Upon the Altar of the Nation
Page 63
13 Hesseltine, Civil War Prisons, 2. One of the harshest Northern prisons was at Fort Delaware on Pea Patch Island. See Keen, “Confederate Prisoners of War at Fort Delaware,” 1-27.
14 Statistics may be found in Denney, Civil War Prisons and Escapes, 381.
15 McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, 802. McPherson goes on to argue that, if anything, northern figures are understated because some paroled Union prisoners died after their release.
16 Cornish, Sable Arm, 178.
17 Bryan and Lankford, Eye of the Storm, 213.
18 Denney, Civil War Prisons and Escapes, 106.
19 McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, 795.
20 Hesseltine, Civil War Prisons, 203.
21 Letter of R. B. Winder to Quartermaster, August 19, 1864, O.R., series 2, vol. 7, 624.
22 Chauncey’s Andersonville diary was transcribed by General William Sever Lincoln and is preserved in Civil War Papers, Box 2, Folder 1, AAS.
23 Ransom, Diary. Ransom’s diary was originally published serially in the Jackson (MI) Citizen and then bound as a volume in 1881 under the title Andersonville. It was reprinted in 1963 with an introduction by Bruce Catton. All of the quotations in this account are from the 1963 edition.
24 Ransom, Diary, May 27 and March 30, 1864.
25 O. R., series 2, vol. 7, 616—17. (War of the Rebellion)
26 Ibid.
27 Some prisoners did, indeed, seek solace in religion. In contrast to Ransom, Private Sneden attended prayer meetings at Andersonville regularly. Bryan and Lankford, Eye of the Storm, 249.
28 Ransom, Diary, June 18, 1864.
32. “NO PLEDGE TO MAKE BUT ACTION”
1 Banner of the Covenant, October 13, 1862.
2 American Presbyterian, September 11, 1862.
3 Kirkwood’s letter is reprinted in Berlin et al., Free at Last, 67-68.
4 On blacks in the Union military see Joseph T. Wilson’s classic account in Black Phalanx. See also Quarles, The Negro in the Civil War, and Cornish, Sable Arm. More recently, see Glatthaar, Forged in Battle, and McPherson’s edited documentary volume, The Negro’s Civil War. On the use of slaves for the Confederate army, see Brewer, Confederate Negro, and Ervin L. Jordan, Black Confederates and Afto-Yankees.
5 Berlin, “The Destruction of Slavery,” 65.
6 Taylor, Sable Arm, 288-89.
7 McPherson, The Negro’s Civil War, 176.
8 Thomas Wentworth Higginson to James, November 24, 1862, Thomas Wentworth Higginson Papers, 1853-1911, AAS. Higginson provides a wonderfully written account of his unit in Army Life in a Black Regiment.
9 Thomas Higginson to William Brown, December 26, 1862, Brown Family Papers, 1762-1965, AAS.
10 First Anniversary of the Proclamation of Freedom in South Carolina, 7.
11 McPherson, The Negro’s Civil War, 184-85.
12 Ibid., 186. For an account of the battle, see Quarles, The Negro in the Civil War, 220-24.
13 New York Evangelist, July 2, 1863. Presbyterian Historical Society. Positive responses to African American soldiers was a staple in the religious press. For similar assessments, see the American Presbyterian, February 19, 1863, or the Christian Instructor and Western United Presbyterian, October 17, 1863.
14 Quarles, The Negro in the Civil War, 12-21.
15 Gooding’s letter is reprinted in Adams, On the Altar of Freedom, 38-39.
16 Gooding quoted in Linden and Pressly, Voices from the House Divided, 123.
17 Ibid., 127. On June 15, 1864, Congress passed legislation granting equal pay to black soldiers, retroactive only to January 1, 1864.
18 See Quarles, The Negro in the Civil War, 15-16.
19 Christian Recorder, August 22, 1863.
20 Harmon’s letter of November 7, 1863, is reprinted in Redkey, Grand Army of Black Men.
21 McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, 634.
22 McPherson, The Negro’s Civil War, 190.
23 New York Tribune, September 8, 1865.
24 Ray Palmer, Opening Future, 20—21. The issue of “the Bible and slavery” continued to bear commentary in 1863. See, for example, Joseph P. Thompson, Christianity and Emancipation, and Harwood, Canaan, Shem and Japheth.
25 Gooding’s account is reprinted in Virginia M. Adams, On the Altar of Freedom, 85.
26 Jones’s letter is reprinted in Redkey, GrandArmy of Black Men, 42.
27 Romero and Rose, Reminiscences of My Life, 87—88.
28 McPherson, The Negro’s Civil War, 209.
29 An early account of the massacre appeared in Joseph T. Wilson, Black Phalanx, 348-58. For a balanced assessment of the evidence on all sides, see Castel, “The Fort Pillow Massacre,” 37-50.
