The Civil War 1860-1865 - Military Stalemate

ASU HST 200 (Historical Themes) The Civil War, 1860–1865 Military Stalemate Confederate and Union armies engaged in combat throughout 1861 and early 1862, but neither side was able to take the upper hand. Many of the military officials on both sides were intimately acquainted, having served as commanding officers in the Mexican-American War or as West Point students, and most had undergone the same military education. Because of their familiarity, they were able to predict one another's tactics. Both sides supported the deployment of small, focused armies tasked with capturing the opposition's capital. While Washington, DC, remained the target for Confederate forces, the Union saw this as an opportunity to seize control of the Confederate capital, Richmond, Virginia. Following the defeat at Bull Run, which dashed expectations for an early triumph, the months passed with little progress made by either side. Chief of Staff General George B. McClellan, who oversaw Union ground troops generally, shown a particularly reluctance to fight the Confederates. As the commander in chief of the Army of the Potomac, the Union combat force stationed outside Washington, DC, McClellan mistakenly thought that the Confederate forces were too formidable to overcome and was hesitant to put his men in danger during combat. He was well-liked by his soldiers but not by the president or Congress because of his cautious demeanor. But by 1862, neither President Lincoln nor the newly appointed Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, could stand to wait any longer. In an attempt to increase soldier strength, the Union recruited one million men to serve in the Army of the Potomac for three-year terms. Lincoln and Stanton gave McClellan orders to invade the Confederacy in January 1862 with the intention of seizing Richmond. In order to do this, General McClellan gradually advanced 100,000 men from the Army of the Potomac in the direction of Richmond, pausing a few miles outside the city. As he did so, a Confederate force under the command of Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson advanced northward to capture Washington, DC. To repel Jackson's assault, roughly 25% to 30% of McClellan's soldiers, under the command of Major General Irvin McDowell, withdrew to defend the nation's capital; Jackson anticipated that this would make the remaining troops in the vicinity of Richmond more exposed. After effectively extracting a significant section of the Union army, he teamed up with General Lee to assault McClellan's remaining forces in the vicinity of Richmond. The horrific Seven Days Battles, which took place between June 25 and July 1, 1862, claimed the lives of about 20,000 Confederate and 10,000 Union men. Eventually retreating north after failing to capture Richmond was McClellan's force. After successfully preventing McClellan from entering Richmond, General Lee attempted to take advantage of the Union's defeat by moving the combat north. He advanced his army into northern Virginia, where it was again destroyed by the Confederates at the Second Battle of Bull Run. After that, Lee advanced into Maryland, where his men encountered the considerably superior Union forces at Antietam Creek, close to Sharpsburg. Much blood was shed in the subsequent one-day combat on September 17, 1862. 8,000 men were killed or injured, more than on any other single day of fighting, despite differing accounts regarding the exact death toll. Once more, McClellan withheld a sizable percentage of his forces because he was under the false impression that the Confederate forces outweighed his own. Lee left the field ahead of McClellan, who declined to follow him because he thought Lee had more soldiers than him. Lincoln realized that McClellan would never win the war after the Union army was unable to crush Lee's army at Antietam, and he was compelled to look for a successor. Lincoln was looking for someone who could lead the Union to a resounding victory. In addition, he had a personal distaste for McClellan, who frequently chastised the president for his policies and called him a "baboon" and "gorilla." General Ambrose E. Burnside was selected by Lincoln to succeed McClellan as the commander of the Army of the Potomac. However, Burnside's attempts to advance into Virginia in December 1862 were thwarted when the Confederates maintained their position at Fredericksburg and severely damaged Burnside's soldiers with intense artillery fire. Confederate spirits were raised despite the Union's setback at Fredericksburg, which negatively impacted Northern morale. The Confederates were still in control of Virginia by the end of 1862. Following Burnside's collapse, Lincoln replaced Burnside as commander of the Army of the Potomac in January 1863 with Joseph "Fighting Joe" Hooker. Operating in Kentucky, Tennessee, and the Mississippi River Valley, General Ulysses S. Grant's Army of the West had achieved more success. Both the Union and the Confederacy sought to seize control of the main western waterways, particularly the Mississippi, during the western campaign. There would be two Confederates if the Union held control of the Mississippi. The majority of the combat in this campaign took place in Tennessee, as Grant's Union forces drove Confederate forces out of the state. Pittsburgh Landing, Tennessee, was the site of the pivotal engagement in the western theater on April 6 and 7, 1862. The little log chapel known as Shiloh, which gave the conflict its name, was not far from where Grant's force was encamped on the west bank of the Tennessee River. General Albert Sidney Johnston's Confederate forces assaulted Grant's encampment on Sunday morning, April 6, with the intention of cutting them off from their Tennessee River supply line and forcing them into the marshes on the western side of the river, where they might be annihilated. While Grant was trying to build a defense and call for reinforcements due to his damaged leg, which he was still recovering from at the time of the attack, Union commander William Tecumseh Sherman attempted to galvanize the Union soldiers. Numerous Union soldiers ran away in fear. Sadly, Johnston's death occurred in the afternoon of the first day for the Confederates. General P. G. T. Beauregard assumed command of the Southern troops and, at the end of that day, authorized an assault. One of the two invading columns was so frantic about this assault that it was even without ammo. The next day, well fortified Union soldiers launched a counterattack, completely overwhelming the Confederate forces. Grant had kept the Union presence strong in the Confederate West. Now that it had control of the Mississippi River, the North could focus on dividing the Confederacy in half and denying it access to its most vital waterway. A portion of the Mississippi River was successfully taken over by the Union in the spring and summer of 1862. Admiral David Farragut's Union fleet broke through the fortifications protecting New Orleans in April 1862 and opened firing on the below-sea metropolis. Confederate major general Marshall Lovell ordered his artillery upriver to Vicksburg, Mississippi, after it became apparent that New Orleans could not be resisted any longer. When Union soldiers approached New Orleans, armed citizens battled them. Additionally, they demolished any ships and military equipment that the Union could have used. Fort Pillow, which is located 40 miles from Memphis, Tennessee, a major Confederate city and a hub of industry in the South, was also assaulted by Union naval troops earlier. The Confederate defenders left the fort on June 4, 1862. Following the destruction of the ships defending Memphis, the city fell to the Union on June 6.