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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

The American Civil War and Reconstruction: people, politics, and power / edited by Jeff
Wallenfeldt.
p. cm.—(America at war)
“In association with Britannica Educational Publishing, Rosen Educational Services.”
ISBN 978-1-61530-045-7 (eBook)
1. United States—History—Civil War, 1861–1865. 2. Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865–1877)
I. Wallenfeldt, Jeffrey H.
E464.A44 2010
973.7—dc22
2009033551

On the cover: The Battle of Port Hudson, a nearly seven-week siege ending in July of 1863,
marked a decisive victory for the Union over the vastly outnumbered Confederates. Library
of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
44

CONTENTS
Introduction 8

Chapter 1: Prelude to War 17


Sectionalism and Slavery 19
A Decade of Political Crises 20
Popular Sovereignty 20
Polarization Over Slavery 22

Chapter 2: The Peculiar Institution 29


Origins of Slavery in the United States 29
The Law and Nature of American Slavery 30
Slave Protest 31
94
Chapter 3: Abolitionism and
Abolitionists 37
Abolitionism 37
Abolitionists 42

Chapter 4: Secession and the Politics


of the Civil War 61
A House Dividing 61
The Confederate States of America 62
The Coming of the War 65
The Political Course of the War 68

Chapter 5: The War: The Big Picture 74


The Military Background of the War 74
The Land War 76
The Naval War 98
The Cost and Significance of the Civil War 101
103

Chapter 6: The War:


Battles Up Close 102
Siege of Fort Sumter 102
First Battle of Bull Run 103
Battle of Wilson’s Creek 104
Battle of Fort Henry 104
Battle of Fort Donelson 105
Battle of Pea Ridge 106
117

Battle of the Monitor and Merrimack 106


Shenandoah Valley Campaigns 107
Mississippi Valley Campaign 108
Peninsular Campaign 109
Battle of Shiloh 109
Battle of New Orleans 110
Battle of Seven Pines 110
Seven Days’ Battles 110
First Battle of Cold Harbor 111
Second Battle of Bull Run 111
Battle of Antietam 112
Battle of Corinth 112
Battle of Perryville 113
Battle of Fredericksburg 113 152
Vicksburg Campaign 114
Battle of Stones River 115
Battle of Chancellorsville 115
Battle of Big Black River 116
Battle of Gettysburg 116
Battle of Chickamauga Creek 118
Battle of Chattanooga 118
Red River Campaign 119
Fort Pillow Massacre 119
Battle of the Wilderness 119
Battle of Spotsylvania Court House 120
Atlanta Campaign 120
Second Battle of Cold Harbor 121
Petersburg Campaign 122
Battle of Mobile Bay 123
Battle of Nashville 123
Last Battles of the Petersburg
Campaign 123 195
Surrender at Appomattox Court House 124

7. Military Leaders 126


The Union 126
The Confederacy 156

8. Non-Military Leaders 177


The Union 177
The Confederacy 218
234

9. The Aftermath 230


The Era of Reconstruction 230
Key Players in the Reconstruction 238
The South During Reconstruction 245
Reconstruction in Retrospect 250

Glossary 251
Bibliography 253
Index 255

240

242
INTRODUCTION
Introduction | 9

A lthough the Civil War is the best


known conflict on American soil,
it is by no means an isolated episode of
aspects of the Civil War than any other
American conflict. This book, beginning
with the precursors to war and continu-
violence. Consider the history of North ing through the rocky period of
America. From the arrival of European Reconstruction, provides readers with a
explorers, historical records report complete, concise, and detailed picture
skirmishes with Native Americans. As of the War between the States.
settlers built colonies, friction with The truth is, there are any number of
native peoples defending their land reasons why the Civil War remains such
eventually ended with assimilation or a seminal event in American history.
banishment to reservations. Europeans This makes sense, given that the rea-
fought with other Europeans over terri- sons for the war itself also are more
tory. Eventually, thirteen colonies went complicated than any single issue. What’s
to war with their parent country of Great more, the last shots fired did not end the
Britain, resulting in the founding of the struggle as quickly or as easily as many
United States of America. history books might suggest.
And yet it is the conflict between The American Civil War is inextri-
Northern and Southern states in the cably linked with slavery, an issue that
1860s that most readily captures the pub- has deep roots in the United States.
lic’s attention and fires the imagination. Slaves had arrived with settlers as
Perhaps the fascination with the Civil early as 1619, and their labour in the
War is due to the concept that a young fertile soil of the South helped a nation
country, recently united against a com- become prosperous. The right to own
mon enemy, was now at odds with itself. slaves was a sticking point during
No other conflict has ever so divided the the Constitutional Convention of 1787.
country, pitting state against state, fam- While creating a document that would
ily against family, friend against friend. name the powers and duties of the gov-
Maybe the grand scale of carnage is as ernment of the new nation, the question
compelling as it is tragic. More American of what rights individual states should
lives were lost during the four years of maintain came into play. Did the states’
the American Civil War than in any other powers include authority over the slav-
war in U.S. history. And arguably, more ery issue? This question would be
has been written about the various revisited again and again. Considering

A reenactment of the Battle of Cedar Creek, Va., staged on the site of the original battle, which
took place October 19, 1864. The Union victories in the Shenandoah Campaign of 1864 marked
the beginning of the end for the Confederates. © www.istockphoto.com/Dennis Guyitt
10 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

that the conflict over slavery had been economy. In 1790, the South produced
brewing as early as the writing of the about 3,000 bales of cotton per year, a
U.S. Constitution, it is surprising that bale weighing about 500 pounds. By
this issue, for which many were willing 1860, an annual crop of over 3.8 million
to give their lives, did not boil into an bales was a staple of the Southern
all-out war until 1861. economy. During this time, the number
Indeed, the Founding Fathers had of slaves rose from about 650,000 to
worried that focusing on slavery would 3.8 million.
divide the newly created country, so they Slavery was an institution so well
did nothing to end the practice. Instead, integrated into the Southern lifestyle that
they trusted that a stronger, more stable the thought that it would cease to exist
government in the future would resolve was next to impossible for many to imag-
the matter. Thomas Jefferson stated: ine. Some believed that the loss of slaves
“Nothing is more certainly written in would ruin the Southern economy, its
the book of fate than that these people politics, and the very structure of its soci-
are to be freed.” Although the repre- ety. To some, it was only natural that two
sentatives believed they had avoided separate nations should exist if a single
argument, they had actually watered government could not make decisions to
the seeds of the conflict that would support both economies.
entangle their descendants. Likely, they Congress made attempts to bal-
did not realize that this judgment would ance the needs of the North and South
push the country beyond legislative fixes and the number of slave and free states.
and into the bloodiest conflict ever on In 1820, Congress passed the Missouri
American soil. Compromise (also known as the Com-
As the United States matured, slav- promise of 1820) to create a nation of
ery helped shape the basic economic twelve slave states and twelve free states.
differences and interests of the lands In addition, the compromise stated that
above and below the Mason-Dixon Line. any state formed from the Louisiana
The North, with its colder climate and Territory above the 36° 30' latitude line,
natural harbours, became increasingly with the exception of Missouri, would be
industrial with an economy based on a free state. Later, the Compromise of
manufacturing, trade, and transporta- 1850 introduced a concept called popular
tion. A steady workforce was supplied sovereignty, which allowed individual
by large numbers of European immi- states to decide if slavery would be per-
grants. By contrast, the South had few mitted within their borders.
cities or centres of manufacturing. Attached to the Compromise of 1850
Instead, large plantations that relied was the Fugitive Slave Act, which called
on slavery dominated the agricultural for citizens to turn in runaway slaves.
Introduction | 11

Illustration depicting federal troops entering the arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Va., which was
defended by John Brown’s men. Kean Collection/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

The law also took away an escaped slave’s Compromises and concessions never
right to a trial. Because of this act, many seemed to be enough, however. Pockets
fugitive slaves, as well as free blacks, of crisis arose. The Kansas-Nebraska
were transported from the North to the Act of 1854 introduced two new states
South. The Fugitive Slave Act gave rise into the union. Popular sovereignty dic-
to a renewed urgency and fervour in the tated that these new states could
Underground Railroad. With the help of determine their own fate when it came
“conductors” such as Harriet Tubman, to the question of slavery. Both pro-
slaves were directed through a network slavery and antislavery voters in Kansas
of routes out of the slave-holding South and Nebraska rushed to the polls. Rather
and into freedom in the North. than aiding in a peaceful democratic
12 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

resolution, the voting erupted into vio- The political will of the North was
lence. Skirmishes broke out along the embodied in lawyer, politician, and abo-
Kansas-Missouri border. The episode, litionist Abraham Lincoln; that of the
which New York newspaper reporter South in the reluctantly secessionist
Horace Greeley dubbed “Bleeding Jefferson Davis. The election of the
Kansas,” was yet another instance of vio- former was directly responsible for the
lence escalating tensions between free ascension to power of the latter. On
and slave states. March 4, 1861, Lincoln emphasized in his
The role of media in spreading ideas inaugural speech that he wished to pre-
prior to the Civil War should not be serve the Union, not to abolish slavery.
understated. William Lloyd Garrison’s However, the Confederacy was already
abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator, and established and war inevitable.
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle From the beginning, the resources
Tom’s Cabin led to more support for of the Union far outweighed those of the
ending slavery. In addition, Frederick Confederacy. However, military strat-
Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of egy and sheer force of will would fortify
Frederick Douglass gave the public the Confederate forces in many victo-
a true account of the life of a slave. As a ries. On April 12, 1861, the first show of
reactionary measure, angry Southerners power took place when the Confederates
wrote as well. In their articles and books, began shelling the federally held Fort
slaves were depicted as being happier Sumter in South Carolina. The conflict
with their lives in the fields than poor, suf- many feared had begun.
fering Northern white factory workers. Most of the Civil War battles took
Memorable civilian figures surfaced place in the states along the border
from the turbulence in the pre–Civil War between the Union and the Confederacy.
period. Dred Scott, the slave who unsuc- In July 1861, the First Battle of Bull Run in
cessfully sued his owner for his freedom, Virginia strengthened the confidence of
brought the states’ rights issue over slav- the South and reflected that the war would
ery to the forefront of national matters. not be easily won. In fact, the Union would
With his raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859, not make much headway against
John Brown’s actions foreshadowed the Confederate forces until May 1862 at the
violence that would erupt on a grand Battle of Seven Pines. Union General
scale across the nation. George McClellan, leader of the eastern

Abolitionist pamphlet, published in 1762. MPI/Hulton Archive/Getty Images


Introduction | 13
14 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

forces, was frequently hesitant to strike. the public that the Union would never
Confederate General Robert E. Lee often “perish from the earth.”
counteracted with surprise and swift- Areas west of the Appalachian
ness to dismantle Union forces, as at the Mountains also hosted many crucial
Second Battle of Bull Run in August battles. General Ulysses S. Grant’s forces
1862. (Lee, a remarkable leader, had focused on capturing Confederate forts,
been against secession; he fought to waterways, and supplies. Some in the
defend his native state of Virginia. His North called Grant “a butcher” after an
motivations were not unique among estimated one out of four men died in
Confederate leaders.) Tennessee at the Battle of Shiloh in April
Lee next took his Confederates into 1862. Lincoln, though, admired his cour-
Maryland, the first attempt to capture age: “I can’t spare this man. He fights.”
territory in a Union state. McClellan Not until the Union surrounded
stopped him at Sharpsburg, Md., on Petersburg, Va., the rail centre that pro-
Antietam Creek. On September 17, the vided supplies to Richmond, did Grant,
two forces clashed in one of the most who had taken command of the Union
deadly days in the war, ending in a very army following his successful Vicksburg
slim Northern victory. President Lincoln campaign, gain the final advantage over
chose this time to issue the Emancipation Lee. The Siege of Petersburg began in
Proclamation, stating that all slaves in June 1864. Without supplies, Confederates
the Confederate states would be “forever suffered not only from a lack of food but
free” as of Jan. 1, 1863. He hoped this also a lack of hope. Across the nation,
would weaken the Southern economy the Union forces swelled while the
and encourage blacks to help the Confederate army dwindled. Lee had no
Northern effort. choice but to surrender at Appomattox
In late May 1863, General Lee and his Court House, Va., on April 9, 1865. The
forces moved into Union territory. At the war, in efffect, was over.
beginning of July, they suffered a loss at Abraham Lincoln then turned to the
Gettysburg, Pa., that changed the South’s Herculean task of reuniting and rebuild-
fortunes. On July 3, the third day of the ing the nation. Though this period is
Battle of Gettysburg, 15,000 Confederates called Reconstruction, Lincoln preferred
attacked the Union army’s centre forma- the term “Reconciliation” because he
tion. Only about half of these Confederate knew winning the hearts of the secession-
soldiers survived “Pickett’s Charge.” Lee ists was imperative. However, five days
was never again to march into Union ter- after Lee’s surrender, Lincoln was assas-
ritory. Abraham Lincoln commemorated sinated. It was left to Southern sympathizer
this victory with the Gettysburg Address— Andrew Johnson, the vice president, to
both honouring the dead and assuring carry on the process.
Introduction | 15

After the Radical Republicans began Many countries that engage in civil
directing Reconstruction following their war do not emerge whole. Lingering dif-
sweeping election victory in 1866, the ferences demand that separate nations
South (with the exception of Tennessee) be set up. Bearing in mind the expanse of
came under military administration. The the American conflict—fought both east
former Confederate states were permit- and west of the Appalachian Mountains—
ted to rejoin the Union only after passing the continuation of the Union after the
the Fourteenth, or if readmitted after its war was an even greater and more impres-
passage, the Fifteenth constitutional sive feat—one that required millions of
Amendment, intended to ensure the civil Americans to pledge allegiance to their
rights of freedmen after the Thirteenth country, rather than their state. It was a
Amendment abolished slavery. Millions feat that required accepting former slaves
of former slaves were now free, but the as citizens, ultimately paving the way for
road to equality was a long one, and civil rights. It was a feat that ultimately
blacks continued to suffer great hardship became Abraham Lincoln’s legacy, and
in the postwar years. salve for a wounded nation.
CHAPTER 1
Prelude to War

B efore the Civil War, the United States experienced a


whole generation of nearly unremitting political crisis.
Underlying the problem was the fact that America in the
early 19th century had been a country, not a nation. The
major functions of government—those relating to education,
transportation, health, and public order—were performed on
the state or local level, and little more than a loose allegiance
to the government in Washington, D.C., a few national insti-
tutions such as churches and political parties, and a shared
memory of the Founding Fathers of the republic tied the
country together. Within this loosely structured society
every section, every state, every locality, every group could
pretty much go its own way.
Gradually, however, changes in technology and in the
economy were bringing all the elements of the country into
steady and close contact. Improvements in transportation—
first canals, then toll roads, and especially railroads—broke
down isolation and encouraged the boy from the country to
wander to the city, the farmer from New Hampshire to migrate
to Iowa. Improvements in the printing press, which permitted
the publication of penny newspapers, and the development of
the telegraph system broke through the barriers of intellec-
tual provincialism and made everybody almost instantaneously
aware of what was going on throughout the country. As the
railroad network proliferated, it had to have central direction
18 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

and control; and national railroad corpo- change—especially immigrants, who


rations—the first true “big businesses” in seemed to personify the forces that were
the United States—emerged to provide altering the older America. Vigorous
order and stability. nativist movements appeared in most
For many Americans the wrench cities during the 1840s; but not until the
from a largely rural, slow-moving, frag- 1850s, when the huge numbers of Irish
mented society in the early 1800s to a and German immigrants of the previous
bustling, integrated, national social order decade became eligible to vote, did the
in the mid-century was an abrupt and antiforeign fever reach its peak. Directed
painful one, and they often resisted it. both against immigrants and against the
Sometimes resentment against change Roman Catholic church, to which so
manifested itself in harsh attacks on many of them belonged, the so-called
those who appeared to be the agents of Know-Nothings emerged as a powerful

In Focus: Know-Nothing Party


Formally known as the American Party, the Know-Nothing party flourished in the 1850s as an out-
growth of the strong anti-immigrant and especially anti–Roman Catholic sentiment that started to
manifest itself during the 1840s. A rising tide of immigrants, primarily Germans in the Midwest and
Irish in the East, seemed to pose a threat to the economic and political security of native-born
Protestant Americans. In 1849 the secret Order of the Star-Spangled Banner formed in New York
City, and soon after lodges formed in nearly every other major American city.
Members, when asked about their nativist organizations, were supposed to reply that they
knew nothing, hence the name. As its membership and importance grew in the 1850s, the group
slowly shed its clandestine character and embraced its official name. As a national political
entity, the American Party called for restrictions on immigration, the exclusion of the foreign-
born from voting or holding public office in the United States, and a 21-year residency requirement
for citizenship.
By 1852 the Know-Nothing party was achieving phenomenal growth. It did very well that year
in state and local elections, and with passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 it won addi-
tional adherents from the ranks of conservatives who could support neither the pro-slavery
Democrats nor antislavery Republicans. When Congress assembled on Dec. 3, 1855, 43 representa-
tives were avowed members of the Know-Nothing party.
That, however, was the peak of Know-Nothing power. At the American Party convention in
Philadelphia the following year, the party split along sectional lines over the pro-slavery platform
pushed through by Southern delegates. Party presidential candidate Millard Fillmore carried
just one state (Maryland) in the 1856 election, and congressional strength dropped to 12
representatives.
Prelude to War | 19

Caught in the sectional strife disrupting all national institutions, the American Party fell apart
after 1856. Antislavery Know-Nothings joined the Republican Party, while Southern members
flocked to the pro-slavery banner still held aloft by the Democratic Party. By 1859 the American
Party’s strength was largely confined to the border states. In 1860 remnants of the Know-Nothings
joined old-line Whigs to form the Constitutional Union Party, nominating John Bell of Tennessee
for president. Bell finished fourth in popular votes in the four-man contest of that year, won by the
Republican Abraham Lincoln.
Two other groups that took the name American Party appeared in the 1870s and ’80s. One of
these, organized in California in 1886, proposed a briefly popular platform calling mainly for the
exclusion of Chinese and other Asians from industrial employment.

political force in 1854, increasing the sugar, and, especially, by the persistence
resistance to change. of slavery, which had been abolished or
prohibited in all other parts of the United
SECTIONALISM AND SLAVERY States. It should not be thought that all or
even most white Southerners were
A more enduring manifestation of hostil- directly involved in the section’s “pecu-
ity toward the nationalizing tendencies liar institution.” Indeed, in 1850 there
in American life was the reassertion of were only 347,525 slaveholders in a total
strong feelings of sectional loyalty. New white population of about 6,000,000 in
Englanders felt threatened by the West, the slave states. Half of these Southerners
which drained off the ablest and most owned four slaves or fewer and could not
vigorous members of the labour force. be considered planters. In the entire
Further, once the railroad network was South there were fewer than 1,800 per-
complete, western states produced wool sons who owned more than 100 slaves.
and grain that undersold the products of Nevertheless, slavery did give a dis-
the poor New England hill country. The tinctive tone to the whole pattern of
West, too, developed a strong sectional Southern life. If the large planters were
feeling, blending a sense of its unique- few, they were also wealthy, prestigious,
ness, a feeling of being looked down on and powerful; often they were the politi-
as raw and uncultured, and an awareness cal as well as the economic leaders of
that it was being exploited by the busi- their section; and their values pervaded
nessmen of the East. every stratum of Southern society. Far
The most conspicuous and distinc- from opposing slavery, small farmers
tive section, however, was the South—an thought only of the possibility that they
area set apart by climate, by a plantation too might, with hard work and good for-
system designed for the production of tune, some day join the ranks of the
such staple crops as cotton, tobacco, and planter class—to which they were closely
20 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

connected by ties of blood, marriage, been possible to reconcile or ignore


and friendship. Behind this virtually them because distances were great,
unanimous support of slavery lay the communication was difficult, and the
universal belief—shared by many whites powerless national government had
in the North and West as well—that almost nothing to do. The revolution in
blacks were an innately inferior people transportation and communication,
who had risen only to a state of barba- however, eliminated much of the isola-
rism in their native Africa and who tion, and the victory of the United States
could live in a civilized society only if in its brief war with Mexico left the
disciplined through slavery. Though by national government with problems that
1860 there were in fact about 250,000 required action.
free blacks in the South, most Southern
whites resolutely refused to believe that POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY
the slaves, if freed, could ever coexist
peacefully with their former masters. The Compromise of 1850 was an uneasy
With shuddering horror, they pointed to patchwork of concessions to all sides that
a number of incidents—an insurrection began to fall apart as soon as it was
of blacks that had occurred in Santo enacted. In the long run, the principle of
Domingo; a brief slave rebellion led by popular sovereignty proved to be most
the African American Gabriel in unsatisfactory of all, making each terri-
Virginia in 1800; a plot of Charleston, tory a battleground where the supporters
South Carolina, blacks headed by of the South contended with the defend-
Denmark Vesey in 1822; and, especially, ers of the North and West.
a bloody and determined Virginia insur- The seriousness of those conflicts
rection led by Nat Turner in 1831—as became clear in 1854, when Stephen A.
evidence that African Americans had to Douglas introduced his Kansas bill in
be kept under iron control. Facing Congress, establishing a territorial gov-
increasing opposition to slavery outside ernment for the vast region that lay
their section, Southerners developed an between the Missouri River and the
elaborate pro-slavery argument, defend- Rocky Mountains. In the Senate, the bill
ing the institution on biblical, economic, was amended to create not one but two
and sociological grounds. territories—Kansas and Nebraska—from
the part of the Louisiana Purchase from
A DECADE OF which the Missouri Compromise of
POLITICAL CRISES 1820 had forever excluded slavery.
Douglas, who was unconcerned over
In the early years of the republic, sec- the moral issue of slavery and desirous
tional differences existed, but it had of getting on with the settling of the
Prelude to War | 21

West and the construction of a trans- through the Compromise of 1850).


continental railroad, knew that the Accordingly, Douglas thought that
Southern senators would block the the doctrine of popular sovereignty,
organization of Kansas as a free terri- which had been applied to the territo-
tory. Recognizing that the North and ries gained from Mexico, would avoid
West had outstripped their section in a political contest over the Kansas
population and hence in the House territory: it would permit Southern
of Representatives, Southerners clung slaveholders to move into the area, but,
desperately to an equality of votes in as the region was unsuited for planta-
the Senate and were not disposed to tion slavery, it would inevitably result
welcome any new free territories, which in the formation of additional free states.
would inevitably become additional His bill therefore allowed the inhabi-
free states (as California had done tants of the territory self-government in

In Focus: Compromise of 1850


On Dec. 3, 1849, the territory of California requested admittance to the Union with a constitution
prohibiting slavery. This request brought to a head several outstanding issues related to slavery,
creating a crisis that threatened dissolution of the Union. Among the problems was the unresolved
question of slavery’s extension into other areas ceded by Mexico the preceding year.
To maintain an even balance between free and slave states, a series of measures was offered by
the “great compromiser,” Sen. Henry Clay of Kentucky. In an attempt to give satisfaction to both
pro-slavery and antislavery forces, the important sections of the omnibus bill that resulted called
for the admission of California as a free state, the organization of the territories of New Mexico and
Utah with the slavery question left open, settlement of the Texas–New Mexico boundary dispute, a
more rigorous provision for the return of runaway slaves, and the prohibition of the slave trade in
the District of Columbia.
With the influential support of Sen. Daniel Webster and the concerted unifying efforts of Sen.
Stephen A. Douglas, the five compromise measures were enacted in September. These measures
were accepted by moderates in all sections of the country, and the secession of the South was post-
poned for a decade. The Compromise, however, contained the seeds of future discord. The precedent
of popular sovereignty led to a demand for a similar provision for the Kansas Territory in 1854,
causing bitterness and violence there. Furthermore, the application of the new Fugitive Slave Act
triggered such a strong reaction throughout the North that many moderate antislavery elements
became determined opponents of any further extension of slavery into the territories. While the
Compromise of 1850 succeeded as a temporary expedient, it also proved the failure of compromise
as a permanent political solution when vital sectional interests were at stake.
22 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

all matters of domestic importance, conservative businessmen of the North


including the slavery issue. This provi- and West with the planters of the South,
sion in effect allowed the territorial divided and virtually disappeared after
legislatures to mandate slavery in their the election of 1852. When Douglas’s bill
areas and was directly contrary to the opened up slavery to Kansas and
Missouri Compromise. With the back- Nebraska—land that had long been
ing of Pres. Franklin Pierce (served reserved for the westward expansion of
1853–57), Douglas bullied, wheedled, the free states—Northerners began to
and bluffed congressmen into passing organize into an antislavery political
his bill. party, called in some states the Anti-
Nebraska Democratic Party, in others
POLARIZATION the People’s Party, but in most places,
OVER SLAVERY the Republican Party.

Sectional differences Bleeding Kansas

Northern sensibilities were outraged. Events of the mid-1850s further exacer-


Although disliking slavery, Northerners bated relations between the sections,
had made few efforts to change the strengthening this new party. Sponsors
South’s “peculiar institution” so long as of the Kansas-Nebraska Act (May 30,
the republic was loosely articulated. 1854) expected its provisions for territo-
(Indeed, when William Lloyd Garrison rial self-government to arrest the
began his Liberator in 1831, urging the “torrent of fanaticism” that had been
immediate and unconditional emanci- dividing the nation regarding the slav-
pation of all slaves, he had only a tiny ery issue. Instead, a small civil war
following, and a few years later he had erupted between pro-slavery and anti-
actually been mobbed in Boston.) But slavery advocates for control of the new
with the sections, perforce, being drawn territory of Kansas under the doctrine of
closely together, Northerners could no popular sovereignty. Free-soil forces
longer profess indifference to the South from the North formed armed emigrant
and its institutions. Sectional differ- associations to populate Kansas, while
ences, centring on the issue of slavery, pro-slavery advocates poured over the
began to appear in every American border from Missouri. Regulating asso-
institution. During the 1840s the major ciations and guerrilla bands were
national religious denominations, such formed by each side, and only the inter-
as the Methodists and the Presbyterians, vention of the Governor prevented
split over the slavery question. The violence in the Wakarusa War, launched
Whig Party, which had once allied the in December 1855 over the murder of an
Prelude to War | 23

antislavery settler. On May 21, 1856, The Dred Scott Decision


“Bleeding Kansas” became a fact with
the Sack of Lawrence, in which a pro- The next year the U.S. Supreme Court
slavery mob swarmed into the town of hear a case that would have a profound
Lawrence and wrecked and burned the impact on the debate over slavery, Dred
hotel and newspaper office in an effort Scott v. John F. A. Sandford.
to wipe out this “hotbed of abolition- Dred Scott was a slave who was
ism.” The next day, the U.S. Capitol owned by Dr. John Emerson of Missouri.
became the site of violence when Preston In 1834 Emerson, because of his service
S. Brooks, a South Carolina congress- in the U.S. military, undertook a series of
man, brutally attacked Sen. Charles moves, taking Scott from Missouri (a
Sumner of Massachusetts at his desk in slave state) to Illinois (a free state) and
the Senate chamber because he had
presumably insulted the Carolinian’s
“honour” in a speech he had given in
support of Kansas abolitionists. On May
24, back in Kansas, an antislavery band
led by John Brown retaliated in the
Pottawatomie Massacre. Periodic blood-
shed along the border followed as the
two factions fought battles, captured
towns, and set prisoners free. A political
struggle to determine the future state’s
position on slavery ensued, centred on
the Lecompton Constitution proposed
in 1857. The question would not be set-
tled until Kansas was admitted as a free
state in January 1861, but, meanwhile,
“Bleeding Kansas” had furnished the
newly formed Republican Party with a
much needed antislavery issue.
The 1856 presidential election made
it clear that voting was becoming polar-
ized along sectional lines. Though James
Buchanan, the Democratic nominee, was
Dred Scott. Library of Congress,
elected, John C. Frémont, the Republican
Washington, D.C. (digital file no.
candidate, received a majority of the 3a08411u)
votes in the free states.
24 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

finally into the Wisconsin Territory (a reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which
free territory under the provisions of the announced its decision on March 6, 1857,
Missouri Compromise). During this just two days after the inauguration of
period, Scott met and married Harriet Pres. James Buchanan.
Robinson, who became attached to the Though each justice wrote a sepa-
Emerson household. In the early 1840s rate opinion, Chief Justice Roger B.
Dr. Emerson, along with his wife (whom Taney’s opinion is most often cited on
he had married in 1838), and the Scotts account of its far-reaching implications
returned to Missouri, and Dr. Emerson for the sectional crisis. As one of the
died in 1843. seven justices denying Scott his free-
Dred Scott reportedly attempted to dom (two dissented), Taney declared
purchase his freedom from Emerson’s that an African American could not be
widow, who refused the sale. In 1846, with entitled to rights as a U.S. citizen, such
the help of antislavery lawyers, Harriet as the right to sue in federal courts. In
and Dred Scott filed individual lawsuits fact, Taney wrote, African Americans
for their freedom in the Missouri state had “no rights which any white man was
courts, arguing that their residence in a bound to respect.” The decision might
free state and a free territory had liber- have ended there, with the dismissal of
ated them from the bonds of slavery. It Scott’s appeal. But Taney and the other
was later agreed that only Dred’s case justices in the majority went on to
would move forward, though the decision declare that the Missouri Compromise
in that case would apply to Harriet’s case of 1820 (which had forbidden slavery in
as well. that part of the Louisiana Purchase
Dred Scott v. Irene Emerson took north of the latitude 36°30', except for
years to reach a definitive decision. The Missouri) was unconstitutional because
case was initially filed in the Saint Louis Congress had no power to prohibit slav-
Circuit Court. In 1850 a lower court ery in the territories. Slaves were
declared Scott free, but the verdict was property, and masters were guaranteed
overturned in 1852 by the Missouri their property rights under the Fifth
Supreme Court. Mrs. Emerson soon left Amendment. Neither Congress nor a
Missouri and gave control of her late hus- territorial legislature could deprive a
band’s estate to her brother, John F. A. citizen of his property without due pro-
Sanford, a resident of New York; his last cess of law. As for Scott’s temporary
name was incorrectly spelled Sandford residence in a free state, Illinois, the
on court documents. Because Sanford majority said that Scott had still been
was not subject to suit in Missouri, Scott’s subject then to Missouri law.
lawyers filed a suit against him in the The decision—only the second time
U.S. federal courts. The case eventually in the country’s history that the Supreme
Prelude to War | 25

Court declared an act of Congress


unconstitutional—was a clear victory for
the slaveholding South. Southerners
had argued that both Congress and the
territorial legislature were powerless to
exclude slavery from a territory. Only a
state could exclude slavery, they main-
tained. This seemed a mortal blow to
the Republican Party. It also forced
Stephen A. Douglas , advocate of popu-
lar sovereignty, to come up with a
method (the “ Freeport Doctrine”)
whereby settlers could actually ban
slavery from their midst. President
Buchanan, the South, and the majority
of the Supreme Court hoped that the
Dred Scott decision would mark the end
of antislavery agitation. Instead, the
decision increased antislavery senti-
ment in the North, strengthened the
Republican Party, and fed the sectional
antagonism that burst into war in 1861.
(The Scotts were later bought by the
Blow family, who had sold Dred Scott to
Dr. Emerson, and they were freed in
1857. Dred Scott died of tuberculosis the
following year. Little is known of Harriet
Scott’s life after that time.)

An Irrepressible Conflict?

By this point many Americans, North


and South, had come to the conclusion
Newspaper notice for a pamphlet on that slavery and freedom could not
the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dred Scott much longer coexist in the United States.
decision. Library of Congress (ng. No. For Southerners the answer was with-
LC-USZ62-132561) drawal from a Union that no longer
protected their rights and interests; they
26 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

had talked of it as early as the Nashville Republican of New York, spoke of an


Convention of 1850, when the compro- “irrepressible confl ict” between free-
mise measures were under consideration, dom and slavery; and in Illinois a rising
and now more and more Southerners Republican politician, Abraham Lincoln ,
favoured secession. who unsuccessfully contested Douglas
For Northerners the remedy was to for a seat in the Senate, announced that
change the social institutions of the “this government cannot endure, per-
South; few advocated immediate or manently half slave and half free.”
complete emancipation of the slaves, That it was not possible to end the
but many felt that the South’s “peculiar agitation over slavery became further
institution” must be contained. In apparent in 1859 when on the night of
1858 William H. Seward , the leading October 16, John Brown, who had escaped

In Focus: Lincoln-Douglas Debates

A series of seven debates were held between Democratic senator Stephen A. Douglas and Republican
challenger Abraham Lincoln during the 1858 Illinois senatorial campaign, largely concerning the
issue of slavery extension into the territories.
The slavery extension question had seemingly been settled by the Missouri Compromise nearly
40 years earlier. The Mexican War, however, had added new territories, and the issue flared up
again in the 1840s. The Compromise of 1850 provided a temporary respite from sectional strife, but
the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854—a measure Douglas sponsored—brought the slavery extension
issue to the fore once again. Douglas’s bill in effect repealed the Missouri Compromise by lifting the
ban against slavery in territories north of the 36°30' latitude. In place of the ban, Douglas offered
popular sovereignty, the doctrine that the actual settlers in the territories and not Congress should
decide the fate of slavery in their midst.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act spurred the creation of the Republican Party, formed largely to keep
slavery out of the western territories. Both Douglas’s doctrine of popular sovereignty and the
Republican stand on free soil were seemingly invalidated by the Dred Scott decision of 1857, in
which the Supreme Court said that neither Congress nor the territorial legislature could exclude
slavery from a territory.
When Lincoln and Douglas debated the slavery extension issue in 1858, therefore, they were
addressing the problem that had divided the nation into two hostile camps, threatening the
continued existence of the Union. Their contest, as a consequence, had repercussions far beyond
determining who would win the senatorial seat at stake.
When Lincoln received the Republican nomination to run against Douglas, he said in his
acceptance speech that “a house divided against itself cannot stand” and that “this government
Prelude to War | 27

cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.” Douglas thereupon attacked Lincoln as
a radical, threatening the continued stability of the Union. Lincoln then challenged Douglas to a
series of debates, and the two eventually agreed to hold joint encounters in seven Illinois congres-
sional districts.
The debates, each three hours long, were convened in Ottawa (August 21), Freeport (August
27), Jonesboro (September 15), Charleston (September 18), Galesburg (October 7), Quincy
(October 13), and Alton (October 15). Douglas repeatedly tried to brand Lincoln as a dangerous
radical who advocated racial equality and disruption of the Union. Lincoln emphasized the
moral iniquity of slavery and attacked popular sovereignty for the bloody results it had produced
in Kansas.
At Freeport Lincoln challenged Douglas to reconcile popular sovereignty with the Dred Scott
decision. Douglas replied that settlers could circumvent the decision by not establishing the local
police regulations—i.e., a slave code—that protected a master’s property. Without such protection,
no one would bring slaves into a territory. This became known as the “Freeport Doctrine.”
Douglas’s position, while acceptable to many Northern Democrats, angered the South and led
to the division of the last remaining national political institution, the Democratic Party. Although
he retained his seat in the Senate, narrowly defeating Lincoln when the state legislature (which
then elected U.S. senators) voted 54 to 46 in his favour, Douglas’s stature as a national leader of the
Democratic Party was gravely diminished. Lincoln, on the other hand, lost the election but won
acclaim as an eloquent spokesman for the Republican cause.

punishment for the Pottawatomie mas- The presidential election of 1860


sacre, staged a raid on Harpers Ferry, occurred, therefore, in an atmosphere of
Virginia (now in West Virginia), designed great tension. Southerners, determined
to free the slaves and to help them begin that their rights should be guaranteed by
a guerrilla war against the Southern law, insisted upon a Democratic candi-
whites. Even though Brown was promptly date willing to protect slavery in the
captured and Virginia slaves gave little territories. They rejected Stephen A.
heed to his appeals, Southerners feared Douglas, whose popular-sovereignty
that this was the beginning of organized doctrine left the question in doubt, in
Northern efforts to undermine their favour of John C. Breckinridge. Douglas,
social system. The fact that Brown was backed by most of the Northern and bor-
viewed by many as a fanatic and an der-state Democrats, ran on a separate
inept strategist whose actions were Democratic ticket. Elderly conservatives,
considered questionable even by most who deplored all agitation of the sectional
abolitionists did not lessen Northern questions but advanced no solutions,
admiration for him. offered John Bell as candidate of the
28 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

View of the town of Harpers Ferry, now in West Virginia, and railroad bridge. Library of
Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-B8171-7187 DLC)

Constitutional Union Party. Republicans, along markedly sectional patterns, with


confident of success, passed over the Republican strength confined almost
claims of Seward, who had accumulated completely to the North and West.
too many liabilities in his long public Though Lincoln received only a plurality
career, nominating Lincoln instead. of the popular vote, he was an easy win-
Voting in the subsequent election was ner in the electoral college.
CHAPTER 2
The Peculiar
Institution
ORIGINS OF
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES

B etween the 16th and 19th centuries an estimated total of


12 million Africans were forcibly brought to the Circum-
Caribbean world—that is, to the islands of the Caribbean and
to South and North America. Slaves first were brought to
Virginia in 1619. Subsequently, Africans were transshipped
to North America from the Caribbean in increasing num-
bers. Initially, however, the English relied primarily on
indentured servants from the mother country for their depen-
dent labour. But in the two decades of the 1660s and 1670s
the laws of slave ownership were clarified (for example,
Africans who converted to Christianity no longer had to be
manumitted), and the price of servants may have increased
because of rising wage rates in prospering England; soon
thereafter African slaves replaced English indentured labour-
ers. Tobacco initially was the profitable crop that occupied
most slaves in the Chesapeake. The invention of the cotton
gin by Eli Whitney in 1793 changed the situation, and there-
after cotton culture created a huge demand for slaves,
especially after the opening of the New South (Alabama,
Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas). By 1850, nearly two-thirds
of the plantation slaves were engaged in the production of
cotton. Cotton could be grown profitably on smaller plots
30 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

than could sugar, with the result that in American South, the principle that the
1860 the average cotton plantation had tenure of slavery should be limited was
only about 35 slaves, not all of whom pro- almost completely ignored.
duced cotton. During the reign of “King Because England had no law regard-
Cotton,” about 40 percent of the Southern ing slavery from which to borrow, the
population consisted of black slaves; the English colonies in the Caribbean and
percentage of slaves rose as high as 64 North America were free to create their
percent in South Carolina in 1720 and 55 own. The first code established was that
percent in Mississippi in 1810 and 1860. of Barbados of 1688, whose origins are
More than 36 percent of all the New unknown. It was imitated by the South
World slaves in 1825 were in the southern Carolina code of 1740. Beginning with
United States. Like Rome and the Sokoto Virginia in 1662, each colony in North
caliphate, the South was totally trans- America worked out its own ex post
formed by the presence of slavery. Slavery facto law of slavery before indepen-
generated profits comparable to those dence, a process that continued after the
from other investments and was only creation of the United States and until
ended as a consequence of the American the Civil War. Slavery was mentioned
Civil War. only three times and referred to at most
10 times (and then only indirectly) in
THE LAW AND NATURE the antebellum U.S. Constitution, and,
OF AMERICAN SLAVERY except for a handful of measures on fugi-
tives, there was no federal slave law.
By definition slavery must be sanctioned The basic protection for the institution
by the society in which it exists, and of slavery was the Tenth Amendment of
such approval is most easily expressed 1791, the reserved powers clause, which
in written norms or laws. Both slave- left the issue of slavery and other mat-
owning and slave societies that were ters to the states.
part of the major cultural traditions bor- The master–slave relationship was
rowed some of their laws about slavery the cornerstone of the law of slavery in
from the religious texts of their respec- all societies, and yet it was an area about
tive civilizations. While the Hebrew which the law often said very little. A
Bible prescribed that Hebrew slaves were major touchstone of the nature of a slave
to be manumitted after six years (Exodus society was whether or not the owner had
21:2; Deuteronomy 15:12) and many the right to kill his slave, and in many
Islamic slave-owning societies adhered parts of the American South before 1830
to a similar general recommendation an owner could do so with impunity. The
that slaves be freed after six years, in Code of Justinian and the Spanish Siete
Christian slave societies such as the Partidas deprived cruel owners of their
The Peculiar Institution | 31

slaves, and that tradition went into the and had children. Some Southern slave
Louisiana Black Code of 1806, which owners recognized such marriages
made cruel punishment of slaves a crime. (even across estate boundaries) as well
But while brutality and sadistic murder as their offspring, because to have done
of slaves by their owners were rarely con- otherwise would have interfered with
doned on the grounds that such episodes production.
demoralized other slaves and made them Because many more men than
rebellious, few slave owners were actu- women were imported as slaves in most
ally punished for maltreating their slaves. societies, it is not surprising that slaves
Moreover, in the pre-1830 American rarely reproduced themselves in bond-
South, where the owner’s control over his age. The American South was a major
slave was total, the law said little or noth- exception to the rule. There, slaves began
ing about how long he could work him, to procreate in significant numbers in
and whether his slave had a right to food the mid-18th century. This fact helped
and clothing. There were exceptions, the slave owners survive the cutting off
however; for example, the Alabama Slave of imports that was first enforced in 1808.
Code of 1852 mandated that the owner Between the censuses of 1790 and 1860,
had to provide slaves of working age a the slave population of the South
sufficiency of healthy food, clothing, expanded enormously—from 657,327 to
attention during illness, and necessities 3,838,765—one of the fastest rates of pop-
in old age. ulation growth ever recorded prior to the
The slave could not own property advent of modern medicine. Paradoxically,
because the master owned not only his although the Southern slave regime was
slave’s body but everything that body one of the most dehumanizing ever
might accumulate. This did not mean, recorded, it was one of the most favour-
however, that slaves could not possess able on record demographically, because
and accumulate property, but only that the nutritional and general living envi-
their owners had legal title to whatever ronments were highly conducive to
the slaves had. In the South the master explosive population growth. Without
also automatically had sexual access to significant imports, the Southern slave
his slaves. Moreover, slave marriages population increased fourfold between
were not recognized in law. In general, a the early 1800s and 1860.
slave had far fewer rights to his off-
spring than to his spouse. Southern SLAVE PROTEST
slave owners thought nothing of break-
ing up both the conjugal unit and the Throughout history human beings have
nuclear family. Nevertheless, slaves objected to being enslaved and have
formed what they considered marriages responded in myriad ways ranging from
32 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

individual shirking, alcoholism, flight, very distant. During the American


and suicide to arson, murdering owners, Revolution, however, when the slave own-
and mass rebellion. Perhaps the most ers were occupied with fighting the
common individual response to enslave- British, fugitive slaves numbered in the
ment was sluggishness, passivity, and tens of thousands.
indifference. A nearly universal stereo-
type of the slave was of a lying, lazy, dull The Underground Railroad
brute who had to be kicked or whipped.
There probably were three mutually rein- Moreover, in the 19th century a system
forcing factors at work: an unconscious came into being in the Northern states
response to overcontrol and absence of by which escaped slaves from the South
freedom, a conscious effort to sabotage were secretly helped by sympathetic
the master’s desires, and a conditioned Northerners, in defiance of the Fugitive
response to the expectation of stereotyp- Slave Acts, to reach places of safety in
ical behaviour. Some owners tried to the North or in Canada. Though neither
overcome such behaviour by a system of underground nor a railroad, the system
incentives or by strict regimentation, was called the Underground Railroad
such as the gang system, but historically because its activities had to be carried
they were in a minority. Less frequent out in secret, using darkness or dis-
was suicide. A number of slaves are guise, and because railway terms were
known to have jumped overboard during used in reference to the conduct of the
the Middle Passage because they feared system. Various routes were lines, stop-
that the transatlantic voyage was taking ping places were called stations, those
them to be eaten by witches or barbar- who aided along the way were conduc-
ians, a fate that seemed worse than tors, and their charges were known as
drowning. packages or freight. The network of
Flight, either individually or in routes extended in all directions
groups, was one of the most visible forms throughout 14 Northern states and “the
of protest against enslavement. The rates promised land” of Canada, which was
of flight usually depended less on indi- beyond the reach of fugitive-slave hunt-
vidual slave-owner conduct than on the ers. Those who most actively assisted
likelihood of success. Immediate condi- slaves to escape by way of the “railroad”
tions, such as the brutality of an overseer were members of the free black commu-
or master or a temporary lapse of super- nity (including such former slaves as
vision, often precipitated slave flight, but Harriet Tubman), Northern abolitionists,
willingness to undertake such a form of philanthropists, and such church leaders
rebellion was infrequent in the South as Quaker Thomas Garrett. Harriet
because the refuge of freedom was often Beecher Stowe, famous for her novel
The Peculiar Institution | 33

Uncle Tom’s Cabin, gained firsthand participated in the Underground Railroad,


knowledge of fugitive slaves through her its existence did much to arouse Northern
contact with the Underground Railroad sympathy for the lot of the slave in the
in Cincinnati, Ohio. antebellum period, at the same time con-
Estimates of the number of black vincing many Southerners that the North
people who reached freedom vary as a whole would never peaceably allow
greatly, from 40,000 to 100,000. Although the institution of slavery to remain
only a small minority of Northerners unchallenged.

In Focus: Fugitive Slave Acts


Passed by Congress in 1793 and 1850 (and repealed in 1864), the Fugitive Slave Acts provided for
the seizure and return of runaway slaves who escaped from one state into another or into a federal
territory. The 1793 law enforced Article IV, Section 2, of the U.S. Constitution in authorizing any
federal district judge or circuit court judge, or any state magistrate, to decide finally and without a
jury trial the status of an alleged fugitive slave.
The measure met with strong opposition in the Northern states, some of which enacted
personal-liberty laws to hamper the execution of the federal law; these laws provided that fugi-
tives who appealed from an original decision against them were entitled to a jury trial. As early
as 1810 individual dissatisfaction with the law of 1793 had taken the form of systematic assis-
tance rendered to black slaves escaping from the South to New England or Canada—via the
Underground Railroad.
The demand from the South for more effective legislation resulted in enactment of a second
Fugitive Slave Act in 1850. Under this law, fugitives could not testify on their own behalf, nor were
they permitted a trial by jury. Heavy penalties were imposed upon federal marshals who refused to
enforce the law or from whom a fugitive escaped; penalties were also imposed on individuals who
helped slaves to escape. Finally, under the 1850 act, special commissioners were to have concurrent
jurisdiction with the U.S. courts in enforcing the law. The severity of the 1850 measure led to abuses
and defeated its purpose. The number of abolitionists increased, the operations of the Underground
Railroad became more efficient, and new personal-liberty laws were enacted in many Northern
states. These state laws were among the grievances officially referred to by South Carolina in
December 1860 as justification for its secession from the Union. Attempts to carry into effect the law
of 1850 aroused much bitterness and probably had as much to do with inciting sectional hostility as
did the controversy over slavery in the territories.
For some time during the Civil War, the Fugitive Slave Acts were considered to still hold in the
case of blacks fleeing from masters in border states that were loyal to the Union government. It was
not until June 28, 1864, that the acts were repealed.
34 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

Slave Revolts freedom with $600 he had won in a street


lottery. He was already familiar with the
Striking Back great Haitian slave revolt of the 1790s,
and while working as a carpenter he read
Direct, personal attacks on slave owners antislavery literature. Dissatisfied with
often were determined by the nature of his second-class status as a freedman
the slave regime. Where owners believed and determined to help relieve the far
they enjoyed automatic sexual access to more oppressive conditions of bondsmen
female slaves, both the women and their he knew, Vesey planned and organized
“husbands” were prone to respond by an uprising of blacks in Charleston, S.C.,
assaulting the owners or their agents. and on nearby plantations. The plan
Where slaves were driven, assault on the reportedly called for the rebels to attack
drivers was not an uncommon response. guardhouses and arsenals, seize their
As a result, overseers in the Mississippi arms, kill all whites, burn and destroy the
Valley feared for their lives and con- city, and free the slaves. As many as 9,000
stantly carried arms. blacks may have been involved, though
The most dramatic form of slave pro- some scholars dispute this figure.
test was outright rebellion, but slave Warned by a house servant, white
rebellions in North America were notice- authorities on the eve of the scheduled
ably few and involved only a handful of outbreak made massive military prepa-
participants, including the New York rations, which forestalled the insurrection.
revolt of 1712, the Stono rebellion of During the ensuing two months, some
South Carolina (1739), and the Gabriel 130 blacks were arrested. In the trials
plot in Richmond, Va. (1800). Southern that followed, 67 were convicted of trying
slave uprisings were so few and so small to raise an insurrection; of these, 35,
because of the absolute certainty that including Vesey, were hanged, and 32
they would be brutally repressed. were condemned to exile. In addition,
Nevertheless, three slave rebellions four white men were fined and impris-
stand out; the Denmark Vesey conspir- oned for encouraging the plot.
acy in Charleston, S.C. (1822), Nat
Turner’s uprising in Jerusalem, Va. Nat Turner’s Rebellion
(1831), and the Amistad mutiny (1839),
the last of which occurred not in the Nat Turner—whose mother, an African
South but at sea. native, transmitted a passionate hatred
of slavery to her son—learned to read
Denmark Vesey Conspiracy from one of his master’s sons and eagerly
absorbed intensive religious training. In
In 1800, the self-educated slave Denmark the early 1820s, as his religious ardour
Vesey was allowed to purchase his tended to approach fanaticism, Turner
The Peculiar Institution | 35

saw himself called upon by God to lead servile to mount an armed revolt. In
his people out of bondage. He began to Southampton county black people came
exert a powerful influence on many of to measure time from “Nat’s Fray,” or
the slaves in the area of Virginia in “Old Nat’s War.” For many years in black
which he lived, earning the sobriquet churches throughout the country, the
“the Prophet.” name Jerusalem referred not only to the
In 1831, Turner interpreted an eclipse Bible but also covertly to the place where
of the Sun as a sign that the hour to strike the rebel slave had met his death. The
was near. His plan was to capture the Turner rebellion spread terror through-
armoury at the county seat, Jerusalem, out the white South and set off a new
and, having gathered many recruits, to wave of oppressive legislation prohibit-
press on to the Dismal Swamp, 30 miles ing the education, movement, and
(48 km) to the east, where capture would assembly of slaves and stiffened pro-
be difficult. On the night of August 21, slavery, anti-abolitionist convictions.
together with seven fellow slaves in
whom he had put his trust, he launched a The Amistad Mutiny
campaign of total annihilation, murder-
ing his owner and his family in their The slave rebellion that took place on the
sleep and then setting forth on a bloody slave ship Amistad near the coast of
march toward Jerusalem. In two days Cuba on July 2, 1839, had important
and nights about 60 white people were political and legal repercussions for the
ruthlessly slain. Doomed from the start, abolition movement in the United States,
Turner’s insurrection was handicapped where the mutineers were captured and
by lack of discipline among his followers tried. The Spanish schooner Amistad
and by the fact that only 75 blacks rallied was sailing from Havana to Puerto
to his cause. Armed resistance from the Príncipe, Cuba, when the ship’s unwill-
local whites and the arrival of the state ing passengers, 53 slaves recently
militia—a total force of 3,000 men—pro- abducted from Africa, revolted. Led by
vided the final crushing blow. Only a few Joseph Cinqué, they killed the captain
miles from the county seat the insur- and the cook but spared the life of a
gents were dispersed and either killed or Spanish navigator, so that he could sail
captured, and many innocent slaves them home to Sierra Leone. The naviga-
were massacred in the hysteria that fol- tor managed instead to sail the Amistad
lowed. Turner eluded his pursuers for six generally northward. Two months later
weeks but was finally captured, tried, the U.S. Navy seized the ship off Long
and hanged. Island, N.Y, and towed it into New
Nat Turner’s rebellion put an end to London, Conn. The mutineers were held
the white Southern myth that slaves were in a jail in New Haven, Conn., a state in
either contented with their lot or too which slavery was legal.
36 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

The Spanish embassy’s demand for had the right to escape their captors in
the return of the Africans to Cuba led to any way they could. When the U.S. gov-
an 1840 trial in a Hartford, Conn., fed- ernment appealed the case before the
eral court. New England abolitionist U.S. Supreme Court the next year, con-
Lewis Tappan stirred public sympathy gressman and former president John
for the African captives, while the U.S. Quincy Adams argued eloquently for
government took the pro-slavery side. the Amistad rebels. The Supreme Court
U.S. Pres. Martin Van Buren ordered a upheld the lower court, and private and
Navy ship sent to Connecticut to return missionary society donations helped the
the Africans to Cuba immediately after 35 surviving Africans secure passage
the trial. A candidate for reelection that home. They arrived in Sierra Leone in
year, he anticipated a ruling against January 1842, along with five missionar-
the defendants and hoped to gain pro- ies and teachers who intended to found a
slavery votes by removing the Africans Christian mission.
before abolitionists could appeal to a Spain continued to insist that the
higher court. United States pay indemnification for
Prosecutors argued that, as slaves, the Cuban vessel. The U.S. Congress
the mutineers were subject to the laws intermittently debated the Amistad
governing conduct between slaves and case, without resolution, for more than
their masters. But trial testimony deter- two decades, until the Civil War began in
mined that while slavery was legal in 1861. A committee formed to defend the
Cuba, importation of slaves from Africa slaves later developed into the American
was not. Therefore, the judge ruled, Missionary Association (incorporated
rather than being merchandise, the 1846), one of the linchpins of the American
Africans were victims of kidnapping and abolition movement
CHAPTER 3
Abolitionism
and Abolitionists
ABOLITIONISM

P assionately advocated and resisted with equal intensity,


abolitionism, the antislavery movement, appeared as
late as the 1850s to be a failure in American politics. Yet by
1865 it had succeeded in embedding its goal in the
Constitution by amendment, though at the cost of a civil war.
At its core lay the issue of “race,” over which Americans have
shown their best and worst faces for more than three centu-
ries. When race became entangled in this period with the
dynamics of American sectional conflict, its full explosive
potential was released. If the reform impulse was a common
one uniting the American people in the mid-19th century, its
manifestation in abolitionism finally split them apart for four
bloody years.
Despite its brutality and inhumanity, the slave system
had aroused little protest throughout the world until the
18th century, when rationalist thinkers of the Enlightenment
began to criticize it for its violation of the rights of man, and
Quaker and other evangelical religious groups condemned
it for its un-Christian qualities. By the late 18th century,
moral disapproval of slavery was widespread, and antislav-
ery reformers won a number of deceptively easy victories
during this period. In Britain, Granville Sharp secured a
legal decision in 1772 that West Indian planters could not
38 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

hold slaves in Britain, since slavery was that it threatened the harmony of North
contrary to English law. In the United and South in the Union, and it also ran
States, all of the states north of Maryland counter to the U.S. Constitution, which
abolished slavery between 1777 (Vermont) left the question of slavery to the individ-
and 1827 (New York). But antislavery ual states. Consequently, the Northern
sentiments had little effect on the cen- public remained unwilling to adopt aboli-
tres of slavery themselves: the great tionist policy and was distrustful of
plantations of the Deep South, the West abolitionist extremism.
Indies, and South America. Turning
their attention to these areas, British William Lloyd Garrsion
and American abolitionists began and The Liberator
working in the late 18th century to pro-
hibit the importation of African slaves Abolition itself was a diverse phenome-
into the British colonies and the United non. At one end of its spectrum was
States. Under the leadership of William William Lloyd Garrison, an “immedi-
Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson, these atist,” advocating the immediate end of
forces succeeded in getting the slave slavery, denouncing not only slavery
trade to the British colonies abolished in but the Constitution of the United States
1807. The United States prohibited the for tolerating the evil. His weekly news-
importation of slaves that same year, paper, The Liberator, founded Jan. 1,
though widespread smuggling contin- 1831, in Boston, was the most influential
ued until about 1862. antislavery periodical in the pre–Civil
Antislavery forces then concentrated War period. It claimed a paid circula-
on winning the emancipation of those tion of only 3,000 but reached a much
populations already in slavery. They were wider audience with its uncompromis-
triumphant when slavery was abolished ing advocacy of immediate emancipation
in the British West Indies by 1838 and in for the millions of black Americans held
French possessions 10 years later. in bondage throughout the South. In the
The situation in the United States North, Garrison’s message of moral sua-
was more complex because slavery was a sion challenged moderate reformers to
domestic rather than a colonial phenom- apply the principles of the Declaration
enon, being the social and economic of Independence to all people, regard-
base of the plantations of 11 Southern less of colour. Fearful slaveholders in
states. Moreover, slavery had gained new the South, erroneously assuming that
vitality when an extremely profitable The Liberator represented the majority
cotton-based agriculture developed in the opinion of Northerners, reacted mili-
South in the early 19th century. American tantly by defending slavery as a “positive
abolitionism laboured under the handicap good” and by legislating ever more
Abolitionism and Abolitionists | 39

stringent measures to suppress all public opposition, with mobs invading


possible opposition to its “peculiar insti- meetings, attacking speakers, and burn-
tution.” Garrison’s publication further ing presses.
altered the course of the American anti-
slavery movement by insisting that Other Approaches
abolition, rather than African coloniza-
tion, was the answer to the problem of Garrison’s uncompromising tone infuri-
slavery. ated not only the South but many
Northerners as well, and was long treated
The American as though it were typical of abolitionism
Anti-Slavery Society in general. Actually it was not. At the
other end of the abolitionist spectrum
Founded in 1833, also under the leadership and in between stood such men and
of Garrison, the American Anti-Slavery women as Theodore Weld, James G.
Society was the main activist arm of the Birney, Gerrit Smith, Theodore Parker,
Abolition Movement. By 1840 its auxil- Julia Ward Howe, Lewis and Arthur
iary societies numbered 2,000, with a Tappan, Salmon P. Chase, John Greenleaf
total membership ranging from 150,000 Whittier, and Lydia Maria Child, all of
to 200,000. The societies sponsored whom represented a variety of stances,
meetings, adopted resolutions, signed all more conciliatory than Garrison’s.
antislavery petitions to be sent to James Russell Lowell, whose emotional
Congress, published journals and balance was cited by a biographer as
enlisted subscriptions, printed and dis- proof that abolitionists need not have
tributed propaganda in vast quantities, been unstable, urged in contrast to
and sent out agents and lecturers (70 in Garrison that “the world must be healed
1836 alone) to carry the antislavery mes- by degrees.” Also of importance was
sage to Northern audiences. the work of free blacks such as David
Participants in the societies were Walker and Robert Forten and ex-slaves
drawn mainly from religious circles and such as Douglass and Brown, who had
philanthropic backgrounds, as well as the clearest of all reasons to work for the
from the free black community, with six cause but who shared some broader
blacks serving on the first Board of humanitarian motives with their white
Managers. The society’s public meet- coworkers.
ings were most effective when featuring In 1839, the national organization of
the eloquent testimony of former slaves the American Anti-Slavery Society split
such as Frederick Douglass or William over basic differences of approach. Less
Wells Brown. The society’s antislavery radical than Garrison and his followers
activities frequently met with violent (who not only denounced the Constitution
40 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

Primary Source: Harriet Beecher Stowe’s UNCLE TOM’S CABIN

Few attacks upon slavery were as effective as Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. First
written as a serial for the abolitionist journal, National Era, beginning in 1851, it appeared in book
form in 1852. An immediate and enduring success, the book sold 300,000 copies during the first
year and some 3,000,000 since. The portrayal of Uncle Tom, the first African American fictional
hero created by an American author, elicited much sympathy for the plight of the slave. A portion
of the novel is excerpted here.
Source: Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Boston, 1883, pp. 419–423.

