Russian relations ; treaties with China and other nations, . . 435
SECTION VII.
A NEW CAMPAIGN.
Southern blockade ; Du Font s fleet off Charleston harbor, . 436
Dahlgren and Gillmore ; operations resumed ; Fort Wagner, . 439
Sumter destroyed ; Charleston harbor in control, . . 440
Rosecrans in Tennessee ; Bragg forced southward ; Chattanooga
captured, 442
Return of Bragg ; battle of Chickamauga, 444
Thomas s firmness ; Bragg invests Chattanooga,
Grant summoned to command ; Rosecrans relieved ; new supplies, 448
Confederate movements ; battle of Chattanooga, . . .450
Sherman s advance ; Hooker on Lookout Mountain, . . . 451
Missionary Ridge carried ; Sheridan s pursuit, . . . .453
Burnside at Knoxville ; a loyal welcome ; Longstreet s move
ments, 455
Sherman brings relief ; retreat of Longstreet, .... 457
Campaign successfully ended ; Grant s merit recognized, . . 458
Bragg s mortification ; Confederate changes ; Johnston arrives, . 458
Winter operations unimportant ; Sherman s expedition, . 458, 460
CONTENTS.
SECTION VIII.
THE LONG SESSION OF CONGRESS.
PAGE
Long session opened ; House organizes ; President offers amnesty, 460
New legislation ; enrolment ; tariff ; internal revenue, . . 461
Other enactments ; Nevada a new State ; temper of Congress, . 462
A Presidential campaign opened, ...... 463
Chase and the "Pomeroy circular" ; opposition to Lincoln, . 463
Fremont and the Cleveland convention, 465
Union-Republican Convention at Baltimore ; Lincoln renomi-
nated, 466
Chase leaves the Cabinet ; Fessenden succeeds, .... 468
Dissensions in Congress ; reconstruction policy, .... 469
Fruitless peace missions ; temporary despondency, . . .471
Democratic convention at Chicago ; a peace platform, . . 472
McClellan nominated ; his acceptance, ..... 473
Party lines drawn ; old Whigs and abolitionists, .... 474
Arguments of the canvass ; Southern opinion, .... 475
The elections of 1863 ; military successes, 477
SECTION IX.
GRANT GENERAL-IN-CHIEF.
Grade of lieutenant-general revived ; Grant appointed, . . 478
Grant at Washington ; new promotions and preparations, . . 479
Meade and Lee after Gettysburg, 481
The President s military discretion ; Grant plans a grand cam
paign, 483
Grant s high subordinates ; preparations to move in concert, . 486
Grant advances in Virginia; battle of the Wilderness, . . 488
Night march to Spottsylvania ; Lee opposes, . . . .493
Prolonged fight at Spottsylvania, 494
Promotions and more troops ; new march by the flank, . . 500
Grant s change of base ; Butler s and Sheridan s movements ;
Cold Harbor, 502
SECTION X.
SHERMAN AND SHERIDAN.
Sherman commands at the West ; resources and preparations, . 505
The advance against Johnston ; various battles, .... 508
The Chattahoochee crossed and Atlanta threatened, . . .509
Johnston supplanted by Hood ; McPherson s death in battle, . 610
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Hood evacuates Atlanta ; important capture,
514
Movements in the Shenandoah Valley, *
. . 010
Hood evacuates ana ; , .
Sherman s opportune victory ; subsistence upon the foe, .
Grant s excellent subordinates ; Lee compared,
Movements in the Shenandoah Valley,
Early s Northern raids ; Sheridan placed in command, . . 010
Sheridan s victories over Early ; his memorable ride,
SECTION XT.
LINCOLN REFLECTED PRESIDENT.
Presidential campaign of 1864, . . ,
Disloyal plotters at the Northwest; raids from Canada;
519
Albans,
524
o25
McClelland canvass injured,
State indications ; Lincoln s overwhelming reelection .
Congratulations at the White House ; McClellan and Sheridan, .
Changes in the Cabinet ; Blair, Bates, and Fessenden retire, .
Taney s death ; Chase appointed Chief Justice . . 52b
Final session of Congress ; constitutional prohibition of slavery o28
Compassion for the negro ; a freedman s bureau ; the franchise, 531
President and Congress as to reconstruction, . .
Lincoln s latest views on this subject, . . .
Blair visits Richmond ; conference at Hampton Roads, . **
Last efforts of the Davis government, .
Desperate financial straits ; Southern distress, .
SECTION XII.
THUNDER ALL AROUND.
Grant s new base south of James River,
SsTo^^efruS^: app roach of winte, 544
ShermL s march through Georgia; Hood s counter movements,
Sherman begins the march ; foraging upon the foe, . . .
