THE CIVIL WAR
THROUGH THE
CAMERA -
Hundreds of Vivid Photographs
Actually Taken in Civil War Times
Sixteen Reproductions in Color of Famous War Paintings
By
HENRY W. ELSON
Professor of History, Ohio University
A Complete Illustrated History of the
CIVIL WAR
NEW YORK
McKinlay, Stone & Mackenzie
COPYRIGHT, 1912
PATRIOT PUBLISHING Co., SPRINGFIELD, MASS.
MAJOR ROBERT ANDERSON AND FAMILY
This Federal major of artillery was summoned on April 11, 1861, to surrender
Fort Sumter and the property of the government whose uniform he wore.
At half-past four the following morning the boom of the first gun from Fort
Johnson in Charleston Harbor notified the breathless, waiting world that
war was on. The flag had been fired on, and hundreds of thousands of lives
were to be sacrificed ere the echoes of the great guns died away at the end of
four years into the obs of a nation whose best and bravest, North and South,
had strewn the many battlefields. No wonder that the attention of the civil
ized world was focussed on the man who provoked the first blow in the great
est conflict the world has ever known. He was the man who handled the
situation at the breaking point. To him the North looked to preserve the
Federal property in Charleston Harbor, and the honor of the National flag.
The action of the South depended upon his decision. He played the part of
a true soldier, and two days after the first shot was fired he led his little gar
rison of the First United States Artillery out of Sumter with the honors of war.
"* L
l\) t O
S ; C,EN;ES. {>? . 6.9.
1
FOLLOWED
"BROTHER JONA
THAN" (PAGE 44)
The upper photograph
shows Confederates on
Monday the fifteenth of
April, 1861 one day
after the momentous
event which Holmes
dimly prophesied in
" Brother Jonathan "
(page 44). The picture
below, with the two fol
lowing, were made on
the 16th. As April wore
on, North and South
alike had been reluctant
to strike first. When
Major Robert Anderson,
on December 26, 1860,
removed to Fort Sumtcr,
on an island at the
entrance to Charleston
IN OJ
CONFEDERATES IN SUMTER THE DAY AFTER ANDERSON LEFT
v \NCWv.A\D K \STKUX "A<;
,.t !,, ,,,-lti.,,, ,. , M
A GUN TRAINED ON CHARLESTON BY ANDERSON
Harbor, he placed him
self in a position to with
stand long attack. But
he needed supplies. The
Confederates would al
low none to be landed.
When at length rumors
of a powerful naval force
to relieve the fort
reached Charleston, the
Confederates demanded
the surrender of the gar
rison. Anderson prom
ised to evacuate by April
15th if he received no
additional supplies. His
terms were rejected. At
half-past four on the
morning of April 12th a
shell from Fort Johnson
"rose high in air, and
curving in its course,
burst almost directly
over the fort." The
mighty war had begun.
TWO DAYS AFTER THE BOMBARDMENT OF SUMTER, APRIL 16, 1861
Wade Hampton (the tallest figure) and other leading South Carolinians inspecting the effects of the cannonading that
had forced Major Anderson to evacuate, and had precipitated the mightiest conflict of modern times two days before.
V
V
RECORDS OF THE WAR BETWEEN
THE STATES
By MARCUS ,T. WRIGHT, Brigadier-General, C.S.A.
Agent of the United States War Department for the Collection of
Military Records
fTlHE war which was carried on in the United States in
1 1861-5, called " The War of the Rebellion," " The Civil
War," " The War of Secession," and " The War Between
the States," was one of the greatest conflicts of ancient or
modern times. Official reports show that 2,865,028 men were
mustered into the service of the United States. The report
of Provost-Marshal General Fry shows that of these 61,362
were killed in battle, 34,773 died of wounds, 183,287 died of
disease, 306 were accidentally killed, and 267 were executed by
sentence. The Adjutant-General made a report February 7,
1869, showing the total number of deaths to be 303,504.
