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Chapter 15: siege of Fort Pickens.--Declaration of War.--the Virginia conspirators and, the proposed capture of Washington City.
- The Florida forts, 361.
-- Affairs at Key West, 362.
-- the secessionists watched
-- forts Jefferson and Taylor re-enforced, 363.
-- siege of Fort Pickens
-- hesitation of the Government, 364.
-- orders to re-enforce Fort Pickens, 365.
-- Lieutenant Worden sent to Pensacola, 366.
-- a loyal spy, 367.
-- Fort Pickens re-enforced, 368.
-- imprisonment of Worden
-- Colonel Brown relieves Lieutenant Slemmer, 369.
-- honors to the defenders of Fort Pickens, 370.
-- Jefferson Davis authorizes piracy, 371.
-- the President's proclamation concerning pirates
-- action of the “Confederate” Congress, 372.
-- the “Confederate” Navy, 373.
-- treachery of professed Unionists, 374.
-- Convention of Virginia secessionists, 375.
-- Virginia Commissioners in Washington, 376.
-- how the Virginia Ordinance of Secession was passed, 377.
-- the Richmond secessionists jubilant, 378.
-- Alexander H. Stephens in Richmond
-- the seizure of Washington the chief object of the conspirators, 379.
-- the offenders wish to “be let alone,” 381.
We have observed that on the fall of
Fort Sumter the conspirators were very anxious to seize
Fort Pickens.
before it should be re-enforced.
We left
Lieutenant Slemmer and a small garrison there, besieged by insurgents, who were continually increasing in number.
1 We have also observed that the
Governor of
Florida had made secret preparations to seize
Forts Jefferson and
Taylor before the politicians of his State had passed an Ordinance of Secession.
Fort Jefferson2 is at the
Garden Key, one of the
Tortugas Islands, off the southern extremity of the
Florida peninsula, and
Fort Taylor is at
Key West, not far distant from the other.
The walls of
Fort Jefferson were finished, as to hight, and the lower tier of ports was completed, in the.
autumn of 1860; but the upper embrasures were entirely open; temporary sally-ports, for the convenience of laborers, remained unstopped, and the works were exposed to easy capture at any time.
Fort Taylor was nearer completion.
Its casemate-battery was mounted, and
Captain (afterward
Brigadier-General)
J. M. Brannan, with a company of the First Artillery, occupied barracks about half a mile distant.
The seizure of these forts by the secessionists was delayed chiefly because the laborers employed on them were mostly slaves belonging to
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the friends of the conspirators, and their owners did not wish to lose the revenue derived from their labor any sooner than would be absolutely necessary.
It was believed that the forts might be seized by the Floridians at any time.
There was an armed band of secessionists at
Key West, headed by the clerk of
Fort Taylor, whose second in command was the editor of a violent secessionist newspaper there.
Military officers connected with the forts were known to be secessionists, and these afterward abandoned their flag and joined its enemies; and some of the most respectable of the residents, holding office under the
Government, had declared their intention to oppose
Captain Brannan to the utmost, if he should attempt to take possession of and occupy
Fort Taylor.
The disaffected were so numerous that
Brannan was compelled to act with the greatest circumspection.
At one time it seemed impossible for him to be of any practical service to his country, so completely was he in the power of the secessionists, civil and military.
At that time the
United States steamer
Mohawk,
Captain T. A. Craven, was cruising for slave-ships in the vicinity of the
Florida Keys and the coast of
Cuba; and at about the time of
Mr. Lincoln's election,
Captain (afterward
Quartermaster-General)
M. C. Meigs arrived, to take charge of the works at the Tortugas.
He went by land, and was satisfied from what he heard on the way that an attempt would be made by the secessionists to seize the forts at the Keys, for their possession would be an immense advantage to the conspirators in the event of war.
It was determined to defeat their designs, and to this end
Captain Meigs worked assiduously, with his accustomed energy and prudence in conjunction with
Captain Brannan and the officers of the Navy at that station, whom he supposed he could trust.
Within a week after the arrival of
Captain Meigs, a crisis seemed to be approaching, and
preparations were made to throw
Captain Brannan's company into
Fort Taylor, and strengthen both fortresses against all enemies A little
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stratagem was necessary; so the
Mohawk, which had been lingering near
Key West, weighed anchor and departed, professedly on a cruise in search of slave-ships.
This was to lull into slumber the vigilance of the secessionists, who were uneasy and wide awake when the
Mohawk was there.
She went to
Havana on the 16th,
where her officers boarded two of the steamers of lines connecting
Key West with both New Orleans and
Charleston, and requested to be reported as “after slavers.” . As soon as they were gone she weighed anchor, and on Sunday morning, the 18th, returned to
Key West.
The
Wyandotte,
Captain Stanley, was there, and had taken position so that her battery would command the bridge that connected
Fort Taylor with the island.
While the inhabitants of
Key West were in the churches,
Captain Brannan quietly marched his company by a back path, crossed the bridge, and took possession of the fort.
He had sent munitions and stores by water.
The two forts were immediately put in a state of defense, and they and the port of
Key West were irretrievably lost to the insurgents.
The Administration did not like these performances of loyal commanders, because they were “irritating” to the secessionists; and
Captain Craven received peremptory orders from the Navy Department to go on a cruise.
He lingered around the Keys, believing that his services would be needed near those important forts that guarded the northern entrance to the
Gulf of Mexico.
He was not mistaken.
The presence of his vessel admonished the secessionists to be cautious.
At length, on the 18th of January, the day on which the insurgents at
Pensacola demanded, a second time, the surrender of
Fort Pickens,
4 the steamer
Galveston, from New Orleans, bearing a military force for the purpose of capturing the forts near
Key West, appeared in sight.
