Lee vs. McClellan by Clayton R. Newell

Author:Clayton R. Newell [Newell, Clayton R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781621574286
Publisher: Regnery Publishing

CHAPTER NINE

Lee Goes to the Front

THE CONFEDERATE VICTORY at Manassas Junction changed the character of the campaign in western Virginia. Garnett’s death on July 13 necessitated a change in command for the Confederates in northwest Virginia, and McClellan’s recall to Washington nine days later left the Federals with a new theater commander. During July and August, with changes in senior commanders for the Federal and Confederate forces in western Virginia, both sides underwent a period of reorganization and transition. As a result of the setback at Manassas Junction, the Federals moved on the defensive to consolidate their positions in the mountains, while the Confederates, with increased confidence after their recent victory, began to plan an offensive campaign to push the Federals out of western Virginia.

As the senior Confederate officer in northwestern Virginia, Brigadier General Henry Rootes Jackson, a Georgian judge, had assumed command of the Confederate forces upon Garnett’s death. Jackson had been elected to the Confederate Congress, but his experience as the colonel of the First Georgia Volunteers in the Mexican War prompted him to enter military service, and he received a brigadier general’s commission in the Confederate army in June. After the Confederate reverses at Rich Mountain and Corrick’s Ford, Jackson had kept his head and rallied the remaining forces at Monterey and disposed them for defense as best he could, but he had no real desire to remain in command in western Virginia.1

Even before the Confederate victory at Manassas Junction, Lee had dispatched a new commander to take over from Jackson, Brigadier General Loring, a one-armed veteran of the Mexican War. A native of North Carolina, Loring joined the Florida Militia at the age of fourteen and earned the title “Boy Soldier” during the Seminole War. He received a direct commission as a captain in the Regiment of Mounted Riflemen in the regular army at the beginning of the Mexican War where he earned two brevets before being wounded in the arm during the fighting at Chapultepec. According to Doctor H. H. Steiner, when Loring learned the damaged arm had to be amputated, he “laid aside a cigar, sat quietly in a chair without opiates to relieve the pain, and allowed the arm to be cut off without a murmur or a groan.” His men later buried the arm near where he was wounded “with the hand pointing toward the City of Mexico.” Staying with the Mounted Riflemen after the Mexican War, Loring became colonel of the regiment in December 1856, where he remained until he resigned from the U.S. army on May 13, 1861. He received a brigadier general’s commission in the Confederate army a week later. Loring departed Richmond the day after the battle at Manassas Junction with a small staff and assumed command of the Confederate forces in northwestern Virginia on July 24 at Monterey, where Jackson had gathered together what was left of Garnett’s army. While the Confederates had a tough, experienced commander in Loring, command of Southern forces in western Virginia still remained fragmented.

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