2015 Civil War Travelogues — Mosby Heritage Area Association Conference

Welcome to my 2015 travelogue pages, commemorating the fifth year of the Civil War Sesquicentennial! This report covers my October trip to the Mosby Heritage Area Association Conference on the Art of Command in the Civil War, July 2, 1863, Gettysburg, The Second Day. This was my fifth Mosby conference. To see the entire list of my 2015 trips, go here.

Here is a reminder about the reason I write these pages the way I do. They record my experiences and impressions of Civil War trips primarily for my future use. Thus, they sometimes make assumptions about things I already know and focus on insights that I receive. They are not general-purpose descriptions for people unfamiliar with the Civil War, although I do link to various Wikipedia articles throughout. Apologies about the quality of interior photographs—I don't take fancy cameras with big flashes to these events. If you would like to be notified of new travelogues, connect to me via Facebook.

This report is the first time I have included (all) photographs from my new iPhone 6S.

Friday, October 2

I flew out from San Francisco to arrive Thursday night. These East Coast conferences always seem to start at a time that I cannot reach without flying the night before. (I am definitely not a redeye kind of a person.) I was quite concerned about the weather forecast for the long weekend, with the impending Hurricane Joaquin ready to dump multiple inches of rain each day and threaten serious flooding. So concerned, in fact, that I actually considered canceling the trip. But I crossed my fingers and Joaquin headed out to sea and the rain received over the weekend was considerably less than the original forecasts.

There really are not any reasonable hotel options (in my price range, anyway) in Middleburg, so I stayed in Chantilly as I usually do, this time at the Hampton Inn, which is pretty decent with quiet rooms, good Wi-Fi, and good free breakfast. I took two excursions before the conference started at 4 PM. The first was to the Fairfax Museum, which had a nice small exhibition of Edwin Forbes prints. Forbes was a renowned sketch artist during the Civil War and I was hoping to see some of his original work, but the exhibition, on loan from the Virginia Historical Society, consisted entirely of prints of sketches he did in 1889—expert, interesting drawings, but lacking the immediacy of originals sketched on the battlefield. There were also the standing exhibits about the history of the town of Fairfax.

My second stop was not far from the hotel, the Udvar-Hazy Center of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, next to Dulles airport. I arrived just as one of the frequent free highlights tours was starting, so I jumped on board. Our guide was a former Air Force pilot who then became a government contractor and he was quite knowledgeable and often entertaining. I had visited this museum annex once before and was very impressed, but it was still great the second time. The biggest new addition is the space shuttle Discovery, which replaced the former Enterprise test ship that was there previously (and is now in New York City, I think). The damn thing is really huge, something that you never get a handle on when you just see it on TV.

The Mosby conference started with opening remarks by Childs Burden, the president of the Mosby Heritage Area Association. The first historical talk was by Stuart Dempsey, someone I have not experienced before, but I thought he was excellent. He is a licensed battlefield guide and the proprietor of http://battlegroundhistorytours.com. His talk was titled "The New Guys: The Army of the Potomac’s June Reinforcements." The Army of the Potomac had a strength of 130,000 at Fredericksburg and 140,000 at Chancellorsville, but this was reduced to 80,000 by June 20, 1863, a loss of approximately 54 infantry regiments. The reason includes approximately 72,000 casualties, which were mostly replaced, but it also included the expiration of a number of two-year and nine-month enlistments. Hooker also voluntarily reduced the number of artillery batteries by 15, reckoning that he had insufficient infantry to guard them. At the start of the Gettysburg campaign, there were 14,000 new soldiers, and Stuart highlighted them by brigade: Two brigades of the Pennsylvania Reserves Division (the only division in the army that fought in every major battle of 1862), the Harpers Ferry brigade (the Cowards, as they were called), the Second Vermont brigade (with General Stannard replacing Edwin Stoughton, who had recently been captured by John Mosby at the Fairfax courthouse), Lockwood's brigade from the Baltimore area, and Kilpatrick's cavalry division (formerly under Julius Stahel). Stuart covered the history of each brigade and discussed their roles on the second day at Gettysburg.

