year both armies jockeyed for position in Virginia with THE LOUISIANA NATIVE GUARDS no results. In the West the war also slowed, as Confeder- ate and Union troops parried from June to November Organized in April 1861, t h e Louisiana Native 1863 in Tennessee. At the end of November, Gen. Ulys- Guards, an African American regiment, served in ses S. Grant finally drove Southern forces back to Geor- both the Confederate and Union armies. After gia. Although Georgia was now open to Union invasion, the fall of Fort Sumter, the free black community the long campaign in East Tennessee once again con- of New Orleans answered Jefferson Davis* call to firmed Confederate resiliency to check Northern inva- arms and formed an all-black militia unit. The sion. Many Northerners now accepted the fact that stra- regiment numbered 35 officers and 870 enlisted tegic victories alone, such as the capitulation of impor- men; more than 80 percent were mulattoes, indi- tant cities, would not compel Confederate forces to lay viduals having both white and black ancestry. down arms. Federal commanders would have to destroy Ignoring the unit's requests to fight, Southern the Southern army. military leaders relegated the regiment to parades Southern Strategy. Other events in 1863 also affected and other public displays* When New Orleans fell Confederate strategy on the battlefield. Defeats at Get- in April 1862, Confederate authorities quickly tysburg and Chattanooga, Tennessee (23-25 Novem- disbanded the unit before Northern soldiers occu- ber), shattered Southern hopes for a knockout blow pied the port. Union General Benjamin F, Butler through invasion of the North or European intervention. took control of the city in May, Attempting to Moreover, staggering casualties took their toll on the gain political favor with Republican officials, But- Confederate army, and the South found it increasingly ler mustered the African Americans, including difficult to secure new recruits. By the end of 1863 Con- many runaway slaves, into the Union army in Sep- federate officials hoped to defeat the Union at the ballot tember 1862, several months before the Emanci- box. They implemented a defensive strategy, hoping to pation Proclamation would officially sanction the prolong the war and break the Northerners' will to con- enlistment of black soldiers. They were formed tinue fighting. If this strategy worked, Southern leaders into three regiments, designated the First, Sec- were convinced that in the November 1864 elections the ond, and Third Louisiana Native Guard Infantry, North would elect a Democrat who would enter into im- In May 1863 the regiments fought at the battle of mediate peace negotiations to end the war and leave the Port Hudson, a Confederate stronghold on the Confederate nation intact. Mississippi River, Although they fought bravely, the attack was repelled by the Confederate de- Grant Takes Command. In 1864 Union president fenders and the Union commander placed the fort Abraham Lincoln faced an election year. Although under siege. Nevertheless the Louisiana Native fighting slowed down by J a n u a r y 1864, military successes Guards became the first black regiment to fight in during the previous summer and fall fed Northern expec- a major Civil War engagement. Afterward, like tations for a quick victory. To meet this demand, Lincoln so many other African American regiments, the turned to Grant and named him general-in-chief in Louisiana Native Guards were relegated to rear March. The new commander of Union armies planned to echelon details. wage a war of attrition, wearing down enemy forces with his superior numbers in troops and supplies. Grant de- Source: James G. Hollaodsworth, The Louisiana Native Guards; The Black Military Experience During the Civil War (Baton Rouge: Lou- signed a plan to coordinate movements in the Eastern isiana State University Press, 199S). and Western theaters: two armies would strike Confed- erate forces simultaneously to prevent Lee from moving Sources: reinforcements from one region to the other. While Dudley Taylor Cornish, The Sable Arm: Black Troops in the Union Army, Grant himself launched an offensive against Lee in Vir- 1861-1865 (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1987); ginia, Gen. William T. Sherman, Grant's replacement i n Shelby Foote, The Civil War, a Narrative: Fredericksburg to Meridian the West, would attack Confederate defenses in Geor- (New York: Random