Grant and Sherman: The Friendship that Won the Civil War (44 page)
Read Grant and Sherman: The Friendship that Won the Civil War Online
Authors: Charles Bracelen Flood
Tags: #Biography, #History, #bought-and-paid-for, #Non-Fiction
BOOK: Grant and Sherman: The Friendship that Won the Civil War
13.06Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
Even after this loss of one of the keys to the city’s defenses, Hardee did not give up. Sherman, having brought sixty-two thousand men all the way from Atlanta with a total of only seven hundred killed, wounded, and missing, wanted to spare his men’s lives if he could and decided for the moment not to make further attacks but continue the siege in hopes of seeing a white flag run up over Savannah. (Either because his troops could not get there, or because he hoped Hardee would avoid a battle by withdrawing his troops from the city, Sherman left open a route of retreat to the north along one of the causeways that ran through the flooded rice fields.)
Now, with easy access to the many ships that had been waiting for him offshore, Sherman was able to get food and supplies for his army, and from an inland direction he also received the first communications from the North that he had seen in a month. He learned that his son Charles, born on June 11, had died on December 4, making this the second child that he and Ellen had lost in fourteen months. Sherman appears not to have written Ellen immediately, and when he did, his words about this infant he had never seen sounded distant, stoical:
The last letter I got from you … made me fear for our baby, but I had hoped that the little fellow would weather the ailment, but it seems that he too, is lost to us, and gone to join Willy. I cannot say that I grieve for him as I did for Willy, for he was but a mere ideal, whereas Willy was incorporated with us … But amid the Scenes of death and desolation through which I daily pass I cannot but become callous to death[.] It is so common, so familiar that it no longer impresses me as of old—You on the contrary surrounded alone by life & youth cannot take things so philosophically but are stayed by the Religious faith of a better and higher life elsewhere[.] I should like to have seen the baby of which all spoke so well, but I seem doomed to pass my life away so even my children will be strangers.
At the same time, Sherman received a disquieting letter from Grant in Virginia, who, once again in the spirit of “keep the ball moving,” wanted him to waste no more time in massively besieging or attacking Savannah, which was now effectively cut off from aiding the Confederate cause. Just throw a screen of men around the city and build up a base anywhere near there on the coast, Grant told him, and as soon as we get enough transport ships down to you, embark your army and “come here by water with all dispatch.” He explained that he wanted to bring Sherman’s army straight to Virginia because “I have concluded that the most important operation toward closing the rebellion will be to close out Lee and his army.”
This was not what Sherman wanted, but he began turning captured Fort McAllister into the base that Grant told him to create. Reminiscent of the way that Grant, commanding smaller forces along the Mississippi earlier in the war, had taken advantage of every opportunity that was not specifically prohibited, Sherman decided to try to seize the city before the transports arrived to take his men up the coast to Virginia. With the escape corridor still open north of the city, Sherman began closing in on Savannah.
Everything fell into place for him. On December 21, Hardee used the causeway that Sherman’s men had not closed, hurried his defenders out of the city, and fled north across the Savannah River into South Carolina, leaving behind one of the Confederacy’s largest concentrations of heavy artillery. Sherman marched into Savannah, in the heart of the South; as had been the case with Atlanta, where Hood evacuated the city, there was no significant capture of enemy troops, but he had successfully completed his epic March to the Sea. The next day he sent a telegram to Abraham Lincoln that said in its entirety: “I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the City of Savannah with 150 heavy guns & plenty of ammunition & also about 25,000 bales of cotton.”
Sherman became the Union’s man of the hour. The joyous news thrilled the North: strangers on the street stopped each other to cry out, “He’s made it! Sherman’s at Savannah!” In a headline, the
Chicago Tribune
called him “Our Military Santa Claus.” Praise engulfed him. Lincoln wrote:
Chicago Tribune
called him “Our Military Santa Claus.” Praise engulfed him. Lincoln wrote:
My Dear General Sherman:Many, many thanks for your Christmas gift—the capture of Savannah. When you were about to leave Atlanta for the Atlantic coast, I was anxious, if not fearful … Now the undertaking being a success, the honor is all yours, for I believe none of us went further than to acquiesce …But what next? I suppose it will be safe if I leave it to you and General Grant to decide.
Grant, adding his praise in a letter to Sherman marked “Confidential,” said, “I congratulate you, and the brave officers and men under your command, on the successful termination of your most brilliant campaign … the like of which is not read of in past history.” He included the somewhat questionable statement that “I never had a doubt of the result,” and closed with, “I subscribe myself, more than ever, if possible, Your Friend, U. S. Grant.” Writing to his father, Grant underscored his enthusiasm by saying, “Sherman has now demonstrated his great Capacity as a Soldier by his unequalled campaign through Georgia.”
