This lithograph of the Battle of , (fought on February 16, 1862), represents the close-quarters fighting that marked much of the tactics used throughout the Civil War. (Library of Congress) Chapter 2

Sherman L. Fleek

O verview of the Civil War

The greatest danger to American survival at mid-century, however, was neither class tension nor ethnic . Rather it was sectional conflict between North and South over the future of slavery. —James M. McPherson1

he , fought between ushered in a new way of life for most and T1861 and 1865, has been the subject of fresh opportunities for many. Others perceive some of the great literary giants in America, it as a major military conflict, introducing a such as , Robert Penn Warren, new era of war with a viciousness that was , and Stephen Crane. Filmmakers­ unprecedented. Still others view it as a dra- such as have tried to describe it in matic course correction that has not only sweeping prose and narrative language that destroyed a culture and a wicked form of eco- capture both the grandeur and the brutality nomic labor but also put in jeopardy a funda- of this awful but critical episode in our his- mental political right—states’ rights. Yet for tory. Great historical minds of recent genera- most Americans it is a colossal event that we tions, such as James McPherson, Alan Nevins, learned about in school, reading, listening, ­Kenneth Stampp, and T. Harry Williams have and just as quickly dismissing because, like tried to analyze, define, and interpret the war so much else in history, the Civil War was so in accurate and reasonable terms. Even the long ago, and what does it mean for us today? venerable ­Winston Churchill provided his Perhaps President ’s clar- opinion on the scope and meaning of this great ity and centrality from his Gettysburg Address conflict.2 All these individuals have shed a little provides guidance in at least one line: “The more light on a complex historical problem. world will little note nor long remember what For many in America, the Civil War was, we say here, but it can never forget what they at the crossroads of American democracy and did here.” This statement is true regarding any progress, the defining moment that brutally attempt to understand, write, and analyze this 24 Sherman L. Fleek incredible war and conflict, this monstrous was the ugly moral dilemma of slavery. And tragedy set upon the path of American his- the overriding question was what to do with tory that our grandparents and their grand- it. Perhaps the best explanation remains that parents had to face and grapple with. As with the Civil War came as a result of the any major war, entire cultures, peoples, and of Southern states after forty years of sec- nations changed and had to reconcile them- tional feuds and the national crisis of politics, selves with this momentous episode. economics, and social morality that was the After the founding of the in expansion and status of slavery into the ever- the eighteenth century, the Civil War was the growing republic. By 1860 the two sections second greatest historical event in the Ameri- could no longer compromise and avoid war can experience as well as the most revolution- as they had in the past. What may have been ary in the way of change and evolution. This a seemingly inevitable conflict germinated in great landmark event was also catastrophic, the colonial period and was not resolved in the with some 620,000 dead Americans. This war succeeding eighty years since the founding of was America’s deadliest, but for some four the republic. In the words of perhaps the most million people, it also marked the escape from eloquent writer on the Civil War, Bruce Catton, the bonds of a miserable and immoral institu- “Without slavery, the problems between the tion; both of these aspects still haunt us today.3 sections could probably have been worked out Militarily, the war introduced or expanded by the ordinary give-and-take of politics; with two great evolutions in warfare. The Civil War slavery, they became insoluble. So, in 1861 the was “modern,” with its technological improve- North and South went to war, destroying one ments and vast new methods of not only death America and beginning the building of another and destruction in advanced weaponry but which is not even yet complete.”4 also breakthroughs in transportation, com- Undoubtedly, the issue of states’ rights munication, industrial output, and logistical was a huge catalyst behind all the gestur- methods. The war was also a foreshadowing ing, posturing, and politicking of the 1820s of “total” war—when a nation attempts to har- through the 1850s. But what was the one ness all its resources, all facets of society, and its right the South was willing to defend and entire populace into a coherent, coordinated, fight over, and what was the one right the marshaled effort and machine to fulfill its war North was unwilling to allow? Slavery. The aims and achieve victory. The American Civil expansion of slavery into the new territo- War may be one of the first conflicts to harness ries gained from Mexico was the real cause both these types of warfare; at the very least, it of the regional conflict. From 1820 with was certainly a harbinger of wars to come. the to 1854 with the Kansas-Nebraska Act, slavery and its future Ca uses of the War were always the critical sectional issue that The causes and results of the Civil War divided the country and came to divide the are just as nebulous to define and describe, parties. This issue destroyed the Whig Party but simply put, at the center of all the politi- and gave birth to the Republican Party in the cal jousting, compromising, state and federal early 1850s.5 Abraham Lincoln’s election to disputing, and economic and legal wrangling the presidency in 1860, with the Republican O verview of the Civil War 25

