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77 chapters
Preliminary Egotism
Preliminary Egotism
No One can realize more vividly than I do, that the History through whose pages our great-grand-children will contemplate the momentous struggle whereof this country has recently been and still is the arena, will not and cannot now be written; and that its author must give to the patient, careful, critical study of innumerable documents and letters, an amount of time and thought which I could not have commanded, unless I had been able to devote years, instead of months only, to the preparation o
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I. Our Country
I. Our Country
The United States of America, whose independence, won on the battle-fields of the Revolution, was tardily and reluctantly conceded by Great Britain on the 30th of November, 1782, contained at that time a population of a little less than Three Millions, of whom half a Million were slaves. This population was mainly settled upon and around the bays, harbors, and inlets, which irregularly indent the western shore of the Atlantic Ocean, for a distance of about a Thousand miles, from the mouth of the
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II. Slavery Before The Revolution
II. Slavery Before The Revolution
Vice, whether individual or general, is ever conceived in darkness and cradled in obscurity. It challenges observation only in its hardy maturity and conscious strength. Slavery is older than Civilization— older than History. Its origin is commonly referred to war— to the captivity of the vanquished, and to the thrift and clemency of the victor, who learns by experience that the gratification of killing his prisoner is transient, while the profit of sparing him for servitude is enduring; and thu
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III. Slavery In The Revolution
III. Slavery In The Revolution
The American Revolution was no sudden outbreak. It was preceded by Eleven years of peaceful remonstrance and animated discussion. The vital question concerned the right of the British Parliament to impose taxes, at its discretion, on British subjects in any and every part of the empire. This question presented many phases, and prompted various acts and propositions. But its essence was always the same; and it was impossible that such men as James Otis, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Patrick H
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IV. Slavery Under The Confederation
IV. Slavery Under The Confederation
As the public burdens were constantly swelled, and the debts of the several States increased, by the magnitude and duration of our Revolutionary struggle, the sale of yet unsettled lands, especially in the vast and fertile West, began to be regarded as a principal resource for the ultimate discharge of these constantly augmenting liabilities: and it became a matter of just complaint and uneasiness on the part of those States— Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware, and South Carolina— which had no c
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V. The Convention And The Constitution
V. The Convention And The Constitution
The experiment of a Confederation, as contra-distinguished from a more intimate and positive Union, was fairly tried by our fathers. Its only beneficent result was the demonstration thereby afforded of its vital and incurable defects. “It may perhaps be thought superfluous to offer arguments to prove the utility of the Union— a point, no doubt deeply engraven on the hearts of the great body of the people in every State, and One which, it may be imagined, has no adversaries. * * * But the fact is
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VI. Slavery Under The Constitution
VI. Slavery Under The Constitution
It has been plausibly argued that the constitutional provision for the surrender of fugitive slaves, and the inhibition of Slavery in the Territories simultaneously embodied in the Ordinance of 1787, were parts of an implied, rather than clearly expressed, compact, whereby Slavery in the old States was to be protected, upheld, and guaranteed, on condition that it should rest content within its existing boundaries. In seeming accordance with this hypothesis, the First Federal Congress, which met
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VII. The Missouri Struggle
VII. The Missouri Struggle
When the State of Louisiana, previously known as the Territory of Orleans, was admitted into the Union, April 8, 1812. the remainder of the Louisiana purchase, which had formerly borne the designation of Louisiana Territory, was renamed the Territory of Missouri. The people of a portion of this Territory, stretching westward from the Mississippi on both sides of the river Missouri, petitioned Congress for admission into the Union as the State of Missouri; and their memorials On the 16th of March
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VIII. State Rights— Nullification
VIII. State Rights— Nullification
So long as the people of any State withheld their assent from the Federal Constitution, it was represented and reprobated by its adversaries as a scheme of absolute and undisguised consolidation. They pointed to its sweeping provisions, whereby all power with regard to war, to treaties, and to diplomatic or commercial intercourse with foreign nations, to the currency, to naturalization, to the support of armies, etc., etc., was expressly withdrawn from the States and concentrated in the Federal
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IX. The Rise And Progress Of Abolition
IX. The Rise And Progress Of Abolition
The General Congress which convened at Philadelphia in 1774, framed articles of Association between the colonies, One of which was a solemn agreement “That we will neither import nor purchase any slave imported after the 1st of December next;” being moved thereto by State action of like character, wherein Virginia and North Carolina were honorably conspicuous. Most of the States, accordingly, prohibited the Slave-Trade during or soon after the Revolution. Throughout the war for independence, the
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X. The Churches And Slavery
