Strike Them a Blow: Battle along the North Anna River, May 21-25, 1864

by Chris Mackowski PhD

Overview

For sixteen days the armies had grappled—a grueling horror-show of nonstop battle, march, and maneuver that stretched through May of 1864. Federal commander Ulysses S. Grant had resolved to destroy his Confederate adversaries through attrition if by no other means. He would just keep at them until he used them up.

Meanwhile, Grant’s Confederate counterpart, Robert E. Lee, looked for an opportunity to regain the offensive initiative. “We must strike them a blow,” he told his lieutenants.

The toll on both armies was staggering.

But Grant’s war of attrition began to take its toll in a more insidious way. Both army commanders—operating on the dark edge of exhaustion, fighting off illness, pressure-cooked by stress—began to feel the effects of that continuous, merciless grind in very personal ways. Punch-drunk tired, they began to second-guess themselves, began missing opportunities, began making mistakes.

As a result, along the banks of the North Anna River, commanders on both sides brought their armies to the brink of destruction without even knowing it.

Picking up the story started in the Emerging Civil War Series book A Season of Slaughter: The Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse, historian Chris Mackowski follows the road south to the North Anna River. Strike Them a Blow: Battle Along the North Anna River offers a concise, engaging account of the mistakes and missed opportunities of the third—and least understood—phase of the Overland Campaign.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781611212549
Publisher:	Savas Beatie
Publication date:	06/19/2015
Series:	Emerging Civil War Series
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Chris Mackowski, Ph.D., is the editor-in-chief of Emerging Civil War. He is a writing professor in the Jandoli School of Communication at St. Bonaventure University and the historian-in-residence at Stevenson Ridge, a historic property on the Spotsylvania battlefield. He has authored or co-authored more than two dozen books on the Civil War.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments viii

Touring the Battlefield x

Foreword Gordon C. Rhea xiii

Prologue xix

Chapter 1 The Campaign 1

Chapter 2 Hancock's March 11

Chapter 3 The Fog of War 19

Chapter 4 Leaving Spotsylvania 25

Chapter 5 The Night March 31

Chapter 6 "Wherever Lee Goes…" 37

Chapter 7 Before the Storm 45

Chapter 8 The Battle for Henagan's Redoubt 53

Chapter 9 The Battle of Jericho Mills 63

Chapter 10 Lee's Council of War 79

Chapter 11 At Mt. Carmel Church 89

Chapter 12 Marching into the Trap 95

Chapter 13 The Battle of Ox Ford 105

Chapter 14 Strike Them a Blow 113

Chapter 15 Stalemate 117

Appendix A The Battle of Wilson's Wharf Emmanuel Dabney 125

Appendix B The Battle of Milford Station Darnel T. Davis 133

Appendix C The Eye of the Storm Chris Mackowski 137

Appendix D Lee's Engineer: Martin Luther Smith Rob Orrison 143

Appendix E Preserving North Anna: A Personal Battlefield Journey John F. Cummings III 147

Appendix F Preserving North Anna: The Art of the Battle Chris Mackowski 153

Order of Battle 156

Suggested Reading 168

About the Author 170

Maps Hal Jespersen

North Anna Battlefield XI

The Campaign through May 20, 1864 2

Hancock's March 12

Advance to the North Anna River 38

Capture of Henagan's Redoubt 56

Jericho Mills-May 23, 1864: Phase One 68

Jericho Mills-May 23, 1864: Phase Two 72

Lee's Inverted "V" 80

Lee's Inverted "V": and Grant's Deployment 96

North Anna River to Totopotomoy Creek 122

Wilson's Wharf 126

Editorial Reviews

"A fascinating account of just one battle during the American Civil War. "

Books Monthly

"A fascinating account of just one battle during the American Civil War."

Books Monthly UK