At the same time the
United States transport
Joseph Whitney was there; and a company of artillery, under
Major Arnold, was disembarking from her at
Fort Jefferson, then in command of
Captain Meigs.
This apparition caused the
Galveston to put about and disappear.
Forts Taylor and
Jefferson were now in a condition to resist the attacks of ten thousand men. Various plans of the secessionists to capture these forts were partially executed, but no serious attack was ever attempted afterward.
5
Let us now consider the siege of
Fort Pickens.
From the 18th of January, on which day
Colonel Chase, the commander of the insurgents near
Pensacola, demanded the surrender of
Fort Pickens, and was refused,
6 Lieutenant Slemmer and his little garrison, like
Anderson and his men in
Fort Sumter, worked faithfully, in the midst of hourly perils, to strengthen the fort.
Like the dwellers in
Fort Sumter, they were compelled to be non-resistant while seeing formidable preparations for their destruction.
The country, meanwhile, was in a state of feverish anxiety, and loyal men at the seat of Government, like
Judge Holt, the
Secretary of War, and
General Scott, strongly urged the propriety of re-enforcing and supplying that fort.
The President was averse to any “initiatory” movement
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on the part of the
Government; but when, at the middle of January, it was announced that the insurgents had actually seized the
Navy Yard at
Warrington, and
Forts Barrancas and
MCRee, and were menacing
Fort Pickens, he consented to have re-enforcements sent.
These, consisting of only a single company of artillery, under
Captain Vogdes, ninety in number, were taken from
Fortress Monroe, whose garrison was already too weak to be safe against an attack by
Virginians, while at the same time General
Scott held three hundred troops in readiness for the purpose, at
Fort Hamilton, in New York harbor, where they were not needed.
7
On the 24th of January, the
National war-steamer
Brooklyn left
Fortress Monroe for
Fort Pickens, with
Captain Vogdes and ten artillerymen, and provisions and military stores.
It was also determined to employ three or four small steamers, then in the Coast-Survey service, for the same purpose, under the command of
Captain J. H. Ward of the Navy,
8 who was an early martyr in the cause of his country.
These movements were suspended in consequence of a telegraphic dispatch sent from
Pensacola on the 28th,
by
Senator Mallory, to
Senators Slidell,
Hunter, and
Bigler, in which was expressed an earnest desire for peace, and an assurance that no attack would be made on
Fort Pickens if the then present
status should be preserved.
9
This proposal was carefully considered, both with a view to the safety of the fort, and the effect which a collision might have upon the Peace Convention about to assemble in
Washington.
10 The result was that a joint telegraphic dispatch, prepared by the
Secretaries of War and the Navy, was sent, the next day, to
Lieutenant Slemmer and the naval commmanders off
Pensacola, in which instructions were given for the
Brooklyn not to land any troops at
Fort Pickens unless it should be attacked, but to give the garrison any needed stores.
The commanders of the
Brooklyn and other vessels were charged to be vigilant, and to act promptly in the event of an attack.
It was stipulated, in the sort of armistice then agreed upon, that the commander of each arm of the service should have the right of free intercourse with the
Government while the arrangement should last.
This proposition proved to be only a trick on the part of
Mallory and his associates to gain time for the collection of a larger force near
Fort Pickens, while that
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work should remain comparatively empty and absolutely weak, and so be made an easy prey through treachery or assault.
Thus for more than two months re-enforcements were kept out of
Fort Pickens while the rebellion was gaining head, although the armistice really ended with the closing of the Peace Convention, and its failure to effect a reconciliation.
When the new Administration came into power, on the 4th of March, a new line of policy was adopted, more consistent with the
National dignity, but not less cautious.
Informed that the insurgents were greatly augmented in numbers near
Pensacola, and were mounting guns in
Fort McRee, and constructing new batteries near, all to bear heavily on
Fort Pickens,
General Scott again advised the
Government to send re-enforcements and supplies to the garrison of that post.
The Government acted upon his advice, and by its directions on the same day
the
General-in-Chief dispatched a note to
Captain Vogdes of the
Brooklyn, saying:--“At the first favorable moment you will land with your company, re-enforce
Fort Pickens, and hold the same till further orders.”
It was unsafe to send such orders by mail or telegraph, for the insurgents controlled Both in the
Gulf States, and this was sent from New York, in duplicate, by two naval vessels.
From that time unusual activity was observed in the
Navy Yard at
Brooklyn; also on
Governor's Island and at
Fort Hamilton, at the entrance to the harbor of
New York.
There was activity, too, in the arsenals of the
North, for, while the
Government wished for peace, it could scarcely indulge a hope that the wish would be gratified.
With the order for the fitting out of an expedition for the relief of
Fort Sumter was issued a similar order in relation to
Fort Pickens.
Supplies and munitions for this purpose had been prepared in ample quantity, in a manner to excite the least attention, and between the 6th and 9th of April the chartered steamers
Atlantic and
Illinois and the steam frigate
Powhatan departed from New York for the
Gulf of Mexico with troops and supplies.
11 In the mean time the
Government had dispatched
Lieutenant John L. Worden of the Navy (the gallant commander of the first
Monitor, which encountered the
Merrimack in
Hampton Roads), with an order to
Captain Adams, of the
Sabine, then in command of the little squadron off
Fort Pickens,
12 to throw re-enforcements into that work at once.
The previous order of
General Scott to
Captain Vogdes had not been executed, for
Captain Adams believed that the armistice was yet in force.
Colonel Braxton Bragg, the artillery officer in the
battle of Buena Vista, in
Mexico, to whom, it is said,
General Taylor coolly gave the order, in the midst of the fight--“a little more grape,
Captain Bragg” --was now in command of all the insurgent forces at and near
Pensacola, with the commission of brigadiergeneral; and
Captain Duncan N. Ingraham, of the United States Navy (who behaved so well in the harbor of
Smyrna, a few years before, in defending the rights of American citizens, in the case of the
Hungarian,
Martin Kostza), had charge of the
Navy Yard at
Warrington.
