Army of Northern Virginia

Due to its bold and aggressive fighting style, the army won several key victories, made all the more impressive by its consistent lack of supplies. However, the army also had an extremely high casualty rate - it suffered over 30,000 combat deaths and routinely lost 20-30% of its fighting strength after each major engagement. The battleflag of the Army of Northern Virginia, as well as the army itself, came to symbolize the Confederacy. Because of this importance, the army's ultimate surrender at Appomattox in April 1865 is often used to mark the end of the Civil War.

Background: Virginia Leaves the Union

On 17 April 1861, the Commonwealth of Virginia officially voted to secede from the United States, a decision that was ratified by voters a little over a month later. In Richmond, the state capital, bands played as people cheered and celebrated in the streets, the young men going off to enlist in the newly formed military. Seven states had already seceded during the Secession Crisis of the previous winter; though Virginia had initially stayed loyal to the Union during those fraught and frigid days, it had been unable to sit by when, following the Battle of Fort Sumter (12-13 April 1861), US President Abraham Lincoln had called for 75,000 volunteers to go South and kill the budding rebellion in its cradle. Feeling that the entirety of the South was under threat - including that 'peculiar institution' of chattel slavery - Virginia left the Union and added its strength to the Confederate States of America.

And what a strength it was. According to the 1860 census, Virginia was the most populous Southern state, home to around 1.5 million people (over 400,000 of whom were enslaved). It was also the most industrialized state in the South - it boasted hundreds of factories, including lucrative textile and flour mills; it contained more railroad tracks than any other Southern state, providing for faster transportation; and it was home to the Tredegar Iron Works, which would prove vital in casting artillery. All of this would contribute greatly to the Confederate war effort.

Moreover, Virginia was one of the oldest and most prestigious states in the country, having helped lead the revolution against Great Britain and produced some of the most important Founding Fathers. As such, when the Old Dominion left the Union, the impact was symbolic as much as it was economic. In recognition of Virginia's importance, the Confederacy transferred its national capital to Richmond.

It was, therefore, clear that as soon as Virginia joined the Confederacy, that it would be the battleground upon which the war would be decided. All that separated Virginian soil from the US capital of Washington, D.C. - where Abraham Lincoln was currently marshalling his army - was the meandering Potomac River. So, as soon as news of the secession had become official, local militia companies began rushing toward the state's northeastern border, to keep watch for Yankee invaders along the banks of the Potomac and to defend this all-important Confederate state.

In late April 1861, the Confederate government directed General Philip St. George Cocke to take command of the militia forces congregating along "the line of the Potomac" and form them into an army (Davis, 14). In late May, Cocke was ultimately replaced as commander by General P.G.T. Beauregard, the hero of Fort Sumter, as regiments from Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and Louisiana arrived to add their strength to the fledgling army. Thus, the Army of Northern Virginia - though it was not yet known by this name - was born.

Forming an Army: 1861

According to Joseph T. Glaathar, the men who enlisted in the earliest days of the war - known as the "Boys of '61" - were "armed with passion and little else" (17). Flushed with enthusiasm, they were eager for a chance to defend their homes from the Yankee invader, and wanted to get in on the adventure while it lasted, for most people were certain that the war would only last a few months.

Many of these early volunteers were single men in their 20s or 30s with few responsibilities at home. More than half of them were farmers, and they overwhelmingly came from rural areas (94%). They had an average personal wealth of $1,615, placing the average soldier solidly in the middle class, though officers were usually much wealthier. Many soldiers had a direct connection to slavery. Of the enlistees of '61, one in ten were slaveholders themselves, while 36% lived with slaveholding family members (these numbers would increase in 1862). Many of these volunteers, therefore, directly profited from slavery and were perfectly willing to fight to preserve it.

Although every Confederate state contributed soldiers to the army - even border states like Maryland, still loyal to the Union, were represented - the majority of men came from Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Initially, men from different states were mixed together in the same brigades; however, Confederate President Jefferson Davis soon reorganized the army into state brigades, believing that men would be more likely to enlist if they could serve alongside others from their home states.

Davis and his government realized it would take time to supply their new army and advised volunteers to bring their own weapons as well as "one extra pair of good walking shoes, one blanket, and other light conveniences as they can easily carry themselves on the march" (Glaathar, 43). Throughout the war, the soldiers would have to deal with a lack of supplies, a situation that would only worsen as time went on.

