«История Соединенных Штатов, Том 3»

and respect for individual opinion, had departed, and those deceitful

appearances concealed the despotism of an inexorable master, slavery,

before whom the most powerful of slave-holders was himself but a slave,

as abject as the meanest." Over wide sections, untitled manorial lords,

"more intelligent than educated, brave but irascible, proud but

overbearing," controlled all voting and office-holding. Congressional

districts were their pocket-boroughs, and they ignored the common man

save to use him. The system grew, instead of statesmen, sectionalists,

whom love for the "peculiar institution" rendered callous to national

interests.

The vigorous secession movements in the South at once after Lincoln's

election, raised a question of the first magnitude, which few people at

the North had reflected upon since 1833, viz., whether or not

non-revolutionary secession was possible. Almost unanimously the North

denied such possibility, the South affirmed it. This was at bottom

manifestly nothing but the old question of state sovereignty over again.

The South held the Union to be a state compact, which the northern

parties thereto had broken. To prove the compact theory no new proof was

now adduced. Rather did the southern people take the assertion of it as

an axiom, with a simplicity which spoke volumes for the influence of

Calhoun and for the indoctrination which the South had received in 1832.

Not alone Calhoun but nearly every other southerner of great influence,

at least from the day of the Missouri Compromise, had been inculcating

the supreme authority of the State as compared with the Union. The

southern States were all large, and, as travelling in or between them

was difficult and little common, they retained far more than those at

the North each its original separateness and peculiarities. Southern

population was more fixed than northern; southern state traditions were

held in far the deeper reverence. In a word, the colonial condition of

things to a great extent persisted in the South down to the very days of

the war. There was every reason why Alabama or North Carolina should,

more than Connecticut, feel like a separate nation.

This intense state consciousness might gradually have subsided but for

the deep prejudices and passions begotten of slavery and of the

opposition it encountered from the North. Their resolution, against

emancipation led Southerners to cherish a view which made it seem

possible for them as a last resort to sever their alliance with the

North. It was this conjunction of influences, linking the slave-holder's

jealousy and pride to a false but natural conception of state

sovereignty, which created in southern men that love of State, intense

and sincere as real patriotism, causing them to look upon northern men,

with their different theory, as foes and foreigners.

A very imposing historical argument could of course have been built up

for the Calhoun theory of the Union. The Union emerged from the

preceding Confederacy without a shock. Most who voted for it were

unaware how radical a change it embodied. The Constitution, one may even

admit, could not have been adopted had it then been understood to

preclude the possibility of secession. Doubtless, too, the gradual

change of view concerning it all over the North, sprung from the

multiplication of social and economic ties between sections and States,

rather than from study of constitutional law. We believe that the

untruth of the central-sovereignty theory in no wise follows from these

admissions, and that its correctness might be made apparent from a

plenitude of considerations.

Champions of the northern side deemed it the less necessary to expatiate

upon this question, since, admitting the South's basal contention, the

right in question depended upon sufficiency of grievance. As, in the

South's view, the case was one of sovereigns one party of whom, without

referee, was about to break a compact without the other's consent, the

adequacy of the grievance should, to excuse the step, have been

absolutely beyond question. On the contrary it was subject to the

gravest question.

The South's only significant indictment against the North was the one

concerning the personal liberty laws. Moderates like Stephens, indeed,

stoutly condemned this plea for secession as insufficient; but,

believing in the State as sovereign, they had perforce to yield, and

they became as enthusiastic as any when once this "paramount authority"

had spoken. "Fire-eaters," at first a small minority, saw this advantage

and worked it to the utmost. On its complaint touching the personal

liberty legislation the South's case utterly broke down, theorizing the

Union into a rope of sand, not "more perfect" but far less so than the

old, which itself was to be "perpetual." According to the Calhoun

contention States were the parties to a pact, and it was a good way from

clear that any northern State as such, even by personal liberty

legislation, had broken the alleged pact. The liberty laws were innocent

at least in form, and at worst had never been endorsed in any state

convention. Buchanan himself testified that the fugitive slave law had

been faithfully executed, and its operation is well known never to have

been resisted by any public authority.

It was suspicious that no State ventured upon secession alone. It was

equally remarkable that the Gulf States were the readiest to go, and

made most of the personal liberty laws as their pretext, accounting this

cry, as was ingenuously confessed, a necessary means for holding the

border States solidly to the southern cause. Weak enough, indeed, was

the complaint of "consolidationist" aggression, of which certainly no

party to the so-called pact was or could have been guilty. But the deeps

of folly were sounded when northern "persecution" of the South was

mentioned, or Lincoln's election as threat of such. This was simply the

election as President, in a perfectly constitutional way, of a citizen,

honest and unambitious, who was pledged against touching slavery in

States. Having become President, he was unable to procure minister, law,

treaty, or even adequate guard for his own person save by the consent of

the party hitherto in power. Lincoln had failed of a popular majority by

a million. Both Houses of Congress were against him at the time of his

election, and, but for the absence of southern members, they would, it

is likely, have continued so through his entire term. It was the South's

bad logic on these points which gave the war Democrats their excellent

plea for drawing sword on the northern side.

But even supposing secession technically justifiable, how strange that

it should have been judged rational, prudent, or in the long run best

for the South itself. Could aught but frenzy have so drowned in

Americans the memories of our great past; or launched them upon a course

that must have ended by Mexicanizing this nation, wresting from it the

lead in freedom's march, and crushing out, in the breast of struggling

patriotism the world over, all hope of government by and for the people!

The South ought at least to have spared itself. Either its alleged

horror at the advance of central-sovereignty sentiment at the North was

sheer pretence, or it should have been certain that this section would

not hesitate, as Buchanan so illogically did, to coerce "rebellious"

state-bodies. If the North believed the totality of the nation to be the

"paramount authority," Lincoln would surely imitate Jackson instead of

Buchanan, and in doing so he would not seek military support in vain.

