1865] The burning of Columbia 529 sons of that sturdy race which in two generations had changed the West from a wilderness to civilisation. Many of its soldiers were veterans serving a second term of enlistment, expert axe-men and river-men, who in the campaigns of Vicksburg, Chattanooga, Atlanta, and the march to the sea, had acquired a degree of practical experience, organisation and confidence, that made light of privations and reduced difficulty to commonplace. Compared with the new task, the march to the sea had been a pleasant autumn excursion. Here were swamps to be waded through waist-deep, bridges to be improvised over numberless headwater channels, hundreds of miles of corduroy roads to be laid, railroad tracks to be torn up and destroyed, and a daily and co-ordinate progress of ten or twelve miles to be maintained throughout. Sherman's memoirs dwell with pardonable pride on this midwinter journey of 425 miles in fifty days, in which the army crossed five navigable rivers, occupied three important cities, and ruined the whole railroad system of South Carolina. Repeating the strategy of his earlier march, Sherman threatened Augusta to the left and Charleston to the right, and passing between them united his army at Columbia, South Carolina, on February 16. The Mayor formally surrendered the place; but the Confederates, before leaving it, had piled a large quantity of cotton into a narrow line in the street, and set it on fire. Loose flakes of cotton, blown by the strong wind, set fire to neighbouring houses. For a while the Federal troops and the citizens laboured hopefully to prevent a spread of the flames; but the wind rose to a gale which continued the greater part of the night; and, spreading beyond control, the conflagration burned out the heart of the city. The charge that this was a deliberate act of vengeance has been distinctly disproved in a careful judicial investigation, by the mixed commission on American and British claims under the Treaty of Washington, as also by the orders of Sherman, and by his leaving a generous supply of provisions to feed the unfortunate sufferers. When Hardee evacuated Savannah, he had retreated to Charleston; and that city, whose defences had for four years withstood every bombardment, assault and engineering device of a powerful Federal fleet, had now in turn to be given up as a direct result of Sherman's occupation of Columbia. Here again the retreating Confederates burned the cotton warehouses; and a considerable part of Charleston went up in flames as a consequence. Still threatening right and left, Sherman reached Cheraw on March 3, and Fayetteville on March 12. Here he was able to open communication with General Terry, who had advanced from Fort Fisher to Wilmington. Here also he was able to free his army from the encumbrance of about 30,000 negroes who followed his march, sending them to Federal camps on the coast. Up to this time there had been practically no fighting; but Sherman now learned that General Johnston was once more in command of the Confederate forces, and was C. M. H. VII. 34 530 Sherman's return. -The Shenandoah valley [1864-5 collecting an army near Raleigh, North Carolina, made up of the retreating Confederate garrisons, several slender divisions of cavalry which had followed along the left flank of his army, and some scattered fragments of the army of Hood, which Thomas had routed at Nashville. Sherman estimated that they might perhaps number about 40,000, and, knowing his antagonist's ability, advanced towards Goldsborough with greater caution. In reality Johnston had only gathered a force of about 25,000, but with 14,000 of these he courageously attacked the flank of Slocum's wing at Averysborough and Bentonville, on March 16 and 19, bringing on sharp battles in which the Federals lost about 2100 men, and the Confederates about 2900. The Confederates were compelled to retreat; Sherman resumed his march on the 22nd, and on the 23rd rode into Goldsborough, effecting a complete junction with the army of Schofield, which had arrived two days before, thus raising the total Federal force to 90,000 men. The third giant stride of Sherman's army was finished; the entire Southern system of communications was broken up; the Confederate arsenal, dépôts, and military factories were in ruins; four months' supplies, on which Lee's army was dependent, were consumed or destroyed; and the whole Southern Confederacy proved to be a mere shell, destined in a few weeks to sudden and complete collapse. (5) THE FALL OF RICHMOND Throughout the whole war, the Shenandoah valley, or, as it is also called, the valley of Virginia, exercised, from the nature of its topographical situation, an important influence upon the military campaigns in Virginia. From the southern end of the valley the James river runs by a winding easterly course to Richmond and Hampton Roads; while the headwaters of the James interlock with those of the Shenandoah river, which, running in a