The American Military - A Narrative History

by Brad D. Lookingbill

  The labyrinth of trenches did not hinder the coal miners from the 48th Pennsylvania Regiment, who dug a shaft under Confederate defenses and filled it with 4 tons of gunpowder. On July 30, the explosion left a crater measuring 170 feet long, 60 feet wide, and 30 feet deep. Instead of filtering around the gaping hole, Union troops charged directly into it. After the smoke cleared, Confederate artillery and infantry began shooting at them like “fish in a barrel.” The Battle of the Crater was “the saddest affair” Grant ever witnessed, but the siege continued.

  The Red River campaign ground to a halt in 1864, as the Union Army of the Gulf failed to eliminate the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department of General Kirby Smith. Banks moved 27,000 bluecoats upriver with the aid of Porter's ironclads, but the graybacks confronted them at Sabine Crossroads, Mansfield, and Pleasant Hill that spring. With Union troops retreating downriver to escape harassment, the Confederates retained control of Texas, northern Louisiana, and southern Arkansas.

  Meanwhile, the Union navy tightened the blockade of southern ports. Although rebels challenged the quarantine, imposing warships intercepted blockade runners from Nassau to Cape Fear. In Charleston Harbor, a submarine named the Hunley sank the U.S.S. Housatonic on February 17, 1864. However, the explosion also sank the innovative craft and its nine crewmen. A Confederate cruiser named the Alabama prowled from Singapore to Newfoundland, but the U.S.S. Kearsarge sank the commerce raider in the English Channel on June 19. On August 5, Farragut navigated 18 Union vessels past Confederate underwater mines in Mobile Bay. Suffering from vertigo, the admiral ordered the crew to strap him to the rigging of his flagship. “Damn the torpedoes,” he bellowed, while signaling to his officers: “Full speed ahead!” The Union navy steamed forward, defeating the Confederate fleet and securing the Gulf Coast.

  That summer, Lee sent General Jubal Early with 14,000 rebels on a desperate raid across the Potomac River. In addition to striking towns in Maryland and Pennsylvania, Early reached the outskirts of Washington D.C. Grant placed Sheridan in command of the Department and Army of the Shenandoah and provided him with 45,000 men to stop the raiders. While scorching the Confederate “breadbasket” in the Shenandoah Valley, Sheridan also destroyed two-thirds of Early's forces at Winchester and Fisher's Hill. The federals staggered at Cedar Creek on October 18, but Early arrived too late. The next day, Sheridan galloped forward on his black horse and shouted at his men to “come up to the front.” When the counterattack ended at nightfall, Confederate soldiers vanished from “the valley of death.”

  Sherman commanded 100,000 soldiers in a campaign against the Confederates north of Atlanta, Georgia. He maneuvered past Dalton, Resaca, Cassville, Allatoona, and Dallas but directed a costly assault at Kennesaw Mountain on June 27. No Confederate grasped the military situation better than Forrest, whose cavalry wreaked havoc on Sherman's supply lines. “War means fighting,” he repeated to fellow southerners, and “fighting means killing.” However, the federals outflanked the rebels at the Chattahoochee River.

  Davis sacked Johnston for retreating and replaced him with General John Bell Hood. Having lost an arm at Gettysburg and a leg at Chickamauga, Hood was strapped to a horse while leading a Confederate counteroffensive. At Peachtree Creek, General James B. McPherson, who commanded the Army of the Tennessee, became the highest-ranking Union officer killed in action. By late July, the rebels had lost about 15,000 of their 40,000 troops in three battles. Sherman maneuvered around Atlanta and severed the rail lines, which forced Hood to evacuate the city on September 1.

  The fall of Atlanta coincided with the presidential election cycle of 1864. The Democratic Party nominated McClellan, who gave many southerners hope that the defeat of Lincoln would bring peace. Attempting to turn northern voters against the “Union Party,” General Sterling Price led 12,000 rebels on a forlorn raid across Missouri. Thanks to the ballots of soldiers and civilians, Lincoln's successful re-election signaled doom for the Confederacy.

