The Civil War Years: An Illustrated Chronicle of the Life of a Nation

495 Pages·2011·19.79 MB·English

by  Denney

THE
CIVIL WAR
YEARS
AN ILLUSTRATED CHRONICLE
OF THE LIFE OF A NATION
ROBERT E. DENNEY
Foreword by
Gregory J. W. Urwin
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
© 2011 by Robert E. Denney
Distributed in Canada by Sterling Publishing The text featured in this edition is abridged from The
Civil War Years: A Day-by-Day of the Life of a Nation originally published by Sterling Publishing Co.,
Inc., in 1992.
Page ii: Union flag (top), Confederate flag (bottom)
Facing page: The Battle of Nashville, December 16, 1864
Page vi: United States map c. 1860s Cover design: Kimberly Glyder
Interior design: Oxygen Design/Sherry Williams All rights reserved
ISBN: 978-1-4027-7866-7
Sterling eBook ISBN: 978-1-4027-8926-7
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FOREWORD
PROLOGUE
1861
“This country will be drenched in blood. God only knows how it will end.
Perhaps the liberties of the whole country, of every section and every man
will be destroyed.…”
—William T. Sherman, December 1860
1862
“This is no time for man to war against man. The forces of Heaven are
loose and in all their fury, the wind howls, the sea rages, the eternal is here
in all his majesty.…”
—Private Day, off Cape Hatteras, N.C., January 1862
1863
“… [B]ut just then a white flag was seen to flutter from the rebel works,
which proclaimed that the finale had been reached. Then one long, joyous
shout echoed and re-echoed along our lines. Its cadence rang long and
deep over hill and valley until we caught the glad anthem and swelled the
chorus with our voices in one glad shout of joy. It was a glorious opening
for the Fourth of July.…”
—Corporal Barber, at the surrender of Vicksburg, July 1863
1864
“… the country mourned the loss of one of its more illustrious defenders,
the brave and noble McPherson. When his death became known to the army
that he commanded, many brave and war-worn heroes wept like children.
… It is said that Gen. Grant wept when he heard of his death.…”
—Corporal Barber, outside Atlanta, July 1864
1865
“… [I] regard it as my duty to shift from myself the responsibility of any
further effusion of blood, by asking of you the surrender of that portion of
the C. S. Army known as the Army of Northern Virginia.…”
—Gen. U. S. Grant to Gen. Robert E. Lee, April 7, 1865
EPILOGUE
IMAGE CREDITS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

