“I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.”
– Abraham Lincoln, from a speech made June 16, 1858.

President Abraham Lincoln

“Let us have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us dare to do our duty as we understand it.”
– Abraham Lincoln, from an address made in New York City on February 21, 1859.

“In giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the free, –honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve.”
– Abraham Lincoln, from his Second Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862.

“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.”
– Abraham Lincoln, from the Gettysburg Address which was given at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on November 19, 1863.

“With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right.”
– Abraham Lincoln, from his Second Inaugural Address, made on March 4, 1865.

“All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not, by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years.”
– Abraham Lincoln, 1837.

“At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”
– Abraham Lincoln, 1837.

Abraham Lincoln Memorial

“The fight must go on. The cause of civil liberty must not be surrendered at the end of one or even one hundred defeats.”
– Abraham Lincoln, letter to Henry Ashbury, 1858.

“If we do not make common cause to save the good old ship of the Union on this voyage, nobody will have a chance to pilot her on another voyage.”
– Abraham Lincoln, from a speech made in Cleveland, Ohio on February 15, 1861.

“In your hands my dissatisfied fellow-country-men, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you.”
– Abraham Lincoln, from his first inaugural address, March 4, 1861.

“My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving the others alone, I would also do that.”
– Abraham Lincoln, from a letter to Horace Greely of August 22, 1862. (The Emancipation Proclamation had been written but not yet released.)

“I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free.”– Abraham Lincoln, from a letter to Horace Greely, August 22, 1862.

Barnes&Noble: Abraham Lincoln: Quotes, Quips, and Speeches

“Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this Administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation.” – Abraham Lincoln, from his second annual message to Congress on December 1, 1862. “Only those generals who gain successes can set up dictators. What I ask of you now is military success, and I will risk the dictatorship. …Beware of rashness, but with energy and sleepless vigilance go forward and give us victories.” – Abraham Lincoln, from a letter he sent to General Joseph Hooker making him commander of the Army of the Potomac, on January 26, 1863.

“Tell me the brand of Whiskey that Grant drinks. I would like to send a barrel of it to my other generals.”
– Abraham Lincoln, in response to news about General Grant’s drinking, November 26, 1863.

The Union forever! Hurrah, boys, hurrah!
Down with the traitor, up with the star;
While we rally round the flag, boys, rally once again,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!

George Frederick Root

Root was a prolific patriotic composer, eventually writing over 200 songs. His "The Battle Cry of Freedom" was arguably the most popular of his many compositions. Other well-known and classic Civil War songs by Root are; "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!" (The Prisoner’s Hope), “The Vacant Chair,” and "Just before the Battle, Mother."

"The Battle Cry of Freedom" performed by Tom Roush.

From Tom Roush regarding his performance of "The Battle Cry of Freedom":
“This song is dedicated to the colored regiments and common foot soldiers that served in the Union army during the Civil War. Unlike the Generals and officers, these souls were the unsung heroes who never got much credit for winning the war. Many of them only served as cannon fodder to incompetent officers. George Root, the songs composer, also wrote ‘Just Before the Battle, Mother’. I am playing a violin in this recording that actually came from his music store in Chicago in the 1870′s. This Civil War era song and others can be found on my new CD ‘The Blue -The Gray, and Somewhere In Between.’ which is now available.“– Tom Roush
Visit The Music of Tom Roush Web site for more of his Civil War music.

"The Battle Cry of Freedom" has two versions of lyrics, one for the Union and one for the Confederacy.

"The Battle Cry of Freedom" Lyrics – Union version

Yes we'll rally round the flag, boys, we'll rally once again,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom,
We will rally from the hillside, we'll gather from the plain,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!

        (Chorus)
        The Union forever! Hurrah, boys, hurrah!
        Down with the traitor, up with the star;
        While we rally round the flag, boys, rally once again,
        Shouting the battle cry of freedom!

We are springing to the call with a million freemen more,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
And we'll fill our vacant ranks of our brothers gone before,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!

        Chorus

We will welcome to our numbers the loyal, true and brave,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
And although he may be poor, not a man shall be a slave,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!

        Chorus

So we're springing to the call from the East and from the West,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
And we'll hurl the rebel crew from the land we love best,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!

        Chorus

"The Battle Cry of Freedom" Lyrics – Confederate version.

Our flag is proudly floating on the land and on the main,
Shout, shout the battle cry of Freedom!
Beneath it oft we've conquered, and we'll conquer oft again!
Shout, shout the battle cry of Freedom!

        (Chorus)
        Our Dixie forever! She's never at a loss!
        Down with the eagle and up with the cross!
        We'll rally 'round the bonny flag, we'll rally once again,
        Shout, shout the battle cry of Freedom!

Our gallant boys have marched to the rolling of the drums.
Shout, shout the battle cry of Freedom!
And the leaders in charge cry out, "Come, boys, come!"
Shout, shout the battle cry of Freedom!--

        Chorus

They have laid down their lives on the bloody battle field.
Shout, shout the battle cry of Freedom!
Their motto is resistance -- "To tyrants we'll not yield!"
Shout, shout the battle cry of Freedom!--

        Chorus

While our boys have responded and to the fields have gone.
Shout, shout the battle cry of Freedom!
Our noble women also have aided them at home.
Shout, shout the battle cry of Freedom!--

        Chorus

Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural on March 4, 1865 was held on a miserable, windy, rainy, and muddy day in Washington, D.C. The inaugural ceremonies were planned to be held outside, but were moved inside to the Senate chamber because the weather was so bad.

Note: You may read about Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural in this post.

Andrew Johnson

Vice President Hannibal Hamlin was retiring, and Tennessee Democrat Andrew Johnson would now be inaugurated as Abraham Lincoln’s vice-president. The Senate chamber’s 1800s ventilation system was poor and it could not handle the added moisture from the wet and soaked clothes of the people attending the ceremony. The Senate chamber was muggy and sticky, it was a very uncomfortable place to be on this poor-weather inaugural day in Washington, D.C.

Andrew Johnson had been suffering from typhoid fever and generally was in poor health, during the weeks before the inaugural. Johnson’s travel to Washington, D.C. from Nashville did not help his physical condition, and he didn’t feel well shortly before the inauguration. He downed three glasses of "medicinal" whiskey before entering the uncomfortable Senate chamber. As Andrew Johnson walked into the Senate chamber he appeared to be unsteady, and he was leaning on Hannibal Hamlin’s arm.

Usually the vice-president’s inaugural speech is a brief formality on inauguration day. It became obvious to all that the new vice-president was three sheets to the wind as he began his vice-presidential inauguration speech. The stewed Johnson rambled on and on, speaking for seventeen minutes instead of the expected seven. Hannibal Hamlin finally gave a tug on Johnson’s coat-tail, and only then did Johnson end his alcohol-impaired inaugural speech.

Andrew Johnson’s sottish inauguration festivities and formalities were not yet complete. As he took the oath of office (which took more time than needed because Johnson drunkenly rambled with incoherent and slurred speech), Johnson put his hand on the Bible and said in a loud voice; "I kiss this Book in the face of my nation the United States."

Johnson then gave the Bible a tipsy kiss. As the now freshly inaugurated vice-president, it was Johnson’s job to swear-in the new senators. Vice President Andrew Johnson was too drunk and confused for this, so instead a Senate clerk performed swearing-in of the new senators.

1864 Republican Presidential Ticket

After the drunken Andrew Johnson had been inaugurated indoors as vice-president, the nasty weather began to clear and improve. Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address could now be given outside as was originally planned. As Lincoln witnessed the soused Andrew Johnson’s Bible kiss, he said to Senator John B. Henderson, who was the marshal for the inauguration; "Do not let Johnson speak outside."

Later, President Lincoln remarked regarding Vice President Johnson’s inaugural drunkenness;

"It has been a severe lesson for Andy, but I do not think he will do it again."

Lincoln had known Johnson for years and they were friends. To answer concerns expressed by some about Johnson, Lincoln further explained;

"I have known Andrew Johnson for many years. He made a slip the other day, but you need not be scared; Andy ain’t a drunkard."

Ulysses S. Grant

When Grant arrived at West Point he found his appointment was in the name of Ulysses S. Grant. Grant’s parents named him Hiram Ulysses Grant. Grant never bothered to change the clerical error and was known as Ulysses S. Grant. Later, Grant was called "Unconditional Surrender Grant" after Confederate Simon Boliver Buckner surrendered Fort Donelson to him. Grant was also often called Sam Grant. While a cadet at West Point, Ulysses S. Grant was known as an exceptional horseman. Grant did not stand out as having exceptional talents in anything else while at West Point.

• Ulysses S. Grant wanted a commission in the cavalry when he finished at West Point. Instead, Grant wound up in the infantry because the cavalry had no vacancies. Grant was a horseman, and this assignment to the infantry must have been a disappointment for him.

• Ulysses S. Grant served with generals Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott during the Mexican War.

• After the Mexican War, Ulysses S. Grant was stationed in California. He was without his wife and children, and very bored. Grant took to excessive drinking. He resigned his commission in 1854 and his resignation was accepted by the United States Secretary of War. The Secretary of War accepting Grant’s resignation from the United States Army was Jefferson Davis. Davis was the future president of the Confederate States of America.

• Grant’s favorite horse during the Civil War was Cincinnati. An admirer gave Cincinnati to Grant after the battle of Chattanooga. Cincinnati was seldom ridden by anyone other than Grant. One notable exception being President Abraham Lincoln, when Lincoln last visited City Point, Virginia. Other horses Grant had in the Civil War were; Jack, Fox, and Kangaroo. Kangaroo was left on the Shiloh battlefield by the Confederates. This horse was described as ugly and raw-boned. Grant however, having an eye for horses, knew that Kangaroo was a thoroughbred. After becoming a Yankee horse, Kangaroo got rest and care and he became a fine horse.

• Ely Samuel Parker was a Seneca Indian, a son of a famous Seneca chief, and also a Union officer. He first studied law but was refused admission to the bar because he was not a citizen. Parker graduated from Rensselaer as an engineer. In 1857, Ely Parker was working in Galena, Illinois where he became a friend of a store clerk named Sam Grant. Sam Grant, was Ulysses S. Grant and during the Civil War Ely Parker became General Ulysses S. Grant’s military secretary. Ely Parker’s penmanship was exceptional. When Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House, Ely Parker transcribed the official copies of the surrender documents.

• Ulysses S. Grant never swore. His explanation for this:
  "Well, somehow or another, I never learned to swear, when a boy I seemed to have an aversion to it, and when I became a man I saw the folly of it. I have always noticed, too, that swearing helps to rouse a man’s anger; and when a man flies into a passion his adversary who keeps cool always gets the better of him. In fact, I could never see the use of swearing. I think it is the case with many people who swear excessively that it is mere habit, and that they do not mean to be profane; but, to say the least, it is a great waste of time."

• On April 14, 1865 Abraham Lincoln’s day was spent visiting with callers and attending a Cabinet meeting, which included General Grant. Lincoln explained to General Grant that he was having a recurring dream about a ship "moving with great rapidity toward a dark and indefinite shore." Now that the Civil War was over, topics of discussion during the Cabinet meeting included the problems of reconstruction, and the treatment of Confederate leaders. That evening, the Lincolns went to Ford’s Theater to see the play "Our American Cousin." While enjoying the play at Ford’s Theater Lincoln was shot by assassin John Wilkes Booth.

After the Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant became an author, Secretary of War under President Johnson, and in 1868 became President of the United States. Grant served two terms as president. Ulysses S. Grant finished his two-volume autobiography, Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, only days before he died of throat cancer in 1885. Grant’s memoirs were published by Mark Twain’s firm and 300,000 copies were sold. These sales earned $450,000 for Grant’s widow, Julia. Grant’s autobiography is thought to be one of the best autobiographies written in the English language.

Barnes&Noble: Ulysses S. Grant: A Victor, Not a Butcher

Abraham Lincoln – Five dollar bill picture.

Abraham Lincoln was now fifty-six years old. At six feet and four inches tall, Lincoln often wore clothes that did not fit just right, he was described as being gawky or awkward. Lincoln had a tenor, falsetto-like voice, and he’d had only one year of formal education. Nothing about Abraham Lincoln would lead people to think this man was a powerful speaker. Note: You may read about Andrew Johnson’s drunken behavior during Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural in this post.

As Lincoln began his Second Inaugural Address, the horrible weather eased. The wind stopped, and the sun broke through the clouds to illuminate Lincoln at the podium. No one knew yet exactly when the The Civil War would end, but it was now nearing an end. President Lincoln began to look ahead, and included in his Second Inaugural Address are these memorable words:

"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan — to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations."

In the gathered crowd listening to Lincoln was Frederick Douglass. Douglass was a former slave, abolitionist, speaker, and newspaper editor. When Lincoln gave his First Inaugural Address, Douglass thought Lincoln was much too soft toward the South. Douglass twice met with Lincoln, once in 1863 and again in 1864. Douglass’ opinion of Lincoln ran hot or cold depending upon the current situation of the Civil War, and Lincoln’s leadership. After Lincoln gave his Second Inaugural Address, he sought Frederick Douglass out at a following reception. Lincoln wanted to know what Douglass thought of the speech. Douglass said to Lincoln; "Mr. Lincoln, that was a sacred effort."

Barnes&Noble: Tried by War, by James M. McPherson

A photograph of that day shows a twenty-six-year-old actor in the crowd listening to Lincoln as he gives his Second Inaugural Address. The young actor’s name is John Wilkes Booth, and he hates Abraham Lincoln. Only forty-one days later, Abraham Lincoln would belong to the ages … assassinated by John Wilkes Booth.

Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address is one of his best speeches. Today, it is engraved on the north wall of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Fellow-Countrymen:

At this second appearing to take the oath of the Presidential office there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.

On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, urgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war–seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came.