At the center of all the political jousting, compromising, state and federal disputing, and economic and legal wrangling was the ugly moral dilemma of slavery. And the overriding question was what to do with it. This July 1861 Harper’s Weekly image shows a slave auction in the South. (Harper’s Weekly) free soil, free labor, and free man notions, was swim, live or die, survive or perish, the part too much for the Southern Democrats—they of Mississippi is chosen, she will never sub- decided to secede. This secession was a not a mit to the principles and policy of this Black mass exit: state by state seceded over a period Republic administration,” adding this threat, of several months once the first hostilities that the South would avoid “submission to began. Eleven states eventually formed the negro equality. . . . Secession is inevitable.” Confederacy, but only after a concerted and Ironically, as each Southern state clamored organized campaign involving newspaper for its individual sovereignty and the right to editorializing and dedicated speakers and separate from the Union, the first thing the lobbyists who flocked to the undecided states South did was form another union of states.6 encouraging them to join with the seceding Most people today find it difficult to grasp states. There these “firebrands” stoked the and understand the causes and outcomes of flames of secession, worshipped the com- this complicated and complex national crisis. mon culture of racism, and created a vitriolic The fact that fathers and brothers opposed campaign against the “Black” Republicans in members of their own family, that people the symbol of Lincoln. A Mississippi judge and region were at odds with each other, led a delegation to address Georgia legisla- was a terrible prospect. Fortunately, the mili- tors and offered these fiery words: “Sink or tary campaigns, national politics, and final 26 Sherman L. Fleek resolution are more easily narrated than are armies surrendered, and resistance crumbled the causes and consequences of the war. as the Federal Union was holding a grand review in Washington, DC. Some historians Hi c stori al Background have argued for decades that the South did The American Civil War began at Fort not have a chance to win their independence. Sumter, South Carolina, in April 1861. Yet, in Many feel the Confederacy was doomed some regards, if one really considers the facts, because of the North’s overwhelming relationships, issues, and causes, one could re­sources, industrial base, and population. argue that the war actually began in the Ter- Then the obvious question is, why go to war ritory of Kansas in the spring of 1856. At that if the outcome was inevitable? If there is one time, Americans were killing each other for event in the course of human history that is the same reason they would five years later: not inevitable, it has to be war.8 the future of slavery. Yet since there was no secessionist government intact and no clean break of states rebelling against the mother country in 1856, the attack on Fort Sumter remains the distinct starting point.7

Jefferson Davis (1808–89) served as the only president of the Confederacy. Davis was a West Point graduate, veteran of the Mexican War, U.S. senator, and former secretary of war. (Mathew Brady ­Collection, National Archives)

