Atlas Of The Civil War

© 2005 Colin Gower Enterprises First published in the United States in 2005 by Courage Books All rights reserved under the Pan-American and International Copyright Conventions Printed in China

This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented, without written permission from the publisher.

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

Digit on the right indicates the number of this printing

Library of Congress Control Number: 2004116695

ISBN 978-0-7624-2356-9

This book may be ordered by mail from the publisher. But try your bookstore first!

Published by Courage Books, an imprint of Running Press Book Publishers 2300 Chestnut Street, suite 200 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103-4399

Visit us on the web! www.runningpress.com

o Contributors

EDITOR: JAMES M. MCPHERSON George Henry Davis Professor of American History Princeton University, New Jersey Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Battle Cry of Freedom: The

Civil War Era, Vol. VI in the Oxford History of the United States. His other books include The Struggle for Equality, Marching Toward Freedom, Ordeal by Fire: The Civil War and Reconstruction, Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution and What They Fought For, 1861..,.1865

STACY D. ALLEN

LAWRENCE L. HEWITT

Historian

Professor of History

Shiloh National Military Park,

Department of History and Government

Shiloh, Tennessee

Southeastern Louisiana University, Hammond, Louisiana

EDWIN COLE BEARSS Special Assistant to Director

FRANK O'REILLY

National Park Service (Military Sites)

Historian and author

Arlington, Virginia

Fredericksburg, Virginia

ALBERT CASTEL

WILLIAM G. PISTON

American Civil War Historian

Associate Professor

Emeritus Professor of History,

Department of History,

Western Michigan University

Southwest Missouri State University, Springfield, Missouri

WILLIAM M. FOWLER, JR. Professor of History

DR. WILLIAM GLENN ROBERTSON

Northeastern University,

Professor of History

Boston, Massachusetts

U.S. Army Command and General Staff College,

Editor of the New England Quarterly

Leavenworth, Kansas

D. SCOTT HARTWIG Supervisory Park Ranger Gettysburg National Military Park, Gettysburg, Virginia

THE ATLAS OF THE CIVIL WAR

Contents

9

PROLOGUE

April 25: New Orleans May - August: Vicksburg and Baton Rouge

by James McPherson

58

New Mexico Campaign

11

KEY TO MAPS

February 21: Valverde March 26-28: Glorieta

THEATER MAPS

12

1861: THE COMING OF WAR

20

North Carolina Campaign

60

February 8: Roanoke Island

Introduction by James McPherson April 12-14: Fort Sumter

26

Clashes in Missouri

28

July 5: Engagement at Carthage

March 14: New Bern April 25: Fort Macon

62 Virginia sinks Congress and Cumberland March 9: Monitor vs. Virginia

Showdown at Hampton Roads March 8:

McClellan's Peninsula Campaign

August 10: Wilson's Creek

April 5 - May 4: Siege of Yorktown

September 12-20: Siege and Capture of Lexington

May 5: Williamsburg

November 7: Battle of Belmont

May 31 - June 1: Seven Pines/Fair Oaks

Western Virginia

30

June 3: Philippi Races

May 8: McDowell

32

June 10: Big Bethel

May 23-25: Front Royal and Winchester

jackson's Shenandoah Valley Campaign:

July 21: First Manassas (Bull Run)

68

Phase 2

October 21: Ball's Bluff

South Atlantic Coast

66

March 23: Kernstown

September 10-13: Cheat Mountain Campaign

Virginia

jackson's Shenandoah Valley Campaign: Phase 1

July 11: Rich Mountain

64

Escaping the Trap

34

June 9: Cross Keys June 9: Port Republic

August 27-30: Hatteras Inlet November 7: Port Royal Sound

Seven Days Battles: Phase 1

70

June 12-15: Stuart's Ride around McClellan

1862: A WAR FOR FREEDOM

36

June 26: Mechanicsville

Introduction by James McPherson Eastern Kentucky and Tennessee

44

January 10: Middle Creek

February 6-16: Forts Henry and Donelson

46

Northwestern Arkansas

48

March 7-8: Pea Ridge

April 6: Shiloh

50

April 7: Shiloh

52

Upper Mississippi Valley

54

February 28 - April 8: New Madrid and

July 1: Malvern Hill

July 14 - August 27: Second Manassas (Bull Run) Campaign: Phase 1

74

August 22: Catlett's Station August 25-27: Jackson's Turning Movement

August 28

-

September I: Second Manassas:

