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By 1865, there were few men on either side who didn’t believe the war was almost over. With a Confederate victory seemingly no longer possible, the only question was when the Confederate states would be brought back into the Union. The Army of the Potomac had ¤nally forced the Army of Northern Virginia to go into the ground around Richmond, and Ulysses S. Grant’s main concern was to prevent Robert E. Lee from escaping Petersburg and joining up with Gen. Joseph E. Johnston in North Carolina. In January 1865, the Army of Northern Virginia numbered 150,554 aggregate present and absent, but with only 61,748 present for duty.1 Lee’s army had been greatly reduced by casualties in battle,desertions,and the loss of key of¤cers. It had been pinned down for nearly a year in the trenches around Petersburg and Richmond and could not openly mount an effective offensive against Grant’s forces.As one historian has observed,Lee found out how much his army had changed during the Petersburg campaign.2 Their weakness also showed on March 25, when Confederate major general John B. Gordon launched his offensive at Fort Stedman; Gordon’s forces overwhelmed the Union defenders in the morning but were unable to maintain the momentum after the initial assault. The Confederates were quickly pushed back to their own lines with more than two thousand casualties.3 On March 29, Union general Philip Sheridan and two divisions of cavalry , supported by two infantry corps under G. K. Warren and A. A. Humphreys , moved on Lee’s right ®ank, extending the Confederate lines to the breaking point. Rain slowed the Union advance, but skirmishing occurred at Hatcher’s Run on March 30, and heavy ¤ghting continued the next day on White Oak Road. Despite a spirited Confederate resistance, on April 1 Union forces overwhelmed George Pickett’s division at Five Forks and succeeded in almost encircling Petersburg.4 Lee had no choice but to abandon Richmond on April 2, as Grant ordered an assault all along the Petersburg line that day. The Army of Northern Virginia, along with William Cowan 11 Prison and Home Again January 2–June 5, 1865 I can see but little hope for these confederate states in these times. —William Cowan McClellan McClellan and the 9th Alabama, began the long journey toward Appomattox Court House. All during this time, Union occupation forces and the many cavalry raids through Alabama tightened the Union’s grip on the northern part of the state. Many Limestone County citizens were suffering. They still supported the troops in the ¤eld, but they were in deep despair. Mary Fielding of Athens, Alabama, mentions in her diary on January 7, 1865, that a Union cavalry force had paid a visit to her area: “They have neither the rations nor the forage for their horses & are taking literally everything from the people. They have been to our house and taken all of the corn, some meat, clothes . . . I don’t see where the people are to get provisions, especially corn . . . I have never thought that I’d starve, but I don’t know where the bread is going to come from now.”5 It was clear that morale was low at home, due in part to conditions there but also to the continual losses by Confederate armies in Virginia and Tennessee.No home was safe,and few— including that of the McClellans—were untouched by visits from both Union and Confederate soldiers. Generally meeting weak resistance from ill-equipped and demoralized troops, James Harrison Wilson’s raid through Alabama in March and April of 1865 laid waste to factories and mills from Lauderdale County to Selma.6 In March, William McClellan’s brother Robert was en route from Charlotte , North Carolina, to Gen. Joseph Wheeler’s command near Raleigh. Wheeler was attempting to hook up with General Johnston, or possibly to head for Virginia to support Lee. Robert McClellan hoped he might have an opportunity to get to Petersburg and see William.In a letter to his father on March 18, 1865, Robert comments on the large numbers of former Confederate prisoners making their way home, and he notes, “the hour is dark but I think a better time is coming. The big battle of the war will come off soon which will certainly decide the question of liberty and subjugation . . . ”7 The Army of Northern Virginia,as well as Wheeler’s forces, surrendered before Robert could...

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