The battles of the war for the union, being the story of the great Civil War from the election of Abraham Lincoln to the surrender at Appomatox

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Contents

CHAPTER I. THE SECESSION MOVEMENT ... 9 Lincoln Inaugurated — "Confederate States" Government Formed — Jefferson Davis Declared President of the Southern Confederacy — Fort Sumter Bombarded — Its Surrender — The Rush to Arms — Richmond Made the Capital of the Confederacy — Harpers' Ferry Evacuated by the Union Forces — The Norfolk Navy Yard Evacuated and Burned — Robert E. Lee Placed in Command of the Confederate Forces in Virginia — Massachusetts Troops Fired Upon in Baltimore — General Irwin McDowell in Virginia. — Battle of Big Bethel — The First Union Defeat — The Shenandoah Valley — General George B. McClellan's Campaign in Western Virginia — Rich Mountain — McClellan Commands the Army of the Potomac — English Government Confers Belligerent Rights on the Confederates — Confederate Privateers — "On to Richmond" — General Beauregard — Battle of Bull Run — Joseph E. Johnston and " Stonewall " Jackson — The Union Forces Defeated — Stampede to Washington — Battle of Ball's Bluff — Another Defeat for the Union Troops.

CHAPTER II. THE CAMPAIGNS IN THE WEST (1862) . 47 McClellan Made Commander of the Union Forces — Formulates Plans of Campaigns — General Halleck in the West — Fort Henry Attacked by General Grant and Commodore Foote, and the Ironclads — " Unconditional Surrender " of Fort Henry — Operations Against Fort Donelson — Generals Floyd,

6 CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I. The Secession Movement.*

On March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated President of the United States, surrounded by soldiers under the command of General Scott. During the campaign preceding the election, the Southern leaders had threatened to secede from the Union if Lincoln were elected. Charles A. Dana puts the case in the following succinct way:

" The election of Abraham Lincoln was brought about by a dissension in the Democratic party. It was divided and the Republican party was united, and the consequence was his election. The great question at issue in that election was this : Shall the owners of slaves enjoy the right of taking their slaves into the Territories of the United States that are now free, and keeping them there ? The slave-owners claimed that right. Slaves were property. They were like other property, and why should their owners be denied the right of taking their property into the Territories, when a Northern man could take his property, his horses, his oxen, whatever he possessed ? The slaves were their oxen ; they were their chattels, and they insisted that they ought to have the right of taking them into the Territories and keep-

*The history of the events leading up to the Civil War will be found in the " Lives of the Presidents," in Altemtis' Young People's Series.

IQ THE BATTLES FOR THE UNIOM.

ing them there as slaves. That was the fundamental question of the election. And when Mr. Lincoln was elected, the South said : ' Now we are denied this right, we will break up the Government; we will secede; we will withdraw.' That right, too, they claimed as a constitutional principle. No Northerner had claimed it, though some ardent partisans had threatened it ; but several of the Southern States now set it up as an original, inalienable right. They claimed that the refusal to them of the right to take their property with them when they went to live in one of the new Territories, was sufficient occasion for the withdrawal from the Union of the slave-holding States, and for the breaking up of the Government."

The South had been contemplating rebellion for years, and had only refrained from attempting it because hitherto she had pretty generally had her own way. The choice of Lincoln immediately determined their resolution. John B. Floyd, of Virginia, the Secretary of War under Buchanan, had quietly contrived that the arsenals of all the Northern States should be stripped of their arms and ammunition, and those warlike materials concentrated in the Southern section of the Union.

South Carolina naturally led off in the Secession movement, her Ordinance of Secession being adopted on November 17, i860; Georgia came next, and the remainder of the border (or planting) States quickly followed. Virginia joined two days after the fall of Sumter.

On February 9, 1861, Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, was declared President, and Alexander II. Stephens, of Georgia, Vice-President of the Confederate States OF America. On March 4, 1861, the Confederate flag was unfurled from the State House at Montgomery, Alabama, and the Confederacy was inaugurated.

Of moral justification for the disruption of the Union

JEFFERSON DAVIS. {^President of the Southern Confederacy.)

