Union Army

The Union Army refers to the United States Army during the American Civil War. The Union Army is also known as the Northern Army or the Federal Army.

History of the Union Army

Formation of the Union Army

When the American Civil War began in April of 1861, there were only 16,000 men in the U.S. Army, and many Southern soldiers and officers were already resigning and joining the new Confederate States Army. The army consisted of ten regiments of infantry, four of artillery, two of cavalry, two of dragoons, and one of mounted infantry. These regiments were scattered widely. Of the 197 companies in the army, 179 occupied 79 isolated post in the West and the remaining 18 manned garrisons east of the Mississippi River, mostly along the Canadian border and on the Atlantic coast.

Related Topics:
American Civil War - Southern - Confederate States Army - Regiment - Infantry - Artillery - Cavalry - Dragoons - Mounted infantry - Mississippi River - Canadian

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With the secession of the Southern states, and with this drastic shortage of men in the Army, President Abraham Lincoln called on the states to raise a force of 75,000 men for three months to put down the insurrection in the South. The war would prove to be longer and bigger than anyone had expected, and on July 22, 1861, Congress authorized a volunteer army of 500,000 men. It was this callup of Federal troops that incited four more states of the South to secede, making the Confederacy eleven states strong.

Related Topics:
Secession - Southern states - President - Abraham Lincoln - July 22 - 1861

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At first, the call for volunteers was easily met by patriotic Northerners, abolitionists, and even enthusiastic immigrants who enlisted with the hope of a steady paycheck and food rations. Over 10,000 Germans in New York and Pennsylvania immediately responded to Lincoln's call for volunteers, and the French were also among those quick to volunteer. As more and more men were needed, the number of willing volunteers fell, but nevertheless, between April 1861 and April 1865, at least two and a half million men would serve in the Union Army, most of whom were volunteers.

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It is a widely held misconception that the South held the advantage of a large percentage of professional military who resigned to join the Confederate army. At the start of the war, there were 824 graduates of the U.S. Military Academy on the active list; of these, 296 resigned or were dismissed and 184 of those became Confederate officers. Of the approximately 900 West Point graduates who were then in civilian life, 114 returned to the Union army and 99 to the Confederate. Therefore, the ratio of Union to Confederate professional officers was 754 to 283. (One of the resigning officers was Robert E. Lee, who had initially been offered the job as commander of the Union Army; Lee accepted the position as commander of Virginia forces instead and would eventually go on to become the commander of the Confederate States Army.) The South did have the advantage of other military colleges, such as The Citadel and VMI, but they produced a comparatively small number of officers.

Related Topics:
U.S. Military Academy - West Point - Robert E. Lee - Virginia - The Citadel - VMI

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Major units of the Union Army

The Union Army was composed of numerous units, mostly divided into departments, which were organized geographically, and armies, which assumed geographical names, but could operate over wider areas. Each of these major units was usually commanded by a major general. Some of the most prominent units were:

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• Army of the Potomac, the major army in the Eastern Theater
• Army of the Tennessee
• Army of the Cumberland
• Army of the Ohio
• Army of the Mississippi
• Army of Virginia
• Department of Washington

The Regular Army, a term used to describe the permanent United States Army, was intermixed into various units and formations of the Union Army. This force was quite small compared to massive state volunteer forces that comprised the bulk of the Union Army.

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There was a general tendency to name Union armies after important rivers in their areas of operation, although exceptions existed. (Confederate armies were generally named after states.)

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Leaders

Several men served as generals-in-chief of the Union Army throughout its existence:

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• Winfield Scott: July 5, 1841 – November 1, 1861
• George B. McClellan: November 1, 1861 – March 11, 1862
• Henry W. Halleck: July 23, 1862 – March 9, 1864
• Ulysses S. Grant: March 9, 1864 – March 4, 1869

(The gap from March 11, 1862, to July 23, 1862, was filled with direct control of the army by President Lincoln and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, with the help of an unofficial "War Board" that was established on March 17, 1862. The board consisted of Ethan A. Hitchcock, the chairman, with Department of War bureau chiefs Lorenzo Thomas, Montgomery C. Meigs, Joseph G. Totten, James W. Ripley, and Joseph P. Taylor.)

Related Topics:
Secretary of War - Edwin M. Stanton - March 17 - 1862 - Ethan A. Hitchcock - Lorenzo Thomas - Montgomery C. Meigs - Joseph G. Totten - James W. Ripley - Joseph P. Taylor

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Scott was an elderly veteran of the Mexican-American War and could not perform his duties effectively. The war did not go well for the North in the first two years, and many people blamed the over-cautiousness and poor strategy of Scott's successor, Maj. Gen. McClellan, for this. McClellan led the disastrous Peninsula Campaign and was replaced by Halleck as general-in-chief. Although he was extremely popular among the soldiers, McClellan was relieved from duty because of his over-cautiousness and his contentious relationship with his commander-in-chief, President Lincoln. Halleck arrived with a successful record in the western theater, but was more of an administrator than a strategic planner and commander.

Related Topics:
Mexican-American War - Peninsula Campaign

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Ulysses Grant was the final commander of the Union Army. He was already famous for his victories in the West when he was appointed Lieutenant General and general-in-chief of the Union Army in March 1864. Grant supervised the Army of the Potomac (which was formally led by his subordinate, Maj. Gen. George G. Meade) in delivering the final knockout punches to the Confederacy by decisively defeating Confederate forces in many fierce battles in Virginia, eventually capturing the capital of the Confederacy itself, Richmond. He developed the strategy of coordinated simultaneous thrusts against wide portions of the Confederacy, most importantly the Georgia and Carolinas campaigns of William Tecumseh Sherman and the Shenandoah Valley campaign of Philip Sheridan. These campaigns were characterized by another strategic notion of Grant's—deny the enemy the supplies needed to continue the war by widespread destruction of its factories and farms along the paths of the invading Union armies.

Related Topics:
Lieutenant General - George G. Meade - Richmond - Georgia - William Tecumseh Sherman - Shenandoah Valley - Philip Sheridan

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Grant had critics who complained about the atrociously high numbers of casualties that the Union Army suffered while he was in charge, but Lincoln would not replace Grant, because, in Lincoln's words: "I cannot spare this man. He fights."

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Union victory

Grant's decisive victories resulted in the unconditional surrender of the Confederacy. (Northern newspapers of the day hailed U. S. Grant as "Unconditional Surrender" Grant). Southern diplomats had been trying to negotiate terms of peace, or even conditional surrender, ever since the Gettysburg in July 1863, but Northern leaders would not hear of it. The prevailing opinion among Northern leaders was that anything short of the Union Army defeating the Confederate Army in the field of battle would be a failure, and could leave the door open to future conflict.

Related Topics:
Unconditional surrender - Gettysburg

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That goal was finally achieved on April 9, 1865, when Lee officially surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to General Grant at Appomattox Court House. Although there were other Confederate armies that would surrender in the following weeks, such as Joseph E. Johnston's in North Carolina, this date was nevertheless symbolic of the end of the bloodiest war in American history, the end of the Confederate States of America, and the beginning of the slow process of Reconstruction.

Related Topics:
April 9 - 1865 - Army of Northern Virginia - Appomattox Court House - Joseph E. Johnston - North Carolina - Confederate States of America - Reconstruction

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