Authentic 1865 Civil War War Department Document - 30th United States Colored Troops (USCT)

This is an original, handwritten Civil War document dated April 29, 1865, from the War Department, Adjutant General’s Office. The document is addressed to F. J. R. Forbrook, a Hospital Steward with the 30th U.S. Colored Troops (USCT).

Historical Significance of the 30th USCT: The 30th USCT was a distinguished regiment of Black soldiers organized in Maryland in early 1864. They are most notably recognized for their "gallant role" in the Battle of the Crater during the Siege of Petersburg. By the date of this letter (April 1865), the regiment had moved into the Department of North Carolina, where they participated in the capture of Fort Fisher and Wilmington.

About the Recipient: Historical military rosters confirm that Frederick J. R. Fosbrook served as a Hospital Steward for the 30th USCT. Hospital Stewards were high-ranking non-commissioned officers responsible for the pharmacy, medical records, and administration of field hospitals—a vital and specialized role within the regiment.

Transcription of Front:

War Department, ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, Washington, D. C., April 29, 1865.

Sir: I am directed to instruct you to make in future, direct to this Office, on the last day of every month, a report of your Station and Post Office address at that time, and the orders under which you are acting; also, on what duty you have been during the month.

Very respectfully, Your obedient servant, Sam. Breck Assistant Adjutant General.

To F. J. R. Fosbrook Hosp'l Steward U.S.A. Care of Comdg Officer 30th Uf [U.S.] Colored Troops Dept of North Carolina (over)

Transcription of Reverse (Handwritten Note):

Please state in your next report your station for the last day of every month since your appointment as Hosp'l Steward, also the date of your joining the 30th U.S.C.T.

Condition Report: The document is in excellent condition for its age. It features clear, legible handwriting in dark ink and original horizontal and vertical fold lines. There is light, natural toning to the paper consistent with 19th-century documents.



Fosbrook, J.R.

Battle Unit Name:
30th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
Side:
Union
Company:
F&S
Soldier's Rank In:
Hospital Steward
Soldier's Rank Out:
Hospital Steward
Alternate name:
F.R./Fosbrook
Film Number:
M589 ROLL 29
Plaque Number:
B-46

Service Record Summary

Observations

The timeline shows a heavy involvement in the Siege of Petersburg throughout 1864, followed by a move to the North Carolina campaign (Fort Fisher and Sugar Loaf Hill) in early 1865. The final dates in late 1865 likely represent the period leading up to a formal muster-out.


Why these units match:
















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including former enslaved individuals, served in the American Civil War. The 186,097 black men who joined the Union Army included 7,122 officers and 178,975 enlisted soldiers.[1] Approximately 20,000 black sailors served in the Union Navy and formed a large percentage of many ships' crews.[2] Later in the war, many regiments were recruited and organized as the United States Colored Troops, which reinforced the Northern forces substantially during the conflict's last two years. Both Northern Free Negro and Southern runaway slaves joined the fight. Throughout the course of the war, black soldiers served in forty major battles and hundreds of more minor skirmishes; sixteen African Americans received the Medal of Honor.[2]

For the Confederacy, both free and enslaved black Americans were used for manual labor, but the issue of whether to arm them, and under what terms, became a major source of debate within the Confederate Congress, the President's Cabinet, and C.S. War Department staff. In general, newspapers, politicians, and army leaders alike were hostile to any efforts to arm blacks. Legislative efforts in the Confederate Congress to arm slaves were held up.[3] The war's desperate circumstances meant that the Confederacy changed their policy in the last month of the war; in March 1865, a small program attempted to recruit, train, and arm blacks, but no significant numbers were ever raised or recruited, and those that were never saw combat.[4]
Union

    Our Presidents, Governors, Generals and Secretaries are calling, with almost frantic vehemence, for men.-"Men! men! send us men!" they scream, or the cause of the Union is gone...and yet these very officers, representing the people and the Government, steadily, and persistently refuse to receive the very class of men which have a deeper interest in the defeat and humiliation of the rebels than all others.

-Frederick Douglass[5]
A Union recruitment poster

Proposals to raise African American regiments in the Union's war efforts were at first met with trepidation by officials within the Union command structure, President Abraham Lincoln included. Concerns over the response of the border states (of which one, Maryland, surrounded in part the capital of Washington D.C.), the response of white soldiers and officers, as well as the effectiveness of a fighting force composed of black men were raised.[6]: 165–167 [7] Despite official reluctance from above, the number of white volunteers dropped throughout the war, and black soldiers were needed, whether the population liked it or not.[8] However, African Americans had been volunteering since the first days of war on both sides, though many were turned down.[9]
African-American Union veteran. From the Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs, Library of Congress

On July 17, 1862, the U.S. Congress passed two statutes allowing for the enlistment of "colored" troops (African Americans)[10] but official enrollment occurred only after the effective date of the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. However, state and local militia units had already begun enlisting black men, including the "Black Brigade of Cincinnati", raised in September 1862 to help provide manpower to thwart a feared Confederate raid on Cincinnati from Kentucky, as well as black infantry units raised in Kansas, Missouri, Louisiana, and South Carolina.[11] In March 1863, upon hearing that Andrew Johnson was open to recruiting blacks in Tennessee, Abraham Lincoln wrote him encouragement: "The colored population is the great available, and yet unavailed of, force for restoring the Union. The bare sight of 50,000 armed and drilled black soldiers upon the banks of the Mississippi would end the rebellion at once."[12]

In May 1863, Congress established the Bureau of Colored Troops in an effort to organize black people's efforts in the war.[13]

African Americans served as medical officers after 1863, beginning with Baltimore surgeon Alexander Augusta. Augusta was a senior surgeon, with white assistant surgeons under his command at Fort Stanton, MD.[14]

In actual numbers, African-American soldiers eventually constituted 10% of the entire Union Army (United States Army). Losses among African Americans were high: In the last year and a half and from all reported casualties, approximately 20% of all African Americans enrolled in the military lost their lives during the Civil War.[1]: 16  Notably, their mortality rate was significantly higher than that of white soldiers:

    [We] find, according to the revised official data, that of the slightly over two millions troops in the United States Volunteers, over 316,000 died (from all causes), or 15.2%. Of the 67,000 Regular Army (white) troops, 8.6%, or not quite 6,000, died. Of the approximately 180,000 United States Colored Troops, however, over 36,000 died, or 20.5%. In other words, the mortality "rate" amongst the United States Colored Troops in the Civil War was 35% greater than that among other troops, notwithstanding the fact that the former were not enrolled until some eighteen months after the fighting began.

— Herbert Aptheker[1]: 16 
Non-combatant labor duty
African-American laborers bury the dead at Fredericksburg, Virginia, 1862.

Escaped slaves who sought refuge in Union Army camps were called contrabands. A number of officers in the field experimented, with varying degrees of success, in using contrabands for manual work in Union Army camps. Eventually they composed black regiments of soldiers. These officers included General David Hunter, General James H. Lane, and General Benjamin F. Butler of Massachusetts.[6]: 165–167  In early 1861, General Butler was the first known Union commander to use black contrabands, in a non-combatant role, to do the physical labor duties, after he refused to return escaped slaves, at Fort Monroe, Virginia, who came to him for asylum from their masters, who sought to capture and reenslave them. In September 1862, free African-American men were conscripted and impressed into forced labor for constructing defensive fortifications, by the police force of the city of Cincinnati, Ohio; however, they were soon released from their forced labor and a call for African-American volunteers was sent out. Some 700 of them volunteered, and they came to be known as the Black Brigade of Cincinnati. Because of the harsh working conditions and the extreme brutality of their Cincinnati police guards, the Union Army, under General Lew Wallace, stepped in to restore order and ensure that the black conscripts received the fair treatment due to soldiers, including the equal pay of privates.

Contrabands were later settled in a number of colonies, such as at the Grand Contraband Camp, Virginia, and in the Port Royal Experiment.

Blacks also participated in activities further behind the lines that helped keep an army functioning, such as at hospitals and the like. Jane E. Schultz wrote of the medical corps that

    Approximately 10 percent of the Union's female relief workforce was of African descent: free blacks of diverse education and class background who earned wages or worked without pay in the larger cause of freedom, and runaway slaves who sought sanctuary in military camps and hospitals.[15]

Early battles in 1862 and 1863

In general, white soldiers and officers believed that black men lacked the ability to fight and fight well. [citation needed] In October 1862, African-American soldiers of the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry, in one of the first engagements involving black troops, silenced their critics by repulsing attacking Confederate guerrillas at the Skirmish at Island Mound, Missouri, in the Western Theatre. By August, 1863, fourteen more Negro State Regiments were in the field and ready for service. Union General Benjamin Butler wrote

    Better soldiers never shouldered a musket. I observed a very remarkable trait about them. They learned to handle arms and to march more easily than intelligent white men. My drillmaster could teach a regiment of Negroes that much of the art of war sooner than he could have taught the same number of students from Harvard or Yale.[16]

Sgt. Samuel Smith (3rd United States Colored Cavalry Regiment) with wife and daughters, c. 1863–65

At the Battle of Port Hudson, Louisiana, May 27, 1863, the African-American soldiers bravely advanced over open ground in the face of deadly artillery fire. Although the attack failed, the black soldiers proved their capability to withstand the heat of battle, with General Nathaniel P. Banks recording in his official report: "Whatever doubt may have existed heretofore as to the efficiency of organizations of this character, the history of this day's proves...in this class of troops effective supporters and defenders."[17] Noted for his bravery was Union Captain Andre Cailloux, who fell early in the battle.[18] This was the first battle involving a formal Federal African-American unit.[19] On June 7, 1863, a garrison consisting mostly of black troops assigned to guard a supply depot during the Vicksburg Campaign found themselves under attack by a larger Confederate force. Recently recruited, minimally trained, and poorly armed, the black soldiers still managed to successfully repulse the attack in the ensuing Battle of Milliken's Bend with the help of federal gunboats from the Tennessee river, despite suffering nearly three times as many casualties as the rebels.[20] At one point in the battle, Confederate General Henry McCulloch noted

    The line was formed under a heavy fire from the enemy, and the troops charged the breastworks, carrying it instantly, killing and wounding many of the enemy by their deadly fire, as well as the bayonet. This charge was resisted by the negro portion of the enemy's force with considerable obstinacy, while the white or true Yankee portion ran like whipped curs almost as soon as the charge was ordered.[21]

Fort Wagner, Fort Pillow, and beyond

    [The Fifty-fourth Massachusetts] made Fort Wagner such a name to the colored race as Bunker Hill has been for ninety years to the white Yankees.

-The New York Tribune, September 8, 1865[22]
A lithograph of the storming of Fort Wagner.

The most widely-known battle fought by African Americans was the assault on Fort Wagner, off the Charleston coast, South Carolina, by the 54th Massachusetts Infantry on July 18, 1863. The 54th volunteered to lead the assault on the strongly fortified Confederate positions of the earthen/sand embankments (very resistant to artillery fire) on the coastal beach. The soldiers of the 54th scaled the fort's parapet, and were only driven back after brutal hand-to-hand combat. Despite the defeat, the unit was hailed for its valor, which spurred further African-American recruitment, giving the Union a numerical military advantage from a large segment of the population the Confederacy did not attempt to exploit until too late in the closing days of the War. Unfortunately for any African-American soldiers captured during these battles, imprisonment could be even worse than death. Black prisoners were not treated the same as white prisoners. They received no medical attention, harsh punishments, and would not be used in a prisoner exchange because the Confederate states only saw them as escaped slaves fighting against their masters.[23]

After the battle, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton praised the recent performances of black troops in a letter to Abraham Lincoln, stating "Many persons believed, or pretended to believe, and confidentially asserted, that freed slaves would not make good soldiers; they would lack courage, and could not be subjected to military discipline. Facts have shown how groundless were these apprehensions. The slave has proved his manhood, and his capacity as an infantry soldier, at Milliken's Bend, at the assault upon Port Hudson, and the storming of Fort Wagner."[21]

African-American soldiers participated in every major campaign of the war's last year, 1864–1865, except for Sherman's Atlanta campaign in Georgia, and the following "March to the Sea" to Savannah, by Christmas 1864. The year 1864 was especially eventful for African-American troops. On April 12, 1864, at the Battle of Fort Pillow, in Tennessee, Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest led his 2,500 men against the Union-held fortification, occupied by 292 black and 285 white soldiers.

After driving in the Union pickets and giving the garrison an opportunity to surrender, Forrest's men swarmed into the Fort with little difficulty and drove the Federals down the river's bluff into a deadly crossfire. Casualties were high and only sixty-two of the U.S. Colored Troops survived the fight. Accounts from both Union and Confederate witnesses suggest a massacre.[24] Many believed that the massacre was ordered by Forrest. The battle cry for some black soldiers became "Remember Fort Pillow!"
Company I of the 36th Colored Regiment, U.S. Colored Troops, (USCT) Infantry.

Six weeks later, Black troops won a notable victory in their first battle of the Overland Campaign in Virginia at the Battle of Wilson's Wharf, successfully defending Fort Pocahontas. Before the battle, Confederate General Fitzhugh Lee sent a surrender demand to the garrison in the fort, warning them if they did not surrender, he would not be "answerable for the consequences." Interpreting this to be a reference to the massacre at Fort Pillow, Union commanding officer Edward A. Wild defiantly refused, responding with a message stating "Present my compliments to General Fitz Lee and tell him to go to hell.” In the ensuing battle, the garrison force repulsed the assault, inflicting 200 casualties with a loss of just 6 killed and 40 wounded.

The Battle of Chaffin's Farm, Virginia, became one of the most heroic engagements involving black troops. On September 29, 1864, the African-American division of the Eighteenth Corps, after being pinned down by Confederate artillery fire for about 30 minutes, charged the earthworks and rushed up the slopes of the heights. During the hour-long engagement the division suffered tremendous casualties. Of the twenty-five African Americans who were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor during the Civil War, fourteen received the honor as a result of their actions at Chaffin's Farm.
Discrimination in pay and assignments
African-American Federal troops participating in the Inauguration Day parade at Lincoln's second Inauguration, March 1865.[25]

Although black soldiers proved themselves as reputable soldiers, discrimination in pay and other areas remained widespread. According to the Militia Act of 1862, soldiers of African descent were to receive $10.00 per month, with an optional deduction for clothing at $3.00. In contrast, white privates received $12.00 per month plus a clothing allowance of $3.50.[26] Many regiments struggled for equal pay, some refusing any money and pay until June 15, 1864, when the Federal Congress granted equal pay for all soldiers.[27][28]

Besides discrimination in pay, colored units were often disproportionately assigned laborer work, rather than combat assignments.[6]: 198  General Daniel Ullman, commander of the Corps d'Afrique, remarked "I fear that many high officials outside of Washington have no other intention than that these men shall be used as diggers and drudges."[29]
African-American contributions to Union war intelligence

Black people, both enslaved and free, were involved in assisting the Union in matters of intelligence, and their contributions were labeled Black Dispatches.[30] One of these spies was Mary Bowser. Harriet Tubman was also a spy, a nurse, and a cook whose efforts were key to Union victories and survival. Tubman is most widely recognized for her contributions to freeing slaves via the Underground Railroad. However, her contributions to the Union Army were equally important. She used her knowledge of the country's terrain to gain important intelligence for the Union Army. She became the first woman to lead U.S. soldiers into combat when, under the order of Colonel James Montgomery, she took a contingent of soldiers in South Carolina behind enemy lines, destroying plantations and freeing 750 slaves in the process.[31]

Black people routinely assisted Union armies advancing through Confederate territory as scouts, guides, and spies. Confederate General Robert Lee said "The chief source of information to the enemy is through our negroes."[32] In a letter to Confederate high command, Confederate general Patrick Cleburne complained "All along the lines slavery is comparatively valueless to us for labor, but of great and increasing worth to the enemy for information. It is an omnipresent spy system, pointing out our valuable men to the enemy, revealing our positions, purposes, and resources, and yet acting so safely and secretly that there is no means to guard against it. Even in the heart of our country, where our hold upon this secret espionage is firmest, it waits but the opening fire of the enemy's battle line to wake it, like a torpid serpent, into venomous activity."[33]
Union Navy (U.S. Navy)

Unlike the army, the U.S. Navy had never prohibited black men from serving, though regulations in place since 1840 had required them to be limited to not more than 5% of all enlisted sailors. Thus at the start of the war, the Union Navy differed from the Army in that it allowed black men to enlist and was racially integrated.[34] The Union Navy's official position at the beginning of the war was ambivalence toward the use of either Northern free black people or runaway slaves. The constant stream, however, of escaped slaves seeking refuge aboard Union ships forced the Navy to formulate a policy towards them.[35] Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Wells in a terse order, pointed out the following;

    It is not the policy of this Government to invite or encourage this kind of desertion and yet, under the circumstances, no other course...could be adopted without violating every principle of humanity. To return them would be impolitic as well as cruel...you will do well to employ them.

— Gideon Wells, Secretary of the Navy July 22, 1861 [36]

In time, the Union Navy would see almost 16% of its ranks supplied by African Americans, performing in a wide range of enlisted roles.[37] In contrast to the Army, the Navy from the outset not only paid equal wages to white and black sailors, but offered considerably more for even entry-level enlisted positions.[38] Food rations and medical care were also improved over the Army, with the Navy benefiting from a regular stream of supplies from Union-held ports.[39]

Becoming a commissioned officer was out of reach for nearly all black sailors. With rare exceptions, the rank of petty officer was the highest available to black sailors, and in practice, only to free blacks (who often were the only ones with naval careers sufficiently long to earn the rank).[40] Robert Smalls, an escaped slave who freed himself, his crew, and their families by commandeering a Confederate transport ship, CSS Planter, in Charleston harbor, on May 13, 1862, and sailing it from Confederate-controlled waters of the harbor to the U.S. blockade that surrounded it, was given the rank of captain of the steamer "Planter" in December 1864.[41]
Confederacy
Marlboro Jones, an African-American servant to a white Confederate soldier. African Americans performed forced labor under Confederate military unit direction.[42]
Confederate Army

Blacks did not serve in the Confederate Army as combat troops, per law.[2][43][44] Blacks were not merely not recruited; service was actively forbidden by the Confederacy for the majority of its existence.[2] Enslaved blacks were sometimes used for camp labor, however. Other times, when a son or sons in a slaveholding family enlisted, he would take along a family slave to work as a personal servant. Such slaves would perform non-combat duties such as carrying and loading supplies, but they were not soldiers. Still, even these civilian usages were comparatively infrequent. In areas where the Union Army approached, a wave of slave escapes would inevitably follow; Southern blacks would inevitably offer themselves as scouts who knew the territory to the Federals. Confederate armies were rationally nervous about having too many blacks marching with them, as their patchy loyalty to the Confederacy meant that the risk of one turning runaway and informing the Federals as to the rebel army's size and position was substantial. Opposition to arming blacks was even stauncher. Many in the South feared slave revolts already, and arming blacks would make the threat of mistreated slaves overthrowing their masters even greater.[2]

The closest the Confederacy came to seriously attempting to equip colored soldiers in the army proper came in the last few weeks of the war. The Confederate Congress narrowly passed a bill allowing slaves to join the army. The bill did not offer or guarantee an end to their servitude as an incentive to enlist, and only allowed slaves to enlist with the consent of their masters. Even this weak bill, supported by Robert E. Lee, passed only narrowly, by a 9–8 vote in the Senate. President Jefferson Davis signed the law on March 13, 1865, but went beyond the terms in the bill by issuing an order on March 23 to offer freedom to slaves so recruited. The emancipation offered, however, was reliant upon a master's consent; "no slave will be accepted as a recruit unless with his own consent and with the approbation of his master by a written instrument conferring, as far as he may, the rights of a freedman."[45] According to historian William C. Davis, President Davis felt that blacks would not fight unless they were guaranteed their freedom after the war.[46] Gaining this consent from slaveholders, however, was an "unlikely prospect".[2]

    THE BATTALION from Camps Winder and Jackson, under the command of Dr. Chambliss, including the company of colored troops under Captain Grimes, will parade on the square on Wednesday evening, at 4* o'clock. This is the first company of negro troops raised in Virginia. It was organized about a month since, by Dr. Chambliss, from the employees of the hospitals, and served on the lines during the recent Sheridan raid.

— Richmond Sentinel, March 21, 1865

According to calculations of Virginia's state auditor, some 4,700 free black males and more than 25,000 male slaves between eighteen and forty five years of age were fit for service.[47] Two companies were raised from laborers of two local hospitals-Winder and Jackson-as well as a formal recruiting center created by General Ewell and staffed by Majors James Pegram and Thomas P. Turner.[48]: 125  In all, they managed to recruit about 200 men.[49] They paraded down the streets of Richmond, albeit without weapons. At least one such review had to be cancelled due not merely to lack of weaponry, but also lack of uniforms or equipment. These units did not see combat; Richmond fell without a battle to Union armies one week later in early April 1865. These two companies were the sole exception to the Confederacy's policy of spurning black soldiery, never saw combat, and came too late in the war to matter.[2] In his memoirs, Davis stated "There did not remain time enough to obtain any result from its provisions".[50]
Jefferson Shields in uniform with medals and hat. Shields attended many reunions and was voted in as a member of the Stonewall Brigade at a reunion in Staunton, Virginia. He was buried with a military grave marker that reads "Jefferson Shields, Pvt. Co. H 27th Va. Inf., Stonewall Brigade, Confederate States Army" at Evergeen Cemetery, Lexington, Virginia. From the Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. Jefferson Shields was not enlisted in the Confederate Army.[51] The Sons of Confederate Veterans awarded him the honorary rank of private decades after his death. The Confederate Army did not allow slaves to enlist. His image, along with other "black Confederates", helped to reinforce the stereotype of the "happy slave" narrative according to historian Kevin M. Levin.[52]

According to a 2019 study by historian Kevin M. Levin, the origin of the myth of black Confederate soldiers primarily originates in the 1970s.[53] After 1977, some Confederate heritage groups began to claim that large numbers of black soldiers fought loyally for the Confederacy.[54][55] These accounts are not given credence by historians, as they rely on sources such as postwar individual journals rather than military records.[2][54] Historian Bruce Levine wrote:

    The whole sorry episode [the mustering of colored troops in Richmond] provides a fitting coda for our examination of modern claims that thousands and thousands of black troops loyally fought in the Confederate armies. This strikingly unsuccessful last-ditch effort constituted the sole exception to the Confederacy's steadfast refusal to employ African American soldiers. As General Ewell's long term aide-de-camp, Major George Campbell Brown, later affirmed, the handful of black soldiers mustered in the southern capital in March of 1865 constituted 'the first and only black troops used on our side.'[56]

Non-military use

The impressment of slaves and conscription of freedmen into direct military labor initially came on the impetus of state legislatures, and by 1864, six states had regulated impressment (Florida, Virginia, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina, in order of authorization).[57][58][59] Slave labor was used in a wide variety of support roles, from infrastructure and mining, to teamster and medical roles such as hospital attendants and nurses.[48]: 62–63  Bruce Levine wrote that "Nearly 40% of the Confederacy's population were unfree... the work required to sustain the same society during war naturally fell disproportionately on black shoulders as well. By drawing so many white men into the army, indeed, the war multiplied the importance of the black work force."[48]: 62 

Naval historian Ivan Musicant wrote that blacks may have possibly served various petty positions in the Confederate Navy, such as coal heavers or officer's stewards, although records are lacking.[60]

After the war, the State of Tennessee granted Confederate pensions to nearly 300 African Americans for their service to the Confederacy.[61][62]
Proposals to arm slaves

The idea of arming slaves for use as soldiers was speculated on from the onset of the war, but not seriously considered by Davis or others in his administration. As the Union saw victories in the fall of 1862 and the spring of 1863, however, the need for more manpower was acknowledged by the Confederacy in the form of conscription of white men, and the national impressment of free and enslaved blacks into laborer positions. State militias composed of freedmen were offered, but the War Department spurned the offer.[48]: 19 

    Will the slaves fight?−the experience of this war so far has been that half-trained Negroes have fought as bravely as half-trained Yankees.

-General Patrick Cleburne[63]

In January 1864, General Patrick Cleburne in the Army of Tennessee proposed using slaves as soldiers in the national army to buttress falling troop numbers. Cleburne recommended offering slaves their freedom if they fought and survived. He also recommended recognizing slave marriages and family, and forbidding their sale, hotly controversial proposals when slaveowners routinely separated families and refused to recognize familial bonds. Cleburne cited the blacks in the Union army as proof that they could fight. He also believed that such a policy would reduce mass defections of slaves to the Union: "The approach of the enemy would no longer find every household surrounded by spies ... There would be no recruits awaiting the enemy with open arms, no complete history of every neighborhood with ready guides, no fear of insurrection in the rear...[2]

Cleburne's proposal received a hostile reception. Recognizing slave families would entirely undermine the economic foundation of slavery, as a man's wife and children would no longer be salable commodities, so his proposal veered too close to abolition for the pro-slavery Confederacy.[2] The other officers in the Army of Tennessee disapproved of the proposal. A. P. Stewart said that emancipating slaves for military use was "at war with my social, moral, and political principles", while James Patton Anderson called the proposal "revolting to Southern sentiment, Southern pride, and Southern honor."[64][65][2] It was sent to Confederate President Jefferson Davis anyway, who refused to consider Cleburne's proposal and ordered the report kept private as discussion of it could only produce "discouragement, distraction, and dissension." Military adviser to Davis; General Braxton Bragg considered the proposal outright treasonous to the Confederacy.[2]

The growing setbacks for the Confederacy in late 1864 caused a number of prominent officials to reconsider their earlier stance, however. President Lincoln's re-election in November 1864 seemed to seal the best political chance for victory the South had. President Davis, Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin, and General Robert E. Lee now were willing to consider modified versions of Cleburne's original proposal. On November 7, 1864, in his annual address to Congress, Davis hinted at arming slaves.[66] Despite the suppression of Cleburne's idea, the question of enlisting slaves into the army had not faded away but had become a fixture of debate among columns of southern newspapers and southern society in the winter of 1864.[48]: 4 [67] Representative of the two sides in the debate were the Richmond Enquirer and the Charleston Courier:

    ... whenever the subjugation of Virginia or the employment of her slaves as soldiers are alternative propositions, then certainly we are for making them soldiers, and giving freedom to those negroes that escape the casualties of battle.

— Nathaniel Tyler in the Richmond Enquirer[68]

    Slavery, God's institution of labor, and the primary political element of our Confederation of Government, state sovereignty... must stand or fall together. To talk of maintaining independence while we abolish slavery is simply to talk folly.

— Charleston Courier[69]

Opposition to the proposal was still widespread, even in the last months of the war. Howell Cobb of Georgia wrote in January 1865 that

    the proposition to make soldiers of our slaves is the most pernicious idea that has been suggested since the war began... You cannot make soldiers of slaves, nor slaves of soldiers... The day you make soldiers of [Negroes] is the beginning of the end of the revolution. If slaves will make good soldiers our whole theory of slavery is wrong – but they won't make soldiers.[65][2]

Robert M. T. Hunter wrote "What did we go to war for, if not to protect our property?"[2] Confederate General Robert Toombs complained "But if you put our negroes and white men into the army together, you must and will put them on an equality; they must be under the same code, the same pay, allowances and clothing. There must be promotions for valor or there will be no morals among them. Therefore, it is a surrender of the entire slavery question."[70]

On January 11, 1865, General Robert E. Lee wrote the Confederate Congress urging them to arm and enlist black slaves in exchange for their freedom.[71] On March 13, the Confederate Congress passed legislation to raise and enlist companies of black soldiers by one vote. The law allowed slaves to enlist, but only with the consent of their slave masters. The legislation was then promulgated into military policy by Davis in General Order No. 14 on March 23, 1865.[45] The war ended less than six weeks later, and there is no record of any black unit being accepted into the Confederate army or seeing combat.[72]
Louisiana militia
Main articles: 1st Louisiana Native Guard (CSA) and 1st Louisiana Native Guard (United States)

Louisiana was somewhat unique among the Confederacy as the Southern state with the highest proportion of non-enslaved free blacks, a remnant of its time under French rule. Elsewhere in the South, such free blacks ran the risk of being accused of being a runaway slave, arrested and enslaved. One of the state militias was the 1st Louisiana Native Guard, a militia unit composed of free men of color, mixed-blood creoles who would be considered black elsewhere in the South by the one-drop rule. The unit was short lived, and never saw combat before forced to disband in April 1862 after the Louisiana State Legislature passed a law that reorganized the militia into only "...free white males capable of bearing arms."[73][74] The militia was later briefly reformed, then dissolved again. A Union army regiment 1st Louisiana Native Guard, including some former members of the former Confederate 1st Louisiana Native Guard, was later formed under the same name after General Butler took control of New Orleans.

