America at War: Concise Histories of U.S. Military Conflicts From Lexingtonto Afghanistan

by Terence T. Finn

  Because of Gettysburg, George Meade’s place in American history is secure. Yet in his day, he did not gain the fame his success in that battle warranted. One reason was Lincoln’s dissatisfaction. Another was that he soon became overshadowed by another general. But the principal reason was newspaper reporters. According to historian Brian Holden Reid, General Meade, in 1864, had humiliated a reporter who had written an insulting article about him. The press retaliated by no longer mentioning Meade when writing about the war. As a result he all but disappeared from public view. Perhaps Meade did not care. He had accomplished something significant: he had beaten Robert E. Lee in battle, winning a victory of immense importance. And he had done so while in command of the Army of the Potomac for but three days, having relieved Hooker on June 28,1863. His was an outstanding performance.

  By the time of the great battle, the need for more men to serve in the Union army was clear. The thousands who had volunteered at the outbreak of hostilities were an insufficient number. As a result, Congress had enacted a law drafting men into the army. As it was possible to avoid military service by paying a fee of $300, the law fell heavily on the urban poor, whose support of the war was often tenuous. Why? Because they saw freed slaves as cheap labor that would come north and take their jobs. Moreover, racism was not limited to the South. Not everyone north of the Mason-Dixon Line was an abolitionist. The result in New York City was an outbreak of violence. For five days mobs rampaged through the streets. Buildings were set on fire and people killed. Eighteen African-Americans were hanged. Order was restored only with the arrival of federal troops, some of which came from Gettysburg.

  Though Lincoln did not fire Meade as he had McClellan and the others, the president was looking for a general who understood the necessity of ruthlessly destroying the enemy’s war machine. He wanted an aggressive general. He wanted a man who would seek out and crush the Confederate armies wherever they were.

  Out west there was such a general. Lincoln brought him to Washington and placed him in charge of the entire Union army. The general’s name was Ulysses S. Grant.

  To reinforce Grant’s authority, President Lincoln, with the approval of Congress, conferred on him the rank of lieutenant general. Up to then only two men in the United States had held this three-star rank. One was George Washington. The other was Winfield Scott, the hero of the war with Mexico, although his was of an honorary nature. During the American Civil War generals in command of an army or of its principal subdivision, a corps, were major generals, a two-star rank. As a lieutenant general, Grant outranked them all.

  In addition to three stars, Lincoln enhanced Grant’s authority by appointing him general in command. At the war’s beginning the most senior position in the Union army had been held by Winfield Scott. By 1860 Scott was past his prime, though he did propose to Lincoln the sensible strategy of strangling the South by a naval blockade in the East and by taking control of the Mississippi River in the West. For a short period of time George B. McClellan was general in chief, having replaced the ailing Scott in October 1861. This didn’t work out, so the president appointed Major General Henry Halleck to the position. Halleck was Scott’s choice for the job, which entailed providing Lincoln with military advice. Halleck, one of the few intellectuals in the army, was considered by many to be an ideal choice. Yet “Old Brains,” as he was called, failed miserably in the job. His critics, and they came to be many, considered him a highly paid clerk. When Grant took over, things would be different.

  Ulysses Simpson Grant was thirty-nine years of age when he rejoined the army in June 1861. A graduate of West Point and a veteran of the Mexican War, he’d left the service in 1854 to pursue several business ventures. These did not turn out well; nor did the New York investment banking company he established after he left the White House. Historians, of course, judge his two terms as president (1869–1877) a failure. Clearly, Grant was a man neither of business nor of politics. But he was a man of war. In all of American history, no general stands taller.

  Grant’s first action against Confederate troops, at Belmont in eastern Missouri, was less than fully successful. He and his troops did better early in 1862 when, with the assistance of navy gunboats, he took control of two key Confederate forts in Tennessee. The second, Fort Donelson, was the more important. In seizing it he captured a strategic position. He also took possession of fifteen thousand Confederate prisoners and a huge supply of enemy stores. Given that Union victories early in the war were infrequent, the capture of Fort Donelson pleased Lincoln greatly. For his efforts Grant was promoted to major general.

