A Short History of the United States by Channing
Page 24
382. Rising of the North.--There was no longer a question of letting the "erring sisters" depart in peace. The Southerners had fired on "Old Glory." There was no longer a dispute over the extension of slavery. The question was now whether the Union should perish or should live. Douglas at once came out for the Union and so did the former Presidents, Buchanan and Franklin Pierce. In the Mississippi Valley hundreds of thousands of men either sympathized with the slaveholders or cared nothing about the slavery dispute. But the moment the Confederates attacked the Union, they rose in defense of their country and their flag.
[Sidenote: West Virginia.]
383. More Seceders.--The Southerners flocked to the standards of the Confederacy, and four more states joined the ranks of secession.
These were Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia. In Virginia the people were sharply divided on the question of secession.
Finally Virginia seceded, but the western Virginians, in their turn, seceded from Virginia and two years later were admitted to the Union as the state of West Virginia. Four "border states" had seceded; but four other "border states" were still within the Union. These were Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri.
[Sidenote: Kentucky and Maryland saved to the Union.]
[Sidenote: Missouri saved to the Union. Eggleston, 310.]
384. The Border States.--The people of Maryland and of Kentucky were evenly divided on the question of secession. They even tried to set up as neutral states. But their neutrality would have been so greatly to the advantage of the seceders that this could not be allowed. Lincoln's firm moderation and the patriotism of many wise leaders in Kentucky saved that state to the Union. But Maryland was so important to the defense of Washington that more energetic means had to be used. In Missouri, a large and active party wished to join the Confederacy. But two Union men, Frank P. Blair and Nathaniel Lyon, held the most important portions of the state for the Union. It was not until a year later, however, that Missouri was safe on the Northern side.
[Sidenote: Southern sentiment in Washington.]
[Sidenote: Southern Unionists.]
[Sidenote: First bloodshed, April 19, 1861.]
385. To the Defense of Washington.--The national capital was really a Southern town, for most of the permanent residents were Southerners, and the offices were filled with Southern men. In the army and navy, too, were very many Southerners. Most of them, as Robert E. Lee, felt that their duty to their state was greater than their duty to their flag. But many Southern officers felt differently. Among these were two men whose names should be held in grateful remembrance, Captain David G.
Farragut and Colonel George H. Thomas. The first soldiers to arrive in Washington were from Pennsylvania; but they came unarmed. Soon they were followed by the Sixth Massachusetts. In passing through Baltimore this regiment was attacked. Several men were killed, others were wounded.
This was on April 19, 1861,--the anniversary of the battles of Lexington and Concord. It was the first bloodshed of the war.
CHAPTER 38
BULL RUN TO MURFREESBORO', 1861-1862
[Illustration: RAILROADS AND RIVERS OF THE SOUTH.]
[Sidenote: The field of war.]
386. Nature of the Conflict.--The overthrow of the Confederate states proved to be very difficult. The Alleghany Mountains cut the South into two great fields of war. Deep and rapid rivers flowed from the mountains into the Atlantic or into the Mississippi. Each of these rivers was a natural line of defense. The first line was the Potomac and the Ohio. But when the Confederates were driven from this line, they soon found another equally good a little farther south. Then again the South was only partly settled. Good roads were rare, but there were many poor roads. The maps gave only the good roads. By these the Northern soldiers had to march while the Southern armies were often guided through paths unknown to the Northerners, and thus were able to march shorter distances between two battlefields or between two important points.
[Sidenote: Plan of campaign.]
[Sidenote: Disaster at Bull Run, July, 1861. Source-Book, 305-308.]
387. The Bull Run Campaign, July, 1861.--Northern soldiers crossed the Potomac into Virginia and found the Confederates posted at Bull Run near Manassas Junction. Other Northern soldiers pressed into the Shenandoah Valley from Harper's Ferry. They, too, found a Confederate army in front of them. The plan of the Union campaign is now clear: General McDowell was to attack the Confederates at Bull Run, while General Patterson attacked the Confederates in the Valley, and kept them so busy that they could not go to the help of their comrades at Bull Run. It fell out otherwise, for Patterson retreated and left the Confederate general, Johnston, free to go to the aid of the sorely pressed Confederates at Bull Run. McDowell attacked vigorously and broke the Confederate line; but he could not maintain his position. The Union troops at first retreated slowly. Then they became frightened and fled, in all haste, back to Washington. The first campaign ended in disaster.
