diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'old/dayco10.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | old/dayco10.txt | 4742 |
1 files changed, 4742 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/old/dayco10.txt b/old/dayco10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..44bdbff --- /dev/null +++ b/old/dayco10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4742 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Day of the Confederacy +by Nathaniel W. Stephenson + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. + +Please do not remove this. + +This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book. +Do not change or edit it without written permission. The words +are carefully chosen to provide users with the information they +need about what they can legally do with the texts. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. We need your donations. + +Presently, contributions are only being solicited from people in: +Texas, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, South Dakota, +Iowa, Indiana, and Vermont. As the requirements for other states +are met, additions to this list will be made and fund raising will +begin in the additional states. These donations should be made to: + +Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +PMB 113 +1739 University Ave. +Oxford, MS 38655 + + +Title: The Day of the Confederacy + +Author: Nathaniel W. Stephenson + +Release Date: January, 2002 [Etext #3035] +[Yes, we are about one year ahead of schedule] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Day of the Confederacy +by Nathaniel W. Stephenson +******This file should be named dayco10.txt or dayco10.zip****** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, dayco11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, dayco10a.txt + +Project Gutenberg Etexts are usually created from multiple editions, +all of which are in the Public Domain in the United States, unless a +copyright notice is included. Therefore, we usually do NOT keep any +of these books in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +We are now trying to release all our books one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to send us error messages even years after +the official publication date. + +Please note: neither this list nor its contents are final till +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. + +Most people start at our sites at: +http://gutenberg.net +http://promo.net/pg + + +Those of you who want to download any Etext before announcement +can surf to them as follows, and just download by date; this is +also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the +indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an +announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter. + +http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext02 +or +ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext02 + +Or /etext01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90 + +Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want, +as it appears in our Newsletters. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours +to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. This +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If our value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour this year as we release fifty new Etext +files per month, or 500 more Etexts in 2000 for a total of 3000+ +If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total +should reach over 300 billion Etexts given away by year's end. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext +Files by December 31, 2001. [10,000 x 100,000,000 = 1 Trillion] +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users. + +At our revised rates of production, we will reach only one-third +of that goal by the end of 2001, or about 3,333 Etexts unless we +manage to get some real funding. + +Something is needed to create a future for Project Gutenberg for +the next 100 years. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +Presently, contributions are only being solicited from people in: +Texas, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, South Dakota, +Iowa, Indiana, and Vermont. As the requirements for other states +are met, additions to this list will be made and fund raising will +begin in the additional states. + +All donations should be made to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation and will be tax deductible to the extent +permitted by law. + +Mail to: + +Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +PMB 113 +1739 University Avenue +Oxford, MS 38655 [USA] + +We are working with the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation to build more stable support and ensure the +future of Project Gutenberg. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +You can get up to date donation information at: + +http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html + + +*** + +You can always email directly to: + +Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> + +hart@pobox.com forwards to hart@prairienet.org and archive.org +if your mail bounces from archive.org, I will still see it, if +it bounces from prairienet.org, better resend later on. . . . + +We would prefer to send you this information by email. + + +Example command-line FTP session: + +ftp ftp.ibiblio.org +login: anonymous +password: your@login +cd pub/docs/books/gutenberg +cd etext90 through etext99 or etext00 through etext02, etc. +dir [to see files] +get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files] +GET GUTINDEX.?? [to get a year's listing of books, e.g., GUTINDEX.99] +GET GUTINDEX.ALL [to get a listing of ALL books] + + +**The Legal Small Print** + + +(Three Pages) + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you can distribute copies of this etext if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this etext on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etexts, +is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart +through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project"). +Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext +under the Project's "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market +any commercial products without permission. + +To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] the Project (and any other party you may receive this +etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold the Project, its directors, +officers, members and agents harmless from all liability, cost +and expense, including legal fees, that arise directly or +indirectly from any of the following that you do or cause: +[1] distribution of this etext, [2] alteration, modification, +or addition to the etext, or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + etext or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word + processing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The etext may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the etext (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the + gross profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation" + the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were + legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent + periodic) tax return. Please contact us beforehand to + let us know your plans and to work out the details. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time, +public domain etexts, and royalty free copyright licenses. +If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or +software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at: +hart@pobox.com + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.07.00*END* + + + + +Title: The Day of the Confederacy, A Chronicle of the Embattled South + +Author: Nathaniel W. Stephenson + +THIS BOOK, VOLUME 30 IN THE CHRONICLES OF AMERICA SERIES, ALLEN +JOHNSON, EDITOR, WAS DONATED TO PROJECT GUTENBERG BY THE JAMES J. +KELLY LIBRARY OF ST. GREGORY'S UNIVERSITY; THANKS TO ALEV AKMAN. + +THE DAY OF THE CONFEDERACY, A CHRONICLE OF THE EMBATTLED SOUTH +BY NATHANIEL W. STEPHENSON + +New Haven: Yale University Press +Toronto: Glasgow, Brook & Co. +London: Humphrey Milford +Oxford University Press + +1919 + + +CONTENTS + +I. THE SECESSION MOVEMENT + +II. THE DAVIS GOVERNMENT + +III. THE FALL OF KING COTTON + +IV. THE REACTION AGAINST RICHMOND + +V. THE CRITICAL YEAR + +VI. LIFE IN THE CONFEDERACY + +VII. THE TURNING OF THE TIDE + +VIII. A GAME OF CHANCE + +IX. DESPERATE REMEDIES X. DISINTEGRATION + +XI. AN ATTEMPTED REVOLUTION + +XII. THE LAST WORD + +BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + + +THE DAY OF THE CONFEDERACY + +Chapter I. The Secession Movement + +The secession movement had three distinct stages. The first, +beginning with the news that Lincoln was elected, closed with the +news, sent broadcast over the South from Charleston, that Federal +troops had taken possession of Fort Sumter on the night of the +28th of December. During this period the likelihood of secession +was the topic of discussion in the lower South. What to do in +case the lower South seceded was the question which perplexed the +upper South. In this period no State north of South Carolina +contemplated taking the initiative. In the Southeastern and Gulf +States immediate action of some sort was expected. Whether it +would be secession or some other new course was not certain on +the day of Lincoln's election. Various States earlier in the year +had provided for conventions of their people in the event of a +Republican victory. The first to assemble was the convention of +South Carolina, which organized at Columbia, on December 17, +1860. Two weeks earlier Congress had met. Northerners and +Southerners had at once joined issue on their relation in the +Union. The House had appointed its committee of thirty-three to +consider the condition of the country. So unpromising indeed from +the Southern point of view had been the early discussions of this +committee that a conference of Southern members of Congress had +sent out their famous address To Our Constituents: "The argument +is exhausted. All hope of relief in the Union . . . is +extinguished, and we trust the South will not be deceived by +appearances or the pretense of new guarantees. In our judgment +the Republicans are resolute in the purpose to grant nothing that +will or ought to satisfy the South. We are satisfied the honor, +safety, and independence of the Southern people require the +organization of a Southern Confederacy--a result to be obtained +only by separate state secession." Among the signers of this +address were the two statesmen who had in native talent no +superiors at Washington--Judah P. Benjamin of Louisiana and +Jefferson Davis of Mississippi. + +The appeal To Our Constituents was not the only assurance of +support tendered to the convention of South Carolina. To +represent them at this convention the governors of Alabama and +Mississippi had appointed delegates. Mr. Hooker of Mississippi +and Mr. Elmore of Alabama made addresses before the convention on +the night of the 17th of December. Both reiterated views which +during two days of lobbying they had disseminated in Columbia "on +all proper occasions." Their argument, summed up in Elmore's +report to Governor Moore of Alabama, was "that the only course to +unite the Southern States in any plan of cooperation which could +promise safety was for South Carolina to take the lead and secede +at once without delay or hesitation...that the only effective +plan of cooperation must ensue after one State had seceded and +presented the issue when the plain question would be presented to +the other Southern States whether they would stand by the +seceding State engaged in a common cause or abandon her to the +fate of coercion by the arms of the Government of the United +States." + +Ten years before, in the unsuccessful secession movement of 1850 +and 1851, Andrew Pickens Butler, perhaps the ablest South +Carolinian then living, strove to arrest the movement by exactly +the opposite argument. Though desiring secession, he threw all +his weight against it because the rest of the South was averse. +He charged his opponents, whose leader was Robert Barnwell Rhett, +with aiming to place the other Southern States "in such +circumstances that, having a common destiny, they would be +compelled to be involved in a common sacrifice." He protested +that "to force a sovereign State to take a position against its +consent is to make of it a reluctant associate.... Both +interest and honor must require the Southern States to take +council together." + +That acute thinker was now in his grave. The bold enthusiast whom +he defeated in 1851 had now no opponent that was his match. No +great personality resisted the fiery advocates from Alabama and +Mississippi. Their advice was accepted. On December 20, 1860, +the cause that ten years before had failed was successful. The +convention, having adjourned from Columbia to Charleston, passed +an ordinance of secession. + +Meanwhile, in Georgia, at a hundred meetings, the secession issue +was being hotly discussed. But there was not yet any certainty +which way the scale would turn. An invitation from South Carolina +to join in a general Southern convention had been declined by the +Governor in November. Governor Brown has left an account +ascribing the comparative coolness and deliberation of the hour +to the prevailing impression that President Buchanan had pledged +himself not to alter the military status at Charleston. In an +interview between South Carolina representatives and the +President, the Carolinians understood that such a pledge was +given. "It was generally understood by the country," says +Governor Brown, "that such an agreement...had been entered +Into...and that Governor Floyd of Virginia, then Secretary of +War, had expressed his determination to resign his position in +the Cabinet in case of the refusal of the President to carry out +the agreement in good faith. The resignation of Governor Floyd +was therefore naturally looked upon, should it occur, as a signal +given to the South that reinforcements were to be sent to +Charleston and that the coercive policy had been adopted by the +Federal Government." + +While the "canvass in Georgia for members of the State convention +was progressing with much interest on both sides," there came +suddenly the news that Anderson had transferred his garrison from +Fort Moultrie to the island fortress of Sumter. That same day +commissioners from South Carolina, newly arrived at Washington, +sought in vain to persuade the President to order Anderson back +to Moultrie. The Secretary of War made the subject an issue +before the Cabinet. Unable to carry his point, two days later he +resigned.* + +* The President had already asked for Floyd's resignation because +of financial irregularities, and Floyd was shrewd enough to use +Anderson's coup as an excuse for resigning. See Rhodes, "History +of the United States," vol. II pp. 225, 236 (note). + +The Georgia Governor, who had not hitherto been in the front rank +of the aggressives, now struck a great blow. Senator Toombs had +telegraphed from Washington that Fort Pulaski, guarding the +Savannah River, was "in danger." The Governor had reached the +same conclusion. He mustered the state militia and seized Fort +Pulaski. Early in the morning on January 3,1861, the fort was +occupied by Georgia troops. Shortly afterward, Brown wrote to a +commissioner sent by the Governor of Alabama to confer with him: +"While many of our most patriotic and intelligent citizens in +both States have doubted the propriety of immediate secession, I +feel quite confident that recent events have dispelled those +doubts from the minds of most men who have, till within the past +few days, honestly sustained them." The first stage of the +secession movement was at an end; the second had begun. + +A belief that Washington had entered upon a policy of aggression +swept the lower South. The state conventions assembling about +this time passed ordinances of secession--Mississippi, January 9; +Florida, January 10; Alabama, January 11; Georgia, January 19; +Louisiana, January 26; Texas, February 1. But this result was not +achieved without considerable opposition. In Georgia the +Unionists put up a stout fight. The issue was not upon the right +to secede--virtually no one denied the right--but upon the wisdom +of invoking the right. Stephens, gloomy and pessimistic, led the +opposition. Toombs came down from Washington to take part with +the secessionists. From South Carolina and Alabama, both +ceaselessly active for secession, commissioners appeared to lobby +at Milledgeville, as commissioners of Alabama and Mississippi had +lobbied at Columbia. Besides the out-and-out Unionists, there +were those who wanted to temporize, to threaten the North, and to +wait for developments. The motion on which these men and the +Unionists made their last stand together went against them 164 to +133. Then at last came the square question: Shall we secede? Even +on this question, the minority was dangerously large. Though the +temporizers came over to the secessionists, and with them came +Stephens, there was still a minority of 89 irreconcilables +against the majority numbering 208. + +"My allegiance," said Stephens afterwards, "was, as I considered +it, not due to the United States, or to the people of the United +States, but to Georgia, in her sovereign capacity. Georgia had +never parted with her right to demand the ultimate allegiance of +her citizens." + +The attempt in Georgia to restrain impetuosity and advance with +deliberation was paralleled in Alabama, where also the +aggressives were determined not to permit delay. In the Alabama +convention, the conservatives brought forward a plan for a +general Southern convention to be held at Nashville in February. +It was rejected by a vote of 54 to 45. An attempt to delay +secession until after the 4th of March was defeated by the same +vote. + +The determination of the radicals to precipitate the issue +received interesting criticism from the Governor of Texas, old +Sam Houston. To a commissioner from Alabama who was sent out to +preach the cause in Texas the Governor wrote, in substance, that +since Alabama would not wait to consult the people of Texas he +saw nothing to discuss at that time, and he went on to say: + +Recognizing as I do the fact that the sectional tendencies of the +Black Republican party call for determined constitutional +resistance at the hands of the united South, I also feel that the +million and a half of noble-hearted, conservative men who have +stood by the South, even to this hour, deserve some sympathy and +support. Although we have lost the day, we have to recollect that +our conservative Northern friends cast over a quarter of a +million more votes against the Black Republicans than we of the +entire South. I cannot declare myself ready to desert them as +well as our Southern brethren of the border (and such, I believe, +will be the sentiment of Texas) until at least one firm attempt +has been made to preserve our constitutional rights within the +Union. + +Nevertheless, Houston was not able to control his State. +Delegates from Texas attended the later sessions of a general +Congress of the seceding States which, on the invitation of +Alabama, met at Montgomery on the 4th of February. A contemporary +document of singular interest today is the series of resolutions +adopted by the Legislature of North Carolina, setting forth that, +as the State was a member of the Federal Union, it could not +accept the invitation of Alabama but should send delegates for +the purpose of persuading the South to effect a readjustment on +the basis of the Crittenden Compromise as modified by the +Legislature of Virginia. The commissioners were sent, were +graciously received, were accorded seats in the Congress, but +they exerted no influence on the course of its action. + +The Congress speedily organized a provisional Government for the +Confederate States of America. The Constitution of the United +States, rather hastily reconsidered, became with a few inevitable +alterations the Constitution of the Confederacy.* Davis was +unanimously elected President; Stephens, Vice-President. +Provision was made for raising an army. Commissioners were +dispatched to Washington to negotiate a treaty with the United +States; other commissioners were sent to Virginia to attempt to +withdraw that great commonwealth from the Union. + +* To the observer of a later age this document appears a thing of +haste. Like the framers of the Constitution of 1787, who omitted +from their document some principles which they took for granted, +the framers of 1861 left unstated their most distinctive views. +The basal idea upon which the revolution proceeded, the right of +secession, is not to be found in the new Constitution. Though the +preamble declares that the States are acting in their sovereign +and independent character, the new Confederation is declared +"permanent." In the body of the document are provisions similar +to those in the Federal Constitution enabling a majority of +two-thirds of the States to amend at their pleasure, thus +imposing their will upon the minority. With three notable +exceptions the new Constitution, subsequent to the preamble, does +little more than restate the Constitution of 1787 rearranged so +as to include those basal principles of the English law added to +the earlier Constitution by the first eight amendments. The three +exceptions are the prohibitions (1) of the payment of bounties, +(2) of the levying of duties to promote any one form of industry, +and (3) of appropriations for internal improvements. Here was a +monument to the battle over these matters in the Federal +Congress. As to the mechanism of the new Government it was the +same as the old except for a few changes of detail. The +presidential term was lengthened to six years and the President +was forbidden to succeed himself. The President was given the +power to veto items in appropriation bills. The African +slave-trade was prohibited. + +The upper South was thus placed in a painful situation. Its +sympathies were with the seceding States. Most of its people felt +also that if coercion was attempted, the issue would become for +Virginia and North Carolina, no less than for South Carolina and +Alabama, simply a matter of self-preservation. As early as +January, in the exciting days when Floyd's resignation was being +interpreted as a call to arms, the Virginia Legislature had +resolved that it would not consent to the coercion of a seceding +State. In May the Speaker of the North Carolina Legislature +assured a commissioner from Georgia that North Carolina would +never consent to the movement of troops "from or across" the +State to attack a seceding State. But neither Virginia nor North +Carolina in this second stage of the movement wanted to secede. +They wanted to preserve the Union, but along with the Union they +wanted the principle of local autonomy. It was a period of tense +anxiety in those States of the upper South. The frame of mind of +the men who loved the Union but who loved equally their own +States and were firm for local autonomy is summed up in a letter +in which Mrs. Robert E. Lee describes the anguish of her husband +as he confronted the possibility of a divided country. + +The real tragedy of the time lay in the failure of the advocates +of these two great principles--each so necessary to a far-flung +democratic country in a world of great powers!--the failure to +coordinate them so as to insure freedom at home and strength +abroad. The principle for which Lincoln stood has saved Americans +in the Great War from playing such a trembling part as that of +Holland. The principle which seemed to Lee even more essential, +which did not perish at Appomattox but was transformed and not +destroyed, is what has kept us from becoming a western Prussia. +And yet if only it had been possible to coordinate the two +without the price of war! It was not possible because of the +stored up bitterness of a quarter century of recrimination. But +Virginia made a last desperate attempt to preserve the Union by +calling the Peace Convention. It assembled at Washington the day +the Confederate Congress met at Montgomery. Though twenty-one +States sent delegates, it was no more able to effect a working +scheme of compromise than was the House committee of thirty-three +or the Senate committee of thirteen, both of which had striven, +had failed, and had gone their ways to a place in the great +company of historic futilities. + +And so the Peace Convention came and went, and there was no +consolation for the troubled men of the upper South who did not +want to secede but were resolved not to abandon local autonomy. +Virginia was the key to the situation. If Virginia could be +forced into secession, the rest of the upper South would +inevitably follow. Therefore a Virginia hothead, Roger A. Pryor, +being in Charleston in those wavering days, poured out his heart +in fiery words, urging a Charleston crowd to precipitate war, in +the certainty that Virginia would then have to come to their aid. +When at last Sumter was fired upon and Lincoln called for +volunteers, the second stage of the secession movement ended in a +thunderclap. The third period was occupied by the second group of +secessions: Virginia on the 17th of April, North Carolina and +Arkansas during May, Tennessee early in June. + +Sumter was the turning-point. The boom of the first cannon +trained on the island fortress deserves all the rhetoric it has +inspired. Who was immediately responsible for that firing which +was destiny? Ultimate responsibility is not upon any person. War +had to be. If Sumter had not been the starting-point, some other +would have been found. Nevertheless the question of immediate +responsibility, of whose word it was that served as the signal to +begin, has produced an historic controversy. + +When it was known at Charleston that Lincoln would attempt to +provision the fort, the South Carolina authorities referred the +matter to the Confederate authorities. The Cabinet, in a fateful +session at Montgomery, hesitated--drawn between the wish to keep +their hold upon the moderates of the North, who were trying to +stave off war, and the desire to precipitate Virginia into the +lists. Toombs, Secretary of State in the new Government, wavered; +then seemed to find his resolution and came out strong against a +demand for surrender. "It is suicide, murder, and will lose us +every friend at the North.... It is unnecessary; it puts us +in the wrong; it is fatal," said he. But the Cabinet and the +President decided to take the risk. To General Pierre Beauregard, +recently placed in command of the militia assembled at +Charleston, word was sent to demand the surrender of Fort Sumter. + +On Thursday, the 7th of April, besides his instructions from +Montgomery, Beauregard was in receipt of a telegram from the +Confederate commissioners at Washington, repeating newspaper +statements that the Federal relief expedition intended to land a +force "which will overcome all opposition." There seems no doubt +that Beauregard did not believe that the expedition was intended +merely to provision Sumter. Probably every one in Charleston +thought that the Federal authorities were trying to deceive them, +that Lincoln's promise not to do more than provision Sumter was a +mere blind. Fearfulness that delay might render Sumter +impregnable lay back of Beauregard's formal demand, on the 11th +of April, for the surrender of the fort. Anderson refused but +"made some verbal observations" to the aides who brought him the +demand. In effect he said that lack of supplies would compel him +to surrender by the fifteenth. When this information was taken +back to the city, eager crowds were in the streets of Charleston +discussing the report that a bombardment would soon begin. But +the afternoon passed; night fell; and nothing was done. On the +beautiful terrace along the sea known as East Battery, people +congregated, watching the silent fortress whose brick walls rose +sheer from the midst of the harbor. The early hours of the night +went by and as midnight approached and still there was no flash +from either the fortress or the shore batteries which threatened +it, the crowds broke up. + +Meanwhile there was anxious consultation at the hotel where +Beauregard had fixed his headquarters. Pilots came in from the +sea to report to the General that a Federal vessel had appeared +off the mouth of the harbor. This news may well explain the hasty +dispatch of a second expedition to Sumter in the middle of the +night. At half after one, Friday morning, four young men, aides +of Beauregard, entered the fort. Anderson repeated his refusal to +surrender at once but admitted that he would have to surrender +within three days. Thereupon the aides held a council of war. +They decided that the reply was unsatisfactory and wrote out a +brief note which they handed to Anderson informing him that the +Confederates would open "fire upon Fort Sumter in one hour from +this time." The note was dated 3:20 A.M. The aides then proceeded +to Fort Johnston on the south side of the harbor and gave the +order to fire. + +The council of the aides at Sumter is the dramatic detail that +has caught the imagination of historians and has led them, at +least in some cases, to yield to a literary temptation. It is so +dramatic--that scene of the four young men holding in their +hands, during a moment of absolute destiny, the fate of a people; +four young men, in the irresponsible ardor of youth, refusing to +wait three days and forcing war at the instant! It is so dramatic +that one cannot judge harshly the artistic temper which is unable +to reject it. But is the incident historic? Did the four young +men come to Sumter without definite instructions? Was their +conference really anything more than a careful comparing of notes +to make sure they were doing what they were intended to do? Is +not the real clue to the event a message from Beauregard to the +Secretary of War telling of his interview with the pilots? * + +*A chief authority for the dramatic version of the council of the +aides is that fiery Virginian, Roger A. Pryor. He and another +accompanied the official messengers, the signers of the note to +Anderson, James Chestnut and Stephen Lee. Years afterwards Pryor +told the story of the council in a way to establish its dramatic +significance. But would there be anything strange if a veteran +survivor, looking back to his youth, as all of us do through more +or less of mirage yielded to the unconscious artist that is in us +all and dramatized this event unaware? + +Dawn was breaking gray, with a faint rain in the air, when the +first boom of the cannon awakened the city. Other detonations +followed in quick succession. Shells rose into the night from +both sides of the harbor and from floating batteries. How lightly +Charleston slept that night may be inferred from the accounts in +the newspapers. "At the report of the first gun," says the +Courier, "the city was nearly emptied of its inhabitants who +crowded the Battery and the wharves to witness the conflict." + +The East Battery and the lower harbor of the lovely city of +Charleston have been preserved almost without alteration. What +they are today they were in the breaking dawn on April 12, 1861. +Business has gone up the rivers between which Charleston lies and +has left the point of the city's peninsula, where East Battery +looks outward to the Atlantic, in its perfect charm. There large +houses, pillared, with high piazzas, stand apart one from another +among gardens. With few exceptions they were built before the +middle of the century and all, with one exception, show the +classical taste of those days. The mariner, entering the spacious +inner sea that is Charleston Harbor, sights this row of stately +mansions even before he crosses the bar seven miles distant. +Holding straight onward up into the land he heads first for the +famous little island where, nowadays, in their halo of thrilling +recollection, the walls of Sumter, rising sheer from the bosom of +the water, drowse idle. Close under the lee of Sumter, the +incoming steersman brings his