James Buchanan. From a photograph by Brady.

Quite as sure, too, must the final result have appeared from the census

of 1850, had people been calm enough to read this. By that census the

free States had a population fifty per cent. above the population of the

slave states, slaves included, and the disparity was rapidly increasing.

Their wealth was even more preponderant, being, slaves apart, nearly one

hundred per cent. the larger. Their merchant tonnage was five times the

greater--even young inland Ohio out-doing old South Carolina in this,

and the one district of New York City the whole South. The North had

three or four times the South's miles of railway, all the sinews of war

without importation, and mechanics unnumbered and of every sort. And

while champions of the Union would fight with all the prestige of law,

national history and the status quo on their side, Europe's aid to the

South, or even that of the border slave States, was more than

problematical, as was a successful career for the Confederacy in case

its independence should chance to be won. Events proved that the very

defence of slavery had best prospect in the Union, and it seems as if

this might have been foreseen by all, as it actually was by some.

CHAPTER II.

SECESSION

[1861]

Secession was no new thought at the South. It lurked darkly behind the

Kentucky and Virginia resolutions of 1798-99. It was brought out into

broad daylight by South Carolina in the nullification troubles of 1832.

"Texas or disunion!" was the cry at the South in 1843-44. In 1850 South

Carolina declared herself ready to secede in the event of legislation

hostile to slavery. Two years later the same State solemnly affirmed

that it had a right to secede, but that, out of deference to the wishes

of the other slave States, it forbore to exercise such right.

It must be admitted that in early years the North had helped to make the

thought of secession familiar. In 1803, in view of the great increase of

southern territory by the Louisiana Purchase, and again in 1813, when

New England opposition to the war with England culminated in the

Hartford Convention, there had been talk of a separate northern

confederacy. But from that time on the thought of disunion died out at

the North, while the South dallied with it more and more boldly. During

the presidential campaign of 1856, threats were made that if Fremont,

the republican candidate, should be elected, the South would leave the

Union. In October of that year a secret convention of southern governors

was held at Raleigh, N. C., supposed to have been for the purpose of

considering such a contingency. Governor Wise, of Virginia, who called

the convention, afterward proclaimed that had Fremont been chosen he

would have marched to Washington at the head of 20,000 troops, seized

the Capitol, and prevented the inauguration. This threatening attitude

in 1856 may have been chiefly an electioneering device; but during the

next four years the gulf between North and South widened rapidly, and

the southern leaders turned more and more resolutely toward secession as

the remedy for their alleged wrongs.

No sooner had the presidential campaign of 1860 begun than deep

mutterings foretold the coming storm. "Elect Lincoln, and the South will

secede!" cried the campaign orators of the South, while the halls of

Congress rang with threats similar in tenor. As the campaign went on and

republican success became probable, the southern leaders began to nerve

up their hosts for the conflict. In October the governor and congressmen

of South Carolina, with other prominent politicians, met and unanimously

resolved that if Lincoln should win, the Palmetto State ought to

renounce the Union. Similar meetings were held in Georgia, Alabama,

Mississippi, and Florida. Governor Gist sent a confidential circular to

the governors of all the cotton States declaring that South Carolina

would secede with any other State, or would make the plunge alone if

others would promise to follow. The governors of Florida, Alabama, and

Mississippi replied that their States would certainly do this. Georgia

proposed to wait for some overt act by the National Government. North

Carolina and Louisiana, it was learned, would probably not go out at

all.

But the enthusiasts in South Carolina had got all the encouragement they

wanted, and bided their time. Their time was at hand. The presidential

election fell on November 6th. Next day the tidings flashed over the

land that Abraham Lincoln had been elected President by the vote of a

solid North against a solid South. The wires had scarcely ceased to

thrill with this message of death to slavery-extension, when South

Carolina sounded a trumpet-call to the South. Her Legislature ordered a

secession state convention to meet in December, issued a call for 10,000

volunteers, and voted money for the purchase of arms. Federal

office-holders resigned. Judge Magrath, of the United States District

Court, laid aside his robes, declaring, "So far as I am concerned, the

temple of Justice raised under the Constitution of the United States is

now closed." Militia organized throughout the State. The streets of

Charleston echoed nightly with the tramp of drilling minute-men.

Secession orators harangued enthusiastic crowds. Hardly a coat but bore

a secession cockade. November 17th, the Palmetto flag was unfurled in

Charleston. It was a gala day. Cannon roared, bands played the

Marseillaise, and processions paraded the streets bearing such mottoes

as "Let's Bury the Union's Dead Carcass!" "Death to All Abolitionists!"

The whole South was beside itself with excitement. One State after

another assembled its convention to decide the question of secession.

Even the Georgia Legislature, within a week after the election of

Lincoln, voted $1,000,000 to arm the State.

The South Carolina convention met at Charleston, and on December 20th

unanimously adopted an ordinance declaring:

"The union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under

the name of the United States of America, is hereby dissolved."

This action was hailed with wildest enthusiasm. Huge placards--"The

Union is Dissolved!"--were posted throughout the city, while the clang

of bells and the boom of cannon notified the country round. The

sidewalks were thronged with ladies wearing secession bonnets made of

cotton with palmetto decorations. A party of gentlemen visited the tomb

of Calhoun, and there registered their vows to defend the southern cause

with their fortunes and lives. In the evening the convention marched to

the hall in procession, and formally signed the revolutionary ordinance.

The chairman then solemnly proclaimed South Carolina an "independent

commonwealth." The little State, whose white population was less than

300,000, began to play at being a nation. The governor was authorized to

appoint a cabinet and receive foreign ambassadors, and the papers put

information from other parts of the country under the head of "foreign

news."

Street Banner in Charleston.

