Why did The Confederates Lose Despite Their Big Military Victories? - The American Civil War (1862)

Nearly a year after the outbreak of the Civil War, the fates of the United States of America seemed to hang more in the balance than anyone had anticipated. Both sides of the conflict had hoped for a swift and minimally damaging war, yet it was clear now that the end was far from near, and the Union, despite its laundry list of advantages, was struggling. The start of 1862 had scarcely seen any significant Confederate losses thus far. However, the North was coming into the new year with fresh motivation and determination. Brigadier General George Thomas and his 4,000 Union troops were positioned at Logan's Crossroads as rain poured through the growing fog. The Confederates were only 10 miles away when they heard of the Northerners' approach. Despite the poor weather, the Southerners decided to launch an offensive with the goal of catching the Union forces off-guard before reinforcements could arrive. The problem with this, nevertheless, was that by the time the Confederate troops arrived at Logan's Crossroads, they were wet, tired, and unmotivated, and their antiquated Napoleonic-type flintlock muskets were horribly suited for such rainy conditions. Still, even as the Northerners now saw the attack coming, General Felix Zollicoffer led his Southerners into the battlefield with high enthusiasm. At first, the Confederates seemed to have taken the advantage in spite of their poorly working weaponry. The 15th Mississippi Infantry and 20th Tennessee managed to push back the 4th Kentucky Infantry, 2nd Minnesota, and 10th Indiana. In the midst of the foggy and chaotic clash, however, General Zollicoffer mistook the Union troops for his own and began to approach the 4th Kentucky Infantry, at which point he was shot dead by the enemy. This seemed to turn the tide rather quickly against the Southerners, who were soon routed by the Union forces and chased into a disorganized retreat, leaving their dead, wounded, and weaponry behind in the utter panic. This victory, following another only nine days earlier on January 10th at the Battle of Middle Creek, finally gave the Union something to celebrate and some much-needed morale boosters. Kentucky, too, was becoming more weak from a Confederate perspective, opening up the door for further Northern influence in the state, and over in Tennessee, the Union was making more moves. On February 6th, 1862, the North took the battle to Fort Henry. Oddly, especially considering the potential significance of losing the fort, the Confederates failed to put up strong defenses. A Union naval bombardment would shortly push the stronghold to surrender. However, Confederate Brigadier General Lloyd Tillman had already rounded up his troops from Fort Henry and secretly moved them to Fort Donaldson not too far away. Ten days later, Donaldson would fall to the Union. The capture of both Fort Henry and Fort Donaldson meant that the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers were no longer accessible for the Confederates, which would prove to be a huge victory for the waterways for the rest of the war entirely. Union efforts to capture coastal territory continued as well, with another Northern General, Ambrose Burnside, eyeing up the island of Roanoke. On January 11th, General Burnside had set off with a fleet of 80 ships and 15,000 men down to their destination at the Outer Banks. Though the trip would only take a couple of days, the actual battle would be delayed by several weeks due to unideal weather conditions. Still, with 10,000 of his troops, Burnside would soon launch his offensive, at which point he found himself face-to-face with Confederate Colonel Henry Shaw and only 2,500 men. The Union's previous victories and notable numeric advantage seemed to foreshadow the results of the clash, as the triumph would be clear and precise with yet another Southern surrender after being overwhelmed by Northern forces. On February 8th, the island fell to the Union, and the takeover of the coasts seemed to be in full swing, giving the North and Lincoln a long-craved swell of optimism. With this new boost of confidence and momentum, President Lincoln had his troops hitting the Confederates at any weak points they could. Arkansas and Missouri became significant targets throughout this period, as the North pushed through the border states and into the South. With both Union and Confederate forces of Missouri under new management, it appeared that a nearby struggle was imminent. On one side was the Union Army of the Southwest, under the command of Brigadier General Samuel Ryan Curtis, whereas the Confederate Army of the West took its orders from Major General Earl Van Dorn. The latter boasted about 16,000 men, whilst the Union, this time, was outnumbered by over 5,000. Predictably, then, it was the Confederates who were planning an