Terrible Swift Sword (73 page)

Fairfax
Courthouse Conference is in
Rise and
Fall,
Vol. I,
499
ff.

5.
Letter
of Davis to Gov. Letcher dated Sept.
14,
1861,
printed in Dunbar Rowland,
Jefferson
Davis, Constitutionalist,
Vol. V,
132.

6.
Clifford
Dowdey,
Experiment in
Rebellion,
99-100. Toombs's
brother Gabriel wrote to Vice-President Alexander Stephens urging him to talk
Toombs out of the notion of being a soldier: "In this case my brother's
zeal blinds his judgment, and is not according to wisdom. He has never been
educated in the science of war and has no experience in the business, and
besides is physically unfit for camp life." (Annual Report of the American
Historical Association, 1913, Vol. II;
The
Correspondence of Robert Toombs, Alexander H. Stephens and Howell Cobb, 573.)
For
Hunter, see D.A.B., Vol IV, 403-4, and Dowdey, 100-2.

7.
Diary
of S. R. Mallory, in the Southern Historical Collection, University of North
Carolina, entries for Sept. 4 and Sept. 16; O.R., Series Four, Vol. I, 602,
613.

8.
For
the vote, see the
American Annual
Cyclopaedia, 1861,
153.

9.
Beauregard's
report on Bull Run is in O.R., Vol. II, 484-504; Davis's rebuke is in the same
volume, 508. The famous letter to the editor of the
Whig
is from the Richmond
Examiner
of Nov. 8, 1861, which reprinted it and
denounced it. The whole strange sequence is analyzed by Douglas Southall
Freeman,
Lee's Lieutenants,
Vol.
I, 99-108.

10.
Journal
of the Congress of the Confederate States,
Vol.
I, 464. The five commissions were dated thus: Cooper, May 16, 1861; A. S.
Johnston, May 30; Lee, June 14; J. E. Johnston, July 4; Beauregard, July 21.

11.
O.R.,
Series Four, Vol. I, 605-8, 611. The case is examined in detail in Gilbert E.
Govan and James W. Livingood,
A Different
Valor: the Story of General Joseph E. Johnston, C.SA.,
66-71.

12.
The
Correspondence of Robert Toombs, Alexander H. Stephens and Howell Cobb,
575-78,
580-81.

13. Mary Chesnut,
A
Diary from Dixie,
108.

14.
Diary
of S. R. Mallory, entry dated Sept. 4, 1861; Diary of Thomas Bragg, entry for
Dec. 6, 1861, in the Southern Historical Collection, University of North
Carolina Library.

15.
Richmond
Whig,
issue
of Nov. 29, 1861; Richmond
Daily
Examiner,
issue of Nov. 29.

16.
Letter
of Jefferson Davis to Gen. G. W. Smith, dated Oct. 24, 1861, in the Jefferson
Davis Papers, Duke University Library.

2.   Struggle for Power

1.
In
the McClellan Papers at the Library of Congress there is
a
notebook
in McClellan's handwriting, "Extracts from letters written to my wife
during the War of the Rebellion." The letters are not known to exist, and
the manuscript represents McClellan's editing of the originals. His
autobiography, McClellan's
Own Story,
prints other versions of the letters
after still further editing; revealing as the letters in McClellan's
Own
Story
frequently are, they are often much less
revealing than the document McClellan himself prepared. The manuscript is cited
hereafter as McClellan's Letterbook; where the printed volume is referred to it
is cited as McClellan's
Own Story.
The quotation in the text is from the
Letterbook; the material about Scott is from McClellan's
Own
Story,
66-67.

2.
McClellan's
Letterbook. A milder version is in McClellan's
Own
Story,
83.

3.
Ferri
Pisani, 113. The dinner is mentioned in McClellan's
Own
Story,
84. McClellan
announced organization of 46 regiments into brigades on Aug. 4; O.R., Vol. LI,
Part One, 434-35.

4.
George
B. McClellan,
Report on the
Organization and Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac,
38-43;
giving the text of his Aug. 4 memorandum to the President.