"One voice and millions of strong arms to uphold the honor of South

Carolina 1776-1860"

The secession of South Carolina was greeted with joy in most of the

other slave States. Montgomery and Mobile, Ala., each fired one hundred

guns. At Richmond, Va., a palmetto banner was unfurled, while bells,

bonfires, and processions celebrated the event all over the South. The

other cotton States, spurred on by the bold deed of South Carolina,

rapidly followed her lead. Mississippi seceded January 9th, Florida the

10th, Alabama the 11th, Georgia the 19th, Louisiana the 26th, Texas

February 1st.

It is probable that only in South Carolina, Mississippi, and Florida

were the majority of whites in favor of secession. The South was after

all full of Union sentiment. The ordinance of secession proceeded in

each State from a convention, and the election of delegates to this

witnessed the earnest work. The noble efforts of those Union men in

their fierce struggle have never yet been appreciated. But they fought

against great odds, and were inevitably overborne. The opposition was

organized, ably led, and white-hot with zeal. The political power and

the wealth of the South lay in the hands of the secessionists. The

clergy threw their weight on that side, preaching that slavery, God's

ordinance, was in danger. Union proclivities were crushed out by force.

Vigilance committees were everywhere on the alert. In the rougher States

of the Southwest abolitionists were tarred and feathered. Some were

shot. In all the States Union men were warned to keep quiet or leave the

South. One of the most powerful agents of intimidation was the Knights

of the Golden Circle, a vast secret society which extended throughout

the southern States.

Yet, in spite of all, the vote was close even in several of the cotton

States. The Georgia people wanted new safeguards for slavery, but did

not at first desire secession. Alexander H. Stephens, who headed the

anti-secession movement, declared that Georgia was won over to take the

fatal step at last only by the cry, "Better terms can be made out of the

Union than in it." Even then the first vote for secession stood only 165

to 130. In Louisiana the popular vote for convention delegates was

20,000 for secession and 17,000 against.

The border States held aloof. Kentucky and Tennessee refused to call

conventions. So, for long, did North Carolina. The convention of

Virginia and of Missouri each had a majority of Union delegates. When

the Confederate Government was organized in February, only seven of the

fifteen slave States had seceded. Their white population was about

2,600,000, or less than half that of the entire slave region. But

Arkansas and North Carolina were soon swept along by the current, and

seceded in May. Virginia and Tennessee were finally carried (the former

in May, the latter in June) by the aid of troops, who swarmed in from

the seceded States, and turned the elections into a farce. Unionists in

the Virginia Convention were given the choice to vote secession, leave,

or be hanged. Missouri, Kentucky, Delaware, and Maryland resisted all

attempts to drag them into the Confederacy, though the first two, after

the United States began to apply force, appeared neutral rather than

loyal.

The seizure of United States property went hand in hand with secession.

Most of the government works were feebly garrisoned, and made no

resistance. By January 15th the secessionists had possession of arsenals

at Augusta, Ga., Mount Vernon, Ala., Fayetteville, N. C, Chattahoochee,

Fla., and Baton Rouge, La., of forts in Alabama and Georgia, of a

navy-yard at Pensacola, Fla., and of Forts Jackson and St. Philip,

commanding the mouth of the Mississippi. At one arsenal they found

150,000 pounds of powder, at another 22,000 muskets and rifles, besides

ammunition and cannon, at another 50,000 small arms and 20 heavy guns.

The whole South had been well supplied with military stores by the

enterprising foresight of J. B. Floyd, of Virginia, Buchanan's Secretary

of War, who had sent thither 115,000 muskets from the Springfield

arsenal alone.

Major Robert Anderson.

Fort Moultrie, in Charleston harbor, was held by Major Robert Anderson,

of Kentucky, with a garrison of some seventy men. On December 27th the

whole country was thrilled, and the South enraged, by the news that on

the previous night Anderson had secretly transferred his whole force to

Fort Sumter, a new and stronger work in the centre of the harbor,

leaving spiked cannon and burning gun-carriages behind him at Moultrie.

The South Carolina militia at once occupied the deserted fortress with

the other harbor fortifications, and began to put them into a state of

defence. At Pensacola, Fla., Lieutenant Slemmer, by a movement similar

to Anderson's, held Fort Pickens.

Major Anderson removing his Forces from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter,

December 26, 1861.

The seizure of government property went on through January and February.

In Louisiana all the commissary stores were confiscated, and the revenue

cutter McClelland surrendered. The mint at New Orleans, containing over

half a million in gold and silver, was seized. More than half of the

regular army were stationed in Texas, under General Twiggs. In February,

at the demand of a secessionist committee of public safety, he

surrendered his entire force, together with eighteen military posts. The

troops were sent to a Gulf port and there detained.

This wholesale seizure of government property, worth some $20,000,000,

has brought down upon the South much scathing rebuke. The conduct of

Floyd, stabbing his country under the cloak of a cabinet office, cannot

be too strongly condemned; but with the seceding States the case was

different. Having (so they thought) established themselves as

independent republics, they could not allow the military works within

their borders to remain in the hands of a foreign power. As to the

Government's property right, they recognized it, and proposed to pay

damages. The provisional constitution of the Confederacy, adopted in

February, provided for negotiations to settle the claim of the United

States.

The southern leaders were not more anxious to get the slave States out

of the Union than to get them into a grand Southern Confederacy. Early

in January a caucus of secession congressmen was held at Washington, and

arrangements made for a constitutional convention.

February 4, 1861, delegates from the States which had left the Union met

at Montgomery, Ala., and formed themselves into a provisional Congress.

A temporary government, styled "The Confederate States of America," was

soon organized. Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, was chosen President by

the Congress, and Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, Vice-President.

Davis was born in Kentucky in 1808. He graduated at West Point, fought

as colonel in the Mexican war, served three terms as congressman from

Mississippi, the last two in the Senate, and was Secretary of War under

Pierce. After Calhoun's death, in 1850, he became the most prominent of

the ultra southern leaders. The new President was brought from Jackson,

Miss., to Montgomery by a special train, his progress a continual

ovation. Cheering crowds gathered at every station to see and hear him.

