General Grant Invests Vicksburg--The Confederate Garrison--Scenes in the
Beleaguered City--The Surrender--Hooker Defeated at Chancellorsville--
Death of "Stonewall" Jackson--General Meade Takes Command of the Army of
the Potomac--Lee Crosses the Potomac--The Battle of Gettysburg--The First
Two Days--The Third Day--Pickett's Charge--A Thrilling Spectacle--The
Harvest of Death--Lee Defeated--General Thomas, "The Rock of Chickamauga"
--"This Position Must Be Held Till Night"--General Grant Defeats Bragg at
Chattanooga--The Decisive Battle of the West.
The Confederates made Vicksburg a position of marvelous strength. General
William Tecumseh Sherman, who had proved his eminent talent as a
commander under Grant at Shiloh, assaulted the bluffs north of the town
on December 29, 1862, and was repulsed. General Grant, with the
perseverance which he afterward exhibited at Richmond, fought battle
after battle until he had Vicksburg completely invested. Commodore David
D. Porter, with a formidable fleet, bombarded the stronghold from the
river, while Grant's kept up a cannonade day and night from the land
side. General John C. Pemberton had about 15,000 effective men out of
30,000 within the lines of the beleaguered city. Every day the situation
grew more intolerable for the besieged. Rats were on sale in the
market-places with mule-meat. The people lived in cellars and caves,
children were born in caves, and it is interesting to read in a diary of
that fearful time that "the churches are a great resort for those that
have no caves. People fancy that they are not shelled so much, and they
are substantial and the pews good to sleep in." A woman wished to go
through the lines to her friends, and on July 1 an officer with a flag of
truce carried the request. He came back with the statement: "General
Grant says no human being shall pass out of Vicksburg; but the lady may
feel sure danger will soon be over. Vicksburg will surrender on the
fourth." A Confederate general present when this message was received,
said: "Vicksburg will not surrender." But Grant was right. On July 4
silence descended upon Vicksburg. The simoon of shot and shell was over,
and men and women and children crawled from their caves into the light of
day. The river vessels poured in an abundance of provisions, and plenty
succeeded starvation. General Pemberton surrendered 27,000 men as
prisoners of war.
* * *
General Hooker, notwithstanding his undoubted courage, proved no more
fortunate than his predecessors in command of the Army of the Potomac.
With 90,000 men he attacked Lee and 45,000 men at Chancellorsville, May 1
to 4. The Confederate commander was at his best in this fearful four
days' struggle. Hooker, says a high Confederate authority, had guided his
army "into the mazes of the Wilderness, and got it so mixed and tangled
that no chance was afforded for a display of its mettle." Lee with
inferior forces managed by consummate strategy to meet and overcome
Hooker's subordinates in detail. Then he prepared for a crushing blow at
Hooker himself, which the latter escaped by a timely retreat. The
bombastic Order No. 49 which followed this sweeping disaster for the
Union arms did not deceive either President Lincoln or the people, who
had once more seen the lives of thousands of our gallant troops
sacrificed on the altar of shoulder-strapped incompetency. The killed and
wounded in this battle numbered about 25,000, of whom more than half were
Unionists. These figures repeat eloquently that real soldiers were
waiting for a real general. The death of "Stonewall" Jackson at
Chancellorsville was in no slight degree a compensation for Union losses.
The tide turned at Gettysburg. General George Gordon Meade succeeded
Hooker in command of the Army of the Potomac. Meade was not a brilliant
man, but he was a thorough soldier, and eminently free from that spirit
of envy which was the bane of our armies, which had nearly driven Grant
from the service, and which was responsible for the loss of more than one
battle. Elated by Chancellorsville, Lee determined to invade the North.
The South made an extreme effort to replenish its armies, and that of
Northern Virginia was raised to about 100,000 men. With the greater part
of this magnificent host, including 15,000 cavalry and 280 guns, Lee
marched down the Shenandoah Valley, crossed the Potomac on the
twenty-fifth of June, and headed for Chambersburg. Meade drew near with
the army of the Potomac, and such reinforcements as had been hastily
collected in Pennsylvania on the news of the invasion. At Gettysburg the
two armies met for the decisive battle of the war. Meade had on the field
83,000 men and 300 guns; Lee, 69,000 men and 250 guns. For three days the
two armies contended with frightful losses, and with a courage not
surpassed in ancient or modern warfare. The brave General John F.
Reynolds lost his life in the first encounter, and General Winfield Scott
Hancock was sent by Meade to take charge of the field. On the second day
occurred the desperate conflict for Little Round Top, which resulted in
that key to the Union line being seized and held by the Union troops.