On the day of
Lieutenant Worden's arrival there,
Captain Adams had dined with these faithless men, and had returned to his ship.
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Lieutenant Worden had acted with great energy and discretion.
At eleven o'clock on the night of the 6th of April he received orders from the
Secretary of the Navy to take dispatches with all possible speed to
Captain Adams.
He left
Washington City early the next morning, arrived at
Montgomery late at night on the 9th, and departed early the following
|
The Sabine.13 |
morning for
Pensacola, by way of
Atlanta, in Georgia.
He observed great excitement prevailing.
Troops and munitions of war were being pushed forward toward
Pensacola, and he thought it likely that he might be arrested; so, after reading his dispatches carefully, he tore them up. At dawn on the morning of the 11th, while seeking for a boat to convey him to the squadron, a “Confederate” officer interrogated him, and on ascertaining his rank and destination, directed him to report to
General Bragg.
An officer was sent with him to the
General's Headquarters at the
Naval Hospital at
Warrington (whither they had been conveyed in a small steamer), where he arrived at ten o'clock in the morning.
He told
Bragg that he had come from
Washington, under orders from the Navy Department to communicate with the commander of the squadron off that harbor.
Bragg immediately wrote a “pass,” and as he handed it to
Worden, he remarked, “I suppose you have dispatches for
Captain Adams?”
Worden replied, “I have no written ones, but I have a verbal communication to make to him from the Navy Department.”
The
Lieutenant then left
Bragg and made his way to the
Wyandotte, the flag-of-truce vessel lying inside the lower harbor.
The wind was high, and the
Wyandotte did not go outside until the next morning.
At noon
Worden's message was delivered to
Captain Adams, and
Fort Pickens was re-enforced that night.
14
Lieutenant Worden's arrival was timely.
It frustrated a well-matured
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plan of
General Bragg's for seizing the fort, which was to have been executed on the night of the 11th, but which, on account of the rough weather, was deferred until the following night, and was not unknown to
Lieutenant Slemmer.
That officer had been kept acquainted with affairs in the insurgent camp at
Warrington by
Richard Wilcox, a loyal watchman at the
Navy Yard, who addressed him over the signature of “A friend to the
Union.”
During the siege,
Slemmer had been allowed to send a flag of truce to the yard every day. The bearer was carefully conducted from his boat to the yard and back.
Wilcox was generally on hand to perform that duty, and used these opportunities to communicate with
Slemmer.
On the 10th of April he discovered that one of
Slemmer's sergeants was holding treasonable correspondence with two secessionists on shore (Sweetman and
Williams), who were employed by
General Bragg.
The sergeant had arranged to assist in betraying the fort into the hands of the insurgents, for which service he was to receive a large sum of money and a commission in the “Confederate” Army.
He had seduced a few companions into a
promised participation in his scheme.
The act was to be performed, as we have observed, on the night of the 11th of April, when a thousand insurgents were to engage in the matter.
They were to cross over in a steamboat (the same that conveyed
Lieutenant Worden from
Pensacola to
Warrington) and escalade the fort at an hour when the sergeant and his confederates would be on guard.
Wilcox informed
Slemmer of the fact, and his testimony was confirmed by a Pensacola newspaper
15 that found its way into the fort.
In that paper was a letter from a correspondent at
Warrington, in which the intended attack on
Fort Pickens was mentioned.
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Slemmer prepared to frustrate the designs of the insurgents, but friends instead of enemies visited him the following night.
16
The re-enforcement of
Fort Pickens was performed as follows:--
Early in the evening the marines of the
Scbine and
St. Louis, under
Lieutenant Cash, were sent on board the
Brooklyn,
Captain Walker, when she weighed anchor and ran in as near to
Fort Pickens as possible.
Launches were lowered, and marines, with
Captain Vogdes's artillerymen, immediately embarked, The landing was effected not far from the flag-staff bastion, at about midnight, under the direction of
Lieutenant Albert N. Smith, of
Massachusetts.
They had passed into the harbor, and under the guns of
Forts McRee and
Barrancas, unobserved.
The whole expedition was in charge of
Commander Charles H. Poor, assisted by
Lieutenants Smith, of the
Brooklyn,
Lew and
Newman, of the
Sabine, and
Belknap, of the
St. Louis. The insurgents, in endeavoring to conceal their own movements, had assisted in obscuring those of the squadron, by extinguishing the lamp of the light-house.
In the thick darkness, the expedition struck the designated landing-place with great accuracy.
17 When the important work was accomplished, heavy guns were fired on the vessels, the fort was lighted up, and the insurgents, who were on the point of making an attack on
Fort Pickens, observing the (ominous appearance of affairs there prudently remained on shore.
18
Lieutenant Worden, in the mean time, had returned to
Pensacola, and departed for home.
He left the
Sabine about three o'clock in the afternoon,
landed at
Pensacola, and at nine in the evening left there in a railway car for
Montgomery, hoping to report at
Washington on Monday night. He was disappointed.
Bragg had committed a great blunder, and knew it early on the morning
|
The Union Generals.
1. Robert C. Schenck, M. G.
2. John W. Geary, B. G.
3. August Willich B. G.
4. Absalom Baird, B. G.
5. A. J. S. Emmer, B. G.
6. James B. Ricketts, B. G.
7. Abner Doubleday, M. G.
8. William B. Hazen B. G.
9. Charles Griffin, B. G.
10. William F. Barry, B. G.
11. P. J. Osterhaus, B. G.
12. Robt H. Milroy, M. G.
Source. Publisher 628 & 630 Chestnut St. |
[
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of the 13th, when a spy informed him of the re-enforcement of
Fort Pickens.