Perhaps the South had some chances to The election of Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) set in motion events that negotiate peace, but it did not have enough culminated in the American Civil War military might to win the war. The Confed- (1861–65). Lincoln was very involved as commander in chief and often eracy never envisioned and developed the war wrote personal letters to the families aims necessary to achieve victory, and thus its of fallen soldiers. (Mathew Brady national strategy was inadequate to coordi- ­Collection, National Archives) nate, employ, and conduct the full spectrum of On a dark morning in Charleston Harbor total warfare, though the Southern nation bled on April 12, 1861, heavy Confederate siege itself white in the attempt. On the other hand, guns opened fire, and the war started. Four toward the end of the war, the Federal union, years and a few months later, the last field its president, and the principal commanders O verview of the Civil War 27 learned and understood how to use modern war, with its powerful new technologies and tactics, to achieve a total war strategy to defeat the Confederacy and end America’s deadliest war.9 Except for the small professional army of eigh- teen thousand authorized officers and men, the war was fought by ­volunteers— many of whom were ama- teurs who learned their skills well through war’s This 1861 lithograph was “a biting vilification of the Confederacy, representing it as a terribly bloody apprentice- government in league with Satan. From left to right are: ‘Mr. Mob Law Chief Justice,’ a well-armed ruffian carrying a pot of tar; Secretary of State Robert Toombs raising a staff ship program. The ranks of with a ‘Letter of Marque’ (a governmental authorization to seize subjects or property of enlistments, state regiments, foreign state, here a reference to Georgia’s January seizure of federal Fort Pulaski and the Augusta arsenal); CSA President , wearing saber and spurs. Vice President and casualty lists swelled Alexander Stephens holds forward a list of ‘The Fundamental Principles of our Govern- during the four years of ment,’ including treason, rebellion, murder, robbery, incendiarism, and theft. Behind conflict. the group, on horseback, is Confederate general Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, commander of forces at the bombardment of Fort Sumter. The delegation is received by As the smoke cleared at Satan and two demonic attendants, who sit in a large cave at right. One attendant has Fort Sumter, there was no over his shoulder a gallows from which hangs a corpse; the other holds a pitchfork. Satan holds a crown and scepter for Davis in his right hand, while in his left hand he hides calculable equality between a noose behind his back. He greets the Confederates, ‘Truly! Fit representatives of our the North and the South Realm.’ Over his head flies a banner with the palmetto of South Carolina and six stars. regarding the resources in A large snake curls round its staff.” (Library of Congress) each area. The Northern states carried the Historians have argued for more than a advantage in population, finances, resources, hundred years about whether the Confederacy railroads, industry, shipping, foundries, actually had a chance or not to win the war, business, and even the strength of educa- to accomplish the political goal of separation tion and institutions of learning. Perhaps the and independence from the United States. Of only area where the Confederate states held course, these arguments are speculative, as an advantage was a reckoning of animals, interesting as they may seem. After Fort Sum- livestock, some agricultural produce, and, ter and due to President Abraham Lincoln’s call of course, cotton. Yet as soon as the U.S. for volunteers, other Southern states—espe- Navy entrapped the Southern ports with its cially —defected from the Union. The tightening blockade, which took some time secession of states was not a general mass exo- to perfect, European buyers began to search dus; states departed one at a time, sometimes elsewhere for cotton, namely, Egypt, or in clusters, but it was an individual process. turned to other substitutes, such as wool in Men joined both sides in droves. The England’s case.10 armies marched forth and clashed for the next 28 Sherman L. Fleek

On August 17, 1861, Harper’s Weekly printed this summary of Confederate military uniforms. (Harper’s Weekly)

