A Memoir of the Last Year of the War for Independence in the Confederate States of America/Hanover Junction-Operations of Early's Division
HANOVER JUNCTION
OPERATIONS OF EARLY'S DIVISON
The movement of the enemy to get between our army and Richmond had been discovered, and on the afternoon of the 21st, Ewell's corps was put in motion towards Hanover Junction.[1] After turning over to General Hill, the command of his corps, I rode in the direction taken by Ewell's corps, and overtook it, a short time before day on the morning of the 22nd. Hoke's brigade, under Lieutenant Colonel Lewis, this day joined us from Petersburg, and an order was issued, transferring Gordon's brigade, now under the command of Brigadier-General Evans, to Johnson's division, which was placed under the command of General Gordon, who had been made a Major General. This left me in command of three brigades, to wit: Pegram's, Hoke's, and Johnston's, all of which were very much reduced in strength. My Adjutant General, Major Daniel, had been disabled for life by a wound received at the Wilderness, and my Inspector General, Major Samuel Hale, had been mortally wounded at Spotsyivania Court House, on the 12th, while serving with the division and acting with great gallantry during the disorder which ensued after Ewell's line was broken. Both were serious losses to me.
On this day, (the 22nd), we moved to Hanover Junction, and, next day my division was posted on the extreme right, covering a ferry two or three miles below the railroad bridge across the North Anna. While at Hanover Junction my division was not engaged. At one time it was moved towards our left, for the purpose of supporting a part of the line on which an attack was expected, and moved back again without being required. It was, subsequently, placed temporarily on the left of the corps, relieving Rodes' division and a part of Field's while the line was being remodelled, and then took position on the right again.
During the night of the 26th, the enemy again withdrew from our front.[2]
- ↑ Hanover junction is about 22 miles from Richmond, and is at he intersection of the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac railroad with the Central Railroad from Richmond west via Gordonsville and Staunton. It is on the direct road from both Spotsylvania Court House and Fredericksburg to Richmond. The North Anna River is north of the Junction about two miles, and the South Anna about three miles south of it. Those two streams unite south of east, and a few miles from the Junction, and form the Pamunkey River.
- ↑ At Hanover Junction General Leo was joined by Pickett's division of Longstreet's corps, and Breckenridge with two small brigades of infantry, and a battalion of artillery. These, with Hoke's brigade, were the first and only reinforcements received by General Lee since the opening of the, campaign. Yet, Grant's immense army, notwithstanding the advantage gained by it on the 12th of May, had been so crippled, that it was compelled to wait six days at Spotsylvania Court House for reinforcements from Washington, before it could resume the offensive. Breckenridge's infantry numbered less than 3,000 muskets; yet, Grant puts it 15,000, and he makes an absurd attempt to cast the whole blame for the failure of the campaign, so far, on Butler; to immolate whom, lie makes a digression in his account of the operations at Hanover Junction, and says: "The army sent to operate against Richmond having hermetically sealed itself up at Bermuda Hundreds, the enemy was enabled to bring the most, if not all the reinforcements brought from the South by Beauregard against the Army of the Potomac." He therefore determined to try another flank movement, and to get more reinforcements from the army at Bermuda Hundreds.