  With the fall of Fort Donelson, the senior Confederate general in the area, Albert Sidney Johnston, retired south to the town of Corinth in Mississippi, just below the state’s boundary with Tennessee. He had forty-five thousand men. They were well equipped and ready to fight. Grant, with slightly fewer troops, had pursued him, moving down the Tennessee River to Pittsburgh Landing, just north of the boundary, where he and his men disembarked. Between the two armies lay relatively flat land and a church called Shiloh.

  Grant was waiting for additional troops belonging to Don Carlos Buell, who were coming down from Nashville. Upon their arrival, he planned to attack.

  No fool, Albert Sidney Johnston struck first. On April 6, 1862, he hit Grant’s forces hard and caused them to fall back. While many Union soldiers fought well, a large number simply ran away. As night fell, it seemed that come morning Johnston’s men would push Grant and his troops into the river. However, Grant remained calm. He redeployed his men and said he would counterattack the next day and win the battle, which is what he did, albeit with help from Buell, whose soldiers had just arrived.

  Shiloh, occurring before Antietam and Gettysburg, was the first true bloodbath of the Civil War. Confederate casualties numbered 10,699, among them Albert Sidney Johnston, who was killed. Grant’s army suffered 13,047 killed or wounded. These numbers shocked people in both the North and South. They began to realize that, in human life, the war was to be extremely costly.

  Toward the end of 1862 the North had three field armies confronting the Confederacy. To be sure, there were other troops either in training or guarding lines of supply. And elsewhere there were smaller units on the offensive. But the principal threat to Jefferson Davis and friends came from three Union armies. One was the Army of the Potomac then commanded by Burnside. Another was Grant’s Army of the Tennessee. The third was the Army of the Cumberland. Its commander was William S. Rosecrans.

  Rosecrans was a cautious yet capable general, popular with his men. He had fought Confederate forces at Iuka and Corinth and done well, though Grant thought he ought to have done better. For his efforts, however, Rosecrans received a vote of thanks from Congress and a promotion.

  He was then ordered to take the Army of the Cumberland southeast for another crack at Bragg. The purpose was to keep Bragg’s army away from Grant in Mississippi. Rosecrans accomplished this, but on September, 19, 1863, his army was defeated at Chickamauga. Only calm steadying of troops by Major General George H. Thomas prevented a Union rout. No small affair, total casualties at Chickamauga numbered thirty thousand. Afterward, the Army of the Cumberland retreated into Chattanooga.

  Rosecrans was soon relieved. He was at odds with Lincoln’s secretary of war, and by now Grant thought little of him. Command of the Army of the Cumberland went to Thomas. Grant himself became in charge of all Union forces in the West. His army, the Army of the Tennessee, was now led by William Tecumseh Sherman.

  While Rosecrans was in Tennessee focusing on Bragg, Grant had been in Mississippi attempting to capture Vicksburg. In July 1863, he finally did so, but it was not an easy campaign.

  Vicksburg controlled the central portion of the Mississippi River. Capturing it would cut the Confederacy in half, depriving the Southern states to the east of the food produced in Louisiana and Texas. The river was, as historian Robin H. Neillands has noted, a great commercial h
ighway. Both sides wanted, indeed needed, to control it. By seizing New Orleans, the North had made a strong start. The task for Grant was to finish the job.

  He initiated his campaign in November 1862. Trekking through difficult terrain, progress was slow. Then twice disaster struck. In a bold move the Confederates destroyed Grant’s supply base at Holly Springs. And General Sherman was defeated in a battle at Chickasaw Bluffs. The result was a withdrawal by Grant to figure out a different approach. Several were devised and attempted. One was to dig a canal in order to divert the river. Another was to send gunboats east of Vicksburg via streams and bayous. Both failed.