The second speaker was originally scheduled to be Allen Guelzo with "Meade’s Council of War, July 2nd, 1863," but Prof. Guelzo was ill, so he was replaced at the last minute with John Michael Priest. I managed to misplace the formal title of his talk, but it consisted of about two dozen vignettes of Civil War soldiers and officers. He had a photograph of each and spent a couple of minutes talking about their roles in the battle on July 2. It was a very eclectic selection, sometimes making the cut entirely because the photograph looked unusual or the soldier had a funny name. Mike emphasized the weight of the war in their haunted expressions.

Childs graciously invited me to the speaker dinner after the presentations. There were about 20 of us at the Red Fox Tavern, and I had an excellent time and an excellent meal. I happened to sit next to Bob DeButts, who turned out to be the great-grandson of Robert E. Lee! (His mother was the daughter of Robert E. Lee, Jr, the general's youngest son.) Bob's wife, Adeline, on my other side, also happened to be somewhat interested in cartography, so we had a lively evening.

Saturday, October 3

We had a full day of presentations. First, following a nice continental breakfast, was Jim Hessler with "Sickles and Meade and The Great Controversy." Jim, a licensed battlefield guide who has written the most recent definitive book about Sickles, had a humorous slide that depicted the general as the O.J. Simpson of Gettysburg, as well as one that showed Hooker, Sickles, and Butterfield listed as the Drunk, Murderer, and Arsonist. He described the famous murder of Philip Barton Key as an indication that Sickles was an emotional decision maker. The most popular theory about Sickles at Gettysburg is that he was reacting to his bad experience with the artillery at Hazel Grove in Chancellorsville, but Jim thought that worrying about his flank (à la Howard at Chancellorsville) was an even more important factor. He went through an explanation of the interaction between Sickles and Meade on July 2 as well as the post battle controversies, taking a pretty neutral stand about whether Sickles was insubordinate and whether his effect on the battle was positive or negative.

Jeff Wert spoke on "‘An Army of Lions’ The Union Army at Gettysburg." He described Gettysburg as a reckoning, and that General Lee wanted to end the war (in addition to the normally stated reasons such as resupplying the army in Pennsylvania) by breaking the northern will. He put a lot of stock into the motivation of the Pennsylvania troops and officers defending their home ground and Pennsylvania as the place where both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were signed. In this focus, he did not strictly pay attention to the theme of July 2. The title of his talk is based on the quotation from a letter in which an army doctor described an "army of lions, commanded by jackasses." He concluded by saying that this time, at Gettysburg, there were fewer jackasses. An interesting tidbit that I did not know was that Winfield Scott Hancock was being considered to command the cavalry corps, but when Darius Couch resigned, Hancock took over his II Corps instead, which obviously had a big impact on this battle.

Robert K. Krick spoke on "Lee and Longstreet on July 2nd, 1863." This was essentially an anti-Longstreet exercise, leavened by Bob's usual biting humor. He called Longstreet a confirmed sulker, small minded, and mean spirited. Longstreet's uncooperative attitude after the war, criticizing Lee and others, was essentially a continuation of the way he acted during the war, according to Bob. At West Point, his class grade in Ethics was 55th out of 56. He did say that Longstreet was undoubtedly Lee's best subordinate. He called Porter Alexander an unimpeachable source, and suggested that we all buy copies of his memoirs from a used bookstore, because Gary Gallagher has already bought six Buicks with the proceeds from his editing of the book. He said that Robert Toombs was the worst commander in the Army of Northern Virginia and that William Pendleton's reminiscences about Lee and Longstreet at Gettysburg were bologna and hogwash. He especially criticized Longstreet delaying the start of his approach march on July 2 to wait for Law's brigade; delaying the attack itself for 1/9 of his force might have been excusable. But compared to Stonewall Jackson's march at Chancellorsville, Longstreet performed poorly that day.

Eric Wittenberg presented "Early’s Assault on East Cemetery Hill" and this was a standard tactical description, highlighted by good officer photographs and (Phil Laino) maps. This was a part of the battle I am pretty familiar with already, but it was good to get a refresher.

Christina Moon, a licensed battlefield guide I have not encountered before, presented "‘If History is Written Truthfully’: Freeman McGilvery at the Battle of Gettysburg." Christina's practically in love with McGilvery and artillery in general. Her talk was quite fast and dense in terms of the historical details of four batteries attacked by Barksdale and Kershaw in the Peach Orchard, as well as a blow-by-blow account of the battlefield action. She singled out Captain Bigelow of the 9th Massachusetts for special attention.