Long after dusk, the whole weary train, with their baskets on their heads, defiled up to
the building appropriated to the storing and weighing the cotton. Legree was there,
busily conversing with the two drivers . . . Slowly, the weary, dispirited creatures wound
their way into the room, and, with crouching reluctance, presented their baskets to
be weighed.
Legree noted on a slate, on the side of which was pasted a list of names,
the amount.
Tom’s basket was weighed and approved; and he looked, with an anxious glance, for
the success of the woman he had befriended.
Tottering with weakness, she came forward and delivered her basket. It was of full
weight, as Legree well perceived; but, affecting anger, he said, “What, you lazy beast!
Short again! Stand aside, you’ll catch it, pretty soon!”
The woman gave a groan of utter despair and sat down on a board.
The person who had been called Misse Cassy now came forward and, with a haughty,
negligent air, delivered her basket. As she delivered it, Legree looked in her eyes with a
sneering yet inquiring glance.
She fixed her black eyes steadily on him, her lips moved slightly, and she said some-
thing in French. What it was, no one knew, but Legree’s face became perfectly demoniacal
in its expression as she spoke; he half raised his hand as if to strike—a gesture which she
regarded with fierce disdain as she turned and walked away.
“And now,” said Legree, “come here, you Tom. You see I telled ye I didn’t buy ye jest
for the common work; I mean to promote ye and make a driver of ye; and tonight ye may
jest as well begin to get yer hand in. Now, ye jest take this yer gal and flog her; ye’ve seen
enough on’t to know how.”
“I beg Mas’r’s pardon,” said Tom, “hopes Mas’r won’t set me at that. It’s what I an’t
used to—never did—and can’t do, no way possible.”
“Ye’ll larn a pretty smart chance of things ye never did know before I’ve done with
ye!” said Legree, taking up a cowhide and striking Tom a heavy blow across the cheek,
and following up the infliction by a shower of blows.
“There!” he said, as he stopped to rest, “now will ye tell me ye can’t do it?”
Abolitionism and Abolitionists | 41

“Yes, Mas’r,” said Tom, putting up his hand to wipe the blood that trickled down his
face. “I’m willin’ to work night and day, and work while there’s life and breath in me; but
this yer thing I can’t feel it right to do; and, Mas’r, I never shall do it—never!”
Tom had a remarkably smooth, soft voice, and a habitually respectful manner that
had given Legree an idea that he would be cowardly and easily subdued. When he spoke
these last words, a thrill of amazement went through everyone; the poor woman clasped
her hands and said, “O Lord!” and everyone involuntarily looked at each other and drew
in their breath, as if to prepare for the storm that was about to burst.
Legree looked stupefied and confounded; but at last burst forth—
“What! ye blasted black beast! tell me ye don’t think it right to do what I tell ye! What
have any of you cussed cattle to do with thinking what’s right? I’ll put a stop to it! Why,
what do ye think ye are? May be ye think ye’re a gentleman, master Tom, to be a telling
your master what’s right and what an’t! So you pretend it’s wrong to flog the gal!”
“I think so, Mas’r,” said Tom, “the poor crittur’s sick and feeble; ’t would be downright
cruel, and it’s what I never will do, not begin to. Mas’r, if you mean to kill me, kill me; but
as to my raising my hand agin anyone here, I never shall—I’ll die first!”
Tom spoke in a mild voice but with a decision that could not be mistaken. Legree
shook with anger; his greenish eyes glared fiercely and his very whiskers seemed to curl
with passion; but, like some ferocious beast that plays with its victim before he devours
it, he kept back his strong impulse to proceed to immediate violence and broke out into
bitter raillery.
“Well, here’s a pious dog, at last, let down among us sinners!—a saint, a gentleman,
and no less, to talk to us sinners about our sins! Powerful, holy crittur, he must be! Here,
you rascal, you make believe to be so pious—didn’t you never hear out of yer Bible,
‘Servants, obey yer masters’? An’t I yer master? Didn’t I pay down $1,200 cash for all there
is inside yer old cussed black shell? An’t yer mine, now, body and soul?” he said, giving
Tom a violent kick with his heavy boot. “Tell me!”
In the very depth of physical suffering, bowed by brutal oppression, this question
shot a gleam of joy and triumph through Tom’s soul. He suddenly stretched himself up,
and, looking earnestly to heaven, while the tears and blood that flowed down his face
mingled, he exclaimed—
“No! no! no! my soul an’t yours, Mas’r! You haven’t bought it—ye can’t buy it! It’s
been bought and paid for by one that is able to keep it—no matter, no matter, you can’t
harm me!”
“I can’t!” said Legree, with a sneer, “we’ll see—we’ll see! Here, Sambo, Quimbo, give
this dog such a breakin’ in as he won’t get over this month!”
The two gigantic Negroes that now laid hold of Tom, with fiendish exultation in their
faces, might have formed no unapt personification of the powers of darkness. The poor
woman screamed with apprehension and all arose as by a general impulse while they
dragged him unresisting from the place.
42 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

as supportive of slavery but insisted the Western territories. The ensuing


on sharing organizational responsibility secession of the Southern states led to
with women), a more moderate wing, the Civil War.
led by the Tappan brothers, formed the
American and Foreign Anti-Slavery ABOLITIONISTS
Society, which advocated moral suasion
and political action and led directly to Anthony Benezet
the birth of the Liberty Party in 1840. (b. Jan. 31, 1713, Saint-Quentin,
Because of this cleavage in national France—d. May 3, 1784, Philadelphia,
leadership, the bulk of the activity in Pa., U.S.)
the 1840s and ’50s was carried on by
state and local societies. However, a An eminent teacher, the French-born
number of factors combined to give the Anthony Benezet was also an early aboli-
movement increased momentum at this tionist and an important social reformer
time. Chief among these was the ques- in 18th-century America.
tion of permitting or outlawing slavery Escaping Huguenot persecution in
in new Western territories, with France, the Benezet family fled first to
Northerners and Southerners taking Holland and then to London. Anthony
increasingly adamant stands on opposite was there apprenticed in a mercantile
sides of that issue. There was also revul- house, and he joined the Quaker sect. In
sion at the ruthlessness of slave hunters 1731 he and his family immigrated to
under the Fugitive Slave Law, and the far- Philadelphia. Disliking the merchant’s
reaching emotional response to Harriet life, Benezet tried several other vocations
Beecher Stowe’s antislavery novel Uncle before finally deciding to become a
Tom’s Cabin (1852) further strengthened teacher. He taught at the Germantown
the abolitionist cause. The antislavery Academy and then at the Friends’ English
issue entered the mainstream of American Public School in Philadelphia. In 1755,
politics through the Free Soil Party (1848– distressed at the unequal educational
54) and subsequently the Republican opportunities afforded women, he estab-
Party (founded in 1854). lished a school for girls. He devoted the
Jolted by the raid of the abolitionist remainder of his life to teaching.
extremist John Brown on Harpers Ferry, Convinced that personal kindness was
Va., in 1859, the South became con- the key to harmonious social relation-
vinced that its entire way of life, based ships, Benezet made that principle the
on the cheap labour provided by slaves, basis of his teaching methodology.
was irretrievably threatened by the elec- By the 1760s Benezet was an ardent
tion to the presidency of Abraham abolitionist, writing and distributing pam-
Lincoln (November 1860), who was phlets at his own expense to encourage
opposed to the spread of slavery into opposition to slavery and the slave trade.
Abolitionism and Abolitionists | 43

Late in his life he established and taught a approach of such abolitionists as William
school for blacks, and in his will he left his Lloyd Garrison and the other, which
modest estate to endow the school. At var- became the Liberty Party, emphasizing
ious times during his long philanthropic electoral activity. The party nominated
career, Benezet came to the assistance Birney as its presidential candidate in
of refugee French Acadians, American 1840 and again in 1844. In 1840 he was a
Indians, and other persecuted minorities. vice president of the World Anti-Slavery
Pacifism, vegetarianism, and temperance Convention in England, where he wrote
were other causes he championed. The American Churches, the Bulwarks of
Among Benezet’s many publications American Slavery (1840). Birney’s career
were A Caution to Great Britain and Her was ended by an injury that invalided
Colonies, in a Short Representation of the him in 1845.
Calamitous State of the Enslaved Negroes
in the British Dominion (1767) and Some John Brown
Historical Account of Guinea, with an (b. May 9, 1800, Torrington, Conn.,
Inquiry into the Rise and Progress of the U.S.—d. Dec. 2, 1859, Charles Town, Va.
Slave-Trade (1772). [now in West Virginia])

James G. Birney Militant abolitionist John Brown led a


(b. Feb. 4, 1792, Danville, Ky., U.S.—d. raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers
Nov. 25, 1857, Eagleswood, N.J.) Ferry, Va. (now in West Virginia), in 1859
that made him a martyr to the anti-
A prominent opponent of slavery, James slavery cause and was instrumental in
Birney was twice the presidential candi- heightening sectional animosities that
date of the abolitionist Liberty Party. led to the Civil War.
Birney was trained in law and prac- Moving about restlessly through
ticed in Danville. He won election to the Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and
Kentucky legislature in 1816, and in 1818 New York, Brown was barely able to sup-
he moved to Alabama, where he was port his large family in any of several
elected to the legislature in the following vocations at which he tried his hand: tan-
year. There he helped incorporate into ner, sheep drover, wool merchant, farmer,
the state constitution provisions that and land speculator. Though he was white,
empowered the legislature to emancipate in 1849 Brown settled with his family in a
slaves and to prohibit selling slaves black community founded at North Elba,
brought into the state. N.Y., on land donated by the New York
In 1837 Birney was elected executive antislavery philanthropist Gerrit Smith.
secretary of the American Anti-Slavery Long a foe of slavery, Brown became
Society, which soon afterward split, one obsessed with the idea of taking overt
faction advocating the inflammatory action to help win justice for enslaved
44 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

black people. In 1855 he followed five of After this raid, the name of “Old
his sons to the Kansas Territory to assist Osawatomie Brown” conjured up a fearful
antislavery forces struggling for control image among local slavery apologists.
there. With a wagon laden with guns In the spring of 1858, Brown convened
and ammunition, Brown settled in a meeting of blacks and whites in
Osawatomie and soon became the leader Chatham, Ontario, at which he announced
of antislavery guerrillas in the area. his intention of establishing in the
Brooding over the sack of the town Maryland and Virginia mountains a
of Lawrence by a mob of slavery sympa- stronghold for escaping slaves. He pro-
thizers (May 21, 1856), Brown concluded posed, and the convention adopted, a
that he had a divine mission to take provisional constitution for the people of
vengeance. Three days later he led a the United States. He was elected com-
nighttime retaliatory raid on a pro- mander in chief of this paper government
slavery settlement at Pottawatomie while gaining the moral and financial
Creek, in which five men were dragged support of Gerrit Smith and several prom-
out of their cabins and hacked to death. inent Boston abolitionists.
In the summer of 1859, with an armed
band of 16 whites and 5 blacks, Brown set
up a headquarters in a rented farmhouse
in Maryland, across the Potomac from
Harpers Ferry, the site of a federal
armoury. On the night of October 16, he
quickly took the armoury and rounded
up some 60 leading men of the area as
hostages. Brown took this desperate
action in the hope that escaped slaves
would join his rebellion, forming an
“army of emancipation” with which to
liberate their fellow slaves. Throughout
the next day and night he and his men
held out against the local militia, but on
the following morning he surrendered to
a small force of U.S. Marines who had
broken in and overpowered him. Brown
himself was wounded, and 10 of his fol-
lowers (including two sons) were killed.
John Brown. Library of Congress,
He was tried for murder, slave insurrec-
Washington, D.C. tion, and treason against the state and
was convicted and hanged.
Abolitionism and Abolitionists | 45

Primary Source: “John Brown’s Body”

John Brown’s execution brought together three of the most extraordinary figures in America’s his-
tory. The colonel of marines who was in charge of the affair was Robert E. Lee, later to lead the
Confederate armies against the Union. One of the militiamen was John Wilkes Booth, who would
commit the last tragic act in the tragedy that was the Civil War by assassinating President Abraham
Lincoln. And, of course, there was John Brown himself, who “never again,” in Lloyd Lewis’s words,
“after that day’s work, was . . . to be clearly a man any more in anybody’s memory; thereafter he was
to the South a gathering thunderhead on the Northern sky, promise of the hurricane to come.
Thereafter he was to the North a song.” The Union soldiers sang this “greatest of the world’s war
songs,” as it has been called, throughout the war. They sang it quickly, lightly, as they marched into
battle, and slowly, mournfully, after the many defeats.

John Brown’s body lies a-moldering in the grave,


John Brown’s body lies a-moldering in the grave,
John Brown’s body lies a-moldering in the grave,
But his soul goes marching on.

Chorus:
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
His soul goes marching on!

John Brown died that the slaves might be free,


John Brown died that the slaves might be free,
John Brown died that the slaves might be free,
But his soul goes marching on.

He’s gone to be a soldier in the army of the Lord,


He’s gone to be a soldier in the army of the Lord,
He’s gone to be a soldier in the army of the Lord,
And his soul is marching on.

The stars of heaven are looking kindly down,


The stars of heaven are looking kindly down,
The stars of heaven are looking kindly down,
On the grave of old John Brown.
46 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

Although Brown failed to spark a abolitionists stemmed from their dis-


general slave revolt, the high moral tone agreements over women’s rights. From
of his defense helped to immortalize him 1839 to 1842 she also edited the Non-
and to hasten the war that would bring Resistant, the publication of Garrison’s
emancipation. New England Non-Resistance Society.
Chapman raised funds for the abolition
Maria Weston Chapman movement by organizing antislavery
(b. July 25, 1806, Weymouth, Mass., fairs throughout New England.
U.S.—d. July 12, 1885, Weymouth) In 1836 Chapman published a collec-
tion of Songs of the Free and Hymns of
Abolitionist Maria Weston Chapman Christian Freedom. In May 1838 she
was the principal lieutenant of the radi- addressed the Anti-Slavery Convention
cal antislavery leader William Lloyd of American Women in Philadelphia in
Garrison. defiance of a threatening mob. (The mob
Maria Weston spent several years of returned the next day and burned down
her youth living with the family of an the hall.) In 1877 she published an edition
uncle in England, where she received a of the autobiography of the English writer
good education. From 1828 to 1830 she Harriet Martineau, an old friend, to which
was principal of the Young Ladies’ High she appended a lengthy memoir. The
School in Boston. Her marriage in 1830 essayist and poet John Jay Chapman
to Henry Grafton Chapman, a Boston was her grandson.
merchant, brought her into abolitionist
circles, and in 1832 with 12 other women, Lydia Maria Child
she founded the Boston Female Anti- (b. Feb. 11, 1802, Medford, Mass.,
Slavery Society. In 1835, as a violent mob U.S.—d. Oct. 20, 1880, Wayland, Mass.)
was about to disrupt the group’s meeting,
Maria Chapman uttered a statement long Author Lydia Maria Child wrote anti-
quoted by abolitionists: “If this is the last slavery works that had great influence
bulwark of freedom, we may as well die in her time.
here as anywhere.” Born into an abolitionist family,
Chapman became chief assistant Lydia Francis was primarily influenced
to Garrison, helping him to run the in her education by her brother, a
Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society Unitarian clergyman and later a profes-
and to edit The Liberator, a widely- sor at the Harvard Divinity School. In
circulated abolitionist publication. In the 1820s she taught, wrote historical
1839 she published Right and Wrong novels, and founded a periodical for chil-
in Massachusetts, a pamphlet that dren, Juvenile Miscellany (1826). In 1828
argued that the deep divisions among she married David L. Child, an editor.
Abolitionism and Abolitionists | 47

After meeting the abolitionist William Frederick Douglass


Lloyd Garrison in 1831, she devoted her (b. February 1818?, Tuckahoe,
life to abolitionism. Md., U.S.—d. Feb. 20, 1895,
Child’s best-known antislavery work, Washington, D.C.)
An Appeal in Favor of That Class of
Americans Called Africans (1833), related An African American who was one of
the history of slavery and denounced the the most eminent human-rights leaders
inequality of education and employment of the 19th century, Frederick Douglass
for blacks; it was the first such work pub- was thrust to the forefront of the aboli-
lished in book form. As a result, Child tion movement in the United States
was ostracized socially and her maga- by virtue of his oratorical and literary
zine failed in 1834. The book succeeded, brilliance. He became the first black
however, in inducing many people to join
the abolition movement. Child’s further
abolitionist efforts included editing the
National Anti-Slavery Standard (1841–43)
and later transcribing the recollections
of slaves who had been freed.
In 1852 the Childs settled permanently
on a farm in Wayland, Massachusetts.
They continued to contribute liberally,
from a small income, to the abolition
movement. Child’s other work included
once-popular volumes of advice for
women, such as The Frugal Housewife
(1829), and books on behalf of the
American Indian. Among her later books
were three volumes of Flowers for Children
(1844–47), Fact and Fiction (1846), The
Freedmen’s Book (1865), and An Appeal
for the Indians (1868). Her letters have
been compiled in Lydia Maria Child,
Selected Letters, 1817–1880 (1982). An
ardent women’s rights and antislavery Frederick Douglass. Courtesy of the
activist, Childs may be best remembered Holt-Messer Collection, Schlesinger
for her poem “A Boy’s Thanksgiving Day,” Library, Radcliffe College, Cambridge,
popularly known as “Over the River and Massachusetts
through the Woods.”
48 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

citizen to hold high rank in the U.S. ever have been a slave, Douglass felt
government. impelled to write his autobiography in
Separated as an infant from his slave 1845, revised and completed in 1882 as
mother (he never knew his white father), Life and Times of Frederick Douglass.
Frederick lived with his grandmother on Douglass’s account became a classic in
a Maryland plantation until, at age eight, American literature as well as a primary
his owner sent him to Baltimore to live as source about slavery from the bonds-
a house servant with the family of Hugh man’s viewpoint. To avoid recapture by
Auld, whose wife defied state law by his former owner, whose name and loca-
teaching the boy to read. Auld, however, tion he had given in the narrative,
declared that learning would make him Douglass left on a two-year speaking
unfit for slavery, and Frederick was forced tour of Great Britain and Ireland. Abroad,
to continue his education surreptitiously Douglass helped to win many new
with the aid of schoolboys in the street. friends for the abolition movement and
Upon the death of his master, he was to cement the bonds of humanitarian
returned to the plantation as a field hand reform between the continents.
at 16. Later, he was hired out in Baltimore Douglass returned with funds to pur-
as a ship caulker. Frederick tried to escape chase his freedom and also to start his
with three others in 1833, but the plot was own antislavery newspaper, the North
discovered before they could get away. Star (later Frederick Douglass’s Paper),
Five years later, however, he fled to New which he published from 1847 to 1860 in
York City and then to New Bedford, Rochester, N.Y. The abolition leader
Mass., where he worked as a labourer for William Lloyd Garrison disagreed with
three years, eluding slave hunters by the need for a separate, black-oriented
changing his surname to Douglass. press, and the two men broke over this
At a Nantucket, Mass., antislavery issue as well as over Douglass’s support
convention in 1841, Douglass was invited of political action to supplement moral
to describe his feelings and experiences suasion. Thus, after 1851 Douglass allied
under slavery. These extemporaneous himself with the faction of the move-
remarks were so poignant and naturally ment led by James G. Birney. He did not
eloquent that he was unexpectedly cata- countenance violence, however, and spe-
pulted into a new career as agent for the cifically counseled against the raid on
Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. Harpers Ferry, Va. (October 1859).
From then on, despite heckling and During the Civil War Douglass
mockery, insult, and violent personal became a consultant to Pres. Abraham
attack, Douglass never flagged in his Lincoln, advocating that former slaves
devotion to the abolitionist cause. be armed for the North and that the war
To counter skeptics who doubted be made a direct confrontation against
that such an articulate spokesman could slavery. Throughout Reconstruction, he
Abolitionism and Abolitionists | 49

fought for full civil rights for freedmen to Boston and, a year later, established
and vigorously supported the women’s The Liberator, which became known as
rights movement. the most uncompromising of American
After Reconstruction, Douglass served antislavery journals. In the first issue of
as assistant secretary of the Santo The Liberator he stated his views on slav-
Domingo Commission (1871), and in the ery vehemently: “I do not wish to think, or
District of Columbia he was marshal speak, or write, with moderation . . . I am in
(1877–81) and recorder of deeds (1881–86); earnest—I will not equivocate—I will not
finally, he was appointed U.S. minister excuse—I will not retreat a single inch—
and consul general to Haiti (1889–91). AND I WILL BE HEARD.”
Like most of the abolitionists he
William Lloyd Garrison recruited, Garrison was a convert from
(b. Dec. 10/12, 1805, Newburyport, the American Colonization Society,
Mass., U.S.—d. May 24, 1879, which advocated the return of free blacks
New York, N.Y.) to Africa, to the principle of “immediate

Arguably the leading American aboli-


tionist, journalistic crusader William
Lloyd Garrison published the abolition
movement’s most prominent newspaper,
The Liberator (1831–65).
Garrison was the son of an itinerant
seaman who subsequently deserted his
family. The son grew up in an atmosphere
of declining New England Federalism
and lively Christian benevolence—twin
sources of the abolition movement, which
he joined at age 25. As editor of the
National Philanthropist (Boston) in 1828
and the Journal of the Times (Bennington,
Vermont) in 1828–29, he served his appren-
ticeship in the moral reform cause. In
1829, with a pioneer abolitionist, Benjamin
Lundy, he became co-editor of the Genius
of Universal Emancipation in Baltimore;
he also served a short term in jail for libel-
ing a Newburyport merchant who was William Lloyd Garrison. Library of
engaged in the coastal slave trade. Congress, Washington, D.C.
Released in June 1830, Garrison returned
50 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

emancipation,” borrowed from English Union with Slaveholders,” formulated in


abolitionists. “Immediatism,” however 1844 as a demand for peaceful Northern
variously it was interpreted by American secession from a slaveholding South.
reformers, condemned slavery as a By 1840 Garrison’s increasingly per-
national sin, called for emancipation at sonal definition of the slavery problem
the earliest possible moment, and pro- had precipitated a crisis within the
posed schemes for incorporating the American Anti-Slavery Society, a major-
freedmen into American society. Through ity of whose members disapproved of
The Liberator, which circulated widely both the participation of women and
both in England and the United States, Garrison’s no-government theories.
Garrison soon achieved recognition as Dissension reached a climax in 1840,
the most radical of American antislavery when the Garrisonians voted a series of
advocates. In 1832 he founded the New resolutions admitting women and thus
England Anti-Slavery Society, the first forced their conservative opponents to
immediatist society in the country. In 1833 secede and form the rival American and
he helped organize the American Anti- Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. Later that
Slavery Society, writing its Declaration of year a group of politically minded aboli-
Sentiments and serving as its first corre- tionists also deserted Garrison’s standard
sponding secretary. It was primarily as and founded the Liberty Party. Thus,
an editorialist, however, excoriating slave 1840 witnessed the disruption of the
owners and their moderate opponents national organization and left Garrison
alike, that he became known and feared. in control of a relative handful of follow-
“If those who deserve the lash feel it and ers loyal to his “come-outer” doctrine but
wince at it,” he wrote in explaining his deprived of the support of new antislav-
refusal to alter his harsh tone, “I shall be ery converts and of the Northern reform
assured that I am striking the right per- community at large.
sons in the right place.” In the two decades between the
In 1837, in the wake of financial panic schism of 1840 and the Civil War,
and the failure of abolitionist campaigns Garrison’s influence waned as his radi-
to gain support in the North, Garrison calism increased. The decade before the
renounced church and state and war saw his opposition to slavery and to
embraced doctrines of Christian “perfec- the federal government reach its peak:
tionism,” which combined abolition, The Liberator denounced the Compromise
women’s rights, and nonresistance, in the of 1850, condemned the Kansas-Nebraska
biblical injunction to “come out” from a Act, damned the Dred Scott decision,
corrupt society by refusing to obey its and hailed John Brown’s raid as “God’s
laws and support its institutions. From method of dealing retribution upon the
this blend of pacifism and anarchism head of the tyrant.” In 1854 Garrison
came the Garrisonian principle of “No publicly burned a copy of the Constitution
Abolitionism and Abolitionists | 51

at an abolitionist rally in Framingham, Ordained after graduating from


Massachusetts. Three years later he held Harvard Divinity School (1847), Higginson
an abortive secessionist convention in became pastor of the First Religious
Worcester, Massachusetts. Society of Newburyport, Massachusetts,
The Civil War forced Garrison to where he preached a social gospel too
choose between his pacifist beliefs and liberal even for Unitarians. Two years
emancipation. Placing freedom for the later his progressive views on temper-
slave foremost, he supported Abraham ance, women’s rights, labour, and slavery
Lincoln faithfully and in 1863 welcomed caused him to lose his congregation.
the Emancipation Proclamation as the On the passage of the Fugitive Slave
fulfillment of all his hopes. Emancipation Act (1850), Higginson joined the Boston
brought to the surface the latent conser- Vigilance Committee to aid escaping
vatism in his program for the freedmen, slaves. While pastor of a “Free Church”
whose political rights he was not pre- in Worcester, Massachusetts (1852–61),
pared to guarantee immediately. In 1865 he took a leading part in liberating the
he attempted without success to dissolve fugitive Anthony Burns (1854), and he
the American Anti-Slavery Society and supported John Brown both in Kansas
then resigned. In December 1865 he pub- (1856) and in his raid on Harpers Ferry,
lished the last issue of The Liberator and Virginia (1859). During the Civil War
announced that “my vocation as an abo- Higginson accepted command of the 1st
litionist is ended.” He spent his last 14 South Carolina Volunteers, later the 33rd
years in retirement from public affairs, U.S. Colored Troops, the first black regi-
regularly supporting the Republican ment in the U.S. armed forces. After 1864
Party and continuing to champion tem- he wrote a series of popular biographies
perance, women’s rights, pacifism, and and histories and a novel. Higginson
free trade. “It is enough for me,” he discovered and encouraged the poet
explained in justifying his refusal to par- Emily Dickinson.
ticipate in radical egalitarian politics,
“that every yoke is broken, and every Elijah P. Lovejoy
bondman set free.” (b. Nov. 9, 1802, Albion, Maine, U.S.—d.
Nov. 7, 1837, Alton, Ill.)
Thomas Wentworth
Higginson Newspaper editor and abolitionist Elijah
(b. Dec. 22, 1823, Cambridge, Mass., P. Lovejoy was martyred when he died in
U.S.—d. May 9, 1911, Cambridge) defense of his right to print antislavery
material in the period leading up to the
Minister and reformer Thomas Wentworth Civil War.
Higginson was dedicated to the abolition In 1827 Lovejoy moved to St. Louis,
movement. Missouri, where he established a school
52 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

and entered journalism. Six years later Wheeling, Virginia, where he was first
he became editor of the St. Louis exposed to the slave trade. In 1815 he orga-
Observer, a Presbyterian weekly in nized the Union Humane Society, an
which he strongly condemned slavery antislavery association, in Ohio. In 1821
and supported gradual emancipation. he founded a newspaper, the Genius of
Missouri was a slave state, and in 1835 a Universal Emancipation, which he edited
letter signed by a number of important at irregular intervals in various places
men in St. Louis requested him to mod- until 1835, when he began publication of
erate the tone of his editorials. He another newspaper, The National Enquirer
replied in an editorial reiterating his (later the Pennsylvania Freeman), in
views and his right to publish them. Philadelphia. Much of his time was spent
Threats of mob violence, however, traveling in search of suitable places
forced him to move his press across the where freed slaves could settle, such as
Mississippi River to Alton, in the free Canada and Haiti. From 1836 to 1838 he
state of Illinois. Despite its new location, worked closely with U.S. Representative
his press was destroyed by mobs sev- John Quincy Adams against the annexa-
eral times in one year. Finally, on the tion of Texas, which would provide an
night of Nov. 7, 1837, a mob attacked the opportunity for the extension of slavery.
building, and Lovejoy was killed in its He moved to Illinois in 1839 and reestab-
defense. The news of his death stirred lished the Genius, which he published
the people of the North profoundly and until his death.
led to a great strengthening of aboli-
tionist sentiment. Wendell Phillips
(b. Nov. 29, 1811, Boston, Mass., U.S.—d.
Benjamin Lundy Feb. 2, 1884, Boston)
(b. Jan. 4, 1789, Sussex County, N.J.,
U.S.—d. Aug. 22, 1839, Lowell, Ill.) One of the most eloquent abolitionist
crusaders, orator Wendell Phillips helped
In the 1820s and 1830s, Benjamin Lundy energize the antislavery cause during
was a prominent abolitionist and the the period leading up to the Civil War.
publisher of some the era’s leading anti- After opening a law office in Boston,
slavery periodicals. Phillips, a wealthy Harvard Law School
Born to Quaker parents, Lundy was graduate, sacrificed social status and a
introduced early on to antislavery senti- prospective political career in order to
ment, as Quakers condemned the practice. join the antislavery movement. He
His dedication to the abolitionist cause, became a close associate of the aboli-
however, did not begin until he was work- tionist leader William Lloyd Garrison
ing as an apprentice saddlemaker in and began lecturing for antislavery
Abolitionism and Abolitionists | 53

societies, writing pamphlets and edito- Gerrit Smith


rials for Garrison’s The Liberator, and (b. March 6, 1797, Utica, N.Y., U.S.—d.
contributing financially to the abolition Dec. 28, 1874, New York, N.Y.)
movement.
Phillips’s reputation as an orator was Reformer and philanthropist Gerrit Smith
established at Faneuil Hall, Boston (Dec. was among those who provided financial
8, 1837), at a meeting called to protest the backing for the antislavery crusader
murder of abolitionist Elijah Lovejoy at John Brown.
Alton, Illinois, the previous month. When Smith was born into a wealthy fam-
Phillips spontaneously delivered a stir- ily. In about 1828 he became an active
ring and passionate denunciation of the worker in the cause of temperance, and
mob action against the martyred editor, in his home village, Peterboro, he built
he was recognized as one of the most one of the first temperance hotels in the
brilliant orators of his day. country. He became an abolitionist in
As a reform crusader, Phillips allied 1835, after witnessing the disruption of
himself with Garrison in refusing to link an antislavery meeting by a mob in Utica.
abolition with political action; together In 1840 he took a leading part in the
they condemned the federal Constitution organization of the antislavery Liberty
for its compromises over slavery and Party, and in 1848 and 1852 he was nomi-
advocated national disunion rather than nated for the presidency by the remnant
continued association with the slave of this organization that had not been
states. During the Civil War he assailed absorbed by the Free Soil Party. In 1852
Pres. Abraham Lincoln’s reluctance to he was elected to the U.S. House of
uproot slavery at once, and after the Representatives as an independent. At
Emancipation Proclamation (January the end of the first session in 1854 he
1863) he threw his support to full civil resigned his seat.
liberties for freedmen. In 1865 he became After becoming an opponent of land
president of the American Anti-Slavery monopoly, Smith gave numerous farms
Society after Garrison resigned. of 50 acres each to indigent families, and
After the Civil War, Phillips also he also attempted to colonize tracts in
devoted himself to temperance, women’s northern New York with free blacks, but
rights, universal suffrage, and the this experiment was a failure. Peterboro
Greenback Party (a minor political became a station on the Underground
movement). He was an unsuccessful Railroad, and after 1850 Smith furnished
Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate money for the legal expenses of persons
of the Labor Reform and Prohibition par- charged with infractions of the Fugitive
ties in 1870. He continued to lecture on Slave Law. He became very close to
the lyceum circuits until the 1880s. John Brown, to whom he gave a farm in
54 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

Essex County (New York), and from time Seminary and she taught at another
to time supplied him with funds, though school founded by her sister.
it seems without knowing that any of the In Cincinnati she took an active part
money would be employed in an attempt in the literary and school life, contribut-
to incite a slave insurrection. Under the ing stories and sketches to local journals
excitement following the raid on Harpers and compiling a school geography, until
Ferry in October 1859, he became tempo- the school closed in 1836. That same year
rarily insane, and for several weeks was she married Calvin Ellis Stowe, a clergy-
confined in an asylum in Utica. man and seminary professor, who
Smith favoured a vigorous prosecu- encouraged her literary activity and was
tion of the Civil War but at its close himself an eminent biblical scholar. She
advocated a mild policy toward the late wrote continually and in 1843 published
Confederate states, declaring that part of The Mayflower; or, Sketches of Scenes and
the guilt of slavery lay upon the North. Characters Among the Descendants of
He even became one of the securities for the Pilgrims.
Jefferson Davis, thereby incurring the Stowe lived for 18 years in Cincinnati,
resentment of Northern radical leaders. separated only by the Ohio River from
a slave-holding community; she came
Harriet Beecher Stowe in contact with fugitive slaves and
(b. June 14, 1811, Litchfield, Conn., learned about life in the South from
U.S.—d. July 1, 1896, Hartford, Conn.) friends and from her own visits there. In
1850 her husband became professor at
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Bowdoin College and the family moved
Tom’s Cabin contributed so much to pop- to Brunswick, Maine.
ular feeling against slavery that it is cited There Harriet Stowe began to write
among the causes of the Civil War. a long tale of slavery, based on her
Harriet Beecher was a member of reading of abolitionist literature and on
one of the 19th century’s most remarkable her personal observations in Ohio and
families. The daughter of the promi- Kentucky. Her tale was published seri-
nent Congregationalist minister Lyman ally (1851–52) in the National Era, an
Beecher and the sister of Catharine, antislavery paper of Washington, D.C.;
Henry Ward, and Edward, she grew up in in 1852 it appeared in book form as
an atmosphere of learning and moral Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life Among the
earnestness. She attended her sister Lowly. The book was an immediate sen-
Catharine’s school in Hartford, Conn., in sation and was taken up eagerly by
1824–27, thereafter teaching at the school. abolitionists while, along with its author,
In 1832 she accompanied Catharine and it was vehemently denounced in the
their father to Cincinnati, Ohio, where South, where reading or possessing the
he became president of Lane Theological book became an extremely dangerous
Abolitionism and Abolitionists | 55

enterprise. With sales of 300,000 in the assisted her son Charles E. Stowe on a
first year, the book exerted an influence biography of her, which appeared in
equaled by few other novels in history, 1889. Stowe had moved to Hartford in
helping to solidify both pro- and antislav- 1864, and she largely remained there
ery sentiment. The book was translated until her death.
widely and several times dramatized (the
first time, in 1852, without Stowe’s per- Charles Sumner
mission), where it played to capacity (b. Jan. 6, 1811, Boston, Mass., U.S.—d.
audiences. Stowe was enthusiastically March 11, 1874, Washington, D.C.)
received on a visit to England in 1853,
and there she formed friendships with Dedicated to human equality, Sen.
many leading literary figures. In that Charles Sumner was a persistent advo-
same year she published A Key to Uncle cate of abolition during the lead-up to the
Tom’s Cabin, a compilation of documents Civil War.
and testimonies in support of disputed A graduate of Harvard Law School
details of her indictment of slavery. (1833), Sumner crusaded for many causes,
In 1856 she published Dred: A Tale of including prison reform, world peace,
the Great Dismal Swamp, in which she and Horace Mann’s educational reforms.
depicted the deterioration of a society It was in his long service as a U.S.
resting on a slave basis. When The senator from Massachusetts (1852–74),
Atlantic Monthly was established the fol- however, that he exercised his major
lowing year, she found a ready vehicle for influence on history. He bitterly attacked
her writings; she also found outlets in the the Compromise of 1850, which attempted
Independent of New York City and later to balance the demands of North against
the Christian Union, of which papers her South. On May 19/20, 1856, he denounced
brother Henry Ward Beecher was editor. the “Crime against Kansas” (the Kansas-
She thereafter led the life of a woman Nebraska Act) as “in every respect a
of letters, writing novels, of which The swindle” and characterized its authors,
Minister’s Wooing (1859) is best known, Senators Andrew P. Butler and Stephen
many studies of social life in both fiction A. Douglas, as myrmidons (followers) of
and essay, and a small volume of reli- slavery. Two days later Congressman
gious poems. An article she published in Preston S. Brooks of South Carolina
The Atlantic in 1869, in which she alleged invaded the Senate, labelled the speech a
that Lord Byron had had an incestuous libel on his state and on his uncle, Senator
affair with his half-sister, created an Butler, and then severely beat Sumner
uproar in England and cost her much of with a cane. It took three years for Sumner
her popularity there, but she remained to recover from the beating.
a leading author and lyceum lecturer Sumner was chairman of the Senate
in the United States. Late in her life she Foreign Relations Committee from March
56 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

1861 to March 1871. Close acquain- Reaction in his home state was imme-
tanceships with prominent Englishmen diate and bitter. The Massachusetts
such as Richard Cobden, John Bright, legislature censured the resolution as
William Ewart Gladstone, and other “an insult to the loyal soldiery of the
European leaders—gained during his nation” and as meeting “the unqualified
several European sojourns (1837–40)— condemnation of the people of the
afforded him unusual understanding of Commonwealth.” Two years later, how-
and influence in international affairs. ever, the legislature rescinded its action.
He helped preserve peace between Shortly after receiving news that he had
Britain and the United States by per- been exonerated, Sumner suffered a fatal
suading President Lincoln to give up heart attack.
Confederate commissioners James M.
Mason and John Slidell after their cap- Arthur Tappan
ture aboard the Trent in November 1861. (b. May 22, 1786, Northampton,
(See page 65.) Mass., U.S.—d. July 23, 1865, New
Sumner opposed President Lincoln Haven, Conn.)
and later Pres. Andrew Johnson on post-
war Reconstruction policy. He took the Philanthropist Arthur Tappan used
position that the defeated South was a much of his energy and his fortune in
conquered province outside the protec- the struggle to end slavery.
tion of the Constitution, and that the After a devoutly religious upbring-
Confederate states should provide con- ing, Tappan moved to Boston at age 15 to
stitutional guarantees of equal voting enter the dry goods business. Six years
rights to blacks before those states could later, he launched his own firm in
be readmitted to the Union. Portland, Maine, and then in 1809 moved
In 1870 Sumner helped defeat Pres. the business to Montreal. Tappan strug-
Ulysses S. Grant’s proposal to annex gled with the business both in Canada
Santo Domingo. As a result, Grant appar- and, after the outbreak of the War of 1812,
ently brought about Sumner’s removal back in the United States. But in 1826 he
from the chairmanship of the Foreign started a new company in New York City.
Relations Committee, a blow that almost This business, a silk-importing firm, was
broke Sumner. successful, and Arthur and his brother
In a move for magnanimity toward Lewis became wealthy. The Panic of 1837
the defeated South, Sumner introduced forced the Tappans to close their doors,
a Senate resolution (1872) providing that but the brothers founded another lucra-
the names of battles between fellow tive enterprise when they opened the
citizens should not be placed on the first commercial credit-rating service in
regimental colours of the U.S. Army. the 1840s.
Abolitionism and Abolitionists | 57

Arthur Tappan early and consistently David Walker


used his wealth to support missionary (b. Sept. 28, 1785, Wilmington, N.C.,
societies, colleges, and theological semi- U.S.—d. June 28, 1830, Boston, Mass.)
naries. Conservative in his moral outlook,
he founded the New York Journal of African American abolitionist David
Commerce in 1827 to provide a newspa- Walker wrote one of the most radical
per free of “immoral advertisements.” documents of the antislavery movement,
He also backed movements for temper- the pamphlet Appeal . . . to the Colored
ance and stricter observance of the Citizens of the World . . . (1829), which
Sabbath and against the use of tobacco. urged slaves to fight for their freedom.
It was the abolition movement, how- Born of a slave father and a free
ever, to which Tappan devoted himself mother, Walker grew up free, obtained
during the latter part of his life. He an education, and traveled throughout
helped found several abolitionist jour- the country, settling in Boston. There he
nals, and he was founder and first became involved in the abolition move-
president (1833–40) of the American ment and was a frequent contributor to
Anti-Slavery Society. Tappan at first Freedom’s Journal, an antislavery weekly.
backed the efforts of the abolitionist Sometime in the 1820s he opened a sec-
William Lloyd Garrison but broke with ondhand clothing store on the Boston
him and the American Anti-Slavery waterfront. Through this business he
Society when Garrison insisted upon could purchase clothes taken from sail-
linking abolition with other reforms. ors in barter for drink and then resell
Tappan then created a new organ- them to seamen about to embark. In the
ization, the American and Foreign copious pockets of these garments, he
Anti-Slavery Society. He advocated try- concealed copies of his Appeal, which
ing to achieve abolition through the he reasoned would reach Southern ports
political process and backed the Liberty and pass through the hands of other
Party in the 1840s. With the passage of used-clothes dealers who would know
the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, however, what to do with them. He also used sym-
both of the Tappan brothers became more pathetic black seamen to distribute
radical. Arthur Tappan openly declared pamphlets directly.
his determination to disobey the law, and When the smuggled pamphlets
he supported the Underground Railroad. began to appear in the South, the states
Old age limited Tappan’s activities reacted with legislation prohibiting cir-
as the slavery controversy heated during culation of abolitionist literature and
the 1850s, but he did live to see the forbidding slaves to learn to read and
Emancipation Proclamation fulfill much write. Warned that his life was in danger,
of his life’s work. Walker refused to flee to Canada. His
58 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

body was found soon afterward near his


shop, and many believed he had been
poisoned.
Walker’s Appeal for a slave revolt,
widely reprinted after his death, was
accepted by a small minority of aboli-
tionists, but most antislavery leaders and
free blacks rejected his call for violence
at the time.
Walker’s only son, Edwin G. Walker,
was elected to the Massachusetts legisla-
ture in 1866.

Theodore Dwight Weld


(b. Nov. 23, 1803, Hampton, Conn.,
U.S.—d. Feb. 3, 1895, Hyde Park, Mass.)

Theodore Dwight Weld was a prominent


antislavery crusader in the pre–Civil
War period.
While a ministerial student at Lane
Seminary, Cincinnati, Ohio, Weld par-
ticipated in antislavery debates and led a
group of students who withdrew from
Lane to enroll at Oberlin (Ohio) College.
Weld left his studies in 1834 to become
an agent for the American Anti-Slavery
Society, recruiting and training people to
work for the cause. His converts included
such well-known abolitionists as James
G. Birney, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and
Henry Ward Beecher.
Weld wrote pamphlets (largely anon-
Frontispiece from the 1830 edition of ymous), notably The Bible Against
David Walker’s Appeal . . . to the Colored Slavery (1837) and Slavery As It Is (1839).
Citizens of the World . . . first published The latter was said to be the work on
in 1829. which Harriet Beecher Stowe partly
based her Uncle Tom’s Cabin .
Abolitionism and Abolitionists | 59

Soon after his marriage (1838) to Whittier’s career naturally divides


Angelina Grimké, a coworker in the anti- into four periods: poet and journalist
slavery crusade, Weld withdrew to private (1826–32), abolitionist (1833–42), writer
life on a farm in Belleville, New Jersey. and humanitarian (1843–65), and Quaker
He ventured back into public life in poet (1866–92). At age 19 he submitted
1841–43, when he went to Washington, his poem “The Exile’s Departure” to the
D.C., to head an antislavery reference abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison for
bureau for the group of insurgents in publication in the Newburyport Free
Congress who broke with the Whigs on Press, and it was accepted. Garrison
the slavery issue and were seeking the encouraged other poetic contributions
repeal of the “gag rule” restricting from Whittier, and the two men became
the consideration of antislavery peti- friends and associates in the abolitionist
tions in Congress. Having demonstrated cause. Whittier soon turned to journal-
the value of an antislavery lobby in ism. He edited newspapers in Boston
Washington, Weld returned to private and Haverhill and by 1830 had become
life. He and his wife spent the remainder editor of the New England Weekly Review
of their lives directing schools and teach- in Hartford, Connecticut, the most
ing in New Jersey and Massachusetts. important Whig journal in New England.
He also continued writing verse,
John Greenleaf Whittier sketches, and tales, and he published his
(b. Dec. 17, 1807, near Haverhill, first volume of poems, Legends of New
Mass., U.S.—d. Sept. 7, 1892, Hampton England, in 1831. In 1832, however, a
Falls, Mass.) failed romance, ill health, and the dis-
couragement he felt over his lack of
In addition to sharing with Henry literary recognition caused him to resign
Wadsworth Longfellow the distinction of and return to Haverhill.
being a household name in both England Deciding that his rebuffs had been
and the United States, poet John caused by personal vanity, Whittier
Greenleaf Whittier was a dedicated resolved to devote himself to more altru-
abolitionist. istic activities, and he soon embraced
Born on a farm into a Quaker family, Garrisonian abolitionism. His fiery anti-
Whittier had only a limited formal edu- slavery pamphlet Justice and Expediency
cation. He became an avid reader of made him prominent in the abolition
British poetry, however, and was espe- movement, and for a decade he was
cially influenced by the Scot Robert probably its most influential writer. He
Burns, whose lyrical treatment of every- served a term in the Massachusetts leg-
day rural life reinforced his own islature, spoke at antislavery meetings,
inclination to be a writer. and edited the Pennsylvania Freeman
60 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

(1838–40) in Philadelphia. In 1840 he maturity. The publication in 1866 of his


returned to live in Amesbury with his best-known poem, the winter idyll “Snow-
mother, aunt, and sister. Bound”, was followed by other triumphs
By 1843 Whittier had broken with in the verse collections The Tent on the
Garrison, having decided that abolition- Beach (1867), Among the Hills (1868),
ist goals could be better accomplished and The Pennsylvania Pilgrim (1872).
through regular political channels. He Whittier’s 70th birthday was celebrated
became more active in literature, in at a dinner attended by almost every
which new avenues of publication were prominent American writer, and his
now open to him. In the next two decades 80th birthday became an occasion for
he matured as a poet, publishing numer- national celebration.
ous volumes of verse, among them Lays After outgrowing the romantic verse
of My Home (1843), Voices of Freedom he wrote in imitation of Robert Burns,
(1846), Songs of Labor (1850), The Whittier became an eloquent advocate of
Panorama (1856), and Home Ballads justice, tolerance, and liberal humanitari-
and Poems (1860). Among his best- anism. The lofty spiritual and moral
known poems of this period is “Maud values he proclaimed earned him the
Muller” (1854), with its lines “Of all sad title of “America’s finest religious poet,”
words of tongue and pen/The saddest and many of his poems are still sung as
are these, ‘It might have been.’ ” Most of church hymns by various denomina-
his literary prose, including his one tions. After the Civil War he changed his
novel, Leaves from Margaret Smith’s focus, depicting nature and homely inci-
Journal (1849), was also published dur- dents in rural life. Whittier’s verse is
ing this time, along with numerous often marred by sentimentality, poor
articles and reviews. technique, or excessive preaching, but
Whittier’s mother and his beloved his best poems are still read for their
younger sister died in the period from moral beauty and simple sentiments. He
1857 to 1864, but his personal grief, com- was not a literary figure of the highest
bined with the larger national grief of stature but was nevertheless an impor-
the Civil War, furthered his literary tant voice of his age.
CHAPTER 4
Secession and the
Politics of the
Civil War
A HOUSE DIVIDING

O n Nov. 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected as the


16th president of the United States. Little over a
month later, on Dec. 20, a special convention called in
South Carolina unanimously passed an ordinance of
secession, making that state the fi rst to withdraw from
the Union. Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and
Louisiana followed in January, while Texas voted to secede
on Feb. 1, 1861. Pres. James Buchanan and his administra-
tion feebly denied the right of secession, but he also denied
the right of the federal government to use force against the
seceded states.
Secession had a long history in the United States—but as
a threat rather than as an actual dissolution of the Union.
Pro-secessionists found philosophical justification for alter-
ing or abolishing a government and instituting a new one in
the Declaration of Independence. More specifically, those
who held that the Union was simply a compact among the
states argued that states could secede from that compact just
as they had earlier acceded to it.
While never counseling secession, James Madison and
Thomas Jefferson had clearly enunciated the states’ rights-
compact doctrine in the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions
62 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

of 1798. Their political opponents, New On Feb. 4, 1861—a month before


England Federalists, briefly considered Lincoln would be inaugurated in
withdrawing from the Union at the Washington—six Southern states (South
Hartford Convention in 1814. The Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida,
Mississippi question elicited hints of Mississippi, Louisiana) sent representa-
secession from pro-slavery states, but tives to Montgomery, Ala., to set up a
the Missouri Compromise (1820) tempo- new independent government. Delegates
rarily quieted the agitation. South from Texas soon joined them. A provi-
Carolinians, however, went to the very sional government was established in
brink of secession in the 1830s over the Montgomery. The Confederacy, operat-
tariff question. ing under a structure similar to that of
From the 1840s to 1860, Southerners the United States, was headed by Pres.
frequently threatened to withdraw from Jefferson Davis and Vice Pres. Alexander
the Union as antislavery sentiment in the H. Stephens. The new country soon
North grew stronger. The Compromise acquired other symbols of sovereignty,
of 1850 eased some of the sectional strife, such as its own stamps and currency and
but the problem of permitting or prohib- a flag known as the Stars and Bars.
iting slavery in the western territories Lincoln waited a month after his
continued to inflame opinion on both inauguration before deciding to send
sides throughout the 1850s. provisions to Fort Sumter in the harbour
of Charleston, S.C. On April 12, 1861,
THE CONFEDERATE Confederate guns opened fire on the fort.
STATES OF AMERICA The Civil War had begun. Forced now
to make a choice between the Union
In the wake of the 1860 election, neither and the Confederacy, the states of the
Southerners, now intent upon secession, upper South—Virginia, North Carolina,
nor Republicans, intent upon reaping the Arkansas, and Tennessee—voted to
rewards of their hard-won election vic- secede. Not until May, after hostilities
tory, were really interested in conciliation. had broken out did the new government
In addition to the ineffectual efforts by transfer its capital to Richmond, Va.
the Buchanan administration, more The main concern of the Confederate
strenuous attempts were made by others States was raising and equipping an
in Washington to work out a compro- army. The Southern Congress first voted
mise. (The most promising plan was to permit direct volunteering up to
John J. Crittenden’s proposal to extend 400,000, but conscription was begun in
the Missouri Compromise line, dividing April 1862. The total number of
free from slave states, to the Pacific.) All Confederate soldiers is estimated at
of these efforts failed, too. 750,000, as opposed to twice that many
Secession and the Politics of the Civil War | 63

Primary Source: Jefferson Davis’s Inaugural Address

As a senator from Mississippi in the pre–Civil War period and the secretary of war for Democrat
Franklin Pierce between 1853 and 1857, Jefferson Davis was one of the influential politicians of his
time. Between 1858 and 1860 he delivered speeches in both the North and the South urging the pres-
ervation of the Union. During the presidential campaign of 1860 he attempted to discourage
secessionist sentiment. Yet when secession came Davis was elected president of the Confederate
States of America. Unlike most of the Southern leaders, Davis had expected war and hoped to
become the commander in chief of the Southern armies. Nevertheless, his first act as president of
the Confederacy was to send a commission to Washington to negotiate a peaceful settlement with
the government. Abraham Lincoln refused to receive his commission. On Feb. 18, 1861, in a state of
poor health and with grave doubts about both his ability to serve as president as well as the South’s
ability to fight a war, Davis delivered his Inaugural Address, which is excerpted here.
Source: The Rebellion Record: A Diary of American Events, with Documents, Narratives,
Illustrative Incidents, Poetry, etc., Frank Moore, ed., New York, 1861–1868, I, Document 37.

. . . Our present condition, achieved in a manner unprecedented in the history of nations,


illustrates the American idea that governments rest upon the consent of the governed,
and that it is the right of the people to alter or abolish governments whenever they become
destructive to the ends for which they were established. The declared compact of the
Union from which we have withdrawn was to establish justice, insure domestic tranquil-
lity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the
blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity; and when, in the judgment of the sov-
ereign states now composing this Confederacy, it has been perverted from the purposes
for which it was ordained, and ceased to answer the ends for which it was established, a
peaceful appeal to the ballot box declared that, so far as they are concerned, the govern-
ment created by that compact should cease to exist.
In this they merely asserted the right which the Declaration of Independence of
1776 defined to be “inalienable.” Of the time and occasion of its exercise, they, as sover-
eigns, were the final judges, each for itself. The impartial, enlightened verdict of mankind
will vindicate the rectitude of our conduct; and He who knows the hearts of men will
judge of the sincerity with which we labored to preserve the government of our fathers
in its spirit.
The right solemnly proclaimed at the birth of the States, and which has been affirmed
and reaffirmed in the bills of rights of the states subsequently admitted into the Union of
1789, undeniably recognizes in the people the power to resume the authority delegated for
the purposes of government. Thus the sovereign states here represented proceeded to
form this Confederacy . . .
An agricultural people, whose chief interest is the export of a commodity required
in every manufacturing country, our true policy is peace and the freest trade which our
64 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

necessities will permit. It is alike our interest and that of all those to whom we would sell,
and from whom we would buy, that there should be the fewest practicable restrictions
upon the interchange of commodities. There can be but little rivalry between ours and
any manufacturing or navigating community, such as the Northeastern states of the
American Union. It must follow, therefore, that mutual interest would invite to goodwill
and kind offices. If, however, passion or lust of dominion should cloud the judgment or
inflame the ambition of those states, we must prepare to meet the emergency and main-
tain by the final arbitrament of the sword the position which we have assumed among
the nations of the earth.
We have entered upon a career of independence, and it must be inflexibly pursued
through many years of controversy with our late associates of the Northern states. We
have vainly endeavored to secure tranquillity and obtain respect for the rights to which
we were entitled. As a necessity, not a choice, we have resorted to the remedy of separa-
tion, and henceforth our energies must be directed to the conduct of our own affairs and
the perpetuity of the Confederacy which we have formed. If a just perception of mutual
interest shall permit us peaceably to pursue our separate political career, my most ear-
nest desire will have been fulfilled. But if this be denied us, and the integrity of our territory
and jurisdiction be assailed, it will but remain for us with firm resolve to appeal to arms
and invoke the blessing of Providence on a just cause . . .
With a constitution differing only from that of our fathers insofar as it is explanatory
of their well-known intent, freed from sectional conflicts, which have interfered with the
pursuit of the general welfare, it is not unreasonable to expect that states from which we
have recently parted may seek to unite their fortunes to ours under the government which
we have instituted. For this your constitution makes adequate provision; but beyond this,
if I mistake not, the judgment and will of the people are that reunion with the states from
which they have separated is neither practicable nor desirable. To increase the power,
develop the resources, and promote the happiness of the Confederacy, it is requisite that
there should be so much homogeneity that the welfare of every portion would be the aim
of the whole. Where this does not exist, antagonisms are engendered which must and
should result in separation . . .
We have changed the constituent parts but not the system of government. The
Constitution formed by our fathers is that of these Confederate States.
It is joyous in the midst of perilous times to look around upon a people united in
heart, when one purpose of high resolve animates and actuates the whole; where the sac-
rifices to be made are not weighed in the balance against honor, right, liberty, and equality.
Obstacles may retard, but they cannot long prevent the progress of a movement sanc-
tioned by its justice and sustained by a virtuous people. Reverently let us invoke the God
of our fathers to guide and protect us in our efforts to perpetuate the principles which by
His blessing they were able to vindicate, establish, and transmit to their posterity. And
with a continuance of His favor ever gratefully acknowledged, we may hopefully look
forward to success, to peace, to prosperity.
Secession and the Politics of the Civil War | 65

Federal troops. (Confederate population felt that the importance of cotton would
stood at about 5,500,000 whites and force diplomatic recognition from the
3,500,000 black slaves, as against Federal government and European coun-
21,000,000 Northerners.) In railroads, tries. Neither the commissioners sent
the South had only 9,000 miles, the abroad in 1861 nor the permanent envoys
industrial North 22,000. who replaced them were able to secure
The Confederacy’s early attempts to recognition from Great Britain, France,
raise funds centred on printing money, or any other European power. The South
which proved highly inflationary, and was able, however, to buy considerable
issuing bonds that could be paid for in war matériel and several fast ships.
kind. Because of the Federal blockade of
Southern ports, tariff revenues proved THE COMING OF THE WAR
inadequate. In 1863 a general tax bill was
passed, imposing license and occupa- Faced with a fait accompli, Lincoln when
tional taxes, a profits tax, and a 10 percent inaugurated was prepared to conciliate
tax on farm products, collected in kind. the South in every way but one: he would
Profitable private blockade running was not recognize that the Union could be
put under strict supervision in 1864. divided. The test of his determination
Prices of farm products for the army were came early in his administration, when he
eventually fi xed to check profiteering. learned that the Federal troops under
In foreign affairs, the South had been Major Robert Anderson in Fort Sumter,
initially confident of the power and influ- South Carolina—then one of the few mili-
ence of “King Cotton,” the crop that tary installations in the South still in
accounted for more than half the value of Federal hands—had to be promptly sup-
U.S. exports before the war. Confederates plied or withdrawn. After agonized

In Focus: Trent Affair

On Nov. 8, 1861, Capt. Charles Wilkes, commanding the Union frigate San Jacinto, seized from the
neutral British ship Trent two Confederate commissioners, James Murray Mason and John Slidell,
who were seeking the support of England and France for the cause of the Confederacy.
Despite initial rejoicing by the Northern populace and Congress, this unauthorized seizure
aroused a storm of indignant protest and demands for war throughout Britain. The British govern-
ment sent an ultimatum demanding an American apology and the release of Mason and Slidell. To
avert armed conflict, Secretary of State William Seward, on December 26, replied that Wilkes had
erred in failing to bring the Trent into port for adjudication, thus violating America’s policy of free-
dom of the seas. The Confederate commissioners were released shortly thereafter.
66 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

Primary Source: Daniel Decatur Emmett’s


and Albert Pike’s “Dixie”

Dan Emmett wrote Dixie for Bryant’s Minstrels, who first performed it in New York, probably in the
late fall of 1859. The song soon reverberated through the land: people clapped their hands to it;
soldiers in both the North and the South sang it merrily; Abraham Lincoln loved it. And many wrote
lyrics for it. Albert Pike, a Southern poet, produced an “improved” version, eliminating the dialect
and the “vulgarisms”; but it is Emmett’s version that is remembered. (Both versions are reprinted
here.) During the war, Dixie became the favourite Confederate marching song. After Appomattox,
President Lincoln was heard to remark that “the song is federal property now.”
Source: Heart Songs, Cleveland, 1909. War Songs and Poems of the Southern Confederacy
1861–1865, H. M. Wharton, ed., n.p., 1904.

I wish I was in de land ob cotton, Look away, look away, look away,
Old times dar am not forgotten; Dixie land!
Look away, look away, look away, Will run away, missus took a decline, O,
Dixie land! Her face was the color of bacon rhine, O,
In Dixie land whar I was born in, Look away, look away, look away,
Early on one frosty mornin’, Dixie land!
Look away, look away, look away,
Dixie land! While missus lib, she lib in clover,
When she die, she die all over;
Chorus: Look away, look away, look away,
Den I wish I was in Dixie! Dixie land!
Hooray! hooray! How could she act de foolish part
In Dixie’s land I’ll take my stand An’ marry a man to break her heart?
To lib an’ die in Dixie, Look away, look away, look away,
Away, away, away down south in Dixie! Dixie land!
Away, away, away down south in Dixie!
Now here’s a health to de nex’ old missus,
Old missus marry Will de weaber, An’ all de gals dat want to kiss us;
Willium was a gay deceaber; Look away, look away, look away,
Look away, look away, look away, Dixie land!
Dixie land! An’ if you want to dribe away sorrow,
When he put his arm around ’er, Come an’ hear dis song tomorrow,
He look as fierce as a forty-pounder, Look away, look away, look away,
Look away, look away, look away, Dixie land!
Dixie land!
—Daniel Decatur Emmett
His face was sharp as a butcher cleaber,
But dat did not seem to greab ’er;
Secession and the Politics of the Civil War | 67

Southrons, hear your country call you! Cut the unequal bonds asunder!
Up, lest worse than death befall you! Let them hence each other plunder!
To arms! To arms! To arms, in Dixie!
Lo! all the beacon-fires are lighted— Swear upon your country’s altar
Let all hearts be now united! Never to submit or falter,
To arms! To arms! To arms, in Dixie! Till the spoilers are defeated,
Advance the flag of Dixie! Till the Lord’s work is completed.
Hurrah! Hurrah!
For Dixie’s land we take our stand, Halt not till our Federation
And live or die for Dixie! Secures among earth’s powers its station!
To arms! To arms! Then at peace, and crowned with glory,
And conquer peace for Dixie! Hear your children tell the story!
To arms! To arms!
And conquer peace for Dixie! If the loved ones weep in sadness,
Victory soon shall bring them gladness—
Northern thunders mutter! To arms! To arms! To arms, in Dixie!
Northern flags in South winds flutter! Exultant pride soon banish sorrow,
Send them back your fierce defiance! Smiles chase tears away tomorrow.
Stamp upon the accursed alliance! To arms! To arms! To arms, in Dixie!
Advance the flag of Dixie!
Fear no danger! Shun no labor! Hurrah! Hurrah!
Lift up rifle, pike, and saber! For Dixie’s land we take our stand,
Shoulder pressing close to shoulder, And live or die for Dixie!
Let the odds make each heart bolder! To arms! To arms!
And conquer peace for Dixie!
How the South’s great heart rejoices To arms! To arms!
At your cannons’ ringing voices! And conquer peace for Dixie!
For faith betrayed and pledges broken,
Wrongs inflicted, insults spoken. —Albert Pike

Strong as lions, swift as eagles,


Back to their kennels hunt these beagles!

consultation with his cabinet, Lincoln mortar directed at Fort Sumter announced
determined that supplies must be sent the opening of the Civil War. After a 34-
even if doing so provoked the Confederates hour bloodless bombardment, Anderson,
into firing the first shot. On April 12, 1861, in command of a Federal garrison of about
just before Federal supply ships could 85 soldiers, surrendered Fort Sumter to
reach the beleaguered Anderson, the flash some 5,500 besieging Confederate troops
and dull roar of a 10-inch Confederate under P. G. T. Beauregard.
68 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

Primary Source: Robert E. Lee’s Resignation


from the United States Army

Robert E. Lee was a colonel in the U.S. Army when Confederate soldiers fired on Fort Sumter. Lee
was devoted to the Union and could not rationally justify secession. But stronger than his commit-
ments to the Union were the emotional ties to his home state, born out of his family’s deep roots in
Virginia. On April 18, 1861, he was offered the field command of the U.S. Army but declined the offer.
General Winfield Scott, a close friend, advised him either to resign his commission or to accept the
assignment. The following day the Virginia convention voted to secede. Lee was torn between his
conscience, which would not allow him to bear arms against his homeland, and his devotion to the
Union. Even on April 20, when he resigned from the U.S. Army, Lee had hoped he would not have to
participate in a war he detested. That day he wrote the following letter to General Scott. Three days
later Virginia named him commander of its army.
Source: Personal Reminiscences, Anecdotes, and Letters of Gen. Robert E. Lee, J. William
Jones, ed., New York, 1875, pp. 138–140. Keep here.

General:

Since my interview with you on the 18th instant, I have felt that I ought no longer to
retain my commission in the Army. I, therefore, tender my resignation, which I request
you will recommend for acceptance. It would have been presented at once but for the
struggle it has cost me to separate myself from a service to which I have devoted the best
years of my life and all the ability I possessed.
During the whole of that time—more than a quarter of a century—I have experienced
nothing but kindness from my superiors and the most cordial friendship from my com-
rades. To no one, General, have I been as much indebted as to yourself for uniform
kindness and consideration; and it has always been my ardent desire to meet your appro-
bation. I shall carry to the grave the most grateful recollections of your kind consideration,
and your name and fame will always be dear to me.
Save in defense of my native state, I never desire again to draw my sword.
Be pleased to accept my most earnest wishes for the continuance of your happiness
and prosperity.

THE POLITICAL far the most titanic waged in the Western


COURSE OF THE WAR Hemisphere.
The war management policies pursued
For the next four years the Union and the by the governments of Abraham Lincoln
Confederacy were locked in conflict—by and Jefferson Davis were astonishingly
Secession and the Politics of the Civil War | 69

similar. Both presidents at first relied Even toward slavery, the root cause
on volunteers to man the armies, and of the war, the policies of the two warring
both administrations were poorly pre- governments were surprisingly similar.
pared to arm and equip the hordes of The Confederate constitution, which was
young men who flocked to the colours in most other ways similar to that of the
in the initial stages of the war. As the United States, expressly guaranteed the
fighting progressed, both governments institution of slavery. Despite pressure
reluctantly resorted to conscription—the from abolitionists, Lincoln’s administra-
Confederates first, in early 1862, and the tion was not initially disposed to disturb
Federal government more slowly, with the “peculiar institution,” if only because
an ineffective measure of late 1862 fol- any move toward emancipation would
lowed by a more stringent law in 1863. upset the loyalty of Delaware, Maryland,
Both governments pursued an essen- Kentucky, and Missouri—the four slave
tially laissez-faire policy in economic states that remained in the Union.
matters, with little effort to control
prices, wages, or profits. Only the rail- Moves Toward Emancipation
roads were subject to close government
regulation in both regions; and the Gradually, however, under the pressure of
Confederacy, in constructing some of war, both governments moved to end slav-
its own powder mills, made a few ery. Lincoln came to see that emancipation
experiments in “state socialism.” Neither of African Americans would favourably
Lincoln’s nor Davis’s administration influence European opinion toward the
knew how to cope with financing the Northern cause, might deprive the
war; neither developed an effective sys- Confederates of their productive labour
tem of taxation until late in the conflict, force on the farms, and would add much-
and both relied heavily upon borrowing. needed recruits to the Federal armies. In
Faced with a shortage of funds, both September 1862, he issued his preliminary
governments were obliged to turn to the proclamation of emancipation, promising
printing press and to issue fiat money; to free all slaves in rebel territory by Jan.
the U.S. government issued $432,000,000 1, 1863, unless those states returned to the
in “greenbacks” (as this irredeemable, Union; and when the Confederates
non–interest-bearing paper money was remained obdurate, he followed it with his
called), while the Confederacy printed promised final proclamation. A natural
over $1,554,000,000 in such paper cur- accompaniment of emancipation was the
rency. In consequence, both sections use of African American troops, and by
experienced runaway inflation, which the end of the war the number of blacks
was much more drastic in the South, who served in the Federal armies totaled
where, by the end of the war, flour sold at 178,895. Uncertain of the constitutional-
$1,000 a barrel. ity of his Emancipation Proclamation,
70 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

In Focus: Emancipation Proclamation

Issued by U.S. Pres. Abraham Lincoln on Jan. 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation freed the
slaves of the Confederate states in rebellion against the Union.
Before the start of the Civil War, many people and leaders of the North had been primarily
concerned merely with stopping the extension of slavery into western territories that would eventu-
ally achieve statehood within the Union. With the secession of the Southern states and the
consequent start of the Civil War, however, the continued tolerance of Southern slavery by
Northerners seemed no longer to serve any constructive political purpose. Emancipation thus
quickly changed from a distant possibility to an imminent and feasible eventuality. Lincoln had
declared that he meant to save the Union as best he could—by preserving slavery, by destroying it,
or by destroying part and preserving part. Just after the Battle of Antietam (Sept. 17, 1862) he issued
his proclamation calling on the revolted states to return to their allegiance before the next year,
otherwise their slaves would be declared free men. No state returned, and the threatened declara-
tion was issued on Jan. 1, 1863.
As president, Lincoln could issue no such declaration; as commander in chief of the armies and
navies of the United States, he could issue directions only as to the territory within his lines; but the
Emancipation Proclamation applied only to territory outside of his lines. It has therefore been
debated whether the proclamation was in reality of any force. It may fairly be taken as an announce-
ment of the policy that was to guide the army, and as a declaration of freedom taking effect as the
lines advanced. At all events, this was its exact effect.
Its international importance was far greater. The locking up of the world’s source of cotton sup-
ply had been a general calamity, and the Confederate government and people had steadily expected
that the English and French governments would intervene in the war. The conversion of the struggle
into a crusade against slavery made European intervention impossible.
The Emancipation Proclamation did more than lift the war to the level of a crusade for human
freedom. It brought some substantial practical results because it allowed the Union to recruit black
soldiers. Blacks responded to this invitation to join the army in considerable numbers, nearly
180,000 of them enlisting during the remainder of the war. By Aug. 26, 1863, Lincoln could report, in
a letter to James C. Conkling, that “the emancipation policy, and the use of colored troops, consti-
tute the heaviest blow yet dealt to the rebellion.”
Two months before the war ended—in February 1865—Lincoln told portrait painter Francis B.
Carpenter that the Emancipation Proclamation was “the central act of my administration, and the
greatest event of the nineteenth century.” To Lincoln and to his countrymen it had become evident
that the proclamation had dealt a deathblow to slavery in the United States, a fate that was offi-
cially sealed by the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment in December 1865.
Meanwhile the Confederacy, though much more slowly, was also inexorably drifting in the
direction of emancipation. The South’s desperate need for troops caused many military men,
including Robert E. Lee, to demand the recruitment of blacks; finally, in March 1865 the Confederate
congress authorized the raising of African American regiments. Though a few blacks were
Secession and the Politics of the Civil War | 71

recruited for the Confederate armies, none actually served in battle because surrender was at
hand. In yet another way Davis’s government showed its awareness of slavery’s inevitable end
when, in a belated diplomatic mission to seek assistance from Europe, the Confederacy in March
1865 promised to emancipate the slaves in return for diplomatic recognition. Nothing came of the
proposal, but it is further evidence that by the end of the war both North and South realized that
slavery was doomed.