X. The Churches And Slavery
We have seen that the Revolutionary era and the Revolutionary spirit of our country were profoundly hostile to Slavery, and that they were not content with mere protests against an evil which positive efforts, determined acts, were required to remove. Before the Revolution, in deed, a religious opposition to Slavery, whereof the society of Christian Friends or Quakers were the pioneers, had been developed both in the mother country and in her colonies. George Fox, the First Quaker, bore earnest
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XI. The Pro-Slavery Reaction
XI. The Pro-Slavery Reaction
The Liberator, by its uncompromising spirit and unsparing denunciations, soon challenged and secured, to an extent quite unprecedented, the attention of adversaries. Treating Slavery uniformly as a crime to be repented, a wrong to be righted at the earliest moment, if it did not convince the understanding of slaveholders, it at least excited their wrath. Before it had been issued a year, while it had probably less than a Thousand subscribers, and while its editor and his partner were still worki
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XII. Texas And Her Annexation
XII. Texas And Her Annexation
The name Texas originally designated an ill-defined and mainly uninhabited region lying between the French possessions on the Mississippi, and the Spanish on the Rio Grande, but including no portion of the valley of either of those great rivers. Though the First European settlement on its soil appears to have been made by La Salle, a Frenchman, who landed in Matagorda Bay, and erected Fort St. Louis on the Lavacca, prior to 1687, he is known to have intended to settle on the Mississippi, and to
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XIII. The Mission Of Samuel Hoar
XIII. The Mission Of Samuel Hoar
The Federal Constitution (Art. IV. § 2) provides that “The citizens” of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of “Citizens in the several States.” This is plainly condensed from the corresponding provision of the Articles of Confederation, adopted in 1778, and thenceforth our bond of Union, until superseded in 1787-8 by the Federal Constitution aforesaid. That provision is as follows: Art. 4. The better to secure and perpetuate mutual friendship and intercourse among
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XIV. The Wilmot Proviso
XIV. The Wilmot Proviso
Mr. Polk succeeded Mr. Tyler as President of the United States, March 4, 1845. No change in the policy of the former with regard to Annexation was made, or, with reason, expected. The agent so hastily dispatched to Texas by Mr. Tyler to speed the consummation of the decreed union, was not, of course, recalled. The new President was doubtless gratified to find his predestined work, in which he had expected to encounter some impediments at the hands of Northern members of his own party, so nearly
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XV. The Compromise Of 1850
XV. The Compromise Of 1850
Gen. Zachary Taylor was inaugurated as President on the 4th of March, 1849. He had received, as we have seen, both an electoral majority and a popular plurality, alike in the Free and in the Slave States, mainly by reason of his persistent and obstinate silence and reserve on the vexed question of Slavery in the Territories. He had written letters— not always wise nor judicious— during the canvass, mainly in its early stages; but they were not calculated, decisively, to alienate either the champ
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XVI. The Era Of Slave-Hunting
XVI. The Era Of Slave-Hunting
But, whatever theoretic or practical objections may be justly made to the Compromise of 1850, there can be no doubt that it was accepted and ratified by a great majority of the American People, whether in the North or in the South. They were intent on business— then remarkably prosperous— on planting, building, trading, and getting gain— and they hailed with general joy the announcement that all the differences between the diverse Sections had been adjusted and settled. The terms of settlement w
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XVII. The Nebraska-Kansas Struggle
XVII. The Nebraska-Kansas Struggle
Franklin Pierce was inaugurated President on the 4th of March, 1853. Never were the visible omens more auspicious of coming years of political calm and National prosperity. Though a considerable Public Debt had been incurred for the prosecution and close of the Mexican War, yet the Finances were healthy and the Public Credit unimpaired. Industry and Trade were signally prosperous. The Tariff had ceased to be a theme of partisan or sectional strife. The immense yield of gold by California during
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XVIII. The Dred Scott Case
XVIII. The Dred Scott Case
Dred Scott, a negro, was, previously to 1834, held as a slave in Missouri by Dr. Emerson, a surgeon in the U. S. Army. In that year, the doctor was transferred to the military post at Rock Island, in the State of Illinois, and took his slave with him. Here, Major Taliaferro (also of the army) had, in 1835, in his service a black known as Harriet, whom he likewise held as his slave. The major was transferred that year to Fort Snelling, on the other side of the Missippi, in what is now known as Mi
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XIX. Our Foreign Policy— Cuba
XIX. Our Foreign Policy— Cuba
The foundations of our foreign policy were firmly and strongly laid during the Presidency, and under the councils, of Washington. To mind our own business, and leave other nations to manage their affairs, and to preserve, recast, or modify their respective governments, as to them shall seem fit and advantageous— to regard the rule actually established and operative in any nation as the rightful government of that nation, however widely divergent it may be from our own notions of what is wisest a
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XX. John Brown
XX. John Brown
