tary and naval descriptions by surviving participators, North and South; biographies, prepared from the private papers of great civilians, like Seward,' Chase, Stanton, and Sumner on the one side, and Stephens and Toombs on the other; likewise the authorized Memoirs of Grant, Sherman, McClellan, Sheridan, Lee, the Johnstons, Jackson, Longstreet, and other famous commanders. The Confederate histories of Jefferson Davis,3 Stephens, Pollard, and De Leon have been duly explored. From magazines and newspapers, contemporaneous with the war, much pictorial matter has been gathered, as also from the descriptions supplied by Carpenter, Chittenden, Noah Brooks, Ida M. Tarbell, and others. Nor have I been disinclined to reproduce some of my own vivid impressions of the period, formed in early manhood, not without some special opportunities for observing. In apportioning space for this narrative, I have subordinated battle details still in controversy, and the arithmetic of slaughter, for the sake of bringing out clearly the drift and purpose of successive campaigns and the traits of different commanders, and so as to present, moreover, some general features of the warfare worth dwelling upon. I have sought besides to present the political and social progress of this grave epoch, and the variations of our public opinion, in the course of what, after all, ought to be deemed the bloody culmination of a long political feud of sections. And while, throughout, I have striven to do full justice to honest and patriotic motives, North and South, and to that noble spirit of heroic devotion and self-sacrifice which animated the common people of both sections, Americans all, and brethren, I have not suppressed my personal convictions as to the real merits of this sanguinary strife, nor amiably shifted the ground of discussion. For, as it seems to me, if our grand experiment of popular government is to grandly endure, the real reconciliation of sec 1 That prepared by his son and assistant Secretary, Frederick W. Seward, is cited "Seward." 2 The author acknowledges special favors received from Stanton's biographer. Hon. George C. Gorham, and from Mr. Frederic Bancroft. 3 Citations" Davis" refer to that writer's Short History. tions will come finally in the common recognition, as a lesson for all future time, that between the social and industrial systems of equal opportunity and of race subjection, each ambitious of expansion in a confederated Republic like ours, there is a fatal antagonism. I have now reached the ultimate goal proposed in these historical labors. I have told my tale; I have finished my task; and the story of reconstruction and of a broader national existence I willingly leave to other pens. Whatever may have been my imperfections as a narrator of events, and no one, I am sure, whose aims are high, can be unconscious of his own shortcomings, I trust it may be said of me that I have written with a constant purpose to be just and truthful. BOSTON, October 3, 1899. JAMES SCHOULER. CONTENTS. Lincoln's colossal greatness; comprehension of his task, First Cabinet meeting; startling situation at Fort Sumter, President framing a conclusion; the Virginia convention, Executive appointments and the rush for office, First impressions of the President; his personal appearance, Relief expedition ordered to Sumter; Anderson's situation, Border slave States distracted; Virginia secedes, with North Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, and Delaware hold back, Route of other troops by Annapolis; Washington city isolated, volunteers, Increase of navy; Southern privateers; a blockade proclaimed, Virginia and South Carolina; the latter leads in rebellion, Conspiracy of leaders for State secession; Montgomery govern- Davis and Stephens, provisional President and Vice-President; Permanent constitution and government; Davis and Stephens Confederate constitution examined; its leading provisions and Not State autonomy, but recombination, the Southern intent, State sovereignty and secession practically a means to an end, Enthusiasm for slavery, and Southern homogeneousness, First session of Confederate Congress at Montgomery, Second session; ample preparations for resistance, Confederate government centralized; Davis and his policy, Southern military appointments; Lee, the Johnstons, and Jack- · 66 |