February 18th Davis was inaugurated. In his address, which was calm and

moderate in tone, he declared that reunion was now "neither practicable

nor desirable;" he hoped for peace, but said that if the North refused

this, the South must appeal to arms, secure in the blessing of God on a

just cause.

Jefferson Davis.

The Confederate President was intrusted with very large powers,

including supreme control of military affairs. He was authorized to

muster into the service of the central government the regiments which

had been forming in the various States. A call was issued for 100,000

volunteers, and provision made for organizing a regular army. President

Davis appointed a cabinet, with state, treasury, war, navy, and

post-office departments. Robert Toombs, of Georgia, a rabid

secessionist, became Secretary of State.

March 11th the Confederate Congress adopted a permanent constitution. It

reproduced that of the United States, with some important changes. State

sovereignty was recognized in the preamble, which read, "We, the people

of the Confederate States, each State acting in its sovereign and

independent character," etc. Slavery was called by name, and elaborate

safeguards fixed for it in the States and Territories. Slave-trade from

beyond the sea, or with states not in the Confederacy, was, however,

prohibited. Protective tariffs were absolutely forbidden. The president

and vice-president were to serve six years, and the former could not be

re-elected. Some valuable features were inserted. Members of the cabinet

might discuss matters pertaining to their departments in either house of

congress. The president could veto one part of an appropriation bill

without killing the whole, and was required to lay before the senate his

reasons for the removal of any officers from the civil service.

Alexander H. Stephens.

By the last of April all the seceded States had ratified this

constitution. The other slave States were taken in as fast as they

withdrew from the Union. The Southern Confederacy, now fairly launched,

set sail over strange seas upon its short but eventful voyage. At the

start the hopes of those it bore rose high. Few believed that the North

would dare draw sword. Even if it should, the southern heart, proud and

brave, felt sure of victory. King Cotton would win Europe to their side.

Peace would come soon. Visions of a glorious future dazzled the

imaginative mind of the South. A vast slave empire, founded on the

"great physical, philosophical, and moral truth" that slavery is the

"natural condition," of the inferior black race, would spread encircling

arms around the Great Gulf, swallowing up the feeble states of Mexico,

and rise to a wealth and glory unparalleled in the history of nations.

CHAPTER III.

THE NORTH IN THE WINTER OF 1860-61

[1860-1861]

At the beginning of the secession movement the North slumbered and

slept. Even South Carolina's withdrawal from the Union caused little

alarm. "She will be glad enough to come back before long," prophesied

many. As the revolution progressed there was a gradual awakening, but

division of opinion paralyzed action. Ultra Abolitionists, with a few

others, urged that the South be let go in peace. Most Republicans

favored the preservation of the Union by force of arms if necessary; but

nearly all Democrats, with many Republicans, wished for compromise. Of

the latter class a few prayed the prodigals to return on their own

terms. More proposed a rigid enforcement of the fugitive slave law, the

repeal of personal liberty legislation, and acquiescence in the Dred

Scott decision, with all future like decrees of the Supreme Court. This

may be called the northern-democratic position. The most pronounced

Republicans, as Seward and Stanton, would gladly have voted to

re-enforce the Constitution's guarantee to slavery in the slave States.

Throughout the North the feeling was strong against all efforts at

coercion. Most democratic papers and many republican ones insisted

loudly that use of arms was not to be mentioned, and that the South must

be conciliated. A democratic convention met at Albany in January, to

protest against forcible measures. The sentiment that if force were to

be used it should be "inaugurated at home," here evoked hearty response.

There were signs of even a deeper disaffection. An ex-governor of New

Jersey declared that his State would join the Confederacy. Mayor Wood,

of New York, proposed that if the Union were broken up, his city should

announce herself an independent republic.

At Washington matters were still worse. President Buchanan, loyal but

weak, feared to lift a finger. In his December message to Congress, he

insisted that a State had no right to secede, but that the United States

had no power to coerce a State which should secede. A majority of his

cabinet were southern men, three of them zealous secessionists. His most

intimate friends in Congress were southerners. These surrounded the

vacillating Chief Magistrate, and paralyzed what little energy was in

him, meanwhile taking advantage of his inaction to launch the

Confederacy. Now and then, spurred on by loyal old General Scott and by

the Union members of his cabinet, the President tried to break away from

the toils which the conspirators had spun around him. The Star of the

West was secretly sent with supplies and recruits to re-enforce Fort

Sumter. But Secretary Thompson warned South Carolina, and when the

vessel arrived off Charleston, January 9th, hostile batteries fired upon

her and forced her out to sea again. Another plan to relieve the fort

was half formed, but came to nothing. Buchanan's term was on the point

of expiring, and he sat supinely looking on while the disruption of the

Union proceeded apace.

The northern side in Congress showed little wisdom or spirit. Most

northern congressmen truckled to the South or wasted their energies in

fruitless attempts at compromise. Both houses, each by more than a

two-thirds majority, recommended a constitutional amendment depriving

Congress forever of the power to touch slavery in any State without the

consent of all the States. In December the venerable Crittenden, of

Kentucky, laid before the Senate his famous Suggestions for Compromise.

These, besides embodying the above amendment, restored the Missouri

Compromise, let each new State decide for itself whether it would be

slave or free, and forbade Congress to abolish slavery in the District

of Columbia or interfere with the inter-state transportation of slaves.

The United States was to pay for all fugitives whose capture should be

successfully prevented, and slaves as slaves could be carried through

free States. This measure, before Congress all winter, was finally lost

only for lack of southern votes.

A peace congress, called by Virginia, met at Washington in February.

Most of the northern States were represented and all the southern which

had not seceded. It sat for three weeks, and adopted resolutions

identical in substance with the Crittenden Compromise. These dangerously

large offers of concession, mainly well meant, happily proved useless.

