CHAPTERI
“Heartstrong South would have his wayHeadstrong North had said him nay,They charged, they struck; both fell, both bled;Brain rose again ungloved;”* * * * *SIDNEY LANIER, Centennial Poem.
“Heartstrong South would have his wayHeadstrong North had said him nay,They charged, they struck; both fell, both bled;Brain rose again ungloved;”* * * * *SIDNEY LANIER, Centennial Poem.
“Heartstrong South would have his way
Headstrong North had said him nay,
They charged, they struck; both fell, both bled;
Brain rose again ungloved;”
* * * * *
SIDNEY LANIER, Centennial Poem.
Itis not my intention to write history, but it seems advisable to mention in a few brief notes or extracts, for the benefit of the present generation, the sentiments held during the Civil War.
When the first Confederate shot was fired upon the United States flag, then floating over Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, many months of unrest, foreboding, and apprehension of a coming terror were experienced by the people of the North. This fatal shot caused the separation of hitherto devoted families; fathers and sons were arrayed against each other, some in hate, some in sorrow; and even mothers, wives and sisters shared this unholy animosity. All took pronounced sides with North or South, except the “copperheads,” whom all loyal Northerners despised.
General Winfield Scott, the hero of many a hard fought Mexican battle, though quite superannuated, was still in command of the United States armies. Imperative, supercilious, an austere disciplinarian, usually adorned with all the ornamentation of his rank, with chapeau and white plumes, he was, especially when well mounted, a conspicuous figure, quite justifying his sobriquet of “Fuss and Feathers.”
Winfield ScottGENERAL WINFIELD SCOTT
GENERAL WINFIELD SCOTT
In consequence of the secession of South Carolina, on December 20th, 1860, General Anderson, commander of the forts of the harbor of Charleston Bay, evacuated Fort Moultrie six days later.
The “Star of the West,” bringing reinforcements, was fired upon by the Confederates, thus preventing the landing of United States troops.
On April 11th, 1861, General Anderson refused an order to surrender to General Beauregard, who, during the 12th and 13th, ordered a furious bombardment from the surrounding forts upon Fort Sumter. Being unprepared for the attack, General Anderson was compelled to capitulate and to take refuge, with his garrison, on ships outside the harbor. On April 14th, 1861, however, he saved the National flag, which is now carefully preserved in the Museum of the War Department at Washington, no casualties having occurred.
The fort was held by the Confederates till the evacuation of Charleston, February 17th, 1865.
On April 14th, 1865, General Anderson had the happiness to raise the old flag once more, with his own hands, over the demolished fort.
The following extracts from an unpublished letter of John White Chadwick were selected and kindly given me by Mrs. Chadwick.
SOME EXTRACTS FROM AN ACCOUNT OF A TRIPTO CHARLESTON AND BACKON THE OCCASION OF THE RAISING OF THE FLAGON FORT SUMTER AFTER THE CIVIL WAR.
“Land, ho!”When at last it was permitted us to raise this cry, we were indeed a happy company. We entered into the experience of Columbus and Cabot and Balboa. The pilot came on board. He told us, as the pilots always did, to come to anchor, and we obeyed him. And lying there on the still water, in the perfect air, there came another feeling than that of joy. The atmosphere grew heavy with deep thoughts and wonderful associations. Our hearts were softened and our eyes were dashed with sudden tears. In dark and lurid splendor, all the great events of four long, painful years rose up before us. And then again we hoisted anchor and steamed slowly up toward the city in the deepening twilight...................The war ships, lying there like terrible grim monsters, manned their rigging as we passed, and cheered us lustily. But there was something in our throats forbidding us to answer them with equal heartiness.Passing under the battered walls of Sumter, we sang with trembling voices, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.” And to the left was Wagner and the ditch where Colonel Shaw was buried with his dark but trusty men.It happened so, that God in His great mercy, permitted us to be bearers of great tidings to the city—news of the rebellion’s virtual end to this community which saw its mad beginning. Once shouted from our deck, it flew from wharf to wharf, from ship to ship, and was received with shouts of thankful joy. The night shut in over the accursed city as a band upon the wharf played the dear strain “America.” It was a time never to be forgotten, pregnant with thoughts that must remain unspoken. Before I tried to sleep I stepped ashore, and, just for a moment, standing there under the silent stars, thanked God that He had punished awful sin with awful retribution............On Friday, just after ten o’clock, we started for the fort in the steamer “Golden Gate,” which the Government officials kindly placed at our disposal. About the fort the scene was at once beautiful and exciting. There were thirty ships and steamers in its immediate vicinity, and they blossomed all over with flags. And the little boats belonging to the war ships were shooting here and there and everywhere, obedient to the lusty strokes of their stout oarsmen, dressed for the occasion in their very best.We were on shore by half past