The Crater at Petersburg, Virginia

Petersburg. Grant planned to hit the railroad junctionat Petersburg, a town located twenty miles south ofRichmond which guarded the rail link to other Southernstates. If it fell Grant could isolate the Confederate capi-tal and cut its communications to Southern armies inother seceded states. Lee again challenged Grant's as-sault, however, and this time Grant viewed the highcasualties as a sign to settle down for a siege against theConfederate trenches that stretched from Petersburg toRichmond.

The Battle of the Crater. The frustration of the Un-ion invaders trying to break through Confederate de-fenses at Petersburg was highlighted at the end of July.Lt. Col. Henry Pleasants, the commander of the Forty-Eighth Pennsylvania Infantry, a regiment of former coalminers, received permission to dig a mine under the en-emy entrenchments and fill it with gunpowder. Afterdetonating the explosives and blowing a hole in the Con-federate line, Union infantry would sweep around theabyss and attack the enemy flanks and rear. On 30 July1864 the miners detonated the gunpowder and blew ahuge crater in the Confederate fortifications. However,instead of sweeping around the hole and attacking therattled enemy flanks, Brig. Gen. James H. Ledlie sent hismen into the crater. The Federals quickly found them-selves trapped, and they became easy prey for Southernsharpshooters. As he watched his men die like ducks in ashooting gallery, Grant lamented that the battle was "thesaddest affair I have witnessed" and ordered a retreat. Hefinally settled down to a prolonged nine-month siege. Inaddition to this fiasco, news from Georgia mirrored thestalled operations in Virginia—Sherman's troops were

stalled at the outskirts of Atlanta. With Northernelections only a few months away, the Confederatestrategy of weakening Northern resolve seemed to beworking as the conflict drew to an apparent stale-mate.Sources:Bruce Catton, A Stillness at Appomattox (Garden City, N.Y.: Double-

day, 1953);

William S. McFeely, Grant: A Biography (New York: Norton, 1981).

SOLDIERS IN CAMPWaiting. Following Gettysburg both sides settled

into camps or defensive fortifications during the long,monotonous stretch from July 1863 to August 1864. Asin any war, boredom filled the everyday life of Civil Warsoldiers. Union and Confederate fighting men averagedfifty days in camp for every day in battle. Lulls in thefighting allowed men to bond and build up morale beforethe next frontal assaults decimated regimental strengthand destroyed small-unit cohesion.

Northern Camps. Reveille woke Union soldiers everymorning at five o'clock (six in the winter). After roll calland breakfast, the soldiers spent the rest of the day drill-ing and marching. The daily drills were designed tobreak resistance to military authority and to make sol-diers work as a cohesive unit. The Northern enlisted menhated it. "The first thing in the morning is drill, thendrill, then drill again," wrote one frustrated bluecoat."Then drill, a little more drill. . . Between drills, we drilland sometimes stop to eat a little and have rollcall." Inthe afternoon the men spent most of their time preparingtheir uniforms for the evening dress parade. The troops

108 A M E R I C A N E R A S : 1 8 5 O - 1 8 7 7

Examples of Union and Confederate uniforms

polished boots and brass buckles and mended clothing inorder to pass inspection and move on to supper call. Bysummer 1862 the Union army had standardized theNorthern uniform. Each soldier wore a blue cap withblack visor; a long, dark blue dress coat with stand-upcollar; light blue trousers; and rough black shoes. Theuniforms were made of wool and worn year-round. Theblue coats and trousers were trimmed with stripes to sig-nify a particular combat branch: blue for infantry, scarletfor artillery, and yellow for cavalry. Brass insignia sewninto caps also designated branch: a bugle for infantry,crossed sabres for cavalry, and crossed cannons for artil-lery. Unlike their Confederate counterparts, Federal uni-forms were of high quality; long campaigns, rather thanshortage in stock, led to brief instances of raggedness.

Northern Food. The Union enlisted man's diet con-sisted of three main staples: bread, meat, and coffee;fresh fruits and vegetables were available depending onthe season. Throughout the war, Northern soldiers bit-terly complained about the bread, commonly known as"hardtack." It was a hard, stale cracker that soldierssoaked in water or coffee in order to eat; ten or twelvecrackers equaled a full ration. Despite the lack of varietyor texture in their diet, the Union army was well fed and,by the end of the war, the Northern soldier ate better andreceived more food than contemporary soldiers in theBritish, French, or Russian armies.

