1863: The Tide Turns

During the first half of 1863, doubts about the Federal army's ability to defeat the Confederate forces mounted across the North. And when Confederate general Robert E. Lee (1807–1870) led his troops to a spectacular victory at Chancellorsville, Virginia, the North grew increasingly anxious. In July, antiwar feelings combined with anger over many of the wartime actions of President Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) led to a deadly riot in New York that took the lives of more than one hundred people.

But July 1863 also marked a significant turning point in the Civil War. During the first days of that month, the Union forces won two major battles. In the West, the North's successful siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi, enabled it to establish control over the entire length of the Mississippi River. In the East, the Union victory at the famous Battle of Gettysburg forced Lee to abandon his efforts to bring the war onto Northern soil. These victories encouraged Union troops across the country. They also increased public support for the Lincoln administration in the North, although opposition to the president's policies remained strong among many Northerners. A few months later, the South rebounded from these defeats with a dramatic triumph at the Battle of Chickamauga in Georgia. As the year drew to a close, however, a decisive Union victory at Chattanooga, Tennessee, provided further evidence that the war might finally be turning in the North's favor.

Rosecrans and Bragg duel in the West

The first major clashes of 1863 took place in the war's western theater (military area), in central Tennessee. In the last months of 1862, the two sides had engaged in a number of battles for control of Kentucky and Tennessee. But while an indecisive battle at Perryville, Kentucky, in October 1862 had convinced Confederate general Braxton Bragg (1817–1876) to withdraw from that state, he still hoped to take control of middle Tennessee.

The struggle for possession of central Tennessee pitted Bragg's thirtyeight thousand–man Confederate Army of Tennessee against the Union's Army of the Cumberland, a fortyseven thousand–man force led by Major General William S. Rosecrans (1819–1898). The two sides met at Stones River, near the town of Murfreesboro, where Bragg had established a strong defensive position.

The battle between the two armies erupted on December 31, 1862. During the first day of fighting, the rebel troops threatened to overrun many Union positions. Only the leadership of Rosecrans, Brigadier General Philip H. Sheridan (1831–1888), and Major General George H. Thomas (1816–1870) prevented a Confederate rout (overwhelming defeat) of the North. By the end of the day, Bragg was so certain of victory that he sent a report to the Confederate capital city of Richmond, Virginia, in which he boasted that "the enemy has yielded his strong point and is falling back. We occupy the whole field and shall follow. . . . God has granted us a happy new year."

But as the Battle of Stones River spilled into 1863, the Confederate commander realized that he had underestimated Rosecrans. The Union commander had not retreated. Instead, he had only fallen back to take up a stronger defensive position. When Bragg ordered an assault on the Union line on January 2, 1863, his charging troops were carved up by heavy artillery fire, and he was forced to call off the attack. Later that night, Bragg learned that Union reinforcements were on the way to help Rosecrans. This information, combined with several days of heavy rain that reduced the battlefield to mud, convinced the rebel commander to give up the fight. Only a few days after prematurely declaring victory, Bragg reluctantly removed his army from the region.

The Battle of Stones River took a heavy toll on both armies. Rosecrans reported more than thirteen thousand Union troops dead, wounded, or missing after the battle, while Bragg tallied more than ten thousand Confederate casualties. These shocking losses badly damaged both armies. But although the battle itself ended in a stalemate (a contest that ends without an obvious winner), many Northern strategists regarded it as a victory. The Union stand at Stones River had halted the Confederate bid to regain control of middle Tennessee.

Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation

Back in the East, President Lincoln opened the new year by formally signing the Emancipation Proclamation, first announced back in September 1862. This document freed all slaves located in the rebellious Southern states. It did not apply to slaves in the four "border states" that allowed slavery but remained loyal to the Union (Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri), or to those areas of the Confederacy that were already under Federal control.

Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation proved to be one of the major events of the Civil War. It convinced thousands of slaves to flee the South for freedom in the North, which deprived the Confederacy of a vital source of labor. Even more importantly, however, it transformed the North's view of the entire war. Prior to Lincoln's Proclamation, the North had been fighting solely to preserve the Union. After Lincoln signed the Proclamation, the Northern cause included the abolishment of slavery. This moral dimension increased Northern support for the war effort among citizens and soldiers alike. It also discouraged the European powers from supporting the Confederate cause.

Burnside's "Mud March"

In January 1863, the Union's Army of the Potomac launched another campaign against General Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. Still stung by his disastrous defeat at Fredericksburg, Virginia, a month earlier, General Ambrose E. Burnside (1824–1881) planned to approach Lee's army from another direction. Burnside hoped to pry Lee out of the hills surrounding Fredericksburg, where he remained. But within hours of setting out, Burnside's advance was slowed by a heavy rainstorm. The storm lingered for days, transforming the surface of the roadways into nearly impassable mud pits. At first, Burnside ordered his troops on. But as soldiers sank into the mud up to their knees and supply wagons became hopelessly stuck in the quagmire, it became clear that the offensive was doomed. At one point, the army's helplessness became so great that Confederate soldiers on the other side of a river launched a volley of teasing laughter and jokes that further humiliated the hungry and tired Union troops.

