USA > New York > New York City > The Memorial History of the City of New York: From Its First Settlement to the Year 1892, Volume III > Part 53
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War, Navy, and Treasury departments in giving the authority of the Government to movements of troops and vessels, the stoppage of steamers, the provision of arms, and the many steps which may need to be taken without an opportunity of communicating with Washing- ton. We feel to-day that our Government and the city of Washing- ton are in a hostile country, with communication embarrassed and in danger of being wholly cut off. If disaster happens from this cause, the excitement of our people may lead them into strong expressions of discontent, and the present happy state of public sentiment in uni- versal support of the administration may be succeeded by a reaction of feeling greatly to be deplored."
The great capitalist and steamship proprietor, Cornelius Vander- bilt, placed some of his finest vessels at the disposal of the govern- ment. When the terrible Merrimac threatened to destroy the Union fleet in the James River, the commodore fitted out his largest and strongest steamer, the Vanderbilt, to operate against the Confederate ram, and presented her to the government. In remembrance of this princely gift, Congress subsequently voted a gold medal to the donor.
Closely following the Union Square meeting of the men of New- York came the action of her noble women. A circular addressed " to the Women of New-York, and especially to those already engaged in preparing against the time of Wounds and Sickness in the Army," was published. It set forth the importance of system and concentra- tion to effect the best results in that field." It was the germ of the most important auxiliary to the medical department of the Union armies which the war created - the Sanitary Commission.
Out of this conference grew the "Woman's Central Association of
1 To the Women of New- York, and especially to those already engaged in preparing against the time of Wounds and Sickness in the Army :
The importance of systematizing and concen- trating the spontaneous and earnest efforts now making by the women of New-York for the supply of richer medical aid to our army through its pres- ent campaign, must be obvious to all reflecting persons. Numerous societies, working without concert, organization, or head -without any direct understanding with the official authorities - with- out any positive instructions as to the immediate or future wants of the army - are liable to waste their enthusiasm in disproportionate efforts, to overlook some claims and overdo others, while they give unnecessary trouble in official quarters, by the variety and irregularity of their proffers of help or their inquiries for guidance. As no exist- ing organization has a right to claim precedence over any other, or could properly assume to lead in this noble cause, where all desire to be first, it is proposed by the undersigned, members of the various circles now actively engaged in this work, that the women of New-York should meet in the Cooper Institute on Monday next, at 11 o'clock A. M., to confer together, and to appoint a General
Committee, with power to organize the benevo- lent purposes of all into a common movement. (Signed) Mesdames J. A. Dix, H. Fish, L. C. Jones, E. Robinson, W. Kirkland, W. H. Aspin- wall, R. Minturn, J. B. Johnson, J. J. Roosevelt, A. Bininger, W. C. Bryant, R. L. Stuart, D. D. Field, William Astor, Jr., M. Grinnell, H. B. Smith, R. Hitchcock, F. F. Marbury, S. F. B. Morse, C. P. Daly, C. Swords, G. Holbrooke, D. Adams, H. Baylis, H. W. Bellows, Stewart Brown, John D. Wolfe, A. Potter, E. Fish, C. A. Seward, S. Osgood, J. Sherwood, E. Bayard, J. Jones, J. Betts, W. Ward, H. E. Eaton, W. M. Evarts, G. L. Schuyler, P. Cooper, T. Tileston, F. S. Wiley, H. Webster, S. J. Baker, R. Gracie, M. Catlin, B. R. Winthrop. G. Stuyvesant, G. Curtis, A. R. Eno, W. F. Carey. A. Hewitt, R. Campbell, H. K. Bogart, C. Butler. C. E. Lane, M. D. Swett, R. M. Blatchford, L. W. Bridgham, A. W. Bradford, W. H. Lee, P. Godwin, H. J. Raymond, S. L. M. Barlow, J. Auchincloss, M. Trimble, S. B. Collins, R. H. Bowne, B. R. Mell- vaine, N. Lawrence, J. Reid, C. Newbold, J. B. Collins, J. C. Smith, P. Spofford, Cyrus W. Field, P. Townsend, L. Baker. Lewis M. Rutherfurd, Charles King, Miss Marquand, Miss Minturn, and others.
