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PART I
Who: The selected
Lowest Maneuver Element (LME) for this essay is the 3rd brigade of the BG George Custer’s cavalry for MG Philip Sheridan’s
Union cavalry, under the command of Colonel Henry Capehart, during the Sailor’s
Creek Battle at Virginia. Henry Capehart was initially the chief surgeon of
the 1st Regiment of the West Virginia Cavalry. He was very
much familiar with the entire territory and was very remarkable in terms
of offering valuable strategic fighting ideas to General Henry Eugene Davies.
Davies was much impressed by the strategic sharpness of Capehart and thus when
Colonel Richmond got injured, Davies replaced Richmond with Capehart and made
him the new commander of1st West Virginia Cavalry on 23rd December
of 1863.
Later, in September 1864, Henry Capehart
became the commander of the 3rd Brigade of Custer's cavalry
division and became an integral part of the Sailor’s Creek battle.
What: Under the
strategic warfare of Colonel Henry Capehart, the 3rd brigade
of Custer’s cavalry under the
Sheridan’s Union cavalry, attained victory over the army of Gen. Robert E. Lee
of the Confederate States. It was a remarkable victory towards the end of the
American civil war that strengthened the power of the Union and offered a great
setback to the Confederate States. This battle has been considered as the last
most remarkable battle, fought between the Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army for the
Confederate States, and Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant for United States Union.
Where: The Sailor’s
Creek Battle was fought near Farmville, in the state of Virginia. It was a part
of the Appomattox Campaign, which was from March to April of 1865.
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When: The Sailor’s Creek
Battle was fought on the 6th of April of the year 1865. The
battle took place during the final days of the American Civil War.
Why: The primary
doctrinal factor that led to the success of the selected LME - 3rd brigade led
by Colonel Henry Capehart, is the ‘fundamentals of reconnaissance’. Fundamentals
of reconnaissance are the leadership trait of implementing strategic
fighting tactics that comprise of (U.S. Army. 2019) –
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Assurance towards continuous reconnaissance (scouting),
·
Not keeping the assets of reconnaissance in reserve,
·
Orienting over the objective of the reconnaissance,
·
Reporting all kinds of information rapidly and accurately,
·
Retaining absolute freedom of the manoeuvre,
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Attainment as well as maintaining threat-related contact, and
·
Developing determined situations for success.
Along with that, there was the primary
characteristic of delivering offence by using audacity as well as tempo in
Capehart, which brought success to his brigade at the Sailor’s Creek battle.
PART II
The history of warfare and the
contributions of military strategies comprise various operational and tactical
approaches that are still very effective. In the battle of Sailor’s Creek,
the application of fundamentals of reconnaissance in the operational and
tactical lead of Col. Capehart brings in an innovative way of handling battles.
The major role placed by the strategic setting and implementation of
fundamentals of reconnaissance, along with offensive attack; by Col. Capehart,
added a novel dimension to this doctrine. Hence, this approach has been
analysed in this essay for gaining better usability of this doctrine in today’s
doctrine of war.
To offer a persuasive argument in terms of
analyzing the application of current US military doctrine for MCCC, about the
historic battle; this essay considers the Sailor’s Creek Battle of 6th April
of the year 1865. The core approach lies in critically evaluating and
understanding the strategic approach of the lowest manoeuvre unit (LMU), headed
by Colonel Henry Capehart, in this war. The tactics and the strategic lead of
Col. Capehart brought the victory over GEN Robert E. Lee’s army and was
recognized as a remarkable victorious milestone in the American Civil War. The
valorous lead of LMU by Col. Capehart offers an important lesson for generating
successful warfare for the leaders of manoeuvres and hence is the objective of
this essay.
In this essay, the operational, tactical
and historical conditions of the Sailor's Creek battle will be analyzed to gain
insight into the frontline lead of Col Capehart.
As a leader, Col.
Capehart was capable of generating extensive audacity,
along with tempo among his army men. His valorous attitude gets well justified
by his warfare tactics that leads to the assured amount of victory in almost
all cases. The key to the success of Col. Capehart
is his strategic implementation of reconnaissance fundamentals, particularly in
terms of attaining success with adequate hold over the operational approach of
the battle.
In the case of Sailor’s
Creek, Col. Capehart
utilized the process of understanding the operational functionalities of the
battle and the cavalry brigade was commanded to contact the Confederate army
and thereby develop the possibilities of vulnerable points to strike through
the Confederate line (Rhodes, 1900). At the same time, Col. Capehart was also very keen in terms of
retaining the freedom of manoeuvre, as a
part of the retreat in case the situation backfires.