Off-Duty. After supper call, soldiers relaxed and en-gaged in activities that helped them to escape camp rou-tine. They wrote letters, sang songs, and played games.The average age of the Northern soldier (by July 1863)

T H E C I V I L W A R 1O9

PRISONERS OF WAR

In the beginning of the Civil War, the Union andConfederate governments agreed to exchange anequal number of captured soldiers immediatelyfollowing a battle. This practice left detentioncenters virtually empty and kept precious re-sources such as food and medical supplies re-served for the soldiers in the field. In 1863 theexchange policy stopped when the Confederategovernment refused to exchange captured blacksoldiers and instead re-enslaved them, By De-cember 1863 Confederate prisons held 13,000Federals while Northern prisons kept 26,000Southerners under guard. Following the May-July 1864 battles in Virginia, the prison popula-tion exploded for both sides, leaving many cap-tured men without adequate shelter, food, andmedical care. The results were tragic.

Although most captured soldiers exaggerate theconditions of their captivity, Civil War prisonswere indeed ghastly places. The overcrowdedstockades, coupled with poor sanitation and badwater, became death traps. Some prison campsoffered no shelter from the elements and menwere forced to build makeshift tents from rags,blankets, and uniforms. The worst conditionswere at Andersonville, Georgia. At this site theConfederates housed 33,000 Northerners in astockade built to hold 15,000. One hundred pris-oners died every day, and gangs of thieves ruledthe overcrowded conditions. Disease thrived inthe confined area since a small stream used fordrinking water also doubled as a sewer. Similarconditions like these in other prisoner of warcamps produced high mortality rates: by 1865over 30,000 Federals died in Southern prisonswhile 25,000 Confederates died in Northern de-tention stockades.

Sources: Larry M. Logue, 21» Appomattex nnd Beyond: The Civil WarMd'min War and&tme (Chicago: Ivan R* Dee, 1996);

William Marvel* Andenonmtle: Tks Last Depot (Ckapel Hill: Universityof North Carolina Press, If 94),

was twenty-five, and with the arrival of payday (onceevery other month), the tired bluecoats turned to hedon-istic pleasures such as alcohol consumption, gambling, orvisiting a prostitute. Gambling was particularly hard onthe losers since white Northern soldiers made only thir-teen dollars a month while black soldiers received ten. Bythe end of the war, pay was raised to sixteen dollars amonth for both races.

Confederate Camps. For the most part, Confederatecamp life mirrored the Union routine. Unlike his North-

Columbia, South Carolina, after the departure ofGen. William T. Sherman

ern counterpart, the Southern soldier usually did not re-ceive a full supper ration. Poor distribution, lack of saltand preservatives, and limited access to transportationfacilities restricted the Southern diet to cornbread andbeef. Complaints about the bleak Southern diet domi-nated letters home. "If any person offers me cornbreadafter this war comes to a close," one exasperated South-erner wrote. "I shall probably tell him to go to hell!"Men under the age of twenty-five also dominated Con-federate ranks, and they turned to songs, hunting, gam-bling, and alcohol as diversions from the war. To avoidusing ammunition, the soldiers often hunted with clubsand competed with each other for extra rations. Since theSouthern soldier received only eleven Confederate dol-lars a month (by the end of the war they were worth onlyhalf their value), troops gambled for food and used theextra rations to trade for tobacco and stationery. In addi-tion to a lack of food, the Southern army lacked consis-tency in its uniforms. Although the standard issue was agray coat and trousers, many units did not have enoughuniforms in stock, and a homespun, ragged appearancebecame rampant in the ranks. Moreover, the Union navalblockade forced the Confederate army to use homemadedye to color uniforms. The dye was made from copperas(a green sulfate) and walnut shells which gave the Con-federate uniform a yellowish brown color that soldierscalled "butternut." As both armies standardized theiruniforms by 1862, Northern soldiers were commonlycalled "bluecoats" while Southern soldiers were labeled"butternuts."

Sources:Larry M. Logue, To Appomattox and Beyond: The Civil War Soldier in

War and Peace (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1996);

James I. Robertson Jr., Soldiers Blue and Gray (Columbia: University ofSouth Carolina Press, 1988);

Bell I. Wiley, The Life of Billy Yank: The Common Soldier of the Union(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1978);

Wiley, The Life of Johnny Reb: The Common Soldier of the Confederacy(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1978).