One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war, while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

Secession fever hit the South after Abraham Lincoln was elected president. The South considered Lincoln’s Republican party victory in the 1860 presidential election as a sign that the North was now going to end the “peculiar institution” of slavery. For the South, the time of talk and compromise had ended. In December, 1860 South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union. Secession of the rest of the states that would make up the Confederate States of America occurred in two waves.

By the first week in February, 1861 six more states joined South Carolina in secession. The first wave of states to secede from the Union were all states of the Lower South. These states included: Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina.

The second wave of states to secede from the Union consisted of states from the Upper South. These states were: Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia.

The states of the Confederacy in order of their dates of secession from the Union:

The Confederate States of America was made up of eleven states.

Confederate States of America – 1864

Virginia was a very important state of the Confederacy. The capital of the Confederacy was first in Montgomery, Alabama, but Richmond, Virginia soon became the Confederate capital. Virginia had 40 percent of the Rebel manufacturing capacity and the Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond would produce most of the Confederate artillery during the Civil War. As part of the Upper South, Virginia was a resource of vital agricultural and industrial assets needed to supply the Confederate war effort.

Many of the South’s military leaders were of Virginia, such as: Robert E. Lee, Thomas J. Jackson, J.E.B. Stuart, Joseph E. Johnston, A. P. Hill, Richard S. Ewell, and others. The Virginia Military Institute (VMI) in Lexington provided many Rebel leaders of the Civil War. Along with North Carolina, and Tennessee, Virginia supplied most of the Confederacy’s soldiers. Richmond, Virginia is only 96 miles away from Washington D.C., and it was very important for the Confederacy to defend, and keep Richmond safe. Virginia was a hotspot of action during the Civil War. The First Battle of Manassas (First Battle of Bull Run was the name used for this same battle by the North) was the first major land battle of the Civil War, it was fought July 21, 1861, near Manassas, Virginia. General Robert E. Lee would surrender the Army of Northern Virginia to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia on April 9, 1865.

The Winchester, Virginia area is rich in both Civil War and colonial history. Winchester is located in the north-western part of Virginia in Frederick County. This area is part of the Shenandoah Valley, and Winchester was an important transportation and commercial center. During the Civil War, from early 1862 to late 1864, Winchester changed hands between North and South no less than 70 times. Six major Civil War battles were fought in the Frederick County, Virginia area. These six major battles include the First, Second, and Third Battles of Winchester, the First and Second Battles of Kernstown, and Cedar Creek.

The Shenandoah Valley of Virginia was a place of much action during the Civil War. A curiosity of the geography of the Shenandoah Valley is that as you go down the valley from north to south, you actually go up in elevation. So, as you go “down” the valley, you actually go “up.” The Shenandoah Valley was an important route of invasion into the North for the Confederates, and was a source of much needed provisions. It was important for the North to prevent the South from using the Shenandoah Valley.

When Virginia seceded, it took over the United States armory located at Harpers Ferry, Virginia and the Gosport Naval Yard in Norfolk. The Gosport Naval Yard was the largest facility of shipbuilding and repair in the Confederate States of America.

The Virginia Ordinance of Secession

Virginia Ordinance of Secession
Virginia Secession Convention

AN ORDINANCE to repeal the ratification of the Constitution of the United State of America by the State of Virginia, and to resume all the rights and powers granted under said Constitution.

The people of Virginia in their ratification of the Constitution of the United States of America, adopted by them in convention on the twenty-fifth day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, having declared that the powers granted under said Constitution were derived from the people of the United States and might be resumed whensoever the same should be perverted to their injury and oppression, and the Federal Government having perverted said powers not only to the injury of the people of Virginia, but to the oppression of the Southern slave-holding States:

Barnes&Noble:Crucible of the Civil War: Virginia from Secession to Commemoration

Now, therefore, we, the people of Virginia, do declare and ordain, That the ordinance adopted by the people of this State in convention on the twenty-fifth day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, whereby the Constitution of the United States of America was ratified, and all acts of the General Assembly of this State ratifying and adopting amendments to said Constitution, are hereby repealed and abrogated; that the union between the State of Virginia and the other States under the Constitution aforesaid is hereby dissolved, and that the State of Virginia is in the full possession and exercise of all the rights of sovereignty which belong and appertain to a free and independent State.

And they do further declare, That said Constitution of the United States of America is no longer binding on any of the citizens of this State.

This ordinance shall take effect and be an act of this day, when ratified by a majority of the voter of the people of this State cast at a poll to be taken thereon on the fourth Thursday in May next, in pursuance of a schedule hereafter to be enacted.

[Adopted by the convention of Virginia April 17,1861.]

[Ratified by a vote of 132,201 to 37,451 on May 23, 1861.]

Up, men, and to your posts! Don’t forget today that you are from Old Virginia!

– General George E. Pickett, to his men just before Pickett’s Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg on July 3, 1863. Many of these men never returned to “Old Virginia.”

Winfield Scott

On May 3, 1861 General-in-Chief Winfield Scott writes to General George B. McClellan describing his strategy for subduing the rebellion. Later, Scott’s strategy was derisively referred to as The Anaconda Plan:

HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY,
Washington, May 3, 1861.
Maj. Gen. GEORGE B. MCCLELLAN,
Commanding Ohio Volunteers, Cincinnati, Ohio:

SIR: I have read and carefully considered your plan for a campaign, and now send you confidentially my own views, supported by certain facts of which you should be advised.

Barnes&Noble: Grant’s Lieutenants: From Chattanooga to Appomattox Grant’s Lieutenants: From Chattanooga to Appomattox

First. It is the design of the Government to raise 25,000 additional regular troops, and 60,000 volunteers for three years. It will be inexpedient either to rely on the three-months’ volunteers for extensive operations or to put in their hands the best class of arms we have in store. The term of service would expire by the commencement of a regular campaign, and the arms not lost be returned mostly in a damaged condition. Hence I must strongly urge upon you to confine yourself strictly to the quota of three-months’ men called for by the War Department.

Third. A word now as to the greatest obstacle in the way of this plan–the great danger now pressing upon us–the impatience of our patriotic and loyal Union friends. They will urge instant and vigorous action, regardless, I fear, of consequences–that is, unwilling to wait for the slow instruction of (say) twelve or fifteen camps, for the rise of rivers, and the return of frosts to kill the virus of malignant fevers below Memphis. I fear this; but impress right views, on every proper occasion, upon the brave men who are hastening to the support of their Government. Lose no time, while necessary preparations for the great expedition are in progress, in organizing, drilling, and disciplining your three-months’ men, many of whom, it is hoped, will be ultimately found enrolled under the call for three-years’ volunteers. Should an urgent and immediate occasion arise meantime for their services, they will be the more effective. I commend these views to your consideration, and shall be happy to hear the result.

With great respect, yours, truly,

WINFIELD SCOTT.

Source:
Union Correspondence, Orders, And Returns Relating To Operations In Maryland, Eastern North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia (Except Southwestern), And West Virginia, From January 1, 1861, To June 30, 1865.–#3 O.R.–SERIES I–VOLUME LI/1 [S# 107]

At the beginning of the Civil War, General-in-Chief Winfield Scott was seventy-four-years-old, so overweight he could not mount or ride a horse, and suffered from painful gout. Scott’s best days were behind him.

The Anaconda Plan

Since the War of 1812, Scott had participated in all of America’s military actions. He was a genuine hero. There was no doubt about Scott’s leadership ability, in the War of 1812 he was once captured, and during the Mexican War he led the campaign that captured Mexico City.

His nickname was Old Fuss and Feathers, because of his reputation for strict adherence to regulations, and a propensity for fancy uniforms. Winfield Scott was born a Virginian in 1786, but was loyal to the Union. He did not understand Robert E. Lee’s choice to side with the Confederacy, and had even asked Lee to lead the United States Army.

President Abraham Lincoln sought Scott’s advice, however as the Civil War began, it was evident the aging Winfield Scott was not up to the demands of leading the army. At times, Scott would doze off during meetings. Scott voluntarily retired on November 1, 1861 and was replaced by George B. McClellan as general in chief.

Barnes&Noble: Great Maps of the Civil War Great Maps of the Civil War: Pivotal Battles and Campaigns Featuring 32 Removable Maps

Winfield Scott’s Anaconda Plan was criticized as too slow and gained its “Anaconda” name when the press mockingly compared it to a snake slowly constricting its prey to death. As Scott’s plan was being considered, the clamor in the North was for an invasion that would quickly crush the Confederate army presently found at a railroad junction in northern Virginia named Manassas. Taking Manassas would hurt the Rebels significantly as the railroad lines there were major ones that connected to the Shenandoah Valley, and the thus to the heart of the South.

Richmond, Virginia had become the Confederate capital, and the southern Congress planned a session there on July 20, 1861. The New York Tribune (published by Horace Greeley) responded with this headline:

After this, other newspapers throughout the Union followed suit with the FORWARD TO RICHMOND! thought and the public soon caught on to the fever. In light of this, even though Southern seaports were beginning to be blockaded, Scott’s plan faltered as public and political pressure demanded quick military action. President Lincoln saw merit in attacking the Confederates at Manassas. On July 21, 1861 the Battle of First Bull Run (called First Manassas by the Confederates) took place. It was a Union loss, no Union troops went on to Richmond, and most skedaddled back to Washington. Soon the idea faded away that a quick, strong, and superior military action along with a compromising attitude, might end the Confederate rebellion fast. The Union would have to win the Civil War by destroying the Confederate armies on the field. Much time, many resources, and many, many lives would have to be spent to accomplish the Northern victory.

Barnes&Noble: Agent of Destiny: The Life and Times of General Winfield Scott Agent of Destiny: The Life and Times of General Winfield Scott

Winfield Scott’s Anaconda Plan was worthy. Blockading the South’s seaports and gaining control of the Mississippi River were major factors in crippling the Rebel economy and military. As the Civil War progressed, the basic strategy of the Anaconda Plan contributed ultimately to the defeat of the Confederacy. Old Winfield Scott lived to see the end of the Civil War. He died in 1866.

"A little, slim, pale-faced consumptive man just concluded the very best speech of an hour’s length I ever heard."
–Illinois Congressman Abraham Lincoln describing Alexander Hamilton Stephens of Georgia after Stephens completed a speech to Congress. Lincoln and Stephens became friends while they served in Congress before the Civil War, but later slavery ended their friendship. During the Civil War, Stephens was the vice president of the Confederacy.

Alexander Stephens was never a picture of health. He was 5′ 7", a height in line with the norms of the 19th century, but only carried about ninety-pounds on his frame, he was pale and sickly. From birth, he was small, and during his childhood was given the nickname of "Little Aleck." Stephens suffered many maladies including angina, bladder stones, colitis, migraine headaches, pneumonia, pruritus, arthritis, and sciatica. The word cadaverous would come to mind when seeing Alexander Stephens. He clothed himself layer upon layer trying to stay warm, and once defined his idea of happiness as; "To be warm."

Alexander Hamilton Stephens

Despite Stephens’s sickly body, behind his dark eyes he was blessed with a brilliant mind. His childhood was a difficult one, Stephens’s mother died soon after he was born, then his farmer and schoolteacher father died when Little Aleck was 14-years-old. Fortunately, a few benevolent mentors realized the potential of the highly intelligent young Stephens and funded his education at Franklin College (later to become the University of Georgia). Alexander Stephens finished at the top of his class at Franklin College.

Stephens became a lawyer and owned a plantation named Liberty Hall. If there can be such as thing as a good master, then perhaps Stephens was. He never beat or whipped his slaves, and he never split slave families apart. None of his slaves tried to escape, perhaps a testament of his care for them. Nonetheless, Stephens held human beings captive as slaves on his Georgia plantation and profited from their bondage.

Alexander Stephens served in the United States Congress for 17 years and became an authority on the Constitution. Though he had an odd, girl-like, high voice, his brightness brought him fame as an orator. Stephens was a moderate Unionist and voted against Georgia’s secession. When Georgia did leave the Union, out of honor Stephens chose the South.

The new Confederate Congress met in Montgomery, Alabama (later Richmond, Virginia became the Confederate Capital) in February, 1861 to establish the foundation of the Southern country. Although he at first was opposed to disunion, Alexander Stephens was a favorite to become the president, but he lost that position to Jefferson Davis. Instead, Stephens became the vice president of the Confederate States of America.

On December 22, 1860 Abraham Lincoln wrote a letter marked as "For Your Eyes Only" to Georgia Congressman Alexander Stephens. In this letter Lincoln, before taking office, is telling Confederate Vice President Stephens in a private, personal letter, that he has no plans for his Republican administration to interfere with slavery: "The South would be in no more danger in this respect, than it was in the days of Washington. I suppose, however, this does not meet the case. You think slavery is right and ought to be extended; while I think it is wrong and ought to be restricted. That I suppose is the rub."

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Stephens had been a Unionist, but he was also loyal to the South. A moderate, he was a supporter of a peaceful resolution between the North and the South, he hoped to avoid war. Seeing that it was inevitable, he became a supporter of secession.

As the South formed its government at the Montgomery Convention, Alexander Stephens contributed significantly to the creation of the Confederate Constitution. He chaired the Rules Committee and also the Committee on the Executive Departments.

Stephens gave what is known as his Cornerstone Speech on March 21, 1861 at Savannah, Georgia. This speech is probably what Stephens is best known for. In this speech, Stephens fundamentally lays out what the conflict between the North and the South is all about. One sentence (that gives the speech its name) of this extemporaneous speech stands out as the definition of the Confederate cause and what its government stood for:

"Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner- stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition."
— Vice President of the Confederacy, Alexander Hamilton Stephens.

With these words from his Cornerstone Speech, Alexander Stephens is stating in a nutshell the reason for secession … slavery. In our modern world of today, these words by Stephens are shocking and ugly. His words are so contrary to our times, that it may be necessary to read them twice, to see if what you thought he said, is really what he said. Stephens’s words show the way it was back in Civil War times. Because of this cornerstone difference between the North and the South, a brutal war of brother against brother was fought.