[Illustration: GENERAL MCCLELLAN.]
[Sidenote: The Army of the Potomac, 1862.]
388. The Army of the Potomac.--While the Bull Run campaign was going on in eastern Virginia, Union soldiers had been winning victories in western Virginia. These were led by General George B. McClellan. He now came to Washington and took command of the troops operating in front of the capital. During the autumn, winter, and spring he drilled his men with great skill and care. In March, 1862, the Army of the Potomac left its camps a splendidly drilled body of soldiers.
[Sidenote: Southern preparations. Source-Book, 308-311.]
[Sidenote: Richmond.]
[Sidenote: Army of Northern Virginia.]
389. The Army of Northern Virginia.--Meantime the government of the Confederacy had gathered great masses of soldiers. There were not nearly as many white men of fighting age in the South as there were in the North. But what men there were could be placed in the fighting line, because the negro slaves could produce the food needed by the armies and do the hard labor of making forts. The capital of the Confederacy was now established at Richmond, on the James River, in Virginia. The army defending this capital was called the Army of Northern Virginia. It was commanded by Joseph E. Johnston; but its ablest officers were Robert E.
Lee and Thomas J. Jackson (Stonewall Jackson).
[Sidenote: McClellan's plan of campaign, 1862.]
[Sidenote: Objections to it.]
390. Plan of the Peninsular Campaign.--The country between the Potomac and the James was cut up by rivers, as the Rappahannock, the Mattapony, and Pamunkey, and part of it was a wilderness. McClellan planned to carry his troops by water to the peninsula between the James and the York and Pamunkey rivers. He would then have a clear road to Richmond, with no great rivers to dispute with the enemy. Johnston would be obliged to leave his camp at Bull Run and march southward to the defense of Richmond. The great objection to the plan was that Johnston might attack Washington instead of going to face McClellan. General Jackson also was in the Shenandoah Valley. He might march down the Valley, cross the Potomac, and seize Washington. So the government kept seventy-five thousand of McClellan's men for the defense of the Federal capital.
[Illustration: THE "MONITOR."]
[Sidenote: The Monitor and the Merrimac. Hero Tales, 183, 195.]
391. The Monitor and the Merrimac.--On March 8 a queer-looking craft steamed out from Norfolk, Virginia, and attacked the Union fleet at anchor near Fortress Monroe. She destroyed two wooden frigates, the Cumberland and the Congress, and began the destruction of the Minnesota. She then steamed back to Norfolk. This formidable vessel was the old frigate Merrimac. Upon her decks the Confederates had built an iron house. From these iron sides the balls of the Union frigates rolled harmlessly away. But that night an even stranger-looking ship appeared at Fortress Monroe. This was the Monitor, a floating fort, built of iron. She was designed by John Ericsson, a Swedish immigrant. When the Merrimac came back to finish the destruction of the Minnesota, the Monitor steamed direct
ly to her. These two ironclads fought and fought. At last the Merrimac steamed away and never renewed the fight.
[Sidenote: Battle of Fair Oaks, May, 1862.]
[Sidenote: The Seven Days.]
[Sidenote: Malvern Hill.]
392. The Peninsular Campaign, 1862.--By the end of May McClellan had gained a position within ten miles of Richmond. Meantime, Jackson fought so vigorously in the Shenandoah Valley that the Washington government refused to send more men to McClellan, although Johnston had gone with his army to the defense of Richmond. On May 31 the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia fought a hard battle at Fair Oaks. Johnston was wounded, and Lee took the chief command. He summoned Jackson from the Valley and attacked McClellan day after day, June 26 to July 2, 1862. These terrible battles of the Seven Days forced McClellan to change his base to the James, where he would be near the fleet. At Malvern Hill Lee and Jackson once more attacked him and were beaten off with fearful loss.
[Sidenote: Lee's plan of campaign.]
[Sidenote: Second battle of Bull Run, August, 1862.]
