Army of Northern Virginia

Origin

The name Army of Northern Virginia referred to its primary area of operation, as did most Confederate States Army names at the time. The Army originated as the (Confederate) Army of the Potomac, which was organized on June 20, 1861, from all operational forces in northern Virginia. On July 20 and July 21, the Army of the Shenandoah and forces from the District of Harpers Ferry were added. Units from the Army of the Northwest were merged into the Army of the Potomac between March 14 and May 17, 1862. The Army of the Potomac was renamed Army of Northern Virginia on March 14. The Army of the Peninsula was merged into it on April 12, 1862.

Robert E. Lee's biographer, Douglas S. Freeman, asserts that the army received its final name from Lee when he issued orders assuming command on June 1, 1862. However, Freeman does admit that Lee corresponded with Joseph E. Johnston, his predecessor in army command, prior to that date and referred to Johnston's command as the Army of Northern Virginia. Part of the confusion results from the fact that Johnston commanded the Department of Northern Virginia (as of October 22, 1861) and the name Army of Northern Virginia can be seen as an informal consequence of its parent department's name. Jefferson Davis and Johnston did not adopt the name, but it is clear that the organization of units as of March 14 was the same organization that Lee received on June 1, and thus it is generally referred to today as the Army of Northern Virginia, even if that is correct only in retrospect.

In addition to Virginians, it included regiments from all over the Confederacy, some from as far away as Georgia, Texas and Arkansas. One of the most well known was the Texas Brigade, made up of the 1st, 4th, and 5th Texas, and the 3rd Arkansas, which distinguished themselves in numerous battles, such as during their fight for the Devil's Den at the Battle of Gettysburg.

Command under Brigadier General P. G. T. Beauregard

The first commander of the Army of Northern Virginia was General P.G.T. Beauregard (under its previous name, the Confederate Army of the Potomac) from June 20 to July 20, 1861. His forces consisted of six brigades, with various militia and artillery from the former Department of Alexandria. During his command, Gen. Beauregard is noted for creating the battle flag of the army, which came to be the primary battle flag for all corps and forces under the Army of Northern Virginia. The flag was designed due to confusion during battle between the Confederate "Stars and Bars" flag and the flag of the United States. Beauregard continued commanding these troops as the new First Corps under Gen. J. E. Johnston as it was joined by the Army of the Shenandoah on July 20, 1861, when command was relinquished to General J. E. Johnston. The following day this army fought its first major engagement in the First Battle of Manassas.

Command under General J. E. Johnston

With the merging of the Army of the Shenandoah, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston took command from July 20, 1861, until May 31, 1862.

Corps organization under Johnston 1861

Wing organization under Johnston 1862

Under the command of Johnston, the Army immediately entered into the First Battle of Manassas. On October 22, 1861, the Department of Northern Virginia was officially created, officially ending the Army of the Potomac. The Department comprised three districts: Aquia District, Potomac District, and the Valley District. In April 1862 the Department was expanded to include the Departments of Norfolk and the Peninsula (of Virginia). Gen. Johnston was eventually forced into maneuvering the Army southward to the defenses of Richmond during the opening of the Peninsula Campaign, where it conducted delay and defend tactics until Johnston was severely wounded at the Battle of Seven Pines.

Temporary command under Major General G. W. Smith

Maj. Gen. Gustavus Woodson Smith commanded the ANV on May 31, 1862, following the wounding of Gen. J. E. Johnston during the Battle of Seven Pines. With Smith seemingly having a nervous breakdown, President Jefferson Davis drafted orders to place Gen. Robert E. Lee in command the following day.

Command under General R. E. Lee

On June 1, 1862, its most famous and final leader, General Robert E. Lee, took command after Johnston was wounded, and Smith suffered what may have been a nervous breakdown, at the Battle of Seven Pines. In the first year of his command, Lee had two principal subordinate commanders. The right wing of the army was under the command of Lt. Gen. James Longstreet and the left wing under Lt. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson. These wings were redesignated as the First Corps (Longstreet) and Second Corps (Jackson) on November 6, 1862. Following Jackson's death after the Battle of Chancellorsville, Lee reorganized the army into three corps on May 30, 1863, under Longstreet, Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell, and Lt. Gen. A.P. Hill. A Fourth Corps, under Lt. Gen. Richard H. Anderson, was organized on October 19, 1864; on April 8, 1865, it was merged into the Second Corps. The commanders of the first three corps changed frequently in 1864 and 1865. The cavalry, organized into a division on August 17, 1862, and into a corps on September 9, 1863, was commanded by Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart until May 11, 1864 (the day he was mortally wounded). The cavalry corps was then temporarily split into divisions, but was merged again on August 11, 1864 under command of Lt. Gen. Wade Hampton III. The Reserve Artillery was commanded by Brig. Gen. William N. Pendleton for most of the war.

