A Critical History of the late American War. With an introductory letter by Lieut.-General M. W. Smith

Front matter

A CRITICAL HISTORY OF THE LATE AMERICAN WAR. BY A. MAHAN. WITH AN INTRODUCTORY LETTER BY LIEUT. -GENERAL M. W. SMITH. A. S. BARNES & CO., NEW YORK, CHICAGO, AND NEW ORLEANS. 1877. Copyright, 1877, by A. S. Barnes & Co, United Service Club, Pall Mall, 28t/i November, 1876. My dear Sirs, — According to Dr. Mahan' s wish I have read over the portion of the proofs of his work which you have furnished me with. It seems to me that his book will prove both interesting and instructive to those who wish to trace out the causes which have led to the success or failure of campaigns, and how battles have been lost and won. Although the Doctor is not a military man, he seems to have studied carefully the science of strategy as it has been developed at different periods, and applies his know ledge in indicating where established principles have been deviated from.

He compares, plainly and practically, what he conceives might have been done in accordance with such principles, with what was actually done ; the results in the latter case having now become matters of history. The author appears to have been familiar with the ground and scenes he describes so graphically, and to have been also fully furnished with all details relating to the strength, positions, etc., of the forces engaged. INTRODUCTORY letter. As to his comments upon and criticism of the conduct and capabilities of those who occupied prominent positions during the years of the last American War, I am not prepared to offer any opinion. Whether the readers of the present work agree with all the views of the author or not, its perusal may lead them to think out the matter for themselves, and to consider at least one phase of military combinations on a large scale; and in these critical and uncertain times this may prove a beneficial exercise of the intellect, with reference to both military men and civilians. Yours faithfully, M. W. SMITH. Lieut. -General.

Preface

. Science, like its divine Author, is " no respecter of persons." This is equally true of impartial criticism, and especially so when such criticism pertains to the deeds and character of men of world notoriety, — men who consent to assume the conduct of enterprises and interests upon the issues of which the destiny of nations depends. In assuming such responsibilities, such men invite, and even challenge, such criticism, and will receive it from every "wise and understanding people." In the preparation of the following work, it has been a fixed aim of the author, not only to furnish needful information to his countrymen, but to exemplify the ideal represented by the words impartial historic criticism. He lays no claim to infallibility in the statement of facts, or in his deductions from the same ; and will gladly confess, and promptly correct, any errors of any kind into which partial or impartial criticism may prove him to have fallen.

In his criticism of the deeds and character of our Generals, of their campaigns and the conduct of the war, he claims to have known no man as a member of this or that political party, but to have contemplated and presented all in common from one exclusive standpoint, the military. If any of my countrymen regard any military commander as faultless, or void of merit, because he belongs to this or that political party, this history was not written for them, but for American citizens — citizens who would know that they are Americans who have occupied high places of trust and power, and under whose conduct oceans of American blood and treasure have been poured out. Criticism, when honest especially, is an important disci pline of thought. Historic criticism not only furnishes PREP ACE. VI the means of such discipline, but enables even those who may differ from an author in his statements and deductions better to understand the subject treated of than were otherwise possible.

All my countrymen who would under stand this war as really conducted, will, it is believed, read this treatise with interest and profit. Nor was the work prepared for Americans alone, but for all friends of truth, of every clime, into whose hands this treatise may fall — friends of truth who take an interest in what concerns this great nation, and who would understand events which have for all future time shaped its destiny. With these suggestions, the work before us is commended to the consideration of my countrymen especially. THE AUTHOR. Oct. 2yd, 1876. CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE Introduction ....... i i. The Bull Run Campaign • - - - - 19 11. Administration of General G. B. McClellan in the Department of Washington 35 in. The Command of General Fremont in the Western Department 42 iv. General McClellan as Commander-in-Chief - - 59 v. The Spring Campaign of the Army of the Potomac - 76 vi.

General Halleck's Measures and Campaign in Missouri 113 vii. General Plan of the Union and Confederate Authorities for the Conduct of the War - - - 118 vni. The Campaign in Kentucky, and Events which followed 126 IX. General Halleck at Pittsburg Landing and at Corinth 139 x. General Halleck appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Armies of the United States .... 144 XI. General Pope and the Army of Virginia - - - 146 xii. General Lee's Invasion of Maryland - - - 179 xiii. The Army of the Potomac under General Burnside - 209 xiv. Movements in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Mississippi - 216 xv. Expeditions on the Seaboard and Ocean - - - 223 223 xvi. My Visit to Washington in the Month of January 1863 231 xvii. Winter Campaign of General Rosecrans - - - 244 - 244 xviii. The Siege of Vicksburg and Port Hudson - - 248 xix.

