1 US War Department, The War of the Rebellion: The Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, 128 vols. (Washington, DC: GPO, 1880–1911), vol. 46, pt. 1, p. 481.
2 George H. Sharpe to “General Martindale,” Dec. 12, 1863, RG 393, entry 3980, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC.; Grant to Henry W. Halleck, July 26, 1864, John Y. Simon, ed., The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, 31 vols (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1967–2012), vol. 11, p. 317.
3 Edwin C. Fishel, “The Mythology of Civil War Intelligence,” Civil War History 10 (December 1964): 352; Peter Maslowski, “Military Intelligence Sources During the Civil War: A Case Study,” in Lt. Col. Walter T. Hitchcock, ed., The Intelligence Revolution: A Historical Perspective (Washington, DC: GPO, 1991), p. 42.
1 Horace Porter, Campaigning with Grant (The Blue and Gray Press, December 1984), p. 232.
2 Headquarters, Department of the Army, Intelligence, FM 2-0 (Washington, DC: May 17, 2004) pp. 1–30.
3 Paraphrased in Correlli Barnett, The Swordbearers: Studies in Supreme Command in the First World War (Bloomington, IL: Indiana University Press 1963), p. 35.
4 Peter G. Tsouras, Scouting for Grant and Meade, The Reminiscences of Judson Knight, Chief of Scouts, Army of the Potomac (New York: Skyhorse Publications, 2014), p. 110, found originally in Judson Knight, “Fighting Them Over: How Scouts Worked,” The National Tribune, March 30, 1893.
5 Promotion by brevet was a former type of military commission conferred especially for outstanding service, by which an officer was promoted to a higher rank without the corresponding pay and place in the regular establishment. Sharpe, as a volunteer officer, had no postwar military ambitions and received no regular army appointment. Regular army officers often had a permanent rank in the army and a higher brevet rank earned by distinction. At the end of the war they would revert to their permanent rank, often far below their brevet rank. Former Maj. Gen. John Gibbon was talking to Grant on one occasion when he brought up the subject of the most important change of rank in their careers. Grant believed for him it was from brevet second lieutenant to second lieutenant. Gibbon remarked that for him it was after the war, “when one drops from a Major General to a Captain.” John Gibbon, Personal Reminiscences of the Civil War, 1928.
6 Edmond P. Kohn, Heir to the Empire City: New York and the Making of Theodore Roosevelt (New York: Basic Books, 2013), pp. 65–66.
7 Cornelius Van Buren, Kingston Daily Freeman, March 25, 1925.
8 DeAlva Stanwood Alexander, A Political History of the State of New York, Vol. III (BiblioBazaar, 2008), pp. 402–403.
9 Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, Headquarters Commandary of the State of New York, “In Memoriam: George Henry Sharpe” (New York, September 15, 1900), p. 3.
10 Sir Basil Liddell Hart, The Sword and the Pen: Selections from the World’s Greatest Military Writing (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1976), p. 12.
11 Stephen Sears, forward to Edwin C. Fishel, The Secret War for the Union: The Untold Story of Military Intelligence in the Civil War (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1996), p. xiii. Even historians were unable to keep the achievements of the BMI’s all-source operation alive because its records disappeared into the National Archives to be lost among miscellaneous records of the Army of the Potomac. They were only rediscovered by Fishel in 1959, still tied in bundles with red ribbons. They were the foundation of Fishel’s seminal work on Civil War intelligence and a priceless addition to the history of the war.
12 Finely, James P Finely, U.S. Army Military Intelligence History: A Sourcebook (Fort Huachuca, AZ: U.S. Army Intelligence Center & Fort Huachuca, 1995); John Patrick Finnegan, Military Intelligence (U.S. Army Lineage Series) (Washington, DC: Center of Military History, United States Army, 1998) pp. 183–84.
1 “General Sharpe at the Unveiling,” Olde Ulster Journal, Vol. VIII, November, 1912, No. 11, p. 330.
2 Edwin C. Fishel, The Secret War for the Union (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996) pp. 647–48ff.; “Notes on the Ancestry of Gen. George H. Sharpe, of Kingston,” extracted from a series of articles entitled, “Our Palatine Settlers,” Rhinebeck Gazette, September 5, 1896, Senate House State Historical Site, Kingston, NY, Sharpe Collection; Mary Isabella Forsyth, “Old Kingston: New York’s First Capital,” New England Magazine, Vol. 15, issue 3, November, 1893.
3 “Lived a Hundred and Ten Years,” Harrisburg Daily Independent (Harrisburg, PA), July 17, 1897.
4 George H. Sharpe, “The Old House of Kingston,” The Journal of Kingston, December 29, 1875; and “Old Times and Customs: The Old Houses of Kingston,” New York Times, December 31, 1875.
5 Louise Heron to Edwin Fishel, April 21, 1963, The Papers of Edwin C. Fishel, Box 2, Folder 15, Georgetown University Library. Heron was the able researcher employed by Fishel to scour the Kingston area for information on Sharpe. Much of what she found was related by the elderly residents of Kingston who had known Sharpe when they were young.
6 Sharpe to Bruyn, February 20, 1849, Sharpe Collection, Senate House State Historical Site, Kingston, New York; History of Ulster County New York (New York: Overlook Press, 1977, reprint of 1880 edition).
7 Sharpe to Bruyn, May 1850, The Sharpe Collection, ibid.
8 G. D. B. Hasbrouck, “Address on Major General George H. Sharpe,” Proceedings of the Ulster County Historical Society 1936–1937, p. 26; Fishel, The Secret War for the Union, p. 288; John Riddle, R-MC 028, Guide to the Augustus Hasbrouck Bruyn Letters, 1832–1848, May 1, 1995, Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries.
9 Sharpe to Severyn Bruyn, October 3, 4, and 13, 1848, Sharpe Collection.
10 Sharpe to Severyn Bruyn, January 24 and February 3, 1849, Sharpe Collection.
11 Sharpe to Severyn Bruyn, February 20, 1849, Sharpe Collection.
12 Statement of Power of Attorney of Helen Sharp, Sharpe Collection.
13 Heron to Fishel.
14 Sharpe to Severyn Bruyn, February 3, 1849, Sharpe Collection.
15 Sharpe to Severyn Bruyn, October 7, 1849, Sharpe Collection.
16 Sharpe to Severyn Bruyn, March 21, 1850, Sharpe Collection.
17 Sharpe to Severyn Bruyn, August 16, 1854, Sharpe Collection.
18 Hasbrouck, p. 27; Sharpe family lineage, The Sharpe Collection.
19 Seward would recommend to Governor Edwin Morgan of New York in the summer of 1862 that Sharpe be asked to raise a regiment, and in January 1867 Seward would ask Sharpe to conduct a delicate overseas mission in connection to the Lincoln assassination. Postwar correspondence indicates that they were well known to each other.
20 Sharpe to Severyn Bruyn, August 16, 1854, Sharpe Collection.
21 Phyllis F. Field, “Republicans and Black Suffrage in New York State: The Grass Roots Respond,” Civil War History: A Journal of the Middle Period (published quarterly by Kent State University Press), Vol XXI, March 1975, pp. 136–43; Forsyth, “Old Kingston.”
22 Sophie Miller, “Do you remember,” The Kingston Daily Freeman, August 26, 1954, p. 6. Miller quotes extensively from a Freeman article of October 23, 1878.
23 At the time, the building that Sharpe refers to as a church was actually the Uptown Armory. It did not become a church until after the Civil War; information courtesy of Seward Osborne.
24 Information on Colonel Pratt’s role was provided courtesy of Seward Osborne.
25 George H. Sharpe, “Memorial Address of General George H. Sharpe,” Seventh Annual Reunion of the 120th N. Y. V. Regimental Union—Lieut.-Col. J. Rudolph Tappen (Kingston, NY, The Daily Freeman Steam Printing House, 1875), p. 5; “Death of General George H. Sharpe,” Kingston Weekly Freeman and Journal, January 18, 1900; Hasbrouck, ibid, p. 28; The Departure of the Twentieth Regiment,” Olde Ulster Journal, Vol. VII, June, 1911, No. 6, pp. 169–70.
26 Seward R. Osborne, The Three-Month Service of the 20th New York State Militia, April 28–August 2 1861 (Hightstown, NJ: Longstreet House, 1998) p. 9.
27 Theodore B. Gates, The Ulster Guard and the War of the Rebellion (New York, 1884), pp. 206–07.
28 Osborne, Three-Month Service, pp. 27–28.
29 Hasbrouck, p. 28; Seward R. Osborne, The Civil War Diaries of Col. Theodore B. Gates, 20th New York State Militia (Hightstown, NJ: Longstreet House, 1991) pp. xi, 146 (hereafter, Gates Diary).
30 “Memorial Address of General George H. Sharpe,” p. 7; Organization of the Army of the Potomac, Maj. Gen. George G. Meade, U.S. Army commanding, July 31, 1863, War of the Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (Hereafter OR) (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office) Volume 27, Part 3, p. 794.
