Page images
PDF
EPUB

THE PRESIDENT'S SECOND CALL FOR TROOPS.

Lawrence, Mass....
Lowell, Mass.......
London, Ohio.......
Lancaster, Pa....

Pa.

141

$5,000 | Rhode Island, State. $500,000 | passage to the Capital, by any and every route es

8,000 Rochester.....

1,000 Rockland, Me....

5,000 Salem, Mass..

10,000

Lebanon county,
Stowe, Mass.
Maine, State.... ..1,300,000 Schenectady, N. Y.
Michigan,vari's pl's. 50,000 Seneca Falls, N. Y..
31,000 Stockbridge, Mass..
5,000 Sycamore, Ill......
2,000 St. Albans, Vt.....
6,000 Sag Harbor, N. Y..
3,000 Sar. Springs, N. Y..

Maiden, Mass..
Madison, Ind..

Milwankee, Wis....

Marblehead, Mass..

Mount Holley, N. J.

Morristown, N. J...

3,000 Southboro, Mass....

Mystic, Ct...

7.000 Syracuse, N. Y...

Madison, Wis....

9,000 Salisbury, Mass.

Marlboro', Mass....

10,000 Shelburne, Vt..

Marshfield, Mass...

5,000 Schuylkill Co., Pa..

New York State....3,000,000 Sutton, Mass..
New York City.....2,173,000 | Troy, N. Y.,

New Jersey State...1,000.000
Newark, N. J............ 136.000

New Haven, Ct.....
Norwich, Ct.....
New London, Ct....
N. Brunswick, N. J.
Needham, Mass....
Newtown, Mass...
N. Andover, Mass....
Noblesville, Ind....
Newbury, Mass...

10,000

2.000

69,000

10.000

15,000

2.000

3,000

10,000
3,000
2,000
2.000
34,000
5.000
1,000

6,000

5,000

sential to the purposes of the Government, must be attained peaceably if possible, but by force of arms 2,000 if necessary. The time for temporizing and forbear3,000 ing with this rebellion is past. On Saturday last an 4.000 additional requisition was made for twenty-five regiments of infantry, and one of cavalry. There have been more companies tendered than will make up the entire complement. The Governor communicates the fact that the Banks of the Commonwealth have 30,000 voluntarily tendered any amount of money necessary 48,000 for the common defense and general welfare of the 5,000 State and nation. The loan of five hundred thousand dollars is not yet exhausted, as it is impossible to have the accounts properly settled; but a much larger sum will be required. The Legislature has been convened not only to complete the reorganization of the militia laws of the State, but to give the Governor authority to pledge the faith of the Commonwealth to borrow such sums of money as may be necessary for the extraordinary requirements. In order to protect the border, he recommends the immediate organization of fifteen regiments of cavalry and infantry, exclusive of those called into the service of the United States. He recommends the act legalizing the authorizing of appropriations of corporations for the families of volunteers." The additional requisition referred to was not made public until May 3d, when the President issued the following pro

2,000 5.000 10,000

1.000

Toledo, Ohio..

Taunton, Mass..

40,000

30.000

Utica, N. Y.

20.000

13,000

Upper Sandusky, O.

5.000

Vermont, State..

.1,000,000

Wisconsin, State.... 225,000

3,000 Weymouth, Mass...

8,000 Wilmington, Ohio...

3.000

[blocks in formation]

3.000

Oswego, N. Y.

13,000

Warsaw, N. Y..

3,000

Ottawa, Ill...

