Confederate Union

by Alan Sewell

  “You compliment me far more that I deserve. I will strive to justify your confidence.”

  “Your leadership will also be necessary to maintain discipline,” McClellan added. “We’ve had some ugly incidents in this partisan fighting,” he confessed in a subdued tone. “I want that clamped down on. We must scrupulously obey the traditions of civilized warfare as we did during the Mexican War. After the Mexicans found out we were fair with them they sold supplies to our army and helped us to suppress the irregulars. That’s the way we must treat our brothers in the Free States. Let them know that they’ll be treated as fellow citizens of a common country, not as enemies. I am counting on that, as well as the rapid pace of our military operations, to cause their insurgency to collapse before it gains permanence.”

  “We did have some regrettable incidents in the fighting by irregulars in the West,” Lee acknowledged. “It is well that we put a stop to those at the outset. It is bad enough that this must be a war between brothers. When it is over we must have a peace between brothers.”

  “A peace between brothers!” exclaimed McClellan. “Yes, that is what we must have. The country is tired of fanaticism. It is tired of John Brown’s Raid to free slaves in Virginia and Bill Yancey’s Raid to kidnap free Negroes in Michigan. Let us have a just war to reclaim our errant Northern brothers followed by a just peace that will establish the Confederate Union as a true nation, not a make-believe country that is constantly at war with itself. I have lost my young friend Elmer Ellsworth, and I will lose more on both sides before this war is concluded. I never again want to draw my sword against my fellow Americans.”

  Davis addressed Lee. “President Douglas has been talking about that too. It’s tearing him up inside having to fight his friends in the North like Lincoln and Seward. It tears at my heartstrings too. We must make the Free Staters understand that this Confederate Union is their country as well as ours. Aleck Stephens says that to craft a permanent peace we must make concessions on slavery.”

  “What?” exclaimed Lee. “Don’t tell me Stephens has become an Abolitionist! Didn’t he just say in the ‘Cornerstone Speech’ that the foundation of our society will be slavery forever?”

  “Of course he still believes that,” answered Davis. “He wants to strengthen slavery by reforming it. He wants to make it less objectionable to the Free States by recognizing marriage and family relations among slaves so that slave families may not be broken up and sold separately. He wants to allow the Negroes to be educated. He says both races will make faster progress if the conditions of slavery are liberalized.”

  “Well,” said Lee, “tell the truth, that is not inconsistent with my own thinking. The world is modernizing. Slavery has to modernize too. If it remains rigid the institution may fracture. Make it flexible enough to change with the times and it will thrive.”

  “Let us finish the Rebellion,” agreed McClellan, “then we can talk rationally about reforming slavery. I have always believed that Southerners would become more progressive in managing your Negroes if the Abolitionists were not always hurling insults in your faces. Once the Abolitionists are suppressed you will be able to decide for yourselves how to reform the institution.”

  “It seems that our business is concluded satisfactorily,” said Davis. “I expect General Lee would like to get back to Arlington and have dinner with his family. He must have a full day’s rest before going into the field. Tomorrow let’s take our breakfast together at the White House and have a final discussion of our operations. I hope that the President will be able to receive us then. A visit from us would cheer him. After that we can escort General Lee to the train that is waiting to take him to Gettysburg.”

  There came a knock. Adjutant General Cooper escorted Secretary of State Horatio Seymour into the room. “Gentlemen,” Seymour said with a tear staining his face, “I have just come from the White House. I have the tragic duty to inform you that President Douglas has passed away. Vice President Jefferson Davis will please accompany me to the Capitol to be sworn in as President of the Confederate Union.”

  26

  Cleveland, July 20, 1861

  Maybe Stephen Douglas has got the best of it. He has mercifully passed away before having to bear the dreadful burdens that are coming.

  President Abraham Lincoln wept as he looked out the window of the Hargreaves Mansion, now rented on the United Free States’ account as the President’s Residence. He wept over the death of the man who had become his enemy in war! But Lincoln could never bring himself to think of Stephen Douglas as an enemy, not after a lifetime of interwoven destinies that had qualities of mutual admiration and even friendship among all its elements of acrimony and rivalry.

  Lincoln wept for many more than Douglas. His wife’s sister Frannie and her husband were among the thousands killed in the savage partisan fighting that had ravaged Springfield and who knew how many other towns along the Free States’ military frontier. His young friend Elmer Ellsworth was gone, one of the first to die liberating the captive Negroes at Delphi. Captain Nathaniel Lyon had been killed the day before yesterday fighting to the end against the Confederates besieging the Free Staters in St. Louis.

  And now a telegram had arrived from Pennsylvania’s Governor Curtin. Curtin reported that former Provisional President Fremont, who had impetuously set off from Cleveland to lead a volunteer Ohio militia regiment into the fighting in Pennsylvania, had been wounded while leading an attack against Confederates fighting to break through the Free States lines at a place called Gettysburg. Curtin’s telegram promised that a full report was on the way by courier.

  Lincoln shook his head at Fremont’s reckless risking of his life. Then he smiled at Fremont’s gallantry.