THE BATTLES FOR THE UNION.

there was absolutely nothing. The South separated themselves from the Union from motives of transparent and avowed selfishness. Stephens declared that " the corner-stone of the new Confederacy was slavery." In

MAJOR ROKERr ANDERSON.

a few years that corner-stone was pulled out, and the whole fabric came toppling down in irremediable ruin.

War between the new Slave Power and the Old Union was so certain to ensue that the South made instant preparations for the worst. The Southern Congress authorized Davis to accept 100,000 volunteers for twelve months, and to borrow fifteen millions of dollars. And so great was the faith of most foreign nations in the permanence of the Confederacy that the bonds were circulated in Europe, and principally in England. This was one reason why English opinion, among the wealthy classes, was so largely enlisted in favor of Secession. The bondholders felt they had an interest in securing the triumph of the Southern aristocracy, and they brought every possible pressure to bear on their Government to force a recognition of the Confederacy, and the raising of the blockade. When the rebellion collapsed, great was the regret of these investors that they had relied upon the ability of a Slave Empire to stand up against the might of freedom.

When the Lincoln Administration came into power sixteen forts were in possession of the Secessionists, who had thus acquired 1226 heavy guns to turn against the Federal authority. It should be remembered that the North was left, at the very commencement of the struggle with comparatively few educated officers. The greater number of those who graduated at the Military Academy at West Point, and continued in actual service, were Southern men ; and these, with comparatively few exceptions, although trained at the expense of the nation, and bound to loyalty by the most solemn oaths, at once joined the Southern forces.

Fort Sumter (April 12, 1861). — The first gun was fired by the South on Fort Sumter, in Charleston harbor. The fort was commanded by Major Anderson, with but 70 men. It was bombarded by the forts and batteries under command of Peter G. T. Beauregard ; and for 34 hours this little garrison of 70 men contested with 7000 rebels, no one being hurt on cither side. The shells set fire to the barracks, and the garrison, worn out, suffocated and half-blinded, were forced to sur-

FORT SUMTER.

render on April 13. The effect of this event was electrical. It unified both the South and the North ; the American flag, the symbol of Revolutionary glory and of national unity being unfurled thoroughout the North.

If there had previously been any doubt as to the necessity of taking serious steps against the rising rebellion, it was now evident that pacific measures were no longer possible. Until then, the shrinking from civil war had been so great that men were willing to compro-

THE CONFEDERATE FLAG.

mise matters with the South, even at the cost of not inconsiderable sacrifices. But now a spirit of determined resistance to Southern aggression was aroused in every one of the Northern States. It was seen that a bloody struggle was inevitable, and men nerved themselves to meet the terrible demands that would be made upon their patriotism. A national fort had been seized ; a body of Federal troops had been defeated ; the flag of the Union had been lowered at the demand of traitors. The time for hesitation had gone by, and the Governl6 THE BATTLES FOR THE UNION.

merit understood its duty. Lincoln issued a proclamation on April 15, declaring that the laws of the Republic had been for some time, and were then, opposed in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, " by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the powers vested in the marshals by law." The President accordingly called forth the militia of the other States of the Union, to the aggregate number of 75,000 men. He appealed to all loyal citizens " to favor, facilitate, and aid his efforts to maintain the honor, integrity, and existence of the National Union, and the perpetuity of popular government." This was responded to by 300,000 volunteers. The resolution of the North to fight for the existence of the Union has never been surpassed by any popular movement in any account of the world's history.

The Secessionists audaciously thrust their capital into their northernmost State, and on April 20, made Richmond the Capital of the Confederacy.

Troops were pushed into Virginia, and threatened Washington. The Sixth Massachusetts Regiment, hurrying to the defence of the National Capital, were attacked in Baltimore, and several men were killed. Thus, the first blood shed in the Civil War was on April 19, the eighty-sixth anniversary of Lexington and Concord.

Harper's Ferry, in Virginia, was attacked on April 18. The commander, whose force was small, observed symptoms of dissatisfaction all around, and fearing that he could not withstand the attack that he knew was to be made, blew up the fort, crossed the river with his men, and retreated towards Pennsylvania.

