Last episode, we looked at the very last chance the south had to win the war outright. After Vicksburg and Gettysburg, the south’s only chance was the election of 1864, and the hope that maybe the north would elect a new, anti-war government that would just let the confederate states go.
But the federal government in Washington knew that risk too, and they needed to make sure that it looked like the north was clearly close to winning the war, so that Lincoln and the republicans would be re-elected.
Vicksburg and Gettysburg had ended in early July of 1863. In November of 1863, Grant and Sherman won an important battle in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which gave the Union control of almost all of Tennessee, and opened up a pathway into Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama.
What is A Short Walk through Our Long History?
I think that if you want to understand the world we live in today, it helps to understand the important events of history. In this series, we are going to look at major events, people, documents, places, books, and ideas that have shaped history, and thus shaped our modern world.