CHAPTER II Sumter Fired on—Seizure by Confederates of Arms, Arsenals, and Forts—Disloyalty of Army and Navy Officers—Proclamation of Lincoln for Seventy-Five Thousand Militia, and Preparation for War on Both Sides
The Star of the West, a merchant vessel, was sent from New York, with the reluctant consent of President Buchanan, by Lieutenant- General Winfield Scott, Commander-in-Chief of the army, to carry re-enforcements and provisions to Fort Sumter. As this vessel attempted to enter Charleston harbor (January 9, 1861) a shot was fired across its bows which turned it back, and its mission failed. "Slapped in the mouth" was the opprobrious epithet used to express this insult to the United States. This was not the shot that summoned the North to arms. It was, however, the first angry gun fired by a citizen of the Union against his country's flag, and it announced the dawn of civil war. When this shot was fired, only South Carolina had passed an Ordinance of Secession; the Confederate States were not yet formed.
On the night of December 26, 1860, Major Robert Anderson, in command of the land forces, forts, and defences at Charleston, South Carolina, being threatened by armed secession troops, and regarding his position at Fort Moultrie, on Sullivan's Island, untenable if attacked from the land side, as a matter of precaution, without order from his superiors, but possessing complete authority within the limits of his command, removed his small force, consisting of only sixty-five soldiers, from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter, where, at high noon of the next day, after a solemn prayer by his chaplain, the Stars and Stripes were run up on a flagstaff, to float in triumph only for a short time, then to be insulted and shot down, not to again be unfurled over the same fort until four years of war had intervened.
An ineffectual effort was made by Governor Pickens of South Carolina to induce Major Anderson by his demands and threats to return to his defenceless position at Fort Moultrie. President Buchanan, at the instigation of his Secretary of War, Floyd, was on the point of ordering him to do so, but when the matter was considered in a Cabinet meeting, other counsels prevailed, and Floyd made this his excuse for leaving the Cabinet.( 1) Fortunately, his place was filled by Hon. Joseph Holt of Kentucky, a Union man of force, energy, will power, and true courage, who, later, became Judge- Advocate-General U.S.A., serving as such until after the close of the war.
To the end of Buchanan's administration, Sumter was held by Major Anderson with his small force, and around it centered the greatest anxiety. It was the policy of the South to seize and occupy all forts, arsenals, dock-yards, public property, and all strongholds belonging to the United States located within the limits of seceded States, and to take possession of arms and material of war as though of right belonging to them. The right and title to United States property thus located were not regarded. Louisiana seized the United States Mint at New Orleans, and turned over of its contents $536,000 in coin to the Confederate States treasury, for which she received a vote of thanks from the Confederate Congress.( 2) All the forts of the United States within or on the coast of the then seceded States, save Forts Sumter and Pickens, were soon, with their armament and military supplies, in possession of and manned by Southern soldiers. At first seizures were made by State authority alone, but on the organization, at Montgomery, of the Confederacy (February 8, 1861) it assumed charge of all questions between the seceded States and the United States relating to the occupation of forts and other public establishments; and, March 15th, the Confederacy called on the States that had joined it to cede to it all the forts, etc., thus seized, which was done accordingly.
On February 28th the Confederate Congress passed an act under which President Davis assumed control of all military operations and received from the seceding States all the arms and munitions of war acquired from the United States and all other material of war the States of the Confederacy saw proper to turn over to him.
A letter from the Chief of Ordnance of the United States Army to Secretary of War Holt, of date, January 15, 1861, shows that, commencing in 1859, under orders from Secretary of War Floyd, 115,000 muskets were transferred from the Springfield (Mass.) and Watervliet (N. Y.) arsenals to arsenals South; and, under like orders, other percussion muskets and rifles were similarly transferred, all of which were seized, together with many cannon and other material of war, by the Confederate authorities.( 3)
Harper's Ferry, and the arsenal there, with its arms and ordnance stores, were seized by the Confederates, April 18, 1861, and the machinery and equipment for manufacturing arms, not burned, was taken South.
The arsenal at Fayetteville, N. C., was also seized, April 22, 1861.
In February, 1861, Beauregard ( 4) was commissioned by Davis a Brigadier-General, and ordered to Charleston, South Carolina, to organize an army. Other officers were put in commission by the Confederacy, and a large force was soon mustering defiantly for the coming struggle.
Beauregard took command at Charleston, March 1st, three days before
Lincoln was inaugurated President of the United States.( 5)
Disloyalty extended to the army and navy.
The regular army was small, and widely scattered over the Western frontiers and along the coasts of lake and ocean. March 31, 1861, it numbered 16,507, including 1074 officers. Some officers had joined the secession movement before this date.
The disaffection was among the officers alone. Two hundred and eighty-two officers resigned or deserted to take service in the Confederate Army; of these 192 were graduates of West Point Military Academy, and 178 of the latter became general officers during the war.( 6)
The number of officers, commissioned and warrant, who left the United States Navy and entered the Confederate service was, approximately, 460.( 7)
To the credit of the rank and file of the regular army, and of the seamen in the navy, it is, on high authority, said that:
"It is worthy of note that, while in this government's hour of trial large numbers of those in the army and navy who have been favored with the offices have resigned and proved false to the hand which had pampered them, not one common soldier or common sailor is known to have deserted his flag."( 8)
David E. Twiggs, a Brevet Major-General, on February 18, 1861, surrendered, at San Antonio, Texas, all the military posts and other property in his possession; and this after receiving an order relieving him from command. He was an old and tried soldier of the United States Army, and his example was pernicious in a high degree.
There were few, however, who, like him, took the opportunity to desert and at the same time to do a dishonorable official act calculated to injure the government they had served.