Milledgeville reached ; the seacoast ; Savannah captured, .
Sherman s unique methods ; his military traits . .
Thomas at Nashville ; plans of Beauregard and Hood,
Hood s eager advance ; battle of Franklin, . . .
Hood before Nashville ; Thomas s anxious responsibility . 5o8
Battle of Nashville and rout of Hood ; Johnston reinstated, 661
Farragut in Mobile Bay ; a naval fight and victory, . . .
546
548
552
554
555
556
CONTENTS. XXI
CHAPTER III.
SECOND ADMINISTRATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
MARCH 4, 1865-ApRiL 15, 1865.
SECTION I.
LINCOLN S SECOND INAUGURATION.
PAGE
Inaugural ceremonies ; a memorable address and occasion, . 565
Lincoln s Gettysburg oration, ....... 566
Impulse of reconciliation ; the Hampton Roads report, . . 566
Electoral count of February ; Lincoln s present Cabinet ; new
proclamations, 568
Confederacy in its death throes ; ruinous financial condition, . 568
Last session of Confederate Congress ; public recriminations, . 569
Bitterness of feeling in Southern States, . . . . .571
Disintegration of armies ; desertions ; wholesale conscription, . 571
Southern proposals to arm the negro ; too late for effect, . . 573
Dissipations of the hour ; Richmond starvation parties, . . 574
Union operations at Wilmington ; fall of Fort Fisher, . .575
Blockade-running stopped ; a hazardous commerce, . . . 578
The Kearsanje and Alabama off Cherbourg ; Winslow s victory, 578
Destruction of Confederate ram ; Cushing s exploit, . . . 580
SECTION II.
DOWNFALL OF THE CONFEDERACY.
Sherman s new march through the Carolinas, .... 581
Charleston falls ; Goldsboro approached, 582
Johnston at Bentonville ; Schofield and Sherman unite, . . 583
Sherman confers at City Point and returns, .... 584
Union cavalry raids ; Stoneman, Wilson, and Sheridan, . . 585
Grant s army at City Point ; James River preparations ; Sheridan
and Early, 586
Confederate assault fails at Fort Stedman, ..... 587
Grant s grand movement commenced ; orders to Sheridan, . 589
Lee strongly confronted ; Sheridan s fight at Five Forks, . . 590
Onset of the Potomac army ; Lee s line broken, .... 592
Evacuation compelled ; Lee s message to Davis and flight, . . 594
Petersburg and Richmond captured ; Grant in pursuit, . . 595
The chase to Appomattox ; a summons to surrender, . . . 596
Lee s army brought to bay ; final terms of surrender, . . 598
Armed resistance practically ended ; Grant s military merits, . 601
XXli CONTENTS.
SECTION III.
DEATH AND TRIUMPH.
PAGE
The Confederate government leaves Richmond, .... 604
The Sunday of evacuation ; turbulence and waste, . . . 605
Union troops quench flames and feed the hungry, . . . 606
President Lincoln visits Richmond from City Point, . . . 607
Submission without reconcilement ; a new calamity, . . . 608
The 14th of April ; Stars and Stripes raised at Sumter, . . 609
Peace and thankfulness at Washington; Lincoln s generous
disposition, .609
The last Cabinet meeting ; reconciling policy proposed, . . 610
Assassination of the President at Ford s Theatre, . . .611
Lincoln s death ; attempt on Scward s life ; the Booth conspiracy, 612
Pursuit and punishment of the assassins, ..... 613
A bereavement to South and North ; Europe mourns, . . 614
Andrew Johnson s accession ; a sterner policy foreshadowed, . 616
Surrender of Johnston s army to Sherman, . . . 616
Subsequent capitulations ; armies disbanded ; statistics, North
ern and Southern, 618
Capture of Jefferson Davis ; Confederate civil government ex
tinguished,
Triumph of Union diplomacy ; French withdraw from Mexico ;
Maximilian shot and Juarez government reestablished, . 621
Great Britain tenders indemnity ; new treaty negotiated, . . 622
A public funeral ; sorrow of the people, 622
Character and fame of Abraham Lincoln, 624
APPENDIX.
A. Electoral vote of 1864 for President and Vice-President, . 635
B. Length of sessions of Congress, 1861-1865, .... 635
GENERAL INDEX, 637
HISTORY
OF
THE CIVIL WAR.
CHAPTER I.
FIRST ADMINISTRATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
PERIOD OF THIRTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS.
MARCH 4, 1861 MARCH 4, 1863.
SECTION I.
A REPUBLICAN ADMINISTRATION.
