ORIGINAL: berto
ORIGINAL: berto
Coastal Ops!
In a long-awaited, if not quite surprising development (I expected it, just didn't know where), a Union army under W. "Baldy" Smith's command has landed on the South Carolina coast, just outside of Charleston!
...
And, at ~50,000 men, a sizeable force it is too!
This has been bothering me. In the larger scheme of things, and at that time of the war (mid 1862), 50,000 seems too much, way out of proportion. And especially how shorted Union forces in the KY/TN theater seem to be. Just another thought.
At
http://www.civilwararchive.com/CORPS/10thcorp.htm it says:
10th Corps
James Island; Pocotaligo; Morris Island; Fort Wagner; Olustee; Walthall Junction; Chester Station; Proctor's Creek; Drewry's Bluff; Cold Harbor; Bermuda Hundred; Ware Bottom Church; Petersburg; Strawberry Plains; Deep Bottom; Chaffin's Farm; New Market Road; Darbytown Road; Charles City Road; Fair Oaks (1864); Fort Fisher; Sugar Loaf Battery; Fort Anderson; Wilmington.
Organized under General Orders No. 123, September 3, 1S62, which designated the forces in the Department of the South as the Tenth Army Corps, and assigned Major-General O. M. Mitchel to its command. These troops were stationed principally at Hilton Head, S.C., and Beaufort, S.C., the order including also the troops at Fort Pulaski, Ga., Key West, Fla., Fernandina, Fla., and St. Augustine, Fla.; in all, 14,602, present and absent, with 10,190 <fx_85>present for duty. There were 14 regiments of infantry, 1 of engineers, a battalion of cavalry, and the usual compliment of light batteries.
General Mitchel died, October 30, 1862, and was succeeded by General J. M. Brannan. In January, 1863, General David Hunter relieved Brannan, and assumed command of the department; Hunter was relieved on June 3, 1863, and General Quincy A. Gillmore was assigned to the command of the corps. The total, present for duty, in June, 1863, was 16,329, including artillery and cavalry. The troops at Hilton Head were commanded by General Alfred H. Terry; those on Folly Island, by General Israel Vogdes; those at Beaufort, by General Rufus Saxton; at Seabrook Island, by General T. J. Stevenson; at St. Helena Island, by Colonel H. R. Guss.
These forces were all under General Gillmore, and participated in the various operations about Charleston Harbor in the summer of 1863, the principal event being the bloody assault on Fort Wagner, July 18, 1863. This assault was made by a column of three brigades,--Strong's, Putnam's, and Stevenson's, the whole under command of General Truman H. Seymour. General Strong's brigade led the assault, with the 54th Massachusetts (Colored) at the head of his column. The attack was a failure, resulting in a loss of 246 killed, 880 wounded, and 389 missing; total, 1,515. The most of the missing were killed or wounded, but few of them ever returning. To this loss should be added 339 casualties, which occurred in an attack on Fort Wagner, July 11th, a week before, an attempt made by three regiments only. Two of the three brigade commanders, General Strong and Colonel Putnam, were killed in the assault of the 18th, Putnam falling after he had effected an entrance into the fort. Stevenson's Brigade was held mainly in reserve.
In February, 1864, Seymour's Division, of about 7,000 men, sailed for Florida, where it was engaged on the 20th in the battle of Olustee, a defeat in which some of the regiments suffered terribly. In April, 1864, the Tenth Corps was ordered to Virginia, where it was placed in General Butler's Army of the James, which was composed of the Tenth and Eighteenth Corps. The Tenth assembled at Yorktown, Va., where it was organized into the three divisions of Terry, Turner, and Ames, numbering, as present for duty, 16,812 infantry, and 1,114 artillerymen, with 46 guns.
The Army of the James landed at Bermuda Hundred, May 6, 1864, and a month of active service and hard fighting immediately commenced, the Tenth Corps losing in its operations around Drewry's Bluff, 374 killed, 2,475 wounded, and 807 missing; total, 3,656. Butler's operations resulting in nothing but failures, General Grant ordered the greater part of his forces to the support of the Army of the Potomac. Accordingly, on the 29th of May, General W. F. Smith, commanding the Eighteenth Corps, took the First (Brooks') and Second (Martin-dale's) Divisions of his own corps, and the Second (Devens') and Third (Ames') Divisions of the Tenth Corps, and proceeded to Cold Harbor, where these divisions cooperated with the Army of the Potomac in the terrible fighting which commenced immediately upon their arrival. While at Cold Harbor, these two divisions of the Tenth Corps were known as part of the Eighteenth Corps, forming the Third Division, under command of General Devens. Upon the close of the fighting at Cold Harbor, the two divisions returned by water transports to Bermuda Hundred, but consolidated as the Second Division, Tenth A. C.