Other militias with notable free black representation included the Baton Rouge Guards under Capt. Henry Favrot, the Pointe Coupee Light Infantry under Capt. Ferdinand Claiborne, and the Augustin Guards and Monet's Guards of Natchitoches under Dr. Jean Burdin. The only official duties ever given to the Natchitoches units were funeral honor guard details.[75] One account of an unidentified African American fighting for the Confederacy, from two Southern 1862 newspapers,[76] tells of "a huge negro" fighting under the command of Confederate Major General John C. Breckinridge against the 14th Maine Infantry Regiment in a battle near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on August 5, 1862. The man was described as being "armed and equipped with knapsack, musket, and uniform", and helping to lead the attack.[77] The man's status of being a freedman or a slave is unknown.

Out of a total of 18,547 free blacks in Louisiana in 1860, between 2,000 and 3,000 volunteered for military service for the Confederacy.[78]
Confederate Navy

There is evidence of a small number enslaved and free African Americans who were sailors/laborers (though not combatants necessarily) in the Confederate Navy. This includes a sailor named Edward Weeks who served on the CSS Alabama.[79] Typically tasks in the Confederate navy were those of menial labor. Historians have estimated that up to 5% of seamen on Confederate ships in Savannah were of African American descent. These numbers were always small, and were limited by officials in the Confederate government.[80]
As prisoners of war

Prisoner exchanges between the Union and Confederacy were suspended when the Confederacy refused to return black soldiers captured in uniform. In October 1862, the Confederate Congress issued a resolution declaring that all Negroes, free and enslaved, should be delivered to their respective states "to be dealt with according to the present and future laws of such State or States".[81] In a letter to General Beauregard on this issue, Secretary Seddon pointed out that "Slaves in flagrant rebellion are subject to death by the laws of every slave-holding State" but that "to guard, however, against possible abuse...the order of execution should be reposed in the general commanding the special locality of the capture."[82]

However, Seddon, concerned about the "embarrassments attending this question",[83] urged that former slaves be sent back to their owners. As for freemen, they would be handed over to Confederates for confinement and put to hard labor.[84] Black troops were actually less likely to be taken prisoner than whites, as in many cases, such as the Battle of Fort Pillow, Confederate troops murdered them on the battlefield; if taken prisoner, black troops and their white officers faced far worse treatment than other prisoners.

In the last few months of the war, the Confederate government agreed to the exchange of all prisoners, white and black, and several thousand troops were exchanged until the surrender of the Confederacy ended all hostilities.[85] Some African Americans joined the U.S. Army as soldiers, while others were employed as laborers, scouts, and servants. In the navy, African American sailors played crucial roles aboard ships. Their participation was often overlooked and not formally documented in many cases. For more click here.
See also

    American Civil War portal

    German Americans in the American Civil War
    Hispanics in the American Civil War
    Irish Americans in the American Civil War
    Italian Americans in the Civil War
    Native Americans in the American Civil War (Cherokee, Choctaw)
    Social history of soldiers and veterans in the United States
    William Carney, the first African-American to receive the Medal of Honor.[13]
    Martin R. Delany, the first black commanding officer to serve in the Union Army[86]
    A History of the Negro Troops in the War of the Rebellion, 1861–1865, 1888 history by George Washington Williams
    Louisiana Battalion of Free Men of Color.

The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union[e] ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve African American slavery, which they saw as threatened because of the election of Abraham Lincoln and the growing abolitionist movement in the North.[14]

Decades of controversy over slavery came to a head when Abraham Lincoln, a Republican who opposed slavery's expansion, won the 1860 presidential election. Seven Southern slave states responded to Lincoln's victory by seceding from the United States and forming the Confederacy. The Confederacy seized US forts and other federal assets within its borders. The war began on April 12, 1861, when the Confederacy bombarded Fort Sumter in South Carolina. A wave of enthusiasm for war swept over the North and South, as military recruitment soared. Four more Southern states seceded after the war began and, led by its president, Jefferson Davis, the Confederacy asserted control over a third of the US population in eleven states. Four years of intense combat, mostly in the South, ensued.

During 1861–1862 in the western theater, the Union made permanent gains—though in the eastern theater the conflict was inconclusive. The abolition of slavery became a Union war goal on January 1, 1863, when Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared all slaves in rebel states to be free, applying to more than 3.5 million of the 4 million enslaved people in the country. To the west, the Union first destroyed the Confederacy's river navy by the summer of 1862, then much of its western armies, and seized New Orleans. The successful 1863 Union siege of Vicksburg split the Confederacy in two at the Mississippi River, while Confederate general Robert E. Lee's incursion north failed at the Battle of Gettysburg. General Ulysses S. Grant's western successes led to Lincoln's giving him command of all Union armies in 1864.

Inflicting an ever-tightening naval blockade of Confederate ports, the Union marshaled resources and manpower to attack the Confederacy from all directions. This led to the fall of Atlanta in 1864 to Union general William Tecumseh Sherman, followed by his March to the Sea, which culminated in his taking Savannah. The last significant battles raged around the ten-month Siege of Petersburg, gateway to the Confederate capital of Richmond. The Confederates abandoned Richmond, and on April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered to Grant following the Battle of Appomattox Court House, setting in motion the end of the war.[f] Lincoln lived to see this victory but was shot by an assassin on April 14, dying the next day.

By the end of the war, much of the South's infrastructure had been destroyed. The Confederacy collapsed, slavery was abolished, and four million enslaved black people were freed. The war-torn nation then entered the Reconstruction era in an attempt to rebuild the country, bring the former Confederate states back into the United States, and grant civil rights to freed slaves. The war is one of the most extensively studied and written about episodes in the history of the United States. It remains the subject of cultural and historiographical debate. Of continuing interest is the myth of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy. The war was among the first to use industrial warfare. Railroads, the electrical telegraph, steamships, the ironclad warship, and mass-produced weapons were widely used. The war left an estimated 700,000 soldiers dead, along with an undetermined number of civilian casualties, making it the deadliest in American history.[g] The technology and brutality of the Civil War foreshadowed the coming world wars.
Origins
Main article: Origins of the American Civil War
Further information: Timeline of events leading to the American Civil War, Slave states and free states, Slavery in the United States, and Abolitionism in the United States

The origins of the war were rooted in the desire of the Southern states to preserve the institution of slavery.[15] Historians in the 21st century overwhelmingly agree on the centrality of slavery in the conflict—at least for the Southern states. They disagree on the North's reasons for refusing to allow the Southern states to secede.[16] The pseudo-historical Lost Cause ideology denies that slavery was the principal cause of the secession, a view disproven by historical evidence, notably some of the seceding states' own secession documents.[17] After leaving the Union, Mississippi issued a declaration stating, "Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery—the greatest material interest of the world."[18][19]

The principal political battle leading to Southern secession was over whether slavery would expand into the Western territories destined to become states. Initially Congress had admitted new states into the Union in pairs, one slave and one free. This had kept a sectional balance in the Senate but not in the House of Representatives, as free states outstripped slave states in numbers of eligible voters.[20] Thus, at mid-19th century, the free-versus-slave status of the new territories was a critical issue, both for the North, where anti-slavery sentiment had grown, and for the South, where the fear of slavery's abolition had grown. Another factor leading to secession and the formation of the Confederacy was the development of white Southern nationalism in the preceding decades.[21] The primary reason for the North to reject secession was to preserve the Union, a cause based on American nationalism.[22]

Background factors in the run up to the Civil War were partisan politics, abolitionism, nullification versus secession, Southern and Northern nationalism, expansionism, economics, and modernization in the antebellum period. As a panel of historians emphasized in 2011, "while slavery and its various and multifaceted discontents were the primary cause of disunion, it was disunion itself that sparked the war."[23]
Lincoln's election
Main article: 1860 United States presidential election
Portrait of the middle-aged Abraham Lincoln the year of 1860 by Mathew Brady
Portrait of Abraham Lincoln, an 1860 photograph portrait of Abraham Lincoln by Mathew Brady

Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 presidential election.[24] Southern leaders feared Lincoln would stop slavery's expansion and put it on a course toward extinction.[25] His victory triggered declarations of secession by seven slave states of the Deep South, all of whose riverfront or coastal economies were based on cotton that was cultivated by slave labor.

Lincoln was not inaugurated until March 4, 1861, four months after his 1860 election, which afforded the South time to prepare for war.[26] Nationalists in the North and "Unionists" in the South refused to accept the declarations of secession, and no foreign government ever recognized the Confederacy. The US government, under President James Buchanan, refused to relinquish the nation's forts, which the Confederacy claimed were located in their territory.

According to Lincoln, the American people had demonstrated, beginning with their victory in the American Revolution and Revolutionary War and subsequent establishment of a sovereign nation, that they could successfully establish and administer a republic. Yet, Lincoln believed, a question remained unanswered: Could the nation be maintained as a republic, with its government selected by vote of the people, in the face of internal attempts to destroy it or separate from it?[27]
Outbreak of the war
Secession crisis
Main article: Ordinance of Secession
Map of US showing two kinds of Union states, two phases of secession and territories
Status of the states, 1861
   Slave states that seceded before April 15, 1861
   Slave states that seceded after April 15, 1861
   Border Southern states that permitted slavery but did not secede (both KY and MO had dual competing Confederate and Unionist governments)
   Union states that banned slavery
   Territories

Lincoln's election provoked South Carolina's legislature to call a state convention to consider secession. South Carolina had done more than any other state to advance the notion that a state had the right to nullify federal laws and even secede. On December 20, 1860, the convention unanimously voted to secede and adopted a secession declaration. It argued for states' rights for slave owners but complained about states' rights in the North in the form of resistance to the federal Fugitive Slave Act, claiming that Northern states were not fulfilling their obligations to assist in the return of fugitive slaves. The "cotton states" of Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas followed suit, seceding in January and February 1861.[26]
Division of the states during the American Civil War: Union, Confederacy, border states, and territories
Division of the states during the American Civil War:
  Union
  Confederacy
  Border states
  Territories

Among the ordinances of secession, those of Texas, Alabama, and Virginia mentioned the plight of the "slaveholding states" at the hands of Northern abolitionists. The rest made no mention of slavery but were brief announcements by the legislatures of the dissolution of ties to the Union.[28] However, at least four—South Carolina,[29] Mississippi,[30] Georgia,[31] and Texas[32]—provided detailed reasons for their secession, all blaming the movement to abolish slavery and its influence over the North. Southern states believed that the Fugitive Slave Clause made slaveholding a constitutional right. These states agreed to form a new federal government, the Confederate States of America, on February 4, 1861.[33] They took control of federal forts and other properties within their boundaries, with little resistance from outgoing president James Buchanan, whose term ended on March 4. Buchanan said the Dred Scott decision was proof the Southern states had no reason to secede and that the Union "was intended to be perpetual". He added, however, that "The power by force of arms to compel a State to remain in the Union" was not among the "enumerated powers granted to Congress".[34] A quarter of the US army—the Texas garrison—was surrendered in February to state forces by its general, David E. Twiggs, who joined the Confederacy.[35]

As Southerners resigned their Senate and House seats, Republicans could pass projects that had been blocked. These included the Morrill Tariff, land grant colleges, a Homestead Act, a transcontinental railroad,[36] the National Bank Act, authorization of United States Notes by the Legal Tender Act of 1862, the end of slavery in the District of Columbia, and a ban on slavery in the territories.[37] The Revenue Act of 1861 introduced an income tax to help finance the war.[38]
Middle-aged man in a goatee posed standing in a suit, vest and bowtie
Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America (1861–1865)

In December 1860, the Crittenden Compromise was proposed to re-establish the Missouri Compromise line, by constitutionally banning slavery in territories to the north of it, while permitting it to the south. The Compromise would likely have prevented secession, but Lincoln and the Republicans rejected it.[39] Lincoln stated that any compromise that would extend slavery would bring down the Union.[40] A February peace conference met in Washington, proposing a solution similar to the Compromise; it was rejected by Congress. The Republicans proposed the Corwin Amendment, an alternative, not to interfere with slavery where it existed, but the South regarded it as insufficient. The remaining eight slave states rejected pleas to join the Confederacy, following a no-vote in Virginia's First Secessionist Convention on April 4.[41]

On March 4, Lincoln was sworn in as president. In his first inaugural address, he argued that the Constitution was a more perfect union than the earlier Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, was a binding contract, and that secession was "legally void".[42] He did not intend to invade Southern states, nor to end slavery where it existed, but he said he would use force to maintain possession of federal property,[42] including forts, arsenals, mints, and customhouses that had been seized.[43] "The mails, unless repelled, will continue to be furnished in all parts of the Union." Where conditions did not allow peaceful enforcement of federal law, US marshals and judges would be withdrawn. No mention was made of bullion lost from mints. He stated that it would be US policy "to collect the duties and imposts"; "there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere" that would justify an armed revolution. His speech closed with a plea for restoration of the bonds of union, famously calling on "the mystic chords of memory" binding the two regions.[42]

The Confederacy sent delegates to Washington to negotiate a peace treaty. Lincoln rejected negotiations, because he claimed that the Confederacy was not a legitimate government and to make a treaty with it would recognize it as such.[44] Lincoln instead attempted to negotiate directly with the governors of seceded states, whose administrations he continued to recognize.[45]

Complicating Lincoln's attempts to defuse the crisis was Secretary of State William H. Seward, who had been Lincoln's rival for the Republican nomination. Embittered by his defeat, Seward agreed to support Lincoln's candidacy only after he was guaranteed the executive office then considered the second most powerful. In the early stages of Lincoln's presidency Seward held little regard for him, due to his perceived inexperience. Seward viewed himself as the de facto head of government, the "prime minister" behind the throne. Seward attempted to engage in unauthorized and indirect negotiations that failed.[44] Lincoln was determined to hold all remaining Union-occupied forts in the seceded states: Fort Pickens, Fort Jefferson, and Fort Taylor in Florida, and Fort Sumter in South Carolina.[46]
Battle of Fort Sumter
Main article: Battle of Fort Sumter
See also: Proclamation 80
Artwork Despite him stone fort at center surrounded by water. The fort is on fire, and shells explode in the air above it.
The Battle of Fort Sumter, as depicted by Currier and Ives

The American Civil War began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces opened fire on the Union-held Fort Sumter. Fort Sumter is located in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina.[47] Its status had been contentious for months. Outgoing president Buchanan had dithered in reinforcing its garrison, commanded by Major Robert Anderson. Anderson took matters into his own hands and on December 26, 1860, under the cover of darkness, sailed the garrison from the poorly placed Fort Moultrie to the stalwart island Fort Sumter.[48] Anderson's actions catapulted him to hero status in the North. An attempt to resupply the fort on January 9, 1861, failed and nearly started the war then, but an informal truce held.[49] On March 5, Lincoln was informed the fort was low on supplies.[50]

Fort Sumter proved a key challenge to Lincoln's administration.[50] Back-channel dealing by Seward with the Confederates undermined Lincoln's decision-making; Seward wanted to pull out.[51] But a firm hand by Lincoln tamed Seward, who was a staunch Lincoln ally. Lincoln decided holding the fort, which would require reinforcing it, was the only workable option. On April 6, Lincoln informed the Governor of South Carolina that a ship with food but no ammunition would attempt to supply the fort. Richard N. Current wrote:

    In short, it appears that Lincoln, when he decided to send the Sumter expedition, considered hostilities to be probable. It also appears, however, that he believed an unopposed and peaceable provisioning to be at least barely possible.... He thought hostilities would be the likely result, and he was determined that, if they should be, they must clearly be initiated by the Confederates. "To say that Lincoln meant that the first shot would be fired by the other side if a first shot was fired, ... is not to say that he maneuvered to have the first shot fired."[52]

James McPherson describes this win-win approach as "the first sign of the mastery that would mark Lincoln's presidency"; the Union would win if it could resupply and hold the fort, and the South would be the aggressor if it opened fire on an unarmed ship supplying starving men.[53] An April 9 Confederate cabinet meeting resulted in Davis ordering General P. G. T. Beauregard to take the fort before supplies reached it.[54]

At 4:30 a.m. on April 12, Confederate forces fired the first of 4,000 shells at the fort; it fell the next day. The loss of Fort Sumter lit a patriotic fire under the North.[55] On April 15, Lincoln called on the states to field 75,000 militiamen for 90 days; impassioned Union states met the quotas quickly.[56] On May 3, 1861, Lincoln called for an additional 42,000 volunteers for three years.[57][58] Shortly after this, Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, and North Carolina seceded and joined the Confederacy. To reward Virginia, the Confederate capital was moved to Richmond.[59]
Attitude of the border states
Main article: Border states (American Civil War)
US secession map, showing the Union and the Confederacy
   Union states
   Union territories not permitting slavery
   Southern Border Union states, permitting slavery
(One of these states, West Virginia, was created in 1863, while KY, WV and MO had dual competing Confederate and Unionist governments)
   Confederate states
   Union territories that permitted slavery (claimed by Confederacy) at the start of the war, but where slavery was outlawed by the US in 1862

Maryland, Delaware, Missouri, and Kentucky, known as the border states, were slave states that had not seceded and whose people had divided loyalties to the North and South, with some men enlisting in the Union Army and others in the Confederate Army.[60] West Virginia may be compared to the border states because it had slavery after it separated from Virginia and was admitted to the Union on June 20, 1863,[61] but it was admitted under a plan of gradual emancipation known as the Willey Amendment.

Maryland's territory surrounded Washington, D.C., and could cut it off from the North.[62] It had anti-Lincoln officials who tolerated anti-army rioting in Baltimore and the burning of bridges, both aimed at hindering the passage of troops to Washington, D.C., and the South. Maryland's legislature voted overwhelmingly to stay in the Union, but rejected hostilities with its southern neighbors, voting to close Maryland's rail lines to prevent their use for war.[63] Lincoln responded by establishing martial law and suspending habeas corpus in Maryland, along with sending in militia units.[64] Lincoln took control of Maryland and the District of Columbia by seizing prominent figures, including arresting one-third of the members of the Maryland General Assembly, who were pro-Confederate, on September 17, 1861, the day it intended to reconvene.[63] All were held without trial at Fort McHenry in Baltimore.[65]

In September 1861, federal troops imprisoned a Baltimore newspaper editor, Frank Key Howard, after he criticized Lincoln in an editorial for ignoring Taney's ruling.[66] Howard wrote a book about his prison experiences, which was published early in 1863. It "stressed the crowded conditions and spartan hardships of prison life ... [and] likened the conditions in Fort Lafayette to those on 'a slave-ship, on the middle passage'".[67]

In Missouri, an elected convention on secession voted to remain in the Union. When pro-Confederate Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson called out the state militia, it was attacked by federal forces under General Nathaniel Lyon, who chased the governor and rest of the State Guard to the southwestern corner of Missouri (see Missouri secession). Early in the war the Confederacy controlled southern Missouri through the Confederate government of Missouri but was driven out after 1862. In the resulting vacuum, the convention on secession reconvened and took power as the Unionist provisional government of Missouri.[68]

Kentucky did not secede but declared itself neutral. When Confederate forces entered in September 1861, its neutrality ended and the state reaffirmed its Union status while maintaining slavery. During an invasion by Confederate forces in 1861, Confederate sympathizers and delegates from 68 Kentucky counties organized the secession Russellville Convention, formed the shadow Confederate Government of Kentucky, inaugurated a governor, and Kentucky was admitted into the Confederacy on December 10, 1861. Its jurisdiction extended only as far as Confederate battle lines in the Commonwealth, which at its greatest extent was over half the state, and it went into exile after October 1862.[69]

After Virginia's secession, a Unionist government in Wheeling asked 48 counties to vote on an ordinance to create a new state in October 1861. A voter turnout of 34 percent approved the statehood bill (96 percent approving).[70] Twenty-four secessionist counties were included in the new state,[71] and the ensuing guerrilla war engaged about 40,000 federal troops for much of the war.[72][73] Congress admitted West Virginia to the Union on June 20, 1863. West Virginians provided about 20,000 soldiers to each side in the war.[74] A Unionist secession attempt occurred in East Tennessee, but was suppressed by the Confederacy, which arrested over 3,000 men suspected of loyalty to the Union; they were held without trial.[75]
War
See also: List of American Civil War battles and Military leadership in the American Civil War

The Civil War was marked by intense and frequent battles. Over four years, 237 named battles were fought, along with many smaller actions, often characterized by their bitter intensity and high casualties. Historian John Keegan described it as "one of the most ferocious wars ever fought", where in many cases the only target was the enemy's soldiers.[76][77]
Mobilization
See also: Economic history of the American Civil War
Building on fire as rioters look on, one holds a sign that says "no draft"
Rioters attacking a building during the New York anti-draft riots of 1863

As the Confederate states organized, the US Army numbered 16,000, while Northern governors began mobilizing their militias.[78] The Confederate Congress authorized up to 100,000 troops in February. By May, Jefferson Davis was pushing for another 100,000 soldiers for one year or the duration, and the US Congress responded in kind.[79][80]

In the first year of the war, both sides had more volunteers than they could effectively train and equip. After the initial enthusiasm faded, relying on young men who came of age each year was not enough. Both sides enacted draft laws (conscription) to encourage or force volunteering, though relatively few were drafted. The Confederacy passed a draft law in April 1862 for men aged 18 to 35, with exemptions for overseers, government officials, and clergymen. The US Congress followed in July, authorizing a militia draft within states that could not meet their quota with volunteers. European immigrants joined the Union Army in large numbers, including 177,000 born in Germany and 144,000 in Ireland.[81] About 50,000 Canadians served, around 2,500 of whom were black.[82]

When the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect in January 1863, ex-slaves were energetically recruited to meet state quotas. States and local communities offered higher cash bonuses for white volunteers. Congress tightened the draft law in March 1863. Men selected in the draft could provide substitutes or, until mid-1864, pay commutation money. Many eligibles pooled their money to cover the cost of anyone drafted. Families used the substitute provision to select which man should go into the army and which should stay home. There was much evasion and resistance to the draft, especially in Catholic areas. The New York City draft riots in July 1863 involved Irish immigrants who had been signed up as citizens to swell the vote of the city's Democratic political machine, not realizing it made them liable for the draft.[83] Of the 168,649 men procured for the Union through the draft, 117,986 were substitutes, leaving only 50,663 who were conscripted.[84]

In the North and South, draft laws were highly unpopular. In the North, some 120,000 men evaded conscription, many fleeing to Canada, and another 280,000 soldiers deserted during the war.[85] At least 100,000 Southerners deserted, about 10 percent of the total. Southern desertion was high because many soldiers were more concerned about the fate of their local area than the Southern cause.[86] In the North, "bounty jumpers" enlisted to collect the generous bonus, deserted, then re-enlisted under a different name for a second bonus; 141 were caught and executed.[87]

From a tiny frontier force in 1860, the Union and Confederate armies grew into the "largest and most efficient armies in the world" within a few years. Some European observers at the time dismissed them as amateur and unprofessional,[88] but historian John Keegan concluded that each outmatched the French, Prussian, and Russian armies, and without the Atlantic, could have threatened any of them with defeat.[89]
Southern Unionists
Main article: Southern Unionist
Newton Knight, one of the founders of the Free State of Jones

Unionism was strong in certain areas within the Confederacy. As many as 100,000 men living in states under Confederate control served in the Union Army or pro-Union guerrilla groups. Although they came from all classes, most Southern Unionists differed socially, culturally, and economically from their region's dominant prewar, slave-owning planter class.[90]
Prisoners
Main article: American Civil War prison camps
Union soldier held as a POW

At the beginning of the Civil War, a parole system operated, under which captives agreed not to fight until exchanged. They were held in camps run by their army, paid, but not allowed to perform any military duties.[91]

The system of exchanges collapsed in 1863 when the Confederacy refused to exchange black prisoners. After that, approximately 56,000 of the 409,000 POWs died in prisons, accounting for 10 percent of the conflict's fatalities.[92]
Women
See also: Women in the military § United States, and Gender issues in the American Civil War

Historian Elizabeth D. Leonard writes that between 500 and 1,000 women enlisted as soldiers on both sides, disguised as men.[93] Women also served as spies, resistance activists, nurses, and hospital personnel.[94] Women served on the Union hospital ship Red Rover and nursed Union and Confederate troops at field hospitals.[95] Mary Edwards Walker, the only woman ever to receive the Medal of Honor, served in the Union Army and was given the medal for treating the wounded during the war.[96][97] One woman, Jennie Hodgers, fought for the Union under the name Albert D. J. Cashier. After she returned to civilian life, she continued to live as a man until she died in 1915 at the age of 71.[98]
Union

During the war, women in the North advocated for social reforms and created ladies' aid societies, also called soldiers' aid societies, which provided supplies to soldiers on the battlefield and cared for sick and wounded soldiers. Women in the North also held military rallies, village parades, and charity bazaars.[99]
Susan B. Anthony was a women's rights activist and abolitionist.

Women like Susan B. Anthony saw that supporting the war effort was a way to pave the future for women's suffrage movements. In her appeal to Northern women's loyalty, Anthony challenged the inconsistencies of the nation's founding ideal and its actual practices concerning equality among women.[100]

Northern women during the Civil War also made great strides in the workforce, as they helped contribute to the war effort by stepping into roles that were traditionally held by men. While women rarely worked in factories before the war, many filled men's places as they felt they could erase some of the boundaries that separated them from male preserves of power.[99] Women were important in the workforce as they prepared and packed provisions, sewed uniforms and havelocks, and knitted socks and mittens.[101] By entering these new environments, women made significant progress in the fight for women's equality in the workforce.

