USA > Vermont > The story of Vermont (1889) > Part 11
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We have seen that Vermont was admitted to the Union in 1791. Almost from that time on to the opening of the war the admission of new States
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was governed by political considerations based upon slavery. In order that the balance of power . between the North and South might remain un- changed free and slave States were admitted in equal proportion. From the first the North greatly exceeded the South in population ; it had a larger representation in the lower House of Congress, but for three quarters of a century the South managed to keep the balance in the Senate unchanged.
Vermont's admission was followed in 1792 by that of Kentucky, a slave State. Tennessee came in 1796 and Ohio in 1802. Louisiana in 1812 and Indiana in 1816 were the next pair, and they were followed by Mississippi in 1817 and Illinois in 1818. In the next year Maine and Missouri were admitted together, in 1836 Michigan and Arkansas, in 1845 Iowa and Florida. So far just as many slave as free States had been taken into the Union. Prior to the latter date, however, Texas had wrested its independence from Mexico and was seeking admission as a slave State, and the question of the abolition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia had become a burning one.
The Legislature of Vermont transmitted to Con- gress a strong resolution in favor of this latter measure in 1837 and 1838. In the latter year it also passed a resolution declaring that the adoption by the House of Representatives of a rule that all
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petitions on the slavery question be laid on the table unprinted and unread was "a daring infringe- ment of the right of the people to petition and a flagrant violation of the Constitution of the United States." In 1839 similar resolutions were passed and in 1840 a law was made providing that any
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DINAH MORRIS'S CERTIFICATE OF FREEDOM.
alleged fugitive from slavery should have the right of trial by jury when claimed in Vermont by an owner from a slave State. There was little doubt what the verdict of a Vermont jury would be. In the same year Harrison the Whig candidate for president received a great majority over Van Buren,
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and for Birney, the Abolitionist candidate, were cast three hundred and nineteen votes - not an alarming number certainly, yet it portended much.
In 1841 and 1842 the Legislature passed yet more vigorous anti-slavery resolutions, protesting against the admission of Texas as a slave State and demanding that the District of Columbia be made free territory. In the latter year Vermont declared that Congress ought to prevent the inter- State slave trade and that the Constitution should be amended so as to prohibit slavery everywhere. This was very advanced ground for the times.
The election of Polk in 1844, partly through the secession of the Birney vote which had grown to nearly four thousand in Vermont and in other States held the balance of power, rendered the admission of Texas inevitable, but Vermont ceased not to protest. In 1843 the Legislature had for- bidden courts and magistrates to issue warrants for the arrest of escaping slaves in accordance with the provisions of the old fugitive slave law of 1793. In 1844 it again protested against the admission of Texas and declared the system of slavery "a mon- strous anomaly in a free government and the source of intolerable evils." In 1845 still another ineffectual protest was sent to Washington, only a short time before the admission of Texas.
The war with Mexico which was the direct result
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of that admission and the dispute about the south- western boundary of the new State found no favor in Vermont. It was fought almost entirely by Southern soldiers. It added another to the list of slave States and postponed the day of final reck- oning with the hateful system. In 1848 General Taylor was elected President, receiving a plurality of the votes of Vermont, though Van Buren the Free Soil candidate had 13,837 votes in that State. The Free Soil party was the natural refuge of many of the more outspoken anti-slavery men. It was led by and recruited from Democrats who had been driven from their party by the subservience of Polk to the slave oligarchy. Its appearance in the field boded no good to the continuance of that power.
Taylor's administration was embarrassed with the problem of providing for the government of the vast territory won from Mexico. This was finally accomplished by the compromise measures of 1850, which included the admission of Califor- nia as a free State, the organization of New Mexico and Utah as free territories and the abolition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia, while the slave power was conciliated by a more stringent fugitive slave law which aroused the deepest hostil- ity in the North, especially after Chief Justice Taney's celebrated opinion in the Dred Scott case.
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The voice of Vermont had not been silent through these controversies. In 1849 the Legis- lature pronounced slavery "a crime against hu- manity" and declared for free territories and the suppression of the slave trade. The State's attor- neys in the several counties were in 1850 by law in- structed to conduct the defense of escaped slaves claimed by. their former masters; the Legislature protested in the most bitter language against the new fugitive slave law.
The election of Pierce, a "Northern man with Southern sentiments," in 1852 brought into exist- ence the Republican party. The name appears to have been used first in the local campaigns of 1854; it was universally applied when in 1856 John C. Frémont ran as its first Presidential can- didate. The " Pathfinder," as Frémont was called, received in Vermont 39,561 votes against 10,569 cast for Buchanan, the successful Democratic candidate.