The Confederate forces are estimated from 600,000 to
1,000,000 men, and ever since the conclusion of the war there
has been no little controversy as to the total number of troops
involved. The losses in the Confederate army have never
been officially reported, but the United States War Depart
ment, which has been assiduously engaged in the collection of
all records of both armies, has many Confederate muster-rolls
on which the casualties are recorded. The tabulation of these
rolls shows that 52,954 Confederate soldiers were killed in
action, 21,570 died of wounds, and 59,297 died of disease. This
does not include the missing muster-rolls, so that to these fig
ures a substantial percentage must be added. Differences in
methods of reporting the strength of commands, the absence
of adequate field-records and the destruction of those actually
7
,
AFTER THE GREAT MASS MEETING IX UNION SQUARE, NEW YORK, APRIL 20, 1861
Knots of citizens still linger around the stands where Anderson, who had abandoned Sumter only six days
before, had just roused the multitude to wild enthusiasm. Of this gathering in support of the Government
the New York Herald said at the time: "Such a mighty uprising of the people has never before been witnessed
in New York, nor throughout the whole length and breadth of the Union. Five stands were erected, from
which some of the most able speakers of the city and state addressed the multitude on the necessity of
rallying around the flag of the Republic in this hour of its danger. A series of resolutions was proposed and
unanimously adopted, pledging the meeting to use every means to preserve the Union intact and inviolate.
Great unanimity prevailed throughout the whole proceedings; party politics were ignored, and the en
tire meeting speakers and listeners were a unit in maintaining the national honor unsullied. Major Ander-
son, the hero of Fort Sumter, was present, and showed himself at the various stands, at each of which he was
most enthusiastically received. An impressive feature of the occasion was the flag of Sumter, hoisted on
the stump of the staff that had been shot away, placed in the hand of the equestrian statue of Washington."
0f tip War
tip
made are responsible for considerable lack of information as
to the strength and losses of the Confederate army. There
fore, the matter is involved in considerable controversy and
never will be settled satisfactorily; for there is no probability
that further data on this subject will be forthcoming.
The immensity and extent of our great Civil War are
shown by the fact that there were fought 2,261 battles and en
gagements, which took place in the following named States:
In New York, 1 ; Pennsylvania, 9 ; Maryland, 30 ; District of
Columbia, 1; West Virginia, 80; Virginia, 519; North Caro
lina, 85; South Carolina, 60; Georgia, 108; Florida, 32;
Alabama, 78; Mississippi, 186; Louisiana, 118; Texas, 14;
Arkansas, 167; Tennessee, 298; Kentucky, 138; Ohio, 3; In
diana, 4 ; Illinois, 1 ; Missouri, 244 ; Minnesota, 6 ; California,
6; Kansas, 7; Oregon, 4; Nevada, 2; Washington Territory,
1; Utah, 1; New Mexico, 19; Nebraska, 2; Colorado, 4; Indian
Territory, 17; Dakota, 11; Arizona, 4; and Idaho, 1.
It soon became evident that the official record of the War
of 1861-5 must be compiled for the purposes of Government
administration, as well as in the interest of history, and this
work was projected near the close of the first administration
of President Lincoln. It has continued during the tenure of
succeeding Presidents, under the direction of the Secretaries
of War, from Edwin M. Stanton, under whom it began, to
Secretary Elihu Root, under w r hose direction it was completed.
As a successor to and complement of this Government publi
cation, nothing could be more useful or interesting than the
present publication. The text does not aim at a statistical
record, but is an impartial narrative supplementing the pic
tures. Nothing gives so clear a conception of a person or an
event as a picture. The more intelligent people of the country,
North and South, desire the truth put on record, and all bitter
feeling eliminated. This work, with its text and pictures, it
is believed, will add greatly to that end.
1, PATRIOT Pua CO.
RECRUITING ON BROADWAY, 1861
Looking north on Broadway
from "The Park" (later
City Hall Park) in war
time, one sees the Stars and
Stripes waving above the
recruiting station, past
which the soldiers stroll.
There is a convenient booth
with liquid refreshments.
To the right of the picture
the rear end of a street car is
visible, but passenger travel
on Broadway itself is by
stage. On the left is the
Astor House, then one of
the foremost hostelries of
the city. In the lower pho
tograph the view is from the
balcony of the Metropolitan
looking north on Broadway.
The twin towers on the left
are those of St. Thomas s
Church. The lumbering
stages, with the deafening
noise of their rattling win
dows as they drive over the
cobblestones, are here in
force. More hoop-skirts
are retreating in the dis
tance, and a gentleman in
the tall hat of the period
is on his way down town.
Few of the buildings seen
here remained half a cen
tury later. The time is sum
mer, as the awnings attest.
EDWIN M. STANTON
Secretary of War.
MONTGOMERY BLAIR
Postmaster-G eneral .
GIDEON WELLES
Secretary of the Navy.
