by Alan Sewell
Davis was relieved that he would not have to worry about the specifics of thwarting Fremont in Maryland. Stanton, with his untiring energy, would allocate the troops necessary to contain Fremont and then force him back into Pennsylvania.
“That brings our discussion to Missouri. I’ve received reports of the Rebels commanded by their General Curtis raiding into the northern counties.”
“The Rebels have raided the northern tier of counties bordering Iowa,” Stanton explained. “Telegrams arriving this morning report that a raid by Abolitionist guerillas operating out of Kansas also took place against Osceola, Missouri the day before yesterday. Unconfirmed reports have it that they executed nine slave owners in cold blood before returning to Kansas.”
“We don’t need that devil’s work to get started up again,” Davis said, slamming his fist on the table. “McClellan thought we could avoid a guerilla war if we kept our men out of Kansas. But if they’re determined to start a war we’ll have to respond. What is Sterling Price doing out there?”
“He’s occupying the counties along the Missouri River from St. Louis to Jeff City with his Missouri Militia.”
“He needs to be more aggressive in moving against the Abolitionists raiding from Iowa and Kansas. Governor Jackson will ask for the return of the units he sent to Illinois if the Rebels keep raiding the state. I suspect that is the purpose of these raids --- to thin our line in Illinois.”
Stanton scribbled a note. “I’ll inform Price of our conversation. If the reports of the Osceola murders are verified I would think that it will enrage the Missourians to go on the rampage against the Abolitionists with a vengeance.”
“Let’s try to keep it a civilized war if we possibly can,” Davis replied wearily. “I don’t want to endorse bushwhacking. Once it gets started it becomes impossible to stop. And it will give the Rebels more propaganda to feed the British about our supposed ‘inhumanity’ even if it is the Rebels who are committing the depredations.”
Davis stood up, walked around the room, sat back down, and sipped his coffee. Stanton could see that he was troubled. Was it because of the protest he had received from the British Ambassador this morning, or was it something more? Davis finally confessed his doubts.
“Mr. Secretary, McClellan planned for us to defeat the Rebels in ninety days. By now we were to be in possession of the Eastern Seaboard from Philadelphia to New England. In the Northwest we were to be in possession of Chicago, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Dayton, and Cincinnati. The Rebel armies were to have been surrounded by our mobile units and destroyed. Except for the operation in New England, we have not had anywhere near the success we anticipated.”
“It was a sound plan,” interjected Stanton. “It failed by narrow margins --- in Pennsylvania when Fremont showed up at Gettysburg and in Illinois when the tempest dumped its rain on Lee’s offensive. The fortunes of war have gone against us during these last ninety days. Odds are that they will favor us in the future. They appear to be working in our favor now around Cincinnati and Lawrenceburg.”
“Yes,” agreed Davis, “and I will be grateful if the victory at Lawrenceburg is consummated.”
Davis studied national map on the wall. “But the Rebels hold a compact territory with densely populated cities. We’ll still have to fight our way through Chicago, Indianapolis, South Bend, Dayton, Columbus, Toledo, Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Rochester, Albany, Hartford, and of course Philadelphia.
They’re operating on interior lines that allow them to move reinforcements to defend any point on their line faster than we can move men to attack it. They blocked our offensives in Pennsylvania and Illinois. Even our surprise landing in New England has come to much less than expected. They moved their people back behind Sherman’s line and then gave Mac a bloody nose with their counterattack from Providence.”
“It’s a very long front,” replied Stanton. “Can they possibly defend it all? We outgun them in heavy artillery. If necessary we can stack the guns hub to hub and bludgeon them as we have at Cincinnati.”
“The British will not allow that!” exclaimed Davis. “That’s what so disturbed me about the British ambassador’s letter. They are looking for any excuse to intervene. They were infuriated by our campaign slogan ‘Confederate Union, United Expansion.’ They want to thwart us from further expansion into Mexico and the Canadas by helping the Free States become independent. If we bombard our way into another Rebel city the Insurgents will call it a ‘crime against humanity’ and ask the British intervene. I imagine they are feeding the British stories at this very moment about atrocities in Providence. We can’t fight the Free States and the British too.”
