General William Tecumseh
Sherman writes to his boss, Ulysses S. Grant, to discuss the wind-up of the
Carolinas Campaign. The letter appears below (in part). Sherman is in fine fettle as he writes:
DEAR GENERAL:
We reached this place
yesterday at noon; [C.S.
General] Hardee, as usual, [is] retreating across the Cape Fear, burning
his bridges; but our pontoons will be up to-day, and, with as little delay as
possible, I will be after him toward Goldsboro. A tug has just come up from
Wilmington, and before I get off from here, I hope to get from Wilmington some
shoes and stockings, sugar, coffee, and flour. We are abundantly supplied with
all else . . . The army is in splendid health, condition, and spirits, though
we have had foul weather, and roads that would have stopped travel to almost
any other body of men I ever heard of.
Our march was
substantially what I designed --- straight on Columbia. We destroyed . . . the
railroad[s] . . . to Aiken . . . [to]
Orangeburg . . . to Kingsville and [to]
Charlotte . . . At Columbia we destroyed immense arsenals [,] railroad establishments,
[and] forty-three cannon. At Cheraw we found also machinery and material of war
. . . twenty-five guns and thirty-six hundred barrels of powder; and here [in Fayetteville] we find about twenty guns and a magnificent
United States' arsenal.
We cannot afford to
leave detachments, and I shall therefore destroy this valuable arsenal, so the
enemy shall not have its use; and the United States should never again confide
such valuable property to a people who have betrayed a trust.
I could leave here to-morrow,
but [a] vast crowd of refugees and negroes encumber[s] us . . . I will send [them] down to Wilmington . . .
I hope you have not
been uneasy about us . . . this march . . . had to be made . . . to destroy the
valuable depots by the way, [for] the necessary fall of Charleston, [and] Georgetown, and Wilmington. If
I can now add Goldsboro without too much cost, I will be in a position to aid
you materially in the spring campaign. Jos. Johnston may try to . . .
concentrate his scattered armies at Raleigh, and I will go straight at him . .
.
. . . Keep everybody busy . . .
At the same time that Grant and Sherman
are keeping everybody busy, so are Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis. Lee has
been keeping a close eye on developments since the beginning of the month.
Everywhere he looks, the Confederacy is contracting its borders, its towns and
cities falling like dominoes. Having settled on a plan for his Spring
Offensive, during the last two weeks he has been meeting regularly with his
President to discuss the evacuation of Richmond. Lee knows that he cannot both
hold the city and mount an effective, mobile, offensive.
Conditions in the city are beyond dire:
When available, flour is selling for $1,500.00 a barrel in the now nearly
worthless Confederate currency, low quality beef for $12.00-$15.00 a pound,
butter for $20 a pound, and boots for $500 a pair. “[These are] close times in this beleaguered city,” writes one Confederate lady. “You can carry your money in your market
basket and bring home your provisions in your purse.”
And that is when foodstuffs are
available. People are subsisting mainly on cornbread soaked in bacon drippings,
dried beans, and hot water with salt or brown sugar sprinkled on it, a barely
palatable fare known as 'Benjamin hardtack' in honor of former Secretary of War
Judah P. Benjamin. Cats, dogs, mice and rats and squirrels are also on the
menu.
A businessman from outside Richmond
visited the city in this March, and wrote, “Everyone
wore a haggard, scared look as if in apprehension of some great impending
calamity. I dared not ask a question,
nor had I need to do so, as I felt too surely that the end was near. My first
visit was to my banker . . . As soon as
he could give me a private moment he said in a sad, low tone: 'If you have any
paper money put it into specie at once.’"
The exact date is not known, but
sometime around the middle of March, Lee and Davis decide that Richmond must be
given up as soon as is possible. Plans are made to move the Confederate
government to the small Virginia town of Danville, which lies on the northern
border of North Carolina, securely between Lee’s lines and Johnston’s. General Orders
are drafted that all Confederate offices are to archive their files and burn
whatever is unneeded. Secret orders are drafted, specifying that a special
train is to be outfitted to carry the Confederate Archives, the Cabinet, the
President, and willing members of Congress away to safety. Davis in his Spartan
manner demurs from having a personal railcar --- he and his family can sit on
benches like any regular passengers --- but a car is outfitted as his office.
“Why not go
immediately?” Davis wants to know.
Lee explains that the weather is still
too rotten and that the roads are too muddy for either the evacuation or for
the onset of his Offensive. He adds, in a low tone, that his horses are too
weak to pull the caissons through mud. Davis does not ask about the troops. He
does not have to. But Lee assures him that their fighting spirit burns as
brightly as ever, and this is what he is counting on. And there is one option
that may save the capital city, Lee opines.
The gaunt Confederate President gives
his General-in-Chief his full attention. Lee explains that at the extreme
southern end of the Confederate entrenchments the Union and Confederate lines
are within only a few hundred feet of each other. Since Christmas, when the
Billy Yanks brought holiday cheer across the lines to the Johnny Rebs, the men
in that area have become friendly. He feels that the Union boys are off their
guard.
Lee is heavy-hearted at the thought of
more killing. Throughout the war he has avoided calling the men in blue The Enemy, opting instead for Those People, as opposed to These People, his own Confederates. And
he is about to take advantage of the good-hearted weakness of Those People. But there is nothing for it
but to punch through the line there and send troops down the Appomattox River
forcing open a corridor to Johnston’s army; the combined forces of Lee and
Johnston can then fall on Grant from two directions.
Davis assents, with the proviso that
Lee must immediately inform him, no
matter the time of day, if and when the holding of the Confederate capital
becomes untenable. Lee agrees, setting the onset of his Offensive for the end
of the month. The men shake hands and
take their leave of one another. Lee returns to his Petersburg headquarters at
Edge Hill. During the long ride from Richmond, Lee has time to reflect. Perhaps it is then that the inevitability of
defeat strikes Robert E. Lee.
Upon reaching his HQ he eats a quick
meal, and then discusses events with his Military Aide, his son Custis:
“Well, Mr. Custis, I
have been up to see The Congress and they do not seem to be able to do anything
except to eat peanuts and chew tobacco, while my army is starving. I told them
the condition the men were in, and that something must be done at once, but I
can't get them to do anything, or they are unable to do anything . . . Mister
Custis, when this war began, I was opposed to it, bitterly opposed to it, and I
told these people that, unless every man should do his whole duty, they would
repent it; and now
--- they will repent.”