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

8,000

5.000 4,000 14,000 3,000 $23,277,000

The Pennsylvania Legislature assembled April 30. Message. The Message of Governor Curtin may be referred to as indicative of the spirit which animated the State Executivesto which the Legislators fully responded. The abstract report was as follows:

"Gov. Curtin's Message on the opening of the extra session, speaks of the unexampled promptness and patriotism with which Pennsylvania and other loyal States have responded to the call of the President. It says that the slaughter of Northern troops in Baltimore, for the pretended offense of marching at the call of the Federal Government peaceably over soil admittedly in the Union, with the object of defending the common Capital, imposes new duties and responsibilities on the State and Administration. This state of things cannot be submitted to, whether Maryland may profess to be loyal to the Union or otherwise. There can be permitted no hostile soil, no obstructed thoroughfare, between the States undoubtedly loyal and their National seat of Government. There is reason to hope that the route through Baltimore may be no longer closed against the peaceable passage of our people armed in the service of the Government, but we must be fully as sured of this, and uninterrupted enjoyment of the

clamation:

The President's Second Call forTroops.

"WASHINGTON, Friday, May 3d, 1861. "Whereas, existing exigencies demand immediate and adequate measures for the protection of the National Constitution and the preservation of the National Union by the suppression of the insurrec tionary combinations now existing in several States for opposing the laws of the Union and obstructing the execution thereof, to which end a military force in addition to that called forth by my Proclamation of the fifteenth day of April, in the present year, appears to be indispensably necessary, now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, and Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy thereof, and of the militia of the several States when called into actual service, do hereby call into the service of the United States forty-two thousand and thirty-four volunteers, to serve for a period of three years, unless sooner discharged, and to be mustered into service as infantry and cavalry. The proportions of each arm and the details of enrollment and organization will be made known through the Department of War; and I also direct that the regular army of the United States be increased by the addition of eight regiments of infantry, one regi

The President's Second Call for Troops.

Enforcement of the
Blockade.

treme labor to put in com-
mission the vessels required
for the immediate emer-
gencies of the war, without any reference to
demands for the blockade service. It was,
indeed, only by the hearty co-operation of
merchants, ship-owners and masters, founders
and builders, that the Secretary of the Navy
was enabled to meet the requisitions for
transports and convoys; yet his assiduity ex-
tended to the imperative requirements of the
blockade; and, one by one, the ports desig-

ment of cavalry, and one regiment of artillery, making altogether a maximum aggregate increase of twenty-two thousand seven hundred and fourteen officers and enlisted men, the details of which increase will also be made known through the Department of War; and I further direct the enlistment, for not less than one nor more than three years, of eighteen thousand seamen, in addition to the present force, for the naval service of the United States. The details of the enlistment and organization will be made known through the Department of the Navy. The call for volunteers, hereby made, and the direction for the increase of the regularnated were placed under the surveillance of army, and for the enlistment of seamen hereby given, together with the plan of organization adopted for the volunteers and for the regular forces hereby authorized, will be submitted to Congress as soon as assembled.

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

"WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State." Prior to this the President had issued his second Proclamation of blockade (April 27th) covering the coasts of North Carolina and Virginia-thus sealing them from commerce. Virginia oysters, pine wood and tobacco, and North Carolina rosin and tar languished on their lagunes and river banks, and those States found that their revenues almost instantly ceased. Nothing was left for their people to do but to fight or starve; therefore the cry "to arms!" became as suddenly popular as the loss of trade had been complete.

The blockade squadron was organized as rapidly as the demoralized state of the navy would allow. The shocking disorder reigning in that arm of the service (see Vol. I, pages 439-444,) when the Lincoln Administration assumed its control, rendered it a work of ex

the Union flag. It was fully nine months before the immense coast-line from Fortress Monroe to Brownsville could be so patrolled with cruisers and guarded by local ships as to render egress and ingress impossible; but, from the very day the first vessel appeared off the leading harbors, the commerce of those ports ceased almost as completely as if a bar had grown across their channels. The world never before witnessed a fleet created as rapidly; nor has any modern Government ever been called upon to perform so vast a service which was performed as well. That, out of the almost interminable lagunes of the Southern coast-where available harbors opened through every few leagues of sand and swamp -a few small craft should have "broken the blockade" is not singular: or, that the manymouthed ports of New Orleans, Savannah and Charleston should have sent cargoes to, and received them from, the Bermudas and Cuba, or from England direct, in swift-sailing steamers, is not evidence of the

inefficiency of that block- English Interference.

