Chick-a-mau'ga. CHAPTER XXIII. THE WAR FOR THE UNION. II. Torpē'do. A machine, containing gunpowder or other explosives, intended to destroy ships. Sic semper Tyrannis. A Latin 201. The Financial Situation. — During the movements of the armies in 1862, the Congress of the United States was occupied in measures connected with the prosecution of the war. It also provided for the construction of a railway to the Pacific, and it passed the Homestead Bill, which assigned one hundred and sixty acres of the public lands to each family that should establish a home thereon. Its most far-reaching action was in the provision for a uniform national currency. When the war began, the government borrowed large sums of money to defray expenses, and it continued to borrow as new demands arose. Since the Bank of the United States had failed to secure a renewal of its charter during Jackson's administration, the States had incorporated banks, and the bills of each local bank had been received at par only in its own neighborhood. At this time the banks in the several States could not obtain specie in exchange for their bills, except by paying a high price for it; the condition was similar to that which existed in the war for independence, for promises to pay are good only as they can be redeemed in the coin which is the standard of value throughout the civilized world; and the war in America caused the nations dealing with it to accept gold only. At the end of 1861, the banks were obliged to suspend specie payments, that is, they no longer gave specie in return for the promises to pay which they had issued. In order to provide a currency for the people, Congress passed a bill, early in 1862, authorizing the issue of notes by the United States Treasury. From the green tint printed upon the back of the notes, they were popularly termed "greenbacks"; and to insure their success, Congress declared that they were "legal tender for all debts public and private, except duties on imports and interest on the public debt." Early in 1863, Congress passed an act establishing national banks. By the national banking system, all bills issued by the national banks became current in every part of the country. These acts were largely the work of Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury. 202. The Emancipation Proclamation. The prospect looked gloomy for the country as the year 1862 drew to a close. President Lincoln, who watched anxiously every movement, was convinced that the time had come when the Union could no longer hope to conquer a peace and at the same time spare the system of slavery, which every one saw was at the foundation of the Confederacy. He therefore announced, in September, that unless the seceding States returned to their allegiance within a hundred days, he should declare the slaves in those States to be free. It was a formal notice given out of respect to law; no one expected that it would be regarded by the South, which only grew more firm. On the first day of January, 1863, in accordance with his notice, the President issued a Proclamation of Emancipation.1 One of the first results of this act was the formation of regiments of negro soldiers as a settled policy. An attack made by one of these regiments, under Colonel Robert G. Shaw, upon Fort Wagner,3 in Charleston harbor, though unsuccess 1 Emerson's noble "Boston Hymn" was read at a meeting held in recognition of the proclamation. 2 See Lowell's poem, "Memoriæ Positum." 8 So great has been the change in the harbor through the shifting of sand that at this date (1897) there is not a vestige of Fort Wagner; it is under water. 2 ful, was the occasion of so much bravery that the prejudice against negro soldiers disappeared, and great numbers were enlisted.' 203. The Battle of Gettysburg. General Joseph Hooker had succeeded General Burnside, and attempted to lead the army again to Richmond, but met by General was George Gordon Meade. The Confederates suffered heavily at this time in the death of their famous leader, Stonewall Jackson. Lee followed up his success by crossing the Potomac above Harper's Ferry, and marching into Pennsylvania. The Union army, now under the command of General George G. Meade, hurried forward to meet him; for Lee was 1 Not far from one hundred and eighty thousand negroes were in the service before the war closed. 2 George Gordon Meade was born December 30, 1815, in Cadiz, Spain, where his father was, at the time, United States navy agent. His family was Pennsylvanian. He was educated at West Point, and after a year's service in the war against the Seminoles, he resigned his commission, and became a civil engineer. Six years later, in 1842, he reëntered the army as second lieutenant of topographical engineers, and served in the Mexican War. He was employed afterwards in a survey of the Great Lakes, and in August, 1861, became brigadier general of volunteers, in command of some Pennsylvania troops. After the war, he had command, successively, of important military districts, and at the time of his death, November 6, 1872, had his headquarters at Philadelphia. His greatest military services are treated in Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, by General Abner Doubleday. concentrating his forces and threatening Baltimore and Washington. The two armies met at Gettysburg, and a battle followed which occupied the first three days of July, 1863. It was the most critical battle of the war. The Confederates were defeated, and retreated into Virginia. They never afterward came so near a final success, and the battle of Gettysburg is thus regarded as the turning point of the war. In this mighty conflict, the eighty thousand Union troops engaged lost more than one fourth of their number in killed, wounded, and missing; while the losses of the Confederate army of seventy-three thousand reached a total of twenty-five thousand. 204. Operations in the West. In the West, Grant had made several ineffectual attempts to capture Vicksburg by approaching it from the North. In April, 1863, moving his army from Milliken's Bend to a point opposite Bruinsburg, he crossed the river, and after fighting several severe battles, received the surrender of Vicksburg on the fourth of July. Port Hudson, under siege at the same time, could no longer hold out; and the Mississippi, as President Lincoln said, 66 ran un vexed to the sea." General Rosecrans, July 8, 1863. in command of the Army of Sept. 19, 20, the Cumberland, which had been in quarters at Murfreesboro, moved southward upon the Confederate forces under General Bragg. At Chickamauga a great battle was 1863. fought in September, in which the Confederate army was victorious. It turned, and drove General Rosecrans to Chattanooga, and laid siege to the place. Rosecrans was re enforced by General W. T. Sherman' with troops from Vicksburg, and by General Hooker with a portion of the Army of the Potomac. General Grant was put in command of all the armies of the West. The Confederates were attacked, defeated in the battles of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, and driven southward. 205. Grant's Movement on Richmond. - The success of Grant at the West made him the chief figure in the war, and he was raised to the grade of lieutenant general, the highest in the army; the President, by the Constitution, being commanderin-chief. In the spring of 1864, Grant left Sherman at the head of the Western armies, and took up his headquarters with the Army of the Potomac, in order to direct the operations in Virginia. For six weeks, in a series of rapid movements, General Grant attempted to get between Lee's army and Richmond. He did not succeed in this. He fought the terrible battle of the Wilderness, in which both sides lost heavily, though the advantage at the end of the May 5, 6, battle remained with the Unionists. Other battles followed, but Grant could not force Lee's lines, and now laid siege to Richmond and Petersburg. 1864. 1 As has already been mentioned, General Sherman came of a family which had done good service in Ohio. He was born in Lancaster in that State, February 8, 1820. His middle name was due to his father's great admiration for the Indian chief of that name. In 1836 Sherman entered West Point, and graduated sixth in a class of forty-three. He served against the Seminoles in Florida, and afterward was stationed at Fort Moultrie. In 1846 he was sent to California, and on his return to the East, four years later, he became commissary first at St. Louis and then at New Orleans. He resigned his commission in 1853, the better to support his family, and went to San Francisco as partner in a banking house. He was very active in that city as a member of the Vigilance Committee. He was for a short time in a law firm in Leavenworth, Kansas, and in 1859 was appointed superintendent of the Louisiana Military Academy. When Louisiana seceded he went to St. Louis and took the presidency of a street-railway company. Such was the varied experience before the war of one of the most brilliant of American generals. When Sumter was fired on, Sherman at once offered his services and was incessantly active throughout the war. Afterward he held command of one of the great military divisions, and he succeeded Grant in 1869 as general of the army. He died February 14, 1891. He wrote his own memoirs. |