Lee's Lost Dispatch and Other Civil War Controversies by Leigh Philip;

Author:Leigh, Philip; [Leigh, Philip]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Westholme Publishing

A third reason Grant may have chosen Sherman was that Sherman’s political connections could benefit Grant’s career, whereas Thomas was a Virginian whose family could have no influence in Washington. Sherman’s father had been an Ohio State Supreme Court judge. Although he died when the boy was nine, the future general was raised by Thomas Ewing, a wealthy neighbor who would become his father-in-law. Ewing was also an influential US senator and served with four pre-Civil War presidents as secretary of the interior and treasury. When the Civil War started, the future general’s brother, John, was one of Ohio’s US senators. John introduced him to Abraham Lincoln, who got him commissioned as a colonel before the first important battle at Bull Run in July 1861.44

CONCLUSION

Thomas would probably have been a better choice than Sherman to lead the Union’s 1864 western spring offensive for two reasons.

First, he understood that the chief objective was to destroy the Confederate Army of Tennessee. Sherman was more focused on capturing Atlanta, even if it meant leaving the Rebel army intact to continue fighting. If Sherman had concentrated on demolishing the opposing army, the Civil War might have ended in autumn 1864 instead of April 1865. Such a decision in the west would have left the Confederacy with no way to prevent the armies of Sherman, Schofield, and Thomas from quickly reinforcing Grant at Petersburg, where they could overwhelm Lee. Given such a hopeless prospect, it is reasonable to suppose the Confederacy would have surrendered shortly after its chief western army was eliminated.

Second, on two occasions, Sherman failed to act on suggestions from Thomas that could likely have annihilated, or crippled, the opposing Confederate army. The first was at the beginning of the campaign in early May at Snake Creek Gap. Sherman only partially followed the suggestion by failing to put enough soldiers into the movement to attack Johnston’s rear. In time he recognized the validity of the strategy and left the false impression in his memoirs that it was his idea. The second time was during the second day of the Battle of Jonesboro, when Sherman rejected Thomas’s recommendation that the Army of the Cumberland be sent to Lovejoy Station to cut off Hardee’s retreat. Consequently, Hardee escaped.45

Nonetheless, there’s no denying that Sherman’s capture of Atlanta virtually assured Lincoln’s reelection, confirming that the North had found the will to prosecute the war to a victorious conclusion. Moreover, Sherman won Atlanta and continued on a circuit through the Deep South, finally almost reaching the back door of Lee’s army in Virginia at the end of the war. He did so by suffering far fewer casualties than Grant. However, during that march, Thomas destroyed the Army of Tennessee for him at the Battle of Nashville in December 1864.

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