ade, when the intricacies of the coast are fully understood, or the cupidity of English traders is appreciated. It is to the dishonor of the English Government that it sought to force the blockade, so far as to make one of its nearest and most available islands-that of New Providence-a regular rendezvous for Southern vessels. The port of Nassau became, during the pendency of the war, a regular port of entry and transshipment for goods bound to and from the rebellious States. Loads of arms, munitions, ordnance, clothing, &c.-all contraband of war-found their way into the South through the vigilance and daring of a few English

MILITARY DEPARTMENTS CREATED.

commanders.* That all was done with the full knowledge of the authorities, both at the island and in England, admits of no question. The American people will be slow to forget the commercial history of Nassau in 1861-2; and that the reckoning will be fully paid with interest, is the solemn purpose of every American citizen.

The Vessels on Duty.

143

hundred guns-many of them superb Colum biads and Dahlgrens-at the disposal of the Confederate authorities.

Military Departments
Created.

The President's proclamation for three years' troops indicated the vigor with which the Administration had determined to meet the emergency. April 27th, the three military Departments of Washington, Annapolis, and Pennsylvania were created, their commands being given, respectively, to Colonel J. K. F. Mansfield, United States Army, Brigadier-General of Volunteers B. F. Butler, and Major-General of Volunteers Patterson. To these were added, May 10th, the Department of the Ohio, including Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, of which the command was assigned to Major-General of Ohio Volunteers, Geo. B. McClellan. At the same date an order was issued requiring all officers of the regular service to take and subscribe anew the Oath of Allegiance to the United States. This order was rendered necessary by the still remaining number of officers who, if not traitors, so far sympathized with their Southern friends as to be unsafe servants of their country. The order

May 11th, the steam frigate Niagara arrived off Charleston bar and sealed the main entrance against commerce. Savannah was not closed until May 28th, when the gunboat Union appeared off the river mouths. The The steam frigate Minne- Brooklyn appeared off the Mississippi mouths sota, flag-ship of the block-May 27th. Mobile was blockaded the same ading squadron, sailed on duty from Boston, day. Prior to this (May 22d) the fortificaMay 8th. At the same date the frigate Cum- tions at Ship Island, which had been seized berland, the Pawnee and Monticello, with the by the Confederates, were abandoned. tug and gunboat Yankee, were off Fortress Monroe, closing up the mouths of James and York rivers; while the four steamers of the Aquia Creek line, heavily armed, were cruising up and down the Potomac - thus sealing Virginia commerce by sea. The Confederate authorities, apprehending that the naval force gathering at Hampton Roads might be destined for the reoccupation of Norfolk, sent thither heavy detachments of troops, to man the batteries erected on Craney Island, Sandy Point, at the Hospital, one near Norfolk fort, and one three miles below the Hospital, on the bluffs. All these points of defense were rapidly made effective, and were kept in a high state of efficiency. As early as May 5th, one thousand and one hundred Alabamians were in the defenses. At the same date, about ten thousand troops were encamped in and around Norfolk, and at the Navy-yard barracks. An immense force of laborers hastened to restore the property of the yard to its old condition, and soon had the satisfaction of placing over fifteen * An incident illustrative of the length of Eng-produced the good effect of securing sevlish presumption was had in the ease of the fast steam- eral desired resignations from the regular er Fingal, which loaded in England with a heavy cargo of rifles, ordnance, stores, &c., and started, with the full knowledge of the English authorities, to run the blockade. She succeeded, by her fleetness, in getting into Savannah. The presumption of the transaction was in the English Consul of Savannah sending the crew of the vessel North, under the protection of the English flag, demanding their unrestricted passage, as English subjects, to some North

ern port, for return to England! They were of

course forbidden to pass the lines, and sent back to enjoy the fruits of their ill-gotten gains. Their vessel was afterwards burnt, to keep her from the guns of the American squadron.

service. Thus sifted, the regular officers became thoroughly reliable; and they formed the nucleus for the order and organization which rapidly sprung up throughout the entire Army of the Union.

