Gouverneur K. Warren, Part 2 | Gettysburg

[00:00:00]Welcome everyone to History Gone Wilder, part of Civil War Travel. I'm your host, the Wilder Historian, Dr. Lucas Wilder.

[00:00:06]And last time, Gouverneur K. Warren joined the Civil War and took part in the Peninsula Campaign.

[00:00:11]Now, he heads to Northern Virginia.

[00:00:14]If you like what I do, please consider subscribing to the channel if you haven't done so already, join the Patreon page, and purchase something from one of my online stores. Every little bit helps. Thank you.

[00:00:29]GOUVERNEUR K. WARREN, WITH THE REST OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, began evacuating the peninsula in Virginia. The campaign to take Richmond ended in a failure, and they were to join the new army in Northern Virginia, the Army of Virginia, under Union Major General John Pope, who had been recently transferred from the West.

[00:00:46]The ship carrying Warren and his brigade landed near Fredericksburg, Virginia, with orders to join Pope's army.

[00:00:53]Confederate General Robert E. Lee was on the march, attempting to eliminate Pope's command before all of McClellan's army could be used to reinforce it.

[00:01:02]Warren wrote in his journal about the continuous marches up and down roads that wore out his troops, chasing after Stonewall Jackson and Jeb Stuart.

[00:01:10]When Pope engaged with half of Lee's army under Jackson, the Second Battle of Manassas erupted.

[00:01:16]Warren's corps commander, Fitz John Porter, was supposed to attack the right flank of the rebel battle line, but ran into resistance and stopped in his tracks, leading Warren and his men to march to the main part of the battlefield and launch themselves against Stonewall Jackson's defenses along an unfinished railroad cut. The brigade was hit by Longstreet's corps from their left and driven off the field with the rest of the federal forces.

[00:01:39]Warren wrote of the debacle and Pope, saying, "A more utterly unfit man than Pope was never seen.

[00:01:46]Every dispatch he sent to the department was, as published, a gross lie.

[00:01:50]McClellan's were never overdrawn.

[00:01:53]I begin to think that nothing but the withdrawing of the protecting hand of God could ever have brought us to our present state.

[00:02:00]McClellan is again in control, but I fear the opposition to him will nullify all his good as it has done since Stanton became Secretary of War."

[00:02:10]Warren was close with army commander George McClellan, having private talks with him. McClellan assured Warren that he recommended him for promotion to brigadier general, but there was little time to focus on promotion. Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Army was invading Maryland, and Warren raced after the Confederates.

[00:02:28]At the Battle of Antietam, Warren and the Fifth Corps were held in reserve.

[00:02:32]His brigade personally held the position to the right and behind Ambrose Burnside's line, seeing basically no action. On the bloodiest day of the war, Warren's brigade lost one man wounded.

[00:02:43]Following the battle, Warren was notified that his brigade would be augmented by a few more regiments. He received a leave to help organize them for joining the brigade. While he had time, he went to visit Emily, his sweetheart, in Baltimore, then dashed off for Cold Spring to visit family, then taking regular trips to Albany, New York, in order to help assemble the regiments.

[00:03:05]When he returned to the army in November 1862, it looked different than when he left. His brigade had grown in number, and the army commander, George McClellan, had been replaced with Ambrose Burnside.

[00:03:16]Warren and the Army of the Potomac moved to the Virginia town of Fredericksburg, where pontoon bridges across the Rappahannock River would allow them to attack Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army on the heights beyond the town.

[00:03:28]In the attacks on December 13th, his brigade took virtually no active role in the attacks on Marye's Heights, losing only six wounded and 27 missing.

[00:03:37]He did, however, get assigned the task of building fortifications on the south side of the city to throw back a possible Confederate counterattack to allow the army to retreat across the river.

[00:03:47]His engineering skills came out as troops loaned to him created extensive works all in the dark. He was commended on his abilities and efficiency.

[00:03:56]Warren was a McClellan supporter. After the defeat at Fredericksburg, he lamented, "We must have McClellan back with unlimited and unfettered powers.

[00:04:05]His name is a tower of strength to everyone here, and the repose of winter is absolutely necessary to discipline and reorganize and rest.

[00:04:14]My heart sickens when I think of the way our affairs seem to be going."

[00:04:20]Warren went into a depression after the results of the various campaigns in which he took part and the crisis of the Union.

[00:04:26]"I left my home without ambition to save a noble cause. I have seen that cause almost betrayed. I know of bleeding hearts, desolate homes, and unnumbered nameless graves of noble men that have vainly perished. What have we done as a nation to suffer as we do? There must be a just God. Why does he permit these things? Is he the jealous God to us now that visits the sins of the fathers upon the children?"

[00:04:52]In the early months of 1863, President Abraham Lincoln replaced Burnside with Joseph Hooker.

[00:04:58]Hooker took an interest in Warren and offered him a position as topographical engineer on his staff.

[00:05:03]In April, Hooker put a grand plan into motion, attempting to outflank Robert E.

