[Johann Heinrich August] Heros von Borcke. Memoirs of the Confederate War for Independence. 2 vol., Blackwood, 1866; Google Books, 2006.
I came across the name of Heros von Borcke, as he was known in America, in Gettysburg, the novel I recently reviewed. It turned out he wrote a memoir which is a very useful primary source for the story of the cavalry of the Army of Northern Virginia during the American Civil War. He was a Prussian officer who immigrated to North America to join the war in 1862. Unlike the English memoirist Fremantle, he was not a mere observer. He joined the Confederate Army to fight in J.E.B. Stuart’s cavalry and became his adjutant.
Perhaps the most striking thing about Memoirs of the Confederate War for Independence compared to most accounts of the Civil War is that the cavalry was busy almost every day during “the time when kings go out to battle” (II Samuel 11:1), i.e., when it was not winter weather. Most histories as well as fictional accounts like those of Shaara, Reasoner, or Bacon, focus on the main battles fought by infantry and artillery. Meanwhile, the cavalry is tracking the enemy, trying to disrupt movements, or scouting. In each of those cases, they frequently have clashes or skirmishes. As a result, there is lots of action in this memoir.
There are four Confederate military leaders Borcke especially admires: Longstreet, Jackson, Lee, and Stuart. He noted that Lee called Longstreet his “war-horse.”
Longstreet’s soldiers were perfectly devoted to him, and I have frequently heard friendly contentions between officers and men of his corps, and those of Stonewall Jackson’s, as to which of the two was the most meritorious and valuable officer. (1.32-33)
He credits Jackson, as do many historians, for his effective use of artillery. More than nearly anyone at the time, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson understood the strategy of modern artillery. Like so many other weapon systems, artillery had undergone some great technological changes since the Napoleonic wars half a century before, the last time there was a major war in the West. After the Battle of Malvern Hill, the last of the Seven Days Battles in July 1862, Von Borcke would write:
The effect was more disastrous than had been before produced by artillery. In this battle our losses were very heavy, and I may say that the victory was ours only from the ignorance of our position on the part of the enemy, who retreated exactly when he had gained the most important success. (1.71)
Indeed, most histories call the campaign a Union victory; however, McClellan withdrew his forces, so the South considered it a victory as well. Von Borcke notes the reason why. We know also from history that McClellan consistently overestimated the Confederate strength and acted very cautiously. It seems that Jackson and the Confederates would learn more from this experience, whether it was a victory or not.
As is well known, Von Borcke tells us that Jackson was badly injured at Chancellorsville by friendly fire and died of pneumonia, probably exacerbated by the injury and subsequent amputation of an arm. However, he adds an interesting detail. Jackson also observed some idiosyncratic beliefs about health and hygiene. He often rode with one hand raised because he said it helped his circulation (though some said he was praying). He also had a habit of sucking lemons. In addition, Von Borcke tells us that Jackson believed that resting and sleeping under wet blankets would help him recover. However, Jackson’s doctor admitted that such a chill added to the pneumonia and “aggravated its severity” so that it “became fatal” (2.259n).
While Von Borcke does offer a few criticisms of Lee in certain situations, overall he gives Lee much credit for understanding strategies and using his forces effectively. Even when he had to withdraw, as after Antietam, he gives Lee credit for making the right move. Von Borcke took the position, as some even do today, that in spite of what Northern newspapers reported, that Antietam was a rebel victory.
He especially praised Lee for understanding and taking the good ground before fighting. He believed that made all the difference, especially at the First Battle of Bull Run. Ironically, when Lee did not take the high position at Gettysburg, it resulted in probably his most ignominious defeat. Von Borcke would not himself be present at Gettysburg. He was badly wounded at Middleburg two weeks before, and many thought he would not survive. Though he would attempt to rejoin the army in 1864, Middleburg did put an end to his active participation in fighting in the war.
We read also about Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Brandy Station. Brandy Station is still “the greatest cavalry battle every fought on the American continent” (2.279).
He notes that nearly all the residents of Virginia supported the rebel cause. He appreciated the support the people there gave the army. Many times he tells of being hosted for meals and even parties by locals. If Von Borcke is to be believed, we understand that all the young women of Virginia were attractive without exception, and nearly all its citizens were hospitable.
