A Royal Road To Peace

(Conspiracy Nation, 12/20/05) -- "The people think there is a royal road to peace," complained Abraham Lincoln. "They have got the idea into their heads that we are going to get out of this fix somehow by strategy!" At first, the public was waving flags and exclaiming, "Hooray! We are going to war!" William Tecumseh Sherman had a different perspective: "War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out." When Abraham Lincoln had just begun his presidency, in 1861, W.T. Sherman was introduced to him. John Sherman, a congressman, said, "Mr. President, this is my brother, Colonel Sherman, who is just up from Louisiana, he may give you some information you want."

"Ah!" said Mr. Lincoln, "how are they getting along down there?"

Colonel Sherman replied, "They think they are getting along swimmingly -- they are preparing for war."

"Oh, well!" responded Lincoln, "I guess we'll manage to keep house."

W.T. Sherman was stunned. He and his brother left the office. Colonel Sherman was furious. He turned to his brother the congressman and damned politicians in general: "You have got things in a hell of a fix, and you may get them out as you best can. The country is sleeping on a volcano that might burst forth at any minute." (Sherman, W.T. Memoirs ISBN: 0-940450-65-8. Emphasis added)

The public, the press, and the politicians were impatient. "On to Richmond!" they cried. Union Brigadier General Irvin McDowell, in charge of the Army of Northeastern Virginia, was reluctant. He thought the fresh recruits needed time to train. He was overuled by impatient politicians and citizens.

"The elite of nearby Washington, expecting an easy Union victory, had come to picnic and watch the battle." Stephen Vincent Benét later wrote a poem about it: "The Congressmen Came Out To See Bull Run"

The congressmen came out to see Bull Run,
The congressmen who like free shows and spectacles.
They brought their wives and carriages along,
They brought their speeches and their picnic-lunch,
Their black constituent-hats and their devotion:
Some even brought a little whiskey, too.
(A little whiskey is a comforting thing
For congressmen in the sun, in the heat of the sun.)
The bearded congressmen with orator's mouths,
The fine, clean-shaved, Websterian congressmen,
Come out to see the gladiator's show
Like Iliad gods, wrapped in the sacred cloud
Of Florida-water, wisdom and bay-rum,
Of free cigars, democracy and votes,
That lends such portliness to congressmen.

William Tecumseh Sherman describes the waywardness of his green troops, marching to their first-ever battle. "Their uniforms were as various as the States and cities from which they came... with all my personal efforts I could not prevent the men from straggling for water, blackberries, or any thing on the way they fancied." (Sherman, op. cit.)

Waiting for the picnic party at Bull Run (called Manassas by the Confederates) was, among others, Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. The battle turned into bloody nightmare for the North and then a panicked retreat. Unfortunately, congressional carriages, also scurrying back to Washington, DC, clogged the roads. There would be no "royal road to peace."

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