Part 47 (1/2)

Lincoln waited a month, hoping that the secessionists would come back to the Union of their own accord. Then he decided to send supplies to Major Anderson and told the governor of South Carolina of his decision.

Immediately (April 12) the Confederates opened fire on Fort Sumter. On April 14 Anderson surrendered. The next day President Lincoln issued a proclamation calling for seventy-five thousand volunteers.

[Sidenote: The Northern volunteers. _McMaster_, 386-387; _Source-Book_, 303-305.]

[Sidenote: Douglas, Buchanan, and Pierce]

[Sidenote: Progress of secession.]

382. Rising of the North.--There was no longer a question of letting the ”erring sisters” depart in peace. The Southerners had fired on ”Old Glory.” There was no longer a dispute over the extension of slavery. The question was now whether the Union should perish or should live. Douglas at once came out for the Union and so did the former Presidents, Buchanan and Franklin Pierce. In the Mississippi Valley hundreds of thousands of men either sympathized with the slaveholders or cared nothing about the slavery dispute. But the moment the Confederates attacked the Union, they rose in defense of their country and their flag.

[Sidenote: West Virginia.]

383. More Seceders.--The Southerners flocked to the standards of the Confederacy, and four more states joined the ranks of secession.

These were Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia. In Virginia the people were sharply divided on the question of secession.

Finally Virginia seceded, but the western Virginians, in their turn, seceded from Virginia and two years later were admitted to the Union as the state of West Virginia. Four ”border states” had seceded; but four other ”border states” were still within the Union. These were Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri.

[Sidenote: Kentucky and Maryland saved to the Union.]

[Sidenote: Missouri saved to the Union. _Eggleston_, 310.]

384. The Border States.--The people of Maryland and of Kentucky were evenly divided on the question of secession. They even tried to set up as neutral states. But their neutrality would have been so greatly to the advantage of the seceders that this could not be allowed. Lincoln's firm moderation and the patriotism of many wise leaders in Kentucky saved that state to the Union. But Maryland was so important to the defense of Was.h.i.+ngton that more energetic means had to be used. In Missouri, a large and active party wished to join the Confederacy. But two Union men, Frank P. Blair and Nathaniel Lyon, held the most important portions of the state for the Union. It was not until a year later, however, that Missouri was safe on the Northern side.

[Sidenote: Southern sentiment in Was.h.i.+ngton.]

[Sidenote: Southern Unionists.]

[Sidenote: First bloodshed, April 19, 1861.]

385. To the Defense of Was.h.i.+ngton.--The national capital was really a Southern town, for most of the permanent residents were Southerners, and the offices were filled with Southern men. In the army and navy, too, were very many Southerners. Most of them, as Robert E. Lee, felt that their duty to their state was greater than their duty to their flag. But many Southern officers felt differently. Among these were two men whose names should be held in grateful remembrance, Captain David G.

Farragut and Colonel George H. Thomas. The first soldiers to arrive in Was.h.i.+ngton were from Pennsylvania; but they came unarmed. Soon they were followed by the Sixth Ma.s.sachusetts. In pa.s.sing through Baltimore this regiment was attacked. Several men were killed, others were wounded.

This was on April 19, 1861,--the anniversary of the battles of Lexington and Concord. It was the first bloodshed of the war.

CHAPTER 38

BULL RUN TO MURFREESBORO', 1861-1862

[Ill.u.s.tration: RAILROADS AND RIVERS OF THE SOUTH.]

[Sidenote: The field of war.]

386. Nature of the Conflict.--The overthrow of the Confederate states proved to be very difficult. The Alleghany Mountains cut the South into two great fields of war. Deep and rapid rivers flowed from the mountains into the Atlantic or into the Mississippi. Each of these rivers was a natural line of defense. The first line was the Potomac and the Ohio. But when the Confederates were driven from this line, they soon found another equally good a little farther south. Then again the South was only partly settled. Good roads were rare, but there were many poor roads. The maps gave only the good roads. By these the Northern soldiers had to march while the Southern armies were often guided through paths unknown to the Northerners, and thus were able to march shorter distances between two battlefields or between two important points.

[Sidenote: Plan of campaign.]

[Sidenote: Disaster at Bull Run, July, 1861. _Source-Book_, 305-308.]