It was resolved by the Secessionists to seize the Navy Yard at Norfolk, Virginia, to prevent which it was determined to set fire to all the ships, together with all

THE CALL FOR TROOPS.

the public buildings, and national property. The loss to the Government was estimated at seven millions of dollars. Eleven vessels were thus destroyed. The Merrimac was sufficiently uninjured, to be afterwards repaired by the Confederates, and to render service to their cause.

Pennsylvania and Massachusetts were among the first to answer President Lincoln's call for troops. Fortress Monroe, situated on the point of land between the James and York Rivers, at the junction with the Potomac, was the only place now held by the Federal Government in Virginia. Those rivers were blockaded by what remained of the fleet, and the vessels were concentrated at Hampton Roads, near the fortress.

Baltimore refused to allow foreign State troops to pass through her soil on the way to Washington. Lincoln, feelipg his weakness, suggested that the troops pass round Baltimore instead of through it. He finally declared that troops must be had for the defence of Washington, and as they could come by no other route but Maryland, the people of Maryland must be content to let them pass.

On April 20, Robert E. Lee, a Virginian, and an engineer officer of much distinction, connected by marriage with the family of Washington, separated himself from the Federal service, considering the claims of his State paramount, and went over to the Confederacy, and was made Commander of all the military and naval forces in Virginia.

Maryland was reduced to submission before the end of April by an expedition of Massachusetts troops under Benjamin F. Butler, and New York's famous Seventh Regiment, under Colonel Lefferts. Butler was a lawyer, not trained to military life, but possessed of spirit, resolution, and audacity. He was placed in command of the Department of Annapolis, which embraced the countr)' 20 miles on each side of the railway from Baltimore to Washington. Lefferts went on to Washington to guard the capital.

General Scott, the Commander-in-Chief, said the occupation of Baltimore was made without his knowledge or approbation, and required the Government to recall Butler from his post; and this was done. The President, however, was satisfied with the operations of this active leader, and immediately commissioned him as a Major- General of Volunteers, and the command of a large military district, including Eastern Virginia and the two Carolinas, with his headquarters at Fortress Monroe.

Ever}- day the movement in the South was becoming more formidable; every day the s}'mpathizers with Secession in the border States were growing more dangerous and irreconcilable. It was now seen that the President's call for militia would not be sufficient to meet the attack which was evidently meditated by the South. Lincoln accordingly, in a proclamation issued on May 3, called into the service of the United States 42,000 volunteers for three years ; ordered an increase of the regular army to the extent of 22,714 officers and enlisted men, for not less than one year, nor more than three years; and directed the enlistment of 18,000 seamen for the naval service. The response to these demands showed how thoroughly in earnest were the people of the loyal States in their resistance to Secession. The number of volunteers exceeded the demands of the Government, and money, amounting to more than forty millions of dollars, was subscribed for the various purposes of the war.

The Capitol at W^ashington was by this time changed into a great citadel. Troops occupied the legislative halls, the rotunda, and other chambers ; the basement galleries were converted into storerooms for the army ;

THE CALL FOR TROOPS.

and the vaults under the terrace on the western front of the edifice were used as ovens, where 16,000 loaves were baked every day. Before the summer had fairly set in,

the Federal capital had been protected by a line of fortifications and entrenchments, distributed along the ncitjhborinc: heights on the Viriiinian side of the Potomac, and presenting a formidable front to any hostile force coming from that direction, Major-General Mc- Dowell, an officer of the regular army, was placed in command of the troops on the south side of the river, and the greater portion of the district recently under the orders of General Butler was transferred to him. The Northern forces had now reached a total of about 95,000 men, divided into eight distinct bodies, which were stationed in various parts of the country. Several of the men, however, were not yet armed, and but few of the regiments had acquired anything like efficient discipline. The chief rallying-place of the Confederate Army was at Manassas Junction, situated on the Orange and Alexandria Railway, about 25 miles west from the city of Alexandria, and thirty in a direct line from Washington, The position was important, as commanding the great Southern railway route which connects Washington and Richmond, and also another line leading to the valley of the Shenandoah, beyond the Blue Ridge. Butler had at an early period recommended the occupation of that locality ; but Scott, whose measures at this time were marked by the extreme caution of old age, took a different view, and the result was that the Confederates, acting with greater enterprise, seized the position, which they found of service as a menace against the Federal capital.