Two weeks later, on August 31, 1861, Harper’s Weekly printed these samples of Union military uniforms. (Harper’s Weekly) O verview of the Civil War 29 four years while women and children waited, significant war aim that squeezed the life out worried, and in most ways took over the roles of the South’s once-vital maritime commerce. of father and provider. At home they dreaded However, the true battlefield of victory or the casualty lists posted at the courthouse or defeat was accomplished on land—warfare of town square. maneuver and technology as The war developed never seen before.11 into two major efforts or In 1861 the first major areas of operation. (Some contest was along Bull Run, a historians use an older and creek near the railroad junc- less accurate World War II tion at Manassas, Virginia. distinction: theaters of war.) Most people, especially the Divided by the Appalachian politicians and journal- Mountains, the front lines ists on both sides, wrongly were mostly east and west. thought the war would Field armies bore down be decided by one major, on one another in killing bloody contest. On July 21, fields that soon matched the along Bull Run, the Federals butcher’s bills at Waterloo had the upper hand most of or Austerlitz. Such major the day until Confederate battles in previous Euro- Confederate General Robert Edward Lee reinforcements arrived, and (1807–70) in 1863. Interestingly, it was pean wars usually decided Lee, a graduate and former superin- through lack of command the war, and peace ensued. tendent of the United States Military and control, uncoordinated Academy at West Point, who commanded But in this new era of total the military detachment that captured piecemeal attacks caused war, Americans would fight the abolitionist John Brown at Harpers the Union effort to unravel. several dozen Waterloo-type Ferry, Virginia, in 1859. (Mathew Brady Confederate defense of the Collection, National Archives) battles, and the outcome high ground, especially on would continue to be undecided for years. the key terrain of Henry House Hill, won Virginia especially became the nexus of a the day. The long, defeated, and straggling dozen Napoleonic War–sized battles that just columns of discouraged Federal soldiers fled plowed more ground for graves. back to Washington as a rabble and not an Here it may be appropriate to state that army. Hundreds of civilians who came out the Civil War represents portions of both to picnic and observe the exciting day were modern war, technological advancements on among the exhausted throng. From this time a vast scale, and total war, where a nation’s forth, both sides knew they had serious con- complete resources, population, and efforts flict before them.12 are unleashed to bring about the “uncondi- After the Rebel victory, the Federals tional surrender” or total defeat of the enemy. regrouped, and soon thereafter the admin- A major factor in the Union grand strategy istration appointed forty-year-old George was to blockade Southern ports. The naval McClellan to command all the Union forces war was important and sometimes roman- in the field. Soon the slogan “On to Rich- tic with ironclads, and the blockade was a mond” echoed in a thousand camp sites, 30 Sherman L. Fleek especially in the East. This new army, called the pivotal year of 1862. The western area of the Army of the Potomac, nearly became operations along the Mississippi River was the McClellan’s private army, a well-organized effort that eventually gave the North victory. and disciplined but inert specimen. This The now-glamorous and bloody war along early concept of victory, the East Coast, especially taking the Confederate cap- in Virginia, was nothing ital, cost the North dearly more than a mobile Western for nearly three years until Front. These campaigns President Lincoln, after became a foreshadowing of trial and error, battle after the stalemate of World War battle, general after general, I, a deadly war of attrition and tens of thousands of with no clear victory until corpses, finally found a few the last months of the war. commanders who devised President Lincoln became the relentless strategy and increasingly doubtful about had the guts to execute total General McClellan’s leader- war.13 ship and enthusiasm for vic- The Confederacy, on the General Ulysses S. (1822–85) at tory when the general failed Cold Harbor, Virginia, in 1864. Born other hand, adopted flawed Hiram Ulysses Grant, he was elected to move and strike the heart war aims and strategy that in 1868 as the eighteenth president the of the Confederacy at Rich- United States. (Mathew Brady Collection, would eventually spell National Archives) mond. In fact, at one point their doom. Every Yankee he asked McClellan if he incursion and invasion was to be met and could “borrow the Army” for a time.15 Finally, defeated; every square inch of Dixie was to McClellan executed his grandiose plan to be defended and, if lost, then later redeemed. move some one hundred thousand men by No leaders with the vision of modern war- boats and barges down the Potomac River fare came to the forefront. None understood into the Chesapeake Bay, farther down to the how to achieve victory using a total war James River, then up the river to Harrison strategy—though the South employed the Landing, only twenty miles from Richmond. ingredients of total war without knowing it, It was a masterful logistical exercise and dar- in the sense that they sacrificed nearly every- ing operation, but within three months, the thing to win. Even a limited war of attrition, was an ignominious fail- fighting only when absolutely necessary ure for the United States. After nearly enter- and conserving resources and men, such as ing Richmond, the two opponents fought George ­Washington conducted against the a series of battles, the “,” British, may have, over time, proved more where the Confederacy rose triumphant and successful.14 McClellan had to withdraw his still-mam- moth army to save it. During this period, S trategy and Tactics the rise of one of the most spectacular field The true nature and perhaps even the commanders in history was established in outcome of the conflict manifested itself in the likes of gentlemanly but aggressive leader O verview of the Civil War 31

Robert E. Lee of Virginia. There were also battles A West Point graduate and in distant New Mexico career army officer, he turned and modern-day Arizona his back on oath and country where small armies fought and declared that his loyalty among canyons, cactus, to Virginia was a higher, more and high mountain passes; sacred duty than that which these small engagements he owed to the United States. had little effect on the The Confederacy now had overall war.19 its foremost warrior and his In the West, a rather army, soon to be named the common and insignificant Army of Northern Virginia. commander of Federal Lee and his lean, aggressive forces now rose to the fore- men were a formidable force front. General Ulysses S. that defeated Federal efforts in Grant, also a West Pointer, the East again and again. Yet was a man who had failed Lee’s entire operational theory at most civilian pursuits was based in the past—he since leaving the army searched vainly for the great, in early 1850s. He had final victory or battle of anni- a small force based in hilation, such as Waterloo or Illinois; employed river Yorktown, that would end the boats to ferry his troops war. He was fighting a mod- south into Tennessee in ern war with sixteenth- and bitter cold February 1862; seventeenth-century tactics and in a daring and bril- and assumptions that cost the liant campaign, captured South dearly in the end.16 two of the South’s major There were other contests— fortifications, Forts Henry smaller campaigns that later and Donelson, along river became the stuff of romance fronts, forcing the evacu- and legends rather than sub- This broadsheet was published shortly ation of Rebel forces from stantive military value—such after the death of Confederate general Nashville.20 , of . as the Confederate victories by (American Song Sheets, David M. With the tenacity of General Thomas Jackson and Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript a bulldog, Grant won his defense of the Shenandoah Library, Duke University) an incredible victory at Valley in the spring of 1862.17 Shiloh in April 1862—a The amazing introduction of modern war battle where he was initially surprised by at sea by the clash of ironclads at Hampton a major Confederate attack. The Southern Roads between the USS Monitor and the CSS army, under General Albert Sidney Johnston, Virginia changed forever naval warfare and who died at Shiloh, led the Federal troops spelled the end of the military age of sail.18 during the Utah War of 1857–58. Losing 32 Sherman L. Fleek