Northern women were also essential in the wartime support, as they were active participants in the war narrative. While women were not allowed to fight on the battlefield in the Civil War, they exhibited a patriotism that gave them the strength to maintain courage for themselves as well as their households.[99] While their men were off at war, Northern women created a landscape that emphasized love, sacrifice, and the nurturing of men's courage. This is demonstrated in feminized war literature that encouraged, expressed, and valorized men's patriotism.[101] Women's unwavering encouragement and affection towards fighting men became a cornerstone of the war effort as it helped sustain the spirits of the men on the frontlines.
Confederate

Confederate women during the Civil War focused on preserving the central economic institution of the Old South: the plantation. With so many men away at war, women were left with the land and the slaves. While some women hired male overseers to assist them in directing and maintaining newly female-headed plantations,[102] other women decided to stay at the plantations and run the plantations themselves. Southern women became focused on keeping the economic structure of the South as they dealt with increasingly rebellious slaves.[102]

The South relied on enslaved labor because it was an agrarian economy. A good number of enslaved men labored for the Confederate army during the war, which meant that enslaved women and children were increasingly at the center of the work force on the plantations.[103]

White Southern women struggled to maintain morale on the home front as they dealt with problems without men. Although Southern women were devoted to the Confederacy, many requested that their sons and husbands be discharged from the military to help them at home.[104] Many women like Eliza Adams wrote to the Confederate government to appeal for exemption for her sons' military service as she sent five sons and other sons-in-laws to fight for the Confederacy.[105] Southern women were torn between their patriotic ideals and their daily realities of life on the home front.
Union Navy
Main article: Union Navy
Painting of land battle scene in foreground and naval battle with sinking ships in background
Battle between the USS Monitor and Merrimack

The Union Navy in 1861 was relatively small but, by 1865, expanded rapidly to 6,000 officers, 45,000 sailors, and 671 vessels totaling 510,396 tons.[106][107] Its mission was to blockade Confederate ports, control the river system, defend against Confederate raiders on the high seas, and be ready for a possible war with the British Royal Navy.[108] The main riverine war was fought in the West, where major rivers gave access to the Confederate heartland. The US Navy eventually controlled the Red, Tennessee, Cumberland, Mississippi, and Ohio rivers. In the East, the Navy shelled Confederate forts and supported coastal army operations.[109]

The Civil War occurred during the early stages of the industrial revolution, leading to naval innovations, including the ironclad warship. The Confederacy, recognizing the need to counter the Union's naval superiority, built or converted over 130 vessels, including 26 ironclads.[110] Despite these efforts, Confederate ships were largely unsuccessful against Union ironclads.[111] The Union Navy used timberclads, tinclads, and armored gunboats. Shipyards in Cairo, Illinois, and St. Louis built or modified steamboats.[112]

The Confederacy experimented with the submarine CSS Hunley, which proved unsuccessful, and with the ironclad CSS Virginia, rebuilt from the sunken Union ship Merrimack.[113] On March 8, 1862, Virginia inflicted significant damage on the Union's wooden fleet, but the next day, the first Union ironclad, USS Monitor, arrived to challenge it in the Chesapeake Bay. The resulting three-hour Battle of Hampton Roads was a draw, proving ironclads were effective warships.[114] The Confederacy scuttled the Virginia to prevent its capture, while the Union built many copies of the Monitor. The Confederacy's efforts to obtain warships from Great Britain failed, as Britain had no interest in selling warships to a nation at war with a stronger enemy and feared souring relations with the US.[115]
Union blockade
Main article: Union blockade
A cartoon map of the South surrounded by a snake.
General Scott's Anaconda Plan, featuring a tightening naval blockade, forcing rebels out of Missouri along the Mississippi River, Kentucky Unionists sit on the fence, idled cotton industry illustrated in Georgia.

By early 1861, General Winfield Scott had devised the Anaconda Plan to win the war with minimal bloodshed, calling for a blockade of the Confederacy to suffocate the South into surrender.[116] Lincoln adopted parts of the plan but opted for a more active war strategy.[117] In April 1861, Lincoln announced a blockade of all Southern ports; commercial ships could not get insurance, ending regular traffic. The South blundered by embargoing cotton exports before the blockade was fully effective; by the time they reversed this decision, it was too late. "King Cotton" was dead, as the South could export less than 10% of its cotton. The blockade shut down the ten Confederate seaports with railheads that moved almost all the cotton. By June 1861, warships were stationed off the principal Southern ports, and a year later nearly 300 ships were in service.[118]
Blockade runners
Main article: Blockade runners of the American Civil War
Panoramic view of ships in harbor during battle
Gunline of nine Union ironclads. South Atlantic Blockading Squadron off Charleston. Continuous blockade of all major ports was sustained by North's overwhelming war production.

The Confederates began the war short on military supplies, which the agrarian South could not produce. Northern arms manufacturers were restricted by an embargo, ending existing and future contracts with the South. The Confederacy turned to foreign sources, connecting with financiers and companies like S. Isaac, Campbell & Company and the London Armoury Company in Britain, becoming the Confederacy's main source of arms.[119][120]

To transport arms safely to the Confederacy, British investors built small, fast, steam-driven blockade runners that traded arms and supplies from Britain, through Bermuda, Cuba, and the Bahamas in exchange for high-priced cotton. Many were lightweight and designed for speed, only carrying small amounts of cotton back to England.[121] When the Union Navy seized a blockade runner, the ship and cargo were condemned as a prize of war and sold, with proceeds given to the Navy sailors; the captured crewmen, mostly British, were released.[122]
Economic impact

The Southern economy nearly collapsed during the war due to multiple factors, the most notable being severe food shortages, failing railroads, loss of control over key rivers, foraging by Northern armies, and the seizure of animals and crops by Confederate forces.[123] Historians agree the blockade was a major factor in ruining the Confederate economy; however, Wise argues blockade runners provided enough of a lifeline to allow Robert E. Lee, a Confederate general, to continue fighting for additional months, as a result of supplies that included 400,000 rifles, lead, blankets, and boots that Confederate economy could no longer supply.[123]

The Confederate cotton crop became nearly useless, which cut off the Confederacy's primary income source. Critical imports were scarce, and coastal trade also largely ended.[124] The blockade's success was not measured by the few ships, which slipped through, but by the thousands that never tried. European merchant ships could not obtain insurance for their ships and transport, and were too slow to evade the blockade, leading them to cease docking in Confederate ports.[125]

To fight an offensive war, the Confederacy purchased arms in Britain and converted British-built ships into commerce raiders, which targeted United States Merchant Marine ships in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The Confederacy smuggled 600,000 arms, enabling it to continue fighting for two more years.[126][127] As insurance rates soared, American-flagged ships largely ceased traveling in international waters, though some were reflagged with European flags, which allowed them to continue operating.[111] After the conclusion of the Civil War, the US government demanded Britain reimburse it for the damage caused by blockade runners and raiders outfitted in British ports. Britain paid the US$15 million in 1871, which covered costs associated with commerce raiding but nothing more.[128]
Diplomacy
Main article: Diplomacy of the American Civil War
Further information: United Kingdom and the American Civil War and France and the American Civil War
A December 1861 cartoon in Punch magazine in London ridicules American aggressiveness in the Trent Affair. John Bull, at right, warns Uncle Sam, "You do what's right, my son, or I'll blow you out of the water."

Although the Confederacy hoped Britain and France would join them against the Union, this was never likely, so they sought to bring them in as mediators.[129][130] The Union worked to block this and threatened war against any country that recognized the Confederacy. In 1861, Southerners voluntarily embargoed cotton shipments, hoping to start an economic depression in Europe that would force Britain to enter the war, but this failed. Worse, Europe turned to Egypt and India for cotton, which they found superior, hindering the South's postwar recovery.[131][132]

Cotton diplomacy proved a failure, because Europe had a surplus of cotton, while the 1860–62 crop failures in Europe made the North's grain exports critically important. It also helped turn European opinion against the Confederacy. It was said that "King Corn was more powerful than King Cotton", as US grain increased from a quarter to almost half of British imports.[131] Meanwhile, the war created jobs for arms makers, ironworkers, and ships to transport weapons.[132]

Lincoln's administration initially struggled to appeal to European public opinion. At first, diplomats explained that the US was not committed to ending slavery and emphasized legal arguments about the unconstitutionality of secession. Confederate representatives, however, focused on their struggle for liberty, commitment to free trade, and the essential role of cotton in the European economy.[133] The European aristocracy was "absolutely gleeful in pronouncing the American debacle as proof that the entire experiment in popular government had failed. European government leaders welcomed the fragmentation of the ascendant American Republic."[134] However, a European public with liberal sensibilities remained, which the US sought to appeal to by building connections with the international press. By 1861, Union diplomats like Carl Schurz realized emphasizing the war against slavery was the Union's most effective moral asset in swaying European public opinion. Seward was concerned an overly radical case for reunification would distress European merchants with cotton interests; even so, he supported a widespread campaign of public diplomacy.[135]

US minister to Britain Charles Francis Adams proved adept and convinced Britain not to challenge the Union blockade. The Confederacy purchased warships from commercial shipbuilders in Britain, with the most famous being the CSS Alabama, which caused considerable damage and led to serious postwar disputes. However, public opinion against slavery in Britain created a political liability for politicians, where the anti-slavery movement was powerful.[136]

War loomed in late 1861 between the US and Britain over the Trent Affair, which began when US Navy personnel boarded the British ship Trent and seized two Confederate diplomats. However, London and Washington smoothed this over after Lincoln released the two men.[137] Prince Albert left his deathbed to issue diplomatic instructions to Lord Lyons during the Trent Affair. His request was honored, and, as a result, the British response to the US was toned down, helping avert war.[138] In 1862, the British government considered mediating between the Union and Confederacy, though such an offer would have risked war with the US. British prime minister Lord Palmerston reportedly read Uncle Tom's Cabin three times when deciding what his decision would be.[137]

The Union victory at the Battle of Antietam caused the British to delay this decision. The Emancipation Proclamation increased the political liability of supporting the Confederacy. Realizing that Washington could not intervene in Mexico as long as the Confederacy controlled Texas, France invaded Mexico in 1861 and installed the Habsburg Austrian archduke Maximilian I as emperor.[139] Washington repeatedly protested France's violation of the Monroe Doctrine. Despite sympathy for the Confederacy, France's seizure of Mexico deterred it from war with the Union. Confederate offers late in the war to end slavery in return for diplomatic recognition were not seriously considered by London or Paris. After 1863, the Polish revolt against Russia further distracted the European powers and ensured they remained neutral.[140]

Russia supported the Union, largely because it believed the US counterbalanced its geopolitical rival, the UK. In 1863, the Imperial Russian Navy's Baltic and Pacific fleets wintered in the American ports of New York and San Francisco, respectively.[141]
Eastern theater
Main article: Eastern theater of the American Civil War
Map of the United States with counties colored
County map of Civil War battles by theater and year

The Eastern theater refers to the military operations east of the Appalachian Mountains, including Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, and the coastal fortifications and seaports of North Carolina.[142]
Background
Army of the Potomac

Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan took command of the Union Army of the Potomac on July 26, 1861, and the war began in earnest in 1862. The 1862 Union strategy called for simultaneous advances along four axes:[143]

    McClellan would lead the main thrust in Virginia towards Richmond.
    Ohio forces would advance through Kentucky into Tennessee.
    The Missouri Department would drive south along the Mississippi River.
    The westernmost attack would originate from Kansas.

Army of Northern Virginia
Old man with gray beard and military uniform
Robert E. Lee

The primary Confederate force in the Eastern theater was the Army of Northern Virginia. The Army originated as the (Confederate) Army of the Potomac, which was organized on June 20, 1861, from all operational forces in Northern Virginia. On July 20 and 21, the Army of the Shenandoah and forces from the District of Harpers Ferry were added. Units from the Army of the Northwest were merged into the Army of the Potomac between March 14 and May 17, 1862. The Army of the Potomac was renamed Army of Northern Virginia on March 14. The Army of the Peninsula was merged into it on April 12, 1862.

When Virginia declared its secession in April 1861, Robert E. Lee chose to follow his home state, despite his desire for the country to remain intact and an offer of a senior Union command. In his four-volume biography of Lee published in 1934 and 1935, historian Douglas S. Freeman wrote that the army received its final name from Lee when he issued orders assuming command on June 1, 1862.[144] However, Freeman wrote, Lee corresponded with Brigadier General Joseph E. Johnston, his predecessor in army command, before that date and referred to Johnston's command as the Army of Northern Virginia. Part of the confusion results from the fact that Johnston commanded the Department of Northern Virginia as of October 22, 1861, and the name Army of Northern Virginia was seen as an informal consequence of its parent department's name. Jefferson Davis and Johnston did not adopt the name, but the organization of units as of March 14 was clearly the same organization that Lee received on June 1, and is generally referred to as the Army of Northern Virginia, even if that is correct only in retrospect.

On July 4 at Harper's Ferry, Colonel Thomas J. Jackson assigned Jeb Stuart command of all cavalry companies of the Army of the Shenandoah, and Jackson eventually commanded the Army of Northern Virginia's cavalry.
Battles
Painting of battlefield scene
A portrait depicting the Battle of Antietam, which resulted in over 22,000 casualties, the Civil War's deadliest one-day battle

Called the "Philippi Races" because of its brevity, Philippi, VA (now Philippi, WV) was the scene of the first organized land action of the American Civil War, on June 3, 1861. In July 1861, in the first in a series of prominent battles in the war, Union Army troops commanded by Maj. Gen. Irvin McDowell attacked Confederate forces, which were under the command of Beauregard near the national capital in Washington. The Confederacy successfully repelled the attack in the First Battle of Bull Run. In the beginning of the battle, the Union appeared to hold the upper hand. The Union Army routed Confederate forces, then holding defensive positions, but Confederate reinforcements under Joseph E. Johnston arrived from the Shenandoah Valley by railroad, and the battle's course quickly changed. A brigade of Virginians, commanded by Thomas J. Jackson, then a relatively unknown brigadier general from Virginia Military Institute, stood its ground, leading to Jackson earning the nickname "Stonewall". Lincoln urged the Union Army to commence offensive operations against Confederate forces, which led General George B. McClellan, in the spring of 1862, to attack Virginia by way of the peninsula between the York River and James River southeast of Richmond. McClellan's army reached the gates of Richmond in the Peninsula campaign.[145][146][147]

Also in the spring of 1862, in Shenandoah Valley, Jackson led his Valley Campaign, during which he employed rapid and unpredictable movements on interior lines. Jackson's 17,000 troops marched 646 miles (1,040 km) in 48 days, during which they won minor battles as they successfully engaged three Union armies, comprising 52,000 men, including those of Nathaniel P. Banks and John C. Frémont, preventing them from reinforcing the Union offensive against Richmond. The swiftness of Jackson's troops earned them the nickname foot cavalry. Johnston halted McClellan's advance at the Battle of Seven Pines, but he was wounded in the battle, and Robert E. Lee assumed his position of command. Lee and his senior subordinates, James Longstreet and Stonewall Jackson, defeated McClellan in the Seven Days Battles, forcing McClellan's retreat.[148]
Union soldiers in the trenches, just prior to the Second Battle of Fredericksburg in May 1863

During the Northern Virginia Campaign, which included the Second Battle of Bull Run, Confederate forces registered another important military victory.[149] McClellan resisted General-in-Chief Halleck's orders to send reinforcements to John Pope's Union Army of Virginia, which enabled Lee's Confederate forces to defeat twice the number of combined enemy troops.[150]

Emboldened by Second Bull Run, Confederate forces launched their first invasion of the North in the Maryland Campaign during which Lee led 45,000 Army of Northern Virginia troops across the Potomac River into Maryland on September 5. Lincoln then restored Pope's troops to McClellan, and McClellan and Lee clashed in the Battle of Antietam near Sharpsburg, Maryland, on September 17, 1862, which proved the bloodiest single day in both the Civil War and US military history.[148][151] Lee's army retreated to Virginia before McClellan could destroy it, leading the Battle of Antietam to be widely viewed as a Union victory since it halted Lee's invasion of the North and provided an opportunity for Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, which he issued as an executive order on January 1, 1863.[152]

McClellan failed to respond in any measurable way to Lee's attempt to invade the North at Antietam led to his replacement by Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside. Burnside led Union Army troops in the Battle of Fredericksburg,[153] where they were defeated on December 13, 1862. Over 12,000 Union soldiers were killed or wounded during futile attempts by Union troops to launch frontal assaults against Marye's Heights.[154] After the battle, Burnside was replaced by Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker.[155]
Cavalry charges on a battlefield
A portrait depicting Pickett's Charge on July 3, 1863, the final day of the Battle of Gettysburg, which proved the Civil War's deadliest battle but also one of its most significant, altering the course of the war in the Union's favor

Hooker, too, proved unable to defeat Lee's army; despite having more than twice as many troops as Lee, Hooker's Chancellorsville Campaign proved ineffective, and he was soundly defeated in the Battle of Chancellorsville, which was fought between April 30 and May 6, 1863.[156] Chancellorsville is known as Lee's "perfect battle" because his risky decision to divide his army paid off. During the Battle of Chancellorsville, Stonewall Jackson was shot in his left arm and right hand by friendly fire, leading to the amputation of his arm, and he died of pneumonia.[157] Lee famously said: "He has lost his left arm, but I have lost my right arm."[158]

The fiercest fighting of the battle—and the second bloodiest day of the Civil War—occurred on May 3 as Lee launched multiple attacks against the Union position at Chancellorsville. That same day, John Sedgwick advanced across the Rappahannock River, defeated the small Confederate force at Marye's Heights in the Second Battle of Fredericksburg, and then moved westward, but Confederate forces succeeded in delaying Union forces in the Battle of Salem Church.[159]

Hooker was replaced by Maj. Gen. George Meade during Lee's second invasion of the North, in June. In the Battle of Gettysburg, which proved the war's bloodiest and one of its most strategically significant, Meade defeated Lee in a three-day battle between July 1 and 3, 1863.[160] The Battle of Gettysburg caused over 50,000 Union and Confederate casualties, but also proved the war's turning point, altering the course of the war in the Union's favor. Pickett's Charge, launched July 3, on the final day of the Battle of Gettysburg, is considered the high-water mark of the Confederacy, representing the collapse of any credible prospect that the Confederacy could prevail in the war. At Gettysburg, Lee's Army of Northern Virginia suffered 28,000 casualties versus Meade's 23,000, and Lee was repelled in a failed attempt to invade and occupy Union territory.[161][162]
Western theater
Main article: Western theater of the American Civil War

The Western theater refers to military operations between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River, including Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, and parts of Louisiana.[163]
Background
Army of the Cumberland and Army of the Tennessee
Main articles: Army of the Cumberland and Army of the Tennessee
Ulysses S. Grant, a Union army general who was later elected the nation's 18th president

The primary Union forces in this theater were the Army of the Tennessee and Army of the Cumberland, named for the two rivers, Tennessee River and Cumberland River. After Meade's inconclusive fall campaign, Lincoln turned to the Western theater for new leadership. At the same time, the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg surrendered, giving the Union control of the Mississippi River, permanently isolating the western Confederacy, and producing the new leader Lincoln needed, Ulysses S. Grant.[164]

The Army of Tennessee, which served as the primary Confederate force in the Western theater, was formed on November 20, 1862, when General Braxton Bragg renamed the former Army of Mississippi. While Confederate forces had successes in the Eastern theater, they were defeated many times in the West.[163]
Battles

The Union's key strategist and tactician in the West was Ulysses S. Grant, who led the Union to victories in battles at Fort Henry (February 6, 1862) and Fort Donelson (February 11 to 16, 1862), earning him the nickname of "Unconditional Surrender" Grant. With these victories, the Union gained control of the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers.[165] Nathan Bedford Forrest rallied nearly 4,000 Confederate troops and led them to escape across the Cumberland River. Nashville and central Tennessee fell to the Union, leading to attrition of local food supplies and livestock and a breakdown in social organization.[citation needed]

Confederate general Leonidas Polk subsequently invaded Columbus, Kentucky, which ended Kentucky's policy of neutrality and turned it against the Confederacy. Grant used river transport and Andrew Hull Foote's gunboats of the Western Flotilla, threatening the Confederacy's "Gibraltar of the West" in Columbus, Kentucky. Although rebuffed at Belmont, Grant cut off Columbus. Confederate forces, lacking their gunboats, were forced to retreat and the Union took control of west Kentucky and opened Tennessee in March 1862.[166]

At the Battle of Shiloh, in Shiloh, Tennessee, in April 1862, Confederate forces launched a surprise attack on Union forces, pushing them back to the Tennessee River as night fell. Over that night, however, the Navy landed reinforcements, and Grant counterattacked. Grant and the Union ultimately won a decisive victory in the first battle with a high number of casualties in what proved to be the first in a series of such battles.[167] Confederate forces lost Albert Sidney Johnston, considered their finest general, before Lee emerged to assume command.[168]
The Battle of Chickamauga, the war's highest two-day loss battle

One of the early Union objectives was to capture the Mississippi River, which would permit it to cut the Confederacy in half. The Mississippi was opened to Union traffic to the southern border of Tennessee after it took Island No. 10, New Madrid, Missouri, and then Memphis, Tennessee.[169]

In April 1862, the Union Navy captured New Orleans.[169] "The key to the river was New Orleans, the South's largest port [and] greatest industrial center."[170] US naval forces under Farragut ran past Confederate defenses south of New Orleans. Confederate forces abandoned the city, giving the Union a critical anchor in the deep South,[171] which allowed Union forces to move up the Mississippi. Memphis fell to Union forces on June 6, 1862, allowing it to serve as a key base for further Union advances south along the Mississippi. On the Mississippi River, the Union took every fortress city with the exception of Vicksburg, Mississippi. But Confederate control of Vicksburg was sufficient in preventing the Union from controlling the entire river.[172]

Bragg's second invasion of Kentucky in the Confederate Heartland Offensive included initial successes, including Kirby Smith's triumph in the Battle of Richmond and the capture of the Kentucky capital of Frankfort, Kentucky, on September 3, 1862.[173] The campaign ended with a meaningless victory over Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell at the Battle of Perryville, and Bragg was forced to end his attempt to invade and control Kentucky. Lacking logistical support and infantry recruits, Bragg was instead forced to retreat,[174] and ended up being narrowly defeated by Maj. Gen. William Rosecrans in the Battle of Stones River in Tennessee in what proved to be the culmination of the Stones River Campaign.[175]

US naval forces assisted Grant in the long, complex Vicksburg Campaign, which resulted in Confederate forces surrendering in the Battle of Vicksburg in July 1863, which cemented Union control of the Mississippi River in one of the war's turning points.[176][177] The one clear Confederate victory in the West was the Battle of Chickamauga. After Rosecrans' successful Tullahoma Campaign, Bragg, reinforced by Lt. Gen. James Longstreet's Corps, defeated Rosecrans, despite the defensive stand of Maj. Gen. George Henry Thomas.[citation needed] Rosecrans retreated to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where Bragg was then besieged in the Chattanooga campaign. Grant marched to the relief of Rosecrans, where he led the defeat of Bragg in the Third Battle of Chattanooga,[178] eventually causing Longstreet to abandon his Knoxville Campaign and driving Confederate forces out of Tennessee and opening a route to Atlanta and the heart of the Confederacy.[179]
Trans-Mississippi theater
Main article: Trans-Mississippi theater of the American Civil War
Background

The Trans-Mississippi theater refers to military operations west of the Mississippi, encompassing most of Missouri, Arkansas, most of Louisiana, and the Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma. The Trans-Mississippi District was formed by the Confederate States Army to better coordinate Ben McCulloch's command of troops in Arkansas and Louisiana, Sterling Price's Missouri State Guard, as well as the portion of Earl Van Dorn's command that included the Indian Territory and excluded the Army of the West. The Union's command was the Trans-Mississippi Division, or the Military Division of West Mississippi.[180]
Battles
Nathaniel Lyon secured docks and arsenal in St. Louis, leading Union Army forces to expel the Missouri Confederate forces and government.[181]

The first major battle of the Trans-Mississippi theater was the Battle of Wilson's Creek (August 1861). The Confederates were driven from Missouri early in the war as a result of the Battle of Pea Ridge.[182]

Extensive guerrilla warfare characterized the trans-Mississippi region, as the Confederacy lacked the troops and logistics to support regular armies that could challenge Union control.[183][184] Roving Confederate bands such as Quantrill's Raiders terrorized the countryside, striking military installations and civilian settlements.[185] The "Sons of Liberty" and "Order of the American Knights" attacked pro-Union people, elected officeholders, and unarmed uniformed soldiers. These partisans could not be driven out of Missouri, until an entire regular Union infantry division was engaged. By 1864, these violent activities harmed the nationwide antiwar movement organizing against the re-election of Lincoln. Missouri not only stayed in the Union, but Lincoln took 70 percent of the vote to win re-election.[186]

Small-scale military actions south and west of Missouri sought to control Indian Territory and New Mexico Territory for the Union. The Battle of Glorieta Pass was the decisive battle of the New Mexico Campaign. The Union repulsed Confederate incursions into New Mexico in 1862, and the exiled Arizona government withdrew into Texas. In the Indian Territory, civil war broke out within tribes. About 12,000 Indian warriors fought for the Confederacy but fewer for the Union.[187] The most prominent Cherokee was Brigadier General Stand Watie, the last Confederate general to surrender.[188]

After the fall of Vicksburg in July 1863, Jefferson Davis informed General Kirby Smith in Texas that he could expect no further help from east of the Mississippi. Although he lacked resources to beat Union armies, he built up a formidable arsenal at Tyler, along with his own Kirby Smithdom economy, a virtual "independent fiefdom" in Texas, including railroad construction and international smuggling. The Union, in turn, did not directly engage him.[189] The Union's 1864 Red River Campaign to take Shreveport, Louisiana, failed and Texas remained in Confederate hands throughout the war.[190]
Lower seaboard theater
Main article: Lower seaboard theater of the American Civil War
Background

The lower seaboard theater refers to military and naval operations that occurred near the coastal areas of the Southeast as well as the southern part of the Mississippi. Union naval activities were dictated by the Anaconda Plan.[191]
Battles
New Orleans captured

One of the earliest battles was fought in November 1861 at Port Royal Sound, south of Charleston. Much of the war along the South Carolina coast concentrated on capturing Charleston. In attempting to capture Charleston, the Union military tried two approaches: by land over James or Morris Islands or through the harbor. However, the Confederates were able to drive back each attack. A famous land attack was the Second Battle of Fort Wagner, in which the 54th Massachusetts Infantry took part. The Union suffered a serious defeat, losing 1,515 soldiers while the Confederates lost only 174. However, the 54th was hailed for its valor, which encouraged the general acceptance of the recruitment of African American soldiers into the Union Army, which reinforced the Union's numerical advantage.[192]

Fort Pulaski on the Georgia coast was an early target for the Union navy. Following the capture of Port Royal, an expedition was organized with engineer troops under the command of Captain Quincy Adams Gillmore, forcing a Confederate surrender. The Union army occupied the fort for the rest of the war after repairing it.[193]

In April 1862, a Union naval task force commanded by Commander David Dixon Porter attacked Forts Jackson and St. Philip, which guarded the river approach to New Orleans from the south. While part of the fleet bombarded the forts, other vessels forced a break in the obstructions in the river and enabled the rest of the fleet to steam upriver to the city. A Union army force commanded by Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler landed near the forts and forced their surrender. Butler's controversial command of New Orleans earned him the nickname "Beast".[194]

The following year, the Union Army of the Gulf commanded by Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks laid siege to Port Hudson for nearly eight weeks, the longest siege in US military history. The Confederates attempted to defend with the Bayou Teche Campaign but surrendered after Vicksburg. These surrenders gave the Union control over the Mississippi.[164]

Several skirmishes but no major battles were fought in Florida. The biggest was the Battle of Olustee in early 1864.[195]
Pacific coast theater
Main article: Pacific coast theater of the American Civil War

The Pacific coast theater refers to military operations on the Pacific Ocean and in the states and territories west of the Continental Divide.[196]
Conquest of Virginia
William Tecumseh Sherman

At the beginning of 1864, Lincoln made Grant commander of all Union armies. Grant made his headquarters with the Army of the Potomac and put Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman in command of most of the western armies. Grant understood the concept of total war and believed, along with Lincoln and Sherman, that only the utter defeat of Confederate forces and their economic base would end the war.[197] This was total war not in killing civilians, but in injuring the Confederacy's capacity to produce and transport the supplies needed to continue the war. Sherman, at Grant's direction, seized provisions and destroyed homes, farms, and railroads, which Grant said "would otherwise have gone to the support of secession and rebellion. This policy I believe exercised a material influence in hastening the end."[198]

Grant devised a coordinated strategy that would strike at the entire Confederacy from multiple directions. Generals Meade and Benjamin Butler were ordered to move against Lee near Richmond, General Franz Sigel was to attack the Shenandoah Valley, General Sherman was to capture Atlanta and march to the Atlantic Ocean, Generals George Crook and William W. Averell were to operate against railroad supply lines in West Virginia, and Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks was to capture Mobile, Alabama.[199]
Grant's Overland Campaign