The news of Sherman’s March to the Sea and its climax resonated in Europe. The
Edinburgh Review
described it as being among “the highest achievements which the annals of modern warfare record,” and the London
Times
, comparing him with the duke of Marlborough, said of his campaign, “military history has recorded no stronger marvel.” For many in the South, the inability of Confederate forces to stop a march right through its heart signaled the end of any chance of turning the tide. Even the bravest men quailed at the thought of an enemy army marching upon their homes and families: a Confederate officer wrote that his worries about his family made his “soul to sink in anguish” and his hopes “perish.” Southern women remained bitterly opposed to the Northern invasion and hated the often rude and sometimes brutal and thieving incursions into their homes. Many still expressed their hopes for a Confederate victory—when the Northern columns occupied Savannah, Mrs. William Henry Stiles wrote her son William, a Confederate soldier serving in Virginia, “After seeing what we have,
we
know how formidable Sherman’s army is … Still with General Lee at our head, and with the blessing of the Almighty, we shall not be made slaves to these wretches.” But some women who had not done so before began to see that the men they had sent off to war could not save the way of life dear to them all. Allie Travis, of Covington, Georgia, thirty-two miles east of Atlanta, was described by a correspondent traveling with Sherman’s army as “very pretty and intelligent.” She wrote of the day the Union troops marched through on their way to Savannah, “The street in front of our house was a moving mass of ‘blue coats’—infantry, artillery, and cavalry—from 9 o’clock in the morning to a late hour at night.” She reflected, “Who can describe our feelings on that morning! All human aid was gone. Prayers for personal safety went up to Heaven from the depths of [a] woman’s agonized heart.”
Edinburgh Review
described it as being among “the highest achievements which the annals of modern warfare record,” and the London
Times
, comparing him with the duke of Marlborough, said of his campaign, “military history has recorded no stronger marvel.” For many in the South, the inability of Confederate forces to stop a march right through its heart signaled the end of any chance of turning the tide. Even the bravest men quailed at the thought of an enemy army marching upon their homes and families: a Confederate officer wrote that his worries about his family made his “soul to sink in anguish” and his hopes “perish.” Southern women remained bitterly opposed to the Northern invasion and hated the often rude and sometimes brutal and thieving incursions into their homes. Many still expressed their hopes for a Confederate victory—when the Northern columns occupied Savannah, Mrs. William Henry Stiles wrote her son William, a Confederate soldier serving in Virginia, “After seeing what we have,
we
know how formidable Sherman’s army is … Still with General Lee at our head, and with the blessing of the Almighty, we shall not be made slaves to these wretches.” But some women who had not done so before began to see that the men they had sent off to war could not save the way of life dear to them all. Allie Travis, of Covington, Georgia, thirty-two miles east of Atlanta, was described by a correspondent traveling with Sherman’s army as “very pretty and intelligent.” She wrote of the day the Union troops marched through on their way to Savannah, “The street in front of our house was a moving mass of ‘blue coats’—infantry, artillery, and cavalry—from 9 o’clock in the morning to a late hour at night.” She reflected, “Who can describe our feelings on that morning! All human aid was gone. Prayers for personal safety went up to Heaven from the depths of [a] woman’s agonized heart.”
For the moment, Sherman’s aggressive side seemed to be at rest. From Savannah, on January 2, 1865, he wrote Ellen, “I feel a just pride in the Confidence of my army, and the singular friendship of Genl. Grant, who is almost childlike in his love for me.” Sherman had instituted a comparatively courteous and orderly military occupation of Savannah reminiscent of his policies when he served as military governor of Memphis earlier in the war. Writing Ellen again on January 5, he referred to families he had met during his tours of duty in the Deep South as a young officer more than twenty years before: “There are some very elegant people here, whom I knew in Better days and who do not seem ashamed to call on the Vandal Chief. They regard us just as the Romans did the Goths and the parallel is not unjust. Many of my stalwart men with red beards and huge frames look like Giants.”
As for how Sherman actually felt about his epic March to the Sea, he also wrote this to Ellen: “I can hardly realize it for really it was easy, but like one who has walked a narrow plank I look back and wonder if I really did it.” He added, “People here talk as though the war was coming to a close, but I know better.”
At this point Sherman was confronted with an unusual result of his famous march, involving an incident at which he had not been present. On December 9, twelve days before Sherman entered Savannah, the commander of his Fourteenth Corps had some of his troops crossing Ebeneezer Creek near the city on a pontoon bridge. This officer was Brigadier General Jefferson C. Davis (not related to the Confederate president). Davis had a well-known capacity for anger and violence: on September 29, 1862, after his superior officer General William Nelson had criticized him, Davis provoked an argument with Nelson in the lobby of the Galt House in Louisville and had returned with a pistol and mortally wounded him. There were those who thought he should be tried for murder, but he was restored to duty through the intercession of his friend and political patron Governor Oliver P. Morton of Indiana and went on to distinguish himself at Chickamauga and other actions. On the day Davis was crossing Ebeneezer Creek, with Confederate cavalry general Joseph Wheeler’s men closing in on the rear of his column, a crowd of black refugees was following just behind the Union troops. As soon as the last of Davis’s soldiers crossed the pontoon bridge, he ordered it to be taken down: stranded on the far side, the freed slaves were terrified that the advancing Confederates would kill them for casting their lot with the Northern troops they regarded as being their liberators. They began leaping into the water in an effort to escape by crossing the creek. Most could not swim: despite the efforts many Union soldiers made to save them, an undetermined but significant number of black men, women, and children drowned.