[00:05:07]Lee from the west by crossing the Rappahannock River and drawing the rebels away from their fortifications above Fredericksburg.

[00:05:15]Union troops began moving through the community of Chancellorsville in a thick forest known as the Wilderness when they encountered Confederate forces. This contact with the enemy resulted in Hooker losing confidence and ordering his troops to withdraw near Chancellorsville.

[00:05:29]The commanders in the advanced position didn't want to pull their troops back and asked Warren to talk with Hooker.

[00:05:35]Hooker wouldn't budge from his decision.

[00:05:38]The next day, two corps commanders, George Meade and Daniel Sickles, asked Warren to issue instructions to meet the emergency and order the troops to advance. Warren balked at taking on that responsibility. He wrote to his old division commander, George Sykes, "I stated that I might thus, in case of disaster, be found guilty of a treasonable offense, and that my insignificant position before the country would not protect me, but that a few corps commanders would agree among yourselves what was best to do and act upon it. I thought the emergency would justify you, and your position secure you from any imputation of unpatriotic motives, that at any rate, it would be foolhardy for me to assume to do what exceeded your power and responsibility."

[00:06:23]Hooker remained somewhat immobile until the now famous flanking attack by Stonewall Jackson began to roll up the Union columns, chasing the Federals into the dense forest.

[00:06:32]Hooker assigned Warren the task of laying out defensive positions closer to the river if the Federals couldn't hold their ground and needed to retreat.

[00:06:40]Following that task, Hooker ordered Warren to ride to John Sedgwick and his corps still at Fredericksburg and instruct him as to when to attack the Confederate rear, hoping to trap Lee's army between the two Union forces.

[00:06:52]Warren reported to Hooker that he had to prod Sedgwick to move, and had he not been there, Sedgwick would probably have stayed immobile instead of launching an attack.

[00:07:02]On the night of May 4th, Hooker called together his corps commanders in a council of war. Warren was there as one of Hooker's staff officers.

[00:07:10]Hooker laid out the options, then left the room for his commanders to discuss the situation.

[00:07:15]When he returned, Hooker found that the majority of his corps commanders wanted to renew the attack, but he overruled them and ordered a withdrawal.

[00:07:23]Warren took on the responsibility of throwing up trenches and battery emplacements to protect the withdrawal.

[00:07:29]He didn't just direct the soldiers under his command, he picked up a shovel and went to digging right along with them, giving the men a sense of urgency and an acknowledgement that Warren wasn't above working.

[00:07:40]Warren turned in a standout performance at the Battle of Chancellorsville. One of his biographers wrote, "Warren's accomplishments in the Chancellorsville campaign were considerable. In less than 48 hours, he threw up 5 miles of the most formidable entrenchments yet constructed under battlefield conditions, fortifications which astounded and amazed Confederates who came upon them after the Federals had departed.

[00:08:02]He helped to stem the rebel tide after the 11th Corps had been overrun, and he practically pushed Sedgwick up Marye's Heights the next day."

[00:08:10]Abner Doubleday, a division commander in the First Corps, wrote that Warren made almost superhuman exertions to do without sleep and perform the important duties assigned him.

[00:08:20]By May 12th, Warren was named the chief engineer of the Army of the Potomac.

[00:08:24]Also by that date, he heard that Confederate General Stonewall Jackson had passed away. He wrote, "Those men of the Southern Army who have behaved honorably still have my esteem for their conduct, though I feel sorry that we should ever have been arrayed against each other. Although he rejoiced at Jackson's death as a gain to our cause, yet in my soldier's heart, I cannot but deem him the best soldier of all this war and grieve at his untimely end."

[00:08:51]When he heard that Union General Ulysses S. Grant had captured Jackson, Mississippi, he commented, "Oh, that we could have such a commander for perseverance, who should also combine ability with a firm faith in success that removes mountains and turns rivers aside."

[00:09:06]Warren compared Hooker and Lee, as well as Jackson.

[00:09:10]"Hooker, I'm afraid, has been too wicked a man to succeed in a great and holy cause.

[00:09:14]Can a cause be holy which is entrusted to such hands? Can God smile upon them and bring defeat upon such Christians as Lee and Jackson, fighting for their own Virginia?"

[00:09:26]Warren had other matters on his mind in May, a June wedding to Emily. Warren proposed earlier in the year, and they now decided on a date, June 17th.

[00:09:35]Nothing short of battle would stop their nuptials from taking place. Hooker accepted Warren's wedding date and gave him leave to marry Emily. A new campaign would threaten his ability to make it to Baltimore at Emily's side. Robert E. Lee launched an invasion of Pennsylvania starting on June 3rd. Warren was tasked with removing all the government property from around Fredericksburg and Falmouth.

[00:09:56]He worked into the early morning hours of June 17th, then took the 6:30 a.m.

[00:10:01]train to Baltimore, arriving at 9:00 a.m.

