The Papers Of Ulysses S Grant February 21 April 30 1865

On March29, Grant opened the Ap­pomattox campaign, informing Sheridan that "I now feel like ending the matter." Despite pleas to cancel the offensive because of adverse weather, Grant pressed ahead. Sheridan won the battle of Five Forks on April 1, and the next day Grant overran Lee's lines at Petersburg, forcing the evacuation of Richmond. Grant's mastery was never more appar­ent than during his last battle. "I shall press the pursuit to the end," he wrote to Sherman, and by April 19 Lee had to choose between capitulation or annihila­tion. With the surrender at Appomattox, Grant demonstrated his capacity for making peace as well as for waging war. In the frantic aftermath of Lincoln's death, Grant maintained his customary levelheadedness despite clamor for ven­geance. He hoped that in President Andrew Johnson "we will find a man dis­posed and capable of conducting the gov­ernment in its old channel."

On March29, Grant opened the Ap­pomattox campaign, informing Sheridan that "I now feel like ending the matter." Despite pleas to cancel the offensive because of adverse weather, Grant pressed ahead. Sheridan won the battle of Five Forks on April 1, and the next day Grant overran Lee's lines at Petersburg, forcing the evacuation of Richmond. Grant's mastery was never more appar­ent than during his last battle. "I shall press the pursuit to the end," he wrote to Sherman, and by April 19 Lee had to choose between capitulation or annihila­tion. With the surrender at Appomattox, Grant demonstrated his capacity for making peace as well as for waging war. In the frantic aftermath of Lincoln's death, Grant maintained his customary levelheadedness despite clamor for ven­geance. He hoped that in President Andrew Johnson "we will find a man dis­posed and capable of conducting the gov­ernment in its old channel."

During the winter of 1864-65, the end of the Civil War neared as Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant maintained pressure against the dying Confederacy. Major General William T. Sherman ripped through Georgia and presented Savannah to President Abraham Lincoln as a Christmas gift. Grant continued the long siege at Petersburg, pinning down General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. He held Lee in place while his armies demolished the Confederacy elsewhere. Grant knew that the Confederacy could not long survive. He must have seen it in the faces of the Confederate peace commissioners who appeared at City Point at the end of January, although their meeting with Lincoln at Hampton Roads was unproductive. Grant prepared to strike the final blow.

In the spring of 1865, after the end of the Civil War and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, two men bestrode the national government as giants: Andrew Johnson and Ulysses S. Grant. How these two men viewed what a post-war America should look like would determine policy and politics for generations to come, impacting the lives of millions of people, North and South, black and white. While both Johnson and Grant initially shared similar views regarding the necessity of bringing the South back into the Union fold as expeditiously as possible, their differences, particularly regarding the fate of millions of recently-freed African Americans, would soon reveal an unbridgeable chasm. Add to the mix that Johnson, having served at every level of government in a career spanning four decades, very much liked being President and wanted to be elected in his own right in 1868, at the same time that a massive move was underway to make Grant the next president during that same election, and conflict and resentment between the two men became inevitable. In fact, competition between Johnson and Grant would soon evolved into a battle of personal destruction, one lasting well beyond their White House years and representing one of the most all-consuming and obsessive struggles between two presidents in U.S. history.

This study is an analysis of Union joint operations in the James River Basin from 1862 to 1865. Specifically the contributions made by the Union Navy during the battles of this period. It begins with an analysis of the Peninsula Campaign conducted by Major General George B. McClellan and Rear Admiral Louis M. Goldsborough in 1862 and concludes with the Union forces entry into Richmond in April 1865. The Union Navy played a significant role in shaping the outcome of the battles for control of the James River Basin and the eventual capture of Richmond. The Navy’s control of the river allowed Lieutenant General Grant to maintain his main supply base well forward in the theater. This enabled Grant to rapidly maneuver and resupply his forces. The study provides lessons on the difficulties of joint operations and the requirements to ensure success in the joint arena. Furthermore, it provides today’s United States military with a view of riverine and mine warfare operations and the implication of allowing these warfare areas to decay.