#37: The Less-Than-Dashing Abner Doubleday, Part II

After taking the time to eat a big breakfast while under bombardment by Confederate shells, Doubleday and his artillerists get the Union into the fight taking the first shift of the Union defense of Fort Sumpter. But the outnumbered force had to yield in the end.

After returning north, Doubleday got his own command - known as the Fort Sumpter Garrison as many of the regulars from Fort Sumpter remined with him - and began participating in the wider Civil War. He did not take part in the first major battle of the war - First Manassas - because he had just helped another force retake Harper's Ferry, but he would be there when Second Manassas kicked off. Not only would he be there, but he would help one of the more famous Union brigades earn its enduring nickname - The Iron Brigade.

Despite his success on the battlefield, he continues to clash with senior officers less dedicated to the cause of emancipation and continues to be seen by many as unforgivably less-than-dashing.

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Transcript

EPISODE 37 - The Less-Than-Dashing Abner Doubleday, Part II 

Welcome back to Ghosts of Arlington, and thank you so much for tuning in to Episode 37, The Less-Than-Dashing Abner Doubleday, Part II.

And that, dear listeners, is what we call an improvisational show introduction. A slight deviation from the norm that I might keep using – or I might not, who knows. I guess you’ll just have to keep tuning in to find out.

Last week we talked about Doubleday’s early post-West Point career that included service in the Mexican American war where, despite his desire to get into the fight, he was mostly held in reserve while several of his artillery peers received two and even three temporary brevet promotions for their actions on the battlefield. Fearing he would be overlooked because of his sometimes less-than-dashing and cautious attitude, Doubleday seemed to have been vindicated when, after the war, he received a permanent promotion to first lieutenant. 

Following the Mexican American, Doubleday spent time in New York, Baltimore, Texas, and Virginia, before being sent to Florida for the quote / unquote Third Seminole War that was less of a war and more of Secretary of War and very pro-Southern John B. Floyd’s scheme to move pro-Union forces out of key installations in the south before the start of the inevitable Civil War.  

Unfortunately for Floyd and the other secessionists, the Third Seminole War ended before the Civil War kicked off so many of the soldiers who had been sent to Florida, returned to the southern strongholds including Abner who, now a captain, who took command of one of two artillery batteries around Charleston Harbor in South Carolina.  

And that is where we will pick up Doubleday’s story today, after the secession of South Carolina, when the Confederate army forced the Union personnel to relocate to Fort Sumpter, in the middle of Charleston Harbor, and on April 12, 1861, at 4:30 in the morning, the first shots of the Civil War were fired. 

Because Fort Sumpter had been effectively surrounded and unable to receive resupply for going on three months, Union artillery rounds were in short supply and the Federal forces had to carefully pick their targets. At seven a.m., two and a half hours after the southern guns opened-up, Captain Doubleday took command of the first shift of artillerists manning the guns of the fort.  

By the time he and his crews were relieved at 10:30, Doubleday was beyond frustrated. While some of his rounds had hit targets like a wooden hotel serving as a barracks near Fort Moultrie, most of the fortification he was firing at were well protected from fire coming from the harbor, so he was able to do little to disrupt the fire coming at Fort Sumpter. 

By the time the exhausted Doubleday was able to try to catch his breath, “fires and explosions, and a choking smoke were regular occurrences within the fort.” 

“It seemed impossible to escape suffocation,” Doubleday wrote, “had not a slight change of wind taken place. The result would have been fatal to most of us.” 

Things got so bad that Abner and the others inside Fort Sumpter had to wrap themselves in wet blankets to seek from getting singed by the flames and cinders swirling all around them.  

And the situation soon grew more dire as the soldiers not only had to worry about the Confederate artillery fire, but also their own gunpowder and grenades being set off by the surrounding sparks. 

At 2 pm, Doubleday and his gun crew came back on duty and continued lobbing rounds across the harbor. Mercifully for the Union troops, by 6 that evening, strong winds and heavy rains forced the Confederates to stop the bombardment and forestalled any possible assault on the fort. 

Through the first day of the siege, nearly 3400 rounds had been fired at Fort Sumpter, while the defenders had been able to fire less than 1000 shots. 