On the 14th of August, the Tenth Corps, under command of General David B. Birney, crossed the James and became engaged with the enemy at Deep Bottom, General Terry's division taking a prominent part in this action. The casualties in the corps were: 213 killed, 1,154 wounded, 311 missing; total, 1,678. On September 29th, Birney crossed again with his corps, and fought at Chaffin's Farm, his command consisting of Terry's and Ames' divisions, together with a brigade of colored troops, under General William Birney. Loss: 74 killed, 587 wounded, 302 missing; total, 963. In the unsuccessful attack on Fort Gilmer, and at New Market Heights, these colored troops displayed great gallantry. General David B. Birney died at Philadelphia, October 18, 1864, and was succeeded by General Terry, who was in command of the corps during the fighting on the Darbytown Road, and at the battle of Fair Oaks, October 27, 1864.
On December 3, 1864, the corps was discontinued, and its regiments were assigned to the newly formed Twenty-fourth Corps, which was composed of the white troops from the Tenth and Eighteenth Corps. But immediately after this transfer, Ames' Division, together with Abbott's Brigade of this new corps, were detached and ordered on the Fort Fisher expedition. After the brilliant capture of Fort Fisher by these troops, they remained in North Carolina, and, in March, 1865, the Tenth Corps was revived. As reorganized, it consisted of Birge's (1st) Division, composed of three brigades taken from Grover's Division of the Nineteenth Corps, then stationed at Savannah; of Ames' (2nd) Division, composed of the troops which fought at Fort Fisher; of Paine's (3d) Division, colored troops; and of Abbott's Separate Brigade, numbering in all 12,099 men. General Terry, who was in command at the victory of Fort Fisher, was placed at the head of the corps. But the war was then near its close, and in August, 1865, the organization was discontinued.
See also
http://www.civilwararchive.com/CORPS/18thcorp.htm, where it is says
18th Corps
Kinston; Whitehall; Goldsboro; Siege Of Washington (N.C.); Siege Of Suffolk; Quaker Bridge; Gum Swamp; Bachelor's Creek; Winton; Port Walthall; Arrow-Field Church; Drewry's Bluff; Bermuda Hundred; Cold Harbor; Assault On Petersburg, June 15th; Mine Explosion; Petersburg Trenches; Chaffin's Farm; Fair Oaks (1864); Fall Of Richmond.
On December 24, 1862, the President ordered that the troops in the Department of North Carolina should be organized into a corps and designated as the Eighteenth. These troops were stationed at Newbern, Plymouth, Beaufort, and vicinity. They included Peck's Division, formerly of the Fourth (Peninsular) Corps; also, some regiments which had fought under Burnside at Roanoke Island and New Berne. There were, also, twelve regiments of nine-months men--six of them from Massachusetts, and six from Pennsylvania--whose terms of enlistment expired in the summer of 1863. Some of these nine-months regiments had fought creditably at Kinston, Whitehall, and Goldsboro, in December, 1862, the same month in which the corps was organized.
In February, 1863, the roster showed five divisions, commanded respectively by Generals Palmer, Naglee, Ferry, Wessells, and Prince, with General J. G. Foster in command of the corps. Ferry's and Naglee's Divisions--containing sixteen regiments--were detached in February, 1863, and ordered to Charleston Harbor, where they were attached to the Tenth Corps, becoming subsequently a part of that organization. In June, 1863, the twelve regiments which had been enrolled for nine months only took their departure, their term of service having expired. In place of these losses the troops of the Seventh Corps were transferred, that organization having been discontinued August 1, 1863. With the Seventh Corps came a valuable accession of veteran material in Getty's Division, formerly of the Ninth Corps. This division had been left in South-eastern Virginia when the Ninth Corps went to the West, and had been engaged, in the spring of 1863, in the defense of Suffolk against Longstreet's besieging Army.