After taking over command in mid-1862, Lee began preparing to lead the Army of Northern Virginia for the first time. However, his aggressiveness to attack the Union led to the loss of many troops especially at the Battle of Antietam, which ended up being a turning point in the war for the Union. After the costly victories during the Seven Days Battles and at Second Manassas in August 1862, Lee had now lost a total of 30,000 of his approximately 92,000 troops within three months of becoming the Confederate's top general. Lee then planned to take his troops north into Maryland to destroy a critical railroad bridge across the Susquehanna River at Harrisburg in a letter written to President Davis. Lee even questioned his own plan, as he wrote, "I am aware that the movement is attended with much risk, yet I do not consider success impossible..." In addition, historians question Lee's aggressiveness to move his army to Maryland. "There can be no sort of doubt that Lee underestimated the exhaustion of his army after Second Manassas. That is, in reality, the major criticism of the Maryland operation: he carried worn-out men across the Potomac." His men were also underarmed and underfed, so the journey to Maryland added to the overall exhaustion. Once Lee arrived in Maryland and was preparing for Antietam, he made another controversial decision. Against the advice from General Longstreet and Jackson, Lee split his troops into four parts to attack the Union from different fronts. Clearly outnumbered and opposed to Lee's plan, Longstreet stated, "General, I wish we could stand still and let the damned Yankees come to us!" As the fighting played out on September 17, 1862, known as the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, the battles at Dunker Church and Burnside's Bridge proved to be too much for Lee and his Confederate army. Luckily for Lee, the arrival of A.P. Hill's troops and the mixture of McClellan's and Burnside's sluggishness, saved Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and allowed them to barely hold off the Union in Maryland.

Corps organization under Lee

Although the Army of Northern Virginia swelled and shrank over time, its units of organization consisted primarily of corps, earlier referred to as "wings" or "commands":

Campaigns and battles

The Army fought in a number of campaigns and battles, including:

On April 9, 1865, the Army of Northern Virginia surrendered to the Army of the Potomac at Appomattox Court House, effectively ending the Civil War, with General Lee signing the papers of surrender to General Ulysses S. Grant. The day after his surrender, Lee issued his Farewell Address to the Army of Northern Virginia.

Department of Northern Virginia, October 22, 1861

The Military Department of Northern Virginia was embattled on October 22, 1861. The department initially consisted of three districts under the overall command of General Joseph E. Johnston.

On February 28, 1862, there were 47,617 soldiers present for duty to the military district. The Cavalry Brigade was provided from the Potomac's Military District and under direct control from the Defense District. The artillery formed an Artillery Corps with 109 cannons.

Organization April 30, 1862

The Army of Northern Virginia was established on March 14, 1862, again under Johnston. Though the military department stayed existent its role changed into an administrative division for most of the war.

At the outset of the Peninsula Campaign the Army of Northern Virginia had more than 55,633 soldiers. The cannon was assigned to the brigades, as well as the Reserve's artillery. Nominally, Jackson's Corps in the Shenandoah Valley, was subordinate to the Army. Since Jackson led his own campaign at the time of the Peninsula Campaign and was not under Lee's direct command this overview does not include his three divisions.

The Army's organization soon proved inept in the course of the Peninsula Campaign. The corps-like structure was rearranged before the Seven Days Battle to converge with the requirements of actual command. In the course of this battle the Army featured two Corps; Jackson's and Magruder's, with four and three divisions respectively, and three actual divisions with five to six brigades. Also the Defense District of North Carolina answered directly to the Army as well as the Reserve Artillery with six battalions and the cavalry with six regiments. The army's complete strength was about 90,000 soldiers. The exact strength cannot be determined, because only a few notes for actual provisionings survived. The estimated strength results, if not explicitly noted, from in-battle dispatches.