As the sun rose the next morning, the damage to Fort Sumpter was clearly visible. Fires had continued to burn through the night. To make matters worse, the Union forces had nearly depleted their stock of powered and shot and had only six canons still capable of returning fire. The Confederates on the other had nearly 50 still operational field pieces. 

Not long after dawn, the Confederates resumed their onslaught. Soon, 20% of the entire fort was on fire and every Union soldier was suffering some smoke inhalation. At 12:48 in the afternoon, the fort’s flagpole was hit but the star-spangled banner was quickly put back in place and continued to wave defiantly during the shelling. 

A Confederate peace delegation approached the fort under a flag of truce at 2 pm and offered what Major Anderson considered generous terms of surrender. Doubleday felt accepting the terms was a degradation to the American flag but also recognized that he and the others had done all they could to hold out. The men were utterly spent and so was their ammunition and food. Miraculously, not a single defender of the fort had been killed in the cannonade. 

The fort was officially surrendered the following day, Sunday, April 14. Major Anderson was granted permission to fire a 100-gun salute to the Union flag but an explosion at one of those six remaining cannons took the first life of the Civil War, an Irish immigrant from County Tipperary, Private Daniel Hough (Hock). Five other artillerists were wounded and one would die of his wounds five days later. 

After that mishap, Anderson reduced to the salute to 50-guns. Following a brief funeral for Hough (Hock), Major Anderson took down the US flag, and rowed ashore with the rest of the garrison while the Charleston forces filed into the now-abandoned fort. 

At high tide the next morning, the Yankees were allowed to row outside the harbor and board the steamer ship Isabel and return to United States. As the Union soldiers sailed past one Confederate battery, they were astonished to see rebels silently doff their hats as a show of respect to an enemy that had fought a good fight. Such gallantry would not last as the Civil War drug on and ushered in the brutal era of modern warfare. 

At the very moment Anderson, Doubleday, and the others were sailing north, President Lincoln was “preparing a proclamation calling for the enlistment of 75,000 [volunteers] to put down [the] rebellion.” 

The New York Tribune praised the defenders of Fort Sumpter, calling the officers “resolute of spirit” and the saying the soldiers “showed themselves every way worthy of the occasion” during the 34-hour assault. 

When they arrived in New York Harbor, the soldiers were saluted with boat horns and whistles, and once on shore, applauded everywhere they went. The New York Courier quoted Doubleday as saying “shortly after our arrival, Henry Ward Beecher came down... to meet us, and made a ringing speech, full of fire and patriotism. It seemed as if everyone of note called to express his devotion to the cause of the Union, and his sympathy with us, who had been its humble representatives amidst the perils of the first conflict of the war.” 

In honor of his service at the head of one of Major Anderson’s batteries, Captain Doubleday was given command of Fort Hamilton in New York City and many of the Fort Sumpter garrison remained with him. He was also reunited with his wife, father, and brother who were all living in the city.  

For their part, Abner and Mary were happy to see that people were starting to now take the secessionist threat seriously and that everyone in New York was finally uniting around the Union cause. Everywhere they went, buildings and private houses displayed the star and stripes. 

On May 14, a month after the fall of Fort Sumpter, President Lincoln personally authorized Doubleday’s promotion to major. New York City’s chamber of commerce struck a medal in honor of the quote / unquote Defenders of Fort Sumpter, and “Newspapers began to refer to the 43-year-old Doubleday as a man who ‘showed uncompromising devotion to honor the flag.’” 

In the early days of the conflict, many northern politicians, military leaders, citizens, and newspapers loudly and confidently predicted the Civil War would end quickly and it would only take one or two battles to bring the rebellious south back into the fold. In his book Abner Doubleday: A Civil War Biography, Thomas Barthel states, “[Abner] Doubleday aggressively disputed the theory generally advanced of an early end... Doubleday had met the Southerners in battle at Sumpter and he knew how desperately earnest they were.” 

(INSERT MARCHING DRUMS HERE AS A TRANSITION) 

Soon after the drums of war began, Southern troops under Colonel Thomas Jackson sized the US arsenal at Harpers Ferry. This force was soon reinforced by General Joe Johnston and his troops. Aside from the armaments that had also drawn John Brown there a few years earlier, the area held a rail junction that the Confederates wanted to control – “clearly the spot’s strategic location had to be retaken by Federal forces.”  

