 On July 4th, 1860, in the wake of Lincoln's presidential campaign, a group of Virginia Republicans in the town of O'Coughlin raised a flag with the names Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin on it. This small Virginia town would end up casting more votes for Lincoln than the rest of Virginia combined. But the neighboring residents who did not support Lincoln weren't happy about the flag. George Potter, an officer in the Virginia Militia, wrote to Richmond on July 18 asking to have the flag removed. Governor Letcher said that he had no authority to take down the flag. But people in Prince William County, the county that O'Coughlin was part of, weren't satisfied with Letcher's answer. A meeting was held at the courthouse in Brinsville, and the attendees decided that the Lincoln banner had to be destroyed. One Republican, William Athe, sent a wire to Governor Letcher asking for help, as they were about to be set on by a mob of 300 people because of their political opinions. Letcher responded, instructing General Epa Huntin in the county to maintain order, even if it meant using military force. But he wasn't really ordering General Huntin to protect the Republicans who raised the Lincoln banner. In fact, he referred to Athe's request for protection as, quote, about the most consummate piece of impudence and audacity that has ever come under our notice, end quote. On July 27th, Captain William Thornton led the Prince William Militia to the Liberty Pole, as it was called, and the men set up a perimeter around it. On the top of the pole was the United States flag, and just under it was the Lincoln banner. But when a 40-man militia came in from Brinsville, the soldiers took no action to protect the flag. Just for some context, by the way, the Liberty Pole was the private property of a local merchant named Joseph Janney, and he came out about this time to ask that the flag pole be respected. He said that he was not a Republican, and he did not agree with the politics of the people who raised the Lincoln banner. But they had done so with his permission, and his property rights should be respected on the matter. Janney's request was ignored. One of the men in the militia was James W. Jackson from nearby Fairfax County. O'Cockwyn was part of Prince William County, but it was right on the border of Fairfax. Jackson stepped up, raised his axe, and swung the first blow against the Liberty Pole. None of the other soldiers stepped in to stop him or other Brinsville men as they chopped the Liberty Pole to pieces and then took the U.S. flag, the Lincoln banner, and the pieces of the flag pole back with them to Brinsville. Just under a year later, James W. Jackson would find himself faced with a different mob of soldiers, threatening his own Confederate flag flying on top of his own private property. Jackson owned a hotel on the corner of King and South Pitt Street in Alexandria, Virginia. The hotel advertised itself as exemplifying Southern hospitality, and the flag pole on the roof held a Confederate flag. This for those who don't know is the original stars and bars of the Confederacy before they designed the more iconic Southern Cross that came later to avoid a battlefield confusion since the first Confederate flag looked similar to the United States flag. On May 24th, Colonel Elmer Ellsworth led a company of New York's wabs down the street until they came upon the Marshall House and saw the Confederate flag flying. Upon debarking from the steamer that transported his men, Ellsworth made promises to Lieutenant Rygert Lowry that he wouldn't fire on anyone, though his men had already exchanged some gunfire while debarking before he spoke to Lowry, and Ellsworth also promised that he would respect private property. But just as Jackson had rejected any notion of private property rights at the site of the Lincoln banner a year earlier, Ellsworth would abandon his promise upon seeing Jackson's Confederate flag flying about the hotel. Ellsworth was being followed by a reporter from the New York Tribune, and he wanted to gain himself some glory. He barged into the hotel, harassed a customer inside, and went up the stairs to get access to the flag, posted guards at each floor, borrowed a knife from one of his men, and cut down the flag. Then, ceremoniously, Ellsworth draped the Confederate flag around his shoulders and started back down the stairs. This all took place in the morning, and most of the hotel guests were still getting out of bed, but as can be expected, the commotion in the hotel woke them up. As Ellsworth was trying to leave the house, he unknowingly passed by James Jackson's room. Jackson stepped out with a double-barrel shotgun in hand, and when Ellsworth turned around with Jackson's flag around his shoulders like a cape, Jackson emptied the barrel of his shotgun in Ellsworth's chest, making him the first officer killed in the Civil War. But the shot that killed Ellsworth was the only one that Jackson would be able to fire off. The Zwobs who witnessed the killing of their officer unloaded their firearms on Jackson, who fell down the stairs of the hotel, where he was repeatedly gored with bayonets. Both Ellsworth and Jackson became heroes and martyrs for their respective sides of the war. According to one citizen who knew Jackson, a