Perley's Reminiscences Part 29

They will be ruined if they do not go with their State. I cannot raise my hand against my children." General Scott then signified that he had nothing further to say. Colonel Lee, with a respectful bow, withdrew, and the next morning tendered his resignation, which was accepted five days afterward. Between the interview and the acceptance of Colonel Lee's resignation, General Shiras was sitting in the room of Adjutant-General Lorenzo Thomas, when Colonel Lee came in and walked up to the side of the table opposite to that at which General Thomas was sitting, saying: "General Thomas, I am told you said I was a traitor." General Thomas arose, and looking him in the eye, replied, "I have said so; do you wish to know on what authority?" "Yes," said Colonel Lee. "Well, on the authority of General Scott." Colonel Lee muttered, "There must be some mistake," turned on his heel, and left the room.

The long expected crisis came at last. Seven thousand armed Confederates attacked the seventy Union soldiers who garrisoned Fort Sumter, and forced them to haul down the stars and stripes on the 11th of April, 1861. Four days afterward President Lincoln issued his proclamation, calling for seventy-five thousand militiamen, "to maintain the honor, the integrity, and the existence of our National Government, and to redress wrongs already long enough endured." This proclamation was flashed over the wires throughout the Northern States, like the fiery cross of Rhoderick Dhu, which summoned his clansmen to their rendezvous, and it was everywhere received with the beating of drums and the ringing notes of the bugle, calling the defenders of the capital to their colors. Every city and hamlet had its flag-raising, while its enthusiasm was unbounded. Here and there a newspaper ventured to apologize for the South, but the editor would soon be forced by a mob to display the stars and stripes, amid the cheers and the shouts of those a.s.sembled.

The North proved itself ready for the emergency. The arguments of Daniel Webster against the right of secession, which, when delivered by him, were regarded by many as mere topics for the display of political eloquence, had fixed the opinion of the North, and there was a general uprising for the defense of the capital and the old flag. Even the Abolitionists, who had denounced the Union, the Const.i.tution, the national ensign, and its martial defenders, seriously entered into the military movements, as they saw in the exercise of the war power the long desired panacea for the faults of slavery. Those who had jeered at the Southern threats of disunion as empty bl.u.s.ter, and at the Northern conservatives as cowardly doughfaces, became zealous Union men, although it must be confessed that very few of them took their lives in their hands and actually went to the front. The raising of troops went forward with a bound, and the wildest excitement and enthusiasm attended the departure of regiments for the seat of war. The seriousness of the emergency was not overlooked, but high above that consideration rose the tide of patriotic feeling, and swept all obstacles before it.

The first troops to arrive at the National Capital were four companies of unarmed and ununiformed Pennsylvanians, who came from the mining districts, expecting to find uniforms, arms, and equipments on their arrival at Washington. Stones were thrown at them as they marched through Baltimore to take the cars for Washington, where they were received at the station by Captain McDowell, of the Adjutant-General's department, who escorted them to the Capitol, where arrangements had been made for quartering them temporarily in the hall of the House of Representatives. The sun was just setting over the Virginia hills as the little column ascended the broad steps of the eastern portico and entered the rotunda, through which they marched. With one of the companies was the customary colored attendant, whose duty it was on parade to carry the target or a pail of ice-water. He had been struck on the head in Baltimore, and had received a scalp wound, over which he had placed his handkerchief, and then drawn his cap down tight over it. When Nick Biddle (for that was his name), entered the rotunda, he appeared to think he was safe, and took off his cap, with the handkerchief saturated with blood, which dripped from it and marked his path into the hall of the House of Representatives. It was the first blood of the war.

