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{ 71 c h a p t e r t h r e e A Recognition of Death 1862  If 1861 and the defeat at Bull Run steeled the Union minded citizens of Connecticut to the necessity of a prolonged war, 1862 taught them the bloody realities of such convictions. It also presented the less bloody, but very real, soldiers’ deaths caused by any number of diseases. And though many at home may have snapped to attention in supporting the enlistment of troops, procuring supplies, and organizing aid societies, it did not mean that the wheels of government were adequately prepared to usher hundreds of thousands of men and vast quantities of materials into an efficient military organization. Nor had the government fully mapped out its military strategy or found a leader who could achieve victory. Beyond efforts for the Union’s survival, few in Connecticut knew what this war of such immense proportions entailed. Winfield Scott’s Anaconda Plan was designed to strangle the South, but to work, it required time and Union control of major waterways both on the coast running to Florida and throughout the Gulf of Mexico, as well as the internal route of the Mississippi River. Then there was the defense of Washington. With so many roads into the nation’s capital, its protection required a formidable army. The surrounding areas, Virginia and Maryland, would surely be bloody. While Connecticut troops were baptized by fire, those back in New England were tasked with the continued necessity of maintaining a strong home front. This required a virtual river of supplies, maintained by both soldiers’ aid societies and individual families. There was also the importance of holding down the Democrat peace movement and maintaining Republican political control. With the governor’s term of office lasting only one year, Governor Buckingham and Republicans had to do battle each spring lest they lose the political war at home. In this sense, the military and political engagements had a symbiotic relationship. The ebb and flow of Union success naturally influenced voters’ confidence in the state’s 72 } Connecticut in the American Civil War administration, and the health of the government at home and its ability to keep “traitors” in check had a resounding effect on the confidence of soldiers in the field. It was a delicate balance that was often made more difficult by the actions of the federal government and the Union military. When President Lincoln announced his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation in September 1862, Democrats renewed their onslaught against the war. They had charged from the outset that abolition and what they called “negro philanthropy” were the true Republican goals. Lincoln’s proclamation opened the door for more such Democratic assaults , even though he and other Republicans argued that emancipation was a means of winning the war, not an end in itself. Nonetheless, the very idea of emancipation created a tempest, and, combined with the shocking bloodletting at battles like Antietam and Fredericksburg, the Union was at a low ebb by the end of the year.  The Anaconda Plan required control of a vast coastline dotted with inlets, bays, creeks, swamps, and bayous, any one of which could allow blockade runners to slip away from Union pursuit or gain access to the South. And, of course, the region was the Confederates’ backyard, and they knew, far better than any Yankee, how to navigate the watery morass. Nonetheless, in late 1861, the Union Navy sailed south to shut down rebel trade. The first engagements involved the taking of Pamlico Sound as well as Fort Walker and Fort Beauregard. Even with these early successes, the arrival of Union troops in the South was plagued by disasters. Brigadier General Ambrose Burnside’s North Carolina Expedition force, which included the 8th, 10th, and 11th Connecticut Regiments, was caught in a horrendous storm off the always turbulent Cape Hatteras. From late November into January, Union ships were unable to reach the safety of Pamlico Sound. The men of the 8th were stuffed into the hold of a ship that had no berths and reeked of bilge water. Some of the men slept on deck, wrapped in blankets, as the sea erupted over the gunwales. The 10th was crowded into a filthy schooner that had recently transported coal, and the men did not have nearly enough clean water. Captain Benjamin Pardee of the 10th wrote of the weeks at sea: “How can I describe them? Days of weariness and danger; no news to cheer us; disasters...

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