On Wednesday, November 23, 1864 Union General Ulysses Grant and his staff traveled to Washington, D.C. to confer with President Abraham Lincoln, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, and General Henry Halleck. In his first face-to-face meeting since Lincoln’s re-election, Grant discussed his Anaconda Plan, reviewing the steps which he had taken to pacify the Shenandoah Valley, to attack Petersburg and Richmond, and to bring havoc on the South by sending Sherman marching through Georgia and ordering similar expeditions through Mississippi, all the while preparing for John Bell Hood’s long anticipated invasion of Tennessee. These discussions with the president and War Department officials only confirmed plans which Grant had already started; Lincoln’s re-election and his continuing support of Grant insured that the Anaconda Plan would be pursued against the South.
00000174-b11b-ddc3-a1fc-bfdbb1a20000The Schreiner University Department of History is honoring the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War with a series of short vignettes focusing on events from 1861 through 1865. The Civil War was the most destructive conflict in American history, but it was also one of our most defining moments as a people and as a nation. Let us know what you think about "This Week in the Civil War." E-mail your comments to Dr. John Huddleston at jhuddles@schreiner.edu.Airs: Weekdays at 5:19 a.m., 8:19 a.m., 4:19 p.m. on KTXI and 4:49 a.m., 9:29 p.m. on KSTX.