{"id":2247,"date":"2021-08-30T12:29:26","date_gmt":"2021-08-30T12:29:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-288pinsker\/?page_id=2247"},"modified":"2024-02-27T18:14:08","modified_gmt":"2024-02-27T18:14:08","slug":"1861-war-begins","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-288pinsker\/course-syllabus\/1861-war-begins\/","title":{"rendered":"1861 &#8211;War Begins"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>April 1861<\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-mwqmvdwJgg\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In June 1861, delegates to a convention in the Unionist stronghold of Wheeling elected Francis H. Pierpont governor of this new &#8216;state,&#8217; and in July the Wheeling convention elected two prominent Unionists Waitman T. Willey and John S. Carlile, to represent the loyalists of western Virginia in the U.S. Senate.\u00a0 For these Unionists, defiance of the Confederacy was an extension of a decades-old battle against the slaveholding elite of eastern Virginia&#8230;&#8221; (Varon, <em>Armies of Deliverance<\/em>, Chapter 1)<\/p>\n<p>Willey&#8217;s son was a student at Dickinson College (Class of 1862).\u00a0 He wrote some anxious letters home in April at the outbreak of the war.\u00a0 He seemed unsure as to how his own father felt about secession.<\/p>\n<table class=\"cols-2\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"views-field views-field-field-date-optional-end\" headers=\"view-field-date-optional-end-table-column--2\"><time datetime=\"1861-04-22T12:00:00Z\">04\/22\/1861<\/time><\/td>\n<td class=\"views-field views-field-title\" headers=\"view-title-table-column--2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu\/node\/34853\" hreflang=\"und\">William Willey to Waitman Willey, April 22, 1861<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"views-field views-field-field-date-optional-end\" headers=\"view-field-date-optional-end-table-column--2\"><time datetime=\"1861-04-29T12:00:00Z\">04\/29\/1861<\/time><\/td>\n<td class=\"views-field views-field-title\" headers=\"view-title-table-column--2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu\/node\/36044\" hreflang=\"und\">William Willey to Waitman Willey, April 29, 1861<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<h3><strong>Green Together &#8211;First Bull Run<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-military\/files\/2021\/02\/Screen-Shot-2021-02-22-at-8.16.47-AM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-633\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-military\/files\/2021\/02\/Screen-Shot-2021-02-22-at-8.16.47-AM-1024x815.png\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-military\/files\/2021\/02\/Screen-Shot-2021-02-22-at-8.16.47-AM-1024x815.png 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-military\/files\/2021\/02\/Screen-Shot-2021-02-22-at-8.16.47-AM-300x239.png 300w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-military\/files\/2021\/02\/Screen-Shot-2021-02-22-at-8.16.47-AM-768x611.png 768w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-military\/files\/2021\/02\/Screen-Shot-2021-02-22-at-8.16.47-AM-1536x1222.png 1536w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-military\/files\/2021\/02\/Screen-Shot-2021-02-22-at-8.16.47-AM-377x300.png 377w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-military\/files\/2021\/02\/Screen-Shot-2021-02-22-at-8.16.47-AM.png 1654w\" alt=\"Anaconda\" width=\"584\" height=\"465\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Winfield Scott served as general in chief of the Union armies at the outset of the Civil War at the age of 74.\u00a0 He was a Virginian by birth and a Constitutional Unionist by choice.\u00a0 During the Sumter crisis in March and April 1861, he clashed with President Lincoln over strategy.\u00a0 Once the war began, Scott outlined a deliberate strategy for the Union forces which newspaper\u2019s nicknamed \u201cThe Anaconda Plan.\u201d\u00a0 After months of tension, Scott finally retired from active duty in November 1861 replaced by 34-year-old Gen. George McClellan, a well-trained officer with Democratic leanings who largely tried to follow Scott\u2019s original plan despite pressure from both the Republican president and the Republican-controlled Congress.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>First Major Battle &#8211;Bull Run (July 1861)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Battle of Bull Run or Manassas on July 21, 1861 was a small engagement by later Civil War standards, but it was a pivotal confrontation that illustrated almost all of the challenges each side faced in mobilizing for war.\u00a0 Students in History 288 should be able to identify at least two or three major elements of the episode that demonstrate important trends in the war\u2019s first year.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-288pinsker\/files\/2012\/03\/HD_BullRunBattleMap.