February 21st, 2022
Volume 3 begins where Volume 2 left off, with General Grant arriving in DC in March 1864 for his promotion to Lieutenant General, the third person to hold the position. Grant is unused to the east and is uncomfortable with his fame after the western victories and is very uncomfortable with the attention. He meets with General Meade, still leading the Army of the Potomac, with a negative prejudice and intent on replacing him. After their meeting, both men walk away with favorable impressions of each other and Meade remains at his post. Grant shortly goes back west and meets with General Sherman in Dalton, Ohio. There he tells his friend and most trusted general of the plans to end the war. In the east, Meade will go directly after Lee, General Sigel will march from his guard of the western Virgina mountain passes into the Shenandoah Valley, and General Butler will move down the east coast. Burnside, recently taken out of command after Knoxville, will be in charge of newly raised forces and support Meade. In the west, Sherman will destroy Johnston's army (he had recently replaced Bragg) and move on Atlanta. Banks, stuck in a useless invasion of Texas, will move east from New Orleans. There was a third guy who has to do something, I don't remember. Maybe Steele in Arkansas, or possibly Thomas, though Thomas is probably under Sherman. Grant would take men from garrison duty to beef up the attacking forces, and would eventually go from a 1:1 ratio of garrison to fighting men to a 1:2. After meeting with Sherman, Grant regrettably goes back to Washington, where he knows he will be needed to keep the eastern generals from stepping on each other's toes. Grant wants to begin his nation-wide offensive in mid-April.
February 22nd, 2022
Foote starts to talk about General Banks and his mission for Texas. This campaign was though up by General Halleck and Lincoln in Washington. Banks, after a failure at Sabine Pass along the coast in Texas, is opposed to the maneuver. But, a politician, he begins to see the positives to going up the Red River and taking Shreveport. This would open up the region, and possibly bring Louisiana and Arkansas back into the Union. It would also capture a lot of supplies, especially valuable cotton. Banks is especially eager after securing support from General Steele and some of Sherman’s divisions, in addition to Admiral Porter on the river. Once Grant is in charge, he gives Banks a time limit before he must return Sherman’s men. However, he implies that Banks will next be in charge of an expedition to Mobile, a much more glorious campaign. So far, by the end of March 1864, the only setback is that the Red River has not risen as expected. This limits what naval support is possible.
February 23rd, 2022
The chapter continues about Banks’ invasion. It gives some detail on the Confederates, with General Taylor’s retreat towards Shreveport. He only has 7000 men compared with Banks’ some 30000. Head of the department General Kirby Smith is racked by indecision and cannot decide whether to try to stop Steele or Banks. Taylor, sick of this indecision and retreat, decides to take a stand before he loses his home state of Louisiana.
February 27th, 2022
April 8 saw the first battle of the Red River campaign. Taylor sat blocking Banks' path, waiting for him to make a move, which he did not do. The day passed idly, until Taylor decided to make use of the remaining daylight and attack. It was a rout and the Union men turned and ran. Banks marched through the night to a place called Pleasant Hill, where they mounted a defense. Taylor attacked the next day and events started out the same. However, General AJ Smith, one of Sherman's men, launched a counter-attack that sent the Confederates running. After this victory, Banks wanted to continue back to Shreveport, but his generals made him change his mind and they retreated towards the river to rejoin the navy, much to the anger of AJ Smith. Meanwhile, Kirby Smith had been informed of Taylor's actions and joined him, forcing him to return to Shreveport and wait for the approaching Steele and Porter. Both generals in charge of the engagement had been forced to flee in opposite directions. In Shreveport, nothing happened. Porter was stuck in the low river and Steele had made a turn for Camden, AK. Taylor, with a smaller command, went back towards Banks. Meanwhile, Banks and Porter had decided to retreat to Alexandria. Banks led a successful retreat, burning what he could along the way. Taylor kept on his tail but could not do much. Porter, losing ships along the way, ends up trapped at the falls due to the low water level. He fears that Banks will abandon him for Grant's planned expedition to Mobile, but Banks, despite their mutual dislike of each other, stays in the Admiral's proximity. The beginning of May, the Union men are stuck in Alexandria and shoring up its defenses.
March 1st, 2022
Steele’s expedition to Shreveport may have been worse than Banks’. Steele had been especially against leaving Little Rock, but once Grant ordered him to, he saw no point in further protesting. Going through the muddy, foodless plains of Arkansas, he crossed several rivers with Price’s cavalry picking on him. Though he outnumbered the Confederates, he could not support the supply lines or further invasion and turned towards Camden, not even halfway to Shreveport. Here he was besieged, but snuck out in the night and had a good head-start back towards Little Rock. At the last river crossing, the Confederates caught up. Kirby Smith had joined the army, so the forces were roughly 10k men each. A chaotic, dark, muddy battle ensued. The Union men held off and crossed the river, while the Confederates chose not to pursue. Little Rock was too close and too fortified. Steele returned to the capitol, another useless Union advance that only got men killed. At least he returned to safety, while Banks is stuck in Alexandria.
March 2nd, 2022
Early May, Banks and Porter are still stuck because of the low river. Taylor is picking off straggling ships and doing a good job of it. Finally, a Lt. Colonel Bailey has a suggestion. They will dam part of the river and “raise” the river bed to increase the water flow. P1V1=P2V2. Many people laugh at the idea when he and 3000 soldiers start off, but they make fast progress. Some ships were able to use it before it started to blow. A 2nd dam was built further up to ease the pressure, and Porter got his boats through before the army starved. The navy was very grateful to Bailey for his ingenious work, and would ultimately be promoted to Brig. General. The Union starts moving, burning Alexandria and everything else in their path. On May 16th, the two forces met on a flat field, but the greatly outnumbered Confederates retreated before there could be combat. Kirby Smith had still not returned from Arkansas. Two days later, the Union army was stuck at the Atchafalaya River, which had become to wide to cross by pontoons. Taylor saw a chance and attacked, but AJ Smiths men were able to drive off the advanced skirmishers. When Taylor reformed, the Union army was gone. Bailey again came up with a feat of engineering. He put a bunch of commandeered boats together and bolted them together to make a strange bridge. The Union men were free to return, with nothing to show for it and a month late. AJ Smith and his men returned to Sherman. Banks, an important man in politics, was not replaced, but a new department was created and Banks became outranked, his career seemingly over. Taylor wrote a scathing letter to Kirby Smith and offered to resign, which Smith forwarded to Jefferson Davis to decide on the matter. Thus ends the Red River campaign.
March 3rd, 2022
The third part of the first chapter begins with the state of the Confederacy. People, such as the governors of Georgia and North Carolina, have begun speaking out against Davis and the Confederacy, and even hint at rejoining the Union. Vice President Stephens had been speaking out against Davis for years now. Davis is running out of options. There will never be foreign aid, he will never conquer the north, and no southern envoy will be received. The only hope is a long defensive war to tire out the Union. If he is lucky, Lincoln will not be re-elected in 6 months and the Democrat president will end the war on terms favorable to the Confederacy. Otherwise, there is only defeat at the hands of Grant and Lincoln.
March 4th, 2022
The odds may be against the Confederacy, but in the winter “down” time, while the main armies are in camp, the action has been mostly in their favor. Meridian, Red River, Florida, the raid on Richmond, and possibly others had all been successes for them. Two more movements in April went beyond their expectations. General Forrest’s cavalry led a raid through western Tennessee up into Kentucky, taking many supplies, prisoners, and recruits along the way. They assaulted Ft. Pillow on the Mississippi and ended up killing 20% of the men there, most of the fatalities being black men. This became known up north as the Fort Pillow Massacre. Forrest was then recalled by Polk, but wrote to the president about his desire to work with Johnston to strike at Sherman’s communications and supplies in order to ruin their plans on Atlanta. On the east coast, a joint naval and army assault to reclaim Plymouth North Carolina was under way. The army was led by General Hoke, out of Lee’s army, and the Navy (Admiral?) Cooke, in a newly build ironclad called the Albemarle. Again, it went exceedingly well. The Union ships could not stand up to the ironclad and the army easily took the fort once the navy was taken care of. From here, they can march further down the North Carolina coast, until the Union can come up with a ship with a low enough draft, or whatever the term is.
March 5th, 2022
The rest of this section talks about Joe Johnston’s command in the west and, as expected, he will take the defensive instead of the much needed offensive. To Davis’ chagrin, he has no one to replace him with and the soldiers love the man too much to accept a new leader. Johnston brought the troops back from deep depression after Bragg’s retreats. So the the Chattanooga, Knoxville, Nashville communications and supplies will go untouched. Longstreet returns to Virginia under Lee, but Lee can’t make a move because his men and horses are near starvation. They are preparing for a move by Grant. They do not know if he will attack their front across the Rapidan, go through the Shenandoah Valley, or move down the coast a-la McClellan. Possibly all three. Regardless, they are confident that they can oppose a seventh Union commander in Virgina.
March 6th, 2022
The 4th section of chapter 1 returns to Grant, who was angry over the failures in the Transmississippi. He took great care to make sure that events in the east would not go astray and off-plan. He went personally to Butler to discuss his invasion up the James River. His main focus was Meade’s army. Grant brought Phillip Sheridan from the west to be in charge of the cavalry, despite his relative inexperience in the matter. He would make sure the cavalry would be hard hitting and aggressive. Meade had reorganized the army and cannibalized some divisions, much to the ire of the soldiers. To encourage re-enlistment of volunteers, whose 3 year enlistments after Fort Sumter would be expiring, divisions that kept 75% of their men could keep their old colors and numbering, plus they’d get $400 dollars and a 30 day furlough. They’d also get a special insignia and title. They really wanted to keep these veterans. Many westerners re-signed, but only about half of the volunteers in the east did. Regimental pride carried a lot of peer pressure that coerced people into staying on. Also, to the amusement of the regular army, Grant fulfilled his plans of bringing many of the stationary regiments into the main army. Now he was ready to move. He told his men, and Sherman out west, that they would begin moving on May 4th. They would quickly cross the fords into the Wilderness and get out of there before Lee could attack. Lee, trusting his gut, moved his army towards the Wilderness to intercept. Foote also relates that tragedy that struck Jefferson Davis at the end of April. After the first April that did not bring a Confederate disaster, his 5 year old son fell from a balcony and died. Pretty sad.
