Glory Road -- A Union After Action Report

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[font="times new roman"]Harper’s Monthly, Late April 1864[/b]   Glorious news reaches us from the west, where General Grant’s Army of the Cumberland has taken the formidable Confederate citadel of Vicksburg, thus clearing the middle Mississippi of the last major Confederate fortification.  Now, only Natchez and Baton Rouge remain in Rebel hands amongst the cities of the Mississippi.  Many Confederates were taken prisoner at Vicksburg, including the garrison commander General A.P. Stewart, and 5 of his subordinates.[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]From Florida, we have learned that a large division under General Isaac Stevens has landed near Pensacola, and seized that key harbor.  It is believed General Stevens’ forces will soon join with Porter’s Army of the Gulf in its campaign against Mobile.[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]Finally, wild rumors are circulating that there has been a major evacuation of troops from the Rebel capital of Richmond.  According to these unconfirmed reports, the bulk of the Confederate army has slipped out of the Richmond defensive works, passed to the far southeast near Norfolk, before heading into North Carolina, attempting to regroup in that area.  If true, then it is possible that very soon, Federal forces may break into Richmond, unseat the Confederate Congress, and hang the traitor Jefferson Davis.[/font]

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The fall of Vicksburg, April 1864

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April 1864 -- with Sherman's wholesale overrun of Georgia, the Confederacy is torn asunder

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[font="times new roman"]Harper’s Monthly, Early May 1864[/b]   Federal armies continue to advance on all fronts.  Leaving Logan’s XXV Corps behind in Vicksburg, Grant moves the body of the Army of the Cumberland back to Jackson, re-concentrating his forces for a southward push towards New Orleans.  Lyon’s IV Corps is sent ahead to seize Natchez and clear the way.  In Georgia, Porter’s Army of the Gulf moves to destroy the remnants of Braxton Bragg’s rebel army, with the cavalry of Albert Lee advancing into Alabama to cut off any route of escape across the Chattahoochee River for Bragg’ surrounded Confederates.  Meanwhile, General Sherman assaults Savannah, where a small rebel army under Robert E. Lee is trapped with its back against the sea.  Sherman uses the XIV Corps of Thomas and the XIII Corps of Steele, along with over 200 guns and Sheridan’s cavalry, for the attack, while sending the corps of Buford and J.J. Reynolds to Augusta, where they are to prepare for an advance into South Carolina.[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]In Virginia, Hooker sends two full corps of cavalry on a massive raid into North Carolina, where they cause immense destruction to Confederate property, destroy two regiments of Confederate troops, and kill General Albert Perrin, who was attempting to organize a defense.  However, this move was but a prelude to Hooker’s main event, a massive assault on the Confederate works at Petersburg from his positions to the south.  It is believed the Confederate works are weaker in this area, and with the recent evacuations of Rebel troops, it is hoped the line can finally be broken.[/font]