The next day came the old Ma.s.sachusetts Sixth, which had been shot at and stoned as it pa.s.sed through Baltimore, and which returned the fire with fatal effect. The Sixth was quartered in the Senate wing of the Capitol. Colonel Jones occupied the Vice-President's chair in the Senate Chamber, his colors hanging over his head from the reporters' gallery. At the clerk's desk before him, Adjutant Farr and Paymaster Plaisted were busy with their evening reports, while Major Watson, with Quartermaster Munroe were seeing that the companies were distributed in the various corridors and obtaining their rations. After a four-and-twenty hours' fast the men had each one ration of bacon, bread, and coffee, which they had to prepare at the furnace fires in the bas.e.m.e.nts. The moment hunger was appeased the cushioned seats in the galleries were occupied by those fortunate enough to obtain such luxurious sleeping accommodations, while others "bunked" on the tile floors, with their knapsacks for pillows, and wrapped in their blankets. Stationery was provided from the committee-rooms, and every Senator's desk was occupied by a "bould sojer boy," inditing an epistle to his friends.

That night the censorship of the press was exercised for the first time at the telegraph office. Colonel Stone had seized the steamers which ran between Washington and Aquia Creek, and another steamer, the St. Nicholas, which had been loaded with flour and other stores, ostensibly for Norfolk, but which he believed would have gone no further down the river than Alexandria, where they would have been turned over to the Confederate quartermaster's department. Colonel Stone, believing that this seizure should be kept quiet, obtained from Secretary Cameron an order to seize the telegraph and to prevent the transmission of any messages which were not of a strictly private nature. When the correspondents wished to telegraph the lists of the dead and wounded of the Ma.s.sachusetts Sixth they found a squad of the National Rifles in possession of the office, with orders to permit the transmission of no messages. Hastening to head-quarters, they found Colonel Stone, but he told them that he had no discretion in the matter.

The correspondents then drove to the house of Secretary Seward.

The Secretary of State received them very cordially, and would neither admit nor deny that he had advised the censorship of the press. He said, however, in his semi-jocular way, "The affair at Baltimore to-day was only a local outbreak, for which the regimental officers, who had ridden through the city in a car, leaving some of the companies to follow on foot without a commander, were responsible. To send your accounts of the killed and wounded,"

said Mr. Seward, "would only influence public sentiment, and be an obstacle in the path of reconciliation." Then, having offered his visitors refreshments, which were declined, he bowed them out.

They returned to the telegraph office, where their wrath was mollified by learning that the wires had all been cut in Baltimore.

It was nearly a week before telegraphic communication was re- established between Washington and the loyal North, but thenceforth, until the close of the war, a censorship of press dispatches was kept up, at once exasperating and of little real use.

Meanwhile a general uprising was going on. Young Ellsworth, who had accompanied Mr. Lincoln from Springfield, in the hope of being placed at the head of a bureau of militia in the War Department, had gone to New York and raised, in an incredibly small s.p.a.ce of time, a regiment composed almost exclusively of the members of the Volunteer Fire Department, which stimulated the organization of other commands. Rhode Island sent a regiment, under the command of Colonel Burnside, composed of skilled mechanics, gentlemen possessing independent fortunes, and active business men, all wearing plain service uniforms.

Communication with Washington was re-opened by General Butler, who, finding that the bridges between the Susquehanna River and the city of Baltimore had been burned, went on the steam ferry-boat from Havre de Grace around to Annapolis at the head of the Ma.s.sachusetts Eighth. On their arrival at Annapolis it was found that the sympathizers with secession had partially destroyed the railroad leading to Washington, and had taken away every locomotive with the exception of one, which they had dismantled. It so happened that a young mechanic, who had aided in building this very engine, was in the ranks of the Ma.s.sachusetts Eighth, and he soon had it in running order, while the regiment, advancing on the railroad, fished up from the ditches on either side the rails which had been thrown there, and restored them to their places. They thus rebuilt the road and provided it with an engine, so that when the New York Seventh arrived it was a comparative easy matter for it to proceed to the national metropolis.

Meanwhile, Washington City had been for several days without hearing from the loyal North. At night the camp-fires of the Confederates, who were a.s.sembling in force, could be seen on the southern bank of the Potomac, and it was not uncommon to meet on Pennsylvania Avenue a defiant Southerner openly wearing a large Virginia or South Carolina secession badge. The exodus of clerks from the department continued, and they would not say good-bye, but _au revoir_, as they confidently expected that they would be back again triumphant within a month. An eloquent clergyman, who was among those who went to Richmond, left behind him, in the cellar of his house, a favorite cat, with what he judged would be a three weeks'

supply of water and provisions, so confident was he that President Davis would, within that time, occupy the White House.

