USA > New York > New York City > The Union defence committee of the city of New York. Minutes, reports, and correspondence; with an historical introduction > Part 2
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Second Division. They at once became the object of the special care of the Union Defence Committee. Other organ- irations had already been formed, with the assistance of the Chamber of Commerce Committee. These were the 1st Regiment Advance Guard, commanded by Colonel Abram Daryee, mustered into the service April 23d, and ordered to Fort Schuyler the same day ; the 1st Regiment New York State Volunteers, Colonel Wm. H. Allen, which was also mustered and marched to quarters on Staten Island. The Union Volunteers, Colonel William Wilson, equipped and uniformed, were already under marching orders. In addition to these were the Zouave Regiment, composed of members of the New York City Fire
Department, under command of Colonel Ellsworth ; the Gari- baldi Guard, Colonel d'Utassy ; the 1st Regiment Scott Life Guard, Colonel Hudson; the second Scott Life Guard, Colo- nel J. H. Hobart Ward ; the New York State Steuben Vol- unteers, Colonel Bendix; the 1st Regiment German Rifles, Colonel Blenker; the 2d Regiment Advance Guard ; the Vol- unteer Naval Brigade of New York, Colonel Commandant Washington Allen Bartlett, and sundry minor organizations which were later merged in larger bodies. The names here given are those under which the several regiments originally formed and were mustered. They were later numbered under State regulations.
Stimulated by the patriotic action of the Common Council for the care of the families of the soldiers and the prompt action of the Committee, organizations were rapidly recruited.
By General Order No. 17, issued by the Adjutant-General April 25, under resolution of the Board of State Officers, twenty- one additional regiments were authorized to be embodied, mak- ing a total of thirty-eight regiments of volunteers to serve for two years, irrespective of the militia regiments already in service.
The Sixth Massachusetts, the regiment which was attacked
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in Baltimore on the morning of the 19th, was the only body of men which was moved to Washington by rail. They arrived at he capital late in the afternoon. The Sth Regiment Massachu- setts reached Philadelphia on the evening of Friday, the 19th, and with them Brigadier-General Butler, who had been assigned to the command. General Butler moved his troops by rail to Havre de Grace, where he seized the ferry-boat Maryland and steamed to Annapolis, arriving in the evening.
The 7th New York, which also left New York on Friday, reached Philadelphia at two o'clock on the morning of the 20th ; but information being received that the bridges between Balti- more and Havre de Grace had been destroyed, Colonel Lefferts telegraphed to Mr. Cameron, the Secretary of War, at Wash- ington, at five in the evening, that he had been informed by the president of the Philadelphia and Baltimore Railroad that Governor Hicks of Maryland had stated that no more troops could pass through Baltimore. Receiving no reply to his tele- gram, the Colonel himself decided on his course, and at eleven o'clock chartered the steamer Boston ; and, telegraphing again to the Secretary of War with a request that he should be met off Fortress Monroe, or at the mouth of the Potomac, with orders as to the route to Washington, he embarked his regiment, and at four o'clock in the afternoon the Boston steamed down the Delaware, and at dawn of Sunday morning, 21st inst., reached the mouth of the harbor of Annapolis. Here they found the famous frigate Constitution, Captain Blake, the training-ship of the Naval Academy, which had been saved from falling into the hands of the Secessionists. The Maryland had run aground. After some ineffectual efforts by the Boston to tow out the unfortunate ferry-boat, Colonel Lefferts on the afternoon of Monday, the 22d, at four o'clock, landed his men and en- camped at Annapolis, the pioneers of the war in occupying this important post. The Massachusetts men were soon after landed by the Boston. At once seizing the railroad depot, they began
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to mend the rail and repair an old locomotive which they found in a damaged state. During the day Colonel Lander, a trusted and excellent officer, came on from Washington with orders from General Scott. He reported that the situation of affairs of Washington was extremely critical, and that the Government was intensely anxious that the 7th should hasten to its re- Jiof. General Butler awaited the arrival from Philadelphia of the 5th Massachusetts, with its artillery. At four o'clock on the morning of Wednesday, the 24th, Colonel Lefferts put his command in march for Annapolis Junction. With them marched a detachment of the Sth Massachusetts, accom- panying the train they had improvised. Annapolis Junction was reached between three and four o'clock Thursday morning, April the 25th. Here they found the railroad in the hands of the Government, and shortly after a train came in to receive them. Leaving the Junction at ten, the regiment arrived at Washington at noon.
