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in this podcast are solely

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those of the individuals involved

1:02

and do not necessarily represent

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those of the SUBCW. Hey

1:28

everyone, welcome to episode

1:32

number 456 of our Civil

1:37

War Podcast.

1:45

I'm Rich. And I'm

1:47

Tracy. Hello y'all. With this

1:50

week's show, we're going to start to take a

1:52

look at an operation in February 1864

1:55

led by William Tecumseh Sherman that

1:57

was in many ways addressed rehearsals

2:00

The for his famous or infamous

2:02

marks to Georgia in October Eighteen

2:04

sixty Four before he set out

2:07

to cut a destructive passes through

2:09

the Peach Tree State, Sherman would

2:11

tell you if he says grant.

2:14

I can make the March and

2:16

Macon Georgia how. Sherman

2:19

was confident as his ability

2:21

to make Georgia how because

2:23

eight months earlier kids successfully

2:26

pulled off much the same

2:28

thing in Mississippi when he

2:30

made a march across the

2:32

Magnolia State targeting Meridian, As

2:35

you may recall or to the Federal take. To

2:37

get some new felt in November.

2:39

Eighteen Sixty Three Granted given Sherman

2:41

orders to quickly martin to. Knoxville

2:43

to go to the aid as

2:46

Embrace Burnside. To is threatened

2:48

their by Confederate force, not by

2:50

James Longstreet. By after six days

2:52

of pushing his men through cold

2:55

weather on frozen roads when Sherman

2:57

rodent Knoxville with the head of

2:59

his troops he discovered that on

3:01

November Twenty ninth, Burnside had defeated

3:04

in attacked by Longstreet and the

3:06

town with no longer in any

3:08

danger from the rebels. With

3:11

long streets retreat, the seeds that

3:13

Sherman in his men had made

3:15

a hard to merge to help

3:17

list no longer existed. Then

3:19

while his tapes march back down

3:21

to Chattanooga. Sherman traveled west

3:24

mass dell were Grant was

3:26

conferring with some generals of

3:28

his command the Military Division

3:30

at the Mississippi, which included

3:32

the Army said the Ohio,

3:34

The Cumberland, and the Tennessee.

3:36

There in Nashville, the Tennessee

3:38

State capital, Grant took Sherman

3:40

and several other generals to

3:42

pay a call on Andrew

3:44

Johnson. The sixty three

3:46

year old Johnson had been the one

3:49

senator from the South he didn't receive

3:51

in the United States at the time

3:53

of secession. Deeply

3:56

appreciated by Abraham Lincoln. Who

3:59

subsequently up. The Tennessean to

4:01

the position he now held. That.

4:03

Of the Volunteer States Military

4:06

Governor. In the

4:08

future, Andrew Johnson will become far

4:10

more important and Grant and Sherman's

4:12

lives than they or anyone could

4:15

then imagine. For

4:17

those of you who have read ahead and

4:19

the story. You. Know Johnson

4:21

later and eighteen Sixty Four

4:23

will be chosen to be

4:25

Abraham Lincoln's vice presidential running

4:27

mate. When Lincoln

4:30

is assassinated in April, eighteen,

4:32

Sixty Five say will propel

4:34

Andrew Johnson into the highest

4:36

office in the land. In

4:39

any toast or seven was still in. Mass

4:42

felt he had a conversation with his

4:44

friend Grant. About the rumor

4:46

says heard of various officers

4:48

criticizing says that his sermons

4:51

performance at Chattanooga. As

4:54

you can recall, at Chattanooga,

4:56

Grant had intended that the

4:58

main blow against the Confederate

5:00

position on Missionary Ridge would

5:02

be struck by Sherman's troops

5:04

from the Army of the

5:07

Tennessee. But. At

5:09

Tunnel Hill at the northern end

5:11

of the Ridge, Sherman's attack had

5:13

sale to make any headway against

5:15

the Rebel defenses there. In

5:18

the end, it was the

5:20

unexpectedly successful assault by soldiers

5:22

from George Thomas' Army of

5:24

the Complained that had cracked

5:26

the Rebel position on Missionary

5:28

Ridge and one the day

5:30

for the Federals, Sherman

5:33

excelled in big picture. Strategic

5:35

Thinking While he struggled

5:37

throughout the war directing

5:39

battlefield operations, So it

5:41

was unfortunate for him that

5:43

a tunnel hill she'd not

5:45

only confronted a difficult tactical

5:47

situation that found himself facing

5:50

Tactic Claiborne's. to was arguably

5:52

the confederacy's best division commander

5:54

while it was true that

5:56

sherman's reputation had suffered both

5:58

among some of his fellow

6:00

Union generals and in newspaper

6:02

accounts, nevertheless Grant

6:04

made clear that Sherman still enjoyed

6:06

his complete trust and support. As

6:10

we've talked about before on the podcast, during

6:13

the Civil War Grant and

6:15

Sherman had an extraordinary friendship.