That movement exasperated him, and he was deeply mortified by a sense of his own utter stupidity in allowing
Lieutenant Worden to visit the squadron.
To shield himself from the charge of such stupidity by his associates and superiors, he laid aside all honor as a man and a soldier, and accused the lieutenant with having practiced falsehood and deception in gaining permission to visit the
Sabine. He telegraphed this charge to the conspirators at
Montgomery, with a recommendation for his arrest.
Five officers were detailed for the service, one of whom had served with
Worden in the Navy.
They arrested him a short distance below
Montgomery, and, on their arrival at that city, placed him in the custody of
Cooper, the “
Adjutant-General of the
Confederacy.”
Cooper took from him unimportant dispatches for his Government, and on Monday, the 15th,
Worden was cast into the common jail.
Bragg's false charge made him an object of scorn to
Davis and his fellow-conspirators, and the citizens generally; and there, in that common jail, this gallant officer, whose conduct had been governed by the nicest sense of honor, suffered indignity until the 11th of November following, when he was paroled and ordered to report at
Richmond, where
Davis and his associates were then holding court.
Cooper sent him to
Norfolk, whence he was forwarded to the flag-ship of
Admiral Goldsborough, in
Hampton Roads,
when
Lieutenant Sharpe, of the insurgent navy, was exchanged for him.
19 Worden was the first prisoner of war held by the insurgents.
20
A few days after the re-enforcement of
Fort Pickens, the
Atlantic and
Illinois arrived with several hundred troops, under the command of
Colonel Harvey Brown, with an ample quantity of supplies and munitions of war. These Were taken into
Fort Pickens, and within ten days after the arrival of
Worden, there were about nine hundred troops in that fort.
Colonel Brown assumed the command, and
Lieutenant Slemmer and his little band of brave men, worn down with fatigue, want of sleep, and insufficient food, were sent to
Fort Hamilton, at the entrance to New York harbor, to rest.
They shared the plaudits of a grateful people with those equally gallant defenders of
Fort Sumter.
Lieutenant Slemmer was commissioned major of the Sixteenth Regiment of Infantry; and because of brave conduct subsequently
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in
Tennessee, he was raised to the rank of brigadier-general.
The Chamber of Commerce of New York included in their resolution to honor the defenders of
Fort Sumter with a series of bronze medals,
21 those of
Fort Pickens, and these were presented to
Slemmer, his officers and men, at the same time.
The medals were executed by the same sculptor (
Charles Miller), and of the same sizes.
The engraving represents the one presented to
Lieutenant Slemmer, on a smaller scale than the original.
22
By the 1st of May there was a formidable force of insurgents menacing
Fort Pickens, who were lying on the arc of a circle, from the water-battery beyond
Fort McRee on the right, to the
Navy Yard on the left.
They numbered nearly seven thousand, and were arranged in three divisions.
The first, on the right, was composed of Mississippians, under
Colonel J. R. Chalmers; the second was composed of Alabamians and a Georgia regiment,
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under
Colonel Clayton; and the third was made up of Louisianians, Georgians, and a Florida regiment, the whole commanded by
Colonel Gladdin.
Beside these there were about five hundred troops at
Pensacola, all Louisianians, under
Colonel Bradford.
General Bragg was commander-in-chief.
“These compose the very best class of our Southern people,” wrote
Judge Walker, the editor of the
New Orleans Delta, on the 27th of April; “ardent, earnest, and resolute young men. They can never be conquered or even defeated.
They may be destroyed, but not annihilated.
When the Lincolnites subdue the country or the people which they have undertaken to subjugate, as long as we have such men to fight our battles, the spoils of their victory will be a blasted and desolated country, and an extinct people.”
Re-enforcements continued to be sent to
Fort Pickens from the
North, and a considerable squadron lay outside in the
Gulf.
In June,
Santa Rosa Island, on which
Fort Pickens stands, was made lively by the encampment there of the Sixth New York Regiment of Volunteers, known as
Wilson's Zouaves.
They left New York on the 13th of June, on which day they were presented with a beautiful silk banner by the
Ladies' Soldiers' Relief Association.
The insurgents were also re-enforced; but nothing of great importance occurred in the vicinity of
Fort Pickens during the ensuing summer.
The attack on
Fort Sumter, the re-enforcement of
Fort Pickens, and the
President's call for troops, aroused the entire nation to preparations for war. Although
Davis and his associates at
Montgomery had received the
President's Proclamation with “derisive laughter,” they did not long enjoy the sense of absolute security which that folly manifested.
They were sagacious enough to estimate their heavy misfortune in the loss of the control of the
Florida forts, and to interpret correctly the great uprising of the people in the Free-labor States, intelligence of which came flashing significantly every moment over the telegraph, with all the appalling aspect of the lightning before a summer storm.
Two days after the
President's Proclamation was promulgated,
Davis issued, from
Montgomery,
an intended countervailing one.
23 In the preamble he declared that the
President had “announced the intention of invading the
Confederacy with an armed force for the purpose of capturing its fortresses, and thereby subverting its independence, and subjecting the free people thereof to the dominion of a foreign power.”
He said it had become the duty of the “government” to “repel the threatened invasion, and defend the rights and liberties of the people by all
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the means which the laws of nations and usages of civilized warfare placed at its disposal.”
He therefore invited all persons who desired to engage in the business of legalized piracy known as
privateering, by depredating upon the commerce of the
United States, to apply to him for authority to do so, when it would be given, under certain restrictions which were set forth in the proclamation.
