alternatehistory.com
Chapter 85 Breakthroughs
Chapter 85 Breakthroughs
"War is the remedy that our enemies have chosen, and I say let us give them all they want."- Lieutenant General William Tecumseh Sherman 1862
"The Confederates call us traitors from dividing our state, ironic coming from secessionists who seek to destroy the Union."- Senator Andrew Johnson 1861
"Just remember Mister President that in another time I could've been Virginia's golden boy and you its Judas."- Samuel Cooper 1870
Tennessee: Since the war's beginning, East Tennessee was in the endangerment of collapsing at birth due to being surrounded on all sides by Confederate states. Thanks to Union reinforcements and Sherman's leadership with his brutal and effective methods, East Tennessee was able to hold out with the Confederate Army on the Tennessee river and the Georgian offensive being stopped at Chattanooga. While total warfare was a huge success on the battlefield, it was not one that was well for political and economic success as East Tennessee was increasingly becoming short on crops and cash with some citizens starting to show Confederate sympathies in isolated protests. Fortunately the Confederate blockade would end in May of 1862 with Pope's surrender which ensured the full control of Kentucky by the Union and the establishment of a firm supply chain to East Tennessee. With two monumental victories in Kentucky and the Bahamas, along with advances on all fronts, President Lincoln started planning for a full strike into every corner of the Confederacy that would have them on the ropes by the end of the year with the possibility of a Southern collapse and surrender in 1863. There was also some underlying political tones in Lincoln's actions as he felt that a few major victories were necessary for the public's support of his upcoming plans to deal with slavery along with the continuation of a Republican-dominated Congress in the midterms, some elements in northern states such as New York or the New England region wanting a peace deal with the Confederacy. A few weeks after his victory at Bowling Green, Grant was ordered by Abraham Lincoln to deploy south to Tennessee and start a campaign to take the Cumberland with the usage of Monitor riverboats that had been developed in the Mississippi, a total of 28 joining the campaign. Having recently achieved success and on the verge of conquering Little Rock, Rosecrans was ordered to halt operations in Arkansas and instead redeploy forces east to the with the intention of taking the Western half of the state and forcing Forrest to redeploy manpower while Nashville was being taken. Rosecrans' pause in operations did have a drawback in that Beuaregard was able to launch a minor counteroffensive and reclaim around 35 miles of territory, giving Little Rock some breathing space, thought it was not to effective with Major General George Meade moving forces upwards in Louisiana to counter. Lastly the final portion of the plan called for Joseph Hooker to begin raids into Georgia with the intention of feigning an invasion to prevent Longstreet from going into Sherman's would be exposed southern flank. Details of the Summer Assault which would be called the Tennessee offensive, were kept in the dark from most with each general only receiving the orders that would focus on their front while the Lincoln Administration and the War Department had the full strategic plan. Operations would begin fully on May 31st.
On June 14th Rosecrans' and the Army of the Mississippi began the Tennessee Offensive in full with the beginning of the Battle of Memphis. The first portion of the Battle consisted of the Union Navy deploying 6 ironclads on the Mississippi river under the command of Captain Charles Henry Davis to soften the cities defenses. Memphis was only protected by 8 cottonboats in the river whose performance was weakened by their timber and cotton hulls while the captains of each ship were merely civilians with no prior experience in the Union Navy. Captain Davis was able to easily sink every one of the vessels in little over 20 minutes with the ironclads then directing their firepower towards the city with a prolonged bombardment on its defenses. With their defenses ruined, the cities defender Brigadier General M. Jeff Thompson surrendered to Rosecrans, allowing an invasion of Western Tennessee to begin in