Preparation for War and Watchful Waiting

Going to see the Ele­phant, Part 2

By Paul Chouinard, Pres­i­dent of the Danville His­tor­i­cal Society

From the out­set, both as it assumed sta­tus as an inde­pen­dent repub­lic in 1777 and as it entered state­hood in1791, Ver­mont out­lawed slav­ery.  Ver­mont set an exam­ple through its pro­gres­sive posi­tion of treat­ing blacks as equals long before the Civ­il War.  There were some instances of Slave-hold­ing in the state, but these were few.

Alexan­der Twi­light, born in 1795 in Corinth was the first black man in Amer­i­ca to earn a col­lege degree.  He grad­u­at­ed from Mid­dle­bury Col­lege in 1823.  He went on to become a promi­nent edu­ca­tor in Brown­ing­ton, VT and to be elect­ed to the VT leg­is­la­ture in 1836.

Lemuel Haynes, the aban­doned child of an African

father and “a white woman of respectable ances­try,” was born in 1753 at West Hart­ford, Con­necti­cut.  With only a rudi­men­ta­ry for­mal edu­ca­tion, Haynes devel­oped a pas­sion for books.  Haynes served as a Mass­a­chu­setts  “Min­ute­man” dur­ing the Amer­i­can Rev­o­lu­tion.  Fol­low­ing the war, he was prob­a­bly the first African Amer­i­can ordained by a main­stream Protes­tant Church in the Unit­ed States.  He fell in love with a young, white school teacher in his first con­gre­ga­tion in Con­necti­cut; she pro­posed to him , and they were mar­ried in 1783, pro­duc­ing ten chil­dren His sec­ond call to the pul­pit, from a most­ly white church in Rut­land, Ver­mont that had a few “poor Africans,” last­ed for 30 years. He is believed to be the first back in Amer­i­ca to serve as pas­tor to a white con­gre­ga­tion.  Dur­ing that time, Haynes devel­oped an inter­na­tion­al rep­u­ta­tion as a preach­er and writer.  In 1804, he received an hon­orary Mas­ter of Arts degree from Mid­dle­bury Col­lege, the first ever bestowed upon an African Amer­i­can. He went on to fill pul­pits in Ben­ning­ton and Man­ches­ter, VT.

Ver­mon­ters also advo­cat­ed for slaves through their com­mit­ment to the under­ground rail­road, which was active in VT for more than 50 years pri­or to the Civ­il War, and through their com­mit­ment to the abo­li­tion­ist move­ment.  William Lloyd Gar­ri­son edit­ed the Lib­er­a­tor in Ben­ning­ton, VT.   Anoth­er not­ed abo­li­tion­ist, Oliv­er John­son, of Peacham deliv­ered a speech against slav­ery in Mont­pe­lier, July 4, 1828.  Two years lat­er he met Gar­ri­son, and, charmed by Garrison’s elo­quence, became an ardent dis­ci­ple of the cause.

The first Danville men to go off to war enlist­ed with the Third, Fourth, and Sixth Reg­i­ments, which would lat­er become part of the famous Ver­mont Brigade, com­posed of the First through Sixth Reg­i­ments.  Robert W. Laird, a farmer and horse breed­er from West Danville, was the recruit­ing offi­cer for the Danville Com­pa­ny of the Fourth Reg­i­ment, which was quar­tered in Danville before head­ing south.  Laird was cap­tain of the reg­i­ment, and Abi­al W. Fish­er was first lieu­tenant.  The Fourth Reg­i­ment would go on to fight in some of the major bat­tles of the war, includ­ing Get­tys­burg, Anti­etam, and Cold Har­bor. Com­pa­ny G, which had a num­ber of Danville res­i­dents among its ranks, would also lose over half its men to bat­tle and dis­ease.  Colonel William H. Har­ris of Danville was one of the recruit­ing offi­cers for the Sixth Reg­i­ment.  When the reg­i­ment left town for points south, Har­ris’ recruits were escort­ed out by loud cheers and a band play­ing mar­tial music.

