American Civil War Essays - William Tecumseh Sherman, United States

American Civil War The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the events surrounding the end of the American Civil War. This war was a war of epic proportion. Never before have so many Americans died in battle. The American Civil War was truly tragic in terms of human life. This document will speak mainly around those involved on the battlefield in the closing days of the conflict. Also, reference will be made to the leading men behind the Union and Confederate forces. The war was beginning to end by January of 1865. By then, Federal (Federal was another name given to the Union Army) armies were spread throughout the Confederacy and the Confederate Army had shrunk extremely in size. In the year before, the North had lost an enormous amount of lives, but had more than enough to lose in comparison to the South. General Grant became known as the "Butcher" (Webster 101) and many wanted to see him removed. But Lincoln stood firm with his General, and the war continued. This paper will follow the happenings and events between the winter of 1864-65 and the surrender of the confederate States of America. All of this will most certainly illustrate that April 9, 1865 was indeed the end of a tragedy. In September of 1864, General William T. Sherman and his army cleared the city of Atlanta of its civilian population then rested ever so briefly. It was from there that General Sherman and his army began its famous "march to the sea". The march covered a distance of 400 miles and was 60 miles wide. For 32 days no news of him reached the North. He had cut himself off from his base of supplies, and his men lived on what ever they could find off the land through which they passed. On their route, the army destroyed anything and everything they could not use but was presumed usable to the enemy. In view of this destruction, it is understandable why Sherman quoted "war is hell" (Sherman 200). Finally, on December 20, Sherman's men reached the city of Savannah. Then Sherman telegraphed President Lincoln: "I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah, with 150 heavy guns and plenty of ammunition, and also about 25,000 bales of cotton" (Sherman 200). Grant had decided that the only way to win and finish the war would be to attack with numbers. He knew the Federal forces held more than a modest advantage in terms of men and supplies. This in mind, Grant directed Sherman to turn around and start heading back toward Virginia. He immediately started making preparations to assistance Sherman on the journey. General John M. Schofield and his men were to detach from the Army of the Cumberland, which had just embarrassingly defeated the Confederates at Nashville, and proceed toward North Carolina. His final destination was to be Goldsboro, which was roughly half the distance between Savannah and Richmond. This is where he and his 20,000 troops would meet Sherman and his 50,000 troops. Sherman began the move north in mid-January of 1865. General P.G.T. Beauregard would supply the only hope of Confederate resistance. He was scraping together and army with every resource he could lay his hand on, but at best would only be able to muster about 30,000 men. This by obvious mathematics would be no challenge to the combined forces of Schofield and Sherman, let alone Sherman. Sherman's plan was to march through South Carolina all the while confusing the enemy. His men would march in two ranks: One would travel northwest to give the impression of a press against Augusta and the other would march northeast toward Charleston. However, the one true objective would be Columbia. Sherman's force arrived in Columbia on February 16. The city was burned to the ground and great controversy was to arise. The Confederates claimed that Sherman's men set the fires "deliberately, systematically, and atrociously". However, Sherman claimed that the fires were burning when they arrived. The fires had been set to cotton bales by Confederate Calvary to prevent the Federal Army from getting them and the high winds quickly spread the fire. The controversy would be short lived as no proof would ever be presented. So with Columbia, Charleston, and Augusta all fallen, Sherman would continue his drive north toward Goldsboro. On the way, his progress would be stalled not by the Confederate army but by runaway slaves. The slaves were attaching themselves to the Union columns and by the time the