Grant's army set out on the Overland Campaign intending to draw Lee into a defense of Richmond, where they would attempt to pin down and destroy the Confederate army. The Union army first attempted to maneuver past Lee and fought several battles, notably at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor. These resulted in heavy losses on both sides and forced Lee's Confederates to fall back repeatedly.[200] At the Battle of Yellow Tavern, the Confederates lost Jeb Stuart.[201]

An attempt to outflank Lee from the south failed under Butler, who was trapped inside the Bermuda Hundred river bend. Each battle resulted in setbacks for the Union that mirrored those they had suffered under prior generals, though unlike them, Grant chose to fight on rather than retreat. Grant was tenacious and kept pressing Lee's Army of Northern Virginia back to Richmond. While Lee was preparing for an attack on Richmond, Grant unexpectedly turned south to cross the James River and began the protracted Siege of Petersburg, where the two armies engaged in trench warfare for over nine months.[202]
Sheridan's Valley Campaign
Philip Sheridan

To deny the Confederacy continued use of the Shenandoah Valley as a base from which to launch invasions of Maryland and the Washington area, and to threaten Lee's supply lines for his forces, Grant launched the Valley campaigns in the spring of 1864. Initial efforts led by Gen. Sigel were repelled at the Battle of New Market by Confederate Gen. John C. Breckinridge. The Battle of New Market was the Confederacy's last major victory, and included a charge by teenage VMI cadets. After relieving Sigel, and following mixed performances by his successor, Grant finally found a commander, General Philip Sheridan, aggressive enough to prevail against the army of Maj. Gen. Jubal A. Early. After a cautious start, Sheridan defeated Early in a series of battles in September and October 1864, including a decisive defeat at the Battle of Cedar Creek. Sheridan then proceeded through that winter to destroy the agricultural base of the Shenandoah Valley, a strategy similar to the tactics Sherman later employed in Georgia.[203]
Sherman's March to the Sea
Main article: Sherman's March to the Sea

Meanwhile, Sherman maneuvered from Chattanooga to Atlanta, defeating Confederate Generals Joseph E. Johnston and John Bell Hood. The fall of Atlanta on September 2, 1864, guaranteed the reelection of Lincoln.[204] Hood left the Atlanta area to swing around and menace Sherman's supply lines and invade Tennessee in the Franklin–Nashville Campaign. Union Maj. Gen. John Schofield defeated Hood at the Battle of Franklin, and George H. Thomas dealt Hood a massive defeat at the Battle of Nashville, effectively destroying Hood's army.[205]

Leaving Atlanta, and his base of supplies, Sherman's army marched, with no destination set, laying waste to about 20 percent of the farms in Georgia on his March to the Sea.[206] He reached the Atlantic at Savannah, Georgia, in December 1864. Sherman's army was followed by thousands of freed slaves;[207] there were no major battles along the march. Sherman turned north through South Carolina and North Carolina, to approach the Confederate Virginia lines from the south, increasing the pressure on Lee's army.[208]
The Waterloo of the Confederacy

Lee's army, thinned by desertion and casualties, was now much smaller than Grant's. One last Confederate attempt to break the Union hold on Petersburg failed at the decisive Battle of Five Forks on April 1. The Union now controlled the entire perimeter surrounding Richmond–Petersburg, completely cutting it off from the Confederacy. Realizing the capital was now lost, Lee's army and the Confederate government were forced to evacuate. The Confederate capital fell on April 2–3, to the Union XXV Corps, composed of black troops. The remaining Confederate units fled west after a defeat at Sayler's Creek on April 6.[209]
End of the war
Main article: Conclusion of the American Civil War
This New York Times front page celebrated Lee's surrender, headlining how Grant let Confederate officers retain their sidearms and "paroled" the Confederate officers and men.[210]
News of Lee's April 9 surrender reached this southern newspaper (Savannah, Georgia) on April 15—after the April 14 shooting of President Lincoln. The article quotes Grant's terms of surrender.[211]

Lee did not intend to surrender, but planned to regroup at Appomattox Station, where supplies were to be waiting, and then continue the war. Grant chased Lee and got in front of him, so that when Lee's army reached the village of Appomattox Court House, they were surrounded. After an initial battle, Lee decided the fight was hopeless, and surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to Grant on April 9, 1865, during a conference at the McLean House.[212][213] In an untraditional gesture and as a sign of Grant's respect and anticipation of peacefully restoring Confederate states to the Union, Lee was permitted to keep his sword and horse, Traveller. His men were paroled, and a chain of Confederate surrenders began.[214]

On April 14, 1865, Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer. Lincoln died early the next morning. Lincoln's vice president, Andrew Johnson, was unharmed, because his would-be assassin, George Atzerodt, lost his nerve, so Johnson was immediately sworn in as president.

Meanwhile, Confederate forces across the South surrendered, as news of Lee's surrender reached them.[h] On April 26, the same day Sergeant Boston Corbett killed Booth at a tobacco barn, Johnston surrendered nearly 90,000 troops of the Army of Tennessee to Sherman at Bennett Place, near present-day Durham, North Carolina. It proved to be the largest surrender of Confederate forces. On May 4, all remaining Confederate forces in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana east of the Mississippi, under the command of Lt. General Richard Taylor, surrendered.[215] Confederate president Davis was captured in retreat at Irwinville, Georgia on May 10.[216]

The final land battle was fought on May 13, 1865, at the Battle of Palmito Ranch in Texas.[217][218][219] On May 26, 1865, Confederate Lt. Gen. Simon B. Buckner, acting for Edmund Smith, signed a military convention surrendering Confederate forces in the Trans-Mississippi Department.[220][221] This date is often cited by contemporaries and historians as the effective end date of the war.[a][b] On June 2, with most of his troops having already gone home, a reluctant Kirby Smith had little choice but to sign the official surrender document.[222][223] On June 23, Cherokee leader and Brig. General Stand Watie became the last Confederate general to surrender his forces.[224][225]

On June 19, 1865, Union Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger announced General Order No. 3, bringing the Emancipation Proclamation into effect in Texas and freeing the last slaves of the Confederacy.[226] The anniversary of this date is now celebrated as Juneteenth.[227]

The naval part of the war ended more slowly. On April 11, two days after Lee's surrender, when Lincoln proclaimed that foreign nations had no further "claim or pretense" to deny equality of maritime rights and hospitalities to US warships and, in effect, that rights extended to Confederate ships to use neutral ports as safe havens from US warships should end.[228][229] Having no response to Lincoln's proclamation, President Johnson issued a similar proclamation dated May 10, more directly stating that the war was almost at an end and insurgent cruisers still at sea, and prepared to attack US ships, should not have rights to do so through use of safe foreign ports or waters.[230] Britain finally responded on June 6, by transmitting a letter from Foreign Secretary John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, to the Lords of the Admiralty withdrawing rights to Confederate warships to enter British ports and waters.[231] US Secretary of State Seward welcomed the withdrawal of concessions to the Confederates.[232] Finally, on October 18, Russell advised the Admiralty that the time specified in his June message had elapsed and "all measures of a restrictive nature on vessels of war of the United States in British ports, harbors, and waters, are now to be considered as at an end".[233] Nonetheless, the final Confederate surrender was in Liverpool, England where James Iredell Waddell, the captain of CSS Shenandoah, surrendered the cruiser to British authorities on November 6.[234]

Legally, the war did not end until August 20, 1866, when President Johnson issued a proclamation that declared "that the said insurrection is at an end and that peace, order, tranquillity, and civil authority now exist in and throughout the whole of the United States of America".[i]
Union victory
A map of the US South showing shrinking territory under rebel control
Map of Confederate territory losses year by year

The causes of the war, reasons for its outcome, and even its name are subjects of lingering contention. The North and West grew wealthy while the once-rich South became poor for a century. The national political power of the slaveowners and rich Southerners ended. Historians are less sure about the results of postwar Reconstruction, especially regarding the second-class citizenship of the freedmen and their poverty.[235]

Historians have debated whether the Confederacy could have won the war. Most scholars, including James M. McPherson, argue Confederate victory was possible.[236] McPherson argues that the North's advantage in population and resources made Northern victory likely, but not guaranteed. He argues that if the Confederacy had fought using unconventional tactics, it would have more easily been able to hold out long enough to exhaust the Union.[237] Confederates did not need to invade and hold enemy territory to win, but only to fight a defensive war to convince the North the cost of winning was too high. The North needed to conquer and hold vast stretches of enemy territory and defeat Confederate armies to win.[237] Lincoln was not a military dictator and could fight only as long as the American public supported the war. The Confederacy sought to win independence by outlasting Lincoln; however, after Atlanta fell and Lincoln defeated McClellan in the election of 1864, hope for a political victory for the South ended. Lincoln had secured the support of the Republicans, War Democrats, border states, emancipated slaves, and the neutrality of Britain and France. By defeating the Democrats and McClellan, he defeated the Copperheads, who had wanted a negotiated peace with the Confederacy.[238]
Comparison of Union and Confederacy, 1860–1864[239][240]     Year     Union     Confederacy
Population     1860     22,100,000 (71%)     9,100,000 (29%)
1864     28,800,000 (90%)[j]     3,000,000 (10%)[241]
Free     1860     21,700,000 (98%)     5,600,000 (62%)
Slave     1860     490,000 (2%)     3,550,000 (38%)
1864     negligible     1,900,000[k]
Soldiers     1860–64     2,100,000 (67%)     1,064,000 (33%)
Railroad miles[242]     1860     21,800 (71%)     8,800 (29%)
1864     29,100 (98%)[l]     negligible
Manufactures     1860     90%     10%
1864     98%     2%
Arms production     1860     97%     3%
1864     98%     2%
Cotton bales     1860     negligible     4,500,000
1864     300,000     negligible
Exports     1860     30%     70%
1864     98%     2%

Some scholars argue the Union held an insurmountable long-term advantage over the Confederacy in industrial strength and population. Confederate actions, they argue, only delayed defeat.[244][245] Historian Shelby Foote expressed this view succinctly:

    I think that the North fought that war with one hand behind its back.... If there had been more Southern victories, and a lot more, the North simply would have brought that other hand out from behind its back. I don't think the South ever had a chance to win that War.[246]

A minority view among historians is that the Confederacy lost because, as E. Merton Coulter put it, "people did not will hard enough and long enough to win".[247][248] However, most historians reject the argument.[249] McPherson, after reading thousands of letters written by Confederate soldiers, found strong patriotism that continued to the end; they truly believed they were fighting for freedom and liberty. Even as the Confederacy was visibly collapsing in 1864–65, most Confederate soldiers were fighting hard.[250] Historian Gary Gallagher cites General Sherman, who in early 1864 commented, "The devils seem to have a determination that cannot but be admired." Despite their loss of slaves and wealth, with starvation looming, Sherman continued, "yet I see no sign of let-up—some few deserters—plenty tired of war, but the masses determined to fight it out".[251]

Also important were Lincoln's eloquence in articulating the national purpose and his skill in keeping the border states committed to the Union cause. The Emancipation Proclamation was an effective use of the president's war powers.[252] The Confederate government failed to get Europe involved militarily. Southern leaders needed to get European powers to help break the blockade the Union had created around Southern ports. Lincoln's naval blockade was 95 percent effective at stopping trade goods; as a result, imports and exports to the South declined significantly. The abundance of European cotton and Britain's hostility to slavery, along with Lincoln's naval blockades, severely decreased any chance that Britain or France would enter the war.[253]

Historian Don H. Doyle has argued that the Union victory had a major impact on world history.[254] The Union victory energized popular democratic forces. A Confederate victory, on the other hand, would have meant a new birth of slavery, not of freedom. Historian Fergus Bordewich, following Doyle, argues:

    The North's victory decisively proved the durability of democratic government. Confederate independence, on the other hand, would have established an American model for reactionary politics and race-based repression that would likely have cast an international shadow into the 20th century and perhaps beyond.[255]

Scholars have debated what the effects of the war were on political and economic power in the South.[256] The prevailing view is that the southern planter elite retained its powerful position in the South.[256] However, a 2017 study challenges this, noting that while some Southern elites retained their economic status, the turmoil of the 1860s created greater opportunities for economic mobility in the South, than in the North.[256]
Casualties
One in thirteen veterans were amputees.
Remains of both sides were reinterred.
Andersonville National Cemetery, Georgia
Casualties according to the US National Park Service[2] Category     Union     Confederate
Killed in action     110,100     94,000
Disease     224,580     164,000
Wounded in action     275,154     194,026
Captured
(inc those who died as POWs)     211,411
(30,192)     462,634
(31,000)
Total     821,245     914,660
Further information: Environmental history of the United States § Civil War

Exact casualty figures were collected for the Union, but Confederate records were poorly kept, or lost in the chaos of defeat. Thus, the casualty figures are imprecise and based on statistical extrapolation. Neither side kept a tally of civilian deaths due to the war. In the 19th century, the death toll had been estimated at a lower 620,000.[9] In 2011, the death toll was recalculated based on a 1% sample of census data, yielding approximately 750,000 soldier deaths, 20 percent higher than traditionally estimated, and possibly as high as 850,000.[12][257] The figure was recalculated to 698,000 soldier deaths in 2024 after examining newly available full census records. Mortality rates among men were as high as 19 percent in Louisiana, and 16.6–16.7 percent in Georgia and South Carolina respectively.[258][259]

The war resulted in at least 1,030,000 casualties (3 percent of the population), including an estimated 698,000 soldier deaths—two-thirds by disease.[259][9] Based on 1860 census figures, 8 percent of all white men aged 13–43 died in the war, including 6 percent in the North and 18 percent in the South.[260][261] About 56,000 soldiers died in prison camps during the War.[262] An estimated 60,000 soldiers lost limbs.[263] As McPherson notes, the war's "cost in American lives was as great as in all of the nation's other wars combined through Vietnam".[264]

Of the 359,528 Union Army dead, amounting to 15 percent of the over two million who served:[5]

    110,070 were killed in action (67,000) or died of wounds (43,000).
    199,790 died of disease (75 percent was due to the war, the remainder would have occurred in civilian life anyway)
    24,866 died in Confederate prison camps
    9,058 were killed by accidents or drowning
    15,741 other/unknown deaths

In addition, there were 4,523 deaths in the Navy (2,112 in battle) and 460 in the Marines (148 in battle).[6]

After the Emancipation Proclamation authorized freed slaves to "be received into the armed service of the United States", former slaves who escaped from plantations or were liberated by the Union Army were recruited into the United States Colored Troops regiments of the Union Army, as were black men who had not been slaves. The US Colored Troops made up 10 percent of the Union death toll—15 percent of Union deaths from disease and less than 3 percent of those killed in battle.[5] Losses among African Americans were high. In the last year and a half and from all reported casualties, approximately 20 percent of all African Americans enrolled in the military died during the war. Their mortality rate was significantly higher than white soldiers. While 15 percent of US Volunteers and just 9 percent of white Regular Army troops died, 21 percent of US Colored Troops died.[265]: 16 
An illustration of the war dead following the Battle of Antietam battlefield in 1862

While the figures of 360,000 army deaths for the Union and 260,000 for the Confederacy remained commonly cited, they are incomplete. In addition to many Confederate records being missing, partly as a result of Confederate widows not reporting deaths due to being ineligible for benefits, both armies only counted troops who died during their service and not the tens of thousands who died of wounds or diseases after being discharged. This often happened only days or weeks later. Francis Amasa Walker, superintendent of the 1870 census, used census and surgeon general data to estimate a minimum of 500,000 Union military deaths and 350,000 Confederate military deaths, a total of 850,000 soldiers. While Walker's estimates were originally dismissed because of the 1870 census's undercounting, it was later found that the census was only off by 6.5 percent and that the data Walker used would be roughly accurate.[12]

Losses were far higher than during the war with Mexico, which saw roughly 13,000 American deaths, including fewer than two thousand killed in battle, between 1846 and 1848. One reason for the high number of battle deaths in the civil war was the continued use of tactics similar to those of the Napoleonic Wars, such as charging. With the advent of more accurate rifled barrels, Minié balls, and (near the end of the war for the Union) repeating firearms such as the Spencer repeating rifle and the Henry repeating rifle, soldiers were mowed down when standing in lines in the open. This led to the adoption of trench warfare, a style of fighting that defined much of World War I.[266]

Deaths among former slaves has proven hard to estimate, due to the lack of reliable census data, though they were known to be considerable, as former slaves were set free or escaped in massive numbers in areas where the Union army did not have sufficient shelter, doctors, or food for them. Professor Jim Downs states that tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of slaves died during the war from disease, starvation, or exposure, and that if these deaths are counted in the war's total, the death toll would exceed 1 million.[267]

It is estimated that during the war, of the equines killed, including horses, mules, donkeys and even confiscated children's ponies, over 32,600 of them belonged to the Union and 45,800 the Confederacy. However, other estimates place the total at 1,000,000.[268]

It is estimated that 544 Confederate flags were captured during the war by the Union. The flags were sent to the War Department in Washington.[269][270] The Union flags captured by the Confederates were sent to Richmond.[citation needed]
Emancipation
Abolition of slavery in the various states of the US over time:
  Abolition of slavery during or shortly after the American Revolution (Vermont, 1777; Massachusetts [including Maine], 1783)
  The Northwest Ordinance, 1787
  Gradual emancipation in New York (starting 1799, ended 1827), Pennsylvania (1780–1857), New Hampshire (1783–1857), Connecticut [including the Western Reserve] (1784–1848), Rhode Island (1784–1853) and New Jersey (starting 1804; ended by Thirteenth Amendment, 1865)
  The Missouri Compromise, 1821
  Effective abolition of slavery by Mexican or joint US/British authority
  Abolition of slavery by Congressional action, 1861
  Abolition of slavery by Congressional action, 1862
  Emancipation Proclamation as originally issued, 1 Jan 1863
  Subsequent operation of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863
  Abolition of slavery by state action during the Civil War
  Operation of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1864
  Operation of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1865
  Thirteenth Amendment to the US constitution, 18 Dec 1865
  Territory incorporated into the US after the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment

Abolishing slavery was not a Union war goal from the outset but quickly became one.[271] Lincoln initially claimed that preserving the Union was the central goal.[272] In contrast, the South fought to preserve slavery.[271] While not all Southerners saw themselves as fighting for slavery, most officers and over a third of the rank and file in Lee's army had close family ties to slavery. To Northerners, the motivation was primarily to preserve the Union, not to abolish slavery.[273] However, as the war dragged on, and it became clear that slavery was central to the conflict, and that emancipation was (to quote the Emancipation Proclamation) "a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing [the] rebellion", Lincoln and his cabinet made ending slavery a war goal, culminating in the Emancipation Proclamation.[271][274] Lincoln's decision to issue the Proclamation angered Peace Democrats ("Copperheads") and War Democrats, but energized most Republicans.[274] By warning that free blacks would flood the North, Democrats made gains in the 1862 elections, but they did not gain control of Congress. The Republicans' counterargument that slavery was the mainstay of the enemy steadily gained support, with the Democrats losing decisively in the 1863 elections in the Northern state of Ohio, when they tried to resurrect anti-black sentiment.[275]
Emancipation Proclamation
Main article: Emancipation Proclamation

The Emancipation Proclamation legally freed the slaves in states "in rebellion", but, as a practical matter, slavery for the 3.5 million black people in the South effectively ended in each area when Union armies arrived. The last Confederate slaves were freed on June 19, 1865, celebrated as the modern holiday of Juneteenth. Slaves in the border states and those in some former Confederate territory occupied before the Emancipation Proclamation were freed by state action or (on December 6, 1865) by the Thirteenth Amendment.[276][277] The Emancipation Proclamation enabled African Americans, both free blacks and escaped slaves, to join the Union Army. About 190,000 volunteered, further enhancing the numerical advantage the Union armies enjoyed over the Confederates, who did not dare emulate the equivalent manpower source for fear of undermining the legitimacy of slavery.[m]

During the war, sentiment concerning slaves, enslavement, and emancipation in the United States was divided. Lincoln's fears of making slavery a war issue were based on a harsh reality: abolition did not enjoy wide support in the west, the territories, and the border states.[279][n] In 1861, Lincoln worried that premature attempts at emancipation would mean the loss of the border states, and that "to lose Kentucky is nearly the same as to lose the whole game".[n] Copperheads and some War Democrats opposed emancipation, although the latter eventually accepted it as part of the total war needed to save the Union.[280]

Lincoln reversed attempts at emancipation by Secretary of War Simon Cameron and Generals John C. Frémont and David Hunter, in an effort to retain the loyalty of the border states and the War Democrats. Lincoln warned the border states that a more radical type of emancipation would happen if they rejected his plan of gradual compensated emancipation and voluntary colonization.[281] But compensated emancipation occurred only in the District of Columbia, where Congress had the power to enact it. When Lincoln told his cabinet about his proposed emancipation proclamation, which would apply to the states still in rebellion on January 1, 1863, Seward advised Lincoln to wait for a Union military victory before issuing it, because to do otherwise would seem like "our last shriek on the retreat".[282] Walter Stahr, however, writes, "There are contemporary sources, however, that suggest others were involved in the decision to delay", and Stahr quotes them.[283]
Contrabands, who were fugitive slaves, including cooks, laundresses, laborers, teamsters, railroad repair crews, fled to the Union Army, but were not legally freed until the Emancipation Proclamation, which Lincoln signed on January 1, 1863, more than two years before the end of the Civil War.
In 1863, the Union Army accepted Freedmen; seen here are black and white teenaged soldiers who volunteered to fight for the Union.

Lincoln laid the groundwork for public support in an open letter published in response to Horace Greeley's "The Prayer of Twenty Millions"; the letter stated that Lincoln's goal was to save the Union, and that, if he freed the slaves, it would be as a means to that end.[284][285][286] He also had a meeting at the White House with five African American representatives on August 14, 1862. Arranging for a reporter to be present, he urged his visitors to agree to the voluntary colonization of black people. Lincoln's motive for both his letter to Greeley and his statement to the black visitors was apparently to make his forthcoming Emancipation Proclamation more palatable to racist white people.[287] A Union victory in the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862, provided Lincoln with an opportunity to issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, and the War Governors' Conference added support for the proclamation.[288]

Lincoln issued his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862. It stated that slaves in all states in rebellion on January 1, 1863, would be free. He issued his final Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, keeping his promise. In his letter to Albert G. Hodges, Lincoln explained his belief that "If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong .... And yet I have never understood that the Presidency conferred upon me an unrestricted right to act officially upon this judgment and feeling ... I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me."[289][o]

Lincoln's moderate approach succeeded in inducing the border states to remain in the Union and War Democrats to support the Union. The border states, which included Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, Delaware, and Union-controlled regions around New Orleans, Norfolk, Virginia, and elsewhere, were not covered by the Emancipation Proclamation. Nor was Tennessee, which had come under Union control.[291] Missouri and Maryland abolished slavery on their own; Kentucky and Delaware did not.[292] Still, the proclamation did not enjoy universal support. It caused much unrest in what were then considered western states, where racist sentiments led to a great fear of abolition. There was some concern that the proclamation would lead to the secession of western states, and its issuance prompted the stationing of Union troops in Illinois in case of rebellion.[279]

Since the Emancipation Proclamation was based on the president's war powers, it applied only in territory held by Confederates at the time it was issued. However, the Proclamation became a symbol of the Union's growing commitment to add emancipation to the Union's definition of liberty.[293] The Emancipation Proclamation greatly reduced the Confederacy's hope of being recognized or otherwise aided by Britain or France.[294] By late 1864, Lincoln was playing a leading role in getting the House of Representatives to vote for the Thirteenth Amendment, which mandated the ending of chattel slavery.[295]
Reconstruction
Main article: Reconstruction era
Through the supervision of the Freedmen's Bureau, Northern teachers traveled into the South to provide education and training for the newly freed population.

The war devastated the South and posed serious questions of how it would be reintegrated into the Union. The war destroyed much of the South's wealth, in part because wealth held in enslaved people (at least $1,000 each for a healthy adult prior to the war) was wiped off the books.[296] All accumulated investment in Confederate bonds was forfeited; most banks and railroads were bankrupt. The income per person dropped to less than 40 percent of that of the North, and that lasted into the 20th century. Southern influence in the federal government, previously considerable, was greatly diminished until the second half of the 20th century.[297] Reconstruction began during the war, with the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1863, and it continued until 1877.[298] Its most important elements were the three "Reconstruction Amendments" to the Constitution: the 13th outlawing slavery (1865), the 14th guaranteeing citizenship to former slaves (1868), and the 15th prohibiting the denial of voting rights "on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude" (1870). From the Union perspective, the goals of Reconstruction were to consolidate victory by reuniting the Union, to guarantee a "republican form of government" for the ex-Confederate states, and to permanently end slavery—and prevent semi-slavery status.[299]

President Johnson, who took office in April 1865, took a lenient approach and saw the achievement of the main war goals as realized in 1865, when each ex-rebel state repudiated secession and ratified the Thirteenth Amendment. Radical Republicans demanded proof that Confederate nationalism was dead and that the slaves were truly free. They overrode Johnson's vetoes of civil rights legislation, and the House impeached him, although the Senate did not convict him. In 1868 and 1872, the Republican candidate Grant won the presidency. In 1872, the "Liberal Republicans" argued that the war goals had been achieved and Reconstruction should end. They chose Horace Greeley to head a presidential ticket in 1872 but were decisively defeated. In 1874, Democrats, primarily Southern, took control of Congress and opposed further reconstruction. The Compromise of 1877 closed with a national consensus, except on the part of former slaves, that the war had finally ended.[300] With the withdrawal of federal troops, however, white men retook control of every Southern legislature, and the Jim Crow era of disenfranchisement and legal segregation was ushered in.[301]

The war had a demonstrable impact on American politics. Many veterans on both sides were elected to political office, including five US presidents: Ulysses Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, and William McKinley.[302]
Memory and historiography
Monument to the Grand Army of the Republic, a Union veteran organization
Cherokee Confederates reunion in New Orleans in 1903

The war is a central event in American collective memory. There are innumerable statues, commemorations, books, and archival collections. The memory includes the home front, military affairs, the treatment of soldiers, both living and dead, in the war's aftermath, depictions of the war in literature and art, evaluations of heroes and villains, and considerations of the moral and political lessons of the war.[303] The last theme includes moral evaluations of racism and slavery, heroism and cowardice in combat[304] and behind the lines, and issues of democracy and minority rights, as well as the notion of an "Empire of Liberty" influencing the world.[305]

Historians have paid more attention to the causes of the war than to the war itself. Military history has largely developed outside academia, leading to a proliferation of studies by non-scholars who nevertheless are familiar with the primary sources and pay close attention to battles and campaigns and who write for the general public.[306][307] Practically every major figure in the war, both North and South, has had a serious biographical study.[citation needed]

Even the name used for the conflict has been controversial, with many names used for it. During and immediately after the war, Northern historians often used a term like "War of the Rebellion". Writers in rebel states often referred to the "War for Southern Independence". Some Southerners have described it as the "War of Northern Aggression".[308]
Lost Cause
Main article: Lost Cause of the Confederacy

The memory of the war in the white South crystallized in the myth of the "Lost Cause": that the Confederate cause was just and heroic. The myth shaped regional identity and race relations for generations.[309] Alan T. Nolan notes that the Lost Cause was expressly a rationalization, a cover-up to vindicate the name and fame of those in rebellion. Some claims revolve around the insignificance of slavery as a cause; some appeals highlight cultural differences between North and South; the military conflict by Confederate actors is idealized; in any case, secession was said to be lawful.[310] Nolan argues that the adoption of the Lost Cause perspective facilitated the reunification of the North and the South while excusing the "virulent racism" of the 19th century, sacrificing black American progress to white man's reunification. He also deems the Lost Cause "a caricature of the truth. This caricature wholly misrepresents and distorts the facts of the matter" in every instance.[311]

The Lost Cause myth was formalized by Charles A. Beard and Mary R. Beard, whose The Rise of American Civilization (1927) spawned Beardian historiography. The Beards downplayed slavery, abolitionism, and issues of morality. Though this interpretation was abandoned by the Beards in the 1940s, and by historians generally by the 1950s, Beardian themes still echo among Lost Cause writers.[312][313][additional citation(s) needed]
Battlefield preservation
Main article: American Civil War battlefield preservation
Beginning in 1961, the US Post Office released commemorative stamps for five famous battles, each issued on the 100th anniversary of the respective battle.