Burnside finally called off the march. As the troops of the Army of the Potomac trudged back to camp, Lincoln decided that he needed to change generals once again. On January 25, 1863, Major General Joseph Hooker (1814–1879) replaced Burnside as commander of the Army of the Potomac.

Hooker prepares for battle

Lincoln appointed Hooker as the new leader of the Union's main army of the East with some reluctance. Hooker had made public statements suggesting that he did not have a high opinion of the president, and many people believed that he had been disloyal to Burnside over the previous few months. Nonetheless, Lincoln viewed Hooker as a "a brave and skillful soldier" who could help restore battered Union morale.

Lincoln's faith in Hooker's ability to improve the Army of the Potomac's confidence and fighting spirit paid off. Hooker made sure that his troops were well fed, and he instituted a number of changes that improved his soldiers' health and the conditions in which they lived. He also boosted morale by displaying unwavering confidence in his own abilities. For example, at one point he reportedly said, "May God have mercy on General Lee, for I will have none." By April, when Hooker led a massive Union Army of more than 130,000 troops in a new offensive against Lee, the Army of the Potomac's new commander had become immensely popular with his men.

The Battle of Chancellorsville

Rather than engage in a disastrous frontal attack like the one that Burnside had tried a few months earlier, Hooker planned to launch an assault from two directions. As Hooker approached Lee's position around Fredericksburg, he divided his army into two main forces. He stationed a large section of troops directly across from the Confederate positions, but he also took another seventy thousand men around Lee's left flank (side) to a spot near the town of Chancellorsville, Virginia.

Lee knew that Hooker's Union Army posed a major threat to his own force, especially since his army was smaller than usual. Earlier in the spring, Lieutenant General James Longstreet (1821–1904) had taken a corps of fifteen thousand rebels to gather food and supplies. This left Lee with only sixty thousand Confederate troops at his disposal, less than half the total number of soldiers under Hooker's command. The Confederate commander recognized that his only hope of victory was to devise a strategy that could neutralize the Union force's numerical advantage.

As Hooker moved his seventy thousand–man detachment around Lee's flank, Lee decided to launch his own surprise attack. Using Confederate cavalry under the command of Jeb Stuart (1833–1864) to mask his movements, Lee took forty-five thousand men to Chancellorsville. The two armies met on May 1 on the outskirts of the town. By this time, however, Confederate movements had confused Hooker, and he held off on calling a full-scale assault.

After a day of skirmishing, Lee ordered Lieutenant General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson (1824–1863) to circle around Hooker's force with twenty-six thousand men. All during the day of May 2, Jackson marched his troops around the unsuspecting Union Army. By late afternoon, Jackson's force was in position in the woods along the Federal army's right flank. Two hours before dusk, Jackson attacked with brutal force. His assault shattered the right side of Hooker's force and destroyed the Yankee position. Nonetheless, the successful attack ended in tragedy for the South. As evening fell over the battlefield, a group of Confederate soldiers accidentally shot Jackson, who had been riding ahead of his troops.

When the Confederate hero died a few days later, the entire South went into mourning.

Lee's greatest triumph

The Battle of Chancellorsville continued for another two days, but the Union proved unable to recover from Jackson's deadly surprise attack. On May 6, Hooker finally disengaged his troops from the area and retreated after suffering more than seventeen thousand casualties. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, on the other hand, had lost fewer than thirteen thousand troops despite having a far smaller force.

Lee's victory at Chancellorsville was his greatest triumph yet. Using his own mastery of tactics to deadly effect, he had whipped an army more than twice the size of his own Confederate force. But the victory came at a great price. Lee had lost his best general (Jackson) and more than 20 percent of his army in the clash. But, as James M. McPherson noted in Battle Cry of Freedom, the Confederates' victory at Chancellorsville "bred an overconfidence in their own prowess and a contempt for the enemy that led to disaster. Believing his troops invincible, Lee was about to ask them to do the impossible."

Lee invades Pennsylvania

In the days following his triumph at Chancellorsville, Lee decided to invade the North again. He made this choice for several reasons. For one thing, he knew that the rich farm country of southern Pennsylvania contained plenty of food and supplies that his troops could take for themselves. In addition, Lee and other Confederate leaders still held out hope that a successful campaign in the North might convince England or France to support them in their bid for independence from the Union. Finally, Lee knew that a successful invasion of Pennsylvania would increase antiwar sentiments in the North. If such feelings grew strong enough, President Lincoln would have no choice but to negotiate a peace agreement with the South.

In early June, Lee moved forward at the head of an army that had been reinforced to a strength of seventy-five thousand men. By mid-June, his Army of Northern Virginia had crossed the Potomac River and entered southern Pennsylvania, where it raided farms and seized numerous black people. The rebel army transported many of these men and women to the South, claiming that they were escaped slaves.

The Union reacted cautiously to this invasion. Following Lincoln's orders, Hooker shadowed Lee's movements. But Hooker's army stayed to the east, where it could shield Washington, D.C., and other Northern cities along the East Coast from Lee's forces. On June 27, Lincoln appointed yet another officer to take command of the Army of the Potomac. Disappointed in Hooker's performance, the president replaced him with Major General George G. Meade (1815–1872).