The regiment of Rhode Island, Colonel Burnside, reached New York on the 21st. Governor Sprague accompanied the expedition. They left in the afternoon for Annapolis, and marched to Washington on the 26th.
On the 27th, thirteen thousand troops were already in Wash- ington, and eight thousand more near at hand. The capital was safe. The safety of Washington was thus secured by this flank movement ; the question of the direct route through Balti- more was still open. The North chafed with impatience at the delay of the Government, but the President was unwilling to take any action that might, perhaps, precipitate the secession of Maryland, and even consented, at the urgent request of the Mayor of Baltimore, to order the withdrawal of twenty-five hundred Pennsylvania troops from Cockeysville, a point seven- teen miles from Baltimore, where they had guarded the line of the Northern Central Railroad, and thus held open an important route into Maryland. Immediately upon the evacuation of
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Cockeysville, the Secessionists without opposition destroyed all the bridges up to the Pennsylvania line.
This apparent weakness excited the greatest indignation. " Through Baltimore to Washington !" was the popular cry of civilians as well as of soldiers. Meanwhile the Mayor of Baltimore forbade the removal of provisions from the city, and it seemed as though there were an organized plan to starve out the capital. At no time was the Government in such danger of losing its control over its own forces. The popular sentiment was strongly expressed in an open letter addressed by George Law to the President, on the 25th of April, in which occurs the following passage :
" The public mind is already excited to the highest point that this state of things has been so long tolerated ; and the people are determined that free and uninterrupted communi- cation with the seat of Government shall be immediately estab- lished, not by circuitous routes, but by the direct lines of com- munication that they have heretofore traveled over, and it is demanded of the Government that they at once take measures to open and establish those lines of communication, and that they pro- tect and preserve them from any further interruption. Unless this is done the people will be compelled to take it into their own hands, let the consequences be what they may, and let them fall where they will. It is certainly most desirable that this be done through the regularly constituted authorities at Washington; and the Government is earnestly requested to act without delay."
This letter appeared in the New York Daily Tribune of Friday, April 26th, 1861.
Such was the condition of public affairs when the Union Defence Committee entered upon their important duties.
ACTION OF THE UNION DEFENCE COMMITTEE
The chief labor fell upon the Executive Committee. This committee consisted of ten members with the addition of the
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President of the General Committee, the Treasurer and the Chairman of the Finance Committee. Mr. Simeon Draper was the permanent Chairman, and Mr. Prosper M. Wetmore the Secretary of this Committee. Later the Committee was in- creased to fifteen. They met daily at No. 30 Pine Street, and every evening at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. On Tuesday the 23d, the Executive Committee organized and appointed seven sub-committees, among whom the business was distrib- uted. That on provisions and supplies was instructed to take immediate steps to forward provisions for the troops in the field.
The Committee then called upon Vice-President Hamlin, at his lodgings, and later waited on General Wool at his quarters at the St. Nicholas Hotel. In the evening a special agent was dispatched to Washington with instructions and a cypher ar- ranged for correspondence. Mr. Charles H. Haswell was in- trusted with the confidential mission, and his services were per- manently engaged. Later Mr. George L. Schuyler was also employed, and on one occasion Mr. George T. M. Davis, an old personal friend of President Lincoln, was sent on a special mission.
On the 24th, Mr. Charles H. Russell was empowered to pur- chase cannon from the foundry at West Point or elsewhere. Under this authority this gentleman purchased sixteen rifled cannon from the aforesaid foundry.
Arrangements were made to provide clothing for the troops, and Mr. Wadsworth on the 24th, chartered the steamer Kill von Kull to leave the next morning with one hundred laborers and . tools to lay rail and keep open the railroad. Her destination was Annapolis, and she was to maintain communication with Wash- ington. This was a large double-end side-wheel ferry boat of great capacity, and did excellent service in the transportation of troops between Annapolis and Fortress Monroe, Washington and Perryville (Havre de Grace). In the condition of affairs at Baltimore this was the quickest and surest route. Later in
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the day, information being received from General Wool that two privateers were fitting out in Chesapeake Bay, the Committee chartered the steamer Quaker City to act as convoy to all other vessels. The Kill von Kull, however, was held under her char- ter, and sailed the next day with horses and provisions under the instructions of the United States Government. She re- turned to New York on the 14th May, and the Committee issued their warrant for the expense of her charter in the sum of $15,58S.77.
