narrow straggling territory, overhung along its whole Chap. IV. northern boundary by free Pennsylvania, was estimated to contain not less than 50,000,000 dollars' worth of slaves. The distant State of Missouri had, like Maryland, a military importance derived from its situation; for the possession of it might be said to command, more or less, Kansas and the great territories of the SouthWest. She never actually seceded, but her Governor and Legislature were secessionist, and the State soon became, and long continued, the scene of desultory hostilities, sustained at first by troops raised within the State and fighting in its name, and later by detached wings of the great Confederate army. These events have been mentioned, for the sake of convenience, a little out of their chronological order. Nor were the acts by which the four seceding States purported to sever themselves from the Union formally completed until some time afterwards. But these acts had in all

1 Virginia

April 17th. Ordinance of Secession passed by Convention (88 to 55). May 23rd. Ordinance ratified by popular vote (128,884 to 32,134). [A considerable portion of Virginia broke off and remained faithful to the Union, and was subsequently erected, with some adjoining counties, into a separate State, under the title of Western Virginia. It contained nearly a fourth of the whole white population, and embraced the Valley of the Kanawha and the greater part of the tract west of the Alleghanies sloping down to the Ohio, together with the long narrow strip which runs up between the States of Ohio and Pennsylvania, nearly to the latitude of New York, and to which its shape and position have given the nickname of the "Pan-handle."]

North Carolina—

April 26th. Legislature summoned.

May 1st. Legislature met, and called Convention.

May 21st. Secession Ordinance passed unanimously.

Tennessee

May 7th. Ordinance of Secession passed by the Legislature.

June 8th. Ordinance ratified by popular vote (104,913 to 47,238). [East Tennessee was strongly Unionist.]

Arkansas

May 6th. Ordinance passed by Convention (69 to 1).

Chap. IV. of them been forestalled, not only by popular movements, but by their Governments and Legislatures. On the 25th April the Virginian Convention, in the name of the Commonwealth, had entered into a formal Treaty with the Confederate States, under which, until the Union should be perfected, "the whole military force and military operations, offensive and defensive, of the said Commonwealth in the impending conflict with the United States," were placed under the direction and control of the President of the Confederacy "on the same principles, basis, and footing as if the said Commonwealth were now and during the interval a member of the Confederacy." The Governor of Tennessee was empowered by his Legislature, on the 1st May, to conclude a like Treaty; and the Treaty itself was ratified by the Senate on the 7th. Still earlier the forts on the coast of North Carolina had been seized and armed, and these, with the arsenals of Fayetteville in that State and of Little Rock in Arkansas, were handed over to the Confederate Government.

The United States had within the State of Virginia two valuable possessions, which its revolt threatened with sudden peril, the navy-yard and magazines of Norfolk, and the great arsenal and armoury of Harper's Ferry, situated at the confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers, whose united waters here break through the most easterly of the long Alleghany ranges and descend towards the sea. On the night of the 18th April the subaltern in charge of the arsenal was apprised that it was about to be attacked by a strong Virginian force, and hastily withdrew the handful of troops under his command, having first set fire to the buildings, destroyed about 15,000 stand of arms, and attempted, but in vain, to blow up the workshops and machinery. Commodore Macauley, who commanded at Norfolk, had recourse to the same desperate expedient. But here the destruction was greater. The noble harbour of Norfolk,

opening into Hampton Roads, where the James River, Chap. IV. on which Richmond stands, discharges itself into the sea, was a naval station of the first importance. Its great navy-yard, on the opposite side of Elizabeth River, gave employment to the populous town of Portsmouth with its suburb, Gosport; and the harbour and yard contained at that time, beside 2,000 pieces or more of heavy ordnance and large quantities of small-arms, ammunition, and naval stores, eight or ten ships of war, of different classes. Of these, however, some were dismantled; one had been thirty-eight years on the stocks, and others were under repair. A subsequent report of the Secretary of the Navy confines the list of those which were or could have been made serviceable to one steamfrigate, three sloops (including the Cumberland, which escaped), and a 4-gun brig. Norfolk was occupied on the 20th by a Virginian Brigadier, with a small force hastily collected in the neighbourhood; and, on the same night, the United States' Commandant, who had about 800 men at his disposal, made his escape from Portsmouth, after burning and scuttling the ships, firing the huge ship-houses, and destroying everything else that he could destroy. destroy. One sloop of war, the Cumberland, was safely towed out by the Pawnee, which had arrived just in time. The Merrimac, a fine 40-gun steam-frigate, though injured, was rescued by the Confederates, and afterwards did good service as the iron-clad Virginia; the cannon and powder also came into their possession, with much valuable machinery and large quantities of shot and shell. Portsmouth was immediately afterwards occupied, as Harper's Ferry had been, by Confederate troops. But Fortress Monroe, a place of great strength and commanding position, remained in the hands of the Federal Government. Seated on the extreme point of the land which divides the James River from Chesapeake Bay, directly opposite to the great outlet between the Capes

