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Each Massachusetts man drew a "persuasive argument" from his breast, which operated like magic, and no further resistance was offered.

But another obstacle presented itself. The only engine in the building had been taken to pieces so thoroughly, that the author of the mischief asserted that no man north of the Potomac could put it together in two months. Our boys looked at the scene before them a minute; then one exclaimed, "I helped build that machine." Another said, "I'll bear a hand to put it together;" and a dozen others, who felt perfectly at home on the occasion, sprang forward, so that in a few hours the engine was under steam.

April 29. Maryland House of Delegates voted against secession, 53 to 13. The State senate published an address, signed by all the members, denying the intention of passing an ordinance of secession. Steamships Tennessee, Texas, and Hermes seized at New Orleans.

April 30. A soldier who escaped from Charleston, states that the Southern stories of a bloodless fight in Charleston harbor are not true,-that he served at the guns during the fight at Fort Moultrie, and that nearly every shot from Fort Sumter killed somebody. Between three and four hundred were killed, and a large number wounded, at Fort Moultrie, during the siege.

The killed were collected in a mass and interred at night in Potter's field. Many were also killed in dwellings outside the fort. The soldiers were threatened with death if they disclosed the facts about the killed. People were constantly inquiring for their friends, and were assured they were at Sullivan's Island.

Another soldier who was at Morris Island says that one hundred and fifty were killed there, and forty at Sullivan's Island. He makes the same statement relative to the dead being buried at night in Potter's field.

We cannot of course vouch for the truth of this state

ment, though it would seem a "decided" miracle, if a bombardment of forty-eight hours could go on without killing somebody; especially, in a crowded fort, it would hardly be possible to throw shot or shell without hitting some one; whereas in Fort Sumter the garrison were so "few and far between," that, with precaution, they might escape.

All masters of vessels received notice on the twentyfourth to leave Charleston in forty-eight hours, or they would be held by the Southern government. Some were detained for lack of men to work their ships, and the rest fled.

April 30. Jefferson Davis sent a message to Congress at Montgomery, in which he stated that there were in the field, at Charleston and the forts in the South, 19,000 men, and 16,000 en route for Virginia.

Troops were constantly passing through Wilmington, from South Carolina and Georgia for Richmond.

Governor Ellis, of North Carolina, called for thirty thousand volunteers additional to the regular militia, and all organized corps were commanded to be in readiness at an hour's notice.

A Savannah paper of the 23d says: "There are three vessels here, ready fitted, waiting for privateer commissions, which will be received in a few days. They will be commanded by skilful seamen, and many others will sail under the charge of rebel Yankees.

"Recruits are fast pouring into Savannah, and great preparations are making to join the rebel army in the border States for an attack upon Washington. There is great excitement in Savannah, and all Unionism is effectually overawed."

The proclamation of President Davis to legalize piracy, the taunt and defiance bandied between sections, seemed as though madness ruled the hour, and that nothing but a conflict of arms - dreadful as the remedy is—could

restore reason to its throne. In the noon of the nineteenth century, in this trial hour of our country's dire calamity, we distrust our power to write aright, but as the cloud thickens and lowers around us, we stand in the faith that the God who smiled on the "heritage of the fathers" will be with the sons, and direct them in their efforts to save the country now. This is the " This is the "Light behind the cloud;" in this faith let

men be perfect.

the union of the loyal

Europe has told us we were not a military people; that partisan policy would triumph over government; but the test has come, and party is forgotten. Political enemies in peace have become firm friends in war.

It is true, that, when the sixth decade of the nineteenth century came to an end, and the year 1861 was ushered in, it found the North pursuing their usual quiet avocations in peace and harmony; the entire free States, from East to West, wholly unprepared for war, and no extraordinary anxiety manifested in regard to an invasion or a dissolution of the Union, and, notwithstanding the foreshadowing of the coming storm, the North slumbered on, until the lightnings from Sumter awoke them to the stern reality that war had overtaken them and found them sleeping; no army; the military condition of the country at the lowest ebb; no navy; no equipments; no soldiers, with the exception of here and there an independent company, or an isolated regiment which had become inactive from want of use. These were only a "drop in the bucket; " but, simultaneously with the fall of Sumter, an immense army sprang into existence, as the growth of a single night. New England "blazed " with musketry; New York arose in her might; Pennsylvania was awake, and the great North-west poured in her sons to defend the country, and in the brief period of a few weeks we have an army of two hundred thousand men, preparing for the conflict to put down rebellion,

and subdue the enemies of the government. The pleadings are made up. The trial has commenced. Armed hundreds of thousands are the jury; and the world is the court.

We might describe at great length the noble conduct of many; the services rendered; the generous donations. of moneyed men; the liberal and praiseworthy assistance of the ladies in making garments for the soldiers and providing them with little necessaries and comforts; the tender of benefits, at places of amusement, for soldiers and their families; the offers of express companies, railroad corporations and shipping merchants, to carry packages, letters and troops free. of expense; of physicians, to give medicine and attendance, free of charge, to the families of those who had been called away; of heavy loans to the government, from private citizens as well as banking houses; of reduction of rents; of generous donations of ready-made clothing for soldiers; of handsome contributions in churches; of the magnificent display of flags and decorations by public and private individuals; but we are inadequate to the task - we cannot do justice to the subject. It would be impossible to particularize without omitting the mention of many worthy individuals whose patriotism was unsurpassed; suffice it to say, that but one heart, one voice, one feeling predominated. What was not done by government, was made up by private individuals; the rich, as with one consent, lifted upon their shoulders the burden of many families of those who were gone or going, -- assumed responsibilities, and poured out their money for the general good; and to speak of decorations in national colors, we cannot better express it than to say, men, women and children, towns, cities and villages throughout the free States, literally "blazed" with red, white and blue.

CHAPTER X.

The cause is sacred in which they fell,
And holy the tears which flow. . .

MAY 1. Wednesday. The bodies of the Massachusetts men, A. O. Whitney and Luther C. Ladd, who died at Baltimore, were returned to the State from which they had so recently departed. Also, Sumner H. Needham, of Company I, Lawrence, who died from a wound (fracture of the skull) received in the attack on the troops at Balti

more.

Information was received at noon that the bodies were on their way to Boston, and instant preparations were made for their proper reception. The Independent Cadets were ordered out to do escort duty, and the call was promptly answered. At four o'clock they left their armory, under command of Major Baldwin, and marched to the depot of the Western Railroad.

The news of the expected arrival was announced in the Journal and other papers, and spread quickly; and a large concourse of citizens collected around the depot, anxiously awaiting the arrival of the train. Governor Andrew, accompanied by two of his aids, and AdjutantGeneral Schouler, with other gentlemen belonging to different departments of the State government, came in hacks to take the bodies into the charge of the State.

The train entered the depot at seven minutes of five, and the bodies, three in number, laid in metallic coffins, and then enclosed in pine boxes, were taken from the cars. They came in the care of Merrill S. Wright, a private of the Richardson Light Infantry, of Lowell, who

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