Rec'd: Spartan Feats I Trust You to Notice

In which we revisit the best articles I read this week

.............................................................................................................................................

Links shortly, but first:

Today in history there was a skirmish at Point of Rocks, MD. The Baltimore American had a reporter on hand to report the story of the 28th New York Regiment and the Loudoun Cavalry under Captain W.W. Meade. The cavalry was officially Company K, of the 6th Virginia Cavalry, and was on loan to Colonel Eppa Hunton to help guard the Potomac crossings. The 28th New York had been part of Robert Patterson's Army of the Shenandoah that missed Manassas, and was now stationed at Point of Rocks to make sure Patterson's replacement, Major General Nathaniel P. Banks, wasn't surprised.

A company of New Yorkers under the second-in-command crossed the river the night of August 4 to scout out the

Confederate position and Meade's cavalry chased them off. Both groups did exactly what they were supposed to: the New Yorkers advancing  until they were stopped by the enemy, and the Virginians making sure they saw no more than cavalry. The message to Banks would be the Confederates are here in force, but it is not clear what force.

For our illustrious journalist, though, there were only statistics to send back. He was a pretty good reporter or the regiments colonel, Dudley Donnelly, had a keen sense of PR, because the message sent back to the editors in Baltimore is pretty thorough. But he must have felt something was missing, because he went ahead and submitted a copy of an official report from a skirmish several days earlier at Edwards' Ferry to fill out his report, since Lt. Colonel Brown's wouldn't be ready for at least twenty-four hours. For fun, I'm running his correspondence down the side-bar instead of the usual Harper's Weekly political cartoon (they're not that good this week).

And now, the links!

The National Postal Museum got in the spirit with a piece on Confederate postal systems.

Civil War Visions has an excerpt from a letter from U.S. Grant ("Sam", of course) to his father on being promoted as part of the gang of U.S. Volunteer generals I blogged about the other day.

I fear I've been neglecting the Southern army with all the crazy that McClellan foists upon the capital, but All Not So Quite Along the Potomac writes a better post on James Longstreet's brigade after the battle of Manassas anyway.

If you want a Civil War date, I recommend checking out the Civil War wine tour. I'm not sure the quality of their history, but the wines aren't bad at all!

The Smithsonian has put together a remarkable cross-section of how West Point graduates dealt with choosing between states they regarded as their home and the oaths they swore.

Bull Runnings has the transcript of a letter from the wife of a private in Ambrose Burnside's 1st Rhode Island Regiment that formed part of his brigade at Manassas. The soldier was wounded and captured there, and died in Richmond on August 2.

Finally, G.T. Beauregard's complaining to everybody he could reach about his shortage of supplies at Manassas Junction finally triggered a snide response from provisional President Jefferson Davis on August 4. The American Civil War has us covered with a transcript.

Jockeying For Position

In which new stars appear and Hooker does what Hooker does

............................................................................................................................................

Grade insignia (yellow indicates cavalry). Volunteers
and regular army wear the same insignia

Since the secession of South Carolina seven months before military men throughout the North had been attempting to get a high-ranking position in the war. While rank was equally important to Southerners, the North already had an army, making competition for leadership slots tougher than in the South (though no more vicious). Most of these men had been junior officers during the Mexican War, and some had acquired a taste for combat that no civilian pursuit could satisfy, while others saw the leaders of the Mexican War rise to fame and fortune based on their service (two became Presidents of the United States), and still others believed in the Union fervently enough to shed their blood for it. Most were motivated by a combination of some or all of these things.

In the aftermath of the defeat at Bull Run, the opportunities for high command became greater. The influx of three-year regiments and the determination to field a larger army around Washington created a higher demand for general officers, and the passage of a law establishing a corps of U.S. Volunteers (USV) to supplement the U.S. Army (USA) also allowed Lincoln to appoint as many officers as he needed. Starting on Wednesday, July 31, the floodgates of USV promotions opened as the White House finalized its consultations with the War Department and sent a large list of nominations to the Senate.