What if ... on McClellan and Stuart
This is Steven Petrick posting.
History is full of what ifs.
One of these is revolves around J.E.B. Stuart and George McClellan.
In early July of 1862 McClellan completed his "change of base," arriving at Harrison's Landing after "winning" the last of the Seven Days Battles by repelling the uncoordinated attacks by the Confederates at Malvern Hill. McClellan with a sudden spurt of overconfidence (perhaps because of his successful completion of his change of base operation despite the repeated attacks by the "numerically superior" rebel army) failed to take all due precautions against his new base being attacked.
There was a very significant chink in McClellan's defenses at Harrison's Landing. J.E.B. Stuart, being a good cavalry man found this chink. He then proceeded to do something incredibly stupid. While he sent a dispatch to Army headquarters, he also took it upon himself to tell the Union Army about the chink. Stuart had one small cannon with him, and opened a "harassing fire" on the Union Army.
As one might imagine, a single small gun was not going to, in and of itself, do enough harm to really accomplish anything of note.
What that gun did do (aside from causing a stir and an amount of damage that was significant only if you, personally, were hit by it) was wake up the Union Army to the danger it was in.
By the time Longstreet, acting under orders from Lee who had been apprised of the chink by Stuart, neared the critical point he found the position "well posted" by Union forces.
Given McClellan's tendency to take council of his fears (even at Sharpsburg/Antietam Creek McClellan was convinced that the South had superior numbers and would not hazard his last reserve in an assault that might have finally broken Lee's already weakened lines) one can only imagine what might have happened if Stuart had not acted like a little boy and had his cannon open fire.
Stuart's cavalry brigade was completely unable (and Stuart knew it) to hold the opening he had found in the face of a determined assault by Union infantry, but by firing his gun he signaled to the Union troops the danger they were, and triggered that assault on his brigade before any infantry could be brought up to support him. If Stuart had not done so, but kept the position under observation until Confederate infantry with artillery had come up, Harrison's Landing might have become the scene of a mass surrender of Union troops. It would have been the Civil War equivalent of Anzio, but without the airpower available to the Allied forces to help keep the Germans in check.
With Confederate guns on those heights, and already believe himself to be outnumbered, McClellan might well have capitulated (even if McClellan was relieved of command at that point, it is doubtful if any other Union General could have retrieved the situation).
Some number of the Union troops might have been evacuated under cover of night, but it is doubtful if any significant percentage of the supplies or artillery could have been brought off, and much of it would have fallen into Confederate hands in any case (trying to destroy most of it would have involved fires which would have announced and revealed the attempts to evacuate).
A disaster on that scale, so early in the war, might have had larger and even decisive political ramifications.
There can be no doubt that Lincoln would have wanted to continue the war, but not all of the Northern governors were behind him, and the Federal government was not all that powerful. States might have withheld further troops and supplies. There was even a nascent movement in the Western States to also secede from the Union which might have been strengthened by such an obvious blunder (the North's largest Army lost in one fall swoop).
Certainly McClellan's career would have been over, and the North might even have imprisoned him as Southern agent (it was after all his plan to land the Army in the Peninsula, and to change its base to Harrison's landing, burning large quantities of government supplies that could not be moved as part of the change of base).
In a sense, J.E.B. Stuart saved the Union by his little display of personal vanity in firing his little cannon.
He would do something similar before another critical point in 1863.
History is full of what ifs.
One of these is revolves around J.E.B. Stuart and George McClellan.
In early July of 1862 McClellan completed his "change of base," arriving at Harrison's Landing after "winning" the last of the Seven Days Battles by repelling the uncoordinated attacks by the Confederates at Malvern Hill. McClellan with a sudden spurt of overconfidence (perhaps because of his successful completion of his change of base operation despite the repeated attacks by the "numerically superior" rebel army) failed to take all due precautions against his new base being attacked.
There was a very significant chink in McClellan's defenses at Harrison's Landing. J.E.B. Stuart, being a good cavalry man found this chink. He then proceeded to do something incredibly stupid. While he sent a dispatch to Army headquarters, he also took it upon himself to tell the Union Army about the chink. Stuart had one small cannon with him, and opened a "harassing fire" on the Union Army.
As one might imagine, a single small gun was not going to, in and of itself, do enough harm to really accomplish anything of note.
What that gun did do (aside from causing a stir and an amount of damage that was significant only if you, personally, were hit by it) was wake up the Union Army to the danger it was in.
By the time Longstreet, acting under orders from Lee who had been apprised of the chink by Stuart, neared the critical point he found the position "well posted" by Union forces.
Given McClellan's tendency to take council of his fears (even at Sharpsburg/Antietam Creek McClellan was convinced that the South had superior numbers and would not hazard his last reserve in an assault that might have finally broken Lee's already weakened lines) one can only imagine what might have happened if Stuart had not acted like a little boy and had his cannon open fire.
Stuart's cavalry brigade was completely unable (and Stuart knew it) to hold the opening he had found in the face of a determined assault by Union infantry, but by firing his gun he signaled to the Union troops the danger they were, and triggered that assault on his brigade before any infantry could be brought up to support him. If Stuart had not done so, but kept the position under observation until Confederate infantry with artillery had come up, Harrison's Landing might have become the scene of a mass surrender of Union troops. It would have been the Civil War equivalent of Anzio, but without the airpower available to the Allied forces to help keep the Germans in check.
With Confederate guns on those heights, and already believe himself to be outnumbered, McClellan might well have capitulated (even if McClellan was relieved of command at that point, it is doubtful if any other Union General could have retrieved the situation).
Some number of the Union troops might have been evacuated under cover of night, but it is doubtful if any significant percentage of the supplies or artillery could have been brought off, and much of it would have fallen into Confederate hands in any case (trying to destroy most of it would have involved fires which would have announced and revealed the attempts to evacuate).
A disaster on that scale, so early in the war, might have had larger and even decisive political ramifications.
There can be no doubt that Lincoln would have wanted to continue the war, but not all of the Northern governors were behind him, and the Federal government was not all that powerful. States might have withheld further troops and supplies. There was even a nascent movement in the Western States to also secede from the Union which might have been strengthened by such an obvious blunder (the North's largest Army lost in one fall swoop).
Certainly McClellan's career would have been over, and the North might even have imprisoned him as Southern agent (it was after all his plan to land the Army in the Peninsula, and to change its base to Harrison's landing, burning large quantities of government supplies that could not be moved as part of the change of base).
In a sense, J.E.B. Stuart saved the Union by his little display of personal vanity in firing his little cannon.
He would do something similar before another critical point in 1863.
posted by Federation Commander at 8:47 PM
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