March 5, 1861, Twiggs was given a grand reception in New Orleans; salutes were fired in honor of his recent treachery.( 9) President Buchanan, to his credit, through Secretary of War Holt, March 1st, dismissed him from the army.(10)
It is a curious fact that this order of dismissal was signed by S. Cooper, Adjutant-General of the United States Army (a native of New Jersey), who, six days later, resigned his position, hastened to Montgomery, Alabama, and there accepted a like office in the Confederate government. Disloyalty among prominent army officers seemed, for a time, the rule.(11)
It was industriously circulated, not without its effect, that General Winfield Scott had deserted his country and flag to take command of the Confederate Army. To his honor it must be said, however, that he never faltered, and the evidence is overwhelming that he never entertained a thought of joining his State—Virginia. He early foresaw that disunion and war were coming, and not only deprecated them but desired to strengthen the United States Government and to avert both. Only his great age prevented his efficiently leading the Union armies.
George H. Thomas, like General Scott, was a native of Virginia. He was also unjustly charged with having entertained disloyal notions and to have contemplated joining the South, but later both Scott and Thomas were bitterly denounced by secessionists for not going with Virginia into the Rebellion.
Officers connected with the United States Revenue Service stationed in Southern cities were, generally, not only disloyal, but property in their custody was without scruple turned over to the Confederate authorities. The revenue cutters under charge and direction of the Secretary of the Treasury were not only seized, but their commanding officers in many cases deserted to the Confederacy and surrendered them. A notable example is that of Captain Breshwood, who commanded the revenue cutter Robert McClelland, stationed at New Orleans. When ordered, January 29, 1861, to proceed with her to New York, he refused to obey. This led John A. Dix, Secretary of the Treasury, to issue his celebrated and patriotic "Shoot-him- on-the-spot" order.(12) Louisiana had not at that time seceded, but the cutter, with Captain Breshwood, went into the Confederacy. So of all other such vessels coming within reach of the now much- elated, over-confident, and highly excited Confederate authorities.
Before the end of February, 1861, the "Pelican Flag" was flying over the Custom-House, Mint, City Hall, and everywhere in Louisiana. At the New Orleans levees ships carried every flag on earth except that of the United States. The only officer of the army there at the time who was faithful to the country was Col. C. L. Kilburn, of the Commissary Department, and he was preparing to escape North.(13)
So masterful had become the spirit of the South, born of the nature of the institution of slavery, that many disinclined to disunion were carried away with the belief that it was soon to be an accomplished fact, and that those who had favored it would alone be the heroes, while those who remained with the broken Union would be socially and forever ostracized. There were also many, indeed, who seriously entertained the belief that the North, made up as it was of merchants, manufacturers, farmers, and laborers, and with the education and disposition to follow pursuits incident to money- getting by their own personal efforts, would not be willing to engage in war, and thus destroy their prospects. There were also others who regarded Northern men as cowards, who, even if willing to fight, would not at best be equal, a half dozen of them, to one Southern man. These false notions were sincerely entertained. The Southern people regarded slavery as ennobling to the white race, and free white labor as degrading to the people of the free States, and hence were confident of their own superiority in arms and otherwise. There were even some people North who had so long heard the Southern boasts of superior courage that they half believed in it themselves, until the summons to arms dispelled all such illusions.
To the half credit of most of the officers of the United States army, and many of the navy, it may be said that when they determined to desert their country and flag they resigned their commissions, or at least tendered them, so they might go into rebellion with some color of excuse.
The War Department was generally, even under Lincoln's administration, gracious enough in most cases to accept such resignations, even when it knew or suspected the purpose for which they were tendered. Lieut. Julius A. De Lagnel, of the artillery, a Virginian, who remained long enough in the Union to be surrendered to Secession authorities (not discreditable to himself) at Fayetteville, North Carolina, with the North Carolina arsenal (April 22, 1861) informed the writer since the war that, on sending his resignation to the War Department, he followed it to the Adjutant-General's office, taking with him some bags of coin he had in the capacity of disbursing officer, for the purpose of making a settlement. He found Adjutant- General Lorenzo Thomas not in good humor, and when requested to direct him to a proper officer to settle his accounts, Thomas flew at him furiously, ordered him to drop his coin-bags, and decamp from his presence and from the Department, which he did accordingly. His accounts were thus summarily settled. (We shall soon hear of De Lagnel again.)
Captain James Longstreet, of Georgia, who became a Lieutenant- General in the C.S.A., and one of the ablest fighting generals in either army, draws a rather refined distinction as to the right of an officer to resign his commission and turn enemy to his country, while denying the right of a non-commissioned officer or private soldier to quit the army in time of rebellion to follow his State.
Longstreet was stationed at Albuquerque, New Mexico, when Sumter was fired on. On receiving the news of its capture he resigned and went South, through Texas, to join his State, or rather, as it proved, to join the Confederate States Army.
He says his mind was relieved by information that his resignation was accepted, to take effect June 1st. He tells us a sergeant from Virginia and other soldiers wished to accompany him, but he would not entertain that proposition; he explained to them that they could not go without authority of the War Department, but it was different with commissioned officers; they could resign, and when their resignations were accepted could do as they pleased, while the sergeant and his comrades were bound by their oaths to the term of their enlistment.(14)
It might be hard to construct a more satisfactory constitutional or moral theory than this for persons situated as were Captain Longstreet and others, disposed as they were to desert country and comrades for the newly formed slave Confederacy; yet if the secession of the native State of an officer is sufficient to dissolve allegiance he has sworn to maintain, it requires a delicate discrimination to see why the common soldier might not also be absolved from his term contract and oath for the same reasons.
There is a point of honor as old as organized warfare, that in the presence of danger or threatened danger it is an act of cowardice for an officer to resign for any but a good physical cause.
