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The coup might have succeeded but for the perseverance of a handful of citizens and soldiers, who gave immediate pursuit on foot, by handcar, and eventually on an engine (“The Texas”) running in reverse. All of the raiders were soon captured. Andrews and seven of his men were subsequently hanged in Atlanta.
Southern raiders soon gained a measure of revenge. In July, 1862, Col. John Hunt Morgan led his Confederate cavalrymen on a two-week slash through Kentucky. Morgan won four small battles, captured 1,200 Federals, and returned safely to Tennessee with less than 100 casualties. In December Morgan again struck into Kentucky. This “Christmas Raid” netted 1,900 prisoners and large quantities of horses and military stores.
Shortly after Morgan’s First Kentucky Raid, Gen. Bragg invaded the same state. Bragg hoped to occupy the chief cities and, by “military persuasion,” to bring Kentucky into the Confederacy. Yet caution eventually got the better of Bragg. He retreated, even after winning a tactical victory over Gen. Don C. Buell at Perryville on October 8. This invasion marked the end of Confederate efforts to wrest Kentucky from the Union.
Braxton Bragg is one of the most controversial generals of the Civil War. Although a devoted soldier and skillful organizer, he lacked that necessary spark of leadership.
William S. Rosecrans was a tireless, conscientious officer whom the men affectionately called “Old Rosy.”
Bragg returned to Tennessee. Gen. William S. Rosecrans, who had gained fame in two Mississippi campaigns, assumed command of the Federal army opposing Bragg. Then in November Grant started southward from Tennessee through Mississippi toward Vicksburg, the chief Confederate stronghold on the “Father of Waters.” Grant’s strategy called for a two-pronged attack: he and Gen. William T. Sherman would deliver simultaneous assaults on Vicksburg from different directions. The plan was a costly failure. Confederate cavalry under Gen. Earl Van Dorn destroyed Grant’s main supply base at Holly Springs. Grant was forced to fall back to Memphis. Sherman’s assaults on December 28-29 at Chickasaw Bayou were repulsed with heavy losses. Grant then moved his entire army down the Mississippi and prepared to take Vicksburg by attack or siege.
The final Western engagement of 1862 began on the last day of the year near Murfreesboro, Tenn. For the better part of four days Bragg’s Confederate army waged a desperate fight along the banks of Stone’s River with Rosecrans’s Federal forces. Tactically the battle was a draw. Yet the Federals lost 31% in killed, wounded, and missing, while the Confederates suffered 25% casualties.
1862 IN THE EASTFor seven months McClellan’s large army lay inactive around Washington. Finally Lincoln, his patience exhausted, ordered McClellan to advance into Virginia. McClellan dismissed the dangerous overland route to Richmond. Rather, he proposed to transport his forces by water to Fort Monroe. Thence he would advance westward on Richmond by way of the same peninsula where Butler had met defeat the preceding year. This was the framework of the Peninsular Campaign.
The creation of the Army of the Potomac was the work largely of George B. McClellan. In 1864 he ran unsuccessfully as Democratic candidate for President.
Lincoln finally agreed to the plan. To protect Washington, however, he ordered McDowell’s corps of 37,000 soldiers to remain in the Fredericksburg-Manassas area.
By April McClellan was on the Virginia peninsula with 105,000 men. In the meantime, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, commanding the Confederate forces in Virginia, had concentrated his small army on the peninsula between McClellan and Richmond. McClellan slowly advanced westward; Johnston, with only 60,000 men, had no choice but to fall back and fight delaying actions. Driving rains turned the country into a vast sea of mud. By the end of May McClellan’s army had reached Seven Pines. The spires of Richmond were visible, nine miles away.
But Seven Pines was as close as McClellan ever got to the Confederate capital. Johnston noticed that the Federal army had been divided into two parts by the flooded Chickahominy River. He then launched attacks against McClellan’s left (southern) flank. The muddy battles of Seven Pines and Fair Oaks (May 31-June 1) permanently halted McClellan’s advance. Johnston was seriously wounded in the fighting, and Gen. Robert E. Lee assumed command of the Confederate forces on the Peninsula.
Elsewhere in Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley, Gen. “Stonewall” Jackson was performing brilliantly in what became known as the Valley Campaign. Control of the Valley was vital to both sides. This narrow slit of land between two ranges of mountains is a direct avenue into both North and South. Neither side could move safely between the mountains and the seacoast unless the Valley’s northern door—the region around Winchester—was shut.
Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson was a man of both military genius and peculiar habits. Known as “Old Jack” to his men, he was probably one of the most devout soldiers of the war.
When McClellan moved up the Peninsula, Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks and another Federal army advanced southward into the Valley. Jackson had only 8,500 men at his command. Yet he was determined to hold Banks at Winchester and McDowell at Fredericksburg so as to prevent them from reinforcing McClellan. On March 23 Jackson attacked part of Banks’s army at Kernstown. The wily Confederate was repulsed, but his daring prevented Banks and McDowell from marching to the aid of McClellan.
Soon three separate Federal armies entered the Valley for the sole purpose of destroying Jackson. Reinforced by Gen. Richard S. Ewell’s division, Jackson and his “foot cavalry” then swung into high gear. The full impact of “Stonewall’s” successes in the Valley Campaign can be seen from statistics. Between March 22 and June 9 the Confederates marched 630 miles, fought 4 major battles and numerous skirmishes, defeated 3 Federal armies totaling over 60,000 troops, inflicted 7,000 casualties, and captured 10,000 muskets and 9 cannon. Jackson’s army, never exceeding 17,000 men, accomplished all this at a cost of 3 cannon and 3,100 casualties. And all the while, Jackson kept Washington under threat of attack.
