The Civil War Through the CameraElson, Henry W. (Henry William)
History
The Civil War Through the Camera
Elson, Henry W. (Henry William)
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Pictorial works
The next night, May 7th, Grant's march by the Confederate right flank was
resumed, but only to be blocked again by the dogged determination of the
tenacious antagonist, a few miles beyond, at Spotsylvania. Lee again
anticipated Grant's move. It is not strange that the minds of these two
men moved along the same lines in military strategy, when we remember they
were both military experts of the highest order, and were now working out
the same problem. The results obtained by each are told in the story of
the battle of Spotsylvania.
[Illustration: LEE'S MEN]
The faces of the veterans in this photograph of 1864 reflect more forcibly
than volumes of historical essays, the privations and the courage of the
ragged veterans in gray who faced Grant, with Lee as their leader. They
did not know that their struggle had already become unavailing; that no
amount of perseverance and devotion could make headway against the
resources, determination, and discipline of the Northern armies, now that
they had become concentrated and wielded by a master of men like Grant.
But Grant was as yet little more than a name to the armies of the East.
His successes had been won on Western fields--Donelson, Vicksburg,
Chattanooga. It was not yet known that the Army of the Potomac under the
new general-in-chief was to prove irresistible. So these faces reflect
perfect confidence.
[Illustration: CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS IN VIRGINIA, 1864
COPYRIGHT, 1911, REVIEW OF REVIEWS CO.]
Though prisoners when this picture was taken--a remnant of Grant's heavy
captures during May and June, when he sent some ten thousand Confederates
to Coxey's Landing, Virginia, as a result of his first stroke against
Lee--though their arms have been taken from them, though their uniforms
are anything but "uniform," their hats partly the regulation felt of the
Army of Northern Virginia, partly captured Federal caps, and partly
nondescript--yet these ragged veterans stand and sit with the dignity of
accomplishment. To them, "Marse Robert" is still the general
unconquerable, under whom inferior numbers again and again have held their
own, and more; the brilliant leader under whom every man gladly rushes to
any assault, however impossible it seems, knowing that every order will be
made to count.
[Illustration: THE COMING OF THE STRANGER GRANT
COPYRIGHT, 1911, REVIEW OF REVIEWS CO.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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