Soon there was conflict between Vice President Stephens and President Jefferson Davis. As Stephens was a moderate, he disagreed with Davis over various topics. The two Confederate leaders did not get along. Stephens refused to go on several missions that Davis wanted him to make. Finally, Davis had to order Stephens to go to the still independent state of Virginia as a Confederate commissioner.

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Stephens remained a strong supporter of state sovereignty, so he disagreed with Davis over the Confederate draft and the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. Alexander Stephens continued to support negotiated peace, this gave Davis an edge in weakening Stephens’s strength within the Confederate government. Stephens’s role in the Davis administration was minimal and he felt that Davis ignored whatever advice or council he offered. For months at a time, Little Aleck was absent from Richmond, he would be at his Liberty Hall plantation in Georgia, avoiding the problems and cares of the Confederate government.

Davis was able to get Stephens out of Georgia long enough to send him on a peace mission to Washington to meet with President Lincoln in 1863. It was Stephens’s idea that by June, 1863, with the success of Southern armies, and the "failure of Hooker and Grant," (in Stephens’s words) that the timing was right for peace negotiations. Alexander Stephens offered to meet with President Lincoln, his old pre-war friend from their days in Congress, under a flag of truce to talk about prisoner-of-war exchanges. It was hoped that this tact of approach might lead to discussion of peace. Jefferson Davis liked the idea and gave Stephens instructions that limited his powers to prisoner exchanges.

On July 3, 1863 Stephens took a boat down the James River, on his way to Washington to meet with President Abraham Lincoln and to hopefully discuss peace. Also on that July 3 day, at a town named Gettysburg, the Army of Northern Virginia led by General Robert E. Lee suffered a climatic loss to General George G. Meade’s Army of the Potomac.

President Jefferson Davis was expecting a Confederate victory at Gettysburg and thought that as the Army of Northern Virginia was approaching Washington from the north, that Vice President Stephens would be approaching from the south … and with good timing, they both might arrive at the same time. President Lincoln would then have a choice (and either way, the Union loses), discuss peace negotiations with Stephens, or suffer conquest by Robert E. Lee.

Things flip-flopped fast. The Union won at Gettysburg, President Lincoln got word at the same time of the Union battlefield victory, and that Confederate Vice President Stephens was coming to Washington on a mission. Lincoln sent word that refused a request of Stephens’s to pass through the lines under a flag of truce. Lincoln thought if the Confederacy wanted to discuss prisoner-of-war exchanges, then there were military ways for that. The fortunes of war had changed and Stephens’s mission was for naught.

Alexander Stephens met with President Lincoln in another peace attempt, at the Hampton Roads Peace Conference on February 3, 1865 as the Civil War was soon coming to an end. Confederates Stephens, Senator Robert M. T. Hunter, and Judge John A. Campbell met with Lincoln and Secretary of State William Seward on board the steamer River Queen in Hampton Roads.

The three Confederates wanted Southern independence, Lincoln and Seward refused any plan that continued slavery. For Little Aleck, this meeting proved to be a total failure. Jefferson Davis knew that this meeting would prove fruitless for Alexander Stephens, and humiliate him. Stephens had to return to Richmond for a report of the meeting’s failure to the Confederate Congress, thus proving that Stephens’s interests in a negotiated peace were impossible.

At the end of the Civil War, Stephens was imprisoned at Boston’s Fort Warren. The year after being released from prison he was elected as a United States Senator of Georgia, but was denied his seat in Washington. Afterwards, Little Aleck bought the Atlanta Southern Sun, and wrote A Constitutional View of the Late War, in this 2 volume book he was critical of Jefferson Davis. Stephens’s public service was not yet complete, he returned to the United States House of Representatives from 1873 to 1882. He was elected as governor of Georgia, but died within only a few months of taking office. Alexander Hamilton Stephens is buried at his Liberty Hall plantation near Crawfordville, Georgia.

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Some Alexander Stephens Quotes:

"We are without doubt on the verge, on the brink of an abyss into which I do not wish to look."
–Alexander Stephens, after Abraham Lincoln was elected president on November 6, 1860.

"This step, secession, once taken, can never be recalled. We and our posterity shall see our lovely South desolated by the demon of war."
–Alexander Stephens, January 18, 1861.

"It will probably end the war."
–Alexander Stephens, regarding the secession of Virginia from the Union on April 17, 1861.

"We shall be in one of the bloodiest civil wars that history has recorded."
–Alexander Stephens after Fort Sumter.

"War I look for as almost certain … Revolutions are much easier started than controlled, and the men who begin them … themselves become the victims."
–Alexander Stephens, 1861.

On this day in 1864, Abraham Lincoln was elected to his second term as president of the United States.

This was one of the few elections in world history held in the middle of a civil war. As the country’s president and with the circumstances of the ongoing Civil War, Lincoln might have tried to cancel or postpone the election until the war was over. Instead, Lincoln said, "If the rebellion could force us to forego, or postpone a national election, it might fairly claim to have already conquered and ruined us."

Barnes&Noble: Tried By War Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander-in-Chief Though Abraham Lincoln arrived at the White House with no previous military experience, he Quickly established himself as the greatest commander in chief in American history. James McPherson illuminates this often misunderstood and profoundly influential aspect of Lincoln’s legacy. In essence, Lincoln invented the idea of commander in chief, as neither the Constitution nor existing legislation specified how the president ought to declare war or dictate strategy…

The Confederate Army had recently advanced so close to Washington, D.C., that by standing on top of a parapet with field glasses, Lincoln was able to watch a battle. On July 30, 4,000 Union soldiers were killed in a disastrous attempt to invade Petersburg, Virginia. The army needed 500,000 more soldiers, Lincoln would probably have to call for another draft, and the war debt was becoming unsustainable. On August 23, Lincoln wrote a memo to his cabinet saying, "This morning, and for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable that this Administration will not be re-elected." As the presidential election day drew near, President Lincoln’s hopes for a second term were fading. The Democrat Party had as its candidate former Union general George B. McClellan, and its platform was based on ending the war. But, this turned out to be a huge mistake when news arrived in early September that the Union Army had captured Atlanta and Mobile. Suddenly, the Democrats looked like the party of surrender … as Union forces were starting to win battles, and the war.

Lincoln won the election with 2,330,552 votes to challenger George B. McClellan’s 1,835,985 votes. Lincoln had 212 Electoral College votes to McClellan’s 21 votes. Lincoln carried every state except New Jersey, Delaware, and Kentucky.

"I want sudden, bold, forward, determined war,"
Senator Edward D. Baker’s reaction to Fort Sumter, as he declared it to the Senate. Baker was a unique individual, and he would play a key role in the Battle of Ball’s Bluff.

When Edward D. Baker was four, his family moved from England to Philadelphia. Baker later lived in Illinois where he was admitted to the bar in 1830. In 1835, he started in local Illinois politics and along this path he met Abraham Lincoln. In 1837, Baker was elected to the United States Congress and in 1840, to the United States Senate. Edward D. Baker defeated Abraham Lincoln in 1844 for the United States congressional seat, and was elected. Despite this, Lincoln and Baker were good friends and later Lincoln named his second son (Edward Baker Lincoln) after him.

Senator and Colonel Edward D. Baker

Baker was a veteran of the Black Hawk War of 1832, and the Mexican War, where he served as a colonel of the 4th Illinois Volunteers. After this he moved to Galena, Illinois to run for the United States Congress, thus avoiding running against his friend from Springfield, Abraham Lincoln (whom he had previously defeated). Baker was elected. Baker failed to obtain a cabinet appointment from President Franklin Pierce in 1852, so he moved on west to follow the California Gold Rush and was admitted to the bar in California. In 1860, Baker was on the move again, this time to Oregon, and following in his tradition of political success, was elected to the United States Senate. At Abraham Lincoln’s first inauguration, Edward D. Baker rode in the presidential carriage and introduced Lincoln before his inaugural address.

In May, of 1861 Baker’s star again was on the rise as the Civil War began to heat up. He was authorized by the Secretary of War to form an infantry regiment that would be counted as part of the California quota. Baker raised the 71st Pennsylvania Infantry (also known as the 1st California), mostly recruiting the troops from Philadelphia, and served as this regiment’s colonel. Only a few month’s following, Baker gained command of a brigade in General Charles P. Stone’s division. Baker’s work as brigade commander was to guard fords of the Potomac River north of Washington.

In the fall of 1861, Edward D. Baker was now fifty-years-old, handsome, beardless, a close personal friend of President Abraham Lincoln, and a staunch Union supporter. He was both an Oregon senator and a colonel in the army. After distinguishing himself at many levels of law and politics, apparently further achievement awaited him as a Civil War officer.

He was a man fond of reciting poetry, was always on the move, was larger than life, and soon Baker would have the opportunity to "promote sudden, bold, forward, determined war." With a Civil War now underway, may God bless and protect any Confederate found in Colonel Edward D. Baker’s path.

Ball’s Bluff is along the Potomac River about 35 miles northwest of Washington, D.C., and is northeast of Leesburg, Virginia, it is a steep 100-foot-high bank rising above the Potomac on the Virginia shore. It has a 50-yard-deep flood plain from the river, and the bluff itself is about 600 yards wide. The steep, wooded, bank of the bluff has a 10 to 12 foot-wide cow or cart path meandering from the shore up to the top.

Barnes&Noble: A Little Short Of Boats: The Fights At Ball’s Bluff

At Ball’s Bluff, approximately halfway across from the Virginia shore of the Potomac River, is Harrison’s Island, the water runs swiftly through this narrow channel. From Harrison’s Island across the Potomac over to the Maryland shore, the channel is wider and shallower.

After First Bull Run, the Confederates were firmly planted in northeast Virginia and controlled most of it. In October, Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston had accumulated the majority of troops at Centerville. There were still some Rebel troops around Leesburg, north of Centerville, but there were rumors (a black deserter of the 13th Mississippi had told that the Confederates at Leesburg had removed supplies back to Manassas, thus preparing for a retreat) floating about that Johnston was pulling his Leesburg men back.

Union General George B. McClellan thought it might be worthwhile to see how sincere Johnston was about keeping troops at Leesburg. Camped at Langley (on the Virginia side of the Potomac), was the Pennsylvania Reserves division, it had 13,000 troops and was led by George McCall. McClellan sent McCall to Dranesville (about halfway between Leesburg and Washington, D. C.) on October 19, thinking this advancement of Yankee troops might help urge Joe Johnston to move his troops out of Leesburg.

Contrary to McClellan’s desires, Confederate commander Nathan "Shanks" Evans took up a defensive position west of Dranesville instead of withdrawing. Then to complicate the situation, on the morning of October 20, McClellan received an incorrect message saying that the Confederates had responded to McCall’s movement by withdrawing. Shanks Evan’s defensive actions west of Dranesville were misinterpreted as withdrawal.

McClellan wanted to be sure about the Confederate retreat, so he sent an order containing these following words to General Charles Stone on the Maryland side of the Potomac:

"…keep a good lookout upon Leesburg, to see if this movement has the effect to drive them away. Perhaps a slight demonstration on your part would have the effect to move them."

General Stone interpreted McClellan’s orders freely and proceeded to cross a regiment or two at Edward’s Ferry below Ball’s Bluff, and sent other troops three miles up the Maryland side of the Potomac so they could cross over to Virginia at Harrison’s Island. Stone’s thoughts were that he could apply some pressure to the Confederates, and urge them to retreat from Leesburg.

Stone’s men marching toward the crossing at Harrison’s Island were the 20th Massachusetts. It was a nighttime march, and by midnight they found themselves making the crossing from the Maryland shore. This crossing was difficult because they only had three small boats that could only ferry a combined total of 25 men at a time. There was a lot of standing around and waiting, and confusion, for those waiting to cross and those who had crossed. Near dawn on October 21, all the 20th Massachusetts found itself on Harrison’s Island looking out at the remaining river crossing of 150 yards over to the Virginia shore. There was a high and wooded bluff, Ball’s Bluff was its name. They also learned the evening previous, the 15th Massachusetts was able to get five companies over to the Virginia shore. Those men were now up on the bluff … and something was going on up there.

That morning the 20th Massachusetts made its crossing from Harrison’s Island, and climbed up Ball’s Bluff by the meandering cow or cart path. At the top, they found themselves in a glade of open ground, and with not much going on. Earlier that dawn, Colonel Charles Devon of the 15th Massachusetts had taken some troops almost all the way to Leesburg, west of Ball’s Bluff. Devon ran into some Confederate outposts during his foray, and some shots were fired. Devon was now back at the glade.

Confederates were off somewhere in the woods beyond the glade, on higher ground, and there were some pickets doing some shooting. No one knew exactly where the Rebels were, nor how many of them there might be. Colonel Devon sent word off to General Stone, reporting what he knew. Stone sent word back telling Devon to wait for Colonel Edward D. Baker, who would arrive soon with more troops, and take charge.

After some delay, Colonel Baker arrived at Ball’s Bluff and took command, ready to satisfy his want of; "sudden, bold, forward, determined war." Lincoln’s close friend was now in charge, ready to move (remember, Baker was a man on the move) against the Confederates. One can only imagine how much Baker, the successful lawyer and politician, had longed for this moment. He was known to occasionally recite poetry, and once on a battlefield had told a friend to "Press where ye see my white plume shine amidst the ranks of war."

As Baker assumed command he told Colonel Devon, "I congratulate you, sir, on the prospect of a battle," and to the troops nearby he inquired, "Boys, you want to fight, don’t you?" The boys responded positively. The fight was on.

Barnes&Noble: The Maps of First Bull Run: An Atlas of the First Bull Run (Manassas) Campaign, Including the Battle of Ball’s Bluff

The Rebel fire was becoming more and more frequent, and the Johnny Rebs were concentrating in greater numbers on beyond in the woods, on the high ground. Baker had gotten a couple of guns up on the bluff, and they were put to work shelling the woods where the Rebel sniping came from. The 20th Massachusetts returned fire and men were being hit, falling. The boys were green and new to all this, the idea that enemy shot at them, and accurately. The boys felt their nerves as they saw the elephant first-hand, this was no drill, blood flowed and lives ended.