The South had gone too far. She did not want compromise, but was bent

upon setting up a slave empire.

Mr. Lincoln arrived safely in Washington on February 23d, having eluded

a rumored plot to assassinate him in Baltimore. He accomplished this by

assuming a slight disguise and taking an earlier train than the one in

which he had been announced to go. He was duly inaugurated on March 4th.

In his inaugural he disclaimed all purpose to interfere with slavery in

the slave States, yet denied the right of secession, and proposed to

regain and hold the property and places belonging to the United States

in all parts thereof. There would be no bloodshed, he said, unless it

were forced upon the Government. "In your hands, my dissatisfied

fellow-countrymen," so ran his memorable words, "in your hands, not in

mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. You can have no conflict

without being yourselves the aggressors. We are not enemies, but

friends." This message, held out as an olive branch, the South denounced

as a menace. Some northern papers condemned it as the "knell and requiem

of the Union." But the general feeling it evoked at the North was one of

rejoicing. People believed that a hand both moderate and firm had at

length seized the helm.

The new President stood faced by an herculean task. Congress was not yet

fully purged of traitors, while Washington still swarmed with their

friends and agents. Floyd's treachery had tied Lincoln's hands. All the

best munitions of war had been sent south. Of the rifled cannon

belonging to the United States not one was left. Only a handful of

regular troops were within call, and the resignations of their officers

came in daily. The plight of the navy and treasury was no better.

Amazing coolness and the absurd prejudice against coercing States

largely possessed even the loyal masses. The attack on Sumter was thus a

god-send.

April 8th, Governor Pickens received notice from President Lincoln that

an attempt would be made to provision that fort. Thereupon General

Beauregard, who had left the United States army to take charge of the

fortifications at Charleston, was ordered by President Davis to demand

its evacuation. Major Anderson replied that they should be starved out

by the 15th, and would leave the fort then unless his Government sent

supplies. This answer was held unsatisfactory, and at 3.20 on the

morning of April 12th Beauregard notified Anderson that his batteries

would open fire in one hour.

Fort Sumter stood on an artificial island at the entrance of the harbor.

It was pentagonal in shape, the walls of brick, eight feet thick and

forty feet high. The parapet was pierced for 140 guns, but only 48 were

in condition for use. The garrison, including some 40 workmen and a

band, numbered 128. Surrounding the fort on all sides except toward the

sea, and distant from 1,300 to 2,500 yards, 19 Confederate batteries

were in position, mounting 47 cannon and mortars, and manned by 3,000 or

4,000 volunteers. These works were provided with bomb-proofs made of

railroad iron or of palmetto logs and sand.

The wharves, roofs, and steeples of Charleston were black with expectant

crowds, straining their eyes down the harbor where the silent castle

loomed up through the dim morning light. Boom! From a mortar battery to

the south a bombshell rises high into the air, describes its graceful

trajectory and falls within Sumter's enclosure. It is the signal gun.

One battery after another responds, until in less than an hour the

stronghold is girt by an almost continuous circle of flashing artillery.

Shells scream through the air and explode above the doomed work, and

great cannon-balls bury themselves in the brick walls. Still Sumter

speaks not. Anderson is waiting for daylight. About six o'clock he

breakfasts his garrison on pork and water, the only provisions left. An

hour later the embrasures are opened, the black guns run out, and Sumter

hurls back her answer to the voice of rebellion. The bombs making it

unsafe to use the barbette cannons of the open rampart, Anderson was

confined to his twenty-one casemate pieces, mostly of light calibre. The

fire was kept up briskly all the morning. Sumter stood it well, but did

little damage to the opposing batteries. At sunset the guns of both

sides became silent, but the mortars maintained a slow fire through the

night.

Early next morning the cannonade opened afresh, and in the course of the

forenoon hot shot set fire to Sumter's wooden barracks. The flames soon

got beyond control; the powder magazine had to be closed; and the heat

and smoke became so stifling that the garrison was forced, in order to

avoid suffocation, to lie face downward upon the floor, each man with a

wet cloth at his mouth. Powder was at last exhausted. About one o'clock

the flag was shot away. It was immediately raised again upon a low

jury-mast, but could not be seen for the smoke, and Beauregard sent to

ask if Anderson had surrendered. The latter offered to evacuate upon the

terms named before the bombardment, to which Beauregard agreed, and all

firing ceased. The next day at noon, after a salute of fifty guns to

their flag, Major Anderson and his men evacuated the scene of their

heroism, and soon after took passage for New York.

The disunion leaders had rightly calculated that an open blow would

bring the border slave States into the Confederacy; but they had not

anticipated the effect of such a deed beyond Mason and Dixon's line.

When it was known that the old flag had been fired upon, a thrill of

passionate rage electrified the North from Maine to Oregon. Then was

witnessed an uprising unparalleled in our history if not in that of

mankind. From every city, town, and hamlet, loud and earnest came the

call, "The Union must be preserved! Away with compromise! Away with

further attempts to conciliate traitors! To arms!" Slavery might do all

else, so little did most northerners yet feel its evil, but it could not

rend the Union. Pulpit, platform, and press echoed with patriotic cries.

Everywhere were Union meetings, speeches, and parades. Union badges

decked everyone's clothing, and the Stars and Stripes were kept unfurled

as only on national holidays before. In New York City a mass-meeting of

two hundred thousand declared for war. The New York Herald changed its

sneer to a war-blast. Party lines were thrown down. Democrats like

Butler, Cass, and Dickinson were in the Union van. Senator Douglas,

lately Lincoln's antagonist, and at first strongly opposed to coercion,

went through the West arousing the people by his patriotic eloquence.

"There can be no neutrals now," were his words, "only patriots and

traitors."

Route of the Sixth Massachusetts Troops through Baltimore.]

April 15th, President Lincoln issued a call for seventy-five thousand

volunteers, and each free State responded with twice its quota.

