About the Loudoun Valley campaign. This talk was part of a symposium. Welcome back to the emerging civil war. Thank you for joining us today online as well as in person. I want a thanks to our friends at cspan that they do to continue to promote American History. Theyre work is invaluable. Next today we have kevin pawlak. He works for Prince William county and he has his own battlefield where he oversees and he overseas a civil war hospital center. He is author of a hazard to all. He is going to talk to us about the aftermaths of the campaign, the stale end that gets over looked tieing into an earlier talk today. Set in the larger context. Kevin will talk a little about the Loudoun Valley campaign of 1862. Ladies and gentlemen, kevin pawlak. Thank you nar introduction. We hope that you will be able to join us next year when we reprize our topic of what was supposed to be this years topic of fallen leaders. Today i will talk to you about the loudoun fallly campaign. I would probably wager there are more people in this room than there are books that talk about, in any great detail, the campaign itself. So what is the importance of this campaign . It is really one of those areas of the american civil war, especially a history yog if i that gets closed over. It is an interlude period. You have the battle of antitum. And after it you have the battle of it is not given at amount of coverage i believe for various reasons. Where were going to pick up the story before we get into the campaign of the details itself is right where the two armies last met in any great size and that is on the fields on september 17th of 1962. The Bloodiest Day of American History. Thousands of union and confederate soldiers will be wounded, captured, or missing into what happens on september 17th is simply a mine minor union victory, but both armies are bled dry essentially. It is not just essentially the high point of the hamaryland campaign, but three months of constant campaigning between the two major armies. So in that three month time period there have been between the two armies about 92,000 casualties which is the second bloodiest threemonth span second only to the Overland Campaign in 1864. What is going to happen is not just the soldiers being bled dry, but they will lose two of out their six core commanders. It is a casualty rate for the second highest level of command. They will lose about three, actually three of their Nine Division commanders, so theyre not just bleeding from the bottom, but from the top, as well. So what robert e. Lee will do it take his army back into virginia. The army is fanning out to try to block all of the different fjords to make sure that lee does not get back into massachusetts and continue the campaign, but the campaign will come to an end. Just two days later after the campaign in maryland, you have one of the most important political actions of the entire war and perhaps of all of American History and ththat is emancipation prokical icalprocl. It is a war changing measure and it signals to the confederacy and the citizens of Tunited States how it has changed and will continue to change. There is a lot of political background and pressure to what is going to happen in the valley in late october and early november of 1862. And this picture very well known, a very famous picture, taken in early october of that year during abraham lincolns visit underscores the growing divide between abraham. And you see him there on the right side of the forecast. Lincoln will come up to visit the army of the potomac. He wants to see the field and get a feel for the army. Determine its state and what it can do next. Also lee ps wants to talk with commanding general. It is very difficult to decipher what is determined between the two. It depended on who you asked. He was under the belief that he, himself, got everything that he wanted to out of his visit. It was an assurance. He believed he got an assurance from mcclellen that they would move forward soon. However, the rift started to grow once again, ever widening. Lyincoln said the army was not well supplied. Eventually the stores would be opened up further but events that took place in the middle of the month. That would be jeb stewarts chambersburg league. I refer you to her to get more information on it, but stewarts itinerary, goals, if you will, was to ride around the union army, gather intelligence, and then just a few days stewart completely circumnavigates the union army again if is a ride of about 130 miles. He captures pennsylvania forces and it it s impressive, but what they do here is they will damage a lot of the horse naesh is responsible, and that will come into play in just a couple of weeks when they will once again enjoy in the valley and in northern virginia. The bottom right of the screen you will see the headquarters. It is Still Standing in west virginia. When they came back there was a great grand celebration about this magnificent feat. One of the Staff Officers that i will be talking about a bit more talked about how the women were being brought from all over the country side, the area, so celebrate a great feat, and they were being pulled in wagons and large carriages by fat pennsylvania horses and mules that they had just captured. So the raise smarks confusispar confusion. And word reaches that the Confederate Army that is on the lower end of the valley, in the area around martinsburg, and in winchester, intelligence reached them that they were pulling out. So they dispatched two of the best known swearers to mount two reconnaissances and force into the valley to figure out where and what the confederates were up to. So you will see roughly the route they take. It is roughly the area of carneysville. That is about where they get to. The second column comes from harpers ferrie. That is under ind field cannot handdock. There