That was it; the Border States seceded because they refused to send their troops against the secessionist states, and because they thought the Federal Government was becoming an oppressor. These Border States, especially Virginia, were the key to maintaining a viable South. When the key Border States joined the secession the power of the rebellion grew dreadfully. After Virginia joined the Confederacy the capital of the rebellion moved to Richmond, Virginia, only a few miles from Washington DC. This small area between the two cities saw a Noah’s flood of blood spilled out between the two armies.
Figure 38 Ft Sumter Bombardment—1861
The first battle was at Bull Run in Virginia in July 1861. It was a Union defeat, and it gave General Jackson his famous name “Stonewall.” As southern troops were about to break during a Union assault on vital Confederate positions, a Confederate officer among them pointed to Jackson and his men saying, “There stands Jackson like a stone wall . . .” Responding gallantly, Confederate troops rallied and drove back the Union attackers. The blow to the Union at Bull Run was significant and led to a new general taking over with orders to get the Union Army of the Potomac ready to fight.
The new general, George McClellan, took over on July 26, 1861 and immediately set about creating a good army. In this he was a total success; however, being a good organizer and trainer of men does not make one a good battlefield general. McClellan decided to march on the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, by coming down the peninsula to the east of the city. By coming from the Atlantic Ocean side he achieved surprise, and he outnumbered the Confederate troops significantly; nonetheless, George McClellan was a timid leader. He threw away his chance at an early capture of the Confederate capital via hesitation and fear. As the Union Army inched its way toward Richmond, General Joseph Johnson, commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, fell wounded. This wound changed history. General Robert E. Lee, arguably one of the best military commanders of all time,[135] replaced him. Lee soon put McClellan on the run causing the Union Army to retreat to the Washington DC area. Many Union generals were so dismayed by General McClellan’s conduct they called him a traitor. At one point General Lee was attacking the Union positions and gaining little except exorbitant casualties. Worse, the position abandoned to retreat to Washington, DC was the best defensive position of all. If McClellan had dug in and repelled several more Confederate assaults, he may have damaged Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia beyond repair. Instead, he fled. Lee had lost so many troops because he was trying desperately to completely destroy the Union army, but the terrain and his subordinates worked against his plans.
Even after several Confederate victories Lee worried about the situation. Following consultations with Jefferson Davis, Lee’s army planned to invade Maryland because the state’s many southern sympathizers might be persuaded to join the South if an army arrived to assist them. If Maryland joined the rebellion it would be a immense blow to the Union. Lee marched off to Maryland, however, one of Lee’s lieutenants lost the entire invasion plan which was soon found by Union forces under McClellan. Someone wrapped the plans in a bunch of cigars and promptly lost the cigars along with the plans. After the plans came to light, McClellan bragged he could crush Lee because under the attack plan Lee divided his already limited forces; therefore, if McClellan attacked a portion of Lee’s divided army with his entire Union army he could destroy it before other Confederate units could help. McClellan could then turn and destroy the reduced Rebel army before it retreated to Virginia. Given the larger size of the Union Army, the task should have been within easy reach of even the bungling McClellan; even so, McClellan outdid himself in his search for defeat. The lost plans led to the great battle at Antietam, where McClellan assaulted a portion of Lee’s army trapped with its back against the Potomac River.
Antietam and Emancipation
The great battle at Antietam (Sharpsburg) came to pass on September 17, 1862. As usual, McClellan squandered many chances to destroy Lee’s trapped army, or at least cause it irreparable harm. After many hours of fruitless frontal assaults against well established Confederate defensive positions the Union attack stalled. At the last moment Lee managed to recombine his divided army, defeat another Union attack, and retreat back from whence he came across the Potomac. McClellan remained frozen in position, thus allowing the battered men in grey to escape. Lincoln was livid and moved to find a new general. Meanwhile, a Maryland woman witnessed the southern troops passing by her home and in her diary wondered if these were the men who had defeated “ . . . our gleaming legions.” She described the southern soldiers as men in rags, no shoes, and so hungry their ribs were showing. She reported their battle standards were the only non-ragged thing about them. Anyone reading the diary would know the South had already lost in September of 1862.