Big Bethel (June 10, 1861). After fortifying Newport News — a point of land at the junction of the James River and Hampton Roads — Butler formed a design of attacking a Confederate force which had been stationed at Big Bethel, about 15 miles off, on the road to Yorktown. This force was the advanced post of a rather considerable array of Southern troops under the command of Colonel Magruder, formerly an artillery officer in the U. S. Army. The main body was at Yorktown, whence expeditions were frequently sent out,

BIG BETHEL. 21

with the object of harassing the Union Army in the vicinity of Fortress Monroe. From observations, it became evident that Magruder was preparing to seize Newport News and Hampton, so that he might confine Butler to the fortress which he had made his headquarters. It was therefore resolved to take the initiative. The Confederate detachment at Big Bethel consisted of 800 North Carolina Volunteers, and 360 Virginians, with a battery of five howitzers and one Parrott riflegun. Some field-works had been erected, and the position was naturally strong, owing to the surrounding forest and the presence of some swampy ground which protected the Confederate flanks. In front, at a place called Little Bethel, was a small picket of cavalry; and the whole detachment was under the command of Colonel D. H. Hill. The attacking force sent forward by Butler was composed of four regiments, under the direction of General Peirce. These started on the night of June 9, and their plan of operations was to send two regiments directly to the front, along the Fortress Monroe and Yorktown roads, while the other two were to endeavor to outflank the enemy. An unfortunate blunder deranged the execution of the scheme. The supporting regiments coming within sight of each other in the obscurity of the early morning, mutually mistook their forces for those of the enemy, and at once opened fire. The advanced guard, hearing the firing, and supposing that the enemy had got into their rear, fell back upon their supports ; and by the time the mistake was discovered, and the forward march resumed, all hope of surprising the enemy was at an end.

The cavalry at Little Bethel had pressed on to Big Bethel, and nothing remained but to make a direct attack upon the latter position, in the hope of carrying the works at the point of the bayonet. Big Bethel was reached by ten o'clock. To take an entrenched position is a trying task even for well-seasoned troops: for raw and undisciplined volunteers it is almost an impossibility. The men were led up to the charge, but failed to make any way. Though supported by the artillery, the Union regiments flinched before the Confederate batteries. What was wanting on their part was not courage — for they remained in the field nearly three hours, making scattered and desultory attacks — but coolness, knowledge, and concentration. Their losses were severe, and during the engagement two additional regiments from Fortress Monroe arrived on the spot, while four others were held in readiness to march to the front. On the right of the attacking force the Vermont companies distinguished themselves by great perseverance, gaining a position in the rear of the enemy, and silencing one of his batteries. About noon the Union troops were withdrawn. The retreat has been described as a rout. Doubtless it was somewhat precipitate. The Confederates boasted much of their own valor at Big Bethel, and were unsparing in their denunciations of the cowardice, as they described it, exhibited by the Union troops. It must always be recollected, however, that it is one thing to hold a fortified position, and quite a different thing to attack it.

The Shenandoah Valley. — The Federal authorities determined to send a body of troops up the valley of the Shenandoah, in conjunction with a movement of McClellan from the neighborhood of Grafton. It was necessary to the protection of Washington that the Confederates should be driven from Harper's Ferry, their possession of which would at anytime enable them to execute a flank attack on the capital. To effect this purpose, an army of 20,000 men, under the command of General Patterson, was pushed forward from its camp in the neighborhood of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, to Greencastle and Gettysburg ; and at the same time troops were marched up the north bank of the Potomac to Rockville. These

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THE BATTLES FOR THE UNION.