A Confederate artillery battery at Pensacola, Florida (circa 1861). (National Archives) most of the advantages of terrain and with bloodiest day in American history, with 4,808 heavy casualties and the remainder his army killed in action.22 The operational defeat in chaos, Grant had already decided to attack dashed the Confederacy’s misplaced hope the next morning as reinforcements arrived to have foreign powers recognize the South from another army. Grant’s cold and bold as a legitimate government and also to gain determination soon overwhelmed the South- thousands of recruits from neutral Maryland, erners. This stubborn willpower was one of a border state.23 the great measures that led him to final vic- One of the unanticipated reasons for the tory three years later.21 bloodiness and gruesomeness of the war was By the end of 1862, General Lee had the advancement of technology beyond the won more victories in Virginia but made no evolution of tactical art. The new rifle-musket progress against the North other than piling was lethal to four hundred and five hundred up many more thousands of corpses. In the yards, three and four times the range during summer, his victories were at Second Bull the Napoleonic era and even the Mexican Run and Chantilly, and then he invaded War, which meant volley fire at longer ranges Maryland only to fight an indecisive contest and with greater accuracy. During the first near Sharpsburg on Antietam Creek in Sep- year or two, all the generals fought the Civil tember. The remains the War as they had against the Mexicans, at O verview of the Civil War 33 close ranges, in closed ranks, and by firing but determined advance south to divide the in successive orders of volley fire. With the Confederacy, and Lee’s stubborn wins in the advanced lethality and velocity of the Minié East, the war was far from over. Lee’s great ball, a conical-shaped projectile, the results success at Fredericksburg in December were devastating. Soon, the generals learned 1862 was a gory day indeed. Union General and adapted their tactics and deployments, (legend has it that he was but not until thousands were killed because the father of sideburns because of his thick, tactics had not advanced as technology lamb-chop whiskers) ordered thirteen fright- had—a sad reality in almost all wars.24 ful, bloody charges uphill against stone walls A much larger result from victory at Antie- and earthworks bristling with rifle-muskets tam was a brilliant political and moral move. and twelve-pound field pieces. Thousands of Lincoln announced the Emancipation Procla- blue-uniformed bodies lay scattered across mation, which changed the very purpose of the a landscape shrouded by snow. Along with war by freeing the slaves who were not under other Union commanding officers, Burnside Federal control in those portions of the South was sacked directly but resigned his post as that were still in rebellion. The North was now commander of the Army of the Potomac. fighting not only to defeat the rebellion and Next came Joseph “Fighting Joe” Hooker, a reunite the nation but also to destroy slavery. bold, vulgar, and egotistical officer who took Announced on September 22, 1862, the proc- command of the Army of Potomac. He then lamation went into effect on January 1, 1863. led the army to perhaps its most terrible The proclamation underwent several drafts defeat: against General Lee, who orchestrated and revisions, but perhaps one of the dramatic his tactical masterpiece of maneuver warfare passages reflected Lincoln’s reliance upon a at Chancellorsville in early May 1863, which higher religious power and his faith that all move confirmed his legacy then and now.27 would come to pass. He wrote the concluding Lee’s great victory at Chancellorsville paragraph later, adding the phrase “upon mili- led to his illogical proposal to once again, tary necessity” after the word “constitution,” with limited resources dwindling every day, based on his belief that as commander in chief, invade the North and take the war to the his exclusive war powers were not enumerated Federal hearthstone. His reasons were to in the Constitution. It was a wise revision with destroy the , pillage the land of this final passage: “And upon this act, sincerely provisions and goods, and then, while at the believing it to be an act of justice, warranted gates of “Festung Washington,” he hoped by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I that the Northern willpower would dissipate invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, like a cloud. Then, with foreign recognition, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.”25 the Confederacy would triumph with their Then with a final victory by the North, the independence established. Lee’s great pride institution of slavery would end, and all those in his rough and tattered army could not held in bondage would be “then, thenceforth possibly penetrate some sixty-eight separate and forever free.”26 Union forts and thousands of men and heavy With Federal forces gaining the upper artillery that guarded the nearly impregnable hand in the West by late 1862, Grant’s slow Federal capital. This plan was the Southern 34 Sherman L. Fleek