SALMON P. CHASE
Secretary of the Treasury.
HANNIBAL HAMLIN
Vice-President.
MEMBERS OF
PRESIDENT LINCOLN S
OFFICIAL FAMILY
Other members were: War, Simon
Cameron (1861); Treasury, W. P.
Fesscnden, July 1, 1SG4, and Hugh
McCulloch, March 4, 18G5; Interior,
John P. Usher, January 8, 18G3; At
torney-General, James fe}n-ed, Decem
ber 2, 1864; Postmaster-General,
William Dennison, September $4,1864.
WILLIAM H. SEWAIID
Secretary of State.
CALEB B. SMITH
Secretary of the Interior.
EDWARD BATES
Attorney-General.
JAMES A. SEDDON
Secretary of ^Yar.
CHRISTOPHER G. MEMMINGER
Secretary of the Treasury.
STEPHEN R. MALLORY
Secretary of the Navy.
JOHN H. REAGAN
Postmaster-General.
MEN WHO HELPED PRESI
DENT DAVIS GUIDE THE
SHIP OF STATE
The members of the Cabinet were
chosen not from intimate friends of
the President, but from the men pre
ferred by the States they represented.
There was no Secretary of the In
terior in the Confederate Cabinet.
ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS
Vice-Pres ide n t .
JUDAH P. BENJAMIN
Secretary of State.
VICE-PRESIDENT STEPHENS
AND MEMBERS OF THE
CONFEDERATE CABINET
Judah P. Benjamin, Secretary of
State, has been called the brain of
the Confederacy. President Davis
wished to appoint the Honorable
Robert Barnwell, Secretary of State,
but Mr. Barnwell declined the honor.
GEORGE DAVIS
Attorney-General.
BULL RUN THE VOLUNTEERS
FACE FIRE
fT^HERE had been strife, a bloodless, political strife, for
M. forty years between the two great sections of the Ameri
can nation. No efforts to reconcile the estranged brethren of
the same household had been successful. The ties that bound
the great sections of the country had severed one by one;
their contention had grown stronger through all these years,
until at last there was nothing left but a final appeal to the
arbitrament of the sword then came the great war, the great
est civil war in the annals of mankind.
" Hostilities " began with the secession of South Carolina
from the Union, December 20, 1860. On January 9, 1861,
the Star of the West was fired upon in Charleston Harbor.
For the first time in the nation s history the newly-elected
President had entered the capital city by night and in secret,
in the fear of the assassin s plots. For the first time he had
been inaugurated under a military guard. Then came the
opening shots, and the ruined walls of the noble fort in Charles
ton harbor told the story of the beginnings of the fratricidal
war. The fall of Sumter, on April 14, 1861, had aroused the
North to the imminence of the crisis, revealing the danger that
threatened the Union and calling forth a determination to
preserve it. The same event had unified the South; four addi
tional States cast their lot with the seven which had already
seceded from the Union. Virginia, the Old Dominion, the first
born of the sisterhood of States, swung into the secession col
umn but three days after the fall of Sumter; the next day,
April 18th, she seized the arsenal at Harper s Ferry and on
the 20th the great navy-yard at Norfolk.
Two governments, each representing a different economic
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1861
and political idea, now stood where there had been but one the
North, with its powerful industrial organization and wealth;
the South, with its rich agricultural empire. Both were call
ing upon the valor of their sons.
At the nation s capital all was confusion and disorder.
The tramp of infantry and the galloping of horsemen through
the streets could be heard day and night. Throughout the
country anxiety and uncertainty reigned on all sides. Wtiuld
the South return to its allegiance, would the Union be divided,
or would there be war? The religious world called unto the
heavens in earnest prayer for peace; but the rushing torrent
of events swept on toward war, to dreadful internecine war.
The first call of the President for troops, for seventy-five
thousand men, was answered with surprising alacrity. Citi
zens left their farms, their workshops, their counting rooms,
and hurried to the nation s capital to take up arms in defense
of the Union. A similar call by the Southern President was
answered with equal eagerness. Each side believed itself in
the right. Both were profoundly sincere and deeply in earnest.
Both have won the respect of history.
After the fall of Fort Sumter, the two sides spent the
spring months marshaling their forces for the fierce conflict
that was to follow. President Lincoln had called for three-
months volunteers ; at the beginning of July some thirty thou
sand of these men were encamped along the Potomac about
the heights of Arlington. As the weeks passed, the great
Northern public grew impatient at the inaction and demanded
that Sumter be avenged, that a blow be struck for the Union.