General Hooker in Command of the Army of the Potomac - - 256 xx. General Lee a Second Time on Free Soil.— Gettysburg - PAGE 308 334 34o 343 35i 3<5o 39o 406 408 3i6 422 43i 438 CONTENTS. Vin CHAF. XXI. The Chattanooga Campaign Minor Campaigns during this War XXII. Our Naval Expeditions around the Southern Coasts - Operations of the Army of the Potomac prior to the xxiii. xxiv. Appointment of General Grant as Commander-in-Chief Appointment of General Ulysses Grant as Lieutenant- XXV. General and Commander-in-Chief of the Armies of the United States ------ Campaign of the Army of the Potomac under General Grant - - - -- XXVI, Sherman's Atlanta Campaign XXVII, Operations West of the Mississippi xxviii. Results of the Great Campaigns of 1864 ; Plans for the Future of the Union and Confederate Commanders XXIX.

General Price's Last Invasion of Missouri The Campaign of General Hood in Tennessee Sherman's March through Georgia - XXX XXXI XXXII, XXXIII, Sherman's March from Savannah, Georgia, to Goldboro', North Carolina ; the Surrender of Lee and Johnston ; and the Close of the War - I

Introduction

. I purpose, from a standpoint hitherto unattempted, to write out a History of the War of the Rebellion. In the multitudinous works now before the public, all that is needful has been said in regard to the causes which led to that memorable scene of "terror, tears, and blood," and to matters of detail in respect to our battles and campaigns, and to our unexampled national expenditure. My plan pertains, not at all to the causes and details of facts as they actually occurred, but to the conduct of this war. In this war the nation lost more than half a million of precious lives, accumulated upon its hands hardly less than a million of its maimed and pensioned soldiers, expended many billions of treasures, and has loaded itself down with a present debt of upwards of two thousand millions of dollars.

What the nation needs to be informed about is, not how this war was, but how it should have been, conducted, and whether such an appalling expenditure of time, life, limb, and treasure was needed in bringing the conflict to a successful termination. One fact is undeniable, that another such war — a war as protracted and as wasteful of life and treasure — as this would ruin the nation. It is hardly to be expected that our national patriotism, or prudence, would endure such another draft upon time, blood, and treasure, and a doubling up of the debt under which we are now groaning. Yet, amid the possibilities of the future, it would imply infinite presumption to affirm, or calculate upon, the impossibility of another such a national catastrophe. If the war was wisely, and es pecially most wisely, conducted, the nation needs, as her guides in the future, to understand the facts and the reasons for the same.

If, from its beginning to its close, it was badly conducted, as badly especially as can be conceived, this fact also should be known, with a full disclosure of the reasons thereof— that, as a nation, we may become wise and prudent through the knowledge and appreciation of past errors. We need, also, to understand clearly the conduct of this war, as the immutable condition of knowing and appreciat ing the character and merits of the men whom we have elected, or may elect, to rule over us, and the wisdom, or unwisdom, which has induced the nation to elect these men to the high places which they occupy. No free people can become " a wise and understanding people," and as moral as they are wise, unless by their votes they shall fill our chairs of state and represent ative halls with statesmen, — statesmen " with Atlantean shoulders fit to bear the weight of mightiest monarchies," — statesmen, too, whose integrity and trustworthiness are as visible as their greatness.

None but diminutive bodies can revolve around a small central orb. As long as this nation shall fill our chairs of state with small specimens of human nature, minds characterised by ignorance of national affairs, by greediness for filthy lucre, and in difference to official corruption, — statesmen fit to sustain the weight of the mighty interests of this great Republic, statesmen whose integrity and trustworthiness shall be as manifest as their great talents and wisdom, will be invisible in our Cabinets and halls of legislation. Had I a voice which could command the attention of the nation, that voice should break "trumpet tongued" upon the ear of every individual who is under the weight of the responsi bility of the elective franchise ; charging him, as he regards the best interests of his country, if he would save our Government from misrule and corruption, and prevent general demoralization, to shake off, at once and for ever, the shackles of party, to step out from the circles of party rings, and enter into a solemn covenant with his con science and his God never again to cast a vote for any man to fill any important office, — any man whose high talents, wisdom, integrity, and trustworthiness are not " known and read of all men." When manifest wisdom and trustworthiness shall become the sine gud non con-

INTRODUCTION.