The better way is to justify, or if that cannot be done, to excuse as far as possible, the desertion of the Union by army and navy officers on the ground that the times were revolutionary, when precedents could not be followed, and legal and moral rights were generally disregarded. Such periods come occasionally in the history of nations. They are properly called rebellions, when they fail.
"Rebellion, indeed, appears on the back of a flying enemy, but revolution flames on the breastplate of the victorious warriors."(15)
Robert E. Lee, born in Virginia, of Revolutionary stock, had won reputation as a soldier in the Mexican War. He was fifty-four years of age, a Colonel of the First Cavalry, and, though in Washington, was but recently under orders from the Department of Texas. There is convincing evidence that General Scott and Hon. Frank P. Blair tendered him the command of the army of the United States in the impending war. This is supposed to have caused him to hesitate as to his course. In a letter (April 20, 1861) to a sister he deplores the "state of revolution into which Virginia, after a long struggle, has been drawn," saying:
"I recognize no necessity for this state of things, . . . yet in my own person I had to meet the question whether I would take part against my native State. With all my devotion to the Union, and the feeling of loyalty and duty of an American citizen, I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives, my children, my home. I have, therefore, resigned my commission in the army, and, save in defence of my native State, with the hope that my poor services will never be needed, I hope I may never be called on to draw my sword."
On the same day, in a letter to General Scott accompanying his resignation, he says: "Save in defence of my State, I never desire to draw my sword."
Lee registered himself, March 5, 1861, in the Adjutant-General's office as Brevet-Colonel and Lieutenant-Colonel Second Cavalry.(16) He was nominated, March 21, 1861, by President Lincoln, Colonel First Cavalry, and on March 23d the nomination was confirmed by the Senate. He was then commissioned by the President, Colonel, March 25th, to rank from March 16, 1861; he received this commission March 28th, and accepted it by letter March 30, 1861. Seven States had then seceded from the Union, and the Confederate States of America had existed since February 8, 1861.
Three weeks after (April 20th) Lee accepted this last commission he tendered his resignation in the United States Army. It did not reach the Secretary of War until April 24th, nor was it accepted until April 27th, to take effect April 25, 1861.(17)
Lee, however, accepted, April 22nd, a commission as Major-General in the "Military and Naval Forces of Virginia," assuming command of them by direction of Governor John Letcher, April 23, 1861.
It thus appears that two months and a half after the Confederate States were formed Robert E. Lee accepted President Lincoln's commission in the U.S.A.; then twenty-four days later, and pending the acceptance of his resignation, took command of forces hostile to the Federal Union. He, April 24th, gave instructions to a subordinate: "Let it be known that you intend no attack; but invasion of our soil will be considered an act of war."
He did not have Longstreet's consolation of knowing his resignation had been accepted before he abandoned his rank and duties in the United States Army; nor had his State yet seceded from the Union. Virginia did not enter into any relations with the Confederacy until April 25, 1861, and then only conditionally. Her convention passed an Ordinance of Secession April 17th, to take effect, if ratified by the votes of her people, at an election to be held May 23, 1861. An election held in Virginia the previous February resulted in choosing to a convention a very large majority of delegates opposed to secession. The convention, March 17th—90 to 45—rejected an Ordinance of Secession. Virginia's people were, until coerced by her disloyal State Governor, faithful to the Union of Washington. The fact remains that Lee, before his State voted to secede, accepted a commission in the army of the Confederacy, and took an oath to support its laws and Constitution, and thenceforth drew his sword to overthrow the Union of his fathers and to establish a new would-be nation under another flag. His son, G. W. Custis Lee, did not resign from the U.S.A. until May 2, 1861. Fitzhugh Lee also accepted a commission from Lincoln, and resigned (May 21, 1861) after his illustrious uncle.
It is hard to understand how fundamental principles in government and individual patriotism and duty may be made, on moral or political grounds, to depend on the conduct of the temporary authorities of a State, or even on the voice of its people.
The action of Robert E. Lee in leaving the United States Army, and his reasons therefor, serve to show how and why many other army and navy officers abandoned their country's service. The Confederacy promptly recognized these "seceding officers," and for the most part gave them, early, high rank, and otherwise welcomed them with enthusiasm.
It is probably that the slowness of promotion in time of peace, in both the army and navy of the United States, caused many officers to resign and seek, with increased rank, new fortunes and renown in war.
It is not to be denied that the custom of hospitably treating officers while serving in the South, and otherwise socially recognizing them and their families, had won many to love the Southern people and their gallant ways. This, at least, held the most of the Southern-born officers to their own States, though in some cases, and perhaps in many, they did not believe in slavery.
It may be said also that the generally cold business character of the well-to-do Northern people, and their social indifference to one another, and especially to officers and their families serving at posts and in cities, did not attach them to the North. An officer in the regular service in time of peace, having no hope of high promotion before he reaches old age, has but little, save social recognition of himself and family, to make him contented and happy. This somewhat helpless condition makes him grateful for attentions shown, and jealous of inattention.
Turning more directly to the military situation on Lincoln's inauguration, we find Major Anderson holding Sumter, but practically in a state of siege, the Confederate authorities having assembled a large army at Charleston under Beauregard. Fort Moultrie and Castle Pinckney had been seized and manned; heavy ordnance had been placed in them, and batteries had been established commanding Fort Sumter.
Finally, on April 7th, Anderson was forbidden to purchase fresh provisions for his little band. On April 10th, Captain G. V. Fox, an ex-officer of the navy, sailed with a relief expedition, consisting of four war-ships, three steam-tugs, and a merchant steamer, having on board two hundred men and the necessary supplies of ammunition and provisions.
Beauregard and the Confederate authorities hearing promptly of Captain Fox's expedition and destination, on April 11th, formally demanded of Major Anderson the evacuation of Fort Sumter, which demand was refused.
