Hell or Richmond (82 page)

I also must thank a few of the many individuals who have both supported me and kept me firmly grounded during the maddening process of writing this book. First, my wife, Katherine, a career journalist and executive editor, brings the mercy of Clara Barton to our personal lives, but wields the savagery of Francis Channing Barlow as an editor, her red pen whacking a faltering scribbler with all the force of the flat of Barlow’s saber. This is her book, too.

My “real” editor, Bob Gleason, made consistently wise suggestions during the long months of writing, but, more important still, asked penetrating questions that I did my best to answer on the page. A remarkable man whose career began at the door of Henry Miller’s almost foreclosed house, Bob knows both the beauty and the business of books as do few others. His alert aide-de-camp, Whitney Ross, also gets a battle star for dealing with my desire to micromanage every step of a book’s production.

Regarding production, my thanks to the design and production team at Forge for the splendid work on the jacket design and typeface selections for this book and
Cain at Gettysburg
. People
do
judge books by their covers, and I’m thrilled with the quality of the work the Forge team produces.

Belated thanks go to Scott Miller and Robert Gottlieb, of Trident Media, who have represented me over the decades. Any writer who doesn’t think agents are worth their keep is as big a fool as those nineteenth-century officers who insisted that repeating rifles would only waste ammunition. These two men changed my life.

Brigadier General (Retired) Jack Mountcastle, former chief of military history for the U.S. Army, gets a grateful nod, as well, for his selfless assistance over the years and for insisting that John B. Gordon had to be a key figure in this novel. I also am indebted to Andy Waskie for sharing his seemingly endless knowledge of George Gordon Meade. An old redleg vet, Colonel (Retired) Jerry Morelock, of
Armchair General
magazine, has been not only a good friend, but a “fire support provider” over the years; when he is asked for assistance, his prompt reply is always, “On the way!” Eric Weider, scholar, publisher, and friend, has been ineffably generous in support of the work I try to do. Eric’s a doggone good man.

Last, but certainly not least, my thanks to our National Battlefield Park historians and Rangers, as well as to the licensed battlefield guides, for all they do for the education of our citizenry and to honor the memories of those who shaped the country we’re blessed to live in.

Given space constraints, I can’t list the hundreds of reference works that underpin this novel, but I’m obliged to alert readers to key works that either influenced me more powerfully than others or provide excellent texts for those who want to learn more about the men and events of this bloodiest month in American history—and the birth of modern war in Virginia’s fields.

The 986 pages of series 1, vol. 36, part 3, of
War of the Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies
never left my desk during the writing of
Hell or Richmond
. There is no substitute for the actual messages written on the battlefields and the unit reports drafted shortly thereafter (as self-serving as many reports inevitably are). From timelines to temper tantrums, the raw information waits in the
Official Records
. They are indispensable.

Next in importance are the letters, notebooks, and diaries of the participants. My own favorites are the notebooks and letters of Theodore Lyman, who was both a trained scientist with a sharp capacity for critical thought and a talented writer with a tart sense of humor. No one left us better accounts of the campaigns he witnessed or wrote with greater integrity.

Fortunately, ever more letter collections have been published, and I recommend those of Barlow, Meade, Grant, and Upton and the annotated collection of letters home from Company C, 50th Pennsylvania, skillfully assembled by J. Stuart Richards. As for notebooks and diaries, Marsena Patrick’s are grumpy and grand, but I’ve never picked up a Civil War diary that wasn’t well worth reading.

Among the memoirs I found useful (and which must, of course, be taken with very large grains of salt), the best were those of John B. Gordon, William C. Oates, Andrew A. Humphreys, Louis Napoleon Beaudry (of the Fifth New York Cavalry, an amazing outfit about which a splendid, stand-alone novel waits to be written), Edward Porter Alexander, and, the finest memoirist of them all, Ulysses S. Grant. Cyrus Comstock’s diary is useful for cross-referencing, but Adam Badeau’s memoir is fiercely prejudiced against all persons and deeds of the Army of the Potomac. Fitzhugh Lee’s biography and memoir of General Lee is useful, if inevitably hagiographic.

