Grant’s Grand Strategy and ShermanID & SIG:Unity of CommandGrant as General in ChiefElements of Grant’s StrategyGrant’s Grand StrategyGrant’s Plan for 1864VirginiaGeorgiaMobileTraditional Military StrategiesGrant and the “American Way of War’Grant and the “American Way of War”Slide 14ExecutionSlide 16Political SituationAtlanta Campaign: Political ImplicationsThe Atlanta CampaignThe FederalsThe ConfederatesJohnstonJohn Bell HoodHood Takes the OffensiveThe Fall of AtlantaPolitical ImpactMarch to the SeaSlide 28Slide 29Slide 30March NorthNorth CarolinaThe Virginia CampaignThe WildernessThe WildernessSlide 36Slide 37Slide 38SpotsylvaniaSlide 40PetersburgSlide 42Slide 43Five ForksAppomattoxPost-AppomattoxLegacy of the US Civil WarNextGrant’s Grand Strategy and ShermanLsn 11ID & SIG:•Appomattox, Atlanta, Banks, Butler, Grant, Kennesaw Mountain, Meade, Petersburg, Sherman’s March to the Sea, Spotsylvania, total war, unity of effort, WildernessUnity of Command•From Manassas to Chattanooga, the Federals had fought without a grand strategy or a supreme field commander–Twin, uncoordinated victories at Vicksburg and Gettysburg demonstrated the problem•With the election of 1864 approaching, Lincoln had to show the war was making progress–Looked to Ulysses Grant to lead the country to victoryGrant as General in Chief•Grant was promoted to lieutenant general March 9, 1864–Replaced Henry Halleck as General in Chief•Grant saw the war as a whole where previous Federal generals had viewed it in terms of separate theaters with little cooperative effort–This disjointed view had allowed Confederates to shift forces from one threat to the nextA council of war with Grant leaning over the shoulder of Meade looking at a mapElements of Grant’s Strategy•Simultaneously advance on all fronts to prevent the Confederates from shifting forces•Focus on enemy forces rather than “strategic points”•Maximize forces by eliminating passive occupation duties and reallocating forces in dispersed locations like Florida and Arkansas•Combine destruction of Southern armies with destruction of Southern war resourcesGrant’s Grand Strategy•Maneuver Lee away from the Rapidan River and defeat him in open terrain by decisive battle (Meade)•Cut the James-Appomattox River line to sever Lee’s rail and road links to other parts of the Confederacy (Butler)•Execute a wide wheeling movement through the South to complete the envelopment of the Confederacy east of the Mississippi (Sherman)•Attack through Mobile to close that port (Banks)Grant’s Plan for 1864•Grant determined to “press” the Confederates on all sides in May 1864:–Meade overland in the East–Sigel up the Shenandoah Valley–Butler up the James River–Sherman overland to Atlanta–Banks toward Mobile•Lincoln describes the concept as being “Those not skinning can hold a leg”Virginia•Meade’s Army of the Potomac–Main effort–“Lee’s army is your objective point. Wherever Lee goes, there you will go also.” (Grant)•“Hold a leg”–Sigel advance up the Shenandoah Valley–Butler conduct an amphibious operation against the Richmond-Petersburg areaBoth Butler and Sigel were primarily political generalsGeorgia•“You I propose to move against Johnston’s army, to break it up, and to get into the interior of the enemy’s country as far as you can, inflicting all the damage you can against their war resources.” (Grant to Sherman)Mobile•By 1864 only Mobile, Alabama and Wilmington, NC remained open to Confederate blockade runners•Closing Mobile would further isolate the ConfederacyTraditional Military Strategies•Attrition–The reduction of the effectiveness of a force caused by loss of personnel and materiel •Exhaustion–The gradual erosion of a nation’s will or means to resist•Annihilation–Seeks the immediate destruction of the combat power of the enemy’s armed forcesGrant and the “American Way of War’•Grant knew that the hopes for the Confederacy lay in a strategy of exhaustion–“… I think that [Johnston’s] policy [in the Atlanta Campaign] was the best one that could have been pursued by the whole South– protract the war, which was all that was necessary to enable them to gain recognition in the end.”Grant and the “American Way of War”•Grant knew that the Napoleonic ideal of a single decisive victory was a thing of the past•Instead he would keep relentless pressure on the enemy and be willing to accept tremendous casualties himself with the knowledge that his casualties could be replaced but the South’s could not•Grant “developed a highly uncommon ability to rise above the fortunes of a single battle and to master the flow of a long series of events, almost to the point of making any outcome of a single battle, victory, draw, or even defeat, serve his eventual purposes equally well.”–Russell WeigleyGrant and the “American Way of War”•Grant sought the destruction of the Confederate armies through attrition and annihilation–While mercilessly directly pounding Lee’s army with Meade, Grant added an indirect approach to destroy the enemy’s armies by striking the Confederate war resources with ShermanExecution•Meade, Sherman, Butler, and Sigel all began operations in May 1864–Sigel was defeated at the Battle of New Market on May 15–Butler landed on the James-Appomattox peninsula and was quickly cut off by the Confederates•Both supporting efforts failed•Banks got distracted with the Red River Campaign and did not attack Mobile“Virginia Mourns Her Dead” statue at Virginia Military InstituteExecution•Even Meade’s effort against Lee seemed to have reached a stalemate with the siege of Petersburg–In June and July, Jubal Early launched a raid from the Shenandoah Valley into western Maryland and toward Washington–The Confederates were stopped but the mere fact that they could still pose such a threat alarmed the publicPolitical Situation•These developments did not bode well for Lincoln as he faced reelection in November–On Aug 23, 1864, Lincoln had his cabinet members endorse a memo that said, “This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probably that this Administration will not be re-elected. Then it will by my duty to so cooperate with the President elect, as to save the Union between the Election and the inauguration; as he will have secured his election on such ground that he cannot