attack. General Van Dorn concocted a plan to meet the Union forces where they were stationed, around Little Sugar Creek, and ambush them from the rear. An ambitious plan and exhausting journey, the campaign wouldn't be easy, but Van Dorn believed it'd be worth it. Thus, as the Confederates neared the Northerners, the General split his forces in two, one force under McCulloch to swing around the west of Pea Ridge, and the other portion under General Price would go through the Bentonville detour to Telegraph Road and meet up with McCulloch as they jointly attacked the Union rear near Elkhorn Tavern. In actuality, the Union forces got a heads up, and instead of waiting for the ambush, Curtis led his men to meet with Confederates near the tavern. Shots were soon fired, and the battle ensued, with a major hit to Southern morale coming early on when General McCulloch was killed in action, followed shortly by his second in command, James McQueen McIntosh, being slain as well. Nevertheless, the Confederates, though without their leaders, managed to take the tavern and Telegraph Road by the day's end. Still, the following day would see Curtis' successful counterattack, pushing the Southerners back and in time handing the Union control of neighboring Missouri and a foothold remaining in Arkansas. What had started as a strong war effort for the Confederates was beginning to look like a crumbling defense. Nonetheless, the Union had its own challenges at hand, one in particular coming in the form of General George B. McClellan. Aside from the issue of McClellan having a near-complete lack of trust in and apparent absence of respect for President Lincoln via contemporary stories told of the General, George's strategy throughout the Civil War could almost be described as timid. After the indecisive results of the history-making Battle of Ironclads, the Union was hoping to find new triumph over at Richmond. General McClellan was put in charge of this new campaign, but he had a different idea of how to go about it than the President did. While Lincoln wanted to send George south to Richmond, the latter was more inclined to head up via the Peninsula by the York and James Rivers, opening up his land army to naval aid and utilizing the Union-held Fort Monroe as a launch pad. Although it wasn't his first plan, the President agreed to authorize McClellan's version, and the campaign was ready to begin. The problem with this, however, was that the Confederates had been expecting an incursion from that exact position, and thus were readily prepared. Though lacking in numbers compared to the 100,000 Union troops and nearly 400 ships, the Southerners were keen to defend their city, and McClellan was willing to do his part, but slowly. The General, though not bad at his job, was a detailed planner and hesitant in times he quite likely didn't need to be. Throughout the campaign, upon the outbreak of armed action at Yorktown, McClellan had already been under the impression that the enemy forces numbered the or maybe even more than his own. This wasn't entirely true, but George nevertheless formed his strategy accordingly, reacting overly cautious much to the annoyance of President Lincoln. Eventually, after the month-long siege he had chosen over an assault on the southern line, McClellan and his troops would take Yorktown, though only because the Confederates evacuated. This was a planned withdrawal by the South in order to head back to defend Richmond more closely, but the slow-to-act McClellan saw it as his own victory. In reality, all he'd really done was given the Confederates time to regroup and reinforce the real defense. With McClellan yet again taking a slower-paced and possibly poorly calculated approach, the southerners, led by General Joseph E. Johnston, made their way back to Fort Magruder to set up their new defensive. Establishing a rear guard, Johnston positioned his men along a series of redoubts while Major General James Longstreet brought his troops to Fort Magruder directly. The Union force, commanded by Major General Joseph Hooker, launched the next step an attack on Fort Magruder. Before the clock could even strike noon, the battle was on. The Union aggression was met with a powerful Confederate counteroffensive, launching Hooker's line back. This was a good start for the South, but more Union troops, led by Brigadier General Philip Kearney, soon arrived to reinforce the offensive line, and this time, it was the Confederates who were pushed back into their defenses. The bloody battle raged on into the dark of night before the Confederates once more carried out an intentional withdrawal back toward Richmond. As expected, McClellan portrayed this as yet another victory for himself, but in reality, the southerners saw the entire battle as having only been a means of stalling the Union to begin with, which they did. Their real objective was, of course, to