1861.]

CONFEDERATE HOPES.

101

The battle of Bull Run, or Manassas, as the victors chose to call it, had a very different effect upon the two parties. Although the Confederates had won in the struggle, they really gained nothing from it, and some of their writers have not hesitated to call it the greatest misfortune that could have happened to them. The larger part of the Southern people looked upon it as the end of the war, and Confederate newspapers boasted of the prowess of the sons of the South, and openly asserted that one Southerner was equal to five Yankees in a stand-up fight. This was the talk, too, of their orators, and even the Confederate officials believed that, although there might be a few more skirmishes, independence was virtually attained. One of their principal historians says that politicians began to discuss who should be the next President of the Confederacy, although the election was nearly six years distant, and the different States disputed which of their cities should be honored as the chosen site of the Confederate Capital. Thus, inspired with a false confidence and wholly ignorant of the deep-set determination of the North to restore the Union at all hazards, they wasted their time in silly glorification, while their enemies diligently went to work to retrieve their first blunder. their victory had for them one good effect. Previous to it there had been many of their citizens who, if not professed Unionists, had been lukewarm in the cause of the Confederacy; but after it all became as one people, and devoted their money and their lives to the new government.

But

The news of the defeat was received very differently at the North. Union orators, clergymen, and newspapers had talked so persistently about the justice and holiness of the cause that the people had begun to think that nothing but a little selfsacrifice was necessary to overcome the hosts of secession, and that the right would prevail no matter how great the odds against it. This opinion was strengthened when the people rose as one man after the fall of Sumter and the enthusiastic volunteers marched to Washington, and everybody looked forward to a speedy if not a bloodless campaign. But Bull Run largely disabused them of these notions. Those who met the enemy there found that the Confederates were inspired with no less patriotism and self-sacrificing devotion, and that they as firmly believed in the justice of their cause as did the most

ardent Unionists. They believed, too, that the war against them was an unjust war of aggression, for which there was no authority under the Constitution-nay, more, that the contest on their part was the last great struggle on this continent for the civil liberty for which their fathers had fought, and for which they were as willing to lay down their lives as were their opponents in defence of the Union. "You have fought for your cause; I die for mine," said a wounded Georgian with a smile, as a

BULL RUN MONUMENT.

Union soldier gave him a cup of water while he lay in the throes of death on the battle-field; and many like instances told the brave fellows who bore the brunt of the battle on the Union side that the newspapers and the politicians had deceived them in regard to the character of the men they were to meet.

The Unionists, with their eyes thus rudely opened, saw that the country had before it a long and terrible struggle, which would tax its resources to the utmost; and though many of the

best men quailed before the immensity of the task, the greater part of the people upheld the government at Washington and determined that the Union must be preserved. On the very Monday (July 22) when the panic-stricken fugitives from Bull Run filled the streets of Washington, Congress sat all day in calm deliberation, and the House of Representatives passed unanimously the following resolution:

"Resolved That the maintenance of the Constitution, the preservation of the Union, and the enforcement of the laws are sacred trusts which must be executed; that no disaster shall discourage us from the most ample performance of this high duty;

1861.]

MCCLELLAN IN COMMAND.

103

and that we pledge to the country and the world the employment of every resource, national and individual, for the suppression, overthrow, and punishment of rebels in arms."

Sentiment was now laid aside, and preparation for the struggle began in dread earnest. General McClellan, who had won the confidence of all by his successes in Western Virginia, was called to Washington the day after Bull Run and put in command of the Army of the Potomac. The whole North went to work with an energy unknown before. Money was raised, armies set on foot, and navies built in the long months of military inactivity which followed Bull Run, for the South, reposing in fancied security upon its laurels, made no attempt to follow up its success, and the spring of 1862 found the Union fully prepared to grapple with its foe, whom it had learned no longer to despise.

