WAR OF SECESSION 



6147 



WAR OF SECESSION 



Bull Run and threatened the city of Washing- 

 ton. It ended for a time all hope of marching 

 on Richmond. McClellan was placed in com- 

 mand of the Army of the Potomac, and he 

 began at once to make a strong army out of 



THE WAR MAP 



How the Confederacy was enlarged after the 

 fall of Fort Sumter. In black are shown the 

 states which seceded before the fall of Sumter; 

 !y-shaded lines mark the states which later 

 joined the Confederacy; lightly-shaded lines 

 mark border states that remained In the Lnlon, 

 to which, after 1863. West Virginia was adJod; 

 states In white represent the Federal side of the 

 war. The large, undivided area was unorgan- 

 ized territory In 1861. 



the thousands of raw volunteers. By autumn 

 the Union forces numbered 180,000 men; the 

 Confederates, 150,000. 



In November the Confederacy dispatched 



two commissioners, Mason and Slidell, from 



the port of Havana, Cuba, to England, to plead 



for aid for the South. The men were taken 



from the steamship, the Trent, by Federal 



Commander Wilkes and imprisoned. England 



threatened war, the alternative being the release 



of the prisoners. President Lincoln admitted 



the illegality of the act, released the men and 



offered apology to Britain. Mason and Slidell 



' . hut their mission was fruitless. 



The War in 1862. The plan of campaign of 



the Union armies included the program of 



1861 ; in addition, to open the lower Mississippi, 



break the Confederate line in the West, in 



nny through the In ut of the Confederacy 



northward into Virginia. Then the 



linn 1m.- 1 would join the Federal armies 



in the East for an attack on Richmond, in case 



that city yet remained in Confederate hands. 



Captain, later Admiral, Farragut, with about 

 fifty wooden vessels of war, the strongest fleet 

 tint h.-id .-ver been assembled under the An 

 flag, attacked the strong defenses of New 

 ms from the south. The assault lasted a 

 '.. and thr nty fell. Vicksburg and Port 

 Hnd<on. both fortified, could not be taken 



cept with the aid of troops. Their capture did 

 not occur until July, 1863; on that date the 

 Union controlled the great river. 



In the East McClellan advanced to the cap- 

 ture of Richmond. The battles of Yorktown, 

 Williamsburg, Seven Pines, Fair Oaks and other 

 lesser engagements resulted in no glory to the 

 Federals, for the Confederates under Lee cap- 

 tured many prisoners and forced McClellan 

 back towards Washington, after he was actually 

 in sight of the Confederate capital city. Lee 

 pressed his advantage, advancing towards the 

 Potomac, threatening Washington and winning 

 in the second battle of Bull Run. At Ai> 

 t^m (September 17) one of the greatest battles 

 of the war was fought, and Lee was dr; 

 back into Virginia. McClellan did not press 

 his advantage, and he lost his command to 

 Burnside, who fought Lee at Fredericksburg 

 and was defeated. Hooker succeeded Burnside. 



The Confederates surprised the Federals by 

 making of the old frigate Mcrrimac a formi- 

 dable iron-plated, roof-topped warship. It 

 feared no vessel of standard type afloat, and 

 easily sank its first victims, on March 9. But 

 the Federals also had prepared a surprise, the 

 Monitor a "cheesebox on a raft" a heavily- 

 armored craft, hardly visible above the water 

 line, with an iron-coated revolving turret. The 

 battle of these strange boats, which resulted in 

 a victory for the Monitor and in a day changed 

 the type of war vessels for tho world, is de- 

 scribed on page 3890. 



In the West tin* theater of war was princi- 

 pally in Tennessee. The Confederate line was 

 strong from Kentucky to Columbus, Missis- 

 sippi. The Federal General Hallirk 1 

 mined to break this line and niter the In-art of 

 the South. For the first time General Grant 

 appears in an important undertaking; Hall k 

 sent him to attack Fort Henry, but Commo- 

 dore Footc captured it with his gunboats before 

 Grant could reach the scene, and the l.i un- 

 moved on to Fort Donelson (see map). It 

 was hen that Grant wrote his famous message, 

 "No terms except an unconditional and im- 

 mediate surrender can be a< He won. 

 Tin n h< moved into Mississippi, engaged the 

 Confederates at Shiloh, or Pittsburg Landing; 

 at first he was driven back (April 6), but on 

 the second day, with reinforcements, he 



. and his name was 

 thereafter the greatest in Federal annals. 



On the last day of 1882 and the first two 

 days of 1863 Rosccrans fought and won a vic- 

 Murfreesboro, Tenn. 



