A Reminder of the Human Condition in Civil War Boston
Massive armies were on the move in the summer of 1863. Confederates were pushing toward Pennsylvania while Gen. Ulysses S. Grant continued his investment of Vicksburg. People throughout the United States and the Confederacy waited desperately for news of a decisive military victory and any sign that the cause for which they were fighting and which had already cut down so many lives had finally been vindicated.
Samuel G. Bowdler followed the news closely from his flour mill, which he owned and operated at 194 State Street in Boston. He sought out as much information as he could and shared it in lengthy letters to his former bookkeeper, Sergeant Austin C. Wellington, who was then serving in the 38th Massachusetts in Louisiana. In addition to the movements of armies and politics, Bowdler tracked stock prices and the price of gold.
In addition, Bowdler also closely followed the racial violence, prompted by the draft, that swept New York City in early July. Bowdler also closely followed the riots in his own city, which took place on July 14. Though less violent, armed soldiers shot and killed several people in a crowd of protesters, including a 12-year-old boy. The sight of damaged buildings resulting from a couple artillery rounds along with the dead and wounded may have temporarily blurred the distinction between battlefield and home front for Bowdler and other residents. The city remained on edge over the days that followed.
Once again, Bostonians had been shot and killed by armed soldiers.
Bowdler admitted that, “Were it not for our Home troubles we should all be in the highest mood of joy.”
By July 20 there was reason to celebrate. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia had been defeated at Gettysburg and forced to retreat back across the Potomac River to Virginia. The day after Lee’s defeat, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant finally forced the surrender of an entire Confederate army at Vicksburg, Mississippi on the nation’s birthday.
There was, indeed, much to celebrate, but Bowdler remained uneasy and on edge. He anticipated more violence over the draft.
Too much had transpired over the past few weeks. In addition to news of battles and draft riots there was news from overseas that England and France were coordinating with the Confederate government to finally recognize it as an independent nation. It all made sense to Bowdler as he attempted to connect the dots in a letter to Wellington.
The reason we fear another demonstration is that it is more than suspected that the secret leaders of the mob are acting in conjunction with the southern Rebs. and for the purpose of putting down our Government and forcing an ignominious peace. The mob in N.Y. was part of an extensive plan; perhaps something like this: Lee was to advance into Maryland and Pennsylvania apparently to give battle in Pennsylvania but really to force a way to Baltimore and Washington which places he and his soldiers felt perfectly sure of taking. At the same time and while the troops from N.Y. City were all away in Pennsylvania, Jeffs friends in N.Y. & other places were to get up arson robbery & murder on a large scale to frighten the people into asking for if not demanding peace of the Govt.
[Confederate general John Hunt] Morgan was to make his raid into Indiana and Ohio, which by the way he attempted, and will be entirely routed for his pains; and then A.H. Stephens the V.P. of the so called Confederacy was to make the attempt to go up to Washington in a rebel Gun-Boat, under the specious plea of settling some difficulties in regard to exchanges of prisoners, but really for the purpose of getting a tacit acknowledgment by President Lincoln of the Confederate government; and all this in connection with movements in the British Parliament by our foes there, and a new movement of Napoleon towards asking the English Govt to unite with him in acknowledging the Rebels; all these movements being commenced or carried on at about the same time, all point to the conclusion that the Rebels were making if not their final at least a desperate push to settle up the war & secure their acknowledgment as a nation by our Govt. and Great Britain and France at the same time.
All praise to our Heavenly Father all these attempts have proved fruitless; Lee is scampering back to Richmond as fast as he can: Baltimore and Washington are still safe: the mob in N.Y. has been put down, England has again decided not to interfere and so the wily Napoleon; Morgan has been defeated in Ohio & Indiana, the rebel V.P. Stephens was sent back with a flea in his ear and he and his friend Jeff. are hashing over it in Richmond. [GCB to ACW, July 20, 1863]
When we look back on the Civil War, the month of July 1863 cuts through with sharp clarity. Two major battlefield victories for United States armies appears, if not decisive, at least reason enough to celebrate. Bowdler certainly found “cause enough to rejoice,” but the above passage also reveals someone desperately seeking a firm footing amidst the chaos of war.
Bowdler’s uneasiness is a reminder that the outcome of the war was anything but certain in the summer of 1863. People on both sides of the conflict strained to find any reason to believe in ultimate victory and bring some sense of certainty to their lives.
There is something very familiar about Bowdler’s attempt to connect all the dots. It wasn’t enough to keep track of the latest strands of news; somehow it had to all make sense as part of some grand plan or scheme. Perhaps in framing the events of the past few weeks as interconnected, Bowdler gained even more confidence that the war had finally taken a positive turn.
During such a confusing and traumatic time, it isn’t surprising that Bowdler or anyone else for that matter would be searching for some justification or reason to believe in an eventual end to the fighting and a reunited nation.
The contingency and uncertainty that Bowdler ran up against is exactly the situation that we find ourselves in at this very moment in time.
Even with the overwhelming amount of information that we now have literally at our fingertips, we have no more access to what tomorrow will bring than Bowdler did in 1863. We can attempt to make sense of the present moment by connecting the dots of the past few weeks and even months, but in the end we must accept the uncertainty of the present and the future.
Such is the human condition.
This has nothing to do with this particular post. I'm just wondering how, if at all, one can see recordings of live video after it is done. I am seldom available to watch when it's live. But when I try to click through, it isn't enabled and goes nowhere. Am I missing something?
I'd give this singular post a dozen 'Likes' if I could. (Can I?)
One of my favorite books is 'Our Man in Charleston', recounting the bizarre assignment of a British diplomat to South Carolina. A total diplomat and dedicated abolitionist, he was London's Deep Throat in the heart of the Confederacy. KML is happily Our Man in Boston!
Throughout my life, I've overly focused on the singular battle of Gettysburg - I was born and raised two counties away. (My first trip was as a Cub Scout, wearing a blue and gold uni.) Recently studying Lee's invasion of MD/PA, I learned Davis approved the effort on the hope that capturing the PA capital, Harrisburg, would push the British, French, and other Europeans to intervene, and force a peace conference aiming to grant their diplomatic recognition.
It was easily possible, even if Ewell was (image: Lloyd Bentsen debating Dan Quayle as VP candidates), no Stonewall Jackson.
I realized that two ANV divisions (n.b.: they were Jackson's "foot cavalry") plus a cavalry brigade were plenty enough to not just do this. Ewell or Jackson had easy roads to capture Harrisburg, then Philly and Wilmington (DE). Severing, or nearly so, everything southwest of the PA-NJ state line would cut Lincoln off from his nation, just long enough to get European support. (Probably NYC bankers, too.)
These accomplishments could trigger Northern governors, Copperheads, draft-opponents, and Nervous Nellies to set up a provisional government under, say, Buchanan (that enslavement-enabler had retired to his estate in suburban Harrisburg!) or even George McClellan who'd let his ego and his contempt for 'The Original Gorilla' step in as a peacemaker or worse.
Bowdler, an apparent Nervous Nelly, may have inflated and conflated, but he seems typical of the panic people in the North felt across a wide spectrum. I had not thought to associate the activities he cited with the targeted invasion to decapitate the government.
Now, this Nervous Nelly has to return to worrying that a felonious muskrat is stealing the family civil service retirement and our Social Security, undermining our Medicare....