to inspire alarm at the Capital. Within so-called and so-esteemed Union memfour days after the fall of Sumter a bers of the convention to go over to the convention of the people, sitting at Rich-disunion minority. The necessary nummond, resolved upon secession and threw | ber of votes having thus been secured, a the State at the feet of the Southern secession ordinance was passed in secret Confederacy. The body which passed on the 17th of April. In accordance this act had been chosen at the suggestion with the conditions under which the conof the Legislature, obviously with the vention had been chosen, it was provided intent on the part of its contrivers to in the act itself that it should take effect employ it for disunion purposes; while when ratified by a majority of the votes the understanding of the people who of the people of the State cast at a poll elected the delegates was distinctly that to be taken thereon on the fourth Thurs its influence should be exerted on the day in the ensuing May. The ordinance, side of the Union. A majority of the of course, leaving out of view the paradelegates, indeed, were chosen as Union mount question of its legality under the men, and it was moreover, at the same Constitution of the United States, was time, expressly provided by an over- entirely inoperative until this ratification whelming direct vote on the subject, that which was enjoined by the dictation of the action of this convention, whatever the people themselves should be made. it might be, should be sent back to the Yet, in spite of this provision thus forpeople for their confirmation by a popu-mally acknowledged, "the Convention lar vote. Virginia was in fact attached and the Legislature, which was also in to the old Union by so many traditions of session at the same time and place, with State pride and patriotism; the mother leading members of the State, not memof Presidents, she had given so many bers of either, immediately commenced statesmen and heroes to the nation; her acting as if the State were already out contiguity to the seat of Government; of the Union. They pushed military the divided opinions of her population preparations vigorously forward all over on the moral, social and economical conditions of slavery; her imperfect sympathies with the South; the obvious necessity, if she gave ear to the secession outcry of offering her fields and cities as the battle grounds and refuge of the contending armies-all these were so many loud-tongued appeals to her people to beware of joining their fortunes with the desperate enterprise of the Cotton States. Yet, by the management of her intriguing politicians of the school of Mason, Floyd, Letcher and the rest, the very act, which this State, of all others, had reason to avoid, was consummated. The fall of Sumter was the signal for a portion of the | 1861.

the State. They seized the United States armory at Harper's Ferry and the Navy Yard at Gosport, near Norfolk. They received, perhaps invited, into their State large bodies of troops, with their warlike appointments from the so-called seceded States. They formally entered into a treaty of temporary alliance and coöperation with the so-called Confederate States, and sent members to their Congress at Montgomery. Finally, they permitted the insurrectionary government to be transferred to their capital at Richmond.' All this was done before the

* Message of President Lincoln to Congress July 5,

23d of May, the day appointed for the matter of prime consequence to the inratification. The simple fact that an surgents, as it had not long before excitordinance had been made was not an- ed the cupidity of the memorable John nounced till the 25th of April, eight days Brown and become the scene of his melafter its passage, when Governor Letcher ancholy exploits. The place where this issued a Proclamation communicating the military establishment was situated was act, and, accompanying it, a copy of a of much importance, both from its pecuconvention signed the day before at Rich- liar position and the improvements which mond, between Vice President Alexander had been gathered around it. The reH. Stephens, Commissioner for the Con-markable natural features of the spot federate States, and a body of Virginia and the character of its bold landscape Commissioners, headed by John Tyler, uniting the grandeur of mountain scenex-President of the United States. By ery with extraordinary sylvan beauty, the terms of this convention "the whole long since commemorated in a wellmilitary force and military operations known passage of description by Jefferoffensive and defensive" of Virginia were son, are associated in the minds of travplaced under the control and direction ellers with the kindred glories of West of Jefferson Davis, President of the Con- Point on the Hudson. There the Potofederate States, upon the same prin- mac and the Shenandoah, after traversciples, basis and footing as if said com- ing the northern boundary and central monwealth (Virginia) were now and region of the State, join their waters at during the interval a member of the said a right angle, emerge through a gap of Confederacy." In return any expendi- the Blue Ridge and make their descent tures of money incurred by the State in an irregular course between Virginia were to be repaid by the Southern Gov-and Maryland, passing the city of Washernment. When the day of ratification ington some sixty miles below on their arrived, so effective were the means of way to Chesapeake Bay and the Atlanintimidation, so complete the perversion tic. Harper's Ferry was thus the outer of the minds of the people, and so hope-gate to the great valley of Virginia, and less were the Unionists of resisting the offering the readiest mode of approach movement, that the vote cast was nomin- from the East to Winchester and the really by a large majority in favor of the gion within, had in consequence become Secession ordinance. one of the chief stations of the Baltimore and Ohio railway, connecting the cities on the sea-coast with the river navigation of the West. The town, which extended in two main streets along the rivers and in scattered residences on the heights above, had a population of about five thousand. Its chief support, beside that derived from its advantages as a centre of travel, was from the occupation of its inhabitants in the works at the arsenal. This well-furnished establish

