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267 pages

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An intimate look into the daily life of a cavalry officer serving with the Army of the Potomac In May 1863, eighteen-year-old William Brooke Rawle graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and traded a genteel, cultured life of privilege for service as a cavalry officer. Traveling from his home in Philadelphia to Virginia, he joined the Third Pennsylvania Cavalry and soon found himself in command of a company of veterans of two years' service, some of whom were more than twice his age. Within eight weeks, he had participated in two of the largest cavalry battles of the war at Brandy Station and Gettysburg. Brooke Rawle and the Third Pennsylvania Cavalry would serve with the Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac through April 1864, fighting partisans and guerillas in Northern Virginia and also seeing action during the Bristoe Station and Mine Run battles of late 1863. A meticulous diarist and letter writer, Brooke Rawle documented nearly everything that came under his observant eye in 150 well-written letters home to his family. These letters, supplemented by his diary entries, provide a fascinating, richly detailed look into the life of a regimental cavalry officer during the last two years of the Civil War in the East.

Sujets

Histoire

USA

United States of America

History of the Americas

American Civil War

États-Unis

Guerre de Sécession

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Publié par	The Kent State University Press
Date de parution	14 avril 2019
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781612777986
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	2 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,2580€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Blue-Blooded Cavalryman
CIVIL WAR SOLDIERS AND STRATEGIES Brian S. Wills, Series Editor
Richmond Must Fall: The Richmond-Petersburg Campaign, October 1864 HAMPTON NEWSOME
Work for Giants: The Campaign and Battle of Tupelo/Harrisburg, Mississippi, June–July 1864 THOMAS E. PARSON
“My Greatest Quarrel with Fortune”: Major General Lew Wallace in the West, 1861–1862 CHARLES G. BEEMER
Phantoms of the South Fork: Captain McNeill and His Rangers STEVE FRENCH
At the Forefront of Lee’s Invasion: Retribution, Plunder, and Clashing Cultures on Richard S. Ewell’s Road to Gettysburg ROBERT J. WYNSTRA
Meade: The Price of Command, 1863–1865 JOHN G. SELBY
James Riley Weaver’s Civil War: The Diary of a Union Cavalry Officer and Prisoner of War, 1863–1865 EDITED BY JOHN T. SCHLOTTERBECK, WESLEY W. WILSON, MIDORI KAWAUE, AND HAROLD A. KLINGENSMITH
Blue-Blooded Cavalryman: Captain William Brooke Rawle in the Army of the Potomac, May 1863–August 1865 EDITED BY J. GREGORY ACKEN
Blue-Blooded Cavalryman
Captain William Brooke Rawle in the Army of the Potomac, May 1863–August 1865

Edited by J. Gregory Acken

The Kent State University Press
Kent, Ohio
© 2019 by The Kent State University Press, Kent, Ohio 44242 All rights reserved ISBN 978-1-60635-372-1 Manufactured in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced, in any manner whatsoever, without written permission from the Publisher, except in the case of short quotations in critical reviews or articles.
Cataloging information for this title is available at the Library of Congress.
23 22 21 20 19 5 4 3 2 1
CONTENTS

Preface and Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 Brandy Station and the Gettysburg Campaign: May 17–July 18, 1863
2 Fighting Mosby and the Partisans: July 19–October 3, 1863
3 Bristoe Station and Mine Run: October 4–December 5, 1863
4 Winter at Warrenton: December 6, 1863–April 30, 1864
5 The Overland Campaign and the Early Actions near Petersburg: May 1–July 26, 1864
6 Operations near Petersburg: July 27–November 4, 1864
7 Winter at Petersburg: November 6, 1864–March 11, 1865
8 The Fall of Petersburg and the Appomattox Campaign: March 12–May 15, 1865
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Index
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