Phase 2

76

August 28: Gorveton August 29-30: Second Manassas

Island No.10

September 1: Chantilly

May 30: Corinth Campaign

April 14 - June 5: Plum Run Bend and Fort Pillow June 6: Memphis

April 24: Forts St. Philip and Jackson

72

August 9: Cedar Mountain (Slaughter'S Mountain)

December 7: Prairie Grove

Lower Mississippi Valley

Seven Days Battles: Phase 2 June 30: White Oak Swamp and Glendale

March - June: Cumberland Gap Operations

-

June 27: Gaines' Mill June 29: Savage's Station

January 19: Logan's Cross Roads (Mill Springs)

April 29

June 25: Oak Grove

56

September 4-20: The Antietam Campaign: Phase 1

78

September 14: South Mountain and Crampton's Gap September 15: Harper's Ferry

CONTENTS

8

September 17: Antietam

80

December 13: Fredericksburg

82

April 7 - September 6: The Campaign Against

Confederate Cavalry Raids in Kentucky and Tennessee

84

July 4 - August 1: Morgan's Raid July 6-27: Forrest's Raid Confederate Invasion of Kentucky

86

Iuka and Corinth

88

Grant's First Vicksburg Campaign

90

Stones River (Murfreesboro)

92

1863: THE TURNING OF THE TIDE

94

Introduction by James McPherson

104

September 21 - November 25: Chattanooga

134

August 15 - December 4: Knoxville Campaigns 136

138

October 9 - November 9: Bristoe Campaign November 26 - December 1: Mine Run Campaign

1864: TOTAL WAR

140

February - March: Operations in Mississippi

146

March 10 - May 22: The Red River

106

Campaign

108 110

April 26

112 114

Gettysburg Campaign: The Invasion of

116

Lee Moves North June 9: Brandy Station

148

April 8: Mansfield (Sabine Cross Roads) April 9: Pleasant Hill March 1 - May 3: Steele's Arkansas Campaign

May 8 - July 9: Port Hudson Campaign

Pennsylvania

132

and Florida

May 18 - July 4: Siege and Capture of

May 1-6: Chancellorsville: Phase 2

September 19-20: Chickamauga

February 3 - March 5: Meridian Campaign February 20: Olustee (Ocean Pond)

April 17 - May 2: Grierson's Raid May 11-14: Raymond and Jackson May 16-17: Champion's Hill and Big Black River

May 1: Chancellorsville: Phase 1

130

Introduction by James McPherson

January 8: Arkansas Post February - April: Unsuccessful Efforts: Lake Providence; Yazoo Pass; Steele's Bayou April 16: Running the Batteries May 1: Port Gibson

-

128

September 10-18: Chickamauga Campaign

October - November: Operations in Virginia

December 30 - January 2 (1863):

Vicksburg

June 24 - September 9: Tullahoma Campaign

September 2: Capture of Knoxville November 14-29: Longstreet's Effort to Recapture Knoxville

December: Grant's and Sherman's Advances December: Forrest's and Van Dorn's Raids December 27-29: Chickasaw Bluffs

Grant's Second Vicksburg Campaign: Phase 2

126

November 24: Lookout Mountain November 25: Missionary Ridge

September 19: Iuka October 3-4: Corinth

Grant's Second Vicksburg Campaign: Phase 1

Charleston

April 7: Naval Attack on Fort Sumter July 18: Attack on Fort Wagner and Capture of Chattanooga

August 14: Kirby Smith's Advance August 28: Bragg's Advance October 8: Perryville October 9: Confederate Retreat

;8

July 2-26: Morgan's Raid North of the Ohio August 21: Quantrill's Lawrence Massacre