ship about and chooses, probably, +the eastward of two huge tentacles of the sea between which lies +the city's long but narrow peninsula. To the steersman it shows a +skyline serrated by steeples, fronted by sea, flanked southward +by sea, backgrounded by an estuary, and looped about by a sickle +of wooded islands. This same scene, so far as city and nature +go, was beheld by the crowds that swarmed East Battery, a +flagstone marine parade along the seaward side of the boulevard +that faces Sumter; that filled the windows and even the +housetops; that watched the bombardment with the eagerness of an +audience in an amphitheater; that applauded every telling shot +with clapping of hands and waving of shawls and handkerchiefs. +The fort lay distant from them about three miles, but only some +fifteen hundred yards from Fort Johnston on one side and about a +mile from Fort Moultrie on the other. From both of these latter, +the cannon of those days were equal to the task of harassing +Sumter. Early in the morning of the 12th of April, though not +until broad day had come, did Anderson make reply. All that day, +at first under heavily rolling cloud and later through curiously +misty sunshine, the fire and counterfire continued. "The +enthusiasm and fearlessness of the spectators," says the +Charleston Mercury, "knew no bounds." Reckless observers even put +out in small boats and roamed about the harbor almost under the +guns of the fort. Outside the bar, vessels of the relieving +squadron were now visible, and to these Anderson signaled for +aid. They made an attempt to reach the fort, but only part of the +squadron had arrived; and the vessels necessary to raise the +siege were not there. The attempt ended in failure. When night +came, a string of rowboats each carrying a huge torch kept watch +along the bar to guard against surprise from the sea. + +On that Friday night the harbor was swept by storm. But in spite +of torrents of rain East Battery and the rooftops were thronged. +"The wind was inshore and the booming was startlingly distinct." +At the height of the bombardment, the sky above Sumter seemed to +be filled with the flashes of bursting shells. But during this +wild night Sumter itself was both dark and silent. Its casements +did not have adequate lamps and the guns could not be used except +by day. When morning broke, clear and bright after the night's +storm, the duel was resumed. + +The walls of Sumter were now crumbling. At eight o'clock Saturday +morning the barracks took fire. Soon after it was perceived from +the shore that the flag was down. Beauregard at once sent offers +of assistance. With Sumter in flames above his head, Anderson +replied that he had not surrendered; he declined assistance; and +he hauled up his flag. Later in the day the flagstaff was shot in +two and again the flag fell, and again it was raised. Flames had +been kindled anew by red-hot shot, and now the magazine was in +danger. Quantities of powder were thrown into the sea. Still the +rain of red-hot shot continued. About noon, Saturday, says the +Courier, "flames burst out from every quarter of Sumter and +poured from many of its portholes...the wind was from the +west driving the smoke across the fort into the embrasures where +the gunners were at work." Nevertheless, "as if served with a new +impulse," the guns of Sumter redoubled their fire. But it was not +in human endurance to keep on in the midst of the burning fort. +This splendid last effort was short. At a quarter after one, +Anderson ceased firing and raised a white flag. Negotiations +followed ending in terms of surrender--Anderson to be allowed to +remove his garrison to the fleet lying idle beyond the bar and to +salute the flag of the United States before taking it down. The +bombardment had lasted thirty-two hours without a death on either +side. The evacuation of the fort was to take place next day. + +The afternoon of Sunday, the 14th of April, was a gala day in the +harbor of Charleston. The sunlight slanted across the roofs of +the city, sparkled upon the sea. Deep and rich the harbor always +looks in the spring sunshine on bright afternoons. The filmy +atmosphere of these latitudes, at that time of year, makes the +sky above the darkling, afternoon sea a pale but luminous +turquoise. There is a wonderful soft strength in the peaceful +brightness of the sun. In such an atmosphere the harbor was +flecked with brilliantly decked craft of every description, all +in a flutter of flags and carrying a host of passengers in gala +dress. The city swarmed across the water to witness the ceremony +of evacuation. Wherry men did a thriving business carrying +passengers to the fort. + +Anderson withdrew from Sumter shortly after two o'clock amid a +salute of fifty guns. The Confederates took possession. At half +after four a new flag was raised above the battered and +fire-swept walls. + + + +Chapter II. The Davis Government + +It has never been explained why Jefferson Davis was chosen +President of the Confederacy. He did not seek the office and did +not wish it. He dreamed of high military command. As a study in +the irony of fate, Davis's career is made to the hand of the +dramatist. An instinctive soldier, he was driven by circumstances +three times to renounce the profession of arms for a less +congenial civilian life. His final renunciation, which proved to +be of the nature of tragedy, was his acceptance of the office of +President. Indeed, why the office was given to him seems a +mystery. Rhett was a more logical candidate. And when Rhett, +early in the lobbying at Montgomery, was set aside as too much of +a radical, Toombs seemed for a time the certain choice of the +majority. The change to Davis came suddenly at the last moment. +It was puzzling at the time; it is puzzling still. + +Rhett, though doubtless bitterly disappointed, bore himself with +the savoir faire of a great gentleman. At the inauguration, it +was on Rhett's arm that Davis leaned as he entered the hall of +the Confederate Congress. The night before, in a public address, +Yancey had said that the man and the hour were met. The story of +the Confederacy is filled with dramatic moments, but to the +thoughtful observer few are more dramatic than the conjunction of +these three men in the inauguration of the Confederate President. +Beneath a surface of apparent unanimity they carried, like +concealed weapons, points of view that were in deadly antagonism. +This antagonism had not revealed itself hitherto. It was destined +to reveal itself almost immediately. It went so deep and spread +so far that unless we understand it, the Confederate story will +be unintelligible. + +A strange fatality destined all three of these great men to +despair. Yancey, who was perhaps most directly answerable of the +three for the existence of the Confederacy, lost influence almost +from the moment when his dream became established. Davis was +partly responsible, for he promptly sent him out of the country +on the bootless English mission. Thereafter, until his death in +1863, Yancey was a waning, overshadowed figure, steadily lapsing +into the background. It may be that those critics are right who +say he was only an agitator. The day of the mere agitator was +gone. Yancey passed rapidly into futile but bitter antagonism to +Davis. In this attitude he was soon to be matched by Rhett. + +The discontent of the Rhett faction because their leader was not +given the portfolio of the State Department found immediate +voice. But the conclusion drawn by some that Rhett's subsequent +course sprang from personal vindictiveness is trifling. He was +too large a personality, too well defined an intellect, to be +thus explained. Very probably Davis made his first great blunder +in failing to propitiate the Rhett faction. And yet few things +are more certain than that the two men, the two factions which +they symbolized, could not have formed a permanent alliance. Had +Rhett entered the Cabinet he could not have remained in it +consistently for any considerable time. The measures in which, +presently, the Administration showed its hand were measures in +which Rhett could not acquiesce. From the start he was +predestined to his eventual position--the great, unavailing +genius of the opposition. + +As to the comparative ignoring of these leaders of secession by +the Government which secession had created, it is often said that +the explanation is to be found in a generous as well as politic +desire to put in office the moderates and even the conservatives. +Davis, relatively, was a moderate. Stephens was a conservative. +Many of the most pronounced opponents of secession were given +places in the public service. Toombs, who received the portfolio +of State, though a secessionist, was conspicuously a moderate +when compared with Rhett and Yancey. The adroit Benjamin, who +became Attorney-General, had few points in common with the great +extremists of Alabama and South Carolina. + +However, the dictum that the personnel of the new Government was +a triumph for conservatism over radicalism signifies little. +There was a division among Southerners which scarcely any of them +had realized except briefly in the premature battle over +secession in 1851. It was the division between those who were +conscious of the region as a whole and those who were not. +Explain it as you will, there was a moment just after the +secession movement succeeded when the South seemed to realize +itself as a whole, when it turned intuitively to those men who, +as time was to demonstrate, shared this realization. For the +moment it turned away from those others, however great their part +in secession, who lacked this sense of unity. + +At this point, geography becomes essential. The South fell, +institutionally, into two grand divisions: one, with an old and +firmly established social order, where consciousness of the +locality went back to remote times; another, newly settled, where +conditions were still fluid, where that sense of the sacredness +of local institutions had not yet formed. + +A typical community of the first-named class was South Carolina. +Her people had to a remarkable degree been rendered +state-conscious partly by their geographical neighbors, and +partly by their long and illustrious history, which had been +interwoven with great European interests during the colonial era +and with great national interests under the Republic. It is +possible also that the Huguenots, though few in numbers, had +exercised upon the State a subtle and pervasive influence through +their intellectual power and their Latin sense for institutions. + +In South Carolina, too, a wealthy leisure class with a passion +for affairs had cultivated enthusiastically that fine art which +is the pride of all aristocratic societies, the service of the +State as a profession high and exclusive, free from vulgar taint. +In South Carolina all things conspired to uphold and strengthen +the sense of the State as an object of veneration, as something +over and above the mere social order, as the sacred embodiment of +the ideals of the community. Thus it is fair to say that what has +animated the heroic little countries of the Old World Switzerland +and Serbia and ever-glorious Belgium--with their passion to +remain themselves, animated South Carolina in 1861. Just as +Serbia was willing to fight to the death rather than merge her +identity in the mosaic of the Austrian Empire, so this little +American community saw nothing of happiness in any future that +did not secure its virtual independence. + +Typical of the newer order in the South was the community that +formed the President of the Confederacy. In the history of +Mississippi previous to the war there are six great names--Jacob +Thompson, John A. Quitman, Henry S. Foote, Robert J. Walker, +Sergeant S. Prentiss, and Jefferson Davis. Not one of them was +born in the State. Thompson was born in North Carolina; Quitman +in New York; Foote in Virginia; Walker in Pennsylvania; Prentiss +in Maine; Davis in Kentucky. In 1861 the State was but forty-four +years old, younger than its most illustrious sons--if the paradox +may be permitted. How could they think of it as an entity +existing in itself, antedating not only themselves but their +traditions, circumscribing them with its all-embracing, +indisputable reality? These men spoke the language of state +rights. It is true that in politics, combating the North, they +used the political philosophy taught them by South Carolina. But +it was a mental weapon in political debate; it was not for them +an emotional fact. + +And yet these men of the Southwest had an ideal of their own as +vivid and as binding as the state ideal of the men of the eastern +coast. Though half their leaders were born in the North, the +people themselves were overwhelmingly Southern. From all the +older States, all round the huge crescent which swung around from +Kentucky coastwise to Florida, immigration in the twenties and +thirties had poured into Mississippi. Consequently the new +community presented a composite picture of the whole South, and +like all composite pictures it emphasized only the factors common +to all its parts. What all the South had in common, what made a +man a Southerner in the general sense--in distinction from a +Northerner on the one hand, or a Virginian, Carolinian, Georgian, +on the other--could have been observed with clearness in +Mississippi, just before the war, as nowhere else. Therefore, the +fulfillment of the ideal of Southern life in general terms was +the vision of things hoped for by the new men of the Southwest. +The features of that vision were common to them all--country +life, broad acres, generous hospitality, an aristocratic system. +The temperaments of these men were sufficiently buoyant to enable +them to apprehend this ideal even before it had materialized. +Their romantic minds could see the gold at the end of the +rainbow. Theirs was not the pride of administering a +well-ordered, inherited system, but the joy of building a new +system, in their minds wholly elastic, to be sure, but still +inspired by that old system. + +What may be called the sense of Southern nationality as opposed +to the sense of state rights, strictly speaking, distinguished +this brilliant young community of the Southwest. In that +community Davis spent the years that appear to have been the most +impressionable of his life. Belonging to a "new" family just +emerging into wealth, he began life as a West Pointer and saw +gallant service as a youth on the frontier; resigned from the +army to pursue a romantic attachment; came home to lead the life +of a wealthy planter and receive the impress of Mississippi; made +his entry into politics, still a soldier at heart, with the +philosophy of state rights on his lips, but in his heart that +sense of the Southern people as a new nation, which needed only +the occasion to make it the relentless enemy of the rights of the +individual Southern States. Add together the instinctive military +point of view and this Southern nationalism that even in 1861 had +scarcely revealed itself; join with these a fearless and haughty +spirit, proud to the verge of arrogance, but perfectly devoted, +perfectly sincere; and you have the main lines of the political +character of Davis when he became President. It may be that as he +went forward in his great undertaking, as antagonisms developed, +as Rhett and others turned against him, Davis hardened. He lost +whatever comprehension he once had of the Rhett type. Seeking to +weld into one irresistible unit all the military power of the +South, he became at last in the eyes of his opponents a monster, +while to him, more and more positively, the others became mere +dreamers. + +It took about a year for this irrepressible conflict within the +Confederacy to reveal itself. During the twelve months following +Davis's election as provisional President, he dominated the +situation, though the Charleston Mercury, the Rhett organ, found +opportunities to be sharply critical of the President. He +assembled armies; he initiated heroic efforts to make up for the +handicap of the South in the manufacture of munitions and +succeeded in starting a number of munition plants; though +powerless to prevent the establishment of the blockade, he was +able during that first year to keep in touch with Europe, to +start out Confederate privateers upon the high seas, and to +import a considerable quantity of arms and supplies. At the +close of the year the Confederate armies were approaching +general efficiency, for all their enormous handicap, almost if +not quite as rapidly as were the Union armies. And the one great +event of the year on land, the first battle of Manassas, or Bull +Run, was a signal Confederate victory. + +To be sure Davis was severely criticized in some quarters for +not adopting an aggressive policy. The Confederate Government, +whether wisely or foolishly, had not taken the people into its +confidence and the lack of munitions was not generally +appreciated. The easy popular cries were all sounded: "We are +standing still!" "The country is being invaded!" "The President +is a do-nothing!" From the coast regions especially, where the +blockade was felt in all its severity, the outcry was loud. + +Nevertheless, the South in the main was content with the +Administration during most of the first year. In November, when +the general elections were held, Davis was chosen without +opposition as the first regular Confederate President for six +years, and Stephens became the Vice-President. The election was +followed by an important change in the Southern Cabinet. Benjamin +became Secretary of War, in succession to the first War +Secretary, Leroy P. Walker. Toombs had already left the +Confederate Cabinet. Complaining that Davis degraded him to the +level of a mere clerk, he had withdrawn the previous July. His +successor in the State Department was R. M. T. Hunter of +Virginia, who remained in office until February, 1862, when his +removal to the Confederate Senate opened the way for a further +advancement of Benjamin. + +Richmond, which had been designated as the capital soon after the +secession of Virginia, was the scene of the inauguration, on +February 22, 1862. Although the weather proved bleak and rainy, +an immense crowd gathered around the Washington monument, in +Capitol Square, to listen to the inaugural address. By this time +the confidence in the Government, which was felt generally at the +time of the election, had suffered a shock. Foreign affairs were +not progressing satisfactorily. Though England had accorded to +the Confederacy the status of a belligerent, this was poor +consolation for her refusal to make full recognition of the new +Government as an independent power. Dread of internal distress +was increasing. Gold commanded a premium of fifty percent. +Disorder was a feature of the life in the cities. It was known +that several recent military events had been victories for the +Federals. A rumor was abroad that some great disaster had taken +place in Tennessee. The crowd listened anxiously to hear the +rumor denied by the President. But it was not denied. The tense +listeners noted two sentences which formed an admission that the +situation was grave: "A million men, it is estimated, are now +standing in hostile array and waging war along a frontier of +thousands of miles. Battles have been fought, sieges have been +conducted, and although the contest is not ended, and the tide +for the moment is against us, the final result in our favor is +not doubtful." + +Behind these carefully guarded words lay serious alarm, not only +with regard to the operations at the front but as to the +composition of the army. It had been raised under various laws +and its portions were subject to conflicting classifications; it +was partly a group of state armies, partly a single Confederate +army. None of its members had enlisted for long terms. Many +enlistments would expire early in 1862. The fears of the +Confederate Administration with regard to this matter, together +with its alarm about the events at the front, were expressed by +Davis in a frank message to the Southern Congress, three days +later. "I have hoped," said he, "for several days to receive +official reports in relation to our discomfiture at Roanoke +Island and the fall of Fort Donelson. They have not yet reached +Me.... The hope is still entertained that our reported losses +at Fort Donelson have been greatly exaggerated...." He went +on to condemn the policy of enlistments for short terms, "against +which," said he, "I have steadily contended"; and he enlarged +upon the danger that even patriotic men, who intended to +reenlist, might go home to put their affairs in order and that +thus, at a critical moment, the army might be seriously reduced. +The accompanying report of the Confederate Secretary of War +showed a total in the army of 340,250 men. This was an inadequate +force with which to meet the great hosts which were being +organized against it in the North. To permit the slightest +reduction of the army at that moment seemed to the Southern +President suicidal. + +But Davis waited some time longer before proposing to the +Confederate Congress the adoption of conscription. Meanwhile, the +details of two great reverses, the loss of Roanoke Island and the +loss of Fort Donelson, became generally known. Apprehension +gathered strength. Newspapers began to discuss conscription as +something inevitable. At last, on March 28, 1862, Davis sent a +message to the Confederate Congress advising the conscription of +all white males between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five. For +this suggestion Congress was ripe, and the first Conscription Act +of the Confederacy was signed by the President on the 16th of +April. The age of eligibility was fixed as Davis had advised; the +term of service was to be three years; every one then in service +was to be retained in service during three years from the date of +his original enlistment. + +This statute may be thought of as a great victory on the part of +the Administration. It was the climax of a policy of +centralization in the military establishment to which Davis had +committed himself by the veto, in January, of "A bill to +authorize the Secretary of War to receive into the service of the +Confederate States a regiment of volunteers for the protection of +the frontier of Texas." This regiment was to be under the control +of the Governor of the State. In refusing to accept such troops, +Davis laid down the main proposition upon which he stood as +military executive to the end of the war, a proposition which +immediately set debate raging: "Unity and cooperation by the +troops of all the States are indispensable to success, and I must +view with regret this as well as all other indications of a +purpose to divide the power of States by dividing the means to be +employed in efforts to carry on separate operations." + +In these military measures of the early months of 1862 Davis's +purpose became clear. He was bent upon instituting a strong +government, able to push the war through, and careless of the +niceties of constitutional law or of the exact prerogatives of +the States. His position was expressed in the course of the year +by a Virginia newspaper: "It will be time enough to distract the +councils of the State about imaginary violations of +constitutional law by the supreme government when our +independence is achieved, established, and acknowledged. It will +not be until then that the sovereignty of the States will be a +reality." But there were many Southerners who could not accept +this point of view. The Mercury was sharply critical of the veto +of the Texas Regiment Bill. In the interval between the Texas +veto and the passing of the Conscription Act, the state +convention of North Carolina demanded the return of North +Carolina volunteers for the defense of their own State. No sooner +was the Conscription Act passed than its constitutionality was +attacked. As the Confederacy had no Supreme Court, the question +came up before state courts. One after another, several state +supreme courts pronounced the act constitutional and in most of +the States the constitutional issue was gradually allowed to +lapse. + +Nevertheless, Davis had opened Pandora's box. The clash between +State and Confederate authority had begun. An opposition party +began to form. In this first stage of its definite existence, the +opposition made an interesting attempt to control the Cabinet. +Secretary Benjamin, though greatly trusted by the President, +seems never to have been a popular minister. Congress attempted +to load upon Benjamin the blame for Roanoke Island and Fort +Donelson. In the House a motion was introduced to the effect that +Benjamin had "not the confidence of the people of the Confederate +States nor of the army...and that we most respectfully +request his retirement" from the office of Secretary of War. +Friends of the Administration tabled the motion. Davis extricated +his friend by taking advantage of Hunter's retirement and +promoting Benjamin to the State Department. A month later a +congressional committee appointed to investigate the affair of +Roanoke Island exonerated the officer in command and laid the +blame on his superiors, including "the late Secretary of War." + +With Benjamin safe in the Department of State, with the majority +in the Confederate Congress still fairly manageable, with the +Conscription Act in force, Davis seemed to be strong enough in +the spring of 1862 to ignore the gathering opposition. And yet +there was another measure, second only in the President's eyes to +the Conscription Act, that was to breed trouble. This was the +first of the series of acts empowering him to suspend the +privilege of the writ of habeas corpus. Under this act he was +permitted to set up martial law in any district threatened with +invasion. The cause of this drastic measure was the confusion and +the general demoralization that existed wherever the close +approach of the enemy created a situation too complex for the +ordinary civil authorities. Davis made use of the power thus +given to him and proclaimed martial law in Richmond, in Norfolk, +in parts of South Carolina, and elsewhere. It was on Richmond +that the hand of the Administration fell heaviest. The capital +was the center of a great camp; its sudden and vast increase in +population bad been the signal for all the criminal class near +and far to hurry thither in the hope of a new field of +spoliation; to deal with this immense human congestion, the local +police were powerless; every variety of abominable contrivance to +entrap and debauch men for a price was in brazen operation. The +first care of the Government under the new law was the cleansing +of the capital. General John H. Winder, appointed military +governor, did the job with thoroughness. He closed the barrooms, +disarmed the populace, and for the time at least swept the city +clean of criminals. The Administration also made certain +political arrests, and even imprisoned some extreme opponents of +the Government for "offenses not enumerated and not cognizable +under the regular process of law." Such arrests gave the enemies +of the Administration another handle against it. As we shall see +later, the use that Davis made of martial law was distorted by a +thousand fault-finders and was made the basis of the charge that +the President was aiming at absolute power. + +At the moment, however, Davis was master of the situation. The +six months following April 1, 1862, were doubtless, from his own +point of view, the most satisfactory part of his career as +Confederate President. These months were indeed filled with +peril. There was a time when McClellan's advance up the Peninsula +appeared so threatening that the archives of the Government were +packed on railway cars prepared for immediate removal should +evacuation be necessary. There were the other great disasters +during that year, including the loss of New Orleans. The +President himself experienced a profound personal sorrow in the +death of his friend, Albert Sidney Johnston, in the bloody fight +at Shiloh. It was in the midst of this time that tried men's +souls that the Richmond Examiner achieved an unenvied +immortality for one of its articles on the Administration. At a +moment when nothing should have been said to discredit in any way +the struggling Government, it described Davis as weak with fear +telling his beads in a corner of St. Paul's Church. This paper, +along with the Charleston Mercury, led the Opposition. Throughout +Confederate history these two, which were very ably edited, did +the thinking for the enemies of Davis. We shall meet them time +and again. + +A true picture of Davis would have shown the President resolute +and resourceful, at perhaps the height of his powers. He +recruited and supplied the armies; he fortified Richmond; he +sustained the great captain whom he had placed in command while +McClellan was at the gates. When the tide had turned and the Army +of the Potomac sullenly withdrew, baffled, there occurred the one +brief space in Confederate history that was pure sunshine. In +this period took place the splendid victory of Second Manassas. +The strong military policy of the Administration had given the +Confederacy powerful armies. Lee had inspired them with victory. +This period of buoyant hope culminated in the great offensive +design which followed Second Manassas. It was known that the +Northern people, or a large part of them, had suffered a +reaction; the tide was setting strong against the Lincoln +Government; in the autumn, the Northern elections would be held. +To influence those elections and at the same time to drive the +Northern armies back into their own section; to draw Maryland and +Kentucky into the Confederate States; to fall upon the invaders +in the Southwest and recover the lower Mississippi--to accomplish +all these results was the confident expectation of the President +and his advisers as they planned their great triple offensive in +August, 1862. Lee was to invade Maryland; Bragg was to invade +Kentucky; Van Dorn was to break the hold of the Federals in the +Southwest. If there is one moment that is to be considered the +climax of Davis's career, the high-water mark of Confederate +hope, it was the moment of joyous expectation when the triple +offensive was launched, when Lee's army, on a brilliant autumn +day, crossed the Potomac, singing "Maryland, my Maryland". + + + +Chapter III. The Fall Of King Cotton + +While the Confederate Executive was building up its military +establishment, the Treasury was struggling with the problem of +paying for it. The problem was destined to become insoluble. From +the vantage-point of a later time we can now see that nothing +could have provided a solution short of appropriation and +mobilization of the whole industrial power of the country along +with the whole military power--a conscription of wealth of every +kind together with conscription of men. But in 1862 such an idea +was too advanced for any group of Americans. Nor, in that year, +was there as yet any certain evidence that the Treasury was +facing an impossible situation. Its endeavors were taken +lightly--at first, almost gaily-because of the profound illusion +which permeated Southern thought that Cotton was King. Obviously, +if the Southern ports could be kept open and cotton could +continue to go to market, the Confederate financial problem was +not serious. When Davis, soon after his first inauguration, sent +Yancey, Rost, and Mann as commissioners to Europe to press the +claims of the Confederacy for recognition, very few Southerners +had any doubt that the blockade, would be short-lived. "Cotton is +King" was the answer that silenced all questions. Without +American cotton the English mills would have to shut down; the +operatives would starve; famine and discontent would between them +force the British ministry to intervene in American affairs. +There were, indeed, a few far-sighted men who perceived that this +confidence was ill-based and that cotton, though it was a power +in the financial world, was not the commercial king. The majority +of the population, however, had to learn this truth from keen +experience. + +Several events