The first efforts at Civil War battlefield preservation and memorialization came during the war, with the establishment of National Cemeteries at Gettysburg, Mill Springs and Chattanooga. Soldiers began erecting markers on battlefields beginning with the First Battle of Bull Run in 1861. The oldest surviving monument is the Hazen Brigade Monument near Murfreesboro in Central Tennessee, built in the summer of 1863 by soldiers in Union Col. William B. Hazen's brigade to mark the spot where they buried their dead, following the Battle of Stones River.[314]

In the 1890s, the government established five Civil War battlefield parks under the jurisdiction of the War Department, beginning with the creation of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, and the Antietam National Battlefield in Sharpsburg, Maryland, in 1890. The Shiloh National Military Park was established in 1894 in Shiloh, Tennessee, followed by the Gettysburg National Military Park in 1895, and Vicksburg National Military Park in 1899. In 1933, these five parks and other national monuments were transferred to the National Park Service.[315] Chief among modern efforts to preserve Civil War sites has been the American Battlefield Trust, with more than 130 battlefields in 24 states.[316][317] The five major battlefield parks operated by the National Park Service had a combined 3 million visitors in 2018, down 70% from 10 million in 1970.[318]
Commemoration
Main article: Commemoration of the American Civil War
See also: Commemoration of the American Civil War on postage stamps
Grand Army of the Republic (Union)
United Confederate Veterans

The Civil War has been commemorated in many ways, ranging from the reenactment of battles, to statues and memorial halls being erected, to films, and to stamps and coins with Civil War themes being issued, all of which helped to shape public memory. These commemorations occurred in greater numbers on the 100th and 150th anniversaries of the war.[319] Hollywood's take on the war has been especially influential in shaping public memory, as in such film classics as The Birth of a Nation (1915), Gone with the Wind (1939), and Lincoln (2012). Ken Burns's PBS television series The Civil War (1990) is well-remembered, though criticized for its historical inaccuracy.[320][321]
Technological significance

Technological innovations during the war had a great impact on 19th-century science. The war was an early example of an "industrial war", in which technological might is used to achieve military supremacy.[322] New inventions, such as the train and telegraph, delivered soldiers, supplies and messages at a time when horses had been the fastest way to travel.[323][324] It was also in this war that aerial warfare, in the form of reconnaissance balloons, was first used.[325] It saw the first action involving steam-powered ironclad warships in naval warfare history.[326] Repeating firearms such as the Henry rifle, Spencer rifle, Colt revolving rifle, Triplett & Scott carbine and others, first appeared during the Civil War; they were a revolutionary invention that would soon replace muzzle-loading and single-shot firearms. The war saw the first appearances of rapid-firing weapons and machine guns such as the Agar gun and Gatling gun.[327] 

United States Colored Troops (USCT) were Union Army regiments during the American Civil War that primarily comprised African Americans, with soldiers from other ethnic groups also serving in USCT units. Established in response to a demand for more units from Union Army commanders, USCT regiments, which numbered 175 in total by the end of the war in 1865, constituted about one-tenth of the manpower of the army, according to historian Kelly Mezurek, author of For Their Own Cause: The 27th United States Colored Troops (The Kent State University Press, 2016). "They served in infantry, artillery, and cavalry."[1][2] Approximately 20 percent of USCT soldiers were killed in action or died of disease and other causes, a rate about 35 percent higher than that of white Union troops. Numerous USCT soldiers fought with distinction, with 16 receiving the Medal of Honor. The USCT regiments were precursors to the Buffalo Soldier units which fought in the American Indian Wars.[3]

The courage displayed by colored troops during the Civil War played an important role in African Americans gaining new rights. As Frederick Douglass said in an 1863 speech:

    Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letters U.S.; let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder, and bullets in his pocket, and there is no power on the earth or under the earth which can deny that he has earned the right of citizenship in the United States.[4]

Background
The Confiscation Act
Printed broadside, calling all men of color to arms, 1863

The U.S. Congress passed the Confiscation Act[5] in July 1862, legalizing the practice of Union officers freeing slaves and putting them to work as army laborers. Congress also passed the Militia Act, which empowered the President to use free blacks and former slaves from the rebel states in any capacity in the army. President Abraham Lincoln was concerned with public opinion in the four border states that remained in the Union, as they had numerous slaveholders, as well as with northern Democrats who supported the war but were less supportive of abolition than many northern Republicans. At first, Lincoln opposed early efforts to recruit African American soldiers, although he accepted the Army using them as paid workers. In September 1862, Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation, announcing that all slaves in rebellious states would be free as of January 1. Recruitment and training of colored regiments began in full force following the Proclamation in January 1863.[6]
Formation
Main article: Military history of African Americans in the American Civil War

The United States War Department issued General Order Number 143 on May 22, 1863, establishing the Bureau of Colored Troops to facilitate the recruitment of African-American soldiers to fight for the Union Army.[7] Regiments, including infantry, cavalry, engineers, light artillery, and heavy artillery units were recruited from all states of the Union. Approximately 175 regiments comprising more than 178,000 free blacks and freedmen served during the last two years of the war. Their service bolstered the Union war effort at a critical time.

Initially, the USCt were relegated to menial jobs such as that of laborers, teamsters, cooks, and other support duties. However, even these duties were essential to the war effort.[8] For example, USCT engineers built Fort Pocahontas, a Union supply depot, in Charles City, Virginia.[9] Eventually USCT were sent into combat.

The USCT suffered 2,751 combat deaths during the war, and 68,178 losses from all causes. Disease caused the most fatalities for all troops, both black and white.[10] In the last year-and-a-half and from all reported casualties, approximately 20% of all African Americans enrolled in the military died.[11] Notably, their mortality rate was significantly higher than white soldiers:

    [We] find, according to the revised official data, that of the slightly over two millions troops in the United States Volunteers, over 316,000 died (from all causes), or 15.2%. Of the 67,000 Regular Army (white) troops, 8.6%, or not quite 6,000, died. Of the approximately 180,000 United States Colored Troops, however, over 36,000 died, or 20.5%. In other words, the mortality rate amongst the United States Colored Troops in the Civil War was thirty-five percent greater than that among other troops, notwithstanding the fact that the former were not enrolled until some eighteen months after the fighting began.[11]

— Herbert Aptheker
Escaped slave, Gordon (also called "Whipped Peter"), in USCT uniform

USCT regiments were led by white Union officers, while rank advancement was limited for Black soldiers, who could only rise to the rank of non-commissioned officers. Approximately 110 Black soldiers did become commissioned officers before the end of the war, primarily as surgeons or chaplains.[12] The Supervisory Committee for Recruiting Colored Regiments in Philadelphia opened the Free Military Academy for Applicants for the Command of Colored Troops at the end of 1863.[13] For a time, Black soldiers received less pay than their white counterparts, but they and their supporters lobbied and eventually gained equal pay.[14] Notable members of USCT regiments included Martin Robinson Delany and the sons of abolitionist Frederick Douglass.

The process for white officers aiming to lead USCT units was considered more protracted and perhaps rigorous than for ordinary Union officers. This was because it was assumed that leading Black soldiers would require a better officer than those leading white troops. At the end of their studies, those men who wished to lead Black troops had to pass an examination administered by Brig. Gen. Silas Casey's staff in Washington. After a short period of examinations in mid-1863, only half of the men who had taken the exam passed.[15]
Volunteer regiments
Sgt. Samuel Smith of the 119th USCT, in uniform, with his family

Before the USCT was formed, several volunteer regiments were raised from free black men, including freedmen in the South. In 1863 a former slave, William Henry Singleton, helped recruit 1,000 former slaves in New Bern, North Carolina, for the First North Carolina Colored Volunteers. He became a sergeant in the 35th USCT. Freedmen from the Roanoke Island Freedmen's Colony, established in 1863 on the island, also formed part of the Free North Carolina Colored Volunteers (FNCCV) and subsequently the 35th.[16] Nearly all of the volunteer regiments were converted into USCT units.

In 1922 Singleton published his memoir (in a slave narrative) of his journey from slavery to freedom and becoming a Union soldier. Glad to participate in reunions, years later at the age of 95, he marched in a Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) event in 1938.
State volunteers

Six regiments were considered regular units, rather than auxiliaries. Their veteran status allowed them to get federal government jobs after the war, from which African Americans had usually been excluded in earlier years. However, the men received no formal recognition for combat honors and awards until the turn of the 20th century. These units were:

    5th Regiment Massachusetts Colored Volunteer Cavalry
    54th Massachusetts (Colored) Volunteer Infantry Regiment
    55th Massachusetts (Colored) Volunteer Infantry Regiment
    29th Connecticut (Colored) Volunteer Infantry Regiment
    30th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry Regiment
    31st Infantry Regiment (Colored)

1st Louisiana Native Guard (Corps d'Afrique)
USCT soldiers at an abandoned farmhouse in Dutch Gap, Virginia, 1864

The 1st Louisiana Native Guard, one of many Louisiana Union Civil War units, was formed in New Orleans after the city was taken and occupied by Union forces. It was formed in part from the Confederacy's former unit of the same name, which had been made up of property-owning free people of color (gens de couleur libres).[17] These men had wanted to prove their bravery and loyalty to the Confederacy like other Southern property owners by joining Confederate Black soldiers, but the Confederacy did not allow them to serve and confiscated their arms.

For the new unit, the Union also recruited freedmen from the refugee camps. Liberated from nearby plantations, they and their families had no means to earn a living and no place to go. Local commanders, starved for replacements, started equipping volunteer units with cast-off uniforms and obsolete or captured firearms. The men were treated and paid as auxiliaries, performing guard or picket duties to free up white soldiers for maneuver units. In exchange their families were fed, clothed and housed for free at the Army camps; often schools were set up for them and their children.

Despite class differences between free Black people and freedmen, the troops of the new guard served with distinction, including under Captain Andre Cailloux at the Battle of Port Hudson and throughout the South. Its units included:

    4 Regiments of Louisiana Native Guards (renamed the 1st–4th Corps d'Afrique Infantry, later renamed as the 73rd–76th US Colored Infantry on April 4, 1864).
    1st and 2nd Brigade Marching Bands, Corps d'Afrique (later made into Nos. 1 and 2 Bands, USCT).
    1st Regiment of Cavalry (1st Corps d'Afrique Cavalry, later made into the 4th US Colored Cavalry).
    22 Regiments of Infantry (1st–20th, 22nd, and 26th Corps d'Afrique Infantry, later converted into the 77th–79th, 80th–83rd, 84th–88th, and 89th–93rd US Colored Infantry on April 4, 1864).
    5 Regiments of Engineers (1st–5th Corps d'Afrique Engineers, later converted into the 95th–99th US Colored Infantry regiments on April 4, 1864) whose work building Bailey's Dam saved the Union navy's Mississippi River Squadron.
    1 Regiment of Heavy Artillery (later converted into the 10th US Colored (Heavy) Artillery on May 21, 1864).

Right Wing, XVI Corps (1864)
Colored Troops singing "John Brown's Body" as they marched into Charleston, South Carolina, in February 1865. Note the attitude of the local population, and the white officers.

Colored troops served as laborers in the 16th Army Corps' Quartermaster's Department and Pioneer Corps.

    Detachment, Quartermaster's Department.
    Pioneer Corps, 1st Division (Mower), 16th Army Corps.
    Pioneer Corps, Cavalry Division (Grierson), 16th Army Corps.

USCT Regiments
Main article: List of United States Colored Troops Civil War Units

    6 Regiments of Cavalry [1st–6th USC Cavalry]
    1 Regiment of Light Artillery [2nd USC (Light) Artillery]
    1 Independent USC (Heavy) Artillery Battery
    13 Heavy Artillery Regiments [1st and 3rd–14th USC (Heavy) Artillery]
    1 unassigned Company of Infantry [Company A, US Colored Infantry]
    1 Independent USC Company of Infantry (Southard's Independent Company, Pennsylvania (Colored) Infantry)
    1 Independent USC Regiment of Infantry [Powell's Regiment, US Colored Infantry]
    135 Regiments of Infantry [1st–138th USC Infantry] (The 94th, 105th, and 126th USC Infantry regiments were never fully formed)

Details

    The 2nd USC (Light) Artillery Regiment (2nd USCA) was made up of nine separate batteries grouped into three nominal battalions of three batteries each. The batteries were usually detached.
        I Battalion: A, B & C Batteries.
        II Battalion: D, E & F Batteries.
        III Battalion: G, H & I Batteries.
    The second raising of the 11th USC Infantry (USCI) was created by converting the 7th USC (Heavy) Artillery into an infantry unit.
    The second raising of the 79th USC Infantry (USCI) was formed from the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry.
    The second raising of the 83rd USC Infantry (USCI) was formed from the 2nd Kansas Colored Infantry.
    The second raising of the 87th USCI was formed from merging the first raisings of the 87th and 96th USCI.
    The second raising of the 113th USCI was formed by merging the first raisings of the 11th, 112th, and 113th USCI.

Gallery

    Select USCT Regimental Banners
    3rd US Colored Troops banner {obverse}
    3rd US Colored Troops banner {obverse}
    22nd US Colored Troops banner
    22nd US Colored Troops banner
    26th US Colored Troops banner
    26th US Colored Troops banner
    27th US Colored Troops banner
    27th US Colored Troops banner
    45th US Colored Troops banner
    45th US Colored Troops banner

Notable actions
Main article: Skirmish at Island Mound
George N. Barnard's photograph of a slave trader's business on Whitehall Street Atlanta, Georgia, 1864. A United States Colored Troop Infantry corporal is sitting by the door.

The first engagement by African-American soldiers against Confederate forces during the Civil War was at the Battle of Island Mound in Bates County, Missouri on October 28–29, 1862. African Americans, mostly escaped slaves, had been recruited into the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteers. They accompanied white troops to Missouri to break up Confederate guerrilla activities based out of Hog Island near Butler, Missouri. Although outnumbered, the African-American soldiers fought valiantly, and the Union forces won the engagement. The conflict was reported by The New York Times and Harper's Weekly.[18][19] In 2012 the state established the Battle of Island Mound State Historic Site to preserve this area; the eight Union men killed were buried near the battleground.[20]

USCT regiments fought in all theaters of the war, but mainly served as garrison troops in rear areas. The most famous USCT action took place at the Battle of the Crater during the Siege of Petersburg. Regiments of USCT suffered heavy casualties attempting to break through Confederate lines. Other notable engagements include Fort Wagner, one of their first major tests, and the Battle of Nashville.[21]

Colored Troop soldiers were among the first Union forces to enter Richmond, Virginia, after its fall in April 1865. The 41st USCT regiment was among those present at the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox. Following the war, USCT regiments served among the occupation troops in former Confederate states.

U.S. Army General Ulysses S. Grant praised the competent performance and bearing of the USCT, saying at Vicksburg that:

    Negro troops are easier to preserve discipline among than our white troops ... All that have been tried have fought bravely.

— Ulysses S. Grant, at Vicksburg (July 24, 1863).[22]
Prisoners of war
African-American corporal (United States Colored Troops) outside 8 Whitehall Street, Atlanta, a slave auction house; Fall 1864

USCT soldiers suffered extra violence at the hands of Confederate soldiers, who singled them out for mistreatment. They were often the victims of battlefield massacres and atrocities by Confederates, most notably at Fort Pillow in Tennessee, at the Battle of the Crater in Virginia,[23] and at the Battle of Olustee in Florida. They were often murdered when captured by Confederate soldiers, as the Confederacy announced that former slaves fighting for the Union were traitors and would be immediately executed.[21]

The prisoner exchange protocol based on the Dix–Hill Cartel broke down over the Confederacy's position on black prisoners-of-war. The Congress of the Confederate States of America had passed a law on May 1, 1863, stating that white officers commanding black soldiers and blacks captured in uniform would be tried as rebellious slave insurrectionists in civil courts — a capital offense with automatic sentence of death.[24][25] In practice, USCT soldiers were often murdered by Confederate troops without being taken to court. This law became a stumbling block for prisoner exchange, as the U.S. government in the Lieber Code objected to such discriminatory mistreatment of prisoners of war on basis of ethnicity. The Republican Party's platform during the 1864 presidential election also condemned the Confederacy's mistreatment of black U.S. soldiers.[26] In response to such mistreatment, General Ulysses S. Grant, in a letter to Confederate officer Richard Taylor, urged the Confederates to treat captured black U.S. soldiers humanely and professionally, and not to murder them. He stated the U.S. government's official position, that black U.S. soldiers were sworn military men. The Confederacy had said they were escaped slaves who deserved no better treatment.[27]
Numbers of colored troops by state, North and South

The soldiers are classified by the state where they were enrolled; Northern states often sent agents to enroll formerly enslaved from the South. Many soldiers from Delaware, D.C., Kentucky, Missouri, and West Virginia were formerly enslaved as well. Most of the troops credited to West Virginia, however, were not actually from that state.[28]
North[29]     Number     South[29]     Number
Connecticut     1,764         Alabama     4,969  
Colorado Territory     95         Arkansas     5,526  
Delaware     954         Florida     1,044  
District of Columbia     3,269         Georgia     3,486  
Illinois     1,811         Louisiana     24,502  
Indiana     1,597         Mississippi     17,869  
Iowa     440         North Carolina     5,035  
Kansas     2,080         South Carolina     5,462  
Kentucky     23,703         Tennessee     20,133  
Maine     104         Texas     47  
Maryland     8,718         Virginia     5,723  
Massachusetts     3,966           
Michigan     1,387       Total from the South     93,796 
Minnesota     104           
Missouri     8,344       At large     733  
New Hampshire     125       Not accounted for     5,083  
New Jersey     1,185           
New York     4,125           
Ohio     5,092           
Pennsylvania     8,612           
Rhode Island     1,837           
Vermont     120           
West Virginia     196           
Wisconsin     155           
Total from the North     79,283           
        Total     178,895  
Postwar
Harriet Tubman with family and ex-slaves; sitting at left is Tubman's second husband, Nelson Davis (8th USCT veteran)

The USCT was disbanded in the fall of 1865. In 1867, the Regular Army was set at ten regiments of cavalry and 45 regiments of infantry. The Army was authorized to raise two regiments of black cavalry (the 9th and 10th Cavalry) and four regiments of black infantry (the 38th, 39th, 40th, and 41st Infantry), who were mostly drawn from USCT veterans. The first draft of the bill that the House Committee on Military Affairs sent to the full chamber on March 7, 1866, did not include a provision for regiments of black cavalry; however, this provision was added by Senator Benjamin Wade prior to the bill's passing.[30] In 1869 the Regular Army was kept at ten regiments of cavalry but cut to 25 regiments of Infantry, reducing the black complement to two regiments (the 24th and 25th (Colored) Infantry).

The two black infantry regiments represented 10 percent of the size of all twenty-five infantry regiments. Similarly, the black cavalry units represented 20 percent of the size of all ten cavalry regiments.[30]

From 1870 to 1898 the strength of the US Army totaled 25,000 service members with black soldiers maintaining their 10 percent representation.[30] USCT soldiers fought in the Indian Wars in the American West, where they became known as the Buffalo Soldiers, reportedly nicknamed by Native Americans who compared their hair to the curly fur of bison.[31]
Awards
Sgt Major Christian Fleetwood. Civil War, Medal of Honor recipient
US Medal of Honor

Eighteen African-American USCT soldiers earned the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest award, for service in the war:[32]

    Sergeant William Harvey Carney of the 54th Massachusetts (Colored) Volunteer Infantry was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions at the Battle of Fort Wagner in July 1863. During the advance, Carney was wounded but still went on. When the color-bearer was shot, Carney grabbed the flagstaff and planted it in the parapet, while the rest of his regiment stormed the fortification. When his regiment was forced to retreat, he was wounded two more times while he carried the colors back to Union lines. He did not relinquish it until he handed it to another soldier of the 54th. Carney received his medal 37 years after the battle.
    Fourteen African-American soldiers, including Sergeant Major Christian Fleetwood and Sergeant Alfred B. Hilton (mortally wounded) of the 4th USCT, were awarded the Medal of Honor for their actions at the Battle of Chaffin's Farm in September 1864, during the campaign to take Petersburg.
    Corporal Andrew Jackson Smith of the 55th Massachusetts (Colored) Volunteer Infantry was recommended for the Medal of Honor for his actions at the Battle of Honey Hill in November 1864. Smith prevented the regimental colors from falling into enemy hands after the color sergeant was killed. Due to a lack of official records, he was not awarded the medal until 2001.

The Butler Award

Soldiers who fought in the Army of the James were eligible for the Butler Medal, commissioned by that army's commander, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler. When several slaves escaped to Butler's lines in 1861, at Fort Monroe in Virginia, Butler was the first to declare any refugee slaves as contraband, and refused to return them to slaveholders, a standard that slowly became an unofficial policy throughout the Union Army. Their owner, a Confederate colonel, came to Butler under a flag of truce and demanded that they be returned to him under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Butler informed him that since Virginia claimed to have left the Union, the Fugitive Slave Law no longer applied, declaring the slaves to be contraband of war.
Legacy and modern views

The historian Steven Hahn proposes that when slaves organized themselves and worked with the Union Army during the American Civil War, including as some regiments of the USCT, their actions comprised a slave rebellion that dwarfed all other slave revolts.[33] The African American Civil War Memorial Museum helps to preserve pertinent information from the period.[34]
U.S. Colored Troops
Sgt. William Harvey Carney Medal of Honor recipient
Company E, 4th US Colored Troops at Fort Lincoln, November 17, 1865 (from Library of Congress)[35]
Marker dedicated to the 26th Regiment of U.S. Colored Infantry in Ithaca, New York
USCT Graves near Piqua, Ohio
Tributes

    In 1924, the Grand Army of the Republic unveiled the Colored Soldiers Monument in Frankfort, Kentucky.
    In September 1996, a national celebration in commemoration of the service of the United States Colored Troops was held.
    The African American Civil War Memorial (1997), featuring Spirit of Freedom by sculptor Ed Hamilton, was erected at the corner of Vermont Avenue and U Street NW in the capital, Washington, D.C. It is administered by the National Park Service.
    In 1999 the African American Civil War Museum opened nearby.
    In July 2011, the African American Civil War Museum celebrated a grand opening of its new facility at 1925 Vermont Avenue Northwest, Washington, D.C., just across the street from the memorial.[36][37]

Other

The motion picture Glory, starring Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman, and Matthew Broderick, portrayed the African-American soldiers of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment. It showed their training and participation in several battles, including the second assault on Fort Wagner on July 18, 1863. Although the 54th was not a USCT regiment, but a state volunteer regiment originally raised from free blacks in Boston, similar to the 1st and 2nd Kansas Colored Infantry, the film portrays the experiences and hardships of African-American troops during the Civil War.[38] Richard Walter Thomas, black scholar of race relations, observed that the relationship between white and black soldiers in the Civil War was an instance of what he calls "the other tradition": "... after sharing the horrors of war with their black comrades in arms, many white officers experienced deep and dramatic transformations in their attitudes toward blacks."[39]
Similar units

    92nd Infantry Division (United States)
    93d Infantry Division (United States)
    366th Infantry Regiment (United States)
    369th Infantry Regiment (United States)
    761st Tank Battalion (United States)
    1st Louisiana Native Guard (CSA)


The Battle of the Crater took place during the American Civil War, part of the Siege of Petersburg. It occurred on Saturday, July 30, 1864, between the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, commanded by General Robert E. Lee, and the Union Army of the Potomac, commanded by Major General George G. Meade under the direct supervision of the general-in-chief, Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant.

After weeks of preparation, on July 30 Union forces exploded a mine across from Union Major General Ambrose E. Burnside's IX Corps sector, blowing a gap in the Confederate defenses of Petersburg, Virginia. Instead of being a decisive advantage to the Union, this precipitated a rapid deterioration in the Union position. Unit after unit charged into and around the crater, where most of the soldiers milled in confusion in the bottom of the crater. Grant considered this failed assault as "the saddest affair I have witnessed in this war."[5]

The Confederates quickly recovered, and launched several counterattacks led by Brigadier General William Mahone. The breach was sealed off, and the Union forces were repulsed with severe casualties, while Brigadier General Edward Ferrero's division of black soldiers was badly mauled. It may have been Grant's best chance to end the siege of Petersburg; instead, the soldiers settled in for another eight months of trench warfare.

Burnside was relieved of command for his role in the fiasco, and he was never returned to command.[1] Ferrero and General James H. Ledlie were observed behind the lines in a bunker, drinking liquor throughout the battle. Ledlie was criticized by a court of inquiry into his conduct that September, and in December he was effectively dismissed from the Army by Meade on orders from Grant, formally resigning his commission on January 23, 1865.
Background
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During the Civil War, Petersburg, Virginia, was an important railhead, where four railroad lines from the south met before they continued to Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederacy. Most supplies to General Lee's army and Richmond funneled through that location. Consequently, the Union regarded it as the "back door" to Richmond and as necessary for its defense.[6] The result was the siege of Petersburg. It was actually trench warfare, rather than a true siege, as the armies were aligned along a series of fortified positions and trenches more than 20 miles (32 km) long, extending from the old Cold Harbor battlefield near Richmond to areas south of Petersburg.

After Lee stopped Grant's attempt to seize Petersburg on June 15, the battle settled into a stalemate. Grant had learned a hard lesson at Cold Harbor about attacking Lee in a fortified position and was chafing at the inactivity to which Lee's trenches and forts had confined him. Finally, Lt. Col. Henry Pleasants, commanding the 48th Pennsylvania Infantry of Major General Ambrose E. Burnside's IX Corps, offered a novel proposal to break the impasse.

Pleasants, a mining engineer from Pennsylvania in civilian life, proposed digging a long mine shaft under the Confederate Army lines and planting explosive charges directly underneath a fort (Elliott's Salient) in the middle of the Confederate First Corps line. If successful, not only would all the defenders in the area be killed, but also a hole in the Confederate defenses would be opened. If enough Union troops filled the breach quickly enough and drove into the Confederate rear area, the Confederates would not be able to muster enough force to drive them out, and Petersburg might fall. Burnside, whose reputation had suffered from his 1862 defeat at the Battle of Fredericksburg and his poor performance earlier that year at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, agreed to Pleasants's plan.
Mine construction
Contemporary sketch of Col. Pleasants supervising the placement of powder in the mine
National Park Service marker depicting details of the mine

Digging began in late June, but even Grant and Meade saw the operation as a "mere way to keep the men occupied" and doubted it of any actual tactical value. They quickly lost interest, and Pleasants soon found himself with few materials for his project, and his men even had to forage for wood to support the structure.

Work progressed steadily, however. Earth was removed by hand and packed into improvised sledges made from cracker boxes fitted with handles, and the floor, wall, and ceiling of the mine were shored up with timbers from an abandoned wood mill and even from tearing down an old bridge.

The shaft was elevated as it moved toward the Confederate lines to make sure moisture did not clog up the mine, and fresh air was drawn in by an ingenious air-exchange mechanism near the entrance. A canvas partition isolated the miners' air supply from outside air and allowed miners to enter and exit the work area easily. The miners had constructed a vertical exhaust shaft located well behind Union lines. At the vertical shaft's base, a fire was kept continuously burning. A wooden duct ran the entire length of the tunnel and protruded into the outside air. The fire heated stale air inside of the tunnel, drawing it up the exhaust shaft and out of the mine by the chimney effect. The resulting vacuum then sucked fresh air in from the mine entrance via the wooden duct, which carried it down the length of the tunnel to the place in which the miners were working.[7] That avoided the need for additional ventilation shafts, which could have been observed by the enemy, and it also easily disguised the diggers' progress.