  With the blessings of the commander-in-chief, Sherman struck Georgia with the “hard hand of war.” Nearly one-third of Atlanta burned, as Union troops departed for the coast on November 15. Numbering 62,000, they marched 285 miles in four parallel columns of infantry with the cavalry weaving from one flank to the other. Known as the “March to the Sea,” they advanced with impunity. Foraging parties confiscated crops and livestock, destroyed railroads and mills, and torched plantations and warehouses. Thousands of slaves fell in line, while bands of stragglers and deserters known as “bummers” looted in the rear. After reaching Savannah, Sherman telegraphed Lincoln with news about capturing the city as “a Christmas gift.”

  Hoping to bait Sherman into reversing course, Hood steered 39,000 Confederates through Alabama and drove into Tennessee. Instead, Sherman sent Thomas to greet him with 60,000 federals. At Franklin, Tennessee, two Union corps under General John M. Schofield cut the rebels to pieces across 2 miles of open terrain. On November 30, the Battle of Franklin produced 6,300 casualties for the South – three times greater than the number for the North. Refusing to retire, Hood reached Union defenses at Nashville. Thomas launched an attack, which began on December 15. While a Union division hit the Confederate line on the right, nearly 40,000 men hammered the left for two days. Thomas's cavalry fired seven-shot Spencer carbines, as the infantry crushed Hood's flank. The Union lost no more than 3,000 men but killed, wounded, and captured 7,000 Confederates in the Battle of Nashville. The remnants of Hood's command streamed toward Tupelo, Mississippi, that winter.

  As a new year began, Sherman pushed northward into South Carolina. In one of the greatest logistical feats of the age, his columns advanced 10 miles a day for 45 days under heavy rainfall and across swollen rivers. While burning dozens of cities and towns along the way, they ravaged civilian as well as military property in the “hell-hole of secession.” They rolled into North Carolina and seized Wilmington, the Confederacy's last available port. Johnston pulled together a Confederate force of 21,000 men to annoy two Union wings at Bentonville, North Carolina. A major battle ensued on March 19, 1865, but Sherman resumed the march toward Virginia a few days later.

  Amid rumors of Confederate plots to assassinate or to abduct him, Lincoln delivered his second inaugural address in Washington D.C. In only 700 words, he endowed “this mighty scourge of war” with transcendent meaning. Weary but resolute, the commander-in-chief placed the bloodshed in the context of divine judgment. Sensing that the end was near, he urged the Union “to finish the work” with “malice toward none.”

  The work of the Union focused on a 38-mile siege line at Petersburg, where the rebel cause was nothing if not lost. After a long, cold winter, the Army of Northern Virginia dwindled to less than 35,000 troops in early 1865. Nevertheless, they remained on the defensive and seemed likely to fight to the last man. The Confederate Congress appointed Lee as general-in-chief of all Confederate armies, which he attempted to replenish by enlisting slaves into the depleted ranks. Across the trenches, he gazed upon the Union juggernaut of 101,000 infantrymen, 14,700 cavalrymen, and 9,000 artillerymen.

  In late March, Lee ordered a night raid against Fort Stedman, a Union bastion at Petersburg. Ready to begin a spring offensive, Grant responded with a counterattack that inflicted thousands of enemy casualties. By April 1, Union infantry and cavalry flanked the Confederate right. At Five Forks, Sheridan routed a division under Pickett and took 4,500 prisoners. The next day, the Army of the Potomac assaulted the weakened center. With deserters heading home in droves, Lee's command abandoned Richmond. A few days later, Union soldiers took control of the burning capital. Escaping to Georgia, Davis avoided capture for another month.

  With Sheridan's cavalry in hot pursuit, the Army of Northern Virginia fled westward. At Sayler's Creek, bluecoats captured 7,000 graybacks. Furthermore, they captured trainloads of rations at Appomattox Station, 100 miles west of Petersburg. Demoralized by attrition, the starving rebels were encircled by federal forces. Although one of his officers suggested dash
ing into the woods to fight as guerrillas, Lee decided to surrender.