will be a brief battle for a day or so. But ultimately what the two reconnaissances will show is that the army is still in force in the valley. And all of this is happening as abraham and others are trying to prod them to begin their next campaign into virginia. So what these show is that the valley is still heavily defended by confederate forces. Just a couple days later, george is not going to look west, but instead to the east of the blue Ridge Mountains. Specifically the area between the blue ridge on the west and the Bull Run Mountains on the east that will frame the valley that will be the episente of the coming campaign. The morning of october 21st a command, someone familiar with loudoun county. He had been head of an ire works, this is familiar territory for him, but he would congresswoman a force of infan try, artillery, and kal vary into the Loudoun Valley. You will see their route there. They started making a u movement through the short hills. On their way back, the six new york calvary are going to clash with elements of the 35th virginia kal vacalvary. It is sketched by different artists throughout the north, which is what you see there on the bottom right. It is a resounding route of the confederate forces. Many are driven from theand cap. So it shows that the valley is clear of the confederate forces. So that will call into play abraham lincolns developing strategy for the earn theater of the war. On october 17th, while the calvary was in the process of getting around, he would write a very wordy letter to George Mcclellan. This is part of what he said. Youre now nearer to rich mand than the route of the enemy. Why can you not reach there before him. His route is the arch of a circle and yours is the cord. The roads are as good on yours as his. You know i desired but did not order you to cross the potomac below, east rather than west, below the ridge. If he should move northward i would follow him closely holding his communications. If he prevents our seizing of his communications i would press closely to him, fight him if a favorable opportunity presents, and at least try to beat him to richmond on the inside track. I say try, if we never try we will never succeed. Nine days after receiving that dispatch, just one day after recognizing that the Loudoun Valley, east of the blue ridge, is clear, he settles on the fact that he will advance on the east side of the mountains utilizing the valley as an advanced route. This is an Eastern Theater of the war. And what lincoln is talking about. I encourage you to pull out a map of virginia. With the Confederate Army partner ed into what lincoln wa hoping the army could do is steal a march on the army of virginia. They were not known for that and did not often do it. Steal a march, get between the confederate lee, and be able to defeat him before winter settled in. So on october 24th and 25th, they started to lay out the plan. That was essentially this. But everything programmed in between that is the loudon valley. So that called for them to march. He realized they might set off from their supply base. They are going to move in two columns. They consistent of the second and fifth core. Their objective was to march along the base of the blue Ridge Mountains and seize each of the mountain gaps in the blue ridge. So they could secure the union supply line that would continue to grow, grow, and grow the further south that the union army advanced. They would be marching to the east and closer to the Bull Run Mountains. And it consistented of three ar ar ar army corp. , and the calvary starts to cross the river on two bridges at berlin, maryland. Here is an image that is heavily debated if it is showing federal troops crossing in october of 1862 or 1963, but it is an idea of what it might have looked like. Soldiers recognized what it meant going back across the refer. As a New York Times correspondent wrote, watching thousands of soldiers crossing, he said this, only when the column crossing the potomac steps on virginia soil, one of those omens which the greens call fate seemed to thrill through the men and cheers came from their throats, it announced that the Third Campaign was commenced. Once the army started to move into the cleared out Loudoun Valley they found something unexpected in northern virginia. It was republican a micro causeen of what they were experiencing at this point. It was over the slavery and the civil war. It was populated by quakers and german population thats are favorab favorable. You can see yunion soldiers wer cheering him on. However, the valley remained relatively unscathed by this point in the war. Some instances, it is almost a cliche, but in Loudoun Valley that was the case. That was happening. Another correspondent said in that section of the country the war has been conducted with a bitterness that you of the north can scarcely conceive. Destroying all domestic ties and natural feeling. But this would be the fist time that they would experience the horrors of war. The horrors of war did not just come when the two armies met in a battlefield. As will be the case here for the union army in the valley, the their orders are going to be changing a little bit. We are talking about thousand is going to bring an effort. So they apply it to the confederate territory that they invade. This is one of my favorite pictures. It is a fictional account but based on his real actions in the course of the civil war in is a great illustration to me that even though when theyre moving into the valley they were under strict orders. Not all of the soldiers followed those orders. Some of those are because of a different believe. George mcclellan thought a softer hand should be used. Some believed they would take matters into their own hands and show the southern population just what war really want. No matter what side of