March 7th, 2022
Apparently I didn’t save what I wrote. Strange. Grant moves cross Rapidan, no problems. Camps in Wilderness. Lee trusts gut and moves to attack. Ewell and Hill make contact with Warren(?) and Hancock. End day 1.
March 8th, 2022
May 5th, day 1 of the Battle of the Wilderness sees Meade turn his flank to attack Ewell’s approaching men, though he thinks it is a small force acting as feint. Grant loves the initiative and announces to everyone to attack as soon as the opportunity arrives. Hancock decides to dig in a little before he makes contact with Hill. Ewell and Meade’s division under Warren(?) go back and forth, but Hancock does real damage to Heth and Wilcox under Hill. The fighting is chaotic, regardless, visibility is minimal. Hancock is convinced he would have broken through the enemy lines if the day had not ended. Day 2, Lee plans to move Hill north to fill a gap and have Longstreet replace Hill’s men. Heth requests 3 times to move his men back to safer ground, feeling the Union would attack at first light. Hill has none of it. Grant plans to have the army attack at 5am, and Burnside will attack through the gap. In reality, Longstreet arrives late and Burnside gets lost. Ewell is attacked to prevent him from sending reinforcements, the main targets are Heth and Wilcox. Hancock nearly breaks through when Longstreet arrives. This will put a stall to Hancock's advance.
March 9th, 2022
Longstreet per usual hits hard. He also brings strategy to what had been a brute force battle. Hancock had left one division on a south traveling road, expecting Pickett’s division to march up in this direction in a flanking maneuver. However, Picket was south of Richmond somewhere, nowhere near the battle. Some firing with cavalry brought more confusion and exception from this road. Worse, Burnside was still lost, leaving the center wide open. Longstreet used this opening and attacked from both the front and the side. Hancock’s men “rolled-up like a wet blanket” he would later say. They fell back fast to their breastwork. The fast moving Confederates met at a right angle and mistook each other for the enemy. This had tragic consequences. 2 men of Longstreet’s staff were killed, a brigadier general was hit, to die later, and Longstreet himself was shot in the neck. Too reminiscent of Stonewall Jackson’s fatal wounding in these very woods, Longstreet was taken back to the hospital. To avoid further disasters, 4 hours were spent getting the lines in order. But by 4pm, Burnside had filled the gap and no more advancement could be made, especially without Longstreet in charge. Lee looked to the left, Ewell, to keep the action up. Ewell, as in Gettysburg, sat and did not make a critical attack. Lee’s presence allowed General Gordon to propose his plan that Ewell and Early decline. Gordon would like some men (a division? brigade?) around the flank and attack Warren’s men from the side. Lee instantly ordered it and the attack was made at 6pm with strong effect. Warren’s divisions crumpled, losing 1000 men in an hour, but sunset soon put an end to any more fighting. If this attack had been coordinated with Longstreet’s, who knows what side of the river Grant would be on. With the 2nd day over, Lee anticipates, and hopes that, Grant will live up to his aggressive reputation and attack the next day.
March 12th, 2022
May 7th passes with neither side leading an assault. So ends the Battle of the Wilderness. Instead of ordering a retreat like his predecessors, Grant, after recovering from the emotional shock of the loss, orders the army to march for the open plains of Spotsylvania. The troops, depressed at the loss, are surprised and cheered to find themselves marching south instead of north across the river. Lee, clever as ever, predicts his opponent's move and also starts for Spotsylvania. It becomes a race for Richmond. General Anderson is given command of Longstreet's corps and is to be the head of the marching column. Confederate cavalry get there first and build up a rough breastwork. The Union army moved too slowly due to confusion among its own cavalry. Sheridan is furious with Meade, who gave orders to cavalry that had no orders. Sheridan leaves the next day, with permission from Grant, to “take Stuart”. The Union infantry, Warren's corps, charge the Confederate cavalry position, only to find Anderson's men there in force. The Warren's men are bloodily repulsed after several charges. This first day of the Battle of Spotsylvania ends with the Confederates holding the field. The next day, Union army attempts to build up their defenses under heavy sniper fire. Sedgewick admonishes his men for ducking from such random shots and is shot in the face. He bleeds to death minutes later, a huge blow for the corps that greatly loved this man. General Wright would take command of the corps. On the 10th, the attack continues with Warren promising to take the fortifications. He fails, but a Colonel Upton comes up with a plan to take the salient point after seeing it close up. It comes close to succeeding, but there was not enough support to keep the position. General Mott was to attack a different point, but the brigade was destroyed by artillery fire. Grant liked the idea, so on the 12th, Hancock would take his men to the center and repeat it with a whole corps.
March 13th, 2022
I find it hard to believe I didn't write anything for today, but it looks like I didn't. Writing this the day after. The Confederates misinterpreted the wagon train of wounded and Hancock’s march across the line as the beginning of a retreat. Lee moved the artillery from the front in anticipation of Grant’s next move. A brigadier at the salient heard the preparations for a Union attack and requested the artillery brought back. Unfortunately for him, it was minutes too late. Hancock’s men drove the initial Confederate defenders back and prevented the use of the guns. However, that was the peak of the day for the Union. Burnside launched an attack on the east side of the salient, but was stalled by the defenders and did not cross the fortifications. The attack at the “bloody angle” was to last for 16 straight hours and be one of the most unforgettable and scarring days of the war. Men killed each other relentlessly for the entire day, not even to stop with the setting sun. The survivors slept where they laid. The rest of the army was not idle. The western part of the salient was attack by Warren or Wright (Sedgwick’s replacement) at 6am but had similar problems as Burnside. Whichever of Warren or Wright remained attacked a more western point at 9am but that ended quickly, allowing Anderson to send more defenders to the salient. During the night, the Confederates formed a new line and slowly fell back, regiment by regiment. Also during this attack, Lee received some bad news. JEB Stuart had chased Sheridan’s cavalry after he left the battle. Sheridan sought a battle and destroyed as much as he could to get Stuart to show up. On May 11th, they finally met, and Stuart was shot in stomach by a pistol wielding cavalryman. He died the next day. Sherridan rested a few days at Butler’s camp on the James and then rejoined Grant’s army on the 24th. But back to the Battle of Spotsyvania.
March 14th, 2022
Following the terrible 12th of May, Grant moved Warren to the Confederate right to attempt a flanking maneuver. The march took until the 14th, due to rain, mud, and confusion. Wright suggested that the Confederate left was weak from taking reinforcements and that an attack should be launched here. Grant agreed. Simultaneously, Hancock would attack over the salient again. This day, the 17th, was a disaster, as the salient, or “Mule Shoe”, was still well defended. The Union attackers were slaughtered by gun and artillery. At this point, Grant decided to cut his losses. They would leave Spotsylvania and move south, with Hancock dangling out front as bait. On the 19th, thinking the Union’s right flank would be open as it prepared to march, Ewell attacked. Grant had prepared for this, and the way was well guarded. Ewell was repulsed by fresh green recruits from Washington. This bloody, 8 day battle was at an end, with nothing to show for it. Grant could not destroy Lee’s army, and Lee could not stop Grant’s advance. The benefit for Lee was he would now be closer to supplies and reinforcements. Sigel and Butler had been stopped in their tracks, freeing up some of Breckenridge’s and Beauregard’s men to assist in fighting Grant.
March 16th, 2022
The next section jumps back to the beginning of May, before Grant’s battles. Sigel began marching into the Shenandoah Valley to draw in the Confederates under Breckinridge. Meanwhile, General Crook would go west through West Virginia to the other end of the valley and attack some salt and lead works. General Averell of Bath, NY would lead his cavalry down and do some damage before linking of with Crook. Crook moved quickly and on May 9th gave battle and won. Instead of waiting for Averell, he kept moving, but not towards Sigel. He heard Grant was defeated at the Wilderness and moved back into West Virginia. Averell ran into Morgan, who escaped from his Ohio jail and was eager for battle. It was hard fighting, but the Confederates fought harder and Averell retreated, eventually catching up to Crook. By this point, they learned of Sigel’s battle with Breckinridge at New Market on the 15th. Breckinridge’s army, along with teenage recruits from VMI, prevented Sigel from taking the town of New Market. Sigel retreated full force after his defeat all the way to the north end of the valley. A furious Grant relieved him of duty. Breckinridge, with Lee’s blessing, chose to join Lee instead of pursuing Sigel into Maryland. On the opposite end of Richmond, Butler’s forces landed south of the James River and took up a fortification in the peninsula between the James and Appomattox rivers. He tried to make a move towards Petersburg but was repulsed, and he and his subordinate generals distrusted each other because of the results. Meanwhile, the navy lost two ships traveling the bending river towards Richmond. This was not going well for the Union.
March 19th, 2022
Pickett was in charge of defenses because Beauregard was ill and could not travel yet. He received reinforcements piecemeal from various locations. D. H. Hill volunteered his services, as he had been inactive for being a loudmouth and alienating his superiors, mostly Bragg. They had stopped Butler’s move towards Petersburg and set up defenses at Drewry’s Bluff south of Richmond. Butler had moved towards these defenses and entrenched. Beauregard joined and came up with more of his maniacal plans to destroy the Union forces, which Bragg and Davis declined. He decided to attack Butler head on and on both flanks, but his left most commander chickened out and ran. This ruined Beauregard's plan to drive Butler back, but Butler decided to move back to Bermuda Point anyway. He entrenched, Beauregard moved in and built up his own defenses, and then was forced to send 6000 men to Lee.
March 23rd, 2022
Lee and Grant both march south to the North Anna River. Ewell gets there first, with Hill crossing a little further west. Lee, suffering from an intestinal disorder at the moment, sees a Union advance and thinks it is a feint. He misjudged where the Union army will cross and Warren crosses the river without impediment. Hill sends a division to attack, but is ultimately repulsed. Sundown prevents Heth from joining the attack. Lee takes his anger out on Hill for putting up such a weak showing. Also further down river, Hancock easily drove Confederates from a bridge crossing and crosses easily the next morning. Lee comes up with a trap on the only bit of high ground south of the river. He forms a wedge, an upside down V, with the point at the river. Andersen and Ewell go down the east slope, Hill the west. This splits Grant’s army in two, Warren and Wright in the west, Hancock in the East, and Burnside occupying the apex from across the river. Lee plans to use this wedge to launch a strong attack on one wing, with Grant stuck having to cross the river twice to save the wing under attack. Unfortunately for Lee, the Union army spies the fortifications and digs in. The trap is unsprung. On May 27th, the Union army goes southeast along the river and crosses, now 15 miles from Richmond.
