rpose, was chosen as the new
commander-in-chief of the whole military force of the North. It was a
mighty army, vast in numbers, lavishly provided with all materials of
war. The official documents show that on the 1st of May the total
military forces of the North amounted to 662,000 men. Of these the force
available for the advance against Richmond numbered 284,630 men. This
included the Army of the Potomac, that of the James River, and the army
in the Shenandoah Valley--the whole of whom were in readiness to move
forward against Richmond at the orders of Grant.

To oppose these General Lee had less than 53,000 men, including the
garrison of Richmond and the troops in North Carolina. Those stationed
in the seaport towns numbered in all another 20,000; so that, if every
available soldier had been brought up, Lee could have opposed a total of
but 83,000 men against the 284,000 invaders.

In the West the numbers were more equally balanced. General Sherman, who
commanded the army of invasion there, had under his orders 230,000 men,
but as more than half this force was required to protect the long lines
of communication and to keep down the conquered States, he was able to
bring into the field for offensive operations 99,000 men, who were faced
by the Confederate army under Johnston of 58,000 men. Grant's scheme was
that, while the armies of the North were, under his own command, to
march against Richmond, the Army of the West was to invade Georgia and
march upon Atlanta.

His plan of action was simple, and was afterward stated by himself to be
as follows: "I determined first to use the greatest number of troops
practicable against the main force of the enemy, preventing him from
using the same force at different seasons against first one and then
another of our armies, and the possibility of repose for refitting and
producing necessary supplies for carrying on resistance. Second, to
hammer continuously against the armed force of the enemy and his
resources, until, by mere attrition if in no other way, there should be
nothing left to him but submission."

This was a terrible programme, and involved an expenditure of life far
beyond anything that had taken place. Grant's plan, in fact, was to
fight and to keep on fighting, regardless of his own losses, until at
last the Confederate army, whose losses could not be replaced, melted
away. It was a strategy that few generals have dared to practice, fewer
still to acknowledge.