Civil War - Final Battles

1864
As the war in the west was proving to be on the Union's side, Ulysses S. Grant was given command of all the Union forces, and ordered to lead 122,000 troops down to Richmond. Lee met Grant's forces near the scene of the now one year old battle of Chancellorsville. Both armies fought "at the battles of the Wilderness (May 5-6), Spostlyvania Court House (May 8-12), and the North Anna River (May 16-23)." The Confederate forces kept pushing the Union forces back, but Grant refused to retreat and kept on the pursuit.

The Battle of Cold Harbor
Date: June 1-3, 1864
Commanders:
- Union: U.S. Grant
- Confederate: Robert E. Lee
Winning Side: Confederates
Strategy: Grant continued to chase down Lee until he caught up with him at a dusty crossroads called Cold Harbor. There, Grant ordered his troops on the entrenched Confederate positions which was a near suicidal tactic. By the end of the day, 7,000 Union soldiers were dead, and the rest of the Union army refused to reattempt the assault the next morning, which Grant ordered them to do.
Consequences: Lee's army continued to fight despite having few supplies and being outnumbered. The war in the North dragged on.

War in Georgia
Atlanta Campaign
When Grant was promoted to command all of the Union forces, his most trusted officer, General William Tecumseh Sherman was promoted to take command all of Union forces in the West. Sherman's main goal in the Western campaign was to take the capital of Atlanta.
In a series of battles General Sherman fought against the Confederate forces of General Johnston. Johnston carefully set up defensive positions "using fortifications of earth, timber, and stone." Sherman carefully flanked these positions nearly every battle and slowly pushed Johnson back towards Atlanta.
Jefferson Davis, who feared Johnston's tactics were giving away the ground to Atlanta, replaced the general with a more aggresive one, John B. Hood.
Hood went on the assault and surprise-attacked the Union forces in the Battle of Atlanta. Despite the surpise-attack, Union forces beat Hood's forces and entered Atlanta.

March to the Sea
After Atlanta was in Northern hands, Sherman proposed that he should march his force across Georgia to the seaport of Savannah. This plan would do two things:
1) It would destroy many Confederate supplies.
2) It would demoralize the South and show that "the Confederacy was rapidly losing its ability to resist."
Before the march, Sherman gave some of his forces to General George Thomas to hold the state of Tennessee, because Confederate General Hood was still in the area.
Sherman began the march and Hood launched an invasion of Tennessee. But thanks to General Thomas's forces, the Union forces repelled the attacks. The fighting completely ended at the Battle of Nashville where Union forces totally destroyed Hood's.

Sherman continued his march destroying crops, livestock, valuables, and other items. Some men went out of control and others who were not even part of the army started to pillage, loot, and perform serious crimes against the Southerners.
When Sherman reached Savannah in December, he estimated that his army had done over $100,000,000 of damage.

Confederate Collapse
Back at home, Lincoln was reelected in the election of 1864. Sherman continued his march north from Savannah, and General Grant continued to move southward, both generals closing in on General Lee.
Grant crossed the James river and "laid a twenty-five-mile-long siege line against Petersburg, Virginia." Petersburg was a major Confederate railroad junction, and if captured, it would cut off Richmond from the rest of the South. For nine whole months from July 1864 to March 1865, Grant laid his siege on the city. Both sides lost men to disease, but Grant could replace his as the Confederate lines were getting thin.
As Sherman got closer and closer to Lee from the south and Grant's siege was taking it's toll, Lee moved out of the siege and linked up with Confederate General Johnston in North Carolina. They hoped to reach the rail lines at Danville and Lynchburg, but were cut off by Grant's army at every turn. Some Confederates tried to persuade Lee to scatter his units to conduct guerilla warfare, but Lee refused, seeing that any more bloodshed was not necessary.

Surrender at Appomattox (April 1865)
"Lee met Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, where they agreed on the terms of surrender..." Grant's terms basically told the Confederates to lay down their arms, and go home, and no one would be harmed. Lee graciously accepted his offer and the Civil War was over.