On the 17th of October, 1859, this country was bewildered and astounded, while the Fifteen Slave States were convulsed with fear, rage, and hate, by telegraphic dispatches from Baltimore and Washington, announcing the outbreak, at Harper's Ferry, of a conspiracy of Abolitionists and negroes, having for its object the devastation and ruin of the South, and the massacre of her white inhabitants. A report that President Buchanan had been proclaimed Emperor and Autocrat of the North American contine
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XXI. The Presidential Canvass Of 1860
XXI. The Presidential Canvass Of 1860
The vote polled for Fremont and Dayton in 1856 considerably exceeded the solid strength, at that time, of the Republican party. It was swelled in part by the personal popularity of Col. Fremont, whose previous career of adventure and of daring— his explorations, discoveries, privations, and perils— appealed, in view of his comparative youth for a Presidential candidate, with resistless fascination, to the noble young men of our country; while his silence and patience throughout the canvass, unde
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XXII. Secession
XXII. Secession
The choice of Presidential Electors, which formerly took place at the discretion of the several States within a limited range, is now required, by act of Congress, to be made on the same day throughout— namely, on the Tuesday next succeeding the First Monday in November. This fell, in 1860, on the 6th of the month; and it was known, before that day had fully expired, that Abraham Lincoln had been clearly designated by the People for their next president, through the choice by his supporters of a
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XXIII. “Peace” Efforts At The North
XXIII. “Peace” Efforts At The North
In One of Beaumarchais's comedies, a green reveler in every advantage and luxury that noble birth and boundless wealth can secure, asks an attendant the odd question, “What have I Done that I should enjoy all these blessings?”— and is answered, with courtly deference and suavity, “Your Highness condescended to be born.” The people of the United States had, in an unexceptionably legal and constitutional manner, chosen for their President an eminently conservative, cautious, moderate citizen, of b
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XXIV. “Conciliation” In Congress
XXIV. “Conciliation” In Congress
The XXXVIth Congress reconvened for its Second and last session on Monday, December 3, 1860, and President Buchanan transmitted his Fourth and last Annual Message next day. After briefly stating therein that the year then closing had been One of general health, ample harvests, and commercial prosperity, he plunged into the great political controversy of the day after this fashion: Why is it, then, that discontent now so extensively prevails, and the Union of the States, which is the source of al
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XXV. Peace Democracy— Peace Conference
XXV. Peace Democracy— Peace Conference
On the 31st of January, 1861, a Democratic State Convention, called to consider the impending peril of Disunion, assembled at Tweddle Hall, Albany. It was probably the strongest and most imposing assemblage of delegates ever convened within the State. Not less than Thirty of them had been chosen to seats in Congress, while Three Horatio Seymour, Amasa J. Parker, and William Kelly. of them had been Democratic candidates for Governor; One of them once elected, and since chosen again. Though called
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XXVI. The Union— The Confederacy
XXVI. The Union— The Confederacy
If Hudibras was right in his assumption, that there is and can be no fighting where One party gives all the blows— the other being content with meekly and patiently receiving them— then it might be plausibly contended that our great Civil War was initiated by the bombardment of Fort Sumter, or by the attempt to supply its famishing garrison, some weeks after Mr. Lincoln's inauguration. But Wit stands opposed to Reason in this case, as in many others. The First attempt in the interest of Secessio
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XXVII. Ominous Pause
XXVII. Ominous Pause
President Lincoln, on the day after his inauguration, submitted to the new Senate the names of those whom he had chosen to preside over the several Departments, and who thus became, by a usage which has no express warrant in the Constitution, his official counselors. They were William H. Seward, of New York, Secr'y of State; Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio, Secretary of the Treasury; Simon Cameron, of Pennsylvania, Secretary of War; Gideon Wells, of (Connecticut, Secr'y of the Navy; Caleb B. Smith, of
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XXVIII. Fort Sumter
XXVIII. Fort Sumter
Whether the hesitation of the Executive to reinforce Fort Sumter was real or only apparent, the reserve evinced with regard to his intentions was abundantly justified. The President, in his Inaugural Address, had kindly and explicitly set forth his conception of the duties and responsibilities assumed in taking his oath of office. No man of decent understanding who can read our language had any reason or right to doubt, after hearing or perusing that document, that he fully purposed, to the exte
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XXIX. The Call To Arms
XXIX. The Call To Arms
Whether the bombardment and reduction of Fort Sumter shall or shall not be justified by posterity, it is clear that the Confederacy had no alternative but its own dissolution. Five months had elapsed since the Secession movement was formally inaugurated— Five months of turmoil, uncertainty, and business stagnation, throughout the seceded States. That section was deeply in debt to the merchants and manufacturers of the Northern cities, as well as to the slave-breeders and slave-traders of the Bor
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XXX. Progress Of Secession
XXX. Progress Of Secession
The Convention of Virginia, whereof a great majority had been elected as Unionists, was, nevertheless, bullied, as we have seen, at the hight of the Southern frenzy which followed the reduction of Fort Sumter, into voting their State out of the Union. April 17th, 1861. In order to achieve this end, it was found necessary to consent to a submission of the ordinance to a popular vote; and the 23d of May was appointed for the election. But, in utter mockery of this concession, the conspirators proc
