Mac Gregor
June 28th, 2011, 02:20 PM
The Union Forever: A TL
Please discuss this TL here (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=159784)
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/21566/21566-h/images/union.png
Hello everyone, the following is the start of a TL based on a different Peninsular Campaign in 1862. It is my intention to follow this TL if it proves popular enough past the Civil War and into the Twentieth Century. This TL hopefully will also demonstrate the powerful effect that small butterflies can have over time. Speculation and suggestions are more than welcome. Cheers.
Background
January-May 1862;
Union fortunes were looking up in the early months on 1862. After a largely lackluster performance for most of 1861 Federal troops had scored a series of impressive victories against the South. General Grant had captured the Confederate Forts Donnellson and Henry on February 6th and 16th respectively opening up the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers. Nashville, then the capital of Tennessee, fell by the end of the Month. The Union even managed a costly victory at the Battle of Shiloh on April 7th. General Pope captured Island Number 10 on the Mississippi River and over 7,000 prisoners on April 8th. Further south the largest port in the Confederacy fell to Admiral Farragut and General Butler on May 1st crippling the confederate’s use of the Mississippi River. Union forces were also making impressive headway by capturing points along the Confederate coastline.
Confederate reverses had severely dampened Confederate spirits. Indeed, when Jefferson Davis was formally installed as the President of the Confederate States of America (Previously he had just been provisional president) on a rainy day in Richmond when an onlooker asked one of Davis’s footmen why he and President Davis were dressed in black suites the footman responded with “Well Ma’am this is how we always have done in Richmond for funerals and such.” And with the large Army of the Potomac hovering north of the city many in the Confederacy were wondering whether their secessionist experiment might soon unravel.
The Beginning of the Peninsular Campaign and General McClellan’s Accident
With these successes in the west, Lincoln naturally pressed for similar results in the east. However President Lincoln and his eastern generals differed as to the performed method. He personally wished for, what appeared to him to be the obvious choice for, an overland campaign from Washington to destroy Johnston’s Army. The President however eventually bowed to General McClellan’s plan to land the Army of the Potomac on the coast of Virginia and then move onto Richmond.
The Union had been making steady but painfully slow progress up the Peninsular between the James and York Rivers sense March 1863 captured Yorktown, the former colonial capital of Williamsburg, and the vital naval base of Norfolk (the Confederates destroyed the CSS Merrimack to prevent her from falling into Union hands).
May 12, 1862; General McClellan must have been feeling very pleased with himself after the resent capture of Norfolk against what he consistently believed to be “vastly superior rebel numbers.” Whether this sense of overconfidence helped McClellan not see the shard of metal in the road on that spring morning however is lost to history. Around 8:00am after a light breakfast with some of his lieutenants, McClellan mounted his horse Baldy to inspect the camp and make his rounds amongst his troops. Unfortunately for McClellan however Baldy while trotting at a good pace along a fence line near Headquarters picked up 6 inch sliver of metal that had been protruding from the road (whether this piece of metal was placed there intentionally has never been proven). Because of the speed at which Baldy had been traveling the shard went through the frog of the forward right hoof. McClellan, despite being a confident horseman was thrown when Baldy came to an abrupt and jerking stop. McClellan would in all probability have been fine if it was not for the fence that ran alongside the road. As McClellan fell the fence caught him in the lower back breaking his spine. Captain Jeremiah O’Connor, one of McClellan’s aids was the first to reach McClellan. McClellan’s first words to O’Connor after realizing that he could not move his legs were “Who will save the Union now?.”
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Dm4sFu73cJo/SpQOaqSvBeI/AAAAAAAAT6A/U5Xa7B_koYs/s400/01aaa-abe-mcclellan.jpg
General McClellan
Army of the Potomac
Commander: July 26, 1861-May 13, 1862
General Sumner takes Command
and
the Death of Stonewall Jackson
http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:xhQ6L_q1EiQVqM:http://www.old-picture.com/civil-war/pictures/General-Sumner-001.jpg (http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.old-picture.com/civil-war/pictures/General-Sumner-001.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.old-picture.com/civil-war/General-Sumner-Edwin.htm&usg=__t3Uv-LMYemq8NmFtWJnqBQbbbXc=&h=816&w=584&sz=62&hl=en&start=1&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=xhQ6L_q1EiQVqM:&tbnh=144&tbnw=103&prev=/images%3Fq%3DGeneral%2BSumner%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%2 6rlz%3D1R2DKUS_en%26tbs%3Disch:1)
Maj. Gen. Sumner
Commander
Army of the Potomac
After being examined, Army surgeon Charles A. Hoffmann stated what McClellan already knew, that he was paralyzed from the waist down. News quickly spread of General McClellan’s incapacitation. The soldiers of the Army of the Potomac were needless to say devastated by the news of their “Little Mac’s” fall especially in the middle of a campaign. When President Lincoln heard the news, Lincoln is reported to have sighed, hung his head, and muttered “the one time the General takes my advice to move quickly he breaks his back.” To many this seems to have come at the worst time while Confederate General Stonewall Jackson was making himself a profound nuisance in the Shenandoah Valley and the Army of the Potomac was tied up on the Peninsula. Although despite cables from McClellan that he could still command from his HQ, Lincoln and Halleck both agreed that he would need to be evacuated and a new commander appointed.
With only limited discussion they both decided that Brig. General Edwin Vose Sumner, then the commander of the Army of the Potomac’s II Corps, would take command, Sumner the logical choice being the senior General officer on the Peninsular. When word reached General Sumner of his appointed as commander along with his pending promotion to Major General he remarked “Leave it to General McClellan to hand me a situation like this.” Sumner however was, as events would soon prove, more than up to the task.
Meanwhile, the Union was suffering some staggering reverses in the Shenandoah Valley. Confederate Maj. General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson had, with his few thousand troops, been scoring a series of victories against the north in the Shenandoah Valley since March in an effective effort to divert Union reinforcements from reaching McClellan on the Peninsula. Union forces had been largely unsuccessful in stopping Jackson despite their superior numbers.
However, Jackson’ impressive skill and luck did eventually run out. Confederate Maj. General Richard S. Ewell’s troops had been ordered to be withdrawn from the Valley in an effort to reinforce Richmond on May 20th, 1862 (Despite pleas for Robert E. Lee to leave Ewell in the Valley to assist Jackson, Jefferson Davis ordered Ewell’s redeployment because he believed that with the removal of McClellan a move against the supposedly weekend Army of the Potomac should take priority.)Jackson and the few remaining thousands of his foot cavalry were engaged by General Banks’ forces near the city of Strasbourg, Virginia on May 22nd. The battle seemed to be going well for the Confederates until Jackson, who was standing as did “Like a stone wall”, was struck from his horse by a Union bullet to the neck. Jackson bleed out within minutes and the sorrow and confusion surrounding his death led to the Union emerging victorious capturing the bulk of the late Stonewall’s men.
http://www.horsesoldier.com/catalog/jackson_is_with_you.JPEG
Gen. Stonewall Jackson moments before he was shot and killed.
May 22nd, 1862
Sumner’s Advance
http://www.yorkblog.com/cannonball/marching.jpg
May 25th- May 30th, 1862
General Sumner upon inheriting command of the Army of the Potomac wasted no time in continuing to drive up the Peninsular towards Richmond. News of Stonewall Jackson’s death at Strasbourg, Virginia was welcomed news as this meant that Union Maj. General John Pope’s Army of Virginia was now free to press the Confederates from the North.
The Confederates were in a bind.. Richmond was in serious danger of becoming encircled with Sumner’s Army of the Potomac advancing up the Peninsular in the east and Pope’s Army of Virginia heading south, placing it in a position to envelope the city north, west, and maybe even cut Richmond’s supply lines from the south. Furthermore, Southern morale was plummeting and desertions rose as a result of the Yankees advancing ever closer to the Confederate capital in addition to the death of Stonewall Jackson.
Jeff Davis along with his military aid General Robert E. Lee met with General Johnston at his HQ on May 25th. Davis, with Lee’s encouragement, felt that Johnston should move offensively against Sumner on the Peninsula. They felt that if the Army of the Potomac suffered a serious reversal (Jeff Davis was operating on the ultimately unfounded conviction that the death of General McClellan had crippled the AotP’s morale) it would retreat down the Peninsula allowing Confederate forces to then turn against Pope in the north. Johnston however, largely due to his numerical inferiority, believed in a more defensive strategy. He hoped that Sumner would grind his army to a pulp as the Army of Northern Virginia fell back onto Richmond. Johnston also suggested that Ewell’s troops, bolstered by some reinforcements from his own army, could hold Pope’s force in check. Davis for now agreed to Johnston’s defensive strategy but stated that if an opportunity to move against Sumner appeared that Johnston should take it.
The Battle of the Chickahominy
and
the Fall of Richmond
http://ro3011.k12.sd.us/event/pics/civilwar.jpg
Union forces at the onset of the Battle of the Chickahominy
June 1-June 6th, 1862
What became known as the Battle of the Chickahominy (The Four Days Battle to the South) started with General Sumner leading a general advance against the Confederate defensive positions outside of Richmond on June 1st, 1862. Although Johnston had diverted troops to prop up his northern defenses the Confederates managed to hold their works against Union attacks for most of June 1st and June 2nd. On the evening of June 2nd in light of the apparent Southern success Davis ordered Johnston to attack the Army of the Potomac in the morning. Although Johnston was wary of switching to the offensive, he realized the significance that a successful attack would have (Historians have also debated whether Johnston feared being relieved by Davis if he refused to attack). On June 3rd Johnston ordered a counterattack against the Union’s left south of the Chickahominy. The resulting Confederate attacks pushed the Federal forces under General Keyes back almost a mile. However around 4:00pm the Confederate forces, who had suffered heavy casualties, ran out of steam as they encountered Union entrenchments anchored a few hundred yards from the Chickahominy River. By 5:30 general Johnston was forced to call off the advance.
On the night of June 3rd both sides stopped to mull over the situation. Davis and Johnston were relatively pleased with the day’s results. The Federals had been pushed back and Davis believed that Sumner would at least withdraw his troops to the north side of the Chickahominy to consolidate his forces. Sumner however, had different plans. Sumner believed, correctly as events would show, that Johnston’s center must have been stretched dangerously thin and that he probably did not expect the North to resume the battle the next day. That night Sumner ordered Sedgwick’s corps to prepare pontoon bridges for use the next morning. At a council of war Gen. Sumner convened that night his Generals were surprised to hear that despite the day’s losses, the Army of the Potomac would again attack the Confederates, who were now exposed outside of their defenses, led by a river assault by Sedgwick’s s II Corps.
Around 7:30 am on June 4th, the Union line exploded by launching one of the heaviest artillery barrages of the war. Within an hour the Union’s left and centered were surging against the weakened Confederate lines. The Union’s right under General Porter was also making considerable headway and was threatening to turn the Confederate left. By 1:00pm the Confederate right was in danger of being cut off by Sedgwick’s advance and began a headlong retreat west towards Richmond. The Union continued to advance the rest of the day and although casualties were high on both sides the Confederates, due to their inferior numbers, were forced to fall back to within only a few miles of Richmond itself.
On the night of June 4th President Jefferson Davis was forced to listen to the advice of Johnston and Lee who informed him that Richmond must be abandoned. There decision to evacuate Richmond was also influenced by an erroneous report that Ewell had been defeated by Gen. Pope at Gordonsville, Virginia the same day (In reality Pope had in the end been checked by Ewell and had fallen back). Regardless, much of the Confederate governments records and treasury had already been packed and was ordered shipped to Greensboro, North Carolina. Jefferson Davis and most of the other members of the Confederate Government left Richmond on June 5th, 1862.
The Battle of Richmond was anticlimactic as Confederate forces fighting a regard action, moved through the city heading south. On the morning of June 6th, 1862 Union forces entered the capital of the Confederacy. When the Stars and Stripes was raised over the Virginia statehouse a Union private yelled to General Sumner “If only Little Mac could see us now!”
http://www.anselm.edu/academic/history/hdubrulle/WarandRevolution/graphics/Paintings/Civil%20War%20Richmond%201865.jpg
Richmond, June 6th, 1862
Confederate Choices
http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:97124CF-SNbp9M:http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war/1861/november/army-potomac-camp.jpg (http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war/1861/november/army-potomac-camp.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war/1861/november/army-potomac.htm&usg=__ZAj5vVHTUZUmK0FsMaZ1Ov0Okh4=&h=644&w=916&sz=144&hl=en&start=2&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=97124CF-SNbp9M:&tbnh=103&tbnw=147&prev=/images%3Fq%3DArmy%2Bof%2Bthe%2BPotomac%26um%3D1%26 hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4DKUS_enUS313US314%26tbs%3Disch: 1)
Union troops relaxing
Richmond, Virgina
June, 1862
June 7th-June 12th 1862
When Abraham Lincoln, pacing around the Washington telegraph office as he often did, received the news of the fall of Richmond he is reported to have jumped for joy so high that he hit his head on the office’s ceiling. Indeed the entire North was electrified by the fall of the Confederate capital. Harper’s Weekly ran above a full page illustration of General Sumner the headline “The Conqueror of the Confederacy”. Even the usually somber New York Times blared “Glorious News, Richmond Rightfully Ours!”
If the North was ecstatic, needless to say Confederate moral was devastated by the loss of Richmond. The fall of Richmond was a serious blow to Confederate hopes of receiving foreign recognition. Confederate agent John Slidell in a letter addressed to President Davis from London about a week after receiving news of Richmond’s capture stated “The loss of our capital has silenced almost all discussion here of recognition of our Southern republic. “ On June 10th as the Army of Northern Virginia continued to head south Davis relieved General Johnston and placed General Robert E. Lee in command. Lee moved the Army of Northern Virginia to a position a few miles south of Petersburg, Virginia to lick his army’s wounds. Lee had to double the night watch around his camp as desertions, especially amongst Virginian troops, continued to increase at an alarming rate. General Ewell’s forces, who had bested Union Gen. Pope at Gordonsville, were being hurriedly routed to reinforce Lee before they were cut off by Northern troops.
http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:IfbpUiheEvLzCM:http://www.historyplace.com/civilwar/cwar-pix/lee-1.jpg (http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.historyplace.com/civilwar/cwar-pix/lee-1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.historyplace.com/civilwar/&usg=__j3x8YRW0h7OS0niHrS-ITc6IgY0=&h=576&w=410&sz=43&hl=en&start=1&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=IfbpUiheEvLzCM:&tbnh=134&tbnw=95&prev=/images%3Fq%3DRobert%2BE%2BLee%2B1862%26um%3D1%26hl %3Den%26rlz%3D1T4DKUS_enUS313US314%26tbs%3Disch:1)
Gen. Robert E. Lee
Army of Northern Virginia
Commander
On June 12th, Jefferson Davis, along with Confederate Secretary of War George W. Randolph, met with General Lee at his Headquarters. All three of the men present knew that if the military situation couldn’t be righted and quickly, the Southern cause was lost. But what to do? It appeared to Davis that he was ever increasingly in a no win scenario. Basic military strategy would dictate that the weaker force (i.e. the South) should be on the defensive. However the defensive strategy the Confederacy had been pursuing since the start of the war seemed now to have met with almost nothing but defeats. If they continued on the defensive it would appear that the Confederacy would continue to be slowly strangled by the encircling Union armies. If Davis went over to the offensive however the potential loss of Lee’s Army would be an irreversible calamity.
http://www.scv674.org/LEEHQ%20Flag.gif
Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, 1862
Events however, were becoming desperate. Desertions were skyrocketing, the value of Confederate money was plummeting, and several in the Confederacy were now beginning to contemplate rejoining the Union if only a guarantee of slavery could be made. The later sentiment was especially strong in the states of Tennessee and Virginia which were now largely in Union hands. If these states reverted back into the Union, Davis believed, the Confederacies chances of survival would become slim indeed. Therefore, despite the discrepancies in strength, it was agreed that as soon as possible General Lee should move against the Army of the Potomac along with a similar offensive push by Confederate Armies in the Western theater.
The Western Theater
http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:SNAlv56LO4bJYM:http://www.nndb.com/people/244/000101938/braxton-bragg-1-sized.jpg (http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.nndb.com/people/244/000101938/braxton-bragg-1-sized.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.nndb.com/people/244/000101938/&usg=__aSpg37XAWeBZ6qgahsl9lE0t3lw=&h=333&w=241&sz=20&hl=en&start=2&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=SNAlv56LO4bJYM:&tbnh=119&tbnw=86&prev=/images%3Fq%3DBraxton%2BBragg%2Bimages%26um%3D1%26h l%3Den%26sa%3DN%26rlz%3D1T4DKUS_enUS313US314%26tbs %3Disch:1)
Gen. Braxton Bragg
Commander
Army of the Mississippi
June-July, 1862
The Western Theater had been going well for the Union. Corinth, Mississippi had fallen shortly after the battle of Shiloh. Jefferson Davis had replaced General Beauregard with General Braxton Bragg as commander of the Army of the Mississippi after Beauregard left for medical leave without permission following the fall of Corinth. Although Bragg had proposed an invasion of Kentucky via Confederate controlled eastern Tennessee, Davis instructed Bragg to move against Gen. Buell in Nashville. The reasons for a move against Nashville were two fold. Firstly, as the state capital, Nashville’s recapture would go a long way in helping silence any talk of Tennessee returning to the Union. Secondly, in the event of a defeat, an Army invading Kentucky would run the serious risk of becoming cut off and captured. Bragg’s move towards Nashville was planned to coincide with Lee’s proposed move in Virginia in order to tie down the maximum number of Confederate troops.
http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:KiJleyUiefcSjM:http://americancivilwar.com/north/Union_Generals/General_Buell.jpg (http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://americancivilwar.com/north/Union_Generals/General_Buell.jpg&imgrefurl=http://americancivilwar.com/north/Union_Generals/Don_Carlos_Buell.html&usg=__eQtX0xfnF2eb2FDBQTiM3-04qS4=&h=663&w=500&sz=46&hl=en&start=1&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=KiJleyUiefcSjM:&tbnh=138&tbnw=104&prev=/images%3Fq%3DGen.%2BBuell%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rlz %3D1T4DKUS_enUS313US314%26tbs%3Disch:1)
Gen. Don Carlos Buell
Commander
Army of the Ohio
The North however was having considerable difficulty in capturing Vicksburg that, along with Port Hudson, was blocking Union use of the Mississippi River. Attempts to bombard it into submission had met with failure. Gen. Grant was then dispatched with considerable forces to capture the city and open the river.
Lee and Bragg Advance
July-August, 1862
On July 27th, 1862, in the swelter summer heat the Confederate Armies of Northern Virginia and of the Mississippi began their advance towards their Federal counterparts. Both Bragg and Lee hoped that their offensives would liberate the two confederate state capitals that had fallen into Yankee hands. Bragg’s plan was simply, move directly against Buell in Nashville and capture the town before Union reinforcements in western Tennessee came to his aid.
Lee’s plan however was more complex. Lee intended move his forces westward around Richmond and advance towards Washington. Sumner, Lee predicted, would move out of his fortifications in Richmond and engage him. This plan was undoubtedly risky. If Lee was victorious the Union would have vacated Richmond, and if the Army of the Potomac was mauled enough be cut off from its supplies and lines of retreat to the north. On the other hand if Lee was defeated his lines of retreat would be cut off. It was a definitely a gamble but with the diminishing Confederate fortunes, Lee was willing to risk it to prevent the subjugation of his native state.
http://www.philadelphia-reflections.com/images/GenRobertELee.jpg
Gen. Robert E Lee as he advances north into Union occupied Virginia
The Siege of Nashville and Lee’s movements in Northern Virginia
http://www.detectors-surplus.com/capitol.jpg
Tennessee State Capitol and barracks for the Union during the Siege
August, 1862
The Siege of Nashville began on August 6th, 1862 when the vanguard of Gen. Bragg’s Army of the Tennessee drove in outer elements of Gen. Buell’s Army of the Ohio. Buell’s army took up their defensive positions around the city. Bragg, for now, enjoyed a rough numerical parity with the Federals. On the morning of August 8th, Bragg launched his attack on Buell’s forces south of the Cumberland River. These morning attacks were in the end both costly and a failure. Confederate General Leonidas Polk, a cousin to former U.S. President Polk, was mortally wounded by Union artillery during the assault. A devout Episcopal Bishop, General Polk’s final words were “I thank God that he has called me to him so as my eyes will not witness the fall of the South”. To the absolute bewilderment of Jefferson Davis, Bragg refused to launch follow up attacks and settled down into a siege of Nashville, the whole time begging for reinforcements the Confederacy, with another ongoing campaign in Virginia, could hardly spare. In the meantime the Union was rushing reinforcements to the relief of Nashville from other parts of Tennessee and Kentucky. The clock was running against Bragg, a fact that he seemed to totally disregard.
Meanwhile in the east, Gen. Lee was moving rapidly and was passing north of the Army of the Potomac, which was still in Richmond. President Lincoln had been disappointed with General Sumner’s lack of progress since the Confederate capital fell and was adamant that Sumner now move to intercept Lee before he reached the Washington defenses. Sumner complied leaving a small force to garrison Richmond, and started to move the large Army of the Potomac north in what many believed would be the deciding battle of the war.
The Rappahannock Campaign: Part 1
http://americancivilwar.com/civil_war_map/upper_Potomac_1861.jpg
Map of Northern Virginia, 1861
August 10-14, 1862
The Army of Northern Virginia was making impressive headway in the direction of Washington. It overcame its first obstacle by pushing through a detachment of dismounted Union cavalry at the Battle of Culpepper Courthouse on August 11, 1862. Lee’s plan was to continue to push north through Brandy Station and cross the Rappahannock River at Rappahannock Station. Once north of the Rappahannock, Lee planned on giving battle from a defensive position where Lee’s disadvantage of numbers could be marginalized. Lee had no illusions of totally destroying the Union Army, but with any luck the main body of the Army of the Potomac, now approaching from the south, would be defeated and then retreat towards Washington. Lee would then turn south and reoccupy Richmond, returning the Confederate capital to Southern control and giving the South a desperately needed boost in morale.
Union commander General Sumner however was not merely chasing Lee north. Taking advantage of the railroad and river networks in Northern Virginia, Sumner had decided to dispatch General Hooker’s I Corps north to be routed through Alexandria, Virginia to establish a blocking position north of the river at Rappahannock Station. Meanwhile the rest of the Union army would approached Lee from the South and box him in. In a sense it became a race against time to see who could arrive at this import river crossing first.
Lee continued to advanced north capturing Brandy Station on August 12 but only after unexpectedly stiff resistance by the small Union garrison. The next day Lee arrived at the Rappahannock shocked to see a large number of Federal Troops disembarking off the trains and drawing themselves into position north of the river. Lee, it was reported, was surprised to see such a large element of the Army of the Potomac to his north instead of trailing him to the south. Lee was now faced with a decision, he could 1) Order a hasty attack across the river and keep advancing towards Washington. or 2) Remain in Brandy Station and await a Union attack. Lee chose the former but ordered a night reconnaissance of Union positions north of the river to ascertain their strength.
On the morning of the thirteenth, Confederate scouts reported to Lee that the troops on the North bank of the Rappahannock consisted only of Hooker’s I Corps. The scouts also reported that Sumner with the rest of the Federal Army was fast approaching from the Southeast. Around 9:00am Lee assembled his commanders to discuss the situation. The Confederate forces did enjoy a numerical advantage against hooker’s troops to the north and if they could be defeated the Army of Northern Virginia could then turn its attention to Sumner when he arrived with the Union main body. However, this plan was not without risks. Hooker’s men had spent the night entrenching and crossing the river would be tough. In the end it was decided that Hooker’s Corp should be eliminated before the arrival of Sumner. The only Confederate Corps commander who voiced reservations was Gen. Longstreet who favored either skirting Hooker to the west or remain on the defensive and wait for a Union attack.
http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:HlgDIuJ1f0mBRM:http://www.old-picture.com/mathew-brady-studio/pictures/General-Hooker-001.jpg (http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.old-picture.com/mathew-brady-studio/pictures/General-Hooker-001.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.old-picture.com/mathew-brady-studio/General-Hooker-Joe-001.htm&usg=__2SCMCG_CZ2ECLfwRzFc3Y1VdMng=&h=771&w=532&sz=44&hl=en&start=2&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=HlgDIuJ1f0mBRM:&tbnh=142&tbnw=98&prev=/images%3Fq%3DGeneral%2BHooker%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%2 6sa%3DN%26rlz%3D1T4DKUS_enUS313US314%26tbs%3Disch: 1)
Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker
I Corps
Army of the Potomac
The Battle of Rappahannock Station began around 3:00pm on August 13th, 2010. With only a few hours to prepare and after a brief artillery barrage, the attack commenced with Confederate troops surging against the Union positions. Yankee guns overlooking the river crossing caused considerable Confederate casualties. For over three hours Lee made steady by costly process as he managed to force the Federals back. The Confederate assault was hindered by Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart who had been ordered to flank the Federal position from East. For reasons that remain unclear to this day, Stuart maneuvered his cavalry in a dashing but ultimate to wide of an arc around the Union position so that his forces did not join the battle for nearly four hours.
http://www.civilwarhome.com/images/stonesriver.jpg
Artist depiction of the Confederate assault across the Rappahannock
As twilight approached Hooker ordered his severally battered Corps to fall back, leaving the Confederates in possession of the northern bank. Lee had scored his much hoped for victory over a Union army. However, the Confederates triumph had come at an extremely high price. A price that Lee’s already outnumbered army could hardly afford as the main body of the Army of the Potomac approached from the South.
The Rappahannock Campaign: Part 2
The Battle of Warrenton
and
the Defeat of Gen. Robert E. Lee
http://www.old-picture.com/civil-war/pictures/Warrenton-Virginia-001.jpg
Warrenton, Virginia 1862
August 15-20, 1862
The morning following the Battle of Rappahannock Station was a bitter sweet moment for General Robert E Lee. He had scored a victory against the North but only after suffering severe casualties to his own force. He now was faced with three options 1) cut his losses and head South to avoid being trapped, 2) Continue to follow his original plan and turn and face Sumner somewhere north of the Rappahannock, or 3) Continue on towards Washington. Lee decided that he did not possess the forces to take Washington and if he continued on towards the Union capital he was going to be running the serious risk of becoming completely cut off from his line of retreat. Option 1 which was favored by some on his staff was also ruled out because it would not allow them to reoccupy Richmond, their chief objective. Therefore Lee decided to move to the town of Warrenton, Virginia located 13 miles north of Rappahannock Station and give battle to General Sumner who was hot on their tails. Warrenton was selected because if Sumner could be defeated it would allow him a clear line of retreat northward towards Washington, allowing the South in turn to reoccupy Richmond. It was also rumored that Warrenton had Union depots. Depots with food and supplies that Lee’s army desperately needed.
The Battle of Warrenton, which would prove to the deadliest battle in the Civil War, started on August 18, 1862 with an inconclusive skirmish between Confederate soldiers and forward elements of Union cavalry. August 19th, consisted of only sporadic skirmishes as the Confederates dug in and the Union forces drew themselves into position in a long line south of the town that curled northwards on both the eastern and western flanks. On August 20th at 9:00am Sumner launched the largest artillery bombardment of the war so far on the center of the Confederate line for over three hours. What would become known as Burnside’s Charge (named after Gen. Ambrose Burnside, commander of the Union IX Corps) occurred at 12:30pm when Sumner ordered a full scale assault on the battered Confederate center. The wooded terrain helped mask Union movements, but after almost 4 hours of repeated charges and countercharges the Confederate were still able to hold onto their works. (Historians have often criticized Sumner’s assault on the Confederates center, but it is important to note that it was Burnside’s Charge which forced the Confederates to weaken their left flank to reinforce their center on the night of August 19th that allowed for the decisive actions the next day.)
http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:AEcGhf5MHAvlhM:http://www.old-picture.com/mathew-brady-studio/pictures/Sedgwick-General.jpg (http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.old-picture.com/mathew-brady-studio/pictures/Sedgwick-General.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.old-picture.com/mathew-brady-studio/Sedgwick-General-USA-John.htm&usg=__A3CRRQ2k3yaDmTlSio7Vj56u1BI=&h=762&w=532&sz=52&hl=en&start=3&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=AEcGhf5MHAvlhM:&tbnh=142&tbnw=99&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dgeneral%2Bsedgwick%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den %26sa%3DN%26rlz%3D1T4DKUS_enUS313US314%26tbs%3Disc h:1)
Gen. John Sedgwick
II Corps
Army of the Potomac
For Lee, everything had been going according to plan. Sumner was attacking an entrenched Army of Northern Virginia and, so far, had been losing. Unfortunately for the South however Union superiority in numbers was about to decide the day. On the morning of August 20th, Union Gen. John Sedgwick of Connecticut launched a surprise attack against Lee’s weakened left flank. The previous night Sedgwick had convinced Sumner to not renew Burnsides attack on the Confederate center but instead reinforce his II Corps. Sumner also ordered the Union troops in the center and left to shuffle positions and make noise during the night to distract the Southerners. Sedgwick’s attack caught the Southerners off guard. Although the attack was very costly for both sides, the Army of Northern Virginia was so weakened from the previous week’s fighting that they did not have the numbers to match the Union’s. By 4:00pm General Lee was forced to order his Army to withdraw to the northwest. Lee then began preparations for the long retreat home and began to realize that his armies’ chances for survival were dropping by hour…
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Clovenfeld's famous depiction of the Assault of Sedgwick's II Corps at the Battle of Warrenton (1913)
The Relief of Nashville
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Confederate works outside of Nashville, August 1862.