After a week of rest, Jackson moved rapidly to Richmond to assist Lee in a new campaign against McClellan. By then Lee had verified that McClellan’s army was still dangerously astride the swollen Chickahominy. The Confederate commander obtained this information from his colorful cavalry chief, Gen. J. E. B. “Jeb” Stuart, who in mid-June boldly rode all the way around McClellan’s huge army. On the basis of Stuart’s report, Lee attacked McClellan’s exposed right flank north of the river in the first of a series of battles known as the Seven Days Campaign.
A full beard concealed the fact that “Jeb” Stuart at the time of the Peninsular Campaign was only twenty-nine years old.
On June 26 the Confederates launched their offensive at Mechanicsville, northeast of Richmond. They suffered defeat from Federal troops under Gen. FitzJohn Porter. Lee struck again on June 27 and finally broke the Federal lines at Gaines’s Mill after an all-day fight. McClellan then ordered his army to retire to Harrison’s Landing, the Federal supply base on the James River. Lee’s troops tried again and again to destroy the Federal army. But after hard fighting at Savage Station (June 29), Frayser’s Farm (June 30), White Oak Swamp (June 30), and Malvern Hill (July 1), McClellan safely reached Harrison’s Landing and the protection of a Federal river fleet. His dream of capturing Richmond had ended.
In a few weeks another Federal threat confronted Lee. Gen. John Pope moved overland from Washington with a newly formed army. His target was also Richmond. Lee shifted his army northward to block the advance. On August 9 Jackson checked Pope’s lead elements at Cedar Run, a few miles south of Culpeper. Then, while Pope warily eyed Lee’s main force, Jackson’s men swept around the Federal right flank and captured Pope’s all-important supply base at Manassas. An angry Pope turned around and started in pursuit of Jackson.
Pope soon found Jackson. But Gen. James Longstreet, commanding the other half of Lee’s army, found Pope. The August 28-30 campaign of Second Manassas—or Second Bull Run—resulted. As in the first battle in that area, the Federals met defeat. Pope managed to check a thrust by Lee at Chantilly (September 1), then retired to Washington.
Virginia was now clear of Federal forces. The time was ripe, Lee thought, to invade the North. Success might secure Maryland for the Confederacy and bring official recognition to the Southern nation from England and France. Then both foreign powers would send supplies, and possibly troops, to aid the Southern cause.
Lee’s grayclad regiments waded across the Potomac River on September 5, 1862. At Frederick, Md., Lee divided his army. Jackson marched southward to capture Harpers Ferry and keep the Valley avenue open, while Lee proceeded westward to Sharpsburg.
Harpers Ferry first gained prominence in history with John Brown’s 1859 raid. During the Civil War it was a key point in Eastern military operations.
Meanwhile, Lincoln assigned what was left of Pope’s force to McClellan and sent “Little Mac” in pursuit of the Confederate invaders. On September 14 McClellan fought his way through the passes of South Mountain, Maryland. The next day, as McClellan’s troops converged on Lee, Jackson seized Harpers Ferry. Jackson then hastened northward and rejoined Lee at Sharpsburg late on September 16.
Wednesday, September 17, produced the largest one-day bloodbath on American soil. From sunrise until dusk Federal units made repeated assaults on Lee’s lines. Had McClellan thrown his entire army against Lee’s position, the weight of numbers probably would have destroyed the Army of Northern Virginia. Instead, the Federal commander shifted his attacks from one sector to another. Casualties mounted frightfully in such areas as the East Wood, West Wood, Dunker Church, Sunken Road, and around Burnside’s Bridge. By nightfall Lee’s battered army still held its position. McClellan had lost 12,000 men, the Confederates 9,000.
The battle of Antietam Creek ended Lee’s invasion, and he retired to Virginia. Five days after the engagement, Lincoln issued his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. This document promised freedom to all slaves in Confederate-held territory after January 1, 1863. As such, it converted the war into a struggle for human freedom and deterred European nations from granting aid or recognition to the Confederacy. Many historians therefore maintain that Antietam Creek and its aftermath were the turning points of the Civil War.
For six weeks after Antietam, McClellan seemed to make little effort to resume the campaign against Lee. Lincoln tired of waiting; on November 5 he replaced McClellan with Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside.
Fredericksburg, viewed from Federal gun emplacements north of the city. The battle occurred on the heights in the left background.
“I am not competent to command such a large army,” Burnside stated. He demonstrated this truth in his one battle at the head of the Army of the Potomac. On December 13, a freezing Saturday, Burnside ordered six grand assaults against Lee’s entrenched army on the heights overlooking Fredericksburg, Va. The result was a useless slaughter, and a defeated Burnside wept over the killing and wounding of 10,000 of his men. Confederate losses were less than half that number.
A few weeks later Burnside attempted a secret march around Lee’s left (western) flank. The Federal army bogged down in winter mud and made barely a mile a day. This “Mud March” finished Burnside. He soon relinquished command to Gen. Joseph Hooker, a strong-willed officer known to the soldiers as “Fighting Joe.”
1863 IN THE WESTCavalry raids by both sides occupied the early months of this third year of conflict. One of the longest was that of Col. Benjamin H. Grierson and 17,000 Federal horsemen. Leaving La Grange, Tenn., in April, Grierson’s troopers wrecked railroads and supply depots all the way to Baton Rouge, La. The raid lasted two weeks and helped clear the way for Grant’s campaign against Vicksburg.
Two of the Confederacy’s celebrated cavalry leaders were Nathan Bedford Forrest and John Hunt Morgan.
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