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XXXI. The Forces In Conflict
XXXI. The Forces In Conflict
Mr. Jefferson Davis, in his Special Message to his Congress, Montgomery, April 29, 1861. wherein he asserts that war has been declared against the Confederacy by President Lincoln's Proclamation of April 15th, heretofore given, with more plausibility asserts that the Democratic party of the Free States stands publicly committed to the principles which justify the secession and confederation of the States owning his sway, by its reiterated affirmation and adoption of “The Resolutions of ‘98 and ‘
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XXXII. West Virginia
XXXII. West Virginia
The Virginia Convention of 1861, of which a majority assumed to vote their State out of the Union, as we have seen, had been elected not only as Unionists, but under an express stipulation that their action should be valid only in case of its submission to and indorsement by a vote of the People. How shamefully that condition was evaded and circumvented, we have seen. The vote to secede, taken on the 17th of April, and already anticipated by acts of hostility to the Union under the authority of
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XXXIII. East Virginia— Bull Run
XXXIII. East Virginia— Bull Run
If the North had been, or at least had seemed, obstinately apathetic, because skeptical as to the probability or the imminence of Civil War, it was fully and suddenly undeceived by the developments that swiftly followed the bombardment of Fort Sumter, but especially by the occurrences in Baltimore and the attitude of Maryland. For a few weeks, all petty differences seemed effaced, all partisan jealousies and hatreds forgotten. A few “Conservative” presses sought to stem the rushing tide; a few o
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XXXIV. The Extra Session
XXXIV. The Extra Session
The XXXVIIth Congress convened, pursuant to the President's summons, in Extra Session, at Noon on the 4th of July; when, on a call of the roll, an ample quorum of either House was found in attendance, including fill delegations from Kentucky, The Representatives from Kentucky had been chosen a few weeks before at a special election, wherein Nine districts elected “Conservative” or pro-Slavery Unionists, while the 1st reelected, by a considerable majority, Henry C. Burnett, a Secessionist, who on
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XXXV. Missouri
XXXV. Missouri
We have seen Conventions of the people of several States coolly assume the power, asserted or reserved in no One of their respective Constitutions, to take those States out of the Union, and absolve their people from all obligation to uphold or obey its Government, in flagrant defiance of that Federal charter, framed for and adopted by the people of the United States, and by them recognized and accepted as the supreme law of the land, anything in the Constitution and laws of any State to the con
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XXXVI. On The Seaboard And Ocean
XXXVI. On The Seaboard And Ocean
On Sunday, June 2d, 1861, while the Minnesota, then blockading the harbor of Charleston, was looking after a suspicious vessel that was observed to the southward, a little schooner of some Fifty tuns, carrying an ugly-looking 18-pounder mounted on a swivel amidships, and manned by Twenty-two men, of whom not more than half could find room at once under the shelter of her deck, slipped out from under the lee of Fort Sumter, by the north channel, taking First a northward course, so as to allay sus
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XXXVII. Kentucky
XXXVII. Kentucky
We have seen P. 492-7. that Kentucky emphatically, persistently, repeatedly, by overwhelming popular majorities, refused— alike before and after the formal inauguration of war by the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter— to ally herself with the Rebellion, or to stand committed to any scheme looking to Disunion in whatever contingency. Her Democratic Governor and Legislature of 1860-61, with most of her leading Democratic, and many of her Whig, politicians, were, indeed, more or less cognizant of t
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XXXVIII. The Potomac— Ball's Bluff— Dranesville
XXXVIII. The Potomac— Ball's Bluff— Dranesville
The disaster at Bull Run, and the amazing imbecility betrayed in allowing several of the regiments there routed to continue their panic-stricken, disorderly flight over the bridges into Washington, whence many soldiers, and even officers, dispersed to their respective homes, had dispelled all lingering illusions as to the capacity of Gen. Scott for the conduct of a great war. Though it was still deemed a military necessity to conceal the failure of his faculties, to excuse his blunders, and even
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Additional Notes The Synod Of Kentucky And Slavery
Additional Notes The Synod Of Kentucky And Slavery
It is stated on Page 119 that “The Synod of Kentucky Adopted a report on Slavery which condemned slaveholding broadly and thoroughly,” etc. That statement is not literally accurate. The Synod met at Danville, in the Autumn of 1835, and appointed a Committee of Ten— five ministers and Five elders— who were instructed to “Digest and prepare a plan for the moral and religious instruction of our slaves, and for their future emancipation,” etc. The Committee did its duty faithfully, and the report in
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To The Union Volunteers Of 1861-4: Who Flew To The Rescue Of Their Imperiled Country Because They So Loved Her That They Joyfully Proffered Their Own Lives To Save Hers;
To The Union Volunteers Of 1861-4: Who Flew To The Rescue Of Their Imperiled Country Because They So Loved Her That They Joyfully Proffered Their Own Lives To Save Hers;
This Volume, being A record of their privations, hardships, and sufferings, as also of their valor, Fidelity, constancy, and triumph, is Respectfully Inscribed by the author....
