battle. For educators searching for modern scholarship on the battle as a symbol of the Civil War and legend in American history, Thomas A. Desjardin’s These Honored Dead: How the Story of Gettysburg Shaped American Memory (2003) revisits the popular story of the Battle of Gettysburg and the persistent myths one can trace back to the first day of combat.

Charles Rawn, a lawyer who lived in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, wrote over 11,000 daily entries between 1830 and 1865. The entire journal is now online thanks to the efforts of Pennsylvania University State Professor Michael Barton and the Historical Society of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. Rawn, who was born in Georgetown in July 1802, moved to Harrisburg in 1826 and got married seven years later. His journal entries largely contain notes about his daily life – from various legal matters to financial expenditures. While “he rarely mentioned grand ideas or personal feelings in his daily record,” Professor Barton argues that “[these] records are valuable guides to understanding everyday life in antebellum America.” Rawn was a “record keeper rather than a story teller,” as Baron explains. Yet Rawn’s journals include some interesting notes about political events in Harrisburg, including President-Elect Abraham Lincoln’s visit in 1861. On February 22 Rawn described:

“[Lincoln] rode in a Barouche drawn by 6 White Horses to Coverlys Hotel where he was addressed by Gov. Curtain & [replied?]. The enthusiasm of the people was perfectly and literally wild & unrestrainable…. Altogether it was such a day & time as Harrisburg has never before witnessed. The number Military here in time of the Buckshot Wars was approached nearly perhaps to the number here yesterday. Mr. L’s appearance is younger considerably than was generally expected and he is not so tall [nor so?] Rawboned as we had been given to believe from his pictures and what we had read.”

In addition, Rawn took detailed notes when he traveled into Virginia three months after Confederates attacked Fort Sumter in April 1861. On July 22, 1861, the day after the First Battle of Bull Run, Rawn observed:

“Dead, wounded and dying being brought in continually. I saw several of the wounded. One man with a Buck shot in the neck….From all accounts which of course are measurably wild and unforgettable [?] in a degree the slaughter on both sides has been immense—in the thousands. There was desperate fighting—desperate fright in some quarters and desperate getting out of the way in all many directions and in all imaginable disorder by some of our troops as I make out by the statements.”

The Battle of Milliken’s Bend took place on June 7, 1863 in Madison Parish, Louisiana and represented one of the most famous and courageous episodes for Black troops during the Civil War. While the opposition of Black troops in the Union Army persisted, the effort and bravery of the soldiers at Milliken’s Bend inspired the Union, beginning to convince the nation of the merit of Black troops and debunking the myth that Black soldiers would not fight.

In order to boost the strength of his Army for an attack on the Confederate-controlled city of Vicksburg, Union General Ulysses S. Grant stripped his forts along the Mississippi river including the 150-yard wide Union camp Milliken’s Bend that laid fifteen feet above the right bank of the Mississippi. Of the 1410 soldiers left at Milliken’s Bend, 160 were whites, a part of the 23rd Iowa. The others were ex-slaves from Mississippi and Louisiana that were organized into three incomplete regiments, the 9th and 11th Louisiana and the 1st Mississippi.

The Confederates launched an attack on Milliken’s Bend on the night of June 6 led by Confederate Brigadier General Henry E. McCulloch who planned to attack at night to avoid the heat and reduce the amount of assistance the fort’s defenders could receive from the Union gunboats. By 2:30 AM on June 7, the Confederate regiments encountered the Union pickets. With the order to withhold their fire until the Rebels were within musket-shot range, the battle turned into a bloody and scathing hand-to-hand fight noted as the longest bayonet-charge engagement of the war. By noon, the Federal warship Choctaw sent by Acting Rear Admiral David D. Porter turned the tide of battle firing shells on the Confederate Army causing the soldiers, already exhausted from the extreme heat to retreat.

The estimated casualties were high for the Black troops. Union Colonel Herman Lieb’s 9th Louisiana regiment sustained 66 killed and 62 mortally wounded, almost 45 percent of the entire regiment. Despite their losses, the greater significance of the battle lies with the effort and gallantry of the Black troops. Admiral Porter described the aftermath in a letter to General Grant, “The dead Negroes lined the ditch inside of the parapet or levee and were mostly shot on the top of the head. In front of them, close to the levee, lay an equal number of rebels, stinking in the sun.”

