Slavery and Four Years of War Part 24

On the night of December 26, 1860, Major Robert Anderson, in command of the land forces, forts, and defences at Charleston, South Carolina, being threatened by armed secession troops, and regarding his position at Fort Moultrie, on Sullivan's Island, untenable if attacked from the land side, as a matter of precaution, without order from his superiors, but possessing complete authority within the limits of his command, removed his small force, consisting of only sixty-five soldiers, from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter, where, at high noon of the next day, after a solemn prayer by his chaplain, the Stars and Stripes were run up on a flagstaff, to float in triumph only for a short time, then to be insulted and shot down, not to again be unfurled over the same fort until four years of war had intervened.

An ineffectual effort was made by Governor Pickens of South Carolina to induce Major Anderson by his demands and threats to return to his defenceless position at Fort Moultrie. President Buchanan, at the instigation of his Secretary of War, Floyd, was on the point of ordering him to do so, but when the matter was considered in a Cabinet meeting, other counsels prevailed, and Floyd made this his excuse for leaving the Cabinet.( 1) Fortunately, his place was filled by Hon. Joseph Holt of Kentucky, a Union man of force, energy, will power, and true courage, who, later, became Judge- Advocate-General U.S.A., serving as such until after the close of the war.

To the end of Buchanan's administration, Sumter was held by Major Anderson with his small force, and around it centered the greatest anxiety. It was the policy of the South to seize and occupy all forts, a.r.s.enals, dock-yards, public property, and all strongholds belonging to the United States located within the limits of seceded States, and to take possession of arms and material of war as though of right belonging to them. The right and t.i.tle to United States property thus located were not regarded. Louisiana seized the United States Mint at New Orleans, and turned over of its contents $536,000 in coin to the Confederate States treasury, for which she received a vote of thanks from the Confederate Congress.( 2) All the forts of the United States within or on the coast of the then seceded States, save Forts Sumter and Pickens, were soon, with their armament and military supplies, in possession of and manned by Southern soldiers. At first seizures were made by State authority alone, but on the organization, at Montgomery, of the Confederacy (February 8, 1861) it a.s.sumed charge of all questions between the seceded States and the United States relating to the occupation of forts and other public establishments; and, March 15th, the Confederacy called on the States that had joined it to cede to it all the forts, etc., thus seized, which was done accordingly.

On February 28th the Confederate Congress pa.s.sed an act under which President Davis a.s.sumed control of all military operations and received from the seceding States all the arms and munitions of war acquired from the United States and all other material of war the States of the Confederacy saw proper to turn over to him.

A letter from the Chief of Ordnance of the United States Army to Secretary of War Holt, of date, January 15, 1861, shows that, commencing in 1859, under orders from Secretary of War Floyd, 115,000 muskets were transferred from the Springfield (Ma.s.s.) and Watervliet (N. Y.) a.r.s.enals to a.r.s.enals South; and, under like orders, other percussion muskets and rifles were similarly transferred, all of which were seized, together with many cannon and other material of war, by the Confederate authorities.( 3)

Harper's Ferry, and the a.r.s.enal there, with its arms and ordnance stores, were seized by the Confederates, April 18, 1861, and the machinery and equipment for manufacturing arms, not burned, was taken South.

The a.r.s.enal at Fayetteville, N. C., was also seized, April 22, 1861.

In February, 1861, Beauregard ( 4) was commissioned by Davis a Brigadier-General, and ordered to Charleston, South Carolina, to organize an army. Other officers were put in commission by the Confederacy, and a large force was soon mustering defiantly for the coming struggle.

Beauregard took command at Charleston, March 1st, three days before Lincoln was inaugurated President of the United States.( 5)

Disloyalty extended to the army and navy.

The regular army was small, and widely scattered over the Western frontiers and along the coasts of lake and ocean. March 31, 1861, it numbered 16,507, including 1074 officers. Some officers had joined the secession movement before this date.

