had slowly but steadily matured, to leave the institution in which he had just begun to feel at home, and was fully qualified to manage. It had cost him anxious thought. But far in advance, as he has been ever since, in his views of the true issue-the men and the measures we must meet-he was sure a sanguinary struggle was at hand. It saddened his heart, but nerved his strong hand to grasp the starry banner and enter the arena of carnage and victory.

Thus decided in his -convictions and loyalty, he did not wait for the thunder of cannon around Fort Sumter. He wrote the following manly, strong, and patriotic letter, which tells its own glorious story:

"GOV. THOMAS 0. MOORE, BATON ROUGE, LA.

"JANUARY 18, 1861.

"SIR:-As I occupy a quasi-military position under this State, I deem it proper to acquaint you that I accepted such position when Louisiana was a State in the Union, and when the motto of the seminary was inserted in marble over the main door, By the liberality of the General Government of the United States: The Union. Esto Perpetua.'

"Recent events foreshadow a great change, and it becomes all men to choose. If Louisiana withdraws from the Federal Union, I prefer to maintain my allegiance to the old Constitution as long as a fragment of it survives, and my longer stay here would be wrong in every sense

of the word. In that event, I beg you will send or appoint some authorized agent to take charge of the arms and munitions of war here belonging to the State, or direct me what disposition should be made of them.

"And furthermore, as President of the Board of Supervisors, I beg you to take immediate steps to relieve me as superintendent the moment the State determines to secede; for on no earthly account will I do any act, or think any thought, hostile to or in defiance of the old Government of the United States.

"With great respect, &c.,

66

(Signed)

W. T. SHERMAN."

What a scorching rebuke is that in the first paragraph! How sublimely loyal the sentiments of the last! The resignation was accepted. The professor turned his back upon his cadets and upon Louisiana, till he shall return under the torn and blackened flag of conquest. Repairing to St. Louis, he had no employment for his brain or hands. But he was ready for any honest work. Mr. Lucas, one of the millionaires of the city, offered him the office of superintendent of a street railroad, on a salary of two thousand dollars a year. He at once entered upon its duties, without a regret that he had abandoned the halls of military science and a larger reward for his labor.

My young reader, it is a lesson for all ages and all

times. Embrace the providential openings for reputable and useful labor, without regard to the present applause or the favor of the busy multitude about you. Think of the brave Captain-the educated instructor-managing the affairs of a city horse-railway! Then think of the host of young men, who would rather starve, or gamble, to keep up the appearance of wealth and position, rather than go down in the world's estimate of what is respectable and fashionable, and you will admire the truly heroic character of the gifted Sherman.

CHAPTER VI.

Sumter falls-Sherman repairs to Washington-His Interview with the Secretary of War and the President-His Prophetic Insight of the Threatening Times-The state of the Country-Rebel Expectations.

HE traitorous Secretary of War, John B. Floyd, had not lost sight of the probable uprising of the South at no distant period, for å moment, during all of his official career. Every fort on her soil was made an easy prey to her rebellious

hand by reducing their garrisons.

The magnificent Fortress Monroe, on which the United States had expended nearly two and a half millions, could muster only eight companies of artillery. The forts, Moultrie, Pinckney, and Sumter, of Charleston harbor, had only eighty men, who were in Fort Moultrie.

And yet, had you been in the Halls of Congress when Mr. Clarke, of New Hampshire, offered a resolution of inquiry into the condition of those defences, you would have heard a storm of apparently virtuous indignation

from Jefferson Davis and his fellow-conspirators, as if the intimation of treachery were an insult to Southern chivalry.

A week later General Anderson and his band, loyal to the national banner, having become assured that their capture with Fort Moultrie was designed, after destroying its equipment as far as possible, stole at dead of night 'from its walls and floated over the waters to silent Sum`ter, whose massive battlements promised a safer refuge from the passions of infatuated men. The rebels immediately seized Forts Moultrie and Pinckney; and ten days later the Star of the West, an unarmed steamer conveying a reënforcement of two hundred and fifty soldiers and supplies for the destitute garrison, was fired upon from newly-erected earthworks.

The spring came with flowers and birds, but the angry storm of rebellion beat around Sumter with increasing fury. Iron-clad batteries had risen on every hand to cut off the approach of our ships, and grim ordnance now pointed toward the old fortress..

April 12th a messenger approached it with a very brief message to Major Anderson; it was, "Surrender!" The reply was nearly as short: "His sense of honor and his obligations to the Government would prevent compliance."

A few hours after, and "boom! boom!" was the sound, followed with shot and shell, against Sumter's