The American Civil War, day by day - Page 104 - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

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#15263933
February 5, Sunday

Even as the latest attempt at a negotiated peace has come to naught, the fighting in Virginia has been going on. The winter has been unusually harsh—rain and mud alternating with snow and ice—yet Grant dares not wait until spring to get his men on the move. His objective isn’t merely to take Petersburg and Richmond, but to destroy the Army of Northern Virginia. “I was afraid, every morning,” he will later admit, “that I would awake from my sleep to hear that Lee had gone, and that nothing was left but a picket line.” If Lee can escape into the western mountains, the war might go on for months.

One way to fix Lee in position is to keep him occupied; Grant therefore has scheduled an offensive operation to begin today. The move is also meant to continue the slow encirclement of Lee’s army, which has been Grant’s strategy for the past nine months, and of restricting even more the flow of supplies to the besieged Confederates. By the end of last October, the Federals had extended the left flank of their line to within three miles of Boydton Plank Road, about two miles west of the Weldon Railroad and ten miles southwest of Petersburg. The Confederates, desperate to shield the Southside Railroad—their last link to the West and South—have thrown up an additional seven miles of fortifications on a line that bends southwestward to Hatcher’s Run, then to the northwest, parallel to the stream and across the Boydton Plank Road. Grant believes that the Boydton road is being used heavily by enemy wagon trains carrying supplies north from the interrupted Weldon Railroad. He has sent Colonel J. Irvin Gregg’s cavalry division southwest to Dinwiddie Court House—on the plank road six miles southwest of the Confederate line—to intercept and destroy as much of the traffic as he can.

Following Grant’s directive, General Meade, commanding the Army of the Potomac, orders Major General Gouverneur K. Warren to place his V Corps a few miles east of Dinwiddie to support Gregg. And to prevent the Confederates from cutting off Gregg and V Corps, two divisions of Major General Andrew A. Humphrey’s II Corps move beyond the entrenched Federal left and threaten the Confederate line in the vicinity of Hatcher’s Run. The Federals use the Vaughn road, a thoroughfare that runs west from the Weldon Railroad to Dinwiddie Court House. Meade has no plans to involve his infantry, but Lee doesn’t know that. When he learns of the Federal movements, Lee fears for the safety of the Southside Railroad, which runs from Petersburg west to Lynchburg and connects with the Richmond & Danville to North Carolina. Lee has good reason to worry: A full-scale assault over the same ground in October was stopped only after savage fighting.

Today, in icy weather, the Federal infantry divisions reach their new positions and Gregg’s men gallop onto Boydton Plank Road. They find it virtually deserted. Grant has been misled by faulty intelligence, and Gregg captures only a few wagons and a handful of prisoners. Private James L. Bowen, from Massachusetts, will recall his regiment marching and countermarching for hours on the narrow, frozen roads. Then the word comes to dig in, and the men set to work constructing rifle pits. It is, Bowen will say, a task, “which they had acquired the faculty for doing with great rapidity.” Large trees are cut down, the trunks trimmed and rolled into place, while other squads in the detail very quickly throw against them an embankment of earth sufficient to resist even cannonshot. Then a “head-log” is put in position and the work is complete. All along the Federal line, thousands of men are doing the same.

Lee in the meantime has reinforced A.P. Hill’s corps on the right with two divisions from John Gordon’s corps, which is next in line. In midafternoon, divisions commanded by Major General Henry Heth and Brigadier General Clement A. Evans move south toward Hatcher’s Run, with instructions to engage the nearest Federals. For some time, the men of Brigadier General Thomas A. Smyth’s II Corps division has watched the Confederates forming in front of them as they hasten to complete their barricades. At 3:45 pm Confederate artillery breaks the stillness of the frigid woods, and as the shells crash into the Federal works, the battle lines of Heth and Evans advance. Evans drives straight ahead; Heth moves toward open ground to the right of the Federal line, hoping to flank Smyth and draw him out of his entrenchments. But the Confederates find their way blocked by a Federal brigade commanded by Colonel Robert D. McAllister, and after a sharp exchange, both Heth and Evans fall back to their own line.

Impressed by the enemy’s strength, the Federals concentrate along Hatcher’s Run, and Meade orders in substantial reinforcements: Brigadier General Frank Wheaton’s division from VI Corps and Brigadier General John F. Hartranft’s division from IX Corps.


