USA > New York > New York City > Leslie's history of the greater New York, Volume I > Part 43
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Secession had raised the first note of war in the convention at Charleston on December 20. 1860. The first blow was also struck in the same locality. At thirty minutes past four, as one particular chronicler records. on the morning of Friday, April 12, 1861, the first gun of the great Civil War opened fire upon Fort Sumter. in Charleston Harbor. It was like Major Pitcairn's pistol shot a little earlier in the morning of another April day. eighty-six years before: at its report a whole nation rose in arms. Fed- oral Union rose to maintain its ne- cessity as the foundation of National existence. Secession rose to defend its right to be, in disregard of any such duty as nationality. What the Constitution had left to be implied on either side, a sanguinary war had now begun to settle. The conclusion that the Constitution meant these States to be a nation has now been finally written in indelible charac- ters of blood, and has been deeply imprinted upon the heart and con- GENERAL WINFIELD SCOTT. science of our people byinexpressible suffering. An incident of thrilling interest in itself and particularly worthy of note by the people of this city is preserved by Miss Booth in her excellent history. With Major Anderson at Fort Sumter was Peter Hart, a soldier who had also served under him in the Mexican campaigns. Hart was a native of New York. and had been a sergeant on the New York police force. Nine times during the bombardment the Stars and Stripes were pierced by shots from the Confederate batteries; at last a ball struck the staff. and down came old glory to the dust. Thereupon Peter Hart (as his name would show, of the old Dutch stock of the city) sprang upon the parapet, raised and fixed a temporary staff. climbed to the top and nailed the flag to it. while shot and shell were pouring all around him in a hissing shower. It ro- mained in its proud position until the surrender, on April 14.
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" Among the historie memories of the time," the historian well ob- serves, " it is worthy of record that a New Yorker saved the Stars and Stripes from falling in the first historie battle of the great war, as a New Yorker, Lieutenant De Peyster, was the first to raise them anew over the Confederate Capital." Off Sandy Hook Major Anderson wrote the dispatch to Secretary of War Cameron, announcing the sur- render and the necessity therefor, he and his men having been brought North on board the United States steamer Baltic. The perusal of its terse and simple description will at once satisfy the reader that they were justified in surrendering, while at the same time the words un- consciously bespeak the quiet heroism of the officer and his band of seventy-nine men. It was dated April 18, and reads as follows: " Ilaving defended Fort Sumter for thirty-four hours, until the quar- ters were entirely burned, the main gates destroyed by fire, the gorge walls seriously injured, the magazine surrounded by flames and its door closed from the effects of heat, four barrels and three cartridges of powder only being available, and no provisions remaining but pork, I accepted terms of evacuation offered by General Beauregard, being the same offered by him on the eleventh inst., prior to the com- mencement of hostilities, and marched out of the fort Sunday after- noon, the fourteenth inst., with colors flying and drums beating, bring- ing away company and private property and saluting my flag with fifty guns." A brave record for a handful of men left unsupported by the administration that had gone out, and not even remembered by the one that had just come in! The guns fired on those faithful servants of the Nation roused it to the supreme effort of defense. Their modest heroism and quiet performance of duty amid the roar of artillery, till human courage could be asked to do no more except needlessly throw away lives that might serve the republic on a better field,-nerved the hearts of the North to simulate such soldierly example. To do as well would be to do great things.
On the very day that this dispatch was sent on its way to Washing- ton, from one of the telegraph offices of New York, the rumbling tread of marching regiments began to resound along her streets. On the night of April 17 the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment had reached the city per boat from Boston. The news spread through the city that they would be served with breakfast at the Astor House, and there form again in marching order to take the train via Philadelphia to Washington. Broadway along the Park and all the way from Bar- clay to Fulton streets was one solid mass of people. A dense and surging sea of humanity stood upon the triangular space where Ann Street and Park Row come together. The crowds had collected to see the men sally forth from the hotel and start on their way to the front. When all was ready, so still was the hush of the vast throng of spectators, that distinctly could be heard the quiet word of com- mand. that meant so much at such a moment. " March." The band at
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the head struck up the tune " Yankee Doodle," but only a few strains of it were heard. The pent up enthusiasm of the people now burst forth into one long loud cheer, repeated again and again. It was a solemn, an awful, thing to hear. One who heard it, the Rev. Dr. Mor- gan Dix, in the memoirs of his father, writes of it thus: " Instantly there arose a sound such as many a man never heard in all his life, and never will hear; such as is never heard more than once in a life- time. Not more awful is the thunder of heaven, as with sudden peal. it smites into silence all lesser sounds. . One terrific roar burst from the multitude, leaving nothing audible save its own re- verberation."