man named A.J. Wycliffe, who gave a testimony several decades later, Jackson had repeatedly promised that he would kill any man who attempted to take down his flag, and that's exactly what he did. It is ironic, though, that he would lose his life defending his flag and his property when, less than a year prior, he had been the one violating the property of someone else to remove a flag that he didn't like. Draw what lessons you made from this story. I just find it interesting to think about. But the taking of the Marshall House began the quote-unquote liberation of Alexandria, Virginia. And with the exception of some minor naval conflicts, this was the first real active war on Virginia soil. But of course, with its close proximity to Washington, D.C., Virginia would be the primary battleground for the next four years. I'm Chris Calton, and this is the Mises Institute podcast, Historical Controversies. In the last two episodes, we began the story of Maryland's Union Occupation, the Pratt Street riot that so often gets skipped over in Civil War histories, as well as Lincoln's Declaration of Martial Law and the Union Occupation of the State, which would set the precedent for some of Lincoln's most controversial policies during the war. But although we will be returning to that topic later, I want to turn today to Virginia, where we can see the beginning of real warfare leading up to the first battle of Bull Run, or Manassas. I'll go ahead and say that I keep rethinking how I want to tell this story because there's so much interesting stuff going on at one time in different areas of the country, which will obviously be even more true as the war progresses. Originally, I was going to talk about the conflicts in Missouri that take place before Bull Run, but because so many of these different military operations are good standalone stories, I think I've decided to try to focus on various campaigns at a time so I can complete one general story before moving on to another to make it easier to keep track of the characters and events. But this means that the chronology is going to jump back and forth quite a bit as we move from one region to another. So it's impossible to avoid potential confusion in the narrative, but I'm going to do the best I can to tell the story of the Civil War in a way that is relatively easy to follow. I also want to mention before we get into the meat of today's episode that you may notice that I'm not consistent with the naming scheme that I use for the battles. It's pretty common knowledge that the Confederacy in the Union had different names for the battles, with the Confederacy generally using the closest town and the Union using some nearby landmark like a river. And every historian has their own preference for which one to use. When I'm writing and recording the scripts, it's easy for me to unconsciously jump back and forth in what name I use for the battles. In an ideal world, I'd pick a name scheme and apply it consistently. But with the weekly production of a podcast, I just don't have the time to meticulously proofread and rerecord things when I unconsciously change battle names. So always let you know what both names of the major battles are. And we will just have to tolerate my inconsistency and how I refer to them. I apologize in advance. But since the books I reference are not consistent in the battle names, I don't have faith that I'm going to avoid inadvertently jumping back and forth myself. Anyway, with that, we can move back to the story of Virginia. Lieutenant Colonel Robert E. Lee was stationed in Texas in January of 1861. Like General Winfield Scott, Lee was a Virginian. Like Scott, he did not want to leave the Union. And like Scott, he did not desire war. But unlike General Scott, Robert E. Lee believed that his loyalty belonged to his state first and nation second. Writing his son from Texas in January, Lee expressed his concerns about the crisis the country was facing. He wrote to his son, Custis, who favored the South. Quote, the South, in my opinion, has been aggrieved by the acts of the North, as you say. I feel the aggression and am willing to take every proper step for redress. It is the principle I contend for, not individual or private gain. As an American citizen, I take great pride in my country, her prosperity and institutions, and would defend any state if her rights were invaded. But I can anticipate no greater calamity for the country than dissolution of the Union. It would be an accumulation of all the evils we complain of. And I am willing to sacrifice everything but honor for its preservation. I hope, therefore, that all constitutional means will be exhausted before there is recourse to force. Secession is nothing but revolution. It is idle to talk of secession. Anarchy would have been established and not a government by Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, and the other patriots of the revolution. Still, a union that can only be maintained by swords and bayonets and in which strife and civil war are to take the place of brotherly love and kindness has no charm for me. I shall mourn for my country and for the welfare and progress of mankind. If the union is dissolved and the government disrupted, I shall return to my native state and share the miseries of my people and