CHAPTER IX.

DEFECTION OF COLONEL LEE-TEMPTATION AND FALL-FIRST INVASION OF VIRGINIA-DEATH OF COLONEL ELLSWORTH-BLOCKADE OF THE POTOMAC-ENGAGEMENT AT SEWALL'S POINTLOYALTY IN WESTERN VIRGINIA-ACTION OF THE SECESSIONISTS-CONVENTIONS-CREATION AND ADMISSION OF A NEW STATE-TROOPS FROM BEYOND THE OHIO-THE FIRST BATTLE ON LAND-ATTITUDE OF THE BORDER STATES-KENTUCKY UNIONISM-EVENTS IN MISSOURIGENERAL LYON-THE GOVERNOR OF MISSOURI RAISES THE STANDARD OF REVOLT-MOVEMENTS IN TENNESSEE-PILLOW AND POLK-CHANGE IN THE CONFEDERATE SEAT OF GOVERNMENT-JEFFERSON DAVIS IN VIRGINIA-HIS RECEPTION IN RICHMOND.

HE Confederates acquired much strength at the beginning, by the defection of Colonel Robert E. Lee, an accomplished engineer officer in the National army, and one who was greatly beloved and thoroughly trusted by the General-in-Chief, Scott. Temptation assailed him in the form of an offer of the supreme command of the military and naval forces of his native State, Virginia. It was rendered more potent by the doctrine of State-supremacy; and it so weakened his patriotism that he yielded to the tempter. And when the Convention of Virginia passed an Ordinance of Secession, he resigned his commission, deserted his flag, and took up arms against his Government, saying, in the common language of men of the State-supremacy school: "I must go with my State." He had lingered in Washington city for a week after the evacuation of Fort Sumter; and received from General Scott, without giving a hint of his secret determination, all information possible from that confiding friend, concerning the plans and resources of the Government, to be employed in suppressing the rebellion. With this precious treasury of important knowledge, Lee hastened to Richmond, and was cordially received there, with marks of great distinction, by the vice-president of the Confederacy and officers of his State, and was informed that the supreme command of the forces of the Commonwealth was committed to his care.

No man had stronger inducements to be a loyal and patriotic citizen than Robert E. Lee. His associations with the founders of the Republic he tried to destroy, were very strong. He was a son of that "Lowland Beauty" who was the object of Washington's first love. His father was

glorious "Legion Harry" of the Revolution, whose sword had been gal lantly used in gaining the independence of the American people; and he had led an army to crush an insurrection. Colonel Lee's wife was a greatgranddaughter of Mrs. Washington. And his beautiful home, called Arlington, near Washington city, inherited from the adopted son of Washington, was filled with plate, china and furniture, that had been used by the beloved Patriot at Mount Vernon. But these considerations, so calculated to expand the generous soul with National pride and make the possession of citizenship of a great nation a cherished honor and privilege, seem to have had no influence with Colonel Lee. The narrow political creed of his class of thinkers, taught no broader doctrines of citizenship than the duty of allegiance to a petty State whose flag is utterly unknown beyond our shores-an insignificant portion of a great Republic whose flag is honored and respected on every sea and in every port of the civilized world. Acting upon these narrow views, Colonel Lee said, "I must go with my State;" and going, he took with him precious information which enabled him to make valuable suggestions to the insurgents concerning the best methods for seizing the National capital. In time Colonel Lee became the general-in-chief

ROBERT E. LEE.

of all the armies in rebellion against his Government, at whose expense he had been educated in the art of war.

Colonel Lee advised the Virginians to erect a battery of heavy guns on Arlington Heights, not far from his own home, which would command the cities of Washington and Georgetown. They were about to follow this advice, when, late in May, their plans were frustrated by the General-in-Chief, who sent National troops across the Potomac to the Virginia shore by way of the Long Bridge at Washington, and the Aqueduct Bridge at Georgetown, to take possession of Alexandria and Arlington Heights. Ellsworth's New York Fire Zouaves went to Alexandria in two schooners, at the

CHAP. IX.

NATIONAL TROOPS IN VIRGINIA.

