The Confederate Nation: 1861 to 1865 (14 page)

In response to the larger conflict between North and South, Missouri conducted its own intrastate civil war. After Lincoln’s call for volunteers, bands of unionists and secessionist radicals armed themselves, and when United States troops attacked a pro-Southern state militia camp near St. Louis, fighting reminiscent of “Bleeding Kansas” began in the state. The Union army held Missouri in the Union, but violence continued. The state convention reassembled in late July and took a pro-Union position; however, many secessionists, including Governor Claibourne Jackson, were not in attendence. Jackson remained with his militia and in October 1861 called the legislature to meet at Neosho in the southwest corner of the state. The assembly rump promptly declared Missouri out of the Union, and on November 29, the Confederacy admitted Missouri and pronounced legitimate what was in essence a state government in exile. Missouri had stars in both American flags and representatives in two governments. For all practical purposes, however, the state remained in Union hands.
⁶¹

Kentucky sought neutrality. Governor Boriah Magoffin refused the request for troops from Washington and called a special session of the legislature to address the sectional crisis. He hoped for secession, but when the legislature rejected any radical course, he settled for a proclamation of neutrality. The neutral posture, however, lasted only a few months. Confederate troops entered the state in September 1861; in response to this violation of neutrality, the legislature reconfirmed the state’s allegiance to the United States. As in Missouri, a pro-Southern rump government proclaimed Kentucky’s secession and gained admission to the Confederacy, and like Missouri, Kentucky actually remained in the Union. About twice as many Kentuckians joined Union armies as fought in Confederate units.
⁶²

One week after the firing on Sumter a Baltimore mob attacked Massachusetts troops on their way to Washington. Fearing for his capital, Lincoln sent more soldiers into Maryland, and Governor Hicks called the state legislature into special session. Members of that body were loud in their condemnation of Hicks and Lincoln, yet they never took the long step of secession. Even though Southern sympathizers sang in “Maryland, My Maryland” of “the despot’s heel” and called upon listeners to “Avenge the patriotic gore/that flecked the streets of Baltimore,” Maryland, like Missouri and Kentucky, was very much in the Union.
⁶³

Mobilization and war added six stars to the Confederate flag, but two of those states, Kentucky and Missouri, remained occupied by the enemy throughout. Thus the Confederacy gained four of the eight border states: Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas. Even if the Southern nation failed to gain all the territory it had sought, the Sumter crisis had forced genuine self-determination of peoples.

1
Standard studies of the Sumter crisis include Samuel W. Crawford,
The Genesis of the Civil War: The Story of Sumter, 1860–61
(New York, 1887); Roy Meredity,
Storm Over Sumter
(New York, 1957); W. A. Swanberg,
First Blood
(New York, 1958); and Abner Doubleday,
Reminiscences of Forts Sumter and Moultrie in 1860–61
(New York, 1876).

2
The commissioners were James Orr, Robert W. Barnwell, and James H. Adams. See Swanberg,
First Blood,
pp. 34–40, 85–93, and “Memorandum of verbal instructions to Major Anderson …,” in
War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies,
70 vols, in 127 (Washington, D. C., 1880–1901), ser. I, I, 117.

3
Crawford,
Sumter,
p. 100.

4
William Kaufman Scarborough (ed.),
The Diary of Edmund Ruffin,
I,
Toward Independence, October, 1856-April, 1861
(Baton Rouge, La., 1972), 514–516.

5
Swanberg,
First Blood,
pp. 96–103; Crawford,
Sumter,
pp. 102–108.

6
Mary Boykin Chesnut,
A Diary from Dixie,
Ben Ames Williams (ed.), (Boston, 1949), p. 4; Charleston
Mercury,
December 28 and 31, 1860.

7
Charleston
Mercury,
December 28, 1860; Pickens to Anderson, December 28, 1860,
O.R.,
ser. I, I, 113; Anderson to Cooper, December 30, 1860,
O R.,
ser. I, I, 114; Anderson to Cooper, December 31, 1860,
O.R.,
ser. I, I, 120; and Crawford,
Sumter,
pp. 109–112.

8
Chesnut,
Diary,
p. 4.

9
See Grady McWhiney, “The Confederacy’s First Shot,”
Civil War History,
XIV (1968), 5–14; Richard N. Current, “The Confederates and the First Shot,”
Civil War History,
VII (1961), 357–369; and Ludwell H.Johnson, “Fort Sumter and Confederate Diplomacy,”
Journal of Southern History,
XXVI (1960), 441–77.

10
Anderson to Cooper, December 31, 1860, O.R., ser. I, I, 120; Frank W. Klingberg, “James Buchanan and the Crisis of the Union,”
Journal of Southern History,
IX (1943), 455–474; Allan Nevins,
The Emergence of Lincoln,
2 vols. (New York, 1950), II, 340–343.

11
Davis to Pickens, March 1, 1861, Dunbar Rowland
(ed.), Jefferson Davis, Constitutionalist: His Letters, Papers, and Speeches,
10 vols. (Jackson, Miss., 1923), V, 58–59.

