The Real Turning Point of the US Civil War
Ulysses Grant Takes Charge in the East
Officially, the American Civil War ended in the spring of 1865, when the final Confederate forces surrendered to the Union. But the fate of the Confederacy had been sealed nearly a year earlier; and ironically, that occurred not as the consequence of a Union victory. In fact, it came directly after what under different circumstances might be considered a ghastly Union defeat.
The watershed moment? It was Union commander Ulysses S. Grant’s refusal to admit he was licked after the Battle of the Wilderness in 1864. The Battle of Gettysburg, in 1863, is often regarded as the turning point of the war, the defining victory for the North, but Grant's decision to press south after the Wilderness fight might have been equally decisive.
Mayhem in the Wilderness
The Wilderness, the opening battle of what became known as the Overland Campaign campaign, opened on May 5, 1863, when Confederate forces under Robert E. Lee engaged Grant’s Union troops in central Virginia to begin a brutal two-day fight. The combat occurred in an expanse of rugged, wooded terrain, and Lee hoped the thick growth and limited visibility in the area would work to the advantage of his numerically inferior Army of Northern Virginia.
A year earlier, Lee won perhaps his greatest victory a few miles away when he defeated the North’s Army of the Potomac in similar terrain at Chancellorsville. And Grant, recently promoted to Union commander-in-chief, hardly wanted his first showdown with Lee to take place in such a setting. But Lee forced his hand by sending two corps forward, and the result was a fierce, wild battle that cost both sides dearly.
The armies charged and countercharged with varying degrees of success. Units struggled to maintain cohesion, and at one point, the Union had both of its flanks in the air. Fires started in the thick brush and scores of wounded left on the field burned to death. One result of the chaos and confusion was Confederate corps commander Gen. James E. Longstreet being mistakenly shot by his own men.
When it was finally over, Lee retained the field after what looked to be an impressive victory – from a casualty standpoint at least. National Park Service figures place Confederate casualties at 11,400 and Union losses at 18,400. Those numbers seem extremely favorable for the South, which lost 1,900 fewer men than they did in their epic triumph at Chancellorsville and inflicted 1,400 more casualties than they did at that earlier battle. Historian Shelby Foote gives an even more decisive nod to the South in the battle, listing Union casualties at 17,666 and Confederate losses at only 7,800.
Still, numbers can be deceptive, and that’s one reason why the Wilderness is not remembered as a telling victory for the South. And what happened just hours after that “victory” set forth a chain of events that would ensure the South’s final defeat.
A Different Approach
Soldiers in the Army of the Potomac had become accustomed to a pattern. In the past, they’d head south, engage Lee’s forces, take a beating, and march back north to recover. But Grant had more backbone than previous Union commanders. He recognized that the North had more men and more resources than the South, which could be bled to death in a war of attrition. The Union could replace its casualties. The Confederacy could not.
So Grant pressed on. On May 7, he ordered his men on to the road for a night march. Many of the troops assumed they’d head north, finding a place to lick their wounds and rest up for what would surely be their next failed foray into heart of the Confederacy. Instead, the soldiers were ordered to march south. They were to maneuver around Lee, who would have no choice but to pull his army back in the same direction to protect the capital of Richmond. When the Union soldiers realized they were not retreating, they let out a cheer. They were not vanquished. They were moving on, and this time, there would be no turning back.
But there would be more battles -- at places like Spotsylvania Courthouse, Cold Harbor and Petersburg -- and casualties that had been unheard of in American history. Most of the casualties were Union, but so many of them were Confederate that Lee could not prevent his army from eroding. The end for Lee’s army finally came on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House in Virginia, where the beloved Southern commander surrendered to Grant. His army there numbered 30,000 men – less than half its size before the Wilderness. There had been no coup de grace, no single stroke that ruined the Army of Northern Virginia. It was just steady, incessant pounding.
No Reprieve from Grant
When Grant continued the southward march after the Wilderness battle, the outcome of the Civil War was settled, even if no one knew it then. If such a terrible battle and such galling losses could not soften Grant’s resolve – or at least make him pause – was there anything that could?
At Antietam in 1862, and Chancellorsville and Gettsysburg in 1863, Union generals McClellan, Hooker and Meade, respectively, showed caution that prevented the North from dealing crushing blows to the Army of Northern Virginia.
Lee received no such favors from Grant. The Union general’s decisions gained him a reputation as a “butcher,” but brought the war to a conclusion. After May 7, 1864, the fall of the South was only a matter of time. Lee could win only by annihilating the Army of the Potomac, and he no longer had the men or resources to accomplish that – at least not with Grant in command.
Sources:
Foote, Shelby; The Civil War: A Narrative, Vol. 3, Random House
Grant, Ulysses S.; The Autobiography of te General Ulysses S. Grant: Memoirs of the Civil War, Red and Black Publishers
MacPherson, James M, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era, (Oxford History of the United States), Oxford History of the United States
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