This lithograph, created after the war, shows “full-length portraits of , P. G.T. Beauregard, and Robert E. Lee with four versions of the Confederate flag surrounded by bust portraits of Jefferson Davis and Confederate Army officers.” (Library of Congress) O verview of the Civil War 35 operational scheme in the East during the Vicksburg, we have learned after nearly 150 summer of 1863.28 years, was the true turning point in the war. Lee advanced north without proper The nation and army that controlled the Mis- reconnaissance to assist him and found him- sissippi River would eventually win the war.31 self in a battle not of his choosing at a small crossroads town named Gettysburg. After Gu erriLLa Warfare three days of incredible slaughter and a final Perhaps one of the most interesting untold disastrous charge losing some seven thousand stories of the Civil War is that some of the men, Lee retired on July 4, and this offensive vicious and terrible fighting did not occur in campaign was his last of the war. Some fifty- the great battles in Virginia or Tennessee or eight thousand men from both sides fell or even Georgia but in hundreds of gruesome were casualties in this, the bloodiest of all firefights in Missouri. As one of several border Civil War battles.29 states that did not join the Confederacy but Many have stated and believed that Get- had a strong pro-slavery sentiment, Missouri tysburg was the decisive engagement of was the focal point of another awful condition the Civil War, but on the very day that Lee of modern warfare—guerrilla war. For nearly retreated in ignominious defeat, the true four years, towns, farms, homes, and barns turning point occurred about one thousand were burned and people dragged from their miles to the west at a Mississippi River town homes at night. Even captured soldiers were called Vicksburg.30 The eventual victor dragged from trains or camps and murdered. of the war was General U. S. Grant. After Guerrilla war in any form and intensity is three major failed attempts to outmaneuver appalling, but in Missouri it was worse than or dig a canal past Vicksburg, Grant finally most. transported his army south by gunboats and It was Missouri “border ruffians” who riverboats under the heavily entrenched and caused the uproar and violence in “bleeding armed batteries built on a high river bluff, a Kansas” in the late 1850s. Because there were natural fortress. Grant then defeated three few conventional armies and outposts in Mis- separate Confederate armies in five battles souri, the rich land of pastures, farms, and while completely cut off from his logistical riverboat commerce became a killing ground base. He then approached, besieged, and for wicked desperadoes on both sides, but starved the city and Confederate army into the Southern cause especially attracted some submission. By taking Vicksburg, the Mis- of the most notorious villains in American sissippi River soon fell to complete Union history. , who served on the control, and Lincoln in guarded exultation Utah expedition in 1857–58 as a teamster and said that the mighty “father of waters” could cook, gathered a group of mean and nasty now continue to flow. Other Federal forces, killers that had a field day for several years namely, General William Sherman’s march murdering anyone who stood for the Union through Georgia, would eventually divide or was anti-slavery. Romantic figures—brutal the South again and cause the loss or disrup- killers really—such as Jesse and Frank James, tion of great resources, especially livestock, the Younger brothers, “Bloody” Bill Anderson,­ that the Confederacy desperately needed. and other equally wanton killers and thieves 36 Sherman L. Fleek learned their trade in the Civil War. The land forced Lee into a box south of Richmond at of Missouri ran with partisan blood, and it is Petersburg, where the war entered into a new now impossible to quantify just how many phase of warfare, foreshadowing the Western hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of sol- Front of 1915–16: trenches and stalemate. diers, citizens, men, women, and children The summer maneuvers cost the Federals perished through this ferocious guerrilla war.32 some forty-four thousand men, but those lost were soon replaced with new faces. Ironically, T he End of the the Confederates lost less War than half that number, but The crucial year of 1864 they could not replace their was the last great year of losses.33 battles and political anxi- The gruesome war ety in the North. In April, slugged along as both popu- Lincoln finally found his laces on the home front general who would bring grew weary of the casualty final victory: U. S. Grant. lists. The politics of 1864 Promoted to lieutenant grew intense as the “peace” general and commander of Democrats pilloried Lincoln all Federal armies, Grant and his advisors as warmon- designed what would gers who were no more than become his famous “over- General butchers. The nomination land” maneuver that would (1820–91) is probably best known for his for president of former Gen- “scorched earth” march to the sea through finally force the tough and Georgia. Sherman succeeded Grant as eral George McClellan, who seasoned Confederate army commanding general of the army following hoped to arrange a “negoti- the Civil War. (Pictured here in 1864–65.) under General Lee to its (Mathew Brady Collection, National ated peace” with the recal- knees. In coming east to Archives) citrant Southerners, hoped command, Grant chose to to end the bloodletting by command from the field. He left the western putting “ole Abe” out to pasture.34 area of operations to his faithful and com- The war had evolved since the issue of petent friend, ­William T­ecumseh ­Sherman. the Emancipation Proclamation; it was now After several minor engagements along the a crusade against slavery. Tens of thousands Tennessee and Georgia border, Sherman­ of African Americans flocked to the colors pressed forward with some eighty thousand and fought in United States Colored Troops, men toward the great commercial and trans- “USCT” regiments led by white officers. Doz- portation hub of Atlanta, perhaps the most ens were awarded the Medal of Honor, estab- important city in the Confederacy with its lished during the war as the highest award in railroad links and manufacturing power. America for valor. Meanwhile in the Confed- Eastward in Virginia, after several major and eracy, there was a great debate about whether bloody fights at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, to use slaves in the ranks or at least free the and then Cold Harbor, was Grant’s huge and slaves to finally gain international recogni- poorly conceived frontal attack. Finally, Grant tion. These measures were never adopted, O verview of the Civil War 37

