March Forth to Victory: Darkened Sun and Bloodied Moon
The Confederate States of America were dying. Despite the news of the Confederate victory at Nashville, most of the officers in the Army of Northern Virginia knew that the day of defeat grew nearer. Everyday supplies dwindled. Every month, irreplaceable men fell in battle. General Lee knew foremost that the day of reckoning was at hand. He would need to convince President Hamlin of a lost war in the East. Instead of leading a campaign based on small skirmishes, Lee prepared for a bloodbath. On March 2, 1864, the Confederate army marched from Arlington to Dranesville.
The news of Nashville brought a drop in Northern morale. Throughout the Brimstone Campaign, the Army of the Potomac had felt a rising wave in desertion. However, these numbers had dropped since the victory at Annandale. With a steady population of around 70,000 men, General Reynolds ordered his men to follow its moving counterpart. Before leaving, though, he reorganized his army into four corps. (The I and II were combined into the new II; the III, VI, and XII remained separate.) General Doubleday of the old I Corps was angered by his demotion to put lightly.
On March 3, the Army of Northern Virginia had planned to set up defensive positions a few miles north of Dranesville. However, a mixed-up order had General Longstreet’s I Corps separated from the rest of the army and settled on the Potomac River. The missing presence of the corps would go unnoticed for the last several hours of March 3. Once Lee learned of its location, though, the defenses were abandoned to venture into the wilds of Northern Virginia.
Shortly after learning of the absence of the Army of Northern Virginia, General James Longstreet learned of the approaching Federal Army. It seemed as though Reynolds would take advantage of a weaker and separated enemy. Being an experienced general, Longstreet ordered defensive structures to be made in preparation for the attack. However, he did not plan to use them for more than two hours.
On March 4, 1864, Reynolds attacked. The VI Corps under General Sedgwick spearheaded the audacious attack. After taking extremely high casualties, the corps was reinforced by the remainder of the Army of the Potomac. (The others had not arrived by the start of the battle.) The I Corps quickly fled west before opening fire onto the flank of the Northern Army. By the close of eight o’clock, the Army of Northern Virginia was completely assembled to aid Longstreet. To make matters worse for the Federal soldiers, their new defenses now ran the wrong way.
The Army of the Potomac folded into a square. The III Corps was directly on the water with its three brigades reinforcing its allies; the II stood defiantly at the front with the VI and XII on its left and right, respectively. Lee ordered an offensive into all sections of the Union army. Stonewall’s Corps pierced into Sedgwick’s; Anderson’s assailed Slocum’s; Longstreet’s charged into Hancock’s. It was the most daring assault General Lee had every planned. Many historians argue that it worked because of the terrain.
The densely wooded area stopped any ability for either army to use artillery. Many of the Confederate soldiers were skilled at fighting in forests; many Northern men were not. Union defenses were spread thin by the forest. These, along with ability for many Confederate generals to rally their men after breaching the North’s walls, won the charge for the South. Reynolds found himself surrounded with a river at his back. He however gathered his men expertly and broke through the right wing of the Southern III Corps. The army turned into a wall of retreating men. Lee reorganized his army and renewed the attacks.
Every yard the Northerners turned back and opened fire. As soon as their backs were turned, the Confederates returned. Before long, this process became obsolete and an all-out charge ensued. In the famous fighting, the Confederacy lost many brave generals. Among them were Major Generals Richard S. Ewell and Pickett, along with Brigadier General Garrett.
But the Confederates were relentless. Jubal Early took command of Ewell’s division and cried out to his men. Holes were drilled in the Union positions by bloodied bayonets. Reynolds was able to keep his men together before reaching Washington. The charge was over. The Battle of the Potomac, or of Dranesville as it is referred to in the South, took the most lives in the entire American Civil War. Lee lost over half of his 48,000 men in one day. Reynolds lost a little bit less than half of his army.
Both Reynolds and the United States president both believed that their opponent was now larger than the Army of the Potomac. To top it off, the president felt a major loss in morale with a successive loss in the West and the East. On March 6, President Hannibal Hamlin penned a letter to Confederate President Jefferson Davis with the intention of opening peaceful negotiations. Despite the cost, the Army of Northern Virginia had triumphed. Upon receiving the invitation, Davis accepted, the de facto end of the War Between the States had ended. People throughout the Confederate States of America were jubilant.