In spite of the poor outcome at Antietam, Lincoln declared a Union victory and issued the Emancipation Proclamation freeing the slaves held in the southern states still in rebellion. Note it did not free the slaves in states that were not in rebellion such as Kentucky and Maryland. The issue of what to do with these slaves remained until after the war.[136]
Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation as a political move to assure nations overseas, such as England and France, that the North was against slavery. This put the southern cause in a bad light overseas since England and Europe banned slavery years before and did not want to hint at any kind of support for the institution. Now the South could never convince any powerful European nation to sustain it in the war. Gaining European support was a key reason Lee invaded the North. Southern victories in the North might convince some European nations to recognize the Confederacy as a viable state; hence, gaining support for independence. By issuing this proclamation, Lincoln put a major political and strategic dent in southern hopes.
The Proclamation also helped the Union cause within the United States. It gave the Union something more to fight for, because “maintaining the Union” could not carry the weight of the war much longer. The body count required to maintain the Union was already too high for some. However, the proclamation changed the war aims of the Union. Now the federal forces were fighting to set men free and the South to enslave men. This allowed the Union to withstand much higher casualties and keep fighting. In this Emancipation Proclamation stratagem, Lincoln showed himself to be a masterful politician achieving several significant goals at one stroke.
In the west, Union forces were attacking down the Mississippi River, and the Union Navy seized New Orleans cutting off a major supply route for the South. Ulysses S. Grant, placed in charge of the Western Theater of War, took the vital Mississippi River link of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863 in what was probably Grant’s best campaign. Now the Mississippi River was totally Union, and Texas, Arkansas, and nearly all of Louisiana were cut off from the rest of the South. The Union blockade was stopping all supplies flowing to the Confederate states from overseas. The South was finished, but its leaders demanded it fight on, ignoring the fact there was nothing left to win.
Gettysburg
The day before the capture of Vicksburg the Battle of Gettysburg ended in the north. Gettysburg’s took place from July 1 to July 3, 1863, and the cost in men and material was enormous. The South lost twenty-eight thousand men (28,000) in the confrontation and the North twenty-three thousand (23,000). The North could afford to lose men at this rate, but not the South. Those twenty-eight thousand southerners were veterans of many battles and impossible to replace.
Gettysburg represents General Robert E. Lee’s second and last invasion of the North, and perhaps the last chance for victory by the battered South. Lee’s men were starving. The entire South was starving, and supplies of clothing, shoes, blankets, food, and other essentials (except gunpowder and bullets) were very low. By invading the North in July, he could forage off Union land rich with crops. In addition, he might be able to draw the Union Army of the Potomac into a decisive battle. Lee realized an overwhelming victory was necessary, one totally overthr
owing the Army of the Potomac. Perhaps such a victory would gain foreign support and a peace deal from the Union. If he failed, the South faced grounding down like corn in a mill. After full considerations of the options, the invasion seemed the only reasonable course of action. By just waiting, the Union would come after them again; and Lee’s men and horses would have less food than before. By moving north Lee’s army could at least eat.
Figure 39 Gettysburg,—Pickett’s Charge—arrow labeled 3
Gettysburg was what military men call a meeting engagement; that is, an unplanned encounter where two armies just run into one another. This was the worst kind of battle for the Confederates to fight. Lee faced a much larger army led by George Meade, who was cautious but determined. If nothing else, Meade knew good defensive ground when he saw it, and by taking up positions on Cemetery Ridge and Big and Little Round top he established an impressive defensive situation. At nearly any point before General Pickett’s famous charge Lee could have disengaged and looked for another battlefield. Lee needed to plan what to do before the engagement rather than making quick decisions during the engagement. Lee, however, decided to fight at Gettysburg. Why is not clear.
After a series of poor performances by his junior commanders on the flanks of the Union lines, he made a disastrous decision to attack the center of the enemy line on the high ground at Cemetery Ridge. Robert E. Lee had observed the results of mass assaults on prepared positions throughout the war. This decision to assault a dug in position on high ground defies comprehension.