of 1861 for a time seemed to confirm this +illusion. The Queen's proclamation in the spring, giving the +Confederacy the status of a belligerent, and, in the autumn, the +demand by the British Government for the surrender of the +commissioners, Mason and Slidell, who had been taken from a +British packet by a Union cruiser--both these events seemed to +indicate active British sympathy. In England, to be sure, Yancey +became disillusioned. He saw that the international situation was +not so simple as it seemed; that while the South had powerful +friends abroad, it also had powerful foes; that the British +anti-slavery party was a more formidable enemy than he had +expected it to be; and that intervention was not a foregone +conclusion. The task of an unrecognized ambassador being too +annoying for him, Yancey was relieved at his own request and +Mason was sent out to take his place. A singular little incident +like a dismal prophecy occurred as Yancey was on his way home. He +passed through Havana early in 1862, when the news of the +surrender of Fort Donelson had begun to stagger the hopes and +impair the prestige of the Confederates. By the advice of the +Confederate agent in Cuba, Yancey did not call on the Spanish +Governor but sent him word that "delicacy alone prompted his +departure without the gratification of a personal interview." The +Governor expressed himself as "exceedingly grateful for the noble +sentiment which prevented" Yancey from causing international +complications at Havana. + +The history of the first year of Confederate foreign affairs is +interwoven with the history of Confederate finance. During that +year the South became a great buyer in Europe. Arms, powder, +cloth, machinery, medicines, ships, a thousand things, had all to +be bought abroad. To establish the foreign credit of the new +Government was the arduous task of the Confederate Secretary of +the Treasury, Christopher G. Memminger. The first great campaign +of the war was not fought by armies. It was a commercial campaign +fought by agents of the Federal and Confederate governments and +having for its aim the cornering of the munitions market in +Europe. In this campaign the Federal agents had decisive +advantages: their credit was never questioned, and their enormous +purchases were never doubtful ventures for the European sellers. +In some cases their superior credit enabled them to overbid the +Confederate agents and to appropriate large contracts which the +Confederates had negotiated but which they could not hold because +of the precariousness of their credit. And yet, all things +considered, the Confederate agents made a good showing. In the +report of the Secretary of War in February, 1862, the number of +rifles contracted for abroad was put at 91,000, of which 15,000 +had been delivered. The chief reliance of the Confederate +Treasury for its purchases abroad was at first the specie in the +Southern branch of the United States Mint and in Southern banks. +The former the Confederacy seized and converted to its own use. +Of the latter it lured into its own hands a very large proportion +by what is commonly called "the fifteen million loan"--an issue +of +eight percent bonds authorized in February, 1861. Most of this +specie seems to have been taken out of the country by the +purchase of European commodities. A little, to be sure, remained, +for there was some gold still at home when the Confederacy fell. +But the sum was small. + +In addition to this loan Memminger also persuaded Congress on +August 19, 1861, to lay a direct tax--the "war tax," as it was +called--of one-half of one per cent on all property except +Confederate bonds and money. As required by the Constitution this +tax was apportioned among the States, but if it assumed its +assessment before April 1, 1862, each State was to have a +reduction of ten per cent. As there was a general aversion to the +idea of Confederate taxation and a general faith in loans, what +the States did, as a rule, was to assume their assessment, agree +to pay it into the Treasury, and then issue bonds to raise the +necessary funds, thus converting the war tax into a loan. + +The Confederate, like the Union, Treasury did not have the +courage to force the issue upon taxation and leaned throughout +the war largely upon loans. It also had recourse to the perilous +device of paper money, the gold value of which was not +guaranteed. Beginning in March, 1861, it issued under successive +laws great quantities of paper notes, some of them interest +bearing, some not. It used these notes in payment of its domestic +obligations. The purchasing value of the notes soon started on a +disastrous downward course, and in 1864 the gold dollar was worth +thirty paper dollars. The Confederate Government thus became +involved in a problem of self-preservation that was but half +solved by the system of tithes and impressment which we shall +encounter later. The depreciation of these notes left +governmental clerks without adequate salaries and soldiers +without the means of providing for their families. During most of +the war, women and other noncombatants had to support the +families or else rely upon local charity organized by state or +county boards. + +Long before all the evils of paper money were experienced, the +North, with great swiftness, concentrated its naval forces so as +to dominate the Southern ports which had trade relations with +Europe. The shipping ports were at once congested with cotton to +the great embarrassment of merchants and planters. Partly to +relieve them, the Confederate Congress instituted in May, 1861, +what is known today as "the hundred million loan." It was the +first of a series of "produce loans." The Treasury was authorized +to issue eight percent bonds, to fall due in twenty years, and +to sell them for specie or to exchange them for produce or +manufactured articles. In the course of the remaining months of +1861 there were exchanged for these bonds great quantities of +produce including some 400,000 bales of cotton. + +In spite of the distress of the planters, however, the illusion +of King Cotton's power does not seem to have been seriously +impaired during 1861. In fact, strange as it now seems, the frame +of mind of the leaders appears to have been proof, that year, +against alarm over the blockade. For two reasons, the Confederacy +regarded the blockade at first as a blessing in disguise. It was +counted on to act as a protective tariff in stimulating +manufactures; and at the same time the South expected +interruption of the flow of cotton towards Europe to make England +feel her dependence upon the Confederacy. In this way there would +be exerted an economic coercion which would compel intervention. +Such reasoning lay behind a law passed in May forbidding the +export of cotton except through the seaports of the Confederacy. +Similar laws were enacted by the States. During the summer, many +cotton factors joined in advising the planters to hold their +cotton until the blockade broke down. In the autumn, the Governor +of Louisiana forbade the export of cotton from New Orleans. So +unshakeable was the illusion in 1861, that King Cotton had +England in his grip! The illusion died hard. Throughout 1862, and +even in 1863, the newspapers published appeals to the planters to +give up growing cotton for a time, and even to destroy what they +had, so as to coerce the obdurate Englishmen. + +Meanwhile, Mason had been accorded by the British upper classes +that generous welcome which they have always extended to the +representative, of a people fighting gallantly against odds. +During the hopeful days of 1862--that Golden Age of +Confederacy--Mason, though not recognized by the English +Government, was shown every kindness by leading members of the +aristocracy, who visited him in London and received him at their +houses in the country. It was during this period of buoyant hope +that the Alabama was allowed to go to sea from Liverpool in July, +1862. At the same time Mason heard his hosts express undisguised +admiration for the valor of the soldiers serving under Jackson +and Lee. Whether he formed any true impression of the other side +of British idealism, its resolute opposition to slavery, may be +questioned. There seems little doubt that he did not perceive the +turning of the tide of English public opinion, in the autumn of +1862, following the Emancipation Proclamation and the great +reverses of September and October--Antietam-Sharpsburg, +Perryville, Corinth--the backflow of all three of the Confederate +offensives. + +The cotton famine in England, where perhaps a million people were +in actual want through the shutting down of cotton mills, seemed +to Mason to be "looming up in fearful proportions." "The public +mind," he wrote home in November, 1862, "is very much disturbed +by the prospect for the winter; and I am not without hope that it +will produce its effects on the councils of the government." Yet +it was the uprising of the British working people in favor of the +North that contributed to defeat the one important attempt to +intervene in American affairs. Napoleon III had made an offer of +mediation which was rejected by the Washington Government early +the next year. England and Russia had both declined to +participate in Napoleon's scheme, and their refusal marks the +beginning of the end of the reign of King Cotton. + +At Paris, Slidell was even more hopeful than Mason. He had won +over Emile Erlanger, that great banker who was deep in the +confidence of Napoleon. So cordial became the relations between +the two that it involved their families and led at last to the +marriage of Erlanger's son with Slidell's daughter. Whether owing +to Slidell's eloquence, or from secret knowledge of the Emperor's +designs, or from his own audacity, Erlanger toward the close of +1862 made a proposal that is one of the most daring schemes of +financial plunging yet recorded. If the Confederate Government +would issue to him bonds secured by cotton, Erlanger would +underwrite the bonds, put the proceeds of their sale to the +credit of the Confederate agents, and wait for the cotton until +it could run the blockade or until peace should be declared. The +Confederate Government after some hesitation accepted his plan +and issued fifteen millions of "Erlanger bonds," bearing seven +percent, and put them on sale at Paris, London. Amsterdam, and +Frankfort. + +As a purchaser of these bonds was to be given cotton eventually +at a valuation of sixpence a pound, and as cotton was then +selling in England for nearly two shillings; the bold gamble +caught the fancy of speculators. There was a rush to take up the +bonds and to pay the first installment. But before the second +installment became due a mysterious change in the market took +place and the price of the bonds fell. Holders became alarmed and +some even proposed to forfeit their bonds rather than pay on May +1, 1863, the next installment of fifteen percent of the purchase +money. Thereupon Mason undertook to "bull" the market. Agents of +the United States Government were supposed to be at the bottom of +the drop in the bonds. To defeat their schemes the Confederate +agents bought back large amounts in bonds intending to resell. +The result was the expenditure of some six million dollars with +practically no effect on the market. These "Erlanger bonds" sold +slowly through 1863 and even in 1864, and netted a considerable +amount to the foreign agents of the Confederacy. + +The comparative failure of the Erlanger loan marks the downfall +of King Cotton. He was an exploded superstition. He was unable, +despite the cotton famine, to coerce the English workingmen into +siding with a country which they regarded, because of its support +of slavery, as inimical to their interests. At home, the +Government confessed the powerlessness of King Cotton by a change +of its attitude toward export. During the latter part of the war, +the Government secured the meager funds at its disposal abroad by +rushing cotton in swift ships through the blockade. So important +did this traffic become that the Confederacy passed stringent +laws to keep the control in its own hands. One more cause of +friction between the Confederate and the State authorities was +thus developed: the Confederate navigation laws prevented the +States from running the blockade on their own account. + +The effects of the blockade were felt at the ends of the earth. +India became an exporter of cotton. Egypt also entered the +competition. That singular dreamer, Ismail Pasha, whose reign +made Egypt briefly an exotic nation, neither eastern nor western, +found one of his opportunities in the American War and the +failure of the cotton supply. + + + +Chapter IV. The Reaction Against Richmond + +A popular revulsion of feeling preceded and followed the great +period of Confederate history--these six months of Titanic effort +which embraced between March and September, 1862, splendid +success along with catastrophes. But there was a marked +difference between the two tides of popular emotion. The wave of +alarm which swept over the South after the surrender of Fort +Donelson was quickly translated into such a high passion for +battle that the march of events until the day of Antietam +resounded like an epic. The failure of the triple offensive which +closed this period was followed in very many minds by the +appearance of a new temper, often as valiant as the old but far +more grim and deeply seamed with distrust. And how is this +distrust, of which the Confederate Administration was the object, +to be accounted for? + +Various answers to this question were made at the time. The laws +of the spring of 1862 were attacked as unconstitutional. Davis +was held responsible for them and also for the slow equipment of +the army. Because the Confederate Congress conducted much of its +business in secret session, the President was charged with a love +of mystery and an unwillingness to take the people into his +confidence. Arrests under the law suspending the writ of habeas +corpus were made the texts for harangues on liberty. The right of +freedom of speech was dragged in when General Van Dorn, in the +Southwest, threatened with suppression any newspaper that +published anything which might impair confidence in a commanding +officer. How could he have dared to do this, was the cry, unless +the President was behind him? And when General Bragg assumed a +similar attitude toward the press, the same cry was raised. +Throughout the summer of victories, even while the thrilling +stories of Seven Pines, the Peninsula, Second Manassas, were +sounding like trumpets, these mutterings of discontent formed an +ominous accompaniment. + +Yancey, speaking of the disturbed temper of the time, attributed +it to the general lack of information on the part of Southern +people as to what the Confederate Government was doing. His +proposed remedy was an end of the censorship which that +Government was attempting to maintain, the abandonment of the +secret sessions of its Congress, and the taking of the people +into its full confidence. Now a Senator from Alabama, he +attempted, at the opening of the congressional session in the +autumn of 1862, to abolish secret sessions, but in his efforts he +was not successful. + +There seems little doubt that the Confederate Government had +blundered in being too secretive. Even from Congress, much +information was withheld. A curious incident has preserved what +appeared to the military mind the justification of this +reticence. The Secretary of War refused to comply with a request +for information, holding that be could not do so "without +disclosing the strength of our armies to many persons of +subordinate position whose secrecy cannot be relied upon." "I beg +leave to remind you," said he, "of a report made in response to a +similar one from the Federal Congress, communicated to them in +secret session, and now a part of our archives." + +How much the country was in the dark with regard to some vital +matters is revealed by an attack on the Confederate +Administration which was made by the Charleston Mercury, in +February. The Southern Government was accused of unpardonable +slowness in sending agents to Europe to purchase munitions. In +point of fact, the Confederate Government had been more prompt +than the Union Government in rushing agents abroad. But the +country was not permitted to know this. Though the Courier was a +government organ in Charleston, it did not meet the charges of +the Mercury by disclosing the facts about the arduous attempts of +the Confederate Government to secure arms in Europe. The reply of +the Courier to the Mercury, though spirited, was all in general +terms. "To shake confidence in Jefferson Davis," said the +Courier, "is...to bring 'hideous ruin and combustion' down +upon our dearest hopes and interests." It made "Mr. Davis and his +defensive policy" objects of all admiration; called Davis "our +Moses." It was deeply indignant because it had been "reliably +informed that men of high official position among us" were +"calling for a General Convention of the Confederate States to +depose him and set up a military Dictator in his place." The +Mercury retorted that, as to the plot against "our Moses," there +was no evidence of its existence except the Courier's assertion. +Nevertheless, it considered Davis "an incubus to the cause." The +controversy between the Mercury and the Courier at Charleston was +paralleled at Richmond by the constant bickering between the +government organ, the Enquirer, and the Examiner, which shares +with the Mercury the first place among the newspapers hostile to +Davis.* + +* The Confederate Government did not misapprehend the attitude of +the intellectual opposition. Its foreign organ, The Index, +published in London, characterized the leading Southern papers +for the enlightenment of the British public. While the Enquirer +and the Courier were singled out as the great champions of the +Confederate Government, the Examiner and the Mercury were +portrayed as its arch enemies. The Examiner was called the +"Ishmael of the Southern press." The Mercury was described as +"almost rabid on the subject of state rights." + +Associated with the Examiner was a vigorous writer having +considerable power of the old-fashioned, furious sort, ever ready +to foam at the mouth. If he had had more restraint and less +credulity, Edward A. Pollard might have become a master of the +art of vituperation. Lacking these qualities, he never rose far +above mediocrity. But his fury was so determined and his +prejudice so invincible that his writings have something of the +power of conviction which fanaticism wields. In midsummer, 1862, +Pollard published a book entitled The First Year of the War, +which was commended by his allies in Charleston as showing no +"tendency toward unfairness of statement" and as expressing views +"mainly in accordance with popular opinion." + +This book, while affecting to be an historical review, was +skillfully designed to discredit the Confederate Administration. +Almost every disaster, every fault of its management was +traceable more or less directly to Davis. Kentucky had been +occupied by the Federal army because of the "dull expectation" in +which the Confederate Government had stood aside waiting for +things somehow to right themselves. The Southern Congress had +been criminally slow in coming to conscription, contenting itself +with an army of 400,000 men that existed "on paper." "The most +distressing abuses were visible in the ill-regulated hygiene of +our camps." According to this book, the Confederate +Administration was solely to blame for the loss of Roanoke +Island. In calling that disaster "deeply humiliating," as he did +in a message to Congress, Davis was trying to shield his favorite +Benjamin at the cost of gallant soldiers who had been sacrificed +through his incapacity. Davis's promotion of Benjamin to the +State Department was an act of "ungracious and reckless defiance +of popular sentiment." The President was "not the man to consult +the sentiment and wisdom of the people; he desired to signalize +the infallibility of his own intellect in every measure of the +revolution and to identify, from motives of vanity, his own +personal genius with every event and detail of the remarkable +period of history in which he had been called upon to act. This +imperious conceit seemed to swallow up every other idea in his +mind." The generals "fretted under this pragmatism" of one whose +"vanity" directed the war "from his cushioned seat in Richmond" +by means of the one formula, "the defensive policy." + +One of Pollard's chief accusations against the Confederate +Government was its failure to enforce the conscription law. His +paper, the Examiner, as well as the Mercury, supported Davis in +the policy of conscription, but both did their best, first, to +rob him of the credit for it and, secondly, to make his conduct +of the policy appear inefficient. Pollard claimed for the +Examiner the credit of having originated the policy of +conscription; the Mercury claimed it for Rhett. + +In other words, an aggressive war party led by the Examiner and +the Mercury had been formed in those early days when the +Confederate Government appeared to be standing wholly on the +defensive, and when it had failed to confide to the people the +extenuating circumstance that lack of arms compelled it to stand +still whether it would or no. And yet, after this Government had +changed its policy and had taken up in the summer of 1862 an +offensive policy, this party--or faction, or what you +will--continued its career of opposition. That the secretive +habit of the Confederate Government helped cement the opposition +cannot be doubted. It is also likely that this opposition gave a +vent to certain jealous spirits who had missed the first place in +leadership. + +Furthermore, the issue of state sovereignty had been raised. In +Georgia a movement had begun which was distinctly different from +the Virginia-Carolina movement of opposition, a movement for +which Rhett and Pollard had scarcely more than disdainful +tolerance, and not always that. This parallel opposition found +vent, as did the other, in a political pamphlet. On the subject +of conscription Davis and the Governor of Georgia--that same +Joseph E. Brown who had seized Fort Pulaski in the previous +year--exchanged a rancorous correspondence. Their letters were +published in a pamphlet of which Pollard said scornfully that it +was hawked about in every city of the South. Brown, taking alarm +at the power given the Confederate Government by the Conscription +Act, eventually defined his position, and that of a large +following, in the extreme words: "No act of the Government of the +United States prior to the secession of Georgia struck a blow at +constitutional liberty so fell as has been stricken by the +conscript acts." + +There were other elements of discontent which were taking form as +early as the autumn of 1862 but which were not yet clearly +defined. But the two obvious sources of internal criticism just +described were enough to disquiet the most resolute +administration. When the triple offensive broke down, when the +ebb-tide began, there was already everything that was needed to +precipitate a political crisis. And now the question arises +whether the Confederate Administration had itself to blame. Had +Davis proved inadequate in his great undertaking? + +The one undeniable mistake of the Government previous to the +autumn of 1862 was its excessive secrecy. As to the other +mistakes attributed to it at the time, there is good reason to +call them misfortunes. Today we can see that the financial +situation, the cotton situation, the relations with Europe, the +problem of equipping the armies, were all to a considerable +degree beyond the control of the Confederate Government. If there +is anything to be added to its mistaken secrecy as a definite +cause of irritation, it must be found in the general tone given +to its actions by its chief directors. And here there is +something to be said. + +With all his high qualities of integrity, courage, faithfulness, +and zeal, Davis lacked that insight into human life which marks +the genius of the supreme executive. He was not an artist in the +use of men. He had not that artistic sense of his medium which +distinguishes the statesman from the bureaucrat. In fact, he had +a dangerous bent toward bureaucracy. As Reuben Davis said of him, +"Gifted with some of the highest attributes of a statesman, he +lacked the pliancy which enables a man to adapt his measures to +the crisis." Furthermore, he lacked humor; there was no +safety-valve to his intense nature; and he was a man of delicate +health. Mrs. Davis, describing the effects which nervous +dyspepsia and neuralgia had upon him, says he would come home +from his office "fasting, a mere mass of throbbing nerves, and +perfectly exhausted." And it cannot be denied that his mind was +dogmatic. Here are dangerous lines for the character of a leader +of revolution--the bureaucratic tendency, something of rigidity, +lack of humor, physical wretchedness, dogmatism. Taken together, +they go far toward explaining his failure in judging men, his +irritable confidence in himself. + +It is no slight detail of a man's career to be placed side by +side with a genius of the first rank without knowing it. But +Davis does not seem ever to have appreciated that the man +commanding in the Seven Days' Battles was one of the world's +supreme characters. The relation between Davis and Lee was always +cordial, and it brought out Davis's character in its best light. +Nevertheless, so rooted was Davis's faith in his own abilities +that he was capable of saying, at a moment of acutest anxiety, +"If I could take one wing and Lee the other, I think we could +between us wrest a victory from those people." And yet, his +military experience embraced only the minor actions of a young +officer on the Indian frontier and the gallant conduct of a +subordinate in the Mexican War. He had never executed a great +military design. His desire for the military life was, after all, +his only ground for ranking himself with the victor of Second +Manassas. Davis was also unfortunate in lacking the power to +overcome men and sweep them along with him--the power Lee showed +so conspicuously. Nor was Davis averse to sharp reproof of the +highest officials when he thought them in the wrong. He once +wrote to Joseph E. Johnston that a letter of his contained +"arguments and statements utterly unfounded" and "insinuations as +unfounded as they were unbecoming." + +Davis was not always wise in his choice of men. His confidence in +Bragg, who was long his chief military adviser, is not sustained +by the military critics of a later age. His Cabinet, though not +the contemptible body caricatured by the malice of Pollard, was +not equal to the occasion. Of the three men who held the office +of Secretary of State, Toombs and Hunter had little if any +qualification for such a post, while the third, Benjamin, is the +sphinx of Confederate history. + +In a way, Judah P. Benjamin is one of the most interesting men in +American politics. By descent a Jew, born in the West Indies, he +spent his boyhood mainly at Charleston and his college days at +Yale. He went to New Orleans to begin his illustrious career as a +lawyer, and from Louisiana entered politics. The facile keenness +of his intellect is beyond dispute. He had the Jewish clarity of +thought, the wonderful Jewish detachment in matters of pure mind. +But he was also an American of the middle of the century. His +quick and responsive nature--a nature that enemies might call +simulative--caught and reflected the characteristics of that +singular and highly rhetorical age. He lives in tradition as the +man of the constant smile, and yet there is no one in history +whose state papers contain passages of fiercer violence in days +of tension. How much of his violence was genuine, how much was a +manner of speaking, his biographers have not had the courage to +determine. Like so many American biographers they have avoided +the awkward questions and have glanced over, as lightly as +possible, the persistent attempts of Congress to drive him from +office. + +Nothing could shake the resolution of Davis to retain Benjamin in +the Cabinet. Among Davis's loftiest qualities was his sense of +personal loyalty. Once he had given his confidence, no amount of +opposition could shake his will but served rather to harden him. +When Benjamin as Secretary of War passed under a cloud, Davis led +him forth resplendent as Secretary of State. Whether he was wise +in doing so, whether the opposition was not justified in its +distrust of Benjamin, is still an open question. What is certain +is that both these able men, even before the crisis that arose in +the autumn of 1862, had rendered themselves and their Government +widely unpopular. It must never be forgotten that Davis entered +office without the backing of any definite faction. He was a +"dark horse," a compromise candidate. To build up a stanch +following, to create enthusiasm for his Administration, was a +prime necessity of his first year as President. Yet he seems not +to have realized this necessity. Boldly, firmly, dogmatically, he +gave his whole thought and his entire energy to organizing the +Government in such a way that it could do its work efficiently. +And therein may have been the proverbial rift within the lute. To +Davis statecraft was too much a thing of methods and measures, +too little a thing of men and passions. + +During the autumn of 1862 and the following winter the disputes +over the conduct of the war began to subside and two other themes +became prominent: the sovereignty of the States, which appeared +to be menaced by the Government, and the personality of Davis, +whom malcontents regarded as a possible despot. Contrary to +tradition, the first note of alarm over state rights was not +struck by its great apostle Rhett, although the note was sounded +in South Carolina in the early autumn. There existed in this +State at that time an extra assembly called the "Convention," +which had been organized in 1860 for the general purpose of +seeing the State through the "revolution." In the Convention, in +September, 1862, the question of a contest with the Confederate +Government on the subject of a state army was definitely raised. +It was proposed to organize a state army and to instruct the +Legislature to "take effectual measures to prevent the agents of +the Confederate Government from raising troops in South Carolina +except by voluntary enlistment or by applying to the Executive of +the State to call out the militia as by law organized, or some +part of it to be mustered into the Confederate service." This +proposal brought about a sharp debate upon the Confederate +Government and its military policy. Rhett made a remarkable +address, which should of itself quiet forever the old tale that +he was animated in his opposition solely by the pique of a +disappointed candidate for the presidency. Though as sharp as +ever against the Government and though agreeing wholly with the +spirit of the state army plan, he took the ground that +circumstances at the moment rendered the organization of such an +army inopportune. A year earlier he would have strongly supported +the plan. In fact, in opposition to Davis he had at that time, he +said, urged an obligatory army which the States should be +required to raise. The Confederate Administration, however, had +defeated his scheme. Since then the situation had changed and had +become so serious that now there was no choice but to submit to +military necessity. He regarded the general conscription law as +"absolutely necessary to save" the Confederacy "from utter +devastation if not final subjugation. Right or wrong, the policy +of the Administration had left us no other alternative...." + +The dominant attitude in South Carolina in the autumn of 1862 is +in strong contrast, because of its firm grasp upon fact, with the +attitude of the Brown faction in Georgia. An extended history of +the Confederate movement--one of those vast histories that +delight the recluse and scare away the man of the world--would +labor to build up images of what