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Histories of the American Civil War are usually arranged so that the chronology follows the big campaigns and battles..Bull Run to Shiloh to The Seven Days to 2nd Bull Run etc. As well as these major engagements, the war was also composed of hundreds of small actions in the back theaters of the war. 150 years ago today there was one such clash which came to be called the Battle of Allegheny Mountain.
The Union forces had effective control of western Virginia, but the Confederates maintained a small force there to lend legitimacy to their claim of sovereignty over the area. At the time of this action they were composed of two brigades commanded by Colonel Edward Johnson, posted on Allegheny Mountain to defend the Staunton-Parkersburg Pike.
To open the road and chastise these rebels, General Robert Milroy, also in command of two brigades, was dispatched to attack the position. On what turned out to be a sunny, but extremely windy and cold day in the mountains, Milroy launched his assault. The fight see sawed throughout the morning and Milroy, having gained no ground, formed a strong point on his right among fallen timbers which served as a natural fort.
Confederate infantry charges were unable to dislodge these men, so Johnson concentrated his artillery and opened on the position with all of his guns. Soon the timber was converted into deadly flying splinters and the Union troops were forced to evacuate the spot. With his right flank in flight, Milroy called for a general retreat and the battle ended. Each side suffered about 140 casualties, the strategic situation remained unchanged, but the rebel victory did assure that the Confederates would continue to have a force in western Virginia through the end of the year.
President Lincoln was quietly going about the task of preparing the nation for having to surrender the captured Confederate commissioners, Mason and Slidell. Secretary of State Seward had begun by soliciting the public opinions of elder statesmen of the nation, including James Buchanan, Thomas Ewing, Lewis Cass, and Robert J. Walker. When these respected gentlemen suggested that the US might have been in the wrong in the seizure, they were followed by a growing number of Northern newspaper editors.
In Great Britain the intial react6ion had been outrage, but the official governmental response was measured and polite. That began to change as reports reached Britain of the rejoycing and boasting being done in America over this high seas "victory." The hardliners gained more influence as a consequence and the demand which they prepared to send to the United States was little short of a war warning.
150 years ago today that first British response reached the Brtish embassy on American shores, but it wasn't the harsh demand that it had been. Queen Victoria had shown the response/demand to her husband Prince Albert who told her that it was far too severe and provocative. He argued that they would be better off leaving America some pride, and that the demand should be modified to a request. Albert rewrote the text, a portion of which now read:
Quote:
The Queen … should have liked to have seen the expression of a hope [in the message to Seward] that the American captain did not act under instructions, or, if he did that he misapprehended them [and] that the United States government must be fully aware that the British Government could not allow its flag to be insulted, and the security of her mail communications to be placed in jeopardy, and [that] Her Majesty’s Government are unwilling to believe that the United States Government intended wantonly to put an insult upon this country and to add to their many distressing complications by forcing a question of dispute upon us, and that we are therefore glad to believe … that they would spontaneously offer such redress as alone could satisfy this country, viz: the restoration of the unfortunate passengers and a suitable apology.
Secretary Seward had already sent instructions to Ambassador to Britain Adams to inform Britain that Captain Wilkes had not been acting under instructions from the US government, but that word had not reached London yet when they sent the message. When all communications caught up, both sides would see the groundwork for a common understanding and resolution.
Prince Albert deserves credit for a positive diplomatic intervention with his letter..which was the last public document he was to write because also 150 years ago today, he died of typhoid fever at the age of 40.
US Secretary of State Seward met December 19th with British ambassador to the US, Lord Lyons. Lyons, in recent receipt of governmental instructions, is polite, but explains Britain's request for an apology and the immediate release of the Confederate commissioners, and gives the United States seven days in which to respond.
While doing all of the above with tea service and a smile, Britain hedged its bets the following day when it dispatched two warships to Canada, with another 18 troop transports to follow. Before the ultimatum expired, Britain would have raised its troop totals in Canada from around 4200, to about 18,000.
In truth, neither side wanted war despite the patriotic noises being made on both sides of the ocean. The North was reliant on saltpeter from India, vended by the Brits, for their supplies of gunpowder. Great Britain, having seen the North quickly assemble nearly 200,000 men under arms in the last eight months, feared that they would be unable to hold onto to Canada if it came to war, and unlikely to ever get it back if it lost it.
Also on the 20th, 150 years ago, the Union Navy made what was to be a futile attempt to end blockade runners leaving and returning to Charleston. The weapon in this case was called "The Stone Fleet." Twenty four old fishing and whaling ships were purchased in New Bedford, sailed or towed to Charleston Harbor. A few fell apart during the journey, some were diverted to Savanah to be used there. Sixteen made it to Charleston where they were weighted with stones and then hulled so that they sunk. The idea was to obstruct the shipping lanes and severely limit the routes blockade runners would have to take, reducing the area which had to be policed by the Union Navy.