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-88\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-288pinsker\/files\/2012\/03\/HD_BullRunBattleMap.jpg\" alt=\"Bull Run\" width=\"640\" height=\"617\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-288pinsker\/files\/2012\/03\/HD_BullRunBattleMap.jpg 640w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-288pinsker\/files\/2012\/03\/HD_BullRunBattleMap-300x289.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Contraband Policy<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Adam Goodheart has an excellent piece adapted from his book\u00a0<em>1861\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/04\/03\/magazine\/mag-03CivilWar-t.html?pagewanted=all\">available online<\/a>\u00a0from the\u00a0<em>New York Times<\/em>\u00a0magazine that details the story of three Virginia slaves \u2013Frank Baker, Shepard Mallory and James Townsend\u2013 who rowed across the James River on May 23, 1861 and presented themselves to Union army officials at Fort Monroe near Norfolk, setting in motion a chain of events that led General Benjamin Butler to get approval from the War Department effectively declaring these men as \u201ccontraband of war\u201d and preventing them from being returned to their Confederate army masters.\u00a0 You can read Butler\u2019s first dispatch on the subject (<a href=\"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/emancipation\/files\/2012\/07\/1861-05-24-Benjamin-Butler-to-Winfield-Scott.pdf\">May 24, 1861<\/a>) and the encouraging response from the War Department (<a href=\"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/emancipation\/files\/2012\/07\/1861-05-30-Simon-Cameron-to-Benjamin-Butler1.pdf\">May 30, 1861<\/a>), which tentatively authorized the contraband policy.\u00a0 See also a more complete authorization from Secretary of War Simon Cameron on\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/emancipation\/files\/2012\/07\/1861-08-06-Simon-Cameron-to-Benjamin-Butler.pdf\">August 8, 1861<\/a>.<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-288pinsker\/files\/2021\/10\/HD_MonroeContraband.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-2469 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-288pinsker\/files\/2021\/10\/HD_MonroeContraband.jpg\" alt=\"Fort Monroe\" width=\"1101\" height=\"707\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-288pinsker\/files\/2021\/10\/HD_MonroeContraband.jpg 1101w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-288pinsker\/files\/2021\/10\/HD_MonroeContraband-300x193.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-288pinsker\/files\/2021\/10\/HD_MonroeContraband-1024x658.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-288pinsker\/files\/2021\/10\/HD_MonroeContraband-768x493.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-288pinsker\/files\/2021\/10\/HD_MonroeContraband-467x300.jpg 467w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1101px) 100vw, 1101px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Missouri, Kentucky and the West<\/strong><\/h3>\n<blockquote><p>When Fremont balked, Lincoln removed him from command.&#8221;\u00a0 &#8211;Varon, chapter 1<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\t\t<style type=\"text\/css\">\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 {\n\t\t\t\tmargin: auto;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-item {\n\t\t\t\tfloat: left;\n\t\t\t\tmargin-top: 10px;\n\t\t\t\ttext-align: center;\n\t\t\t\twidth: 50%;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 img {\n\t\t\t\tborder: 2px solid #cfcfcf;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-caption {\n\t\t\t\tmargin-left: 0;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes\/media.php *\/\n\t\t<\/style>\n\t\t<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-2247 gallery-columns-2 gallery-size-large'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-288pinsker\/course-syllabus\/1861-war-begins\/hd_fremontj2c\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"250\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-288pinsker\/files\/2021\/10\/HD_fremontJ2c.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"John Fremont\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-2470\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-2470'>\n\t\t\t\tJohn Fremont\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-288pinsker\/course-syllabus\/1861-war-begins\/screen-shot-2021-10-07-at-8-16-00-am\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"629\" height=\"553\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-288pinsker\/files\/2021\/10\/Screen-Shot-2021-10-07-at-8.16.00-AM.png\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"Jesse Fremont\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-2471\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-288pinsker\/files\/2021\/10\/Screen-Shot-2021-10-07-at-8.16.00-AM.png 724w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-288pinsker\/files\/2021\/10\/Screen-Shot-2021-10-07-at-8.16.00-AM-300x264.png 300w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-288pinsker\/files\/2021\/10\/Screen-Shot-2021-10-07-at-8.16.00-AM-342x300.png 342w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 629px) 100vw, 629px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-2471'>\n\t\t\t\tJesse Benton Fremont\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>Wilson&#8217;s Creek (August 10, 1861) was the first major battle in the West and like Bull Run was a devastating defeat for Union forces, including the first death of a general:\u00a0 Nathaniel Lyon.