xt7zpc2t544x https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7zpc2t544x/data/mets.xml Sherwood, Isaac R., 1835- 1923  books b92e601s552009 English H.J. Chittenden Co. : Toledo, Ohio Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. United States --History --Civil War, 1861-1865. Memories of the war text Memories of the war 1923 2009 true xt7zpc2t544x section xt7zpc2t544x 
    
    
   3' 
    
    
    
    
    
   MEMORIES OF THE WAR 
    
   MEMORIES OF THE WAR

By

Gen. Isaac R. Sherwood

#

Publishers

the h. j. chittenden co. toledo, ohio mcmxxiii 
   Copyrighted December, 1923,

by

ISAAC B. SHERWOOD, Toledo, Ohio 
   GENERAL ISAAC R. SHERWOOD 
    
   CONTENTS

Page

Chapter 1.................................................................... 1

The' Irrepressible Conflict in the Senate   The Bold Threat of Robert Toombs

Chapter II.................................................................. 8

The Heroic Literature of the War   The Songs Sung by Our Soldiers

Chapter III................................................................ 17

The First War Shock at Fort Sumter   First Battle in West Virginia

Chapter IV................................................................ 25

The   Famous   Fighting   McCook   Family of Ohio   Most Remarkable in War History

Chapter V.................................................................. 32

Shiloh   The  First  Great  Battle  and Victory West of the Alleghany Mountains

Chapter VI................................................................ 40

Famous Generals and Noted War Horses of the War, Who Carried War Heroes to Victory

Chapter VII.............................................................. 51

General Buell's Campaign in Kentucky   General Rosecrans Wins First Victory

Chapter VIII............................................................ 59

General  John   Morgan's   Bold   Cavalry Raid Through Indiana and Ohio   His Capture

Chapter IX................................................................ 69

General  Burnside's  Bold  Campaign   Over the Cumberland Mountains Into East Tennessee

Chapter X.................................................................. 80

The Siege of Knoxville   Battles of Dandridge, Mossy Creek and Huff's Ferry

Chapter XI................................................................ 90

Great Reunion of War Heroes, in Toledo, After the War   Two Future Presidents Present

Chapter XII.............................................................. 100

The Atlanta Campaign   The Two Days' Desperate Battle of Resaca, Georgia 
   CONTENTS

Page

Chapter XIII............................................................ HO

Battles of Allatoona Pass, Pine Mountain and Kenesaw   General Sherman's Mistake

Chapter XIV............................................................ 122

General Sherman's Message to General Corse    "Hold the Fort, For I Am Coming"    General Hood's Mistake

Chapter XV.............................................................. 132

Battle of Franklin, the Bloodiest Battle of the War   Thirteen Generals Killed or Wounded

Chapter XVI............................................................ 143

The Battle of Nashville   Last Great Battle and Victory West of the Allegheny Mountains

Chapter XVII............................................................ 154

The Midwinter Transfer of Our Army to the North Carolina Campaign   Fort Anderson

Chapter XVIII.......................................................... 165

Surrender of the Last Confederate Army Near Raleigh   Collapse of the Confederacy

Chapter XIX............................................................ 175

Capture and Imprisonment of Jefferson Davis    Why General Miles Put on Manacles

Chapter XX.............................................................. 186

Peaceful Days in North Carolina After the War    Two Notable Romances of Camp Life

Chapter XXI............................................................ 198

Ohio's  Part  in   the   Four   Years'   Conflict    General Grant's Losses in the Army

Chapter XXII.......................................................... 207

Chivalry of War   The Horse as a Factor of All War History   The Great Dramatic Poems

Chapter XXIII............................................... 220

Reunion of the Blue and the Gray at Chattanooga, Tennessee. Sixteen Years After the War