30 Ransom, Diary, July 6, 1864.
31 Cornish, Sable Arm, 176.
32 Joseph T. Wilson, Black Phalanx, 358.
33 White’s letter of March 14, 1864, is reprinted in Redkey Grand Army of Black Men, 38-39.
34 Luis Endicott to Mr. Bradlee, April 27, 1864, Civil War Papers, Box 2, Folder 9, AAS.
33. “THE MOST INTERESTING MEN IN THE COUNTRY”
1 “All Hail to Ulysses!” (Chicago, 1864), Union Imprint Song Sheets, John Hay Library, Brown University.
2 Southern Illustrated News, May 30, 1863.
3 Livermore, Numbers and Losses in the Civil War, 47.
4 Lyman, With Grant and Meade, 121.
5 Grant, Memoirs, 473-74.
6 Ibid., 478.
7 On these lesser generals, see Simon, “Grant, Lincoln, and Unconditional Surrender,” in Boritt, Lincoln’s Generals, 181-89.
8 Fort quoted in Faust, Mothers of Invention, 138.
9 William T. Sherman to H. W Hill, September 7, 1863, O.R., series 1, vol. 30, pt. 3, 403. (War of the Rebellion)
10 Grant, Memoirs, 512.
11 James Longstreet, From Manassas to Appomattox, 554.
12 Samuel S. Cox, Eight Years in Congress, 395.
13 In the end, Frémont withdrew his candidacy in return for Lincoln’s promise to restructure his cabinet.
14 Martha LeBaron Goddard to Mary W. Johnson, May 2, 1864, Manuscripts Collection, AAS.
15 Ibid.
16 Marvin, “Sermon on Daniel 4:27,” April 7, 1864, Sermons Collection, AAS.
17 See, for example, Davis’s angry reply to North Carolina’s governor, Zebulon B. Vance, February 29, 1864 in Crist, ed., Papers of Jefferson Davis, 12 vols., vol. 10: 265-70.
18 Richmond Daily Whig, April 8, 1864. See also Richmond Daily Dispatch, March 17, March 28, and March 30, 1864.
34. “IF IT TAKES ALL SUMMER”
1 For an excellent account of the battle, see Cushman, Bloody Promenade.
2 For the description of Lee’s rendezvous with Longstreet’s Texans, I am indebted to Freeman, Lee’s Lieutenants, 3:356-57.
3 Gordon is quoted in Freeman, Lee’s Lieutenants, 3:368.
4 James Longstreet, From Manassas to Appomattox, 565.
5 Grant, Memoirs, 531.
6 Ibid., 527.
7 Ibid., 540.
8 Lyman, With Grant and Meade, 99-100.
9 Freeman and McWhiney, Lee’s Dispatches, May 18, 1864, 214.
10 Lyman, With Grant and Meade, 102.
11 “Grant to Halleck,” O.R., series I, vol. 36, pt. 2, p. 672 (War of the Rebellion).
12 For the account of this battle, I have relied heavily on Freeman, Lee’s Lieutenants, 3:402-10; Catton, Never Call Retreat, 358-61; and Matter, If It Takes All Summer.
13 See Gordon’s account in Reminiscences of the CiviL War, 278-81.
14 Quoted in Freeman, Lee’s Lieutenants, 3:408.
15 Lyman, With Grant and Meade, 114.
35. “JUNE 3. COLD HARBOR. I WAS KILLED”
1 Mobile Daily Advertiser and Register, May 27, 1864.
2 American Presbyterian, May 19, 1864.
3 Putnam, Richmond During the War, 296-97.
4 Helmreich, “A Prayer for the Spirit of Acceptance,” 405.
5 Lyman, With Grant and Meade, 106. Italics mine.
7 John E. Anderson, Reminiscence, 158 in Civil War Papers, Box 1, Folder 1, AAS. References to “holy war” were becoming commonplace. See also Eustis, Discourse Delivered at the Funeral of Rev. Samuel Fisk, 45.
8 Perkins K. Clark, Sacrifices for Our Country, 11.
9 Rufus W. Clark, Discourse Commemorative of the Heroes of Albany, 8, and Griggs, No Fear of Death, 11.
10 See Griffith, Battle Tactics of the Civil War, 137-92.
11 Lyman, With Grant and Meade, 117.
12 Grant, Memoirs, 493-94.
13 Robertson, Civil War Virginia, 153.
14 See Brooks D. Simpson’s introduction to Lyman, With Grant and Meade, xi.
15 Quoted in Furgurson, Not War but Murder, 151-52. The fighting continued at Cold Harbor into the evening, but the greatest percentage of casualties came in the opening hour.