In the first few months, the soldiers were expected to drill and practice tactical maneuvers for hours each day, though they were commanded by officers who often knew little more than themselves about military matters. To be sure, the Army of Northern Virginia boasted a large number of professional officers who had attended the prestigious military academy at West Point - including J.E.B. Stuart, Stonewall Jackson, and General Lee himself - but in the earliest months of the war, most junior and regimental officers were elected by the men they would command.

The average officer was a few years older than the average soldier, and had a more personal connection to slavery, as nearly half of all officers were slaveholders. The incessant drilling that the soldiers had to do, as well as the other mundane tasks of army life - digging trenches or latrines, for instance - was the first indicator that this would not be the grand adventure many of the newly-minted soldiers were envisioning. Indeed, some even wrote off their chores as slave work. "A soldier's life is much harder than I expected when I left home," one Mississippian frankly put it (Glaathar, 51).

Finding Its Footing: 1861 - 1862

Many soldiers would get their first taste of combat at the First Battle of Bull Run (First Manassas) on 21 July 1861. Though the battle was long and hardfought, lasting for nearly ten hours beneath the sweltering summer sun, it resulted in a stunning Confederate victory, the broken Union army withdrawing all the way back to Washington.

For the soldiers themselves, it was a mixed bag of emotions. Some were euphoric, seeing the victory as proof that God was on their side, or that Southern boys were made of sterner stuff than their Northern brethren; "there is not a man in the Southern Army, who does not in his heart believe that he could whip three Yankees," wrote one soldier, while another proclaimed, "We have won the greatest victory that has ever been recorded in history" (quoted in Glaathar, 54-55). Still, other men, shocked by the brutality of combat, sickened by the sights of the mangled dead or the groans of the dying, were hard-pressed to see the glory.

For the rest of the year, the army remained in northern Virginia, awaiting a second Union attack. As more men and animals came to join it, the camp gradually expanded until it resembled "a great canvass city" (Glaathar, 66). With over 45,000 men living there by autumn, the tents were necessarily packed close together, creating a "biological time bomb". The approach of winter brought with it a myriad of diseases - particularly typhoid - that the immune systems of the farmer-soldiers had little protection against. At one point, nearly one fifth of the army was sick, with the understaffed hospitals ill-equipped to handle the influx of patients. Men were dying in droves. "Every day or so," wrote one soldier to his parents, "we hear the Band commence playing a sad burial tune very suddenly…we know then that some poor boy's spirit has departed" (Glaathar, 71).

The army would not remain inactive for long. In the spring of 1862, Union General George B. McClellan landed on the peninsula between the York and James rivers, threatening Richmond with 100,000 men. Now under the command of General Joseph E. Johnston, the Army of Northern Virginia rushed to defend the capital, and ultimately clashed with the Northerners at the Battle of Seven Pines (31 May - 1 June 1862). The poorly planned battle led to heavy casualties including Johnston himself, who was severely wounded.

Unable to stay in command of the army, Johnston was replaced by General Robert E. Lee. It was Lee who, in his inaugural message to his new soldiers, first referred to them as the Army of Northern Virginia. Initially, the men did not think much of him - they mockingly referred to him as 'Granny Lee', or the 'King of Spades' due to his propensity to have them do nothing but dig trenches. But their tune changed when Lee led them to victory during the Seven Days' Battles (25 June - 1 July 1862), in which they kicked McClellan out of Virginia.

Victories: 1862-1863

When Lee took command, the Army of Northern Virginia was at its strongest, numbering 90,000 men. These were no longer the "Boys of '61", fueled by dreamy-eyed enthusiasm. By now, some had been transformed into battle-hardened veterans, while some of the new recruits were poor conscripts, forced to fight by decree of President Davis (it is unknown what percentage of Lee's army were conscripts). Some units - like the Stonewall Brigade and the Texas Brigade - had taken on legendary status, and were being celebrated across the South. Shortly after taking command, Lee reorganized the army into corps: the First Corps was led by General James Longstreet, the Second Corps by Stonewall Jackson, and a cavalry corps was created under J.E.B. Stuart (a Third Corps, under A.P. Hill, would be added in June 1863).

By dividing his army into corps, Lee increased maneuverability. In coordination with Davis, he had decided on an 'offensive-defensive' strategy, whereby he would remain on the defensive, but look for opportunities to act aggressively and catch the enemy off guard; by splitting his army into corps, he could more easily exploit such opportunities.

As such, after Lee won another decisive victory at the Second Battle of Bull Run (29-30 August), he was emboldened to invade Maryland. During the invasion, thousands of undersupplied soldiers - lacking enough food and shoes - straggled, while a copy of Lee's orders fell into enemy hands. As a result, Lee was defeated at the Battle of Antietam (17 September), in which the Army of Northern Virginia was almost destroyed, losing approximately 13,000 officers and men. The army limped back into Virginia and resumed a defensive position, leading to another victory at the Battle of Fredericksburg (11-15 December).

