Heroes of the Great Conflict; Life and Services of William Farrar / Smith, Major General, United States Volunteer in the Civil War

by James Harrison Wilson

Unfortunately McClellan was in the rear, but Sumner and Heintzelman, corps commanders, were soon upon the ground, and with prudent but ill-timed conservatism declined to sanction the proper movement to reinforce Hancock, for fear that it would bring on a general engagement before the army could be properly closed up and placed in position to participate. Smith recognizing, the great advantage certain to arise from pushing promptly through the opening he had already found, besought Sumner for permission to go with the rest of his division to Hancock's assistance, but this was also denied. As other troops arrived on the field, Smith moved to the right to make place for them, with the hope that he might be permitted to continue his march unobserved till he had come up with his advanced brigade, but orders were sent which arrested him before he had accomplished the object he had in view. All day long he was held in the leash with certain victory in sight. McClellan arrived on the field late in the afternoon, but before he could get a satisfactory understanding of the condition of affairs, night came on. Consequently nothing decisive was done that day and a great opportunity was lost. The wily Magruder, seeing that his left had been turned, and that his position was untenable, abandoned his works under cover of darkness and fell back towards Richmond. Obviously this result was due, first, to the fortunate discovery made by General Smith and his engineer, and to the successful turning movement of Hancock, based thereon; and, second, to the certainty that if properly reinforced by the rest of Smith's division, and by other divisions, if necessary, as it surely would be as soon as the national commander had come to comprehend the real condition of affairs, the Confederate forces would be taken in flank and rear and overwhelmed.

This was Smith's last chance at anything like independent action. During the remainder of this ill-starred campaign he played the part of a subordinate division commander, in a large army engaged in a complicated series of movements and battles, and of course had no control over the general plans or operations. There is no evidence that he was ever consulted by anyone except his corps commander Franklin who was himself also a subordinate. The army lacking field experience, did not work well together as a whole. The corps commanders had been selected and appointed by the Secretary of War, without reference to McClellan's wishes or recommendations. Several of them were veterans, who received their assignments because of seniority rather than for special aptitudes, and this naturally begot a disposition on the part of the division commanders, who were generally younger and perhaps more ambitious men, to look carefully after their own troops and leave larger affairs to their seniors. At all events, Smith's principal care henceforth was to handle his own division and look out exclusively for its requirements, and this he did prudently and well, especially during the Seven days' battle, and during the change of base from the York to the James River. His brigades, led as I have pointed out, by very able men, were more or less constantly and successfully engaged. They took a most creditable part in the battles of Golding's Farm, Savage Station and White Oak Swamp.

Throughout the whole of this trying time of incessant marching and fighting Smith remained watchful and wary, directing his division through every peril, and finally conducting it, without material loss, but with increased confidence in itself and in its leader, to the new base which had been selected for the army. His cool and confident bearing, and his skillful conduct throughout this campaign, won for him the brevet of Lieutenant Colonel in the regular army and the rank of Major General of Volunteers.

It was during the night march from Malvern Hill that General Smith encountered General Fitz-John Porter, his class-mate whom he always regarded as a first-class soldier, and with whom upon this occasion he had a conversation, the facts of which go far to justify this high estimate. Noting that Porter seemed greatly depressed he asked what was the matter. In reply, Porter told him that as soon as he had become certain the evening before that the enemy had been broken and beaten back from his reckless attack on the Union lines at Malvern Hill, and had withdrawn in disorder from the field, he had gone to McClellan on board the boat which he had occupied with his headquarters, and had begged him with all the arguments he could bring to bear, and all the force he could command, to assume the offensive at dawn. He said he had spent half the night in advocacy of this policy, expressing the confident belief that if adopted it would result, not only in the destruction of Lee's army, but in the capture of Richmond. He had no doubt that our own army, encouraged by the sanguinary repulse it had finally inflicted upon the enemy, would respond to every demand which could be made upon it, and would thus turn a series of indecisive combats, which the country would surely regard as defeats, into a magnificent victory. Smith's testimony shows this splendid conception to have been no afterthought with Porter, as it was with many who subsequently came to understand the facts of the case, but coming as it did hot from a desperate battle field, must be regarded as the inspiration of true military genius, while the fact that McClellan rejected it must always be considered as the best possible evidence of his unreadiness to meet great emergencies. Smith does not say specifically that he approved it, but the context of his narrative leaves but little doubt that he thought favorably of it and would have given it hearty support.

In the withdrawal of the Army of the Potomac from the Peninsula, and its transfer to Washington, as ordered by Halleck and the Secretary of War, Smith and his division necessarily played a subordinate part. With the rest of the army they formed a tardy junction with Pope in front of Washington, and did their share towards making the capital safe and unassailable, but they were not again engaged till they met the enemy in the bloody and successful action at Crampton's Gap, in the South Mountain. The division also took part three days later in the battle of Antietam, but notwithstanding McClellan's claim that the battle was a "master piece of art," neither Smith's troops, nor the corps to which they belonged, were seriously engaged. This was not the fault of either Franklin or Smith, both of whom were greatly displeased with the disjointed and irresolute manner in which the Union forces were handled and the battle was fought. The most that can be said is that both General Smith and his division did all that was asked of them, not only in the battle of Antietam, but in following Lee's army back to Virginia. These operations are now justly regarded as reflecting but little credit on the generalship by which the national army was controlled during that period of its history. While they ended McClellan's military career, they afforded but little chance for any of his subordinates to gain distinction, and those who escaped responsibility for supporting his policy of delay had good reasons to regard themselves as fortunate.

