“threatening to make inroads”

inroads north and west of D.C. again

150 years ago today some Confederate troops entered Pennsylvania as part of the Army of Northern Virginia’s invasion of the Union. It has been written that the federal War Department was ignorant of the exact disposition of the rebel forces, but it was becoming obvious that they were invading the North.

150 years ago today President Lincoln called for more troops to help defend the threatened states. These soldiers would count toward the states’ draft quotas.

From The Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln, Volume Six:

CALL FOR 100,000 MILITIA TO SERVE FOR SIX MONTHS, JUNE 15, 1863.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:

A Proclamation

Commander-in-Chief needs 100,000 men now!

Whereas the armed insurrectionary combinations now existing in several of the States are threatening to make inroads into the States of Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, requiring immediately an additional military force for the service of the United States:

Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States and Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy thereof and of the militia of the several States when called into actual service, do hereby call into the service of the United States 100,000 militia from the States following, namely:

From the State of Maryland, 10,000; from the State of Pennsylvania, 50,000; from the State of Ohio, 30,000; from the State of West Virginia, 10,000—to be mustered into the service of the United States forthwith and to serve for a period of six months from the date of such muster into said service, unless sooner discharged; to be mustered in as infantry, artillery, and cavalry, in proportions which will be made known through the War Department, which Department will also designate the several places of rendezvous. These militia to be organized according to the rules and regulations of the volunteer service and such orders as may hereafter be issued. The States aforesaid will be respectively credited under the enrollment act for the militia services entered under this proclamation. In testimony whereof……………

A. LINCOLN

President Lincoln might have been concerned about the rebel threat to Ohio, but the state’s Democratic Party apparently was not. Its June 1863 convention nominated the exiled Clement Vallandigham for governor. This editorial ridiculed the Ohio convention for holding out an olive branch to the Confederacy.

From The New-York Times June 15, 1863:

A Card of Invitation to the South, with Compliments of the Democracy.

peaceful Columbus, O. (c.1856)

We must leave it to our readers to imagine what the sensations of our fellow-citizens in the seceded States will be, when they learn that the Democratic Convention of Ohio ” will hail with delight a desire on their part to return to their allegiance,” and that the Convention aforesaid ” will cooperate with them to restore peace.” The joy which this intelligence will diffuse through the Confederacy will be, we need hardly say, as intense as it is pure, for it will, of course, at once put a stop to hostilities, and relieve the South from the pressure of misery and privation under which it has so long labored. The only sad reflection which this happy event is calculated to inspire is the thought that it should not have happened sooner. Nobody who possesses a spark of humanity can avoid deploring the unnatural reticence which led the Democratic party to conceal their real sentiments so long, when the utterance of them was all that was needed to put an end to “this dreadful war.” It is well known that the sole reason for which the Cotton States left the Union was their mistaken notion that nobody at the North wanted them in it, and the citizens in those parts being men of sensitive and retiring dispositions, of course got out of it as fast as possible, and now resolutely persist in staying out, and are fighting in the conviction that the aim of the radicals is simply to cut the throats of all the adult males, and lead the women and children into captivity. Now we cannot help saying that under these circumstances, the Democratic party has been guilty of culpable negligence in not coming forward at the outset, and in a frank and manly way telling JEFFERSON DAVIS and his friends that they would prefer that the South would not leave the Union; and that it was heartily welcome to remain in it as long as it pleased.

It is also well known that nothing of this kind was done. No compromises were offered, no Conventions were proposed, no amendments to the Constitution suggested; the points in dispute between the North and South were not even discussed. …

It has, of course, been perfectly plain ever since that all that was needed to bring them back was for some organized responsible body, such as the Democratic party, to say — Come. Why the Democratic party has not sooner uttered the magic word, we do not know. …

There remains one other thing, which we have the best reason for knowing would be highly acceptable to the South, and which, in fact, reluctant as they will be to mention it, they will doubtless be driven into proposing, unless we kindly anticipate them. Their views on “niggers”, and “free society” are well known. We have at the North, a large number of free negroes, whose presence will always be highly offensive to such Southern gentlemen as may honor us with their company. Ought we not, therefore, to hunt them up at once, and enslave them, either by selling them to private individuals, or committing them to Sing Sing to hard labor for life? It is well known that they are utterly incapable of taking care of themselves, and if let run loose will eventually die. It would be, therefore, an act of charity, as well as of courtesy, to paddle them all soundly, and then dispose of them to the highest bidder. Having done this, common decency, as well as common consistency, requires that we should hang all the leading Abolitionists. We have the authority of several of our shrewdest Democrats, for saying that there never will be peace as long as these men are alive. There is nothing more certain than that their death would diffuse universal hilarity through the South, and it is considered in the very best Southern circles that they have richly merited it. Why should we not, therefore, execute a few of them, and make all writing or speaking about Slavery, except in praise of it, punishable by breaking on the wheel and burning alive? We should then go on prosperously, peacefully, harmoniously, enjoying the respect of all mankind and our own, and have no more war, or taxation, or conscription.

A little sarcasm to reinforce the idea that the war is now not just to save the Union but a war to save the Union and wipe out slavery.

I have no idea how much the Ohioans knew about the invasion at the time of their convention, but they apparently weren’t backing down on their political beliefs.

[09/26/2023]I altered the first paragraph to remove link to Civil War Daily Gazette.