The Project Gutenberg ebook of a brief History of the United States

its defeat, and so became opposed to Sherman.

Dallas he sent a division to capture a garrison and depots at Allatoona,

commanded by General Corse. Sherman, who was following Hood, communicated

with Corse from the top of Kenesaw Mountain by signals; and Corse, though

greatly outnumbered, held the fort and drove off the enemy. On this

incident was founded the popular hymn _Hold the Fort, for I am Coming_.

rails, heated red-hot in fires made of burning ties, were twisted around

trees or telegraph poles. Stations, machine shops, cotton bales, cotton

gins and presses were burned. Along the line of march, a strip of country

sixty miles wide was made desolate.
[8] While the siege of Petersburg was under way, a tunnel was dug and a

mine exploded under a Confederate work called Elliott's Salient (July 30,

1864). As soon as the mass of flying earth, men, guns, and carriages had

settled, a body of Union troops moved forward through the break thus made

in the enemy's line. But the assault was badly managed. The Confederates

rallied, and the Union forces were driven back into the crater made by the

explosion, where many were killed and 1400 captured.
[9] On October 19, 1864, St. Albans, a town in Vermont near the Canadian

border, was raided by Confederates from Canada. They seized all the horses

they could find, robbed the banks, and escaped. A little later the people

of Detroit were excited by a rumor that their city was to be raided on

October 30. Great preparations for defense were made; but no enemy came.
[10] Philip H. Sheridan was born at Albany, New York, in 1831, graduated

from West Point, and was in Missouri when the war opened. In 1862 he was

given a command in the cavalry, fought in the West, and before the year

closed was made a brigadier and then major general for gallantry in

action. At Chattanooga he led the charge up Missionary Ridge. After the

war he became lieutenant general and then general of the army, and died in

1888.
[11] Sheridan had spent the night at Winchester, and as he rode toward his

camp at Cedar Creek, he met such a crowd of wagons, fugitives, and wounded

men that he was forced to take to the fields. At Newtown, the streets were

so crowded he could not pass through them. Riding around the village, he

met Captain McKinley (afterward President), who, says Sheridan, "spread

the news of my return through the motley throng there." Between Newtown

and Middletown he met "the only troops in the presence of and resisting

the enemy.... Jumping my horse over the line of rails, I rode to the crest

of the elevation and ... the men rose up from behind their barricade with

cheers of recognition." When he rode to another part of the field, "a line

of regimental flags rose up out of the ground, as it seemed, to welcome

me." With these flags was Colonel Hayes (afterward President). Hurrying to

another place, he came upon some divisions marching to the front. When the

men "saw me, they began cheering and took up the double-quick to the

front." Crossing the pike, he rode, hat in hand, "along the entire line of

infantry," shouting, "We are all right.... Never mind, boys, we'll whip

them yet. We shall sleep in our quarters to-night." And they did. Read

_Sheridan's Ride_ by T. Buchanan Read.

the Civil War_, Vol. IV, pp. 762-767; or the _Century Magazine_,

November, 1883.
[14] After firing the shot, the assassin waved his pistol and shouted

"_Sic semper tyrannis_"--"Thus be it ever to tyrants" (the motto of

the state of Virginia) and jumped from the box to the stage. But his spur

caught in an American flag which draped the box, and he fell and broke his

leg. Limping off the stage, he fled from the theater, mounted a horse in

waiting, and escaped to Virginia. There he was found hidden in a barn and

shot. The body of the Martyr President was borne from Washington to

Springfield, by the route he took when coming to his first inauguration in

1861. Read Walt Whitman's poem _My Captain_.

CHAPTER XXX

THE SOUTHERN COAST BLOCKADE.--The naval war began with a proclamation of

Davis offering commissions to privateers, [1] and two by Lincoln (April 19

and 27, 1861), declaring the coast blockaded from Virginia to Texas.

Southern states, and to prevent their getting supplies of all sorts. But

as Great Britain was one of the chief consumers of Southern cotton, and

was, indeed, dependent on the South for her supply, it was certain that

unless the blockade was made effective by many Union ships, cotton would

be carried out of the Southern ports, and supplies run into them, in spite

of Lincoln's proclamation.
[Illustration: CARTOON PUBLISHED IN 1861.]
RUNNING THE BLOCKADE.--This is just what was done. Goods of all sorts were

brought from Great Britain to the city of Nassau in the Bahama Islands

(map, p. 353). There the goods were placed on board blockade runners and

started for Wilmington in North Carolina, or for Charleston. So nicely

would the voyage be timed that the vessel would be off the port some night

when the moon did not shine. Then, with all lights out, the runner would

dash through the line of blockading ships, and, if successful, would by

daylight be safe in port. The cargo landed, cotton would be taken on

board; and the first dark night, or during a storm, the runner, again

breaking the blockade, would steam back to Nassau.

