War and Politics:
Lincoln, Virginia and the Election of 1864
How did the bloody military stalemate in Virginia affect the presidential election of 1864?
Also, how did candidates and generals respond to events during that long summer?
Overland Campaign Synopsis
Read below for an essay synopisis of key events and significance of Grant's 1864 Virginia campaigns.
Click on the links below for visual explorations of the Overland Campaign.
Planning Phase
In the early spring of 1864, events were transpiring within the Union military to hopefully expedite the end of the Civil War. On March 9, Ulysses S. Grant, who had experienced success in the western theater of operations, was promoted to Lieutenant General and was given command of the entire Union Army. Immediately Grant set to work creating a new military strategy, meeting with leading generals and President Lincoln throughout March and April. The Grand Strategy encompassed three centers of attack: General Banks in Alabama, General Sherman in Georgia and General Meade in Virginia. This spring campaign that began in early May 1864, was a continental theater of war larger than Napoleon’s at its peak, with Grant at the helm of four military divisions totaling seventeen subcommands with 500,000 combat soldiers employed (Army 285).Grant would travel along with Meade and the Army of the Potomac in what became known as the Overland Campaign, an assault throughout the Commonwealth attacking key Confederate infrastructures and focusing on the destruction of Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. The combative action across Virginia included four subsidiary offensives to the main assault against Lee: (1) assaults throughout the Shenandoah Valley to cut off food supplies and block northward rebel raids, (2) assaults along the James River, south of Richmond to cut supplies and railroad connections, (3) and (4) two assaults in southwestern Virginia to cut confederate connections to railroads, lead mines and salt works (Grimsley xiv). Victory was crucial to the Union cause, particularly in Virginia. The Union had failed to show much success in their clashes against Robert E. Lee and another military setback in Virginia would be detrimental for political reasons: 1864 happened to be a presidential election year, at a time when Lincoln’s popularity was low and American support for the war was fading away (Johnson 44).
Fighting Begins in the Wilderness
On the morning of May 4th, the Grand Strategy is put into motion. General Meade and the Army of the Potomac crossed the Rapidan River. This 107,000-man force moved southward, looking to draw General Lee out into the open, destroy the Army of Northern Virginia and then march on to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond. On their journey, Grant and Meade had to travel through a densely forested area of underbrush named the Wilderness. Lee decided to attack on May 5, because this terrain would serve as an equalizer to his much smaller 70,000-man army. The two-day indecisive Battle of the Wilderness came with a cost: nearly 17,000 Union and some 10,000 Confederate casualties (Army 288). Following the battle, Grant assessed the situation and decided to move to the right of Lee’s army, still heading south toward Richmond. This signaled quite a different change of course for the Army of the Potomac, who in years past would have backed off Lee and moved toward D.C. to regroup. At 6:30 a.m. on May 7, Grant gave the orders to General Meade: “Make all preparations for a night march to take position at Spotsylvania Courthouse” (Grimsley 58).
Spotsylvania Court House
Lee determined Grant’s next course of action and rushed southward to meet Grant at Spotsylvania Court House. He also sent General J.E.B. Stuart’s cavalry ahead to harass and slow down Grant, giving Lee time to set up entrenchments. Beginning May 9 Meade struck in force at Lee’s positions four days straight, but was beaten back each time. Elsewhere in battle, Union General Sheridan’s cavalry faced off against General Stuart at Yellow Tavern, in which the confederate commander was mortally wounded, ending forever the cavalry power of the Army of Northern Virginia, which was already short on horses and supplies. Grant persisently continued his assault against the confederate defenses and wrote back to Washington, D.C., "I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer.” But on May 20, Grant determined the entrenchments were too strong to capture and moved southward again along Lee’s right flank. His persistence led one Confederate to say of Grant, “we have met a man this time, who either does not know when he is whipped or who cares not if he loses his whole Army” (Army 290).
Cold Harbor
As Grant moved southward, Lee did also, entrenching again at Cold Harbor, with a front that extended for eight miles. Small skirmishes erupted along the front on June 1 and 2, but confederate forces pushed back the Union advances. However, Grant’s main assault occurred on June 3; he thought he detected a weakness in the center of Lee’s line. The Confederates repulsed this badly planned attack and in a few hours Grant faced 7,000 Union casualties. The Battle of Cold Harbor was Lee’s last victory of the Civil War and Grant’s last opportunity to defeat Lee in open combat. On June 7th, a truce was made to remove the dead bodies from the field and for all intents and purposes the Overland Campaign was over. By this point, both sides had reached immense casualty numbers: 55,000 Union and 32,000 Confederate casualties (Army 291). Following the Battle of Cold Harbor, Grant headed southward once again, but he wasn’t headed for Richmond; Grant planned to attack lightly defended Petersburg.