In preparing William Brooke Rawle’s writings for publication, I have used his letters to form the basis of the work, supplementing them with information from his transcribed diary entries when they provide additional detail not mentioned (or adequately addressed) in his correspondence and fill time gaps in his letters. In several instances, principally where its inclusion in the proper chronological place within the body of a letter would have disrupted the composition and flow of the correspondence, an entry either follows the letter or is incorporated into the endnotes. Left out are those entries that convey information already contained in Rawle’s letters or address only brief, trivial matters. The reader may find that there is occasional redundancy between a diary entry and a letter; in most of these cases, removing the duplicate information from either would have compromised its structure. In order to help the reader follow the young officer’s activities, at various times I have inserted dates, in brackets, into the body of his lengthier letters.
Rawle misspelled very few words, and I have not corrected his errors except in cases where he misspelled a place or proper name. On those occasions I have left the initial mention uncorrected, noted it, and corrected future mentions. In the interest of economy, Rawle liked to abbreviate words such as “would,” “should,” and “could”; I have spelled these out. Other words that he shortened and whose meaning remain clear (for example, “Dep’ment” and “tho’”) I left alone; abbreviated words judged to be confusing if left as written are now spelled out.
Regarding the content of the letters, matters of a purely personal nature; repetitive material; inquiries after friends, relatives, and other civilians not frequently mentioned or otherwise unidentified; and complimentary closes have been expunged. With respect to the endnotes, the reader will notice that most contain a fair amount of detail. I wrote the notes as I like to read them, and my hope is that, much like in my own experience, they will provoke curiosity, provide enlightenment, and encourage further reading and research into the topics they address.
. . .
In the same way that no one can write about the Army of the Potomac without being influenced by the works of Bruce Catton and Stephen Sears, it is impossible to chronicle any events relating to the cavalry of the Army of the Potomac, even in a work as narrow in scope as this, without acknowledging the contributions of three historians: Stephen Z. Starr, Edward G. Longacre, and Eric J. Wittenberg. Starr produced a groundbreaking, three-volume study of the Union cavalry that was published between 1979 and 1985; two of these volumes cover the war in the East and treat largely the Army of the Potomac’s cavalry. Longacre wrote a seminal study on the role of the cavalry of both armies during the Gettysburg Campaign—utilizing Rawle’s letters and postwar correspondence in his research—and followed it up years later with a history of the Army of the Potomac’s cavalry, mining many original sources that Starr had not. Wittenberg has supplemented his excellent examination of the “coming of age” of the cavalry of the Army of the Potomac—the period from just before the Battle of Fredericksburg (December 13, 1862) to Brandy Station (June 9, 1863)—with battle studies, soldiers memoirs, and biographies of prominent cavalrymen, all of which have shed much light on the army’s cavalry operations. Eric also provided encouragement after reading an early draft of the manuscript, for which I am grateful. The research, opinions, and conclusions of these three historians have informed much of the material contained in my introduction and in many of my notes.
To John J. Meko Jr., executive director of the Foundations of the Union League of Philadelphia; James G. Mundy Jr., director of education and programming; and Theresa Altieri Taplin, archivist and collections manager, go my thanks for graciously granting permission to publish the Rawle letters and diary, which compose a part of the foundations’ collection. John, Jim, Theresa, and the rest of the staff have made great strides over the past decade in their ongoing efforts to preserve the archival materials of the former Civil War Library and Museum of Philadelphia.
At Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, Chief Historian John Hennessy and Lead Historian Frank O’Reilly were very supportive, reading preliminary chapters of the work and providing constructive feedback. O’Reilly also graciously shared the interesting—and distressing—story of Rawle’s original diaries and medals, which have been lost for many years now. Clark C. “Bud” Hall of Culpeper, Virginia, an authority on all things Civil War in Northern Virginia, also provided support and helped me identify and locate obscure (and misspelled) landmarks mentioned in the letters and diary.
At the US Army Heritage and Education Center in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Rodney Foytik provided immeasurable—and unhesitatingly cheerful—assistance in locating source materials and photographs, while Lori Wheeler facilitated the process of procuring copies of the images in the center’s collection. Thanks are due to Ronn Palm of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, who provided permission to use an elusive image from his expansive photograph collection and went to great lengths to ensure that I secured it.
Marshall Krolick of Chicago, a cavalry expert in his own right, many years ago passed Rawle’s letters and diary on to me while I was serving in my capacity as a member of the Board of Governors of the former Civil War Library and Museum. Marshall had intended to edit and publish the letters himself, and the museum had loaned them to him, but pressing professional obligations prevented it. For the opportunity to have undertaken it myself, I am thankful.
George Skoch, cartographer par excellence, produced the outstanding maps from my inartistic and clumsy directions. This is the third time I have had the privilege of working with George; I hope there will be future opportunities.
At the Kent State University Press, Will Underwood has been nothing but a pleasure to work with since my first inquiry and has been more than accommodating and patient throughout the process. Thanks are also due to the anonymous readers the press enlisted to provide critical assessments of the manuscript. Their suggestions helped me explore avenues I had overlooked and thus improved the work greatly, as did the copyediting suggestions made by Kevin Brock.
To my family, as always, go my greatest thanks. To say that I appreciate their patience and forbearance as I pursue my avocation is an understatement. That they allow me to do it uncomplainingly is testament either to the fact that they get along quite well without me or, as I prefer to believe, that they are selfless enough to grant me the time I need. Regina, Brian, Will, Regina, and Cameron—thank you.
Editor’s proceeds from the sale of William Brooke Rawle’s writings will be donated to the nonprofit Abraham Lincoln Foundation of the Union League of Philadelphia, which is the steward of a majority of the holdings of the former Civil War Library and Museum of Philadelphia, including Rawle’s letters, photographs, and diary transcript.
INTRODUCTION

The lieutenant reclined in a field of clover, just inside a belt of woods on the edge of a broad farm lot. He laid low to the ground to escape the heat of the early summer day. His saddled horse, forsaking shade for sustenance, was grazing close by. Men of his command were gathered in small groups near him; some were resting, others played cards, rummaged f