Baker returned to the edge of the bluff and saw a New York regiment, the Tammany Regiment it was called, making its way up the path. With the arrival of the Tammany men, there would be a total of four Union regiments on Ball’s Bluff. Colonel Baker felt more and more confident. Seeing the Tammany Regiment’s colonel, Milton Cogswell, approaching the top of the bluff, Baker waved and greeted the colonel with a line from Sir Walter Scott’s "The Lady of the Lake;"

"One blast upon your bugle horn
Is worth a thousand men."

Now, Colonel Milton Cogswell was not a lawyer-politician-officer, no sir, Cogswell was a genuine West Point professional soldier, and he saw the situation at the top of the bluff differently than Colonel Edward D. Baker. To Cogswell’s trained military eye, things looked bad, very bad. The Confederates held the high ground in woods, brush, and timber, and were picking off Union men at will, just like a turkey-shoot. Cogswell knew the Confederates were building up to a an attack. The Union boys were backed up to a steep bluff, with an unfordable river below. To increase the trouble that Cogswell saw, soon one of the guns recoiled over the cliff’s bluff. This left the Union boys with no big gun, because the Rebels had already silenced the other with sniper fire.

Colonel Baker may have been a lawyer-politician colonel, but he was not an idiot. Baker immediately caught on to the dire circumstances. He moved along the Union line encouraging the boys to stand fast. Perhaps Baker realized that if they retreated down the bluff, with only three small boats it would take hours to ferry everyone across the river. It was better to stay and fight. Certainly, Baker must have had a plan in mind for success, and to save the day for the Union boys. We’ll never know.

A Rebel sharpshooter (perhaps one not fond of poetry) drew a bead on Colonel Edward D. Baker’s pumpkin and killed him instantly with a bullet through the brain.

Death of Colonel Edward D Baker (not true to life).

The Union boys had lost their poetry quoting lawyer-politician turned colonel. Baker’s body would now be on the move down the bluff. Things began to erode into a complete skedaddle. After all, how can you conduct a battle on a bluff, where you are sitting ducks, without poetry recitation?

Some resistance and maneuvering was attempted, but as dusk began, the day was lost for the Union. As Rebel Mississippians and Virginians shot at the compacted group of Yankees, men went over the bluff as fast as they could. Union boys toppled over the bluff and in their haste to flee, they fell agonizingly onto the bayonets and heads of others making their way down the bluff. In places, the sides of the bluff were worn down to the dirt and smoothed over by men and bodies. After making it down to the narrow shore, more horror awaited.

Two boatloads of wounded soldiers (the wounded had been brought down the bluff for evacuation all day long) were trying to make their way over to Harrison’s Island. These boats were swamped by panicked men jumping onboard in their rush to save their own skin. Bullets from Rebels firing down from the bluff turned the water; "as white as in a great hail storm" as one man described. Many of the wounded of the swamped boats could not help themselves, they drowned and were swept downstream. A remaining sheet-metal skiff soon sank after being shot full of holes, now there were no boats.

Night fell with bright, scarlet muzzle flashes continuing from above. Some Union boys surrendered, some stripped down and swam to safety, others found a neck-deep ford and made it over to Harrison’s Island. Finally, over 200 Union men were killed or injured, and over 700 were taken prisoner. The Confederate losses were minimal.

Ball’s Bluff was a Union disaster. A day that was once interlaced with poetry, was now more appropriate as a subject for a dirge.

Back in Washington, Abraham Lincoln would now mourn a Union loss, and the death of a close friend.

General John Buford held the high ground for the Union at Gettysburg on July 1, 1863.

"They will attack you in the morning and they will come booming–skirmishers three deep. You will have to fight like the devil until supports arrive."
– Words of General John Buford at Gettysburg.

The Battle of Gettysburg began when two brigades of unmounted Union cavalry led by John Buford, clashed with Confederate soldiers of General Henry Heth’s division. Buford and his cavalry were reconnoitering ahead of the army in Pennsylvania and discovered the Confederates as they were advancing on Gettysburg. Buford knew the importance of Gettysburg as a transportation junction, and the value of the high ground northwest of town. His cavalry dismounted and held McPherson Ridge for the Union. The resulting skirmish on the outskirts of Gettysburg was the beginning of the three-day Battle of Gettysburg. Without John Buford’s actions early on the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg, the Union may not have triumphed at Gettysburg. Sadly, within six-months of the Battle of Gettysburg, John Buford would die of typhoid fever.

John Buford

Buford’s clear and quick thinking allowed the Union troops to occupy the high ground of Cemetery Ridge. Part of the reason Buford was able to hold the high ground at Gettysburg is because his unmounted cavalry used Spencer carbine rifles, you may learn more in this post, General John Buford’s Spencer Carbine Rifles.

Barnes&Noble: General John Buford

Holding the high ground was a crucial advantage for the Union during the Battle of Gettysburg. There is a statue today along the Chambersburg Pike at the Gettysburg National Military Park, of General John Buford. Buford’s monument at Gettysburg depicts him standing and looking to the west, holding a pair of field glasses, wearing cavalry boots, with sheathed sword at his side … as he did on July 1, 1863. John Buford was born in Kentucky on March 4th, 1826, but early in life his family moved to Illinois. From age eight, he lived in Rock Island, Illinois. Buford’s father did not support Abraham Lincoln, as he was a politician in the Democratic Party of Illinois. The Buford family had a long history of serving in the military, both Buford’s grandfather and great uncle had fought in the Revolutionary War. Buford had a half-brother who served in the Civil War and became a major general for the Union Army, and he had a cousin who fought for the Confederates as a cavalry brigadier general.

Buford spent only one year at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois before entering West Point (the United States Military Academy) as a member of the class of 1848. Others attending West Point while Buford was there included classmates who would eventually fight in the Civil War for the Union, such as Fitz-John Porter, George B. McClellan, George Stoneman (Buford and Stoneman would become close friends), and Ambrose Burnside. Others at West Point during Buford’s time there, would fight for the Confederacy, like Thomas Jonathan Jackson (during the Civil War he would obtain the nickname of "Stonewall"), Ambrose Powell Hill, and Henry Heth. Both Powell and Heth would meet against Buford that fateful day of July 1, 1863 at Gettysburg. John Buford graduated from West Point in 1848, and ranked 16th in his class of 38 cadets.

John Buford’s Civil War service and assignments:

• 2nd Dragoons captain from March 9, 1854.

• 2nd Cavalry captain (this was a renaming that took place on August 3, 1861 of his same role as the 2nd Dragoon’s captain).

• A major, and then promoted to Major Staff Assistant Inspector General beginning November 12, 1861.

• Performed staff duty in 1862 for the defense of Washington, D.C., then joined General Pope’s staff.

• Promoted to brigadier general, United States Volunteers, on July 27, 1862.

• From July 27 to September 12, 1862, commanding Cavalry Brigade, 2nd Corps, Army of Virginia. Buford commanded this brigade during Second Bull Run. This is when John Buford’s abilities as an exceptional cavalry commander were demonstrated. At Second Bull Run (also known as Second Manassas) Buford led a charge, and was struck in the knee by a spent bullet. Buford’s injury was certainly painful, but not life threatening. Nevertheless, some Northern newspapers reported him killed. On August 27, 1862 Buford’s brigade alone opposed the advancement of Longstreet’s corps at Thoroughfare Gap.

• From February 12 to May 22, 1863, commanded the Reserve Brigade, Cavalry Corps, Army of the Potomac. During this time, Buford’s cavalry units fought at Fredericksburg and took part in Stoneman’s Raid during the Chancellorsville Campaign.

• From May 22-27, June 9 – August 15, and September 15-November 21, 1863, Buford commanded the division. Buford commanded at Brandy Station, Aidie, Middleburg, and Upperville.

• Early on July 1, 1863 at Gettysburg, General John Buford saw the tactical importance of holding the high ground for the Union. Northwest of the town of Gettysburg, Buford’s unmounted cavalry engaged the Confederates, until his final defensive stand was made at McPherson’s Ridge. Buford’s men had stalled the Confederate’s advancement, buying valuable time for the arrival of John Reynolds’ Union infantry. The Union now held the high ground of Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg.

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After Gettysburg, Buford served and fought until the end of the Bristoe Campaign. He became sick with typhoid fever and because of his poor health, Buford gave up his command on November 21, 1863. Buford’s illness was very serious and by the middle of December it was plain he would die. Buford was on his deathbed at the home of his good and long-time friend, General George Stoneman, in Washington. Stoneman made a proposal on December 16, that John Buford be promoted to major general. President Lincoln wrote: "I am informed that General Buford will not survive the day. It suggests itself to me that he will be made Major General for distinguished and meritorious service at the Battle of Gettysburg." When told of this, John Buford was dubious and asked "Does he mean it?" When he was told it was true, Buford replied, "It is too late, now I wish I could live." Buford died later that afternoon. Major General John Buford is buried at West Point. Next to Buford’s grave is the grave of Lieutenant Alonzo Cushing. Cushing fell at Gettysburg while fighting to hold Buford’s chosen high ground.

A few selected quotes of Major General John Buford:

"During the whole campaign, from June 27 to July 31, there has been no shirking or hesitation, to tiring on the part of a single man so far as I have seen; the brigade commanders reported none."
– John Buford

"Found everybody in a terrible state of excitement on account of the enemy’s advance upon this place."
– John Buford

"If I have any choice I would prefer Western Troops."
– John Buford

"Shortly after this, I placed my command on our extreme left, to watch and fight the enemy should he make another attack, and went to Cemetery Hill for observation."
– John Buford

"The zeal, bravery, and good behavior of the officers and men on the night of June 30, and during July 1, was commendable in the extreme."
– John Buford

"We entered Gettysburg in the afternoon, just in time to meet the enemy entering the town, and in good season to drive him back before his getting a foothold."
– John Buford

Army – An army is the largest field force unit of military organization. The Union armies were commanded by a major general and were usually named after rivers (for example, the Army of the Potomac). The Confederate armies were commanded by a general and were usually named after the area from which they were based (for example, the Army of Northern Virginia). The way of naming the armies was not always followed by either the North or the South and exceptions can be found, sometimes or often leading to confusion.

A confusing example of the way armies were named is this example; the Union had the Army of the Tennessee, while the Confederates had the Army of Tennessee. An army was further divided into Corps.

Barnes&Noble: America Goes to War: The Civil War and Its Meaning in American Culture

Corps – A corps was commanded by a brigadier general or a major general for the Union, and with the Confederate States of America a corps was commanded by a lieutenant general. Major General George B. McClellan and President Abraham Lincoln organized the first corps in the Union Army in March, 1862. In 1862, the Confederates began organizing their armies using corps in September in the east, and in November in the west. Prior to arranging corps, the Confederates had sometimes (and informally) used what were called "wings" or "grand divisions" to further group their armies. A corps would be made up of two or more divisions and each corps used a Roman numeral for its designation. The corps were also often referred to using their commander’s name.

Division – A division was the second largest unit making up an army. For the Union, a division was commanded by a brigadier general or a major general. For the Confederacy, a division was commanded by a brigadier general, and sometimes, but it was rare, by a major general. A division would be divided into usually 2 to 6 brigades. The Confederate divisions tended to be larger in manpower than the Union divisions and would be made up of more brigades. Some divisions in Confederate armies were of equal size to one corps from a Union army.

Brigade – A brigade was commanded by a brigadier general or maybe a senior colonel. A brigade was divided into regiments, usually two to six regiments to a brigade. The Confederate brigades were more apt to be made up regiments from the same state, than brigades in the Union armies.

Regiment – A regiment was commanded by a colonel. The regiment was probably the army organization unit that a soldier felt like he most belonged to. A regiment was made up of men from the same area of a state, mainly because they were raised by the various state governments. At least during the early part of the Civil War, a regiment would have men who were friends or neighbors back home, or were relatives. These regiments chose their own officers by electing them. Typically, a regiment was made up of 10 companies, with each company having 100 men. So, if mustering men for service went well, there were 1000 men in each regiment. A battalion was the name used for a regiment that had not mustered a full 10 companies with 100 men in each company. Company – A company was commanded by a captain. With perfect army organization and strength, a company had 100 men. But because of disease and other causes (such as soldiers being killed in battle!), by 1862 a company might only have 30 to 50 soldiers. Companies were officially designated by letters or numbers, but often a company had an unofficial designation, often a nickname.

Barnes&Noble: The Civil War by Bruce Catton, read by Barrett Whitener. (MP3 on CD – Unabridged)

Civil War Army Organization
Shown below is a chart to help clarify Civil War army organization somewhat. The soldiers shown in the background are members of the Petersburg, Virginia Detachment of the 3d Indiana Cavalry.

Order of Rank
Listed from top to bottom are the highest ranks of officers and gentlemen, all the way down to the lowly, but backbone of the army, private.

• General
• Lieutenant General
• Major General
• Brigadier General
• Colonel
• Lieutenant Colonel
• Major
• Captain
• First Lieutenant
• Second Lieutenant
• Sergeant
• Corporal
• Private

The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution abolished slavery in the United States. The Senate had passed an amendment abolishing slavery on April 8, 1864 but the House defeated it in June, 1864. The House then passed the Thirteenth Amendment on January 31, 1865. The next day, President Lincoln approved the Joint Resolution of Congress and submitted this potential amendment to the state legislatures for ratification. By December 18, 1865 the states had ratified the Thirteenth Amendment and it was proclaimed in effect. That was a good day. ”Hello, Massa; bottom rail on top dis time.” — An African-American Union soldier spoke these words to his former master, who was now a prisoner.

Picture is from the National Archives and shows the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution.

Worth noting:

* On April 9, 1865 General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia thus ending the Civil War.

* President Lincoln had issued his Emancipation Proclamation On January 1, 1863. The Emancipation Proclamation declared free the slaves in the parts of the country which were in rebellion. Lincoln’s proclamation contained the words, ”all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; . . ..” The Emancipation Proclamation did not apply to the states which had remained in the Union.

