Ulysses S. Grant

B

Vicksburg

In the autumn of 1862, Grant began planning the drive on Vicksburg, Mississippi, the Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River, which was to yield one of his greatest military successes. After several unsuccessful attempts on Vicksburg during the winter, Grant devised a new strategy of attack. In April 1863 he marched his army south along the west side of the river to a point well below the heavily defended city. There, with the aid of the Union river fleet, he crossed the river and began a swift march eastward. On May 12 he captured Jackson, Mississippi, the capital of the state, directly east of Vicksburg. Then he turned west toward Vicksburg.

On May 16 and 17 at Champion's Hill and Big Black River, Grant defeated General John C. Pemberton, commander of the Confederate forces defending Vicksburg, and drove him to prepared positions within the city. Grant's assault on the main Confederate works at Vicksburg failed, however, and he resorted to a siege, or isolation of the city from supplies or reinforcements to compel it to surrender. The siege lasted six weeks. On July 4, 1863, bottled up on land and prevented by Union gunboats from escaping across the river, Pemberton surrendered his 30,000 men to Grant (see Vicksburg, Campaign of).

Grant's capture of Vicksburg and the Union victory at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on the same day brought great joy to the North. Besides giving the Union control of the Mississippi River, the Vicksburg victory removed a Confederate army from the field and freed Grant and his men for operations elsewhere. Grant was made a major general in the regular army.

C

Supreme Commander in the West

Another objective of the Union was to control eastern Tennessee. For this they needed to capture and hold the major railroad center of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Chattanooga was occupied in late 1863 by the Army of the Cumberland (formerly the Army of the Ohio) under General William S. Rosecrans, but he was quickly challenged by the Confederate army of General Braxton Bragg. Bragg faced Rosecrans at the Battle of Chickamauga, about 20 km (about 12 mi) south of Chattanooga, on September 19 and 20, 1863, and forced him back. The Army of the Cumberland retreated into the city, where Bragg bottled them up. It was decided that Grant should save the situation, and for this he was given another promotion.

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In mid-October Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton met Grant in Louisville, Kentucky, with new orders. Grant was to be supreme commander in the West, a post that had been unfilled since General Halleck was called to Washington, D.C. Reporting to him were General George H. Thomas, replacing Rosecrans as head of the Army of the Cumberland; General William T. Sherman, taking over Grant's old command, the Army of the Tennessee; and General Joseph Hooker, with 20,000 men sent west from the Army of the Potomac.

With 60,000 troops at his command, Grant resumed the offensive and, from November 23 to 25, engaged Bragg in the Battle of Chattanooga. Bragg's army was dug in on two promontories, Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, overlooking the city. Grant skillfully directed the movement of his three armies, and on November 25, the third day of action, his men took Missionary Ridge. The Confederate army was forced to retreat. Grant's victory at Chattanooga cleared Tennessee of Confederate troops and opened the way for an invasion of the lower South.

D

General in Chief of the Union Army

In February 1864 Congress revived the rank of lieutenant general, which until then had been held only by George Washington and Winfield Scott. On March 9, President Lincoln nominated Grant for that top rank. Then, relieving General Halleck as general in chief, he made Grant supreme commander of all Union forces. Grant assigned his command of the western armies to General Sherman.

Throughout the rest of the war, Grant was in constant communication with Lincoln, either by personal conference or by telegraph. He was the first of Lincoln's generals in chief to have the president's full confidence. Lincoln had great respect for Grant's military knowledge, leadership, and strength of will, and he gave him wide authority for planning the conduct of the war.

Grant, in turn, set up an efficient command organization. He reported his plans and troop and supply requirements directly to Lincoln and Secretary of War Stanton. Grant's 17 field commands, comprising more than 500,000 men, were expertly directed with the help of General Halleck, who now served under Grant as chief of staff.

Now that he was in full command, Grant developed an overall strategy for the Union forces. Rather than capture cities or territory, he decided to go after the principal Southern armies. By coordinating the Union armies and the Union river fleet, he would apply relentless pressure against the Southern forces and wear them down. He relied on the economic strength of the North to keep him supplied with fresh equipment and troops while he kept the Southern armies from receiving resources of their own. Grant assigned the Army of the Potomac to engage the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, commanded by General Robert E. Lee. Grant's western armies would meanwhile take on the Confederate Army of the West and sweep eastward through the South in a wide circling movement. Grant himself would accompany the Army of the Potomac, commanded by General George Gordon Meade.

E

The Wilderness

Early in May, Grant led the Army of the Potomac across the Rapidan River in Virginia, where from May 5 to May 6 he engaged Lee's army in the swampy, wooded sector known as the Wilderness. His losses there were appalling. For the next month, Grant's men fought a series of battles against Lee's men, climaxing at Cold Harbor on June 3, where they suffered still more colossal casualties. On that day alone Grant lost 7000 men. His total losses for the month were nearly 60,000. As a result, he was called “Butcher” Grant by many people. “I have always regretted,” Grant confessed in his memoirs many years later, “that the last assault at Cold Harbor was ever made. No advantage whatever was ever gained to compensate for the heavy loss we sustained.”

After Cold Harbor, Lee took up a strongly entrenched position at Richmond, the capital of Virginia and of the Confederacy. Grant now altered his strategy. Instead of making a direct attack on Lee's well-defended position, he decided to proceed against Petersburg, the railroad and supply link between Richmond and the rest of the South. A great assault from June 15 to June 18 failed to take Petersburg, and Grant was forced to undertake siege operations.

F

Petersburg

From the middle of June 1864 to early April 1865, Grant besieged Petersburg. At the same time he cut Lee's transportation lines and sent out flanking expeditions against the Southern forces. While Grant, month after month, slowly starved out Lee's men, his generals carried out the other part of his strategy. General Thomas destroyed the Confederate Army of Tennessee at Nashville. General Philip H. Sheridan devastated the Shenandoah Valley, and General Sherman marched through Georgia and South Carolina, destroying everything in his path that could be of use to the Confederate Army.

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