As Col. Capehart gets the news that near Deatonville, the army of Lee is retreating and
taking the westward way to reach Farmville, he decided to gain the strategic
operation offensive attack on this troop. Col. Capehart took the lead in breaking through
the enemy’s line with a huge offensive
charge. Capehart's men were all armed with used drawn sabres, Spencer carbines,
and revolvers over the lines of Confederate infantry. The Capehart’s army
strategically managed to surround a huge part of Ewell's army which made them
nervous and demoralized them to fight back. As a result, the enemies were in
great confusion and there was no scope to retreat. Many eventually got arrested
and many surrendered, making Capehart capture more than 20% of the army of Gen.
Lee. Col. Capehart operated
this mission by capitalizing on the maximum
amount of audacity as well as the valorous tempo of his regiment and eventually
benefited to use of mobile firepower, which is only to be used by the horse
cavalry. The 3rd under the command of Col. Capehart destroyed the entire line of the
Confederate.
The operations set that
prevailed here is the use of horse cavalry against the infantries of Anderson
and Ewell. Col. Capehart
was well calculative enough in understanding the fact that in any operation the
horse cavalry with the faster mode of tempo can get hold over the infantry of
any size. As a result of the offensive attack by the cavalry of Col. Capehart both Anderson and Ewell were at a loss and
never attained adequate time to make adjustments with their lines. With
extensive mobility and a faster pace than the infantry, Col. Capehart was successful in restricting Anderson and
Ewell from taking any defence over the offensive attack of his regiment. As a
result of this operational setting, Col. Capehart was successful in capturing 1000s of soldiers
and an obvious victory over Lee’s army.
The excellence of Col.
Capehart in terms of understanding the collection method of the enemy forces,
made him one of the most eminent tactical leaders of warfare. Col. Capehart has
the capability of recognizing the ‘in the line’ structure of the enemy’s force.
As he realized the ‘in the line’ structure of Lee’s army, Col. Capehart
immediately lined up in a parallel structure to the northeastern edge of
Anderson’s regiment. After settling the northeastern edge, Col. Capehart
commanded his regiment to create a very tactical formation that can lead to his
most drastic mode of offensive attack over the army of Gen. Lee.
Under the command of Col.
Capehart, two regiments were created up-online, whereby they could span a huge
area of the Sailor’s Creek battlefield. They were all in horse cavalry with
Spencer carbines in their hands. Further, under the strategic tactical plan of
Col. Capehart, a third regiment was ordered to create a line up towards the
right side of the squadron columns to reinforce the right side of Col.
Capehart’s regiment. The purpose is this setting is to attain freedom of manoeuvre.
It aimed to connect the gap between the left flank of Anderson with the right
flank of Ewell. Col. Capehart knew that if he decides not to reinforce his
right flank, then the Confederate enemy will have the power to defeat his regiment.
It is the most sorted kind of approach that Col. Capehart was successful in
comprehending. The right flank of Ewell was also subject to meeting the gap as
the brigade of West Virginia rides through respective lines and thereby attempts
to counterattack Col. Capehart’s rear. This Capehart formed his tactical
setting from two specified angles (Schmiel, 2014). This entire tactical setting
at Sailor’s Creek was based on Col. Capehart’s fundamentals of reconnaissance
that get further enhanced by his approach to the offensive attack. The approach
is very furious and there is no way that the enemy could escape.
Though the state of Virginia was separated
from the United States Union and was made a part of the Confederate States of
America, many citizens were not in favour of this decision. Many people who
were from the northwestern region of the state of Virginia decided to remain in
association with the United States and were highly acclaimed for their loyalty
towards the union of the United States. This loyal group of citizens from the
state of Virginia formed the very first cavalry regiment and was named as 1st Regiment
of the West Virginia Cavalry. Henry Capehart was the first chief surgeon of
this regiment, who later became the commander and then the general of the
regiment. It was under the leadership of Col. Capehart that the crucial victory
over Gen. Lee’s army of the Confederate Union was attained at Sailor Creeks.
On the 2nd and 3rd of
April of 1865, the army of Gen. Robert E. Lee, which was deputed to Northern
Virginia led the process of evacuating Petersburg as well as Richmond. The army
started retreating to get connected with the army of Gen. Joseph Johnston,
situated in North Carolina. In the process, on the 3rd and the
5th of April, the Union Army engaged the army of the
Confederates at the Namozine Church battle and Amelia Springs battle,
respectively. It was during this session that Gen. Lee realized that hid
Danville route has been blocked by Maj. Gen. Sheridan of the Union cavalry.