might be called the +personalities of the four States that continued from the +beginning to the end parts of the effective Confederate +system--Virginia, the two Carolinas, and Georgia. We are prone to +forget that the Confederacy was practically divided into separate +units as early as the capture of New Orleans by Farragut, but a +great history of the time would have a special and thrilling +story of the conduct of the detached western unit, the isolated +world of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas--the "Department of the +Trans-Mississippi"--cut off from the main body of the Confederacy +and hemmed in between the Federal army and the deep sea. Another +group of States--Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama--became so soon, +and remained so long, a debatable land, on which the two armies +fought, that they also had scant opportunity for genuine +political life. Florida, small and exposed, was absorbed in its +gallant achievement of furnishing to the armies a number of +soldiers larger than its voting population. + +Thus, after the loss of New Orleans, one thing with another +operated to confine the area of full political life to Virginia +and her three neighbors to the South. And yet even among these +States there was no political solidarity or unanimity of opinion, +for the differences in their past experience, social structure, +and economic conditions made for distinct points of view. In +South Carolina, particularly, the prevailing view was that of +experienced, disillusioned men who realized from the start that +secession had burnt their bridges, and that now they must win the +fight or change the whole current of their lives. In the midst of +the extraordinary conditions of war, they never talked as if +their problems were the problems of peace. Brown, on the other +hand, had but one way of reasoning--if we are to call it +reasoning--and, with Hannibal at the gates, talked as if the +control of the situation were still in his own hands. + +While South Carolina, so grimly conscious of the reality of war +and the danger of internal discord, held off from the issue of +state sovereignty, the Brown faction in Georgia blithely pressed +it home. A bill for extending the conscription age which was +heartily advocated by the Mercury was as heartily condemned by +Brown. To the President he wrote announcing his continued +opposition to a law which he declared "encroaches upon the +reserved rights of the State and strikes down her sovereignty at +a single blow." Though the Supreme Court of Georgia pronounced +the conscription acts constitutional, the Governor and his +faction did not cease to condemn them. Linton Stephens, as well +as his famous kinsman, took up the cudgels. In a speech before +the Georgia Legislature, in November, Linton Stephens borrowed +almost exactly the Governor's phraseology in denying the +necessity for conscription, and this continued to be the note of +their faction throughout the war. "Conscription checks +enthusiasm," was ever their cry; "we are invincible under a +system of volunteering, we are lost with conscription." + +Meanwhile the military authorities looked facts in the face and +had a different tale to tell. They complained that in various +parts of the country, especially in the mountain districts, they +were unable to obtain men. Lee reported that his army melted away +before his eye and asked for an increase of authority to compel +stragglers to return. At the same time Brown was quarreling with +the Administration as to who should name the officers of the +Georgia troops. Zebulon B. Vance, the newly elected Governor of +North Carolina and an anti-Davis man, said to the Legislature: +"It is mortifying to find entire brigades of North Carolina +soldiers commanded by strangers, and in many cases our own brave +and war-worn colonels are made to give place to colonels from +distant States." In addition to such indications of discontent a +vast mass of evidence makes plain the opposition to conscription +toward the close of 1862 and the looseness of various parts of +the military system. + +It was a moment of intense excitement and of nervous strain. The +country was unhappy, for it had lost faith in the Government at +Richmond. The blockade was producing its effect. European +intervention was receding into the distance. One of the +characteristics of the editorials and speeches of this period is +a rising tide of bitterness against England. Napoleon's proposal +in November to mediate, though it came to naught, somewhat +revived the hope of an eventual recognition of the Confederacy +but did not restore buoyancy to the people of the South. The +Emancipation Proclamation, though scoffed at as a cry of +impotence, none the less increased the general sense of crisis. + +Worst of all, because of its immediate effect upon the temper of +the time, food was very scarce and prices had risen to +indefensible heights. The army was short of shoes. In the +newspapers, as winter came on, were to be found touching +descriptions of Lee's soldiers standing barefoot in the snow. A +flippant comment of Benjamin's, that the shoes had probably been +traded for whiskey, did not tend to improve matters. Even though +short of supplies themselves, the people as a whole eagerly +subscribed to buy shoes for the army. + +There was widespread and heartless speculation in the supplies. +Months previous the Courier had made this ominous editorial +remark: "Speculators and monopolists seem determined to force the +people everywhere to the full exercise of all the remedies +allowed by law." In August, 1862, the Governor of Florida wrote +to the Florida delegation at Richmond urging them to take steps +to meet the "nefarious smuggling" of speculators who charged +extortionate prices. In September, he wrote again begging for +legislation to compel millers, tanners, and saltmakers to offer +their products at reasonable rates. As these men were exempt from +military duty because their labor was held to be a public +service, feeling against them ran high. Governor Vance proposed a +state convention to regulate prices for North Carolina and by +proclamation forbade the export of provisions in order to prevent +the seeking of exorbitant prices in other markets. Davis wrote to +various Governors urging them to obtain state legislation to +reduce extortion in the food business. In the provisioning of the +army the Confederate Government had recourse to impressment and +the arbitrary fixing of prices. Though the Attorney-General held +this action to be constitutional, it led to sharp contentions; +and at length a Virginia court granted an injunction to a +speculator who had been paid by the Government for flour less +than it had cost him. + +In an attempt to straighten out this tangled situation, the +Confederate Government began, late, in 1862, by appointing as its +new Secretary of War,* James A. Seddon of Virginia--at that time +high in popular favor. The Mercury hailed his advent with +transparent relief, for no appointment could have seemed to it +more promising. Indeed, as the new year (1863) opened the Mercury +was in better humor with the Administration than perhaps at any +other time during the war. To the President's message it gave +praise that was almost cordial. This amicable temper was +short-lived, however, and three months later the heavens had +clouded + +* There were in all six Secretaries of War: Leroy P. Walker, +until September 16, 1861; Judah P. Benjamin, until March 18, +1862; George W. Randolph, until November 17, 1868; Gustavus W. +Smith (temporarily), until November 21, 1862; James A. Seddon, +until February 6, 1865; General John C. Breckinridge, again, for +the Government had entered upon a course that consolidated the +opposition in anger and distrust. + + +Early in 1863 the Confederate Government presented to the country +a program in which the main features were three. Of these the two +which did not rouse immediate hostility in the party of the +Examiner and the Mercury were the Impressment Act of March, 1863 +(amended by successive acts), and the act known as the Tax in +Kind, which was approved the following month. Though the +Impressment Act subsequently made vast trouble for the +Government, at the time of its passage its beneficial effects +were not denied. To it was attributed by the Richmond Whig the +rapid fall of prices in April, 1863. Corn went down at Richmond +from $12 and $10 a bushel to $4.20, and flour dropped in North +Carolina from $45 a barrel to $25. Under this act commissioners +were appointed in each State jointly by the Confederate President +and the Governor with the duty of fixing prices for government +transactions and of publishing every two months an official +schedule of the prices to be paid by the Government for the +supplies which it impressed. + +The new Tax Act attempted to provide revenues which should not be +paid in depreciated currency. With no bullion to speak of, the +Confederate Congress could not establish a circulating medium +with even an approximation to constant value. Realizing this +situation, Memminger had advised falling back on the ancient +system of tithes and the support of the Government by direct +contributions of produce. After licensing a great number of +occupations and laying a property tax and an income tax, the new +law demanded a tenth of the produce of all farmers. On this law +the Mercury pronounced a benediction in an editorial on The Fall +of Prices, which it attributed to "the healthy influence of the +tax bill which has just become law."* + +* The fall of prices was attributed by others to a funding act, +--one of several passed by the Confederate Congress--which, in +March, 1863, aimed by various devices to contract the volume of +the currency. It was very generally condemned, and it anticipated +the yet more drastic measure, the Funding Act of 1864, which will +be described later. + + +Had these two measures been the whole program of the Government, +the congressional session of the spring of 1863 would have had a +different significance in Confederate history. But there was a +third measure that provoked a new attack on the Government. The +gracious words of the Mercury on the tax in kind came as an +interlude in the midst of a bitter controversy. An editorial of +the 12th of March headed "A Despotism over the Confederate States +Proposed in Congress" amounted to a declaration of war. From this +time forward the opposition and the Government drew steadily +further and further apart and their antagonism grew steadily more +relentless. + +What caused this irrevocable breach was a bill introduced into +the House by Ethelbert Barksdale of Mississippi, an old friend of +President Davis. This bill would have invested the President with +authority to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus +in any part of the Confederacy, whenever in his judgment such +suspension was desirable. The first act suspending the privilege +of habeas corpus had long since expired and applied only to such +regions as were threatened with invasion. It had served usefully +under martial law in cleansing Richmond of its rogues, and also +had been in force at Charleston. The Mercury had approved it and +had exhorted its readers to take the matter sensibly as an +inevitable detail of war. Between that act and the act now +proposed the Mercury saw no similarity. Upon the merits of the +question it fought a furious journalistic duel with the Enquirer, +the government organ at Richmond, which insisted that President +Davis would not abuse his power. The Mercury replied that if he +"were a second Washington, or an angel upon earth, the +degradation such a surrender of our rights implies would still be +abhorrent to every freeman." In retort the Enquirer pointed out +that a similar law had been enacted by another Congress with no +bad results. And in point of fact the Enquirer was right, for in +October, 1862, after the expiration of the first act suspending +the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, Congress passed a +second giving to the President the immense power which was now +claimed for him again. This second act was in force several +months. Then the Mercury made the astounding declaration that it +had never heard of the second act, and thereupon proceeded to +attack the secrecy of the Administration with renewed vigor. + +On this issue of reviving the expired second Habeas Corpus Act, a +battle royal was fought in the Confederate Congress. The forces +of the Administration defended the new measure on the ground +that various regions were openly seditious and that conscription +could not be enforced without it. This argument gave a new text +for the cry of "despotism." The congressional leader of the +opposition was Henry S. Foote, once the rival of Davis in +Mississippi and now a citizen of Tennessee. Fierce, vindictive, +sometimes convincing, always shrewd, he was a powerful leader of +the rough and ready, buccaneering sort. Under his guidance the +debate was diverted into a rancorous discussion of the conduct of +the general's in the execution of martial law. Foote pulled out +all the stops in the organ of political rhetoric and went in for +a chant royal of righteous indignation. The main object of this +attack was General Hindman and his doings in Arkansas. Those were +still the days of pamphleteering. Though General Albert Pike had +written a severe pamphlet condemning Hindman, to this pamphlet +the Confederate Government had shut its eyes. Foote, however, +flourished it in the face of the House. He thundered forth his +belief that Hindman was worse even than the man most detested in +the South, than "beast Butler himself, for the latter is only +charged with persecuting and oppressing the avowed enemies of his +Government, while Hindman, if guilty as charged, has practised +cruelties unnumbered" on his people. Other representatives spoke +in the same vein. Baldwin of Virginia told harrowing tales of +martial law in that State. Barksdale attempted to retaliate, +sarcastically reminding him of a recent scene of riot and +disorder which proved that martial law, in any effective form, +did not exist in Virginia. He alluded to a riot, ostensibly for +bread, in which an Amazonian woman had led a mob to the pillaging +of the Richmond jewelry shops, a riot which Davis himself had +quelled by meeting the rioters and threatening to fire upon them. +But sarcasm proved powerless against Foote. His climax was a +lurid tale of a soldier who while marching past his own house +heard that his wife was dying, who left the ranks for a last word +with her, and who on rejoining the command, "hoping to get +permission to bury her," was shot as a deserter. And there was no +one on the Government benches to anticipate Kipling and cry out +"flat art!" Resolutions condemning martial law were passed by a +vote of 45 to 27. + +Two weeks later the Mercury preached a burial sermon over the +Barksdale Bill, which had now been rejected by the House. +Congress was about to adjourn, and before it reassembled +elections for the next House would be held. "The measure is dead +for the present," said the Mercury, "but power is ever restive +and prone to accumulate power; and if the war continues, other +efforts will doubtless be made to make the President a Dictator. +Let the people keep their eyes steadily fixed on their +representatives with respect to this vital matter; and should the +effort again be made to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act, demand +that a recorded vote should show those who shall strike down +their liberties." + + + + Chapter V. The Critical Year + +The great military events of the year 1863 have pushed out of +men's memories the less dramatic but scarcely less important +civil events. To begin with, in this year two of the greatest +personalities in the South passed from the political stage: in +the summer Yancey died; and in the autumn, Rhett went into +retirement. + +The ever malicious Pollard insists that Yancey's death was due +ultimately to a personal encounter with a Senator from Georgia on +the floor of the Senate. The curious may find the discreditable +story embalmed in the secret journal of the Senate, where are the +various motions designed to keep the incident from the knowledge +of the world. Whether it really caused Yancey's death is another +question. However, the moment of his passing has dramatic +significance. Just as the battle over conscription was fully +begun, when the fear that the Confederate Government had arrayed +itself against the rights of the States had definitely taken +shape, when this dread had been reenforced by the alarm over the +suspension of habeas corpus, the great pioneer of the secession +movement went to his grave, despairing of the country he had +failed to lead. His death occurred in the same month as the +Battle of Gettysburg, at the very time when the Confederacy was +dividing against itself. + +The withdrawal of Rhett from active life was an incident of the +congressional elections. He had consented to stand for Congress +in the Third District of South Carolina but was defeated. The +full explanation of the vote is still to be made plain; it seems +clear, however, that South Carolina at this time knew its own +mind quite positively. Five of the six representatives returned +to the Second Congress, including Rhett's opponent, Lewis M. +Ayer, had sat in the First Congress. The subsequent history of +the South Carolina delegation and of the State Government shows +that by 1863 South Carolina had become, broadly speaking, on +almost all issues an anti-Davis State. And yet the largest +personality and probably the ablest mind in the State was +rejected as a candidate for Congress. No character in American +history is a finer challenge to the biographer than this powerful +figure of Rhett, who in 1861 at the supreme crisis of his life +seemed the master of his world and yet in every lesser crisis was +a comparative failure. As in Yancey, so in Rhett, there was +something that fitted him to one great moment but did not fit him +to others. There can be little doubt that his defeat at the polls +of his own district deeply mortified him. He withdrew from +politics, and though he doubtless, through the editorship of one +of his sons, inspired the continued opposition of the Mercury to +the Government, Rhett himself hardly reappears in Confederate +history except for a single occasion during the debate a year +later upon the burning question of arming the slaves. + +The year was marked by very bitter attacks upon President Davis +on the part of the opposition press. The Mercury revived the +issue of the conduct of the war which had for some time been +overshadowed by other issues. In the spring, to be sure, things +had begun to look brighter, and Chancellorsville had raised Lee's +reputation to its zenith. The disasters of the summer, Gettysburg +and Vicksburg, were for a time minimized by the Government and do +not appear to have caused the alarm which their strategic +importance might well have created. But when in the latter days +of July the facts became generally known, the Mercury arraigned +the President's conduct of the war as "a vast complication of +incompetence and folly"; it condemned the whole scheme of the +Northern invasion and maintained that Lee should have stood on +the defensive while twenty or thirty thousand men were sent to +the relief of Vicksburg. These two ideas it bitterly reiterated +and in August went so far as to quote Macaulay's famous passage +on Parliament's dread of a decisive victory over Charles and to +apply it to Davis in unrestrained language that reminds one of +Pollard. + +Equally unrestrained were the attacks upon other items of the +policy of the Confederate Government. The Impressment Law began +to be a target. Farmers who were compelled to accept the prices +fixed by the impressment commissioners cried out that they were +being ruined. Men of the stamp of Toombs came to their assistance +with railing accusations such as this: "I have heard it said that +we should not sacrifice liberty to independence, but I tell you, +my countrymen, that the two are inseparable.... If we lose +our liberty we shall lose our independence.... I would rather +see the whole country the cemetery of freedom than the habitation +of slaves." Protests which poured in upon the Government insisted +that the power to impress supplies did not carry with it the +power to fix prices. Worthy men, ridden by the traditional ideas +of political science and unable to modify these in the light of +the present emergency, wailed out their despair over the +"usurpation" of Richmond. + +The tax in kind was denounced in the same vein. The licensing +provisions of this law and its income tax did not satisfy the +popular imagination. These provisions concerned the classes that +could borrow. The classes that could not borrow, that had no +resources but their crops, felt that they were being driven to +the wall. The bitter saying went around that it was "a rich man's +war and a poor man's fight." As land and slaves were not directly +taxed, the popular discontent appeared to have ground for its +anger. Furthermore, it must never be forgotten that this was the +first general tax that the poor people of the South were ever +conscious of paying. To people who knew the tax-gatherer as +little more than a mythical being, he suddenly appeared like a +malevolent creature who swept off ruthlessly the tenth of their +produce. It is not strange that an intemperate reaction against +the planters and their leadership followed. The illusion spread +that they were not doing their share of the fighting; and as rich +men were permitted to hire substitutes to represent them in the +army, this really baseless report was easily propped up in the +public mind with what appeared to be reason. + +In North Carolina, where the peasant farmer was a larger +political factor than in any other State, this feeling against +the Confederate Government because of the tax in kind was most +dangerous. In the course of the summer, while the military +fortunes of the Confederacy were toppling at Vicksburg and +Gettysburg, the North Carolina farmers in a panic of +self-preservation held numerous meetings of protest and +denunciation. They expressed their thoughtless terror in +resolutions asserting that the action of Congress "in secret +session, without consulting with their constituents at home, +taking from the hard laborers of the Confederacy one-tenth of the +people's living, instead of taking back their own currency in +tax, is unjust and tyrannical." Other resolutions called the tax +"unconstitutional, anti-republican, and oppressive"; and still +others pledged the farmers "to resist to the bitter end any such +monarchical tax." + +A leader of the discontented in North Carolina was found in W. W. +Holden, the editor of the Raleigh Progress, who before the war +had attempted to be spokesman for the men of small property by +advocating taxes on slaves and similar measures. He proposed as +the conclusion of the whole matter the opening of negotiations +for peace. We shall see later how deep-seated was this singular +delusion that peace could be had for the asking. In 1863, +however, many men in North Carolina took up the suggestion with +delight. Jonathan Worth wrote in his diary, on hearing that the +influential North Carolina Standard had come out for peace: "I +still abhor, as I always did, this accursed war and the wicked +men, North and South, who inaugurated it. The whole country at +the North and the South is a great military despotism." With such +discontent in the air, the elections in North Carolina drew near. +The feeling was intense and riots occurred. Newspaper offices +were demolished--among them Holden's, to destroy which a +detachment of passing soldiers converted itself into a mob. In +the western counties deserters from the army, combined in bands, +were joined by other deserters from Tennessee, and terrorized the +countryside. Governor Vance, alarmed at the progress which this +disorder was making, issued a proclamation imploring his +rebellious countrymen to conduct in a peaceable manner their +campaign for the repeal of obnoxious laws. + +The measure of political unrest in North Carolina was indicated +in the autumn when a new delegation to Congress was chosen. Of +the ten who composed it, eight were new men. Though they did not +stand for a clearly defined program, they represented on the +whole anti-Davis tendencies. The Confederate Administration had +failed to carry the day in the North Carolina elections; and in +Georgia there were even more sweeping evidences of unrest. Of the +ten representatives chosen for the Second Congress nine had not +sat in the First, and Georgia now was in the main frankly +anti-Davis. There had been set up at Richmond a new organ of the +Government called the Sentinel, which was more entirely under the +presidential shadow than even the Enquirer and the Courier. +Speaking of the elections, the Sentinel deplored the "upheaval of +political elements" revealed by the defeat of so many tried +representatives whose constituents had not returned them to the +Second Congress. + +What was Davis doing while the ground was thus being cut from +under his feet? For one thing he gave his endorsement to the +formation of "Confederate Societies" whose members bound +themselves to take Confederate money as legal tender. He wrote a +letter to one such society in Mississippi, praising it for +attempting "by common consent to bring down the prices of all +articles to the standard of the soldiers' wages" and adding that +the passion of speculation had "seduced citizens of all classes +from a determined prosecution of the war to an effort to amass +money." The Sentinel advocated the establishment of a law fixing +maximum prices. The discussion of this proposal seems to make +plain the raison d'etre for the existence of the Sentinel. Even +such stanch government organs as the Enquirer and the Courier +shied at the idea, but the Mercury denounced it vigorously, +giving long extracts from Thiers, and discussed the mistakes, of +the French Revolution with its "law of maximum." + +Davis, however, did not take an active part in the political +campaign, nor did the other members of the Government. It was not +because of any notion that the President should not leave the +capital that Davis did not visit the disaffected regions of North +Carolina when the startled populace winced under its first +experience with taxation. Three times during his Administration +Davis left Richmond on extended journeys: late in 1862, when +Vicksburg had become a chief concern of the Government, he went +as far afield as Mississippi in order to get entirely in touch +with the military situation in those parts; in the month of +October, 1863, when there was another moment of intense military +anxiety, Davis again visited the front; and of a third journey +which he undertook in 1864, we shall hear in time. It is to be +noted that each of these journeys was prompted by a military +motive; and here, possibly, we get an explanation of his +inadequacy as a statesman. He could not lay aside his interest in +military affairs for the supremely important concerns of civil +office; and he failed to understand how to ingratiate his +Administration by personal appeals to popular imagination. + +In October, 1863,--the very month in which his old rival Rhett +suffered his final defeat,--Davis undertook a journey because +Bragg, after his great victory at Chickamauga, appeared to be +letting slip a golden opportunity, and because there were reports +of dissension among Bragg's officers and of general confusion in +his army. After he had, as he thought, restored harmony in the +camp, Davis turned southward on a tour of appeal and inspiration. +He went as far as Mobile, and returning bent his course through +Charleston, where, at the beginning of November, less than two +weeks after Rhett's defeat, Davis was received with all due +formalities. Members of the Rhett family were among those who +formally received the President at the railway station. There was +a parade of welcome, an official reception, a speech by the +President from the steps of the city hall, and much applause by +friends of the Administration. But certain ominous signs were not +lacking. The Mercury, for example, tucked away in an obscure +column its account of the event, while its rival, the Courier, +made the President's visit the feature of the day. + +Davis returned to Richmond, early in November, to throw himself +again with his whole soul into problems that were chiefly +military. He did not realize that the crisis had come and gone +and that he had failed to grasp the significance of the internal +political situation. The Government had failed to carry the +elections and to secure a working majority in Congress. Never +again was it to have behind it a firm and confident support, The +unity of the secession movement had passed away. Thereafter the +Government was always to be regarded with suspicion by the +extreme believers in state sovereignty and by those who were +sullenly convinced that the burdens of the war were unfairly +distributed. And there were not wanting men who were ready to +construe each emergency measure as a step toward a coup d'etat. + + + +Chapter VI. Life In The Confederacy + +When the fortunes of the Confederacy in both camp and council +began to ebb, the life of the Southern people had already +profoundly changed. The gallant, delightful, carefree life of the +planter class had been undermined by a war which was eating away +its foundations. Economic no less than political forces were +taking from the planter that ideal of individual liberty as dear +to his heart as it had been, ages before, to his feudal +prototype. One of the most important details of the changing +situation had been the relation of the Government to slavery. The +history of the Confederacy had opened with a clash between the +extreme advocates of slavery--the slavery-at-any-price men--and +the Administration. The Confederate Congress had passed a bill +ostensibly to make effective the clause in its constitution +prohibiting the African slave-trade. The quick eye of Davis had +detected in it a mode of evasion, for cargoes of captured slaves +were to be confiscated and sold at public auction. The President +had exposed this adroit subterfuge in his message vetoing the +bill, and the slavery-at-any-price men had not sufficient +influence in Congress to override the veto, though they muttered +against it in the public press. + +The slavery-at-any-price men did not again conspicuously show +their hands until three years later when the Administration +included emancipation in its policy. The ultimate policy of +emancipation was forced upon the Government by many +considerations but more particularly by the difficulty of +securing labor for military purposes. In a country where the +supply of fighting men was limited and the workers were a class +apart, the Government had to employ the only available laborers +or confess its inability to meet the industrial demands of war. +But the available laborers were slaves. How could their services +be secured? By purchase? Or by conscription? Or by temporary +impressment? + +Though Davis and his advisers were prepared to face all the +hazards involved in the purchase or confiscation of slaves, the +traditional Southern temper instantly recoiled from the +suggestion. A Government possessed of great numbers of slaves, +whether bought or appropriated, would have in its hands a +gigantic power, perhaps for industrial competition with private +owners, perhaps even for organized military control. Besides, the +Government might at any moment by emancipating its slaves upset +the labor system of the country. Furthermore, the opportunities +for favoritism in the management of state-owned slaves were +beyond calculation. Considerations such as these therefore +explain the watchful jealousy of the planters toward the +Government whenever it proposed to acquire property in slaves. + +It is essential not to attribute this social-political dread of +government ownership of slaves merely to the clutch of a wealthy +class on its property. Too many observers, strangely