In South Carolina there is skirmishing at Duncanville and Combahee Ferry, as Sherman’s four corps continue crossing the various streams and swamps of the southern part of the state. The hamlets of the southern part of South Carolina are the first to feel the fury of Sherman’s invasion. Hardeeville, just across the Savannah, was burned to the ground. it could not have been a very handsome place to begin with, remarks Sergeant Bull of New York, but “now it can hardly be described,” because there was not much of it left standing. Bull’s account of his regiment’s passage through the southern part of the state is a litany of destruction. Yesterday he camped on the ground of a fine plantation; the mansion house is still standing, but “completely wrecked.” Today he enters the village of Robertsville, “now consisting chiefly of chimneys and ash heaps.” A resident of the village, returning after the Union soldiers have passed through, finds “but one fence paling to indicate the site of our little village.” Sherman’s aggressive cavalry commander, General Kilpatrick, strikes Barnwell, a prosperous community of 400 that boasts several churches and public buildings, a women’s seminary, and a Masonic lodge. All are torched. The Federal soldiers grin as they march away, and tell each other that now the town will have to change its name from Barnwell to Burnwell. Kilpatrick never denies the rumor circulating in the army that he had filled his men’s saddlebags with matches in preparation for the campaign.


In addition, fighting occurs at Charles Town, West Virginia; Braddock’s Farm near Welaka, Florida; and near McMinnville, Tennessee.

President Lincoln hasn’t given up his plan for compensated emancipation. He reads to the Cabinet a proposal to pay $400,000,000 (2020 $6,593,927,813) to the slave states if they abandon resistance to the national authority before April 1st. One half would be paid upon the ending of hostilities and the remainder upon approval of the constitutional amendment abolishing slavery. But the Cabinet unanimously disapproves the measure which would never pass Congress.
#15263944
President Lincoln hasn’t given up his plan for compensated emancipation. He reads to the Cabinet a proposal to pay $400,000,000 (2020 $6,593,927,813) to the slave states if they abandon resistance to the national authority before April 1st. One half would be paid upon the ending of hostilities and the remainder upon approval of the constitutional amendment abolishing slavery. But the Cabinet unanimously disapproves the measure which would never pass Congress.

Lincoln was always the voice of moderation and compromise, even at this late stage of the Civil War. The one thing he would not compromise on was the integral unity of the United States as a single nation. It's ironic that the South took such fright from Lincoln's election that they broke away from the United States, when in fact they could easily have come to some compromise with him. He was, after all, never a Radical. Something similar to compensated emancipation could have been worked out, without a blood-soaked Civil War.
#15263954
Potemkin wrote:Lincoln was always the voice of moderation and compromise, even at this late stage of the Civil War. The one thing he would not compromise on was the integral unity of the United States as a single nation. It's ironic that the South took such fright from Lincoln's election that they broke away from the United States, when in fact they could easily have come to some compromise with him. He was, after all, never a Radical. Something similar to compensated emancipation could have been worked out, without a blood-soaked Civil War.

True in hindsight, but nobody expected a war so long or all-encompassing so the South didn't really see any reason to compromise. Besides, when he was elected Lincoln made it clear that he had no intention of moving against slavery in the states and it didn't matter, because he was also adamant about stopping the expansion of slavery beyond where it was ... and the slave states were already a minority, with the House lost to them and a balance maintained in the Senate only because of likeminded Northern senators--doughfaces (a term that originally was for an actual mask made of dough before being applied generally to people, especially politicians, perceived to be pliable and moldable then specifically to Northern politicians that supported Southern causes). Before the shooting started, to the Southern firebrands it looked like a great deal to gain with not much risk.

But yes, as the war went on Lincoln, though as happy to be able to shut down slavery as anyone, was increasingly out of step with the Republican hardliners when it came to how the South should be treated after the war. If he hadn't been assassinated, his second term would have been brutal (though probably not as bad as Johnson's (Lincoln both being a better politician and having greater "street cred" for winning the war). Ironically, he could well have ended up governing with a congressional coalition made up of Republican moderates and Democrats.
#15264053
February 6, Monday

At Hatcher’s Run, Virginia, the two armies have been watching each other since skirmishing yesterday. Finally, this afternoon General Warren ups the ante, sending the Federal divisions of Major Generals Samuel Crawford and Romeyn B. Ayres to probe northwest along Hatcher’s Run. Crawford leads, with the stream to his right and Gregg’s cavalry screening his left. The Federals advance into terrain ominously similar to the Wilderness battlefield last spring. The ground is a series of ridges with marshes in the low spots and thick stands of pines alternating with brush-choked hardwood scrub. The Federals haven’t gone far before Gregg’s cavalry is attacked near Gravelly Run by a brigade from General Pegram’s division. Two of Pegram’s other brigades advance from the northwest and strike Crawford southeast of Dabney’s Mill, a steam-powered lumber operation. The Federals stand fast and send Pegram’s men reeling back. Ayres’s division comes up to Crawford, but Lee is funneling in reinforcements faster than Warren can. Lee orders in a division commanded by General Joseph Finegan to support Pegram, and Evans’ arrival swells the Confederate force at Dabney’s Mill to three divisions.