Petersburg
On his march to Petersburg, Grant was slowed down due to the attacks of Confederate General P.T. Beauregard, giving Lee the opportunity to catch up. Ten month siege to cut off Richmond and eventually take down Confederate capitol. The Union assaults on Petersburg came to nothing and on June 18, Grant set up command in City Point and prepared for a siege. Petersburg was vital to Richmond, serving as a major junction of five Confederate railroads. The Union army would lay siege to Petersburg until April 2, 1865.
Who won?
Different historians offer varying conclusions to Overland Campaign analysis. Mark Grimlsey, author of And Keep Moving On: The Virginia Campaign, points out how some say Lee outgeneraled Grant by forcing him to accept a ten-month stalemate in the Petersburg trenches, while others argue that grant won because he kept up the pressure (xiv). However, looking at the Overland Campaign directly following its end, it appears to be a Union loss considering none of Grant’s goals had been met by June. Union General Butler was given control of the Army of the James and the task of controlling Bermuda Hundred and Petersburg: a task at which he failed. General Sigel was given command of the Shenandoah Valley, but ended up retreating. Grant set out to destroy the Army of Northern Virginia, but it would hold on ten more months. All the setbacks of the Overland Campaign (and the timing of such setbacks) would prove detrimental to the election campaign season.
Significance to the 1864 Election
In a nation undergoing its fourth year in a deadly war, all knew there high stakes on the line in Virginia. Since 1862, the Army of the Potomac had tried multiple times to eradicate the Army of Northern Virginia, much to no avail. Many in the North were frustrated with the slow progress of the war and Lincoln knew his political success was riding on Grant’s military victory. A variety of setbacks caused Lincoln and his supporters to become disconcerted with his re-election: retreats in the Shenandoah Valley; retreats along the James River; high death tolls in Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House and Cold Harbor; Confederate General Juba Early’s attacks on D.C. in July. The role of politics Cn also be seen in some of the decisions made during the Overland Campaign. For example, several of the generals appointed were chosen because of their appeal to various constituents. General Franz Sigel was appointed commander over forces within the Shenandoah Valley due to his German heritage, in the hopes of the current administration garnering support from German voters. Benjamin Butler was appointed leader of the Army of the James because he was well liked by the people, particularly his home state of Massachusetts. It has also been thought Butler was given such a significant military command to keep him busy during the election campaign in order to discourage his participation as a presidential hopeful (Merrill). Grant also downplayed or delayed bad news on the front in order to affect political developments. For example, there are theories Grant downplayed the destruction the Union army faced at the Battle of Cold Harbor. Following the death of 7,000 Union soldiers, Grant telegraphed back to D.C. that, “…our loss was not severe.” The timing is suspect because the National Union Nominating Convention was days away, and perhaps Grant was afraid bad news would impact Lincoln’s re-nomination (Guelzo).
References:
Army Historical Series, Chapter 12 - The Civil War 1864-1865, accessed from the Center of Military History United States Army website, http://www.history.army.mil/books/AMH/amh-toc.htm .
Mark Grimsley, And Keep Moving On: The Virginia Campaign May-June 1864 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2002).
Allen C. Guelzo, “The Political War,” The New York Times, June 5, 2014, http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/06/05/the-political-war/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0 .
David Alan Johnson, Decided on the Battlefield: Grant, Sherman, Lincoln and the Election of 1864 (New York: Prometheus Books, 2012).
Louis Taylor Merrill, “Benjamin Butler in the Presidential Campaign of 1864,” The Mississippi Valley Historical Review 33, No. 4 (March 1947): 537-570.
Grant's Grand Strategy, Spring 1864
Three centers of attack (Alabama, Georgia and Virginia) with a concentration on the Eastern Front (VA)
Courtesy of Ohio State Military History Blog
The Wilderness
(Courtesy of
Library of Congress)
An area of more than 70 square miles of secondary growth and dense shrubs was the site of the first battle of Grant's Overland Campaign
Bermuda Hundred Federal Earthworks
(Courtesy of Library of Congress)
Entrenchments such as this were used throughout the Overland Campaign, being thrown together rapidly and with any available materials
Grant in Camp at Cold Harbor
(Courtesy of Library of Congress)
Cold Harbor, a major defeat for Grant during the Overland Campaign, was his largest military regret in later years.
Siege of Petersburg
Sketch by Alfred R. Waud
Courtesy of Library of Congress
The Old Bull Dog on the Right Track
Courtesy of Library of Congress
A reference to General Grant and his Overland Campaign assaults. By August, Grant was finally experiencing military success in his Grand Strategy, leading to renewed support for the war effort. Hence, in the cartoon Lincoln tells McClellan of the election, "I'm bound to take it."