the spectrum, simple life instincts take hod. They have to keep themselves warm. It is cold. At rainy it is so cold that the water would freeze in their canteens. One of the best ways to stay warm was to build a fire. So the orders were to each column of trooms thps that when tearing down a fence they could only take that top rail of that fence. Twhael is all fine, they built their fires, they took the toll ra top rail and they move on. One core comes out and tlen is a second rail. They take what was not quite the top rail but close to the top. You can see after so many moving through, that they are wiped clean. They say it was not quite the land of milk and honey. So they were taking plenty of provisions from the local population as they possibly could. Now getting into the military movements of the campaign itself, it wont be until several days into the action when the two armies realstart t engage nap will be five days into the campaign itself. Just a quick recap, you see the dark errors there. The infantry. You see it moving through the additional core. The third core and the 11th were supposed to arrive. And they were to meet up with the army of the potomac. So it will be getting reinforcements in the course of the campaign. He will embark, by the way, with 100,000 men or so. So both armies have been rebuilt from the losses that they suffered in the summer of 1862. As i mentioned, he will be cutting off himself from his supply lines. The army, the soldiers, will be marching with ten days of rations. They have to move through quick enough before the and the goal is to reach the railroad that mcclellan starts to use that as his supply line. So the goal here is to reach the monassis gap railroad. They are going to react slower. The First Crossing is on october 26th. He will not react until october 28th when he realizes this is a serious movement, not just a diversion. So what they will begin to do is march half of his army. The first corps that the point, the army of northern virginia, they will be utilizing the core structure. They will quickly march through the Shenandoah Valley and cross the blue Ridge Mountains and take up position behind the river somewhere in the area of cullpepper core house nap is meant to be a blocking position. Everyone is fighting for the interior lines. Lincoln wants mcclellan to deny him that opportunity. So Stonewall Jackson will be left in the Shenandoah Valley as basically to be a menace to George Mcclellans right flank. He is told to triegt strike on moving right flank if we sees an opportunity. He wont leave until the campaign is over. He will remain there for quite some time before marching on to fredericksburg and joining the Confederate Army there. The first actions to take place will be on october 31st between a calvary brigade under the command of williams wickem. But lee was out of commission at this point, so wickem takes command. Stewart only has about 1,000 horseman with him when he crosses over the mountains. A lot of that is again because of the horse flesh that stewart had really killed on that chambersberg raid. There was also a disease running through the horse flesh of both armies. So neither calvary is quite up to snuff. But lee will disattach stewart into the Loudoun Valley with the intention of serving as a speed pump. They are throwing it down, buying time, and theyre outside of culpepper courthouse. So it is between on the map between the towns of aldi and philamount. The first calvary will be routed, it is a calvary under george baired. One man wounded, 52 captured. So he is just going to take his brigade out of the pick chture entirely. And when he writes the next day he will be doing so from Downtown Washington dc. So the calvary will not be much aide as theyre moving to the south through the Loudoun Valley. The next day fighting will erupt. This will usher in the battle of unison. Here is the major landmark in the town of unison today. Just a real quick funny side story again showing how the valley serves as a microcauso initiation. It was founded as union, not unison, but in 1829 the citizens changed it. But the official name of the voting district was still referred to as the union voting district. So when they had a chance to go to the polls and determine if they wanted their state to succeed from the union or not, the union votingvoted 1500 in favor of having them leave and join the Confederate States of america. There at the unison methodist church, the farmers and the citizens gatored to begin their services. Suddenly the first thing that they heard that made them realize today might not be a normal sunday, was the tune taken up by a band, listening to the mockingbird that the citizens caught coming in on the wind. Then several guns rolled up into the field and they started to open fire. And the two sides at about 1,000 yards traded hshots. And Harris Van Bourque talked about what it was like. He said the retreat through union was covered by pellam with his recovery executed with stea steadiness and order. Crashing through the houses of the Little Village set on fire several stables and straw. The masses of combustible material and the dense volumes of smoke added to the terror and the confusion of the scene that now became truly frightful. The citizens were, for the first time, truly feeling the effects of war. What jeb stewart was trying to do is not fighting for space or battlefield victories. He is just trying to slow the union advance as much as he can can and keep the gaps open in the Blue Ridge Mountain sos they can maneuver through them. So once stewart feels plenty of pressure from alfred presenton then he falls back from unison to high ground just southwest of the old town, this is where they are going to have one of his finer days. Perhaps his finest day, i would argue, as an artilerist. He takes a piece out beyo