One of the largest, the best equipped, and the best drilled of the volunteer regiments that came pouring into Washington when the communication was re-opened was the New York Fire Zouaves, commanded by Colonel Ellsworth. A hardy set of fellows, trained to fight fire, they professed great anxiety to meet the Confederates in hostile array, and they were very proud of their boyish commander.

President Lincoln took a great interest in Colonel Ellsworth, and when Virginia formally seceded, he obtained from Secretary Cameron an order for the New York Fire Zouaves and the First Michigan Infantry to occupy Alexandria. They went on the ferry-boats, very early in the morning on Friday, May 24th, escorted by the war steamer p.a.w.nee, and occupied the old borough without opposition.

No sooner were the troops on sh.o.r.e, than Colonel Ellsworth, taking half a dozen of his men, went to the Marshall House, over the roof of which floated a large Confederate flag, which had been visible with a gla.s.s from the window of Mr. Lincoln's private office.

Entering the public room of the hotel, he inquired of a man there whether he was the proprietor, and being answered in the negative, he took one private with him, and ran up-stairs. Going out on the roof, Ellsworth secured the flag, and as he was descending, James William Jackson, the proprietor of the hotel, came from his room, armed with a double-barreled shot-gun. "I have the first prize,"

said Ellsworth, to which Jackson responded, "And I the second," at the same time firing at him with fatal effect. Before he could fire the second barrel, Private Brownell shot him dead, and as he fell, pinned him to the floor with the sword-bayonet on his rifle.

Colonel Ellsworth's remains were taken to Washington, where President Lincoln visited them, exclaiming, as he gazed on the lifeless features: "My boy! my boy! was it necessary this sacrifice should be made!"

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E. E. Ellsworth EPHRAIM ELMER ELLSWORTH, born at Mechanicsville, Saratoga County, New York, in 1837; removed to Chicago before he was of age, and studied law; in 1859, organized his Zouave corps, noted for the excellence of its discipline, and gave exhibition drills in the chief Eastern cities. On the opening of hostilities, raised a regiment, known as the New York Fire Zouaves; was sent to Alexandria on Friday morning, May 24th, 1861, when he was killed in the Marshall House. He was buried in the cemetery of his native place.

CHAPTER VII.

"ON TO RICHMOND."

Mr. Lincoln having called a special session of Congress, the two Houses met on the 4th of July, 1861. There were many vacant seats, but some of those who sympathized with the South lingered that they might throw obstacles before any attempt at coercion. Meanwhile the Abolitionists, who feared a compromise and a reconciliation, echoed the shout "On to Richmond!" The "Grand Army of the Union,"

hastily organized into brigades and divisions, was placed under the command of General Irwin McDowell, a gallant soldier, entirely dest.i.tute in the experience of handling large bodies of men. The troops thus brigaded had never even been manoeuvred together, nor had their commander any personal knowledge of many of the officers or men. But the politicians at the Capitol insisted on an immediate advance. They saw with admiration the gallant appearance of the well-equipped regiments that were to compose the advancing column, and they believed, or professed to believe, that it could easily march "On to Richmond!"

On Sunday, July 21st, 1861, the "Grand Army of the Union" began its forward march. The sun rose in a cloudless sky, and the advancing columns of Union soldiers, with glistening bayonets and gay flags, moved with measured tread through the primeval forests of the Old Dominion, apparently as resistless as the sweep of destiny. Meanwhile there drove out from Washington to General McDowell's headquarters a crowd of Congressmen, correspondents, contractors, and camp-followers, who had come in a variety of vehicles to witness the fight, as they would have gone to see a horse-race or to witness a Fourth of July procession. The Congressmen did not hesitate to intrude themselves upon General McDowell, and to offer him their advice. Others, unpacking baskets of provisions, enjoyed their lunches after the cannonading had commenced.