* President Abraham Lincoln did not live to see the Thirteenth Amendment, with its abolishment of slavery, become part of the Constitution.

Barnes&Noble: A New Birth of Freedom

The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution Section 1. 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. Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Barnes&Noble: The Encyclopedia of Civil War Usage

Overtime, it is natural for language to change and develop as new words are added to the dictionary. For example, your BlogMaster can sometimes be accused of being a mouse potato. The term "mouse potato" is a recent addition to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. It means I spend too much time at the computer, just as a couch potato spends too much time sitting on the couch watching television. Can you imagine asking someone from the Civil War what the words Internet and BlogMaster mean! Words also fall from use and become forgotten. Many of the words used during the Civil War are not often heard, read, or understood today.

Here’s a brief story I’ve written about a Billy Yank, only for the purpose of using some Civil War jargon. See if you can understand what my imaginary Jonathan (a Yankee) soldier is talking about. I’ll translate it further below:

The Latin farmers and I came upon somebody’s darlin, he was from the so-called seceded states and probably a Tar Heel. He had been a snake in the grass, but was now a true lead mine after meeting up with some of us Lincoln hirelings. He was a tough looking butternut, there certainly would have been no social intercourse with him and he looked liked he’d been on partial rations for too long. He was messed up good, a victim of solid shot from a smoothbore, he wasn’t lucky enough to experience a spent ball. Now he would not have to worry about contracting soldier’s disease, or becoming a pickled sardine. Maybe he served under Square Box or Lee’s Old War Horse, maybe too, Little Powell. They all had been through here. We had whipped them good and when the Long-Legged Donkey hears about it he will be glad, yes sir, Long Shanks will be joyful. By the looks of him, he could too have been part of Old Tom Fool’s Lousy 33d, but Old Jack has been sacred dust since Chancellorsville.

Anyway, we were hungry so we sot down for some Lincoln pie, old bull, and coffee, but had no desire to get some lobscouse going. Despite the miasma of this area, we’ll set up a merrimack and break out some oh-be-joyful and get corned. If we get time later on, maybe we’ll have ourselves a louse race. Better get a fire going and try to dry out our mudscows. We should be safe from Old Granny and Old Jubilee tonight. We are proud one-hundred-day-men and serving under Old Four Eyes, as far as we’re concerned there is no one better than Old Snapping Turtle because he is the biggest toad in the puddle. Maybe tomorrow we’ll open the ball. We intend to exfluncticate the graybacks. I snore, I’ll spend all night slapping gallnippers!

I only hope I won’t have to deal with Virginia quickstep tomorrow, like I did today. It sure made things all-overish for me and I almost had a conniption fit dealing with it. Sakes alive, it’s not your funeral. I’ve been like a book here, but I’ll shut pan now.

Translation:

The well-educated German immigrants fighting in the Union Army and I came upon an unidentified corpse, he was a Confederate and probably from North Carolina. He had been trying to camouflage himself, but now was dead with several wounds after meeting up with some of us Union soldiers. He was a tough looking Southern soldier, there certainly would have been no pleasant conversation with him and he looked liked he’d been on less than the daily allowance of food for too long. He was messed up good, a victim of chunks of cast iron from a cannon or other firearm without rifling, he wasn’t lucky enough to experience a projectile or bullet that did not have enough velocity to cause any damage. Now he would not have to worry about contracting a chronic ailment suffered by veterans such as morphine or opium addiction, or becoming a prisoner of war who had been imprisoned for many months. Maybe he served under General Thomas Jonathan ’’Stonewall’’ Jackson or General James Longstreet, maybe too, General Ambrose Powell Hill. They all had been through here. We had beat them good and when President Abraham Lincoln hears about it he will be glad, yes sir, Lincoln will be joyful. By the looks of him, he could too have been part of Stonewall Jackson’s 33d Virginia regiment, part of the Army of Northern Virginia, but Stonewall Jackson has been a corpse since Chancellorsville.

Anyway, we were hungry so we sat down for some hardtack, salted horse meat, and coffee, but had no desire to get some stew of hardtack, vegetables, and salted meat going. Despite the unpleasant air of this area, we’ll set up a lean-to for one night’s use and break out some hard liquor and get drunk. If we get time later on, maybe we’ll have ourselves a contest where body lice are placed on the center of a saucer or plate, and wagers are taken as to which louse will scurry and fall of the edge of the plate or saucer first. Better get a fire going and try to dry out our shoes [shoes were also often called brogans]. We should be safe from Confederate Generals Robert E. Lee and Jubal Early tonight. We are proud to be Pennsylvanians who signed up for one hundred days’ service after Gettysburg and serving under General George G. Meade, as far as we’re concerned there is no one better than Meade because he’s the most important person in our group. Maybe tomorrow we’ll start a battle. We intend to utterly destroy the Confederates. I swear, I’ll spend all night slapping large mosquitos! I only hope I won’t have to deal with diarrhea tomorrow, like I did today. It sure made things uncomfortable for me and I almost had a fit of hysteria dealing with it. Good heavens, it’s none of your concern. I’ve been eloquent here, but I’ll shut up now.

Webb Garrison’s Civil War Dictionary

The Angel of the Battlefield A young boy named David falls from the rafters of a barn at North Oxford, Massachusetts, in 1832. He is badly injured from the fall and becomes an invalid. David will spend the next two years recovering and during this time his eleven-year-old sister stays by his bedside helping, and nursing her brother back to health.

Patients in Ward K of Armory Square Hospital in Washington, D.C.

The sister’s name was Clara, and this was the beginning of Clara Barton’s life of caring for, and helping others. Clara was born on Christmas day in 1821, and like her four older siblings Clara’s schooling was at home. At age fifteen she becomes a schoolteacher, later she starts a free public school in Bordentown, New Jersey. Clara Barton would spend her life aiding and serving. During the Civil War, Clara Barton becomes known as "The Angel of the Battlefield."

Barton was working for the United States Patent Office and living in Washington, D.C. when the Civil War began in 1861. The women who worked at the Patent Office before the Civil War were known as "government girls" as they were part of the growing Federal government. These women had jobs that were previously held only by men. When the Civil War began, these "government girls" lost their jobs.

The Baltimore Riot occurs on April 19, 1861 when militia from Massachusetts and Pennsylvania are on their way to Washington and are attacked by secessionists in Baltimore. Four militiamen and twelve citizens are killed. Clara Barton starts a relief program for the 6th Massachusetts Regiment when it arrives at Washington.

Barnes&Noble: Clara Barton Professional Angel

Barton advertised in the Worcester, Massachusetts, Spy newspaper for donations when she learned that after First Bull Run (also known as First Manassas, fought July, 1861) the injured men did not have adequate medical supplies for their needs. She started an independent organization to distribute the collected supplies. Her efforts were successful and the next year Barton was granted a general pass by United States Surgeon General William A. Hammond to travel along with the army ambulances. William’s pass said Barton’s presence with the ambulances was; "for the purpose of distributing comforts for the sick and wounded, and nursing them." Clara accepted this pass, but she was somewhat reluctant to do so, Clara was afraid she might be confused as one of the women who made it a habit of following the army – but not for the good, and higher purposes like her’s.

After Second Bull Run (also known as Second Manassas, fought August 28-30, 1862) Barton was part of the volunteer nurses United States Secretary Edwin M. Stanton called for to help the troops spread along the defeated Union line of retreat. She gathered and solicited wagonloads of food and needed medical supplies, taking them to the troops on the front lines. Barton would aid the injured and sick and make soup and coffee.

"The men were brought down from the field till they covered acres. By midnight there must have been three thousand helpless men lying in that hay…. All night we made compresses and slings – and bound up and wet wounds, when we could get water, fed what we could, traveled miles in that dark over to those poor helpless wretches, in terror lest some one’s candle fall into the hay and consume them all."
— Clara Barton writing of her experiences tending to the injured men after Second Bull Run. Barton had helped spread bales of hay onto the ground for the men to lay on.

It is during the Antietam Campaign (September, 1862, also known as Sharpsburg) when Clara Barton is almost killed. While attending to an injured soldier, a bullet passes through a sleeve of her dress. The bullet completely misses Clara, but strikes and kills the injured soldier. She also digs a bullet out the cheek of another soldier using only her pocketknife. A few days after Antietam, Barton has typhoid fever.

Clara Barton was working in field hospitals of General Benjamin Butler’s Army of the James, in June, 1864. Also in 1864, Barton was part of a petition (along with notable others such as; Horace Greeley, P. T. Barnum, William Cullen Bryant, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) for the establishment of veteran’s homes. By 1933, fifteen such homes were built.

In February 1865, President Abraham Lincoln appointed Clara Barton to attend to correspondence to help reunite missing soldiers with their families. In July of the same year, she was at the infamous Andersonville prison in Georgia to manage the identification of unmarked graves. From hospital and burial records, Clara was able to create a list of missing prisoners.

In 1877, Clara Barton organized the American National Committee, three years later it became the American Red Cross and she served as its first president. Barton published a book in 1882, History of the Red Cross. Barton retired from the Red Cross to her home at Glen Echo, outside of Washington, D.C. in 1904. She died on April 12, 1912. "If I were to speak of war, it would not be to show you the glories of conquering armies but the mischief and misery they strew in their tracks; and how, while they marched on with tread of iron and plumes proudly tossing in the breeze, some one must follow closely in their steps, crouching to the earth, toiling in the rain and darkness, shelterless themselves, with no thought of pride or glory, fame or praise, or reward; hearts breaking with pity, faces bathed in tears and hands in blood. This is the side which history never shows." — Clara Barton

Barnes&Noble: Clara Barton and the American Red Cross

Barnes&Noble: What This Cruel War Was Over

It is important to note that slavery was not unique to the United States. Many European countries had slavery before it came to the New World colonies and grew. Countries like Spain and Portugal had significant counts of slaves before 1492. But, this is no defense of the institution of slavery. The world was guilty of slavery. Slavery was a disease of humanity that spread to the colonies of the New World. It should be known that although the United States was guilty of slavery, it fought a war against itself. As a result of the Civil War, in which literally brother fought against brother and hundreds of thousands died, slavery ended here.

In 1619 a Dutch ship arrived at the Virginia colony and sold "20 and odd negroes" to colonists. Some of these blacks became indentured servants (people who worked for a period of years to pay for their passage to the New World, then became free) but others were slaves. Most blacks in the Virginia colony were either free or indentured servants in 1640. Slavery grew and flourished in the colonies, especially in the Southern ones. By 1700 in the Virginia colony, most blacks were in the bondage of that "peculiar institution," slavery. The South depended on slavery for its agricultural economic success.

Cotton was King in the South and the institution of slavery made it very profitable. Indeed, the South’s economy was based on slavery and cotton. One of the main contributing factors to the Civil War was that the South was willing to go to war with its own fellow countrymen in order to preserve slavery.

In 1808 the importation of slaves was made illegal in the United States of America. Uncle Tom’s Cabin was written by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1852 and was very popular amongst abolitionists. In the book, slaves were described as victims of the Southern system. Uncle Tom’s Cabin was a powerful factor in bringing about anti-slavery sentiment in the North. The expansion of the country westward, with new territories and states coming into being, only fueled debate and conflict over the spread and continuation of slavery. When Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860, the South believed he intended to end slavery. Secession, and then the Civil War followed.

Barnes&Noble: The Annotated Uncle Tom’s Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe Harriet Beecher Stowe first published her groundbreaking novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1852 as an outcry against slavery after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act. The book sold more copies than any book other than the Bible and caused Abraham Lincoln to exclaim upon meeting her, during the Civil War, “So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war!”

In 1860, approximately 4,500,000 white people were living in the states that had slavery. Of these 4,500,000 approximately 46,000 of them owned more than 20 slaves. Approximately 4,000,000 slaves lived in America at the start of the Civil War. On January 1, 1863 President Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation that declared free the slaves in the parts of the country which were in rebellion. Only Northern victory and preservation of the Union ensured the end of slavery in the United States.

The shown map is: Distribution of Slaves in the Southern States from the book History of the United States by Charles A. Beard and Mary R. Beard. – White areas depict less than 25% slave distribution – Light gray areas depict 25 – 50% – Dark gray areas depict 50% and greater
Distribution of Slaves in the Southern States

Barnes&Noble: John Brown, Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights

A few quotes by Abraham Lincoln regarding slavery: ”In giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the free,–honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve.” — Abraham Lincoln, from his Second Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862.   ”My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving the others alone, I would also do that.” — Abraham Lincoln, from a letter to Horace Greeley of August 22, 1862. (The Emancipation Proclamation had been written but not yet released).

”I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free.”
— Abraham Lincoln, from a letter to Horace Greeley, August 22, 1862.

The ugly fact is that slaves were treated as property. Slavery was a brutal, cruel, unfair, and evil thing. Slaves did not have the right to vote. Slaves could not own land. Slaves could not travel. Slave marriages were not recognized by law. Slaves were allowed to work, and work hard from the early morning light until darkness (or longer if the moonlight was bright). Slave families could be split up by the whims and desires of their owners. Slaves could be beaten and whipped to make them obey. Some slaves were killed either by their owners or by hard work. Disease killed slaves. Slaves worked on plantations and farms, in homes, on docks, in businesses, and anywhere labor was needed.

The history of slavery still haunts the United States to this day. Perhaps only with the coming of each new generation, with its hopefully new and unprejudiced rational understanding, will the scar of slavery completely fade away. That will be a glorious time.

Early the next morning on April 15, 1865 Booth and David Herold, an accomplice in the assassination, had made their escape into Maryland where they called on Dr. Samuel Mudd to treat Booth’s broken leg. Mudd was an acquaintance of the well-known and popular actor Booth. Booth and Herold then stayed briefly at the Mudd house before continuing on in their escape to Virginia. John Wilkes Booth was eventually shot dead by pursuing Union soldiers in a Virginia barn.