At 4.30 o'clock, April 12th, a signal shell was fired at Fort Sumter from a mortar battery on James Island, and, immediately after, hostile guns were opened from batteries on Morris Island, Sullivan's Island, and Fort Moultrie, which were responded to from Fort Sumter.
This signal shell opened actual war; its discharge was, figuratively speaking, heard around the world; it awakened a lethargic people in the Northern States of the Union; it caused many who had never dreamed of war to prepare for it; it set on fire the blood of a people, North and South, of the same race, not to cool down until a half-million of men had been consumed in the fierce heat of battle; it was the opening shot intended to vindicate and establish human slavery as the essential pillar of a new-born nation, the first and only one on earth formed solely to eternally perpetuate human bondage as a social and fundamental political institution; but, in reality, this shot was also a signal to summon the friends of human freedom to arms, and to a battle never to end until slavery under the Constitution of the restored Union should cease to exist.
Captain Fox's expedition was not organized as he had planned it, and though it reached its destination off Sumter an hour before the latter was fired on, it could not, from want of light boats or tugs, send to the fort the needed supplies or men. Major Anderson, after two days' bombardment, was therefore forced to agree to evacuate the fort, which he accordingly did on Sunday afternoon, April 14th, after having saluted the flag as it was lowered.(18)
There were men North as well as South who censured President Lincoln and his advisers for not, as was at one time contemplated, peacefully evacuating Fort Sumter, thus removing the immediate cause for bringing on hostilities, and leaving still more time for compromise talk and Northern concession. But the Union was already dissolved so far as the seceding States were able to do it, and a peaceable restoration of those States to loyalty and duty was then plainly impossible.
South Carolina was the first to secede, and it is more than probable that President Lincoln clearly discerned that the overt act of assailing the Union by war would take place at Charleston. So long as surrenders of public property went on without resistance, the Confederacy was growing stronger and more defiant, and in time foreign recognition might come. It was much better for the Union cause for the first shot to be fired by Confederate forces in taking United States public property than by United States forces in retaking it after it had been lost.
The people North had wavered, not in their loyalty to the Union, but in their judgment as how to preserve it, or whether it could be preserved at all, until Sumter came, then firmness of conviction took immediate possession of them, and life and treasure alike thenceforward devoted to the maintenance of Federal authority. Of course, there was a troublesome minority North, who, either through political perversity, cowardice, or disloyalty, never did support the war, at least willingly. It was noticeable, however, that many of these were, through former residence or family relationship, imbued with pro-slavery notions and prejudice against the negro.
It should be said, also, that there were many in the North, born in slave States, who were the most pronounced against slavery. And there were those also, even in New England, who had never had an opportunity of being tainted with slavery, who opposed the coercion of the seceding States, and who would rather have seen the Union destroyed than saved by war. Again, long contact and co- operation of certain persons North with Southern slave-holders politically, and bitter opposition to President Lincoln and his party, made many reluctant to affiliate with the Union war-party. Some were too weak to rise above their prejudices, personal and political. Some were afraid to go to battle. There was also, though strangely inconsistent, a very considerable class of the early Abolitionists of the Garrison-Smith-Phillips school who did not support the war for the Union, but who preferred the slave- holding States should secede, and thus perpetuate the institution of slavery in America—the very thing, on moral grounds, such Abolitionists had always professed a desire to prevent. They opposed the preservation of the Union by coercion. They thus laid themselves open to the charge that they were only opposed to slavery in the Union, leaving it to flourish wherever it might outside of the Union. This position was not only inconsistent, but unpatriotic. The persons holding these views gave little or no moral or other support to the war for the preservation of the integrity of the Republic.
There were many loyal men in the South, especially in sections where slavery did not dominate. In the mountain regions of the South, opposition to secession was the rule, notably in Western Virginia, Eastern Kentucky, Eastern Tennessee, and Western North Carolina. There were also loyal men in Northern Alabama and Georgia. But wherever the determined spirit of the slave-holding disunionists controlled, as in the cities and more densely populated parts of the South, though the slave-holding population was even therein the minority, the white community was forced to array themselves with the Confederates. There were many South who, at first, determined to oppose disunion, but who succumbed to the pressure, under the belief that the Confederacy was an accomplished fact, or that the North either would not or could not fight successfully, and would be beaten in battle. Boasts of superiority and the great display and noisy preparation for war were misleading to those who only witnessed one side of the pending conflict. The North had, up to Sumter, been slow to act, and this was not reassuring to the friends of the Union South, or, perhaps, anywhere. The proneness of mankind to be on the successful side has shown itself in all trying times. It is only the virtue of individual obstinacy that enables the few to go against an unjust popular clamor.
But political party ties North were the hardest to break. Those who had been led to political success generally by the pro-slavery politicians of the South could not easily be persuaded that coercion did not mean, in some way, opposition to themselves and their past party principles. Though patriotism was the rule with persons of all parties North, there were yet many who professed that true loyalty lay along lines other than the preservation of the Union by war. These even, after Sumter fell, pretended to, and possibly did, believe what the South repudiated, to wit: That by the siren song of peace it could be wooed back to loyalty under the Constitution. There were, of course, those in the North who honestly held that the Abolitionists by their opposition to slavery and its extension into the Territories had brought on secession, and that such opposition justified it. This number, however, was at first not large, and as the war progressed it grew less and less. It should be remembered that coercion of armed secession was not undertaken to abolish slavery or to alter its status in the slave States. The statement, however, that the destruction of slavery was the purpose and end in view was persistently put forth as the justifying cause for dissolving the Union of States. The cry that the war on the part of the North was "an abolition war," that it was for "negro equality," had its effect on the more ignorant class of free laborers in both sections. There is an inherent feeling of or desire for superiority in all races, and this weakness, if it is such, is exceedingly sensitive to the touch of the demagogue.
