The Civil War This Week: Feb 16-22, 1865
Thursday, February 16
Lead units of Major General William T.��Sherman’s Federal Army of the West reached the Congaree River, across from the South Carolina capital of Columbia. Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard (commanding the region) informed General-in-Chief Robert E. Lee that the city’s fall could not be prevented. Confederate cavalry looted��Columbia to feed the troops on the assumption that��the Federals would pillage the city anyway.
By nightfall, Beauregard���s 10,000 Confederates withdrew toward Chester, leaving Confederates at Charleston vulnerable to attack. Confederate General William Hardee, commanding at Charleston, planned to evacuate that city and join Beauregard.
Friday, February 17
Mayor T.J. Goodwyn surrendered Columbia to Federal troops. A white flag appeared on the City Hall steeple, bands played, flags waved, and Federal soldiers marched to Capitol square. Some gathered in the new state capitol building and held a mock session of the ���state legislature.���
Cotton bales left by retreating Confederates began burning, and by nightfall, flames engulfed Columbia. Sherman blamed the Confederates for starting the blaze, but residents blamed drunken Federal troops, blacks, and released prisoners. Sherman stated, ���Though I never ordered it, and never wished it, I have never shed any tears over it, because I believe that it hastened what we all fought for���the end of the war.���
Meanwhile, William Hardee began withdrawing Confederate forces from Charleston. Troops burned buildings, warehouses, storage facilities holding cotton,��arsenals, railroad bridges, and shipyard vessels. The evacuation of Charleston necessitated the abandonment of Fort Sumter, which Confederates had defended against Federal conquest since the war began.
Saturday, February 18
The fires died down in Columbia��after destroying two-thirds of the city or 84 of its 124 blocks. William T. Sherman added to the ruin by destroying all buildings, railroads, and material considered useful to the Confederate war effort. Columbia suffered the worst fate of any city in the war, and southerners viewed this as a symbol of Federal depredation and atrocity.
The Charleston mayor surrendered the city to Federal troops at 9 a.m. A northern reporter called it a “city of ruins–silent, mournful, in deepest humiliation… The band was playing ‘Hail, Columbia,’ and the strains floated through the desolate city, awakening wild enthusiasm in the hearts of the colored people…”
U.S. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton ordered “a national salute” fired from “every fort arsenal and army headquarters of the United States, in honor of the restoration of the flag of the Union upon Fort Sumter.” Most black Charlestonians welcomed the occupying Federal troops, while most white residents abandoned the city. Federals burned cotton bales and war supplies. The twin falls of��Columbia and Charleston devastated the South, and regarding Fort Sumter,��Confederate President Jefferson Davis acknowledged, “This disappointment to me is extremely bitter.”
Confederate General-in-Chief Robert E. Lee wrote to Secretary of War John C. Breckinridge, “I fear it may be necessary to abandon all our cities, and preparation should be made for this contingency.”
Radical Republicans in the U.S. Senate blocked a vote on admitting the reconstructed state of Louisiana to the U.S. The Radicals sought to impose a more punitive reconstruction plan on the conquered states instead of President Abraham Lincoln’s moderate policy.
Federal expeditions began from Prince William County and Camp Averell, Virginia. Skirmishing occurred in North Carolina and Kentucky.
Sunday, February 19
Federals advanced on the Confederate defenses west of the Cape Fear River in North Carolina. Confederates abandoned Fort Anderson under heavy fire from Admiral David D. Porter���s Federal fleet and some 8,000 Federal troops. This threatened Wilmington, the Confederacy���s last significant seaport city.
Robert E. Lee wrote to John C. Breckinridge, “(Sherman) seems to have everything his own way. I do not know where his (Beauregard’s) troops are, or on what lines they are moving… Should his strength give way, there is no one on duty in the department that could replace him, nor have I anyone to send there. Genl (Joseph E.) Johnston is the only officer whom I know who has the confidence of the army and the people, and if he was ordered to report to me I would place him there on duty…”
Monday, February 20
Two Federal armies now advanced on North Carolina: Major General John Schofield���s from Tennessee and William T. Sherman���s from South Carolina. Federals outflanked Confederate defenders west of the Cape Fear River, leaving Wilmington open for conquest.
U.S. General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant assigned Major General Philip Sheridan to close the potential escape route for Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia from Petersburg and Richmond. Sheridan was to leave the Shenandoah Valley, wreck railroads supplying Lee���s army, then join William T. Sherman���s Federals in North Carolina.
President Lincoln wrote to Governor Thomas C. Fletcher of Missouri that although there was no organized Confederate military in the state, “destruction of property and life is rampant every where.” Lincoln called for citizens to control the situation.