save and defense will draw my sword on none." Robert E. Lee was expressing an interesting mixture of positions in his letter. He agreed that the North was guilty of the offenses that the South claimed, but he rejected the compact theory of the Constitution or the legality of secession. However, he said something that I do find striking. I am willing to sacrifice everything but honor for the preservation of the union. A few episodes ago, when talking about Robert Anderson at Fort Sumter, I compared his notion of honor to the story of Candide by Voltaire. Honor to Anderson meant unflinching duty to the government and military he served. To Robert E. Lee, whatever faults we may find in him, I'm not a Robert E. Lee apologist by any means, but to him honor was something more than unwavering loyalty to his government or his military. And the use of force, as he mentioned, to maintain the union, even if he believed secession to be entirely wrong-headed, the use of force against the seceding states would not be honorable. It is also telling, in the last line of the quote, that he swore to only take up his sword in defense. And that is, like so many other people, what Robert E. Lee believed he was doing. He was defending his home state against an aggressive power. This was his sincere perspective, right or wrong. Not long after sending this letter, Lee was promoted to colonel. On April 18th, the day before Virginia would secede, Lee made a visit to Francis Preston Blair, the father of Lincoln's postmaster General Montgomery Blair. Blair had requested the visit, and when Lee arrived, he found out why. Lincoln had recently called for 75,000 troops, which meant that a large army was being assembled. The president needed somebody who could take command, and he authorized Blair to offer the post to Lee. Should Lee accept the offer, he would be promoted to major general, and with the complete support of the union government, he would be the commanding officer of the United States Army. For any army officer, this was the opportunity of a lifetime. It would be the dream of most soldiers. But as I said earlier, Lee saw his duty as being to his state first, and his notion of honor was not exclusive to his military obligations. In a later account of the conversation, Lee said, quote, I declined the offer he made me to take command of the army that was to be brought into the field, stating as candidly and as courteously as I could, that though opposed to secession and deprecating war, I could take no part in an invasion of the southern states, end quote. When Lee visited General Winfield Scott, his fellow Virginian, shortly after the meeting with Blair, Scott said, quote, Lee, you have made the greatest mistake of your life, but I feared it would be so, end quote. Even before the state officially seceded, secessionists seized the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry and the Gosport Navy Yard in Norfolk. The decision to secede when Lee turned down the command probably wasn't very much in doubt. On April 19th, the decision had been made official for secession in Virginia and on April 20th, Lee resigned his commission in the United States Army. He sent a note tendering his resignation to war secretary Simon Cameron that was shortened to the point, but he also sent a personal note to General Scott that was a bit more heartfelt. Referring to his meeting with Scott two days earlier, Lee wrote, quote, I would have presented my resignation at once but for the struggle it has cost me to separate myself from a service to which I have devoted all the best years of my life and all the ability I possessed. During the whole of that time, more than a quarter of a century, I have experienced nothing but kindness from my superiors and a most cordial friendship from my comrades. To no one, General, have I been as much indebted as to yourself for uniform kindness and consideration and it has always been my ardent desire to meet your approbation. I shall carry to the grave the most grateful recollections of your kind considerations and your name and fame will always be dear to me. Save and defensive my native state, I never desire again to draw my sword. Be pleased to accept my most earnest wishes for the continuance of your happiness and prosperity and believe me, most truly yours are E. Lee, end quote. The next day, a Sunday, Lee attended church in Alexandria with one of his daughters and found the city in celebration. He didn't join them. Lee was well known in his state but the news of his resignation had not yet gotten around. That evening, Lee received a letter requesting his presence in Richmond, assuming correctly that the meeting regarded the defense of the state. Lee didn't hesitate to accept the invitation despite his sorrow at leaving the union and resigning from the US army. Even after the war, he said of his decision, quote, I did only what my duty demanded. I could have taken no other course without dishonor and if it all were to be done over again, I should act in precisely the same manner, end quote. In Richmond, Lee accepted the command of Virginia's provisional army and a month later he was promoted to full general in the Confederate army, one of the first five men given that rank. Lee immediately started thinking about how to best defend his