As the Confederate Army roamed through the Pennsylvania countryside, Jeb Stuart's cavalry went on a mission that took the horsemen miles from Lee's troops. Lee relied heavily on Stuart's units to scout out enemy locations and movements, so their absence hindered the Confederate general. As Lee moved deeper into Union territory, he became increasingly uncertain about the strength and whereabouts of Union forces in the region.

The Battle of Gettysburg

On the morning of July 1, 1863, advance scouting parties from the two armies stumbled into one another near the small Pennsylvania town of Gettysburg. When Lee learned of this skirmish, he suddenly realized that the Union Army was very close. He hurriedly ordered his army of seventy-five thousand men to gather around Gettysburg before the Federal army could attack. Meade, meanwhile, ordered his army of ninety thousand troops forward to engage the rebel invaders. But the size of his army made it difficult to move quickly, so only a fraction of Meade's full force reached Gettysburg that day.

Throughout the day of July 1, Lee's men punished their outnumbered Yankee foes. The Confederates pushed the Union troops back to a field outside of Gettysburg known as Cemetery Ridge, where the Federals managed to hold their ground. The following day, Lee ordered a major attack on the Union position. He directed troops led by Stonewall Jackson's replacement, Richard S. Ewell (1817–1872), and Jubal Early (1816–1894) to keep the Union's center and right flanks occupied at the same time that Longstreet's corps smashed into the Federal Army's left flank.

As the rebel attack unfolded, it appeared that Lee's plan might work. The Union's left side absorbed terrific punishment from Longstreet's troops, who pushed on through hails of Yankee gunfire. But the attack fizzled, stopped by Union reinforcements and the heroism of Federal soldiers like Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (1828–1914). Chamberlain and his men of the Twentieth Maine Regiment had been ordered to keep a strategic position known as Little Round Top out of Confederate hands. Chamberlain's regiment stopped repeated attacks, only to run out of ammunition. In a desperate move, Chamberlain ordered a bayonet attack. His men rushed forward to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy, using the sharp bayonets on the ends of their guns like swords. This tactic stunned his rebel foes and assured the North's continued possession of Little Round Top. Chamberlain's heroic defense of that position remains one of the most legendary feats in Civil War history.

Lee orders "Pickett's Charge"

On July 3, the battle resumed, as Lee made one final attempt to grasp the big victory that he so desperately wanted. As the clash spilled into the afternoon, Lee ordered a risky assault on the center of the Union's defenses. Lee's plan called for fifteen thousand men under the command of James J. Pettigrew (1828–1863) and George E. Pickett (1825–1875) to rush Cemetery Ridge, the heart of the Northern defenses. Noting that these divisions would have to cross a mile of open ground to reach the Union line, Longstreet repeatedly urged Lee to reconsider his plan. But the Confederate general refused to change his strategy, and at 3 P.M. Longstreet reluctantly relayed Lee's order to attack.

In the hours prior to the attack, Confederate artillery units had directed a torrent of shellfire at Union positions in hopes of knocking out Federal cannons. Lee knew that if those weapons were disabled, it would be much easier for his troops to reach Cemetery Ridge. At first, the Union had responded to the South's bombardment with a major artillery attack of its own. As time passed, however, most of the Union guns fell silent. Lee hoped that their silence meant that they had been knocked out of action. But as Pickett and Pettigrew launched their assault—which came to be known as "Pickett's Charge"—the Union cannons came to life once again, repeatedly hitting the advancing rebel soldiers with a hail of deadly fire.

Pickett and Pettigrew pushed their troops forward, but as they rushed over the unprotected hillside toward Cemetery Ridge, Northern cannons and gunfire took a fearsome toll. By the time the first Confederate soldiers reached the low walls of Cemetery Ridge, several of the attacking rebel divisions had been destroyed. Union troops easily disposed of the few hundred soldiers who reached the wall. The other remnants of the assault force limped back to Confederate positions.

Lee's decision to attack the center of the Union's defenses had resulted in disaster. Of the fifteen thousand troops who had taken part in Pickett's Charge, only half returned. Pickett's division suffered particularly heavy losses. He lost two-thirds of his men in the attack, and only one of his thirty-five officers escaped the charge without being killed or wounded. Horrified by his misjudgment, Lee admitted to the survivors that he was to blame. He then gathered his bloodied troops together and retreated back to Virginia, haunted by the knowledge that his invasion of the North had ended in failure.

The Battle of Gettysburg took an awful toll on both armies. Meade's Army of the Potomac sustained more than twenty-three thousand casualties in the three days of fighting, while the Confederates lost approximately twenty-eight thousand troops. But while both sides suffered enormous losses in the clash, it was clear that the Union had won a major victory. Gettysburg had reduced the size of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia by onethird at a time when Confederate efforts to recruit new soldiers were faltering. Moreover, the battle had driven the Confederates out of the North. Finally, Meade's victory showed Northern soldiers and civilians alike that Lee could be beaten on the field of battle.

Grant's fight for possession of the Mississippi River

Back in the West, meanwhile, most military activity centered around the Union's efforts to seize control of the entire length of the Mississippi River. If the North could accomplish this, it would be able to use the waterway freely to transport troops and supplies from the border states of Missouri and Kentucky all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. In addition, total Union control of the river would cut Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas off from the other Confederate states.

