“The Sand Creek Massacre” by Robert Lindneaux portrays his concept of the assault on the peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho village by the U.S. Army.
Courtesy of History Colorado H.6130.37
November 1864
By Phil Kohn
Phil Kohn can be reached at USCW160@yahoo.com
Maryland’s new state constitution, which abolishes slavery, takes effect on November 1, 1864. The same day, Maj. Gen. Andrew J. Smith, who had been in Missouri to defend against the invasion by Confederate Maj. Gen. Sterling Price, moves his Union force to Nashville, Tennessee, where they will reinforce the defenses being prepared by Maj. Gen. George Thomas. To the west, Maj. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest positions his cavalry on the west bank of the Tennessee River near Johnsonville, Tennessee. With the assistance of two captured Federal boats, Forrest and his men stop river traffic south of the Kentucky state line.
On November 2, U.S. Secretary of State William Seward warns the mayor of New York City that rumors from Canada indicate that Confederate agents may try to set fires throughout the city on election day. On the same day, U.S. Lt. Gen. Grant approves Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman’s plan for a “March to the Sea” from Atlanta.
As ordered by Maj. Gen. George Thomas, the Federal IV Corps arrives in Pulaski, Tennessee, in the south-central part of the state on November 3. They are to reinforce troops already there against an invasion by Gen. John Bell Hood’s Confederate Army of Tennessee.
Guns commanded by Confederate Lt. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest bombard the U.S. Navy Supply Depot at Johnsonville, Tennessee, on November 4, causing $6.7 million dollars’ worth of damage. Afterwards, Forrest moves south to rendezvous with the troops of Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood, in the vicinity of Tuscumbia, Alabama, in the northwest corner of the state.
In Chicago, Illinois, on November 6 over 100 persons are arrested by the military on charges of plotting against the U.S. The men, deemed to be Confederate agents and Copperhead sympathizers, are accused of planning to free prisoners of war being held at Camp Douglas on election day, seize polling places, stuff ballot boxes and burn the city. The charges are never substantiated, but many of the men detained are heavily armed. The Confederate troops of Maj. Gen. Sterling Price, having retreated from Missouri after their unsuccessful invasion, fight with Federal forces at Cane Hill, in northwestern Arkansas. The battle is more or less a draw, with light casualties on both sides.
The Confederate Congress meets at Richmond, Virginia, for the second session of the Second Congress on November 7. In addressing the lawmakers, President Davis is surprisingly optimistic. He downplays the capture of Atlanta. He calls for an end to most exemptions from serving in the army and, venturing into a controversial area, he recommends that the Confederate government purchase slaves for work in the army — instead of impressing them — and then freeing them upon their discharge. He does not propose using blacks as soldiers, but he does not close that door entirely, should necessity require it.
Tuesday, November 8, is Election Day in the U.S., and Lincoln is returned to office for a second term. He wins 55% of the popular vote, but crushes his Democratic rival, Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, in the electoral college, with 212 votes to 21, with McClellan winning only three states: Kentucky, Delaware and New Jersey. The same day, McClellan submits his resignation from the army.
Maj. Gen. William Sherman, in Kingston, Georgia, on November 9 issues preliminary orders for his “March to the Sea.”
Despite his defeat at Cedar Creek, in Virginia, in October, Confederate Lt. Gen. Jubal Early on November 10 moves his tattered army down the Shenandoah Valley to continue harassing Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan’s Federal troops. Maj. Gen. Sherman’s Federal troops destroy any property that might be useful to the Confederates, then depart Kingston, Georgia, for Atlanta. Sherman orders that once they arrive, all railroad lines around Atlanta should be destroyed.
On November 11, Confederate Lt. Gen. John Breckinridge leads a force of 1,200 men from Saltville, Virginia, and attacks the U.S. garrison at Bull’s Gap, in southwestern Virginia, forcing the Federals to withdraw to Strawberry Plains, just over the state line in Tennessee. Union troops based in Rome, Georgia, destroy anything of military value, then head southeastward to join Maj. Gen. Sherman’s force in Atlanta.
With his forces gathering in Atlanta, Georgia, Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman on November 12 orders the telegraph lines to Chattanooga and points north be cut.
