Existing comment:
The Confederate Strategy:
"Every Bullet we can send... is the best ballot that can be deposited against his (Lincoln's) election. The battlefields of 1864 will hold the polls of this momentous decision. If the tyrant at Washington be defeated, his infamous policy will be defeated with him, and when this party sinks, no other war party will rise in the United States."
-- The editor of the Augusta Constitutionalist, January 22, 1864
Target Washington:
In the summer of 1864, Robert E Lee hoped not for outright victory, but for political triumph -- the defeat of Abraham Lincoln in the presidential election. A battlefield victory at the gates of Washington could foil Lincoln's re-election. It might also force Grant to release troops from Petersburg, giving Lee the chance to break the siege.
Lee assigned nearly one-third of his army to the job. His orders to Jubal Early: move westward to the Shenandoah Valley, then down the valley (northward) toward Maryland. Once across the Potomac, Early was to move on Washington and, hopefully, change the course of the Civil War.
"The importance of this military campaign to the administration of Mr. Lincoln... leaves no doubt that every effort will be made to secure its success."
-- General Robert E Lee, summer, 1864 |