  Finally, he decided to march the Army of the Tennessee, some forty thousand men, down the western side of the Mississippi River past Vicksburg. The terrain was most difficult, but with great perseverance they arrived at New Carthage, approximately thirty-five miles south of the city. There, they awaited the navy. On the night of April 16, 1863, in a daring midnight sortie, acting rear admiral David Dixon Porter ran his gunboats and transports past the Confederate guns of Vicksburg. He met up with Grant and conveyed the Union army across the river into Mississippi. Grant’s plan was bold, some would say foolhardy, because he had no lines of supply to the North. The river current was too strong for Porter’s flotilla to sail back. U. S. Grant and the Army of the Tennessee were on their own.

  Instead of heading north to Vicksburg, Grant moved east and, after several battles, took control of the city of Jackson, Mississippi’s capital. He then marched on Vicksburg, attacking the city twice before putting in place on May 19 a siege the city and its garrison of thirty thousand had little hope of lifting. On July 4, the Southerners surrendered. The day before Meade had defeated Lee in Pennsylvania.

  However, all was not rosy for the North. Its Army of the Cumberland was besieged in Chattanooga. Low on supplies, surrounded by Braxton Bragg’s army, the Union army in Tennessee was in dire straits. Having become overall commander in the west, Grant had the responsibility of rescuing it.

  Grant acted forcefully. He opened a supply line into Chattanooga and then laid out a plan of attack. Sherman and the Army of the Tennessee would attack Bragg’s right flank. Joe Hooker, leading two corps on loan from the Army of the Potomac, would hit the left at Lookout Mountain, while General George Thomas and the Army of the Cumberland were to move toward the middle, in front of Missionary Ridge. The two flank attacks were to converge and envelop Bragg’s center. As often happens, events in battle deviated from the plan. Sherman’s men ran into difficulties, although Hooker’s corps succeeded in taking Lookout Mountain. And the Army of the Cumberland, wishing to avenge its defeat at Chickamauga and show its mettle to the other Union units, did more than Grant had anticipated. On their own, without orders, they stormed Missionary Ridge and won the day. Having lost the battle—many in the South believed it to be a catastrophe—Bragg retreated into Georgia. Soon thereafter, he offered his resignation, which Jefferson Davis accepted.

  Grant had done well at Chattanooga. Moreover, he had gained a victory at Shiloh and his campaign to capture Vicksburg had been highly successful. Ulysses S. Grant was therefore a soldier accustomed to winning. He was a general who planned well, fought hard, stayed calm, persevered, and, most importantly, won. So hopes were high when Lincoln called him east.

  Grant arrived in Washington early in March 1864, checking himself into the Willard Hotel. He did not stay long.

  Until Grant, standard practice for the Union army’s general in chief was to remain in Washington rather than operate in the field. Scott, McClellan, and Halleck all had done so. Being in Washington facilitated communications with the president and the secretary of war, and made easier the command of the various army staff organizations. But it also imposed heavy social and political obligations, obligations Grant wished to avoid.

  So he did something radical. He left Washington and established his headquarters with the Army of the Potomac. George Meade was retained as the army’s commander, though it was Grant who gave it direction. He also kept Henry Halleck busy, making him the senior army staff officer in Washington, a position in which Old Brains did some good.

  As to fighting, Grant wasted little time in bringing the Confederates to battle. He understood his job was to destroy the two remaining Southern armies, each of which comprised about sixty thousand men. He thus ordered General Sherman to move against Joe Johnston’s Army of Tennessee and General Meade to strike at Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. As part of this effort Grant directed General Benjamin Butler to march his Army of the James, some thirty thousand Union soldiers, to attack Richmond from the south. He also directed another general, Nathaniel P. Banks, to campaign along the Red River in Texas, hoping that a victory there, in addition to weakening the Confederates, would send a message to Mexico that mischief on its part would not go unanswered.

  Both Butler and Banks were among the many nonprofessional generals Lincoln had commissioned in order to secure the political support he considered vital to the prosecution of the war. No president—then or now—can wage war without the support of Congress and the American people. Lincoln was no exception. As a moderate Republican he had to keep the radicals in the party happy, while at the same time holding on to those Northern Democrats willing to continue the war. One way Lincoln did this was to offer military commissions to politicians, most of whom wanted to serve in the army as a means to secure political advantage once the war was over. Banks had been governor of Massachusetts. Butler, like Banks, was a prominent New England Democrat. Neither man, however, was a particularly good general. Banks made a mess of the expedition in Texas. Butler botched his campaign against Richmond.