By late 1862, Union general Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885) had managed to seize control of the entire river, except for two hundred miles below Vicksburg, Mississippi. But Vicksburg was heavily fortified with artillery and troops commanded by Confederate general John C. Pemberton (1814–1881). During the first few months of 1863, Grant made several unsuccessful attempts to neutralize the rebel stronghold. Finally, in April 1863, the Union general launched a daring and brilliant plan to capture the city.

First, Grant sent a brigade of cavalrymen under the command of Benjamin Grierson (1826–1911) deep into the heart of the state of Mississippi. Over the next two weeks, Grierson caused trouble wherever he roamed, destroying Confederate supply lines and conducting successful raids on small rebel military units. Grierson's actions distracted the Confederates, who repeatedly failed in their attempts to stop him.

As Confederate attention turned to Grierson, Grant marched thirty-three thousand troops southward through a maze of swamps and bayous (marshy inlets) on the western side of the Mississippi River. The route was very difficult, but by sticking to the Louisiana side of the river he was able to avoid attracting fire from the cannons of Vicksburg, perched high on the Mississippi's opposite shore. In late April, these troops met up with a fleet of Union vessels that had made a midnight dash down the river past Vicksburg's thundering guns. Grant used these ships to transport his men back to the eastern side of the river on April 30.

During the first two weeks of May, Grant's army swept through southcentral Mississippi with devastating effectiveness, stealing supplies and destroying rebel railroads. The Union invaders won five different clashes during this time, defeating a variety of Confederate opponents. By mid-May, Grant had captured the town of Jackson, chased off a rebel army under the command of General Joseph E. Johnston (1807–1891), and completely encircled the Confederate defenses at Vicksburg. Johnston's rebel army remained in the area, but Grant knew that Confederate losses had reduced the force to only thirty thousand men, many of whom were recent draftees. Grant's army, by comparison, had grown to include more than seventy thousand battle-hardened troops, thanks to reinforcements from Memphis and other areas under Union control.

The Siege of Vicksburg

Shortly after surrounding Vicksburg, Grant made two attempts to storm the city's defenses. But Pemberton's troops beat back both assaults. In the final days of May, the Union general decided to change tactics. Grant posted several divisions to keep an eye on Johnston, then told the rest of his men to prepare for a long siege of the city. The Union Army quickly established a blockade around Vicksburg, stopping all shipments of food or supplies into the city. Grant's plan was to starve the city into surrendering.

During the first weeks of the siege, spirits remained high among Pemberton's troops and Vicksburg's civilian population. People stayed upbeat even though Union artillery and gunboat fire forced many of them to flee their homes for caves on the outskirts of the city. Convinced that Johnston would eventually break Grant's grip on them, the soldiers and civilians tried not to think about their rapidly fading supplies of food. Johnston's army never mounted a serious threat to Grant's position, however, despite the repeated urgings of Confederate president Jefferson Davis (1808–1889).

During the last weeks of June, confidence in Johnston dried up around the city. At this point, rations became so small in Vicksburg that people were forced to eat rats, cats, and dogs. In addition, the pressure of living under the growing threat of starvation drove some people to nervous breakdowns. Medical supplies vanished as well, even as the number of sick and wounded continued to rise. Chaplain William Lovelace Foster (1830–1869) of the Thirty-Fifth Mississippi Infantry recalled the awful conditions under which Confederate doctors and nurses were forced to treat these patients: "On passing through the hospital what a heart-rending spectacle greets the eyes! Here we see the horrors of dreadful war! . . . The weather is excessively hot and the flies swarm around the wounded—more numerous where the wound is severest. In a few days the wounds begin to be offensive and horrid. . . . Never before did I have such an idea of the cruelty and the barbarism of war."

On June 28, Pemberton received a letter addressed from "many soldiers" that begged him to give in to Grant's stranglehold on the city. "If you can't feed us, you had better surrender, horrible as the idea is, than suffer this noble army to disgrace themselves by desertion," stated the starving soldiers. "This army is now ripe for mutiny, unless it can be fed." A few days later, on July 4, Pemberton reluctantly surrendered the city to Grant, and Union troops moved in. As the Yankee soldiers took up positions throughout Vicksburg, many of them rushed to share their rations with the city's starving people. Grant, meanwhile, allowed Pemberton's battered troops to scatter for their homes across the South. A few days later, Grant took control of Port Hudson, Louisiana, the last Confederate presence on the Mississippi. The entire Mississippi River Valley now belonged to the North.

Grant's grim victory at Vicksburg shook the Confederacy to its core. Combined with Lee's defeat at Gettysburg, Grant's triumph on the Mississippi deflated Southern expectations of victory and forced many Southerners to consider the possibility of an ultimate Union triumph. "One brief month ago we were apparently at the point of success," lamented Confederate officer Josiah Gorgas (1818–1883) in July 1863. "Now the picture is just as sombre as it was bright then. . . . It seems incredible that human power could effect such a change in so brief a space. Yesterday we rode on the pinnacle of success—today absolute ruin seems to be our portion. The Confederacy totters to its destruction."

