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5 “Pray for Me, Mother, That I May Have All the Grace Requisite for My New Duties & Responsibilities”: Charles and the End of the War As the 1864 campaign wore on in the Western Theater, William Sherman’s collective armies of the Tennessee, Cumberland, and Ohio slowly made their way toward the crucial Confederate stronghold of Atlanta. As essential as Chattanooga was to Union progress in clearing out all Confederate forces from central Tennessee, Atlanta proved even more important for Confederate rail transportation efforts in what remained of Confederate-occupied territory. As such, Confederate commander Joseph Johnston endeavored to hold out as long as possible against a superior Union force. Johnston’s strategy entailed a delayed retreat as Sherman slowly enveloped his flanks at various points between Chattanooga and Atlanta. Only in select locations, such as Resaca (to some degree) and Kennesaw Mountain did Johnston make a stand, only to be forced back. These battles came at a high cost for Union forces. Locations such as Resaca, Kennesaw Mountain, and the battle of Atlanta were long remembered by Western veterans for the brutal and overwhelming strength needed to combat Confederates in their entrenched positions, only to have the Confederates withdraw to fight another day.1 The battle of Atlanta held special significance for the Howard brothers as the death of Union General James McPherson resulted in the promotion of Otis Howard from his command of the IV Corps (a transfer that had occurred with the consolidation of the XI and XII Corps into the XX Corps placed under the command of Hooker) to command of the Army of “Pray for Me, Mother” 164 the Tennessee. Sherman bestowed this honor upon Howard despite a competent general in John Logan who had served with the Army of the Tennessee for a longer period of time.2 Nonetheless, Howard assumed command of the Army of the Tennessee on July 27, 1864, as it made its way toward Atlanta. Changes came to the Confederate forces as well, as Jefferson Davis grew tired of his commander Joseph Johnston and replaced him with the thirty-three-year-old John Bell Hood. However, Hood’s attack at Ezra Church within days after his appointment to command resulted in heavy Confederate losses as Hood’s forces attacked a strong Union position held by Oliver Otis Howard. Such a defeat for Hood provided a preview of his disastrous Nashville campaign to come.3 Otis, who had just days earlier been appointed commander of the Army of the Tennessee, served well and won the admiration of his men for his commitment to the fighting, as well as his willingness to step back and let his corps commanders work without micromanagement.4 Union forces ultimately succeeded in their crucial goal of taking the Confederate hub of Atlanta. The capture of the city on September 2, 1864, following a brief siege proved essential not only for Union military strategy in the West but for President Abraham Lincoln’s reelection prospects in November of that year. However, the capture of Atlanta was a mere harbinger of things to come, as William Tecumseh Sherman began his preparations for his infamous March to the Sea. The plan was simple yet bold: Sherman planned to cut his ties to his supply line for his sixty-thousand-man army and live off the land as his armies marched through Georgia , making their way to the coastal city of Savannah. Sherman’s army left Atlanta on November 15, 1864, and cut a sixty-mile-wide swath through the Georgia countryside. Anything not of use to Sherman’s army was summarily destroyed so that it could not be of assistance to the Confederate civilian population. Such actions resulted in untold destruction: crops were consumed and destroyed, rail lines twisted around trees into Sherman’s famous “bow-ties,” and family homes ransacked and occasionally destroyed. In addition, there were some instances of sexual assaults upon the female population. The markings of these acts would not disappear from the minds of the Southern people easily, but the end goal accomplished Sherman’s desire—to bring the war to the people.5 The devastation ultimately ceased on December 22, 1864, when Sherman presented the city of Savannah to President Lincoln as a Christmas present and Sherman finally resumed his connection to his supply lines.6 Despite the destruction wrought upon the people of Georgia, Sherman and his soldiers withheld their greatest wrath for the home of secession—South Carolina. Following the Christmas...

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