A Short History of the United States by Edward Channing
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Edward Channing >> A Short History of the United States
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[Sidenote: Southern sentiment in Washington.]
[Sidenote: Southern Unionists.]
[Sidenote: First bloodshed, April 19, 1861.]
385. To the Defense of Washington.--The national capital was really
a Southern town, for most of the permanent residents were Southerners,
and the offices were filled with Southern men. In the army and navy,
too, were very many Southerners. Most of them, as Robert E. Lee, felt
that their duty to their state was greater than their duty to their
flag. But many Southern officers felt differently. Among these were two
men whose names should be held in grateful remembrance, Captain David G.
Farragut and Colonel George H. Thomas. The first soldiers to arrive in
Washington were from Pennsylvania; but they came unarmed. Soon they were
followed by the Sixth Massachusetts. In passing through Baltimore this
regiment was attacked. Several men were killed, others were wounded.
This was on April 19, 1861,--the anniversary of the battles of
Lexington and Concord. It was the first bloodshed of the war.
CHAPTER 38
BULL RUN TO MURFREESBORO', 1861-1862
[Illustration: RAILROADS AND RIVERS OF THE SOUTH.]
[Sidenote: The field of war.]
386. Nature of the Conflict.--The overthrow of the Confederate
states proved to be very difficult. The Alleghany Mountains cut the
South into two great fields of war. Deep and rapid rivers flowed from
the mountains into the Atlantic or into the Mississippi. Each of these
rivers was a natural line of defense. The first line was the Potomac and
the Ohio. But when the Confederates were driven from this line, they
soon found another equally good a little farther south. Then again the
South was only partly settled. Good roads were rare, but there were many
poor roads. The maps gave only the good roads. By these the Northern
soldiers had to march while the Southern armies were often guided
through paths unknown to the Northerners, and thus were able to march
shorter distances between two battlefields or between two
important points.
[Sidenote: Plan of campaign.]
[Sidenote: Disaster at Bull Run, July, 1861. _Source-Book_, 305-308.]
387. The Bull Run Campaign, July, 1861.--Northern soldiers crossed
the Potomac into Virginia and found the Confederates posted at Bull Run
near Manassas Junction. Other Northern soldiers pressed into the
Shenandoah Valley from Harper's Ferry. They, too, found a Confederate
army in front of them. The plan of the Union campaign is now clear:
General McDowell was to attack the Confederates at Bull Run, while
General Patterson attacked the Confederates in the Valley, and kept them
so busy that they could not go to the help of their comrades at Bull
Run. It fell out otherwise, for Patterson retreated and left the
Confederate general, Johnston, free to go to the aid of the sorely
pressed Confederates at Bull Run. McDowell attacked vigorously and broke
the Confederate line; but he could not maintain his position. The Union
troops at first retreated slowly. Then they became frightened and fled,
in all haste, back to Washington. The first campaign ended in disaster.
[Illustration: GENERAL MCCLELLAN.]
[Sidenote: The Army of the Potomac, 1862.]
388. The Army of the Potomac.--While the Bull Run campaign was
going on in eastern Virginia, Union soldiers had been winning victories
in western Virginia. These were led by General George B. McClellan. He
now came to Washington and took command of the troops operating in front
of the capital. During the autumn, winter, and spring he drilled his men
with great skill and care. In March, 1862, the Army of the Potomac left
its camps a splendidly drilled body of soldiers.
[Sidenote: Southern preparations. _Source-Book_, 308-311.]
[Sidenote: Richmond.]
[Sidenote: Army of Northern Virginia.]
389. The Army of Northern Virginia.--Meantime the government of the
Confederacy had gathered great masses of soldiers. There were not nearly
as many white men of fighting age in the South as there were in the
North. But what men there were could be placed in the fighting line,
because the negro slaves could produce the food needed by the armies and
do the hard labor of making forts. The capital of the Confederacy was
now established at Richmond, on the James River, in Virginia. The army
defending this capital was called the Army of Northern Virginia. It was
commanded by Joseph E. Johnston; but its ablest officers were Robert E.
Lee and Thomas J. Jackson (Stonewall Jackson).
[Sidenote: McClellan's plan of campaign, 1862.]
[Sidenote: Objections to it.]