150

April 3: Elkins Ferry April 29-30: Jenkins' Ferry May 5-7: The Wilderness

152

May 8-12: Spotsylvania, Phase 1

154

May 13-19: Spotsylvania, Phase 2

156

May 21 - June 3: North Anna and Cold Harbor

158

June 4-15: Cold Harbor to Petersburg

160

July 1: Gettysburg

118

June 16-18: Assaults at Petersburg

162

July 2: Gettysburg

120

May 5-16: The Drewry's Bluff Campaign

164

July 3: Gettysburg

122

May 9-24 and June 7-28: Sheridan's Raids

166

July - August: Two Raids

124

May 11: Yellow Tavern June 11-12: Trevilian Station

-

'='

1-,

''I

£!!!:

=.

7'

THE ATLAS OF THE CIVIL WAR

May - June: Operations in the Shenandoah Valley

September 22: Fisher's Hill

168

May 15: New Market June 5: Piedmont June 17-18: Lynchburg June 27 - August 4: Early's Washington Raid

Phase 2

170

July 9: Monocacy July 11-12: Washington July 23-24: Second Kernstown July 30: Chambersburg Sherman's Atlanta Campaign: Phase 1

172

Campaign

174

176

July 20: Peachtree Creek July 22: Atlanta July 28: Ezra Church August 1

-

178

180

196

f,

November 15 - December 21: Sherman's

1 198

7 S

tl

Introduction by James McPherson

p

206

s(

t1

:tv

February 1 - April 26: Sherman's Carolinas Campaign

182

184

June 22-23: Weldon Railroad July 30: Battle of the Crater August 18-21: Globe Tavern August 25: Reams Station September 30 - October 2: Poplar Springs Church October 27: Hatcher's Run

208

The Fall of Petersburg and Richmond

w

N 210

H

February 5-7: Hatcher's Run March 25: Fort Stedman March 31: White Oak Road April 1: Five Forks April 2: Petersburg Assault April 2-9: The Road to Appomattox

\1i:

p(

al

st: 212

C

af ta

so

EPILOGUE by James McPherson

214

186

July 27-29: and August 13-20: Deep Bottom September 28-30: New Market Heights October 7: Darby town Road

w;

Bibliography Acknowledgements

Sheridan and Early in the Shenandoah Valley: Phase 1

a

ti

March 16: Averasboro March 19: Bentonville

August 5: Battle of Mobile Bay August 8: Capture of Fort Gaines August 23: Capture of Fort Morgan

July - October: Siege of Richmond

c

t

December 8-27 (1864): First Campaign January 6-15: Second Campaign

April 12: Fort Pillow Massacre June 10: Brice's Crossroads July 14: Tupelo August 21: Memphis

June - October: Siege of Petersburg

December 15-16: Battle of Nashville

Fort Fisher

Forrest's Operations in Mississippi and

Mobile Bay Campaign

194

1865: THE TRIUMPH AND THE TRAGEDY 200

August 5-6: Utoy Creek August 31 - September 1: Jonesboro Tennessee

c

October 1-22: Hood's Operations Against Sherman's Communications November 19-29: Advance to Spring Hill November 30: Battle of Franklin

March from Atlanta to the Sea

September 2: Atlanta Campaign,

Final Phase

192

September 27: Pilot Knob October 22: Byram's Ford October 23: Westport October 25: Marais des Cygnes October - November: Hood's Tennessee

May 26 - June 1: Dallas and New Hope Church June 27: Kennesaw Mountain July 9: Crossing the Chattahoochee July 20-28: Battles for Atlanta

190

October 9: Tom's Brook October 19: Cedar Creek March 2 (1865): Waynesboro September - October: Price's Raid in Missouri

May 7-12: Rocky Face Ridge May 14: Resaca May 18-19: Cassville Sherman's Atlanta Campaign: Phase 2

Sheridan and Early in the Shenandoah Valley:

217

188

September 19: Third Winchester (Opequon Creek)

Index

sel

216

218

f �.

