Slavery and Four Years of War Part 26

All these calls for enlistment were responded to by the loyal States with the greatest promptness, and the numbers called for were more then furnished, notwithstanding the failure of some of the Southern non-seceding States to promptly fill their a.s.signed quotas.

Governor Burton of Delaware (April 26th) issued a proclamation for the formation of volunteer companies to protect lives and property in the State, not to be subject to be ordered into the United States service, the Governor, however, to have the option of offering them to the general government for the defence of the Capital and the support of its Const.i.tution and laws.

Governor Hicks of Maryland (May 14th) called for four regiments to serve within the limits of the State, or for the defence of the Capital of the United States.

Governor Letcher of Virginia (April 16th) spitefully denied the const.i.tutionality of the call for troops "to subjugate the Southern States."

Governor Ellis of North Carolina (April 15th) dispatched that he regarded the levy of troops "for the purpose of subjugating the States of the South as in violation of the Const.i.tution and a usurpation of power."

Governor Magoffin of Kentucky (April 15th) wired:

"Your dispatch is received. In answer I say emphatically, Kentucky will furnish no troops for the wicked purpose of subduing her sister Southern States."

Governor Harris of Tennessee (April 18th) replied:

"Your requisition, in my judgment, is illegal, unconst.i.tutional, and revolutionary in its objects, inhuman and diabolical, and can not be complied with."

Governor Rector of Arkansas (April 22d) responded:

"None will be furnished. The demand is only adding insult to injury."(25)

Four of the slave-holding States thus responding to the President's call, to wit: Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina, soon joined the Confederate States; Maryland, Missouri, Kentucky, and Delaware remained in the Union, and, later, filled their quotas under the several calls for troops for the United States service, though from each many also enlisted in the Confederate Army.

The Union volunteers were either hastened, unprepared by complete organization or drill, to Washington, D. C., to stand in its defence against an antic.i.p.ated attack from Beauregard's already large organized army, or they were a.s.sembled in drill camps, selected for convenience of concentration and dispersion, to the scenes of campaigns soon to be entered upon.

Arms in the North were neither of good quality nor abundant. Some were hastily bought abroad--Enfield rifles from England, Austrian rifles from Austria; each country furnishing its poorest in point of manufacture. But there were soon in operation establishments in the North where the best of guns then known in warfare were made. The old flint-lock musket had theretofore been superseded by the percussion-lock musket, but some of the guns supplied to the troops were old, and altered from the flint-lock. These muskets were muzzle-loaders, smooth bores, firing only buck and ball cartridges--.69 calibre. They were in the process of supersession by the .58 calibre rifle for infantry, or the rifle-carbine for cavalry, generally of a smaller calibre. The English Enfield rifle was of .58 calibre, and the Springfield rifle, which soon came into common use, was of like calibre. The Austrian rifle of .54 calibre proved to be of poor construction, and was generally condemned.(26) A rifle for infantry of .58 calibre was adopted, manufactured and used in the Confederacy. The steel rifled cannon for field artillery also came to take the place, in general, of the smooth-bore bra.s.s gun, though many kinds of cannon of various calibres and construction were in use in both armies throughout the war.

The general desire of new volunteers was to be possessed of an abundance of arms, such as guns, pistols, and knives. The two latter weapons were even worse than useless for the infantry soldier --mere inc.u.mbrances. An officer even had little use for a pistol; only sometimes in a melee. The cavalry resorted, under some officers, to the pistol instead of the sword. In the South, at the opening of the wr, shot-guns and squirrel rifles were gathered together for arms, and long files were forged in large quant.i.ties by common blacksmiths into knives or a sort of cutla.s.s (or machete) for use in battle.(27) These were never used by regularly-organized troops. Guerillas, acting in independent, small bands, were, however, often armed with such unusual weapons. The North had no such soldiers. The South had many bands of them, the leaders of which gained much notoriety, but they contributed little towards general results. Guerillas were, at best, irregular soldiers, who in general masqueraded as peaceful citizens, only taking up arms to make raids and to attack small, exposed parties, trains, etc.

This sort of warfare simply tended to irritate the North and intensify hatred for the time.

Not in the matter of arms alone was there much to learn by experience.

McClellan and others had visited the armies of Europe and made reports thereon; Halleck had written on the _Art of War;_ General Scott and others had practical experience in active campaigns, but n.o.body seemed to know what supplies an army required to render it most effective on the march or in battle.

When the volunteers first took the field the transportation trains occupied on the march more than four times the s.p.a.ce covered by the troops. Large details had, as a consequence, to be made to manage the trains and drive the teams; large detachments, under officers, to go with them as guards. To supply forage for the immense number of horses and mules was not only a great tax upon the roads but a needless expense to the government. Excessive provision of tents for headquarters and officers as well as the soldiers was also made. Officers as well as private soldiers carried too much worse than useless personal clothing, including boots (wholly worthless to a footman) and other baggage; each officer as a rule had one or more trunks and a mess-chest, with other supplies. McClellan, in July, 1861, had about fifteen four- horse or six-mule teams to carry the personal outfit of the General and his staff; brigade headquarters (there were no corps or divisions) had only a proportionately smaller number of teams; and for the field and staff of a regimental headquarters not less than six such teams were required, including one each for the adjutant and the regimental quartermaster and commissary; and the surgeon of the regiment and his a.s.sistants required two more.