Chapter XXIV.......................................................... 236

My Memories of Abraham Lincoln 
    
   Dedicated to Kate Brownlee Sherwood

Y beloved wife, faithful comrade and brilliant

AVJL helpmate for fifty-two years, who shared the triumphs and defeats of my life with the same uncompromising optimism that dominated her remarkable career as poet, editor, philanthropist and apostle of righteousness. These war memories were made possible by her inspiration, Avhich never left me during her life, or death. The last stanza of her last poem, "Let It Be Said of Me," is the epitome of her radiant life of loving service:

"Let it be said of me    .Wherever there was holy cause to serve Or hearts that ache, or perils that unnerve, Wherever there was arduous task to do A path to light, a duty to pursue; Wherever there was child to wrest from wrong Or weary soul athirst for love and song, Wherever slaves of time cried to be free, My hand was reached   let it be said of me.''

 
    
    
   CHAPTER I

the   irrepressible   conflict   in   the   senate   the bold threat of robert toombs

he four terrible years of armed conflict from April '61 to April '65 have passed into heroic history and current history has said its last word. And yet, as we harken back with misty memory, we may imbibe patriotic inspiration and moral growth from its lessons and its standards.

Few persons living today remember the wild, fierce contention over the question of African slavery that absorbed all other questions of moment for a decade previous to actual war.

When the awful crisis culminated in mid-April, 1861,1 was publishing a weekly newspaper in Bryan and was probate judge of the county. I was the first enlisted volunteer soldier, at $11 a month, and carried a musket in the first battle of the war at Phil-lipi, Va., afterwards West Virginia. I was also in the last battle of the war in North Carolina and was present near Raleigh, N. C, April 26,1865, when the last Confederate army surrendered.

[1]

 
   memories    of    the war

My first visit to Washington was in February, 1859. I heard that culminating debate in the senate and heard that startling and revolutionary utterance of Robert Toombs of Georgia, that he aimed to call the roll of his slaves under the shadow of Bunker Hill monument. I shall never forget that first night in the senate during the fierce and malignant debate on the Cuban bill. Among the thousand crowding recollections of the battles and tragedies of the Civil War the memory of that night's furious contention is still vivid.

It was Feb. 25, 1859, one of the memorable days in senate history. The bill to purchase the continental island of Cuba was in debate championed by Senator Toombs of Georgia and Senator Mason of Virginia. Senator William H. Seward.of New York, made an elaborate speech opposing the bill.

At the close Toombs arose and made a fierce onslaught on Seward. Then Senator Benjamin of Louisiana took the floor. He said unless the United States purchased Cuba, Spain would emancipate the colored slaves and there would be no tropical fruits, as these could be produced only by slave labor. Then Senator Seward moved to tack on the homestead bill as an amendment. This brought Toombs to his feet again in a furious rage. As for "land for

[2] 
   memories    of    the war

the landless," he said, "it was the scheme of demagogues."

"I despise a demagogue, but despise still more those who are driven by demagogues," he said.

Then arose Ben Wade of Ohio, red-faced, hot-blooded, fierce and defiant. He defended the Seward amendment. He said it is "land for the landless against niggers for the niggerless." Then he made a vitriolic attack' on Toombs. It looked like a collision. But Zach Candler of Michigan arose to calm the storm and moved to adjourn. This was after midnight and the southern senators consented.

There were but 33 states and 66 senators. Some noted senators, North and South, were in that senate. Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, Hannibal Hamlin of Maine, afterward vice president; Henry Wilson of Massachusetts, Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, afterward President, and Charles Sumner of Massachusetts.

I remember seeing for the first and last time Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, Senator Slidell and Judah P. Benjamin of Louisiana, John J. Crittenden of Kentucky, Robert Toombs of Georgia and a dozen other southern senators who never returned after the war.

Thirteen years later, when I entered congress

[3] 
   memories    of    the war

for the first time (1872), not one of the noted southern senators of the anti-bellum period was holding a seat. Jefferson Davis was supplanted in Mississippi by James S. Alcorn, Andrew Johnson in Tennessee by Parson Brownlow of Knoxville, Robert Toombs in Georgia by General George B. Gordon, a distinguished soldier of the Confederacy, and Slidell of Louisiana by General James Rodman West, colonel of the First Iowa union regiment. James M. Mason of Virginia was succeeded by John W. Johnson, Sam Houston of Texas by James W. Flanagan, a reconstructed Republican. Senator Polk of Missouri was succeeded by General Carl Schurtz.