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[font="times new roman"]Harper’s Monthly, Late May 1864[/b]   Surely when the history of this great Civil War is written, the month of May, 1864 will be remembered in its annals as the most glorious of the war.  The feats of arms performed by Federal armies this month will be remembered until time itself comes to an end.  It is a story of triumph after triumph, and the breaking of the back of the Rebellion for once and for all.[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]The great events of the month began auspiciously in the small backwater of Shreveport, Louisiana, where the 10,000 man strong force of General Mahlon Manson continued its nearly 2 years of success in backwoods campaigning against the Rebels in the trans-Mississippi.  Manson seized Shreveport, and cleared the area of Confederates all the way to the Texas border.  [/font]
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[font="times new roman"]Across the Mississippi in Natchez, the IV Corps of General Lyon routed Confederate defenders under Joseph Finegan, and sent them reeling all the way to the fortifications of New Orleans.  Finegan was gravely wounded in the fight, and afforded the finest care from Union surgeons, who removed both of his legs in order that his life might be spared.  [/font]
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[font="times new roman"]Further to the east, General Porter’s Army of the Gulf trapped and destroyed a small Confederate army under Braxton Bragg.  With their route of retreat into Alabama cut off by Union cavalry, Bragg and his entire army surrendered to Porter’s men.  This fight marks the end of organized Confederate resistance in central Georgia.[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]In southern Georgia, General Sherman’s army, supported by a large Union naval fleet, assaulted the key Confederate port of Savannah, defended by a small army under Robert E. Lee.  Lee’s men put up a good fight, true to his reputation as a fine commander of men.  In the end, the weight of Sherman’s numbers and shells from the Navy prevailed, and Savannah was captured.  Refusing to personally surrender, Lee and a few thousand die-hards made good their escape through the swamps north of the city, and are said to be trying to re-form some kind of organized force near Port Royal.  Ironically, readers will remember that Port Royal was a scene of great triumph for Lee in December 1862.  The fortunes of war have certainly changed for this renowned Confederate leader.[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]Hooker’s massive Army of the Potomac attacked the Confederate works south of Petersburg.  The attack, led by the men of General John Foster’s division of General John Sedgwick’s VI Corps, was targeted on a supposed weak spot in Confederate lines.  However, the Confederates resisted stiffly, even though they were short of minie balls, shot and shell, and soon they filled the breach with the bodies of their dead companions.  Seeing Foster’s assault faltering, General Sedgwick rode to the front of the Union lines to personally inspire his men in the attack.  When cautioned by his staff that Rebel snipers were active in the area, Sedgwick dismissed the threat, stating that ‘They couldn’t hit an elephant from this distance!’  Ironically, those were Sedgwick’s last words, as seconds later, a Confederate minie ball struck him directly in the eye, killing him instantly.  Enraged at the death of their beloved ‘Uncle John’, the entire VI Corps surged forward, without any orders, and engaged the Rebels up and down the line in the most brutal fighting of the war.  In support of the VI Corps, General Winfield S. Hancock ordered his entire Corps to support the charge with a charge of their own on the right of the VI Corps men.  Hancock, spotting a Confederate flag being waved defiantly on the Rebel works, instructed the men of the 1st Minnesota regiment to take the colors.  They charged gallantly, with the rest of II Corps hot on their heels.  The spontaneous mass charge of the VI and II Corps broke the Rebel lines, and soon the entire Army of the Potomac had driven the Confederates from their fortifications, occupying Petersburg and sending the surviving Rebels fleeing to Richmond.  A small group of retreating Rebels broke out of the pocket before George Sykes could bring his XII Corps up to close a gap, and thus were able to escape to Norfolk, where scattered Confederate detachments are said to be attempting to rally and re-form.[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]With the fall of Petersburg, the fate of the Rebel capital of Richmond is now all but sealed, and with it, likely the Confederacy itself.  Excitement runs through the ranks of the men of the Federal armies now on all fronts, as they feel that soon, their long journey through the fire and brimstone of war may soon be at a close, and they may yet live to tell the tale.[/font]

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The destruction of Braxton Bragg's Army

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The Fall of Petersburg to the Army of the Potomac

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[font="times new roman"]Harper’s Monthly, Early June 1864[/b]    No offensive action is reported by Federal forces this month, who instead consolidate their massive gains of last month, and concentrate for strategic blows to fall in July.[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]The four main armies re-form and re-supply in several key regions.  Grant’s Army of the Cumberland concentrates in Natchez, Mississippi, for a final campaign to take Baton Rouge and New Orleans.  In Auburn, Alabama, Porter’s Army of the Gulf is now poised to strike at Montgomery, the first Confederate capital.  Sherman takes his Army of the Tennessee north to Augusta, Georgia, ready to strike at Charleston and Columbia, South Carolina.  It is expected that these two cities will be harshly treated by Sherman’s veteran campaigners, as they are viewed as the very cradle of secession and therefore responsible for the terrible destruction this Civil War has wrought.  Finally, in Petersburg, General Hooker’s Army of the Potomac readies for the final push into Richmond, with a secondary column poised to take Norfolk.  On all fronts, the final, decisive action is expected to occur very soon.[/font]