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Relief." Upon the advice of the Rev. Dr. Bellows, a committee pro- ceeded to Washington to confer with the war department as to the needs of the service, and the best method of supplying them. This committee represented the Woman's Central Association of Relief for the Sick and Wounded of the Army, the advisory committee of the Boards of Physicians and Surgeons of the Hospitals of New-York, and the New-York Medical Associa- tion for furnishing Hospital Supplies in aid of the Army. Out of their suggestions arose that wonderful in- stitution for alleviating the horrors of war, known as the "United States Sanitary Commission."
"If pure benevolence was ever or- ganized and utilized into beneficence, the name of the institution is the Sanitary Commission. It is a stand- ing answer to Samson's riddle: 'Out of the strong came forth sweetness.' Out of the very depths of the agony of this cruel and bloody war springs this beautiful system, built of the noblest and divinest attributes of the anne A Bittoo human soul. Amidst all the daring and enduring which this war has developed, amidst all the magna- nimity of which it has shown the race capable, the daring, the endur- ance, the greatness of soul, which have been discovered among the men and women who have given their lives to this work, shine as brightly as any on the battle-field-in some respects even more brightly. . . . Glimpses of this agency are familiar to our people: but not till the history of its inception, progress, and results is calmly and adequately written out and spread before the public, will any idea be formed of the magnitude and importance of the work which it has done. Nor even then. Never until every soldier whose flickering life it has gen- tly steadied into continuance, whose waning reason it has softly lulled into quiet, whose chilled blood it has warmed into healthful play, whose failing frame it has nourished into strength, whose faint- ing heart it has comforted with sympathy, -never, until every full soul has poured out its story of gratitude and thanksgiving, will the record be complete: but long before that time . . . comes the Blessed Voice, 'Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.' An approximate estimate has been made from which it can be stated that the gifts of the women of the country, made through the Sanitary Commission, ex-
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HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
ceed in value the sum of $7,000,000, and the total cash received by its treasurer to October 1, 1863, was $857,715.33."
The promptness and determination with which New-York took her stand in the great trouble surprised and disappointed the South, which had counted upon at least a negative course by reason of mutual commercial interests. No longer resting under that delusion, the Southern press poured forth vials of wrath after this fashion: "The insane fury of New-York arises from purely mercenary motives. She is concerned about the golden eggs which are laid for her by the Southern goose with the sword. Let us assure her we have more fear of her smiles than of her frowns. New-York will be remembered with especial hatred by the South to the end of time. Boston we have always known where to find; but this New-York, which has never turned against us till the hour of trial, and is now moving heaven and earth for our destruction, shall be a marked city to the end of time." Even before the great clash of arms, the newspapers of both sections had opened fire with the most bitter word-weapons and the most startling war rumors conceivable.1 It was to be their harvest-time-to reap while others sowed.
. 1 " WAR AND RUMORS OF WAR .- A gentleman of Richmond, Va., was in New-York. The scenes which he witnessed in the streets reminded him of the descriptions of the Reign of Terror in Paris. Nothing was wanting but the bloody guillotine to make the two pictures identical. The violent and diabolical temper everywhere conspicuous showed but too clearly whither all things are tending in the commercial metropolis. A spirit is cooked which can only be laid in blood. The desperadoes of that great city are now in the as- cendant. At present they are animated by very bloody designs against the South. They have been persuaded or urged by hunger to believe that by enlisting for the war they will win bread and honor and riches. By-and-by they may come to reflect there is an abundance of meat and bread and inexhaustible supplies of money all around them -in the banks, the palatial residences, in the fire-proof safes of the princely merchants. They may consider that all this meat and bread and money may be won with fewer risks of cracked pates and bloody noses than the meager, unsavory food of the poor South. That they have only to demand to have it. That they have as much right as men and Christians to call for it and help themselves as to be compelled to travel five or six hundred miles to plunder a poor people who never did them any harm. . . We do not know that their quick wits have yet compre- hended all the advantages of their position. But they will not be very slow in finding that they are masters of the situation. They have only, in swaggering along Broadway and looking into some of the magnificent stores that grace that vaunted street, or stepping into one of the banks, or look- ing over the list of the recipients of specie by the last steamer from California, or the names of the subscribers to the last Government loan, the Grin- nells, King's Sons, &c., to be convinced that a mili-
tary contribution on New-York would yield a hun- dred-fold more than they could hope to realize in ten bloody and desperate campaigns in the South." "Richmond Whig," April 22, 1861.
