Northern Favor, Confederate Desperation
On March of 1865 Abraham Lincoln became the president for a second term. The war was clearly in favor of the North however there were issues within the Republican Party about how to go about restoring the Union when the war was won. At the same time the Confederacy was becoming desperate just to hold onto its last gasping breath.
The President had signed a law that the Radical Republicans pushed through to provide clothing, food and shelter for the freed slaves and poor whites in the South. The Democrats and moderate Republicans did not support such a law citing that it trampled on the rights of states. This was known as the Freedman’s Bureau and established over four thousand schools, sixty industrial institutes and forty hospitals in the south.
General Joseph Johnston’s confederate troops tried blocking General William T. Sherman’s advance on Goldsborough but they were defeated. Johnston put up three desperate fights at Bentonville but to no avail. He was outnumbered and had to draw back leaving North Carolina open to the encroaching Northern Army.
Lincoln held a meeting with Generals Grant and Sherman as well as Admiral Porter; they discussed the spring campaign of the war. Lincoln wanted the war to end with as little casualties as possible. Lincoln would grant the confederate soldiers rights but hoped their leaders would leave the United States.
The Confederate Congress along with President Jefferson Davis approved the request of Robert E. Lee to enlist blacks into the army. The slaves who volunteered would be granted freedom after the war but it was too little too late and not many of these blacks ever saw combat. The confederacy was extremely desperate; the troops were starving and thirsty. There wasn’t enough food and drink to go around, they would have even settled for coconut water if it was available.
Eventually the North won the civil war and March 1865 was a stepping stone in that direction. It was also a desperate time for the people of the Confederacy.
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