THE farther we recede from the era of our great civil
strife, the more colossal stands out the figure of Abraham
Lincoln upon the dim perspective. As when one leaves
some mountain region, where comparative heights deceive
the immediate vision, the tallest peak among those cluster
ing giant forms seems solitary in grandeur when he looks
back from the distant plain; yet other high summits have
blended into the sky-line to enhance the symmetry and
splendor of that highest. Our martyr President never
through life stood alone; he lived among grand subordi
nates ; and though his head looked heavenward, as we no\\
well realize, his base was strongly rooted in common earth.
He lived in perfect harmony with his age and surroundings;
and when posterity fully comprehends how his character
and public purpose developed, it comprehends that loyal
generation of plain and freedom-loving Americans, who,
under God s guidance, solved the stupendous problem of
saving the Union and yet destroying slavery.
1
2 HISTORY" OF THE CIVIL WAR. CHAP. I.
What did not this son of the Mississippi Valley owe to the
Union, that he, one of the humblest of the whole people in
birth and early advantage, should have risen to the highest
official honors ? And what did he not owe to free industrial
surroundings besides, by migrating early from a slave State,
where caste would probably have kept him a poor white for
life, to that ampler domain across the Ohio River which the
Ordinance of 1787 had consecrated to liberal education and
equal rights ? Lincoln had struggled long and earnestly in
his younger years to win honorable renown ; and self-culture
brought him three matchless gifts for a high public career,
self-discipline, self-restraint, and self-reliance. All human
nature and occurrences he studied from a standpoint of his
own. That "tall, gaunt, melancholy man, 7 whose very
jocularity was tinctured by a sense of life s tragic lessons,
and whose lonely and abstracted moods, as he moved among
them, excited the sympathy of his neighbors and fellow-
townsmen, seemed predestined to influence for some political
crisis like the present. It was his unique and impressive
exposition of freedom and free speech in the Territories, of
the new Republican cause and creed, that made him a Presi
dential standard-bearer in 1860. Chosen chief magistrate
without a previous executive experience, state or national,
long unfamiliar with Washington life, and having little
personal acquaintance with the recognized dominators of
national thought except for Douglas, his late adversary,
who had once looked condescendingly upon him, he was
easily thought lacking in appreciation of the tremendous
task which awaited him ; yet, posterity should recall him as,
at Springfield, the home where he had dwelt for a quarter
of a century, and to which he never returned alive, he took
sad leave of his friends and neighbors, announcing his con
viction that a duty devolved upon him greater than had
i86i. devolved upon any other man since the days of
Feb - Washington a duty which Divine aid alone could
enable him to perform. 1 He comprehended his task better
1 See Am. Cycl. 1861, 410. This admirable and pathetic speech has
received less historical notice than it deserves.
1861. BEFORE THE INAUGURATION. 3
than most of his countrymen. They looked for some
miracle to relieve the present duty; he felt that miracles
must fail, that his duty and theirs must be met with
courage. Observe now his various utterances as he jour
neyed eastward, utterances which disappointed so many
at the time because their own minds were set upon schemes
of sectional compromise, and their drift is seen to estab
lish that, failing all such schemes, as was now most likely,
loyal people must rely at length upon their own united
courage and constancy to save the Union. " I would rather
be assassinated on this spot," he proclaimed at Philadelphia
in his clear and piercing voice, on the 22d of February
anniversary, when raising the stars and stripes over old
Independence Hall, "than surrender that sentiment in the
Declaration of Independence which gave liberty, not alone
to the people of this country, but to the world for all future
time." 1
To the few gifted for governing, a year is worth the
decade of ordinary men, and a lesser sphere expands conti
dence for the greater. One single term s experience in
Congress during the Whig era had given Lincoln the epit
ome of Washington life and a range of Southern acquaint
ance not to be forgotten ; 2 and in Springfield, the capital of
the growing State of Illinois, to which he belonged, he had
long seen in miniature that political upheaval which agon
ized the nation. From leader in that State of a party
minority which revolutionized public opinion on the issue
of slavery extension, he assumed with serene self-possession
the place of public leader for a like national controversy.
And when chosen President, he proceeded with the same
calm reserve to shut himself up at his home and compose
unaided an inaugural address, which he brought with him
to Washington already printed. That address, as he wrote
it by himself, showed a sober purpose to treat secession as
void and to maintain the Union unbroken ; to take care, as
1 Am. Cyclop. 1861, 418. For the other speeches of this journey,
see /&., 410-420.