Now, day after day had its tribute of excitement. On April 19, 1861. auspicious day for the cause of a free nation and the preservation of the Union, and only a week since Fort Sumter was fired on, the glori- ous Seventh Regiment, nearly a thousand men strong, followed the Sixth Massachusetts to the front. It was not an occasion to be left without evidences of the people's approbation and enthusiasm. For several weeks the men had been going through extra drills. Three months before, their board of officers, through the Commandant. had expressed to the Governor of the State their readiness to be called out for any duty prescribed. And stout old General Scott. who had resided for many years in New York, and knew the regiment well. had written from Washington in January to General Sandford: " Per- haps no regiment or company can be brought here from a distance without producing hurtful jealousies in this vicinity. If there be an exception, it is the Seventh Infantry of the City of New York, which has become somewhat National, and is held deservedly in the highest respect." The pride of the city and the favorite of a whole nation could not be allowed to depart for the scene of war without an ova- tion from the citizens. Along the line of march there was a fine display of flags and bunting. The regiment began to collect shortly after noon on Lafayette Place, opposite the Astor Library. At three o'clock the command to " March " was spoken, and the men moved on to their varied destinies. The line of march was into Fourth Street, to Broadway, down to Cortlandt Street, to Jersey City Ferry. If any additional fuel was needed to inflame their own courage and to excite still more the enthusiasm of the citizens,-the news came just before they started that the Sixth Massachusetts had been attacked on its way through Baltimore. and three of her men had been killed. Some had predicted that the regiment would be assaulted in New York : the lie was given to that expectation in a most convincing manner. The shout of praise and encouragement that had drowned their music on the previous day, was now redonbled all along the route which was taking the Seventh to the train for Washington. The streets could scarcely be kept clear for the passage of the troops. Sidewalks, house fronts.
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stoops, windows on every story, roofs, were one mass of cheering, wav- ing, excited humanity. It was more than sufficient to reconcile the brave fellows to all the hardships of war, to wounds and death itself, to be thus sent on their way. As one of them wrote: " An avenue of brave honest faces smiled upon us as we passed, and sent a sunshine into our hearts that lives there still." The next day the Sixth, Twelfth, and Seventy-first Regiments went on their way, and on April 23, the Eighth, Thirteenth, Twenty-eighth, and Sixty-ninth. The action of the Baltimore populace had given a roundabout turn to the journeys of all our regiments. Colonel Marshall Lefferts had taken the Seventh around by Annapolis. The four regiments that started on April 20 were taken by transports to Fortress Monroe, and those on the 23d again to Annapolis. Certainly Lincoln's administration did not begin vigorously; the dilatoriness in dealing with the Balti- more mob created much disgust in New York, and led to the sending of an open letter to the President demanding that some determined movement be made by the Government to re-establish direct com- munication between Washington and the North; and that the one disloyal city which lay in its rear be subjected to military occupation in order to effect this.
This provoking supineness on the part of the Government may have been due to the excessive confidence placed in the unbounded capaci- ties supposed to reside in the old hero of Lundy's Lane, Gen. Winfield Scott. It is almost pathetic to observe the blindly enthusiastic con- fidence people placed in the old general. They were sure there abode in him vast and mysterious possibilities, that were only waiting some sudden coup to startle the Nation, but whose exact course of action was not to be surmised or suspected. The historian Motley, writing to his wife, reflects this prevailing estimate and gives us a view of Scott's idea as to the celerity with which everything could be accomplished : " To the question whether the task is beyond our strength I can only reply that General Scott-than whom a bet- ter strategist and a more lofty minded and honorable man does not exist-believes that he can do it in a year." Enumerating the generals on our side, Motley again observes: "to say nothing of old Scott, whose very name is worth 50,000 men." Even when murmurs of doubt about the great and mysterious designs began to arise. Motley keeps bright his faith in the generalissimo. "Don't be affected." he writes on July 14. 1861, one week before Bull Run. " by any sneers or insinuations of slowness against Scott; I be- lieve him to be a magnificent soldier, thoroughly equal to his work, and I trust that the country and the world will one day acknowledge that he has played a noble and winning game with consummate skill." Unfortunately that day has never come. The veteran of the War of 1812. now past his seventy-fifth year. could hardly be expected to do the wonders people were looking for. The noble old general was
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not to blame that his fine record of past deeds was making the Nation wild over still greater deeds to come. But much valuable time was lost, and the lack of a vigorous opening gave the enemy a most tre- mendous advantage. From the one extreme men went to the other: when the war was not ended in one year, some intelligent observers did not expect to see it close except with the century.
