Lincoln and the Civil War

4. The War Begins

32 c h a p t e r f o u r The War Begins In the days immediately after the attack on Fort Sumter, Lincoln faced daunting challenges. He later described the situation: the war “began on very unequal terms between the parties. The insurgents had been preparing for it more than thirty years, while the government had taken no steps to resist them. The former had carefully considered all the means which could be turned to their account. It undoubtedly was a well pondered reliance with them that in their own unrestricted effort to destroy Union, constitution, and law, all together, the government would, in great degree, be restrained by the same constitution and law, from arresting their progress. Their sympathizers pervaded all departments of the government, and nearly all communities of the people.”1 During the first hundred days of the war, Lincoln showed the “indomitable will” that he had once attributed to Henry Clay.2 He raised, supplied, and sent into battle a vastly increased army; kept the Border States within the Union; helped stymie Confederate efforts to gain diplomatic recognition; established a blockade; took effective charge of his cabinet; skillfully managed Congress; avoided giving offense to Great Britain; and eloquently explained the nature and purpose of the war. In accomplishing these ends, Lincoln managed to be forceful without being obstinate or autocratic and somehow infused his own iron will into his constituents as they fought to save what he called “the last, best hope of earth.”3 On Friday, April 12, when news of the bombardment of Sumter reached him, Lincoln calmly observed that “he did not expect it the war begins | 33 so soon,” for he anticipated that the South Carolinians would not begin shelling the fort before the fleet arrived.4 That day, Lincoln met with an official who wrote that the president “is as firm as a rock, & means to show the world that there is a United States of America left yet.”5 On Sunday, Lincoln and the cabinet composed a proclamation calling out the militia, basing it on the 1795 Militia Act. Some recommended that fifty thousand men be summoned; others suggested twice as many. Lincoln decided to compromise on the number, asking for seventy-five thousand men for three months’ service. When it was argued that the North had superior resolve and enterprise, Lincoln observed, “We must not forget that the people of the seceded States, like those of the loyal ones, are American citizens, with essentially the same characteristics and powers. Exceptional advantages on one side are counterbalanced by exceptional advantages on the other. We must make up our minds that man for man the soldier from the South will be a match for the soldier from the North and vice versa.”6 Lincoln’s anger at secessionist leaders shone through the language of the proclamation. In drafting that document, he alluded to “[in] sults, and injuries already too long endured.” Explaining the appeal to arms, he stressed an argument that he would repeatedly make during the war: “I appeal to all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate, and aid this effort to maintain the honor, the integrity, and the existence of our National Union and the perpetuity of popular government.” The aim of the conflict was to vindicate democracy. The immediate goal of the troops, he stated, would “probably be to repossess the forts, places and property, which have been seized from the Union.”7 That language was unfortunate, for it drove North Carolina, Virginia , Arkansas, and Tennessee into the arms of the Confederacy. If Lincoln had appealed for troops to protect Washington, D.C., from invasion, Unionists in those four states would have been strengthened ; as it was, they were fatally weakened. In Virginia, William C. Rives denounced “Mr. Lincoln’s unlucky & ill-conceived proclamation ,” saying that it caused the Old Dominion to secede. “Before that, all the proceedings of the Convention indicated an earnest desire to maintain the Union,” Rives asserted.8 34 | the war begins Lincoln soon realized his mistake. On April 21, he told the mayor of Baltimore, “I am not a learned man!” and maintained “that his proclamation had not been correctly understood; that he had no intention of bringing on war, but that his purpose was to defend the capital, which was in danger of being bombarded from the heights across the Potomac.”9 Repeatedly he “protested, on his honor, in the...