The Virginia in the Civil War Message Board

Re: Which Alsop farm in May 1864?
In Response To: Which Alsop farm in May 1864? ()

Perhaps the following will be of some help.:

Mobile Daily Advertiser & Register
June 1, 1864
p. 1 col. 5
OUR ARMY CORRESPONDENCE
LETTER FROM VIRGINIA
Army Northern Virginia
Spotsylvania C.H. May 20
We had a little excitement last evening, but to-day all is a quiet as a summer morning. it was ascertained yesterday that the enemy was again retiring from our left front where he had been so handsomely repulsed the day before by Gordon, and was moving towards the Richmond and Fredericksburg Railroad. Gen. Lee, not disposed to follow along in the same direction, nor to allow his adversary to proceed alone, ordered to Ewell to advance and strike him in the flank and rear, and thus compel him to return to his former position. Ewell marched out of the trenches late in the afternoon, and encountered the enemy a little before sunset. A sharp combat ensued, the enemy being thrown into considerable confusion and retiring before our troops. It is believed that the attack would have resulted in important captures had all portions of the command behaved equally well, but Jones' brigade of Johnson's division, which did not stand firmly in the Wilderness and was the first to break in the great battle of the 12th, fled incontinently, and some report that the Stonewall brigade did not do as well as it might have done. The latter is composed of troops from the valley of the Shenandoah and the former from the counties in Southwestern Virginia. Pegram's brigade of the same division on the contrary displayed much gallantry.
In consequence of the unsteadiness of a portion of the corps here alluded to, Ewell did not press his advantage, nor bring off some 45 wagons which he captured. Indeed, finding that the enemy was receiving heavy reinforcements and it being no part of his instructions to bring on a general engagement within the Federal entrenchments, he returned late at night to his former position, leaving his dead and a portion of his wounded behind. His losses were small, not exceeding 100 in killed and wounded. Through some oversight, the ambulances of the corps did not accompany it, or the wounded might have been removed. The real object of the demonstration, however, was fully accomplished; the movement to the right was checked, and Gen. Grant reduced to the condition of the man who receives unexpected news on a journey, and who stops to scratch his head, being in doubt which way to turn or what to do, whether to go on or return.

Messages In This Thread

Which Alsop farm in May 1864?
Re: Which Alsop farm in May 1864?
Re: Which Alsop farm in May 1864?