From these military incidents we turn once more to the actions of the citizens of New York, now that the crisis of war was actually upon them. On the day that the Seventh Regiment left for the front the Chamber of Commerce held a meeting, at which resolutions were passed urging the Government to blockade the ports of seceding States "for the protection of the commerce of the United States against privateers." A committee was appointed to arrange for placing $9,000,000 of the government loan still calling for takers. Before the meeting broke up it was made known that the seven regi- ments still waiting to follow the Seventh were hampered by a lack of funds for the journey. A collection was taken np, and in ten minutes a sum of twenty-one thousand dollars was ready for the use of the troops.
A meeting of a more general character was that held on Saturday, April 20. 1861, at three o'clock in the afternoon, on Union Square. It is estimated that there were one hundred thousand people present. John A. Dix presided, and eighty-seven vice-presidents represented the best men of every rank and profession. All the stores and banks and offices were closed. Four stands had been provided at sufficient distances for the speakers, but they fell far short of the number need- ed, and some of the orators spoke from the balconies and stoops of neighboring houses. Among the speakers were Professor O. M. Mit- chell, the astronomer; Daniel S. Dickinson, David S. Coddington, and Col. Edward D. Baker, who had led a New York regiment to the war in Mexico. To stimulate an enthusiasm already sufficiently pro- nounced Major Anderson and his brave company of defenders of Fort Sumter were present, and displayed the shot-pierced flag that waved over the ramparts to the end of the bombardment. The four stands were under the presiding care of John A. Dix, ex-Governor Hamilton Fish, ex-Mayor Havemeyer, and Moses HI. Grinnell. One practical result of the meeting was the appointment of a committee, something like the Committee of Safety in the old ante-revolutionary days. It was composed of John A. Dix, as chairman; William M. Evarts, as secretary; and such men as Moses Taylor, Alexander T. Stewart. Samuel Sloane, Royal Phelps. A. A. Low. In the evening the Committee met in the building at 30 Pine Street, and took the name of Union Defense Committee. Its duties, as defined by the reso- Itions adopted at the Union Square mass meeting. were to collect funds and to aid or promote the movements of the Government so far as possible. To facilitate these objects and receive subscriptions, it
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sat at the house in Pine Street during the day, and at the Fifth Ave- ne Hotel in the evening. As a result of these efforts to raise money the gratifying statement is made that in the course of three months New York City alone raised $150,000,000 in aid of the Government. Boston had reduced her quota of the loan asked for from thirty per cent. to twenty per cent. New York fully met her own, and charged herself also to raise Boston's rejected ten per cent. At the close of the year the Secretary of the Treasury announced the astounding fact that of the $260,000,000 borrowed by Government, New York had fur- nished no less than $210,000,000.