country as he sometimes referred to Virginia. The area that most worried Lee was the Manassas Junction train station. The depot there was small and to less trained eyes, it would probably seem like an insignificant place. But the Manassas Gap Railroad connected with the Orange and Alexandria Railroad at Manassas Junction. If the Confederates lost it, the two sides of the large state would be cut off from each other. It would also put Richmond in a much more vulnerable situation since it was already uncomfortably close to the union capital, a fact that worried both the union and the Confederacy and would dictate much of the war effort for both sides. So on May 6th, Lee ordered Colonel Philip St. George Koch to take a regiment of volunteers there to protect Manassas Junction and Alexandria, Virginia. By mid-May, Lee was growing increasingly worried about Alexandria and wanted the men to be ready to reinforce the small garrison there. But there were less than 1,200 men at Manassas Junction and they were incredibly poorly equipped. Defending both Manassas Junction and Alexandria would spread them too thin, Koch said. A few days later, Lee ordered Brigadier General Millage Luke Bonham to take his men to reinforce Koch and take over command. Lee stressed that holding Manassas Junction was the top priority. On May 24th, Lee's fears about Alexandria were confirmed as the union soldiers in New York fire swabs entered the city and secured it for the union. Alexandria had spent five weeks in the Confederacy before succumbing to union occupation. In addition to the killings of Ellsworth and Jackson, as I talked about in the opening of the episode, the soldiers raided private homes throughout the city looking for weapons. One diarist, a woman named Anne Frobel, left a descriptive account of the soldier's searches. It's a long quote, but I'm gonna read it in full. Quote, I was left entirely alone sitting in the living room at work when in walked three officers, horrible creatures, dressed up in all their trappings, pistols stuck in their belts and swords clanging against the floor. I was frightened almost out of my wits. I never asked to them in or to be seated. I never said a word. I don't believe I could speak if I had tried. I did not know what was coming. I expected to be annihilated. Two of them stationed themselves on either side of the fireplace and held up the mantle piece with their shoulders. The other one strutted up to me and said, we have come to search this house. He turned and walked across the room to the sideboard, pulled open one of the drawers. At this time, one of our neighbors came in, looked in the door perfectly aghast with her mouth open and darted upstairs. Mr. Lieutenant Searcher, after opening the drawers and turning over the tablecloth and napkins and things that were in it, turned to me and said, this is a very disagreeable business. I stood up all the time as straight as a line. By this time, I was too indignant to feel afraid of them and replied, I should think so and not only disagreeable, but very degrading. The man let go the drawers and dropped back into a seat as if I had shot him. Said, I assure you, any search is only for firearms. I replied, ladies have very little use for firearms. And as my sister and myself were the only white people living in this house, you could hardly expect to find anything of the kind here. Oh, he said, you are the ladies I have heard of. If I had known it, I would not have disturbed you. The next day, another party came with their bright gleaming guns and bayonets stuck on the ends. Fixed, I believe they call it and demanded something to eat, which was given to them. And the next day, they came and the next and the next and every day, morning, noon and night, always the same tune, something to eat until it was enough to run one crazy and they nearly eaten up all we have. All the roads in and about town are picketed and they will not allow us to bring anything from there so that with our own family and these horrible Yankee Germans, we are getting rather scarce of provisions. End quote. In another account, she speaks of a raid by the swabs, quote. Oh, the horrible, horrible red legs, the fire's waves. Here they come again with their tight blue skull caps and long cords and tassels hanging from the top knot. I think it possible they are more savage than the rest. They are our perfect terror. Their red clothes can be seen from afar. They are the New York City fire's waves. The soldiers seem to have no particular uniform. Each company seems to be capprised according to their own peculiar style and fancy. They came here dressed in all manner of frippery. Some in dark clothes with broad brimmed hats and long black plumes. Others in gray with tight caps with a long foxtails stuck straight up in front and oh, the foxtails are a vile set. They searched Mr. Reed's house recently and found a confederate flag and then such filed doings never anyone heard of before. They tore the whole house and place up generally. They manacled him and dragged him off to town through all the water and mud holes they could find and up and down through every street until he was wearied and worn almost to death and then put him in prison where they kept him until he was forced to take the oath, whatever that is. Today is the