Major Edward Joseph Hale was the one who wrote to Brig. Gen. James Henry Lane on August 2, 1899 about the desire of Maj. Gen. Cadmus Marcellus Wilcox's other brigadiers (McGowan, Scales and Thomas) to court-martial Wilcox for cowardice for some action that seems to have occurred in the summer of 1864. Hale wound up the war on Lane's staff and would have had the colonelcy of Lane's old regiment, the 28th North Carolina, but for not rising through its ranks--he began the war with the 1st North Carolina and rose through the 56th North Carolina.
Bryce Suderow points out that General Lee appears to have punished Wilcox for his mishandling of his mission, to cooperate with Brig. Gen. William Mahone, on June 22, 1864. On that day, Wilcox admittedly took about four or five hours (from no later than 3:30 p.m until sundown around 7:30 p.m.) to move two or three miles. (Wilcox Report on the Petersburg Campaign, Lee Headquarters Papers, Virginia Historical Society.) The punishment was to strip Wilcox of troops. "Two of my brigades were ordered to the north side of the James river to relieve two of Heth's, June 25th, McGowan & Lane," wrote Wilcox in his report on the Petersburg Campaign in the Lee Headquarters Papers in the Virginia Historical Society. "July 4th, the remainder of the division, Scales and Thomas, were ordered to occupy from the Appomattox to Ashton Run," north of the Appomattox. Not until August 24 did Wilcox get command of troops again.
Stripping troops from incompetent subordinates was one way Lee got rid of them. After Brig. Gen. Roger Atkinson Pryor mishandled Anderson's division at Sharpsburg, Lee stripped him of troops by breaking up his brigade and assigning its regiments elsewhere. Pryor got the message and resigned the following year.
Pryor was only a pre-war newspaperman and politician. Wilcox was a West Pointer, not as easily abandoned. Likewise, a court-martial for cowardice seems a bit extreme for mere incompetence, especially when everyone but Mahone shared that attribute moving around in the veritable jungle south of Petersburg. In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king, and south of Petersburg, Mahone (a former railroad engineer who had surveyed much of the ground) was the guy with one eye.
Bryce Suderow points out that General Lee appears to have punished Wilcox for his mishandling of his mission, to cooperate with Brig. Gen. William Mahone, on June 22, 1864. On that day, Wilcox admittedly took about four or five hours (from no later than 3:30 p.m until sundown around 7:30 p.m.) to move two or three miles. (Wilcox Report on the Petersburg Campaign, Lee Headquarters Papers, Virginia Historical Society.) The punishment was to strip Wilcox of troops. "Two of my brigades were ordered to the north side of the James river to relieve two of Heth's, June 25th, McGowan & Lane," wrote Wilcox in his report on the Petersburg Campaign in the Lee Headquarters Papers in the Virginia Historical Society. "July 4th, the remainder of the division, Scales and Thomas, were ordered to occupy from the Appomattox to Ashton Run," north of the Appomattox. Not until August 24 did Wilcox get command of troops again.
Stripping troops from incompetent subordinates was one way Lee got rid of them. After Brig. Gen. Roger Atkinson Pryor mishandled Anderson's division at Sharpsburg, Lee stripped him of troops by breaking up his brigade and assigning its regiments elsewhere. Pryor got the message and resigned the following year.
Pryor was only a pre-war newspaperman and politician. Wilcox was a West Pointer, not as easily abandoned. Likewise, a court-martial for cowardice seems a bit extreme for mere incompetence, especially when everyone but Mahone shared that attribute moving around in the veritable jungle south of Petersburg. In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king, and south of Petersburg, Mahone (a former railroad engineer who had surveyed much of the ground) was the guy with one eye.
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