August 22nd,1862
As Bragg’s Army continued to besiege Nashville following his failed assault on the city on August 10, 1862, the Union had been amassing reinforcements on the north bank of the Cumberland and had steadily been building up forces in the city. The besieged Buell was soon joined by Gen. Halleck and his troops from the eastern part of the state. By August 20th Bragg had released that he was now facing a superior force. Ruling out another assault, Bragg contemplated withdrawing to Chattanooga, Tennessee before he became hopelessly outnumbered. However, orders from President Davis not the retreat and the very real fear that he would be relieved if he did prompted him to continue to dither and bombard the city.
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Union troops charging the Confederate works at Nashville. Aug 22, 1862
On the morning of August 22nd, Buell and Halleck launched their assault against the Confederates entrenched on the outskirts of the city after a fierce artillery barrage. Bragg’s army performed rather well and made the Federals pay dearly for any ground gained. However by 2:00pm Union numbers and with Confederate artillery shells nearly depleted Bragg ordered his Army to withdraw. Although Bragg’s performance at Nashville has left much to criticize, Bragg did manage to facilitate an orderly withdraw allowing most of the Army of the Mississippi (soon to be renamed the Army of Tennessee) to retreat in good order.
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One of the Union bands during the Siege of Nashville
It is also worth to note that on the evening of August 22nd, as Bragg withdrew, Gen. Halleck ordered, as Gen. Sumner had after the successful conclusion of the Battle of Warrenton, one of the regimental bands to play the song Battle Cry of Freedom which would in later years and after some alterations become the national anthem of the United States. (Original lyrics listed below)
“Yes we'll rally round the flag (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_the_United_States), boys, we'll rally once again,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom,
We will rally from the hillside, we'll gather from the plain,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
(Chorus)
The Union forever! Hurrah, boys, hurrah!
Down with the traitor, up with the star;
While we rally round the flag, boys, rally once again,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
We are springing to the call with a million freemen more,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
And we'll fill our vacant ranks of our brothers gone before,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
Chorus
We will welcome to our numbers the loyal, true and brave,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
And although he may be poor, not a man shall be a slave (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_slavery_in_the_United_States),
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
Chorus
So we're springing to the call from the East and from the West,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
And we'll hurl the rebel crew from the land we love best,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
Chorus"
Jefferson Davis was devastated when the news reached him of Bragg’s defeat. Despite a close relationship with Bragg, Davis relieved him three days following the battle and appointed General Joseph E. Johnston who had been without command since The Battle of the Chickahominy. This defeat coming so soon after Lee’s defeat in Virginia made the already dismal mood in the South to plummet even faster. Jefferson Davis now realized that his August offensives had now both meet with failure. Davis also realized that these twin defeats would only strengthen the now growing voices of dissent in his own government. On August 25th, Jefferson Davis recorded in his Journal “I am at my wits end, what can be done now?….”
Lincoln’s plan for Emancipation and Reconstruction
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President Abraham Lincoln
September, 1862
With the war having been going well for the Union for the past few months, Lincoln now saw an opportunity to move on the two crucial issues of the conflict, reintegrating the southern states into the Union and slavery.
In the beginning of the war Lincoln had been very reluctant to move against slavery for fear of upsetting the Border States. However, the resent string of Northern success had done much to silence voices of discontent in the Border States as well as the Copperheads in the North. Following the twin victories at Warrenton and Nashville, Lincoln, who was currently enjoying enormous public support for the conduct of the war, now felt in pertinent to make the his first steps towards abolishing slavery and restoring the Union. On September 1, 1862 Lincoln issued a Proclamation of Emancipation and Restoration of the Union (or P.E.R.U. to the millions of American school children who would have to memorize passages of it over the centuries). Lincoln had been working on and revising this since the darker days earlier that year. The Proclamation stated
"That on the first day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.”
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Portrait of Lincoln discussing the P.E.R.U with his cabinet.
Confederate states that were exempted from this Proclamation were Tennessee, Virginia, and Louisiana which were mostly under Union control. The Proclamation continued by stating that any state which is currently in rebellion that rejoined the Union by March 1, 1863 would be spared the effects of the Proclamation. The Proclamation spelled out the process by which states could rejoin the Union. 1) By having a majority of a state’s legislature take an Oath of Allegiance to the Government of the United States and repeal their ordinance of succession (expelling any politicians who did not take the oath) or 2) after 10% of a state’s population had taken the Oath of Allegiance form a new state government. The proclamation also stated that any citizen, with the exception of top tier Confederate government and military officials, would be unconditionally pardoned upon taking the Oath of Allegiance.
Lincoln’s reasoning for issuing this Proclamation was multifaceted. On the one hand it was mainly a military measure which was intended to sap the slave power on which the Confederacy operated. Lincoln continued to believe and maintain that the restoration of the Union was the chief aim of the War and that this proclamtion would only speed up the Union's victory. Secondly, it would cause even more splintering in the Confederate government and state governments as many politicians who had become disgruntled with the Davis administration might see this as a way out of the war. Thirdly, it would appease the more radical elements in his party who were begging for the President to deal with slavery. Lincoln doubted whether the Deep South would comply but believed that the Upper South would be seriously tempted by the proposition.
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Slaves in a Union occupied portion of Louisiana, 1862.
Reaction to P.E.R.U. varied considerably. Fredrick Douglas cheered the proclamation as a step in the right direction. Other’s derided it as it only freed slaves that were outside Lincoln’s control. Democrat’s generally were appalled by the proclamation. They believed that Lincoln, yet again, had over stepped his constitutional authority. When news reached the South, Jefferson Davis lashed out at the Proclamation declaring that it was “intended to insight slave insurrection and the massacre of the white race.” The proclamation however greatly empowered Union sympathizers, conditional Unionists, and moderates who saw rejoining the Union as their last chance to save slavery in their states and avoid going down in flames with the now largely discredited Confederate Government.
General Lee’s Long Retreat
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General Robert E. Lee
Late 20th Century Portrait
As the Army of the Potomac was licking its wounds following its costly victory at Warrenton, Lee wasted no time heading south to safety, in a series of maneuvers and battles that U.S. military officers would study for centuries to come. Lincoln was adamant that Sumner move swiftly and capture the remnants of Army of Northern Virginia. However, Sumner continuously underestimated General Lee who repeatedly bested Union efforts to capture his force for the next several weeks.
The chief Union blunder of this campaign was that as Lee fell back they did not concentrate their forces against him. Sumner only sent slightly more than half of his large army against Lee leaving the more mauled units in the north to recuperate. Lee was able to briefly re-liberate the city of Charlottesville, Virginia after he overran the small union force that had been sent to block his line of retreat. Later at the Battle of Lynchburg, General Lee was able to soundly repulse a Union attempt to capture his Army, allowing him to slip south over the James River.
In the end on October 1st, 1862 after traveling nearly 200 miles from Warrenton, Lee reached the relative safety of Danville, Virginia which he proceeded to fortify in earnest. President Jefferson Davis had ordered Lee to not proceed any further south than Danville as Davis believed it was paramount for the Confederacy to retain a presence in Virginia. Lee’s conduct during the past several weeks revealed him to be one of the ablest Southern commanders of the war. Indeed, in future years historians would often speculate what Confederate fortunes might have been had General Lee been given command of the Army of Northern Virginia earlier in the war before Union victories, such as Richmond, sapped Southern strength and morale.
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Photograph of Confederate works under construction outside of Danville, Virginia
November, 1862
As winter approached, General Sumner, with his deteriorating health, accepted an offer President Lincoln had made weeks earlier. On October 7th, 1862 General Sumner relinquished command of the Army of the Potomac and headed to Washington to aid Lincoln as General in Chief of the Union Armies. Although his choice for a replacement was not without controversy amongst the other Union corps commanders, Sumner picked the man who replaced him as II Corp commander as the new leader of the Army of the Potomac, Major General John Sedgwick. Sedgwick had performed very well at the Battle of Warrenton and was popular with many officers in the Union Army. Sedgwick’s promotion would prove to be an important steppingstone to his political career after the War.
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Maj. General John Sedwick (far right)
Commander
Army of the Potomac
1862 Midterm Elections, the Invasion of Eastern Tennessee, and the Investment of Vicksburg
Despite Lee’s resent victories in Virginia, the Republicans were rightfully confident as they moved into the November elections. In the elections the Republican Party increased their majorities in both the House and Senate. Republican gains however were less than predicted, possibly due to the survival of the Army of Northern Virginia and resentment by some over the P.E.R.U. Nonetheless, Lincoln saw these electoral successes as resounding support for the conduct of the war and as an endorsement for the P.E.R.U. Republican canidates also did well in many of the state elections.
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Railroad Bridge acoss Platt Creek: Knoxville Tennessee, December 1862
Meanwhile in the Western Theater, Lincoln was on the verge of accomplishing one of his goals since the start of the war, the liberation of eastern Tennessee. The non-slave holding citizens of East Tennessee had overwhelmingly voted against succession in 1861. Lincoln had initially wished to liberate this mountainous portion of Tennessee and possible bring it into the Union as it’s on state, as had been done with West Virginia. However, by this point in the War most of western Tennessee had already been liberated and if the eastern part of the state could be redeemed than Tennessee stood a good chance of becoming the first southern state to return to the Union.
On November 19th, 1862, after leaving a sizable garrison in Nashville, the Union Army of the Ohio under General Henry Halleck moved towards Knoxville (Halleck had formally taken over command from General Buell weeks earlier due to Buell’s poor performance during the early stages of the Siege of Nashville and lack of pursuit of Johnston). Johnston’s Confederate Army of Tennessee was stationed in the ever increasingly fortified city of Chattanooga in the southern part of the state. Although Johnston was urged by Jefferson Davis to move north and intercept Halleck, Johnston was able to convince the Confederate President that it would be unwise for his battered force to move into a Unionist part of the state, in winter, to engage a superior Yankee force. Therefore, Johnston’s Army remained behind its works in Chattanooga. Nashville was liberated on Christmas Eve 1862. When word reached Lincoln on Christmas morning he replied that it was “with the exception of the infant Savior, the best Christmas present ever received.” With Nashville capture, eastern Tennessee was finally returned to Union control. Indeed the only part of the state that was still in Confederate hands was Chattanooga. As both armies settled into winter quarters, Unionist elements in Tennessee were making plans on their state’s return to the Union.
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Maj. General Ulysses S. Grant
Army of the Tennessee
Commander
Meanwhile in Mississippi, the Army of the Tennessee under Major General Ulysses S. Grant was making steady progress towards the Confederate strongpoint of Vicksburg. On December 29th, 1862 at the Battle of Chickasaw Bluffs Confederate Lt. General John C. Pemberton was able to hold off a Union force nearly three times its size for almost 10 hours against the determined advances of Maj. General William T. Sherman. Although the victory was a tactical Confederate success Pemberton was forced to retire under the protection of Vicksburg’s defenses. Pemberton had in the months leading up to the Battle of Chickasaw Bluffs been having an increasingly difficult time recruiting and retaining his Confederate troops due the string of Southern defeats in other theaters of the war. Pemberton also felt that his supplies had been unfairly redirected east to prop up the collapsing Tennessee and Virginia fronts. In the days following the battle Grant’s forces began to besiege this all important city to determine who would control the mighty Mississippi River.
Brief Overview of the Military Situation
January 1st, 1863
United States of America
Capital: Washington D.C.
Major Union Armies
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Army of the Potomac: Commanded by Major Gen. John Sedgwick. Currently occupying most of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
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Army of the Tennessee: Commanded by Major Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. Currently besieging Vicksburg, Mississippi.
http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:H16dFE-sK-HnBM:http://www.nps.gov/archive/peri/images/Major%2520General%2520Henry%2520Halleck.jpg (http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.nps.gov/archive/peri/images/Major%2520General%2520Henry%2520Halleck.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.nps.gov/archive/peri/halleck.htm&usg=__36shwm_IGsv9q4Cl_R1NwK08l2k=&h=300&w=250&sz=14&hl=en&start=1&sig2=Lh3uYPqwOsVd-pzrd50xWA&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=H16dFE-sK-HnBM:&tbnh=116&tbnw=97&prev=/images%3Fq%3DHenry%2BHalleck%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26 rlz%3D1T4DKUS_enUS313US314%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=eoRDTPGUIY74swOQt-yLDA)
Army of the Ohio: Commanded by Major Gen. Henry Halleck. Currently occupying most of Tennessee.
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Army of the Gulf: Commanded by Major Gen. Benjamin F. Butler. Currently occupying the southern half of Louisiana.
Naval Forces
The United States Navy has undergone a dramatic expansion since the start of the war. Naval gunboats are currently heavily engaged on the Mississippi River in the offensive against Vicksburg and in actions in Louisiana. The Union Navy is ever increasingly tightening its blockade on the Southern coastline.
Confederate States of America
Capital: Greensboro, North Carolina (President Davis and much of the War Department resided at the time in Danville, Virginia along with the Confederate Virginia State Government).
Major Confederate Armies
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Army of Northern Virginia: Commanded by General Robert E. Lee. Currently in Danville, Virginia.
http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:6ys-iNEq_r77NM:http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/shubert/images/chap5a.jpg (http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/shubert/images/chap5a.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/shubert/chap5.htm&usg=__oodslRq6dYaIrnh0AkU9qv19V3U=&h=490&w=450&sz=35&hl=en&start=3&sig2=7Ape-pGHzQHvENG5rSd1Jw&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=6ys-iNEq_r77NM:&tbnh=130&tbnw=119&prev=/images%3Fq%3Djoseph%2Be%2Bjohnston%26um%3D1%26hl%3 Den%26rlz%3D1T4DKUS_enUS313US314%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=3YRDTLXFOYKWsgP0mbSVDA)
Army of Tennessee: Commanded by General Joseph E. Johnston. Previously known as the Army of Mississippi. Currently defending Chattanooga, Tennessee.
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Vicksburg Defenses: Commanded by Lt. General John C. Pemberton. Currently besieged in Vicksburg, Mississippi.
Naval Forces
The Confederate Navy is mostly concerned with protecting blockade runners in bringing in much needed supplies to the South. Southern Naval forces are slowly but surely being eliminated as the greater industrial potential of the North takes its toll. Confederate commerce raiders such as the CSS Alabama (which narrowly avoided being impounded in England by the British government) are making a name for themselves by harassing Union shipping in the Atlantic.
The South’s Winter of Discontent
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Jefferson Davis
President
Confederate States of America
January, 1863
As the War entered its second winter the political situation in the Confederate States of America was deteriorating at an alarming pace. The South had introduced conscription in 1862 to shore up its manpower shortage. As Confederate fortunes declined in the second half of 1862 the central government ever increasingly drew men and supplies form the various Southern states. Jefferson Davis’s heavy handed approach coupled with his apparently disastrous handling of the war so far began to form fissures in the Confederate political establishment. Those that opposed Davis’s centralizing policies include several Southern state governors who resented their men and supplies being sent out of state. The most prominent of which were Joseph Brown, Zebulon Vance, and Pendleton Murrah the Governors of Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas respectively. Another prominent Southern dissenter against the Davis administration was none other than Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens from Georgia.
http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:8JWTtlA0w0TxUM:http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/Confederat_Cabinet_Photos/Alexander_Stephens.jpg (http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/Confederat_Cabinet_Photos/Alexander_Stephens.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/Confederate_Cabinet.htm&usg=__CgqtRSDJ_qXKGBGsMXbEt-GIs2Q=&h=1378&w=1113&sz=213&hl=en&start=1&sig2=QGTC5RJC8nQEc2N9LKL82A&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=8JWTtlA0w0TxUM:&tbnh=150&tbnw=121&prev=/images%3Fq%3DAlexander%2BStephens%2B1863%26um%3D1% 26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26rlz%3D1T4DKUS_enUS313US314%26 tbs%3Disch:1&ei=00BGTKySOY30swPBqeDtAQ) http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ugmtVQJ5rx-7OM:http://community.berea.edu/cwaltp/AmnestyAssets/vancefinal.gif (http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://community.berea.edu/cwaltp/AmnestyAssets/vancefinal.gif&imgrefurl=http://community.berea.edu/cwaltp/&usg=__6yBonokZIGsGlS34ByUc-eyOTHw=&h=331&w=274&sz=24&hl=en&start=4&sig2=3TOgB-8X5aRy0m95FhN1mg&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=ugmtVQJ5rx-7OM:&tbnh=119&tbnw=99&prev=/images%3Fq%3DZebulon%2BVance%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26 rlz%3D1T4DKUS_enUS313US314%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=IEFGTPjWOo_2swOG4bDoAQ) http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A1DnlyE-SV6NpM:http://www1.american.edu/bgriff/dighistprojects/boyle/images/brown.jpg (http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www1.american.edu/bgriff/dighistprojects/boyle/images/brown.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www1.american.edu/bgriff/dighistprojects/boyle/biographies.htm&usg=___QxR6hLyKPLVzuhQmCoM-gBeNsE=&h=225&w=167&sz=24&hl=en&start=3&sig2=ilUCtUzJZaTNyxmM51-QVQ&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=A1DnlyE-SV6NpM:&tbnh=108&tbnw=80&prev=/images%3Fq%3DJoseph%2BBrown%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26s a%3DX%26rlz%3D1T4DKUS_enUS313US314%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=RkFGTKLpDoHUtQPGmMzvAQ) http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:mL73urCpirRUGM:http://s3.hubimg.com/u/237646_f260.jpg (http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://s3.hubimg.com/u/237646_f260.jpg&imgrefurl=http://hubpages.com/hub/Governor-Pendleton-Murrah-of-Texas&usg=__VrLBJHG7P9LobbPpRvPgXOMOCVY=&h=393&w=260&sz=19&hl=en&start=3&sig2=PVuCS8PJaIJRZtVBqW3RvA&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=mL73urCpirRUGM:&tbnh=124&tbnw=82&prev=/images%3Fq%3DPendleton%2BMurrah%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den %26sa%3DG%26rlz%3D1T4DKUS_enUS313US314%26tbs%3Disc h:1&ei=S0JGTPaRMoiisQPu1eHtAQ)
Southern opponents to the Davis Administration
(from left to right; VP Stephens, Gov. Vance, Gov. Brown, and Gov. Murrah)
In early January 1863, Jefferson Davis called a series of meetings with prominent Confederate leaders in the Southern capital of Greensboro. Those present included Davis’s Cabinet, Alexander Stephens, Confederate congressional leadership, representatives from certain state governments, and military leaders including General Robert E. Lee. At these meetings, now known to historians as the Winter Conferences, Davis was deeply disturbed by the defeatist attitudes of many of the political leaders. Davis believed that although the South had suffered alarming setbacks in the past months the cause was not lost. If the full might of the South’s resources could be effectively pooled, the Confederate President continued to maintain, the Confederacy could reverse its recent defeats and grind the North down until the Union was forced to recognize Southern independence.
Therefore at the end of these Winter Conferences, in order to shore up the depleted Confederate ranks Jefferson Davis in late January, 1863 began lobbying for what became known as the Davis-Seddon Act which called for increased conscription, allowed for the suppression of seditious talk and media, and granted the Confederate government increased powers in procuring supplies from the various Southern states. This proposal sparked enormously hostile debate in the Confederate Congress and the various state governments as many politicians balked at the idea of rendering more men and supplies to the central government while their own states appeared to be on the verge of invasion. Indeed it seemed to challenge the very notion of state’s rights that the Confederacy was founded upon. As events would show the proposed Davis-Seddon Act would be one of the steppingstones that would eventually lead to what some historians would refer to as the “Confederate Civil War.”
Lincoln’s Plan for Victory
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Abraham Lincoln
President
United States of America
January, 1863
As the Jefferson Davis was making his plans during these quieter winter months so was Lincoln. In January, 1863 President Lincoln devised the North’s plan to win the war with advise from, General in Chief Sumner, Secretary or War Stanton, Secretary of the Navy Welles, and even General Sedgwick who was called up from Richmond,. With reports of Southern political turmoil over conscription and Davis’s handling of the war Lincoln believed that, as soon as possible, all of the Union’s armies should move against their Confederate counterparts. This simultaneous pressure all along the borders of the Confederacy would, Lincoln hoped, make the best use of the North’s superiority in numbers and not allow the Confederacy to use its interior lines to shuffle troops from front to front.
Lincoln’s intentions were to try and peel off the states of the Upper South, and Texas if possible, and bring them back into the Union first as they had the largest numbers of unionist citizens and therefore more apt to rejoin the Union. The decision to move into Texas an Arkansas however was not very popular with many in the Union military. Sumner and Stanton argued that with Vicksburg likely to fall soon, Arkansas and Texas would be cut off and could be left to wither on the vine. Lincoln however believed that with these states cut off from the Confederacy they would be more likely to rejoin the Union, especially if they could be liberated before the P.E.R.U. freed their slaves. Lincoln was also adamant about establishing a presence in Texas to send a signal to the French troops in Mexico that, as Lincoln put it to an aide, “they ain’t welcome in this hemisphere.”
The plan was as follows. Butler’s Army of the Gulf would push north, taking Port Hudson on the Mississippi and liberate the rest of Louisiana. Following this Butler would turn west and push into Texas. Grant’s Army of the Tennessee, after taking Vicksburg some time in this winter, would split up. Two Corps under the command of Maj. General William T. Sherman, later known as the Army of the Mississippi, would move into Arkansas where unionist sympathies were believed to be on the rise. Grant aided by reinforcements from the north would head east and take central Mississippi. Meanwhile, Halleck would take his Army of the Ohio liberate Chattanooga, and then push on and capture the key railroad junction of the City of Atlanta. Sedgwick, with the Union’s largest army, would move against Lee at Danville, and then on to the Confederate capital in Greensboro. Together, so it was thought, these offensives would finish liberating the states of Virginia, Tennessee, Louisiana, take most of Texas and Arkansas, and for the second time capture the Confederate capital. In short, if successful the war could be over in a matter of months.
Tennessee Returns to the Union
February, 1863
As the wintering armies made their preparations for the upcoming military offensives, Tennessee politicians were busy launching their offensive to return to the Union. On January 29, 1863 unionist politicians held a convention in Nashville to discuss their state’s future. Most of the Confederate Tennessee State Legislature boycotted the convention and remained in Chattanooga under the protection of Johnston’s Army of Tennessee. However, enough of the population according to the Proclamation of Emancipation and the Restoration Union (P.E.R.U.) had taken the oath of allegiance (mostly citizens from eastern Tennessee) to form a new state government.
As all present were Republicans or Unionist Democrats the main discussion was not whether to return to the Union, but whether to return to it as a Slave or Free State. The debate raged for three days until finally a compromise was struck. Tennessee would petition to return as a slave state, but with a provision in the state’s new proposed constitution that would abolish slavery by January 1st, 1865. Slave-owners who took the oath of allegiance to the United States and the new state government could receive finical compensation from the Federal Government. The State of Delaware had adopted a similar gradual compensated emancipation plan by a slim margin a few months earlier. Andrew Johnson (D) the current military governor of Tennessee and the only southern senator to have remained loyal to the United States was, in a surprising move, elected provisional governor by the Republican controlled assembly. This was probably an effort to win back wayward Tennessee Democrats.
http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:fgauh2tiPK-GTM:http://formaementis.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/andrew_johnson.jpg (http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://formaementis.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/andrew_johnson.jpg&imgrefurl=http://formaementis.wordpress.com/tag/slavery/page/2/&usg=__-Zi-LKAgCkpnsYSlG_HS0j5rAgs=&h=599&w=491&sz=35&hl=en&start=2&sig2=MhzLncJPf7NLPBS_ibPAaw&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=fgauh2tiPK-GTM:&tbnh=135&tbnw=111&prev=/images%3Fq%3DAndrew%2BJohnson%2B1863%26um%3D1%26hl %3Den%26rlz%3D1T4DKUS_enUS313US314%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=NDJKTP36M4i8sQPttdlI)
Andrew Johnson
Provisional Governor of Tennessee
1863
When Tennessee’s petition, reached Congress there was a serious chance that the Republican dominated body might reject it because it would be tantamount to readmitting a slave state. However moderate Republicans, Democrats, and support from the Lincoln administration was able to secure its passage. Therefore on February 15, 1863 Tennessee became the first Confederate State to rejoin the Union.
When news reached Jefferson Davis, he lambasted it as an “illegitimate attempt by abolitionists and rabble-rousers to subvert a Southern state to Northern tyranny” as did many in the Deep South. However, in other parts of the Upper South, such as Virginia and Arkansas, moderates saw it as a practical compromise and continued to make their own plans for their states’ restoration to the Union.
The Fall of Vicksburg
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Artisit depiction of the Siege of Vicksburg
Early February, 1863
February,1863
Ulysses S Grant’s Army of the Tennessee had been pounding away at the Confederate defenses for over a month. Grant’s forces at this point had swollen to 80,000 men. Meanwhile Confederate Lt. Gen. Permberton’s troop strength had been reduced to a mere 27,000 and his men were running dangerously low of artillery shells.
From February 14-16, the Union army blasted the Confederate works with over 200 pieces of artillery. This barrage was supplemented from the river by Rear Admiral Porter’s gunboats. On the evening of February17th, Grant ordered an assault against the northern Vicksburg defenses which were easily repulsed. Undeterred, Grant ordered two more assaults on the 18th and 20th which meet with similar failure.
Following these failures, Grant began to prepare for a new assault to be led by Maj. General William T. Sherman and his XV Corps. This assault was to be preceded by a feint in the south by Maj. General John Parke’s IX Corps. While Confederate attentions were distracted to the south, Sherman’s forces, after a ferocious but short artillery barrage were to advance in loose formation, taking advantage of all possible cover, and seize a section of the Confederate northern defenses. On the evening of February 20th the assault was carried out and was successful in making a hole in the Confederate lines.
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Elements of Sherman's XV Corps overwhelming the Confederate lines.
February 20th, 1863
On the following day, General Grant offered terms to the battered Confederates. If they surrendered their arms and swore never to fight against the government of the United States they would be paroled. With the breach in the Confederate lines and the near depletion of their ammunition General Pemberton was forced to agree. The city and defenses of Vicksburg surrendered the next day on February 22nd, 1863. Port Hudson, Vicksburg’s Louisianan counterpart would surrender to Maj. General Butler’s Army of the Gulf five days later when news of Vicksburg fall reached the poorly supplied Confederate garrison. Together, the fall of Vicksburg and Port Hudson in February 1863 finally returned control of the continent’s greatest river to the United States.
The Danville Campaign
and
the Surrender of Robert. E. Lee
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Union Seige Gun on the outskirts of Danville, Virginia
May, 1863
March-May 1863
Since October of 1862, the Armies of the Potomac and of Northern Virginia had done little more than skirmish with each other. Lee’s forces had turned the countryside around Danville into a proverbial fortress with a series of forts, redoubts, and defensive positions ringing the city and protecting the railway which served as the cities lifeline to the rest of the Confederacy. Sedgwick’s army had been preoccupied for most of the winter with suppressing guerrilla bands and occupying the lion’s share of Virginia.
