In March 1865, Abraham Lincoln began a second term as U.S. president and all war momentum was in northern favor. As the North moved closer to victory, the rift in the Republican Party between Radicals and moderates over how the Union should be restored widened. Meanwhile the Confederacy employed desperate measures, both politically and militarily, to stay alive.
The Freedman’s Bureau
President Lincoln sided with the Radical Republicans in approving a law establishing a bureau to provide temporary food, clothing and shelter to freed slaves and poor southern whites. The bureau would also manage conquered southern land and take "control of all subjects relating to refugees and freedmen from rebel States."
Moderates and Democrats argued that such a wide reaching federal program infringed on state sovereignty. Nevertheless, the Freedman’s Bureau established over 40 hospitals, 4,000 schools, 61 industrial institutes and 74 teacher-training establishments in the South. The Bureau also assisted the U.S. army in issuing rations to homeless blacks and dispossessed whites as they tried establishing new lives in the devastated South.
The Lincoln Inauguration
On March 4, Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated to serve a second presidential term on the east front of the U.S. Capitol. To protect Lincoln, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton had ordered sharpshooters to watch the proceedings from the Capitol windows. About 50,000 people gathered to witness Lincoln take the oath of office and deliver his second inaugural address.
In his speech, Lincoln urged reconciliation between North and South, pledging to restore the Union "with malice toward none; with charity for all…" Following the ceremony, the Lincolns greeted an estimated 6,000 well wishers at the White House in one of the largest public receptions in American history.
The Carolinas Campaign
General Joseph Johnston took command of Confederate troops in North Carolina. As General William T. Sherman’s Federals advanced on New Berne, they were attacked by Confederates under General Braxton Bragg. The attack was easily repulsed, and Bragg withdrew to link with Johnston.
Johnston’s Confederates tried blocking Sherman’s advance on Goldsborough but were defeated at Averasborough. At Bentonville, Johnston launched three desperate attacks on the Federal left wing with no success. Meanwhile Sherman directed his right wing to launch a counterattack. Outnumbered five to one, Johnston withdrew to avoid destruction. There was little the Confederates could do to stop the Federal advance through North Carolina.
The City Point Conference
President Lincoln met with Admiral David D. Porter and Generals Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman aboard the steamer River Queen at City Point, Virginia. The men discussed the impending spring campaign, in which it was agreed that "one more bloody battle was likely to occur before the close of the war."
Lincoln called for a fast end to the war with as little loss of life as possible. He also said that he would quickly reinstate the rights of surrendering Confederate soldiers. Regarding Confederate leaders, Lincoln stated that he wanted no retribution against them, but he hoped that they would leave the country. However Lincoln stressed that the military commanders should only focus on military issues, leaving the political matters regarding surrender to the president himself.
Desperate Confederate Measures
President Jefferson Davis requested that Congress remain in session to pass emergency legislation to help the war effort. The Confederacy was desperately short of manpower, money and territory, and Davis suggested that Congress pass measures to enlist more men, suspend habeas corpus, and generate more revenue. The relationship between Davis and most members of Congress by this time was openly hostile.
However both Congress and Davis approved Robert E. Lee’s suggestion to enlist blacks into the Confederate military. Slaves who volunteered would be freed after the war. The law passed largely because, as the Richmond Examiner stated, "The country will not deny General Lee anything he may ask for." The measure passed too late to be of value, and few blacks who enrolled under the law actually saw combat.
The Petersburg Campaign
After nearly nine months of relentless siege warfare, Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia was on the verge of collapse at Petersburg, Virginia. Lee attempted one final, desperate breakthrough by attacking the Federals at Fort Stedman. However the Federals quickly repulsed the attack. This convinced Lee that Petersburg and the Confederate capital of Richmond had to be abandoned.
Lee prepared to move southwest out of Petersburg, moving around the Federal left and heading south to join Joseph Johnston in North Carolina. In pursuit were Federal cavalry under General Philip Sheridan. By month’s end, the Federals blocked Lee’s Confederates at Five Forks. This initiated the campaign that Grant hoped would end the war.
Sources:
- Long, E.B. and Long, Barbara: The Civil War: Day by Day (New York, NY: Da Capo Press, Inc., 1971)
- Wallechinsky, David and Wallace, Irving: The People’s Almanac (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1975)
- Ward, Geoffrey C.; Burns, Ric; Burns, Ken: The Civil War (New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1990)
Walter Coffey - Walter Coffey is a freelance writer who resides in Houston, Texas. Walter has written several works of historical fiction and non-fiction, ...
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