�

�, I f. i

t:

,

�

� !

i

de

go

Ur

tic

Prologue The Civil War was the most violent and fateful experience in

12

President, Zachary Taylor, encouraged the huge territory of

war, 2% of the American population in 1860. If the same

New Mexico (embracing the rest of the cession from

percentage of Americans were to be killed in a war fought in

Mexico) also to apply for statehood without slavery.

the 1990s, the number of American war dead would exceed

Pro-slavery Southerners threatened to secede from the

five million. An unknown number of civilians, nearly all of

Union if they were denied their "right" to take slaves into

them in the South, died from causes such as disease, hunger

these territories. "If, by your legislation, you seek to drive us

or exposure inflicted during the conflict. As a consequence,

from the territories of

more Americans died in the Civil War than in all of the

man Robert Toombs of Georgia informed Northern law­

18

)0

)6

08

10

12

14

California and Mexico," Congress­

country's other wars combined. The number of casualties

makers, "I am for disunion." The controversy in Congress

incurred in a single day at the battle of Antietam (September

became so heated that Senator Henry S. Foote of Mississippi

17, 1862) was four times the number of Americans killed or

flourished a loaded revolver during a debate, and his col­

wounded on the Normandy beaches on D-Day, June 6,

league Jefferson Davis challenged an Illinois congressman to

1944. More Americans were killed in action that September

a duel. In 1850 the American nation seemed held together by

day near Sharpsburg, Maryland, than were killed in combat

a mere thread, with armed conflict between free and slave

in all the other wars fought by the United States in the 19th

states an alarming possibility.

century.

16

from Southerners. The crisis escalated when the American

American history. At least 620,000 soldiers were killed in the

But cooler heads prevailed. The Compromise of 1850

How did this happen? Why did Americans fight each

averted a showdown. This series of laws admitted California

other with a ferocity unmatched in the Western world during

as a free state, divided the remainder of the Mexican cession

the century between the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815

into the territories of New Mexico and Utah, and left to their

and the beginning of World War I in 1914? The origins of

residents the question as to whether or not they would have

the American Civil War lay in the outcome of another war

slavery. (In fact, both territories did legalize slavery, but few

fought by America fifteen years earlier: the Mexican War.

slaves were taken there.) At the same time, Congress abol­

The peace treaty signed with Mexico in 1848 transferred

ished the slave trade in the District of Columbia, ending the

700,000 square miles of Mexican territory to the United

shame - in Northern eyes - of the buying and selling of

States. However, the dramatic victory of American forces in

human beings within sight of the White House and the

the Mexican War fulfilled the prediction made by the

Capital. But the Compromise of 1850 compensated the

philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1846 at the war's out­

South with a tough new fugitive slave law that empowered

set: "The United States will conquer Mexico, but it will be as

federal marshals, backed by the army, to recover slaves who

the man swallows arsenic, which brings him down in turn.

had escaped into free states. It thus postponed, but did not

Mexico will poison us."

resolve, the sectional crisis.

The poison was slavery, which many Southern politicians

During the 1850s, polarization between North and South

wanted to introduce into the new territories; anti-slavery

intensified. The fugitive slave law embittered Northerners

Northerners wanted to keep slavery out of them. In the

compelled to watch black people - some of whom had lived

House of Representatives, they had the votes to pass the

in their communities for years - being forcibly returned in

Wilmot Proviso (offered by Congressman David Wilmot of

chains to slavery. Southern anxiety grew as settlers poured

Pennsylvania) stating that slavery should be excluded from

into those Northern territories that were sure to join the

all territories acquired from Mexico. In the Senate, Southern

Union as free states, thereby tipping the sectional balance of

strength defeated this Proviso. South Carolina Senator, John

power against the South in Congress and the electoral col­

c. Calhoun, introduced instead a series of resolutions

lege. In an attempt to bring more slave states into the Union,

affirming that slaveholders had the constitutional right to

Southerners agitated for the purchase of Cuba from Spain

take their slave property into any United States territory they

and the acquisition of additional territory in Central

so wished.