With this outline of political proceedings in Virginia in mind, we may the better appreciate the aggressive military movements in the State which followed in quick succession the fall of Sumter. The foremost of these were the seizure on the 18th of April of the Custom house and Post-office at Richmond, and the attack the same day upon the United States Arsenal at Harper's Ferry, the possession of which was obviously a

ment embraced, in addition to the arm-in three minutes the two buildings conory, where a large number of weapons taining the arms, with the carpenters', were stored, a series of machine-shops for the manufacture of arms.

night. For his services on this occasion Lieutenant Jones was immediately ordered a commission as Assistant Quarter-Master General, with the rank of Captain. His "very gallant action, and the handsome and successful manner in which he executed the orders of the Government," were specially mentioned in a subsequent report to Congress by the Secretary of War.

shop, were in a blaze. The arms and arsenal buildings were totally destroyed. At the time of the attempted seizure The work-shops were less injured, a the arsenal was in charge of about forty considerable number of Minie muskets riflemen of the regular army under com- and other material of war being rescued mand of Lieutenant Roger Jones. The by the Virginians. By the light of the attention of the Government had been conflagration Lieutenant Jones with his drawn to the inadequate defence of the men, pursued and threatened by a mob post, which it was impossible at the time of the town, crossed the bridge leading to remedy, and instructions were accord- to Maryland, and by a perilous nightingly given, should the work be attacked, march through an unfriendly region sucthat it should be destroyed rather than ceeded in making his way to Hagerssurrendered. Lieutenant Jones, fully town. He reached Carlisle Barracks in aware of the danger, had everything Pennsylvania the next afternoon. Four prepared for the emergency. On the of the men were missing on leaving the 17th, the very day of the secret passage armory and two deserted during the of the Secession ordinance, he received information that a considerable force was gathering, for the attack, at Winchester and other places in the interior. Upon this he caused the arms in the arsenal, nearly fifteen thousand in number, to be heaped up and surrounded with inflammable matter. Materials were placed in order and trains of gunpowder were laid to consume the buildings. All was secretly made ready, by his small and trusty force, to apply the torch when it should be necessary. On the night of the 18th, about 10 o'clock, word came that some twenty-five hundred or three thousand State troops were close at hand, within twenty minutes march. In this brief interval the commander had to save the vast amount of military property under his keeping, from the enemy, in whose hands it would have been speedily employed against the nation, and rescue his faithful band from captivity as prisoners of war. By great energy both were in a great measure accomplished. The trains were fired and with- General, April 20, 1861.

From the report of a gentleman of Virginia, who was an eye-witness of the affair, we learn that the force actually on their way to capture the property, by private orders from Richmond, was but two hundred and fifty, though several thousand had been notified of the movement. The party was composed of the Jefferson Battalion led by Colonel Allen, with a single piece of artillery and a squad of about twenty mounted men, the Fauquier cavalry, commanded by Captain Ashby. Their rendezvous was at Halltown, a small village between Charles

* Lieutenant Jones' Dispatch to the Assistant Adjutant

town Court House and Harper's Ferry. The party started at dark to take the place by surprise, but found sentinels posted to give warning of their approach. They arrived before the town in time to witness the first flash from the armory. The sight was most striking, while the moral associations of the scene were mingled in the minds of the spectator with the impressions of the surrounding grandeur. "To many of us who looked on," says our authority, regarding the spectacle with feelings of horror and amazement, "the scenes of that night were inexpressibly sad and solemn. The clouds of fire rolled up magnificently from the depths of the romantic gorge, illuminating the confluent rivers and the encircling cliffs for miles around, each rock and pinnacle associated with the name of some one of our great historic founders. In the martial column revealed by the blaze there stood arrayed with deadly ball and bayonet, the first born pride of a hundred hitherto peaceful and happy families. In the town below, between them and their enemy, were neighbors, friends and fellow-citizens—the enemies themselves our late defenders and countrymen."*