He also enjoined all persons holding offices, civil or military, under his authority, to be vigilant and zealous in their duties; and exhorted the people of the “
Confederate States,” as they loved their country, as they prized the blessings of free government, as they felt the wrongs of the past, and others then threatened in an aggravated form, by those whose enmity was “more implacable, because unprovoked, to exert themselves in preserving order, in promoting concord, in maintaining the authority and efficacy of the laws, and in supporting and invigorating all the measures which may have been adopted for a common defense, and by which, under the blessing of Divine Providence,” they might “hope for a speedy, just, and honorable peace.”
The President at once met the proclamation of
Davis, by declaring that he should immediately employ a competent force to blockade all the ports of States claimed as belonging to the Southern Confederacy; and also, that if any person, under the pretended authority of such States, or under any other pretense, should molest a vessel of the
United States, or the persons or cargo on board of her, such persons should be held amenable to the laws of the
United States for the prevention and punishment of piracy.
24
Davis had already summoned
the so-called Congress of the Confederate States to meet at
Montgomery on the 29th of April.
That body, on the 6th of May, passed an Act with fifteen sections, “recognizing the existence of war between the
United States and the
Confederate States; and concerning letters of marque, prizes, and prize goods.”
25 The preamble declared that the “
Confederate States” had made earnest efforts to establish friendly relations between themselves and the
United States; but that the
Government of the latter had not only refused to hold any intercourse with the former, as a government in fact, but had prepared to make war upon them, and had avowed an intention of blockading their ports.
Such being the case, they declared that war existed between the “two governments,” and in accordance with a cherished design of
Davis, which he hinted at in his “inaugural address” at
Montgomery,
26 and had openly announced in his proclamation on the 17th, they authorized the “
President of the
Confederate States” to use their whole land and naval force “to meet the war thus commenced, and to issue to private armed vessels commissions or letters of marque and general reprisal, in such form as he shall think proper, under the seal of the
Confederate States, against the vessels, goods, and effects of the
Government of the
United States, and of the citizens or inhabitants of the States and Territories thereof.”
27 The tenth
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section of the Act offered a bounty of twenty dollars for each person who might be on board any armed ship or vessel belonging to the
United States, at the commencement of an engagement, which should be burned, sunk, or destroyed by any vessel commissioned as a privateer, of equal or inferior force — in other words, a reward for the murder, by fire, water, or otherwise, of men, women, and children found on board of a public vessel of the
United States.
Happily for the credit of humanity, this Act has no parallel on the statute-books of civilized nations.
They also offered a bounty of twenty-five dollars for every prisoner captured by a privateer and delivered to an agent of the “Confederation” in any of its ports.
Davis did not wait for the legal sanction of his so-called “Congress,” but issued letters of marque immediately after putting forth his proclamation on the 17th of April.
28
The country controlled by the conspirators lacked the mechanical skill and many materials for the construction of a navy; therefore, while the offer of
Davis to issue letters of marque created uneasiness among shipping merchants, they did not feel serious alarm, especially when it was known that the
Government would institute a rigid blockade.
But it was not long before privateers were on the seas.
The Confederates had not the means for building vessels, but they had for purchasing them.
They had already stolen six National revenue cutters,
29 which they fitted up as privateers; and
in the course of a few weeks after the “recognition of a state of war,”
Mr. Mallory, the so-called “
Secretary of the Navy” of the conspirators, had purchased and fitted out about a dozen vessels.
The owners of as many more private vessels took out letters of marque immediately after
Davis's proclamation was made; and before the middle of June, the commerce of the
United States was threatened with serious mischief.
The first of the purchased vessels commissioned by
Mallory was a small
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steamer which
Governor Pickens had bought in
Richmond, for use in the defense of
Charleston harbor.
She was commissioned in March; and named
Lady Davis, in honor of the wife of
Jefferson Davis.
She was armed with two 24-pounders, and. placed under the command of
Lieutenant T. B. Huger, formerly of the United States Navy.
This was the beginning of the “
Confederate States Navy,” which never assumed formidable proportions excepting when ships, foreign built, armed, and manned, were permitted to enter the service.
The number, character, and performances of the privateers commissioned by
Davis and
Toombs during the spring and early summer of 1861, will be considered hereafter.
With the hostile proclamations of the
President and the
Chief of the conspirators, the great conflict fairly began.
There was no longer any tenable neutral ground for men to stand upon, and they at once, as we have observed in the case of prominent members of the Opposition in the Free-labor States, took positive positions.
Two of the late candidates for the Presidency (
Breckinridge and
Bell) openly avowed their sympathy with the secessionists.
Breckinridge, who afterward became a military leader in the rebellion, was cautious and treacherous.
For a time he assumed the virtue of loyalty to the
Constitution and the
Union, and took his seat in the Senate of the United States, at the called session of Congress, in July.
But his disguise was too thin to deceive anybody.
So early as the 17th of April, he wrote to a friend at
Louisville, saying:--“
Kentucky should call a convention without delay, and
Lincoln's extra session of Congress [in which he took a seat as a professedly loyal man] should be confronted by fifteen States.
This alone can prevent a general civil war.”
30 On the 20th, in a speech at
Louisville, he echoed the voice of the
Journal of that city in its denunciation of the
President's call for troops.
31 He advised Kentuckians to remain neutral, but in the event of their being driven from that position, he declared it to be their duty to espouse the cause of the conspirators for the conservation of Slavery.
Bell, bolder or more honest, openly linked his fortunes with those of the “Confederacy,” in a speech at
Nashville, on the 23d of April, in which he declared that
Tennessee was virtually “out of the
Union,” and urged the people of his State to prepare for vigorous war upon the
Government.
32 The Governor (
Harris) was at the same time working with all his might in the manipulation of machinery to array
Tennessee, as a State, against the
National Government.