America. Private armies of "filibusters," composed mainly of

These opposing views set the scene for a crisis when gold

Southerners, even tried to invade Cuba and Nicaragua to

was discovered in California in 1848. Eighty thousand gold

overthrow their governments and bring these regions into the

16

seekers poured into the region in 1849. To achieve some

United States - with slavery.

degree of law and order, the Forty-niners organized a state

Nothing did more to divide North and South than the

17

government and petitioned Congress for admission to the

Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 and the subsequent guerrilla

Union as the thirty-first state. As California's new constitu­

war between pro- and anti-slavery partisans in Kansas terri­

tion prohibited slavery, this request met with fierce resistance

tory. The region that became the territories of Kansas and

18

9

THE ATLAS OF THE CIVIL WAR

Nebraska was part of the Louisiana Purchase, acquired by the United States from France m 1803. In 1820, the Missouri Compromise had divided this territory at latitude 36° 30', with slavery permitted south of that line and prohibited north of it. Regarded by Northerners as an invlOlable com­ pact, the Missouri Compromise lasted for 34 years. But in 1854, Southerners broke it by forcing Stephen A. Douglas of

Illinois, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Territones, and leader of the Northern Democrats, to agree to the repeal of the ban on slavery north of 36° 30' as the price of Southern support for the formal organization of Kansas and Nebraska territories. Douglas capitulated under Southern pressure, even though he expected it to "raise a hell of a storm" in the North. It did. The storm was so powerful that it swept away many Northern Democrats and gave rise to the Republican party, which pledged to keep slavery out of Kansas and all other territories. One of the most eloquent spokesmen for this new party was an Illinois lawyer named Abraham Lmcoln, who believed that "there can be no moral right in the enslaving of one man by another." Lincoln and other Republicans recog­ nized that the United States Constitution protected slavery m the states where it already eXisted. But they intended to pre­ vent Its further expansion as the first step toward bringing it eventually to an end. The United States, said Lincoln at the beginning of his famous campaign agamst Douglas in 1858

The inaugu ratton

for electlOn to the Senate, was a house divided between slav­

House, Montgomery, Alabama, February

ery and freedom

of Jefferson Davis as

of the 18, 1861

President

Confederate States, at the State

'' 'A house divided against itself cannot

stand.' I believe this government cannot endure, permanently

other property within their borders - with the significant

half slave and half free." By preventIng the further expansion

exception of Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston, South

of slavery, Lincoln hoped to "place it where the public mind

Carolina. When Lincoln took hiS oath to "preserve, protect,

shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate

and defend" the United States and its Constitution, the

extinction."

"united" states had already ceased to exist.

Douglas won the senatorial election in 1858. But two years later, running against a Democratic party split into

conflict from the future of slavery to the survival of the

Northern and Southern halves, Lincoln won the presidency

UnIOn Itself

Lincoln and most of the Northern people

by carrying every Northern state. ThiS was the first time in

refused to accept the constitutional legitimacy of seceSSlOn.

more than a generatlOn that the South had lost effective con­

"The central idea pervading thiS struggle," Lincoln declared

trol of the national government. Southerners saw the writing

after war had broken out in 1861, "is the necessity that is

on the wall. A substantial and growmg majority of the

upon us, of proving that popular government is not an

American population lIved m the North. The pro-slavery

absurdity. We must settle this question now, whether In a

forces had little prospect of winning any future national elec­

free government the mmonty have the right to break up the

tions. Thus, to preserve slavery as the basis of their "way of

government whenever they choose." Four years later, look­

life," during the winter of 1860-1861 the seven lower-south

ing back over the bloody chasm of war, Lincoln said In hiS

states seceded one by one

Before Lincoln took office on

second inaugural address that one side In the controversy of

March 4, 1861, delegates from these seven states had met at

1861 "would make war rather than let the nation survive;

Montgomery, Alabama, adopted a Constitution for the

and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And

Confederate States of Amenca, and formed a provisional

the war came."

government with Jefferson Davis as president. As they seceded, these states seized the national arsenals, forts, and