\u00a0 On August 30, 1861, Union general John Fremont issued a martial law declaration for Missouri that also included a general emancipation of rebel slaves.\u00a0 In an exchange of private letters, President Lincoln pushed Fremont to modify his order.\u00a0 &#8220;When Fremont balked,&#8221; writes historian Elizabeth Varon, &#8220;Lincoln relieved him from command&#8221; (p. 42).<\/p>\n<p>Fremont had actually sent\u00a0his wife, Jesse Benton Fremont, an experienced politico herself, to deliver\u00a0his response to the White House. \u00a0She did so apparently around midnight on September 10, 1861. There was\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com\/2011\/09\/08\/general-fremonts-she-merrimac\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">some kind of dramatic confrontation<\/a>\u00a0between Mrs. Fremont and President Lincoln that evening at the White House although its nature has been disputed. \u00a0Two years later, the president recalled, according to the wartime diary of a close aide, that she \u201ctaxed me violently\u201d during their conversation, although much of their argument by his recollection\u00a0concerned rumors of Fremont\u2019s administrative incompetence and factional politics in Missouri and not either martial law or emancipation (John Hay diary, December 9, 1863). \u00a0This claim of the president\u2019s is supported by a private memo from\u00a0another White House aide (John Nicolay) produced just a week after the confrontation which asserted that the \u201cmatter of the Proclamation \u2026 did not enter into the trouble with the Gen\u201d (<a href=\"http:\/\/books.google.co.nz\/books?id=lVKT303lw7wC&amp;lpg=PA57&amp;vq=%22matter%20of%20the%20Proclamation%22&amp;pg=PA58#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">September 17, 1861<\/a>). \u00a0Years later, Jesse Fremont remembered it much differently,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=sYFVlFO5D0EC&amp;lpg=PA267&amp;vq=great%20events&amp;pg=PA266#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">claiming in 1891<\/a> that Lincoln was focused almost solely on the dangers of emancipation and had told her: \u201cthe General should never have dragged the Negro into the war.\u201d \u00a0This is not a very credible recollection, but it has appeared in various forms in many secondary sources and presumably helped inform Varon&#8217;s outlook.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Moncure Conway<\/h3>\n<blockquote><p>The war vaulted [Moncure] Conway to prominence.\u00a0 In his popular lectures in the North and in his antislavery treatises <em>The Rejected Stone\u00a0<\/em>(1861) and\u00a0<em>The Golden Hour\u00a0<\/em>(1862), Conway defended Fremont as the &#8216;Warrior of Liberty&#8217; and denounced his removal.\u00a0 He implored Lincoln to enact immediate abolition under his constitutional war powers and argued that slavery, not the South was the Union&#8217;s true enemy. &#8211;Varon, <em>Armies of Deliverance, <\/em>Chapter 1<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NDMtmw82orU\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>April 1861 &nbsp; &#8220;In June 1861, delegates to a convention in the Unionist stronghold of Wheeling elected Francis H. Pierpont governor of this new &#8216;state,&#8217; and in July the Wheeling convention elected two prominent Unionists Waitman T. Willey and John S. Carlile, to represent the loyalists of western Virginia in the U.S. Senate.\u00a0 For these [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":373,"featured_media":0,"parent":13,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2247","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-288pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-288pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-288pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-288pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/373"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-288pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-288pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2247\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-288pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-288pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}