. 3 ditions of commanding the votes of the people of this nation, then shall "wisdom and integrity be the stability of our times," and this great Confederacy shall be God's pillar of fire in the forefront of all nations. To do some thing to ensure this "consummation so devoutly to be wished " has been the prime motive which has induced the preparation of this history. WHAT I PROPOSE TO RENDER DEMONSTRABLY EVIDENT IN THESE FUTURE PAGES.

Having made the science of war a subject of caiefiil study from my youth up, having critically read the history of the great campaigns of past ages, and done so for the specific purpose of a clear understanding and comprehension of the principles on which they were conducted, and the wisdom and unwisdom of successful and unsuccessful commanders; having most carefully studied the conduct of this war from its commencement to its close ; having as carefully considered the relative strength and resources of the two parties in the conflict, and the comparative advantages and disadvantages of each for attack and defence ; and having contrasted the duration of this war with others in which the cases were at all similar, — I have from the beginning maintained, and will now proceed to render undeniably evident to every candid reader of these pages, the following propositions : that this war ought not have been of a single year's continuance after our armies were organised ; that it ought not to have cost this nation a hundred thousand lives, or a thousand millions of dollars ; that within any eight months of the continuance of the war, after the middle of October 1 86 1, any Commander-in-Chief of ordinary ability and well instructed in military science, would have brought that conflict to a final termination ; that had General Grant been such a commander, he would have brought the conflict to a practical termination during the interval which occurred after he received his commission as Commander-in-Chief and the opening of his spring campaigns.

I am well aware that these are bold and will be to many presumptuous propositions ; I am equally well aware that in these propositions I distinctly and correctly represent the deliberate judgment of the best thinkers in the country, thinkers civil and military, to whom my views have been presented, together with the united opinions of the best military authorities in Europe. The conduct and continuance of this war, and the oceans of blood and treasure poured out in carrying it through, have no parallel in the history of the world, and are matters of wonder and astonishment to Christendom. We shall have real ground for national self-respect, and shall command the highest respect of the civilised world, when, and only when, we shall evince our wisdom, our candour, and integrity by a revealed comprehension and appreciation of the real facts of the case.

All I ask of my countrymen is a candid hearing of my facts and arguments. If, after such a hearing, my proofs shall not be found " perfect and entire, wanting nothing," I freely consent to suffer any amount of national reprobacy which my worst enemies can devise. I would here remark that the main portions of the criticisms which will be found on these pages were, during the progress of the war, expressed verbally to my own pupils, and to leading minds around me; and in communications addressed to such individuals as Secretary Chase, and Messrs. Sumner, Chandler, etc., and members of the Committee on the Conduct of the War. In a long communication addressed to Secretary Chase, near the close of the year 1862, after giving quite an extended criticism on the conduct of the war, I made the statement that " if our military authorities had made it their supreme object to devise and carry out the worst system presented in history, or known to the science of war, they could not, in my honest judgment, have succeeded better than they had done."

In his reply, after commending my criticisms, and requesting me to continue the correspondence, saying that my "suggestions would be very instructive to him, and might be beneficial to the nation," the Secretary added:— "The opinion which you have expressed about the conduct of the war thus far is an exact expression of apprehensions which have frequently suggested themselves to my own mind." It was impossible for him to conceive, he added, " of a war conducted upon worse principles

INTRODUCTION.

. 5 than this had been." In a note received from Mr. Sumner about the same time, this paragraph is found : — " I have from the beginning been profoundly impressed with your views. An administration more quick and positive than ours would have adopted them early, and the war would have been ended long since." "I fully endorse all your views," said Senator Chandler, in a similar note, "and have done all I possibly could to induce the Administration to adopt them." I would further state, in this connexion, that an epitome of all my criticisms on the conduct of the war up to January 1863 is contained in two long communications read to President Lincoln in the early part of that month, and read in the presence of Senators Wade and Wilson, and other leading members of Congress. The substance of these communications was at first verbally presented to the President, in the presence of Senators Wade and Wilson, and was then, at his special request, committed tc writing.

After the reading of the papers, it was unanimously agreed that they should be submitted to some military man especially qualified to judge of their character ; and General McDowell, with unanimous approval, was selected. The papers, it should be borne in mind, contained a special criticism of the previous conduct of the war, and a detailed plan for the conduct of future campaigns. After a full hearing of the documents, and a careful discussion of their essential features, General McDowell certified in writing that " the plan presented was the best that he had heard suggested." "With this plan adopted," he remarked to me, "we can finish up the campaign here in Virginia during the present winter." In one of my calls upon Mr. Sumner, at his own rooms, I found there the celebrated historian, Bancroft.