Nothing so well illustrates the magic effect of unifying all men and parties at the North, produced by the guns fired on Fort Sumter, as the change that came over the Municipal Government of New York. Hardly was the ink dry upon the mes- sage of Mayor Wood. seriously proposing the secession of New York City, when the same Common Council who had hailed the proposi- tion with fervid ap- planse passed resolu- tions pledging sym- pathy and support to the Union cause. And these were drafted by Killian 18. Second General Daniel E. Sick- les, who a few months before had threatened in the House of Representatives that the seces- sion of the Southern States would be followed by that of New York City. By these resolutions Mayor Wood and his Council invoked " the unselfish patriotism and the unfaltering loyalty which have been uniformly manifested in all periods of National peril by the population of the City of New York "; and they felt they were giving expression to the sentiments of their constituents by declaring " it to be their unalterable purpose, as it is their solemn duty, to do all in their power to uphold and defend the integrity of the Union, and to vindicate the honor of our flag, and to crush the power of those who are enemies in war, as in peace they were friends." At this same meeting on April 22, the Common Council, recommended thereto by the Mayor, authorized the loan of a million dollars for the defense
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of the Union; later they authorized a loan of $500,000, in aid of the families of volunteers, payable July 1, 1862. Nay, to swell the list of wonderful events at this period so fraught with them, and to do justice to the memory of one not hitherto mentioned with any too high respect, it must also be recorded that Mayor Fernando Wood had issued a proclamation to the people of New York, on April 15, 1861, when the reverberation of the last gun leveled at Major Anderson's devoted garrison had hardly ceased. In this he exhorted: " Let us ignore the past, rising superior to partisan considerations, and rally to the restoration of the Constitution and the Union as they existed in the days and in the spirit of our fathers." Certainly no fault could be found with such language, and if the blow of the South at the North could produce such results upon men of Wood's stamp. it would seem as if they never made so great a mistake as when they resorted to violence to procure their ends. And the very origin of these sentiments and resolutions was of such significance that they awakened particular comfort in the heart of those charged with the care of the Nation's affairs at this critical period. Mr. Lincoln said to Gen. Sickles regarding the action of the Common Council, on reading the resolutions: " I felt my burden lighter. I felt that when men broke through party lines and took this patriotic stand for the Gov- ernment and the Union, all must come out well in the end. When you see them, tell them for me they made my heart glad, and I can only say, God bless them." It is a little unfortunate that historians who make a good deal of the act of disloyalty in January have not a word to say of the ample atonement therefor made in April. The actual descent of the thunderbolt of war revolutionized many a man's opin- ions on the issues of the times. The Common Council and Mayor should also have the benefit of the mantle of charity we are disposed to cast over former sentiments or acts, when the later attitude was such as we can approve.
All this time there had been no clash of arms since Fort Sumter. When it came, at fateful Bull Run. July 21, 1861, it plunged the North into the deepest gloom and mortification. We turn again to Motley's letters, valuable as those of a man eminent in letters and a profound student of human affairs past and present,-and we find one written to his wife two days after the battle from which we may gather how the people of the North received the news of it. Motley's language seems almost extravagant. vet without doubt he only reflects what was the feeling of all ardent supporters of the Northern cause. " 1 pity you and my children inexpressibly to be alone there." i.c., in Eng- land. " Don't show this letter to any one. I hope you are not in Lon- don." It would seem as if a personal disgrace had fallen upon a mem- ber of the household. " We are for the moment overwhelmed with gloom. . The measure of our dishonor, which I thought last night so great as to make me hang my head forever. I cannot now
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thoroughly estimate." But after all the defeat was not one to dis- courage all hope. Our soldiers had been left unaccountably nnsup- ported, probably while some of those ineffable plans of Gen. Scott's were being cogitated. The men who finally ran had fought bravely for four or five hours under a burning Virginia sun, "till their tongues fairly hung out of their mouths " with thirst and exhaustion. They had gone up into the face of concealed batteries blazing death and destruction, and had taken one after another of them. When re- inforcements came up for the enemy, a lot of camp followers and hangers on, teamsters, newspaper reporters, all too curious Members of Congress, and more such useless lumber, started a panic. This communicated itself to the troops, physically unable to endure any more strain, and disappointed by the non-arrival of the reserves. The rout was complete, the defeat stinging, but the men of the North had played the soldier nobly so long as nature could possibly hold out, and-" some one had blundered." It did not discourage the men of New York City or State from going to the front. It only hastened them on to scenes where their presence was so much needed. Lincoln had called for 75,000 men in April, of which New York's quota would have been 13,000. The Legislature anthorized the enlistment of 30,- 000 men for two years instead of three months, according to the Presi- dent's call. When July 1 came the State had 46,700 men in the field, of whom only 8,300 were three-months men. Before January 1, 1862, the number of our troops had reached 120,361, or one-sixth of the number of able-bodied men in the State.