The Quaker City was chartered from Messrs. P. Hargous & Co. for thirty days at one thousand dollars per day, with the option of further engagement or purchase at $140,000. She was about to sail for Havana, but discharged her cargo, and was fitted out and armed at the Navy Yard. Commodore Breese assigned Captain Shufeldt to her command. On the 25th, the Monticello, which was also equipped at the Navy Yard, sailed for Chesapeake Bay. The Quaker City and the Monticello were provided with twenty rifled muskets, ordered by General Wool from the Springfield Armory at the request of Mr. John A. Dix. The Monticello was followed on the 26th by the dispatch boat Yankee, with an armament, and under sealed orders. On the 25th, the steamship Kedar, which arrived from Liverpool on the 22d, was chartered from Messrs. Cunard & Co. for twenty days or longer at $2,000 per day, with the privilage of purchase at $350,000. These charters were all made under the authority of General Wool.
The Quaker City was well armed and equipped, and had a remarkable career, capturing between May 14th and July 10th eight prizes, one of which was sold under decree of the admir- alty, the net proceeds of vessel and cargo amounting to above $130,000. She was later purchased by the United States Gov- ernment.
Provisions were sent to Annapolis by the steamer Columbia to the amount of nearly one hundred thousand dollars, and
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sums were remitted to the regiments in the field for the purpose of purchasing stores.
The equipment of the troops under marching orders and the organization of the volunteers was the chief business of the Committee, and required a labor in detail which the minutes of the Executive Committee clearly demonstrate. Of equal im- portance was the relief of families of soldiers. This was finally intrusted to ward committees, which acted under the directions and regulations of Mr. Robert T. Haws, Comptroller of the city. By them the city appropriation was distributed in accordance with carefully devised and printed forms.
On the 25th, Mr. Orison Blunt, Supervisor of the city, was authorized to purchase arms and ammunition.
On the 26th a message was received from the Mayor of Philadelphia, announcing a telegram from Washington, to the effect that the city was safe, a sufficient number of men having arrived, and the same day a dispatch from Gov. Morgan that he did not feel prepared to send any more troops without a requisi- tion from the President; but should it come, he could send eight thousand men. The General Order No. 17, promulgated on the 25th, provided for the enrollments of the accepted companies not previously organized. These increased the force to an aggregate of thirty-eight regiments of volunteers, exclusive of the militia regiments then in the service.
The original quota of New York troops in the seventy-five thousand called for by the President on the 15th April, was 13,280 men, all regiments to serve for three months. The call of the Governor for twenty-one regiments of volunteers to serve for two years, in order to replace the militia in the field, was therefore four regiments in excess of the original quota of the State. The War Department was, however, reluctant to receive the additional regiments in excess of the quota, and was only induced to accept them on the personal application of a mem- ber of the State Military Board.
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On the 28th, the 5th, the German regiment, Col. Schwarz- walder, which had remained on the battery in their camp, which had received the name of Camp Anderson, having been enabled to complete their equipment by the contribution of $2,500 from the Committee, sailed for Annapolis on the Kedar. Eleven regiments of the quota of the N. Y. State militia had already gone forward. There remained four regiments of this old militia organization, which had volunteered for the war. These were the 2d, 9th, 14th, and 79th. They were soon ready and waiting orders, and the Committee turned their atten- tion to the volunteer organizations. Large amounts of arms and ammunition were purchased, and the Ladies' Association, who were busily engaged in preparing clothing, were supplied with material. The Fire Zouaves, Col. Ellsworth, were armed by them with 1,050 Sharp rifles, and sailed on the 28th on the Baltic, for Annapolis. This regiment had enlisted for two years, and was the first of the New York volunteer regiments that went to the front.