The withdrawal of McClellan and the accession of the weak and vacillating Burnside to command was followed by a re-arrangement of the Army of the Potomac into three grand divisions, and a re-assignment of leading generals. Franklin was placed in command of the Third Grand Division, consisting of the First Corps under General Reynolds, and the Sixth Corps under General Smith. In the abortive Fredericksburg campaign which followed, these corps had the extreme left of the Union line, but it should have been evident from the start that with the opposing armies separated by a broad river occupying a deep valley, from three-quarters of a mile to a mile and a half between the opposite crests, the movement which was to bring on the battle must necessarily be fought under extraordinary disadvantages to the attacking army. In the mind of those who were to carry out the details of the movements, success must have seemed hopeless from the first. Burnside was from the beginning of the campaign overcome by the weight of his responsibilities, and between tears at one time and lack of sleep at another, his fatuous mind failed to evolve for itself, or to accept from others a definite and comprehensive plan of operations. He seemed at successive times to have had hopes of surprising Lee, of breaking his center and overwhelming his left, of seizing two important points in his main line of defence and completely turning his left, but withal it is certain that he gave to none of these operations sufficient attention to justify the slightest hope that it could be successfully carried into effect.

On the other hand, Lee was on the alert with his army of 78,000 men, well and compactly posted in a commanding and almost impregnable position along the wooded heights which overlooked Fredericksburg and the valley of the Rappahannock from the south. Burnside had 113,000 men of all arms, well supplied and thoroughly organized, commanded by the ablest generals in the service. His preponderance of force was therefore close to fifty per cent., but unfortunately that was not enough to outweigh the natural and artificial obstacles, the heights, stone walls, entrenchments, open fields and river to be overcome by the advancing army. The task was a hopeless one from the start, and to make matters worse, Burnside, who at best had but a vague and uncertain comprehension of the work before him, seems to have lost what little head he was endowed with before his operations were fully under way.

The result was unfortunate in the extreme. Two Grand Divisions succeeded in crossing the river without material opposition, but at once found themselves confronted by difficulties and forces they could not overcome. Franklin, in compliance with his instructions, took two days to get into position, but when his two corps had reached the place assigned them on the old Richmond Road, with the aid of Smith and Reynolds, he looked over the ground and made up his mind that the only chance of victory was offered by an assault upon the enemy's right center, with the full force of his two corps, amounting to 40,000 men. Burnside, at his invitation, came to that part of the field, and after listening to the views of the three generals, either of whom was vastly his superior as a soldier, approved the plan and promised to give a written order for its execution. Franklin waited all night for the order, telegraphed twice, and finally sent a staff officer for it, but it never came. Indeed it was never issued but a different order directing him to seize the heights at Hamilton's House, nearly three miles from his right division, and to keep the whole of his command in readiness to move at once, was sent instead. Sumner received an order equally inane, in reference to Marye's Heights. The resulting operations which should have been carefully co-ordinated and vigorously supported, were weak and indecisive. As the day wore away Lee took advantage of the delays and the opportunities which they offered him, and assumed the offensive. There was much severe but desultory and disconnected fighting. The Union generals with their officers and men did their best, but Burnside was on the opposite side of the river and could neither give intelligent orders nor act promptly upon the suggestions which were sent to him from the field. There was no chance for maneuvering. It was from the first head-on, face-to-face fighting with no hope of victory for the assailants. The Union losses were over 12,500 men killed, wounded and missing, of which 4,962 belonged to Franklin's Grand Division, while Jackson's corps which confronted him lost 5,364.

A full description of this mid-winter campaign would be out of place in this sketch, and the same may be said of the abortive Mud Campaign six weeks later, which had for its object the passage of the Rappahannock by a movement above Fredericksburg. Both Franklin and Smith took part in this ill planned and poorly executed undertaking. The weather and the roads were against it, and it soon came to an end quite as pitiful, though not so costly, as its predecessor.

Following these failures, Burnside, in futile desperation, prepared an order relieving Franklin, Smith and several other officers of inferior rank from duty, and dismissing Hooker, Brooks, Newton and Cochrane from the service. He made no further charge against these officers than that they had no confidence in himself, and this much was probably true, but it would have been equally as true of any other generals serving at that time in the Army of the Potomac. The President, instead of approving the order, it should he noted, at once relieved Burnside and assigned Hooker to the command. Sumner and Franklin both of whom outranked Hooker were relieved from further service with that army, while Smith was transferred to the command of the Ninth Corps, which he held but a short time, owing to the failure of the Senate to confirm him as a major general. This was doubtless brought about by misrepresentation, made to the Senate committee on the Conduct of the War, but as the action of the Senate and its committees in reference to confirmations were secret, no correct explanation can now he given of the allegations against Smith, though they were generally attributed at the time to Burnside and his friends, and while they were neither properly investigated nor supported, they resulted in reducing Smith to the rank of brigadier general and depriving him of the high command which he would have otherwise continued to hold.