Four years after the battle of Bull Run, when the war had ended, a monument was built on the field by some Massachusetts and Pennsylvania soldiers, in memory of their comrades who fell in the fight. It stands on a mound, not far from the site of Mrs. Henry's house, on the place where the struggle raged fiercest. The illustration gives a very good idea of it. The monument is of sandstone, with a 100-pounder shell on the top, and similar shells are placed at each corner of the base. It bears the inscription:

IN MEMORY OF THE PATRIOTS WHO FELL AT BULL RUN,
JULY 21, 1861.

14 1

COMMON BAYONET.

TROWEL BAYONET,

SWORD BAYONET.

CHAPTER VIII.

BOONVILLE.-WILSON'S CREEK.

MILITARY IMPORTANCE OF CAIRO.-BIRD'S POINT.-LYON IN COMMAND IN MISSOURI.-GOVERNOR JACKSON CALLS FOR VOLUNTEERS AGAINST THE UNION.-BATTLE OF BOONVILLE.-FIGHT NEAR CARTHAGE,-FRANZ SIGEL'S RETREAT.-FREMONT IN COMMAND IN THE WEST.-BEN MCCULLOCH.-BATTLE AT DUG SPRING.-WILSON'S CREEK.-THE CONFEDERATES SURPRISED.-A FALSE FLAG.-WHERE IS SIGEL?-DEATH OF LYON.-RETREAT TO SPRINGFIELD.-STORY OF EDDY, THE DRUMMER-BOY.

WE

E must now return to the West and see what has been taking place there during these stirring events around Washington. A glance at the map will show how Illinois, Kentucky, and Missouri come together nearly in a point at the junction of the Ohio with the Mississippi River, while a part of Tennessee lies on the Mississippi opposite Missouri but a little way below the junction. It was considered very important by both parties in the beginning of the war to get possession of the great rivers, because troops and munitions of war could be transported much more easily by water than over land. The Confederates saw that if they could establish themselves at Cairo, in Illinois, on the point between the Ohio and the Mississippi, they could keep the Unionists from coming down the Ohio and going up the Mississippi to St. Louis, and could also shut them out from the lower Mississippi, which below that point ran wholly through slave States. But the Unionists, alive to the importance of the place, were too quick for them, and in May, 1861, they established a camp there of several thousand men, who threw up strong earthworks, mounted with heavy cannon, commanding both rivers. After that, steamboats and other vessels were obliged to stop there and report to the commandant before being allowed to pass either up or down.

Cairo stands on ground so low that but for its levée, or earth embankment thrown up along both rivers, it would often be overflowed. Directly opposite, in Missouri, is Bird's Point, on a bluff higher than Cairo; and as cannon placed there would command the Union position, it was occupied by Missouri Union volunteers, who threw up earthworks and constructed a strong camp. The Confederates, thus foiled, began to form plans for the capture of Cairo.

1861.]

LYON AND SIGEL.

105

Meanwhile General Lyon, who by his energy had preserved the city of St. Louis from falling into the hands of the disunionists, had been appointed to the command of the Union forces in Missouri, in place of General Harney. Governor Jackson, who had assembled his legislature at Jefferson City, the capital of the State, issued a proclamation (June 12) calling for fifty thousand volunteers to drive the Union troops, whom he called invaders, out of Missouri. Major-General Sterling Price, who had been made commander of the State forces, and the several brigadier-generals under him were ordered to organize the militia as soon as possible, and gather them at Boonville and Lexington, two places

on the Missouri River, northwest of Jefferson City.

General Lyon, determined to break up this force at once, started with two thousand men on two steamboats from St. Louis, June 13, and arrived at Jefferson City two days afterward; but Jackson, hearing of his coming, had gone to Boonville. General Lyon followed, and on Monday, June 17, after a

BIRDS POINT

brisk fight, dispersed the force there with but small loss to either side; but many prisoners were taken, most of them youths under age, who were released next day on promising not to take up arms again against the United States. The Confederates retreated southward toward Arkansas, where they expected General Ben McCulloch to come to their aid, and being joined by the troops at Lexington and by others, soon formed a well-organized body of nearly four thousand men.

Meanwhile another Union army, about fifteen hundred strong, under Colonel Franz Sigel, had gone by railroad from