Lee seldom made mediocre decisions.[137] Now he made a move that put an end to any hope of the northern invasion working at any level. The battle had been going on for two days when Lee looked to the high ground at the Union center as the place to strike. Not only that, his artillery was short of ammunition and federal cannons were in place opposite him that enjoyed a range and accuracy advantage.[138] Lee was therefore attacking a prepared position covered with artillery. The commander of Lee’s artillery told him he could not quiet the federal guns on the ridge before Pickett’s assault. One of Lee’s senior commanders (Longstreet) objected to the idea from the start, nevertheless, in his most injudicious move of the war, Lee ordered Pickett’s Charge.[139]
Pickett’s men were a tough bunch. Through accurate rifle fire, grapeshot, and cannon shells pouring in on them from Union positions Pickett’s hardened veterans kept going. Somehow, they reached the ridge top achieving a small breakthrough, but Union reinforcements put an end to that and drove Pickett’s remnant down the ridge. After the failed attack, Lee feared a Union counterattack that might destroy his army. However, the cautious Meade remained cautious, and once more General Robert E. Lee escaped to continue the war. Meade’s caution allowed Lee’s escape, but it was that same caution that won the greatest battle to ever take place on American soil. Lincoln’s ire was up once more as he learned of Lee’s escape. He knew he still needed a fighting general, all the same, fate was turning his way.
Grant and Sherman Destroy the South
General Ulysses S. Grant had been winning battles in the west for years. From Shiloh to Chattanooga he was unbeaten, and he was aggressive. Lincoln had found his fighting general. On March 12, 1864 Lincoln appointed General U S Grant general of the entire Union army, and Grant immediately appointed General William Tecumseh Sherman to command the west. Together they would form an unstoppable juggernaut devastating the South. Grant decided on coordinated assaults; thus, as he started toward Richmond, Sherman started toward Atlanta. Grant began his advance in May of 1864. Now called the Overland Campaign, Grant was grabbing Robert E. Lee by the lapels and never letting go. Grant was determined to pummel Lee until his army was destroyed. US Grant was smart enough to know he could not outmaneuver Lee; nevertheless, his men could fight as well as the southerners, and Grant had a lot more of them. Grant knew he would take large casualties, but he never imagined how large they would be as he battered his way toward Richmond.
Grant
Grant first challenged Lee in the Battle of the Wilderness, but when victory proved elusive he pulled out of the forested area and then turned south toward Richmond. In fact, Lee had won a significant victory, but Grant refused to be beaten. This was a telling move. When the Army of the Potomac lost to the Army of Northern Virginia in previous campaigns the Union generals turned the troops back to Washington DC to lick their wounds and prepare for another try months down the line. Not so this time. When Grant ordered the troops to continue south a cheer went up. The troops (and Lincoln) knew what was necessary all along, now they had the man who would do it.
Lee perceived Grant was moving toward Richmond rather than retreating (proof of an excellent general), so he pulled out of his positions in the Wilderness and got ahead of Grant’s army to block him at Spotsylvania where Grant’s men again failed to break the southern line. Nevertheless, Grant did not stop. He ordered another flanking movement toward Richmond, and Lee to pulled out to meet the Union movement once more. This pattern continued as Grant moved south consistently. Lee’s army never broke, but Grant never quit. At Cold Harbor, Grant made the classic error of attacking a well-prepared fixed position across open ground, and the results were bloodcurdling. Grant ordered the attack hoping to catch the Rebels before they could prepare their defenses. In eight minutes the Union lost 8,000 men—one thousand per minute! Grant swiftly ended the assault. Still, Grant did not stop. The Union casualties were piling up, but Grant moved ever forward to Richmond.