It was only partially effective. Blockade runners still managed to get in and out, and over the course of the next two years, the pounding of the waves broke the sunken ships apart and the lanes reopened.
It did inspire a poet in New York, who upon reading about the incident, was moved to write:
Quote:
I have a feeling for these ships,
Each worn and ancient one,
With great bluff bows, and broad in the beam:
Ay, it was unkindly done.
and a half dozen stanzas later he had a prophetic conclusion:
Quote:
And all for naught. The waters pass—
Currents will have their way;
Nature is nobody’s ally; ’tis well;
The harbor is bettered—will stay.
A failure, and complete,
Was your old Stone Fleet.
Two Hundred and forty seven years ago the first event of the animosity which resulted in the American Revolution was Parliament passing the Sugar and Molasses Act. This bil, which placed a duty on sugar, molasses, coffee and tea, sailed through passage on the grounds that it was perfectly fair to expect the Americans to pay for the war which had just removed the threat of the French and their Indian allies, as well as underwriting the ongoing cost of colonial defense. The reaction in America of course was outrage, a refusal to recognize Parliament's authority to tax the colonies, and a refusal to cooperate with the new law.
Ninety seven years after that, the nation which was sired in that struggle was faced with a new crisis, the fracturing of United States and the need to pay for the war to overturn the rupture. Having placed nearly two hundred thousand men under arms, having purchased dozens of ships for the US Navy, and having lost the revenues associated with cotton sales, it was evident that extraordinary measures would be needed to pay for all of this.
Toward that end, 150 years ago today, the US Congress passed a law which greatly raised the taxes upon....sugar, molasses, coffee and tea.
The White House hosted a formal Christmas dinner, following a day devoted to the final decision on the response to Britain's request that the US release the Confederate commissioners, and apologize for having pirated them off a British flagged ship. Seven days had been allowed for the reply, and that would expire on the following day.
In the Confederacy, the official position was the demand that Slidell and Mason be immediately freed, along with hyperbolic press calls for hanging the Yankee pirate captain who kidnapped them. Clandestinely, President Davis and his cabinet hoped that the United States would stand firm and refuse to yield, which hopefully would lead to Britain declaring war on the US, followed quickly by France.
In Washington, Secretary of State Seward was laboring to craft a face saving resolution. He knew that the commissioners would have to be released, but he wished to make it seem like it was the will of the Lincoln administration, not a surrender to British demands. His lawyerly mind produced a legalistic solution. The US would sustain their argument that they were within their rights to treat the rebel commissioners as contraband of war...but....since Captain Wilkes had not acted with the official authority of the government behind him...and since Captain Wilkes had brought the contraband directly to a US port, rather than to a prize court for a determination of legalities, the US was going to acknowledge these technical errors and release the commissioners.
Although the Brits might have to look hard to find the apology that they wanted within Seward's words, they would be getting the more important of their wishes....the release of the commissioners and no need to go to war.
Seward would present this response on the 27th and hope that the Brits would find it satisfactory.
British ambassador Lyons received the administration's reply 150 years ago today. Reflecting Britain's hope of avoiding war, he decided to concentrate on the part which stated the Confederate commissioners would be released, and ignore Seward's legalistic evasion of an apology. This took some patience on Lyon's part because Seward had rambled on at length, including a lecture to Britain about their policy of impressment when the needs of war demanded. Lyon forwarded the reply to England and awaited their approval of this resolution.
It was accepted without much argument, although two time Prime Minister Lord John Russel, who at the time was serving as Secretary for Foreign Affairs, was so annoyed by Seward's legalisms that he sat down and wrote out a lengthy letter to Seward, lecturing him on international martime law.
Commissioners Mason and Slidell were released into the custody of Lord Lyons on the 30th, and in quick order boarded a British vessel to restart their voyage to Europe. The matter was settled and the North seemed to accept the outcome without much of an outcry, except for newly minted naval hero Captain Wilkes, who suddenly had his epic deed carpet yanked out from under him. He was outspoken in his criticism of the administration's failure to show more backbone.
Also unhappy with the outcome was President Davis and his cabinet who had been hoping for a more inflamatory response by the US which resulted in the Confederacy gaining England and France as war allies.
On Dec. 29th, 1861, the town of Sutton, Braxton County, (West) Virginia, was captured by local rebel forces, the Union garrison partially captured, and part of the town burned.