31 Hasbrouck, pp. 28–9.
32 Fishel, pp. 288–89; Hasbrouck, p. 29.
33 Edwin Ford (Historian of the City of Kingston, NY), “The Genie,” January 2000; C. Van Santvoord, The One Hundred and Twentieth Regiment of New York State Volunteers (Rondout, NY: Press of the Kingston Freeman, 1894) pp. 10–11, 326; “Death of General George H. Sharpe,” Kingston Weekly Freeman and Journal, January 18, 1900; Fishel, p. 289.
34 Sharpe to Jansen Hasbrouck, October 29, 1862, Sharpe Collection, Senate State Historical Site, Kingston, NY.
35 “Military Movements in the City: Recruiting for the Fire Zouaves,” New York Times, August 5, 1862.
36 Camp Sampson was named in honor of Gen. Henry A. Samson, commander of New York 3rd Brigade, and resident of Roundout; information courtesy of Seward Osborne.
37 “Memorial Address of General George H. Sharpe,” p. 7.
38 Regimental Letter and Consolidated Morning Report Book (120th NY Infantry), RG 94, Vol. 4 of 8, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
39 Van Santvoord, pp. 14–16.
40 “General Sharpe at the Unveiling,” Olde Ulster Journal, Vol. VIII, November 1912, No. 11, p. 324; Van Santvoord, p. 17. Sharpe’s memory may have been faulty about the timing of the selection of the regiment’s number. Special Order No. 43, General Headquarters, State of New York, Adjutant General’s Office, August 11, 1862, already states that of that date, “the 120th commanded by Col. Sharp [sic] had already received its number.” Additionally, the regiment’s correspondence began using the unit designation as early as August 14; in fact, the designation was changed in the middle of the day, Regimental Letter and Order Book, 120th NY Infantry, RG 94, Vol. 3 of 8, NARA.
41 “General Sharpe at the Unveiling,” Olde Ulster Journal, Vol. VIII, November 1912, No. 11, p. 324; Roger D. Hunt and Jack R. Brown, Brevet Brigadier Generals in Blue (Gaithersburg, MD: Olde Soldier Books, 1991), p. 548. Jacob Sharpe was six years younger than his cousin, George H. Sharpe, born on July 31, 1834, in Red Hook, Dutchess County, NY. He attended the US Military Academy at West Point but finished his education at Dartmouth. After the war he was a real estate agent and customs official. He died on April 27, 1882 in Detroit, MI.
42 Van Santvoord, pp. 19–20.
43 Van Santvoord, pp. 20–21.
44 C. A. Winchell, “Old Timer’s Civil War Notes,” The Kingston Daily Freeman, July 1, 1961, p. 28.
45 Letter of Capt. Daniel Gillette, September 15, 1862; Regimental Letter and Order Book, 120th NY Infantry, ibid.
46 Special Order No. 6, August 27, 1862; Special Order No. 10, September 24, 1862, Regimental Letter and Order Book, 120th NY Infantry, ibid.
47 Special Order No. 9, October 8, 1862; General Order No. 10, September 24, 1862; Special Order No. 8, October 1, 1862; Special Order No. 10, October 15, 1862, Special Order No. 18, October 28, 1862, Regimental Letter and Order Book, 120th NY Infantry, ibid.
48 Special Order No. 12, October 30, 1862, Regimental Letter and Order Book, 120th NY Infantry, ibid.
49 Sharpe to Hasbrouck, October 29, 1862.
50 Sharpe to Hasbrouck, October 29, 1862.
51 Sharpe to O. J. Hunt, telegram, October (no specific date), 1862, Microcopy 504, Roll 88, NARA.
52 Van Santvood, pp. 25–27; “The Horse of General Sharpe and His Tombstone,” Olde Ulster Journal, Vol. IX, February 1913, No. 2, p. 43.
53 General Order No. 15, Regimental Letter and Order Book, 120th NY Infantry, ibid.
54 Sharpe to Mysenbergh, letter, November 4, 1862, Microcopy 504, Roll 88, NARA.
55 Van Santvoord, p. 35.
56 “Memorial Address of General George H. Sharpe,” pp. 7–8; Report of Col. George H. Sharpe, December 17, 1862, OR, Vol. 21, Part 1, pp. 388–89.
57 Van Santvoord, pp. 36–37.
58 Report of Col. George H. Sharpe, December 17, 1862, OR, Vol. 21, Part 1, pp. 388–89.
59 Report of Brig. Gen. Daniel E. Sickles, U.S. Army, commanding Second Division, December 18, 1862, OR, 21:380.
60 Sharpe to Hasbrouck, January 26, 1863.
61 Sharpe to Hasbrouck, January 26, 1863, Sharpe Collection; Van Santvoord, p. 40.
62 Patrick Diary, diary entry for January 24, 1863, pp. 207; Sharpe to Hasbrouck, January 26, 1863.
63 General Order No. 3, January 28, 1863, Letter and Order Book, 120th NY Infantry.
64 Memorandum by James Van Hoevenburgh, regimental surgeon, Regimental Letter and Order Book, 120th NY Infantry, ibid.
65 Westbrook to Dickerson, December 21, 1862, Regimental Letter and Order Book, 120th NY Infantry, ibid; lest the two enlisted men who died that same day be forgotten, their names were Isaac Shultis of Co. A and Matthew Stokes of Co. C.
66 Westbrook letter, December 28, 1862, Letter and Order Book, 120th NY Infantry; Van Santvoord, p. 39.
67 Van Santvoord, p. 38; Gates Diary, ibid., diary entries for January 7 and February 6 and 14, 1863, pp. 58, 66.
1 Charles Francis Adams, An Autobiography (Boston, 1916), p. 161.
2 C. Van Santvoord, The One Hundred and Twentieth Regiment of New York State Volunteers (Rondout, NY: Press of the Kingston Freeman, 1894), p. 41.
3 OR, Vol. 5, p. 63.
4 “History of Military Intelligence” (training course), U.S. Army Intelligence Center; John Patrick Finnegan, Military Intelligence (Army Lineage Series) (Washington, DC: Center of Military History, 1998), foreword.
5 Edwin C. Fishel, The Secret War for the Union: The Untold Story of Military Intelligence in the Civil War (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1996), pp. 278–79.
6 F. Stansbury Haydon, Military Ballooning during the Early Civil War (Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 2000), p. 356.
7 Fishel, pp. 278–79.
8 Fishel, pp. 102–03.
9 Stephen W. Sears, editor, The Civil War Papers of George B. McClellan: Selected Correspondence 1860–1865 (New York: Da Capo Press, 1992), pp. 91, 96, 116, 203. See also Sears, Chancellorsville (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1996), p. 69; Fishel, pp. 102–13.
10 Joseph T. Glatthaar, Partners in Command: The Relationship Between Leaders in the Civil War (New York: The Free Press, 1994), pp. 237–42.
11 William B. Feis, “That Great Essential of Success: Espionage, Covert Action, and Military Intelligence,” Aaron Sheehan-Dean, editor, Struggle for a Vast Future: The American Civil War (Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2006) p. 157.
12 Fishel, p. 541.
13 Reports of the Congressional Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War (JCCW), 1865, Vol. 1, p. 174.
14 Walter H. Hebert, Fighting Joe Hooker (Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company Publishers), p. 180.
15 David S. Sparks, ed., Inside Lincoln’s Army: The Diary of Marsena Rudolph Patrick (New York: Thomas Yoseloff, 1964), pp. 11–12. (hereafter Patrick Diary)
16 Theodore B. Gates, The War of the Rebellion (New York: 1884), pp. 191–92.
17 Gates, War of the Rebellion, pp. 192–93, 526.
18 Gates, War of the Rebellion, pp. 194–95.
19 Patrick Diary, pp. 202–04.
20 Bureau of Pensions Form 3–389 dated January 13, 1905; Form 3–447, dated January 20, 1905; and Declaration of Invalid Pension Form 3–002, dated January 3, 1905, Military Pension File of John C. Babcock (NARA).
21 Babcock to Grace Black, December 26, 1861, John C. Babcock Collection, Library of Congress.
22 Babcock to Black, ibid.; Record of Service of John C. Babcock during Civil War of 1861–1865, Babcock Collection, Library of Congress.
23 Babcock to unidentified uncle March 4, 1862; Babcock to Grace Black, June 6, 1862, Babcock Collection.
24 Babcock to Grace Black, June 6, 1862, Babcock Collection.
25 Ibid.
26 Babcock to William A. Pinkerton, April 9, 1908, Babcock Collection.
27 Babcock to Grace Black, December 7, 1862, Babcock Collection.
28 Babcock to William A. Pinkerton, April 9, 1908, Babcock Collection.
29 Babcock Record of Service and Babcock to Grace Black, December 7, 1862, Babcock Collection; Fishel, ibid., pp. 153–54, 258–59, 262.
