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| Sixth Massachusetts Regiment in Baltimore, April 19, 1861. Harper's Weekly. |
Cortland Evening Standard, Saturday, January 31, 1903.
WAR REMINISCENCES
FIRST CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS
Arms and Supplies Transferred South by Secretary Floyd, Navy Sent to the Ends Of the Earth- Both North and South Confident of a Bloodless Victory—Enlistment a Holiday Outing—First Student to Enlist from Cortland County.
[CHAPTER III.]
To the Editor of The Standard:
Sir—The confederate secretary of war said, when the news that Beauregard had obeyed orders and fired on Fort Sumpter [sic], "that by the first of May the confederate flag would float over Washington city." The United States army was only about 16,000 strong when South Carolina seceded, and this small force was distributed in the remotest parts of the country, purposely, by Buchanan’s secretary of war, Floyd, who was a party to secession. Our navy was mostly away on foreign stations.
General Twiggs, commanding the department of Texas, in February, had disgracefully betrayed his trust and turned over all the government property in his department to the state of Texas and by this one single act the government lost at least half of its military force.
Arms Transferred South.
Secretary of War Floyd had been continually transferring arms, ammunition and stores from northern arsenals and armories to the southern states. He had ordered at one time, sent to Ship Island, Mississippi, forty-six cannon; to Galveston seventy eight cannon; all of heavy caliber such as 10-inch Columbiads and thirty- two pounders. This is only a sample of his transferring to the South the government property of the United States so it would be handy to be seized when the South wanted it.
Mr. Pollard in his "Southern History of the War" (rebel) says, Mr. Floyd of Virginia, secretary of war under Buchanan, had provided for the South; Fort Moultrie and Camp Pickney in Charleston harbor had been captured; Fort Pulaski at the mouth of the Savannah river had been taken; the arsenals at Mt. Vernon, Ala., with 20,000 stand of arms had been seized. Fort Morgan in Mobile bay, Forts Jackson and St. Philip, near New Orleans, and the New Orleans mint and custom house had been seized; over 115,000 improved muskets and rifles from Springfield, Mass., armory had been transferred to the South, and it was safely estimated that the South entered upon the war with the North, with at least 150,000 stand of small arms of the most improved pattern and the best in the world. Confederate Vice-President Stephens estimated the property of the confederate states to be worth $22,000,000,000.
Contemplate for a moment the situation of the government when Fort Sumpter was fired on. The navy in foreign waters, scarcely any arms at all, most of the forts and fortifications from Fortress Monroe all down the Atlantic coast and Gulf of Mexico in the hands of the confederates. Small arms, ammunition, cannon and military stores had been sent to southern arsenals. There was not a penny in the treasury and the government could not borrow money without paying exorbitant interest, and the country was nearly $100,000,000 in debt.
The Call for Volunteers.
The next day after Major Anderson surrendered, Monday, April15, President Lincoln issued a call to the governors of the states which had not seceded, for 75,000 militia to serve for three months, to assist in reoccupying the forts and arsenals and secure the property that had been taken from the government. Of these 75,000 men, New York was apportioned seventeen regiments. I was back in school again and before we hardly realized it, more than enough men had responded. The utmost enthusiasm existed throughout the North. We school boys thought what a picnic it would be to go down South for three months and clean up the whole business. Did we believe there would be any actual fighting? No, indeed. Up to the time that Sumpter was fired on, in our locality at least, the impression was that there would be no fighting; that all we had to do would be to show those Southern fellows that we could not be browbeaten any longer; that if we put on a bold front and carried out Mr. Lincoln's recommendations they would yield and all would be settled, and if we actually did come to blows, one laboring man of the North would be equal to five southerners, who had never done a day's work in their lives. Those of the South indulged in equally as foolish expressions. The "mudgills” of the North could not and would not fight; they didn't know a thing about a gun, or riding a horse; and all they had to do was to show fight, and they would come to time. Hadn't they always yielded and granted what had been asked of them? "Sprinkle a little blood in their faces," said one, "and they would come whining around suing for terms." Each section forgot that we belonged to the same race, that the blood of the revolutionary fathers flowed in our veins alike, and that we were brothers of one great family.
The North Responds.
It was wonderful how promptly the Northern states responded to Mr. Lincoln’s call of the 15th. The first company of troops marched into Boston the same day. On the 16th several Pennsylvania companies arrived in Washington. On the 17th the Sixth Massachusetts, the first full regiment, started for Washington, and on the 19th, while marching from one depot to another in Baltimore was attacked by a mob of Southern sympathizers and three were killed, eight severely wounded and fifteen others sent to the hospital on account of the bruises and injuries, as soon as they arrived in Washington. The Seventh New York left New York City on the 19th, and soon arrived at the capital. The Seventh New York national guard regiment was the crack militia regiment of the state, well officered, well drilled and equipped. Its rank and file were of fine character. The first service was for three months. It volunteered again in May, 1862, for three months, and again in June, 1863, for one month. It was so well drilled that 603 men became commissioned officers in other regiments during the war, and of these 603 officers, forty-one were killed in battle, and seventeen died of disease while in the service.
Southern Troops Advance.
Southern troops had been sent north into Virginia immediately after Fort Sumpter had been captured, and soon had guns planted so that they commanded the Potomac river, and it did look for a while as though the prediction that the confederate flag would float over Washington by the first of May would become verified, and it would have been had not the North responded so promptly. Here is what a Mr. Carr of Baltimore in a speech said: "I do not care how many Federal troops are sent to Washington, they will soon find themselves surrounded by such an army from Virginia and Maryland that escape to their homes will be impossible; and when the 75,000 who are intended to invade the South shall have polluted that soil with their touch, the South will exterminate and sweep them from the earth."
On May 2, President Lincoln called for 42,000 volunteers to serve for three years, or during the war, the regular army to be increased by 23,000 men and 18,000 men to be added to the navy.
First Student Volunteer.
Under the first call, so far as I remember, only one of the students of the academy responded. This was LeRoy Cole, 19 years of age, the son of a widow. He enlisted first on the 29th of April in the Twelfth New York Volunteers. The Twelfth was the first strictly volunteer regiment raised in New York state and it took the first volunteer number, twelve, there having been eleven regiments of infantry in the Mexican war. There were other regiments lower in number, like the Seventh, but they were state militia. LeRoy was sent to Washington, helped guard the city, was among the first to advance into Virginia and afterwards participated in the first Bull Run battle. He was discharged after three months' service and came home the hero of the school and town. He now lives in Minneapolis, Minn. I shall have occasion to speak of him again later on.
W. S.
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