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On this date 155 years ago....
Posted on 5/3/19 at 12:27 am
Posted on 5/3/19 at 12:27 am
The Union Army was just 24 hours away from launching the climactic campaign of the Civil War.
Ulysses S. Grant, newly minted General-in-Chief of all Union Armies, had made camp with the largest army on the continent at that time - the Army of the Potomac - which was under the command of George G. Meade (victor of Gettysburg). Their ultimate objective would be to flank around Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, get between Lee and Richmond, and force Lee to attack the superior Union force in the open.
For his part, Robert E. Lee knew he had his work cut out for him. His 65,000-man army was outnumbered almost 2-to-1 by his foe, but Lee's main advantage was his army's experience as virtually all of his soldiers were seasoned combat veterans. By contrast, half of the Union army would be going into combat for the very first time. Lee's main goal for the coming campaign was to keep the Union army north of the Rapidan River. Once Grant/Meade made a move below it, Lee's objective would be to drive them back across the river or destroy them as it attempted to flee.
The Grand Strategy of 1864
The famed "Grant vs. Lee" battles would be just one prong of an organized offensive against the Confederacy in the spring and summer of 1864. The Army of the Potomac would concentrate on Lee's army while two other armies would run roughshod through Virginia. The first of these would be Benjamin Butler's Army of the James. Using Fortress Monroe on the Virginia Peninsula as a launching pad, Butler's army would aim for the vital railroad junction just south of Richmond called Petersburg. From there they would threaten Richmond itself. At the same time, Franz Sigel's Army of the Shenandoah would advance up the Shenandoah Valley to remove the vital supply hub from Confederate hands.
West of the Appalachian mountains, William Tecumseh Sherman and his force of 90,000 men would advance from Chattanooga with the ultimate goal of capturing Atlanta. Finally, Nathaniel Banks, operating from New Orleans, was tasked to capture the city of Mobile with his Army of the Gulf.
All of these movements were to take place simultaneously so as to prevent the Confederates from shifting troops around their interior lines to meet the various threats posed to these vital chokepoints.
The launch date for this campaign of campaigns was set for May 4, 1864.
Ulysses S. Grant, newly minted General-in-Chief of all Union Armies, had made camp with the largest army on the continent at that time - the Army of the Potomac - which was under the command of George G. Meade (victor of Gettysburg). Their ultimate objective would be to flank around Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, get between Lee and Richmond, and force Lee to attack the superior Union force in the open.
For his part, Robert E. Lee knew he had his work cut out for him. His 65,000-man army was outnumbered almost 2-to-1 by his foe, but Lee's main advantage was his army's experience as virtually all of his soldiers were seasoned combat veterans. By contrast, half of the Union army would be going into combat for the very first time. Lee's main goal for the coming campaign was to keep the Union army north of the Rapidan River. Once Grant/Meade made a move below it, Lee's objective would be to drive them back across the river or destroy them as it attempted to flee.
The Grand Strategy of 1864
The famed "Grant vs. Lee" battles would be just one prong of an organized offensive against the Confederacy in the spring and summer of 1864. The Army of the Potomac would concentrate on Lee's army while two other armies would run roughshod through Virginia. The first of these would be Benjamin Butler's Army of the James. Using Fortress Monroe on the Virginia Peninsula as a launching pad, Butler's army would aim for the vital railroad junction just south of Richmond called Petersburg. From there they would threaten Richmond itself. At the same time, Franz Sigel's Army of the Shenandoah would advance up the Shenandoah Valley to remove the vital supply hub from Confederate hands.
West of the Appalachian mountains, William Tecumseh Sherman and his force of 90,000 men would advance from Chattanooga with the ultimate goal of capturing Atlanta. Finally, Nathaniel Banks, operating from New Orleans, was tasked to capture the city of Mobile with his Army of the Gulf.
All of these movements were to take place simultaneously so as to prevent the Confederates from shifting troops around their interior lines to meet the various threats posed to these vital chokepoints.
The launch date for this campaign of campaigns was set for May 4, 1864.
This post was edited on 5/3/19 at 12:31 am
Posted on 5/3/19 at 12:29 am to RollTide1987
I’m still pissed we lost.
Posted on 5/3/19 at 12:39 am to RollTide1987
quote:
The Union Army was just 24 hours away from launching the climactic campaign of the Civil War.
great win for the good guys
Posted on 5/3/19 at 12:42 am to BRgetthenet
quote:
On this date 155 years ago....I’m still pissed we lost.
Thanks for your service
Posted on 5/3/19 at 12:46 am to BRgetthenet
quote:
I’m still pissed we lost.
The South never had a chance. Consider this:
‘You people of the South don’t know what you are doing. This country will be drenched in blood, and God only knows how it will end.
“The North can make a steam engine, locomotive or railway car; hardly a yard of cloth or a pair of shoes can you make. You are rushing into war with one of the most powerful, ingeniously mechanical and determined people on earth-right at your doors. You are bound to fail. Only in spirit and determination are you prepared for war. In all else you are totally unprepared, with a bad cause to start with.