Thus, Gen. Lee decided to take the long route through the West. In the process,
the army faced a scarcity of food ((Alger, 1985). However, the Commissary
General of the Confederate assured Gen. Lee that he will make arrangements for
80,000 rations at Farmville, which was 25 miles towards the west. Gen. Lee
followed the path and on the 6th of April, in the rainy
morning, the battle fire declared about the pursuit of the Union Second Corps
led by Gen. Andrew Humphrey and it is here that the cavalry of Gen. Sheridan
cut off almost 1/4th of the retreating army of the Confederate.
It is at this particular junction that in
one of the three engagements, at the Sailor’s Creek battle Col. Capehart
defeated the army of Lee and made it a big victory for the Union cavalry. The
loss of Confederate was so heavy that the day was tagged as “Black Thursday”
and Gen. Lee reported to Jefferson Davis, the President - “a few more
Sailor’s Creeks and it will all be over.” According to the Federals,
these encounters comprised 7,700 war prisoners, along with 6 generals.
The role of Col Capehart in the encounter
of Sailor’s Creek was a major warfare strategy that brings in great lessons for
the leaders of LMEs, even in modern warfare. Detailed analysis of the
strategic pursuit of Col. Capehart in this battle follows hereafter. The
objective of the analysis is to understand its significance concerning the current
doctrine of warfare, especially for the MCCC.
Battle Analysis Concerning Today's Doctrine
The objectives of the Maneuver
Captains Career Course (MCCC), as a part of the United States Army Training and
Doctrine Command; is to handle field manuals for operation-based graphics and
terms; organize brigade combat team (BCT); generate tactics for both offensive
& defensive circumstances; attain stability in the operations; and manoeuvre
companies as well as battalions (U.S. Army, 2018). In leading these objectives,
the MCCC has been structured in terms of maintaining the doctrine of ‘fundamentals
of reconnaissance’ as it was implied by Colonel
Henry Capehart, during the Sailor Creek battle. The current doctrine of ‘fundamentals of reconnaissance’ for
MCCC holds -
‘As we train to defeat
future threats and attempt to predict the modern complex operating environment,
the fundamentals of reconnaissance and security will remain the base of our
training and execution of combined arms manoeuvre and wide area
security.’ (U.S. Army, 2019)
Keeping in consideration in-depth
knowledge about ‘fundamentals of reconnaissance’, it is very necessary
to understand its strategic way as was adopted by Colonel
Henry Capehart for gaining success for his
3rd brigade, during the Sailor Creek battle. From the perspective of knowing the
power of ‘fundamentals of
reconnaissance’ by the LMU, this essay remains focused on
analyzing the lead of Colonel Henry Capehart and gaining insight into war
tactics in the best possible manner.
Assurance
towards continuous reconnaissance (scouting)
Col. Capehart was much
assured of implementing continuous reconnaissance as he decides to use the
rolling terrain to the best of its advantage. Col. Capehart implied the used
the inter-visibility lines of the rolling terrain to cover the approach of his
regiment, with a maximum range of the Spencer carbines of the soldiers. Even
during the offensive attack and after the completion of it, the reconnaissance
continued.
This strategic approach
has been adopted by the MCCC as the students are made to navigate 15 kms of
land areas for 7 hours with under load and cross-country margins in daylight
and even under the conditions of limited visibility (U.S.
Army. 2018a). It is here that the students are
introduced to the fundamentals of reconnaissance to develop their capability to
get equipped with the inventory of the Army. It is established hereby that it
is the responsibility of the commander to conduct reconnaissance at every
possible phase of the operations - before the operation, during the operation,
and even after the operation.
Not
keeping the assets of reconnaissance in reserve
As Col. Capehart
reconnoitred the hill that separated his troop from the troop of Anderson, he
left no assets of reconnaissance in the reserve’s corps. He attained all the
data by reaching the hilltop and surveying the enemy position from the battle
flags of the Confederate. In doing so, Col. Capehart placed the act of
capitalizing the speed of his horse cavalry in a selection of drawn sabres,
Colt revolvers or carbines, which could smash through the structured defensive
lines of infantry of the Confederate.