The " call to arms " rang through the nation and aroused
the people. No less earnest was the feeling of the South, and
soon two formidable armies were arrayed against each other,
only a hundred miles apart at Washington and at Richmond.
The commander of the United States Army was Lieut.-
General Winfield Scott, whose military career had begun be
fore most of the men of 61 had been born. Aged and infirm,
Copyright by Review of Renews Co.
THE SOUTHERNER OF THE HOUR IN 61.
Born in New Orleans on May 28, 1818, the Southern leader upon whom at
first all eyes were turned, Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, was gradu
ated from the U. S. Military Academy in 1838. Gallant and dashing, he
won the brevets of Captain and Major in the war with Mexico and was
wounded at Chapultepec. Early in 61 he resigned from the army, and
joined the Confederacy, being in command of the Confederate forces in the
firing on Fort Sumter in April. Owing to his forceful personality, he became
a popular and noted leader in the Confederacy. After the Union defeat at
Manassas, he was looked upon as the coming Napoleon. He was confirmed as
Major-General in the Confederate army on July 30, 1861, but he had held the
provisional rank of Brigadier-General since February 20th, before a shot was
fired. After his promotion to Major-General, he commanded the Army of
the Mississippi under General A. S. Johnston, whom he succeeded at Shiloh.
He defended Charleston, S. C., in 1862-3 and afterward commanded the De
partment of North Carolina and Southeastern Virginia. He died at New
Orleans in 1893.
ull Sim
July
1861
***.
he remained in Washington. The immediate command of the
army was entrusted to Brigadier-General Irvin McDowell.
Another Union army, twenty thousand strong, lay at
Martinsburg, Virginia, under the command of Major-General
Patterson, who, like General Scott, was a veteran of the War
of 1812 and of the Mexican War.
Opposite McDowell, at Manassas Junction, about thirty
miles from Washington, lay a Confederate army under Brig
adier-General Beauregard who, three months before, had won
the homage of the South by reducing Fort Sumter. Opposed
to Patterson in the Shenandoah valley was Joseph E. John
ston with a force of nine thousand men. The plans of the
President and General Scott were to send McDowell against
Beauregard, while Patterson was to detain Johnston in the
Valley and prevent him from joining Beauregard. It was con
fidently believed that, if the two Confederate forces could be
kept apart, the " Grand Army " could win a signal victory over
the force at Manassas; and on July 16th, with waving banners
arid lively hopes of victory, amid the cheers of the multitude, it
moved out from the banks of the Potomac toward the interior
of Virginia. It was a motley crowd, dressed in the varied
uniforms of the different State militias. The best disciplined
troops were those of the regular army, represented by infan
try, cavalry, and artillery. Even the navy was drawn upon
and a battalion of marines was included in the Union forces.
In addition to the regulars were volunteers from all the New
England States, from New York and Pennsylvania and from
Ohio, Michigan, and Minnesota, organizations which, in an
swer to the President s call for troops, had volunteered for
three months service. Many were boys in their teens with
the fresh glow of youth on their cheeks, wholly ignorant of
the exhilaration, the fear, the horrors of the battle-field. On
ward through the Virginia plains and uplands they marched to
the strains of martial music. Unused to the rigid discipline
of war, many of the men would drop out of line to gather
Vu
W&&V&
ONE OF THE FIRST UNION VOLUNTEER REGIMENTS.
The First Minnesota, a regiment that fought in the flanking column at Bull Run. On April 14, 1861, the
day after Sumter s surrender, the Federal Government received an offer of a volunteer regiment from Minne
sota, and on April 29, the First Minnesota was mustered into service by Lieutenant W. W. Sanders, U. S. A.
Under Colonel William O. Gorman the regiment proceeded to Washington in June and, attached to Frank
lin s Brigade, Heintzelman s Division of McDowell s Army, at Bull Run gave an excellent account of itself,
finally retiring from the field in good order. A record for conspicuous bravery was sustained by the First
Minnesota throughout the war, notably its famous charge on the field of Gettysburg, July 2, 1863.