  Our bravest officers seek to prove their worth by displaying their valor under fire, but what a price it extracts from them! Elmer Ellsworth’s valor cost him his life at Delphi. Captain Lyon died defending St. Louis. And now Fremont is wounded. This war is bound to kill and maim the most gallant men of this generation.

  Beyond the loss of life and property he lamented the destruction of the nation’s spirit. The old United States as a single sovereignty founded on the principle that “all men are created equal” was gone. The bulk of its former territory, administered now by the Confederate Union, had become dedicated to the principle that “for some men to enslave others is a sacred right of self government.” The Northeastern Free States, if they could resist conquest by the Confederate Union, would become a diminished incarnation of the great libertarian republic founded by Jefferson, Washington, Adams, Madison, Franklin, and Hamilton.

  Lincoln’s speculative mind, which often sought to peer into the future, wandered there at this moment. His mind’s eye saw the looming shadow of the next century, an age of fantastic new developments in machinery, railroads, telegraphs, and who knew what other inventions of Man’s fertile intellect.

  He perceived that the heart of North America, larger and potentially more productive than every European Power combined, would grow to fantastic proportions during the coming century. Its present population of thirty million would grow to ten times that number. The metropolis of New York would be duplicated a hundred times and more. The development of industry would multiply the wealth of the continent and make it the first power of the earth. Would the North American nations that emerged from this war become great powers for the spreading of liberty among Mankind, or agents of oppression?

  At that moment a thought crystalized in his mind. We were right to declare our Independence from the Confederate Union! We had no place in a country that has regressed so far from our founding principles. The age of machinery is looming. The age of slavery is passing. Let us fight to our last breath for our Independence. Even if we should be conquered in the end and be forced to submit to the government of the Confederate Union, then at least we will have shown the world that we were willing to fight and die defending the principle that all men are destined to be free!

  He decided to waste n
o more time lamenting the dead. He must devote his full energies to cyphering how to defeat the many threats to the Free State’s independence. The most immediate threat was the Confederate Union’s armies gathering on the frontiers. Beyond that there was the financial disorder that had followed the loss of most of the Free State’s gold reserves and its access to the financial companies in New York. He would have to expedite Secretary of the Treasury Salmon Chase’s plan to finance the new government with bond issues and paper currency; otherwise, the Free States’ military effort would surely falter if its economy could no longer conduct business.

  Then there were diplomatic considerations. Secretary of State Seward said that he must ask for a commercial treaty with Great Britain. The loss of the great port and rail nexus around New York made it essential for the Free States to obtain the right of tariff-free transit of the St. Lawrence and the Canadian railroads above the Great Lakes in order to maintain trade and military communication between New England and the Inland States. Seward had suggested that perhaps the Free States should offer to pay to double-track the railroads above the Great Lakes to handle the torrent of trade.

  The Confederate Union could also be expected to use what it had acquired of the former U.S. Navy to blockade Boston and the New England ports, leaving the St. Lawrence as the Free States’ only outlet to the world. Seward said that in return for offering the Free States the right of tariff-free transit of the St. Lawrence and the railroads connecting it to the Great Lakes, the British were likely to insist on the cession of New Hampshire and Main above Latitude 45 in order to connect their Canadian railroad hub at Montreal to an ice-free port on the Atlantic.

  Should I begin our War of Independence by asking the Congress to authorize a treaty ceding part of our territory to Great Britain?

  But first came the military emergency. The eminent loss of St. Louis would release thousands of Missouri militiamen to reinforce the Confederate Union’s army in Central Illinois. The other crucial point was Philadelphia, linked to the Free States by one rail line to the west and a circuitous route to the north. If these communications were broken, Philadelphia would have to be surrendered.

  Lincoln’s Cabinet was divided on whether to attempt to evacuate what they could of Philadelphia’s population, industry, and financial assets to the capital here in Cleveland, or whether to stake the Free State’s fortunes on sending enough men in to hold the city and its railroad communications. In the West they were divided on whether to distribute all their available forces along the line through Illinois and Indiana or to mass the bulk of their newly minted recruits around Chicago to strike a counterblow after the Confederate Unionists committed themselves to a particular point of attack.

  He made two quick decisions. First, the Free States would stake their fortunes on holding Philadelphia.

  If we should attempt to evacuate the city, a spirit of defeatism will radiate outward so as to demoralize our forces everywhere. Our men will surrender every other point without a fight. We must declare our intention to hold Philadelphia, and then we must do whatever we have to do to hold it, if that means throwing in every available man from Ohio eastward.

  Next he decided to endorse Sam Grant’s view of distributing all his forces along the line in Indiana and Illinois. Grant had told him that if any part of that line came unhinged the entire line would fail and could only be reestablished, if at all, along the Kankakee and upper Wabash river valleys a hundred miles further north. That, too, would cause an unacceptable loss of territory and morale.

  Grant thought it better to have men close to the front under his unified command than to have a reserve army building around Chicago, as some who desired commands in a separate army advised. He said the railroad running through the fortified towns would suffice to shuttle troops back and forth in time to concentrate against whatever point came under attack.

  I do not know Grant, but I must trust his judgment, based on his recovery of Central Illinois during the partisan fighting.