movements rendered it prudent for General Joseph E. Johnston to withdraw to some safer locality. His force was about 7000 in number, and he feared being overwhelmed by the gathering hosts. He therefore began his retreat on June 16, but, before doing so, he blocked up the railway and canal near the ferry by blasting the overhanging rocks. He destroyed the great bridge on the Baltimore and Ohio Railway by blowing it up. Whatever guns he could not take with him he spiked; and, having burned another bridge a few miles higher up the Potomac, he marched along the valley, and encamped for a time near Charleston. Patterson immediately afterwards crossed from Maryland into Virginia ; and was met with a demand from Scott to send him all the troops he could spare for the defence of Washington. In consequence Patterson was left with so small a force that he found it necessary to withdraw them at once across the Potomac. The explanation of this untoward event is, that there had been a panic at the capital. Immense Confederate forces were believed to be at Manassas. And as they had been placed under the vigorous control of Beauregard, it was feared an attempt would be made on Washington before Congress could meet on July 4. The danger was probably exaggerated, but it was not imaginary, Washington swarmed with Secessionist sympathizers, who were ready to abet any treason that might be plotted from without. Still, Patterson's forward movement had had the effect of driving Johnston to a more remote position, and he made no attempt to reoccupy Harper's Ferry. He established his headquarters at Winchester, and entrusted the task of watching the Potomac to Colonel Jackson (the officer afterwards known as "Stonewall" Jackson, one of the most heroic of the Southerners), in combination with the cavalry under the conmiand of Colonel Stewart. On July 2, Patterson's force again crossed the

RICH MOUNTAIN.

Potomac, and occupied Harper's Ferry. Shortly afterwards, Johnston moved his army to the rehef of Beauregard at Manassas, and nothing of importance took place between himself and Patterson.

Attention was now directed to McClellan's operations. He had been in command of the military district which included Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Western Virginia. He was a soldier by education, and, was joint-commissioner with Lee to report on the warlike operations in the Crimea. Retiring from the service after that date, he became manager of the Illinois Central Railway, but resumed his original profession on the outbreak of the Civil War. Having by midsummer organized a force of 15,000 soldiers, principally recruited in the Western States, he advanced against the Confederate troops in Western Virginia. These did not count more than 6000 men, with a small proportion of cavalry and artiller)- ; the whole under the command of General Garnett. The country occupied by the Southern commander was well adapted to defensive operations, being traversed by the main body of the Alleghanies and by several minor ridges running in the same direction, which is from the north-east to the south-west.

Rich Mountain (July 11, 1861). — General Garnett — an officer of experience and talent — took up his position on an eminence called Laurel Hill, situated west of the chief line of the Alleghanies, and covering the highroad leading from Philippi to Beverley. He threw forward a detachment under Colonel Pegram, which was to station itself upon an isolated and forest-clad hill named Rich Mountain, a few miles south of Laurel Hill, from which it is separated by woody country and a creek. The force numbered about 2000, and his duty was to obtain a command over the road leading in a north-westerly direction from Beverly to Weston.

26 'i'^^E BATTLES FOR THE UNION.

Agaiii-st these positions McClellan advanced from the north, and on July ii halted at a short distance from Rich Mountain. Fighting began on the following day, when four regiments, commanded by Colonel Rosecrans, were sent forward by a circuitous path through the woods, to turn the left of Colonel Pegram's position. Under a drenching rain, they climbed the steep side of the mountain, and, undeterred by a heavy fire which was opened on them as they neared the summit, completely routed the defenders, and drove them down the opposite side of the acclivity. All this while McClellan himself, with the main body, was in front of the position ; but no occasion arose for his immediate services. Pushing on towards the east, Rosecrans, arrived within three miles of Beverly, in which direction Garnett, who abandoned Laurel Hill on finding his position turned, had himself proceeded, until, discovering the perilous proximity of the enemy, he struck northward through the mountains, in hope of gaining St. George, on the Cheat River. Pegram had by this time surrendered, with 600 of his men; the remainder joined their comrades under Garnett, who was actively pursued by General Morris. The line of retreat was rendered difficult by rocks, thickly intertangled woods, and streams swollen by the summer rains. Here and there, in narrow gorges, the fugitives had cut down large trees, and turned over great boulders of stone, with a view to baffling their pursuers ; but the forces of General Morris dashed on through every obstruction, occasionally engaged with the rear-guard of the enemy, and at other times tracking their foes by the knapsacks, campequipage, and abandoned wagons which they had left behind them in their headlong flight. McClellan had given orders for intercepting the retreating columns; but Morris, on July 13, overtook the Confederate general at Carrick's Ford, on the Cheat, and indicted on