390. Plan of the Peninsular Campaign.--The country between the
Potomac and the James was cut up by rivers, as the Rappahannock, the
Mattapony, and Pamunkey, and part of it was a wilderness. McClellan
planned to carry his troops by water to the peninsula between the James
and the York and Pamunkey rivers. He would then have a clear road to
Richmond, with no great rivers to dispute with the enemy. Johnston would
be obliged to leave his camp at Bull Run and march southward to the
defense of Richmond. The great objection to the plan was that Johnston
might attack Washington instead of going to face McClellan. General
Jackson also was in the Shenandoah Valley. He might march down the
Valley, cross the Potomac, and seize Washington. So the government kept
seventy-five thousand of McClellan's men for the defense of the
Federal capital.
[Illustration: THE "MONITOR."]
[Sidenote: The _Monitor_ and the _Merrimac_. _Hero Tales_, 183, 195.]
391. The _Monitor_ and the _Merrimac_.--On March 8 a queer-looking
craft steamed out from Norfolk, Virginia, and attacked the Union fleet
at anchor near Fortress Monroe. She destroyed two wooden frigates, the
_Cumberland_ and the _Congress_, and began the destruction of the
_Minnesota_. She then steamed back to Norfolk. This formidable vessel
was the old frigate _Merrimac_. Upon her decks the Confederates had
built an iron house. From these iron sides the balls of the Union
frigates rolled harmlessly away. But that night an even stranger-looking
ship appeared at Fortress Monroe. This was the _Monitor_, a floating
fort, built of iron. She was designed by John Ericsson, a Swedish
immigrant. When the _Merrimac_ came back to finish the destruction of
the _Minnesota_, the _Monitor_ steamed directly to her. These two
ironclads fought and fought. At last the _Merrimac_ steamed away and
never renewed the fight.
[Sidenote: Battle of Fair Oaks, May, 1862.]
[Sidenote: The Seven Days.]
[Sidenote: Malvern Hill.]
392. The Peninsular Campaign, 1862.--By the end of May McClellan
had gained a position within ten miles of Richmond. Meantime, Jackson
fought so vigorously in the Shenandoah Valley that the Washington
government refused to send more men to McClellan, although Johnston had
gone with his army to the defense of Richmond. On May 31 the Army of the
Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia fought a hard battle at Fair
Oaks. Johnston was wounded, and Lee took the chief command. He summoned
Jackson from the Valley and attacked McClellan day after day, June 26
to July 2, 1862. These terrible battles of the Seven Days forced
McClellan to change his base to the James, where he would be near the
fleet. At Malvern Hill Lee and Jackson once more attacked him and were
beaten off with fearful loss.
[Sidenote: Lee's plan of campaign.]
[Sidenote: Second battle of Bull Run, August, 1862.]
393. Second Bull Run Campaign.--The Army of the Potomac was still
uncomfortably near Richmond. It occurred to Lee that if he should strike
a hard blow at the army in front of Washington, Lincoln would recall
McClellan. Suddenly, without any warning, Jackson appeared at Manassas
Junction (p. 317). McClellan was at once ordered to transport his army
by water to the Potomac, and place it under the orders of General John
Pope, commanding the forces in front of Washington. McClellan did as he
was ordered. But Lee moved faster than he could move. Before the Army of
the Potomac was thoroughly in Pope's grasp, Lee attacked the Union
forces near Bull Run. He defeated them, drove them off the field and
back into the forts defending Washington (August, 1862).
[Sidenote: Lee invades Maryland.]
[Sidenote: Antietam, September, 1862. _Hero Tales_, 199-209.]
394. The Antietam Campaign, 1862.--Lee now crossed the Potomac into
Maryland. But he found more resistance than he had looked for. McClellan
was again given chief command. Gathering his forces firmly together, he
kept between Lee and Washington, and threatened Lee's communications
with Virginia. The Confederates drew back. McClellan found them strongly
posted near the Antietam and attacked them. The Union soldiers fought
splendidly. But military writers say that McClellan's attacks were not
well planned. At all events, the Army of the Potomac lost more than
twelve thousand men to less than ten thousand on the Confederate side,
and Lee made good his retreat to Virginia. McClellan was now removed
from command, and Ambrose E. Burnside became chief of the Army of
the Potomac.
[Illustration: ANTIETAM (A WAR-TIME SKETCH).]
[Sidenote: Battle of Fredericksburg, December, 1862.]
395. Fredericksburg, December, 1862.--Burnside found Lee strongly
posted on Marye's Heights, which rise sharply behind the little town of
Fredericksburg on the southern bank of the Rappahannock River. Burnside
attacked in front. His soldiers had to cross the river and assault the
hill in face of a murderous fire--and in vain. He lost thirteen thousand
men to only four thousand of the Confederates. "Fighting Joe" Hooker now
succeeded Burnside as commander of the Army of the Potomac. We must now
turn to the West, and see what had been doing there in 1861-62.
