You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly. You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
alternatehistory.com
America has no north, no south, no east, no west. The sun rises over the hills and sets over the mountains, the compass just points up and down and we can now laugh at the absurd notion of there being a north and a south. We are one and undivided. -Sam Watkins, Company H, 1st Tennessee Infantry, Army of Tennessee (formerly Army of Mississippi), Confederate States of America. I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me. -Abraham Lincoln, 1864. Past n. That part of Eternity with some small fraction of which we have a slight and regrettable acquaintance. A moving line called the Present parts it from an imaginary period known as the Future. These two grand periods of Eternity, of which one is continually effacing the other, are entirely unalike. The one is dark with sorrow and disappointment, the other is bright with prosperity and joy. The Past is the region of sobs; the Future is the realm of song. In the one crouches Memory, clad in sackcloth and ashes, mumbling penitential prayer; in the sunshine of the other Hope flies with a free wing, beckoning to temples of success and bowers of ease. Yet the Past is the Future of yesterday and the Future is the Past of to-morrow. They are one--the knowledge and the dream. -Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary, 1906.
Forward
History is what we make of it. When looking to the past we must remember that no one could have predicted what happened next. A Union solder finding some cigars wrapped in paper in a field lead to the Battle of Antietam. If it had been raining in Dallas on a November day in 1963 an assassination would not have happened. Things sometimes change by a quirk of fate: In early 1862 the Union had scored some victories in the American Civil War. However they were mainly in the West at places like Fort Donelson and Shiloh, Tennessee. Desperate for the same results in the East, President Abraham Lincoln pushed General George McClellan to push towards Manassas Junction and then push onto Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate capital. McClellan had a different idea. Instead of going overland he would float the army down the Potomac River and land near Fortress Monroe. President Lincoln, desperate for any action in the Eastern Theatre, agreed. In early April the Army of the Potomac, over 120,000 men, formed on the York/James Peninsula. Thanks in large part to McClellan's hesitation, it took a month to take control of the peninsula. Now, in mid-May, with victories at Yorktown, Williamsburg and Norfolk under his belt McClellan now felt that he could beat the vastly superior Confederate army he had convinced himself he was fighting.
The History
May 13th, 1862. Tuesday, General McClellan was riding past our regiment when suddenly his horse fell into a small hole in the road. The animal went forward so suddenly that General McClellan was thrown from it. He lay still while his staff rushed to carry him away. I fear that General McClellan is dead. -Elisha Hunt Rhodes' diary. Major General Sumner Executive Mansion My dear Sir: May 14, 1862. After receiving word of General McClellan's death and, in consultation with the Secretary of War, I have decided that you should lead the army to victory. It is up to you now. Yours Truly, -Letter of promotion to General Edwin V. Sumner from President Abraham Lincoln. We need Burnside here. Tell him that his operations in North Carolina are over. Richmond may not fall as hard as General McClellan thought but my God it will not be easy. -Major General Edwin V. Sumner to an aide before sending a telegram to General Ambrose E. Burnside, May 14th, 1862. May 15th, 1862. Thursday, we received orders to march this morning. It seems that General Sumner wants to get to Richmond as fast as he can. General Burnside will be following us with his corps as soon as they are able. I certainly hope so as we need all the help we can get. -Elisha Hunt Rhodes' diary. May 21st, 1862. General Sumner may have gained command one week ago but he is still weak. You must attack sir or else we will be destroyed. -Telegram from Confederate President Jefferson Davis to General Joseph E. Johnston. While General Sumner continued to move up the Peninsula, Jefferson Davis called for General "Stonewall" Jackson send any reinforcements he could spare to help shore up the capital. Jackson, in a telegram that would haunt him later, said that he could not spare any reinforcements at this time as he had thought that the reports of McClellan's death were false. He only confirmed McClellan's death on May 21st, when Davis called for General Johnston to attack the Army of the Potomac. Jackson was forced to make a decision: either stay in the Shenandoah Valley and keep General Pope from reinforcing Sumner or reinforce and risk Richmond being surrounded. It did not matter either way in the end. -A History of the Civil War by Albert Foote, American Press, New York, 1957. May 23rd, 1862. General Sumner is moving faster than expected. You are ordered to move to Richmond at once. Pope is moving in our direction now. It is of the utmost