Stephen W. Sears - On Campaign with the Army of the Potomac: The Civil War Journal of Therodore Ayrault Dodge

Cover

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On Campaign with the Army of the Potomac

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Caption (later Colonel) Theodore Ayrault Dodge

Courtesy of the Massachusetts Commandery Military Order of the Loyal Legion and the U.S. Army Military History Institute.

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The Civil War Journal of Theodore Ayrault Dodge

Edited by Stephen W. Sears

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First Cooper Square Press edition 2001

This Cooper Square Press hardcover edition of On Campaign withtheArmy of the Potomac is an original publication, published byarrangementwiththe editor.

Copyright 2001 by Stephen W. Sears

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any formorbyany electronic or mechanical means, including information storageandretrievalsystems,without written permission from the publisher, exceptby areviewer, who may quote passages in a review.

Published by Cooper Square Press

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New York, New York 10011

Distributed by National Book Network

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Dodge, Theodore Ayrault, 18421909.

On campaign with the Army of the Potomac : the Civil War journal of Theodore Ayrault Dodge / edited by Stephen W. Sears.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 0-8154-1030-1 (cloth : alk. paper)

1. Dodge, Theodore Ayrault, 18421909-Diaries. 2. United States.Army. New York Infantry Regiment, 101st (18611862). 3. United States.Army. NewYork Infantry Regiment, 119th (18621865) 4. United States. Army of the Potomac.5. New York (State)-History-Civil War, 18611865-Personal narratives. 6. United States-History-Civil War, 18611865-Personal narratives. 7. New York (State)-History-Civil War, 18611865-Regimental histories. 8. United States-History-Civil War, 18611865-Regimental histories. 9. United States-History-Civil War, 18611865-Campaigns. 10. Soldiers-New York (State)-Diaries. I. Sears, Stephen W. II. Title.

The paper used in this publication meets the minimumrequirements of American National StandardforInformationSciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z.39.48-1992. Manufactured in the United States of America.

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I n 1898, reading over the manuscript volumes of his Civil War journal for the first time in thirty years, Theodore Ayrault Dodge cast his historian's eye on them and was pleased. I took them up last evening, he explained in a letter to his brother, and was very much interested. Theodore Dodge was speaking from a secure place as one of America's leading military historians. On the Civil War he had written two major works, as well as numerous articles, and he lectured frequently on the subject. Furthermore, he was well embarked on an ambitious Great Captains project, with biographies already published on Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar, and Gustavus Adolphus, and with a multivolume life of Napoleon on the horizon. Yet now he took time out to relive the long days and the hot moments of his own fighting career in the great war of 186165.

Back in 1868, Dodge had drafted a sort of private memoir, based on his wartime journal, labeling the manuscript The Camps and Campaigns of Adjutant Arrow. It would never see the light of day, and was later destroyed in a fire. In 1899, a year after rediscovering and reappreciating this record of his Civil War experiences, he wrote a little volume of anecdotes loosely based on the journal, calling it Army and Other Tales and publishing it privately. But Dodge's original journal, one of the best and brightest records we have of life (and death) in the Army of the Potomac, is deserving of a wider audience.

From the Peninsula to Gettysburg, Theodore Dodge journalized (as he put it) with remarkable dedication. He scarcely missed a day. At one point, after a wound and typhoid fever immobilized him, he dictated a careful narrative based on notes he had somehow managed to scribble during his trials. From his perspective as a regimental adjutant, Dodge always seemed to know (and to record with candor) exactly what was going on inside this great army, whether it was in camp or on campaign or in battleand at the same time confessed his