1) How does Stephanie McCurry characterize the political views and new political identity that emerged among poor, white southern women?
2) In what ways did their appeals to the Confederate government differ from those of elite women?
3) According to Cashin, what role did family members and neighbors play in the problem of desertion among Union troops?
4) According to Cashin, what kind of resistance did provost marshals sometimes face when attempting to enforce the draft?
I. Changing nature of the war, ‘64-65
- From intermittent battles to constant campaigning
- By 1864, in many cases, battles are no longer discrete events
- Lengthy sieges; trench warfare
- Campaigns fought on multiple fronts; Union pursues a centralized military strategy
- Early ‘64: Grant put in charge of the entire Union Army
- New kind of warfare
- Massive armies cutting themselves off from supply lines
- Articulated strategy of destroying civilian morale
II. Ulysses S. Grant
- Grant’s new military strategy involved a simultaneous Union advance on at least five fronts at once
- The Army of the Potomac went after Lee’s army in the East; Sherman in the West would attack toward Atlanta
- Three further Union forces would attack other parts of the Confederacy.
- Lincoln approved: “concurrent action is the thing,” he reportedly said, “Those not skinning can hold a leg.”
III. William T. Sherman
- From a prominent Ohio family
- Father died when he was young
- Went gone to West Point
- Did not fight in the Mexican-American War
- Left Army and went into banking and law
- Spent much time living in the South
- Was head of the Louisiana Military Academy when the war broke out
- White supremacist
- Did not change his attitudes on racial difference over the course of the war
- High strung—in 1863 essentially has a nervous breakdown; goes home to recuperate
- Passionately committed to the Union
IV. Atlanta Campaign (May 7 – Sept 2, ’64)
- 3 month campaign
- Covered nearly 100 miles; men fought continuously
- Laid siege to Atlanta for 5 weeks
- Upon taking the town, Sherman expels the civilians still residing there
- He didn’t want to waste manpower garrisoning the town
- Outraged protest from Confederate General J.B. Hood and from civic leaders in Atlanta—see the correspondence you’ve been assigned to read (link on website)
Sept. 9, ’64, Confederate Gen. J.B. Hood writes this in regard to Sherman’s insistence on relocating the civilian population: “And now, sir, permit me to say that the unprecedented measure you propose transcends, in studied and ingenious cruelty, all acts ever before brought to my attention in the dark history of war. In the name of God and humanity I protest, believing that you will find that you are expelling from their homes and firesides the wives and children of a brave people.”
On September 11, Sherman writes to the Atlanta Mayor and two councilmen in respond to a similar protest: “I cannot discuss this subject with you fairly, because I cannot impart to you what I propose to do, but I assert that my military plans make it necessary for the inhabitants to go away, and I can only renew my offer of services to make their exodus in any direction as easy and comfortable as possible. You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty and you cannot refine it, and those who brought war into our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out. I know I had no hand in making this war, and I know I will make more sacrifices to-day than any of you to secure peace. But you cannot have peace and a division of our country.”
V. Major blows to the Confederacy
- As late of August ‘64, Confederacy still mounting defenses; North still despairing
- Impossible to underestimate the fall of Atlanta
- Remember it comes right before the election
- Chicago Tribune: “The dark days are over. We see our way out.”
- Northern troops start a fire as they leave Atlanta; a third of the city is destroyed
- Lincoln’s re-election another major blow to Confederates
- They had been banking on McClellan winning, and popular dissent in the North forcing a negotiated peace
- They had been banking on McClellan winning, and popular dissent in the North forcing a negotiated peace
VI. Sherman’s March to the Sea
- Began in Atlanta; ended in Savannah (November 15 to December 21, 1864)
- Defied military principles
- By operating deep within enemy territory
- By cutting loose from supply and communication lines; Army of 62,000 foraged and lived off the land
- Sherman consulted census records to determine which routes would best supply his troops
- Lincoln had been reluctant to give permission; refused to do so before the election
- Goal was as much psychological and military
- To demoralize civilians; show them the Confederate Army could not protect them
- Sherman’s men faced little resistance until reaching Savannah
- Pursued a “scorched earth policy,” leaving a trail of destruction
- Pulling up railroad tracks; burning food stores, etc.
- Remains hugely controversial to this day
- In fact, Sherman’s troops left even greater destruction in their wake after they left Georgia, as they made their way through South Carolina
VII. Sherman’s Special Field Orders, No. 120 (excerpts)
“Soldiers must not enter the dwellings of the inhabitants, or commit any trespass, but during a halt or a camp they may be permitted to gather turnips, apples, and other vegetables, and to drive in stock of their camp. To regular foraging parties must be instructed the gathering of provisions and forage at any distance from the road traveled.”
“To army corps commanders alone is entrusted the power to destroy mills, houses, cotton-gins, &c., and for them this general principle is laid down: In districts and neighborhoods where the army is unmolested no destruction of such property should be permitted; but should guerrillas or bushwhackers molest our march, or should the inhabitants burn bridges, obstruct roads, or otherwise manifest local hostility, then army commanders should order and enforce a devastation
“As for horses, mules, wagons, &c., belonging to the inhabitants, the cavalry and artillery may appropriate freely and without limit, discriminating, however, between the rich, who are usually hostile, and the poor or industrious, usually neutral or friendly. Foraging parties may also take mules or horses to replace the jaded animals of their trains, or to serve as pack-mules for the regiments or brigades. In all foraging, of whatever kind, the parties engaged will refrain from abusive or threatening language, and may, where the officer in command thinks proper, give written certificates of the facts, but no receipts, and they will endeavor to leave with each family a reasonable portion for their maintenance.”
VIII. Primary source: Children of Pride
- The diary entries that you are reading from December 13, 1864 through January 27, 1865 (includes the period when Savannah is taken)
- Written by two different women, a mother (Mary Jones) and a daughter (Mary Mallard)
- Mary Mallard had previously fled Atlanta to the family plantation, Montevideo, in Liberty County, Georgia
- What sense do the diaries give you of the women’s treatment by Union troops? How might the same events been narrated by the slaves?
IX. Sherman explains/defends his approach to Union Gen. Henry Halleck, December 24, 1864: “We are not only fighting armies, but a hostile people, and must make old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war, as well as their organized armies. I know that this recent movement of mine through Georgia has had a wonderful effect in this respect. Thousands who had been deceived by their lying papers into the belief that we were being whipped all the time, realized the truth, and have no appetite for a repetition of the same experience.”
X. Dénouement
- Lincoln delivers the Second Inaugural, March 4, 1865
- By this time, Lee’s army is down to 50,000; men are deserting at a rate of 10,000 a month
- End comes when Petersburg and then Richmond finally fall
- Surrender at Appomattox, April 9, 1865
- Grant allows the Confederate soldiers to return home with their arms and their horses
- Provides the Confederate troops with rations