Of all the conflicts of the war perhaps the most sensational was that in Hampton Roads, off Old Point Comfort and Fortress Monroe, and in that New York City had a direct interest. On March 8, 1862, a peculiar craft came ont of Norfolk Harbor to make an attack upon the United States fleet lying in Hampton Roads. It was a vessel's hull covered by a triangular-shaped deckhouse, no masts or any other gear but a smokestack outside. The ships opened their broadsides upon her, but withont the slightest effect, and she went about from one ship to another, ramming a steel prow into their wooden sides, and sinking two, the Cumberland and the Congress. Content with her work she went back to her shelter at Norfolk. The next day she came forth again, and proceeded to belabor and probably sink the U. S. ship Minnesota, when from behind the latter steamed a craft still more curious than the floating Confederate battering-ram. It was the Monitor, commanded by Lient. Worden, constructed at New York from designs of John Ericsson. Its sides rose but eighteen inches above the water, and were almost impossible to hit: from the center rose a circular turret nine feet high and twenty feet in diam- eter, revolving at will, and presenting only two guns, but they were heavy ones. The Merrimac was fairly beaten at her own tactics. Firing on the Monitor had no effect, the deepest indentation made on
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THE MERRIMAC AND MONITOR, 1862.
her at close range being about four inches. But the Merrimac experienced dif- ferent results, and her ram, instead of disabling the little Monitor, got wrenched in the encounter, starting her tim- bers and springing a bad leak. Her smokestack and steampipe had been pene- trated by shot, and her an- chor and flagstaff shot away. All this was done at leisure by the gunners within the Monitor's turret, which had received one indentation of about an inch and a half: while she had no superflu- ous gearing to be shot away. The Merrimac therefore was fain to retire and postpone the destruction of more U. S. ships until such time as there were no Monitors about. As is well known. the construction of this ves- sel in the harbor of New York by the genius of one of her citizens, and the capi- tal and enterprise of others. not only saved our fleet in the Virginia waters, but revolutionized naval war- fare. And no sooner was it known what havoc the Mer- rimac had made among the U. S. shipping than another citizen of New York. Cor- nelins Vanderbilt. present- ed one of his largest and strongest steamers of the Panama and Pacific service. the Vanderbilt, to the Gov- erment, fitting her com- pletely for defense against the new destroyer.
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Ever since Florence Nightingale, in the wake of war follows com- passion, and man's worst work of destruction and mutilation and death gives the opportunity for woman's best ministrations of mercy and tenderness. The women of New York were not behind in this labor of love. Let a woman tell the story. " On the 25th of April (1861) a number of ladies met at a private house and formed the plan of a Central Relief Association. A committee was appointed to call a meeting of the women of New York at Cooper Institute on the morn- ing of the 29th to concert measures for the relief of the sick and wounded. The largest gathering of women ever seen in the city re- sponded to the appeal." These patriotic women were addressed by eminent speakers, among them Vice-President Hannibal Hamlin and the Rev. Henry W. Bellows, Bryant's pastor. Out of this meeting grew a permanent organization, the Association for the Relief of Sick and Wounded in the Army. At Mr. Bellows's advice a committee went to Washington to hold a conference with the Secretary of War, to determine how the women of the country could best supplement the labors of the medical department of the army,-the committee comprising women of the Association for the Relief of the Sick and Wounded of the Army, members of the Board of Physicians and Sur- geons of the New York hospitals, and of the New York Medical As- sociation for furnishing hospital supplies for the army. The result of this conference was the organization of the " United States Sani- tary Commission." Soon all over the city, " thousands of women and even children, devoted themselves to scraping lint, knitting socks, making garments, and preparing delicacies for the sick and wounded whom they saw in perspective; and scores of the most tenderly reared and delicate young ladies volunteered their services as hospital nurses, and went into training under the directions of the city phy- sicians." It was characteristic of the women that they saw to it that the requisite amount of funds for their work should be acquired, and they resorted to the device of fairs held in all the large cities in the Northern States, at the beginning of the year 1864. These were held under the immediate auspices of the women of the United States Sanitary Commission. The one in New York was called the Metro- politan Fair. It was opened to the public on the morning of April 5, 1864. On the previous evening the main building in Fourteenth Street near Sixth Avenue was opened with exercises comprising a hymn written by Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, and an oration by Joseph H. Choate; while in the afternoon there had been a parade of troops, regular, militia, and volunteer, in its honor. Another build- ing, on Seventeenth Street and Union Square was also utilized for the exhibit and sale of articles. The fair lasted three weeks. It brought a sum immensely in advance of those realized in other cities; for while Chicago's fair brought $60,000; Boston's $140,000; and Cincinnati's $250.000; New York's yielded $1,100.000. Her close neighbor, and
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