enough, see +the latter motive to the exclusion of the former. Davis himself +was not, it would seem, free from this confusion. He insisted +that neither slaves nor land were taxed by the Confederacy, and +between the lines he seems to attribute to the planter class the +familiar selfishness of massed capital. He forgot that the tax in +kind was combined with an income tax. In theory, at least, the +slave and the land--even non-farming land--were taxed. However, +the dread of a slave-owning Government prevented any effective +plan for supplying the army with labor except through the +temporary impressment of slaves who were eventually to be +returned to their owners. The policy of emancipation had to wait. + +Bound up in the labor question was the question of the control of +slaves during the war. In the old days when there were plenty of +white men in the countryside, the roads were carefully patrolled +at night, and no slave ventured to go at large unless fully +prepared to prove his identity. But with the coming of war the +comparative smallness of the fighting population made it likely +from the first that the countryside everywhere would be stripped +of its white guardians. In that event, who would be left to +control the slaves? Early in the war a slave police was provided +for by exempting from military duty overseers in the ratio +approximately of one white to twenty slaves. But the marvelous +faithfulness of the slaves, who nowhere attempted to revolt, made +these precautions unnecessary. Later laws exempted one overseer +on every plantation of fifteen slaves, not so much to perform +patrol duty as to increase the productivity of plantation labor. + +This "Fifteen Slave" Law was one of many instances that were +caught up by the men of small property as evidence that the +Government favored the rich. A much less defensible law, and one +which was bitterly attacked for the same reason, was the +unfortunate measure permitting the hiring of substitutes by men +drafted into the army. Eventually, the clamor against this law +caused its repeal, but before that time it had worked untold harm +as apparent evidence of "a rich man's war and a poor man's +fight." Extravagant stories of the avoidance of military duty by +the ruling class, though in the main they were mere fairy tales, +changed the whole atmosphere of Southern life. The old glad +confidence uniting the planter class with the bulk of the people +had been impaired. Misapprehension appeared on both sides. Too +much has been said lately, however, in justification of the +poorer classes who were thus wakened suddenly to a distrust of +the aristocracy; and too little has been said of the proud recoil +of the aristocracy in the face of a sudden, credulous perversion +of its motives--a perversion inspired by the pinching of the +shoe, and yet a shoe that pinched one class as hard as it did +another. It is as unfair to charge the planter with selfishness +in opposing the appropriation of slaves as it is to make the same +charge against the small farmers for resisting tithes. In face of +the record, the planter comes off somewhat the better of the two; +but it must be remembered that he had the better education, the +larger mental horizon. + +The Confederacy had long recognized women of all classes as the +most dauntless defenders of the cause. The women of the upper +classes passed without a tremor from a life of smiling ease to a +life of extreme hardship. One day, their horizon was without a +cloud; another day, their husbands and fathers had gone to the +front. Their luxuries had disappeared, and they were reduced to +plain hard living, toiling in a thousand ways to find provision +and clothing, not only for their own children but for the poorer +families of soldiers. The women of the poor throughout the South +deserve similar honor. Though the physical shock of the change +may not have been so great, they had to face the same deep +realities--hunger and want, anxiety over the absent soldiers, +solicitude for children, grief for the dead. One of the pathetic +aspects of Confederate life was the household composed of several +families, all women and children, huddled together without a man +or even a half-grown lad to be their link with the mill and the +market. In those regions where there were few slaves and the +exemption of overseers did not operate, such households were +numerous. + +The great privations which people endured during the Confederacy +have passed into familiar tradition. They are to be traced mainly +to three causes: to the blockade, to the inadequate system of +transportation, and to the heartlessness of speculators. The +blockade was the real destroyer of the South. Besides ruining the +whole policy based on King Cotton, besides impeding to a vast +extent the inflow of munitions from Europe, it also deprived +Southern life of numerous articles which were hard to +relinquish--not only such luxuries as tea and coffee, but also +such utter necessities as medicines. And though the native herbs +were diligently studied, though the Government established +medical laboratories with results that were not inconsiderable, +the shortage of medicines remained throughout the war a +distressing feature of Southern life. The Tredegar Iron Works at +Richmond and a foundry at Selma, Alabama,were the only mills in +the South capable of casting the heavy ordnance necessary for +military purposes. And the demand for powder mills and gun +factories to provide for the needs of the army was scarcely +greater than the demand for cotton mills and commercial foundries +to supply the wants of the civil population. The Government +worked without ceasing to keep pace with the requirements of the +situation, and, in view of the immense difficulties which it had +to face, it was fairly successful in supplying the needs of the +army. Powder was provided by the Niter and Mining Bureau; lead +for Confederate bullets was collected from many sources--even +from +the window-weights of the houses; iron was brought from the mines +of Alabama; guns came from newly built factories; and machines +and tools were part of the precious freight of the +blockade-runners. Though the poorly equipped mills turned a +portion of the cotton crop into textiles, and though everything +that was possible was done to meet the needs of the people, the +supply of manufactures was sadly inadequate. The universal +shortage was betrayed by the limitation of the size of most +newspapers to a single sheet, and the desperate situation clearly +and completely revealed by the way in which, as a last resort, +the Confederates were compelled to repair their railroads by +pulling up the rails of one road in order to repair another that +the necessities of war rendered indispensable. + +The railway system, if such it can be called, was one of the +weaknesses of the Confederacy. Before the war the South had not +felt the need of elaborate interior communication, for its +commerce in the main went seaward, and thence to New England or +to Europe. Hitherto the railway lines had seen no reason for +merging their local character in extensive combinations. Owners +of short lines were inclined by tradition to resist even the +imperative necessities of war and their stubborn conservatism was +frequently encouraged by the shortsighted parochialism of the +towns. The same pitiful narrowness that led the peasant farmer to +threaten rebellion against the tax in kind led his counterpart in +the towns to oppose the War Department in its efforts to +establish through railroad lines because they threatened to +impair local business interests. A striking instance of this +disinclination towards cooperation is the action of Petersburg. +Two railroads terminated at this point but did not connect, and +it was an ardent desire of the military authorities to link the +two and convert them into one. The town, however, unable to see +beyond its boundaries and resolute in its determination to save +its transfer business, successfully obstructed the needs of the +army.* + +* See an article on "The Confederate Government and the +Railroads" in the "American Historical Review," July, 1917, by +Charles W. Ramsdell. + + +As a result of this lack of efficient organization an immense +congestion resulted all along the railroads. Whether this, rather +than a failure in supply, explains the approach of famine in the +latter part of the war, it is today very difficult to determine. +In numerous state papers of the time, the assertion was +reiterated that the yield of food was abundant and that the +scarcity of food at many places, including the cities and the +battle fronts, was due to defects in transportation. Certain it +is that the progress of supplies from one point to another was +intolerably slow. + +All this want of coordination facilitated speculation. We shall +see hereafter how merciless this speculation became and we shall +even hear of profits on food rising to more than four hundred per +cent. However, the oft-quoted prices of the later years--when, +for instance, a pair of shoes cost a hundred dollars--signify +little, for they rested on an inflated currency. None the less +they inspired the witticism that one should take money to market +in a basket and bring provisions home in one's pocketbook. +Endless stories could be told of speculators hoarding food and +watching unmoved the sufferings of a famished people. Said Bishop +Pierce, in a sermon before the General Assembly of Georgia, on +Fast Day, in March, 1863: "Restlessness and discontent +prevail.... +Extortion, pitiless extortion is making havoc in the land. +We are devouring each other. Avarice with full barns puts the +bounties of Providence under bolts and bars, waiting with eager +longings for higher prices.... The greed of gain...stalks +among us unabashed by the heroic sacrifice of our women or the +gallant deeds of our soldiers. Speculation in salt and bread and +meat runs riot in defiance of the thunders of the pulpit, and +executive interference and the horrors of threatened famine." In +1864, the Government found that quantities of grain paid in under +the tax as new-grown were mildewed. It was grain of the previous +year which speculators had held too long and now palmed off on +the Government to supply the army. + +Amid these desperate conditions the fate of soldiers' families +became everywhere, a tragedy. Unless the soldier was a land-owner +his family was all but helpless. With a depreciated currency and +exaggerated prices, his pay, whatever his rank, was too little to +count in providing for his dependents. Local charity, dealt out +by state and county boards, by relief associations, and by the +generosity of neighbors, formed the barrier between his family +and starvation. The landless soldier, with a family at home in +desperate straits, is too often overlooked when unimaginative +people heap up the statistics of "desertion" in the latter half +of the war. + +It was in this period, too, that amid the terrible shrinkage of +the defensive lines "refugeeing" became a feature of Southern +life. From the districts over which the waves of war rolled back +and forth helpless families--women, children, slaves--found +precarious safety together with great hardship by withdrawing to +remote places which invasion was little likely to reach. An +Odyssey of hard travel, often by night and half secret, is part +of the war tradition of thousands of Southern families. And here, +as always, the heroic women, smiling, indomitable, are the center +of the picture. Their flight to preserve the children was no +small test of courage. Almost invariably they had to traverse +desolate country, with few attendants, through forests, and +across rivers, where the arm of the law was now powerless to +protect them. Outlaws, defiant of the authorities both civil and +military,--ruthless men of whom we shall hear again,--roved those +great unoccupied spaces so characteristic of the Southern +countryside. Many a family legend preserves still the sense of +breathless caution, of pilgrimage in the night-time intently +silent for fear of these masterless men. When the remote +rendezvous had been reached, there a colony of refugees drew +together in a steadfast despair, unprotected by their own +fighting men. What strange sad pages in the history of American +valor were filled by these women outwardly calm, their children +romping after butterflies in a glory of sunshine, while horrid +tales drifted in of deeds done by the masterless men in the +forest just beyond the horizon, and far off on the soul's +horizon fathers, husbands, brothers, held grimly the lines of +last defense! + + + +Chapter VII. The Turning Of The Tide + +The buoyancy of the Southern temper withstood the shock of +Gettysburg and was not overcome by the fall of Vicksburg. Of the +far-reaching significance of the latter catastrophe in particular +there was little immediate recognition. Even Seddon, the +Secretary of War, in November, reported that "the communication +with the Trans-Mississippi, while rendered somewhat precarious +and insecure, is found by no means cut off or even seriously +endangered." His report was the same sort of thing as those +announcements of "strategic retreats" with which the world has +since become familiar. He even went so far as to argue that on +the whole the South had gained rather than lost; that the control +of the river was of no real value to the North; that the loss of +Vicksburg "has on our side liberated for general operations in +the field a large army, while it requires the enemy to maintain +cooped up, inactive, in positions insalubrious to their soldiers, +considerable detachments of their forces." + +Seddon attempted to reverse the facts, to show that the +importance of the Mississippi in commerce was a Northern not a +Southern concern. He threw light upon the tactics of the time by +his description of the future action of Confederate sharpshooters +who were to terrorize such commercial crews as might attempt to +navigate the river; he also told how light batteries might move +swiftly along the banks and, at points commanding the channel, +rain on the passing steamer unheralded destruction. He was silent +upon the really serious matter, the patrol of the river by +Federal gunboats which rendered commerce with the +Trans-Mississippi all but impossible. + +This report, dated the 26th of November, gives a roseate view of +the war in Tennessee and enlarges upon that dreadful battle of +Chickamauga which "ranks as one of the grandest victories of the +war." But even as the report was signed, Bragg was in full +retreat after his great disaster at Chattanooga. On the 30th of +November the Administration at Richmond received from him a +dispatch that closed with these words: "I deem it due to the +cause and to myself to ask for relief from command and an +investigation into the causes of the defeat." In the middle of +December, Joseph E. Johnston was appointed to succeed him. + +Whatever had been the illusions of the Government, they were now +at an end. There was no denying that the war had entered a new +stage and that the odds were grimly against the South. Davis +recognized the gravity of the situation, and in his message to +Congress in December, 1863, he admitted that the +Trans-Mississippi was practically isolated. This was indeed a +great catastrophe, for hereafter neither men nor supplies could +be drawn from the far Southwest. Furthermore, the Confederacy had +now lost its former precious advantage of using Mexico as a means +of secret trade with Europe. + +These distressing events of the four months between Vicksburg and +Chattanooga established also the semi-isolation of the middle +region of the lower South. The two States of Mississippi and +Alabama entered upon the most desperate chapter of their history. +Neither in nor out of the Confederacy, neither protected by the +Confederate lines nor policed by the enemy, they were subject at +once to the full rigor of the financial and military demands of +the Administration of Richmond and to the full ruthlessness of +plundering raids from the North. Nowhere can the contrast between +the warfare of that day and the best methods of our own time be +observed more clearly than in this unhappy region. At the opening +of 1864 the effective Confederate lines drew an irregular zigzag +across the map from a point in northern Georgia not far below +Chattanooga to Mobile. Though small Confederate commands still +operated bravely west of this line, the whole of Mississippi and +a large part of Alabama were beyond aid from Richmond. But the +average man did not grasp the situation. When a region is +dominated by mobile armies the appearance of things to the +civilian is deceptive. Because the powerful Federal armies of the +Southwest, at the opening of 1864, were massed at strategic +points from Tennessee to the Gulf, and were not extended along an +obvious trench line, every brave civilian would still keep up his +hope and would still insist that the middle Gulf country was far +from subjugation, that its defense against the invader had not +become hopeless. + +Under such conditions, when the Government at Richmond called +upon the men of the Southwest to regard themselves as mere +sources of supply, human and otherwise, mere feeders to a theater +of war that did not include their homes, it was altogether +natural that they should resent the demand. All the tragic +confusion that was destined in the course of the fateful year +1864 to paralyze the Government at Richmond was already apparent +in the middle Gulf country when the year began. Chief among these +was the inability of the State and Confederate Governments to +cooperate adequately in the business of conscription. The two +powers were determined rivals struggling each to seize the major +part of the manhood of the community. While Richmond, looking on +the situation with the eye of pure strategy, wished to draw +together the full man-power of the South in one great unit, the +local authorities were bent on retaining a large part of it for +home defense. + +In the Alabama newspapers of the latter half of 1863 strange +incidents are to be found throwing light on the administrative +duel. The writ of habeas corpus, as was so often the case in +Confederate history, was the bone of contention. We have seen +that the second statute empowering the President to proclaim +martial law and to suspend the operation of the writ had expired +by limitation in February, 1863. The Alabama courts were +theoretically in full operation, but while the law was in force +the military authorities had acquired a habit of arbitrary +control. Though warned from Richmond in general orders that they +must not take unto themselves a power vested in the President +alone, they continued their previous course of action. It +thereupon became necessary to issue further general orders +annulling "all proclamations of martial law by general officers +and others" not invested by law with adequate authority. + +Neither general orders nor the expiration of the statute, +however, seemed able to put an end to the interference with the +local courts on the part of local commanders. The evil apparently +grew during 1863. A picturesque instance is recorded with extreme +fullness by the Southern Advertiser in the autumn of the year. In +the minutely circumstantial account, we catch glimpses of one +Rhodes moving heaven and earth to prove himself exempt from +military service. After Rhodes is enrolled by the officers of the +local military rendezvous, the sheriff attempts to turn the +tables by arresting the Colonel in command. The soldiers rush to +defend their Colonel, who is ill in bed at a house some distance +away. The judge who had issued the writ is hot with anger at this +military interference in civil affairs. Thereupon the soldiers +seize him, but later, recognizing for some unexplained reason the +majesty of the civil law, they release him. And the hot-tempered +incident closes with the Colonel's determination to carry the +case to the Supreme Court of the State. + +The much harassed people of Alabama had still other causes of +complaint during this same year. Again the newspapers illumine +the situation. In the troubled autumn, Joseph Wheeler swept +across the northern counties of Alabama and in a daring ride, +with Federal cavalry hot on his trail, reached safety beyond the +Tennessee River. Here his pursuers turned back and, as their +horses had been broken by the swiftness of the pursuit, returning +slowly, they "gleaned the country" to replace their supplies. +Incidentally they pounced upon the town of Huntsville. "Their +appearance here," writes a local correspondent, "was so sudden +and...the contradictory reports of their whereabouts" had +been so baffling that the townspeople had found no time to +secrete things. The whole neighborhood was swept clean of cattle +and almost clean of provision. "We have not enough left," the +report continues, "to haul and plow with...and milch cows are +non est." Including "Stanley's big raid in July," this was the +twenty-first raid which Huntsville had endured that year. The +report closes with a bitter denunciation of the people of +southern Alabama who as yet do not know what war means, who are +accused of complete hardness of heart towards their suffering +fellow-countrymen and of caring only to make money out of war +prices. + +When Davis sent his message to the Southern Congress at the +opening of the session of 1864, the desperate plight of the +middle Gulf country was at once a warning and a menace to the +Government. If the conditions of that debatable land should +extend eastward, there could be little doubt that the day of the +Confederacy was nearing its close. To remedy the situation west +of the main Confederate line, to prevent the growth of a similar +condition east of it, Davis urged Congress to revive the statute +permitting martial law and the suspension of the writ of habeas +corpus. The President told Congress that in parts of the +Confederacy "public meetings have been held, in some of which a +treasonable design is masked by a pretense of devotion of state +sovereignty, and in others is openly avowed...a strong +suspicion is entertained that secret leagues and associations are +being formed. In certain localities men of no mean position do +not hesitate to avow their disloyalty and hostility to our cause, +and their advocacy of peace on the terms of submission and the +abolition of slavery." + +This suspicion on the part of the Confederate Government that it +was being opposed by organized secret societies takes us back to +debatable land and to the previous year. The Bureau of +Conscription submitted to the Secretary of War a report from its +Alabama branch relative to "a sworn secret organization known to +exist and believed to have for its object the encouragement of +desertion, the protection of deserters from arrest, resistance to +conscription, and perhaps other designs of a still more dangerous +character." To the operations of this insidious foe were +attributed the shifting of the vote in the Alabama elections, the +defeat of certain candidates favored by the Government, and the +return in their stead of new men "not publicly known." The +suspicions of the Government were destined to further +verification in the course of 1864 by the unearthing of a +treasonable secret society in southwestern Virginia, the members +of which were "bound to each other for the prosecution of their +nefarious designs by the most solemn oaths. They were under +obligation to encourage desertions from the army, and to pass and +harbor all deserters, escaped prisoners, or spies; to give +information to the enemy of the movements of our troops, of +exposed or weakened positions, of inviting opportunities of +attack, and to guide and assist the enemy either in advance or +retreat." This society bore the grandiloquent name "Heroes of +America" and had extended its operations into Tennessee and North +Carolina. + +In the course of the year further evidence was collected which +satisfied the secret service of the existence of a mysterious and +nameless society which had ramifications throughout Tennessee, +Alabama, and Georgia. A detective who joined this "Peace +Society," as it was called, for the purpose of betraying its +secrets, had marvelous tales to tell of confidential information +given to him by members, of how Missionary Ridge had been lost +and Vicksburg had surrendered through the machinations of this +society.* + +* What classes were represented in these organizations it is +difficult if not impossible to determine. They seem to have been +involved in the singular "peace movement" which is yet to be +considered. This fact gives a possible clue to the problem of +their membership. A suspiciously large number of the "peace" men +were original anti-secessionists, and though many, perhaps most, +of these who opposed secession became loyal servants of the +Confederacy, historians may have jumped too quickly to the +assumption that the sincerity of all of these men was above +reproach. + +In spite of its repugnance to the suspension of the writ of +habeas corpus, Congress was so impressed by the gravity of the +situation that early in 1864 it passed another act "to suspend +the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in certain cases." +This was not quite the same as that sweeping act of 1862 which +had set the Mercury irrevocably in opposition. Though this act of +1864 gave the President the power to order the arrest of any +person suspected of treasonable practices, and though it released +military officers from all obligation to obey the order of any +civil court to surrender a prisoner charged with treason, the new +legislation carefully defined a list of cases in which alone this +power could be lawfully used. This was the last act of the sort +passed by the Confederate Congress, and when it expired by +limitation ninety days after the next meeting of Congress it was +not renewed. + +With regard to the administration of the army, Congress can +hardly be said to have met the President more than half way. The +age of military service was lowered to seventeen and was raised +to fifty. But the President was not given--though he had asked +for it--general control over exemptions. Certain groups, such as +ministers, editors, physicians, were in the main exempted; one +overseer was exempted on each plantation where there were fifteen +slaves, provided he gave bond to sell to the Government at +official prices each year one hundred pounds of either beef or +bacon for each slave employed and provided he would sell all his +surplus produce either to the Government or to the families of +soldiers. Certain civil servants of the Confederacy were also +exempted as well as those whom the governors of States should +"certify to be necessary for the proper administration of the +State Government." The President was authorized to detail for +nonmilitary service any members of the Confederate forces "when +in his judgment, justice, equity, and necessity, require such +details." + +This statute retained two features that had already given rise to +much friction, and that were destined to be the cause of much +more. It was still within the power of state governors to impede +conscription very seriously. By certifying that a man was +necessary to the civil administration of a State, a Governor +could place him beyond the legal reach of the conscripting +officers. This provision was a concession to those who looked on +Davis's request for authority over exemption as the first step +toward absolutism. On the other hand the statute allowed the +President a free hand in the scarcely less important matter of +"details." Among the imperative problems of the Confederacy, +where the whole male population was needed in the public service, +was the most economical separation of the two groups, the +fighters and the producers. On the one hand there was the +constant demand for recruits to fill up the wasted armies; on the +other, the need for workers to keep the shops going and to secure +the harvest. The two interests were never fully coordinated. +Under the act of 1864, no farmer, mechanic, tradesman, between +the ages of seventeen and fifty, if fit for military service, +could remain at his work except as a "detail" under orders of the +President: he might be called to the colors at a moment's notice. +We shall see, presently, how the revoking of details, toward the +end of what may truly be called the terrible year, was one of the +major incidents of Confederate history. + +Together with the new conscription act, the President approved on +February 17, 1864, a reenactment of the tax in kind, with some +slight concessions to the convenience of the farmers. The +President's appeal for a law directly taxing slaves and land had +been ignored by Congress, but another of his suggestions had been +incorporated in the Funding Act. The state of the currency was +now so grave that Davis attributed to it all the evils growing +out of the attempts to enforce impressment. As the value of the +paper dollar had by this time shrunk to six cents in specie and +the volume of Confederate paper was upward of seven hundred +millions, Congress undertook to reduce the volume and raise the +value by compelling holders of notes to exchange them for bonds. +By way of driving the note-holders to consent to the exchange, +provision was made for the speedy taxation of notes for one-third +their face value. + +Such were the main items of the government program for 1864. +Armed with this, Davis braced himself for the great task of +making head against the enemies that now surrounded the +Confederacy. It is an axiom of military science that when one +combatant possesses the interior line, the other can offset this +advantage only by exerting coincident pressure all round, thus +preventing him from shifting his forces from one front to +another. On this principle, the Northern strategists had at last +completed their gigantic plan for a general envelopment of the +whole Confederate defense both by land and sea. Grant opened +operations by crossing the Rapidan and telegraphing Sherman to +advance into Georgia. + +The stern events of the spring of 1864 form such a famous page in +military history that the sober civil story of those months +appears by comparison lame and impotent. Nevertheless, the +Confederate Government during those months was at least equal to +its chief obligation: it supplied and recruited the armies. With +Grant checked at Cold Harbor, in June, and Sherman still unable +to pierce the western line, the hopes of the Confederates were +high. + +In the North there was corresponding gloom. This was the moment +when all Northern opponents of the war drew together in their +last attempt to shatter the Lincoln Government and make peace +with the Confederacy. The value to the Southern cause of this +Northern movement for peace at any price was keenly appreciated +at Richmond. Trusted agents of the Confederacy were even then in +Canada working deftly to influence Northern sentiment. The +negotiations with those Northern secret societies which +befriended the South belong properly in the story of Northern +politics and the presidential election of 1864. They were +skillfully conducted chiefly by Jacob Thompson and C. C. Clay. +The reports of these agents throughout the spring and summer were +all hopeful and told of "many intelligent men from the United +States" who sought them out in Canada for political +consultations. They discussed "our true friends from the Chicago +(Democratic) convention" and even gave names of those who, they +were assured, would have seats in McClellan's Cabinet. They were +really not well informed upon Northern affairs, and even after +the tide had turned against the Democrats in September, they were +still priding themselves on their diplomatic achievement, still +confident they had helped organize a great political power, had +"given a stronger impetus to the peace party of the North than +all other causes combined, and had greatly reduced the strength +of the war party." + +While Clay and Thompson built their house of cards in Canada, the +Richmond Government bent anxious eyes on the western battlefront. +Sherman, though repulsed in his one frontal