110 A M E R I C A N E R A S : 1 8 5 O - 1 8 7 7

Union soldiers outside the Wilmer McLean home atAppomattox Court House, Virginia, where Lee

surrendered to Grant

TRIUMPH OF THE NORTHDeadlock. The stalemates at Petersburg and Atlanta

spread despair throughout the North. Many felt Gen.Ulysses S. Grant's strategies had turned the war into adraw. The high Union death rate in all theaters (110,000 inthree months), coupled with reports that Northern prisonersat Andersonville, Georgia, were dying at a rate of one hun-dred a day, combined to revive antiwar sentiments. Evenfaithful Republicans became swept along by Northern dis-content; some called for President Abraham Lincoln to dropemancipation as a war aim. Many Republicans became con-vinced that the president would lose in the upcoming No-vember 1864 elections to his Democrat opponent, formerUnion general-in-chief George B. McClellan.

Atlanta. Nevertheless, the war still raged, and Northernmorale continued to swing in response to reports from thebattlefield. A glimmer of optimism first emerged in Augustwhen Adm. David Farragut's wooden fleet maneuveredaround underwater mines and took Mobile Bay, an impor-tant Confederate port located in the Gulf of Mexico on theAlabama coast. A month later the tide turned again. In Sep-tember 1864 Northern sentiment swung back to the side ofthe president as Gen. William T. Sherman sent good newsfrom Georgia. On 2 September Sherman's men captured thelast rail link into Atlanta, forcing Confederate general JohnBell Hood to abandon the city to save his army. The victoryrestored Northern faith in Lincoln as a leader, while Demo-crat claims that the war was a failure fell on deaf ears. Addi-tional reports from the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, securedLincoln's reelection bid. There, in October, Union cavalrygeneral Philip Sheridan swept Jubal Early and his Confeder-ate horsemen from the area. Twice before, the valley hadserved as an invasion route north for the Confederate army,and its farms continued to supply the Army of Northern Vir-

ginia. Now, Union control of the area denied Southern forcesprecious foodstuffs. In the November elections, Lincoln easilybeat McClellan; 80 percent of soldiers in the field voted to re-tain their commander-in-chief in office.

March to the Sea. In response to Lincoln's reelection,Confederate president Jefferson Davis declared that his na-tion stood "defiant as ever" and would continue to persistwholeheartedly against Northern aggression. Determined tobreak Southern will, Sherman decided to march through theeastern Georgia countryside. Sending half his army to Ten-nessee to check Hood's impending counterattack at Nash-ville, Sherman abandoned his supply lines in November tobegin his famous "March to the Sea." After three years offighting Confederate soldiers, Sherman now turned his at-tention to the civilian will to fight. Moving unopposed andliving off the land, Sherman had his men cut a sixty-mileswath across Georgia, demolishing everything in their path.Not only did Sherman want to hurt the Confederate army bydestroying war materiel and railroads, but he also sought tomake the Southern civilian population feel the war by burn-ing towns, plantations, and anything else within his army'sreach. "We cannot change the hearts of those people of theSouth," he said, "but we can make war so terrible and makethem so sick of war that generations would pass away beforethey would again appeal to it." By 20 December he reachedSavannah and presented the port to Lincoln as a Christmasgift. Moving with an air of invincibility, Sherman movedinto South Carolina in February and took Columbia beforefinally stopping his destructive path in North Carolina.Sherman's five-month crusade spread terror and despairthroughout the South. "All is gloom, despondency, and in-activity," wrote one South Carolinian. "Our army is demor-alized and the people panic stricken. To fight longer seemsto be madness."

Conclusion. As Sherman conquered the Southern coast-line, the war slowly moved to a close. In December 1864,Union general George H. Thomas defeated and nearly anni-hilated Hood's forces at Nashville. By February, Sherman'smarch and Grant's suffocating siege at Petersburg convincedmany Confederate soldiers to return home. On 1 April 1865Gen. Philip Sheridan's cavalry broke Robert E. Lee's rightflank and cut the last rail link into Petersburg. The next day,in a desperate attempt to join Gen. Joseph E. Johnston inNorth Carolina, Lee's army set fire to all military supplies inRichmond and retreated west. Sensing victory at hand,Grant pressed forward and blocked Lee's escape route at Ap-pomattox Court House, ninety miles from Petersburg on 8April. The following morning, Palm Sunday, Lee formallysurrendered to Grant in the parlor of a private residence.Nine days later, Johnston surrendered in North Carolina, of-ficially ending hostilities between North and South.

Sources:Bruce Catton, A Stillness at Appomattox (Garden City, N.Y.: Double-

day, 1953);

Shelby Foote, The Civil War, a Narrative: Red River to Appomattox(New York: Random House, 1974).

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