Lincoln urged Congress to abolish slav- encroachment upon their authority and
ery by constitutional amendment; but who strongly favoured local autonomy.
this was not done until Jan. 31, 1865, with The extent of Northern dissatisfac-
the Thirteenth Amendment, and the tion was indicated in the congressional
actual ratification did not take place until elections of 1862, when Lincoln and his
after the war. party sustained a severe rebuff at the
polls and the Republican majority in the
Sectional Dissatisfaction House of Representatives was drastically
reduced. Similarly in the Confederacy
As war leaders, both Lincoln and Davis the congressional elections of 1863 went
came under severe attack in their own so strongly against the administration
sections. Both had to face problems of that Davis was able to command a major-
disloyalty. In Lincoln’s case, the Irish ity for his measures only through the
immigrants to the eastern cities and the continued support of representatives and
Southern-born settlers of the north- senators from the states of the upper
western states were especially hostile South, which were under control of the
to African Americans and, therefore, to Federal army and consequently unable
emancipation, while many other North- to hold new elections.
erners became tired and disaffected as the As late as August 1864, Lincoln
war dragged on interminably. Residents despaired of his reelection to the presi-
of the Southern hill country, where dency and fully expected that the
slavery never had much of a foothold, Democratic candidate, Gen. George B.
were similarly hostile toward Davis. McClellan, would defeat him. Davis, at
Furthermore, in order to wage war, both about the same time, was openly attacked
presidents had to strengthen the powers by Alexander H. Stephens, the vice presi-
of their respective central governments, dent of the Confederacy. But Federal
thus further accelerating the process of military victories, especially William
national integration that had brought Tecumseh Sherman’s capture of Atlanta,
on the war. Both administrations were, greatly strengthened Lincoln; and, as the
in consequence, vigorously attacked war came to a triumphant close for the
by state governors, who resented the North, he attained new heights of
72 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

President Abraham Lincoln and General George B. McClellan in the general’s tent,
Antietam, Maryland, October 3, 1862. Photograph by Alexander Gardner. Library of
Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-B8171-0602 DLC)

popularity. Davis’s administration, on States, directed the secretary of the


the other hand, lost support with each treasury to advance $2 million to assist
successive defeat, and in January 1865, in the raising of troops, and sus-
the Confederate congress insisted that pended the writ of habeas corpus. The
Davis make Robert E. Lee the supreme Confederate government had previously
commander of all Southern forces. authorized a call for 100,000 soldiers
With war upon the land, Abraham for at least six months’ service, and this
Lincoln called for 75,000 militiamen to figure was soon increased to 400,000.
serve for three months. He proclaimed As the fighting progressed, both
a naval blockade of the Confederate governments reluctantly resorted to
Secession and the Politics of the Civil War | 73

In Focus: Draft Riot of 1863

Although labouring people in general supported the Northern war effort, they had no voice in
Republican policy and occasionally deserted from the army or refused reenlistment. Because of
their low wages, often less than $500 a year, they were particularly antagonized by the federal pro-
vision allowing more affluent draftees to buy their way out of the Federal Army for $300. Minor riots
occurred in several cities, and when the drawing of names began in New York on July 11, 1863, mobs
(mostly of foreign-born, especially Irish, workers) surged onto the streets assaulting residents, defy-
ing police, attacking draft headquarters, and burning buildings. Property damage eventually
totalled $1,500,000. It is estimated that 120 people were killed.
The New York draft riot was also closely associated with racial competition for jobs. Northern
labour feared that emancipation of slaves would cause an influx of African American workers from
the South, and employers did in fact use black workers as strikebreakers during this period. Thus
the white rioters eventually vented their wrath on the homes and businesses of innocent African
Americans—including the Colored Orphan Asylum on Fifth Avenue—and Civil War freedmen’s
associations were forced to send aid to their brethren in New York. (This racial ill feeling in the
ranks of urban labour persisted into the second half of the 20th century.) The four-day draft riot—
the worst urban violence in the young nation’s history—was finally quelled by police cooperating
with the 7th N.Y. Regiment, which had been hastily recalled from Gettysburg; the drawing of names
proceeded on August 19 without incident.

conscription—the Confederates first, in enlistment led to widespread abuse, and


early 1862, and the Federal government “bounty jumpers” were a persistent
more slowly, with ineffective measures drain on Northern manpower and
in late 1862 followed by a more stringent finances. Support for conscription was
law in 1863. However, it was common far from universal in the North, and
for wealthy men to hire substitutes to public resistance culminated in the
fulfi ll their service obligation. In addi- Draft Riot of 1863, a racially charged
tion to employing conscription, the four-day melee in which white rioters
Union sought troops by offering cash attacked federal buildings and African
rewards to enlistees through the bounty American workers in the streets of
system. Both substitution and enticed New York City.
CHAPTER 5
The War: The
Big Picture
THE MILITARY
BACKGROUND OF THE WAR

Comparison of North and South

A t first glance it seemed that the 23 states of the Union


were more than a match for the 11 seceding Southern
states. There were approximately 21 million people in the
North compared with some 9 million in the South (of whom
about 3.5 million were slaves). In addition, the Union pos-
sessed over 100,000 manufacturing plants as against 18,000
south of the Potomac River, and more than 70 percent of the
railroads were in the North. Furthermore, the Union had at
its command a 30-to-1 superiority in arms production, a
2-to-1 edge in available manpower, and a great preponder-
ance of commercial and financial resources. It had a
functioning government and a small but efficient regular
army and navy.
The Confederacy was not predestined to defeat, however.
The Southern armies had the advantage of fighting on inte-
rior lines, and their military tradition had bulked large in the
history of the United States before 1860. The long Confederate
coastline of 3,500 miles (5,600 km) seemed to defy block-
ade. Moreover, the Confederate president, Jefferson Davis,
hoped to receive decisive foreign aid and intervention.
The War: The Big Picture | 75

Confederate soldiers were fighting to Davis himself also filled the position of
achieve a separate and independent general in chief of the Confederate
nation based on what they called armies until he named Robert E. Lee to
“Southern institutions,” the chief of that position on Feb. 6, 1865, when the
which was the institution of slavery. So Confederacy was near collapse. In naval
the Southern cause was not a lost one; affairs—an area about which he knew lit-
indeed, other nations had won indepen- tle—the Confederate president seldom
dence against equally heavy odds. intervened directly, allowing the compe-
tent secretary of the navy, Stephen
The High Commands Mallory, to handle the Southern naval
buildup and operations on the water.
Command problems plagued both sides. Although his position was onerous and
Of the two rival commanders in chief, perhaps could not have been filled so
most people in 1861 thought Davis to be well by any other Southern political
abler than Lincoln. Davis was a West leader, Davis’s overall performance in
Point graduate, a hero of the Mexican office left something to be desired.
War, a capable secretary of war under To the astonishment of many, Lincoln
Pres. Franklin Pierce, and a U.S. repre- grew in stature with time and experi-
sentative and senator from Mississippi. ence, and by 1864 he had become a
Lincoln, however, who had served in the consummate war director. But he had
Illinois state legislature and as an undis- much to learn at first, especially in stra-
tinguished one-term member of the U.S. tegic and tactical matters and in his
House of Representatives, could boast of choices of army commanders. With an
only a brief period of military service in ineffective first secretary of war—Simon
the Black Hawk War, in which he did not Cameron—Lincoln unhesitatingly insinu-
perform well. ated himself directly into the planning of
As president and commander in chief military movements. Edwin M. Stanton,
of the Confederate forces, Davis revealed appointed to the secretaryship on Jan.
many fine qualities, including patience, 20, 1862, was equally untutored in mili-
courage, dignity, restraint, firmness, tary affairs but was fully as active a
energy, determination, and honesty; but participant as his superior.
he was flawed by his excessive pride, Winfield Scott was the Federal gen-
hypersensitivity to criticism, and inabil- eral in chief when Lincoln took office.
ity to delegate minor details to his The 75-year-old Scott—a hero of the War
subordinates. To a large extent Davis of 1812 and of the Mexican War—was a
was his own secretary of war, although magnificent and distinguished soldier
five different men served in that post whose mind was still keen but was physi-
during the lifetime of the Confederacy. cally incapacitated and had to be retired
76 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

from the service on Nov. 1, 1861. Scott of the Confederacy. His grand strategy
was replaced by young George B. was based on Scott’s so-called Anaconda
McClellan, an able and imaginative gen- plan, a design that evolved from strate-
eral in chief but one who had trouble in gic ideas discussed in messages between
establishing harmonious and effective Scott and McClellan on April 27, May 3,
relations with Lincoln, as well as difficul- and May 21, 1861. It called for a Union
ties implementing his plans on the field blockade of the Confederacy’s littoral as
of battle. For these reasons, and because well as a decisive thrust down the
he had to campaign with his own Army Mississippi River and an ensuing stran-
of the Potomac, McClellan was relieved gulation of the South by Federal land and
as general in chief on March 11, 1862. He naval forces. But it was to take four years
was eventually succeeded on July 11 by of grim, unrelenting warfare and enor-
the limited Henry W. Halleck, who held mous casualties and devastation before
the position until replaced by Ulysses S. the Confederates could be defeated and
Grant on March 9, 1864. Halleck then the Union preserved.
became chief of staff under Grant in a
long-needed streamlining of the Federal THE LAND WAR
high command. Grant served effica-
ciously as general in chief throughout The War in 1861
the remainder of the war.
The first military operations took place
Strategic Plans in northwestern Virginia, where non-
slaveholding pro-Unionists sought to
In the area of grand strategy, Davis secede from the Confederacy. McClellan,
persistently adhered to the defensive, in command of Federal forces in south-
permitting only occasional “spoiling” for- ern Ohio, advanced on his own initiative
ays into Northern territory. Yet perhaps in the early summer of 1861 into western
the Confederates’ best chance of winning Virginia with about 20,000 men. He
would have been an early grand offensive encountered smaller forces sent there by
into the Union states before the Lincoln Lee, then in Richmond in command of all
administration could find its ablest gener- Virginia troops. Although showing signs
als and bring the preponderant resources of occasional hesitation, McClellan
of the North to bear against the South. quickly won three small but significant
Lincoln, on the other hand, in order battles: on June 3 at Philippi, on July 11
to crush the rebellion and reestablish the at Rich Mountain, and on July 13 at
authority of the Federal government, had Carrick’s (or Corrick’s) Ford (all now in
to direct his blue-clad armies to invade, West Virginia). McClellan’s casualties
capture, and hold most of the vital areas were light, and his victories went far
The War: The Big Picture | 77

toward eliminating Confederate resis- including, on April 18, Harpers Ferry


tance in northwestern Virginia, which (now West Virginia), which was quickly
had refused to recognize secession, and occupied by Southern forces, who held
toward paving the way for the admit- it for a time, and the naval base at
tance into the Union of the new state of Norfolk, which was prematurely aban-
West Virginia in 1863. doned to the enemy on April 20. On May
Meanwhile, sizable armies were 6 Lee ordered a Confederate force—soon
gathering around the Federal capital of to be commanded by P. G. T. Beauregard—
Washington, D.C., and the Confederate northward to hold the rail hub of Manassas
capital of Richmond, Virginia. Federal Junction, Virginia, some 26 miles (42
forces abandoned positions in Virginia, km) southwest of Washington. With

Catharpin Run, Sudley Church, and the remains of the Sudley Sulpher Spring house, Bull
Run, Virginia, photograph by George N. Barnard. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
(LC-B8171-0314 DLC)
78 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

Lincoln’s approval, Scott appointed Irvin 1,981. Both sides now settled down to a
McDowell to command the main Federal long war.
army that was being hastily collected
near Washington. But political pressure The War
and Northern public opinion impelled in the East in 1862
Lincoln, against Scott’s advice, to order
McDowell’s still-untrained army forward Fresh from his victories in western
to push the enemy back from Manassas. Virginia, McClellan was called to
Meanwhile, Federal forces were to hold Washington to replace Scott. There he
Confederate soldiers under Joseph E. began to mold the Army of the Potomac
Johnston in the Shenandoah Valley near into a resolute, effective shield and sword
Winchester, Virginia, thus preventing of the Union. But personality clashes and
them from reinforcing Beauregard along unrelenting opposition to McClellan
the Bull Run near Manassas. from the Radical Republicans in Congress
McDowell advanced from Washington hampered the sometimes tactless, con-
on July 16 with some 32,000 men and servative, Democratic general. It took
moved slowly toward Bull Run. Two days time to drill, discipline, and equip this
later a reconnaissance in force was force of considerably more than 100,000
repulsed by the Confederates at Mitchell’s men, but as fall blended into winter, loud
and Blackburn’s Fords, and when McDowell demands arose that McClellan advance
attacked on July 21 in the First Battle of against Johnston’s Confederate forces at
Bull Run (in the South, First Manassas), Centreville and Manassas in Virginia.
he discovered that Johnston had escaped McClellan fell seriously ill with typhoid
the Federals in the valley and had joined fever in December, and when he had
Beauregard near Manassas just in time, recovered weeks later he found that
bringing the total Confederate force to Lincoln, desperately eager for action, had
around 28,000. McDowell’s sharp attacks ordered him to advance on Feb. 22, 1862.
with green troops forced the equally Long debates ensued between president
untrained Southerners back a bit, but a and commander. When in March
strong defensive stand by Thomas McClellan finally began his Peninsular
Jonathan Jackson (who thereby gained Campaign, he discovered that Lincoln
the nickname “Stonewall”) enabled the and Stanton had withheld large numbers
Confederates to check and finally throw of his command in front of Washington
back the Federals in the afternoon. The for the defense of the capital—forces that
Federal retreat to Washington soon were actually not needed there. Upon
became a rout. McDowell lost 2,708 men— taking command of the army in the field,
killed, wounded, and missing (including McClellan was relieved of his duties as
prisoners)—against a Southern loss of general in chief.
The War: The Big Picture | 79

The Peninsular Campaign at Williamsburg the next day delayed


the blue-clads, who then slowly moved
Advancing up the historic peninsula up through heavy rain to within 4 miles
between the York and James rivers (6 km) of Richmond. Striving to seize
in Virginia, McClellan began a the initiative, Johnston attacked
month-long siege of Yorktown and McClellan’s left wing at Seven Pines
captured that stronghold on May 4, (Fair Oaks) on May 31 and, after
1862. A Confederate rearguard action scoring initial gains, was checked;

Union forces passing the Trent House, between Fair Oaks Station and Chickahomin,
Virginia, drawing by Alfred R. Waud, June 1862. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
(262-14325)
80 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

Johnston was severely wounded, and As McClellan inched forward toward


Lee, who had been serving as Davis’s Richmond in June, Lee prepared a
military adviser, succeeded Johnston counterstroke. He recalled from the
in command of the Army of Northern Shenandoah Valley Jackson’s forces—
Virginia. McClellan counterattacked on which had threatened Harpers Ferry and
June 1 and forced the Southerners back had brilliantly defeated several scattered
into the environs of Richmond. The Federal armies—and, with about 90,000
Federals suffered a total of 5,031 casual- soldiers, attacked McClellan on June 26
ties out of a force of nearly 100,000, to begin the fighting of the Seven Days’
while the Confederates lost 6,134 of Battles (usually dated June 25–July 1). In
about 74,000 men. the ensuing days at Mechanicsville,

Twin houses on battlefield, with


Ruins of Gaines’s Mill, near Cold
32-pound field howitzer in foreground,
Harbor, Virginia, photograph by
Seven Pines (Fair Oaks), Virginia,
John Reekie, April 1865. Library
photograph by George N. Barnard,
of Congress, Washington, D.C.
June 1862. Library of Congress,
(LC-B8171-0932 DLC)
Washington, D.C. (LC-B8171-0471 DLC)
The War: The Big Picture | 81

Gaines’s Mill, Savage’s Station, Frayser’s suffering 15,849 himself. McClellan felt
Farm (Glendale), and Malvern Hill, Lee he could not move upon Richmond with-
tried unsuccessfully to crush the Army out considerable reinforcement, and
of the Potomac, which McClellan was against his protests his army was with-
moving to another base on the James drawn from the peninsula to Washington
River; but the Confederate commander by Lincoln and the new general in chief,
had at least saved Richmond. McClellan Halleck. Many of McClellan’s units were
inflicted 20,614 casualties on Lee while given to a new Federal army commander,

Union field hospital, Savage’s Station, Virginia, photograph by James F. Gibson, June 30,
1862. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-B8171-0491 DLC)
82 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

John Pope, who was directed to move Virginia, while Lee, once McClellan had
overland against Richmond. been pulled back from near Richmond,
moved northward to confront Pope
Second Battle of Bull Run before he could be joined by all of
(Manassas) and Antietam McClellan’s troops. Daringly splitting
his army, Lee sent Jackson to destroy
Pope advanced confidently toward the Pope’s base at Manassas, while he him-
Rappahannock River with his Army of self advanced via another route with

Confederate dead by a fence on the Hagerstown road, Antietam, Maryland, photo by


Alexander Gardner, September 1862. The Battle of Antietam was one of the most costly of the
Civil War in terms of lives lost. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-B8171-0560 DLC)
The War: The Big Picture | 83

James Longstreet’s half of the army. day’s battle of the war. Although gaining
Pope opened the Second Battle of Bull some ground, the Federals were unable
Run (in the South, Second Manassas) on to drive the Confederate army into the
August 29 with heavy but futile attacks Potomac, but Lee was compelled to
on Jackson. The next day Lee arrived retreat back into Virginia. At Antietam,
and crushed the Federal left with a mas- McClellan lost 12,410 of some 69,000
sive flank assault by Longstreet, which, engaged, while Lee lost 13,724 of perhaps
combined with Jackson’s counterattacks, 52,000. When McClellan did not pursue
drove the Northerners back in rout upon Lee as quickly as Lincoln and Halleck
Washington. Pope lost 16,054 men out of thought he should, he was replaced in
a force of about 70,000, while Lee lost command by Ambrose E. Burnside, who
9,197 out of about 55,000. With the had been an ineffective corps com-
Federal soldiers now lacking confidence mander at Antietam.
in Pope, Lincoln relieved him and
merged his forces into McClellan’s Army Fredericksburg
of the Potomac.
Lee followed up his advantage with Burnside delayed for a number of
his first invasion of the North, pushing weeks before marching his reinforced
as far as Frederick, Maryland. McClellan army of 120,281 men to a point
had to reorganize his army on the across the Rappahannock River from
march, a task that he performed capably. Fredericksburg, Virginia. On December
But he was beset by contradictory orders: 13 he ordered a series of 16 hopeless,
Lincoln urged him to pursue Lee more piecemeal frontal assaults across open
swiftly; Halleck directed him to slow ground against Lee’s army of 78,513
down and to stay closer to Washington. troops, drawn up in an impregnable posi-
Biding his time, McClellan pressed for- tion atop high ground and behind a stone
ward and wrested the initiative from Lee wall. The Federals were repelled with
by attacking and defeating a Confederate staggering losses; Burnside had lost
force at three gaps of the South Mountain 12,653 men, compared to Lee’s 5,309. The
between Frederick and Hagerstown on plunging Federal morale was reflected in
September 14. Lee fell back into a an increasing number of desertions.
cramped defensive position along the Therefore, on Jan. 25, 1863, Lincoln
Antietam Creek, near Sharpsburg, replaced Burnside with a proficient corps
Maryland, where he was reinforced by commander, Joseph (“Fighting Joe”)
Jackson, who had just captured about Hooker, who was a harsh critic of other
11,500 Federals at Harpers Ferry. After a generals and even of the president. Both
delay, McClellan struck the Confederates armies went into winter quarters near
on September 17 in the bloodiest single Fredericksburg.
84 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

Union engineers constructing a pontoon bridge across the Rappahannock River during
the Battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia. Confederate forces can be seen in the distance fir-
ing on the engineers. Drawing by Alfred R. Waud, December 1862. Library of Congress,
Washington, D.C. (LC-USZ62-7023)

The War Trans-Mississippi


in the West in 1862 Theatre and Missouri

Military events, meanwhile, were trans- In the Trans-Mississippi theatre covetous


piring in other arenas. Confederate eyes were cast on California,
The War: The Big Picture | 85

where ports for privateers could be Curtis decisively set back a gray-clad
seized, as could gold and silver to but- army under Earl Van Dorn at Pea Ridge
tress a sagging treasury. Led by Henry (Elkhorn Tavern), Arkansas, on March
Sibley, a Confederate force of some 7–8, 1862, saving Missouri for the Union
2,600 invaded the Union’s Department and threatening Arkansas.
of New Mexico, where the Federal com-
mander, Edward Canby, had but 3,810 Operations in
men to defend the entire vast territory. Kentucky and Tennessee
Although plagued by pneumonia and
smallpox, Sibley bettered a Federal force The Confederates to the east of Missouri
on Feb. 21, 1862, at Valverde, and cap- had established a unified command
tured Albuquerque and Santa Fe on under Albert Sidney Johnston, who
March 23. But at the crucial engagement manned, with only 40,000 men, a long
of La Glorieta Pass (known also as line in Kentucky running from near
Apache Canyon, Johnson’s Ranch, or Cumberland Gap on the east through
Pigeon’s Ranch) a few days later, Sibley Bowling Green to Columbus on the
was checked and lost most of his wagon Mississippi River.
train. He had to retreat into Texas, Numerically superior Federal forces
where he reached safety in April but cracked this line in early 1862. First,
with only 900 men and seven of 337 George H. Thomas smashed Johnston’s
supply wagons left. right flank at Mill Springs (Somerset),
Farther eastward, in the more vital Kentucky, on January 19. Then, in
Mississippi valley, operations were February, Grant, assisted by Federal
unfolding as large and as important as gunboats commanded by Andrew H.
those on the Atlantic seaboard. Missouri Foote and acting under Halleck’s orders,
and Kentucky were key border states that ruptured the centre of the Southern line
Lincoln had to retain within the Union in Kentucky by capturing Fort Henry on
orbit. Commanders there—especially on the Tennessee River and Fort Donelson,
the Federal side— had greater autonomy 11 miles (18 km) to the east on the
than those in Virginia. Affairs began Cumberland River (both forts located in
inauspiciously for the Federals in Tennessee). The Confederates suffered
Missouri when Union General Nathaniel more than 16,000 casualties at the
Lyon’s 5,000 troops were defeated at latter stronghold—most of them taken
Wilson’s Creek on Aug. 10, 1861, by a prisoner—as against Federal losses of
Confederate force of more than 10,000 less than 3,000. Johnston’s left anchor
under Sterling Price and Benjamin fell when Pope seized New Madrid,
McCulloch, each side losing some 1,200 Missouri, and Island Number Ten in the
men. But the Federals under Samuel Mississippi River in March and April.
86 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

This forced Johnston to withdraw his of the president’s favourites. Bragg was
remnants quickly from Kentucky through a creative strategist and an effective
Tennessee and to reorganize them for a drillmaster and organizer; but he was
counterstroke. This seemingly impossi- also a weak tactician and a martinet
ble task he performed splendidly. who was disliked by a number of his
The Confederate onslaught came at principal subordinates. Leaving 22,000
Shiloh, Tennessee, near Pittsburg Landing, men in Mississippi under Price and
a point on the west bank of the Tennessee Van Dorn, Bragg moved through
River to which Grant and William T. Chattanooga, Tennessee, with 30,000,
Sherman had incautiously advanced. In hoping to reconquer the state and carry
a herculean effort, Johnston had pulled the war into Kentucky. Some 18,000
his forces together and, with 40,000 other Confederate soldiers under
men, suddenly struck a like number of Edmund Kirby-Smith were at Knoxville,
unsuspecting Federals on April 6. Tennessee. Buell led his Federal force
Johnston hoped to crush Grant before northward to save Louisville, Kentucky,
the arrival of Don Carlos Buell’s and to force Bragg to fight. Occupying
20,000 Federal troops, approaching from Frankfort, Kentucky, Bragg failed to
Nashville, Tennessee. A desperate com- move promptly against Louisville. In
bat ensued, with Confederate assaults the ensuing Battle of Perryville on
driving the Unionists perilously close to October 8, Bragg, after an early advan-
the river. But at the height of success, tage, was halted by Buell and impelled
Johnston was mortally wounded; the to fall back to a point south of Nashville.
Southern attack then lost momentum, Meanwhile, Federal General William S.
and Grant held on until reinforced by Rosecrans had checked Price and Van
Buell. On the following day the Fed- Dorn at Iuka, Mississippi, on September
erals counterattacked and drove the 19 and had repelled their attack on
Confederates, now under Beauregard, Corinth on October 3–4.
steadily from the field, forcing them to Buell—like McClellan a cautious,
fall back to Corinth, in northern conservative, Democratic general—was
Mississippi. Grant’s victory cost him slow in his pursuit of the retreating
13,047 casualties, compared to Southern Confederates and, despite his success at
losses of 10,694. Halleck then assumed Perryville, was relieved of his command
personal command of the combined by Lincoln on October 24. His successor,
forces of Grant, Buell, and Pope and Rosecrans, was able to safeguard Nashville
inched forward to Corinth, which the and then to move southeastward against
Confederates evacuated on May 30. Bragg’s army at Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
Beauregard, never popular with Davis, He scored a partial success by bringing
was superseded by Braxton Bragg, one on the bloody Battle of Stones River (or
The War: The Big Picture | 87

Murfreesboro, Dec. 31, 1862–Jan. 2, 1863). army. Thus far he had outmaneuvered
Again, after first having the better of the Lee; but Hooker was astonished on May 1
combat, Bragg was finally contained and when the Confederate commander sud-
forced to retreat. Of some 41,400 men, denly moved the bulk of his army directly
Rosecrans lost 12,906, while Bragg suf- against him. “Fighting Joe” lost his nerve
fered 11,739 casualties out of about 34,700 and pulled back to Chancellorsville,
effectives. Although it was a strategic Virginia, in the Wilderness, where the
victory for Rosecrans, his army was so superior Federal artillery could not be
shaken that he felt unable to advance used effectively.
again for five months, despite the urgings Lee followed up on May 2 by sending
of Lincoln and Halleck. Jackson on a brilliant flanking move-
ment against Hooker’s exposed right
The War flank. Bursting like a thunderbolt upon
in the East in 1863 Oliver O. Howard’s 11th Corps late in the
afternoon, Jackson crushed this wing;
In the east, after both armies had spent while continuing his advance, however,
the winter in camp, the arrival of the Jackson was accidentally wounded by
active 1863 campaign season was his own men and died of complications
eagerly awaited—especially by Hooker. shortly thereafter. This event helped stall
“Fighting Joe” had capably reorganized the Confederate advance. Lee then
and refitted his army, the morale of resumed the attack on the morning of
which was high once again. This mas- May 3 and slowly pushed Hooker back;
sive host numbered around 132,000—the the latter was wounded by Southern artil-
largest formed during the war—and was lery fire. That afternoon Sedgwick drove
termed by Hooker “the finest army on Jubal Early’s Southerners from Marye’s
the planet.” It was opposed by Lee with Heights at Fredericksburg, but Lee coun-
about 62,000. Hooker decided to move termarched his weary troops, fell upon
most of his army up the Rappahannock, Sedgwick at Salem Church, and forced
cross, and come in upon the Confederate him back to the north bank of the
rear at Fredericksburg, while John Rappahannock. Lee then returned to
Sedgwick’s smaller force would press Chancellorsville to resume the main
Lee in front. engagement; but Hooker, though he had
37,000 fresh troops available, gave up
Chancellorsville the contest on May 5 and retreated across
the river to his old position opposite
Beginning his turning movement on Fredericksburg. The Federals suffered
April 27, 1863, Hooker masterfully swung 17,278 casualties at Chancellorsville,
around toward the west of the Confederate while the Confederates lost 12,764.
88 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

Gettysburg Potomac, Lee hastened to concentrate


his far-flung legions. Hostile forces came
While both armies were licking their together unexpectedly at the important
wounds and reorganizing, Hooker, Lincoln, crossroads town of Gettysburg, in south-
and Halleck debated Union strategy. ern Pennsylvania, bringing on the
They were thus engaged when Lee greatest battle ever fought in the Western
launched his second invasion of the North Hemisphere. Attacking on July 1 from
on June 5, 1863. His advance elements the west and north with 28,000 men,
moved down the Shenandoah Valley Confederate forces finally prevailed after
toward Harpers Ferry, brushing aside nine hours of desperate fighting against
small Federal forces near Winchester. 18,000 Federal soldiers under John F.
Marching through Maryland into Reynolds. When Reynolds was killed,
Pennsylvania, the Confederates reached Abner Doubleday ably handled the out-
Chambersburg and turned eastward. numbered Federal troops, and only the
They occupied York and Carlisle and sheer weight of Confederate numbers
menaced Harrisburg. Meanwhile, the forced him back through the streets of
dashing Confederate cavalryman J.E.B. Gettysburg to strategic Cemetery Ridge
(“Jeb”) Stuart set off on a questionable south of town, where Meade assembled
ride around the Federal army and was the rest of the army that night.
unable to join Lee’s main army until the On the second day of battle, Meade’s
second day at Gettysburg. 93,000 troops were ensconced in a
Hooker—on unfriendly terms with strong, fishhook-shaped defensive posi-
Lincoln and especially Halleck—ably tion running northward from the Round
moved the Federal forces northward, keep- Top hills along Cemetery Ridge and
ing between Lee’s army and Washington. thence eastward to Culp’s Hill. Lee, with
Reaching Frederick, Hooker requested 75,000 troops, ordered Longstreet to
that the nearly 10,000-man Federal garri- attack the Federals diagonally from Little
son at Harpers Ferry be added to his field Round Top northward and Richard S.
army. When Halleck refused, Hooker Ewell to assail Cemetery Hill and Culp’s
resigned his command and was succeeded Hill. The Confederate attack, coming in
by the steady George Gordon Meade, the the late afternoon and evening, saw
commander of the 5th Corps. Meade was Longstreet capture the positions known
granted a greater degree of freedom of as the Peach Orchard, Wheat Field, and
movement than Hooker had enjoyed, and Devil’s Den on the Federal left in furious
he carefully felt his way northward, look- fighting but fail to seize the vital Little
ing for the enemy. Round Top. Ewell’s later assaults on
Learning to his surprise on June 28 Cemetery Hill were repulsed, and he
that the Federal army was north of the could capture only a part of Culp’s Hill.
The War: The Big Picture | 89

Breastworks on Little Round Top, with Big Round Top in the distance, Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania, July 1863. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-B8171-7491 DLC)

On the morning of the third day, Pickett, against the centre of Meade’s
Meade’s right wing drove the lines on Cemetery Ridge, following a
Confederates from the lower slopes of fearful artillery duel of two hours. Despite
Culp’s Hill and checked Stuart’s cavalry heroic efforts, only several hundred
sweep to the east of Gettysburg in mid- Southerners temporarily cracked the
afternoon. Then, in what has been called Federal centre at the so-called High-
the greatest infantry charge in American Water Mark; the rest were shot down by
history, Lee—against Longstreet’s advice— Federal cannoneers and musketry men,
hurled nearly 15,000 soldiers, under the captured, or thrown back, suffering casu-
immediate command of George E. alties of almost 60 percent. Meade felt
90 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

Primary Source: Gettysburg Address

On Nov. 19, 1863, at the dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pa., on the site of
the Battle of Gettysburg, President Abraham Lincoln delivered one of the world’s most
famous speeches.
The main address at the dedication ceremony was one of two hours, delivered by Edward
Everett, the best-known orator of the time. In the wake of such a performance, Lincoln’s brief speech
would hardly seem to have drawn notice. However, despite some criticism from his opposition, it
was widely quoted and praised and soon came to be recognized as one of the classic utterances of
all time, a masterpiece of prose poetry. On the day following the ceremony, Everett himself wrote to
Lincoln, “I wish that I could flatter myself that I had come as near to the central idea of the occasion
in two hours as you did in two minutes.”
The text quoted in full below represents the fifth of five extant copies of the address in Lincoln’s
handwriting; it differs slightly from earlier versions and may reflect, in addition to afterthought,
interpolations made during the delivery.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation,
conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so
conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that
war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who
here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we
should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we
can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have
consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor
long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us
the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought
here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great
task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to
that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly
resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain— that this nation, under God, shall
have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the
people, shall not perish from the earth.
The War: The Big Picture | 91

unable to counterattack, and Lee con- Grant landed his army to the south at
ducted an adroit retreat into Virginia. Bruinsburg, Mississippi, on April 30,
The Confederates had lost 28,063 men at 1863, and pressed northeastward. He
Gettysburg, and the Federals, 23,049. won small but sharp actions at Port
After indecisive maneuvering and light Gibson, Raymond, and Jackson, while
actions in northern Virginia in the fall of the circumspect Confederate defender
1863, the two armies went into winter of Vicksburg, John C. Pemberton, was
quarters. Never again was Lee able to unable to link up with a smaller Southern
mount a full-scale invasion of the North force under Joseph E. Johnston near
with his entire army. Jackson.
Turning due westward toward the
The War rear of Vicksburg’s defenses, Grant
in the West in 1863 smashed Pemberton’s army at Champion’s
Hill and the Big Black River and invested
Arkansas and Vicksburg the fortress. During his 47-day siege,
Grant eventually had an army of 71,000;
In Arkansas, Federal troops under Pemberton’s command numbered 31,000,
Frederick Steele moved upon the of whom 18,500 were effectives. After a
Confederates and defeated them at courageous stand, the outnumbered
Prairie Grove, near Fayetteville, on Dec. Confederates were forced to capitulate
7, 1862—a victory that paved the way for on July 4. Five days later, 6,000
Steele’s eventual capture of Little Rock Confederates yielded to Nathaniel P.
the next September. Banks at Port Hudson, Louisiana, to the
More important, Grant, back in good south of Vicksburg, and Lincoln could
graces following his undistinguished say, in relief, “The Father of Waters again
performance at Shiloh, was authorized goes unvexed to the sea.”
to move against the Confederate
“Gibraltar of the West”—Vicksburg, Chickamauga and Chattanooga
Mississippi. This bastion was difficult to
approach: Admiral David G. Farragut, Meanwhile, 60,000 Federal soldiers
Grant, and Sherman had failed to cap- under Rosecrans sought to move south-
ture it in 1862. In the early months of eastward from central Tennessee against
1863, in the so-called Bayou Expeditions, the important Confederate rail and
Grant was again frustrated in his efforts industrial centre of Chattanooga, then
to get at Vicksburg from the north. held by Bragg with some 43,000 troops.
Finally, escorted by Admiral David In a series of brilliantly conceived move-
Dixon Porter’s gunboats, which ran the ments, Rosecrans maneuvered Bragg
Confederate batteries at Vicksburg, out of Chattanooga without having to
92 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

Site of the second day of battle, along the banks of Chickamauga Creek, near Chattanooga,
Tennessee. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (B8184-10260)

fight a battle. Bragg was then bolstered men; Rosecrans, 16,170 out of 53,919
by troops from Longstreet’s veteran engaged. Rosecrans fell back into
corps, sent swiftly by rail from Lee’s Chattanooga, where he was almost
army in Virginia. With this reinforce- encircled by Bragg.
ment, Bragg turned on Rosecrans and, But the Southern success was
in a vicious two-day battle (September short-lived. Instead of pressing the siege
19–20) at Chickamauga Creek, Georgia, of Chattanooga, Bragg unwisely sent
just southeast of Chattanooga, gained Longstreet off in a futile attempt to cap-
one of the few Confederate victories in ture Knoxville, then being held by
the west. Bragg lost 18,454 of his 66,326 Burnside. When Rosecrans showed signs
The War: The Big Picture | 93

of disintegration, Lincoln replaced him Grant’s victories, Lincoln appointed


with Grant and strengthened the hard- Grant to supersede Halleck and to
pressed Federal army at Chattanooga assume the rank of lieutenant general,
by sending, by rail, the remnants of which Congress had re-created. Leaving
the Army of the Potomac’s 11th and Sherman in command in the west, Grant
12th Corps, under Hooker’s command. arrived in Washington on March 8, 1864.
Outnumbering Bragg now 56,359 to He was given largely a free hand in devel-
46,165, Grant attacked on November oping his grand strategy. He retained
23–25, capturing Lookout Mountain and Meade in technical command of the
Missionary Ridge, defeating Bragg’s Army of the Potomac but in effect
army, and driving it southward toward assumed direct control by establishing
Dalton, Georgia. Grant sustained 5,824 his own headquarters with it. He sought
casualties at Chattanooga and Bragg, to move this army against Lee in north-
6,667. Confidence having been lost in ern Virginia while Sherman marched
Bragg by most of his top generals, Davis against Johnston and Atlanta. Several
replaced him with Joseph E. Johnston. lesser Federal armies were also to
Both armies remained quiescent until advance in May.
the following spring.
Grant’s Overland Campaign
The War in 1864–65
Grant surged across the Rapidan and
Finally dissatisfied with Halleck as Rappahannock rivers in Virginia on
general in chief and impressed with May 4, hoping to get through the

In Focus: Saint Albans Raid


On Oct. 19, 1864, about 25 Confederate soldiers based in Canada raided the town of St. Albans, Vt.,
killed one man, robbed three banks, and then retreated to Canadian territory. A Union posse pur-
sued the raiders and captured several of them, but it was forced to surrender them to the Canadian
authorities. On October 21 about half the Confederates were arrested by the Canadians, but they
were released again on December 13, and the $200,000 they had stolen was returned.
Although the Canadian government reimbursed the plundered banks, the release of the raiders
led to strong protests in the United States. Consequently, five of the raiders were rearrested and
remained in custody for a time for violating Canadian neutrality. In 1872 a claims commission
established under the Anglo-American Treaty of Washington (1871) ruled against further American
claims to compensation.
94 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

Grant tried to hasten southeastward to


the crossroads point of Spotsylvania
Court House, only to have the
Confederates get there first. In savage
action (May 8–19), including hand-to-
hand fighting at the famous “Bloody
Angle,” Grant, although gaining a little
ground, was essentially thrown back. He
had lost 18,399 men at Spotsylvania. Lee’s
combined losses at the Wilderness and
Spotsylvania were an estimated 17,250.
Again Grant withdrew, only to move
forward in another series of attempts to
get past Lee’s right flank; again, at
the North Anna River and at the
Totopotomoy Creek, he found Lee con-
fronting him. Finally at Cold Harbor,
just northeast of Richmond, Grant
launched several heavy attacks, includ-
ing a frontal, near-suicidal one on June
General Ulysses S. Grant, Cold Harbor, 3, only to be repelled with grievous total
Virginia; photograph by Mathew losses of 12,737. Lee’s casualties are
Brady, 1864. National Archives, Brady unknown but were much lighter.
Collection, Civil War Photographs Grant, with the vital rail centre
of Petersburg—the southern key to
Richmond—as his objective, made one
tangled Wilderness before Lee could fi nal effort to swing around Lee’s right
move. But the Confederate leader and fi nally outguessed his opponent
reacted instantly and, on May 5, attacked and stole a march on him. But several
Grant from the west in the Battle of the blunders by Federal officers, swift action
Wilderness. Two days of bitter, indeci- by Beauregard, and Lee’s belated
sive combat ensued. Although Grant though rapid reaction enabled the
had 115,000 men available against Lee’s Confederates to hold Petersburg. Grant
62,000, he found both Federal flanks attacked on June 15 and 18, hoping to
endangered. Moreover, Grant lost break through before Lee could
17,666 soldiers compared to a probable consolidate the Confederate lines east
Southern loss of about 8,000. Pulling of the city, but he was contained with
away from the Wilderness battlefield, 8,150 losses.
The War: The Big Picture | 95

Unable to admit defeat but having conducted by Nathan Bedford Forrest


failed to destroy Lee’s army and capture and Joseph Wheeler. Forrest adminis-
Richmond, Grant settled down to a nine- tered a crushing defeat to Federal troops
month active siege of Petersburg. The under Samuel D. Sturgis at Brice’s Cross
summer and fall of 1864 were highlighted Roads, Mississippi, on June 10. But
by the Federal failure with a mine explo- these Confederate forays were more
sion under the gray lines at Petersburg annoying than decisive, and Sherman
on July 30, the near capture of Washington pressed forward.
by the Confederate Jubal Early in July, When Johnston finally informed
and Early’s later setbacks in the Davis that he could not realistically
Shenandoah Valley at the hands of Philip hope to annihilate Sherman’s mighty
H. Sheridan. army, the Confederate president replaced
him with John B. Hood, who had
Sherman’s Georgia Campaigns already lost two limbs in the war. Hood
inaugurated a series of premature offen-
Meanwhile, Sherman was pushing off sive battles at Peachtree Creek, Atlanta,
toward Atlanta from Dalton, Georgia, Ezra Church, and Jonesboro, but he
on May 7, 1864, with 110,123 men was repulsed in each of them. With
against Johnston’s 55,000. This mas- his communications threatened, Hood
terly campaign comprised a series of evacuated Atlanta on the night of
cat-and-mouse moves by the rival com- August 31–September 1. Sherman pur-
manders. Nine successive defensive sued only at first. Then, on November
positions were taken up by Johnston. 15, he commenced his great March to
Trying to outguess his opponent, the Sea with more than 60,000 men, lay-
Sherman attempted to swing around ing waste to the economic resources of
the Confederate right flank twice and Georgia in a 50-mile- (80-km-) wide
around the left flank the other times, swath of destruction. He captured
but each time Johnston divined which Savannah on December 21.
way Sherman was moving and each Hood had sought unsuccessfully to
time pulled back in time to thwart lure Sherman out of Georgia and back
him. At one point Sherman’s patience into Tennessee by marching northwest-
snapped and he frontally assaulted the ward with nearly 40,000 men toward the
Southerners at Kennesaw Mountain, key city of Nashville, the defense of
Georgia, on June 27; Johnston threw which had been entrusted by Sherman to
him back with heavy losses. All the George H. Thomas. At Franklin, Hood
while Sherman’s lines of communica- was checked for a day with severe casual-
tion in his rear were being menaced by ties by a Federal holding force under
audacious Confederate cavalry raids John M. Schofield. This helped Thomas
96 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

Covered cannon on the steps of the capitol, Nashville, Tennessee, photograph by George N.
Barnard, 1864. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC B8171-2629 LC)

to retain Nashville, where, on December consummated much sooner had not


15–16, he delivered a crushing counter- Lincoln approved the Red River Campaign
stroke against Hood’s besieging army, in Louisiana led by Banks in the spring
cutting it up so badly that it was of little of 1864. Accompanied by Porter’s war-
use thereafter. ships, Banks moved up the Red River
with some 40,000 men. He had two
Western Campaigns objectives: to capture cotton and to
defeat Southern forces under Kirby-
Sherman’s force might have been larger Smith and Richard Taylor. Not only did
and his Atlanta-Savannah Campaign he fail to net much cotton but he was
The War: The Big Picture | 97

also checked with loss on April 8 at the small forces striving to oppose the
Sabine Cross Roads, Louisiana, and Federal advance. Nonetheless, Sherman
forced to retreat. Porter lost several gun- pushed on into North Carolina, captur-
boats, and the campaign amounted to a ing Fayetteville on March 11 and, after an
costly debacle. initial setback, repulsing the counterat-
That fall Kirby-Smith ordered the tacking Johnston at Bentonville on
reconquest of Missouri. Sterling Price’s March 19–20. Goldsboro fell to the
Confederate army advanced on a broad Federals on March 23, and Raleigh on
front into Missouri but was set back tem- April 13. Finally, perceiving that he no
porarily by Thomas Ewing at Pilot Knob longer had any reasonable chance of con-
on September 27. Resuming the advance taining the relentless Federal advance,
toward St. Louis, Price was forced west- Johnston surrendered to Sherman at the
ward along the south bank of the Missouri Bennett House near Durham Station on
River by pursuing Federal troops under April 18. When Sherman’s generous
A.J. Smith, Alfred Pleasonton, and terms proved unacceptable to Secretary
Samuel Curtis. Finally, on October 23, at of War Stanton (Lincoln had been assas-
Westport, near Kansas City, Price was sinated on April 14), the former submitted
decisively defeated and forced to retreat new terms that Johnston signed on
along a circuitous route, arriving back in April 26.
Arkansas on December 2. This ill-fated
raid cost Price most of his artillery as The Final Land Operations
well as the greater part of his army, which
numbered about 12,000. Grant and Meade were continuing their
siege of Petersburg and Richmond early
Sherman’s Carolina Campaigns in 1865. For months the Federals had
been lengthening their left (southern)
On Jan. 10, 1865, with Tennessee and flank while operating against several
Georgia now securely in Federal hands, important railroads supplying the two
Sherman’s 60,000-man force began to Confederate cities. This stretched Lee’s
march northward into the Carolinas. It dwindling forces very thin. The Southern
was only lightly opposed by much smaller leader briefly threatened to break the
Confederate forces. Sherman captured siege when he attacked and captured
Columbia, South Carolina, on February Fort Stedman on March 25. But an imme-
17 and compelled the Confederates to diate Federal counterattack regained the
evacuate Charleston (including Fort strongpoint, and Lee, when his lines were
Sumter). When Lee was finally named subsequently pierced, evacuated both
Confederate general in chief, he promptly Petersburg and Richmond on the night
reinstated Johnston as commander of of April 2–3.
98 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

An 88-mile (142-km) pursuit west- navy and one of his most competent cab-
southwestward along the Appomattox inet members. Welles was ably seconded
River in Virginia ensued, with Grant and by his assistant, Gustavus Vasa Fox.
Meade straining every nerve to bring By the time of Lee’s surrender,
Lee to bay. The Confederates were Lincoln’s navy numbered 626 warships,
detained at Amelia Court House, await- of which 65 were ironclads. From a tiny
ing delayed food supplies, and were force of nearly 9,000 seamen in 1861, the
badly cut up at Five Forks and Sayler’s Union navy increased by war’s end to
Creek, with their only avenue of escape about 59,000 sailors, whereas naval
now cut off by Sheridan and George A. appropriations per year leaped from
Custer. When Lee’s final attempt to break approximately $12 million to perhaps
out failed, he surrendered the remnants $123 million. The blockade of about 3,500
of his gallant Army of Northern Virginia miles (5,600 km) of Confederate coast-
at the McLean house at Appomattox line was a factor of incalculable value in
Court House on April 9. The lamp of the final defeat of the Davis government,
magnanimity was reflected in Grant’s although the blockade did not become
unselfish terms. truly effective before the end of 1863.
On the periphery of the Confederacy, The Confederates, on the other hand,
43,000 gray-clad soldiers in Louisiana had to start from almost nothing in build-
under Kirby-Smith surrendered to Canby ing a navy. That they did so well was
on May 26. The port of Galveston, Texas, largely because of untiring efforts by the
yielded to the Federals on June 2, and the capable secretary of the navy, Stephen
greatest war on American soil was over. Mallory. He dispatched agents to Europe
to purchase warships, sought to refurbish
THE NAVAL WAR captured or scuttled Federal vessels,
and made every effort to arm and
While the Federal armies actually employ Southern-owned ships then in
stamped out Confederate land resistance, Confederate ports. Mallory’s only major
the increasingly effective Federal naval omission was his delay in seeing the
effort must not be overlooked. If Union advantage of Confederate government
sea power did not win the war, it enabled control of blockade runners bringing in
the war to be won. When hostilities strategic supplies; not until later in the
opened, the U.S. Navy numbered 90 war- war did the government begin closer
ships, of which only 42 were in supervision of blockade-running vessels.
commission, and many of these were on Eventually, the government comman-
foreign stations. Fortunately for the deered space on all privately owned
Federals, Lincoln had, in the person of blockade runners and even built and
Gideon Welles, a wise secretary of the operated some of its own late in the war.
The War: The Big Picture | 99

The naval side of the Civil War was a which, in 1863, seized 37 Federal prizes
revolutionary one. In addition to their in the North and South Atlantic; and the
increasing use of steam power, the screw Shenandoah, with James Waddell as
propeller, shell guns, and rifled ordnance, skipper, which took 38 Union merchant
both sides built and employed ironclad ships, mostly in the Pacific. But the most
warships. The notable clash on March 9, famous of all the Confederate cruisers
1862, between the North’s Monitor and was the Alabama, commanded by
the South’s Virginia (formerly the Semmes, which captured 69 Federal
Merrimack) was the first battle ever ships in two years; not until June 19,
waged between ironclads. Also, the first 1864, was the Alabama intercepted and
sinking of a warship by a submarine sunk off Cherbourg, France, by the
occurred on Feb. 17, 1864, when the Federal warship Kearsarge, captained
Confederate submersible Hunley sank by John Winslow. A great many other
the blockader USS Housatonic. Federal ships were captured, and marine
Daring Confederate sea raiders preyed insurance rates were driven to a
upon Union commerce. Especially suc- prohibitive high by these Southern
cessful were the Sumter, commanded by depredations. This led to a serious dete-
Raphael Semmes, which captured 18 rioration of the American merchant
Northern merchantmen early in the war; marine, the effects of which lasted into
the Florida, captained by John Maffit, the 20th century.

In Focus: Alabama Claims

The Alabama claims are significant in international law for furthering the use of arbitration to
settle disputes peacefully and for delineating certain responsibilities of neutrals toward belliger-
ents. The dispute centred on the Confederate cruiser Alabama, built in England and used against
the Union as a commerce destroyer, which captured, sank, or burned 68 ships in 22 months before
being sunk by the USS Kearsarge off Cherbourg, France (June 1864).
At the outset of the war, a Federal blockade of Southern ports and coasts automatically
extended belligerent status to the Confederacy. To protect its own interests, Britain took the lead
among European countries in proclaiming its neutrality (May 14, 1861). The Confederacy immedi-
ately set about building a navy to engage the Union’s naval power and to destroy its merchant
marine. Along with several other ships, the Alabama was built or fitted out privately on British ter-
ritory and put to sea despite the belated intervention of the British government.
As early as October 1863, the U.S. minister to Great Britain, Charles Francis Adams, protested
that the British must take responsibility for the damages caused by British-built Confederate raiders,
100 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

but he conceded that his government would be willing to submit the matter to arbitration. Amid
bombastic U.S. threats of annexing Canada, Anglo-American misunderstanding was exacerbated
after the end of the Civil War by unsettled disputes over Canadian fisheries and the northwestern
boundary. A proposed settlement in the Johnson-Clarendon Convention was angrily rejected by the
United States. To avoid further deterioration of Anglo-American relations, a joint high commission
was set up, and on May 8, 1871, the parties signed the Treaty of Washington, which, by establishing
four separate arbitrations, afforded the most ambitious arbitral undertaking the world had experi-
enced up to that time. In addition, Great Britain expressed official regret over the matter.
Certain wartime maritime obligations of neutrals, already agreed to in article 6 of the treaty,
were outlined in the principal arbitration of the Alabama claims, meeting at Geneva, as follows:
that a neutral government must use “due diligence” to prevent the fitting out, arming, or equipping,
within its jurisdiction, of any vessel believed to be intended to carry a war against a power with
which it was at peace and to prevent the departure of such a vessel (the substance of this clause was
included in article 8 of the 1907 Hague Convention) and that a neutral must not permit its ports or
waters to be used as a base of naval operations for similar purposes. In addition, on Sept. 14, 1872,
the tribunal voted unanimously that Britain was legally liable for direct losses caused by the
Alabama and other ships and awarded the United States damages of $15,500,000 in gold.
This settlement gave new impetus to the process of arbitration, which had been latent for
many years.
Besides fighting efficaciously with ironclads on the inland rivers, Lincoln’s navy also played an
important role in a series of coastal and amphibious operations, some in conjunction with the
Federal army. As early as Nov. 7, 1861, a Federal flotilla under Samuel Francis du Pont seized Port
Royal, S.C., and another squadron under Louis M. Goldsborough assisted Burnside’s army in cap-
turing Roanoke Island and New Bern on the North Carolina littoral in February–March 1862. One
month later, Savannah, Ga., was closed to Confederate blockade runners when the Federal navy
reduced Fort Pulaski guarding the city; and on April 25 David Glasgow Farragut, running the forts
near the mouth of the Mississippi, took New Orleans, which was subsequently occupied by Benjamin
F. Butler’s army.
But in April 1863 and again in July and August, Federal warships were repelled at Fort Sumter
when they descended upon Charleston, and a Federal army under Quincy A. Gillmore fared little bet-
ter when it tried to assist. Farragut had better luck, however, when he rendered Mobile, Ala., useless by
reducing Fort Morgan and destroying several defending Confederate ships on Aug. 5, 1864, in the
hardest-fought naval action of the war. The Confederacy’s last open Atlantic port, Wilmington, N.C.,
successfully withstood a Federal naval attack by Porter on defending Fort Fisher when Butler’s army
failed to coordinate its attack properly in December 1864, but it fell one month later to Porter and to
an ably conducted army assault led by Alfred H. Terry. Only Galveston remained open to the
Confederates in the last months of the war. In short, “Uncle Sam’s web feet,” as Lincoln termed the
Union navy, played a decisive role in helping to crush the Confederacy.
The War: The Big Picture | 101

THE COST The Civil War has been called by


AND SIGNIFICANCE some the last of the old-fashioned wars;
OF THE CIVIL WAR others have termed it the first of the
modern wars of history. Actually it was
The triumph of the North, above and a transitional war, and it had a pro-
beyond its superior naval forces, numbers, found impact, technologically, on the
and industrial and financial resources, development of modern weapons and
was due in part to the statesmanship of techniques. There were many innova-
Lincoln, who by 1864 had become a tions. It was the first war in history in
masterful war leader, to the pervading which ironclad warships clashed; the
valour of Federal soldiers, and to the first in which the telegraph and railroad
increasing skill of their officers. The vic- played significant roles; the first to use,
tory can also be attributed in part to extensively, rifled ordnance and shell
failures of Confederate transportation, guns and to introduce a machine gun;
resources, and political leadership. Only the first to have widespread newspaper
praise can be extended to the continu- coverage, voting by servicemen in
ing bravery of Confederate soldiers and national elections, and photographic
to the strategic and tactical dexterity of recordings; the first to organize medical
such generals as Lee, Jackson, and care of troops systematically; and the
Joseph E. Johnston. first to use land and water mines and to
While there were some desertions employ a submarine that could sink a
on both sides, the personal valour and warship. It was also the first war in which
enormous casualties—both in absolute armies widely employed aerial recon-
numbers and in percentage of numbers naissance (by means of balloons).
engaged—have not yet ceased to astound The Civil War has been written about
scholars and military historians. Based as have few other wars in history. More
on the three-year standard of enlistment, than 60,000 books and articles give elo-
about 1,556,000 soldiers served in the quent testimony to the accuracy of Walt
Federal armies, which suffered a total of Whitman’s prediction that “a great litera-
634,703 casualties (359,528 dead and ture will . . . arise out of the era of those
275,175 wounded). There were probably four years.” The events of the war left a
about 800,000 men serving in the rich heritage for future generations, and
Confederate forces, which sustained that legacy was summed up by the mar-
approximately 483,000 casualties (about tyred Lincoln as showing that the
258,000 dead and perhaps 225,000 reunited sections of the United States
wounded). constituted “the last best hope of earth.”
CHAPTER 6
The War:
Battles Up Close
H ere, in chronological order, is a look at the battles,
campaigns, and sieges of the Civil War.

SIEGE OF FORT SUMTER

B y early 1861 the seven Southern states that had already


seceded from the Union claimed possession of all U.S.
forts and arsenals within their territory. Only two forts
remained under federal jurisdiction: Fort Pickens, Florida,
and Fort Sumter, which was garrisoned by U.S. troops under
Major Robert Anderson. Situated on a man-made island at
the entrance to the harbour of Charleston, S. C., Sumter was
of no strategic value to the Union. Construction of it, which
had begun in 1829, was still incomplete and its 60 guns
pointed out to sea; however, it assumed critical value as a
symbol of national union. When Pres. Abraham Lincoln took
office in March, he was faced with the Confederate demand
for evacuation of the fort, which was threatened by other for-
tifications erected by South Carolina in the harbour area.
Lincoln had either to attempt resupplying the fort, then in
danger of being starved out, or to abandon it and accede to
disunion. The president determined to prepare relief expedi-
tions to both forts, but, before the arrival of supplies,
Confederate authorities demanded Fort Sumter’s immediate
evacuation. When this order was refused, the South’s batter-
ies opened fire at 4:30 am on April 12, initiating the Civil
The War: Battles Up Close | 103

War. Anderson was forced to surrender bombardment from July 1863 to February
after 34 hours of shelling. On April 14 1865. The fort itself was largely reduced
Fort Sumter was evacuated by federal to rubble.
troops, who marched out waving the
American flag to a gun salute; on the FIRST BATTLE
50th round of a 100-gun salute, an explo- OF BULL RUN
sion occurred, causing the only death of
the engagement. The shelling of U.S. Two significant engagements were fought
property aroused and united the North. in the summers of 1861 and 1862 at a
During the war the Confederates man- small stream named Bull Run, near
ning the fort withstood almost constant Manassas in northern Virginia. Both

Federal cavalry at Sudley Ford, Bull Run, Va., photograph by George N. Barnard. Library of
Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-B8171-0313 DLC)
104 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

battles gave military advantage to the and a combined force of more than
Confederacy. The strategic significance 10,000 Confederate troops and Missouri
of the location lay in the fact that Militia commanded by Gen. Benjamin
Manassas was an important railroad McCulloch and Gen. Sterling Price. Ten
junction. miles (16 km) southwest of Springfield,
The First Battle of Bull Run (called Mo., Union General Franz Sigel attacked
First Manassas, by the South) was fought the rear of the Confederate forces with
on July 21, 1861. Although neither army 1,200 men while Lyon led a frontal attack
was adequately prepared at this early with the main Union force. Sigel was
stage of the war, political considerations repulsed, and after several hours of
and popular pressures caused the Federal fighting Lyon was killed. With casualties
government to order Gen. Irvin McDowell heavy on both sides, the Union forces
to advance southwest of Washington to retreated toward Springfield.
Bull Run in a move against Richmond,
Virginia. The 22,000 Confederates under BATTLE OF FORT HENRY
Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard, after initial
skirmishing, had retired behind Bull Run Fought along the Tennessee River in
in defensive positions three days earlier. early February 1862, the Battle of Fort
To counter a Union flanking movement, Henry helped the Union regain western
the Confederates swiftly moved in 10,000 and middle Tennessee as well as most of
additional troops from the Shenandoah Kentucky.
under Gen. Joseph E. Johnston. On July Fort Henry, situated on the Tennessee
21 the Union army assaulted the River, was a linchpin in Confederate
Confederates. The battle raged back and General Albert Sidney Johnston’s
forth, but finally the arrival of Johnston’s defense lines. Along with Fort Donelson
last brigade forced the Federals into a on the Cumberland River, Fort Henry
disorganized retreat to Washington. bisected Southern lines and guarded rich
The victors were also exhausted and did mineral deposits and agricultural lands
not pursue them. From among 37,000 as well as the important city of Nashville,
Northern men, casualties numbered Tennessee. Union General Henry Halleck
about 3,000; of 35,000 Southern troops, hoped to regain control of western rivers
between 1,700 and 2,000 were wounded as a means of piercing Confederate
or lost. defenses, and in early February 1862 he
sent Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and
BATTLE OF WILSON’S CREEK Commodore Andrew Foote on a joint
endeavour to capture Forts Henry and
On Aug. 10, 1861, the South triumphed in Donelson. A Union force of 15,000 men
an engagement fought between 5,400 and seven gunboats traveled along the
Union troops under Gen. Nathaniel Lyon Tennessee to Fort Henry, whose meagre
The War: Battles Up Close | 105

defenses they overcame on February 6. Albert Sidney Johnston dispatched four


About 2,500 Confederate defenders generals and rushed 18,000 troops to
under Gen. Lloyd Tilghman fought meet the Union forces commanded by
briefly, then retreated 12 miles (19 km) Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, who were march-
overland to nearby Fort Donelson to pre- ing from Fort Henry, and a Union
pare a stronger defensive line. gunboat flotilla steaming downriver
The Union victory was largely the under the command of Commodore
result of a fierce gunboat bombardment, Andrew Foote. The battle began on
as Grant’s men had arrived too late to see February 13 as Grant’s soldiers prodded
action. The victory cost the North 11 Confederate lines; this early action sug-
killed and 31 wounded; Southern losses gested the ensuing battle would be
totaled 5 killed, 11 wounded, and 78 pris- costly. When the Union gunboats
oners of war. The battle’s consequences arrived the next day, they met deter-
were greater than its size, however. mined fire from shore batteries that
Navigation on the upper Tennessee fell severely damaged the flotilla and left
to the Union, and Fort Donelson on the Foote’s flagship a shambles. The follow-
Cumberland River then stood alone ing day the Confederates had a fleeting
guarding the Confederacy’s western chance to turn the battle in their favour,
heartland and population centres. but poor coordination among their gen-
erals, as well as vague instructions from
BATTLE OF FORT DONELSON Johnston, conspired to cheat them of
the opportunity.
Fought in February 1862, the Battle of On February 16 Southern General
Fort Donelson resulted in the collapse of Simon B. Buckner asked for an armistice
Southern defenses in the Mid-South and and surrender terms from his old friend
forced the evacuations of Columbus, Grant. Grant replied, “No terms except
Kentucky, and Nashville, Tennessee, as unconditional and immediate surrender
well as a general Confederate retreat in can be accepted. I propose to move imme-
Kentucky. diately upon your works.” This was
Fort Donelson, on the Cumberland probably the war’s first demand for uncon-
River, and Fort Henry, on the Tennessee ditional surrender; although Buckner was
River, guarded the positions where those appalled, he saw no option but to quit. He
rivers bisected Confederate lines. After turned over about 15,000 men, 20,000
Fort Henry fell to Union forces on Feb. 6, rifles, 48 pieces of artillery, 17 heavy guns,
1862, Fort Donelson stood as a lone sen- about 3,000 horses, and large commis-
try protecting important Southern sary stores. The battle was bloody: the
agricultural lands and the city of South lost 1,500 to 3,500 men; Union
Nashville, the capital of Tennessee and losses were 500 killed and 2,100 wounded.
a munitions centre. Confederate General Although 3,000 Confederates managed
106 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

to escape, the defeat demoralized Southern was notable as history’s first duel between
society; citizens in Nashville rioted, ironclad warships and the beginning of a
Southern hopes of help from England new era of naval warfare.
diminished, Johnston’s reputation was The Northern-built Merrimack, a
destroyed, and the Union now owned a conventional steam frigate, had been
deep wedge into the Southern lines. With salvaged by the Confederates from the
the fall of Fort Henry 10 days earlier, the Norfolk navy yard and rechristened
South was compelled to retreat along a the Virginia. With her upper hull cut
wide front, and Grant, whose first and away and armoured with iron, this
middle names were transformed to the 263-foot (80.2-metre) masterpiece of
nickname “Unconditional Surrender,” improvisation resembled, according to
came to the favourable attention of Union one contemporary source, “a floating
Pres. Abraham Lincoln. barn roof.” Commanded by Commodore
Franklin Buchanan and supported by
BATTLE OF PEA RIDGE several other Confederate vessels, the
Virginia virtually decimated a Union fleet
In the Battle of Pea Ridge (also called the of wooden warships off Newport News,
Battle of Elkhorn Tavern), fought from Virginia, on March 8th—destroying the
March 7 to March 8, 1862, in Arkansas, sloop Cumberland and the 50-gun frig-
11,000 Union troops under Gen. Samuel ate Congress, while the frigate Minnesota
Curtis defeated 16,000 attacking ran aground.
Confederate troops led by Generals Earl The Union ironclad Monitor, under
Van Dorn, Sterling Price, and Ben the command of Lieutenant John
McCulloch. Following a fierce opening Worden, arrived the same night. This
assault from the rear that almost over- 172-foot “Yankee Cheese Box on a raft,”
whelmed Curtis’ forces, the outnumbered with its water-level decks and armoured
Union troops rallied. After a desperate revolving gun turret, represented an
struggle with severe losses on both entirely new concept of naval design.
sides, Union forces counterattacked on Thus the stage was set for the dramatic
March 8. The Confederates were forced naval battle of March 9, 1862, with crowds
to retreat, thus thwarting their hopes of of Union and Confederate supporters
regaining control of Arkansas. watching from the decks of nearby ves-
sels and the shores on either side. Soon
BATTLE OF THE after 8:00 am the Virginia opened fire on
MONITOR AND MERRIMACK the Minnesota, and the Monitor appeared.
They passed back and forth on opposite
The Battle of the Monitor and Merrimack courses. Both crews lacked training; fir-
(also called the Battle of Hampton Roads), ing was ineffective. The Monitor could
The War: Battles Up Close | 107

fire only once in seven or eight minutes SHENANDOAH


but was faster and more maneuverable VALLEY CAMPAIGNS
than her larger opponent. After addi-
tional action and reloading, the Monitor’s For four years (July 1861–March 1865) the
pilothouse was hit, driving iron splinters Union and Confederacy waged a military
into Worden’s eyes. The ship sheered struggle for control of the strategic
into shallow water, and the Virginia, con- Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, running
cluding that the enemy was disabled, roughly north and south between the
turned again to attack the Minnesota. Blue Ridge and the Allegheny Mountains.
But her officers reported low ammuni- The South used the transportation advan-
tion, a leak in the bow, and difficulty in tages of the valley so effectively that it
keeping up steam. At about 12:30 pm the often became the “valley of humiliation”
Virginia headed for its navy yard; the for the North. For most of the war,
battle was over. Confederate armies were able to move
The Virginia’s spectacular success north through the valley and toward
on March 8 had not only marked an end Washington, D.C., whereas Union armies
to the day of wooden navies but had advancing south found themselves
also thrilled the South and raised the pushed farther away from Richmond, the
false hope that the Union blockade Confederate capital. When a Southern
might be broken. The subsequent battle army crossed the Potomac at its conflu-
between the two ironclads was gener- ence with the Shenandoah River, it cut
ally interpreted as a victory for the across the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
Monitor, however, and produced feel- and was only 60 miles (100 km) north-
ings of combined relief and exultation west of Washington. Hence the presence
in the North. While the battle was inde- of a Confederate army in the northern
cisive, it is difficult to exaggerate the part of the Shenandoah Valley was often
profound effect on morale that was pro- considered a sufficient menace to justify
duced in both regions. calling back Union troops from cam-
On May 9, 1862, following the paigns elsewhere to ensure the security
Confederate evacuation of Norfolk, of the capital. Late in the war, Union
the Virginia was destroyed by its crew. forces finally took undisputed control of
The Monitor—with 16 crewmen—was the region.
lost during a gale off Cape Hatteras, During the first several years of the
North Carolina, on Dec. 31, 1862. The war, the valley was the arena for a series
wreck of the Monitor was located in 1973, of Confederate attacks and maneuvers
and in 2002 marine salvagers raised the under such generals as P. G. T. Beauregard,
ship’s gun turret and other artifacts Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, Richard
from the wreckage. S. Ewell, and Wade Hampton. From
108 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

