TO THE ARMY AND NAVY OF THE UNITED STATES This History OF THE WAR FOR THE UNION IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED. THOU, TUU, SAIL ON, O SHIP OF STATE | SAIL ON, O UNION, STRONG AND GREAT! WITH ALL THE HOPES OF FUTURE YEARS- IN SPITE OF ROCK AND TEMPEST'S ROAR, SAIL ON, NOR FEAR TO BREAST THE SEA! OUR HEARTS, OUR HOPES, ARE ALL WITH THEE OUR HEARTS, OUR HOPES, OUR PRAYERS, OUR TEARS, OUR FAITH TRIUMPHANT O'ER OUR FEARS, ARE ALL WITH THEE,-ARE ALL WITH THEE. Longfellow THE WAR FOR THE UNION. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY, "HOWEVER disagreeable it may be," | ple is immediately dependent. In many is the language of the American his- lights, truly, a most sad and humiliating torian, Minot, in commencing his nar- struggle; in others, radiant with the rative of the Insurrections in Massa- purest glory of national devotion and chusetts in 1786, and the Rebellion self-sacrifice. Consequent Thereon, "to review the troubles of our country, every patriot will look upon it as his duty, not to let them pass without notice. The period of misfortune is the most fruitful source of instruction. By investigating the causes of national commotions, by tracing their progress and by carefully marking the means through which they are brought to a conclusion, well established principles may be deduced, for preserving the future tranquility of the commonwealth." It is in the calm, impartial spirit of this remark that we would proceed to narrate, simply and clearly as we may, the development of the present most extraordinary conflict, a rebellion or attempted revolution, gigantic in its extent, terrible in the ferocity with which it has been carried on, and memorable to all time for its trial of principles and modes of government, in which the whole modern world is interested, and upon the maintenance of which the welfare of millions of peo The time has, of course, not yet come for a complete record of these occurrences to be written. The movement began in secrecy; many of its hidden contrivances and resources will probably never be fully known; others may be disclosed only by the revelations of private manuscripts and correspondence in another age. Even a knowledge of what was publicly transacted, so wide has been the area and so numerous and complicated have been the incidents, must await the slow and patient labors of long-continued research. Who can now enter into the secrets of the opposing cabinets, or unravel the intricate web of statesmanship? The very operations of war, which would appear to be of a tangible character, have always their disputes and contradictions. With the best of evidence before us it is most difficult to determine the facts of a battlewhat was actually performed and suffered, let alone determining the motives and plans of the combatants. Military critics (3) yet dispute over conflicts which hundreds of annalists and commentators have labored to elucidate. How then must it be when the smoke and dust of the encounter have scarce rolled away from the plain? instances only by patient toil and long continued self-denial. When the men of these opposite regions first met in the conventions and congresses preliminary to the formation of the national confederacy, the effects of these diversities were exhibited in taste and temper. John Adams, then making his way rapidly upward in the world, a curious and politic student of men's manners, and keenly Enough, however, lies open to the view to supply the reader with the more prominent features of these extraordinary passing events; to gratify his curiosity in many most interesting partic-sensitive to social discriminations, has left ulars; to afford fruitful opportunity for meditation in even a cursory review of the chronicle. We shall meet with many deeds of exalted heroism, worthy a better field than the painful theatre of civil war; with many exhibitions of manners and character which we might survey with more satisfaction, perhaps, were our fellow citizens not the actors, and our beloved country the scene. us in his diaries and correspondence To understand properly the origin and causes of this attempt on the part of the Southern States to assert and maintain their independence of the government of the United States, we must ascend to the beginning of our national history. We shall there find at the outset certain differences and conditions, marking the two portions of the country, the North and the South, which at no subsequent period, perhaps, have been wholly inoperative. They are to be referred, generally, to climate and the social relations springing from the peculiar institution of slavery. The South, as an agricultural producing region, with its fields tilled and its products gathered by slave labor, a privileged class of its inhabitants enjoying the benefits of wealth thus obtained, presented many contrasts to the less favored regions of the North, where competence, and even a bare subsistence could be gained in most THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH. 7 fewer in proportion than in New England. the rampart and the deadly encounter Gentlemen in the colonies have large with the foe was not lost upon them. It plantations of slaves, and the common was a great lesson of brotherhood when people among them are very ignorant Morgan and his riflemen hastened on foot and very poor. These gentlemen are on their extraordinary march to the field accustomed, habituated to higher notions of Saratoga, or when Lincoln and Green of themselves, and the distinction be- with their companions found themselves tween them and the common people than by the side of Sumter and Marion, in dewe are. And an instantaneous alteration fence of the plantations of the South. It of the character of a colony, and that was a still greater when WASHINGTON, temper and those sentiments which its aptly chosen from the middle region of inhabitants imbibed with their mothers' the country, a representative of the purmilk, and which have grown with their est and best traditions of the South, growth, and strengthened with their patiently and magnanimously spent his strength, cannot be made without a mir- life in reconciling all contradictions, to acle. I dread the consequences of this mould and establish a great nation. The dissimilitude of character, and without fates seemed to hold an impartial balance the utmost caution on both sides, and the as the struggle for independence begun most considerate forbearance with one on Northern soil ended in the sunny reanother, and prudent condescension on gion of the South. both sides, they will certainly be fatal. An alteration of the Southern Constitutions, which must certainly take place if this war continues, will gradually bring all the continent nearer and nearer to each other in all repects."* Notwithstanding, however, this cement of blood in the common struggle of the Revolution, the North and the South were not as yet sufficiently one people to enter without an effort upon the more perfect union of the Constitution. The This, certainly, is a very noticeable pas- historian of that great charter of our sage which has lost none of its political liberties, while enumerating the embarsignificance after the lapse of three-quar-rassments which beset its adoption, inters of a century. That alteration of the cludes also, as "a very serious cause for Southern Constitutions is yet needed to discouragement, the sectional jealousy complete that essential condition of a perfect union, which has never been better defined than in those very words, "gradually bringing all the continent nearer and nearer to each other in all respects." The war of the Revolution did much to accomplish this. The men of the South shed their blood in the battle-fields of the North, and the men of the North in the battle-fields of the South, in a common cause; and the fraternity of the trench, *Letter to Joseph Hawley, Philadelphia, 25th November, 1775 Adams' Works, ix. 366–7. and State pride which had been constantly growing from the Declaration of Independence to the time when the States were called upon to meet each other upon broader grounds, and to make even larger sacrifices than at any former period. It is difficult," he adds. in a philosophic spirit, and with a prescience of coming events, "to trace to all its causes the feeling which has at times arrayed the different extremities of this Union against each other. It was very early developed, after the dif |