The disaffection was among the officers alone. Two hundred and eighty-two officers resigned or deserted to take service in the Confederate Army; of these 192 were graduates of West Point Military Academy, and 178 of the latter became general officers during the war.( 6)

The number of officers, commissioned and warrant, who left the United States Navy and entered the Confederate service was, approximately, 460.( 7)

To the credit of the rank and file of the regular army, and of the seamen in the navy, it is, on high authority, said that:

"It is worthy of note that, while in this government's hour of trial large numbers of those in the army and navy who have been favored with the offices have resigned and proved false to the hand which had pampered them, not one common soldier or common sailor is known to have deserted his flag."( 8)

David E. Twiggs, a Brevet Major-General, on February 18, 1861, surrendered, at San Antonio, Texas, all the military posts and other property in his possession; and this after receiving an order relieving him from command. He was an old and tried soldier of the United States Army, and his example was pernicious in a high degree.

There were few, however, who, like him, took the opportunity to desert and at the same time to do a dishonorable official act calculated to injure the government they had served.

March 5, 1861, Twiggs was given a grand reception in New Orleans; salutes were fired in honor of his recent treachery.( 9) President Buchanan, to his credit, through Secretary of War Holt, March 1st, dismissed him from the army.(10)

It is a curious fact that this order of dismissal was signed by _S.

Cooper_, Adjutant-General of the United States Army (_a native_ of New Jersey), who, _six days later_, resigned his position, hastened to Montgomery, Alabama, and there accepted a like office in the Confederate government. Disloyalty among prominent army officers seemed, for a time, the rule.(11)

It was industriously circulated, not without its effect, that General Winfield Scott had deserted his country and flag to take command of the Confederate Army. To his honor it must be said, however, that he never faltered, and the evidence is overwhelming that he never entertained a thought of joining his State--Virginia.

He early foresaw that disunion and war were coming, and not only deprecated them but desired to strengthen the United States Government and to avert both. Only his great age prevented his efficiently leading the Union armies.

George H. Thomas, like General Scott, was a native of Virginia.

He was also unjustly charged with having entertained disloyal notions and to have contemplated joining the South, but later both Scott and Thomas were bitterly denounced by secessionists for not going with Virginia into the Rebellion.

Officers connected with the United States Revenue Service stationed in Southern cities were, generally, not only disloyal, but property in their custody was without scruple turned over to the Confederate authorities. The revenue cutters under charge and direction of the Secretary of the Treasury were not only seized, but their commanding officers in many cases deserted to the Confederacy and surrendered them. A notable example is that of Captain Breshwood, who commanded the revenue cutter _Robert McClelland_, stationed at New Orleans. When ordered, January 29, 1861, to proceed with her to New York, he refused to obey. This led John A. Dix, Secretary of the Treasury, to issue his celebrated and patriotic "Shoot-him- on-the-spot" order.(12) Louisiana had not at that time seceded, but the cutter, with Captain Breshwood, went into the Confederacy.

So of all other such vessels coming within reach of the now much- elated, over-confident, and highly excited Confederate authorities.

Before the end of February, 1861, the "Pelican Flag" was flying over the Custom-House, Mint, City Hall, and everywhere in Louisiana.

At the New Orleans levees ships carried every flag on earth except that of the United States. The only officer of the army there at the time who was faithful to the country was Col. C. L. Kilburn, of the Commissary Department, and he was preparing to escape North.(13)

So masterful had become the spirit of the South, born of the nature of the inst.i.tution of slavery, that many disinclined to disunion were carried away with the belief that it was soon to be an accomplished fact, and that those who had favored it would alone be the heroes, while those who remained with the broken Union would be socially and forever ostracized. There were also many, indeed, who seriously entertained the belief that the North, made up as it was of merchants, manufacturers, farmers, and laborers, and with the education and disposition to follow pursuits incident to money- getting by their own personal efforts, would not be willing to engage in war, and thus destroy their prospects. There were also others who regarded Northern men as cowards, who, even if willing to fight, would not at best be equal, a half dozen of them, to one Southern man. These false notions were sincerely entertained.