The Federals facing them are suffering from extremes of inexperience and fatigue. Some regiments of draftees and bounty men stumble into combat for the first time at Dabney’s Mill, while others are too fought out to function effectively. Many of Crawford’s units are gravely short of ammunition and none has been brought up. When the men of Colonel Henry A. Morrow’s brigade falter, Morrow places himself at the front of the line, shouting for the soldiers to take heart and advance. Captain James Coey from New York rides up to join Morrow, seizing his regiment’s colors as he comes. With a cheer the Federals go forward again, only to encounter a water-filled ditch that is too wide to cross. Morrow’s ranks thin rapidly as his men exhaust their cartridge boxes and run to the rear. In desperation Morrow leads his men back to the edge of a grove, where he orders them to entrench and face the enemy with bayonets and shovels. But the pressure is too great. Coey falls, shot in the face; he regains consciousness and, despite his wound, tries vainly to rally his men. Morrow is also injured in the retreat.

The Confederates too show their vulnerability when Brigadier General Charles Griffin’s V Corps divisions counterattack their onrushing line. The Confederates break at the first volley, and leave the field “in great disorder.” During this charge, the final encounter of the day, the Confederates suffer a poignant loss. General Pegram is shot through the body near the heart. He is caught by Major Douglas as he falls from his horse and dies in the major’s arms almost as soon as he touches the ground.

This evening, the Confederates hastily throw up scant breastworks, and as night is fast approaching make brush shelters to protect themselves as much as possible from the rain, snow, and sleet; but no fires can be allowed in such close proximity to the enemy. During the evening the cooks bring to the men in the line of battle a small pone of bread each, the first morsel since early morning. The woods are covered “with long icicles hanging from the tree limbs,” which bend under the burden “like weeping willows,” and a cold north wind blows.


President Davis submits to Congress the report of the Confederate commissioners at Hampton Roads, and tells Senator Benjamin H. Hill that “Nothing less would be accepted than unconditional submission to the government and laws of the United States....” To Congress he tells of the amendment to the US Constitution abolishing slavery, and adds, “the enemy refused to enter into negotiation with the Confederate States, or with any one of them separately, or to give our people any other terms or guarantees than those which the conqueror may grant....”

This same day, Davis makes official two major changes that are intended to bolster his increasingly shaky tenure in office and to revitalize the Confederate war effort. With as much good grace as he can muster, considering that the Congress has forced him to do it, Davis issues an order making Lee general in chief of the Confederate armed forces. The unstated corollary to this belated appointment is that Davis’s personal military staff will be disbanded. Also, in response to a demand from Virginia’s influential congressional delegation, a new Secretary of War takes office to replace the exhausted and embittered James Seddon. Davis brings in Major General John C. Breckinridge, a former Vice President of the United States and an experienced commander whose career suffered after he got on the wrong side of Braxton Bragg during the Tennessee Campaign. Breckinridge takes firm control of the War Department, effecting immediate improvement in its organization and, more important, in the movement of food and supplies to the Army of Northern Virginia.


Sherman’s troops fight with Confederates trying to delay the Federal advance at Fishburn’s Plantation near Lane’s Bridge on the Little Salkehatchie, at Cowpen Ford, and near Barnwell, South Carolina. There are three days of Union operations in Ozark County, Missouri; a Northern scout from Fairfax Court House to Brentsville, Virginia; and an affair at Corn’s Farm, Franklin County, Tennessee.
#15264172
February 7, Tuesday

Maine and Kansas get on the bandwagon of states hurriedly approving the 13th Amendment; in Delaware the amendment fails to receive the necessary votes.