attack at Kenesaw +Mountain, had steadily worked his way by the left flank of the +Confederate army, until in early July he was within six miles of +Atlanta. All the lower South was a-tremble with apprehension. +Deputations were sent to Richmond imploring the removal of +Johnston from the western command. What had he done since his +appointment in December but retreat? Such was the tenor of public +opinion. "It is all very well to talk of Fabian policy," said one +of his detractors long afterward, "and now we can see we were +rash to say the least. But at the time, all of us went wrong +together. Everybody clamored for Johnston's removal." Johnston +and Davis were not friends; but the President hesitated long +before acting. And yet, with each day, political as well as +military necessity grew more imperative. Both at Washington and +Richmond the effect that the fighting in Georgia had on Northern +opinion was seen to be of the first importance. Sherman was +staking everything to break the Confederate line and take +Atlanta. He knew that a great victory would have incalculable +effect on the Northern election. Davis knew equally well that the +defeat of Sherman would greatly encourage the peace party in the +North. But he had no general of undoubted genius whom he could +put in Johnston's place. However, the necessity for a bold stroke +was so undeniable, and Johnston appeared so resolute to continue +his Fabian policy, that Davis reluctantly took a desperate chance +and superseded him by Hood. + +During August, though the Democratic convention at Chicago drew +up its platform favoring peace at any price, the anxiety of the +Southern President did not abate his activities. The safety of +the western line was now his absorbing concern. And in mid-August +that line was turned, in a way, by Farragut's capture of Mobile +Bay. As the month closed, Sherman, despite the furious blows +delivered by Hood, was plainly getting the upper hand. North and +South, men watched that tremendous duel with the feeling that the +foundations of things were rocking. At last, on the 2d of +September, Sherman, victorious, entered Atlanta. + + + +Chapter VIII. A Game Of Chance + +With dramatic completeness in the summer and autumn of 1864, the +foundations of the Confederate hope one after another gave way. +Among the causes of this catastrophe was the failure of the +second great attempt on the part of the Confederacy to secure +recognition abroad. The subject takes us back to the latter days +of 1862, when the center of gravity in foreign affairs had +shifted from London to Paris. Napoleon III, at the height of his +strange career, playing half a dozen dubious games at once, took +up a new pastime and played at intrigue with the Confederacy. In +October he accorded a most gracious interview to Slidell. He +remarked that his sympathies were entirely with the South but +added that, if he acted alone, England might trip him up. He +spoke of his scheme for joint intervention by England, France, +and Russia. Then he asked why we had not created a navy. Slidell +snapped at the bait. He said that the Confederates would be glad +to build ships in France, that "if the Emperor would give only +some kind of verbal assurance that the police would not observe +too closely when we wished to put on guns and men we would gladly +avail ourselves of it." To this, the imperial trickster replied, +"Why could you not have them built as for the Italian Government? +I do not think it would be difficult but will consult the +Minister of Marine about it." + +Slidell left the Emperor's presence confident that things would +happen. And they did. First came Napoleon's proposal of +intervention, which was declined before the end of the year by +England and Russia. Then came his futile overtures to the +Government at Washington, his offer of mediation--which was +rejected early in 1863. But Slidell remained confident that +something else would happen. And in this expectation also he was +not disappointed. The Emperor was deeply involved in Mexico and +was busily intriguing throughout Europe. This was the time when +Erlanger, standing high in the favor of the Emperor, made his +gambler's proposal to the Confederate authorities about cotton. +Another of the Emperor's friends now enters the play. On January +7, 1863, M. Arman, of Bordeaux, "the largest shipbuilder in +France," had called on the Confederate commissioner: M. Arman +would be happy to build ironclad ships for the Confederacy, and +as to paying for them, cotton bonds might do the trick. + +No wonder Slidell was elated, so much so that he seems to have +given little heed to the Emperor's sinister intimation that the +whole affair must be subterranean. But the wily Bonaparte had not +forgotten that six months earlier he had issued a decree of +neutrality forbidding Frenchmen to take commissions from either +belligerent "for the armament of vessels of war or to accept +letters of marque, or to cooperate in any way whatsoever in the +equipment or arming of any vessel of war or corsair of either +belligerent." He did not intend to abandon publicly this cautious +attitude--at least, not for the present. And while Slidell at +Paris was completely taken in, the cooler head of A. Dudley Mann, +Confederate commissioner at Brussels, saw what an international +quicksand was the favor of Napoleon. It was about this time that +Napoleon, having dispatched General Forey with a fresh army to +Mexico, wrote the famous letter which gave notice to the world of +what he was about. Mann wrote home in alarm that the Emperor +might be expected to attempt recovering Mexico's ancient areas +including Texas. Slidell saw in the Forey letter only "views... +which will not be gratifying to the Washington Government." + +The adroit Arman, acting on hints from high officers of the +Government, applied for permission to build and arm ships of war, +alleging that he intended to send them to the Pacific and sell +them to either China or Japan. To such a laudable expression of +commercial enterprise, one of his fellows in the imperial ring, +equipped with proper authority under Bonaparte, hastened to give +official approbation, and Erlanger came forward by way of +financial backer. There were conferences of Confederate agents; +contracts were signed; plans were agreed upon; and the work was +begun. + +There was no more hopeful man in the Confederate service than +Slidell when, in the full flush of pride after Chancellorsville, +he appealed to the Emperor to cease waiting on other powers and +recognize the Confederacy. Napoleon accorded another gracious +interview but still insisted that it was impossible for him to +act alone. He said that he was "more fully convinced than ever of +the propriety of a general recognition by the European powers of +the Confederate States but that the commerce of France and the +interests of the Mexican expedition would be jeopardized by a +rupture with the United States" and unless England would stand +by him he dared not risk such an eventuality. In point of fact, +he was like a speculator who is "hedging" on the stock exchange, +both buying and selling, and trying to make up his mind on which +cast to stake his fortune. At the same time he threw out once +more the sinister caution about the ships. He said that the +ships might be built in France but that their destination must +be concealed. + +That Napoleon's choice just then, if England had supported him, +would have been recognition of the Confederacy, cannot be +doubted. The tangle of intrigue which he called his foreign +policy was not encouraging. He was deeply involved in Italian +politics, where the daring of Garibaldi had reopened the struggle +between clericals and liberals. In France itself the struggle +between parties was keen. Here, as in the American imbroglio, he +found it hard to decide with which party to break. The chimerical +scheme of a Latin empire in Mexico was his spectacular device to +catch the imagination, and incidentally the pocketbook, of +everybody. But in order to carry out this enterprise he must be +able to avert or withstand the certain hostility of the United +States. Therefore, as he told Slidell, "no other power than +England possessed a sufficient navy" to pull his chestnuts out +of the fire. The moment was auspicious, for there was a revival +of the "Southern party" in England. The sailing of the Alabama +from Liverpool during the previous summer had encouraged the +Confederate agents and their British friends to undertake +further shipbuilding. + +While M. Arman was at work in France, the Laird Brothers were at +work in England and their dockyards contained two ironclad rams +supposed to outclass any vessels of the United States navy. +Though every effort had been made to keep secret the ultimate +destination of these rams, the vigilance of the United States +minister, reinforced by the zeal of the "Northern party," +detected strong circumstantial evidence pointing toward a +Confederate contract with the Lairds. A popular agitation ensued +along with demands upon the Government to investigate. To mask +the purposes of the Lairds, Captain James Bullock, the able +special agent of the Confederate navy, was forced to fall lack +upon the same tactics that were being used across the Channel, +and to sell the rams, on paper, to a firm in France. Neither he +nor Slidell yet appreciated what a doubtful refuge was the shadow +of Napoleon's wing. + +Nevertheless the British Government, by this time practically +alined with the North, continued its search for the real owner of +the Laird rams. The "Southern party," however, had not quite +given up hope, and the agitation to prevent the sailing of the +rams was a keen spur to its flagging zeal. Furthermore the +prestige of Lee never was higher than it was in June, 1863, when +the news of Chancellorsville was still fresh and resounding in +every mind. It had given new life to the Confederate hope: Lee +would take Washington before the end of the summer; the Laird +rams would go to sea; the Union would be driven to the wall. So +reasoned the ardent friends of the South. But one thing was +lacking--a European alliance. What a time for England to +intervene! + +While Slidell was talking with the Emperor, he had in his pocket +a letter from J. A. Roebuck, an English politician who wished to +force the issue in the House of Commons. As a preliminary to +moving the recognition of the Confederacy, he wanted authority to +deny a rumor going the rounds in London, to the effect that +Napoleon had taken position against intervention. Napoleon, when +he had seen the letter, began a negotiation of some sort with +this politician. It is needless to enter into the complications +that ensued, the subsequent recriminations, and the question as +to just what Napoleon promised at this time and how many of his +promises he broke. He was a diplomat of the old school, the +school of lying as a fine art. He permitted Roebuck to come over +to Paris for an audience, and Roebuck went away with the +impression that Napoleon could be relied upon to back up a new +movement for recognition. When, however, Roebuck brought the +matter before the Commons at the end of the month and encountered +an opposition from the Government that seemed to imply an +understanding with Napoleon which was different from his own, he +withdrew his motion (in July). Once more the scale turned against +the Confederacy, and Gettysburg was supplemented by the seizure +of the Laird rams by the British authorities. These events +explain the bitter turn given to Confederate feeling toward +England in the latter part of 1863. On the 4th of August Benjamin +wrote to Mason that "the perusal of the recent debates in +'Parliament satisfies the President" that Mason's "continued +residence in London is neither conducive to the interests nor +consistent with the dignity of this government," and directed him +to withdraw to Paris. + +Confederate feeling, as it cooled toward England, warmed toward +France. Napoleon's Mexican scheme, including the offer of a +ready-made imperial crown to Maximilian, the brother of the +Emperor of Austria, was fully understood at Richmond; and with +Napoleon's need of an American ally, Southern hope revived. It +was further strengthened by a pamphlet which was translated and +distributed in the South as a newspaper article under the title +France, Mexico, and the Confederate States. The reputed author, +Michel Chevalier, was an imperial senator, another member of the +Napoleon ring, and highly trusted by his shifty master. The +pamphlet, which emphasized the importance of Southern +independence as a condition of Napoleon's "beneficent aims" in +Mexico, was held to have been inspired, and the imperial denial +was regarded as a mere matter of form. + +What appeared to be significant of the temper of the Imperial +Government was a decree of a French court in the case of certain +merchants who sought to recover insurance on wine dispatched to +America and destroyed in a ship taken by the Alabama. Their plea +was that they were insured against loss by "pirates." The court +dismissed their suit and assessed costs against them. Further +evidence of Napoleon's favor was the permission given to the +Confederate cruiser Florida to repair at Brest and even to make +use of the imperial dockyard. The very general faith in +Napoleon's promises was expressed by Davis in his message to +Congress in December: "Although preferring our own government and +institutions to those of other countries, we can have no +disposition to contest the exercise by them of the same right of +self-government which we assert for ourselves. If the Mexican +people prefer a monarchy to a republic, it is our plain duty +cheerfully to acquiesce in their decision and to evince a sincere +and friendly interest in their prosperity.... The Emperor of +the French has solemnly disclaimed any purpose to impose on +Mexico a form of government not acceptable to the nation...." +In January, 1864, hope of recognition through support of +Napoleon's Mexican policy moved the Confederate Congress to adopt +resolutions providing for a Minister to the Mexican Empire and +giving him instructions with regard to a presumptive treaty. To +the new post Davis appointed General William Preston. + +But what, while hope was springing high in America, was taking +place in France? So far as the world could say, there was little +if anything to disturb the Confederates; and yet, on the horizon, +a cloud the size of a man's hand had appeared. M. Arman had +turned to another member of the Legislative Assembly, a sound +Bonapartist like himself, M. Voruz, of Nantes, to whom he had +sublet a part of the Confederate contract. The truth about the +ships and their destination thus became part of the archives of +the Voruz firm. No phase of Napoleonic intrigue could go very far +without encountering dishonesty, and to the confidential clerk of +M. Voruz there occurred the bright idea of doing something for +himself with this valuable diplomatic information. One fine day +the clerk was missing and with him certain papers. Then there +ensued a period of months during which the firm and their +employers could only conjecture the full extent of their loss. + +In reality, from the Confederate point of view, everything was +lost. Again the episode becomes too complex to be followed in +detail. Suffice it to say that the papers were sold to the United +States; that the secret was exposed; that the United States made +a determined assault upon the Imperial Government. In the midst +of this entanglement, Slidell lost his head, for hope deferred +when apparently within reach of its end is a dangerous councilor +of state. In his extreme anxiety, Slidell sent to the Emperor a +note the blunt rashness of which the writer could not have +appreciated. Saying that he feared the Emperor's subordinates +might play into the hands of Washington, he threw his fat in the +fire by speaking of the ships as "now being constructed at +Bordeaux and Nantes for the government of the Confederate States" +and virtually claimed of Napoleon a promise to let them go to +sea. Three days later the Minister of Foreign Affairs took him +sharply to task because of this note, reminding him that "what +had passed with the Emperor was confidential" and dropping the +significant hint that France could not be forced into war by +"indirection." According to Slidell's version of the interview +"the Minister's tone changed completely" when Slidell replied +with "a detailed history of the affair showing that the idea +originated with the Emperor." Perhaps the Minister knew more than +he chose to betray. From this hour the game was up. Napoleon's +purpose all along seems to have been quite plain. He meant to +help the South to win by itself, and, after it had won, to use it +for his own advantage. So precarious was his position in Europe +that he dared not risk an American war without England's aid, and +England had cast the die. In this way, secrecy was the condition +necessary to continued building of the ships. Now that the secret +was out, Napoleon began to shift his ground. He sounded the +Washington Government and found it suspiciously equivocal as to +Mexico. To silence the French republicans, to whom the American +minister had supplied information about the ships, Napoleon tried +at first muzzling the press. But as late as February, 1864, he +was still carrying water on both shoulders. His Minister of +Marine notified the builders that they must get the ships out of +France, unarmed, under fictitious sale to some neutral country. +The next month, reports which the Confederate commissioners sent +home became distinctly alarming. Mann wrote from Brussels: +"Napoleon has enjoined upon Maximilian to hold no official +relations with our commissioners in Mexico." Shortly after this +Slidell received a shock that was the beginning of the end: +Maximilian, on passing through Paris on his way to Mexico, +refused to receive him. + +The Mexican project was now being condemned by all classes in +France. Nevertheless, the Government was trying to float a +Mexican loan, and it is hardly fanciful to think that on this +loan the last hope of the Confederacy turned. Despite the popular +attitude toward Mexico, the loan was going well when the House of +Representatives of the United States dealt the Confederacy a +staggering blow. It passed unanimous resolutions in the most grim +terms, denouncing the substitution of monarchical for republican +government in Mexico under European auspices. When this action +was reported in France, the Mexican loan collapsed. + +Napoleon's Italian policy was now moving rapidly toward the +crisis which it reached during the following summer when he +surrendered to the opposition and promised to withdraw the French +troops from Rome. In May, when the loan collapsed, there was +nothing for it but to throw over his dear friends of the +Confederacy. Presently he had summoned Arman before him, "rated +him severely," and ordered him to make bona fide sales of the +ships to neutral powers. The Minister of Marine professed +surprise and indignation at Arman's trifling with the neutrality +of the Imperial Government. And that practically was the end of +the episode. + +Equally complete was the breakdown of the Confederate +negotiations with Mexico. General Preston was refused +recognition. In those fierce days of July when the fate of +Atlanta was in the balance, the pride and despair of the +Confederate Government flared up in a haughty letter to Preston +reminding him that "it had never been the intention of this +Government to offer any arguments to the new Government of Mexico +...nor to place itself in any attitude other than that of +complete equality," and directing him to make no further +overtures to the Mexican Emperor. + +And then came the debacle in Georgia. On that same 20th of +September when Benjamin poured out in a letter to Slidell his +stored-up bitterness denouncing Napoleon, Davis, feeling the last +crisis was upon him, left Richmond to join the army in Georgia. +His frame of mind he had already expressed when he said, "We have +no friends abroad." + + + +Chapter IX. Desperate Remedies + +The loss of Atlanta was the signal for another conflict of +authority within the Confederacy. Georgia was now in the +condition in which Alabama had found herself in the previous +year. A great mobile army of invaders lay encamped on her soil. +And yet there was still a state Government established at the +capital. Inevitably the man who thought of the situation from the +point of view of what we should now call the general staff, and +the man who thought of it from the point of view of a citizen of +the invaded State, suffered each an intensification of feeling, +and each became determined to solve the problem in his own way. +The President of the Confederacy and the Governor of Georgia +represented these incompatible points of view. + +The Governor, Joseph E. Brown, is one of the puzzling figures of +Confederate history. We have already encountered him as a dogged +opponent of the Administration. With the whole fabric of Southern +life toppling about his ears, Brown argued, quibbled, evaded, and +became a rallying-point of disaffection. That more eminent +Georgian, Howell Cobb, applied to him very severe language, and +they became engaged in a controversy over that provision of the +Conscription Act which exempted state officials from military +service. While the Governor of Virginia was refusing certificates +of exemption to the minor civil officers such as justices of the +peace, Brown by proclamation promised his "protection" to the +most insignificant civil servants. "Will even your Excellency," +demanded Cobb, "certify that in any county of Georgia twenty +justices of the peace and an equal number of constables are +necessary for the proper administration of the state +government?" The Bureau of Conscription estimated that Brown +kept out of the army approximately 8000 eligible men. The truth +seems to be that neither by education nor heredity was this +Governor equipped to conceive large ideas. He never seemed +conscious of the war as a whole, or of the Confederacy as a +whole. To defend Georgia and, if that could not be done, to make +peace for Georgia--such in the mind of Brown was the aim of the +war. His restless jealousy of the Administration finds its +explanation in his fear that it would denude his State of men. +The seriousness of Governor Brown's opposition became apparent +within a week of the fall of Atlanta. Among Hood's forces were +some 10,000 Georgia militia. Brown notified Hood that these +troops had been called out solely with a view to the defense of +Atlanta, that since Atlanta had been lost they must now be +permitted "to return to their homes and look for a time after +important interests," and that therefore he did "withdraw said +organizations" from Hood's command. In other words, Brown was +afraid that they might be taken out of the State. By proclamation +he therefore gave the militia a furlough of thirty days. Previous +to the issue of this proclamation, Seddon had written to Brown +making requisition for his 10,000 militia to assist in a pending +campaign against Sherman. Two days after his proclamation had +appeared, Brown, in a voluminous letter full of blustering +rhetoric and abounding in sneers at the President, demanded +immediate reinforcements by order of the President and threatened +that, if they were not sent, he would recall the Georgia troops +from the army of Lee and would command "all the sons of Georgia +to return to their own State and within their own limits to rally +round her glorious flag." + +So threatening was the situation in Georgia that Davis attempted +to take it into his own hands. In a grim frame of mind he left +Richmond for the front. The resulting military arrangements do +not of course belong strictly to the subject matter of this +volume; but the brief tour of speechmaking which Davis made in +Georgia and the interior of South Carolina must be noticed; for +his purpose seems to have been to put the military point of view +squarely before the people. He meant them to see how the soldier +looked at the situation, ignoring all demands of locality, of +affiliation, of hardship, and considering only how to meet and +beat the enemy. In his tense mood he was not always fortunate in +his expressions. At Augusta, for example, he described +Beauregard, whom he had recently placed in general command over +Georgia and South Carolina, as one who would do whatever the +President told him to do. But this idea of military +self-effacement was not happily worded, and the enemies of Davis +seized on his phraseology as further evidence of his instinctive +autocracy. The Mercury compared him to the Emperor of Russia and +declared the tactless remark to be "as insulting to General +Beauregard as it is false and presumptuous in the President." + +Meanwhile Beauregard was negotiating with Brown. Though they +came to an understanding about the disposition of the militia, +Brown still tried to keep control of the state troops. When +Sherman was burning Atlanta preparatory to the March to the Sea, +Brown addressed to the Secretary of War another interminable +epistle, denouncing the Confederate authorities and asserting +his willingness to fight both the South and the North if they +did not both cease invading his rights. But the people of +Georgia were better balanced than their Governor. Under the +leadership of such men as Cobb they rose to the occasion and did +their part in what proved a vain attempt to conduct a "people's +war." Their delegation at Richmond sent out a stirring appeal +assuring them that Davis was doing for them all it was possible +to do. "Let every man fly to arms," said the appeal. "Remove +your negroes, horses, cattle, and provisions from before +Sherman's army, and burn what you cannot carry. Burn all bridges +and block up the roads in his route. Assail the invader in +front, flank, and rear, by night and by day. Let him have no +rest." + + +The Richmond Government was unable to detach any considerable +force from the northern front. Its contribution to the forces in +Georgia was accomplished by such pathetic means as a general +order calling to the colors all soldiers furloughed or in +hospital, "except those unable to travel"; by revoking all +exemptions to farmers, planters, and mechanics, except munitions +workers; and by placing one-fifth of the ordnance and mining +bureau in the battle service. + +All the world knows how futile were these endeavors to stop the +whirlwind of desolation that was Sherman's march. He spent his +Christmas Day in Savannah. Then the center of gravity shifted +from Georgia to South Carolina. Throughout the two desperate +months that closed 1864 the authorities of South Carolina had +vainly sought for help from Richmond. Twice the Governor made +official request for the return to South Carolina of some of her +own troops who were at the front in Virginia. Davis first evaded +and then refused the request. Lee had informed him that if the +forces on the northern front were reduced, the evacuation of +Richmond would become inevitable. + +The South Carolina Government, in December, 1864, seems to have +concluded that the State must save itself. A State Conscription +Act was passed placing all white males between the ages of +sixteen and sixty at the disposal of the state authorities for +emergency duty. An Exemption Act set forth a long list of persons +who should not be liable to conscription by the Confederate +Government. Still a third act regulated the impressment of slaves +for work on fortifications so as to enable the state authorities +to hold a check upon the Confederate authorities. The +significance of the three statutes was interpreted by a South +Carolina soldier, General John S. Preston, in a letter to the +Secretary of War that was a wail of despair. "This legislation +is an explicit declaration that this State does not intend to +contribute another soldier or slave to the public defense, except +on such terms its may be dictated by her authorities. The example +will speedily be followed by North Carolina and Georgia, the +Executives of those States having already assumed the position." + +The division between the two parties in South Carolina had now +become bitter. To Preston the men behind the State Exemption Act +appeared as "designing knaves." The Mercury, on the other hand, +was never more relentless toward Davis than in the winter of +1864-1865. However, none or almost none of the anti-Davis men in +South Carolina made the least suggestion of giving up the +struggle. To fight to the end but also to act as a check upon the +central Government--as the new Governor, Andrew G. Magrath, said +in his inaugural address in December, 1864,--was the aim of the +dominant party in South Carolina. How far the State Government +and the Confederate Government had drifted apart is shown by two +comments which were made in January, 1865. Lee complained that +the South Carolina regiments, "much reduced by hard service," +were not being recruited up to their proper strength because of +the measures adopted in the southeastern States to retain +conscripts at home. About the same date the Mercury arraigned +Davis for leaving South Carolina defenseless in the face of +Sherman's coming offensive, and asked whether Davis intended to +surrender the Confederacy. + +And in the midst of this critical period, the labor problem +pushed to the fore again. The revocation of industrial details, +necessary as it was, had put almost the whole male population--in +theory, at least--in the general Confederate army. How +far-reaching was the effect of this order may be judged from the +experience of the Columbia and Augusta Railroad Company. This +road was building through the interior of the State a new line +which was rendered imperatively necessary by Sherman's seizure of +the lines terminating at Savannah. The effect of the revocation +order on the work in progress was described by the president of +the road in a letter to the Secretary of War: + +"In July and August I made a fair beginning and by October we had +about 600 hands. General Order No. 77 took off many of our +contractors and hands. We still had increased the number of hands +to about 400 when Sherman started from Atlanta. The military +authorities of Augusta took about 300 of them to fortify that +city. These contractors being from Georgia returned with their +slaves to their homes after being discharged at Augusta. We still +have between 500 and 600 hands at work and are adding to the +force every week. + +"The great difficulty has been in getting contractors exempt or +definitely detailed since Order No. 77. I have not exceeded eight +or nine contractors now detailed. The rest are exempt from other +causes or over age." + +It was against such a background of economic confusion that +Magrath wrote to the Governor of North Carolina making a +revolutionary proposal. Virtually admitting that the Confederacy +had been shattered, and knowing the disposition of those in +authority to see only the military aspects of any given +situation, he prophesied two things: that the generals would soon +attempt to withdraw Lee's army south of Virginia, and that the +Virginia troops in that army would refuse to go. "It is natural +under the circumstances," said he, "that they would not." He +would prepare for this emergency by an agreement among the +Southeastern and Gulf States to act together irrespective of +Richmond, and would thus weld the military power of these States +into "a compact and organized mass." + +Governor Vance, with unconscious subtlety, etched a portrait of +his own mind when he replied that the crisis demanded +"particularly the skill of the politician perhaps more than that +of the great general." He adroitly evaded saying what he really +thought of the situation but he made two explicit +counter-proposals. He suggested that a demand should be made for +the restoration of General Johnston and for the appointment of +General Lee to "full and absolute command of all the forces of +the Confederacy." On the day on which Vance wrote to Magrath, the +Mercury lifted up its voice and cried out for a Lee to take +charge of the Government and save the