full. On that same day Hooker began raids into Georgia with his army advancing twenty-five miles into the Peach state by the end of the week. With reports incoming of an invasion of Georgia and the potential loss of Western Tennessee, President Toombs ordered for Longstreet to begin a gradual withdrawal of most of his forces to Georgia to defend the state and prevent an incursion into southern North Carolina, while Forrest had to deploy the I corps of the Army of Tennessee towards Memphis. Two weeks later on June 14th, Grant began his invasion of Tennessee with the moving 90,000 men and Sherman moving his Army of Tennessee west of the Tennessee river for the first time in the war. Forrest was caught in the worst possible position as he only had 70,000 men to fight on three fronts against a combined total of 220,000 men who were now pouring into the state. In addition the Union River Navy had moved out in forced with the Tennessee and Cumberland squadrons destroying all Confederate gunboats in sight with 45 ships lost in the month of June in return for 7 Union ships. The loss of these rivers were critical as it put Forrest in a bog in the state without the usage of them to move around and receive men and supplies from other parts of the Confederacy. Two important battle would take place with the Battle of Shiloh on June 27th where Rosecrans met Major General Alexander P. Steward in Southwestern Tennessee, outnumbering his force 2:1 with 45,000 to 21,000. Confederate forces at first tried to assault Rosecrans' flanks and force him back, however General Steward was killed in the second hour of the battle which caused a large amount of confusion among Confederate battle direction which Rosecrans' was able to capitalize on and rout the Confederate forces, forcing a retreat into Mississippi and Alabama. The second important battle was the Battle of Fort Donelson on June 22nd which assured the full control of the Cumberland when Brigadier General John B. Floyd attempted to escape with the Donelson garrison to Nashville, but were surrounded by Grant's far larger army with the fort being surround and bombarded until Floyd unconditionally surrendered. By the end of the month Forrest had lost over 50,000 men in the state with most being captured by the Union Army, only being left with 30,000 to defend Nashville. On July 4th Sherman was able to approach the capitol with 65,000 men in tow, a majority being East Tennesseans and Tennessee loyalists who were ready to exact revenge on Forrest and Governor Harris for their earlier coup in the previous year. Thanks to numerical superiority and all supply lines to the city being cut off by Grant up North, Sherman was able to press rapidly during the battle with the cities the southeastern portion being captured by noon. Seeing no way out, Forrest issued a last stand order to his men to fight to the death against the Yankees. However Forrest would be betrayed by his troops as a majority were tired of the constant fighting and destruction of their capitol, also not wanting to kill their fellow former countrymen. Mutinies sprang out in the Army with Nashville civilians joining in on the revolt to avenge their suffering in the coup. A 1/3rd of the Confederates joined in the mutiny, allowing Sherman to quickly surround the capitolhouse which was the last remaining bastion of resistance thanks to the loyalty of the Tennessee 6th who had fortified the statehouse into a command center. Sherman sent out a call for surrender in order to spare the courthouse with promises of good treatment towards the prisoners. Governor Isha Harris attempted to use his authority and came out with a white flag of surrender. Unfortunately the Governor was shot by an overzealous sniper for his apparent "betrayal" to the south. The move backfired though as most of the 6th would surrender upon seeing their Governor assassinated, with the sniper a Private Jack Bower, shot and killed for his actions. Seeing the writing on the wall Forrest would begrudgingly surrender to Sherman, thus ending the Battle of Nashville and causing the fall of a second Confederate capitol. For the rest of July the state of Tennessee would be secured with minor resistance in the Southeastern portion of the state. In Mid-August the war would move further south with troops entering Mississippi and Alabama for the first time in the war.