Starting on the Ides of March, components of the Army of the Potomac started making their way south. Altogether, these forces totaled 125,000 men. However, tens of thousands of these were used for logistical support and securing the army’s lines of communications. Behind the formidable Danville trenches laid Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia with only 50,000 men under arms. As with Lee’s spectacular escape and evasion following the Battle of Warrenton, his conduct in the Danville Campaign against the Union’s far superior numbers would cement his reputation as one of the top Confederate commanders of the war, despite never actually winning a campaign.
The first battle of the campaign accured when forward Confederate elements ambushed a reconnaissance detachment of Union cavalry at Halifax, Virginia on March 23rd, 1863. As would be the story for most of the campaign, Southern forces performed well, until superior Union numbers forced their withdrawal due to fear of encirclement. In a similar fashion on April 1st at the Battle of South Boston, a town about 30 miles east of Danville, Confederates under the immediate command of General James Longstreet held up nearly twice their number for two days until Union cavalry threatened to cut off his line of retreat. On April 3rd, Union forces north of Danville at the Battle of Dry Fork were able to evict the Confederate garrison only after a costly assault.
By April 20th, 1863 Major General John Sedgwick’s Army of the Potomac had encircled nearly 75% of the Danville defenses. The remaining open 25% included the railroad to the south which served as the city’s lifeline to the rest Confederacy. The Confederates were doing their utmost to keep the railway open through a series of counter attacks and flanking movements by Southern cavalry to draw off Union forces. For the next 30 days Federal forces continued to close the vise of Danville. By the first of May, the Confederate Virginia politicians who had taken refuge in the city during the winter had all fled to North Carolina, as had most other Confederate officials. The notable exception being President Jefferson Davis, who, much to the annoyance of General Lee, was determined to remain in the city as long as possible. On May 20th, 1863 General Lee informed President Davis that he must leave the city as the window for escape was closing fast. Lee informed Davis that he and many of his fellow Virginians would stay behind and perform a rearguard action as he and units from other states escaped towards Greenville, NC. Davis seeing the writing on the wall reluctantly accepted.
On May 21st, Davis and a sizeable number of the remaining Confederate soldiers under General Richard H. Anderson of South Carolina managed to leave Danville and slip into the relative safety of North Carolina. On May 23rd, Danville’s railway was cut by Union troops and the city completely surrounded. Two days later on May 25th, 1863 and only hours before the Union was to launch a massive assault against the city, General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to General Sedgwick at his HQ at Patterson’s Farmhouse. Thus, the Commonwealth of Virginia was now entirely back in the control of the United States.
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Artist depiction of Patterson's Farmhouse. Now a museum in Danville Civil War Sate Park.
Aftermath of the Battle
The roughly 18,000 troops that were captured in Danville were paroled. This number included General Lee who was surprised and deeply touched by General Sedgwick’s benevolence. This started a close friendship between Sedgwick and Lee that would last until Lee’s death several years later (Sedgwick would serve as one of Lee’s pallbearers).
Meanwhile, Virginia politicians had been meeting in Richmond for much of the campaign and were hotly debating whether Virginia should return to the Union as one or two states. News of Lee’s surrender did much to break the legislative deadlock. By a three vote margin Virginia voted to return to the Union as a single state. Exempt form the P.E.R.U.’s provisions on slavery, Virginia opted for compensated gradual emancipation in much the same way as Delaware, Tennessee, and Louisiana had (Louisiana became the second Southern state to return to the Union in early May 1863). Virginia set June 1st, 1866 as its date for complete emancipation. Virginia’s proposal for readmission was narrowly accepted by Congress a few weeks later.
Jefferson Davis, now in Greenville, NC with the rest of the disintegrating Confederate government, began to realize for the first time that the war was lost. However, Davis was a man of strong conviction and could not bring himself to contemplate capitulation and so the war continued on…for now.
The Trans-Mississippi Theater
March-May, 1863
Sherman’s March through Arkansas
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Maj. General William T. Sherman on horseback in Arkansas
May, 1863
After the fall of Vicksburg on the 22nd of February, 1863 Grant as planned divided his forces. Two corps totally roughly 24,000 men under the command of Maj. General William T. Sherman headed northeast into the Confederate held Arkansas. Sherman entered Arkansas roughly a month after the P.E.R.U. had freed all the slaves in the state. Therefore, as Sherman advanced towards his objective, the state capital in Little Rock, his army (now known as the Army of the Mississippi) became one of the first Union armies to start emancipating the newly freed slaves.
Sherman’s march through Arkansas is also noteworthy in the way he managed his logistics. Instead of maintain a long and precarious supply train from the Mississippi River, Sherman decided that his forces could “live off the fat of the land” on the unspoiled Arkansas countryside. This was a dangerous move to conduct so early in the spring, and the Union forces procurement of local food and fodder angered many. Although many Arkansas residents curse Sherman’s name to this day the actual damage done by his army was minimal and mostly fell on Confederate loyalists and wealthy slave holders.
In order to defend the state capital Confederate General Sterling Price began amassing his forces in Little Rock. Sherman’s rapid advance through the state however gave Price little time to properly fortify the city or train his new recruits, many of which had been harshly pressed into service. On May 2nd, 1863 Sherman’s Army of the Mississippi engaged Price’s Army of Missouri in the Battle of Little Rock. General Price was mortally wounded by Union artillery early in the battle, and chaos reigned as the Confederate troops who were rushed to the battle fled their still unfinished trenches. The next morning, Sherman triumphantly entered the city. The raising of the Stars and Stripes over the statehouse was accompanied by the singing of the Battle Cry of Freedom by local unionists, who had remained dormant since the start of the war but who were now cropping up in ever greater numbers.
Butler’s Defeat
After the fall of Port Hudson, Maj. General Butler with his Army of the Gulf started Lincoln’s long awaited invasion of Texas. Unfortunately for the North the campaign would end in one of the worst Union defeats of the War. Beginning on April 29, 1863 the two day Battle of Carthage (that is Carthage, Texas) saw Butler’s forces soundly defeated by the numerically inferior Army of Western Louisiana under Maj. General Richard Taylor. Butler was forced to retreat back into Louisiana, were Lincoln promptly relieved him of command, replacing him with Maj. General Nathaniel P. Banks. Back in Louisiana, Banks waited on Sherman to complete his campaign so they could combine forces and make a second attempt at invading Texas. This defeat was a major setback for pro-Union elements in Texas and was a serious factor in Texas remaining in the Confederacy.
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Maj. General Nathaniel P. Banks
Commander
Army of the Gulf
Halleck in Tennessee
and
Grant in Mississippi
April – June, 1863
The Battle of Chattanooga and the Invasion of Georgia
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Chatanooga, Tennessee
March, 1863
On April 1st, 1863 Maj. General Henry Halleck with his 47,000 man Army of the Ohio began its movement against Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston’s 28,000 man strong Army of Tennessee which had spent the winter fortifying the city of Chattanooga. Johnston’s Army had been severely weakened due to President Jefferson Davis siphoning troops away from the army to be sent to General Lee in Virginia or to General P.G.T. Beauregard’s new Army of Mississippi (not to be confused with Sherman’s Army of the Mississippi) which was being formed to defend Jackson, Mississippi from Grant’s invading army. In the ensuing campaign Johnston proved to be a master of defense. However, as the Confederacy was being pressed in all theatres by superior Union numbers and internally by the ever widening schisms in the Southern political establishment Johnston was never able to concentrate enough forces to repel Halleck’s advancing army.
The Battle of Chattanooga began on April 16th, 1863 when the Army of the Ohio began bombarding Johnston’s defenses. Johnston was able to stall Halleck’s assaults through a series of well organize counterattacks that always seemed to shore up the Confederate lines just as they were about to break. However, when news of Lee’s surrender at Danville reached Johnston’s HQ he knew that his days in Chattanooga were numbered as vast Union reinforcements would soon be on their way to encircle his dwindling army. On June 2nd, 1863 Johnston withdrew from Chattanooga towards Georgia with Halleck’s army in hot pursuit. Johnston’s plan was to take advantage of the hilly north Georgia countryside and fight a series of defensive battles as he fell back towards Atlanta along the Chattanooga-Atlanta railway.
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Chattanooga after being set onfire by retreating Confederates
June 2nd, 1863
Before the Confederates left however, they set fire to many of the militarily important buildings in the city. Unfortunately for the citizens of Chattanooga the fire quickly spread and soon ravished the majority of the already battered city. The burning of Chattanooga was significant as it was one of the few cities to be so utterly destroyed during the course of the war. Furthermore the city's apparent destruction at the hands of Confederate troops sent shockwaves throughout the South that the Confederacy would now do anything to prevent its cities from falling into Yankee hands. This strengthened the already growing peace faction in the South who saw quickly ending the war as their only chance for survival.
Grant in Mississippi
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P.G.T. Beauregard
Commander
Army of Mississippi
As Sherman was advancing on Little Rock and Butler was blundering into Texas, Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant was pushing east towards Jackson, Mississippi with his 40,000 man Army of the Tennessee. Jackson, the state capital, was defended by Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard of Louisiana who could only muster less than 25,000 troops many of which were state militia. Beauregard had distinguished himself in the early days of the war, but his reputation had steadily declined as the war progressed. Now, with Mississippi threatened, President Davis was rushing troops from other theaters to defend his native state.
The Battle of Jackson took place on April 7th, 1863. During the battle General Grant decisively defeated Beauregard’s army which was still in the process of forming. To his credit, when it became clear that the more numerous and better equipped Union army was going to emerge victorious, General Beauregard withdrew his troops in good order and headed east towards Alabama. Grant, as was his fashion, followed closely on Beauregard’s heels. Grant’s pursuit of Beauregard became known as “The Great Dixie Derby” due to the unusually fast rate at which the armies moved.
The Collapse
of
the Confederacy
June-July, 1863
The Confederate Government flees Greensboro
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An artist's stylized depiction of the Confederate capital's return to Montgomery, AL (1863)
After Lee’s surrender at Danville, General Sedgwick (who had recently been promoted to General in Chief after General Sumner’s resignation due to poor health) wasted no time in heading south to capture the Confederate capital at Greensboro, North Carolina. Jefferson Davis realized that General Richard H. Anderson’s Army of the Carolinas, formally the Army of Northern Virginia, was in no condition to defend the city and the capital would have to be moved. Unlike earlier in the war, many Southern governors now saw harboring the Confederate Government more as a liability than an asset. Atlanta or another city in North Carolina were ruled out due to the hostility of Governors Brown and Vance who respectively claimed that the central government should as Brown put it “find another place to end its days.” Davis suggested that the capital be moved to either Charleston or Columbia, South Carolina until news came that Charleston had been captured by a Union Army/Navy Taskforce under the command of Maj. General Quincy Gillmore on June 5th. Therefore the remaining members of the Confederate Congress decided to return the capital to Montgomery, Alabama and abandoned Greensboro to the advancing Union Army on June 7th, 1863.
General Anderson with his Army of the Carolinas, which now numbered only 21,000 men, planned on moving around Sedgwick’s Army of the Potomac and wreaking havoc in the Union’s rear, possible even reinvading Virginia. However, General Sedgwick’s superior numbers allowed him to block Anderson at every turn forcing him to fall back further and further.
The Confederate Civil War
What many Civil War historians call “The Confederate Civil War” began in earnest on June 15th, 1863 when in a surprising move Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens confronted President Davis in his makeshift office in Montgomery. Stephens claimed that the war was lost and that Davis should either sue for peace with Lincoln or resign as President. Jefferson Davis, whose relationship with Stephens was already severely strained, was deeply troubled at what he took to be treasonous comments from his Vice President. Davis stated that he had sworn to uphold the Confederate Constitution and would do so for as long as he was able. Stephens then replied that if that was Davis’s answer he would be left with no choice but to urge Congress to impeach Davis.
The legality of impeaching Davis, presumably because of his abysmal conduct in running the war, was and has been hotly debated to this day. The Constitution of the Confederate States of America maintains that the President may be impeached for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors." Davis believed that the impeachment charges that he was brought up on were, at the very least baseless and more likely open treason against the Commander and Chief during wartime. For the next four days the Confederate capital was, in what some historians call “The Battle of Montgomery” the scene of passionate debates, street battles, and a race as both Davis and Stephens’s supporters clamored for votes (and even moved troops into the city) to support their respective causes. However on June 19th, Davis, by a slim margin received enough votes to stop from being removed as President of the Confederacy
News of the “Battle of Montgomery” did much to discredit the Confederate government else wear in the South. As the Army of the Potomac was chasing Anderson’s forces across the state, Governor of North Carolina Zebulon Vance, a long time critic of Jefferson Davis, asked the state legislature to secede from the Confederacy. This was do to the central government’s apparent inability to defend the state and in an effort to stave off further destruction. On, June 23rd, 1863 the state narrowly passed its second ordinance of secession in three years. Georgia followed North Carolina out of the Confederacy three days later. As such, Georgia and North Carolina troops started leaving the Confederate armies in droves.
The Surrender of Anderson and Johnston
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Gen. Richard H. Anderson
Commander
Army of the Carolinas
With North Carolina and Georgia now technically out of the Confederacy, the Confederate armies positions within those states became untenable. Through a double envelopment General Sedgwick was able to trap Anderson’s army outside of Salisbury, NC on June 27th. Anderson was forced to surrender his battered and starving forces two days later.
Meanwhile in Georgia, Halleck’s Army of the Ohio inflicted a crippling defeat on Johnston’s dwindling Army of Tennessee at Resaca on June 29th. The devastating news of Anderson’s surrender in North Carolina reached Johnston the next day. This information along with the fact that the Georgia government would no longer supply his forces made Johnston surrender his deserting army on July 1st, 1863.
The Impeachment of Jefferson Davis and the End of the Confederacy
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Alexander Stephens
2nd President of the Confederate States of America
July 3-4, 1863
The succession of North Carolina and Georgia, coupled by the twin dissolutions of the Confederate armies of the Carolinas and Tennessee was the last straw for the Davis administration. On July 3rd, 1863 the Confederate Congress formally impeached and removed Jefferson Davis as President of the Confederacy. Alexander Stephens was sworn in as the second and last Confederate President at noon in a somber and sad ceremony. On the same afternoon news reached President Stephens that General Grant had finally caught up with and captured P.G.T. Beauregard’s Army of Mississippi only 50 miles west of Montgomery during the costly Battle of Selma.
In light on the disastrous developments of the past two weeks (or perhaps more appropriately the past 14 months since the fall of Richmond), President Alexander Stephens and the remaining members of Congress officially dissolved the Confederate States of America in a tearful cession at 10:00am on July 4th, 1863 as the Star and Bars was lowered for the last time from over the city. When news reached the North later that day, it sparked off the greatest Independence Day celebrations that the nation had ever seen. In a torch light speech delivered to an audience on the Whitehouse lawn President Abraham Lincoln stated that “the Almighty God has seen fit to bless us with victory in this great civil war, but it will be up to us to win the peace.”
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Confederate States of America
February 8, 1861 - July 4, 1863
The Immediate Aftermath of the War
and
the Start of Reconciliation
July-September, 1863
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Artist depiction of Confederate forces surrendering their colors
July, 1863
Following the dissolution of the Confederacy in early July the rest of the South not already subjugated fell to the North in rapid succession. The advancing Union armies wasted no time occupying the state capitals not already under their control. On their way Federal forces enforced the P.E.R.U, freeing hundreds of thousands of slaves in a matter of weeks. The State of Texas, which had remained basically free of Union troops during the war, was the last Southern state to be occupied. When General Sherman’s army arrived in the state capital of Austin at the end of July Sherman proclaimed that under the P.E.R.U all slaves in Texas were now and forever free. For this reason July 29th is often celebrated as Emancipation Day in many parts of the United States.
Throughout the South, the defeated Confederate forces were almost invariable paroled after their military munitions had been confiscated. The few exceptions were top military and political leaders such as Jefferson Davis who was arrested by Ulysses S. Grant’s forces as the former confederate president was making his way home to Mississippi. Davis would spend several months in prison before eventually being pardoned by President Lincoln. Davis, who was still immensely unpopular in the South for his conduct in managing the war, went into exile in Europe for the rest of his life. Jefferson Davis would die in London in 1873 of phenomena never having returned to the United States. Other former Confederate generals and politicians, such as Alexander Stephens, would spend short times in prison before being released. Many of these leaders would be banned from voting or holding elected office for the rest of their lives.
In what would become known as Reconciliation, Lincoln outlined his top priorities for the post-war United States. 1) The return of all Southern states still outside of the Union under his 10 percent plan, 2) Ensure that the P.E.R.U is enforced in the Deep South, 3) Complete the compensated emancipation of slaves in the Border States and Virginia, Tennessee, and Louisiana, and 4) Establish a new Homestead Act that would provide land grants to settlers (including freed slaves) in the western territories. It is also worth noting that with the war now over Lincoln began the movement of troops to the Rio Grande under General Sherman to send a message to the French forces, who had recently captured the Mexican capital, that their presence was not welcomed.
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A Union victory parade in Washington D.C.
late July, 1863
Summary
In the end, the American Civil War proved to be the costliest war in American history up to that time, resulting in an estimated 315,000 deaths both North and South. Property damage although significant was relatively light considering the scoop of the war. Indeed of all Southern cities, Chattanooga stands out as the most damaged of the war, while other major urban centers such as Richmond, Atlanta, and New Orleans emerged from the conflict mostly unscathed. Slavery was virtually destroyed by the war. With the institution only remaining in a strip of states in the center of the country, all of which with plans for complete emancipation within a few years.
French withdraw from Mexico
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Emperor of the French, Napoleon III
October 1863-January 1864
The French, along with the British and Spanish, had invaded Mexico in early 1862 with the stated intention to force Mexico to pay debts owed to the European Powers. It soon became apparent to the British and Spaniards though that the Second French Empire under Emperor Napoleon III was actually intent on conquering the Latin American country. Accordingly, Britain and Spain withdrew from Mexico a few months later. Unfortunately for the reformist government of Mexican President Benito Juarez, the French stayed and were able to successful capture the Mexican capital in June of 1863.
With the Civil War now won, President Lincoln was adamant that France’s violation of the Monroe Doctrine would not stand. Lincoln, having already moved thousands of Federal troops to the Mexican border, ordered a naval blockade in October of 1863 to block the arrival of French reinforcements. This blockade, coupled with Austrian Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian’s earlier rejection of an offer to be made Emperor of Mexico, forced the French Emperor to rethink his intentions. Bereft of British and Spanish assistance Napoleon III realized that he could not risk a war with the United States whose army and navy were still swollen from the Civil War.
In light of what was widely viewed to be a situation that would only deteriorate for the French, Napoleon III made the decision to get out while he was ahead. In a deal mediated by the United States in January of 1864, it was agreed that French troops would be withdrawn if President Benito Juarez would promise to honor Mexico’s debts to France. With French forces occupying Mexico City, and therefore little room to maneuver politically, President Juarez reluctantly accepted.
This agreement allowed all sides to claim victory. France had achieved it stated war aim, although it was far short of Napoleon III’s real desire to build a New World Empire, and showed that Napoleonic France was a major world power able to project itself anywhere in the world. Lincoln successfully upheld the Monroe doctrine and earned himself additional political capital as he moved towards reelection. In the end Mexico was liberated and President Juarez was able to consolidate his power from the conservatives who had backed the French.
Despite all sides apparently achieving their goals this near-conflict caused considerable tension in Franco-American relations. Historians would often point to this as the beginning of a Franco-American hostility that would last well into the twentieth century. Mexican-American relations however were improved by Lincoln’s stand against the French, furthering the United States’ reputation as, Vice President Hannibal Hamlin once said, the “Defender of the Hemisphere.”
The Second Term of Abraham Lincoln
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1864-1868
1864 President Election
Incumbent Abraham Lincoln headed into the 1864 Presidential elections with a commanding lead being at the time one of the most popular Presidents in American history due to his successful completion of the war and forcing France’s withdraw from Mexico. As such Lincoln was unanimously nominated as the presidential candidate at the Republican National Convention in Baltimore. At the convention there was considerable talk of dropping Vice President Hannibal Hamlin from the ticket. Major General Sedgwick was mentioned as a possible replacement but Sedgwick decided instead to run for the governorship of Connecticut, which he easily won. In the end, Hamlin was left on to appease the more radical elements in the Republican Party although some radical republicans decided to back John C. Freemont as a third party candidate.
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Horatio Seymour
Presidential Canidate (D)
New York
The Democrats at their national convention had considerable difficulty in finding a suitable candidate for President. Andrew Johnson the current Governor of Tennessee seemed to be a good choice, but Johnson made it clear that he would not run against the man that “saved my beloved Union”. Johnson also probably realized that Lincoln was almost certainly going to win reelection. After much debate the Democrats finally nominated former New York Governor Horatio Seymour for President. Lazarus W. Powell, a former Governor and current Senator from the state of Kentucky was chosen as the Vice Presidential nominee.
As predicted, Lincoln easily won reelection to a second term. Seymour carried only the former Confederate States allowed to vote and Kentucky (Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Florida did not participate as they would not fully return to the Union until 1865 due to their proposed state governments not meeting the standards of the Republican controlled Congress). Lincoln’s reelection was seriously aided by the huge number of Union war veterans who would be a main source of support for the Republicans for decades to come.
Reconciliation
Reconciliation was Lincoln’s primary concern during his second term. By November of 1865 all the former Confederate States had successfully been readmitted into the Union, with South Carolina being the last to rejoin. Union troops however still occupied much of the South to protect the newly freed black population and prevent any lingering Confederate sentiments from reigniting the conflict.
Compromise of 1865: One of the planks in Lincoln’s campaign platform was for a constitutional amendment to officially ban slavery in the United States. However, three-fourths of the state legislatures would be needed to ratify the amendment. This meant that some sort of deal would have to be struck with the southern states in order to gain their votes. Thus, in what sometimes is termed as the compromise of 1865, it was agreed that Federal troops would be removed from most of the South once the southern states had ratified the thirteenth amendment.
13th Amendment: The thirteenth amendment to the constitution was ratified on December 3rd, 1865 stating…
Sec. 1: Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction, after June 1, 1867.
Sec. 2: Congress, in conjunction with the states, shall have power to enforce earlier emancipation, or to provide recompense for emancipation, prior to June 1, 1867, upon due consideration of the subject's participation in rebellion against the Constitution of the United States.
Sec. 3: Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
June 1st, 1867 was chosen as the date for final emancipation so that the few remaining slave states would have time to complete their earlier agreed upon timetables for gradual compensated emancipation.
Western Expansion
Homestead Act of 1865: The Homestead Act of 1865 was another of the Lincoln administration’s crowning achievements. This act provided 40 acres and supplies to start up a small farm to any single man or family who would uproot and settle in the United States’ western territories. This offer also applied to the recently free, or soon to be free, blacks of the former Confederacy. Over the next two and half decades millions of American citizens would take the trek west including a large number of blacks. In years to come these significant numbers of African American landowners in the western states would play an important role in the Civil Rights movement of the twentieth century.
Alaska Purchase: In 1867, Lincoln reluctantly authorized Secretary of State William H. Seward to purchase Alaska from the Russian Empire for 7.5 million dollars. Although Lincoln was not a big proponent of American expansion, the near war with France over Mexico taught Lincoln that the less territory the Europeans held in the New World the better.
Transcontinental Railroad: Besides the admission of Nebraska into the Union on the 15th of December, 1866 the other big development in the west was the opening of the Transcontinental Railroad. This cross continental railway was officially completed on October 23rd, 1868. (It is worth mentioning that the popular urban legend that Lincoln drove in the golden spike to complete the railroad is false as can be seen in the photograph below).
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Completion of the Trancontintal Railroad
October 23, 1868
Foreign Developments
Lincoln’s second term was focused primarily of domestic issues but it is worth mentioning a few points concerning European developments. In Europe the Kingdom of Prussia triumphed over the Empire of Austria in a brief war in 1866. This victory, coupled with that over Denmark in 1864, sent shock waves through the continent that Prussia was a power to be dealt with.
However, following Prussia’s victory in the Austro-Prussian War Prussian Chancellor Otto Van Bismarck was unable to forge an alliance with their defeated foe after Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I was assassinated by the deranged father of a fallen Austrian soldier in the streets of Vienna on November 29th, 1866. Franz Joseph was succeeded to the throne by his younger brother Ferdinand Maximilian who was crowned Emperor Maximilian I. Unlike his older brother, Maximilian I favored forming an alliance against the emerging power of Prussia. Soon after his coronation the new emperor established an alliance with Napoleon III of France (It has been speculated that Napoleon III and Maximilian's friendship might have been aided by the rumor that Maximilian was actually fathered by Napoleon II during his time in Austria). This Franco-Austrian Alliance would become a fixture in European politics for decades to come.
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Maximilian I
Emperor of Austria
1866
The 1868 Presidential Election
and
Lincoln’s Post-Presidency
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An old wartime photograph of John Sedgwick
17th President of the United States
Although Abraham Lincoln’s popularity waned somewhat during his last years of office, most historians still believe he could have won reelection for President a second time. However, Lincoln decided to honor Washington’s precedent and not run for a third term. The declining health of his wife Mary Todd Lincoln might also have contributed to Lincoln’s desire to retire from political life.
At the 1868 Republican National Convention former Major General and General in Chief of the Union Armies John Sedgwick was selected as the Republican’s presidential candidate. Sedgwick, the current Republican Governor of Connecticut, easily obtained his party’s nomination without any serious opposition. For Vice President the Grand Old Party nominated the former and first Republican Governor of Virginia Arthur Ingram Boreman, in an attempt to show that the Republican Party was making headway in the Upper South.
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Arthur I. Boreman (VA)
16th Vice President of the United States
The Democrats re-nominated Horatio Seymour of New York to be their presidential nominee. For Vice President however, the popular governor of Tennessee, Andrew Johnson was selected as Seymour’s running mate.
The election results of 1868 closely mirrored those of 1864. The Republicans carried all of the northern states as well as the western states of California, Oregon, and Nevada. Seymour delivered much the same performance as he did four years earlier except that Kentucky narrowly went for the Republicans. It is also worth noting that although Virginia’s electoral votes went for Seymour, the Republican Party was able to capture a significant portion of the popular vote, including virtually all of the mountainous western part of the state. In the end, John Sedgwick was soundly elected the 17th President of the United States.
Lincoln after the Whitehouse
One of Lincoln’s last acts while in office was his long awaited trip to the west coast. Lincoln arrived in San Francisco by way of the newly completed transcontinental railroad on a bitterly cold January morning in 1869, making Lincoln the first sitting President to see the Pacific Ocean.
After President Sedgwick’s inauguration, Lincoln retired to his home in Springfield, Illinois. There Lincoln would write his memoirs which became an international bestseller and to this day considered by many historians to be one of the best Presidential memoirs ever written. In the later years of his life Lincoln would often express regret that he did not press for more sweeping reforms during Reconciliation for former slaves. Lincoln would stay active until his death, writing books and going on several well publicized speaking tours throughout the United States and Europe. Abraham Lincoln passed away in his Springfield home at the age of 78 on July 4th, 1887, the same day of the year as Presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Lincoln’s funeral was one of the largest in American history a fitting capstone to one of the country's greatest presidents.
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Abraham Lincoln's Home
Springfield, Illinois
The Sedgwick Presidency (1868-1876)
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37 Star Flag adopted after Colorado joined the Union in 1874
The Presidency of John Sedgwick is remembered as one of national healing, industrialization, and settling the western frontier. Sedgwick had a strong reputation for honesty which often put him at odds with many of the career politicians of his day. Listed below are a few of the highlights of Sedgwick’s two terms in office.
Foreign Policy
Annexation of Santo Domingo: In the fall of 1869 in what would be one of the most important points in John Sedgwick’s legacy, President Sedgwick was able to squeeze through a treaty in the U.S. Senate by a one vote margin that annexed the Caribbean nation of the Dominican Republic in exchange for assuming the island nation’s debt. Sedgwick was a proponent of annexation because he believed that the Dominican Republic could serve as a new home for southern blacks wanting to leave the repressive conditions in the South. Although only a few thousand American blacks would eventually move to the Commonwealth of Santo Domingo (as the U.S. Territory was called), the island did provide the location for an important U.S. naval base at Samana Bay.