10

I I

Secession transformed the prinCipal Issue of the sectional

James M. McPherson

I I

I I

Key to

Maps

ARMY TERMS Although the strength of the army units varied widely, the

Division: Usually composed of two or three

following is a general guide to the terms used in the atlas:

brigades amounting to 5,000 men

Army: Any force operating in a theater. The strength of

Brigade: Composed of two or more regiments

any army could vary from 10,000 to over 100,000

and totaling between 1,200 and 3,000 men

Corps: Composed of two or three divisions, a corps'

Regiment: Composed of 10 companies of

strength varied from between 15,000 and 20,000

50-100 men each

ARMY COLORS Confederate

•

Union

Confederate HQ

�

GENERAL MILITARY SYMBOLS Union

••

HQ

Artillery

j".� 1 1

Artillery Reserve

__

ARMY HIERARCHIES

ILEEIIMEADEI LONGSTREET

GENERAL SYMBOLS

Army Commande r o

Town/Settlement

srOKEThIAN

Division Commander

Ii

Farm or Building

\It\!L>TI.1fi 8IR�F.¥

Brigade Commander

•

Station

Element (or part of unit)

t

Church

�v�v

c8J!8J \RllI'\TlID

it

""""'" BIRliEY

:h

3.1 le le [1.

:d

Fort/Battery

11

Encampment

� �

Fortification Line

NNV\ IVVV'A

Siege Line

X

Battle Site

-

Mine

Ford

Army Division

State Border

t1

Major Road Army units

of varying strength

Cavalry units of varying strength

ARMY MOVEMENTS

I

First position

Later position

Siege/Explosion

Minor Road Railroad

TYPE STYLES

R

V

t,

Ie

Ships (various types)

• ¢

Army Corps

STONH'IHN

-

sail·steam ship

Gunboat/Ironclad

��

Pontoon Bridge

LONGSTREET

Sail or

�

Bridge

ARMY SYMBOLS

�e

Urban Area

Corps Commander

elts

L

G

N

PHYSICAL FEATURES Major Rivers/Estuary

A

State

C

L

A

R

K

E

C

O

U

N

T

Y

County ==

II

Corps & Divisional arrow

Corps & Divisional Dispersal

Large River

Stream/Run

or End Movement

Forest or Wood

Corps & DlVisional retreat

Marsh or Swamp

GETTYSBURG FALMOUTH LEWISVILLE

Peach Orchard

IS

.il

Cemetery Hill Devli 's

a

le

City

fown Settlement

}

Small PhYSical Feature

Agriculrure

ABBREVIAnONS Unit movements

IS

::>f e·

t I.,.."

,

Id

\'�-• ••

n

••

•

P.O.

Post Office

e.H.

Court House

R.R.

Railroads

STN.

Station

Unit retreat

Hill and Mountain Feature

Skirmish Line

MT.

Mountain

L======��===-= 11

,�

., Eastern Theater THE ATLAS OF THE CIVIL WAR

c

z «

.. � �

.;

� -

�

...J >c::: ::E

f II

0

z

c(

>

..J

>­

en

z

z

I.IJ

Q.

Union territory

X Union victory

DConfederate territory

X Confederate victory

D border slave states

X inconclusive

------- �'""-� ,

12

.x. XKel'nilOWD

;.

!

(Pjt· ��C7.oj

,

l

(, I

,. .......--..

\.

'\:.�--

,

,�'

,�

(I '

.x.Cro•• .K,,¥ (p.68)

XBrloto"

.x.Brln"'r SIJIJo'k�j,t�rl�i Stoti

?""bPort RepubJi c(p . 68)

XPled",o'rlt (p.IS8)

.

, ...-'

oq,'(B,'1 4)

Cedo,\t4olln181n (p'?")

