"Ever since the founding of Jamestown, it doesn't matter if it's Yorktown, Glendale or Ashland, American history has this awful habit of hinging the future of the continent on the outcome of bloody battles fought in Virginia." - Jon Kukla, American historian
"As a General, Lee desperately sought to fight what he called 'his perfect battle, his Cannae,' and he found it on day six of the Six Days Battles, at Glendale." Douglas Southall Freeman, American historian, biographer, and journalist
Excerpt from On the Sixth Day: The battle that broke America by Stephen W. Sears
It's hard to imagine a more dramatic turnaround than what was seen on the
Peninsula Campaign in June, 1862. Following a steady advance up the Virginia peninsula starting in March, American troops were now just a dozen miles away from Richmond. Then, General Joseph Johnson, the Confederate commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, was wounded at the Battle of Seven Pines, and was replaced in command by General Robert E. Lee. At the time derided for his defensive tactics, Lee immediately went on the offensive against the American Army of the Potomac, over a series of battles over six days starting on June 25, the
Six Days Battle. The first five days saw a stunning reversal in fortunes for both armies, but the biggest moment would come on June 30, the sixth day of the battle, at Glendale.
Already in retreat,
Glendale formed a chokepoint funneling the Army of the Potomac toward the James River - and Lee saw an opportunity to cut the American army in half, in spite of inferior numbers, if the proper Confederate forces could be brought to bear, with three divisions under General James Longstreet assaulting the American flanks and center, and a further four divisions under General Stonewall Jackson approaching the rear.
Jackson, fresh off a three-month campaign in the Shenandoah and a rapid march toward the Pennensula, Jackson and his men were exhausted. This is perhaps why during day five of the Six Days Battle, June 29, his men were held in reserve, with Lee encouraging Jackson and his men to take the Sabbath to get some well-earned respite, with Jackson himself is said to have slept half the day. Thus, in what is a dramatic example of what a difference a good night's sleep can make when Jackson and his men arrived at Glendale the following day, they were alert and prepared to enter the fray.
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On the morning of June 30, Jackson's forces encountered the American rear guard under
William Franklin near White Oak Swamp, and after scouts located two areas where infantry could ford across, began to send three of his divisions to begin flanking the rear. While Jackson assaulted the rear guard, Lee ordered Longstreet and Hill to move against American troops currently holed up in Greendale, leading a force of nearly 45,000 Confederate soldiers in the attack. American troops in Greendale sent urgent pleas for reinforcements to the rearguard, only for Franklin to say none could be spared, needing everything they had to hold off Jackson.
Perhaps sensing that the American defenders were beginning to waver, Longstreet ordered a full assault, smashing through the center of the overextended American lines. Sweeping through the reserves, he then moved north, toward the Union elements engaged against Jackson at White Oak Swamp. Jackson then committed the remainder of his forces - more than half of the American forces at Glendale were now cut off and almost completely surrounded by two Confederate armies.
Under better leadership, it's possible that a capable general might have been able rallied Union the troops, taken advantage of their superior numbers, or perhaps escaped encirclement entirely. Unfortunately for the Army of the Potomac, they were led by General George McClellan. Or they would have been, had McClellan not already fled the battle, deserting his men in Glendale in favor of
finding sanctuary aboard the USS Galena without even leaving anyone in charge of Union forces, in perhaps one of the most brazen examples of dereliction of duty in the history of the American military. While his men were encircled at Glendale, the self-styled Young Napoleon lacked even the courage to face his Waterloo.
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It wasn't a total loss for the Army of the Potomac. Joe Hooker's division managed to avoid the encirclement entirely, and two divisions led by Phil Kearny broke through the closing Confederate lines. Those three divisions, along with two that had previously made it to Malvern Hill, were what was left of the army as a fighting force. As the sun fell over Glendale the other seven American divisions were trapped in a shrinking pocket at Glendale, one that Confederate forces continued to shrink smaller every hour - the next morning, Lee accepted the surrender of the remaining US forces. While the estimated numbers vary from source to source, Glendale cost the US Army between 50-60,000 men, including causalities, and resulted in nearly all of thier supplies and equipment. It may not have been as total a victory as that of Carthage, but Lee had delivered the Confederacy their Cannae.
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Lee returned to Richmond as the newly-minted hero of the Confederacy. Gone were the snickers over "Granny Lee", now he was hailed as the "Hannibal of the South", and Lee, unlike the Carthaginian, was not going to fail to follow up that victory. Spending some time to recruit and re-equip the Army of Northern Virginia, Lee began marching north, sending one force under Longstreet towards Harpers Ferry to raid the North, and a larger spearhead under Jackson aimed towards Washington, either swatting aside token American opposition, with the remnants of the Army of the Potomac and the
Army of Virginia mostly being pulled back to defend the American capital.
By September, General Lee had placed Washington under siege and forces raiding western Maryland and central Pennsylvania, an utter reversal of the where the American and Confederate positions had been prior to the Six Days Battles. On September 8, he issued a three-day warning to evacuate civilians before he would begin bombarding the city, as well as a call for the suspension of hostilities and to begin "negotiating the terms of secssion."
Even having suffered such a devastating loss as they had at Glendale, the United States was far from out of the fight. The loss of men cut deep, but the USA had plenty of other soldiers in the field, and hundreds of thousands of draft-eligible men back home to fill the ranks and replace those lost. Even as the Army of the Potomac's defeat put the Virginia theater in dire straights, American armies were advancing steadily in the West, including Grant's victory at the Battle of Shiloh and Farragut's capture of New Orleans. The budding industrial and military might for which the United States would become famous for the world over in a generation's time was beginning to blossom. Even Lee's siege of Washington, while making for shocking headlines, was not as dire as it might appear, with the US capital well on it's way to becoming the most fortified city on Earth even before the loss of the Army of the Potomac.
The loss at Glendale was devastating, but by no means had it defeated the US - they still had the manpower and the materials to keep fighting the war, all they needed was time to bring that into full effect. The Roman Republic had survived their Cannae, so too could America survive their own.
Of course, the Roman Republic didn't have to deal with the British and French.
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[1] Our first half of the initial POD ladies and gents. General Jackson, exhausted after a rushed march back to Richmond, was unusually lethargic during the OTL Seven Days Battle. Some rest ITTL, and he's ready to make a difference.
[2] Shockingly, not alternate history, McClellan really did abandon his army at Glendale. If anyone ever tries to say history as been too hard on the coward, don't you believe it.
[3] Our first half of how the Confederacy won their independence - Lee's planned encirclement at Glendale succeeds beyond his wildest dreams, thanks to a one-two punch of Jackson actually attacking the Union rear at White Oak Swamp, and Longstreet attacking the center in masse as opposed to small probing attacks, along with Franklin being unable to send forces to reinforce Union lines.
[4] And we have the SECOND half of how the Confederacy won their independence. More next time!