The War Scare of 1872: In what historians would call the War Scare of 1872, the Prussian led North German Confederation narrowly avoided a war with the French and Austro-Hungarian Empires over the allegiance of the south German states. The subsequent Conference of Munich, realigned the Kingdom of Bavaria and a few other small catholic south German states into an alliance with Austria-Hungary and France in an effective attempt to curtail Prussia’s increasing power. This humiliating setback for Prussia pushed them into an alliance singed in 1874 with imperial Russia to counter the growing power of the Bonapartes and Hapsburgs. In light of these events President Sedgwick continued to stress American neutrality in European affairs.
Napoleon IV comes to Power: Emperor of the French, Napoleon III, died on March 5th, 1875 due to surgical complications over a bladder stone. His son Louis Napoleon was crowned Napoleon IV in a lavish ceremony in Notre Dame Cathedral on his 19th birthday on March 19th, 1875. Napoleon IV continued France’s industrialization and would in a few years time start a massive build up of the Imperial French Navy.
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Emperor of the French, Napoleon IV
1875
The 1872 Presidential Election
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Andrew Johnson (TN)
Democratic Presidential Canidate
1872
The Republicans maintained their control on the Whitehouse with the decisive reelection of President John Sedgwick and Vice President Arthur I. Boreman. Although almost all of the southern states went for the Democratic candidates, Tennessee Governor Andrew Johnson and his running mate former Maj. General Winfield S. Hancock of Pennsylvania, the election results showed that the Republican Party was starting to make serious inroads with southern working class voters especially in the Upper South.
Domestic Policy
Colorado: The United States continued to settle its western territories during Sedgwick’s time in office with Colorado entering the Union on November 2th, 1874.
American Centennial: July 4th, 1876 marked the centennial of American independence. From one end of the country to the other the nation was united in massive parades, demonstrations, and displays of fireworks. The Centennial celebrations were also noteworthy in that for many parts of the Deep South it was the first time that Independence Day had been celebrated since the Civil War.
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American Centennial Celebrations in Philadelphia
July 4, 1876
Reconciliation: With Reconciliation largely over, race relations in the southern states settled into a pattern that would last for decades. So called “black codes” kept southern blacks from voting or holding office in most parts of the South during this period. Despite the atmosphere of segregation however, lynchings and other overt acts of violence towards blacks were rare and consigned mostly to the Deep South. Leaders of the African American community during this time concentrated their efforts on economic and educational advancement, establishing several universities for black students.
President Boreman
and the
War with Spain
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Arthur I. Boreman
18th President of the United States
The 1876 Presidential Elections
As the Sedgwick years drew to a close it was his Vice President Arthur I. Boreman of Virginia that quickly emerged as the Republican frontrunner. Although there were a few men in the North concerned about a Virginian president so soon after the Civil War, Boreman was able to easily secure his party’s nomination. For the Republican's 1876 Vice Presidential candidate Congressman James Blaine from Maine was selected to balance the southern Boreman.
When the results were tallied, Boreman beat Democratic candidate former Maj. General Hancock of Pennsylvania and his running mate Senator William Allen of Ohio by a respectable margin. Significantly, Virginia had narrowly gone for the Republicans, making it the first former Confederate state to vote for a Republican candidate for President.
Cuba and Spain
Boreman’s presidency was plunged into crisis almost as soon as he was inaugurated. By the time Boreman took office in early 1877, Cuban rebels had been fighting with their Spanish overlords for nine years in what seemed to be an increasingly futile attempt to through off the yoke of Old World oppression. The War for Cuban Independence had begun when a Cuban lawyer and plantation owner named Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, fed up with the Spaniards economic rape of his island, freed his slaves and declared Cuba’s independence. Since then the Cuban insurrectos had been waging a guerrilla war against loyalist and Spanish forces, a war that had in recent years been going poorly for the rebels.
The Republican controlled government of the United States favored a Cuba free from Spanish rule for two main reasons. Firstly, the captive island nation still had the institution of slavery. Secondly, ever since the near war with France in 1865 European forces located so close to the United States were deemed to be a serious threat to the country’s security. In order to support the Cuban freedom fighters the Federal government had been funneling guns and supplies to the rebels ever since the late 1860’s, a fact that infuriated the Spanish government. Meanwhile across the Atlantic, Spain had in recent years gone through a period of drastic political instability with Republican, Bourbon, and Carlist forces threatening the military junta that ruled Spain ever since the forced abdication of Queen Regnant Isabella II in 1875.
Declaration of War
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USS Ossippee, 1877
The incident that would spark the conflict occurred off the coast of Maisi, Cuba a city located on the far eastern tip of the island. What actually occurred on that foggy night of May 16th, 1877 is still hotly debated amongst historians to this day. The United States claimed that the Spanish frigate San Justo suddenly fired at the USS Ossipee, an American sloop on its way from New Orleans to Santo Domingo. The Spaniards claimed that the Ossipee was offloading supplies to Cuban rebels and that it fired first when it saw the approaching Spanish vessel. Regardless, after a fierce exchange of fire, the Ossippe was sunk and the San Justo seriously damaged. The Ossippe Incident caused outrage in both the United States and Spain. In the volatile weeks that followed, President Boreman demanded the release of the Ossippe survivors. Spain refused to release the sailors and instead demanded an apology and a stop to the U.S. supplying the insurrectos. Boreman then retaliated by increasing aid to the rebels and strengthening American naval presence in the Caribbean.
In light of these developments, Spain declared war on the United States on September 12th, 1877 in order to divert public attention abroad and with the belief that the Spanish navy could handle the Americans. This declaration was soon reciprocated by one from Washington, officially starting the Spanish-American War.
The Military State of Affairs
September-October, 1877
America was woefully unprepared when war erupted with Spain in 1877, both at land and on sea. This installment will give a brief description of the American military and its leaders at the beginning of the Spanish-American War.
The Navy
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Nathan Goff Jr.
Secretary of the Navy
At the start of the war with Spain the United States found its navy in a sorry condition. The U.S. Navy numbered a paltry 6,400 sailors. Furthermore the American fleet only possessed 51 operational vessels, most of which dated back to the Civil War over 14 years ago. This was a far cry from 1863 when America boasted around 400 warships many of which now in 1877 were either scrapped or mothballed and rusting.
With the sudden outbreak of the war it was up to Nathan Goff Jr., the 34 year old Secretary of the Navy, to bring as many of these mothballed vessels back up to fighting standards as quickly as possible. Although Goff, a Republican politician from the same part of western Virginia as President Boreman, had never served a day at sea history would remember him for his actions during the war as one of the most important figures in U.S. naval history.
The Army
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Robert Todd Lincoln
Secretary of War
Over the course of the war Nathan Golf would develop a close friendship with the U.S. Secretary of War, former President Abraham Lincoln’s oldest son Robert Todd Lincoln. Robert Lincoln had missed military service due to attending Harvard during the Civil War. After graduating from Harvard Law School, Lincoln followed in the footsteps of his famous father and became a lawyer. After a few years of practicing law in Illinois, Robert Lincoln entered politics and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives at the age of 29 in 1872. He served as a Republican Congressman until the election of President Boreman in 1876 when he was offered the position of Secretary of War.
Lincoln had scarcely settled into office when the conflict broke out, and like his friend in the Naval Department, Lincoln scrambled to muster the forces needed to defend the nation. This was not an easy task in late 1877, when the U.S. Army was undermanned, underpaid, and overextended having been occupied since the end of the Civil War with fighting the Indians in the west.
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Maj. General William Tecumseh Sherman
Commanding General of the United States Army
Lincoln made a point from the very start of the war to work closely with the Commanding General of the United States Army, 57 year old Major General William Tecumseh Sherman. In conjunction with Secretary Lincoln, Sherman, one of the heroes of Vicksburg and the conqueror of Arkansas and Texas, immediately began shuffling the few Army units on hand to protect the southeastern coastline until naval supremacy could be achieved against the Spanish. Sherman and Lincoln were also able to convince President Boreman to agree that until new forces could be raised (Boreman had at the onset of the war called for 80,000 volunteers) units from the state militias should be called out to protect the east coast.
American War Aims
In early October of 1877 President Boreman held a council of war with General Sherman and Secretaries Goff and Lincoln in the Whitehouse to outline the nation’s goals for the war. First, President Boreman stated that military forces should be built up to defend the American coastline and the Commonwealth of Santo Domino before the military undertook any offensive operations. Secondly, since the war was largely a result of Spain trying to maintain its grip on its New World holdings it was decided that Spain must relinquish control of Cuba and Puerto Rico as a condition for peace (whether these islands would be annexed by the U.S. or granted their independence was not discussed). Nathan Goff then brought up the Spanish colony of the Philippines. After a brief discussion, a consensus was reached that since all available naval assets were need on the east coast, an expedition to the Philippines would only be launched after the Caribbean had been cleared of Spanish forces.
Conclusion
In short, at the start of the war the military of United States was at one of its lowest points in history. It would be up to America’s military leaders, President Boreman, Secretaries Goff and Lincoln, and Maj. General Sherman to see if the young nation could weather the coming storm.
The Beginning of the
Spanish-American War
October-December, 1877
The Opening Engagements
The first major engagement of the war, the Battle of El Verraco, took place on October 28th 1877 when a squadron of American warships under Rear Admiral John Rodgers repulsed a Spanish convoy containing men and supplies in route to Santiago de Cuba. The first land combat of the war occurred two weeks later where, in a surprise move the Spaniards successfully conducted a raid on the city of Bavaro in the Commonwealth of Santo Domingo. The attack on Bavaro was part of Spain’s plan to take advantage of the U.S. territory’s fractured politics by stirring up insurrection in Santo Domingo against the American authorities.
Notable U.S. ground commanders
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Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer
1877
With the Spanish-American War taking place roughly 14 years after the conclusion of the Civil War the United States could draw from a vast number of experienced officers and senior NCO’s. The most prominent of these Civil War veterans was of course William T. Sherman who in November of 1877 due to the rapid enlargement of the Army, Congress saw fit to promote to Lieutenant General, a rank that had not been held since George Washington in the Revolutionary War. Other prominent Veterans that would play an important role in the war included Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer and former Confederate General James Longstreet.
Lt. Colonel Custer, who rose to the rank of major during the Civil War, had since made a name for himself as an Indian fighter in the American West. Custer now commanded the 3rd U.S. Cavalry Regiment which had been redeployed from the west to fight the Spanish in the planned invasion of Cuba. James Longstreet had seen extensive action during the Civil War in the eastern theater fighting for the Confederacy and after the war had became the successful owner of a southern railway company. Longstreet had also been one of the few but increasing numerous Southerners to join the Republican Party. Secretary of War Lincoln believed that the war with Spain was a golden opportunity to heal the scars of the Civil War, and that a former Confederate General turned republican supporter would be a public relations masterpiece. As such Lincoln offered Longstreet the command of a division of volunteers then forming in Florida under Corps commander Major General Philip Sheridan. Longstreet accepted the appointment and was awarded the rank of Brigadier General in the United States Army.
http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/Confederate_Generals/James_Longstreet.jpg
A 1876 photo of James Longstreet before he was appointed
a Brigadier General in the United States Army
The Battle of the Keys
The first major engagement of the war took place on Christmas Day 1877 near the Florida Keys when a large taskforce of Spanish ships on its way to interdict shipping and raid the coast of Florida was intercepted by a smaller American force. The battle was technically a Spanish victory as the American force was forced to withdraw after over 5 hours of intense fighting. Interestingly, even though the Spaniards outnumbered the Americans 2 to 1 the Americans over the course of the battle were able to inflict roughly twice as many casualties on the Spanish. This was largely due to the fact that many of Spain’s naval vessels were still largely made out of wood.
The American press at the time greatly exaggerated the damage the Spaniards suffered at the Battle of the Keyes with the Atlanta Journal calling it “one of the most hallow pyrrhic victory in history” and Harpers Weekly even comparing it to the Mexicans defeat at the Alamo. Regardless, the battle did illustrate the important fact that the Spanish Navy was even more backwards than their American opponents, and with more and more American warships coming onto line every month Spanish authorities began forming a plan they hoped would quickly win the war.
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USS Saginaw
Sunk at the Battle of the Keys
December 25, 1877
The Battle of Ragged Island
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Rear Admiral John Rodgers
United States Navy
January 17, 1878
In what would prove to be the decisive naval engagement of the war, the Battle of Ragged Island took place on January 17, 1878. The battle, which actually took place 20 miles south of the Bahaman island for which it is named, began when a fleet of Spanish warships escorting a relief convoy from Spain was intercepted by the American Fleet under Rear Admiral John Rodgers. The Spanish fleet consisted of 6 armored steam frigates, 3 ironclads, and an assortment of smaller vessels against the American fleet of 4 ironclads, 2 armored Steam frigates, and a corvette.
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The flagship of the Spanish Fleet the Numancia, 1877
During the first stage of the battle the Americans slugged it out with their Spanish counterpart for over 3 hours. The turning point came when the ironclad USS Sumner under the command of Captain William T. Sampson rammed the flagship of the Spanish Fleet the Numancia. Struck by the Sumner’s ram below the waterline, the Numancia began to list heavily to its starboard side. However, before going down the Numancia was able to inflict serious damage on the charging USS Sumner. As the Sumner was withdrawing from the wounded Spanish ship, a shot from the Numancia pierced the American ironclad’s armor igniting the ships powder magazine. In an explosion heard as far away as Puerto Arturo, Cuba the Sumner was torn to pieces. The explosion of the Sumner so close to the Numancia has also been sighted as another reason for the quickness with which the Spanish flagship sunk beneath the waves abandoned by her terrified crew.
The sinking of the Numancia caused great confusion amongst the remainder of the Spanish fleet. Rear Admiral Rodgers took advantage of this by ordering his remaining vessels to close with the discombobulated Spaniards. The last hour of the battle saw the Spaniards break off the engagement but only after having suffered additional casualties.
In the end, the Battle of Ragged Island proved costly for both sides. The Spaniards lost their flagship as well as the Vitoria. The Sagunto was heavily damaged and had to be abandoned during the trip back to Spain. In addition to the loss of the Sumner the Steam Frigate USS Poseidon was also lost. Most of the other American ships at the battle also suffered considerable damage. However, the battle did force most of the Spanish Fleet to withdraw from Caribbean. Now with naval superiority, the Americans could commence with the next step in their war plan, the invasion of Cuba.
The Invasion of Cuba
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An artist's anachronistic depiction from the early 20th Century of the American landings east of Santiago de Cuba
February-March, 1878
It is widely accepted amongst historians that the American V Corps which invaded Cuba on February 20th, 1878 had one of the highest concentrations of military talent of any army in modern military history. All of the division and regimental commanders had seen extensive combat during the Civil War as had 60% of the V Corps’s officers and 45% of the NCOs. These leaders’ experiences in the Civil War gave them an enormous advantage when fighting the Spanish in Cuba. This installment will give a brief description of the initial American landing in Cuba as well as the American’s order of battle.
Sailing from ports in Florida in mid February, the U.S. Army’s V Corps under the command of Major General James McPherson made a contested landing 15 miles east of Santiago de Cuba. The success of the landings was largely the result of two factors. The first being ample naval gunfire from the supporting U.S. Navy, and the tenacity of V Corps’s 1st Division commander Major General Ulysses S Grant being the second.
After serving with distinction during the Civil War, General Grant had left the Army and returned to Ohio with the intention of making his fortune in business. Sadly, Grant’s luck fared little better after the war than it had before and he soon returned to being heavily indebted. With his business ventures failing Grant was convinced by the local party machine to run as a Republican for governor of the state of Ohio. Grant served two terms as governor from 1870 to 1874, both of which were mired in scandal. When hostilities broke out in 1877, Grant petitioned his friend and former subordinate Lt. General William T. Sherman for a position in the Army. In a move that angered some career army officers, Sherman gave Grant command of the 1st Infantry Division. Although Grant had commanded an entire army during the Civil War, he was glad for any position that would allow him to see action and escape his creditors.
In command of V Corps’s other division was the seasoned veteran Major General John Buford. Buford, who had earned a larger than life reputation fighting the Confederates as a cavalry officer, had stayed in the army after the Civil War seeing considerable service on the western frontier. Operating directly under Buford was Brigadier General Philip Sheridan in command of the Calvary Division’s 1st Brigade. Of the three regimental commanders, George Armstrong Custer and J.E.B Stuart stand out the most, largely due to the bitter rivalry they developed. Both had fought on opposite sides during the Civil War and both were known for their sometimes reckless pursuit of glory. Stuart, who after the Civil War had become a planter and politician in Virginia, was greatly resented by Custer who thought that the inclusion of former Confederates in the war effort was merely the Republican Party’s way of trying to increase its voter base in the South.
Internal quarrels aside, the American invasion force was able over the next two weeks to expand its beachhead and begin laying siege to Santiago. However, taking the city would prove harder than any of these battle hardened leaders could imagine.
The American Order of Battle
Commanding General of the United States Army:
Lt. General William T. Sherman
V Corps: Major General James McPherson
1 Division: Major General Ulysses S. Grant
1st Brigade: Brigadier General James Longstreet
7th U.S. Infantry Regiment
14th U.S. Infantry Regiment
56th U.S. Volunteer Infantry Regiment
2nd Brigade: Colonel Joshua Chamberlain
2nd U.S. Infantry Regiment
11th U.S. Infantry Regiment
24th (Colored) U.S. Infantry Regiment
3rd Brigade: Brigadier General David S. Stanley
9th U.S. Infantry Regiment
13th U.S. Infantry Regiment
6th U.S. Infantry Regiment
Calvary Division: Major General John Buford
1st Brigade: Brigadier General Philip Sheridan
3rd U.S. Calvary Regiment: Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer
1st U.S. Volunteer Calvary: Lt. Colonel J.E.B. Stuart
7th U.S. Calvary Regiment: Colonel Wesley Merritt
The Cuban Campaign
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U.S Calvary at the Siege of Santiago de Cuba
April 1878
March - June, 1878
The Siege of Santiago de Cuba
Major General McPherson began besieging the Spanish held city of Santiago de Cuba in earnest in early March of 1878. The city was defended by roughly 12,000 Spanish troops and loyalist Cuban militia. The Spaniards centered their defense along a ridge of fortified hill tops located east of the city known as the San Juan Heights. The Americans gave each hill a numerical designation and began with a frontal attack. The initial American assaults on hills Number 2 and Number 3 were both repulsed. Military historians often sight these engagements as the first major instance where forces armed exclusively with rifles firing self contained cartridges fought one another, the Americans and Spanish forces using the 1872 Springfield and .43 Spanish Remington rifles respectively. Despite this initial setback, a few days later in a spectacular display of daring Hill Number 3 was taken when Lt. Colonel J.E.B Stuart and his 1st Volunteer Calvary carried the position. Stuart's attack was aided by gunfire from a supporting battery of Gatling guns. Not to be outdone, Lt. Colonel Custer of the neighboring 3rd Calvary led, much to the dismay of General Sheridan, a mounted charge against Hill Number 2. Custer captured the position but only after suffering considerable casualties.
As the Americans made slow but steady progress towards Santiago de Cuba through March and April they would face an enemy more deadly than Spanish bullets, Yellow Fever. The lack of clean drinking water only exacerbated the issue and soon thousands of American troops were incapacitated or dying. Despite the constant threat of disease however, the considerable Civil War battlefield experience of the American army took a serious toll on the Spanish forces. Further successful American assaults eventually leading the capture of Santiago de Cuba on April 26th, 1878. The next day General McPherson held a victory parade though the streets of the city where, as he would state years later in his memoirs, “our forces were very well received by the long oppressed population. The streets of the city were so chocked with dancing peasants and recently freed slaves that it took over three hours to reach the city’s central Plaza”.
Stuart and Custer’s Overland Campaign
After news of the fall of Santiago de Cuba had reached Washington, Lt. General Sherman and Secretary of War Robert Lincoln issued their next set of instructions to General McPherson. McPherson’s 1st Corp would be split. Most of the infantry along with the 7th Cavalry would be transported by ship to invest the island’s capital of Havana. Meanwhile Stuart and Custer’s cavalry regiments would be detached and sent on an overland campaign westwards through the island’s lightly defended interior. Stuart and Custer’s columns were meant to support each other, each moving west towards Havana liberating Cuban cities and freeing the island’s slaves as they went. If Havana had not already fallen by the time they reached the island’s capital they were to join in the final assault.
Cooperation between Custer and Stuart broke down almost immediately. Despite having orders that they should support each other’s advance the situation soon turned into a mad dash towards Havana. The two commanders and their respective cavalry regiments competed to see who could liberate the most towns, free the most slaves, and especially cover the most ground. The open rivalry between these two legendary commanders was so well known that bets were placed as far away as Moscow as to who would be the first to reach Havana.
Victory Over Spain
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Battle of Havana, 1878
The Battle of Havana
The last major engagement of the war was the Battle of Havana. Maj. General James McPherson began encircling the island’s capital in the middle of May, 1878. The American forces were bolstered by thousands of Cuban freedom fighters who, with American victory in sight, flocked to the Stars and Stripes. Havana however was strongly defended. The Spanish believed that if they could bleed the Americans a little longer and let the yellow fever continue to decimate their ranks the United States would be willing to discuss a negotiated peace. For the next three weeks, the U.S. Navy bombarded Havana as McPherson’s forces continued to encircle the city. In what would become common place in later wars, McPherson made excellent use of trenches to protect his forces from the defending Spaniards. Trenches however did not negate the fact that the Americans were making painfully slow progress towards taking the city.
On June 2nd 1878, Lt. Colonel J.E.B. Stuart and his exhausted 1st Volunteered Calvary triumphantly joined the besieging American army. Upon his arrival Maj. General Ulysses S. Grant commented to Stuart that it was “a confounded miracle that the North ever won the War of the Rebellion with the South possessing horsemen such as yourself.” Lt. Colonel Custer’s 3rd Calvary arrived at the American camp two days later. It has been reported that Custer was so angry upon learning that Stuart had beat him to Havana that, as one of his subordinates put it, “the good Colonel nearly ripped his long hair out in disgust.”
The finally assault on the city began on the morning of June 21st, 1878. American forces launched a withering four hour artillery barrage on the city’s defenses before ordering a full frontal assault. The Spanish forces put up fierce resistance but were steadily pushed back into the city in what proved to be a determined urban defense.
A few hours into the battle, in a move that has often been criticized by military historians, General McPherson ordered Stuart’s cavalry regiment to exploit a gap in the Spanish defenses and rush into the center of the city. Stuart made surprising good progress until he reached Havana’s Plaza de la Catedral in the center of the city where the 1st Volunteer Cavalry came under heavy fire. Amongst the gunfire, J.E.B. Stuart was mortally wounded when a Spanish bullet pierced his lower abdomen. Stuart was then dragged into the nearby Catedral de San Cristobal where the remnants of his cavalry regiment had taken refuge.
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Catedral de San Cristobal Havana Cuba, 1878
Upon seeing smoke rise from the center of the city, Custer, whose 3rd Calvary had been kept in reserve during the battle, led his regiment, without orders, into the embattled city. Although, Custer would later state that he did this because he “could sense that American lives were in peril” it is more likely that he charged in Havana against orders because he believed that the battle would soon be won and the chance to win glory would be over. Regardless, the 3rd Calvary did reach the hard pressed survivors of Stuart’s regiment. Custer led his men in a dismounted charge through the Plaza, shooting his way into the besieged Catedral de San Cristobal. It what now has become a famous exchange, Custer upon seeing the dying J.E.B. Stuart doffed his hat and said “ Sir, I have arrived!” to which the ailing Stuart replied “ Yes, but as always I was here first.” Both men laughed at the absurdity of situation after which Custer, with the assistance from one of his troopers, a 19 year old Corporal from New York named Theodore Roosevelt, carried Stuart to the top of the Cathedral where together they unfurled the first American flag to fly over the city.
These two daring, if not reckless, cavalry charges into the city center proved too much for the Spaniards who officially surrendered later that day. Interestingly amongst the captured Spanish was an American named William W. Loring from North Carolina. Loring had served as a colonel in the Union army before fighting for the Confederate Army as a General during the Civil War. Following the South’s defeat Loring had even been briefly employed as a military advisor by the Ottoman Sultan before Turkish financial constraints made Loring seek employment with the Spanish Government. Despite pleas from Loring that he had not “actively participated in the resent hostilities” against the American forces he was nonetheless tried and hanged as a traitor ten days later.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/William_W._Loring.jpghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f3/William_W._Loring_as_Pasha.jpg/220px-William_W._Loring_as_Pasha.jpg
William W. Long in the Confederate and Ottoman Armies
The capture of the city was officially celebrated three days later with a massive parade through the city where, as had almost become customary at this point, the Battle Cry of Freedom was sung with the appropriate lyrical changes tailored for the Spanish.
Yes we'll rally round the flag, boys, we'll rally once again,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom,
We will rally from the Southland, we'll gather from the North,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
(Chorus)
The Union forever! Hurrah, boys, hurrah!
Down with the tyrants, and up with the stars;
While we rally round the flag, boys, rally once again,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
We are springing to the call with a million freemen more,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
And we'll fill our vacant ranks of our brothers gone before,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
Chorus
We will welcome to our numbers the loyal, true and brave,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
And although he may be poor, not a man shall be a slave,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
Chorus
So we're springing to the call from the East and from the West,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
And we'll hurl the evil crew from the land we love best,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
Chorus
The Treaty of Amsterdam (1878)
With the fall of Havana coming a week after the capture of Puerto Rico it became clear that the war was over. Still, it took over a month before the final peace treaty was signed in the Netherlands. The Treaty of Amsterdam was official signed on July 25th, 1878. Its stipulations were simple; Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the rest of Spain’s West Indian possessions were to be ceded to the United States without compensation. Although some of the American delegates pressed for the annexation of some of Spain’s Pacific territories, the lack of American activity in the Pacific during the war undermined this claimed.
Effects of the War
The Spanish-American War had a large affect on both nations. For the United States, it was a major step in healing the wounds of the Civil War as Southerners and Northerners both fought valiantly against a foreign enemy. The United States also greatly increased its Caribbean holdings which now included Cuba, Santo Domingo, Puerto Rico, and a few other minor islands. The United States would also soon undergo several military reforms in light of lessons learned from the war. This victory though had not come cheap. The war, although lasting less than 11 months, cost the Americans 1,352 men killed and many more wounded or wrecked by disease.
Spain however, suffered much worse, losing an estimated 7,800 men killed and wounded. Furthermore having lost the the last remnants of their New World empire, the ruling military junta was overthrown and Spain was plunged yet again into civil war.
In the end, the Spanish-American War marked an important turning point in American history. For the first time in its history the United States had soundly beat a European Power and proved to the world that it was a force to be reckoned with.
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The 1880s
Part 1: The United States
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Boston, Massachusetts in the 1880's
The United States
The 1880s was a largely uneventful time for the United States as the nation continued to industrialize and settle its western territories. The following are a few highlights from this mostly forgotten decade in American history.
The 1880 Presidential Election and the Cuban Question
In the 1880 Presidential Elections, President Arthur Boreman was reelected by a narrow margin over Democratic candidates Thomas S. Bayard of Delaware and his running mate Samuel J. Randall of Pennsylvania. Boreman’s victory was mainly attributed to the victory over Spain two years earlier. However, the issue of what to do with America’s newfound Caribbean holdings divided the nation. Some, mostly radical republicans, wanted to grant the territories full independence. Other’s feared the addition of more non-whites into the nation, but still wanted to reap the financial benefits. These politicians, mostly Democrats, favored a policy of lording over the islands as protectorates. Boreman however wished for islands to one day to be able to join the Union, stating that those islands “rightfully belong to America as it was American blood which paid for their freedom.” Furthermore, America had intervened at the tail end of Cuba’s losing fight for freedom against the Spanish and as such few native leaders were left to lead an independent Cuba. With this in mind, and by two close votes in Congress, Cuba and Puerto Rico joined Santo Domingo as U.S. Territories. Although there were some in Cuba which resented being annexed by the United States, many saw it as an alternative to the anarchy and civil war which had prevailed for most of the 1870's.
