The Life of Jefferson Davis

by Frank H. Alfriend

The army was, nevertheless, strengthened both in numbers and material, while its spirit, as shown in the alacrity and unanimity of reënlistment, was never surpassed. Military success was now the end to which the Government devoted its whole energies, as the real and only solution of its difficulties. In time of war military success is the sole nepenthe for national afflictions. Without victories the Confederacy would seek in vain a restoration of its finances through the expedients of legislation. Equally necessary were victories for relief of the difficulty as to food. Should the spring campaign be successful, the Confederacy would recover the country upon which it had been mainly dependent for supplies, and such additional territory as was required to put at rest the alarming difficulty of scarcity.

The expectation of the South was much encouraged by a series of successes upon minor theatres of the war, during the suspension of operations by the main armies. A signal victory was won late in February, by General Finnegan, at Ocean Pond, Florida, the important event of which was the decisive failure of a Federal design to possess that State.

The most serious demonstration by the enemy, during the winter months, was the expedition of Sherman across the State of Mississippi. This movement, undertaken with all the vigor and daring of that commander, was designed to capture Mobile and to secure the Federal occupation of nearly the whole of Alabama and Mississippi. It was the second experiment, undertaken by Federal commanders, during the war, of leaving a regular base of operations, and seeking the conquest of a large section of territory, by penetrating boldly into the interior. The first similar attempt was made by Grant, from Memphis into the interior of Mississippi. It is notable that both these expeditions were marked by shameful failure. They signally illustrated the military principle of the impossibility of successful penetration of hostile territory, even when held by a greatly inferior force, and, moreover, clearly indicate the fate that would inevitably have overtaken Sherman, in his “march to the sea,” had there been an opposing army to meet him. When Van Dorn captured Grant’s supplies at Holly Springs, in the autumn of 1862, the Federal commander had no alternative but to make a rapid retreat to his base. A similar experience awaited Sherman, who, leaving Vicksburg with thirty thousand men, marched without opposition through Mississippi—General Polk, with his corps of ten thousand men, falling back before him. Coöperating with Sherman was a large cavalry force, which, leaving North Mississippi, was to unite with him at Meridian, and upon this junction of forces depended the success of the entire expedition. But General Forrest, a remarkably skillful and energetic cavalry leader, attacked the Federal column, utterly routing and dispersing it, though not having more than one-third the force of the enemy. This necessitated the retreat of Sherman, with many circumstances indicating demoralization among his troops. His expedition terminated with no results sufficient to give it more dignity, than properly belonged to at least a dozen other plundering and incendiary enterprises, undertaken by Federal officers who are comparatively without reputation. The exploits of Sherman in Mississippi gave him a “bad eminence,” which he afterwards well sustained by the burning of Rome and Atlanta, the sack of Columbia, and his career of pillage and incendiarism in the Carolinas.

A notable event of the winter was the raid of Dahlgren, an expedition marked by every dastardly and atrocious feature imaginable. When this expedition of “picked” Federal cavalry had been put to ignominious flight by the departmental clerks at Richmond, its retreat was harassed by local and temporary organizations of farmers, school-boys, and furloughed men from Lee’s army. Not until its leader was killed, however, was revealed the fiendish errand which he had undertaken. Upon his person was found ample documentary evidence of the objects of the expedition, viz.: to burn and sack the city of Richmond, and to assassinate President Davis and his cabinet.[72] Yet this man, killed in honorable combat, after his cut-throat mission had failed, was apotheosized by the North as a “hero,” who had been “assassinated” while on an errand of patriotism and philanthropy. The shocking details of this diabolical scheme, substantiated by every necessary proof of authenticity, were published in the Richmond journals, and instead of provoking the condemnation of the hypocritical “humanity” of the North, with characteristic effrontery were ridiculed as “rebel forgeries.”

The Trans-Mississippi region was, in the early spring, the scene of brilliant and important Confederate successes. About the middle of March, the famous “Red River Expedition” of General Banks, contemplating the complete subjugation of Louisiana, and the occupation of Western Texas, was undertaken. The result was, perhaps, the most ignominious failure of the war. Defeated by General Taylor, in a decisive engagement at Mansfield, General Banks, with great difficulty, effected his retreat down Red River, and abandoned the enterprise, which he had undertaken with such extravagant anticipations of fame and wealth.

In the month of April, Forrest executed a brilliant campaign among the Federal garrisons in Tennessee, capturing several thousand prisoners and adding large numbers of recruits to his forces. With a force mainly organized within three months, this dashing officer penetrated the interior of Tennessee, which the enemy had already declared “conquered,” capturing garrisons and stores, and concluded his campaign by penetrating to the Mississippi River, and successfully storming Fort Pillow.[73] The most encouraging event of the spring was the capture of Plymouth, North Carolina, by General Hoke. This enterprise, executed with great gallantry and skill, had the tangible reward of a large number of prisoners, many cannon, and an important position with reference to the question of supplies.[74]

The aggregate of these Confederate successes was not inconsiderable. Expectation was strengthened by them at the South, and proportionately disappointed at the North. It was chiefly in their influence upon public feeling that these minor victories were valuable, as they in no way affected the main current of the war, and were speedily overlooked at the first sound of the mighty shock of arms along the Rapidan and in Northern Georgia. Indeed, the actors in these preliminary events were, in most instances, themselves shifted to these two main theatres, upon which the concentrated power of each contestant was preparing its most desperate exertions. Troops on both sides were recalled from South Carolina, and even Florida, to participate in the great wrestle for the Confederate capital, and the impending struggle in Georgia absorbed nearly all the forces hitherto operating west of the Alleghanies and east of the Mississippi.

However discouraged may have been the public mind of the North at the beginning of the year, the preparations of the Federal Government, for the spring campaign, indicated no abatement of energy or determination. Well aware of the diminished resources of the South, and of the political necessities which imperatively demanded speedy and decisive successes, the Federal administration prepared a more vigorous use of its great means than had yet been attempted. The draft was energetically enforced, and volunteering was stimulated by high bounties. At no period of the war were the Federal armies so numerous, so well equipped and provided with every means that tends to make war successful. Their morale was better than at the outset of any previous campaign. The Federal armies were now inured to war, composed mainly of seasoned veterans, and commanded by officers whose capacity had been amply tested in battle.

The agents selected by the Federal Government, to carry out its designs, were men whose previous career justified their selection. The sagacity of the North had, at length, realized the one essential object, to the accomplishment of which all its efforts must contribute. This object was the destruction of Lee’s army. Virginia was justly declared the “backbone” of Confederate power; Lee’s army was the pedestal of the edifice. It was in the clearer appreciation of this object, and in the determination to subordinate every concern of the war to its accomplishment, that Northern sentiment made a step forward, that was, of itself, no insignificant auxiliary to ultimate success. The blows which Sherman prepared to deliver upon the distant fields of Georgia, were aimed at Lee’s army, not less than were those of Grant. While the latter “hammered away continuously” in Virginia, to pulverize, as it were, the column from which so many Federal endeavors had been forced to recoil, Sherman was expected to pierce the very centre of the Confederacy, and seize or destroy every remaining source of sustenance.

The presence in Virginia of the General commanding all the Federal forces, was sufficiently indicative of his recognition of the supreme object of the campaign. The successful career of this officer was the recommendation which secured for him the high position of Commander-in-Chief of the armies of the Union. He was the most fortunate officer produced by the war—fortunate not less in having won nearly every victory which could promote the successful conclusion of the war, but fortunate in having won victories where defeat was the result to be logically expected.