urgency that you get here. -Telegram from Confederate President Jefferson Davis to General Thomas J. Jackson. May 27, 1862.There has been a great victory in Virginia near Richmond. After McClellan's death, I expected the Army of the Potomac to be too demoralized to fight. It seems, however, that his death has lead to victory at least, for the time being. -George Templeton Strong's diary. The fight had been furious, most notably at Fair Oaks. Longstreet began it on May 25th. He was marching on Nine Mile road, which put him under Gustavus Smith, who outranked him. Longstreet, however, was able to convince Johnston let him take command of the forces on the left, which Johnston agreed to, provided that control reverts back to Johnston when the troops converged. Longstreet, thus encouraged, moved his brigades along the road until he ran head long into Samuel Heintzleman's III Corps. Heintzleman managed to beat back the oncoming rebels four times before Philip Kearny's III Division of his corps turned Longstreet's left flank forcing a retreat. General Israel Richardson, in command of the Union center, was dealing with Smith and John B. Magruder. General Richardson, having recently been promoted to corps command, fought hard advancing well into the enemy lines, fighting off Longstreet on his right and D.H. Hill on his left trying to get behind him. It wasn't until 4:00 in the afternoon that he stopped and consolidated his position. It was at this point that Richardson realized that he was slightly forward from the rest of the army. Fortunately Heintzleman came up on his right flank soon afterwards and General Keyes kept the rebels busy on his left. General Keyes had his hands full with both D. H. Hill and A.P. Hill. He was being pushed back until General Burnside and what was now called the X Corps came up in support in one of those nick of the moment things. Burnside was able to push A.P. Hill back while Keyes did the same to D.H. Hill. It was as Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his military advisor R.E. Lee came to see what was going on that the army started in an organized retreat. -A History of the Civil War by Albert Foote, American Press, New York, 1957. Columbia, South Carolina, May 31st, 1862.-A battle has recently raged around Richmond. Gustavus Smith dead and A.P. Hill wounded. A telegram says that [Robert E.] Lee and Davis were on the field and that Lee was wounded. The telegram says it is not serious though one cannot know for sure. Richmond is besieged and likely to fall. My eyes, however, are now drawn to the west. -Mary Chestnut's diary. General Bragg replaced General Beauregard as the head of the Army of Mississippi on June 4th following the abandonment of Corinth [Mississippi] and then the army in Tupelo [Mississippi]. We had no faith in Bragg for he was a tyrant. However we did not stay in Tupelo for very long as General Bragg and General Kirby Smith were intent to attack Kentucky through eastern Tennessee. We did not make it. -Company "Aytch" or: the Side show to the Big Show by Sam Watkins, serialized in the Columbia, Tennessee Herald, 1864. General Halleck had been long sent east to take over from General McClellan as General in Chief of the armies on the 15th of May. He did not leave until the 25th of May, and during that time he was very uncommunicative. It was not until the 24th of June that I was put in command of the department [of the Mississippi]. I had ordered General Buell to go to Chattanooga, as quickly as he could march, to prevent General Bragg from invading. I was surprised that he did so under my orders. What happened afterwards I was mostly pleased with. -The Memoirs of General Grant by Ulysses S. Grant, Charles L. Webster and Co., New York, 1880. Buell was not inclined to follow Grant's orders, at first. It was not until June 25th that he started moving. However Bragg and Buell were to meet at Knoxville, Tennessee on July 3rd, 1862. Buell was actually several miles away when the battle started and did not learn what was going on until that afternoon. Bragg, on the other hand, was closer to the fighting. The fighting was going well for the Union. They were going to carry the day. However, that was stopped by two people: Nathan Bedford Forrest and Buell himself. Unfortunately, for the Union, Buell had arrived on the field at 6:00 and called for a halt to the action, even thought the Union was winning. Buell's second in command George Thomas protested. Buell responded that he was simply going to a better position. "Besides," he said, "it is getting late (which it was); I will not exhaust the men." This gave Forrest time to make one of his daring raids on the Union. This unsettled Buell enough that he did not press the attack the next day. However, neither did Bragg. The Army of the Ohio had stopped the invasion of Kentucky before it got there. -A History of the Civil War by Albert Foote, American Press, New York, 1957. With Johnston holding on in the siege of Richmond, and the tactical draw of Knoxville in the west, President Lincoln called a cabinet meeting on July 5th, 1862. He said that he had been thinking about a plan of gradual compensated emancipation for a while and that it will give the