There were those high in authority in the Confederate councils who were not entirely deluded by the apparent indifference and supineness of the Northern people. When Davis and his Cabinet held a conference (April 9th) to consider the propriety of firing on Fort Sumter, there was not entire unanimity on the question. Robert Toombs, Secretary of State, is reported to have said:
"The firing on that fort will inaugurate a civil war greater than any the world has yet seen; and I do not feel competent to advise you."(19)
And later in the conference Toombs, in opposing the attack on
Sumter, said:
"Mr. President, at this time it is suicide, murder, and will lose us every friend at the North. You will wantonly strike a hornet's nest which extends from mountain to ocean, and legions now quiet will swarm out and sting us to death. It is unnecessary; it puts us in the wrong; it is fatal."(20)
The taking of Fort Sumter was the signal for unrestrained exultation of the part of the Secessionists. They for a time gave themselves up to the wildest demonstrations of joy. The South now generally looked upon the Confederacy as already established. The Confederate flag floated over Sumter in place of the Stars and Stripes. At the Catholic cathedral in Charleston a Te Deum was celebrated with great pomp, and the Episcopal bishop there attributed the event to the "infinite mercy of God, who specially interposed His hand in behalf of their righteous cause."
The taking of Sumter was undoubtedly the most significant event of the age. The achievement was bloodless; not a man was killed or a drop of blood spilled by a hostile shot, yet in inaugurated a war that freed four millions of God's people.(21)
Montgomery, the temporary Capital of the Confederacy, wildly celebrated the event as the first triumph.
Bloodless was Sumter; but the war it opened was soon to swallow up men by the thousand.
Fort Pickens, in Pensacola Harbor, now only remained in the possession of the United States of all the forts or strongholds in the seceded South.
This fortification was taken possession of by Lieut. A. J. Slemmer of the United States Army, and though in great danger of being attacked and taken, it was successfully reinforced on April 23, 1861, and never fell into Confederate hands. At a special session of the Confederate Congress at Montgomery (May 21, 1861), Richmond, Virginia, was made the Capital of the Confederacy, and the Congress adjourned to meet there.
Howell Cobb (late Buchanan's Secretary of the Treasury), the President of this Congress, with some of the truth of prophecy defiantly said:
"We have made all the necessary arrangements to meet the present crisis. Last night we adjourned to meet in Richmond on the 20th of July. I will tell you why we did this. The 'Old Dominion,' as you know, has at last shaken off the bonds of Lincoln, and joined her noble Southern sisters. Her soil is to be the battle-ground, and her streams are to be dyed with Southern blood. We felt that her cause was our cause, and that if she fell we wanted to die by her."
How was the news of the failure to reinforce Sumter, and of its being fired on and taken possession of by a rebellious people, received in the North? The evacuation of Fort Sumter was known in Washington and throughout the country almost as soon as at Charleston. Hostilities could no longer be averted, save by the ignominious surrender of all the blood-bought rights of the founders of the Republic.
It must not be assumed that the President of the United States had not already calculated on the probabilities of war. The portentous clouds had been long gathering, and the certain signs of the impending battle-storm had been discerned by Lincoln and his advisers. He had prepared, as best he could under the circumstances, to meet it. The long suspense was now broken. This was some relief. There were to be no more temporizing, no more compromises, no more offers of concession to slavery or to disunionists. The doctrine of the assumed right of a State, at will, and for any real or pretended grievance, to secede from and to dissolve its relation with the Union of the States, and to absolve itself from all its constitutional relations and obligations, was now about to be tried before a tribunal that would execute its inexorable decree with a power from which there is no appeal. Mercy is not an attribute of war, either in its methods or decisions. The latter must stand in the end as against the conquered. From war there is no appeal but to war. Time and enlightenment may modify or alter the mandates of war, but in this age of civilization and knowledge, neither nations nor peoples move backward. Ground gained for freedom or humanity, in politics, science, literature, or religion, is held, and from this fresh advances may be made. Needless cruelty may be averted in the conduct of war, but mercy is not an element in the science of destroying life and shedding blood on the battle-field.
Sunday, April 14th (though bearing date the 15th), the same day Sumter was evacuated, President Lincoln issued his proclamation, reciting that the laws of the United States had been and then were opposed and their execution obstructed in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by ordinary judicial proceedings, or by the powers vested in the marshals by law; he called for seventy-five thousand of the militia of the several States of the Union; appealed to all loyal citizens to maintain the honor, integrity, and existence of the National Union, and "the perpetuity of popular government, and to redress wrongs already long enough endured." "The first service," the proclamation recites, "assigned to the forces called forth will probably be to repossess the forts, places, and property which have been seized from the Union."
It commanded the persons composing the combinations referred to, "to disperse and retire peaceably to their respective abodes within twenty days."
It called Congress to convene Thursday, July 4, 1861, in extraordinary session, "to consider and determine such measures as, in their wisdom, the public safety and interest may seem to demand."
This proclamation was the first announcement by President Lincoln of a deliberate purpose to preserve the integrity of the Republic by a resort to arms. In his recent Inaugural Address he had, almost pathetically, pleaded for peace—for friendship; and there is no doubting that his sincere desire was to avoid bloodshed. He then had no thought of attacking slavery, but rather to protect and grant it more safeguards in the States where it existed. Later, on many occasions, when the war had done much to inflame public sentiment in the North against the South, he publicly declared he would save the "Union as it was." His most pronounced utterance on this point was:
"I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored, the nearer the Union will be 'the Union as it was.' If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that."(22)
But Abraham Lincoln was not understood in 1861, nor even later during the war, and not fully during life, by either his enemies or his personal or party friends. The South, in its leadership, was implacable in the spirit of its hostility, but the masses, even there, in time came to understand his true purposes and sincere character.