Stanton considered the point.
“Even if the British don’t intervene,” continued Davis, “the Rebels have turned this from a war of maneuver --- that favors us ---- into a war of attrition that favors them. By my reckoning we’ve lost seventy thousand men in the ninety days of hostilities, and that’s not including the ten thousand we lost retaking St. Louis during the Partisan War.”
“Our losses have actually been higher than that, sir,” replied Stanton. “The recent fighting in Cincinnati and outside of Providence has been very heavy. We’ve lost slightly more than ninety thousand men permanently removed from service in the last ninety days. Those losses include men killed or wounded so severely as to require discharge; the large captures of our men from Kirby Smith’s and Pemberton’s divisions on the Wabash; and men deceased or incapacitated by camp diseases.”
Davis did the calculations in his head. “That means we could expect to lose three hundred sixty thousand men lost in a full year of campaigning. At the rate we’re going it might take us two or three years to put down the Rebellion. That’s upward of a million casualties on our side and a similar number on theirs. All the while we’ll have the British looking for excuses to intervene ‘in the name of humanity.’ We’ll have our own Southern Rights men agitating against us, and we’ll have the newspapers doing what newspapers always do, which is to carp and complain and stir up dissent.”
Davis looked directly at Stanton. “Can we win this war?”
“We are winning it,” Stanton replied firmly. “The Rebel incursions into the countryside of Missouri and Maryland in no way compensate for their loss of St. Louis, Cincinnati, Boston, and Portland. They are going to lose Providence too, when starvation forces its capitulation. By taking the New England ports we’ve removed their navy from the war. The loss of those ports has squeezed their commerce into one overloaded railroad through Montreal. They’re being squeezed and bled.”
“The squeezing is much less than it should be with the British offering them protected communications routes through their Canadian back door,” protested Davis. “It’s one of many factors that make it so difficult for us. McClellan thought we had to win the war quickly or not at all. The people’s patience is wearing thin. All they see is casualties, debt, and consolidation of powers wielded by the national government. Many are asking why we are fighting the Rebels when we could have peace just by letting them go.”
Stanton folded his arms under his chin and closed his eyes. He carefully composed his thoughts, as he had learned to do in many courtrooms.
“Mr. President, we are fighting this war in several spheres: military, economic, political, and diplomatic. McClellan’s military plan to defeat the Rebels in ninety days has come up short, but the economic mobilization has produced the anticipated men and equipment. Even with our losses we’ll have five to six hundred thousand men in the field by next spring. With that many men under arms, opportunities are certain to present themselves for us to inflict defeats on the Rebels and gain territory at some points on the line.
“We are building an ocean-going armored navy --- a navy powerful enough to make even the British cautious about intervening on behalf of the Rebels. We are building a riverine navy in the Mississippi Valley. We will be able to ascend the Ohio as far as Pittsburgh. That will give us a springboard to move ag
ainst Cleveland. If the Rebels see their capital threatened they will have to pull back from other fronts.
“And don’t underestimate the difficulties the Rebels are facing. They are sustaining severe casualties too. Once attrition removes their most committed volunteers they’ll have to turn to conscription to force men into their armies. That will put their Democratic voters in an uproar. If the Republicans ever allow elections they might well be voted out of office and men amenable to returning to the Confederate Union elected to replace them. If they won’t permit elections they’ll run the risk of having to put down a rebellion by their disfranchised dissidents. Why should they be more able to withstand their internal stresses than we should be able to withstand ours?”
Davis still seemed skeptical. Stanton suddenly realized what needed to be done to calm his president’s anxieties.