southern states a chance to rejoin the union if they freed their slaves, for a fee. President Lincoln would also ask the border slave states of Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland and Missouri to join in on this plan as well. Secretary of State William Seward advised the president that it would be prudent to wait until the Union had a few more victories before making such a proclamation. That with Richmond likely to fall soon, it would be for the best. Lincoln agreed on the condition that he do it immediately after. -Life of Lincoln: a Biography of the 16th President by Theodore Roosevelt, Lee and Shepard, Boston, 1883. July 7th, 1862. Monday, General Sumner has ordered our corps to go with General Burnside's corps and sweep around the Confederate lines. Some of the boys say that Stonewall Jackson is in Richmond now. I hope not for he is the most feared Confederate in this here army. -Elisha Hunt Rhoades' diary. Truth was Jackson was trying to do the exact same thing from the other direction. While Keyes and Burnside were trying to maneuver around the Confederate right, Jackson was trying to turn the Union right. However Johnston was either unable or unwilling to support Jackson and so Jackson's attack failed. The fight to the south of Richmond was far more successful for the Confederacy as they were able to stave off defeat for the time being. However, the commands of Banks, McDowell and Sigel were converging on Richmond from the north. Robert E. Lee, who was still in hospital after losing his left leg in May, reluctantly advised abandoning the capital. Jefferson Davis was reluctant to do this as it would lessen the likelihood of European intervention. Lee reminded Davis that there was no hope for intervention at all if the capital and government were both captured. And so Davis began to make plans to leave Richmond. -A History of the Civil War by Albert Foote, American Press, New York, 1957. General Bragg was mighty sore after the battle at Knoxville and we had retreated all the way to Chattanooga. We got there on July 12th, we started digging in. When Buell finally caught up to us we were pretty well entrenched. Shot and shell went about my head during that battle and we staved off the Union army on that day. It was not until later that we found out that General Bragg was dead, making him the second commander in three months that we lost. We now were fighting under General Leonidas Polk. -Company "Aytch" or: the Side show to the Big Show by Sam Watkins, serialized in the Columbia, Tennessee Herald, 1864. As I lead my army south towards Vicksburg, I learned of Bragg's demise. I ordered General Buell to attack as soon as possible and hoped that he would follow through. Meanwhile I was approaching Chickasaw Bayou, north of Vicksburg. On the 14th of July, 1862, we attacked a Confederate encampment there. The enemy force was so small that we overcame them easily. Their commander was General John C. Pemberton, a man I met briefly in Mexico, had hoped that we only send one corps this way. I replied that that would have been stupidity bordering on madness. From there we marched on Vicksburg. It is hard to imagine what would have happened if we had not caught Pemberton. As it was we managed to capture the city without much of a fight on the 1st of August. -The Memoirs of General Grant by Ulysses S. Grant, Charles L. Webster and Co., New York, 1880. The combined falls of Richmond and Vicksburg was enough for President Lincoln to pass a preliminary compensated emancipation document. In it President Lincoln declared that all slaves in the Confederacy not under Union occupation to be free. In addition, in return for repealing their ordinance of succession and being allowed to re-enter the Union, slaveholders would get compensation, which is something President Lincoln had been pushing for. President Lincoln also called for a constitutional amendment banning slavery. That same day Congress banned slavery in the territories, reversing that damned Dred Scott decision. Congress also introduced the proposal for the thirteenth amendment. -Life of Lincoln: a Biography of the 16th President by Theodore Roosevelt, Lee and Shepard, Boston, 1883. July 17, 1862. Only the damnedest of damned abolitionists would have dreamed of this happening a year ago. John Brown's soul is marching on it seems, and the nation with it. -George Templeton Strong's diary. The president has moved in the right direction at last. However, this battle is far from over. Now the Negro must be allowed to fight for his freedom. Let him put on those brass buttons with the letters, US, on them. Then we shall finally free this nation from the tyranny of slaveholders. -Speech by Frederick Douglass, July 18th, 1862. The first segregated units, that is to say all Negro units with white officers, would start training that August. In the meantime Grant's army was moving on Port Hudson in Louisiana, Buell was slowly moving around Chattanooga and Johnston had been replaced by Jackson as head of the Army of Northern Virginia. Lee was forced to stay behind in Richmond as he was still recovering when the Army of the Potomac was entering the city. Johnston lamented in his memoirs "I wished