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The author had expected to finish this work early in the current year, but he found himself unable to compress it within the limits originally intended. The important events of the War for the Union were so many; its area was so vast, its duration so considerable; the minor collisions and other incidents were so multifarious, yet often so essential to a clear understanding of its progress and results, that this volume has expanded far beyond his intent, and required for its preparation extra mon
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Explanatory
Explanatory
The History which this Volume completes was not contemplated by its author till just after the Draft Riots by which this Emporium was damaged and disgraced in July, 1863. Up to the occurrence of those Riots, I had not been habitually confident of an auspicious immediate issue from our momentous struggle. Never doubting that the Ultimate result would be such as to vindicate emphatically the profoundly wise beneficence of God, it had seemed to me more probable— in view of the protracted and culpab
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I. Texas And New Mexico
I. Texas And New Mexico
The frontiers of Texas, Mexican and savage, were guarded, prior to the outbreak of Secession, by a line of forts or military posts stretching from Brownsville, opposite Matamoras, to the Red River. These forts were located at average distances of One hundred miles, and were severally held by detachments of from 50 to 150 of the regular army. San Antonio, 150 miles inland from Indianola, on Matagorda Bay, was the headquarters of the department, whence the most remote post— Fort Bliss, on the usua
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II. Missouri— Arkansas
II. Missouri— Arkansas
Gen. Sterling Price was a good deal less indignant than any Unionist at the unaccountable desertion Nov. 2-15, 1861. See Vol. I., pages 593-4. of South-western Missouri by the new Union commander, directly on the heels of Fremont's triumphant and unresisted advance, when assured that his scouts were not mistaken in reporting the evacuation of Spring-field and retreat to Rolla, by an army which he would not have dared to attack. He gradually retraced his steps from the Arkansas border, entering S
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III. Kentucky— Tennessee— Alabama
III. Kentucky— Tennessee— Alabama
The river Tennessee, taking rise in the rugged valleys of south-Western Virginia, between the Alleghany and the Cumberland ranges of mountains, but drawing tribute also from Western North Carolina and Northern Georgia, traverses East Tennessee in a generally W. S. W. direction, entering Alabama at its N. E. corner; and, after a detour of some 300 miles, through the northern part of that State, passes out at its N. W. corner; reentering Tennessee, and, passing again through that State in a course
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IV. Burnside In North Carolina
IV. Burnside In North Carolina
Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside and Com. L. M. Goldsborough led an expedition, which had in good part been fitted out in New York, and which left Fortress Monroe at the opening of the year; Jan. 11-12, 1862. and, doubling Cape Henry, moved southward to Hatteras Inlet, whose defenses had been quietly held by our troops since their capture by Gen. Butler and Com. Stringham Five months before. See Vol. I., P. 599. The naval part of this expedition consisted of 31 steam gunboats, mounting 94 guns; the mili
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V. New Orleans And The Gulf
V. New Orleans And The Gulf
Gen. Benjamin F. Butler, having, after the capture Aug. 29, 1861. See Vol. I., Pp. 599-600. of Fort Hatteras, returned to the North to find himself an officer without soldiers or employment, sought and obtained permission from the War Department to raise, in the New England States, Six regiments of volunteers for special and confidential service. This undertaking involved fitful collisions with the general efforts then being made by the authorities of all the States to raise troops for service u
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VI. Virginia— Mcclellan's Advance
VI. Virginia— Mcclellan's Advance
The rooted inaction of the Army of the Potomac, See Vol. I., P. 627-9. with the Baltimlore and Ohio Railroad obstructed and broken up on its right, and the navigation of the Potomac precluded Capt. Fox, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, as early as July 1st, 1861, notified the War Department that the Potomac would “Soon be closed by the batteries of the Rebels;” and Secretary Welles reiterated the warning on the 20th of August. “In October, 1861, the Navy Department again urged the matter upon th
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VII. Mcclellan Before Richmond
VII. Mcclellan Before Richmond
The capture of Norfolk and the destruction of the Merrimac, alias Virginia, having opened James river to our navy, Commander John Rodgers, in the Steamer Galena, backed by the Monitor, Aroostook, Port Royal, and Naugatuck, moved up that river unimpeded, save by the shallows on which they repeatedly grounded, to within Eight miles of Richmond, where he found May 15— 7 A. M. the channel thoroughly obstructed by Two separate barriers of piles and vessels, the banks lined with sharp-shooters in rifl
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VIII. Gen. Pope's Virginia Campaign
VIII. Gen. Pope's Virginia Campaign
Gen. John Pope, having been summoned from the West for the purpose, was selected by the President, after consultation with Gen. Scott, for the command of a force to be designated the Army of Virginia, and to consist of all the troops then covering Washington or holding the lower end of the Shenandoah Valley. This army was to be composed of Three corps, under Maj.-Gens. Fremont, Banks, and McDowell respectively; but Gen. Fremont was relieved, at his own request, from serving under One whom he reg
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IX. “My Maryland”— Lee's Invasion