In early summer, Doubleday received orders to travel to Pennsylvania and join up with Major General Robert Patterson’s Army of the Shenandoah. As Patterson’s Army moved toward Harpers Ferry, curious spectators all along the route came out to gawk at the spectacle of a 15,000-stong force marching to battle. Because of his early fame in the conflict, many of these onlookers came specifically to catch a glimpse of Doubleday and his Fort Sumpter Garrison. 

Doubleday knew how he was perceived at the time and said <QUOTE> “as I had been at Fort Sumpter and that was the only battle of the war they looked up to me with considerable admiration and respect...” <END QUOTE>

Once criticism, whether fair or not, that Doubleday’s detractors liked to cite was that he “too often fell prey to the self-importance about being the hero of Sumpter. This... aspect of Doubleday’s character – almost always labeled [as] pomposity – would often engender two reactions in others. First, came the failure to take the man seriously. Pomposity, after all, is an easy target for ridicule. Second, resentment would frequently arise in his air of superiority. Whatever Doubleday’s achievements might be, others [were oft] displeased by is often superior airs.” 

Patterson showed up expecting a fight, but much to his surprise, by the time his Army arrived, Johnston had moved the bulk of the Confederates had moved south to Winchester, Virginia so his force moved in and occupied Harpers Ferry with little opposition. Doubleday even sized several large field guns that had been left behind. 

The Northern excitement over Patterson’s seeming victory lasted only two weeks until the reason for Johnston’s abandonment of Harpers Ferry became clear – on June 21, he led Confederate forces in the first major battle of the Civil War at Manassas, some 50 miles to the south, and routed Union forces at the First Battle of Bull Run. At that battle, the colonel who had originally taken Harpers Ferry, Thomas Jackson, received the nickname Stonewall and the brigade he commanded there would forever after be called the Stonewall brigade. 

Rightly or not, after the Bull Run debacle, Patterson was immediately criticized for not perusing Johnston to Winchester after finding Harpers Ferry abandoned. In the end, the 69-year-old general was removed from command and before month’s end, ushered out of the army. 

(INSERT MARCHING DRUMS HERE AS A TRANSITION) 

Sometime after Manassas, Doubleday injured his leg and had to be evacuated to Washington, DC for treatment and recovery. This time in the capital coincided with President Lincoln’s call for 500,000 more volunteers to fight as the realization set in about what it was going to take to put down the rebellion.  

In the chaotic days following the defeat at Bull Run, when the bulk of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia was only 25 miles away from a largely undefended Washington, DC, Major General George McClellan, who graduated from West Point four years after Doubleday was appointed the new Commanding General of the Union Army.  

Unlike Doubleday, who always believed a civil war would be fought over the question of slavery and full emancipation was the only way to eliminate slavery as a talking point, and President Lincoln, who was beginning to come to the same realize about emancipation, McClellan still believed that some sort of reconciliation was possible for the north and south – but Little Mac, as he was affectionately called by his soldiers, also believed slaves were legitimate property and "if only the Union showed a willingness to be considerate of the property of the Confederates, then after a few Union victories peace would be quick to arrive.” 

Soon, several senior officers who agreed with McClellan were put in place and helped shape the policy of the newly formed Army of the Potomac, McClellan’s field command. 

Little Mac had to see to the reinforcement and defense of Washington. Looking around for experienced officers to help in this effort, Doubleday was quickly appointed Assistant to the Chief of Artillery on Little Mac’s staff. Washington DC was quickly surrounded by 68 forts armed with artillery. In his new role, Doubleday had direct command of 30 of these forts and was the chief inspector of all of them. 

In January 1862, when the new congressional Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War asked Doubleday what he thought of defenses, Abner did not hold back – he criticized their poor construction, bemoaned a lack of ammunition, pointed out insufficient training for the defenders, and questioned the inadequate number of soldiers assigned to protect the capital. He directly blamed McClellan for all of these deficiencies. 