12
See Harrison A. Trexler, “Jefferson Davis and Confederate Patronage,”
South Atlantic Quarterly,
XXVIII (1929), 45–58; Haskell Monroe, “Early Confederate Political Patronage,”
Alabama Review,
XX (1967), 45–61; and Paul P. Van Riper and Harry N. Scheiber, “The Confederate Civil Service,”
Journal of Southern History,
XXV (1959), 448–470.

13
Rembert W. Patrick
, Jefferson Davis and His Cabinet
(Baton Rouge, La., 1944), p. 51; Richard C. Todd,
Confederate Finance
(Athens, Ga., 1954), pp. 1–3, 25–34;
Journal of the Congress of the Confederate States of America, 1861–1865,
7 vols. (Washington, D.C., 1904–1905), I, 31–32. The standard biography of Memminger is still H. D. Capers,
The Life and Times of Christopher G. Memminger
(Richmond, Va., 1893).

14
Todd, Confederate Finance, p. 34; Patrick, Jefferson Davis and His Cabinet, pp. 212–216.

15
See for example T. C. DeLeon,
Four Years in Rebel Capitals
(Mobile, Ala., 1892), p. 27.

16
Patrick, Jefferson Davis and His Cabinet, pp. 104–106.

17
Frank E. Vandiver, Ploughshares into Swords: Josiah Gorgas and Confederate Ordnance (Austin, Tex., 1952), pp. 56–57; James M. Matthews (ed.). Statutes at Large of the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States of America (Richmond, Va., 1864), p. 104; Patrick, Jefferson Davis and His Cabinet, pp. 106–110.

18
J. B.Jones,
A Rebel War Clerk’s Diary
, Howard Swiggett (ed.), 2 vols. (New York, 1935), I, 63–64; Patrick,
Jefferson Davis and His Cabinet,
pp. 110–111. For examples of the volume and tone of Walker’s correspondence, see
O.R.,
ser. IV, I, 119–218.

19
Walker to Davis, April 27, 1861,
O.R.,
ser. IV, I, 247–254; Patrick,
Jefferson Davis and His Cabinet,
pp. 111–112.

20
Davis to Semmes, February 21, 1861, O.R., ser. IV, I, 106–107; Cooper to Huse, April 15, 1861,
O.R.,
ser. IV, I, 220; Gorgas Report, April 20, 1861,
O.R.,
ser. IV, I, 227–228; Walker to Davis, April 27, 1861,
O R.,
ser. IV, I, 247–252; Huse to Ordnance Bureau, May 21, 1861,
O R.,
ser. IV, I, 343–346.

21
Vandiver,
Gorgas,
pp. 3–65; Richard D. Goff,
Confederate Supply
(Durham, N.C., 1969), pp. 8–19.

22
Journal of Congress,
I, 75; Patrick,
Jefferson Davis and His Cabinet
, pp. 244–247. The standard biography of Mallory is Joseph T. Durkin,
Stephen R. Mallory: Confederate Navy Chief
(Chapel Hill, N.C., 1954). Davis to Congress, April 29, 1861,
O R.,
ser. IV, I, 266; Chesnut,
Diary,
pp. 8, 10–11; Tom H. Wells,
The Confederate Navy: A Study in Organization
(University, Ala., 1971), pp. vii-ix, 6, 11–12.

23
The standard biography of Reagan is Ben H. Procter,
Not Without Honor: The Life of John H. Reagan
(Austin, Tex., 1962). John H. Reagan,
Memoirs, with Spedal Reference to Secession and the Civil War,
John H. McCaleb (ed.), (New York, 1906), pp. 109–110; Patrick
, Jefferson Davis and His Cabinet,
pp. 272–276.

24
Reagan,
Memoirs,
pp. 130–134; Patrick
.Jefferson Davis and His Cabinet,
pp. 276–278; Robert C. Black III,
The Railroads of the Confederacy
(Chapel Hill, N.C., 1952), pp. 52–55. The standard work on the Confederate Post Office is August Dietz,
The Postal Service of the Confederate States of America
(Richmond, Va., 1929).

25
Patrick, Jefferson Davis and His Cabinet, pp. 157–158.

26
Ibid.,
p. 158. Biographies of Benjamin include Robert D. Meade,
Judah P. Benjamin: Confederate Statesman
(New York, 1943); and Rollin C. Osterweis,
Judah P. Benjamin: Statesman of the Lost Cause
(New York, 1933). The “contemporary admirer” was T. C. DeLeon,
Belles, Beaux and Brains of the 60's
(New York, 1907), pp. 91–92.

27
Patrick,
Jefferson Davis and His Cabinet,
pp. 159–162; Hudson Strode, “Judah P. Benjamin’s Loyalty to Jefferson Davis,”
Georgia Review,
XX (1966), 251–260.

28
Patrick, Jefferson Davis and His Cabinet, p. 78.

29
Ibid.,
p. 80. Biographies of Toombs include Ulrich B. Phillips,
The Life of Robert Toombs
(New York, 1913); and William Y. Thompson,
Robert Toombs of Georgia
(Baton Rouge, La., 1966).