March to June 1862, Jackson led his at Waynesboro on March 2, 1865. A month
famous “foot cavalry” on a campaign later the Confederacy collapsed, and
that ranged more than 650 miles (1,050 Robert E. Lee surrendered the South’s
km) and fought five battles (Kernstown, last field army.
March 23; Front Royal, May 23;
Winchester, May 25; Cross Keys, June 8; MISSISSIPPI
Port Republic, June 9) in a brilliant action VALLEY CAMPAIGN
that pinned down much larger Union
forces and posed a continual threat to Western waterways were major arteries
Washington, D.C. Besides catapulting of communication and commerce for
Jackson to fame, these actions drew the South, as well as a vital link to the
thousands of Federal troops away from a Confederate states of Louisiana and
drive on Richmond; Jackson’s diversions Texas. Early in the war, Union strate-
may well have saved the Southern capi- gists settled on the Mississippi River
tal from early capture. and tributary rivers such as the
The valley hosted another intense Cumberland and Tennessee as proper
period of campaigning late in the war, avenues of attack. In addition to the
when in August 1864 Union General fighting along the Richmond, Virginia–
Ulysses S. Grant dispatched Gen. Philip Washington, D.C., axis, the campaign
H. Sheridan to clear the Shenandoah once for Atlanta, Georgia, and Gen. William
and for all, partly to rid the Federals of a Sherman’s March to the Sea, the strug-
continual menace and partly to deny the gles for western rivers constituted the
South the valley’s rich agricultural pro- major battles of the Civil War.
duce. Like Jackson before him, Sheridan’s The West’s vast expanse compli-
aggressive and mobile campaign made cated Confederate defense of the region,
him famous. From late September to late a problem first obvious at the Battles of
October 1864, Sheridan’s forces won Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in
three major battles: the Third Battle of February 1862. After these forts fell
Winchester (September 19), the Battle of to Union troops, Nashville, Tenn., was
Fishers Hill (September 22), and the evacuated, and the way to Atlanta was
Battle of Cedar Creek (October 19). These clearer for Federal troops later in the
victories gave the Federals an upper war. The Battle of Shiloh, fought on April
hand in the valley they never relin- 6 and 7, 1862, farther down the Tennessee
quished. Although Sheridan’s campaign River from Fort Henry, was up to that
was essentially over, the Southern posi- point the biggest battle in American his-
tion was not to be eliminated until a tory. It pitted more than 100,000 men in
cavalry division led by Gen. George armed struggle near a steamboat dock-
Custer defeated Gen. Jubal Early’s troops ing point called Pittsburg Landing,
The War: Battles Up Close | 109

presenting a preview of the terrible car- capture the Confederate capital at


nage that was to come at places such as Richmond, Va., by way of the peninsula
Antietam and Gettysburg; after the formed by the York and the James rivers.
North won the battle, each side counted Following the engagement between the
more than 1,700 dead and 8,000 ironclads Monitor and Merrimack at
wounded. The Battle of Shiloh preserved nearby Hampton Roads (March 9),
an important Union flank along the Federal supplies and 100,000 troops were
Mississippi River and opened the way to disembarked at Fort Monroe under Major
split the Confederacy along the river. In General George B. McClellan. The first
May and June of 1863, Union General phase of the campaign, during which the
Ulysses S. Grant marched on Vicksburg, North reached the town of White House,
Mississippi, trapping a Southern army within striking distance of Richmond,
led by Gen. John Pemberton. After a concluded with the indecisive Battle of
brilliant joint operation using land and Seven Pines (May 31–June 1), in which
naval forces, Vicksburg fell to the Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston
Federals on July 4. With the capture of was seriously wounded and field com-
the city, the Union not only gained con- mand passed to Robert E. Lee. A second
trol of the lower Mississippi, its outlet to phase was characterized by three weeks
the Gulf of Mexico, but also effectively of inactivity. The final phase ended tri-
cut the South in two. umphantly for the Confederate forces of
Later in the war a smaller campaign General Lee, who forced the withdrawal
along a western tributary, the Red River, of the Federal Army of the Potomac after
consolidated Union control of the the Seven Days’ Battles (June 25–July 1).
Mississippi basin and helped seal the
Confederate fate. Altogether, Americans BATTLE OF SHILOH
fought at least 26 named battles and
innumerable skirmishes along western A Northern victory that resulted in
waterways. The contests for these rivers large casualties for both sides, the Battle
were a critical cog in Northern strategy of Shiloh (also called the Battle of
and helped produce some of the war’s Pittsburg Landing) was fought in south-
greatest personalities, including Generals western Tennessee from April 6 to April
Grant and Sherman. 7, 1862. In February, Union General
Ulysses S. Grant had taken Fort Henry
PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN on the Tennessee River and Fort
Donelson on the Cumberland. The
Conducted from April 4 to July 1, 1862, Confederates had acknowledged the
the Peninsular Campaign was a large- importance of these forts by abandon-
scale but unsuccessful Union effort to ing their strong position at Columbus,
110 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

Ky., and by evacuating Nashville. Grant’s General Mansfield Lovell withdrew his
next aim was to attack the Memphis and 3,000 troops northward, and the city fell
Charleston Railroad, and to this end he on April 25, 1862. On May 1 Gen. B. F.
encamped his troops on the Tennessee Butler led 15,000 Union troops into the
at Pittsburg Landing. At this point Gen. city to take command for the remainder
A.S. Johnston, commanding Confederate of the war. The permanent loss of New
forces in the West, along with Gen. P. G. T. Orleans was considered one of the worst
Beauregard, were collecting a force disasters suffered by the Confederacy in
aimed at recovering some of their recent the western theatre of the war.
losses. Since Union troops were plan-
ning an offensive, they had not fortified BATTLE OF SEVEN PINES
their camps. To their surprise, General
Johnston seized the initiative and Part of the Peninsular Campaign, the
attacked Grant before reinforcements Battle of Seven Pines (also called the
could arrive. The battle was fought in the Battle of Fair Oaks) was fought May
woods by inexperienced troops on both 31–June 1, 1862, 6 miles (10 km) east of
sides. Johnston was mortally wounded the Confederate capital at Richmond, Va.
on the first afternoon. Despite a rallying The Union Army of the Potomac, com-
of Northern troops and reinforcements manded by Major General George B.
for the South, the battle ended the next McClellan, repulsed attacks by the
day with the Union army doing little Confederates led by Gen. Joseph E.
more than reoccupying the camp it had Johnston, who was severely wounded in
lost the day before while the Confederates the first day of fighting. Northern casual-
returned to Corinth, Mississippi. ties numbered more than 5,000, Southern
Although both sides claimed victory, it more than 6,000.
was a Confederate failure; both sides
were immobilized for the next three SEVEN DAYS’ BATTLES
weeks because of the heavy casualties—
about 10,000 men on each side. The Confederate army under Gen. Robert
E. Lee drove back Gen. George B.
BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS McClellan’s Union forces and thwarted
the Northern attempt to capture the
A Union naval squadron of 43 ships Confederate capital of Richmond, Va., in
under Admiral David Farragut entered the Seven Days’ Battles, fought from
the lower Mississippi near New Orleans June 25 to July 1, 1862. McClellan was
and soon breached the heavy chain forced to retreat from a position 4 miles
cables that were stretched across the (6 km) east of the Confederate capital to
river as a prime defense. Realizing that a new base of operations at Harrison’s
resistance was useless, Confederate Landing on the James River.
The War: Battles Up Close | 111

After the indecisive Battle of Oak 25–July 1), which ended the Peninsular
Grove (June 25), Lee’s attack on the Campaign (April 4–July 1), the large-scale
Union right at Mechanicsville (June 26) Union effort to take Richmond. After
was repulsed with great losses, but Lee fighting at Mechanicsville and Beaver
and Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson Dam Creek, Gen. George B. McClellan
combined to defeat Gen. Fitz-John ordered Union troops to high ground
Porter’s V Corps in a bloody encounter at between Gaines’s Mill and Cold Harbor.
Gaines’s Mill (June 27). In the battles of When Confederate General Robert
Peach Orchard and Savage’s Station E. Lee attacked on June 27, the Union
(June 29) and Frayser’s Farm (Glendale; troops were driven back in disorder and
June 30), the retreating Union forces withdrew to the south side of the
inflicted heavy casualties on the pursu- Chickahominy River.
ing Confederates. Reaching the James
River, and supported by Union gunboats, SECOND
the Northern troops turned back Lee’s BATTLE OF BULL RUN
final assaults at Malvern Hill (July 1).
Lee later stated in his official report The Second Battle of Bull Run (Second
that “Under ordinary circumstances Manassas) took place more than a year
the Federal Army should have been after the first Battle of Bull Run, on Aug.
destroyed.” 29–30, 1862, between a Confederate army
McClellan’s failure to capture of more than 56,000 men under Gen.
Richmond, and the subsequent with- Robert E. Lee and a newly formed Federal
drawal of the Union’s Army of the force of 70,000 troops under Major General
Potomac from the Yorktown Peninsula, John Pope. It had become Pope’s respon-
signified the end of the Peninsular sibility to cover Washington until his
Campaign. Northern casualties were army could be joined with the Army of the
estimated at 16,000 men and Southern Potomac. To prevent the achievement of
at 20,000. this goal, Lee split his forces and ordered
Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson to
FIRST BATTLE march around Pope’s right flank; in two
OF COLD HARBOR days Jackson had captured Pope’s supply
depot at Manassas and had safely hidden
Two engagements of the Civil War were his three divisions in a nearby wood.
fought at Cold Harbor, 10 miles (16 km) August 27–29 saw considerable maneu-
northeast of the Confederate capital of vering and fighting while Lee rushed
Richmond. forward the main body of his army to join
The first battle (June 27, 1862), some- Jackson. On the afternoon of August 30,
times called the Battle of Gaines’s Mill, Confederate artillery fire prevented the
was part of the Seven Days’ Battles (June success of a Union assault on Jackson’s
112 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

positions, after which Lee ordered his battle, which proved to be one of the
entire army forward in a grand counter- bloodiest single days of the war. The
attack. The Confederate victory was not South lost 13,724 troops and the North
complete because the Union forces suffered casualties of 12,410.
withstood repeated assaults on certain In addition to protecting the Federal
defensive positions. Finally, however, capital, the battle is sometimes cited as
Pope withdrew his defeated army across having influenced Great Britain not to
Bull Run and eventually retreated to the recognize the Confederacy. Pres.
fortifications of the capital. Casualties on Abraham Lincoln used the occasion of
both sides were high: 15,000 for the the Antietam victory to issue his prelimi-
North, 9,000 for the South. nary Emancipation Proclamation (Sept.
22, 1862), announcing that unless the
BATTLE OF ANTIETAM Confederates laid down their arms by
Jan. 1, 1863, he would free all slaves not
Fought on Sept. 17, 1862, the Battle of residing in Union-controlled territory.
Antietam (also called the Battle of
Sharpsburg) was a decisive engagement BATTLE OF CORINTH
in which Union forces halted the
Confederate advance on Maryland under- A decisive victory of Union forces over
taken for the purpose of gaining military Confederate forces in northeastern
supplies. The advance was also regarded Mississippi, the Battle of Corinth was
as one of the greatest Confederate threats fought Oct. 3–4, 1862. Believing that the
to Washington, D.C. The battle took its capture of the strategically important
name from Antietam Creek, which flows town of Corinth would break the Union
south from Gettysburg, Pa., to the Potomac hold on the Corinth-Memphis railroad
River near Harpers Ferry, W.V. and drive Union General Ulysses S.
Following the Union defeat at the Grant from western Tennessee, the
Second Battle of Bull Run, Confederate Confederate generals Earl Van Dorn
General Robert E. Lee advanced into and Sterling Price attacked with 22,000
Maryland with some hope of capturing men. After indecisive fighting on
the Federal capital of Washington to the October 3, a furious hour-long battle
southeast. On Sept. 17, 1862, his forces was fought near Corinth on October 4,
were met at Antietam by the reorganized during which Union forces under Gen.
Federal army under Gen. George B. William S. Rosecrans repulsed the
McClellan, who blocked Lee’s advances Confederates and sent them into full
but allowed him to retire to Virginia. retreat. During this brief but bloody
Most military historians have strongly clash, Union casualties totaled 2,520;
criticized McClellan’s conduct of the the Confederates lost 4,233.
The War: Battles Up Close | 113

BATTLE OF PERRYVILLE 1862. Bragg’s forces held the field, though,


and continued to control the area until
Union troops, under Gen. Don Carlos forced to withdraw three months later
Buell, were marching from Louisville, following the Battle of Stones River.
Ky., when they unexpectedly encoun-
tered the Confederate army, whom BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG
Braxton Bragg was leading in an advance
on Louisville from Chattanooga, Tenn. A A crushing Union defeat, the Battle of
bloody but indecisive battle ensued at Fredericksburg, fought in Virginia on Dec.
Perryville, near Danville, Ky., on Oct. 8, 13, 1862, immeasurably strengthened the

Fredericksburg, Virginia, from the east bank of the Rappahannock River. Photograph
by Timothy H. O’Sullivan, March 1863. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-B8171-
7927 DLC)
114 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

Confederate cause. Gen. A.E. Burnside, After the spring of 1862, when the
newly appointed commander of the Confederates lost Fort Henry, Fort
Northern forces, planned to cross the Donelson, and Memphis in Tennessee
Rappahannock River with an army of and New Orleans in Louisiana, Vicksburg
more than 120,000 troops and advance became the key remaining point of their
on the Southern capital at Richmond. defense of the Mississippi River. The cap-
Confederate General Robert E. Lee coun- ture of Vicksburg would yield the North
tered by taking a strong position on high control of the entire course of the river,
ground behind Fredericksburg with a and thus enable it to isolate those
force of about 78,000. The attack on Confederate states that lay west of the
December 13 proved a complete failure, river from those in the east. Vicksburg
and Burnside’s casualties totaled more was ideally suited for defensive purposes,
than 12,500, compared to only about however; it was situated on high bluffs
5,000 for the carefully entrenched along the river and was protected on the
Confederates. General Burnside was north by a maze of swampy bayous. The
relieved of his command the following Confederates’ batteries on the bluffs could
month and has been severely criticized by outgun any Union ships on the river.
historians for his conduct of this battle. A Union naval expedition using iron-
Once again the Union had failed in clads (May–June 1862) to subdue the
what should have been its main objec- Confederate batteries failed, as did an
tive—destruction of the Army of Northern attempt to take the city by land from the
Virginia. Richmond seemed as far away north by Gen. William Tecumseh
as ever. For the South, the victory restored Sherman (December 1862) and an
morale lost after Lee’s retreat from attempt by Grant to cut a canal around
Maryland following his unsuccessful Vicksburg that would divert the river
Antietam campaign in September. (February–March 1863). After this string
of frustrating failures, Grant conceived
VICKSBURG CAMPAIGN a bold move that would enable him to
take the city using the high-ground
From 1862 to 1863 Union forces fought approaches from the east, well behind
to take the Confederate stronghold of Confederate lines. Moving his army of
Vicksburg, Miss., which lay on the east 40,000 troops to the west bank of the
bank of the Mississippi River, halfway Mississippi, he marched south along it
between Memphis (north) and New for a considerable distance until he could
Orleans (south). The capture of Vicksburg recross the river at Bruinsburg, which lay
divided the Confederacy and proved the about 30 miles (48 km) south of Vicksburg.
military genius of Union General Ulysses His army recrossed to the east bank of
S. Grant. the river by means of a Union fleet,
The War: Battles Up Close | 115

which, under the command of Admiral Murfreesboro) was a psychological vic-


David D. Porter, had run south past the tory for the Union forces. It was fought in
batteries at Vicksburg. Once across the Tennessee from Dec. 31, 1862 to Jan. 2,
river, Grant quickly began moving north- 1863. Gen. Braxton Bragg’s 34,700-man
east, though this meant abandoning his Confederate army was confronted on
already tenuous supply lines and feed- Stones River near Murfreesboro by
ing his troops off the surrounding enemy 41,400 Union troops under Gen. William
countryside. His forces took Port Gibson S. Rosecrans, who had orders to drive
on May 2, reached Grand Gulf on May 3, Bragg out of eastern Tennessee. After
and prevented the small Confederate the first day’s bitter, seesaw battle, the
army of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston near battered Union army was on the verge
Jackson from linking up with the of retreating, but Rosecrans decided to
Vicksburg forces. hold fast. On January 3, Bragg’s equally
Vicksburg’s commander, Gen. John exhausted Confederate forces withdrew
C. Pemberton, led his forces out in an southward. Rosecrans’s tenacity thus
effort to link up with Johnston but met averted a potentially serious Union defeat.
Grant moving westward and was forced to Union casualties numbered 12,906;
return to the city. On May 18 Grant arrived Confederate losses totaled 11,739. Stones
in the rear of Vicksburg, within which River National Battlefield (established
Pemberton’s 30,000 troops were isolated. 1927) commemorates the battle.
After two assaults in mid-May failed,
Grant settled down to methodical siege BATTLE OF
tactics while augmenting his forces. He CHANCELLORSVILLE
controlled all the approaches to the city,
and by early June the Confederate garri- Fought from May 1 to May 5, 1863, the
son was desperately short of ammunition Battle of Chancellorsville was a bloody
and on the brink of starvation. Pemberton assault by the Union army in Virginia
surrendered the city on July 4. that failed to encircle and destroy the
The surrender of Vicksburg, with the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.
victory at the Battle of Gettysburg the Following the “horror of Fredericksburg”
previous day (July 3), greatly heartened (Dec. 13, 1862), the Confederate army of
the North and in fact marked the turning Gen. Robert E. Lee and the Union force
point of the war. under Gen. Joseph Hooker had spent the
winter facing each other across the
BATTLE OF STONES RIVER Rappahannock River in Virginia. On
April 27 Hooker dispatched his cavalry
Bloody but indecisive, the Battle of behind Lee’s army, intending to cut off a
Stones River (also called the Battle of retreat. Two days later he sent a small
116 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

diversionary force across the inflicting heavy losses and capturing


Rappahannock below Fredericksburg over 1,700 prisoners. The survivors began
and crossed upriver with the main body a disorderly flight and retreated within
of his army. By May 1 his superior forces the entrenched lines of Vicksburg, which
were massed near Chancellorsville, a was soon besieged by Grant’s army.
crossroads in a densely forested lowland
called the Wilderness. Deprived of his BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG
cavalry, however, Hooker was blind to
Lee’s movements, and on May 2, when A crushing defeat for the South that is
Lee ordered Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” considered by most the turning point of
Jackson’s “foot cavalry” to swing around the Civil War, the Battle of Gettysburg
and attack the Union right, Hooker’s sur- was fought from July 1 to July 3, 1863, in
prised flank was routed. The Union and around the small town of Gettysburg,
general withdrew, and Lee’s pressure Pa., roughly 35 miles (56 km) southwest
over the next three days forced a Union of Harrisburg. After defeating the Union
retreat north of the river. The South’s forces of Gen. Joseph Hooker at
greatest casualty was the loss of Jackson, Chancellorsville, Virginia, in May,
who died May 10 of battle wounds. Of Confederate General Robert E. Lee
130,000 Union soldiers engaged at decided to invade the North in hopes of
Chancellorsville, more than 17,000 were further discouraging the enemy and pos-
lost; of 60,000 Confederates, more than sibly inducing European countries to
12,000 were lost. recognize the Confederacy. His invasion
army numbered 75,000 troops. When he
BATTLE OF BIG BLACK RIVER learned that the Union Army of the
Potomac had a new commander, Gen.
Union forces under Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, George G. Meade, Lee ordered Gen. R.S.
who were pursuing Confederate troops Ewell to move to Cashtown or Gettysburg.
under Gen. John C. Pemberton toward However, the commander of Meade’s
Vicksburg, Miss., won an important vic- advance cavalry, Gen. John Buford,
tory in Battle of Big Black River on May recognized the strategic importance of
17, 1863. After his defeat at Champion’s Gettysburg as a road centre and was
Hill (May 16), Pemberton left 5,000 prepared to hold this site until reinforce-
troops to make a stand on both sides of ments arrived.
the Big Black River, while he withdrew The first day of battle saw consider-
with his main command to nearby able fighting in the area, Union use of
Vicksburg. Ten thousand attacking newly issued Spencer repeating carbines,
Union troops led by Grant routed the heavy casualties on each side, and
demoralized Confederate defenders, the simultaneous conclusion by both
The War: Battles Up Close | 117

The battlefield at Gettysburg, Pa., photograph by Timothy O’Sullivan, July 1863. Library of
Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-B8184-7964-A DLC)

commanders that Gettysburg was the assaulted Cemetery Ridge, held by


place to fight. On the second day there about 10,000 Federal infantrymen. The
were a great number of desperate attacks Southern spearhead broke through and
and counterattacks in an attempt to gain penetrated the ridge, but there it could do
control of such locations as Little Round no more. Critically weakened by artillery
Top, Cemetery Hill, Devil’s Den, the during their approach, formations hope-
Wheatfield, and the Peach Orchard. There lessly tangled, lacking reinforcement, and
were again heavy losses on both sides. under savage attack from three sides, the
On the third day Lee was determined to Southerners retreated, leaving 19 battle
attack. Some 15,000 Confederate troops flags and hundreds of prisoners. On
118 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

July 4 Lee waited to meet an attack that conflict raged in a tangled forest along
never came. That night, taking advantage Chickamauga Creek.
of a heavy rain, he started retreating Dazed by the ferocious Confederate
toward Virginia. His defeat stemmed assault, the main body of the Union
from overconfidence in his troops, Ewell’s army gave way and retreated in disor-
inability to fill the boots of Gen. Thomas der. Union General George H. Thomas,
J. “Stonewall” Jackson, and faulty recon- the “Rock of Chickamauga,” skillfully
naissance. Though Meade has been organized the defenses and withstood
criticized for not destroying the enemy the attack until the assistance of a
by a vigorous pursuit, he had stopped the reserve corps made possible an orderly
Confederate invasion and won a critical withdrawal to Chattanooga. Of 120,000
three-day battle. troops participating, casualties num-
Losses were among the war’s heavi- bered 16,000 Union troops and 18,000
est: of 88,000 Northern troops, casualties Confederate troops, making this one
numbered about 23,000; out of 75,000 of the bloodiest engagements of the
Southerners, more than 20,000. Civil War.
Dedication of the National Cemetery Chickamauga was considered a
at the site in November 1863 was the decisive victory for the South, but
occasion of Pres. Abraham Lincoln’s General Bragg did not choose to follow
Gettysburg Address. The battlefield it up, and two months later the results
became a national military park in 1895, were completely nullified at the Battle of
and jurisdiction passed to the National Chattanooga. In 1890 an Act of Congress
Park Service in 1933. created a national military park at the
two battlegrounds.
BATTLE OF
CHICKAMAUGA CREEK BATTLE OF CHATTANOOGA

The Battle of Chickamauga Creek, fought A decisive engagement fought at


Sept. 19–20, 1863, was a vital part of the Chattanooga on the Tennessee River
maneuvering and fighting to control the from Nov. 23 to Nov. 25, 1863, the Battle
railroad centre at nearby Chattanooga, of Chattanooga contributed significantly
Tenn. Union General William S. Rosecrans to the victory of the North. Chattanooga
had established his army at Chickamauga, had strategic importance as a vital rail-
Georgia, 12 miles (19 km) southeast road junction for the Confederacy.
of Chattanooga. Confederate General In September 1863 a Federal army led
Braxton Bragg collected reinforcements by Gen. William S. Rosecrans was
and prepared to do battle, assisted by besieged there by a Southern army com-
Gen. James Longstreet. For two days the manded by Gen. Braxton Bragg. The
The War: Battles Up Close | 119

following month Gen. Ulysses S. Grant by the Confederates and destruction in


took over the campaign to relieve the the rapids. The failure of the Red River
Union troops and seize the offensive. Campaign ended any significant trans-
With the help of reinforcements from Mississippi Union operations, and the
Gen. Joseph Hooker and Gen. William Confederates, under Gen. Edmund Kirby-
Tecumseh Sherman, the Federal forces Smith, succeeded in holding the area
defeated the Confederates in the Battles until the end of the war.
of Lookout Mountain and Missionary
Ridge and lifted the siege; by the end of FORT PILLOW MASSACRE
the month the Confederate army was in
retreat into Georgia. Losses of men were The Confederate slaughter of black
less than at Chickamauga (about 6,000 Federal troops stationed at Fort Pillow,
Union and 7,000 Confederate), but the Tenn., on April 12, 1864, stemmed from
result was completely decisive, ranking Southern outrage at the North’s use of
in importance with Vicksburg and black soldiers.
Gettysburg the same year. The way had From the beginning of hostilities, the
been opened for Sherman’s march to Confederate leadership was faced with
Atlanta and Savannah the following year. the question of whether to treat black sol-
diers captured in battle as slaves in
RED RIVER CAMPAIGN insurrection or, as the Union insisted, as
prisoners of war. In what proved the ugli-
Conducted from March 10 to May 22, est racial incident of the war, Confederate
1864, the Red River Campaign was an forces under Gen. Nathan B. Forrest cap-
unsuccessful Union effort to seize con- tured Fort Pillow on April 12, 1864, and
trol of the important cotton-growing proceeded to kill all the black troops
states of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas. within; some were burned or buried alive.
In the spring of 1864, Union General A Federal congressional investigating
Nathaniel Banks led an expedition up committee subsequently verified that
the Red River and, with the support of a more than 300 blacks, including women
river fleet commanded by Admiral David and children, had been slain after the fort
Dixon Porter, took Fort DeRussy and the surrendered. After the incident, black
town of Alexandria, La. However, soldiers going into battle used the cry
Confederate troops under Gen. Richard “Remember Fort Pillow!”
Taylor confronted the Union forces at
Sabine Crossroads, near Mansfield, and BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS
defeated them on April 8. Shortly after-
ward the Union withdrew from the area, The first stage of a carefully planned Union
though the fleet barely escaped capture campaign to capture the Confederate
120 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

capital at Richmond, Va., the Battle of the ATLANTA CAMPAIGN


Wilderness was fought from May 5 to
May 7, 1864. Crossing the Rappahannock An important series of battles fought in
River near Fredericksburg, Va., early in Georgia from May to September 1864, the
May, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant advanced Atlanta Campaign eventually cut off a
with a Union army of 115,000 men. On main Confederate supply centre and
May 5 he met a Confederate army of influenced the Federal presidential elec-
62,000 troops under Gen. Robert E. tion of 1864. By the end of 1863, with
Lee. The confrontation occurred in Chattanooga, Tenn., and Vicksburg, Miss.,
dense thickets, called the Wilderness, firmly under the control of the North,
where orderly movement was impossi- Atlanta, an important Confederate rail-
ble and cavalry and artillery were road, supply, and manufacturing centre
almost useless. Burning brush killed and a gateway to the lower South, became
many of the wounded. After indecisive the logical point for Union forces to attack
but intense fighting for two days, Grant in their western campaign. The Union
saw the futility of further hostilities in commander, Gen. William Sherman, also
this area and moved on to do battle believed a sustained campaign deep into
at Spotsylvania Court House, nearer Confederate territory would bring the
Richmond. entire war to an end. Southern defenders
were under the strategic direction of Gen.
BATTLE OF Joseph E. Johnston, until he was replaced
SPOTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE by Lieutenant General John Bell Hood
in July. The Atlanta Campaign itself
A Union failure to smash or outflank consisted of nine individual battles as
Confederate forces defending Richmond, well as nearly five months of unbroken
Va., the Battle of Spotsylvania Court skirmishes and small actions. The fight-
House was fought from May 8 to May 19, ing foreshadowed Sherman’s March to
1964. Following the Battle of the the Sea later in the year and introduced
Wilderness (May 5–6), Union General many Southern civilians to the horrors
Ulysses S. Grant moved his left flank for- and ravages of “total war,” working to
ward, engaging the Confederate forces undermine Confederate morale. After a
of Gen. Robert E. Lee at Spotsylvania series of seesaw battles, Sherman forced
Court House, Va.. The battle raged for Confederate evacuation of Atlanta
about a week and a half, and on May 20 (August 31–September 1). This Union vic-
Grant continued his march southeast- tory presented Pres. Abraham Lincoln
ward in a flanking movement toward the with the key to reelection in the fall of
Confederate capital. His casualties were 1864. It also greatly complicated the
18,000; Lee’s, 11,000. Confederate position near the Southern
The War: Battles Up Close | 121

capital of Richmond, Va., as troops there tactical defeats suffered by the North in
now had to contend with Union forces to the Civil War, though its subsequent
the north and south. effect was negligible. Following the
Battle of Spotsylvania Court House
SECOND BATTLE (May 8–19), Union General Ulysses S.
OF COLD HARBOR Grant advanced southward toward
Richmond in a series of flanking move-
The second Battle of Cold Harbor (June ments. Confederate troops under Lee at
3–12, 1864) is considered one of the worst Cold Harbor entrenched themselves in

Federal earthwork defenses, near Point of Rocks, Bermuda Hundred, Va., 1864. Library of
Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-B8171-2606 DLC)
122 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

defensive positions behind earthworks. PETERSBURG CAMPAIGN


From these, Union assaults were repulsed
with heavy losses. Because of Grant’s Petersburg, Va., an important rail centre
vast numbers (more than 100,000 men), 23 miles (37 km) south of Richmond, was
his losses of about 7,000 (compared a strategic point for the defense of the
with fewer than 1,500 for Lee) did not Confederate capital. In June 1864 the
deter him from continuing to Petersburg Union army began a siege of the two cit-
later that month in his drive toward ies, with both sides rapidly constructing
Richmond. fortifications 35 miles (56 km) long. In a

Skeletal remains of soldiers being collected on the battlefield, Cold Harbor, Va., photograph
by John Reekie, April 1865. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-B8171-7926 DLC)
The War: Battles Up Close | 123

series of battles that summer, Union hands. On August 23, Fort Morgan sur-
losses were heavy, but, by the end of rendered, thereby sealing the Gulf coast
August, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant had from further blockade running.
crossed the Petersburg–Weldon Railroad;
he captured Fort Harrison on September BATTLE OF NASHVILLE
29. By year’s end, however, Gen. Robert
E. Lee still held Richmond and Petersburg. The Union victory over the Confederates
But, mostly owing to mismanagement at the Battle of Nashville, fought Dec.
and inefficiency, Southern railroads had 15–16, 1864, ended organized Southern
broken down or been destroyed. Thus the resistance in Tennessee for the remain-
Confederates were ill-fed to the point of der of the war. Hoping to cut the supply
physical exhaustion, and the lack of draft lines of the Union Gen. William Tecumseh
animals and cavalry mounts nearly Sherman and perhaps to threaten
immobilized the troops. Hunger, expo- Cincinnati, Ohio, and other Northern cit-
sure, and the apparent hopelessness of ies, Confederate General John B. Hood
further resistance led to increasing deser- moved back into Tennessee in late 1864,
tion, especially among recent conscripts. incurring heavy losses in an engagement
with Gen. John M. Schofield’s Union
BATTLE OF MOBILE BAY troops at Franklin, Tennessee, on
November 30. As Hood approached
By 1864, Mobile Bay in Alabama was the Nashville in early December, a Union
most important Confederate port left on force of quickly assembled heteroge-
the Gulf of Mexico. It was protected by neous troops under Gen. George H.
Fort Morgan, the ironclad Tennessee, and Thomas marched out of the city and
a string of mines (called torpedoes) in administered a resounding defeat to the
the narrow entrance passage to the bay. South on December 15–16.
Admiral David Farragut’s Union fleet The Confederate army retreated in
sailed into Mobile Bay on the morning of near disorder to Alabama, and, though
Aug. 5, 1864. The Union ship Tecumseh Hood escaped, his army virtually ceased
hit a mine and sank. Farragut then to exist as a fighting force.
climbed into the rigging of his flagship
Hartford and cried out, “Damn the torpe- LAST BATTLES OF
does: Full speed ahead!” THE PETERSBURG CAMPAIGN
With the Hartford in the lead, the
fleet sailed on into Mobile Bay, where for In March 1865, the Confederates were
two hours it fought the Tennessee while driven back at the Battle of Fort Stedman,
coming under shelling from the guns at leaving Lee with 50,000 troops as
Fort Morgan. With the surrender of the opposed to Grant’s 120,000. Soon after,
Tennessee, Mobile Bay was in Union Grant crushed a main Southern force
124 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

Union troops behind the lines, Nashville, Tenn., December 16, 1864. Photograph by George
N. Barnard. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC B8171-2639 LC)

under Gen. George E. Pickett and Gen. Johnston was thwarted, he surrendered to
Fitzhugh Lee at the Battle of Five Forks General Grant on April 9 at Appomattox
(April 1); the next day the defenders were Court House.
driven back within the Petersburg inner
defenses. Lee immediately informed SURRENDER AT
Pres. Jefferson Davis that the two cities APPOMATTOX COURT HOUSE
could no longer be held, and the evacua-
tion was carried out that night. After After an engagement with Federal cav-
Lee’s plan to join with Gen. Joseph E. alry, the Confederate Army of Northern
The War: Battles Up Close | 125

Federal soldiers at Appomattox Court House, Appomattox, Va. Photograph by Timothy H.


O’Sullivan, April 1865. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-B8171-7169 DLC)

Virginia was surrounded at Appomattox, virtually deserted after removal of the


Virginia, 25 miles (40 km) east of county seat to the new town of
Lynchburg, and surrendered to Union Appomattox in 1892, but was made a
forces on April 9, 1865, thus effectively national historical monument in 1940;
ending the Civil War. The site of the sur- its buildings, including the McLean
render was the former county seat, House, in which the formal surrender
known as Appomattox Court House, took place, were restored to their 1865
where Gen. Robert E. Lee met Gen. condition. In 1954 the entire 968-acre
Ulysses S. Grant. This location was area was designated a historical park.
CHAPTER 7
Military Leaders

I t is generally agreed that Northern military leadership


was less talented and less battle-tested than that of the
South, not least because so many military professionals
refused to fight for the North, instead putting themselves at
the service of the Confederacy. That said, the North’s diverse
group of military leaders clearly triumphed, be it because of
their growing skills, innovations, and perseverance; more
and better supplies; a larger fighting force; or the overarch-
ing leadership from Pres. Lincoln—this, though the
Commander-in-Chief himself had no military experience.

THE UNION

Samuel Chapman Armstrong


(b. Jan. 30, 1839, Maui, Hawaii—d. May 11, 1893,
Hampton, Va.)

Samuel Chapman Armstrong commanded black Union


troops during the Civil War and and later founded Hampton
Institute, a vocational educational school for blacks.
The son of American missionaries to Hawaii, Armstrong
attended Oahu College for two years before going to the
United States in 1860. He enrolled at Williams College; but,
on the outbreak of the Civil War, he left school to accept a
commission as captain in the 125th New York Regiment.
Military Leaders | 127

He recruited and trained his own troops Banks received only a common
and led them in several battles, includ- school education and at an early age
ing Gettysburg. began work as a bobbin boy in a cotton
First promoted to major and then to factory. He subsequently edited a weekly
colonel, Armstrong was put in command paper at Waltham, studied law, and,
of the 9th Regiment, a corps consisting after being admitted to the bar, became
entirely of black troops. Determined to active in politics. He served in the
show the full capabilities of black sol- Massachusetts legislature (1849–53)
diers, he trained his men rigorously. By and as president of the state constitu-
the end of the war, he held the rank of tional convention in 1853. In that year
brigadier general, and the troops under he entered the U.S. Congress, holding the
his command had distinguished them- support of Democrats and Free-Soilers
selves on many occasions. for a time, and later of the Know-Nothing
After the war, Armstrong became an Party. He joined the newly formed
agent of the Freedmen’s Bureau and, in Republican Party in 1855 and in 1856,
1866, took charge of a huge camp of for- after a bitter and protracted contest, was
mer slaves in Hampton, Va. Recognizing elected speaker of the House of
the need for those blacks to receive an Representatives on the 133rd ballot. He
education, in 1867 Armstrong convinced served in Congress until elected gover-
the American Missionary Association nor of Massachusetts in 1858.
and a private benefactor to purchase land Although while governor he had
in Hampton and establish a vocational been a strong advocate of peace, Banks
training institution there. Hampton was one of the earliest to offer his ser-
Normal and Industrial Institute opened vices to President Lincoln, who in 1861
in 1868. For the next 25 years, Armstrong appointed him a major general of volun-
laboured to sustain and administer the teers. Banks served in the campaigns of
school, which became a leading centre early 1862 in the Shenandoah Valley and
for both vocational training and aca- later in the year was in command of the
demic education for Southern blacks. Department of the Gulf in New Orleans.
Forces under his command laid siege to
Nathaniel P. Banks Port Hudson, La., which finally fell in
(b. Jan. 30, 1816, Waltham, Mass.—d. July 1863. In 1863 and 1864 Banks orga-
Sept. 1, 1894, Waltham) nized a number of expeditions in Texas,
but he proved unsuccessful as a tacti-
A politician of long standing, Nathaniel cian, and his Red River expedition
P. Banks was the governor of Massachu- (March–May 1864) ended in disaster.
setts when he was commissioned a After the war Banks reentered poli-
general in the Union army. tics, serving several more terms in
128 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

Congress and as U.S. marshal for investigated in 1862–63, but the result
Massachusetts (1879–88). was not published.
Subsequently, he was offered military
Don Carlos Buell employment, which he declined. He
(b. March 23, 1818, near Marietta, resigned his volunteer commission in
Ohio—d. Nov. 19, 1898, Rockport, Ky.) May and his regular commission in June
1864. After the war he settled in Kentucky,
Union General Don Carlos Buell gradu- where he engaged in mining.
ated from the U.S. Military Academy at
West Point, N.Y., in 1841 and was a com- Ambrose Everett Burnside
pany officer of infantry in the Seminole (b. May 23, 1824, Liberty, Ind.—d. Sept.
War of 1841–42 and the Mexican War. 13, 1881, Bristol, R.I.)
From 1848 to 1861 he acted chiefly as
assistant adjutant general. On the out- Union General Ambrose Everett Burnside
break of the Civil War he was appointed is perhaps best remembered as the origi-
lieutenant colonel, then brigadier general nator in the United States of the fashion
of volunteers and major general of volun- of side whiskers (later known as
teers in March 1862. He aided in sideburns).
organizing the Army of the Potomac and Burnside, a graduate of the U.S.
was sent, in November 1861, to Kentucky Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.
to succeed Gen. William T. Sherman in (1847), resigned his commission in 1853
command. There he organized and and for the next five years manufactured
trained the Army of the Ohio, which to firearms at Bristol, R.I. Soon after the
the end of its career retained a standard Civil War broke out, Burnside took com-
surpassed only by that of the Army of the mand of a Rhode Island militia regiment.
Potomac. In the spring of 1862 Buell pur- He was later commissioned a brigadier
sued the retiring Confederates under general in the Union Army and fought in
Gen. Sidney Johnston, served under Gen. the North Carolina coast campaign.
Henry W. Halleck in the Union advance Promoted to major general (1862), he was
on Corinth, and in the autumn com- transferred to the Virginia theatre of war.
manded in the campaign in Kentucky In command of Gen. George McClellan’s
against the Confederate general Braxton left wing at the Battle of Antietam, Md.
Bragg. A period of maneuvering ended (September), he was criticized for his
in the indecisive Battle of Perryville. The ineffectiveness.
alleged tardiness of his pursuit and his When McClellan was removed from
objection to a plan of campaign ordered the command of the Army of the Potomac
by the Washington authorities brought (Nov. 7, 1862), Burnside (over his own
about his removal from command. The protests) was chosen to replace him.
complaints made against him were After a crushing defeat at the Battle of
Military Leaders | 129

Fredericksburg (December), Burnside was naturalized citizens. Though he was affil-


replaced by Gen. Joseph Hooker (Jan. 26, iated with the Southern wing of the
1863). Transferred to Ohio, Burnside Democratic Party in the 1860 elections,
helped to crush Gen. John Morgan’s he strongly supported the Union after
Ohio raid in July. He then marched into the Civil War broke out. He was appointed
Tennessee, taking Knoxville and hold- a Union officer for political reasons, and
ing it against a siege by Confederate his military career was mercurial and
troops under Gen. James Longstreet. often controversial. As a brigadier gen-
Returning to the Eastern theatre in 1864, eral of the Massachusetts militia, he
Burnside led his old corps under Gen. commanded the troops that occupied
Ulysses S. Grant in the Wilderness cam- Baltimore, Md., and in May 1861 was pro-
paign. In Virginia the fiasco of the moted to the rank of major general in
“Burnside mine” at Petersburg—a mine command of Fort Monroe, Virginia.
was exploded under part of the There he refused to return fugitive slaves
Confederate line, but the assaulting to the Confederacy, using the logic that
troops were repulsed with heavy losses they constituted “contraband of war”—an
because of mismanagement—brought interpretation later upheld by his govern-
about Burnside’s resignation. After the ment. In June 1861 he lost the engagement
war he served as governor of Rhode at Big Bethel, Va., but succeeded in cap-
Island (1866–69) and as U.S. senator from turing the forts guarding the inlet at
1875 until his death. Hatteras, N.C., two months later.
Early in 1862 Butler was given com-
Benjamin F. Butler mand of the land forces that accompanied
(b. Nov. 5, 1818, Deerfield, N.H.—d. Jan. the victorious Union expedition against
11, 1893, Washington, D.C.) New Orleans. The city fell late in April,
and from May to December Butler ruled
A politician turned soldier, Benjamin F. it with an iron hand: he executed a citizen
Butler served as a general in the Union who had torn down the U.S. flag, under-
army, then returned to government as took sanitary measures to prevent an
a Radical Republican member of the outbreak of yellow fever, and confiscated
House of Representatives during the the property of Confederate sympathiz-
Reconstruction era. He is remembered ers. Partly because of difficulties arising
as a champion of the rights of workers from his relations with foreign consuls
and black people. concerning confiscated property, he was
A prominent attorney at Lowell, recalled at the end of the year.
Mass., Butler served two terms in the As commander of the Army of the
state legislature (1853, 1859), where he James in Virginia in 1864, Butler became
distinguished himself by vigorously bottled up in Bermuda Hundred, Va., and
supporting the cause of labour and of was unsuccessful in operations before
130 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

Richmond and Petersburg, Va. After the the Ohio bar in 1853 and served in the
failure of an expedition against Fort state senate (1859–61). Appointed by the
Fisher, North Carolina, he was relieved governor as one of three generals of mili-
of his command (January 1865). tia (1860), Cox studied tactics, strategy,
After the war, Butler became a and military history. He subsequently
Radical Republican in the U.S. House of raised troops for the Union and was com-
Representatives (1867– 75, 1877–79), missioned brigadier general, U.S.
supporting firm Reconstruction mea- volunteers. Cox took part in the West
sures toward the South and playing a Virginia campaign (1861) and was in
leading role in the impeachment trial of supreme command of the Kanawha
Pres. Andrew Johnson. Although a region from spring to August 1862. His
staunch supporter of Pres. Ulysses S. troops were then ordered to Virginia to
Grant after 1868, he broke with the join Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside’s IX
party in 1878 because of his sympathy Corps, which he commanded during the
with the inflationary Greenback move- Battle of Antietam (September). In April–
ment. After two unsuccessful tries, he December 1863 Cox headed the
was elected Democratic governor of Department of Ohio, also participating
Massachusetts in 1882 and two years in the Atlanta campaign (1864).
later became the presidential candidate After the war, Cox was active in
of the Greenback-Labor Party and the Republican politics, legal practice, and
Anti-Monopoly Party. He advocated the university administration. He was elected
eight-hour day and national control of governor of Ohio in 1866 and served as
interstate commerce but failed to win a secretary of the interior in Pres. Ulysses
single electoral vote. S. Grant’s Cabinet (1869–70), in which
At various times in his career Butler post he effectively opposed the patron-
was accused of corruption, but no charges age system. His last public office was a
against him were ever proved. term in the U.S. House of Representatives,
to which he was elected in 1876. Cox’s
Jacob Dolson Cox extensive writings on the Civil War
(b. Oct. 27, 1828, Montreal, Que., Can.— include Military Reminiscences of the
d. Aug. 8, 1900, Magnolia, Mass., U.S.) Civil War, 2 vol. (1900).

A political leader who became one of the William Barker Cushing


great “civilian” Union generals, Jacob (b. Nov. 4, 1842, Delafield, Wis.—d. Dec.
Dolson Cox went on to make his mark as 17, 1874, Washington, D.C.)
one of the country’s foremost military
historians. Naval officer William Barker Cushing
After dipping into the fields of theol- won acclaim for his daring exploits for
ogy and education, Cox was admitted to the Union during the Civil War .
Military Leaders | 131

Appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy the Civil War, David Farragut was
at Annapolis, Md., in 1857, Cushing was befriended as a youth in New Orleans by
obliged to resign four years later because Captain (later Commodore) David Porter
of his irreverent attitude and practical (of the U.S. Navy), who adopted him.
jokes. The onset of the Civil War gave him Farragut served under Porter aboard the
a chance to redeem himself, however, and frigate Essex in the War of 1812; this ves-
in four years’ time he had risen to the rank sel captured so many British whaling
of lieutenant commander. Exhibiting cour- vessels that Farragut, then age 12, was put
age and exceptional resourcefulness, he in charge of one of the prize ships. By the
also experienced amazing good fortune age of 20 he was already an accomplished
and escaped a number of hazardous inci- ship’s officer. In 1823 he served under
dents without harm; the more superstitious Porter in a squadron that suppressed
sailors regarded him as invulnerable. pirates in the Caribbean. He was given
Cushing performed numerous feats his first independent command in 1824.
throughout the war, the most spectacular In December 1861, after many years
being the destruction of the Confederate of routine service, Farragut was assigned
ironclad Albemarle in the Roanoke River, to command the Union blockading squad-
N.C., in October 1864. This vessel, which ron in the western Gulf of Mexico with
had done much damage to Union naval orders to enter the Mississippi River and
forces, was at anchor when Cushing, in a capture New Orleans, a port through
steam launch, eluded the Confederate which the South was receiving much of
lookout and exploded against the ship a its war supplies from abroad. Although
spar torpedo with such success that it the War Department had recommended
sank. Cushing’s own launch was destroyed that he first reduce the two forts that lay
and the crew compelled to take to the some distance downstream of the city by
water; only he and one other man escaped mortar fire, he successfully carried out
capture or death. For this achievement he his own, bolder plan of running past
was thanked by Congress and promoted. them with guns blazing in the dark (April
After the war, he continued to serve 24, 1862). His naval force then destroyed
in the navy and was promoted to com- most of the Confederate river squadron
mander at the early age of 30. that was stationed just upstream of the
forts. Troops from Union transports
David Farragut could then land almost under Farragut’s
(b. July 5, 1801, near Knoxville, protecting batteries, resulting in the sur-
Tenn.—d. Aug. 14, 1870, render of both forts and city.
Portsmouth, N.H.) The following year, when Gen.
Ulysses S. Grant was advancing toward
An admiral who achieved fame for his Vicksburg, Miss., Farragut greatly aided
outstanding Union naval victories during him by passing the heavy defensive
132 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

works at Port Hudson below the Red become a rear admiral in 1862 and a vice
River and stopping Confederate traffic admiral in 1864, he was made a full admi-
below that tributary. Vicksburg fell in ral in 1866. He went the next year to
July 1863, and the entire Mississippi Europe and paid ceremonial visits to the
River was soon in Federal control. seaports of the great powers.
Farragut next turned his attention to
Mobile Bay, Ala., which was defended by Andrew Foote
several forts, the largest of which was (b. Sept. 12, 1806, New Haven, Conn.—
Fort Morgan. A line of mines (“torpe- d. June 26, 1863, New York, N.Y.)
does”) on one side of the bay’s channel
obliged any attacking ships to pass close A career naval officer, Andrew Hull Foote
to Fort Morgan on the other side of the already had years of experience under
channel, and the Confederate ironclad his belt when he distinguished himself
Tennessee was also stationed in the bay. through his service with the Union navy
Farragut’s force entered the bay in two during the Civil War.
columns (Aug. 5, 1864), with armoured The son of a U.S. senator and gover-
monitors leading and a fleet of wooden nor of Connecticut, Foote was appointed
frigates following. When the lead moni- a midshipman in the U.S. Navy in 1822.
tor Tecumseh was demolished by a He rose through the ranks, eventually
mine, the leading wooden ship Brooklyn commanding the Perry off the African
stopped in alarm, and the whole line of coast. While in that command he was
ships drifted in confusion under the particularly zealous in apprehending sla-
guns of Fort Morgan. As disaster seemed vers; his book, Africa and the American
imminent, Farragut shouted his famous Flag (1854), is considered to have influ-
words, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed enced public opinion away from traffic in
ahead!” to the hesitating Brooklyn. He slaves. In 1856–58 Foote commanded the
swung his own ship, the Hartford, clear Portsmouth. Sailing the Asian seas in
and headed across the mines, which that capacity, Foote became embroiled in
failed to explode. The rest of the fleet fol- hostilities between England and China
lowed and anchored above the forts. Then and, after being fired upon, led a party
the Tennessee emerged from the shelter of seamen in the destruction of four
of the fort and, after a hard fight during Cantonese barrier forts.
which it was repeatedly rammed, surren- In August 1861, at the outset of the
dered. The forts were now isolated and Civil War, Foote was put in charge of naval
surrendered one by one, with Fort Morgan defense on the upper Mississippi River.
the last to do so. This battle was the cap- He oversaw the outfitting of a flotilla that
stone of Farragut’s career, but poor health included three wooden paddleboats con-
precluded further active service. Having verted into gunboats and seven newly
Military Leaders | 133

commissioned ironclad gunboats, as Franklin was a major general at the


well as a number of smaller and partially Battle of Antietam, Md. (September 1862);
armoured gunboats. The following he was later partially blamed for the
February, he and his command sailed on disastrous defeat at the Battle of
the Tennessee River to Fort Henry, which Fredericksburg (December 1862) by both
he captured easily on February 6, and then his commanding officer, Gen. A.E.
(February 12–16) down the Cumberland Burnside, and a congressional commit-
River to Fort Donelson. There the flotilla tee on the conduct of the war. However,
was heavily damaged, and Foote sustained the committee did not have access to a
injuries. He went on to help capture Island copy of Burnside’s orders to his subordi-
Number Ten (about 55 miles [88 km] nates, which were acknowledged to be
below Cairo, Ill.), in the Mississippi, but confusing. Franklin was inactive for
his injuries and additional ailments soon some months before serving inauspi-
forced him to relinquish all but nominal ciously in the Southwest. He resigned
command. He was promoted to rear admi- from the army in 1866 and was engaged
ral on July 16. In June of the following in business at Hartford after the war.
year he was once again appointed to the
command of a squadron of ships, this time Ulysses S. Grant
near Charleston, but he died before he (b. April 27, 1822, Point Pleasant,
could take up the position. Ohio—d. July 23, 1885, Mount
McGregor, N.Y.)
William Buel Franklin
(b. Feb. 27, 1823, York, Pa.—d. March 8, The Union’s most successful general and
1903, Hartford, Conn.) the commander of the Union armies dur-
ing the late years (1864–65) of the Civil
Union General William Buel Franklin War, Ulysses S. Grant also served as the
was particularly active in the early years 18th president of the United States
of fighting around Washington, D.C. (1869–77).
Franklin graduated from the U.S.
Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., in Early Life
1843 and served in the Mexican War
(1846–48). When the Civil War broke out, The son of an Ohio tanner, Grant
he was appointed a brigadier general of attended the U.S. Military Academy at
volunteers and fought at the First Battle West Point, N.Y. He served in the Mexican
of Bull Run (July 1861). He was then War (1846–48) under Zachary Taylor.
advanced to division commander in the After two years’ service on the Pacific
Army of the Potomac and served in the coast (1852–54), during which he
Peninsular Campaign in 1862. attempted to supplement his army pay
134 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

them to the state capital, Springfield,


where Governor Richard Yates made
him an aide and assigned him to the
state adjutant general’s office. Yates
appointed him colonel of an unruly regi-
ment (later named the 21st Illinois
Volunteers) in June 1861. Before he had
even engaged the enemy, Grant was
appointed brigadier general through the
influence of Elihu B. Washburne, a U.S.
congressman from Galena. On learning
this news and recalling his son’s previ-
ous failures, his father said, “Be careful,
Ulyss, you are a general now—it’s a good
job, don’t lose it!” To the contrary, Grant
soon gained command of the District of
Southeast Missouri, headquartered at
Cairo, Illinois.
In January 1862, dissatisfied with the
use of his force for defensive and diver-
Ulysses S. Grant. Library of Congress, sionary purposes, Grant received
Washington, D.C. permission from Gen. Henry Wager
Halleck to begin an offensive campaign.
On February 16 he won the first major
with ultimately unsuccessful business Union victory of the war, when Fort
ventures, he resigned his commission. Donelson, on the Cumberland River in
His decision might have been influenced Tennessee, surrendered with about 15,000
by his fondness for alcohol, which he troops. When the garrison’s commander,
reportedly drank often during this Gen. Simon B. Buckner, requested his
period. He worked unsuccessfully at Union counterpart’s terms for surrender,
farming in Missouri and at his family’s Grant replied, “No terms except uncondi-
leather business in Illinois. tional surrender can be accepted.”
Promoted to major general, Grant
The Civil War repelled an unexpected Confederate
attack on April 6–7 at Shiloh Church,
At the outbreak of the Civil War in April near Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee, but
1861, Grant helped recruit, equip, and the public outcry over heavy Union
drill troops in Galena, then accompanied losses in the battle damaged Grant’s
Military Leaders | 135

reputation, and Halleck took personal the Civil War. The South’s defeat sad-
command of the army. However, when dened Grant. As he wrote in his Personal
Halleck was called to Washington as Memoirs, he felt “sad and depressed . . . at
general in chief in July, Grant regained the downfall of a foe who had fought
command. Before the end of the year, he so long and valiantly, and had suffered so
began his advance toward Vicksburg, much for a cause, though that cause was,
Mississippi, the last major Confederate I believe, one of the worst for which a
stronghold on the Mississippi River. people ever fought.” That Grant’s army
Displaying his characteristic aggressive- vastly outnumbered Lee’s at the close of
ness, resilience, independence, and the conflict should not obscure Grant’s
determination, Grant brought about the achievements: the Union had numerical
besieged city’s surrender on July 4, 1863. superiority in Virginia throughout the
When Port Hudson, Louisiana, the last war, yet Grant was the first general to
post on the Mississippi, fell a few days make these numbers count. Earlier, he
later, the Confederacy was cut in half. had rebounded from initial defeat to
triumph at Shiloh. His success as a com-
Command Over Union Armies mander was due in large measure to
administrative ability, receptiveness
Grant was appointed lieutenant general to innovation, versatility, and the ability
in March 1864 and was entrusted with to learn from mistakes.
command of all the U.S. armies. His basic In late 1865 Grant, by then immensely
plan for the 1864 campaign was to immo- popular, toured the South at Pres.
bilize the army of Gen. Robert E. Lee Andrew Johnson’s request, was greeted
near the Confederate capital at Richmond, with surprising friendliness, and sub-
Va., while Gen. William Tecumseh mitted a report recommending a lenient
Sherman led the western Union army Reconstruction policy. In 1866 he was
southward through Georgia. It worked. appointed to the newly established rank
By mid-June, Lee was pinned down at of general of the armies of the United
Petersburg, near Richmond, while States. In 1867 Johnson removed
Sherman’s army cut and rampaged Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton and
through Georgia and cavalry forces thereby tested the constitutionality of
under Gen. Philip Sheridan destroyed the Tenure of Office Act, which dictated
railroads and supplies in Virginia. On that removals from office be at the assent
April 2, 1865, Lee was forced to abandon of Congress, and in August appointed
his Petersburg defensive line, and the Grant interim secretary of war. When
surrender of Lee’s army followed on Congress insisted upon Stanton’s rein-
April 9 at Appomattox Court House. This statement, Grant resigned (January
surrender, in effect, marked the end of 1868), thus infuriating Johnson, who
136 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

believed that Grant had agreed to remain supported women’s rights and consid-
in office to provoke a court decision. ered Susan B. Anthony to be a friend. As
Johnson’s angry charges brought an a result, it is said, Anthony supported
open break between the two men and Grant when he ran for reelection in 1872,
strengthened Grant’s ties to the rather than the first woman candidate
Republican Party, which led to his nomi- for the presidency, Victoria Claflin
nation for president in 1868. The last line Woodhull of the Equal Rights Party, a
of his letter of acceptance, “Let us have
peace,” became the Republican campaign
slogan. Grant’s Democratic opponent
was Horatio Seymour, former governor
of New York. The race was a close one,
and Grant’s narrow margin of victory in
the popular vote (300,000 ballots) may
have been attributable to newly enfran-
chised black voters. The vote of the
electoral college was more one-sided,
with Grant garnering 214 votes, com-
pared with 80 for Seymour.

Grant’s Presidency

Grant entered the White House on March


4, 1869, politically inexperienced and, at
age 46, the youngest man theretofore
elected president. His appointments to
office were uneven in quality but some-
times refreshing. Notably, Grant named
Ely S. Parker, a Seneca Indian who had
served with him as a staff officer, commis-
sioner of Indian affairs, and Grant’s wife
persuaded him to appoint Hamilton Fish
Print of a Republican campaign banner
secretary of state. Strong-willed and for the 1868 presidential election invok-
forthright, Julia Grant also later claimed ing the working-class origins of Ulysses
credit for helping to persuade her hus- S. Grant and his running mate, Henry
band to veto the Finance Bill, but she did Wilson. Library of Congress, Washington,
not often involve herself in presidential D.C. (neg. no. lc-usz62-3983)
decisions. She daringly—for that time—
Military Leaders | 137

splinter group that had bolted from the Commission, but after initially backing
National Woman Suffrage Association its recommendations he abandoned his
convention. support for the group when faced with
Julia was not beautiful—she had a congressional intransigence. Grant was
cast in her left eye and squinted—but more persistent but equally unsuccessful
Grant was attracted to her liveliness, and when the Senate narrowly rejected a
his devotion to her was unbounded. treaty of annexation with the Dominican
Photography was just becoming part of Republic (which Grant had been per-
the political scene when Julia rose to suaded would be of strategic importance
prominence as first lady, and, self-con- to the building of a canal connecting the
scious about her looks, she contemplated Atlantic and Pacific oceans). His negotia-
having surgery to correct her eyes. Grant tion of the Treaty of Washington provided
vetoed the idea, saying he loved her as for the settlement by international tribu-
she was. Consequently, almost all pic- nal of American claims against Great
tures of her were taken in profile. Britain arising from the wartime activi-
The Grants had four children. Their ties of the British-built Confederate raider
daughter, Nellie, became a national dar- Alabama, whose sale had violated
ling, and when she was married in the Britain’s declared neutrality.
White House in 1874, the public was Grant won reelection easily in 1872,
entranced by the details of the wedding. defeating Horace Greeley, the editor of
The executive mansion was also the home the New York Tribune and the candidate
for both the president’s father and his for the coalition formed by Democrats
father-in-law, whose squabbling with each and Liberal Republicans. Grant won by
other was general knowledge and aroused nearly 800,000 votes in the popular elec-
considerable public amusement. Because tion, capturing 286 of 366 electoral votes.
the Gilded Age was at hand, Americans During the campaign, newspapers dis-
did not seem to mind that the Grants covered that prominent Republican
enjoyed ostentatious living. They redeco- politicians were involved in the Crédit
rated the White House lavishly and Mobilier of America, a shady corporation
entertained accordingly, with state din- designed to siphon profits of the Union
ners sometimes consisting of 29 courses Pacific Railroad. More scandal followed
complemented by nine French wines. in 1875, when Secretary of the Treasury
On March 18, 1869, Grant signed his Benjamin Helm Bristow exposed the
first law, pledging to redeem in gold operation of the “Whiskey Ring,” which
the greenback currency issued during the had the aid of high-placed officials in
Civil War, thus placing himself with defrauding the government of tax reve-
the financial conservatives of the day. nues. When the evidence touched the
He appointed the first Civil Service president’s private secretary, Orville E.
138 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

Babcock, Grant regretted his earlier state- failed to achieve an overall battle strat-
ment, “Let no guilty man escape.” Grant egy for Union forces.
blundered in accepting the hurried resig- A graduate of the U.S. Military
nation of Secretary of War William W. Academy at West Point, N.Y. (1839),
Belknap, who was impeached on charges Halleck was commissioned in the engi-
of accepting bribes; because he was no neers and sent in 1844 to visit the
longer a government official, Belknap principal military establishments of
escaped conviction. Discouraged and Europe. After his return to the United
sickened, Grant closed his second term States, he delivered a course of lectures
by assuring Congress, “Failures have on the science of war, published in 1846
been errors of judgment, not of intent.” as Elements of Military Art and Science,
Scandals have become the best- which was widely used as a textbook by
remembered feature of the Grant volunteer officers during the Civil War.
administration, obscuring its more posi- When the Mexican War broke out (1846),
tive aspects. Grant supported both he served with the U.S. expedition to the
amnesty for Confederate leaders and Pacific Coast and became California’s
civil rights for former slaves. He worked secretary of state under the military gov-
for ratification of the Fifteenth ernment; in 1849 he helped frame the
Amendment and went to Capitol Hill to state constitution. Five years later he
win passage of the Ku Klux Klan Act of resigned his commission and took up the
1871, although he was largely ineffective practice of law.
in enforcing the civil rights laws and When war erupted between the
other tenets of Reconstruction. His 1874 states (1861), Halleck returned to the
veto of a bill to increase the amount of army as a major general and was charged
legal tender diminished the currency cri- with the supreme command of the
sis during the next quarter century, and Western theatre. There he was instru-
he received praise two years later for his mental in bringing order out of chaos in
graceful handling of the controversial the hurried formations of large volunteer
election of 1876, when both Republican armies, but the military successes of the
Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat spring of 1862 were due mainly to the
Samuel Jones Tilden claimed election to military skill of such subordinate gener-
the presidency. als as Ulysses S. Grant and John Pope.
In July, however, with some misgivings
Henry W. Halleck President Lincoln called Halleck to
(b. Jan. 16, 1815, Westernville, N.Y.—d. Washington as his military adviser and
Jan. 9, 1872, Louisville, Ky.) general in chief of the armies. Held
responsible for subsequent reverses of
Despite his administrative skill as gen- Union generals in Virginia and fre-
eral in chief (1862–64), Henry W. Halleck quently at odds with his subordinates
Military Leaders | 139

and with the secretary of war, Edwin M. some Republicans, who were counting
Stanton, he was replaced by Grant in on military power to protect black and
March 1864. He then served as chief of white Republicans in the South, but his
staff until the end of the war. policy won him the support of the
Democrats, who nominated him for the
Winfield Scott Hancock presidency in 1880. After narrowly losing
(b. Feb. 14, 1824, Montgomery County, the election to the Republican candidate,
Pa.—d. Feb. 9, 1886, Governor’s James A. Garfield, he returned to mili-
Island, N.Y.) tary life.