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[font="times new roman"]Harper’s Monthly, Early July 1864[/b]   After last month’s pause, Union forces are on the move once again.  In Louisiana, Grant sends Hurlbut’s XVI Corps to overrun Baton Rouge, capturing that Confederate outpost, and clearing the Mississippi of the last Rebel resistance, save that of New Orleans.  The remainder of Grant’s Army assaults New Orleans from the landward side, and what could be the last significant battle in the West is about to occur. [/font]
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[font="times new roman"]In central Alabama, Porter’s Army of the Gulf is on the move.  The cavalry division of General Bussey seizes the state capital at Birmingham, while the main body of the Army of the Gulf overruns Montgomery.  John Reynolds, now commanding the XXI Corps after recovering from his wounds, quickly advances his men across the Alabama River and seizes Selma, and his advance guard is reportedly approaching Mobile.  Porter dispatches Slocum’s XVII Corps on ahead of his main force, where they clear the banks of the Alabama River throughout nearly to the Gulf, with Slocum’s headquarters occupying the town of Andalusia.[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]In Georgia, General Sherman is not yet satisfied with preparations for his move into South Carolina, and continues to hold his forces on the Georgia side of the border for now.  General Sheridan’s Cavalry Corps scouts across the river, and reports that it is likely Rebel resistance will be light.  Word comes from Atlanta that General Butler has moved his theater headquarters from Nashville to there, occupying one of the few districts that survived the burning of that town, so he can better supervise the final campaigns in the deep South.[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]In Virginia, the long awaited moment for the final attack on Richmond by the Army of the Potomac has come.  General Hooker has set the entire Army of the Potomac in motion to take the city, with General Winfield Scott Hancock’s II Corps given the honor of leading the federal advance, making it likely they will be the first Union troops to enter the Rebel capital.  In order to tie up any possible Rebel reinforcements, Hooker orders the cavalry of Pleasonton and Buford to continue to raid into North Carolina.[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]News from the world of politics this month includes the fact that the Democratic party has decided to nominate Ohio politician Clement Vallandigham for President to oppose Lincoln in the fall election.  Vallandigham’s platform calls for a curtailment of the vastly expanded powers of the Presidency, the de-enlistment of the United States Colored Troops, a withdrawal of Federal forces from large areas of the South, and negotiations with the Confederacy to achieve ‘a peace without victory, a peace without bitterness’ that would allow the nation to reunify and restore the principles of State’s Rights, with the proviso that slavery is to be banned.  Vallandigham has been harshly critical of President Lincoln, often referring to him as a dictator, and accusing him of ‘shredding the Constitution in the name of national security, against a Confederate States that are no longer a threat.  In fact, in some speeches to his supporters, Vallandigham has suggested that the attack on Fort Sumter never really happened, and was just manufactured by Lincoln and his willing accomplices in the media in order to drag the North into war, a war from which Lincoln and his friends would garner great personal profit.  Given the success of the war effort, and the audacity of Vallandigham’s claims, most observers believe that the candidate is unlikely to fare well in the fall.  With battlefield successes everywhere, and the end of the war in sight, public sentiment in the North is very pro-Lincoln at the moment.[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]In fact, the environment is so pro-Lincoln that the President was re-nominated by the Republican convention in a unanimous vote on the first ballot.  For a time, it was rumored that supporters of General Don Carlos Buell were planning on placing his name in nomination, claiming that if Buell’s advice had been followed, the war would have ended long ago, and thus Buell, not Lincoln, was the right man to deliver a quick victory.  However, the Buell movement never gained much headway, and in the end, Lincoln left the Republican convention in triumph.  As his running mate, Lincoln named Senator Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, in a move widely interpreted as sending a message to Southerners that in defeat, there is the possibility of reconciliation.[/font]

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[font="times new roman"]Harper’s Monthly, Late July 1864[/b]    Glory, Glory, Hallelujah!!!  The capital of the Confederacy has fallen.  Early on the morning of July 27th, 1864, the lead Federal troops of the Army of the Potomac, General Hancock’s II Corps, entered the Confederate capital.  They hauled down the Rebel flags in front of the Confederate Congress and White House, and raised the unstained banner of the Stars and Stripes, which flies over Richmond for the first time in three years.  On this day of Jubilation, the Rebels were driven from their viper’s nest, and the survivors are now reported to be fleeing down the Peninsula towards Williamsburg, where they appear to be trapped by Federal forces advancing from Fort Monroe.  It is rumored that the traitor Jefferson Davis escaped only by donning women’s clothes, and fleeing with refugees.  Union cavalry in the region has been alerted, and Davis is expected to be captured soon.[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]Upon the fall their capital, a small force of Confederates launched a bitter reprisal attack in the Shenandoah Valley.  This force, under the command of General Hardee, surprised Union forces near Staunton, and forced a retreat.  It is likely that pure hunger, and a desire to avenge the fall of Richmond, motivated this operation.  We have received unsubstantiated reports of heinous atrocities committed by some of the Rebel forces, who upon capturing a regiment of United States Colored Troops, are alleged to have bayoneted nearly 300 prisoners to death.  If these reports be true, these men are no better than criminals, and must be hunted down like dogs.[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]In a second triumph this glorious July, General Grant’s Army forced the surrender of New Orleans and its entire contingent of Rebel defenders, including General Joseph Johnston, the commander of all Rebel forces in the Western Theater.  Riding into town on his war horse, the nondescript Grant proceeded to the waterfront, where he greeted Admiral Porter, whose fleet of monitors had been pounding the city for months.  In a telegram to President Lincoln in Washington, Grant reported that with the capture of New Orleans, the Mississippi now flows ‘unvexed to the sea’.[/font]