In this he was aided by an address to the people by professed friends of the
Union, who counseled them to “decline joining either party; for in so doing they would at once terminate her [
Tennessee's] grand mission of peacemaker between the
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States of the
South and the
General Government.
Nay, more,” they said; “the almost inevitable result would be the transfer of the war within her own borders, the defeat of all hopes of reconciliation, and the deluging of the
State with the blood of her own people.”
33
The Governor of
Kentucky was less courageous and more cautious than his neighbor of
Tennessee, but not less a practical enemy of the
Union.
To confirm him in disloyalty, and to commit the great
State of Kentucky to the cause of the conspirators,
Walker, their so-called “
Secretary of War,” wrote to
Governor Magoffin, from
Montgomery, on the 22d of April, complimenting him for his “patriotic response to the requisition of the
President of the
United States for troops to coerce the
Confederate States,”
34 and saying that it justified the belief that his people were prepared to unite with the conspirators “in repelling the common enemy of the
South.
Virginia needs our aid,” he continued.
“I therefore request you to furnish one regiment of infantry without delay, to rendezvous at
Harper's Ferry, Virginia.
It must consist of ten companies, of not less than sixty-four men each. . . . They will be mustered into the service of the
Confederate States at
Harper's Ferry.”
The object of this call to
Harper's Ferry will be apparent presently.
Virginia, at this time, was in a state of great agitation.
Its Convention had passed through a stormy session, extending from the middle of February to the middle of April.
It was held in the city of
Richmond, and was organized
by the appointment of
John Janney, of
Loudon, as its
President, and
John L. Eubank, Clerk.
In his address on taking the chair, the
President favored conditional Union, saying, in a tone common to many of the public men of
Virginia, that his State would insist on its own construction of its rights as a condition of its remaining in the
Union.
It was evident, from the beginning, that a better National sentiment than the
President of the
Convention evinced was largely dominant in that body, and the conspirators within it were for a long time foiled in their attempts to array
Virginia on the side of the “Southern Confederacy.”
Even so late as the 4th of April, the
Convention refused, by a vote of eighty-nine against forty-five, to pass an ordinance of secession;
35 and they resolved to send Commissioners to
Washington City to ask the
President to communicate to that body the policy which he intended to pursue in regard to the “
Confederate States.”
36 Yet the conspirators worked on, conscious of increasing strength, for one weak Unionist after another was converted by their sophistry or their threats.
Pryor and
Ruffin, as we have seen, went to
Charleston to urge an attack upon Fort
[
376]
Sumter, believing that bloodshedding would inflame the passions of Southern men, and that, during the paroxysm of excitement that would ensue,
Virginia might be arrayed against the
National Government.
Suddenly, bribery or threats, or change of ownership, made the
Richmond Whig, the only newspaper in the
Virginia capital that opposed secession, become ominously silent, while the organs of the conspirators were loudly boastful of a majority in the
Convention favorable to secession.
The hearts of the genuine
Unionists of the old State were saddened by gloomy forebodings, for they knew that their friends in that Convention were continually browbeaten by the truculent secessionists, and that the people were hourly deceived by the most astounding falsehoods put forth by the conspirators.
The Commissioners sent to
Washington obtained a formal audience with the
President on the 13th,
almost at the very time when, in their State capital, the bells were ringing, “Confederate” flags were flying, and one hundred guns were thundering, in attestation of the joy of the secessionists because of the attack on
Fort Sumter.
A telegraphic correspondent at
Charleston had said the day before:--“That ball fired at
Sumter by
Edmund Ruffin will do more for the cause of secession in
Virginia than volumes of stump speeches.”
37 The assertion was correct.
While the
Convention was debating the question of the surrender of
Fort Sumter,
Governor Letcher sent in a communication from
Governor Pickens, announcing the attack on that fortress, and saying:--“We will take the fort, and can sink the ships if they attempt to pass the channel.
If they land elsewhere, we can whip them.
We have now seven thousand of the best troops in the world, and a reserve of ten thousand on the routes to the harbor.
The war has commenced, and we will triumph or perish.
Please let me know what your State intends to do?”
Letcher replied:--“The Convention will determine.”
It was this dispatch — this notice of “that ball fired on
Sumter” by
Ruffin — that set the bells ringing, the flags.
flying, the cannons thundering, and the people shouting in
Richmond; and a few days afterward the
Convention revealed its determination to the world.
The President replied to the
Virginia Commissioners,
that it was his intention to pursue the policy clearly marked out in his Inaugural Address.
He had discovered no reasons for changing his views.
He recommended them to give that document a careful perusal, especially that portion in which he declared it to be his intention “to hold, occupy, and possess property and places belonging to the
Government, and to collect the duties on imports; but beyond what is necessary for these objects, there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere.”
He informed them that if an attack had been made upon
Fort Sumter, as it was at that moment rumored, he should feel himself at liberty to repossess it, if he could; for he considered it and other military posts seized by the insurgents as much the property of the
United States as ever.
“In any event,” he said, “I shall, to the best of my ability, repel force by force.”
He also told them that he might feel it his duty to cause the
United States mails to be withdrawn from all the States which
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claimed to have seceded, “believing that this commencement of actual war against the
Government justifies, and, possibly, demands it.”
With this explicit declaration of the
President that he should defend the life of the
Republic to the best of his ability, the
Virginia Commissioners returned to their constituents.
Their report added fuel to the flames of passion then raging in the
Virginia capital.
Its reading produced a scene of wild excitement in the
Convention.
It was heard therein at almost the same hour when the
President's call for troops to crush the rising rebellion was read.
Doubt, anger, joy and sorrow, and sentiments of treachery and fidelity swayed that body with varied emotions, until reason and judgment fled affrighted from the hall, and untempered feeling bore rule.
The boldest and best of the
Union men bent like reeds before the storm.
