Chronological History of the American Civil War

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treaty with the Federal government. Confederate States of America would stay united in this war. General Sherman (U.S.) in Georgia, has his troops on four different roads leading out of Atlanta, thus confusing the Rebels of his true plans of a “March to the Sea.” Even if the Rebels did know where Sherman is heading or which direction, it had no army large enough that it could do anything about it. Friday, November 18, 1864 : Jefferson Davis telegraphs General Howell Cobb (CSA) commanding the Georgia reserves in Macon, Georgia is imploring him to use any means necessary to resist Sherman, (U.S.) including employing slaves to dig obstructions and cut trees to use as roadblocks. Saturday, November 19, 1864 : Governor Joseph Brown (pictured) of Georgia, a states’ rights advocate had always spoken out against the expansion of the

Confederate central government’s powers. He has denounced, President Davis in particular. Brown has always made full use of the fact that under the Confederate constitution, each state was a sovereign entity. No governor, was really obligated to obey any orders from a central government. In the past, if Davis had requested troops, Brown sent few or none at all. Brown even tried to stop Colonel Francis Bartow (CSA) from taking Georgia troops out of the state to the First Battle of Bull Run. He, also, objected strenuously to military conscription (draft) by the Confederacy. Even after General Hood’s (CSA) loss of Atlanta to Sherman; Brown withdrew, the state’s militia from the Confederate forces to harvest crops for the state, and the

army. Now, as the Union troops under Sherman (U.S.) are terrorizing much of his state, Brown still wants to call for an end to the war. But, now his plea for help, is being ignored, even by all his own able bodied citizens in his state, that want to stay that way. With little threat of Confederate intervention, President Abraham Lincoln lifts the Federal blockade of the southern ports at Norfolk, Virginia and at Fernandina and Pensacola in Florida. Sunday, November 20, 1864 : Major General William T. Sherman (U.S.) continues with new skirmishes at East Macon, Griswoldville, Walnut Creek, and Clinton, Georgia on his “March to the Sea.” There is little the South can do to stop the Yankees from destroying everything, they don’t eat or steal. On a McMinnville, Tennessee plantation, Lucy Virginia French writes in her journal: “I have written nothing since election day…. I suppose [the gloomy weather] is prophetic of the second term of Abraham, assisted by the Tailor of Tennessee.” (Vice President Andrew Johnson) Monday, November 21, 1864 : The first snowstorm of the season this morning, hits as the Confederate Army of Tennessee under Lieut. General John Bell Hood (CSA) as it sets out from Florence, Alabama for Tennessee with the following commands Major General Benjamin Franklin Cheatham’s Army Corps, Lieut. General Stephen Dill Lee’s Army Corps, Lieut. General Alexander Peter, Stewart’s Army Corps, and Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest Cavalry Corps. Union General John M. Schofield moves his smaller Army of the Ohio (U.S.) north of Pulaski, Tennessee to avoid being outflanked. Boats from U.S.S. Avenger , Acting Lieutenant, Charles A. Wright, captures a large quantity of supplies on the Mississippi River near Bruinsburg, Mississippi, after a brief engagement. Union gunboats maintain a vigilant patrol, to prevent Confederate supplies from crossing the Mississippi River for the armies in Alabama and Tennessee.