Mobilization of the Union

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Mobilization of the Union

A Dismissal. Gen. George McClellan’s Peninsula campaign mirrored the rise and fall of Northern morale during the spring and early summer of 1862. Northerners sensed victory in May when McClellan’s force camped six miles outside Richmond, but morale collapsed in July as Lee drove a hesitant McClellan twenty miles backward to the James River in seven days. Once again claiming that he and his men were outnumbered, McClellan called for reinforcements and planned a second march to Richmond. Lincoln responded by replacing McClellan as general-in-chief of the army with Henry W. Halleck and ordered “Little Mac” back to Washington.

Militia Act. Unlike a year earlier, when Northern resolve hardened after the first defeat at Bull Run, the Northern response wavered after Lee’s counteroffensive in 1862. New recruits trickled into Union recruiting offices after the Seven Days’ fiasco. Congress then passed a Militia Act in July authorizing the president to institute a draft in order to force state governments to meet recruiting quotas. The following month Lincoln made plans to conscript 300,000 men, but before the draft could be implemented, Federal military forces received 421,000 three-year volunteers and 87,000 nine-month militiamen. Lincoln thus avoided a national draft and deflated civilian resentment, but the message was clear: Northern support for the war waxed and waned in direct correlation to Union success or failure on the battlefield.

Decision for Emancipation. In July Lincoln moved to escalate the war beyond preserving the Union. From the beginning, Radical Republicans and abolitionists pushed for emancipation as a war aim. Swayed by their arguments and the recent Union retreat from Virginia, Congress passed a Second Confiscation Act in July 1862 authorizing Union commanders to free all slaves that came within Union lines. Acknowledging the growing sentiment that to fight slaveholders without attacking slavery was a “half-hearted” business, Lincoln informed his cabinet at a 22 July meeting that he planned to issue an emancipation proclamation. The revolutionary edict would abolish slavery in the seceded states. Union soldiers would not only fight to save the Constitution, but also to free the slaves, turning the rebellion into a war of liberation. Lincoln hoped not only to hurt the South militarily but also to undermine renewed Confederate efforts to obtain European recognition. The president decided to wait for a Union victory on the battlefield before signing the proclamation into law after Secretary of State William Seward convinced Lincoln that to do otherwise would make emancipation appear to be an act of mere desperation.

Preliminary Proclamation. Following the Union victory at Antietam, Lincoln released a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on 22 September 1862. It stated that unless the seceded Confederate states voluntarily returned to the Union by 1 January 1863, all slaves within those states would be free. The act specifically excluded the Union slave states (Maryland, Delaware, Missouri, and Kentucky) and Southern territory under Union control. Approximately 830,000 slaves out of a total of four million were excluded under the provisions of this decree. On paper the Proclamation liberated all enslaved persons south of the Mason-Dixon line, but in reality they were not liberated until the arrival of Northern troops. Opposition to Lincoln’s policy grew nevertheless in the North as Peace Democrats agitated for an immediate cessation of hostilities without destroying slavery. To prevent criticism from undermining recruitment, Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus throughout the Northern states in September 1862. This gave Union authorities the power to arrest anyone suspected of disloyal or antiwar activism and hold them indefinitely without trial.

Gettysburg. In November 1862 Lincoln fired McClellan as commander of the Army of the Potomac because he failed to follow his victory at Antietam with a vigorous pursuit of Lee’s army. He replaced McClellan with Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside, who suffered defeat at Fredericksburg, Virginia, in December. An exasperated Lincoln then replaced Burnside with Gen. Joseph Hooker, who nearly lost the entire Army of the Potomac at Chancellorsville, Virginia, in May 1863. One month later Lee moved north into Pennsylvania. George G. Meade, the latest commander of the Army of the Potomac, positioned the Union army between Lee and the nation’s capital to check the Confederate advance. On 1-3 July, Union and Confederate forces fought the war’s most famous battle after reconnaissance teams from both armies accidentally collided at the small town of Gettysburg. Following two days of failed assaults, Lee sent thirteen thousand screaming infantrymen, under the command of George Pickett, to assault the center of Meade’s forces, entrenched on Cemetery Ridge. “Pickett’s Charge” was Lee’s greatest mistake, because

Union defenders killed or wounded more than half of the charging Confederates and forced Lee to retreat once again into Virginia on 4 July. Lee’s defeated Army of Northern Virginia lost nearly a third of its men at Gettysburg, and the severely weakened Confederate army never again threatened the Northern states with invasion.