" WASHINGTON, April 27 .- A gentleman from Richmond this morning gives some information of the feeling prevalent there. He represents it as a perfect reign of terror, and an excitement that he never saw paralleled The troops in the city he thinks a fine, hardy body of men, but ig. norant beyond belief. It is upon the ignorance of these men that the leaders play. Some of the statements he heard made would hardly be cred- ited as the assertions of sane men. He listened to one man who publicly stated that the Seventh Regiment had been cut to pieces in the streets of Annapolis, and that he himself saw more than one hundred of their dead bodies lying in the streets of that city. Another man he heard assure the crowd that the Massachusetts vagabonds (her glorious volunteers) had been quartered in the Capitol at Washington, and had amused them- selves by running their bayonets through the pictures which adorned it, and that the rich hangings of the different rooms have been pulled down and made into blankets and wrappers for the use of the troops. Another man, who was organizing & corps of infantry, told them they had nothing to do but to march to glory and wealth. 'What,' said he, 'could a Northern army do on our sterile hills ? They would starve to death. But you,' he continued, 'have but to march to Washington, and lay that in ashes; then to Philadelphia, which is rich in all kinds of wealth; from that through all the North ; there is a village every five miles, and every village has a bank, and every bank has a vault of specie, and you have but to help yourselves.'" "N. Y. Times," May 1, 1861.
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NEW-YORK IN THE WAR FOR THE UNION
The severe strain to which republican institutions were about to be exposed in America became the subject of great interest to our Euro- pean neighbors, and the leading British newspapers did not fail to appreciate its value. Therefore a new order of Bohemian made its ap- pearance, simultaneously, in New-York, Washington, and Richmond. As a rule, the foreign war correspondent wrote with comparative impartiality. Now and then a superior sort of person, like "Bull Run Russell," appeared upon the scene and essayed to make his portfolio carry weight with the credentials of an envoy extraordi- nary, but, lacking ordinary tact, contrived to have himself recalled early in the strife. A more discreet ambassador was, apparently, the representative of the "Illustrated London News." It is interesting, after many years, to see ourselves as an intelligent stranger saw us then. Writing in the last days of May, 1861, he says:
I could easily believe myself to be in Paris, or some other city devoted to military display, instead of New-York, the commercial emporium of the North. From morn- ing to night nothing is heard but the sound of the drum or the martial strains from trumpet and bugle, as regiment after regiment passes on its way to the seat of war through streets crowded with a maddened population. All trade is at a standstill. Store after store down Broadway has been turned into the headquarters of An- derson's Zouaves, Wilson's Boys, the Empire City Guard, and hosts of corps too numerous or too eccentric in their names for me to recollect. Verily, a cosmopolitan army is assembled here. As one walks he is jostled by soldiers dressed in the uni- forms of the Zouaves de la Garde, the Chasseurs à Pied, Infanterie de la Ligne, and other French regiments - so great apparently is the admiration of our cousins for everything Gallic. I must confess I should like to see more nationality. In justice, however, to the men, I cannot do otherwise than express my unqualified approval of the material out of which the North is to make her patriot army. Many of those I have seen marching through the streets appear already to have served in the field, so ad- mirably do they bear themselves in their new rôles. The very children have become tainted with the military epidemic, and little, toddling Zouaves, three and four years old, strut, armed to the teeth, at their nurses' apron strings. As I write I have a corps of chasseurs, composed of all the small boys in the hotel, exercising and skirmishing in the corridor outside my room. There is not a house that does not display Union colours of some kind ; there is not a steeple ever so lofty that is not surmounted by a star-spangled banner; there is not a man nor woman in the city that does not wear a patriotic badge of some kind. It is a mighty uprising of a united people determined to protect their flag to the last.1
" Early in the summer of 1861, when things were rapidly developing toward the rebellion, a new power, not hitherto exercised in this coun- try, was exerted for the public safety. Persons were arbitrarily ar- rested and confined under military guard on evidence satisfactory to the general government that they were guilty of acts of a disloyal and dangerous character. It devolved upon the secretary of state in the first instance to indicate who should be thus put in confinement. He made the arrests through his marshals, and they were turned over to
1 " Illustrated London News," June, 1861.