first time we have ventured to leave home since the invasion. Some pickets were stationed about on the roads but they did not interfere with us but it was dreadful to see all the destruction all about. Fields thrown open, fences all down, fires all burning in the fields, piled up with rails, grain fields that so short a time ago were looking so beautiful and flourishing now covered over with tents and trampled over with horses and wagons and soldiers and everything pertaining to an army. The streets were also filled with them and so shockingly filthy that it made me shudder to walk on the pavements and everybody looking so sad and sorrowful and all having a talk of horror and wrong to tell. End quote. While the citizens of Arlington were suffering the occupation of Union soldiers, their fears and hatred were only compounded by newspapers writing editorials about Ellsworth's death, advocating a campaign against Virginia that was to quote one Northern paper, vindictive, fierce, bloody and merciless, end quote. The city of Newport News, Virginia fell bloodlessly at the end of May when Union naval vessels bombarded the fortifications protecting a railroad terminus at Ikea Creek. Nobody was killed and only one Virginian suffered a minor injury but the Confederates had little ammunition to defend their position and the unions took the city. The same day that Newport News fell, two small skirmishes took place in Fairfax in Arlington. A company of Union cavalry came upon the Fairfax courthouse at three o'clock in the morning. Nearby was Lieutenant Colonel Richard Ewell who quickly called every man he could to arms. A company of about 50 riflemen from Warrenton led by Captain John Maher responded and Ewell set them up across the road. US cavalrymen also consisting of about 50 men tried to charge through them but the Confederate riflemen let loose a volley that stopped the horsemen in their tracks. The Union men circled back and tried to charge again firing their revolvers and waving sabers at the Virginians. Again, they failed and fled leaving behind a handful of tossed weapons and dead horses, their riders taken prisoner. Union officer Captain Maher was killed and Confederate officer Lieutenant Colonel Ewell took a bullet to the shoulder. The Confederates suffered similar losses to that of the Union with one dead and a few injured including another officer who was shot in the foot. Only a few hours later another small skirmish broke out at Arlington Mill when company G of the 11th New York Infantry were attacked by a small group of Virginia militiamen only nine of them by one account. The Virginians approached the Union camp and let loose a volley hitting two Union soldiers one of whom died before being driven back. After having been removed from Baltimore Benjamin Butler was stationed at Fort Monroe overseeing a few thousand Union troops on the peninsula between the York River and James River. He set up two camps of soldiers outside the fort. After Newport News fell to the Union Colonel John Magruder set his men not far from Butler's men at Big Bethel and Little Bethel. Magruder's job was to stop the soldiers at Monroe from making any more ground toward Richmond and he set up his camps deliberately close to Butler's men to try to draw them out. One interesting piece of trivia by the way is one of Magruder's men was the grandson of Thomas Jefferson who led a team of artillerists there. Butler took the bait coming up with a plan to send two detachments of soldiers to attack from either side. He wanted the attack to take place at dawn and he had his men march in the dark of night. His men were instructed to wear something white on their arms and Butler came up with watch words so they could signal to each other and avoid friendly fire but this was of no help. Two separate groups of New York soldiers bumped into each other neither one suspecting to find friendly soldiers where they were and one column opened fire. The officers tried to reign in the chaos calling their men to retreat until they could figure out what was going on but the gunshots had already signaled their presence to the Confederates. The Union officers in charge of the operation Ebenezer Pierce and Theodore Winthrop tried to move forward with the plan. They converged on Little Bethel only to find it already abandoned. The Union soldiers set fire to what remained before moving on to the Big Bethel church where the Confederates were already ready for them. The Confederate soldiers there consisted of Colonel Daniel Harvey Hill and his North Carolina regiment. Hill signaled for reinforcements and was answered by the arrival of some Virginians and an artillery battalion bringing their numbers to nearly 1500. They were still grossly outnumbered by the 3000 or so Union troops who started their attack at 9 a.m. led by General Pierce. On either side of the Confederate encampment were bridges. Pierce split his men up and sent them over the bridges. They aimed their artillery at the Confederate fortifications. The superior Union forces were able to force the Confederates back to their primary entrenchment and they took the Confederate fort. But they didn't keep it long as another group of Union soldiers came in to flank the fort only to run into another group of Union soldiers who had gotten lost