Confederacy. About the same +time Cobb wrote to Davis in the most friendly way, warning him +that he had scarcely a supporter left in Georgia, and that, in +view of the great popular reaction in favor of Johnston, +concessions to the opposition were an imperative necessity. "By +accident," said he, "I have become possessed of the facts in +connection with the proposed action of the Governors of certain +States." He disavowed any sympathy with the movement but warned +Davis that it was a serious menace. + +Two other intrigues added to the general political confusion. One +of these, the "Peace Movement," will be considered in the next +chapter. The other was closely connected with the alleged +conspiracy to depose Davis and set up Lee as dictator. If the +traditional story, accepted by able historians, may be believed, +William C. Rives, of the Confederate Congress, carried in +January, 1865, to Lee from a congressional cabal an invitation to +accept the role of Cromwell. The greatest difficulty in the way +of accepting the tradition is the extreme improbability that any +one who knew anything of Lee would have been so foolish as to +make such a proposal. Needless to add, the tradition includes +Lee's refusal to overturn the Government. There can be no doubt, +however, that all the enemies of Davis in Congress and out of it, +in the opening months of 1865, made a determined series of +attacks upon his Administration. Nor can there be any doubt that +the popular faith in Lee was used as their trump card. To that +end, a bill was introduced to create the office of commanding +general of the Confederate armies. The bill was generally +applauded, and every one assumed that the new office was to be +given to Lee. On the day after the bill had passed the Senate the +Virginia Legislature resolved that the appointment of General Lee +to supreme command would "reanimate the spirit of the armies as +well as the people of the several States and...inspire +increased confidence in the final success of the cause." When the +bill was sent to the President, it was accompanied by a +resolution asking him to restore Johnston. While Davis was +considering this bill, the Virginia delegation in the House, +headed by the Speaker, Thomas S. Bocock, waited upon the +President, informed him what was really wanted was a change of +Cabinet, and told him that three-fourths of the House would +support a resolution of want of confidence in the Cabinet. The +next day Bocock repeated the demand in a note which Davis +described as a "warning if not a threat." + +The situation of both President and country was now desperate. +The program with which the Government had entered so hopefully +upon this fated year had broken down at almost every point. In +addition to the military and administrative disasters, the +financial and economic situation was as bad as possible. So +complete was the financial breakdown that Secretary Memminger, +utterly disheartened, had resigned his office, and the Treasury +was now administered by a Charleston merchant, George A. +Trenholm. But the financial chaos was wholly beyond his control. +The government notes reckoned in gold were worth about three +cents on the dollar. The Government itself avoided accepting +them. It even bought up United States currency and used it in +transacting the business of the army. The extent of the financial +collapse was to be measured by such incidents as the following +which is recounted in a report that had passed under Davis's eye +only a few weeks before the "threat" of Bocock was uttered: +"Those holding the four per cent certificates complain that the +Government as far as possible discredits them. Fractions of +hundreds cannot be paid with them. I saw a widow lady, a few days +since, offer to pay her taxes of $1,271.31 with a certificate of +$1,300. The tax-gatherer refused to give her the change of +$28.69. She then offered the whole certificate for the taxes. +This was refused. This apparent injustice touched her far more +than the amount of the taxes." + +A letter addressed to the President from Griffin, Georgia, +contained this dreary picture: + +"Unless something is done and that speedily, there will be +thousands of the best citizens of the State and heretofore as +loyal as any in the Confederacy, that will not care one cent +which army is victorious in Georgia.... Since August last +there have been thousands of cavalry and wagon trains feeding +upon our cornfields and for which our quartermasters and officers +in command of trains, regiments, battalions, companies, and +squads, have been giving the farmers receipts, and we were all +told these receipts would pay our government taxes and tithing; +and yet not one of them will be taken by our collector.... +And yet we are threatened with having our lands sold for taxes. +Our scrip for corn used by our generals will not be taken.... +How is it that we have certified claims upon our Government, past +due ten months, and when we enter the quartermaster's office we +see placed up conspicuously in large letters "no funds." Some of +these said quartermasters [who] four years ago were not worth the +clothes upon their backs, are now large dealers in lands, +negroes, and real estate." + +There was almost universal complaint that government contractors +were speculating in supplies and that the Impressment Law was +used by officials to cover their robbery of both the Government +and the people. Allowing for all the panic of the moment, one is +forced to conclude that the smoke is too dense not to cover a +good deal of fire. In a word, at the very time when local +patriotism everywhere was drifting into opposition to the general +military command and when Congress was reflecting this widespread +loss of confidence, the Government was loudly charged with +inability to restrain graft. In all these accusations there was +much injustice. Conditions that the Government was powerless to +control were cruelly exaggerated, and the motives of the +Government were falsified. For all this exaggeration and +falsification the press was largely to blame. Moreover, the +press, at least in dangerously large proportion, was schooling +the people to hold Davis personally responsible for all their +suffering. General Bragg was informed in a letter from a +correspondent in Mobile that "men have been taught to look upon +the President as an inexorably self-willed man who will see the +country to the devil before giving up an opinion or a purpose." +This deliberate fostering of an anti-Davis spirit might seem less +malicious if the fact were not known that many editors detested +Davis because of his desire to abolish the exemption of editors +from conscription. Their ignoble course brings to mind one of the +few sarcasms recorded of Lee--the remark that the great mistake +of the South was in making all its best military geniuses editors +of newspapers. But it must be added in all fairness that the +great opposition journals, such as the Mercury, took up this new +issue with the President because they professed to see in his +attitude toward the press a determination to suppress freedom of +speech, so obsessed was the opposition with the idea that Davis +was a monster! Whatever explanations may be offered for the +prevalence of graft, the impotence of the Government at Richmond +contributed to the general demoralization. In regions like +Georgia and Alabama, the Confederacy was now powerless to control +its agents. Furthermore, in every effort to assume adequate +control of the food situation the Government met the continuous +opposition of two groups of opponents--the unscrupulous parasites +and the bigots of economic and constitutional theory. Of the +activities of the first group, one incident is sufficient to tell +the whole story. At Richmond, in the autumn of 1864, the grocers +were selling rice at two dollars and a half a pound. It happened +that the Governor of Virginia was William Smith, one of the +strong men of the Confederacy who has not had his due from the +historians. He saw that even under the intolerable conditions of +the moment this price was shockingly exorbitant. To remedy +matters, the Governor took the State of Virginia into business, +bought rice where it was grown, imported it, and sold it in +Richmond at fifty cents a pound, with sufficient profit to cover +all costs of handling. + +Nevertheless, when Smith urged the Virginia Legislature to assume +control of business as a temporary measure, be was at once +assailed by the second group--those martinets of +constitutionalism who would not give up their cherished +Anglo-Saxon tradition of complete individualism in government. +The Administration lost some of its staunchest supporters the +moment its later organ, the Sentinel, began advocating the +general regulation of prices. With ruin staring them in the face, +these devotees of tradition could only reiterate their ancient +formulas, nail their colors to the mast, end go down, satisfied +that, if they failed with these principles, they would have +failed still more terribly without them. Confronting the +practical question how to prevent speculators from charging 400 +per cent profit, these men turned grim but did not abandon their +theory. In the latter part of 1864 they aligned themselves with +the opposition when the government commissioners of impressment +fixed an official schedule that boldly and ruthlessly cut under +market prices. The attitude of many such people was expressed by +the Montgomery Mail when it said: + +"The tendency of the age, the march of the American people, is +toward monarchy, and unless the tide is stopped we shall reach +something worse than monarchy. + +"Every step we have taken during the past four years has been in +the direction of military despotism. + +"Half our laws are unconstitutional." + +Another danger of the hour was the melting away of the +Confederate army under the very eyes of its commanders. The +records showed that there were 100,000 absentees. And though the +wrathful officials of the Bureau of Conscription labeled them all +"deserters," the term covered great numbers who had gone home to +share the sufferings of their families. + +Such in brief was the fateful background of the congressional +attack upon the Administration in January, 1865. Secretary +Seddon, himself a Virginian, believing that he was the main +target of the hostility of the Virginia delegation, insisted upon +resigning. Davis met this determination with firmness, not to say +infatuation, and in spite of the congressional crisis, exhausted +every argument to persuade Seddon to remain in office. He denied +the right of Congress to control his Cabinet, but he was finally +constrained to allow Seddon to retire. The bitterness inspired by +these attempts to coerce the President may be gauged by a remark +attributed to Mrs. Davis. Speaking of the action of Congress in +forcing upon him the new plan for a single commanding general of +all the armies, she is said to have exclaimed, "I think I am the +proper person to advise Mr. Davis and if I were he, I would die +or be hung before I would submit to the humiliation." + +Nevertheless the President surrendered to Congress. On January +26, 1865, he signed the bill creating the office of commanding +general and at once bestowed the office upon Lee. It must not be +supposed, however, that Lee himself had the slightest sympathy +with the congressional cabal which had forced upon the President +this reorganization of the army. In accepting his new position he +pointedly ignored Congress by remarking, "I am indebted alone to +the kindness of His Excellency, the President, for my nomination +to this high and arduous office." + +The popular clamor for the restoration of Johnston had still to +be appeased. Disliking Johnston and knowing that the opposition +was using a popular general as a club with which to beat himself, +Davis hesitated long but in the end yielded to the inevitable. To +make the reappointment himself, however, was too humiliating. He +left it to the new commander-in-chief, who speedily restored +Johnston to command. + + + +Chapter X. Disintegration + +While these factions, despite their disagreements, were making +valiant efforts to carry on the war, other factions were +stealthily cutting the ground from under them. There were two +groups of men ripe for disaffection--original Unionists +unreconciled to the Confederacy and indifferentists conscripted +against their will. + +History has been unduly silent about these disaffected men. At +the time so real was the belief in state rights that +contemporaries were reluctant to admit that any Southerner, once +his State had seceded, could fail to be loyal to its commands. +Nevertheless in considerable areas--such, for example, as East +Tennessee--the majority remained to the end openly for the Union, +and there were large regions in the South to which until quite +recently the eye of the student had not been turned. They were +like deep shadows under mighty trees on the face of a brilliant +landscape. When the peasant Unionist who had been forced into the +army deserted, however, he found in these shadows a nucleus of +desperate men ready to combine with him in opposition to the +local authorities. + +Thus were formed local bands of free companions who pillaged the +civilian population. The desperadoes whom the deserters joined +have been described by Professor Dodd as the "neglected +byproducts" of the old regime. They were broken white men, or the +children of such, of the sort that under other circumstances have +congregated in the slums of great cities. Though the South lacked +great cities, nevertheless it had its slum--a widespread slum, +scattered among its swamps and forests. In these fastnesses were +the lowest of the poor whites, in whom hatred of the dominant +whites and vengeful malice against the negro burned like slow +fires. When almost everywhere the countryside was stripped of its +fighting men, these wretches emerged from their swamps and +forests, like the Paris rabble emerging from its dens at the +opening of the Revolution. But unlike the Frenchmen, they were +too sodden to be capable of ideas. Like predatory wild beasts +they revenged themselves upon the society that had cast them off, +and with utter heartlessness they smote the now defenseless +negro. In the old days, with the country well policed, the slaves +had been protected against their fury, but war now changed all. +The negro villages--or "streets," as the term was--were without +arms and without white police within call. They were ravaged by +these marauders night after night, and negroes were not the only +victims, for in remote districts even murder of the whites became +a familiar horror. + +The antiwar factions were not necessarily, however, users of +violence. There were some men who cherished a dream which they +labeled "reconstruction"; and there were certain others who +believed in separate state action, still clinging to the illusion +that any State had it in its power to escape from war by +concluding a separate peace with the United States. + +Yet neither of these illusions made much headway in the States +-that had borne the strain of intellectual leadership. Virginia +and South Carolina, though seldom seeing things eye to eye and +finally drifting in opposite directions, put but little faith in +either "reconstruction" or separate peace. Their leaders had +learned the truth about men and nations; they knew that life is a +grim business; they knew that war had unloosed passions that had +to spend themselves and that could not be talked away. + +But there was scattered over the Confederacy a population which +lacked experience of the world and which included in the main +those small farmers and semi-peasants who under the old regime +were released from the burden of taxation and at the same time +excluded from the benefits of education. Among these people the +illusions of the higher classes were reflected without the +ballast of mentality. Ready to fight on any provocation, yet +circumscribed by their own natures, not understanding life, +unable to picture to themselves different types and conditions, +these people were as prone as children to confuse the world of +their own desire with the world of fact. When hardship came, when +taxation fell upon them with a great blow, when the war took a +turn that necessitated imagination for its understanding and +faith for its pursuit, these people with childlike simplicity +immediately became panic-stricken. Like the similar class in the +North, they had measureless faith in talk. Hence for them, as for +Horace Greeley and many another, sprang up the notion that if +only all their sort could be brought together for talk and talk +and yet more talk, the Union could be "reconstructed" just as it +used to be, and the cruel war would end. Before their eyes, as +before Greeley in 1864, danced the fata morgana of a convention +of all the States, talking, talking, talking. + +The peace illusion centered in North Carolina, where the people +were as enthusiastic for state sovereignty as were any +Southerners. They had seceded mainly because they felt that this +principle had been attacked. Having themselves little if any +intention to promote slavery, they nevertheless were prompt to +resent interference with the system or with any other Southern +institution. Jonathan Worth said that they looked on both +abolition and secession as children of the devil, and he put the +responsibility for the secession of his State wholly upon Lincoln +and his attempt to coerce the lower South. This attitude was +probably characteristic of all classes in North Carolina. There +also an unusually large percentage of men lacked education and +knowledge of the world. We have seen how the first experience +with taxation produced instant and violent reaction. The peasant +farmers of the western counties and the general mass of the +people began to distrust the planter class. They began asking if +their allies, the other States, were controlled by that same +class which seemed to be crushing them by the exaction of tithes. +And then the popular cry was raised: Was there after all anything +in the war for the masses in North Carolina? Had they left the +frying-pan for the fire? Could they better things by withdrawing +from association with their present allies and going back alone +into the Union? The delusion that they could do so whenever they +pleased and on the old footing seems to have been widespread. One +of their catch phrases was "the Constitution as it is and the +Union as it was." Throughout 1863, when the agitation against +tithes was growing every day, the "conservatives" of North +Carolina, as their leaders named them, were drawing together in a +definite movement for peace. This project came to a head during +the next year in those grim days when Sherman was before Atlanta. +Holden, that champion of the opposition to tithes, became a +candidate for Governor against Vance, who was standing for +reelection. Holden stated his platform in the organ of his party +"If the people of North Carolina are for perpetual conscriptions, +impressments and seizures to keep up a perpetual, devastating and +exhausting war, let them vote for Governor Vance, for he is +for`fighting it out now; but if they believe, from the bitter +experience of the last three years, that the sword can never end +it, and are in favor of steps being taken by the State to urge +negotiations by the general government for an honorable and +speedy peace, they must vote for Mr. Holden." + +As Holden, however, was beaten by a vote that stood about three +to one, Governor Vance continued in power, but just what he stood +for and just what his supporters understood to be his policy +would be hard to say. A year earlier he was for attempting to +negotiate peace, but though professing to have come over to the +war party he was never a cordial supporter of the Confederacy. In +a hundred ways he played upon the strong local distrust of +Richmond, and upon the feeling that North Carolina was being +exploited in the interests of the remainder of the South. To +cripple the efficiency of Confederate conscription was one of his +constant aims. Whatever his views of the struggle in which he was +engaged, they did not include either an appreciation of Southern +nationalism or the strategist's conception of war. Granted that +the other States were merely his allies, Vance pursued a course +that might justly have aroused their suspicion, for so far as he +was able he devoted the resources of the State wholly to the use +of its own citizens. The food and the manufactures of North +Carolina were to be used solely by its own troops, not by troops +of the Confederacy raised in other States. And yet, subsequent to +his reelection, he was not a figure in the movement to negotiate +peace. + +Meanwhile in Georgia, where secession had met with powerful +opposition, the policies of the Government had produced +discontent not only with the management of the war but with the +war itself. And now Alexander H. Stephens becomes, for a season, +very nearly the central figure of Confederate history. Early in +1864 the new act suspending the writ of habeas corpus had aroused +the wrath of Georgia, and Stephens had become the mouthpiece of +the opposition. In an address to the Legislature, he condemned in +most exaggerated language not only the Habeas Corpus Act but also +the new Conscription Act. Soon afterward he wrote a long letter +to Herschel V. Johnson, who, like himself, had been an enemy of +secession in 1861. He said that if Johnson doubted that the +Habeas Corpus Act was a blow struck at the very "vitals of +liberty," then he "would not believe though one were to rise from +the dead." In this extraordinary letter Stephens went on "most +confidentially" to state his attitude toward Davis thus "While I +do not and never have regarded him as a great man or statesman on +a large scale, or a man of any marked genius, yet I have regarded +him as a man of good intentions, weak and vacillating, timid, +petulant, peevish, obstinate, but not firm. Am now beginning to +doubt his good intentions.... His whole policy on the +organization and discipline of the army is perfectly consistent +with the hypothesis that he is aiming at absolute power." + +That a man of Stephens's ability should have dealt in fustian +like this in the most dreadful moment of Confederate history is a +psychological problem that is not easily solved. To be sure, +Stephens was an extreme instance of the martinet of +constitutionalism. He reminds us of those old-fashioned generals +of whom Macaulay said that they preferred to lose a battle +according to rule than win it by an exception. Such men find it +easy to transform into a bugaboo any one who appears to them to +be acting irregularly. Stephens in his own mind had so +transformed the President. The enormous difficulties and the +wholly abnormal circumstances which surrounded Davis counted +with Stephens for nothing at all, and he reasoned about the +Administration as if it were operating in a vacuum. Having come +to this extraordinary position, Stephens passed easily into a +role that verged upon treason.* + +* There can be no question that Stephens never did anything which +in his own mind was in the least disloyal. And yet it was +Stephens who, in the autumn of 1864, was singled out by artful +men as a possible figurehead in the conduct of a separate peace +negotiation with Sherman. A critic very hostile to Stephens and +his faction might here raise the question as to what was at +bottom the motive of Governor Brown, in the autumn of 1864, in +withdrawing the Georgia militia from Hood's command. Was there +something afoot that has never quite revealed itself on the broad +pages of history? As ordinarily told, the story is simply that +certain desperate Georgians asked Stephens to be their ambassador +to Sherman to discuss terms; that Sherman had given them +encouragement; but that Stephens avoided the trap, and so nothing +came of it. The recently published correspondence of Toombs, +Stephens, and Cobb, however, contains one passage that has rather +a startling sound. Brown, writing to Stephens regarding his +letter refusing to meet Sherman, says, "It keeps the door open +and I think this is wise." At the same time he made a public +statement that "Georgia has power to act independently but her +faith is pledged by implication to her Southern sisters... +will triumph with her Southern sisters or sink with them in +common ruin." It is still to be discovered what "door" Stephens +was supposed to have kept open. Peace talk was now in the air, +and especially was there chatter about reconstruction. The +illusionists seemed unable to perceive that the reelection of +Lincoln had robbed them of their last card. These dreamers did +not even pause to wonder why after the terrible successes of the +Federal army in Georgia, Lincoln should be expected to reverse +his policy and restore the Union with the Southern States on the +old footing. The peace mania also invaded South Carolina and was +espoused by one of its Congressmen, Mr. Boyce, but he made few +converts among his own people. The Mercury scouted the idea; +clear-sighted and disillusioned, it saw the only alternatives to +be victory or subjugation. Boyce's argument was that the South +had already succumbed to military despotism and would have to +endure it forever unless it accepted the terms of the invaders. +News of Boyce's attitude called forth vigorous protest from the +army before Petersburg, and even went so far afield as New York, +where it was discussed in the columns of the Herald. + +In the midst of the Northern elections, when Davis was hoping +great things from the anti-Lincoln men, Stephens had said in +print that he believed Davis really wished the Northern peace +party defeated, whereupon Davis had written to him demanding +reasons for this astounding charge. To the letter, which had +missed Stephens at his home and had followed him late in the year +to Richmond, Stephens wrote in the middle of December a long +reply which is one of the most curious documents in American +history. He justified himself upon two grounds. One was a +statement which Davis had made in a speech at Columbia, in +October, indicating that he was averse to the scheme of certain +Northern peace men for a convention of all the States. Stephens +insisted that such a convention would have ended the war and +secured the independence of the South. Davis cleared himself on +this charge by saying that the speech at Columbia "was delivered +after the publication of McClellan's letter avowing his purpose +to force reunion by war if we declined reconstruction when +offered, and therefore warned the people against delusive hopes +of peace from any other influence than that to be exerted by the +manifestation of an unconquerable spirit." + +As Stephens professed to have independence and not reconstruction +for his aim, he had missed his mark with this first shot. He +fared still worse with the second. During the previous spring a +Northern soldier captured in the southeast had appealed for +parole on the ground that he was a secret emissary to the +President from the peace men of the North. Davis, who did not +take him seriously, gave orders to have the case investigated, +but Stephens, whose mentality in this period is so curiously +overcast, swallowed the prisoner's story without hesitation. He +and Davis had a considerable amount of correspondence on the +subject. In the fierce tension of the summer of 1864 the War +Department went so far as to have the man's character +investigated, but the report was unsatisfactory. He was not +paroled and died in prison. This episode Stephens now brought +forward as evidence that Davis had frustrated an attempt of the +Northern peace party to negotiate. Davis contented himself with +replying, "I make no comment on this." + +The next step in the peace intrigue took place at the opening of +the next year, 1865. Stephens attempted to address the Senate on +his favorite topic, the wickedness of the suspension of habeas +corpus; was halted by a point of parliamentary law; and when the +Senate sustained an appeal from his decision, left the chamber in +a pique. Hunter, now a Senator, became an envoy to placate him +and succeeded in bringing him back. Thereupon Stephens poured out +his soul in a furious attack upon the Administration. He ended by +submitting resolutions which were just what he might have +submitted four years earlier before a gun had been fired, so +entirely had his mind crystallized in the stress of war! These +resolutions, besides reasserting the full state rights theory, +assumed the readiness of the North to make peace and called for a +general convention of all the States to draw up some new +arrangement on a confessed state rights basis. More than a month +before, Lincoln had been reelected on an unequivocal +nationalistic platform. And yet Stephens continued to believe +that the Northerners did not mean what they said and that in +congregated talking lay the magic which would change the world of +fact into the world of his own desire. + +At this point in the peace intrigue the ambiguous figure of +Napoleon the Little reappears, though only to pass ghostlike +across the back of the stage. The determination of Northern +leaders to oppose Napoleon had suggested to shrewd politicians a +possible change of front. That singular member of the Confederate +Congress, Henry S. Foote, thought he saw in the Mexican imbroglio +means to bring Lincoln to terms. In November he had introduced +into the House resolutions which intimated that "it might become +the true policy of...the Confederate States to consent to the +yielding of the great principle embodied in the Monroe Doctrine." +The House referred his resolutions to the Committee on Foreign +Affairs, and there they slumbered until January. + +Meanwhile a Northern politician brought on the specter of +Napoleon for a different purpose. Early in January, 1865, Francis +P. Blair made a journey to Richmond and proposed to Davis a plan +of reconciliation involving the complete abandonment of slavery, +the reunion of all the States, and an expedition against Mexico +in which Davis was to play the leading role. Davis cautiously +refrained from committing himself, though he gave Blair a letter +in which he expressed his willingness to enter into negotiations +for peace between "the two countries." The visit of Blair gave +new impetus to the peace intrigue. The Confederate House +Committee on Foreign Affairs reported resolutions favoring an +attempt to negotiate with the United States so as to "bring into +view" the possibility of cooperation between the United States +and the Confederacy to maintain the Monroe Doctrine. The same day +saw another singular incident. For some reason that has never +been divulged Foote determined to counterbalance Blair's visit to +Richmond by a visit of his own to Washington. In attempting to +pass through the Confederate lines he was arrested by the +military authorities. With this fiasco Foote passes from the +stage of history. + +The doings of Blair, however, continued to be a topic of general +interest throughout January. The military intrigue was now +simmering down through the creation of the office of commanding +general. The attempt of the congressional opposition to drive the +whole Cabinet from office reached a compromise in the single +retirement of the Secretary of War. Before the end of the month +the peace question was the paramount one before Congress and the +country. Newspapers discussed the movements of Blair, apparently +with little knowledge, and some of the papers asserted hopefully +that peace was within reach. Cooler heads, such as the majority +of the Virginia Legislature, rejected this idea as baseless. The +Mercury called the peace party the worst enemy of the South. Lee +was reported by the Richmond correspondent of the Mercury as not +caring a fig for the peace project. Nevertheless the rumor +persisted that Blair had offered peace on terms that the +Confederacy could accept. Late in the month, Davis appointed +Stephens, Hunter, and John A. Campbell commissioners to confer +with the Northern authorities with regard to peace. + +There followed the famous conference