16 Charles Watson Washburn Papers, 1862-1865, Manuscript collection, vol. 1, AAS.
17 The correspondence between Lee and Grant is reprinted in Grant’s Memoirs, 586-87. For an insightful analysis of the exchange in the context of honor and morality, I am indebted to an unpublished paper by Wyatt-Brown, “Robert E. Lee and the Concept of Honor.”
18 Quoted in Furgurson, Not War but Murder, 212-13.
19 Grant, Memoirs, 588.
20 Philadelphia Inquirer, July 23, 1864.
21 See McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, 737.
36. “THE PIOUS MEN WILL BE HELD UP AS THE GREATEST OF PATRIOTS”
1 Richmond Examiner, June 4, 1864.
2 American Presbyterian, September 8, 1864. For additional accounts see New York Evangelist, May 26, 1864.
3 Benjamin Gratz Brown, Immediate Abolition of Slavery, 13.
4 Dowdey Wartime Papers of R. E. Lee, 807.
5 George Elsworth to Enron Thomas, November 11, 1864, Civil War Papers, Box 2, Folder 3, AAS.
6 Martin Blynum to Thomas Prince, August 1, 1864, Civil War Papers, Box 2, Folder 3, AAS.
7 Quoted in McPherson, The Negro’s Civil War, 224-25.
8 Philadelphia Inquirer, June 18, 1864.
9 Richmond Daily Dispatch, July 16 and 29, 1864.
10 Grant, Memoirs, 612.
11 Ibid., 613.
12 Payne’s letter is reprinted in Redkey, Grand Army of Black Men, 114-
13 Emory M. Thomas, Robert E. Lee, 342.
37. “IF THEY WANT PEACE THEY ... MUST STOP THE WAR”
1 John E. Anderson, Reminiscence, 136, Civil War Papers, Box 1, Folder 1, AAS.
2 Sherman, Memoirs, 489.
3 Ibid., 492.
4 Quoted in Royster, Destructive War, 299.
5 Ibid., 518.
6 Royster, Destructive War, 315.
7 Sherman, Memoirs, 536.
8 I am indebted to Fellows for first calling this to my attention in “‘The Poor Women Will Make a Howl.’” Many of the primary sources surrounding the deportation are reprinted in Hitt, Charged with Treason.
9 O.R, series. 1, vol. 36, pt. 5, 76-77 (War of the Rebellion).
10 By war’s end, many of the women had become sufficiently habituated to their new home that they remained rather than return to their devastated home sites.
11 Milledgeville Confederate Union, August 23, 1864.
12 Quoted in Hitt, 70.
13 New York Tribune, July 21, 1864.
14 Dowdey, Wartime Papers of R. E. Lee, 821.
15 Richmond Daily Whig, July 20, 1864.
16 Preston, Lee: West Point and Lexington, 32-36, and Sherman, Memoirs, 543-44
17 Sherman, Memoirs, 1010.
18 Ibid., 559-60.
19 See McDonough and Jones, War So Terrible, 269—90.
20 John E. Anderson, Reminiscence, 155, Civil War Papers, Box 1, Folder 1, AAS.
21 Grant, Memoirs, 508-11.
22 For descriptions of the destruction see Russell, Atlanta, 1847-1890, 114-15.
23 Sherman, Memoirs, 598-99.
24 The correspondence between Sherman and Hood is reprinted in Sherman, Memoirs, 591-98.
25 Quoted in Bower, “Theology of the Battlefield,” 1024.
26 Sherman, Memoirs, 596.
27 John M. Howe Letters, 1864, Civil War Papers, Box 2, Folder 5, AAS.
28 American Presbyterian, August 4, 1864.
29 Lewin, National Judgments, 5.
30 American Presbyterian, August 4, 1864.
31 Cruickshanks, Sermon Preached, 11-13.
38. “RED OCTOBER”: “THE WORK OF DESTRUCTION”