The Battle of Milliken’s Bend produced a change in army sentiment about Black troops that gradually echoed throughout the Union. Assistant Secretary of War Charles A. Dana noted their accomplishment proclaiming, “The bravery of the blacks at Milliken’s Bend completely revolutionized the sentiment of the arm with regard to the employment of negro troops.” One of the most widespread testimonies on the battle was from Captain M.M. Miller, a white captain of the 9^th Louisiana who commented, “I never more wish to hear the expression ‘the nigger won’t fight.” Come with me a 100 yards from where I sit and I can show you the wounds that cover the bodies of 16 as brave, loyal and patriotic soldiers as ever drew bead on a rebel.” Black historian W.E. DuBois eloquently described the transformation of the Black solider from slave to man:

“He was called a coward and a fool when he protected the women and children of his master. But when he rose and fought and killed, the whole nation proclaimed him a man and brother. Nothing else made emancipation possible in the United States. Nothing else made Negro citizenship conceivable, but the record of the Negro soldier as a fighter.”

A useful general interest website for teachers and students appears online at Milliken’s Bend:  Honoring the Contributions of Black Soldiers in the Civil War (edited by Louis Elloie, Jr.)

One of the more complete descriptions of the battle can be found in Benjamin Quarles’ The Negro in the Civil War, one of the leading secondary sources on Black troops which is partially available of Google Books. Martha M. Bigelow’s article “The Significance of Milliken’s Bend in the Civil War” provides a good overview on the battle and highlights the significance of the Negro troops. For primary materials on the battle, teachers should utilize the Official Records, volume 24 for reports on the battle including ones from Union Admiral David Porter and Confederate General Henry E. McCulloch. Also available from the Library of Congress are the Papers of Cyrus Sears, 11th Louisiana.

On November 23-25, 1863 the Battle of Chattanooga took place in Hamilton County, Tennessee.  Beginning in late September, the Confederate forces under the direction of General Braxton Bragg  placed Major General William Rosecrans’s Union forces under siege and cut off its supply line.  In October and November, Union General Ulysses S. Grant and the Union soldiers were able to capture Orchard Knob, Lookout Mountain, and also forced the Confederates off of Missionary Ridge.  The National Park Service’s website provides an overview of the battle as well as information on planning a visit to the battlefield.  The website also offers two pamphlets that may be useful: The Campaign for Chattanooga (1932) and Chickamauga and Chattanooga Battlefields (1956). The battle could be connected to a lesson on Sherman’s March to the Sea in 1864 since Union General William T. Sherman was able to use Chattanooga as the base for his march as a result of the Union victory in 1863.  Grant commented on Chattanooga in his memoirs:

“Sherman had, as already stated, crossed to the north side of the Tennessee River at Brown’s ferry, in full view of the troops on Missionary Ridge until they met their assault.  Bragg knew it was Sherman’s troops that had crossed, and, they being so long out of view, may have supposed that they had gone up the north bank of the Tennessee River to the relief of Knoxville and that Longstreet was therefore in danger.  But the first great blunder, detaching Longstreet, cannot be accounted for in any way I know of.  If he had captured Chattanooga, East Tennessee would have fallen without a struggle.  It would have been a victory for us to have got our army away from Chattanooga safely.  It was a manifold greater victory to drive away the besieging army; a still greater one to defeat that army in his chosen ground and nearly annihilate it.” 

Some other resources that may be helpful to browse are Battles and Leaders of the Civil War which gives a firsthand account of the campaign and battle from General Grant, and Three Days Battle at Chattanooga which provides a copy of the dispatch on the battle from General Meigs to the Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton.  The Library of Congress’s website contains a few different letters with transcriptions, including one from General Grant reporting the beginning of the conflict and one reporting its end.  Also, the Civil War Preservation Trust’s website provides historical articles on the battle, including “Chattanooga, Lookout Mountain, and Missionary Ridge Battles” that gives a detailed summary of the actions and consequences for the Union and Confederate forces at each location.