north-easterly direction, falls into the Potomac at Harper's Ferry, and gives the valley its name. The single mountain line of the Blue Ridge affords the valley a continuous eastern wall, and makes it a covered highway leading from the rear of Richmond to the rear of Washington. The valley has a fine turnpike running its entire length; and the well-kept farms that border it yield abundant harvests. It followed therefore that, because of the protection, the road, and the supplies, every campaign or movement of the contending armies east of the Blue Ridge necessitated some auxiliary or detached operation in the Shenandoah valley. Accordingly, when Grant set out on his march from the Wilderness to Richmond, he directed that a co-operating force, coming from the Kanawha and Shenandoah valleys, should move against Staunton and Lynchburg. But so early as the middle of May, 1864, Confederate 1864] Early threatens Washington, but retires 531 detachments had met and foiled this movement. A new expedition was thereupon organised, with a larger force, under General Hunter, with directions to destroy, if possible, the railroad between Charlottesville and Lynchburg. Hunter moved actively southward, won an important engagement at Piedmont on June 5, wrought considerable destruction to the railroads and miscellaneous military property, and pushed his advance up to the very fortifications of Lynchburg. But finding that Lee had detached Early with a large force against him, having exhausted his ammunition, and being 200 miles from his base, he was forced to retreat; and he committed the error of withdrawing towards the Ohio river by way of the Kanawha valley. It was about this time when Grant, having driven Lee's main army before him from the Wilderness to Richmond, had reached and crossed the James river, and was beginning his long siege of Petersburg and the Confederate capital. To relieve the pressure on his own front, Lee now gave permission to Early with 17,000 men to move northward through the Shenandoah valley, which Hunter's westward retreat had left open towards the Potomac, in order to threaten and possibly capture Washington City. Starting from Staunton on June 27, he reached Winchester on July 2. Unable to occupy Harper's Ferry because Unionist troops held Maryland Heights, he crossed the Potomac at Shepardstown and made a short circuit into Pennsylvania and Maryland, levying contributions in money and supplies on several towns through which he passed. Marching swiftly by way of Frederick he drove back Lew Wallace, who had hastened from Baltimore with a force of from 5000 to 6000 men to oppose him at the Monocacy river; and thence he moved rapidly upon Washington. On the morning of July 11 he was before Fort Stevens, immediately north of the Soldiers' Home, with the dome of the Capitol plainly in sight. It was not until Early had reached Maryland that the serious nature of the raid was understood; and troops were hurriedly despatched from Grant's army at Petersburg to insure the safety of Washington. While Early was carefully reconnoitring these strong defences on the afternoon of July 11, two divisions under command of General Wright landed from steamers at the Potomac wharf and marched up Seventh Street to Fort Stevens and the adjacent works, which had been hastily manned. The help, though coming late, arrived in time to save the Federal capital. The skirmishing which followed on the next day, July 12, was a mere blind to conceal Early's withdrawal, but was sufficiently serious to cause a loss of 280 of the city's defenders. Intense anxiety brought President Lincoln to the parapet of Fort Stevens; and only when a sharpshooter's bullet killed an officer standing within a few feet of him did he yield to those who begged him to retire from so dangerous a position. 532 Sheridan in the Shenandoah valley [1864 Having failed to surprise Washington, Early retreated to the Shenandoah valley, pursued by Wright. During the next two or three weeks, the somewhat confused orders of Grant at Richmond, Halleck at Washington, and Wright in the field, led to little result; but the Confederates made another raid into Pennsylvania, where, in default of a ransom of $500,000, McCausland, under Early's orders, burned the town of Chambersburg. Order came out of chaos when, on August 7, General Sheridan was placed in command of the newly-formed Middle Military Division, an army of between 30,000 and 40,000 men, with instructions to drive the enemy south, and to consume or destroy all the provisions, forage and stock - everything except buildings — in the Shenandoah valley, so that "nothing should be left to invite the enemy to return," and the valley should become "a barren waste." For a month longer Sheridan was occupied in bringing his detachments together, meeting Early's somewhat eccentric manœuvres, and watching for the opportune moment when Lee, pressed by Grant's operations, should recall part of the valley force to Richmond. The chance