CHAPTER VII.

IN WHAT SENSE VIRGINIA SECEDED FROM THE UNION.-A NEW INTERPRETATION OF THE WAR OF THE CONFEDERATES.-INFLUENCE OF VIRGINIA ON THE OTHER BORDER STATES.-REPLIES OF THESE STATES TO LINCOLN'S REQUISITION FOR TROOPS.-SECESSION OF TENNESSEE, ARKANSAS, AND NORTH CAROLINA.—SEIZURE OF FEDERAL FORTS IN NORTH CAROLINA.-MOVEMENTS IN VIRGINIA TO SECURE THE GOSPORT NAVY YARD AND HARPER'S FERRY.-THEIR SUCCESS.-BURNING OF FEDERAL SHIPS.ATTITUDE OF MARYLAND.-THE BALTIMORE RIOT.-CHASE OF MASSACHUSETTS SOLDIERS.-EXCITEMENT IN BALTIMORE.-TIMID ACTION OF THE MARYLAND LEGISLATURE.-MILITARY DESPOTISM IN MARYLAND.-ARRESTS IN BALTIMORE.-A REIGN OF TERROUR.-LIGHT ESTIMATION OF THE WAR IN THE NORTH.-WHY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SOUGHT TO BELITTLE THE CONTEST.-LINCOLN'S VIEW OF THE WAR AS A RIOT.-SEWARD'S LETTER TO THE EUROPEAN GOVERNMENTS.-EARLY ACTION OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE WITH RESPECT TO THE WAR.-MR. GREGORY'S LETTER TO THE LONDON TIMES.-NORTHERN CONCEIT ABOUT THE WAR.-PROPHECIES OF NORTHERN JOURNALS.-A THREE MONTHS' WAR."-ELLSWORTH AND BILLY WILSON.-MARTIAL RAGE IN THE NORTH.IMPERFECT APPRECIATION OF THE CRISIS IN THE SOUTH.-EARLY IDEAS OF THE WAR AT MONTGOMERY.-SECRET HISTORY OF THE CONFEDERATE CONSTITUTION.-SOUTHERN OPINION OF YANKEE SOLDIERS.-WHAT WAS THOUGHT OF KING COTTON. -ABSURD THEORIES ABOUT EUROPEAN RECOGNITION.-LOST OPPORTUNITIES OF THE CONFEDERATE GOVERNMENT.-BLINDNESS AND LITTLENESS OF MIND NORTH AND SOUTH.-REFLECTION ON PUBLIO MEN IN AMERICA.-COMPARISON OF THE RESOURCES OF THE NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN STATES.-THE CENSUS OF 1860.-MATERIAL ADVANTAGES OF THE NORTH IN THE WAR. THE QUESTION OF SUBSISTENCE.-POVERTY OF THE SOUTH IN THE MATERIEL AND MEANS OF WAR.-HOW THE CONFEDERACY WAS SUPPLIED WITH SMALL ARMS. PECULIAR ADVANTAGES OF THE SOUTH IN THE WAR.-THE MILITARY VALUE OF SPACE. LESSONS OF HISTORY.-THE SUCCESS OF THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY, A QUESTION ONLY OF RESOLUTION AND ENDURANCE.-ONLY TWO POSSIBLE CAUSES OF FAILURE.

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It is to be remarked that Virginia did not secede in either the circumstances or sense in which the Cotton States had separated themselves from the Union. She had no delusive prospects of peace to comfort or sustain her in the decisive step she took. She did not secede in the sense in which separation from the Union was was the primary object of secession. On the contrary, her attachment to the Union had been proved by the most

untiring and noble efforts to save it; her Legislature originated the Peace Conference, which assembled at Washington in February, 1861; her representatives in Congress sought in that body every mode of honourable pacification; her Convention sent delegates to Washington to persuade Mr. Lincoln to a pacific policy; and in every form of public assembly, every expedient of negotiation was essayed by Virginia to save the Union. When these efforts at pacification failed, and the Government at Washington drew the sword against the sovereignty of States and insisted on the right of coercion, it was then that Virginia appreciated the change of issue, and, to contest it, found it necessary to withdraw from the Union. Her act of secession was subordinate; it was a painful formality which could not be dispensed with to contest a principle higher than the Union, and far above the promptings of passion and the considerations of mere expediency.