Before receiving the information that the Governor was un- willing to dispatch more troops without a requisition from Washington, the Committee on the 25th April delegated Judge Pierrepont and Mr. Evarts to proceed to the capital, and, in conjunction with Mr. Thurlow Weed, to confer with the Presi- dent. These gentlemen were furnished with a series of ques- tions, to which they requested specific answers. These con- cerned the movement of troops and their shelter, and the state of the railroad communication to Washington. One of these questions involved the distribution of the armed steamers, which the Committee were dispatching to the Chesapeake for the blockade of the Southern ports and the search of suspicious vessels. Twenty of these steamers had been chartered and fitted out at the Navy Yard. Another query conveyed an intimation that unless the Government reopened the communication be- tween New York and Washington it would be effected by indi-
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viduals. The last requested, that authority be given to General Wool to meet all emergencies which might arise. General Wool, in view of his rank as second in command and his isola- : lation from Washington, had assumed general authority. General Scott, to whom the President and Cabinet had in- trusted the entire direction of the military operations of the Government, was at first ill-disposed to communicate at all with any civil commission on war matters; but on the interpo- sition of Mr. Seward, he decided to recognize Mr. Haswell as the agent of the Defence Committee, and gave him a circular letter to the heads of the several military bureaus.
Impatient at the threatened delays, the Committee on the 25th April dispatched a message to the President by Mr. Geo. T. M. Davis.
In an interview which took place on the evening of the 27th, the President expressed his own confidence in the safety of the capital, explained the reasons for his action in the withdrawal of the troops from Cockeysville, and urged a greater degree of patience and confidence on the part of the Committee and the citizens of New York. He closed with a declaration of the determination of the administration to avoid " everything like a spirit of revenge toward the South." Mr. Seward was less moderate in his expressions, and his strictures upon the im- patience of the Committee verged upon bitterness. He dep- recated the unnecessary shedding of blood in view of the re- action which was already taking place, and censured the violent attacks of the press of New York upon the President's Cabinet.
On the 29th, Mr. George L. Schuyler returned from Wash- ington, and made a verbal report to the Committee. The ad- ministration were evidently chagrined, and General Scott dis- contented, by the extent of the authority assumed and exercised by General Wool, with whom the Committee were in full accord Fearing his recall, the General Committee on the 30th, passed . resolutions complimentary to General Wool, and earnestly re-
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questing approval and ratification of his conduct and action by the War Department. This endorsement was of no avail. A letter was addressed to him by the Adjutant General of the U. S. A., on the 28th April, expressing the wish of General Scott that he should return to Troy "to resume the routine duties of the department, and for the recovery of his health." General Wool had certainly exercised a large authority. He had chartered vessels, forwarded supplies, purchased ammuni- tion, garrisoned forts, directed the movement of troops, ordered the occupation of navy depots and army arsenals from Ports- mouth to St. Louis, supplied arms and ammunition of war to the Western governors ; in a word, had set in motion the entire military force of the North. On the 23d and 25th April, he had informed General Scott of his action ; on the 25th he gave similar information to Mr. Cameron, the Secretary of War, and finally had commissioned. Col. Geo. L. Schuyler, a volunteer aid-de-camp, to call in person on the President, the Secretary of War, and General Scott, with a verbal report.
Col. Schuyler reported on the morning of the 1st May, that he had been unable to obtain any information on the sub- ject of his mission. On the evening of the same day General Wool received his letter of withdrawal from the post, and the Committee was requested to confer with the officers of the general staff with regard to the purchase and forwarding of army supplies.
The complete isolation of the capital appears from a dis- patch from Mr. F. W. Seward, Assistant Secretary of State, to the Committee. On the 30th April he telegraphed to Mr. Simeon Draper-" To-day, for the first time in ten days, we have received New York papers." Indeed, it was not until the 3d May that the route from Washington to Philadelphia, via An- napolis, was complete in its mail transport-one military and one passenger train daily, from Washington to Annapolis.
