by Alan Sewell
Lincoln especially liked the new flag because the gold star showed that there was a national government at the center, surrounded by state governments on the periphery.
The Confederate Union also had a new flag that had started showing up over its fortified positions. It was said to have been designed by the Superintendent of West Point, a Louisiana officer named Beauregard, who wanted a “battle flag” that distinguished his men from the Free Staters trying to take West Point away from the Confederate Union. The new Confederate Union flag retained the 33-starred canton of the old “Stars and Stripes” making clear that it continued to claim sovereignty over all the states, Free and Slave. But it had eliminated the horizontal stripes, replacing them with a white background and a red bar. The white background was said to symbolize the white race of English ancestry while the red bar symbolized the French ancestry of Louisiana.
The new design showed that the Confederate Union thought of itself as a new nation even while seeking to assert its sovereignty over the entirety of the old United States. Lincoln suspected that the old “Stars and Stripes” had already fallen as much out of favor in Confederate Union territory as it had here.
Lincoln noted that the two flags hinted at one of many territorial disputes sure to come: Kansas was included as a State in the nineteen stars of the Free State flag, but was considered to be still a Territory of the Confederate Union, and therefore unrepresented in its starry canton. If the Free States won their independence there was sure to be haggling over which of the Western Territories they acquired. For that matter there would be haggling over how much of Indiana, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, and even Pennsylvania they were awarded, those states being only partially inside the Free States’ military frontier. Lincoln had the oddly funny notion that before all was said and done there might be some half-stars, quarter-stars, and even eighth-stars in both flags!
Of course the Free States would have to vindicate their independence on the battlefield before any negotiating could take place. If the Confederate Union prevailed the number of stars in the Free State flag wouldn’t mean anything to anybody other than history students.
It took much longer than usual for the passengers to detrain, as each was questioned by the men wearing the Free State Gold Star on their dark blue armbands. Lincoln supposed it would not be long before the provisional government began issuing passports to control the movement of people within its frontiers. Sooner or later everyone would be required to swear loyalty to the Free State Republic and receive a passport or else remove themselves beyond the military frontier.
The “soldiers” patrolling this station happened to be the survivors of Ellsworth’s Chicago Militia Company who had fought the first battle of the War of Free State Independence. Lincoln knew some of the men. John Barrie was appointed Provost Marshall of the Free State Military District of Springfield, having superseded the defunct civil authority in Central Illinois. Lincoln had been told that his friend Richard Yates would be arriving from Chicago tomorrow or the next day to restore civil authority as the Provisional Governor of the Free State of Illinois. The elected Democratic Governor James Allen had established the seat of government of the Confederate State of Illinois at the former state capital of Vandalia, 75 miles south.
After fifteen minutes of waiting Lincoln saw his son step on to the station platform. After Robert answered the perfunctory questions Lincoln stepped forward and met him with a formal embrace. “Glad to have you back with us, Son.”
Robert embraced his father with equal formality. “I am glad to be home. I was so worried about you and Mother and the children when news of the battles in Illinois reached the East.”
The two said nothing else as they walked toward Mr. Lincoln’s carriage. They had more of the rivalry of brothers than a relation of father and son. Perhaps the men were as close as they could be, Robert having inherited the expressively passionate “Todd” character of his mother that was so exactly opposite the reserved character of his father.
As they rode to the Lincoln home Robert gawked at the destruction. Partisan fighting had swept through Springfield a week ago when the Free State Republican Army of Northern Illinois, commanded by U.S. Grant, had come down from Chicago to push John “Blackjack” Logan’s Confederate Unionists out of town. A third of the town was destroyed, the ashes of ruined homes and businesses washing out into the streets with the heavy rain. Robert noticed faded bloodstains on the streets. Perhaps the rain would wash those away too.
“Did the Confederates do this?” Robert asked in dismay.
“I don’t know that it was done by any who were organized under Logan’s command,” his father answered. “So far as I know Logan’s men didn’t molest civilians or destroy property; after all, citizens loyal to their side were as much in danger as ours. Logan’s men were party to a 24-hour truce we asked for when things got out of hand. They helped our men fight the fires and restore order. During the truce they evacuated the Capitol and turned the government buildings and their records over to us undamaged.”
Lincoln steered the horses around a corner containing the ruins of a burned out shell of what had been an upper class boarding house.
“The arson, robberies, and murders were committed by freelance bandits who went back and forth between the lines. I would never have believed that animals like that lived in these parts, but all too many people become animals when the laws can’t be enforced. We also made a big mistake in failing to destroy the stores of liquor in the taverns. Whiskey incited the criminal element fearfully. We executed the ones we found drunk the next morning, but most melted away when the Confederates withdrew from town.
“How many were killed here?”
“The undertakers have reported the burial of a few over three hundred --- Free State Republicans, Confederate Unionists, bandits, and unarmed citizens. A couple hundred more injured are laid up in their homes or in makeshift hospitals on the fairgrounds.” Lincoln’s voice cracked. “I’m sorry to have to tell you that your Aunt Frannie and Uncle Ed died when their home burned down around them. Ed’s gun was found near the bodies so they may have been murdered by the vandals before they burned the house. That was common here.”
