1864] Cold Harbour. Grant's change of plan 519 Sheridan with energy and fought him with courage. The casualties were severe and probably equal - the Confederates suffering the heaviest loss, however, in their commander, General Stuart, who was mortally wounded six miles from Richmond on the 10th. Lee, having entrenched himself behind the North Anna on May 20, completely checkmated Grant's endeavour to dislodge him when the Federals crossed on the 23rd. Grant, however, skilfully drew back to the north side, and again moving by the left marched down thirty-two miles to Hanovertown, where his advance-guard crossed the Pamunkey on May 27. Thus far, the mere fighting and losses of the two armies gave no indications of decisive results, but other considerations pointed to the approaching end. Since Grant had double the numbers of his antagonist, Lee's loss was relatively much the more damaging. Besides, Lee had been compelled constantly to retreat. But the greatest difference lay in the augury which Grant drew from the spirit of the opposing forces. In his report of May 26 to Washington, announcing his intention to cross the Pamunkey at Hanovertown, he wrote: "Lee's army is really whipped. The prisoners we now take show it, and the action of his army shows it unmistakeably. A battle with them outside of entrenchments cannot be had. Our men feel that they have gained the moral over the enemy, and attack with confidence. I may be mistaken, but I feel that our success over Lee's army is already ensured." This success was not destined to come as soon as Grant evidently hoped. With almost continual fighting from the 27th, when he began crossing the Pamunkey, he pushed his army forward to Cold Harbour, which Sheridan's cavalry had seized on the 31st, and successfully held until reinforcements came up. Heavy assaults on June 1 and 2 carried some of the advanced Confederate entrenchments, and encouraged Grant to believe that he could break Lee's army by another frontal attack. It turned out to be an ill-advised and costly experiment. The assault was made at half past four o'clock on the morning of June 3, and though the heroic soldiers gained the first rifle pits, in a single hour 4000 veterans lay dead or wounded under the direct and cross fire of the well-prepared Confederate works, raising the total casualties for the first twelve days of June to near 10,000. Grant's official report frankly acknowledges the serious nature of the reverse. "It was the only general attack," he writes, "made from the Rapidan to the James which did not inflict upon the enemy losses to compensate for our own losses." From this point dates an entire change in Grant's plan of campaign. "I now find," he wrote to Washington on June 5, "after more than thirty days of trial, that the enemy deems it of the first importance to run no risks with the armies they now have. They act purely on the defensive, behind breastworks, or feebly on the offensive immediately in front of them, and where, in case of repulse, they can instantly retire behind them. Without a greater sacrifice of human life than I am 520 Lee's withdrawal. Sherman at Chattanooga [1864 willing to make, all cannot be accomplished that I had designed outside of the city (Richmond)." He still kept up a threatening front toward Lee's army, pushing reconnaissances, throwing up breast works, and making preparations to cross the Chickahominy and White Oak Swamp, all to create the belief that he intended to advance by the left toward Richmond. These were, however, only the operations preliminary to transporting his army safely over the fifty miles of distance that lay between Cold Harbour and City Point, near Butler's camp on the James river. Difficult as was the nature of the ground, the design was successfully accomplished during the following week. On the evening of June 12, the army began withdrawing from Cold Harbour. Between the afternoon and midnight of the 14th, a bridge 3580 feet long was laid across the James river, and by midnight of the 16th the whole army was on the south side of the stream, in immediate junction with that of Butler, the two forming a total aggregate of about 150,000, while Lee with his army, numbering about 70,000, withdrew into the defences of Richmond. Before the Unionist troops had yet begun to cross the river, Grant was already with General Butler at Bermuda Hundred, directing the movements which were to begin the combined siege of Petersburg and Richmond. (2) THE CAPTURE OF ATLANTA In the West the main military operation during the year 1864 was preceded by two minor campaigns, the Red river expedition under General Banks, and Sherman's expedition against Meridian, Mississippi. The former proved not only a complete failure, but a considerable disaster, which however, apart from the mere loss of men and material, was devoid of any serious consequences