It takes time for popular commotions to acquire their meaning and proper significance. A just and philosophical observation of events must find that in the second secessionary movement of the Southern States, the war was put on a basis infinitely higher and firmer in all its moral and consitutional aspects; that at this period it developed itself, acquired its proper significance, and was broadly translated into a contest for liberty.

It was in this changed view of the contest and on an issue in which force was directly put against the sentiment of liberty, that the Border States followed the lead of Virginia out of the Union. The particular occasion of the movement was not so much the fire at Sumter as the proclamation of Mr. Lincoln to raise forces, the only purpose of which could be the subjugation of the South. In this proclamation the issue was distinctly put before the Border States; for Mr. Lincoln called upon each of them to furnish their quotas of troops for a war upon their sister States. The unnatural demand was refused in terms of scorn and defiance. Gov. Magoffin of Kentucky replied that that State "would furnish no troops for the wicked purpose of subduing her sister Southern States." Gov. Harris of Tennessee notified Mr. Lincoln that that State" would not furnish a single man for coercion, but fifty thousanì if necessary for the defence of her rights." Gov. Ellis of North Carolina telegraphed to Washington: "I can be no party to this wicked violation of the laws of the country, and to this war upon the liberties of a free people." Gov. Rector of Arkansas replied in terms of equal defiance, and declared “the demand is only adding insult to injury;" and Gov. Jackson showed an indignation surpassing all the others, for he wrote directly to Mr. Lincoln: "Your requisition in my judgment is illegal, unconstitutional, and revolutionary, and, in its objects, inhuman and diabolical." The only Southern State that did not publicly share in this resentment, and that made it an occasion of official ambiloquy, was Maryland. Her Governor, Thomas

Holladay Hicks, had advised that the State should occupy for the present a position of "neutrality;" and while he amused the country with this absurd piece of demagogueism, and very plainly suggested that in the approaching election of congressmen, the people of Maryland might determine their position, it is equally certain that he gave verbal assurances to Mr. Lincoln that the State would supply her quota of troops, and give him military support.

The indications of sentiment in the Border States soon ripened into open avowals. Tennessee seceded from the Union on the 6th of May; on the 18th day of May the State of Arkansas was formally admitted into the Southern Confederacy; and on the 21st of the same month, the sovereign Convention of North Carolina, by a unanimous vote, passed an ordinance of secession. This latter State, although slow to secede and accomplish formally her separation from the Union, had acted with singular spirit in giving early and valuable evidence of sympathy with the Southern cause. Under the orders of her Governor, Fort Macon, near Beaufort, was seized on the 15th of April, and promptly garrisoned by volunteers from Greensborough and other places. Fort Caswell was also taken, and on the 19th the Arsenal of Fayetteville was captured without bloodshed, thus securing to the State and the South sixty-five thousand stand of arms, of which twenty-eight thousand were of the most approved modern construction.

Virginia had taken the decisive step, and passed her ordinance of secession on the 17th day of April. It became an immediate concern to secure for the State all the arms, munitions, ships, war stores, and military posts within her borders, which there was power to seize. Two points were of special importance: one was the Navy Yard, at Gosport, with its magnificent dry-dock-its huge ship-houses, shops, forges, ware-rooms, rope-walks, seasoned timber for ships, masts, cordage, boats, ammunition, small arms, and cannon. Besides all these treasures, it had lying in its waters several vessels of war. The other point was Harper's Ferry on the Potomac River, with its armory and arsenal, containing about ten thousand muskets and five thousand rifles, with machinery for the purpose of manufacturing arms, capable with a sufficient force of workmen, of turning out twenty-five thousand muskets a year.

Movements to secure these places and their advantages were only partially successful. In two days a large force of volunteers had collected at Harper's Ferry. The small Federal force there requested a parley; this was granted; but in a short time flames were seen to burst from the armory and arsenal; the garrison had set fire to the arms and buildings, and escaped across the railroad bridge into Maryland. The Virginia troops instantly rushed into the buildings. A large number of the arms were consumed, but about five thousand improved muskets in complete order, and three thousand unfinished small arms, were saved. The retreat

FIRST BLOOD IN BALTIMORE.

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ing garrison had laid trains to blow up the workshops, but the courage. and rapid movement of the Virginians, extinguished them, and thus saved to their State the invaluable machinery for making muskets and rifles.