A Confederate goal for the new year was to recapture control of western Virginia before the anti secessionist convention could determine the territorial status. If time was a concern, they picked the right man for the effort. Thomas, now "Stonewall" Jackson since the Battle of Bull Run, decided on a winter campaign aimed first at Romney. Despite inadequate supplies, despite snow covered ground interupted here and there by great patches of mud, Jackson had his men in motion on the first of the year.
During this campaign, Jackson demonstrated two characteristics which were to mark all of his war operations. One was absolute secrecy, issuing orders without explanations, setting men to the march without their officers knowing the destination, sharing his battle plans with no one. The other was Jackson's utter intolerance of of any sign of weakness on the part of his officers or troops.
On this day 150 years ago, Jackson's planned attack on Romney was not launched, for the very reasons listed above. As his columns were slushing their way toward Romney, orders suddenly arrived directing them to turn North and continue the march. Officers were perplexed because Jackson had told no one that he decided to attack the town of Bath first to clear his flank before moving against Romney.
When Jackson received word that one of his columns, commanded by General William Loring, had ordered a halt so that his exhausted men might get some much needed rest, he sent back orders that Loring was to resume the march immediately. Loring was outraged, but got his men in motion and they struggled the best that they could to Bath, where Jackson ordered them to prepare for an immediate attack.
The men were nearly frozen, utterly exhausted, had not had anything to eat all day...in no condition to attack. Loring balked at the orders and encamped his men. This resulted in a one day delay in the capture of Bath, and a huge grudge between Jackson and Loring. Within a few days, this animosity would result in Jackson writing to Richmond and threatening to resign.
The North was not completely united in the desire to put down the rebellion. Among the centers of what was to be called "Copperhead" sentiments, was New York City. The Democrat party still dominated via its machine politics and successful recruitment of newly arrived immigrants. In 1862, at the top of this operation was New York mayor, Fernando Wood. Considered by some as the most corrupt mayor in New York history (which is really saying something), Wood had risen via his domination of Tammany Hall. He had been mayor from 1854-1858, lost in his bid for reelection..and did what any good Tammany politician would do in such circumstances. He got the state legislature to pass a law shortening the term of his victorious opponent to two years. In 1860, Wood ran again and won.
No friend of slaves, or blacks in general, a successful merchant before entering politics, Wood viewed the Civil War as little more than a massive inconvenience to normal commerce. He favored letting the South walk without consequence, and the US immediately setting up trade relations between the two sections.
When that became a lost cause, Wood instead decided to take his lead from the South, and on this day 150 years ago, he proposed to the supervising Common Council that New York secede from the Union and declare itself a sovereign city-state to be called the Free City of Tri-Insula. (Tri-Insula means "Three Islands" and referenced Manhattan, Long Island and Staten Island.)
The Council was tempted, but ultimately deemed such an action too extreme. As for Wood, he was also limited by the new two year term, so he was out of office at the start of 1863, switching instead to winning a seat in the House of Represenatives where he remained until his death in 1881.
One of President Lincoln's major rivals for the 1860 GOP nomination, Simon Cameron of Pennsylvania, had settled for the position of Secretary of War as his reward for turning his supporters over to Lincoln at the convention. While he held severe views regarding punishing the South, his competence and character were not sufficient as a cabinet officer.
Cameron had risen from an ill educated printer's apprentice, to publishing his own newspaper, getting involved in large business ventures, and eventually glad handing his way to the power center of the Democrat party, becoming close to Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren. Cameron used his connections to get elected to the US Senate in 1845, as a Democrat, and demonstrated his ability to know which way the political winds were blowing by getting reelected to that position in 1856, as a Republican.
Cameron approached his cabinet job as he had all matters in his public career, trusting in influence trading and the good old boys network to get the war rolling and the profits going in the right pockets. Unsurprisingly, the result of this dynamic was widespread corruption and inefficiency. Cameron signed off on the purchase of an enormous amount of defective supply material, making decisions based on how they helped his friends rather than how they helped the war effort. It wasn't so much a matter of Cameron himself being dishonest, so much as it was a willingness to do business with those who were.
He had become an embarrassment to the administration and Lincoln was working on a way to get rid of him without offending Cameron's political allies. The president's solution was to meet with Cameron, explain how critical it was that the US enjoy the diplomatic support of Russia to counter balance the temptation to England and France to aid the Confederacy, and ask him if he would serve as ambassador to the Tsar's court.
Cameron was no political fool and recognized that he was being given the polite heave ho. He accepted the diplomatic post, served in it for eight months, resigned, returned home and sat out the rest of the war in a snit. He was elected to the Senate once more in 1866.
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