The Project Gutenberg eBook, History of the Nineteenth Army Corps, by Richard Biddle Irwin

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: History of the Nineteenth Army Corps

Author: Richard Biddle Irwin

Release Date: February 13, 2008 [eBook #24606]

Language: English

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF THE NINETEENTH ARMY CORPS***

E-text prepared by Ed Ferris

Transcriber's note:

Footnotes in the main text are at the end of each chapter.

19th-century spellings, in particular the use of double-l, have been retained.

Chapter XI: "flag-ships" plural in original. Chapter XII et seq.: "St. Martinsville" corrected to "St. Martinville" Chapter XXI: "Brownville", Texas, corrected to "Brownsville". Chapter XXXIV: the Grant in temporary command of Getty's division is Brigadier-General Lewis Grant, not U. S. Grant as in the rest of the book.

The following changes have been made in the Appendix:

Military ranks have been abbreviated.

Footnotes have been re-numbered and headings repeated by section instead of page. The footnotes were all italics.

The box rules and period leaders have been removed from the Losses in Battle tables and the headings "Officers" and "Enlisted men", set vertically in the original, have been abbreviated "O" and "E". Text has been extended across columns for legibility.

HISTORY OF THE NINETEENTH ARMY CORPS

by

RICHARD B. IRWIN

Formerly Lieutenant-Colonel U. S. Volunteers,
Assistant Adjutant-General of the Corps and of the
Department of the Gulf

G. P. Putnam's Sons New York 27 West Twenty-Third Street London 24 Bedford Street, Strand The Knickerbocker Press 1892

Copyright, 1892
by
G. P. Putnam's Sons

Electrotyped, Printed, and Bound by
The Knickerbocker Press, New York
G. P. Putnam's Sons

IN LOVING REMEMBRANCE OF THEIR LATE COMMANDER MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM HEMSLEY EMORY AND OF THE MANY COMRADES WHO LAID DOWN THEIR LIVES IN THE SERVICE OF THEIR COUNTRY THIS HISTORY IS INSCRIBED BY THE SURVIVING MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY OF THE NINETEENTH ARMY CORPS

CONTENTS.

Chapter. Introductory I. New Orleans II. The First Attempt on Vicksburg III. Baton Rouge IV. La Fourche V. Banks in Command VI. Organizing the Corps VII. More Ways than One VIII. Farragut Passes Port Hudson IX. The Teche X. Bisland XI. Irish Bend XII. Opelousas XIII. Banks and Grant XIV. Alexandria XV. Back to Port Hudson XVI. The Twenty-Seventh of May XVII. The Fourteenth of June XVIII. Unvexed to the Sea XIX. Harrowing La Fourche XX. In Summer Quarters XXI. A Foothold in Texas XXII. Winter Quarters XXIII. The Red River XXIV. Sabine Cross-Roads XXV. Pleasant Hill XXVI. Grand Ecore XXVII. The Crossing of Cane River XXVIII. The Dam XXIX. Last Days in Louisiana XXX. On the Potomac XXXI. In the Shenandoah XXXII. The Opequon XXXIII. Fisher's Hill XXXIV. Cedar Creek XXXV. Victory and Home

Appendix:
  Rosters
  Losses in Battle
  Officers Killed or Mortally Wounded
  Port Hudson Forlorn Hope
  Articles of Capitulation
  Note on Early's Strength
  Index

MAPS AND PLANS.

Map of Louisiana. Sheet I.
 " " " " II.
 " " " " III.
Battle Plan of Bisland, April 12-13, 1863
Battle Plan of Irish Bend, April 14, 1863
Battle Plan of Port Hudson
Map of Louisiana. Sheet IV.
Battle Plan of Sabine Cross-Roads, April 8, 1864. From General
  Emory's Map
Battle Plan of Pleasant Hill, April 9, 1864. From General Emory's
  Map
Battle Plan of Cane River Crossing or Monett's Bluff, April 23,
  1864. From General Emory's Map
The Red River Dam
Map of Shenandoah Valley Campaign. From Major W. F. Tiemann's
  "History of the 159th New York"
Battle Plan of Opequon, September 19, 1864. From the Official Map,
  1873
Battle Plan of Fisher's Hill, September 22, 1864. From the Official
  Map
Battle Plan of Cedar Creek, October 19, 1864. From the Official
  Map of 1873

INTRODUCTORY

The history of the Nineteenth Army Corps, like that of by far the greater number of the organizations of like character, in which were arrayed the great armies of volunteers that took up arms to maintain the Union, is properly the history of all the troops that at any time belonged to the corps or served within its geographical limits.

To be complete, then, the narrative my comrades have asked me to write must go back to the earliest service of these troops, at a period before the corps itself was formally established, and must continue on past the time when the earlier territorial organization became merged or lost and the main body of the corps was sent into the Shenandoah, down to the peace, and the final muster of the last regiment.

If hitherto less known and thus less considered than the proud record of those great corps of the Armies of the Potomac, of the Tennessee, and of the Cumberland, on whom in the fortune of war fell the heat and burthen of so many pitched battles, whose colors bear the names of so many decisive victories, yet the story of the Nineteenth Army Corps is one whose simple facts suffice for all that need to told or claimed of valor, of achievement, of sacrifice, or of patient endurance. I shall, therefore, attempt neither eulogy nor apology, nor shall I feel called upon to undertake to criticise the actions or the failures of the living or the dead, save where such criticism may prove to be an essential part of the narrative. From the brows of other soldiers, no one of us could ever wish to pluck the wreaths so dearly won, so honorably worn; yet, since the laurel grows wild on every hill-side in this favored land, we may without trespass be permitted to gather a single spray or two to decorate the sacred places where beneath the cypresses and the magnolias of the lowlands of Louisiana, or under the green turf among the mountains of Virginia, reposes all that was mortal of so many thousands of our brave and beloved comrades.

THE NINETEENTH ARMY CORPS.

CHAPTER I. NEW ORLEANS.

The opening of the Mississippi and the capture of New Orleans formed important parts of the first comprehensive plan of campaign, conceived and proposed by Lieutenant-General Scott soon after the outbreak of the war. When McClellan was called to Washington to command the Army of the Potomac, one of his earliest communications to the President set forth in general terms his plans for the suppression of the Rebellion. Of these plans,