IX. “My Maryland”— Lee's Invasion
Gen. Mcclellan had already Sept. 1. been verbally charged with the command of the Defenses of Washington; and was, upon fuller advices of Pope's disasters, invested Sept. 2. by the President and Gen. Halleck with the entire control, not only of those fortifications, but of “All the troops for the defense of the capital,” in obedience to the imperious demand of a large majority of the surviving officers and soldiers. Pope's original army had in great part been demolished; while that brought from
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X. Tennessee— Kentucky— Mississippi— Buell— Bragg— Rosecrans— Grant— Van Dorn
X. Tennessee— Kentucky— Mississippi— Buell— Bragg— Rosecrans— Grant— Van Dorn
The comatose condition into which the war on the Tennessee had fallen, after the removal of Mitchel to the South, was fitfully broken by patterings of Rebel enterprise far in the rear of our main army. While Buell, at or near Huntsville, Ala., was deliberately reorganizing and disciplining his forces, schooling them to an unwonted deference for Rebel rights of property— especially of property in men— guerrilla raids and attacks became increasingly and disagreeably frequent throughout Kentucky an
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XI. Slavery In The War— Emancipation
XI. Slavery In The War— Emancipation
The Federal Constitution was framed in General Convention, and carried in the several State Conventions, by the aid of adroit and politic evasions and reserves on the part of its framers and champions. The existing necessity for a stronger central authority, which had been developed during the painful experiences of our preceding years of independence, were most keenly felt by the mercantile and mechanical or manufacturing classes, who were consequently zealous advocates of a “More perfect Union
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XII. Slavery And Emancipation In Congress
XII. Slavery And Emancipation In Congress
The XXXVIIth Congress, as we have seen Vol I., Pp. 564-8. — while endeavoring to evade or to avert its eyes from the fact that it was Slavery which was waging deadly war on the Union-did yet give fair notice, through the guarded but decisive language of some of the more conservative Republicans, that, if the Rebellion were persisted in, it must inevitably result in the overthrow of Slavery. And the action of that Congress, even at the extra session, evinced a steadily growing consciousness— stea
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XIII. Rosecrans's Winter Campaign
XIII. Rosecrans's Winter Campaign
Gen. Rosecrans, on assuming Oct. 30, 1862. command of Buell's Army of the Ohio, found it seriously depleted and demoralized by the exhaustive marches and indecisive conflicts of the last Six months. With a strength fully adequate to the rout and destruction of all the forces led into Kentucky by Bragg and Kirby Smith, it had see:, that State ravaged throughout by that locust horde, which had in due time recrossed the Cumberland Mountains unassailed, returning to East Tennessee as if in triumph.
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XIV. Operations Against Vicksburg
XIV. Operations Against Vicksburg
Vicksburg, on the Lower Mississippi, about midway between Cairo and its mouth, was the natural center and chief citadel of the Slave-holders' Confederacy. Located on an almost unique ridge of high, rolling land adjoining the great river, surrounded by the richest and best cultivated Cotton region in America, whereof the slave population considerably outnumbered the free, it had early devoted itself, heart and soul, to the Rebel cause. Its natural strength and importance, as commanding the naviga
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XV. The Department Of The Gulf— Port Hudson— Texas
XV. The Department Of The Gulf— Port Hudson— Texas
Galveston has One of the very few tolerable harbors which indent the continental shore line of the Mexican Gulf. The sand, everywhere impelled landward by the prevailing winds and currents, and almost everywhere forming a bank or narrow strip of usually dry beach closely skirting the coast, is here broken through by the very considerable waters of the rivers Trinity and San Jacinto, with those of Buffalo bayou, which unitedly form Galveston Bay; and the city of Galveston is built on the sand-spi
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XVI. The Army Of The Potomac Under Burnside And Hooker
XVI. The Army Of The Potomac Under Burnside And Hooker
Gen. Burnside reluctantly, and with unfeigned self-distrust, succeeded Nov. 8, 1862. to the command of the Army of the Potomac. The devotion to McClellan of its principal officers, and of many of their subordinates, was so ardent that any other commander must have had a poor chance of hearty, unquestioning support; and Burnside would gladly have shrunk from the ordeal. Having no alternative, however, but disobedience of orders, he accepted the trust, and immediately commenced preparations for a
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XVII. Lee's Army On Free Soil-Gettysburg
XVII. Lee's Army On Free Soil-Gettysburg
While Gen. Hooker and his army, having returned to their old quarters about Falmouth, were still looking across the Rappahannock at the heights and woods so recently and so fruitlessly crimsoned with their blood, Gen. Lee was impelled to break the brief rest by a determined and daring offensive. He was, of course, aware that our army had been depleted, directly after its sanguinary experience of Chancellorsville, by the mustering out of some 20,000 nine months and Two years men; while his own ha
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XVIII. The Chattanooga Campaign.— Middle And East Tennessee
XVIII. The Chattanooga Campaign.— Middle And East Tennessee