however; a more sinister policy was enacted. trenches at Petersburg; the most spectacular The Confederate government did decree that was the “Crater,” when former miners in the white officers, along with their black soldiers Union forces dug a tunnel under the Rebel who were captured, were to be executed as earthworks and detonated tons of explosives, rebels in sedition.35 only losing the great opportunity by poor The Southern diplomatic campaign planning and poor leadership. So, as the win- failed—only one small German monarchy ter came, the trenches stretched farther and recognized the Confederacy as a sovereign farther, encircling Petersburg. nation. The great nations of Europe, France, Just before the presidential election in Spain, Great Britain, and Russia wanted South- November 1864, General Phil Sheridan, a ern cotton but would not lift a finger to help diminutive infantryman turned cavalryman, the Confederacy beyond selling war material won a string of decisive victories in Virginia’s and building Confederate ships for commerce once-bountiful . Here also, raiding and blockade running.36 Slowly but the inhabitants faced the flames of “total” surely, the South was starving and dying, and war. Lincoln won a landslide victory at the its only hope was to stop Grant and his hordes polls, carrying most of the North against in blue and continue to make the war an awful ­McClellan and peace Democrats. Victory was burden for the North. Little did they know now assured both politically and militarily. or understand the will and determination of The spring thaw of 1865 brought bleakness Americans in the Northern states. for the Southern rebellion. In one last, risky The military victory that sealed Lincoln’s attempt, General Lee cleverly withdrew from reelection and the Confederacy’s fate was Sher- his trench lines and marched west for freedom man’s capture of Atlanta on September 2, 1864. and stores of goods near ­Charlottesville and Then followed Sherman’s legendary march to Lynchburg. The Federals quickly pursued Savannah and to the sea. In this campaign, and surrounded his meager army after several Sherman introduced total war to Georgia and meaningless and wasteful battles that finally then to the Carolinas. The great campaign that ended in the parlor of a house at Appomattox. divided the South also broke the will of the Lee surrendered his field army, but there were Southern people. The Federals cut a swath still several armies afield and more battles to sixty miles wide that destroyed war resources fight and win for the North.38 and commodities. Rumors and myths evolved After Richmond fell to the Federals, Mr. later that Union troops burned all homes and Lincoln visited the capital of the Confed- destroyed all private property in their way. Of eracy but saw a gleam of hope for the once course, war causes destruction, but Sherman again united nation. Just days later, a cow- issued stern orders to maintain control, which ard’s bullet killed the great statesman and unfortunately were not always followed.37 father of freedom. Life slowly ebbed away from Lee’s once- The results of the bloody Civil War are still invincible Army of Northern Virginia; his with us. Historian Eric Foner labeled the events men were starving, provisions were meager, after the war, especially Reconstruction, as “the and the once-battle-hardened core of veterans unfinished revolution.” The nation’s failure to was mostly gone. There were battles in the establish and safeguard full citizenship and 38 Sherman L. Fleek civil rights for former slaves and to redeem the Lincoln declared, “a new nation” was born. South remains a tragic chapter in American The slaves were free, Constitutional amend- history. Books are still being written on every ments were added to define their freedom, major and minute subject possible; it remains the states were united, and a strong feeling of the most published and popular American reconciliation later grew from the ashes of war. war. More than 620,000 Americans perished. There was still much to do; the new freedmen The nation was once again united, but the had decades of prejudice to overcome, and the cost and memory of this war is still with us economic and political transformation of the today. Beyond the great sacrifice, as President South would occur for a century.