Mr. Lincoln almost wept as the ruins brought to mind the fury of barbarism that had descended on the peaceable town. Hatred, fear, and notions of revenge had replaced the neighborly atmosphere of a formerly prosperous town. The town was strangely empty, not only because of the death and destruction, but because most of the surviving Confederate Union loyalists, who had made up a little more than half the prewar population, had left town.
When the Lincoln home came into view Robert saw a crudely sown variant of the Free State Flag flew flapping on a pole next to the carriage house. This was one of the early cluttered versions where the old Stars and Stripes had been augmented by sowing a vertical blue bar down the center then tacking on an unevenly cut gold star. It wasn’t at all a bad design, especially for one that relied on the simple expedient of patching an existing flag, but it lacked the elegance of Fremont’s design. It seemed to say, “Here’s the old flag with a patch.” Fremont’s design said, “Here’s the flag of a new Republic, created by perfecting the principles of the flawed one it replaced.” Freedom for men of all races would be the perfected principle of this new American Republic, provided of course that the new nation could defend itself from re-conquest by the old one it had broken away from.
As Mr. Lincoln was unhitching the horses inside the carriage house Robert asked, “Have our men driven the Confederates back to the line of the Old National Road from St. Louis to Terre Haute? That’s the line Provisional President Fremont has vowed to hold. Have we broken through to relieve our men in St. Louis?”
Lincoln shook his head. “Sam Grant’s Free State Army never made it to St. Louis. There were too many Douglas men fighting under Logan’s command. We didn’t get the popular support we expected in Missouri either. Only a few thousand, mainly of German stock, rallied to Lyon’s st
andard. They have been under constant pressure from Governor Jackson’s Confederate Unionist militias. They’re trapped in a ring around the city, but are being supplied by boats we are sending down the Mississippi. The longer they hold out, the more time Grant will have to fortify his line through Illinois. It runs from Quincy through here to Danville, then down the Wabash to Terre Haute, and from there to Indianapolis. It’s not the line Fremont wanted, but it is a strong line anchored by the Toledo and Great Western Railroad. Grant has invited me to tour the fortifications he’s building along the line. I’ll take you with me to see them tomorrow or the next day.”
Lincoln had been so preoccupied with the war in Illinois that he had not had time to think much about the rest of the country. With the railroads and telegraphs disrupted there had been only a trickle of news into Springfield, and Lincoln thought most of that was fanciful. After he finished putting the horses in their stalls he asked, “Has there been partisan warfare Out East? The telegraph to Chicago wasn’t restored until yesterday, so we’ve had scant news as yet from outside of Illinois.”
Robert answered with enthusiasm in discussing the military situation. “The fighting was severe around New York City and Philadelphia, but now the partisans have settled down inside their lines, same as it looks like you’re doing here. The fighting has simmered down. There’s even some trade between the lines, although both governments tax it coming and going.”
Mr. Lincoln smiled. Governments wasted no time in levying taxes. He could imagine that the customs posts had come up the very instant the lines stabilized.
“Where are the lines now?” he asked.
Robert took a towel from his travel bag and wiped the water from his face and neck, then answered, “The Confederate Union lines around Metropolitan New York run from the Hudson Valley a couple dozen miles north of town in a circle going down about midway through New Jersey. Fremont has ordered the construction of lines to contain the Douglas men from advancing any further north or west. Otherwise they’ll break the last railroad into Philadelphia and the last one across lower New York State. These lines are already overloaded due to the loss of terminals in New York and Newark. You have to purchase tickets for civilian travel ten days in advance. I decided to go up through Montreal then across Canada West to Detroit. These days more Americans are travelling that line than Canadians.”
“That was a clever way to get here,” said Mr. Lincoln, impressed by his son’s resourcefulness. “It appears that the Canadas are to become our backdoor route to New England. We must be sure to maintain good relations with Old England.”
“Yes,” agreed Robert. “The British and Canadians I met up there think we did the right the thing. ‘How could you remain part of a Union that legalizes the ownership of human beings?’ they said. They are very much our friends.”
“Excellent,” Mr. Lincoln replied. “We will need all the friends we can make. What else is happening in the East? ”
“Well, there has been heavy fighting in the coal mining counties north of Philadelphia that voted for Douglas. The Democrats don’t seem to think that Republicans will be fair with workingmen, so they are resisting incorporation into our government. I also read in the Detroit papers that in Ohio a small riot occurred in Sandusky County and a big one in the Democratic wards of Cincinnati. Kentucky men joined the fight for Cincy. Fremont sent in Ohio’s Free State men with artillery to put them down. The fighting wrecked the part of town close to the river but it is said to be under our control now, what’s left of it anyway. According to the Detroit paper Fremont says that all of Ohio is now under Free State authority”
Lincoln looked up while feeding the horses. “Well that is the first good news I have heard. We won Ohio by less than a percent. If we can restore our authority there we should be able to restore it over all of Illinois and Indiana if we can push the military frontier down to the Ohio River. I do not want to see the territorial integrity of the state disrupted, and especially not a single inch of our soil reopened to slavery.”
