Upon the Fields of Battle by Andrew S. Bledsoe Andrew F. Lang

Author:Andrew S. Bledsoe, Andrew F. Lang [Andrew S. Bledsoe, Andrew F. Lang]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Classics, Kids, Teen, Fiction, General Fiction
ISBN: 9780807169773
Goodreads: 38799763
Publisher: LSU Press
Published: 2018-11-07T00:00:00+00:00

NOTES

1. A note on source material: This essay is based almost entirely on sources written during or soon after the event. In reviewing items written after the war, it quickly became apparent that writers often minimized or even dismissed the events that were so plainly and vividly described in 1862. Indeed, the contrast between wartime and postwar sources relating to the looting and bombardment of Fredericksburg would itself make an excellent case study in the evolution of memory and forgetting.

2. “The Fredericksburg Disaster”—a letter from ‘J.F.’ [of the Irish Brigade],” Dec. 23, 1862, Irish American Weekly, Jan. 17, 1863.

3. “The Progress of the Decisive Campaign,” Philadelphia Inquirer, Dec. 16, 1862; Letter of “W.S.W.” [Lt. William S. Walton, 34th New York], Herkimer (NY) County Journal, Dec. 25, 1862.

4. Two outstanding analytical narratives of the Battle of Fredericksburg are George C. Rable, Fredericksburg! Fredericksburg! (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002); and Francis Augustín O’Reilly, The Fredericksburg Campaign: Winter War on the Rappahannock (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2003).

5. The most obvious case study of a general caught in the crosswinds of a changing war is George B. McClellan, and the most balanced work on this topic is Ethan Rafuse, McClellan’s War: The Failure of Moderation in the Struggle for the Union (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005).

6. “The Army of the Rappahannock (From Our Own Correspondent),” Richmond Examiner, Dec. 18, 1862. The Examiner’s correspondent in the town was former resident James B. Sener, a part owner of the Democratic Recorder, who relocated to Richmond when war forced Fredericksburg’s local papers out of print. Sener’s dispatches from Fredericksburg to the Examiner in late 1862 and into 1863 are outstanding and underutilized sources for life in that war-torn town.

7. For McDowell’s strength at Fredericksburg, see Irvin McDowell to his wife, June 15, 1862, McDowell Letters, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park (hereafter referred to as FSNMP), copy.

8. The general order governing foraging, dated May 7, 1862, appears in “McDowell Court of Inquiry,” U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, 70 vols. in 128 pts. (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1880–1901), ser. 1, 12(1):51 [hereafter cited as OR, all items from ser. 1]. Haupt testified to the requirement to leave sufficient supplies for the subsistence of the affected family. Ibid., 77. See also Davis Tillson’s testimony, ibid., 80. For an expression of support for McDowell’s practices in the field, see “The Intent and Spirit of the War,” Springfield (MA) Republican, May 21, 1862.

9. Letter of “C” (20th New York State Militia), Apr. 29, 1862, Kingston (NY) Argus, May 7, 1862. Edmund Schriver, McDowell’s chief of staff, testified to the rebuilding of Lacy’s fences. OR, 12(1):105. See also unattributed correspondence, Philadelphia Sunday Dispatch, Jan.18, 1863.

10. In late 1862 the government—at McDowell’s request—convened a court of inquiry to examine the general’s acts in the field. The proceedings of that court include a trove of material reflecting on the army’s interactions with civilians in and around Fredericksburg.

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