The American Military - A Narrative History

by Brad D. Lookingbill

  Federal expenditures for naval forces reached record levels in an age of iron and steam. To quarantine 3,500 miles of Confederate coastline, the Navy grew in size from only 42 ships in 1861 to over 671 in 1865. The enlarged fleet eventually included more than 70 ironclads – steam-powered vessels protected with armored plating to deflect explosive shells from their hulls. Significant beyond their numbers, at least 100,000 seamen participated in brown and blue water operations that stifled the Confederacy. Lincoln called Gideon Welles, the Secretary of the Navy, his “Neptune.”

  Union interdiction of maritime commerce threatened to upset British neutrality, though. On November 8, 1861, the U.S.S. San Jacinto stopped the British ship, the Trent, near Havana. Captain Charles Wilkes apprehended James Mason of Virginia and John Slidell of Louisiana and dispatched them to prison in Boston, Massachusetts. The naval action roused protests in London, where the Trent affair stirred talk of war. Responding to an ultimatum for the return of the prisoners, Lincoln decided to release them. “One war at a time,” he cautioned his Secretary of State, William Seward.

  Meanwhile, Lincoln insisted that Missouri comply with his request for troops. Unruly militia in St. Louis clashed with federal regiments commanded by Captain Nathaniel Lyon, who was promoted to brigadier general. Lyon marched a force of 6,000 men to occupy Jefferson City, the state capital, and a small battle followed in Boonville. Regrouping near Springfield, the rebels formed an opposing army and a shadow government. The Confederacy soon granted them a star on the flag as well as seats in Congress. On August 10, 1861, they repulsed Lyon in the Battle of Wilson's Creek. He perished in the attack. Each side suffered more than 1,200 casualties. A month later, Confederates marched northward to capture a garrison at Lexington. For years, guerrilla warfare raged across the state.

  General John C. Frémont arrived in St. Louis to assume command of the Western Department. A former Republican candidate for president, he issued what has been called “the first Emancipation Proclamation.” Beginning on August 30, 1861, he placed the entire state of Missouri under martial law. Then, he ordered anyone captured under arms behind Union lines to be court-martialed and shot. Moreover, he decreed that the property of Missouri rebels would be seized and that their slaves would be freed by the military. Ostensibly, the ramifications extended beyond his command and antagonized proslavery Unionists. To squelch a national debate about abolition, Lincoln ordered him to modify his proclamation. Frémont refused to obey. On November 1, the commander-in-chief fired him.

  General Henry Halleck took command of federal forces in the newly created Department of Missouri, which included parts of Kentucky. That fall, Confederate troops occupied several towns in the state. They were opposed by General Ulysses S. Grant, whose Illinois regiments entered Kentucky at the invitation of the legislature. At the mouths of the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, Grant occupied Paducah and Southland. He struck rebels on the Missouri side of the Mississippi River at Belmont. Though divided in allegiance, Kentucky remained in the Union because of Grant's actions.

  Figure 7.2 The U.S. Civil War

  Next, Halleck authorized Grant to move into Tennessee. He attacked Fort Henry, which fell on February 6, 1862. A week later, he marched 27,000 bluecoats against the trenches at Fort Donelson, while the gunboats of Flag Officer Andrew Foote blasted the earthworks. Caught in a trap, Confederates tried to break out by assaulting Grant's right wing on February 15. Grant calmly regrouped in the snow and ordered counterattacks all along the line. After rebel officers requested terms of surrender, he replied: “No terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted.” A few weeks after the fall of Fort Donelson, Confederates evacuated Nashville, Tennessee. In exultation, northern newspapers heralded Grant with the nickname “Unconditional Surrender.”

  That spring, Confederate forces seemed unable to counter the Union strategy. Just over the state line in Arkansas, Missouri rebels joined with other Confederates – including regiments of Cherokee and Creek Indians – to assail federal troops on March 6. Union regiments under General Samuel R. Curtis defeated the graybacks during the two-day Battle of Pea Ridge. In New Mexico, Texas Confederates faltered during the Battle of Glorieta Pass from March 26 to March 28. Of the 3,700 rebels seeking to capture the gold mines of the Colorado Territory and possibly California, only 2,000 survived the disastrous retreat to Texas. Trapped by General John Pope's columns on the Mississippi River, Confederates at Island Number 10 finally surrendered on April 8. With Union forces in control of the waterway from St. Louis to Memphis, Halleck's command was renamed the Department of the Mississippi for the drive southward.

