Sherman’s Great Ability as a Strategist
Although Sherman did not himself accomplish the first part of Grant’s plan in respect to Johnston’s army,—namely, “to break it up”,—the second part, “to get into the interior of the enemy’s country,... inflicting all the damage you can against their war resources,”( 3) was carried out as thoroughly as Grant or anybody else could have wished. It is also true that Sherman claimed the credit for the breaking up of Hood’s army in Tennessee, while he was marching to Savannah, as a legitimate and foreseen part of his general plan, like his successful march and capture of Savannah. But he appeared not to see that in such a claim he was condemning himself for not having done with a superior force what Thomas actually did with a smaller one. That result was, in fact, due largely to an accident which, in the ordinary course of military operations, ought not to have happened, and by which Hood was tempted to make at Franklin one of those furious assaults upon troops in position and ready to receive him which are almost always disastrous. It was just the kind of temptation to Hood’s army that was necessary “to break it up,” and it did so very effectually. The old “Army of Tennessee,” which had been so formidable, ceased to be a formidable army on November 30. Its fighting days were nearly over. After that it never did any fighting at all worthy of its old record. And there was hardly a single day while Hood was in command in the Atlanta campaign when a similar result might not have been reached by a similar method, and that without any risk of disaster to the Union army, because the force assaulted by Hood might always have had a more powerful army near to hand to support it if necessary.
In his special field order of January 8, 1865, announcing to all the troops of his military division the results of his great campaign, General Sherman said: “Generals Thomas and Schofield, commanding the departments to our rear, returned to their posts and prepared to decoy General Hood into their meshes.” If the purpose that prompted Sherman to send me back to Tennessee was to serve as a “decoy” to Hood, I must say that my part of the sport would have been more enjoyable if it had taken place earlier in the season, when Sherman was near by with his sixty thousand men to help “bag the game.”
It has occurred to me as at least possible that Sherman’s recollection of the suggestions I had repeatedly made to him during the Atlanta campaign may have been in his mind when he ordered me back to report to Thomas, and when he wrote his special field order. If so, I must protest my innocence of any intention to play the role of “decoy” at Franklin when one of the great gunners was twenty miles away, and the other several hundred!
Yet, accepting even the most unfavorable view of Sherman’s tactical as well as of his strategical operations in connection with the operations of all the other armies under Grant’s general plans and direction, there was nothing in them all that could possibly have prevented their complete ultimate success in the capture of Lee’s army. If Grant had not captured that army, Sherman would. And the surrender of Lee was necessarily followed by that of all the other Confederate armies. Hence, whatever might have happened if Sherman’s great march had not been made, that march with so large an army made the end of the rebellion in the spring of 1865 sure beyond any possible doubt. In view of a public service so original in its conception, so grand in its magnitude, and so brilliant in its execution, any criticism respecting details cannot diminish the fame of the general who planned and executed that grand campaign, nor that of the general-in-chief, the success of whose far-reaching plans had made the brilliant exploit of his subordinate possible. Such criticisms are justifiable only in the interest of exact truth and of exact military science, so that imperfections in the operations of the greatest commanders may not be mistaken by the military student as having been among the causes which led to success.
[( 1) Sherman’s “Memoirs,” Vol. II, p. 141.]
[( 2) War Records, Vol. XXXIX, part iii, p. 658.]
[( 3) War Records, Vol. XXXII, part iii, p. 245.]
CHAPTER XVIII Transfer of the Twenty-Third Corps to North Carolina—Sherman’s Plan of Marching to the Rear of Lee—The Surrender of J. E. Johnston’s Army—Authorship of the Approved Terms of Surrender—Political Reconstruction—Sherman’s Genius—Contrast Between Grant and Sherman —Halleck’s Characteristics—His Attempt to Supplant Grant—Personal Feeling in Battle—The Scars of War.
Upon the termination of the campaign of 1864 in Tennessee, General Grant ordered me, with the Twenty-third Corps, to the coast of North Carolina, via Louisville, Cincinnati, Pittsburg, Washington, and the sea. Under the direction of the Assistant Secretary of War, Charles A. Dana, and the personal management of Colonel Lewis B. Parsons of the quartermaster’s department, that movement was made without any necessity for the exercise of direction or control on my part, in respect to routes or otherwise. I enjoyed very much being a simple passenger on that comfortable journey, one of the most remarkable in military history, and exceedingly creditable to the officers of the War Department who directed and conducted it. I did not know at the time anything about the details of the arrangements made for transportation, nor who made them; but I have always thought it an excellent illustration of the good results to be obtained by a judicious distribution and division of duty, authority, and responsibility in military operations on a large scale. This being done under one common, competent head, to whom all subordinates are alike responsible, the military system becomes as nearly perfect as possible.
While the transports were detained by an ice blockade in the Potomac, I joined General Grant at Fort Monroe, and went with him on the war-steamer Rhode Island to Cape Fear River, where we met General Terry and Admiral Porter, discussed the military situation, and decided on the general plan of operations for the capture of the defenses of Cape Fear River and the city of Wilmington, and subsequent operations. On our return to Fort Monroe, I proceeded to Washington, and sailed with the advance of the Twenty-third Corps, arriving at the mouth of Cape Fear River on February 9, 1865, where we joined General Terry, who with two divisions had already captured Fort Fisher. I was then assigned to command the new department of North Carolina. We turned the defenses of Cape Fear River by marching round the swamps, and occupied Wilmington with little loss; then we captured Kinston, after a pretty sharp fight of three days, and occupied Goldsboro’ on March 21, within one day of the time indicated by Sherman, from Laurel Hill, N. C., March 8, for our junction at Goldsboro’. General Sherman, who had been delayed by his battle at Bentonville, did not reach Goldsboro’ until the 23d, but the sound of his guns on the 20th and 21st informed me that he was near, and I put a bridge across the Neuse River, so as to go to his assistance if necessary. After the junction at Goldsboro’, I commanded the “center,” one of the three grand divisions of Sherman’s army.
For the elucidation of some things in this campaign which have seemed obscure, and some acts of General Sherman which have been severely criticized, it is necessary to know the ruling ideas which actuated him. As Sherman says, in his own estimate of the relative importance of his march through Georgia and that through the Carolinas, the former was only a change of base preparatory to the latter, the great final campaign of the war, which had for its end the defeat and capture of Lee’s army. Sherman and his army expected to share the glory of capturing Richmond and Lee’s army, which had baffled the Eastern troops for four years. This feeling in the army was very general and very manifest at the time.