He didn’t confine these criticisms to the defenses, he also questioned Little Mac’s command style and lack of aggression. He also didn’t confine these criticisms to the joint committee but would openly and happily share them with anyone who would asked – neighbors, street sweepers, newspaper reporters, anyone. 

Today, such comments by a military officer toward a senior officer would likely find them charged with, among other things, violating Article 89 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice which deals with disrespect toward a superior officer. During the Civil War, especially in the early days when experienced officers were in short supply and high demand, Doubleday’s punishment was a promotion to brevet brigadier general and an appointment to command a brigade in III Corps in nearby Silver Spring, Maryland 

Aside from bad mouthing his boss in public, both Abner and Mary became personally acquainted with President Lincoln; Abner in his role as a commander of capital defenses and Mary, who would frequently accompany the president on his visits to soldier’s hospitals. 

On February 5, two days after his promotion, Mary Lincoln hosted an invitation-only dinner and ball at the White House for 500 of Washington Societies most influential people – General and Mrs. Doubleday were in attendance.  

(INSERT MARCHING DRUMS HERE AS A TRANSITION) 

Back in Episode 1, I talked about the influx of African Americans that flooded into Washington, DC throughout the Civil War, particularly after Washington, DC’s emancipation proclamation was issued in April 1862, followed by the national proclamation January 1, 1863. Many of these refugees /slash/ immigrants massed in temporary encampments referred to as Freedmen’s Villages and as those became over-crowded, the overcrowding and lack of sanitation bred disease. To solve this health crises, many of those living in the various Freedmen’s Villages throughout the city were relocated to the fresh air and rolling hills of a planned Freedmen’s Village on the former Arlington Plantation. 

In addition to the logistical planning to help the so-called Freedmen, Union officers soon found themselves with another conundrum: what to do with runaway slaves who made their way into Union lines. The fugitive slave act was still on the books – and would be until 1864, but you would be hard pressed to find an officer who would return a slave that made it to a Union camp.  

Even the pro-reconciliation group with McCullen who thought slavery would need to be allowed to continue recognized that returning runaways to their former masters would be akin to aiding and abetting the enemy and slaves were being used by the Confederate army to dig trenches, build fortifications, and otherwise provide a direct service to the war effort.  

In August 1861, congress pass a law to confiscate property used for resurrectionary purposes – many commanders starting calling runaways that reached their lines contraband and used the property confiscation act to justify not returning them south. 

“Three well-known generals, Hooker, Halleck, and Buell, permitted slave owners to search for runaways within [their camps].” Most others outright refused. Many commanders also hired these contrabands to work for their units. 

Not surprisingly, Doubleday was one of the first commanders to refuse to return former slaves. And may have been the first to issue written orders to everyone in his brigade reaffirming his position. <QUOTE> “All negros coming into the lines of any camp or [fort] under [my] command are to be treated as persons, not [property].” <END QUOTE> 

Aside from this being the right thing to do, he also recognized the valuable intelligence these men and women could provide his command. As one member of his staff wrote: “The general is of the opinion that they bring much valuable information which cannot be obtained from other sources... [They] are acquainted with all the roads, paths, fords, and other natural features of the country and they make excellent guides. They also know and frequently have exposed the haunts of secession spies and traitors and the existence of rebel organizations.” 

Whenever members of his brigade were threatened by others with punishment for following these orders, Doubleday stepped in and protected his troops – even after the unit moved to Fredericksburg, Virginia and one of his soldiers knocked a Virginia police officer trying to arrest a runaway slave unconscious. 

In April 1862, Doubleday was sent with his brigade 50 miles south of Washington to serve as the military governor of the recently seized city of Fredericksburg, located equidistant to the northern capital in Washington and the southern capital in Richmond.    

When he arrived, he was shocked to find orders waiting for him from III Corps commander Major General Irvin McDowell – an officer who shared McClellan’s mindset – instructing Doubleday was to use his soldiers not to guard the town but to guard confederate property, including, if necessary, to post sentries at household picket fences to ensure no one ran off with the wood for heating fuel. 

When Doubleday tried to occupy the empty home of a confederate officer who had run off to fight against the union and establish it as his headquarters, McDowell quickly relieved him of his administrative duties and moved the brigade outside of town to the far side of the Rappahannock River. 