The Confederate House of Representatives approved recruiting slaves as soldiers after long debate. Robert E. Lee supported this plan, arguing that blacks could be just as good soldiers as whites if induced into enlisting with the promise of freedom after their service.��This could also counter the international view of northerners as liberators. Slaveholders had long tried stopping this measure from passing, even though only about 250,000 southerners actually owned slaves.
Federal expeditions began from Nashville and Greeneville, Tennessee. Skirmishing occurred in Florida and Missouri.
Tuesday, February 21
Confederate General Braxton Bragg (commanding in North Carolina) ordered the evacuation of Wilmington as numerically superior Federal forces closed in. The Confederates destroyed or transferred most of their supplies before slipping away under fire.
President Davis wrote to Mobile newspaper editor John Forsyth, “It is now becoming daily more evident to all reflecting persons that we are reduced to choosing whether the negroes shall fight for us or against us…” The Confederate Senate delayed debate on the House-passed bill recruiting slaves as soldiers.
Robert E. Lee shared a plan with John C. Breckinridge to abandon Petersburg and Richmond if necessary. Under the plan, Lee’s army would move westward toward Burkeville and link with other Confederate armies in the South.
P.G.T. Beauregard shared a plan with Davis and Lee: ���I earnestly urge a concentration of at least 35,000 infantry and artillery at (Salisbury, North Carolina), if possible, to give him battle there, and crush him, then to concentrate all forces against Grant, and then to march to Washington and dictate a peace…” Meanwhile, Lee requested that Joseph E. Johnston report for command in the Carolinas due to rumors of Beauregard’s failing health.
Lee wrote to his wife, expecting Ulysses S. Grant “to move against us soon,” and William T. Sherman in South Carolina and John Schofield in North Carolina “are both advancing & seem to have everything their own way…” Nevertheless, he vowed “to fight to the last.”
The 55th Massachusetts, a black regiment, received a joyous welcome to Charleston by the city’s black residents. Most white citizens had abandoned the city.
Confederate Lieutenant General James Longstreet and Federal Major General E.O.C. Ord met between the Petersburg lines to discuss picket fraternization and prisoner exchange. The talks turned to overall peace, with Ord suggesting that since the Hampton Roads conference had failed, then perhaps the generals could negotiate an end to the war. Longstreet brought the proposition to Lee, who forwarded it to Richmond. Ord brought the proposition to Grant, who forwarded it to Washington.
Confederate guerrillas raided the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and captured Major General George Crook (recently promoted to command the Federal Department of West Virginia) and his top subordinate, Brigadier General B.F. Kelley at Cumberland, Maryland. The generals were exchanged through special arrangement with Lincoln administration officials, and the event became an embarrassment to the U.S.
A Federal expedition began from Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Skirmishing occurred in Maryland and Florida.
Wednesday, February 22
Federals entered Wilmington without opposition after John Schofield’s successful two-pronged attack. Federal losses since 11 February numbered 200 while��they captured 66 pieces of light and heavy artillery. Some 8,000 Confederates withdrew toward North Carolina’s interior. Capturing Wilmington was intended to open another base of supply for operations against Richmond. This also freed Schofield to join William T. Sherman for a northward march across the Roanoke River, the last strong defensive line south of the Appomattox River in Virginia.
Robert E. Lee issued official orders assigning Joseph E. Johnston to command the Confederate Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, as well as the Department of Tennessee and Georgia. Lee and the Confederate Congress had insisted on Johnston’s reinstatement over President Davis’s objections. The Confederacy now had formidable leaders in the Carolinas in Johnston, P.G.T. Beauregard, William Hardee, Wade Hampton, and Braxton Bragg. But they lacked men.
William T. Sherman’s forces continued advancing toward North Carolina with fighting at several points. Sherman appeared to be moving toward Charlotte, but it was just a feint; his real target was Goldsboro farther east.
Robert E. Lee wrote to James Longstreet that if forced to withdraw through Amelia Court House to Burkeville, the Army of Northern Virginia could perhaps strike Grant or Sherman before they could unite.
Lee wrote to Davis that any attempt to “unite with (Johnston) in a blow against Sherman” would “necessitate the abandonment of our position on the James River, for which contingency every preparation should be made.”
Tennessee voters approved the new state constitution, which included abolishing slavery and repudiating all Confederate debts. Kentucky rejected the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery. Operations occurred in Arkansas and Florida.
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Primary Sources:
Foote, Shelby, The Civil War: A Narrative: Volume 3: Red River to Appomattox (Vintage Civil War Library, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Kindle Edition, 2011)
Long, E.B. and Long, Barbara, The Civil War Day by Day (New York: Da Capo Press, Inc., 1971), p. 639-43
