The Gettysburg Experience
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The year 1862 was a pivotal one in the Civil War. In the cold of winter, war definitely began to heat up as ironclads were launched, battles were fought, and a woman’s patriotic verses to a familiar tune proved just as important to the morale of the Union army as any victory on the field.

New Year’s Day, 1862 was a mild one in Washington, D.C. President Lincoln hosted a New Year’s Day reception at the White House, and because of the spring-like day, thousands of visitors flocked to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Farther south, in the mountains of western Virginia, General Thomas J. Jackson marched in troops past the Potomac in snow, sleet, and much colder temperatures in an effort to eliminate the Union hold in that part of the state. Reaching Romney after successfully destroying telegraph lines and railroads in the interim, Jackson was aghast to receive orders from Richmond to retreat to Winchester. Having to give up all he gained, Jackson obeyed orders, then promptly offered his resignation.1

The orders had not come through his superior officer, Joseph Johnston. The War Department had deliberately by-passed him with the order for Jackson to redeploy. Jefferson Davis did not like Joe Johnston, and this slight almost cost him one of his greatest generals. With the loss of their stronghold in western Virginia apparent, President Davis backed off, learning his lesson to follow proper military protocol in the field – something he, a West Point graduate and former Secretary of War, should have known. With the governor of Virginia and General Johnston pleading with Jackson to withdraw his resignation, the ardent Stonewall acquiesced and returned to the Confederate command.

On January 30, 1862 the first U.S. ironclad, The USS Monitor, was launched.

As more troops answered the call to fight for the Union, Washington was a central point for the conglomeration of soldiers waiting to go to war. Julia Ward Howe, a New York native and staunch Union supporter had arrived in Washington in late 1861. She often watched troops march by her window that fall and winter while they were en route to the various camps that would prepare them for the killing fields of the South. Using the executed insurrectionist John Brown as their rallying symbol, the soldiers who passed her home were often heard to sing:

“John Brown’s body lies a-moldering
in the grave,
His soul is marching on!”2

Mrs. Howe thought the music was properly energetic but found the lyrics absolutely abhorrent. She decided to compose some verses herself to accompany the tune. The result was The Battle Hymn of the Republic, which first appeared in The Atlantic Monthly’s February 1862 edition.3

On Saturday, January 11, Abraham Lincoln sent a terse letter to his Secretary of War, Simon Cameron, relieving him of his post, and replacing him with Edwin Stanton. Cameron, a Pennsylvania man, had myriad political friends, who were becoming wealthy with lucrative military deals at the onset of war. As corruption intensified in the ensuing months, and costly mistakes resulted in faulty weaponry and rotten rations that were endangering the lives of Union soldiers; public outcry had forced Lincoln’s hand. Cameron was sent to Russia as the new U.S. ambassador, and Edwin Stanton became the newest member of Lincoln’s cabinet. Immediately dismissing Cameron’s inner circle within the War Department, Stanton went to work to improve the situation for the Union. When an office seeker approached him with a note from Mary Lincoln, Stanton ordered him out and told Mrs. Lincoln that he would not accept unqualified people in his department. Mrs. Lincoln agreed, and promised never again to interfere.4

By January 1862, Mrs. Lincoln had finished her remodeling of the Executive Mansion. On February 5 she and the President hosted an evening ball at the White House, a soirée for Washington society, by invitation only, to show the new White House. Though the White House was indeed brightened and more elegant with her work, the cost had been significantly more than budgeted, and the President was furious when he discovered the amount.

Though the President’s ire at the expenditure caused some aggravation over the event, a far more serious problem cast a significant pall over the otherwise glittering party. Washington, in the winter of 1862, was rife with contagion, due to the sudden influx of troops, unsanitary conditions, and the noxious water supply from the Potomac River. The injurious circumstances reached all the way to the White House, and both Willie and Tad became dangerously ill with typhoid fever.