twelve o’clock, and wandering at will about the tattered mound that had once been Fort Sumter. Indeed they had made “Ossa like a wart.” It had no form or comeliness. It was a perfect heap.......... Anon came General Anderson and Mr. Beecher and the rest. The General’s speech was, for so great an hour, the very smallest possible affair. But when it came to raising the old flag he did hoist away like a good fellow, and it went up right handsomely. The people rose up as one man, and shouted their hurrahs as if they thought to wake the echoes from theSt.Lawrence to the Gulf. And the band played “The Star Spangled Banner” just as if they meant it,—as they did of course. And then from ship and fort the cannon thundered away like mad.......... And when they ceased with their roar Mr. Beecher took it up and thundered, to good purpose, for an hour or more..........Saturday saw William Lloyd Garrison preside over an assembly of two thousand colored people, if not more, in Zion Church, and noble words were spoken which these people did not fail to understand.........From Charleston wharf to Hampton Roads our voyage was pleasant, and the weather very fine........... Going into Hampton Roads, on Tuesday, swiftly and silently over the still water, we saw a vessel with her colors at half mast. Not long after a pilot shouted to us across the waves, from a great distance, that the President was dead. Either we could not or we would not believe it.Another vessel sailed along with drooping colors and told ushow he died. And then the shadow of his death swept down and folded from our sight all of those great and rare experiences which we had been enjoying. It seemed to us that we should never be able to recollect them from that shadow. We went ashore at the great fortress, where his dear feet had been, scarcely a week before, but we had no eyes to see anything.............It had been proposed to go to Portsmouth, Norfolk and to City Point. But we had no heart for it. And so we came together in the cabin and voted that we would go home.JOHN WHITE CHADWICK.
“Land, ho!”
When at last it was permitted us to raise this cry, we were indeed a happy company. We entered into the experience of Columbus and Cabot and Balboa. The pilot came on board. He told us, as the pilots always did, to come to anchor, and we obeyed him. And lying there on the still water, in the perfect air, there came another feeling than that of joy. The atmosphere grew heavy with deep thoughts and wonderful associations. Our hearts were softened and our eyes were dashed with sudden tears. In dark and lurid splendor, all the great events of four long, painful years rose up before us. And then again we hoisted anchor and steamed slowly up toward the city in the deepening twilight...................
The war ships, lying there like terrible grim monsters, manned their rigging as we passed, and cheered us lustily. But there was something in our throats forbidding us to answer them with equal heartiness.
Passing under the battered walls of Sumter, we sang with trembling voices, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.” And to the left was Wagner and the ditch where Colonel Shaw was buried with his dark but trusty men.
It happened so, that God in His great mercy, permitted us to be bearers of great tidings to the city—news of the rebellion’s virtual end to this community which saw its mad beginning. Once shouted from our deck, it flew from wharf to wharf, from ship to ship, and was received with shouts of thankful joy. The night shut in over the accursed city as a band upon the wharf played the dear strain “America.” It was a time never to be forgotten, pregnant with thoughts that must remain unspoken. Before I tried to sleep I stepped ashore, and, just for a moment, standing there under the silent stars, thanked God that He had punished awful sin with awful retribution............
On Friday, just after ten o’clock, we started for the fort in the steamer “Golden Gate,” which the Government officials kindly placed at our disposal. About the fort the scene was at once beautiful and exciting. There were thirty ships and steamers in its immediate vicinity, and they blossomed all over with flags. And the little boats belonging to the war ships were shooting here and there and everywhere, obedient to the lusty strokes of their stout oarsmen, dressed for the occasion in their very best.
We were on shore by half past twelve o’clock, and wandering at will about the tattered mound that had once been Fort Sumter. Indeed they had made “Ossa like a wart.” It had no form or comeliness. It was a perfect heap.......... Anon came General Anderson and Mr. Beecher and the rest. The General’s speech was, for so great an hour, the very smallest possible affair. But when it came to raising the old flag he did hoist away like a good fellow, and it went up right handsomely. The people rose up as one man, and shouted their hurrahs as if they thought to wake the echoes from theSt.Lawrence to the Gulf. And the band played “The Star Spangled Banner” just as if they meant it,—as they did of course. And then from ship and fort the cannon thundered away like mad.......... And when they ceased with their roar Mr. Beecher took it up and thundered, to good purpose, for an hour or more..........
Saturday saw William Lloyd Garrison preside over an assembly of two thousand colored people, if not more, in Zion Church, and noble words were spoken which these people did not fail to understand.........
