President Lincoln and the Civil War
The Beginning—Personal Recollections—The War Spirit—Progress of the War—The Emancipation Proclamation—A Fight to Finish—Lincoln's Kindness—He Relieves a Young Soldier—He Names Triplets Who Are Still Living—His Reëlection—The Fall of Richmond—Appomatox—Close of the Rebellion.
On the 12th of April, 1861, after Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated, the first outbreak of the Civil War was the bombardment of Fort Sumter on the part of the South. President Lincoln at once called for volunteers to suppress the rebellion.
Although but a small boy at the time, I remember when the war began. It was the greatest civil war in human history, and will always be associated with Abraham Lincoln. I remember the excitement it produced where I resided in southern Indiana and throughout the whole country. I recall the floating flag, the mournful sound of the drum, and the plaintive music of the fife when volunteers were enlisting for the defense of the nation. The neighbors talked war, the newspapers were filled with war news. The war spirit entered into the plays of the children. Elder fifes, old tin wash-boilers for drums, wooden guns and bayonets, and rudely-constructed flags were much in evidence in the mimic drilling and marching. How patriotically the little boys sang, as did some of their sires in the sunny South:
"The Union forever, hurrah! boys, hurrah!
Down with the traitor, up with the stars,
While we rally round the flag, boys, rally once again,
Shouting the battle-cry of freedom!"
How the schoolboys played war in the autumn! The forts were made of old fence rails and logs, and how they were bombarded with cannon-balls of green walnuts, and how the "rebels" were routed and some captured! In the winter-time how the snow-balls would fly as the two armies stood in battle array!