The Panic of 1883
A severe but short lived economic depression hit the United States in 1883. Historians mostly cite the cause of this downturn in economic activity as a result of over speculation on American gold reserves. The economy rebounded by the end of 1885, and continued to grow rapidly well into the 1890’s.
The Democrats Return to Power: The Election of President Samuel J. Randall
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Samuel J. Randall
Democrat from Pennsylvania
19th President of the United States of America
With the nation in the grips of a severe economic recession, the American voters decided that the time was ripe for a political shakeup. The 1884 elections saw the first Democratic President elected since James Buchanan in 1856. Samuel J. Randall, an influential Congressman from Pennsylvania, and his Vice Presidential candidate David B. Hill of New York, easily beat the Republican ticket of former Vice President James Blaine of Maine and Chester A. Arthur of New York.
Randall proved to be a popular President, winning reelection in 1888 against Republican challenger John Sherman of Ohio, the younger brother of Lt. General William T Sherman. In foreign policy Randall pursued a more isolationist path than his Republican predecessor, largely keeping America out of European affairs. President Randall was also a moderate in domestic affairs, leaving issues such as civil rights, statehood for the Caribbean territories, and women’s suffrage untouched. Arguably the most enduring legacy of the Randall Administration was the repeated allegations of corruption and scandals which plagued his years in office.
States Admitted to the Union during the 1880s
North Dakota: March 6, 1885
South Dakota: March 6, 1885
Washington: February 23. 1886
Montana: November 4, 1886
Wyoming: July 3, 1887
Idaho: November 17, 1887
The 1880s
Part 2: Imperial France
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Under Napoleon IV, the Second French Empire prospered during the 1880s by continuing to industrialize and expand at a rapid pace. France purchased the Philippine Islands from Spain in 1879 from the cash strapped republican government that was then temporarily in power. France also gained control of Egypt during a brief war in 1883 after a series of anti-European riots, which France claimed were orchestrated by the unruly Khedive Tewfik Pasha, led to a successful French invasion. Napoleon IV relished following in the footsteps of his great-uncle and even visited the conquered province in 1885. Possession of Egypt also guaranteed French control of the Suez Canal of which Britain was a partial stockholder. Although officially the United Kingdom supported the French invasion, many historians have cited the 1883 Franco-Egyptian War as an important beginning step in the deterioration of Anglo-French relations.
During the 1880s, Imperial France strengthened its alliances with other empires. The Austro-Hungarian Empire remained chief amongst France’s allies who, like France, wished to see Italy and Prussia’s ambitions kept in checked. In the Americas, France found a receptive ally in the Empire of Brazil who welcomed French investment in exchange for Brazilian natural resources. It was also during the 1880s that France began to align its self with the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans saw the French as a potential counterweight to the British who were expanding their holdings in Arabia, and to the Russians, the Turks age old enemy to the north.
A world map from the end of the 1880s.
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Please discuss this TL here (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=159784)
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/21566/21566-h/images/union.png
Hello everyone, the following is the start of a TL based on a different Peninsular Campaign in 1862. It is my intention to follow this TL if it proves popular enough past the Civil War and into the Twentieth Century. This TL hopefully will also demonstrate the powerful effect that small butterflies can have over time. Speculation and suggestions are more than welcome. Cheers.
Background
January-May 1862;
Union fortunes were looking up in the early months on 1862. After a largely lackluster performance for most of 1861 Federal troops had scored a series of impressive victories against the South. General Grant had captured the Confederate Forts Donnellson and Henry on February 6th and 16th respectively opening up the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers. Nashville, then the capital of Tennessee, fell by the end of the Month. The Union even managed a costly victory at the Battle of Shiloh on April 7th. General Pope captured Island Number 10 on the Mississippi River and over 7,000 prisoners on April 8th. Further south the largest port in the Confederacy fell to Admiral Farragut and General Butler on May 1st crippling the confederate’s use of the Mississippi River. Union forces were also making impressive headway by capturing points along the Confederate coastline.
Confederate reverses had severely dampened Confederate spirits. Indeed, when Jefferson Davis was formally installed as the President of the Confederate States of America (Previously he had just been provisional president) on a rainy day in Richmond when an onlooker asked one of Davis’s footmen why he and President Davis were dressed in black suites the footman responded with “Well Ma’am this is how we always have done in Richmond for funerals and such.” And with the large Army of the Potomac hovering north of the city many in the Confederacy were wondering whether their secessionist experiment might soon unravel.
The Beginning of the Peninsular Campaign and General McClellan’s Accident
With these successes in the west, Lincoln naturally pressed for similar results in the east. However President Lincoln and his eastern generals differed as to the performed method. He personally wished for, what appeared to him to be the obvious choice for, an overland campaign from Washington to destroy Johnston’s Army. The President however eventually bowed to General McClellan’s plan to land the Army of the Potomac on the coast of Virginia and then move onto Richmond.
The Union had been making steady but painfully slow progress up the Peninsular between the James and York Rivers sense March 1863 captured Yorktown, the former colonial capital of Williamsburg, and the vital naval base of Norfolk (the Confederates destroyed the CSS Merrimack to prevent her from falling into Union hands).
May 12, 1862; General McClellan must have been feeling very pleased with himself after the resent capture of Norfolk against what he consistently believed to be “vastly superior rebel numbers.” Whether this sense of overconfidence helped McClellan not see the shard of metal in the road on that spring morning however is lost to history. Around 8:00am after a light breakfast with some of his lieutenants, McClellan mounted his horse Baldy to inspect the camp and make his rounds amongst his troops. Unfortunately for McClellan however Baldy while trotting at a good pace along a fence line near Headquarters picked up 6 inch sliver of metal that had been protruding from the road (whether this piece of metal was placed there intentionally has never been proven). Because of the speed at which Baldy had been traveling the shard went through the frog of the forward right hoof. McClellan, despite being a confident horseman was thrown when Baldy came to an abrupt and jerking stop. McClellan would in all probability have been fine if it was not for the fence that ran alongside the road. As McClellan fell the fence caught him in the lower back breaking his spine. Captain Jeremiah O’Connor, one of McClellan’s aids was the first to reach McClellan. McClellan’s first words to O’Connor after realizing that he could not move his legs were “Who will save the Union now?.”
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General McClellan
Army of the Potomac
Commander: July 26, 1861-May 13, 1862
General Sumner takes Command
and
the Death of Stonewall Jackson
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Maj. Gen. Sumner
Commander
Army of the Potomac
After being examined, Army surgeon Charles A. Hoffmann stated what McClellan already knew, that he was paralyzed from the waist down. News quickly spread of General McClellan’s incapacitation. The soldiers of the Army of the Potomac were needless to say devastated by the news of their “Little Mac’s” fall especially in the middle of a campaign. When President Lincoln heard the news, Lincoln is reported to have sighed, hung his head, and muttered “the one time the General takes my advice to move quickly he breaks his back.” To many this seems to have come at the worst time while Confederate General Stonewall Jackson was making himself a profound nuisance in the Shenandoah Valley and the Army of the Potomac was tied up on the Peninsula. Although despite cables from McClellan that he could still command from his HQ, Lincoln and Halleck both agreed that he would need to be evacuated and a new commander appointed.
With only limited discussion they both decided that Brig. General Edwin Vose Sumner, then the commander of the Army of the Potomac’s II Corps, would take command, Sumner the logical choice being the senior General officer on the Peninsular. When word reached General Sumner of his appointed as commander along with his pending promotion to Major General he remarked “Leave it to General McClellan to hand me a situation like this.” Sumner however was, as events would soon prove, more than up to the task.
Meanwhile, the Union was suffering some staggering reverses in the Shenandoah Valley. Confederate Maj. General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson had, with his few thousand troops, been scoring a series of victories against the north in the Shenandoah Valley since March in an effective effort to divert Union reinforcements from reaching McClellan on the Peninsula. Union forces had been largely unsuccessful in stopping Jackson despite their superior numbers.
However, Jackson’ impressive skill and luck did eventually run out. Confederate Maj. General Richard S. Ewell’s troops had been ordered to be withdrawn from the Valley in an effort to reinforce Richmond on May 20th, 1862 (Despite pleas for Robert E. Lee to leave Ewell in the Valley to assist Jackson, Jefferson Davis ordered Ewell’s redeployment because he believed that with the removal of McClellan a move against the supposedly weekend Army of the Potomac should take priority.)Jackson and the few remaining thousands of his foot cavalry were engaged by General Banks’ forces near the city of Strasbourg, Virginia on May 22nd. The battle seemed to be going well for the Confederates until Jackson, who was standing as did “Like a stone wall”, was struck from his horse by a Union bullet to the neck. Jackson bleed out within minutes and the sorrow and confusion surrounding his death led to the Union emerging victorious capturing the bulk of the late Stonewall’s men.
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Gen. Stonewall Jackson moments before he was shot and killed.
May 22nd, 1862
Sumner’s Advance
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May 25th- May 30th, 1862
General Sumner upon inheriting command of the Army of the Potomac wasted no time in continuing to drive up the Peninsular towards Richmond. News of Stonewall Jackson’s death at Strasbourg, Virginia was welcomed news as this meant that Union Maj. General John Pope’s Army of Virginia was now free to press the Confederates from the North.
The Confederates were in a bind.. Richmond was in serious danger of becoming encircled with Sumner’s Army of the Potomac advancing up the Peninsular in the east and Pope’s Army of Virginia heading south, placing it in a position to envelope the city north, west, and maybe even cut Richmond’s supply lines from the south. Furthermore, Southern morale was plummeting and desertions rose as a result of the Yankees advancing ever closer to the Confederate capital in addition to the death of Stonewall Jackson.
Jeff Davis along with his military aid General Robert E. Lee met with General Johnston at his HQ on May 25th. Davis, with Lee’s encouragement, felt that Johnston should move offensively against Sumner on the Peninsula. They felt that if the Army of the Potomac suffered a serious reversal (Jeff Davis was operating on the ultimately unfounded conviction that the death of General McClellan had crippled the AotP’s morale) it would retreat down the Peninsula allowing Confederate forces to then turn against Pope in the north. Johnston however, largely due to his numerical inferiority, believed in a more defensive strategy. He hoped that Sumner would grind his army to a pulp as the Army of Northern Virginia fell back onto Richmond. Johnston also suggested that Ewell’s troops, bolstered by some reinforcements from his own army, could hold Pope’s force in check. Davis for now agreed to Johnston’s defensive strategy but stated that if an opportunity to move against Sumner appeared that Johnston should take it.
The Battle of the Chickahominy
and
the Fall of Richmond
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Union forces at the onset of the Battle of the Chickahominy
June 1-June 6th, 1862
What became known as the Battle of the Chickahominy (The Four Days Battle to the South) started with General Sumner leading a general advance against the Confederate defensive positions outside of Richmond on June 1st, 1862. Although Johnston had diverted troops to prop up his northern defenses the Confederates managed to hold their works against Union attacks for most of June 1st and June 2nd. On the evening of June 2nd in light of the apparent Southern success Davis ordered Johnston to attack the Army of the Potomac in the morning. Although Johnston was wary of switching to the offensive, he realized the significance that a successful attack would have (Historians have also debated whether Johnston feared being relieved by Davis if he refused to attack). On June 3rd Johnston ordered a counterattack against the Union’s left south of the Chickahominy. The resulting Confederate attacks pushed the Federal forces under General Keyes back almost a mile. However around 4:00pm the Confederate forces, who had suffered heavy casualties, ran out of steam as they encountered Union entrenchments anchored a few hundred yards from the Chickahominy River. By 5:30 general Johnston was forced to call off the advance.
On the night of June 3rd both sides stopped to mull over the situation. Davis and Johnston were relatively pleased with the day’s results. The Federals had been pushed back and Davis believed that Sumner would at least withdraw his troops to the north side of the Chickahominy to consolidate his forces. Sumner however, had different plans. Sumner believed, correctly as events would show, that Johnston’s center must have been stretched dangerously thin and that he probably did not expect the North to resume the battle the next day. That night Sumner ordered Sedgwick’s corps to prepare pontoon bridges for use the next morning. At a council of war Gen. Sumner convened that night his Generals were surprised to hear that despite the day’s losses, the Army of the Potomac would again attack the Confederates, who were now exposed outside of their defenses, led by a river assault by Sedgwick’s s II Corps.
Around 7:30 am on June 4th, the Union line exploded by launching one of the heaviest artillery barrages of the war. Within an hour the Union’s left and centered were surging against the weakened Confederate lines. The Union’s right under General Porter was also making considerable headway and was threatening to turn the Confederate left. By 1:00pm the Confederate right was in danger of being cut off by Sedgwick’s advance and began a headlong retreat west towards Richmond. The Union continued to advance the rest of the day and although casualties were high on both sides the Confederates, due to their inferior numbers, were forced to fall back to within only a few miles of Richmond itself.
On the night of June 4th President Jefferson Davis was forced to listen to the advice of Johnston and Lee who informed him that Richmond must be abandoned. There decision to evacuate Richmond was also influenced by an erroneous report that Ewell had been defeated by Gen. Pope at Gordonsville, Virginia the same day (In reality Pope had in the end been checked by Ewell and had fallen back). Regardless, much of the Confederate governments records and treasury had already been packed and was ordered shipped to Greensboro, North Carolina. Jefferson Davis and most of the other members of the Confederate Government left Richmond on June 5th, 1862.
The Battle of Richmond was anticlimactic as Confederate forces fighting a regard action, moved through the city heading south. On the morning of June 6th, 1862 Union forces entered the capital of the Confederacy. When the Stars and Stripes was raised over the Virginia statehouse a Union private yelled to General Sumner “If only Little Mac could see us now!”
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Richmond, June 6th, 1862
Confederate Choices
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Union troops relaxing
Richmond, Virgina
June, 1862
June 7th-June 12th 1862
When Abraham Lincoln, pacing around the Washington telegraph office as he often did, received the news of the fall of Richmond he is reported to have jumped for joy so high that he hit his head on the office’s ceiling. Indeed the entire North was electrified by the fall of the Confederate capital. Harper’s Weekly ran above a full page illustration of General Sumner the headline “The Conqueror of the Confederacy”. Even the usually somber New York Times blared “Glorious News, Richmond Rightfully Ours!”
If the North was ecstatic, needless to say Confederate moral was devastated by the loss of Richmond. The fall of Richmond was a serious blow to Confederate hopes of receiving foreign recognition. Confederate agent John Slidell in a letter addressed to President Davis from London about a week after receiving news of Richmond’s capture stated “The loss of our capital has silenced almost all discussion here of recognition of our Southern republic. “ On June 10th as the Army of Northern Virginia continued to head south Davis relieved General Johnston and placed General Robert E. Lee in command. Lee moved the Army of Northern Virginia to a position a few miles south of Petersburg, Virginia to lick his army’s wounds. Lee had to double the night watch around his camp as desertions, especially amongst Virginian troops, continued to increase at an alarming rate. General Ewell’s forces, who had bested Union Gen. Pope at Gordonsville, were being hurriedly routed to reinforce Lee before they were cut off by Northern troops.
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Gen. Robert E. Lee
Army of Northern Virginia
Commander
On June 12th, Jefferson Davis, along with Confederate Secretary of War George W. Randolph, met with General Lee at his Headquarters. All three of the men present knew that if the military situation couldn’t be righted and quickly, the Southern cause was lost. But what to do? It appeared to Davis that he was ever increasingly in a no win scenario. Basic military strategy would dictate that the weaker force (i.e. the South) should be on the defensive. However the defensive strategy the Confederacy had been pursuing since the start of the war seemed now to have met with almost nothing but defeats. If they continued on the defensive it would appear that the Confederacy would continue to be slowly strangled by the encircling Union armies. If Davis went over to the offensive however the potential loss of Lee’s Army would be an irreversible calamity.
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Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, 1862
Events however, were becoming desperate. Desertions were skyrocketing, the value of Confederate money was plummeting, and several in the Confederacy were now beginning to contemplate rejoining the Union if only a guarantee of slavery could be made. The later sentiment was especially strong in the states of Tennessee and Virginia which were now largely in Union hands. If these states reverted back into the Union, Davis believed, the Confederacies chances of survival would become slim indeed. Therefore, despite the discrepancies in strength, it was agreed that as soon as possible General Lee should move against the Army of the Potomac along with a similar offensive push by Confederate Armies in the Western theater.
The Western Theater
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Gen. Braxton Bragg
Commander
Army of the Mississippi
June-July, 1862
The Western Theater had been going well for the Union. Corinth, Mississippi had fallen shortly after the battle of Shiloh. Jefferson Davis had replaced General Beauregard with General Braxton Bragg as commander of the Army of the Mississippi after Beauregard left for medical leave without permission following the fall of Corinth. Although Bragg had proposed an invasion of Kentucky via Confederate controlled eastern Tennessee, Davis instructed Bragg to move against Gen. Buell in Nashville. The reasons for a move against Nashville were two fold. Firstly, as the state capital, Nashville’s recapture would go a long way in helping silence any talk of Tennessee returning to the Union. Secondly, in the event of a defeat, an Army invading Kentucky would run the serious risk of becoming cut off and captured. Bragg’s move towards Nashville was planned to coincide with Lee’s proposed move in Virginia in order to tie down the maximum number of Confederate troops.
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Gen. Don Carlos Buell
Commander
Army of the Ohio
The North however was having considerable difficulty in capturing Vicksburg that, along with Port Hudson, was blocking Union use of the Mississippi River. Attempts to bombard it into submission had met with failure. Gen. Grant was then dispatched with considerable forces to capture the city and open the river.
Lee and Bragg Advance
July-August, 1862
On July 27th, 1862, in the swelter summer heat the Confederate Armies of Northern Virginia and of the Mississippi began their advance towards their Federal counterparts. Both Bragg and Lee hoped that their offensives would liberate the two confederate state capitals that had fallen into Yankee hands. Bragg’s plan was simply, move directly against Buell in Nashville and capture the town before Union reinforcements in western Tennessee came to his aid.
Lee’s plan however was more complex. Lee intended move his forces westward around Richmond and advance towards Washington. Sumner, Lee predicted, would move out of his fortifications in Richmond and engage him. This plan was undoubtedly risky. If Lee was victorious the Union would have vacated Richmond, and if the Army of the Potomac was mauled enough be cut off from its supplies and lines of retreat to the north. On the other hand if Lee was defeated his lines of retreat would be cut off. It was a definitely a gamble but with the diminishing Confederate fortunes, Lee was willing to risk it to prevent the subjugation of his native state.
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Gen. Robert E Lee as he advances north into Union occupied Virginia
The Siege of Nashville and Lee’s movements in Northern Virginia
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Tennessee State Capitol and barracks for the Union during the Siege
August, 1862
The Siege of Nashville began on August 6th, 1862 when the vanguard of Gen. Bragg’s Army of the Tennessee drove in outer elements of Gen. Buell’s Army of the Ohio. Buell’s army took up their defensive positions around the city. Bragg, for now, enjoyed a rough numerical parity with the Federals. On the morning of August 8th, Bragg launched his attack on Buell’s forces south of the Cumberland River. These morning attacks were in the end both costly and a failure. Confederate General Leonidas Polk, a cousin to former U.S. President Polk, was mortally wounded by Union artillery during the assault. A devout Episcopal Bishop, General Polk’s final words were “I thank God that he has called me to him so as my eyes will not witness the fall of the South”. To the absolute bewilderment of Jefferson Davis, Bragg refused to launch follow up attacks and settled down into a siege of Nashville, the whole time begging for reinforcements the Confederacy, with another ongoing campaign in Virginia, could hardly spare. In the meantime the Union was rushing reinforcements to the relief of Nashville from other parts of Tennessee and Kentucky. The clock was running against Bragg, a fact that he seemed to totally disregard.
Meanwhile in the east, Gen. Lee was moving rapidly and was passing north of the Army of the Potomac, which was still in Richmond. President Lincoln had been disappointed with General Sumner’s lack of progress since the Confederate capital fell and was adamant that Sumner now move to intercept Lee before he reached the Washington defenses. Sumner complied leaving a small force to garrison Richmond, and started to move the large Army of the Potomac north in what many believed would be the deciding battle of the war.
The Rappahannock Campaign: Part 1
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Map of Northern Virginia, 1861
August 10-14, 1862
The Army of Northern Virginia was making impressive headway in the direction of Washington. It overcame its first obstacle by pushing through a detachment of dismounted Union cavalry at the Battle of Culpepper Courthouse on August 11, 1862. Lee’s plan was to continue to push north through Brandy Station and cross the Rappahannock River at Rappahannock Station. Once north of the Rappahannock, Lee planned on giving battle from a defensive position where Lee’s disadvantage of numbers could be marginalized. Lee had no illusions of totally destroying the Union Army, but with any luck the main body of the Army of the Potomac, now approaching from the south, would be defeated and then retreat towards Washington. Lee would then turn south and reoccupy Richmond, returning the Confederate capital to Southern control and giving the South a desperately needed boost in morale.
Union commander General Sumner however was not merely chasing Lee north. Taking advantage of the railroad and river networks in Northern Virginia, Sumner had decided to dispatch General Hooker’s I Corps north to be routed through Alexandria, Virginia to establish a blocking position north of the river at Rappahannock Station. Meanwhile the rest of the Union army would approached Lee from the South and box him in. In a sense it became a race against time to see who could arrive at this import river crossing first.
Lee continued to advanced north capturing Brandy Station on August 12 but only after unexpectedly stiff resistance by the small Union garrison. The next day Lee arrived at the Rappahannock shocked to see a large number of Federal Troops disembarking off the trains and drawing themselves into position north of the river. Lee, it was reported, was surprised to see such a large element of the Army of the Potomac to his north instead of trailing him to the south. Lee was now faced with a decision, he could 1) Order a hasty attack across the river and keep advancing towards Washington. or 2) Remain in Brandy Station and await a Union attack. Lee chose the former but ordered a night reconnaissance of Union positions north of the river to ascertain their strength.
On the morning of the thirteenth, Confederate scouts reported to Lee that the troops on the North bank of the Rappahannock consisted only of Hooker’s I Corps. The scouts also reported that Sumner with the rest of the Federal Army was fast approaching from the Southeast. Around 9:00am Lee assembled his commanders to discuss the situation. The Confederate forces did enjoy a numerical advantage against hooker’s troops to the north and if they could be defeated the Army of Northern Virginia could then turn its attention to Sumner when he arrived with the Union main body. However, this plan was not without risks. Hooker’s men had spent the night entrenching and crossing the river would be tough. In the end it was decided that Hooker’s Corp should be eliminated before the arrival of Sumner. The only Confederate Corps commander who voiced reservations was Gen. Longstreet who favored either skirting Hooker to the west or remain on the defensive and wait for a Union attack.
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Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker
I Corps
Army of the Potomac
The Battle of Rappahannock Station began around 3:00pm on August 13th, 2010. With only a few hours to prepare and after a brief artillery barrage, the attack commenced with Confederate troops surging against the Union positions. Yankee guns overlooking the river crossing caused considerable Confederate casualties. For over three hours Lee made steady by costly process as he managed to force the Federals back. The Confederate assault was hindered by Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart who had been ordered to flank the Federal position from East. For reasons that remain unclear to this day, Stuart maneuvered his cavalry in a dashing but ultimate to wide of an arc around the Union position so that his forces did not join the battle for nearly four hours.
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Artist depiction of the Confederate assault across the Rappahannock
As twilight approached Hooker ordered his severally battered Corps to fall back, leaving the Confederates in possession of the northern bank. Lee had scored his much hoped for victory over a Union army. However, the Confederates triumph had come at an extremely high price. A price that Lee’s already outnumbered army could hardly afford as the main body of the Army of the Potomac approached from the South.
The Rappahannock Campaign: Part 2
The Battle of Warrenton
and
the Defeat of Gen. Robert E. Lee
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Warrenton, Virginia 1862
August 15-20, 1862
The morning following the Battle of Rappahannock Station was a bitter sweet moment for General Robert E Lee. He had scored a victory against the North but only after suffering severe casualties to his own force. He now was faced with three options 1) cut his losses and head South to avoid being trapped, 2) Continue to follow his original plan and turn and face Sumner somewhere north of the Rappahannock, or 3) Continue on towards Washington. Lee decided that he did not possess the forces to take Washington and if he continued on towards the Union capital he was going to be running the serious risk of becoming completely cut off from his line of retreat. Option 1 which was favored by some on his staff was also ruled out because it would not allow them to reoccupy Richmond, their chief objective. Therefore Lee decided to move to the town of Warrenton, Virginia located 13 miles north of Rappahannock Station and give battle to General Sumner who was hot on their tails. Warrenton was selected because if Sumner could be defeated it would allow him a clear line of retreat northward towards Washington, allowing the South in turn to reoccupy Richmond. It was also rumored that Warrenton had Union depots. Depots with food and supplies that Lee’s army desperately needed.
The Battle of Warrenton, which would prove to the deadliest battle in the Civil War, started on August 18, 1862 with an inconclusive skirmish between Confederate soldiers and forward elements of Union cavalry. August 19th, consisted of only sporadic skirmishes as the Confederates dug in and the Union forces drew themselves into position in a long line south of the town that curled northwards on both the eastern and western flanks. On August 20th at 9:00am Sumner launched the largest artillery bombardment of the war so far on the center of the Confederate line for over three hours. What would become known as Burnside’s Charge (named after Gen. Ambrose Burnside, commander of the Union IX Corps) occurred at 12:30pm when Sumner ordered a full scale assault on the battered Confederate center. The wooded terrain helped mask Union movements, but after almost 4 hours of repeated charges and countercharges the Confederate were still able to hold onto their works. (Historians have often criticized Sumner’s assault on the Confederates center, but it is important to note that it was Burnside’s Charge which forced the Confederates to weaken their left flank to reinforce their center on the night of August 19th that allowed for the decisive actions the next day.)
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Gen. John Sedgwick
II Corps
Army of the Potomac
For Lee, everything had been going according to plan. Sumner was attacking an entrenched Army of Northern Virginia and, so far, had been losing. Unfortunately for the South however Union superiority in numbers was about to decide the day. On the morning of August 20th, Union Gen. John Sedgwick of Connecticut launched a surprise attack against Lee’s weakened left flank. The previous night Sedgwick had convinced Sumner to not renew Burnsides attack on the Confederate center but instead reinforce his II Corps. Sumner also ordered the Union troops in the center and left to shuffle positions and make noise during the night to distract the Southerners. Sedgwick’s attack caught the Southerners off guard. Although the attack was very costly for both sides, the Army of Northern Virginia was so weakened from the previous week’s fighting that they did not have the numbers to match the Union’s. By 4:00pm General Lee was forced to order his Army to withdraw to the northwest. Lee then began preparations for the long retreat home and began to realize that his armies’ chances for survival were dropping by hour…
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Clovenfeld's famous depiction of the Assault of Sedgwick's II Corps at the Battle of Warrenton (1913)
The Relief of Nashville
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Confederate works outside of Nashville, August 1862.
August 22nd,1862
As Bragg’s Army continued to besiege Nashville following his failed assault on the city on August 10, 1862, the Union had been amassing reinforcements on the north bank of the Cumberland and had steadily been building up forces in the city. The besieged Buell was soon joined by Gen. Halleck and his troops from the eastern part of the state. By August 20th Bragg had released that he was now facing a superior force. Ruling out another assault, Bragg contemplated withdrawing to Chattanooga, Tennessee before he became hopelessly outnumbered. However, orders from President Davis not the retreat and the very real fear that he would be relieved if he did prompted him to continue to dither and bombard the city.
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Union troops charging the Confederate works at Nashville. Aug 22, 1862
On the morning of August 22nd, Buell and Halleck launched their assault against the Confederates entrenched on the outskirts of the city after a fierce artillery barrage. Bragg’s army performed rather well and made the Federals pay dearly for any ground gained. However by 2:00pm Union numbers and with Confederate artillery shells nearly depleted Bragg ordered his Army to withdraw. Although Bragg’s performance at Nashville has left much to criticize, Bragg did manage to facilitate an orderly withdraw allowing most of the Army of the Mississippi (soon to be renamed the Army of Tennessee) to retreat in good order.