The Department of Virginia, embracing Eastern Virginia and North and South Carolina, was created May 20th, and the command given to B. F. Butler, promoted to be Major

was

General of Volunteers, May 16th.
General John A. Dix
named
Major-General of New York Volunteers,
May 6th. He soon assumed command of

the troops organizing in New York City, soon found reason to feel that General Scott under State orders. meant offense as well as defense.

Disposition of North

ern Troops.

The First Regiments on Duty.

The passage of troops from the Eastern and Middle States during the fourth week of April, fully tasked the ability of the railways and available steam-transports. The New York Seventy-first, Twelfth and Sixth sailed Sunday, April 21st, followed by the Rhode Island First. All these regiments arrived, under convoy of the gun boat Harriet Lane, off Annapolis, April 23d, to find just entering the harbor the Massachusetts Fifth. Within six days Massachusetts had placed en route for the Capital five full regiments of infantry, a battalion of rifles and a finely equipped battery of six guns.

April 23d, the Sixty-ninth, Thirteenth and Eighth regiments New York militia left for Annapolis. As an evidence particularly of the spirit of loyalty pervading the Irish-American citizens, we may mention the fact that sixty-five hundred names were enrolled on the lists of the Sixty-ninth, from which the Cole. nel, Corcoran, had to choose the one thousand and ten men required.

All these commands were assigned to men qualified for the field. The immense aggregation of troops at Washington, Fortress Monroe, and at the camps in Pennsylvania and the Western States, rendered field officers for superior command immediately called for. The activity of the rebels left no doubt of their purposes to surround Washington by a net-work of available approaches, with the eventual design of seizing Maryland, and thus to become possessors of the National Capital. To this not very well laid scheme of advance the Federal Generalin-Chief interposed his well-arranged plan for removing the scene of hostilities into the rebel territory. The concentration at Fortress Monroe gave occupation to the enemy for a large "army of observation" at Norfolk, Hampton and Yorktown, to guard the approaches to Richmond. The large camp at Chambersburg so evidently menaced Harper's Ferry and covered the west of Maryland, as to make it necessary for the rebels to create an "army of observation" at the Ferry and at Leesburg. The occupation of Cairo, April 20th, and a concentration at that point of a strong force under Colonel Prentiss, made it evident that any expedition up the Ohio or Mississippi would fail; and compelled the formation at Hickman and Columbus of another "army of observation." Governor Yates of Illinois, in announcing the reasons for the occupancy of Cairo, by Special Message to the Legislature, said: "Simultaneously with the receipt of the order from the War Department for the movement, reli-ion of rifles, May 1st, on the propeller Cambridge, able information reached me of the existence of a conspiracy by disaffected persons in other States to seize upon Cairo and the southern portion of the Illinois Central railroad, and thus cut off communication with the interior of the State." The appointment of McClellan to the command of the Department of the Ohio was made with reference to a campaign in Western Virginia, to assist the Wheeling Convention in re-establishing the loyal Government, and to drive out of that section of the State all forces and local organizations of the Secessionists. The enemy

April 24th, the New York militia regiment, the Twenty-fifth, from Albany, was in the city, en route for Annapolis. One hundred and seventy-five recruits for the New York Seventh, also sailed in the steamer Daylight, direct for Washington, under charge of Captain Viele. This steamer reached the Capital on the morning of April 28th, being the first passage up the Potomac of a transport with troops.*

* Colonel Schouler, Adjutant-General of Massachusetts, dispatched Captain Dodd of the Third battal

[ocr errors]

with orders to proceed up the Potomac. The order said: It is the earnest desire of the Governor that the ship Cambridge shall reach Washington, and demonstrate that a Massachusetts ship, armed with Massachusetts men, shall be the first to arrive by that route, as our Sixth regiment was the first to arrive at Washington through the hostile city of Bal timore." The order was fulfilled, and the Cambridge landed her troops in Washington May 3d; but the honor of the first arrival, by the Potomac, belongs to Captain Viele and the New York Seventh. The Colonel also is in error in ascribing to Massachusetts the honor of having been the first at the Capital with her troops. To Pennsylvania belongs that

Treasonable Elements

of Baltimore.

