During the war there was a strategic turnaround. The campaign plan of 1864 was developed by Grant, who led the Union’s armed forces. The 100 thousandth army of General William T. Sherman, which launched the invasion of Georgia in May, dealt the main blow. Grant himself led an army that opposed Lee’s connections in the oriental theater. At the same time, an attack was planned in Louisiana.
Red River Campaign
The first campaign of the year was the Red River campaign, which began on March 10th. General Banks’s army launched an attack up the Red River to cut off Texas from the Confederation, but on April 8, Banks was defeated in the battle of Mansfield and began to retreat. He managed to defeat the enemy in the battle of Pleasant Hill, but this could not save the campaign. The failure of the campaign had little impact on the course of the war, but prevented the federal army from taking the port of Mobile in the spring.
Overland campaign
On May 4, 1864, the 118,000-strong army of Grant entered the forest of Hlush, met the 60-thousand army of southerners, where a bloody battle began in the Forest Wilderness. Grant lost 18,000 men in the battle, 8,000 southerners, but Grant continued the offensive and made an attempt to take Spotsylvania to cut off the North Virginia Army from Richmond. May 8-19 was followed by the Battle of Spotsylvania, in which Grant lost another 18 thousand people, but failed to break the defense of the Confederates. Two weeks later, the Battle of Cold Harbor followed, which spilled over into a kind of trench warfare. Unable to take the fortified positions of the southerners, Grant made a detour and went out to Petersburg, embarking on his siege, which took almost a year.
Battle for Atlanta
Simultaneously with the Overland campaign in the east, a campaign was launched in the west, known as the Battle of Atlanta. The troops of General Sherman, taking advantage of the weakness of the Tennessee army after the battle of Chattanooga, began to attack Atlanta. General Johnston held successful defensive positions, but Sherman every time managed to bypass him from the flank and force him to change positions. On June 27, in a battle at Mount Kennesaw, Sherman launched a frontal attack on enemy positions, resulting in heavy casualties in his army. However, after this battle, Johnston was removed from command and John Bell Hood was appointed in his place.
The Siege of Atlanta
After a 4 month offensive, on September 2, the federal army entered Atlanta. General Hood made a march to the rear of the Sherman army, hoping to divert it to the north-west, but Sherman stopped the pursuit on November 15 and turned east, starting his famous “march to the sea” that led him to Savannah, which was taken on December 22, 1864.
After the start of the “march to the sea”, General Hood decided to strike at the army of General Thomas and break it in pieces. In the Battle of Franklin, the Southerners suffered heavy losses, failing to destroy General Scofield’s army. Having met the main forces of the enemy at Nashville, Hood decided on cautious defensive tactics, but as a result of a number of miscalculations by the command of the battle of Nashville on December 16, the Tennessee army was destroyed, which almost ceased to exist.
Military successes affected the outcome of the 1864 presidential election. Lincoln, who spoke for the conclusion of peace on the conditions of the restoration of the Union and the prohibition of slavery, was re-elected for a second term.
The Siege of Petersburg
The Siege of Petersburg is the final stage of the American Civil War, a series of battles around the city of Petersburg (Virginia), which lasted from June 9, 1864 to March 25 (according to other data on April 3), 1865.
After taking command, Grant chose his strategy to continuously put pressure on his adversary, regardless of any casualties. Despite the growing losses, he stubbornly moved south, approaching Richmond with every step, but in the battle of Cold Harbor, General Lee managed to stop him. Unable to take the position of the enemy, Grant reluctantly abandoned his strategy “not to maneuver” and redeployed his army at Petersburg. He failed to seize the city with a raid, he was forced to agree to a long siege, but for General Lee the situation turned out to be a strategic dead end – he actually got into a trap, having no freedom of maneuver. The fighting was reduced to a static trench warfare. The siege lines of the federal army were dug to the east of Petersburg, and from there they slowly stretched to the west, cutting one road after another. When the Boydton Road fell, Lee was forced to leave Petersburg. Thus, the siege of Petersburg is a set of local battles – positional and maneuverable, the purpose of which was to seize / hold roads, or to seize / hold forts, or distract maneuvers.
This period of war is also interesting for the most massive use of “color units” recruited from African Americans, who suffered heavy losses in battles, especially in the “ battle at the Funnel ” and the battle at Chaffins Farm.
Actions on the sea
At the beginning of 1864, another significant event occurred in the history of the war at sea; On February 17, the HL Hunley confederative submarine successfully attacked and sank the screw corvette of the Northerners, the Housatonic. It was the first in the history of a successful attack of a submarine (however, culminating in the death of the submarine itself).
The strengthening of the northerners’ fleet in 1864 led to the fact that the Confederate navy finally abandoned attempts to break the blockade, concentrating entirely on coastal defense. They succeeded, however, in carrying out a successful offensive operation with the help of the small armadillo CSS Albemarle, and for several months to establish control over the shallow bay of the same name. However, on October 28, 1864, Albemarle was sunk as a result of a brave attack by a federal boat mine boat, and northerners regained control of the bay.
The biggest event at sea in 1864 was the battle for Mobile Bay from August 2-23. Mobile was the last remaining port of the Southerners in the Gulf of Mexico, and its capture was of strategic importance for the suppression of the actions of blockade breakers. This task was successfully completed by the squadron of Admiral David Farragut, who overcame the Southerners mine-artillery position at the entrance to the bay, defeated the confederate squadron defending Mobile and forced the large battleship CSS Tennessee to surrender.
On oceanic communications, the Southerners ‘cruisers caused damage to the northerners’ maritime trade. However, in June 1864, the most famous southerner raider, the Alabama, was sunk by the federal corvette Kirsage in a battle near the French port of Cherbourg. In October 1864, another famous raider, the Florida, was captured by federal ships in the Brazilian port of Bahia, which caused a deterioration in relations between the federal government and the Brazilian Empire.
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