On July 17, the main shaft reached under the Confederate position. Rumors of a mine construction soon reached the Confederates, but Lee refused to believe or act upon them for two weeks before he commenced countermining attempts, which were sluggish and uncoordinated, and were unable to discover the mine. However, General John Pegram, whose batteries would be above the explosion, took the threat seriously enough to build a new line of trenches and artillery points behind his position as a precaution.[8] Shafts were also sunk by the Confederates in an effort to intercept the passage.[9] Pleasants became aware of the Confederate's counter-movements and was able to frustrate their effort by changing the direction of the main and lateral galleries while increasing their depth below the surface.[10]

The mine was in a "T"-shape. The approach shaft was 511 feet (156 m) long, starting in a sunken area downhill and more than 50 feet (15 m) below the Confederate battery, making detection difficult. The tunnel entrance was narrow, about 3 feet (1 m) wide and 4.5 feet (1.4 m) high. At its end, a perpendicular gallery of 75 feet (23 m) extended in both directions. Grant and Meade suddenly decided to use the mine three days after it was completed after a failed attack known later as the First Battle of Deep Bottom. Union soldiers filled the mine with 320 kegs of gunpowder, totaling 8,000 pounds (3,600 kg). The explosives were approximately 20 feet (6 m) under the Confederate works, and the T-gap was packed shut with 11 feet (3 m) of earth in the side galleries. A further 32 feet (10 m) of packed earth was placed in the main gallery to prevent the explosion blasting out the mouth of the mine. On July 28, the powder charges were armed.[11][8]
Preparation

Burnside had trained a division of United States Colored Troops (USCT) under Brigadier General Edward Ferrero to lead the assault. The division consisted of two brigades, one designated to go to the left of the crater and the other to the right. A regiment from both brigades was to leave the attack column and extend the breach by rushing perpendicular to the crater, and the remaining regiments were to rush through, seizing the Jerusalem Plank Road just 1,600 feet (490 m) beyond, followed by the churchyard and, if possible, Petersburg itself. Burnside's two other divisions, made up of white troops, would then move in, supporting Ferrero's flanks and race for Petersburg itself. Two miles (3 km) behind the front lines, out of sight of the Confederates, the men of the USCT division were trained for two weeks on the plan.[12]

Despite the careful planning and intensive training, on the day before the attack, Meade, who lacked confidence in the operation, ordered Burnside not to use the black troops in the lead assault. He claimed that if the attack failed, black soldiers would be killed needlessly, creating political repercussions in the North. Meade may have also ordered the change of plans because he lacked confidence in the black soldiers' abilities in combat and feared that if they were butchered, Radical Republicans would make an issue out of it and claim they were deliberately allowed to be killed.[13] Burnside protested to Grant, who sided with Meade. When volunteers were not forthcoming, Burnside selected a replacement white division by having the three commanders draw lots. Brigadier General James H. Ledlie's 1st Division was selected, but he failed to brief the men on what was expected of them and was reported during the battle to be drunk, well behind the lines, and not providing leadership. Ledlie would be dismissed for his actions during the battle. Ledlie, a civilian soldier with no proper military training, also commanded the smallest and weakest division in the army; one brigade was made of heavy artillery regiments that had not performed well in combat so far and Burnside himself had complained about their performance during the June 18 assaults on Petersburg. Worse than that, Ledlie was known as a coward; during the battle on June 18 he had hidden behind the lines and although his officers and enlisted men knew it, this escaped Burnside's notice.[11]
Opposing forces
"Battle of the Crater" from a 1970 National Park Service booklet, read by David Wales for LibriVox
Duration: 14 minutes and 22 seconds.14:22
Audio 00:14:21 (full text)
Problems playing this file? See media help.
Union
Further information: Union order of battle
Confederate
Further information: Confederate order of battle
Battle
Sketch of the explosion, as seen from the Union line, by Alfred Waud
Battle of the Crater art from the Virginia Tech Bugle 1899 yearbook

The plan called for the mine to be detonated between 3:30 and 3:45 a.m. on the morning of July 30. Pleasants lit the fuse accordingly, but as with the rest of the mine's provisions, they had been given poor-quality fuses, which his men were forced to splice themselves. After more and more time passed and no explosion occurred (the impending dawn creating a threat to the men at the staging points, who were in view of the Confederate lines), two volunteers from the 48th Regiment (Lt. Jacob Douty and Sgt. Harry Reese) crawled into the tunnel. After discovering the fuse had burned out at a splice, they spliced on a length of new fuse and lit it again.[14] Finally, at 4:44 a.m., the charges exploded in a massive shower of earth, men, and guns. A crater (still visible today) was created, 170 feet (52 m) long, 100 to 120 feet (30 to 37 m) wide, and at least 30 feet (9 m) deep.[15][16]

The explosion immediately killed 278 Confederate soldiers of the 18th and 22nd South Carolina[17] and the stunned Confederate troops did not direct any significant rifle or artillery fire at the enemy for at least 15 minutes.[18] However, Ledlie's untrained division was not prepared for the explosion, and reports indicate they waited 10 minutes before leaving their own entrenchments. Footbridges were supposed to have been placed to allow them to cross their own trenches quickly. Because they were missing, however, the men had to climb into and out of their own trenches just to reach no-man's land.[19] Once they had wandered to the crater, instead of moving around it, as the USCT troops had been trained, they thought that it would make an excellent rifle pit in which to take cover. They therefore moved down into the crater itself, wasting valuable time and realizing too late that the crater was much too deep and exposed to function as a rifle pit and quickly becoming overcrowded while the Confederates, under Brigadier General William Mahone, gathered as many troops together as they could for a counterattack. In about an hour, they had formed up around the crater and began firing rifles and artillery down into it in what Mahone later described as a "turkey shoot".

Sensing that the plan had failed, Grant sent Meade an order to terminate the attack. Meade passed this order on to Burnside but the latter believed it could still work and ignored the order, so he sent in Ferrero's division. Burnside preferred to work from his headquarters so he had only a vague idea of what was going on at the front lines as disaster was unfolding. Now faced with considerable flanking fire, the USCT also descended into the crater, and for the next few hours, Mahone's soldiers, along with those of Major General Bushrod Johnson and artillery, slaughtered the IX Corps as Union soldiers attempted to escape from the crater or surrender. Confederates along the rim of the crater could be heard to yell "Take the white man prisoner! Kill the nigger!" The black Union soldiers who attempted to surrender were specifically targeted for battlefield execution or, if they were taken as prisoners, executed in the rear.


Some of the officers in Ferrero's division removed their USCT badges, fearing the Confederates would also kill them on-site if they were captured and accounts by survivors of the battle report that some bayoneted black soldiers in the hope that the Confederates would be more lenient to them if they were captured. Ferrero himself was AWOL, having joined Ledlie in the rear to drink alcohol together.[20][21][22] Some Union troops eventually advanced and flanked to the right beyond the crater to the earthworks and assaulted the Confederate lines, driving the Confederates back for several hours in hand-to-hand combat. Mahone's Confederates conducted a sweep out of a sunken gully area about 200 yards (180 m) from the right side of the Union advance. The charge reclaimed the earthworks and drove the Union force back towards the east. The Confederates rained mortar shells into the crater, killing scores of men in the process.


The weather was also very hot as it neared noon the sun was beating down on the crater relentlessly. Soldiers who were not killed outright by the Confederates dropped by the dozens from dehydration and heat stroke, worsened by the frantic mob of men jammed into a small area. Survivors could remember little due to the chaos in the crater, the shell fire, and the extreme heat. Some details were organized to pick up cartridges from the dead or run back to the Union lines to fetch water.
Aftermath
Result of the 8,000 lb (3,600 kg) of powder explosion under the Salient, 1865

    Following the Crater affair a Reb wrote his homefolk that all the colored prisoners "would have been killed had it not been for gen Mahone who beg our men to Spare them." One of his comrades killed several, he continued; Mahone "told him for God's sake stop." The man replied, "Well gen let me kill one more," whereupon, according to the correspondent, "he deliberately took out his pocket knife and cut one's throat."

— Bell I. Wiley, The Life of Johnny Reb: The Common Soldier of the Confederacy[23]

Union casualties were 3,798 (504 killed, 1,881 wounded, 1,413 missing or captured), Confederate 1,491 (361 killed, 727 wounded, 403 missing or captured). Disproportionate Union losses were suffered by Ferrero's division of the United States Colored Troops,[4] many of whom were summarily executed on the battlefield or in the rear. Compared to the average ratio for Civil War battles of 4.8 wounded to one dead, for black troops at the Crater it was 1.8 to one.[20][21][22] Both black and white wounded prisoners were taken to the Confederate hospital at Poplar Lawn, in Petersburg. Burnside had not given up hope and he petitioned Meade to let him try another attack but General E.O.C. Ord dismissed the idea as absurd. Meade brought charges against Burnside, and a subsequent court of inquiry censured him along with Brig. Gens. Ledlie, Ferrero, Orlando B. Willcox, and Col. Zenas R. Bliss. Burnside was removed from command of the IX Corps on August 26 and replaced with General John G. Parke. Although he was as responsible for the defeat as Burnside, Meade escaped immediate censure. However, in early 1865, the Congressional Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War exonerated Burnside and condemned Meade for changing the plan of attack, which did little good for Burnside, whose reputation had been ruined.[24] As for Mahone, the victory, won largely because of his efforts in supporting Johnson's stunned men, earned him a lasting reputation as one of the best young generals of Lee's army in the last years of the war.

Grant wrote to Chief of Staff Henry W. Halleck, "It was the saddest affair I have witnessed in this war."[25] He also stated to Halleck, "Such an opportunity for carrying fortifications I have never seen and do not expect again to have."[26]

Pleasants, who had no role in the battle itself, received praise for his idea and its execution. When he was appointed a brevet brigadier general on March 13, 1865, the citation made explicit mention of his role.

Grant subsequently gave in his evidence before the Committee on the Conduct of the War:

    General Burnside wanted to put his colored division in front, and I believe if he had done so it would have been a success. Still I agreed with General Meade as to his objections to that plan. General Meade said that if we put the colored troops in front (we had only one division) and it should prove a failure, it would then be said and very properly, that we were shoving these people ahead to get killed because we did not care anything about them. But that could not be said if we put white troops in front."[27]

Despite the battle being a tactical Confederate victory, the strategic situation in the Eastern Theater remained unchanged. Both sides remained in their trenches, and the siege continued.
The Crater in 2004
Historic site

The area of the Battle of the Crater is a frequently-visited portion of Petersburg National Battlefield Park. There are sunken areas, where air shafts and cave-ins extend up to the "T" shape near the end. The park includes many other sites, primarily those that were a portion of the Union lines around Petersburg.
Mine entrance in 2006
Interior of Mine entrance in 2015
In popular culture

    The Battle of the Crater was graphically portrayed in the opening scenes of the 2003 film Cold Mountain, starring Jude Law as a Confederate soldier. The film inaccurately depicts the giant explosion occurring in broad daylight; it actually happened in darkness at 4:44 a.m.[28]

The Richmond–Petersburg campaign was a series of battles around Petersburg, Virginia, fought from June 9, 1864, to March 25, 1865,[4] during the American Civil War. Although it is more popularly known as the siege of Petersburg, it was not a classic military siege, in which a city is encircled with fortifications blocking all routes of ingress and egress, nor was it strictly limited to actions against Petersburg.

The campaign consisted of nine months of trench warfare in which Union forces commanded by Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant assaulted Petersburg unsuccessfully and then constructed trench lines that eventually extended over 30 miles (48 km) from the eastern outskirts of Richmond, Virginia, to around the eastern and southern outskirts of Petersburg. Petersburg was crucial to the supply of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's army and the Confederate capital of Richmond. Numerous raids were conducted and battles fought in attempts to cut off the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad. Many of these battles caused the lengthening of the trench lines.

Lee finally gave in to the pressure and abandoned both cities in April 1865, leading to his retreat and surrender at Appomattox Court House. The siege of Petersburg foreshadowed the trench warfare that would be seen fifty years later in World War I, earning it a prominent position in military history. It also featured the war's largest concentration of African-American troops, who suffered heavy casualties at such engagements as the Battle of the Crater and Chaffin's Farm.
Background
Military situation
Main article: Eastern Theater of the American Civil War
Further information: American Civil War
Fredericksburg, Virginia; May 1863. Soldiers in the trenches.

In March 1864, Ulysses S. Grant was promoted to lieutenant general and was given command of the Union Army. He devised a coordinated strategy to apply pressure on the Confederacy from many points, something President Abraham Lincoln had urged his generals to do from the beginning of the war. Grant put Major General William T. Sherman in immediate command of all forces in the West and moved his own headquarters to be with the Army of the Potomac (still commanded by Major General George G. Meade) in Virginia, where he intended to maneuver Lee's army to a decisive battle; his secondary objective was to capture Richmond (the capital of the Confederacy), but Grant knew that the latter would happen automatically once the former was accomplished. His coordinated strategy called for Grant and Meade to attack Lee from the north, while Major General Benjamin Butler drove toward Richmond from the southeast; Major General Franz Sigel to control the Shenandoah Valley; Sherman to invade Georgia, defeat General Joseph E. Johnston, and capture Atlanta; Brig. Gens. George Crook and William W. Averell to operate against railroad supply lines in West Virginia; and Major General Nathaniel P. Banks to capture Mobile, Alabama.[5]

Most of these initiatives failed, often because of the assignment of generals to Grant for political rather than military reasons. Butler's Army of the James bogged down against inferior forces under General P.G.T. Beauregard before Richmond in the Bermuda Hundred Campaign. Sigel was soundly defeated at the Battle of New Market in May and soon afterward he was replaced by Major General David Hunter. Banks was distracted by the Red River Campaign and failed to move on to Mobile, Alabama. However, Crook and Averell were able to cut the last railway linking Virginia and Tennessee, and Sherman's Atlanta campaign was a success, although it dragged on through the fall.[6]

On May 4, Grant and Meade's Army of the Potomac crossed the Rapidan River and entered the area known as the Wilderness of Spotsylvania, beginning the six-week Overland Campaign. At the bloody but tactically inconclusive Battle of the Wilderness (May 5–7) and Battle of Spotsylvania Court House (May 8–21), Grant failed to destroy Lee's army but, unlike his predecessors, did not retreat after the battles; he repeatedly moved his army leftward to the southeast in a campaign that kept Lee on the defensive and moved ever closer to Richmond. Grant spent the remainder of May maneuvering and fighting minor battles with the Confederate army as he attempted to turn Lee's flank and lure him into the open. Grant knew that his larger army and base of manpower in the North could sustain a war of attrition better than Lee and the Confederacy could. This theory was tested at the Battle of Cold Harbor (May 31 – June 12) when Grant's army once again came into contact with Lee's near Mechanicsville. He chose to engage Lee's army directly, by ordering a frontal assault on the Confederate fortified positions on June 3. This attack was repulsed with heavy losses. Cold Harbor was a battle that Grant regretted more than any other and Northern newspapers thereafter frequently referred to him as a "butcher". Although Grant suffered high losses during the campaign—approximately 50,000 casualties, or 41%—Lee lost even higher percentages of his men—approximately 32,000, or 46%—losses that could not be replaced.[7]

On the night of June 12, Grant again advanced by his left flank, marching to the James River. He planned to cross to the south bank of the river, bypassing Richmond, and isolate Richmond by seizing the railroad junction of Petersburg to the south. While Lee remained unaware of Grant's intentions, the Union army constructed a pontoon bridge 2,100 feet (640 m) long and crossed the James River on June 14–18. What Lee had feared most of all—that Grant would force him into a siege of Richmond—was poised to occur. Petersburg, a prosperous city of 18,000, was a supply center for Richmond, given its strategic location just south of Richmond, its site on the Appomattox River that provided navigable access to the James River, and its role as a major crossroads and junction for five railroads. Since Petersburg was the main supply base and rail depot for the entire region, including Richmond, the taking of Petersburg by Union forces would make it impossible for Lee to continue defending Richmond (the Confederate capital). This represented a change of strategy from that of the preceding Overland Campaign, in which confronting and defeating Lee's army in the open was the primary goal. Now, Grant selected a geographic and political target and knew that his superior resources could besiege Lee there, pin him down, and either starve him into submission or lure him out for a decisive battle. Lee at first believed that Grant's main target was Richmond and devoted only minimal troops under Beauregard to the defense of Petersburg.[8]
Opposing forces
Union
Further information: Union order of battle at Second Petersburg, Union order of battle at First Deep Bottom, Union order of battle at the Crater, Union order of battle at Globe Tavern, Union order of battle at Chaffin's Farm, Union order of battle at Boydton Plank Road
Key Union commanders

    Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant
    Lt. Gen.
    Ulysses S. Grant
    Maj. Gen. George G. Meade
    Maj. Gen.
    George G. Meade
    Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler
    Maj. Gen.
    Benjamin Butler

At the beginning of the campaign, Grant's Union forces consisted of the Army of the Potomac, under Meade, and the Army of the James, under Butler.

The Army of the Potomac included:[9]

    II Corps, under Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock, including the divisions of Maj. Gens. David B. Birney and John Gibbon and Brig. Gen. Francis C. Barlow.
    V Corps, under Maj. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren, including the divisions of Brig. Gens. Charles Griffin, Romeyn B. Ayres, Samuel W. Crawford, and Lysander Cutler.
    VI Corps, under Maj. Gen. Horatio G. Wright, including the divisions of Brig. Gens. David A. Russell, Thomas H. Neill, and Truman Seymour. (The VI Corps was on detached service in the Shenandoah Valley from mid-July to early December 1864.)[10]
    IX Corps, under Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside, including the divisions of Brig. Gens. James H. Ledlie, Robert B. Potter, Orlando B. Willcox, and Edward Ferrero (the latter division being manned by United States Colored Troops [USCTs]). Maj. Gen. John G. Parke replaced Burnside after the Battle of the Crater.[11]
    Cavalry Corps, under Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan, including the divisions of Brig. Gens. Alfred T.A. Torbert, David McM. Gregg, and James H. Wilson. Sheridan and much of his command were on detached service in the Shenandoah Valley from mid-July 1864 to late March 1865. Upon their return, Sheridan often referred to his Cavalry Corps as the Army of the Shenandoah, reflecting their role in the Valley Campaigns of 1864.[12]

The Army of the James included:[13]

    X Corps, under Maj. Gen. Quincy A. Gillmore (initially - June 15, 1864), Maj. Gen David B. Birney (from July 23, 1864 – October 10, 1864) and Brig. Gen. Alfred H. Terry,[14][15] including the divisions of Brig. Gens. Robert S. Foster and Adelbert Ames.
    XVIII Corps, under Maj. Gen. William F. "Baldy" Smith, including the divisions of Brig. Gens. William T. H. Brooks, John H. Martindale, and Edward W. Hinks (the latter also a USCT division).
    XXIV Corps, under Maj. Gen. Edward O.C. Ord, including the divisions of Brig. Gen. Robert S. Foster, Maj. Gen. Thomas M. Harris, and Brig. Gen. Charles Devens.
    XXV Corps, under Maj. Gen. Godfrey Weitzel, including the divisions of Brig. Gens. Charles J. Paine, William Birney, and Edward A. Wild.
    Cavalry Division, under Brig. Gen. August Kautz.

On December 3, 1864, the racially integrated X Corps and XVIII Corps were reorganized to become the all-white XXIV Corps and the all-black (officers excepted) XXV Corps.[16]

Grant made his headquarters in a cabin on the lawn of Appomattox Manor, the home of Richard Eppes and the oldest home (built in 1763) in what was then City Point, but is now Hopewell, Virginia.
Confederate
Further information: Confederate order of battle
Key Confederate commanders

    Gen. Robert E. Lee
    Gen.
    Robert E. Lee
    Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard
    Gen.
    P.G.T. Beauregard
    Lt. Gen. James Longstreet
    Lt. Gen.
    James Longstreet
    Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell
    Lt. Gen.
    Richard S. Ewell
    Lt. Gen. A.P. Hill
    Lt. Gen.
    A.P. Hill
    Lt. Gen. Richard H. Anderson
    Lt. Gen.
    Richard H. Anderson

Lee's Confederate force consisted of his own Army of Northern Virginia, as well as a scattered, disorganized group of 10,000 men defending Richmond under Beauregard. Many of the men under Beauregard's command consisted of soldiers who were either too young or too old to fight in the Army of Northern Virginia, or men who had been discharged from Lee's army due to wounds that rendered them unfit for service. The Army of Northern Virginia was initially organized into four corps:[17]

    First Corps, under Lt. Gen. Richard H. Anderson, including the divisions of Maj. Gens. George E. Pickett, Charles W. Field, and Joseph B. Kershaw. Lt. Gen. James Longstreet returned from medical leave and resumed command of the corps on October 19.[18] Anderson was given command of the new Fourth Corps, which included the division of Maj. Gen. Bushrod R. Johnson.[19]
    Second Corps, under Lt. Gen. Jubal A. Early, was detached on June 12 for operations in the Shenandoah Valley and played no direct role in the defense of Petersburg.
    Third Corps, under Lt. Gen. A.P. Hill, including the divisions of Maj. Gens. Henry Heth and Cadmus M. Wilcox and Brig. Gen. William Mahone.
    Cavalry Corps, under Maj. Gen. Wade Hampton, including the divisions of Maj. Gens. Fitzhugh Lee and W.H.F. "Rooney" Lee.

Beauregard's Department of North Carolina and Southern Virginia had four depleted divisions commanded by major generals Robert Ransom Jr., Robert F. Hoke, William H. C. Whiting, and Brigadier General Alfred H. Colquitt. (Later in the campaign, Beauregard's department was expanded and reorganized to consist of the divisions of major generals Hoke and Bushrod Johnson).[20]
Comparison between Union and Confederate armies

Grant's armies were significantly larger than Lee's during the campaign, although the strengths varied. During the initial assaults on the city, 15,000 Federal troops faced about 5,400 men under Beauregard. By June 18, the Federal strength exceeded 67,000 against the Confederate 20,000. More typical of the full campaign was in mid-July, when 70,000 Union troops faced 36,000 Confederates around Petersburg, and 40,000 men under Butler faced 21,000 around Richmond.[21] The Union Army, despite suffering horrific losses during the Overland Campaign, was able to replenish its soldiers and equipment, taking advantage of garrison troops from Washington, D.C., and the increasing availability of African-American soldiers. By the end of the siege, Grant had 125,000 men to begin the Appomattox campaign.[22] The Confederate army, in contrast, had difficulty replacing men lost through battle, disease, and desertion. As a result of this severe lack of manpower facing the Confederates, when Beauregard's men occupied the trenches around the city, there were gaps in the line of up to 5 feet (1.5 m) between men.[23]
Role of African Americans
A portion of the 4th USCT Infantry

At the siege of Petersburg in June 1864, enslaved African Americans worked on digging trenches and other manual labor on behalf of the Confederacy, while African Americans fought in the Union Army of the Potomac as soldiers of the United States Colored Troops.[24]
In Petersburg

At the beginning of the American Civil War, Virginia had a black population of about 549,000. This meant that of the Confederacy's total black population, one in six blacks lived in Virginia. Of those African Americans in Virginia 89% were slaves. In Petersburg about half the population was black of which nearly 35% were free. Petersburg was considered to have the largest number of free blacks of any Southern city at that time. Many of the freedmen prospered there as barbers, blacksmiths, boatmen, draymen, livery stable keepers, and caterers.[24]
Serving the Confederacy

When Petersburg became a major supply center for the newly formed Confederacy and its nearby capital in Richmond, both freedmen and slaves were employed in various war functions, one of which was working for the numerous railroad companies that operated in and out of the city. In 1862 Captain Charles Dimmock used freedmen and slave labor to construct a ten-mile long defensive line of trenches and batteries around the city.[24]

Once the siege began in June, African Americans continued working for the Confederacy. In September, Lee asked for an additional 2,000 blacks to be added to his labor force. On January 11, 1865, Lee wrote the Confederate Congress urging them to pass pending legislation to arm and enlist black slaves in exchange for their freedom. On March 13, the Confederate Congress passed legislation to raise and enlist companies of black soldiers.[24] The legislation was then promulgated into military policy by Davis in General Order No. 14 on March 23.[25] The emancipation offered, however, was still reliant upon one's master agreement; "no slave will be accepted as a recruit unless with his own consent and with the approbation of his master by a written instrument conferring, as far as he may, the rights of a freedman".[25]
Serving the Union

During the war a total of nearly 187,000 African Americans served in the Union Army. Of those the greatest concentration of U.S. Colored Troops was at Petersburg. In the initial assault upon the city on June 15, a division of USCTs in the XVIII Corps helped capture and secure a section of the Dimmock line. The other division at Petersburg was with the IX Corps and it fought in the Battle of the Crater, July 30.[24]

In December, all the USCTs around Petersburg were incorporated into three divisions and became the XXV Corps of the Army of the James.[26] It was the largest black force assembled during the war and varied between 9,000 and 16,000 men. Overall in the Petersburg Campaign USCTs would participate in 6 major engagements and earn 15 of the 25 total Medals of Honor that were awarded to African American soldiers in the Civil War.[24]
At City Point

African Americans served in varying capacities at the Union supply base at City Point. They served as pickets, railroad workers, and laborers "discharging the ships, wheeling the dirt, sawing the timber and driving the piles." Many also worked at the Depot Field Hospital as cooks.[24]
Initial attempts to capture Petersburg
Butler's assault (June 9)
Further information: First Battle of Petersburg
Richmond–Petersburg Theater, fall 1864
  Confederate
  Union

While Lee and Grant faced each other after Cold Harbor, Benjamin Butler became aware that Confederate troops had been moving north to reinforce Lee, leaving the defenses of Petersburg in a vulnerable state. Sensitive to his failure in the Bermuda Hundred campaign, Butler sought to achieve a success to vindicate his generalship. He wrote, "the capture of Petersburg lay near my heart."[27]

Petersburg was protected by multiple lines of fortifications, the outermost of which was known as the Dimmock line, a line of earthworks and trenches 10 miles (16 km) long, with 55 redoubts, east of the city. The 2,500 Confederates stretched thin along this defensive line were commanded by a former Virginia governor, Brigadier General Henry A. Wise. Despite the number of fortifications, because of a series of hills and valleys around the outskirts of Petersburg there were several places along the outer defenses where cavalry could easily ride through undetected until they reached the inner defenses of the city.[28]

Butler's plan was formulated on the afternoon of June 8, calling for three columns to cross the Appomattox and advance with 4,500 men. The first and second consisted of infantry from Gillmore's X Corps and USCTs from Hinks's 3rd Division of XVIII Corps, which was to attack the Dimmock line east of the city. The third was 1,300 cavalrymen under Kautz, who were to sweep around Petersburg and strike it from the southeast. The troops moved out on the night of June 8, but made poor progress. Eventually the infantry crossed by 3:40 a.m. on June 9 and by 7 a.m., both Gillmore and Hinks had encountered the enemy, but stopped at their fronts. Gillmore told Hinks that he would attack but that both of the infantry columns should await the cavalry assault from the south.[29]

Kautz's men did not arrive until noon, however, having been delayed en route by numerous enemy pickets. They assaulted the Dimmock line where it crossed the Jerusalem Plank Road (present-day U.S. Route 301, Crater Road). The Confederates' Battery 27, also known as Rives's Salient, was manned by 150 militiamen commanded by Major Fletcher H. Archer. Kautz first launched a probing attack, then paused. His main attack was by the 11th Pennsylvania Cavalry against the home guard, a group consisting primarily of teenagers, elderly men, and some wounded soldiers from city hospitals. The home guards retreated to the city with heavy losses, but by this time Beauregard had been able to bring reinforcements from Richmond to bear, which were able to repulse the Union assault. Kautz, hearing no activity on Gillmore's front, presumed that he was left on his own and withdrew. Confederate casualties were about 80, Union 40. Butler was furious with Gillmore's timidity and incompetence and arrested him. Gillmore requested a court of inquiry, which was never convened, but Grant later reassigned him and the incident was dropped.[30]
Meade's assaults (June 15–18, 1864)
Further information: Second Battle of Petersburg
Siege of Petersburg, assaults on June 15–18