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. [The War Secretary of State.)

him a severe reverse. While exposing himself with great courage, Garnctt was shot dead, and the shattered remnants of the army were conducted by Colonel Taliaferro to Monterey, on the eastern side of the Alleghanies, where they arrived in a state of the utmost destitution and fatigue.

The campaign had been a great success. With the loss of only fifty men, McClellan had routed and dispersed the forces of his opponent, had taken nearly looo troops, and had captured seven guns, 1500 stand of arms, twelve colors, and the greater part of the equipments and baggage of the Confederate camp. McClellan was disposed to take a very sanguine view of the existing situation; and gave it as his opinion that Secession was killed in that part of the country. The Confederates rallied after awhile, and, on General Lee being appointed to the post lately occupied by Garnett, a series of vigorous operations took place on the western side of the mountains. Yet the results obtained by the Unionists were really important. The army of General Garnett was for the time disorganized, broken up, and crestfallen. The Union forces had certainly made a fortunate commencement of the war, and a fortunate conclusion lay before it; but between those two extremes many signal disasters were to be endured and overcome.

On July 22, General George B. McClellan was called to the command of the Army of the Potomac.

Lincoln called an extra session of Congress to convene on July 4. He recommended that Congress should grant legal means to make the existing contest a sliort and decisive one, by placing at the disposal of the Government 400,000 men, and ;$400,ooo,ooo. The number of men, he remarked, was about one-tenth of those of proper ages within the regions where all seemed willing to engage ; and the sum was less than

BELLIGERENT RIGHTS ACCORDED.

one-tvventy-third part of the money value owned by men who appeared ready to devote the whole.

The total force in the field was computed at 230,000 men, after abstracting 80,000 who had only enlisted for three months, then on the eve of expiring.

The Secretary of the Navy reported that the total naval force of the United States was 42 vessels, nearly all of them on foreign stations; while the lioinc squadron consisted of but 12 vessels, carrying 187 guns, and about 2000 men.

On May 13, 1 861, the English Government issued a Proclamation of Neutrality, by which belligerent rights were conferred on the Confederates. To confer this position of a belligerent was in some degree to recognize their existence as an independent Power ; and this was an immense gain to the cause of Jefferson Davis. It took the Confederacy out of the category of rebels, and placed it in that of acknowledged nations. The privilege was one which the Federal Government never conceded, for to do so would have been to annihilate the justification for the war. If the Confederacy was a beligerent in the technical sense of the word, it was an independent nation ; and as an independent nation there was no reason for attacking it. Only as a rebel could it fairly be made amenable to the law force. This view was sustained throughout the long struggle by William H. Seward, one of the ablest of our Secretaries of State.

The Confederate privateers (numbering about twenty) were by this time very active, and although their operations did not commence until the early part of May, they had by the end of July captured vessels and property valued at several millions of dollars.

The military position in the early part of July was such as to create great confidence in the minds of the Northern people. The cry " On to Richmond ! " was raised in many quarters, and it was believed that means had

^o THE BATTLES FOR THE UNION.

been obtained for making the war as sharp, short, and decisive as the President desired it to be. The hne of the Potomac was held by the Union troops from its mouth to the Cumberland, in Maryland. The adjacent seacoast was patrolled by armed vessels, and the Virginia bank of the river was carefully watched, though the troops had not been able to prevent the erection of Confederate batteries. The Union cause was represented in Virginia itself by McDowell's army (45,000 strong), and by the large force under Patterson. Between the latter force and McClellan's army was a gap in the line, indicating, of course, a weakness in that particular direction. But the Union position, on the whole, was good.