  General Albert Sidney Johnston, Confederate commander of the Western Department, established a defensive line with over 40,000 men at Corinth, Mississippi, where two key railroads intersected. Because the trunk line constituted the backbone of the Confederacy, Davis sent Beauregard westward to reinforce Johnston. They quietly planned a counteroffensive against Grant's Army of West Tennessee, which prepared to link with General Don Carlos Buell's Army of the Ohio on the Tennessee River. Their only chance at reversing Confederate fortunes involved a surprise attack on the bluecoats at Pittsburg Landing, 22 miles north of Corinth.

  On the morning of April 6, 1862, around 33,000 Union soldiers bivouacked in the woods around Shiloh Church near Pittsburg Landing. One of Grant's divisions under General William T. Sherman took almost no defensive precautions. Catching them unprepared, Johnston's army pushed through several clearings and a peach orchard before midday. Along an old sunken road, the federals courageously defended the “Hornets' Nest,” into which the rebels charged repeatedly. Confederate cannons hammered the thin blue line, but General Benjamin Prentiss' division held the salient for hours. When Johnston died that afternoon, Beauregard took command of the rebel advance. Union infantry, artillery, and gunboat fire on the left flank hurled back Confederate troops attempting to cross the Dill Creek terrain. Arriving that evening, General Lew Wallace's division reinforced the Union regiments holding the heights. As the remainder of Buell's troops reached Pittsburg Landing, the fighting paused after nightfall.

  While a thunderstorm struck overnight, the armies of blue and gray remained in the field. In a heavy downpour, Sherman asked his commander: “Well, Grant, we've had the devil's own day, haven't we?” With a puff of his cigar and a flash of lightning, Grant replied calmly: “Yes. Lick 'em in the morning, though.”

  Grant's command surged to 55,000 troops before dawn, which Beauregard's graybacks did not anticipate. Beginning at 6 a.m., the Confederates attacked the Union dispositions but were driven backward. In the muck, dying men crawled to “Bloody Pond” for their last drink of water. With nearly every yard of the battlefield covered in corpses, Beauregard withdrew the remnants of his fatigued army to Corinth. The men in blue at one point surrounded General Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate cavalry officer on horseback. He escaped capture by grabbing a Union soldier, throwing him across his back, and using him as a human shield during his flight to safety.

  The Battle of Shiloh was a bloodbath, although the worst was yet to come. In two days of fighting, Confederate and Union casualties numbered 10,699 and 13,047, respectively. Spreading rumors about Grant's drinking, Halleck reassigned him to “deputy commander” and took direct command of his troops. By May 30, Halleck had seized Corinth, but Beauregard slipped away once more.

  The Confederates suffered more stunning defeats on the Mississippi River. On April 24, Admiral David G. Farragut steered the Gulf Expeditionary Force past the guns of New Orleans. After sailors and marines went ashore, federal regiments commanded by General Benjamin Butler occupied the city. Next, Farragut sent ships to capture Baton Rouge and Natchez. By June 6, Memphis had surrendered to another Union flotilla. Along the Mississippi, only Vicksburg remained as a major stronghold for the Confederacy.

  The string of military victories foreshadowed the Union strategy for Confederate defeat. In long campaigns punctuated by sharp engagements, feder
al forces tightened the naval blockade and penetrated the defensive cordon. As the tempo of operations quickened, the Civil War seemed all but over.

  Lee Takes Command

  While McClellan recovered from typhoid, all remained quiet along the Potomac River. His contempt for the commander-in-chief did not auger well for conducting simultaneous, coordinated operations against the Confederacy. Lincoln issued General War Order 1, which designated February 22, 1862, as “the day for a general movement of all the land and naval forces of the United States against the insurgent forces.” After months of training, the Army of the Potomac finally began an offensive along the Chesapeake Bay.