In the house of representatives (1873) I found myself in the presence of 85 soldiers of the war. The house of representatives of this congress (forty-third), contained 85 soldiers, including eight major-generals of distinguished service. General Garfield and General Henry B. Banning of Ohio, General Joseph Hawley of Connecticut, General Butler of Massachusetts, General Hurlbut of Illinois, General Shanks of Indiana, General Negley of Pennsylvania and General Rusk of Wisconsin. This congress met eight years after the Civil War, when we had only 37 stars on our flag, and only 243 members of the house.

[4] 
   memories   of   the war

As I look over the present house of representa, tives, only four years after the World War, I can't see one general officer, either brigadier or major-general. General Speaks of Ohio is a member, but he did not serve overseas.

On Jan. 21,1861, Jefferson Davis made his farewell address to the senate and later left for Mississippi to accept command with the rank' of major general of the 10,000 soldiers the state legislature had already authorized to fight the battles of the Confederacy. Feb. 8, 1861, the convention of seceded states, in session at Montgomery, Ala., adopted a new constitution of the Confederate States. All these continental tragedies occurred 23 days before Lincoln was inaugurated president.

President Buchanan, in his annual message to congress Dec. 4,1860, said: "The Constitution confers no power on congress to coerce into submission a state that is attempting to withdraw from the Union." At this date the South did not believe the North would fight. The North was not fully aroused until that crash of cannon shot against the walls of Fort Sumter. Few citizens of the republic living in this commercial age remember the fierce conflict on the question of African slavery, so vibrant and all-absorbing in the presidential campaign of 1860.

[5] 
   memories    of    the war

Four tickets were in the field, Lincoln and Hamlin, Republican; Douglas and Johnson, squatter sovereignty for the territories; Breckinridge and Lane, African slavery constitutional in the territories; Bell and Everett, any compromise to save the Union. The total popular vote was 4,680,193, of which Lincoln and Hamlin were given 1,866,452. Lincoln had a majority in the electoral college of 57. Lincoln had 180 votes, Breckinridge 72, Bell 39, and Douglas 12. Douglas, on popular sovereignty, carried only Missouri and New Jersey. The lower southern states and Delaware voted for Breckinridge and Lane. The Bell and Everett ticket won the border states of Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky. The remainder of the northern states voted for Lincoln.

When the gates of war opened the genius of the nation rose above the level of prose into the higher altitudes of inspired oratory and song. In Tremont Temple, Boston, William Lloyd Garrison rose to the heights of the immortals in his oration on the death of old John Brown. In April, 1861, two days after the cannon shot crashed against the wall of Fort Sumter, Wendell Phillips made himself both orator and prophet, when, in his peroration he said: "Under the flag I believe in the possibilities of justice   in the coming certainty of union.  Years hence, when

[6] 
   memories    of    the war

the conflict clears away, the world will see under our banner all tongues, all creeds, all races   one brotherhood. And on the Potomac the genius of liberty, robed in light, with broken chains beneath her feet, will stand with an olive branch in her hand."

Never was a more prophetic sentiment uttered by statesman or prophet.

There are many interesting and important happenings along the battle front that never get into history, that even the generals who make history never see or know. Hence a front view of the battle contests may have a more vivid interest than even the historical recital of the historians who never saw a battle. I am not hoping to remake history, but I hope to call up incidents of interest, heroic and vital, witnessed during my four years' life at the front.

[7] 
   CHAPTER II

the heroic literature of the war-the songs

sung by our soldiers

here never was a war with the characteristics of the four years' Civil War. There never was a war where the soldiers behind the guns and the people in the homes were so aglow and fierce with a fervent and all-pervading patriotism. It is the only war in all the red history where the soldiers in the camps and on the march and around the gleaming fires of the bivouac sang patriotic songs of their own composition. The notable heroic literature of the Civil War was our war lyrics. The genius of the nation rose above the level of prose into the higher altitudes of inspired song.