The fighting at Hatcher’s Run ends with Federals abandoning the Boydton Plank Road but fortifying their new lines to Hatcher’s Run at the Vaughan Road Crossing, some three miles below Burgess’ Mill. The Confederate army of around 46,000 now has to defend some 37 miles of Richmond-Petersburg lines. About 35,000 Federals have been at least partly engaged in the fighting from the 5th through the 7th, with 170 killed, 1,160 wounded, and 182 missing for 1,512; there have been about 14,000 Confederates involved and casualties aren’t clear. The confusing and inconclusive engagement has accomplished little beyond keeping Lee occupied.

Sherman’s four corps, plus Kilpatrick’s cavalry, continue their march in South Carolina against very light Confederate resistance. They encounter more difficulty with geographical obstacles such as swamps and rivers. Skirmishing takes place at Blackville, the Edisto River Bridge, and there is a Federal reconnaissance to Cannon’s Bridge on the South Edisto River.

There are four days of Union scouting from Morganza to Fausee River and Grossetete Bayou, Louisiana; and a Federal scout on the Hernando Road, Tennessee.
#15264227
February 8, Wednesday

In the days after the battle outside Petersburg, the Federals will extend their entrenchments more than three miles, to the Vaughan road crossing of Hatcher’s Run. The extensions will have little effect on the Confederates, who are already so stretched out that, Gordon notes, in his part of the line the men are standing fifteen feet apart. If Lee needs troops from his extreme left to support those on the far right, 37 miles away, it would take a two-day march to get them there. There is some question, also, about whether many of the Confederates are capable of a two-day march. The shortage of food has grown worse. Today, Lee sends a bitter message to Breckinridge, the newly appointed Confederate Secretary of War. For 72 hours, he says—including “the most inclement day of the winter”—his forces have been in the lines either fighting or preparing to fight. “Some of the men have been without meat for three days,” Lee reports, “and all are suffering from reduced rations and scant clothing, exposed to battle, cold, hail and sleet.” Unless something can be done quickly to rectify this situation, Lee warns, “you must not be surprised if calamity befalls us.” The Federals are at this moment preparing to inflict just such a calamity, as Lee is well aware: His scouts are reporting preparations for a major enemy offensive. It seems unlikely that the haggard, outnumbered Confederates can halt a determined Union drive; if they can’t, the end might be at hand. “If Grant once breaks through our lines,” observes a Confederate general, “we might as well go back to Father Abraham and say, ‘Father, we have sinned’.”

The Federal House of Representatives passes a joint resolution declaring that the states of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, and Tennessee aren’t entitled to representation in the Electoral College. President Lincoln signs the resolution but disclaims he has thus expressed any opinion as he also disclaims any right to interfere in the counting of votes.

In the South Carolina Campaign, skirmishing erupts at Williston, White Pond or Walker’s or Valley Bridge on the Edisto, and at Cannon’s Bridge on the South Edisto. In Kentucky action occurs at New Market and Bradfordsville. In Arkansas there are two days of Federal operations on the Arkansas River near Little Rock, and a six-day Union scout from Helena to Madison. Fighting against Amerinds on the North Platte River near Rush Creek, Nebraska Territory, lasts for a couple of days.

Massachusetts and Pennsylvania ratify the 13th Amendment.
#15264324
February 9, Thursday

The daily, relatively light skirmishing along the edges of Sherman’s advance into South Carolina continues, with action at Binnaker’s Bridge on the South Edisto and at Holman’s Bridge, South Carolina. In addition, action includes skirmishing near Memphis, Tennessee, and a Yankee scout until the 19th from Pine Bluff to Devall’s Bluff, Arkansas. The advance of Schofield’s XXIII Corps arrives at Fort Fisher preparatory to attacking Wilmington and eventually pushing inland to join Sherman in North Carolina.

In Union command changes, Major General Quincy A. Gillmore takes over the Department of the South, replacing Major General John G. Foster, and John M. Schofield assumes command of the Department of North Carolina.

Robert E. Lee takes his duties as Confederate General in Chief, saying he will rely on the field commanders and that manpower is a paramount necessity. He proposes a pardon to deserters who report within thirty days. President Davis approves this measure. Virginia unionists ratify the 13th Amendment.
#15264432
February 10, Friday

Action around Charleston Harbor includes skirmishing on James Island and at Johnson’s Station, South Carolina, as Confederates guard against attack both from Sherman’s invading column and from the sea. A skirmish breaks out at Kittredge’s Sugar House near Napoleonville, Louisiana; a Federal scout from Friar’s Point, Mississippi, also involves a skirmish. Union expeditions operate from Brashear City for two days and from Thibodeaux for four days, both to Lake Verret, Louisiana. An affair occurs near Triune, Tennessee, and there is a skirmish in Johnson’s Crook, Georgia.

