University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER XXVII

LEE AND GRANT

The Raid of Kilpatrick and Dahlgren. — In March 1864,
the Federal authorities dispatched General Kilpatrick with
four thousand cavalry on a raid around Lee's lines, the
object of which was to capture Richmond by a dash, and
to release the prisoners confined there. Kilpatrick planned
to make his attack from the north, and he sent Colonel
Ulric Dahlgren with a detachment of his troops to approach
the city from the south. But the expedition came
to nothing. Dahlgren[43] was killed by the Confederates,
and his command scattered, while Kilpatrick was forced
to retreat. This bold attempt was made just before the
opening of the spring campaign, in which Virginia was
destined to become the battle ground of one of the most
remarkable series of engagements recorded in history.

General Grant[44] — During the first years of the war General
Ulysses S. Grant, a resident of Illinois, rose to distinction

in the operations that were carried on in the West
and South. He was noted for his great ability to handle
armies under difficult circumstances, and for the energy
with which he threw himself into the contest. In March,
1864, he was put in command of all the forces of the
United States, and took charge in person of the military
operations in Virginia.

The "Hammering Campaign." — Grant became commander
in chief of the Federal army at a time when the
strength of the South was nearly exhausted. Realizing
this, he decided to adopt the method of continuously hammering
at the Confederates and their resources till the
South should be compelled to submit. Thus his policy
was to trust to force rather than to strategy. The Hammering
campaign for Virginia, planned by Grant, was very
extensive. The Army of the Potomac was to advance
from the north on Richmond. General Butler was to
move up the James with a fleet and some thirty-five
thousand men, capture Petersburg, and attack Richmond
from the south, while Generals Crook and Sigel were to
operate in the Valley, and, after taking Staunton and
Lynchburg, to attack the Confederates in the rear. The
movements of the Army of the Potomac General Grant
directed himself, though General Meade was left in immediate
command.

Battles of the Wilderness. — When the campaign opened,
the Army of the Potomac numbered one hundred and

U. S. Grant

eighteen thousand, and it was opposed by General Lee
with about sixty-four thousand, according to the highest
estimates. Grant crossed the Rapidan on his march
southward, and entered a region of country covered with
scraggy oak and pine trees and full of tangled underbrush,
known as the Wilderness. Here, not far from
Chancellorsville, the hostile armies came into collision,
and for five days a terrible contest went on; but Grant
was unable to drive Lee back. By moving to the left,
however, he reached Spottsylvania Courthouse where
much heavy fighting took place. A flank movement
brought Grant to Cold Harbor, where, early in June, in
attempting to carry the Confederate works by assault, he
lost thirteen thousand men in a half hour, and his men
refused to renew the attack. Grant again moved to the
left and crossed the James, having resolved to lay siege to
Petersburg.

Lee's Generalship. — General Lee's management of this
campaign alone would have rendered him famous. In the
long series of engagements that took place from the Wilderness
to the James, he had defeated his powerful antagonist
again and again, and inflicted on him a loss that
exceeded the total number of his own forces. Not only did
he do this, but in spite of all the difficulties that surrounded
him, he succeeded in keeping the expeditions that
were to cooperate with the Army of the Potomac from
rendering any very effective aid. The chief results of
these minor campaigns were as follows.

Butler Imprisoned. — Butler landed at Bermuda Hundred,
a bottle-shaped piece of land made by a bend in the
James. This he fortified and made the base of his operations.
But the Confederates under Beauregard defeated
him at Drury's Bluff, and forcing him within his defenses

R. E. Lee

imprisoned him by building a line of strong fortifications
across the neck of his bottle, thus for the time
rendering him harmless. General Grant said that "his
army was as completely shut off as if it had been in a
bottle strongly corked."

Defeat of Sigel at New Market. — Early in May, General
Sigel with seven thousand men advanced up the Valley;

but at New Market, General John C. Breckenridge defeated
him and forced him to retreat. Just before the
battle, a battalion of cadets from the Virginia Military
Institute, two hundred and thirty strong, came under the
command of Colonel Ship to aid the Confederates in driving
Sigel back, and in the engagement behaved with distinguished
gallantry. The cadets occupied a position in
the Confederate line just in front of Sigel's artillery battery,
which they charged with the steadiness of old veterans
and captured, bayoneting some of the cannoneers who
stood to their guns. When the battle was over, forty-six
of the brave boys lay upon the field wounded and eight
were dead. This incident shows that even the boys were
filled with the determination to fight the war out to its
bitter end.

Early defeats Hunter and threatens Washington. — On
the first of June, 1864, General David Hunter, who after
the battle of New Market had succeeded Sigel, was commanded
by the Federal authorities to begin another campaign
in the Valley, the special object of which was to
capture Lynchburg. Near Port Republic he defeated
General W. E. Jones, whom General Lee had ordered from
southwest Virginia to defend the Valley. After doing this
he was reenforced by cavalry under Generals Crook and
Averill, which raised his force to eighteen thousand, and
now for a time he went his way without serious opposition.
His march was marked by the most wanton destruction of
property. At Lexington he burned the Virginia Military
Institute, the residence of Governor Letcher, and other
private property. On reaching Lynchburg he encountered
General Early,[45] whom Lee, after defeating Grant at
Cold Harbor, had sent with a detachment of troops to defend
the city. Hunter now retreated precipitately towards
West Virginia. In July, Early marched into Maryland,
and, though he had but twelve thousand men, he approached
within cannon shot of Washington, but found
the city too strongly garrisoned to venture to attack it
with his small force. Later he made a raid into Pennsylvania

and burned Chambersburg in retaliation for Hunter's
vandalism in the Valley.