30 NARA, Microcopy 2096, Roll 45. Babcock’s order-of-battle went down to regiment.
31 Babcock Record of Service, Babcock Collection, ibid.
32 “Eloquent Tribute to General Sharpe,” Kingston Freeman, date unknown, Folder 2609/4864, Senate House Museum, Kingston, NY.
33 Dickinson to Patrick, February 4, 1863, in AP records, bk. 24, p. 143, cited in Fishel, p. 287, n. 646; Patrick Diary, entry for February 5, 1863, p. 211.
34 It was not a political connection, however; Patrick was a war Democrat, while Sharpe and Gates were very much Republicans.
35 Van Santvoord, p. 38; Gates Diary, p. 15, diary entries for February 6 and 14, 1863, pp. 61, 66.
36 G. D. B. Hasbrouck, “Address on Major General George H. Sharpe,” Proceedings of the Ulster County Historical Society 1936–1937, pp. 30–31. “The New United States Marshal,” New York Herald, April 8, 1870, p. 3.
37 Sharpe to Jansen Hasbrouck, February 3, 1863, Sharpe Collection, Senate House State Historical Site, Kingston, NY.
38 Patrick Diary, diary entry for February 8, 1863, ibid., p. 212.
39 John Bigelow, Jr., The Campaign of Chancellorsville (New Haven, CT: University of Yale Press, 1910), p. 47.
40 General Order No. 8, February 11, 1863, Headquarters 120th Regt. NY Vol., Regimental Letters and Orders Book, 120th NY Infantry, NARA, RG 94, Vol. 3 of 8.
41 “Eloquent Tribute to General Sharpe,” Kingston Freeman.
42 Fishel, p. 288. Butterfield and Sharpe may have known each other in the New York militia before the war; OR, 25.2:167; “The Horse of General Sharpe and His Tombstone,” Olde Ulster Journal, Vol. IX, February 1913, No. 2, p. 43; General Orders No. 50, Head Quarters, Army of the Potomac, February 19, 1863, Military Service Record of George H. Sharpe, NARA.
43 Fishel, p. 290.
44 Fishel, p. 290; Sharpe letter to commander, Centre Grand Division, January 27, 1863, Military Personnel File of George H. Sharpe (NARA); Van Santvoord, p. 41.
45 George H. Sharpe, “Memorial Address of General George H. Sharpe,” Seventh Annual Reunion of the 120th N. Y. V. Regimental Union—Lieut.-Col. J. Rudolph Tappen (Kingston, NY: The Daily Freeman Steam Printing House, 1875), p. 8.
46 Patrick Diary, entry for March 17, 1863, p. 225.
1 Revere to Dickinson, March 14, 1863, Military Service Record (MSR) of George H. Sharpe, NARA.
2 Hooker to Dix, March 17, 1863; and undated returns summary, Military Service Record of Frederick L. Manning, NARA.
3 Louise Heron to Fishel, February 18, 1863, Fishel Collection, Georgetown University Library.
4 Report of Brig. Gen. Daniel Butterfield, July 2, 1862, OR, Vol. 11, Part 2, p. 321; H. C. Bradsby, “O Surnames, History of Luzerne County, Pa,” 1893, http:www.rootsweb/~paluzern/bios/obios.htm.
5 OR, Vol. 25, Part 2, p. 39.
6 Fishel, pp 292–93. OR, Vol. 25, Part 2, pp. 99, 137. For some reason, Yager used the first initial “A” in his reports.
7 Military Pension File of Anson B. Carney, Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
8 Military Service Record and Pension File for Martin E. Hogan, NARA; for an example of Hogan and Carney on the same expedition, see Sharpe to Humphreys, NARA, September 11, 1863, RG 393, Part 1, Entry 3988.
9 Declaration for Pension by William J. Lee, November 8, 1910. Lee to the Commissioner of Pensions, March 24, 1913, Pension File of William J. Lee, NARA.
10 Declaration for Pension (Form 3-014a), February 27, 1907, Military Pension Files of Milton W. Cline, NARA. http://www.newbedford-ma.gov/library/whaling-archives, retrieved October 2, 2015.
11 Military Service Record of Milton W. Cline, NARA. There is an incomplete reference in this file to the horses Cline lost in service, apparently which the Army replaced; OR, Vol. 25, Part 2, pp. 99, 137.
12 Certificate of Disability for Discharge, December 18, 1862; letter from Dr. J. H. Knight [Sgt. Knight’s brother] to Maj. Gen. George Meade, January 1, 1867; H Company, 2nd NJ Infantry, muster rolls, July 1861 to February 1863, Military Service Record of Judson H. Knight, NARA. Hough to Baker, March 25, 1863, NARA, Microcopy 794, RG 94, Roll 0051. Report No. 467, March 6, 1888 (U.S. Senate) and Report No. 1839, April 22, 1888 (U.S. House of Representatives), both to accompany bill S. 1192, 50th Congress, 1st Session; Military Pension File of Judson H. Knight
13 Peter G. Tsouras, Scouting for Grant and Meade: The Reminiscences of Judson Knight, Chief of Scouts, Army of the Potomac (New York: Skyhorse Publications, 2014), pp. xxvi–xxx.
14 L. P. Roe, “Union Scouts and Rebel Guerillas,” The New York Herald, October 26, 1869.
15 General Orders, No. 32, Headquarters Army of the Potomac, March 30, 1863, OR, Vol. 25, Part 2, p. 167. John Dahlgren, Memoir of Ulric Dahlgren (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1862). Dahlgren reported for duty on March 21, having served as an aide-de-camp on Maj. Gen. Franz Sigel’s corps staff.
16 NARA, RG 92, Entry 238, Files 0447 for 1864 and 0447 for 1865 (BMI Payrolls); http://www.civilwarhome.com/Pay.htm, accessed February 13, 2013.
17 Scott to Inspector General, December 14, 1865, NARA, M619, RG94, Roll 0420.
18 Stephen Budiansky, “America’s Unknown Intelligence Czar,” American Heritage Magazine (AmericanHeritage.com), October 2004; Fishel, ibid., pp. 294–95; Sharpe to Butterfield, NARA, March 15, 1863, Microcopy 2096, Roll 45.
19 Edward J. Stackpole, Chancellorsville: Lee’s Greatest Battle (Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1958), p. 16.
20 Fishel, p. 286.
21 John Esten Cooke, Wearing of the Gray: Being Personal Narratives and Adventures of the War (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1997), p. 467.
22 Cooke, p. 468.
23 Feis, “The Great Essential of Success,” pp. 160–66.
24 Fishel, pp. 315, 363; Certificate of Parole of D. G. Otto, signed by Capt. Robert Randolph, 4th Virginia Cavalry, Papers of Edwin Fishel, Box 17, Folder 1, Georgetown University Library.
25 Judson Knight, “How Scouts Worked: Sergt. Knight Tells How They Went About Getting Information,” The National Tribune, March 9, 1893.
26 “Last Hours of the Confederacy,” The New York Times, January 21, 1876.
27 Knight, March 2, 1893.
28 “Last Hours of the Confederacy,” New York Times.
29 Fishel, p. 272; Knight, March 2, 1893.
30 Knight, March 2, 1843.
31 Fishel, pp. 314–15.
32 Sharpe to Martindale, December 12, 1863, NARA, RG 393, Entry 3980.
33 Feis, Grant’s Secret Service, p. 200.
34 Sharpe to Martindale, December 12, 1863, NARA, RG 393, Entry 3980.
35 General Orders No. 64, February 18, 1864, OR, Serial 3, Vol. 4, p. 118.
36 Circular, Headquarters, Army of Northern Virginia, April 7, 1864, Clifford Dowdey and Louis H. Manarin, The Wartime Papers of Robert E. Lee (Boston: 1961), p. 693.
37 Donald E. Markle, Spies and Spymasters of the Civil War (New York: Hippocrene Books, 1995), pp. 64–65.
38 Lee to Critcher, May 22, 1863, OR, Vol. 25, Part 2, p. 826.
39 Hayden, p.317, n. 47.
40 Headquarters, Department of the Army, Intelligence, FM 2-0 (Washington, DC: May 17, 2004), pp. 1–30.
41 Feis, “Struggle for a Vast Future,” p. 162.
42 Fishel, pp. 347–49. Colonel Albert Meyers had invented the first reliable tactical flag signaling system before the Civil War, but it received little official attention. His assistants at the time were Southern officers who immediately after the war began were able to set up the very system Myers had invented but which languished on the Union side for lack of interest.
43 William A. Tidwell, Come Retribution: The Confederate Secret Service and the Assassination of Lincoln (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1998), p. 108. Venable saved hundreds of pieces of intelligence correspondence which have come down to the Southern Historical Society Papers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
44 Thomas Nelson Conrad, The Rebel Scout: A Thrilling History of Scouting Life in the Southern Army (Westminster, MD: Heritage Books, 2009), p. 10.