At the time, it had been only one incident in a massive campaign, and Sherman had supported Davis’s removal of the pontoon bridge as an act to save his troops from an attack by enemy forces that were right on their heels. In the North, while Sherman remained an immensely popular hero, some in Congress saw the drowning tragedy as demonstrating a cruel indifference to the blacks’ fate and as being indicative of Sherman’s sometimes expressed views on their racial inferiority. On January 9, Secretary of War Stanton arrived at Savannah aboard the ship
Nevada
; he had been in poor health and this trip was in part supposed to give one of the hardest-working men in the government something of a rest in a warm climate, but he had a number of important matters he wished to discuss with Sherman, and the drowning was uppermost. When Sherman again defended Davis’s decision to dismantle the pontoon bridge, Stanton asked Sherman to organize a meeting with representatives of Savannah’s black population. Sherman invited twenty men, most of them ministers, to meet with Stanton and was offended when Stanton asked him to leave the room when he finished the questions about the tragedy and turned to soliciting the black leaders’ impressions of Sherman.
Nevada
; he had been in poor health and this trip was in part supposed to give one of the hardest-working men in the government something of a rest in a warm climate, but he had a number of important matters he wished to discuss with Sherman, and the drowning was uppermost. When Sherman again defended Davis’s decision to dismantle the pontoon bridge, Stanton asked Sherman to organize a meeting with representatives of Savannah’s black population. Sherman invited twenty men, most of them ministers, to meet with Stanton and was offended when Stanton asked him to leave the room when he finished the questions about the tragedy and turned to soliciting the black leaders’ impressions of Sherman.
Sherman need not have worried about the black leaders’ view of him. The notes made by Assistant Adjutant General Edward D. Townsend, who had accompanied Stanton from Washington, included, “His conduct and deportment toward us characterized him as a friend and gentleman. We have confidence in General Sherman, and think what concerns us could not be in better hands.” After that, developing the document in conference with Stanton, Sherman promulgated his Special Orders No. 15, in which parts of Georgia and South Carolina’s Sea Islands were reserved exclusively for black land ownership. Reversing his views at least publicly on having black soldiers in the Union Army, Sherman offered them, as an incentive for enlisting, a guarantee that they would receive their share of the Sea Island lands after the war.
Seemingly satisfied on that issue, although in fact Sherman would do little to implement his order, Stanton discussed the overall conduct of the war with Sherman, pointing out among other things the desirability of bringing the war to an end quickly because the federal government was nearly bankrupt. He also made the argument, with which Grant had already agreed, that bringing more black troops into the army and using them for garrison duty would free experienced white regiments to participate in the offensives to end the war.
These meetings between the tall, rangy, gesturing Sherman with his short red beard, and the stocky five-foot-eight intense fifty-year-old Stanton with his long graying beard and small steel-rimmed spectacles brought together two men with complicated personalities. Stanton, who had suffered from asthma his entire life, had endured personal suffering that exceeded even Sherman’s loss of his beloved son Willy. At the age of twenty-seven, when Stanton was a rising lawyer, his year-old daughter Lucy died; three years later, when his wife, Mary, suddenly died of a “bilious fever,” in his grief he came close to insanity, leaving his room night after night carrying a lamp as he searched the house, crying out, “Where is Mary?” Stanton had always been fond of and proud of his younger brother Darwin, whom out of the profits from his hardworking law practice he had helped send to Harvard to study medicine, and whom he was also able to assist in being elected to the Virginia legislature; in 1846, two years after his wife died, Dr. Darwin Stanton committed suicide by cutting his throat. It was not clear whether Stanton came upon the scene himself, but an account of the death written by a doctor said, “The blood spouted up to the ceiling,” and Stanton ran into the woods in the night, with his law partner and other friends searching for him until they found him and were able to lead him home. From that time on, Stanton had become outwardly colder and more hardworking and efficient. He went on to remarry and became an important lawyer and politician, serving as President James Buchanan’s attorney general and then returning to his private practice of law in Washington until Lincoln asked him to serve as his secretary of war.
Other books
Moonscatter by Jo Clayton
In the Court of the Yellow King by Tim Curran, Cody Goodfellow, TE Grau, Laurel Halbany, CJ Henderson, Gary McMahon, William Meikle, Christine Morgan, Edward Morris
What to Expect the First Year by Heidi Murkoff
I'm with You by Maynard, Glenna
Hell's Gates (Urban Fantasy) by Celia Kyle, Lauren Creed
The Stargazers by Allison M. Dickson
Highbridge by Phil Redmond
A Beautiful Young Wife by Tommy Wieringa
Catching Tatum by Lucy H. Delaney
Incubus Moon by Andrew Cheney-Feid