“You people speak so lightly of war; you don’t know what you’re talking about. War is a terrible thing!
“You mistake, too, the people of the North. They are a peaceable people but an earnest people, and they will fight, too. They are not going to let this country be destroyed without a mighty effort to save it…Besides, where are your men and appliances of war to contend against them?
“At first you will make headway, but as your limited resources begin to fail, shut out from the markets of Europe as you will be, your cause will begin to wane. If your people will but stop and think, they must see that in the end you will surely fail.”
…The prophetic words of William Tecumseh Sherman on December 24, 1860, after he learned of South Carolina’s secession. Sherman was superintendent of the Louisiana State Seminary and Military Academy at the time.
This post was edited on 5/3/19 at 12:56 am
Posted on 5/3/19 at 12:57 am to ElectricWizard0
In that quote, I believe he was talking to the Boyds. This would be shortly before he left LSU.
Posted on 5/3/19 at 1:10 am to BRgetthenet
I’m not. I’m glad the North won but if our southern region wanted to fight a Civil War today then I’d be all for it. It really wouldn’t be regions fighting each other but more of ideologies. The Conservatives vs The Liberals
Posted on 5/3/19 at 1:15 am to RollTide1987
No spoilers please, I just started binging and I am only on episode 8 of season 1.
Posted on 5/3/19 at 1:37 am to Macavity92
Sherman was maybe the first soldier anywhere to understand modern industrial warfare. It's not about defeating your enemy in the field. If you do, it's only in service of your main objective, destroying his ability and will to fight. You do that by taking the battle to his homeland, disrupting his ability to feed, clothe, and arm himself, forcing him to capitulate. As commander in chief of the Army a few years later, he used the same strategy to wipe out the Plains Indians by decimating the Buffalo population.
It is true the Confederacy never had a chance as long as the Union's will never wavered. The North was never close to even 50% mobilized. If the Union armies had been wiped out to the last man, they could have been reconstituted from the millions of men in factories, farms and mining camps and still outnumbered the Confederates.
Failing that, the Confederate hope was for a British or French intervention, or a stunning victory that resulted in a crisis of confidence in Lincoln's leadership and some sort of armistice leading to a political settlement. Neither of those happened.
The interesting point to ponder is if Gettysburg would have turned out differently with Jackson on the field, and would it have been enough.
It is true the Confederacy never had a chance as long as the Union's will never wavered. The North was never close to even 50% mobilized. If the Union armies had been wiped out to the last man, they could have been reconstituted from the millions of men in factories, farms and mining camps and still outnumbered the Confederates.
Failing that, the Confederate hope was for a British or French intervention, or a stunning victory that resulted in a crisis of confidence in Lincoln's leadership and some sort of armistice leading to a political settlement. Neither of those happened.
The interesting point to ponder is if Gettysburg would have turned out differently with Jackson on the field, and would it have been enough.
Posted on 5/3/19 at 3:06 am to Jim Rockford
The North was bringing in European immigrants as fast as typhoid and Confederates could kill Union troops. We were never going to win a conventional war.
Posted on 5/3/19 at 4:06 am to sta4ever
Sure you would, internet badass.
Posted on 5/3/19 at 4:49 am to Macavity92
quote:
South Carolina’s secession
South Carolina introduced a bill in April of '18 to debate seceding yet again “if the federal government confiscates legally purchased firearms in this State.” It didn't pass but those that introduced the bill stated they would reintroduce it again this year.
Posted on 5/3/19 at 5:13 am to RollTide1987
Fun fact...
Irene Triplett, 86,(as of 2016) receives a $73.13 monthly pension payment from the Department of Veteran Affairs every month. It’s for her father’s military service—in the American Civil War.
ETA: article is from 2017 so not sure if she's still alive
Irene Triplett, 86,(as of 2016) receives a $73.13 monthly pension payment from the Department of Veteran Affairs every month. It’s for her father’s military service—in the American Civil War.
ETA: article is from 2017 so not sure if she's still alive
This post was edited on 5/3/19 at 5:26 am
Posted on 5/3/19 at 5:45 am to BowlJackson
The south was the good guys.
Posted on 5/3/19 at 6:04 am to ctiger69
quote:
The south was the good guys.
okay Cletus. Keep telling yourself that
Posted on 5/3/19 at 6:20 am to BowlJackson
Really sad that you Yankees would murder so many southerners so y’all could get gay marriage or whatever
Posted on 5/3/19 at 6:48 am to el Gaucho
quote:
el Gaucho
quote:
Really sad that you Yankees would murder so many southerners so y’all could get gay marriage or whatever
I laughed....I shouldnt have.....but I did.
Posted on 5/3/19 at 6:53 am to Macavity92
quote:
South Carolina’s secession
Secession supporters 5 years later as South Carolina was being burned to the ground by Sherman:
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