XI. Grant 1864

A. Grant's Plan

• leader of 662,000 in 5 armies with 22 corps
  

• 189,000 black troops 1863-65
  
• 54th Mass. attack on Fort Wagner July 18, 1863, just after NY draft riot - emancipation confirmed
  
• Haupt's railroads, Welles's navy, Porter's gunboats, Meigs's horses
  
• Union cavalry with Spencer 7-shot and Henry 15-shot repeating rifles
  

• Meade against Lee in East
  
• Sherman against Johnston in West
  

• Butler and Sigel to help Meade - on James R., in Valley
  
• Banks and Farragut to help Sherman - from Gulf, Mobile
  

B. Wilderness to Petersburg

• Grant began attack "soon after midnight" May 4 "to start upon that memorable campaign, destined to result in thecapture of the Confederate capital and the army de fending it. This was not to be accomplished, however, without as desperate fighting as the world has ever witnessed; not to be consummated in a day, a week, a month, or a single season. The losses inflicted, and endured, were destined to be severe; but the armies now confronting each other had already been in deadly conflict for a period of three years, with immense losses in killed, by death from sickness, captured and wounded; and neither had made any real progress toward accomplishing the final end. It is true the Confederates had, so far, held their capital, and they claimed this to be their sole object. But previously they had boldly proclaimed their intention to capture Philadelphia, New York, and the National Capital, and had made several attempts to do so, and once or twice had come fearfully near making their boast good, too near for complacent contemplation by the loyal North. They had also come near losing their own capital on at least one occasion. So here was a stand-off. The campaign now begun was destined to result in heavier losses, to both armies, in a given time, than any previously suffered; but the carnage was to be limited to a single year, and to accomplish all that had been anticipated or desired at the beginning in that time. We had to have hard fighting to achieve this. The two armies had been confronting each other so long, without any decisive result, that they hardly knew which could whip. " (see Grant's memoirs online, especially starting with Chapter 50)
• Hancock's 2nd Corps of 25,000 attacks Lee's right - one of the largest assaults of the war
  
• Longstreet arrives in time after loss of 1 mile - wounded
  
• Union lost 17,000, CSA 11,000 - Grant does not retreat
  

• Lee creates strongest trench defense yet around Mule Shoe
  
• Emory Upton's tactics against trenches - 4 lines - fan out while next line attacks next trench - succeeded but not reinforced
  
• Bloody Angle - 18 hours in rain May 12
  
• Grant's flanking attacks fail May 14-19
  
• John Sedgwick killed by CSA sniper at 800 yds - "They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance"
  
• Union lost 18,000, CSA 11,000
  
• "I propose to fight it our on this line if it takes all summer"
  

• Sheridan with 10,000 cavalry attack Lee's rear
  
• JEB Stuart pursued with only 3 of his 6 brigades - 4500
  
• Stuart allowed Custer to destroy supplies at Beaver Dam Station May 9
  
• Stuart waited at Yellow Tavern to attack Sheridan's flanks as he rode toward Richmond, but Sheridan attacked Stuart May 10
  
• Stuart killed by .44-caliber pistol at 15 yards by pvt. John Huff
  
• Sheridan tries to link up May 11 with Butler's Army of the James, but delayed by land mines prepared by CSA Torpedo Bureau's Gen. Gabriel Rains
  
• Sheridan repaired Meadow Bridge, crossed Chickahominy to Haxall's Landing May 14
  

• Grant's mistake - 3 frontal assaults - lost 7000 in 8 min. June 3
  
• Grant neglected Boatswain's Swamp 200 yds in front of Lee's lines
  
• "I regret this assault more than any one I ever ordered."
  

• David Hunter to attack from Valley - but stopped by Jubal Early at Lynchburg June 18
  
• Sheridan's cavalry to meet Hunter - but stopped at Trevilian Station June 11-12
  
• Grant to cross James R. below Richmond and take Petersburg - makes longest pontoon bridge of war - but Wm Baldy Smith fails below Petersburg
  

• Grant's veterans refuse to attack June 18 - "Cold Harbor Syndrome"
  
• Grant has lost 64,000 in 45-day campaign, but Lee depending on attrition
  
• Grant begins 8-month siege - City Point great seaport base
  
• Union artillery and mortars fire 6 tons per day
  
• Battle of the Crater July 30 - 500 ft. tunnel by Henry Pleasants - 4 tons gunpowder
  

• Jubal Early's raid on Washington July 11
  
• Grant creates Army of the Shenandoah - destroy food
  
• "Gray Ghost" John Mosby's rangers delay Sheridan
  
• Lincoln Aug. 23: "it seems exceedingly probable that this Administration will not be reelected."
  