In the excitement of the moment, men like
Scott and
Preston, warmed by the glow of innate State pride, exclaimed: “If the
President means subjugation of the
South,
Virginia has but one course to pursue, and that is, resistance to tyranny.”
The only question entertained was: Shall
Virginia secede at once, or await the co-operation of the other Border Slave-labor States?
In the midst of the excitement pending that question, the
Convention adjourned until morning.
On the following day
the
Convention assembled in secret session.
Its aspect had changed.
For three days, threats and persuasions, appeals to interest, State pride and sectional patriotism, and the shafts of ridicule and scornful denunciation were brought to bear upon the faithful Union men, who were chiefly from the mountain districts of the
State, or
Western Virginia; and yet, at the adjournment, on the evening of the 15th, there was a clear majority of the one hundred and fifty-three members of the
Convention against secession.
The conspirators became desperate.
Richmond was in the hands of a mob ready to do their bidding, and they resolved to act with a high hand.
It was calculated that if ten Union members of the
Convention should be absent, there would be a majority for secession.
Accordingly, the leading conspirators waited upon ten of them during the evening, and informed them that they were allowed the choice of doing one of three things, namely: to vote for a secession ordinance, to absent themselves, or be hanged.
38 Resistance would be useless, and the seats of the ten members were vacant on the morning of the 16th.
Other
Unionists who remained in the
Convention were awed by these violent proceedings, and an Ordinance of Secession was passed on Wednesday, the 17th, by a vote of eighty-eight against fifty-five.
It was similar in form and substance to that of the
South Carolina politicians and those of other States, excepting that it was only to take effect when it should be ratified by “a majority of the votes of the people,” to be “cast at a poll to be taken thereon, on the fourth Tuesday in May next.”
The Virginia conspirators at once sent a private messenger to
Montgomery to apprise
Davis and his associates of their action, and to invite co-operation.
Already
Governor Letcher, who had been assured by the leaders in the
Convention that the Ordinance of Secession would be adopted,
[
378]
had sent
his defiant response to the
President's call for troops;
39 and now, under the direction of that Convention, which assumed supreme authority in the
State, he issued a proclamation, ordering “all armed volunteer regiments or companies within the
State forthwith to hold themselves in readiness for immediate orders.”
When, on the following day, the passage of the Ordinance (upon which fact a temporary injunction of secrecy had been laid) was announced, the joy of the secessionists in
Richmond was unbounded.
The streets resounded with the acclamations of great crowds.
The sign, in gilt letters,--
United States Court,--over the north entrance to the
Custom House, was taken down and broken in pieces by the populace; and the
National officers suddenly found their occupation gone.
The flag of the “Southern Confederacy,” with an additional star for
Virginia (making eight in all), was unfurled over the
Capitol.
It was also displayed from the
Custom House and other public buildings, and from hotels and private dwellings.
The
Custom House was taken into the keeping of
Virginia troops; and the packets
Yorktown and
Jamestown, belonging to the New York and Virginia Steamship Company, were seized and placed in charge of the same body of armed men.
As the news from
Richmond went over the land, it produced the most profound sensation.
In the cities of Slave-labor States, and especially of the more Southern ones, there were demonstrations of great delight.
At
Charleston the event caused the wildest excitement.
“The news of the secession of the mother of
Presidents and Patriots,” said a telegraphic dispatch to
Philadelphia,
“was received here with great joy. The old secession gun was fired in front of the
Courier office, by the venerable
Edmund Ruffin.
The old gentleman was surrounded by many
Virginians, who cheered lustily.”
The Virginians then in
Montgomery, headed by
Pryor, who had gone up from
Charleston,
40 fired a hundred guns on their own account; and from the far
Southwest went forth the greeting:--
In the new-born arch of glory,
Lo!
she burns, the central star;
Never shame shall blight its grandeur,
Never cloud its radiance mar.
“Old Virginia!
Old Virginia!”
Listen, Southrons, to the strain;
“Old Virginia!
Old Virginia!”
Shout the rallying-cry again!41
In the Free-labor States the action of
Virginia was observed with alarm, for it threatened immediate danger to the
National Capital and the archives of the
Republic.
Only the hope that the
people of
Virginia would refuse to ratify the Ordinance, calmed the fears of the loyalists.
The expectation that they would do so, if an opportunity should be offered them, made the conspirators more active and bold.
They did not wait for the people to speak concerning the matter; but, within twenty-four hours after the passage of the Ordinance, and while the vote was still covered by an injunction of secrecy, they set on foot, doubtless under directions from
Montgomery,
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expeditions for the capture of
Harper's Ferry and of the
Navy Yard near
Norfolk, preparatory to an attempt to seize
Washington City.
A few days afterward,
Alexander H. Stephens arrived in
Richmond, to urge the
Convention to violate its own Ordinance, and to take measures for annexing
Virginia to the “Confederacy” without the consent of the people.
He was clothed with full power to make a treaty to that effect.
Troops were then pushing forward from the
Gulf States toward her borders.
The conspirators, having promised the people of the Cotton-growing States that no harm should come nigh their dwellings, and perceiving war to be inevitable, were hastening to make the
Border States the theater of its operations, and, if possible, secure the great advantage of the possession of the
National Capital.
At various points on his journey northward,
Stephens had harangued the people, and everywhere he raised the cry of “On to
Washington!”
42 That cry was already resounding throughout the
South.
It was an echo or a paraphrase of the prophecy of the “Confederate
Secretary of War.”
43 “Nothing is more probable,” said the
Richmond Enquirer on the 13th of April, “than that
President Davis will soon march an army through
North Carolina and
Virginia to
Washington,” and it called upon
Virginians who wished to “join the
Southern army,” to organize at once.
