John G. Nicolay...

Upon urgent and repeated request from the publishers, the author consented to lay aside temporarily a larger and more important literary task, to write for them this initial volume of the Campaigns of the civil War. Personal observation and long previous investigation had furnished him a great variety of new material for the work; and this was opportunely supplemented by the recent publication of the Official War Records for 1861, both Union and Confederate, opening to comparison and use an imme

The Fifth day of October, 1860, is the initial point of the American Rebellion. Its conception, animus, and probably its plans, lay much farther back. It had been seriously proposed once or twice before, but it was then that its formal organization was begun. On that day Governor Gist, of South Carolina, wrote a confidential circular letter, which he despatched by the hand of a special messenger, to the governors of what were commonly designated the Cotton States. In this letter he asked an inte

Conspiracy was not confined to South Carolina or the Cotton States; unfortunately, it had established itself in the highest official circles of the national administration. Three members of President Buchanan's cabinet-Cobb of Georgia, Secretary of the Treasury, Floyd of Virginia, Secretary of War, and Thompson of Mississippi, Secretary of the Interiorhad become ardent and active disunionists. Grouped about these Three principal traitors were a number of subordinate and yet influential functiona

On the Fourth day of February, 1861, while the Peace Conference met in Washington to consider propositions of compromise and concession, the delegates of the seceding States convened in Montgomery, Ala., to combine and solidify the general conspiracy into an organized and avowed rebellion. Such action had been arranged and agreed upon from the beginning. The congressional manifesto from Washington, as far back as December 14th, advised that “We are satisfied the honor, safety, and independence o

From the false political principles and the perilous official neglect of the old administration— from the dissensions and impotence of Congress, and from the threatening attitude and the hostile preparations of the South, all parties and persons now turned to the President-elect and the incoming administration. During the winter many earnest but overhasty patriots had besought him to intervene by some public declaration. But Mr. Lincoln preserved a discreet silence, though in confidential letter

Governor Pickens, of South Carolina, began about the 1st of January to build batteries to isolate and reduce Fort Sumter; and the newly made General Beauregard was on the 1st of March sent by the rebel government to Charleston to assume direction of military affairs and to complete the preparations for its capture. The Governor had been exceedingly anxious that the capture should be attempted before the expiration of Mr. Buchanan's presidential termthat is, between the 12th of February and the 4

The assault upon Fort Sumter had doubtless been ordered by the rebel government under the hope, if not the belief, that it would not provoke immediate or widespread civil war. It is probable that they anticipated it would bring on military movements and measures of a local and defensive character; but neither the size of the Federal army, nor the very limited war organization set on foot by the rebel congress, pointed as yet to hostilities on an extended scale. The South well knew that the front

Or all the Border Slave States, Virginia held the most equivocal and deceptive attitude. Beyond all doubt a majority of her people desired to adhere to the Union, and at an election for members of a State convention held in February the majority of professedly Union men chosen was as Three to One. But when this convention met, it appeared that many of these so-called Unionists had trifled with their constituents, and finally betrayed their trust; they were Unionists only upon conditions to which

In celebrating the attack and the fall of Sumter at Montgomery by a congratulatory speech and an official salute, the rebel Secretary of War ventured to predict that the Confederate flag would float over the Capitol at Washington before the First of May. Whether this was to be accomplished by plot, by open military campaign, or through mere insurrectionary reversion, he did not explain. The idea, however, by long nursing and repeating, had become One of the fixed hopes of the rebellion. When the

It has already been related in a previous chapter how the incidents immediately following the fall of Sumter and the President's Proclamation— the secession of Virginia and the adhesion of other Border States-had doubled the strength and augmented the war preparations of the Rebellion. Upon the Government and the people of the North the experience of those eventful days was even more decisive. Whatever hope President Lincoln and his Cabinet may have entertained at the beginning, that secession c

Conspiracy had been working with untiring persistence in every Slave State since, and even before, the formal secession of the Cotton States in January, and had everywhere made considerable advances, notably in the State of Missouri. Governor Jackson, of that State, had leagued himself with the secession plot, though still concealing his purpose with outward professions of loyalty. Many subordinate officers and members of the Legislature were secretly aiding him. Together they were leading Misso