6:18

In fact, as we'll see in future

6:20

episodes, this remarkable friendship between

6:23

two of the war's most important

6:25

figures will contribute in no

6:27

small way to the Union's ultimate victory

6:30

At Nashville in December

6:33

1863, Grant not only reaffirmed

6:35

his complete trust in Sherman, but

6:38

the two men discussed plans for the

6:40

campaigns they wanted to undertake in 1864. Grant

6:44

wanted to follow up his victory at

6:47

Chattanooga with a move against the blockade

6:49

running port of Mobile, Alabama on the

6:51

Gulf Coast. In

6:53

fact, just four days after Longstreet

6:56

broke off his unsuccessful attempt to

6:58

kick Burnside out of Knoxville, Grant

7:01

had written General and Chief Henry Halleck

7:03

that he'd like to have a go

7:05

at Mobile. But Grant's

7:07

idea found little support in Washington

7:10

since both Halleck and Lincoln believed that

7:12

a higher priority should be given to

7:14

Texas. That's because the

7:16

administration's attention had been drawn to

7:19

the perceived threat from France, which

7:21

had installed a puppet government in Mexico

7:24

City. And Lincoln

7:26

thought the surest way to keep

7:28

Emperor Napoleon III from making trouble

7:30

south of 3-0 Grant was

7:33

for Union forces to make a major

7:35

effort to conquer Texas, and

7:37

thereby establish a strong federal military

7:40

presence in the Lone Star State.

7:43

Washington's focus on Texas will

7:46

lead to the federal's ill-fated

7:48

Red River campaign, which

7:50

we'll talk about in future episodes. But.

7:53

It also meant that Grant had

7:55

to shelve his plans for a

7:57

movement against Mobile. But.

8:00

Still wanting to keep the

8:02

ball moving somewhere, Grant approved

8:04

Sherman's wish to undertake a

8:06

previously considered massive raid on

8:08

the Confederate Railroad Center and

8:11

meridian Mississippi. a hundred miles.

8:13

East of Vicksburg. Here

8:15

again, Grant was demonstrating his

8:17

complete confidence in Sherman. and

8:19

Sherman responded with this. Operation

8:24

Badly. Wrong. If

8:37

we rewind the tape to the

8:39

first week of July eighteen sixty

8:42

Three With the fall of Vicksburg

8:44

in the surrender of It scares

8:46

and the strongest remaining Confederate presence

8:49

in Mississippi was the recently thrown

8:51

together force of about twenty six

8:53

thousand men commanded by Josephine Johnston

8:55

at the state capital of Jax.

8:59

Determined to remove all organized

9:01

enemy resistance in the Magnolia

9:03

state Ulysses Since Grant ordered

9:05

his most trusted civilian, William

9:08

Tecumseh Sherman to take forty

9:10

thousand men and deal with.

9:13

This is the the second time Sherman

9:16

moved against the Mississippi State capital of

9:18

Jackson. The first time was back in

9:20

May. eighteen. Sixty Three during Grants

9:23

Drive on Vicksburg, when he

9:25

had sent Sherman off to

9:27

temporarily occupy Jackson, destroy what

9:29

he could have the city's

9:32

military infrastructure. And thus reduce.

9:34

Any possible rebels threat from

9:36

that quarter while Grant was

9:38

busy attacking the expert Now

9:41

here. after the fall of

9:43

Vicksburg, Sherman recapture Jackson in

9:45

July. Upon Sherman's approach,

9:47

Joe Johnston had skid adult heading

9:50

for more than thirty miles east

9:52

of Jackson. Sherman

9:55

said his troops to ripping up

9:57

railroads, burning warehouses, and the supply

9:59

state. Cain and destroying

10:01

the city's manufacturing facilities.

10:04

He hoped to prevent Jackson from

10:06

ever again becoming a base of

10:08

operations for the Confederate to threaten

10:10

the Federals hold on the Mississippi

10:12

River. Even as

10:15

his tapes methodically laid waste

10:17

to test sense, Sherman turned

10:19

his gaze toward Meridian hundred

10:21

miles to the east near

10:24

the Alabama border Meridian population

10:26

four hundred would seem and

10:28

in significance back on the

10:31

map. Except that it stood

10:33

at the junction of three railroads. The.