March 27th, 2022
Grant moves southeast along the Totopotamy Creek and crosses with all corps easily. Sheridan is sent ahead to see where the rebels are and this leads to a day long cavalry battle. Grant moves southwest towards Bethesda Church. Lee had already been in the area, beating Grant in the race again. Ewell is on indefinite sick leave, so Early has his corps. He launches a Hill-esque attack with one division and is repulsed easily. May 31st, Sheridan and Fitzhugh Lee fight over Cold Harbor. Reinforcements from Bermuda are arriving for the rebels and Fitz’s cavalry go out to meet them, which the infantry mistake for a retreat. This leaves Sheridan’s cavalry the town, hoping to hold on until infantry arrive. Grant is expecting Baldy Smith from Bermuda, but Grant’s instructions were never updated and he starts off in the wrong direction. On June 1st, Lee tries to keep the initiative and launch an attack. Anderson leads it with a Brigadier General Kershaw, a politician with green troops and no experience. He charges for the Union line and is killed immediately, his troops fleeing in panic. Thus Lee’s attack. Wright had reinforced Sheridan and now Cold Harbor was firmly entrenched. Grant wanted to attack at first light on the 2nd, but Hancock’s men did not get in the southernmost position in time and were dead tired. Rain also forced a delay. The attack was head on across the line for the 3rd. No checked the rebel lines and saw how well they were fortified. 7000 men were taken down in 8 minutes to nearly no Confederate losses. For days, Grant refused to parlay to take care of the wounded and dead. It was not until the 7th that he finally deigned to think of the wounded instead of his pride. By then, those who would survive had crawled back or were picked up by their fellow men. The others had died in the sweltering June heat, with no water or food, surrounded by rotting corpses. They found 2 living men out of the acres of dead. What a horrible thing Grant has done.
March 28th, 2022
I forgot to mention in Cold Harbor that General Law, of Gettysburg fame, got a gunshot wound to the face and was severely injured. General Brenckinridge also was injured, when his horse was killed and crushed him. But after the disastrous assault, no more were launched. Grant’s plan was to go south to Petersburg. He was done with this war of attrition. Things were successful elsewhere. General Hunter, Sigel’s replacement, had taken much of the Shenandoah Valley and linked up with the other Union forces in the area. Breckinridge was sent to face off with him, but little could be done with his small force. On June 12th, Early’s division was sent to help. On June 11th and 12th, Sheridan and now Hampton’s cavalry were fighting in the area for control of the railroads. A confusing close-combat battle was fought at Trevilian Station, with both sides leaving the field. Sheridan’s damage was quickly repaired. Lee was hoping Early could repeat this success against Hunter. Unknown to him, the 12th also saw Grant’s army slip away towards the James. Butler had assaulted Petersburg and failed. Now Baldy Smith with help from Hancock would repeat the attack, while the rest of the army files across the largest pontoon bridge the army had seen. This motion marks the end of the Overland Campaign, 40 days of battle which saw much blood shed and little to show for it.
March 31st, 2022
The next chapter goes back to the beginning of May and over to Chattanooga to cover Sherman’s campaign for Atlanta. Johnston, always defensive minded, has some good fortifications in the mountainous terrain of northwest Georgia. George Thomas, the Rock of Chickamauga, comes to Sherman with a sneaky plan. He would go through a more southern mountain pass while McPherson keeps the front of the defensives busy and Schofield comes from the north on the eastern side of the mountain to keep the cavalry under Wheeler occupied. Sherman takes the plan but switches Thomas’ and McPherson’s role. Thomas, with the big heavy hitting army, is to attack the front. McPherson’s small army will move quickly and stealthily. They kick off at the beginning of the month to coincide with Grant’s movement. All goes well until Johnston, who had a feeling something was going on, requested a division from Polk to be sent to Rome. Since Banks was in no shape to threaten Alabama, Polk’s whole army was sent. McPherson encountered more resistance than expected at Resaca and stuck to the mountain pass. Meanwhile Johnston sent Hood and Hardee piecemeal to Resaca and abandoned Dalton. It was a less choice location for defense, but it was not worth getting surrounded.
April 2nd, 2022
Read a chuck of the Sherman chapter. There aren’t really any major battles so far, though there has been a lot of action. Even without battle, men die. Sherman ordered Thomas to follow McPherson to get to Resaca, but Johnston beat him to the race. Sherman attacks but is repulsed. When Johnston hears about Federals coming to enclose him, he goes further south towards Kingston. Sherman sends Thomas straight down the railroad after Johnston, but sends McPherson on the right of the Oostanaula River and Schofield down east of the railroad. Johnston comes up with a good trap. He has Hardee protect the rear and deceive Thomas that the army will make at stand at Kingston, while the rest army is actually at Cassville, in the path of Schofield. He will then destroy Schofield’s army and head back to Kingston to take on Thomas before McPherson can cross the river. Sadly, this doesn’t work. The attack turns to a retreat when some Union divisions who got lost appeared in Hood’s rear. The rebels retreat along the railroad for Allatoona, an extremely deadly area to attack. Sherman knows this from his early army years and doesn’t even consider it. He goes crosses the Etowah River and tries to flank Johnston, but Hood’s men are already in his path at New Hope Church. Fighting Joe Hooker launches an assault, but is repulsed quite bloodily. Monsoon-esque rains end the battle. Far from the railroad, the Union army starts to suffer from lack of material. But Johnston retreats further and the Union army eventually gets close enough to the railroad to live comfortably. Sherman is not happy with the progress so far. Johnston is firmly entrenched north of Marietta. However, tragedy strikes the Confederate army. The generals climb Pine Mountain, really a large hill, to get a look at the Union army. Sherman sees them and is not pleased by their confidence. He orders an artillery unit to attack, but the unit had already took aim at them. The unit, led by a exceptional Prussian officer named Dilger, essentially had carte blanche to do as they pleased. The generals were leaving the mountain when they saw they were under fire, but did not leave quick enough. The third shot cut General Polk, the bishop, nearly in two. He died instantly. This was a huge and tragic loss for the Army of Tennessee. Polk had been in, around, and out of this army since the beginning of the war. He had stood up to Bragg and been expelled for it. His death will have serious consequences for the Confederate army. For the Union army, it was something to brag about, and brought Sherman out of his funk.
April 6th, 2022
The next section talks about what Sherman fears: raids on his 400 miles of railroad. If the railroad goes, the army is done for. The Confederacy has two famous raiders, Morgan and Forrest. Sherman is only worried about Forrest, and this proves correct. Morgan, against orders, leaves the Shenandoah Valley to attack Union outposts in his home state of Kentucky. They rob and steal and generally lose any sympathy for the Confederacy in the area. On top of that, he loses half of his men throughout. He retreats back to Virginia a much less important man. To deal with Forrest, Sherman sends a cavalry and infantry force into Alabama. They fight on June 10th at Brice’s Crossroads and the ever clever Forrest whips the superior Union forces. The Union retreat and keep on running as Forrest pursues. Though they lost the battle, they kept Forrest occupied, so it’s all the same to Sherman.
April 8th, 2022
There some segues to Lincoln, who managed to get the nomination from the Republican party for reelection. Jackson was the last president to get elected twice, and Van Buren was the last to get a second nomination. Andrew Johnston, former senator and current war governor of Tennessee, was chosen as the vice presidential ticket. He would attract the pro-war Democrats and loyal southerners/border states, being a native of Tennessee. Vice President Hamlin had joined the radicals, who had their own convention and nominated General Fremont. The next aside is a continuation of the tale of the Alabama. For some 2 years, Admiral Semmes and his crew on the Alabama, an English built steamer, had been terrorizing the high seas. They raided Union merchant and naval ships and were very good at it. They even sank the USS Hatteras. After 2 years at sea and at ports of various foreign countries, they were found in Cherbourg. The USS Kearsarge was in an English port and informed of their proximity and set off immediately. They ships essentially agreed to battle in international waters. Semmes prepared his tired ship and waited for Sunday, allegedly his lucky day. The battle lasted an hour and a half, but Semmes’ luck ran out. The Alabama landed a perfect shot in the Kearsarge, but it was a dud. The Alabama was bombarded with superior guns and accuracy and started to go down. They surrendered and abandoned ship. Some were picked up by the Kearsarge, while others by a nearby British yacht. Semmes made it to the British yacht, and he and the surviving, free crew members were brought to London. Semmes, who was reported drowned to Captain Winslow of the Kearsarge, returned to Cherbourg for his loot and paid his men. With the loss of the Alabama and the end of his piracy career, he retired from active service. Pretty cool guy.
April 9th, 2022
Back to Sherman. Johnston has taken up a defensive position between the Kennesaw Mountains and protected his flank very well. Sherman gave up on his usual flanking maneuvers and thought a full-on assault would catch Johnston off guard. On June 27th, the attack on the mountain was launched but repulsed. Heavy fighting and a few thousand losses were all he got, but Sherman felt the attack “shook” Johnston up. He went back to flanking and eventually it came to Johnston guarding the river. Sherman could not risk another assault and managed to flank again. He crossed the river up north and forced Johnston to cross the river to defend Atlanta. Now the city was in site for Sherman, he just has to figure out to take it.
April 10th, 2022
Chapter 3, and the first section of the book, end with some drama. Because it is so dramatic, there is little to say about it. The Confederate government has watched Joe Johnston retreat time and time again without a fight for the last two months. Everyone wanted him gone. Davis, ever the independent, gave him the opportunity to detail his plan for dealing with Sherman’s army. His short message back gave no hope for him attempting to fight for the city. Johnston had to go, though it is very dangerous to change leaders when the enemy is a few miles away and you have nowhere to go. Bragg had even gone in person to see the situation, and said it was bleak. Davis asked Lee if he thought Hood would be a good replacement. Lee said he is a good fighter, but has no experience at so high a level. He said Hardee had more experience. Bragg said similar things, but Hardee had been too keen on Johnston’s retreat tactics. Hardee had also decline the job and was the reason Johnston was the replacement for Bragg in the first place. Yet Hood was chosen, to his and everyone else’s dismay. They begged Johnston to stay, but he would not. The troops were dejected at the loss of their beloved general. Sherman’s men warned him of Hood’s fighting prowess, but Sherman still felt the change was in his favor. So the campaign is on pause, as I think we shall return to Grant next.