Enlisting offices were opened in every town and hamlet, and the roll of

the drum and the tramp of armed men with faces set southward were heard

all over the North. First to march was the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment.

Forming on Boston Common it took cars for Washington on April 17th,

reaching Baltimore on the morning of the 19th.

Maryland was trembling in the balance between Union and disunion. A

determined disunionist minority was working with might and main to drag

the State into secession. Baltimore was white-hot with southern zeal,

determined that the Bay State troops should never reach Washington

through that metropolis. Eight of the cars containing the soldiers were

drawn safely across the city. The next was assailed by a hooting mob,

and the windows smashed in by bricks and paving stones. Some of the

soldiers were wounded by pistol shots, and a scattering fire was

returned. Sand, stones, anchors, and other obstructions were heaped upon

the track. The remaining four companies therefore left the cars and

started to march. They soon met the mob, flying a secession flag. A

melee ensued. The troops moved double-quick toward the Washington depot,

surrounded by a seething mass of infuriated secessionists filling the

air with their brick-bats and stones, while bullets whizzed from

sidewalks and windows. The troops returned the fire, and several in the

crowd fell. The chief of police with fifty officers appeared on the

scene, who, by presenting cocked revolvers, held the rioters in check

for a while, till the distressed troops could join their comrades.

Baltimore was in the hands of this secessionist band for the rest of the

day. The bridges north of that city were also burned, so that no more

troops could reach Washington by this route.

Scene of the First Bloodshed, at Baltimore.

Meanwhile the capital city was in great peril, devotees of the South

being each moment expected to make an attack upon it. Only fifteen

companies of local militia and six of regulars were present at

inauguration time, stationed by General Scott at critical points in the

city. Pickets were posted continually on roads and bridges outside. Four

hundred Pennsylvania troops happily arrived on April 18th, and the next

day came the Sixth Massachusetts. But the city was not yet secure. There

were reports that large bodies of men were gathering in Maryland and

Virginia for a descent upon it. Washington was put in a state of siege,

the public buildings barricaded and provided with sentinels. The

Government seized the Potomac steamers and also all the flour within

reach. Business ceased. Alarmed by rumors of a military impressment,

hundreds of government clerks, besides officers in the army and navy,

came out in their true colors and fled south. Enemies at Baltimore had

cut off telegraphic communication between Washington and the North.

Reports came that re-enforcements were on the way, but day followed day

without witnessing their arrival. The President and all Unionists were

in an agony of suspense.

The Routes of Approach to Washington.

Russell & Struthers, Eng's, N. York.

On April 22d the Eighth Massachusetts, under General B. F. Butler, and

the famous Seventh Regiment from New York City, met at Annapolis. Here

they were delayed several days. Governor Hicks had warned them not to

land on Maryland soil. The railroad to Washington had been torn up for

many miles and the engines damaged. Among his troops Butler found the

very machinists who had made the engines. Repairs were promptly

effected, the track re-laid, and about noon of the 25th the gallant New

Yorkers landed in Washington amid the joyful shouts of the loyal

populace. Up Pennsylvania Avenue swept the solid ranks, bands playing

and colors flying, to gladden the heart of the careworn President as he

welcomed them at the White House. A sudden change came over the city.

Secessionists slunk away, the faces of the loyal beamed with joy. The

national capital was safe.

CHAPTER IV.

WAR BEGUN

[1861]

It was now apparent to both North and South that war was inevitable. Yet

neither side believed the other in full earnest or dreamed of a long

struggle. Sanguine northerners looked to see the rebellion stamped out

in thirty days. The more cautious allowed three months.

The President, however, soon saw that more troops, enlisted for a longer

term, would be necessary. At the outset the South certainly possessed

decided advantages: greater earnestness, more men of leisure aching for

war and accustomed to saddle and firearms, a militia better organized,

owing to fear of slave insurrections, and now for a long time in special

training, and withal a certain soldierly fire and dash native to the

people. The South also had superior arms. Enlistments there were prompt

and abundant. The troops were ably commanded, 262 of the 951 regular

army officers whom secession found in service, including many very high

in rank, joining their States in the new cause, besides a large number

of West Point graduates from civil life.

Accordingly on May 3d Mr. Lincoln issued a new call for troops, 42,000

volunteers to serve three years or during the war, 23,000 regulars, and

18,000 seamen. It was of first importance to secure Maryland for the

Union. On the night of May 13th, under cover of a thunderstorm, General

Butler suddenly entered rebellious Baltimore with less than 1,000 men,

and entrenched upon Federal Hill. Overawed by this bold move, the

secessionists made no resistance. A political reaction soon set in

throughout the State, which became firmly Unionist. Baltimore was once

more open to the passage of troops, who kept steadily hurrying to the

front.

Meanwhile the Confederate forces were getting uncomfortably close to

Washington. From the White House a secession flag could be seen flying

at Alexandria, which was occupied by a small pro-secession garrison.

There was fear lest that party would occupy Arlington Heights, across

from Washington, and thence pour shot and shell into the city. At two

o'clock on the morning of May 24th, eight regiments crossed the Potomac

and took possession of these hills as far south as Alexandria, and

fortified them. The latter place was entered by Colonel Ellsworth with

his famous New York Zouaves. No resistance was made, as the Confederates

had retired, but Ellsworth was brutally assassinated while hauling down

the secession flag.

Captain Nathaniel Lyon.

Upon the secession of Virginia the Confederate capital was removed to

Richmond. The main armies of both sides were now encamped on Old

Dominion soil, and at no great distance apart; but the commanders were

busy drilling their raw troops, so that for a time only trifling

engagements occurred. General Butler, with a considerable body of men,

was occupying Fortress Monroe, at the mouth of the James River. June

10th, an expedition sent by him against the Confederates at Big Bethel,

some twelve miles distant, was repulsed after a spirited attack, with a

total loss of sixty-eight. A week later an Ohio regiment took the cars

to make a reconnoissance toward Vienna, a village not far south of

Washington. They were surprised by Confederates, who placed two guns on

the track and fired on the train as it came around a curve. The Ohioans

sprang to the ground, and after some fighting drove their opponents

back.