Neither side, however, gained any decided advantage. On the third day Lee
prepared for the grand movement known in history as "Pickett's charge."
Fourteen thousand men were selected as the forlorn hope of the
Confederacy. For two hours before the charge 120 guns kept up a fearful
cannonade upon the Union lines. Meade answered with eighty guns. About
three o'clock in the afternoon Meade ceased firing. Lee thought the
Northern gunners were silenced. He was mistaken; they knew what was
coming.
On moved the charging column, as the smoke of battle lifted, and the
"tattered uniforms and bright muskets" came plainly into view. At an
average distance of about eleven hundred yards the Union batteries
opened. Shot and shell tore through the Confederate ranks. Still they
marched on over wounded and dying and dead. Canister now rained on their
flanks, and as they came within closer range a hurricane of bullets burst
upon them, and men dropped on every side like leaves in the winds of
autumn. The strength of the charging column melted before the gale of
death; but the survivors staggered on. When the remains of the
Confederate right reached the Union works their three brigade commanders
had fallen, every field officer except one had been killed or wounded;
but still the remnant kept its face to the foe, led to annihilation by
the dauntless Armistead. The four brigades on the left of Pickett met a
similar fate. "They moved up splendidly," wrote a Union officer,
"deploying as they crossed the long sloping interval. The front of the
column was nearly up the slope, and within a few yards of the Second
Corps' front and its batteries, when suddenly a terrific fire from every
available gun on Cemetery Ridge burst upon them. Their graceful lines
underwent an instantaneous transformation in a dense cloud of smoke and
dust; arms, heads, blankets, guns and knapsacks were tossed in the air,
and the moan from the battlefield was heard amid the storm of battle."
One half of the 14,000 perished in the charge. Gettysburg was over, and
the tide of invasion from the South was rolled back never to return.
Meade had lost about 23,000 men, and Lee about 23,000. Halleck, whose
business as general-in-chief seemed to be to annoy successful commanders,
and irritate them to the resignation point, blamed Meade for allowing Lee
to retire without another battle, but public opinion upheld the victor of
Gettysburg, and Congress honored him and Generals Hancock and O. O.
Howard with a resolution of thanks.
* * *
General George H. Thomas, a Southern officer of the Lee and Johnston rank
in military capacity, who fortunately stood by the Union, saved
Chickamauga from being a Union defeat that would have done much to offset
Gettysburg and Vicksburg. Rosecrans had compelled Bragg to evacuate
Chattanooga, and erroneously assumed that the Confederate commander was
in retreat, when in fact he had been reinforced by Longstreet and was
ready to risk another battle. The two armies met in the valley of
Chickamauga. Operations on the Union side were chiefly a series of
blunders which resulted in the right wing of Rosecrans' army being broken
and driven from the field, leaving the brunt of the conflict to be borne
by General Thomas with the left wing.
The magnificent stand made by Thomas against the victorious Confederates,
gained for him the title of the "Rock of Chickamauga." Surrounded on all
sides by a force that a craven commander might have deemed irresistible,
Thomas thought out his plans as coolly as if miles away from danger.
"Take that ridge!" he said calmly to General James B. Steedman, when that
fearless soldier came up with his division; and Thomas pointed to a
commanding ridge held by the enemy. Steedman moved at once to the attack,
and the ridge was carried with a loss of 2900 men. In vain both wings of
the Confederates were hurled, with fierce determination against the
little army of Thomas. With 25,000 men he successfully resisted the
attacks of between 50,000 and 60,000. "It will ruin the army to withdraw
it now; this position must be held till night"--was the answer of Thomas
to Rosecrans; and Thomas held the position until night, and then withdrew
in good order. The Union loss was about 19,000 and that of the
Confederates at least as great. Thomas in the following month succeeded
Rosecrans as commander of the Army of the Cumberland. It is more than
probable that up to that time his merits had not been fully recognized,
owing to unfounded suspicion of his loyalty. When it was said of Thomas
to General Joseph E. Johnston that he "did not know when he was whipped,"
Johnston answered: "Rather say he always knew very well when he was not
whipped."
The Army of the Tennessee, now commanded by Sherman, was brought up to
Chattanooga from Vicksburg, and General Grant was placed in command of
all forces west of the Alleghenies. General Hooker was sent from Virginia
with reinforcements, and General Grant prepared for the decisive battle
of the West. In that battle, which was fought about Chattanooga, November
24 and 25, Bragg was completely defeated with a loss of about 3000 in
killed and wounded and 6000 prisoners. A remarkable feature of this
battle is that the Confederate position on Missionary Ridge was carried
by a charge made by the Union troops without orders from their commanders.