The Times Great Military Lives: Leadership and Courage – from Waterloo to the Falklands in Obituaries. Ian Brunskill
campaigns made in Virginia by various generals for the capture of the Confederate capital at Richmond, caused a popular demand that the young commander who had so distinguished himself in the west should be placed in charge of what was regarded as the chief theatre of the war. When Congress convened in December, 1863, the first measure passed was a resolution ordering a gold medal to be struck for Grant, and returning thanks to him and his army. His name was on every tongue, and preparatory to giving him control of all the armies, Congress in March, 1804, created the rank of Lieutenant-General of the Army, and President Lincoln immediately appointed him. When his appointment was announced he at once went to Washington, arriving March 9, and received his commission.
He was given entire control as Commander-in-Chief of all the campaigns against the Confederacy. Never before during the war had any general in the field commanded all the Union armies. All previous generals in Virginia had been trammelled and thwarted by the powers in Washington. This political interference was thenceforward to cease; and it did cease in reality, Grant during the remaining year of the war being an autocrat whose will was the supreme law in military affairs. He returned to the west, and at Nashville, March 17, issued his order taking command, announcing that his headquarters would be in the field and with the ‘Army of the Potomac.’ He had nearly 700,000 men in active service under him.
At Nashville, in connexion with General Sherman, he planned two campaigns, east and west of the mountains. Sherman was to operate against Johnston’s forces at Atlanta, Georgia; and Meade was to move against Lee at Richmond, the latter movement being supervised by General Grant in person. Returning to the east he got his troops in readiness to advance as soon as the opening of spring permitted. The movement against Richmond began May 3, 1864, Grant crossing the Rapidan river with the Army of the Potomac, and a few days later being reinforced by Burnside’s troops, who were brought from the west, so that he had a force of nearly 150,000 men. His object was to turn Lee’s right flank by pushing through the desolate region known as the ‘Wilderness,’ and thus to place the Union army between Lee’s forces and Richmond. This quickly resulted in a bloody contest, for Lee on the 4th of May learned Grant’s movement, immediately took the offensive, and marching eastward into the ‘Wilderness’ struck Grant’s advancing forces on the flank. The region was a difficult one to move in, being filled with scrub timber and in many places an impenetrable jungle. The battle began on the 5th and, each side being reinforced, was continued on the 6th.
The fighting was almost exclusively with musketry, the nature of the ground making artillery useless. Grant’s numbers were at all points superior to Lee’s, and though the two days’ contest was generally regarded as a drawn battle Grant had secured the roads by which Lee was to pass out of the ‘Wilderness’ towards the southward, and after a day’s rest was able to resume the march towards Richmond. On the night of May 7 the Union army was put in motion towards Spottsylvania, a few miles to the south-eastward, moving in two columns. The advance was slow and difficult, being obstructed at all points by felled trees and constant skirmishes on front and flanks. Lee had evidently anticipated Grant’s movement, for he was pushing forward by a parallel road, and his advance had reached and was intrenched at Spottsylvania before Grant’s advance came up. Lee got his entire force in position there during the 8th, facing north and east. Both armies strengthened their positions on the 9th, and on the 10th Grant made a succession of attacks, losing about 5,000 men and being repulsed, the enemy having comparatively but small loss.