While Gen. Rosecrans, at Murfreesboroa, was accumulating wagons, munitions, and supplies, for a determined advance against Bragg's army confronting him at Shelbyville or Tullahoma, the noted and generally successful raider Morgan was preparing, on our right, for a more extensive and daring cavalry expedition than he had yet undertaken. Meantime, a party of predatory horsemen, about 80 in number, claiming to belong to the 2d Kentucky Confederate cavalry, crossed the Ohio from Western Kentucky nea
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XIX. Missouri And Arkansas In 1863
XIX. Missouri And Arkansas In 1863
Missouri, save when fitfully invaded or disturbed by domestic insurrection, remained under the Union flag from and after the expulsion of Price's army by Fremont near the close of 1861. See Vol <*> Pp. 592-3. But the Rebel element of her population, though over-powered, was still bitter, and was stirred into fitful activity by frequent emissaries from compatriots serving with Price, Marmaduke, and other chiefs, who, with their Governor, Claiborne F. Jackson, who died in Arkansas, At Little
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XX. The Carolinas, Georgia, Florida— 1862-‘63
XX. The Carolinas, Georgia, Florida— 1862-‘63
The Savannah river having, with its largest affluent, the Tugaloo, formed the boundary between South Carolina and Georgia from their northern verge, after a generally south-east course of some 300 miles, passing, at the head of ship navigation, near its mouth, its namesake city, which is the commercial emporium of Georgia, winds its sluggish way to the Atlantic through a cluster of mud-formed, often sand-fringed sea islands, matted over with a thin crust of grass-roots, covering a jelly-like mud
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XXI. The Political Or Civil History Of 1863
XXI. The Political Or Civil History Of 1863
Unquestionably, the darkest hours of the National cause were those which separated Burnside's and Sherman's bloody repulses, at Fredericksburg Dec. 13, 1862. and Vicksburg Dec. 28. respectively from the triumphs of Meade at Gettysburg, July 3, 1863. Grant in the Fall of Vicksburg, July 4. and Banks in the surrender of Port Hudson. July 9. Our intermediate and subordinate reverses at Galveston, Jan. 1, 1863. and at Chancellorsville, May 3-5, 1863. also tended strongly to sicken the hearts of Unio
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XXII. Negro Soldiery
XXII. Negro Soldiery
The First fatal collision March 5, 1770. between British soldiers and American patriots was popularly distinguished as “The Boston Massacre;” and Crispus Attucks, a mulatto fugitive from Massachusetts Slavery, was a leader of the patriot mob, and One of the Four killed outright by the British fire. At the fight of Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775. Peter Salem, One of the enfranchised negroes who manned the slight breast-works so gallantly defended, shot dead Maj. Pitcairn, of the British marines, who,
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XXIII. The War Along The Atlantic Coast In 1864
XXIII. The War Along The Atlantic Coast In 1864
The XXXVIIIth Congress having assembled, Dec. 7, 1863. and the House been organized by the friends of the Administration and the War— Schuyler Colfax, of Indiana, Speaker, Vote: Colfax, 101; all others, 81. and Edward McPherson, of Pennsylvania, Clerk— President Lincoln transmitted next day his Annual Message, to which he appended a Proclamation of Amnesty, which he therewith issued, offering a free pardon, on condition of taking an oath to support the Federal Constitution and Union, and also Ab
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XXIV. The War Beyond The Mississippi In 1864.— Banks— Steele— Rosecrans
XXIV. The War Beyond The Mississippi In 1864.— Banks— Steele— Rosecrans
Gen. Banks was in New Orleans, intent on further operations against Texas by way of Galveston and the sea-coast, when he received Jan. 23, 1864. a dispatch from Halleck, prescribing (or, as Halleck says, “Suggesting” ) a totally different plan of campaign. Its line of operations was the Red river; its object, the capture of Shreveport, with the rout and dispersion of Kirby Smith's Army, culminating in the recovery of Texas and a boundless supply of cotton for our mills and for ex-port. To this e
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XXV. Gen. Grant's Advance On Richmond
XXV. Gen. Grant's Advance On Richmond
Hon. E. B. Washburne, of Illinois— the townsman and zealous friend of Gen. Grant— having proposed Dec. 14, 1863. the revival of the grade of Lieutenant-General of our armies, hitherto accorded to George Washington alone (Gen. Scott being such only by brevet), the House, not without considerable hesitation, assented ; Feb. 1, 1864. after negativing, by the emphatic vote of 117 to 19, a motion, by Gen. Garfield, to lay the proposition on the table, and adopting, by 111 to 41, an amendment moved by
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XXVI. West Virginia And North Of The Rapidan In 1864
XXVI. West Virginia And North Of The Rapidan In 1864
The “Anaconda” is a clumsy, sluggish beast; effecting his ends by an enormous, even lavish expenditure of force; but Grant's anaconda differed from that of Scott and McClellan in being thoroughly alive. The simultaneous National advance in 1864 from all points, against the armies and remaining strongholds of the Rebellion, was not merely ordered; it was actually attempted— with many reverses at the outset, and no decidedly encouraging results for some months, but with ultimately overwhelming suc
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XXVII. Between Virginia And The Mississippi.— From Vicksburg To Abingdon
XXVII. Between Virginia And The Mississippi.— From Vicksburg To Abingdon
During the Autumn, Winter, and Spring of 1863-4, and the ensuing Summer, a great number of desultory, indecisive expeditions were impelled by One side or the other, which, though they exerted no considerable influence over the issue of the struggle, will be rapidly summed up, preliminary to the narration of Gen. Sherman's memorable Atlanta campaign. Several detachments of cavalry or mounted infantry, about 1,600 strong, sent out by Gen. Hurlbut, commanding in West Tennessee, under Lt.-Col. J. J.