protect Richmond, and now, having stalled the Peninsula Campaign from its end goal for over a month, the Confederates had given themselves ample time to build up the manpower needed to protect their capital. The war was looking more and more tiring, but it was only mid-1862, and there was so much fighting left to do. Up-and-coming star of the Union Civil War effort, General Ulysses S. Grant, had been leaving his own army over in Tennessee, near Shiloh Church, when on April 6th, General Johnston and his men pounced. The Union forces were blindsided by the incursion, and the Confederates found early success as they drove the northerners back in the direction of Pittsburgh Landing. This early success on the part of the South came in spite of the fact that many men on both sides had scarcely, if ever, seen battle before, and what seemed to be a swift Confederate victory was soon becoming more of a challenge as reinforcements commanded by Union General Don Carlos Buell began to arrive. As the Confederate effort was suddenly weakened under the Union pushback, General Albert Sidney Johnston would become a monumental casualty after being shot through an artery in his leg and bleeding to death on the battlefield. When command shifted to General Beauregard, as night set in, the attack was called off, and the rebels retreated. The Union could call this a win, but some would say it was a pyrrhic victory in reality, due to the record-setting and startling number of casualties. The brutal brawl had killed, wounded, or lost over 13,000 Union men, while the Confederates counted more than 10,000 casualties. This was the most deadly battle in US history thus far, and no one was taking it lightly. On a brighter note for the North, however, a late-April campaign ended in the seizure of the vital Confederate city of New Orleans and better control of the Lower Mississippi. And in more promising fortune for the South, Stonewall Jackson was preparing for a new Confederate offensive, with the odds seemingly in his favor. "'I do not remember having ever seen such rejoicing. The people seemed nearly frantic with joy. Our entrance into Winchester was one of the most stirring scenes of my life,' Jackson recalled of the event. The Confederates had been entangled with Union forces under General Nathaniel Banks at Strasburg before the latter began a feverish retreat toward the town of Winchester. Jackson was quick to react to this and gave chase, but he was struggling to determine the intended route of the retreating Northerners, and subsequently began dividing up his own men to chase down the Union soldiers from any angle. Some of Jackson's troops would meet up with the Northerners as a result, dashing their hopes of reaching safety for the Yankees at Middletown, Valley Pike, and Newtown. General Banks's remaining men would eventually reach Abrams Creek, Camp Hill, and Bowers Hill, where they braced for Jackson's arrival. The morning of May 25th was lit up with Confederate fire as the foray began. The target of Stonewall Jackson was the Union left flank, which had been perched atop Camp Hill. This initial objective, however, was proving to be a bit too difficult for the general to see its worth anymore, and he soon turned to Bowers Hill and its defenders. It wouldn't take long, in fact only an hour, for the Confederates to regain the upper hand and send the Northerners back on the run. The citizens of Winchester made Banks's new retreat even more difficult, as in a stunning display of opposition, they started shooting at the Union men trying to flee. Stonewall and his soldiers, contrarily, were greeted with cheers and open arms as they attempted to yet again pursue the Northerners. The worn out and stalled Confederates eventually fell back enough to let the surviving Union forces slip by, and the aftermath of this Southern victory nearly saw Jackson get pinched between a fresh set of Union troops taken from the Richmond Campaign with the aim of trapping the Confederate Stonewall Brigade. The latter managed to squeeze through the gap, however, and the Union was out of luck once more. General George B. McClellan, despite recent setbacks, was still focused on taking Richmond, and Confederate General Robert E. Lee was just as determined to stop him. General Joseph E. Johnston was responsible for taking on the inevitable Union attack on Richmond, prompting Lee and Confederate President Jefferson Davis to urge the general toward making an updated plan. Johnston got to work, and he quickly noted something quite convenient. The Union IV Corps, under the command of General Erasmus D. Keyes, was on its own. McClellan's force had been first divided into two, but the IV Corps had separated itself from the others when Keyes moved them to a village by the name of Seven Pines. To the great pleasure of the Confederates, there were only three main roads leading to this town and one sketchy grapevine