View attachment 329105View attachment 329106View attachment 329107
Battle of Memphis (Left) Battle of Fort Donelson (Center) Battle of Nasvhille (Right)
North Carolina: While the fall of Tennessee was taking place, actions began to flare up in North Carolina with the battles in the Tar Heel state reaching a critical point. Since the First Battle of Greensboro the North Carolina front had been stalled with numerous wins and losses on both sides which made for a contradictory static yet mobile front. Lee was seeing some success in the state however with Stonewall Jackson's incursions in the east of the state, along with the Union Navy's tight blockade on all commerce going from the ports. Seeing that he could not move forward in a single thrust, Lee decided to adopt a similar strategy to what would take place in Tennessee with the III corps moving in from the west while Jackson continued his operations with the II corps in the east. The Marine Corps was also called into play with invasions up the Palmico and New River. While Cooper knew that Lee was trying to draw his forces away and wanted to stay, he was forced to stay his hand as Governor Zabulon Vance ordered for the deployment of Cooper's I and II corps to deploy west and east respectively to meet the Yankees full on as Vance did not want his state to collapse and see his citizens under Union occupation. Due to the nature of the Confederacy, Cooper had to follow Vance's orders and reluctantly ordered 40,000 men to go and meet the Union incursions head on. While this was happening Lee was receiving an additional 30,000 reinforcements and was kept well supplied from his home state of Virginia where the factories in Richmond were working around the clock for the war effort. Lee began his full offensive on July 14th with his delayed March having been ordered by Lincoln so that the Confederates would feel the full effects of the operations in Richmond. The Second Battle of Greensboro took place on July 22nd with the result this time being a Union victory due to Lee taking a more cautious approach and capturing supply lines around the city first while then ordering a continuous bombardment with cavalry and infantry swapping incursions into the city, leaving the defenders restless. On the third day Cooper was forced to withdraw from the city, leaving Lee with control of a major rail hub in South Carolina. During the battle the confederates suffered 3,042 killed, 1,987 wounded, and 6,234 prisoner while Lee suffered 2,765 killed and 1,734 wounded. With Greensboro secure Lee was free to move towards the center of the state with little opposition thanks to the withdrawals of Georgia regiments after the fall of Nashville. The next major battle and the deciding point of the theater would be the Battle of Raleigh on August 5th with Lieutenant General Jackson joining forces with Lee to take control of the state. The battle took over two days of bloody fighting with much of the city being destroyed by Confederate personnel along with blind charges towards Union positions so that Lee's army would be hindered and allow time for the main portion of the North Carolina Army to regroup at Charloette. By the end of the battle on August 6th, Lee suffered 4,590 killed, and 4,322 wounded. On the opposing side there were 3,875 Confederates killed, 3,133 wounded, and 6,845 taken prisoner. With the fall of the capitol and Cooper's general withdrawal to form a front much farther south to defend South Carolina, Lee was able to move his way throughout most of the state and by the end of September had 3/4ths of North Carolina under his control with the entire Atlantic coast being occupied, allowing the Annaconda Blockade to move father south. The fate of North Carolina in its entirety would be decided later that year with the Charlotte Campaign, buying some much needed time for the ill Confederacy while the Gulf Coast was under the threat of invasion.
View attachment 329102View attachment 329104
Second Battle of Greensboro (Left) Confederate defense at Raleigh (Right)
Civil War historians generally agree that the fall of Tennessee and Lee's victories at both Greensboro and Raleigh marked the beginning of the end for the Confederacy. In the fall of 1862 virtually every state with the exception of Florida, was open to an invasion with Union forces capturing miles each day in a seemingly unending stream of victories. The only major battles that the Confederates even won that summer was the Battle of Chikamuga which kicked Hooker out of Georgia, though he accomplished his goal of distracting the Georgians to Lee's and Sherman's plans. Along with that came the Battle of Fayetteville and Wichita in Arkansas and Kansas respectively which saw some minor gains in each territory. Strategically all three of these battles did little to help the war effort though and were ignored by the Confederate population who chose to focus on the grand defeats such as Raleigh and Nashville. Panic soon swept through the Confederacy as it looked as though the end was nigh. Great Britain which had been contemplating an intervention and support of Confederate independence, ended any moves to do so as Victoria wanted to focus her time on the Empire's advances in Asia rather than prop up a dead country. All unity and cohesion within the Confederacy began to die quickly as it soon became an every man for himself situation with state governors refusing to send their troops and supplies and money outside of their border. Toombs tried desperately to centralize control and form a united front against the Union with the Deep South hopefully being left in the fighting. Toombs soon realized the main differences between his former post as President of the United States and that of the Confederacy as the Confederate President was virtually nothing more than a broker between the states and a yesman congress, Montgomery entering into increasing deadlock and Toombs having to go through four Secretaries of War in 1862. The rest of 1862 would see the beginning of mop up operations in the Western Theater and North Carolina while Sherman and Grant jointly began an invasion of the Gulf. The clock began ticking for the Confederacy's demise as 1863 would be the death of the Confederacy.