All this time both North and South were struggling for possession of the

neutral States. Governor Jackson, of Missouri, was straining every nerve

to force his State into secession. Early in May two or three regiments

of militia were got together and drilled in a camp near St. Louis.

Cannon were sent by President Davis, boxed up and marked "marble."

Captain Lyon, of the regular army, who held the St. Louis arsenal with a

few companies, reconnoitred the secessionist camp in female dress. The

next day, May 10th, assisted by local militia, he suddenly surrounded it

and took 1,200 prisoners. A month later he embarked some soldiers on

three swift steamers, sailed up the Missouri to Jefferson City, the

state capital, and raised the Union flag once more over the State House.

Governor Jackson fled. During the next month all the armed disunionists

were driven into the southwestern part of the State.

General John C. Fremont.

The last of July a state convention organized a provisional government

and declared for the Union. But the secessionists, under General Price,

continued the struggle. The Union forces, after a brave fight against

great odds at Wilson's Creek, August 10th, in which Lyon was killed, had

to retreat north. General Fremont had shortly before been put at the

head of the Western Department, which included Missouri, Kentucky,

Illinois, and Kansas. His difficulties were great. He was unable to

clear the State of secessionists, who besieged Lexington and took it on

September 20th. Generals Hunter and Halleck, Fremont's successors, were

equally unsuccessful, and the State was harassed by a petty warfare all

the year.

In Kentucky, Governor Magoffin was inclined to secession. The

Legislature leaned the other way, but preferred neutrality to active

participation on either side. September 6th, Brigadier-General U. S.

Grant occupied Paducah, an important strategical point at the junction

of the Ohio and Tennessee rivers. Next day the Confederate General Polk,

advancing from below, took possession of Columbus on the Mississippi.

With both hostile armies thus encamped on her soil, Kentucky could no

longer be neutral. Her decision was quickly taken. The Legislature

demanded of President Davis to withdraw Polk's forces, at the same time

calling upon General Anderson, the hero of Sumter, who had been placed

in charge of the Department of the Cumberland, to take active measures

for the defence of this his native State.

The mountain portion of Virginia belonged to the West rather than to the

South. It contained only 18,000 slaves, against nearly 500,000 in

Eastern Virginia. Union sentiment was therefore strong, and when the old

State seceded from the Union, Western Virginia proceeded to secede from

the State. General Lee sent troops to hold it for the Confederacy.

Thereupon General McClellan, commanding the Department of the Ohio,

threw several regiments across the river into Virginia, and defeated the

foe in minor engagements at Philippi, Rich Mountain, and Carrick's Ford.

By the middle of July he was able to report, "Secession is killed in

this country." Later in the year the Confederates renewed their

attempts, but were finally driven out. West Virginia organized a

separate government, and was subsequently admitted to the Union as a

State by itself.

Bull Run--the Field of Strategy.

While these struggles were going on in the border commonwealths, the

Union soldiers lay inactive along the Potomac. Constant drill had

changed the mob into some semblance of an organized army, but the

careful Scott feared to risk a general engagement. The hostile forces

stretched in three pairs of groups across Virginia from northwest to

southeast. In the southeastern part of the State, at Fortress Monroe,

Butler faced the Confederate Magruder. At Manassas, opposite Washington,

and about thirty miles southwest, lay a Confederate army under General

Beauregard. General Patterson, a veteran of the War of 1812, commanded

considerable forces in Southern Pennsylvania. About the middle of June

he advanced against Harper's Ferry, which had been abandoned by the

Unionists the latter part of April and was now occupied by General

Joseph E. Johnston. Johnston evacuated the place upon Patterson's

approach, and retreated up the Shenandoah Valley, in a southwesterly

direction, to Winchester. Patterson followed part way, and the two

armies now lay watching each other.

Anxious to see the rebellion put down by one blow, the North was

becoming impatient. "On to Richmond!" was the ceaseless cry. Yielding to

this, Scott ordered an advance. July 16th, General McDowell, leaving one

division to protect Washington, led forth an army 28,000 strong to

attack the enemy at Manassas. He advanced slowly and with great caution.

The enemy were found posted in a line eight miles long upon the south

bank of Bull Run, a small river three miles east of Manassas, running in

a southeasterly direction. Several days were spent in reconnoitering.

Meanwhile, Johnston, whom Patterson was expected to hold at Winchester,

had stolen away to join Beauregard, their combined forces numbering

about 30,000. McDowell was ignorant of Johnston's movement, supposing

him still at Winchester.

General Irvin McDowell.

On the morning of the 21st McDowell advanced to the attack. Beauregard

held all the lower fords, besides a stone bridge on the Warrenton

turnpike which crosses the river at right angles. Two divisions, under

Hunter and Heintzelman, were set in motion before sunrise to make a

flanking detour and cross Bull Run at Sudley's Ford, some distance

farther up. To distract attention from this movement, Tyler's division

began an attack at the stone bridge. This was held by a regiment and a

half, with four guns, under General Evans. He replied vigorously at

first, but perceiving after a while that Tyler was only feigning, and

learning of the flank movement above, he left four companies at the

bridge and drew up the rest of his forces on a ridge north of Warrenton

turnpike to await Hunter and Heintzelman's approach down the Sudley

road.

General Samuel P. Heintzelman.

The fight began about ten o'clock. Both sides were soon re-enforced.

After two hours' stubborn fighting the Confederates were driven back

across the pike, beyond Young's Branch of Bull Run, and took up a second

position on a hill each side of the Henry House. The whole Union force

had now crossed Bull Run. Griffin's and Ricketts' powerful batteries

were posted in favorable positions, whence they poured a deadly fire

upon the Confederates. The whole Union line advanced to the turnpike.