VOL. III .- 32.
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General Scott, who held them at Fort Lafayette in New-York harbor." Lieutenant-Colonel Martin Burke, U. S. army, was assigned, July 19, 1861, to command Forts Hamilton and Lafayette. He was of the Ro- man centurion type of soldier, who obeyed orders implicitly, taking but little thought as to their legality, and serving his country in the clear conviction that the king could do no wrong .?
One of the earliest duties devolving upon the president was to counteract, as far as practicable, the strong influences brought to bear by the South upon the governments of Great Britain and France to recognize the Confederacy, or at least to break off the friendly re- lations with the United States which FORT LAFAYETTE, 1861-65. existed at the out- break of seces- sion. He determined to ask three eminent citizens- Archbishop John Hughes of New-York, Bishop Charles P. Mellvaine of Ohio, and Lieu- tenant-General Winfield Scott, then abroad-to represent the general government. Archbishop Hughes accepted the invitation of the pres- ident, with the condition that his friend Thurlow Weed should be in- cluded in the commission, in an advisory capacity. Thus the powerful combination of church and state, of war and diplomacy, made it an ideal embassy. These wise men established themselves alternately at London and Paris, mingled with the leaders of the people, and culti- vated the society of the royal and imperial premiers. They happened to be in the right place when the irritating episode of the Trent occurred, and war between England, France, and America seemed imminent. It was averted by only a hair's-breadth, and in the light of later developments as to the inside history of the rebellion, it would seem that the American people owe President Lincoln's peace com- mission a heavy debt of gratitude.
The third year of the civil war was marked in the city of New-
1 " Anecdotes of the Civil War," E. D. Towns- end, New-York, 1884.
2 "General Scott, when he sought to enforce discipline in sport or seriousness, seldom failed to cite the name of Martin Burke as a supreme exem- plar of obedience. 'If,' said he, ' I were to order Captain Burke to bring me the head of the Presi- dent of the United States, he would proceed to execute the order with as much unconcern as he would send a drunken soldier to the guard-house.' The order of his commanding officer had the effect to clear the mind of Captain Martin Burke of all
fears and apprehensions, and if directed by his chief to lead a forlorn hope, or to kill a citizen, not a nerve of his body would have moved. On the other hand, his dread of civil tribunals and the mandates of courts overwhelmed him. Once.when he was summoned as a witness in a simple caure which affected him not, he would fain have filed the jurisdiction. When outside the chain of sen- tinels he always had a scared look, and he regarded a camp or fort as a refuge of sweet repose and security." "Fifty Years' Observations, etc.," Keyes, New-York, 1884.
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York by the most protracted and bloody riot in her history. The Northern States had responded nobly to the president's various calls for volunteers, but as the great struggle continued, voluntary food for powder became scarce, and the government was forced to resort to compulsory enlistment. In most of the States there was little diffi- culty in enforcing the draft. In New-York there was hesitation on the part of Governor Seymour to aid in a measure extremely unpopu- lar among a certain class in the community. His reluctance to co- operate with the general government encouraged the worst elements in the city to open rebellion. The merits of the question are clearly set forth in a work by the (then) provost-marshal-general of the United States.1 From this and other reliable sources, it appears that on July 2, 1862, the president issued a call for 300,000 volunteers - his final effort to suppress the rebellion by voluntary military service. On the 4th of August following he called for 300,000 nine-months militia. In September the war department issued instructions under which some of the governors commenced a draft.
In a letter dated August 4, 1862, to Count de Gasparin, President Lincoln said: "Our great army has dwindled rapidly, bringing the necessity for a new call earlier than was anticipated. We shall easily obtain the new levy, however. Be not alarmed if you shall learn that we have resorted to a draft for part of this. It seems strange even to me, but it is true, that the Government is now pressed to this course by a popular demand.2 Thousands who wish not to personally enter the service are nevertheless anxious to pay and send substitutes, pro- vided that they can have assurance that unwilling persons similarly situated will be compelled to do likewise."