Maj. Gen. John Schofield arrives in Pulaski, Tennessee, on November 14, to take command of Union troops there. They will be the first line of defense against an invasion of Tennessee by Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood’s Confederates.
By November 15, Sherman’s troops in Atlanta have pretty much finished tearing up railroad tracks, burning bridges and destroying anything else of possible military value. Then, sparing private homes and churches as much as possible, they set what’s left of the city ablaze. In northern Alabama, Hood’s Confederates skirmish with Federals along the Tennessee River.
On November 16, having organized his 62,000 troops into two infantry wings with cavalry and artillery support, U.S. Maj. Gen. Sherman orders his men to embark on his “March to the Sea” in two lines several miles apart. Having cut loose of his supply lines, he orders his men to forage off the land, destroying anything of conceivable military value. Horses, mules and wagons might be appropriated freely. Sherman instructs that any civilian resistance is to be met with “a devastation more or less relentless.”
The two wings of Maj. Gen. Sherman’s force continue their march on November 17. The left wing, commanded by Maj. Gen. Henry Slocum, marches generally eastward, while the right wing, under Maj. Gen. Oliver O. Howard, marches somewhat toward the south. (Sherman’s strategy in splitting his force is to keep the Confederates guessing as to his ultimate destination.) Ranging between them are 5,000 cavalrymen under Brig. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick. Opposing them are 13,000 members of the Georgia militia and 3,500 Confederate cavalrymen led by Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler.
On November 18, Jefferson Davis orders Maj. Gen. Howell Cobb, commanding reserve troops in Georgia, to call out every man he can to resist Sherman’s move through the state. Davis also encourages Cobb to use slaves to help obstruct roads to impede the Federals.
President Lincoln on November 19 lifts the Union naval blockade from Norfolk, Virginia, and Pensacola, Florida, as these ports are now under Federal control.
In Alabama, Gen. Hood on November 20 orders his 38,000 Confederates to march north from Tuscumbia on an invasion of middle Tennessee. Lt. Gen. Forrest precedes Hood’s main body with 6,000 cavalrymen. Hood’s intent is to place his army between Maj. Gen. Schofield’s force in Pulaski, Tennessee, and Maj. Gen. George Thomas’s sizeable force farther north around Nashville. In Georgia, Sherman’s troops march inexorably forward, fending off piecemeal attacks by Confederate cavalry, Georgia militia and state home guards at various locations along the way.
Gen. Hood on November 22 moves his army northeastward toward Columbia, Tennessee, roughly midway between Schofield’s troops in Pulaski and Thomas’s force in Nashville, to the north. Hood’s intent is to isolate Schofield’s troops from those to the north and then attack them. Schofield, however, surmises Hood’s plan and begins moving his soldiers toward Columbia. In Georgia, Slocum’s troops of Sherman’s left wing converge on and occupy Milledgeville, Georgia’s capital, in the center of the state, shortly after Georgia’s state legislators flee. Elements of the Georgia state militia attack Sherman’s right wing to try to stop its progress, but the effort fails.
Both wings of Sherman’s army reunite at Milledgeville, Georgia, on November 23. The Georgia state militia continues its attacks there against the Federals. There is also fighting at Ball’s Ferry and at a railroad bridge over the Oconee River. In Tennessee, Hood continues his movement towards Columbia. Along the way, there is skirmishing at Fouche Springs, Henryville and Mount Pleasant.
On November 24, U.S. troops under Maj. Gen. Jacob Cox, of Schofield’s command, arrive at Columbia, Tennessee, from Pulaski just in time to assist Federal soldiers already there drive off Forrest’s cavalry, at the head of Hood’s army. By the end of the day, the remainder of Schofield’s men arrive and dig in.
Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler’s Confederate cavalry on November 25 attacks Sherman’s force near Sandersville, Georgia, about 30 miles southeast of Milledgeville. Despite the Confederates’ efforts, the Federals take and occupy the town. With Sherman’s troops approaching and only some 55 miles to the west, Confederates evacuate the prison camp at Millen, Georgia, moving prisoners to the prison camp at Florence, South Carolina, via Savannah, on the coast. On the same day, in New York City, arsonists, acting on orders from Confederate agents in Canada, set fires at 10 hotels, two theaters and Barnum’s American Museum, one of the city’s most popular attractions. All the blazes are extinguished without doing much damage.
