CAPTAINS OF THE CIVIL WAR

A CHRONICLE OF THE BLUE AND THE GRAY

BY WILLIAM WOOD

NEW HAVEN: YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
TORONTO: GLASGOW, BROOK & CO.
LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
1921

TO
MY AMERICAN FRIENDS
OF THE
BOONE AND CROCKETT CLUB

PREFACE

Sixty years ago today the guns that thundered round Fort Sumter began the third and greatest modern civil war fought by English-speaking people. This war was quite as full of politics as were the other two—the War of the American Revolution and that of Puritan and Cavalier. But, though the present Chronicle never ignores the vital correlations between statesmen and commanders, it is a book of warriors, through and through.

I gratefully acknowledge the indispensable assistance of Colonel G. J. Fiebeger, a West Point expert, and of Dr. Allen Johnson, chief editor of the series and Professor of American History at Yale.

WILLIAM WOOD,

Late Colonel commanding 8th Royal Rifles, and Officer-in-charge, Canadian Special Mission Overseas.

QUEBEC,
  April 18, 1921.

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

GENERAL U. S. GRANT
Photograph by Brady. In the collection of L. C. Handy, Washington.

GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE
Photograph. In the collection of L. C. Handy, Washington

GENERAL T. J. (STONEWALL) JACKSON
Photograph. In the collection of L. C. Handy, Washington.

NORTH AND SOUTH IN 1861
Map by W. L. G. Joerg, American Geographical Society.

ADMIRAL D. G. FARRAGUT
Photograph by Brady.

CIVIL WAR: CAMPAIGNS OF 1862
Map by W. L. G. Joerg, American Geographical Society.

CIVIL WAR: VIRGINIA CAMPAIGNS, 1862
Map by W. L. G. Joerg, American Geographical Society.

CIVIL WAR: CAMPAIGNS OF 1863
Map by W. L. G. Joerg, American Geographical Society.

GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN
Photograph by Brady. In the collection of L. C. Handy, Washington.

CIVIL WAR: CAMPAIGNS OF 1864
Map by W. L. G. Joerg, American Geographical Society.

CAPTAINS OF THE CIVIL WAR

CHAPTER I

THE CLASH: 1861

States which claimed a sovereign right to secede from the Union naturally claimed the corresponding right to resume possession of all the land they had ceded to that Union's Government for the use of its naval and military posts. So South Carolina, after leading the way to secession on December 20, 1860, at once began to work for the retrocession of the forts defending her famous cotton port of Charleston. These defenses, being of vital consequence to both sides, were soon to attract the strained attention of the whole country.

There were three minor forts: Castle Pinckney, dozing away, in charge of a solitary sergeant, on an island less than a mile from the city; Fort Moultrie, feebly garrisoned and completely at the mercy of