Sheridan's Devastation of the Valley. — Early's operations
in the Valley proved so troublesome to the Federals that,
in August, General Grant sent Sheridan with forty thousand
men to dislodge him. After much maneuvering,
Sheridan finally defeated Early, and then by Grant's
orders he laid the Valley waste, killing cattle and sheep,
carrying off horses, and burning barns, mills, farming implements,
grain, and hay. The work of destruction was
so complete in this most fertile part of Virginia, that
Sheridan, it is said, asserted that "a crow, flying across
the Valley, must carry its own rations."

Siege of Petersburg — Grant crossed the James the middle
of June and hoped to capture Petersburg before Lee's
army could come to its defense. But in this he was disappointed.
The first assaults that were made were repulsed
by Beauregard's troops, who succeeded in holding the city
for three days; and then the torn battle-flags of the Army
of Northern Virginia were seen floating above the hastily
constructed fortifications. Lee's army had arrived. On
the very day that Lee's veterans reached Petersburg,
Grant made two desperate attempts to take the Confederate
works by storm; but his troops were driven back
with a loss of nine thousand. Lee continued to improve
the defenses of the city till they were impregnable from
assault. A separate chain of fortifications provided for the
defense of Richmond; but General Grant's main efforts
were directed against Petersburg, as a capture of this city
would lead to the fall of Richmond.

Battle of the Crater — The first attempts to capture
Petersburg having ended in failure, Grant now tried to
get possession of the beleaguered city by a novel expedient.

Burnside's Ninth Corps lay intrenched within
one hundred and fifty yards of an angle in the Confederate
works, which was covered by a fort. Under this
point General Grant, at a suggestion of Burnside, had a
mine dug in which was stored eighty hundredweight of gunpowder.
On July 30 the mine was exploded, blowing the
fort and its garrison of two hundred and fifty-six men high

Battle of the Crater

into the air, and leaving a crater thirty feet deep, sixty feet
wide, and one hundred and seventy feet long. The Federal
batteries at once opened on the Confederate works, while
an assaulting column moved up to storm them. But the
Confederates speedily regained their self-possession, and
turned their guns upon the besiegers, who, having rushed
through the opening, found themselves enfiladed from the
right and the left by artillery and fusilladed from the front
by musketry. The end came when Lee sent General
Mahone with two brigades of Hill's corps, who drove
the stormers back and retook the whole line. The crater
was for the Federals a hideous slaughter pen. Their loss
was four thousand, and Grant said the affair was a
"stupendous failure."

Situation at the End of 1864. — In November, 1864,
President Lincoln was elected for a second term, which
showed that the North intended to continue to carry on
the war vigorously. By the end of the year, the power of
the Confederacy in the West had been almost entirely
destroyed. The eleven states she started with had been
practically reduced to three — Virginia, North Carolina,
and South Carolina. Sherman had marched through
Georgia, and was preparing to cross the Carolinas and
enter Virginia with an army of sixty thousand men. Lee,
it is true, had defeated Grant again and again; but his
victories had been fruitless; for he had not been able, with
the slender resources at his command, to destroy the Federal
army, nor to drive it out of Virginia. The Confederacy
had about come to the end of her resources. Her money
was nearly worthless,[46] and her credit was gone. The brave
men that had fallen in battle she could not replace. The
soldiers that remained in her armies were veterans that
could be relied on; but they were opposed by four times
as many men on the Federal side. The course of events

had been such as to indicate the speedy collapse of the
Confederacy from exhaustion; but neither the South nor
the North realized how near this was at hand, so wonderful
had been the defensive warfare waged by General Lee.

QUESTIONS

• 1. Describe the raid of Kilpatrick and Dahlgren.

• 2. Who was Ulysses S. Grant, and for what was he noted?

• 3. What was Grant's "Hammering Campaign"?

• 4. Describe the battles of the Wilderness. Give relative strength of
  the two armies.

• 5. What occurred at Cold Harbor?

• 6. What is said of Lee's generalship?

• 7. How did Beauregard render Butler harmless?

• 8. What did Grant say of Butler's army?

• 9. Describe the gallant conduct of the cadets of the Virginia Military
  Institute, at New Market.

• 10. Describe Hunter's campaign in the Valley.

• 11. What vandalism did he commit at Lexington?

• 12. By whom was he met, and defeated?

• 13. Why did not Early continue his march, and attack Washington?

• 14. Whom did Grant send to defeat Early, and with how many men?

• 15. What did Sheridan do in the Valley, and what assertion did he
  make?

• 16. What did Grant hope to do on crossing the James?

• 17. How were his first assaults repulsed?

• 18. Give an account of the Petersburg mine.

• 19. How did it recoil upon the Federals?

• 20. What did Grant say of it?

• 21. What did the reelection of Lincoln show the South?

• 22. To what limits had the Confederacy been reduced at the end of
  1864?

• 23. What was Sherman now preparing to do?

• 24. What is said of the resources of the Confederacy?