The Campaigns of 1862

This chapter discusses the first of a series of military campaigns the Federals launched against Richmond. Many feared during the Peninsula Campaign and the Seven Days’ Battle of 1862 that the city would be given up, as Nashville and New Orleans had. These battles around Richmond exposed the people to the horrors of war. The city became overcrowded as people flocked to it because the capital was deemed to be so safe. Richmond became a major hospital center during this time. The year 1862 forced Richmonders to adapt to war with all of its consequences.

Weather

This chapter discusses the unprecedented flooding in California in 1862, as well as the heavy floods throughout the South from the Mississippi River to the Virginia peninsula, all in the midst of what scholars call the “Civil War drought.” It reveals how the weather affected the Confederate efforts to capture the western states, the Union capture of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in Tennessee, as well as the battles of Shiloh, Corinth, the Peninsula campaign, and the battle of Perryville, KY. Focusing on Union General George McClellan’s failed campaign to capture Richmond, Virginia, it examines the environmental consequences of heavy rain on the soldiers, landscape, animals, strategies, and overall health of the armies on both sides. The weather created enormous disease environments and health hazards that brought out the worst in McClellan’s military tendencies.

The contribution of the Irish soldier to the British Army during the Peninsula campaign 1808 – 1814

The majority of the historiography concerning the Irish contribution to the British army during their campaign on the Iberian Peninsula (1808 -1814) has focused on the Irish regiments and their service with Wellington in Portugal, Spain and France. While the significance of research into these regiments is undeniable it has unintentionally resulted in an under appreciation of the true extent of the Irish soldier’s contribution. The purpose of this paper is to add to the existing historiography by examining the wider Irish contribution in order to arrive at an empirical based assessment as to the criticality of the Irish soldier to Wellington’s victory during the Peninsula war. The majority of Irish soldiers who served in the Peninsula did so in English and Scottish infantry regiments. Their abilities and crucially their integration into the British army were key success factors for Wellington during the Peninsula campaign. An examination of how this was achieved forms a key part of this paper which finds that the capabilities of the Irish soldier and the British army organisational structure and system mutually supported each other. Furthermore, the Irish officer’s contribution has only been assessed based on individual accounts and narratives in the absence of any in-depth evaluation of their actual numbers. With over 30 per cent of Wellington’s officers being Irish an analysis of their levels of command was undertaken to demonstrate their significance to the overall conduct and operation of the Peninsula army. To fully understand the Irish soldier’s contribution an assessment of their combat effectiveness building on the preceding quantitative findings and utilising modern concepts of combat motivation and behaviours was undertaken. The findings indicate that while the Irish soldier’s contribution was much wider and central to victory in 1814 than is generally appreciated or understood, the British army of the period recognised its importance and, despite popular misperceptions, did not at an institutional level seek to discriminate against the Irish soldier. The paper concludes that Irish soldiers were of critical importance to British victory not only in terms of their numbers but also due to their successful integration into the wider British army outside of Irish regiments, their presence in large numbers at all levels of command and their overall combat effectiveness. Without this contribution it can be argued that British victory would not have been achieved in the Peninsula.

Securing Work

This chapter continues with the story of Edward and Emma Whitehurst, as well as thousands more enslaved people who fled to Fort Monroe and vicinity, and describes their efforts to secure work with the Union army in 1861 and 1862. It discusses the nature of their labor, from working as guides and spies for the army, to seeking positions as cooks, laundresses, nurses, and heavy laborers. And it describes how difficult it became for these refugees to secure compensation for their labor—as well as recognition of their right to own property. Not everyone in the Union army was willing to view refugees as free people who were entitled to participate in a free labor system. This led to a troubling sequence of events in late 1861 and well into 1862, in which the refugees protested the lack of wages and other harsh labor policies, the frequency of theft, and the impressment of men to work for the Union. Their outcry led to policy changes that involved compensating refugees more consistently for their work—but not before the Whitehursts themselves lost everything to marauding Union soldiers during the Peninsula Campaign.