Confederate States as belligerents. This gave them the same rights in the

ports of Great Britain and France as our vessels of war. Hoping to secure

a recognition of independence from these countries, the Confederate

government sent Mason and Slidell to Europe. These two commissioners ran

the blockade, went to Havana, and boarded the British mail steamship

_Trent_. Captain Wilkes of the United States man-of-war _San Jacinto_,

hearing of this, stopped the _Trent_ and took off Mason and Slidell.

Intense excitement followed in our country and in Great Britain, [2] which

at once demanded their release and prepared for war. They were released,

and the act of Wilkes was disavowed as an exercise of "the right of

search" which we had always resisted when exercised by Great Britain, and

which had been one of the causes of the War of 1812.
THE CRUISERS.--While the commerce of the Confederacy was almost destroyed

by the blockade, a fleet of Confederate cruisers attacked the commerce of

the Union.
The most famous of these, the _Florida_, _Alabama_, _Georgia_, and

_Shenandoah_ [3] were built or purchased in Great Britain for the

Confederacy, and were suffered to put to sea in spite of the protests of

the United States minister. Once on the ocean they cruised from sea to

sea, destroying every merchant vessel under our flag that came in their

way.
[Illustration: SHELL LODGED IN THE STERN POST OF THE KEARSARGE. Now in the

Ordnance Museum, Washington Navy Yard.]
One of them, the _Alabama_, sailed the ocean unharmed for two years.

She cruised in the North Atlantic, in the Gulf of Mexico, in the Caribbean

Sea, off the coast of Brazil, went around the Cape of Good Hope, entered

the China Sea, came again around the Cape of Good Hope, and by way of

Brazil and the Azores to Cherbourg in France. During the cruise she

destroyed over sixty merchantmen. At Cherbourg the _Alabama_ was found by

the United States cruiser _Kearsarge_, and one Sunday morning in June,

1864, the two met in battle off the coast of France, and the Alabama was

sunk. [4]
OPERATIONS ALONG THE COAST.--Besides blockading the coast, the Union navy

captured or aided in capturing forts, cities, and water ways. The forts at

the entrance to Pamlico Sound and Port Royal were captured in 1861.

Control of the waters of Pamlico and Albemarle [5] sounds was secured in

1862 by the capture of Roanoke Island, Elizabeth City, Newbern, and Fort

Macon (map, p. 369). In 1863 Fort Sumter was battered down in a naval

attack on Charleston. In 1864 Farragut led his fleet into Mobile Bay (in

southern Alabama), destroyed the Confederate fleet, captured the forts at

the entrance to the bay, and thus cut the city of Mobile off from the sea.

In 1865 Fort Fisher, which guarded the entrance to Cape Fear River, on

which was Wilmington, fell before a combined attack by land and naval

forces.
ON THE INLAND WATERS.--On the great water ways of the West the notable

deeds of the navy were the capture of Fort Henry on the Tennessee by

Foote's flotilla (p. 358), the capture of New Orleans by Farragut (p.

361), and the run of Porter's fleet past the batteries at Vicksburg (p.

368).
[Illustration: ONE OF PORTER'S GUNBOATS PASSING VICKSBURG.]

engagements was that of the _Monitor_ and the _Merrimac_ in 1862. When the

war opened, there were at the navy yard at Norfolk, Virginia, a quantity

of guns, stores, supplies, and eleven vessels. The officer in command,

fearing that they would fall into Confederate hands, set fire to the

houses, shops, and vessels, and abandoned the place. One of the vessels

which was burned to the water's edge and sunk was the steam frigate

_Merrimac_. Finding her hull below the water line unhurt, the Confederates

raised the _Merrimac_, turned her into an ironclad ram, renamed her

_Virginia_, and sent her forth to destroy a squadron of United States

vessels at anchor in Hampton Roads (at the mouth of the James River).
[Illustration: MERRIMAC AND MONITOR.]
Steaming across the roads one day in March, 1862, the _Merrimac_ rammed

and sank the _Cumberland_, [6] forced the _Congress_ to surrender, and set

her on fire. This done, the _Merrimac_ withdrew, intending to resume the

work of destruction on the morrow; for her iron armor had proved to be

ample protection against the guns of the Union ships. But the next

morning, as she came near the _Minnesota_, the strangest-looking craft

afloat came forth to meet her. Its deck was almost level with the water,

and was plated with sheets of iron. In the center of the deck was an iron-

plated cylinder which could be revolved by machinery, and in this were two

large guns. This was the _Monitor_ [7] which had arrived in the Roads the

night before, and now came out from behind the _Minnesota_ to fight the

_Merrimac_. During four hours the battle raged with apparently no result;