Contemporary biographies well worth reading are
Gettysburg Requiem: The Life and Lost Causes of Confederate Colonel William C. Oates,
by Glenn W. LaFantasie;
The Boy General: The Life and Careers of Francis Channing Barlow,
by Richard F. Welch;
John Brown Gordon: Soldier, Southerner, American,
by Ralph Lowell Eckert;
General James Longstreet: The Confederacy’s Most Controversial Soldier,
by Jeffry D. Wert; a seemingly inexhaustible supply of Grant biographies (take your pick);
General A. P. Hill: The Story of a Confederate Warrior,
by James I. Robertson, Jr.;
Hancock the Superb,
by Glenn Tucker (an oldie but goodie);
Richard S. Ewell: A Soldier’s Life,
by Donald C. Pfanz; and the classic Meade biographies by Cleaves and Pennypacker, as well as the fine new
Searching for George Gordon Meade: The Forgotten Victor of Gettysburg,
by Tom Huntington. As for Robert E. Lee, he deserves more scrupulous, less infatuated biographers: His greatness was inseparable from his deficiencies.

For a well-written introduction to several key generals featured in
Hell or Richmond,
I strongly recommend Thomas B. Buell’s
The Warrior Generals: Combat Leadership in the Civil War
.

As for books specifically about these battles, the remarkable work of Gordon C. Rhea is brilliant, convincing, and humbling to fellow writers of fiction or nonfiction. His research is impeccable; his analysis is astute; and his writing is compelling. Of all the many contemporary works I consulted, none was of as much value as Rhea’s four volumes:
The Battle of the Wilderness, May 5–6, 1864; The Battles for Spotsylvania Court House and the Road to Yellow Tavern, May 7–12, 1864; To the North Anna River: Grant and Lee, May 13–25, 1864;
and
Cold Harbor: Grant and Lee, May 26–June 3, 1864
. This is a magnificent body of work. I do not agree with every one of his conclusions (although I find most inarguable), but I respect the quality of mind that led to each of them. Reportedly, Rhea has been at work on a follow-up volume that moves the armies to Petersburg. His admirers are waiting.

For those who would like a solid one-volume introduction to the Overland Campaign,
Bloody Roads South: The Wilderness to Cold Harbor, May–June 1864,
by Noah Andre Trudeau, is a good place to start. Other worthy and relatively compact volumes are
Into the Wilderness with the Army of the Potomac,
by Robert Garth Scott;
If It Takes All Summer: The Battle of Spotsylvania,
by William D. Matter; and
Not War but Murder: Cold Harbor 1864,
by Ernest B. Furgurson. There are, of course, many more books, old and new, on these battles, with more doubtless on the way for the sesquicentennial. These simply turned out to be my favorites.

I also must mention a book I did not use, but only because I discovered it near the end of my work on
Hell or Richmond
. That is
The 50th Pennsylvania’s Civil War Odyssey: The Exciting Life and Hard Times of a Union Volunteer Infantry Regiment: 1861 to 1865,
by Harold B. Birch. This was a fascinating unit composed of deeply committed soldiers, many of whom served from the early months of the war to its final shots.

And then there are the maps to which I referred: With the blessing of the National Park Service, master historian Frank O’Reilly and his team have produced what for me were indispensable map series of the Battles of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania. Painstakingly researched and beautifully executed, these maps, in their dozens, covered the floor of my home office during much of the work on this novel, and when they were not at the foot of my desk, they were in my hands as I walked the battlefields. Of course, the pioneer of such diligent map making was the great, immeasurably influential Edwin C. Bearss, whose Cold Harbor maps of a half century ago set new research standards and whose extensive work on our Civil War remains peerless. A Marine Corps veteran of the Pacific theater in World War II, Ed Bearss still leads a tough and instructive staff ride.

My apologies to any authors who may feel unfairly passed over. I cannot claim to have read everything, nor can my publisher afford me any more space. My purpose here is not to exhaust the resources, but to guide readers who may have developed a deeper interest in these battles toward a few good books to get them started.

History is endless.

“Man proposes, God disposes.” I like epilogues that tell me what ultimately became of the characters in a historical novel. I did not provide one to this novel for a straightforward reason: I hope to follow the key characters—Barlow and Gordon, Upton and Oates, Grant, Meade, Lee, and the others—through two more novels that will deliver them, at last, to Appomattox or wherever the war’s finale overtook them. But I learned long ago that the pride and plans of man are subject to confounding turns of fate. So while I hope to live with these remarkable men for a few years more, I know that depends on everything from accidents of the flesh to sales figures and the state of the publishing industry. God willing, you and I will meet next at Petersburg, on the Monocacy, and in the Valley. Should fate intervene, I hope you will have found the book in hand sufficient in itself.