• B&O president John W. Garrett warns of coal shortage unless Valley cleared
  
• Quaker schoolteacher Rebecca Wright tells Sheridan that Lee was taking troops from Early, not reinforcing him
• Sheridan finally advances toward Winchester Sept. 19
  
• George Crook turn's Early's left flank; VA Col. George S. Patton killed
  
• Staff Chief James Forsyth: "We have just sent them whirling through Winchester"
  
• Alfred Torbert fails to pursue after Fisher's Hill Sept. 23
  
• Sheridan burns 400 sq. mi. by Oct. 6 - "the Burning" begins
  
• Front Royal murders of 4 Mosby rangers; John Meigs shot in the rain near Dayton
  
• Cedar Creek Oct. 19 - Sheridan on Rienzi - "Come on back, boys!" including William McKinley and Rutherford B. Hayes - Early's troops had stopped to eat and loot Union camp for 6 hours - Sheridan waits until 4 pm, then 200 bugles sounded charge - Custer rides horse Breckinridge and turns Early's left flank - Thomas Read writes poem "Sheridan's Ride" - "Winchester, twenty miles away" (actually Rienzi rode 12 miles)
  
• Wesley Merritt sent on the"Burning Raid" into Loudon and Fauquier counties while Sheridan camps for the winter
  
• Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan and his generals in front of Sheridan's tent, 1864. Left to right: Wesley Merritt, David McM.Gregg, Sheridan, Henry E. Davies (standing), James H. Wilson, and Alfred Torbert. 111-B-9. (CIVIL034.JPG)

C. Chattanooga to Atlanta

• 3 armies: Thomas 60,000, McPherson 25,000, Schofield 13,000
  
• war of maneuver, not attrition
  
• railroad supply line had to be defended
  
• Sherman's "pioneer corps" but not black troops
• Civil War in Georgia
  

• McPherson failed to attack
  

3. bypass Allatoona Pass

• Sherman "cut loose" from RR - wide flanking march
  

5. Kennesaw Mt. June 27

• Sherman's frontal assault fails aginst Johnston's trenches
  
• McPherson to right, then left to Chattahoochee to support Schofield's pontoon bridge
  
• Johnston pulls back behind Peachtree Creek
  

• A.J. Smith defeats N.B. Forrest and Stephen Lee
  

• John Bell Hood replaces Johnston July 17
  
• Hood lost 13,000, Union 6000 in 3 battles
  
• Joe Wheeler's cavalry keeps CSA railroad open
  
• Sherman shifts south - destroys last CSA railroad at Jonesboro Aug. 31
  
• Sherman enters Atlanta Sept. 3 - Hood retreats to Lovejoy
  
• Union lost 31,000, CSA 35,000 in 4-month campaign
  

D. Election of 1864

• Lincoln/Johnson defeat McClellan/Pendleton 212-21 (KY, DE, NJ) and won popular vote 55%-45% with 73.8% participating (Lincoln had won only 39.8% in 1860 with 81.2% partic.)
  
• Lincoln won 78% of 154,045 soldier vote
  
• Nevada admitted as 36th state Oct. 31
  
• key issues:
  1. peace feelers (Greeley & Niagra Falls, James Gilmore, Henry Raymond)
  2. copperheads (Sons of Liberty, St. Albans, Sterling Price and Bloody Bill Anderson in MO., Jacob Thompson in Canada, miscegenation pamphlet)
  3. POWs (Henry Wirz at Andersonville, Libby Prison in Richmond, man-for-man exchange began with sailors in Oct.)
  4. emancipation
  5. military victories (Mobile Bay Aug. 5, Atlanta Sept. 3, Cedar Creek Oct. 19)
• Lincoln's pocket veto of July 2 Wade-Davis 50% reconstruction bill
  
• radical Cleveland Convention nominee Fremont withdrew Sept. 22, due to Sen. Zachariah Chandler deal to get rid of Blair in Cabinet
  
• Lincoln appeases radicals by replacing M. Blair with Ohio Gov. Wm Dennison as PM General Sept. 23 - had been president of National Union Convention that nominated Lincoln in Baltimore June 8 - avoid division and emph. "an unreserved, unconditional loyalty to the Government and the Union."
  
