A Failure of Command: Grant, Meade, and the Men of the Army of the Potomac in the Overland Campaign

Butler stalled on the Bermuda Hundred Peninsula, however, and historians have largely blamed his bungling for the army's ineffectiveness.

Still, the Army of the James was important for its technological innovations and for the large number of African American troops in its ranks. Black troops in the army's Twenty-fifth Corps were among the first Union troops to enter Richmond on April 3, The idea behind the army's formation was to put more than thirty thousand troops serving on garrison duty to good use by attacking Richmond and bringing an end to the war ahead of the congressional and presidential elections. Republicans in the North were concerned that, absent some military success, U. The Tenth Corps included the famed 54th Massachusetts, the regiment of black troops that had led the assault on Fort Wagner, South Carolina, in July In December , the two corps' white troops were merged into the Twenty-fourth Corps, their black troops into the Twenty-fifth Corps.

The army's first mission was to act as the southern pincer in Grant's Overland Campaign against Richmond. While the Army of the Potomac—commanded by Meade but under Grant's personal supervision—advanced on the capital from the north, the Army of the James would advance from the south, up the James River. Most importantly, Butler was charged with cutting Confederate general Robert E. Lee's supply line, the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad , forcing Lee to move troops to the south and thereby weakening his defense against Grant and Meade.

Despite high hopes for the plan's success, by June 16, , Confederate troops under Pierre G. Beauregard and George E. Pickett managed to pen up the superior Union force on the Bermuda Hundred Peninsula, near the confluence of the James and Appomattox rivers. This led some, including Grant, to quip that Butler's situation was similar to being inside a tightly corked bottle. Politicians larded the ranks of the Army of the James, and Butler was especially notorious. A droopy-eyed, slightly overweight Democrat who had served in the Massachusetts legislature before the war, Butler briefly had supported Jefferson Davis for the Democratic presidential nomination in During the war, however, he was anything but sympathetic to the Confederacy.

In particular, he angered Southerners by confiscating their runaway slaves and, in , charging with prostitution any New Orleans, Louisiana, woman who spoke ill of the Union.

Introduction

By , Butler was known as a "beast" in the South, and his lack of military training contributed to his unsuccessful attempts, during the Petersburg Campaign , to capture Petersburg despite outnumbering the Confederates. Still, Butler was not entirely to blame. Historians also have found fault with the often vague orders that he received from Grant. Despite its failures on the battlefield, the Army of the James became a technological testing ground. For instance, Butler tested at least one early model of the Gatling gun.

Patented in by North Carolina native Dr. Gatling, the Gatling gun was a continuously firing weapon that resembled a modern machine gun. Beyond championing technology, though, Butler used his command to embrace social innovation, employing large numbers of U. Unlike many other Union officers, Butler harbored little prejudice toward African American soldiers and insisted that they be treated equally. When Lee evacuated Petersburg on April 2, , elements of the Army of the James pursued the fleeing Confederate army, while others, including the black troops of the Twenty-fifth Corps, proceeded north and were among the first Union soldiers to enter Richmond on the morning of April 3.

The Twenty-fourth Corps, meanwhile, is said to have fired the final volley of the Appomattox Campaign , which ended in Lee's surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia on April 9. Following the war, units from the Army of the James would serve as an occupying force in Virginia, with the last troops mustered out in February The Twenty-fifth Corps served on border duty in Texas that was designed to dissuade the French from meddling in Mexico. It mustered out of service in January Thanks to your advocacy efforts on our behalf, we're happy to report that the recently passed Omnibus Spending Bill includes a very small increase in funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities!

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George Meade: Early Life and Military Career

These funds will continue to support our work of providing free access to authoritative content about Virginia's history and culture. Major General Benjamin F. April 2, - Union general-in-chief Ulysses S. Grant orders the creation of the Army of the James from troops in the Department of Virginia and North Carolina, to be placed under the command of Benjamin F.

Sherman had decided, though, that he had to crush the will of white Southern civilians if the Union were to bring the rebels to heel. His men destroyed everything of military value that they encountered, including railroads, telegraph lines, and warehouses. Hood had sought unsuccessfully to lure Sherman out of Georgia and back into Tennessee by marching northwestward with nearly 40, men toward the key city of Nashville , the defense of which had been entrusted by Sherman to George H.

At Franklin , Hood was checked for a day with severe casualties by a Federal holding force under John M.

He had two objectives: Not only did he fail to net much cotton but also he was checked with loss on April 8 at Sabine Cross Roads, Louisiana, and forced to retreat. Porter lost several gunboats, and the campaign amounted to a costly debacle. That fall Kirby Smith ordered the reconquest of Missouri.

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Resuming the advance toward St. Louis , Price was forced westward along the south bank of the Missouri River by pursuing Federal troops under A. Smith, Alfred Pleasonton, and Samuel Curtis. Finally, on October 23, at Westport, near Kansas City , Price was decisively defeated and forced to retreat along a circuitous route, arriving back in Arkansas on December 2. This ill-fated raid cost Price most of his artillery as well as the greater part of his army, which numbered about 12, It was only lightly opposed by much smaller Confederate forces.

What had happened in Georgia paled in comparison with the devastation the Yankees wrought in South Carolina. Once again, civilians were not killed, but the Union troops did everything they could to demoralize the population and undermine their support for the war. When Lee was finally named Confederate general in chief, he promptly reinstated Johnston as commander of the small forces striving to oppose the Federal advance. Nonetheless, Sherman pushed on into North Carolina , capturing Fayetteville on March 11 and, after an initial setback, repulsing the counterattacking Johnston at Bentonville on March 19— Goldsboro fell to the Federals on March 23 and Raleigh on April Finally, perceiving that he no longer had any reasonable chance of containing the relentless Federal advance, Johnston surrendered to Sherman at the Bennett House near Durham Station on April Grant and Meade were continuing their siege of Petersburg and Richmond early in For months the Federals had been lengthening their left southern flank while operating against several important railroads supplying the two Confederate cities.

The Southern leader briefly threatened to break the siege when he attacked and captured Fort Stedman on March But an immediate Federal counterattack regained the strongpoint, and Lee, when his lines were subsequently pierced, evacuated both Petersburg and Richmond on the night of April 2—3.

An mile km pursuit west-southwestward along the Appomattox River in Virginia ensued, with Grant and Meade straining every nerve to bring Lee to bay. On the periphery of the Confederacy , 43, gray-clad soldiers in Louisiana under Smith surrendered to Canby on May The port of Galveston , Texas , yielded to the Federals on June 2, and the greatest war on American soil was over.

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