Crossing the Rapidan - Part II

Today I'll look at two more images of the Army of the Potomac's crossing of the Rapidan River in May of 1864.  These two will be scans direct from the original plates, unlike Part I's photo which was a scan of a reprint of the original image.  The images show the AotP's movement south to engage Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia in a series of brutal battles collectively known as the Overland Campaign.  The day after these photos were taken, the campaign kicked off with the Battle of the Wilderness on May 5, 1864.

Let's start out with a look at some federal artillery in motion:

Photos of artillery batteries all limbered up and ready to go are usually my favorites to look at.  When guiding at Gettysburg, one aspect of the battle that usually blows peoples' minds is the logistics of moving the huge amount of cannon that supported the armies.  Folks unfamiliar with mid-19th Century military logistics (a.k.a. normal people) take for granted that the guns on the battlefield were positioned where they were, without giving much thought as to how they got to or left those positions.  Even in reenacting, you almost always see guns go into action being pulled by Suburbans, not six horses.  So, images like the one above convey the scale and limitations of artillery deployment during the Civil War like nothing else today can.  The only thing that might compare is a reenacting group wealthy enough to afford the equipment, guns, horses, and insurance required to accurately portray a full battery going into action.

Anyway, this photo, taken on May 4, 1864, shows a battery that possibly belonged to the VI Corps crossing the pontoon bridge at Germanna Ford on the Rapidan.

A close inspection in the zoom above shows a gun being pulled on its limber by six horses, followed by a caisson also pulled by six horses.  The background of the photo also shows various battery wagons and other vehicles required for the movement and operation of the guns in battle.  The ground would have shaken when one of these guns rolled by, and you wouldn't want to get in its way.

So, what about the infantry?  In these posts so far we've looked at the quartermaster and artillery branches, but no foot soldiers.  Lucky for us, photographers on site in 1864 took the time to try and capture a federal infantry column on the move:

This amazing image shows federal infantry, probably from the VI Corps, crossing the same bridge pictured above.  It is just simply amazing that we're able to look back 150 years ago with such detail.

This image show what makes me think these troops belong to the VI Corps.  The corps insignia on the wagons is the Greek cross, which was the symbol assigned to the VI Corps early in 1863.

This is one of my favorite images from the war.  You just simply don't see this all that often.  The precision to which we know when and where this photo was taken means that many of the men pictured here would not make it through the next day, or indeed the next several weeks as the Overland Campaign ground on.  I love the motion that these wet plate images convey.  Sure the figures are blurred because of the long exposure time, but you can infer many details from nuances like that. For instance, you'll see that the men on the right side of the zoom are more blurred than on the right side.  That means the column was probably halted when the photographer began this exposure.  Mid-way through the command "Forward, March!" came down the line and the front of the column began to move.  But, by the time the photographer covered back up his lens, the rear of the column to the left hadn't been able to move forward yet, hence their relative clarity.

There's one other detail of this photo that has been the source of wild speculation on my part:

There's this group of riders just above the bridges.  Who could these guys be, cavalry?  I think not.  To me this looks like a general and his staff.  I count thirteen riders in this group, though.  That might seem like a lot of staff for one general to have...but wait a tick:

Here's a photo of Major General John Sedgwick and his staff, taken at the AotP's winter camp near Brandy Station a few months before the Overland Campaign.  I count thirteen officers here, which kinda matches up with the group of mounted men in the Germanna Ford photo.  Also, Sedgwick commanded the VI Corps, whose troops are likely the ones in the photo.  There's no way to prove it, and I'm probably wrong, but I'd like to think that one of those riders is Sedgwick, who would become a martyr to the Union cause just five days after his men crossed at Germanna Ford.