Union General Winfield Scott Hancock is Joseph Hooker


remembered for his military service dur- (b. Nov. 13, 1814, Hadley, Mass.—d. Oct.
ing both the Civil War and Reconstruction. 31, 1879, Garden City, N.Y.)
His Reconstruction policies in Louisiana
and Texas so endeared him to the Union General Joseph Hooker success-
Democratic Party that he became its fully reorganized the Army of the
presidential candidate in 1880. Potomac in early 1863 but thereafter
A graduate of the U.S. Military earned a seesaw reputation for defeat and
Academy at West Point, N.Y. (1844), he victory in battle.
served with distinction in the Mexican A graduate of the U.S. Military
War (1846–48). Hancock was appointed a Academy at West Point, N.Y., and veteran
brigadier general of volunteers on the of the Mexican War (1846–48), Hooker
outbreak of the Civil War and served in left his California home at the outbreak
the Peninsular Campaign of 1862. In May of the Civil War to serve as brigadier
1863 he was made head of the II Corps, general of volunteers. In 1862 he partici-
Army of the Potomac, which he led for pated in all the major Eastern campaigns
most of the remaining two years of the and was dubbed “Fighting Joe” because
war. He served with distinction at the of his vigorous leadership in the field.
Battle of Gettysburg (July 1863) and par- When Gen. A.E. Burnside resigned com-
ticipated in the drive on Richmond, Va., mand of the Army of the Potomac after
the following spring. As a major general the Union disaster at Fredericksburg
after the war, he commanded (1866–68) (November–December), Hooker was
various army departments, including the appointed to succeed him.
military division composed of Louisiana Immediately, the new commander
and Texas. Although great discretionary effected several much-needed organiza-
power had been conferred upon him, tional reforms and prepared to challenge
Hancock insisted on the maintenance of the South at the Battle of Chancellorsville
the civil authorities in their “natural and (May 1–4, 1863). His grave defects as a
rightful dominion.” This stand enraged commanding officer became apparent
140 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

Union Gen. Joseph Hooker and his horse. Fighting “Joe” Hooker, a veteran of the Mexican
War, succeeded Gen. Ambrose Burnside as the commander of the Army of the Potomac.
Photograph by Mathew Brady. National Archives, Brady Collection, Civil War Photographs

when Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, rebuffed by Washington in his request


with fewer than half the number of for additional troops to meet the enemy
troops, outmaneuvered him and caused at Gettysburg in July, he sensed his
a Union retreat. This defeat resulted in superiors’ distrust and resigned his
the loss of 17,000 Union soldiers. When command on the eve of battle.
Lee advanced into Pennsylvania in Three months later Hooker was sent
June, Hooker followed him closely until, by rail in command of two corps of the
Military Leaders | 141

Army of the Potomac to help relieve Gen. Unusually interested in the welfare
W.S. Rosecrans, besieged at Chattanooga, of the nearly four million slaves who had
Tenn. On Nov. 24, 1863, he won the been freed during the war, Howard was
“Battle Above the Clouds” on Lookout appointed by Pres. Andrew Johnson as
Mountain, clearing the way for the crown- commissioner of the Bureau of Refugees,
ing Union victory on Missionary Ridge. Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (the
Denied advancement during the Atlanta Freedmen’s Bureau). Because he was not
Campaign in 1864, he thereafter ceased a skilled administrator, many abuses
to play any active part in the war. appeared in the bureau, much of the staff
being poorly trained. Nevertheless, his
Oliver O. Howard agency fed millions of the indigent, built
(b. Nov. 8, 1830, Leeds, Maine—d. Oct. hospitals, provided direct medical aid,
26, 1909, Burlington, Vt.) and negotiated thousands of labour
contracts for the former slaves. Most
A Union general who was involved in important, it established a multitude of
some of the Civil War’s most important schools and training institutes for blacks;
campaigns, Oliver O. Howard also Howard University, Washington, D.C.
headed the Freedmen’s Bureau (1865–72) (founded 1867), was named in recogni-
during the period of Reconstruction. tion of his work in the bureau and as one
A graduate of the U.S. Military of the university’s founders. He served
Academy at West Point, N.Y. (1854), as the university’s third president (1869–
Howard resigned his regular army com- 74), after which he resigned to return to
mission at the beginning of the war to military service.
become colonel of a Maine volunteer reg- Howard fought against Indians in
iment. He was given the rank of major the West and served as superintendent
general (1862) after fighting in Virginia at West Point (1880–82). He wrote
at the First Battle of Bull Run, the several books on military history in
Peninsular Campaign, the Battle of Fair addition to his autobiography, published
Oaks (Seven Pines)—in which he lost his in 1907.
right arm—and at Antietam. He also took
part in the Battle of Chancellorsville David Hunter
(May) and in the Tennessee and Atlanta (b. July 21, 1802, Washington, D.C.—d.
campaigns (1863–64). Promoted to com- Feb. 2, 1886, Washington, D.C.)
mand the Army of the Tennessee (July
1864), he marched with Gen. William T. Union officer David Hunter issued an
Sherman through Georgia to the sea emancipation proclamation on May 9,
(November–December) and fought in the 1862, that was annulled by President
Carolinas campaign (early 1865). Lincoln on May 19.
142 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

Hunter graduated from the U.S. (July 1863), rising to the rank of major
Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., in general of volunteers. In 1864 Logan
1822 and served in the Mexican War succeeded Gen. James McPherson as
(1846–48). In 1862, while in command of commander of the Army of the Tennessee
Federal troops along the South Atlantic but was later relieved of his command,
coast, he proclaimed the freedom of apparently because Gen. William T.
slaves in Georgia, Florida, and South Sherman felt Logan did not pay enough
Carolina; Lincoln, determined to main- attention to logistics.
tain his executive prerogatives, revoked After the war, Logan, by then a
the order. In South Carolina General Republican, represented Illinois in the
Hunter organized the Union Army’s first U.S. House of Representatives (1867–71)
African American regiment and was and the Senate (1871–77, 1879–86). In 1865
soon described by the Confederacy as a he helped found the Grand Army of the
“felon to be executed if captured.” He Republic (GAR), an organization of Union
took command in West Virginia (May 21, Army veterans, and was its head for three
1864) but was defeated by Gen. Jubal successive terms. In 1868, as commander
Early at Lynchburg, Va., on June 18 and in chief of the GAR, he inaugurated the
resigned his command on August 8. observance of Memorial, or Decoration,
After Lincoln’s assassination, Hunter Day when he asked GAR members to
served as chairman of the commission decorate soldiers’ graves with flowers on
that tried the conspirators. May 30.

John A. Logan George B. McClellan


(b. Feb. 9, 1826, Jackson County, (b. Dec. 3, 1826, Philadelphia, Pa.—d.
Ill.—d. Dec. 26, 1886, Oct. 29, 1885, Orange, N.J.)
Washington, D.C.)
Although he skillfully reorganized Union
A congressman who rose to the rank of forces in the first year of the Civil War,
general in the Union army, John A. Logan Gen. George B. McClellan (1861–65)
was the originator of Memorial Day. drew wide criticism for repeatedly failing
Logan graduated in law from the to press his advantage over Confederate
University of Louisville (Kentucky) in troops and ultimately lost the confi-
1851. He served as a Democratic congress- dence of President Lincoln. That he
man (1859–61) from Illinois, resigning his voiced opposition to the emancipation
seat to join the Union Army as colonel of of slaves and professed little respect for
the 31st Illinois Infantry, which he had Lincoln also put him at odds with the
organized. He served under Gen. Ulysses Republican Party. Such stances, coupled
S. Grant until the capture of Vicksburg with his battlefield performances, have
Military Leaders | 143

made him a fiercely debated figure to logistical understanding brought order


this day. out of the chaos of defeat, and he was
Graduating second in his class at the brilliantly successful in whipping the
U.S. Military Academy at West Point, army into a fighting unit with high
N.Y. (1846), McClellan served in the morale, efficient staff, and effective sup-
Mexican War (1846–48) and taught mili- porting services. Yet he refused to take
tary engineering at West Point (1848–51). the offensive against the enemy that fall,
He was then assigned to conduct a series claiming that the army was not prepared
of surveys for railroad and military to move. Pres. Abraham Lincoln was dis-
installations, concluding with a mission turbed by McClellan’s inactivity and
to the Crimea (1855–56) to report on consequently issued his famous General
European methods of warfare. War Order No. 1 (Jan. 27, 1862), calling
McClellan resigned his commission for the forward movement of all armies.
in 1857 to become chief of engineering “Little Mac” was able to convince the
for the Illinois Central Railroad and, president that a postponement of two
in 1860, president of the Ohio and months was desirable and also that the
Mississippi Railroad. Although a states’ offensive against Richmond should take
rights Democrat, he was nevertheless a the route of the peninsula between the
staunch Unionist, and, a month after York and James rivers in Virginia.
the outbreak of the Civil War (April 1861), In the Peninsular Campaign (April
he was commissioned in the regular 4–July 1, 1862), McClellan was never
army and placed in command of the really defeated and actually achieved
Department of the Ohio with responsi- several victories. But he was overly cau-
bility for holding western Virginia. By tious and seemed reluctant to pursue the
July 13 the Confederate forces there were enemy. Coming to within a few miles of
defeated, and McClellan had established Richmond, he consistently overestimated
a reputation as the “Young Napoleon of the number of troops opposing him, and,
the West.” when Confederate forces under Gen.
After the disastrous Union defeat at Robert E. Lee began an all-out attempt to
the First Battle of Bull Run the same destroy McClellan’s army in the Seven
month, McClellan was placed in com- Days’ Battles (June 25–July 1), McClellan
mand of what was to become the Army of retreated. Lincoln’s discouragement over
the Potomac. He was charged with the McClellan’s failure to take Richmond or
defense of the capital and destruction of to defeat the enemy decisively led to the
the enemy’s forces in northern and east- withdrawal of the Army of the Potomac
ern Virginia. In November he succeeded from the peninsula.
Gen. Winfield Scott as general in chief of Returning to Washington as news
the army. His organizing abilities and of the Union defeat at the Second Battle
144 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

of Bull Run (August 29–30) was received, After graduation from the U.S.
McClellan was asked to take command Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., at
of the army for the defense of the capital. the head of the class of 1849, McPherson
Again exercising his organizing capabil- was commissioned in the Corps of
ity, he was able to rejuvenate Union Engineers and held minor army assign-
forces. When Lee moved north into ments until the outbreak of the Civil
Maryland, McClellan’s army stopped the War (1861). Following several months
invasion at the Battle of Antietam with Gen. H. W. Halleck in Missouri, he
(September 17). But he again failed to was assigned to General Grant’s staff as
move rapidly to destroy Lee’s army, chief engineer in the Tennessee cam-
and, as a result, the exasperated presi- paign and, after distinguished service at
dent removed him from command in the battles of Shiloh, Tenn., and Corinth,
November. Miss., was promoted to major general of
In 1864 McClellan was nominated for volunteers. He participated in the sec-
the presidency by the Democratic Party, ond advance on Vicksburg, Miss. (1863),
though he repudiated its platform, and, after the city fell, was promoted to
denouncing the war as a failure. On elec- brigadier general in the regular army. In
tion day he resigned his army commission March 1864 he took command of the
and later sailed for Europe. Returning in Army of the Tennessee, which moved
1868, he served as chief engineer of the against Atlanta under Gen. William T.
New York Department of Docks (1870–72) Sherman’s supreme command. Shortly
and in 1872 became president of the after reporting to Sherman, the youthful
Atlantic and Great Western Railroad. He officer was killed by a Confederate
served one term as governor of New skirmisher.
Jersey (elected 1877) and spent his
remaining years traveling and writing George Gordon Meade
his memoirs. (b. Dec. 31, 1815, Cádiz, Spain—d. Nov.
6, 1872, Philadelphia, Pa.)
James B. McPherson
(b. Nov. 14, 1828, Sandusky county, Union General George Gordon Meade
Ohio—d. July 22, 1864, near played a critical role in the Civil War by
Atlanta, Ga.) defeating the Confederate Army at the
Battle of Gettysburg. As commander of
When Union General James B. McPherson the 3rd Military District in the south,
was killed during the Atlanta Campaign, Meade was also noted for his firm justice,
Gen. Ulysses S. Grant is reported to which helped to make the Reconstruction
have said, “The country has lost one of period following the war less painful.
its best soldiers, and I have lost my The son of a U.S. naval agent in Spain,
best friend.” Meade graduated from the U.S. Military
Military Leaders | 145

Academy at West Point, N.Y., in 1835. He A graduate of the U.S. Military


was commissioned in the artillery but Academy at West Point in 1842, Pope
resigned after a year’s service to work for served as a topographical engineer with
a time as a surveyor. He reentered the the army throughout most of the 1840s
army in 1842 and in August 1861 was com- and ’50s. He did, however, see combat
missioned brigadier general of volunteers during the Mexican War, serving with
in command of the 2nd Brigade of the distinction in the campaigns of Gen.
Pennsylvania Reserves. After the disas- Zachary Taylor.
trous Union defeat at Fredericksburg, Va., Following the outbreak of the Civil
he was assigned the V Corps, which par- War, Pope was appointed brigadier gen-
ticipated in the Chancellorsville, Va., eral of volunteers in 1861 and was
campaign (April–May 1863). promoted to major general in 1862. After
On June 28, 1863, President Lincoln securing the Mississippi River for the
appointed Meade to replace Gen. Joseph Union almost as far south as Memphis,
Hooker in command of the Army of the Pope attracted the admiration of Pres.
Potomac. Meade repulsed Gen. Robert E. Abraham Lincoln. He was made a briga-
Lee at Gettysburg (July 1–3) with great dier general of the regular army and
tactical skill; however, he has been criti- transferred to Washington, D.C., where he
cized by some for allowing Lee’s army to was given command of the Army of
escape after this decisive victory. Although Virginia.
Meade retained command of the Army of In August 1862 a Confederate force
the Potomac until the end of the war, his under Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson
independence of action was sharply cur- moved toward Pope’s army. Jackson’s
tailed after March 1864, when Gen. force was reinforced by troops under gen-
Ulysses S. Grant was placed in command erals James Longstreet and Robert E. Lee,
of all Union forces. Meade was respected and Pope—misgauging the number and
by his associates though he engaged in location of the enemy—issued muddled
frequent quarrels. He was promoted to and confusing orders. The result was the
major general in the regular army (August decisive defeat at the Second Battle of Bull
1864), and after the war he commanded Run, August 29–30, and the loss of about
several military departments. 15,000 Union troops. Pope attempted to
blame his subordinate officers—especially
John Pope Gen. Fitz-John Porter—for the debacle, but
(b. March 16, 1822, Louisville, Ky.—d. in September Pope was relieved of his
Sept. 23, 1892, Sandusky, Ohio) command and sent to Minnesota to quell
a Sioux uprising.
Union General John Pope was relieved of After the Civil War, Pope served in
command following the Confederate tri- various posts, notably as commander of
umph at the Second Battle of Bull Run. the Department of the Missouri (1870–83),
146 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

in which he was primarily engaged in above Alexandria, La., by shallow water


protecting settlers in the Northwest and and rapids, narrowly escaped isolation.
Southwest from Indian attacks. On Oct. In October he assumed command of the
26, 1882, he was promoted to major gen- North Atlantic blockading squadron and
eral of the regular army, a rank he held was eventually responsible for the fall of
until he retired in 1886. Fort Fisher, N.C. (January 1865).
From 1865 to 1869 Porter was super-
David Dixon Porter intendent of the U.S. Naval Academy at
(b. June 8, 1813, Chester, Pa.—d. Feb. 13, Annapolis, Md. He was promoted to
1891, Washington, D.C.) admiral in 1870. He wrote several naval
books and two novels.
The son of Commodore David Porter,
David Dixon Porter served in the Mexican Fitz-John Porter
War (1846–48) before holding important (b. Aug. 31, 1822, Portsmouth, N.H.—d.
Union naval commands during the Civil May 21, 1901, Morristown, N.J.)
War. Promoted to commander early in
the war, he participated in Union expedi- Union General Fitz-John Porter was
tions against New Orleans, La., and court-martialed and cashiered—but later
Vicksburg, Miss. (April to June 1862), vindicated—for disobeying orders at the
under his foster brother, Commander Second Battle of Bull Run.
David Farragut. Porter was educated at Phillips
In the spring of 1863 Porter suc- Exeter Academy and at the U.S. Military
ceeded in running his fleet past the Academy at West Point, N.Y., graduating
Confederate fortress at Vicksburg, half- from the latter in 1845. He fought in the
way between Memphis, Tenn., and New Mexican War (1846–48) and from 1849 to
Orleans on the Mississippi River. He next 1855 was an instructor at West Point.
overcame the Confederate forts at Grand After the outbreak of the Civil War, Porter
Gulf, Miss., south of Vicksburg, enabling was made a brigadier general of volun-
a rendezvous of his fleet there with the teers (May 1861). He distinguished
troops of the invading Union army under himself during Gen. George B.
Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Bruinsburg, McClellan’s 1862 Peninsular Campaign,
Miss. Grant’s troops then took Vicksburg, but on August 29 of that year he failed to
and the joint army-navy effort effectively comply with Gen. John Pope’s orders to
cut the Confederacy in two. Porter attack the right flank of Thomas J.
received the thanks of Congress for “Stonewall” Jackson’s forces at the
“opening the Mississippi” and was pro- Second Battle of Bull Run. Pope claimed
moted to rear admiral. He next cooperated that the subsequent Confederate victory
in the Red River Campaign (March to resulted from Porter’s disobedience and
May 1864), in which his gunboats, held misconduct.
Military Leaders | 147

In November 1862 Porter was relieved architect and civil engineer in Ohio and
of his command and court-martialed. Virginia. Returning to active service
The trial continued on into January upon the outbreak of the war, he served
1863, Porter claiming that Pope’s orders under Gen. George B. McClellan and
had been vague, contradictory, and Gen. John Pope, each of whom he suc-
impossible to execute. But on January 21, ceeded when he moved east to larger
Porter was found guilty and immediately commands. During 1862 Rosecrans led
cashiered. Union forces to victory in the battles of
After the end of the war, Porter Iuka and Corinth, Miss., after which he
entered the mercantile business in New moved on to Nashville, Tenn., to take
York. He later served as commissioner of command of the Army of the Cumberland.
public works, police commissioner, and He fought well at the intense but indeci-
fire commissioner of New York City. The sive Battle of Stones River, or Murfreesboro
most notable aspect of Porter’s postwar (Dec. 31, 1862–Jan. 2, 1863).
career, however, was his dogged pursuit About this time, Rosecrans’ earlier
of vindication for his alleged misdeeds at aggressive quality seemed to give way to
Bull Run. No sooner was his court-martial an excess of caution and a disposition to
concluded than he started efforts to clear worry and to argue with his superiors,
his name. Finally, in 1879, he won a review who he felt were hampering the effective-
of his case, a review that supported his ness of his command. Finally, on June
claim of innocence. But it was not until 23, 1863, after six months of delay in the
1886 that he was reappointed an army face of official pressure to take the offen-
officer and placed, at his own request, on sive, he began an advance that forced
the retired list. Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg into
Chattanooga, Tenn., then manoeuvred
William S. Rosecrans him out of the city without a battle. There
(b. Sept. 6, 1819, Kingston Township, his customary hesitancy vanished, and
Ohio—d. March 11, 1898, Redondo he followed Bragg, who turned upon him
Junction, Calif.) and precipitated the bloody Battle of
Chickamauga (September 19–20). An ill-
Although he proved himself to be an advised move opened a gap in Rosecrans’
excellent strategist early in the Civil War, lines and allowed Southern forces to pour
Gen. William S. Rosecrans was relieved through and put to rout part of his army,
of his command after his defeat in the which was driven back into Chattanooga.
Battle of Chickamauga (September 1863). Only the strong stand of Gen. George H.
Graduated from the U.S. Military Thomas on the North’s left averted com-
Academy at West Point, N.Y., in 1842, plete defeat. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant was
Rosecrans served 12 years as an army now charged with the relief and defense
officer and then resigned to become an of the besieged city; Grant promptly
148 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

removed Rosecrans, ending any impor- River. Scott became commanding gen-
tant role for him in the war. eral of the U.S. Army in 1841, serving in
Rosecrans resigned his army com- that capacity until 1861.
mission in 1867, serving as minister to With the outbreak of the Mexican
Mexico during the next two years. Later War (1846–48), Scott recommended Gen.
he represented California in the U.S. Zachary Taylor for command of the U.S.
House of Representatives (1881–85) and forces. When Taylor appeared to be
served as register of the U.S. Treasury making little progress, however, Scott
(1885–93). set out himself with a supplementary
force on a seaborne invasion of Mexico
Winfield Scott that captured Veracruz (March 1847).
(b. June 13, 1786, Petersburg, Va.—d. Six months later, after a series of victo-
May 29, 1866, West Point, N.Y.) ries, including those at Cerro Gordo,
Contreras, Churubusco, Molino del Rey,
The foremost American military figure and Chapultepec, Scott entered Mexico
between the Revolution and the Civil City on September 14, thus ending the
War, an officer who held the rank of war. For this service he was honoured by
general in three wars and was the appointment to the brevet rank of lieu-
unsuccessful Whig candidate for presi- tenant general. Despite—or perhaps
dent in 1852, Winfield Scott commanded because of—the fact that he was clearly
the Union army at the beginning of the the most capable American military
Civil War. leader of his time, Scott was bedeviled
Scott was commissioned a captain of by political opposition throughout his
artillery in 1808 and fought on the career. And though he was highly popu-
Niagara frontier in the War of 1812. He lar with his men, he earned the nickname
was captured by the British in that cam- “Old Fuss and Feathers” because of his
paign, but was exchanged in 1813 and emphasis on military formalities and
went on to fight in the battles of Chippewa proprieties.
(July 5, 1814) and Lundy’s Lane (July 25), A prominent Whig, Scott won his
where his success made him a national party’s presidential nomination in 1852
hero. By war’s end he had attained the but lost the election to Democrat
rank of major general. Scott remained in Franklin Pierce, mainly because the
military service, studying tactics in Whigs were divided over the issue of
Europe and taking a deep interest in slavery. In 1855 he was promoted to lieu-
maintaining a well-trained and disci- tenant general, becoming the first man
plined U.S. Army. In 1838 he supervised since George Washington to hold that
the removal of the Cherokee Indians rank. Scott was still commander in chief
from Georgia and other Southern states of the U.S. Army when the Civil War
to reservations west of the Mississippi broke out in April 1861, but his proposed
Military Leaders | 149

strategy of splitting the Confederacy— the Army of the Potomac. Following


the plan eventually adopted—was action in the Battle of the Wilderness
ridiculed. Age forced his retirement the (May 1864), he led a raid toward
following November. Richmond, Va., that destroyed consider-
able Confederate supplies and rolling
Philip H. Sheridan stock and resulted in the death of the
(b. March 6, 1831, Albany, N.Y.?—d. Aug. South’s great cavalry leader, Gen. J.E.B.
5, 1888, Nonquitt, Mass.) (“Jeb”) Stuart.
On August 4 Sheridan was given
A highly regarded Union cavalry officer, command of the Army of the Shenandoah
Gen. Philip H. Sheridan played a pivotal and charged with forcing the Confeder-
role during the last year of the Civil War ates from that valley and its rich farms,
in the defeat of the Confederate Army. which had sustained the defense of the
A graduate of the U.S. Military Southern capital for more than three
Academy at West Point, N.Y. (1853), years. In the Third Battle of Winchester,
Sheridan served mostly at frontier posts Va. (September), he drove General Jubal
until the spring of 1862, when he was A. Early out of Winchester and gained
appointed colonel of the 2nd Michigan two more victories during the next few
Cavalry. In July he skillfully split his out- weeks. Sheridan systematically destroyed
numbered command to rout a large the capacity of the Shenandoah Valley to
Confederate force at Booneville, Miss. support military operations by the South.
Made a brigadier general, he led the 11th For this feat he was made a major general
Division, Army of the Ohio, at Perryville, and received the thanks of Congress.
Ky., in October, as it held its position Having completed his mission in the
against repeated attacks. At the Battle of valley, Sheridan rejoined his cavalry
Stones River, or Murfreesboro, Tenn. before Petersburg in March 1865. With
(December 1862–January 1863), he was the 5th Corps Infantry added to his com-
made a major general of volunteers for mand, he circled south and west of the
his unyielding defense of the Federal city to cut the Confederate general Robert
right centre. E. Lee’s rail communications. At the end
Sheridan was unable to prevent of the month, he twice broke into the
defeat at the Battle of Chickamauga, Ga. Confederate right and rear, forcing Lee to
(September 1863), but his assault on retire westward from his Richmond-
Missionary Ridge below Chattanooga, Petersburg lines. Sheridan continued his
Tenn., in November, brought his fight- pressure against Lee’s southern flank
ing in the West to a brilliant close. This and at the end helped close off his escape
victory so impressed Gen. Ulysses S. near Appomattox.
Grant that Sheridan was called east in After the war Sheridan reported to
the spring of 1864 to head the cavalry of the Gulf of Mexico, where his presence
150 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

along the Texas border hastened the fall interrupted his promising career in busi-
of Maximilian, the French puppet emperor ness, however, and after several more
in Mexico, in 1867. He was later named disappointments, his old friends, the
military commander of Louisiana and Southerners Braxton Bragg and P. G. T.
Texas (1867), but his harsh administration Beauregard, found him employment
of Reconstruction measures led to his (January 1860) as superintendent of a
removal soon thereafter by Pres. Andrew newly established military academy in
Johnson. He spent the remaining years Louisiana. When Louisiana seceded from
until 1883 in Western command. He the Union in January 1861, Sherman
planned and conducted a successful resigned his post and returned to St. Louis.
Indian campaign (1868–69), after which His devotion to the Union was strong, but
he was promoted to lieutenant general. he was greatly distressed at what he con-
He became general-in-chief of the army sidered an unnecessary conflict between
in 1883 and five years later was commis- the states. He used the influence of his
sioned as general of the army of the younger brother, Sen. John Sherman, to
United States. He spent his last months obtain an appointment in the U.S. Army
writing his memoirs. as a colonel in May 1861.

William Tecumseh Sherman Civil War Years


(b. Feb. 8, 1820, Lancaster, Ohio—d.
Feb. 14, 1891, New York, N.Y.) Sherman was soon assigned to com-
mand a brigade in Gen. Irvin McDowell’s
Considered a major architect of modern army, and he fought in the disastrous
warfare, General William Tecumseh first Battle of Bull Run (July 21, 1861).
Sherman led Union forces in crushing Though afterward promoted to brigadier
campaigns through the South, marching general, he was convinced by his experi-
through Georgia and the Carolinas ence at Bull Run that he was unfit for
(1864–65). such responsibility, and he begged Pres.
Abraham Lincoln not to trust him in an
Early Life and Career independent command. Lincoln never-
theless sent Sherman to Kentucky as
Sherman graduated from the U.S. Military second-in-command under Gen. Robert
Academy at West Point, N.Y., but the Anderson. In October 1861 Sherman suc-
Mexican War, in which so many future ceeded to the command in Kentucky,
generals of the Civil War received their but he was nervous and unsure of him-
experience, passed Sherman by; he served self, and his hallucinations concerning
instead in Florida and California, then opposing Confederate forces led him to
resigned his commission in 1853 to pur- request so many reinforcements from
sue a banking career. The Panic of 1857 his superiors that some newspapers
Military Leaders | 151

Gen. William T. Sherman (leaning on the breech of the cannon) and staff at Union Fort
No. 7, Atlanta, Ga., 1864. Photograph by George N. Barnard. Library of Congress,
Washington, D.C. (LC-B8171-3626 DLC)

described him as insane. He lost his Grant had a calming influence on


Kentucky command, but with the sup- Sherman. Together they fought brilliantly
port of Gen. Henry Halleck, he then to capture Vicksburg, Miss. (1862–63),
served as a divisional commander under shattering the Confederate defenses and
Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. Sherman distin- opening the Mississippi River to Northern
guished himself at the Battle of Shiloh commerce once more. Though Sherman
(April 6–7, 1862) and won promotion to began his part in the campaign with a
the rank of major general. defeat at Chickasaw Bluffs, his capture of
152 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman and staff (from left to right): Generals Oliver O. Howard,
John A. Logan, William B. Hazen, Sherman, Jefferson C. Davis, Henry W. Slocum, and
Joseph Mower. Photograph by Mathew B. Brady. National Archives, Brady Collection, Civil
War Photographs

Fort Hindman, Ark., served to restore his Union victory in the war. When Grant
reputation. In Grant’s final Vicksburg was placed in supreme command in the
campaign Sherman commanded the west, Sherman succeeded to the com-
15th Corps. mand of the Army of the Tennessee and
Sherman’s star, along with Grant’s, in that capacity took part with Grant in
was now in the ascendant, and their the Chattanooga campaign in November
careers were thenceforth closely linked 1863. In March 1864, when Grant became
as they worked together to bring about a general-in-chief of the Union armies,
Military Leaders | 153

Union soldiers wrecking railroad lines (making “Sherman’s neckties”—created by heating


and then twisting the rails, rendering them useless), Atlanta, Ga. Library of Congress,
Washington, D.C. (B8184-10488)

Sherman was made commander of the ahead of him, and on Sept. 2, 1864,
military division of the Mississippi, with Sherman’s forces were able to occupy
three armies under his overall command. Atlanta, a vital industrial centre and the
Assembling about 100,000 troops near hub of the Southern railway network.
Chattanooga, Tenn., in May 1864, he The Union war effort was not proceeding
began his invasion of Georgia. The well in the east, and Sherman’s capture
opposing Confederate forces led by Gen. of Atlanta was a much-needed victory
Joseph E. Johnston retreated slowly that restored Northern morale and
154 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

helped ensure Lincoln’s reelection that made Sherman commanding general of


November. the army, a post he held until 1884. Unlike
Union superiority in manpower was Grant, Sherman declined all opportuni-
now having its effect, and Sherman was ties to run for political office, saying he
able to detach part of his army and lead would not run if nominated and would
the remaining 62,000 troops on the cele- not serve if elected. He died in New York
brated “March to the Sea” from Atlanta to City in 1891.
Savannah on the Atlantic coast. Separated Sherman was one of the ablest Union
from its supply bases and completely iso- generals in the Civil War. He saw that
lated from other Union forces, Sherman’s conflict in its broadest strategic terms,
army cut a wide swath as it moved south and his March to the Sea is generally
through Georgia, living off the country- regarded as the first example of the use
side, destroying railroads and supplies, of total war in the modern era.
reducing the war-making potential of
the Confederacy, and bringing the war George Henry Thomas
home to the Southern people. (b. July 31, 1816, Southampton
Sherman reached Savannah in time county, Va.—d. March 28, 1870, San
for Christmas and “presented” the city to Francisco, Calif.)
Lincoln with 150 captured cannons and
25,000 bales of cotton. By February 1865 Union General George Henry Thomas
he was heading north through the became known as “the Rock of
Carolinas toward Virginia, where Grant Chickamauga” after his unyielding
and the Confederate commander Gen. defense in combat near that stream in
Robert E. Lee were having a final show- northwestern Georgia in September 1863.
down. The opposing Confederate forces A graduate of the U.S. Military
led by Johnston could offer Sherman Academy at West Point, N.Y., in 1840,
only token resistance by now. Lee surren- Thomas served in the Mexican War
dered to Grant in Virginia on April 9, and (1846–48) and as an instructor at West
Johnston surrendered the remnants of Point. Despite his Southern birth he
his forces to Sherman on April 26 near remained loyal to the Union when the
Durham, North Carolina. Civil War broke out. In command of an
Sherman remained a soldier to the independent force in eastern Kentucky,
end, though his view of warfare was suc- he attacked the Confederates on Jan. 19,
cinctly put in his oft-quoted assertion 1862, at Mill Springs and gained the
that “war is hell.” When Grant became a first important Union victory in the
full general in 1866, Sherman moved up west. He served under Gen. Don Carlos
to the rank of lieutenant general, and Buell and was offered but refused the
when Grant became president in 1869, he chief command. Under Gen. William S.
Military Leaders | 155

Rosecrans, he was engaged at Stones John L. Worden


River (Murfreesboro), Tenn., and was (b. March 12, 1818, Westchester
in charge of the most important part of county, N.Y.—d. Oct. 18, 1897,
the maneuvering from Decherd to Washington, D.C.)
Chattanooga, Tenn. On Sept. 19–20,
1863, after two days of conflict along U.S. Naval officer John L. Worden com-
Chickamauga Creek in Georgia 12 miles manded the Union warship Monitor
(19 km) south of Chattanooga, General against the Confederate Virginia (for-
Thomas adroitly organized Union merly Merrimack) in the first battle
defenses and withstood violent attack between ironclads (March 9, 1862) in the
on the left wing until reserve units Civil War .
allowed an orderly withdrawal of Union Appointed a midshipman in 1834,
troops. For this action he was promoted Worden received his early naval training
to brigadier general and succeeded with the Brazilian squadron (1835–38).
Rosecrans in command of the Army of He served on the Pacific Coast during
the Cumberland shortly before the great the Mexican War (1846–48) and after-
victory at Chattanooga (November), in ward in both the Mediterranean and the
which he and his army played a con- home fleets.
spicuous role. On Jan. 16, 1862, Worden was
In the autumn of 1864, Union General appointed to command John Ericsson’s
William Tecumseh Sherman called on experimental ship, the Monitor. In March
Thomas to deal with the threat to Union he took the cumbersome “cheese box on
communications by the Confederate a raft” down the Atlantic Coast in peril-
forces of Gen. John B. Hood. Thomas had ous, stormy weather and engaged the
achieved his objective by Christmas, larger ironclad Virginia at the mouth of
checking the enemy army at Franklin, the James River. The three-hour battle
Tenn. (November 30), and finally at ended when both withdrew from the con-
Nashville, Tenn. (December 15–16). At flict. Worden, stationed in the pilothouse,
that historic battle, Thomas inflicted on had been wounded in the face, however,
Hood the worst defeat sustained in the and nearly blinded by a shell.
open field on either side during the war. For the rest of the war, he com-
Thomas was made a major general and manded monitors stationed with the
received the thanks of Congress. South Atlantic blockading squadron.
After the war Thomas commanded Afterward he was promoted to rear
the military departments in Kentucky and admiral (1872) and commanded the
Tennessee until 1869, when he was placed European squadron (1875–77). He was
in charge of the Division of the Pacific retired by Congress in 1886 at full pay
with headquarters at San Francisco. for life.
156 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

THE CONFEDERACY P. G. T. Beauregard


(b. May 28, 1818, near New Orleans,
Richard Heron Anderson La.—d. Feb. 20, 1893, New Orleans)
(b. Oct. 7, 1821, Statesburg,
S.C.— d. June 26, 1879, Confederate General P. G. T. (Pierre
Beaufort, S.C.) Gustave Toutant) Beauregard graduated
from the U.S. Military Academy at West
Confederate General Richard Heron Point, N.Y. (1838), and served in the
Anderson graduated from the U.S. Mexican War (1846–48).
Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., in After the secession of Louisiana from
1842 and won the brevet of first lieuten- the Union (January 1861), Beauregard
ant in the Mexican War, becoming first resigned from the U.S. Army and was
lieutenant in 1848 and captain in 1855; he commissioned a brigadier general in
took part in the following year in the the Confederate Army; he eventually
Kansas troubles. became one of the eight full generals of
At the outbreak of the Civil War in the Confederacy and participated in
1861, he resigned from the U.S. Army almost every important theatre of the
and entered the Confederate service war. He commanded the forces that
as a brigadier general, being promoted bombarded Fort Sumter, S.C., was on the
major general on July 14, 1862. Except field at the First Battle of Bull Run (1861),
for a few months spent with the and assumed command at Shiloh after
army under Braxton Bragg in 1862, the death of General Albert Sidney
Anderson’s service was wholly in the Johnston (1862). He later conducted the
Army of Northern Virginia under Gen. defense of Charleston and toward the
Robert E. Lee. end of the war defended the southern
In the Wilderness campaign, in May approaches to Richmond. Though he
1864, he succeeded to the command of proved to be a capable combat commander
the 1st Corps when Longstreet was and often displayed sound strategic
wounded. After saving Spotsylvania by a sense, Beauregard revealed serious defi-
brilliant night march on May 7–8, at the ciencies as a general officer. His penchant
outset of the punishing Battle of for questioning orders bordered on
Spotsylvania Courthouse, Anderson was insubordination.
given the rank of temporary lieutenant After the war he returned to Louisiana,
general. He later participated in the where he became a railroad director,
defense of Petersburg and Richmond. adjutant general of the state, and man-
After the war Anderson became a railroad ager of the Louisiana lottery. His last
official in South Carolina and then state years were marked by bitter quarrels with
phosphate inspector. Joseph E. Johnston, Jefferson Davis, and
Military Leaders | 157

William Preston Johnston over their River (Murfreesboro) against Gen.


published accounts of the war and William Starke Rosecrans. The following
Beauregard’s role in it. Beauregard was September he inflicted a crushing defeat
the author of Principles and Maxims of on Rosecrans at Chickamauga and for a
the Art of War (1863) and Report on the time besieged the Union forces at
Defense of Charleston (1864). Chattanooga. But large Federal reinforce-
ments were concentrated upon the
Braxton Bragg threatened spot under Gen. Ulysses S.
(b. March 22, 1817, Warrenton, N.C.—d. Grant, and the great Battle of Chattanooga
Sept. 27, 1876, Galveston, Texas) (November) ended in the rout of Bragg’s
army. Bragg was then relieved of his com-
Confederate General Braxton Bragg mand, but President Davis made him his
experienced early success in the Civil military adviser. After the war he was a
War’s Western theatre but often failed to civil engineer in Alabama and Texas.
push his advantage and eventually was
relieved of command. Franklin Buchanan
After graduating in 1837 from the U.S. (b. Sept. 17, 1800, Baltimore, Md.—d.
Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., May 11, 1874, Talbot County, Md.)
Bragg served in the Seminole Wars and
the Mexican War (1846–48). As a major After serving as the first superintendent
general in the Confederate Army, he com- of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis,
manded a corps at Shiloh (April 1862) Md. (1845–47), Franklin Buchanan became
and, upon the death of Gen. Albert Sidney senior naval officer for the Confederacy.
Johnston in that battle, was promoted to A midshipman in 1815, Buchanan
full general’s rank. In the autumn of that served until 1845, when he submitted a
year, having succeeded Gen. P. G. T. plan for organizing a national naval
Beauregard in the command of the Army academy at Annapolis. When the acad-
of Tennessee, Bragg led a bold advance emy was founded in the same year, he
from eastern Tennessee across Kentucky was appointed to head it. In 1847–48
to Louisville. Tactically, the ensuing he saw active service in the Mexican
Battle of Perryville (October) was a draw; War, and in 1852–54 he accompanied
unwilling to fight to a decision, Bragg Commodore Matthew C. Perry’s expedi-
withdrew into Tennessee. Though he was tion to Japan.
bitterly censured, the personal favour of In April 1861, on the eve of the Civil
Confederate Pres. Jefferson Davis kept War, Buchanan resigned his commission,
him at the head of the Army of Tennessee, believing that Maryland would secede
and in December–January 1862–63 he from the Union. He tried to recall his res-
fought the indecisive Battle of Stones ignation but was dismissed the following
158 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

month and entered the Confederate Navy. served the Confederacy in many capaci-
He commanded the ironclad ram Virginia ties and was a lieutenant general when
(Merrimack) when it sank the Union the war ended.
frigates Cumberland and Congress in In 1868 Buckner returned to
Hampton Roads (March 1862). Promoted Kentucky, became editor of the Louisville
to the rank of admiral in August, he Courier for a short time, and eventually
served as senior officer thereafter. In recovered his valuable real estate in
Mobile Bay (August 1864) he fought Chicago. After some years in private
Union ships with the ram Tennessee after business he entered politics as a Democrat
other vessels of his own squadron were and served as governor of Kentucky from
disabled or captured. 1887 to 1891. In 1896 Buckner ran unsuc-
cessfully for the vice presidency on the
Simon Bolivar Buckner same ticket with John M. Palmer, as a
(b. April 1, 1823, near Mundfordville,
Ky.—d. Jan. 8, 1914, near
Mundfordville)

A native of the border state of Kentucky,


Simon Bolivar Buckner served as a
Confederate general during the Civil
War and eventually as the governor of
Kentucky (1887–91).
A graduate of the U.S. Military
Academy at West Point, N.Y., Buckner
served in the Mexican War (1846–48) and
thereafter at various army posts until
1855, when he resigned his commission
to become manager of family property in
Chicago. At the outbreak of the Civil
War, he worked to build up the state
guard of Kentucky and to ensure the
neutrality of the state, but eventually he
espoused the Confederate cause and was
commissioned a brigadier general.
Ordered to reinforce Fort Donelson,
Tenn, he found the military situation
hopeless and surrendered uncondition- Simon Bolivar Buckner. © Photos.com/
ally to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant (Feb. 16, Jupiterimages
1862). After a war-prisoner exchange he
Military Leaders | 159

gold Democrat, in opposition to the Free Hagerstown and Frederick in Maryland,


Silver majority. and defeated a small Union force at the
Battle of Monocacy (July 9, 1864). Two
Jubal A. Early days later he led 8,000 troops past Silver
(b. Nov. 3, 1816, Franklin County, Spring and brought them into sight of
Va.—d. March 2, 1894, Lynchburg, Va.) Washington before withdrawing.
Northern pride was wounded by
Confederate General Jubal A. Early, who Early’s threat, and Gen. Ulysses S. Grant
earned command of Confederate forces dispatched Gen. Philip Sheridan to clear
in the Shenandoah Valley, menaced the valley once and for all. Bowing to
Washington, D.C., late in the war but was numerically superior forces, Early suf-
ultimately responsible for a series of fered three decisive defeats at Sheridan’s
defeats during the Shenandoah Valley hands between September 19 and October
campaigns of late 1864 and early 1865 19—at Winchester, Fishers Hill, and Toms
that contributed to the final collapse of Brook—after which the valley was laid
the South. A graduate of the U.S. Military waste. Early then carried out a well-
Academy at West Point, N.Y., Early served planned attack at Cedar Creek but was
in the Second Seminole War in Florida forced to retreat up the valley to
(1835–42) and the Mexican War (1846–48). Waynesboro, where he experienced the
In the period leading up to the Civil War, final defeat (March 2, 1865) that ended
he strongly opposed secession, but when Confederate resistance in that area and
Virginia decided to withdraw from the opened the way to Union capture of
Union in 1861, he felt obliged to conform Richmond.
to the action of his state. After the Confederate surrender
As an officer in the Confederate (April 1865) Early went to Mexico and
Army of Northern Virginia, he rendered then Canada, where he published A
conspicuous service at the First Battle of Memoir of the Last Years of the War of
Bull Run (July 1861), near Manassas, Va., Independence in the Confederate States
and served throughout the Virginia cam- of America (1866). In 1869 he returned to
paigns of 1862–63 and at Gettysburg Virginia, where he practiced law and
(July 1863). The climax of his career came wrote historical essays.
in the summer of 1864 when Gen. Robert
E. Lee placed him in command of Nathan Bedford Forrest
all Southern forces in the strategic (b. July 13, 1821, near Chapel Hill,
Shenandoah Valley. His first action was Tenn.,—d. Oct. 29, 1877,
to drive the Union forces under Gen. Memphis, Tenn.)
David Hunter out of the state and to move
down the valley unopposed. He then Confederate General Nathan Bedford
crossed the Potomac River, reaching Forrest was often described as a “born
160 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

military genius”; his rule of action, “Get Mississippi, Tennessee, and Alabama.
there first with the most men,” became He was once more with the main
one of the most often quoted statements Confederate Army of the West in the last
of the war. A major blemish on his record, disastrous campaign of Nashville
however, was the Massacre of Ft. Pillow (December) and fought a stubborn rear-
(April 12, 1864)—the slaughter by his guard action to cover the retreat of the
soldiers of more than 300 blacks after the broken army. He was forced back at
surrender of Ft. Pillow, Tenn. Selma, Ala., in April 1865 and surren-
A self-taught man, Forrest bought dered his entire command in May.
and sold horses, cattle, and slaves before After the war he was active in the
acquiring considerable wealth as a cot- railroad business, and was a leading
ton planter in Mississippi. At the organizer and the first Grand Wizard of
outbreak of the war, he raised a cavalry the original Ku Klux Klan, a secret soci-
unit and, as a lieutenant colonel, took ety advocating white supremacy.
part in the defense of Ft. Donelson, Tenn.
(February 1862). Refusing to capitulate A. P. Hill
with the rest of the Confederate forces, (b. Nov. 9, 1825, Culpeper, Va.—d. April
he made his way out before the fort was 2, 1865, Petersburg, Va.)
surrendered. After fighting with distinc-
tion at the Battle of Shiloh, Tenn. (April), Confederate General A.P. Hill led a force
he was promoted to brigadier general called the “Light Division” that was con-
and took a brilliant part in the autumn sidered one of the best in the South. He
campaign. The following winter he was and his men were particularly active in
continually active in raiding hostile lines the fighting around Washington, D.C.
of communication. After graduating from the U.S.
In keeping with Confederate policy Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., in
at that time, Forrest—by then a major 1847, Hill saw routine service before
general—ordered his troops to “take no the outbreak of war. He joined the
more Negro prisoners” when they Confederate Army as a colonel, serving
assaulted and captured Ft. Pillow. A primarily in northern Virginia. His regi-
Congressional investigation committee ment was held in reserve at the First
verified the slaughter of more than 300 Battle of Bull Run (July 1861), and,
black men, women, and children within as brigadier general, he fought at
the fort. Williamsburg (May 1862) in the
In June 1864 Forrest decisively Peninsular Campaign. As major general
defeated a superior Union force at Brice’s he led his “Light Division” in the Seven
Cross Roads, Miss., and throughout the Days’ Battles (June) at Mechanicsville,
year he conducted successful raids in Gaines’s Mill, and Frayser’s Farm. Hill’s
Military Leaders | 161

troops helped repel the Federal attacks In the spring of 1864, Hood was
at the Second Battle of Bull Run (August) appointed a lieutenant general under Gen.
and assisted in capturing Harpers Ferry Joseph E. Johnston to help defend Atlanta
(September 14). Three days later he against Sherman’s forces. Johnston’s con-
arrived at Antietam in time to check tinual withdrawals impelled Confederate
decisively the Federal assault against president Jefferson Davis to transfer the
Gen. Robert E. Lee’s right wing. Hill par- command in July to Hood, whom he con-
ticipated in the Battle of Fredericksburg sidered more aggressive. In a vain effort
(December) and was wounded at to save Atlanta, Hood promptly attacked
Chancellorsville (May 1863). but was forced back into the city, which
Promoted to lieutenant general in he held for five weeks. He then led his
command of the III Corps, he had a prom- men on a long march north and west,
inent role in the Battle of Gettysburg intending to strike Sherman’s rear. This
(July). He was engaged in the Battle of the plan was thwarted, however, when he
Wilderness (May 1864) and at Petersburg was confronted by the Army of the
(April 1865), where he was killed. Cumberland, under Gen. George H.
Thomas, which had moved back to check
John B. Hood him. Two battles ensued in Tennessee—
(b. June 1, 1831, Owingsville, Franklin (November) and Nashville
Ky.—d. Aug. 30, 1879, New (December)—both decisive defeats for
Orleans, La.) Hood, whose retreating army was pur-
sued by Thomas and virtually destroyed.
Confederate General John B. Hood had a His command ended at his own request
reputation as a resolute fighter, but his the following month. He spent his retire-
vigorous defense of Atlanta failed to ment years in New Orleans in business
stem the advance of Gen. William T. and in writing his memoirs.
Sherman’s superior Federal forces
through Georgia in late 1864. Thomas Jonathan Jackson
A graduate of the U.S. Military (b. Jan. 21, 1824, Clarksburg, Va.
Academy at West Point, N.Y., who served [now in W.Va.]—d. May 10, 1863, Guinea
in the U.S. Cavalry until the outbreak of Station [now Guinea], Va.)
hostilities, Hood rapidly rose to the rank
of colonel in the Confederate Army. He Renowned as one of the most skilled
was seriously wounded at the Battle of tacticians of the Civil War, Confederate
Gettysburg (July 1863), where he com- General Thomas Jonathan Jackson gained
manded an assault on the Federal left at his well-known sobriquet “Stonewall” as
Round Top, and lost a leg at the Battle of a result of his heroic stand at the First
Chickamauga (September). Battle of Bull Run in 1861.
162 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

Early Life and Career Battle of Manassas

Despite little formal education, Jackson In July 1861 the invasion of Virginia
secured an appointment to the U.S. by Federal army troops began, and
Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.; he Jackson’s brigade moved with others of
then served with distinction in the Johnston’s army to unite with Gen. P. G.
Mexican War. Finding service in the T. Beauregard on the field of Bull Run
peacetime army tedious, he resigned his in time to meet the advance of Gen. Irvin
commission and became professor of McDowell’s Federal army. It was here
artillery tactics and natural philosophy that he stationed his brigade in a strong
at the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) line, withholding the enemy against
in 1851. Upon the outbreak of the Civil overwhelming odds and earning the
War he offered his services to his state of nickname “Stonewall.” The spring of
Virginia and was ordered to bring his 1862 found Jackson again in the
VMI cadets from Lexington to Richmond. Shenandoah Valley, where his diversion-
Soon after, he received a commission as ary tactics prevented reinforcements
colonel in the state forces of Virginia and being sent to Federal army general
was charged with organizing volunteers George B. McClellan, who was waging the
into an effective Confederate army bri- Peninsular Campaign against Richmond,
gade, a feat that rapidly gained him fame the Confederate capital. Jackson’s strat-
and promotion. His untimely death only egy possibly accounted for Lee’s victory
two years later cut Jackson down at the later in the Seven Days’ Battles. Lee, then
height of an increasingly successful chief military adviser to Confederate
career, leaving unanswered the question president Jefferson Davis, suggested to
of his capacity for independent com- Jackson that he use his troops to attack
mand, which his rapid rise suggests he Federal troops in the valley and thus
might have achieved. threaten Washington. By rapid move-
Jackson’s first assignment in the ment, Jackson closed separately with
Confederate cause was the small com- several Federal units and defeated them.
mand at Harpers Ferry, Va. (now West In April he struck in the mountains of
Virginia), where the Shenandoah River western Virginia; then on May 24–25 he
flows into the Potomac. His mission was turned on Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks and
to fortify the area and hold it if possible. drove him out of Winchester and back to
When Gen. Joseph E. Johnston took over the Potomac River.
the Confederate forces in the valley, with He then quickly turned his attention
Jackson commanding one of the bri- to the southern end of the valley, defeat-
gades, Jackson withdrew to a more ing the Federals at Cross Keys, Va., on
defensible position at Winchester. June 8, and at Port Republic on the next
Military Leaders | 163

day. Lee then brought Jackson’s troops Lee moved his main body, including
by road and railroad to Richmond to Jackson’s corps, to meet Hooker’s threat-
envelop the right wing of McClellan’s ened envelopment in the woods of
army. But Jackson arrived a day late, Chancellorsville. He then divided his
and his reputation lost some of its lustre, army again, keeping only 10,000 men to
possibly because of his lack of experi- demonstrate against Hooker’s front, and
ence in large-scale action; nevertheless, he sent Jackson to move secretly around
McClellan was beaten back and was Hooker’s right with his entire corps.
ordered to evacuate the peninsula.
Lee at once joined Jackson against
the Federal forces regrouping under Gen.
John Pope. He sent Jackson, by a wide
encircling movement, to attack the rear
of Pope’s forces and bring on the Second
Battle of Bull Run, in which Pope was
soundly beaten. Lee next crossed the
Potomac for the “liberation” of Maryland.
To protect Richmond, Lee detached
Jackson to capture Harpers Ferry, which
he did in time (September 13–15) to rejoin
Lee at Antietam. After his return to
Virginia, Lee divided his army into two
corps, Gen. James Longstreet command-
ing the first and Jackson, now a lieutenant
general, the second. At Fredericksburg,
Va., in December, Jackson was in com-
mand of the Confederate right when
Federal general Ambrose E. Burnside’s
rash attack was easily repulsed and he
was crushingly defeated.
In April, Gen. Joseph Hooker,
Burnside’s successor, attempted to turn
the Confederate position on the Rappa-
hannock River, south of Washington. Stonewall Jackson Monument,
There the seemingly invincible team of Manassas National Battlefield Park,
Lee and Jackson made its boldest move. Virginia. Milt and Joan Mann/
Leaving a small detachment to meet CameraMann International
Federal troops on the Rappahannock,
164 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

Death Department in September, Johnston suc-


ceeded in raising and organizing an army
The maneuver was completely success- to guard a long and vulnerable line from
ful. On the evening of May 2, Jackson the Mississippi River to the Allegheny
rolled up the flank of the unsuspecting Mountains. His forces were no match,
Federal forces. Then, in the moment of however, for the superior numbers of the
victory, tragedy struck. Jackson, who had North, which forced the Confederates to
ridden forward to organize the pursuit, retreat from Forts Henry and Donelson, in
was accidentally shot down by his own Tennessee, and from Bowling Green, Ky.,
men when he returned at dusk and was and led to the fall of Nashville, Tenn., in
seriously, but not mortally, wounded. February 1862. Nevertheless, bitter criti-
Although his left arm was amputated cism of Johnston did not affect Davis’
successfully, pneumonia set in and he confidence in him.
died a week later. Lee could not replace Concentrating his army at Corinth,
him; for while Jackson had lost his left Miss., Johnston determined to attack Gen.
arm, Lee had, indeed, lost his right arm. Ulysses S. Grant at Pittsburg Landing. His
surprise assault upon the Union forces at
Albert Sidney Johnston the Battle of Shiloh (April 6 and 7) was
(b. Feb. 2, 1803, Washington, Ky.—d. almost successful, but he was mortally
April 6, 1862, Shiloh, Tenn.) wounded in the first afternoon’s fighting.

Albert Sidney Johnston was one of the Joseph E. Johnston


highest-ranking Confederate generals, (b. Feb. 3, 1807, near Farmville,
and his death in the second year of the Va.—d. March 21, 1891,
war was considered an irreparable loss Washington, D.C.)
by the South.
An 1826 graduate of the U.S. Military Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston
Academy at West Point, N.Y., Johnston never suffered a direct defeat during the
fought in the Black Hawk War (1832) and Civil War; however, his military effective-
the Mexican War (1846–48) and was in the ness was hindered by a long-standing feud
bloodless expedition against the Mormons with the president of the Confederacy,
in Utah (1857). When his adopted state of Jefferson Davis.
Texas seceded from the Union in 1861, he A graduate of the U.S. Military
resigned his commission as commander Academy at West Point, N.Y. (1829),
of the U.S. Pacific Department and was Johnston resigned his commission at the
appointed second-ranking general in the outbreak of the Civil War to offer his ser-
Confederate Army by Pres. Jefferson vices to his native state of Virginia. Given
Davis, whom he had known at West the rank of brigadier general in the
Point. Assuming command of the Western Confederate Army of the Shenandoah
Military Leaders | 165

(May 1861), he was credited in July with delaying the advance of Gen. William T.
the first important Southern victory at Sherman at Bentonville, in March. But
the First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas). lack of men and supplies forced Johnston
He was promoted to general, but his dis- to order continued withdrawal, and he
satisfaction with his seniority was the surrendered to Sherman at Durham
start of his lengthy differences with Station, N.C., on April 26.
Davis, president of the Confederacy. After the war, Johnston engaged in
When the Peninsular Campaign began business ventures, wrote his memoirs,
in April 1862, Johnston withdrew to served in the U.S. House of Representatives
defend the capital at Richmond. Although (1879–81), and was named U.S. commis-
objecting to the strategy prescribed by sioner of railroads in 1885.
Davis, he fought well against the Union
forces. Severely wounded at the Battle of E. Kirby-Smith
Fair Oaks (Seven Pines) in May, he was (b. May 16, 1824, St. Augustine,
replaced by Gen. Robert E. Lee. Fla.—d. March 28, 1893, Sewanee,
A year later Johnston assumed control Tenn.)
of Confederate forces in Mississippi threat-
ened by the Federal advance on Vicksburg. Confederate General E. Kirby-Smith con-
He warned Gen. John C. Pemberton to trolled the area west of the Mississippi
evacuate the city, but President Davis River for the Confederacy for almost two
counterordered Pemberton to hold it at years after it had been severed from the
all costs. Lacking sufficient troops, rest of the South.
Johnston could not relieve Pemberton, Born Edmund Kirby Smith, he later
and Vicksburg fell on July 4, 1863. signed his name E. Kirby Smith; the
Bitterly criticized, he nonetheless took hyphenated form of the name was adopted
command of the Army of the Tennessee by his family after his death. Graduated
in December as the combined armies of from the U.S. Military Academy at West
the North advanced toward Atlanta, Ga. Point, N.Y., in 1845, Kirby-Smith fought in
Subsequent events demonstrated the the Mexican War (1846–48) and in Indian
soundness of Johnston’s strategy of warfare on the frontier before he reached
planned withdrawal to avoid a defeat the rank of major in 1860. When Florida
by superior forces and the disinte- seceded from the Union (January 1861),
gration of the Confederate Army; he entered the Confederate Army and
nevertheless, Davis, dissatisfied with his was made a brigadier general in June.
failure to defeat the invaders, replaced Commanding a brigade at the First Battle
him in July. of Bull Run (First Manassas; July 1861),
Restored to duty in February 1865, he was seriously wounded. In 1862 he led
Johnston took command of his old army, the advance in the Kentucky campaign,
now in North Carolina, and succeeded in defeated the Union forces at Richmond,
166 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

Ky., and fought at Perryville, Ky., and On both sides, his family had produced
Stones River (Murfreesboro) in Tennessee. many of the dominant figures in the rul-
He was promoted to lieutenant general in ing class of Virginia. Lee’s father, Henry
October and the following February was (“Light-Horse Harry”) Lee, had been
given command of the Trans-Mississippi a cavalry leader during the Revolution, a
Department. post-Revolution governor of Virginia,
Cut off from the East by the fall of and the author of the famous congressio-
Vicksburg (July 1863), Kirby-Smith exer- nal memorial eulogy to his friend, George
cised both civil and military powers and Washington.
made his section self-supporting. In April
1864 he met and defeated the Federal Red Early Military Career
River expedition. On June 2, 1865, he for-
mally surrendered the last armed After graduating from the U.S. Military
Confederate force at Galveston, Texas. Academy at West Point, N.Y., Robert E.
After the war Kirby-Smith headed Lee was commissioned into the elite
a military academy until 1870, when engineering corps. Later transferring to
he became president of the University the cavalry because of slow advancement
of Nashville. He resigned in 1875 to in the engineers, he did the best he could
teach mathematics at the University of at routine assignments and on relatively
the South. uninspiring engineering projects. Not
until the Mexican War (1846–48), when
Robert E. Lee he was a captain on the staff of Gen.
(b. Jan. 19, 1807, Stratford, Winfield Scott, did he have the opportu-
Westmoreland county, Va.—d. Oct. 12, nity to demonstrate the brilliance and
1870, Lexington, Va.) heroism that prompted General Scott to
write that Lee was “the very best soldier I
Confederate General Robert E. Lee was ever saw in the field.”
the commander of the Army of Northern In October 1859, while on leave at
Virginia, the most successful of the South- Arlington to straighten out the entangled
ern armies, and in February 1865 he was affairs of his late father-in-law, he was
given command of all the Southern armies. ordered to suppress the slave insurrec-
His surrender at Appomattox Courthouse tion attempted by John Brown at Harpers
April 9, 1865, is commonly viewed as sig- Ferry, Va. Although Lee put down the
nifying the end of the Civil War. insurgency in less than an hour, the very
fact that it was led by a white man made
Heritage and Youth him aware of the gathering crisis between
the North and the South.
Robert Edward Lee was the fourth child Lee was back at his command in
of Colonel Henry Lee and Ann Hill Carter. Texas when on Feb. 1, 1861, Texas became
Military Leaders | 167

the seventh Southern state to secede, the trying post of military adviser to the
and, with the rest of the U.S. Army forces, president. Here, however, Lee, working
he was ordered out of the state. Without a independently of Davis, was able to intro-
command, he returned to Arlington to duce a coherent strategy into the
wait to see what Virginia would do. On Confederacy’s defense.
April 18 he was called to Washington and During May 1862, General Johnston
offered command of a new army being was leading a heterogeneous collection
formed to force the seceded states back of Confederate troops back toward
into the Union. Lee, while he opposed Richmond from the east, before the
secession, also opposed war, and “could methodical advance of Gen. George B.
take no part in an invasion of the Southern McClellan’s superbly organized, heavily
states.” Meanwhile, President Lincoln equipped Army of the Potomac. Lee col-
called on Virginia to furnish troops for laborated with Thomas J. “Stonewall”
the invasion. A Virginia convention, Jackson to concentrate scattered garri-
which had previously voted 2 to 1 against sons in Virginia into a striking force in
secession, now voted 2 to 1 against fur- the Shenandoah Valley, where he sur-
nishing troops for an invasion and to prised the Federal forces into retreating
secede, and Lee resigned from the army and posed a threat to Washington.
in which he had served for 36 years to Jackson’s threat from the valley caused
offer his services to the “defense of [his] Lincoln to withhold from McClellan the
native state.” large corps of Gen. Irvin McDowell, with
whom McClellan planned a pincer move-
Role in Civil War ment on Richmond from the east and
north. On May 31, Johnston delivered an
As commander in chief of Virginia’s attack on McClellan’s forces seven miles
forces, Lee saw it as his first task to east of Richmond in the indecisive Battle
concentrate troops, armaments, and of Fair Oaks (Seven Pines). The battle
equipment at major points where the became a turning point for Lee: Johnston
invasion might be expected. During this was seriously wounded, and Lee was at
period, Confederate troops joined the last given field command.
Virginia forces and subdued the Federal In three weeks he organized
Army at the first Battle of Bull Run. The Confederate troops into what became the
attempt at a quick suppression of the famed Army of Northern Virginia; he
Southern states was over and, as Lee was tightened command and discipline,
one of the first to realize, a long, all-out improved morale, and convinced the sol-
war began. Between July 1861 and June diers that headquarters was in full
1862, Confederate president Jefferson command. McClellan, waiting vainly for
Davis appointed Lee to several unre- McDowell to join the wing of his army on
warding positions, the last of which was the north side of the Chickahominy River,
168 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

was moving heavy siege artillery from strikingly at the Second Battle of Bull
the east for the subjugation of Richmond Run (Second Manassas), Aug. 29–30,
when Lee struck. Combining with 1862. To shift the fighting out of Virginia,
Jackson, who moved in from the valley, Lee crossed into Maryland, where he
Lee defeated Porter’s right wing and was hoped for support from Southern sympa-
on McClellan’s supply line to his base on thizers. But his plans fell into Northern
the York River. hands, and his forces were nearly
In a series of hard fights, the Seven destroyed at Antietam (Sharpsburg) on
Days’ Battles (around Richmond), Sept. 17, 1862. He was, however, able to
McClellan withdrew his army to the withdraw the remnants across the
wharves of Berkeley Plantation, where he Potomac, to reorganize his army, and to
was aided by the U.S. Navy. Because it resume his series of victories at
was the first major victory for the Fredericksburg in December of that year.
Confederacy since Bull Run, and because At Chancellorsville (May 1–4, 1863) he
it halted a succession of military rever- achieved another notable victory,
sals, Lee emerged overnight as the although outnumbered two to one, by
people’s hero, and his soldiers developed splitting up his army and encircling the
an almost mystical belief in him. enemy in one of the most audacious
Lee never believed that the moves in military history.
Confederate troops had the strength to But he was producing no more than a
win in the field; for the next two years his stalemate on the Virginia front, while
objectives were to keep the enemy as far Federal forces won important victories in
away as possible from the armament- other parts of the Confederacy, and time
producing centre of Richmond as well as was against him. While the Federals
from the northern part of the state, where always replaced their losses, Lee’s army
farmers were harvesting their crops, and, was dwindling in size, suffering an
finally, to inflict defeats of such decisive- irreplaceable drain in its command—
ness as to weaken the enemy’s will to particularly through the loss of Thomas
continue the war. To nullify the Federals’ J. “Stonewall” Jackson, who had been
superiority in manpower, armaments, mortally wounded at Chancellorsville—
and supply, Lee always sought to seize and increasingly acute shortages of food
the initiative by destroying the enemy’s and clothing, which undermined the
prearranged plans. physical condition of the soldiers.
Until the spring of 1864, he was suc- Largely to resupply his troops and to
cessful in keeping the enemy away from draw the invading armies out of Virginia,
Richmond and from the northern part of Lee once more crossed the Potomac. The
the state, twice expelling the enemy out first invasion had ended with the Battle
of Virginia altogether. He inflicted sev- of Antietam, and the second ended in
eral severe defeats on the enemy, most Lee’s repulse at Gettysburg (July 1–3,
Military Leaders | 169

1863). There, operating for the first time warfare. At Petersburg, Lee extended the
without Jackson, Lee was failed by three field fortifications into permanent lines
of his top generals in using the discre- that presaged trench warfare. While
tionary orders that had worked so Lee’s lines enabled him to withstand
effectively with Jackson, his “right arm.” Grant’s siege of the two cities from late
Then, in May 1864, Ulysses S. Grant, June 1864 to April 1, 1865, once his
the newly appointed commanding gen- mobile army was reduced to siege condi-
eral of all Union forces, drove at Lee with tions, Lee said the end would be “a mere
enormous superiority in numbers, arma- question of time.”
ments, and cavalry. The horses of the The time came on Sunday, April 2,
troopers of Confederate Gen. Jeb Stuart when his defensive lines were stretched
were in poor condition, and Stuart was so thin that the far right broke under
killed early in the campaign. Grant could massive assaults, and Lee was forced to
neither defeat nor outmaneuver Lee, evacuate Petersburg and at last uncover
however, and the superb army Grant Richmond. When the survivors of his
inherited sustained losses of 50,000 men army pulled out of the trenches, an ago-
in the May and early June battles of the nizing week of a forlorn retreat began for
Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, him; his men fell out from hunger, ani-
the North Anna, and Cold Harbor. mals dropped in the traces, and units
Grant, however, his losses replaced by dissolved under demoralized officers. At
fresh recruits, had advanced within seven Appomattox Court House on April 9,
miles of Richmond, while Lee, his soldiers 1865, his way west was blocked and there
too weakened physically and his officers was nothing left except to bear with dig-
too inexperienced to attempt countering nity the ordeal of surrender, which was
manoeuvres, had lost the initiative. Lee made less painful for him by Grant’s con-
himself was, moreover, physically declin- siderate behaviour.
ing and frequently incapacitated by
illness. When Grant, abandoning his Postwar Years
advance on Richmond, moved south and Position in History
of the James River to Petersburg—
Richmond’s rail connection with the Lee spent several months recuperating
South—Lee could only place his starving from the physical and mental strain of
tatterdemalions in defensive lines in front retreat and surrender, but he never
of Petersburg and Richmond. regained his health; however, both to
Beginning at Spotsylvania Court earn subsistence for his family and to set
House, Lee had nullified Grant’s num- an example for his unemployed fellow
bers by using his engineering experience officers, he accepted the post of president
to erect fortifications that were in advance of Washington College (later Washington
of any fieldworks previously seen in and Lee University) in Lexington, Va.
170 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

He died in 1870 at his home at in his rejection of war as a resolution of


Washington College. political conflicts—a fact that has been
Although history knows him mostly almost entirely ignored by posterity. As a
as “the Rebel General,” Lee was a disbe- U.S. Army colonel in Texas during the
liever in slavery and secession and was secession crises of late 1860, he wrote,
devoutly attached to the republic that his “[If] strife and civil war are to take the
father and kinsmen had helped bring into place of brotherly love and kindness, I
being. He was, moreover, very advanced shall mourn for my country and for the
welfare and progress of mankind.”
As the idol of a defeated people, Lee
served as an example of fortitude and
magnanimity during the ruin and dislo-
cations, the anguish and bitterness of
the war’s long aftermath. In those years,
he became an enduring symbol to the
Southern people of what was best in
their heritage.