  Another delay occurred, because of the arrival of a Confederate ironclad near Hampton Roads, Virginia. Rebuilt from the hull of a burned-out steamship previously christened the Merrimack, the armor-plated Virginia attacked Union warships on March 8. Using a ram to sink wooden vessels, she destroyed two and ran three more aground. The next morning, she was blocked by the U.S.S. Monitor, which the Navy built according to an ingenious design for ironclads by Swedish inventor John Ericsson. With only two Dahlgren guns stationed inside a rotating turret upon the armored deck, observers called the mobile craft “a tin can on a shingle.” The Monitor and the Virginia engaged in a 3-hour battle – the first clash between ironclads in history. The shots of the latter bounced off the turret and the deck of the former. The spectacular contest ended in a tactical draw, but the blockade held. Union ironclads played key roles in virtually all subsequent naval operations.

  A few days later, Lincoln relieved McClellan as general-in-chief to enable him to personally command operations against the Confederate capital. McClellan directed a seaborne move to the tip of the peninsula formed by the York and James Rivers. His ships ferried approximately 100,000 soldiers as well as large numbers of horses, wagons, and cannons to Fortress Monroe. His objective, Richmond, was 75 miles inland.

  The Lincoln administration grew alarmed about Confederate forces operating in northern Virginia. In the Shenandoah Valley, “Stonewall” Jackson attacked a federal division on March 23. Recruiting from the countryside, his strength grew to 17,000 with additional reinforcements over the next month. He fended off a federal division under General Nathaniel Banks to the north as well as scattered troops under Frémont to the west. In a futile effort to trap Jackson in the valley, McDowell's corps of bluecoats abandoned a planned overland thrust toward Richmond. Utilizing geography and mobility in a diversionary campaign, Jackson's “foot cavalry” marched 350 miles while winning four battles against three separate armies with superior numbers. He summarized the outcome to a colleague: “General, he who does not see the hand of God in this is blind, sir, blind!”

  McClellan seemed blinded by the theatrics of General John B. Magruder, who defended Yorktown with 15,000 Confederates until May 3. After a brief delay, federals reached Williamsburg and took Norfolk. Union gunboats on the James River confronted Confederate artillery at Drewry's Bluff, while McClellan's army straddled the Chickahominy River 6 miles from Richmond. The Confederate Congress fled, but heavy rains and muddy roads slowed the Union advance. Citing intelligence reports by Allan Pinkerton's agents, McClellan wrongly presumed that the graybacks outnumbered the bluecoats.

  With McClellan protecting his supply base at White House Landing, Johnston hurled Richmond's defenders against the Union lines in the Battle of Seven Pines. Beginning on May 31, nearly 42,000 men on each side clashed in the woods, sloughs, and swamps. After the initial assault, the federals held their ground and repulsed the rebels. The former suffered 5,000 casualties, but the latter lost 6,000. Johnston was severely wounded on the first day of fighting, prompting Davis to replace him with Lee.

  Figure 7.3 General Robert E. Lee, 1864. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

  Lee took command of Confederate forces that he named the Army of Northern Virginia. Called the “King of Spades” by his troops, he directly oversaw the substantial strengthening of Richmond's defenses. The entrenchments enabled him to secure the capital with fewer men while taking the initiative against McClellan. Expecting his foe to remain cautious, the new commander ordered Jackson back from the Shenandoah Valley with all possible speed. He also dispatched General J. E. B. Stuart on a cavalry reconnaissance of the field. Boldly dividing his forces, Lee launched a series of attacks on June 26. During the Seven Days Battles, engagements occurred at Mechanicsville, Gaines Mill, Savage Station, and Frayser's Farm. With his interior lines cut, McClellan shifted his supply base to Harrison's Landing on the south side of the peninsula. His troops backpedaled at every turn. At Malvern Hill, Confederate infantry stubbornly assaulted Union artillery along the crest. By July 1, Lee absorbed 20,441 casualties – nearly one-quarter of his army – while McClellan lost 15,849. Thanks to a costly offensive, Lee saved Richmond.

  On July 11, 1862, Lincoln appointed Halleck to the vacant post of general-in-chief. While the Army of the Potomac outnumbered the Army of Northern Virginia, McClellan pleaded with Halleck to send reinforcements and demonstrated, as one of his subordinates suggested, either “cowardice or treason.” Frustrated by McClellan's floundering, Halleck ordered a withdrawal of Union troops from the peninsula.