April 11th, 2022
Chapter 4 begins with Grant’s withdrawal towards Petersburg. Lee is stuck guarding Richmond on the western side, since he is unsure of Grant’s motives. So far only Baldy Smith, who was on loan, and Hancock, who could be on load, are across the James. Smith gets there first and attacks the city, taking some entrenchments, but does not press further since it is now night. He did not know that if he had, he would have taken the city. Beauregard’s few men are split across Bermuda something and the city, with only about 2000 men guarding Petersburg. Hancock comes up with more men but does not feel comfortable leading a night attack, not knowing the area. Beauregard abandons the works guarding Butler to defend the city, and Lee has to send some men to fill the void. Once Grant is fully across the river, Lee goes straight for Petersburg. Grant’s men miss another opportunity by stopping short of taking the southerly road out of Petersburg. This part of the city was completely undefended, only a few skirmishers were on the road. By June 18th, Lee is in the city and the Union army can tell. The chance to attack is over. His men start digging in. More bad news is on the way. Early had knocked Hunter out of his way and had entered the Shenandoah Valley.
April 12th, 2022
Only read a little bit. Early and his men march through the Shenandoah Valley and start heading towards Baltimore. They don’t meet opposition until outside Frederick, at the Monocacy River. The local defense tries to block his path, along with a division from Wright, but are outnumbered and pushed out of the way. Early starts towards Washington but again comes up against opposition. A fortified position has more reinforcements, the rest of Wrights’ corps. Early rests his men for an attempt at the capitol.
April 13th, 2022
Unfortunately for Early, the rest of Wright’s corps and the XIX from New Orleans arrive in the capitol. He is lucky, as Confederate spies tell him the news. He calls of the attack and prepares to retreat, but Wright launches an attack. It doesn’t last long because it is gets too dark, but the point was made. Early gets it together and moves back down the valley. Was his mission a success? In a way. Union men were removed from Virginia and he scared the civilians. He got closer to DC than McClellan or Grant ever got to Richmond. So not bad for Jubal. The rest of the section talks about politics. Lincoln fights with his party and the press blames him for not finding a peaceful solution. An unofficial peace delegation talks to Davis, who rejects and peace terms that do not include independence. So the war will go on. Lincoln also suspends Habeas Corpus and arrests some Democrats in the state Kentucky election. What a scumbag. But it didn’t work and Democrats won all the seats. Good. Vote McClellan
April 17th, 2022
The second section of chapter 4 heads back to Atlanta. With Hood in charge of the army, things will get uglier for Sherman. His first move was the Battle of Peachtree Creek, where he attempted to attack Thomas while he was crossing the creek and had men on both sides. It was not easy, but the Rock continued to earn his nickname and held firm as the rest of his army crossed. Hood's next attempt was a few days later. He recalled his men to more interior lines of defense around Atlanta and planned to pull a Chancellorsville. McPherson's left flank was hanging in the air and Hood sent Hardee to sneak around and attack the flank. Unfortunately, there was a delay of several hours. The division under General Walker was sent to get there first, and what was once empty field 30 minutes ago was now a Union division turned to face them head on. This was more coincidental than planned, as they were tearing up railroad, but they shot and killed Walker immediately. McPherson's defenses now formed an L shape, with Bald Hill in the corner. This was the fiercest fighting, and on going to observe the situation, McPherson wandered into Confederate forces. Instead of surrendered, he turned and rode as fast as he could. He was cut down by a rifleman and died on the spot. Sherman was distraught. He thought the future of the army was in McPherson's hands. Logan Smith, a volunteer and politician, was given command and performed well. The held the defense and the rebels retreated. After the battle, Sherman and Thomas discussed who should replace McPherson. They wanted a professional, so Smith was bypassed. The Army of Tennessee went to one-armed General Howard, of Gettysburg fame and Chancellorsville shame. Hooker, under Thomas, was outraged he was not given the job, that it was given to a man he hated and blamed for his loss at Chancellorsville, and handed in his resignation. He was told he was never considered and the resignation was accepted. Hooker's days in the war were over. Slocum, another Gettysburg hero, took over the XX corps (formerly XI and XII corps). Sherman then tried to go around Atlanta to the west and destroy the last rail link. His cavalry attempt ended in disaster. His infantry attempt, assuming Hood was defeated, was not as expected. Hood attacked once more with Stephen D. Lee, commander of Hood's old corps, and Stewart. Sherman sent Howard counter-clockwise around the city to destroy the link, and the two forces met at Ezra Church. Another bloody battle ensued, but it was repulsed. Howard was expecting what Sherman was not, a fight. Thus ends the month of July. With some 8000 Union calculates and some 11,000 Confederate. Hood's strategy had failed him three times and now his troops were feeling the dejection that comes with defeat. I'm sure they miss Johnston.
April 18th, 2022
Shortly after Hood’s last attack, the Union received some good news from further south. Farragut was charged with taking Mobile Bay in late 1863, but his ship the Hartford needed some repairs. After 4 months in Brooklyn, the ship set sail. Farragut was in a hurry, as news came out that the Confederates were building a new ironclad in the region. He wanted to get there before it could make it to the bay. By the time he got there, it was already complete and in the water. The CSS Tennessee was under Admiral Buchanan of Merrimack fame. Farragut arrived outside the bay and could not do much with his wooden fleet. There were three forts and a minefield blocking the entrance to the bay, while the Tennessee and its three companions did not leave the bay. Farragut called in some monitors from around the country and these took weeks to arrive. He also called in some army to distract one of the forts, but only got 2000 men. Time passed slowly, but the attack was launched on August 5th. The four monitors went to travel in the small area between Fort Morgan and the minefield. The monitor Tecumseh got mixed up and accidentally traveled into the minefield. In the downtown, Farragut’s men had been demining the area and found many corroded duds. This was not the fate for Tecumseh. It hit a mine and quickly went down, killing some 150 men. The monitors then slowed down the wooden ship procession and blocked the path. Farragut, growing impatient, ordered his ship through the minefield. When warned about the danger, he classically said “Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead.” Miraculously, the Hartford did not hit a single live mine, nor the ships traveling in its wake. Once in the bay, the hours long battle with the Tennessee began. The three companion ships were quickly put out of commission. The Tennessee survived many hits, but eventually took shelter under Fort Morgan. Farragut took anchor in Mobile Bay, victorious. Buchanan later was enraged at this site and came storming out. His engines were too slow to ram the Hartford, and the rams of wooden ships were torn right off. The two flagships bombarded each other mercilessly, but the Tennessee suffered too many duds. Its guns were taken out one-by-one and Buchanan took a splinter to the shin, breaking his leg. It was useless to go on, and the Tennessee surrendered. Over the next few days, Farragut’s navy took the forts, with Fort Morgan proving stubborn. It’s commander, a cousin of Robert E. Lee, refused to surrender. It was essentially reduced to rubble and they surrendered. Now the Gulf of Mexico was firmly in Union hands.
April 22nd, 2022
Forgot to write yesterday. There were two setbacks to go with Farragut’s success. On the east coast, a new Confederate raider appeared. The Tallahassee was under Commander Wood, a grandson of Zachary Taylor and a man who saw service on the Merrimack. The raider captured some 60 union merchant ships in a couple of weeks, seeking shelter in Nova Scotia to refuel. It snuck out of Nova Scotia, sped past Union boats in international waters, and landed safely in North Carolina. The second was Nathan Bedford Forrest. Sherman sent AJ Smith to defeat Forrest. Smith was entrenched when Stephen Lee and Forrest came on him. Lee ordered Forrest to assault the entrenchments, which failed. Smith had to retreat anyway because his supplies spoiled. Forrest was mad and needed some revenge. He organized a raid up to Memphis, which was undefended. Not much damage was done, but fear was instilled in the locals. Sherman was happy as long as his supply lines weren’t touched. Back in Atlanta, Hood sent Wheeler to attack the railroads for Sherman’s supply lines. This was easily repaired and Sherman tried to use his cavalry to destroy Hood’s supply lines. This failed, so he had to use the army. Slocum was left in place to guard the north and the railroad line, while the rest of the army swung counter clockwise. Hood thought Sherman was retreating and did nothing. Sherman destroyed the western railroad, then went to cross the Flint River for the second. By this time, Hood knew something was up, but thought only Howard was south of the city. Hardee was sent to attack Howard at Jonesborough while he was split across the river. Howard was well dug in and Hardee was repulsed. Too late for Hood, he found out that the whole Union army was south of the river. Hardee was trapped in isolation. Sherman attacked to destroy Hardee but failed. Hardee then escaped in the night. Next day Sherman learned that Hood the supplies in Atlanta and escaped. Slocum was in the city. Sherman won Atlanta, but Hood’s army still lived.
April 23rd, 2022
Atlanta was taken at the beginning of September. Back in July, the Army of the Potomac was still dealing with Petersburg and Washington was dealing with Early. Early, despite backing away from the capitol, was still untouched. By the end of the month he had marched to Chambersburg, PA and set it on fire when they refused him $100k. Hunter was not living up to expectations. Down in Petersburg, some Schuylkill County miners thought they could dig under the rebel entrenchments. Burnside loved the idea, and Meade and Grant allowed him to go forward with it. They managed to do it in a month with no real equipment. A chamber was dug under the rebels and filled without explosives. They would blow a hole in the line and break through to the city. Burnside, who did not doubt that blacks could fight as well as whites, trained a black regiment to lead the charge. At the last minute, Meade or Grant made him use a white regiment. They thought if plan failed and the blacks were slaughtered in the charge, they would be censured by the northern abolitionists for using them as fodder. Burnside complained to no avail. He had to use an unprepared regiment to lead the charge. On July 30th, they commenced the Battle of the Crater. The explosives did their job, despite a setback with a spliced fuse, but the Union men stopped at the crater. Some then went into the crater. The black regiment, now the 4th of 4 regiments to charge, was the only one to go around the crater and attack the fortifications, as trained. However, it was too late. The Confederates had reformed by then and killed a good number of them. Like Fort Pillow, they even killed black men who were surrendering. They were shocked to be attacked by black men and disgusted. The men in the crater were sitting ducks. This was a big defeat for the federal army and Burnside fought over it with Meade. Burnside resigned and returned to civilian life, where he became governor of then senator for Rhode Island. In Washington, Grant consolidated the various defensive groups under one Hunter, then replaced Hunter with Sheridan. Sheridan proved cautious, since rumor had that Anderson’s division was reinforcing Early (only part of it did). Then in August, Grant again tried to move to the south of Petersburg to block railroad access. Warren was able to occupy a town a few miles south of Petersbug on the railroad, despite hard fighting with AP Hill. Hancock, who had been unable dislodge Confederates north of the city, was to attack a town a few miles further south. This ended in disaster, as most of his troops were green and could barely fight. Hancock, known for his hard fighting, had to retreat and lost many guns. Gibbons was disgusted by his division and resigned, but was convinced to stay in the army and transfer to Washington. Hancock was also upset. This was thus far the lowest point in his career, especially after the fame he received during Gettysburg and Spotsylvania.