After our mutual introduction, Mr. Sumner remarked to his friend that he was in the presence of an " individual who had studied the science of war from his youth, and who had presented certain papers on the conduct of the present war which have made a profound impression on all to whom they have been read. These papers, also," Mr. Sumner added, " contain a detailed plan for the conduct of our future campaigns. As a historian can be relied on to keep a secret, I suggest that Dr. M. present to you the plan referred to." When I had done so, Mr. Bancroft promptly replied in these words, " Adopt that plan, and I am ready to write out a history of this war. Such has been its conduct thus far, that I have felt I could not endure the pain of writing out its history." He then expressed an earnest desire that the papers designated should be given to the public.

After I left Washington, one of our senators went down to the army of the Potomac, and laid the plan under consideration before General Burnside and his corps commanders. Every one of these commanders earnestly advocated the adoption of the plan. General Burnside fully endorsed the wisdom of the measure, but remarked that he had a plan of his own which he desired to test, before adopting the new one. He tried his own, failed, was superseded, and then expressed to that senator his deep regret that he had not followed the advice of his Generals. In regard to the criticisms contained in those communications, no individual in Washington, then, nor has any individual to whom they have since been presented suggested a doubt of the strict correctness of those criticisms ; while the best authorities, military and civil, all agree that had that plan been adopted the war would have been brought to a final close within the space of eight months from January ist, 1863.

What that plan was, and how and why its adoption was prevented after the accomplishment of the event was rendered apparently certain, will be disclosed hereafter. The above facts and statements will evince, I judge, that I have reasons for the assurance of which I am possessed of the correctness of my criticisms on the conduct of this war, and that the public have reasons equally valid for giving a candid hear ing to my presentations. FACTS OF A GENERAL NATURE WHICH CHARACTERISED THE CONDUCT OF THIS WAR. As preparatory to a full appreciation of particular criticisms, I would direct very special attention to certain facts of a general nature, facts which characterised the

INTRODUCTION.

. 7 conduct of this war from its commencement to its close. A careful consideration of these facts will evince the strict correctness of my estimate of the matter, namely, that in badness of conduct this war has hardly a parallel in the history of the world. Consider, in the first place, — A fundamental fact stated by President Lincoln. In the papers read before President Lincoln, this state ment was made, that we had had at least from six to eight hundred thousand men called into the field, and yet these immense forces had been so distributed over the whole country that our central armies were always too weak to do any effective service. When that sentence was read, the President interposed for a time, and made the following statements : — " I confess to you, gentlemen, that there has been connected with the conduct of this war one fact which I have never been able to compre hend.

It is true that we have had all these vast forces in the field, and yet in no battle that has thus far been fought have there been 70,000 men engaged on our side. When I visited Antietam, after the battle there, I found between 92,000 and 93,000 effective men under the immediate command of General McClellan ; yet, take all the forces that were under fire in that battle, and add to them all that had previously fought at South Mountain, and the aggregate does not amount to 70,000 men. So it has been from the commencement of the war to the present time. Such facts as these, gentlemen, I admit to be beyond my comprehension." " But one inference can be drawn from such facts," I replied. " Your Commanders-in-Chief, President Lincoln, evince a palpable ignorance of their business. The world knows of no parallel to the facts you have just stated."

What was true of the conduct of this war from the beginning up to January 1863, characterised, as we shall see here after, its conduct to the end. With the amount of available forces under their command, our Commanders-in-Chief never ought to have lost an important battle, and never ought to have fought one without an amount of force which outnumbered the Confederate as three to, two, or two to one. In all the important battles actually fought, on the other hand, the forces were so evenly balanced as to render victory on either side a matter of doubt, and victory and defeat so bloody as to appall the nation and the world. Relative strength of the hostile forces during this war. In judging correctly of the wisdom, or unwisdom, of military commanders in conducting their campaigns, we need to take distinctly into account the character and number of the forces under their command, as compared with the character and amount of the armies under hostile commanders.

During the progress of this war, Napoleon sent the Adjutant-General of France to this country to learn, and report on his return, the actual condition of the Union army. That General was required to doff entirely his uniform, and to appear wholly as a private gentleman, revealing to nobody in this country his official character. In this state it was wiselyjudgedthathe be would be in the best circumstances possible to ascertain the facts as they really were. Having obtained the desired information, he made this report to the home Government, that " the Union army was the best constituted and worst commanded army in the world." In that report, he correctly expressed the known judgment of the military authorities of Europe. Of the correctness of that report, as far as the soldiery of both the Union and Confederate armies are concerned, there can be no doubt whatever.