5. Gideon Welles,
Diary,
Vol. I, 242.

6.
McClellan's
Letterbook, giving his letter of Aug. 8. The ellipsis is McClellan's.

7.
McClellan
to Scott, Aug. 8, 1861, and Scott to McClellan, Aug. 9, O.R., Vol. XI, Part
Three, 3-4.

8.
Ibid.,
4-6.

9.
McClellan's
Own Story,
85.

10.
Ibid.,
86-87; McClellan's Letterbook, letter of Aug. 16.

11.
McClellan's
Letterbook, letter dated Aug. 19.

12. On
Aug. 20 McClellan wrote that when he reached Wash-
ington the city "could have been taken with the utmost ease"
(McClellan's
Own Story,
88).
His work in providing the city with
a ring of fortifications was excellent, but the situation at the
time of his arrival was not as desperate as he made it appear. The
report of Major Henry J. Hunt, chief of artillery, shows that on
July 29 the Virginia front was tolerably well protected against
any thrust which the Confederates could have made at that time.
Fort Corcoran, above Arlington, mounted twelve 8-inch seacoast
howitzers, seven 24-pounders, two  12-pounders and two 24-
pounder howitzers, and was manned by 200 artillerists and a regiment of
infantry. Fort Albany, covering the Fairfax Road, mounted eighteen guns, twelve
of which were 24-pounders, and had two companies of artillery and a
Massachusetts regiment. Fort Runyon, covering the approach to the Long Bridge,
had a 30-pounder Parrott rifle, eight 8-inch seacoast howitzers, ten
32-pounders and four 6-pounder field pieces, and was garrisoned by a New York
regiment. Fort Ellsworth, on the edge of Alexandria, mounted two 30-pounders
and two 10-pounder Parrotts, with twelve 8-inch howitzers, four 24-pounder
siege guns, one 24-pounder field howitzer and three 6-pounder field guns; it
contained a company of light artillery and a New York infantry regiment. (O.R.,
Vol. II, 768-69.)

Col.
Ferri Pisani toured the defensive positions on the Virginia side on Aug. 4 and
wrote that he saw "a series of military works, redoubts, batteries,
abr.tis, carefully constructed and armed with cannons from the Navy
dockyard"; he felt that "the whole is well organized and gives the
impression of a strong line of resistance." (Ferri Pisani, op. cit.,
114-15.) It is of course true that preparations for defense on the Maryland
side were much more sketchy, although Map I, Plate VI, in the Atlas Accompanying
the Official Records, showing the Washington field works "executed during
parts of June and July, 1861," shows some protection on the main roads
leading into Washington from Maryland.

13.
Letter of
Senator Sumner to Gov. John A. Andrew, dated Aug. 11, 1861, marked
"private and confidential"; in the John A. Andrew Papers,
Massachusetts Historical Society.

14.
Letter of
Charles Francis Adams to his son, dated Aug. 16;
A
Cycle of Adams Letters,
Vol. I,
27-28.

15.
John Bigelow,
Retrospections
of an Active Life,
Vol. I, 366-67;
letter of J. D. Andrus to David Davis, dated Aug. 18, in the David Davis
Papers, Illinois State Historical Library, Springfield.

16.
McClellan's
Own Story,
105-7;
O.R., Vol. V, 587-89; McClellan to Cameron, Sept. 13, 1861, in the Cameron
Papers, Library of Congress.

17.
Letter of
Winfield Scott to Cameron dated Oct. 4, 1861; letter of Scott dated Oct. 10,
quoting orders to McClellan dated Sept. 16 and bearing a notation to Assistant
Secretary of War Thomas A. Scott dated Oct. 31 and saying: "I suppose the
within is the letter yci ask for. A. L."; in the Cameron Papers, Library
of Congress. See also O.R., Series Three, Vol. I, 519.

18.
Scott's
letter of Oct. 10, cited in Footnote 17.

19.
William H.
Russell,
My Diary North and
South,
205.

20.
Jed
Hotchkiss, in
Confederate Military
History,
Vol. HI,
Virginia,
179-88; O.R., Vol. V, 290; McClellan,
Report
on the Organization and Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac,
77-78.

21.
Richard B.
Irwin,
Ball's Bluff and the
Arrest of General Stone,
in B.
& L., Vol. II, 123 ff; O.R., Vol. V, 308.

22.
Nicolay
& Hay, Vol. IV, 467-68; McClellan's
Own Story,
171; Tyler Dennett, ed.,
John
Hay, Lincoln and the Civil War, in the Diaries and Letters of John Hay,
31-32.

23.
Chandler's letter to
Mrs. Chandler, dated Oct. 27, 1861, in the Zachariah Chandler Papers, Library
of Congress.

24.
There is a
moving account of Scott's departure in McClellan's
Own
Story,
173. For the report
to the
Tribune's
editors,
see letter of Henry Smith to Charles Ray and Joseph Medill, dated Nov. 4, 1861,
in the Charles H. Ray Papers, Huntington Library.

3.   The Hammering of the Guns

1. N.O.R., Vol. XII,
198-201.

2.
Rush
Hawkins,
Early Coast
Operations in North Carolina,
B. &
L., Vol. I, 632-35. Interesting accounts of the bombardment, written by
correspondents for the Boston
Journal
and
the New York
Herald,
are
in Moore's
Rebellion Record,
Vol.
HI, Documents, 16-26. It is hard to be sure just how many guns the forts
contained, the estimates varying all the way from 19 to 35. (B. & L., Vol.
I, 633; C.C.W., 1863, Part IH, 282; O.R., Vol. IV, 581-86; D. H. Hill, Jr.,
Confederate
Military History,
Vol. IV,
North
Carolina,
27.)

3.
Butler's
testimony of Jan. 16, 1862, in C.C.W., 1863, Part III, 282-83.