April 24th, 2022
The rest of the third section talks about events close to DC. The Democrats chose McClellan as their candidate, but he was not willing to give up the war. So essentially neither the pro-war or anti-war Democrats were happy, but it is what it is. Everyone thought they were going to win until Sherman took Atlanta in September. Then elections started to go to the Republicans in PA, NY, and Illinois (or Indiana?). The really big news was from Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley. From a spy he learned that Anderson was going back to Lee and decided to attack Early. It went well. He feigned a frontal assault on Winchester and sent some men around the south in flanking maneuver, completely catching the Confederates off guard. It was a complete rout. Unfortunately for him, his cavalry generals did not even attempt to capitalize on the win. It was bloody, though. Sheridan lost 5000 to Early’s 4000, including General Robert Rodes. Rodes led Jackson's Chancellorsville attack and was critical to Gettysburg’s day one victory. Shortly after he launched another attack and drove Early further back. This was huge news and changed everything for Lincoln. Suddenly, he was a sure-shot for the presidency. Grant even got a little more land down south, which was insignificant but was made to be huge news. Then it backfired for Sheridan. While he was holding his new gains, Early got reinforcements and attacked. The man who found the path for Jackson’s Chancellorsville rout found a mountain pass that would give Early a direct attack on Sheridan’s flank. Gordon led the assault and it crumpled the Union army. Sheridan was absent. Gordon wanted to press the attack, but Early was satisfied. This was a repeat of Gettysburg inaction and his reluctance to let Gordon attack at the Wilderness. Big mistake. Sheridan returned to the field and got the troops back in order and counter attacked. He drove Early out of the Valley and burned it all on his way back to Harper’s Ferry. From September to mid October, Sheridan changed the outlook of the war and became one of the country’s most beloved men.
April 26th, 2022
The 4th section of the chapter starts off with some developments away from the main scenes of Petersburg and Atlanta. This is about the last military operations west of the Mississippi. Starting in August, Kirby Smith sent General Price and his cavalry on a raid into Missouri to distract the Union army from sending General Taylor to Mobile. It also was used to prevent reinforcements from being sent to Atlanta. Both succeeded, with AJ Smith being sent to St. Louis instead of back to Sherman. Price with his lieutenants, Shelby and Marmaduke, assaulted a fort south of St Louis, which was defended by the general behind Order 11 to relocate all the citizens of northwest Missouri (or somewhere else). He knew he was going to get beaten and then killed, so they left in the night and blew up the fort. Price moved on to St. Louis, but it was reinforced by AJ Smith and unattackable. He went west and then General Curtis from Kansas or so came to meet him. His troops had little experience and the Kansas militia refused to cross state lines, so they got beat. General Pleasanton led the forces from St. Louis to attack Price’s rear. Price kept going west and then crossed into Kansas to fight the only battle in that state. They got whooped and Marmaduke was taken prisoner by a single soldier, who was given furlough for the rest of his term as a reward. Shelby managed to keep the Federals at bay while the Confederate train moved south. Price thought he escaped, but there was one more battle (Mine Creek?) in his future, the last battle of the Transmississippi. He was defeated again, and his men ran into Indian Territory to march back to Arkansas. This was November and the men starved, many dying. He returned to Arkansas, accomplishing nothing and having many men killed.
April 27th, 2022
The book continues about a bunch of different one-off events. Some Confederate ex-POWs managed to form a large enough group in Vermont to steal a few hundred thousand dollars from a town. A raider, the CSS Florida, was reported to be in Brazil. A Union ship went to find it and challenged it to a duel in international waters, a la the CSS Alabama. The Florida declined and enjoyed the neutrality of Brazil to take a break from fighting. The Union captain then decided to ignore international law and just attacked the ship in port and captured it. It took it back to the US and was an international scandal. It was likely that the ship would have to be returned, and the CSS “mysteriously” sunk. The next naval incident was the continuation of the CSS Albemarle holding the sound from Union ships while more ironclads were being built upriver. It was unbeatable. Then a 21 year old Lt Cushing offered his services to take a small boat and torpedo into the sound under the cover of darkness and sink it, if he and his crew could not take it through hand-to-hand combat. He had to jump over log stakes to get the ship close enough to launch the torpedo. It was launched and shortly after his ship was blown out of the water. Two men drowned, Cushing escaped by swimming to shore, the rest were captured. After hiding out and finding a land route back to the Union ships, he learned that the Albemarle was sunk. The Union army took the sound, Roanoke, and the ships under construction. Cushing became a commander in the navy and was given a Thanks of Congress. At age 32, he died in an insane asylum.
April 29th, 2022
The last tidbit in this section is about some more Confederate raids. One of the most famous raiders, John Hunt Morgan, was out on a mission in Tennessee with his diminished band of men. The Union army surprised them and Morgan was caught in someone’s house. He tried to surrender, but a Union soldier shot him anyway. Morgan was killed instantly. What a sick thing to do. The other raider, Forrest, fared better. Richard Taylor, now his superior in Alabama, wanted him to attack some railroads to ruin Sherman’s supply lines. He spent two weeks doing damage, taking a few forts, and a lot of burning. He had done better than Wheeler, and it took considerable time to fix the damage, but it was too late. All this started at the end of September. Sherman had been comfortable in Atlanta nearly a month. If this had been done while they were still outside the city, it may have meant something. I think the final section of this chapter will bring us to Hood’s army since the fall of Atlanta.
May 2nd, 2022
I neglected to mention that Forrest’s raid took Thomas and a couple divisions out of Atlanta. Davis made some changes to the army. Hood and Hardee could not work with each other. Hardee took Beauregard's old job in South Carolina, and Beauregard's got a new title. Davis combine Taylor’s and Hood’s armies under one leader, who was sort of in charge but not exactly. It was an interesting compromise but everyone was fairly happy. On September 8th, Sherman ordered all civilians to leave Atlanta, no exceptions. Hood started attacking and with his newfound mobility was wrecking stuff left and right. Sherman tried to give chase but it was really no use. He could not keep up or predict what Hood would do. Sherman wanted to leave Thomas in Tennessee and take the rest of the army east. He’d destroy Atlanta, take Savannah and let the navy bring him supplies. Grant would not approve and Sherman felt his inability to chase Hood was proving his point. It would be suicide to chase a mobile guerrilla army. He must take the entire state of Georgia.
May 3rd, 2022
The chapter ends with a description of Hood’s plan to fight. He starts moving west through Alabama, planning to cross into Tennessee and strike Nashville quickly before Thomas can build strength there. Unfortunately, he cannot find a way across the river and sits idle. Most of October is wasted. Forrest joins him after performing another amazing destruction of a fort in Tennessee. Beauregard is not happy with the delay. Sherman finally got his OK to start the march towards the sea. The election occurs and Lincoln won by a huge margin of the electoral votes, yet only had 55% of the popular vote. Many people favored McClellan, even after the recent victories. Jefferson Davis had gone on a long tour to try to build morale among his countrymen, but I doubt it had enough effect. Some, like Richard Taylor, don’t believe the war will last past the next spring offensive.
May 4th 2022
The first section of chapter 5 mostly covers the state of affairs before winter hits. Lee is still trapped with long defenses spanning Richmond and Petersburg, though Longstreet fortunately returns to the field in October. A fourth corps is scrapped together for Anderson. Grant is pretty worried about Thomas out west. It does not look like he is taking the initiative to attack Hood, who may make his way north to Ohio. Wright, or whoever was sent to Sheridan, returns, and so do most of Early’s men. Early is told to remain in the Shenandoah Valley as a field commander. Hancock officially departs after all of the disasters since June and goes to Washington. He is replaced by General A. A. Humphreys, a fellow Pennsylvanian. Butler is supposed to make a move on Wilmington, NC, the last major Confederate port city, but keeps delaying. Grant tries to launch another southern attack in December to lengthen Lee’s supply lines, but winter hits hard and nothing comes of it. It has been a rough time for everyone involved.
May 5th, 2022
Section 2 of the chapter describes Sherman’s March to the sea, which is surprisingly uneventful. Of course, if you’re a lonely woman on a farm and soldiers take your livestock and valuables, it is very eventful for you. But for the historian, very little of note seems to happen. Sherman split Slocum and Howard into two columns and tried to mislead the Confederates on their final destination. They veered towards Macon and some other major cities, but the only city of significance they marched through was the capital (Milledgeville, Atlanta became the capital after the war), and that they only occupied the night. There were no soldiers to defend the state and next to no militia. Many railroads were destroyed along the way. The only battle on the way was against old men and teenagers who were slaughtered by artillery, not knowing proper battle tactics. They got towards the coast and took Fort McCallister in 15 minutes, which allowed the navy use of the river. The army was followed by escaped slaves the whole time, which were more of a burden. When crossing one of the rivers, the army tried to sneak across to leave the slaves on the other side. Many of them attempted to swim across and drowned. Other than that, another battle from a Union force in South Carolina tried to protect a railroad that went to Richmond, but got whipped by militia. Other than that, the Union forces had a pretty good time. The best fed army in the country.
May 6th, 2022
Everyone was worried of what Thomas would do in Tennessee. Hood decided to go for him. On November 16th, the day Sherman torched Atlanta, he finally crossed the river. His plan was to rush on Columbia and split Schofield and Thomas, then destroy one at a time. Schofield was slow to react and barely made it to Columbia first. Hood then made a flanking move. His guns stayed in place to distract the Union forces in Columbia and Forrest went 10 miles down river to keep James Wilson and cavalry in place. The Confederates crossed the river and tried to get to Franklin, the next river crossing. It nearly worked, but James Wilson warned Schofield about Forrest and Schofield told Thomas, who told him to move to Franklin. The IV corps met the Confederates on the way and thwarted their plans. The small corps was against Hood’s toughest men, who decided to quit. For some reason, the Confederates didn’t launch another attack. Everyone blamed each other for the disintegration, but Schofield got away.
