In the spring of 1864 began the great concerted offensive by the Union forces on all fronts. In anticipation of the coming struggle a number of command changes were made. Longstreet's corps, still in east Tennessee, was ordered on 7 April to return to Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, and oh the 12th he was succeeded in command of the Department of East Tennessee by Buckner, Knowing that the Federals were assenbling large forces at Annapolis and elsewhere on the coast, and that the weather would soon be unsuitable for campaigning along the Trarshy coasts of South Carolina and Georgia, the area south of James River seemed a likely point of attack. Therefore, on 18 April, Beauregard was reassigned to command the Dept. of North Carolina and Southern Virginia with authority over Pickett at Petersburg, and Whiting at Wilmington, and Hoke at Plymouth.

On the 20th he handed over his previous command, the Dept. of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida to Samuel Jones (who had recently been replaced in the Dept. of Western Virginia by Breckinridge). On the 25th Robert Ransom replaced Arnold Elzey in command of the Dept. of Richmond, which was independent of Beauregard. On the 5th of May Pickett's Dept, of North Carolina officially became the District of North Carolina in Beauregard's Department.

So in Virginia the forces were organized as shown in the first chart. With the return of Longstreet from his excursion in the west Lee's army was organized substantially as it had been at Gettysburg except that Pickett's Division remained (broken into separate brigades) south of the James, and Stuart's cavalry was now organized into 3 divisions.

Longstreet was badly wounded in the Wilderness and succeeded by R.H. Anderson as commander of the First Corps. A.P. Hill, because of sickness, was temporarily succeeded by Early. Stuart was mortally wounded on 11 May and no successor was named immediately, so that the cavalry divisions reported independently to Lee. Up in the Shenandoah, Imboden kept watch with his single brigade, but upon the Union advance he was soon reinforced by Breckinridge from southwest Virginia. The forces shown under Pickett and Ransom are those that, under Beauregard, halted Butler's advance on Richmond via the James. Many of these forces were brought up from North and South Carolina specifically to meet that emergency.

West of the Mississippi, Banks' Red River expedition was turned back by the forces of Dick Taylor, reinforced by the Arkansas and Missouri infantry divisions (both under Churchill) borrowed from Price - to whom they were returned to help stop Steele's attempt to link up with Banks from Arkansas. In Georgia Johnston's Army of Tennessee remained as it has been reorganized after Chattanooga.

But, in view of the Union Army of the Tennessee's movement from western Tennessee and northern Alabama to join Sherman at Chattanooga, Polk's Army of Mississippi was sent to reinforce Johnston. So on the 9th of flay Polk was suc- ceeded in command of the Dept. of Alabama, Mississippi and East Louisiana by S.D. Lee, whose force consisted mostly of Forrest's cavalry, in west Tennessee, and the defenses of flobile, (District of the Gulf) under Dabney Maury.

The crisis around Richmond and Petersburg caused a great deal of reshuffling of forces and once the situation stabilized (with Butler hemmed into the Bermuda Hundred peninsula "as in a battle tightly corked") this led to some changes in commands. Ewell, injured by a fall from his horse, and unfit for field service, was transfered to Richmond on 29 May and succeeded as commander of the Second Corps by Early (A.P. Hill having recovered sufficiently to resume command of his Third Corps).

On 1 June, Pickett returned to the command of his old division and it returned to the First Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia. Early left Lee on the 11th heading for the Shenandoah with the Second Corps. On the 13th Ewell was assigned to command the Dept. of Richmond (now including the old Dept. of Henrico) and Ransom was sent to the Shenandoah to command Early's cavalry.

On 14 June General Polk was killed and was succeeded by A. P. Stewart in command of the Army of Mississippi or Polk's Corps, serving with Johnston in Georgia. On the 22nd, since Breckinridge and his forces had become a permanent part of the forces in the Shenandoah, he was replaced as commander of the Dept. of Southwestern Virginia by J.H. Morgan, who had recently been driven into that area after a raid into Kentucky. On the 18th of July Johnston was replaced in command of the Army and Dept. of Tennessee by Hood, whose corps passed temporarily to Cheatham. But the latter was soon replaced by S.D. Lee, and he was succeeded on 26 July, in command of the Dept. of Alabama, Mississippi and E. Louisiana, by Maury. Taylor superceded Maury on 15 August. On 11 August Wade Hampton was assigned to the command of the Cavalry Corps of Lee's army and his division went to Galbraith Butler. Morgan was killed by Federal raiders on 4 September, and Breckinridge returned to the command of the Dept. of Southwestern Virginia.