Organization at the setout of the Northern Virginia Campaign

The Seven Days Battle showed the Army still suffered from insufficient organization in army command. General Lee subdivided the army again, but this time only with single commands. He introduced a corps-like structure of command, and as an intermediate army management he named the left and right wing. The Army was organized on August 28, 1862 as follows.

The Army's Reserve Artillery consisted of one regiment and two battalions. They stayed in the area of Richmond in the course of the whole Northern Virginia Campaign and only returned on September 3, 1862 to the Army. Major General Hill's Division also remained in the eastern parts of Richmond with the order to bind McClellan's attention as long as possible. As it became predictable that the Army of the Potomac would soon be transferred to support Pope, Lee ordered the Division north. Hill never entered battle in the campaign. A total of about 54,000 soldiers saw action throughout the campaign.

Organization at the beginning of the Maryland Campaign

The Army's losses before and following the Battle of Second Manassas needed to be replaced before the Maryland Campaign could commence. While fundamental changes in the Army's command structure were not necessary, General Lee exchanged divisions and brigades or added additional strength to some. The wings of the Army were now officially called 'Corps'. In the Maryland Campaign the Army was subdivided as follows.

While organization of the corps was found to be generally reliable, the corps' subdivision into four or five divisions hampered overall ease of command. General Lee had already considered before the Battle of Antietam to slim down the overall structure, but intended there be no changes in leadership. The Confederate Congress authorized the establishment of the Corps, and President Davis affirmed the assignment of the commanders and promoted Major Generals Longstreet and Jackson to Lieutenant Generals. General Lee announced this in Special Order 234 on November 6, 1862. About 60,000 soldiers served at the Maryland Campaign.

Organization from May 30, 1863 until April 9, 1865

Lee took Jackson's death as an opportunity to subdivide the North Virginia Corps again. President Jefferson Davis agreed to the subdivision and ordered Lee in his Special Order Nr. 146 to reorganize the Army.

Lee ordered the artillery battalions of the Reserve Artillery to serve directly with the Corps for the duration of the Gettysburg Campaign. The Army of Northern Virginia now comprised a total of 75,054 soldiers at the Battle of Gettysburg.

The army fielded more than 241 cannons following the Battle of Gettysburg. The artillery battalions were merged into the Artillery Reserve again following the end of the campaign.

On September 9, General Lee had to dispatch the First Corps to Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee. Following this the army was resubordinated again. Changes were not significant; only the cavalry saw important reorganization.

The Army's strength was then 55,221 soldiers. The changes in command until December 31, 1863 were only minor. Cooke's Brigade was assigned to serve with Heth's Division, Hampton's Division grew by a cavalry brigade and the Third Corps gained an additional artillery battalion. Imboden's Command remained at Shenandoah Valley and was taken over by Major General Early as the Defense District of Shenandoah Valley. The strength of the army was 54,715 men on December 31.

The organization of the Army of Northern Virginia did not change until the end of the war. The Army featured several corps, the corps featured several divisions, and the artillery was divided between the corps. The strength of the Army grew in the first six months from about 46,380 to 62,230 soldiers. The army was assigned in July to the Defense District of North Carolina and Richmond. In the course of the Richmond-Petersburg Campaign the number of soldiers temporarily grew to 82,633 while parts of the Army were under the command by Lieutenant General Early in Shenandoah Valley.

In 1864 the Army of Northern Virginia fought against the more than twice as strong Potomac-, James- and Shenandoah Army in Grant's Overland Campaign, Early's Raid against the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the Richmond-Petersburg Campaign, and Shenandoah Campaign in the Shenandoah Valley. The Army's organization for January 31, 1865 because 69,659 soldiers were fit for battle, but a minimum of 4,500 had no rifles.

Following Lieutenant General A.P. Hill's death on April 2, 1865 the Third Corps was dissolved and assigned to the First Corps. On April 9, 1865, General Lee surrendered. One day later he thanked his men and his officers for their bravery and sturdiness and announced the dismissal of all troops on their word of honor in General Order No. 9. The listings of the Army of Northern Virginia say that 28,231 soldiers were dismissed on their word of honor on April 10, 1865.