May 7th, 2022
After dealing with the disappointment, Hood decided to attack Franklin. It was heavily fortified and instead of another flank, which Forrest suggested he be allowed to do, Hood ordered a frontal attack. As expected, it was a disaster. Two Union divisions that were outside of the defenses were overrun and most were killed or captured, and the Confederate divisions who did this got their blood up. They ran ahead of the other divisions and penetrated the Union divisions before being quickly pushed back. It was a slaughter. Something like 7000 Confederates were killed, captured, or wounded. Half of his officers were out of the war. Schofield lost some 1000 men and crossed the river in the night. He made it to Nashville and the safety of Thomas’ additional 30,000 men. Hood did not cut his losses and marched to Nashville anyway. Two weeks went by and Hood had essentially stayed in place outside Nashville. In the meantime there was an attack by Forrest at Murfreesboro, to get a straggling Union corps, but the Confederate infantry ran after contact. Hood’s army was whipped and Thomas is going to destroy them if they don’t leave Nashville. Hood was not a good choice of commander. Would Hardee have made the same mistakes?
May 9th, 2022
Thomas made a move, but not without a lot of drama. He moved too slow for the likes of Grant and Lincoln, 500 miles away and in their own stagnation. Thomas wanted to be prepared, and prepared he’d be. Grant and Halleck implied Thomas would be replaced, which he said he’d accept if necessary. Grant was going to send Black Jack Logan, who replaced McPherson on the field, to take over if a battle did not arise. After a delay by a several day ice storm, Thomas announced his move. December 14th he would move against Hood’s works. Steedman was to attack the Confederate right (Cheatham) as a feint to attract forces from the left, while AJ Smith attacked the right (Stewart). Later, Wood would add more force to the attack on the right. Finally, Schofield would launch the knock-out punch. Wilson’s cavalry would swing around the right and attack the rear. Lee manned the Confederate center, which did not get attacked. The left feint did not work and Cheatham kept Steedman at bay on his own. The attack on the right did not go as quickly as hoped and got stuck at 3 redoubts, which the Union forces eventually took. Lee was sent to reinforce the right and even some from Cheatham. The two redoubts on the north were the last to fall. Hood and his men fell back another line in the rear as night fell. While Hood was beaten, he was not destroyed. But while he was outside Nashville, the battle would continue.
May 11th, 2022
After the defeat outside the city, Thomas thought Hood would flee. Schofield knew Hood better; he said he wasn’t going anywhere and he’d fight. Schofield was right. Hood was dug in just a few miles south. He build a straight line between two hills with his left turning southward. Cheatham had the right, Lee the left, and Stewart’s beaten men in the hopefully safer center. The Federals picked up where they left off yesterday and eventually made their way south. Steedman and Wood attacked the right hard, hoping to turn it and take the Franklin Turnpike, the Confederate avenue of retreat. It was not to be and it was the bloodiest fighting of the day. Smith attacked the Confederate center-left, and Schofield and Wilson attacked the left. Smith, Schofield and Wilson were supposed to coordinate and launch an attack to take the western hill, but Schofield wanted more men. Wilson complained to Thomas, who ordered an immediate attack. The hill was taken before Wilson even returned to his men. After 4 hours off hard fighting, the Confederate army collapsed and ran for the turnpike. Luckily for them, it was still in their rear. The cavalry (not Forrest, he hadn’t returned yet) kept the western forces in place and Lee held the left while the rest of the army ran for their lives. Thousands of soldiers were captured, and several generals were caught or wounded, even one who cruelly had his brains beaten out with a saber by an Ohioan (he survived somehow). Some Tennesseans held the western hill during the retreat under a Colonel Shy, whose death on the hill gave it the name Shy’s Hill. So the gray army collapsed but the blues were checked by the rear guard. The Confederates ran for the next two days and they just kept running to Alabama. Forrest eventually returned and lived up to his reputation by keeping the pursuers at bay. Eventually Thomas couldn’t keep up, and with all the bridges burned and excellent rear guarding, he called the pursuit off. He did his job, that army was done for. Foote calls this the last great battle of the war. I guess with 4 months left in the war and a siege in Petersburg, there won't be much organized fighting.
May 12th, 2022
Mostly some wrap up of the chapter and odds & ends. Grant was mad at Thomas for not pursuing Hood’s army, but things were good elsewhere. Sherman captured Savannah by Christmas and would next march north through South Carolina. Stoneman had wrecked some salt mines in the Shenandoah. Sheridan did some action in the same region but I don’t think anything came of it. The Butler-Porter move on Wilmington, NC started. Butler’s plan to use a dummy ship full of explosives didn’t pan out. It exploded, but Fort Fisher was mostly untouched. Porter sent plenty of shots at it, but to no avail. Butler landed for a land assault and turned back because he heard Hoke was going from Virginia. Then Butler just left. Porter tried again but then he left to a nearby port also. Now that it’s after the election, Butler’s political power is not so important. Grant will replace him and the assault will be attempted again.
May 13th, 2022
This is the end of the longest chapter I’ve ever read in a book. Foote seems to like to end or begin chapters with a short section on the political happenings. Chapter 5, and thus the middle section, ends with Lincoln. The author mentions that Rosecrans, now head of the Army of Missouri or what have you, is replaced. So ends the war for Rosecrans, who once held the highest position in the west. All it takes is a Chickamauga, though Rosecrans was probably disliked by those in charge before then. Also departing is Farragut. Due to health reasons, he decides to retire, along with his ship, and is celebrate throughout the country for his service. Something terrible then happens in the west. A Colorado militia decides to slaughter the Indians. That was their goal, to actually murder women and children. And they did. They went to Kansas, found some Indians camped outside a US fort for protection, and killed them. I couldn’t make it as a ruler. If I were Lincoln, I’d have every man who participated in this slaughter summarily executed without trial. Maybe I’d give them a chance to speak. I’m sure there were some who were pressured into going and do not deserve a death sentence. But the leader would certainly be killed. But in this world, you get away with it. Without absolute might, you cannot make right. Anyway, I think the other news was that Salmon Chase replaced Taney as Chief Justice after the latter kicked the bucket. Now there are 300 pages left and 4 months of war, plus epilogue. Winter tends to be uneventful.
May 16th, 2022
Chapter 6 begins with Grant’s plans to end with war. Grant and Sheridan will put pressure on Lee, along with Ord, who replaced Butler. Butler went to DC to complain about his dismissal and during his review on why Fort Fisher was unassailable, the news came that the fort had been taken. Porter bombarded the hell out of it while General Terry assaulted with land forces. The fort held out for 3 days with 800 men and only one regiment of South Carolinans to reinforce it during the siege. But Terry had assaulted at two points, one of which went unnoticed. After some hand-to-hand fighting, the fort was firmly in Union hands. Colonel Lamb was wounded, and General Whitting died of his wounds later. Out west, the Transmississippi was ignored. Curtis left the department after getting no recognition for stopping Price’s raid and went to war-free Minnesota. Grant made sure Thomas would have no place in the 1865 offensives. He sent AJ Smith down to General Canby, who had replaced Banks. Wilson would also go down south. They were to take Mobile and Montgomery. Schofield was taken out east to assault Wilmington, then link up with Sherman. Sherman began his march north through the Carolinas. He left Savannah whole and the people generally took him to be a decent occupier, not the savage they thought would destroy their city. The first target was Columbia, SC, though the army would feint towards Charleston and Greensboro (maybe). After that city was occupied and probably destroyed, they’d march to NC and meet Schofield en route. I don’t know their target, but North Carolina seemed pretty reluctant to join the Confederacy. They were the last ones and if they hadn’t, they’d have been invaded by South Carolina and Virginia. Though with ports open, they probably would have been well defended by boat-transported troops. Either way, don’t give them the Atlanta treatment. In other news, after some backdoor politics, the 13th amendment was passed. Slavery was officially abolished in the United States. Congratulations.
May 17th, 2022
Section 2 is on the Confederate plans at the beginning of the year. There was some talk of freeing the slaves, or freeing them after military enlistment. Robert E. Lee encouraged the training of black soldiers. Though in a country created to preserve slavery, this was hotly debated and came to nothing. The main military change so far is the resignation of Hood. After destroying his army, he handed it over to Beauregard and went to the capital for a different type of service. The Army of Tennessee was given to Richard Taylor, but shortly after, his command was split up. Not sure who went where. I think Cheatham was sent to Charleston to prepare for Sherman, and Lee’s Corps was sent to fight Canby. Forrest was given some other job. They don’t have enough men for any of this.
May 19th, 2022
Mostly political talk in the rest of this section. The Army of Virginia was starving and there wasn’t much anyone could do about it. Lee know that a siege would destroy his army and it looks like he is being proven right. Men have no food and many of them are leaving for Yankee prison camps. Hood goes to Texas to recruit soldiers. Semmes, of the Alabama fame, returns to Richmond and is made admiral of the ships on the James, however few and weak they are. Most of the section discusses the growing resentment towards Jefferson Davis from the senate and other Confederate leaders. They blame him for the poor state of things, or they blame him for not pursuing peace. Men offer, but Lee refuses, to make the general the military commander of the army. There are plenty of schemes to usurp power from Davis. A political advisor of many decades in DC, Blair, volunteers to go to Richmond and talk to Davis, who he when Davis was a senator. Lincoln allows him to go, but it seems futile. Davis will only accept peace with independence, Lincoln will not acknowledge the new nation as legitimate. Regardless, Davis sent three prominent men, including his VP, to DC for talks.