to the Unionist cause. The latter succeeded in accomplishing its main object, the destruction of about one hundred miles of the several railroads which centre at Meridian, thus making the whole railroad system of the State of Mississippi practically useless to the Confederates. This left but a single great north and south railroad system in operation between the Alleghany Mountains and the seaboard; and along that route, from Chattanooga to Savannah, followed the principal and decisive Western campaign of 1864. Pursuant to the plan agreed upon between Grant and Sherman, the latter had by the beginning of May assembled at Chattanooga the three principal Western armies, that of the Cumberland under Thomas, that of the Tennessee under McPherson, that of the Ohio under Schofield, embracing altogether nearly 100,000 men with 254 guns. They were the flower of the Western soldiers, seasoned men commanded by officers of sound judgment and tried courage. Appreciating the magnitude of his task, Sherman had prepared them for their perilous march with 1864] Sherman's march on Atlanta 521 every precaution of equipment and supply, and rigidly reduced to a minimum their baggage and impedimenta. His memoirs explain his purpose to convert all parts of his army "into a mobile machine willing and able to start at a minute's notice, and to subsist on the scantiest food." To reach the city of Atlanta, his first objective, he had both to protect the single line of railroad behind him that brought his daily supply of food from Nashville to Chattanooga, and to seize the line before him through the forty-mile belt of the Alleghany Mountains, in which, immediately in front of him at Dalton, lay the Confederate army, now commanded by General Johnston, 50,000 strong. The march was promptly begun on May 5, the day following that on which Grant started from the Wilderness toward Richmond. Sherman had the advantage of double numbers; Johnston the advantage of a defensive campaign, in which however he could only execute a highly skilful retreat from impregnable mountain defences, prepared with great foresight and carried out by the almost unlimited supply of slave labour with which military authority and enthusiastic local sentiment furnished him. Sherman's progress, therefore, was a succession of strong frontal demonstrations combined with flank movements to threaten the Confederate rear. Under this continued pressure Johnston retreated from Dalton to Resaca, from Resaca to Marietta, from Marietta to the Chattahoochee river, and thence to the defences of Atlanta. Continued reconnaissances and heavy skirmishes attended the Confederate retirement and Unionist advance, and frequently grew into serious battles. Sherman says that during the month of May, across nearly 100 miles of as difficult country as was ever fought over by civilised armies, the fighting was continuous, almost daily, among trees and bushes, on ground where one could rarely see a hundred yards ahead. Once only he tried the costly experiment of a direct attack. On June 27 occurred the assault on Kenesaw Mountain, north of Marietta, in which Sherman's attempt to break through the Confederate front was repulsed with a loss of 2500. While Johnston's defensive retreat excited the professional admiration of his antagonist, it gave rise to deep disappointment and severe displeasure on the part of the Confederate government. On July 18, as Sherman was approaching Atlanta, the command of the Confederate army was taken from Johnston and given to one of his corps-commanders, J. B. Hood, who had severely criticised his superior's strategy. Resolved on an immediate change of policy, Hood at once took the offensive, and by vigorous attacks on the 20th and the 22nd, attempted to break through Sherman's lines. The effort however resulted in a complete repulse; and the new Confederate commander suffered another serious disaster in a sortie planned and ordered by him on July 28. For several weeks more the besieged and besieging armies watched and felt each other with unrelaxing vigilance. On August 12 Sherman 522 Capture of Atlanta; its results [1864 and his army were cheered by the inspiriting news of the capture of Mobile Bay by the Union fleet under Farragut. Toward the end of the month the general, becoming impatient, once more moved by the right flank and seized the Macon railroad at Jonesborough, twenty-five miles directly south of Atlanta, defeating a Confederate detachment sent by Hood to oppose the movement. This success rendered the Confederate position so insecure that Sherman began to hear rumours of their retreat; and on September 3 he was able to telegraph to Washington," Atlanta is ours, and fairly won." Hood had evacuated the city on the 1st and taken a new position at Lovejoy's Station, south of Jonesborough. The four months of mingled siege and battle had