10:35

Mobo and Ohio. The.

10:37

Southern Mississippi and Alabama

10:39

and Mississippi River Railroads.

10:43

Those were crucial minds that

10:45

the Confederates used to move

10:47

troops and transport vast amounts

10:49

of supplies. It's no

10:51

wonder Sherman some meridian a surprise

10:54

well worth taking. If

10:56

he could lay waste to the place

10:58

like his men were currently doing to

11:00

Jackson, he believed it would not only

11:03

hinder future rebel operations and Mississippi, but

11:05

it would also be a blow to

11:07

the larger Confederate war effort. Although

11:10

he wanted to move against Meridian

11:12

after he dealt with tax and

11:14

Sherman realize that he hadn't brought

11:16

sufficient supplies for an extended for

11:18

as into. Enemy territory. In addition

11:21

he was worried and march across

11:23

the Magnolia stay in August with

11:25

Sas the strength to this man

11:27

as the scorching seat and depressive

11:30

humidity took it's toll on them

11:32

in the and of returned to

11:34

Vicksburg after laying waste to Jackson

11:37

by he didn't give up on

11:39

his idea of moving against Meridian.

11:43

Once the weather cooled off

11:45

though, events in Tennessee, particularly

11:47

the federal predicament at Chattanooga,

11:49

men any plans. Sherman hot

11:51

in Mississippi had to be

11:53

put on the back burner.

11:56

As. He and a significant portion

11:58

of his command. The

12:00

East to Eight grand suffer it's

12:02

to turn the tide and the

12:04

volunteer state in the Federals favor.

12:07

That now as the calendar turned over

12:09

from eighteen sixty. Three to eight and

12:11

sixty four. With Chattanooga saved

12:13

and with Washington having be towed

12:15

and attack on Mobile he lives.

12:18

He says Grant gave Sherman the

12:20

green light to go ahead with

12:22

this plan to move against Meridian.

12:36

This episode the podcast is sponsored by

12:38

The Sense of Union Veterans as the

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the Union veterans who thought

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during the Civil War to

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slavery. The National Headquarters

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reading Grant in Nashville, Sherman

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spend christmas in Ohio with

14:58

his family. when he returned

15:00

to Tennessee, traveling to his

15:02

headquarters in Memphis, And

15:04

by the time he reached Memphis, Sherman's

15:06

plan to move against Meridian was ready

15:09

to be put into motion. He

15:11

intended to make the march with twenty

15:14

thousand infantry. And a brigade

15:16

of cavalry sixty artillery pieces

15:18

would complete his force. Major

15:20

General Stephen Colbert would lead

15:23

thousand men from his sixteenth

15:25

core southward from Memphis to

15:27

Vicksburg. Where. He would join

15:30

a like number of men from

15:32

Major General James Macpherson's seventeenth Core.

15:35

Colonel Edward When Slows Cavalry

15:38

Brigade would serve as the

15:40

expeditions eyes and ears as

15:43

Hurl Boots and Macpherson's columns,

15:45

following separate routes, marched east

15:47

from Vicksburg across the Magnolia

15:50

State to Meridian. To

15:52

distract the attention as the

15:54

formidable Confederate cavalry General Nathan

15:57

Bedford Forrest, who was then

15:59

operating. In North. Mississippi, a division

16:01

of 7,000 federal horsemen led

16:04

by Brigadier General William Soy

16:06

Smith would depart Memphis just

16:08

before Sherman's force left Vicksburg.