45 Ibid.
46 Thomas J. Ryan, “A Battle of Wits: Intelligence Operations During the Gettysburg Campaign. Part 1: Clandestine Preparations for Invasion vs. Quest for Information,” The Gettysburg Magazine, Issue No. 29, pp. 11–12.
47 Thomas N. Conrad, A Confederate Spy: A Story of the Civil War (New York: J. S. Ogilvie Publishing Company, 1892, reprinted Lynchburg, VA: Artcraft Print Com., 1961), pp. 31–32.
48 Thomas J. Ryan, “A Battle of Wits: Intelligence Operations During the Gettysburg Campaign. Part 2: Strategy, Tactics, and Lee’s March,” The Gettysburg Magazine, Issue No. 30, p. 14.
49 David Winfred Gaddy, “Confederate Signal Corps at Gettysburg,” The Gettysburg Magazine, Issue No. 4, pp. 110–11.
50 Gaddy, pp. 110–11.
51 Fishel, pp. 347–49; David S. Sparks, ed., Inside Lincoln’s Army: The Diary of Marsena Rudolph Patrick, Provost Marshal General of the Army of the Potomac (New York: Thomas Yoseloff, 1964), pp. 211–12.
52 Peter G. Tsouras, ed., The Book of Military Quotations (St. Paul, MN: Zenith Press, 2006), p. 168.
53 James Morice, “Organizational learning in a military environment: George H. Sharpe and the Army of the Potomac,” Vitae Scholasticae, Caddo Press, 2009. http://www.freepatentsonline.com/article/Vitae-Scholasticae/277602573.html.
54 Geoffrey Perret, Old Soldiers Never Die: The Life of Douglas MacArthur (New York: Random House, 996), p. 362.
55 “NIEs are the Intelligence Community’s (IC) most authoritative written judgments on national security issues and are designed to help U.S. civilian and military leaders develop polices to protect U.S. national security interests. Several IC analysts from different agencies produce the initial text of the estimate. The NIC then meets to critique the draft before it is circulated to the broader IC. Representatives from the relevant IC agencies meet to hone and coordinate line-by-line the full text of the NIE. Working with their agencies, representatives also assign the confidence levels to each key judgment. IC representatives discuss the quality of sources with intelligence collectors to ensure the draft does not contain erroneous information.” Rosenbach, Eric and Aki. J. Peritz, Confrontation or Collaboration? Congress and the Intelligence Community (Harvard: Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, 2009).
1 J. E. Hammond to S. L. M. Barlow, April 22, 1863, Barlow Papers, Huntington Papers.
2 Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield, Field Manuel 34–130 (Washington: Headquarters of the Army, July 8, 1994), chapter 1, p. 1.
3 Edwin C. Fisher, The Secret War for the Union: The Untold Story of Military Intelligence in the Civil War (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin Company, 1996), pp. 310–12.
4 Fishel, pp. 306–08.
5 Ibid., pp. 308–09.
6 Patrick Diary, entry for March 5, 1863, p. 219.
7 Request of Sharpe to Taylor, March 5, 1863, NARA, Military Service Record of Scout Daniel R. Cole.
8 Babcock Memorandum on Expedition of scout Daniel R. Cole, March 22, 1863, NARA, Microcopy 2096, Roll 34.
9 Skinker to Sharpe, March 13, 1863, NARA, RG 2096, Box 45.
10 Sharpe to Butterfield, 15 March 1863, NARA, RG 2096, Box 45.
11 Abstract from return of the Army of Northern Virginia (March 1863), OR, Vol. 25, Part 2, p. 696.
12 Babcock Memorandum, NARA, Microcopy 2096, Box 45.
13 Memorandum by Col. Sharpe, March 15, 1863, NARA, Microcopy 2096, Box 45.
14 Sharpe to Hasbrouck, April 22, 1863, Sharpe Collection, Senate House State Historical Site, Kingston, NY.
15 Sharpe to Butterfield, March 21, 1863, NARA, Microcopy 2096, Box 45.
16 Sharpe to Butterfield, March 22, 1863, NARA, Microcopy 2096, Box 45.
17 Sharpe to Butterfield, March 22, 1863, NARA, Microcopy 2096, Roll 34.
18 General Order No. 48, Army of the Potomac, April 30, 1863, OR, Vol. 25, Part 2, p. 316; “From Fredericksburgh,” The New York Times, February 24, 1963, p. 2.
19 Babcock to Butterfield, “Report of John Skinker,” NARA, March 11, 1863. Fishel Papers, Box 8, Folder 27.
20 Babcock to Butterfield, March 11, 1863, NARA, RG 108, Entry 112 and RG 393, Entry 3980; Babcock’s obituary (Mount Vernon, NY) Argus, November 20, 1908; OR, Vol. 25, Part 2, pp. 135–36.
21 Sharpe to D. F. Van Buren, March 10, 1863, NARA, Microcopy 504, Roll 198
22 “Distances on Roads running Westerly from Fredericksburg,” Hooker Papers, Huntington Library; Sears, pp. 367–68.
23 Sharpe to Butterfield, May 13, 1863, NARA Microcopy 2096, Roll 45. Reference for the Falmouth fords is Capt. Ulrich Dahlgren, aide-de-camp to Hooker.
24 Stephen W. Sears, Chancellorsville (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin Company, 1996), p. 368 and p. 554 n. 2.
25 Report written by Manning and signed by Sharpe, April 30, 1863, NARA, Microcopy 2096, Box 45.
26 Report written by Manning and signed by Sharpe, April 30, 1863, NARA, Microcopy 2096, Box 45.
27 Fishel, pp. 335–39.
28 The Record of Benjamin F. Butler: Compiled from the Original Sources (Boston: 1888, Bibliobalzar Reproduction Series), pp. 24–25.
29 Sharpe to Butterfield, April 10, 1863, NARA, RG 393. “The Bread Riot,” National Republican, April 9, 1863, p. 2. “Affairs in Richmond and Lee’s Army: Statement of a Refugee,” National Republican, April 14, 1863, p. 2. The April 9 article cited the Richmond Sentinel for the information that “all the papers had after consultation, concluded at the time not to mention the matter.”
30 Butterfield to Pleasonton, April 28, OR, Vol. 25, Part 2, p. 273.
31 “Fords of the Rappahannock,” Hooker Papers, Huntington Library.
32 Williams to Stoneman, April 12, 1863, OR, Vol. 25, Part 2, pp. 1066–67.
33 Sears, Chancellorsville, p. 218; John Bigelow, Jr., The Campaign of Chancellorsville (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1910), p. 145.
34 Carl Smith, Chancellorsville 1863: Jackson’s Lightning Strikes (Osprey, 1998), pp. 33–34.
35 Sharpe to Hasbrouck, April 28, 1863, Sharpe Papers, Senate House State Historical Site, Kingston, NY.
36 Hooker to Stanton, April 21, 1863, OR, Vol. 25, Part 2, p. 239.
37 Papers related to Civilians, Union Provost Marshal’s File of Paper Relating to Individual Civilians, NARA, M345, RG109.
38 Henry C. Jenckes, April 16, 1863, OR, Vol. 25, Part 2, pp. 217–18.
39 Patrick to Williams, April 22, 1863, OR, Vol. 25, Part 1, pp. 218–19.
40 “A Submarine Telegraph to Confederate Headquarters—Traitors in Gen. Hooker’s Army,” The Times-Picayune (New Orleans), May 14, 1863, p. 2, reprinted from the Philadelphia Enquirer, April 26, 1863.
41 “Important Arrest—A Telegraph Working across the Rappahannock—Rebel Soldier Tries to Desert,” The New York Times, April 28, 1863, p. 1; Fishel, p. 355.
42 Fitzhugh Lee to Stuart, March 16, 1863, OR, Vol. 25, Part 1, p. 60; Averell to Butterfield, March 20, 1863, OR, Vol. 25, Part 1, p. 47; Browne to Trowbridge, March 19, 1863, OR, Vol. 25, Part 1, p. 56.
43 Lee to Stuart, March 12, 1863, OR, Vol. 25, Part 2, p. 664; Fishel, p. 354.
44 Butterfield to Hooker, Oliver to Lowe, Butterfield to Hooker, April 28, 1863, OR, Vol. 25, Part 2, pp. 276–78.
45 Babcock, “Organization and estimated strength of Lt. Gen. Jackson’s Corps, Bureau of Information, May 1, 1863,” NARA, Microcopy 2096, Box 45; Bigelow. Chancellorsville, pp. 132–34.
46 BMI, “Organization of the Rebel Army of Northern Virginia,” May 10, 1863, Southern Historical Society; Bigelow, Chancellorsville, p. 134.
47 “Correspondence and Orders Concerning the Army of the Potomac from January 25 to May 26, 1863,” Hooker Papers, Huntington Library, p. 901.
