""Mount Up!": Cavalry Operations of the Gettysburg Campaign" Topic
4 Posts
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Tango01 | 18 Aug 2020 10:06 p.m. PST |
"The Gettysburg Campaign is usually considered to be the bellwether campaign of the American Civil War. Many critical events occurred during the Campaign, but few were more important than the maturation of the Army of the Potomac's Cavalry Corps. Until the spring of 1863, the Army of Northern Virginia's mounted arm literally rode rings around its Union counterpart. In February 1863, Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker, the newly appointed commander of the Army of the Potomac, ordered the consolidation of the army's mounted forces into a single corps for the first time. Those cohesive mounted forces, under competent leadership, could now face their Confederate counterparts on something approaching even terms. That maturation process reached its pinnacle during the Gettysburg Campaign. On May 15, 1863, Maj. Gen. George Stoneman, the commander of the Army of the Potomac's Cavalry Corps, took medical leave to seek treatment for a terrible case of hemorrhoids that made every moment bouncing in the saddle a living hell. Brig. Gen. Alfred Pleasonton, his senior division commander, assumed de facto command of the Cavalry Corps. Thirty-nine-year-old Pleasonton, a member of the West Point Class of 1844, had spent his entire military career in the dragoons. He became a division commander in the fall of 1862. Pleasonton had a sharp eye for talent, but was an ambitious intriguer not known for his courage on the battlefield. In spite of these less than attractive traits, Pleasonton left an indelible mark on the Army of the Potomac's Cavalry Corps that began with the Gettysburg Campaign. Following the crushing defeat of Hooker's army at Chancellorsville at the beginning of May 1863, the Confederate high command decided to take the war to the North, electing to invade Pennsylvania to gain a respite for Virginia's farmers from the harsh realities of the war. Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia began concentrating in Culpeper County in preparation for the invasion. Seven full brigades of Southern horse gathered near Brandy Station, a stop on the Orange & Alexandria Railroad near Culpeper. Their commander, 30-year-old Maj. Gen. James Ewell Brown "Jeb" Stuart, had already earned a reputation as a bold and dashing cavalier. The Virginia-born West Pointer possessed a valuable gift for scouting, screening and reconnaissance, and had already made himself indispensable to Lee as the eyes and ears of the army…" Main page link Amicalement Armand |
donlowry | 19 Aug 2020 9:07 a.m. PST |
Following the crushing defeat of Hooker's army at Chancellorsville Hooker's army was NOT crushingly defeated at Chancellorsville. Everybody except Hooker himself was ready, willing and able to go another round. |
Tango01 | 19 Aug 2020 11:52 a.m. PST |
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Garde de Paris | 22 Aug 2020 10:42 a.m. PST |
Hooker had lost 17,278 casualties to Lee's 12,826. Oddly, this was a strategic victory for the Union, for the Confederates had to inflict 2 to 2.5 casualties to one of their own to "break even." 9 million population of the south vs 21 million in the Union, was hard to handle. GdeP |
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