bridge. Johnston's plan thus fell into place, and his men would encircle Seven Pines via Nine Mile Road, Charles City Road, and Williamsburg Road. Meanwhile, recent rainfall would make the bridge path more or less impossible to cross. The battle would then ensue. In reality, a combination of bad weather and administrative kerfuffles made Johnston's plan look a little more chaotic than had been anticipated. As the Confederates stumbled over to Seven Pines, Northern General Silas Casey caught sight of the approaching army. Nevertheless, when wily Confederate General D. H. Hill launched his portion of the attack, Casey had failed to prepare his own troops for defense and was rapidly pushed back. Hill's men, however, were on their own, as he hadn't waited for the rest of the Confederate wings to get to their positions, and as the Union Third Corps began to enter the battlefield, Hill was starting to see the consequence of his decision. General G. W. Smith answered the call from Hill to aid his attack. At the same time, Union General Edwin V. Sumner was taking his Second Corps across the grapevine bridge to rescue his own comrades. Somehow, the rickety bridge managed to hold and allowed the troops to pass through despite the Confederate assumption that it wouldn't be doable. This meant that instead of helping Hill beat back the Fourth Corps, the Confederate backup was suddenly face-to-face with the Second Corps. By the end of the night, the battle was growing, and the Fourth Corps was no longer surrounded, meaning both sides could keep funneling in troops. Over on the Confederate side, the situation wasn't seeming too bad, as Johnston began to examine the lines. The problem was that he was shot in the arm moments later, and then hit in the leg and chest by fragments from a Union artillery shell. Though he was cautioned by one of his men that he rode far too close to the flying bullets from the battle, he shrugged off the concern with a confident, Colonel, there is no use dodging. When you hear them, they have passed. From there, the Confederate offensive snowballed, although they locked out given the Northerners' equal exhaustion and unwillingness to continue. The clash came to an indecisive end, and General Lee was subsequently sent to take over the Confederate troops involved in light of Johnston's incapacity. The war was looking more and more tiring, but it was only mid-1862, and there was so much fighting left to do. Over the following months, the Union took nearly full control of the Mississippi River, with a success at the Battle of Memphis, leaving now only Vicksburg in their way. This was before Lincoln signed off on the Second Confiscation Act, which expanded on the first and supplied more opportunities for Confederate slaves to be freed. That was followed by the Battle of Cedar Mountain and the Second Battle of Bull Run, which saw a Confederate victory that would soon be overshadowed by Northerners discovering General Lee's plans for the next engagement. That next clash would be the Battle of Antietam, which remains to this day the bloodiest 24 hours in the history of the entire Civil War. The Confederate attempts to launch a large-scale invasion of Union territory had failed around the same time that the South's hopes of winning over Kentucky threw the Heartland Campaign. Still, the pressure was increasing from Great Britain, as it was on the verge of joining the war diplomatically in support of the Confederates, willing to do almost anything to prevent such a catastrophe for the North. President Lincoln finally announced his intention to pass the Emancipation Proclamation by the start of 1863 if the war was not over. By now, though, the Native Americans had also been picking sides, choosing whoever they believed would win and provide them with additional rights by the war's end. The final month of 1862 saw the brutal Battle of Fredericksburg, which allegedly got so bad for the Union that a Confederate Sergeant Kirkland couldn't help but run onto the battlefield and begin treating the Yankee wounded, prompting a temporary ceasefire. In the end, however, the Union War Department had been too slow to provide supplies for their men, and the soldiers were unable to keep up the poorly organized attack. The South had won yet another battle. With Northern morale plummeting, Lincoln's popularity dropping, and Union men deserting, President Davis of the Confederacy finally reacted to the proposed Emancipation Proclamation. He declared that it was nothing more than an attempt to excite servile war, and furthermore added that any black U.S. soldiers would not be treated by the same standards as white prisoners of war. Days later, the Battle of Stones River would finally bring about some Union revenge and a much-needed morale boost. It also marked the final days of 1862. Over a year and a half of the war had already gone by, but it was far from over.