The Federal Army of the Potomac reorganization was finalized in early April. Two army corps were eliminated with the troops transferred to the three remaining corps, and four divisions were eliminated with the troops placed in the remaining 11. Many soldiers resented General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant for making these unwanted changes, but they had actually been the doing of the Potomac army commander himself, Major-General George G. Meade.
Grant directed few changes to the army, except in terms of cavalry. He insisted on bringing Major-General Philip Sheridan east from the Army of the Cumberland to take command of the Cavalry Corps. When the five-foot four-inch Sheridan was introduced to officials in Washington, one told Grant, “That officer you brought on from the West is rather a little fellow to handle your cavalry.” Grant replied, “You will find him big enough for the purpose before we get through with him.”
Sheridan replaced Brigadier-General David Gregg, who was given command one of the corps’ three divisions. The other two divisions were given to Brigadier-Generals Alfred T.A. Torbert and James H. Wilson. Only Gregg had cavalry command experience; Wilson had been Grant’s chief engineer in the West. They replaced Brigadier-Generals John Buford (who had died of typhoid in December) and H. Judson Kilpatrick (whose controversial raid on Richmond had compelled Meade to transfer him west).
The Ninth Corps, once again led by Major-General Ambrose E. Burnside, was revitalized as well. This 19,250-man unit was based at Annapolis, Maryland, and was to serve as an auxiliary arm of the Potomac army when it began its spring offensive. Burnside, by virtue of outranking Meade, would be reporting directly to Grant. The Ninth Corps included two brigades of U.S. Colored Troops, which would become the first black soldiers to serve with the Army of the Potomac. Burnside had orders to “divert all troops you may now have on the way to Annapolis or yet to start, to Alexandria, and send a general there to take charge of them.”
As the troops prepared for battle, Meade wrote his wife about the new general-in-chief on the scene:
“Grant has not given an order, or in the slightest degree interfered with the administration of this army since he arrived, and I doubt if he knows much more about it now than he did before coming here… It is undoubtedly true that he will go with it when it moves, and will in a measure control its movements, and should success attend its operation, that my share of the credit will be less than if he were not present… the press, and perhaps the public, will lose sight of me in him.”
Nevertheless, Meade preferred Grant to former General-in-Chief Henry W. Halleck: “He is so much more active than his predecessor, and agrees so well with me in his view, I can not but be rejoiced at his arrival, because I believe success to be the more probable from the above facts.” Meade concluded, “My position before, with inadequate means, no power myself to increase them, and no effort made by others to do so, placed me in a false position, causing me to be held responsible, when in fact I could do nothing. My duty is plain, to continue quietly to discharge my duties, heartily co-operating with him and under him.”
Grant wanted the army to begin moving the first week of May, before most of the three-year enlistments expired. The Lincoln administration had anticipated this potential shortfall in manpower by offering generous bounties and furloughs for soldiers who reenlisted. The administration also continued enforcing the conscription law, thereby creating an army of reenlisted men (driven by patriotism and/or bounties), draftees, and hired substitutes.
Slowly but surely, the Army of the Potomac was becoming more efficient and cohesive as a unit. On the 26th, Grant confidently reported to Washington from his headquarters at Culpeper Court House, “The Army of the Potomac is in splendid condition and evidently feels like whipping somebody. I feel much better with this command than I did before seeing it.”
The next day, Burnside’s troops began moving out of Annapolis to take up the line between Bull Run and the Rappahannock River. Meade started moving his troops out of that sector and into forward positions. Grant took the time to write his wife Julia on this, his 42nd birthday: “… I am still very well. Don’t know exactly the day when I will start or whether (Confederate General Robert E.) Lee will come here before I am ready to move. Would not tell you if I did know. Give my kindest regards to Col. and Mrs. Hillyer. Kisses for yourself and Jess. I sent $1100.00 to J.R. Jones to day in liquidation of my indebtedness.”
By this time, Grant had secretly scheduled the offensive to begin on May 4. This was nine days behind schedule, but it gave him more time to prepare and for the muddy roads to dry. Grant began issuing specific orders for the upcoming campaign, while many within the Army of the Potomac remained skeptical that he could defeat General Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia after so many others had failed.
Near month’s end, rumors began circulating that Lieutenant-General James Longstreet’s Confederate corps had returned to Lee’s army from eastern Tennessee and “will move (north) down the Shenandoah Valley.” Grant wrote Halleck that if this happened, “throw all the force you can to head them, taking, if General Burnside should still be north of the Rappahannock, all or as much of his force as necessary.”
As April ended, the Army of the Potomac officially had 102,869 officers and men present for duty. But due to the large number of troops that Meade had classified as noncombatants, the actual number of men ready for combat numbered closer to 67,000. Even so, this was the leanest, strongest that this army had ever been. And it was ready to make the final drive to win the war.
On the last day of April, President Abraham Lincoln wrote a farewell message to Grant:
“Not expecting to see you again before the Spring campaign opens, I wish to express in this way my entire satisfaction with what you have done up to this time, so far as I understand it. The particulars of your plans I neither know nor seek to know. You are vigilant and self-reliant; and, pleased with this, I wish not to obtrude any constraints or restraints upon you. While I am very anxious that any great disaster, or the capture of our men in great numbers, shall be avoided, I know these points are less likely to escape your attention than they would be mine. If there is anything wanting which is within my power to give, do not fail to let me know it. And now with a brave army, and a just cause, may God sustain you.”
Bibliography
- Catton, Bruce, The Army of the Potomac: A Stillness at Appomattox. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1953.
- Catton, Bruce, Grant Takes Command. Open Road Media, Kindle Edition, 2015.
- 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.
- Sears, Stephen W., Lincoln’s Lieutenants: The High Command of the Army of the Potomac. Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books, (Kindle Edition), 2017.
- Sommers, Richard J. (Patricia L. Faust ed.), Historical Times Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Civil War. New York: Harper & Row, 1986.