History of the American Civil War: Containing the events from the Proclamation of the Emancipation of the slaves to the end of the war

In this chapter it is intended to ascertain the correct point of view for an examination of the campaigns which followed the Proclamation of Emancipation of the slaves.

A preliminary survey shows that the Confederate line of defense was first broken by the Army of the Tennessee. The Army of the Cumberland was then brought into action. The central region of the Confederacy was conquered, and a secure lodgment made at Chattanooga, the portal through the Alleghany Mountains. Hence the movement of the Army of the West claims precedence in the order of relating the events of this portion of the war.

Military condition

1863.

Ar the opening of 1863, the beleaguering of the Confederacy was strictly maintained by a military at the opening of force, as appears from the report of the Secre tary of War, of more than 800,000 men. The navy consisted of more than 400 ships, many of them ironclads. Neither of these forces had as yet reached its maximum; both were rapidly increasing. Their pressure was continually becoming more and more severe.

Alarm in the South

of the slaves.

Though the proclamation of freedom to the slaves was ostensibly received throughout the South with at the emancipation contemptuous defiance, and in all directions it was declared that "Lincoln could only enforce it as far as his gun-boats could go," in reality it excited profound alarm. That this alarm was not groundless soon appeared from the facility with which black regiments were

organized, and more than a hundred thousand black troops armed in the national service.

Measures for the or

ed troops.

Previously to the issue of the proclamation, the employ. ment of colored troops was restricted to a ganization of color- few localities. General Hunter had organized some at Hilton Head, in South Carolina, but, as there was no express authority for so doing, there was no warrant for paying them. That difficulty was, however, remedied by a special order from Stanton, who from the beginning of the conflict had perceived that the decisive method of action in a war with slaveholders is to resort to the military use of slaves. General Phelps, commanding under Butler in Louisiana, had also proposed to raise three regi ments of Africans, to be used, not as laborers, but as soldiers. Butler resisted this at first, and Phelps resigned his commission. Butler, however, soon found himself constrained to pursue the same course, and organized several colored regiments.

But Jefferson Davis saw as distinctly as Stanton the ef fect of this use of the slaves. He therefore, with characteristic impetuosity, issued an order that any captured commissioned officer who had been employed in organizing, drilling, or instructing them, should not be treated as a prisoner of war.

In the Confiscation Act, and in another act passed in July, 1862, Congress had authorized the employment of colored troops. These laws had, however, in contemplation colored men who by the course of the war had been released from slavery.

After the Proclamation of Emancipation was issued, measures were introduced in the Senate and in the House for the enlistment of blacks. It was, however, decided that the Conscription Act gave the necessary authority without any farther legislation. On the 20th of January, 1863, Stanton authorized the Governor of Massachusetts to raise such troops, and organize them in a separate corps. Other

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History of the American Civil War: Containing the events from the ...