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When Colonel Charles S. Wainwright (1826-1907), later Brevet Brigadier General, was commissioned in the First New York Artillery Regiment of the Army of the Potomac in October 1861, he began a journal. As an officer who fought at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Cold Harbor, Spotsylvania, and Petersburg, and who witnessed the leadership of Generals McClellan, Hooker, Burnside, Meade, Grant, and Sheridan, he brilliantly describes his experiences. But Wainwright's entries go beyond military matters to include his political and social observations on Lincoln and his Cabinet, the soldiers' passion for gambling and prostitutes, army diet and medicine, and much more.
List of contents
* Introduction: Wainwright and the Artillery * The Clearing of the Potomac * Opening the Peninsular Campaign * The First Battle: Williamsburg * The Advance on Richmond * From Popes Disaster to McClellans Restoration * Antietam and After * Burnside Replaces McClellan: Fredericksburg * Hooker Reorganizes the Army: Camp Gaieties * Chancellorsville and After * Lee Invades Pennsylvania * Gettysburg * A Time for Meditation * Meade and Lee at Hide-and-Seek * The Advent of Grant * The Battles of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania * Cold Harbor: Grant Moves to the James * Siege Lines Before Petersburg: The Mine * Bringing Lee to Bay * The Final Campaigns * Epilogue: The Grand Review * Appendix: Officers of the First New York Light Artillery
About the author
Allan Nevins is an historian and author of the classic multivolume Ordeal of the Union.
Summary
When Colonel Charles S. Wainwright (1826–1907), later a brevet brigadier general, was commissioned in the First New York Artillery Regiment of the Army of the Potomac in October 1861, he began a journal. As an officer who fought at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Cold Harbor, Spotsylvania, and Petersburg, and who witnessed the leadership of Generals McClellan, Hooker, Burnside, Meade, Grant, and Sheridan, he brilliantly describes his experiences, views, and emotions. But Wainwright's entries go beyond military matters to include his political and social observations. Skillfully edited by Allan Nevins, historian and author of the classic multivolume Ordeal of the Union, this journal is Wainwright's vivid and invaluable gift to posterity.