The new party was made up in Vermont as else- where of the most diverse elements. The largest single ingredient was from the old Whig party. This was reinforced by most of the Free Soilers, by a large number of new voters casting their first ballots and by the Birney Abolitionists. From the start the new party had things all its own way. Its moderate aims - for it looked for nothing more
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radical than the territorial limitation of slavery - recommended it to the great body of moderate men and the more pronounced fell into its ranks because it was marching in something like their own direction.
President Buchanan aided, as Pierce had done, every wish and effort of the pro-slavery leaders. By giving them all he sealed their fate ; the time of their greatest triumph was that also of greatest danger. The supine acquiescence of the adminis- tration in the efforts of the Missouri border ruffians to force slavery upon Kansas disgusted the North. In Vermont the armed invasion of Kansas was denounced by the Legislature as an act of atrocity unparalleled in the history of the country; the non-interference of the Federal government was declared to have rendered it unworthy the confi- dence and respect of free men.
The Legislature of 1856 appropriated, by a law repealed the following year, twenty thousand dol- lars for the relief of free State men in Kansas, and in 1858 crowned its record of bold and spirited legislation by declaring that every person who had been a slave in another State should be free upon coming to Vermont. "When the government or judiciary of the United States refuses to protect citizens when in another State or territory," de- clared these sturdy freemen, "it becomes the duty
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of the States to protect their own citizens at what- ever hazard or cost." These were noble words and they may fitly close the record of twenty years of legislative action and agitation for freedom-action and agitation which will be in all future time the pride of the people of the State.
When the nominating conventions met in 1860, the Democrats divided upon the irrepressible ques- tion of slavery. After a political struggle of un- paralleled bitterness three candidates were placed in the field. Douglas representing mainly the moderate pro-slavery Democrats of the North, Breckenridge, who was the candidate of the ex- treme pro-slavery leaders of the South and Bell, who commanded the support of that insignificant element which believed that slavery could still be ignored in American politics. Democratic division was Republican opportunity and Abraham Lincoln, the candidate of that party, was elected President of the United States. In Vermont he received an overwhelming majority, 42,419 votes being cast for him against 6,849 for Douglas and about 2,000 divided between Bell and Breckenridge.
The election of Lincoln was by the hot-headed secessionists of the South construed to mean that their "peculiar institution " was in danger, though neither Lincoln nor the Republican party had at that time any intention of interfering with slavery
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A BASE BALL CLUB VOLUNTEERING FOR SERVICE.
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except by preventing its extension by peaceful and constitutional means.
Between the election of Lincoln in November and his inauguration in March, the secession plot grew and ripened unchecked by Buchanan. Forts and arsenals, the property of the United States, were seized, custom houses were closed, the Federal authority repudiated over wide regions and many of the Southern sympathizers in the civil and mili- tary service of the country resigned their places to go "with their section."
Hardly more than a month after President Lin- coln's term began, the fall of Sumter under rebel guns incensed the free North, and the President's call for seventy-five thousand men was issued. No- where was it responded to with more alacrity than in Vermont. The Green Mountain Boys did not rest content with passing resolutions against slav- ery and denouncing disunion from a safe distance. The time had come to fight, and Vermont saw that it had come. Thenceforward, during the bloodiest and costliest war of history, its sons so bore them- selves on many hotly-contested fields that the troops of no other State can challenge comparison, num- ber for number, with them. They had been men of peace for more than a generation, but the blood of fighting forefathers ran in their veins and patriot- ism was the earliest lesson they had learned.
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The Green Mountain Boys at the outbreak of the War of the Revolution had pledged to Congress " more than five thousand hardy soldiers capable of bearing arms in defense of American liberty." That was before the days of the census, and it is probable that the zeal of the Vermonters in a good cause led them to promise more soldiers than their entire adult male population at the time. Cer- tainly no such number took the field.
Of the resources of the State in 1860 and of its prowess in the War of the Rebellion we have more exact knowledge from the census and from the military records. "Vermont alone of the free States," says Benedict, " sent to the war ten men for every one hundred of its population, and out of a total enrollment of thirty-seven thousand men liable to do military duty, stood credited at last with nearly thirty-four thousand volunteers." No Vermont regiment lost its colors in battle. The soldiers of no other Northern State took so many Southern flags in proportion. No other Northern State had anything like so high a percentage of killed and wounded.
The organization and equipment of such a host was a matter of the utmost difficulty for a small and poor commonwealth. Its military record was a glorious one and its traditions were well preserved, but the population of the State was nearly station-
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ary, its young men were drawn into the tide of emigration which was peopling the West, and the forest conditions which had made every Vermonter in earlier years an arms-bearer and marksman had entirely changed.
For years after its admission as a State the militia of Vermont had comprised all the able-bodied men between the ages of eighteen and forty-five. In 1860 this had dwindled away to nothing. For some years there had been absolutely no militia. Since 1856 only a few small and poorly-armed companies had represented the power of the State. They were without proper equipments, there were inferior arms - smooth bores of a past generation - for only a part of the thousand men or so en- rolled, and the " uniforms" of the different com- panies were anything but uniform. The splendid army which Vermont sent to the South was prac- tically built from new foundations.