2 See, e.g. vol. V, 493, 499.
4 HISTORY OF THE CIVIL WAR. CHAP. I.
the constitution expressly enjoined upon him, that the laws
of the Union were faithfully executed in all the States ; to
hold, occupy and possess the property and places belonging
to the Government, and even to repossess himself when he
could of the places and property already taken. This was a
plain position, if men could only understand him to mean as
he said. Such words he did not wish regarded as a menace,
" but only as the declared purpose of the Union that it will
constitutionally defend and maintain itself." Nor did he
mean to invade or to use more force than necessary in pur
suing these ends ; for " there need be no bloodshed or
violence, and there shall be none unless forced upon the
national authority." He had no purpose, directly or indi
rectly, to interfere with slavery in the States where it
existed ; he did not object to the proposed constitutional
amendment which forbade all such Federal interference; 1
and he recognized, moreover, the full authority of the
people to amend the existing constitution as they might
see fit in the future, under the modes which that instrument
prescribed.
A few private copies of this drafted address Lincoln sub
mitted to personal friends before his inauguration ; and the
comments of Seward, his intended premier, were especially
invited. That distinguished son of New York, who had
labored as a Senator through the perplexing winter, to bring
the first of Republican administrations safely into place,
was extremely solicitous for an auspicious start. His hope
for peace, his desire to conciliate and his taste for smooth
expression, led him to suggest some changes which Lincoln
for the most part adopted. A few quaint or dubious phrases
were thus smoothed over ; the blunt statement of a purpose
to retake and repossess was dropped ; 2 but as to the general
tenor and argument there was nothing which friendly criti-
1 Vol. V, 507.
2 Seward drafted as a less alarming substitute an ambiguous state
ment of policy ; but Lincoln in preference struck out the objectionable
passage, following apparently the suggestion of another friendly
critic (Orville H. Browning), who had said, " You might get back the
fallen places, but do not announce that you mean to. " 3 N. & H. c. 21.
1861. THE INAUGURATION SCENE. 5
cism could alter or object to. Chief of all the changes,
perhaps, was that which replaced the categorical conclusion
of Lincoln s draft, which threatened like low thunder, by
a closing passage of exquisite grace and tenderness, whose
melody lingered long as an angelic strain ; it was the last
appeal for a departing conciliation, the first prophecy that
it would yet return. 1
That final passage of a most admirable inaugural address
Abraham Lincoln pronounced with suppressed feeling as he
stood at the east front of the Capitol, on the day of
. IP March 4.
the induction ceremonies, lacing a crowd or spec
tators, many of whom truly believed or even hoped that
this national occasion would be the last. The 4th of
March came in 1861 on Monday ; and while the weather
was variable, clouds dispersed and a chilly wind subsided
as the day drew on. A small wooden canopy before the
grand eastern portico sheltered the public dignitaries,
among whom were to be seen Buchanan, the retiring Presi
dent, careworn and ill at ease ; Chief Justice Taney, bowed
with years and frail of aspect, who sat, robed in black silk,
ready to administer at the close of this address the same
oath he had administered to six predecessors; and those
two defeated candidates of the sundered Democracy, Breck-
inridge and Douglas. Breckinridge, now retiring as Vice-
President, had borne his part honorably in the electoral
count, whatever disaffection he might have felt ; Douglas,
no longer condescending, held courteously the hat of the
president-elect, which he had taken when the ceremonies
began. To the crowd of auditors in front, some drawn by
1 This fine passage was roughly sketched by Seward, but Lincoln
shaped out the finer imagery. " We are not enemies, but friends. We
must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not
break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretch
ing from every battle-field and patriot grave, to every living heart and
hearthstone over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the
Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels
of our nature." See 3 N. & H. c. 21 ; 2 Seward s Life, 517.
6 HISTORY OF THE CIVIL WAR. CHAP. I
sympathy and others by critical curiosity, Senator Baker of
Oregon, a personal and political friend, presented the man
of the occasion, Abraham Lincoln, who, walking deliberately
forward to the front of the canopy, bowed in response to the
faint cheers that greeted him, and, after adjusting his glasses,
read his address from printed sheets, altered by his pen,
which lay upon a small table in front of him, and were kept
in place by his cane. The applause increased as he went on,
and though the reader s voice seemed to falter in the last
affecting paragraph, it had otherwise its usual penetrating
tone. 1
A strange and ominous spectacle was presented. The
old steps of this eastern portico had disappeared ; the new
ones were not yet in place, and spectators gathered before a
sheer wall, as it were, to confront a chief magistrate spe
cially introduced who spoke down as though from the
height of some safe fortress. That superb central dome
of the Capitol extension, which grew presently to be the
crowning visible glory of our Capitol, was quite incomplete, 2
and the spectator, perchance, whose gaze wandered care
lessly during the ceremony toward that circular mass of
exquisite marble whose iron crown was wanting, felt that
this dome would never round to its finish. It symbolized,
at this imperfect stage of progress, some allegorical flight of
the genius of Union, which, one might fancy, had just burst
its cerement and soared from the temple, leaving a wreck
behind. Was it possible that so splendid an architectural
type of national growth and expansion as this grand edifice,
should be arrested midway in its enlargement, surmounted
in high air by this unfinished cage, so to speak, of public
aspirations ?
