March 23, 1864

 

 

March 23, 1864

---On this date, under orders from Sec. of War Edwin Stanton, Gen Meade is compelled to re-organize the Army of the Potomac.  Parts of the XI Corps and the XII Corps had been sent to Tennessee in October to form the XX Corps, under the command of Joseph Hooker.  What was left is folded into the II, the V, and the VI Corps.  The I and III Corps are disbanded, and their units scattered throughout the army.  The II Corps remains, commanded by Winfield S. Hancock, the V Corps commanded by Gouverneur K. Warren, and the VI still by John Sedgwick.  John Newton, who was commanding the I Corps, is simply dismissed, as is William French, commanding the III Corps.  Gen. Sykes, who commands the V Corps, is also dismissed, and Warren put in his place.  Alfred Pleasonton is relieved of command of the Cavalry Corps, and Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan is put in his place.  These moves raise the ire of supporters of the several dismissed generals, especially the soldiers of the III Corps, who are still fully enthralled in Gen. Daniel Sickles’ personality cult.

---Gen. Grant arrives in Washington from Nashville.

---At a large and noisy political rally at the Cooper Union Institute, Democrats put forth the name of George McClellan for President of the United States.

---George Michael Neese, of Chew’s Battery in the Confederate Army, offers this poetic view of the scene that greeted him after spending a night in a snowfall.

March 23 — It stopped snowing last night, and every speck of cloud drifted away from the azure dome this morning before sunrise. Our common Mother Earth, on whose bosom we slumbered, was calmly reposing this morning under a white crystal counterpane ten inches thick.