|
The American Civil War and Guerrilla
Warfare
Guerrilla War
In 1865, General Robert E Lee stated that if the Army of Northern Virginia could make it to the Blue Ridge
Mountains, it could hold out for 20 years. Gen. Lee was referring to what soldiers of the era called a "Defensive Guerrilla War."
Roman Emperor Hadrian and the world’s
greatest military power were brought to their knees by inferior guerrilla bands in the early second century, and because
of Rome’s losses to guerrilla raids from the north, it succumbed to a stalemate and constructed a massive wall, known
as Hadrian's Wall, to separate its empire from the highland of northern Britain. The power of Rome was withheld
its objective of conquering the territory to its north, and the wall that Hadrian built serves as a reminder of
what few can achieve against such daunting odds. While familiar terrain and loyal citizens were key to the guerrilla victory, the
home field advantage was also appreciated by King Leonidas and his 300 Spartans, alongside their Greek allies, as they
defended the Pass of Thermopylae and inflicted at least 20,000 casualties on the invading Persian goliath. Prior to surrendering
the Army of Northern Virginia, General Lee, during the American Civil War, seriously contemplated disbanding the army,
creating a massive guerrilla force, and relocating it to the mountains. The twentieth century is a recent reminder of
how common citizens turned guerrillas could prove to be one strong opponent. By continuing its employment of guerrilla warfare, the Vietnamese demonstrated to the rest of the globe that it was more than
capable of defeating a few world powers.
| Guerrilla Warfare and Guerrilla War Strategy Map |
|
| American Civil War: Guerrilla Warfare and Guerrilla War Strategy Map |
The Microcosm
Native Americans learned to track and hunt at an early age, and their tactics
in (guerrilla) warfare were merely a transition from hunting animals to stalking the enemy.
General Ulysses S. Grant, traveling through the South’s Cumberland Gap in 1864 noted: "With two brigades of the Army of the Cumberland I
could hold that pass against the army which Napoleon led to Moscow."
During the American Civil War, William Thomas, a Cherokee chief and Confederate colonel, abandoned the traditional Napoleonic Tactics in favor of the superior advantages gained by Guerrilla Warfare while
in the defensive position known as familiarity of terrain. (See Thomas's Civil War Strategy.) Raised as a Cherokee to become the only white man to ever serve as a Cherokee
chief, Thomas was fond of the old ways of guerrilla tactics which had been successfully employed by the Indians for centuries,
such as "fight from the base of the ridge, keep the mountain to your back, succor the enemy, and then spring the trap."
The natives had been using the tactics against superior forces long before the white man had stepped onto the continent,
understood Thomas. Guerrilla warfare was adopted by a young George Washington, as demonstrated while fighting
for the British crown during the French and Indian War.
And in February 1864, Colonel Thomas reminded South Carolina officials that
in the beginning of the war, he had urged the Carolinas to “make preparations to defend the passes in the Smoky Mountains
for their common protection…and by express permission of President Davis, I raised a legion of Indians and highlanders.”
By abandoning tactics of Defensive Guerrilla Warfare, as it was called
at the time, it resulted in the loss of home field advantage and the outright attacks against a defenseless civilian
populace, which was also the network necessary to support and sustain the guerrillas in the field.
On May 2, 1864, in a letter to "Headquarters Armies Confederate
States," General Bragg proclaimed that "General Longstreet’s army having left East Tennessee opened all of Western North
Carolina, Northeastern Georgia, Northwestern South Carolina, to incursions of the enemy." And in May 1864, Colonel Black,
with the First South Carolina Cavalry, stated that although Thomas and the Cherokees were assigned to Western North Carolina,
"a wide gap is open for the inroad of the enemy." Bragg and Black had voiced their concerns the exact month that
the Legion was ordered to the Shenandoah Valley.
The Thomas Legion, consisting of Cherokee Indians and mountain men, would
be the last Confederate unit to surrender East of the Mississippi. The legion captured the Union occupied town of
Waynesville, North Carolina, and then negotiated its own surrender terms on May 10, 1865, which was more than one month
after Lee had already surrendered to Grant. The last Confederate command of the Civil War to surrender was the First
Indian Brigade, under the command of Brig. Gen. Stand Watie, on June 23, 1865. Cherokee Chief Watie's brigade consisted of Cherokee
Indians and it had effectively exercised Guerrilla Warfare for the duration of the war, and when the brigadier surrendered
his command, he also became the last Confederate general to lay down his arms. The Cherokee had performed well both east
and west of the mighty Mississippi, and their battlefield successes were the result of their Guerrilla War tactics.
Although there were units of the Civil War known by names such as Partisan
rangers, bushwhackers, Jayhawkers, and even raiders, several of the commands enjoyed much success in the conflict
due to their practice of guerilla tactics.
(See also related reading below.)
Recommended
Reading:
Black Flag: Guerrilla Warfare on the Western Border, 1861-1865: A Riveting Account of a Bloody
Chapter in Civil War History. From Library Journal:
The Civil War on the Kansas-Missouri border was initially fought by Bushwhackers and Jayhawkers, guerrillas from Missouri and Kansas, respectively.
Union troops mostly displaced the Jayhawkers by 1862, but the Bushwhackers remained active until Lee's surrender. Continued
below...
Historian Goodrich
describes the death and destruction the guerrilla war wrought on this region through excerpts from diaries, letters, local
news accounts, and published articles, letting the victims do most of the talking. Citing cases that graphically underscore
the terrorism, Goodrich captures the fear of the populace. He indulges in a few overly dramatic statements… This title
should be considered for public libraries with strong Civil War collections.