James Longstreet
(b. Jan. 8, 1821, Edgefield District,
S.C.—d. Jan. 2, 1904, Gainesville, Ga.)

James Longstreet was one of the


Confederacy’s best-known generals. A
graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at
West Point, N.Y. (1842), he resigned from
the U.S. Army when his native state
seceded from the Union (December 1860);
he was made a brigadier general in the
Confederate Army. He fought in the first
The Lee Chapel and Museum, on and second battles of Bull Run, called
the campus of Washington and Lee First and Second Manassas by the Con-
University, Lexington, Va. The chapel
federates (July 1861; August–September
contains the crypt of Robert E. Lee
1862); was a division commander in the
and his family. Library of Congress,
Washington, D.C.; Carol M. Highsmith
Peninsular Campaign (March–July 1862);
Archive (digital fi le no. LC-DIG- and at Antietam (September 1862) and
pplot–13600-01102) Fredericksburg (November–December
1862) commanded what was soon called
Military Leaders | 171

the I Corps in the Army of Northern In 1830 Morgan’s parents moved


Virginia. Promoted to lieutenant general from Alabama to a farm near Lexington,
(1862), Longstreet participated in the Ky. He received a public-school educa-
Battle of Gettysburg as Gen. Robert E. tion in Lexington. In 1846 he enlisted in
Lee’s second in command. His delay in the army and saw action at Buena Vista
attacking and his slowness in organizing during the Mexican War.
“Pickett’s Charge,” his critics argue, were In the 1850s Morgan concentrated
responsible for the Confederate defeat at on his prosperous hemp-manufacturing
Gettysburg; others, however, place the business. In September 1861 he joined
blame on Lee, citing his inability to cope the Confederate army as a scout, but by
with unwilling officers. In September 1863 early 1862 he held the rank of captain and
Longstreet directed the attack at had a cavalry squadron under his com-
Chickamauga that broke the Federal lines. mand. He then launched lightning-like
He was severely wounded in the raids on Union supply lines in Kentucky
Wilderness Campaign. In November 1864, and Tennessee, avoiding open combat
although with a paralyzed right arm, he whenever possible. Swift movement,
resumed command of his corps. He sur- interruption of enemy telegraphic com-
rendered with Lee at Appomattox. munications, destruction of Union
After the war Longstreet became transportation facilities, and the dis-
unpopular in the South—partly because mounting of horse soldiers for combat
of his admiration for Pres. Ulysses S. characterized Morgan’s cavalry meth-
Grant and partly because he joined the ods. By April 1862 he had been promoted
Republican Party. He served as U.S. to colonel, and before the end of the year
minister to Turkey (1880–81) and com- he was a brigadier general in command
missioner of Pacific railways (1898–1904). of a cavalry division.
His reminiscences, From Manassas to Morgan began a new series of raids
Appomattox, appeared in 1896. in spring 1863 and was authorized to raid
Kentucky with 2,000 men in June and
John Hunt Morgan July. But Morgan went beyond his autho-
(b. June 1, 1825, Huntsville, Ala.—d. rization and on July 8 crossed the Ohio
Sept. 4, 1864, Greenville, Tenn.) River into Indiana. Hotly pursued by
Union troops and local forces, Morgan
John Hunt Morgan led and gave his name and his men were unable to inflict much
to “Morgan’s Raiders,” a Confederate damage and suffered heavy casualties.
guerrilla force best known for its July The raid succeeded only in taking Union
1863 attacks in Indiana and Ohio—the pressure off Gen. Braxton Bragg’s army
farthest north Confederate troops pene- and prolonging Confederate control of
trated during the Civil War. eastern Tennessee.
172 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

On July 19 most of Morgan’s men Mosby’s band struck isolated Union


surrendered, but Morgan rode on until posts in northern Virginia and Maryland
surrounded and captured near New in an effort to cut communications and
Lisbon, Ohio, on July 26. Four months disrupt supply lines. The rangers fur-
later, he escaped from the Ohio State nished their own guns (mostly revolvers),
Penitentiary, and by spring 1864 he was food, horses, and uniforms. They did not
back in command of a Confederate army keep a common camp, boarding instead
(the Department of Southwest Virginia). where they chose. At the end of a mission
He began raiding Kentucky once again or when danger threatened, they scat-
and then decided to attack Union forces tered, only to link up once again at a
at Knoxville, Tenn. But on Sept. 4, 1864, predetermined time and location. They
he was surprised by a Federal force at divided captured goods among them-
Greenville and killed while trying to selves, leading Union officials to regard
join his men. them as criminals rather than soldiers.
The lack of regimentation, combined
John Singleton Mosby with Mosby’s success as a commander,
(b. Dec. 6, 1833, Edgemont, Va.—d. May drew additional rangers to his band. The
30, 1916, Washington, D.C.) best known of their exploits took place
on March 9, 1863, when they slipped
Confederate ranger John Singleton through federal lines at Fairfax Court
Mosby led a guerrilla band that fre- House and captured a Union general
quently attacked and disrupted Union along with 100 of his men. This mission
supply lines in Virginia and Maryland. and subsequent triumphs earned Mosby
Reared near Charlottesville, Va., promotions to captain, major, and, even-
Mosby entered the University of Virginia tually (December 1864), colonel.
in 1849 and graduated in 1852. While By April 1865, Mosby had eight com-
there, he shot at and wounded a few stu- panies of well-equipped, well-trained
dents, but his resulting jail sentence was rangers under his command. But his last
later annulled by the state legislature. raid took place on April 10, the day fol-
In 1855 Mosby was admitted to the bar, lowing Robert E. Lee’s surrender at
and he practiced law in Bristol, Va., until Appomattox. On April 21, he disbanded
the start of the Civil War in 1861. his men, and two months later he person-
Enlisting in the Confederate cavalry, he ally surrendered.
saw action at Bull Run and spent most of Mosby returned to private law prac-
1862 as a scout with Gen. J.E.B. Stuart’s tice in Warrenton, Va. At first a hero to
forces. It was not until Jan. 2, 1863, that Southerners, he lost their admiration
Mosby, with just nine men, launched the when he entered politics as a Republican
ranger attacks for which he is best and backed Ulysses S. Grant for presi-
remembered. dent. From 1878 to 1885 he served as U.S.
Military Leaders | 173

consul at Hong Kong, and from 1904 to Ordered by Pres. Jefferson Davis to
1910 he was an assistant attorney in the hold Vicksburg at all costs, Pemberton
Justice Department. He wrote two books conducted a stubborn defense despite
about his war experiences: Mosby’s War his lack of adequate food, ammunition,
Reminiscences, and Stuart’s Cavalry and manpower. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant
Campaigns (1887) and Stuart’s Cavalry laid siege on both land and water, and
in the Gettysburg Campaign (1908). by early July 1863 the Confederate
defenders were suffering from starvation
John C. Pemberton and exhaustion. On July 4 Pemberton
(b. Aug. 10, 1814, Philadelphia, Pa.—d. accepted Grant’s terms for surrender.
July 13, 1881, Penllyn, Pa.) Shortly thereafter he resigned his com-
mission as lieutenant general and served
Confederate General John C. Pemberton out the balance of the war as an ordnance
is remembered for his tenacious but inspector with the rank of colonel.
ultimately unsuccessful defense of After Appomattox, Pemberton retired
Vicksburg. to a farm near Warrenton, Va. In 1876 he
Pemberton grew up and was edu- moved to Philadelphia.
cated in Philadelphia, entered the U.S.
Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., George E. Pickett
in 1833, and graduated four years later. (b. Jan. 25, 1825, Richmond, Va.—d.
He fought in the Mexican War and was July 30, 1875, Norfolk, Va.)
cited for bravery while participating in
many of the crucial battles of 1846 Confederate General George E. Pickett
and 1847. will forever be associated with the Battle
Upon the outbreak of the Civil War, of Gettysburg, where he led the disas-
Pemberton resigned his commission on trous assault on the centre of the Union
April 24, 1861, and went to Richmond to lines known as Pickett’s Charge.
offer his services to the Confederacy. After graduating last in his class from
Made a lieutenant colonel on April 28, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point,
1861, Pemberton began organizing the N.Y. (1846), Pickett served with distinction
cavalry and artillery in Virginia. On May in the Mexican War (1846–47). He resigned
8 he was promoted to colonel and on his commission in June 1861 and entered
June 17 to brigadier general; on Feb. 13, the Confederate Army, in which he was
1862, he became a major general in com- made brigadier general in February 1862.
mand of South Carolina, Georgia, and Pickett rose to major general in October
Florida. In October 1862 Pemberton was and was given command of a Virginia
made lieutenant general and given com- division. At the Battle of Fredericksburg
mand over Mississippi, Tennessee, and he commanded the centre of Gen. Robert
eastern Louisiana. E. Lee’s line but saw little action.
174 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

At Gettysburg (July 3, 1863) three with the Confederate Army in Missouri


brigades of Pickett’s division (4,300 men) but then, independently, put together a
constituted somewhat less than half the gang of guerrillas, who raided and
force in the climactic attack known as robbed towns and farms with Union
Pickett’s Charge. The attack was actually sympathies. The Union forces declared
under the command of Gen. James Quantrill’s Raiders to be outlaws; the
Longstreet. Its bloodily disastrous Confederates made them an official
repulse is often considered the turning troop in August 1862, giving Quantrill
point of the war. Although Pickett was the rank of captain.
much criticized and charged by some On Aug. 21, 1863, his troop of about
with cowardice, Lee retained him in divi- 450 men raided Lawrence, pillaging,
sional command throughout the Virginia burning, and killing. Two months later,
Campaign of 1864. Eight days before the donning Federal uniforms, the raiders
surrender at Appomattox (April 9, 1865), surprised a detachment of Union soldiers
Pickett’s division was almost destroyed at Baxter Springs, Kan., and slaughtered
at Five Forks while he was attending a about 90 of them. As the Civil War drew
shad bake. After the war he worked in an to a close, dissension caused Quantrill’s
insurance business in Norfolk, Va. followers to break up into smaller bands
to continue their criminal pursuits.
William C. Quantrill Quantrill was mortally wounded on a
(b. July 31, 1837, Canal Dover, Ohio—d. raid into Kentucky in May 1865.
June 6, 1865, Louisville, Ky.)
Raphael Semmes
The captain of a guerrilla band irregu- (b. Sept. 27, 1809, Charles County,
larly attached to the Confederate army, Md.—d. Aug. 30, 1877, Mobile, Ala.)
William C. Quantrill was notorious for
overseeing the sacking of the free-state As the commander of the Confederate
stronghold of Lawrence, Kan. (Aug. 21, man-of-war Alabama, Raphael Semmes
1863), in which at least 150 people were led daring raids on Union merchant ship-
burned or shot to death. ping during the middle two years of the
After growing up in Ohio, Quantrill Civil War.
taught school in Ohio and then Illinois Appointed a midshipman in the U.S.
and, in 1857, moved to Kansas, where he Navy in 1826, Semmes studied law
first tried farming, without much enthu- while awaiting orders and was admitted
siasm. By the end of 1860, while living to the bar in 1834. In the Mexican War
near Lawrence, he fell into thievery and (1846–48), he superintended the land-
murder, was charged with horse stealing, ing of troops at Veracruz (March 1847)
and began life on the run. After the out- and marched inland to Mexico City with
break of the Civil War he first served Gen. Winfield Scott.
Military Leaders | 175

When Alabama, his home state, Ewell Brown (“Jeb”) Stuart resigned his
seceded from the Union (January 1861), commission to share in the defense of his
Semmes resigned his commission as state when Virginia seceded from the
commander, and with the outbreak of Union (April 1861). At the First Battle of
war in April he received a similar appoint- Bull Run (First Manassas) that July, he
ment in the Confederate Navy. After distinguished himself by his personal
capturing 17 Union merchant ships while bravery. Later in the year he was pro-
in command of the packet Sumter, he was moted to brigadier general and placed in
assigned to command the Alabama, command of the cavalry brigade of the
newly built in England. Between 1862 Army of Northern Virginia. Just before
and 1864 he made a series of brilliant and the Seven Days’ Battle—fought in June
successful cruises, capturing, sinking, or 1862 in defense of Richmond—Stuart was
burning 82 Union ships valued at more sent out by Confederate Gen. Robert E.
than $6,000,000. Finally he met the Lee to locate the right flank of the Federal
Union ship Kearsarge in the English army under Gen. George B. McClellan.
Channel and, after a 90-minute battle, He not only successfully achieved his
was forced to surrender. After being res- mission but also rode completely around
cued from the water by an English yacht, McClellan’s army to deliver his report to
he rested in Switzerland and returned to Lee. In the next campaign he had the
the Confederacy via Mexico. good fortune, in his raid against Federal
As a rear admiral, Semmes subse- communications, to bring back a staff
quently helped command the Confederate document from which Lee was able to
Navy in the James River. After the war discover the strength and position of
he returned to Mobile to practice law. He Federal forces.
also wrote several books on the Mexican Stuart, promoted to a major general
and Civil wars. and commander of the cavalry corps,
was present at the Second Battle of Bull
Jeb Stuart Run (Second Manassas, August 1862)
(b. Feb. 6, 1833, Patrick county, Va., and again circled the Federal army,
U.S.—d. May 12, 1864, Yellow Tavern, returning with 1,200 enemy horses.
near Richmond, Va.) During the Maryland campaign that fol-
lowed, he brilliantly defended one of the
Confederate cavalry officer Jeb Stuart passes of South Mountain (Crampton’s
provided reports of enemy troop move- Gap), thus enabling Lee to concentrate
ments that were of particular value to his army in time to meet McClellan’s
Robert E. Lee and the Southern com- attack. By the winter of 1862 Stuart’s
mand during the Civil War. extraordinary skill as an intelligence offi-
An 1854 graduate of the U.S. Military cer was fully recognized, and Lee called
Academy at West Point, N.Y., James him the “eyes of the army.”
176 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

At the Battle of Fredericksburg cavalry forces. In attempting to keep the


(December 1862) Stuart’s horse artillery enemy from reaching Richmond, during
rendered valuable service by checking the engagement generally known as
the Federal attack on Gen. Thomas J. Spotsylvania Courthouse, Stuart’s army
“Stonewall” Jackson’s corps. The follow- met defeat (May 11), and he himself was
ing May at the Battle of Chancellorsville, mortally wounded at close range the
Stuart was appointed by Lee to take com- next day.
mand of the 2nd Army Corps after
Jackson had been wounded. Joseph Wheeler
The next campaign at Gettysburg, (b. Sept. 10, 1836, near Augusta, Ga.—d.
Pa. (July 1863), was preceded by the Jan. 25, 1906, Brooklyn, N.Y.)
cavalry Battle of Brandy Station (June 9),
at which for the first time Stuart and his Joseph Wheeler entered the U.S. cavalry
men were met by worthy opposition from after graduating from the U.S. Military
the Federal cavalry. The Confederates’ Academy at West Point, N.Y., in 1859 but
northward march to the Potomac River resigned to join the Confederate cavalry.
was screened by Stuart’s cavalry corps, He commanded a brigade at the
which held the various approaches on Battle of Shiloh (April 6–7, 1862), but
the right flank of the army. Stuart’s con- soon afterward he returned to the cav-
duct at Gettysburg was long a subject of alry arm, in which he won a reputation
controversy. Though ordered by Lee to second only to Gen. Jeb Stuart’s. After
deploy his cavalry as a screen while also the action of Perryville he was promoted
gathering intelligence for the advanc- to brigadier general and, in 1863, to
ing Confederate army, Stuart instead major general. Throughout the cam-
struck off on a raid, was delayed, and paigns of Chickamauga, Chattanooga,
arrived at Gettysburg too late to provide and Atlanta, he commanded the cavalry
Lee with vital information on the posi- of the Confederate Army in the west and
tions and movements of the Union forces. was given the task of harassing Gen.
When Stuart did rejoin Lee’s army at William Tecumseh Sherman’s army dur-
Gettysburg on July 2, the battle had ing its march to the sea. In the closing
already begun, and his exhausted forces operations of the war, with the rank of
were of little help. lieutenant general, he commanded the
Throughout the winter of 1863–64 cavalry of Gen. Joseph Johnston’s weak
Stuart continued to supply the Confederate army in North Carolina and was included
command with accurate knowledge of in its surrender.
Northern troop movements. But soon In 1898, during the Spanish–American
after the opening of the 1864 campaign War, Wheeler commanded the cavalry in
his corps was drawn away from Lee’s the actions of Guasimas and San Juan.
army by Gen. Philip Sheridan’s Federal He wrote The Santiago Campaign (1898).
CHAPTER 8
Non-Military
Leaders
T he contributions of the following civilians—encompassing
those engaged in the highest levels of politics, medicine,
engineering, journalism, and more—helped shape the form,
tone, and trajectory of the war.

THE UNION

Charles Francis Adams


(b. Aug. 18, 1807, Boston, Mass.—d. Nov. 21,
1886, Boston)

Diplomat Charles Francis Adams played an important role


in keeping Britain neutral during the Civil War and in pro-
moting the arbitration of the important Alabama claims.
The son of Pres. John Quincy Adams and the grand-
son of Pres. John Adams, Charles was introduced early on
to a cosmopolitan way of life when his father was appointed
minister to Russia in 1809. In the 1840s Charles Adams
served for six years as a member of the Massachusetts leg-
islature and as the editor of a party journal, the Boston
Whig. He felt, however, that the Whigs should take a more
forthright position against the extension of slavery into
the territories. When, in 1848, the so-called Conscience
Whigs broke with the party to form the antislavery Free-
Soil Party, Adams received the vice-presidential nomination
of the new coalition.
178 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

The emergence of the Republican damage done by the Alabama to Federal


Party in 1856 offered Adams the perma- merchant vessels. From 1871 to 1872
nent political affiliation he was seeking, Adams served as U.S. arbiter on the
and he was elected to the U.S. Congress international commission that met at
from his father’s old district in 1858. Geneva to settle the Alabama claims.
When the Republicans won at the polls During this long and taxing period
two years later, Adams was named in Anglo-American relations, Adams’
ambassador to Great Britain by his close judicious and balanced conduct greatly
friend William H. Seward, the new secre- enhanced the reputation of his coun-
tary of state. try abroad.
When Adams arrived in London one
month after the war broke out, he found Clara Barton
that Great Britain had already recog- (b. Dec. 25, 1821, Oxford, Mass.—d.
nized Confederate belligerency. So April 12, 1912, Glen Echo, Md.)
much sympathy was shown in England
for the South that Adams’ path for the Long before she founded the American
next seven years was strewn with diffi- Red Cross in 1881, Clara Barton earned a
culties, but his logic, reserve, and reputation for compassionate caring dur-
directness appealed to the British, and ing the Civil War.
gradually he won their support. His At the outbreak of the war, Barton,
main mission was to prevent the British who had initially worked as a school-
from abandoning neutrality, and, with teacher, showed characteristic initiative
the issuance of the Emancipation in organizing facilities to recover sol-
Proclamation (Jan. 1, 1863), the immedi- diers’ lost baggage and in securing
ate danger of diplomatic recognition of medicine and supplies for men wounded
the South was over. in the first battle of Bull Run. She gained
Adams then laboured to prevent permission to pass through the battle
the building or the outfitting at British lines to distribute supplies, search for
shipyards of privateers for Confederate the missing, and nurse the wounded.
use. He had not been able to prevent Barton carried on this work through the
the sailing of the highly effective remainder of the Civil War, traveling
commerce destroyer Alabama in May with the army as far south as Charleston
1862, but his vigorous protestations of in 1863. In June 1864 she was formally
the obligations of neutrals succeeded appointed superintendent of nurses for
in preventing further launchings. the Army of the James. In 1865, at the
Furthermore, he persistently argued request of Pres. Abraham Lincoln, she
the British government’s responsibility set up a bureau of records to aid in the
for the estimated $6 million worth of search for missing men.
Non-Military Leaders | 179

Edward Bates the Lecompton Constitution. As a


(b. Sept. 4, 1793, Goochland county, Va., Southern-born border-state politician,
U.S.—d. March 25, 1869, St. Louis, Mo.) Bates attracted support for the 1860
Republican presidential nomination. His
Whig politician Edward Bates joined the followers believed he could maintain
Republican Party before the Civil War party principles opposing the extension
and served as Abraham Lincoln’s attor- of slavery without alienating the South
ney general. and provoking secession.
Educated largely at home, Bates When Bates’s presidential bid failed,
moved from Virginia to Missouri in 1814 the triumphant Lincoln offered his erst-
and shortly thereafter began the study of while rival a choice of Cabinet positions.
law. By 1816 he was practicing law in St. Bates chose the attorney generalship,
Louis. Over the next decade he served in
a number of territorial and state offices.
Elected in 1826 to a term in the U.S.
House of Representatives, Bates was
defeated in a bid for a Senate seat by fol-
lowers of Democrat Thomas Hart Benton.
As a Whig in a strongly pro–Andrew
Jackson state, Bates also lost his reelec-
tion attempt in 1828 for another term in
the House.
Although his career in national poli-
tics was largely dormant for more than
three decades, Bates served in the
Missouri legislature, drew national atten-
tion as president of the River and Harbor
Improvement Convention of 1847, and in
1850 declined appointment as secretary
of war during the administration of Whig
Millard Fillmore. After serving as presi-
dent of the Whig convention of 1856, he
broke with the party and joined the newly
created Republican Party.
Bates had long been a free-soil advo-
cate. He freed his own slaves, opposed Edward Bates. Library of Congress,
the Kansas–Nebraska Bill, and spoke out Washington, D.C.
against the admission of Kansas under
180 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

and for a time exercised some influence slavery to the U.S. territories. He vigor-
in the administration. But he opposed ously opposed Pres. James Knox Polk’s
the admission of West Virginia as a Mexican War policy and voted against
state, the subjugation of constitutional the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-
rights to military control, and the increas- Nebraska Bill (1854), and the attempt to
ing power of the Radical Republicans. admit Kansas as a slave state. Bell’s tem-
On Nov. 24, 1864, weary of a position in perate support of slavery, combined with
which he wielded little authority, Bates his vigorous defense of the Union,
resigned as attorney general. He returned brought him the presidential nomination
to Missouri and fought the Radical on the Constitutional Union ticket in
Republicans in his home state by writing 1860, but he carried only Virginia,
newspaper articles and letters to promi- Kentucky, and Tennessee.
nent citizens. Bell initially opposed secession.
However, following Pres. Abraham
John Bell Lincoln’s call for troops, he openly advo-
(b. Feb. 15, 1797, near Nashville, cated resistance and henceforth classed
Tenn.—d. Sept. 10, 1869, Dover, Tenn.) himself a rebel. Bell spent the war years
in retirement in Georgia, returning to
John Bell was the presidential nominee Tennessee in 1865.
of the Constitutional Union party in the
1860 election. Mary Ann Bickerdyke
Bell entered the U.S. House of (b. July 19, 1817, Knox county, Ohio—d.
Representatives in 1827 and served there Nov. 8, 1901, Bunker Hill, Kan.)
as a Democrat until 1841. He broke with
Pres. Andrew Jackson in 1834 and sup- Mary Ann Bickerdyke was the organizer
ported Hugh Lawson White for president and chief of nursing, hospital, and wel-
in 1836. After White’s defeat, Bell became fare services for the Western armies
a Whig and, in March 1841, as a reward under the command of Gen. Ulysses S.
for party services, was made secretary of Grant during the Civil War.
war in Pres. William Henry Harrison’s Mary Ann Ball grew up in the houses
Cabinet. A few months later, after the of various relatives. She attended Oberlin
death of President Harrison, he resigned College and later studied nursing. In
in opposition to Pres. John Tyler’s break 1847 she married a widower, Robert
with the Whigs. Bickerdyke, who died in 1859. Thereafter
After six years’ retirement from polit- Mary Ann Bickerdyke supported herself
ical life, Bell was elected as a U.S. senator in Galesburg, Illinois, by the practice of
for Tennessee in 1847, serving in the “botanic” medicine.
Senate until 1859. Although a large slave- Soon after the outbreak of the Civil
holder, Bell opposed efforts to expand War, she volunteered to accompany and
Non-Military Leaders | 181

distribute a collection of supplies taken she was brutal, succeeding in having


up for the relief of wounded soldiers at a several dismissed. She retained her posi-
makeshift army hospital in Cairo, Ill. On tion largely through the influence of
her arrival there she found conditions to Grant, Sherman, and others who recog-
be extremely unsanitary, and she set to nized the value of her services. After the
work immediately at cleaning, cooking, war Bickerdyke continued to work tire-
and nursing. She became matron when a lessly with and on behalf of veterans and
general hospital was organized in Cairo the disadvantaged.
in November 1861.
Following the fall of Fort Donelson in John Bigelow
February 1862, Bickerdyke made a num- (b. Nov. 25, 1817, Bristol, N.Y.—d. Dec.
ber of forays onto the battlefield to search 19, 1911, New York, N.Y.)
for wounded. Such exploits began to
attract general attention. Her alliance As U.S. consul in Paris during the Civil
with the U.S. Sanitary Commission War, John Bigelow prevented the deliv-
began about this time. ery of warships constructed in France for
Bickerdyke soon attached herself to the Confederacy.
the staff of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, by Long the managing editor and, with
whom she was given a pass for free trans- the poet William Cullen Bryant, part
portation anywhere in his command. She owner of the New York Evening Post
followed Grant’s army down the (1849–61), Bigelow also was a principal
Mississippi River, setting up hospitals as adviser of the Republican Party’s first
they were needed, and later accompanied presidential candidate, John Charles
the forces of Gen. William Tecumseh Frémont. Appointed consul in Paris
Sherman on their march through Georgia (1861), Bigelow adroitly gained support
to the sea. Through her efforts, provi- for the Union cause, emphasizing ideo-
sions were made for frequent medical logical considerations to the French
examinations and transporting men who liberal press and the trading potential
could no longer walk. Under Bickerdyke’s of the Northern industrial states to
supervision, about 300 field hospitals French businessmen. In France and the
were built with the help of U.S. Sanitary Confederate Navy, 1862–1868 (1888), he
Commission agents. recounted the episode of the French-
Having scavenged supplies and built warships, which, if manned by
equipment and established mobile laun- Confederate crews, might have broken
dries and kitchens, Bickerdyke had the Union blockade of the South. As U.S.
generally endeared herself to the minister to France (April 1865–September
wounded and sick, among whom she 1866), he dealt tactfully with the problem
became known as “Mother” Bickerdyke. of the French-backed Mexican empire
To incompetent officers and physicians of Maximilian. Bigelow also was the
182 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

discoverer and first editor of Benjamin The Civil War project ruined Brady
Franklin’s long-lost Autobiography. financially. He had invested $100,000 in
it and had bought supplies on credit,
Mathew B. Brady confident that the government would
(b. c. 1823, near Lake George, N.Y.—d. buy his photographs after the war ended.
Jan. 15, 1896, New York, N.Y.) The government, however, showed no
interest. The financial panic of 1873
Well-known 19th-century photographer forced him to sell his New York studio
Mathew B. Brady was celebrated for his and declare bankruptcy. He was unable
portraits of politicians and his photo- to pay the storage bill for his negatives,
graphs of the Civil War. which the War Department finally
Brady learned to make daguerreo- bought at public auction for $2,840.
types from Samuel F.B. Morse. In 1844 he Through the efforts of his friends in gov-
opened the first of two studios in New ernment, Brady was finally granted
York City and began photographing $25,000 by Congress in 1875, but he
famous people, including Daniel Webster, never regained financial solvency and
Edgar Allan Poe, and Henry Clay. In 1847 died alone and virtually forgotten in a
Brady opened a studio in Washington, hospital charity ward.
D.C., and there created, copied, and col-
lected portraits of U.S. presidents. He Simon Cameron
achieved international fame with A (b. March 8, 1799, Maytown,
Gallery of Illustrious Americans (1850). Pa.—d. June 26, 1889, Donegal
At the outbreak of the Civil War in Springs, Pa.)
1861, Brady decided to make a complete
record of that conflict. He hired a staff of After being Pennsylvania’s favourite-son
about 20 photographers, the best known candidate for the presidential nomination
of whom were Alexander Gardner and at the Republican National Convention
Timothy H. O’Sullivan, and dispatched in 1860, Simon Cameron threw his
them throughout the war zones. Brady’s support to Abraham Lincoln, thereby
main activities in the endeavour involved gaining a seat in Lincoln’s Cabinet as
organizing and supervising the opera- the secretary of war. He administered
tion of his employees and studios; he the War Department with such favourit-
himself probably photographed only ism, however, that Lincoln replaced him
occasionally on such battlefields as Bull with Edwin M. Stanton (Jan. 11, 1862),
Run, Antietam, and Gettysburg. Since and Cameron was censured for his con-
Brady refused to give individual credit duct by the House of Representatives.
to photographers, a number of them, Lincoln then appointed him minister to
including Gardner and O’Sullivan, left Russia, from which post he resigned
his employ. (Nov. 8, 1862).
Non-Military Leaders | 183

In 1867 Cameron returned to the secession of Southern states and the for-
Senate (where he had represented mation of the Confederacy were legal
Pennsylvania in 1845–49 and again in nullities. She held that the general rebel-
1857–61), serving as chairman of the lion was merely the sum of individual
Foreign Relations Committee from 1872. acts of rebellion, and the states would
He wielded such power in Republican automatically resume their former rela-
circles that he was able to obtain the tion to the central government when the
appointment of his son as secretary of rebellion had been put down; therefore,
war by Pres. Ulysses S. Grant. the executive power superseded the leg-
islative in prosecuting both war and
Anna Ella Carroll reconstruction. This theory was precisely
(b. Aug. 29, 1815, near Pokomoke City, that under which Pres. Abraham Lincoln
Somerset County, Md.—d. Feb. 19, 1894, exercised wartime authority and which
Washington, D.C.) he pressed against the competing claims
of Congress.
Political pamphleteer and constitutional In mid-1862, in the belief that she had
theorist Anna Ella Carroll claimed she a firm agreement to be paid for her ser-
played a role in determining Union strat- vices—a former assistant secretary of war
egy during the Civil War. had made her some vague assurances—
From a prominent family, Carroll Carroll carried a demand for $50,000 all
emerged in the 1850s as a spokes- the way to Lincoln and was rebuffed. She
person for the virulently anti-Catholic continued to press her claim in various
and anti-foreign Know-Nothing Party. ways, but in 1870 it was eclipsed by a far
She published a series of lectures on the more spectacular one, namely, that she
“Catholic menace” in 1854 and The Great had originated the military strategy that
American Battle, a Know-Nothing apol- had broken the Confederacy.
ogy, in 1856. In the latter year she In 1861 she had visited St. Louis,
campaigned widely for Millard Fillmore, Missouri, and there met Charles Scott, a
the Know-Nothing candidate for presi- riverboat pilot and amateur strategist
dent. At the outbreak of the Civil War, who outlined to her his plan for a Union
she settled in Washington, D.C., and invasion of the South along the Tennessee
began writing letters, articles, and pam- River. Later that year she submitted a
phlets in support of the Union. lengthy memorandum to the War
In The War Powers of the General Department on the plan, crediting Scott.
Government (1861) and The Relation of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s successful drive
the National Government to the Revolted up the Tennessee to Forts Henry and
Citizens Defined (1862), both published Donelson in February 1862 seemed to
at her own expense, Carroll outlined a prove that the Scott plan had been
constitutional theory under which the adopted, and as late as 1865 Carroll
184 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

acknowledged Scott’s authorship pub- Union Party triumphed in Maryland, and


licly. In 1870, however, she claimed it it was largely due to Davis that Maryland
herself and petitioned Congress for pay- did not secede. When the Union Party
ment. By various questionable means she crumbled in the face of secession, Davis
secured affidavits from a number of found himself without a party. On June
prominent people, and apparently altered 13, 1861, he lost his reelection race to a
many of the documents to strengthen pro-Southerner.
their positions. Her petitions and memo- As a private citizen, Davis toured the
rials to Congress continued to appear North, becoming a national figure while
until her death. While the claim was speaking for the Union. Increasingly,
never officially accepted, she became however, he took issue with Lincoln’s
something of a cause célèbre among wartime policies, especially the suspen-
feminists. sion of habeas corpus. A Republican at
odds with his party’s leader, he was none-
Henry Winter Davis theless elected once again to the House
(b. Aug. 16, 1817, Annapolis, Md.—d. of Representatives in 1863. He continued
Dec. 30, 1865, Baltimore, Md.) to criticize Lincoln and members of the
cabinet, and before long he had become a
A Maryland unionist during the seces- highly influential member of the House.
sion crisis, Henry Winter Davis was a In response to Lincoln’s plan for
harsh critic of Abraham Lincoln and the reconstruction, Davis formulated the con-
coauthor of the congressional plan for gressional policy that became embodied
Reconstruction during the Civil War. in the Wade-Davis Bill. This bill stymied
A lawyer intent upon a political the conciliatory policy Lincoln planned
career, Davis joined the Whig Party and toward the South by placing reconstruc-
campaigned for Winfield Scott in 1852. tion in the hands of Congress. The bill
As the Whig Party faded during the required a majority of voters (not Lincoln’s
1850s, Davis’ conservatism and apparent 10 percent) to establish a legal govern-
lack of interest in the sectional crisis led ment in a seceded state. It disfranchised a
him to the Know-Nothing Party. In 1854 large number of former Confederates (not
he ran successfully on the Know-Nothing just the Confederate leadership) and com-
ticket for a seat in the U.S. House of pelled immediate emancipation, rather
Representatives. than, according to the presidential plan,
During the second half of the 1850s, leaving individual states to handle eman-
Davis tried to avoid taking sides between cipation on their own.
North and South. But in 1860 he aligned The Wade-Davis Bill passed the House
himself with the House Republicans, and Senate, but Lincoln pocket-vetoed it,
even though he backed the Union Party enraging Davis, who lost his House seat
in that year’s presidential contest. The in 1864.
Non-Military Leaders | 185

Stephen A. Douglas of the Committee on Territories, he was


(b. April 23, 1813, Brandon, Vt.—d. particularly prominent in the bitter
June 3, 1861, Chicago, Ill.) debates between North and South on the
extension of slavery westward. Trying to
The leader of the Democratic Party and remove the onus from Congress, he devel-
an orator who espoused the cause of pop- oped the theory of popular sovereignty
ular sovereignty in relation to the issue (originally called squatter sovereignty),
of slavery in the territories before the under which the people in a territory
Civil War, Stephen A. Douglas was re- would themselves decide whether to
elected senator from Illinois in 1858 after permit slavery within their region’s
a series of eloquent debates with the boundaries. Douglas himself was not a
Republican candidate, Abraham Lincoln, slaveholder, though his wife was. He was
who defeated him in the presidential race influential in the passage of the
two years later. Compromise of 1850, which tried to main-
Douglas left New England at the age tain a congressional balance between
of 20 to settle in Jacksonville, Ill., where free and slave states. The organization of
he quickly rose to a position of leadership the Utah and New Mexico territories
in the Illinois Democratic Party. In 1843 under popular sovereignty was a victory
he was elected to the U.S. House of for his doctrine.
Representatives. One of its youngest The climax of Douglas’ theory was
members, Douglas gained early promi- reached in the Kansas-Nebraska Act
nence as a dedicated worker and gifted (1854), which substituted local options
speaker. Heavyset and only five feet four toward slavery in the Kansas and
inches tall, he was dubbed the “Little Nebraska territories for that of congres-
Giant” by his contemporaries. sional mandate, thus repealing the
Douglas embraced a lifelong enthu- Missouri Compromise of 1820. The act’s
siasm for national expansion, giving passage was a triumph for Douglas,
consistent support to the annexation of although he was bitterly condemned and
Texas (1845), the Mexican War (1846–48), vilified by antislavery forces. A strong
taking a vigorous stance toward Great contender for the Democratic presiden-
Britain in the Oregon boundary dispute tial nomination in both 1852 and 1856, he
(1846), and advocating both government was too outspoken to be chosen by a
land grants to promote transcontinental party that was still trying to bridge the
railroad construction and a free home- sectional gap.
stead policy for settlers. The Supreme Court struck indi-
Douglas was elected in 1846 to the rectly at popular sovereignty in the
U.S. Senate. There he became deeply Dred Scott decision (1857), which held
involved in the nation’s search for a solu- that neither Congress nor territorial
tion to the slavery problem. As chairman legislatures could prohibit slavery in a
186 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

territory. The following year Douglas James B. Eads


engaged in a number of widely publicized (b. May 23, 1820, Lawrenceburg, Ind.,
debates with Lincoln in a close contest U.S.—d. March 8, 1887, Nassau, Bah.)
for the Senate seat in Illinois. Although
Lincoln won the popular vote, Douglas James B. Eads, a wealthy self-educated
was elected 54 to 46 by the legislature. In engineer best known for his triple-arch
the debates, Douglas enunciated his steel bridge over the Mississippi River at
famous “Freeport Doctrine,” which stated St. Louis, Mo., also invented a “subma-
that the territories could still determine rine” that he used to make a fortune in
the existence of slavery through salvage. As the Civil War threatened,
unfriendly legislation and the use of Eads foresaw the struggle that would
police power, in spite of the Supreme take place for control of the Mississippi
Court decision. As a result, Southern system, and he advanced a radical idea.
opposition to Douglas intensified, and he He proposed that ironclad steam-pow-
was denied reappointment to the com- ered warships of shallow draft be built to
mittee chairmanship he had previously operate on the rivers.
held in the Senate. The U.S. government was slow to
When the “regular” (Northern) take up his offer to build such a flotilla.
Democrats nominated him for president When it did, Eads built the ships in
in 1860, the Southern wing broke away record time, working 4,000 men on day
and supported a separate ticket headed and night shifts seven days a week. The
by John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky. novel craft he set afloat spearheaded
Although Douglas received only 12 elec- Grant’s offensive against Forts Henry
toral votes, he was second to Lincoln in and Donelson, the first important Union
the number of popular votes polled. victories of the war. They continued to
Douglas then urged the South to acqui- play a conspicuous role under Andrew
esce in the results of the election. At the Foote and David Farragut at Memphis,
outbreak of the Civil War, he denounced Island No. 10, Vicksburg, and Mobile
secession as criminal and was one of the Bay. The vessels were the first ironclads
strongest advocates of maintaining the to fight in North America and the first in
integrity of the Union at all costs. At the world to engage enemy warships.
President Lincoln’s request, he under- (The Monitor and Merrimack, both iron-
took a mission to the Border States and clads that battled in the Civil War, were
to the Northwest to rouse Unionist sen- the first such vessels to close against
timents among their citizenry. Douglas’s each other in combat.)
early and unexpected death was partly Immediately after the war, Eads was
the result of these last exertions on behalf chosen to direct a construction project of
of the Union. extraordinary difficulty, the bridging of
Non-Military Leaders | 187

the Mississippi at St. Louis. Eads was the the Constitution. His desire for compro-
first U.S. engineer to be honoured with mise ended at the outbreak of the Civil
the Albert Medal of the Royal Society of War, throughout which he traveled and
Arts in London. spoke in support of the Union cause.

Edward Everett Barbara Hauer Frietschie


(b. April 11, 1794, Dorchester, Mass.—d. (b. Dec. 3, 1766, Lancaster, Pa.—d. Dec.
Jan. 15, 1865, Boston, Mass.) 18, 1862, Frederick, Md.)

Statesman and orator Edward Everett is Union patriot Barbara Frietschie became
mainly remembered for delivering the the focus of highly embellished legend
speech immediately preceding Pres. and the subject of literary treatment when
Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address she purportedly defied Confederate invad-
(Nov. 19, 1863) at the ceremony dedicat- ers of Maryland in September 1862.
ing the Gettysburg National Cemetery When the Army of Northern Virginia
(Pa.) during the Civil War. marched through Frederick, Md., on
By 1820 Everett had established a for- September 10, the troops passed
midable reputation as a lecturer and orator, Frietschie’s house, and she may have
based on careful preparation, an extraor- waved a small Union flag from the porch
dinary memory, and brilliance of style and or a second-floor window. There may also
delivery. He served in the U.S. House of have been some small incident as a result.
Representatives (1825–35), as governor Whatever the actual case, the story soon
of Massachusetts (1835–39), and as U.S. grew up in Frederick that Frietschie, who
minister to England (1841–45). With his was known to be intensely patriotic, had
election as president of Harvard in 1846, somehow confronted the Confederate
he withdrew from politics for several years, army. The story’s connection with fact
returning in 1852 as secretary of state dur- was broken by Frietschie’s death in 1862.
ing the last four months of Pres. Millard The tale was heard by the novelist
Fillmore’s administration. In 1853 he Emma D.E.N. Southworth, who passed
entered the U.S. Senate, but his generally it on to John Greenleaf Whittier. In
conciliatory stand on the issue of slavery October 1863 Whittier published in the
aroused the ire of his abolitionist constitu- Atlantic Monthly his verse version,
ents, and he resigned the following year. “Barbara Frietchie,” in which the story of
In 1860 Everett was the unsuccessful Frietschie’s encounter with Gen. Thomas
vice presidential candidate of the J. “Stonewall” Jackson was much elabo-
Constitutional Union Party, which sought rated. Whittier’s version quickly became
to bridge sectional differences by stress- canonical, and the enduring popularity
ing common devotion to the Union and of the poem kept Frietschie’s name alive.
188 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

Despite its meagre factual basis—the one erupted in 1861, assisted Brady in his
thing known certainly of the events of effort to make a complete photographic
that day is that Jackson did not pass record of the conflict. Brady, however,
Frietschie’s house—the endurance of the refused to give Gardner public credit for
tale led to the erection of a memorial in his work. Gardner therefore left Brady in
1913 and the building in 1926 of a replica 1863, opened a portrait gallery in
of her house, the original having been Washington, and continued to photo-
razed a few years after her death. graph the hostilities on his own.
Gardner’s photographs “President
Alexander Gardner Lincoln on the Battlefield of Antietam”
(b. Oct. 17, 1821, Paisley, Renfrew, (1862) and “Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter,
Scot.—d. 1882, Washington, D.C.) Gettysburg” (1863) and his portraits of
Abraham Lincoln are among the best-
Scots immigrant Andrew Gardner, who known photographs of the war period.
was working as a portrait photographer Gardner’s Photographic Sketch Book of the
for Mathew B. Brady when the Civil War Civil War, a two-volume collection of 100

Dead Confederate soldier at the foot of Little Round Top, Gettysburg, Pa., July 1863.
Photograph by Alexander Gardner. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Non-Military Leaders | 189

original prints, was published in 1866. partisan balance to Lincoln. Although


When Brady petitioned Congress to buy Lincoln rarely consulted him in office,
his photographs of the war, Gardner pre- Hamlin was an early supporter of eman-
sented a rival petition, claiming that it cipation and the arming of freedmen,
was he, not Brady, who had originated the steps that Lincoln later adopted. After
idea of providing the nation with a photo- failing to secure renomination in 1864—
graphic history of the conflict. Congress an outcome in which Lincoln played a
eventually bought both collections. decisive role—he became collector of
the port of Boston, but he resigned in
Hannibal Hamlin 1866 when he found himself out of step
(b. Aug. 27, 1809, Paris Hill, Maine—d. with the policies of Pres. Andrew
July 4, 1891, Bangor, Maine) Johnson. Elected to the Senate again
(1869–81), Hamlin supported radical
The 15th vice president of the United Reconstruction.
States (1861–65), Hannibal Hamlin served
in the first Republican administration of B. F. Isherwood
Pres. Abraham Lincoln. (b. Oct. 6, 1822, New York City—d.
An antislavery Jacksonian Democrat, June 19, 1915, New York City)
Hamlin served in the Maine state legis-
lature (1836–40). He was elected to the Naval engineer Benjamin Franklin
United States House of Representatives Isherwood was greatly responsible for
in 1842 and to the Senate in 1848. In his the development of the Union navy’s
first term as a senator, he took an anti- steam-powered fleet during the Civil War.
slavery position on sectional issues, and Having learned mechanics and engi-
left the Democratic Party in 1856 because neering while working on railroads, at
of its endorsement of the Kansas- various U.S. Treasury lighthouses, and at
Nebraska Act (1854), which proponents the Novelty Iron Works (New York City),
of abolitionism had attacked as a capitu- Isherwood joined the Engineer Corps of
lation to the interests of the slave states. the U.S. Navy in 1844, serving thereafter
He was elected Maine’s first Republican on several ships and land-based posts.
governor (1856) but resigned in February After the Civil War began, he became
1857 to return to the Senate. engineer in chief of the Union navy and,
The Republican National Convention in 1862, the first chief of its Bureau of
of 1860 nominated Hamlin for vice Steam Engineering. At the beginning of
president—a post he said he would have the war the navy had but 28 steam-
declined had he attended the conven- powered ships and boats; by the end of
tion in Chicago—in the belief that as the war it had about 600. Isherwood
an Easterner and former Democrat oversaw the design and construction of
he would provide both regional and most of these ships and, in large part,
190 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

personally designed the machinery and small farmers against the interests of
hulls of ships of the Wampanoag class, the landed classes. In that role, he was
which, when built, were the world’s fast- sent to Washington for 10 years as a
est at 17 3/4 knots. U.S. representative (1843–53), after which
he served as governor of Tennessee
Andrew Johnson (1853–57). Elected a U.S. senator in 1856,
(b. Dec. 29, 1808, Raleigh, N.C., U.S.—d. he generally adhered to the dominant
July 31, 1875, near Carter Station, Tenn.) Democratic views favouring lower tariffs
and opposing antislavery agitation.
The 17th president of the United States Johnson had achieved a measure
(1865–69), Andrew Johnson took office of prosperity and owned a few slaves
upon the assassination of Pres. Abraham himself. In 1860, however, he broke dra-
Lincoln during the closing months of the matically with the party when, after
Civil War. His lenient Reconstruction Lincoln’s election, he vehemently
policies toward the South embittered the opposed Southern secession. When
Radical Republicans in Congress and led Tennessee seceded in June 1861, he alone
to his political downfall and to his among the Southern senators remained
impeachment, though he was acquitted. at his post and refused to join the
Confederacy. Sharing the race and class
Early Life and Career prejudice of many poor white people in
his state, he explained his decision:
Born into poverty, Johnson never attended “Damn the negroes, I am fighting those
school, and he taught himself to read and traitorous aristocrats, their masters.”
write. After a short apprenticeship as a Although denounced throughout the
tailor, he moved with his family to South, he remained loyal to the Union. In
Greeneville, Tenn., where he opened his recognition of this unwavering support,
own tailor shop. From a book containing Lincoln appointed him (May 1862) mili-
some of the world’s great orations he tary governor of Tennessee, by then
began to learn history. Another subject under federal control.
he studied was the Constitution of the
United States, which he was soon able to The Presidency
recite from memory in large part.
Before he was 21, Johnson organized To broaden the base of the Republican
a workingman’s party. Elected to the state Party to include loyal “war” Democrats,
legislature (1835–43), he found a natural Johnson was selected to run for vice
home in the states’ rights Democratic president on Lincoln’s reelection ticket of
Party of Andrew Jackson and emerged 1864. His first appearance on the national
as the spokesman for mountaineers and stage was a fiasco. On Inauguration Day
Non-Military Leaders | 191

he imbibed more whiskey than he should with a guarantee of suffrage to blacks,


have to counter the effects of a recent ill- was not supported by majority opinion
ness, and he swayed on his feet and nationwide. He was reluctant to insist on
stumbled over his words. He embar- suffrage for blacks in the South when it
rassed his colleagues in the administration had not been granted in the North. He
and dismayed onlookers. Northern news- believed that placing power over whites
papers were appalled. His detractors later in the hands of former slaves would cre-
seized on this incident to accuse him of ate an intolerable situation.
habitual drunkenness. Less than five Johnson’s vetoing of two important
weeks later he was president. pieces of legislation aimed at protecting
Thrust so unexpectedly into the White blacks, an extension of the Freedman’s
House (April 14, 1865), Johnson was faced Bureau Bill and the Civil Rights Act of
with the enormously vexing problem of 1866, was disastrous. His vetoes united
reconstructing the Union and settling the Moderate and Radical Republicans in
future of the former Confederate states. outrage and further polarized a situa-
Congressional Radical Republicans, who tion already filled with acrimony.
favoured severe measures toward the Congress at first failed to override the
defeated yet largely impenitent South, Freedman’s Bureau veto (a second
were disappointed with the new presi- attempt carried the measure) but suc-
dent’s program, with its lenient policies ceeded with the Civil Rights Act; it was
begun by Lincoln and its readmission of the first instance of a presidential veto’s
seceded states into the Union with few being overridden. In addition, Congress
provisions for reform or civil rights for passed the Fourteenth Amendment to
freedmen—who, although emancipated, the Constitution, conferring citizenship
were destitute, uneducated, and subject on all people born or naturalized in the
to exploitation and mistreatment. This United States and guaranteeing them
element in Congress was outraged at the equal protection under the law. Against
return of power to traditional white aris- Johnson’s objections, the amendment
tocratic hands and protested the was ratified.
emergence of restrictive black codes In the congressional elections of
aimed at controlling and suppressing the 1866, Johnson undertook an 18-day
former slaves. The Republican majority speaking tour throughout the Midwest,
refused to seat the Southern congress- which he called “a swing around the cir-
men and set up a Joint Committee of cle,” in order to explain and defend his
Fifteen on Reconstruction. Johnson policies and defeat congressional candi-
viewed their actions as a usurpation of dates opposing them. His effort proved a
his power, and he believed that continued failure. His speeches were often rabble-
punitive measures in the South, along rousing and ill-tempered as he tried to
192 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

deal with hecklers sympathetic to the Senate’s concurrence certain federal offi-
Radicals. In Indianapolis, Indiana, a con- cers whose appointments had originally
frontation with a crowd led to violence in been made by and with the advice and
which one man was killed. A result was consent of the Senate. The question of
sweeping electoral victories everywhere the power of the president in this matter
for the Radicals. With strong majorities had long been a controversial one.
in the House and Senate, they would now Johnson plunged ahead and dismissed
have sufficient votes to override any from office Secretary of War Edwin M.
presidential veto of their bills. The presi- Stanton—the Radicals’ ally within his
dent was unable to block legislation that cabinet— to provide a court test of the
tipped the balance of power to Congress act’s constitutionality. In response, the
over the Chief Executive. House of Representatives voted articles
In March 1867 the new Congress of impeachment against the president—
passed, over Johnson’s veto, the first of the first such occurrence in U.S. history.
the Reconstruction acts, providing for While the focus was on Johnson’s
suffrage for male freedmen and military removal of Stanton in defiance of the
administration of the Southern states. Tenure of Office Act, the president was
With Reconstruction virtually taken out also accused of bringing “into disgrace,
of his hands, the president, by exercising ridicule, hatred, contempt, and reproach
his veto and by narrowly interpreting the the Congress of the United States.” The
law, managed to delay the program so evidence cited was chiefly culled from
seriously that he contributed materially the speeches he had made during his
to its failure. He maintained that the “swing around the circle.” What was at
Reconstruction acts were unconstitu- stake in the trial was not only the fate of
tional because they were passed without a president but the very nature of the fed-
Southern representation in Congress. eral government. If Congress were able
Seen as being aloof, gruff, and undiplo- to remove the president, then, many
matic, Johnson constantly antagonized Americans believed, the United States
the Radicals. They became his sworn would be a dictatorship run by the lead-
enemies. ers of Congress.
In a theatrical proceeding before
Impeachment the Senate, presided over by Chief
Justice Salmon P. Chase, the charges
Johnson played into the hands of his proved weak, despite the passion with
enemies by an imbroglio over the Tenure which they were argued, and the key
of Office Act, passed the same day as the votes (May 16 and 26, 1868) fell one
Reconstruction acts. It forbade the chief short of the necessary two-thirds for
executive from removing without the conviction, seven Republicans voting
Non-Military Leaders | 193

Andrew Johnson’s impeachment trial in the Senate, 1868. Library of Congress, Washington,
D.C. (neg. no. lc-usz61-269)

with Johnson’s supporters. These men During his remaining days in office, he
had been placed under the keenest pres- extended his grants of amnesty to all of
sure to vote to convict. One of them, the former rebels. The vexing problem
Edmund Ross of Kansas, declared that, of black suffrage was addressed by
as he cast his ballot, “I almost literally Congress’s passage of the Fifteenth
looked into my open grave.” When a Amendment (ratified during the ensuing
messenger brought Johnson the news administration of Ulysses S. Grant),
that the Senate had failed to convict which forbade denial of suffrage on the
him, he wept, declaring that he would basis of “race, color, or previous condi-
devote the remainder of his life to restor- tion of servitude.” At the 1868 Democratic
ing his reputation. National Convention, Johnson received
Despite his exoneration, Johnson’s a modest number of votes, but he did not
usefulness as a national leader was over. actively seek renomination.
194 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

Abraham Lincoln after launching his legal career, Lincoln


(b. Feb. 12, 1809, near Hodgenville, had made himself one of the most distin-
Ky.—d. April 15, 1865, Washington, D.C.) guished and successful lawyers in
Illinois. He was noted not only for his
The 16th president of the United States shrewdness and practical common sense,
(1861–65), Abraham Lincoln preserved the which enabled him always to see to the
Union during the Civil War and brought heart of any legal case, but also for his
about the emancipation of the slaves. invariable fairness and utter honesty
Among American heroes, Lincoln (earning the nickname “Honest Abe”).
continues to have a unique appeal for his
fellow countrymen and also for people of Early Politics
other lands. This charm derives from his
remarkable life story—the rise from hum- When Lincoln first entered politics,
ble origins, the dramatic death—and his Andrew Jackson was president. Lincoln
distinctively human and humane per- shared the sympathies that the
sonality, as well as from his historical Jacksonians professed for the common
role as saviour of the Union and emanci- man, but he disagreed with the Jacksonian
pator of the slaves. His relevance endures view that the government should be
and grows especially because of his elo- divorced from economic enterprise. “The
quence as a spokesman for democracy. legitimate object of government,” he was
In his view, the Union was worth saving later to say, “is to do for a community of
not only for its own sake but because it people whatever they need to have done,
embodied an ideal—the ideal of self- but cannot do at all, or cannot do so well,
government. for themselves, in their separate and indi-
vidual capacities.” Among the prominent
Early Life politicians of his time, he most admired
Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, who
Born in a Kentucky log cabin, Lincoln advocated using the powers of the fed-
moved to Indiana in 1816 and to Illinois eral government to encourage business
in 1830. After working as a storekeeper, a and develop the country’s resources by
rail-splitter, a postmaster, and a surveyor, means of a national bank, a protective
he enlisted as a volunteer in the Black tariff, and a program of internal improve-
Hawk War (1832) and was elected captain ments for facilitating transportation. In
of his company. He taught himself law Lincoln’s view, Illinois, and the West as a
and, having passed the bar examination, whole, desperately needed such aid for
began practicing in Springfield, Ill., in economic development. From the outset,
1836. By the time he began to be promi- he associated himself with the party of
nent in national politics, about 20 years Clay and Webster, the Whigs.
Non-Military Leaders | 195

Abraham Lincoln, 1863. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

As a Whig member of the Illinois mob murder of Elijah Lovejoy, an anti-


State Legislature, to which he was elected slavery newspaperman of Alton, the
four times from 1834 to 1840, Lincoln legislature introduced resolutions con-
devoted himself to a grandiose project demning abolitionist societies and
for constructing with state funds a net- defending slavery in the Southern states
work of railroads, highways, and canals. as “sacred” by virtue of the federal
Whigs and Democrats joined in passing Constitution. Lincoln refused to vote for
an omnibus bill for these undertakings, the resolutions. Together with a fellow
but the panic of 1837 and the ensuing member, he drew up a protest that
business depression brought about the declared, on the one hand, that slavery
abandonment of most of them. While in was “founded on both injustice and bad
the legislature he demonstrated that, policy” and, on the other, that “the
though opposed to slavery, he was no promulgation of abolition doctrines tends
abolitionist. In 1837, in response to the rather to increase than to abate its evils.”
196 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

During his single term in Congress The Road to the Presidency


(1847–49), Lincoln, as the lone Whig
from Illinois, gave little attention to For about five years Lincoln took little
legislative matters. He proposed a bill part in politics, and then a new sectional
for the gradual and compensated eman- crisis gave him a chance to reemerge
cipation of slaves in the District of and rise to statesmanship. In 1854 his
Columbia, but, because it was to take political rival Stephen A. Douglas
effect only with the approval of the maneuvered through Congress a bill for
“free white citizens” of the district, it reopening the entire Louisiana Purchase
displeased abolitionists as well as to slavery and allowing the settlers of
slaveholders and never was seriously Kansas and Nebraska (with “popular
considered. sovereignty”) to decide for themselves
Lincoln devoted much of his time whether to permit slaveholding in those
to presidential politics—to unmaking territories. The Kansas-Nebraska Act
one president, a Democrat, and making provoked violent opposition in Illinois
another, a Whig. He found an issue and a and the other states of the old Northwest.
candidate in the Mexican War. With his It gave rise to the Republican Party
“spot resolutions,” he challenged the while speeding the Whig Party on its
statement of Pres. James K. Polk that way to disintegration. Along with many
Mexico had started the war by shedding thousands of other homeless Whigs,
American blood on American soil. Along Lincoln soon became a Republican
with other members of his party, Lincoln (1856). Before long, some prominent
voted to condemn Polk and the war while Republicans in the East talked of attract-
also voting for supplies to carry it on. At ing Douglas to the Republican fold, and
the same time, he laboured for the nomi- with him his Democratic following in
nation and election of the war hero the West. Lincoln would have none of it.
Zachary Taylor. He was determined that he, not Douglas,
After Taylor’s success at the polls, should be the Republican leader of his
Lincoln expected to be named commis- state and section.
sioner of the general land office as a Lincoln challenged the incumbent
reward for his campaign services. He Douglas for the Senate seat in 1858, and
was bitterly disappointed when he failed the series of debates they engaged in
to get the job. His criticisms of the war, throughout Illinois was political oratory
meanwhile, had not been popular among of the highest order. Both men were
the voters in his own congressional dis- shrewd debaters and accomplished
trict. At the age of 40, frustrated in stump speakers, though they could
politics, he seemed to be at the end of his hardly have been more different in style
public career. and appearance—the short and pudgy
Non-Military Leaders | 197

Douglas, whose stentorian voice and He agreed with Thomas Jefferson


graceful gestures swayed audiences, and other founding fathers, however,
versus the tall, homely, almost emaciated- that slavery should be merely con-
looking Lincoln, who moved awkwardly tained, not directly attacked. In fact,
and whose voice was piercing and shrill. when it was politically expedient to do
Lincoln’s prose and speeches, however, so, he reassured his audiences that he
were eloquent, pithy, powerful, and free of did not endorse citizenship for blacks or
the verbosity so common in communica- believe in the equality of the races. “I
tion of his day. The debates were published am not, nor ever have been, in favour of
in 1860, together with a biography of bringing about in any way the social
Lincoln, in a best-selling book that Lincoln and political equality of the white and
himself compiled and marketed as part of black races,” he told a crowd in
his campaign. Charleston, Illinois. “I am not nor ever
In their basic views, Lincoln and have been in favour of making voters or
Douglas were not as far apart as they jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying
seemed in the heat of political argument. them to hold office, nor to intermarry
Neither was abolitionist or pro-slavery. with white people.” There is, he added,
But Lincoln, unlike Douglas, insisted “a physical difference between the
that Congress must exclude slavery white and black races which I believe
from the territories. He disagreed with will forever forbid the two races living
Douglas’s belief that the territories were together on terms of social and political
by nature unsuited to the slave economy equality.” Lincoln drove home the incon-
and that no congressional legislation sistency between Douglas’s “popular
was needed to prevent the spread of sovereignty” principle and the Dred
slavery into them. In one of his most Scott decision (1857), in which the U.S.
famous speeches, he said: “A house Supreme Court held that Congress could
divided against itself cannot stand. I not constitutionally exclude slavery
believe the government cannot endure from the territories.
permanently half slave and half free.” In the end, Lincoln lost the election
He predicted that the country eventu- to Douglas. Although the outcome did
ally would become “all one thing, or all not surprise him, it depressed him
the other.” Again and again he insisted deeply. Lincoln had, nevertheless, gained
that the civil liberties of every U.S. citi- national recognition and soon began to
zen, white as well as black, were at stake. be mentioned as a presidential prospect
The territories must be kept free, he fur- for 1860.
ther said, because “new free states” were On May 18, 1860, after Lincoln and
“places for poor people to go and better his friends had made skillful prepara-
their condition.” tions, he was nominated on the third
198 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

Election poster of the Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin, campaign of 1860, litho-
graph. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

ballot at the Republican National With the Republicans united, the


Convention in Chicago. He then put Democrats divided, and a total of four
aside his law practice and, though mak- candidates in the field, Lincoln carried
ing no stump speeches, gave full time the election on November 6. Although
to the direction of his campaign. His he received no votes from the Deep
“main object,” he had written, was South and no more than 40 out of 100 in
to “hedge against divisions in the the country as a whole, the popular
Republican ranks,” and he counseled votes were so distributed that he won a
party workers to “say nothing on points clear and decisive majority in the elec-
where it is probable we shall disagree.” toral college.
Non-Military Leaders | 199

U.S. President Abraham Lincoln (seated centre) and his cabinet, with Lieutenant General
Winfield Scott, in the council chamber at the White House, lithograph, 1866. Library of
Congress, Washington, D.C.