Vicksburg. Independence Day 1863 also marked a turning point in the war because of the dramatic news that came from the Western theater. After a prolonged siege, Vicksburg, a Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River, fell to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. Four days later, the last Confederate fort on the Mississippi, Port Hudson, fell to Union troops. These stunning victories now placed the entire Mississippi River under Union control and split the Confederate nation geographically, as Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas were cut off from other Southern states.

Draft Riots. The summer of 1863 also signified a stronger Union commitment to the war. In March Congress had turned to a national draft which included a clause allowing men to hire substitutes for $300 (a year’s wage for a worker or ordinary farmer) to take their places. Not surprisingly, the draft produced much resentment, raising cries that the conflict was a “rich man’s war, but a poor man’s fight.” Soon antidraft protests turned into antidraft violence. The worst incident occurred on 13 July in New York City when mobs of Irish workingmen and women took to the streets. After four days of rioting and more than a hundred deaths, the rioters were stopped by Federal troops fresh from Gettysburg. It was the worst riot in American history and represented one of the last acts of public defiance against the Union war efforts. Afterward, antiwar sentiment declined, especially following the victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg.

Battery Wagner. Inspiring news from South Carolina brought further criticism upon the rioters. On 18 July African American soldiers attempted to take Battery Wagner, a Confederate stronghold at the entrance of Charleston Harbor. (Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation had called for the enlistment of African Americans into Union ranks). Led by Col. Robert Gould Shaw, a product of Boston’s high society, the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Regiment became the first Northern black unit to engage Confederate soldiers in a major battle. At Battery Wagner the regiment unsuccessfully charged the enemy defenses and lost 40 percent of its strength, but the defeat was hailed as a moral victory throughout the North. Eradicating popular myths of black inferiority, the African Americans under Shaw proved they could fight aggressively for their freedom. Before the war was over, some 180,000 blacks would fight for the Union.

THE LOUISIANA NATIVE GUARDS

Organized in April 1861, the Louisiana Native Guards, an African American regiment, served in both the Confederate and Union armies. After the fall of Fort Sumter, the free black community of New Orleans answered Jefferson Davis’ call to arms and formed an all-black militia unit. The regiment numbered 35 officers and 870 enlisted men; more than 80 percent were mulattoes, individuals having both white and black ancestry.

Ignoring the unit’s requests to fight, Southern military leaders relegated the regiment to parades and other public displays. When New Orleans fell in April 1862, Confederate authorities quickly disbanded the unit before Northern soldiers occupied the port. Union General Benjamin F. Butler took control of the city in May. Attempting to gain political favor with Republican officials, Butler mustered the African Americans, including many runaway slaves, into the Union army in September 1862, several months before the Emancipation Proclamation would officially sanction the enlistment of black soldiers. They were formed into three regiments, designated the First, Second, and Third Louisiana Native Guard Infantry. In May 1863 the regiments fought at the battle of Port Hudson, a Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River. Although they fought bravely, the attack was repelled by the Confederate defenders and the Union commander placed the fort under siege. Nevertheless the Louisiana Native Guards became the first black regiment to fight in a major Civil War engagement. Afterward, like so many other African American regiments, the Louisiana Native Guards were relegated to rear echelon details.

Source: James G. Hollandsworth, The Louisiana Native Guards: The Black Military Experience During the Civil War (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1995).