ganized in poorly drilled militia regiments. As the war went on, many of the old regiments of a thousand men were worn down to a few hundred; instead of filling them up, new regiments were raised with new sets of officers.

After two years of fighting not enough men came forward as volunteers, and both sides resorted to "conscription," or compulsory enlistment. The South finally called into service every able-bodied white man between 17 and 50 years of

Johnny Clem, the youngest boy in the Union army

"I was ten when I entered the army and was twelve at Chickamauga (1863) when this photo was taken."-Letter from John L. Clem, Major General U. S. Army, Retired, April 4, 1921.

age, which General Grant called "robbing the cradle and the grave." Public sentiment helped conscription in the South and kept down the number of skulkers and deserters.

In 1863 a list was made up of the ablebodied northern civilians in order that a certain number should be "drafted" by lot. This led to a terrible riot in the city of New York. Negroes were hunted through the streets, a colored orphan asylum was

burned, and over a thousand people were killed or wounded. The riot was put down only by sending regiments of troops from the front.

Yet only a few thousand men were thus added to the army. To avoid the draft many individuals hired substitutes to go into the army for them. Cities, states, and towns offered heavy bounties in money, often as much as $1200 in cash. This attracted a class of "bounty jumpers," who would enlist, desert, and enlist again to get another bounty.

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The President and Con

277. The Union Government. gress at Washington also had their troubles. Congress voted men and money freely, but set up a Committee on the Conduct of the War, which went around to the camps, took testimony, and drove the generals almost frantic. Congressmen wanted commissions as army officers for themselves and their friends. Some were made generals who had hardly smelled powder, such as Butler and Banks of Massachusetts and McClernand of Illinois; and several such generals turned out to be poor commanders.

By the end of the war the Union learned that none but trained soldiers can command armies successfully; and sooner or later all the large armies were placed under graduates of West Point-among them McClellan, Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, Thomas, Rosecrans, and Meade.

Although the North had many factories and could buy freely in Europe, the armies were not always well supplied; for contracts were made in a hurry and contractors did not scruple to enrich themselves at the expense of the government. Yet this grasping for office and commissions and profits was far outweighed by the patriotic feeling of Congress, and by the sacrifices of the people in support of the war.

278. Northern Leaders. Congress in Washington was full of able men who meant to have a share in carrying on the government. One of the strongest Senators was Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, an out-and-out abolitionist and profound hater of all slaveholders. In the House, Vallandigham of Ohio was the leader of the peace Democrats; he was finally tried by court-martial and sent across the military lines into the Confederacy.

Several remarkably able statesmen were in the President's Cabinet. William H. Seward, as Secretary of State, made it his business to persuade foreign nations that the North would surely win, and to prevent any recognition of the southern Confederacy as one of the nations of the world. Salmon P. Chase in the Treasury thought out plans for taxes and currency, banks and loans, and somehow managed to raise the money with which to enlist, equip, arm, and

"

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support the soldiers. Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, had the temper of a Tartar, and was harsh, bitter, and unreasonable, but was honest and a good manager. Gideon Welles was Secretary of the Navy and guided his department in the "anaconda policy" of beating the Confederacy by gradually shutting it off from commerce and intercourse with foreign nations.

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In the states several great war governors helped the government at Washington-especially Governor Andrew of Massachusetts, Governor Morgan of New York, Governor Brough of Ohio, Governor Curtin of Pennsylvania, Governor Morton of Indiana, and Governor Yates of Illinois. Ministers such as Henry Ward Beecher, editors such as Horace Greeley, poets such as Longfellow, Lowell, and Whittier, all helped to rouse the heart of the northern people and to keep them up to their work. Among the writers of humor the most amusing was "Artemus Ward," who said that he was willing to sacrifice all his wife's male relatives to the cause of the Union.

279. Abraham Lincoln. - By common consent Abraham Lincoln is the greatest American of the Civil War period. Lincoln never forgot that he was born in Kentucky, and he understood the southern people; but in his make-up and point of view he was a strong westerner. Yet when he came to the presidency he was thought by many, even in the West, to be only a cheap country lawyer.

There was little in his training and habits to suggest a great man. His clothes did not fit him; he was fond of telling funny stories; he would see all his callers. Poor and friendless soldiers, and mothers of soldiers, could always find their way to the great President, and he would help them. He hated to sign the death warrant of deserters, for, said he, "I am trying to evade the butchering business."

Upon this backwoods rail-splitter fell the duty of commanding two million soldiers, and he showed good judgment in military affairs, though he always deferred to the generals. He kept writing to them, urging them to stick to their work. For instance, "If the head of Lee's army is at Martinsburg,

HART'S SCH. HIST. 20

and the tail of it between Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, the animal must be very slim somewhere. Could you not break him?" Again, Again, "Follow on his flank, . . . shortening your lines while he lengthens his. . . . If he stays where he is, fret him and fret him." And again to Grant, "I have seen your dispatch expressing your unwillingness to break your hold where you are. Neither am I willing. Hold on with a bulldog grip, and chew and choke as much as possible."

South Carolina, 1860

Southern Cross," 1861

Official, 1863
Confederate flags

Lincoln was the best politician of his time, and the country came to learn that this tall, lank man in the White House made up his own mind, and that he could not be frightened or driven out of his policies. In the election of 1864 he was easily elected over General McClellan, who was the Democratic candidate.

Lincoln's greatness was due chiefly to his wonderful power of knowing what was going on in the hearts of the people. His brief speeches are full of noble spirit, of thoughts as true for the South as for the North. "Nowhere in the world," said he, "is presented a government of so much liberty and equality. To the humblest and poorest amongst us are held out the highest privileges and positions."

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Government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth." "With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right." 280. The Confederate Government. The Confederate "provisional Constitution" drawn up hastily in 1861, and the "permanent Constitution" adopted by state ratifying