393. Second Bull Run Campaign.--The Army of the Potomac was still uncomfortably near Richmond. It occurred to Lee that if he should strike a hard blow at the army in front of Washington, Lincoln would recall McClellan. Suddenly, without any warning, Jackson appeared at Manassas Junction (p. 317). McClellan was at once ordered to transport his army by water to the Potomac, and place it under the orders of General John Pope, commanding the forces in front of Washington. McClellan did as he was ordered. But Lee moved faster than he could move. Before the Army of the Potomac was thoroughly in Pope's grasp, Lee attacked the Union forces near Bull Run. He defeated them, drove them off the field and back into the forts defending Washington (August, 1862).
[Sidenote: Lee invades Maryland.]
[Sidenote: Antietam, September, 1862. Hero Tales, 199-209.]
394. The Antietam Campaign, 1862.--Lee now crossed the Potomac into Maryland. But he found more resistance than he had looked for. McClellan was again given chief command. Gathering his forces firmly together, he kept between Lee and Washington, and threatened Lee's communications with Virginia. The Confederates drew back. McClellan found them strongly posted near the Antietam and attacked them. The Union soldiers fought splendidly. But military writers say that McClellan's attacks were not well planned. At all events, the Army of the Potomac lost more than twelve thousand men to less than ten thousand on the Confederate side, and Lee made good his retreat to Virginia. McClellan was now removed from command, and Ambrose E. Burnside became chief of the Army of the Potomac.
[Illustration: ANTIETAM (A WAR-TIME SKETCH).]
[Sidenote: Battle of Fredericksburg, December, 1862.]
395. Fredericksburg, December, 1862.--Burnside found Lee strongly posted on Marye's Heights, which rise sharply behind the little town of Fredericksburg on the southern bank of the Rappahannock River. Burnside attacked in front. His soldiers had to cross the river and assault the hill in face of a murderous fire--and in vain. He lost thirteen thousand men to only four thousand of the Confederates. "Fighting Joe" Hooker now succeeded Burnside as commander of the Army of the Potomac. We must now turn to the West, and see what had been doing there in 1861-62.
[Sidenote: General Grant.]
[Sidenote: He seizes Cairo.]
[Sidenote: Battle of Mill Springs, January, 1862.]
396. Grant and Thomas.--In Illinois there appeared a trained soldier of fierce energy and invincible will, Ulysses Simpson Grant. He had been educated at West Point and had served in the Mexican War. In September, 1861, he seized Cairo at the junction of the Ohio and the Mississippi. In January, 1862, General George H. Thomas defeated a Confederate force at Mill Springs, in the upper valley of the Cumberland River. In this way Grant and Thomas secured the line of the Ohio and eastern Kentucky for the Union.
[Illustration: THE BRIDGE AT ANTIETAM. Burnside's soldiers charged over the bridge from the middle foreground.]
[Sidenote: Capture of Fort Henry, February, 1862.]
[Sidenote: Fort Donelson.]
397. Forts Henry and Donelson, February, 1862.--In February, 1862, General Grant and Commodore Foote attacked two forts which the Confederates had built to keep the Federal gunboats from penetrating the western part of the Confederacy. Fort Henry yielded almost at once, but the Union forces besieged Fort Donelson for a longer time. Soon the Confederate defense became hopeless, and General Buckner asked for the terms of surrender. "Unconditional surrender," replied Grant, and Buckner surrendered. The lower Tennessee and the lower Cumberland were now open to the Union forces.
[Sidenote: The lower Mississippi.]
[Sidenote: Admiral Farragut.]
398. Importance of New Orleans.--New Orleans and the lower Mississippi were of great importance to both sides, for the possession of this region gave the Southerners access to Texas, and through Texas to Mexico. Union fleets were blockading every important Southern port.
But as long as commerce overland with Mexico could be maintained, the South could struggle on. The Mississippi, too, has so many mouths that it was difficult to keep vessels from running in and out. For these reasons the Federal government determined to seize New Orleans and the lower Mississippi. The command of the expedition was given to Farragut, who had passed his boyhood in Louisiana. He was given as good a fleet as could be provided, and a force of soldiers was sent to help him.
[Illustration: A RIVER GUNBOAT.]