A clash of personalities with Hood necessitated the reassignment of Hardee, so he was ordered on 28 September, to the command of the Dept. of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, where Sam Jones was in poor health. Hardee's successor as commander of the First Corps, Army of Tennessee, was Cheatham. Beauregard's position had become somewhat anomalous.

Since Lee and most of his army had crossed the James into his department he was little more than a corps commander to Lee. After a tour of the defenses of North Carolina he was assigned, on 2 October, to command a new Military Division of the West, to coordinate Hood's and Taylor's commands. He actually assumed the command on the 17th, at which time the name of Hood's department was renamed the Dept. of Tennessee and Georgia. At about this time the corps of Hoods army were completely reorganized as shown on the fifth chart. The same day Longsbeet recovered from his wounds received in the Wilderness, he was ordered to resume command of the First Corps of Lee's Army, and Anderson took over the troops Beauregard had commanded around Petersburg (Hoke's and Bushrod Johnson's divisions), sometimes called the Fourth Corps.

And on November 11th Bragg was assigned to command the Dept of North Carolina. Early's series of defeats in the Shenandoah led, on 9 December, the recall of Gordon's and Pegram's divisions of the Second Corps to Lee's army and the third division soon followed. Early remained in the Valley with Wharton's division, a few batteries, and a small force of cavalry. Gordon took command of the Second Corps. Shortly thereafter Hoke's Division was dispatched to North Carolina to help defend Wilmington . This left Andersonts "corps" with only one division (B.R. Jonhson's) and some artillery, But Anderson was a Lieutenant General, and thus entitled to a corps command, so the fiction was maintained.

Hood's defeat at Nashville and Sherman's successful march across Georgia led to more reorganization and changes of command. Hood resigned as commander of the Army of Tennessee on 13 January, 1865, and Beauregard temporarily took direct command, On the 19th Wade Hampton and his old cavalry division, under Butler, were dispatched to South Carolina to recruit, remount and to reinforce Hardee. Again the cavalry divisions reported directly to Lee. Dick Taylor took command of the Army of Tennessee on 23 January.

On the 31st Lee was appointed General-in-Chief of the Confederate Armies while continuing as commander of the Army of Northern Virginia. General Breckinridge was named Secretary of War on 6 February.

On the 20th, Early was appointed to command a combined Dept. of Western Virginia and East Tennessee, as well as the Valley District. And on the 22nd Lee appointed Johnston to the command of both Hardee's Dept. of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida and the Deptartment of Tennessee and Georgia, the latter meaning such of the Army of Tennessee as had survived the battle of and retreat from Nashville and been transfered to the Carolinas. His job was, once again, to stop Sherman. Beauregard who had been, without formal appointment, attempting to do that job, became, as after First Bull Run, Johnston's second in command.

On the 6th of March Johnston's command was extended to include Bragg's Dept. of North Carolina. Early was relieved of all command on 30 March. He was succeeded in the Valley District by Lomax, and in the Dept. of West Virginia and E. Tennessee by Echols. The same day, as all of Lee's cavalry were brought together at Five Forks, Fitzhugh Lee assumed overall command of that force. On April 6, at the battle of Saylor's Creek, Ewell and most of his troops and Anderson's were captured.

On the 9th Lee surrendered the remainder of the Army of Northern Virginia to Grant. The same day Johnston reorganized the Army of Tennessee as shown in the last chart.

Johnston surrendered the Army of Tennessee to Sherman on the 26th, and on 4 May Taylor surrendered all the forces in the Dept of Alabama, Mississippi and East Louisiana to Canby. Confederate President Jefferson Davis was captured on the 10th and on 26 May, 1865, Buckner, representing Kirby Smith, surrendered the Trans-Mississippi Department to Osterhaus, actinq for Canby. And thus ended the Army of the Confederate States.

Organizational Tables March 1864-May 1865 (extremely slow: 363K)

More ACW Armies

American Civil War Part V: Confederate Departments and Armies: Manassas to Sharpsburg
American Civil War Part VII: Confederate Departments and Armies: Iuka to Meridian
American Civil War Part VIII: Union Departments, Armies, and Corps 1864-1865
American Civil War Part IX: Confederate Departments and Armies: Red River to Appomattox