Question: What was Grant and Sherman's strategy of total war? High School US History: Help and Review The South had reason to believe that it could achieve independence. How many more lives must be sacrificed to the vindictiveness of a few unprincipled men! Our one chance was to wear her out.A Southern victory was not out of the question. Sherman used his position to crush the resistance of the Western tribes and ultimately force them onto reservations. the North also faced a greater task. It was Lee’s strategy and tactics that dissipated irreplaceable manpower—even in his “victories.” His army lost at Malvern Hill, Antietam, Gettysburg, the Shenandoah Valley, Petersburg, and Appomattox. Ironically, Lee’s aggressiveness caused high, intolerable Southern casualties and played a major role in the decline of Southern morale and willingness to continue the war. Unless therefore the South found a way to fully involve those slaves in the war effort (and on the Confederate side), it faced a 4-to-1 general population disadvantage. AP US History: Homework Help Resource In light of a large number of battles fought by his armies, the total of 154,000 killed and wounded suffered by his commands was surprisingly small—especially when considered in light of the 209,000 killed and wounded among the soldiers commanded by Lee. Given the number of battles Grant’s armies fought, this is a surprising, but informative, result. His army took unnecessarily high casualties in those defeats, as well as throughout the entire Seven Days’ Battle and at Chancellorsville. Was William Tecumseh Sherman Native American? S. M. Bowman, a member of Sherman's staff, described the scene in "Sherman and His Campaigns":"In a parlor of the Burnet House, at Cincinnati, bending over their maps, the two generals, who had so long been inseparable, planned together that colossal structure ... and, grasping one another firmly by the hand, separated, one to the east, the other to the west, each to strike at the same instant his half of the ponderous death-blow. Dana concluded that these numbers showed that “Grant in eleven months secured the prize with less loss than his predecessors suffered in failing to win it during a struggle of three years.”© HistoryOnTheNet 2000-2019. for there is no doubt that with the division of sentiment existing at the North the administration could shape its policy either for peace or for war.”Confederate General Alexander confirmed the Confederacy’s need to wear down, not conquer, the North:When the South entered upon war with a power so immensely her superior in men & money, & all the wealth of modern resources in machinery and transportation appliances by land & sea, she could entertain but one single hope of final success. Astoundingly (in light of his reputation), Lee’s percentages of killed and wounded suffered by his troops were worse than those of his fellow Confederate commanders.

Get access to this video and our entire Q&A library When Grant was promoted to Lt. General, he had no intentions of setting up shop in Washington, he intended to remain in the field.

Grant’s war-ending 1864 Overland Campaign against Lee’s army reflected Grant’s war-long philosophy that “The art of war is simple enough. American Revolution Study Guide Try it risk-free for 30 days And this sealed the fate of the Confederacy.”Many have argued that Lee had no choice but to be recklessly aggressive because the South had no other way to win the war.

Its register would eventually boast celebrities and presidents. The romantic glorification of the Army of Northern Virginia by generations of Lost Cause writers has obscured this truth.”The results of Lee’s faulty strategies and tactics were catastrophic. Grant and Sherman, two generals from Ohio In 1864, the war was turning in the Union's favor and President Abraham Lincoln finally found an effective military commander in Grant. Grant was to pummel Gen. Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Virginia.Sherman famously summed up their strategy: "We finally settled on a plan. In that ... room Grant and I made up our plan which sent me on the march to the sea and him to capture Lee." The American Civil War lasted four years, from 1861 to 1865. William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891) was a Union general during the Civil War. He requested that Sherman travel with him to Cincinnati, Ohio in order to discuss a reorganization of the Army and campaign strategy.Both men had become heroes in the North and their every move was shadowed by reporters. This new element was the war of attrition, and Grant was the first one to use it on this scale.