The Alleghany or Appalachian mountain chain, a Hundred miles broad and a Thousand miles long, extending from New York to Alabama, naturally separated the country into Two principal military divisions: that of the East, comprising the Atlantic Coast and the Atlantic States; that of the West, comprising the Mississippi River and its tributaries, and the whole immense territory of the Mississippi Valley. In the East, the line of hostility quickly established itself along the Potomac River, with Was

Prior to 1861, the State of Virginia— the “Old Dominion”— extended from Chesapeake Bay westward to the Ohio River. This broad limit, however, gave her a defective boundary. The Alleghany Mountains, running through the very middle of the State, from northeast to southwest, completely bisected her territory into Two divisions somewhat unequal in size, and greatly different in topographical features and character. East of the mountains, the land rises from a broad, low tide-water belt on the sea-co

Under the President's Three months call the State of Pennsylvania was required to furnish Sixteen regiments. This entitled her to Two Major-generals, and One of these, appointed by the Governor, was Robert Patterson. He had served with credit as a lieutenant and captain in the war of 1812, and as a major-general in the Mexican War; General Scott regarded him as “An excellent Second in command;” his selection seemed, therefore, natural and proper. Notwithstanding he had now reached the age of Six

On the 23d of May, 1861, according to the conspirators' programme, Virginia was put through the dumb show of indorsing the Secession Ordinance by a nominal popular vote; and almost immediately thereafter, about June 1st, the Confederate seat of government was transferred from Montgomery to Richmond. The reasons for this course were palpable; it gratified the local pride of the Old Dominion secessionists; it gave the reins of local military domination definitely into Jefferson Davis' personal gra

At Centreville, on Saturday Night, McDowell called his officers together and announced to them his plan of battle for the following day. The Warrenton turnpike ran almost directly west from Centreville to Gainesville station on the railroad. He was yet unaware that Johnston had joined Beauregard, and sought to prevent such junction by seizing Gainesville. Beauregard's army lay in detachments behind Bull Run, at Five different fords, along a line of Eight miles. His left and northernmost flank wa

The suddenness of their victory was entirely unexpected by the rebels. Signs of disaster to themselves were as strong as to the Federals to the very last. Intense curiosity and solicitude had brought Jefferson Davis from Richmond. It is related that, as he was riding to the battle-field from Manassas, at about Four o'clock that afternoon, he met such a stream of panic-stricken rebel soldiers, and heard such direful tidings from the front, that his companions were thoroughly convinced the Confede

The official reports show a loss to the Union side in the Battle of Bull Run of 25 guns (the Confederates claim 28), 481 men killed, 1,011 men wounded, and 1,460 wounded and other Union soldiers sent as prisoners to Richmond. On the Confederate side the loss was 387 killed, 1,582 wounded, and a few prisoners taken. These simple figures prove the engagement to have been well contested and fought with equal courage and persistence by both sides. Greatly ridiculed and denounced when it occurred, th

For the complete and correct compilation herewith for the First time printed the author is indebted to Colonel Robert N. Scott, U. S. A., in charge of the pub lication of the official War Records. Brigadier-General Irvin McDOWELL commanding. Staff. Captain James B. Fry, Assistant Adjutant-General. Major W. H. Wood, 17th Infantry, Acting Inspector-General. Captain O. H. Tillinghast, Assistant Quartermaster. Captain H. F. Clarke, Chief Commissary of Subsistence. Surgeon W. S. King. Assistant Surge

Army of the Potomac (Afterwards First Corps), July 21, 1861. From a field return for that date, but dated September 25, 1861. The reports following show other combinations during the battle. Brigadier-General G. T. Beauregard. Infantry. First Brigade. Brigadier-General M. L. Bonham. 11th North Carolina. 2d South Carolina. 3d South Carolina. 7th South Carolina. 8th South Carolina. Third Brigade. Brigadier-General D. R. Jones. 17th Mississippi. 18th Mississippi. 5th South Carolina. Fifth Brigade.