“What we need to be doing now is planning for next year’s operations,” Stanton advised. “Let’s bring McClellan and Lee together to devise a master plan of military campaigns. Let’s organize a diplomatic mission to the Canadas and Britain by Secretary of State Seymour. We will considerably lessen the odds of British intervention if we make it plain that we have renounced our intentions to acquire their North American dominions and merely want to recover our own Rebel States. Let’s draw up a plan for the political reconstruction of the country. That will get the people on both sides to start looking beyond the war toward peace. Such reflections will strengthen us while weakening the Rebels.”
“How will it weaken the Rebels?”
“It will show them that we have a plan for administering the country after we put down the Rebellion. The plan may include redrawing state boundaries, such as consolidating the six New England states into a single state to eliminate ten of their Abolitionist senators from the Federal Congress. It may include some prohibitions on our slave owners from recovering slaves that escape to the Free States. Since that involves only three or four hundred slaves a year the simple solution is to tax the Free States to compensate the slave owners for the slaves that escape north.”
“That would be the fair way to handle it,” said Davis. “I wonder why nobody ever thought of proposing it?”
“Because people do not act wisely when their emotions are inflamed to passion,” replied Stanton. “After we have put down the rebellion and reunited the country we must demand a period of calm reflection on both sections. We must make it clear to the Free States that when they give up the Rebellion there will be a period of national reconciliation that will give a fair hearing to each section’s interests. There will be no inflammatory rhetoric from either the Southern Fire Eaters or the Northern Abolitionists.”
And if the extremists in both sections don’t learn to keep their mouths closed then I will make certain that they are confined to places where they will never be heard from again.
“And the most important thing is what you must do, Mr. President,” continued Stanton, fixing Davis firmly in his gaze. “You must convince the people --- North and South --- that their future, and the destiny of all generations that follow us, depends upon this country remaining united. You must let them know that we will never have peace if the Free States gain their independence and ally themselves with the Europeans.”
Stanton raised his arms. “Mr. President, the Confederate Union is not perfect. I do not believe that slavery or an excessive reverence for States Rights is in the character of what the Founders intended us to become. But, by God, this is our common country! We are all Americans, and we must remain Americans. Let us reunite and then we will adjust our differences among ourselves. We can do this as fellow citizens, but never as aliens across a hostile border. Mr. President, you must make the people understand that! Lee and McClellan and I can win this war for you militarily. But you must win it politically. You must win it for the present generation and all generations of Americans to follow. The future of mankind itself depends upon the character of your leadership during this trial by fire!”
Davis nodded vigorously, showing Stanton that he had regained his confidence in seeing the war through to the victorious return of all the states to the Confederate Union.
“Write to Lee and McClellan,” said Davis. “Find out when the fronts are quiet enough for them to leave their commands and get here to meet with us for a week. We’ll figure a way to defeat the Rebels. We will do it together.”
33
Springfield, Illinois, December 23, 1861
“Thank you for this trip home, Father,” said Mary Lincoln to her husband. “It did me a world of good to get away from that mare’s nest in Cleveland. I think it has done you a lot of good too.”
“It has,” replied Mr. Lincoln. “It’s cleared my head so that I can concentrate on what I want to tell the country in my Message to Congress. I plan on addressing a portion of the speech to the people of the towns we pass through on our return to Cleveland.”
“Have you decided what to say?”
“I’ll begin by recounting the successes we’ve recently had in the field. Sherman is giving the Confederates fits around Providence. He lifted the siege long enough to run some food and ammunition into the city. The people are vowing not to surrender as long as they have strength to lift their rifles and ammunition to fire them. In Indiana General Mitchel has extracted most of his men from the Confederate envelopment. He had to abandon his trains and leave about a thousand of his sick and wounded behind at Lawrenceburg. But the bulk of his army has safely returned to our lines.”
“Those Confederates aren’t finding easy pickings anywhere, are they?”
“No, they are not, Mother. The war is costing them more than they expected. I want to make clear in my speech that more and more of their people are questioning whether their war to force us back into their Confederate Union is worth the cost. Time is on our side, not theirs. Then I want to conclude with inspiring words like those I delivered at Gettysburg and Columbus. I brought along the writings of Washington, Jefferson, Adams, and Madison. By studying their words that inspired us during our first war for independence, I shall try to come up with the right words to inspire our people in our second war.”
