120 THE PRINCE DE JOINVILLE. [1862. Be good enough to assure your sons and daughters of my best regard, and believe me, etc., etc. Adverting to the recent disasters, and deploring the state of affairs, the Prince added: "But still I remain hopeful." Seward wrote in reply: All through the summer, I was oppressed by the conviction that we were needing troops, to supply the waste of our armies, and give them the efficiency required for such vast operations. When the first indication of the danger of the force at Richmond reached me, I seized the occasion, and went Northward. The result is highly satisfactory. We shall, within twenty or thirty days, make the Army stronger than ever. The journey carried me along so rapidly, that I missed you at New York, just as I had done at this capital. I wanted, personally, to thank you, and your gallant kinsmen, in the name of my afflicted country, and of humanity, for the chivalrous aid you and they have rendered us. The gratitude is none the less sincere, because I am sure that their history and your own will be ennobled by it. I shall not willingly believe, my dear Prince, that I am never to see yourself and those noble young men again. Do not entertain a single misgiving. Slavery has found allies and sympathizers in this contest, which I did not foresee. But it is, nevertheless, not to prevail. Those three hundred thousand men we are raising will swell in number to five hundred thousand. All the contingencies of the war are in our thoughts. Our Navy is ripening for them. We shall not be divided, and we shall neither compromise ourselves, nor accept mediation, nor submit to forcible intervention. I have been careful to treasure all your letters. I pray you, and the young gentlemen, to give me, from time to time, the benefit of what information you may have, and of your always candid opinions. On the 2d of August, he wrote his daughter: Your letters are Blessed, my dear child, is the cheerfulness of the young. pleasing to me, because they bring no alarm, no remonstrances, no complaints, and no reproaches. They are the only letters which come to me, free from excitement. It is a startling sight to see the mind of a great people, saddened, angered, soured, all at once, and it is a painful thing to have all its anger, its fear, its uncharitableness poured, without reserve, into your own heart. If General McClellan had taken Richmond, few would have thought to congratulate, none would have thought to thank me for it. Heaven knows that I did all I could to enable him to do it, as I have spared no pains, since his failure, to retrieve and restore the fortunes of the country. If there is, in the whole country, outside of my own family, one person who is content to aid me in this, with equanimity and cheerfulness, without expressedly or impliedly censuring me, for assumed delinquency, he does not write me. My table groans, and my heart sinks, under the weight of complaints that I can put to no practicable use. If I should let a shade of this 1862.] THE NEED OF REINFORCEMENTS. 121 popular despondency fall upon a dispatch, or even rest upon my own countenance, there would be black despair throughout the whole country. Write to me then cheerfully, as you are wont to do, of boys and girls and dogs and horses, and birds that sing, and stars that shine and never weep, and be blessed for all your days, for thus helping to sustain a spirit that loves to contend with crime, and yet is sensitive to distrust and unkindness. He wrote to Mrs. Seward: August 7. We are having dreadfully hot weather. It is comfortable only at night. I went with the President to inspect the fortifications, and review the troops on the opposite side of the river, on Tuesday, and knocked up my horses. I fear that I shall lose the best one, and the loss of one involves the giving up of both, since they are matched. Augustus has gone to Harrison's Landing. He left on Monday, expecting to remain absent at least two weeks. The The The period, now five weeks, since the battles at Richmond, has been one of anxiety and perplexity. Before that time we knew and felt the need of troops for reinforcements, everywhere. But the armies were demoralized by the sympathies and interference of visitors, Congressmen and relatives. A strong tide flowed out from them all, and it seemed impossible to check it. Contrary to what the public thinks, we were appealing for recruits, but none came. people assumed that all was safe, and forgot that they had more to do. repulse of General McClellan awakened them to the discovery of the danger. We appealed to them for instant reinforcements. But the appeal fell upon a disturbed, confused, wrangling, impatient, and impracticable mass. We have been five weeks at the mercy of the enemy, if they are, indeed, half as strong and half as bold as they are represented. We called for soldiers. Committees came to advise, to complain, to reproach. We asked soldiers. The public fell to wrangling about whether we should not call upon negroes in regions where we could not enter, and whether, if we should call upon them, the soldiers already in the field in the border States should not march out of our ranks and join the rebels in expelling us from all the ground we have won. At last, the waves of popular commotion seem to be beginning to subside. The troops are going to come. Will they come soon enough? I hope so, but I am very anxious. For want of them, McClellan's magnificent Army is left in danger. Washington is exposed, Vicksburg is left and abandoned to the enemy. Even the contrabands, who were taken from the plantations and employed there in digging the canal, are left to fall back into slavery. The public mind seizes quickly upon theoretical schemes for relief, but is slow in the adoption of the practical means necessary to give them effect. But this is Government; this is Government in war-in civil war. Many persons, I might say most persons, think, that success is obtained by the indulgence of passionate and revengeful utterances in laws and proclamations, without bayonets to enforce them. It is the common mistake of men loving authority, but ignorant how to exercise it. It is the schoolmaster with his ferule. It is the noisy, scolding housewife in her distracted family. 