The Civil War in the West: Victory and Defeat from the Appalachians to the Mississippi

1 Spring and Summer 1861

1 1 } Spring and Summer 1861 T he secession crisis inspired confused reactions among people across the Northern states that lay west of the Appalachian Highlands. Promises of a peaceful separation of the seven Deep South states had lulled many Northerners into the idea that breaking up the country might be inevitable, or even helpful in settling controversies concerning the spread of slavery in the Western territories. Others were more reluctant to countenance the destruction of the political unity that had been maintained through a system of compromise on that issue for eighty-­ five years. Most Northerners, however, simply did not know what to make of the newly created Southern government in Montgomery, Alabama, its pretensions to independence, or its future . Secession created a malaise among many in the free states, unresolved by the tempering stance of the outgoing James Buchanan administration and the incoming Abraham Lincoln regime.1 But the Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumter on April 12– 14, 1861, altered everything. As John Sherman of Ohio put it, Sumter touched “an electric chord in every family in the northern states” and changed “the whole current of feeling.” Sherman admitted that he was shocked by feelings of “surprise, awe and grief” by the act of violence, but later thought: “It brings a feeling of relief; the suspense is over.” Benjamin Scribner of Indiana felt “animated with patriotism, for “the flag of the Union was to me a sacred object.” For many across the North, the key issue lay in a respect for law and order, which the new Confederate government had demonstrated it did not possess. Federal authorities could not afford to look the other way at this forcible seizure of a U.S. government installation. “There would be no end to it,” thought Walter Q. Gresham of Indiana , “and in a short time we would be without any law or order. We must now teach the Secessionists a lesson.” For Gresham, it was “all bosh and nonsense to talk about the North making war on the South. The South rebelled against the laws and makes war on the government.”2 Newspaper editors of all political leanings beat the tocsin of war by interpreting the firing on Sumter as an unpardonable act of vio- 2 Spring and Summer 1861 lence to settle an issue that should have been handled through negotiation. It was both a threat and an insult to the government. “On one side stands rebellion , treason, anarchy,” declared the Chatfield (Minn.) Republican, while “on the other the government, patriotism, law and order.” Everything undemocratic was vested in the seat of government at Montgomery, while the principles of the founding fathers of the nation were vested in the hands of Lincoln’s new administration in Washington. The Indianapolis Daily Journal believed that “We are fighting for the existence of our own Government,” more than for “the destruction of that at Montgomery.”3 For some of the more progressive-­ minded citizens in the North, there was gratitude for what happened at Sumter. The overt act of violence and lawlessness taught Northerners what they could expect from a slave Confederacy on their border. College professor and Republican state senator James Garfield of Ohio hoped the war would not end until the Confederacy was blotted out of existence, along with the institution that underpinned its economy, society, and culture. Another member of the Ohio Senate, Jacob Cox, vividly recalled how news of Sumter was announced during a session of that august body, causing “a solemn and painful hush” until a well-­ known abolitionist in the gallery shouted “‘Glory to God!’” Cox, along with most of the other legislators, could not share such enthusiasm for the moral redemption of the nation, but he steeled himself for the war by thinking that the sacrifice could only be justified by preserving thereby “the right to enforce a fair interpretation of the constitution through the election of President and Congress.”4 Whether Northerners welcomed Sumter because they saw that it foretold the death knell of slavery, or simply viewed it as an alarm for the defense of fundamental values held dear by the country, the firing on the fort solidified a common cause among Northern residents. Support for making war on the Confederacy was nearly universal, grounded on the need to defend the flag and all that it symbolized. Only the bombing of Pearl Harbor eighty years later had a similar effect on the American people, dispelling lingering feelings of isolationism and forming a mighty...