Shortly after his removal, a flabbergasted Doubleday was once again called before the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War and testified that McDowell had issued him explicate orders to conciliate the secessionist. When the committee asked if he believed this conciliatory stance would cause the general southern civilian population to form a positive attitude toward the federal government he emphatically responded, “absolutely not.”  

<QUOTE> “As I have stated before, one of them said to me that we might guard [and protect all] their property, and still they would hate us just the same. They have their sons and brothers in the rebel army, and are fully committed to this rebellion.” <END QUOTE> 

When asked his opinion about how to act toward the rebels, Doubleday answered, “we must whip them; that is the only thing for us to do.” 

Doubleday felt McClellan and other senior officers were punishing him for his outspoke openness by keeping him across the river from Fredericksburg away from areas actively engaging Confederate forces during the peninsula campaign, but in the war that would become known as one of the most brutal and deadly up that point, no field commander could be held out of the fight forever. 

Not long after testifying to the joint commission, two division from the Army of the Potomac’s III Corps plus Doubleday’s brigade temporarily reassigned to Major General John Pope’s Army of Virginia and began maneuvering north from Fredericksburg toward now-Major General Stonewall Jackson’s Confederate troops in the Shenandoah Valley. 

Pope had experienced some success fighting Southern forces in the western theater of the war and had been ordered east. Lincoln was finding McClellan overly cautious and after the lost opportunity to capture Richmond during the Peninsula Campaign, Lincoln wanted to see what an aggressive commander could do in his neck of the woods. 

In late-August, Pope’s Army reached the area around Manassas, Virginia where the Confederates had shocked the Yankees at the First Battle of Bull Run the year before and had been raiding supplies the last few days.  

On August 28, 1862, the portion of Pope’s army that Doubleday was attached to was observed by Stonewall Jackson who had moved east upon hearing that Pope was on the march. Jackson saw that this part of the Yankee line near Brawner’s Farm made for a tempting target and ordered his troops to open fire. Union cannon returned fire and the fight was on. 

Heavy Confederate artillery fire began falling on the federal troops, so Doubleday had his brigade take cover behind a small rise in the road that provided a little protection while they awaited orders. After the battle, some saw this halt as typical Doubleday hesitation similar to what he had shown in Mexico, but Doubleday countered that with such heavy fire coming from a battery that wasn’t even visible, it was prudent to wait.  Though many of his colleagues would prove over the course of the war that, with varying degrees of success, that they held different views, Doubleday still felt that “there was no glory to be had in fighting blindly.” 

Underestimating the rebel force in front of them, Brigadier General John Gibbon, the brigade commander in line next to Doubleday, decided not to have his troops take cover and try to get an accurate tactical picture of the battlefield, but instead moved his brigade forward alone to engage the enemy. 

Much to his surprise, he discovered he was facing five brigade and quickly sent for help. 

Before Gibbon's pleas for help even reached Doubleday, he heard the heavy fire on his flank and immediately sent two of his brigade’s three regiments to reinforce the position, holding just one in reserve. Even so, Gibbon’s force was outnumbered by Jackson 4 to 1. Before long, Doubleday sent his remaining regiment to reinforce Gibbon's artillery and all of his untested solders found themselves in a desperate fight. 

After the battle it was reported that after Gibbon called for aid, none came except for Doubleday <QUOTE> He had three small regiments... But before the order reached him... he rushed his men... to the aid of their comrades from Wisconsin and Indiana... The other regiment was held to support the battery. No other help came.” <END QUOTE>  

Up to this point in the war in the east, Union forces had broken and run every time they met stiff southern resistance. They were still outnumbered, and they were still in dire straits, but after Doubleday's reinforcements arrived, the Yankees held their ground, just 100 yards from their opponents and slugged it out for two hours until the sun set and darkness halted the fight. 

Of this engagement, Thomas Barthel wrote, “The rebels were surprised by the tenacity of the Union men. Often overlooked was the discipline necessary to maintain their positions in the face of the mismatch in muskets and manpower. For that discipline, much of the credit must go to both Gibbon and Doubleday. That the men stood and fought was a lesson to the rest of the Union armies. 