1 Conrad, Thanksgiving Discourse, 14.
2 Vandiver, Jubal Early War Memoirs, 478.
3 New York Times, August 8, 1864.
4 Grant, Memoirs, 615.
5 Sheridan, Memoirs, 1: 462, 488.
6 All quotes from Anderson are taken from John Emerson Anderson, Letters, Civil War Papers, Box 1, Folder 2, AAS.
7 Dowdey, Wartime Papers of Robert. E. Lee, 704.
8 Valley Spirit, August 31, 1864. I am indebted to Mochan, “Rebel Vengeance,” for bringing this source to my attention.
9 McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, 619.
10 Grimsley, Hard Hand of War, 171-204.
11 Bernard, Lincoln and the Music of the Civil War, 245.
12 Quoted in Catton, Never Call Retreat, 387.
13 Greiner et al., Surgeon’s Civil War, 252.
14 Sheridan, Memoirs, 2:39-40.
15 Ibid., 2:52.
16 Duncan, Lee’s Endangered Left, 145. On guerrilla warfare, see Virgil Carrington Jones, Gray Ghosts and Rebel Raiders.
17 Greiner et al., Surgeon’s Civil War, 261.
18 Ibid., 256, 259.
19 Ibid., 56.
20 Quoted in Gallagher, Confederate War, 77.
21 Greiner et al., Surgeon’s Civil War, 245-66.
22 Sheridan, Memoirs, II 75-82.
23 Thompson, Peace through Victory, p. 13.
24 New York Observer, November 17, 1864.
25 Cleveland, Thanksgiving Discourse, 11, 13-14
39. “A VOTE FOR PRINCIPLE, FOR CONSCIENCE, FOR CHRIST”
1 American Presbyterian, November 3, 1864.
2 Joseph P. Thompson, Peace through Victory, 11, 13.
3 Victor B. Howard, Religion and the Radical Republican Movement, 81-87.
4 Chicago Times, November 24, 1864.
5 VanderVelde, Presbyterian Churches and the Federal Union, 322-23.
6 Van Dyke, Spirituality and Independence of the Church, 13, 15, 18.
7 For a voting analysis of the two parties, see Silbey, Respectable Minority, 140-57.
8 Ransom, Diary, November 6, 1864.
9 Ellis, Nation’s Ballot, 9.
10 Richmond Daily Whig, November 12, 1864.
11 Alexander H. Vinton, Cause for Thanksgiving, 22-23.
12 Phipps, Discourse Delivered in Paxton, Massachusetts, 8.
13 Perrin, Our Part in the World’s Struggle, 7—8, 20-22.
14 Wells, Sacrifice of Continual Praise, 14-15.
15 American Presbyterian, November 24 and December 12, 1864.
40. “I CAN MAKE THIS MARCH, AND MAKE GEORGIA HOWL!”
1 Sherman, Memoirs, 627.
2 Ibid., 628-29.
3 Central Presbyterian, November 10, 1864.
4 For editorials hostile to enlisting black soldiers, see, for example, Richmond Daily Dispatch, November 9, 1864; Marion Ensign, November 16, 1864; or Richmond Examiner, November 2, 1864.
5 Quoted in Catton, Never Call Retreat, 401.
6 If nothing else, America’s disastrous experience in Vietnam’s civil war confirms that guerrilla warfare can be successful against mighty armies.
7 Grant, Memoirs, 633.
8 Sherman, Memoirs, 640.
9 Grant, Memoirs, 638.
10 John Emerson Anderson, Letters, Civil War Papers, Box 1, Folder 2, AAS.
11 Sherman, Memoirs, 656.
12 Ibid., 652.
> 13 Quoted in Catton, Never Call Retreat, 415.
14 O.R., series 1, vol. 64, 21 (War of the Rebellion).
15 Sherman, Memoirs, 659.
16 Grant, Memoirs, 646.
17 The term is Bower’s; see “The Theology of the Battlefield.”
18 When adopted as a child into the Ewing family, Sherman was baptized Roman Catholic, but he never joined the church. See Marszalek, Soldier’s Passion for Order, 41.
19 Ellis, Nation’s Ballot, 14-16.
20 Thompson and Steedman quoted in McPherson, The Negro’s Civil War, 233.
21 Ibid., 223.
22 Sherman, Memoirs, 657.
23 Ibid., 1050-52.
24 O.R., series 1, vol. 102, 737 (War of the Rebellion).
25 Basler, Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings, 789-90.
26 John Emerson Anderson, Letters, Civil War Papers, Box 1, Folder 2, AAS.
27 Banner of the Covenant, January 6, 1865.
28 Catton, Never Call Retreat, 376.
41. “UPHOLD THE CAUSE AND STRENGTHEN THE HANDS OF THE FAITHFUL”
1 See McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, 819.
2 Robertson’s diary is edited and reprinted in Helmreich, “A Prayer for the Spirit of Acceptance,” 406-7.
3 Henry Ward Beecher to Abraham Lincoln, February 4, 1865, Civil War Papers, Box 2, Folder 8, AAS.
4 Richmond Religious Herald, March 9, 1865.
5 Richmond Daily Dispatch, January 30, 1865.
6 Ibid., February 20, 1865. For similar sentiments, see Richmond Examiner, January 28, 1865.
7 Richmond Religious Herald, March 9, 1865.
8 Richmond Daily Dispatch, January 19, 1865.
9 Ibid.
10 Christian Observer, February 2, 1865.
11 Central Presbyterian, February 16, 1865.
12 Army and Navy Messenger, February 23, 1865.
13 Jeter, Notes and Sermons, Virginia Baptist Historical Society
14 The Richmond Christian Advocate editorial is summarized with approbation in the Richmond Religious Herald, February 9, 1865.
15 Minnigerode, Sermon Preached, 9.
16 Ibid., 14.
17 See Coulter, Confederate States of America, 555-59.
18 American Presbyterian, January 12, 1865.