[Sidenote: Capture of New Orleans, April, 1862. Higginson, 303-304; Source-Book, 313-315.]
399. New Orleans captured, April, 1862.--Farragut carried his fleet into the Mississippi, but found his way upstream barred by two forts on the river's bank. A great chain stretched across the river below the forts, and a fleet of river gunboats with an ironclad or two was in waiting above the forts. Chain, forts, and gunboats all gave way before Farragut's forceful will. At night he passed the forts amid a terrific cannonade. Once above them New Orleans was at his mercy. It surrendered, and with the forts was soon occupied by the Union army. The lower Mississippi was lost to the Confederacy.
[Illustration: A WAR-TIME ENVELOPE.]
[Sidenote: Shiloh, April, 1862.]
[Sidenote: Corinth, May, 1862.]
400. Shiloh and Corinth, April, May, 1862.--General Halleck now directed the operations of the Union armies in the West. He ordered Grant to take his men up the Tennessee to Pittsburg Landing and there await the arrival of Buell with a strong force overland from Nashville.
Grant encamped with his troops on the western bank of the Tennessee between Shiloh Church and Pittsburg Landing. Albert Sidney Johnston, the Confederate commander in the West, attacked him suddenly and with great fury. Soon the Union army was pushed back to the river. In his place many a leader would have withdrawn. But Grant, with amazing courage, held on. In the afternoon Buell's leading regiments reached the other side of the river. In the night they were ferried across, and Grant's outlying commands were brought to the front. The next morning Grant attacked in his turn and slowly but surely pushed the Confederates off the field. Halleck then united Grant's, Buell's, and Pope's armies and captured Corinth.
[Sidenote: General Bragg invades Kentucky.]
[Sidenote: Battle of Perryville, October, 1862.]
[Sidenote: Murfreesboro', December, 1862. Eggleston, 331.]
401. Bragg in Tennessee and Kentucky.--General Braxton Bragg now took a large part of the Confederate army, which had fought at Shiloh and Corinth, to Chattanooga. He then marched rapidly across Tennessee and Kentucky to the neighborhood of Louisville on the Ohio River. Buell was sent after him, and the two armies fought an indecisive battle at Perryville. Then Bragg retreated to Chattanooga. In a few months he was again on the march. Rosecrans had now succeeded Buell. He attacked Bragg at Murfreesboro'. For a long time the contest was equal. In the end, however, the Confederates were beaten and retired from the field.
CHAPTER 39
THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION
402. The Blockade.--On the fall of Fort Sumter President Lincoln ordered a blockade of the Confederate seaports. There were few manufacturing industries in the South. Cotton and tobacco were the great staples of export. If her ports were blockaded the South could neither bring in arms and military supplies from Europe, nor send cotton and tobacco to Europe to be sold for money. So her power of resisting the Union armies would be greatly lessened. The Union government bought all kinds of vessels, even harbor ferryboats, armed them, and stationed them off the blockaded harbors. In a surprisingly short time the blockade was established. The Union forces also began to occupy the Southern seacoast, and thus the region that had to be blockaded steadily grew less.
[Sidenote: Effect of the blockade.]
403. Effects of the Blockade.--As months and years went by, and the blockade became stricter and stricter, the sufferings of the Southern people became ever greater. As they could not send their products to Europe to exchange for goods, they had to pay gold and silver for whatever the blockade runners brought in. Soon there was no more gold and silver in the Confederacy, and paper money took its place. Then the supplies of manufactured goods, as clothing and paper, of things not produced in the South, as coffee and salt, gave out. Toward the end of the war there were absolutely no medicines for the Southern soldiers, and guns were so scarce that it was proposed to arm one regiment with pikes. Nothing did more to break down Southern resistance than the blockade.
[Sidenote: Hopes of the Southerners.]
404. The Confederacy, Great Britain, and France.--From the beginning of the contest the Confederate leaders believed that the British and the French would interfere to aid them. "Cotton is king," they said. Unless there were a regular supply of cotton, the mills of England and of France must stop. Thousands of mill hands--men, women, and children--would soon be starving. The French and the British governments would raise the blockade. Perhaps they would even force the United States to acknowledge the independence of the Confederate states.