Civil War Essay Research Paper Civil War

Civil War Essay, Research Paper

Civil War – END OF A TRAGEDY THE ROAD TO APPOMATTOX The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the events surrounding theend of the American Civil War. This war was a war of epic proportion.Never before and not since have so many Americans died in battle. TheAmerican Civil War was truly tragic in terms of human life. In thisdocument, I will speak mainly around those involved on the battlefield inthe closing days of the conflict. Also, reference will be made to theleading men behind the Union and Confederate forces. The war was beginning to end by January of 1865. By then, Federal(Federal was another name given to the Union Army) armies were spreadthroughout the Confederacy and the Confederate Army had shrunk extremely insize. In the year before, the North had lost an enormous amount of lives,but had more than enough to lose in comparison to the South. General Grantbecame known as the “Butcher” (Grant, Ulysses S., Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant, New York: Charles L. Webster & Co.,1894) and many wanted to see himremoved. But Lincoln stood firm with his General, and the war continued.This paper will follow the happenings and events between the winter of1864-65 and the surrender of The Confederate States of America. All ofthis will most certainly illustrate that April 9, 1865 was indeed the endof a tragedy.CUTTING OFF THE SOUTH In September of 1864, General William T. Sherman and his army clearedthe city of Atlanta of its civilian population then rested ever so briefly. It was from there that General Sherman and his army began its famous”marchto the sea”. The march covered a distance of 400 miles and was 60 mileswide on the way. For 32 days no news of him reached the North. He had cuthimself off from his base of supplies, and his men lived on what ever theycould get from the country through which they passed. On their route, thearmy destroyed anything and everything that they could not use but waspresumed usable to the enemy. In view of this destruction, it isunderstandable that Sherman quoted “war is hell” (Sherman, William T.,Memoirs of General William T. Sherman. Westport, Conn.:Greenwood Press,1972). Finally, on December 20, Sherman’s men reached the city of Savannahand from there Sherman telegraphed to President Lincoln: “I beg to presentyou as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah, with 150 heavy guns andplenty of ammunition, and also about 25,000 bales of cotton” (Sherman,William T., Memoirs of General William T. Sherman. Westport,Conn.:Greenwood Press, 1972). Grant had decided that the only way to win and finish the war would beto crunch with numbers. He knew that the Federal forces held more than amodest advantage in terms of men and supplies. This in mind, GrantdirectedSherman to turn around now and start heading back toward Virginia. Heimmediately started making preparations to provide assistance to Sherman onthe journey. General John M. Schofield and his men were to detach from theArmy of the Cumberland, which had just embarrassingly defeated theConfederates at Nashville, and proceed toward North Carolina. His finaldestination was to be Goldsboro, which was roughly half the distancebetween Savannah and Richmond. This is where he and his 20,000 troopswould meet Sherman and his 50,000 troops. Sherman began the move north in mid-January of 1865. The only hope ofConfederate resistance would be supplied by General P.G.T. Beauregard. Hewas scraping together an army with every resource he could lay his handson, but at best would only be able to muster about 30,000 men. This byobvious mathematics would be no challenge to the combined forces ofSchofield and Sherman, let alone Sherman. Sherman’s plan was to marchthrough South Carolina all the while confusing the enemy. His men wouldmarch in two ranks: One would travel northwest to give the impression of apress against Augusta and the other would march northeast towardCharleston. However the one true objective would be Columbia. Sherman’s force arrived in Columbia on February 16. The city wasburned to the ground and great controversy was to arise. The Confederatesclaimed that Sherman’s men set the fires “deliberately, systematically, andatrociously”. However, Sherman claimed that the fires were burning whenthey arrived. The fires had been set to cotton bales by ConfederateCalvary to prevent the Federal Army from getting them and the high windsquickly spread the fire. The controversy would be short lived as no proofwould ever be presented. So with Columbia, Charleston, and Augusta allfallen, Sherman would continue his drive north toward Goldsboro. On theway, his progress would be stalled not by the Confederate army but byrunaway slaves. The slaves were attaching themselves to the Union columnsand by the time the force entered North Carolina, they numbered in thethousands (Barrett, John G., Sherman’s March through the Carolinas. ChapelHill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1956). But Sherman’s forcepushed on and finally met up with Schofield in Goldsboro on March 23rd. THE END IS PLANNED Sherman immediately left Goldsboro to travel up to City Point and meetGrant to discuss plans of attack. When he arrived there, he found not onlyGrant, but also Admiral David Porter waiting to meet with PresidentLincoln. So on the morning of the March 28th, General Grant, GeneralSherman, and Admiral Porter all met with Lincoln on the river boat “RiverQueen” to discuss a strategy against General Lee and General John