This accounts for the fact that aside from Lincoln's Gettysburg oration, Edward Everett Hale's "Man Without a Country" and a few notable efforts of Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll and Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, our war poets commanded the most meritorious attention.

As I recall the dominant emotions that pervaded

[8]

 
   memories    of    the war

the hearts of our people in those crisis days, when the life of the republic was in the merciless crucible of battling armies, the haunting strains of the old war songs seem to rise above other crowding memories. Yes, the songs that the boys in blue, from '61 to '65, sang by the firelights of the bivouacs and down the blood-marked corridors of battle still ring in my ears.

The first song written by a soldier and sung in the camp of an army was "John Brown's Body," credited to Colonel Fletcher Webster, son of Daniel Webster and colonel of the Twelfth Massachusetts regiment, at Fort Warren, Boston, April, 1861. It was first sung on the battle lines of the army of the Potomac by the famous Hutchison family of New Hampshire that sang songs of emancipation for a quarter of a century before the war. I heard the Hutchison family, who, by the way, were the original bell ringers, sing their songs of freedom when 1 was a schoolboy in 1849, and I never shall forget their opening song: "We come from the mountains of the old granite state, Where the hills are so lofty, magnificent and great."

When John Brown was hung at Charlestown, Va., in December, 1859, I was publishing a newspaper at Bryan, 0. I put my paper in mourning and

[9] 
   memories    of    the war

wrote an editorial saying that strange and unexpected things are liable to happen in this country and that at some future time John Brown would be hailed as one of the saints of the calendar, while the Virginia officials who hung him would be forgotten.

The next day, William Bell, sheriff of Williams county, rushed excitedly into my office and exclaimed with great vehemence: "Young man, you have ruined the Republican party." Less than five years after printing this editorial, while our army was marching through the piney woods of North Carolina, at midnight, by the light of turpentine vats which the soldiers had set on fire, I heard 10,000 soldiers sing "John Brown's body lies mouldering in the grave, but his soul is marching on." I mention this incident not to put up any claim as a prophet, but as significant of the change in public opinion inspired by the war.

Probably George F. Root of Chicago is entitled to first place as a war-song writer. His "Battle Cry of Freedom" and "Glory Hallelujah" were sung in the camps and bivouacs throughout the war and had an immense sale in the North. Two other songs by Root, "Just Before the Battle, Mother," and "The Vacant Chair," had an immense run. One couplet of the latter runs thus:

[10] 
   memories    of    the war

"We shall meet, hut we shall miss him, There will be one vacant chair. We shall linger to caress him,

When we breathe our evening prayer.''

I first heard "Just Before the Battle, Mother," the hour before the battle of Franklin, Tenn. The boys in gray were arrayed in battle line on the hill and the boys in blue in the valley. Suddenly above the brooding silence that always precedes a battle I heard our band playing

"Just Before the Battle, Mother, I Am Thinking Most of You."

There were tears in many eyes, both blue and gray, as this pathetic mother cry of the ages rang through both armies. Thousands on that battlefield heard that pathetic air for the last time.

That plaintive song, "Who Will Care for Mother Now?" sung both North and South, was of southern origin and was written by Charles Carroll Sawyer of Maryland.

"Tenting Tonight on the Old Camp Ground," one of the most touching and pathetic of all the old war melodies, was written by a New Hampshire soldier, Walter Kittridge of Reed's Ferry. He wrote it one lonesome night by the bivouac fires in the

[11] 
   memories    of    the war

fever-cursed swamps of Chicahominie, Va., and he also composed the music and sang the song to the end of his days in 1910.

"We Are Coming, Father Abraham, Three Hundred Thousand More," was written by S. J. Adams of Massachusetts and sung all over the North as a recruiting song. The music is credited to a Quaker named James Sloan Gibbons of Wilmington, Del.