then the _Merrimac_ withdrew and the _Monitor_ took her place beside the

_Minnesota_. [8] This battle marks the doom of wooden naval vessels; all

the nations of the world were forced to build their navies anew.
FINANCES OF THE WAR.--Four years of war on land and sea cost the people of

the North an immense sum of money. To obtain the money Congress began

(1861) by raising the tariff on imported articles; by taxing all incomes

of more than $800 a year; and by levying a direct tax, which was

apportioned among the states according to their population. [9] But the

money from these sources was not sufficient, and (1862) an internal

revenue tax was resorted to, and collected by stamp duties. [10] Even this

tax did not yield enough money, and the government was forced to borrow on

the credit of the United States. Bonds were issued, [11] and then United

States notes, called "greenbacks," were put in circulation and made legal

tender; that is, everybody had to take them in payment of debts. [12]
MONEY IN WAR TIME.--After the government began to issue paper money, the

banks suspended specie payment, and all gold and silver coins, including

the 3, 5, 10, 25, and 50 cent pieces, disappeared from circulation. The

people were then without small change, and for a time postage stamps and

"token" pieces of brass and copper were used instead. In March, 1863,

however, Congress authorized the Issue of $50,000,000 in paper fractional

currency. [13] Both the greenbacks and the fractional currency were merely

promises to pay money. As the government did not pay on demand, coin

commanded a premium; that is, $100 in gold or silver could be exchanged in

the market (down till 1879) for more than $100 in paper money.

were in circulation several thousand different kinds of state bank notes.

Some had no value, some a little value, and others were good for the sums

(in greenbacks) expressed on their faces. In order to replace these notes

by a sound currency having the same value everywhere, Congress (1863)

established the national banking system. Legally organized banking

associations were to purchase United States bonds and deposit them with

the government. Each bank so doing was then entitled to issue national

bank notes to the value of ninety per cent [14] of the bonds it had

deposited. Many banks accepted these terms; but it was not till (1865)

after Congress taxed the notes of state banks that those notes were driven

out of circulation.

Hundreds of thousands of men left occupations of all sorts and joined the

armies. What they might have made had they stayed at home was what they

lost by going to the front. Every loyal state, city, and county, and

almost every town and village, incurred a war debt. The national

government during the war spent for war purposes $3,660,000,000. To this

must be added the value of our merchant ships destroyed by Confederate

cruisers; the losses in the South; and many hundred millions paid in

pensions to soldiers and their widows.
The loss in the cities and towns burned or injured by siege and the other

operations of war, and the loss caused by the ruin of trade and commerce

and the destruction of railroads, farms, plantations, crops, and private

property, can not be fully estimated, but it was very great.

360,000 men were killed, or died of wounds or of disease. On the

Confederate side the number was nearly if not quite as large, so that some

700,000 men perished in the war. Many were young men with every prospect

of a long life before them, and their early death deprived their country

of the benefit of their labor.

real hardship. In the South, after the blockade became effective, the

people suffered privations. Not merely luxuries were given up, but the

necessaries of life became scarce. Thrown on their own resources, the

people resorted to all manner of makeshifts. To get brine from which salt

could be obtained by evaporation, the earthen floors of smokehouses,

saturated by the dripping of bacon, were dug up and washed, and barrels in

which salt pork had been packed were soaked in water. Tea and coffee

ceased to be used, and dried blackberry, currant, and raspberry leaves

were used instead. Rye, wheat, chicory, chestnuts roasted and ground, did

duty for coffee. The spinning wheel came again into use, and homespun

clothing, dyed with the extract of black-walnut bark, or with wild indigo,

was generally worn. As articles were scarce, prices rose, and then went

higher and higher as the Confederate money depreciated, like the old

Continental money in Revolutionary times. In 1864 Mrs. Jefferson Davis

states that in Richmond a turkey cost $60, a barrel of flour $300, and a

pair of shoes $150. No little suffering was caused for want of medicines,

[15] woolen goods, blankets, [16] shoes, paper, [17] and in some of the

cities even bread became scarce. [18] To get food for the army the

Confederate Congress (1863) authorized the seizure of supplies for the

troops and payment at fixed prices which were far below the market rates.

[19]
Some men made fortunes by blockade running, smuggling from the North, and

speculation in stocks. Dwellers on the great plantations, remote from the

operations of the contending armies, suffered not from want of food; but

the great body of the people had much to endure.