  In 1864 there was to be a presidential election, and without military successes, Lincoln was likely to lose. Many in the North were weary of the war. It had gone on for four years, casualties were extremely high, and despite Union victories at Vicksburg and Gettysburg, the South appeared far from defeated. Democrats in particular were losing their zeal for the war. In fact, many of them favored a negotiated settlement with Jefferson Davis’s government. This might not abolish slavery, but it would put a stop to the killing. To carry their flag on the political battlefield, the Democrats nominated none other than George B. McClellan. Many people, Democrats and Republicans alike, expected him to win.

  However, Union soldiers and sailors provided Lincoln successes in battle that gave the president a second term in office. In August, Admiral Farragut damned the torpedoes and captured the coastal port of Mobile. In September, two battles on land resulted in victories for the North. General Philip Sheridan defeated Confederate cavalry in the Shenandoah Valley, an area where the South had enjoyed much success. Perhaps most important of all was William Tecumseh Sherman’s capture of Atlanta.

  Grant had put Sherman in charge of three Union armies, totaling approximately a hundred thousand men. George Thomas, the “Rock of Chickamauga,” commanded the Army of the Cumberland. Major General John Schofield led the Army of the Ohio. James McPherson, considered a rising star in the Union army, was in charge of the Army of the Tennessee. Their task was to destroy Joseph Johnston’s Confederate army. The way to do this was to move against Georgia’s capital, thus forcing Johnston to fight.

  Early in May, Sherman marched his troops southeast from Chattanooga into Georgia. Atlanta was about a hundred miles away. Johnston fought a cautious, defensive battle that kept his army intact. Sherman moved aggressively, attempting to outflank his opponent. There were several battles along the way, not all of which Sherman won. But the Union advance was inexorable. By early July, Sherman was at the outskirts of the city.

  On July 17, Jefferson Davis, frustrated that Sherman had not been stopped, replaced Johnston. The new Confederate commander was John Bell Hood, a veteran of Chickamauga and Gettysburg. Hood’s approach to battle was not terribly subtle: he would attack and then attack again, which is what he did. At Peachtree Creek, Decatur, and Ezra Church, he fl
ung his men at those of Sherman. The battles were hard fought, and on both sides casualties were high (among the dead was General McPherson). Yet each time Sherman prevailed. On September 4, 1864, his troops entered Atlanta, the news of which brought despair throughout the South.

  Battered, Hood took his much depleted army north into Tennessee. Sherman detached the Army of the Cumberland to deal with it. George Thomas did just that, defeating Hood twice.

  Once in Atlanta, Sherman decided to march to the sea, a distance of 285 miles. His objective was to inflict such damage along the way that Southerners, in uniform and not, would realize the futility of continuing the fight.

  The march began on November 16. Averaging about fifteen miles a day, Sherman’s men reached the coast early in December. The results were as planned, although there was more destruction than death. After accepting the surrender of Savannah, Sherman took his force, then numbering some sixty thousand soldiers, north into South Carolina. The state was considered by many of his men to warrant special treatment, for it had been South Carolina that had started the conflict. So they wreaked havoc, burning everything in sight. Yet in March, when they moved through North Carolina, they were far less destructive. It was in North Carolina, in Bentonville, where they fought their last battle. A small Confederate force attacked but were driven back. Soon thereafter some of Sherman’s soldiers linked up with troops belonging to Meade and Grant.

  Sherman’s campaign had been a huge success. He had taken Atlanta, destroyed the Confederate Army of Tennessee, marched through Georgia, ransacked South Carolina, and taken control of North Carolina. A large Union force had cut a wide path through the South, destroying whatever stood in its way. Sherman had been its commander and he had performed extremely well. A hero in the North, his name in the South, then and at the present day, brings forth resentment. Yet among military historians William Tecumseh Sherman ranks high.