Caldwell, John Curtis

Caldwell was born in Lowell , Vermont . In 1855, he graduated from Amherst College and moved to Maine , where he became a senior teacher at the Washington Academy in East Machayas .

When the civil war broke out, Caldwell was 28 years old and had absolutely no military experience. However, on November 12, 1861, he was elected colonel of the 11th Manx Regiment. At the very beginning of the campaign on the peninsula, he received the rank of brigadier general (April 28, 1862) and began to command the 1st brigade of the 1st division of the II Corps of the Potomac Army . This happened after the former brigade commander, Oliver Howard , was wounded in the Battle of Seven Pines . He showed himself well in the Seven-Day Battle , when during the battle of Glendale came to the aid of the division of General Philip Carney.

During the battle of Entityam, his brigade participated in the offensive of the Richardson division in the Confederate position on Sanken Road. It was this brigade that managed to break the enemy’s resistance and practically destroy the center of defense of the North Virginia army , but failed to develop success. When the division commander was wounded, Caldwell temporarily took his place and was himself injured. After the battle, he was condemned for the illiterate management of the brigade in battle, and rumors even circulated that he was hiding in the rear without communication with his regiments.

Before the battle of Fredericksburg , the Caldwell brigade was part of the Hancock division and had the following appearance:

• 5th New Hampshire Infantry Regiment : Regiment. Edward cross
• 7th New York Infantry Regiment : Regiment. George von Schack
• 61st New York Infantry Regiment : Regiment. Nelson miles
• 64th New York Infantry Regiment : Sub. Enos Brooks
• 81st Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment : Regiment. Boyd Mackin
• 145th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment : Regiment. Hiram Brown

Under Fredericksburg, Hancock’s division was thrown into an assault on a stone wall at the foot of the heights of Marie. Caldwell's brigade was advancing in the third line, immediately behind the Mieger Irish brigade.

... the third of Hancock's brigades under the command of Caldwell tried to take control of the stone wall with the help of a flank maneuver. Two regiments from its composition were ordered to turn right and cover Cobb's position from the north. This maneuver, however, led only to unnecessary casualties, and both regiments, approaching the wall by almost 40 yards, were instantly thrown back by enfilade gun fire. Nevertheless, the 23-year-old Colonel Miles, who commanded the flanking group, considered that a bayonet attack with more significant forces in the same direction could still be successful. He turned to the commander of his brigade with a request to allow once again to launch such an attack. Caldwell, however, was prudent enough and rejected the young colonel’s request. ^[1]

In this attack, the team lost 2100 people. Caldwell himself was wounded twice.

In the spring of 1863, the Caldwell brigade, together with the entire Couch corps, participated in the bypass of the left flank of the North Virginia Army, which led to the battle of Chancellorsville . Couch’s corps followed Sykes’s corps. When Sykes confronted the enemy and received an order to retreat, Caldwell's brigade covered up this retreat, and then fought successful defensive battles for two days.

Gettysburg Campaign

May 22, 1863 Caldwell became commander of the 1st Division ^[2] II Corps , which was now commanded by Winfield Hancock. He handed over his brigade to Colonel Edward Cross . During the Gettysburg campaign, his division consisted of four brigades:

• Edward Cross team : 4 regiments
• Patrick Kelly's brigade: 5 regiments
• Samuel Zook Brigade: 3 New York + 1 Pennsylvania Regiment
• John Brook's brigade: 5 regiments

The division approached Gettysburg only in the morning of July 2 and was deployed on the far left flank of II Corps . Between 16:00 and 17:00, Caldwell received orders to send his division to General Sykes and place it between the V and III corps. When Caldwell led the division to the indicated position, he discovered an advancing enemy on his front: these were the brigades of Paul Sems and Joseph Kershaw . Caldwell built two of his brigades in the front and one (Kelly) in reserve and threw the entire division into the offensive, which was the only divisional offensive of the federal army for the entire battle ^[2] . They managed to throw off the Sems brigade and seriously injure Sems himself, managed to push the people of Kershaw and occupy the Rocky Ridge. But at that moment, the southerners of General Wofford broke down the federal defense at the Peach Orchard and put to flight the Barnes Division, which withdrew, revealing the right flank of Caldwell's division. “... appearing on my right flank, I found that my units here were broken and fleeing to the rear in disarray. And as soon as they fled, and while I was able to rebuild the units, a large enemy went to my right flank and almost to the rear and forced me to retreat so as not to be captured, ”Caldwell wrote in the report ^[3] . His division became completely upset and could not be put in order before dark ^[4] .

After the battle, General Sykes accused Caldwell of badly managing the division and Hancock, the former commander of the division, ceased to trust Caldwell. Hancock ordered an investigation into the Whitfield division’s attack, but the outcome of the investigation was favorable to Caldwell. However, Hancock from this time treated the general worse and in March 1864, after the reorganization of the army, Caldwell was out of work. His division came under the command of Francis Barlow .

After the war, Caldwell served as an honorary guard at President Lincoln's funeral. On August 19, 1865, he received the temporary rank of Major General, and on January 15, 1866, he resigned from the US Volunteer Army . He became a lawyer and member of the House of Representatives of Maine. From 1867 to 1869 he served in the Manx militia. In 1869 he went to the diplomatic service and until 1874 served as US Consul in Chile. From 1874 to 1882 he served in the embassy in Uruguay and Paraguay, from 1897 to 1909 in the embassy in Costa Rica.

Caldwell died in Calis , Maine, and was buried in the St. Stephen Cemetery in the Canadian town of St. Stephen .

• Pfanz, Harry. Gettysburg, The second day. - Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1987 .-- 601 p. - ISBN 080781749x .
• Tagg, Larry. The Generals of Gettysburg. - Campbell, CA: Savas Publishing, 1998 .-- 384 p. - ISBN 1-882810-30-9 .

• BRIGADIER GENERAL JOHN C. CALDWELL
• Caldwell Entity Report
• Gettysburg Report by Caldwell
• A General Without His Due: John Curtis Caldwell, Brevet Major General USV By Patricia Caldwell
• Monument to the Caldwell Division near Gettysburg
• Martha Caldwell (Wife of Union General John Curtis Caldwell)
• Caldwell attack on Whitfield, map.