Masters of the Big House: Elite Slaveholders of the Mid-Nineteenth-Century South

9. Days of Judgment: The Demise of a Slave Society

9 DAYS OF JUDGMENT: The Demise of a Slave Society I verily believe the men, women & children—if they had nothing else—would assail Lincoln's army at every point—with bricks & sticks; so great is the determination &.so deeply do they feel aggrieved by the accursed invasion. —JUDGE A. WRIGHT, Tennessee Supreme Court, April 28,1861 My Whole Soul is in this Conflict—and if I could, I would have myEntire Clan in hfiel We fight for home, for freedom, for independence; they for conquest &.tyranny. — KATE EDMONDSTON, December 16,1862 This government cannot much longer play a game in which it stakes all and its enemies stake nothing. Those enemies must understand that they cannot experiment for ten years trying to destroy the Government and if they fail, still come back into the Union unhurt. —ABRAHAM L I N C O L N to AUGUST B ELMO NT, July 31,1862 From a condition of ease comfort and abundance, I am suddenly reduced to one of hardship, want & privation. The Lord help me & my poor family.—and the Devil may take the authors &, originators of this dreadful state of things,— abolitionists 8c fire eaters together. —WILLIAM T. PALFREY,January22,1863 This is the greatest army in the country—think of infantry surprising cavalryand plundering their camp—it beats 'what Greece or Rome have done or any land beneath the sea' or any other man. —THOMAS P. D E V E R E U X 11, September i, 1864 — ALFRED HUGER, November 5,1861 DAYS OF J U D G M E N T • 317 The events that have lately taken place in Virginia may be said virtually to have ended the war. I never for a moment expected any other final result. Such an instance of insanity as the Southern States exhibited in endeavoring to destroy the Union is I believe with[out] an example in history. —WILLIAM F. WICKHAM, April 25,1865 T HAS OFTEN been said that, on the Confederate side, the Civil War was "a rich man's war and a poor man's fight." Although there is an element of truth in that statement, it is also true that many of the large slaveholders supported the Confederate causewith unremitting devotion and endured hardships equal to those of their less fortunate neighbors. Nevertheless, it is difficult to escape the conclusion that many of them could have contributed more to the war effort. Too manywere more concerned with their own economic self-interest than with the ultimate success of the Confederacy. Some resisted government requisitions of hands and provisions, others speculated in cotton and even sold it to the enemy during the war, a few evaded military service by procuring substitutes , and too few were prepared to make a financial commitment to the Confederacy commensurate with their vast resources. Of course, there were many exceptions, particularly among the South Carolinians—those most responsible for causing the war—and it is to those that we will turn first. Although most of the elite slaveholders were too old to perform active military service themselves, many had sons or other close male relatives in the field. As Table 6 indicates, at least thirty-one (or 11.4 percent) of the wealthy planters served in the Confederate Army, half of them at the rank of colonel or above. The highest ranking officer among them was Wade Hampton III, who organized the famed Hampton Legion at the beginning of the war and rose to the rank of lieutenant general two months before Lee's surrender at Appomattox. Other general officers included Howell Cobb, who, as a major general, commanded the District of Georgia late in the war, and Brigadier Generals John Doby Kennedy and John S. Preston of South Carolina, Gideon J. Pillow of Tennessee, Philip St. George Cocke of Virginia, and Zebulon York of Louisiana . Both Kennedy and Hampton were wounded at First Manassas, and the latter was again wounded at Gettysburg. York, a native of Maine and reputedly one of the wealthiest men in Louisiana, lost an arm leading a gallant charge at I TABLE 6 • CIVIL WAR MILITARY SERVICE ELITE SLAVEHOLDERS (WITH HIGHEST RANK) Ala.: JamesW. Echols (Field Officer, 34th Ala.) Ga.: Howell Cobb (Maj. Gen.), William H. Gibbons (Maj.), John B. Lamar (aide to Cobb),Joseph L. McAllister (Lt. Col), Randolph Spalding (Col.) La.: Louis A. Bringier (Col.), Albert G. Cage (Capt.), Duncan S.Cage (Col), Josiah...