Figure 40 Grant’s Overland Campaign
In the course of seven weeks, Grant lost sixty-five thousand men.[140] As Grant moved to the east and south of Richmond to Petersburg, Lee’s men dug in, and the two armies became locked in trench warfare for nine months in a bloody and terrible prelude to World War I. The main difference between this trench warfare and World War I was equipment, such as the lack of machine guns, heavy howitzers, sophisticated artillery shells, and quick-firing bolt-action rifles. Even under conditions where the defense was muzzle-loaded rifles and cannons, the Union could not break through because of the intense defensive fire.
Think how much harder it would be against machine guns and modern rifles. The American Civil War was the first modern war, but the Europeans avoided studying the American Civil War calling it a fight between two armed mobs. The world missed what was going on. This was modern war, and it would only get worse.
A lesser president may have given up after seeing the casualties and the stalemate; however, Lincoln never faltered. Winning the war was all.
With Lee’s men in trenches to the front, Grant decided to extend his trenches causing the Confederates to do the same to protect their flanks. However, Grant was not flanking Lee, he was trying to thin out the Confederate line by making them cover additional ground. It worked, and in a surprise attack at Five Forks on April 1, 1864, the Confederate line broke. Grant’s men flooded into Richmond, raising the stars and stripes over the Confederate capitol.
Sherman
To the west, as Grant began the Overland Campaign, Sherman started his attack to reach Atlanta, Georgia, and then the sea. No southern army could stop Sherman. General Joseph Johnson commanded the Army of Tennessee and, conservative by nature, he avoided risking the loss of too many men in action. If Sherman were to destroy his army the South had nothing left. General Johnson attempted to force Sherman to attack prepared defenses, but Sherman avoided such attacks. Knowing assaults on prepared defenses was suicide, Sherman kept finding ways to circumvent Johnson’s defensive lines forcing the Rebels back toward Atlanta. In one instance, Sherman almost got a blocking force positioned to trap Johnson’s entire army, but a subordinate moved to an inappropriate location losing the chance to destroy the Army of Tennessee. Time after time, Sherman consistently forced Confederate retreats out of well prepared defensive lines, thereby winning battles without heavy fighting. Sherman’s campaign to win Atlanta was brilliant in all respects as he accomplished the goal of the campaign with few Union losses. No other
civil war general did as much with so few losses, with the possible exception of Bedford Forrest, the commander of various Confederate cavalry units.
Figure 41 Sherman Takes Atlanta—1864
By conserving his men, Johnson at least put Sherman at constant risk. The Army of Tennessee was a tough veteran unit not to be underestimated. Johnson’s strategy infuriated the political leaders of the South who demanded an all out assault to defeat Sherman.[141] Johnson dared not take such a risk so they replaced him with General John Bell Hood. Hood was reckless—at times to the extreme. He was a poor choice to lead the Army of Tennessee, the last army between Sherman and the deep south. Hood assumed command as Sherman’s forces moved on Atlanta, Georgia.
At the Battle of Atlanta on July 20, 1864, Hood attacked Sherman’s army. He set up a plan to roll up Sherman’s flank and deliver a blow to his rear-supply areas. By attacking Sherman’s supply line Hood hoped to damage the Union army’s logistic situation enough to stop the advance. At least focusing on logistics was the correct strategy. The Confederates needed to get at the Union’s supply and communication line (there was only one rail line) and block it to stop the advance.[142] Johnson missed his chance to accomplish the same thing earlier in the campaign. In the event, Hood miscalculated the time and distances involved, and Union troops held on to vital areas, destroying the Confederate plan. Hood lost a large number of men and achieved nothing.
After a series of excellent moves to confound Hood and cut his supply lines, Sherman took Atlanta on September 2, 1864, thereby sealing a military victory and an electoral victory. Seizing Atlanta virtually guaranteed Lincoln’s re-election to a second term. For unclear reasons, the city of Atlanta burned to the ground. Perhaps the fire was started by Hood’s retreating army blowing up stores or by Sherman’s army deciding to torch it, no one really knows. The results were clear; Atlanta all but ceased to exist. Sherman took Atlanta’s population south by train and then made them debark for the countryside. In doing this, Sherman released thousands of starving, homeless southerners onto their neighbors who could ill afford to take care of them.
The Super Summary of World History Page 26