The Southern people regarded slavery as enn.o.bling to the white race, and free white labor as degrading to the people of the free States, and hence were confident of their own superiority in arms and otherwise. There were even some people North who had so long heard the Southern boasts of superior courage that they half believed in it themselves, until the summons to arms dispelled all such illusions.

To the half credit of most of the officers of the United States army, and many of the navy, it may be said that when they determined to desert their country and flag they resigned their commissions, or at least tendered them, so they might go into rebellion with some color of excuse.

The War Department was generally, even under Lincoln's administration, gracious enough in most cases to accept such resignations, even when it knew or suspected the purpose for which they were tendered.

Lieut. Julius A. De Lagnel, of the artillery, a Virginian, who remained long enough in the Union to be surrendered to Secession authorities (not discreditable to himself) at Fayetteville, North Carolina, with the North Carolina a.r.s.enal (April 22, 1861) informed the writer since the war that, on sending his resignation to the War Department, he followed it to the Adjutant-General's office, taking with him some bags of coin he had in the capacity of disbursing officer, for the purpose of making a settlement. He found Adjutant- General Lorenzo Thomas not in good humor, and when requested to direct him to a proper officer to settle his accounts, Thomas flew at him furiously, ordered him to drop his coin-bags, and decamp from his presence and from the Department, which he did accordingly.

His accounts were thus summarily settled. (We shall soon hear of De Lagnel again.)

Captain James Longstreet, of Georgia, who became a Lieutenant- General in the C.S.A., and one of the ablest fighting generals in either army, draws a rather refined distinction as to the right of an officer to resign his commission and turn enemy to his country, while denying the right of a non-commissioned officer or private soldier to quit the army in time of rebellion to follow his State.

Longstreet was stationed at Albuquerque, New Mexico, when Sumter was fired on. On receiving the news of its capture he resigned and went South, through Texas, to join his State, or rather, as it proved, to join the Confederate States Army.

He says his mind was relieved by information that his resignation was accepted, to take effect June 1st. He tells us a sergeant from Virginia and other soldiers wished to accompany him, but he would not entertain that proposition; he explained to them that they could not go without authority of the War Department, but it was different with commissioned officers; they could resign, and when their resignations were accepted could do as they pleased, while the sergeant and his comrades were bound by their oaths to the term of their enlistment.(14)

It might be hard to construct a more satisfactory const.i.tutional or moral theory than this for persons situated as were Captain Longstreet and others, disposed as they were to desert country and comrades for the newly formed slave Confederacy; yet if the secession of the native State of an officer is sufficient to dissolve allegiance he has sworn to maintain, it requires a delicate discrimination to see why the common soldier might not also be absolved from his term contract and oath for the same reasons.

There is a point of honor as old as organized warfare, that in the presence of danger or threatened danger it is an act of cowardice for an officer to resign for any but a good physical cause.

The better way is to justify, or if that cannot be done, to excuse as far as possible, the desertion of the Union by army and navy officers on the ground that the times were revolutionary, when precedents could not be followed, and legal and moral rights were generally disregarded. Such periods come occasionally in the history of nations. They are properly called _rebellions_, when they fail.

"_Rebellion_, indeed, appears on the back of a flying enemy, but _revolution_ flames on the breastplate of the victorious warriors."(15)

Robert E. Lee, born in Virginia, of Revolutionary stock, had won reputation as a soldier in the Mexican War. He was fifty-four years of age, a Colonel of the First Cavalry, and, though in Washington, was but recently under orders from the Department of Texas. There is convincing evidence that General Scott and Hon.