From Charleston wharf to Hampton Roads our voyage was pleasant, and the weather very fine........... Going into Hampton Roads, on Tuesday, swiftly and silently over the still water, we saw a vessel with her colors at half mast. Not long after a pilot shouted to us across the waves, from a great distance, that the President was dead. Either we could not or we would not believe it.
Another vessel sailed along with drooping colors and told ushow he died. And then the shadow of his death swept down and folded from our sight all of those great and rare experiences which we had been enjoying. It seemed to us that we should never be able to recollect them from that shadow. We went ashore at the great fortress, where his dear feet had been, scarcely a week before, but we had no eyes to see anything.............
It had been proposed to go to Portsmouth, Norfolk and to City Point. But we had no heart for it. And so we came together in the cabin and voted that we would go home.
JOHN WHITE CHADWICK.
The Government called for seventy-five thousand troops on April 15th to put down the rebellion “in ninety days,” according to Secretary Seward’s confident announcement.
On April 19th, the Sixth Regiment of the Massachusetts Brigade, first to respond to the call, was fired upon by a mob while passing through Baltimore, and a number were wounded and some killed.
The Ellsworth Zouaves were enlisted chiefly through the enthusiastic patriotism of young Colonel Ellsworth, who, on arriving at Alexandria with his regiment, saw a Confederate flag flying above a small hotel, and at once ordered the flag hauled down. This was refused, and the indignant boy rashly rushed to the roof, and dared to pull it down himself, when he was shot dead by the rebel owner. Colonel Ellsworth was killed May 24th, 1861. Lincoln’s grief at the death of this daring boy was overwhelming. Ellsworth had studied law with him for a time in his office, and he loved him as a son; and as a son and early martyr of the war, he was laid in state at the White House for funeral services.
War with its untold horrors had begun.
Meanwhile it was becoming evident that President Buchanan had permitted, or had at least become strangely blind to the introduction of foreign ammunition into Southern ports, while the traitor Secretary Floyd, still under oath to the Union, held his office until the last possible moment, encouraging and assisting the South in building forts and, in many ways, accumulating almost openly materials of war.
At last the people awoke to the fact that many southern regiments and garrisons were well equipped for the conflict, while the unsuspecting North was almost wholly unprepared. People had become so accustomed to “fire-eaters’ bluster” and their threats and boastings of the superior prowess of the South that, if they listened at all, it was considered mere political bombast which passed unheeded until war was actually begun.
In November, 1861, General McClellan superceded General Scott, who then retired from active duty, at the age of seventy-five, and died later at the good old age of eighty.
General McClellan began a slow thorough system of discipline, which was very trying to the enthusiasm of volunteer recruits, who soon discovered that to use the pick and shovel were as essential duties as carrying a musket, and were now compelled to work in swamps and trenches throwing up earthworks and entrenchments for many long months.
The impatient public claimed that egotism and ambition prevented General McClellan from moving “on to Richmond,” thus prolonging the war, and his army settled down before the enemy “in masterly inactivity.” During this time many disgruntled soldiers climbed hills and trees and saw the city of Richmond practically defenseless “for three days.” Still he did not move. This large army had lived and worked in earthworks for many weary months, until malaria and dysentery had sent hundreds of incapacitated soldiers North to be cared for. They were among the first bitter fruits of the terrible struggle scarcely yet begun.
McClellanGENERAL GEORGE B. McCLELLAN
GENERAL GEORGE B. McCLELLAN
Not long after the defeat at Bull Run—Manassas,—both sides claimed the victory,—did we for a moment believe that Southern courage was equal to Northern valor in an open conflict, or that the rebellion could not be put down within a few months; and so we stood aghast when the attack under General McDowell failed to put down the rebellion in a single battle.
General Horatio C. King, in his address before the thirty-seventh reunion of the Army of the Potomac, repeated these potent words of General Grant:
“As I recall the interview General Grant spoke in substance as follows: ‘I cannot imagine why any one should conceive for a moment that I would not be glad to work in any capacity with General McClellan. I have known him but little personally since we served together in Mexico, but I have always admired him both as a man and as a soldier, and I am probably under greater obligations to General McClellan than to any one man now living. General McClellan was called to a great command, unfortunately for him too early in the history of the war, when many difficult military and political questions remained unsettled. He and his acts were the subject of wide discussion and unjust criticism, but General McClellan was the man who created the great instrumentality with which I had the honor of closing out the rebellion. General McClellan organized, trained, disciplined, led, and inspired the Army of the Potomac. General McClellan made that army the finest fighting machine of our day, if not of any time. It was his good work in creating that army which enabled me in my turn to accomplish the things for which I received the glory, and for all of which I am grateful to General McClellan.’”