On November 26, Hood’s army arrives at Columbia, Tennessee, to find Union forces well entrenched on both sides of the Duck River. In Georgia, Brig. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick, at the head of Sherman’s 5,000-man cavalry, engages Maj. Gen. Joe Wheeler’s 3,500 Confederate horsemen at Waynesboro, south of Augusta. After hard fighting, the Federals break through and force the Confederates to retreat. Casualties for the U.S.: around 190 total. For the Confederates: approximately 250 in all.
The sidewheel steamer Greyhound, the floating headquarters of Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler on the James River in Virginia, explodes and burns near Dutch Neck on November 27, apparently the work of Confederate saboteurs. Butler and a visitor, Rear Adm. David Porter, manage to escape unharmed. In West Virginia, Maj. Gen. Thomas Rosser leads a Confederate cavalry raid against the Union garrison at Moorefield.
November 28 sees much action. Confederate Maj. Gen. Thomas Rosser’s cavalry continues northward, attacking Fort Kelley in West Virginia, then crosses into Maryland, where it destroys a Baltimore & Ohio Railroad bridge at New Creek, west of Cumberland. Rosser’s men then return to Virginia via the Shenandoah Valley. In Georgia, Kilpatrick’s and Wheeler’s cavalry forces clash again, at Davisborough and at Waynesboro. There is infantry action at Buckhead Church and Buckhead Creek. And in Tennessee, Hood moves his troops east of Columbia, then north, intending to next move west and cut off the Federals’ line of retreat. He leaves a force under Lt. Gen. Stephen D. Lee at Columbia, hoping to fool the Federals into thinking an attack will come from the south. Maj. Gen. Forrest leads his cavalry across the Duck River north of the Federals, driving Union cavalry north towards Franklin.
Hood’s Confederate infantry begins crossing the Duck River at Spring Hill, Tennessee, on the morning of November 29, with the remainder of Hood’s force having crossed by afternoon. Having gotten word of Hood’s activities, Gen. Schofield, beginning at 3 p.m., somehow moves his troops — wagon train and all — undetected past the Confederates, shifting northward from Columbia, Tennessee, to Franklin. In the West, 900 Colorado militia under Col. John Chivington attack without warning a village of about 500 Arapaho and Cheyenne Indians at Sand Creek, Colorado Territory. They kill about a third of the residents, torturing and mutilating many of their victims, a large percentage of whom are women and children. The raid is in reprisal for Indian attacks against gold miners in the Denver area, even though the Indians at Sand Creek were not the perpetrators. When details of the incident later surface, they spur a Congressional investigation. Subsequently, the U.S. government condemns the massacre and pays an indemnity to the survivors. Chivington, also a Baptist minister, is particularly denounced for perpetrating the affair. However, he had already resigned from the U.S. Army, and no criminal charges are levied against him.
Furious that his army has let Schofield’s Union troops slip past them, Gen. Hood, over the strenuous objections of Maj. Gen. Benjamin Cheatham, a corps commander in the Army of Tennessee, and Maj. Gen. Forrest, Hood’s cavalry commander, at 3:30 p.m. on November 30 orders a frontal attack along a two-mile front against the well-entrenched Federal positions at Franklin. While the infantry attacks take place, cavalry units engage each other to the east and west of the city. After five and a half hours of bloody, sometimes hand-to-hand fighting, Hood is forced to call off the offensive. It is a devastating Confederate loss. The Federals suffer 2,326 casualties of 27,939 men engaged, while the Confederates incur 6,252 casualties of 26,897 men engaged — almost one-quarter of their force. Six Confederate generals — including the skillful and irreplaceable Maj. Gen. Patrick Cleburne — are killed in the fighting. After the battle, Maj. Gen. Schofield withdraws his troops to the north towards Nashville. In Georgia, Maj. Gen. Sherman’s men continue their march to the southeast.