After the withdrawal of the enemy from the vicinity of Suffolk, there were no operations of consequence during the year 1863 in the Department of North Carolina, and the corps was left in quiet possession of the territory. There were, however, occasional reconnaissance's into the enemy's country, and some skirmishing at the outposts.
In April, 1864, the corps was concentrated at Yorktown, preparatory to the spring campaign of the Army of the James. That army was commanded by General Butler, and was composed of the Tenth and Eighteenth Corps. The Eighteenth, as organized for this campaign, contained 15,972 officers and men present for duty, including the artillery, which carried 36 guns. It was commanded by William F. Smith, a Sixth Corps general, who had fought under McClellan, and who, later on, had achieved distinction through his successful plan of the battles of Chattanooga. The corps contained three divisions, commanded by Generals Brooks, Weitzel and Hinks, the division of the latter being composed of colored troops. Butler's Army landed at Bermuda Hundred May 6, 1864,--the same day that Grant was fighting in the Wilderness,--and a series of bloody battles immediately followed, the principal one occurring May 16th, at Drewry's Bluff. The campaign was a short one, resulting in defeat, and Butler withdrew to his original position on the James River, the corps losing in these operations 213 killed, 1,224 wounded and 742 missing; total, 2,179. General Grant then ordered the Eighteenth Corps to reinforce the Army of the Potomac, and on May 27th it moved by transports down the James and up the York River to White House Landing, from whence it marched to Cold Harbor. Hinks' Division was left behind, and in its place, two divisions of the Tenth Corps, under General Devens, temporarily attached to the Eighteenth as a third division, moved with General Smith's command, the three divisions being commanded at Cold Harbor by Generals Brooks, Martindale and Devens. In that battle the Eighteenth Corps made a gallant attack on the enemy's entrenchment's; but, like the various other corps engaged, it was obliged to abandon the assault with heavy loss, its casualties at Cold Harbor amounted to 448 killed, 2,365 wounded, and 206 missing; total, 3,019.
On June 12th, General Smith's command withdrew from Cold Harbor, and, re-embarking, sailed for Bermuda Hundred, arriving there on the 14th. On the following day the Eighteenth Corps advanced to Petersburg and assaulted the works that evening, Hinks' Colored Division gaining a partial success and capturing several pieces of artillery. This was the first time in the war in which colored troops, to the extent of a brigade, were engaged in battle.
After the failure of the assaults on Petersburg the Eighteenth Corps went into position in the trenches, and participated in the siege. It held the extreme right of the line, at which point the contending armies were nearest each other. The proximity of the enemy's pickets and the incessant firing occasioned large losses, daily, in killed and wounded.
On August 26th it was relieved by the Tenth Corps, and ordered within the defenses of Bermuda Hundred. In the latter part of September it was ordered to the north bank of the James, where, on the 29th, the First Division (Stannard's) participated in the brilliant and successful assault on Fort Harrison, at Chaffin's Farm. At this time, General Stannard commanded the First Division, General Brooks having resigned in July; General Paine had succeeded Hinks in command of the colored (Third) division; and while at Chaffin's Farm, General Weitzel, who had been acting as chief of staff to General Butler, succeeded Ord in command of the corps. The Eighteenth, under Weitzel, was also engaged at the battle of Fair Oaks, October 27, 1864, which was fought on the old battle field of 1862.
On December 3, 1864, the corps was ordered discontinued. The white troops of the Tenth and Eighteenth Corps were organized into one corps, designated as the Twenty-fourth; the colored troops belonging to the Tenth and Eighteenth were organized as another, which was designated the Twenty-fifth. The regiments of the Eighteenth were formed into a division of three brigades, which became Devens' (3d) Division of the Twenty-fourth Corps.
As the Eighteenth Corps was to remain in Virginia with the Army, it is difficult to understand what good reason the War Department could have had for thus wiping out the honored name under which the corps had fought so long and well...
In the playtest, if the 50,000-man coastal invasion force signified an extraordinary strategic commitment by the Union AI to coastal ops, then maybe. But if that was just supposed to be an ordinary effort, as part of an overall Union strategy with the major commitments elsewhere, then 50,000 seems excessive.
I don't know how much control you as Union AI coder have over this, but FWIW this is more food for thought.