All Federal troops in the Departments of Kentucky and the Cumberland are declared subject to the orders of Major General Thomas except for posts protecting the Mississippi River.

President Lincoln, like President Davis, reports to his Congress on the Hampton Roads conference. Captain Raphael Semmes, commander of the Alabama until her sinking last June, is named Rear Admiral, CSA, and put in command of the James River Squadron.

Ohio and Missouri ratify the XIII Amendment.
#15264509
February 11, Saturday

Sherman’s men, now on the railroad from Midway to Johnson’s Station, South Carolina, divide the Confederates who are in Branchville and Charleston on the east and near Aiken and in Georgia near Augusta on the west. There are actions at Aiken, Johnson’s Station, near Sugar Loaf, and on Battery Simkins, as well as about Orangeburg, South Carolina. In Arkansas minor skirmishes occur at Clear Creek and near Pine Bluff. In Virginia there is an affair at Williamsburg and Federals carry out a five-day expedition from Bermuda Hundred to Smithfield.

President Davis writes Hardee that if the army has concentrated sufficiently, Davis is hopeful Sherman can be defeated at Charleston. On the other hand, Beauregard urges evacuation, for the Confederates can’t afford to lose an army. Of course, Sherman doesn’t intend to attack Charleston but to bypass and cut it off.


The worst attrition suffered by the Confederate armies isn’t being caused by battle losses but by desertion, which, General Lee concedes, has reached alarming proportions. Admiral Raphael Semmes, taking breakfast with Lee late last month, heard from him that 160 soldiers had deserted in a group the previous night. General Grant estimates that the Southern troops are deserting at the rate of a regiment a day. And indeed, John S. Preston reports this month that 100,000 soldiers are absent from the various Confederate armies. Many, at the urging of their loved ones, have gone home to the Carolinas to be with their families in the face of Sherman’s depredations. Others simply cross the lines and surrender. The Federals encourage these desertions. With printed circulars and with word passed picket to picket, they announce repeatedly that deserters will be welcomed and that they should bring their muskets. The Federals offer $8 apiece for the weapons—and do such a rushing business that the Army of the Potomac has to set aside $10,000 to pay for them. Lee does everything he can to stop the attrition. He urges President Davis’s administration, in vain, to stop pardoning deserters wholesale. “I cannot keep the army together unless examples are made of such cases,” Lee writes to the Confederate adjutant general. At the same time, Lee offers a 20-day amnesty to lure back soldiers who have abandoned the ranks. Lee even tries to put an end to jokes about desertion: to suggest flight even in jest, he says in a stern order to his troops, is an offense punishable by death. The warning is read to all units for three days running.
#15264649
February 12, Sunday

The electoral vote is taken and Lincoln is officially elected with 212 votes to 21 for McClellan. Lincoln is still concerned by reports that Missouri provost marshals are selling confiscated property.

Sherman’s troops sweep enemy opposition from the Orangeburg Bridge on the North Edisto as the march continues in South Carolina. Other skirmishing is recorded near Columbia and Macon, Missouri; Lewisburg, Arkansas; and Waterloo, Alabama. Union operations until the 20th take place about Forts Riley and Larned, Kansas.
#15264652
Only about two months until the end and, sadly, the "event".

How time flies.
#15264666
@Patrickov, it has been quite a ride, hasn't it? But this will run a bit longer than another two months because, just like it took awhile for things to wind up, it takes awhile for things to wind down. The first skip in days covered isn't until May and though both the number and length of skips grow rapidly after that, there will still be a couple posts in 1866 and possibly beyond. My primary day-to-day source has the last entry with President Johnson's declaration in August 1866, but I personally don't consider the war to really be at an end until the release of the Last Confederate--President Jefferson Davis--from prison in 1867.
#15264704
Doug64 wrote:@Patrickov, it has been quite a ride, hasn't it? But this will run a bit longer than another two months because, just like it took awhile for things to wind up, it takes awhile for things to wind down. The first skip in days covered isn't until May and though both the number and length of skips grow rapidly after that, there will still be a couple posts in 1866 and possibly beyond. My primary day-to-day source has the last entry with President Johnson's declaration in August 1866, but I personally don't consider the war to really be at an end until the release of the Last Confederate--President Jefferson Davis--from prison in 1867.

