Details
GRANT, ULYSSES S., President. Autograph letter (a telegram) signed ("U.S. Grant Lt. Gen") TO MAJOR GENERAL AMBROSE E. BURNSIDE, n.p., 18 May 1864. One page, an oblong, 143 x 200mm. (5 5/8 x 7 7/8 in.), in pencil on smooth-finish paper, telegrapher's pencilled note "6:10 p.m." and name "Caldwell" at top left-hand corner, uniform browning, small burn hole, two tiny pinholes where clipped to another sheet.
A RARE FIELD TELEGRAM: GRANT TO BURNSIDE AT SPOTSYLVANIA COURTHOUSE
"Maj. Gen Burnside Comdg. 9th Corps. The same road will be used from here to Fredericksburg [Virginia] after our first move as now so that the position of Fererro's command will not be changed at present. Warren does not move...."
A rare example of a field telegram from the Commander of the Army of the Potomac to one of his Corps Commanders, Burnside, commanding the 9th Corps. Burnside had served in the Union Army since Bull Run; his undistinguished performance while commanding the left wing of McClellan's army at Antietam probably saved Lee from a disastrous defeat. Grant's passing reference here to the road to Fredericksburg is a reminder of Burnside's greatest debacle: the bloody Union repulse at there on 13 December 1862, shortly after Burnside had taken command of the Army of the Potomac. He was relieved of command after that battle, later commanded the Army of the Ohio, and was brought East when the Army was reorganized under Grant. He served in command of that Corps in the Battle of the Wilderness (May 5-7 May) and the early phases of the Spotsylvania campaign. On May 9 Burnside's Corps occupied the Spotsylvania-Fredericksburg Road (the left wing of the Army). On the 12th Burnside's men were part of the famous assault on the "Bloody Angle," the mule-show salient held by the rebels, in which most of the Stonewall Brigade was entrapped and captured. General Warren's Fifth Corps was then shited to the extreme left flank. On the 18th, the day of this telegram, Grant ordered a renewed assault, which began at 4 a.m. but was quickly repulsed with heavy losses and finally abandoned. Grant thereupon decided he would once again shift the Army of the Potomac around to the south by the left flank, and sent orders to that effect. The present appears to be a response to a query from Burnside as to General Edward Fererro's command (part of Burnside's Ninth Corps) and the details of the army's line of march. The movement of the army began the morning after this telegram, on 19 May.
A RARE FIELD TELEGRAM: GRANT TO BURNSIDE AT SPOTSYLVANIA COURTHOUSE
"Maj. Gen Burnside Comdg. 9th Corps. The same road will be used from here to Fredericksburg [Virginia] after our first move as now so that the position of Fererro's command will not be changed at present. Warren does not move...."
A rare example of a field telegram from the Commander of the Army of the Potomac to one of his Corps Commanders, Burnside, commanding the 9th Corps. Burnside had served in the Union Army since Bull Run; his undistinguished performance while commanding the left wing of McClellan's army at Antietam probably saved Lee from a disastrous defeat. Grant's passing reference here to the road to Fredericksburg is a reminder of Burnside's greatest debacle: the bloody Union repulse at there on 13 December 1862, shortly after Burnside had taken command of the Army of the Potomac. He was relieved of command after that battle, later commanded the Army of the Ohio, and was brought East when the Army was reorganized under Grant. He served in command of that Corps in the Battle of the Wilderness (May 5-7 May) and the early phases of the Spotsylvania campaign. On May 9 Burnside's Corps occupied the Spotsylvania-Fredericksburg Road (the left wing of the Army). On the 12th Burnside's men were part of the famous assault on the "Bloody Angle," the mule-show salient held by the rebels, in which most of the Stonewall Brigade was entrapped and captured. General Warren's Fifth Corps was then shited to the extreme left flank. On the 18th, the day of this telegram, Grant ordered a renewed assault, which began at 4 a.m. but was quickly repulsed with heavy losses and finally abandoned. Grant thereupon decided he would once again shift the Army of the Potomac around to the south by the left flank, and sent orders to that effect. The present appears to be a response to a query from Burnside as to General Edward Fererro's command (part of Burnside's Ninth Corps) and the details of the army's line of march. The movement of the army began the morning after this telegram, on 19 May.