.x.Waynesboro (p.1

��e Run(p. 1$8)

X,ChancellorsviUe X The Wlhlern".. (p.152)

�

X

;x,. LYDchburg (p.16S)

.

s

;J

I$Ylvania

\ (pp.J54, 1�6)

. I ,

VIR-GINIA TreJlIian Station

I

J

'f

r

I-

Yello,.,T.verll (p . J661.x,

>,

-� �"",

ato.\'

OJ}l -

,

(p.I,6)

Norlhhnoa' ( p.158)

,

C.inh· Mill (p.70).r"

.;;tCol � H arbor

XM''''iI�nlc�''U1e "( p·, 7'O' ) "I

JI.ttle �r ,btrt::l'aler (p.J 84) ...:.,;.-..,.

.,

W"ldODRlIUto • .I'(p.la � X Fort SI: Cred! 11'.1(6) (p.l:76\X XAllan.. (p,176) U.ovCttek (�178). .192) X

Byra.m·

...

(I' 192�

POTd

MI S SOURI

KA N S A S

------./",,-

�(,- -

(p' ., 8 ) -J

-

.. -:=:!_� ......--

r------__-I

::::��j

�___

_______

)

X X wu..".'s

I'�'a

I �

�reek (1'.28)

Rillg- rp--.-

Prairie (:ro .. "

KE NTUCKY

1

(1'.411)

TE N NE S SEE . ...- - .....

• ME"'PIIIS

AS

ARKAN

x)cink-i.th

.Fer.ry (p.150)

..... ..... X

lIIal1,.£J"Jd

X

P1

(p

14$1

SODl IHII Ip.lolS)

ALABAMA

.....

TEXA S

L OUI SIA N A -3'-1

t

GULF O F MEXICO a

__ j

a

50

____ =1 i

50

100 KM 100

MILES

'\{

17

THE ATLAS OF THE CIVIL WAR

Coastal War

Union territory

X Union victory

Confederate territory

X Confederate victory

D border slave states

TEXAS

X inconclusive

"-

M

E

X

C

,0

� I

t 1 1

I

0 I 0

18

50

100 KM 50

100 MILES

I

THE ATLAS OF THE CIVIL WAR

Abraham Lincoln, photographed by Mathew Brady on February 27,

1860, the day before he delivered his Cooper Union speech. Lincoln was later to state that, «Brady and the Cooper UntOn speech made me President. "

1

I f

r t \ t

( C t

20

1861: The Coming of War HEN ABRAHAM LINCOLN took the oath of office as the

W

bor with authorization to go into action only if the Con­

sixteenth - and, some speculated, the last - president

federates used force to stop the supplies. He would also noti­

of the United States on March 4, 1861, he knew that his

fy Confederate officials in advance of his intention. This

inaugural address would be the most important such speech

shifted the decision for war or peace to Jefferson Davis. In

in American history. On his words would hang the issues of

effect, Lincoln flipped a coin and said to Davis: "Heads I

union or disunion, peace or war. His goal was to prevent the

win; tails you lose." If Confederate troops fired on the sup­

eight slave states that had not yet seceded from doing so,

ply ships, the South would stand convicted of starting a war

while cooling passions in the seven states that had seceded,

by attacking "a mission of humanity" bringing "food for the

hoping that in time their old loyalty to the Union would

hungry men." If Davis allowed the supplies in, the American

reassert itself. He pledged in his address not to "interfere

flag would continue to fly over Fort Sumter. The Con­

with the institution of slavery where it exists." Referring,

federacy would lose face at home and abroad, and Southern

however, to Fort Sumter and three other minor forts in the

Unionists would take heart.

seceded states, he pledged to "hold, occupy, and possess the

Davis did not hesitate: he considered Fort Sumter to be

property, and places belonging to the government" - without

Confederate property. By ordering Confederate artillery to

defining exactly what he meant or how he would do it. In his

open fire against the fort on April 12, before the supply ship

eloquent peroration, Lincoln appealed to Southerners as

arrived, he started the biggest war in American history. The

Americans who had shared with other Americans four score

attack triggered an outburst of war fever in the North. "The

and five years of national history. "We are not enemies, but

town is in a wild state of excitement," wrote a Philadelphia

friends," he said.

