ARMY OPERATIONS. 



41 



ARMY OPERATIONS. At the commence- 

 ment of the year, the army of the Potomac, 

 under Gen. Meade, was near Culpepper Court 

 House, in Virginia, with the army under Gen. 

 Lee in front and south of him. The Confed- 

 erate Gen. Early had been ordered to command 

 the forces in the Shenandoah valley, with his 

 headquarters at Staunton. The Federal forces 

 held Winchester. Martinsburg, and Harper's 

 Ferry, and occupied the line of the Baltimore 

 and Ohio Railroad, in Western Virginia. Gen. 

 Burnside was still at Knoxville, in East Ten- 

 nessee, with a line of communication into Ken- 

 tucky. Eastward of him was Gen. Longstreet, 

 with* a division of the Confederate army. The 

 army of Gen. Grant was in front of Chatta- 

 nooga, in the southeast corner of Tennessee, 

 and a force of the enemy before him at Dai- 

 ton, under Gen. Bragg. 



The following address to his soldiers had 

 been issued by Gen. Grant, near the close of 

 1863: 



HEADQUAETEES MILITARY DIVISION OF THE ) 

 MISSISSIPPI, ix TUB FIELD. v 

 CHATTAXOOGA, TEXX., Dec. 10, 1?G3. | 

 The General Commanding takes this opportunity 

 of returning his sincere thanks and congratulations 

 to the brave Armies of the Cumberland, the Ohio, 

 the Tennessee, and their comrades from the Poto- 

 mac, for the recent splendid and decisive successes 

 achieved over the enemy. In a short time you have 

 recovered from him the control of the Tennessee 

 River, from Bridgeport to Knoxville. You dislodged 

 him from his great stronghold upon Lookout Moun- 

 tain, drove him from Chattanooga valley, wrested 

 from his determined grasp the possession of Mission- 

 ary Ridge, repelled with heavy loss to him his re- 

 peated assaults upon Knoxville, forcing him to raise 

 the siege there, driving him at all points, utterly 

 routed and discomfited, beyond the limits of the 

 State. By your noble heroism and determined cour- 

 age, you have effectually defeated the plans of the 

 enemy for regaining possession of the States of Ken- 

 tucky and Tennessee. You have secured positions 

 from which no rebellious power can drive or dis- 

 lodge you. For all this the General Commanding 

 thanks" you collectively and individually. The loyal 

 people of the United" States thank arid bless you. 

 Their hopes and prayers for your success against 

 this unholy rebellion are with you daily. Their faith 

 in you will not be in vain. Their hopes will not be 

 blasted. Their prayers to Almighty God will be an- 

 swered. You will yet go to other fields of strife ; 

 and with the invincible bravery and unflinching loy- 

 alty to justice and right which have characterized 

 you in the past, you will prove that no enemy can 

 withstand you, and that no defences, however for- 

 midable, can check your onward march. 



By order of Major-General U. S. GRANT. 

 T. S. BOWERS, Ass't Adj. -Gen. 

 The line of communication of Gen. Grant 

 extended to Nashville by the railroad, through 

 Stevenson and Murfreesboro'. Florence and 

 Corinth were also held by a Federal force un- 

 til the earlier portion of the year, when the 

 former was occupied by the enemy. Military 

 posts consisting of fortifications and heavy 

 guns, with negro troops, were established on 

 the Mississippi River at Cairo, Columbus, New 

 Madrid, Fort Pillow, Memphis, Helena, Good- 

 rich's Landing, Vicksburg, Natchez, Port Hud- 

 son, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, and Forts 

 Jackson and St. Philip. There were also 



forces at other points adjacent to these. A 

 large force was under the command of Gen. 

 Banks, in New Orleans, with detachments at 

 Brashear City, and at Brownsville, on the Rio 

 Grande. Ge'n. Steele occupied Little Rock, 

 Arkansas, with a considerable force, and Gen. 

 Rosecrans, in command of the department, 

 had a small body of troops in Missouri. The 

 military positions on the coast of North Caro- 

 lina and South Carolina remained unchanged. 



The number of troops in the field et the 

 commencement of the year can be only indefi- 

 nitely estimated. Between October, 1863, and 

 May, 1864, seven hundred thousand new troops 

 took the field, as stated by Senator Wilson in 

 Congress. A portion of these supplied the 

 place of the three years' men whose term of 

 service expired in 1864. A large majority of 

 the latter, however, reenlisted (see AEMY U. S.) 

 The number of Confederate troops in the 

 field known as veterans, in the beginning of 

 the year, was as follows: That portion of 

 the Southern army which constituted the force 

 under Gen. Lee (counting in Gen. Longstreet, 

 who commanded a portion of his army), num- 

 bered ninety thousand troops. This is also 

 counting in the troops which were in the vicin- 

 ity of Abingdon, Lynchburg, and other por- 

 tions of Southwestern Virginia and East Ten- 

 nessee, formerly under Gen. Samuel Jones, who 

 was detached from Gen. Lee's army late in Sep- 

 tember, 1863, to operate against Gen. Burnside, 

 and afterwards under the command of Gen. 

 Breckinridge. At Richmond and at Petersburg 

 there were, not counting in citizens and home 

 guard?, about three thousand men. Between 

 Petersburg and Weldon there were one thou- 

 sand men. Along the railroad, between Wei- 

 don and Wilmington, there were at least six 

 thousand men. The forces under Gen. Pickett 

 numbered eight thousand men. Imboden and 

 Moseby together had four thousand men all 

 guerrillas. This swelled the army in Eastern 

 Virginia and North Carolina to one hundred 

 and twelve thousand strong. 



The second great army in the Confederacy 

 was that under Gen. Johnston, a large portion 

 of which was cavalry. The army known as 

 the Army of the Tennessee was composed of 

 two corps, each having six divisions of in- 

 fantry, amounting to thirty-six thousand men. 

 There were also several divisions of cavalry, 

 numbering at least eighteen thousand men, 

 making an aggregate of fifty-four thousand. 

 This included the four divisions sent to reen- 

 force Bishop Polk, and the two divisions sent 

 to Mobile, and the entire cavalry under Wheel- 

 er, Wharton, and John Morgan. Gen. John- 

 ston also had command of all the Confederate 

 forces in Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, 

 except those at Savannah, Mobile, and under 

 Forrest, who had an independent (roving) com- 

 mission. Before the arrival of Gen. Sherman 

 at Meridian, Gen. Polk had eighteen thousand 

 troops, only two thousand of which were vet- 

 erans. 