[Sidenote: General Grant.]
[Sidenote: He seizes Cairo.]
[Sidenote: Battle of Mill Springs, January, 1862.]
396. Grant and Thomas.--In Illinois there appeared a trained
soldier of fierce energy and invincible will, Ulysses Simpson Grant. He
had been educated at West Point and had served in the Mexican War. In
September, 1861, he seized Cairo at the junction of the Ohio and the
Mississippi. In January, 1862, General George H. Thomas defeated a
Confederate force at Mill Springs, in the upper valley of the Cumberland
River. In this way Grant and Thomas secured the line of the Ohio and
eastern Kentucky for the Union.
[Illustration: THE BRIDGE AT ANTIETAM. Burnside's soldiers charged over
the bridge from the middle foreground.]
[Sidenote: Capture of Fort Henry, February, 1862.]
[Sidenote: Fort Donelson.]
397. Forts Henry and Donelson, February, 1862.--In February, 1862,
General Grant and Commodore Foote attacked two forts which the
Confederates had built to keep the Federal gunboats from penetrating the
western part of the Confederacy. Fort Henry yielded almost at once, but
the Union forces besieged Fort Donelson for a longer time. Soon the
Confederate defense became hopeless, and General Buckner asked for the
terms of surrender. "Unconditional surrender," replied Grant, and
Buckner surrendered. The lower Tennessee and the lower Cumberland were
now open to the Union forces.
[Sidenote: The lower Mississippi.]
[Sidenote: Admiral Farragut.]
398. Importance of New Orleans.--New Orleans and the lower
Mississippi were of great importance to both sides, for the possession
of this region gave the Southerners access to Texas, and through Texas
to Mexico. Union fleets were blockading every important Southern port.
But as long as commerce overland with Mexico could be maintained, the
South could struggle on. The Mississippi, too, has so many mouths that
it was difficult to keep vessels from running in and out. For these
reasons the Federal government determined to seize New Orleans and the
lower Mississippi. The command of the expedition was given to Farragut,
who had passed his boyhood in Louisiana. He was given as good a fleet as
could be provided, and a force of soldiers was sent to help him.
[Illustration: A RIVER GUNBOAT.]
[Sidenote: Capture of New Orleans, April, 1862. _Higginson_, 303-304;
_Source-Book_, 313-315.]
399. New Orleans captured, April, 1862.--Farragut carried his fleet
into the Mississippi, but found his way upstream barred by two forts on
the river's bank. A great chain stretched across the river below the
forts, and a fleet of river gunboats with an ironclad or two was in
waiting above the forts. Chain, forts, and gunboats all gave way before
Farragut's forceful will. At night he passed the forts amid a terrific
cannonade. Once above them New Orleans was at his mercy. It surrendered,
and with the forts was soon occupied by the Union army. The lower
Mississippi was lost to the Confederacy.
[Illustration: A WAR-TIME ENVELOPE.]
[Sidenote: Shiloh, April, 1862.]
[Sidenote: Corinth, May, 1862.]
400. Shiloh and Corinth, April, May, 1862.--General Halleck now
directed the operations of the Union armies in the West. He ordered
Grant to take his men up the Tennessee to Pittsburg Landing and there
await the arrival of Buell with a strong force overland from Nashville.
Grant encamped with his troops on the western bank of the Tennessee
between Shiloh Church and Pittsburg Landing. Albert Sidney Johnston, the
Confederate commander in the West, attacked him suddenly and with great
fury. Soon the Union army was pushed back to the river. In his place
many a leader would have withdrawn. But Grant, with amazing courage,
held on. In the afternoon Buell's leading regiments reached the other
side of the river. In the night they were ferried across, and Grant's
outlying commands were brought to the front. The next morning Grant
attacked in his turn and slowly but surely pushed the Confederates off
the field. Halleck then united Grant's, Buell's, and Pope's armies and
captured Corinth.
[Sidenote: General Bragg invades Kentucky.]
[Sidenote: Battle of Perryville, October, 1862.]
[Sidenote: Murfreesboro', December, 1862. _Eggleston_, 331.]
401. Bragg in Tennessee and Kentucky.--General Braxton Bragg now
took a large part of the Confederate army, which had fought at Shiloh
and Corinth, to Chattanooga. He then marched rapidly across Tennessee
and Kentucky to the neighborhood of Louisville on the Ohio River. Buell
was sent after him, and the two armies fought an indecisive battle at
Perryville. Then Bragg retreated to Chattanooga. In a few months he was
again on the march. Rosecrans had now succeeded Buell. He attacked Bragg
at Murfreesboro'. For a long time the contest was equal. In the end,
however, the Confederates were beaten and retired from the field.