Lincoln's troubles on the home front

The Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg in July 1863 came just in time for President Lincoln. In the first half of 1863, political and popular opposition to Lincoln's wartime policies had mounted all across the North. Democrats accounted for a good deal of this criticism. They opposed the Republican president on the war, emancipation, and a wide range of other issues. But many other people had emerged as critics of Lincoln as well.

The reasons for this unhappiness with the president varied. Many Northerners believed that the Lincoln administration's determination to win the war had led it to take illegal measures to silence its opponents. These measures included putting people in jail without trial and closing newspapers that were critical of the administration. Other opponents argued that wartime inflation (increases in the cost of food, clothing, and other goods) was destroying the Northern economy. Another reason for Lincoln's unpopularity in some regions was his decision to institute the Conscription Act in March 1863. This law required all male citizens between the ages of twenty and forty-five to enlist in the Union Army.

Lincoln's conscription law infuriated many people. Large numbers of people opposed a military draft because it forced thousands of young men to join a fight that had already claimed the lives of tens of thousands of other young men. Democrats, meanwhile, charged that one of the law's provisions—which enabled enlistees to avoid serving by hiring a substitute or paying a $300 fee—meant that the ranks of the Federal Army would be filled mostly by poor people. These critics complained that the draft would force white laborers to fight for the freedom of blacks, who would then come to the North and take their jobs.

Democratic anger about Lincoln's policies became so great that many of the party's leaders and organizations threatened to defy the president. Members of one Democratic convention even pledged that "we will not render support to the present Administration in its wicked Abolition crusade [and] we will resist to the death all attempts to draft any of our citizens into the army." These tensions over the draft ultimately sparked an ugly riot in New York City that left 105 people dead in July 1863. Many of the rioters targeted black people in the violence. Black homes and an orphanage for black children were burned to the ground, and several blacks were hung from street lampposts. The unrest ended only after the mob clashed with a detachment of Federal troops from the Army of the Potomac.

The single greatest problem that confronted Lincoln during the first half of 1863, however, was the lack of progress in the war. Many Northerners had come to the gloomy conclusion that the North could not beat the South. Others believed that the Union would eventually win, but only after enduring many years of war and sacrificing thousands and thousands of young men. The president himself confessed similar fears from time to time.

Nevertheless, Lincoln managed to maintain a steady guiding hand over the troubled nation throughout this period. He kept various political factions working together to advance the Federal war effort. He also used all his skills as a leader and communicator to keep the majority of the Northern people united behind his vision of a restored United States. But sooner or later, he knew that domestic support for the war effort would die if the Union Army could not produce victories in the field.

The nearly simultaneous Union victories at Vicksburg and Gettysburg thus came at an ideal time for Lincoln. As he had anticipated, Union victories in the field triggered renewed support for the war effort among the North's civilian population. In fact, news of the Federal triumphs instantly transformed the atmosphere across much of the North from one of discouragement to one of confident determination.

Rosecrans occupies Chattanooga

In the months following the clashes at Vicksburg and Gettysburg, the Union and Confederate forces that had been involved in those fights spent most of their time resting and rebuilding their armies. In middle Tennessee, though, the war continued. In late June, Union general William S. Rosecrans had moved his Army of the Cumberland against General Braxton Bragg's Confederate Army of Tennessee. Rosecrans directed his sixty thousand–man army forward throughout the summer of 1863 in a brilliant campaign that completely confused Bragg. By early September, Rosecrans' maneuvers had convinced Bragg to abandon the southeastern Tennessee city of Chattanooga, even though it was a major Confederate railroad center and supply depot. When Jefferson Davis learned that Bragg had fled Chattanooga without a fight, he confessed that "we [the Confederate states] are now in the darkest hour of our political existence."

Bragg's evacuation of Chattanooga convinced Rosecrans that his Army of the Cumberland could acquire additional Confederate territory. After stationing a garrison of soldiers in Chattanooga, the overconfident Rosecrans resumed his pursuit of Bragg's Army of Tennessee. But Bragg had stopped retreating. Instead, he established a strong position in northern Georgia, where large numbers of Confederate reinforcements joined him from as far away as Virginia. These reinforcements included two divisions commanded by Longstreet, who had been one of Rosecrans' roommates at West Point, the prestigious New York military training academy.

Unaware of Bragg's decision to make a stand, Rosecrans pushed his troops forward. Bragg, meanwhile, sent a number of Confederate soldiers directly to the Union camp, where they pretended to be deserters. Their false tales of Confederate retreat further boosted Rosecrans' overconfidence.

The Battle of Chickamauga

By mid-September, Bragg's army had grown to seventy thousand men, and the Confederate general decided to launch a major attack on Rosecrans' widely dispersed troops. Rosecrans learned of the attack just in time, and he hurriedly gathered his army together near Chickamauga Creek in Georgia. The brutal Battle of Chickamauga erupted on the morning of September 19. Both sides engaged in bitter struggles for small pieces of land, but neither army could gain a big advantage. At one point, Confederate troops under the direction of Major General John B. Hood (1831–1879) registered significant gains on their Yankee foes. But their advance disintegrated when Hood and his lieutenants stumbled into an angry nest of stinging hornets.