Each company was a.s.signed one team. A single regiment--ten companies --would seldom have less than eighteen large teams to enable it to move from its camp. Something was, however, due to the care of new and unseasoned troops, but in the light of future experience, the extreme folly of thus trying to make war seems ridiculous. A great change, however, occurred during the later years of the war.

When I was on active campaigns with a brigade of seven regiments, one team was allowed for brigade headquarters, and one for each regiment. In this arrangement each soldier carried his own half- ten (dog-tent) rolled on his knapsack, and the quartermaster, commissary, medical and ordnance supplies were carried in general trains. This applied to all the armies of the Union. The Confederates had even less transportation with moving troops.

But we must not tarry longer with these details. Henceforth we shall briefly try to tell the story of such of the campaigns, events, and scenes of the conflict as in the ensuing four years of war came under our observation or were connected with movements in which we partic.i.p.ated, interweaving some personal history.

( 1) His resignation was accepted December 29, 1860. Howell Cobb, of Georgia, Buchanan's Secretary of the Treasury, resigned December 8, 1860, and was, on February 4, 1861, chosen the presiding officer of the first Confederate Congress. He left the United States Treasury empty. Jacob Thompson of Mississippi, Buchanan's Secretary of the Interior, resigned January 8, 1861. He had corresponded with secessionists South, and while yet in the Cabinet had been appointed a commissioner by his State to urge North Carolina to secede. He became an aid to Beauregard, but attained no military distinction. In 1864 he went to Canada, and there promoted a plan to release prisoners at Camp Douglas, Chicago, and to seize the city, and was charged with instigating plots to burn New York and other Northern cities.

( 2) _Am. Cyclopedia_, 1861 (Appleton), pp. 430, 431.

It is interesting to note that Louisiana, jointly with the Confederate States, issued in April and May, 1861, made from captured United States bullion, on United States dies of 1861, gold coin, $254,820 in double eagles, and silver coin, $1,101,316.50 in half dollars.

In May, 1861, the remaining bullion was transferred to A. J. Guizot, a.s.sistant Treasurer Confederate States of America, who at once destroyed the United States dies and had a Confederate States die for silver half dollars engraved by the coiner, A. H. M. Peterson.

From this die _four_ pieces only were struck on a screw press, the die being of such high relief that its use was impracticable.

These _four_ coins composed the _entire_ coinage of the Confederate States. Its design, _Obverse:_ G.o.ddess of Liberty (same as United States coins) with arc of thirteen stars (representing original States), date, "1861." _Reverse:_ American shield beneath a "Liberty Cap"; union of shield and seven stars (representing original seceded States), surrounded by a wreath, to the left (cotton in bloom), to the right (sugar cane). _Legend: "Confederate States of America_,"

exergue, "_Half Dol._"--_U. S._(Townsend), p. 427.

( 3) _Am. Cyclop._, 1861, p. 123.

( 4) P. G. T. Beauregard resigned, February 20, 1861, a captaincy in the United States army while holding the appointment of Superintendent of West Point.

( 5) _Life of Beauregard_ (Roman), vol. i., p. 25.

( 6) _Hist. Reg. U. S. A._ (Heitman), pp. 836-845.

( 7) Scharf's _Hist. C. S. N._, p. 14.

( 8) President Lincoln's Message, July, 1861.

( 9) _Am. Cyclop._, 1861, p. 431.

(10) This is the only instance where Buchanan issued such an order, hence we give it.

"March 1, 1861.

"By direction of the President, etc., it is ordered that Brig.-Gen.

David E. Twiggs, Major-General by brevet, be, and is hereby dismissed from the army of the United States for his treachery to the flag of his country, in having surrendered on the 18th of February, 1861, on demand of the authorities of Texas, the military posts and other property of the United States in his department and under his charge.

"J. Holt, Secretary of War.

"S. Cooper, Adjutant-General."

(11) Lieutenant Frank C. Armstrong (First Cavalry), pending his resignation, fought at Bull Run (July, 1861) for the Union, then went into the Confederacy and became a Brigadier-General.

(12) "Treasury Department, Jan. 29, 1861.

"W. Hemphill Jones, New Orleans:

"Tell Lieutenant Caldwell to arrest Captain Breshwood, a.s.sume command of the cutter and obey the order through you. If Captain Breshwood, after arrest, undertakes to interfere with the command of the cutter, tell Lieutenant Caldwell to consider him a mutineer, and treat him accordingly.

"_If any one attempts to haul down the American flag, Shoot him on the Spot._

"John A. Dix, Secretary of the Treasury."

(13) Sherman's _Memoirs_, vol. i, p. 163.

(14) _Mana.s.sas to Appomattox_ (Longstreet), pp. 29-30.

(15) John Wilkes, British Par., 1780 (_Pat. Reader_, p. 135).

(16) In 1861 an army officer was not required (as now) to take an oath of office on receiving promotion. The following is a copy of the last oath taken by Robert E. Lee as a United States Army officer, and it shows the form of oath then taken by other army officers.

"I, Robert E. Lee, appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of the Second Regiment of Cavalry in the Army of the United States, do solemnly swear that I will bear true allegiance to the United States of America, and that I will serve them honestly and faithfully against all their enemies or opposers whatsoever; and observe and obey the orders of the President of the United States, and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to the Rules and Articles for the government of the Armies of the United States.

"R. E. Lee, Bt.-Col., U. S. A.

"Sworn to and subscribed before me at West Point, N. Y., this 15th day of March, 1855.

"Wm. H. Carpenter, Justice of the Peace."