Grant selected Butler's Army of the James, which had performed poorly in the Bermuda Hundred campaign, to lead the expedition toward Petersburg. On June 14 he directed Butler to augment the XVIII Corps, commanded by Smith, to a strength of 16,000 men, including Kautz's cavalry division, and use the same route employed in the unsuccessful attacks of June 9. Since Beauregard had insufficient men available to defend the entire Dimmock defensive line, he concentrated 2,200 troops under Wise in the northeastern sector. Even with this concentration, infantrymen were spaced an unacceptable 10 feet (3.0 m) apart. His remaining 3,200 men were facing Butler's army at Bermuda Hundred.[31]

Smith and his men crossed the Appomattox shortly after dawn on June 15. Kautz's cavalry, leading the advance, encountered an unexpected stronghold at Baylor's farm northeast of Petersburg. Hinks's men launched two attacks on the Confederates and captured a cannon, but the overall advance was delayed until early afternoon. Smith started his attack after delaying until about 7 p.m., deploying a strong skirmish line that swept over the earthworks on a 3.5-mile (5.6 km) front, causing the Confederates to retreat to a weaker defensive line on Harrison's Creek. Despite this initial success and the prospect of a virtually undefended city immediately to his front, Smith decided to wait until dawn to resume his attack. By this time Hancock, the II Corps commander, had arrived at Smith's headquarters. The normally decisive and pugnacious Hancock, who outranked Smith, was uncertain of his orders and the disposition of forces, and uncharacteristically deferred to Smith's judgment to wait.[32]

Beauregard wrote later that Petersburg "at that hour was clearly at the mercy of the Federal commander, who had all but captured it." But he used the time he had been granted to good advantage. Receiving no guidance from Richmond in response to his urgent requests, he unilaterally decided to strip his defenses from the Howlett defensive line, which was bottling up Butler's army in Bermuda Hundred.[33] This made the divisions under Hoke and Johnson available for the new Petersburg defensive line. Butler might have used this opportunity to move his army between Petersburg and Richmond, which would have doomed the Confederate capital, but he once again failed to act.[34]

By the morning of June 16, Beauregard had concentrated about 14,000 men in his defensive line, but this paled in comparison to the 50,000 federals that now faced him. Grant had arrived with Burnside's IX Corps, addressed the confusion of Hancock's orders, and ordered a reconnaissance for weak points in the defensive line. Hancock, in temporary command of the Army of the Potomac until Meade arrived, prepared Smith's XVIII corps on the right, his own II Corps in the center, and Burnside's IX Corps on the left. Hancock's assault began around 5:30 p.m. as all three corps moved slowly forward. Beauregard's men fought fiercely, erecting new breastworks to the rear as breakthroughs occurred. Upon the arrival of Meade, a second attack was ordered and led his division forward. Although Barlow's men managed to capture their objectives, a counterattack drove them back, taking numerous Union prisoners. The survivors dug in close to the enemy works.[35]

June 17 was a day of uncoordinated Union attacks, starting on the left flank where two brigades of Burnside's IX Corps under Potter stealthily approached the Confederate line and launched a surprise attack at dawn. Initially successful, it captured nearly a mile of the Confederate fortifications and about 600 prisoners, but the effort eventually failed when Potter's men moved forward to find another line of entrenchments. IX Corps assaults at 2 p.m., led by the brigade of Brigadier General John F. Hartranft, and in the evening, by Ledlie's division, both failed.[36]

During the day, Beauregard's engineers had laid out new defensive positions a mile to the west of the Dimmock line, which the Confederates occupied late that night. Lee had systematically ignored all of Beauregard's pleas for reinforcements until now, but dispatched two divisions of his men, exhausted from the Overland campaign, to Petersburg, beginning at 3 a.m. on June 18. With the arrival of Lee's two divisions, under Kershaw and Field, Beauregard had over 20,000 men to defend the city, but Grant's force had been augmented by the arrival of Warren's V Corps and 67,000 Federals were present.[37]

On the morning of June 18, Meade went into a rage directed at his corps commanders because of his army's failure to take the initiative and break through the thinly defended Confederate positions and seize the city. He ordered the entire Army of the Potomac to attack the Confederate defenses. The first Union attack began at dawn, started by the II and XVIII Corps on the Union right. The II Corps was surprised to make rapid progress against the Confederate line, not realizing that Beauregard had moved it back the night before. When they encountered the second line, the attack immediately ground to a halt and the corps suffered under heavy Confederate fire for hours.[38]

By noon, another attack plan had been devised to break through the Confederate defenses. However, by this time, elements of Lee's army had reinforced Beauregard's troops. By the time the Union attack was renewed, Lee himself had taken command of the defenses. Willcox's division of the IX Corps led the renewed attack but it suffered significant losses in the marsh and open fields crossed by the watercourse, Taylor's Branch.[39] Warren's V Corps was halted by murderous fire from the position known as Rives' salient, an attack in which Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, commanding the 1st Brigade, First Division, V Corps, was severely wounded. At 6:30 p.m., Meade ordered a final assault, which also failed with more horrendous losses. One of the leading regiments was the 1st Maine Heavy Artillery Regiment, which lost 632 of 900 men in the assault, the heaviest single-battle loss of any regiment during the entire war.[40]

Having achieved almost no gains from four days of assaults, and with Lincoln facing re-election in the upcoming months in the face of a loud public outcry against the casualty figures, Meade ordered his army to dig in, starting the ten-month siege. During the four days of fighting, Union casualties were 11,386 (1,688 killed, 8,513 wounded, 1,185 missing or captured), while Confederate casualties were 4,000 (200 killed, 2,900 wounded, 900 missing or captured).[41]
Initial attempts to cut the railroads (June 21–30)

After failing to capture Petersburg by assault, Grant's first objective was to secure the three remaining open rail lines that served Petersburg and Richmond: the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad; the South Side Railroad, which reached to Lynchburg in the west; and the Weldon Railroad, also called the Petersburg and Weldon Railroad, which led to Weldon, North Carolina, and the Confederacy's only remaining major port, Wilmington, North Carolina. Grant decided on a wide-ranging cavalry raid (the Wilson–Kautz Raid)[42] against the South Side and Weldon railroads, but he also directed that a significant infantry force be sent against the Weldon closer to his current position. Meade selected the II Corps, still temporarily commanded by Birney,[43] and Wright's VI Corps.[44]
Jerusalem Plank Road (June 21–23)
Further information: Battle of Jerusalem Plank Road
Siege of Petersburg, movements against the railroads and A.P. Hill's counterattack, June 21–22

On June 21, elements of the II Corps probed toward the railroad and skirmished with Confederate cavalry. By the morning of June 22, a gap opened up between the two corps. While the II Corps moved forward, the VI Corps encountered Confederate troops from Wilcox's division of Hill's corps and they began to entrench rather than advance. Mahone observed that the gap between the two Union corps was widening, creating a prime target. Mahone had been a railroad engineer before the war and had personally surveyed this area south of Petersburg, so he was familiar with a ravine that could be used to hide the approach of a Confederate attack column. At 3 p.m., Mahone's men emerged in the rear Barlow's division (II Corps), catching them by surprise, and the division quickly collapsed. Gibbon's division, which had erected earthworks, was also surprised by an attack from the rear and many of the regiments ran for safety. The II Corps troops rallied around earthworks that they had constructed on the night of June 21 and stabilized their lines. Darkness ended the fighting.[45]

On June 23, the II Corps advanced to retake its lost ground, but the Confederates had pulled back, abandoning the earthworks they had captured. Under orders from Meade, the VI Corps sent out a heavy skirmish line after 10 a.m. in a second attempt to reach the Weldon Railroad. Men from Brigadier General Lewis A. Grant's 1st Vermont Brigade had begun tearing up the track when they were attacked by a larger force of Confederate infantry. Numerous Vermonters were taken prisoner and only about half a mile of track had been destroyed when they were chased away. Meade was unable to urge Wright forward and called off the operation. Union casualties were 2,962 and Confederate 572.[46] The battle was inconclusive, with advantages gained on both sides. The Confederates were able to retain control of the Weldon Railroad. The Federals were able to destroy a short segment of the Weldon before being driven off, but more importantly, the siege lines were stretched further to the west.[47]
Wilson–Kautz Raid (June 22 – July 1)
Further information: Wilson–Kautz Raid, Battle of Staunton River Bridge, Battle of Sappony Church, and First Battle of Ream's Station
Wilson–Kautz Raid, June 22 – July 1

In parallel to Birney's and Wright's infantry action at the Jerusalem Plank Road, Wilson was ordered by Meade to conduct a raid destroying as much track as possible south and southwest of Petersburg. Grant considered Wilson's 3rd Division of the Cavalry Corps too small to conduct the operation alone, particularly since Meade required Wilson to leave 1,400 men behind for picket duty, so he directed Butler to contribute Kautz's small division (2,000 troopers) to the effort. Early on the morning of June 22, 3,300 men,[48] and 12 guns organized into two batteries, departed Mount Sinai Church and began to destroy railroad track and cars of the Weldon Railroad at Reams Station,[49] 7 miles (11 km) south of Petersburg. Kautz's men moved to the west to Ford's Station and began destroying track, locomotives, and cars on the South Side Railroad.[50]

On June 23, Wilson proceeded to the junction of the Richmond and Danville Railroad at Burkeville, where he encountered elements of Rooney Lee's cavalry between Nottoway Court House and Black's and White's (modern-day Blackstone). The Confederates struck the rear of his column, forcing Colonel George A. Chapman's brigade to fend them off. Wilson followed Kautz along the South Side Railroad, destroying about 30 miles (50 km) of track as they went. On June 24, while Kautz remained to skirmish around Burkeville, Wilson crossed over to Meherrin Station on the Richmond and Danville and began destroying track.[51]

On June 25, Wilson and Kautz continued tearing up track south to the Staunton River Bridge at Roanoke Station (modern-day Randolph), where they encountered approximately 1,000 "old men and boys" (the Home Guard), commanded by Captain Benjamin L. Farinholt, dug in with earthworks and prepared artillery positions at the bridge. The Battle of Staunton River Bridge was a minor affair in which Kautz attempted multiple frontal assaults against the Home Guard, but his men never came closer than 80 yards (73 m). Lee's cavalry division closed on the Federals from the northeast and skirmished with Wilson's rear guard. Casualties on the Union side amounted to 42 killed, 44 wounded, and 30 missing or captured. Confederate losses were 10 killed and 24 wounded. Kautz's men gave up and retreated to the railroad depot at 9 p.m. Despite these relatively minor losses, the two Union cavalry generals decided to abandon their mission, leaving the Staunton River bridge intact and having inflicted only minor damage on the railroads.[52]

As Wilson and Kautz turned back to the east after their defeat at Staunton River Bridge, Lee's cavalry pursued and threatened their rear. Meanwhile, Robert E. Lee ordered Hampton's cavalry, which had been engaged with Sheridan's cavalry at the Battle of Trevilian Station on June 11–12, to join the pursuit and attack Wilson and Kautz. Before leaving on his raid, Wilson had received assurances from Meade's chief of staff, Major General Andrew A. Humphreys, that the Army of the Potomac would be immediately taking control of the Weldon Railroad at least as far south as Reams Station, so Wilson decided that would be an appropriate place to return to Union lines. The Union defeat at Jerusalem Plank Road made those assurances inoperable. Wilson and Kautz were surprised on the afternoon of June 28 when they reached Stony Creek Station, 10 miles (16 km) south of Reams, as hundreds of Hampton's cavalrymen (under Brigadier General John R. Chambliss) and infantry blocked their path. In the Battle of Sappony Church, Wilson's men tried to break through but had to fall back when Confederate brigadier generals Matthew C. Butler and Thomas L. Rosser threatened to envelop Wilson's left flank. Kautz's division, following Wilson's, took a back road in the direction of Reams Station and was attacked by Lee's division late in the day. The Union cavalrymen were able to slip out of the trap under the cover of darkness and rode north on the Halifax Road for the supposed security of Reams Station.[53]
"Dictator" siege mortar on the U.S. Military Railroad at Petersburg

In the First Battle of Reams Station on June 29, Kautz approached Reams Station from the west expecting to find the friendly infantry promised by Humphreys but found Confederate infantry instead—Mahone's division blocking the approaches to the Halifax Road and the railroad behind well-constructed earthworks. Kautz's attack by the 11th Pennsylvania and the 1st District of Columbia Cavalry along the Depot Road was unsuccessful and Mahone counterattacked against the flank of the Pennsylvanians. On the Stage Road to the north of the station, the brigades of brigadier generals Lunsford L. Lomax and Williams C. Wickham maneuvered around the 2nd Ohio Cavalry and 5th New York Cavalry, turning the Federal left flank. Wilson sent a messenger north who was able to slip through the Confederate lines and urgently requested help from Meade at City Point. Meade alerted Wright to prepare to move his entire VI Corps to Reams Station, but he realized that it would take too long on foot and requested help from Sheridan's cavalry as well. Sheridan demurred, complaining of the effect on his "worn-out horses and exhausted men." After the war, arguments persisted between Sheridan and Wilson about whether the former had adequately protected the raiders from the Confederate cavalry of Hampton and Fitzhugh Lee. Sheridan did reach Reams Station by 7 p.m., only to find that the VI Corps infantry had in fact arrived but that Wilson and Kautz had departed.[54]

Caught in a trap without the promise of immediate aid, the Wilson–Kautz raiders burned their wagons and destroyed their artillery pieces and fled to the north before the reinforcements arrived. They lost hundreds of men as prisoners in what was called "a wild skedaddle." At least 300 escaped slaves who had joined the Union cavalrymen during the raid were abandoned during the retreat. The raiders reentered Federal lines around 2 p.m. on July 1. They had destroyed 60 miles (97 km) of track, which took the Confederates several weeks to repair, but it came at the cost of 1,445 Union casualties, or about a quarter of their force. Wilson lost 33 killed, 108 wounded, and 674 captured or missing. Kautz lost 48 killed, 153 wounded, and 429 captured or missing. Although Wilson counted the raid as a strategic success, Grant reluctantly described the expedition as a "disaster."[55]
First Battle of Deep Bottom (July 27–29)
Further information: First Battle of Deep Bottom
First Battle of Deep Bottom, July 27–29

In preparation for the forthcoming Battle of the Crater, Grant wanted Lee to dilute his forces in the Petersburg trenches by attracting them elsewhere. He ordered Hancock's II Corps and two divisions of Sheridan's Cavalry Corps to cross the James River to Deep Bottom by pontoon bridge and advance against the Confederate capital. His plan called for Hancock to pin down the Confederates at Chaffin's Bluff and prevent reinforcements from opposing Sheridan's cavalry, which would attack Richmond if practicable. If not—a circumstance Grant considered more likely—Sheridan was ordered to ride around the city to the north and west and cut the Virginia Central Railroad, which was supplying Richmond from the Shenandoah Valley.[56]

When Lee found out about Hancock's pending movement, he ordered that the Richmond lines be reinforced to 16,500 men. Kershaw's division and brigades from Wilcox's division moved east on New Market Road and took up positions on the eastern face of New Market Heights. Hancock and Sheridan crossed the pontoon bridge starting at 3 a.m., July 27. II Corps took up positions on the east bank of Bailey's Creek, from New Market Road to near Fussell's Mill. Sheridan's cavalry captured the high ground on the right, overlooking the millpond, but they were counterattacked and driven back. The Confederate works on the west bank of Bailey's Creek were formidable and Hancock chose not to attack them, spending the rest of the day performing reconnaissance.[57]

While Hancock was checked at Bailey's Creek, Lee began bringing up more reinforcements from Petersburg, reacting as Grant had hoped. He assigned Anderson to take command of the Deep Bottom sector and sent in Heth's infantry division "Rooney" Lee's cavalry division. Troops were also hurriedly detailed from the Department of Richmond to help man the trenches.[58]

On the morning of July 28, Grant reinforced Hancock with a brigade of the XIX Corps. Sheridan's men attempted to turn the Confederate left, but their movement was disrupted by a Confederate attack. Three brigades attacked Sheridan's right flank, but they were unexpectedly hit by heavy fire from the Union repeating carbines. Mounted Federals in Sheridan's reserve pursued and captured nearly 200 prisoners.[59]

Satisfied that the operation had distracted sufficient Confederate forces from the defense of Petersburg the Federal attacks ended in the afternoon of July 28. Grant then proceed with a renewed assault against Petersburg on July 30.[60]

Union casualties at the First Battle of Deep Bottom were 488 (62 killed, 340 wounded, and 86 missing or captured). Confederate casualties were 679 (80 killed, 391 wounded, 208 missing or captured).[61]
The Crater (July 30)
Further information: Battle of the Crater
Siege of Petersburg, Battle of the Crater, July 30

Grant wanted to defeat Lee's army without resorting to a lengthy siege—his experience in the siege of Vicksburg told him that such affairs were expensive and difficult on the morale of his men. Lieutenant Colonel Henry Pleasants, commanding the 48th Pennsylvania Infantry of Burnside's IX Corps, offered a novel proposal to solve Grant's problem. Pleasants, a mining engineer from Pennsylvania in civilian life, proposed digging a long mine shaft underneath the Confederate lines and planting explosive charges directly underneath a fort (Elliott's Salient) in the middle of the Confederate First Corps line. If successful, Union troops could drive through the resulting gap in the line into the Confederate rear area. Digging began in late June, creating a mine in a "T" shape with an approach shaft 511 feet (156 m) long. At its end, a perpendicular gallery of 75 feet (23 m) extended in both directions. The gallery was filled with 8,000 pounds (3,600 kg) pounds of gunpowder, buried 20 feet (6.1 m) underneath the Confederate works.[62]

Burnside had trained the division of USCTs under Ferrero to lead the assault. Two regiments were to leave the attack column and extend the breach by rushing perpendicular to the crater, while the remaining regiments were to rush through, seizing the Jerusalem Plank Road. Burnside's two other divisions, made up of white troops, would then move in, supporting Ferrero's flanks and race for Petersburg itself. However, the day before the attack, Meade, who lacked confidence in the operation, ordered Burnside not to use the black troops in the lead assault, claiming that if the attack failed black soldiers would be killed needlessly, creating political repercussions in the North. Burnside protested to Grant, who sided with Meade. When volunteers were not forthcoming, Burnside selected a replacement white division by having the three commanders draw lots. Ledlie's 1st Division was selected, but he failed to brief the men on what was expected of them. During the battle, Ledlie was reportedly drunk well behind the lines and providing no leadership. He was later dismissed for his actions during the battle.[63]
Sketch of the explosion seen from the Union line.

At 4:44 a.m. on July 30, the charges were exploded. A crater (still visible today) was created 170 feet (52 m) long by 60 to 80 feet (24 m) wide and 30 feet (9.1 m) deep. The blast destroyed the Confederate fortifications in the immediate vicinity and instantly killed between 250 and 350 Confederate soldiers. Ledlie's untrained division was not prepared for the explosion and reports indicate they waited ten minutes before leaving their own entrenchments. Instead of moving around the crater as Ferrero's troops had been trained to do, they moved down into the crater itself. Since this was not the planned movement, there were no ladders provided for the men to use in exiting the crater. Mahone assembled a counterattacking force. By about an hour later, they had formed up around the crater and began firing rifles and artillery down into it, in what Mahone later described as a "turkey shoot". The plan had failed but Burnside, instead of cutting his losses, sent in Ferrero's men. Now faced with considerable flanking fire, they also went down into the crater and for the next few hours, Mahone's soldiers, reinforced by Johnson and artillery, slaughtered the men of the IX Corps as they attempted to escape from the crater. Some Union troops eventually advanced and flanked to the right beyond the crater to the earthworks and assaulted the Confederate lines, driving the Confederates back for several hours in hand-to-hand combat. Mahone's Confederates conducted a sweep out of a sunken gully area about 200 yards (180 m) from the right side of the Union advance. This charge reclaimed the earthworks and drove the Union force back towards the east.[64]

Confederate casualties were approximately 1,500 (200 killed, 900 wounded, 400 missing or captured). Union casualties were 3,798 (504 killed, 1,881 wounded, 1,413 missing or captured). Grant wrote that, "It was the saddest affair I have witnessed in the war."[65] Many of the Union casualties were suffered by Ferrero's division. Burnside was relieved of command.[66]
Second Deep Bottom (August 14–20)
Further information: Second Battle of Deep Bottom
Second Battle of Deep Bottom, August 14–20

On the same day the Union failed at the Crater, Early, commanding the Confederate Second Corps, was burning the town of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, as he operated out of the Shenandoah Valley, threatening towns in Maryland and Pennsylvania, as well as the District of Columbia. Lee was concerned about actions that Grant might take against Early and sent the Kershaw's infantry division from Anderson's corps and the cavalry division commanded Fitzhugh Lee to Culpeper, Virginia, where they could either provide aid to Early or be recalled to the Richmond-Petersburg front as needed. Grant misinterpreted this movement and assumed that Anderson's entire corps had been removed from the vicinity of Richmond, leaving only about 8,500 men north of the James River. He determined to try again with an advance toward the Confederate capital led by Hancock. This would either prevent reinforcements from aiding Early or once again dilute the Confederate strength in the defensive lines around Petersburg.[67]

On August 13, X Corps, commanded by Birney, and Gregg's cavalry division crossed pontoon bridges from Bermuda Hundred to Deep Bottom. II Corps crossed by steamships the night of August 13–14. Birney's troops successfully pushed aside pickets on the Kingsland Road, but were stopped by the fortifications on New Market Heights. The II Corps units moved slowly into position, suffering numerous deaths from heat stroke.[68]

It was not until midday on August 14 that the Union made contact with the Confederates, manning rifle pits on the Darbytown Road just north of the Long Bridge Road. The Union generals were surprised at the Confederate strength. On the right, a full Confederate division commanded by Field was dug in. Chaffin's Bluff was defended by a division under Wilcox and reinforcements were arriving. Barlow's 10,000 men in two divisions of II Corps attacked Fussell's Mill. They were able to drive away two Confederate cavalry regiments at the mill, but they were repulsed by Brigadier General George T. Anderson's brigade. When Field took Anderson's brigade from his right flank, it weakened the line in front of Birney's corps, which moved forward and occupied some of the Confederate entrenchments and captured four guns.[69]

Although the Union attacks had been generally unsuccessful, they had some of the effect Grant desired. Lee became convinced that the threat against Richmond was a serious one and he dispatched two infantry brigades of Mahone's division and the cavalry divisions of Hampton and "Rooney" Lee. Hancock ordered Birney's corps to make a night march to join Barlow's end of the line. Birney's movement was delayed by difficult terrain for most of August 15 and Hancock's plan for an attack was abandoned for the day.[70]

On August 16, Gregg's cavalry swept to the right and rode northwest on the Charles City Road toward Richmond. They found Rooney Lee's cavalry division blocking the road and a full day of fighting resulted. Confederate Brigadier General Chambliss was killed during the fighting. The infantrymen of the X Corps had a better start to the day, as Terry's division broke through the Confederate line. Brigadier General Ambrose R. Wright's brigade was hit hard and retreated, opening a significant gap. The heavily wooded terrain prevented Birney and Hancock from understanding that they had reached a position of advantage and they were unable to exploit it before Field rearranged his lines to fill the gap and drive back the Federals.[71]

Lee planned a counterattack against the Union right for 11 a.m. on August 18, but it was poorly coordinated and made no significant gains. On the night of August 20, Hancock withdrew his force back over the James. Union casualties were approximately 2,900 men, some due to heat stroke. Confederate casualties were 1,500.[72]
Operations against the Weldon Railroad
Globe Tavern (August 18–21)
Further information: Battle of Globe Tavern
Siege of Petersburg, capture of the Weldon Railroad, August 18–19

While II Corps fought at Deep Bottom, Grant planned another attack against the Weldon. He chose Warren's V Corps to lead the operation. Grant was encouraged by a message he received August 17 from Lincoln:

    I have seen your despatch expressing your unwillingness to break your hold where you are. Neither am I willing. Hold on with a bulldog grip, and chew and choke as much as possible.[73]

Grant remarked to his staff, "The President has more nerve than any of his advisors."[73]

At dawn on August 18, Warren advanced to the south and reached the railroad at Globe Tavern around 9 a.m. Parts of the division under Griffin began to destroy the track while a brigade from Ayres' division formed in line of battle and moved north to block any Confederate advance from that direction. Ayres encountered Confederate troops at about 1 p.m. and Warren ordered the division under Crawford to move forward on Ayres' right in an attempt to outflank the Confederate left. Hill sent three brigades to meet the advancing Union divisions. At about 2 p.m. they launched a strong attack and pushed the Union troops back to within less than a mile of Globe Tavern. Warren counterattacked and regained his lost ground. His men entrenched for the night.[74]

Reinforcements arrived during the night—the Union IX Corps under Parke and for the Confederates, three infantry brigades from Mahone's division and "Rooney" Lee's cavalry division. In the late afternoon of August 19, Mahone launched a flanking attack that found a weak spot in Crawford's line, causing hundreds of Crawford's men to flee in panic. Heth launched a frontal assault against the center and left, which was easily repulsed by Ayres' division. The IX Corps counterattacked and fighting ended at dusk. On the night of August 20–21, Warren pulled his troops back two miles (3 km) to a new line of fortifications, which were connected with the main Union lines on the Jerusalem Plank Road. The Confederates attacked at 9 a.m. on August 21, with Mahone striking the Federal left and Heth the center. Both attacks were unsuccessful against the strong entrenchments and resulted in heavy losses. By 10:30 a.m., the Confederates withdrew.[75]

Union casualties at Globe Tavern were 4,296 (251 killed, 1,148 wounded, 2,897 missing/captured). Confederate casualties were 1,620 (211 killed, 990 wounded, 419 missing/captured).[76] The Confederates had lost a key section of the Weldon Railroad and were forced to carry supplies by wagon 30 miles (48 km) from the railroad at Stony Creek up the Boydton Plank Road into Petersburg. This was not yet a critical problem for the Confederates. A member of Lee's staff wrote, "Whilst we are inconvenienced, no material harm is done us." Grant was not entirely satisfied with Warren's victory, which he rightly characterized as wholly defensive in nature.[77]

Globe Tavern was the first Union victory of the campaign.
Second Reams Station (August 25)
Further information: Second Battle of Ream's Station

Grant wanted the Weldon line closed permanently by destroying 14 miles (23 km) of track from Warren's position near Globe Tavern as far south as Rowanty Creek (about 3 miles (4.8 km) north of the town of Stony Creek). He assigned the operation to Hancock's II Corps, which was in the process of moving south from their operation at Deep Bottom. While Hancock's corps was exhausted from their efforts north of the James and their forced march south, Warren's troops were tasked with extending the fortifications at Globe Tavern. Grant augmented Hancock's corps with Gregg's cavalry division. Gregg's division departed on August 22. After driving off Confederate pickets, they and the II Corps infantry division commanded by Brigadier General Nelson A. Miles[a] destroyed the railroad tracks to within 2 miles (3.2 km) of Reams Station. Early on August 23, Hancock's other division, commanded by Gibbon, occupied Reams Station, taking up positions in earthworks that had been constructed by the Union cavalry during the Wilson–Kautz Raid in June.[79]

Lee considered that the Union troops at Reams Station represented not only a threat to his supply line, but also to the county seat of Dinwiddie County. If Dinwiddie Court House were to fall, the Confederates would be forced to evacuate both Petersburg and Richmond because it represented a key point on the army's potential withdrawal route. He also saw an opportunity—that he could impose a strategic defeat upon the Union Army shortly before the presidential election in November. Lee ordered Hill to take the overall command of a combined cavalry and infantry force of 8,000–10,000 men.[80]