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One of the Union bands during the Siege of Nashville
It is also worth to note that on the evening of August 22nd, as Bragg withdrew, Gen. Halleck ordered, as Gen. Sumner had after the successful conclusion of the Battle of Warrenton, one of the regimental bands to play the song Battle Cry of Freedom which would in later years and after some alterations become the national anthem of the United States. (Original lyrics listed below)
“Yes we'll rally round the flag (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_the_United_States), boys, we'll rally once again,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom,
We will rally from the hillside, we'll gather from the plain,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
(Chorus)
The Union forever! Hurrah, boys, hurrah!
Down with the traitor, up with the star;
While we rally round the flag, boys, rally once again,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
We are springing to the call with a million freemen more,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
And we'll fill our vacant ranks of our brothers gone before,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
Chorus
We will welcome to our numbers the loyal, true and brave,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
And although he may be poor, not a man shall be a slave (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_slavery_in_the_United_States),
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
Chorus
So we're springing to the call from the East and from the West,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
And we'll hurl the rebel crew from the land we love best,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
Chorus"
Jefferson Davis was devastated when the news reached him of Bragg’s defeat. Despite a close relationship with Bragg, Davis relieved him three days following the battle and appointed General Joseph E. Johnston who had been without command since The Battle of the Chickahominy. This defeat coming so soon after Lee’s defeat in Virginia made the already dismal mood in the South to plummet even faster. Jefferson Davis now realized that his August offensives had now both meet with failure. Davis also realized that these twin defeats would only strengthen the now growing voices of dissent in his own government. On August 25th, Jefferson Davis recorded in his Journal “I am at my wits end, what can be done now?….”
Lincoln’s plan for Emancipation and Reconstruction
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President Abraham Lincoln
September, 1862
With the war having been going well for the Union for the past few months, Lincoln now saw an opportunity to move on the two crucial issues of the conflict, reintegrating the southern states into the Union and slavery.
In the beginning of the war Lincoln had been very reluctant to move against slavery for fear of upsetting the Border States. However, the resent string of Northern success had done much to silence voices of discontent in the Border States as well as the Copperheads in the North. Following the twin victories at Warrenton and Nashville, Lincoln, who was currently enjoying enormous public support for the conduct of the war, now felt in pertinent to make the his first steps towards abolishing slavery and restoring the Union. On September 1, 1862 Lincoln issued a Proclamation of Emancipation and Restoration of the Union (or P.E.R.U. to the millions of American school children who would have to memorize passages of it over the centuries). Lincoln had been working on and revising this since the darker days earlier that year. The Proclamation stated
"That on the first day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.”
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Portrait of Lincoln discussing the P.E.R.U with his cabinet.
Confederate states that were exempted from this Proclamation were Tennessee, Virginia, and Louisiana which were mostly under Union control. The Proclamation continued by stating that any state which is currently in rebellion that rejoined the Union by March 1, 1863 would be spared the effects of the Proclamation. The Proclamation spelled out the process by which states could rejoin the Union. 1) By having a majority of a state’s legislature take an Oath of Allegiance to the Government of the United States and repeal their ordinance of succession (expelling any politicians who did not take the oath) or 2) after 10% of a state’s population had taken the Oath of Allegiance form a new state government. The proclamation also stated that any citizen, with the exception of top tier Confederate government and military officials, would be unconditionally pardoned upon taking the Oath of Allegiance.
Lincoln’s reasoning for issuing this Proclamation was multifaceted. On the one hand it was mainly a military measure which was intended to sap the slave power on which the Confederacy operated. Lincoln continued to believe and maintain that the restoration of the Union was the chief aim of the War and that this proclamtion would only speed up the Union's victory. Secondly, it would cause even more splintering in the Confederate government and state governments as many politicians who had become disgruntled with the Davis administration might see this as a way out of the war. Thirdly, it would appease the more radical elements in his party who were begging for the President to deal with slavery. Lincoln doubted whether the Deep South would comply but believed that the Upper South would be seriously tempted by the proposition.
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Slaves in a Union occupied portion of Louisiana, 1862.
Reaction to P.E.R.U. varied considerably. Fredrick Douglas cheered the proclamation as a step in the right direction. Other’s derided it as it only freed slaves that were outside Lincoln’s control. Democrat’s generally were appalled by the proclamation. They believed that Lincoln, yet again, had over stepped his constitutional authority. When news reached the South, Jefferson Davis lashed out at the Proclamation declaring that it was “intended to insight slave insurrection and the massacre of the white race.” The proclamation however greatly empowered Union sympathizers, conditional Unionists, and moderates who saw rejoining the Union as their last chance to save slavery in their states and avoid going down in flames with the now largely discredited Confederate Government.
General Lee’s Long Retreat
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General Robert E. Lee
Late 20th Century Portrait
As the Army of the Potomac was licking its wounds following its costly victory at Warrenton, Lee wasted no time heading south to safety, in a series of maneuvers and battles that U.S. military officers would study for centuries to come. Lincoln was adamant that Sumner move swiftly and capture the remnants of Army of Northern Virginia. However, Sumner continuously underestimated General Lee who repeatedly bested Union efforts to capture his force for the next several weeks.
The chief Union blunder of this campaign was that as Lee fell back they did not concentrate their forces against him. Sumner only sent slightly more than half of his large army against Lee leaving the more mauled units in the north to recuperate. Lee was able to briefly re-liberate the city of Charlottesville, Virginia after he overran the small union force that had been sent to block his line of retreat. Later at the Battle of Lynchburg, General Lee was able to soundly repulse a Union attempt to capture his Army, allowing him to slip south over the James River.
In the end on October 1st, 1862 after traveling nearly 200 miles from Warrenton, Lee reached the relative safety of Danville, Virginia which he proceeded to fortify in earnest. President Jefferson Davis had ordered Lee to not proceed any further south than Danville as Davis believed it was paramount for the Confederacy to retain a presence in Virginia. Lee’s conduct during the past several weeks revealed him to be one of the ablest Southern commanders of the war. Indeed, in future years historians would often speculate what Confederate fortunes might have been had General Lee been given command of the Army of Northern Virginia earlier in the war before Union victories, such as Richmond, sapped Southern strength and morale.
http://www.civilwarartillery.com/cwimages/Petersburg1.jpg
Photograph of Confederate works under construction outside of Danville, Virginia
November, 1862
As winter approached, General Sumner, with his deteriorating health, accepted an offer President Lincoln had made weeks earlier. On October 7th, 1862 General Sumner relinquished command of the Army of the Potomac and headed to Washington to aid Lincoln as General in Chief of the Union Armies. Although his choice for a replacement was not without controversy amongst the other Union corps commanders, Sumner picked the man who replaced him as II Corp commander as the new leader of the Army of the Potomac, Major General John Sedgwick. Sedgwick had performed very well at the Battle of Warrenton and was popular with many officers in the Union Army. Sedgwick’s promotion would prove to be an important steppingstone to his political career after the War.
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Maj. General John Sedwick (far right)
Commander
Army of the Potomac
1862 Midterm Elections, the Invasion of Eastern Tennessee, and the Investment of Vicksburg
Despite Lee’s resent victories in Virginia, the Republicans were rightfully confident as they moved into the November elections. In the elections the Republican Party increased their majorities in both the House and Senate. Republican gains however were less than predicted, possibly due to the survival of the Army of Northern Virginia and resentment by some over the P.E.R.U. Nonetheless, Lincoln saw these electoral successes as resounding support for the conduct of the war and as an endorsement for the P.E.R.U. Republican canidates also did well in many of the state elections.
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Railroad Bridge acoss Platt Creek: Knoxville Tennessee, December 1862
Meanwhile in the Western Theater, Lincoln was on the verge of accomplishing one of his goals since the start of the war, the liberation of eastern Tennessee. The non-slave holding citizens of East Tennessee had overwhelmingly voted against succession in 1861. Lincoln had initially wished to liberate this mountainous portion of Tennessee and possible bring it into the Union as it’s on state, as had been done with West Virginia. However, by this point in the War most of western Tennessee had already been liberated and if the eastern part of the state could be redeemed than Tennessee stood a good chance of becoming the first southern state to return to the Union.
On November 19th, 1862, after leaving a sizable garrison in Nashville, the Union Army of the Ohio under General Henry Halleck moved towards Knoxville (Halleck had formally taken over command from General Buell weeks earlier due to Buell’s poor performance during the early stages of the Siege of Nashville and lack of pursuit of Johnston). Johnston’s Confederate Army of Tennessee was stationed in the ever increasingly fortified city of Chattanooga in the southern part of the state. Although Johnston was urged by Jefferson Davis to move north and intercept Halleck, Johnston was able to convince the Confederate President that it would be unwise for his battered force to move into a Unionist part of the state, in winter, to engage a superior Yankee force. Therefore, Johnston’s Army remained behind its works in Chattanooga. Nashville was liberated on Christmas Eve 1862. When word reached Lincoln on Christmas morning he replied that it was “with the exception of the infant Savior, the best Christmas present ever received.” With Nashville capture, eastern Tennessee was finally returned to Union control. Indeed the only part of the state that was still in Confederate hands was Chattanooga. As both armies settled into winter quarters, Unionist elements in Tennessee were making plans on their state’s return to the Union.
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Maj. General Ulysses S. Grant
Army of the Tennessee
Commander
Meanwhile in Mississippi, the Army of the Tennessee under Major General Ulysses S. Grant was making steady progress towards the Confederate strongpoint of Vicksburg. On December 29th, 1862 at the Battle of Chickasaw Bluffs Confederate Lt. General John C. Pemberton was able to hold off a Union force nearly three times its size for almost 10 hours against the determined advances of Maj. General William T. Sherman. Although the victory was a tactical Confederate success Pemberton was forced to retire under the protection of Vicksburg’s defenses. Pemberton had in the months leading up to the Battle of Chickasaw Bluffs been having an increasingly difficult time recruiting and retaining his Confederate troops due the string of Southern defeats in other theaters of the war. Pemberton also felt that his supplies had been unfairly redirected east to prop up the collapsing Tennessee and Virginia fronts. In the days following the battle Grant’s forces began to besiege this all important city to determine who would control the mighty Mississippi River.
Brief Overview of the Military Situation
January 1st, 1863
United States of America
Capital: Washington D.C.
Major Union Armies
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Army of the Potomac: Commanded by Major Gen. John Sedgwick. Currently occupying most of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
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Army of the Tennessee: Commanded by Major Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. Currently besieging Vicksburg, Mississippi.
http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:H16dFE-sK-HnBM:http://www.nps.gov/archive/peri/images/Major%2520General%2520Henry%2520Halleck.jpg (http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.nps.gov/archive/peri/images/Major%2520General%2520Henry%2520Halleck.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.nps.gov/archive/peri/halleck.htm&usg=__36shwm_IGsv9q4Cl_R1NwK08l2k=&h=300&w=250&sz=14&hl=en&start=1&sig2=Lh3uYPqwOsVd-pzrd50xWA&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=H16dFE-sK-HnBM:&tbnh=116&tbnw=97&prev=/images%3Fq%3DHenry%2BHalleck%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26 rlz%3D1T4DKUS_enUS313US314%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=eoRDTPGUIY74swOQt-yLDA)
Army of the Ohio: Commanded by Major Gen. Henry Halleck. Currently occupying most of Tennessee.
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Army of the Gulf: Commanded by Major Gen. Benjamin F. Butler. Currently occupying the southern half of Louisiana.
Naval Forces
The United States Navy has undergone a dramatic expansion since the start of the war. Naval gunboats are currently heavily engaged on the Mississippi River in the offensive against Vicksburg and in actions in Louisiana. The Union Navy is ever increasingly tightening its blockade on the Southern coastline.
Confederate States of America
Capital: Greensboro, North Carolina (President Davis and much of the War Department resided at the time in Danville, Virginia along with the Confederate Virginia State Government).
Major Confederate Armies
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Army of Northern Virginia: Commanded by General Robert E. Lee. Currently in Danville, Virginia.
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Army of Tennessee: Commanded by General Joseph E. Johnston. Previously known as the Army of Mississippi. Currently defending Chattanooga, Tennessee.
http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:7Ap4-P7YsqXZjM:http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/hh/21/images/hh21b2.jpg (http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/hh/21/images/hh21b2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/hh/21/hh21b.htm&usg=__thNfCBg4v7VaLZMfXqdUqWlTVBI=&h=301&w=244&sz=10&hl=en&start=3&sig2=Yna-sa6n7iuM0nyCtcNsbA&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=7Ap4-P7YsqXZjM:&tbnh=116&tbnw=94&prev=/images%3Fq%3DJohn%2BC%2BPemberton%26um%3D1%26hl%3D en%26rlz%3D1T4DKUS_enUS313US314%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=BIVDTJnnHobksQPvp8WKDA)
Vicksburg Defenses: Commanded by Lt. General John C. Pemberton. Currently besieged in Vicksburg, Mississippi.
Naval Forces
The Confederate Navy is mostly concerned with protecting blockade runners in bringing in much needed supplies to the South. Southern Naval forces are slowly but surely being eliminated as the greater industrial potential of the North takes its toll. Confederate commerce raiders such as the CSS Alabama (which narrowly avoided being impounded in England by the British government) are making a name for themselves by harassing Union shipping in the Atlantic.
The South’s Winter of Discontent
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Jefferson Davis
President
Confederate States of America
January, 1863
As the War entered its second winter the political situation in the Confederate States of America was deteriorating at an alarming pace. The South had introduced conscription in 1862 to shore up its manpower shortage. As Confederate fortunes declined in the second half of 1862 the central government ever increasingly drew men and supplies form the various Southern states. Jefferson Davis’s heavy handed approach coupled with his apparently disastrous handling of the war so far began to form fissures in the Confederate political establishment. Those that opposed Davis’s centralizing policies include several Southern state governors who resented their men and supplies being sent out of state. The most prominent of which were Joseph Brown, Zebulon Vance, and Pendleton Murrah the Governors of Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas respectively. Another prominent Southern dissenter against the Davis administration was none other than Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens from Georgia.
http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:8JWTtlA0w0TxUM:http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/Confederat_Cabinet_Photos/Alexander_Stephens.jpg (http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/Confederat_Cabinet_Photos/Alexander_Stephens.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/Confederate_Cabinet.htm&usg=__CgqtRSDJ_qXKGBGsMXbEt-GIs2Q=&h=1378&w=1113&sz=213&hl=en&start=1&sig2=QGTC5RJC8nQEc2N9LKL82A&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=8JWTtlA0w0TxUM:&tbnh=150&tbnw=121&prev=/images%3Fq%3DAlexander%2BStephens%2B1863%26um%3D1% 26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26rlz%3D1T4DKUS_enUS313US314%26 tbs%3Disch:1&ei=00BGTKySOY30swPBqeDtAQ) http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ugmtVQJ5rx-7OM:http://community.berea.edu/cwaltp/AmnestyAssets/vancefinal.gif (http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://community.berea.edu/cwaltp/AmnestyAssets/vancefinal.gif&imgrefurl=http://community.berea.edu/cwaltp/&usg=__6yBonokZIGsGlS34ByUc-eyOTHw=&h=331&w=274&sz=24&hl=en&start=4&sig2=3TOgB-8X5aRy0m95FhN1mg&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=ugmtVQJ5rx-7OM:&tbnh=119&tbnw=99&prev=/images%3Fq%3DZebulon%2BVance%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26 rlz%3D1T4DKUS_enUS313US314%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=IEFGTPjWOo_2swOG4bDoAQ) http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A1DnlyE-SV6NpM:http://www1.american.edu/bgriff/dighistprojects/boyle/images/brown.jpg (http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www1.american.edu/bgriff/dighistprojects/boyle/images/brown.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www1.american.edu/bgriff/dighistprojects/boyle/biographies.htm&usg=___QxR6hLyKPLVzuhQmCoM-gBeNsE=&h=225&w=167&sz=24&hl=en&start=3&sig2=ilUCtUzJZaTNyxmM51-QVQ&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=A1DnlyE-SV6NpM:&tbnh=108&tbnw=80&prev=/images%3Fq%3DJoseph%2BBrown%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26s a%3DX%26rlz%3D1T4DKUS_enUS313US314%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=RkFGTKLpDoHUtQPGmMzvAQ) http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:mL73urCpirRUGM:http://s3.hubimg.com/u/237646_f260.jpg (http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://s3.hubimg.com/u/237646_f260.jpg&imgrefurl=http://hubpages.com/hub/Governor-Pendleton-Murrah-of-Texas&usg=__VrLBJHG7P9LobbPpRvPgXOMOCVY=&h=393&w=260&sz=19&hl=en&start=3&sig2=PVuCS8PJaIJRZtVBqW3RvA&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=mL73urCpirRUGM:&tbnh=124&tbnw=82&prev=/images%3Fq%3DPendleton%2BMurrah%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den %26sa%3DG%26rlz%3D1T4DKUS_enUS313US314%26tbs%3Disc h:1&ei=S0JGTPaRMoiisQPu1eHtAQ)
Southern opponents to the Davis Administration
(from left to right; VP Stephens, Gov. Vance, Gov. Brown, and Gov. Murrah)
In early January 1863, Jefferson Davis called a series of meetings with prominent Confederate leaders in the Southern capital of Greensboro. Those present included Davis’s Cabinet, Alexander Stephens, Confederate congressional leadership, representatives from certain state governments, and military leaders including General Robert E. Lee. At these meetings, now known to historians as the Winter Conferences, Davis was deeply disturbed by the defeatist attitudes of many of the political leaders. Davis believed that although the South had suffered alarming setbacks in the past months the cause was not lost. If the full might of the South’s resources could be effectively pooled, the Confederate President continued to maintain, the Confederacy could reverse its recent defeats and grind the North down until the Union was forced to recognize Southern independence.
Therefore at the end of these Winter Conferences, in order to shore up the depleted Confederate ranks Jefferson Davis in late January, 1863 began lobbying for what became known as the Davis-Seddon Act which called for increased conscription, allowed for the suppression of seditious talk and media, and granted the Confederate government increased powers in procuring supplies from the various Southern states. This proposal sparked enormously hostile debate in the Confederate Congress and the various state governments as many politicians balked at the idea of rendering more men and supplies to the central government while their own states appeared to be on the verge of invasion. Indeed it seemed to challenge the very notion of state’s rights that the Confederacy was founded upon. As events would show the proposed Davis-Seddon Act would be one of the steppingstones that would eventually lead to what some historians would refer to as the “Confederate Civil War.”
Lincoln’s Plan for Victory
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Abraham Lincoln
President
United States of America
January, 1863
As the Jefferson Davis was making his plans during these quieter winter months so was Lincoln. In January, 1863 President Lincoln devised the North’s plan to win the war with advise from, General in Chief Sumner, Secretary or War Stanton, Secretary of the Navy Welles, and even General Sedgwick who was called up from Richmond,. With reports of Southern political turmoil over conscription and Davis’s handling of the war Lincoln believed that, as soon as possible, all of the Union’s armies should move against their Confederate counterparts. This simultaneous pressure all along the borders of the Confederacy would, Lincoln hoped, make the best use of the North’s superiority in numbers and not allow the Confederacy to use its interior lines to shuffle troops from front to front.
Lincoln’s intentions were to try and peel off the states of the Upper South, and Texas if possible, and bring them back into the Union first as they had the largest numbers of unionist citizens and therefore more apt to rejoin the Union. The decision to move into Texas an Arkansas however was not very popular with many in the Union military. Sumner and Stanton argued that with Vicksburg likely to fall soon, Arkansas and Texas would be cut off and could be left to wither on the vine. Lincoln however believed that with these states cut off from the Confederacy they would be more likely to rejoin the Union, especially if they could be liberated before the P.E.R.U. freed their slaves. Lincoln was also adamant about establishing a presence in Texas to send a signal to the French troops in Mexico that, as Lincoln put it to an aide, “they ain’t welcome in this hemisphere.”
The plan was as follows. Butler’s Army of the Gulf would push north, taking Port Hudson on the Mississippi and liberate the rest of Louisiana. Following this Butler would turn west and push into Texas. Grant’s Army of the Tennessee, after taking Vicksburg some time in this winter, would split up. Two Corps under the command of Maj. General William T. Sherman, later known as the Army of the Mississippi, would move into Arkansas where unionist sympathies were believed to be on the rise. Grant aided by reinforcements from the north would head east and take central Mississippi. Meanwhile, Halleck would take his Army of the Ohio liberate Chattanooga, and then push on and capture the key railroad junction of the City of Atlanta. Sedgwick, with the Union’s largest army, would move against Lee at Danville, and then on to the Confederate capital in Greensboro. Together, so it was thought, these offensives would finish liberating the states of Virginia, Tennessee, Louisiana, take most of Texas and Arkansas, and for the second time capture the Confederate capital. In short, if successful the war could be over in a matter of months.
Tennessee Returns to the Union
February, 1863
As the wintering armies made their preparations for the upcoming military offensives, Tennessee politicians were busy launching their offensive to return to the Union. On January 29, 1863 unionist politicians held a convention in Nashville to discuss their state’s future. Most of the Confederate Tennessee State Legislature boycotted the convention and remained in Chattanooga under the protection of Johnston’s Army of Tennessee. However, enough of the population according to the Proclamation of Emancipation and the Restoration Union (P.E.R.U.) had taken the oath of allegiance (mostly citizens from eastern Tennessee) to form a new state government.
As all present were Republicans or Unionist Democrats the main discussion was not whether to return to the Union, but whether to return to it as a Slave or Free State. The debate raged for three days until finally a compromise was struck. Tennessee would petition to return as a slave state, but with a provision in the state’s new proposed constitution that would abolish slavery by January 1st, 1865. Slave-owners who took the oath of allegiance to the United States and the new state government could receive finical compensation from the Federal Government. The State of Delaware had adopted a similar gradual compensated emancipation plan by a slim margin a few months earlier. Andrew Johnson (D) the current military governor of Tennessee and the only southern senator to have remained loyal to the United States was, in a surprising move, elected provisional governor by the Republican controlled assembly. This was probably an effort to win back wayward Tennessee Democrats.
http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:fgauh2tiPK-GTM:http://formaementis.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/andrew_johnson.jpg (http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://formaementis.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/andrew_johnson.jpg&imgrefurl=http://formaementis.wordpress.com/tag/slavery/page/2/&usg=__-Zi-LKAgCkpnsYSlG_HS0j5rAgs=&h=599&w=491&sz=35&hl=en&start=2&sig2=MhzLncJPf7NLPBS_ibPAaw&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=fgauh2tiPK-GTM:&tbnh=135&tbnw=111&prev=/images%3Fq%3DAndrew%2BJohnson%2B1863%26um%3D1%26hl %3Den%26rlz%3D1T4DKUS_enUS313US314%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=NDJKTP36M4i8sQPttdlI)
Andrew Johnson
Provisional Governor of Tennessee
1863
When Tennessee’s petition, reached Congress there was a serious chance that the Republican dominated body might reject it because it would be tantamount to readmitting a slave state. However moderate Republicans, Democrats, and support from the Lincoln administration was able to secure its passage. Therefore on February 15, 1863 Tennessee became the first Confederate State to rejoin the Union.
When news reached Jefferson Davis, he lambasted it as an “illegitimate attempt by abolitionists and rabble-rousers to subvert a Southern state to Northern tyranny” as did many in the Deep South. However, in other parts of the Upper South, such as Virginia and Arkansas, moderates saw it as a practical compromise and continued to make their own plans for their states’ restoration to the Union.
The Fall of Vicksburg
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Artisit depiction of the Siege of Vicksburg
Early February, 1863
February,1863
Ulysses S Grant’s Army of the Tennessee had been pounding away at the Confederate defenses for over a month. Grant’s forces at this point had swollen to 80,000 men. Meanwhile Confederate Lt. Gen. Permberton’s troop strength had been reduced to a mere 27,000 and his men were running dangerously low of artillery shells.
From February 14-16, the Union army blasted the Confederate works with over 200 pieces of artillery. This barrage was supplemented from the river by Rear Admiral Porter’s gunboats. On the evening of February17th, Grant ordered an assault against the northern Vicksburg defenses which were easily repulsed. Undeterred, Grant ordered two more assaults on the 18th and 20th which meet with similar failure.
Following these failures, Grant began to prepare for a new assault to be led by Maj. General William T. Sherman and his XV Corps. This assault was to be preceded by a feint in the south by Maj. General John Parke’s IX Corps. While Confederate attentions were distracted to the south, Sherman’s forces, after a ferocious but short artillery barrage were to advance in loose formation, taking advantage of all possible cover, and seize a section of the Confederate northern defenses. On the evening of February 20th the assault was carried out and was successful in making a hole in the Confederate lines.
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Elements of Sherman's XV Corps overwhelming the Confederate lines.
February 20th, 1863
On the following day, General Grant offered terms to the battered Confederates. If they surrendered their arms and swore never to fight against the government of the United States they would be paroled. With the breach in the Confederate lines and the near depletion of their ammunition General Pemberton was forced to agree. The city and defenses of Vicksburg surrendered the next day on February 22nd, 1863. Port Hudson, Vicksburg’s Louisianan counterpart would surrender to Maj. General Butler’s Army of the Gulf five days later when news of Vicksburg fall reached the poorly supplied Confederate garrison. Together, the fall of Vicksburg and Port Hudson in February 1863 finally returned control of the continent’s greatest river to the United States.
The Danville Campaign
and
the Surrender of Robert. E. Lee
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Union Seige Gun on the outskirts of Danville, Virginia
May, 1863
March-May 1863
Since October of 1862, the Armies of the Potomac and of Northern Virginia had done little more than skirmish with each other. Lee’s forces had turned the countryside around Danville into a proverbial fortress with a series of forts, redoubts, and defensive positions ringing the city and protecting the railway which served as the cities lifeline to the rest of the Confederacy. Sedgwick’s army had been preoccupied for most of the winter with suppressing guerrilla bands and occupying the lion’s share of Virginia.
Starting on the Ides of March, components of the Army of the Potomac started making their way south. Altogether, these forces totaled 125,000 men. However, tens of thousands of these were used for logistical support and securing the army’s lines of communications. Behind the formidable Danville trenches laid Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia with only 50,000 men under arms. As with Lee’s spectacular escape and evasion following the Battle of Warrenton, his conduct in the Danville Campaign against the Union’s far superior numbers would cement his reputation as one of the top Confederate commanders of the war, despite never actually winning a campaign.
The first battle of the campaign accured when forward Confederate elements ambushed a reconnaissance detachment of Union cavalry at Halifax, Virginia on March 23rd, 1863. As would be the story for most of the campaign, Southern forces performed well, until superior Union numbers forced their withdrawal due to fear of encirclement. In a similar fashion on April 1st at the Battle of South Boston, a town about 30 miles east of Danville, Confederates under the immediate command of General James Longstreet held up nearly twice their number for two days until Union cavalry threatened to cut off his line of retreat. On April 3rd, Union forces north of Danville at the Battle of Dry Fork were able to evict the Confederate garrison only after a costly assault.
By April 20th, 1863 Major General John Sedgwick’s Army of the Potomac had encircled nearly 75% of the Danville defenses. The remaining open 25% included the railroad to the south which served as the city’s lifeline to the rest Confederacy. The Confederates were doing their utmost to keep the railway open through a series of counter attacks and flanking movements by Southern cavalry to draw off Union forces. For the next 30 days Federal forces continued to close the vise of Danville. By the first of May, the Confederate Virginia politicians who had taken refuge in the city during the winter had all fled to North Carolina, as had most other Confederate officials. The notable exception being President Jefferson Davis, who, much to the annoyance of General Lee, was determined to remain in the city as long as possible. On May 20th, 1863 General Lee informed President Davis that he must leave the city as the window for escape was closing fast. Lee informed Davis that he and many of his fellow Virginians would stay behind and perform a rearguard action as he and units from other states escaped towards Greenville, NC. Davis seeing the writing on the wall reluctantly accepted.
On May 21st, Davis and a sizeable number of the remaining Confederate soldiers under General Richard H. Anderson of South Carolina managed to leave Danville and slip into the relative safety of North Carolina. On May 23rd, Danville’s railway was cut by Union troops and the city completely surrounded. Two days later on May 25th, 1863 and only hours before the Union was to launch a massive assault against the city, General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to General Sedgwick at his HQ at Patterson’s Farmhouse. Thus, the Commonwealth of Virginia was now entirely back in the control of the United States.
