— Ch. 1 · Grant's Strategic Vision —
Valley campaigns of 1864.
~5 min read · Ch. 1 of 6
In May 1864, Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant took command of all Union armies from his headquarters with the Army of the Potomac. He kept Major General George G. Meade in charge of that specific army while placing William Tecumseh Sherman over most Western forces. Grant understood total war as a concept requiring the utter defeat of Confederate forces and their economic base to end the Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln shared this belief alongside Grant and Sherman regarding the necessity of destroying the enemy's economic foundation. Grant devised a coordinated strategy striking at the heart of the Confederacy from multiple directions simultaneously. He planned to join Meade and Benjamin Butler against Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia near Richmond. Franz Sigel received orders to invade the Shenandoah Valley and destroy Lee's supply lines. Nathaniel P. Banks was assigned to capture Mobile, Alabama, an important port on the Gulf Coast. This multi-directional offensive aimed to prevent Confederate forces from shifting troops between theaters.
The Lynchburg Campaign
Sigel commanded the Department of West Virginia when he moved up the Valley with 10,000 men toward Lynchburg, Virginia on the 15th of May 1864. His forces were intercepted by 4,000 troops and cadets from the Virginia Military Institute under Confederate Major General John C. Breckinridge. Sigel's army retreated to Strasburg, Virginia after suffering defeat in that engagement. David Hunter replaced Sigel and initiated another strike southward through the region. On June 5 and 6, Hunter defeated William E. Grumble Jones at the Battle of Piedmont where Jones died during combat. Hunter occupied Staunton, Virginia following this victory. Union forces burned former Governor John Letcher's home while shelling and burning the Virginia Military Institute campus on June 13. They seized a statue of George Washington and nearly destroyed the entire campus before VMI classes moved to the Richmond Alms House. Hunter joined General William Averell in Buchanan on June 14 and advanced via the road between the Peaks of Otter to occupy Liberty that evening. Confederate cavalry under John McCausland fled across the James River bridge which they had burned before retreating.