“We’ll do more than that, Father,” Robert vowed. “We’ll push the frontier down to New Orleans and open the Mississippi. One day we’ll liberate the entire country. Fremont’s just the man to do it, too. He’s a Southern man by birth, but a Northern man by sentiment. Can you think of any man better to reunite this broken country in freedom?”
Lincoln laughed. “He’s a fabulous flag designer too. I can’t wait to see what sort of uniforms for our Free State Army he designs! Who knows but that they might be orange and gold? That man has a flair for everything he does!”
At that moment Mary Todd Lincoln came running through the open the door holding a dripping umbrella. She gave Robert an enormous hug. “I thought I heard you two talking out here.” She pulled herself away from Robert. “Lord-a-mercy, if you aren’t still growing! And you’re soaked. Come on inside and get some hot coffee.”
The family entered through the back door into the kitchen, warm with the homey smells of coffee and roasting lamb. Tad and Willy ran screaming to hug Robert around the waist.
“I’ve got presents for both of you in my trunk!” Robert told them. “We’ll bring it in after I have my coffee.” The family sat down and began engaging in happy chatter about Robert’s schooling in New Hampshire. Mary was at her conversational best, retelling stories of her girlhood schooling and then joking with Robert about being careful with all the ladies who were attracted to handsome educated young men.
Mr. Lincoln laughed as Mary and Robert outdid each other telling stories. As a student Mr. Lincoln had never been near an institution of higher learning. His “education” had come from the self-taught reading of Shakespeare, the Bible, the biography of George Washington, and the law. Whereas his father had been an illiterate uninterested in education, Lincoln was pleased that his son would be on the way to Harvard after completing prep school at Exeter.
The happy conversation took his mind away from his worries that the war might wreck so much of the Free States, including his own personal finances, that enrolling Robert at Harvard would no longer be possible. It banished from his thoughts his premonition that his family would soon be evacuating Springfield ahead of the return of Logan’s Confederate Unionists who were surely being reinforced with militias from the South.
He had imagined fleeing with thousands of other Free State loyalists into northern Illinois carrying only the possessions they could load in the their carriage, just like the pitiful evacuation of the Confederate Unionists who had followed Logan’s men out of town during their retreat from Springfield. But Grant’s fortifications south of town were strong and the men recruited from the Wide Awakes who manned them were resolute. Why should he not trust Grant and his gathering forces not only to keep the Confederates from advancing northward, but eventually to drive them out of Illinois altogether?
He had also been bothered by doubts about whether he had acted wisely in acquiescing to Fremont’s demands to issue those resolutions at the Second Free State Convention. Perhaps those declarations had incited Yancey’s slave raid into Indiana, which in turn had touched off the conflagration that had ripped the country apart. His instincts were almost always right. Why had he gone against them in acquiescing to Fremont and Garrison?
When he had mentioned that at breakfast Mrs. Lincoln, who could be so cruel in petty household issues, had comforted him. “Don’t torture yourself, Father. Those Southern hotheads have been determined to break this country for years. They would have found a way to do it no matter what happened in Cleveland. You are a man of peace. Others have brought this wreck and ruin down upon the country, not you.”
Now he felt at peace as the family had dinner and then resumed their conversation in the family room. He listened to Mary and Robert while watching Tad and Willy play with the puzzles and games that Robert had brought for them. He fell asleep in the big chair then woke up late in the evening to notice that the rest of the family had retired to their rooms. He continued on in a restful sleep, warmed
by the fire.
The sun had been up barely an hour when there came a knock on the front door. Being still suspicious of danger after the recent partisan fighting he asked the caller to identify himself. It was Congressman John Sherman. Sherman politely apologized for the early morning appearance, saying that he should have arrived yesterday afternoon but had been delayed by backed up traffic on the overloaded railroads. He got down to business as soon as Lincoln admitted him into the residence:
“I am here to inform you that, by order of the Free State Congress, Provisional President Fremont’s term of office has expired. By the unanimous consent of the Free State Congress you are hereby notified that you have been elected President of the United States of Free America.”
22
Cleveland, Ohio, July 4th, 1861
Cump Sherman and his brother John mingled with the inaugural guests on the lawn of one of the great mansions lining Cleveland’s broad Euclid Avenue. The leafy scent from the dense northeastern Ohio forest encroaching on the edges of the city was in the air. A fresh breeze blew in off Lake Erie, coloring the sky with the deep hue characteristic of lake-cooled air. The city was as beautiful in summer as it was gloomy in winter. It was going to be a glorious inauguration day.
“Never thought I’d be attending two presidential inaugurations in one year,” said John. “This one isn’t as elegant as the Democrats’ but I suppose it’s not a bad start. Being as we’re a new country we’ve had to learn to do everything from scratch.”