to Charleston in January, but was fired upon from Fort Moultrie, where the insurgents had placed a garrison. Then batteries were erected on the shore; and at last (April 11) General Beauregard, in command of the Confederate troops, demanded the surrender of Fort Sumter; and, this being refused, the batteries opened fire upon the fort early the next morning. For two days the fire continued; and at midnight of the second day Major Anderson surrendered the fort, his eighty men being wholly exhausted, his barracks on fire, and his gunpowder almost gone. He stipulated that he should be allowed to march out with drums beating and colors flying, and to bring away company and private property. This he did on Sunday, April 14, firing away his remaining powder in saluting the United States. flag with fifty guns.

the attack

on Fort

Sumter.

The first gun fired at Fort Sumter aroused and ex- Effect of cited the whole nation; and many who had before expressed much sympathy for the supporters of slavery now took sides with those who wished to preserve the Union. The event also produced a great impression at the South; and acts of secession were passed in North Carolina, Virginia, Arkansas, and Tennessee. In all these States the colored population took sides unanimously with the Union; but, being composed almost wholly of unarmed and ignorant slaves, they counted at first for little. There were also, in some of these States, many white citizens who opposed disunion; but they were, in most cases, gradually silenced or driven away. Meanwhile President Buchanan

showed no decision of character in dealing with the Rebellion; and amid the rising tumult he went out of office.

Minnesota,
Oregon,

and Kansas admitted.

During his administration, three new States had been added to the Union, Minnesota (1858), Oregon (1859), and Kansas (1861). Of these, Minnesota and Kansas were both formed mainly from the territory gained by the Louisiana purchase; and both bear the Indian names of rivers flowing through them. Oregon was formed out of the territory secured to the United States by the boundary treaty of 1846; and the name is said to come from the word "Oregano," meaning wild rice, which grows profusely on the Pacific coast. Census of By the census of 1860, taken during Mr. Buchanan's administration, the whole population of the country was nearly thirty-one and a half millions (31,443,321).

1860.

CHAPTER XXXI.

N°

O one who was not in the midst of it can ima- The North gine the excitement that arose in all the Northern taken by States when it was heard that Fort Sumter had been

attacked. Up to that moment there had been a great
division of feeling at the
North; and there were
many who thought that, by
patient efforts, those who
wished to secede from the
Union could be brought
back again. Few really be-
lieved that there was to be
any serious fighting. While
the white population of the
South had been preparing
for war, the Northern peo-

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

ple had gone about their usual employments; and, when the attack came, they were quite taken by surprise. Although, three months before, the Confederates in Louisiana had seized upon the fort at the mouth of the Mississippi, and upon the United States Arsenal at Baton Rouge the Northern people could not convince themselves that actual war would take place. So they were still unprepared.

surprise.

The first call for troops.

When President Lincoln was inaugurated (March 4, 1861), the regular army was very small, and very much scattered; but, on the 15th of April, he issued a call for seventy-five thousand volunteers for three months only. A few regiments of militia were hastily summoned from the different States for the defence of Washington.

One of these, the Sixth Massachusetts,

riot.

Baltimore was attacked by a mob in passing through Baltimore; and, after three men had been killed by stones and clubs, one company fired on the mob in return, killing nine men, and wounding many. This took place on April 19, 1861, the anniversary of the Battle of Lexington. It produced almost as much excitement as the attack on Fort Sumter, not that the Baltimore

affair was a deliberate act of organized rebellion, but that it showed the feeling of hostility to the government wherever slavery existed.

sent

When it was necessary to send the next troops Troops through Maryland, they were not marched through Bal- through timore, but through Annapolis. General Butler, with Annapolis regiments of militia from Massachusetts and New York, passed along the line of railway from Annapolis to Washington; the soldiers repairing it as they went. Finding a wrecked locomotive by the roadside, the general asked if there was any one in the ranks who could repair it. "I can," said a soldier who had been examining the engine; "for I built it." In truth, these troops were made up of men of all occupations, just taken from the daily pursuits of life; and there were few trades which were not represented in every regiment. After a while, troops were sent through Baltimore again; and it became, almost of necessity, a loyal city. But at first the thing most essential was to reach Washington without delay, and make it secure.

tions for

When the first alarm about the safety of Washington Preparawas relieved, it became necessary to create an army. war at the Recruits were gathered in all the States, under the North. president's proclamation, and were organized into regiments by the governors of the States. But all the materials of war had to be collected by the United States Government. Mr. Buchanan's secretary of war, himself a secessionist, had sent several hundred thousand muskets to Southern arsenals, and left the Northern arsenals almost bare. It was the same with cannon and ammunition. All these, therefore, had to be bought, or manufactured by the government, at very short