Two days after the call for seventy-five thousand troops, President Davis responded to it by proclaiming to the South that President Lincoln had announced the intention of "invading the Confederacy with an armed force for the purpose of capturing its fortresses, subverting its independence, and subjecting the free people thereof to a foreign power." In the same proclamation he invited persons to take service in private armed vessels on the high seas, tendering to such persons as would accept them commissions or letters of marque and reprisal.
At this time a military spirit had been aroused throughout the seceded States, and a large number of well-equipped Southern troops were already in the field, chiefly at Charleston and Pensacola—in all (including about 16,000 on their way to Virginia) about 35,000. The field, staff, and general officers in charge of these troops were mainly graduates of West Point or other military schools; even the captains of companies were many of them educated in the institutions referred to. It is not to be denied that a higher military spirit existed in the South than in the North prior to the war. The young men from plantations were more generally unemployed at active labor, and hence had more time to cultivate a martial spirit than the hard-working young men of the North.
The summons to arms found the North unprepared so far as previous spirit and training were concerned; yet it did not hesitate, and troops were, within two days, organized and on their way from several of the States to the defense of Washington. The 6th Massachusetts was fired upon by a riotous mob in the streets of Baltimore on April 19th. On every side war levies and preparations for war went forward. The farm, the shop, the office, the counting- room, the professions, the schools and colleges, the skilled and the unskilled in all kinds of occupation, gave up of their best to fill the patriotic ranks. The wealthy, the well-to-do, and the poor were found in the same companies and regiments, on a common footing as soldiers, and often men theretofore moving in the highest social circles were contentedly commanded by those of the humblest social civil life.
The companies were, as a general rule, commanded by men of no previous military training, though wherever a military organization existed it was made a nucleus for a volunteer company. Often indifferent men, with a little skill in drilling soldiers, and with no other known qualifications, were sought out and eagerly commissioned by governors of States as field officers, a colonelcy often being given to such persons. A volunteer regiment was considered fortunate if it had among its field officers a lieutenant from the regular army, or even a person from civil life who had gained some little military experience.
General officers were too often, from apparent necessity, taken from those who had more influence than military skill. Some of these, however, by patient toil, coupled with zeal and brains, performed valuable service to their country and won honorable names as soldiers. But the most of them made only moderate officers and fair reputations. War develops and inspires men, and if it continues long, great soldiers are evolved from its fierce conflicts.
Accidental good fortune in war sometimes renders weak and unworthy men conspicuous. Accidental bad fortune in war often overtakes able, worthy, honest, honorable men of the first promise and destroys them.(23) Very few succeed in a long war through pure military genius alone, if there is such a thing. Many, in the heat of battle- field experiences and in campaigns are inspired with the common sense that makes them, through success, really great soldiers. The indispensable quality of personal bravery, commonly supposed sufficient to make a man a valuable officer, is often of the smallest importance. A merely brave, rash man in the ranks may be of some value as an inspiring example to his immediate comrades, but he is hardly equal for that purpose to the intelligent soldier who obeys orders, and, though never reckless, yet, through a proper amount of individual pride, does his whole duty without braggadocio.
A mere dashing officer is more and more a failure, and unfitted to command, in proportion as he is high in rank. Rash personal conduct which might be tolerated in a lieutenant would in a lieutenant- general be conclusive of his unfitness to hold any general command. Of course, there are rare emergencies when an officer, let his rank be what it may, should lead in an assault or forlorn hope, or rush in to stay a panic among his own troops.
This, like all other actions of a good officer, must also be an inspiration of duty. The coward in war has no place,(24) and when found in an army (which is rare) should be promptly mustered out. There was no such thing in the late war as a regiment of cowards. Inefficient or timid officers may have given their commands a bad name, and caused them to lose confidence in success, and hence to become unsteady or panicky. The average American is not deficient in true courage.
Careful drill and discipline make good soldiers.
The American people were now awake to the realities of a war in which the same race, blood, and kindred were to contend, on the one side for a separate nationality and for a form of government based on the single idea of perpetuating and fostering the institution of domestic slavery and a so-called civilization based thereon, and on the other for the preservation of the integrity of the Union of States, under one Constitution and one flag.
In addition to the 15th of April proclamation for 75,000 volunteers for ninety days' service, the President (May 3d) called into the United States service 42,034 more volunteers to serve for three years, unless sooner discharged. He at the same time directed that eight regiments of infantry, one of cavalry, and one of artillery should be added to the regular army, making a maximum of 22,714 regular officers and enlisted men; he also called for 18,000 seamen for the naval service.
All these calls for enlistment were responded to by the loyal States with the greatest promptness, and the numbers called for were more then furnished, notwithstanding the failure of some of the Southern non-seceding States to promptly fill their assigned quotas.
Governor Burton of Delaware (April 26th) issued a proclamation for the formation of volunteer companies to protect lives and property in the State, not to be subject to be ordered into the United States service, the Governor, however, to have the option of offering them to the general government for the defence of the Capital and the support of its Constitution and laws.
Governor Hicks of Maryland (May 14th) called for four regiments to serve within the limits of the State, or for the defence of the Capital of the United States.
Governor Letcher of Virginia (April 16th) spitefully denied the constitutionality of the call for troops "to subjugate the Southern States."
Governor Ellis of North Carolina (April 15th) dispatched that he regarded the levy of troops "for the purpose of subjugating the States of the South as in violation of the Constitution and a usurpation of power."
Governor Magoffin of Kentucky (April 15th) wired:
"Your dispatch is received. In answer I say emphatically, Kentucky will furnish no troops for the wicked purpose of subduing her sister Southern States."
