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THE BUTCHER'S BILL:
WINNING THE WAR
Early in the Civil War, one of the Unions military commanders devised a strategy called the Anaconda
Strategy; which was, essentially, taking control of the Mississippi River and imposing a blockade
around the coast. The reason was to choke off, or isolate, Texas and Louisiana and Arkansas from the
eastern Confederacy. In order to do that, they needed to take control of the Mississippi River which is
the primary corridor of the Confederacy. The Union had gained control of virtually all of the
Mississippi River except for the city of Vicksburg. Lincoln said that Vicksburg was the key. Ulysses S.
Grant was involved in trying to take Vicksburg in the spring of 1863.
Vicksburg occupied a big bend in the river, and at the top of the bend Vicksburg sat on top and looked
over this wide portion of the river. This allowed it to use cannons to shoot at whatever was moving by.
This was a problematic position for the Union to try to take Vicksburg from the Confederacy.
After months of trying to take the town, Grant saw an initiative and executed a bold and risky
maneuver by leading his troops south and then east to Vicksburg. Grant essentially cut himself off from
his supply line and fought his way down and up and around until he got behind Vicksburg. Residence
of the town moved into caves believing they could outlast the seizure. After a month and a half, food
was running extremely low and eventually ended when the Confederate commander surrendered
31,000 Confederate soldiers. By taking Vicksburg the Union had cut the Confederacy in two and the
Mississippi River became the Union highway.
In July of 1863, Lincoln issued the first draft in the United States' history. The law, however, favored
the rich as anyone who could pay $300 did not have to go. This provoked the New York City Draft
riots. On July 12, 1863 Irish immigrants attacked and destroyed the draft office in Manhattan. For the
next three days, mobs rioted throughout New York City; persecuting, murdering, and intimidating
blacks, who they saw as the cause for them being drafted. More than 100 people died in the New York
City Draft Riots. Irish mobs burned black churches, and an orphanage, and lynched many blacks. The
violence was not put down until troops who had marched all the way from Gettysburg arrived on the
scene to put down the riots.
Fortunately for the Union, in addition to the power of compulsion, Congress also authorized the
enlistment and use of black troops in 1862, but a year went by before any of them actually put on a
Union uniform. Black soldiers served under white officers and were paid $10 per month, $3 less than
whites. As a result, tens of thousands of black soldiers served without pay refusing to submit to the
inequality of discriminatory pay. Many Union soldiers as well as officers had stereotypical views of
blacks, but many of them also had their racist views challenged by the courage and conduct of blacks in
battle.
On July 18, 1863 650 men of the Massachusetts 54th regiment assaulted a battery at Fort Wagner in
South Carolina under the leadership of colonel Robert Gould Shaw. Despite vicious fighting and heavy
casualty, where 40% of the regiment did not return, they demonstrated amazing heroism and bravery
against improbably odds. This moment proved both the worth and value of black troops in the war and
encouraged the Union to employ almost 180,000 black troops afterward. Fort Wagner is absolutely
critical in convincing Congress and the military to make greater use of the availability of these
hundreds of thousands of black troops.
Black troops constituted less than 1% of the North's population, however by wars end they accounted
for 10% of the Union Army. Most of them were free blacks or runaway slaves. 85% of the eligible
black population signed up to fight the Confederacy because they had much more incentive to fight
than the average Union soldier. Out of the 80,000 black soldiers, 33,000 of them died.
Lincoln continued to struggle to find a commander who would use the North's superior numbers to
wear down the Confederacy using attrition. Attrition is gradually wearing down the enemies army to
the point where you defeat them or undermine their ability to continue fighting. However, in March of
1864 Ulysses S. Grant became the commander of all Union Armies – commanding more than half a
million men.
Grant had not been able to succeed at anything except for being a soldier. Thus, when the war broke out
he immediately reenlisted. He often missed his family, and tended to have a drinking problem when he
got bored. He possessed certain qualities that were highly desired by Lincoln. He was methodical,
dogged, and uncommonly clearheaded under fire. He also had no illusions about what was required to
bring the war to an end, that it would take heavy casualties. He was unpretentious and unsocial, quite
the opposite of his adversary – Robert E. Lee.