It’s even worse than that - the Jesse James gang, for example, regarded themselves as continuing the Civil War by other means. Every bank they robbed was a blow against the Federal government. This is why Jesse James was - and still is - lionised in the South as a patriot and guerrilla fighter rather than just a murderous outlaw, which is what he really was. It could even be argued that the Civil War didn’t truly end until the Civil Rights Acts of the 1960s and the ‘Southern Strategy’ of the Republican Party. Now that would make for a long thread…. :excited:
#15264707
@Potemkin, yes, that would be a very long thread. :eek: You do have to draw the line somewhere, though, or we'd still be in the middle of the Great War! I'd personally draw the line on WWII with the Nuremburg trials and the formation of new governments for the liberated and conquered countries. The primary source material I have for the WWII day-by-day thread I'm going to start in September doesn't go that far, though, only up to August 1945. Maybe I'll pick up the audiobook of Savage Continent and use it to push things out a bit farther (though not the ten years the book covers).
#15264791
February 13, Monday

For the Confederates in South Carolina, prospects are dark. Beauregard has only remnants of troops to defend Augusta, Georgia, and Hardee waits for the possible time when he must abandon Charleston and Fort Sumter. Wade Hampton has been sent from the Virginia front to his home state to command cavalry, but he hasn’t been able to do anything significant. Minor fighting continues at Station Four, Florida, and in Mississippi County, Missouri. A Federal expedition against raiders operates until the 17th from Camp Russell near Winchester to Edenburg and Little Fort Valley, Virginia.

A west Tennessee group objects to military interference in civil affairs. President Lincoln tells officers in the area that “the object of the war being to restore and maintain the blessings of peace and good government, I desire you to help, and not hinder, every advance in that direction.”

In Richmond and elsewhere there is increasing clamor for Joseph E. Johnston to be put in overall command in the Carolinas, but General Lee writes Vice-President Stephens that Beauregard should be retained at present and that continual command change is unwise, although he holds a high opinion of Johnston.

In London, Lord Russell protests to Federal commissioners against the St. Albans raid of last October 19th, its aftermath in Canada, and activity on the Great Lakes.
#15264940
February 14, Tuesday

Troops of Sherman in South Carolina push across the Congaree River and the whole army turns more toward Columbia “without wasting time or labor on Branchville or Charleston,” as Sherman reports. Skirmishing flares at Wolf’s Plantation and Gunter’s Bridge on the North Edisto. President Davis again advised Hardee to hold Charleston as long as prudent before evacuation, but says it is up to Beauregard and Hardee to decide military strategy.

Until the 18th Federal expeditions move from Donaldsonville to Grand Bayou and Bayou Boula, Louisiana.
#15265019
February 15, Wednesday

Fairly heavy skirmishing at Congaree Creek, Savannah Creek, Bates’ Ferry on the Congaree River, Red Bank Creek, and Two League Cross Roads near Lexington, South Carolina, mark the Federal march toward Columbia. They make rapid progress despite harassing opposition, still difficult swamps, mud, rivers, burned bridges, and blocked roads. Scouting from Nashville, Tennessee, on the Nolensville Pike and from Fairfax Court House to Aldie and Middleburg, Virginia, are the only other recorded Union operations.
#15265104
February 16, Thursday

In the first few weeks of the march of Sherman’s army north through South Carolina, a dozen communities are ransacked and razed. Even the countryside, remote from Sherman’s route, is not immune to the vandalism. Much of the damage is inflicted by Sherman’s foragers. At first, as he had in the Georgia Campaign, Sherman tries to control the foraging in the Carolinas. Each brigade sends out parties under the command of an officer to demand supplies from civilians and to distribute them through regular channels. But the task is monumental. As an Illinois private will explain, “We were told in no uncertain terms that henceforth we must live off the country or go hungry. We did both.” Regiments begin to fend for themselves, dispatching men each morning to scour the countryside and return that night with food. Virtually every man in the army pulls foraging duty at one time or another, but a certain type of individual gravitates to the work, volunteers for it—and excels at it. Men of unusual independence and inventiveness who chafe under the discipline of the march, some more renegades than soldiers, many of them adopt a shabby style of their own, shunning uniforms for outlandish clothes stolen from their victims. They are hard men, untroubled by the desperate plight of the civilians upon whom they prey. The bummers have made their reappearance. Other soldiers regard their exploits with amusement, if not a touch of envy. Others are less approving. “Think how you would admire him,” writes a reporter for the New York Herald, “if you were a lone woman, with a family of five children, far from help, when he blandly inquired where you kept your valuables. Think how you would smile when he pried open your chests with his bayonet, or knocked to pieces your tables, pianos and chairs.” Many of these marauders, the correspondent says, “are loaded down with silver-ware, gold coin, and other valuables. I hazard nothing in saying three-fifths (in value) of the personal property of the counties we have passed through were taken by Sherman’s army.” Despite the concern expressed by several of his officers, Sherman is well satisfied with the performance of his foragers. “They are organized for a very useful purpose from the adventurous spirits who are always found in the ranks,” he says, “and are indispensable in feeding troops when compelled, like my army, to live off the country.”