President Lincoln guaranteeing slavery forever in the


states where it already existed and divid-
After Lincoln’s election and before his ing the territories between slavery and
inauguration, the state of South Carolina freedom. Although Lincoln had no objec-
proclaimed its withdrawal from the tion to the first of these amendments, he
Union. To forestall similar action by other was unalterably opposed to the second
Southern states, various compromises and indeed to any scheme infringing in
were proposed in Congress. The most the slightest on the free-soil plank of his
important, the Crittenden Compromise, party’s platform. “I am inflexible,” he pri-
included constitutional amendments vately wrote. He feared that a territorial
200 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

division, by sanctioning the principle of the property, and places belong-


slavery extension, would only encourage ing to the government, and to
planter imperialists to seek new slave collect the duties and imposts;
territory south of the American border but beyond what may be neces-
and thus would “put us again on the high- sary for these objects, there will
road to a slave empire.” From his home be no invasion—no using of force
in Springfield he advised Republicans in against, or among the people
Congress to vote against a division of anywhere.
the territories, and the proposal was
killed in committee. Six additional states Then, near the end, addressing the
then seceded and, with South Carolina, absent Southerners, he said, “You can
combined to form the Confederate States have no conflict, without being your-
of America. selves the aggressors.”
Thus, before Lincoln had even
moved into the White House, a disunion Outbreak of War
crisis was upon the country. Attention,
by the North and South, focused in par- No sooner was he in office than Lincoln
ticular upon Fort Sumter, in Charleston received word that the Sumter garrison,
Harbor, South Carolina. This fort, still unless supplied or withdrawn, would
under construction, was garrisoned shortly be starved out. Still, for about a
by U.S. troops under Major Robert month, Lincoln delayed acting. He was
Anderson. The Confederacy claimed it beset by contradictory advice. On the
and, from other harbour fortifications, one hand, General Scott, Secretary of
threatened it. Foreseeing trouble, Lincoln, State William H. Seward, and others
while still in Springfield, confidentially urged him to abandon the fort.
requested Winfield Scott, general in Additionally, Seward, through a go-
chief of the U.S. Army, to be prepared between, gave a group of Confederate
“to either hold, or retake, the forts, as commissioners to understand that the
the case may require, at, and after, the fort would in fact be abandoned. On the
inauguration.” other hand, many Republicans insisted
In his inaugural address (March 4, that any show of weakness would bring
1861), besides upholding the Union’s disaster to their party and to the Union.
indestructibility and appealing for sec- Finally Lincoln ordered the preparation
tional harmony, Lincoln restated his of two relief expeditions, one for Fort
Sumter policy as follows: Sumter and the other for Fort Pickens, in
Florida. (He afterward said he would
The power confided to me, will be have been willing to withdraw from
used to hold, occupy, and possess Sumter if he could have been sure of
Non-Military Leaders | 201

holding Pickens.) Before the Sumter Lincoln’s primary aim was neither to
expedition, he sent a messenger to tell provoke war nor to maintain peace. In
the South Carolina governor: preserving the Union, he would have
been glad to preserve the peace also, but
I am directed by the President of he was ready to risk a war that he thought
the United States to notify you to would be short.
expect an attempt will be made to After the firing on Fort Sumter,
supply Fort-Sumpter [sic] with Lincoln called upon the state governors
provisions only; and that, if such for troops. (Virginia and three other
attempt be not resisted, no effort states of the upper South responded by
to throw in men, arms, or ammuni- joining the Confederacy). He then pro-
tion, will be made, without further claimed a blockade of the Southern ports.
notice, or in case of an attack These steps—the Sumter expedition, the
upon the Fort. call for volunteers, and the blockade—
were the first important decisions of
Without waiting for the arrival of Lincoln as commander in chief of the
Lincoln’s expedition, the Confederate army and navy. But he still needed a stra-
authorities presented to Major Anderson tegic plan and a command system for
a demand for Sumter’s prompt evacua- carrying it out.
tion, which he refused. On April 12, 1861, General Scott advised him to avoid
at dawn, the Confederate batteries in the battle with the Confederate forces in
harbour opened fire. Virginia, to get control of the Mississippi
“Then, and thereby,” Lincoln informed River, and, by tightening the blockade,
Congress when it met on July 4, “the hold the South in a gigantic squeeze.
assailants of the Government, began the Lincoln had little confidence in Scott’s
conflict of arms.” The Confederates, comparatively passive and bloodless
however, accused him of being the real “Anaconda” plan. He believed the war
aggressor. They said he had cleverly must be actively fought if it ever was to
maneuvered them into firing the first be won. Overruling Scott, he ordered a
shot so as to put upon them the onus of direct advance on the Virginia front,
war guilt. Although some historians which resulted in defeat and rout for the
have repeated this charge, it appears to federal forces at Bull Run (July 21, 1861).
be a gross distortion of the facts. Lincoln After a succession of more or less sleep-
was determined to preserve the Union, less nights, Lincoln produced a set of
and to do so he thought he must take a memorandums on military policy. His
stand against the Confederacy. He con- basic thought was that the armies should
cluded he might as well take this stand advance concurrently on several fronts
at Sumter. and should move so as to hold and use
202 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

the support of Unionists in Missouri, practice, he was willing to experiment


Kentucky, western Virginia, and eastern with another.
Tennessee. As he later explained: From 1861 to 1864, while hesitating to
impose his ideas upon his generals,
I state my general idea of this war Lincoln experimented with command
to be that we have the greater personnel and organization. Accepting
numbers, and the enemy has the the resignation of Scott (November 1861),
greater facility of concentrating he put George B. McClellan in charge of
forces upon points of collision; the armies as a whole. After a few months,
that we must fail, unless we can disgusted by the slowness of McClellan
find some way of making our (“He has the slows,” as Lincoln put it),
advantage an over-match for his; he demoted him to the command of the
and that this can only be done Army of the Potomac alone. He ques-
by menacing him with superior tioned the soundness of McClellan’s
forces at different points, at the plans for the Peninsular Campaign,
same time. repeatedly compelled McClellan to alter
them, and, after the Seven Days’ Battles
This, with the naval blockade, com- to capture Richmond, Virginia (June
prised the essence of Lincoln’s strategy. 25–July 1, 1862), failed, ordered him to
give them up. Then he tried a succession
Leadership in War of commanders for the army in Virginia
—John Pope, McClellan again, Ambrose
As a war leader, Lincoln employed the E. Burnside, Joseph Hooker, and George
style that had served him as a politician— Gordon Meade—but was disappointed
a description of himself, incidentally, that with each of them in turn. Meanwhile, he
he was not ashamed to accept. He pre- had in Henry W. Halleck a general in
ferred to react to problems and to the chief who gave advice and served as a
circumstances that others had created liaison with field officers but who shrank
rather than to originate policies and lay from making important decisions.
out long-range designs. In candour he For nearly two years the Federal
would write, “I claim not to have con- armies lacked effective unity of command.
trolled events, but confess plainly that President Lincoln, General Halleck, and
events have controlled me.” His guiding War Secretary Edwin M. Stanton acted
rule was, “My policy is to have no policy.” as an informal council of war. Lincoln,
It was not that he was unprincipled; besides transmitting official orders
rather, he was a practical man, mentally through Halleck, also communicated
nimble and flexible, and, if one action directly with the generals, sending per-
or decision proved unsatisfactory in sonal suggestions in his own name.
Non-Military Leaders | 203

To generals opposing Robert E. Lee, for men and supplies was Secretary of
he suggested that the object was to War Stanton. Serving as a presidential
destroy Lee’s army, not to capture adviser and as a liaison with military
Richmond or to drive the invader from men was Halleck, the chief of staff. And
Northern soil. directing all the armies, while accompa-
Finally Lincoln looked to the West nying Meade’s Army of the Potomac, was
for a top general. He admired the Grant, the general in chief. Thus Lincoln
Vicksburg Campaign of Ulysses S. Grant pioneered in the creation of a high com-
in Mississippi. Nine days after the mand, an organization for amassing all
Vicksburg surrender (which occurred on the energies and resources of a people in
July 4, 1863), he sent Grant a “grateful the grand strategy of total war. He com-
acknowledgment for the almost inesti- bined statecraft and the overall direction
mable service” he had done the country. of armies with an effectiveness that
Lincoln sent also an admission of his increased year by year. His achievement
own error. He said he had expected Grant is all the more remarkable in view of his
to bypass Vicksburg and go on down the lack of training and experience in the
Mississippi, instead of crossing the river art of warfare. This lack may have been
and turning back to approach Vicksburg an advantage as well as a handicap.
from the rear. “I feared it was a mistake,” Unhampered by outworn military dogma,
he wrote in his letter of congratulations. Lincoln could all the better apply his
“I now wish to make the personal practical insight and common sense—
acknowledgment that you were right, and some would say his military genius—to
I was wrong.” the winning of the Civil War.
In March 1864 Lincoln promoted There can be no doubt of Lincoln’s
Grant to lieutenant general and gave him deep and sincere devotion to the cause
command of all the federal armies. At of personal freedom. Before his election
last Lincoln had found a man who, with to the presidency he had spoken often
such able subordinates as William T. and eloquently on the subject. In 1854,
Sherman, Philip Sheridan, and George for example, he said he hated the
H. Thomas, could put into effect those Douglas attitude of indifference toward
parts of Lincoln’s concept of a large-scale, the possible spread of slavery to new
coordinated offensive that still remained areas. “I hate it because of the mon-
to be carried out. Grant was only a mem- strous injustice of slavery itself,” he
ber, though an important one, of a declared. “I hate it because it deprives
top-command arrangement that Lincoln our republican example of its just influ-
eventually had devised. Overseeing ence in the world; enables the enemies of
everything was Lincoln himself, the com- free institutions with plausibility to taunt
mander in chief. Taking the responsibility us as hypocrites . . .” In 1855, writing to
204 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

his friend Joshua Speed, he recalled a appealed to him to enforce these laws,
steamboat trip the two had taken on the Lincoln patiently replied (Aug. 22, 1862):
Ohio River 14 years earlier. “You may
remember, as I well do,” he said, “that My paramount object in this
from Louisville [Kentucky] to the mouth struggle is to save the Union, and
of the Ohio there were, on board, ten or a is not either to save or to destroy
dozen slaves, shackled together with slavery. If I could save the Union
irons. That sight was a continual tor- without freeing any slave I would
ment to me; and I see something like it do it; and if I could save it by free-
every time I touch the Ohio, or any other ing all the slaves I would do it;
slave-border.” and if I could save it by freeing
Yet, as president, Lincoln was at first some and leaving others alone, I
reluctant to adopt an abolitionist policy. would also do that.
There were several reasons for his hesi-
tancy. He had been elected on a platform Meanwhile, in response to the rising
pledging no interference with slavery antislavery sentiment, Lincoln came
within the states, and in any case he forth with an emancipation plan of his
doubted the constitutionality of federal own. According to his proposal, the
action under the circumstances. He was slaves were to be freed by state action,
concerned about the possible difficulties the slaveholders were to be compensated,
of incorporating nearly four million the federal government was to share the
African Americans, once they had been financial burden, the emancipation pro-
freed, into the nation’s social and politi- cess was to be gradual, and the freedmen
cal life. Above all, he felt that he must were to be colonized abroad. Congress
hold the border slave states in the Union, indicated its willingness to vote the nec-
and he feared that an abolitionist pro- essary funds for the Lincoln plan, but
gram might impel them, in particular his none of the border slave states were will-
native Kentucky, toward the Confederacy. ing to launch it, and in any case few
So he held back while others went ahead. African American leaders desired to see
When Gen. John C. Frémont and Gen. their people sent abroad.
David Hunter, within their respective While still hoping for the eventual
military departments, proclaimed free- success of his gradual plan, Lincoln took
dom for the slaves of disloyal masters, quite a different step by issuing his pre-
Lincoln revoked the proclamations. liminary (Sept. 22, 1862) and his final
When Congress passed confiscation acts (Jan. 1, 1863) Emancipation Proclamation.
in 1861 and 1862, he refrained from a full This famous decree, which he justified
enforcement of the provisions authoriz- as an exercise of the president’s war
ing him to seize slave property. And when powers, applied only to those parts of
Horace Greeley in the New York Tribune the country actually under Confederate
Non-Military Leaders | 205

control, not to the loyal slave states nor Republican majority, was not to meet
to the federally occupied areas of the until after the lame duck session of the
Confederacy. Directly or indirectly, the old Congress during the winter of
proclamation brought freedom during 1864–65. Lincoln did not wait. Using his
the war to fewer than 200,000 slaves. Yet resources of patronage and persuasion
it had great significance as a symbol. It upon certain of the Democrats, he man-
indicated that the Lincoln government aged to get the necessary two-thirds vote
had added freedom to reunion as a war before the session’s end. He rejoiced as
aim, and it attracted liberal opinion in the amendment went out to the states for
England and Europe to increased sup- ratification. His own Illinois led off the
port of the Union cause. ratification, and other states followed one
Lincoln himself doubted the consti- by one in acting favourably upon it.
tutionality of his step, except as a Lincoln deserves his reputation as
temporary war measure. After the war, the Great Emancipator. His claim to that
the slaves freed by the proclamation honour, if it rests uncertainly upon his
would have risked re-enslavement had famous proclamation, has a sound basis
nothing else been done to confirm their in the support he gave to the antislavery
liberty. But something else was done: the amendment. It is well founded also in his
Thirteenth Amendment was added to greatness as the war leader who carried
the Constitution, and Lincoln played a the nation safely through the four-year
large part in bringing about this change struggle that brought freedom in its
in the fundamental law. Through the train. And, finally, it is strengthened by
chairman of the Republican National the practical demonstrations he gave of
Committee he urged the party to include respect for human worth and dignity,
a plank for such an amendment in its regardless of colour. During the last two
platform of 1864. The plank, as adopted, years of his life he welcomed African
stated that slavery was the cause of the Americans as visitors and friends in a
rebellion, that the president’s proclama- way no president had done before. One
tion had aimed “a death blow at this of his friends was the distinguished for-
gigantic evil,” and that a constitutional mer slave Frederick Douglass, who
amendment was necessary to “terminate once wrote, “In all my interviews with
and forever prohibit” it. Mr. Lincoln I was impressed with his
When Lincoln was reelected on this entire freedom from prejudice against
platform and the Republican majority in the colored race.”
Congress was increased, he was justified
in feeling, as he apparently did, that he Wartime Politics
had a mandate from the people for the
Thirteenth Amendment. The newly cho- To win the war, Lincoln had to have
sen Congress, with its overwhelming popular support. The reunion of North
206 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

and South required, first of all, a certain L. Vallandigham of Ohio, to banishment


degree of unity in the North. But the within the Confederate lines. In dealing
North contained various groups with with those suspected of treasonable
special interests of their own. Lincoln intent, Lincoln at times authorized his
faced the task of attracting to his generals to make arbitrary arrests. He
administration the support of as many justified this action on the ground that he
divergent groups and individuals as had to allow some temporary sacrifice of
possible. Accordingly, he gave much of parts of the Constitution in order to
his time and attention to politics, which maintain the Union and thus preserve
in one of its aspects is the art of attract- the Constitution as a whole. He let his
ing such support. Fortunately for the generals suspend several newspapers,
Union cause, he was a president with but only for short periods, and he
rare political skill. He had the knack of promptly revoked a military order sup-
appealing to fellow politicians and talk- pressing the hostile Chicago Times. In a
ing to them in their own language. He letter to one of his generals he expressed
had a talent for smoothing over per- his policy thus:
sonal differences and holding the
loyalty of men antagonistic to one You will only arrest individuals
another. Inheriting the spoils system, and suppress assemblies or news-
he made good use of it, disposing of papers when they may be working
government jobs in such a way as to palpable injury to the military in
strengthen his administration and fur- your charge, and in no other case
ther its official aims. will you interfere with the expres-
The opposition party remained alive sion of opinion in any form or allow
and strong. Its membership included it to be interfered with violently by
war Democrats and peace Democrats, others. In this you have a discre-
often called “Copperheads,” a few of tion to exercise with great caution,
whom collaborated with the enemy. calmness, and forbearance.
Lincoln did what he could to cultivate
the assistance of the war Democrats, as Considering the dangers and provo-
in securing from Congress the timely cations of the time, Lincoln was quite
approval of the Thirteenth Amendment. liberal in his treatment of political oppo-
So far as feasible, he conciliated the peace nents and the opposition press. He was
Democrats. He heeded the complaints of by no means the dictator critics often
one of them, Governor Horatio Seymour accused him of being. Nevertheless, his
of New York, in regard to the draft quota abrogating of civil liberties, especially
for that state. He commuted the prison his suspension of the privilege of the writ
sentence of another, Congressman Clement of habeas corpus, disturbed Democrats,
Non-Military Leaders | 207

Republicans, and even members of his on many matters regarding the conduct
own cabinet. In the opinion of a soldier and purposes of the war. Two main fac-
from Massachusetts, the president, “with- tions arose: the “Radicals” and the
out the people having any legal means “Conservatives.” Lincoln himself inclined
to prevent it, is only prevented from in spirit toward the Conservatives, but he
exercising a Russian despotism by the had friends among the Radicals as well,
fear he may have of shocking too much and he strove to maintain his leadership
the sense of decency of the whole world.” over both. In appointing his cabinet, he
Even Lincoln’s friend Orville Hickman chose his several rivals for the 1860
Browning believed the arrests ordered nomination and, all together, gave repre-
by the president were “illegal and arbi- sentation to every important party
trary, and did more harm than good, group. Wisely he included the outstand-
weakening instead of strengthening the ing Conservative, Seward, and the
government.” Yet Lincoln defended his outstanding Radical, Salmon P. Chase.
actions, arguing that the Constitution Cleverly he overcame cabinet crises
provided for the suspension of such lib- and kept these two opposites among his
erties “in cases of Rebellion or Invasion, official advisers until Chase’s resignation
[when] the public Safety may require it.” in 1864.
Moreover, posed Lincoln with rhetorical Lincoln had to deal with even more
flare, “Must I shoot a simpleminded sol- serious factional uprisings in Congress.
dier boy who deserts” and “not touch a The big issue was the “reconstruction” of
hair of a wilely agitator who induces him the South. The seceded states of
to desert?” Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee hav-
Within his own party, Lincoln con- ing been largely recovered by the federal
fronted factional divisions and personal armies, Lincoln, late in 1863, proposed
rivalries that caused him as much trouble his “10 percent plan,” according to which
as did the activities of the Democrats. new state governments might be formed
True, he and most of his fellow partisans when 10 percent of the qualified voters
agreed fairly well upon their principal had taken an oath of future loyalty to the
economic aims. With his approval, the United States. The Radicals rejected
Republicans enacted into law the essen- Lincoln’s proposal as too lenient, and
tials of the program he had advocated they carried through Congress the Wade-
from his early Whig days—a protective Davis Bill, which would have permitted
tariff, a national banking system, and the remaking and readmission of states
federal aid for internal improvements, in only after a majority had taken the loy-
particular for the construction of a rail- alty oath. When Lincoln pocket-vetoed
road to the Pacific Coast. The Republicans that bill, its authors published a “mani-
disagreed among themselves, however, festo” denouncing him.
208 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

Lincoln was already the candidate of and illusory though they were. In a public
the “Union” (that is, the Republican) letter, he stated his own conditions:
party for reelection to the presidency,
and the Wade-Davis manifesto signaled Any proposition which embraces
a movement within the party to displace the restoration of peace, the
him as the party’s nominee. He waited integrity of the whole Union, and
quietly and patiently for the movement the abandonment of slavery,
to collapse, but even after it had done so, and which comes by and with
the party remained badly divided. A rival an authority that can control
Republican candidate, John C. Frémont, the armies now at war against the
nominated much earlier by a splinter United states will be received
group, was still in the field. Leading and considered by the Executive
Radicals promised to procure Frémont’s government of the United States,
withdrawal if Lincoln would obtain the and will be met by liberal terms
resignation of his conservative post- on other substantial and collat-
master general, Montgomery Blair. eral points.
Eventually Frémont withdrew and Blair
resigned. The party was reunited in time When Conservatives protested to
for the election. him against the implication that the war
In 1864, as in 1860, Lincoln was the must go on to free the slaves, even after
chief strategist of his own electoral cam- reunion had been won, he explained, “To
paign. He took a hand in the management me it seems plain that saying reunion
of the Republican Speakers’ Bureau, and abandonment of slavery would be
advised state committees on campaign considered, if offered, is not saying that
tactics, hired and fired government nothing else or less would be considered,
employees to strengthen party support, if offered.” After his reelection, in his
and did his best to enable as many sol- annual message to Congress, he said, “In
diers and sailors as possible to vote. stating a single condition of peace, I
Most of the citizens in uniform voted mean simply to say that the war will
Republican. He was reelected with a cease on the part of the government,
large popular majority (55 percent) over whenever it shall have ceased on the part
his Democratic opponent, Gen. George of those who began it.” On Feb. 3, 1865,
B. McClellan. he met personally with Confederate com-
In 1864 the Democratic platform missioners on a steamship in Hampton
called for an armistice and a peace con- Roads, Virginia. He promised to be lib-
ference, and prominent Republicans as eral with pardons if the South would quit
well as Democrats demanded that Lincoln the war, but he insisted on reunion as a
heed Confederate peace offers, irregular precondition for any peace arrangement.
Non-Military Leaders | 209

In his Second Inaugural Address he hoped that the Southerners themselves,


embodied the spirit of his policy in the in forming new state governments, would
famous words “with malice toward none; find some way by which whites and
with charity for all.” His terms satisfied blacks “could gradually live themselves
neither the Confederate leaders nor the out of their old relation to each other, and
Radical Republicans, and so no peace both come out better prepared for the
was possible until the final defeat of the new.” A program of education for the
Confederacy. freedmen, he thought, was essential to
preparing them for their new status. He
Postwar Policy also suggested that the vote be given
immediately to some African Americans—
At the end of the war, Lincoln’s policy for “as, for instance, the very intelligent, and
the defeated South was not clear in all its especially those who have fought gal-
details, though he continued to believe lantly in our ranks.”
that the main object should be to restore On the question of reconstruction,
the “seceded States, so-called,” to their however, Lincoln and the extremists of
“proper practical relation” with the Union his own party stood even farther apart in
as soon as possible. He possessed no early 1865 than a year before. Some of the
fixed and uniform program for the region Radicals were beginning to demand a
as a whole. As he said in the last public period of military occupation for the
speech of his life (April 11, 1865), “so great South, the confiscation of planter estates
peculiarities” pertained to each of the and their division among the freedmen,
states, and “such important and sudden and the transfer of political power from
changes” occurred from time to time, the planters to their former slaves. In
and “so new and unprecedented” was the April 1865 Lincoln began to modify his
whole problem that “no exclusive and own stand in some respects and thus to
inflexible plan” could “safely be pre- narrow the gap between himself and the
scribed.” With respect to states like Radicals. He recalled the permission he
Louisiana and Tennessee, he continued had given for the assembling of the rebel
to urge acceptance of new governments legislature of Virginia, and he approved
set up under his 10 percent plan during in principle—or at least did not disap-
the war. With respect to states like prove—Stanton’s scheme for the military
Virginia and North Carolina, he seemed occupation of Southern states. After the
willing to use the old rebel governments cabinet meeting of April 14, Attorney
temporarily as a means of transition from General James Speed inferred that
war to peace. He was on record as oppos- Lincoln was moving toward the radical
ing the appointment of “strangers” position. “He never seemed so near our
(carpetbaggers) to govern the South. He views,” Speed believed. What Lincoln’s
210 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

The assassination of U.S. Pres. Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth, April 14, 1865;
lithograph by Currier & Ives. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (digital file no.
3b49830u)

reconstruction policy would have been, Thomas Nast


if he had lived to complete his second (b. Sept. 27, 1840, Landau, Baden
term, can only be guessed at. [Germany]—d. Dec. 7, 1902,
On the evening of April 14, 1865, Guayaquil, Ecua.)
26-year-old John Wilkes Booth—a rabid
advocate of slavery with ties to the South Although cartoonist Thomas Nast is best
and the flamboyant son of one of the known for his attack on the political
most distinguished theatrical families of machine of William M. Tweed in New
the 19th century—shot Lincoln as he sat York City in the 1870s, he had already
in Ford’s Theatre in Washington. Early made a name for himself before the out-
the next morning Lincoln died. break of the Civil War, during which he
Non-Military Leaders | 211

vigorously supported the cause of the After recruiting more volunteer


Union and opposed slavery from his nurses, she assisted in hospitals in
drawing board at Harper’s Weekly. Savannah, Georgia, and Memphis,
Nast’s cartoons “After the Battle” Tennessee. In the latter city, she also
(1862), attacking Northerners opposed to established a school for African American
energetic prosecution of the war, and his children. She then visited and distrib-
“Emancipation” (1863), showing the evils uted supplies to several hospitals before
of slavery and the benefits of its abolition, joining “Mother” Mary Ann Bickerdyke
were so effective that Pres. Abraham in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to care for
Lincoln called him “our best recruit- the Union soldiers wounded in Gen.
ing sergeant.” During Reconstruction, W.T. Sherman’s march to Atlanta, Ga.
Nast’s cartoons portrayed Pres. Andrew Throughout the Civil War and afterward,
Johnson as a repressive autocrat and Porter was involved with hospital
characterized Southerners as vicious inspection.
exploiters of helpless blacks, revealing
his bitter disappointment in postwar William H. Seward
politics. (b. May 16, 1801, Florida, N.Y.—d. Oct.
10, 1872, Auburn, N.Y.)
Eliza Emily Chappell Porter
(b. Nov. 5, 1807, Geneseo, N.Y.—d. Jan. William H. Seward served as secretary
1, 1888, Santa Barbara, Calif.) of state during the Civil War and the first
years of Reconstruction.
Educator and welfare worker Eliza Emily In 1828 Seward became active in the
Chappell Porter served as director of Antimasonic Party, serving in the New
the Chicago Sanitary Commission York Senate from 1830 to 1834. At about
(1861–62, and briefly in 1863; later the this time he allied himself with other
Northwestern Sanitary Commission), opponents of the Jacksonian Democrats
which was organized to solicit, collect, in forming the new Whig Party. Under
and distribute food, medical supplies, this banner Seward served as governor of
and other provisions for use by the New York for four years (1839–43), soon
Union army and in military hospitals. becoming recognized as leader of the
Porter abandoned office work for field antislavery wing of the party.
service in 1862. She escorted a group In 1849 Seward was elected to the
of women volunteers to Cairo, Ill., and U.S. Senate, where the antagonism
there and in nearby Mound City she between free and slave labour became
helped organize hospitals and direct the the theme of many of his speeches.
work of caring for the large number of During the turbulent 1850s he increas-
casualties from the Battle of Shiloh ingly resisted the Whig attempt to
(Pittsburg Landing). compromise on the slavery issue. When
212 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

the party collapsed (1854–55), Seward the U.S. attitude concerning the right of
joined the newly organized Republican search of vessels on the high seas.
Party, which took a firm stand against On April 14, 1865, nine days after he
expansion of slavery into the territories. was severely injured in a carriage acci-
Although Seward was the recognized dent, the bedridden Seward was stabbed
Republican leader, he was twice thwarted in the throat by Lewis Powell (alias Lewis
(1856, 1860) in his wish to be nominated Payne), a fellow conspirator of John
for the presidency. Wilkes Booth, who had that night assas-
When Abraham Lincoln took office sinated Lincoln. Seward made a
as president on the eve of the Civil War remarkable recovery and retained his
(March 1861), he promptly named Seward Cabinet post under Pres. Andrew Johnson
secretary of state. On most issues he was until 1869. He chose to support Johnson’s
Lincoln’s closest and most influential unpopular Reconstruction policies and
adviser, despite early differences over the had to share some of the bitter congres-
reinforcement of Ft. Sumter, S.C., and sional obloquy bestowed upon his chief.
Seward’s irresponsible suggestion that a Seward’s last act of public renown was
foreign war be provoked to distract the the purchase of Alaska from Russia for
country from its civil conflict at home. $7.2 million in 1867, called “Seward’s
Seward gradually rose to the challenge of Folly” at the time.
the office and was particularly successful
in preventing foreign governments from Edwin M. Stanton
giving official recognition to the (b. Dec. 19, 1814, Steubenville, Ohio—d.
Confederacy. While he did not succeed in Dec. 24, 1869, Washington, D.C.)
preventing the French occupation of
Mexico or the acquisition by the As secretary of war under President
Confederacy of the warship Alabama Lincoln, Edwin M. Stanton tirelessly
from England, his diplomacy prepared presided over the giant Union military
the way for a satisfactory adjustment of establishment during most of the
the difficulties with these powers at a later Civil War.
date. Although a treaty in 1862 for the A lawyer and staunch Democrat who
suppression of the slave trade conceded grew steadily more outspoken in support
to England the right to search U.S. vessels of antislavery measures, Stanton was
for slaves in African and Cuban waters, appointed attorney general by Pres.
he secured a similar concession for U.S. James Buchanan in December 1860. In
war vessels from the British government. that capacity, as tension accelerated
By his course in the Trent Affair, concern- between North and South, he opposed
ing the capture and imprisonment of two the abandonment of Fort Sumter in the
Confederate agents from a British ship, Charleston, S.C., harbour by Union
he virtually committed Great Britain to forces. Fearing the success of secessionist
Non-Military Leaders | 213

influences, he secretly advised Republican as the secret representative, within the


leaders of the Cabinet’s proceedings. Cabinet, of the Radical Republicans in
Although he was a caustic critic of Congress, who were Johnson’s bitter ene-
President-elect Lincoln in this period, mies. The situation finally became so
he was, nevertheless, made legal adviser untenable that Johnson tried to remove
to Lincoln’s secretary of war, Simon Stanton from office, but the stubborn sec-
Cameron. When Cameron resigned retary refused to be dismissed, claiming
under fire less than a year later, Stanton that the Tenure of Office Act—passed by
accepted appointment as his successor the Radicals in Congress (1867) over the
(Jan. 13, 1862). president’s veto—protected his official
During the remainder of the Civil position. Johnson’s persistence resulted
War, he proved an able, energetic in his impeachment by an unsympathetic
administrator, despite his nervous, House of Representatives. When the
asthmatic constitution and cranky, con- Senate vote fell one short of conviction,
tradictory temperament. Exceedingly Stanton had no alternative but to surren-
patriotic and zealous in his honesty, he der his office (May 26, 1868) and return to
insisted on tighter management of his private law practice. He died four days
department, gave short shrift to patron- after his appointment to the U.S. Supreme
age seekers, and continually pushed for Court by Pres. Ulysses S. Grant.
a more aggressive prosecution of the
war. He provoked violent quarrels with Clement L. Vallandigham
nearly every important federal military (b. July 29, 1820, Lisbon, Ohio—d. June
commander. 17, 1871, Lebanon, Ohio)
After the assassination of Lincoln
(April 1865), Stanton played a leading While a member of the U.S. House
role in the investigation and trial of of Representatives representing Ohio
the conspirators, and for a short time he (1857–63), Clement L. Vallandigham was
virtually directed the conduct of gov- adamant against the principles and poli-
ernment in the stricken capital. He cies of the newly formed Republican
agreed to continue in his post under Party, particularly as they related to the
Pres. Andrew Johnson and skillfully slavery issue.
managed the demobilization of Union Of Southern ancestry, Vallandigham
forces. Stanton was soon at loggerheads idealized the Southern way of life,
with Johnson, however, over the nature and he assumed leadership of the
of Reconstruction policy toward the faction of Midwest Democrats, called
defeated South. The secretary of war Copperheads, who opposed the prose-
used his position to foster stricter cution of the war against the South—a
Reconstruction measures than the pres- war they viewed as beneficial only
ident desired; in addition Stanton acted to Eastern interests. During the Civil
214 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

War, he bitterly attacked the adminis- opposition and urged his party to empha-
tration of Pres. Abraham Lincoln, size financial issues instead.
charging that it was destroying not only
the Constitution but civil liberty as well. Elizabeth L. Van Lew
He also became commander of the (b. Oct. 17, 1818, Richmond, Va.—d. Sept.
secret, antiwar Knights of the Golden 25, 1900, Richmond)
Circle (later Sons of Liberty). In 1863
he made vigorous speeches in Ohio The daughter of a prosperous family of
against the war and the government, Northern antecedents who held strong
and consequently grew to be one of the antislavery views, Elizabeth L. Van Lew
most suspected and hated men in the stayed in Richmond, Va., during the Civil
North. He was arrested in May by War and gathered important intelligence
military authorities for expressing trea- for the Union.
sonable sympathy with the enemy. During the 1850s, under her influ-
Tried and found guilty by a military ence, the family’s domestic servants were
commission, he was sentenced to freed. At the outbreak of the Civil War
imprisonment. Soon afterward Lincoln she remained firmly and publicly loyal to
commuted his sentence to banishment the United States. She made many visits
behind Confederate lines. to Union prisoners in Libby Prison in
Bored with exile in the South, Richmond, Va, bringing in food, cloth-
Vallandigham made his way to Canada, ing, and other items and often carrying
where he continued his campaign of away military information that she was
harassment from across the border. In able to transmit to federal authorities. On
September 1863 the Ohio Peace occasion she hid escaped prisoners in
Democrats nominated him in absentia her house.
for governor, but resounding Union mili- In March 1864, following Gen. Hugh
tary victories at Gettysburg and J. Kilpatrick’s unsuccessful attempt to
Vicksburg in July ensured his decisive open Libby Prison during a cavalry raid
defeat at the polls. He returned illegally on Richmond (a raid apparently planned
to Ohio in 1864 and took an active part in in response to information gathered by
that year’s election campaign. He also Van Lew that the prisoners were soon to
wrote part of the national Democratic be moved farther south), she and her
platform in which the war was denounced agents daringly spirited out of the city
as a failure. the body of Colonel Ulric Dahlgren,
After the war Vallandigham criti- Kilpatrick’s second-in-command and the
cized the Radical Reconstruction policy son of Admiral John A.B. Dahlgren, who
of the Republicans as both unconstitu- had been killed in the raid. His remains
tional and tyrannical, but in 1870 he had suffered indignities at the hands of
recognized the uselessness of further an outraged Richmond citizenry.
Non-Military Leaders | 215

During the yearlong siege of of the War, Wade played a prominent but
Richmond and Petersburg in 1864–65, controversial role in investigating all
Van Lew performed invaluable services aspects of the Union military effort. In
in intelligence gathering. Her assumed 1864, as cosponsor of the Wade-Davis
manner of mental aberration, which Bill, which declared that reconstruction
gained her the indulgent nickname of of the Southern state governments was a
“Crazy Bet” around Richmond, enabled legislative rather than an executive con-
her to carry on unsuspected. Her con- cern, he came into direct conflict with
tacts reached even into Jefferson Davis’s President Lincoln.
home, where she had placed one of her When Andrew Johnson became
former servants. president after Lincoln’s assassination,
After the fall of Richmond in April Wade at first cooperated with him. But
1865, Van Lew was personally thanked when Johnson made it clear that he
and given protection by Gen. Ulysses favoured a lenient plan of reconstruction,
S. Grant. Wade became his caustic critic. Elected
president pro tempore of the Senate on
Benjamin F. Wade March 2, 1867, Wade would have suc-
(b. Oct. 27, 1800, Springfield, Mass.—d. ceeded to the presidency had Johnson
March 2, 1878, Jefferson, Ohio) been removed by the Senate in the
impeachment trial of May 1868. Certain
A U.S. senator from Ohio, Benjamin F. of success, Wade actually began to select
Wade was an outspoken opponent of his cabinet. Johnson’s acquittal bitterly
slavery whose radical views brought him disappointed him. When the Democratic
into conflict with Presidents Abraham majority in the Ohio legislature denied
Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. him a fourth senatorial term, Wade
Wade was first elected to the Senate retired to his Ohio law practice in 1869.
in 1851 as a Whig. He was reelected to the
Senate as a Republican in 1857 and 1863. Mary Edwards Walker
In the Senate during the 1850s, Wade was (b. Nov. 26, 1832, near Oswego, N.Y.—d.
an uncompromising foe of the extension Feb. 21, 1919, Oswego)
of slavery and vigorously opposed the
passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act American physician and reformer Mary
(1854). During the Civil War he took his Edwards Walker is thought to have been
stand with the Radical Republicans, a the only woman surgeon formally engaged
congressional group that favoured vigor- for field duty during the Civil War.
ous prosecution of the war, emancipation At the outbreak of the war, Walker
of the slaves, and severe punishment for traveled to Washington, D.C., to offer her
the South. As chairman of the Joint services. She worked as a volunteer nurse
Congressional Committee on the Conduct in the Patent Office Hospital there while
216 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

attempting to gain a regular appoint- and his paper, the Albany Evening
ment to the army medical service. In Journal, became a leading Whig organ.
1862 Walker took time away from Weed allied himself with William H.
Washington to earn a degree from the Seward, a leading New York Whig, and
New York Hygeio-Therapeutic College was influential in Seward’s election as
in New York City. In that year she began governor of the state (1838). When the
working in the field, and in September Whig Party disintegrated, Weed joined
1863 she was appointed assistant sur- the new Republican Party and helped
geon in the Army of the Cumberland by manage Seward’s unsuccessful cam-
Gen. George H. Thomas. paign for the Republican presidential
Walker was apparently the only nomination in 1860. He eventually
woman so engaged in the Civil War. She became a staunch supporter of Pres.
was assigned to the 52nd Ohio Regiment Abraham Lincoln.
in Tennessee, and she quickly adopted In 1861, Seward, then Lincoln’s secre-
standard officers’ uniform, suitably mod- tary of state, sent Weed as a special agent
ified. From April to August 1864, she was to England, where he was a propagandist
a prisoner in Richmond, Va. In October for the United States. Following Lincoln’s
she was given a contract as “acting assis- death (1865) and the rise of the Radical
tant surgeon,” but she was assigned to a Republicans, Weed’s influence in the
women’s prison hospital and then to an Republican Party declined. In 1863 he
orphanage. sold his paper and retired from politics.
She left government service in June
1865 and a short time later was awarded a Gideon Welles
Medal of Honor. She remains the only (b. July 1, 1802, Glastonbury, Conn.—d.
woman to have won the medal in war- Feb. 11, 1878, Hartford, Conn.)
time. Feminist organizations widely
publicized Walker’s Civil War service, Gideon Welles, who served as secretary
but she became estranged from them of the navy under presidents Abraham
over the years because of her growing Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, began his
eccentricity. political career as a Jacksonian Democrat,
but in 1854 he quit the Democrats and
Thurlow Weed switched to the Republican Party. In 1856
(b. Nov. 15, 1797, Cairo, N.Y.—d. he founded the Hartford Evening Press,
Nov. 22, 1882, New York, N.Y.) one of the first Republican papers in New
England, and wrote for it extensively.
After realizing that anti-Masonry was In 1861 Lincoln made Welles secretary
not a strong enough issue for a national of the Navy, in part fulfilling a political
party, journalist Thurlow Weed became obligation to put a New Englander in the
active with the Whig Party organization, Cabinet. Welles proved to be a highly
Non-Military Leaders | 217

competent administrator and a surpris- Early in the war, Whitman’s brother


ingly keen military strategist. He quickly was wounded at Fredericksburg, and
built a large and effective navy from a Whitman went there in 1862, staying
few ships and a force reduced by the some time in the camp, then taking a
departure of Confederate sympathizers. temporary post in the paymaster’s office
Undisturbed by criticism, he authorized in Washington. He spent his spare time
the construction of ironclads, kept his visiting wounded and dying soldiers in
department as free from graft as possi- the Washington hospitals, spending his
ble, and promoted officers of merit over scanty salary on small gifts for
those with great seniority. He was largely Confederate and Union soldiers alike and
responsible for implementing the offering his usual “cheer and magnetism”
“Anaconda plan” of slowly squeezing the to try to alleviate some of the mental
South into submission, and he effectively depression and bodily suffering he saw in
directed the naval blockade that isolated the wards.
the South and severed it in half. In May 1865 a collection of war poems
In 1869 Welles left the Cabinet, hav- entitled Drum Taps showed Whitman’s
ing completed the longest term as Navy readers a new kind of poetry, moving
secretary to that time. He then drifted from the oratorical excitement with which
from the Republican Party, backing the he had greeted the falling-in and arming
Liberal Republicans in 1872 and Democrat of the young men at the beginning of the
Samuel Tilden in 1876. He spent his final Civil War to a disturbing awareness of
years writing magazine articles and a what war really meant. “Beat! Beat!
book, Lincoln and Seward (1874). Long Drums!” echoed the bitterness of the
after his death the Diary of Gideon Battle of Bull Run, and “Vigil Strange I
Welles(1911) was published, a work highly Kept on the Field One Night” had a new
regarded by historians for its insights awareness of suffering, no less effective
into the people and events of the Civil for its quietly plangent quality.
War era. The Sequel to Drum Taps, published
in the autumn of 1865, contained
Walt Whitman Whitman’s great elegy on Pres. Abraham
(b. May 31, 1819, West Hills, Long Lincoln, “When Lilacs Last in the
Island, N.Y.—d. March 26, 1892, Dooryard Bloom’d.” His horror at the
Camden, N.J.) death of democracy’s first “great martyr
chief ” was matched by his revulsion
Poet, journalist, and essayist Walt from the barbarities of war. Whitman’s
Whitman, one of the towering figures of prose descriptions of the Civil War, pub-
American literature, was deeply affected lished later in Specimen Days & Collect
by the Civil War and wrote about it (1882–83), are no less effective in their
extensively. direct, moving simplicity.
218 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

Fernando Wood of America. The first professing Jew


(b. June 14, 1812, Philadelphia, Pa.—d. elected to the U.S. Senate (1852; reelected
Feb. 14, 1881, Hot Springs, Ark.) 1858), he is said to have been the most
prominent American Jew during the
First elected mayor of New York City in 19th century.
1854 (and reelected in 1856 and 1859), Born a British subject, Benjamin was
Fernando Wood was the leader of the taken from the British Virgin Islands to
Northern Peace Democrats during the Charleston, S.C., in his early youth. A suc-
Civil War. cessful New Orleans lawyer, prosperous
In 1860 Wood led a pro-Southern del- sugar planter, and organizer of the Illinois
egation to the Democratic National Central Railroad, he was elected to the
Convention. As civil war loomed early in Louisiana legislature in 1842 and the U.S.
1861, he called for New York City to secede Senate in 1852. In the Senate Benjamin
and become a free city. Although he briefly was noted for his pro-slavery speeches.
supported Pres. Abraham Lincoln and the After his state had seceded from the
Northern war effort, by 1863 he was orga- Union, he was appointed attorney gen-
nizing the Peace Democrats (called eral in the Confederate government (Feb.
“Copperheads” by Republicans) and 21, 1861). Later that year he was named
demanding that the North negotiate an secretary of war by his friend Pres.
immediate end to the war. Jefferson Davis.
Elected to Congress in 1862 and It was charged that Benjamin’s mis-
again from 1866 to 1880, Wood opposed management of the war office led to
Republican Reconstruction policies but several major military defeats, and he
generally supported Republican fiscal resigned. Davis promptly named him
measures. His independence alienated secretary of state (Feb. 7, 1862). Late in
fellow Democrats, and they refused to the war Benjamin enraged many white
elect him speaker of the House in 1875. Southerners by urging that slaves be
But in 1877 Wood was elected majority recruited into the Confederate Army and
floor leader and made chairman of the emancipated after their term of service.
Ways and Means Committee. At the end of the Civil War Benjamin
escaped to England.
THE CONFEDERACY
John Wilkes Booth
Judah P. Benjamin (b. May 10, 1838, near Bel Air,
(b. Aug. 6, 1811, St. Croix, Virgin Md.—d. April 26, 1865, near
Islands—d. May 6, 1884, Paris, France) Port Royal, Va.)

Judah P. Benjamin held high offices in Abraham Lincoln’s assassin, John


the government of the Confederate States Wilkes Booth, was a member of one of
Non-Military Leaders | 219

the United States’ most distinguished tampered with the outer door of the pres-
acting families of the 19th century. Booth idential box so that it could be jammed
early showed excellent theatrical poten- shut from the inside.
tial but also exhibited an emotional He returned during the play’s third
instability and a driving egocentricity act to find Lincoln and his guests
that made it difficult for him to accept his unguarded. Entering the box, Booth drew
brother Edwin’s rise to acclaim as the a pistol and shot Lincoln through the
foremost actor of the day. After an unsuc- back of the head. He grappled briefly
cessful Baltimore theatrical debut in with a patron, swung himself over the
1856, John was widely acclaimed on a balustrade, and leaped off it, reportedly
tour of the Deep South in 1860 and shouting, “Sic semper tyrannis!” (the
remained in demand as an actor through- motto of the state of Virginia, meaning
out the Civil War. “Thus always to tyrants!”) and “The
A vigorous supporter of the Southern South is avenged!” He landed heavily on
cause, Booth was outspoken in his advo- the stage, breaking a bone in his left leg,
cacy of slavery and his hatred of Lincoln. but was able to make his escape to the
He was a volunteer in the Richmond mili- alleyway and his horse. The attempt on
tia that hanged the abolitionist John Seward’s life failed, but Lincoln died
Brown in 1859. By the autumn of 1864 shortly after seven o’clock the following
Booth had begun to plan a sensational morning.
abduction of President Lincoln. He Eleven days later, on April 26, Federal
recruited several coconspirators, and troops arrived at a farm in Virginia, just
throughout the winter of 1864–65, the south of the Rappahannock River, where
group gathered frequently in Washington, a man said to be Booth was hiding in a
D.C., where they mapped out a number of tobacco barn. David Herold, another con-
alternative abduction plans. After sev- spirator, was in the barn with Booth. He
eral attempts had miscarried, Booth gave himself up before the barn was set
resolved to destroy the president and his afire, but Booth refused to surrender.
officers no matter what the cost. After being shot, either by a soldier or by
On the morning of April 14, 1865, he himself, Booth was carried to the porch
learned that the president was to attend of the farmhouse, where he subsequently
an evening performance of the comedy died. The body was identified by a doctor
Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theatre who had operated on Booth the year
in the capital. Booth hurriedly assembled before, and was then secretly buried,
his band and assigned each member his though four years later it was reinterred.
task, including the murder of Secretary There is no acceptable evidence to sup-
of State William Seward. He himself port the rumours, current at the time,
would kill Lincoln. About 6 pm, Booth doubting that the man who had been
entered the deserted theatre, where he killed was actually Booth.
220 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

Belle Boyd Union-held Martinsburg, Boyd was again


(b. May 9, 1844, Martinsburg, Va. released, in 1863, after a bout with typhoid
[now W.Va.]—d. June 11, 1900, fever in prison. Her usefulness in the
Kilbourne [now Wisconsin Dells], Wis.) North at an end, she was thenceforth
employed as a courier.
When her hometown, Martinsburg, Va., In 1864 she sailed on a blockade
was occupied by Union forces in July runner to England bearing letters from
1861, Belle Boyd associated freely with Confederate president Jefferson Davis.
officers, gleaning bits of military infor- After her ship was intercepted by a
mation that she sent by messenger to Union vessel, she utterly distracted an
Confederate authorities. officer named Hardinge who was placed
Boyd and her mother denied entry to
Union soldiers who wanted to raise a flag
over their house in Martinsburg. When
one of the soldiers tried to force his way
in, Boyd shot and killed him. She was
tried and was acquitted on a defense of
justifiable homicide. Union officers under
the command of Gen. James Shields
were quartered in the same residence as
Boyd in Front Royal, and Boyd overheard
their plans for a withdrawal from that
town. She undertook a hazardous jour-
ney through the lines to inform Gen.
Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson of the
Union plans to destroy the town’s bridges
as part of their retreat. This was the only
major success she is known to have had
as a Confederate spy. After her return to
Martinsburg, Boyd continued to spy
openly for the Confederacy and served
also as a courier and scout with J.S.
Mosby’s guerrillas.
In 1862 Boyd was arrested on a war-
rant signed by U.S. Secretary of War Belle Boyd. Library of Congress,
Edwin Stanton. She was eventually Washington, D.C. (neg. no. LC BH
released as part of an exchange of pris- 82 4864A)
oners. Arrested again after her return to
Non-Military Leaders | 221

aboard as prize master. He allowed the Howell Cobb


Confederate captain of the vessel to (b. Sept. 7, 1815, Jefferson County,
escape, and for that was court-martialed Ga.—d. Oct. 9, 1868, New York City)
and discharged from the navy, after
which he went to England, where he Georgia politician Howell Cobb champi-
married Boyd in August 1864. After he oned Southern unionism during the
died early in 1865, she published her 1850s but then advocated immediate
two-volume memoir, Belle Boyd in Camp secession following the election of
and Prison. Abraham Lincoln.
Cobb served in Congress from 1842
Mary Boykin Miller Chesnut to 1851 and again from 1855 to 1857; he
(b. March 31, 1823, Pleasant Hill, supported the annexation of Texas, the
S.C.—d. Nov. 22, 1886, Camden, S.C.) war with Mexico, and the extension of
slavery into the territories. But he broke
Mary Boykin Miller Chesnut was the with the most extreme pro-slavery
author of A Diary from Dixie, an insight- Southerners when he advocated extend-
ful view of Southern life and leadership ing the Missouri Compromise line to the
during the Civil War. Pacific, opposed the creation of a sec-
The daughter of a prominent South tional political party, and supported the
Carolina politician and the wife a one- Compromise of 1850.
time U.S. senator who served as an aide In 1851 Cobb ran for governor of
to Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard and as the Georgia on the ticket of the newly formed
commanding general of the South Constitutional Union Party and won a
Carolina reserves, Chesnut accompanied solid victory over a pro-secession candi-
her husband on his military missions date. In so doing, he severed all ties
during the Civil War. She began record- with pro-secessionist Democrats, became
ing her views and observations on Feb. politically isolated, and was overwhelm-
15, 1861, and closed her diary on Aug. 2, ingly defeated when he ran for a seat in
1865. After the war she reworked her the U.S. Senate in 1854. His pro-Union
manuscript many times in anticipation district returned Cobb to Congress in
of publication. But A Diary from Dixie 1855, and the following year he played a
was not published until 1905, long after major role in the nomination and election
her death. Although not a day-by-day of James Buchanan as president.
account, A Diary is regarded highly by Buchanan made Cobb secretary of the
historians for its perceptive views of treasury, a position Cobb held until
Confederate military and political lead- Lincoln was elected president in 1860.
ers and for its insight into Southern Immediately following Lincoln’s elec-
society during the Civil War. tion, Cobb resigned his Cabinet post,
222 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

returned to Georgia, and became an Jefferson Davis


ardent spokesman for secession. He (b. June 3, 1808, Christian county,
served as chairman of the Montgomery, Ky.—d. Dec. 6, 1889, New Orleans, La.)
Ala., convention called to organize the
Confederacy, then organized his own reg- Jefferson Davis served as the president
iment and led it to the front. He eventually of the Confederacy throughout its exis-
rose to the rank of major general and com- tence during the Civil War.
manded the District of Georgia until Davis was the 10th and last child of a
forced to surrender at the end of the war. Georgia-born planter of Welsh ancestry.
A bitter opponent of Reconstruction, He graduated from the U.S. Military
Cobb in his last years practiced law in Academy at West Point, N.Y. (1828), and
Macon, Ga. served as a lieutenant in the Wisconsin
Territory and later in the Black Hawk
War. In 1835 he became a planter in
Mississippi. Elected to the U.S. House of
Representatives (1845–46), he resigned to
serve in the war with Mexico as colonel
in command of the First Mississippi vol-
unteers. He became a national hero for
winning the Battle of Buena Vista (1847)
with tactics that won plaudits even in the
European press. After returning, severely
wounded, he entered the Senate and soon
became chairman of the Military Affairs
Committee. Pres. Franklin Pierce made
him secretary of war in 1853. Davis
enlarged the army, strengthened coastal
defenses, and directed three surveys for
railroads to the Pacific.
During the period of mounting inter-
sectional strife, Davis spoke widely in
both North and South, urging harmony
between the sections. When South
Carolina withdrew from the Union in
December 1860, Davis still opposed
Howell Cobb. Library of Congress, secession, though he believed that the
Washington, D.C. Constitution gave a state the right to
withdraw from the original compact of
Non-Military Leaders | 223

states. He was among those who believed capacity, and inferior railroads, no navy,
that the newly elected president, Abraham no powder mills, no shipyard, and an
Lincoln, would coerce the South and that appalling lack of arms and equipment,
the result would be disastrous. the South was in poor condition to with-
stand invasion. Its only resources seemed
President of the Confederacy to be cotton and courage. But at Bull Run
(Manassas, Va.), on July 21, 1861, the
On Jan. 21, 1861, twelve days after Confederates routed Union forces. In the
Mississippi seceded, Davis made a mov- meantime, with makeshift materials,
ing farewell speech in the Senate and Davis created factories for producing
pleaded eloquently for peace. Before he powder, cannon, side arms, and quarter-
reached his Brierfield plantation, he was master stores. In restored naval yards
commissioned major general to head gunboats were constructed, and the
Mississippi’s armed forces and prepare South’s inadequate railroads and rolling
its defense. But within two weeks the stock were patched up repeatedly. Davis
Confederate Convention in Montgomery, sent agents to Europe to buy arms and
Ala., chose him as provisional president ammunition, and he dispatched repre-
of the Confederacy. He was inaugurated sentatives to try to secure recognition
on Feb. 18, 1861, and his first act was to from England and France.
send a peace commission to Washington, Davis made the inspired choice of
D.C., to prevent an armed conflict. Robert E. Lee as commander of the Army
Lincoln refused to see his emissaries and of Northern Virginia in June 1862. While
the next month the president sent armed Davis’s military judgment was occasion-
ships to Charleston, S. C., to resupply the ally at fault, he wisely gave Lee wide
beleaguered Union garrison at Fort scope in conducting the war over the
Sumter. Davis reluctantly ordered the next three years. Perhaps Davis’s most
bombardment of the fort (April 12–13), serious mistake as commander in chief
which marked the beginning of the Civil was the excessive importance he attached
War. Two days later Lincoln called for to defending the Confederate capital at
75,000 volunteers, a move that brought Richmond, Va., at the expense of opera-
about the secession of Virginia and three tions farther west, including the defense
other states from the Union. of the key Confederate fortress at
Davis faced a dire crisis. A president Vicksburg, Miss.
without precedent, he had to mold a Davis had innumerable troubles dur-
brand-new nation in the midst of a war. ing his presidency, including a squabbling
With only one-fourth the white popula- Congress, a dissident vice president, and
tion of the Northern states, a small the constant opposition of extreme
fraction of the North’s manufacturing states-rights advocates, who objected
224 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

vigorously to the conscription law he had There he wrote his Rise and Fall of
enacted over much opposition in 1862. the Confederate Government. Though
But despite a gradually worsening mili- pressed to enter the U.S. Senate, he
tary situation, unrelieved internal declined to “ask for amnesty,” for he felt
political tensions, continuing lack of he had done nothing wrong in fighting
manpower and armament, and skyrock- for states’ rights under the Constitution,
eting inflation, he remained resolute in and he never regained his citizenship.
his determination to carry on the war. He remained the chief spokesman and
apologist for the defeated South. Davis’
Capture and Imprisonment citizenship was restored posthumously
in 1978.
When Lee surrendered to the North with- Though dedicated to the principles
out Davis’s approval, Davis and his of democracy, Davis was by nature a
cabinet moved south, hoping to reach the benevolent aristocrat. He was diplomatic
trans-Mississippi area and continue the to a degree, but he did not possess the
struggle until better terms could be pliancy of the professional politician.
secured from the North. At dawn on May His sensitivity to criticism stood in stark
10, 1865, Davis was captured near contrast to the single-minded imper-
Irwinville, Ga. He was imprisoned in a turbability with which his greater
damp casemate at Fort Monroe, Va., and counterpart, Abraham Lincoln, pursued
was put in leg irons. Though outraged his own war aims. Davis died in 1889 in
Northern public opinion brought about New Orleans of a complicated bronchial
his removal to healthier quarters, Davis ailment. At his temporary interment he
remained a prisoner under guard for two was accorded the greatest funeral the
more years. Finally, in May 1867, he was South had ever known. On May 31, 1893,
released on bail and went to Canada to he was buried permanently in Hollywood
regain his shattered health. Several Cemetery in Richmond.
notable Northern lawyers offered their
free services to defend him in a treason Rose O’Neal Greenhow
trial, for which Davis longed. The gov- (b. c. 1815, probably Montgomery
ernment, however, never forced the issue, county, Md.—d. Oct. 1, 1864, near
many believe because it feared that such Wilmington, N.C.)
a trial might establish that the original
Constitution gave the states a right to Rose O’Neal Greenhow used her social
secede. The case was finally dropped on position as a leading hostess in
Dec. 25, 1868. Washington, D.C., and her shrewd judg-
In 1877 Davis retired to Beauvoir, a ment to cloak her espionage for the
small Gulf-side estate near Biloxi, Miss. Confederacy during the Civil War.
Non-Military Leaders | 225

Greenhow was a confidante of several In July 1861 Greenhow secured and


powerful political figures, notably John C. forwarded information about the move-
Calhoun and James Buchanan. After her ments of Gen. Irvin McDowell’s army
husband’s death in 1854, she returned to toward Manassas Junction, Virginia. In
Washington, D.C., from Mexico City. August she was arrested by Allan
Although she was a Southerner who had Pinkerton, head of the Union secret ser-
long been staunchly pro-slavery, she vice, and confined to her home. She
remained in Washington, D.C. after the somehow managed to continue sending
outbreak of the Civil War. She was soon information from there and, after her
recruited as a Confederate spy. incarceration in January 1862, even from
Old Capitol Prison. In March she was
examined by a War Department commis-
sion, and in June she was exiled south.
Greeted as a heroine in the Confederacy,
she was handsomely rewarded by Pres.
Jefferson Davis.
In August 1863 Greenhow sailed
for Europe as an unofficial agent of
the Confederacy, and later that year
she published her prison diary, My
Imprisonment and the First Year of
Abolition Rule at Washington. On Oct.
1, 1864, weighed down by gold sover-
eigns, she drowned upon the sinking of
a small boat in which she was attempt-
ing to run the federal blockade of
Wilmington, N.C.

Paul Hamilton Hayne


(b. Jan. 1, 1830, Charleston, S.C.—d.
July 6, 1886, Grovetown, Ga.)

Paul Hamilton Hayne was one of the


best-known Confederate poets. During
the Civil War, Hayne contributed verse
Rose O’Neal Greenhow. Library of
Congress, Washington, D.C. (neg. no. supporting the Southern cause—notably
LC BH82 4513) “The Battle of Charleston Harbor”—to
the Southern Illustrated News of
226 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

Richmond. Hayne’s published works Canada—afraid of being arrested as an


include Sonnets and Other Poems (1857), important official of the defeated
Legends and Lyrics (1872), The Mountain Confederacy—until 1868.
of the Lovers (1875), and The Broken
Battalions (1885). John Slidell
(b. 1793, New York, N.Y.—d. July 29,
James Murray Mason 1871, London, Eng.)
(b. Nov. 3, 1798, Fairfax County, Va.—d.
April 28, 1871, Alexandria, Va.) John Slidell was a Confederate diplomat
whose seizure with James M. Mason
During his tenure in the U.S. Senate precipitated the Trent Affair during the
representing Virginia, James Murray Civil War.
Mason allied himself closely with other Slidell represented Louisiana in the
states-rights Southern Democrats in U.S. Senate from 1853 to 1861. There he
the Senate. was a staunch supporter of Pres. James
With Abraham Lincoln’s election in Buchanan and a vigorous opponent of
1860, Mason advocated Southern seces- Stephen A. Douglas. When Louisiana
sion and resigned his Senate seat to join seceded, Slidell cast his lot with the
the Confederacy. He accepted appoint- Confederacy. Entering the Confederate
ment by Pres. Jefferson Davis to serve as foreign service, he was sent to France in
Confederate commissioner to England. late 1861, but on his way there he and fel-
Accompanied by John Slidell, he sailed low envoy James M. Mason were
for England aboard the British ship Trent. removed by a Federal man-of-war from
The Trent was captured at sea by a U.S. the British steamer Trent and impris-
naval vessel, and the two Confederate oned at Fort Warren in Boston harbour.
diplomats were imprisoned for two The British government strongly pro-
months in Boston. tested this action, and the two men were
The Trent Affair nearly caused a released in January 1862 at Pres.
severance of diplomatic relations Abraham Lincoln’s insistence and over
between the U.S. and Great Britain. But Secretary of State William H. Seward’s
on Jan. 1, 1862, Pres. Lincoln ordered objections.
the release of Mason and Slidell, and the In France, Slidell’s relations with
two emissaries made their way to Napoleon III, though cordial, remained
Europe. In England, however, Mason unofficial. Thus this second mission, had
was able to make little progress in win- little result, save that financial negotia-
ning official support for the Confederate tions with the Erlangers of Paris and
cause. Mason did not return to North Frankfurt led to the Confederate cotton
America until 1866, and he stayed in loan of 1863.
Non-Military Leaders | 227

Alexander H. Stephens Confederate commission to the abortive


(b. Feb. 11, 1812, Wilkes County, Ga.—d. peace conference at Hampton Roads, Va.,
March 4, 1883, Atlanta, Ga.) in February 1865.
After the fall of the Confederacy,
Alexander H. Stephens served as vice Stephens was confined for five months at
president of the Confederate States of Fort Warren, Boston. In 1866 he was
America during the Civil War. elected to the U.S. Senate but was denied
He was called “Little Ellick” by his his seat because his state had not been
colleagues because he weighed only properly reconstructed according to the
about 100 pounds. A Whig who served in congressional guidelines. He did serve
the Georgia House of Representatives again in the U.S. House of Representa-
(1837–41), the state Senate (1842–43), and tives (1873–82), however. His book A
the U.S. House of Representatives Constitutional View of the Late War
(1843–59), Stephens urged the annexa- Between the States, 2 vol. (1868–70), is
tion of Texas and supported the perhaps the best statement of the
Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas- Southern position on state sovereignty
Nebraska Act (1854), both of which and secession.
attempted to establish criteria for the
extension of slavery to U.S. territories. Robert A. Toombs
He defended slavery but opposed the (b. July 2, 1810, Wilkes County, Ga.—d.
dissolution of the Union. When Georgia Dec. 15, 1885, Washington, Ga.)
seceded, however (1861), he followed his
state and was shortly elected vice presi- A Southern antebellum politician who
dent of the Confederacy. became an ardent secessionist, Robert A.
Throughout the war Stephens Toombs served briefly as Confederate
opposed the exercise of extraconstitu- secretary of state and later sought to
tional war powers by Confederate restore white supremacy in Georgia dur-
president Jefferson Davis lest the free- ing and after Reconstruction.
dom for which the South was ostensibly Toombs served in the Georgia legis-
fighting should be destroyed. The policy lature before joining the U.S. House of
he advocated was to preserve constitu- Representatives in 1844. In 1850 Toombs,
tional government in the South and to a Whig, began to emerge as a states’
strengthen the antiwar party in the rights, and ultimately secession, advocate.
North by convincing it that the Lincoln In his “Hamilcar” speech, he demanded
administration had abandoned such gov- that the South not be denied its rights in
ernment. To the same end he urged, in the newly acquired territories. Yet he
1864, the unconditional discharge of worked for passage of the Compromise of
Federal prisoners. Stephens headed the 1850 and its acceptance in Georgia, and
228 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

he helped organize the Constitutional and reliance upon credit to finance the
Union Party in Georgia as a political war effort.
vehicle for conservatives unhappy with In May 1865 Toombs fled—by way of
the Whigs but not ready to support the New Orleans and Havana—to London.
secession-minded Democrats. He returned to Georgia in 1867, but
Running on the Constitutional refused to seek a pardon or take the oath
Union ticket in 1852, Toombs won elec- of allegiance. Instead, he devoted him-
tion to the U.S. Senate. Shortly thereafter self to rebuilding his law practice and to
he joined the Democrats, but he remained overthrowing Radical Reconstruction in
a moderate on the states’ rights issue Georgia. In 1877 he broke with other
until 1860. Democrats in welcoming Pres. Rutherford
Not until Abraham Lincoln’s election Hayes’s plans to end Reconstruction.
as president and the failure of the The same year, he played a prominent
Crittenden Compromise of 1860 did role at the convention that revised the
Toombs publicly call for secession. He state constitution in favour of white
led the movement for a Georgia conven- supremacy.
tion to vote to secede from the Union. In
1861 he resigned from the Senate and was William Lowndes Yancey
a delegate to the Montgomery conven- (b. Aug. 10, 1814, Warren
tion that established the Confederacy. County, Ga.—d. July 27, 1863,
Severely disappointed at not being Montgomery, Ala.)
selected president of the Confederate
States of America, he nonetheless There is no evidence that southern polit-
accepted appointment by Jefferson Davis ical leader and “fire-eater” (pro-slavery
to become secretary of state. Within a extremist) William Lowndes Yancey
few months, however, he broke with was a proponent of secession prior to the
Davis and left the government. Mexican War, but in his later years he
In July 1861 Toombs took command consistently urged the South to secede
of a Georgia brigade as a brigadier gen- in response to Northern antislavery
eral. His military experience was agitation.
undistinguished, though he did take a A lawyer, editor, and state legislator,
bullet in his left hand at Antietam. When Yancey was first elected to represent
no promotion followed, Toombs angrily Alabama in the U.S. House of
resigned his commission. He stayed out Representatives in 1844. In 1848 he
of the war until near the end, and he drafted the Alabama Platformin response
continually criticized Davis’s leadership to the Wilmot Proviso, which was a pro-
and Confederate policies—especially con- posed ban on slavery in the territories
scription, suspension of habeas corpus, newly acquired from Mexico. The
Non-Military Leaders | 229

Alabama Platform insisted that slave- his uncompromising pro-slavery states’


owners had the right to take their chattel rights position.
property with them into the territories, By 1860 the Alabama Platform had
that Congress had the duty to protect the won substantial support throughout the
rights of slaveholders everywhere, that a South. At the Democratic National
territorial legislature could not ban slav- Convention in Charleston, a slightly
ery, and that the Democratic Party should revised version won only qualified
endorse only pro-slavery candidates for acceptance, prompting the Southern
national office. delegates to withdraw and nominate a
Although it was endorsed by the rival ticket. In essence, therefore, Yancey
Alabama legislature, Yancey’s Alabama was responsible for the dissolution of
Platform was overwhelmingly rejected the last national institution of the ante-
when he presented it at the 1848 bellum era.
Democratic National Convention. Yancey then campaigned for John C.
Yancey, however, was resolute, and, Breckinridge, nominee of the Southern
after the Compromise of 1850, he added wing of the party, the Constitutional
secession to his creed. For the next Democrats. Following Lincoln’s election,
decade he sought to arouse Southerners it was Yancey who drafted Alabama’s
to the peril of remaining in the Union. He secession ordinance. Early in 1861, he
organized Southern-rights associations went to England and France in quest of
and in 1858 assisted in the creation of official recognition of the new Confederate
the League of United Southerners. He government, but his mission proved
delivered hundreds of speeches, trying unsuccessful. He returned in 1862 and
to draw Southerners of all parties and was elected to the Confederate Senate,
persuasions into a movement backing where he served until his death.
CHAPTER 9
The Aftermath

THE ERA OF RECONSTRUCTION

Reconstruction under Abraham Lincoln

The original Northern objective in the Civil War was the


preservation of the Union, a war aim with which virtually
everybody in the free states agreed. As the fighting
progressed, the Lincoln government concluded that emanci-
pation of the slaves was necessary in order to secure military
victory; thereafter, freedom became a second war aim for the
members of the Republican Party. The more radical mem-
bers of that party—men like Charles Sumner and Thaddeus
Stevens—believed that emancipation would prove a sham
unless the government guaranteed the civil and political
rights of the freedmen; thus, equality of all citizens before
the law became a third war aim for this powerful faction. The
fierce controversies of the Reconstruction era raged over
which of these objectives should be insisted upon and how
these goals should be secured.

