I am so proud of my son and my husband and I am so happy that my husband will finally be coming back home. He has done his time in the army and it is time for him to come home and hopefully Adam will come home soon also. Harriet has also just arrived home. She is missing a leg but I am grateful to have her back. Along with the happiness of my family being okay it is also very exciting that the Union has had such great victories. General Grant has been made Commander of the entire Union military because of his fantastic leadership. Lincoln believes greatly in General Grant and after the way he has helped the north I assume he won't accept anything other than a victory. According to Adam, General Grant already has his eyes on Richmond the Confederate capital. Adam has told me that Grant said to the army, "I propose to fight it out if it takes all summer." I am glad to have such a persistent Commander that will lead us to victory.
"Ulysses S. Grant and the American Civil War." - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2016.
January 1865
Adam has fought a countless amount of battles but he has wrote to me saying that there have been many more other than then ones he fought in. He told me that he fought in the battles the Wilderness, and Cold Harbor and the battle he didn't fight in was called Spotsylvania Court House. The tactic that General Grant used was called total war and Adam has said that this is a dreadful strategy. The Union army harms civilians along with the Confederate army. Adam said that Grant hoped to inflict more injuries and so the Confederates wouldn't be strong enough or have enough people to withstand the Union army. My son said that there were tens of thousands of soldiers killed on both sides and the war did take all summer and a few months after as well. He tells me that he is dreadfully tired but he feels as though the war is almost over and he wants to fight for the life of James which was taken by the enemy. I am pleased by this but I wasn't pleased with the amount of people killed or the strategy used by General Grant. I feel as though total war is a gruesome type of idea that only the south would use and I am not the only one upset by this. Zachary has told me he's glad he left the war because he wouldn't want to be forced to kill every Confederate he saw because that is an unjust way to fight. Not all people that are in the Confederacy are bad because not all of them support slavery. Although the total war strategy isn't a favorite of mine it still works and it was even adopted by General William Tecumseh Sherman. My son didn't fight in this battle but he has heard the details from his friends and he told me that the battle occurred in May. General Sherman took 60,000 and made them march from the Tennessee-Georgia boarder to Savanna, Georgia. After the army marched the 250 miles they went to capture the port of Savanna. Adam says his friends called this the "March to the Sea" and they didn't like how they gained supplies and neither do I. The soldiers got their supplies by stealing along the way and then destroying all valuable possessions and they also vandalized private property, destroyed buildings and tore apart railroad tracks. The Confederate soldiers were forced to leave Atlanta due to the Union forces closing in. On September 2, Sherman forced the residents to leave despite the protests and the Union troops burnt it to the ground. General Sherman didn't stop there, in December he captured Savanna. Adam has said that southerners are now calling the General "Sherman the Brute." This war has been so long and now with the General we have gained nothing can stand in our way. Although I am not happy with the strategies that are being used they are working and all I need is for the war to end at this point.
Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2016.
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