Because they are so effective—and even more because of their notorious behavior—the foragers become prime targets for the Confederate cavalry. And they are highly vulnerable, since they travel in small, more or less defenseless groups. Robert H. Strong, an infantryman from Illinois, tells of a party of foragers separated from his regiment by the sudden flooding of a rain-swollen river. The next day, some solders from the regiment get across the river and find the foragers hanging from a tree. Their throats were cut, and pinned to their drawers is a piece of paper with the words “Death to all foragers.”

The Confederates are scarcely in a position to criticize the conduct of the enemy. For at least nine months, Wheeler’s cavalrymen have been living entirely on what they can wrest from the countryside, and some Southerners consider them worse marauders than the Yankees. The most visible—and the most widely reported—abuse by Wheeler’s men occurs as the Federal army reaches its initial objective. Columbia, South Carolina, is an elegant city. The private residences are large and roomy, and are surrounded with gardens which, even at this wintry season of the year, are filled with hedges, flowering shrubs and bordered walks, all in summer green. The city is horribly overcrowded, however. No one in the South had expected the war to reach Columbia, and it has become a haven for refugees. In two years its population has swollen from 8,000 to about 20,000. Columbia is a significant railroad and manufacturing center, and Sherman considers it a vital target. His soldiers concur: “Hail, Columbia, happy land,” they sing as they march, “If I don’t burn you, I’ll be damned!” Wheeler’s men ride into Columbia today, purportedly to defend the city. Instead, according to a Southern reporter, they proceed “to break into the stores along main street and rob them of their contents,” apparently rationalizing their behavior with the assumption that the Union soldiers will soon be along to steal the goods anyway.

Meanwhile, Federal soldiers see the capital of South Carolina. Sherman’s men arrive on the south bank of the Congaree River opposite Columbia. People, including a few Confederate cavalry, can be seen running about the streets in confusion. Some Union shells are fired into the city, allegedly at the enemy cavalry and the railroad depot. Some skirmishing occurs about the city as the various Federal units practically surround Columbia before the Confederate horsemen ride away, many of them laden with plunder. Beauregard leaves the city by late afternoon after wiring Lee that he can’t prevent its capture. At Charleston, Hardee hurriedly sends out what war matériel he can preparatory to evacuation. Sherman’s army has marched and waded its way to the first objective of the campaign and leaves even more destruction than in Georgia.


Virginia is quiet again as the siege continues. Widely scattered actions take place at Bennett’s Bayou and Tolbert’s Mill, Arkansas; Gurley’s Tank, Alabama; and Cedar Keys, Florida. Confederates attack the garrisons of Athens and Sweet Water, Tennessee. Federal scouting until the 20th is carried out in Ozark County, Missouri; Marion County, Arkansas; and, until the 21st, from Fort Larned, Kansas.

Confederate congressional pressure is brought to bear to reform the Commissary Department. The unpopular Commissary General Lucius Northrop is eased out and, with Senate approval, replaced by Brigadier General Isaac M. St. John, who finds his new department in chaos. The plight of a Confederate quartermaster in Alabama is typical: “We suffer a total want of funds. Owing to this, all the branches of the service are at a standstill, transportation is embarrassed, supplies slowly and with difficulty obtained, and impressments also totally impossible.” Even the arrival at Wilmington in December of 950,000 rations of meat from Nassau had helped only a little; the narrow-gauge Weldon Railroad from Wilmington, its rolling stock depleted, could move only part of the food. But in January, when Lee issued a personal appeal to the people of Virginia, enough food was donated to feed his hungry army for a few more days. St. John quickly institutes reforms in the distribution of supplies to men in the field, and his efforts—combined with the static position of the Army of Northern Virginia—begins to improve the soldiers’ lot. The coming of spring will bring the issue of new uniforms to many of the threadbare troops. St. John also manages to assemble a reserve of 3 million rations of bread and 2.5 million rations of meat.