Wilcox's division assaulted the Union position at about 2 p.m. on August 25. Despite launching two attacks, Wilcox was driven back by Miles's division, which was manning the northern part of the earthworks. To the south, Gibbon's division was blocking the advance of Hampton's cavalry, which had swept around the Union line. Confederate reinforcements from Heth's and Mahone's divisions arrived while the Confederate artillery bombarded the Union position. The final attack began around 5:30 p.m. against Miles's position and it broke through the northwest corner of the Union fortifications. Hancock galloped from one threatened point to the next, attempting to rally his men. As he witnessed the men of his corps reluctant to retake their positions from the enemy, he remarked to a colonel, "I do not care to die, but I pray God I may never leave this field." By this time, Hampton's cavalry was making progress against Gibbon's infantry to the south, launching a surprise dismounted attack that caused many of Gibbon's men to flee or surrender. This allowed Hampton to flank Miles. Hancock ordered a counterattack, which provided time to allow for an orderly Union withdrawal to Petersburg after dark.[81]

The Union suffered approximately 2,700 casualties and the Confederate approximately 800.[82] Although the Confederates had won a clear victory, they had lost a vital piece of the Weldon Railroad. From this point on they were only able to transport supplies by rail on this line as far north as the Stony Creek Depot, 16 miles (26 km) south of Petersburg. From there, supplies then had to be unloaded and tranported by wagon to Petersburg. The South Side Railroad was the only railroad left to directly supply Petersburg and Lee's army.[83]
Beefsteak Raid (September 14–17)
Further information: Beefsteak Raid

On September 5, a Confederate scout gave a report to Hampton on his reconnaissance behind the Union lines. At a supply depot at Coggins Point on the James River, he found approximately 3,000 beef cattle, attended by 120 men and 30 citizens, without arms. Just two days earlier, Lee had suggested to Hampton that Grant's rear area was "open to attack." On September 14 Hampton led about 4,000 men in four brigades southwest from Petersburg along the Boydton Plank Road and followed course through Dinwiddie Court House, Stony Creek Station. By the morning of September 15 the force had crossed Blackwater Swamp at Cook's Bridge. In the early morning of September 16, Hampton launched a surprise attack which met only minimal resistance. Hampton's men drove the captured herd of 2,486 cattle south toward Cook's Bridge. An attempted intervention by 2,100 Union cavalrymen under Brigadier General Henry Davies was unsuccessful. Hampton was able to retraced his steps back to Petersburg and turned the cattle over to the Confederate commissary department. For days, the Confederate troops feasted on beef and taunted their Union counterparts across the lines. A visitor to Grant's headquarters asked the general, "When do you expect to starve out Lee and capture Richmond?" Grant replied, "Never, if our armies continue to supply him with beef cattle."[84]
Engagements north of James River
New Market Heights (September 29–30)
Further information: Battle of Chaffin's Farm

During the night of September 28–29, Butler's Army of the James crossed the James River to assault the Richmond defenses north of the river. The columns attacked at dawn. After initial Union successes at New Market Heights and Fort Harrison, the Confederates rallied and contained the breakthrough. Lee reinforced his lines north of the James and, on September 30, he counterattacked unsuccessfully. The Federals entrenched, and the Confederates erected a new line of works cutting off the captured forts. As Grant anticipated, Lee shifted troops to meet the threat against Richmond, weakening his lines at Petersburg.[85]
Peebles Farm (September 30 – October 2)
Further information: Battle of Peebles's Farm

In combination with Butler's offensive north of the James River, Grant extended his left flank to cut Confederate lines of communication southwest of Petersburg. Two divisions of the IX corps under Maj. Gen. John G. Parke, two divisions of the V Corps under Warren, and Gregg's cavalry division were assigned to the operation. On September 30, the Federals marched via Poplar Spring Church to reach Squirrel Level and Vaughan Roads. The initial Federal attack overran Fort Archer, flanking the Confederates out of their Squirrel Level Road line. Late afternoon, Confederate reinforcements arrived, slowing the Federal advance. On October 1, the Federals repulsed a Confederate counterattack directed by A.P. Hill. Reinforced by Maj. Gen. Gershom Mott's division, the Federals resumed their advance on October 2, captured Fort MacRae (which was lightly defended) and extended their left flank to the vicinity of Peebles' and Pegram's Farms. With these limited successes, Meade suspended the offensive. A new line was entrenched from the Federal works on Weldon Railroad to Pegram's Farm.[86]
Darbytown and New Market roads (October 7)
Further information: Battle of Darbytown and New Market Roads

Responding to the loss of Fort Harrison and the increasing Federal threat against Richmond, Gen. Robert E. Lee directed an offensive against the Union far right flank on October 7. After routing the Federal cavalry from their position covering Darbytown Road, Field's and Hoke's divisions assaulted the main Union defensive line along New Market Road and were repulsed. The Federals were not dislodged, and Lee withdrew into the Richmond defenses.[87]
Darbytown Road (October 13)
Further information: Battle of Darbytown Road

On October 13, Union forces advanced to find and feel the new Confederate defensive line in front of Richmond. While mostly a battle of skirmishers, a Federal brigade assaulted fortifications north of Darbytown Road and was repulsed with heavy casualties. The Federals retired to their entrenched lines along New Market Road.[88]
Fair Oaks and Darbytown Road (October 27–28)
Further information: Battle of Fair Oaks & Darbytown Road

In combination with movements against the Boydton Plank Road at Petersburg, Benjamin Butler attacked the Richmond defenses along Darbytown Road with the X Corps. The XVIII Corps marched north to Fair Oaks where it was repulsed by Field's Confederate division. Confederate forces counterattacked, taking some 600 prisoners. The Richmond defenses remained intact.[89]
Boydton Plank Road (October 27–28)
Further information: Battle of Boydton Plank Road
Siege of Petersburg, actions on October 27

Directed by Hancock, divisions from three Union corps (II, V, and IX) and Gregg's cavalry division, numbering more than 30,000 men, withdrew from the Petersburg lines and marched west to operate against the Boydton Plank Road and South Side Railroad. The initial Union advance on October 27 gained the Boydton Plank Road, a major campaign objective. But that afternoon, a counterattack near Burgess' Mill spearheaded by Heth's division, and Hampton's cavalry isolated the II Corps and forced a retreat. The Confederates retained control of the Boydton Plank Road for the rest of the winter. It marked the last battle for Hancock, who resigned from field command because of wounds sustained at Gettysburg.[90]
Hatcher's Run (February 5–7, 1865)
Further information: Battle of Hatcher's Run

On February 5, 1865, Gregg's cavalry division rode out to the Boydton Plank Road via Ream's Station and Dinwiddie Court House in an attempt to intercept Confederate supply trains. Warren's V Corps crossed Hatcher's Run and took up a blocking position on the Vaughan Road to prevent interference with Gregg's operations. Two divisions of the II Corps under Maj. Gen. Andrew A. Humphreys shifted west to near Armstrong's Mill to cover Warren's right flank. Late in the day, John B. Gordon attempted to turn Humphrey's right flank near the mill but was repulsed. During the night, the Federals were reinforced by two divisions. On February 6, Gregg returned to Gravelly Run on Vaughan Road from his unsuccessful raid and was attacked by elements of Brig. Gen. John Pegram's Confederate division. Warren pushed forward a reconnaissance in the vicinity of Dabney's Mill and was attacked by Pegram's and Mahone's divisions. Pegram was killed in the action. Although the Union advance was stopped, the Federals extended their siegeworks to the Vaughan Road crossing of Hatcher's Run.[91]
Confederate breakout attempt at Fort Stedman (March 25)
Further information: Battle of Fort Stedman
Siege of Petersburg, actions preceding Five Forks

By March, Lee's army was weakened by desertion, disease, and shortage of supplies and he was outnumbered by Grant by about 125,000 to 50,000. Lee knew that an additional 50,000 men under Sheridan would be returning soon from the Shenandoah Valley and Sherman was marching north through the Carolinas to join Grant as well. Lee had Maj. Gen. John B. Gordon plan a surprise attack on the Union lines that would force Grant to contract his lines and disrupt his plans to assault the Confederate works (which, unbeknownst to Lee and Gordon, Grant had already ordered for March 29). The attack would be launched with almost half of Lee's infantry from Colquitt's Salient against Fort Stedman, and Gordon had hopes that he could drive into the Union rear area as far as City Point.[92]

Gordon's attack started at 4:15 a.m. Lead parties of sharpshooters and engineers masquerading as deserting soldiers headed out to overwhelm Union pickets and to remove obstructions that would delay the infantry advance. They were followed by three groups of 100 men assigned to storm the Union works and stream back into the Union rear area. Realizing there was a breach in his lines, US Brig. Gen. Napoleon B. McLaughlen rode to Fort Haskell, just to the south of Battery XII, which he found to be ready to defend itself. As he moved north, he ordered Battery XII to open fire on Battery XI and a reserve infantry regiment briefly re-captured Battery XI. Assuming that he had sealed the only breach in the line, McLaughlen rode into Fort Stedman and began giving orders to the men. He suddenly realized that they were Confederates and they realized he was a Union general, capturing him.[93]

Gordon soon arrived at Fort Stedman and found his attack had so far exceeded his "most sanguine expectations." Within minutes, Batteries X, XI, and XII and Fort Stedman had been seized, opening a gap nearly 1,000 feet (300 m) long in the Union line. Gordon turned his attention to the southern flank of his attack and Fort Haskell. The Confederate artillery from Colquitt's Salient began bombarding Fort Haskell and the Federal field artillery returned fire, along with the massive siege guns in the rear.[94]

Gordon's attack began to flounder. His three 100-man detachments were wandering around the rear area in confusion and many had stopped to satisfy their hunger with captured Federal rations, as the main Union defense force began to mobilize. Maj. Gen. John G. Parke of the IX Corps acted decisively, ordering the reserve division under Brig. Gen. John F. Hartranft to close the gap. Hartranft organized defensive forces that completely ringed the Confederate penetration by 7:30 a.m., stopping it just short of the military railroad depot. The Union artillery, aware that Confederates occupied the batteries and Fort Stedman, launched punishing fire against them. By 7:45 a.m., 4,000 Union troops under Hartranft were positioned in a semicircle of a mile and a half, and counterattacked, causing heavy casualties to the now-retreating Confederates.[95]

The attack on Fort Stedman had no effect on the Union lines. The Confederate Army was forced to set back its own lines, as the Union attacked further down the front line. To give Gordon's attack enough strength to be successful, Lee had weakened his own right flank. The II and VI Corps seized much of the entrenched Confederate picket line southwest of Petersburg, but found the main line still well manned. This Union advance prepared the ground for Grant's breakthrough attack in the Third Battle of Petersburg on April 2, 1865.[96]

Union casualties in the Battle of Fort Stedman were 1,044 (72 killed, 450 wounded, 522 missing or captured), Confederate casualties a considerably heavier 4,000 (600 killed, 2,400 wounded, 1,000 missing or captured).[97] But more seriously, the Confederate positions were weakened. After the battle, Lee's defeat was only a matter of time. His final opportunity to break the Union lines and regain the momentum was gone.[96]
Final actions
Grant's final assaults and Lee's retreat (start of the Appomattox Campaign)

After nearly ten months of siege, the loss at Fort Stedman was a devastating blow for Lee's army, setting up the Confederate defeat at Five Forks on April 1, the Union breakthrough at Petersburg on April 2, the surrender of the city of Petersburg at dawn on April 3, and Richmond that same evening.

After his victory at Five Forks, Grant ordered an assault along the entire Confederate line beginning at dawn on April 2. Parke's IX Corps overran the eastern trenches but were met with stiff resistance. At 5:30 a.m. on April 2, Wright's VI Corps made a decisive breakthrough along the Boydton Plank Road line. While riding between the lines to rally his men, A. P. Hill was shot and killed by two Union soldiers. Wright's initial breakthrough was halted mid-day at Fort Gregg. Gibbon's XXIV Corps overran Fort Gregg after a strong Confederate defense. This halt in the advance into the city of Petersburg allowed Lee to pull his forces out of Petersburg and Richmond on the night of April 2, and head for the west in an attempt to meet up with forces under the command of Johnston in North Carolina. The resulting Appomattox Campaign ended with Lee's surrender to Grant on April 9 at Appomattox Court House.

Richmond–Petersburg was a costly campaign for both sides. The initial assaults on Petersburg in June 1864 cost the Union 11,386 casualties, to approximately 4,000 for the Confederate defenders. The casualties for the siege warfare that concluded with the assault on Fort Stedman are estimated to be 42,000 for the Union and 28,000 for the Confederates.[98]
Additional images
Fascine Trench Breastworks, Petersburg, Va. – NARA – 524792. Although identified as Confederate Trenches this is actually Union Fort Sedgwick aka "Fort Hell" which was opposite Fort Mahone aka "Fort Damnation"[99]
Fascine Trench Breastworks, Petersburg, Va. – NARA – 524792. Although identified as Confederate Trenches this is actually Union Fort Sedgwick aka "Fort Hell" which was opposite Fort Mahone aka "Fort Damnation"[99]
9th Corps troops dismantling rebel chevaux de frise during the attack on rebels at Fort Mahone sketch by Alfred Waud
9th Corps troops dismantling rebel chevaux de frise during the attack on rebels at Fort Mahone sketch by Alfred Waud
Union Army 9th Corps attacking Fort Mahone aka "Fort Damanation" sketch by Alfred Waud
Union Army 9th Corps attacking Fort Mahone aka "Fort Damanation" sketch by Alfred Waud
Union 5th Corps attacking Confederates at Hatcher's Run
Union 5th Corps attacking Confederates at Hatcher's Run
Confederate artilleryman killed during the final Union assault against the trenches at Petersburg. Photo by Thomas C. Roche, April 3, 1865.[100][101] Although prints of this picture list it as being taken at Ft Mahone, historians at the "Petersburg Project" believe it was taken at Confederate Battery 25.[102]
Confederate artilleryman killed during the final Union assault against the trenches at Petersburg. Photo by Thomas C. Roche, April 3, 1865.[100][101] Although prints of this picture list it as being taken at Ft Mahone, historians at the "Petersburg Project" believe it was taken at Confederate Battery 25.[102]
Smoke is still rising from the ruins of Richmond, Virginia after surrendering on April 3, 1865, following the Union victory at the siege of Petersburg. Union cavalry mounts with carbines visible are hitched in the foreground.
Smoke is still rising from the ruins of Richmond, Virginia after surrendering on April 3, 1865, following the Union victory at the siege of Petersburg. Union cavalry mounts with carbines visible are hitched in the foreground.
Fortifications and bomb proofs
Fortifications and bomb proofs
Fort Mahone
Fort Mahone
Rebel obstructions in front of Fort Mahone
Rebel obstructions in front of Fort Mahone
Confederate troops attacking Union positions near Ream's station on August 25, 1864
Confederate troops attacking Union positions near Ream's station on August 25, 1864
A piece of lace with accompanying handwritten note: "Taken from the hand of a dead rebel at Fort Gregg near Petersburg, April 2nd, 1865" (Liljenquist collection, Library of Congress)

The Second Battle of Fort Fisher was a successful assault by the Union Army, Navy and Marine Corps against Fort Fisher, south of Wilmington, North Carolina, near the end of the American Civil War in January 1865. Sometimes referred to as the "Gibraltar of the South" and the last major coastal stronghold of the Confederacy, Fort Fisher had tremendous strategic value during the war, providing a port for blockade runners supplying the Army of Northern Virginia.[8]
Background
See also: First Battle of Fort Fisher

Wilmington was the last major port open to the Confederacy on the Atlantic seacoast. Ships leaving Wilmington via the Cape Fear River and setting sail for the Bahamas, Bermuda or Nova Scotia to trade cotton and tobacco for needed supplies from the British were protected by the fort.[9] Based on the design of the Malakoff redoubt in Sevastopol, Russian Empire, Fort Fisher was constructed mostly of earth and sand. This made it better able to absorb the pounding of heavy fire from Union ships than older fortifications constructed of mortar and bricks. Twenty-two guns faced the ocean, while twenty-five faced the land. The sea face guns were mounted on 12-foot-high (3.7 m) batteries with larger, 45-and-60-foot (14 and 18 m) batteries at the southern end of the fort. Underground passageways and bombproof rooms existed below the giant earthen mounds of the fort.[10] The fortifications kept Union ships from attacking the port of Wilmington and the Cape Fear River.

On December 23, 1864, Union ships under Rear Admiral David D. Porter commenced a naval bombardment of the fort, to little effect. On December 25, Union troops under Major General Benjamin F. Butler began landing in preparation for a ground assault, but Butler withdrew them upon word of approaching Confederate reinforcements.[11]
Opposing forces
Diagram showing the positions of the Union vessels, and the lines of fire
Union
Further information: Second Fort Fisher Union order of battle

The Union Army[12] returned in January, this time under Major General Alfred Terry. Terry was chosen by Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant to lead a provisional corps of 9,000 troops from the Army of the James. Rear Admiral David D. Porter returned with almost 60 vessels of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron to the North Carolina coast after the failed December attempt.[8]
Confederate
Further information: Second Fort Fisher Confederate order of battle
Ships bombarding Fort Fisher prior to the ground assault

Confederate Major General W.H.C. Whiting commanded the District of Cape Fear and pleaded with the department commander, General Braxton Bragg to send reinforcements.[13] Bragg was unwilling to reduce his forces, which he felt were necessary to defend Wilmington. He finally sent reinforcements from Hagood's brigade to Colonel William Lamb's garrison bringing the total at Fort Fisher to 1,900.[14] A division of 6,400 troops under Major General Robert Hoke was stationed on the peninsula north of the fort. Whiting personally arrived at the fort and told the commander: "Lamb my boy, I have come to share your fate. You and your garrison are to be sacrificed."[15]
Battle

Alfred Terry had previously commanded troops during the Second Battle of Charleston Harbor and understood the importance of coordinating with the Union Navy. He and Admiral Porter made well laid out plans for the joint attack. Terry would send one division of United States Colored Troops under Charles J. Paine to hold off Hoke's division on the peninsula. Terry's other division under Adelbert Ames, supported by an independent brigade under Colonel Joseph Carter Abbott, would move down the peninsula and attack the fort from the land face, striking the landward wall on the river side of the peninsula. Porter organized a landing force of 2,000 sailors and marines to land and attack the fort's sea face, on the seaward end of the same wall.[16]

On January 13, Terry landed his troops in between Hoke and Fort Fisher. Hoke was unwilling to risk opening the route to Wilmington and remained unengaged while the entire Union force landed safely ashore. The next day Terry moved south towards the fort to reconnoiter the fort and decided that an infantry assault would succeed.[8]
"Final and Triumphant Assault on Fort Fisher, near Wilmington N.C, on the evening of January 15th 1865"

On January 15, Porter's gunboats opened fire on the sea face of the fort and by noon they succeeded in silencing all but four guns.[17] William B. Cushing would later write, "Such a hell of noise I never expect to hear again. Hundreds of shell[s] were in the air at once . . . all shrieking in a grand martial chorus that was a fitting accompaniment to the death dance of the hundreds about to fall.”[18] During this bombardment Hoke sent about 1,000 troops from his line to Fort Fisher, however only about 400 were able to land and make it into the defense while the others were forced to turn back. Around this time the landing party of 1,600 sailors and 400 marines, led by Lieutenant Commander Kidder Breese, landed and moved against the point where the fort's land and sea faces met, a feature known as the Northeast Bastion. The Union Army's original plan was for the naval force, armed with revolvers and cutlasses, to attack in three waves with the marines providing covering fire, but instead, the assault went forward in a single unorganized mass. This attack led to a remark from J.A. Mowris, a surgeon in the 117th New York Infantry, stating, "Not far in advance towered the frowning Fortress... and, though none saw, all knew, that above, in imperial majesty, sat the Angel of Death."[19] General Whiting personally led the defense and routed the assault, with heavy casualties in the naval force.[20]

The attack, however, drew Confederate attention away from the river gate, where Ames prepared to launch his attack. At 2:00 PM he sent forward his first brigade, under the command of Brevet Brigadier Newton Martin Curtis, as Ames waited with the brigades of Colonels Galusha Pennypacker and Louis Bell. An advance guard from Curtis's brigade used axes to cut through the palisades and abatis. Curtis's brigade took heavy casualties as it overran the outer works and stormed the first traverse. At this point Ames ordered Pennypacker's brigade forward, which he accompanied into the fort. As Ames marched forward, Confederate snipers zeroed in on his party, and cut down a number of his aides from around him. Pennypacker's men fought their way through the riverside gate, and Ames ordered a portion of his men to fortify a position within the interior of the fort. Meanwhile, the Confederates turned the cannons in Battery Buchanan at the southern tip of the peninsula and fired on the northern wall as it fell into Union hands. Ames observed that Curtis's lead units had become stalled at the fourth traverse, and he ordered forward Bell's brigade, but Bell was killed by sharpshooters before ever reaching the fort.[21] Seeing the Union attackers crowd into the breach and interior, Whiting took the opportunity to personally lead a counterattack. Charging into the Union soldiers, Whiting received multiple demands to surrender, and when he refused he was shot down, severely wounded.[22]

Porter's gunboats helped maintain the Federal momentum. His gunners' aim proved to be deadly accurate and began clearing out the defenders as the Union troops approached the sea wall. Curtis's troops gained the heavily contested fourth traverse. Lamb began gathering up every last soldier in the fort, including sick and wounded from the hospital, for a last-ditch counterattack. Just as he was about to order a charge, he fell severely wounded and was brought next to Whiting in the fort's hospital. Ames made a suggestion for the Union troops to entrench in their current positions. Upon hearing this notion, a frenzied Curtis grabbed a spade and threw it over Confederate trenches and shouted, "Dig Johnnies, for I'm coming for you." About an hour into the battle, Curtis fell wounded while going back to confer with Ames. Pennypacker also fell wounded before the battle ended.[23]
CS Col. William Lamb

The grueling battle lasted for hours, long after dark, as shells plunged in from the sea and Ames struggled with a division that became increasingly disorganized as his regimental leaders and all of his brigade commanders fell dead or wounded. Terry sent forward Abbott's brigade to reinforce the attack, then joined Ames in the interior of the fortress. Meanwhile, in Fort Fisher's hospital, Lamb turned over command to Major James Reilly, and Whiting sent one last plea to General Bragg to send reinforcements. Still believing the situation in Fort Fisher was under control and tired of Whiting's demands, Bragg instead dispatched General Alfred H. Colquitt to relieve Whiting and assume command at Fort Fisher. At 9:30 PM Colquitt landed at the southern base of the fort just as Lamb, Whiting and the Confederate wounded were being evacuated to Battery Buchanan.[24]

At this point, the Confederate hold on Fort Fisher was untenable. The seaward batteries had been silenced, almost all of the north wall had been captured, and Ames had fortified a bastion within the interior. Terry, however, had concluded to finish the battle that night. Ames, ordered to maintain the offensive, organized a flanking maneuver, sending some of his men to advance outside the land wall, and come up behind the Confederate defenders of the last traverse. Within a few minutes the Confederate defeat was unmistakable.[25] Colquitt and his staff rushed back to their rowboats just moments before Abbott's men seized the wharf. Major Reilly held up a white flag and walked into the Union lines to announce the fort would surrender. Just before 10:00 PM Terry rode to Battery Buchanan to receive the official surrender of the fort from Whiting.[26] Bragg consistently denied reports that Fort Fisher had fallen until 1:00 a.m. on the 16th when he wired General Robert E. Lee, "I am mortified at having to report the unexpected capture of Fort Fisher, with most of its garrison, at about 10 o'clock to-night. Particulars not known." By this point, several Confederates had escaped to the other side of the river and had reported the fall, or close to fall, of the fort.[27]
Aftermath
Map of Ft. Fisher after assault January 15, 1865
Map of Fort Fisher II Battlefield core and study areas by the American Battlefield Protection Program

The loss of Fort Fisher compromised the safety and usefulness of Wilmington, the Confederacy's last remaining sea port. The South was now cut off from global trade. Many of the military supplies which the Army of Northern Virginia depended upon came through Wilmington; there were no remaining seaports near Virginia that the Confederates could use practically. Potential European recognition of the Confederacy was likely already impossible, but now became entirely unrealistic; the fall of Fort Fisher was "the final nail in the Confederate coffin."[28] A month later, a Union army under General John M. Schofield would move up the Cape Fear River and capture Wilmington.[29]

On January 16, Union celebrations were dampened when the fort's magazine exploded, killing and wounding 200 Union soldiers and Confederate prisoners who were sleeping on the roof of the magazine chamber or nearby. U.S. Navy Ensign Alfred Stow Leighton died in the explosion while in charge of a squad trying to recover bodies from the fort parapet. Although several Union soldiers initially thought Confederate prisoners were responsible, an investigation opened by Terry concluded that unknown Union soldiers (possibly drunken Marines) had entered the magazine with torches and ignited the powder.[30]

Lamb survived the battle but spent the next seven years on crutches.[31] Whiting was taken prisoner and died while in Federal captivity.[32] Pennypacker's wounds were thought to have been fatal and Terry assured the young man he would receive a brevet promotion (where the person promoted would be authorized to wear the insignia of the new rank, but was paid the wages of his original rank) to brigadier general. Pennypacker did receive a brevet promotion as Terry had promised, but on February 18, 1865, he received a full promotion to brigadier general of volunteers at age 20. He remains the youngest person to have held the rank of general in the U.S. Army[33] (apart from the Marquis de Lafayette). Newton Martin Curtis also received a full promotion to brigadier general, and both he and Pennypacker received the Medal of Honor for their part in the battle. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton made an unexpected visit to Fort Fisher where Terry presented him with the garrison's flag.[34]
Medals of Honor
Main article: List of Medal of Honor recipients for the Second Battle of Fort Fisher

During the Battle of Fort Fisher, fifty-one soldiers, sailors and marines received the Medal of Honor for their actions.[35]
Maj. Gen. Alfred H. Terry
Gallery
Exterior view of Ft Fisher tranverses
Exterior view of Ft Fisher tranverses
Interior view of the first three Traverses of the Northwest salient adjoining the River road [36]
Interior view of the first three Traverses of the Northwest salient adjoining the River road [36]
View of the landfront from the second traverse of the Northwest salient-the indentionof the palisiades in the middle ground marks the position of the sally port; beyond is seen the northeast salient overlooking the sea[37]
View of the landfront from the second traverse of the Northwest salient-the indentionof the palisiades in the middle ground marks the position of the sally port; beyond is seen the northeast salient overlooking the sea[37]
Advance of the navy sharpshooters' unit during the sailors' and marines' assault
Advance of the navy sharpshooters' unit during the sailors' and marines' assault
Sailors Assault of the fort
Sailors Assault of the fort
The Armstrong gun at the fort
The Armstrong gun at the fort
Exterior view of the Northeast salient showing at left where the Sailors charged[38]
Exterior view of the Northeast salient showing at left where the Sailors charged[38]
cropped Interior view of the northeast angle Showing the site of the reserve powder magazine that exploded;[39]
cropped Interior view of the northeast angle Showing the site of the reserve powder magazine that exploded;[39]
The interior view of the first six traverses of the sea-faces of Fort Fisher;[40]
The interior view of the first six traverses of the sea-faces of Fort Fisher;[40]
Traverse of Fort Fisher
Traverse of Fort Fisher
Traverse of Fort Fisher
Traverse of Fort Fisher
Interior view of Fort Fisher after bombardment
Interior view of Fort Fisher after bombardment
Cannon with muzzle shot away
Cannon with muzzle shot away
Cannon with muzzle shot away
Cannon with muzzle shot away
The bombardment as seen from the "mound battery" at the south end of the fort