Conflicting Plans

Lincoln himself had a flexible and pragmatic approach to


Reconstruction, insisting only that the Southerners, when
defeated, pledge future loyalty to the Union and emancipate
The Aftermath | 231

their slaves. As the Southern states were and the lack of progress toward aboli-
subdued, he appointed military gover- tion, the Radical Republicans (that is,
nors to supervise their restoration. The those most committed to emancipation
most vigorous and effective of these of the slaves and later to the equal treat-
appointees was Andrew Johnson, a war ment and enfranchisement of the freed
Democrat whose success in reconstitut- blacks) formed the Joint Committee on
ing a loyal government in Tennessee led the Conduct of the War. They agitated
to his nomination as vice president on the for the dismissal of Gen. George B.
Republican ticket with Lincoln in 1864. McClellan and favoured the enlistment
In December 1863 Lincoln announced of black troops.
a general plan for the orderly Reconstruc- Radical Republicans were outraged
tion of the Southern states, promising to at Lincoln’s plan for the South, which
recognize the government of any state favoured executive usurpation of con-
that pledged to support the Constitution gressional powers, required only minimal
and the Union and to emancipate the changes in the Southern social system,
slaves if it was backed by at least 10 per- and left political power essentially in the
cent of the number of voters in the 1860 hands of the same Southerners who had
presidential election. In Louisiana, led their states out of the Union. They
Arkansas, and Tennessee loyal govern- broke with the president completely over
ments were formed under Lincoln’s plan. Reconstruction policy and put forth their
They sought readmission to the Union own plan of Reconstruction in the Wade-
with the seating of their senators and rep- Davis Bill, which Congress passed on
resentatives in Congress. July 2, 1864. The plan required not 10
The Republican Party, at its forma- percent, but a majority of the white male
tion during the 1850s, was a coalition citizens in each Southern state to partici-
that included Northern altruists, indus- pate in the reconstruction process, and
trialists, former Whigs, and practical insisted upon an oath of past, not just of
politicians. While not publicly commit- future, loyalty.
ted to abolition of slavery prior to the Finding the bill too rigorous and
Civil War, the party nonetheless inflexible, Lincoln pocket vetoed it; the
attracted the most zealous antislavery Radicals bitterly denounced him. During
advocates. When Abraham Lincoln the 1864–65 session of Congress, they in
declared restoration of the Union to be turn defeated the president’s proposal to
his aim during the Civil War, the anti- recognize the Louisiana government
slavery advocates in Congress pressed organized under his 10 percent plan. At
for emancipation as a stated war aim as the time of Lincoln’s assassination, there-
well. Then, in December 1861, frustrated fore, the president and the Congress were
at the poor showing of the Union Army at loggerheads over Reconstruction.
232 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

Reconstruction and authorized the provisional governor


under Andrew Johnson of North Carolina to proceed with the
reorganization of that state. Shortly after-
At first it seemed that the new president, ward he issued similar proclamations for
Andrew Johnson, might be able to work the other former Confederate states. In
more cooperatively with Congress in each case a state constitutional conven-
the process of Reconstruction. A former tion was to be chosen by the voters who
representative and a former senator, pledged future loyalty to the U.S.
Johnson understood congressmen. A Constitution. The conventions were
loyal Unionist who had stood by his expected to repeal the ordinances of
country even at the risk of his life when secession, to repudiate the Confederate
Tennessee seceded, he was certain not debt, and to accept the Thirteenth
to compromise with secession. His expe- Amendment, abolishing slavery. The
rience as military governor of that state president did not, however, require them
showed him to be politically shrewd and to enfranchise African Americans.
tough toward the slaveholders. “Johnson,
we have faith in you,” Radical Benjamin “Black Codes”
F. Wade assured the new president on
the day he took the oath of office. “By the Given little guidance from Washington,
gods, there will be no trouble running Southern whites turned to the tradi-
the government.” tional political leaders of their section
for guidance in reorganizing their gov-
Johnson’s Policy ernments; and the new regimes in the
South were suspiciously like those of
Such Radical trust in Johnson proved the antebellum period. To be sure, slav-
misplaced. The new president was, first of ery was abolished, but each reconstructed
all, himself a Southerner. He was a Southern state government proceeded
Democrat who looked for the restoration to adopt a “Black Code,” regulating the
of his old party partly as a step toward his rights and privileges of freedmen.
own reelection to the presidency in 1868. Varying from state to state, these codes
Most important of all, Johnson shared in general treated African Americans as
the white Southerners’ attitude toward inferiors, relegated to a secondary and
African Americans, considering black subordinate position in society. Their
people innately inferior and unready for right to own land was restricted, they
equal civil or political rights. On May 29, could not bear arms, and they might be
1865, Johnson made his policy clear when bound out in servitude for vagrancy and
he issued a general proclamation of par- other offenses. The conduct of white
don and amnesty for most Confederates Southerners indicated that they were
The Aftermath | 233

In focus: Thirteenth Amendment

Although the words slavery and slave are never mentioned in the Constitution, the Thirteenth
Amendment abrogated those sections of the Constitution that had tacitly codified the “peculiar
institution”: Article I, Section 2, regarding apportionment of representation in the House of
Representatives, which had been “determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons,
including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths
of all other Persons provided for the appointment,” with “all other persons” meaning slaves; Article
I, Section 9, which had established 1807 as the end date for the importation of slaves, referred to in
this case as “such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit”; and Article
IV, Section 2, which mandated the return to their owners of fugitive slaves, here defined as persons
“held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another.”
The Emancipation Proclamation, declared and promulgated by Pres. Abraham Lincoln in 1863,
freed only those slaves held in the Confederate States of America. In depriving the South of its
greatest economic resource—abundant free human labour—Lincoln’s proclamation was intended
primarily as an instrument of military strategy; only when emancipation was universally proposed
through the Thirteenth Amendment did it become national policy. Moreover, the legality of aboli-
tion by presidential edict was questionable.
The full text of the amendment reads:

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the
party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place
subject to their jurisdiction. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropri-
ate legislation.

The amendment was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, but did not pass in the House until
Jan. 31, 1865. The joint resolution of both bodies that submitted the amendment to the states for
approval was signed by Lincoln on Feb. 1, 1865; however, he did not live to see its ratification.
Assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, he died on April 15, 1865, and the amendment was not ratified
by the required number of states until Dec. 6, 1865.

not prepared to guarantee even mini- The Freedmen’s Bureau


mal protection of African American and Civil Rights Legislation
rights. In riots in Memphis (May 1866)
and New Orleans (July 1866), African Watching these developments with fore-
Americans were brutally assaulted and bodings, Northern Republicans, during
promiscuously killed. the congressional session of 1865–66,
234 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

A group of freedmen, Richmond, Va. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

inevitably drifted into conflict with the override his veto, the second time around
president. Congress attempted to protect they succeeded.
the rights of African Americans by Headed by Major General Oliver O.
extending the life of the Freedmen’s Howard, the Freedmen’s Bureau might
Bureau, the popular name for the U.S. be termed the fi rst federal welfare
Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and agency. Despite handicaps of inade-
Abandoned Lands, established to pro- quate funds and poorly trained
vide practical aid to 4 million newly freed personnel, the bureau built hospitals
black Americans in their transition from for, and gave direct medical assistance
slavery to freedom. Johnson vetoed the to, more than 1 million freedmen.
bill. Though Congress initially failed to More than 21 million rations were
The Aftermath | 235

distributed to impoverished blacks as Americans by threatening to reduce their


well as whites. representation in Congress.
Its greatest accomplishments were The president, the Northern
in education: more than 1,000 black Democrats, and the Southern whites
schools were built and over $400,000 spurned this Republican plan of
spent to establish teacher-training insti- Reconstruction. Johnson tried to orga-
tutions. All major black colleges were nize his own political party in the
either founded by, or received aid from, National Union Convention, which met
the bureau. Less success was achieved in Philadelphia in August 1866. In August
in civil rights, for the bureau’s own and September of that year, he visited
courts were poorly organized and short- many Northern and Western cities in
lived, and only the barest forms of due order to defend his policies and to attack
process of law for freedmen could be the Republican leaders. At the president’s
sustained in the civil courts. The most urging, every Southern state except
notable failure concerned the land itself. Tennessee overwhelmingly rejected the
Thwarted by Pres. Andrew Johnson’s Fourteenth Amendment.
restoration of abandoned lands to par- Victorious in the fall elections, con-
doned Southerners and by the adamant gressional Republicans moved during the
refusal of Congress to consider any 1866–67 session to devise a second, more
form of land redistribution, the bureau stringent program for reconstructing the
was ultimately forced to oversee share- South. After long and acrimonious quar-
cropping arrangements that inevitably rels between Radical and moderate
became oppressive. Republicans, the party leaders finally pro-
An act to define and guarantee duced a compromise plan in the First
African Americans’ basic civil rights Reconstruction Act of 1867. Expanded
was also vetoed by Johnson, but, again, and clarified in three supplementary
Republicans succeeded in passing it Reconstruction acts, this legislation swept
over the president’s veto. While the pres- away the regimes the president had set up
ident, from the porch of the White House, in the South, put the former Confederacy
denounced the leaders of the Republican back under military control, called for
Party as “traitors,” Republicans in the election of new constitutional con-
Congress tried to formulate their own ventions, and required the constitutions
plan to reconstruct the South. Their first adopted by these bodies to include both
effort was the passage of the Fourteenth African American suffrage and the dis-
Amendment, which guaranteed the qualification of former Confederate
basic civil rights of all citizens, regard- leaders from holding office. Under this
less of colour, and which tried to persuade legislation, new governments were estab-
the Southern states to enfranchise African lished in all the former Confederate states
236 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

In Focus: Fourteenth Amendment

The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States granted citizenship and equal
civil and legal rights to African Americans and slaves who had been emancipated after the Civil
War, including them under the umbrella phrase “all persons born or naturalized in the United
States.” In all, the amendment comprises five sections, four of which began in 1866 as separate pro-
posals that stalled in legislative process and were amalgamated into a single amendment.
This so-called Reconstruction Amendment prohibited the states from depriving any person of
“life, liberty, or property, without due process of law” and from denying anyone within a state’s juris-
diction equal protection under the law. Nullified by the Thirteenth Amendment, the section of the
Constitution apportioning representation in the House of Representatives based on a formula that
counted each slave as three-fifths of a person was replaced by a clause in the Fourteenth Amendment
specifying that representatives be “apportioned among the several states according to their respec-
tive numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed.” The
amendment also prohibited former civil and military office holders who had supported the Confederacy
from again holding any state or federal office —with the proviso that this prohibition could be removed
from individuals by a two-thirds vote in both Houses of Congress. Moreover, the amendment upheld
the national debt while exempting the federal government and state governments from any responsi-
bility for the debts incurred by the rebellious Confederate States of America. Finally, the last section,
mirroring the approach of the Thirteenth Amendment, provided for enforcement.
The full text of the amendment reads:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,
are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or
enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United
States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process
of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective
numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed.
But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice
President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial offi-
cers of a state, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male
inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or
in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of repre-
sentation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens
shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such state.
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President
and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under
any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer
of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial
The Aftermath | 237

officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged
in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies
thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts
incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection
or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any state shall
assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against
the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such
debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void. The Congress shall have
power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Among those legislators responsible for introducing the amendment’s provisions were Rep.
John A. Bingham of Ohio, Sen. Jacob Howard of Michigan, Rep. Henry Demig of Connecticut,
Sen. Benjamin G. Brown of Missouri, and Rep. Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania. The
Congressional Joint Resolution proposing the amendment was submitted to the states for ratifi-
cation on June 16, 1866. On July 28, 1868, having been ratified by the requisite number of states, it
entered into force. However, its attempt to guarantee civil rights was circumvented for many
decades by the post-Reconstruction-era black codes, Jim Crow laws, and the “separate but equal”
ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896).

(except Tennessee, which had already believed loyal to the Radical cause, and
been readmitted); and by July 1868 in the Tenure of Office Act (1867) they
Congress agreed to seat senators and limited the president’s right to remove
representatives from Alabama, Arkansas, appointive officers. When Johnson con-
Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, and tinued to do all he could to block the
South Carolina. By July 1870 the remain- enforcement of Radical legislation in the
ing Southern states had been similarly South, the more extreme members of
reorganized and readmitted. the Republican Party demanded his
Suspicious of Andrew Johnson, impeachment. The president’s decision
Republicans in Congress did not trust the in February 1868 to remove the Radical
president to enforce the Reconstruction secretary of war Edwin M. Stanton from
legislation they passed over his repeated the Cabinet, in apparent defiance of the
vetoes, and they tried to deprive him of Tenure of Office Act, provided a pretext
as much power as possible. Congress for impeachment proceedings. The House
limited the president’s control over the of Representatives voted to impeach the
army by requiring that all his military president, and after a protracted trial
orders be issued through the general of the Senate acquitted him by the margin
the army, Ulysses S. Grant, who was of only one vote.
238 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

KEY PLAYERS IN THE


RECONSTRUCTION

Efforts to stitch the nation back together


politically were begun even as the war
raged. The following key figures were
instrumental in trying to solve the politi-
cal, social, and economic problems arising
from the readmission to the Union of the
11 Confederate states.

George Sewall Boutwell


(b. Jan. 28, 1818, Brookline, Mass.—d.
Feb. 27, 1905, Groton, Mass.)

Although elected the governor of


Massachusetts by a coalition of anti-
slavery Democrats and Free Soilers,
George Sewall Boutwell found it impos-
sible to remain a Democrat as the
antislavery controversy intensified, and
in 1855 he helped organize the Republican
Party in Massachusetts. George Sewall Boutwell. Library of
From 1863 to 1869, Boutwell occupied Congress, Washington, D.C.
a leadership position among the Radical
Republicans in the House of Representa-
tives. He served on the Joint Committee William G. Brownlow
on Reconstruction, and he helped frame (b. Aug. 29, 1805, Wythe county, Va.—d.
and pass the Fourteenth and Fifteenth April 29, 1877, Knoxville, Tenn.)
Amendments to the U.S. Constitution,
relating to former slaves and rebels. The editor of the last pro-Union news-
Among the most vehement critics of paper in the antebellum South, William
Pres. Andrew Johnson’s Reconstruction G. Brownlow served as governor of
policies, Boutwell led in the movement Tennessee during the early years of
for Johnson’s impeachment in 1867. Reconstruction.
Two years later, Pres. Ulysses S. Grant After spending a decade as an itiner-
named him secretary of the treasury, a ant preacher, in 1838 Brownlow began
position he held until 1873, when he his long career as a newspaper editor,
entered the Senate. starting with the Tennessee Whig (1838)
The Aftermath | 239

and continuing with the Jonesboro Whig Blanche K. Bruce


and Independent (1839–49) and the (b. March 1, 1841, Prince Edward
Knoxville Whig (1849–69 and 1875–77). county, Va.—d. March 17, 1898,
An outspoken and unconditional advo- Washington, D.C.)
cate of the Union, Brownlow continued to
ridicule secession until Confederate Blanche K. Bruce was the son of a slave
authorities suppressed the Knoxville mother and white planter father who
Whig and caused its editor to flee in the rose to become a U.S. senator during
fall of 1861. His press and type were Reconstruction in Mississippi. He was
destroyed, putting an end to the last pro- well educated as a youth. After the Civil
Union paper in the South. War, he moved to Mississippi, where in
The Confederate secretary of war, 1869 he became a supervisor of elections.
Judah Benjamin, banished Brownlow to
the North, where the former editor
regained his health (after having suf-
fered from typhoid), made a successful
lecture tour, and wrote a book, Sketches
of the Rise, Progress, and Decline of
Secession; With a narrative of Personal
Adventure Among the Rebels (1862).
When eastern Tennessee was brought
under the control of Federal forces in
1863, Brownlow returned to his home
state and was instrumental in restoring
civil government there. Then, in 1865, he
was elected governor of that state.
Determined to punish pro-secessionists,
he advocated disenfranchising all who
had fought against the Union, and he
mobilized 1,600 state guards in order to
crush the newly organized Ku Klux Klan.
Despite failing health, he was elected to a
second term by a large majority.
Toward the end of his second term as
governor, Brownlow was elected to the
U.S. Senate. In 1875 he returned to Blanche K. Bruce. Library of Congress,
Knoxville, bought back the Whig (which Washington, D.C.
he had sold in 1869), and edited the paper
until shortly before his death.
240 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

By 1870 he was an emerging figure in


state politics. After serving as sergeant
at arms in the state senate, he held the
posts of county assessor, sheriff, and
member of the Board of Levee
Commissioners of the Mississippi River.
Through these positions he amassed
enough wealth to purchase a plantation
in Floreyville, Miss.
In 1874 Mississippi’s Republican-
dominated state legislature elected
Bruce, a Republican, to a seat in the U.S.
Senate. He served from 1875 to 1881,
advocating just treatment for both blacks
and Indians, and opposing the policy
excluding Chinese immigrants. He
sought improvement of navigation on the
Mississippi and advocated better rela-
tions between the races. Much of his time
and energy he devoted to fighting fraud
and corruption in federal elections.
Bruce lost his political base in
Mississippi with the end of Reconstruction Zachariah Chandler. Library of
governments in the South. He remained Congress, Washington, D.C.
in Washington when, at the conclusion of
his Senate term, he was appointed regis-
ter of the Treasury. of Michigan in 1852. With the collapse of
the Whig Party, Chandler became one of
Zachariah Chandler the founders of the Republican Party, sign-
(b. Dec. 10, 1813, Bedford, N.H.—d. Nov. ing the call for the historic meeting at
1, 1879, Chicago, Ill.) Jackson, Mich. (July 6, 1854).
A delegate to the Republican national
Zachariah Chandler was a leader of the convention in 1856, he became a member
Radical Republicans during the Civil of the party’s national committee. He
War and Reconstruction. was elected to the U.S. Senate and served
Chandler served as mayor of Detroit there from 1857 to 1875.
from 1851 to 1852. He was defeated when During his Senate tenure, Chandler
he ran as the Whig candidate for governor emerged as a leader of the Radical
The Aftermath | 241

Republicans. He urged President Lincoln


to prosecute the Civil War more forcefully,
he vigorously advocated emancipation of
the slaves, and he later backed the
Reconstruction Acts. He was a member
of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of
the War and a leading supporter of a new
national bank.
In spite of the efforts of a patronage
army that gave him complete control
over the Republican Party in Michigan
throughout his senatorial career, Chandler
was defeated by his Democratic oppo-
nent in 1874. Appointed secretary of the
interior by Pres. Ulysses S. Grant in
October 1875, Chandler reorganized the
department before his brief tenure ended
in March 1877.

Roscoe Conkling
(b. Oct. 30, 1829, Albany, N.Y.—d. April
18, 1888, New York City)
Roscoe Conkling. Library of Congress,
Known for his support of severe Washington, D.C.
Reconstruction measures toward the
South and his insistence on the control of
political patronage in his home state of Pres. Abraham Lincoln in his conduct
New York, Roscoe Conkling was a promi- of the Civil War. He became a leader of
nent Republican leader in the post–Civil the Radical Republicans, who advocated
War period. Having established a reputa- fi rm military supervision of the defeated
tion as a lawyer, orator, and Whig Party Confederate states and broader rights
leader, Conkling ran as a Republican in for freedmen. In addition, he was an
1858 and was elected to the U.S. House of avid supporter of the Fourteenth (due
Representatives, serving for six years. In process) Amendment to the Constitution
1867 he won a seat in the Senate, where (1868). Conkling influenced the admin-
he held office for 14 years. istration of Pres. Ulysses S. Grant
While in Congress, Conkling con- (1869–77) in its overall policy toward
sistently upheld the administration of the South.
242 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

Ebenezer R. Hoar
(b. Feb. 21, 1816, Concord, Mass.—d.
Jan. 31, 1895, Concord)

A leading antislavery Whig in


Massachusetts, Ebenezer R. Hoar was
briefly attorney general in Pres. Ulysses
S. Grant’s administration.
Born into a distinguished New
England family, Hoar rose rapidly to
prominence as a lawyer, and his outspo-
ken opposition to slavery made him a
leading public figure in his home state.
By the mid-1840s, he was an antislavery
Whig member of the state senate. It was
there that he described himself as a
“Conscience Whig,” in contrast to the
pro-slavery “Cotton Whigs.” Hoar
opposed the Whigs’ nomination of
Zachary Taylor for president in 1848,
and he was instrumental in the forma-
tion of the Free Soil and Republican
parties in Massachusetts when the Ebenezer R. Hoar. Encyclopædia
Whig Party declined. Britannica, Inc.
In 1859 Hoar became an associate
justice of the Massachusetts Supreme
Court, a position that he held until 1869, George W. Julian
when President Grant appointed him (b. May 5, 1817, Wayne County, Ind.—d.
U.S. attorney general. His tenure was July 7, 1899, Irvington, Ind.)
brief, however. He alienated the Senate
when he insisted that nine newly cre- Reform politician George W. Julian was
ated federal judgeships be fi lled an abolitionist, served in Congress as a
according to merit rather than through Radical Republican during the Civil War
patronage. As a consequence, the Senate and Reconstruction eras, and later cham-
refused to confirm Hoar when Grant pioned women’s suffrage and other
nominated him for a seat on the U.S. liberal measures.
Supreme Court. In 1870 Hoar resigned By the mid-1840s Julian was a Whig
from Grant’s cabinet. member of the Indiana state legislature
The Aftermath | 243

and a frequent author of antislavery


newspaper articles. His abolitionist views
prompted him to switch to the Free Soil
Party, and in 1848 he won a seat in the
U.S. House of Representatives, running
on the Free Soil ticket.
In Congress, Julian opposed the
Compromise of 1850. Defeated for reelec-
tion that year, he returned to his law
practice and antislavery agitation in
Indiana. In 1852 Julian was the vice
presidential nominee of the Free Soil
Party, and four years later he was a prom-
inent figure in the formation of the
Republican Party.
Elected to Congress as a Republican
in 1860, Julian played an important role
in passage of the Homestead Act and in
making emancipation a Northern war aim
during the Civil War. He served on the
Joint Committee on the Conduct of the
War, and he became well known for his
advocacy of such Radical Reconstruction George W. Julian. Library of Congress,
measures as punishment of Confederate Washington, D.C. (Digital File Number:
leaders (including confiscation of their cwpbh-04616)
lands) and suffrage for the former slaves.
During the Reconstruction era,
Julian joined with other Republican
Radicals in blocking Pres. Andrew John Willis Menard
Johnson’s Reconstruction policies. In (b. April 3, 1838, Kaskaskia, Ill.—d.
1867 he was one of seven representatives Oct. 8, 1893, Washington, D.C.)
selected to prepare articles of impeach-
ment against Johnson. John Willis Menard was the fi rst African
Julian was defeated for renomination American elected to the U.S. Congress.
in 1870 and two years later broke with the However, he was denied his seat by
Republican Party to support the Liberal that body.
Republicans and their presidential nomi- During the Civil War he served as a
nee, Horace Greeley. clerk in the U.S. Department of the Interior.
244 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

In 1865 he moved to New Orleans, where service, however, he resigned his cap-
he became active in the Republican tain’s commission.
Party, serving as inspector of customs Returning to New Orleans after the
and later as a commissioner of streets. war, Pinchback organized the Fourth
He also published a newspaper, The Free Ward Republican Club and served as a
South, later named The Radical Standard. delegate to the convention that estab-
Elected to Congress from Louisiana in lished a new constitution for Louisiana.
1868 to fill an unexpired term, Menard He was elected to the state senate in 1868
failed to overcome an election challenge and then was named its president pro
by the loser, and Congress refused to seat tempore; as such he became lieutenant
either man. governor upon the death of the incum-
bent in 1871. From Dec. 9, 1872, to Jan. 13,
Pinckney Benton 1873, he served as acting governor while
Stewart Pinchback impeachment proceedings were in prog-
(b. May 10, 1837, Macon, Ga.—d. Dec. 21, ress against Henry Clay Warmoth. In the
1921, Washington, D.C.) meantime he went into business and
acquired control of a Republican paper,
Born into freedom, African American the New Orleans Louisianian.
Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback was In 1872 Pinchback was elected to
a Union officer in the Civil War and a Congress, but his Democratic opponent
leader in Louisiana politics during contested the election and won the seat.
Reconstruction. A year later he was elected to the U.S.
Pinchback was one of 10 children Senate, but he was again refused the
born to a white Mississippi planter and a seat amid charges and countercharges
former slave. When the father died in of fraud and election irregularities—
1848, the family fled to Ohio, fearing that although some observers said it was
white relatives might attempt to re- the colour of his skin that counted
enslave them. against him. He was appointed to his
Pinchback found work as a cabin boy last office in 1882 as surveyor of customs
on a canal boat and worked his way up to in New Orleans.
steward on the steamboats plying the
Mississippi, Missouri, and Red rivers. Joseph Hayne Rainey
After war broke out between the states (b. June 21, 1832, Georgetown, S.C.—d.
in 1861, he ran the Confederate blockade Aug. 2, 1887, Georgetown)
on the Mississippi to reach Federal-held
New Orleans. There he raised a com- A former American slave, Joseph Hayne
pany of black volunteers for the North, Rainey was the first African American to
called the Corps d’Afrique. When he serve in the U.S. House of Representatives
encountered racial discrimination in the (1870–79).
The Aftermath | 245

The son of a barber who bought the by private tutors and later studied at
family’s freedom, Rainey received some Montreal College (Canada), the University
private schooling and took up his of Glasgow (Scotland), and Franklin
father’s trade in Charleston, S.C. During College (Nashville, Tenn.).
the Civil War he was forced to work on Rapier returned to Alabama after the
the fortifications in Charleston harbour Civil War and became a successful cot-
but managed to escape to the West ton planter. He began his career in public
Indies, where he remained until the life by serving as a delegate to Alabama’s
end of the war (1865). Upon his return first Republican state convention; he was
to South Carolina, he was a delegate to a member of the platform committee. In
the state constitutional convention 1867 he participated in the convention
(1868) and served briefly in the state called to rewrite the state constitution,
Senate before his election to the U.S. and, after losing a campaign in 1870 to
House of Representatives in 1870. He become Alabama’s secretary of state, he
was reelected four times, the longest won a congressional seat in 1872. In
tenure in the House of any black during Washington he worked for the passage of
the Reconstruction era. the Civil Rights Act of 1875, although he
While in office Rainey dedicated was defeated for reelection in 1874.
himself to the passage of civil-rights Except for service as collector of
legislation, pressing the interests not internal revenue in Alabama’s second
only of blacks but of other minorities district, Rapier did not again hold public
such as the Indians and the Chinese in office. But he continued as an active
California. Upon leaving the House in labour organizer, seeking to unite poor
1879, he was appointed U.S. internal rev- urban workers and rural sharecroppers,
enue agent of South Carolina. He and he wrote prolabour editorials for the
resigned that post in 1881 to engage in Montgomery Sentinel, of which he was
banking and brokerage enterprises in the publisher.
Washington, D.C.
THE SOUTH
James T. Rapier DURING RECONSTRUCTION
(b. Nov. 13, 1837, Florence, Ala.—d. May
31, 1883, Montgomery, Ala.) In the South, the Reconstruction period
was a time of readjustment accompanied
African American planter and labour by disorder. Southern whites wished to
organizer James T. Rapier was a member keep African Americans in a condition of
of the U.S. House of Representatives from quasi-servitude, extending few civil
Alabama during Reconstruction. rights and firmly rejecting social equal-
Born in affluence—his father was a ity. African Americans, on the other
wealthy planter—Rapier was educated hand, wanted full freedom and, above all,
246 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

land of their own. Inevitably, there were era. A series of disastrously bad crops in
frequent clashes. Some erupted into race the late 1860s, followed by the general
riots, but acts of terrorism against indi- agricultural depression of the 1870s, hurt
vidual African American leaders were both whites and blacks.
more common. The governments set up in the
During this turmoil, Southern whites Southern states under the congressio-
and blacks began to work out ways of nal program of Reconstruction were,
getting their farms back into operation contrary to traditional clichés, fairly
and of making a living. Indeed, the honest and effective. Though the period
most important developments of the has sometimes been labeled “Black
Reconstruction era were not the highly Reconstruction,” the Radical govern-
publicized political contests but the slow, ments in the South were never dominated
almost imperceptible changes that by African Americans. There were no
occurred in Southern society. African black governors, only two black senators
Americans could now legally marry, and and a handful of congressmen, and only
they set up conventional and usually sta- one legislature controlled by blacks.
ble family units; they quietly seceded Those African Americans who did hold
from the white churches and formed their office appear to have been similar in
own religious organizations, which competence and honesty to the whites. It
became centres for the African American is true that these Radical governments
community. Without land or money, most were expensive, but large state expendi-
freedmen had to continue working for tures were necessary to rebuild after
white masters, but they were now unwill- the war and to establish—for the first
ing to labour in gangs or to live in the old time in most Southern states—a system
slave quarters under the eye of the plan- of common schools. There certainly was
tation owner. corruption, though nowhere on the scale
Sharecropping gradually became the of the Tweed Ring, which at that time
accepted labour system in most of the was busily looting New York City. But it
South Planters, short of capital, favoured is not possible to show that Republicans
the system because it did not require were more guilty than Democrats, or
them to pay cash wages; African blacks than whites, in the scandals that
Americans preferred it because they did occur.
could live in individual cabins on the Though some Southern whites in the
tracts they rented and because they had mountainous regions and some planters
a degree of independence in choosing in the rich bottomlands were willing to
what to plant and how to cultivate. The cooperate with the African Americans
South as a whole, however, was desper- and their Northern-born “carpetbagger”
ately poor throughout the Reconstruction allies in these new governments, there
The Aftermath | 247

In Focus: Carpetbaggers and Scalawags

During the Reconstruction period, any Northern politician or financial adventurer accused of going
South to use the newly enfranchised freedmen as a means of obtaining office or profit was likely to
be labeled a “carpetbagger.” The epithet originally referred to an unwelcome stranger coming, with
no more property than he could carry in a satchel (carpetbag), to exploit or dominate a region
against the wishes of some or all of its inhabitants. Although carpetbaggers often supported the
corrupt financial schemes that helped to bring the Reconstruction governments into ill repute, many
of them were genuinely concerned with the freedom and education of black citizens.
Southerners who supported the federal plan of Reconstruction or who joined with black freed-
men and carpetbaggers in support of Republican Party policies were pejoratively branded
scalawags. These individuals came from various segments of Southern society. In the Deep South,
many were apt to be former Whigs of the planter-merchant aristocracy. In the upper South, they
were often hill-country farmers whose sympathies during the war had been Unionist. Altogether,
during the Reconstruction era, scalawags constituted perhaps 20 percent of the white electorate, a
sizable force in any election or constitutional convention. The origin of the term is unclear, but it
was known in the United States from at least the 1840s, at first denoting a worthless farm animal
and then denoting a worthless person.

were relatively few such “scalawags.” The Confederate veterans in Pulaski, Tenn.,
mass of Southern whites remained in 1866. They apparently derived the
fiercely opposed to African American name from the Greek word kyklos, from
political, civil, and social equality. Most which comes the English “circle”; “Klan”
often their hostility was manifested was added for the sake of alliteration and
through support of the Democratic Party, Ku Klux Klan emerged. The organization
which gradually regained its strength in quickly became a vehicle for Southern
the South and waited for the time when white underground resistance to Radical
the North would tire of supporting the Reconstruction. Klan members sought
Radical regimes and would withdraw the restoration of white supremacy
federal troops from the South. through intimidation and violence aimed
at the newly enfranchised black freed-
Ku Klux Klan men. A similar organization, the Knights
of the White Camelia, began in Louisiana
Sometimes racial hostility was expressed in 1867.
through such terrorist organizations as In the summer of 1867, the Klan was
the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan was origi- structured into the “Invisible Empire of
nally organized as a social club by the South” at a convention in Nashville,
248 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

Tenn., attended by delegates from former devoid of the idealistic fervour that had
Confederate states. The group was pre- marked the early Republicans. At the
sided over by a grand wizard (Confederate same time, many Northerners were grow-
cavalry general Nathan Bedford Forrest ing tired of the whole Reconstruction
is believed to have been the first grand issue and were weary of the annual out-
wizard) and a descending hierarchy of breaks of violence in the South that
grand dragons, grand titans, and grand required repeated use of federal force.
cyclopes. Dressed in robes and sheets Efforts to shore up the Radical
designed to frighten superstitious blacks regimes in the South grew increasingly
and to prevent identification by the occu- unsuccessful. The adoption of the
pying federal troops, Klansmen whipped Fifteenth Amendment (1870), prohibiting
and killed freedmen and their white sup- discrimination in voting on account of
porters in nighttime raids. race, had little effect in the South, where
The 19th-century Klan reached its terrorist organizations and economic
peak between 1868 and 1870. A potent pressure from planters kept African
force, it was largely responsible for the Americans from the polls. Nor were three
restoration of white rule in North Force Acts passed by the Republicans
Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia. But (1870–71), giving the president the power
Forrest ordered it disbanded in 1869, to suspend the writ of habeas corpus
largely as a result of the group’s exces- and imposing heavy penalties upon ter-
sive violence. Local branches remained roristic organizations, in the long run
active for a time, however. more successful. If they succeeded in
dispersing the Ku Klux Klan as an orga-
The Ulysses S. Grant nization, they also drove its members,
Administrations (1869–77) and their tactics, more than ever into the
Democratic camp.
During the two administrations of In 1882, the Supreme Court declared
President Grant there was a gradual attri- the Ku Klux Act unconstitutional, but by
tion of Republican strength. As a politician that time the Klan had practically disap-
the president was passive, exhibiting peared, though it would revive in the
none of the brilliance he had shown on 20th century.
the battlefield. His administration was Growing Northern disillusionment
tarnished by the dishonesty of his subor- with Radical Reconstruction and with
dinates, whom he loyally defended. As the Grant administration became evi-
the older Radical leaders—men like dent in the Liberal Republican movement
Sumner, Wade, and Stevens—died, lead- of 1872, which resulted in the nomina-
ership in the Republican Party fell into tion of the erratic Horace Greeley for
the hands of technicians like Roscoe president. Though Grant was over-
Conkling and James G. Blaine, men whelmingly reelected, the true temper
The Aftermath | 249

In Focus: Fifteenth Amendment

The Fifteenth Amendment (1870) to the Constitution of the United States guaranteed that the right
to vote could not be denied based on “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” The amend-
ment complemented and followed in the wake of passage of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth
amendments, which abolished slavery and guaranteed citizenship, respectively, to African
Americans. The passage of the amendment and its subsequent ratification (Feb. 3, 1870) effectively
enfranchised African American men, while denying that right to women of all colours. Women
would not receive that right until the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920.
The full text of the Fifteenth Amendment reads:

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the
United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude—
The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

During Reconstruction, the amendment was successful in encouraging African Americans to


vote. Many African Americans were even elected to public office during the 1880s in the states that
formerly had comprised the Confederate States of America. By the 1890s, however, efforts by several
states to enact such measures as poll taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses—in addition to
widespread threats and violence—had completely reversed these trends. By the beginning of the
20th century, nearly all African Americans in the states of the former Confederacy were again dis-
enfranchised. Although the Supreme Court and Congress attempted to strike down such actions as
unconstitutional, it was not until Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson introduced the Voting Rights Act of 1965
that Congress was able to put an end to this violence and discrimination. The act abolished voter
prerequisites and also allowed for federal supervision of voter registration. With the passage of the
Voting Rights Act, the Fifteenth Amendment was finally enforceable, and voter turnout among
African Americans improved markedly.

of the country was demonstrated in of Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio, a moder-


the congressional elections of 1874, ate Republican of high principles and of
which gave the Democrats control of the deep sympathy for the South, marked
House of Representatives for the first the end of the Radical domination of the
time since the outbreak of the Civil Republican Party.
War. Despite Grant’s hope for a third The circumstances surrounding the
term in office, most Republicans recog- disputed election of 1876 strengthened
nized by 1876 that it was time to Hayes’s intention to work with the
change both the candidate and his Southern whites, even if it meant aban-
Reconstruction program. The nomination doning the few Radical regimes that
250 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

remained in the South. In an election of the country during Reconstruction,


marked by widespread fraud and many but also that a number of constructive
irregularities, the Democratic candidate, reforms actually were introduced into
Samuel J. Tilden, received the majority the South during that period. In addition
of the popular vote; but the vote in to the extension of civil rights and the
the electoral college was long in doubt. participation of African Americans in
In order to resolve the impasse, Hayes’s government, courts were reorganized,
lieutenants had to enter into agreement judicial procedures improved, public-
with Southern Democratic congressmen, school systems established, and more
promising to withdraw the remaining feasible methods of taxation devised.
federal troops from the South, to share Many provisions of the state constitu-
the Southern patronage with Democrats, tions adopted during the postwar years
and to favour that section’s demands for have continued in existence.
federal subsidies in the building of The Reconstruction experience led
levees and railroads. Hayes’s inaugura- to an increase in sectional bitterness
tion marked, for practical purposes, the and the development of one-party politics
restoration of “home rule” for the in the South. Scholarship has suggested
South—i.e., that the North would no lon- that the most fundamental failure of
ger interfere in Southern elections to Reconstruction was in not effecting a dis-
protect African Americans and that the tribution of land in the South that would
Southern whites would again take con- have offered an economic base to sup-
trol of their state governments. port the newly won political rights of
black citizens.
RECONSTRUCTION IN
RETROSPECT “It seemed like it took a long time
for freedom to come. Everything
At the beginning of the 20th century, just kept on like it was. We heard
many historians viewed the Reconstruction that lots of slaves was getting
governments as an abyss of corruption land and some mules to set up
resulting from Northern vindictiveness for theirselves. I never knowed
and the desire for political and economic any what got land or mules nor
domination. Later, revisionist historians nothing.”
noted that not only was public and pri-
vate dishonesty widespread in all regions —Millie Freeman, former slave
Glossary
aberration The act of deviating from between other parts; something
the normal. interjected or interposed.
antebellum Before or existing before a ironclad An iron- or steel-plated
war, especially in reference to the wooden warship.
American Civil War. littoral Having to do with a shore or
armistice A temporary suspension of coastal region.
wartime hostilities by agreement lyceum An institution for public
of both parties; truce. education through discussions
attrition The act of weakening or and lectures.
exhausting by constant harassment magnanimity Generosity in forgiving
or attack. an insult or injury.
barbarism An uncivilized state or martinet Someone, especially in the
condition. military, who strictly adheres to
brevet An honorary promotion wherein rules and procedures.
a military officer’s rank, but not pay, materiel The equipment, arms, and
is raised. general supplies of a military force.
bulwark A wall or other protection myrmidon A person who unquestion-
against external danger or attack; ably follows commands, without
rampart. concern for ethics or scruples.
commissary A store selling food and ordnance Military supplies, including
supplies at a military post, mining weapons and ammunition.
camp, or other place of work. peculiar institution With peculiar
conscription Compulsory enrollment in meaning, unique or distinctive. This
military service; draft. phrase was used as a euphemism
excoriate To denounce severely or berate. for slavery.
flotilla A group of small naval vessels. pejorative Having a belittling effect
howitzer A short-barreled cannon. or force.
impenitent Not repentant. pontoon Floating structure used as a
indemnification The act of compensat- temporary bridge over a river.
ing for damage or loss sustained. popular sovereignty In regard to
insurrection An act of rising in revolt American history, the doctrine that
against civil authority or organized held that the people of the federal
government. territories should decide for them-
interpolation Something introduced selves whether to enter the Union as
(usually something extraneous) free or slave states..
252 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

promiscuously Indifferently or sobriquet A nickname.


indiscriminately. suasion A persuasive effort or attempt
promulgation A declaration or or the act of doing so.
proclamation that may have the tatterdemalion A person in ragged,
force of law. tattered clothing.
provincialism Narrow-mindedness, untenable Unsound; groundless,
ignorance, specifically as is consid- unable to be defended, as an
ered to be a result of lack of exposure argument.
to cultural or intellectual activity. verbosity The state or quality of using
quiescent Inactive; motionless; still. an excess of words; wordiness.
Bibliography
The Peculiar Institution Development of Southern Cultures in
On slavery in the United States, see the Chesapeake, 1680–1800 (1986);
John W. Blassingame, The Slave Lawrence W. Levine, Black Culture and
Community: Plantation Life in the Black Consciousness: Afro-American
Antebellum South, rev. ed. (1979); Helen Folk Thought from Slavery to Freedom
Tunnicliff Catterall (ed.), Judicial Cases (1977); Leon F. Litwack, Been in the
Concerning American Slavery and the Storm So Long: The Aftermath of
Negro, 5 vol. (1926–37, reprinted 1968); Slavery (1979); Edmund S. Morgan,
Paul Finkelman, An Imperfect Union: American Slavery, American Freedom:
Slavery, Federalism, and Comity (1981), The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia (1975);
and his Slavery in the Courtroom: An Gerald W. Mullin, Flight and Rebellion:
Annotated Bibliography of American Slave Resistance in Eighteenth-Century
Cases (1985); Robert William Fogel and Virginia (1972); James Oakes, The
Stanley L. Engerman, Time on the Cross: Ruling Race: A History of American
The Economics of American Negro Slaveholders (1982); Ulrich Bonne
Slavery (1974); David W. Galenson, Phillips, American Negro Slavery: A
White Servitude in Colonial America: Survey of the Supply, Employment, and
An Economic Analysis (1981); Eugene D. Control of Negro Labor as Determined
Genovese, The Political Economy of by the Plantation Régime (1918, reissued
Slavery: Studies in the Economy & 1966); Kenneth M. Stampp, The Peculiar
Society of the Slave South (1965), Roll, Institution: Slavery in the Ante-bellum
Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves South (1956, reprinted 1975); Eric
Made (1974), and The World the Williams, Capitalism & Slavery (1944,
Slaveholders Made, rev. ed. with a new reissued 1980); and Peter H. Wood,
introduction (1988); Claudia Dale Black Majority: Negroes in Colonial
Goldin, Urban Slavery in the American South Carolina from 1670 Through the
South, 1820–1860 (1976); Herbert G. Stono Rebellion (1974).
Gutman, The Black Family in Slavery
and Freedom, 1750–1925 (1976); Civil War
Winthrop D. Jordan, White over Black: Essential multivolume works include
American Attitudes Toward the Negro, Shelby Foote, The Civil War: A
1550–1812 (1968, reissued 1977); Peter Narrative, 3 vol. (1958–74; reissued in 14
Kolchin, Unfree Labor: American vol., 1998–2000); Allan Nevins, The War
Slavery and Russian Serfdom (1987); for the Union, 4 vol. (1959–71, reissued
Allan Kulikoff, Tobacco and Slaves: The 2000); and Bruce Catton, The Centennial
254 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

History of the Civil War, 3 vol. (1961–65). Their Tattered Flags: The Epic of the
Two books by James M. McPherson, Confederacy (1970, reprinted 1987); and
Ordeal by Fire: The Civil War and Emory M. Thomas, The Confederate
Reconstruction, 3rd ed. (2000) and Nation, 1861–1865 (1979, reissued 1993),
Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era concentrate on the South. Charles P.
(1988), are excellent; the former places Roland, An American Iliad: The Story of
the war into broad context, while the lat- the Civil War, 2nd ed. (2002), is a fine
ter focuses on the war years. Russell F. survey of the conflict. William M.
Weigley, A Great Civil War: A Military Fowler, Jr., Under Two Flags: The
and Political History, 1861–1865 (2000), American Navy in the Civil War (1990,
is equally good. Frank E. Vandiver, reprinted 2001), covers sea combat.
Index
A B
abolitionism, 23, 36–60 Banks, General Nathaniel P. (Union), 127–128
abolitionists, 12, 23, 27, 32, 33, 36–60, 69 Barton, Clara, 178
Adams, Charles Francis, 177–178 Bates, Edward, 179–180
Adams, John Quincy, 36, 52 “Battle of Charleston Harbor, The,” 225
“After the Battle,” 211 Beauregard, General P. G. T. (Confederate),
Alabama, 29, 43, 61–62 67, 77–78, 86, 94, 104, 107, 110, 156–157, 162
American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Beecher, Henry Ward, 54, 58
42, 50, 57 Bell, John, 180
American Anti-Slavery Society, 39, 43, 50–51, Belle Boyd in Camp and Prison, 221
53, 57–58 Benezet, Anthony, 42–43
American Colonization Society, 49 Benjamin, Judah, 218
American Missionary Association, 36 Bible Against Slavery, The, 58
American Red Cross, 178 Bickerdyke, Mary Ann, 180–181
Amistad mutiny, 34–36 Big Black River, Battle of, 116
Among the Hills, 60 Bigelow, John, 181–182
Anderson, General Richard Birney, James G., 39, 43, 48, 58
(Confederate), 156 “Black Codes,” 232–233
Antietam, Battle of, 14, 70, 82–83, 112, “Bleeding Kansas,” 12, 23
144, 168 Booth, John Wilkes, 45, 210, 218–219
Antietam Creek, 14, border states, 10, 12, 19, 23, 27, 33
Appeal for the Indians, An, 47 Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society, 46
Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Boston Vigilance Committee, 51
Called Africans, An, 47 Boutwell, George Sewall, 238
Appeal . . . to the Colored Citizens of the Boyd, Belle, 220–221
World . . . , 57–58 Brady, Mathew B., 182
Appomattox Court House, surrender at, 14, Bragg, General Braxton (Confederate), 157
98, 124–125 Breckenridge, John C., 27
Arkansas, 62, 91 Brooks, Preston S., 23, 55
Armstrong, Samuel Chapman (Union), Brown, John, 11–12, 23, 26–27, 42–46,
126–127 50–51, 53
Army of Northern Virginia, 80, 98, 114–115, Brown, William Wells, 39
159, 167–168, 187, 223 Browning, Orville Hickman, 207
Army of the Potomac, 76, 78, 81, 83, 143 Brownlow, William G., 238–239
assassination of Lincoln, 14, 210, 231 Bruce, Blanche K., 239–240
Atlanta Campaign, 120–121 Bryant, William Cullen, 181
Atlantic Monthly, 55, 187 Buchanan, Franklin, 157–158
256 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

Buchanan, James, 23–25, 61–62, 225 Compromise of 1850, 10, 20–21, 26, 50, 55, 62
Buckner, General Simon Bolivar Confederacy, 12, 62–63, 65, 68–69, 71, 74–76,
(Confederate), 158–159 98, 108, 112, 156, 222
Buell, General Don Carlos (Union), 128 Confederates, 11–12, 14, 45, 54, 56, 62, 65,
Bull Run, First Battle of, 12, 77–78, 103–104, 67–72, 74–80, 94–95, 97, 101, 104–105,
143, 162, 175, 201, 223 110–111, 113–116, 162
Bull Run, Second Battle of, 14, 82–83, 103–104, Confederate States of America, 62–63,
111–112, 146, 175 72, 200
Burns, Anthony, 51 Congress, 10, 18, 24–26, 33, 36, 39, 59, 65,
Burnside, General Ambrose (Union), 83, 71, 78
128–129, 163 Conkling, Roscoe, 241
Butler, Andrew P., 55 Connecticut, 35–36, 43, 54, 56, 58
Butler, General Benjamin F. (Union), conscription, 69, 73
129–130 Constitution (U.S.), 10, 20, 30, 33, 37–39, 50,
53, 56, 222
Constitutional Convention of 1787, 9
C Corinth, Battle of, 112
Calhoun, John C., 225 cotton, 10, 19, 29–30, 38, 65
California, 19, 21 Cox, General Jacob (Union), 130
Cameron, Simon, 75, 182–183 Crittenden, John J., 62
carpetbaggers, 247 Crittenden Compromise of 1860, 228
Carrick’s (or Corrick’s) Ford, 76 Cushing, William Barker, 130–131
Carroll, Anna Ella, 183–184
Chancellorsville, Battle of, 87, 115–116
Chandler, Zachariah, 240–241
D
Chapman, Maria Weston, 46 Davis, Henry Winter, 184
Chase, Salmon P., 39, 192, 207 Davis, Jefferson, 12, 54, 62–64, 68–69, 71–72,
Chattanooga, Battle of, 118–119 74–76, 80, 93, 162, 167, 222–224
Chesapeake, 29 Declaration of Independence, 38, 61
Chesnut, Mary Boykin Miller, 221 Delaware, 69
Chickamauga, Battle of, 91–92, 118, 147 Democratic Party, 27, 71
Child, David L., 46 Democrats, 18–19, 23, 26, 78
Child, Lydia Maria, 39, 46–47 Diary from Dixie, A, 221
Christian Union, 55 “Dixie,” 66
Civil Rights Act of 1866, 233–234 Donelson, Fort, 85, 105–106, 114
Clarkson, Thomas, 38 Douglas, Stephen A., 20–22, 25–27, 55,
Clay, Henry, 21, 182 185–186, 197
Cobb, Howell, 221–222 Douglass, Frederick, 12, 39, 47–48
Cold Harbor, Battles of, 111, 121–122 draft riot of 1863, 73
Colored Orphan Asylum, the, 73 Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal
Compromise of 1820, 10, 20, 22, 24, 26, 62 Swamp, 55
Index | 257

Dred Scott v. John F. A. Sandford, 23, Freedmen’s Book, The, 47


25–27, 50 Freedmen’s Bureau, 233–235
Drum Taps, 217 Freedom’s Journal, 57
due process, 24 Freeport Doctrine, 25, 27
Free Soil Party, 42, 53
E free states, 10, 12, 21, 23–24, 52, 62
Frémont, John C., 23
Eads, James B., 186–187
Frietschie, Barbara, 187–188
Early, General Jubal A. (Confederate), 159
Frugal Housewife, The, 47
emancipation, 22, 38, 43–44, 46, 50–52, 69, 73
fugitives/runaway slaves, 10, 11, 21, 30,
“Emancipation,” 211
32–33, 54
Emancipation Proclamation, 14, 51, 53, 57,
Fugitive Slave Acts, 10–11, 21, 32–33, 42, 51,
69–70, 204
53, 57
Everett, Edward, 187
“Exile’s Departure, The,” 59
G
F Gaines’s Mill, Battle of, 80–81
Gallery of Illustrious Americans, A, 182
Fact and Fiction, 47
Gardner, Alexander, 188–189
Fair Oaks, Battle of, 12, 79–80, 110
Garrett, Thomas, 32
Farragut, Admiral David (Union), 91, 100, 123,
Garrison, William Lloyd, 12, 22, 38–39, 43,
131–132, 186
46–50, 52–53, 57, 59–60
Fifteenth Amendment, 15, 193, 248–249
Genius of Universal Emancipation, 49, 52
Fifth Amendment, 24
Georgia, 61–62, 248
Fillmore, Millard, 18
Gettysburg, Battle of, 14, 73, 88–91, 115–118,
financial panic of 1873, 182
139, 168, 173–174, 176
1st South Carolina Volunteers (33rd U.S.
Gettysburg Address, 14, 90, 118
Colored Troops), 51
Gettysburg National Cemetery, 187
Florida, 61–62
Grant, General Ulysses S. (Union), 14, 56, 76,
Flowers for Children, 47
85–86, 91, 93–95, 97–98, 104–105, 108–110,
Foote, Andrew, 132–133, 186
114–115, 120–123, 133–138, 169, 203, 237,
Ford’s Theatre, 210, 219
248–250
Forrest, General Nathan Bedford
Great Britain, 177–178
(Confederate), 159–160, 248
Greeley, Horace, 12, 204, 248
Forten, Robert, 39
Greenhow, Rose O’Neal, 224–225
Fort Pillow Massacre, 119, 160
Grimké, Angelina, 59
Fourteenth Amendment, 15, 236–237
France, 181
Franklin, General William (Union), 133 H
Frederick Douglass’s Paper, 48 Halleck, General Henry (Union), 76, 81, 83,
Fredericksburg, Battle of, 83–84, 87, 85–86, 88, 93, 104, 138–139, 202
113–115, 176 Hamlin, Hannibal, 189, 198
258 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

Hampton Roads, Battle of, 106–107, 109, Johnson, Andrew, 14, 56, 190–193, 231–237
158, 208 Johnston, General Albert Sidney
Hancock, General Winfield Scott (Confederate), 85–86, 104–105, 110, 164
(Union), 139 Johnston, General Joseph E. (Confederate),
Harpers Ferry, 11–12, 27–28, 42–44, 48, 51, 54, 78–80, 93, 101, 104, 164–165
77, 80, 83, 88 Joint Committee on the Conduct of the
Harper’s Weekly, 211 War, 243
Hayes, Rutherford B., 249 Journal of the Times, 49
Hayne, Paul Hamilton, 225–226 Julian, George W., 242–243
Henry, Fort, 85, 104–105, 114 Justice and Expediency, 59
Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, 51 Juvenile Miscellany, 46
Hill, General A. P. (Confederate), 160–161
Hoar, Ebenezer R., 242 K
Home Ballads and Poems, 60
Kansas, 11–12, 20–23, 27, 44, 51
“Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter,
Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, 11, 18, 22, 26,
Gettysburg,” 188
50, 55
Homestead Act, 243
Kentucky, 21, 43, 54, 69, 85–86, 104–105
Hood, General John B. (Confederate), 161
Kirby-Smith, General E. (Confederate),
Hooker, General Joseph (Union), 83, 87–88,
165–166
115–116, 139–140, 163
Know-Nothings, 18–19
House of Representatives, 21, 53, 71, 75,
Ku Klux Klan, 247–248
129, 249
Howard, General Oliver (Union), 141
Howe, Julia Ward, 39 L
Hunter, David, 141–142 Lays of My Home, 60
Lee, General Robert E. (Confederate), 14,
I 45, 68, 70, 72, 75–77, 80–83, 87–89, 91,
93–95, 97–98, 101, 108, 110–112, 114–116,
Illinois, 23–24, 26–27, 51–53, 75
120–123, 135, 144, 162, 166–170, 173–175,
Immediatism, 50
203, 223–224
Independent (New York City), 55
Legends of New England, 59
ironclads, 98–100, 186
Liberator, The, 12, 22, 38, 46, 49–51, 53
Isherwood, Benjamin Franklin, 189–190
Liberty Party, 42–43, 50, 53, 57
Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, 48
J Lincoln, Abraham, 12, 14–15, 19, 26–28, 42, 45,
Jackson, General Thomas (Stonewall) 48, 51, 53, 56, 61–63, 65, 67–72, 75–78, 81,
(Confederate), 78, 80, 82–83, 87, 101, 83, 86–88, 91, 93, 98, 101–102, 106, 112, 118,
107–108, 111–112, 115–116, 118, 146, 161–164, 120, 126–127, 190–191, 194–210, 223–224,
167–168, 176, 187–188 230–231
Jefferson, Thomas, 10, 61 Lincoln-Douglas Debates, 26–27
“John Brown’s Body,” 45 Logan, General John A. (Union), 142
Index | 259

Longstreet, General James (Confederate), Military Reminiscences of the Civil War, 130
170–171 Mississippi, 29–30, 34, 61–63, 75, 86, 91
Louisiana, 29, 61–62, 98 Mississippi Valley, 108–109
Louisiana Territory, 10, 20, 24 Missouri, 12, 20, 22–24, 51–52, 69, 104
Louisville Courier, 158 Missouri Compromise (Compromise of
Lovejoy, Elijah P., 51, 53 1820), 10, 20, 22, 24, 26, 62
Lowell, James Russell, 39 Mobile Bay, Battle of, 123
Lundy, Benjamin, 49, 52 Monitor, 99, 106–107, 109
Lydia Maria Child, Selected Letters, Morgan, John Hunt, 171–172
1817–1880, 47 Morgan’s Raiders, 171
Lyon, General Nathaniel (Union), 104 Mosby, John Singleton, 172–173

M N
Madison, James, 61 Narrative of the Life of Frederick
Maine, 51, 54, 56 Douglass, 12,
Mallory, Stephen, 75 Nashville, Battle of, 123–124
Manassas (First), 78, 103–104, 162, 175, 223 Nashville Convention of 1850, 26
Manassas Junction, 77–78, 225 Nast, Thomas, 210–211
Manassas National Battlefield Park, 163 National Anti-Slavery Standard, 47
Manassas (Second), 82–83, 103–104, National Enquirer (Pennsylvania
111–112, 175 Freeman), 52
Maryland, 14, 18, 38, 44, 47–49, 69, 72, 82–83, National Era, 40, 54
88, 112, 144, 184 National Philanthropist, 49
Mason, James M., 56, 226 Nebraska, 11, 20, 22
Mason-Dixon Line, 10, New England, 19, 36, 46, 49, 59
Massachusetts, 43, 46–49, 51–53, 55–59 New England Anti-Slavery Society, 50
Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, 46, 48 New England Non-Resistance Society, 46
McClellan, General George (Union), 12, 14, New England Weekly Review, 59
71–72, 76, 78–83, 110–112, 128, 142–144, 162, New Jersey, 43, 52, 59
175, 202, New Mexico, 21
McDowell, General Irvin (Union), 78, 104, New Orleans, Battle of, 110
162, 225 New South, 29
McPherson, General James (Union), 144 New York, 12, 24, 26, 34–35, 38, 43, 48–49,
Meade, General George Gordon (Union), 53–56, 73, 246
88–89, 97–98, 116, 118, 144–145 New York Evening Post, 181
Memoir of the Last Years of the War of New York Tribune, 204
Independence in the Confederate States Non-Resistant, 46
of America, A, 159 North Carolina, 57, 62, 248
Menard, John Willis, 243–244 North Star (later Frederick Douglass’s
Merrimack, 99, 106–107, 109, 158 Paper), 48
260 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

O Q
Ohio, 33, 43, 52, 54, 58, 76 Quantrill, William C., 174
Our American Cousin, 219
“Over the River and through the Woods,” 47
R
Rainey, Joseph Hayne, 244–245
P
ranger attacks, 172
Parker, Theodore, 39 Rapier, James T., 245
Pea Ridge, Battle of, 106 Reconstruction, 9, 14, 48–49, 56, 129, 192,
“peculiar institution,” 19, 22, 26, 29–36, 230–250
39, 69 Red River, 119
Pemberton, General John Relation of the National Government
(Confederate), 173 to the Revolted Citizens Defined,
Peninsular Campaign, 78–79, 109, 111, 139, The, 183
162, 202 Report on the Defense of Charleston, 157
Pennsylvania, 42–43, 52, 88 Republican Party, 22–23, 25–26, 42, 51, 62,
Pennsylvania Freeman, 59 71, 73, 190, 231
Pennsylvania Pilgrim, The, 60 Republicans, 18–19, 26, 28, 78
Perrysville, Battle of, 113 reserved powers clause, 30
Petersburg, Siege of, 14, 94–95, 97, 122–124 Richmond, Virginia (capital of Confederacy),
Philippi, 76 77, 79–82, 95, 97, 104, 111, 162, 202,
Phillips, Wendell, 52 223–224
Photographic Sketch Book of the Civil Rich Mountain, 76
War, 188 Right and Wrong in Massachusetts, 46
Pickett, General George E. (Confederate), Rise and Fall of the Confederate
173–174 Government, 224
Pickett’s Charge, 14, 89, 173–174 Rosecrans, General William S. (Union),
Pierce, Franklin, 22, 63, 75 147–148
Pinchback, Pinckney Benton Stewart, 244 Ross, Edmund, 193
plantations, 10, 21, 29–30, 34, 38, 48
Polk, James K., 196
Pope, General John (Union), 145–146 S
popular sovereignty, 10–11, 20–22, 25–27 Sack of Lawrence (Kansas), 23
Porter, David, 146 Santiago Campaign, The, 176
Porter, Eliza, 211 scalawags, 247
Porter, General Fitz-John (Union), 146–147 Scott, Dred, 12, 23–25
Pottawatomie Massacre, 23, 27, 44 Scott, General Winfield (Union), 68, 75–76,
“President Lincoln on the Battlefield of 78, 148–149, 174, 199–201
Antietam,” 188 secession, 12, 14, 21, 26, 42, 50, 61–63, 68, 70,
Principles and Maxims of the Art of 77, 222
War, 157 Semmes, Raphael, 174–175
Index | 261

Senate, 21, 23, 27, 55–56, 192, 223 Stonewall Jackson Monument, 163
Seven Days’ Battles, 80, 110–111, 202 Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 12, 32, 40–42,
7th New York Regiment, 73 54, 58
Seward, William H., 26, 28, 65, 200, 207, Stuart, General J. E. B. (Confederate),
211–212 88–89, 175–176
Seward’s Folly, 212 Sumner, Charles, 23, 55–56, 230
Sharpsburg (Maryland), 14, Sumter, Fort, 12, 62, 65, 67–68, 102–103,
Shenandoah, 107–108, 167 200–201, 223
Sheridan, General Philip (Union), Supreme Court (U.S.), 23–26, 36
149–150, 176
Sherman, General William Tecumseh T
(Union), 71, 86, 91, 93, 95–97, 114, 120,
Taney, Roger B., 24
150–154, 176
Tappan, Arthur, 39, 42, 56–57
Shiloh, Battle of, 14, 91, 109–110, 135
Tappan, Lewis, 36, 39, 42, 56–57
Sigel, General Franz (Union), 104
Taylor, Zachary, 148, 196
slavery, 9–12, 15, 19–27, 29–30, 33–36, 38–40,
Tennessee, 14, 19, 62, 85–86, 91, 96,
42–43, 47–48, 50–57, 59, 69–71, 75
104–105, 248
Slavery As It Is, 58
Tenth Amendment, 30
slaves, 10–12, 14–15, 19, 21–22, 24, 26–27, 29–38,
Tent on the Beach, The, 60
40, 43–44, 46–48, 51–52, 55, 71, 73
Tenure of Office Act, 237
slave states, 10, 12, 19, 21, 52–53, 62, 69
Texas, 21, 29, 52, 61–62
slave trade, 21, 38, 42, 49, 52
Thirteenth Amendment, 15, 71, 232–233
Slidell, John, 56, 226
Thomas, General George Henry (Union),
Smith, Gerrit, 39, 43–44, 53
154–155
“Snow-Bound,” 60
Tilden, Samuel J., 250
Songs of Labor, 60
Toombs, Robert A., 227–228
Songs of the Free and Hymns of Christian
Trent, 56, 65
Freedom, 46
Tubman, Harriet, 11, 32
South Carolina, 12, 20, 23, 30, 33–34, 55,
Turner, Nat, 20, 34–35
61–62, 65, 102–103, 199–200, 222
Tweed Ring, 210, 246
Specimen Days & Collect, 217
Spotsylvania Court House, Battle of, 120,
169, 176 U
Stanton, Edwin M., 75, 78, 192, 202, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 12, 33, 40–42, 54, 58
212–213, 237 Underground Railroad, 11, 32–33, 53, 57
Stars and Bars, 62 Union, 12, 14, 45, 62, 65, 68, 74, 76, 104–105,
states’ rights, 12, 61, 223 111, 113–115, 191, 208
Stephens, Alexander H., 62, 71, 227 Union Humane Society, 52
Stevens, Thaddeus, 230 U.S. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and
St. Louis Observer, 52 Abandoned Lands, 234
Stones River, Battle of, 115 Utah, 21
262 | The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power

V Washington, D.C./District of Columbia, 21,


47, 49, 54–55, 59, 62–63, 77–78, 81, 83, 93,
Vallandigham, Clement L., 213–214 112, 223
Van Buren, Martin, 36 Webster, Daniel, 21
Van Lew, Elizabeth L., 214–215 Weed, Thurlow, 216
Vermont, 38, 49 Weld, Theodore Dwight, 39, 58–59
Vesey, Denmark, 20, 34 Welles, Gideon, 98, 216–217
Vicksburg, Siege of, 91, 114–115, 203, 223 West Virginia, 27–28, 43, 76–77
Virginia, 11–12, 14, 20, 27, 29–30, 34–35, 42–44, Wheeler, Joseph, 176
48, 51–52, 62, 68, 76–79, 83–84, 91, 93, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard
103–104, 107–108, 116, 167–168, 175 Bloom’d,” 217
Virginia, 106–107 Whitman, Walt, 217
Voices of Freedom, 60 Whittier, John Greenleaf, 39, 59–60, 187
Wilberforce, William, 38
W Wilderness, Battle of the, 87, 94, 116, 119–120
Wilson’s Creek, Battle of, 104
Wade, Benjamin F., 215
Wisconsin Territory, 24
Wade-Davis Bill, 184, 231
Wood, Fernando, 218
Walker, David, 39, 57–58
Worden, John, 155–156
Walker, Mary, 215–216
War in the West, 84–85, 91, 93, 96
War Powers of the General Government, Y
The, 183 Yancey, William Lowndes, 228–229
Washington and Lee University, 170 Yorktown, 79, 111

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