Section 38:  The Civil War

As far back as my college days, the great doctrine of State Rights was agitating the country. Statesmen of the south made fiery speeches in Congress in favor of it. The leading newspapers of the south, almost without exception advocated it. Public opinion was not only formed but inflamed, and secession was openly taught in the cotton states, particularly in South Carolina.

General Jackson, with strong southern proclivities, would not tolerate and in 1832 Webster's reply to Haynes of South Carolina gave it a backset. But the excitement was kept up in the interests of slavery. It was not claimed that the United States as a government was inimical to slavery, but that the northern states had become a refuge of fugitive slaves and instead of arresting them and sending them back, they ran them off to Canada. The aggressive and defiant sentiment of the south awakened the liberty loving spirit of New England and the north and the antagonism became more bitter and hostile on both sides.

The election of Buchanan in 1856, a northern man with southern principles, was an unfortunate event for the country. He would not go far enough for the south and too far to please the north, with not enough of backbone to stand up firmly against either. The power in the south was all in the hands of the slave owners and slave property was estimated at twelve hundred million of dollars. The owner of this property dominated the south.

From 1856 to 1861 the country was in an increasing state of excitement. The right of secession was everywhere south of Mason and Dixon's line fiercely contended for peaceably if they could and forcibly if they must. It was everywhere proclaimed that in the event of a conflict the mudsills of the north would go down before the chivalry of the south, and the tone of the secessionists became exceedingly exasperating and insolent -- even contemptuous to the north.

At this time what made the controversy look serious was that while the cotton states were a unit, the north was divided. Many Democrats strongly sympathized with the south. President Buchanan flatly denied the power of the government to coerce a state. The navy was scattered to foreign stations, and by the connivance of Jacob Thompson, Secretary of the Interior, eight million of Indian bonds was abstracted from the Treasury. The small army was distributed through the south and west and by the close of that administration the Treasury was bankrupt.

Sumpter had been fired on; several states had gone out; members of Congress and one Senator Brackenridge had abandoned their posts and gone to join the forces organized to destroy the government they had sworn to protect. Forts were seized. The gold in the mints and custom houses was stolen and appropriated to organizing rebel armies. President Buchanan expostulated and did nothing.

The attack on Fort Sumpter [sic] went through the north like an electric shock. A feeling deeper than politics was stirred and thrilled through the free states. The wavering were made solid and the disloyal were silenced. The deepest emotion was awakened and with the masses a savage determination to save the national government and to whip the rebels, and the formidable motive of the rebellion only increased the stern resolution to crush it out.

When it became inevitable that war was upon us, the public pulse beat about as fiercely in Clarion as anywhere else. While there was only talk there was any amount of that done in our street and a good deal of swearing. But when the echoes of the firing on Fort Sumpter [sic] reached us, there was blood in the air.

Wm. Lemon of Strattonville began to call for volunteers. Several of our boys joined him; others came from the country around, and in a short time a meeting was called and they met in Clarion. At that time there was no organization, no commissary department and no provision for subsisting the company or mustering it into the service. A full company met here and that evening my partner, Charley Lamberton and two or three others started around town and in an hour or two raised seven hundred dollars in cash and people gave blankets and that night the company was encamped on the fairground and everything provided to make them comfortable. They elected officers -- Lemmon, Captain, and next day started to Pittsburgh; went on to Harrisburg and were mustered into the service. The company fought through the war. Captain Lemmon went into the navy and was killed before Newburn. Major Wetter came home but left one leg on the battle field. Some were killed and some died in the hospitals and a few came home.

This did not exhaust the war feeling, and soon after Colonel Knox gathered a company of fine material for soldiers and were mustered into the 10th Reserve Corps. I think they also did much hard fighting and made a good record.

The next company to leave our town was Major B. J. Reid's. He had a full company of good men who did excellent service. The next was I. B. Loomis -- raised a company of volunteer cavalry -- saw hard service. Captain Loomis was killed and Lieutenant M. Beaty carries a chunk of rebel lead in his back as a reminder of the late unpleasantness.

The next I believe was Captain Mackey. His company got away into North Carolina and was taken prisoner and for a few months enjoyed the luxury of a southern prison. Dr. Klotz took a company out from over in Richland and Beaver Townships. Major Laughlin, I think, took out the last company. But Colonel Craig took out a company from about Greenville. He was soon promoted to be Colonel (155th Regiment) and fell in battle.

Besides these, many went out as recruits to fill the ranks of the fallen and many went out in squads of two to six and attached themselves to different arms of the service. Captain Core also took out a company recruited from about Curllsville.

Our town and county contributed their full share of the greatest army ever seen on the continent and that, after four years, crushed a rebellion that would have overthrown the most powerful government of Europe. This may be saying a good deal, for the German army that whipped France was splendidly equipped and did some magnificent fighting, but if Lee and Johnston's armies in their most palmy days had been between the Rhine and Nancy or Paris, there would have been no Sedan and Metz would still be a French city. But if Grant and Sherman had been there as their armies were at the close of the war, Paris would not have smelled German powder.

Our people felt an absorbing interest in the success of our armies. I have seen our people go from the post office with bowed heads and anxious faces when disastrous news came, as it frequently did, but there was this peculiarity -- that the longer the war progressed the more determined the people of the north became to put down the rebellion and subdue and reclaim every foot of territory belonging to the United States.

Nobody but the disaffected complained of the taxes, and they were pretty heavy. The feeling was take everything -- the last man and the last dollar, but put down the rebellion. Besides the loss of life and property, several things were taught us by the war. In the first place, we learned that war is a trade to be acquired by study and practice; that it took two or three years to learn to fight; that a disciplined "mudsill" was a more useful soldier than the most valiant knight untrained; that individual bravery did not count much in deciding the great contest. There were quick raids by such men as John Morgan and Mosley that destroyed property and made a noise in the papers at the time, but accomplished nothing. It was the great battles and the onward march of the great armies that broke the back of the rebellion and exhausted the resources the south.

At the commencement of the war, the negroes were an element of strength to the states in rebellion, but at and toward the close, after the emancipation proclamation, were a source of weakness and at the end of the war the south was not only greatly impoverished but a badly whipped community.

Another effect of the war was to kill the belligerent and warlike spirit previously prevailing both in the north and south, but principally south of "Mason and Dixon's" line. The last year all the pride and glory and circumstances of war was knocked out and it was nothing but hard fighting, carnage and the destruction of property. Both sides were heartily tired of it, and while the present old soldiers live there will never be another internecine war -- and the result left the nation so strong that no nation of Europe will, for the next century, want to encounter it.

The system of finance and currency by banking on the national credit furnished the north the sinews of war and enabled the government to sustain the prodigious strain on her credit. The confederates proved themselves better soldiers than financiers. The confederate money was simply promises to pay in a given time after their independence was recognized. At first this was regarded as sufficient endorsement and the man who refused it was regarded as a traitor to the south, but as the war progressed, their independence became more uncertain and further off and the enthusiasm that had made it par at first was found to be not strong enough to float it, and it became worthless and the millions that were issued are today not worth a cent.

Their armies were very hard to whip, but when Richmond was taken -- and Lee surrendered, the whole rebellion bursted like a bubble and all divisions of their armies seemed to be in a hurry to surrender and go home. And the armies of the north were marched to Washington, were disbanded and sent to their homes which they found about as comfortable and prosperous as when they left there four years before; the southern soldier to impoverished homes over which northern armies had marched to victory and the war was over and the sunshine of peace was over all the land.