  On April 9, the surrender occurred in Wilmer McLean's home at Appomattox Court House. Lee appeared resplendent in full dress uniform with an engraved sword at his side. In contrast, Grant arrived for the parlay wearing a faded campaign blouse and mud-spattered boots. After shaking hands, they agreed to simple terms. Despite Lincoln's assassination five days later, Confederate holdouts across the South surrendered in subsequent weeks.

  Conclusion

  Americans assumed in 1861 that the Civil War amounted to a limited conflict between the sections, but the four years of military campaigning proved them wrong. Unable to resolve their ideological differences over the future of slavery, the North and the South engaged in a revolutionary struggle. The opposing sides experimented in the organization of their armed forces, which largely depended upon the infantry. Commanders moved the artillery behind the lines and downplayed the role of the cavalry on the flanks. Consistent with Jominian doctrines, Union and Confederate armies stood up and marched forward. Troops charged through battlegrounds while firing their rifled muskets. From crossroad towns to rolling hills, they resorted to improvised defenses wherever their maneuvers halted. In spite of early disappointments, federal columns later ravaged rebel dispositions and broke down desultory resistance. The Navy choked southern ports with a blockade, as Grant's operations pressed Lee's residuals into submission. Across a war-torn nation, attritional combat yielded massive destruction in addition to immeasurable suffering.

  The magnitude of the Civil War defied comprehension, although the numbers told part of the story. According to one estimate, the short-term cost to the U.S. was $6.5 billion. After calculating the long-term liabilities such as pensions and borrowing, the figure exceeded $20 billion. Northern wealth increased by 50 percent within a decade, but southern wealth decreased by 60 percent. Millions of slaves won freedom from the heinous institution that the slaveholders made, even if their struggle continued. Out of a nation with some 34 million people, approximately 3,867,500 Americans wore uniforms of blue and gray. In other words, over 11 percent of the U.S. population served in the military. While Union and Confederate armies resorted to conscription, the vast majority of the service members volunteered for duty. The clash of arms occurred in more than 10,000 places and produced roughly a million casualties. In fact, almost 50,000 returned home missing at least one limb from amputation. On one side, 360,000 federals lost their lives. On the other, 260,000 rebels died. In sum, as many as 620,000 Americans perished.

  Americans survived the effects of “total war,” that is, an enormous contest with an unlimited objective that required not only winning the battles but also crushing the enemy. Even though resources alone did not determine the outcome, the Union completely destroyed the Confederacy. The southern system of black chattel slavery ceased to exist, while the northern states transformed Dixieland into an inferno. With the advent of industrial supremacy, technologies such as locomotives, telegraphs, balloons, steamships, torpedoes, and photography redefined armed conflict. As military operations expanded in scale and in scope, individuals slaughtered each other without knowing who fired the deadly shot. The increasing harshness and cruelty of military power instilled a passion for killing that made warfare, as one soldier put it, “simply murder.” The killing became distant, mechanical, and impersonal, although the victors chose not to execute the vanquished in the end. Whatever the audacity of the generals, the rebellion did not match the strength of Washington D.C.

  Nothing else in the American experience approached the agony caused by the rebellion, which left the nation unprepared to deal with the challenges of the reconstruction era. Imbued with the myth of a lost cause, a multitude of southerners explained and justified their defeat by pointing to forces beyond their control. Likewise, the spiritual language of northerners insinuated that the bloodshed and the sacrifice achieved a higher purpose. A distinctly new holiday, Decoration Day – later named Memorial Day – served to commemorate the deceased service members of all the armies and navies. Even before Grant achieved his goal of unconditional surrender, Congress authorized the establishment of “a final resting place” for American warriors scattered near and far. As an act of vengeance, the Quartermaster Department turned Lee's plantation along the Potomac River into Arlington National Cemetery. At the center of an old rose garden, they built a tomb and buried the bones of more than a thousand anonymous soldiers.

  Essential Questions

  1 What strengths and weaknesses did each side possess at the start of the Civil War?

  2 How did the military objectives of the Union evolve over time?

  3 In what ways did Grant's winning strategy differ substantially from Lee's losing one?

  Suggested Readings

  Cullen, Jim. The Civil War in Popular Culture: A Reusable Past. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1995.

  Faust, Drew Gilpin. This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War. New York: Knopf, 2008.