Indiana, Nevada, and Louisiana ratify the 13th Amendment.
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February 17, Friday

The first units of Sherman’s army enter Columbia, South Carolina, this morning. One of the first units to enter the city is an all-Iowa brigade of XV Corps, led by Colonel George A. Stone. The Iowans, who are to serve as provost guards, have marched for 24 hours and are exhausted, hungry—and thirsty. Some foolish people, thinking to please the soldiers, bring out whiskey by the pailfuls. Before the superior officers are aware of it, a good many of Stone’s brigade are intoxicated. The liquor is passed along the ranks of the marchers; in one instance a large tin boiler is used. The unit is quickly relieved, and the drunken men are put under arrest. But more whiskey is available. By nightfall, the corps commander John Logan will say, “the citizens had so crazed our men with liquor that it was impossible to control them.”

The result is predictable, as General Slocum observes: “A drunken soldier with a musket in one hand and a match in the other is not a pleasant visitor to have about the house on a dark, windy night.” Fires start. Some men fight them. Others feed them. “By the red glare,” a 17-year-old Columbia girl Emma LeConte will write, “we could watch the wretches walking—generally staggering—back and forth from camp to the town—shouting—hurrahing—cursing South Carolina—swearing—blaspheming—singing ribald songs and using such obscene language that we were forced to go indoors.” The origins of the fires in Columbia this night will become a subject of controversy. Wade Hampton will contend that Sherman, after promising city officials that Columbia would be saved, had “burned the city to the ground, deliberately, systematically and atrociously.” Sherman will claim the fires were already burning when his men arrived and that Hampton himself must accept responsibility for them. Confederate cavalry, he will maintain, had set fires to bales of cotton so the Federals wouldn’t get them, and the high wind had then spread the flames across the city. It is a meaningless dispute: Certainly the Federal soldiers didn’t prevent the blaze from consuming Columbia. Sherman will later say as much: “Though I never ordered it and never wished it, I have never shed any tears over the event, because I believe that it hastened what we all fought for, the end of the War.”


This same day the Confederates evacuate Charleston, about 100 miles to the southeast. Union forces have occupied central South Carolina and are threatening Wilmington; as a result, Charleston is cut off and cannot be held. After all the naval bombardments and amphibious assaults, it is Sherman’s forces coming from the land side that finally pushes the Confederate forces out.

Action includes a skirmish in Washington County, Arkansas; Union scouting from Pine Bluff, Arkansas, to the Arkansas River; a Federal expedition until the 22nd from Plaquemine to The Park, Louisiana; and skirmishing near Smithville, North Carolina. Yankee expeditions move from Eastport to Iuka, Mississippi, and from Whitesburg to Fearn’s Ferry, Alabama.
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February 18, Saturday

The holocaust at Columbia, South Carolina, is burning itself out, the Federal authorities taking steps to recover control of the situation. A brigade sweeps through the city with instructions to arrest all disorderly persons. Sherman sends bucket brigades to the rooftops. Early this morning, the wind subsides and the spread of the fire is halted. For a time, shadowy figures can be seen running through the streets carrying torches or buckets of turpentine, but the provost guards shoot several of these would-be arsonists and drive the rest from the streets. Columbia is in ruins. Nothing can be seen but “heaps of rubbish, tall dreary chimneys, and shattered brick walls.” By one count, 458 buildings have burned, and thousands of the city’s inhabitants—mostly women and children—are without shelter. “Two-thirds of the city,” says Mayor Thomas J. Goodwyn, “is in ashes.”

At Charleston the evacuation continues until early morning. About 9 am Northern troops of Brigadier General Alexander Schimmelfennig enters the city and it is surrendered by the mayor. Some cotton and other supplies are fired; a Northern reporter calls it “A city of ruins,—silent, mournful, in deepest humiliation.... The band was playing ‘Hail, Columbia,’ and the strains floated through the desolate city, awakening wild enthusiasm in the hearts of colored people....”


Federal naval units bombard Fort Anderson on the Cape Fear River as the combined land and sea forces begin their campaign for Wilmington itself. There also is land action at Fort Anderson and Orton Pond, North Carolina, as Federals probe the land defenses below Wilmington. Confederate raiders attack Fort Jones near Colesburg, Kentucky. There is a Union scout in Prince William County, Virginia, and a two-day Federal expedition from Camp Averell near Winchester into Loudoun County, Virginia. CSS Shenandoah leaves Melbourne, Australia, after a refit, intent on “visiting,” as Commander James Waddell’s instructions put it, “the enemy’s distant whaling grounds.”
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