#jebstuart

Overland Campaign: Throwing Men Into the Meat Grinder of the US Civil War

The Overland Campaign (4 May to 12 June 1864) was a major Union offensive into Virginia, launched during the final year of the American Civil War (1861-1865). It saw the Union Army of the Potomac fight the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in five important engagements:

Battle of the Wilderness

Battle of Spotsylvania Court House

Battle of Yellow Tavern

Battle of North Anna

Battle of Cold Harbor

It resulted in over 80,000 casualties and led to the Siege of Petersburg (June 1864 to April 1865), one of the last military operations of the war.

Background

In March 1864, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant was named general-in-chief of all Union armies. His appointment came at a critical point in the war – it was an election year, and throughout much of the North, people were growing war-weary, tired of learning of battlefield defeats. There was a real chance that US President Abraham Lincoln would fail to be re-elected come November and that a potential successor would strike a disadvantageous peace with the South, just to appease the growing anti-war faction. To stave off this eventuality, Grant knew he had to win a series of victories dazzling enough to restore confidence in Lincoln and his pro-Union administration.

To do this, Grant needed to be aggressive. Indeed, he spent his first weeks in command planning a multi-pronged offensive designed to squeeze the Southern Confederacy into submission. In the Western theater, Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman would lead his 100,000-man army into Georgia, beginning the decisive Atlanta Campaign (May-September 1864). Simultaneously, the 118,000-man Army of the Potomac, under Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade, would cross the Rapidan River and launch an offensive into Virginia.

Unlike previous offensives, however, Meade's objective would not be the Confederate capital of Richmond. Rather, his goal would be to seek out and destroy the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia under Gen. Robert E. Lee. Only after the destruction of Lee's army, Grant believed, could Richmond be taken. His exact instructions to Meade were "wherever Lee's army shall go, you shall also go" (quoted in McPherson, 722). As Meade dealt with Lee, another army under Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler would move up the James River to threaten Richmond from the southeast, while yet another force under Maj. Gen. Franz Sigel was to disrupt Confederate supply lines in the Shenandoah Valley.

Grant was no armchair general, and before the end of March, he had joined the Army of the Potomac at its camp north of the Rapidan River. He immediately set to work, helping Meade reorganize the army – condensing five infantry corps into three – and conducted regular troops inspections. His reputation as a fighter preceded him, and the soldiers found themselves looking on him with awe; here, at last, was a man they felt could lead them to victory. "We finally felt like the boss had arrived", one soldier remarked (quoted in Catton, 46). Grant's plan was to cross the Rapidan in early May, quickly moving the army into a dense section of woodlands known as the Wilderness. Though the Wilderness offered few roads and little room to maneuver, Grant hoped to swiftly make his way through before Lee had a chance to stop him. Once he was out of the trees, he could fight Lee on open ground of his own choosing.

Meanwhile, Lee was bracing for the attack he knew was coming. He had two infantry corps at hand, the Second and Third Corps; the First Corps, under Lt. Gen. James Longstreet, had just returned from a stint in Tennessee and was still nine miles (14.5 km) away at Gordonsville. Lee's plan was to use the Second and Third Corps to contain the Army of the Potomac as it marched through the Wilderness, a move that would negate Grant's numerical superiority. These corps would keep Grant's army bottled up for as long as it took for Longstreet to come up and hammer the Army of the Potomac into submission. It was a long shot, to be sure, but Lee had won his most impressive victories after taking similar gambles.

Read More

Battle of Yellow Tavern: The Death of J. E. B. Stuart

The Battle of Yellow Tavern (11 May 1864) was a pivotal engagement of the American Civil War (1861-1865), not so much for any grand strategic reason than for the loss of Major General J. E. B. Stuart, the famed Confederate cavalry commander. Fought 6 miles (9.6 km) north of the Confederate capital of Richmond, the battle was part of a ploy by Union Major General Philip H. Sheridan to lure Stuart's cavalry corps out into the open, where it could be defeated. The ploy worked, as Stuart rode his tired troopers out to defend the capital. Hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned, the rebels were defeated after a full day of fighting. Stuart was mortally wounded by a shot to the abdomen and was taken to Richmond, where he would die the next day.

Background

On 4 May 1864, the Union Army of the Potomac crossed the Rapidan River to begin the Overland Campaign, its largest, most aggressive invasion of Virginia yet. Ahead of the 118,000-man host rode the cavalry corps under the command of Major General Philip H. Sheridan. A small, bandy-legged man with close-cropped hair and a dark mustache, Sheridan had recently been transferred from the West and was displeased with the way cavalry was being utilized in Virginia. Cavalry out here was little more than a glorified reconnaissance force, sent to scout ahead and gather information or kept close to screen the movements of the army. Sheridan believed that it should be used more aggressively and wanted to strike out on his own to harry the enemy supply lines and wreak havoc in the vicinity of Richmond.

On 8 May, amidst the first shots of the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, Sheridan rode to army headquarters to speak with Major General George Gordon Meade, commander of the Army of the Potomac. Meade, known for his brusqueness and quick temper, accused Sheridan of mishandling his cavalry thus far in the campaign, to which Sheridan vented his frustration at not being allowed to act with more aggression. He claimed that if he were unleashed, he could destroy the Confederate supply depots and railroads between General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and the capital of Richmond. But Sheridan was proposing more than just a raid: his true purpose was to draw out the Confederate cavalry corps under the legendary J. E. B. Stuart. If he could meet Stuart in open battle, Sheridan was confident he could use his superior numbers and equipment to decisively defeat the Southern cavalier and neutralize the Confederate cavalry altogether.

Meade, however, did not want to hear any challenge to his authority and, before long, the two were locked in a heated shouting match. Presently, Meade stormed off to find the general-in-chief, Ulysses S. Grant, who had made his headquarters in the army. Grant had known Sheridan from his time out West, and so when Meade explained the predicament, the general-in-chief sat back, chewing on his cigar. "Did Sheridan say that?" he asked. After mulling over the proposal for a moment or two, Grant shrugged. "He generally knows what he's about," he said. "Let him start right out and do it" (quoted in Foote, 201). Having thus been given his mandate to go out and 'whip' General Stuart, Sheridan wasted no time gathering three of his cavalry divisions and ordering them to make ready to ride the next morning.

Read More

Shop eBay for great deals from frictionhouse!