The Conkling Rifles: Civil War History of the Ninety-Seventh Regiment, New York Volunteers
THE CONKLING RIFLES: CIVIL WAR HISTORY OF THE NINETY-SEVENTH REGIMENT, NEW YORK VOLUNTEERS ©1998, Steven F. Roth The following is substantially based upon excerpts and information contained in HISTORY OF THE NINETY-SEVENTH REGIMENT NEW YORK VOLUNTEERS, (“CONKLING RIFLES,”) IN THE WAR FOR THE UNION, by Isaac Hall (Press of L.C. Childs & Son, Utica, N.Y., 1890). Chapter I: The War Begins -- Organization of the 97th -- Departure for Washington The War began with the bombardment and capture of Ft. Sumter in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, April 12th and 13th, 1861. This caught the government and the people of the North totally unprepared. Neither the magnitude of the war, nor the resolution of the North or the South was understood. President Lincoln at first called for only 75,000 volunteers to serve three months, because the common feeling was that the rebellion could be suppressed, and the Union soldiers “had embarked on a summer pleasure excursion, or had started on a holiday picnic. ... It was a just cause of apprehension, at first, also, that the rancor of political partisanship would induce many of the Northern people to stand aloof from a hearty support of Government ... A general impression then prevailed that a peace would be patched up and there would be no real war.” After all, nobody was killed on either side at Fort Sumter. For “three weary months, the war dragged feebly on; the North but half aroused and but half in earnest.” No great battle was fought until Bull Run on July 21st, 1861. About 30,000 men were engaged on either side -- probably a larger number than ever before in the history of America.
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