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XXVIII. Sherman's Atlanta Campaign
XXVIII. Sherman's Atlanta Campaign
Gen. William T. Sherman, at the instance of Lt.-Gen. Grant, succeeded him in command of the Military division of the Mississippi, embracing the Four great departments of the Ohio, the Cumberland, the Tennessee, and the Arkansas. Receiving the order at Memphis, March 14, 1864. he repaired at once to Nashville, where he met the Lt.-General, and accompanied him so far as Cincinnati— Grant being then on his way to Washington to direct thenceforth our operations generally, but more especially those i
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XXIX. The War On The Ocean— Mobile Bay
XXIX. The War On The Ocean— Mobile Bay
The formation of the Southern Confederacy was quickly followed by the resignation of a large proportion— though not nearly all— of the Southern officers of the United States Navy— resignations which should not have been, but were, accepted. Many of these officers had, for Fifteen to Forty years, been drawing liberal pay and allowances from the Federal treasury for very light work-often, for no work at all: and now, when the Government which had educated, nurtured, honored, and subsisted them, wa
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XXXI. Hood's Tennessee Campaign
XXXI. Hood's Tennessee Campaign
Gen. Thomas had been detached by Gen. Sherman from his main army in Georgia, and sent back to assume chief command in Tennessee, in doubt as to what were Hood's real intentions. It was obvious enough that his eccentric movement to the North and North-west was intended to compel a corresponding movement on our part, and thus deprive us of all the fruits of Sherman's Atlanta campaign; but suppose we refused to be thus tolled out of Georgia, and across the Tennessee, what then? Sherman could not de
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XXXIII. The Repossession Of Alabama
XXXIII. The Repossession Of Alabama
Wilson— Canby. Gen. Grant's comprehensive plan of campaign for the Winter and Spring of 1864-5 embraced a combined demonstration from North and South upon Alabama; which State, save at its northern extremity, had thus far suffered less from the ravages of war than any part of the Confederacy but Texas. The movement at the south was impelled and directed by Gen. Canby, commanding at New Orleans; that at the north was led by Gen. James H. Wilson, under the direction of Gen. Thomas, whose cavalry W
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XXXIV. Fall Of Richmond— End Of The War.— Grant-Lee— Sheridan
XXXIV. Fall Of Richmond— End Of The War.— Grant-Lee— Sheridan
Gen. Grant's comprehensive strategy, while it exacted offensive activity in almost every other quarter, was best subserved by quiet in Virginia throughout the eventful Winter of 1864-5. Instead of wishing to drive the Rebel Government and Army from the banks of the James, he constantly apprehended and dreaded a movement by Lee which, abandoning Virginia at least for the time, should precipitate the main Rebel army, reenforced to the utmost, suddenly, unexpectedly, upon Sherman, as he struggled t
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XXXV. Death Of President Lincoln— Peace.— Johnston— Davis— Taylor— Kirby Smith
XXXV. Death Of President Lincoln— Peace.— Johnston— Davis— Taylor— Kirby Smith
President Lincoln had gone March 24. down to the front in anticipation of Grant's final movement against Lee's right south of Petersburg, and was thenceforward in constant communication with the Lieutenant-General commanding in the field, while Lee made his assault on our lines, Sheridan crossed the James, moving from our farthest right to our extreme left, and Grant impelled the advance of that left with such memorable results. He was mainly at City Point, receiving reports from Grant and teleg
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Appended Notes
Appended Notes
I. The whole number of men from time to time called into the National service during the War was 2,688,523; enlisted as follows: As many of these were mustered in twice, and some thrice, while hundreds of Thousands deserted who were never under fire, it is probable that not more than 1,500,000 effectively participated in suppressing the Rebellion. The total population whence these were drawn, including the available portion of the Southern Blacks, can not be computed higher than 25,000,000: so,
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