Originally aired on February 03, 1995 - In part 23 of our Civil War series, Virginia Tech history professor James Robertson discusses how geography played a crucial role in the way the war unfolded.
#23 Geography
Geography is one of those fields of learning that has slipped in importance in the modern age of education. Yet a war cannot be fully explained without an understanding of “the lay of the land”. Certainly why the Civil War unfolded in Virginia as it did is attributable almost entirely to the state’s geographical features.
In 1861 the sheer size of the Southern nation was one of its major assets. The Confederacy encompassed 750,000 square miles, making it twice as large as the original thirteen colonies. In Virginia, the apex of the Confederate States, other factors of terrain gave additional strength.
The Appalachian Mountains divided east from west and contained few passes. They were a formidable barrier that would resist penetration on a larger scale until William T. Sherman’s 1864 invasion of Georgia. The Shenandoah Valley of Virginia formed a natural avenue of invasion for both sides, but more so to the Confederates. The Valley climbed toward the southwest, away from Richmond and the main battle theatre in Virginia. For the Southern armies, on the other hand, the Shenandoah pointed northeastward like a spear into the heart of the North.
Incidentally, the Valley loses altitude as one goes north. This makes for a reversal of usual terminology. One goes north down the Valley to Winchester and south up the Valley to Lexington.
Much of Virginia was heavily wooded at the time of the war – a factor that afforded good cover for armies on the defensive as the Confederate forces usually were. In the north-central part of the state, where most of the fighting took place, other geographical features became of paramount value. The two opposing capitals, Washington and Richmond, were only 110 miles apart. That four-day march was fatally deceiving for Union armies.
Between the capitals were six rivers – all running west to east in the Federals’ southern live of advance. Such waterways as the Rappahannock and the Rapidan became major lines of Confederate defense. If shore guns could keep Union warships out of those rivers, and with the Blue Ridge Mountains looming solidly to the west, any invading Federal army had to advance through a piedmont corridor only 100 miles wide.
That left precious little space for maneuvering. Therefore, as longs as the opposing armies bore any relation to each other in size, the Union battle-cry of “On to Richmond!” would be like a siren’s song, enticing Federal soldiers onto a giant killing ground.
Another thing to bear in mind about Virginia’s rivers in the Civil War: every component of an advancing army had to cross a stream, or no part of the force waded to the other bank. We visualize a moving army as a long column of foot soldiers snaking along a road. It was not that simple. Armies contained supply wagons, artillery, ammunition, tons of supplies; and unless all of it could get over a river, none of it went. When the Union Army of the Potomac had 100,000 men, it also had 2,500 wagons, 300 cannon, 35,000 animals, and supplies which were being consumed at 600 tons per day. The fords of a river played an indispensable part indeed in that army’s battle maneuvers.
The South’s poor roads actually became a military asset for the Confederacy. Most of those avenues were little more than dirt tracks without ditches or anything else to prevent them from becoming impassable in wet weather. Wagons and artillery often sank to their axles, especially in Virginia, where the red clay soil formed a mud with the characteristics of quicksand.
Civil War literature is full of mud stories. A Union officer on the Virginia peninsula in 1862 swore that he saw an army mule sink out of sight except for its ears – although the officer did admit that “it was a small mule”.