"Maryland, My Maryland," was the most popular war song of the South. The author is James R. Randall of Maryland, who wrote it to induce his state to secede from the Union. I first heard this song one star-light night along the Holston river in East Tennessee in October, 1863. It was the night of our arrival on our march over the Cumberland mountains. As field officer of the day, I was ordered to place a line of pickets and locate the vidette posts of our army. While riding along the river road I halted my horse quietly in front of a house, when I heard a sweet-voiced girl singing with great feeling, to an officer who stood beside the piano, these dramatic words:

"The despot's heel is on thy shore, Maryland! His touch is at thy temple door, Maryland!

[12] 
   memories    of    the war

Avenge the patriotic gore That flecked the streets of Baltimore And he the battle queen of yore, 0 Maryland, my Maryland."

Just then a picket guard fired his musket at some object about 20 yards to the right, the song stopped at a semicolon, and a Confederate scout captain, as I afterwards learned, escaped suddenly from the house and rode out into the darkness. I never heard the remainder of the song until after the final surrender at historic old Salisbury, North Carolina, in early May, 1865.

Professor Gilmore, of peace jubilee fame, composed the rollicking and popular song, "When Johnnie Comes Marching Home."

Henry C. Work of Middletown, Conn., was a famous song writer. His crowning triumph was "Marching Through Georgia," of which 500,000 copies were sold before the war closed. The melody is spirited and martial. It was the most popular song of the closing year of the war. It was written to commemorate General Sherman's world famous march from Atlanta to Savannah, but General Sherman neither liked nor approved the song. I met him often at official receptions in Washington dur-

[13] 
   memories    of    the war

ing the winter of 1873-74, when he was in command of the army and I was serving my first term in congress. One evening at a reception given by Speaker Blaine, I asked him why he did not approve of the poem. He said the music was too jaunty for a poem and the words were too commonplace for a war lyric. General Sherman, as I remember, referred to the following stanza as not up to a literary standard:

"How the darkies shouted when they heard the joyful sound,

How the sweet potatoes even started from the ground,

While we were marching through Georgia."

Edmund C. Stedman sprang suddenly into prominence in 1862, when the country was looking for a general to command successfully the Army of the Potomac. He wrote the strong, brave poem, entitled, "Give Us a Man." Lincoln was deeply impressed with this poem and read it at a cabinet meeting.

The greatest dramatic poem of the war is "Sheridan's Ride," by our Ohio poet, Thomas Buchanan Read. The poem came white-hot from the poet's brain at a single sitting. It was the swift and

[14] 
   memories    of    the war

game thoroughbred stallion Rienzi that carried Sheridan from Winchester to Cedar Creek, 20 miles away, that gray October morning. The poet's thrilling story of that perilous ride, which enabled Sheridan to reach the staggering battalions of our army and turn defeat into victory, gives full credit to the horse. That is poetic justice. The cold pen of prose history fails to do this horse justice. Sheridan never would have evoked a great dramatic poem or won the victory at Cedar Creek had he gone in an automobile with a busted tire. Had General Pershing used a red-nostriled war horse at St. Mihiel instead of reclining on a soft-cushioned out-of-sight limousine, he might have been President today.

"Here's to the horse that saved the day By carrying Sheridan into the fray From Winchester twenty miles away.''

The finest lyric poem of the war was written by Julia Ward Howe, at a single sitting after a tour in the camps of the Army of the Potomac. A stanza sings the Alpha and the Omega of all the Union soldiers fought for in the four years' war:

"In the beauty of the lilies, Christ was born across the sea

[15] 
   memories    of    the war

With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me;

As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free."

It makes my old heart sad to note that 60 years and more have elapsed since the war and not one stirring national song of patriotism has been Avritten in all these eventful years. What is the matter? Why, are we living in a sordid, commercial age? Above the altars of patriotism, above the sacred altars of the home hangs in a halo the sign of the almighty dollar.