Mary requested postponing the ball due to the illness of her sons, but Lincoln resisted the idea as the invitations had already been sent. Several times during the night, Mary left the party to visit her sons. The ball was a huge success. The energy it started in Washington was followed the next week by two Union victories in the west.5

Ulysses S. Grant, a brigadier general under the command of Henry Halleck, saw an opportunity in western Tennessee. With the border states of Missouri and Kentucky in the balance, and with western Tennessee populated with staunch Union supporters, Grant with Naval Commander Commodore Foote sailed up the Tennessee River and bombarded Fort Henry. The Confederates within were surprised and soon surrendered. Not pausing, the circumspect Grant hurried onward to Fort Donelson, a fort with far more Confederates on the Cumberland River, and attacked. General Albert Sidney Johnston, stationed near Nashville and learning of the loss of Fort Henry, sent reinforcements to Donelson, commanded by General Floyd, a former Secretary of War under James Buchanan. On February 12, Grant attacked and met with stern resistance. For the next two days the Confederates attempted to rush the Union lines, but failed. On the evening of the 15th, Floyd managed to escape. A then little known cavalry commander, Nathan Bedford Forrest, also refused to surrender, and led his regiment and a few hundred more out of the fort and across the freezing river to safety. There were still thousands trapped inside the fort. The next day, February 16, Simon Bolivar Buckner, the one left in command, sent General Grant a note asking for a ceasefire. Grant replied that only “an unconditional and immediate surrender” was the Confederate’s only option. Buckner wrote a return letter to Grant, stating that the terms were “ungenerous and unchivalrous” and then ordered the white flag raised.6

The killed and wounded from both sides totaled over 2,000. In addition, about 15,000 Confederate troops were captured. It was a tremendous win for the Union – their first significant victory of the war. It did much to secure that section of the country for the North, especially the control of the significant waterways in that region. From that time, the Union victor was called “Unconditional Surrender Grant.”7

The Lincolns did not celebrate the capture of Forts Donelson and Henry, as their sons grew more desperately ill. On February 20, Willie died. The loss changed the Lincolns forever, especially Mary. She was so distraught that she could not attend the funeral, or leave her room for several weeks. She ordered all Willie’s pictures and clothing removed from the premises. Lincoln, fearing they might lose Tad as well, asked Dorothea Dix, the Superintendent of Women Nurses, to find a nurse for Tad, as Mary was unable to take care of him. Dix chose the proficient Rebecca Pomroy, a young nurse who adeptly cared for the youngest Lincoln – and saved his life.8

Since Willie died on a Thursday afternoon, every Thursday for weeks afterward, Lincoln left whatever meeting he was attending to go into the Green Room, where the funeral had taken place, and wept for his son. Though he would gladly have circumvented the untimely passing, his own loss cemented his relationship with thousands of parents across the nation, who also knew far too well the same dreadful feelings of enduring the death of a youthful loved one.9

As for Grant, his significant victories were not met with gratitude from his superiors in the West, although the Northern populace were thrilled and hailed him as a hero. Though he was immediately promoted to major-general for his actions, he would learn late in the month that General Halleck, jealous of Grant’s sweeping win, had ordered his arrest and would, by the beginning of March, take away his command.10

Sources: Davidson, Karen Lynn. Our Latter Day Hymns: The Stories and Messages. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book Company, 1988. Grant, U.S. Personal Memoirs of U.S .Grant. New York: Da Capo Press, 1982. (Reprint, originally published in 1885). Goodwin, Doris Kearns. Team of Rivals, The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005. Keckley, Elizabeth. Behind the Scenes or Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House. New York: Penguin Books, 2005 (reprint, originally published in 1868). Mitchell, Lt. Col. Joseph B. Decisive Battles of the Civil War. New York: Fawcett Books, 1955.

End Notes:
1. Mitchell, p. 29.
2. Davidson, p. 90.
3. Ibid. The magazine was available to the public on February 1, 1862.
4. Goodwin, pp. 407, 414.
5. Ibid., p. 416.
6. Grant, p. 159.
7. Ibid., p. 161. The Confederate numbers vary, with most Southern sources listing their captured at 11,000. Grant stipulates that 14,623 rations were issued for the captured who were able to eat, which sets the number closer to 15,000. One Confederate source gives the number at 17,000 but he may have included the Southern wounded and killed in that number.
8. Keckley, p. 47.
9. Ibid.
10. Mitchell, p. 38. Grant, p. 167.