"War is the remedy that our enemies have chosen, and I say let us give them all they want."- Lieutenant General William Tecumseh Sherman 1862
"The Confederates call us traitors from dividing our state, ironic coming from secessionists who seek to destroy the Union."- Senator Andrew Johnson 1861
"Just remember Mister President that in another time I could've been Virginia's golden boy and you its Judas."- Samuel Cooper 1870
Tennessee: Since the war's beginning, East Tennessee was in the endangerment of collapsing at birth due to being surrounded on all sides by Confederate states. Thanks to Union reinforcements and Sherman's leadership with his brutal and effective methods, East Tennessee was able to hold out with the Confederate Army on the Tennessee river and the Georgian offensive being stopped at Chattanooga. While total warfare was a huge success on the battlefield, it was not one that was well for political and economic success as East Tennessee was increasingly becoming short on crops and cash with some citizens starting to show Confederate sympathies in isolated protests. Fortunately the Confederate blockade would end in May of 1862 with Pope's surrender which ensured the full control of Kentucky by the Union and the establishment of a firm supply chain to East Tennessee. With two monumental victories in Kentucky and the Bahamas, along with advances on all fronts, President Lincoln started planning for a full strike into every corner of the Confederacy that would have them on the ropes by the end of the year with the possibility of a Southern collapse and surrender in 1863. There was also some underlying political tones in Lincoln's actions as he felt that a few major victories were necessary for the public's support of his upcoming plans to deal with slavery along with the continuation of a Republican-dominated Congress in the midterms, some elements in northern states such as New York or the New England region wanting a peace deal with the Confederacy. A few weeks after his victory at Bowling Green, Grant was ordered by Abraham Lincoln to deploy south to Tennessee and start a campaign to take the Cumberland with the usage of Monitor riverboats that had been developed in the Mississippi, a total of 28 joining the campaign. Having recently achieved success and on the verge of conquering Little Rock, Rosecrans was ordered to halt operations in Arkansas and instead redeploy forces east to the with the intention of taking the Western half of the state and forcing Forrest to redeploy manpower while Nashville was being taken. Rosecrans' pause in operations did have a drawback in that Beuaregard was able to launch a minor counteroffensive and reclaim around 35 miles of territory, giving Little Rock some breathing space, thought it was not to effective with Major General George Meade moving forces upwards in Louisiana to counter. Lastly the final portion of the plan called for Joseph Hooker to begin raids into Georgia with the intention of feigning an invasion to prevent Longstreet from going into Sherman's would be exposed southern flank. Details of the Summer Assault which would be called the Tennessee offensive, were kept in the dark from most with each general only receiving the orders that would focus on their front while the Lincoln Administration and the War Department had the full strategic plan. Operations would begin fully on May 31st.
On June 14th Rosecrans' and the Army of the Mississippi began the Tennessee Offensive in full with the beginning of the Battle of Memphis. The first portion of the Battle consisted of the Union Navy deploying 6 ironclads on the Mississippi river under the command of Captain Charles Henry Davis to soften the cities defenses. Memphis was only protected by 8 cottonboats in the river whose performance was weakened by their timber and cotton hulls while the captains of each ship were merely civilians with no prior experience in the Union Navy. Captain Davis was able to easily sink every one of the vessels in little over 20 minutes with the ironclads then directing their firepower towards the city with a prolonged bombardment on its defenses. With their defenses ruined, the cities defender Brigadier General M. Jeff Thompson surrendered to Rosecrans, allowing an invasion of Western Tennessee to begin in full. On that same day Hooker began