Prelude to Battle

When word of Fort Sumter's fall reached Washington, the regular United States Army consisted of fewer than 17,000. President Lincoln called for 75,000 militiamen to be provided from the states. Initially, each would serve ninety days. The response was instantaneous. Vice President Stephens of the Confederacy exhorted: "Lincoln may bring his 75,000 troops against us, we fight for our homes, our fathers and mothers, our wives, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters...We can call out a million of peoples if need be, and when they are cut down we can call another, and still another."

This statement was not rooted in reality. There were 21 million people in the North and only 9 million in the Confederacy, 3.5 million of them were slaves. The North had more than twice as many miles of railroad track as the South. The value of all the manufactured goods produced in all of the Confederate states added up to less than one-fourth of those produced in New York alone. This did not seem to dampen Southern faith that the army of the confederacy was so much superior to the North that being outnumbered did not seem to matter. The Raleigh Banner spoke to this belief when it characterized the two armies: "The army of the South will be composed of the best material that ever yet made up an army; while that of Lincoln will be gathered from the sewers of the cities - the degraded, beastly outscoring of all the quarters of the world, who will serve for pay and will run away as soon as they can when danger threatens."

Each side thought the other would collapse within ninety days, and both sides agreed that it was to be a white man's fight. Already, 15,000 rebels were within striking distance of Alexandria, another 8,000 at Harper's Ferry, and more on the way. All that stood between these troops and Washington D.C. were a few regular troops and some neighborhood militia. A Voluntary Guard patrolled the White House grounds. General Scott drew up a defense plan in case of attack. The President and his cabinet were to retreat to the basement of the thick-walled Treasury building and try to survive on water and 2,000 barrels of flour. At night, Confederate campfires could be seen across the Potomac from the White House.

Around noon on April 25, a train arrived in Washington D.C. with the first Northern troops. Union camps encircled the District and the city would soon become the most heavily fortified city on earth with 22 batteries and 74 forts. In order to preserve the Union and the Constitution, President Lincoln waged war without congressional assent until the summer. He ordered the northern telegraph offices seized to ensure wires were not used for subversion and he suspended the writ of habeas corpus. President Lincoln declared a blockade of Southern ports, the Confederates countered by withholding exports from England. The Confederacy believed if England did not get its cotton, they would come into the war on the side of the South.

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