Early in 1861 war began for the first time to seem possible to Northern eyes. In January an order was issued to the captains of the various com- panies directing them to ascertain whether any of their men were unable or indisposed, if need be, to respond to any call which the President might make for troops. Only three hundred and seventy- six men were reported as armed and ready for ser- vice. Some captains replied that their men had no
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fit muskets, and one made answer that he did not recognize the President's authority over the militia of Vermont, but that he and his men would be ready if needed. This the event proved.
The President's call to arms came at last. It was flashed by the telegraph throughout the North, thrilling every heart and arousing a wild popular enthusiasm for the Union which swept everything before it. No State executive was prepared to act more promptly than was Erastus Fairbanks, the " war Governor " of Vermont. His proclamation calling for a regiment for active service and con- vening a special session of the Legislature to take the necessary measures of preparation was issued on the same day with President Lincoln's call.
On the evening of April 19, four days after, the militia officers of the State met and selected the Bradford, Brandon, Burlington, Cavendish, Middle- bury, Northfield, Rutland, St. Albans, Swanton and Woodstock companies to make up the first Ver- mont regiment. Its life as a regiment was short, the men only enlisting for three months, but at the close of that period five sixths of them re-enlisted, and before the close of the war, a large proportion held officers' commissions either in Vermont com- mands or in those of other States.
The period was one of intense public excitement. Meetings were held everywhere, and preachers left
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their pulpits, farmers their ploughs, merchants their desks and lawyers their clients to enroll themselves in the new regiments for which the Legislature soon called. Several banks placed one tenth of their capital at the disposal of the Governor for war pur- poses and citizens and former citizens of the State made large private contributions. The railroads offered to transport men and material free of charge. The students at Burlington and Middlebury began drilling, and most of them went to the war.
The game of base-ball had been very popular in Vermont and there were large numbers of clubs organized in 1861. Now most of these clubs be- came the nuclei of companies of soldiers. The firemen of the differ- ent villages were not behind the base-ball players. Every con - ceivable club or organ- ization of active young men became a feeder of the patriot armies.
The special session of the Legislature voted the relatively enormous sum of one million dol- lars for war expenses, provided for arming
In a Marble Quarry!
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and organizing six more regiments, added seven dollars per month to the Government's pay of sol- diers, and laid a war tax to meet these expenditures. Provision was made for the families of soldiers who might be killed or disabled, and the various mili- tary departments were thoroughly organized.
In these patriotic acts there was no distinction of party. The few Democratic members of the Legislature had met in caucus and resolved to follow the advice of one of their number who said: " If the Republicans propose to raise five regiments, do you go for raising ten. If they want half a million for troops, do you move to make it a million dollars." There were a few Copperheads in Ver- mont but none of them seem to have been in that Legislature. In the extreme event of the State becoming bankrupt under these new and extraor- dinary expenses and failing to pay the extra seven dollars a month to the soldiers or to look after the families of the slain many of the towns provided by a separate guarantee of these promises to all of their citizens who enlisted.
It was thus that the troops of Vermont joined the movement which, originating in every hamlet of the North, and pouring on with resistless energy made the national capital resound with the tread of marching regiments, and piled up against secession the mightiest armies of history.
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As they gathered to the defense, the Green Mountain Boys were conspicuous among the crack regiments of other States for their fine appearance, soldierly bearing and sober demeanor. The uni- versal testimony of the time is that they were model soldiers in appearance as they afterward proved to be in actual conflict.
To tell the story of their part in the civil war would be to recite the history of the war itself, for wherever there was hard fighting to be done the Vermonters were found in the front. It will be impossible in the compass of a single chapter to more than glance at some of its more salient and dramatic crises.
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CHAPTER XI.
IN THE FIELD.
@1861@ T was April when Sum- ter was fired upon and the War of the Rebel- lion became inevita- ble, but there was great delay before the Northern and South- ern armies were set face to face in the field. Few if any of the Northern States were any better prepared for the war than Vermont. Beyond throwing a few hastily equipped regiments into Washington to save the city from capture, little could be done until the armies were gathered, organized and drilled.
There were those in the South who confidently predicted that Washington would be in the hands of the Confederate armies in a month, that the Yankees would not fight, and that independence would be established before the end of the year.
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There were those in the North who expected Rich- mond to be taken within six weeks by raw militia. On neither side was there any adequate conception of the length and desperateness of the coming combat. The freshly organized troops of the North gathered from far and near, were encamped and drilled into some semblance of military form during the hot summer months of 1861, and it was not till past the middle of July that the first pitched battle of any consequence was fought. The coun- try was in a state of intense excitement when it was finally known that the army of the Potomac was moving to the front. The issue of battle was joined at Bull Run Creek on the twenty-first of July, and the Northern army sustained a decided though not a crushing defeat.