THE NORTH STAR

MAY 11, 1861

War News of the Week

The whole coun­try is agi­tat­ed with war excite­ment.  We can see no diminu­tion of the war­like feel­ing, but North and South, East and West, all are aroused and prepar­ing for the con­flict.  We do not learn of actu­al hos­til­i­ties in any sec­tion.  The imme­di­ate seat of war appears to be in the vicin­i­ty of Bal­ti­more, Wash­ing­ton, and the bor­ders of Vir­ginia.  The gov­ern­ment is every day strength­en­ing its posi­tions, and is now in good fight­ing order in Wash­ing­ton, and oth­er points most exposed to rebel­lion.  It is sat­ed that the Gov­ern­ment intends to retake the Gosport Navy Yard and Harper’s Fer­ry.  If so, there will be a sharp conflict.

As to move­ments of the South­ern forces, we are kept in the dark.

The Block­ade

The Admin­is­tra­tion has deter­mined upon a com­plete and actu­al block­ade of the South­ern ports.  Some fifty ves­sels are already engaged in this ser­vice, and oth­ers will be added.  After Jef­fer­son Davis issued his procla­ma­tion grant­i­ng let­ters for fit­ting out pri­va­teers, it seemed to be nec­es­sary to off­set that bar­barous pol­i­cy by order­ing a blockade.

Ver­mont-War News

The young miss­es of Danville have made a large and beau­ti­ful Amer­i­can flag, which is sus­pend­ed across one of our prin­ci­pal streets.  All hon­or to the ladies for their patri­ot­ic labor.

The men enlist­ed at St. Johns­bury are being drilled, and the ladies of the place have formed a Soci­ety to aid the vol­un­teers in the man­u­fac­ture of cloth­ing, also to aid their families.

The cit­i­zens of Cabot met on the 4th, and had a spir­it­ed, patri­ot­ic meet­ing.  Nathaniel Per­ry, Jr. was unan­i­mous­ly request­ed to raise a com­pa­ny from that and adjoin­ing towns.  Twen­ty-two men came for­ward and gave their names.

THE NORTH STAR

May 18, 1861

The War

Anoth­er week has passed, with no actu­al hos­til­i­ties on either side.  There seems to be no abate­ment of the excite­ment through­out the coun­try.  Active prepa­ra­tions for the con­flict are mak­ing through­out the coun­try.  The imme­di­ate seat of war appears to be con­tained to Bal­ti­more, Wash­ing­ton, both sides of the Potomac, and the board­ers of Vir­ginia and South­ern Penn­syl­va­nia.  Here forces are con­cen­trat­ing, and it does not seem prob­a­ble that a con­flict will be long delayed.

THE VERMONT REGIMENT

Last week Thurs­day, the Ver­mont reg­i­ment of Vol­un­teers, quar­tered at Rut­land was duly mus­tered into the ser­vice of the Unit­ed States, and took their depar­ture for the seat of war.  It is said their des­ti­na­tion is Fort Mon­roe, and if so, they must have arrived there last Sun­day.  The Reg­i­ment com­pletes ten full com­pa­nies, and is com­mand­ed by Col. J. W. Phelps, (a very supe­ri­or officer).

THE NORTH STAR

MAY 25, 1861

War Events of the Week

Since our last issue, the progress of the war exhibits noth­ing of impor­tance, so far as actu­al hos­til­i­ties are concerned.

Large bod­ies of North­ern troops are con­cen­trat­ing to and around Wash­ing­ton city;  they are rep­re­sent­ed gen­er­al­ly as in healthy con­di­tion, although a small num­ber out of the whole, are on the sick list.

Great num­bers of troops are being con­cen­trat­ed at Fort Monroe.

The block­ade of South­ern ports is near­ly com­plete.  Sev­er­al seizures of South­ern laden ves­sels have been made.

No Par­ty Feeling

There seems to be a dis­po­si­tion in cer­tain quar­ters to ignore par­ty lines and par­ty orga­ni­za­tions, and all unite in the com­mon cause of sus­tain­ing the Gov­ern­ment, with­out regard to the polit­i­cal prefer­ment of any par­tic­u­lar par­ti­san.  This course we think is wise…

“Going to see the ele­phant” was an expres­sion used by enlis­tees in the Union Army describ­ing the expe­ri­ence of coun­try boys going off to war where they would expe­ri­ence life in ways they could not have imagined.