In the spring of 1863, Lee won perhaps his greatest victory, defeating the Union Army of the Potomac at the Battle of Chancellorsville (30 April - 6 May). Despite the victory, the army suffered tremendously, losing 13,500 casualties including Stonewall Jackson, who was mortally wounded (he was replaced as corps commander by Richard S. Ewell). This was a typical consequence of Lee's aggressive strategy; though he was beloved by his men, he was often willing to throw their lives away to gain the advantage. By now, the brutal reality of war had sunk in for many soldiers. "You cannot walk over a single field about here," one wrote, "without passing over some poor soldier's grave who, though he has fallen fighting for his country, has not so much as plank to tell who lies beneath the fresh mound" (Glaathar, 255).

Struggle for Survival: 1863-1864

Following his victory at Chancellorsville, Lee was emboldened to once again attempt an invasion of the North. This time, he was checked at the three-day Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania; the engagement culminated in Pickett's Charge, when thousands of Confederate soldiers were mowed down while making a frontal assault on the Union position. Once again forced to retreat into Virginia, Lee would never again take the offensive. He spent the rest of the year licking his wounds and awaiting the Yankee assault that he knew would begin the following spring.

And indeed, Union General Ulysses S. Grant ordered the Army of the Potomac into Virginia in May 1864, intent on crushing Lee's army once and for all. In the meat-grinder that would become known as the Overland Campaign, the once triumphant Army of Northern Virginia was forced to fight for its very survival. In a string of three, almighty battles - the Battle of the Wilderness, the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, and the Battle of Cold Harbor - the army lost 30-35,000 casualties in a little over a month, in its attempts to hold off the Yankee onslaught. Although Grant lost more men in the campaign, he could afford to replenish his losses in a way that Lee could not; if Grant could keep pressing, then the Army of Northern Virginia would be squeezed out of existence.

Lee knew this and moved his dwindling army to the town of Petersburg, Virginia, where he ordered his men to dig in. The resultant Siege of Petersburg kept the Army of Northern Virginia bottled up for the rest of the year. It involved horrific trench warfare, of the kind that would foreshadow the conditions of the First World War 50 years later. Lee's soldiers experienced malnutrition and disease, as supplies became less and less forthcoming; indeed, they often had to survive on only 900 calories a day. They had to live in daily fear of sharpshooters and artillery bombardments. With few reinforcements coming to replace the dead, soldiers rarely received reprieve from the trenches unless they were seriously ill or badly wounded. Still, they fought ferociously, inflicting heavy casualties on the Union besiegers.

Final Days: 1865

But Lee's army could not hold out forever. As the siege wore on, and the Army of Northern Virginia was whittled away by attrition, Lee was forced to spread his lines dangerously thin. The decisive moment came on 1 April 1865 when, at the Battle of Five Forks, a Union assault turned the Confederate flank. Lee had no choice but to abandon Petersburg and flee westward with his army. During the retreat, many of his soldiers fell behind, weakened by months' of static trench warfare; once renowned for its invincibility and mobility, Lee's army was now sluggish and on its last legs. After the fall of Richmond on 3 April, it was clear that defeat was inevitable.

On 9 April 1865, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House. Grant offered generous terms; so long as the Confederate soldiers gave up their weapons and signed a parole, they would be allowed to return home. 27,805 men took the offer and signed the paroles. The next day, Lee gave his farewell address and the once proud Army of Northern Virginia disbanded. Joseph T. Glaathar, in an article for Encyclopedia Virginia, sums up the army's legacy:

Few armies could measure up to the Army of Northern Virginia's suffering. Of the approximately 200,000 soldiers who passed through its ranks, more than 30,000 were killed in action, a greater number than died of disease. Seventy-five percent of all infantrymen, 47 percent of all artillerists, and 44 percent of all cavalrymen were either killed or wounded in battle, died of disease, or were captured prior to the final surrender. In the face of this suffering, fewer armies could still claim to have done such damage on the enemy. Forty-five percent of all Union casualties—including 56.4 percent of all Union troops wounded and 36.4 percent of all Union troops killed in action—fell at the hands of Lee's army.

It is no wonder, then, that the Confederacy placed so much of its hopes on the fortunes of this army. In defending the most important Confederate state, the Army of Northern Virginia defied impressive odds to win multiple victories; indeed, the war likely would have ended far sooner if not for the boldness and ferocity of these soldiers.