Barnes&Noble: Union vs. Dr. Mudd

In 1865, a jury of Army officers convicted Mudd and seven others in the plot to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln. David Herold was one of the four hanged (along with Mary E. Surratt, Lewis T. Powell, and George A. Atzerodt) on July 7, 1865 for conspiracy in Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.

Dr. Samuel Mudd was found guilty of conspiracy but was spared the hangman’s noose by one jury vote. Dr. Samuel Mudd was sentenced to life imprisonment at Fort Jefferson. Fort Jefferson, with sweltering conditions of heat and humidity, was a harsh place to be imprisoned, it being approximately 70 miles west of Key West, Florida in the Dry Tortugas. President Andrew Johnson pardoned Mudd in February, 1869 and on March 8, 1869 Dr. Samuel Mudd was freed from the prison. During Dr. Mudd’s time at Fort Jefferson he helped stop the spread of a yellow fever epidemic that had ravaged through the prison.

There has been continuing controversy about whether or not Dr. Samuel Mudd was involved in the assassination conspiracy, or was only a country doctor helping a man with a broken leg. Doctor Mudd’s guilt or innocence, in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln is still debated.

In 1992 an administrative board of the Army made the recommendation that Mudd’s conviction be expunged because Mudd was a civilian. However, following Army secretaries and a federal judge, turned down this recommendation. A court decision in November, 2002 dismissed an attempt to have expunged the 1860s military commission conviction of Dr. Samuel Mudd. Thomas Mudd is the grandson of Samuel Mudd, and he plans to seek a review of the 2002 court decision by the full appeals court. If this fails, Thomas Mudd intends to ask the United States Supreme Court to intervene.

Barnes&Noble: American Experience: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln (DVD)

Dr. Samuel Mudd was absolved by President James Earl "Jimmy" Carter in 1979 of involvement in the conspiracy to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln. It is a curiosity that the former television anchorman Roger Mudd, is related to Dr. Samuel Mudd.

On August 20, 1862, an open letter from Horace Greeley to President Lincoln entitled; "The Prayer of the Twenty Millions" appeared in the New York Tribune. On August 22, 1862 President Abraham Lincoln’s response to Greeley was published in the New York Times. The New York Times was a competitor of Greeley’s New York Tribune newspaper and was supporting Lincoln’s policies during the Civil War. It is worth noting that at the time President Lincoln wrote this reply to Horace Greeley, he had also begun writing the Emancipation Proclamation.

Executive Mansion, Washington, August 22, 1862. Hon. Horace Greeley: Dear Sir. I have just read yours of the 19th. addressed to myself through the New-York Tribune. If there be in it any statements, or assumptions of fact, which I may know to be erroneous, I do not, now and here, controvert them. If there be in it any inferences which I may believe to be falsely drawn, I do not now and here, argue against them. If there be perceptable [sic] in it an impatient and dictatorial tone, I waive it in deference to an old friend, whose heart I have always supposed to be right. As to the policy I “seem to be pursuing” as you say, I have not meant to leave any one in doubt.

Barnes&Noble: Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution

I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be “the Union as it was.” If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.

I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free.

Yours,
A. Lincoln.

Horace Greeley was a man with influence during the Civil War. Greeley was an abolitionist and the founder of the New York Tribune. The New York Tribune was critical of President Lincoln, although Lincoln had received Greeley’s support (it came rather late) during his campaign for the presidency. Later, Greeley was nominated for president by liberal Republicans in 1872. The Democrats endorsed Greeley, but he was defeated by Ulysses S. Grant.

On August 20, 1862, the following open letter dated August 19, 1862 from Horace Greeley to President Lincoln entitled; "The Prayer of the Twenty Millions" appeared in the New York Tribune:

To ABRAHAM LINCOLN,
President of the United States

DEAR SIR: I do not intrude to tell you–for you must know already–that a great proportion of those who triumphed in your election, and of all who desire the unqualified suppression of the Rebellion now desolating our country, are sorely disappointed and deeply pained by the policy you seem to be pursuing with regard to the slaves of the Rebels. I write only to set succinctly and unmistakably before you what we require, what we think we have a right to expect, and of what we complain.

Barnes&Noble: 366 Days in Abraham Lincoln’s Presidency

I. We require of you, as the first servant of the Republic, charged especially and preeminently with this duty, that you EXECUTE THE LAWS. Most emphatically do we demand that such laws as have been recently enacted, which therefore may fairly be presumed to embody the present will and to be dictated by the present needs of the Republic, and which, after due consideration have received your personal sanction, shall by you be carried into full effect, and that you publicly and decisively instruct your subordinates that such laws exist, that they are binding on all functionaries and citizens, and that they are to be obeyed to the letter.

II. We think you are strangely and disastrously remiss in the discharge of your official and imperative duty with regard to the emancipating provisions of the new Confiscation Act. Those provisions were designed to fight Slavery with Liberty. They prescribe that men loyal to the Union, and willing to shed their blood in her behalf, shall no longer be held, with the Nations consent, in bondage to persistent, malignant traitors, who for twenty years have been plotting and for sixteen months have been fighting to divide and destroy our country. Why these traitors should be treated with tenderness by you, to the prejudice of the dearest rights of loyal men, We cannot conceive.

III. We think you are unduly influenced by the counsels, the representations, the menaces, of certain fossil politicians hailing from the Border Slave States. Knowing well that the heartily, unconditionally loyal portion of the White citizens of those States do not expect nor desire chat Slavery shall be upheld to the prejudice of the Union–(for the truth of which we appeal not only to every Republican residing in those States, but to such eminent loyalists as H. Winter Davis, Parson Brownlow, the Union Central Committee of Baltimore, and to The Nashville Union)–we ask you to consider that Slavery is everywhere the inciting cause and sustaining base of treason: the most slaveholding sections of Maryland and Delaware being this day, though under the Union flag, in full sympathy with the Rebellion, while the Free-Labor portions of Tennessee and of Texas, though writhing under the bloody heel of Treason, are unconquerably loyal to the Union. So emphatically is this the case, that a most intelligent Union banker of Baltimore recently avowed his confident belief that a majority of the present Legislature of Maryland, though elected as and still professing to be Unionists, are at heart desirous of the triumph of the Jeff. Davis conspiracy; and when asked how they could be won back to loyalty, replied "only by the complete Abolition of Slavery." It seems to us the most obvious truth, that whatever strengthens or fortifies Slavery in the Border States strengthens also Treason, and drives home the wedge intended to divide the Union. Had you from the first refused to recognize in those States, as here, any other than unconditional loyalty–that which stands for the Union, whatever may become of Slavery, those States would have been, and would be, far more helpful and less troublesome to the defenders of the Union than they have been, or now are.

IV. We think timid counsels in such a crisis calculated to prove perilous, and probably disastrous. It is the duty of a Government so wantonly, wickedly assailed by Rebellion as ours has been to oppose force to force in a defiant, dauntless spirit. It cannot afford to temporize with traitors nor with semi-traitors. It must not bribe them to behave themselves, nor make cheat fair promises in the hope of disarming their causeless hostility. Representing a brave and high-spirited people, it can afford to forfeit anything else better than its own self-respect, or their admiring confidence. For our Government even to seek, after war has been made on it, to dispel the affected apprehensions of armed traitors that their cherished privileges may be assailed by it, is to invite insult and encourage hopes of its own downfall. The rush to arms of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, is the true answer at once to the Rebel raids of John Morgan and the traitorous sophistries of Beriah Magoffin.

V. We complain that the Union cause has suffered, and is now suffering immensely, from mistaken deference to Rebel Slavery. Had you, Sir, in your Inaugural Address, unmistakably given notice that, in case the Rebellion already commenced were persisted in, and your efforts to preserve the Union and enforce the laws should be resisted by armed force, you would recognize no loyal person as rightfully held in Slavery by a traitor, we believe the Rebellion would therein have received a staggering if not fatal blow. At that moment, according to the returns of the most recent elections, the Unionists were a large majority of the voters of the Slave States. But they were composed in good part of the aged, the feeble, the wealthy, the timid–the young, the reckless, the aspiring, the adventurous, had already been largely lured by the gamblers and negro-traders, the politicians by trade and the conspirators by instinct, into the toils of Treason. Had you then proclaimed that Rebellion would strike the shackles from the slaves of every traitor, the wealthy and the cautious would have been supplied with a powerful inducement to remain loyal. As it was, every coward in the South soon became a traitor from fear; for Loyalty was perilous, while Treason seemed comparatively safe. Hence the boasted unanimity of the South–a unanimity based on Rebel terrorism and the fact that immunity and safety were found on that side, danger and probable death on ours. The Rebels from the first have been eager to confiscate, imprison, scourge and kill: we have fought wolves with the devices of sheep. The result is just what might have been expected. Tens of thousands are fighting in the Rebel ranks to-day whose, or
iginal bias and natural leanings would have led them into ours.

VI. We complain that the Confiscation Act which you approved is habitually disregarded by your Generals, and that no word of rebuke for them from you has yet reached the public ear. Fremont’s Proclamation and Hunter’s Order favoring Emancipation were promptly annulled by you; while Halleck’s No. 3, forbidding fugitives from Slavery to Rebels to come within his lines– an order as unmilitary as inhuman, and which received the hearty approbation of every traitor in America– with scores of like tendency, have never provoked even your own remonstrance. We complain that the officers of your Armies have habitually repelled rather than invited approach of slaves who would have gladly taken the risks of escaping from their Rebel masters to our camps, bringing intelligence often of inestimable value to the Union cause. We complain that those who have thus escaped to us, avowing a willingness to do for us whatever might be required, have been brutally and madly repulsed, and often surrendered to be scourged, maimed and tortured by the ruffian traitors, who pretend to own them. We complain that a large proportion of our regular Army Officers, with many of the Volunteers, evince far more solicitude to uphold Slavery than to put down the Rebellion. And finally, we complain that you, Mr. President, elected as a Republican, knowing well what an abomination Slavery is, and how emphatically it is the core and essence of this atrocious Rebellion, seem never to interfere with these atrocities, and never give a direction to your Military subordinates, which does not appear to have been conceived in the interest of Slavery rather than of Freedom.

Barenes&Noble: Tried by War by James M. McPherson

VII. Let me call your attention to the recent tragedy in New Orleans, whereof the facts are obtained entirely through Pro-Slavery channels. A considerable body of resolute, able-bodied men, held in Slavery by two Rebel sugar-planters in defiance of the Confiscation Act which you have approved, left plantations thirty miles distant and made their way to the great mart of the South-West, which they knew to be the indisputed possession of the Union forces. They made their way safely and quietly through thirty miles of Rebel territory, expecting to find freedom under the protection of our flag. Whether they had or had not heard of the passage of the Confiscation Act, they reasoned logically that we could not kill them for deserting the service of their lifelong oppressors, who had through treason become our implacable enemies. They came to us for liberty and protection, for which they were willing render their best service: they met with hostility, captivity, and murder. The barking of the base curs of Slavery in this quarter deceives no one–not even themselves. They say, indeed, that the negroes had no right to appear in New Orleans armed (with their implements of daily labor in the cane-field); but no one doubts that they would gladly have laid these down if assured that they should be free. They were set upon and maimed, captured and killed, because they sought the benefit of that act of Congress which they may not specifically have heard of, but which was none the less the law of the land which they had a clear right to the benefit of–which it was somebody’s duty to publish far and wide, in order that so many as possible should be impelled to desist from serving Rebels and the Rebellion and come over to the side of the Union, They sought their liberty in strict accordance with the law of the land–they were butchered or re-enslaved for so doing by the help of Union soldiers enlisted to fight against slaveholding Treason. It was somebody’s fault that they were so murdered–if others shall hereafter stuffer in like manner, in default of explicit and public directions to your generals that they are to recognize and obey the Confiscation Act, the world will lay the blame on you. Whether you will choose to hear it through future History and ’at the bar of God, I will not judge. I can only hope.

VIII. On the face of this wide earth, Mr. President, there is not one disinterested, determined, intelligent champion of the Union cause who does not feel that all attempts to put down the Rebellion and at the same time uphold its inciting cause are preposterous and futile–that the Rebellion, if crushed out tomorrow, would be renewed within a year if Slavery were left in full vigor–that Army officers who remain to this day devoted to Slavery can at best be but half-way loyal to the Union–and that every hour of deference to Slavery is an hour of added and deepened peril to the Union, I appeal to the testimony of your Ambassadors in Europe. It is freely at your service, not at mine. Ask them to tell you candidly whether the seeming subserviency of your policy to the slaveholding, slavery-upholding interest, is not the perplexity, the despair of statesmen of all parties, and be admonished by the general answer.

IX. I close as I began with the statement that what an immense majority of the Loyal Millions of your countrymen require of you is a frank, declared, unqualified, ungrudging execution of the laws of the land, more especially of the Confiscation Act. That Act gives freedom to the slaves of Rebels coming within our lines, or whom those lines may at any time inclose–we ask you to render it due obedience by publicly requiring all your subordinates to recognize and obey it. The rebels are everywhere using the late anti-negro riots in the North, as they have long used your officers’ treatment of negroes in the South, to convince the slaves that they have nothing to hope from a Union success-that we mean in that case to sell them into a bitter bondage to defray the cost of war. Let them impress this as a truth on the great mass of their ignorant and credulous bondsmen, and the Union will never be restored-never. We cannot conquer Ten Millions of People united in solid phalanx against us, powerfully aided by the Northern sympathizers and European allies. We must have scouts, guides, spies, cooks, teamsters, diggers and choppers from the Blacks of the South, whether we allow them to fight for us or not, or we shall be baffled and repelled. As one of the millions who would gladly have avoided this struggle at any sacrifice but that Principle and Honor, but who now feel that the triumph of the Union is dispensable not only to the existence of our country to the well being of mankind, I entreat you to render a hearty and unequivocal obedience to the law of the land.