16:11

Smith would move south following the line

16:13

of the Mobile and Ohio

16:16

Railroad, destroying the line as he

16:18

went and meet up with Sherman

16:20

at Meridian. Standard

16:22

military doctrine said that an army

16:24

operating in enemy territory had

16:26

to maintain a well-established line of

16:29

supply to the rear, but

16:32

previously during Grant's operations in

16:34

the Magnolia State, he'd

16:36

been trying, when he'd been trying to get at

16:39

Vicksburg, he was surprised to

16:41

discover that the bountiful Mississippi countryside

16:44

held such an abundance of foodsteeves

16:46

which might be confiscated, that

16:49

if push came to shove it would

16:51

be possible for his forces to subsist,

16:53

at least for a short while, by

16:56

living almost completely off the land. Now

17:00

on Sherman's march to Meridian and back,

17:02

he was going to put that premise

17:04

to the test. Sherman's

17:06

march on Meridian was essentially going

17:08

to be a large-scale raid. The

17:11

federal's would march there, lay waste to

17:14

the place, then march back to friendly

17:16

lines. Since the expedition

17:18

wasn't meant to hold ground but was

17:20

going to be only a temporary foray

17:22

into the hostile countryside of

17:25

Mississippi, Sherman intended that his

17:27

men would largely live off the land as

17:29

they went, rather than worrying

17:31

about maintaining a lengthy supply line

17:33

back to Vicksburg. Sherman

17:36

wrote, quote, we will take

17:38

all provisions and God help

17:40

the starving families. Visiting

17:42

deliberate ruin upon the enemy countryside

17:45

may be what William Tecumseh Sherman

17:47

is best known for today, but

17:50

such a strategy was actually a

17:54

180-degree turnaround from the

17:56

way Sherman campaigned earlier in the Civil

17:58

War. During

18:00

the first year of the war,

18:02

Sherman had considered it his soldierly

18:04

duty to ensure the proper treatment

18:06

of civilians and their property. He

18:09

took great care in seeing that his

18:11

policies and the conduct of his men

18:14

didn't trample upon the perceived rights

18:16

of Southern civilians. He

18:19

handed out harsh punishments to soldiers

18:21

who did as little as steel

18:23

fence rails for their campfires. But

18:26

by 1862, Sherman's thinking had evolved

18:28

to the point that he could

18:30

tell Grant, quote, We

18:33

cannot change the heart to the people of

18:35

the South, but we can make war so

18:37

terrible that they will realize their folly, however

18:40

brave and gallant and devoted to

18:43

their country they may be, end quote.

18:46

Within a year, he had strengthened his stance,

18:48

declaring, quote, War

18:51

is cruelty. There is no use trying

18:53

to reform it. The crueler

18:55

it is, the sooner it will be over.

18:58

Sherman's march across Mississippi

19:01

to Meridian in February

19:03

1864 would see him put

19:05

into practice what he'd learned during the

19:07

first three years of the Civil War

19:10

about how to best bring the Confederacy

19:12

to its knees and end the war.

19:16

Sherman didn't develop this style of warfare

19:18

in a week or even a year.

19:22

It had taken the course of the

19:24

entire war to change him from an

19:26

officer who sought to exclude civilians from

19:28

the conflict to becoming

19:30

a commander who actively searched

19:32

for ways to break the

19:34

morale of Confederate civilians, bringing

19:37

them to the point they would stop supporting

19:39

the war. In

19:41

the next episode, we'll take a closer

19:44

look at that evolution in Sherman's thinking

19:47

and see how we underwent this

19:49

complete change of attitude toward the

19:51

prosecution of the war. That

20:00

means it's time for this episode's

20:02

book recommendation, and our recommendation this

20:04

time is, The Hard Hand of

20:07

War, Union Military Policies

20:09

Toward Southern Civilians, 1861-1865 by Mark

20:11

Grimsley. Grimsley's

20:16

book is an excellent exploration

20:19

of how the Union's pursuit

20:21

of hard war developed from

20:23

an initial policy of

20:25

deliberate restraint to

20:28

a sweeping program of directed

20:30

severity. You can find

20:32

a list of all of our book recommendations

20:34

if you head over to the podcast website,

20:37

which is

20:39

www.civilwarpodcast.org. Also

20:42

at the website, you can find info

20:44

on joining the Strawfoot Brigade over on

20:47

Patreon and supporting the podcast in that

20:49

way. We're trying

20:51

to find time to record the

20:54

next members episode, which is about

20:56

Union General Alexander Hayes, whose

20:58

name may be familiar to some of

21:00

you from the Battle of Gettysburg. At

21:04

any rate, we hope to have that done

21:06

soon and out to the members of the

21:08

Strawfoot Brigade. In

21:10

the meantime, we have one new member

21:12

to give a shout out to this

21:14

week, and that's G. And

21:17

thanks also to G for his very

21:19

generous donation. Alright,

21:21

lastly, we'll remind you that the music

21:23

you hear at the start and at

21:25

the end of every episode is from

21:27

the song Midnight on the Water by

21:29

Spiritwood Music, and we use it with

21:31

their kind permission. And

21:34

with that, we'll say thanks to all of you

21:36

for listening to this episode of the podcast. Tracy

21:39

and I do hope you get your minutes skinned

21:42

next time, but until then, take care. Thanks

21:44

everyone. Bye. Thank

21:50

you. Thank

22:00

you.