NOVEMBER 1863: FEDERAL ADVANCES CONTINUE
11/1/2011
The Federal blockade was rapidly destroying the southern economy. Major fighting occurred at the key railroad city of Chattanooga, and President Abraham Lincoln delivered an historic address.
The Chattanooga Campaign
Federal troops at Chattanooga started receiving supplies via the "cracker line" on the Tennessee River. This broke the Confederate siege of the city. As General Ulysses S. Grant began a military buildup to break out of Chattanooga, Confederate President Jefferson Davis told the Confederate commander, Braxton Bragg, to "not allow the enemy to get up all his reinforcements before striking him, if it can be avoided…"
Grant developed a plan of attack: William T. Sherman’s Federals would assault the Confederate right north of Missionary Ridge; George Thomas’s Federals would assault the Confederate center at Missionary Ridge, and Joseph Hooker’s Federals would assault the Confederate left at Lookout Mountain and Chattanooga Valley. Bragg was largely unaware of Grant’s plan.
The Knoxville Campaign
Bragg had weakened his army by sending a corps under General James Longstreet to attack General Ambrose Burnside’s Federals at Knoxville. President Lincoln had previously urged Burnside to go to Chattanooga, but now he instructed Burnside to hold Knoxville at all costs. Burnside planned to oppose Longstreet outside the city, and then slowly withdraw to draw the Confederates further from Chattanooga.
The forces skirmished outside town, and when Burnside withdrew as planned, Longstreet placed Knoxville under siege. A general Confederate attack was repulsed, and Longstreet withdrew into Virginia after learning that Ulysses S. Grant was sending reinforcements to Knoxville. Longstreet faced southern criticism for both the attack and the manner in which he had conducted the failed Knoxville campaign.
The Charleston Campaign
Federal naval forces continued bombarding Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. The main target was Fort Sumter, which held both symbolic and strategic significance. Jefferson Davis visited Charleston and noted that the city "was now singled out as a particular point of hatred to the Yankees." However, Davis "did not believe Charleston would ever be taken."
Throughout the month, Fort Sumter was pummeled by over 600 artillery rounds per day. A small Federal force in a rowboat tried landing on Sumter to launch a ground attack, but it was repulsed by Confederate defenders. After thousands of shells had reduced Sumter to rubble, there was still no sign of Confederate surrender.
The Eastern Texas Campaign
After failing to capture eastern Texas at Sabine Pass and Opelousas, Federals under General Nathaniel Banks began a campaign to capture the Texas coastline and Rio Grande River, which would close Mexico to Confederate trade. Banks had initially been ordered to attack from the Red River, but he was a politician, and he feared that failure would hurt his political career. Thus he embarked on this less risky route.
Banks’s Federals captured several towns along the Rio Grande. However, they held little significance because that region was already under Federal naval blockade, and Mexican trade with Confederates simply moved farther up the river. Overall, the Federal presence in southern Texas merely kept Banks’s army busy when it could have been better used elsewhere.
North and South
Confederate General John Hunt Morgan and six of his men escaped from the Ohio State Penitentiary; they had been held there since being captured while raiding Ohio in July. Morgan and four others reached Confederate lines in Kentucky. Rumors circulated that the men had escaped by tunneling through air shafts, but some claimed that they bribed their way out.
Northern state elections produced Republican majorities in every state except New Jersey. This gave the Lincoln administration optimism as they looked forward to the 1864 Federal elections. An avid theatergoer, President Lincoln attended The Marble Heart, a drama featuring the famous actor John Wilkes Booth.
Movement continued by both George Meade’s Federal Army of the Potomac and Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. Both armies probed each other, seeking an opening to attack. Skirmishing ensued in several places, but the opening never came.
Dedication of Gettysburg National Cemetery
A new national military cemetery was dedicated at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania for the fallen soldiers of the battle that took place there in July. Approximately 9,000 people attended the ceremony, which included famous orator Edward Everett delivering a two-hour account of the battle. President Lincoln was also invited on short notice to offer "a few appropriate remarks." After Everett ended his oratory, Lincoln delivered his address.
Lincoln spoke for less than two minutes, focusing not on the battle but instead on the war’s overall significance. Invoking the Declaration of Independence, Lincoln touched on principles of equality and spoke of "a new birth of freedom."
The speech was not warmly received by the audience or the press, and Lincoln called it a "flat failure." Lincoln’s opponents accused him of hypocrisy by stressing a belief in government "of the people, by the people and for the people" while waging war to deny the South those very rights. But over time, the Gettysburg Address would become one of the most celebrated speeches delivered by an American statesman.
The Battle of Chattanooga
By November 23, the 70,000 Federal troops in Chattanooga were ready to break out of the city. The Federal center under George Thomas advanced on Missionary Ridge, enabling William Sherman to attack the Confederate right while Joseph Hooker feinted against the Confederate left.
The next morning, Hooker’s Federals scaled Lookout Mountain under fire and through heavy fog; this fight became known as the "Battle Above the Clouds" as a result. Hooker was only supposed to feint against the position, but he captured it instead. Ulysses S. Grant quickly ordered Hooker to continue forward and try cutting the Confederate retreat to Georgia.
Grant’s original plan called for Sherman to turn the Confederate right, but Hooker turned the left instead. Soon, both men were stalemated on the flanks, leaving Thomas to try breaking the Confederate line in the center. Thomas was initially ordered to only advance past the foot of Missionary Ridge, but when the Confederates broke and fled, the Federals disobeyed orders and chased them all the way up the slope. In the confusion, Confederate Generals John C. Breckinridge and Braxton Bragg were nearly captured.
Bragg ordered a general retreat, to the disappointment of Confederates holding Sherman on the right. They held off a Federal pursuit, allowing the rest of the Army of Tennessee to retreat into northern Georgia. This fight shattered the Confederates’ morale and led to Bragg’s removal from command. It also solidified Ulysses S. Grant’s reputation as the North’s greatest commander. The next Federal target would be the vital industrial city of Atlanta.
WalterCoffey.com
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