Governor Harris of Tennessee (April 18th) replied:
"Your requisition, in my judgment, is illegal, unconstitutional, and revolutionary in its objects, inhuman and diabolical, and can not be complied with."
Governor Rector of Arkansas (April 22d) responded:
"None will be furnished. The demand is only adding insult to injury."(25)
Four of the slave-holding States thus responding to the President's call, to wit: Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina, soon joined the Confederate States; Maryland, Missouri, Kentucky, and Delaware remained in the Union, and, later, filled their quotas under the several calls for troops for the United States service, though from each many also enlisted in the Confederate Army.
The Union volunteers were either hastened, unprepared by complete organization or drill, to Washington, D. C., to stand in its defence against an anticipated attack from Beauregard's already large organized army, or they were assembled in drill camps, selected for convenience of concentration and dispersion, to the scenes of campaigns soon to be entered upon.
Arms in the North were neither of good quality nor abundant. Some were hastily bought abroad—Enfield rifles from England, Austrian rifles from Austria; each country furnishing its poorest in point of manufacture. But there were soon in operation establishments in the North where the best of guns then known in warfare were made. The old flint-lock musket had theretofore been superseded by the percussion-lock musket, but some of the guns supplied to the troops were old, and altered from the flint-lock. These muskets were muzzle-loaders, smooth bores, firing only buck and ball cartridges—.69 calibre. They were in the process of supersession by the .58 calibre rifle for infantry, or the rifle-carbine for cavalry, generally of a smaller calibre. The English Enfield rifle was of .58 calibre, and the Springfield rifle, which soon came into common use, was of like calibre. The Austrian rifle of .54 calibre proved to be of poor construction, and was generally condemned.(26) A rifle for infantry of .58 calibre was adopted, manufactured and used in the Confederacy. The steel rifled cannon for field artillery also came to take the place, in general, of the smooth-bore brass gun, though many kinds of cannon of various calibres and construction were in use in both armies throughout the war.
The general desire of new volunteers was to be possessed of an abundance of arms, such as guns, pistols, and knives. The two latter weapons were even worse than useless for the infantry soldier —mere incumbrances. An officer even had little use for a pistol; only sometimes in a melée. The cavalry resorted, under some officers, to the pistol instead of the sword. In the South, at the opening of the wr, shot-guns and squirrel rifles were gathered together for arms, and long files were forged in large quantities by common blacksmiths into knives or a sort of cutlass (or macheté) for use in battle.(27) These were never used by regularly-organized troops. Guerillas, acting in independent, small bands, were, however, often armed with such unusual weapons. The North had no such soldiers. The South had many bands of them, the leaders of which gained much notoriety, but they contributed little towards general results. Guerillas were, at best, irregular soldiers, who in general masqueraded as peaceful citizens, only taking up arms to make raids and to attack small, exposed parties, trains, etc. This sort of warfare simply tended to irritate the North and intensify hatred for the time.
Not in the matter of arms alone was there much to learn by experience. McClellan and others had visited the armies of Europe and made reports thereon; Halleck had written on the Art of War; General Scott and others had practical experience in active campaigns, but nobody seemed to know what supplies an army required to render it most effective on the march or in battle.
When the volunteers first took the field the transportation trains occupied on the march more than four times the space covered by the troops. Large details had, as a consequence, to be made to manage the trains and drive the teams; large detachments, under officers, to go with them as guards. To supply forage for the immense number of horses and mules was not only a great tax upon the roads but a needless expense to the government. Excessive provision of tents for headquarters and officers as well as the soldiers was also made. Officers as well as private soldiers carried too much worse than useless personal clothing, including boots (wholly worthless to a footman) and other baggage; each officer as a rule had one or more trunks and a mess-chest, with other supplies. McClellan, in July, 1861, had about fifteen four- horse or six-mule teams to carry the personal outfit of the General and his staff; brigade headquarters (there were no corps or divisions) had only a proportionately smaller number of teams; and for the field and staff of a regimental headquarters not less than six such teams were required, including one each for the adjutant and the regimental quartermaster and commissary; and the surgeon of the regiment and his assistants required two more.
Each company was assigned one team. A single regiment—ten companies —would seldom have less than eighteen large teams to enable it to move from its camp. Something was, however, due to the care of new and unseasoned troops, but in the light of future experience, the extreme folly of thus trying to make war seems ridiculous. A great change, however, occurred during the later years of the war. When I was on active campaigns with a brigade of seven regiments, one team was allowed for brigade headquarters, and one for each regiment. In this arrangement each soldier carried his own half- ten (dog-tent) rolled on his knapsack, and the quartermaster, commissary, medical and ordnance supplies were carried in general trains. This applied to all the armies of the Union. The Confederates had even less transportation with moving troops.
But we must not tarry longer with these details. Henceforth we shall briefly try to tell the story of such of the campaigns, events, and scenes of the conflict as in the ensuing four years of war came under our observation or were connected with movements in which we participated, interweaving some personal history.
( 1) His resignation was accepted December 29, 1860. Howell Cobb, of Georgia, Buchanan's Secretary of the Treasury, resigned December 8, 1860, and was, on February 4, 1861, chosen the presiding officer of the first Confederate Congress. He left the United States Treasury empty. Jacob Thompson of Mississippi, Buchanan's Secretary of the Interior, resigned January 8, 1861. He had corresponded with secessionists South, and while yet in the Cabinet had been appointed a commissioner by his State to urge North Carolina to secede. He became an aid to Beauregard, but attained no military distinction. In 1864 he went to Canada, and there promoted a plan to release prisoners at Camp Douglas, Chicago, and to seize the city, and was charged with instigating plots to burn New York and other Northern cities.
( 2) Am. Cyclopedia, 1861 (Appleton), pp. 430, 431.