On September 20, the battle resumed. This time, however, Rosecrans' Army of the Cumberland wilted under heavy pressure from Bragg's troops. Rather than attempt to hold his position, Rosecrans called a panicky retreat. Many of Rosecrans' divisions promptly fled the field of battle, and Bragg's triumphant soldiers immediately gave chase. The entire Union Army might have been destroyed were it not for the heroics of Major General George H. Thomas. The courageous Federal officer used his troops to establish a defensive shield around the fleeing Union soldiers. Thomas's brave stand enabled the Army of the Cumberland to withdraw to Chattanooga without being cut to pieces by their pursuers. Even so, Rosecrans lost sixteen thousand men in the struggle.

Over on the Confederate side, meanwhile, casualties numbered more than eighteen thousand. In addition, Bragg was harshly criticized in Richmond and by his own officers in the days following the battle. These critics argued that if Bragg had pursued Rosecrans more vigorously, the Army of the Cumberland could have been wiped out before it reached the safety of Chattanooga.

Nonetheless, the Battle of Chickamauga was a major triumph for the South. It gave the Confederacy something to cheer about after the disasters at Vicksburg and Gettysburg. Moreover, it sent a strong message to the North that the South remained a strong foe on the field of battle.

Federal victory at Chattanooga

In October 1863, the South tried to finish off the Union's Army of the Cumberland. Bragg's forces formed a heavily armed circle around the city of Chattanooga. This line of rebel troops made it impossible for the North to deliver supplies to Rosecrans's soldiers, and prevented the Union Army from making an escape. The Confederates hoped to starve the Union troops into surrendering, just as Grant had done to them during the siege at Vicksburg.

The situation at Chattanooga deeply alarmed the Lincoln administration. Lincoln viewed Rosecrans's behavior as "confused and stunned like a duck hit on the head." The president's military advisors warned him that the siege of Chattanooga might ruin the Army of the Cumberland. As the Confederate stranglehold over the city tightened, Federal troops under the command of Joseph Hooker and William T. Sherman (1820–1891) were ordered to travel to the area to give assistance. In mid-October, Lincoln appointed Ulysses S. Grant to take control of all Union troops in the entire West.

As soon as Grant received his promotion, he replaced Rosecrans with Thomas as commander of the Army of the Cumberland. He then took action to deliver supplies to the Union troops trapped in Chattanooga. By the end of October, a series of maneuvers enabled the North to open a supply route into the city, and morale among the troops in the Army of the Cumberland rose dramatically.

During the first few weeks of November, the situation at Chattanooga continued to sour for the South. Bragg's relationships with his officers and troops worsened to the point that Jefferson Davis actively considered replacing him. In addition, more than twelve thousand Confederate troops were sent to Knoxville, Tennessee, as part of a failed attempt to pry the city loose from Union control. This departure of troops reduced Bragg's army to less than fifty thousand men. In the meantime, the swift arrival of Sherman's and Hooker's Union divisions pushed the Federal troop strength to more than fifty-six thousand.

On November 24, Grant ordered an attack on Bragg's army, which was concentrated along Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain near Chattanooga. Union troops first attacked Lookout Mountain, taking control of the position with surprising ease. The following day, Grant moved to take Missionary Ridge, the rebels' lone remaining stronghold. Thomas's Army of the Cumberland led the attack. Forced to endure weeks of teasing from Sherman's and Hooker's troops because of their defeat at Chickamauga, Thomas's troops entered the field of battle in an angry mood. After seizing a row of Confederate rifle pits, they charged up the mountain slope to attack the rebel position at the top of Missionary Ridge. Grant watched this development with alarm, for no one had ordered such a charge. But the brave assault was successful. As the Army of the Cumberland drove into the Confederate lines, the rebels broke into a complete retreat.

The Union victory at Chattanooga was a very important one. The Confederate withdrawal into Georgia served as a strong signal that Federal control of the West could not be broken by the rebels, and it reassured Northern public opinion. In addition, the ragged Confederate retreat convinced Davis that Bragg needed to be removed from his command. Davis quickly replaced him with General Joseph E. Johnston, even though the Confederate president strongly disliked Johnston. Finally, the campaign once again displayed the military talents and leadership of Ulysses S. Grant. Taking note of Grant's many triumphs of the previous few years, Lincoln named him general-in-chief over all Union troops a few months later.

Words to Know

Blockade the act of surrounding a harbor with ships in order to prevent other vessels from entering or exiting the harbor; the word blockade is also sometimes used when ships or other military forces surround and isolate a city, region, or country

Civil War conflict that took place from 1861 to 1865 between the Northern states (Union) and the Southern seceded states (Confederacy); also known in the South as the War between the States and in the North as the War of the Rebellion

Confederacy eleven Southern states that seceded from the United States in 1860 and 1861

Conscription forced enrollment of able-bodied men into a nation's armed forces; also known as a draft

Draft see Conscription

Emancipation the act of freeing people from slavery or oppression

Federal national or central government; also refers to the North or Union as opposed to the South or Confederacy

Rebel Confederate; often used as a name for a Confederate soldier

Regiment a military unit of organized troops; regiments usually consisted of one thousand men and were divided into ten companies of one hundred men each