SUMMARY
1. The operations of the navy comprised (1) the blockade of the coast of

the Confederate States, (2) the capture of seaports, (3) the pursuit and

capture of Confederate cruisers, and (4) aiding the army on the western

rivers.
2. A notable feature in the naval war was the use of ironclad vessels.

These put an end to the wooden naval vessels, and revolutionized the

navies of the world.
3. The cost of the war in human life, money, and property destroyed was

immense, and can be stated only approximately.

of the people caused much suffering.

drawing.]

FOOTNOTES
[1] The first Confederate privateer to get to sea was the _Savannah_. She

took one prize and was captured. Another, the _Beauregard_, was taken

after a short cruise. A third, the _Petrel_, mistook the frigate St.

Lawrence for a merchantman and attempted to take her, but was sunk by a

broadside. After a year the blockade stopped privateering.
[2] Captain Wilkes was congratulated by the Secretary of the Navy, thanked

by the House of Representatives, and given a grand banquet in Boston; and

the whole country was jubilant. The British minister at Washington was

directed to demand the liberation of the prisoners and "a suitable apology

for the aggression," and if not answered in seven days, or if unfavorably

answered, was to return to London at once.

navy department to procure vessels to be used as commerce destroyers. The

_Florida_ and _Alabama_ were built at Liverpool and sent to sea unarmed.

Their guns and ammunition were sent in vessels from another British port.

The _Shenandoah_ was purchased at London (her name was then the _Sea

King_) and was met at Madeira by a tender from Liverpool with men and

guns. On her way to Australia, the _Shenandoah_ destroyed seven of our

merchantmen. She then went to Bering Sea and in one week captured twenty-

five whalers, most of which she destroyed. This was in June, 1865, after

the war was over. In August a British ship captain informed the commander

of the _Shenandoah_ that the Confederacy no longer existed. The

_Shenandoah_ was then taken to Liverpool and delivered to the British

government, which turned her over to the United States.
[4] Read _Battles and Leaders of the Civil War_, Vol. IV, pp. 600-614.
[5] In 1864 a Confederate ironclad ram, the _Albemarle_, appeared on

the waters of Albemarle Sound. As no Union war ship could harm her,

Commander W. B. Gushing planned an expedition to destroy her by a torpedo.

On the night of October 27, with fourteen companions in a steam launch, he

made his way to the ram, blew her up with the torpedo, and with one other

man escaped. His adventures on the way back to the fleet read like

fiction, and are told by himself in _Battles and Leaders of the Civil

War_, Vol. IV, pp. 634-640.

a man to enter." Through this the water poured in so rapidly that the

sick, wounded, and many who were not disabled were carried down with the

ship. After she sank, the flag at the masthead still waved above the

water. Read Longfellow's poem _The Cumberland_.
[7] The _Monitor_ was designed by John Ericsson, who was born in Sweden in

1803. After serving as an engineer in the Swedish army, he went to

England; and then came to our country in 1839. He was the inventor of

the first practical screw propeller for steamboats, and by his invention

of the revolving turret for war vessels he completely changed naval

architecture. His name is connected with many great inventions. He died in

1889.
[8] When the Confederates evacuated Norfolk some months later, the

_Merrimac_ was blown up. The _Monitor_, in December, 1862, went down in a

storm at sea.
[9] As the right of a State to secede was not acknowledged, this direct

tax of $20,000,000 was apportioned among the Confederate as well as among

the Union states. The Confederate states, of course, did not pay their

share.
[10] Deeds, mortgages, bills of lading, bank checks, patent medicines,

wines, liquors, tobacco, proprietary articles, and many other things were

taxed. Between 1862 and 1865 about $780,000,000 was raised in this way.

$1,109,000,000 were issued and sold.

enacted in 1862, and two years later $449,000,000 were in circulation. The

greenbacks could not be used to pay duties on imports or interest on the

public debt, which were payable in specie.

denominations of 3, 5, 10, 15, 25, and 50 cents. Read the account in

Rhodes's _History of the U. S._, Vol. V, pp. 191-196.
[14] In 1902 changed to one hundred per cent.
[15] When Sherman was in command at Memphis, a funeral procession was

allowed to pass beyond the Union lines. The coffin, however, was full of

medicines for the Confederate army.
[16] Blankets were sometimes made of cow hair, or long moss from the

seaboard, and even carpets were cut up and sent as blankets to the army.

Some are printed on half sheets, a few on brown paper, and some on note

paper.
[18] Riots of women, prompted by the high prices of food, occurred in

Atlanta, Mobile, Richmond, and other places.

Magazine, October, 1889; Rhodes's _History of the U. S._, Vol. V, pp.

348-384.

CHAPTER XXXI