FOREWORD
GREGORY J. W. URWIN
T
HE CIVIL WAR CLAIMED MORE AMERICAN LIVES than any other war
in history. It is also the most written-about of America’s wars. Though the
Confederacy fell nearly [150] years ago, interest in the conflict that swept away
the Old South remains high. The best-selling status achieved by such titles as
Battle Cry of Freedom by James M. McPherson and The Civil War by Geoffrey
Ward, Ric Burns, and Ken Burns attests to the public’s enduring fascination with
a period in which the United States nearly destroyed herself.
The elements that account for the Civil War’s undying appeal are the same
that go into the making of great drama. What other era in American history is so
teeming with noble heroes and outright villains, military geniuses and bunglers,
unspotted idealism and base corruption, miraculous battlefield victories and
tragic defeats? And what single event so changed the nature of this nation or
molded the character of her people? Anyone who wishes to understand what the
United States is today cannot afford to ignore the Civil War.
In The Civil War Years, Robert E. Denney has prepared a rare treat for
devotees of what the Lincoln Administration called the War of Rebellion. More
than an authoritative reference tool, this is a book to be read from cover to cover,
for it allows the reader to experience the Civil War as that struggle unfolded to
the people caught up in it. Unlike E. B. Long’s straightforward chronology, The
Civil War Day by Day, Denney augments his daily entries with generous doses
of eyewitness testimony. Here are the words of the soldiers, sailors, and civilians
of the North and South, woven together in a narrative that is both moving and
informative.
Perhaps the two most praiseworthy features of The Civil War Years are its
comprehensiveness and balance. Far too many overviews of the Civil War are
written by authors infatuated with Robert E. Lee and his brilliant exploits in the
Eastern Theater. Instead of giving proper coverage to the campaigns waged in
Western Theater, where hard-marching Union armies under Grant, Sherman, and
Thomas scored the breakthroughs that actually decided the conflict, acolytes of
the “Lee Cult” devote a disproportionate amount of their attention to the seesaw
struggle in northern Virginia. Consequently, too many Americans still tend to
view Johnny Reb as a superman and find it difficult to understand how he lost
the war. Furthermore, Denney does not neglect the North’s massive naval effort,
which turned the South’s navigable rivers into invasion routes and steadily
inhibited the Confederacy’s attempts to sustain her outnumbered armies.
Finally, Denney avoids the common pitfall of depicting the Civil War as some
intricate chess game played by politicians and generals. It was a people’s
contest, demanding an unprecedented level of sacrifice from the opposing
masses. It was the people of the North and South, black and white alike, who
shaped the war’s outcome as much as their leaders. To his credit, Denney lets the
men in the ranks tell much of the story. These were the men who did the killing
and the dying, the men who upheld the causes defined by the politicians and
carried out the decisions made by the generals, and their accounts lead us to an
intimate familiarity with the real Civil War.
Denney acquired his sympathy for the lowly GIs of the Civil War—the Billy
Yanks and the Johnny Rebs—through hard experience. A decorated combat
veteran who saw action both in Korea and Vietnam, he served for three years in
the U.S. Marine Corps, followed by seventeen years in the Army. He
understands what truly matters to the men who fight wars, which is readily
apparent on every page of The Civil War Years. He has assembled a haunting
chorus of soldier voices to guide us on an unforgettable journey through four
years of nightmare and glory.
The Civil War Years possesses a timeless quality, which makes it a worthy
addition to our long canon of distinguished Civil War literature. A work of this
size and scope demands a considerable amount of a reader’s time, but those who
make that investment will reap tremendous dividends in both entertainment and
increased insight.
PROLOGUE
T
HE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR has probably been written about more than any
other war in history. During the actual conflict, many writers, diarists, and
magazines contributed millions of words (representing many man-hours of
effort) to the description of people, places, and events. Today, countless scholars
and buffs write articles, pamphlets, and books explaining the most minute events
of the war. During the centennial celebration, a great surge of literature was
published and this flood has scarcely abated.
This book doesn’t attempt to prove a point, or establish guilt (or innocence)
for any action, political or military, that occurred during that period. It uses
actual diaries and books of soldiers who participated in the conflict and records
their daily lives. No attempt is made to analyze strategy, tactics, or troop
movements.
The characters described within this book are real. Every attempt has been
made to breathe life into their stories by providing a perspective of the overall
event—the war.
THE MILITARY FORCES AT THE BEGINNING OF THE WAR
At the beginning of 1861, the United States Army and Navy were small indeed
for so vast a country. The Army consisted of less than 16,000 officers and men.
These were scattered over the entire country, with most of them in the west
guarding settlers against Indians.
General Winfield Scott, a native Virginian, the senior officer in the service,
was born in 1786. He was 75 at the beginning of the war. A veteran of every war
since 1812, he had never commanded more than a few thousand troops in a
single mass. Before the war, he was partial to the enlistment of Southern
“gentlemen” into the Army, and took great pains to groom them for command.
He would eventually be replaced by Major General George B. McClellan (whose
ego was larger than Scott’s own) and fade from public view. He refused an offer
to head the Confederate Army, and chose instead to stay with the Union he had
served for more than 40 years.
At the outset of the war there were 1,108 officers in the Army, counting all
grades and ranks. Of these, 387 either resigned to join the Confederacy or were