of February 3, 1865, in the +cabin of a steamer at Hampton Roads, with Seward and Lincoln. The +Confederate commissioners represented two points of view: that of +the Administration, unwilling to make peace without independence; +and that of the infatuated Stephens who clung to the idea that +Lincoln did not mean what he said, and who now urged "an +armistice allowing the States to adjust themselves as suited +their interests. If it would be to their interests to reunite, +they would do so." The refusal of Lincoln to consider either of +these points of view--the refusal so clearly foreseen by +Davis--put an end to the career of Stephens. He was "hoist with +his own petard." + +The news of the failure of the conference was variously received. +The Mercury rejoiced because there was now no doubt how things +stood. Stephens, unwilling to cooperate with the Administration, +left the capital and went home to Georgia. At Richmond, though +the snow lay thick on the ground, a great public meeting was held +on the 6th of February in the precincts of the African Church. +Here Davis made an address which has been called his greatest and +which produced a profound impression. A wave of enthusiasm swept +over Richmond, and for a moment the President appeared once more +to be master of the situation. His immense audacity carried the +people with him when, after showing what might be done by more +drastic enforcement of the conscription laws, he concluded: "Let +us then unite our hands and our hearts, lock our shields +together, and we may well believe that before another summer +solstice falls upon us, it will be the enemy that will be asking +us for conferences and occasions in which to make known our +demands." + + + +Chapter XI. An Attempted Revolution + +Almost from the moment when the South had declared its +independence voices had been raised in favor of arming the +negroes. The rejection of a plan to accomplish this was one of +the incidents of Benjamin's tenure of the portfolio of the War +Department; but it was not until the early days of 1864, when the +forces of Johnston lay encamped at Dalton, Georgia, that the +arming of the slaves was seriously discussed by a council of +officers. Even then the proposal had its determined champions, +though there were others among Johnston's officers who regarded +it as "contrary to all true principles of chivalric warfare," and +their votes prevailed in the council by a large majority. + +From that time forward the question of arming the slaves hung +like a heavy cloud over all Confederate thought of the war. It +was discussed in the army and at home around troubled firesides. +Letters written from the trenches at Petersburg show that it was +debated by the soldiers, and the intense repugnance which the +idea inspired in some minds was shown by threats to leave the +ranks if the slaves were given arms. + +Amid the pressing, obvious issues of 1864, this project hardly +appears upon the face of the record until it was alluded to in +Davis's message to Congress in November, 1864, and in the annual +report of the Secretary of War. The President did not as yet ask +for slave soldiers. He did, however, ask for the privilege of +buying slaves for government use--not merely hiring them from +their owners as had hitherto been done--and for permission, if +the Government so desired, to emancipate them at the end of their +service. The Secretary of War went farther, however, and +advocated negro soldiers, and he too suggested their emancipation +at the end of service. + +This feeling of the temper of the country, so to speak, produced +an immediate response. It drew Rhett from his retirement and +inspired a letter in which he took the Government severely to +task for designing to remove from state control this matter of +fundamental importance. Coinciding with the cry for more troops +with which to confront Sherman, the topic of negro soldiers +became at once one of the questions of the hour. It helped to +focus that violent anti-Davis movement which is the conspicuous +event of December, 1864, and January, 1865. Those who believed +the President unscrupulous trembled at the thought of putting +into his hands a great army of hardy barbarians trained to +absolute obedience. The prospect of such a weapon held in one +firm hand at Richmond seemed to those opponents of the President +a greater menace to their liberties than even the armies of the +invaders. It is quite likely that distrust of Davis and dread of +the use he might make of such a weapon was increased by a letter +from Benjamin to Frederick A. Porcher of Charleston, a supporter +of the Government, who had made rash suggestions as to the +extra-constitutional power that the Administration might be +justified by circumstances in assuming. Benjamin deprecated such +suggestions but concluded with the unfortunate remark: "If the +Constitution is not to be our guide I would prefer to see it +suppressed by a revolution which should declare a dictatorship +during the war, after the manner of ancient Rome, leaving to the +future the care of reestablishing firm and regular government." +In the State of Virginia, indeed, the revolutionary suggestions +of the President's message and the Secretary's report were +promptly taken up and made the basis of a political program, +which Governor Smith embodied in his message to the +Legislature--a document that will eventually take its place among +the most interesting state papers of the Confederacy. It should +be noted that the suggestions thrown out in this way by the +Administration to test public feeling involved three distinct +questions: Should the slaves be given arms? Should they, if +employed as soldiers, be given their freedom? Should this +revolutionary scheme, if accepted at all, be handled by the +general Government or left to the several States? On the last of +the three questions the Governor of Virginia was silent; by +implication he treated the matter as a concern of the States. +Upon the first and second questions, however, he was explicit and +advised arming the slaves. He then added: + +"Even if the result were to emancipate our slaves, there is not a +man who would not cheerfully put the negro into the Army rather +than become a slave himself to our hated and vindictive foe. It +is, then, simply a question of time. Has the time arrived when +this issue is fairly before us? ...For my part standing before +God and my country, I do not hesitate to say that I would arm +such portion of our able-bodied slave population as may be +necessary, and put them in the field, so as to have them ready +for the spring campaign, even if it resulted in the freedom of +those thus organized. Will I not employ them to fight the negro +force of the enemy? Aye, the Yankees themselves, who already +boast that they have 200,000 of our slaves in arms against us. +Can we hesitate, can we doubt, when the question is, whether the +enemy shall use our slaves against us or we use them against him; +when the question may be between liberty and independence on the +one hand, or our subjugation and utter ruin on the other?" + +With their Governor as leader for the Administration, the +Virginians found this issue the absorbing topic of the hour. And +now the great figure of Lee takes its rightful place at the very +center of Confederate history, not only military but civil, for +to Lee the Virginia politicians turned for advice.* In a letter +to a State Senator of Virginia who had asked for a public +expression of Lee's views because "a mountain of prejudices, +growing out of our ancient modes of regarding the institution of +Southern slavery will have to be met and overcome" in order to +Attain unanimity, Lee discussed both the institution of slavery +and the situation of the moment. He plainly intimated that +slavery +should be placed under state control; and, assuming such control, + +he considered "the relation of master and slave...the best that +can exist between the black and white races while intermingled as +at present in this country." He went on to show, however, that +military necessity now compelled a revolution in sentiment on +this subject, and he came at last to this momentous conclusion: + +* Lee now revealed himself in his previously overlooked capacity +of statesman. Whether his abilities in this respect equaled his +abilities as a soldier need not here be considered; it is said +that he himself had no high opinion of them. However, in the +advice which he gave at this final moment of crisis, he expressed +a definite conception of the articulation of civil forces in such +a system as that of the Confederacy. He held that all initiative +upon basal matters should remain with the separate States, that +the function of the general Government was to administer, not to +create conditions, and that the proper power to constrain the +State Legislatures was the flexible, extra-legal power of public +opinion. + +"Should the war continue under existing circumstances, the enemy +may in course of time penetrate our country and get access to a +large part of our negro population. It is his avowed policy to +convert the able-bodied men among them into soldiers, and to +emancipate all.... His progress will thus add to his numbers, +and at the same time destroy slavery in a manner most pernicious +to the welfare of our people. Their negroes will be used to hold +them in subjection, leaving the remaining force of the enemy free +to extend his conquest. Whatever may be the effect of our +employing negro troops, it cannot be as mischievous as this. If +it end in subverting slavery it will be accomplished by +ourselves, and we can devise the means of alleviating the evil +consequences to both races. I think, therefore, we must decide +whether slavery shall be extinguished by our enemies and the +slaves be used against us, or use them ourselves at the risk of +the effects which may be produced upon our social +institutions..." + +"The reasons that induce me to recommend the employment of negro +troops at all render the effect of the measures...upon +slavery immaterial, and in my opinion the best means of securing +the efficiency and fidelity of this auxiliary force would be to +accompany the measure with a well-digested plan of gradual and +general emancipation. As that will be the result of the +continuance of the war, and will certainly occur if the enemy +succeed, it seems to me most advisable to adopt it at once, and +thereby obtain all the benefits that will accrue to our cause..." + +"I can only say in conclusion, that whatever measures are to be +adopted should be adopted at once. Every day's delay increases +the difficulty. Much time will be required to organize and +discipline the men, and action may be deferred until it is too +late." + +Lee wrote these words on January 11, 1865. At that time a fresh +wave of despondency had gone over the South because of Hood's +rout at Nashville; Congress was debating intermittently the +possible arming of the slaves; and the newspapers were +prophesying that the Administration would presently force the +issue. It is to be observed that Lee did not advise Virginia to +wait for Confederate action. He advocated emancipation by the +State. After all, to both Lee and Smith, Virginia was their +"country." + +During the next sixty days Lee rejected two great +opportunities--or, if you will, put aside two great temptations. +If tradition is to be trusted, it was during January that Lee +refused to play the role of Cromwell by declining to intervene +directly in general Confederate politics. But there remained open +the possibility of his intervention in Virginia politics, and the +local crisis was in its own way as momentous as the general +crisis. What if Virginia had accepted the views of Lee and +insisted upon the immediate arming of the slaves? Virginia, +however, did not do so; and Lee, having made public his position, +refrained from further participation. Politically speaking, he +maintained a splendid isolation at the head of the armies. + +Through January and February the Virginia crisis continued +undetermined. In this period of fateful hesitation, the +"mountains of prejudice" proved too great to be undermined even +by the influence of Lee. When at last Virginia enacted a law +permitting the arming of her slaves, no provision was made for +their manumission. + +Long before the passage of this act in Virginia, Congress had +become the center of the controversy. Davis had come to the point +where no tradition however cherished would stand, in his mind, +against the needs of the moment. To reinforce the army in great +strength was now his supreme concern, and he saw but one way to +do it. As a last resort he was prepared to embrace the bold plan +which so many people still regarded with horror and which as late +as the previous November he himself had opposed. He would arm the +slaves. On February 10, 1865, bills providing for the arming of +the slaves were introduced both in the House and in the Senate. + +On this issue all the forces both of the Government and the +opposition fought their concluding duel in which were involved +all the other basal issues that had distracted the country since +1862. Naturally there was a bewildering criss-cross of political +motives. There were men who, like Smith and Lee, would go along +with the Government on emancipation, provided it was to be +carried out by the free will of the States. There were others who +preferred subjugation to the arming of the slaves; and among +these there were clashings of motive. Then, too, there were those +who were willing to arm the slaves but were resolved not to give +them their freedom. + +The debate brings to the front of the political stage the figure +of R. M. T. Hunter. Hitherto his part has not been conspicuous +either as Secretary of State or as Senator from Virginia. He now +becomes, in the words of Davis, "a chief obstacle" to the passage +of the Senate bill which would have authorized a levy of negro +troops and provided for their manumission by the War Department +with the consent of the State in which they should be at the time +of the proposed manumission. After long discussion, this bill was +indefinitely postponed. Meanwhile a very different bill had +dragged through the House. While it was under debate, another +appeal was made to Lee. Barksdale, who came as near as any one to +being the leader of the Administration, sought Lee's aid. Again +the General urged the enrollment of negro soldiers and their +eventual manumission, but added this immensely significant +proviso: + +"I have no doubt that if Congress would authorize their [the +negroes'] reception into service, and empower the President to +call upon individuals or States for such as they are willing to +contribute, with the condition of emancipation to all enrolled, a +sufficient number would be forthcoming to enable us to try the +experiment [of determining whether the slaves would make good +soldiers]. If it proved successful, most of the objections to the +measure would disappear, and if individuals still remained +unwilling to send their negroes to the army, the force of public +opinion in the States would soon bring about such legislation as +would remove all obstacles. I think the matter should be left, as +far as possible, to the people and to the States, which alone can +legislate as the necessities of this particular service may +require." + +The fact that Congress had before it this advice from Lee +explains why all factions accepted a compromise bill, passed on +the 9th of March, approved by the President on the 13th of March, +and issued to the country in a general order on the 23d of March. +It empowered the President to "ask for and accept from the owners +of slaves" the service of such number of negroes as he saw fit, +and if sufficient number were not offered to "call on each State +...for her quota of 300,000 troops...to be raised from +such classes of the population, irrespective of color, in each +State as the proper authorities thereof may determine." However, +"nothing in this act shall be construed to authorize a change in +the relation which the said slaves shall bear toward their +owners, except by consent of the owners and of the States in +which they may reside and in pursuance of the laws thereof." + +The results of this act were negligible. Its failure to offer the +slave-soldier his freedom was at once seized upon by critics as +evidence of the futility of the course of the Administration. The +sneer went round that the negro was to be made to fight for his +own captivity. Pollard--whose words, however, must be taken with +a +grain of salt--has left this account of recruiting under the new +act: "Two companies of blacks, organized from some negro +vagabonds in Richmond, were allowed to give balls at the Libby +Prison and were exhibited in fine fresh uniforms on Capitol +Square as decoys to obtain recruits. But the mass of their +colored brethren looked on the parade with unenvious eyes, and +little boys exhibited the early prejudices of race by pelting the +fine uniforms with mud." + +Nevertheless both Davis and Lee busied themselves in the endeavor +to raise black troops. Governor Smith cooperated with them. And +in the mind of the President there was no abandonment of the +program of emancipation, which was now his cardinal policy. Soon +after the passage of the act, he wrote to Smith: "I am happy to +receive your assurance of success [in raising black troops], as +well as your promise to seek legislation to secure unmistakable +freedom to the slave who shall enter the Army, with a right to +return to his old home, when he shall have been honorably +discharged from military service." + +While this final controversy was being fought out in Congress, +the enthusiasm for the Administration had again ebbed. Its +recovery of prestige had run a brief course and was gone, and now +in the midst of the discussion over the negro soldiers' bills, +the opposition once more attacked the Cabinet, with its old +enemy, Benjamin, as the target. Resolutions were introduced into +the Senate declaring that "the retirement of the Honorable Judah +P. Benjamin from the State Department will be subservient of the +public interests"; in the House resolutions were offered +describing his public utterances as "derogatory to his position +as a high public functionary of the Confederate Government, a +reflection on the motives of Congress as a deliberative body, and +an insult to public opinion." + +So Congress wrangled and delayed while the wave of fire that was +Sherman's advance moved northward through the Carolinas. Columbia +had gone up in smoke while the Senate debated day after +day--fifteen in all--what to do with the compromise bill sent up +to it from the House. It was during this period that a new +complication appears to have been added to a situation which was +already so hopelessly entangled, for this was the time when +Governor Magrath made a proposal to Governor Vance for a league +within the Confederacy, giving as his chief reason that +Virginia's interests were parting company with those of the lower +South. The same doubt of the upper South appears at various times +in the Mercury. And through all the tactics of the opposition +runs the constant effort to discredit Davis. The Mercury scoffed +at the agitation for negro soldiers as a mad attempt on the part +of the Administration to remedy its "myriad previous blunders." + +In these terrible days, the mind of Davis hardened. He became +possessed by a lofty and intolerant confidence, an absolute +conviction that, in spite of all appearances, he was on the +threshold of success. We may safely ascribe to him in these days +that illusory state of mind which has characterized some of the +greatest of men in their over-strained, concluding periods. His +extraordinary promises in his later messages, a series of vain +prophecies beginning with his speech at the African Church, +remind one of Napoleon after Leipzig refusing the Rhine as a +boundary. His nerves, too, were all but at the breaking point. He +sent the Senate a scolding message because of its delay in +passing the Negro Soldiers' Bill. The Senate answered in a report +that was sharply critical of his own course. Shortly afterward +Congress adjourned refusing his request for another suspension of +the writ of habeas corpus. + +Davis had hinted at important matters he hoped soon to be able to +submit to Congress. What he had in mind was the last, the +boldest, stroke of this period of desperation. The policy of +emancipation he and Benjamin had accepted without reserve. They +had at last perceived, too late, the power of the anti-slavery +movement in Europe. Though they had already failed to coerce +England through cotton and had been played with and abandoned by +Napoleon, they persisted in thinking that there was still a +chance for a third chapter in their foreign affairs. + +The agitation to arm the slaves, with the promise of freedom, had +another motive besides the reinforcement of Lee's army: it was +intended to serve as a basis for negotiations with England and +France. To that end D. J. Kenner was dispatched to Europe early +in 1865. Passing through New York in disguise, he carried word of +this revolutionary program to the Confederate commissioners +abroad. A conference at Paris was held by Kenner, Mason, and +Slidell. Mason, who had gone over to England to sound Palmerston +with regard to this last Confederate hope, was received on the +14th of March. On the previous day, Davis had accepted temporary +defeat, by signing the compromise bill which omitted +emancipation. But as there was no cable operating at the time, +Mason was not aware of this rebuff. In his own words, he "urged +upon Lord P. that if the President was right in his impression +that there was some latent, undisclosed obstacle on the part of +Great Britain to recognition, it should be frankly stated, and we +might, if in our power to do so, consent to remove it." +Palmerston, though his manner was "conciliatory and kind," +insisted that there was nothing "underlying" his previous +statements, and that he could not, in view of the facts then +existing, regard the Confederacy in the light of an independent +power. Mason parted from him convinced that "the most ample +concessions on our part in the matter referred to would have +produced no change in the course determined on by the British +Government with regard to recognition." In a subsequent interview +with Lord Donoughmore, he was frankly told that the offer of +emancipation had come too late. + +The dispatch in which Mason reported the attitude of the British +Government never reached the Confederate authorities. It was +dated the 31st of March. Two days later Richmond was evacuated by +the Confederate Government. + + + +Chapter XII. The Last Word + +The evacuation of Richmond broke the back of the Confederate +defense. Congress had adjourned. The legislative history of the +Confederacy was at an end. The executive history still had a few +days to run. After destroying great quantities of records, the +government officials had packed the remainder on a long train +that conveyed the President and what was left of the civil +service to Danville. During a few days, Danville was the +Confederate capital. There, Davis, still unable to conceive +defeat, issued his pathetic last Address to the People of the +Confederate States. His mind was crystallized. He was no longer +capable of judging facts. In as confident tones as ever he +promised his people that they should yet prevail; he assured +Virginians that even if the Confederate army should withdraw +further south the withdrawal would be but temporary, and that +"again and again will we return until the baffled and exhausted +enemy shall abandon in despair his endless and impossible task of +making slaves of a people resolved to be free." + +The surrender at Appomattox on April 9, 1865, compelled another +migration of the dwindling executive company. General Johnston +had not yet surrendered. A conference which he had with the +President and the Cabinet at Greensboro ended in giving him +permission to negotiate with Sherman. Even then Davis was still +bent on keeping up the fight; yet, though he believed that +Sherman would reject Johnston's overtures, he was overtaken at +Charlotte on his way South by the crushing news of Johnston's +surrender. There the executive history of the Confederacy came to +an end in a final Cabinet meeting. Davis, still blindly resolute +to continue the struggle, was deeply distressed by the +determination of his advisers to abandon it. In imminent danger +of capture, the President's party made its way to Abbeville, +where it broke up, and each member sought safety as best he +could. Davis with a few faithful men rode to Irwinsville, +Georgia, where, in the early morning of the l0th of May, he was +surprised and captured. But the history of the Confederacy was +not quite at an end. The last gunshots were still to be fired far +away in Texas on the 13th of May. The surrender of the forces of +the Trans-Mississippi on May 26, 1865, brought the war to a +definite conclusion. + +There remains one incident of these closing days, the +significance of which was not perceived until long afterward, +when it immediately took its rightful place among the determining +events of American history. The unconquerable spirit of the Army +of Northern Virginia found its last expression in a proposal +which was made to Lee by his officers. If he would give the word, +they would make the war a duel to the death; it should drag out +in relentless guerrilla struggles; and there should be no +pacification of the South until the fighting classes had been +exterminated. Considering what those classes were, considering +the qualities that could be handed on to their posterity, one +realizes that this suicide of a whole people, of a noble fighting +people, would have maimed incalculably the America of the future. +But though the heroism of this proposal of his men to die on +their shields had its stern charm for so brave a man as Lee, he +refused to consider it. He would not admit that he and his people +had a right thus to extinguish their power to help mold the +future, no matter whether it be the future they desired or not. +The result of battle must be accepted. The Southern spirit must +not perish, luxuriating blindly in despair, but must find a new +form of expression, must become part of the new world that was to +be, must look to a new birth under new conditions. In this spirit +he issued to his army his last address: + +"After four years of arduous service, marked by unsurpassed +courage and fortitude, the Army of Northern Virginia has been +compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers and resources. I need +not tell the survivors of so many hard-fought battles, who have +remained steadfast to the last, that I have consented to the +result from no distrust of them; but feeling that valor and +devotion could accomplish nothing that could compensate for the +loss that would have attended the continuation of the contest, I +determined to avoid the useless sacrifice of those whose past +services have endeared them to their countrymen.... I bid you +an affectionate farewell." + +How inevitably one calls to mind, in view of the indomitable +valor of Lee's final decision, those great lines from Tennyson: + +"Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho' + +We are not now that strength which in old days + +Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are; + +One equal temper of heroic hearts, + +Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will." + +BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + +There is no adequate history of the Confederacy. It is rumored +that a distinguished scholar has a great work approaching +completion. It is also rumored that another scholar, well +equipped to do so, will soon bring out a monumental life of +Davis. But the fact remains that as yet we lack a comprehensive +review of the Confederate episode set in proper perspective. +Standard works such as the "History of the United States from the +Compromise of 1850", by J. F. Rhodes (7 vols., 1893-1908), even +when otherwise as near a classic as is the work of Mr. Rhodes, +treat the Confederacy so externally as to have in this respect +little value. The one searching study of the subject, "The +Confederate States of America," by J. C. Schwab (1901), though +admirable in its way, is wholly overshadowed by the point of view +of the economist. The same is to be said of the article by +Professor Schwab in the 11th edition of "The Encyclopaedia +Britannica." + +Two famous discussions of the episode by participants are: "The +Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government," by the President of +the Confederacy (2 vols., 1881), and "A Constitutional View of +the Late War Between the States," by Alexander H. Stephens (2 +vols., 1870). Both works, though invaluable to the student, are +tinged with controversy, each of the eminent authors aiming to +refute the arguments of political antagonists. + +The military history of the time has so overshadowed the civil, +in the minds of most students, that we are still sadly in need of +careful, disinterested studies of the great figures of +Confederate civil affairs. "Jefferson Davis," by William E. Dodd +("American Crisis Biographies," 1907), is the standard life of +the President, superseding older ones. Not so satisfactory in the +same series is "Judah P. Benjamin," by Pierce Butler (1907), and +"Alexander H. Stephens," by Louis Pendleton (1907). Older works +which are valuable for the material they contain are: "Memoir of +Jefferson Davis," by his Wife (1890); "The Life and Times of +Alexander H. Stephens," by R. M. Johnston and W. M. Browne +(1878); "The Life and Times of William Lowndes Yancey," by J. W. +Du Bose (1891); "The Life, Times, and Speeches of Joseph E. +Brown," by Herbert Fielder (1883); "Public Life and Diplomatic +Correspondence of James M. Mason," by his Daughter (1903); "The +Life and Time of C. G. Memminger," by H. D. Capers (1893). The +writings of E. A. Pollard cannot be disregarded, but must be +taken as the violent expression of an extreme partisan. They +include a "Life of Jefferson Davis" (1869) and "The Lost Cause" +(1867). A charming series of essays is "Confederate Portraits," +by Gamaliel Bradford (1914). Among books on special topics that +are to be recommended are: "The Diplomatic History of the +Southern Confederacy" by J. M. Callahan (1901); "France and the +Confederate Navy," by John Bigelow (1888); and "The Secret +Service of the Confederate States in Europe," by J. D. Bulloch (2 +vols., 1884). There is a large number of contemporary accounts of +life in the Confederacy. Historians have generally given +excessive attention to "A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the +Confederate States Capital," by J. B. Jones (2 vols., 1866) which +has really neither more nor less value than a Richmond newspaper. +Conspicuous among writings of this type is the delightful "Diary +from Dixie," by Mrs. Mary B. Chestnut (1905) and "My Diary, North +and South," by W. H. Russell (1861). + +The documents of the civil history, so far as they are accessible +to the general reader, are to be found in the three volumes +forming the fourth series of the "Official Records of the Union +and Confederate Armies" (128 vols., 1880-1901); the "Journals of +the Congress of the Confederate States" (8 vols., 1904) and +"Messages and Papers of the Confederacy," edited by J. D. +Richardson (2 vols., 1905). Four newspapers are of first +importance: the famous opposition organs, the Richmond Examiner +and the Charleston Mercury, which should be offset by the two +leading organs of the Government, the Courier of Charleston and +the Enquirer of Richmond. The Statutes of the Confederacy have +been collected and published; most of them are also to be found +in the fourth series of the Official Records. + +Additional bibliographical references will be found appended to +the articles on the "Confederate States of America," "Secession," +and "Jefferson Davis," in "The Encyclopaedia Britannica," 11th +edition. + + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Day of the Confederacy +by Nathaniel W. Stephenson + |