Braver, stronger, more self-sacrificing men, or men more capable of enduring the hardships of war, the world never saw. But what shall we think of the second item in that report ? Was, or was not, ours the worst commanded army in the world ? No other judgment seems admissible if we adjudicate the case in the light of the comparative amount of the forces which constituted the Union and Confederate armies. Accord ing to official records, more than 2,600,000 men entered the Union armies during the progress of this war. After the middle of October 1861 our forces were never less than 800,000 and often exceeded 1,000,000 men, upwards of the number last designated being mustered out of ser vice at the close of the war. According to the most

INTRODUCTION.

. 9 reliable Confederate authorities, there never entered their armies much, if any, over 600,000 men, while their effective forces actually, at any one time, in the field never exceded 200,000. I give the figures pertaining to the Confederate armies as furnished by General S. Cooper, ex- Adjutant- General of the Confederacy, and endorsed as correct by Dr. J. Jones, Secretary of the Historical Society. These statements are also confirmed by the testimony of the ex- Vice- President of the Confederacy, Alexander H. Stevens, who says : — " The Confederates, all told in like manner, could not have much, if any, exceeded 600,000." If we consider the fact that the number of the white population of the eleven States which first entered into the Rebellion was, according to the census, less than 6,000,000 or less than 3,000,000 of males, the strict verity of the above statements becomes self-evident.

Out of such a population not more than 600,000 men capable of bearing arms could have been drawn. Nor could such a population as con stituted these States, especially in their circumstances, have equipped and kept in the field an effective force of more than 200,000 men. It must also be borne in mind that it was only in the early part of the war that men or provisions of any account were furnished by Tennessee, or Arkansas, and none from Western Virginia. In less than two years after the commencement of the war, also, soldiers from the States west of the Mississippi refused utterly to cross that river. Hence all the forces opposed to us east of said river, and where all the real issues of the war were located, had to be drawn from seven States whose white male population was less than 2,500,000.

Such are the real facts of the case. The actual forces of the Confederacy during this war cannot have been under estimated by Messrs. Cooper and Stevens. Undeniably, the Union armies outnumbered those of the Confederacy, in all cases, as two, commonly as three, and during the entire period in which General Grant was our Commander in-Chief, as four to one ; yet, in almost all important battles the forces engaged were nearly equal, the issues of quite as many battles and campaigns were against us as in our favour, quite half a million of lives were sacrificed, and oceans of treasure, and between four and five years of time were expended, in subduing a rebellion where such overwhelming odds were on our side. The relative position of the Confederate and Union States. The validity of such a deduction becomes still more palpable when we consider the relative position of the Union and Confederate States, and consequently^ of the hostile forces of the same.

Leaving Western Virginia, Tennessee, and Arkansas out of the account, the nine remaining Confederate States lay in a comparatively nar row strip, between the Potomac and Rio Grand, with the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico on the south, and the Union States on the north ; the Gulf and the Ocean being wholly under our control. No country could have been more fully exposed to perfectly crushing blows, both on its water and land sides, than were these States during the progress of this war. On the water side, any amount of force could, at any time, have been conveyed to any point we chose, while the Union and Confederate armies always lay in the near vicinity of one another. Whenever any one of our central armies desired to find the enemy, it had to march but a very few miles to attain the object desired.

No commanders of armies ever enjoyed such advantages as did ours to encircle, crush, and capture forces so far inferior to their own. At any period after the middle of October 1861, our Commander-in-Chief, leaving the army of the Potomac intact, and from the forces actually in the field could have collected an army of 80,000 or 100,000 men, have conveyed them by water to Hilton Head, from thence by an inland movement have captured Charlestown and Willmington, have crushed the rebellion in the Caro linas, and by moving up on General Lee's rear, and assaulting him, in combination with the army of the Potomac, have destroyed or captured the Confederate army in Virginia, and thus wiped out the rebellion in the States east of Savannah river. Or the same end could have been better accomplished by first moving the body referred to round by Fortress Monroe, landing them where, at the command of General Grant, General Butler landed 20,000 men, — that is, at Burmuda Hundred ; and from thence seizing all General Lee's communications south of

INTRODUCTION.

. 11 James river. In that case, between this body of men and the Potomac army, the entire army of General Lee would have been crushed or captured in a very few weeks. A very few weeks more would then have sufficed, through a general combination of all our armies, to wipe out the entire rebellion in all the States west of the Mississippi, and to ensure its speedy collapse everywhere. No man with any acquaintance with military affairs, or of common information, will for a moment doubt the validity of these statements. Important facts connected with the army of the Poto7nac. During the entire progress of this war, the objects of central regard on the part of the Union and Confederate States were the army of the Potomac, under its successive commanders, on the one hand, and that of Virginia, under General Lee, on the other.