Grant decided to implement a strategy to constantly pursue Lee. Lee, who now only had about 60,000
men, would not go on the offensive. Thus, he would force Grant to engage him and attack him in
heavily fortified defensive positions. Although Grant may have disliked attacking fortified positions, he
did it anyway because he understood it was necessary to win the War. He believed that, as horrible as
the casualties would be, if he continued to allow the War to drag on many more people's lives would be
lost.
This strategy was not popular, because Grant's armies took enormous casualties. The number of
casualties that Grant's armies suffered were referred to as “The Butchers Bill”.
In the Battle of the Wilderness, from May 1 to May 7, 1864 in Virginia, Grant had his first engagement
with Lee in which he lost 17,000 soldiers. Fire caught in the forested area, burning many Union
soldiers alive. After the battle had ended, Grant went to his tent and cried uncontrollably. The next
morning he woke up calm, clear, and determined, and gave the order to move forward. This was the
first time that Union army moved forward after a defeat.
In the next month the Union army would lose 50,000 men. The two armies ultimately would sink into a
deadlock in Petersburg, VA. Grant had showed a determination to push forward and use his superior
numbers, but as a result of Petersburg it was difficult to gain any edge in taking fortified positions.
Even though things seemed promising, in late spring or early summer of the Union campaign was
brought to a halt and the north was losing control of the War. Due to heavy casualties people were
turning against the War and did not want to be involved because they thought the cost was too high.
Toward the end of summer of 1864, Lincoln had to face the prospect of getting reelected by popularity
during a Civil War. However, he was losing popularity because of the War. To add insult to injury, his
opponent for the Democratic Party was George McClellan. Ultimately, many hopes were invested in
William Tecumseh Sherman to take Atlanta, the railroad hub of the south.
William Sherman at the beginning of the War had been retired for madness because he said the War
would be horribly long and bloody. They marked him as crazy and sent him home, but soon brought
him back. Sherman, along with Grant, believed that in order to bring the War to a close quicker that
they not only needed to fight the troops of the Confederacy, but they needed to dedicate themselves to
destroying the desire of the civilian population to supporting the War. In order to do this, the Union
army began to destroy their possessions.
Sherman eventually took Atlanta by brilliantly out maneuvering the Confederate General trying to
protect the land. By early September he had taken control of the city and he began a campaign of
annihilation, referred to as Sherman's March.
Sherman's March was a march down from Atlanta to the sea, destroying everything in his path to hurt
the south so bad economically that it would be difficult to continue to send food and other supplies to
their armies. Economic, or “total warfare”, was a relatively new and shocking idea. Sherman told his
army to consume everything that could be used to supply Confederate armies. Sherman, heading off
from Atlanta, refined his plan. He had 62,000 men and a wagon train 25 miles long. From September
through December of 1864 his army covered 425 miles from Atlanta to Savanna destroying over
$100,000,000 in property and more than 25,000 slaves began following Sherman's army. By December
25, 1864 he took Savanna and presented it to the President as a Christmas present. They eventually
headed North into South Carolina and by February of 1865 had reached Charleston. Sherman and his
troops were as harsh as possible in destroying as much property as they could. When you consider how
little industry the south has, relative to the north. This is especially effective in bringing the south to its
knees.
Ultimately, due to the shortage of supplies and food to Confederate armies and civilians, Robert E. Lee
was forced to surrender at Appomattox, VA on April 9, 1865. The War was officially over. Five days
later, John Wilkes Booth, a supporter of the Confederacy who was too much of a coward to fight in the
Confederate Army decided that what he could do as a patriot to the Confederacy was to assassinate
Abraham Lincoln; which he did at Ford's Theater.
Speaking about the role of contingency in America's history, it would be difficult to over state how
much the assassination of Abraham Lincoln is a contingent event. It has a disproportionate influence in
creating unpredictable circumstances. The man who succeeds Abraham Lincoln is Andrew Johnson.
Johnson is a southern Democrat from Tennessee who was pro-Union, but he ended up opposing many
of the policies that Lincoln would have supported in terms of helping to free blacks.