From Infantry Strategy, Guerrilla War Tactics, to Famous Guerilla Units:
Recommended Reading: The Devil Knows How To Ride: The True Story Of William Clarke Quantrill And His Confederate Raiders. Description: William Clarke Quantrill was quite possibly the most dangerous man
to fight in the Civil War. The leader of an almost psychopathic band of guerrilla warriors, Quantrill participated as a Confederate
in a deadly border war between Southern sympathizers in Missouri and the Unionist Jayhawkers of Kansas. He was largely responsible
for the 1863 massacre of nearly 200 unresisting men and boys in Lawrence, Kansas, as well as dozens of other brutal acts that
today would be called terrorism. Among the notorious men who rode with him were Frank and Jesse James, whose
postwar crime careers are briefly reviewed. Continued below...
Edward E. Leslie provides an objective treatment of his controversial subject, and readers will appreciate
his ability to tell a good story--including the one about why Quantrill's bones currently rest in three different states and
why a forensically correct wax reconstruction of his head can be found in the refrigerator of an Ohio historical society.
Recommended Reading: Inside War: The Guerrilla Conflict in Missouri During
the American Civil War. Description: During the Civil War, the state of Missouri
witnessed the most widespread, prolonged, and destructive guerrilla fighting in American history. With its horrific combination
of robbery, arson, torture, murder, and swift and bloody raids on farms and settlements, the conflict approached total
war, engulfing the whole populace and challenging any notion of civility. Michael Fellman's Inside War captures the conflict
from "inside," drawing on a wealth of first-hand evidence, including letters, diaries, military reports, court-martial transcripts,
depositions, and newspaper accounts. Continued below...
He gives us
a clear picture of the ideological, social, and economic forces that divided the people and launched the conflict. Along with
depicting how both Confederate and Union officials used the guerrilla fighters and their tactics to their own advantage, Fellman
describes how ordinary civilian men and women struggled to survive amidst the random terror perpetuated by both sides; what
drove the combatants themselves to commit atrocities and vicious acts of vengeance; and how the legend of Jesse James arose
from this brutal episode in the American Civil War.
Recommended Reading: Mountain
Partisans: Guerrilla Warfare in the Southern Appalachians, 1861-1865 (Hardcover). Description:
This is the story of a civil war within the Civil War. Some mountain folks in Southern Appalachia opposed the Confederacy,
especially when the South's conscription and impressment policies began to cause severe "home hardships." Deserters from
the Rebel army hid in the mountains and formed guerrilla bands that terrorized unprotected Confederate homesteads. Violence
escalated so much that Richmond had to detach entire Confederate regiments to pursue, engage, and eliminate these guerrilla
units. Continued below...
Mountain Partisans penetrates
the shadowy world of Union and Confederate guerrillas, describes their leaders and bloody activities, and explains their effect
on the Civil War and the culture of Appalachia. Although it did not alter the outcome of the war, guerrilla conflict affected
the way the war was fought. The Union army's experience with guerrilla warfare in the mountains influenced the North's adoption
of "hard war" as a strategy used against the South in the last two years of the war and helped shape the army's attitude toward
Southern civilians. Partisan warfare in Southern Appalachia left a legacy of self-imposed isolation and distrust of outsiders.
Wartime hatreds contributed to a climate of feuds and extralegal vigilantism that lasted for generations. The mountain economy
received a monumental setback from the war's devastating effects, laying the groundwork for the region's exploitation and
impoverishment by outside corporations in the early 20th century.
Recommended
Reading: War at Every Door: Partisan
Politics and Guerrilla Violence in East Tennessee, 1860-1869. Description: One of the most divided regions of the Confederacy, East Tennessee
was the site of fierce Unionist resistance to secession, Confederate rule, and the Southern war effort. It was also the scene
of unrelenting 'irregular,' or guerrilla, warfare between Union and Confederate supporters, a conflict that permanently altered
the region's political, economic, and social landscape. In this study, Noel Fisher examines the military and political struggle
for control of East Tennessee from the secession crisis through the early years of Reconstruction,
focusing particularly on the military and political significance of the region's irregular activity. Continued below...
Fisher portrays
in grim detail the brutality and ruthlessness employed not only by partisan bands but also by Confederate and Union troops under constant
threat of guerrilla attack and government officials frustrated by unstinting dissent. He demonstrates that, generally, guerrillas
were neither the romantic, daring figures of Civil War legend nor mere thieves and murderers, but rather were ordinary men
and women who fought to live under a government of their choice and to drive out those who did not share their views.
Recommended
Reading:
Bushwhackers, The Civil War in North
Carolina: The Mountains (338 pages). Description: Trotter's book (which could have been titled "Murder, Mayhem,
and Mountain Madness") is an epic backdrop for the most horrific murdering, plundering and pillaging of the mountain
communities of western North Carolina during the state’s darkest hour—the American Civil War. Commonly referred
to as Southern Appalachia, the North Carolina and East Tennessee
mountains witnessed divided loyalties in its bushwhackers and guerrilla units. These so-called “bushwhackers”
even used the conflict to settle old feuds and scores, which, in some cases, continued well after the war ended. Continued
below...
Some
bushwhackers were highly organized ‘fighting guerrilla units’ while others were a motley group of deserters
and outliers, and, since most of them were residents of the region, they were familiar with the terrain and made for a “very
formidable foe.” In this work, Trotter does a great job on covering the many facets of the bushwhackers and guerrillas,
including their: battles, skirmishes, raids, activities, motives, the outcome, and even the aftermath. This book is also a
great source for tracing ancestors during the Civil War; a must have for the family researcher of Southern Appalachia.
|