48 Sears, Chancellorsville, p. 35.
49 Almira Hancock, Reminiscences of Winfield Scott Hancock (New York: Charles L. Webster, 1887). Major General Winfield Scott Hancock noted the effect of this statement on the army when he said, “Pray, could we expect a victory after that? … Success cannot come to us through such profanity.”
50 Noah Brooks, “Personal reminiscences of Lincoln,” Scribner’s Monthly, XV (March 1878), p. 673.
51 Sharpe to Hasbrouck, April 28, 1863, Senate House State Historical Site, Kingston, NY.
52 Hayden, pp. 325–26; Charles M. Evans, War of the Aeronauts: A History of Ballooning in the Civil War (Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2002), p. 283; Butterfield to Sedgwick, May 3, 1863, Papers of Edwin C. Fishel, Box 17, Folder 1, Georgetown University Library.
53 Butterfield to Kelton, May 1, 1863, 10:05 p.m., OR, Vol 25, Part 2, p.332.
54 Bigelow, Chancellorsville, n. 2, pp. 477–78. This was in response to the question by Maj. Gen. Doubleday, “Hooker, what was the matter with you at Chancellorsville?”
55 Butterfield to Hooker, May 1, 1863, 2:05 p.m., Huntington Library, Hooker Papers, Correspondence and Orders Concerning the Army of the Potomac from January 25 to May 26, 1863, p. 899; OR, Vol. 25, Part 2, p. 3227.
56 Butterfield to Hooker, May 1, 1863, 5:30 a.m., OR, Vol. 25, Part 2, p. 322.
57 Peck to Butterfield, May 1, 1863, 7:30 p.m., Huntington Library, Hooker Papers, Correspondence and Orders Concerning the Army of the Potomac from January 25 to May 26, 1863, p. 902.
58 Cooper to Longstreet, April 29 & 30, 1863, OR, Vol. 18, pp. 1029, 1032.
59 Butterfield to Sedgwick, May 1, 1863, Huntington Library, Hooker Papers, Correspondence and Orders Concerning the Army of the Potomac from January 25 to May 26, 1863, p. 906.
60 Butterfield to Hooker, May 1, 1863, 10:30 p.m., OR, Vol. 25, Part 2, pp. 332–33; Fishel, p. 393.
61 Sharpe to Babcock, May 2, 1863, NARA, Microcopy 504, Roll 198.
62 Sharpe to Babcock, May 2, 1863, NARA, Microcopy 504, Roll 198.
63 Peck to Butterfield, May 2, 1863, 11:10 a.m., OR, Vol. 25, Part 2, p. 370.
64 Butterfield to Peck, May 2, 1863, 11:10 a.m., OR, Vol. 25, Part 2, p. 370.
65 Lee to Davis, May 2, 1863, OR, Vol. 25, p. 765.
66 Fishel, p. 402.
67 Patrick, diary entry for May 6, 1863, covering the preceding five days, pp. 240–41.
68 Walter H. Hebert, Fighting Joe Hooker (New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1944), p. 225. The author claims that the source is “an unidentified clipping from the Huntington collection.” A diligent search of the Hooker Papers at the Huntington Library did not reveal this document.
69 Elzey to Lee, May 3, 1863; Bigelow, Chancellorsville, p. 447.
70 Sears, pp. 367–70.
71 Butterfield to Sedgwick, May 3, 1963, 8:42 a.m., OR, Vol. 25, Part 2, p. 387.
72 Babcock to Butterfield, May 3, 1863, 9:00 a.m., Hooker Papers, Huntington Library.
73 Babcock to Butterfield, May 3, 1863, 3:00 p.m., Hooker Papers, Huntington Library.
74 Butterfield to Hooker, May 3, 1863, 5:30 p.m., Huntington Library, Hooker Papers, Correspondence and Orders Concerning the Army of the Potomac from January 25 to May 26, 1863, p. 948.
75 Jeffry D. Wert, General James Longstreet: The Confederacy’s Most Controversial Soldier (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993), p. 238.
76 Babcock to Butterfield, May 3, 1863, Huntington Library, Hooker Papers.
77 Butterfield to Hooker, May 3, 1863, 5:30 p.m., OR, Vol. 25, Part 2, p. 394.
78 Babcock to Sharpe, May 5, 1863, OR, Vol. 25, Part 2, p. 417.
79 Butterfield to Peck and Peck to Butterfield, May 4, 1863, Huntington Library, Hooker Papers, Correspondence and Orders Concerning the Army of the Potomac from January 25 to May 26, 1863, p. 949.
80 Babcock to Sharpe, May 5, 1863, 10:10 a.m., OR, Vol. 25, Part 2, p. 421
81 Babcock to Sharpe, May 5, 1863, 10:00 a.m., OR, Vol. 25, Part 2, p. 421.
82 See extensive correspondence between Hooker and Lee about the Union wounded in OR, Vol. 25, Part 2, pp. 42, 47–48.
83 Patrick Diary, entry for May 8, 1863; General Orders Number 49, May 6, 1863, OR, Vol. 25, Part 1, p. 171.
84 “Southern News,” The Pittsburgh Gazette, May 13, 1863, p. 3.
85 Babcock to Sharpe, May 30, 1863, “Estimated loss of the Army of Northern Virginia in the late battle at Chancellorsville Va”; Papers of Edwin C. Fishel (Box 17, Folder 6), BMI, Georgetown University Library.
86 McEntee & Sharpe, “Summary of the Fords,” May 13, 1863, NARA, Microcopy 2096, Roll 45.
87 Sharpe to Steele, May 10, 1863, OR, Vol. 25, Part 2, p. 47.
88 Patrick Diary, entry for May 14, 1863, p. 249.
89 Patrick Diary, entry for May 14, 1863, pp. 248–49; Peter G. Tsouras, Scouting for Grant and Meade: The Reminiscences of Judson Knight, Chief of Scouts, Army of the Potomac (New York: Skyhorse Publications, 2014), p. 94.
90 Wert, Longstreet, p. 243.
91 Sharpe to Yager, May 10, 1863, NARA, Microcopy 504, Roll 198.
92 Hooker to Lincoln, May 13, 1863, OR, Vol. 25, Part 2, p. 473.
93 Hooker to Lincoln, May 13, 1863, 10:30 p.m., OR, Vol. 25, Part 2, p. 477.
94 Butterfield to Hooker, May 14, 1863, OR, Vol. 25, Part 2, p. 479.
95 Fishel, p. 415.
96 Sharpe to Hasbrouck, May 12, 1863, Sharpe Papers, Senate House State Historical Site, Kingston, NY.
97 “‘I was in the Secret Service of the Army of the Potomac’—Isaac Silver of Spotsylvania County, Part 1. https://npsfrsp.wordpress.com/2010/10/07/%E2%80%9Ci-was-in-the-secret-service-of-the-army-of-the-potomac%E2%80%A6%E2%80%9D-%E2%80%93-isaac-silver-of-spotsylvania-county-part-1/; accessed October 25, 2015.
98 “Death of General George H. Sharpe,” Kingston Weekly Freeman and Journal, January 18, 1900.
99 Williams to Sharpe, May 13, 1863, OR, Vol. 25, Part 2, p. 476.
100 Sharpe to Butterfield, May 13, 1863, Hooker Papers, Huntington Library.
101 Sharpe to Butterfield, May 14, 1863, Hooker Papers, Huntington Library.
102 Sharpe to Butterfield, May 14, 1863, 3:30 p.m., Hooker Papers, Huntington Library.
103 Butterfield to Pleasonton, May 15, 1863, OR, Vol. 25, Part 2, p. 483.
104 “Death of General George H. Sharpe,” Kingston Weekly Freeman and Journal; Edwin Ford (City of Kingston Historian), The Genie, January 2000, as cited by Cathy Hoyt, Green Mountain Civil War Round Table, Woodstock, VT, http://www.gmcwrt.org/william_ellsworth.htm; OR, Vol. 25. Part 2, p.853, Patrick Diary, entry for May 14, 1863, p. 249; G. B. D. Hasbrouck, “Address on Major-General George H. Sharpe,” Proceedings of the Ulster County Historical Society 1936–1937.
1 Dahlgren to Hooker, May 23, 1863, OR, Vol. 27, Part 2, pp. 518–19.
2 Marsena R. Patrick, Inside Lincoln’s Army: The Diary of Marsena Rudolph Patrick, editor David Sparks, Diary entry for May 23, 1863 (New York: Thomas Yoseloff, 1964), p. 251.
3 OR, Vol. 25, Part 2, p. 528.
4 Edwin C. Fishel, The Secret War for the Union: The Untold Story of Military Intelligence in the Civil War (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1996), p. 424.
5 “Nearly Prevented Gettysburg Fight: Union Scout’s Message to Gen. Meade, if Heeded, Might Have Halted Battle,” June 26, 1913, newspaper clipping of interview with former scout William J. Lee (possibly the Washington Star) found in the John C. Babcock Collection, Library of Congress.