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Artist depiction of Patterson's Farmhouse. Now a museum in Danville Civil War Sate Park.
Aftermath of the Battle
The roughly 18,000 troops that were captured in Danville were paroled. This number included General Lee who was surprised and deeply touched by General Sedgwick’s benevolence. This started a close friendship between Sedgwick and Lee that would last until Lee’s death several years later (Sedgwick would serve as one of Lee’s pallbearers).
Meanwhile, Virginia politicians had been meeting in Richmond for much of the campaign and were hotly debating whether Virginia should return to the Union as one or two states. News of Lee’s surrender did much to break the legislative deadlock. By a three vote margin Virginia voted to return to the Union as a single state. Exempt form the P.E.R.U.’s provisions on slavery, Virginia opted for compensated gradual emancipation in much the same way as Delaware, Tennessee, and Louisiana had (Louisiana became the second Southern state to return to the Union in early May 1863). Virginia set June 1st, 1866 as its date for complete emancipation. Virginia’s proposal for readmission was narrowly accepted by Congress a few weeks later.
Jefferson Davis, now in Greenville, NC with the rest of the disintegrating Confederate government, began to realize for the first time that the war was lost. However, Davis was a man of strong conviction and could not bring himself to contemplate capitulation and so the war continued on…for now.
The Trans-Mississippi Theater
March-May, 1863
Sherman’s March through Arkansas
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Maj. General William T. Sherman on horseback in Arkansas
May, 1863
After the fall of Vicksburg on the 22nd of February, 1863 Grant as planned divided his forces. Two corps totally roughly 24,000 men under the command of Maj. General William T. Sherman headed northeast into the Confederate held Arkansas. Sherman entered Arkansas roughly a month after the P.E.R.U. had freed all the slaves in the state. Therefore, as Sherman advanced towards his objective, the state capital in Little Rock, his army (now known as the Army of the Mississippi) became one of the first Union armies to start emancipating the newly freed slaves.
Sherman’s march through Arkansas is also noteworthy in the way he managed his logistics. Instead of maintain a long and precarious supply train from the Mississippi River, Sherman decided that his forces could “live off the fat of the land” on the unspoiled Arkansas countryside. This was a dangerous move to conduct so early in the spring, and the Union forces procurement of local food and fodder angered many. Although many Arkansas residents curse Sherman’s name to this day the actual damage done by his army was minimal and mostly fell on Confederate loyalists and wealthy slave holders.
In order to defend the state capital Confederate General Sterling Price began amassing his forces in Little Rock. Sherman’s rapid advance through the state however gave Price little time to properly fortify the city or train his new recruits, many of which had been harshly pressed into service. On May 2nd, 1863 Sherman’s Army of the Mississippi engaged Price’s Army of Missouri in the Battle of Little Rock. General Price was mortally wounded by Union artillery early in the battle, and chaos reigned as the Confederate troops who were rushed to the battle fled their still unfinished trenches. The next morning, Sherman triumphantly entered the city. The raising of the Stars and Stripes over the statehouse was accompanied by the singing of the Battle Cry of Freedom by local unionists, who had remained dormant since the start of the war but who were now cropping up in ever greater numbers.
Butler’s Defeat
After the fall of Port Hudson, Maj. General Butler with his Army of the Gulf started Lincoln’s long awaited invasion of Texas. Unfortunately for the North the campaign would end in one of the worst Union defeats of the War. Beginning on April 29, 1863 the two day Battle of Carthage (that is Carthage, Texas) saw Butler’s forces soundly defeated by the numerically inferior Army of Western Louisiana under Maj. General Richard Taylor. Butler was forced to retreat back into Louisiana, were Lincoln promptly relieved him of command, replacing him with Maj. General Nathaniel P. Banks. Back in Louisiana, Banks waited on Sherman to complete his campaign so they could combine forces and make a second attempt at invading Texas. This defeat was a major setback for pro-Union elements in Texas and was a serious factor in Texas remaining in the Confederacy.
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Maj. General Nathaniel P. Banks
Commander
Army of the Gulf
Halleck in Tennessee
and
Grant in Mississippi
April – June, 1863
The Battle of Chattanooga and the Invasion of Georgia
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Chatanooga, Tennessee
March, 1863
On April 1st, 1863 Maj. General Henry Halleck with his 47,000 man Army of the Ohio began its movement against Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston’s 28,000 man strong Army of Tennessee which had spent the winter fortifying the city of Chattanooga. Johnston’s Army had been severely weakened due to President Jefferson Davis siphoning troops away from the army to be sent to General Lee in Virginia or to General P.G.T. Beauregard’s new Army of Mississippi (not to be confused with Sherman’s Army of the Mississippi) which was being formed to defend Jackson, Mississippi from Grant’s invading army. In the ensuing campaign Johnston proved to be a master of defense. However, as the Confederacy was being pressed in all theatres by superior Union numbers and internally by the ever widening schisms in the Southern political establishment Johnston was never able to concentrate enough forces to repel Halleck’s advancing army.
The Battle of Chattanooga began on April 16th, 1863 when the Army of the Ohio began bombarding Johnston’s defenses. Johnston was able to stall Halleck’s assaults through a series of well organize counterattacks that always seemed to shore up the Confederate lines just as they were about to break. However, when news of Lee’s surrender at Danville reached Johnston’s HQ he knew that his days in Chattanooga were numbered as vast Union reinforcements would soon be on their way to encircle his dwindling army. On June 2nd, 1863 Johnston withdrew from Chattanooga towards Georgia with Halleck’s army in hot pursuit. Johnston’s plan was to take advantage of the hilly north Georgia countryside and fight a series of defensive battles as he fell back towards Atlanta along the Chattanooga-Atlanta railway.
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Chattanooga after being set onfire by retreating Confederates
June 2nd, 1863
Before the Confederates left however, they set fire to many of the militarily important buildings in the city. Unfortunately for the citizens of Chattanooga the fire quickly spread and soon ravished the majority of the already battered city. The burning of Chattanooga was significant as it was one of the few cities to be so utterly destroyed during the course of the war. Furthermore the city's apparent destruction at the hands of Confederate troops sent shockwaves throughout the South that the Confederacy would now do anything to prevent its cities from falling into Yankee hands. This strengthened the already growing peace faction in the South who saw quickly ending the war as their only chance for survival.
Grant in Mississippi
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P.G.T. Beauregard
Commander
Army of Mississippi
As Sherman was advancing on Little Rock and Butler was blundering into Texas, Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant was pushing east towards Jackson, Mississippi with his 40,000 man Army of the Tennessee. Jackson, the state capital, was defended by Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard of Louisiana who could only muster less than 25,000 troops many of which were state militia. Beauregard had distinguished himself in the early days of the war, but his reputation had steadily declined as the war progressed. Now, with Mississippi threatened, President Davis was rushing troops from other theaters to defend his native state.
The Battle of Jackson took place on April 7th, 1863. During the battle General Grant decisively defeated Beauregard’s army which was still in the process of forming. To his credit, when it became clear that the more numerous and better equipped Union army was going to emerge victorious, General Beauregard withdrew his troops in good order and headed east towards Alabama. Grant, as was his fashion, followed closely on Beauregard’s heels. Grant’s pursuit of Beauregard became known as “The Great Dixie Derby” due to the unusually fast rate at which the armies moved.
The Collapse
of
the Confederacy
June-July, 1863
The Confederate Government flees Greensboro
http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war-feb-1861/confederate-state-house-montgomery.jpg
An artist's stylized depiction of the Confederate capital's return to Montgomery, AL (1863)
After Lee’s surrender at Danville, General Sedgwick (who had recently been promoted to General in Chief after General Sumner’s resignation due to poor health) wasted no time in heading south to capture the Confederate capital at Greensboro, North Carolina. Jefferson Davis realized that General Richard H. Anderson’s Army of the Carolinas, formally the Army of Northern Virginia, was in no condition to defend the city and the capital would have to be moved. Unlike earlier in the war, many Southern governors now saw harboring the Confederate Government more as a liability than an asset. Atlanta or another city in North Carolina were ruled out due to the hostility of Governors Brown and Vance who respectively claimed that the central government should as Brown put it “find another place to end its days.” Davis suggested that the capital be moved to either Charleston or Columbia, South Carolina until news came that Charleston had been captured by a Union Army/Navy Taskforce under the command of Maj. General Quincy Gillmore on June 5th. Therefore the remaining members of the Confederate Congress decided to return the capital to Montgomery, Alabama and abandoned Greensboro to the advancing Union Army on June 7th, 1863.
General Anderson with his Army of the Carolinas, which now numbered only 21,000 men, planned on moving around Sedgwick’s Army of the Potomac and wreaking havoc in the Union’s rear, possible even reinvading Virginia. However, General Sedgwick’s superior numbers allowed him to block Anderson at every turn forcing him to fall back further and further.
The Confederate Civil War
What many Civil War historians call “The Confederate Civil War” began in earnest on June 15th, 1863 when in a surprising move Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens confronted President Davis in his makeshift office in Montgomery. Stephens claimed that the war was lost and that Davis should either sue for peace with Lincoln or resign as President. Jefferson Davis, whose relationship with Stephens was already severely strained, was deeply troubled at what he took to be treasonous comments from his Vice President. Davis stated that he had sworn to uphold the Confederate Constitution and would do so for as long as he was able. Stephens then replied that if that was Davis’s answer he would be left with no choice but to urge Congress to impeach Davis.
The legality of impeaching Davis, presumably because of his abysmal conduct in running the war, was and has been hotly debated to this day. The Constitution of the Confederate States of America maintains that the President may be impeached for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors." Davis believed that the impeachment charges that he was brought up on were, at the very least baseless and more likely open treason against the Commander and Chief during wartime. For the next four days the Confederate capital was, in what some historians call “The Battle of Montgomery” the scene of passionate debates, street battles, and a race as both Davis and Stephens’s supporters clamored for votes (and even moved troops into the city) to support their respective causes. However on June 19th, Davis, by a slim margin received enough votes to stop from being removed as President of the Confederacy
News of the “Battle of Montgomery” did much to discredit the Confederate government else wear in the South. As the Army of the Potomac was chasing Anderson’s forces across the state, Governor of North Carolina Zebulon Vance, a long time critic of Jefferson Davis, asked the state legislature to secede from the Confederacy. This was do to the central government’s apparent inability to defend the state and in an effort to stave off further destruction. On, June 23rd, 1863 the state narrowly passed its second ordinance of secession in three years. Georgia followed North Carolina out of the Confederacy three days later. As such, Georgia and North Carolina troops started leaving the Confederate armies in droves.
The Surrender of Anderson and Johnston
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Gen. Richard H. Anderson
Commander
Army of the Carolinas
With North Carolina and Georgia now technically out of the Confederacy, the Confederate armies positions within those states became untenable. Through a double envelopment General Sedgwick was able to trap Anderson’s army outside of Salisbury, NC on June 27th. Anderson was forced to surrender his battered and starving forces two days later.
Meanwhile in Georgia, Halleck’s Army of the Ohio inflicted a crippling defeat on Johnston’s dwindling Army of Tennessee at Resaca on June 29th. The devastating news of Anderson’s surrender in North Carolina reached Johnston the next day. This information along with the fact that the Georgia government would no longer supply his forces made Johnston surrender his deserting army on July 1st, 1863.
The Impeachment of Jefferson Davis and the End of the Confederacy
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Alexander Stephens
2nd President of the Confederate States of America
July 3-4, 1863
The succession of North Carolina and Georgia, coupled by the twin dissolutions of the Confederate armies of the Carolinas and Tennessee was the last straw for the Davis administration. On July 3rd, 1863 the Confederate Congress formally impeached and removed Jefferson Davis as President of the Confederacy. Alexander Stephens was sworn in as the second and last Confederate President at noon in a somber and sad ceremony. On the same afternoon news reached President Stephens that General Grant had finally caught up with and captured P.G.T. Beauregard’s Army of Mississippi only 50 miles west of Montgomery during the costly Battle of Selma.
In light on the disastrous developments of the past two weeks (or perhaps more appropriately the past 14 months since the fall of Richmond), President Alexander Stephens and the remaining members of Congress officially dissolved the Confederate States of America in a tearful cession at 10:00am on July 4th, 1863 as the Star and Bars was lowered for the last time from over the city. When news reached the North later that day, it sparked off the greatest Independence Day celebrations that the nation had ever seen. In a torch light speech delivered to an audience on the Whitehouse lawn President Abraham Lincoln stated that “the Almighty God has seen fit to bless us with victory in this great civil war, but it will be up to us to win the peace.”
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Confederate States of America
February 8, 1861 - July 4, 1863
The Immediate Aftermath of the War
and
the Start of Reconciliation
July-September, 1863
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Artist depiction of Confederate forces surrendering their colors
July, 1863
Following the dissolution of the Confederacy in early July the rest of the South not already subjugated fell to the North in rapid succession. The advancing Union armies wasted no time occupying the state capitals not already under their control. On their way Federal forces enforced the P.E.R.U, freeing hundreds of thousands of slaves in a matter of weeks. The State of Texas, which had remained basically free of Union troops during the war, was the last Southern state to be occupied. When General Sherman’s army arrived in the state capital of Austin at the end of July Sherman proclaimed that under the P.E.R.U all slaves in Texas were now and forever free. For this reason July 29th is often celebrated as Emancipation Day in many parts of the United States.
Throughout the South, the defeated Confederate forces were almost invariable paroled after their military munitions had been confiscated. The few exceptions were top military and political leaders such as Jefferson Davis who was arrested by Ulysses S. Grant’s forces as the former confederate president was making his way home to Mississippi. Davis would spend several months in prison before eventually being pardoned by President Lincoln. Davis, who was still immensely unpopular in the South for his conduct in managing the war, went into exile in Europe for the rest of his life. Jefferson Davis would die in London in 1873 of phenomena never having returned to the United States. Other former Confederate generals and politicians, such as Alexander Stephens, would spend short times in prison before being released. Many of these leaders would be banned from voting or holding elected office for the rest of their lives.
In what would become known as Reconciliation, Lincoln outlined his top priorities for the post-war United States. 1) The return of all Southern states still outside of the Union under his 10 percent plan, 2) Ensure that the P.E.R.U is enforced in the Deep South, 3) Complete the compensated emancipation of slaves in the Border States and Virginia, Tennessee, and Louisiana, and 4) Establish a new Homestead Act that would provide land grants to settlers (including freed slaves) in the western territories. It is also worth noting that with the war now over Lincoln began the movement of troops to the Rio Grande under General Sherman to send a message to the French forces, who had recently captured the Mexican capital, that their presence was not welcomed.
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A Union victory parade in Washington D.C.
late July, 1863
Summary
In the end, the American Civil War proved to be the costliest war in American history up to that time, resulting in an estimated 315,000 deaths both North and South. Property damage although significant was relatively light considering the scoop of the war. Indeed of all Southern cities, Chattanooga stands out as the most damaged of the war, while other major urban centers such as Richmond, Atlanta, and New Orleans emerged from the conflict mostly unscathed. Slavery was virtually destroyed by the war. With the institution only remaining in a strip of states in the center of the country, all of which with plans for complete emancipation within a few years.
French withdraw from Mexico
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Emperor of the French, Napoleon III
October 1863-January 1864
The French, along with the British and Spanish, had invaded Mexico in early 1862 with the stated intention to force Mexico to pay debts owed to the European Powers. It soon became apparent to the British and Spaniards though that the Second French Empire under Emperor Napoleon III was actually intent on conquering the Latin American country. Accordingly, Britain and Spain withdrew from Mexico a few months later. Unfortunately for the reformist government of Mexican President Benito Juarez, the French stayed and were able to successful capture the Mexican capital in June of 1863.
With the Civil War now won, President Lincoln was adamant that France’s violation of the Monroe Doctrine would not stand. Lincoln, having already moved thousands of Federal troops to the Mexican border, ordered a naval blockade in October of 1863 to block the arrival of French reinforcements. This blockade, coupled with Austrian Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian’s earlier rejection of an offer to be made Emperor of Mexico, forced the French Emperor to rethink his intentions. Bereft of British and Spanish assistance Napoleon III realized that he could not risk a war with the United States whose army and navy were still swollen from the Civil War.
In light of what was widely viewed to be a situation that would only deteriorate for the French, Napoleon III made the decision to get out while he was ahead. In a deal mediated by the United States in January of 1864, it was agreed that French troops would be withdrawn if President Benito Juarez would promise to honor Mexico’s debts to France. With French forces occupying Mexico City, and therefore little room to maneuver politically, President Juarez reluctantly accepted.
This agreement allowed all sides to claim victory. France had achieved it stated war aim, although it was far short of Napoleon III’s real desire to build a New World Empire, and showed that Napoleonic France was a major world power able to project itself anywhere in the world. Lincoln successfully upheld the Monroe doctrine and earned himself additional political capital as he moved towards reelection. In the end Mexico was liberated and President Juarez was able to consolidate his power from the conservatives who had backed the French.
Despite all sides apparently achieving their goals this near-conflict caused considerable tension in Franco-American relations. Historians would often point to this as the beginning of a Franco-American hostility that would last well into the twentieth century. Mexican-American relations however were improved by Lincoln’s stand against the French, furthering the United States’ reputation as, Vice President Hannibal Hamlin once said, the “Defender of the Hemisphere.”
The Second Term of Abraham Lincoln
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1864-1868
1864 President Election
Incumbent Abraham Lincoln headed into the 1864 Presidential elections with a commanding lead being at the time one of the most popular Presidents in American history due to his successful completion of the war and forcing France’s withdraw from Mexico. As such Lincoln was unanimously nominated as the presidential candidate at the Republican National Convention in Baltimore. At the convention there was considerable talk of dropping Vice President Hannibal Hamlin from the ticket. Major General Sedgwick was mentioned as a possible replacement but Sedgwick decided instead to run for the governorship of Connecticut, which he easily won. In the end, Hamlin was left on to appease the more radical elements in the Republican Party although some radical republicans decided to back John C. Freemont as a third party candidate.
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Horatio Seymour
Presidential Canidate (D)
New York
The Democrats at their national convention had considerable difficulty in finding a suitable candidate for President. Andrew Johnson the current Governor of Tennessee seemed to be a good choice, but Johnson made it clear that he would not run against the man that “saved my beloved Union”. Johnson also probably realized that Lincoln was almost certainly going to win reelection. After much debate the Democrats finally nominated former New York Governor Horatio Seymour for President. Lazarus W. Powell, a former Governor and current Senator from the state of Kentucky was chosen as the Vice Presidential nominee.
As predicted, Lincoln easily won reelection to a second term. Seymour carried only the former Confederate States allowed to vote and Kentucky (Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Florida did not participate as they would not fully return to the Union until 1865 due to their proposed state governments not meeting the standards of the Republican controlled Congress). Lincoln’s reelection was seriously aided by the huge number of Union war veterans who would be a main source of support for the Republicans for decades to come.
Reconciliation
Reconciliation was Lincoln’s primary concern during his second term. By November of 1865 all the former Confederate States had successfully been readmitted into the Union, with South Carolina being the last to rejoin. Union troops however still occupied much of the South to protect the newly freed black population and prevent any lingering Confederate sentiments from reigniting the conflict.
Compromise of 1865: One of the planks in Lincoln’s campaign platform was for a constitutional amendment to officially ban slavery in the United States. However, three-fourths of the state legislatures would be needed to ratify the amendment. This meant that some sort of deal would have to be struck with the southern states in order to gain their votes. Thus, in what sometimes is termed as the compromise of 1865, it was agreed that Federal troops would be removed from most of the South once the southern states had ratified the thirteenth amendment.
13th Amendment: The thirteenth amendment to the constitution was ratified on December 3rd, 1865 stating…
Sec. 1: Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction, after June 1, 1867.
Sec. 2: Congress, in conjunction with the states, shall have power to enforce earlier emancipation, or to provide recompense for emancipation, prior to June 1, 1867, upon due consideration of the subject's participation in rebellion against the Constitution of the United States.
Sec. 3: Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
June 1st, 1867 was chosen as the date for final emancipation so that the few remaining slave states would have time to complete their earlier agreed upon timetables for gradual compensated emancipation.
Western Expansion
Homestead Act of 1865: The Homestead Act of 1865 was another of the Lincoln administration’s crowning achievements. This act provided 40 acres and supplies to start up a small farm to any single man or family who would uproot and settle in the United States’ western territories. This offer also applied to the recently free, or soon to be free, blacks of the former Confederacy. Over the next two and half decades millions of American citizens would take the trek west including a large number of blacks. In years to come these significant numbers of African American landowners in the western states would play an important role in the Civil Rights movement of the twentieth century.
Alaska Purchase: In 1867, Lincoln reluctantly authorized Secretary of State William H. Seward to purchase Alaska from the Russian Empire for 7.5 million dollars. Although Lincoln was not a big proponent of American expansion, the near war with France over Mexico taught Lincoln that the less territory the Europeans held in the New World the better.
Transcontinental Railroad: Besides the admission of Nebraska into the Union on the 15th of December, 1866 the other big development in the west was the opening of the Transcontinental Railroad. This cross continental railway was officially completed on October 23rd, 1868. (It is worth mentioning that the popular urban legend that Lincoln drove in the golden spike to complete the railroad is false as can be seen in the photograph below).
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Completion of the Trancontintal Railroad
October 23, 1868
Foreign Developments
Lincoln’s second term was focused primarily of domestic issues but it is worth mentioning a few points concerning European developments. In Europe the Kingdom of Prussia triumphed over the Empire of Austria in a brief war in 1866. This victory, coupled with that over Denmark in 1864, sent shock waves through the continent that Prussia was a power to be dealt with.
However, following Prussia’s victory in the Austro-Prussian War Prussian Chancellor Otto Van Bismarck was unable to forge an alliance with their defeated foe after Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I was assassinated by the deranged father of a fallen Austrian soldier in the streets of Vienna on November 29th, 1866. Franz Joseph was succeeded to the throne by his younger brother Ferdinand Maximilian who was crowned Emperor Maximilian I. Unlike his older brother, Maximilian I favored forming an alliance against the emerging power of Prussia. Soon after his coronation the new emperor established an alliance with Napoleon III of France (It has been speculated that Napoleon III and Maximilian's friendship might have been aided by the rumor that Maximilian was actually fathered by Napoleon II during his time in Austria). This Franco-Austrian Alliance would become a fixture in European politics for decades to come.
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Maximilian I
Emperor of Austria
1866
The 1868 Presidential Election
and
Lincoln’s Post-Presidency
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An old wartime photograph of John Sedgwick
17th President of the United States
Although Abraham Lincoln’s popularity waned somewhat during his last years of office, most historians still believe he could have won reelection for President a second time. However, Lincoln decided to honor Washington’s precedent and not run for a third term. The declining health of his wife Mary Todd Lincoln might also have contributed to Lincoln’s desire to retire from political life.
At the 1868 Republican National Convention former Major General and General in Chief of the Union Armies John Sedgwick was selected as the Republican’s presidential candidate. Sedgwick, the current Republican Governor of Connecticut, easily obtained his party’s nomination without any serious opposition. For Vice President the Grand Old Party nominated the former and first Republican Governor of Virginia Arthur Ingram Boreman, in an attempt to show that the Republican Party was making headway in the Upper South.
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Arthur I. Boreman (VA)
16th Vice President of the United States
The Democrats re-nominated Horatio Seymour of New York to be their presidential nominee. For Vice President however, the popular governor of Tennessee, Andrew Johnson was selected as Seymour’s running mate.
The election results of 1868 closely mirrored those of 1864. The Republicans carried all of the northern states as well as the western states of California, Oregon, and Nevada. Seymour delivered much the same performance as he did four years earlier except that Kentucky narrowly went for the Republicans. It is also worth noting that although Virginia’s electoral votes went for Seymour, the Republican Party was able to capture a significant portion of the popular vote, including virtually all of the mountainous western part of the state. In the end, John Sedgwick was soundly elected the 17th President of the United States.
Lincoln after the Whitehouse
One of Lincoln’s last acts while in office was his long awaited trip to the west coast. Lincoln arrived in San Francisco by way of the newly completed transcontinental railroad on a bitterly cold January morning in 1869, making Lincoln the first sitting President to see the Pacific Ocean.
After President Sedgwick’s inauguration, Lincoln retired to his home in Springfield, Illinois. There Lincoln would write his memoirs which became an international bestseller and to this day considered by many historians to be one of the best Presidential memoirs ever written. In the later years of his life Lincoln would often express regret that he did not press for more sweeping reforms during Reconciliation for former slaves. Lincoln would stay active until his death, writing books and going on several well publicized speaking tours throughout the United States and Europe. Abraham Lincoln passed away in his Springfield home at the age of 78 on July 4th, 1887, the same day of the year as Presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Lincoln’s funeral was one of the largest in American history a fitting capstone to one of the country's greatest presidents.
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Abraham Lincoln's Home
Springfield, Illinois
The Sedgwick Presidency (1868-1876)
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37 Star Flag adopted after Colorado joined the Union in 1874
The Presidency of John Sedgwick is remembered as one of national healing, industrialization, and settling the western frontier. Sedgwick had a strong reputation for honesty which often put him at odds with many of the career politicians of his day. Listed below are a few of the highlights of Sedgwick’s two terms in office.
Foreign Policy
Annexation of Santo Domingo: In the fall of 1869 in what would be one of the most important points in John Sedgwick’s legacy, President Sedgwick was able to squeeze through a treaty in the U.S. Senate by a one vote margin that annexed the Caribbean nation of the Dominican Republic in exchange for assuming the island nation’s debt. Sedgwick was a proponent of annexation because he believed that the Dominican Republic could serve as a new home for southern blacks wanting to leave the repressive conditions in the South. Although only a few thousand American blacks would eventually move to the Commonwealth of Santo Domingo (as the U.S. Territory was called), the island did provide the location for an important U.S. naval base at Samana Bay.
The War Scare of 1872: In what historians would call the War Scare of 1872, the Prussian led North German Confederation narrowly avoided a war with the French and Austro-Hungarian Empires over the allegiance of the south German states. The subsequent Conference of Munich, realigned the Kingdom of Bavaria and a few other small catholic south German states into an alliance with Austria-Hungary and France in an effective attempt to curtail Prussia’s increasing power. This humiliating setback for Prussia pushed them into an alliance singed in 1874 with imperial Russia to counter the growing power of the Bonapartes and Hapsburgs. In light of these events President Sedgwick continued to stress American neutrality in European affairs.
Napoleon IV comes to Power: Emperor of the French, Napoleon III, died on March 5th, 1875 due to surgical complications over a bladder stone. His son Louis Napoleon was crowned Napoleon IV in a lavish ceremony in Notre Dame Cathedral on his 19th birthday on March 19th, 1875. Napoleon IV continued France’s industrialization and would in a few years time start a massive build up of the Imperial French Navy.
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Emperor of the French, Napoleon IV
1875
The 1872 Presidential Election
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Andrew Johnson (TN)
Democratic Presidential Canidate
1872
The Republicans maintained their control on the Whitehouse with the decisive reelection of President John Sedgwick and Vice President Arthur I. Boreman. Although almost all of the southern states went for the Democratic candidates, Tennessee Governor Andrew Johnson and his running mate former Maj. General Winfield S. Hancock of Pennsylvania, the election results showed that the Republican Party was starting to make serious inroads with southern working class voters especially in the Upper South.
Domestic Policy
Colorado: The United States continued to settle its western territories during Sedgwick’s time in office with Colorado entering the Union on November 2th, 1874.
American Centennial: July 4th, 1876 marked the centennial of American independence. From one end of the country to the other the nation was united in massive parades, demonstrations, and displays of fireworks. The Centennial celebrations were also noteworthy in that for many parts of the Deep South it was the first time that Independence Day had been celebrated since the Civil War.
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American Centennial Celebrations in Philadelphia
July 4, 1876
Reconciliation: With Reconciliation largely over, race relations in the southern states settled into a pattern that would last for decades. So called “black codes” kept southern blacks from voting or holding office in most parts of the South during this period. Despite the atmosphere of segregation however, lynchings and other overt acts of violence towards blacks were rare and consigned mostly to the Deep South. Leaders of the African American community during this time concentrated their efforts on economic and educational advancement, establishing several universities for black students.