diarist. "The American flag is to be seen everywhere. Men are enlisting as fast as possible." Because the tiny United

Though passion may have strained, it must not break,

States army - most of whose 16,000 soldiers were stationed

our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory,

at remote frontier posts - was inadequate to quell the "insur­

stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to

rection," Lincoln called on the states to supply 75,000 mili­

every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad

tia. The free states filled their quotas immediately: more than

land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when again

twice as many men volunteered than Lincoln had .called for.

touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of

Recognising that the 90 days' service - to which the militia

our nature.

were limited by law - would be too short a period, Lincoln on May 3 issued a call for three-year volunteers. Before the

Lincoln hoped to buy time with his inaugural address -

war was over, more than two million men would serve in the

time to demonstrate his peaceful intentions and to enable Southern Unionists (whose numbers he overestimated) to

Union army and navy. ' The eight slave states still in the Union rejected Lincoln's

regain the upper hand. But the day after his inauguration,

call for troops. Four of them - Virginia, Arkansas, Tennes­

Lincoln learned that time was running out. A dispatch from

see, and North Carolina - seceded and joined the Con­

Major Robert Anderson, commander of the U.S. army garri­

federacy. Forced by the outbreak of war to choose between

son holding Fort Sumter, informed him that his supplies

the two sides, most residents of those four states chose the

would soon be exhausted: the fort must be resupplied or

Confederacy. As a former Unionist in North Carolina re­

evacuated. The majority of Lincoln's cabinet advised him to

marked: "The division must be made on the line of slavery.

evacuate the garrison to avoid provoking a shooting war.

The South must go with the South." When news of Sumter's

But Lincoln feared that withdrawal would give the Con­

surrender reached Richmond, a huge crowd poured into the

federacy a moral victory, confer legitimacy on its government

state capitol square and ran up the Confederate flag. "I never

and probably lead to diplomatic recognition by foreign pow­

in all my life witnessed such excitement," wrote a partici­

ers. Having pledged in his address to "hold, occupy, and

pant. The Times of London's correspondent described

possess" national property, could Lincoln afford to abandon

crowds in North Carolina with "flushed faces, wild eyes,

that policy during his first month in office? If he did, he

screaming mouths, hurrahing for 'Jeff Davis' and 'the

would go down in history as the president who consented to

Southern Confederacy.'" No one in those cheering crowds

the dissolution of the United States.

could know that before the war ended at least 260,000 of the

Lincoln finally arrived at a solution that would place the

850,000 soldiers who fought for the Confederacy would lose

onus of starting a war - if there was to be a war - on the

their lives, together with 360,000 Union soldiers, and that

other side. He decided to send an unarmed ship with supplies

the slave South they fought to defend would be utterly

to Sumter, and to hold troops and warships outside the har-

destroyed.

21

THE ATLAS OF THE CIVIL WAR

ATTENTION. TO SAVE YOUR BOUNTY! SECOND

RECIMENT

my was linked more closely to nearby Ohio and Penn

Ci

sylvania than to the South Delegates who had opposed

ca'

Virginia's secession from the Union returned home deter­

vai

,

mmed to secede from VirginIa. With the help of Union

tht

process of conventions and referendums - carried out amidst

aC(

FIRST UGIMENT IN THE FJELD UNDER TRE NEW CALL.

continumg raids and skirmishes - they created in 1862 the

ole

new state of West Virginia, which entered the Union m 1863.

me

With a population of nearly 23 million compared with 9

th�

million (3.5 millron of whom were slaves) in the Con­

tre

PI

001. P. s.

OLAASSEN, Oommanding.

•

WANTBD, 2S MaN

BetweeD the ages of 18 IlId 411 ,....... �o ill up aile of �he best CemplUlies lOW formillg. IIII4er ol&oen wIlD b,e leelL active seniGe.

no/bing. Su�siSlt'nce ilDd ('l)llIforhl�lt' QlIllrh'r. pr·O\'idr� un (·nlistmcot. PAY PROia $13 TO $a3 PIIR .olft'll, O:O_'I'I:I!'IIOII