The next meeting of the Clarksville (TN) CWRT will be Wednesday, October 17th, 2007. The meeting will begin at 7 PM the cafe of Borders Book store in the Governer's Square Mall on Wilma Rudolph Blvd. This is just south of Exit 4 off I-24. The meetings are free and open to the public- and you do not have to be a Civil War expert to attend!
Our program this month will be by Greg Mertz, Supervisory Historian at Fredericksburg-Spotsylvania National Military Park will be our featured speaker. He will present “I’ll be Damned if I’ll Cooperate”-- Gouverneur K. Warren at Wilderness and Spotsylvania.
Federal Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren entered the spring campaign of 1864 with a high reputation. Although he would not be widely recognized as the savior of Gettysburg’s Little Round Top until after his death, Warren’s decisions regarding that hill while serving as the chief engineer of the Army of the Potomac were indeed appreciated by the army commander, George G. Meade. Ironically the whole army was aware of another of Warren’s decisions that is not very well known of today that occurred five months after Gettysburg during the Mine Run Campaign. Warren had been ordered to attack a Confederate position that he deemed to be so strong that he decided not to carry out the orders without first advising Meade of his objections. The attack was canceled and the men in the ranks hailed Warren as a man who would rather jeopardize his career than send men into a fruitless slaughter.
By the time the army departed winter camps and marched into the region in Virginia known as the Wilderness on May 4, 1864, Warren commanded the Fifth Corps. Just a few days into the campaign, General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant, accompanying the Army of the Potomac, confided with some of his staff officers that he had been “inclined to place him [Warren] in command of the Army of the Potomac in case Meade had been killed.”
But Grant’s assessment of Warren had changed dramatically in just over a week. By May 12, 1864, on the day of the most horrific fighting around Spotsylvania Court House, Grant was prepared to replace Warren. Grant instructed Meade to have the army chief of staff take Warren’s place if his troops were not found to be engaged. Chief of staff Andrew A. Humphreys concluded that Warren was doing the best that he could, and allowed Warren to remain in command. Before war’s end, however, Warren would be dismissed at Five Forks. The charges were petty, but Warren’s removal was really a culmination of the seeds that were sown in the Battles of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House.
Please join us as Greg Mertz speaks on Gen. GK Warren.
The Clarksville CWRT meets the third Wednesday of each month at Borders book store in Clarksville.
Greg Biggs
President, Clarksville CWRT