About two o'clock the Confederates were forced to abandon their second

position and fall back still farther.

Early in the morning Beauregard and Johnston had given orders for an

attack upon the Union forces across the river, not knowing that McDowell

had assumed the offensive. These orders were now countermanded, and all

available troops hurried up the Sudley road toward the Warrenton pike

front. Till after noon the prospect for the Confederates looked gloomy.

They had been steadily driven back. Some of their regiments had lost

heavily, while all were more or less demoralized. Johnston and

Beauregard gave their personal direction to re-forming the line upon a

second ridge to the south of the Warrenton pike, under cover of a

semicircular piece of woods. Twelve regiments, with twenty-two guns and

two companies of cavalry, concentrated in this favorable position and

awaited the Union advance.

Bull Run-Battle of the Forenoon.

McDowell had fourteen regiments available for the attack. He decided to

hurl them against the Confederate centre and left. About half-past two

Griffin's and Ricketts' batteries took up an advanced position on Henry

Hill. The Confederate guns opened fire, and a short artillery duel took

place. A Confederate regiment now advances to capture the exposed

batteries. They are mistaken for Union re-enforcements and allowed to

come within close range. The muskets are levelled. A terrible volley is

poured into the batteries. The gunners are stricken down. The frantic

horses dash madly down the hill. After a little confusion the Union

troops boldly advance and retake the batteries. The battle surges back

and forth. The guns are three times captured and lost again. The fight

becomes general along the Confederate centre and left. The Union

generals are getting alarmed. So far they have been confident of

victory. Now regiment after regiment is going to pieces in this terrific

melee, and still the "rebels" hold their ground. About half-past four

o'clock General Early arrives by rail with three thousand more of

Johnston's army, and, assisted by a battery and five companies of

cavalry, bursts upon the extreme right flank and rear of McDowell's

line.

Bull Run--Battle of the Afternoon.

This manoeuvre decided the day. The Union ranks waver, break, flee. The

centre and left soon follow, though in better order. Union and

Confederate generals alike were astonished at the sudden change.

McDowell found it impossible to stem the tide once set in, and gave

orders to fall back across Bull Run to Centreville, where his reserves

were stationed. As the retreat went on it turned to a downright rout.

The Confederates made only a feeble pursuit, but fear of pursuit spread

alarm through the flying ranks, demoralized by long marching and hard

fighting. Baggage and ammunition-wagons, ambulances, private vehicles

which had been standing in the rear, joined the sweeping tide, adding to

the confusion and in some places causing temporary blockade. Frightened

teamsters cut traces and galloped recklessly away. Panic and stampede

resulted, soon reaching the soldiers. Flinging away muskets and

knapsacks, they sought safety in flight. The army entered Centreville a

disorganized mass. Fugitives could not be stayed even there, but

streamed through and on toward Washington. McDowell gave the order to

continue the retreat. The reserve brigades, with the one regiment of

regulars, covered the rear in good order. All that night the crazy

hustle to the rear was kept up, and on Monday the hungry and exhausted

stragglers poured into Washington under a drizzling rain, the people

receiving them with heavy hearts but generous hands.

General Joseph E. Johnston.

The Union loss was 481 killed, 1,011 wounded, 1,460 prisoners.

Twenty-five guns were lost, thirteen of them on the retreat. The

Confederate loss was 387 killed, 1,580 wounded. The numbers actively

engaged were about 18,000 on each side. General Sherman pronounced Bull

Run "one of the best planned battles of the war, but one of the worst

fought." The latter fact was but natural. The troops on both sides were

poorly drilled, and most of them had never been under fire before.

Precision of movement, concert of action on any large scale, were

impossible. Neither side needed to be ashamed of this initial trial.

The North was at first much cast down. The faint-hearted considered the

Union hopelessly lost, but pluck and patriotism carried the day. On the

morrow after the battle Congress voted that an army of 500,000 should be

raised, and appropriated $500,000,000 to carry on the war. General

McClellan, whose brilliant campaign in West Virginia had won him easy

fame, was put in command of the Army of the Potomac. The young general

was a West Point graduate and had served with distinction in the Mexican

War. An accomplished military student, a skilful engineer, and a superb

organizer, he threw himself with energy into the task of fortifying

Washington and building up a splendid army. Many of the three-months

volunteers re-enlisted. Thousands of new recruits came flocking to camp,

and before long companies, regiments, and brigades amounting to 150,000

men were drilling daily on the banks of the Potomac, while formidable

works crowned the entire crest of Arlington Heights. In October the aged

General Scott resigned, and McClellan, at the summit of his popularity

with army and people, became commander-in-chief.

General George B. McClellan.

For several weeks after Bull Run it was feared that Beauregard and his

men would descend upon Washington, then in a defenceless condition; but

they were in no state to attack. They too felt the need of preparation

for the coming struggle, whose magnitude both sides now began to

realize.

A disheartening affair occurred in October. On the night of the 20th two

Massachusetts regiments crossed the Potomac at Ball's Bluff, a few miles

above Washington, to surprise a hostile camp which according to rumor

had been established there. A large force concealed in the woods

attacked and forced them to retreat. They were re-enforced by 1,900 men

under Colonel Baker. The enemy were also re-enforced. Baker was killed

and the Union soldiers driven over the bluff into the river. The boats

were totally inadequate in number, and the men had to make their way

across as best they could, exposed to the Confederate fire. The total

Union loss was 1,000.

On the whole, then, the South had reason to be gratified with the

aggregate result of the first year of war. Bull Run gave the

Confederates a sense of invincibility, and the ready recognition by the

foreign powers of their rights as belligerents, offered hope that

England would soon acknowledge their independence itself. And they

thought that the North had been doing its best when it had only been

getting ready.

END OF VOLUME III.

HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES