GDG- Ewell and the High Ground

[Tom Ryan]

Hi Eric and J.D.,

	While Pleasonton won the battle at Upperville, he, in effect, lost the war
in the sense that he seems to have forgotten what his mission was in the
first place.  His orders were to find Lee's army, and report to Hooker as
much information as possible.  They read in part:

	"The commanding general relies upon you with your cavalry force to give him
information of where the enemy is, his force, and his movements.  You have a
sufficient cavalry force to do this.  Drive in pickets, if necessary, and
get us information.  It is better that we should lose men than to be without
knowledge of the enemy, as we now seem to be.  Captain McEntee, of Colonel
Sharp's department, thouroughly understands the whole organization of the
rebel army, and is sent out to join you.  After you have examined any
prisoners, deserters, or contrabands brought in, the general desires you
will give him a chance to examine all of them, and desires all information
may be communicated with great promptness, and directs that you leave
nothing undone to give him the fullest information."  (OR, vol. 27, part
III, p. 172 dated June 17, 1863).

	Hooker emphasized at least four times in these orders that the objective
was to get information about the enemy.  The story behind the story here is
that Pleasonton was not cooperating with the BMI, and was sending prisoners
away without giving McEntee a chance to interrogate them.  The cavalry was
doing a lousy job of interrogating, and, as a result were missing vital
information.  McEntee, on the other hand, was a trained interrogater, and
knew how to separate truth from fiction while extracting information from
the Rebel prisoners and deserters.

	The problem was that Pleasonton chose to concentrate on fighting Stuart's
cavalry, that was serving as a screen for Lee's army, rather than trying to
figure out a way to get around it in order to look into the Valley to
observe Lee's army marching down toward the river crossings.
After the battle at Upperville, Pleasonton declared victory and retreated to
Aldie.

	There is no question that the Union cavalry fought well, and gained the
upper hand over Stuart.  It has to be kept in mind, however, that Stuart
wisely chose to fight a delaying action to fulfill his mission to screen the
army.  He succeeded in doing that, even though he took a beating in the
process.  Still the overall casualties for the series of battles in Loudoun
Valley from June 17 to 21,was a good deal higher for Pleasonton than it was
for Stuart.

	But the bottom line is that Pleasonton essentially failed in his mission to
obtain hard information about the whereabouts of Lee's army, and Hooker from
that point on had to rely upon the Signal Corps on Maryland Heights and the
BMI agents in Maryland to provide specific information about Hill and
Longstreet's corps crossing the Potomac on June 25 and 26.

	This is an example of the importance of maintaining proper perspective on
the mission at hand -- which in this case was an intelligence mission and
not a combat mission.  Pleasonton, as he often did, did not get it right.

Tom



<<Indeed.  Upperville was his first true defeat on the battlefield.

Eric>>

On Mar 5, 2007, at 9:30 PM, J. David Petruzzi wrote:

> Esteemed GDG Member Contributes:
>
>
>>> But I just do not see
> that Stuart was whacked out psychologically because of Brandy
> Station.  As a
> matter of fact, that was already more than two weeks old, and a lot
> of water
> had gone over the dam since then.  Especially considering the
> Loudoun County
> cavalry battles, in which Stuart held up his end of the bargain
> pretty well.
>
> Regards, Tom>>
>
>
> Hi Tom,
>
> Actually, I see Upperville as much more of a defeat for Stuart than
> Brandy
> Station.  Certainly he was excoriated for the loss at Brandy (by the
> newspapers and his comrades) but I think it's too simplistic, as I
> think you
> believe as well, to simply say that Stuart was seeking some kind of
> revenge
> (as Eric and I point out in our book).  Very likely an ingredient
> in the mix
> to be sure, but not an overriding reason.
>
> Upperville, in my book, was more a battlefield defeat.
>
> J.D.
>