THE CIVIL WAR, 1861-1863
[Illustration: NEWSPAPER BULLETIN POSTED IN THE STREETS OF CHARLESTON.]
THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA.--After Lincoln's election, the cotton
states, one by one, passed ordinances declaring that they left the Union.
First to go was South Carolina (December 20, 1860), and by February 1,
1861, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas had
followed. On February 4 delegates from six of these seven states met at
Montgomery, Alabama, framed, a constitution, [1] established the
"Confederate States of America," and elected Jefferson Davis [2] and
Alexander H. Stephens provisional President and Vice President. Later they
were elected by the people.
[Illustration: ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Photograph of 1856.]
[Illustration: JEFFERSON DAVIS.]
LINCOLN'S POLICY.--President Buchanan did nothing to prevent all this, and
such was the political situation when Lincoln was inaugurated (March 4,
1861). His views and his policy were clearly stated in his inaugural
address: "I have no purpose directly or indirectly to interfere with the
institution of slavery in the states where it exists.... No state on its
own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union.... The Union is
unbroken, and to the extent of my ability I shall take care that the laws
of the Union be faithfully executed in all the states.... In doing this
there need be no bloodshed or violence, and there shall be none unless it
be forced upon the national authority.... The power confided in me will be
used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the
government."
FORT SUMTER CAPTURED.--Almost all the "property and places" belonging to
the United States government in the seven seceding states had been seized
by the Confederates. [3] But Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor was still in
Union hands, and to this, Lincoln notified the governor of South Carolina,
supplies would be sent. Thereupon the Confederate army already gathered in
Charleston bombarded the fort till Major Anderson surrendered it (April
14, 1861). [4]
[Illustration: ONE OF THE BATTERIES THAT BOMBARDED FORT SUMTER.]
THE WAR OPENS.--With the capture of Fort Sumter the war for the Union
opened in earnest. On April 15 Lincoln called for seventy-five thousand
militia to serve for three months. [5] Thereupon Virginia, North Carolina,
Tennessee, and Arkansas seceded and joined the Confederacy. The capital of
the Confederacy was soon moved from Montgomery to Richmond, Virginia.
In the slave-holding states of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri
the Union men outnumbered the secessionists and held these states in the
Union. When Virginia seceded, the western counties refused to leave the
Union, and in 1863 were admitted into the Union as the state of West
Virginia.
THE DIVIDING LINE.--The first call for troops was soon followed by a
second. The responses to both were so prompt that by July 1, 1861, more
than one hundred and eighty thousand Union soldiers were under arms. They
were stationed at various points along a line that stretched from Norfolk
in Virginia up the Chesapeake Bay and Potomac River to Harpers Ferry, and
then across western Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri. South of this
dividing line were the Confederate armies. [6]
Geographically this line was cut into three sections: that in Virginia,
that in Kentucky, and that in Missouri,
[Illustration: STONE BRIDGE OVER BULL RUN. Crossed by many fleeing Union
men.]
BULL RUN.--General Winfield Scott was in command of the Union army. Under
him and in command of the troops about Washington was General McDowell,
who in July, 1861, was sent to drive back the Confederate line in
Virginia. Marching a few miles southwest, McDowell met General Beauregard
near Manassas, and on the field of Bull Run was beaten and his army put to
flight. [7] The battle taught the North that the war would not end in
three months; that an army of raw troops was no better than a mob; that
discipline was as necessary as patriotism. Thereafter men were enlisted
for three years or for the war.
General George B. McClellan [8] was now put in command of the Union Army
of the Potomac, and spent the rest of 1861, and the early months of 1862,
in drilling his raw volunteers.
[Illustration: DRIVING BACK THE CONFEDERATE LINE IN THE WEST.]
CONFEDERATE LINE IN KENTUCKY DRIVEN BACK, 1862.--In Kentucky the
Confederate line stretched across the southern part of the state as shown
on the map. Against this General Thomas was sent in January, 1862. He
defeated the Confederates at Mill Springs near the eastern end. In
February General U. S. Grant and Flag-Officer Foote were sent to attack,
by land and water, Forts Donelson and Henry near the western end of the
line. Foote arrived first at Fort Henry on the Tennessee and captured it.
Thereupon Grant marched across country to Fort Donelson on the Cumberland,
and after three days' sharp fighting forced General Buckner to surrender.
[9]
[Illustration: ULYSSES S. GRANT.]
SHILOH OR PITTSBURG LANDING.--The Confederate line was now broken, and
abandoning Nashville and Columbus, the Confederates fell back toward
Corinth in Mississippi. The Union army followed in three parts.
1. One under General Curtis moved to southwestern Missouri and won a
battle at Pea Ridge (Arkansas).