Yours,
Horace Greeley
New York, August 19, 1862

Walt Whitman’s brother George Washington Whitman, fought for the Union during the Civil War and was injured at Fredericksburg in 1862. Walt went to Virginia in search of his hospitalized brother and was relieved to discover that George’s wounds were not serious. The wounded, the conditions, and the plentiful misery of a Civil War hospital, led Walt Whitman to volunteer at age forty-two to be a nursing aid, he served for over three years in this capacity.

Whitman wrote two volumes of poetry about the Civil War: Drum Taps (1865) and Sequel to Drum Taps (1866), after witnessing first-hand the suffering, bravery, wastefulness, heroism, and tragedy of war while working in hospitals during the Civil War.

Barnes&Noble: Walt Whitman’s Civil War

Observations of poet Walt Whitman, in 1865: ’’Unnamed, unknown, remain and still remain the bravest soldiers. Our manliest, our boys, our hardy darlings: no picture gives them. Likely, the typical one of them (standing, no doubt, for hundreds, thousands) crawls aside to some bush-clump or ferny tuft on receiving his death-shot; there, sheltering a little while, soaking roots, grass, and soil with red blood; the battle advances, retreats, flits from the scene, sweeps by; and there, haply with pain and suffering…the last lethargy winds like a serpent round him; the eyes glaze in death;…and there, at last the Bravest Soldier, crumbles in Mother Earth, unburied and unknown.’’ Walt Whitman is famous for two poem elegies he wrote about President Abraham Lincoln after Lincoln was assassinated, these poems are: ’’O Captain! My Captain!’’ and ’’When Lilacs Last in Dooryard Bloom’d.’’ Not even the most casual student of the Civil War should ignore these two Walt Whitman poems. Below you will find the first of these two poems.

O Captain! My Captain!

by Walt Whitman

II.

III.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;

My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;

The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;

From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won!

Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!

But I with mournful tread,

Walk the deck my Captain lies,

Fallen cold and dead.

Some Notes and Facts about General William Tecumseh Sherman:

* William Tecumseh Sherman was born in Lancaster, Ohio on February 8, 1820. Sherman’s middle name of "Tecumseh" was given to him at birth. The name "Tecumseh" was from a great Shawnee Indian leader and warrior who had almost defeated the United States Army.

* Sherman graduated sixth in his class of 1840 at West Point. He was highly intelligent, aggressive, and had a good imagination. These characteristics would help to make Sherman one of the great Union generals of the Civil War.

Barnes&Noble: Southern Storm

* When the Civil War broke out, Sherman was the superintendent of a military academy in Louisiana called the Alexandria Military Institute. This military academy would become the foundation of Louisiana State University. * Sherman was a West Point graduate, age 41, and a civilian when the Civil War started. He volunteered for service. Sherman took command of a brigade and led it at the Battle of First Bull Run. Sherman was lean, grizzled, and had red hair, he did not much care about his personal appearance.

* The Battle of Shiloh was fought on April 6, and 7, 1862. On the first day of battle, troops led by General Sherman came under heavy fire. Despite efforts by Sherman to rally the men, the Union troops (who were new to battle) fled to the rear. That evening, Confederates were camped on ground that in the morning had belonged to Union troops. Confederate General Beauregard spent the night sleeping in Sherman’s bed. The next day, April 7, Grant renewed the fight and pushed the Rebel troops back to their original attack position. The Billy Yanks had their camp again. Perhaps on the night of April 7, General Sherman got his bed back from General Beauregard.

* Benjamin Harrison was from Ohio and saw action in the Western Theater during the Civil War. He served in Sherman’s Army during the March to the Sea. In 1888, he became president of the United States of America.

* On May 4, 1864, General William Tecumseh Sherman begins his march to Atlanta, Georgia. His army numbered 110,000 men. Sherman’s March to the Sea will make history, and make him hated in the South.

* In 1864, when Sherman was making his way through the South, Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston won a victory at Kennesaw Mountain. At the end of the Civil War, Johnston was in command in the Carolinas. Johnson staged a defensive campaign after Lee surrendered to Grant on April 9, 1865. Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston finally surrendered to General Sherman at Durham Station, North Carolina on April 26, 1865. After the war, Sherman and Johnston became friends.

* William Tecumseh Sherman died of pneumonia in New York City on February 14, 1891. Sherman and Joseph E. Johnston (Sherman’s old Confederate adversary) had reconciled in the years since the Civil War. Johnston served as an honorary pall bearer at Sherman’s funeral on a rainy and cold day. During the funeral, Johnston removed his hat in the cold rain as other mourners did the same. He was urged to put the hat back on so he would avoid the wet and cold. Johnston said, "If I were in his place and he standing here in mine he would not put on his hat." Former Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston developed pneumonia from the rain and cold at Sherman’s funeral. Johnston died only a few weeks later. * In Washington, D.C., there is a small park at Fifteenth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. At this park there is a statue of Union General William Tecumseh Sherman. This statue is forty-three feet high and depicts Sherman on a horse during a march. On the granite base of this statue is a Sherman quote in which he states his idea of what the purpose of war is; "War’s Legitimate Object Is More Perfect Peace."

Barnes&Noble: William Tecumseh Sherman

Some William Tecumseh Sherman Quotes:

"Oh, it is all folly, madness, a crime against civilization."
-Union Colonel William Tecumseh Sherman upon hearing of South Carolina’s secession from the Union. Sherman had lived in the South for nearly 12 years, and he had a true fondness for the South. Sherman would play a major part in winning the Civil War for the Union.

"You people of the South don’t know what you are doing. This country will be drenched in blood, and God only knows how it will end.

"The North can make a steam engine, locomotive or railway car; hardly a yard of cloth or a pair of shoes can you make. You are rushing into war with one of the most powerful, ingeniously mechanical and determined people on earth-right at your doors. You are bound to fail. Only in spirit and determination are you prepared for war. In all else you are totally unprepared, with a bad cause to start with.

"You people speak so lightly of war; you don’t know what you’re talking about. War is a terrible thing!

"You mistake, too, the people of the North. They are a peaceable people but an earnest people, and they will fight, too. They are not going to let this country be destroyed without a mighty effort to save it…Besides, where are your men and appliances of war to contend against them?

"At first you will make headway, but as your limited resources begin to fail, shut out from the markets of Europe as you will be, your cause will begin to wane. If your people will but stop and think, they must see that in the end you will surely fail."
- The prophetic words of William Tecumseh Sherman on December 24, 1860, after he learned of South Carolina’s secession. Sherman was superintendent of the Louisiana State Seminary and Military Academy at the time.

"I see every chance of a long, confused and disorganizing civil war, and I feel no desire to take a hand therein."
- In January 1861, Sherman wrote these words to his wife, Ellen.

"You might as well attempt to put out the flames of a burning house with a squirt-gun. I think this is to be a long war-very long-much longer than any politician thinks."
- William Tecumseh Sherman, assessing the war in 1861.

"I begin to regard the death and mangling of a couple thousand men as a small affair, a kind of morning dash-and it may be well that we become so hardened."
-General Sherman, from a letter to his wife written in July, 1864.

"Three years ago by a little reflection and patience they could have had a hundred years of peace and prosperity…Last year they could have saved their slaves, but now it is too late…Next year their lands will be taken…and in another year they may beg in vain for their lives."
-General Sherman in January, 1864 regarding the situation of the Rebels. Lee surrendered to Grant on April 9, 1865 and the Civil War was over. Happily, Sherman is wrong here with his time estimate of the continuation of the war.

Barnes&Noble: Sherman’s March

"If you don’t have my army supplied, and keep it supplied, we’ll eat your mules up, sir." -General Sherman’s warning to an army quartermaster before the departure of Sherman’s army from Chattanooga and heading toward Atlanta.   "Until we can repopulate Georgia, it is useless for us to occupy it; but the utter destruction of its roads, houses and people will cripple their military resources. I can make this march, and make Georgia howl." -General Sherman, from a telegram sent to General Ulysses S. Grant at Atlanta, Georgia. September 9, 1864.   "The whole army is burning with an insatiable desire to wreak violence upon South Carolina. I almost tremble for her fate." -General William T. Sherman, as he prepared to march his army into South Carolina. This was following the March to the Sea.   "We have devoured the land and our animals eat up the wheat and cornfields close. All the people retire before us and desolation is behind. To realize what war is one should follow our tracks." -General William Tecumseh Sherman.

"That devil Forrest…must be hunted down and killed if it costs ten thousand lives and bankrupts the Federal treasury."
-Sherman referring to Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest.

"After all, I think Forrest was the most remarkable man our Civil War produced on either side."
-After the Civil War, Sherman made these comments about Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest.

"Wars are not all evil, they are part of the grand machinery by which this world is governed."
-General William Tecumseh Sherman.

"War is at best barbarism…Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot, nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell."
-William Tecumseh Sherman. These words are from his June 19, 1879 address to the Michigan Military Academy.

President Abraham Lincoln gives a speech that "won’t scour."

On November 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln was in Pennsylvania to help dedicate a new national cemetery at a small crossroads town named Gettysburg. The Battle of Gettysburg was fought on July 1-3, 1863. It was a Union victory.

President Lincoln received the below invitation from the organizers of the new cemetery’s dedication ceremony. The invitation asks President Lincoln if, after another speaker has given his speech, he would say "a few appropriate remarks" for the occasion.

"It is the desire that after the oration, you, as Chief Executive of the nation, formally set apart these grounds to their sacred use by a few appropriate remarks."

Lincoln was not the main speaker at this cemetery dedication. Edward Everett was the keynote speaker, he was a famed orator and supporter of the Union cause. Everett spoke for two hours at Gettysburg.

Barnes&Noble: Lincoln at Gettysburg

Here is a description of the events at Gettysburg that November day, according to a Philadelphia journalist named John Russell Young: "The procession from town was a ragged affair. We all seemed to get there as best we could. A crude platform looked out over the battlefield. On one side sat the journalists; the eminent people had the other side. When the President arose, he stood for an instant, waiting for the cheers to cease, slowly adjusted his glasses and took from his pocket what seemed to be a page of ordinary paper, quietly unfolded it and began to read."

Abraham Lincoln began his "few appropriate remarks" at Gettysburg. His speech was brief.

"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."

Lincoln’s time at the Gettysburg podium lasted only about two minutes. The President spoke a mere 272 words. The gathered crowd applauded Lincoln politely, but without much enthusiasm.

Lincoln was displeased with his effort. After he completed his short speech of a few appropriate remarks, Lincoln (in his frontier manner of speech), said to Ward Hill (Lamon in the following quote) who had introduced Lincoln during the dedication, "Lamon, that speech won’t scour. It is a flat failure." Later, Lincoln would also have this self-criticism of his speech at Gettysburg saying: "I failed, I failed, and that is about all that can be said about it."

Others too, were unhappy with Lincoln’s words at Gettysburg. The Chicago Tribune newspaper wrote: "The cheek of every American must tingle with shame as he reads the silly, flat and dishwatery utterances of the man who has to be pointed out to intelligent foreigners as the President of the United States."

Barnes&Noble: The Gettysburg Gospel

However, not all thought so poorly of Lincoln’s words at Gettysburg as Lincoln, and the Chicago Tribune. John Hay was Abraham Lincoln’s assistant private secretary. Hay wrote in his diary entry for November 19, 1863, "The President, in a fine, free way, with more grace than is his wont, said his half dozen words of consecration." Edward Everett wrote these words of praise to Lincoln: "Permit me also to express my great admiration of the thoughts offered by you, with such eloquent simplicity & appropriateness, at the consecration of the cemetery. I should be glad, if I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes." Everett realized the worth of Lincoln’s speech at Gettysburg. Lincoln was still not convinced his speech had scoured. His reply to Everett: "In our respective parts yesterday, you could not have been excused to make a short address, nor I a long one. I am pleased to know that, in your judgment, the little I did say was not entirely a failure."

The Gettysburg Address is one of the greatest speeches ever made.

Abraham Lincoln’s "few appropriate remarks" at Gettysburg scoured just fine.

President Lincoln made his Thanksgiving Proclamation on October 3, 1863. His words "to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November" began the tradition of Thanksgiving. Please note that George Washington made a proclamation on October 3, 1789 regarding thanksgiving, Washington’s words should not be forgotten.

The United States at the time of Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Day Proclamation was certainly a divided Union. For the states of the South, "secession" was the word, thought, and deed of the times. Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia had all left the Union to form the Confederate States of America. Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, and Delaware were "Border" states; they were slave states with large amounts of anti-slavery support. The Border States stayed in the Union. The western part of the Confederate state of Virginia, became the Union state of West Virginia in 1863. The Civil War was a very severe, contentious, and divided time in the history of the United States.

The opening shots of the Civil War were fired on April 12, 1861 at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. Four years of hellish war followed in which brother fought against brother. On April 9, 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia and the Civil War soon ended. During its thousands of battles, engagements, and skirmishes, fought on hundreds of battlefields, creeks, hills, valleys, and plains, estimates are that over 624,000 men from both the North and the South died in the Civil War. All these who died had one thing in common. Whether they were Yankees or Rebels, they all died fighting for freedom, as they believed in it. It happened perhaps right in your own backyard, or nearby.

Barnes&Noble: Abraham Lincoln

The year of 1863 was a momentous one in the Civil War. In 1863, the Battle of Gettysburg was fought on July 1, 2, and 3, and General George G. Meade prevailed over General Robert E. Lee. On July 4, 1863, General Grant took Vicksburg after a long siege. With these Yankee victories, the Rebels had taken very heavy blows to their cause and the war had turned in favor of the North. On November 19, 1863, Lincoln was at a small crossroads town in Pennsylvania to help dedicate a new national cemetery. We now recognize Abraham Lincoln’s words of that day as his Gettysburg Address, and it is one of the greatest speeches ever made. All of these events happened in 1863.