  Glatthaar, Joseph T. Forged in Battle: The Civil War Alliance of Black Soldiers and White Officers. New York: Free Press, 1990.

  Goss, Thomas J. The War within the Union High Command: Politics and Generalship during the Civil War. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2003.

  Griffith, Paddy. Battle Tactics of the Civil War. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989.

  Grimsley, Mark. The American Civil War: The Emergence of Total Warfare. Lexington, MA: D. C. Heath, 1996.

  Hagerman, Edward. The American Civil War and the Origins of Modern Warfare. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988.

  Hess, Earl. The Rifle Musket in Civil War Combat: Reality and Myth. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2008.

  Joiner, Gary D. Mr. Lincoln's Brown Water Navy. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007.

  Leonard, Elizabeth. All the Daring of a Soldier: Women of the Civil War Armies. New York: W. W. Norton, 1999.

  Linderman, Gerald F. Embattled Courage: The Experience of Combat in the American Civil War. New York: Free Press, 1987.

  Mackey, Robert R. The Uncivil War: Irregular Warfare in the Upper South, 1861–1865. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2004.

  Manning, Chandra. What This Cruel War Was Over: Soldiers, Slavery, and the Civil War. New York: Knopf, 2007.

  McFeely, William S. Grant: A Biography. New York: W. W. Norton, 2002.

  McPherson, James. For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.

  McPherson, James, and James K. Hogue. Ordeal by Fire: The Civil War and Reconstruction. 4th edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010.

  Mindell, David A. Iron Coffin: War, Technology, and Experience aboard the U.S.S. Monitor. Revised edition. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010.

  Royster, Charles. The Destructive War: William Tecumseh Sherman, Stonewall Jackson, and the Americans. New York: Knopf, 1991.

  Stoker, Donald. The Grand Design: Strategy and the U.S. Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.

  Taaffe, Stephen R. Commanding the Army of the Potomac. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2006.

  Thomas, Emory. Robert E. Lee: A Biography. New York: W. W. Norton, 1995.

  Wiley, Bell Irvin. The Life of Johnny Reb: The Common Soldier of the Confederacy. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1943.

  Wiley, Bell Irvin. The Life of Billy Yank: The Common Soldier of the Union. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1952.

  Wilson, Edmund. Patriotic Gore: Studies in the Literature of the American Civil War. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1962.

  Witt, John Fabian. Lincoln's Code: The Laws of War in American History. New York: Free Press, 2012.

  Woodworth, Steven E. Jefferson Davis and His Generals: The Failure of Confederate Command in the West. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1990.

  8

  Twilight of the Indian Wars (1865–1890)

  Introduction

  The Chiricahua Apache saw m
any visions of the end. One revealed a thin cloud of blue smoke wafting through a canyon stronghold. As it filtered into a cave, thousands of uniformed soldiers emerged from the smoke. A Chiricahua called Goyahkla, who was also known as Geronimo, never forgot the vision. “The sun rises and shines for a while,” he mused, “and then it goes down, sinking out of sight – and it is lost.” He explained: “So it will be with the Indians.”

  It all came to pass for Geronimo's band of Chiricahua, who fled from an Army camp during the summer of 1886. They included 18 warriors, 13 women, and six children. Immediately, the War Department launched a campaign with 5,000 regulars – almost one-quarter of the entire Army. In addition, several hundred Indian scouts accompanied the bluecoats. As fear and loathing spread along the border, thousands of Mexican soldiers marched across Chihuahua and Sonora. After Geronimo's band reached a lair deep in the Sierra Madre Mountains, the troops unsuccessfully scoured the area for four months.

  To find Geronimo's band, two Apache scouts, Kayitah and Martine, conducted a secret mission. The former was related to a band member, whereas the latter was once a follower of Juh, a deceased ally of Geronimo. Soon, they picked up the trail and followed it for three days. As they approached the mountaintop, Kayitah's relative invited both to meet with Geronimo. “The troops are coming after you from all directions, from all over the United States,” Kayitah warned his kinsmen, “so I want you to go down with me when the troops come, and they want to come down on the flats and have a council.”