2. Another under General Pope on the banks of the Mississippi aided Flag-
Officer Foote in the capture of Island No. 10. [10] The fleet then passed
down the river and took Fort Pillow.
3. The third part under Grant took position very near Pittsburg Landing,
at Shiloh, [11] where it was attacked and driven back. But the next day,
being strongly reënforced, General Grant beat the Confederates, who
retreated to Corinth. General Halleck now took command, and having united
the second and third parts of the army, took Corinth and cut off Memphis,
which then surrendered to the fleet in the river.
BRAGG'S RAID.--And now the Confederates turned furiously. Their army under
General Bragg, starting from Chattanooga, rushed across Tennessee and
Kentucky toward Louisville, but after a hot fight with General Buell's
army at Perryville was forced to turn back, and went into winter quarters
at Murfreesboro. [12]
[Illustration: NORTHERN CAVALRYMAN. A war-time drawing published in 1869.]
There Bragg was attacked by the Union forces, now under General Rosecrans,
was beaten in one of the most bloody battles of the war (December 31,
1862, and January 2, 1863), and was forced to retreat further south.
NEW ORLEANS, 1862.--Both banks of the Mississippi as far south as the
Arkansas were by this time in Union hands. [13] South of that river on the
east bank of the Mississippi the Confederates still held Vicksburg and
Port Hudson (maps, pp. 353, 368). But New Orleans had been captured in
April, 1862, by a naval expedition under Farragut; [14] and the city was
occupied by a Union army under General Butler. [15]
[Illustration: WAR IN THE EAST, 1862.]
THE PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN, 1862.--In the East the year opened with great
preparation for the capture of Richmond, the Confederate capital.
1. Armies under Fremont and Banks in the Shenandoah valley were to prevent
an attack on Washington from the west.
2. An army under McDowell was to be ready to march from Fredericksburg to
Richmond, when the proper time came.
3. McClellan was to take the largest army by water from Washington to Fort
Monroe, and then march up the peninsula formed by the York and James
rivers to the neighborhood of Richmond, where McDowell was to join him.
Landing at the lower end of the peninsula early in April, McClellan moved
northward to Yorktown, and captured it after a long siege. McClellan then
hurried up the peninsula after the retreating enemy, and on the way fought
and won a battle at Williamsburg. [16]
THE SHENANDOAH CAMPAIGN, 1862.--It was now expected that McDowell, who had
been guarding Washington, would join McClellan, but General T. J. Jackson
[17] (Stonewall Jackson), who commanded the Confederate forces in the
Shenandoah, rushed down the valley and drove Banks across the Potomac into
Maryland. This success alarmed the authorities at Washington, and McDowell
was held in northern Virginia to protect the capital. Part of his troops,
with those of Banks and Fremont, were dispatched against Jackson; but
Jackson won several battles and made good his escape.
[Illustration: THOMAS J. JACKSON.]
END OF PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN.--Though deprived of the aid of McDowell,
General McClellan moved westward to within eight or ten miles of Richmond;
but the Confederate General J. E. Johnston now attacked him at Fair Oaks.
A few weeks later General R. E. Lee, [18] who had succeeded Johnston in
command, was joined by Jackson; the Confederates then attacked McClellan
at Mechanicsville and Gaines Mill and forced him to retreat, fighting as
he went (June 26 to July 1), to Harrisons Landing on the James River.
There the Union army remained till August, when it went back by water to
the Potomac.
[Illustration: ROBERT E. LEE.]
LEE'S RAID; BATTLE OF ANTIETAM, 1862.--The departure of the Union army
from Harrisons Landing left General Lee free to do as he chose, and
seizing the opportunity he turned against the Union forces under General
Pope, whose army was drawn up between Cedar Mountain and Fredericksburg,
on the Rappahannock River. Stonewall Jackson first attacked General Banks
at the western end of the line at Cedar Mountain, and beat him. Jackson
and Lee then fell upon General Pope on the old field of Bull Run, beat
him, and forced him to fall back to Washington, where his army was united
with that of McClellan. [19] This done, Lee crossed the Potomac and
entered Maryland. McClellan attacked him at Antietam Creek (September,
1862), where a bloody battle was fought (sometimes called the battle of
Sharpsburg). Lee was beaten; but McClellan did not prevent his recrossing
the Potomac into Virginia. [20]
FREDERICKSBURG, 1862.--McClellan was now removed, and General A. E.
Burnside put in command. The Confederates meantime had taken position on
Marye's Heights on the south side of the Rappahannock, behind
Fredericksburg. The position was impregnable; but in December Burnside
attacked it and was repulsed with dreadful slaughter. The two armies then
went into winter quarters with the Rappahannock between them.
THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION.--Ever since the opening of the year 1862,
the question of slavery in the loyal states and in the territories had
been constantly before Congress. In April Congress abolished slavery in
the District of Columbia and set free the slaves there with compensation
to the owners. In June it abolished slavery in the territories and freed
the slaves there without compensation to the owners, and in July
authorized the seizure of slaves of persons then in rebellion.
In March Lincoln had asked Congress to help pay for the slaves in the
loyal slave states, if these states would abolish slavery; but neither
Congress nor the states adopted the plan. [21] Lincoln now determined, as
an act of war, to free the slaves in the Confederate states, and when the
armies of Lee and McClellan stood face to face at Antietam, he decided, if
Lee was beaten, to issue an emancipation proclamation. Lee was beaten, and
on September 22, 1862, the proclamation came forth declaring that on
January 1, 1863, "all persons held as slaves" in any state or part of a
state then "in rebellion against the United States, shall be then,
thenceforth, and forever free." The Confederate states did not return to
their allegiance, and on January 1, 1863, a second proclamation was
issued, declaring the slaves within the Confederate lines to be free men.
[Illustration: PART OF THE AUTOGRAPH COPY OF LINCOLN'S PROCLAMATION OF
JANUARY 1, 1863.]
1. Lincoln _did not abolish slavery anywhere_. He emancipated certain
slaves.
2. His proclamation did not apply to the loyal slave states--Delaware,
Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri.
3. It did not apply to such Confederate territory as the Union armies had
conquered; namely, Tennessee, seven counties in Virginia, and thirteen
parishes in Louisiana.
4. Lincoln freed the slaves by virtue of his authority as commander in
chief of the Union armies, "and as a fit and necessary war measure."
SUMMARY
1. In 1860 and 1861 seven cotton states seceded, formed the Confederate
States of America, and elected Jefferson Davis President.
2. The capture of Fort Sumter (April, 1861) and Lincoln's call for troops
were followed by the secession of four more Southern states.
3. In 1861 an attempt was made to drive back the Confederate line in
Virginia; but this ended in disaster at the battle of Bull Run.
4. In 1862 the Peninsular Campaign failed, Pope was defeated at Bull Run,
Lee's invasion of Maryland was ended by the battle of Antietam, and
Burnside met defeat at Fredericksburg.
5. In the West in 1862 the Confederate line was forced back to northern
Mississippi, and New Orleans was captured. Great battles were fought at
Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Perryville, and Murfreesboro.
6. On January 1, 1863, President Lincoln declared free the slaves in the
states and parts of states held by the Confederates.
FOOTNOTES
[1] The constitution of the Confederacy was the Constitution of the United
States altered to suit conditions. The President was to serve six years
and was not to be eligible for reëlection; the right to own slaves was
affirmed, but no slaves were to be imported from any foreign country
except the slave-holding states of the old Union. The Congress was
forbidden to establish a tariff for protection of any branch of industry.
A Supreme Court was provided for, but was never organized.
[2] Jefferson Davis was born in 1808, graduated from the Military Academy
at West Point in 1828, served in the Black Hawk War, resigned from the
army in 1835, and became a cotton planter in Mississippi. In 1845 he was
elected to Congress, but resigned to take part in the Mexican War, and was
wounded at Buena Vista. In 1847 lie was elected a senator, and from 1853
to 1857 was Secretary of War. He then returned to the Senate, where he was
when Mississippi seceded. He died in New Orleans in 1889.
[3] Property of the United States seized by the states was turned over to
the Confederate government. Thus Louisiana gave up $536,000 in specie
taken from the United States customhouse and mint at New Orleans.
[4] Read "Inside Sumter in '61" in _Battles and Leaders of the Civil War_,
Vol. I, pp. 65-73.
[5] Read "War Preparations in the North" in _Battles and Leaders of the
Civil War_, Vol. I, pp. 85-98; on pp. 149-159, also, read "Going to the
Front."
[6] An interesting account of "Scenes in Virginia in '61" may be found in
_Battles and Leaders of the Civil War_, Vol. I, pp. 160-166.
[7] "The Confederate army was more disorganized by victory than that of
the United States by defeat," says General Johnston; and no pursuit of the
Union forces was made. "The larger part of the men," McDowell telegraphed
to Washington, "are a confused mob, entirely disorganized." None stopped
short of the fortifications along the Potomac, and numbers entered
Washington. Read _Battles and Leaders of the Civil War_, Vol. I, pp.
229-239. "I have no idea that the North will give it up," wrote Stephens,
Vice President of the Confederacy. "Their defeat will increase their
energy." He was right.