There was brave fighting on both sides in the Bull Run Valley, which became like a boiling crater, from which arose dense clouds of dust and smoke. At one time General Bee, well-nigh overwhelmed, greeted General Thomas J. Jackson with the exclamation, "General, they are beating us back!" To which the latter replied promptly, "Sir, we will give them the bayonet." General Bee immediately rallied his over-tasked troops, saying "There is Jackson with his Virginians, standing like a stone wall. Let us determine to die here, and we will conquer." From that day General Jackson was known by the soldiers on both sides as "Stonewall" Jackson.

The arrival of the force commanded by General Joe Johnston, which General Patterson had failed to hold in check, and the presence of President Jefferson Davis, inspired the Confederate troops with superhuman courage, while the Union regiments, badly officered, followed the example of the New York Zouaves, and fled in wild disorder. The panic became general, and disorder soon degenerated into a disgraceful retreat. The Confederates, however, found themselves in no condition to follow up the victory which they had gained, and to press on to Washington.

The rout of Bull Run, while it was a severe rebuke to the politicians who had forced it, secured the support of every loyal man in the Northern States for the Union cause, whatever his previous political convictions might have been. Practical issues were presented, and every man able to bear arms or to contribute money was animated by the sentiment uttered by Stephen A. Douglas in his last public speech, when he said: "The conspiracy is now known; armies have been raised; war is levied to accomplish it. There are only two sides to the question: every man must be for the United States or against it. There can be no neutrals in this war--only Republicans or traitors."

The week after the Battle of Bull Run, Senator Breckinridge, who had retained his seat, made an appeal for the cessation of hostilities, speaking eloquently of the horrors of war, the cost of maintaining armies, the dangers of military despotism, and the impossibility of ever subjugating the South. He pleaded for peace with the rebels, and from the event of the great battle near Mana.s.sas he drew an augury of defeat to the cause of the Government on future battlefields.

Senator Baker was on the floor of the Senate for the first time in many days, having just come to Washington with his California Regiment, whom he had been busily engaged in organizing in Philadelphia and elsewhere, and at whose head he fell. The white-haired but vigorous and active Senator listened attentively to the sentiments and predictions of Breckinridge, pacing the Senate floor back and forth with his eyes fastened on him, and now and then chafing with visible impatience to reply. At length Breckinridge ceased, and Baker took the floor, and proceeded, with a skillful and unsparing hand, to dissect the sophistry and falsehood of the treason that had just been uttered.

"Sir," said he in conclusion, "it is not a question of men or of money. All the money, all the men, are, in our judgment, well bestowed in such a cause. Knowing their value well, we give them with the more pride and the more joy. But how could we retreat?

How could we make peace? Upon what terms? Where is to be your boundary line? Where the end of the principles we shall have to give up? What will become of public liberties? What of past glories? What of future hopes? Shall we sink into the insignificance of the grave--a degraded, defeated, emasculated people, frightened by the results of one battle, and scared at the vision raised by the imagination of the Senator from Kentucky upon the floor? No, sir! a thousand times, no, sir! We will rally the people--the loyal people of the whole country. They will pour forth their treasure, their money, their men, without stint, without measure.

Shall one battle determine the fate of empire, or a dozen--the loss of one thousand men or twenty thousand, or one hundred million or five hundred millions of dollars? In a year's peace--in ten years, at most, of peaceful progress--we can restore them all. There will be some graves reeking with blood, watered by the tears of affection.

There will be some privation; there will be some loss of luxury; there will be somewhat more need for labor to procure the necessaries of life. When that is said, all is said. If we have the country, the whole country, the Union, the Const.i.tution--free government-- with these there will return all the blessings of well-ordered civilization; the path of the country will be a career of greatness and of glory, such as, in the olden time, our fathers saw in the dim visions of years yet to come, and such as would have been ours now, to-day, if it had not been for the treason for which the Senator too often seeks to apologize." The orator took his seat after this lofty and impa.s.sioned appeal, little dreaming that he would be one of the first to fulfill his own prophecy.