In his annual report dated December 31, 1862, Adjutant-General Hillhouse said: "There was nothing of that eagerness to enter the service which had been manifested at various periods, and it appeared as if the people had fallen into an apathy from which only an extra- ordinary effort could arouse them." He further said that the State was deficient 28,517 men in volunteers furnished since July 2, 1862, and of these 18,523 belonged to the city of New-York, adding that "the credit to the city and county of New-York is based on the actual returns filed in this office, but it is believed that it is less than the volunteers furnished." The necessity for a general conscription was set forth in the public utterances of War Democrats and Republicans
1 " New-York and the Conscription," James B. Fry, New-York, 1885.
""There is only one way to remedy our fatal error: that is for the President at once to establish a system of conscription, by which, instead of 300,000, at least 500,000 men should be called under arms. . . . Instead of levying new regiments com- manded by inexperienced officers of their own choosing, and who, for a year to come, would barely
add anything to our efficiency in the field, the raw recruits ought to be collected at camps of instruc- tion, in healthy localities east and west, where, under the direction of West Point graduates, they should be drilled and disciplined. From thence as they are fit for active service they should be furnished to the army, to be incorporated into the old regiments." August Belmont to Thurlow Weed, July 20, 1862.
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alike. "Senator McDougal (Democrat) said: 'Now in regard to the conscription question, I will say for myself that I regretted much, when this war was first organized, that the conscription rule did not obtain. I went from the extreme east to the extreme west of the loyal States. I found some districts where some bold leaders brought out all the young men, and sent them or led them to the field. In other districts, and they were the most numerous, the people made no movement toward the maintenance of the war; there were whole towns and · cities, I may say, where no one volunteered to shoulder a musket, and no one offered to lead them into the service. The whole business has been unequal and wrong from the first. The rule of conscription should have been the rule to bring out men of all classes, and make it equal throughout the country ; and therein the North has failed.'"!
General Fry, the provost-marshal-general, said : "It was of great importance to the people of the State as well as to the general Gor- ernment that a correct enrolment should be made. The Adjutant- General of New-York, when speaking, in his report of December 31, 1862, of the principle of compulsory service, said to the Governor: 'Nor is it less a matter of interest to the States. Whatever may be the plan adopted, the force required must be drawn from their popu- lation liable to military duty, on which the 1,000,000 of volunteers hitherto sent to the field has already made serious inroads. They have, moreover, a common interest with the general Government in such an application of their military resources as will render them most effective for the purposes in view with the least possible waste, and with as little hardship as possible to the community.'
"The Enrolment Act was approved March 3, 1863. Section 9 re- quired that the enrollers 'immediately proceed to enrol' and report the result 'on or before the first day of April' to the Board of Enrolment, and the Board was required by the Act to consolidate the names into one list and transmit the same to the Provost-Marshal-General 'on or before the first day of May.' There was, it is true, a proviso that if these duties could not be done in the time specified, they should be performed as soon thereafter as practicable; but neither the intention of the law, nor the manifest necessity under which it was enacted, permitted delay, or, as President Lincoln expressed it in his letter to Governor Seymour, dated August 7, 1863, 'We could not waste time to reexperiment with the volunteer system, already deemed by Con- gress, and palpably in fact, so far exhausted as to be inadequate; and then more time to obtain a correct decision as to whether a law is constitutional which requires a part of those not now in the service to go to the aid of those who are already in it; and still more time to determine with absolute certainty that we get those who are to go
1 "New-York and the Conscription."
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in the precisely legal proportion to those who are not to go.' 'My purpose,' the president added, 'is to be in my actions just and con- stitutional, and yet practical in performing the important duty with which I am charged, of maintaining the unity and the free principles of our common country.'"
The political campaign of 1862 in New-York was hardly less exciting than the military operations in Virginia. The Republican standard- bearer was that gallant soldier and unselfish patriot, James S. Wads- worth ; his Democratic opponent, the eminent lawyer Horatio Sey- mour. The first stood on a radical platform-one of its planks being the prosecution of the war by " all the means that the God of Battles has placed in the power of the Government." The other candidate was put forth by a more conservative constituency, favoring " all le- gitimate means to suppress the Rebellion," and leaning to a milder policy. Seymour was elected by a majority of 10,752. "On the 1st of January, 1863, the outgoing administration of Governor Morgan turned over to the incoming administration of Governor Seymour the revised State Enrolment, the Government's order to draft the militia, and the deficiency of New-York heretofore mentioned."1
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