One incident makes it clear that Von Borcke did not understand the effect slavery had on its victims. As an officer, he was given a slave as a kind of orderly. At one point, the major gave his slave permission to do some personal errands, and thw slave never returned. Von Borcke claims it reflected his slave’s “treachery and ingratitude,” never considering what it would be like to live under the constraints of chattel slavery for life.
He does have a certain self-deprecating humor. Through much of his experience, he was trying to learn the English language. At one point he was trying express his complimentary view of Jackson’s military intelligence. He meant to say that Jackson’s observations warmed his heart, but said “It gave me heartburn to hear Jackson talk” (2.37). Naturally, this received a lot of laughs from his listeners, but he seems to have taken it in good humor.
Some of his other observations make the reader chuckle. He describes “egg-nogg” as a popular holiday drink.
It is very agreeable to the taste, and has the dangerous property of concealing its strength under the guise of an innocent softness of savor, thus exerting its intoxicating influence on the inexperienced before the least suspicion is aroused. (2.159n)
He notes, as many observers have, that the Confederate soldiers were not especially well equipped. Many had no shoes, and their clothing was often not much more than rags. Von Borcke observed that even his own uniform had “large holes for ventilation” and his “riding-boots were soleless” (2.67). Food was often a problem. On a number of occasions the cavalry would be the corps that provided sustenance when they would capture a lightly protected Union supply train. This reader lost track of the number of horses the narrator went through in his two years on the march. Once he had to resort to riding a mule.
Von Borcke also commends Lee for the way he fought at Fredericksburg, another example of Lee understanding the better ground for battle. When some criticized Lee for not following up after the victory there, Von Borcke defends him by saying that the Union could easily recruit more “Germans and Irishmen” to replace 20,000 or 30,000 casualties. In contrast, “how valuable each individual life in that army [Lee’s army] must have been considered,” so Lee took more care (2.132).
Von Borcke does admit that Stuart took more risks than he would have, but commends his bravery and intelligence, especially at Brandy Station. Indeed, he frequently uses the words gallant and heroic to describe many of the Confederate soldiers. On a few occasions he even uses the terms to describe Union fighters, though he is skeptical that any of the top Union generals were really doing a good job. Of course, he never personally encountered Meade or Grant, though he recognizes how someone could effectively defeat the Army of Northern Virginia. He in fact is describing what Grant actually would do.
Although he saw little action himself after his incapacitating injury, he would continue as best he could serve as an aide to Stuart. He records Stuart’s last words as he was with him after he received his mortal wound at Yellow Tavern. He did not remain in North America until the bitter end.
Anyone who reads this will understand that virtually anyone writing about the Civil War including those mentioned at the beginning would use this as a valuable first-person primary source for the fighting in Virginia.
Of the four generals whom Von Borcke observed the most, three have traditionally been held in high esteem as leaders by anyone studying military history. That is not the case with Longstreet. While Von Borcke may have respected him more than any of the other three, that esteem did not carry over. I suspect that is because of the so-called Lost Cause, which became a standard interpretation of the Civil War for a century or more—think Gone with the Wind or even Forrest Gump.
Of course, Stuart and Jackson died in the war, so no one knows how they would have responded to the ultimate surrender of the South. Longstreet simply acknowledged that the South had tried and lost and accepted the outcome. He would actually serve President Grant as an ambassador. He also staunchly supported the rights of free blacks. To the Lost Cause types that meant going over to the “enemy.” I am reminded of what Tony Horwitz wrote in Confederates in the Attic about the Sons of the Confederacy:
I began to hear echoes of defeated peoples I’d encountered overseas: Kurds, Armenians, Palestinians, Catholics in Northern Ireland. Like them, Southerners had kept fighting the war by other means. (Horwitz 38)
Perhaps it was even from Von Borcke’s influence that books like The Killer Angels and Gods and Generals began to put Longstreet in a more favorable light.1 At any rate, Memoirs of the Confederate War for Independence still is a significant primary source.
1 To show how things have changed, in 1994 The Longstreet Society was formed in Georgia to study and recognize the General. That would not have happened a hundred years ago.