AFTERMATH

The end of Hood’s invasion signaled the start of the end of the Confederacy. Sherman had taken Savannah, Georgia, and was starting a new march, this one through Georgia and the Carolinas to join hands with Grant and the Army of the Potomac in Virginia. Grant was grinding down Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia at Petersburg, Virginia. Union forces elsewhere were mopping up Confederate detachments along the coast and in the Trans-Mississippi region. Hood’s invasion was the last offensive operation by the South, and final remaining opportunity for the South to stave off defeat. Instead, it ended up giving Thomas another nickname: the Sledge of Nashville.

Hood was never again actively employed by the Confederacy during the few months it existed after he resigned command of the Army of Tennessee. For the rest of his life, Hood blamed the failure of the invasion of Tennessee on the shortcomings of his subordinates, especially Cheatham.

Thomas’s army dominated the Central South for the rest of the war. The reward for Wilson’s cavalrymen came on May 10, 1865, when cavalrymen from the 8th Michigan captured Jefferson Davis near Irwinville, Georgia. (Library of Congress)

Hood turned over what was left of the army to General Richard Taylor. Taylor awarded the force, less Forrest’s Cavalry Corps, to Stewart. It was then transferred east in an attempt to stop Sherman, who was cutting a swath from Savannah, Georgia north through the Carolinas. It bled strength throughout the march, mainly through desertion. By the time it arrived, only 4,500 effectives remained. There, along with what was left of Wheeler’s Cavalry Corps and local militias, it was folded into the Army of the South, under its former commander Joseph Johnson. Forrest remained in the West, with the responsibility of protecting Mississippi and Alabama. He reorganized his units into four divisions and struggled to recruit replacements.

The Army of Tennessee reorganized in the winter of 1865. Sent to the Carolinas, it fought its final battle at Bentonville on March 21 that year. It surrendered with the rest of General Joseph E. Johnston’s command in April. (Author’s collection)

The infantry corps commanded by Thomas were peeled off one by one to support other campaigns. The XXIII Corps was sent to the Carolinas to reinforce Sherman. The XVI Corps was sent to the Army of the Western Mississippi under Major-General George Canby. There it participated in the capture of Mobile, Alabama in April 1865. Thomas was eventually left with IV Corps and the Cavalry Corps. Yet even with a reduced force, Thomas continued his relentless drive into the south, depending as much upon Wilson’s cavalry as Hood had depended upon Forrest.

Forrest failed to work his old magic in 1865. Perhaps more accurately, the Union cavalry grew strong enough to counter Forrest’s best. By January, Wilson’s Cavalry Corps was remounted, and fully retrained to Wilson’s exacting standards. Despite Forrest’s efforts, his men were routinely bested by the Union forces. In March, Wilson started a month-long raid through Alabama, which destroyed what was left of Forrest’s cavalry. Wilson’s men closed the war by capturing Jefferson Davis as Davis fled the United States after the fall of the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.

After the war, Thomas was offered promotion to lieutenant-general. Thomas turned down the promotion. It was an attempt by President Johnson to replace Grant with Thomas, and Thomas wanted no part of being a political general. Schofield, political to the core, eventually became commander of the United States Army. Most of the rest of the leaders, on both sides, went on to successful postwar careers.