Perilous escape of ‘wagon train of woe’

The chaos of the three-day battle at Gettysburg had hardly abated when Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee confronted one of the greatest challenges of the war.

The tactical situation was lost after Pickett’s Charge, to be sure, but now Lee had nearly 13,000 wounded soldiers, thousands of wagons laden with Pennsylvania food and forage, hundreds of scattered and disorganized units, thousands of Union prisoners, and a very tenuous 40-mile line of retreat through enemy territory.

It was a potential disaster in human suffering that could destroy the Army of Northern Virginia.

In this period of uncertainty, while news of the great battle was still filtering out to the rest of the world, Lee turned to a little-known figure, Gen. John D. Imboden, to tackle the problem.

Meeting with Lee

Imboden was a controversial leader of irregular cavalry (“raiders”) with a successful service record but a reputation for self-aggrandizement and lack of discipline.

Lee’s regular cavalry under J.E.B. Stuart had sorely let him down at Gettysburg, arriving late and failing to provide any worthwhile intelligence about the enemy’s movements. Rather than Stuart, Lee summoned Imboden from Chambersburg, Pa., on the evening of July 3 to take charge of the wagon train, prisoners, and a secret packet for Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

Imboden found Lee shortly before midnight consulting with corps commander Gen. A.P. Hill and was sent back to Lee’s tent to wait for him. When Lee returned around 1 a.m., Imboden found him unusually pensive, and exhausted.

“Fixing his eyes upon the ground [he] leaned in silence and almost emotionless upon his equally weary horse,” Imboden recalled. The image of his troubled commander in chief moved him deeply.

Once they were inside Lee’s tent, both sat down, and Lee gave Imboden detailed verbal instructions. He was to take his 2,100-man brigade and, supplemented by artillery, proceed southward with the entire train to Williamsport, Md. After crossing the Potomac, the column would continue to Winchester, Va.

Personal orders

Lee had a mixed relationship with Imboden, praising his successes but often criticizing him for being tardy or letting his men get out of control.

At the start of the Pennsylvania campaign, he had been pleased with Imboden’s destruction of the B&O Railroad, but more recently, he had been irritated with a careless defeat Imboden had suffered at the hands of inferior local Union forces.

Lee relied on Imboden specifically for situations like this and kept him under personal orders rather than placing him under Stuart’s command.

Later that morning, Imboden received a written copy of Lee’s orders. Lee again advised the junior officer as a father would an overly reckless son: “I need not caution you as to preserving quiet and order in your train, secrecy of your movements, promptness and energy, and increasing vigilance on the part of yourself and officers.”

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