The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1904-01-07
The ARMY OF THE POTOMAC IN HIS
TORY.
The Peculiar Conditions Of the Conflict Il
Waged, and It's Theatsr Of Operations.
Itself Was It's Greatest Hero.


fall of Fort Sumter had indicated that o
great war was upon the sundered sections
of the American Union, It became manifest
that Virginia was marked out IS the prln-
cipal theater of the impending conflict. The
tidings of what had happened in the har-
Dor Of Charleston found that State assem-
bled at Richmond in high debate on the
question of Secession: and then whatever
there was in its councils of what men called
s.Unionism' or conservatism was hushed.
out Of the Union and into the Confederacy.
WHAT VIRGINIA. VOTED FOR
This, Virginia voted on the 18th of
April, 1851; but from her eyes was hid
what else she voted-to wit, q war des-
her fertile fields, TO cut OF the flower of
her young men. and to leave her at its
close PROSTATE and impoverished.
When Virginia linked her destiny with
the C0nfederacy, those who controlled the
Secession revolution signified their appre-
and powerful Commonwealth by transfer
ring to her chief city the capital of the
Confederate Government; and whereas that
Government had borne the name pro
sisional" at Montgomery, at Richmond II
of war by virtue of being the administra-
tire center Of the insurgent power, Virginia
was furthermore marked out as the main
seat Of war by her geographical relations as
q frontier State. For upon her secession
the Potomac, her northern boundary, be-
came, for all the region between the Attain
tic and the Alleghanies, the dividing line
betwixt those points of mighty oppOsites' ,
the North and the South-names which,
hitherto of no more than political import,
now assumed the new and dread signif-
canoe Of beiligerent Powers.
RESPONSES TO CALLS FOR TROOPS.
Thus, by her will and by fate, Virginia
became the Flanders OF the war. And
already, from the moment the events IN
Charleston harbor made war fagrant,
ried forward, from the North and from
! the South, to her borders. An equal fire
animated both sections. President Lin
coin called for 1900 men; Mr.. Davis, for
1O0,0O0-armie OF proportion never be-
fore seen on the Western continent Yet
such was the spontaneous alacrity with
which on each side the summons was
obeyed, that within the space of few
weeks, these limits were greatly over
passed. and an additional call for halt
million men on the part of the North, and
z levy sn masse on the part Ct the South,
agent Of transportation which has rev0lu.
ti6nixed military operations no less than
the movements OF commerce, the volunteers
we're quickly conveyed to Virginia from
the imagination with wonder. 1t is esti-
mated that for many weeks after the first
call for troops, armed men arrived in Rich
mond, from all parts of the South, at the
rate of from 500 to 1000 daily and the
multitude poured forth from the populous
North was not less, but greater. From
the loyal States, the point Of concentration
WAS Washington, where for time the
eathering force held a simply defensive
attitude; then bursting the barrier of the
Potomac, it launched itself upon thai
named sacred, and the history Of the
Army Of the Potomac began.
pGADLUST TERRITORY or THE wAR.
I design to record, as far as may now bs
done. what that Army did and suffered in
10 campaigns and two score battles, il
This history, il adequately made, must b,
the history also Of much the larger par
of that gigantic war that, originating In
the secession of II States from the Fedora
Union, ended, after four years, in the es
tablishment of that Union on a LASTING
continental proportions and ranged around
circumference of many thousand miles
II was observed that its head and front
ever remained in that stretch Of territory
between the Potomac and the James, and
between the Blue Ridge and Chesapeake
Bay. Here, from the start, each bellige
rent, as By common consent, concentrated
its richest resources; here, throughout the
struggle, each continued to sustain its
greatest armies, under its ablest command
ers; and never for day did It lose its mill
tary. primacy in the eyes OF either part,
TO the conflict. 1t is estimated that ou
of the half million men who met death
and the two million who suffered wounf
in the war-the losses on both sides, ant
the casualties of all the battles and siege.
Al vtx<y~ x&.t ELI e 49,.
being included-aboye one-half this appall
ing aggregate belongs to the Army of tn,
Potomac and its adversary. These losses
are the summing up OF series of cam
paigns and battles as grand in their pro
portions as any on record, waged with .
remorseless energy, wrought out with al
the resources that modern art has deyises
to make war deadly. and fought unde
peculiar conditions, upon theater pecu
liar in its character. That theater is Vir
ginia--a colossal canvas whereon moyini
masses and the forms of wrestling armie
appear.
OBJECTS OF THIS HISTORY.
The histdfy of the War for the Uniol
would set forth that majestic exhibition
military traditions, created great armies
waged National war, and subdued an In
tesnaI revolt of magnitude without para
lei The scope of this history. Is more n
stricted, and embraces the story of on
alone of these armies, though the main on,
shall have to trace how this fore
arose, .and its first essays and failures
how 1t grew into shape and substance G
an army: and how it then entered upo
campaigns bloody, indecisive, and prt
tracted.
I shall have to show how this arm.
losing again and again the conaponeI
parts OF its aforementioned by deaf
and wounds and wasting disease, and file