“The first-fruits of
Virginia secession,” said the
New Orleans Picayune |
South Carolina Light Infantry. |
of the 18th, “will be the removal of
Lincoln and his Cabinet, and whatever he can carry away, to the safer neighborhood of
Harrisburg or
Cincinnati — perhaps to
Buffalo or
Cleveland.”
The
Vicksburg (
Mississippi)
Whig of the 20th said:--“
Major Ben. McCulloch has organized a force of five thousand men to seize the
Federal Capital the instant the first blood is spilled.”
On the evening of the same day, when news of bloodshed in
Baltimore was received in
Montgomery, bonfires were built in front of the
Exchange Hotel, and from its balcony
Roger A. Pryor said, in a speech to the multitude, that he was “in favor of an immediate march upon
Washington.”
At the departure of the Second Regiment of South Carolina Infantry for
Richmond, at about the same time, the
Colonel (
Kershaw), on taking the flag presented to the regiment, said, as he handed it to the
Color-Sergeant (
Gordon):--“To your particular charge is committed this noble gift.
Plant it wherever honor calls.
If opportunity offers, let it be the first to kiss the breezes of heaven from the dome of
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380]
the
Capitol at
Washington.”
The
Richmond Examiner of the 23d (the day on which
Stephens arrived in
Richmond), said:--“The capture of
Washington City is perfectly within the power of
Virginia and
Maryland, if
Virginia will only make the proper effort by her constituted authorities . . . . There never was half the unanimity among the people before, nor a tithe of the zeal upon any subject that is now manifested to take
Washington, and drive from it every Black Republican who is a dweller there.
From the mountain-tops and valleys to the shores of the sea there is one wild shout of fierce resolve to capture
Washington City, at all and every human hazard.”
On the same day
Governor Ellis, of
North Carolina, ordered a regiment of State troops to march for
Washington; and the
Goldsborough Tribune of the 24th said, speaking of the grand movement of
Virginia and a rumored one in
Maryland:--“It makes good the words of
Secretary Walker at
Montgomery, in regard to the
Federal metropolis.
It transfers the lines of battle from the
Potomac to the
Pennsylvania border.”
The
Raleigh Standard of the same date said:--“Our streets are alive with soldiers” (although
North Carolina was a professedly loyal State of the
Union), and added, “
Washington City will be too hot to hold
Abraham Lincoln and his Government.
North Carolina has said it, and she will do all she can to make good her declaration.”
The
Wilmington (
N. C.)
Journal said:--“When North Carolina regiments go to
Washington, and they will go, they will stand side by side with their brethren of the
South.”
The
Eufaula (
Alabama)
Express said, on the 25th:
--“Our policy at this time should be to seize the old Federal Capital, and take old
Lincoln arid his Cabinet prisoners of war.”
The
Milledgeville (Georgia) Southern Recorder of the 30th, inspired by men like
Toombs,
Cobb,
Iverson, and other leaders, said:--“The Government of the
Confederate States must possess the city of
Washington.
It is folly to think it can be used any longer as the Headquarters of the
Lincoln Government, as no access can be had to it except by passing through
Virginia and
Maryland.
The District of Columbia cannot remain under the jurisdiction of the United States Congress without humiliating Southern pride and defeating Southern rights.
Both are essential to greatness of character, and both must co-operate in the destiny to be achieved.”
A correspondent of the
Charleston Courier, writing from
Montgomery at about the same time, said:--“The desire for taking
Washington, I believe, increases every hour, and all things, to my thinking, seem tending to this consummation.
We are in lively hope that, before three months roll by, the
Government, Congress, departments and all, will have removed to the present Federal Capital.”
We might cite utterances of this kind from the leading newspapers of the more Southern Slave-labor States, and the declarations of eminent politicians, sufficient to fill a chapter, which show that everywhere it was well understood that the seizure of
Washington, the destruction of the
Republic, and the erection of a confederation composed wholly of Slave-labor States, according to the plan foreshadowed in the banner of the
South Carolina Secession Convention,
44 was the cherished design of
Jefferson Davis and his
[
381]
confederates.
Yet in the face of this testimony — in the presence of the prophecy of his so-called
Secretary of War at
Montgomery, and the action of
Stephens, his lieutenant, while on his way to
Richmond, and while there in assisting the
Virginia conspirators in carrying out their scheme for seizing the
Capital, the arch-traitor, with hypocrisy the most supremely impudent, declared in a speech at the opening of his so-called Congress, on the 29th of April, that his policy was peaceful and defensive, not belligerent and aggressive.
Speaking more to
Europe than to the “Confederacy,” he said:--“We protest solemnly, in the face of mankind, that we desire peace at any sacrifice, save that of honor. . . . In independence we seek no conquest, no aggrandizement, no cession of any kind from the States with which we have lately confederated.
All we ask is to be let alone--those who never held power over us should not now attempt our subjugation by arms.
This we will, we must resist to the direst extremity.”
On the very next day
Stephens, the so-called
Vice-President, said in a speech at
Atlanta, in Georgia:--“A general opinion prevails that
Washington City is. soon to be attacked.
On this subject I can only say, our object is peace.
We wish no aggressions on any one's rights, and will make none.
But if
Maryland secedes, the District of Columbia will fall to her by reversionary right — the same as
Sumter to
South Carolina,
Pulaski to
Georgia, and
Pickens to
Florida.
When we have the right, we will demand the surrender of
Washington, just as we did in the other cases, and will enforce our demands at every hazard and at whatever cost.”
The burglar, using the same convenient logic, might, say to the householder about to be plundered by him, after having made the intended victim's near neighbor an accomplice, and with his aid had forced his way into the dwelling: “Your plate, and your money, and your jewelry fall to my accomplice as a reversionary right, and we demand the surrender of your keys.
All we ask is to be let alone.”
45