President Boreman
and the
War with Spain
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Arthur I. Boreman
18th President of the United States
The 1876 Presidential Elections
As the Sedgwick years drew to a close it was his Vice President Arthur I. Boreman of Virginia that quickly emerged as the Republican frontrunner. Although there were a few men in the North concerned about a Virginian president so soon after the Civil War, Boreman was able to easily secure his party’s nomination. For the Republican's 1876 Vice Presidential candidate Congressman James Blaine from Maine was selected to balance the southern Boreman.
When the results were tallied, Boreman beat Democratic candidate former Maj. General Hancock of Pennsylvania and his running mate Senator William Allen of Ohio by a respectable margin. Significantly, Virginia had narrowly gone for the Republicans, making it the first former Confederate state to vote for a Republican candidate for President.
Cuba and Spain
Boreman’s presidency was plunged into crisis almost as soon as he was inaugurated. By the time Boreman took office in early 1877, Cuban rebels had been fighting with their Spanish overlords for nine years in what seemed to be an increasingly futile attempt to through off the yoke of Old World oppression. The War for Cuban Independence had begun when a Cuban lawyer and plantation owner named Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, fed up with the Spaniards economic rape of his island, freed his slaves and declared Cuba’s independence. Since then the Cuban insurrectos had been waging a guerrilla war against loyalist and Spanish forces, a war that had in recent years been going poorly for the rebels.
The Republican controlled government of the United States favored a Cuba free from Spanish rule for two main reasons. Firstly, the captive island nation still had the institution of slavery. Secondly, ever since the near war with France in 1865 European forces located so close to the United States were deemed to be a serious threat to the country’s security. In order to support the Cuban freedom fighters the Federal government had been funneling guns and supplies to the rebels ever since the late 1860’s, a fact that infuriated the Spanish government. Meanwhile across the Atlantic, Spain had in recent years gone through a period of drastic political instability with Republican, Bourbon, and Carlist forces threatening the military junta that ruled Spain ever since the forced abdication of Queen Regnant Isabella II in 1875.
Declaration of War
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USS Ossippee, 1877
The incident that would spark the conflict occurred off the coast of Maisi, Cuba a city located on the far eastern tip of the island. What actually occurred on that foggy night of May 16th, 1877 is still hotly debated amongst historians to this day. The United States claimed that the Spanish frigate San Justo suddenly fired at the USS Ossipee, an American sloop on its way from New Orleans to Santo Domingo. The Spaniards claimed that the Ossipee was offloading supplies to Cuban rebels and that it fired first when it saw the approaching Spanish vessel. Regardless, after a fierce exchange of fire, the Ossippe was sunk and the San Justo seriously damaged. The Ossippe Incident caused outrage in both the United States and Spain. In the volatile weeks that followed, President Boreman demanded the release of the Ossippe survivors. Spain refused to release the sailors and instead demanded an apology and a stop to the U.S. supplying the insurrectos. Boreman then retaliated by increasing aid to the rebels and strengthening American naval presence in the Caribbean.
In light of these developments, Spain declared war on the United States on September 12th, 1877 in order to divert public attention abroad and with the belief that the Spanish navy could handle the Americans. This declaration was soon reciprocated by one from Washington, officially starting the Spanish-American War.
The Military State of Affairs
September-October, 1877
America was woefully unprepared when war erupted with Spain in 1877, both at land and on sea. This installment will give a brief description of the American military and its leaders at the beginning of the Spanish-American War.
The Navy
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Nathan Goff Jr.
Secretary of the Navy
At the start of the war with Spain the United States found its navy in a sorry condition. The U.S. Navy numbered a paltry 6,400 sailors. Furthermore the American fleet only possessed 51 operational vessels, most of which dated back to the Civil War over 14 years ago. This was a far cry from 1863 when America boasted around 400 warships many of which now in 1877 were either scrapped or mothballed and rusting.
With the sudden outbreak of the war it was up to Nathan Goff Jr., the 34 year old Secretary of the Navy, to bring as many of these mothballed vessels back up to fighting standards as quickly as possible. Although Goff, a Republican politician from the same part of western Virginia as President Boreman, had never served a day at sea history would remember him for his actions during the war as one of the most important figures in U.S. naval history.
The Army
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Robert Todd Lincoln
Secretary of War
Over the course of the war Nathan Golf would develop a close friendship with the U.S. Secretary of War, former President Abraham Lincoln’s oldest son Robert Todd Lincoln. Robert Lincoln had missed military service due to attending Harvard during the Civil War. After graduating from Harvard Law School, Lincoln followed in the footsteps of his famous father and became a lawyer. After a few years of practicing law in Illinois, Robert Lincoln entered politics and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives at the age of 29 in 1872. He served as a Republican Congressman until the election of President Boreman in 1876 when he was offered the position of Secretary of War.
Lincoln had scarcely settled into office when the conflict broke out, and like his friend in the Naval Department, Lincoln scrambled to muster the forces needed to defend the nation. This was not an easy task in late 1877, when the U.S. Army was undermanned, underpaid, and overextended having been occupied since the end of the Civil War with fighting the Indians in the west.
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Maj. General William Tecumseh Sherman
Commanding General of the United States Army
Lincoln made a point from the very start of the war to work closely with the Commanding General of the United States Army, 57 year old Major General William Tecumseh Sherman. In conjunction with Secretary Lincoln, Sherman, one of the heroes of Vicksburg and the conqueror of Arkansas and Texas, immediately began shuffling the few Army units on hand to protect the southeastern coastline until naval supremacy could be achieved against the Spanish. Sherman and Lincoln were also able to convince President Boreman to agree that until new forces could be raised (Boreman had at the onset of the war called for 80,000 volunteers) units from the state militias should be called out to protect the east coast.
American War Aims
In early October of 1877 President Boreman held a council of war with General Sherman and Secretaries Goff and Lincoln in the Whitehouse to outline the nation’s goals for the war. First, President Boreman stated that military forces should be built up to defend the American coastline and the Commonwealth of Santo Domino before the military undertook any offensive operations. Secondly, since the war was largely a result of Spain trying to maintain its grip on its New World holdings it was decided that Spain must relinquish control of Cuba and Puerto Rico as a condition for peace (whether these islands would be annexed by the U.S. or granted their independence was not discussed). Nathan Goff then brought up the Spanish colony of the Philippines. After a brief discussion, a consensus was reached that since all available naval assets were need on the east coast, an expedition to the Philippines would only be launched after the Caribbean had been cleared of Spanish forces.
Conclusion
In short, at the start of the war the military of United States was at one of its lowest points in history. It would be up to America’s military leaders, President Boreman, Secretaries Goff and Lincoln, and Maj. General Sherman to see if the young nation could weather the coming storm.
The Beginning of the
Spanish-American War
October-December, 1877
The Opening Engagements
The first major engagement of the war, the Battle of El Verraco, took place on October 28th 1877 when a squadron of American warships under Rear Admiral John Rodgers repulsed a Spanish convoy containing men and supplies in route to Santiago de Cuba. The first land combat of the war occurred two weeks later where, in a surprise move the Spaniards successfully conducted a raid on the city of Bavaro in the Commonwealth of Santo Domingo. The attack on Bavaro was part of Spain’s plan to take advantage of the U.S. territory’s fractured politics by stirring up insurrection in Santo Domingo against the American authorities.
Notable U.S. ground commanders
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Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer
1877
With the Spanish-American War taking place roughly 14 years after the conclusion of the Civil War the United States could draw from a vast number of experienced officers and senior NCO’s. The most prominent of these Civil War veterans was of course William T. Sherman who in November of 1877 due to the rapid enlargement of the Army, Congress saw fit to promote to Lieutenant General, a rank that had not been held since George Washington in the Revolutionary War. Other prominent Veterans that would play an important role in the war included Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer and former Confederate General James Longstreet.
Lt. Colonel Custer, who rose to the rank of major during the Civil War, had since made a name for himself as an Indian fighter in the American West. Custer now commanded the 3rd U.S. Cavalry Regiment which had been redeployed from the west to fight the Spanish in the planned invasion of Cuba. James Longstreet had seen extensive action during the Civil War in the eastern theater fighting for the Confederacy and after the war had became the successful owner of a southern railway company. Longstreet had also been one of the few but increasing numerous Southerners to join the Republican Party. Secretary of War Lincoln believed that the war with Spain was a golden opportunity to heal the scars of the Civil War, and that a former Confederate General turned republican supporter would be a public relations masterpiece. As such Lincoln offered Longstreet the command of a division of volunteers then forming in Florida under Corps commander Major General Philip Sheridan. Longstreet accepted the appointment and was awarded the rank of Brigadier General in the United States Army.
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A 1876 photo of James Longstreet before he was appointed
a Brigadier General in the United States Army
The Battle of the Keys
The first major engagement of the war took place on Christmas Day 1877 near the Florida Keys when a large taskforce of Spanish ships on its way to interdict shipping and raid the coast of Florida was intercepted by a smaller American force. The battle was technically a Spanish victory as the American force was forced to withdraw after over 5 hours of intense fighting. Interestingly, even though the Spaniards outnumbered the Americans 2 to 1 the Americans over the course of the battle were able to inflict roughly twice as many casualties on the Spanish. This was largely due to the fact that many of Spain’s naval vessels were still largely made out of wood.
The American press at the time greatly exaggerated the damage the Spaniards suffered at the Battle of the Keyes with the Atlanta Journal calling it “one of the most hallow pyrrhic victory in history” and Harpers Weekly even comparing it to the Mexicans defeat at the Alamo. Regardless, the battle did illustrate the important fact that the Spanish Navy was even more backwards than their American opponents, and with more and more American warships coming onto line every month Spanish authorities began forming a plan they hoped would quickly win the war.
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USS Saginaw
Sunk at the Battle of the Keys
December 25, 1877
The Battle of Ragged Island
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Rear Admiral John Rodgers
United States Navy
January 17, 1878
In what would prove to be the decisive naval engagement of the war, the Battle of Ragged Island took place on January 17, 1878. The battle, which actually took place 20 miles south of the Bahaman island for which it is named, began when a fleet of Spanish warships escorting a relief convoy from Spain was intercepted by the American Fleet under Rear Admiral John Rodgers. The Spanish fleet consisted of 6 armored steam frigates, 3 ironclads, and an assortment of smaller vessels against the American fleet of 4 ironclads, 2 armored Steam frigates, and a corvette.
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The flagship of the Spanish Fleet the Numancia, 1877
During the first stage of the battle the Americans slugged it out with their Spanish counterpart for over 3 hours. The turning point came when the ironclad USS Sumner under the command of Captain William T. Sampson rammed the flagship of the Spanish Fleet the Numancia. Struck by the Sumner’s ram below the waterline, the Numancia began to list heavily to its starboard side. However, before going down the Numancia was able to inflict serious damage on the charging USS Sumner. As the Sumner was withdrawing from the wounded Spanish ship, a shot from the Numancia pierced the American ironclad’s armor igniting the ships powder magazine. In an explosion heard as far away as Puerto Arturo, Cuba the Sumner was torn to pieces. The explosion of the Sumner so close to the Numancia has also been sighted as another reason for the quickness with which the Spanish flagship sunk beneath the waves abandoned by her terrified crew.
The sinking of the Numancia caused great confusion amongst the remainder of the Spanish fleet. Rear Admiral Rodgers took advantage of this by ordering his remaining vessels to close with the discombobulated Spaniards. The last hour of the battle saw the Spaniards break off the engagement but only after having suffered additional casualties.
In the end, the Battle of Ragged Island proved costly for both sides. The Spaniards lost their flagship as well as the Vitoria. The Sagunto was heavily damaged and had to be abandoned during the trip back to Spain. In addition to the loss of the Sumner the Steam Frigate USS Poseidon was also lost. Most of the other American ships at the battle also suffered considerable damage. However, the battle did force most of the Spanish Fleet to withdraw from Caribbean. Now with naval superiority, the Americans could commence with the next step in their war plan, the invasion of Cuba.
The Invasion of Cuba
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An artist's anachronistic depiction from the early 20th Century of the American landings east of Santiago de Cuba
February-March, 1878
It is widely accepted amongst historians that the American V Corps which invaded Cuba on February 20th, 1878 had one of the highest concentrations of military talent of any army in modern military history. All of the division and regimental commanders had seen extensive combat during the Civil War as had 60% of the V Corps’s officers and 45% of the NCOs. These leaders’ experiences in the Civil War gave them an enormous advantage when fighting the Spanish in Cuba. This installment will give a brief description of the initial American landing in Cuba as well as the American’s order of battle.
Sailing from ports in Florida in mid February, the U.S. Army’s V Corps under the command of Major General James McPherson made a contested landing 15 miles east of Santiago de Cuba. The success of the landings was largely the result of two factors. The first being ample naval gunfire from the supporting U.S. Navy, and the tenacity of V Corps’s 1st Division commander Major General Ulysses S Grant being the second.
After serving with distinction during the Civil War, General Grant had left the Army and returned to Ohio with the intention of making his fortune in business. Sadly, Grant’s luck fared little better after the war than it had before and he soon returned to being heavily indebted. With his business ventures failing Grant was convinced by the local party machine to run as a Republican for governor of the state of Ohio. Grant served two terms as governor from 1870 to 1874, both of which were mired in scandal. When hostilities broke out in 1877, Grant petitioned his friend and former subordinate Lt. General William T. Sherman for a position in the Army. In a move that angered some career army officers, Sherman gave Grant command of the 1st Infantry Division. Although Grant had commanded an entire army during the Civil War, he was glad for any position that would allow him to see action and escape his creditors.
In command of V Corps’s other division was the seasoned veteran Major General John Buford. Buford, who had earned a larger than life reputation fighting the Confederates as a cavalry officer, had stayed in the army after the Civil War seeing considerable service on the western frontier. Operating directly under Buford was Brigadier General Philip Sheridan in command of the Calvary Division’s 1st Brigade. Of the three regimental commanders, George Armstrong Custer and J.E.B Stuart stand out the most, largely due to the bitter rivalry they developed. Both had fought on opposite sides during the Civil War and both were known for their sometimes reckless pursuit of glory. Stuart, who after the Civil War had become a planter and politician in Virginia, was greatly resented by Custer who thought that the inclusion of former Confederates in the war effort was merely the Republican Party’s way of trying to increase its voter base in the South.
Internal quarrels aside, the American invasion force was able over the next two weeks to expand its beachhead and begin laying siege to Santiago. However, taking the city would prove harder than any of these battle hardened leaders could imagine.
The American Order of Battle
Commanding General of the United States Army:
Lt. General William T. Sherman
V Corps: Major General James McPherson
1 Division: Major General Ulysses S. Grant
1st Brigade: Brigadier General James Longstreet
7th U.S. Infantry Regiment
14th U.S. Infantry Regiment
56th U.S. Volunteer Infantry Regiment
2nd Brigade: Colonel Joshua Chamberlain
2nd U.S. Infantry Regiment
11th U.S. Infantry Regiment
24th (Colored) U.S. Infantry Regiment
3rd Brigade: Brigadier General David S. Stanley
9th U.S. Infantry Regiment
13th U.S. Infantry Regiment
6th U.S. Infantry Regiment
Calvary Division: Major General John Buford
1st Brigade: Brigadier General Philip Sheridan
3rd U.S. Calvary Regiment: Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer
1st U.S. Volunteer Calvary: Lt. Colonel J.E.B. Stuart
7th U.S. Calvary Regiment: Colonel Wesley Merritt
The Cuban Campaign
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U.S Calvary at the Siege of Santiago de Cuba
April 1878
March - June, 1878
The Siege of Santiago de Cuba
Major General McPherson began besieging the Spanish held city of Santiago de Cuba in earnest in early March of 1878. The city was defended by roughly 12,000 Spanish troops and loyalist Cuban militia. The Spaniards centered their defense along a ridge of fortified hill tops located east of the city known as the San Juan Heights. The Americans gave each hill a numerical designation and began with a frontal attack. The initial American assaults on hills Number 2 and Number 3 were both repulsed. Military historians often sight these engagements as the first major instance where forces armed exclusively with rifles firing self contained cartridges fought one another, the Americans and Spanish forces using the 1872 Springfield and .43 Spanish Remington rifles respectively. Despite this initial setback, a few days later in a spectacular display of daring Hill Number 3 was taken when Lt. Colonel J.E.B Stuart and his 1st Volunteer Calvary carried the position. Stuart's attack was aided by gunfire from a supporting battery of Gatling guns. Not to be outdone, Lt. Colonel Custer of the neighboring 3rd Calvary led, much to the dismay of General Sheridan, a mounted charge against Hill Number 2. Custer captured the position but only after suffering considerable casualties.
As the Americans made slow but steady progress towards Santiago de Cuba through March and April they would face an enemy more deadly than Spanish bullets, Yellow Fever. The lack of clean drinking water only exacerbated the issue and soon thousands of American troops were incapacitated or dying. Despite the constant threat of disease however, the considerable Civil War battlefield experience of the American army took a serious toll on the Spanish forces. Further successful American assaults eventually leading the capture of Santiago de Cuba on April 26th, 1878. The next day General McPherson held a victory parade though the streets of the city where, as he would state years later in his memoirs, “our forces were very well received by the long oppressed population. The streets of the city were so chocked with dancing peasants and recently freed slaves that it took over three hours to reach the city’s central Plaza”.
Stuart and Custer’s Overland Campaign
After news of the fall of Santiago de Cuba had reached Washington, Lt. General Sherman and Secretary of War Robert Lincoln issued their next set of instructions to General McPherson. McPherson’s 1st Corp would be split. Most of the infantry along with the 7th Cavalry would be transported by ship to invest the island’s capital of Havana. Meanwhile Stuart and Custer’s cavalry regiments would be detached and sent on an overland campaign westwards through the island’s lightly defended interior. Stuart and Custer’s columns were meant to support each other, each moving west towards Havana liberating Cuban cities and freeing the island’s slaves as they went. If Havana had not already fallen by the time they reached the island’s capital they were to join in the final assault.
Cooperation between Custer and Stuart broke down almost immediately. Despite having orders that they should support each other’s advance the situation soon turned into a mad dash towards Havana. The two commanders and their respective cavalry regiments competed to see who could liberate the most towns, free the most slaves, and especially cover the most ground. The open rivalry between these two legendary commanders was so well known that bets were placed as far away as Moscow as to who would be the first to reach Havana.
Victory Over Spain
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Battle of Havana, 1878
The Battle of Havana
The last major engagement of the war was the Battle of Havana. Maj. General James McPherson began encircling the island’s capital in the middle of May, 1878. The American forces were bolstered by thousands of Cuban freedom fighters who, with American victory in sight, flocked to the Stars and Stripes. Havana however was strongly defended. The Spanish believed that if they could bleed the Americans a little longer and let the yellow fever continue to decimate their ranks the United States would be willing to discuss a negotiated peace. For the next three weeks, the U.S. Navy bombarded Havana as McPherson’s forces continued to encircle the city. In what would become common place in later wars, McPherson made excellent use of trenches to protect his forces from the defending Spaniards. Trenches however did not negate the fact that the Americans were making painfully slow progress towards taking the city.
On June 2nd 1878, Lt. Colonel J.E.B. Stuart and his exhausted 1st Volunteered Calvary triumphantly joined the besieging American army. Upon his arrival Maj. General Ulysses S. Grant commented to Stuart that it was “a confounded miracle that the North ever won the War of the Rebellion with the South possessing horsemen such as yourself.” Lt. Colonel Custer’s 3rd Calvary arrived at the American camp two days later. It has been reported that Custer was so angry upon learning that Stuart had beat him to Havana that, as one of his subordinates put it, “the good Colonel nearly ripped his long hair out in disgust.”
The finally assault on the city began on the morning of June 21st, 1878. American forces launched a withering four hour artillery barrage on the city’s defenses before ordering a full frontal assault. The Spanish forces put up fierce resistance but were steadily pushed back into the city in what proved to be a determined urban defense.
A few hours into the battle, in a move that has often been criticized by military historians, General McPherson ordered Stuart’s cavalry regiment to exploit a gap in the Spanish defenses and rush into the center of the city. Stuart made surprising good progress until he reached Havana’s Plaza de la Catedral in the center of the city where the 1st Volunteer Cavalry came under heavy fire. Amongst the gunfire, J.E.B. Stuart was mortally wounded when a Spanish bullet pierced his lower abdomen. Stuart was then dragged into the nearby Catedral de San Cristobal where the remnants of his cavalry regiment had taken refuge.
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Catedral de San Cristobal Havana Cuba, 1878
Upon seeing smoke rise from the center of the city, Custer, whose 3rd Calvary had been kept in reserve during the battle, led his regiment, without orders, into the embattled city. Although, Custer would later state that he did this because he “could sense that American lives were in peril” it is more likely that he charged in Havana against orders because he believed that the battle would soon be won and the chance to win glory would be over. Regardless, the 3rd Calvary did reach the hard pressed survivors of Stuart’s regiment. Custer led his men in a dismounted charge through the Plaza, shooting his way into the besieged Catedral de San Cristobal. It what now has become a famous exchange, Custer upon seeing the dying J.E.B. Stuart doffed his hat and said “ Sir, I have arrived!” to which the ailing Stuart replied “ Yes, but as always I was here first.” Both men laughed at the absurdity of situation after which Custer, with the assistance from one of his troopers, a 19 year old Corporal from New York named Theodore Roosevelt, carried Stuart to the top of the Cathedral where together they unfurled the first American flag to fly over the city.
These two daring, if not reckless, cavalry charges into the city center proved too much for the Spaniards who officially surrendered later that day. Interestingly amongst the captured Spanish was an American named William W. Loring from North Carolina. Loring had served as a colonel in the Union army before fighting for the Confederate Army as a General during the Civil War. Following the South’s defeat Loring had even been briefly employed as a military advisor by the Ottoman Sultan before Turkish financial constraints made Loring seek employment with the Spanish Government. Despite pleas from Loring that he had not “actively participated in the resent hostilities” against the American forces he was nonetheless tried and hanged as a traitor ten days later.
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William W. Long in the Confederate and Ottoman Armies
The capture of the city was officially celebrated three days later with a massive parade through the city where, as had almost become customary at this point, the Battle Cry of Freedom was sung with the appropriate lyrical changes tailored for the Spanish.
Yes we'll rally round the flag, boys, we'll rally once again,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom,
We will rally from the Southland, we'll gather from the North,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
(Chorus)
The Union forever! Hurrah, boys, hurrah!
Down with the tyrants, and up with the stars;
While we rally round the flag, boys, rally once again,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
We are springing to the call with a million freemen more,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
And we'll fill our vacant ranks of our brothers gone before,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
Chorus
We will welcome to our numbers the loyal, true and brave,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
And although he may be poor, not a man shall be a slave,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
Chorus
So we're springing to the call from the East and from the West,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
And we'll hurl the evil crew from the land we love best,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
Chorus
The Treaty of Amsterdam (1878)
With the fall of Havana coming a week after the capture of Puerto Rico it became clear that the war was over. Still, it took over a month before the final peace treaty was signed in the Netherlands. The Treaty of Amsterdam was official signed on July 25th, 1878. Its stipulations were simple; Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the rest of Spain’s West Indian possessions were to be ceded to the United States without compensation. Although some of the American delegates pressed for the annexation of some of Spain’s Pacific territories, the lack of American activity in the Pacific during the war undermined this claimed.
Effects of the War
The Spanish-American War had a large affect on both nations. For the United States, it was a major step in healing the wounds of the Civil War as Southerners and Northerners both fought valiantly against a foreign enemy. The United States also greatly increased its Caribbean holdings which now included Cuba, Santo Domingo, Puerto Rico, and a few other minor islands. The United States would also soon undergo several military reforms in light of lessons learned from the war. This victory though had not come cheap. The war, although lasting less than 11 months, cost the Americans 1,352 men killed and many more wounded or wrecked by disease.
Spain however, suffered much worse, losing an estimated 7,800 men killed and wounded. Furthermore having lost the the last remnants of their New World empire, the ruling military junta was overthrown and Spain was plunged yet again into civil war.
In the end, the Spanish-American War marked an important turning point in American history. For the first time in its history the United States had soundly beat a European Power and proved to the world that it was a force to be reckoned with.
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The 1880s
Part 1: The United States
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Boston, Massachusetts in the 1880's
The United States
The 1880s was a largely uneventful time for the United States as the nation continued to industrialize and settle its western territories. The following are a few highlights from this mostly forgotten decade in American history.
The 1880 Presidential Election and the Cuban Question
In the 1880 Presidential Elections, President Arthur Boreman was reelected by a narrow margin over Democratic candidates Thomas S. Bayard of Delaware and his running mate Samuel J. Randall of Pennsylvania. Boreman’s victory was mainly attributed to the victory over Spain two years earlier. However, the issue of what to do with America’s newfound Caribbean holdings divided the nation. Some, mostly radical republicans, wanted to grant the territories full independence. Other’s feared the addition of more non-whites into the nation, but still wanted to reap the financial benefits. These politicians, mostly Democrats, favored a policy of lording over the islands as protectorates. Boreman however wished for islands to one day to be able to join the Union, stating that those islands “rightfully belong to America as it was American blood which paid for their freedom.” Furthermore, America had intervened at the tail end of Cuba’s losing fight for freedom against the Spanish and as such few native leaders were left to lead an independent Cuba. With this in mind, and by two close votes in Congress, Cuba and Puerto Rico joined Santo Domingo as U.S. Territories. Although there were some in Cuba which resented being annexed by the United States, many saw it as an alternative to the anarchy and civil war which had prevailed for most of the 1870's.
The Panic of 1883
A severe but short lived economic depression hit the United States in 1883. Historians mostly cite the cause of this downturn in economic activity as a result of over speculation on American gold reserves. The economy rebounded by the end of 1885, and continued to grow rapidly well into the 1890’s.
The Democrats Return to Power: The Election of President Samuel J. Randall
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Samuel J. Randall
Democrat from Pennsylvania
19th President of the United States of America
With the nation in the grips of a severe economic recession, the American voters decided that the time was ripe for a political shakeup. The 1884 elections saw the first Democratic President elected since James Buchanan in 1856. Samuel J. Randall, an influential Congressman from Pennsylvania, and his Vice Presidential candidate David B. Hill of New York, easily beat the Republican ticket of former Vice President James Blaine of Maine and Chester A. Arthur of New York.
Randall proved to be a popular President, winning reelection in 1888 against Republican challenger John Sherman of Ohio, the younger brother of Lt. General William T Sherman. In foreign policy Randall pursued a more isolationist path than his Republican predecessor, largely keeping America out of European affairs. President Randall was also a moderate in domestic affairs, leaving issues such as civil rights, statehood for the Caribbean territories, and women’s suffrage untouched. Arguably the most enduring legacy of the Randall Administration was the repeated allegations of corruption and scandals which plagued his years in office.
States Admitted to the Union during the 1880s
North Dakota: March 6, 1885
South Dakota: March 6, 1885
Washington: February 23. 1886
Montana: November 4, 1886
Wyoming: July 3, 1887
Idaho: November 17, 1887
The 1880s
Part 2: Imperial France
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Under Napoleon IV, the Second French Empire prospered during the 1880s by continuing to industrialize and expand at a rapid pace. France purchased the Philippine Islands from Spain in 1879 from the cash strapped republican government that was then temporarily in power. France also gained control of Egypt during a brief war in 1883 after a series of anti-European riots, which France claimed were orchestrated by the unruly Khedive Tewfik Pasha, led to a successful French invasion. Napoleon IV relished following in the footsteps of his great-uncle and even visited the conquered province in 1885. Possession of Egypt also guaranteed French control of the Suez Canal of which Britain was a partial stockholder. Although officially the United Kingdom supported the French invasion, many historians have cited the 1883 Franco-Egyptian War as an important beginning step in the deterioration of Anglo-French relations.
During the 1880s, Imperial France strengthened its alliances with other empires. The Austro-Hungarian Empire remained chief amongst France’s allies who, like France, wished to see Italy and Prussia’s ambitions kept in checked. In the Americas, France found a receptive ally in the Empire of Brazil who welcomed French investment in exchange for Brazilian natural resources. It was also during the 1880s that France began to align its self with the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans saw the French as a potential counterweight to the British who were expanding their holdings in Arabia, and to the Russians, the Turks age old enemy to the north.
A world map from the end of the 1880s.
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