Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-09-17


| ness" had, by the 7th of May, spread along
| the entire line of the federal armies. and
was raging from the Atlantic ocean to the
Mississippi valley. Columns Of men were
engaged in battle on the James river. in
| the Wilderness, in the Shenandoah valley
ard In northern Georgia. In few days the
| question was to be determined whether the
| north the south possessed the military
| mastery Of the continent.
South on the Defensive.
"By the 18th of May the southern troops
were forced to act entirely on the defensive.
and the Union lines had been considerably
| advanced. 1t was on the evening of this
! day, the end Of the first week of the cam
| raign. that Gen. Grant, in reporting his
| view Of the general results, wrote his letter
containing the emphatic remark:
" I propose to fight it out on this line If
| 1t takes all summer
From now on the tactics of Lee and
| Johnston were defensive, and they awaited
| the assaults Of the Union armies behind
Notifications. The Union center attacked
| ana Unanswered always by the left flank
While the right wing Unanswered generally
by the right flank One flank movement
after another forced the enemy out of po-
sition after position. until their main
armies were thrown back to near the
James river. to Stanton. Va, and to the
Eutaw river. Ga. In the east the great
battle of Cold Harbor was fought and a
| sudden flank movement to the left was
| MADE, the crossing of the James effected
ard the carrying of the outer lines Of
petersburg, which city, with Richmond
| was Immediately laid under siege. The
| junction of the armies of the James and
OF the Potomac now took place, and from
| this time on they together formed the left
| wing Of the Union armies.
1.-THE column in the Shenandoah valley
| mad penetrated to near Staun ton and Lynch
| Durg, IN Virginia. but their ammunition be-
coming almost exhausted. especially that
| for artillery, the army had to move over
toward yxh
thus leaving the Shenandoah valley open
| 10 the enemy to pass through in making
raids on the north; while the right wing Of
the Union army pushed its way on through
| Forthern Georgia to the Chattahoochee
river, which Is crossed, and moved toward
Atlanta. The first phase of the great cam
pa1gn was thus ended, and the second phase
| ROW opens before us.
In the Shenandoah.
"As already described. the Shenandoah
| valley was left open to raids by southern
troops into the north, and so able a man
as Gen. Lee did not miss such an eppor-
| tunity. A portion of the confederates
within the strong intrenchments of Peters
burg and Richmond were detached under
Gen Early, who marched down the Shen-
a Ma. crossed the Potomac. and entered
Chambersburg, which was destroyed. Early
then turned and marched on Washington,
Tor the defense of which city two corps
succeeded in saving the national capital
and in driving the enemy to the north and
west, where they took up the line of the
Monoeacy Sheridan was given the COM
mand OF these troops. He soon placed
| himself In the valley Of the Shenandoah,
where his army now became the center of
the Union line.
THE second phase was the adoption of
the policy to keep the enemy within the
besieged cities--Richmond, Petersburg and
At,anta-and actively to engage the out
side troops, to drive all the smaller bands
to the south. to devastate the country
from which supplies were drawn, and, as
far as possible, to destroy the troops that
gathered these supplies. In these move
ments the most active and most effective
column was the Army of the Shenandoah,
which soon sent the enemy, as Sheridan
expressed it, 'whirling through Winches-
ter annih:lated two armies gathered TO
protect the valley. and destroyed all the
war supplies it contained.
Hood Succeeds Johnston.
I'm the meantime. the confederate gov
eminent. finding that they were losing SO
much ground by their defensive policy, re-
Eeved Johnston an officer of great ability,
who was commanding at Atlanta. They
placed Hood in charge of that wing of the
army. Hood Immediately assumed the Of
fensive. and attacked the Army Of the
Tennessee on the I'D Of July, but was de-
feated by them and thrown back. with
great loss, into his works at Atlanta. In
this encounter Gen. James B. Mcpherson
was killed. by which sad event the Army
of the Tennessee lost its able and brilliant
commander, and Gen. Grant lost one of
his hest friends.
Sherman soon followed Hoods lead by
making another flank movement, which
caused the fall of the city, the confeder-
ates evacuating the place and moving to
the west and north, threatening Sherman's
lines of supplies.
sherman followed Hood for a while, but
1t was soon decided to detach part OF the
troops under him. to concentrate them at
Nashville, Tenn, SO as to prevent an IN
vasion of the north by Hoods army and
to abandon the lines of supplies in the
rear, ami then for Sherman to push on to
the sea, cutting through Georgia, living off
Of the country and destroying, as far as
possible, the store houses from which the
army in Richmond gathered its food.
The Siege of Richmond.
while Sherman was marching through
Georgia the siege Of Richmond was press
ed, and all the troops to the west as far as
to the Mississippi were kept active pre-
venting raids of the enemy and throwing
back the raiders who became especially
actiye-in other words, forcing the war to
the south and allowing nothing to divert
attention or loosen the grip upon Richmond
and Petersburg.
Hood followed one of the detachments
from Shermans army. under Schofield. at
lacking him at Franklin, and penetrated as
far north as Nashville, where in January,
the decisive battle of Nashville was fought.
This relieved the country in the rear of the
line from menace, and one might say that
the confederacy was limited to the segment
of circle, the circumference Of which
would pass through Richmond, Petersburg,
Atlanta and Nashville. The policy MAIN
tanned was continually to reduce the size
of this circle until the confederacy was alb
solutely crushed.
Sherman turned north. marching
through the Carolinas. Part of the troops
that had fought at Nashville under Thomas
was sent to Wilmington. under Schofield,
after the fall of Fort Fisher.
"Sheridan's troopers were pressed for
word up the Shenandoah valley to cross
over the head waters of the James river
and down that stream to join the armies
of the Potomac and of the James in front
Of Richmond and Petersburg. Stoneman
| moved from east Tennessee into the Vir-
ginias. The circle was contracted, and
the confederacy was pressed on every side.
This constituted the second phase Of the
great campaign, and the grand finale was
about to be enacted.
LAS soon as Sheridan reached the Army
of the Potomac his troops were placed on
the left of that army to attack the remain
ing lines of communication between Rich
rnond and the south This forced the con-