Freedom by the Sword - US Army Center Of Military History

Chapter 11
Virginia, May–October 1864
From before sunup until after sundown, soldiers at Fort Monroe during the
early days of May 1864 busied themselves preparing for the spring campaign. In
the 4th United States Colored Infantry (USCI), Sgt. Maj. Christian A. Fleetwood
interrupted his paperwork to spend a morning at target practice. “Fair shooting,”
he thought, “not extra.” Officers marveled at orders that restricted their baggage to
fifteen pounds: “as well none as so little,” wrote 2d Lt. Joseph J. Scroggs of the 5th
USCI. “The bustle of preparation goes on vigorously and soon both men and officers
will be divested of everything except their accoutrements and the clothes on
their backs.” Also in the 5th, Lt. Col. Giles W. Shurtleff noted that orders assigned
each regiment only one wagon to haul its gear; officers had to store their roomy
wall tents and sleep in pairs in shelter tents like the men. “This seems hard,” he told
his fiancée, “but I am rejoiced to see the commanding general go about his work as
if he meant to effect his object. . . . It will cause us great inconvenience and some
hardship and exposure; but what matter if we can more speedily accomplish the
work to be done?” 1
The new commanding general of all Union armies, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant,
had arrived in Washington that March from west of the Appalachians, where federal
troops had spent the previous two years advancing continually into Confederate
territory. While they satisfied day-to-day needs by stripping hostile country of food
for soldiers and animals, they moved ever farther from the depots that supplied
their clothing and munitions, neither of which could be replenished on the spot,
hence their habit of traveling light. Grant brought that method of warfare east, for
he intended to put all the Union’s forces in motion. Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks,
in Louisiana, would move up the Red River toward Texas. At the same time, Maj.
Gen. William T. Sherman would strike south from Chattanooga: “Joe Johnston’s
[Confederate] army his objective point and the heart of Georgia his ultimate aim,”
as Grant explained it to Maj. Gen. George G. Meade, who commanded the Army of
the Potomac. “Lee’s army will be your objective point,” Grant continued. “Wherever
Lee goes, there you will go also.” Grant issued orders that limited the number
1 C. A. Fleetwood Diary, 2 and 3 (quotation) May 1864, C. A. Fleetwood Papers, Library of
Congress (LC); J. J. Scroggs Diary, 1 (“as well”) and 2 (“The bustle”) May 1864, U.S. Army Military
History Institute (MHI), Carlisle, Pa.; G. W. Shurtleff to Dearest Mary, 2 May 1864, G. W. Shurtleff
Papers, Oberlin College (OC), Oberlin, Ohio.