“I’m sure you’ll find the right words, Father.” Mrs. Lincoln smiled. “Your speeches are always well received.”
Mr. Lincoln leaned back in his chair in the parlor of their Springfield home and spread his long legs over the footstool. He enjoyed the glow from the fireplace that warmed his stocking feet and face. Outside the snow swirled past the window in the winter’s early dusk. Robert Lincoln, having evacuated from Harvard when Boston fell to the Confederates, was busy outside guiding a horse-drawn sled that carried Tad and Willie up and down Eight Street. Mrs. Lincoln, sitting on a chair across from the President, was absentmindedly mending a tear on one of her shawls. The familiar sight made Mr. Lincoln wonder for a moment if he had ever left this house. Is my memory of the last seven months in Cleveland just a dream?
“There is something about home that revives the spirit,” he said. “I’m so glad you talked me into taking these few days to get away from Cleveland. The fronts are quiet at the moment. They will not stay that way for long. Who knows when we will be able to come back?”
“Perhaps we can come back again in spring,” suggested Mrs. Lincoln. “Cleveland is barely more than a day’s train ride away.”
“Yes, the trip is easy now that our railroads are back in service. Cleveland is a well-chosen capital, central to all the Free States east of the Mississippi.” He picked up the book of Thomas Jefferson’s writings. “Mr. Jefferson felt the United States should have its capital in the Northwest, somewhere near Cleveland. He felt that the Northwest was destined become the center around which the rest of the country orbits.”
“Then Springfield is the center of the center,” replied Mrs. Lincoln. “You and Stephen Douglas and I met right here in this little town when we were just starting out in life. Imagine that, two presidents making their lives in such an out of the way place as t
his! And both of you wanted to marry me!”
Lincoln howled with laughter. “Why, Mother, you never told me that Judge Douglas proposed to you!”
“He didn’t, but he would have if I hadn’t dropped hints that proposing would be a waste of his time.”
“How do you know he would have proposed?”
“A woman knows!”
“Well, I do know for certain that without you I could not have become President. You refined this crude backwoods Illinois ‘Sucker’ into a passable dandy, fit to be seen in public!”
“At the very least I taught you not to eat peas with your knife.”
“Good that you did, Mother. Wouldn’t it have been the perfect scandal if I had used a knife instead of a spoon during our dinner with the Queen’s men during last week’s reception?”
“Stephen Douglas was worse than you. Everywhere he went he spit tobacco juice. I remember him spitting it on the dance hall floor and we ladies had to raise our skirts! I should think that wild Indians have better manners.” She wrinkled her nose. “And he smelled like a polecat. I don’t know how his wives put up with him.”
“You were meant to be a President’s wife,” replied Mr. Lincoln with a smile. “Luckily you picked the right President to wed.”
“That was my destiny,” answered Mrs. Lincoln knowingly. “When we were little boys and girls my mother taught us that the most powerful engine is the human mind. If we want something badly enough our minds will show us how to acquire it. My first wish was to be a president’s wife. That desire brought me to Springfield where I was courted by you and Mr. Douglas.” Mrs. Lincoln laughed. “Of course neither of you bedraggled ragamuffins looked like you would ever amount to anything when I first met you. Neither had a penny to your name and yet….”
“And yet destiny found us,” Mr. Lincoln completed the thought. “Stephen Douglas was twenty-one when he arrived here from Vermont without a proverbial pot to pee in. Five years later he was Chief Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court. Five years after that he was the most powerful man in his party. And I had my destiny too. The first book I ever read was The Life of Washington. When I was consumed by the drudgery of doing chores on my father’s little farm I used to dream of becoming a great President like Washington. That seed has stayed in my mind all these years and has propelled me, with you at my side, into restoring, in the United States of Free America, the country that Washington created.”