Beyond the routine of equipment, supply and relief, the
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Committee were called upon on other subjects of no less im- portance. They were in constant receipt of information with regard to the treasonable actions of individuals, whom they re- ported either for surveillance or arrest. In conjunction with the police authorities they organized a system of passes, with- out which no person could reach the Capital or cross the Fed- eral lines, the authorities at Washington governing their action in regard to New York citizens by the advice of the Committee. They sent also the first ambulances to the field, supplied the army hospitals at Washington with mattresses, and distributed baggage-wagons to the New York regiments. A private dis- patch-service was organized by special messengers, to whom the military and civil authorities intrusted their communica- tions during the isolation of Washington. They also organized a supervision over the telegrams relating to military affairs. The condition of affairs in the border States, and the propriety of arming Union men in these States were brought to the consideration of the Committee, and their assistance was invoked. On the 26th of April, Mr. Dix, to whom a confiden- tial communication from gentlemen of the South asking for arms, had been referred, made a favorable report, and one thousand stand of arms and one hundred rounds of ammuni- tion were supplied.
An application for arms was made by the Union men of Kentucky, with the approval of the Hon. James B. Guthrie. They proposed to reimburse the Committee for the purchase. On the 27th, on the recommendation of Mr. Dix, one thousand stand of arms, and one hundred rounds of ammunition were ordered. They were intended for use at Louisville, to prevent the seces- sion of the State. The arms were shipped to New Albany, and Mr. John W. Dix, son of Mr. John A. Dix, went to that place to see that the cases fell into safe hands. On the 30th they were recalled.
On the 30th Messrs. Carlisle and Morss appeared before
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the Committee, and invited their interposition to save Western Virginia to the Union. The inhabitants of that section had made application to Mr. Lincoln for one hundred thousand dollars, and five thousand Minie-rifles, until the Federal troops should occupy the State, and their request was sup- ported by prominent gentlemen from the Northern States. Mr. Wm. E. Dodge visited Washington and represented the views of the Committee, and made a verbal report of his action to it upon his return, the 7th of May.
Still another incident shows the variety of duties imposed on the Committee. On the 3d of May a telegram from Mr. John M. Forbes of Boston gave information of the sale of a British steamer, the Peerless, at Toronto, on Lake Ontario, and measures were at once taken to ascertain the circumstances of the sale and the destination of the vessel. It was understood that she was fitting hastily for Quebec, and it was feared that she was intended for Confederate service. The authorities at the Boston Navy Yard were notified and promised to give her their attention, and Mr. Seward communicated to the Committee his order to the Commander of all the naval forces to seize the ves- sel wherever found and bring her into port. This steamer was later purchased by the United States Government and left To- ronto on the 24th of May.
On the 3d of May the Secretary of State was notified by telegram that the Committee had positive information of a heavy shipment of arms from Belgium to the ports of Mobile and New Orleans under a contract for fifty thousand stand en- tered into by the States of Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and Georgia. The Committee suggested to the Secretary that the Blockade Squadron be at once informed.
Applications for arms poured in from the Western States. On May the 7th General Butler asked for ten thousand fa- tigue uniforms, tents, bed-sacks, lamps, kettles, tin cups, can- teens, etc., for the troops in the field. Mattresses were shipped
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to Washington for the use of the troops, and one hundred cots were sent at the request of Miss Dix to the Washington Hospi- tals. Hospital stores were also forwarded for the Surgeon-Gen- eral's Department at Annapolis. The relief of families of volun- teers was carefully continued by the bureau established through- out the city.
Messrs. Evarts, Pierrepont and Weed, the special committee appointed on the 28th to visit Washington, returned to the city on the 2d May. Mr. Haswell, the agent of the Committee at Washington, had given definite answers to all the nine queries specified in their instructions. These were verbally reported by Mr. Evarts to the Committee. To the first query it was an- swered, that no more troops were wanted at Washington and that the line of the Potomac was open. On the 2d Mr. Has- well telegraphed from Perrysville, that the views of the author- ities as to the sending forward of troops were changed, but that none should be sent unless fully provided with camp equipage. General Scott had decided the change.
Upon the report of these delegates the Committee addressed telegrams to the governors of each of the loyal States inquiring as to the number of troops in each entered into the service of the United States, and the condition of the local organizations, to which immediate replies were made. Everywhere the Com- mittee appears to have been recognized as the most effective agent in the defence of the Union. Replies were received from thirteen of the governors within twenty-four hours with intelli- gence that sixty-three regiments were organized and twenty- four additional were ready to be called into the field if needed. On the 3d the information received in reply was dispatched to Mr. Cameron, Secretary of War.
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