The Civil War had thus far claimed many lives of both blue and gray clothed soldiers. Sadly, before this war ended, more and more soldiers would be lying in their graves. Despite the carnage, death, destruction, and free flowing of blood from both the innocent and guilty on both sides in this horrible war, President Abraham Lincoln believed we should set aside a day to be thankful for "the gracious gifts of the Most High God." Thus, on October 3, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln made the following proclamation to establish a day of thanksgiving:

Proclamation Establishing Thanksgiving Day

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years, with large increase of freedom.

Barnes&Noble: Team of Rivals

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.

Abraham Lincoln

Stonewall Jackson, shot by friendly fire the night of May 2, has his mangled left arm amputated early in the morning of May 3 at a field hospital. General Robert E. Lee says of Jackson’s importance to him and the Army of Northern Virginia; "He has lost his left arm, but I have lost my right. Any victory would be dear at such a cost."

The best artillery officer of the Confederacy, Colonel Edward Porter Alexander, reports to General James Ewell Brown "Jeb" Stuart early the morning of May 3 that a high piece of ground called Hazel Grove would be the perfect point to stage an artillery attack. Stuart sends a brigade made up of Tennessee and Alabama regiments to Hazel Grove. At dawn, the Confederates attack, just in time to capture four cannon and one hundred men of a Union rear guard.

Because of its very advantageous position for artillery, Hazel Grove is the key to the battlefield. If "Fighting Joe" Hooker controls Hazel Grove, he could keep the two wings of the Army of Northern Virginia separated. Hooker, with his superior number of troops, could then destroy Lee’s parted army.

Despite the great advantage of holding Hazel Grove, Hooker decides to abandon the position. Hooker chooses instead to have his troops fall back from Hazel Grove to an elevated clearing called Fairview.

Barnes&Noble: Lee’s Lieutenants: A Study in Command by Douglas Freeman, Abridged by Stephen W. Sears

Colonel Alexander quickly moves about 36 cannon into the open space of Hazel Grove and begins firing at Yankee artillery located about 1200 yards away at Fairview, and at the crossroads of Chancellorsville itself. The Confederate artillery is triumphant. It was recently reorganized into a battalion system, allowing it to have an ample amount of guns in large, mobile groups. This organization of the Confederate artillery made it much more efficient and effective. The advantageous high ground of Hazel Grove and the battalion system of artillery management led Douglas Southall Freeman (the Army of Northern Virginia’s leading historian) to comment; "At Hazel Grove the finest artillerists of the Army of Northern Virginia were having their greatest day." With the artillery support, the Confederate infantry stages a full attack on the Federal lines.

General "Fighting Joe" Hooker experiences personally some of the Confederate artillery. Hooker is at his Chancellorsville house headquarters leaning against a white porch column on the second-story veranda. A Confederate shell hits the porch column but does not explode. Hooker is knocked unconscious and suffers a concussion, but the dazed and groggy "Fighting Joe" continues in command.

Some of Hooker’s officers wish Hooker would start a counterattack in response to the Confederate offensive. These officers are disappointed when Hooker instead chooses to retreat one or two miles towards the north into a defensive line.

The two wings of Lee’s army reunite and Lee’s great gamble at Chancellorsville pays off. The Confederates push the Yankees back to the Chancellorsville crossroads intersection. General Lee rides his horse Traveller onto the battle scene, the sight of Lee with Traveller charges the enthusiasm of the Confederates and they cheer their general. Lee is in triumph and his men are celebrating, but a crisis soon comes.

Word comes from Fredericksburg that Lee’s rear guard is in trouble. General Jubal Early leads the rear guard and his 11,000 men are up against twice as many Union soldiers led by General John Sedgwick. On the morning of May 3, Confederate Colonel Thomas M. Griffen accepts (against regulations) a flag of truce. During the truce, the Federals see that they outnumber their enemy. The Federals advance upon the Confederates, moving over ground where so much loss and grief had occurred for them the previous December during the Battle of Fredericksburg. They cross the plain below Marye’s Heights, and move over the stone wall and Sunken Road, giving Sedgwick’s troops a path to the rear of General Lee’s position.

Sedgwick’s advance ends at Salem Church, about four miles west of Marye’s Heights. Five brigades of Alabama troops (all tough and veteran fighters) led by Marcellus Wilcox, use Salem Church for protection as they make a stand. Lee sends General Lafayette McLaws and his troops to Salem Church for reinforcement of Wilcox and his Alabamians. Later, Lee himself arrives. The fighting tapers off late in the day on May 3. On May 4, the Confederates push Sedgwick back to the Rappahannock River. The Union soldiers retreat across the Rappahannock on the night of May 4-5.

With Sedgwick now across the Rappahannock River, Lee returns to Chancellorsville on May 5 and begins planning a new offensive against Hooker’s men. Nevertheless, a new Confederate offensive proves unnecessary. On the morning of May 6, Lee learns from scouts that under the cover of night, the Yankees have retreated north of the Rappahannock River.

Barnes&Noble: Chancellorsville

President Lincoln has been monitoring the Chancellorsville battle from the telegraph office in the War Department. During the battle, Lincoln hears reports that are often contradictory or incomplete. On May 6 however, Lincoln learns the certain results of Chancellorsville. He is not pleased. A newspaperman wrote Lincoln’s face turned "ashen" upon hearing the bad news of Chancellorsville. The president exclaims, "My God! My God! What will the country say?" The country’s reaction to the Union defeat at Chancellorsville is not good. With the Union’s defeat at Fredericksburg, and now a loss at Chancellorsville, the country has been hearing too much bad news too often. Things are looking bad for the Union.

For General Robert E. Lee and the Confederacy, things are looking good. Lee has won a great battle at Chancellorsville, it his masterpiece.

Meanwhile, twenty-five miles southeast of Chancellorsville in a house at Guinea Station, General Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson is healing from his wounds and amputation. The news from there is good too for General Lee and the South, as Stonewall seemed to be recovering…

As President Abraham Lincoln is enjoying a play at Ford’s Theatre the evening of April 14, 1865, actor John Wilkes Booth sneaks up behind the president and shoots him in the head. Lincoln dies early the next morning. After Booth escapes from Ford’s Theatre, Federal cavalry and troops throughout Maryland and Virginia pursue the fugitive assassin.

Early the morning of April 26, John Wilkes Booth is nearing his fate. Booth and David Herold (an accomplice in the assassination) are hiding in a tobacco barn owned by Richard H. Garrett near Bowling Green, Virginia. Federal troops commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Everton Conger surround the tobacco barn and Conger orders the suspects to come out and surrender. David Herold gives up and is quickly taken into custody.

Barnes&Noble: Manhunt

For a few hours, John Wilkes Booth stages a standoff while he rants from within the barn. To force Booth out of Garrett’s tobacco barn, Conger orders his troops to set the barn on fire. As the barn burns, Sergeant Boston Corbett sees an opportunity and shoots Booth in the neck. The paralyzed and mortally injured assassin is drug from the burning barn to the porch of the Garrett house. Around seven in the morning, John Wilkes Booth dies on the Garrett porch.

"Useless! Useless!"

As he lay dying, Booth looked at his hands and spoke those last words.

Colonel Robert E. Lee of the United States Army, resigns his commission on this day in 1861.

Robert E. Lee was born on January 19, 1807 at Stratford in Westmoreland County, Virginia. Lee spent his youth and adulthood in Northern Virginia. He ranked second in his class when he graduated from West Point in 1829.

Barnes&Noble: Robert E. Lee on Leadership

President Abraham Lincoln offered Robert E. Lee command of the Federal armies on April 18, 1861 after General Winfield Scott recommended Lee for this position. Virginia had seceded from the Union on April 17. Lee declined President Lincoln’s offer and on April 20, he resigned from the United States Army. Robert E. Lee had decided to fight for the Confederacy because his loyalty was to the state of Virginia.

Abraham Lincoln would say that he could not understand Lee and other southern officers, who broke their oaths of allegiance to the United States and fought for the Confederacy.

President Abraham Lincoln died on April 15, 1865 at 7:22 in the morning.

Upon Abraham Lincoln’s death, it was reported Secretary of War Edwin Stanton said; "Now he belongs to the ages." Abraham Lincoln’s assassination was a tragedy. The nation was in mourning.

Barnes&Noble: They Have Killed Papa Dead

Some in the defeated South were joyous over the news of Lincoln’s death…it had been a long, hard, bitter, and bloody war.

Others in the South realized they had lost a friend on their path to reconstruction and healing after the war. Lincoln’s death was not good news for the people of the South. Some leaders coming to power after Lincoln’s death would not have Lincoln’s conciliatory ideas for the South.

Almost immediately after his assassination, discussion begins for a memorial of some type for President Abraham Lincoln. The Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. was dedicated in 1922. The Lincoln memorial has 36 columns to signify the number of states that were in the Union during Abraham Lincoln’s presidency. Carved into the marble of the south wall of the memorial is Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

The Lincoln Memorial faces toward Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s former home of Arlington House, located across the Potomac River.

On April 14, President Abraham Lincoln spent his day visiting with callers and attending a Cabinet meeting. Among those at the Cabinet meeting was General Ulysses Grant, Lincoln explained to Grant that he was having a recurring dream about a ship "moving with great rapidity toward a dark and indefinite shore." Now that the Civil War was over, topics of discussion at the meeting included the problems of reconstruction, and the treatment of former Confederate leaders.

That evening, the Lincolns were planning a visit to Ford’s Theatre to see the play Our American Cousin. Lincoln asked General Grant to be his guest that night, but Grant declined the president’s invitation. Instead, Lincoln and his wife Mary would attend the performance of Our American Cousin accompanied by two other guests, Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancée, Miss Clara Harris.

Previously, President Lincoln had found some brief refuge from the Civil War when he attended a play at Ford’s Theatre on November 9, 1863. Lincoln then saw a play named The Marble Heart, cast in this play was a young and well-regarded actor named John Wilkes Booth. Booth would not be acting in Our American Cousin on the evening of April 14, but he too, planned to be at Ford’s Theatre during the play’s performance.

That evening, the Lincolns, Major Henry Rathbone, and Miss Clara Harris, were all enjoying the play. Two of the play’s characters exchange the following lines during the third act:

Mrs. Montchessington: I am aware, Mr. Trenchard, that you are not used to the manners of good society.

Asa Trenchard: Don’t know the manners of good society, eh? Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal – you sockdologizing old mantrap!

After the above lines in the performance of the play, the audience would always burst out loudly in laughter. John Wilkes Booth knew that in this scene of the play, the audience’s loud laughter would happen as if on cue. At this moment, Booth used a .44 caliber derringer to shoot President Lincoln in the back of his head at nearly point blank range. Booth slashed Major Rathbone with a knife, and then leapt onto the stage as he shouted; "Sic semper tyrannis" ("Thus always to tyrants"). Booth broke his leg as he landed on the stage, but he escaped out of Ford’s Theatre to a back alley, and a waiting horse. All this occurred at about 10:15 P.M. It was Good Friday.

Barnes&Noble: Tried by War

President Lincoln was unconscious, but still alive. He was moved across the street from Ford’s Theatre to the Peterson house. Taken into a back bedroom, the six-foot-four inches tall Lincoln was placed diagonally upon a bed that was too short for him. President Lincoln’s head wound was very severe. There was nothing much that could be done for the president now, except to watch and wait.

Confederate Edmund Ruffin fires the first shot of the Civil War at 4:30 in the morning of April 12, when he fires a single mortar upon Union held Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. It is questionable that Ruffin actually fired the first shot of the Civil War. Strangely, it might be said that Ruffin fired one of the last shots of the Civil War when he committed suicide in April, 1865 after he learned of Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House.

The Confederates bombarded Fort Sumter for 34 hours. During the bombardment, the Confederates and the Yankees combined fired approximately 4,000 shells. The formal surrender of Fort Sumter takes place on April 14.

Oddly, not a single Johnny Reb or Billy Yank died during the intense bombardment. However, there was an accidental explosion that took lives during the formal surrender ceremonies at Fort Sumter. A big gun was fired as a salute and somehow a burning piece of debris (most likely part of a powder bag) landed on a pile of cartridges. These cartridges exploded, instantly killing a Yankee private, and badly injuring another five. One of the injured Yankees died a few days later.

On Sunday, April 14, President Abraham Lincoln learned Fort Sumter had surrendered. Lincoln met with his cabinet and advisors from the military.

Barnes&Noble: Civil War Journal: Conflict Begins DVD – 2 Disc Set

On April 15, Lincoln issued a proclamation declaring that an insurrection existed, and that 75,000 militia were being calling out from the Northern states. President Lincoln also stated that a special session of Congress would convene on July 4.

The Civil War had begun.

Quotes about Fort Sumter:

"We shall be in one of the bloodiest civil wars that history has recorded."
-Alexander Stephens was the Confederate vice president, this is his prediction after Fort Sumter.

"What a change now greets us! The Government is aroused, the dead North is alive, and its divided people united…The cry now is for war, vigorous war, war to the bitter end, and war till the traitors are effectually and permanently put down."
-Some words of Frederick Douglass in May of 1861, after the Civil War began with the bombardment of Fort Sumter.

"The firing on that fort will inaugurate a civil war greater than any the world has yet seen…you will lose us every friend at the North. You will wantonly strike a hornet’s nest which extends from mountains to ocean. Legions now quiet will swarm out and sting us to death. It is unnecessary. It puts us in the wrong. It is fatal."
-Robert Toombs, his words to Jefferson Davis regarding Fort Sumter. Toombs was Confederate Secretary of State but later resigned this position to become a Brigadier General and fight in battles for the Confederacy.

"Abe Linkhorn,

We received your proklamation, and as you have put us on very short notis, a few of us boys have conkluded to write you, and ax for a little more time. The fact is, we are most obleeged to have a few more days, for the way things are happening, it is utterly onpossible for us to disperse in twenty days. I tried my darndest yisterday to disperse and retire, but it was no go."
-Bill Arp. When Fort Sumter was bombarded, Abraham Lincoln put out a proclamation asking the Rebels to "disperse and retire." The above is a letter to Lincoln that appeared in a newspaper. "Bill Arp" is the pen name of humorist Charles Henry Smith.