CHAPTER 39
THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION
[Sidenote: The blockade.]
402. The Blockade.--On the fall of Fort Sumter President Lincoln
ordered a blockade of the Confederate seaports. There were few
manufacturing industries in the South. Cotton and tobacco were the
great staples of export. If her ports were blockaded the South could
neither bring in arms and military supplies from Europe, nor send cotton
and tobacco to Europe to be sold for money. So her power of resisting
the Union armies would be greatly lessened. The Union government bought
all kinds of vessels, even harbor ferryboats, armed them, and stationed
them off the blockaded harbors. In a surprisingly short time the
blockade was established. The Union forces also began to occupy the
Southern seacoast, and thus the region that had to be blockaded steadily
grew less.
[Sidenote: Effect of the blockade.]
403. Effects of the Blockade.--As months and years went by, and the
blockade became stricter and stricter, the sufferings of the Southern
people became ever greater. As they could not send their products to
Europe to exchange for goods, they had to pay gold and silver for
whatever the blockade runners brought in. Soon there was no more gold
and silver in the Confederacy, and paper money took its place. Then the
supplies of manufactured goods, as clothing and paper, of things not
produced in the South, as coffee and salt, gave out. Toward the end of
the war there were absolutely no medicines for the Southern soldiers,
and guns were so scarce that it was proposed to arm one regiment with
pikes. Nothing did more to break down Southern resistance than
the blockade.
[Sidenote: Hopes of the Southerners.]
404. The Confederacy, Great Britain, and France.--From the
beginning of the contest the Confederate leaders believed that the
British and the French would interfere to aid them. "Cotton is king,"
they said. Unless there were a regular supply of cotton, the mills of
England and of France must stop. Thousands of mill hands--men, women,
and children--would soon be starving. The French and the British
governments would raise the blockade. Perhaps they would even force the
United States to acknowledge the independence of the Confederate states.
There was a good deal of truth in this belief. For the British and
French governments dreaded the growing power of the American republic
and would gladly have seen it broken to pieces. But events fell out far
otherwise than the Southern leaders had calculated. Before the supply of
American cotton in England was used up, new supplies began to come in
from India and from Egypt. The Union armies occupied portions of the
cotton belt early in 1862, and American cotton was again exported. But
more than all else, the English mill operatives, in all their hardships,
would not ask their government to interfere. They saw clearly enough
that the North was fighting for the rights of free labor. At times it
seemed, however, as if Great Britain or France would interfere.
[Sidenote: Southern agents sent to Europe.]
[Sidenote: Removed from the _Trent_.]
[Sidenote: Lincoln's opinion.]
[Sidenote: Action of Great Britain.]
405. The Trent Affair, 1861.--As soon as the blockade was
established, the British and French governments gave the Confederates
the same rights in their ports as the United States had. The Southerners
then sent two agents, Mason and Slidell, to Europe to ask the foreign
governments to recognize the independence of the Confederate states.
Captain Wilkes of the United States ship _San Jacinto_ took these agents
from the British steamer _Trent_. But Lincoln at once said that Wilkes
had done to the British the very thing which we had fought the War of
1812 to prevent the British doing to us. "We must stick to American
principles," said the President, "and restore the prisoners." They were
given up. But the British government, without waiting to see what
Lincoln would do, had gone actively to work to prepare for war. This
seemed so little friendly that the people of the United States were
greatly irritated.
[Sidenote: The war powers of the President.]
[Sidenote: Lincoln follows Northern sentiment.]
406. Lincoln and Slavery.--It will be remembered that the
Republican party had denied again and again that it had any intention to
interfere with slavery in the states. As long as peace lasted the
Federal government could not interfere with slavery in the states. But
when war broke out, the President, as commander-in-chief, could do
anything to distress and weaken the enemy. If freeing the slaves in the
seceded states would injure the secessionists, he had a perfect right to
do it. But Lincoln knew that public opinion in the North would not
approve this action. He would follow Northern sentiment in this matter,
and not force it.
[Sidenote: The contrabands.]
407. Contrabands of War.--he war had scarcely begun before slaves
escaped into the Union lines. One day a Confederate officer came to
Fortress Monroe and demanded his runaway slaves under the Fugitive Slave
Act (p. 281). General Butler refused to give them up on the ground that
they were "contraband of war." By that phrase he meant that their
restoration would be illegal as their services would be useful to the
enemy. President Lincoln approved this decision of General Butler, and
escaping slaves soon came to be called "Contrabands."
