Johnston’s retreating tactics caused the people to clamor for a “fighting leader,” and Davis, in transferring the command from Johnston at such a crucial time, committed a grave error. Johnston was superseded by General Hood, whose chief ambition was to fight, which, in this case, was a great mistake in judgment. On the 20th, 22d, and 28th of July, Hood assaulted the lines of the besiegers, only to be repulsed again and again. In these fights more men were lost than during Johnston’s long, skillful retreat. An injudicious movement by Hood separated his command, obliging him to evacuate Atlanta, of which Sherman, on September 2, took possession. In its advance on Atlanta, the Union army had lost thirty thousand men. Hood saved his army and made his way towards Nashville, hoping to divert Sherman from Georgia. At Franklin, November 30, he met General Schofield, and drove him back to Nashville, from whence General Thomas made a sortie, and fell upon Hood’s troops, December 15, completely routing them. In the two fights, Hood lost in killed, wounded, and captured over eleven thousand. With the remnant he escaped into Alabama, and these finally reached Johnston, participated in his last fight with Sherman, and were surrendered at Raleigh with the troops of their old commander.
November 14, Sherman burned Atlanta, cut all telegraph lines and began his “March to the Sea,” ravaging, devastating, and utterly destroying everything in his reach. He was opposed by the Confederate cavalry, which successfully defended the cities of Macon and Augusta, upon which the Confederacy mainly depended for the manufacture of munitions of war. Sherman entered Savannah on December 22, the advance having cost him only 567 men killed and wounded.
SHERMAN’S MARCH TO THE SEA.
On June 19, the celebrated sea fight between the Kearsarge and the Alabama took place off Cherbourg, France. The Alabama was sunk after a five hours’ fight. Admiral Semmes was rescued by the Deerhound, belonging to an English gentleman, and thus saved from capture. August 5, Commodore Farragut, overcoming the Confederate ram Tennessee and the gunboats, sailed into Mobile Bay, commanding his fleet from the maintop of his flagship.
1865.—The opening of the campaign of 1865 found Grant’s army still before Petersburg. On April 2, he ordered an attack along his whole line, which had been so lengthened that the lines of Lee’s depleted army were very thin. The Confederates were driven back with heavy loss. Lee telegraphed to Davis: “My lines are broken in three places; we can hold Petersburg no longer. Richmond must be evacuated this evening.” That night Admiral Semmes, in obedience to orders, destroyed the Confederate fleet in the James River. Richmond was in the possession of the Union forces the next day, and on April 4 Lincoln held a reception in Davis’s vacated mansion. Lee attempted to break through Grant’s lines at Appomattox, but closely pursued by Sheridan, and finding further retreat impossible, he surrendered with about twenty-six thousand men on the 9th of April.
Grant’s magnanimous terms were worthy of his fame. The troops were paroled on condition of promise not to take up arms until exchanged. The officers were permitted to keep baggage and side arms, and all were to retain their horses, as, Grant said, “they would be needed in the crops.”
LEE’S SURRENDER AT APPOMATTOX.
Turning northward from Savannah, Sherman continued his march and reached Fayetteville, North Carolina. Wilmington had been captured early in the year by a land and naval force. Johnston had been reinforced by the garrison which had been forced to evacuate Charleston and the remnant of Hood’s army, and had several severe fights, with no decisive results, with Sherman, who entered Raleigh; and here, on April 26, Johnston’s army surrendered on the same terms given by Grant.