Siege surrounding and blockading of a city, town, or fortress by an army attempting to capture it

Union Northern states that remained loyal to the United States during the Civil War

People to Know

Braxton Bragg (1817–1876) Confederate general who led the Army of Mississippi and the Army of Tennessee; fought at Perryville, Chickamauga, and Chattanooga

Ambrose E. Burnside (1824–1881) Union general who commanded the Army of the Potomac at Fredericksburg; also fought at First Bull Run, Antietam, and in Ulysses S. Grant's Wilderness campaign

Jefferson Davis (1808–1889) president of the Confederate States of America, 1861–65

Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885) Union general who commanded all Federal troops, 1864–65; led Union armies at Shiloh, Vicksburg, Chattanooga, and Petersburg; eighteenth president of the United States, 1869–77

Joseph Hooker (1814–1879) Union major general who commanded the Army of the Potomac at Chancellorsville; also fought at Second Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chattanooga, and Atlanta

Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson (1824–1863) Confederate lieutenant general who fought at First Bull Run, Second Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville; led 1862 Shenandoah Valley campaign

Joseph E. Johnston (1807–1891) Confederate general of the Army of Tennessee who fought at First Bull Run and Atlanta

Robert E. Lee (1807–1870) Confederate general of the Army of Northern Virginia; fought at Second Bull Run, Antietam, Gettysburg, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville; defended Richmond from Ulysses S. Grant's Army of the Potomac, 1864 to April 1865

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) sixteenth president of the United States, 1861–65

James Longstreet (1821–1904) Confederate lieutenant general in Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia for much of the war; fought at First Bull Run, Second Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Knoxville, the Wilderness, and Petersburg

George G. Meade (1815–1872) Union major general who commanded the Army of the Potomac, June 1863 to April 1865; also fought at Second Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville

John C. Pemberton (1814–1881) Confederate lieutenant general who commanded Vicksburg defenses during the siege of Vicksburg

William Rosecrans (1819–1898) Union major general of the Army of the Mississippi and the Army of the Cumberland, 1861–63; fought at Corinth, Murfreesboro, and Chickamauga

Philip H. Sheridan (1831–1888) Union major general who commanded the Army of the Potomac's cavalry corps and the Army of the Shenandoah; also fought at Perryville, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, and Chattanooga

Excerpt from a Union Soldier's Diary

Many Civil War soldiers left behind letters and diaries describing their experiences. One of these soldiers was Rice C. Bull, a private with the 12th Corps of the 123rd New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment of the Union Army. Bull joined the army in the fall of 1862. In the winter of 1863, his regiment marched southward into Virginia during a blizzard and set up camp in the small town of Stafford. In the following passage from his book Soldiering: The Civil War Diary of Rice C. Bull, Bull describes conditions at the camp and his experience with the disease typhoid:

The intention had been to march the 12th Corps to Fredericksburg [Virginia], but as the movement against the enemy had to be abandoned because of the storm, we were ordered to camp at Stafford. As the 11th Corps, formerly stationed here, was now at the front and would not return we were directed to move into their camp. Their cabins were well built and all we had to do was place our tent cloths over the rafters. Then we made great fires, dried out our blankets, and stood before the fire until the mud had hardened on our clothes. It looked like yellow plaster and when dry would peel off in flakes, and you could see the "army blue" underneath. The march had been trying to us new soldiers, unused as we still were to such hardship.

It was unfortunate that we moved into this old camp, it proved to be a most unhealthy place. The 11th Corps had been there for some time and the stream from which they got their drinking water had been contaminated by their closets [latrines]. Typhoid fever soon developed in our Regiment and many men were ill. There were some who died, three were from our Company. We remained in this camp until March 1st; while there I had my only sickness while in the service. I remember how miserable I felt, feverish, faint, weak and with no desire for food. . . .

Conditions had become so bad by this time that we moved our camp a mile north on a hill which had not been occupied by troops. The ground was high and dry and there was water from a stream that had not been contaminated. All went to work with a will and we built new quarters. While they were not as fine as the ones we left they were comfortable and they were healthy. That winter we had already constructed winter camps at Harpers Ferry, Fairfax Station, and Stafford so we felt we were getting expert in that business. In this new camp the health of all improved at once and the depression that had settled on the Regiment passed away.

Life in the Army Camps

Many people think that soldiers in the Civil War fought nearly every day. Actually, though, one of the main characteristics of daily life in the army camps was boredom. Soldiers in the Civil War spent an average of fifty days in camp for every one day they fought in battles. While in camp, they settled into a routine of training and relaxation. For soldiers in the Union Army, a typical day began with roll call early in the morning, followed by breakfast. Then the men spent most of the morning and early afternoon marching and performing drills. Most soldiers did not like the endless drilling, but it did help them learn to follow orders and work together as a unit.