It is interesting to note that Louisiana, jointly with the Confederate States, issued in April and May, 1861, made from captured United States bullion, on United States dies of 1861, gold coin, $254,820 in double eagles, and silver coin, $1,101,316.50 in half dollars. In May, 1861, the remaining bullion was transferred to A. J. Guizot, Assistant Treasurer Confederate States of America, who at once destroyed the United States dies and had a Confederate States die for silver half dollars engraved by the coiner, A. H. M. Peterson. From this die four pieces only were struck on a screw press, the die being of such high relief that its use was impracticable. These four coins composed the entire coinage of the Confederate States. Its design, Obverse: Goddess of Liberty (same as United States coins) with arc of thirteen stars (representing original States), date, "1861." Reverse: American shield beneath a "Liberty Cap"; union of shield and seven stars (representing original seceded States), surrounded by a wreath, to the left (cotton in bloom), to the right (sugar cane). Legend: "Confederate States of America," exergue, "Half Dol."—U. S.(Townsend), p. 427.
( 3) Am. Cyclop., 1861, p. 123.
( 4) P. G. T. Beauregard resigned, February 20, 1861, a captaincy in the United States army while holding the appointment of Superintendent of West Point.
( 5) Life of Beauregard (Roman), vol. i., p. 25.
( 6) Hist. Reg. U. S. A. (Heitman), pp. 836-845.
( 7) Scharf's Hist. C. S. N., p. 14.
( 8) President Lincoln's Message, July, 1861.
( 9) Am. Cyclop., 1861, p. 431.
(10) This is the only instance where Buchanan issued such an order, hence we give it.
"March 1, 1861. "By direction of the President, etc., it is ordered that Brig.-Gen. David E. Twiggs, Major-General by brevet, be, and is hereby dismissed from the army of the United States for his treachery to the flag of his country, in having surrendered on the 18th of February, 1861, on demand of the authorities of Texas, the military posts and other property of the United States in his department and under his charge.
"J. Holt, Secretary of War.
"S. Cooper, Adjutant-General."
(11) Lieutenant Frank C. Armstrong (First Cavalry), pending his resignation, fought at Bull Run (July, 1861) for the Union, then went into the Confederacy and became a Brigadier-General.
(12) "Treasury Department, Jan. 29, 1861. "W. Hemphill Jones, New Orleans:
"Tell Lieutenant Caldwell to arrest Captain Breshwood, assume command of the cutter and obey the order through you. If Captain Breshwood, after arrest, undertakes to interfere with the command of the cutter, tell Lieutenant Caldwell to consider him a mutineer, and treat him accordingly.
"If any one attempts to haul down the American flag, Shoot him on the Spot.
"John A. Dix, Secretary of the Treasury."
(13) Sherman's Memoirs, vol. i, p. 163.
(14) Manassas to Appomattox (Longstreet), pp. 29-30.
(15) John Wilkes, British Par., 1780 (Pat. Reader, p. 135).
(16) In 1861 an army officer was not required (as now) to take an oath of office on receiving promotion. The following is a copy of the last oath taken by Robert E. Lee as a United States Army officer, and it shows the form of oath then taken by other army officers.
"I, Robert E. Lee, appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of the Second Regiment of Cavalry in the Army of the United States, do solemnly swear that I will bear true allegiance to the United States of America, and that I will serve them honestly and faithfully against all their enemies or opposers whatsoever; and observe and obey the orders of the President of the United States, and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to the Rules and Articles for the government of the Armies of the United States.
"R. E. Lee, Bt.-Col., U. S. A.
"Sworn to and subscribed before me at West Point, N. Y., this 15th day of March, 1855.
"Wm. H. Carpenter, Justice of the Peace."
(17) Letter of Adjutant-General Thomas to Garfield. Army of Cumberland Society Proceedings (Cleveland), 1870, p. 94.
(18) War Records, vol. i., pp. 11-13.
It is worthy of note that at high noon, exactly four years later (1865) the identical flag lowered in dishonor was "raised in glory" over Fort Sumter, Robert Anderson participating.
(19) Crawford, p. 421.
(20) Life of Toombs (Stovall), p. 226.
(21) One man was killed on each side by accident.
(22) Letter to Greeley, August 22, 1862, Lincoln's Com. Works, vol. ii., p. 227; also same sentiment, letter to Robinson, August 17, 1864, p. 563.
(23) General Benjamin Lincoln, of the Revolution, affords a striking example. He was brave, skillful, often held high command, and always possessed Washington's confidence, yet he never won a battle. To compensate him somewhat for his misfortunes Washington designated him to receive the surrender at Yorktown, October 19, 1781.— Washington and His Generals (Headley), vol. ii., pp. 104, 121.
(24) Euripides said, more than two thousand years ago: "Cowards do no count in battle; they are there, but not in it."
(25) Hist. of Rebellion (McPherson), pp. 114, 115.
(26) Ordnance and inspecting officers during the War of the Rebellion contended that the .58 calibre rifle was the smallest practicable. In 1863 I purchased for special use a small number of Martini-Henry repeating rifles, calibre .44, and on applying for ammunition, the ordnance officer protested against supplying it on the ground that the ball used was too small for effective use. This, I demonstrated at the time, was a mistake. And now (1896), after years of most careful experiments and tests by the most skilled boards of officers, English, German, French, Austrian, Swedish, United States, etc., it has been ascertained that a steel- jacket, leaden ball fired from a rifle of .30 calibre has the highest velocity and greatest penetrating power.
The armies of all these countries are now, or are fast being, armed with this superior, small-calibre rifle.
(27) As late as April, 1862, Jeff. Davis, though a soldier by training and experience, attached importance to "pikes and knives" as war-weapons.—War Records, vol. x., pt. 2., p. 413.