Opening Dances & Big Bethel
As the fever to secede swept across the South, people on both sides of the issue looked to securing facilities and materials of the War. Arsenals were owned by state militias, and many Federal arsenals were spread across the south. A significant event occurred when
Captain Nathaniel Lyon arrived with a detachment from the Second United States Infantry to defend the arsenal in St. Louis. Lyon and Congressman Francis Blair both worked to prevent the secession of Missouri, and succeeded. Secessionists at Camp Jackson were scattered by Lyon and Blair, and the invaluable arsenal was secured. (In checking my facts, i have come across a very recent and fascinating review of the St. Louis Aresenal incident, with a wealth of information on the literally hundreds of thousands of small arms scattered across the country at the outbreak of the war--
Solving the Mystery of the Arsenal Guns). Feelings ran high all over the border region, of which Virginia was then considered a part. When Virginia had seceded from the Union in May, 1861, the First Michigan Regiment of United States Volunteers crossed the Long Bridge to Virginia (in what is today, Arlington, named for the estate of Lee's father-in-law), and the Eleventh New York Regiment of United States Volunteers ("The Zouaves"--named for the colorfully dressed colonial troops from North Africa in the French Army, they were dressed in exotic costumes with red forage caps, short jackets over white shirts with flowing sleeves, and bright blue baggy pants that you might think of as "harem pants;" they were recruited from among the fireman of New York, and were commonly called the "Fire Zouaves") landed from the river at Alexandia. The roughtly seven hundred Virginia militia in the town managed to escape from one side of town as the Michiganders entered the other, and Daniel Ellsworth's Zouaves spread out through the town. The New Yorkers secured the telegraph and railway stations, and then Ellsworth saw a large confederate flag flying from a hotel, the Marshall House. Ellsworth entered the building, and, climbing to the top, removed the flag. As he was coming down the stairs, the owner, James Jackson, met him with a shotgun, and killed him at point-blank range. Ellsworth's men shot and bayoneted Jackson. Both men became "heroes" to their respective causes, and
as this article correctly states, the incident boosted recruiting on both sides.
If others would bother to contribute, we could get more detailed accounts of how these troubles spread across the South and the border regions. I will, in my next post, deal mainly with Virginia, and with the affair at Big Bethel, in June, 1861.
(Edit: Several years back, the
Harper's Magazine [continuously published since 1850] re-issued
The Harper's History of the Late War of Rebellion [1866?], in which a long opening section is entitled: "Revolution at the North," and which details the response across the North to Lincoln's call for volunteers.)