Simultaneously with the attack upon the arsenal at Harper's Ferry measures were in progress to wrest from the Government and hold possession of the Navy Yard at Norfolk. This, one of the oldest and the most extensive depots of the kind in the country, was filled with vast stores of provisions and military materials for the construction and equipment of ships, with an extensive series of dwellinghouses for officers and barracks for the

men, store-houses of various kinds, and shops and manufactories amply supplied with the numerous mechanical contrivances employed in naval workmanship. Situated in a sheltered position at Gosport, adjoining the town of Portsmouth, on the southern branch of the Elizabeth river, opposite to and a short distance above Norfolk, it covered an area of about three-fourths of a mile in length and one-fourth in width. It held a drydock of granite constructed after the most approved pattern, capable of holding a vessel of the largest class. There were in it two ship houses entire, and another in process of erection.

There were twelve war vessels at the time at the yard, though but few of them were immediately available for active service, and but one, the sloop-ofwar Cumberland, Captain Pendergrast, the flag-ship of the home squadron, was in commission. They were the ship-ofthe-line Pennsylvania, of 120 guns, which, at the time of her construction in 1837, had attracted great attention from her enormous size, but had never been trusted on any important voyage; the Columbus, of 80 guns, which had been for many years in ordinary; the Delaware, 84, a condemned line-of-battle ship; the unfinished ship-of-the-line New York, on the stocks in one of the ship houses; the frigates United States, Columbia, and Raritan, lying in ordinary, fifty-gun ships, more or less out of repair; the sloops-of-war Plymouth and Germantown, of 22 guns, which were preparing for sea; the brig Dolphin, of 4 guns, and most important of all, the Merrimac, a first class steam frigate of 40 guns. The last named vessel, which, by her

The artist, Mr. D. II. Strother, whose letter describ- subsequent fortunes, was to become

ing the scene appears in Harper's Weekly of May 11, 1861, accompanied by several striking sketches from his pencil.

memorable in the naval annals of the

THE GOSPORT NAVY YARD.

155

world, was built at Charlestown, Massa- thing which might be attended with emchusetts, and launched in 1855. After barrassment or call forth a remonstrance, a voyage to Annapolis, where the members of both houses of Congress, then in session at Washington, flocked to see her as an admired specimen of naval architecture, she had visited Havana and England, and had sailed on a long cruise as the flag-ship of the squadron in the Pacific. Returning thence she had reached Norfolk at the beginning of 1860, been slowly again fitted out, and at the present moment of the threatened attack upon the yard, was awaiting her battery and the repair of her engines to proceed

to sea.

The quantity of arms and munitions laid up in the yard was immense. There were, it is calculated by the naval committee of the United States Senate which made a special investigation of the subject, at least two thousand pieces of heavy ordnance, of which about three hundred were new Dahlgren guns, and the remainder of old patterns. The Navy Department, taking account of less than one-half this number of guns, estimated the various property of the yard, ordnance, stores and furniture of all sorts, at an aggregate of more than nine and three-quarter millions of dollars. The opportunities for defence against any attack from without were slight. The yard was surrounded on the land side by a low wall, which could offer little resistance to cannon, there was no fortress or garrison, and there were not seamen sufficient to man one of the larger vessels. Unhappily no active measures were taken by the Government in time to remedy these defects and preserve the property. What with State jealousy or incipient treason on the one side, and a too delicate desire on the other to avoid doing any

the golden days, when the safety of this valuable trust might have been secured, were suffered to pass by unimproved. So generally was this unhappy system of mistaken conciliation received as the settled policy of the day, that it was afterwards spoken of without comment or hesitation by the Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Welles, as an admitted principle of action. "Any attempt," says he in his report to the President, at the opening of the session of Congress in July, "to withdraw the ships or either of them without a crew, would, in the then sensitive and disturbed condition of the public mind, have betrayed alarm and distrust, and been likely to cause difficulty."

Severely has the Senate Committee censured this lamentable neglect. "Undoubtedly," is the language of their report, "the new officers of the government found themselves embarrassed by such an unprecedented state of things, and time was required for familiarizing themselves with the situation and deliberating and determining upon a policy to be pursued; but that the precious opportunities afforded by thirty-seven days of time should have been wholly unimproved is a matter so strange as to suggest, if not a failure to appreciate the critical condition of the country, at least a want of vigor and decision in the discharge of its duties on the part of the new administration, which can find extenuation only in that insane delusion which seems to have possessed the public mind, that the portentous clouds that had blackened the heavens for months were charged with no real danger, and were to be dissipated by a continuation of a forbearance which had been con