May 22nd, 2022
Read some on Friday but I forgot to write. Lee is made commander-in-chief of all armed forces. Breckinridge replaces Semmes as Secretary of War after the latter resigns. The three delegates were not going to be received by the Union delegation, but Grant made an appeal to Lincoln. This seems to have convinced him not only to allow the meeting to occur, but to go personally. However, it goes nowhere because Lincoln will not have any sort of negotiations until the war is over. This lights a fire in the south and gives new popularity to Davis, though it is a little too late. There’s no men left in the south to fight the war. In early February, Grant launches another attack around Lee’s southeast flank, but it gets stalled. Both armies’ lines get stretched 30 more miles. This is nothing for Grant, but a big deal for Lee’s starved and shrinking army. The Siege of Petersburg has lasted 8 months so far. The main action is in Sherman’s march. Despite the mud and terrible conditions of a South Carolinian winter, the two columns of Union forces make good progress, burning and destroying much in site. There is little to stop them, just some cavalry skirmishers. Sherman’s ruse works and the Columbian’s have no idea he’s coming until a few days before. Beauregard frantically tries to raise a defensive force, but the city is abandoned. Union men get drunk and 2/3 of the city ends up burning. Sherman blames the Confederates for leaving the city full of cotton, booze, and other flammables. He had no intent on burning the city, but does not mourn it’s loss. A few days later he starts the march for North Carolina, but this time has a lot more trouble with the roads. Schofield had captured Wilmington and was on the move. March begins with the two armies on their way to conjunction. After Columbia, Lee makes the decision, with Davis’ unenthusiastic blessing, to place Joe Johnston at the head of middle army. Beauregard is disappointed, always being second fiddle and never getting a chance to prove himself in a full scale battle. Johnston is not pleased either, viewing the command as doomed to fail, or worse, a death sentence.
May 23rd, 2022
Chapter 7 starts with Grant’s plan to keep Lee from retreating west (Lynchburg) or southwest (Danville). Sheridan has mostly been bored, so he was sent to do some demolishing. In the Valley were some local partisans causing a lot of trouble. Mosby’s men were a couple hundred Virginian’s doing a lot of damage to the Union despite their lack of training. The fighting starts will capturing and hangings. Some 7 of Mosby’s men were killed. Mosby retaliates by making his prisoners take a lottery for execution. Two escaped on the way, but 5 were executed. This stopped the hangings. Regardless, Sheridan went on with his mission while Hancock and infantry were sent to deal with Mosby. March 2nd, Sheridan catches up to Early and captures essentially his whole army. Early escapes with a few men back to Lee. Lee was going to send him back, but decides to send him home to wait for further instructions. Little did they now there was one month left in the war. Sheridan carried on to do his destruction. At this same time, Lincoln was inaugurated. Johnson’s inauguration went poorly. He was recovering from typhoid and took some whiskey to give him strength. He rambled and people were weirded out. Lincoln gave a short speech that some viewed as drivel, but others, especially in England, saw as deep and moving.
May 26th, 2022
Back to the action. There’s maybe 6 weeks of war left but still 200 pages. It’s strange to read with the knowledge that there are literally weeks left in the war, but these Confederates are still trying. They may not have hop, but they are trying. This second section goes back to Sherman and Schofield. Sherman’s two columns under Slocum and Howard made it through the South Carolina mud into North Carolina. Once he got towards Fayetteville, Schofield sent a boat up the river with months worth of correspondence. The Army of Tennessee was no longer in the dark, isolated from the world. Sherman now knew that Johnston was in command and grew cautious. Bragg was also in the field. On March 9th, Bragg made a move against Schofield. Johnston knew the situation was desperate and threw away his characteristic caution. He sent 3000 men to Bragg who attacked Schofield in an attempt to slow him down. It lasted a couple days and kind of work. He took a lot of prisoners after the first surprise attack, and on his way back burned all the bridges. Still, Schofield marched on and got to Goldsboro before Sherman. Sherman marched in a north easterly direction from Fayetteville and was dogged by Confederate Cavalry. Then in mid-March, Slocum encountered Hardee’s men. Hardee’s job was to slow them down, learn where they’re going (Raleigh or Goldsboro), and how many men were there. He formed a good defense in a river delta or something and dealt a good number more casualties than he lost, and retreated in the nightt . Sherman did not pursue. He did not want Hardee, he wanted Johnston’s whole army. He also wanted to link with Schofield. Sherman marched with Howard’s column, when he got word from Slocum he was being attacked by 5 Confederate generals at Bentonville. Johnston, unlike in Georgia, was on the attack.
May 27th, 2022
Johnston launched a surprise attack on Slocum south of Bentonville, but he lacked Hardee. The plan was to surprise them with a head on fire, then attack the flank. Without Hardee, he lacked the manpower for the flank attack. Hardee arrived in the evening, but the Federals had dug in. Howard eventually caught up and Johnston formed a V to fend off both sides. Sherman, however, did not want to attack. He did not want to lose any more men without Schofield. Sherman was surprised that Johnston attacked and that he had not left. Johnston was busy trying to get his wounded away. One brigade defied Sherman and attacked, but was ordered to return to his position. This attack cost Hardee his 16 year old son, who begged his father to be allowed to join the army. Bentonville was a dud due to the small Confederate force. Retreating to Smithfield or wherever, Johnston told Lee he could not stop Sherman, especially now that he caught up to Schofield in Goldsboro. After the link up, Sherman went up the coast to see Grant and plan their future link up to destroy the armies of Johnston and Lee. Lincoln also happened to be there. That day, March 25th or around there, Lee gave Gordon permission to launch an attack to take a fort. He was to break in and take the rear guns and start a chain reaction of turning guns on the Federals. Unfortunately, there were no rear guns. The attack failed, and Grant took advantage of the depleted lines to take Confederate installations. Lee warned Davis that he may have to abandon Richmond soon, and that time had come.
May 29th, 2022
Talked a lot about how Lincoln’s wife was crazy. Then Grant complained about how everyone else was too slow to be useful. Canby hadn’t moved in a month, nor had Wilson. Someone else was supposed to move in Alabama, but had not. Or maybe it was Thomas sending Stonefield to attack western Carolina. Only Sheridan and Sherman had done their parts. Now both would be in for the kill.
May 30th, 2022
At this point, Richmond is pretty empty. Congress is gone, all the rich who can leave have left. Davis sent his wife and children away, waiting for Lee to tell him he must abandon the city. One of Congress’ last acts was to allow black soldiers in the Confederate army. This is too late to do any good, and no black soldiers ever fight. Many southerners are still opposed to it and think it will undermine slavery. A curious deathbed act. In the field, Grant moves his headquarters to the southwest end of the fortifications, some 10 miles from Petersburg, in preparation for the attack around Lee’s right. Wright and Ord hold the center of the long line, facing AP Hill. Parke (not sure who he is) is on the north end, facing Gordon in the city. Anderson holds the far right, which Grant wants to go around. Sheridan is charged with the attack, with infantry support from Warren and Humphreys. Pickett is taken from Longstreet, who is at Bermuda Hundred, to hold the road at Dinwiddie. Sheridan pushes him out, and Pickett takes up defense at Five Forks. Lee orders him to hold it at all costs. Unfortunately for Sheridan, it has been raining non-stop and the roads are quicksand. Grant orders Sheridan to pull back, but Sheridan rides to HQ and convinces Grant to allow the attack. Sheridan is not happy with Warren’s unenthusiastic acquiescence and asks for Wright instead. Grant refuses because it is too late and Wright is needed to attack the center later. The rain delay gives Pickett confidence that no attack is coming, and he leaves for a fancy dinner. When the attack comes, there is no one to run the show. The Confederates are taken prisoner en masse. Things get muddled from bad maps and Warren ends up in the wrong spot. It gets fixed and Sheridan urges everyone to keep moving. Sick of Warren, he removes Warren from duty and Griffin is given command. With Warren, the hero of Little Round Top, all of the commanders who came with Meade across the Rapidan one year ago are gone. Warren would fight this charge, and 15 years later, after his death, he would be exonerated. Grant sends him back to City point after this April Fool’s Day battle, only 8 days left in the war in Virginia. Pickett, another legend of Gettysburg, was completely routed and Lee will have to act quickly now that his right is in the air and his main supply roads are lost.
May 31st, 2022
The day after Five Forks, the Federals broke through the Petersburg lines. Lee didn’t see it coming. Or he did, but could not get men in the right places quickly enough. A. P. Hill, a high-energy hard-fighter, was killed in the defense when Wright’s corps broke through. Parke broke through on the east. Gibbon’s corps (formerly Butler’s) had a difficult task of taking Fort Gregg. They lost 3 times as many men as were defending the place, but stormed all at once. After much hand-to-hand combat, the fort was theirs. The defenders held the fort for 3 hours, allowing Lee to pull out and head west. Lee had given the order to evacuate Richmond and Petersburg. Davis and his government left the city and traveled slowly to Danville, near the North Carolina border. Davis waited for Lee, but by the 5th of April he still had no word.
June 7th, 2022
I read once during my illness. It was mostly about Lincoln after the fleeing of the Confederate government. He went to visit Petersburg and unwisely went to Richmond. Richmond still was not very secure after the rioting and the army was in pursuit of Lee with a small force left behind. Lincoln talked with one of the guys from the boat meeting and discussed how to bring Virginia back into the Union. The method discussed was to allow the elected legislature to meet and vote to leave the Confederacy and rejoin the Union. Thus Lee and many Virginians would be obligated to stop fighting. Lincoln allowed it to be attempted and went back to Washington, where he visited Seward. Seward had a carriage accident and nearly died. Lincoln returned to the White House late and received word from Stanton that Lee surrendered to Grant that day, April 9th. Then the book jumps to the story of Lee’s dash westward. He got to Amelia quickly and found there to be no food stored there. He was stuck scavenging and waiting for Ewell and others to escape across the James or Appomattox. Meanwhile, Grant did not have a headstart but had no river crossing to make and a 20 mile shorter march to the main railroad crossing. He beat Lee there and deprived him of his path the Danville. They all moved west to Farmville where there was more food. Longstreet held off an attempted bridge crossing by Ord on April 6th, but the good news stopped there. At Sailor’s Creek, a big gap opened between Longstreet and Ewell and Anderson. They were surrounded by Wright and Sheridan it was bad. Gordon and Anderson escaped, but some 6000 were killed or captured. Ewell himself was forced to surrender. The Confederates escaped across the Appomattox to their provisions, but Mahone forgot to burn the bridge and Humphreys crossed it. Lee was furious at losing the river buffer and sent him to hold the line. After days without food, the Confederates still managed to fight of the Federals. Lee then initiated his third night march in a row.