• Chief Justice Taney died Oct. 12 - rumors of Salmon Chase appointment (Lincoln had already appointed Noah Swayne, Samuel Miller, David Davis, Stephen Field to the Supereme Court)
  
• Republican strength in IN, OH grow in Oct. state elections; MD adopts anti-slavery constitution
  

E. Atlanta to Nashville

• Hood moves north Oct. 3 - "a lion's heart" but with "a wooden head"
  
• hopes to divert Sherman out of Georgia, reach Ohio R., join Lee
  
• Gov. Brown opposed Hood - withdrew Georgia militia from Hood's army
  
• Hood reinforced at Florence, AL - advanced into Tenn. Nov. 21
  
• Thomas with 70,000 sent to Memphis - Schofield takes 30,000 to Franklin
  
• Spring Hill Affair - Hood outflanks Schofield, but lets him get away at night
  
• Battle of Franklin Nov. 30 - "Gettysburg of the West" - Hood makes mistake of a "Pickett's Charge" frontal assault on strong Union defense by Schofield and loses 6300
  
• Wiley Sword in EMBRACE AN ANGRY WIND (1992) argues Hood's loss of 23,500 from an army of 38,000 was the greatest defeat ever suffered by an American army.
  
• Nashville Dec. 15-16 - Thomas assault with 40,000 crushes Hood's left - a decisive victory
  

F. Atlanta to Savannah

• Sherman orders evacuation of all civilians Sept. 8
  
• proposes Oct. 1 to march to Savannah
  
• N.B. Forrest had captured Athens, AL Sept. 24 (but not Sherman's main railroad)
  
• proposes Oct. 9 to cut loose from supply line and "make Georgia howl"
  
• burns Atlanta Nov. 15
  
• 62,000 in 4 corps march in 2 wings: Left under Henry Slocum and Right under O.O. Howard-Judson Kilpatrick's 5000 Union cavalry protected both wings
  
• 185 of the 218 regiments were western farmer veterans, rough and undisciplined, and had been with Sherman in the Jackson campaign, burning and looting the city 3 times, and with him in the Feb. Meridian MI campaign that destroyed the city
  
• Special Orders No. 120 - army to "forage liberally" on the march but not to "enter the dwellings of the inhabitants or commit any trespass" - only corps commanders could approve destruction of property
  
• however, Sherman did not enforce the Orders - passively allowed looting and destruction
  
• plantation of Howell Cobb, CSA commander of GA Militia, were burned, but not that of GA congressman Joseph B. Jones with sick wife and 9 children
  
• Gov. Joe Brown fled Milledgeville with his private property but left state papers and arsenal (including 3000 pikes made at Brown's order due to shortage of guns)
  
• "Pierce the shell of the C.S.A. and it's all hollow inside" - no resistance except Joe Wheeler's cavalry (who fought in 127 battles) - "Wheeler's horse thieves" also looted
  
• Sherman pretended to advance toward Augusta - Bragg ready to defend with 10,000
  
• also feint toward Macon - militia and Orphan Brigade defended at Griswoldville but were inexperienced - "it was a harvest of death"
  
• Henry Wayne, founder of the 1855 Camel Corps, defended Jackson's Ferry at the Oconee River Nov. 25 with boy cadets from Georgia Military Institute, but was driven off
  
• Sherman burned empty POW Camp Lawton near Millen Dec. 3 - had held 10,229 Union prisoners on 42 acres - largest prison in world
  
• Sherman's "bummers" killed all dogs because used to tracked fugitive slaves and POWs
  
• Ebenezer Creek Dec. 8 - bridge removed before slaves could cross - hundreds drowned in panic - 2000 slaves captured by Wheeler
  
• torpedoes defended roads leading into Savannah - angered Sherman (although he had hidden live shells in Jonesboro to kill railroad repair crews)
  
• Savannah defended by William Hardee and 10,000 - flooded lowlands
  
• Sherman takes Ft. McAllister Dec. 13 - opens supply line to sea
  
• Hardee evacuates Savannah Dec. 20
  
• Sherman telegraph to Lincoln Dec. 22 - "I beg to present you as a Christmas-gift the city of Savannah"
  

Links:

• The Civil War film by Ken Burns
• maps of Wilderness and James and Petersburg
• War in the West 2