Judson Goes Down the River

Judson Cheney
Born: May 11, 1838, Hopkinton, St. Lawrence County, New York
Died: September 29, 1864, Chaffin Farm, Virginia
Relation to Author: 2nd Great Grand Uncle

150 years ago today, Judson Cheney is on the steamer Elm City heading down the Potomac River. They lined up at 8am yesterday in pouring rain. This marks Judson's first entry into the war. Thus far, we have been with him as he enlisted, trained and traveled. Now he is part of the war.

Judson is now part of the massive Army of the Potomac, under the command of General McClellan. This move is the beginning of spring 1862 hostilities - almost one year into the war - and is part of McClellan's peninsula campaign. His goal is to march on to Richmond, Virginia - the Confederate capital - via the peninsula between the James and York rivers.

You might know that Lincoln was not satisfied with McClellan's lack of fight and this plan illustrates the relationship well. McClellan favored capturing cities and locations, and slowly at that. Lincoln, rightly according to historians, believed McClellan needed to defeat the army, not necessarily capture cities. This he could do by simply marching south from Washington (which would still keep him between the enemy army and the federal capital).

McClellan also thought that by going south, he could flank the Confederates and chose the site of the battle - somewhere with less entrenchments. We'll see how that turns out.


View Judson Goes to Virginia in a larger map

For now, just picture Judson - one of over 100,000 troops moving down towards Fort Monroe (only recently established as a national monument by President Obama) on a steamer.

In the afternoon, Judson and the 98th will arrive at Hampton (outside of Fort Monroe) and hike on to Newport News (an 8 mile hike in as many hours as Kreutzer tells it), arriving at 11:00pm. There they will spend the night. 

*In the map, the blue line is Judson's trip in the steamer from Alexandria to Fort Monroe. There is a thin red line showing where they walked to for camp after arriving. The thick red line shows McClellan's plan to march to Richmond.

Sources: 
Notes and Observations Made During Four Years of Service with the 98th NY Volunteers in the War of 1861. Kreutzer, William. Grant, Raires & Rogers, Printers. Philadelphia, 1878.

The Civil War Battlefield Guide. Kennedy, Francis H., Second Edition, 1998, Mariner Books.

Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. McPherson, James. Oxford University Press, 2003