Sherman L. Fleek is command historian for the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.

Notes 1. James M. McPherson, : The Civil War (Charlottes­ville: University of Virginia Press, War Era (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 7. 2001), 29. 2. , ed., Churchill’s History of 7. See Nicole Etcheson, : Contested the English-Speaking Peoples (New York: Barnes & Liberty in the Civil War Era (Lawrence: University of Noble Books, 1995), 380–440. Kansas Press, 2004). 3. The Civil War was the deadliest war but not the 8. Millett and Maslowski, For the Common Defense, 172. bloodiest war; there is a difference. Some two- 9. Millett and Maslowski, For the Common Defense, thirds, roughly 417,000 soldiers, in the Civil War 171–72. died of natural causes, diseases, and accidents; some 10. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, 370–71. 206,000 or less died in battle or later from the results 11. Russell F. Weigley, The American Way of War: A His- of wounds. In World War II some 290,000 died in tory of the United States Strategy and Policy (Bloom- action; thus it is our bloodiest war. See Alan R. Mil- ington: University of Indiana Press, 1973), 151–52. let and Peter Maslowski, For the Common Defense: A 12. Millett and Maslowski, For the Common Defense, Military History of the United States of America (New 172–73. York: Free Press, 1994), 653. 13. See T. Harry Williams, Lincoln and the Generals (New 4. Bruce Catton, The Civil War (1960; repr., New York: York: Knopf, 1952), 300–302. Fairfax, 1980), 3. 14. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, 856–57. 5. The Whig Party was developed in the mid-1830s 15. Jeffrey D. Wert, The Sword of Lincoln: The Army of the by those opposed to President Andrew Jackson’s Potomac (New York: Simon and Schuster, 200), 55. campaign to end the Second United States Bank, 16. Peter S. Carmichael, ed., Audacity Personified: The which was a combination of both public and pri- Generalship of Robert E. Lee (Baton Rouge: University vate assets and funds. There were other issues that of Louisiana Press, 2004), xvii, 6–7, 12–13. caused the aligning of a new political party, many of 17. Peter Cozzens, Shenandoah 1862: Stonewall Jackson’s whom were former Federalists, but the opposition Valley Campaign (Chapel Hill: University of North to Jackson’s Democratic issues and platform were Carolina Press, 2008). major incentives. William Henry Harrison was the 18. Millet and Maslowski, For the Common Defense, 221. first Whig president, elected in 1840. 19. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, 376–77. 6. Charles B. Dew, Apostles of Disunion: Southern 20. Benjamin Franklin Cooling, Forts Henry and Donel- Secession Commissioners and the Causes of the Civil son: The Key to the Confederate Heartland (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1987). O verview of the Civil War 39

21. See Charles Bracelen Flood, Grant and Sherman: The 28. Patricia L. Faust, ed., Historical Times Illustrated Friendship That Won the Civil War (New York: Farrar, Encyclopedia of the Civil War (New York: Harper & Straus and Giroux, 2005). Row, 1986), 804–5. 22. Mark M. Boatner III, The Civil War Dictionary (New 29. Faust, Historical Times Illustrated Encyclopedia, 307. York: David McKay, 1987), 21. 30. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, 664–65. 23. Wert, Sword of Lincoln, 172–73. 31. Flood, Grant and Sherman, 188–89. 24. Gregory J. W. Urwin, The United States Infantry: An 32. See Michael Fellman, Inside War: The Guerrilla Con- Illustrated History, 1775–1918 (New York: Sterling, flict in Missouri during the American Civil War (New 1991), 85. York: Oxford University Press, 1989). 25. Geoffrey Perret, Lincoln’s War: The Untold Story of 33. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, 733. America’s Greatest President and Commander in Chief 34. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, 771–72. (New York: Random House, 2004), 294. 35. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, 565–66. 26. Catton, The Civil War, 109. 36. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, 837–38. 27. Edwin B. Coddington, The : 37. See Burke Davis, Sherman’s March (New York: Vin- A Study in Command (New York: Scribner’s Sons, tage Books, 1988). 1968), 6. 38. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, 848–52.