A great historic poem is due. Some nearby day, let us hope and pray, some prescient American genius will arise and sing of this, the most memorable struggle of the ages, linking Bunker Hill and Gettysburg, Monmouth and Atlanta, Yorktown and Appomattox into a grand epic.

[16] 
    
    
   CHAPTER III

the first war shock at fort sumter-first

battle in west virginia

vents of portentous import were startling the nation in mid-April, 1861. On the 13th the secessionists of Charleston, commanded by General Beauregard, bombarded Fort Sumter, commanded by Major Anderson. Thirty-four hours later Major Anderson surrendered. No blood was shed on either side, but the fiercest and longest war of the centuries was on. When cannon speak nations think. Sometimes they think great thoughts.

A great thought was born at Fort Sumter, voiced by Abraham Lincoln   "This Nation must be preserved intact and inviolate.'' President Lincoln immediately called his cabinet. William H. Seward of New York, secretary of state; Simon Cameron of Pennsylvania, secretary of war (Edwin M. Stanton of Ohio did not succeed Cameron until January 15, 1862); Ex-Governor Salmon P. Chase of Ohio, secretary of the treasury, were the leading advisers of Lincoln.

[17] 
   memories    of    the war

At that first secret cabinet meeting it was unanimously agreed 75,000 volunteers should be called by the President to suppress the rebellion. Current history proclaims there were giants in those days, when we stood at the gates of war; but no statesman or prophet in the North realized at that time the formidable forces of defiance and armed aggression, then defying the right of the government to preserve and maintain the Union of the states by the gory argument of armies.

April 17 Virginia seceded from the Union. Two days later North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas passed ordinances of secession. Students of Civil War history of today don't know that Virgina, in April, 1861, held the most formidable military organization of any state, North or South. She turned over to the Confederate government 36,000 organized militia, including 5,000 well-mounted cavalry.

At this time the seceded state of Mississippi already had equipped 10,000 infantry and cavalry volunteers and was proposing to raise 65,000 more. And yet no statesman or prophet of national destiny north of the Ohio river or east of the Allegheny mountains voiced any adequate opinion of the magnitude and desperation of the coming conflict.

Historians of the Civil War never have at-

[18] 
   memories    of    the war

tempted to account for the want of foresight of our leading statesmen of that epoch. Surely it was an epoch in the evolution of civilization. It was a grave mistake in estimating an army of 75,000 citizen volunteers, unused to arms, could in 90 days suppress the rebellion and restore orderly constitutional government. And it is worthy of comment that leaders of the forces of the 11 seceded states recognized the call to battle was a momentous event, fraught with trials and tragedies that no prophetic vision could measure or estimate.

Feb. 9, 1861, the congress of the Confederate States, then numbering seven, met at Montgomery, Ala., and elected Jefferson Davis of Mississippi president, and Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia vice-president. Stephens was an old Whig and voted against the ordinance of secession when it passed the Georgia convention. As soon as Davis was notified of his election he started for Montgomery. At that time he was a major general in command of Mississippi volunteers.

Ohio was the first state to send an army into Virginia. The Fourteenth Ohio Infantry, commanded by Colonel James B. Steedman, was the first regiment to open the war in Virginia, and the battle of Philippi, W. Va., was the first battle of the Civil

[19] 
   memories    oe    the war

War. The battle of Philippi, fought June 2, 1861, was the first victory of the Union army.

This brief but decisive contest was fought at early dawn, with the Fourteenth Ohio Infantry, 1,000 soldiers, privates and officers, all volunteers, all unschooled in war's maxims and strategies, aided by the First Ohio Light Infantry of Cleveland, commanded by Captain Barnett, afterward General Barnett. I was a private in Co. C, and this was my first battle. The victory of our green soldiers at Philippi created great enthusiasm in Ohio and was given magnified importance all over the North as an omen of future battles and victories.