In the case of MCCC, the
reconnaissance assets, such as artillery assets, are never considered to be
kept in reserve and all the assets are utilized to meet the mission target. It
is the responsibility of the commander to imply his reconnaissance assets as
per the capabilities and demands of the situation. Thus the knowledge of
critical information requirements (CCIR) is mandatory (GlobalSecurity,
2020).
Orienting
over the objective of the reconnaissance
While orienting over the
objective of the reconnaissance, Col. Capehart was quick in realizing the time
needed for reloading rifles by the Confederates. It was his sharp observation that
assisted him in charging the enemy when they were at the lost end of reloading
their rifles. This strategic insight is an integral way of implementing
transition while adapting the reconnaissance fundamentals, and is effective
even in current military doctrine. In the current scenario the commanders are
trained to achieve their war objectives, irrespective of counter-attacks and as
time management and limitations of respective unit capabilities come under the
shadow of the enemy, the unit is taught to utilize selected reconnaissance
objectives to handle the reconnaissance effort (GlobalSecurity, 2020).
Reporting
all kinds of information in a rapid and accurate manner
In the case of the
Confederates, particularly the army of Gen. Lee, Col.
Capehart implied his operational tactics to grasp the opposition with the offensive
attack. This approach is noted as MCCC are trained to reconnaissance reports as
‘they see’ as well as ‘whatever they do not see’ (GlobalSecurity, 2020). They are taught that seemingly
unimportant data or information can also be extremely relevant as it gets added
to other information. Even negative reports are relevant to understand the
activity of the enemy. The purpose is to collect all kinds of information and
be able to manage the collected information to gain accurate knowledge about
the capabilities and the strategies of the enemy at the front.
Retaining
absolute freedom of the manoeuvre
Col. Capehart realized
that the terrain of the Sailor’s Creek battlefield is manoeuvred off the road
towards the northwest to meet the gap with Confederate lines. Thus, in the
process of planning the offensive attack strategy, Col Capehart also reinforced
the scope for the retreat of his manoeuvre to the initial Union lines, in case
the situation arises. This strategy is even effective in the current military
approaches as the standing operating procedures (SOP) are initiated with
knowledge of the respective terrain for gaining grounds for freedom of movement
of the manoeuvre (GlobalSecurity, 2020). The purpose of any
strategic warfare also must remain well backed up with the plan to offer
adequate freedom to the manoeuvre, if there is a risk to life. Safeguarding the
life of the individual soldier is also an integral part of strategic war
doctrine.
Attainment
as well as maintaining threat-related contact
The leadership qualities of Colonel Henry
Capehart were idealistically predominant based on attaining and further
maintaining threat-related contact. In most
of his strategic approaches, Col. Capehart was very particular
about collecting all kinds of information that can generate the vulnerable gap in the opposite army. In today’s
doctrine the use of surveillance, along with stealth, gets considered for the
attainment of sufficient information to maintain any kind of threat-related
contact with the enemy (GlobalSecurity, 2020). The collected contacts
must be so synchronized that the army can attain every possible information
related to the risks and the threats that the enemy beholds to apply.
Developing
a determined situation for success
The creation of a determined situation for
the attainment of success is the key to winning a battle. In the strategic
doctrine of Col. Capehart at the Sailor’s Creek, there was no scope for the
troops of Anderson and Ewell to
escape as the Capehart regiment offers a quick offensive attack. It is from the
strategic collection of information that Capehart analyzed the obstacles that
Lee's army has created for the Union in the past. From these obstacles,
Capehart commanded to attack the enemy infantry with his horse cavalry.
Even in modern warfare, the skill to outperform the enemy's strategies, forces
and weapon capabilities, is the key to determining the application of
reconnaissance assets to gain decisive success (GlobalSecurity, 2020).
Eventually, it can be stated that at
Sailor’s Creek battle, the responsibility on Col. Capehart was
manifold, as he was an essential part of thwarting Lee’s army of the
Confederates at Sailor’s Creek. For this purpose, Col. Capehart was much
involved in implementing the ‘fundamentals of reconnaissance’ in
his warfare strategies. Though the follow-up of ‘fundamentals of
reconnaissance’ was an integral part of warfare, the specialization
of Col. Capehart was very much noteworthy as he was very efficient in
amalgamating the ‘fundamentals of reconnaissance’ with the offensive attack.
Thus from this historical
battle and the innovative doctrine of Col. Capehart of adding ‘fundamentals
of reconnaissance’ with the offensive
attack, it appears very effective in generating success for today’s warfare
doctrine.
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