No Turning Back

 On May 5, 1864 the Army of the Potomac crossed the Rapidan River in Virginia, opening its 1864 campaign.  Accompanying the army's commander, George Meade, was US Grant, appointed in March as commander in chief of all U.S. armies.  At the same time, General Sherman began his advance on Atlanta and three other Union campaigns kicked off, two more in Virginia and one in Louisiana.  Though the latter three failed, Meade and Sherman's campaigns spelled the end of the Confederacy.

On that day, General Grant sent a letter to President Lincoln, telling him "Whatever happens, there will be no turning back."

Grant was pledging that he war in 1864 would be much different from 1861, 1862, and 1863.  In the prior three years most battles were one or two days, with an occasional three days of combat (Gettysburg, Chancellorsville).  And, in Virginia, each time the Army of the Potomac was defeated or stalemated, it would turn back.  That is what Grant was referring to in his letter to the president.

And so, it proved.  From May 6, when Robert E Lee's Army of Northern Virginia attacked the federal forces in the Wilderness, until June 12, the Army of the Potomac and Lee's army were in constant contact, in full battle or skirmishing.  And each time the Army of the Potomac encountered a stalemate it continued to advance.  By the end of that period more than 4 of every 10 soldiers in each army as of May 5 were killed or wounded.  The survivors were exhausted.

Grant then moved his army across the James River, laying siege to Petersburg for nine months.

The year of 1864 was the topic of the Annual Symposium of Emerging Civil War, held August 2-4 at Stevenson Ridge in Spotsylvania which I attended.  It was the 10th annual ECW symposium but my first.

I was able to speak directly with General Grant as you can see from the photo above.  That is Curt Fields who has played Grant with impeccable accuracy, both in speech and appearance, since 2010 and, I can assure you, Curt IS Grant.  Curt appeared via Zoom for our Roundtable in 2020 and will be coming in person in early 2026 to help celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States; appropriate since Grant was president during the centennial of the country.  The conference was kicked off with Curt talking about the upcoming 1864 campaign at Massaponax Church which existed during the Civil War and still contains graffiti from soldiers of both armies.

For the next two days we heard from speakers on various aspects of 1864.  Some of the highlights: 

George McClellan's controversial West Point speech in June 1864 was the subject of a talk by Zachery Fry on the presidential election of that year.  McClellan was the Democratic nominee that year and I'd not previously been aware of the speech which was implicitly partisan.  McClellan's ideas of a suitable settlement of the war were mired in 1862, when it was still solely a war of Union, rather than of 1864 when emancipation was an additional war aim.  He seemed to think the country could return to its pre-war form, something that Senator Reverdy Johnson, Democrat from Maryland, realized was impossible two months prior.

More are familiar with Andersonville, the Confederate POW camp in Georgia, and the deadliest of the war, than with Elmira, New York, the location of the deadliest Union POW camp.  Derek Maxfield walked us through the history of the camp and why it proved so fatal for so many.

Jonathan Noyalas explained how and why Phil Sheridan came to command the army charged with finally eliminating the threat from Confederate forces in the Shenandoah Vally, how he succeeded, and its importance to the re-election prospects of President Lincoln.

"Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!"  Did Union Admiral David Farragut really say that?  Well, not exactly, according to Neil Chatelain but he did have himself tied to the mast to better observe.  Neil provided both a clear explanation of the attack on Mobile Bay while dispelling some of the myths that have grown around it and its significance.

Tim Talbott told the tale of the attack of United States Colored Troops at the Battle of New Market Heights, near Richmond in September 1864.  Another example of valiant efforts of Union soldiers, undermined by poor leadership and coordination.

The Army of the Tennessee missed a great opportunity to bag a Union Army at Spring Hill in November 1864.  Instead, the next day it launched its great frontal assault at Franklin, losing 7,000 men and 6 generals, including Pat Cleburne.  Joe Ricci explained how it all happened.

The meeting concluded on Sunday with a tour of Mule Shoe salient and of the portion of that line now known as The Bloody Angle, the scene of the most sustained hand to hand combat of the war, lasting twenty hours.  The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House lasted thirteen days, but it was the Union assault on the Mule Shoe Salient on May 12 that remains its most memorable day.  Ten years ago I wrote of that day and the memoirs of two survivors, one Union and one Confederate.

Our tour guide was Chris Mackowski, founder of ECW and moderator of the symposium.  Chris was a masterful guide, mixing the details of the events with well-chosen stories while keeping us oriented in the often confusing topography of the area.  He's the guy in the white shirt in the photo below.

I particularly liked that Chris took us off the beaten path and into the woods to visit a little known and visited (and neglected) monument, pictured below.

Chris told us that Edward Tobey Stuart and his father were responsible for the original purchase of 130 acres at the battlefield, an acquisition intended to preserve it, well before it became a National Military Park.  He emphasized that it was the efforts of people like the Stuarts and those of us, who in a smaller way, contribute towards the preservation that is so important for the history of our country and the memory of those who fought there.  Over the past eight years our Roundtable has made $40,000 in donations to organizations like the American Battlefield Trust and the Central Virginia Batttlefields Trust which, with matching grants, has enabled the acquisition of more than $2.3 million in land parcels.

I plan on returning for the 11th symposium next year.