Though concealed from sight as much as possible, precau
tions against riotous outbreak had been carefully taken.
The carriage in which Lincoln and Buchanan came and
returned together over Pennsylvania Avenue had been
closely guarded in front and rear by a military escort of
1 Newspapers of the day ; 3 N. & H. c. 21.
2 See picture in 2 Seward s Life, 516.
1861. THE INAUGURATION SCENE. 7
regulars and the District militia. Cavalry detachments pro
tected the crossings at the great squares; skilled riflemen
were posted on the roofs of convenient houses with orders to
watch windows opposite from which a shot might be fired.
On Capitol Hill the private entrance and exit of the presi
dential party was through a covered passageway on the
north side, lined by police, with trusted troops near by.
General Charles P. Stone of the regular army took immedi
ate charge of these preparations; but the veteran Scott
supervised the whole, and watched intently the ceremonies,
stationed with his battery of light artillery on the brow of
the hill near the Senate entrance. 1 " God be praised ! "
was Scott s hearty utterance, when a prominent Republican, 2
returning from the rotunda, assured him that all was going
well. All day long the stars and stripes floated from build
ings in the city, public and private, in token of Union sen
timent, and many were the efforts made to give to the new
regime a loyal if not hospitable welcome ; yet, though the
whole programme of the day was worked out, disquiet was
felt, for Southerners here had long given the social tone. 3
So tardy on this 4th of March had been the inaugural
ceremonies that the sun-dial marked half-past one in the
afternoon before Lincoln began his address ; for the final
pressure of Congressional business kept President Buchanan
at the Capitol signing bills until the stroke of noon, while
the procession at the other end of the avenue waited for
him. Those last hours of the Thirty-sixth Congress wit
nessed exciting scenes. 4 In the new Senate Chamber a
twelve hours session from the twilight of Sunday evening,
the 3d, showed by gaslight a lively spectacle ; galleries were
crowded during the midnight debate ; lobbyists pushed vig-
1 1 B. & L. 24 ; 3 N. & H. c. 21.
2 Thurlow Weed.
3 Newspapers of the day ; Am. Cycl. 1861, 751, 752 ; Chittenden s
Recollections, 82, etc. ; 2 Seward, c. 54.
4 This year, for the first time in our annals, records the date of an
expiring Congress as " March 4th," instead of " March 3d."
8 HISTORY OF THE CIVIL WAR CHAP. I.
orously about the entrances, and with Crittenden, Douglas,
Wade, Wigfall, and Trumbull contending earnestly in argu
ment, it seemed as though Aaron Burr s famous prediction
were about to be realized, that on this floor would be wit
nessed the death-throes of our expiring Kepublic. 1 But at
seven in the morning of Inauguration Day an adjournment
was carried, and at ten o clock both branches of Congress
reassembled, the burden of unfinished business resting upon
the Senate. There, as the hands of the clock pointed at
noon, the hammer fell and Hannibal Hamlin took the chair,
sworn in as Vice-President, while Breckinridge, his prede
cessor, now joined the group of new members in front of
the desk who waited to be sworn in as senators. While
oaths were being administered, the guests began gathering
in the chamber, and by the time that the Presidential car
riage stopped outside, this decorous branch of Congress,
Democratic an hour before, had become, through the defec
tion of Southern States, Republican in preponderance, with
a Republican Vice-President in the chair. 2
To a Senate thus reorganized in harmony with the new
administration, and reassembled in executive session on
Tuesday noon, the list of President Lincoln s Cabinet was
brought from the White House by John G. Nicolay, his
chosen private secretary. William H. Seward of New York,
was nominated Secretary of State ; Salmon P. Chase of Ohio,
Secretary of the Treasury ; Simon Cameron of Pennsylvania,
Secretary of War ; Gideon Welles of Connecticut, Secretary
of the Navy ; Caleb B. Smith of Indiana, Secretary of the
Interior ; Edward Bates of Missouri, Attorney-General ; and
Montgomery Blair of Maryland, Postmaster-General. Thk
whole list was promptly confirmed by the Senate ; indeed
unanimously, except that a few Southern votes were thrown