[8] George Brinton McClellan was born in Philadelphia in 1826, graduated
from West Point, served in the Mexican War, and resigned from the army in
1857, to become a civil engineer, but rejoined it at the opening of the
war. In July, 1861, he conducted a successful campaign against the
Confederates in West Virginia, and his victories there were the cause of
his promotion to command the Army of the Potomac. After the battle of
Antietam (p. 363) he took no further part in the war, and finally resigned
in 1864. From 1878 to 1881 he was governor of New Jersey. He died in 1885.
[9] Hiram Ulysses Grant was born in Ohio in 1822, and at seventeen entered
West Point, where his name was registered Ulysses S. Grant, and as such he
was ever after known. He served in the Mexican War, and afterward engaged
in business of various sorts till the opening of the Civil War, when he
was made colonel of the Twenty-first Illinois Regiment, and then commander
of the district of southeast Missouri. When General Buckner, who commanded
at Fort Donelson, wrote to Grant to know what terms he would offer, Grant
replied: "No terms except unconditional and immediate surrender can be
accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works." This won for
Grant the popular name "Unconditional Surrender" Grant.
Andrew H. Foote was born in Connecticut in 1806, entered the navy at
sixteen, and when the war opened, was made flag officer of the Western
navy. His gunboats were like huge rafts carrying a house with flat roof
and sloping sides that came down to the water's edge. The sloping sides
and ends were covered with iron plates and pierced for guns; three in the
bow, two in the stern, and four on each side. The huge wheel in the stern
which drove the boat was under cover; but the smoke stacks were
unprotected. Foote died in 1863, a rear admiral.
[10] The islands in the Mississippi are numbered from the mouth of the
Ohio River to New Orleans.
[11] Read _Battles and Leaders of the Civil War_, Vol. I, pp. 465-486.
[12] Farther west the Confederates attacked the Union army at Corinth
(October 4), but were defeated by General Rosecrans.
[13] In January, 1862, the Confederate line west of the Mississippi
stretched from Belmont across southern Missouri to Indian Territory; but
Grant drove the Confederates out of Belmont; General Curtis, as we have
seen, beat them at Pea Ridge (in March), and when the year ended, the
Union army was in possession of northern Arkansas.
[14] David G. Farragut was born in 1801, and when eleven years old served
on the _Essex_ in the War of 1812. When his fleet started up the
Mississippi River, in 1862, he found his way to New Orleans blocked by two
forts, St. Philip and Jackson, by chains across the river on hulks below
Fort Jackson, and by a fleet of ironclad boats above. After bombarding the
forts for six days, he cut the chains, ran by the forts, defeated the
fleet, and went up to New Orleans, and later took Baton Rouge and Natchez.
For the capture of New Orleans he received the thanks of Congress, and was
made a rear admiral; for his victory in Mobile Bay (p. 379) the rank of
vice admiral was created for him, and in 1866 a still higher rank, that of
admiral, was made for him. He died in 1870.
[15] When it was known in New Orleans that Farragut's fleet was coming,
the cotton in the yards and in the cotton presses was hauled on drays to
the levee and burned to prevent its falling into Union hands. The capture
of the city had a great effect on Great Britain and France, both of whom
the Confederates hoped would intervene to stop the war. Slidell, who was
in France seeking recognition for the Confederacy as an independent
nation, wrote that he had been led to believe "that if New Orleans had not
been taken and we suffered no very serious reverses in Virginia and
Tennessee, our recognition would very soon have been declared." Read
_Battles and Leaders of the Civil War_, Vol. II, pp. 14-21,91-94.
[16] The story of the march is interestingly told in "Recollections of a
Private," in _Battles and Leaders of the Civil War_, Vol. II, pp. 189-199.
[17] Thomas J. Jackson was born in West Virginia in 1824, graduated from
West Point, served in the Mexican War, resigned from the army, and till
1861 taught in the Virginia State Military Institute at Lexington. He then
joined the Confederate army, and for the firm stand of his brigade at Bull
Run gained the name of "Stonewall."
[18] Robert E. Lee was born in Virginia in 1807, a son of "Light Horse"
Harry Lee of the Revolutionary army. He was a graduate of West Point, and
served in the Mexican War. After Virginia seceded he left the Union army
and was appointed a major general of Virginia troops, and in 1862 became
commander in chief. At the end of the war he accepted the presidency of
Washington College (now Washington and Lee University), and died in
Lexington, Virginia, in 1870.
[19] Part of McClellan's army had joined Pope before the second battle of
Bull Run.
[20] Read "A Woman's Recollections of Antietam," in _Battles and Leaders
of the Civil War_, Vol. II, pp. 686-695; also O. W. Holmes's _My Hunt
after "The Captain_."
[21] West Virginia and Missouri later (1863) provided for gradual
emancipation, and Maryland (1864) adopted a constitution that abolished
slavery.