Ten days later we had another sharp but short battle on Cheat river, known as "Carrick's Ford." In this battle the Fourteenth Ohio regiment was at the front with Colonel Steedman on the firing line and did the most effective service. The commanding Confederate general, Robert S. Garnett, was killed. He was a West Point graduate, and was the first general officer killed in battle, either Union or Confederate. His death ended the battle, as his followers made a precipitate retreat, leaving their dead, wounded and artillery on the field.

In this battle I experienced for the first time the gruesome sensation of having a comrade with

[20] 
   memories    of    the war

whom I touched elbows in the battle line shot dead through the heart   Frank Eeikeldifer of Bryan, 0., the third volunteer in my company.

I visited an improvised hospital in a farmhouse the day after the battle, where wounded of both armies were treated. I remember meeting a soldier from Georgia who was suffering from a flesh wound in his left leg. He pulled a small blue silk flag out of a side pocket, with a motto in bold gilt letters, "Cotton Is King," and he believed it. At that time "Cotton Is King" was a popular slogan in the South.

General George B. McClellan commanded the department of West Virginia in the three months' service. He organized our armies and planned our campaigns. In the Kanawha Valley the Union army Avon an important strategic victory at Rich Mountain and the country north of the Ohio River was wild with enthusiasm over General McClellan's victorious campaign. All this happened before the disaster at Bull Run cast a shadow of gloom over the North.

After the battle of Bull Run the loyal people of the country realized for the first time the terrible truth that a long and desperate war was impending and inevitable.

[21] 
   memories    of    the war

Professor Armested C. Gordon, in his valuable book, "Noted Characters of History," gives a spirited account of ovations tendered to Jeff Davis on his way through Georgia and Alabama to accept the presidency and become commander-in-chief of the Southern Confederacy. That book is my authority for the contention that Davis appreciated at that time the tremendous responsibility and hazard he was about to assume. In all his speeches enroute Davis warned his friends against optimism, over-confidence or any cogent hope for a speedy ending of the coming war. Davis served as captain in the war with Mexico, alongside of Northern soldiers, and he indulged in no delusions that the North would not fight. On the contrary, he predicted a long and desperate struggle. This was before the surrender of Fort Sumter.

On a recent visit to Richmond, Va., I met an ex-Confederate captain, who served three years on the staff of General Robert E. Lee. He called my attention to some features of the war which he claimed are not now understood in the North; that is, the general understanding that the South went to war to protect African slavery. He denied this contention. He said General Lee never owned a slave, except a few he inherited from his mother,

[22] 
   memories    oe    the war

all of whom he set free before the war; that General Joseph E. Johnston, who commanded the army in the Atlanta campaign, never owned a slave; that General A. P. Hill never owned a slave; that the leading cavalry general, Jeb Stuart, owned two slaves that he set free before the war; that General Fitzhugh Lee never owned a slave; that General Hood, who commanded at Atlanta, Franklin and Nashville, never owned a slave.

Well, these statements are interesting and alleviating, but what caused creation of the abolition party; what caused the famous Dred Scott decision; what caused the John Brown raid; what was the inspiration of Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe? African slavery was the sole cause. Without slavery there would have been no war.

Union victories in West Virginia, made General McClellan a heroic idol in the North. In his farewell to the 90-day soldiers he summed up his series of victories in a stirring appeal from which I quote an extract: "We took from the enemy five cannon, 12 stands of colors, 1,500 stands of small arms, 40 officers, 1,500 prisoners and all baggage."

This ended the three-months' campaign in West Virginia.  That campaign started the career

[23] 
   memories    of    the war

of three soldiers of Ohio, later of continental reputa-tion: General Rosecrans, General Jacob Cox and General James B. Steedman. Having served four months, one month overtime, the Fourteenth Ohio, commanded by Colonel Steedman, was ordered home to be mustered out.

I remember the sum of my first soldier salary. It was $44 in gold and silver at the legal rate of $11 a month, the first and last honest money I was paid during the four years' war. This $44 enabled me to pay for my blue uniform, which