House, 1963); gia. With 115,000 troops under his command, Grant Mark E. Neely Jr., Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991). moved against Lee's 75,000-man army in May. Over the next six weeks, Lee continually checked Grant's advance in Virginia. Unlike previous Union commanders and de- THE NEW WAR OF ATTRITION spite an astonishingly high casualty rate, Grant refused Virginia. By the end of 1863 Northern hopes for a to retreat and kept moving his force south toward Rich- quick end to the war faded after Union troops failed to mond. The series of battles (the Wilderness, 5-6 May; capitalize on their July victories. Union general George Spotsylvania Courthouse, 8-12 M a y ; and Cold Harbor, G. Meade and his Army of the Potomac followed Robert 1-3 June) produced the war's heaviest casualties. Grant E. Lee's army into Virginia, but, like his predecessors, lost 60,000 men compared with 30,000 for Lee. By mid Meade failed to strike a crushing blow against the Con- June, Grant changed strategies and decided to bypass federate commander's crippled force. For the rest of the Richmond and strike farther south. THE CIVIL WAR 107 The Crater at Petersburg, Virginia Petersburg. Grant planned to hit the railroad junction stalled at the outskirts of Atlanta. With Northern at Petersburg, a town located twenty miles south of elections only a few months away, the Confederate Richmond which guarded the rail link to other Southern strategy of weakening Northern resolve seemed to be states. If it fell Grant could isolate the Confederate capi- working as the conflict drew to an apparent stale- tal and cut its communications to Southern armies in mate. other seceded states. Lee again challenged Grant's as- Sources: sault, however, and this time Grant viewed the high Bruce Catton, A Stillness at Appomattox (Garden City, N.Y.: Double- casualties as a sign to settle down for a siege against the day, 1953); Confederate trenches that stretched from Petersburg to William S. McFeely, Grant: A Biography (New York: Norton, 1981). Richmond. The Battle of the Crater. The frustration of the Un- SOLDIERS IN CAMP ion invaders trying to break through Confederate de- Waiting. Following Gettysburg both sides settled fenses at Petersburg was highlighted at the end of July. into camps or defensive fortifications during the long, Lt. Col. Henry Pleasants, the commander of the Forty- monotonous stretch from July 1863 to August 1864. As Eighth Pennsylvania Infantry, a regiment of former coal in any war, boredom filled the everyday life of Civil War miners, received permission to dig a mine under the en- soldiers. Union and Confederate fighting men averaged emy entrenchments and fill it with gunpowder. After fifty days in camp for every day in battle. Lulls in the detonating the explosives and blowing a hole in the Con- fighting allowed men to bond and build up morale before federate line, Union infantry would sweep around the the next frontal assaults decimated regimental strength abyss and attack the enemy flanks and rear. On 30 July and destroyed small-unit cohesion. 1864 the miners detonated the gunpowder and blew a Northern Camps. Reveille woke Union soldiers every huge crater in the Confederate fortifications. However, morning at five o'clock (six in the winter). After roll call instead of sweeping around the hole and attacking the and breakfast, the soldiers spent the rest of the day drill- rattled enemy flanks, Brig. Gen. James H. Ledlie sent his ing and marching. The daily drills were designed to men into the crater. The Federals quickly found them- break resistance to military authority and to make sol- selves trapped, and they became easy prey for Southern diers work as a cohesive unit. The Northern enlisted men sharpshooters. As he watched his men die like ducks in a hated it. "The first thing in the morning is drill, then shooting gallery, Grant lamented that the battle was "the drill, then drill again," wrote one frustrated bluecoat. saddest affair I have witnessed" and ordered a retreat. He "Then drill, a little more drill. Between drills, we drill finally settled down to a prolonged nine-month siege. In and sometimes stop to eat a little and have rollcall." In addition to this fiasco, news from Georgia mirrored the the afternoon the men spent most of their time preparing stalled operations in Virginia—Sherman's troops were their uniforms for the evening dress parade. The troops 108 AMERICAN ERAS: 185O-1877.