6 Seward B. Osborne, ed., The Civil War Diaries of Col. Theodore B. Gates, 20th New York State Militia (Hightstown, NJ: Longstreet House, 1991), p. 84.
7 Sharpe to Butterfield, June 7, 1863, Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress, Series 1, Reel 53, Item 23919. McEntee to Sharpe, June 6, 1863, NARA, Microcopy 2096, Roll 34. “Stuart’s Projected Raid,” The Pittsburgh Gazette, June 12, 1863, p. 2.
8 Report of Brig. Gen. Alfred Pleasonton, U.S. Army, commanding Cavalry Corps, Army of the Potomac, June 15, 1863, OR, Vol. 27, Part 1, p. 1046.
9 John Dahlgren, Memoir of Ulric Dahlgren (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1872) pp. 147–48.
10 Patrick, Inside Lincoln’s Army, Diary entry for June 10, 1863, p. 256.
11 McEntee to Sharpe, June 11, 1863, OR, Vol. 27, Part 3, p. 80.
12 McEntee to Sharpe, June 12, 1863, NARA, Microcopy 473, Roll 264, p. 549, NARA; McEntee to Sharpe, June 12, 1863, RG 393, Entry 3980. On June 13 Butterfield sent a message to Pleasonton asking him if his references to a contraband (Charlie Wright) are of the same person in McEntee’s telegram to Sharpe. This highlights the lack of real cooperation between the cavalry and the BMI, if both are reporting the same but uncoordinated information up the chain of command.
13 Fishel, pp. 440–41.
14 Lincoln to Hooker, 9:30 a.m., June 17, 1863, OR, Vol. 27, Part 1, p. 48.
15 Evans, pp. 294–95. Brigadier General Edwin Porter Alexander, Longstreet’s chief of artillery, commented after the war, “I have never understood why the enemy abandoned the use of military balloons early in 1863 after using them extensively up to that time. Even if the observers never saw anything they would have been worth all they cost for the annoyance and delays they caused us in trying to keep our movements out of sight.”
16 Tyler to Hooker, June 17–25, 1863, OR, Vol. 27, Part 2, pp. 19–33.
17 Edwin B. Coddington, The Gettysburg Campaign: A Study in Command (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1968), pp. 456–57; Fishel, pp. 456–57.
18 Glen Tucker, High Tide at Gettysburg (New York: Bobs Merrill, 1958), p. 43.
19 Norton to Butterfield, September 18, 1863, OR, Vol. 27, Part 1, p. 200.
20 Williams to Pleasonton, June 17, 1863, OR, Vol. 27, Part 3, pp. 171–72.
21 “The Colored Washerwoman’s Signal Below Fredericksburg,” Lincoln Progress (Lincolnton, IL), August 6, 1881.
22 Patrick Diary, entry for June 17, 1863, p. 261.
23 Fishel, pp. 461–64; Hunnicutt to Butterfield, June 18, 1863, OR, Vol. 27, Part 3, p. 207.
24 Sharpe to Jansen Hasbrouck, June 20, 1863, Sharpe Collection.
25 Patrick Diary, entry for June 19, 1863, p. 261.
26 Sharpe to Jansen Hasbrouck, June 20, 1863, Sharpe Collection.
27 Norton to Williams, OR, Vol. 27, Part 1, p. 198, from the Gettysburg after-action report of the signal officer of the Army of the Potomac, Capt. Lemuel B. Norton.
28 Pleasonton to Williams, June 20, 1863, 7 a.m., OR, Vol. 27, Part 3, pp. 223–24.
29 Pleasonton to Hooker, June 21, 1863, 5:30 p.m., OR, Vol. 27, Part 1, pp. 911–12; Stuart to Lee, August 20, 1863, OR, Vol. 27, Part 2, p. 690.
30 Pleasonton to Hooker, June 20, 1863, 12.30 a.m., and Pleasonton to Hooker, June 21, 1863, 5:30 p.m., OR, Vol. 27, Part 1, pp. 911–12.
31 Lee to Ewell, OR, Vol. 27, Part 3, pp. 914–15.
32 John C. Babcock, informal notes on his military service, John C. Babcock Collection, Library of Congress; Sharpe to Jansen Hasbrouck, August 15, 1864, Sharpe Collection; Hooker to Babcock, June 20, 1863, 10:10 a.m., OR, Vol. 27, Part 3, p. 225.
33 Babcock to Hooker, June 20, 1863, 3:10 p.m, and Babcock to Sharpe, June 20, 1863, 5:30 p.m., OR, Vol. 27, Part 3, pp. 227–28.
34 Babcock to Sharpe, June 21, 1863, OR, Vol. 27, Part 3, p. 248.
35 Sharpe to Butterfield, June 23, 1863, OR, Vol. 27, Part 3, p. 266. “The Situation in Maryland,” National Republican (Washington, DC), June 24, 1863, p. 2.
36 Fisher to Slocum, 10:40 a.m., June 24, 1863, OR, Vol. 27, Part 1, p. 201.
37 John Bell Hood, Advance and Retreat (Edison, NJ: The Blue and Gray Press, 1985), p. 54.
38 Fishel, p. 415; Stephen W. Sears, Gettysburg (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2003), pp. 47–48, 95; Tucker, p. 39.
39 For two opposing treatments of Stuart’s conduct in the Gettysburg Campaign, see Mark Nesbitt, Saber and Scapegoat: J. E. B. Stuart in the Gettysburg Controversy (Mechanicsville, PA: Stackpole Books, 1994) and Scott Bowden and Bill Ward, Last Chance for Victory: Robert E. Lee and the Gettysburg Campaign (New York: Da Capo Press, 2001).
40 Stuart to Robertson, June 24, 1863, OR, Vol. 27, Part 3, p. 927.
41 Ryan, “A Battle of Wits: Intelligence Operations During the Gettysburg Campaign. Part 1: Clandestine Preparations for Invasion vs. Quest for Information,” The Gettysburg Magazine, Issue No. 31, pp. 17–18.
42 OR, Vol. 27, Part 3, p. 151, returns of the Army of the Potomac for June 30, 1863.
43 Tucker, p. 73.
44 John C. Babcock, Record of Service of John C. Babcock during the Civil War 1861–65, John C. Babcock Collection, Library of Congress.
45 “Reports of Scouts,” National Republican, June 30, 1863, p. 1.
46 Reynolds to Butterfield, June 29, 1863, 3:15 p.m., OR, Vol. 27, Part 3, p. 397 & Butterfield to Sharpe, June 29, 1863, p. 399; Fishel, p. 503.
47 OR, Vol. 27, Part 3, p. 459.
48 Sharpe’s letter is in the McConaughy Collection in the Civil War Institute of Gettysburg College. “Headquarters Army of the Potomac,” The Adams Sentinel (Gettysburg, PA), October 3, 1863, p. 4.
49 Hood, p. 55.
50 Buford to Smith, June 27, 1863 & Buford to Smith, June 30, 1863, OR, Vol. 27, Part 3, pp. 926, 414.
51 Order, Army of the Potomac (Williams), June 30, 1863, OR, Vol. 27, Part 3, p. 416.
52 “Regimental Histories: 3rd Indiana Cavalry,” http://www.bufordsboys.com/3rdINHistory.htm; Buford to Pleasonton, June 30, 1863, OR, Vol. 27, Part 2, p. 923.
53 Buford to Pleasonton, 10:30 p.m., June 30, 1863, OR, Vol. 2, Part 2, pp. 923–24.
54 Fishel, p. 510.
55 Ryan, “A Battle of Wits,” p. 27.
1 A. B. Jerome to W. S. Hancock, October 1865, Bachelder Papers, New Hampshire Historical Society, cited in Bill Cameron, “The Signal Corps at Gettysburg,” The Gettysburg Magazine, Issue No. 3.
2 OR, Vol. 27, Part 3, p. 488. The Official Records dates this message as sent on July 2 but apparently is an error as pointed out by Cameron, “The Signal Corps at Gettysburg.”
3 OR, Vol. 27, Part 1, pp. 201–02; Cameron, “The Signal Corps at Gettysburg.”
4 C. Van Santvoord, The One Hundred and Twentieth Regiment New York State Volunteers: A Narrative of its Services in the War for the Union (Rondout, NY: Press of the Kingston Freeman, 1894), p. 221.
5 OR, Vol. 27, Part 3, p. 202.
6 OR, Vol. 27, Part 3, pp. 201–02, 458–59.
7 Santvoord, p. 223.
8 Marsena R. Patrick, Inside Lincoln’s Army: The Diary of Marsena Rudolph Patrick, editor David Sparks, diary entry for July 1, 1863 (New York: Thomas Yoseloff, 1964), p. 267.
9 Lee to Cooper, January 30, 1863, OR, Vol. 27, Part 2, pp. 317–18, Lee’s official report of the Gettysburg Campaign, dated January 20, 1863.
