Lord knows, we have our share of hotheads in the South. Thank God Douglas and Davis stopped those crazy Southern Secessionists before they pulled our Southern Slave States out of the Union. We’d never have gotten all of the Slave States to go out of the Union. Maybe we would have gotten ten or eleven, but it might have been as few as four or five. We’d have ended up fighting a Union of Free States and Upper South Border States. Instead of fighting in Cincinnati and Providence to restore the Union we would have been fighting in Nashville and New Orleans to break it. I don’t believe we could have won such a war. Thank God we weren’t called upon to fight it.
32
The White House, December 18, 1861
Secretary of War Edwin Stanton had taken up McClellan’s former role of collecting the latest telegrams from the War Department and summarizing them for the President each morning. Jefferson Davis had become accustomed to Stanton presenting the information of importance while omitting the unreliable information that tended to obscure matters.
Davis was coming to understand that the details of a continent-wide war involving close to a million men on each side — its pace made all the faster by railroads, telegraphs, and steamships — were getting beyond the ability of even a keen mind like his to comprehend. It took other keen minds, like Stanton’s, to filter the details and present the important ones requiring executive decisions to the President. This wasn’t an easy realization for a man as self-reliant as Davis to acknowledge. But he had come to see that he had no choice other than to use men such as Stanton to leverage his executive authority. It was a role that Stanton was rapidly mastering and relishing.
Davis looked outside the windows of the Executive Office. The iron-gray sky shed a cold rain that pooled on the windows. Perhaps the first flakes of snow would be on the way by Christmas. He sipped a coffee and motioned for Stanton to begin his report. Stanton was eager to give it.
“Mr. President:
“We have encouraging news from the Cincinnati front. We kicked the Rebels where the sun doesn’t shine when we took the city, at least the part of it that matters, away from them.”
Davis responded without enthusiasm. “Was it necessary for Lee to bombard the city so heavily? I was handed a note from the British Ambassador yesterday imploring me to order our armies to exercise a proper regard for humanity when advancing against Rebel-held cities.”
“The Rebels must have spies here who told the ambassador a lurid tale of destruction, rape, and pillage,” surmised Stanton. “They’re turning every trick in the book to persuade the British to intervene in their favor. After this war is over we’ll have to settle accounts with the British. It’s outrageous that they’ve allowed the Rebels free transit through the Canadas. These allegations of our disdain for humanity can only be meant to pave the way for intervention. I’ll put a discrete watch on the British embassy to see if we can identify the Rebels who are communicating with them.”
Davis nodded. “I’m sorry if I sounded tail-down, but this protest from the British is one thing I don’t need to worry about at the moment.”
“I understand, Mr. President. But the point is that the bombardment was necessary. The Rebels would have poured men into the city if we hadn’t destroyed the railroads, telegraph lines, and canals at the outset. Without the bombardment we might not have obtained even a foothold in the city. Look what happened to our men at Providence when McClellan moved against it without a bombardment. And Lee did offer the Rebels an ultimatum to evacuate. After they refused, he had every right to bombard it. The British should have no difficulty understanding the doctrine of military necessity, considering the amount of fighting they do around the world.”
Davis’ face brightened. “Yes, I will explain it exactly that way in my reply to the ambassador.”
“The military necessity of occupying Cincinnati is undeniable!” exclaimed Stanton. His face shook so excitedly that Davis could hear his beard rustle against his clothes. “Our taking of most of the city has not only halted the Rebel offensive toward Louisville, but has given us an opportunity to trap the enemy. General Lee has moved his men through the portion of the city we control and then into the rear of the Rebel army operating against Harney in southern Indiana. Hardee’s Division reached the vicinity of Lawrenceburg yesterday. Reports from Harney’s front this morning say that the Rebels have evacuated Madison and Vernon.”
Stanton switched from reporting the telegraphed reports to interpreting what he estimated their implications to be.
“The Rebels are trying to skedaddle back through Lawrenceburg before Lee closes off their line of retreat,” he elaborated. He did not actually know that, but he had observed how military men thought and fought. He had been proven accurate enough times to convince Davis to value his estimations. “If Lee and Harney can coordinate their attacks from the east and west so as to block the Rebels from escaping north of the Miami River it is possible that the bulk of the Rebel forces operating under Mitchell will be cut off and captured.”
“Oh?” said Davis. “That is excellent news. It will alleviate the sting of Lee’s defeat at The Salient. The papers have been merciless in their criticism of his losing all those men and then abandoning what little ground he gained. They are undermining the morale of some of our people in the government, and more importantly, I fear, of the soldiers.”
“That’s another matter I wanted to discuss with you!” replied Stanton. “We’re at war to put down the Rebellion. We don’t need the Southern Rights men in the Loyal States stirring up a fire in our rear. Do you know about the Southern Rights Convention they’re calling for?”
“Yes, I’ve heard about that foolishness. Haven’t had time to dwell on it though, not with all the other activity that’s come to my attention.”
“Mr. President, that convention is seditious. Criticizing the civil policies of government is one matter. Calling upon us to give up a war against the traitors in rebellion is another.”
Davis grimaced.
“They’re fulminating against the national army, the currency, the excise taxes, and the tax in kind,” Stanton added. “They’re agitating the people not to enlist in the National Army or to pay the commissary agents taxes in kind or to hire out their slaves for government work. Is that not ‘giving aid and comfort to the enemy?’ Wouldn’t it be best to move against them now, before the real trouble starts when they convene their convention in Charleston?”
“Let’s wait and see if they have the courage to go on the record with their complaints,” advised Davis. “If they do, then we can raise the question of whether they are giving aid and comfort to the enemy. If they don’t go on record, we can suggest that they lack the courage to say in public what they profess to believe in private.”
“Maybe that will shame them into silence,” replied Stanton reluctantly. “But we need to start showing our teeth. We can put our men in the Charleston post office to make it difficult for Rhett to disseminate his treason rags. That will get his attention.”
Davis rolled his eyes. He wasn’t sure whether Stanton was exercising his arid sense of humor or whether he was perfectly serious. If Stanton was serious, what else might he think of to discourage the Administration’s critics? Davis decided that he should discourage Stanton from becoming too rambunctious at the moment, but that he should not rebuke him in case his machinations might be needed in the future.
“Before we consider extreme measures let’s see what the newspapers say after we win these battles around Cincinnati and Lawrenceburg. Nothing quiets noisy newspapermen like success. How much of Cincinnati is actually in our possession?”