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The surrender of New Orleans, July 1864

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[font="times new roman"]Harper’s Monthly, Early August 1864[/b]   As the war in the Deep South enters its final stages, Federal units are busy with new attacks and redeployments.  General Grant leads the Corps of Logan and Lyon up to Jackson, MS, where they will prepare to clear the last Rebel remnants from Eastern Mississippi.  President Lincoln orders General Porter and his headquarters west across the Mississippi, where he is reinforced and charged with clearing the last Confederates from Texas.  Porter makes his temporary headquarters in Monroe, LA, while awaiting the forces he has been assigned to assemble.  In Georgia, General Sherman’s Army advances into South Carolina, overrunning Aiken, and is poised to strike at both Charleston and Columbia next month.  Meanwhile, in Virginia, Hooker leaves Sykes XII Corps to garrison Richmond, while moving the rest of the Army of the Potomac to the vicinity of Gordonsville, from where he can either deal with the Confederates under Hardee in the Valley, or move south into the Carolinas. Union reinforcements are also rushed to the Shenandoah Valley near Winchester, to blunt any further attacks by Rebel forces further north.[/font]

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[font="times new roman"]Harper’s Monthly, Late August 1864[/b]    The remaining rebels in Virginia launch two desperate attacks to regain Lynchburg and Petersburg.  Forces from General Hooker’s Army of the Potomac react aggressively, reinforcing both Union garrisons, and the Confederate attacks are beaten back with heavy casualties.  Elsewhere, the Confederates are quiet, as little in the way of Rebel field forces seem to remain.[/font]

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[font="times new roman"]Harper’s Monthly, Early September 1864[/b]    General Grant’s Army of the Cumberland strikes from Jackson, Mississippi towards Confederate positions near Meridian, Mississippi.  Elsewhere in the country, there is little activity outside of reorganization and garrison duty.  Federal commanders and their men are becoming more cautious, as indicators become more frequent of an imminent Confederate surrender.  No man wants to be the last to die for his cause, and no commander wants to risk the wrath of the men by ordering what are viewed as unnecessary assaults at this point.[/font]

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[font="times new roman"]Harper’s Monthly, Late September 1864[/b]   As we wrote in our last issue, no man wants to be among the last to die for his country and cause.  However, the gallant Union General Nathaniel Lyon has unfortunately become one of those men.  Lyon, longtime commander of the IV Corps of the Army of the Cumberland, was slain by Confederate fire during an unexpectedly bloody engagement near Meridian, Mississippi, where Grant’s Army outslugged stubborn Confederate forces under Mansfield Lovell.  The loss of the brave Lyon will be deeply felt by the men of this army, who now have the Rebel stronghold of Mobile in their sights.[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]On other fronts, Rebel resistance is undergoing a resurgence, perhaps in a last minute attempt to influence the outcome of the presidential election in favor of Vallandigham.[/font]
[font="times new roman"]A small Confederate army, no more than two divisions in size, under James Longstreet descended from the Smoky Mountains without warning and captured the garrison of Knoxville.  Defending Union General Charles Hamilton was wounded while trying to restore order to a panicked withdrawal by the Union troops, who were mostly militia and rear echelon forces.  While these Rebel attacks pose a nuisance, and will require the redeployment of troops from other theaters to deal with, they do not represent a serious threat to the Federal war effort.  It is rather surprising that Rebel commanders, who have been loathe to attack for the first three years of the war, have in the last three months undertaken more offensive actions than we have ever seen from them before.  While some try to remain optimistic, most take this as a sign that making peace with the South will be difficult, and require a long and tiring period of occupation by Northern forces.[/font]
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