Frank P. Blair tendered him the command of the army of the United States in the impending war. This is supposed to have caused him to hesitate as to his course. In a letter (April 20, 1861) to a sister he deplores the "state of revolution into which Virginia, after a long struggle, has been drawn," saying:

"I recognize no necessity for this state of things, ... yet in my own person I had to meet the question whether I would take part against my native State. With all my devotion to the Union, and the feeling of loyalty and duty of an American citizen, I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives, my children, my home. I have, therefore, resigned my commission in the army, and, _save in defence of my native State_, with the hope that my poor services will never be needed, I hope I may never be called on to draw my sword."

On the same day, in a letter to General Scott accompanying his resignation, he says: "Save in defence of my State, I never desire to draw my sword."

Lee registered himself, March 5, 1861, in the Adjutant-General's office as Brevet-Colonel and Lieutenant-Colonel Second Cavalry.(16) He was nominated, March 21, 1861, _by President Lincoln_, Colonel First Cavalry, and on March 23d the nomination was confirmed by the Senate. He was then commissioned by the President, Colonel, March 25th, to rank from March 16, 1861; he received this commission March 28th, and accepted it by letter March 30, 1861. Seven States had then seceded from the Union, and the Confederate States of America had existed since February 8, 1861.

Three weeks after (April 20th) Lee accepted this last commission he tendered his resignation in the United States Army. It did not reach the Secretary of War until April 24th, nor was it accepted until April 27th, to take effect April 25, 1861.(17)

Lee, however, accepted, April 22nd, a commission as Major-General in the "Military and Naval Forces of Virginia," a.s.suming command of them by direction of Governor John Letcher, April 23, 1861.

It thus appears that two months and a half after the Confederate States were formed Robert E. Lee accepted President Lincoln's commission in the U.S.A.; then twenty-four days later, and pending the acceptance of his resignation, took command of forces hostile to the Federal Union. He, April 24th, gave instructions to a subordinate: "Let it be known that you intend no attack; but invasion of our soil will be considered an act of war."

He did not have Longstreet's consolation of knowing his resignation had been accepted before he abandoned his rank and duties in the United States Army; nor had his State yet seceded from the Union.

Virginia did not enter into any relations with the Confederacy until April 25, 1861, and then only conditionally. Her convention pa.s.sed an Ordinance of Secession April 17th, to take effect, if ratified by the votes of her people, at an election to be held May 23, 1861. An election held in Virginia the previous February resulted in choosing to a convention a very large majority of delegates opposed to secession. The convention, March 17th--90 to 45--rejected an Ordinance of Secession. Virginia's people were, until coerced by her disloyal State Governor, faithful to the Union of Washington. The fact remains that Lee, before his State voted to secede, accepted a commission in the army of the Confederacy, and took an oath to support its laws and Const.i.tution, and thenceforth drew his sword to overthrow the Union of his fathers and to establish a new would-be nation under another flag. His son, G. W. Custis Lee, did not resign from the U.S.A. until May 2, 1861. Fitzhugh Lee also accepted a commission from Lincoln, and resigned (May 21, 1861) after his ill.u.s.trious uncle.

It is hard to understand how fundamental principles in government and individual patriotism and duty may be made, on moral or political grounds, to depend on the conduct of the temporary authorities of a State, or even on the voice of its people.

The action of Robert E. Lee in leaving the United States Army, and his reasons therefor, serve to show how and why many other army and navy officers abandoned their country's service. The Confederacy promptly recognized these "_seceding officers_," and for the most part gave them, early, high rank, and otherwise welcomed them with enthusiasm.

It is probably that the slowness of promotion in time of peace, in both the army and navy of the United States, caused many officers to resign and seek, with increased rank, new fortunes and renown in war.

It is not to be denied that the custom of hospitably treating officers while serving in the South, and otherwise socially recognizing them and their families, had won many to love the Southern people and their gallant ways. This, at least, held the most of the Southern-born officers to their own States, though in some cases, and perhaps in many, they did not believe in slavery.