Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-08-16
DECISIVE ENGAGEMENTS
Critic Takes Exception to Gen. o. O.
Towards List.
BLOODY MOMENTS RECALLED
Bull Run and the Wilderness Should
Be Added to Those Fights That
Were Momentous.


those correctly naming the majority OF
the ten greatest or most important 'nat-
ties of the civil war. This was zone
with a view to encouraging the study
of the history of that war by the schooi
teachers and school children in the news
papers town. The competition was
opened, and very many responses were
had. Among others who undertook 70
name the most important ten patties
was Gen. o. o. Howard. one Of the two
surviving generals of that war who COM
manded an Independent army. Gen. How
ards list, of course, attracted the most
attention of all. He named the following
battles in the order Of their relative i'm
portance, in his estimation: Gettysburg,
Chickamauga, Antietam, Shiloh, Mission
airy Ridge including Lookout Mountain
Atlanta, Nashville, Appomattox, Cedar
Creek. Bentonville. In sending In this
very difficult to discriminate between
some of these battles and other impor-
tant engagements. He selected the ten
which he names with a view. as he says.
to the consequences which followed from
them. And therefore he considers that
they may be regarded as In the category
of decisive battles. deciding either the
fate of the campaign or by so much con-
tributing to the decision of the general
conflict
Chickamauga Not Decisive.
The opinion of Gen. Howard i'm this
matter is entitled to the very highest
respect We presume there will be no
difficulty in the mind of any one in
agreeing with him as to the superior
Importance of Gettysburg, Missionary
O in, a
Nashville and Appomattox. The other
five in the list however. may not to
others seem of as much Importance as
other battles that might be named.
Chickamauga. for instance. decided moth
ing very important 1t was a bloody bat
tie, but it was inconclusive in that neither
side made any particular gain by it. The
Union forces fell back to Chattanooga
and held that place. The rebel forces
occupied the field of battle and invested
Chattanooga, but they were routed at
the really decisive battle of Missionary
Ridge and Lookout Mountain. commonly
called the battle of Chattanooga. In the
series of campaigns which led to the bat
tie of Chickamauga we should regard the
battle Of MurfreesborO as one of more
importance than Chickamauga, because
it was Rosecran's victory at Murfrees-
boro which opened up the whole southern
country to the Union advance. The bat
tie of Chickamauga maintained that ad-
tanooga cleared away the chief opposi-
ton to 1t and opened the way to the final
operations against Atlanta. including the
battles of Kenesaw. Peachtree Creek and
Jonesboro We presume that Gen. How
ard includes all these, and also the battle
of Kenesaw Mountain and others in the
Sherman advance under the general name
of the battle of Atlanta. which it is quite
proper to do. We should for these reas-
sons. therefore. be inclined to eliminate
the battle Of Chickamauga.
Antietam and Shiloh.
The next in Gen. Towards list the bat
tie Of Antietam. might and should have
been a decisive battle. But it was not.
The opportunity which that victory Of
fered to make it decisive by inficting a
disastrous blow upon Lees army was not
pursued. 1t put an end to the northern
movement of Lees army at the time. but
that was all. Its results were, in fact.
negative. so far as the general results on
both sides are concerned. Lee got away
safely, and Mcclellan cOntented himself
with preventing the rebel advance. We do
not see how Antietam is to be considered
really as decisive battle, although there
Is no question about it's importance.
Similarly we do not consider that Shiloh,
although a desperate, bloody and ten
acious battle. was a decisive battle. It
merely repealed the attack Of the enemy
on that line of military operations. We
should be inclined to place the capture of
Fort Henry and Fort Donelson as decid-
eddy superior from the decisive stand
point to Shiloh. The battle of Fort Don
elson had important effects in cheering
the heart of the Union forces and the
the advance through western Tennessee
and into Mississippi. The battle of Shi-
lob was no more a decisive battle than
was Sherman's first assault upon Vicks-
burg and Grants advance through Mis-
sissippi. which was paralyzed by the cap
The next to be questioned is the battle
of Cedar Creek. This, to be sure, was q
decisive victory, but after all it was a
minor one, one Of no more Importance.
Ridge. which killed the rebel activity west
Of the Mississippi river. Cedar. Creek
freed the Shenandoah valley from all in
cursions of the enemy. Pea Ridge freed
the whole region west Of the Mississippi
Of rebel operations. save only the latent
and minor ones of the southern country
from the Arkansas river down.
The last in order. as named by Gen.
Howard. the battle Of Bentonville can
hardly be considered decisive. although
it was an important battle. Gen. John
ston undertook to surprise one wing of
Sherman's army and put 1t to rout It is
not conceivable that he, would have been
able at that time to really inflict any
damaging blow upon Sherman, nor does
Johnston seem to have thought that he
could. His attack was more in the nature
Of desperate venture than a really de-
cisive campaign. The failure was critical
enough for Johnston. to be sure because
1t ended his hopes of stopping Sherman
advance. But in no sense was ii critical
for Sherman. who had ample forces and,
as the result showed, Johnston could not
even overcome one wing Of the Union
army, as he undertook to do
We should. therefore. question the right
fulness of Including Chckamauga. Antie-
tam. Shiloh, Cedar Creek and Bentonyille
among the really decisive battles of the
war. viewed In respect to their conse-
Quences upon the general result Upon
the fate of the campaigns in which thew
figure some of them were not even abso-
lutely decisive.
Virginia Battles.
What other five. then, could be SUBJ
stituted for these that are questioned?
We should say decisively that the opera
tons around Vicksburg which ended in
the capture of that city. were OF superior
importance to either of the five that we
have questioned. We should put MUIR
freesbOro above Chickamauga In decisive
ness We should put the capture of Forts
Henry and DonelsOn above Shiloh. We
should place Pea Ridge above Cedar
Creek. And we think that the battle Of
the Wilderness IS entitled to be one Of the
ten, because at that battle for the first
time it was demonstrated that the Union
army need not retreat when it suffered a
check Up to that time 1t had been the
universal practice for the Army of the
Potomac to retreat when 1t was stopped
The battle of the Wilderness was there
81, q LII nc hof lev, hot -