  Meanwhile, Pope was summoned from the Mississippi River to command the newly formed Union Army of Virginia. After a sharp engagement at Cedar Mountain, the bluecoats awaited the arrival of the Army of the Potomac to strengthen their thrust southward against Richmond. While Lee sparred with Pope near the Rappahannock River, Jackson traveled over 50 miles in two days to strike a federal supply depot at Manassas.

  On August 29, the entire Army of Northern Virginia converged on Pope's columns in the Second Battle of Bull Run. The blue-clad soldiers actually outnumbered their attackers, who took them by surprise. Short on ammunition, the rebels occasionally threw rocks at the federals. The fighting raged for days, but Confederate divisions under General James Longstreet smashed the Union left. Embarrassed in the field, Pope withdrew back to Washington D.C. Confederates inflicted 14,500 casualties on the Union but lost 9,500 men in action. Afterward, Halleck dissolved the Army of Virginia and reassigned its regiments to the Army of the Potomac.

  Sensing the weakness of his enemy, Lee marched the Army of Northern Virginia across the Potomac River into Maryland. “I am aware that the movement is attended with much risk,” he wrote to Davis, “yet I do not consider success impossible and shall endeavor to guard it from loss.” Close to 50,000 rebels briefly encamped at Frederick, Maryland, on September 7, when Lee divided his forces. He intended to draw the federals away from Washington D.C. and to defeat them with superior tactics. He not only expected to win the “border state” for the Confederacy but also hoped to win diplomatic recognition from Great Britain and France.

  Under McClellan's command, the Army of the Potomac moved into Maryland with 80,000 soldiers. After entering the abandoned Confederate campsite at Frederick, a Union corporal found a copy of Lee's Special Order 191 wrapped around three cigars. Holding the “lost orders” of his rival, McClellan stated: “Here is a paper with which if I cannot whip Bobby Lee I will be willing to go home.” Accordingly, he learned that Lee had dispatched three columns to Harpers Ferry while leading three divisions through South Mountain. The rebels headed for Hagerstown, Maryland, as Stuart's cavalry screened the right flank. With the Confederate divisions 20 miles apart from each other, the Army of the Potomac stood ready to overpower them.

  Inexplicably, McClellan tarried for 18 hours before taking action against Lee at South Mountain. On September 14, a day-long battle raged at Fox's Gap and at Turner's Gap. The rebels counted 2,700 casualties compared with the federals' 1,800. On the brink of annihilation, Lee prepared to order a full retreat into Virginia.

  Once Jackson returned from Harpers Ferry, Lee marched 38,000 men to Sharpsburg, Maryland, and waited for McClellan to act. East of the town, Lee's troops occupied a low ridge stretching north and south for nearly 4 miles. With the Potomac River to their backs,
their lines formed behind Antietam Creek. Pausing along the creek bank, the Union I and XII Corps under Generals Joseph Hooker and Joseph Mansfield prepared to assault the Confederate left held by Jackson. Also, the IX Corps under General Ambrose Burnside approached a stone bridge on the Confederate right to confront Longstreet. Finally, three Union corps held in reserve anticipated smashing the Confederate center, where Lee commanded from a hilltop. McClellan and his staff devised a reasonable plan of action if executed with synchronicity, but the Battle of Antietam unfolded seriatim.

  Beginning at 6:00 a.m. on September 17, the federals moved forward to bludgeon the rebels. As Hooker's lines swept into the North Woods, Union artillery and musketry blasted Confederate infantry hiding in a 40-acre cornfield. The bluecoats scrambled through the West Woods to the edge of a whitewashed church, which belonged to a pacifist sect called the Dunkards. Three hours later, the graybacks counterattacked through the West Woods. Surging back and forth across the cornfield 15 times, the soldiers experienced “fighting madness” – a combat narcosis in which the flood of adrenalin turned them into preternatural killers beyond control. Men, horses, and arms fell upon the contested ground.

  Union divisions under General Edwin Sumner charged through the East Woods but veered into a sunken farm road known thereafter as “Bloody Lane.” The federal infantry enfiladed the natural trench and drove out the rebel defenders, running across a floor of dead bodies. With McClellan's forces exploiting a two-to-one advantage, Lee's lines began to break.