I had been wounded instead of Lee. It would have been so much better for the Confederacy." Johnston had expressed as much to Lee personally and the rift in their friendship began to heal. -A History of the Civil War by Albert Foote, American Press, New York, 1957. My men will never retreat from a position they are ordered to defend. -General T.J. "Stonewall" Jackson to Major Heros von Borcke, Prussian officer on General JEB Stuart's staff, outside Columbia, Virginia, August 2nd, 1862. General Sumner, having incorporated the three departmental Corps under General McDowell, General Banks and General Sigel as the I, V and VI Corps of the Army of the Potomac, marched out of Richmond leaving the battered III Corps under Samuel Heintzleman to garrison the town. As Sumner approached Columbia, Confederate cavalry under JEB Stuart attacked. It was a brief raid but it was decisive. However, it did have a lasting impact. -A History of the Civil War by Albert Foote, American Press, New York, 1957. President Lincoln has received word that General Sumner has had a health episode in the field. It is unknown at this time whether or not his life was in danger, however, as he was back on his feet soon after. Word around the capitol is that the president is preparing for the possibility of General Sumner's death in the possible near future. -Harper's Weekly, August 9th, 1862.
Near Port Hudson, LA.
August 11, 1862.
Dear Sir, General Gardner has limited supplies and I believe will not hold for long. Nevertheless, I shall attack soon, if practicable. Either way, I believe Port Hudson will be ours. -Telegram from General Ulysses S. Grant to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. We had just heard about the fall of Vicksburg and heard that the Federals were headed toward Port Hudson. However, we were assigned to make sure the Army of the Ohio did not get to Atlanta. To do that we had made Chattanooga into a fortress. -Company "Aytch" or: the Side show to the Big Show by Sam Watkins, serialized in the Columbia, Tennessee Herald, 1864. Friday, 15th August, 1862. The American Republic is coming back together it seems. I fear what this will mean for our Canadian holdings. There is a certain segment of American society for whom the conquest of at least part that section of the empire will give total control of the continent. They will not get far as the American people will be sick of war by then. However, what they may conquer is the problem. For any portion of British North America lost to the Americans is a loss too many. -William H. Russell, London Times. Relations between the United States and Great Britain had never been good. There were grumblings in both Washington D.C. and London ever since the capture of two Confederate agents on the steamer Trent in March 1862. At the time Lincoln did not want a war with Great Britain, and quietly, let the two Confederates go. Now with the Civil War winding down, Lincoln sought some form of recompense from Great Britain for turning a blind eye to Confederate activities in British North America and Britain herself, like having ships built in British ship yards and a raid from British North America by Confederate agents. It was just a matter of time before these sides came to blows. -The Ghosts Still Remain: Anglo-American Relations through Peace and War by Field Marshall Sir William Livingstone, Oxford University Press, London, 1943. August 17th, 1862. Sunday, we took a severe beating today. General Sumner says that we took too long to support General Burnside on the left and that is what allowed the rebels to hold us back. And so General Keyes has been replaced with General “Baldy” Smith of 2d Division. I do not know much about him but the boys of 2d Division say that he was a friend of the late General McClellan and that is a relief to me. It looks like we will fight again tomorrow. I hope so. The Army of Northern Virginia does not seem to have much time left. -Elisha Hunt Rhoades’ diary. In a way Sgt. Rhoades was right. The Army of the Potomac was encircling the Army of Northern Virginia by the hour. General Jackson insisted on staying put telling Jeff Davis, who was by know in a small town called Appomattox Courthouse with the rest of the Confederate government, that he was intending to defend Virginia until his dying breathe. In later years Jackson would concede that maybe he should have retreated when he had the chance. However, he said, at the time he felt he had no choice. The next day, August 18th, 1862, Jackson attacked hoping against hope to stage a break out of the Army of Northern Virginia. However, it was too late. Among the wounded from that attempt were Colonel John Brown Gordon, commander of the 6th Alabama, who had been shot in the face and survived and Captain Robert Gould Shaw, an officer with the 32nd Massachusetts one of the first all Negro regiments in the army, who lost the use of his left arm in that battle. Seeing the light General James Longstreet, managed to convince General Jackson of the futility of the situation and on August 19th, 1862, Jackson surrendered. -A History of the Civil War by Albert Foote, American Press, New York, 1957. With the capture of the Army of Northern Virginia