Preparations for the war were now made in good earnest. Regiments were recruited for three years, and, on their arrival at Washington, were carefully inspected and organized into brigades and divisions, and officered by men of ability and military experience. Other forces were organized at the West, and the Administration of President Lincoln displayed remarkable energy in equipping the armies which were to act in different sections of the country, and in raising money for their support.

General George B. McClellan, when he a.s.sumed command of the Army of the Potomac, was the beau ideal of a dragoon leader. His legs, like those of General Taylor, were short in proportion to his body, so that he appeared to be small in stature when on foot, but, when mounted on his favorite charger, he looked as tall, if not taller, than those around him. He possessed a good head, firmly planted on a st.u.r.dy neck, upon ample shoulders. He wore his hair cut short and his cheeks and ma.s.sive jaw-bones shaven clean, while a well- shapen moustache gave dignity to his features. His complexion was ruddy, his eyes blue, and the lines of his mouth indicated good- humor and firmness in about equal proportions. His dress was plain, with the least possible insignia of rank, and his headquarters at the residence of Commodore Wilkes, long occupied by Mrs. Madison, was always thronged with visitors. His confidential aides were regular officers trained in many a hard campaign, and he had at his side, in his father-in-law, Colonel R. B. Marcy, of the army, an experienced military counselor.

When Lieutenant-General Scott, after having resigned his command, was about to leave Washington for West Point, his young successor called upon him to say good-bye, and they had a long conference.

At its conclusion the old hero of three wars, said: "General, do not allow yourself to be entangled by men who do not comprehend this question. Carry out your own ideas, act upon your own judgment, and you will conquer, and the Government will be vindicated. G.o.d bless you!" General McClellan, who was then eulogized as a second Napoleon, soon found himself "embarra.s.sed" by men who feared that he might become President if he conquered peace. He was also impressed with this Presidential idea by pretended friends who had fastened themselves upon him, and "between two stools he fell to the ground."

The surrender of Mason and Slidell to the English Government, after their capture by one of our war vessels, was a sad sacrifice, and many at Washington were of the opinion that they should have been retained at every hazard. Some suggested an international arbitration, but President Lincoln, fortified by the advice of Charles Sumner and Caleb Cushing, saw plainly that the submission of the case to arbitration would be equivalent to a surrender. Secretary Seward, in his communication to Lord Lyons, the British Minister, which the President revised before it was sent, said, in the most emphatic terms, that international law, particularly the American intent of it, as recorded in all our policy that has become historic, was against us. He said: "This Government could not deny the justice of the claim presented. We are asked to do by the British nation just what we have always insisted of nations before to do to us."

Mr. Sumner came gallantly to Mr. Seward's rescue, and made a long speech in the Senate before crowded galleries, showing that the seizure of Mason and Slidell on board of a neutral ship could not be justified according to our best American precedents. "Mr.

President," said he, in his deep-toned voice, "let the rebels go.

Two wicked men, ungrateful to their country, are let loose with the brand of Cain upon their foreheads. Prison doors are opened, but principles are established which will help to free other men, and to open the gates of the sea. Amidst all present excitement,"

said Mr. Sumner, in conclusion, "amidst all present trials, it only remains for us to uphold the constant policy of the Republic, and stand fast on the ancient ways."

Meanwhile General McClellan was organizing the large forces sent for the defense of Washington, and several distinguished foreigners, who in turn visited the metropolis, expressed great surprise and admiration at the wonderful rapidity with which so many men and so much _materiel_ had been collected, affording striking evidence of the martial capabilities of the American people.

The unfortunate engagement at Ball's Bluff, where Colonel Baker and many brave Union officers and soldiers were killed, while others were sent as prisoners to Richmond, had rather a dispiriting effect on the President. Mr. Lincoln and Colonel Baker had attended the same school, joined in the same boyish sports, and when they had grown to manhood their intimacy had ripened into ardent friendship.

Mr. Lincoln had watched with admiration the success of his friend Baker at the Illinois bar, as a Whig Representative in Congress, as an officer in the Mexican War, and then--transplanted to the Pacific coast--as a deliverer of a panegyric over the body of the murdered Broderick, that was one of the greatest exhibitions of fervid eloquence ever seen or heard on this continent.

