In 4 – 5 sentences, respond to the following:
Grant’s strategy was “to get possession of Lee’s army was the first objective. With the capture of his army, Richmond would necessarily follow. It was better to fight him outside his stronghold than in it.” (Burns, 1990). To do this, his plan was to use the Army of the Potomac under Meade to attack Lee’s army and Grant would tell Meade “Where Lee goes, you go also.” (McPherson & Hogue, 2010). Sherman was to move against Johnston’s Army, break it up and destroy the confederate war resources. Sounds like total war. The auxiliary campaigns consisted of Butler to move up the James River and threaten Richmond and keep Lee from being able to pull reinforcements the capital. Sigel’s mission was to move up the Shenandoah Valley and keep Lee from being able to gather resources from the area. Banks would leave New Orleans to Mobile, capture it and move through Alabama and meet up with Sherman in Georgia. As Lincoln described it, “Those not skinning can hold a leg.” (McPherson & Hogue, 2010).
The Auxiliary campaigns would be a failure with the Red River Campaign and Banks doing little more than planting a few flags along the Texas gulf coast and retreating from an attack on Shreveport. Butler failed to attack at Richmond and ended up getting shut out, and cut off from making any significate difference. As for Sigel, he failed to deny the confederates the resource-rich Shenandoah Valley with the loss at New Market, and then being relieved of duty six days later.
Grant would have a hard go of it. But unlike his predecessor, Grant continued to fight instead of retreat after a heavy battle or loss. He suffered heavy losses in the Battle of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania and at Cold Harbor, Grant would later say after losing nearly 7,000 soldiers in a half hour, “I regret this assault more than any one I have ever ordered,” (McPherson & Hogue, 2010).
At Petersburg, the Union Army would miss a big opportunity when Pennsylvania miners would dig under the confederate lines and pack the tunnel full of explosives. The explosion created a 170 feet long crater and a massive opening in the lines. Due to a failure of leadership, the union managed to wrestle defeat from the jaws of success. Instead of going around the crater and attacking through the opening, the dumbfounded, and leader lacking union army gawked at it and streamed into the crater. The walls were so steep on the other side that they could not get up the embankment. When the confederates came to their senses. They brought up artillery and shoot down at the union solders with devastating effect. Grant would call the whole thing “It was the saddest affair I have witnessed in the war,” (McPherson & Hogue, 2010).
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