On the succeeding day preparations were made by the Federals for the destruction of the Navy Yard at Gosport, while reinforcements were thrown into Fortress Monroe. The work of destruction was not as fully completed as the enemy had designed; the dry-dock, which alone cost. several millions of dollars, was but little damaged; but the destruction of property was immense. All the ships in the harbour, excepting an old dismantled frigate, the United States, were set fire to and scuttled. But the Merrimac, a powerful steam frigate of twenty-six hundred tons, new, fully equipped, and nearly ready for sea, was only partially destroyed, and became, as we shall hereafter see, a famous prize of the Confederacy.

At this time it was expected that Maryland would emulate the heroic example of Virginia, and cast her fortunes with that of the Confederacy. But two days after the secession of Virginia occurred a memorable collision in the streets of Baltimore; and the first blood of Southerners was shed on the soil of Maryland. When it became certain that Northern troops were to be assembled for the purpose of invading the seceded States, the indignation of the people of Maryland, and especially of Baltimore, could not be restrained. It being known that a body of volunteers from Massachusetts were coming through the city, on the 19th of April, a fierce and determined purpose to resist their passage was aroused. As several hundred of these volunteers, sixty of whom only were armed and uniformed, were passing through the city in horse-cars, they found the track barricaded near one of the docks by stones, sand, and old anchors thrown upon it, and were compelled to attempt the passage to the depot, at the other end of the city, on foot. A body of citizens got in front of the troops, checked their advance, shouting, threatening, taunting them as mercenaries, and uttering loud cheers for the Southern Confederacy. A Confederate flag was displayed by some of the crowd. Stones were thrown by some of the citizens; two soldiers were struck down, and many others severely hurt. At this time the troops presented arms and fired. Several citizens fell dead, others were wounded, and falling, were borne off by those near them. Fury took possession of the crowd; up to this time they had used no weapons more deadly than stones, but now revolvers were drawn and fired into the column of troops, and men were rushing in search of fire-arms. The firing on both sides continued in quick succession of shots from Frederick to South streets. Several of the citizens fell, but, undismayed, they pressed the soldiers with an incessant and heavy volley of stones. The troops were unable to withstand the gathering crowd; they were bewildered by their mode of attack; they pressed along the streets confused and staggering, breaking into a run whenever there

was an opportunity to do so, and turning at intervals to fire upon the citizens who pursued them.

Harassed and almost exhausted, the troops at length reached Camden station. But here the fight continued without intermission; stones were hurled into the cars with such violence that the windows and panelling were shattered; the soldiers' faces and bodies were streaming with blood, and they could only protect themselves by lying down or stooping below the windows. Taunts clothed in the most fearful language, were hurled at them; men pressed up to the windows of the car, presenting knives and revolvers, and cursing up in the faces of the soldiers; and for half a mile along the track there was a struggling and shouting mass of human beings -citizens piling the track with obstructions, and policemen removing them as fast as possible. In the midst of the excitement, amid hootings, shouts, and curses, the train moved off; and as it passed from the depot a dozen muskets were fired into the crowd, the volley killing a well-known merchant, who was taking no part in the fight, and was standing as a spectator at some distance from the track.

In this irregular combat two soldiers were killed and several severely wounded; while, on the other side, the casualties were more serious-nine citizens killed and three wounded. A terrrible excitement ensued in Baltimore, and continued for weeks. The bridges on the railroad leading to the Susquehanna were destroyed; the regular route of travel was broken up; and large bodies of Northern troops were thus diverted from the railroad lines, and placed in the necessity of being carried in transports to Annapolis. Mass meetings were held in Baltimore, and speeches of defiance made to the Government at Washington. The city council appropriated five hundred thousand dollars for the avowed purpose of putting the city in a state of defence, but with the farther intent on the part of many, that instant measures should be taken to relieve the State from Federal rule.

But this rule was steadily encroaching upon Maryland, and strengthening itself beyond the hope of successful resistance. Each day Southern sentiment became more timid and equivocal, as the Federal power commenced to display itself. The Legislature of Maryland at last put the State in an attitude of indefinite submission. It passed resolutions protesting against the military occupation of the State by the Federal Government, and indicating sympathy with the South, but concluding with the declaration: "Under existing circumstances, it is inexpedient to call a sovereign Convention of the State at this time, or take any measures for the immediate organization or arming of the militia."

Baltimore was rapidly brought under the yoke. By a concerted movement of the Federal authorities, Col. Kane, the marshal of police, was arrested; the Police Board suspended; a provost-marshal appointed, and