June 8th, 2022
The final couple days of Lee’s army are discussed. They kept marching west, while Humphreys and Wright chased after them north of the river. Grant and the others marched south of the river. The only gap between the end of the Appomattox and the next stretch of the James was at Appomattox Station, where all the supplies from Lexington were waiting. It was a race. The Army of Northern Virginia moved without much hassle until they got to Appomattox Courthouse. Grant had sent a note requesting a surrender a couple days prior, and Lee asked for terms. Lee wanted to discuss peace, but Grant could not due to Lincoln’s instructions. Then at Appomattox Station, Sheridan struck at night. Some two dozen guns that were being unloaded from trains were taken, while a couple fired at the cavalry. The guns were soon silenced and the critical area was in Federal hands. Lee soon sent a note to Grant requesting an audience to surrender.
June 9th, 2022
The chapter finishes with the details of the surrender. On the 9th, Fitz Lee and Gordon tried to make a break for it and knocked a hole in Sheridan’s wall. But it didn’t last: Ord and Griffin were there. These corps were each larger than Lee’s entire 12,000 effectives. The gig was up. Lee asked for a cease fire to organize a surrender. Ord agreed, but Meade (moving towards the rear) was a jerk about it. It’s good that the fighting is over, but it’s sad to see the heartbreak of the men who lost. Grant treated Lee with respect and his terms were reasonable. Lee was not thrilled with surrendering, but knew nothing would come from further fighting. The soldiers cheered Lee as he rode by. For days they still tried to see him one last time. The 12th was the day to hand in the weapons and Lee stuck around to make sure it wasn’t too hard on them. He sent a farewell address to the men, which meant the world to them. It made them feel proud of what they did. Now the men were paroled and on their ways home. Lee met Longstreet along the way to Richmond. Longstreet had just met his old friend, Grant, on the same road. They were all countrymen again, though they may not feel the same for each other they once did.
June 10th, 2022
The final chapter starts off a bit slow. It opens with Washington after the news of Lee’s surrender comes in. Everyone comes to Lincoln to hear him speak, but Lincoln passes them off until he is ready. When he gave his speech the next night, the crowd was disappointed. Lincoln’s speech was not a victory speech. It was a sad speech about the future and reconstruction. Lincoln reiterated how he wants to get the states back to normal as quickly as possible. The radical Republicans wanted hard vengeance and were angered by Lincoln’s speech. But to play the politics game, Lincoln retracted his earlier promise to the Virginia legislature about having them vote on rejoining the Union. Grant had taken care of the army, so the legislature was superfluous. Meanwhile, Davis had moved to Greensboro, NC, barely escaping Stoneman’s destructive raid that wrecked all the railroad bridges. Davis was in denial of Lee’s defeat. When Breckinridge arrived and confirmed it, he took it hard. He had summoned Johnston and Beauregard to plan for the continuation of the war. They told him it was over and they planned on making peace talks with Sherman. Davis was disappointed but wrote the letter they were to sent to Sherman. Then he and his cabinet rode horses further south to their next capital. By now it was April 14th, the 4th anniversary of the loss of Fort Sumter. General (formerly Major) Anderson was to raise the same Union flag they had taken down in 61. It was a huge long ceremony, very patriotic. There was a private dinner later with more speeches. Anderson, not liking to speak publicly, gave a nice toast to Lincoln.
June 11th, 2022
Lincoln was dead. This must be understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate. That’s really what the 20 pages I read were about: Lincoln’s assassination. There has been a lot said about it, and it was more of an emotional story then a series of facts. Poor Lincoln didn’t really want to go to the play, especially after Grant bailed. Then he got shot. Seward was also attacked by a knife wielding assassin, but he was full of metal wire after his carriage accident and this probably saved his life. Lincoln was taken across the street and laid in bed half dead for 8 hours. The bullet destroyed his brain and was lodged in his eye. Stanton essentially took control of the country in the meantime because he spoke with authority. By 8am, Lincoln was dead. Andrew Johnson was president, much to the glee of the radicals. Poor Lincoln had a recurring dream that usually happened before big news. This was the news. The south was not going to get the warm, caring president. They were getting vengeful Johnson.
June 12th, 2022
Johnston met with Sherman and the two ended up discussing how to end the entire war. Johnston brought in Breckinridge, not as a member of the cabinet but as a major general. They came to an agreement on how to end the war and surrender all the armies and sent it to their own governments for approval. Davis approved, Johnson did not. Grant was sent to talk sense to Sherman and make him follow Grant’s example. Johnston was told he would get the same terms as Lee. April 26th, Johnston surrendered. Davis was angry that he made no attempt to escape like Lee had done. Nevertheless, the war was over on the east coast. Taylor and Canby were holding similar meetings at the beginning of May, but they heard the news from the Sherman-Johnston meetings. There was no more fighting for Taylor. Wilson had pushed the Confederates out of Birmingham in April and Canby had done the same to Mobile. Taylor surrendered on May 4th, the day Lincoln was buried. Bedford Forrest was reluctant to surrender. He was injured and had lost his last battle to Wilson. There was a lot of talk of riding for Mexico, but one of his staff convinced him it was over. The men would follow him anywhere, so lead them to peace. This convinced Forrest and he wrote a nice announcement for his men, thanking them for their fighting spirit, but use their spirit to show the yankee that they would be dignified in defeat. All armies east of the Mississippi had surrendered. Kirby Smith was still holding the west. By this point, John Wilkes Booth was dead. The guy who attacked Seward was captured and a third guy who was supposed to kill Johnson but didn’t try was captured. I bet he wishes he had killed Johnson. I’m not sure where Davis was by now. He was in Charleston for awhile where he learned of Johnston’s surrender and that no one was willing to fight. The game was to escape. Little by little, his cabinet went their own ways, mostly back to family. The money was dispersed, Breckinridge fled to Florida to leave for Cuba. Davis’ goal was Texas and Kirby Smith. He had rejoined his wife, but planned to go separate ways when they heard Wilson’s men were on to them. On May 10th, they were awakened by the sound of confused Federals shooting at each other. This was the last instance of yankee men dying in battle. Once the confusion was over, they found Davis in camp. Davis had a plan to attack a Federal and steal his horse, but his wife ran up and he surrendered. Davis and several others were taken up north to be imprisoned in various military forts. Davis did not mourn the loss of Lincoln, but he knew that Johnson was a much worse choice for the future of the south.
June 13th, 2022
Johnson declared the war over in the east. All that was left was the west. There was more fighting on the coast of Texas on May 13th and 14th, a Confederate victory. Nonetheless, Kirby Smith learned of all the other surrendering and finally of Davis’ capture. After refusing a surrendered to Pope earlier in the month, he surrendered to Canby. Some refused to surrender. Shelby and a group of men rode for Mexico and were given some land by French Emperor Maximilian. General Stand Watie was the last to surrender. He and his band of Indians had been fighting in Oklahoma. There would be no more battles. Grant’s and Sherman’s armies were outside Washington and causing ruckus. The Westerners were not happy about Sherman’s treatment, especially that Stanton was saying Sherman was mad for power. To wrap things up, there was a competition of east vs west. May 23rd would have the easterners parade through the capitol, and the next day the west. The westerners had been marching for a year and did not look great, nor had practice marching, but they wanted to prove that Sherman was a great man. And they made Sherman proud with excellent marching that received cheers from all over. The chapter moves on to naval affairs. It tells a story of a man named Read who tries to escape with his boat down the Red River. They got quite far masquerading as a Union boat, but someone in New Orleans recognized fighting it. The gig was up, so Read shored the boat and burned it. They ran, but most got caught. The consequence: parole. Nobody wanted to fight anymore. Just go home, southerners.
June 14th, 2022
Read’s expedition was in April before Johnston’s surrender. There were no other such incidents. The next tragedy on the seas was an explosion on an overcrowded boat taking Union POWs home from Vicksburg. The engine exploded and some 1500 men were killed. Similarly, 300 people died when a depot of surrendered weapons exploded in Mobile. The coolest story would be of the Shenandoah. It had been raiding in the Pacific and was isolated. It went after whalers up near Alaska, attacking in June. These were the final shots fired in the war. The Shenandoah took a lot of captives and was second to the Alabama in raiding successes. It soon learned that the war was over. Commander Waddell was not going to give up and sit in a prison. He and his crew went around South America and got to England in November. It surrendered to the British and was the last Confederate flag taken down. This also was the only Confederate to circumnavigate the globe. In another section, imprisonments are discussed. Most people were given amnesty by an act of Johnson, but there were a lot of exceptions. Johnson gave everyone a pardon anyway when they sought it. A few were cruelly executed. The guy who attacked Seward, the guy who failed to attack Johnson, and a guy who was somehow part of the planning or did something with Booth. Worst of all, the widow who owned the boarding house where the assassination was allegedly plotted was executed. A stain on the country’s history. Also cruelly executed was the commander at Andersonville. The man may have been cruel to prisoners, but he was pardoned and only killed because of Stanton’s wishes. Also cruel was Jefferson Davis’ imprisonment. He was held for 2 years in poor conditions. They even shackled him at first. But his long confinement and his refusal to seek pardon brought him all the love that he had lost as war turned sour. Like Lincoln said, he should have been allowed to escape. But he lived through his hatred and became the hero he was in 1861. He was eventually freed, and Richmond gave him an emotional welcome.
June 15th, 2022
Finished the book today. The last section of the last chapter, knowing its time was at an end, took more of a sentimental and emotional approach. It works and I’m a sucker for the “end of an era” type of melancholy. The author talked about the some 200k dead from battle, 400k dead outside battle, and another 400k wounded or missing. 1 million men lives lost or ruined. The survivors went back to their lives as the country changed to a capitalist nightmare, ruining as many lives as war. This was especially true when the naive Grant became president and the capitalists robbed the country blind. The final section is mostly about Jefferson Davis and the remainder of his life. He never repented and became a citizen of the United States, though he was beloved by the south, except Joe Johnston. He tried his hand at business but lost it all in the crash of ‘73. He also lost the rest of his boys at young ages. He wrote a book and gave many speeches honoring the Confederate cause and those who fought for it. He outlived many of the leading men of the civil war, though not Johnston. Longstreet proved controversial, as he turned Republican and openly claimed the country was conquered. He was reconciled with the Confederates after marching onto a stage with Davis at a reunion. Davis died at 81, still claiming his cause was just, but warning the future generations to follow the tide of the country. War’s over.