Joshua L. Chamberlain Civil War Round Table, Oct. 20, Brunswick, ME
I saw this posted in the Bowdoin Campus Digest and thought I'd pass on the information...
Civil War historians have pondered the absence of any major battles in the Eastern Theater for the ten months between Gettysburg and The Wilderness. In this program, Peter Vermilyea will account for this hiatus by explaining why the relatively minor actions of Bristoe Station, Rappahannock Station and Mine Run did not develope into larger conflicts.
Lee's Army returned to Virginia after the Gettysburg Campaign and
was safely positioned along the line of the Rapidan and Rappahannock
Rivers. Confederate military leaders then transferred two divisions of
James Longstreet's First Corps to northern Georgia. These troops were
sent in the hopes of regaining control of the vital supply and
transportation center at Chattanooga, Tennessee, which had recently
fallen to Union forces under William Rosecrans. The result was not only
the Battle of Chickamauga, the second bloodiest battle of the war, but a
renewal of campaigning in the East.
The detachment of Longstreet's divisions and the subsequent
Confederate victory at Chickamauga compelled the Union high command to
send the Eleventh and Twelfth Corps of the Army of the Potomac to
Tennessee. This decision reduced the numerical superiority of Union
forces in Virginia, and provided Confederate commander Robert E. Lee
with the opportunity to seize the initiative. Within hours of learning
of the Union troop movement, Lee had his forces on the move, seeking to
replicate Stonewall Jackson's famed flank march in the Second Manassas
campaign.
The result was the Battle of Bristoe Station, a brief but violent
affair in October 1863 that stemmed Lee's advance. This victory, coupled
with Ulysses S. Grant's triumph at Chattanooga, lifted the spirits of
the Lincoln Administration and put pressure on George Meade, commander
of the Army of the Potomic, to secure a victory that might end the war.
Confused fighting at Rappahannock Station and Mine Run followed; the
war, of course, lasted another sixteen months.
This neglected topic in Civil War military history involves
intriguing "what ifs" annd "might have beens" and sheds light on the
military situation as the Union and Confederate army entered the
decisive Overland Campaign of the Spring of 1864. The talk will also
higlight the important role played by several regiments from Maine in
this interesting campaign.
The meeting will be Thursday, October 20, 2011 at 7PM, in the Morrell Room, Curtis Library, Brunswick.
Free and open to the public.
For more information visit: http://community.curtislibrary.com/chamberlaincwrt/
Hello.
Mine Run is where I really came to understand how good a commander Meade really was. He saw a situation where the likely result was many Union casualties and no real gain, so he walked away. With the infamous Committee on the Conduct of the War, that was a gutsy move.
Well done, that man!
Bob Bailey
