The Rise of Hard War
On December 24, 1864 Union General William T. Sherman wrote a letter to Union high command stating, “…this war differs from European wars in this particular: we are not only fighting hostile armies, but a hostile people, and must make old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war…”[1] While Sherman’s campaigns in Georgia and South Carolina are often seen as uniquely brutal events, they were rather a culmination of the growing use of hard war doctrine; not just by the Union, but by both sides. As early as 1862, landmines, sharpshooters, and early instances of looting and burning of civilian property were already
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occurring. As the war dragged on, destruction of civilian property only grew more frequent, especially with the rise of guerilla warfare in the border regions. As the list of offenses by both sides grew, a cycle of reprisals began to develop that eventually resulted in both Union and Confederate governments enacting some form of hard war policies, ranging from the violent suppression of pro-Unionist sentiment in North Carolina and the killing of black POWs by the Confederates, to campaigns by Union forces specifically meant to target Confederate economic and agricultural resources.[2]
The Shenandoah Valley Campaign
While the Union Army of the Potomac was slogging its way south, Union and Confederate forces were facing off in the Shenandoah Valley. Beginning in May 1864 as part of Grant’s Overland Campaign, which sought to squeeze the Confederacy from multiple directions and bleed it dry of men and materiel, Union troops under General Franz Sigel were ordered to the valley to wreak havoc on the Confederate supply chains there. Sigel quickly bungled the operation, being defeated by an inferior force of Confederate cavalry and VMI cadets at New Market, and was replaced within the campaign’s first month by General David Hunter.[3] In June 1864, Confederate General Jubal Early’s II Corps (now referred to as
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the “Army of the Valley”) arrived in the Shenandoah. Early quickly went on the offensive, repeatedly defeating Union forces throughout June and July and eventually reaching far enough north to conduct a raid on the outskirts of Washington DC on July 11-12. In response to Early’s actions, and those of Confederate guerillas, General Hunter escalated Grant’s orders and began conducting reprisals against Confederate civilians, burning the homes of prominent Virginians including a former governor, former congressman, John Brown’s prosecutor, Edmund Lee (Robert E. Lee’s cousin), and even the Virginia Military Institute, as well as numerous other properties.[4]
Citations
Cover Image: Courtesy of Drallea
[1] William T. Sherman, Sherman's Civil War: Selected Correspondence of William T. Sherman, 1860-1865, eds. Jean V. Berlin and Brooks D. Simpson (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1999), 775-777. [link]
[2] Varon, 97-100, 238-240, 315-318.
[3] Everard H. Smith, “Chambersburg: Anatomy of a Confederate Reprisal,” The American Historical Review, vol. 96, No. 2, Oxford University Press, 1991, 435. [link]
[4] Scott C. Patchan, Shenandoah Summer: The 1864 Valley Campaign, (Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2007), 1-7, 271-272; “Hunter’s Raid,” Virginia Military Institute Archives. [link]; Henry Du Pont, The Battle of Newmarket, Virginia, May 15, 1864, (Washington DC: H. A. Du Pont, 1923). [link]
[1] William T. Sherman, Sherman's Civil War: Selected Correspondence of William T. Sherman, 1860-1865, eds. Jean V. Berlin and Brooks D. Simpson (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1999), 775-777. [link]
[2] Varon, 97-100, 238-240, 315-318.
[3] Everard H. Smith, “Chambersburg: Anatomy of a Confederate Reprisal,” The American Historical Review, vol. 96, No. 2, Oxford University Press, 1991, 435. [link]
[4] Scott C. Patchan, Shenandoah Summer: The 1864 Valley Campaign, (Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2007), 1-7, 271-272; “Hunter’s Raid,” Virginia Military Institute Archives. [link]; Henry Du Pont, The Battle of Newmarket, Virginia, May 15, 1864, (Washington DC: H. A. Du Pont, 1923). [link]