The news of that defeat caused unutterable dismay in the North and short-lived exultation in the South. Men even began to doubt the final triumph of the Union cause and for a time the utmost de- jection prevailed. But the ultimate effect of the defeat may have been more beneficial than victory. It cast the North into profound gloom but made its people realize at last the magnitude of the task set before them. New regiments were organized and sent to the front, new resolution came after the first shock of disappointment had passed, and the unalterable purpose of the North became more
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firmly fixed than ever, while those who had imag- ined that the war would be a mere holiday excur- sion received a rude but salutary awakening.
But one Vermont regiment took part in the battle. The First Regiment was enlisted for but three months, and was only concerned in the com- paratively trifling engagement of Big Bethel, spend- ing the entire term of its enlistment in camp duty. It did not participate in the battle of Bull Run and was disbanded early in August, most of its mem- bers re-enlisting. The Second Regiment, organized in May, reached Washington on June 26, less than a month before Bull Run.
This was a splendid command. Taken for all in all probably no finer body of men entered the Union armies or one that performed more valiant service. Abundant proof of its high character was given even on the disastrous field of Bull Run, for the Second Vermont took and held an advanced position in the enemy's front long after the rest of the army was in full retreat. When the fact of their isolated position dawned upon the men they withdrew in good order. Even then, though the Vermonters knew that there had been a retreat, there was no panic. Not until they came upon the heels of the rout and saw its character did they join in the mad panic of flight. Their loss during the day had been considerable, but up to that
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hour they had conducted themselves with remark- able coolness. There were others besides the fight- ing men who showed the same qualities. Two at least of Vermont's non-combatants showed the courage that was in them that day.
One was Assistant-surgeon Carpenter, who was left in charge of a number of wounded men. He had no means of getting them back to the rear and saving them from falling into captivity. This dilemma he solved by standing in the road, pistol in hand, and compelling every panic-stricken wagon- driver who came along the dusty road, urging his panting horses to their utmost speed, to take up a portion of his charges, until all had been removed.
The other was John C. Thayer. He was a theo- logical student and had desired to accompany the Second Vermont to the front, but on account of a stiff wrist had been rejected by the examining phy- sician. He was determined to serve the army in some capacity and chose the humble one of cook. In the half-deserted camp, on the day when Bull Run was fought he listened as long as he could to the battle music in front; when he could bear it no longer he borrowed a musket and started toward the sound of the firing. He must have passed without knowing it the disorganized Union lines for presently he came upon a Confederate officer and file of soldiers who ordered him to surrender.
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Instead of doing this Thayer shot the officer, leaped upon his horse and rode off home in safety, having exhibited much the same spirit as those of his com- rades who had on that day brought their colors safely off from a place of the utmost danger.
The remainder of the year was passed in unim-
THE SLEEPING SENTRY.
portant military duties, in minor engagements and on picket duty. In the fall of 1861 the Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth regiments were formed and united with the Second in the famous First Ver- mont Brigade. Not one of these regiments but could show its record of at least twenty-five pitched
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battles. Their loss of men killed outright in bat- tle reached the appalling number of 6.55 per cent. of the whole, the general average for the entire Northern armies being but 2.88 per cent. Such a tremendous record meant hard and constant fight- ing throughout the war.
Only a few of the more signal achievements of the Brigade can be even mentioned here, but these will serve to show better than can any statistics the kind of men Vermont sent to the front. As a fitting prelude to the sterner facts of the war may be briefly recited the story of William Scott, who was condemned to death in the spring of 1862 for sleeping upon picket duty. Scott was a mem- ber of the Third Regiment; his excuse for falling asleep was that he had been without rest for two nights serving for a sick comrade, but he was chosen as an example to the army. Such cases had become too numerous, and the further exercise of mercy was deemed prejudicial to discipline. So the young soldier would have died an ignoble death but for President Lincoln who, on the morning when he was to be shot, rode ten miles to see that he should not die. Scott's case was quite forgotten in a day or two in the presence of vast military movements and bloody encounters. It was not generally recalled until the day when the First Brigade charged upon the rebel rifle pits at Lee's
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Mills. Among the most intrepid of the men who advanced in that storm of pattering bullets was the young recruit. When he fell struck by a rebel ball, with his dying breath he blessed the President for giving him the chance to die like a soldier.
Some of the hardest fighting of the war was done in that spring campaign in which McClellan at- tempted to reach the capital of the Confederacy. At Lee's Mills four companies of the Third Regiment were thrown across a small stream, drove the rebels out of the first line of rifle pits and held them against overwhelming odds until they were with- drawn by an order from headquarters.
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