raids into Georgia with his army advancing twenty-five miles into the Peach state by the end of the week. With reports incoming of an invasion of Georgia and the potential loss of Western Tennessee, President Toombs ordered for Longstreet to begin a gradual withdrawal of most of his forces to Georgia to defend the state and prevent an incursion into southern North Carolina, while Forrest had to deploy the I corps of the Army of Tennessee towards Memphis. Two weeks later on June 14th, Grant began his invasion of Tennessee with the moving 90,000 men and Sherman moving his Army of Tennessee west of the Tennessee river for the first time in the war. Forrest was caught in the worst possible position as he only had 70,000 men to fight on three fronts against a combined total of 220,000 men who were now pouring into the state. In addition the Union River Navy had moved out in forced with the Tennessee and Cumberland squadrons destroying all Confederate gunboats in sight with 45 ships lost in the month of June in return for 7 Union ships. The loss of these rivers were critical as it put Forrest in a bog in the state without the usage of them to move around and receive men and supplies from other parts of the Confederacy. Two important battle would take place with the Battle of Shiloh on June 27th where Rosecrans met Major General Alexander P. Steward in Southwestern Tennessee, outnumbering his force 2:1 with 45,000 to 21,000. Confederate forces at first tried to assault Rosecrans' flanks and force him back, however General Steward was killed in the second hour of the battle which caused a large amount of confusion among Confederate battle direction which Rosecrans' was able to capitalize on and rout the Confederate forces, forcing a retreat into Mississippi and Alabama. The second important battle was the Battle of Fort Donelson on June 22nd which assured the full control of the Cumberland when Brigadier General John B. Floyd attempted to escape with the Donelson garrison to Nashville, but were surrounded by Grant's far larger army with the fort being surround and bombarded until Floyd unconditionally surrendered. By the end of the month Forrest had lost over 50,000 men in the state with most being captured by the Union Army, only being left with 30,000 to defend Nashville. On July 4th Sherman was able to approach the capitol with 65,000 men in tow, a majority being East Tennesseans and Tennessee loyalists who were ready to exact revenge on Forrest and Governor Harris for their earlier coup in the previous year. Thanks to numerical superiority and all supply lines to the city being cut off by Grant up North, Sherman was able to press rapidly during the battle with the cities the southeastern portion being captured by noon. Seeing no way out, Forrest issued a last stand order to his men to fight to the death against the Yankees. However Forrest would be betrayed by his troops as a majority were tired of the constant fighting and destruction of their capitol, also not wanting to kill their fellow former countrymen. Mutinies sprang out in the Army with Nashville civilians joining in on the revolt to avenge their suffering in the coup. A 1/3rd of the Confederates joined in the mutiny, allowing Sherman to quickly surround the capitolhouse which was the last remaining bastion of resistance thanks to the loyalty of the Tennessee 6th who had fortified the statehouse into a command center. Sherman sent out a call for surrender in order to spare the courthouse with promises of good treatment towards the prisoners. Governor Isha Harris attempted to use his authority and came out with a white flag of surrender. Unfortunately the Governor was shot by an overzealous sniper for his apparent "betrayal" to the south. The move backfired though as most of the 6th would surrender upon seeing their Governor assassinated, with the sniper a Private Jack Bower, shot and killed for his actions. Seeing the writing on the wall Forrest would begrudgingly surrender to Sherman, thus ending the Battle of Nashville and causing the fall of a second Confederate capitol. For the rest of July the state of Tennessee would be secured with minor resistance in the Southeastern portion of the state. In Mid-August the war would move further south with troops entering Mississippi and Alabama for the first time in the war.