In the late afternoon, Northern soldiers usually took some time to mend their uniforms and polish their boots for the daily inspection that took place after dinner. The standard Union Army uniform consisted of a blue cap with a black visor, a blue coat with a stand-up collar, light blue pants, and black shoes. Different colored stripes on the uniform indicated the branch of service to which the soldier belonged. For example, infantry (foot soldiers) uniforms had blue stripes, artillery uniforms had red stripes, and cavalry (soldiers on horseback) uniforms had yellow stripes. The soldiers' caps also had different symbols sewn onto them depending on their branch of service. The uniforms were made of wool and were of high quality, especially after the first year of the war.

Union soldiers usually received adequate amounts of food. Their diet consisted mainly of meat, coffee, and bread, although fresh fruits and vegetables were sometimes available. Most soldiers did not like the thin, cracker-like bread they received, which they called "hardtack." They usually soaked it in water or coffee to soften it up before eating it. After dinner and the evening inspection, the soldiers usually relaxed by singing songs, writing letters to their families, and playing games, including an early version of baseball. This routine tended to change for a few days every other month, when the soldiers received their pay. Some of them used their money for gambling, buying alcohol, or visiting prostitutes.

Daily life in the army camps was very similar for Confederate soldiers. The main differences occurred due to the shortages of food, clothing, and other necessities that plagued the South during the war years. Prior to the Civil War, the Northern economy was based on manufacturing, while the Southern economy was based on farming. The North also had more railroads, canals, and roads to aid in the transportation of supplies. As a result, the South had problems obtaining supplies and distributing them to its troops throughout the war.

The chronic shortages affected Confederate soldiers in many ways. For example, the shortage of cloth meant that there were not enough uniforms for all the troops. The standard Confederate uniform consisted of a gray coat and pants and black shoes. But many soldiers were forced to make their own uniforms, so the Southern troops often appeared ragged and inconsistent. Later in the war, even the gray dye for the uniforms was in short supply. The soldiers began using a homemade dye on their clothing, which turned it a yellowish-brown color they called "butternut." Some men had to march and fight barefoot until they could take a pair of shoes from a Union soldier they captured or killed. The Confederate Army also had a shortage of tents, which meant that many soldiers slept out in the open under a blanket.

Food was in short supply as well. Even though the farms and plantations of the South could produce enough to feed the Confederate Army, the limited transportation system made it difficult to send the food where it was needed before it spoiled. In addition, some Southern farmers found that their crops were ruined by violent battles and military movements. As a result of these factors, the Confederate soldiers ate mostly cornbread and beef and were hungry much of the time. The men sometimes gambled their paychecks for extra food rations and could trade food for such luxuries as tobacco or stationery. Despite the hardships they faced, however, the troops from both the North and the South managed to keep their spirits up. "On each side the soldier realized that he personally was getting the worst of it, and when he had time he felt very sorry for himself," Bruce Catton wrote in The Civil War. "But mostly he did not have the time, and his predominant [most frequent] mood was never one of self-pity. Mostly he was ready for whatever came to him."

Bread Riots in Richmond

By the middle of 1863, shortages of food and supplies had become so severe in some parts of the Confederacy that riots broke out. Hungry mobs invaded stores and food warehouses in more than a dozen Southern cities during the spring and summer, including Augusta, Georgia, and Mobile, Alabama.

The largest and most alarming of these riots was the one that erupted in the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia. Richmond was very vulnerable to food shortages for two major reasons. First, it had to feed both the Confederate armies and the city's own growing population. Second, many farmers in northern Virginia had a difficult time harvesting their crops because of the large number of battles that took place in the region.

By the spring of 1863, constant fighting elsewhere in Virginia had reduced Richmond's food supply to very low levels. At the same time, the cost of the few food items left on store shelves jumped to shockingly high levels. On April 2, a few hundred women gathered at a Baptist church to talk about the growing crisis. They then marched to the mansion of Governor John Letcher (1813–1884) to express their concern, but he basically ignored them. From that point on, the group grew in size and became an unruly mob. It turned to an area of Richmond that housed shops and bakeries.

Within a short period of time, the mob grew to more than a thousand people. Women made up most of the crowd, but some men and boys joined in as well. The mob broke into several food warehouses and shops, taking bread and flour and other food items for their hungry families. Some rioters then moved on to other stores, stealing jewelry, clothing, and other items in the confusion.

When Richmond mayor Joseph C. Mayo (1795–1872) learned of the riot, he quickly mobilized a company of militia to stop the mob. But the crowd ignored his warnings to go back to their homes. The members of the mob knew that the militia contained friends and neighbors, and they did not believe that the soldiers would ever attack them.

Finally, President Jefferson Davis arrived at the scene. Davis knew that the mob's conduct could not be allowed to continue, and at first he tried to convince them to leave voluntarily. The rioters responded with hostility, though, and Davis decided that he needed to take stronger measures. He told the mob that if it did not leave the area in five minutes, he would order the militia to fire into the crowd. The rioters did not budge for four minutes. But when Davis looked at his watch and said, "My friends, you have one minute more," the mob broke up, and the people returned to their homes.

Confederate officials later arrested several leaders of the mob, and a few of them even went to prison for a short time. But the riot convinced city officials and merchants that they needed to take additional steps to relieve the people's hunger. The local government increased their distribution of food to needy citizens, and local merchants dropped their prices. These changes helped the people of Richmond, but finding enough food for their families continued to be a problem throughout the rest of the war.