The photograph was taken just before the regiment left Fort Snelling in 1861. In the front line the first from the left is Lieut. Colonel
Stephen Miller, the next is Colonel Gorman. On his left hand is Major Dyke and next to him is Adjutant W. B. Leach. Between
the last two and behind them is Captain William Colvill, while at the left hand of Adjutant Leach is Captain Mark Downie. At
the extreme right of the picture stands General J. B. Sanborn with Lieutenant Sanders (mustering officer) on his right hand, and
on Sanders ri^ht is the Honorable Morton S. Wilkinson. Colvill, as Colonel, led the regiment in its Gettysburg charge.
v.
berries or tempting fruits along the roadside, or to refill their
canteens at every fresh stream of water, and frequent halts
were necessary to allow the stragglers to regain their lines.
After a two days march, with " On to Richmond " as
their battle-cry, the army halted at the quiet hamlet of Centre-
ville, twenty-seven miles from Washington and seven miles
from Manassas Junction where lay the waiting Confederate
army of similar composition untrained men and boys. Men
from Virginia, from North and South Carolina, from the
mountains of Tennessee, from Alabama, Mississippi, and
Georgia, even from distant Arkansas, had gathered on the soil
of the Old Dominion State to do battle for the Southern cause.
Between the two armies flowed the stream of Bull Run, destined
to give its name to the first great battle of the impending con
flict. The opposing commanders, McDowell and Beauregard,
had been long-time friends ; twenty-three years before, they had
been graduated in the same class at West Point.
Beauregard knew of the coming of the Federal army.
The news had been conveyed to him by a young man, a former
government clerk at Washington, whose sympathies, however,
lay with the cause of the South. He won the confidence of
Beauregard. The latter sent him to the capital city bearing
a paper with two words in cipher, " Trust Bearer." With this
he was to call at a certain house, present it to the lady within,
and wait a reply. Traveling all night, he crossed the Potomac
below Alexandria, and reached the city at dawn, when the
newsboys were calling out in the empty streets the latest intel
ligence of the army. The messenger rang the doorbell at a
house within a stone s throw of the White House and delivered
the scrap of paper to the only one in the city to whom it was
intelligible. She hurriedly gave the youth his breakfast, wrote
in cipher the words, " Order issued for McDowell to march
upon Manassas to-night," and giving him the scrap of paper,
sent him on his way. That night the momentous bit of news
was in the hands of General Beauregard. He instantly wired
COPYRIGHT, 1911, PATRIOT PUB. CO.
MRS. GREENHOW, THE CONFEDERATE SPY, WITH HER DAUGHTER, IN THE OLD CAPITOL PRISON
Mrs. Rose O Neal Greenhow, a zealous and trusted friend of the Confederacy, lived in Washington at the opening of the war. It was
she who, on July 16, 1861, sent the famous cipher message to Beauregard, "Order issued for McDowell to move on Manassas to-night."
Acting on this, Beauregard promptly arranged his army for the expected attack, while Johnston and "Stonewall" Jackson hastened from
the Valley to aid in repelling the Federal advance. Mrs. Greenhow s secret-service work was cut short on August 2Gth, when Allan
Pinkerton, the Federal detective, arrested her and put her under military guard at her home, 398 Sixteenth Street. Afterward she was
transferred to the Old Capitol Prison. She remained there until April, 1862. On June 2d, after pledging her word not to come north of
the Potomac until the war was over, Mrs. Greenhow was escorted beyond the lines of the L nion army and set at liberty. It was later
discovered that she had, even while in prison, c^ -responded extensively with Colonel Thomas Jordan, of General Beauregard s staff.
nil Sun
Ufalwttwra
V
x
President Davis at Richmond and asked that he be reenforced
by Johnston s army.
As we have seen, General Scott had arranged that
Patterson detain Johnston in the Valley. He had even ad
vised McDowell that " if Johnston joins Beauregard he shall
have Patterson on his heels." But the aged Patterson was
unequal to the task before him. Believing false reports, he
was convinced that Johnston had an army of thirty-five thou
sand men, and instead of marching upon Johnston at Win
chester he led his army to Chaiiestown, twenty miles in the
opposite direction. Johnston thereupon was free to join Beau-
regard at Manassas, and he promptly proceeded to do so.
McDowell s eager troops had rested at Centreville for
two days. The time for them to test their mettle in a general
engagement was at hand. Sunday, July 21st, was selected as
the day on which to offer battle. At half -past two in the
morning the sleeping men were roused for the coming conflict.
Their dream of an easy victory had already received a rude
shock, for on the day after their arrival a skirmish between
two minor divisions of the opposing armies had resulted in
the retreat of the Union forces after nineteen of their number