122 "WE ARE COMING, FATHER ABRAHAM." [1862. You will think me sad. I am not. I am now, as always, hopeful; more hopeful than any around me. But it is because I see that the people cannot be long withheld from practical ways, in great emergencies. CHAPTER XV. Recruits and Reinforcements. Removal of the "Army of the Potomac" from the Peninsula. Combining Forces. A Difficult and Hazardous Movement. The Battles in Virginia. Confederates Cross the Potomac and Invade Maryland. McClellan Moves North to Meet Them. Confederate Advances in the West. Naval Enterprises. New Iron-Clads. The March of a Great Army. Battle of South Mountain. ONE morning at the breakfast table, Seward read aloud some lines he found in the newspaper: "We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more, From Mississippi's winding stream, and from New England's shore. We are coming, we are coming, our Union to restore, We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more!" Other verses went on, recounting the various regions where regiments were mustering. He laid down the paper with a pleased expression, saying, "Volunteering will go on as long as poets can sing But I suppose no poet would praise a draft. We shall in its favor. get the troops." The verses went the round of the press, and with subsequent alterations and adaptations, became one of the well-known lyrics of the war. During the rest of the summer the Administration was unremitting in its endeavors to reinforce the armies, to counteract the renewed activity manifested by the Confederates. Seward said in his diplomatic circular: August 13, 1862. Exaggeration of the forces of the insurgents, and depreciation of our own, have been the busy occupation of too many among us since the disappointment of our own expeditions at Richmond. It was unavoidable, because it is natural for men, and especially for masses, to be disturbed and demoralized, for a time, by the failure of sanguine expectations. You are entitled, however, to the information, that in my opinion our forces in the field, although not demonstrative, are adequate to the task of holding the vast territories we have recovered. 1862.] COMBINING TWO ARMIES. 123 The new volunteers, three hundred thousand in number, are beginning to move to-day for the places of rendezvous, to reinforce the Army in the field; and forty days will suffice to bring forward also the three hundred thousand militia which have been called for. General Halleck evinces great skill, activity, and grasp in reorganizing our forces for renewing military operations. General Pope had on Saturday, the 9th, a successful engagement with a portion of the insurgent army. To his own department he addressed this circular: There are thirty-two of us now employed in this department; of whom fifteen are between the ages of eighteen and forty-five. I think we should furnish at least that number of volunteers for the military service, either personally, or by volunteers enrolled through our exertions respectively. I propose to furnish three such volunteers; and I invite your immediate consideration of the means of finding the others. The places of those who personally volunteer will be retained for them until the expiration of their term of service. A city newspaper, a few days later, remarked: The clerks responded to the proposition with enthusiasm; twelve of them have already been enrolled, and the others will be promptly forthcoming. A little incident which occurred yesterday still further illustrates Secretary Seward's patriotism. During the morning he sent a note to Captain Harrover (who is engaged in recruiting District soldiers), requesting him to send to his office eight recruits. They were sent, and as soon as they appeared before the Secretary, he handed one of them a neat little package, upon which they retired and opened the mysterious envelope, when, to their surprise, they discovered a fifty-dollar treasury note for each one of them. His circular continued: August 18. General Halleck, upon taking command of the Army, made a careful survey of the entire military position; and concluded thereupon to withdraw the Army of the Potomac from the Peninsula, and to combine all our forces in front of Richmond. The measure was a difficult and delicate one. It is believed to have been substantially accomplished. The disturbed condition of affairs in New Orleans is giving away slowly; and commerce is reviving there. He wrote to his daughter: We are having a very warm time, and suffering in more than one way by the heat. My best horse was sunstruck on Tuesday; and he died to-day. The preparation for the war is beginning anew; and now, with even more vigor than heretofore. The British nation sympathizes with the insurgents. The British Government either sympathizes, or allows itself to seem to sympathize, with them. Vessels are continually sent out from British ports; and many of them are even built there for the insurgent service. The Government neglects to en 124 POPE CONFRONTING LEE. [1862. force the neutrality it has proclaimed. Our cruisers seize those vessels, and British cruisers are on the watch, to see that the seizure is made in conformity with the Law of Nations. This begets disputes, and most of my time is occupied in settling them, with a view to avoid foreign war. It is a sad, as well as a perplexing duty, this of mine. Almost all American citizens think passion is energy. Some one has to exert an influence to prevent the war from running into social conflict; and battles being given up for indiscriminate butchery. I hope and trust that I may succeed in doing this; and we may see an end of this fratricidal strife. On the 21st, he wrote: If this were not a period of deep anxiety, I should now have been with you at Auburn. But at present this indulgence may not be had. General McClellan, with a large army on the bank of the James river, threatened Richmond, without having force enough to capture it. He thus held the enemy's main army at Richmond. General Pope, with a much smaller army than McClellan's or the enemy's, has been near the Rappahannock, covering this city and threatening the enemy's communication with Richmond. General Halleck, on surveying the condition of affairs, decided that the two Union armies must be combined, on this side of Richmond. But how to do it? The enemy might strike McClellan, on his retreat down the Peninsula; or finding that he was gone, might hasten to the Rappahannock and destroy Pope. The first part of the programme has been successfully executed, McClellan has safely withdrawn from the presence of the enemy to Yorktown and Fortress Monroe; and is now moving his army up the Potomac to the Rappahannock. The enemy is in front of, and marching against Pope, with all his forces. Will the enemy be able to deliver battle to Pope before he is adequately reinforced by McClellan? If so, it must be done within two days. What is the stake? They say that it is nothing less than this capital; and, as many think, the cause also. Behold, now, the military position; and learn from it, why we are impatient of the delay of our volunteers. If all goes well for us, you will understand how it was done. If you hear of disaster, before this letter reaches you, or soon after, you will understand how and why it came. This information is forbidden to the public at present; but you will not publish it. His circular continued: August 22. The country, for a time unaccustomed to reverses, seemed at first to be confounded by their disappointment. Disputes about responsibilities for the failure, apprehensions, multifarious and passionate counsels, succeeded, encouraging the insurgents, and their agents and sympathizers abroad. Our condition may be summed up in the few words, that we are reorganizing and preparing for a new campaign. Rumors of intrigues abroad for foreign intervention reach the Government continually, but they do not at present produce uneasiness. |