Chap. IV. of Virginia into the open sea, this fortress, in the hands of a strong maritime power, controlled the access not only to Richmond, by the James, but to all the interior waters of the bay, and secured to its possessors a foothold, which could not be shaken off, upon all the lower or "tide-water" part of the revolted State.

In the meanwhile, the Confederate Government, which still remained at Montgomery but subsequently removed to Richmond, was preparing, as it best could, to meet the coming storm. On the 6th March the Congress had passed a short Act, by which, "in order to provide, speedily, forces to repel invasion, maintain the rightful possession of the Confederate States of America in every portion of territory belonging to each State, and secure the public tranquillity and independence against threatened assault," the President was authorized to employ the militia, military and naval forces of the Confederacy, and to "ask for and accept the services of any number of volunteers, not exceeding 100,000," to serve for twelve months, unless sooner discharged. This power was exercised immediately after the outbreak of the war; and in the first flush of excitement the efforts of the Administration were seconded, and indeed outrun, by the enthusiasm of the people. "The military spirit raised by President Lincoln's proclamation reached an indescribable state of excitement during the months of April and May. It was estimated that 100,000 men were then organized, armed, and

1 Mr. Davis's Message, delivered on the 29th April, contained the following passage :

"There are now in the field at Charleston, Pensacola, Forts Morgan, Jackson, St. Philip, and Pulaski, 19,000 men, and 16,000 are now en route for Virginia. It is proposed to organize and hold in readiness for instant action, in view of the present exigencies of the country, an army of 100,000 men. If further force be needed, the wisdom and patriotism of the Congress will be confidently appealed to for authority to call into the field additional numbers of our noble spirited volunteers, who are constantly tendering their services far in excess of our wants."

awaiting orders from the Confederate Government, in Chap. IV. the seven States which first seceded. In Virginia 60,000 were under arms. This number included the troops from the other States, together with the militia of Virginia. This latter class were ready and disposed, in all parts of the State, except the western, to turn out almost en masse. This enthusiasm, the prosperous condition of the people generally, and the cause of selfdefence and self-preservation in which they conceived they were about to fight, rapidly furnished the Government with the men and munitions required." The Virginian troops in the field on the 30th June were reported as 41,885 men, and at the close of the year they were estimated at 70,000.

"For this struggle, so suddenly commenced, Virginia had for some time been making such preparations as her means enabled her, and although she was not so well provided as the Secessionists desired, still she was better prepared than most of her Southern sisters-better, perhaps, than any one of them. For some time anterior to the secession she had been engaged in the purchase of arms of different kinds, ammunition, and other necessary articles, and in mounting artillery, in anticipation of the event which subsequently occurred. A large portion of the ammunition which was used during the year was captured at Norfolk, and the heavy guns supplied to the Southern States for coast, river, and land defence, were captured at the same time with the navy yard. All the field artillery issued belonged exclusively to the State of Virginia, and much the larger part of it had been in her possession for half a century. The small arms were all her own exclusive property, save 7,500 altered percussion muskets, furnished by Governor Ellis, of North Carolina."-American Annual Cyclopædia for 1861, p. 740.

Of these levies the larger number were hurried forward, as fast as they could be brought into the field, to the northern frontier of Virginia, and massed so as to resist the approach of an enemy who should attempt to penetrate the State from Maryland. Two armies were thus gradually formed: one, disposed behind the Potomac, occupied the plain and the woody undulating

1 American Annual Cyclopædia for 1861, pp. 146, 147.