Coming to Washington as United States Senator from Oregon, Colonel Baker gave a powerful support to the Union cause and to the Lincoln Administration. He was one of the first Northern politicians to take the field, and he was promised by President Lincoln a high military command if he could, by winning a victory, demonstrate his ability as a general. He entered upon his new military career with his characteristic energy, but Mr. Lincoln, instead of promoting him, was soon called upon to mourn his untimely death.

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H Hamlin HANNIBAL HAMLIN was born at Paris, Maine, August 27th, 1809; was a Representative from Maine, 1843-1847; was United States Senator, 1848-1857, when he resigned to act as Governor; was again United States Senator, 1857-1861, when he resigned, having been elected Vice-President on the ticket with Abraham Lincoln; was Collector of the Port of Boston, 1865-1866, when he resigned; was again United States Senator, 1869-1881.

CHAPTER VIII.

WASHINGTON A VAST GARRISON.

When Congress met on the first Monday in December, 1861, Washington was a vast citadel. A cordon of forts completely encircled it on the commanding heights, each one armed, provisioned, and garrisoned.

On the large plain east of the Capitol and on the south side of the Potomac were encamped large bodies of troops. Regiments were constantly on the march through the city. Long wagon trains laden with provisions or ammunition were dragged through the mud of the then unpaved streets. Mounted orderlies galloped to and fro, bearing returns, requisitions, and despatches. The old flag was hoisted in every direction at sunrise, and lowered when the evening gun was fired, while the music of bands and the shrill notes of drums and fifes rang forth the "music of the Union."

An amusing sight was frequently enjoyed when newly formed regiments arrived. They usually came with the glowing colors of new equipments, and the vigorous zeal of newly organized drum and fife corps, if not, indeed, of a full band. A richly dressed drum-major generally marched at the head of these displays, and his gaudy uniform, bearskin shako with its plume, glittering baton, with its incessant twirling and rhythmical movement, excited the greatest enthusiasm and admiration among the throngs of observing negroes. To them the _tambour major_ was by far the greatest soldier of the day.

For miles in every direction the country was picketed, and martial law was rigidly enforced. All persons going toward the front must be provided with pa.s.ses, which were very closely scrutinized at every picket-post. In times of special peril those moving northward underwent the same ordeal. War, with all its severities and horrors, was continually at the doors of those who dwelt in Washington.

Congress, for the first time since the seat of Government was removed to Washington from Philadelphia, occupied an entirely subordinate position, and it might well be said the "_inter arma silent leges_"--laws are silent in the midst of armies. It was not long, however, before the Senators and Representatives rea.s.serted their authority. Simon Cameron's report as Secretary of War, as originally prepared, printed, and sent over the country for publication, took advanced ground on the slavery question. He advocated the emanc.i.p.ation of the slaves in the rebel States, the conversion to the use of the National Government of all property, whether slave or otherwise, belonging to the rebels, and the resort to every military means of suppressing the Rebellion, even the employment of armed negroes.

President Lincoln, at the instance of Secretary Seward and General McClellan, declined to accept these anti-slavery views from his subordinate, and ordered the return of the advance copies distributed for revision and amendment. It happened, however, that several newspapers had published the report as originally written. When they republished it, as modified, the public had the benefit of both versions. The President struck out all that Secretary Cameron had written on the slavery question, and subst.i.tuted a single paragraph which was self-evidently from the Presidential pen. The speculations of the Secretary as to the propriety of arming the negroes were canceled, and we were simply told that it would be impolitic for the escaped slaves of rebels to be returned again to be used against us. Secretary Chase sustained Secretary Cameron, but Secretary Seward, the former champion of higher law and abolitionism, was so conservative at this crisis of the great struggle between freedom and slavery, as to disgruntle many ardent supporters of the principles of which he had once a.s.sumed to be the champion.

When Congress a.s.sembled there were many vacant seats at either end of the Capitol. In the Senate Chamber ten States of the thirty- six were unrepresented, and the Virginia nominally represented was that portion of the Old Dominion within the range of Union cannon.