John Archer spoke on "Holding the Other Flank: Culp’s Hill and the 137th New York." This was also a rather standard tactical presentation about Culp's Hill, the controversy surrounding it on the afternoon of July 1, and the actions of David Ireland's regiment defending the extreme right of the Union line on July 2, as compared to the extreme left and Little Round Top (or as Eric Wittenberg called it, Joshua Top). Once again, it is part of the battle I am familiar with, but a refresher is always good.

The presentations concluded with a general panel discussion with all seven speakers. They discussed the Confederate losses on July 2, and a few of them thought that this day of battle was a turning point for the Army of Northern Virginia, although Jeff Wert remarked that some of the best days of the army were actually ahead of it, citing its excellent performance in holding off the Union offensives of 1864. Jeff also said that after May 5, 6, 10, and 12, the Army of the Potomac that fought at Gettysburg was essentially gone. They addressed Lincoln's criticism of Meade for not pursuing Lee (what part of July 2 in the meeting title did they not understand?) with most being pretty sympathetic to the difficulties and complexities of a pursuit in these circumstances. Christina was asked about comparing the artilleries of the two armies. She thought Henry J. Hunt was great and the Union organization was good, but that William Pendleton was a disaster on the Confederate side. I asked a question about Lee's plan if Sickles had not been in the Peach Orchard, and the answer came back that the results might have been pretty similar. Eric indicated that the cavalry failed to find the flank. There was a discussion of Lee coordinating with his corps commanders on July 2 – he didn't actually do so in a meeting. The issue of Longstreet's countermarch was resolved by saying that not a lot of time was actually lost by the course reversal he had to do. And there was a discussion of the importance of the internal lines of communications on the Union side.

The evening concluded with a hosted cocktail hour and dinner in the American Legion Hall.

Sunday, October 4

On the bus to Gettysburg! The ride from Middleburg is about an hour and 45 minutes, including some very brief sightseeing callouts on Route 15 and in the town of Leesburg. We started at Longstreet's attack position for July 2, approximately where Robertson's brigade jumped off and Jim Hessler gave us a good overview of how the attack was organized and how it went astray. The weather in Gettysburg was cold and blustery, but dry. The windchill really got to me sometimes during the day, so I had to deploy a shirt, sweatshirt, and light running jacket, all covered by a raincoat with the hood up to blunt the wind. We discussed the controversy of Capt. Johnston and his ill-fated reconnaissance. Eric Wittenberg believes that the captain actually got onto Bushman Hill, not Round Top. From this excellent introduction, I made the assumption that we would be doing a generalized overview of July 2, but that turned out to be incorrect—there is not nearly enough time in a five hour bus tour to cover the second day, so we did not interpret Devil's Den, the Wheatfield, Wright's attack on Cemetery Ridge, or Culp's Hill.

Our next stop was Little Round Top, where we explored the 20th Maine position. Jim is much more sympathetic to the heroic importance of their defense than some other modern historians (including me), who denigrate the tactical significance of the hill. We spent some time on the summit and talked about Gouverneur K. Warren and Paddy O'Rorke (and I was surprised that among all of these Civil War veteran tourists we had a number of people who it never encountered O'Rorke's shiny memorial nose). From there we went to a recreation facility at Long Lane, where we had a bag lunch on windy picnic tables. Then it was off to the Peach Orchard, where Jim was fully in his Sickles element, describing Barksdale's assault.

Stuart Dempsey took the guiding reins as we stopped south of the Pennsylvania Monument, about where Freeman McGilvery established his secondary artillery position. Stuart described in quite a lot of detail the actions of Willard's New York brigade, the Harpers Ferry Cowards, which he had mentioned in his presentation on Friday night. Willard's men broke the back of Barksdale's assault. We walked by the George Weikert farm, where the 39th New York of that brigade stopped the 21st Mississippi and retrieved some captured guns. Our final stop was East Cemetery Hill, where Eric gave us a very brief orientation to the actions he described in detail on Saturday.

The bus returned to Middleburg around 5:30 PM and we said our thanks and goodbyes. It was another excellent weekend with the Mosby crew. I don't know whether I will be able to make next year's seminar, which will be about Gettysburg on July 3, but it is an enjoyable experience I would recommend to anyone. I flew back home early Monday morning.

My next Civil War trip will be to Mobile, Alabama, at the end of October, where I will be joining the Blue and Gray Education Society for another of their excellent tours. Watch this space for details of my trip.