30
Joumal of Congress, 1,46–47, 85–86; Jefferson Davis, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate States of America, 2 vols. (New York, 1881), I, 263–295.

31
Journal of Congress, I, 49; Patrick. Jefferson Davis and His Cabinet, pp. 82–84; James D. Richardson (ed.), A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Confederacy, 2 vols. (Nashville, Tenn. 1906), II, 1–8.

32
Richardson (ed.),
Messages and Papers,
III, 1–8.

33
lbid.

34
The classic study of Confederate diplomacy is still Frank Lawrence Owsley,
King Cotton Diplomacy,
2nd edition revised by Harriet Chappell Owsley (Chicago, 1957). The best recent study of wartime diplomacy on both sides is D. P. Crook,
The North, the South, and the Powers, 1861–1865
(New York, 1974).

35
Richardson (ed.),
Messages and Papers,
II, 8.

36
Toombs to Pickett, May 17, 1861,
ibid.,
II, 20–21.

37
See Yancey and Mann to Toombs, May 21, 1861,
ibid.,
II, 34–48. Crook,
North, South, and the Powers,
pp. 71–97.

38
DeLeon, Four Years, p. 33; Patrick, Jefferson Davis and His Cabinet, pp. 84–85.

39
Scarborough (ed.),
Ruffin Diary,
I, 557.

40
Lee to Dear Sister [Mrs. Anne Marshall], April 20, 1861, in Captain R. E. Lee,
Recollections and Letters of General Robert E. Lee
(Garden City, N.Y., 1904), p. 26.

41
Robert Gray Gunderson,
Old Gentleman’s Convention: The Washington Peace Conference of 1861
(Madison, Wis., 1961); Henry T. Shanks,
The Secession Movement in Virginia, 1847–1861
(Richmond, Va., 1934); Ralph A. Wooster,
The Secession Conventions of the South
(Princeton, N.J., 1962), pp. 139–148; George H. Reese (ed.),
Proceedings of the Virginia State Convention of 1861, 4
vols. (Richmond, Va., 1965); and William W. Freehling, “The Editorial Revolution, Virginia, and the Coming of the Civil War: A Review Essay,”
Civil War History,
XVI (1970), 64–72.

42
Wooster,
Secession Conventions,
pp. 190–194; J. Carlyle Sitterson,
The Secessionist Movement in North Carolina
(Chapel Hill, N.C., 1939).

43
Wooster,
Secession Conventions,
pp. 173–180; J. Milton Henry, “The Revolution in Tennessee, February, 1861, to June, 1861,”
Tennessee Historical Quarterly,
XVIII (1959), 99–119.

44
Wooster,
Secession Conventions,
pp. 155–164; Jack Scruggs, “Arkansas in the Secession Crisis,”
Arkansas Historical Quarterly,
XII (1953), 179–192; David Y. Thomas,
Arkansas in War and Reconstruction
(Little Rock, Ark., 1926); Thomas S. Staples, “The Arkansas Secession Convention of 1861,”
Southwestern Political Science and Social Science
Association, Proceedings
… (Fort Worth, Tex., 1925).

45
Wooster,
Secession Conventions,
pp. 223–239; William H. Lyon, “Clairborne Fox Jackson and the Secession Crisis in Missouri,”
Missouri Historical Review,
LVIII (1964), pp. 422–441.

46
Wooster,
Secession Conventions,
pp. 207–214; E. Merton Coulter,
The Civil War and Readjustment in Kentucky
(Chapel Hill, N.C., 1926), pp. 1–51.

47
Wooster, Secession Conventions, pp. 242–243; George L. P. Radcliffe, Governor Thomas H. Hicks of Maryland and the Civil War (Baltimore, 1901).

48
Wooster,
Secession Conventions,
pp. 251–255.

49
See Kenneth M. Stampp,
The Era of Reconstruction, 1865–1877
(New York, 1965), pp. 24–49, for an interpretation of Lincoln’s policy in regard to the nonplanters in the South.

50
See McWhiney, “First Shot,” 5–14.

51
Crawford,
Sumter,
pp. 113–420.

52
Beauregard to Walker, April 8, 1861, O.R., ser. I, I, 297; Walker to Beauregard, April 10, 1861,
O.R.,
ser. I, I, 297.

53
Beauregard to Anderson, April 11, 1861,
O.R.,
ser. I, I, 15. Anderson to Beauregard, April 11, 1861,
O.R.,
ser. I, I, 15.

54
Crawford,
Sumter,
pp. 422–426.

55
Scarborough, (ed.),
Ruffin Diary,
i,
588–589.

56
Ibid.,
593–601.

57
Wooster, Secession Conventions, pp. 148–154.

58
Ibid”
pp. 194–203.

59
Ibid,
pp. 180–189.

60
Ibid”
pp. 164–172.

61
Ibid.,
pp. 238–241.

62
Ibid.,
pp. 214–222.

63
Ibid.,
pp. 243–251.