View attachment 329105View attachment 329106View attachment 329107
Battle of Memphis (Left) Battle of Fort Donelson (Center) Battle of Nasvhille (Right)
North Carolina: While the fall of Tennessee was taking place, actions began to flare up in North Carolina with the battles in the Tar Heel state reaching a critical point. Since the First Battle of Greensboro the North Carolina front had been stalled with numerous wins and losses on both sides which made for a contradictory static yet mobile front. Lee was seeing some success in the state however with Stonewall Jackson's incursions in the east of the state, along with the Union Navy's tight blockade on all commerce going from the ports. Seeing that he could not move forward in a single thrust, Lee decided to adopt a similar strategy to what would take place in Tennessee with the III corps moving in from the west while Jackson continued his operations with the II corps in the east. The Marine Corps was also called into play with invasions up the Palmico and New River. While Cooper knew that Lee was trying to draw his forces away and wanted to stay, he was forced to stay his hand as Governor Zabulon Vance ordered for the deployment of Cooper's I and II corps to deploy west and east respectively to meet the Yankees full on as Vance did not want his state to collapse and see his citizens under Union occupation. Due to the nature of the Confederacy, Cooper had to follow Vance's orders and reluctantly ordered 40,000 men to go and meet the Union incursions head on. While this was happening Lee was receiving an additional 30,000 reinforcements and was kept well supplied from his home state of Virginia where the factories in Richmond were working around the clock for the war effort. Lee began his full offensive on July 14th with his delayed March having been ordered by Lincoln so that the Confederates would feel the full effects of the operations in Richmond. The Second Battle of Greensboro took place on July 22nd with the result this time being a Union victory due to Lee taking a more cautious approach and capturing supply lines around the city first while then ordering a continuous bombardment with cavalry and infantry swapping incursions into the city, leaving the defenders restless. On the third day Cooper was forced to withdraw from the city, leaving Lee with control of a major rail hub in South Carolina. During the battle the confederates suffered 3,042 killed, 1,987 wounded, and 6,234 prisoner while Lee suffered 2,765 killed and 1,734 wounded. With Greensboro secure Lee was free to move towards the center of the state with little opposition thanks to the withdrawals of Georgia regiments after the fall of Nashville. The next major battle and the deciding point of the theater would be the Battle of Raleigh on August 5th with Lieutenant General Jackson joining forces with Lee to take control of the state. The battle took over two days of bloody fighting with much of the city being destroyed by Confederate personnel along with blind charges towards Union positions so that Lee's army would be hindered and allow time for the main portion of the North Carolina Army to regroup at Charloette. By the end of the battle on August 6th, Lee suffered 4,590 killed, and 4,322 wounded. On the opposing side there were 3,875 Confederates killed, 3,133 wounded, and 6,845 taken prisoner. With the fall of the capitol and Cooper's general withdrawal to form a front much farther south to defend South Carolina, Lee was able to move his way throughout most of the state and by the end of September had 3/4ths of North Carolina under his control with the entire Atlantic coast being occupied, allowing the Annaconda Blockade to move father south. The fate of North Carolina in its entirety would be decided later that year with the Charlotte Campaign, buying some much needed time for the ill Confederacy while the Gulf Coast was under the threat of invasion.
View attachment 329102View attachment 329104
Second Battle of Greensboro (Left) Confederate defense at Raleigh (Right)
Civil War historians generally agree that the fall of Tennessee and Lee's victories at both Greensboro and Raleigh marked the beginning of the end for the Confederacy. In the fall of 1862 virtually every state with the exception of Florida, was open to an invasion with Union forces capturing miles each day in a seemingly unending stream of victories. The only major battles that the Confederates even won that summer was the Battle of Chikamuga which kicked Hooker out of Georgia, though he accomplished his goal of distracting the Georgians to Lee's and Sherman's plans. Along with that came the Battle of Fayetteville and Wichita in Arkansas and Kansas respectively which saw some minor gains in each territory. Strategically all three of these battles did little to help the war effort though and were ignored by the Confederate population who chose to focus on the grand defeats such as Raleigh and Nashville. Panic soon swept through the Confederacy as it looked as though the end was nigh. Great Britain which had been contemplating an intervention and support of Confederate independence, ended any moves to do so as Victoria wanted to focus her time on the Empire's advances in Asia rather than prop up a dead country. All unity and cohesion within the Confederacy began to die quickly as it soon became an every man for himself situation with state governors refusing to send their troops and supplies and money outside of their border. Toombs tried desperately to centralize control and form a united front against the Union with the Deep South hopefully being left in the fighting. Toombs soon realized the main differences between his former post as President of the United States and that of the Confederacy as the Confederate President was virtually nothing more than a broker between the states and a yesman congress, Montgomery entering into increasing deadlock and Toombs having to go through four Secretaries of War in 1862. The rest of 1862 would see the beginning of mop up operations in the Western Theater and North Carolina while Sherman and Grant jointly began an invasion of the Gulf. The clock began ticking for the Confederacy's demise as 1863 would be the death of the Confederacy.
- Kaiser Chris
- Word Count: 2.5k