in the woods. So the first group mistook the lost soldiers for the enemy and fell back. There was no consistency in uniforms at this time and most of the soldiers were wearing only their civilian clothings. The Union soldiers had white bands around their arms and the Confederates similarly had white ribbons around their hats. But in the heat of battle this was hardly enough to tell friend from foe. The confused leader of the group ordered his men to fall back and the North Carolinians were able to retake their position. Magruder sent another group of Virginians in his reinforcements carrying with them a howitzer. The Union soldiers took refuge in nearby buildings and a group of North Carolinians offered to run out and set fire to the buildings to drive them out. During the attempt the Union soldier took a bullet to the skull. He would end up being the only Confederate casualty that day. The rest of the volunteers failed to set fire to the buildings but their artillery was finally able to drive the Union soldiers out. The West Road around Big Bethel was now completely secure for the Confederacy. To the East Theodore Winthrop was still holding up with a regiment of Massachusetts and Vermont volunteers. While attention was focused more on the West of the church Winthrop was able to move around the Confederates and come upon a seemingly vulnerable position only to find himself and his men taking fire from another group of North Carolinians. Three of his men were killed and a handful more were injured. To urge his men onward Major Winthrop climbed a fence and waved his sword but his men were green and they couldn't be compelled to expose themselves to the gunfire. While he was trying to encourage his men he took a bullet through his heart killing him instantly. His men watched as his body toppled to the ground but the Confederates would later consider him the only Union soldier to display even an ounce of courage during the entire battle. Finally General Pierce accepted his defeat and called his men to retreat. They tried to load up their dead and wounded as well as their weapons but when they found themselves being chased by Virginia cavalrymen they dropped their dead comrades and more importantly all of their weapons letting the Confederates gain a nice supply of Northern arms. They set fire to the new market bridge to seal their escape but the Confederates won the day losing only one man while the Yankees lost 18 including Major Winthrop in addition to more than 50 wounded. The Northern press excoriated Butler for the embarrassing defeat at Big Bethel but staying consistent with his character Butler blamed it on the incompetence of his subordinate officers. In truth both were probably to blame for the poor performance. A week later one other small skirmish would take place in Vienna, Virginia when a battalion of Confederate infantry hid on either side of the railroad tracks to wait for a group of Union soldiers who they had learned would be passing by them. When the Union men came the Confederates ambushed them killing eight and injuring a few more. There were also a few small confrontations in Western Virginia but I'll be coming back to that campaign after the first battle of Bull Run. Even though these skirmishes would pale in comparison to later battles they were significant events in the month of June 1861. Fort Sumter is the event that we generally point to as the start of the war but these few battles were for many people particularly in Virginia the beginning of actual warfare and they would open the door for the first major battle of the war the first battle of Bull Run. While all of these minor conflicts were taking place the stage was being set for this larger conflict. A week after the Confederate government voted to move their capital to Richmond on May 20th Jefferson Davis was on his way there. On May 28th while he was still traveling President Davis sent orders to Pierre Beauregard the hero of Fort Sumter to the Confederacy to come to Richmond. On May 31st Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis met for the first time during the war to discuss strategy. Davis was originally going to send Beauregard to Norfolk to protect the Navy Yard but Robert E. Lee convinced the president who of course had plenty of military experience himself that Manassas Junction was the place that needed to be secured. Davis was convinced instead of sending Beauregard to Norfolk he heeded Lee's advice and sent him to take over command at Manassas Junction a decision made for two reasons first Beauregard was experienced at constructing defenses and two he was extremely popular among South Carolinians so he would easily command the loyalty of Brigadier General Bonham and his regiment of South Carolina volunteers. We will start looking at the campaign leading up to the first battle of Bull Run or the first battle of Manassas in the next episode. Historical controversies is a production of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. If you would like to support the show please subscribe on iTunes, Google Play or Stitcher and leave a positive review. You can also support the show financially by donating at Mises.org slash Support HC. If you would like to explore the rest of our content please visit Mises.org that's M-I-S-E-S dot O-R-G.