came about the middle of the month; and on September 19, 1864, Sheridan, advancing to the attack, fought the battle of Opequon, capturing 2000 prisoners and five guns, and driving Early's army from Winchester to Fisher's Hill. Here on the afternoon of September 22 he achieved a second victory, routing the whole Confederate line, and again capturing 60 guns and 1000 prisoners. Early retreated rapidly to Port Republic, where he met reinforcements coming to his assistance; Sheridan pursued as far as Harrisonburg; and for two weeks the opposing armies thus faced each other. Sheridan employed this interlude to devastate thoroughly the southern end of the Shenandoah valley, reporting that he had consumed or destroyed four herds of stock, 3000 sheep, 70 mills filled with flour and wheat, and over 2000 barns filled with grain and forage, making the whole country from the Blue Ridge to the North Mountain entirely untenable for the enemy. Finding, as all previous commanders, both Federal and Confederate, had found, that, while the valley offered great advantages for marching and fighting, so long as supplies were abundant, it was nevertheless a most difficult region to hold and defend, Sheridan retired northward during the first week of October, taking position behind Cedar creek, a short distance north of Fisher's Hill and Strasburg. Early, having been reinforced, immediately followed, and again took position at Fisher's Hill. Here he devised an ingenious plan for a secret march past the left flank of the Federal army on the night of October 18. Effecting a complete surprise, and attacking the Federal left and rear at dawn of October 19, the Confederates had the battle nearly their own way until noon, forcing back the Federal lines a distance of four miles. Sheridan had been absent at Washington, and was returning, when, at about nine o'clock, shortly after leaving Winchester, he heard the 1864] The siege of Petersburg 533 cannonade of the battle, and met fugitives and trains in confusion. and flight. Galloping forward with an escort of twenty men, his presence and contagious enthusiasm succeeded in arresting the flight, rallying the disorganised regiments and brigades, and turning the tide of battle. Thereupon the retreating Federal army took the aggressive, not only repulsing further attack, but changing the defeat of the forenoon into a brilliant Federal victory. At nightfall it was the Confederate army which in its turn was overwhelmed and beaten, having lost over 1000 prisoners and 24 Confederate guns, together with the 24 Federal guns it had taken in the morning. This victory at Cedar creek, added to the previous destruction of provisions and forage, practically eliminated the Shenandoah valley as a serious factor in the war. Detached Confederate raiding and further devastation by Federal troops went on for a while, but there were no more invasions or important battles in that region. While Sherman was making his great march from the West through Georgia and the Carolinas towards Virginia, and while Sigel, Hunter, and Sheridan, after many fluctuations between defeat and victory, were gaining control of the Shenandoah valley and rendering it untenable by the enemy's forces, Grant, with the Army of the Potomac, was steadily and patiently pushing forward the siege of Petersburg, twenty-two miles south of Richmond, upon which depended the fate of the Confederate capital and government. During the previous three years of the war two strong circles of fortifications had been built to defend Richmond on the Washington side. Since Grant brought the Army of the Potomac across the James river, the defences of Petersburg had been pushed forward by the Confederates, little by little, until, during the nine months of the siege which followed, the combined fortifications of Richmond and Petersburg stretched for a distance of about forty miles, extending in a circle from five miles north-west of Richmond to seven miles south-west of Petersburg. Grant, having failed to destroy Lee's army by hard marching and desperate fighting, now endeavoured, by cutting off its supplies, to force it either to capitulate or to abandon the two strongholds. Lee's supplies reached him partly from the north-west, but principally from the south and south-west of Richmond. The main task of the Federal army therefore was to seize the three railroads and two plank-roads centring at Petersburg. Grant pursued the policy, which his greatly superior numbers rendered possible, of threatening or attacking with his right wing north of the James, in order to compel Lee to withdraw forces from other points, and, by thus weakening his line, to enable Grant to push his investment westward. As a consequence there was kept up, throughout the remainder of the year, a double system of engineering and fighting, moves and counter-moves, assaults and repulses, both north and south of the James. This work went on somewhat languidly at times. Both armies had been greatly |