Editing American Civil War (section)

== Conquest of Virginia ==
[[File:William-Tecumseh-Sherman.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|left|[[William Tecumseh Sherman]]]]
At the beginning of 1864, Lincoln made Grant commander of all Union armies. Grant made his headquarters with the Army of the Potomac and put Maj. Gen. [[William Tecumseh Sherman]] in command of most of the western armies. Grant understood the concept of [[total war]] and believed, along with Lincoln and Sherman, that only the utter defeat of Confederate forces and their economic base would end the war.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Neely |first=Mark E. |date=December 2004 |title=Was the Civil War a Total War? |journal=Civil War History |volume=50 |issue=4 |pages=434–458 |doi=10.1353/cwh.2004.0073}}</ref> This was total war not in killing civilians, but in injuring the Confederacy's capacity to produce and transport the supplies needed to continue the war. Sherman, at Grant's direction, seized provisions and destroyed homes, farms, and railroads, which Grant said "would otherwise have gone to the support of secession and rebellion. This policy I believe exercised a material influence in hastening the end."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Grant |first=Ulysses S. |url=https://archive.org/details/memoirsselectedl00gran_0 |title=Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant; Selected Letters |publisher=Library of America |year=1990 |isbn=978-0-940450-58-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/memoirsselectedl00gran_0/page/247 247]}}</ref>

Grant devised a coordinated strategy that would strike at the entire Confederacy from multiple directions. Generals Meade and [[Benjamin Butler]] were ordered to move against Lee near Richmond, General [[Franz Sigel]] was to [[Valley campaigns of 1864|attack the Shenandoah Valley]], General Sherman was to capture Atlanta and march to the Atlantic Ocean, Generals [[George Crook]] and [[William W. Averell]] were to operate against railroad supply lines in West Virginia, and Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks was to capture [[Mobile, Alabama|Mobile]], Alabama.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Field |first=Ron |title=Petersburg 1864–65: The Longest Siege |publisher=Osprey |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-4728-0305-4 |page=6}}</ref>

=== Grant's Overland Campaign ===

Grant's army set out on the [[Overland Campaign]] intending to draw Lee into a defense of Richmond, where they would attempt to pin down and destroy the Confederate army. The Union army first attempted to maneuver past Lee and fought several battles, notably at the [[Battle of the Wilderness|Wilderness]], [[Battle of Spotsylvania Court House|Spotsylvania]], and [[Cold Harbor]]. These resulted in heavy losses on both sides and forced Lee's Confederates to fall back repeatedly.{{sfn|McPherson|1988|pp=724–735}} At the [[Battle of Yellow Tavern]], the Confederates lost Jeb Stuart.{{sfn|McPherson|1988|p=728}}

An attempt to outflank Lee from the south failed under Butler, who was trapped inside the [[Bermuda Hundred Campaign|Bermuda Hundred]] river bend. Each battle resulted in setbacks for the Union that mirrored those they had suffered under prior generals, though unlike them, Grant chose to fight on rather than retreat. Grant was tenacious and kept pressing Lee's Army of Northern Virginia back to Richmond. While Lee was preparing for an attack on Richmond, Grant unexpectedly turned south to cross the James River and began the protracted [[Siege of Petersburg]], where the two armies engaged in [[trench warfare]] for over nine months.{{sfn|McPherson|1988|pp=724–742}}

=== Sheridan's Valley Campaign ===
[[File:Philip Sheridan 1-restored.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|[[Philip Sheridan]]]]
To deny the Confederacy continued use of the [[Shenandoah Valley]] as a base from which to launch invasions of Maryland and the Washington area, and to threaten Lee's supply lines for his forces, Grant launched the [[Valley campaigns of 1864|Valley campaigns]] in the spring of 1864. Initial efforts led by Gen. Sigel were repelled at the [[Battle of New Market]] by Confederate Gen. [[John C. Breckinridge]]. The Battle of New Market was the Confederacy's last major victory, and included a charge by teenage [[Virginia Military Institute|VMI]] cadets. After relieving Sigel, and following mixed performances by his successor, Grant finally found a commander, General [[Philip Sheridan]], aggressive enough to prevail against the army of Maj. Gen. [[Jubal A. Early]]. After a cautious start, Sheridan defeated Early in a series of battles in September and October 1864, including a decisive defeat at the [[Battle of Cedar Creek]]. Sheridan then proceeded through that winter to destroy the agricultural base of the Shenandoah Valley, a strategy similar to the tactics Sherman later employed in Georgia.{{sfn|McPherson|1988|pp=778–779}}

=== Sherman's March to the Sea ===

Meanwhile, Sherman maneuvered from Chattanooga to Atlanta, defeating Confederate Generals Joseph E. Johnston and [[John Bell Hood]]. The [[Battle of Atlanta|fall of Atlanta]] on September 2, 1864, guaranteed the reelection of Lincoln.{{sfn|McPherson|1988|pp=773–776}} Hood left the Atlanta area to swing around and menace Sherman's supply lines and invade Tennessee in the [[Franklin–Nashville Campaign]]. Union Maj. Gen. [[John Schofield]] defeated Hood at the [[Battle of Franklin]], and George H. Thomas dealt Hood a massive defeat at the [[Battle of Nashville]], effectively destroying Hood's army.{{sfn|McPherson|1988|pp=812–815}}

Leaving Atlanta, and his base of supplies, Sherman's army marched, with no destination set, laying waste to about 20% of the farms in Georgia in his "[[Sherman's March to the Sea|March to the Sea]]". He reached the Atlantic at [[Savannah, Georgia|Savannah]], Georgia, in December 1864. Sherman's army was followed by thousands of freed slaves; there were no major battles along the march. Sherman turned north through South Carolina and North Carolina, to approach the Confederate Virginia lines from the south, increasing the pressure on Lee's army.{{sfn|McPherson|1988|pp=825–830}}

=== The Waterloo of the Confederacy ===
Lee's army, thinned by desertion and casualties, was now much smaller than Grant's. One last Confederate attempt to break the Union hold on Petersburg failed at the decisive [[Battle of Five Forks]] on April 1. The Union now controlled the entire perimeter surrounding Richmond–Petersburg, completely cutting it off from the Confederacy. Realizing the capital was now lost, Lee's army and the Confederate government were forced to evacuate. The Confederate capital fell on April 2–3, to the [[XXV Corps (Union Army)|Union XXV Corps]], composed of black troops. The remaining Confederate units fled west after a defeat at [[Battle of Sayler's Creek|Sayler's Creek]] on April 6.{{sfn|McPherson|1988|pp=846–847}}