and Port Hudson a week later on August 26th, the Confederate States of America was dead. While the Confederate government was running, trying to get into Mexico and, for some, Canada, the Lincoln administration was planning for what came after. There were those, Secretary of State Seward in particular, who wanted to invade Canada and take it into the union. President Lincoln, while a reluctant supporter of Manifest Destiny, said that if Secretary Seward could provide sufficient reasons and if Congress agreed with those reasons then the country would again go to war. In the meantime, the rest of the South started surrendering. When the defenders of Chattanooga first heard of Jackson's surrender they thought it was a trick. However, General Polk saw that the defenders had no choice and surrendered on August 31st, 1862. President Lincoln was encouraged by this news. Less encouraging was the news regarding the 13th amendment to the constitution. The war would soon be over and it still had not passed. President Lincoln still had to deal the Congressional elections in November. The 13th amendment did pass in the Senate earlier in the year. While he was popular, President Lincoln did not think he was that popular. -Life of Lincoln: a Biography of the 16th President by Theodore Roosevelt, Lee and Shepard, Boston, 1883. I believe that this is the time to abolish this most horrendous of sins of this nation. If not now then we will be damned for all time. That is why this amendment must pass. -Congressman Thaddeus Stevens R-Pennsylvania, on the floor of the House of Representatives, during a special session of Congress, September 5th, 1862. This week in a close vote in the House has barely passed the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. It was hard fought by both sides. However, at 118 to 57, the amendment passed the House in a special session. This new amendment reads:
"ARTICLE 13.—Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
“Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."
Now it is being passed to the states for ratification.
NEWS ITEMS
While the Southern States are mostly pacified there are still guerrillas working in some areas trying to resist the government. Others are going to Mexico. Jefferson Davis has been captured outside of the city of Charlotte, North Carolina last Wednesday. We have reports that the White House planning on having Mr. Davis lightly sentenced. How does one lightly sentence for treason? -Harper's Weekly, September 20th, 1862. The work of abolition is over. The greater work is just beginning. -Frederick Douglass, in a letter to William Lloyd Garrison, September 21st, 1862. My comrades and I thought about continuing the fight or going Mexico. In the end we decided that maybe this was all part of God's plan for us and we fought as best we could and still lost. I, for one, was glad that we decided to stay. I wanted to help Tennessee as best as I could. -Company "Aytch" or: the Side show to the Big Show by Sam Watkins, serialized in the Columbia, Tennessee Herald, 1864. Columbia, South Carolina, September 20th, 1862. The recent news out of Washington has left a feeling in me that I cannot describe. Mrs. Davis [Jefferson Davis' wife] is too overcome with grief over what has happened to her husband to care. This war has cost us and now that we have lost, we must face the consequences. -Mary Chestnut's diary. There were those from the upper echelons of former Confederate society, mainly generals and politicians, who wanted to leave. Those that did leave, like former Confederate President Jefferson Davis when he was pardoned, were few and thought that they would a fair deal from their fellow citizens. Most though stayed and tried to heal the divisions that the war made. -A History of the Civil War by Albert Foote, American Press, New York, 1957. My duty is complete. God has decided this conflict and I must adhere to His will. -Comments made by General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson to his wife Mary, September 21st, 1862. The question for a long time has been vexing politicians in Richmond whether to readmit Virginia as one state or two. Last Wednesday, September 24th, that question was answered: Virginia shall return as one state with a gradual compensated emancipation date of April 9th, 1865. This follows Delaware’s narrow passing of similar legislation on September 15th, calling for Delaware’s slaves to be free on September 17th, 1863. The other former slave states are even now considering their own versions of this legislation. Congress is set to debate on Virginia’s and Delaware’s proposals when the session resumes in December. -Harper’s Weekly, September 27th, 1862. Wednesday, October 1st, 1862. It has come to the attention of certain honorable people that the Americans during their recent civil war illegally crossed the border into Canada. The purpose, they say, was to get deserters from their army. However, there is now evidence that they have kidnapped British subjects and impressed them into their army. There was a war fought fifty years ago for that very reason. If we have to fight to restore the honour of our subjects then so be it. -William H. Russell, London Times.