[Illustration: A WAR-TIME ENVELOPE.]
[Sidenote: Abolition with compensation.]
408. First Steps toward Emancipation, 1862.--Lincoln and the
Republican party thought that Congress could not interfere with slavery
in the states. It might, however, buy slaves and set them free or help
the states to do this. So Congress passed a law offering aid to any
state which should abolish slavery within its borders. Congress itself
abolished slavery in the District of Columbia with compensation to the
owners. It abolished slavery in the territories without compensation.
Lincoln had gladly helped to make these laws. Moreover, by August, 1862,
he had made up his mind that to free the slaves in the seceded states
would help "to save the Union" and would therefore be right as a "war
measure." For every negro taken away from forced labor would weaken the
producing power of the South and so make the conquest of the
South easier.
[Sidenote: Lincoln's warning, September, 1862.]
[Sidenote: Emancipation Proclamation, January 1, 1863. _Higginson_,
304-305; _Source-Book_, 315-318, 327-329.]
409. The Emancipation Proclamation, 1863.--On September 23, 1862,
Lincoln issued a proclamation stating that on the first day of the new
year he would declare free all slaves in any portion of the United
States then in rebellion. On January 1, 1863, he issued the Emancipation
Proclamation. This proclamation could be enforced only in those portions
of the seceded states which were held by the Union armies. It did not
free slaves in loyal states and did not abolish the institution of
slavery anywhere. Slavery was abolished by the states of West Virginia,
Missouri, and Maryland between 1862 and 1864. Finally, in 1865, it was
abolished throughout the United States by the adoption of the Thirteenth
Amendment (p. 361).
[Sidenote: Northern friends of secession.]
[Sidenote: Suspension of _habeas corpus._]
410. Northern Opposition to the War.--Many persons in the North
thought that the Southerners had a perfect right to secede if they
wished. Some of these persons sympathized so strongly with the
Southerners that they gave them important information and did all they
could to prevent the success of the Union forces. It was hard to prove
anything against these Southern sympathizers, but it was dangerous to
leave them at liberty. So Lincoln ordered many of them to be arrested
and locked up. Now the Constitution provides that every citizen shall
have a speedy trial. This is brought about by the issuing a writ of
_habeas corpus_, compelling the jailer to bring his prisoner into court
and show cause why he should not be set at liberty. Lincoln now
suspended the operation of the writ of _habeas corpus_. This action
angered many persons who were quite willing that the Southerners should
be compelled to obey the law, but did not like to have their neighbors
arrested and locked up without trial.
[Illustration: THE DRAFT.]
[Sidenote: The draft.]
[Sidenote: Riots in the North.]
411. The Draft Riots.--At the outset both armies were made up of
volunteers; soon there were not enough volunteers. Both governments then
drafted men for their armies; that is, they picked out by lot certain
men and compelled them to become soldiers. The draft was bitterly
resisted in some parts of the North, especially in New York City.
CHAPTER 40
THE YEAR 1863
[Sidenote: Position of the armies.]
412. Position of the Armies, January, 1863.--The Army of the
Potomac, now under Hooker, and the Army of Northern Virginia were face
to face at Fredericksburg on the Rappahannock. In the West Rosecrans was
at Murfreesboro', and Bragg on the way back to Chattanooga. In the
Mississippi Valley Grant and Sherman had already begun the Vicksburg
campaign. But as yet they had had no success.
[Sidenote: Grant's Vicksburg Campaign, 1863. _Hero Tales_, 239-248.]
413. Beginnings of the Vicksburg Campaign.--Vicksburg stood on the
top of a high bluff directly on the river. Batteries erected at the
northern end of the town commanded the river, which at that point ran
directly toward the bluff. The best way to attack this formidable place
was to proceed overland from Corinth. This Grant tried to do. But the
Confederates forced him back.
[Sidenote: Siege of Vicksburg. _Source-Book_, 320-323.]
[Sidenote: Surrender of Vicksburg, July 4, 1863.]
414. Fall of Vicksburg, July 4, 1863.--Grant now carried his whole
army down the Mississippi. For months he tried plan after plan, and
every time he failed. Finally he marched his army down on the western
side of the river, crossed the river below Vicksburg, and approached the
fortress from the south and east. In this movement he was greatly aided
by the Union fleet under Porter, which protected the army while crossing
the river. Pemberton, the Confederate commander, at once came out from
Vicksburg. But Grant drove him back and began the siege of the town from
the land side. The Confederates made a gallant defense. But slowly and
surely they were starved into submission. On July 4, 1863, Pemberton
surrendered the fortress and thirty-seven thousand men.
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