10 Lee to Cooper, January 30, 1863, OR, Vol. 27, Part 2, p. 318.
11 Longstreet to Chilton, “Report of Lieut. Gen. James Longstreet, C. S Army, commanding First Army Corps, July 27, 1863,” OR, Vol. 27, Part 2, pp. 357–58; Ewell to Chilton, “Report of Lieut. Gen. Richard S. Ewell, C. S. Army, commanding Second Army Corps (no month and day), 1863,” OR, Vol. 27, Part 2, pp. 444–48; Hill to Chilton, “Report of Lieut. Gen. Ambrose P. Hill, C. S. Army, commanding Third Army Corps, November, 1863,” OR, Vol. 27, Part 2, pp. 606–07.
12 “Sharpe: a Great Man,” The Inter Ocean Courier (Chicago), January 21, 1900.
13 Edwin C. Fishel, The Secret War for the Union: The Untold Story of Military Intelligence in the Civil War (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1996), p. 526.
14 Patrick, ibid.; Thomas J. Ryan, “A Battle of Wits: Intelligence Operations During the Gettysburg Campaign. Part 4: The Intelligence Factor at Gettysburg,” The Gettysburg Magazine, Issue No. 32, p. 30.
15 Hall to Meade, July 2, 1863, OR, Vol. 27, Part 3, pp. 486–87.
16 Norton to Williams, September 18, 1863, OR, Vol. 27, Part 2, p. 202.
17 Stephen W. Sears, Gettysburg (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004), pp. 253–55.
18 Lee’s Official Report, January 30, 1863, OR, Vol. 27, Part 2, pp. 321–22.
19 Ewell to Chilton, 1863, OR, Vol. 27, Part 2, p. 447.
20 Cameron, “The Signal Corps at Gettysburg,” The Gettysburg Magazine, Issue No. 3. OR 27, Part 2, p. 358. Longstreet was clear in laying blame on Lee for the difficulties with the route in his official report, an indication of how severely he had disagreed with his orders.
21 Peter G. Tsouras, ed., The Greenhill Dictionary of Military Quotations (London: Greenhill Books, 2000), p. 346.
22 Hall to Butterfield, July 2, 1863, 2:10 p.m., OR, Vol. 27, Part 3, p. 488.
23 W. Pfanz, Gettysburg: The Second Day (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1987), p. 142.
24 Norton to Williams, September 18, 1863, OR, Vol. 27, Part 1, p. 202.
25 Pfanz, pp. 201, 505 n. 1. In 1877 Warren recounted that he suggested to Meade that he be sent to Little Round Top. His aide, Lt. Washington A. Roebling (the builder of the Brooklyn Bridge), claimed to remember Meade’s statement verbatim. The two statements are not inconsistent, as Pfanz concludes.
26 Willard J. Brown, Signal Corps, U.S.A. in the War of the Rebellion (New York: Arno Press, 1974), pp. 188–89.
27 Oliver Wilcox Norton, The Attack and Defense of Little Round Top (New York: The Neale Publishing Company, 1913), p. 264.
28 Patrick Diary, entry for July 2, 1863.
29 “The Fight at Gettysburg,” The Times-Picayune (New Orleans), July 14, 1863, p. 1.
30 Haupt to Halleck, July 2, 1863, OR, Vol. 27, Part 3, p. 512; T. B., “From the Army of the Potomac,” National Republican (Washington, DC), July 6, 1863, p. 1; “The Battle of Gettysburg,” The Pittsburgh Gazette, July 7, 1863, p. 2.
31 John Dahlgren, Memoir of Ulric Dahlgren (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1872), p. 159.
32 Dahlgren, pp. 92–115.
33 Edward G. Longacre, The Cavalry at Gettysburg (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1993), p. 208.
34 Butterfield to Sharpe, June 29, 1863, OR, Vol. 27, Part 3, p. 399. An undated newspaper article, currently in the Kingston Senate House State Historical Site and written shortly after Sharpe’s death in January 1900, quoting this telegram, was found among Sharpe’s effects. Apparently, Sharpe kept a copy of the telegram as a treasured souvenir of his contribution in the war.
35 Dahlgren, p. 160. See also Longacre, The Cavalry at Gettysburg, p. 208, in which he cites the Louis Fortescue Memoirs (Philadelphia: War Library, Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (MOLLUS)), p. 93, for Cline’s story of discovering the information about the couriers. This is the only source for this vital connection. Fortescue was an acting signal officer who was also at the army headquarters at Taneytown on June 30, the day Dahlgren learned of the dispatches. That same day, he was sent to operate a signal station at Emmitsburg, MD, and was there when Dahlgren galloped back with the dispatches on the night of July 2. See OR, Vol. 27, Part 1, pp. 199–207. Fortescue was captured by Stuart’s cavalry on July 5 during the Confederate retreat.
36 F. A. Bushey, “That Historic Dispatch,” The National Tribune, May 14, 1896. Bushey relates the story of the raid as told by Daniel A. Carl, Co. K, 6th US Cavalry, a participant in the raid and a subsequent resident of Hancock, MD.
37 Jacob Hoke, The Great Invasion of 1863 (Gettysburg: Stan Clark Military Books, 1992; originally published in Dayton, OH, 1887), pp. 180–82.
38 Bushey, “That Historic Dispatch,” The National Tribune, May 14, 1896.
39 Longacre, p. 209.
40 Bushey, “That Historic Dispatch,” The National Tribune, May 14, 1896.
41 “Our Special Correspondent,” The New York Times, July 2, 1863. “A Provost Guard at Winchester,” National Republican (Washington, DC), July 6, 1863, p. 2.
42 E. J. Edwards, “Unselfishness of Meade,” Daily Press (Sheboygan, WI), June 21, 1910. Edwards was a prominent journalist at the time and wrote several articles such as this one (which he copyrighted) in which he states the story was told him by Sharpe. In that case it is not known how much embellishment Edwards employed in writing them for publication, but the prose and style are reminiscent of Sharpe. Sharpe was known to tell war stories to journalists, and this appears to be one of them.
43 Sears, p. 343.
44 Abner Doubleday, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1886), p. 157.
45 Meade to Halleck, July 3, 1863, OR, Vol. 27, Part 1, p. 72.
46 G. B. D. Hasbrouck, “Address on Major General George H. Sharpe,” Proceedings of the Ulster Country Historical Society 1936–1937 (Kingston, NY: Ulster County Historical Society, 1937), p. 24. This same article was also published in its entirety in the Kingston Daily Freeman, June 5, 1937.
47 Fishel, p. 527.
48 This famous report exists only in a photocopy in the Papers of Edwin C. Fishel at Georgetown University Library. It is not found in the National Archives records of the BMI. It probably was among the 150 BMI documents stolen from NARA subsequent to Fishel’s discovery of those records. However, it is clearly written in the neat hand of John C. Babcock, which attests to its authenticity.
49 “A Story of Gettysburg,” The Kane Republican (Kane, PA), January 7, 1899. The corps that Meade inquired about was probably VI Corps, though it is unlikely that he would not have known about its arrival in the late afternoon of that same day since he used part of it to turn back the last gasp of Longstreet’s attack; see Sedgwick to Meade, August 8, 1863, and Meade to Halleck, October 1, 1863, OR, Vol. 25, Part I, pp. 114, 663. It is difficult to know what Sharpe meant by this reference. He admitted he did not remember which corps. Perhaps he was referring to an interaction of earlier in the day since Meade had him rushing about the battlefield on various missions. Ascertaining the whereabouts of VI Corps earlier in the day might have been one. Nevertheless, his memory was faultless in his description of the Confederate situation. His comments as reported in January 1889 were almost exactly what was in the report that Babcock prepared that evening 25 years before.
50 The same statements by Meade and Sharpe are cited in the Kingston Daily Freeman, January 18, 1899, from an interview by Sharpe. The verb “to nick” has largely gone out of American English usage in its meaning “to catch at the right time,” although it retains that meaning in the phrase, “in the nick of time.” In British usage it has the connotation of catching a thief.
51 John C. Babcock, untitled summary of military service, John C. Babcock Collection, Library of Congress. “Service at Gettysburg—locating from ex[amination] of prisoners the disposition of Lee’s forces, and the result of Examination & moving of [word illegible]—in determining Meades [sic] judgment in holding the position he was in.”
52 “Abstract from returns of the Army of the Potomac, June 10–July 31, 1863,” OR, Vol. 27, Part 1, p. 151; “List of divisions, brigades, and regiments, with names of commanding officers, in the First and Second Army Corps, June 22, 1863,”, OR, Vol. 27, Part 3, p. 919. Ryan, The Gettysburg Magazine, Issue No. 32, p. 32, n. 145.
53 “Minutes of Council,” July 2, 1863, OR, Vol. 27. Part 1, p. 73.