[00:10:04]3 hours later the ceremony began, and at 3:00 a reception was held with a dinner at 5:00.

[00:10:11]The two spent their first night of marriage at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C. Warren had been summoned during the dinner to return to the army.

[00:10:19]Warren rejoined the army, but a telegram to Hooker changed the army's organization.

[00:10:23]Lincoln replaced Hooker with the 5th Corps commander George Meade. The first thing Meade did was to go into Warren's tent, wake him up, and ask Warren to be his chief of staff.

[00:10:33]Warren declined, telling Meade to keep Daniel Butterfield as his chief of staff, that he would remain the chief engineer.

[00:10:39]He explained that the position of chief of staff took men away from the battle, and chief engineer brought them closer to it.

[00:10:46]When the two armies made initial contact around the little town of Gettysburg, Meade sent Warren ahead, as well as 2nd Corps commander Winfield Scott Hancock.

[00:10:55]When they arrived at the field, they witnessed federal troops retreating through the town to a hill south of Gettysburg.

[00:11:01]They both went to work assembling the remnants of regiments and brigades to make a stand on Cemetery Hill.

[00:11:06]Through Warren and Hancock's efforts, the Union army now held the high ground.

[00:11:11]The next day most of the Army of the Potomac made it to the field of battle with the 3rd Corps occupying the left of the Union army.

[00:11:18]That Corps was commanded by Daniel Sickles, who wasn't satisfied with his position on Cemetery Ridge.

[00:11:23]When he advanced his Corps to the Emmitsburg Road, this exposed the Union battle line to attack.

[00:11:29]Warren and Meade examined Sickles' unauthorized movement and realized the peril it put the Union army in.

[00:11:35]Warren suggested that he continue south to a hill known as Little Round Top to assess the situation and see if that critical point of the field was occupied by federal troops.

[00:11:45]He climbed to the top only to find it void of troops.

[00:11:48]Some woods lay in front of the huts, which could conceal the enemy.

[00:11:52]Not being able to tell whether the rebels were close, he dispatched an artillery battery to fire shells into those woods. As he described it, when the shells smashed into the forest, the rebels turned their heads as well as their guns when it went by, and the metal on the weapons caught the sunlight, allowing him to see where the enemy was.

[00:12:10]Warren quickly began grabbing units to come to the slopes of Little Round Top, many of them from the 5th Corps, the unit which he had belonged to before being made chief engineer of the whole army.

[00:12:21]The first troops he got to the top of the hill were the regiments led by Strong Vincent.

[00:12:26]He then looked about to find more, and by coincidence he ran into his old brigade. He recognized the 140th New York trailing the rest of the brigade, and he called out to its commander, Patrick O'Rorke, "Paddy, give me a regiment." O'Rorke responded, "General Weed is ahead and expects me to follow him."

[00:12:43]Warren answered, "Never mind that. Bring your regiment up here, and I will take the responsibility."

[00:12:49]O'Rorke pushed his men up the hill to give aid to Vincent's beleaguered regiments.

[00:12:53]Warren also sent Charles Hazlett's battery up the hill, personally helping them push the guns up the steep slopes.

[00:13:00]During the desperate fight at Little Round Top, a rifle bullet grazed Warren's neck.

[00:13:04]It was a minor wound, which he bound up with a handkerchief and kept busy deploying troops.

[00:13:09]As the fighting died down, the hill remained in Union hands. Warren stands out as one of the saviors of Gettysburg, but he didn't acknowledge his role.

[00:13:18]He plainly stated years later that there was no merit in my actions except to secure for our army a position if I could, which would prevent our lines from being flanked, and this, when attacked, was but given an opportunity for a fair fight front to front, and there our opponents did not win.

[00:13:35]That night around 9:00 p.m., Meade called together his commanders for a council of war to decide what to do.

[00:13:41]Warren was there with Meade, but his efforts had worn him out, and he curled up in a corner and went to sleep, missing the whole meeting.

[00:13:49]The next day, July 3rd, Warren watched from Little Round Top as Confederate artillery let loose a barrage on the Union battle line occupying Cemetery Ridge. He sent a messenger to Meade that the responding Union artillery should slow down or halt the return fire as it created a thick layer of smoke in the valley between the two ridges and could conceal an enemy attack.

[00:14:09]The Union's artillery chief believed the same thing, and the Union artillery slackened.

[00:14:14]Warren watched from his perch as Pickett's Charge took place.

[00:14:17]Afterward, Meade joined him on the hill, but soon sharpshooters began to shoot at the two men, one passing under Warren's arm, so the two men moved down the hill.

[00:14:27]The next day, the two armies glared at one another, and in the afternoon, Lee's army began retreating from the field.

[00:14:33]Meade gave chase on July 5th with John Sedgwick's 6th Corps, with Warren acting as Meade's eyes in the pursuit. Warren kept Meade abreast of the situation as the Union continued to pursue.

[00:14:44]Then Warren went to Harpers Ferry to reconstruct some bridges and communication lines from the town.