The battle was renewed on the 11th and again on the 12th, when, before daybreak, General Hancock. stormed and captured Lee’s outer works with 4,000 prisoners. Lee, from his inner citadel, made five unsuccessful attempts to recapture this work. Grant in the meantime made repeated attacks upon Lee’s flanks, which were repulsed, and finding the enemy’s position practically unassailable, Grant during the next week gradually developed his left flank by withdrawing troops from the right under cover of the remainder of the army. By this movement Grant hoped to outflank the Confederates, but Lee discovered the process and made similar movements to meet it, moving at the same time on a somewhat shorter line. When, on May 23, the Union army arrived at the northern bank of the North Anna river the enemy were found posted on the southern bank. Hancock on the left, and Warren leading the Union right, crossed over, the latter being furiously assailed. Warren repulsed the assault with a loss of about 350, and took 1,000 prisoners. The Union flanks held their positions, but Lee prevented their centre from crossing, and Grant, seeing the danger of his position, determined to abandon it. On the night of May 26 the Union army was withdrawn and started by a wide circuit eastward and then southward towards the Pamunkey river, one of the affluents of the York river, Lee again making a similar movement by a shorter line. This series of ‘Battles of the Wilderness,’ continuing about three weeks, were the bloodiest of the war, Grant’s losses being 41,398, while no trustworthy report was made of Lee’s losses, which estimates place at 20,000.
It was during this series of battles that Grant sent the despatch to the Government containing the famous sentence: ‘I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer.’ After crossing the Pamunkey, Grant’s troops advanced to Cold Harbor, a few miles northward from Richmond, on the edge of the swamps of the Chickahominy region, where Lee’s forces were found intrenched in an impregnable position. Grant had got his army reinforced up to 150,000 men, while Lee had about 50,000. Grant determined to advance against the intrenchments, and in the grey, rainy dawn of June 3 the rush was made, the Union troops being, however, everywhere repulsed with heavy losses. A desultory contest was kept up during the day, but the attack was not renewed, Grant having lost 7,000 killed and wounded, the Confederate loss being less than half that number. For nearly two weeks the armies lay in position watching each other, when Grant made up his mind to abandon this plan of attack and to adopt a new one, by which Richmond, like Vicksburg, might be outflanked and taken from the rear.
These successive contests, which aggregated Union losses of about 55,000 men and Confederate losses of 32,000, showed the character of Grant’s military tactics. He knew that in the tottering condition of the Confederacy it must ultimately succumb to starvation and the waste of battle, and so long as men enough were given him to throw upon the enemy he would keep it up. The Government gave him everything he asked, and sent constant reinforcements to Virginia, which was then the principal theatre of the war. To prevent the Confederates from getting reinforcements, other detachments of Union troops were being advanced in the Shenandoah Valley and along the Kanawha, in West Virginia, while the Confederates west of the mountains were fully engaged in caring for Sherman’s advance to Atlanta. Grant had also hoped that General Butler, south of the James, might have captured Petersburg, so as to invest Richmond from the southern side. Butler had been foiled, however, and, crossing the James river in June, Grant personally began the siege of Petersburg.
The crossing of the James river, which was the beginning of the operations against Petersburg as directed by General Grant personally, was made upon June 12, 1864, and the army encamped at City Point, the junction of the Appomattox river with the James. Butler’s troops were at Bermuda Hundred, a peninsula formed by a bend of the James above City Point. Lee withdrew his forces into Richmond and took new positions east and south of the city, his force, with the men he found at Richmond, being about 70,000, while Grant had 100,000. Grant immediately began attacks upon the enemy’s position. On June 15 a corps of Butler’s forces made an unsuccessful assault, and on the 16th a combined attack was made by Hancock’s, Burnside’s, and Butler’s troops, which was repulsed with great slaughter. These preliminary engagements, Grant reported, had only the result that ‘the enemy was merely forced into an interior position,’ yet they cost the Union army the loss of 10,203 men. Grant then proceeded to invest Petersburg, which is about six miles south-west up the Appomattox from City Point, and the siege began on the 19th of June.
Lee, leaving about half his force at Richmond, went with the remainder to defend Petersburg, establishing strong lines around the town east, south, and south-west. Grant approached from the east, and on the 21st made a movement to seize the Weldon Railroad, which runs southward from the town. This attack, was repulsed, but Grant’s cavalry, about 8,000 strong, made an extensive raid through the country south and south-west of Petersburg for many miles, tearing up this and other railroads, so that Lee was reduced to sore straits for want of supplies. Thus matters rested during July, when Grant made a new plan. He sent a force across the James and up the eastern bank