54 Richard A. Sauers, Gettysburg: The Meade-Sickles Controversy (Washington, DC: Brassey’s, 2001), p. 150. Doubleday quotes from a letter he received from Slocum on February 19, 1883 in which he states that Meade ended the council by angrily stating, “Well, gentlemen, the question is settled. We will remain here, but I wish to say that I consider this no place to fight a battle” (Doubleday, pp. 184–85). Maj. Gen. John Gibbon, who was at the council, gives a different impression, writing that Meade stated, “quietly but decidedly, ‘Such then is the decision.’ He said nothing which produced a doubt in my mind as to his being perfectly in accord with the members of the council” (John Gibbon, “The Council of War on the Second Day,” Robert Johnson and Clarence Buell, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. 3, New York: 1884–1888), pp. 313–14. Given that both Doubleday and Slocum had deep grievances against Meade and Gibbon had none, interpretation of the former two is doubtful.
55 Cooper to Lee, June 29, 1863, OR, Vol. 27, Part 1, pp. 75–76.
56 Davis to Lee, June 28, 1863, OR, Vol. 27, Part 1, pp. 76–77.
57 John Dahlgren, Memoir of Ulrich Dahlgren (Phildelphia, PA: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1872), p. 163.
58 William Lawrence Royall, Some Reminiscences (New York: Neal Publishing Company, 1909), p. 23; Glenn Tucker, High Tide at Gettysburg (New York: Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1958), p. 314.
59 Stanton to Thomas, July 3, 1863, 4:40 p.m., OR, Vol. 27, Part 3, p. 526; Samuel P. Heintzelman diary, entry for July 4, 1863, Samuel P. Heintzelman Papers, Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC; “Those Intercepted Dispatches,” The New York Times, July 30, 1863, p. 2.
60 Van Santvoord, p. 227; George H. Sharpe, “Memorial Address of General George H. Sharpe,” Seventh Annual Reunion of the 120th NYV Regimental Union—Lieut.-Col. J. Rudolph Tappen (Kingston, NY: The Daily Freeman Steam Printing House, 1875), pp. 9–10.
61 Van Santvoord, pp. 227–28.
62 Gibbon, pp. 313–14.
63 George Gordon Meade, Jr., The Battle of Gettysburg (Ambler, PA: 1924), p. 89.
64 Meade, pp. 92–93; Coddington, pp. 530–32.
65 Peter G. Tsouras, Gettysburg: An Alternate History (London: Greenhill Books, 1997). This book examines just such a scenario.
66 Fishel, pp. 527, 530.
67 Butterfield to Sharpe, July 3, 1863, NARA, BMI records, RG 393.
68 “Return of casualties in the Army of Northern Virginia, at the battle of Gettysburg, July 1–3,” OR, Vol. 27, Part 2, pp. 341–42; Carl Smith, Gettysburg 1863: High Tide of the Confederacy (London: Osprey, 1998), pp. 35–36.
69 Sharpe to Butterfield, 8:00 a.m., July 2, 1863, BMI, RG 393; Fishel, p. 685 n. 26, 27. A minor controversy exists about the date of the two notes exchanged between Sharpe and Butterfield on the issue of Ewell’s strength. Butterfield initiated the exchange with his note dated July 3. Sharpe replied on the back of Butterfield’s note and dated it July 2. Sharpe’s note is probably misdated because Babcock’s report cites prisoner interrogation, identifying Longstreet’s Corps in action with heavy casualties. Longstreet’s Corps did not go into combat until the late afternoon of July 2. Babcock was too good to have misidentified I Corps in battle on July 1. Sharpe’s note also states that Ewell’s Corps was attacking at the time the note was written, shortly after 8:00 a.m. which, indeed, it was. On July 2, Ewell only began his attack at 6:30 p.m.
70 Norton to Williams, September 18, 1863, OR, Vol. 27, Part 1, pp. 202–03; Bill Cameron, “The Signal Corps at Gettysburg,” The Gettysburg Magazine, Issue No. 3.
71 “The Three Days,” National Tribune, July 12, 1888.
72 Gates to Doubleday, January 30, 1864, OR, Vol. 27, Part 1, pp. 319–21.
73 Sharpe to Romeyn, July 8, 1863, Sharpe Collection, Kingston Senate House.
74 “Pursuit of the Enemy,” The New York Times, July 7, 1863.
75 Dahlgren, pp. 175–77.
76 Coddington, p. 565.
77 Sharpe to Williams, 12.30 p. m., no date but probably July 8, 1863, Microcopy 2096, Roll 35, NARA.
78 Sharpe to Williams, 9 a.m., July 9, 1863, Microcopy 2096, Roll 34 and Babcock and/or Cline to Williams, 9 a.m., July 9, 1863, Microcopy 2096, Roll 34, NARA.
79 Sharpe to Williams, July 10, 1863, RG 18, Entry 112, NARA.
80 Coddington, p. 570.
81 Justus Scheibert, Seven Months in the Rebel States during the North American War 1863 (Tuscaloosa, AL: 1958), pp. 121–22, cited in Coddington, p. 570.
82 Longacre, p. 210.
83 Babcock, untitled summary of military service, John C. Babcock Collection, Library of Congress; Fishel, p. 529.
84 “History of Military Intelligence.”
85 Fishel, p. 571.
1 Sharpe to Jansen Hasbrouck, July 18, 1863, Sharpe Collection, Senate House State Historical Site, Kingston, NY.
2 Homer, The Iliad, tr. Robert Fagles, Book 13, pp. 908–12; Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, Memoirs of Field Marshal Montgomery, 1958.
3 Seward B. Osborne, ed., The Civil War Diaries of Col. Theodore B. Gates, 20th New York State Militia (Hightstown, NJ: Longstreet House, 1991), diary entries for 17, 21, 28, 29–31 July 1863, pp. 97–100. Hereafter, Gates Diary. Patrick makes no mention of this situation in his diary. The day after Gettysburg (July 5) Gates gave Sharpe several letters to be forwarded to Kingston.
4 Gates Diary, diary entries for December 18–19, 25, 1863, pp. 118–19.
5 Theodore B. Gates, The War of the Rebellion (New York, 1884), p. 534. On February 13, 1864, Gates, eight officers, and 161 enlisted men left on a 30-day veterans’ furlough to be greeted with great enthusiasm by the people of Kingston; in Albany they were seated in the State Assembly and honored with a resolution admitting them to “the privileges of the floor of the house.”
6 Kendig to Manning, August 15, 1863; Manning to Williams, August 15, 1863; endorsement by Sharpe, August 15, 1863, Military Personnel File of Frederick L. Manning, NARA.
7 Sharpe to Jansen Hasbrouck, July 28, 1863, Sharpe Collection.
8 C. Van Santvoord, The One Hundred and Twentieth Regiment, New York State Volunteers: A Narrative of its Services in the War for the Union (Rondout, NY: Press of the Kingston Freeman, 1894), p. 82.
9 New York State Military Museum and Veterans Research Center, undated newspaper clipping, “120th Regiment Infantry New York Volunteers,” https://dmna.ny.gov/historic/reghist/civil/infantry/120thInf/120thInfCWN.htm
10 Sharpe to Jansen Hasbrouck, September 18, 1863, Sharpe Collection.
11 Edwin C. Fishel, The Secret War for the Union (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1996), pp. 540–43.
12 Sharpe to Humphreys, October 28 & December 11, 1863, Microcopy 2096, Box 45, NARA.
13 Ross to Kilpatrick, August 28, 1863, OR, Vol. 29, p. 105.
14 Grant, p. 770.
15 Fishel, p. 541.
16 William B. Feis, Grant’s Secret War for the Union: The Intelligence War from Belmont to Appomattox (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2002), p. 198; John C. Babcock, Record of Military Service, John C. Babcock Collection, Library of Congress.
17 Custer to Pleasonton, August 13, 1863, OR, Vol. 29, Part 2, pp. 38–39.
18 Kilpatrick to Cohen, August 17, 1863, OR, Vol. 29, Part 2, p. 61; Pleasonton to Humphreys, August 18, 1863, OR, Vol. 29, Part 2, pp. 67–68; Smith to Kilpatrick, August 28, 1863, OR, Vol. 29, Part 2, p. 106.
19 Marsena R. Patrick, Inside Lincoln’s Army: The Diary of General Marsena R. Patrick, Provost Marshal General, Army of the Potomac (New York: Thomas Yoseloff, 1964), p. 279, diary entry for August 10, 1863; Sharpe to Jansen Hasbrouck, August 21, 1863, Sharpe Collection.
20 “From Meade’s Army,” Sunbury American, August 8, 1863 (Sunbury, PA), p. 3.
21 Beckwith to Sharpe, August 13, 1863, OR, Vol. 29, Part 2, pp. 40–41& NARA, RG 393, Part 1, Entry 4033, pp. 400–02; Sharpe to Williams, August 13, 1863, NARA, RG 393, Part 1, Entry 4033, p. 102.
22 Memorandum by Sharpe, August 22, 1863, NARA, RG 393, Part 1, Entry 4028–4049.