  Above everything else he needed to inspire the people to fight on, through whatever setbacks and casualties might come. But what could be said to inspire them now? St. Louis was about to be lost after a six-week battle. Lyon’s men had made the Confederates pay dearly for every street, house, and commercial building in the city --- a valorous sacrifice but perhaps not the kind of “victory” that would fully inspire the people.

  As he was thinking on this his young secretary John Hay walked in, a jaunty spring in his step. He was always cheered by Hay, who was not only a perennial optimist but kept up to date on the latest news, often learning of events before he did.

  “What ‘glad tidings’ do you bring today, Mister Hay?”

  “News from Pennsylvania sent by the courier you were expecting from Governor Curtin. The courier is ordered to deliver his message to you personally.”

  Lincoln motioned for Hay to send in the courier, who turned out to be Governor Curtin’s private secretary. Lincoln asked him to spend the night at the White House and carry back his response to Governor Curtin in the morning. He asked Hay to show the courier to the guest bedroom and to have the cooks prepare his supper. Lincoln then tore open the packet. The first thing that fell out was The Harrisburg Patriot:

  VICTORY AT GETTYSBURG!

  On Wednesday July 17th, John C. Fremont’s Regiment of Ohio volunteers surprised and routed a Confederate Union force gathering at Gettysburg. Over one hundred of the enemy were killed, over three hundred wounded, and upward of one thousand captured so far. Thousands more of the enemy scattered like rats in all directions, as fast as their legs would carry them. Confederate General Robert E. Lee was last reported fleeing ignominiously towards Hanover.

  Our loss was less than one hundred killed and wounded. Our gallant Colonel of Militia John C. Fremont was counted among the wounded, being unhorsed by shot and shell as he routed the Confederates from the field.

  While the Confederates were pretending to attack Philadelphia from the directions of New York City and Wilmington, Fremont’s aggressive scouting unmasked their true intent of capturing the City of Liberty by way of Harrisburg. That fantastic scheme has been consigned to the Confederates’ wastepaper basket!

  Three cheers for the gallant Fremont and his dashing Free State men!

  After the newspaper came the letter from Governor Curtin.

  Dear Mr. President:

  The Hon. John C. Fremont, upon completing his office as Provisional President of our General Government, arrived here and presented himself to me. He arrived with the regiment of Ohio volunteers serving as his personal bodyguard. He brought with him specie to equip the majority of his men with mounts. He requested an appointment as “Colonel of Ohio Volunteers fighting for the Free State of Pennsylvania.”

  I made the appointment, we being very short of men to guard Harrisburg and the rail line running through it from Pittsburgh to Phildel. Fremont requested permission to scout with his men in the direction of Gettysburg, where citizens had reported the arrival of men wearing the insignia of the Confederate Union government. It is believed this was the vanguard of an advance toward Phildel. by way of Harrisburg.

  Fremont struck this force gathering at Gettysburg and drove it from the field. The town is restored to our possession. The enemy’s losses reported in yesterday’s paper continue to rise as our men drive the Confederates out of Pennsylvania.

  Colonels George Gordon Meade and John Reynolds have moved their men out of Phildel. and through Harrisburg and Wrightsville. Both are now across the Susquehanna and advancing to meet Fremont’s command. It is hoped that the enemy in large numbers will be cut off and captured.

  Our losses remain light. Our most serious loss was Fremont, whose arm was broken by a shell splinter. He is being tended by my doctor here in the Executive Mansion. He is expected to make a full recovery.

  The courageous Colonel Fremont and his gallant Ohioans have earned our fullest measure of gratitude for thwarting the enemy’s scheme. He may well h
ave saved our State and our Cause. If you can spare any other men please send them. Rest assured that we will do our part to defend the Cradle of Liberty.

  Governor Andrew Curtin

  Executive Mansion, Harrisburg, Penna.

  Lincoln read the newspaper account and Governor Curtin’s letter again. Even allowing for the possibility of exaggeration it seemed that a very substantial victory was in the making. Meade and Reynolds must have brought their men west from Philadelphia with extraordinary rapidity and then hit the Confederates fleeing Fremont’s attack from the other direction. The governor was right that absent Fremont’s initiative the Confederates might have taken Harrisburg and gone on into Philadelphia. The loss of Harrisburg and Philadelphia would have doomed the Free State hold on Pennsylvania. With Pennsylvania lost the rest of the Free States would have folded up. Instead of suffering that catastrophe it seemed that Fremont, Meade, and Reynolds were in the process of inflicting one on the Confederates.

  What a blessing that Fremont was not elected Permanent President. In his reconnaissance to Gettysburg he has done more to preserve the Free States than he might have ever done as our President. I must inspire all our men to fight as he and his Ohioans have done at Gettysburg. I must persuade the Douglas voters that it is their fight too. I must inspire those hundreds of thousands in New York City who are going about their business in presumed neutrality to join our cause. I must try to persuade the moderate men in the Confederate Union that it is not in their best interests to support a war to snuff out our Independence.

  He had been searching for words for a great speech of inspiration ever since he had been notified of his selection as President. The words began to crystalize in his mind. He wrote them down: