Major-General William T. Sherman went to Nashville, Tennessee, to assume command of the Federal Military Division of the Mississippi. This included the Departments and Armies of the Cumberland, the Ohio, the Tennessee, and Arkansas. When Sherman got there, he was met by Lieutenant-General Ulysses S. Grant, who had come west to meet with him.
Grant and Sherman were to discuss military strategy, and in so doing, Grant informed Sherman that he would have complete command of the Western Theater. The two men were close friends, so it came as no surprise that Grant had selected Sherman to replace him in the West while Grant went east. Grant issued General Order Number 1: “I assume command of the Armies of the United States, headquarters in the field, and until notice these will be those of the Army of the Potomac.”
One of the main reasons why Grant chose to stay with the Army of the Potomac was because three other generals in Virginia–Major-General Benjamin F. Butler commanding the Army of the James, Major-General Franz Sigel commanding the Army of West Virginia, and Major-General Ambrose E. Burnside commanding the Ninth Corps from the Army of the Ohio–all outranked the Potomac army commander, Major-General George G. Meade, and Grant sought to prevent any jealousy over the fact that Meade led an army that was much larger than any of theirs.
A ceremony took place in Nashville on March 18, during which the mayor and city council presented Grant with a commemorative sword. According to Sherman:
“The mayor rose and in the most dignified way read a finished speech to General Grant, who stood, as usual, very awkwardly… After the mayor had fulfilled his office so well, General Grant said: ‘Mr. Mayor, as I knew that this ceremony was to occur, and as I am not used to speaking, I have written something in reply.’ He then began to fumble in his pockets, first his breast-coat pocket, then his pants, vest; etc., and after considerable delay he pulled out a crumpled piece of common yellow cartridge-paper, which he handed to the mayor… I could not help laughing at a scene so characteristic of the man who then stood prominent before the country; and to whom all had turned as the only one qualified to guide the nation in a war that had become painfully critical.”
Grant and Sherman then got down to the business of military strategy. But seeing that they were in danger of the swarming newspaper reporters learning and possibly divulging their secret plans, they took a train up to Cincinnati. When they found that the train noise made it almost impossible to converse, they waited until they reached their destination and booked a room at the Burnet House, where they posted a guard at the door, laid out their maps, and got to work.
Grant later described the military situation at that time:
“When I assumed command of all the armies the situation was about this: the Mississippi River was guarded from the St. Louis to its mouth; the line of the Arkansas was held, thus giving us all the Northwest north of that river. A few points in Louisiana not remote from the river were held by the Federal troops, as was also the mouth of the Rio Grande. East of the Mississippi we held substantially all north of the Memphis and Charleston Railroads as far east as Chattanooga, thence along the line of the Tennessee and Holston rivers, taking in nearly all of the State of Tennessee. West Virginia was in our hands; and that part of old Virginia north of the Rapidan and east of the Blue Ridge we also held. On the sea-coast we had Fortress Monroe and Norfolk in Virginia; Plymouth, Washington and New Berne in North Carolina; Beaufort, Folly and Morris islands, Hilton Head, Port Royal and Fort Pulaski in South Carolina and Georgia; Fernandina, St. Augustine, Key West and Pensacola in Florida. The balance of the Southern territory, an empire in extent, was still in the hands of the enemy.”
Grant now commanded 662,000 officers and men in 22 army corps, the largest command any U.S. general ever had up to that time. If he could put them all in motion at once from all the Federal occupation points, they could quickly overwhelm the dwindling Confederate armies. Grant identified where the main Federal thrusts should be:
- The Army of the Potomac would cross the Rapidan River and confront General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia
- The Army of the James would move up the Virginia Peninsula and threaten Richmond and Petersburg from the east
- The Army of West Virginia would clear Confederates out of the Shenandoah Valley
- The Army of the Gulf would move east to threaten Mobile, Alabama
- Sherman would lead the Armies of the Ohio, Cumberland, and Tennessee against General Joseph E. Johnston’s Army of Tennessee
Grant and Sherman would personally confront the two largest Confederate armies left in the field. Once Grant and Meade destroyed Lee’s army, they were expected to capture Richmond. Once Sherman destroyed Johnston’s army, he was expected to capture Atlanta.
A few days later, Grant headed back east and Sherman returned to Nashville. Near month’s end, Sherman issued orders closing the railroad line between Nashville and eastern Tennessee to all non-military traffic. When civilians protested that they needed the line to bring their produce and livestock into Nashville, Sherman instructed them to drive their goods over the mountains by wagon like the old days because “his” railroad was too important to serve them.
Returning east, Grant looked to reinstate some of the officers that the Lincoln administration had shelved earlier in the war. One of these officers was Major-General Don Carlos Buell, who had been relieved of his command after allowing the Confederates escape at the end of their Kentucky incursion in October 1862. Grant recommended that Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton reinstate Buell to a command of some sort under Sherman.
Stanton informed Grant that Buell had refused because he had previously outranked both Sherman and Grant, and “it would be degradation to accept the assignment offered.” Grant later wrote, “All of them ranked me in the old army, and Sherman and Buell did as brigadiers. The worst excuse a soldier can make for declining service is that he once ranked the commander he is ordered to report to.”
Another officer whom Grant wanted was the former General-in-Chief George B. McClellan. McClellan had been “awaiting orders” at his New Jersey home ever since being relieved of his command in November 1862. Congress had recently defeated a bill dismissing McClellan from the army, which meant that McClellan was eligible for duty. But the Lincoln administration was finished dealing with problem generals like McClellan, despite Grant’s urgings otherwise.
In Virginia, Meade learned of Grant’s general order setting up headquarters near him and wrote his wife, “I see General Grant’s assuming command and announcing that his headquarters will be with the Army of the Potomac, is in the public journals, and by to-morrow will be known in Richmond. Of course, this will notify the rebels where to look for active operations, and they will plan accordingly.”
Rumors began spreading among the Federal high command that Lieutenant-General James Longstreet, whose Confederate corps had been stationed in eastern Tennessee after its failed siege of Knoxville, would soon be rejoining Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Henry W. Halleck, now the Federal army chief of staff, notified Grant that “it is thought that Longstreet is now with Lee, and that some movement will soon be made.”
Arriving at Washington, Grant met briefly with President Abraham Lincoln and then returned to the Army of the Potomac. Grant instructed Meade, “Lee’s army will be your objective point. Wherever Lee goes, there you will go also. The only point upon which I am now in doubt is, whether it will be better to cross the Rapidan above or below him.”
Bibliography
- Bailey, Ronald H., The Battles for Atlanta: Sherman Moves East. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1983.
- Catton, Bruce, Grant Takes Command. Open Road Media, Kindle Edition, 2015.
- Foote, Shelby, The Civil War, A Narrative: Fredericksburg to Meridian. New York: Vintage Civil War Library, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group (Kindle Edition), 2011.
- Foote, Shelby, The Civil War, A Narrative: Red River to Appomattox. New York: Vintage Civil War Library, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group (Kindle Edition), 2011.
- Grant, Ulysses S., Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant. New York: Da Capo Press, 1982 (original 1885, republication of 1952 edition).
- Jaynes, Gregory, The Killing Ground: Wilderness to Cold Harbor. Alexandria, Va.: Time-Life Books, 1983.
- Long, E.B. with Long, Barbara, The Civil War Day by Day. New York: Da Capo Press, Inc., 1971.
- Sherman, William T., Memoirs of General William T. Sherman, Vol. I. New York: D. Appleton and Co. (Kindle Edition), 1889.
- Stanchak, John E. (Patricia L. Faust ed.), Historical Times Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Civil War. New York: Harper & Row, 1986.