caused a Federal loss of 31,000, the Confederate loss being estimated at 35,000. The capture of Atlanta by Sherman was a severe disaster to the Confederates. The city was one of their great military depôts, full of foundries and workshops for the manufacture and repair of arms and material of war; and its fall was a convincing proof to the people of Georgia that the strength of the Secessionist movement was on the wane. By the opening of the Mississippi in the previous year, the immense resources at first drawn from the great region west of that stream, in cattle, provisions, and recruits were cut off. This new Unionist line, which was being drawn through the centre of Georgia, threatened to sever from Richmond the supplies and military help of the two States of Alabama and Mississippi. What was more serious still, this severance might completely alienate the already shaken public sentiment of that State from its adherence to the Confederate government and cause. The conduct of Governor Brown in criticising and disobeying the orders of his superiors was approaching open contumacy. His official order a few days later withdrew from the Confederate service the Georgia State militia which he had organised for the defence of Atlanta. Several prominent citizens came in to Sherman's camp, and in conversation acknowledged the madness of further resistance, and reported that the Confederate Vice-president, Stephens, entertained similar feelings. Jefferson Davis came on a tour of speech-making into South Carolina and Georgia, in which he severely censured both Governor Brown and General Johnston for their alleged shortcomings in bringing about the defeat of the South. General Sherman sent kindly messages to both Stephens and Brown, but did not succeed in his effort to draw them into a confidential interview. In the North, the fall of Atlanta had a powerful political effect. It ensured to the Republican party a great success in the October elections, and changed the candidature of President Lincoln from apprehensive uncertainty to a magnificent triumph. 1864] Sherman's plan. Thomas in Tennessee 523 (3) THE DEFENCE OF TENNESSEE With the view of making Atlanta a strong and purely military post, capable of being defended by a small garrison, Sherman ordered the removal of all its inhabitants, sending them north or south as they chose, and arranging a temporary truce for the purpose. Contracting his lines, and making his fortification impregnable, he remained here a month, collecting supplies for his army, and preparing for the next stage of the campaign, the course of which was for a time undecided. Sherman's doubts were however solved by the Confederates. Jefferson Davis personally visited Hood in his camp toward the end of September; and it was agreed between them that, in order to relieve the situation in Georgia, Hood should make an aggressive movement into Tennessee. For a month or more the two armies played a somewhat blind game, the Confederates endeavouring to attack and destroy, the Federals to defend and reconstruct the railroad and support their garrisons at various points between Nashville and Atlanta. Eventually Sherman formed the conclusion that, instead of losing a thousand men a month in merely defending the road and gaining no further result, the wiser course would be to divide his army, to send back part of it for the defence of Tennessee, to abandon the whole line of railroad from Chattanooga to Atlanta, and, taking the offensive, to march with the remainder to the sea, and "make the interior of Georgia feel the weight of war." He sent a number of tentative suggestions of this kind to Washington, but not until November 2 did he receive from General Grant the distinct permission to go on as he proposed. It is agreed that, after Grant and Sherman, the ablest commander who had won his spurs in the West was George H. Thomas. This officer held important commands in the Army of the Cumberland with signal success, from the first battle at Mill Spring, Kentucky, in January, 1862, to the battle of Chickamauga, where his resolute heroism saved the day; and he had distinguished himself throughout the stubborn campaign which led to the capture of Atlanta. With full confidence in the courage and sagacity here displayed under his own eyes, Sherman, as soon as Atlanta had been made safe, sent Thomas back to Chattanooga to supervise military operations in Tennessee, instructing him, after his own army had been formed, to collect a force at Nashville, made up partly from his own troops and partly from recruits and reinforcements from the North, in order to meet and defeat the projected Confederate invasion under Hood. That commander's movement unfolded itself toward the end of September, when he abandoned his position at Lovejoy's Station on the Macon railroad, in order to take up another to the west, on the |