—Ralph Peters

Advent, 2012

Key Characters

UNION

AYRES
, Romeyn B. “Rome,” Brigadier General. Commanding First Brigade, First (Griffin’s) Division, Fifth Corps.

BADEAU
, Adam, Lieutenant Colonel. Military secretary to Grant.

BARLOW
, Francis Channing, Brigadier General. Commanding First Division, Second (Hancock’s) Corps. Descended from old New England blood; first in the Harvard class of 1855; successful lawyer before the war; a ruthless fighter.

BEAUDRY
, Louis Napoleon. Chaplain, Fifth New York Cavalry, and temperance advocate.

BILL
. Manservant to Grant. Freed slave.

BIRNEY
, David B., Major General. Commanding Third Division, Second (Hancock’s) Corps.

BLACK
, John D., Captain. Aide to Barlow.

BROOKE
, John R., Colonel. Commanding Fourth Brigade, First (Barlow’s) Division, Second Corps.

BROWN
, Charles E., Sergeant. Company C, 50th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteer Infantry Regiment. Canal boatman before the war.

BURKET
, Daniel F., Captain. Commanding Company C, 50th Pennsylvania. Canal harbormaster before the war.

BURNSIDE
, Ambrose E., Major General. Commanding Ninth Corps (initially a separate corps, later integrated into the Army of the Potomac).

BYRNES
, Richard, Colonel. Commanding Second (“Irish”) Brigade, First (Barlow’s) Division, Second (Hancock’s) Corps, after Smyth transfers to Gibbon’s division.

CHRIST
, Benjamin C., Colonel. Commanding Second Brigade, Third Division, Ninth (Burnside’s) Corps. His brigade includes the 50th Pennsylvania.

DOUDLE
, John, Corporal. Company C, 50th Pennsylvania. Canal boatman before the war.

FRANK
, Paul, Colonel. Commanding Third Brigade, First (Barlow’s) Division, Second Corps. German immigrant.

GETTY
, George Washington, Brigadier General. Commanding Second Division, Sixth (Sedgwick’s) Corps, at the start of the campaign.

GIBBON
, John, Brigadier General. Commanding Second Division, Second (Hancock’s) Corps. Occasionally serves as deputy commander to Hancock.

GRANT
, Ulysses S. “Sam,” Lieutenant General. General in chief of the Union’s armies.

GRIFFIN
, Charles, Brigadier General. Commanding First Division, Fifth (Warren’s) Corps. Old soldier with a great affection for his troops and a genius for profanity.

HAMMOND
, John, Lieutenant Colonel. Commanding Fifth New York Cavalry.

HANCOCK
, Winfield Scott, Major General. Commanding Second Corps, Army of the Potomac.

HILL
, Henry, Private. Company C, 50th Pennsylvania. Canal boatman before the war. Cousin to First Sergeant William Hill.

HILL
, William, First Sergeant. Company C, 50th Pennsylvania. Canal boatman before the war.

HUMPHREYS
, Andrew Atkinson, Major General. Chief of staff, Army of the Potomac.

LYMAN
, Theodore “Ted” or “Teddy,” Volunteer Lieutenant Colonel and aide to General Meade. A wealthy New England blue blood and Harvard classmate of Barlow’s. Scholar and scientist.

MACDOUGALL
, Clinton D., Colonel. Commanding Third Brigade, First (Barlow’s) Division, Second (Hancock’s) Corps, at Cold Harbor.

MARTZ
, Samuel, Private. Newly enlisted in the 50th Pennsylvania. Blacksmith by profession.

MEADE
, George Gordon, Major General. Commander, Army of the Potomac.

MILES
, Nelson A., Colonel. Commanding First Brigade, First (Barlow’s) Division, Second Corps.

MORGAN
, Charles H., Lieutenant Colonel. Chief of staff, Second (Hancock’s) Corps.

MOTT
, Gershom, Brigadier General. Commanding Fourth Division, Second (Hancock’s) Corps.