FINAL OCCUPATION OF BALTIMORE.

145

The Winans' Family.

Among these we should mention the family of Winans, whose great wealth and eminent social position gave it a wide influence. The proprietors of extensive iron works, the Winans' controlled a large number of laboring men and mechanics-rendering them powerful, as their wealth made them dangerous, foes to their country. Their large foundry was closed to the wants of the Federal Government, but open to the enemy. Their money was not wanting when the Southern cause de

Against their baleful influence Government was constrained soon to exert its fullest authority.

The military occupation | as it was demoralizing to the dignity of free of Maryland already has labor and honest industry. been adverted to. [See Chap. VI.] The watchfulness of Butler's troops kept the would-be revolutionists in a condition of apprehension more exciting than gratifying to them. Finding that the military force present in and around Baltimore was equal to the suppression of any attempted demonstration against the Union, the Secessionists sought to aid and comfort their cause by such secret means as lay in their power. Men were enlisted for the Southern army, and daily left for Harper's Ferry in squads. This enlistment was not discour-manded. aged by the Federal authorities, for every recruit made one less cut-throat to deal with. The men whose sympathies for the South were most violently expressed, belonged, as a general thing, to a class of rowdies whose reign in Baltimore had given the "Monumental City" an unenviable reputation for disorder, and their absence was a source of no regret to any friend of good government. There were, however, a number of old families in that city whose attachment to the South and its peculiar institution was stronger than their love for the Union, and in them the Government found its most virulent enemies. Their at first open demonstrations against the Federal authority soon assumed a more secret course of proceedings. It was their influence which controlled the revolutionary Legislature. Their power Governor Hicks was made to fear. Their money, freely used, armed the secret societies which were afterwards discovered to exist throughout the State, giving the military considerable employment in ferreting out depots of arms. Their influence swayed the police of Baltimore and rendered it necessary, after a brief | Massachusetts regiment, Colonel Jones; and period, to suspend that organization entirely. Although but a mere score in numbers, as in other sections of the Slave States those "old families" exercised a sway as unaccountable honor. She had over four hundred troops at Wash

ington, on the morning of the fourth day after the issue of the President's Proclamation, the Massachusetts troops reaching the Capital on the evening of that day, the 19th. These are immaterial points; but, as the pride of States is concerned, we prefer to recite the facts with precision.

May 11th, Butler was informed of the passage from Baltimore to Frederick, en route to Harper's Ferry, of a suspicious-looking box mounted on a carriage. It was seized by his order, and found to contain the Winans' Steam Gun-an ugly weapon, designed to mow down ranks of men at each sweep of its exhaustless tube. Ross Winans himself, the head of the family, was arrested by order of General Butler at the Relay House, May 14th, on his return from the just adjourned session of the Legislature, of which he was a prominent member. Against this arrest Governor Hicks again "protested" by exerting himself for Winans' release, but Butler placed the old gentleman under guard until he could confer with the authorities at Washington. The day prior to this evidently pre-determined arrest of the old conspirator, Butler occupied the city with a force comprising the Boston Light Artillery, Major Cook; a strong detachment of the Sixth

Final Occupation of
Baltimore.

about five hundred men of the New York Eighth, Lieutenant-Colonel Waltenburg. The camp chosen was on Federal Hill. This step was preliminary to the occupation of Patterson's Park and Murray Hill-heights which placed the city entirely under the guns of the Federal troops, and covered Fort McHenry on the land side. As all these positions were higher than the Fort, their possession by an enemy would render that fine work untenable; and as the Confederates had arranged

« PreviousContinue »