“They remained disciplined even as they fell back in the darkness, for they moved back to their lines slowly. This measured pace not only showed confidence in their abilities, but, in a word of the times, grit. Even as they fell back, they retired slowly, grudgingly, and, it can be said, proudly.” 

The battle of Brawner’s Farm is now generally considered the first action of the larger Battle of Second Manassas, or Second Bull Run, that would take place over the next two days. The… 2,800 federals who rushed into the fight at Brawner’s Farm suffered nearly 1100 casualties killed, wounded, or missing, in the span of [those] two hours.” 

After disengaging the rebels, Doubleday wrote, “Throughout the whole action my men held their ground unflinchingly, and in this their maiden fight covered themselves with glory.” 

Abner’s division commander, Brigadier General John Hatch wrote, “Doubleday’s brigade moved to the front under a very heavy fire, which they gallantly sustained; but the firing continued very heavy. The retreat was executed in good order...” 

But in the words of Thomas Barthel, “There was [still] much animus felt toward Doubleday. He has never really been given the credit he deserves for his actions in the Civil War or later because he was not one of the boys. He was not glamorous; he was not, unlike many staff officers, anti-Lincoln and pro-slavery; and he did not share McClellan’s politics... 

“Seen not as a foolhardy soldier but as a steadfast one, many time in the future Doubleday would be asked to anchor a line and protect the flank of a large body of soldiers. This reputation was not glamorous. But Doubleday was not a man to worry about his appearance; rather, his concern would be his obligations to the men in his command. If that made him, to some, suitable for derision, those that mocked him for his caution were liable to rashly lead their men into slaughter. 

“No one remembers the name of Doubleday’s horse or writes about the length of his hair or the quaintness of his uniform; he was not dashing enough. But what he did... [at Brawner’s Farm], and what he was to do for another year and a half, made him a person to respect. He and his men performed much better [than most] Yankee soldiers up to [that] point. That they stood toe to toe with Jackson speaks well for them and their leader... 

“Doubleday’s men knew him to be someone who went to the sound of guns if a fellow officer asked him to. Doubleday would not rush his men into battle; but if he sent them into combat, rest assured that the fighting would be necessary. Nor would he hesitate to send them, and in so doing he said to his men that they were the equal of any fighting force, North or South.” 

We’ll have to pause our story here today, but before I do, I want to note that no less a soldier than Stonewall Jackson recognized the fortitude with which Doubleday and Gibbon’s troops fought, albeit in his understated and reserved way. In his official report he wrote, “The Federals did not attempt to advance, but maintained their ground with obstinate determination... Both lines stood exposed to the discharges of musketry and artillery until about 9 o’clock, when the enemy slowly fell back, yielding the field to our troops... the loss on both sides was heavy and among our wounded were Major General Ewell and Brigadier General Taliaferro (Tolliver). The latter after a few months was able to resume his duties; the former, I regret to say, is still disabled by his wound, and the army thus deprived of his valuable services.” 

After the battle of Brawner’s Farm, Gibbon’s brigade earned a nickname for its obstinate stand against the Confederates. For the rest of the war they were known as the Iron Brigade. Doubleday’s brigade, whose reinforcing presence was the reason the Iron brigade was able to go toe to toe with Jackson, received no such recognition. 

Just another reminder that in a few weeks the podcast will be celebrating its one-year anniversary so if there are any burning question you have about the show, how I prep, any technical aspects that go on behind the scenes, anything you would like to know, now is the time to get those questions in and I will take time to talk about them when the anniversary gets here. You can send me an email at ghostofarlingtonpodcast@gmail.com or reach out on Facebook or twitter.

 If you need more Ghosts of Arlington content in your life, there are photographs and additional information about every episode on the website: www.ghostsofalringtonpodcast.com. Ghosts of Arlington is also on Facebook and Twitter, and links to those sites are in the show notes. As always, I encourage you to leave a review and 5-star rating on iTunes or wherever you stream the show as that helps others find the podcast; if you really want to make my day, refer the show to a friend. And remember, fear not death, for the sooner we die, the longer we shall be immortal.

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/legend-born-brawners-farm   

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