Gouverneur K. Warren
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Gouverneur Kemble Warren (January 8, 1830 – August 8, 1882) was a civil engineer and prominent general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He is best remembered for arranging the last-minute defense of Little Round Top during the Battle of Gettysburg and is often referred to as the "Hero of Little Round Top." His subsequent service as a corps commander and his remaining military career were ruined during the Battle of Five Forks, when he was relieved of command by Philip Sheridan.
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[edit] Early life
Warren was born in Cold Spring, New York, and named for Gouverneur Kemble, a prominent local Congressman, diplomat, and industrialist. He entered the United States Military Academy at age 16 and graduated second in his class of 44 cadets in 1850.[1] He was commissioned a brevet second lieutenant in the Corps of Topographical Engineers. In the antebellum years he worked on the Mississippi River, on transcontinental railroad surveys, and mapped the trans-Mississippi West. He served as the engineer on William S. Harney's Sioux Expedition in the Nebraska Territory in 1855, where he saw his first combat.[2][3]
[edit] Civil War
At the start of the war, Warren was a first lieutenant and mathematics instructor at West Point, across the Hudson River from his hometown. He helped raise a local regiment for service in the Union Army and was appointed Lieutenant Colonel of the 5th New York Infantry on May 14, 1861.[1][2] He and his regiment saw their first combat at Big Bethel in Virginia on June 10, arguably the first major land engagement of the war.[2] He was promoted to colonel and regimental commander on September 10.[1]
In the 1862 Peninsula Campaign, Warren commanded his regiment at the Siege of Yorktown and also assisted the chief topographical engineer of the Army of the Potomac, Brig. Gen. Andrew A. Humphreys, by leading reconnaissance missions and drawing detailed maps of appropriate routes for the army in its advance up the Virginia Peninsula. He commanded a brigade (3rd Brigade, 2nd Division, V Corps) during the Seven Days Battles and was wounded in the knee at the Battle of Gaines' Mill, although he refused to be taken from the field. At the Battle of Malvern Hill, his brigade stopped the attack of a Confederate division. He continued to lead the brigade at the Second Battle of Bull Run, suffering heavy casualties in a heroic stand against an overwhelming enemy assault,[4] and at Antietam, where V Corps was in reserve and saw no combat.[2]
Warren was promoted to brigadier general on September 26, 1862,[1] and he and his brigade fought in the Battle of Fredericksburg in December. When Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker reorganized the Army of the Potomac in February 1863, he named Warren his chief topographical engineer and then chief engineer. As chief engineer, Warren was commended for his service in the Battle of Chancellorsville.[2]
At the start of the Gettysburg Campaign, as Confederate General Robert E. Lee began his invasion of Pennsylvania, Warren advised Hooker on the routes the Army should take in pursuit. On the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg, July 2, 1863, Warren initiated the defense of Little Round Top, recognizing the importance of the undefended position on the left flank of the Union Army, and directing, on his own initiative, the brigade of Colonel Strong Vincent to occupy it just minutes before it was attacked. Warren suffered a minor neck wound during the Confederate assault.
Promoted to major general after Gettysburg (August 8, 1863), Warren commanded II Corps from August 1863 until March 1864, replacing the wounded Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock, and distinguishing himself at Bristoe Station. (On March 13, 1865, he was breveted to major general in the Regular Army for his actions at Bristoe Station.)[1] During the Mine Run Campaign, Warren's corps was ordered to attack Lee's Army, but he perceived that a trap had been laid and refused the order from Army commander Maj. Gen. George G. Meade. Although initially angry at Warren, Meade acknowledged that he had been right.[4] Upon Hancock's return from medical leave, and the spring 1864 reorganization of the Army of the Potomac, Warren assumed command of V Corps. He led the V Corps through the Overland Campaign, the Siege of Petersburg, and the Appomattox Campaign.[2]
During these Virginia campaigns, Warren established a reputation of bringing his engineering traits of deliberation and caution to the role of infantry corps commander. The aggressive Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan, a key subordinate of Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, was dissatisfied with Warren's performance. He was angry at Warren's corps obstructing roads after the Battle of the Wilderness and its lack of success during the Siege of Petersburg. At the beginning of the Appomattox Campaign, Sheridan requested that the VI Corps be assigned to his pursuit of Lee's army, but Grant insisted that the V Corps was better positioned. He gave Sheridan written permission to relieve Warren if he felt it was justified "for the good of the service."[5] Grant later wrote in his Personal Memoirs,[6]
I was so much dissatisfied with Warren’s dilatory movements in the battle of White Oak Road and in his failure to reach Sheridan in time, that I was very much afraid that at the last moment he would fail Sheridan. He was a man of fine intelligence, great earnestness, quick perception, and could make his dispositions as quickly as any officer, under difficulties where he was forced to act. But I had before discovered a defect which was beyond his control, that was very prejudicial to his usefulness in emergencies like the one just before us. He could see every danger at a glance before he had encountered it. He would not only make preparations to meet the danger which might occur, but he would inform his commanding officer what others should do while he was executing his move.
—Ulysses S. Grant, Personal Memoirs
At the Battle of Five Forks on April 1, 1865, Sheridan became enraged with Warren's performance. He perceived that the V Corps moved too slowly into the attack and faulted Warren for not being at the front of his columns when Sheridan went to confront him. Warren in fact was handling dispositions of his divisions in a manner consistent with that a corps commander, and the attack by the V Corps carried the day at Five Forks, arguably the pivotal battle in the final days against Lee's army. Nevertheless, Sheridan relieved Warren of command on the spot.[7] He was assigned to the defenses of Petersburg and then briefly to command the Department of Mississippi.[1]
[edit] Postbellum
Humiliated by Sheridan, Warren resigned his commission as major general of volunteers in protest on May 27, 1865, reverting to his permanent rank as major in the Corps of Engineers. He served as an engineer for seventeen years, building railroads, with assignments along the Mississippi River, achieving the rank of lieutenant colonel in 1879. But the career that had shown so much promise at Gettysburg was ruined. He urgently requested a court of inquiry to exonerate him from the stigma of Sheridan's action. Numerous requests were ignored or refused until Ulysses S. Grant retired from the presidency. President Rutherford B. Hayes ordered a court of inquiry that convened in 1879 and, after hearing testimony from dozens of witnesses over 100 days, found that Sheridan's relief of Warren had been unjustified. Unfortunately for Warren, these results were not published until after his death.[8]
Warren died in Newport, Rhode Island, and was buried there at his request in civilian clothes and without military honors. His last words were, "The flag! The flag!"[9]
[edit] In memoriam
A bronze statue of Warren stands on Little Round Top in Gettysburg National Military Park, dedicated 20 years after the famous battle.
[edit] References
- Eicher, John H., & Eicher, David J., Civil War High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
- Grant, Ulysses S., Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Charles L. Webster & Company, 1885–86, ISBN 0-914427-67-9.
- Heidler, David S., and Heidler, Jeanne T., "Gouverneur Kemble Warren", Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History, Heidler, David S., and Heidler, Jeanne T., eds., W. W. Norton & Company, 2000, ISBN 0-393-04758-X.
- Warner, Ezra J., Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders, Louisiana State University Press, 1964, ISBN 0-8071-0822-7.
- Wittenberg, Eric J., Little Phil: A Reassessment of the Civil War Leadership of Gen. Philip H. Sheridan, Potomac Books, 2002, ISBN 1-57488-548-0.