1491

same time, to be assisted by a third column that crossed the river at the Long Bridge.

The troops that first passed the Long Bridge constructed a battery at the Virginia end of it, which they named Fort Runyon, in compliment to General Runyon of New Jersey, who was in command of a part of them. The troops that passed Aqueduct Bridge were led by General Irwin McDowell; and upon the spot

where Lee proposed to erect a battery of siege-guns, to destroy the capital, the troops erected a redoubt to defend it, which they named Fort Corcoran, in compliment to the commander of an Irish regiment among them. These were the first redoubts constructed by the National troops in the Civil War; and this was the initial movement of the Government forces in opening the first campaigns of that war. It occurred on the morning of the 24th of May, 1861.

The troops sent by land. and water reached Alexandria about the same time, and took possession of the city. They seized the Orange and Alexandria railway station and much rolling stock, with some Virginia cavalry who were guarding it. The Secessionists

in the city were defiant; and one of them, the keeper of a tavern, persisted in flying the Confederate flag over his house. The impetuous young Ellsworth proceeded to pull it down with his own hands, when the proprietor shot him dead, and was killed, in turn, by one of the Zouaves. This tragedy caused great bitterness in both sections of the country for a time.

Meanwhile the Confederates had erected batteries on the Virginia shores of the Potomac River to obstruct its navigation by National vessels. They

had also cast up redoubts near Hampton Roads, not far from Fortress Monroe. Captain J. H. Ward was sent to the Roads with a flotilla of armed vessels. The insurgents then possessed Norfolk, and had erected a battery on Sewall's Point at the mouth of the Elizabeth River, where, on the morning of the 20th of May, when Ward's vessels appeared in the Roads, there were about two thousand Confederate soldiers. Ward opened the guns of his flag-ship (the Freeborn) upon the battery. It was soon silenced, and the insurgents were dispersed. Then Ward proceeded immediately up the Potomac toward Washington, after reporting to Commodore Stringham, and patrolled that important stream. At Aquia Creek, about sixty miles below Washington, he encountered some heavy batteries, and a sharp but indecisive engagement ensued on the first of June. Soon afterward, in an attack upon other batteries at Matthias's Point, the flotilla was repulsed, and Captain Ward was killed. At that place and vicinity the Confederates established batteries which defied the National vessels on those waters; and for many months, the Potomac, as a highway for supplies for the army near Washington, was effectively blockaded by them.

The Union element in the Virginia Secession Convention was chiefly from Western Virginia, a mountain district, where the slave-labor system had not been profitable; and the loyalty of the people there to the old flag, gave the Virginia conspirators much uneasiness. At the very beginning the Confederates perceived the importance of holding possession of that region, and so control the Baltimore and Ohio Railway that traversed it, and connected Maryland with the teeming West. For that purpose troops were sent from Richmond to restrain the active patriotism of the people, when the latter flew to arms under the leadership of Colonel B. F. Kelley, a native of New Hampshire, who set up his standard near Wheeling, where an important political movement had already taken place.

Before the adjournment of the Convention at Richmond the inhabitants of Western Virginia perceived the necessity of making a bold stand for the Union and their own independence of the oligarchy that ruled the State in the interest of the slaveholders. This first meeting was held at Clarksburg, on the line of the Baltimore and Ohio railway, on the 22d of April. John S. Carlisle, a member of the Convention then sitting at Richmond, offered a resolution at that meeting (which was adopted) calling a Convention of delegates at Wheeling on the 13th of May. Similar meetings were held at other places. One at Kingswood, Preston county, declared that the separation of Western from Eastern Virginia was essential to the maintenance of their liberties. They also resolved to elect a representative to sit in the National Congress; and at a mass Convention held at Wheeling on

CHAP. IX.

CONVENTION AT WHEELING.

1493 the 5th of May, it was resolved to sever all political connection with the conspirators at Richmond.

The Convention of delegates met at Wheeling on the 13th of May. The National flag was unfurled over the Custom-House there with appropriate demonstrations of loyalty; and in the Convention the chief topic of discussion was the division of the State and the formation of a new Commonwealth composed of forty or fifty counties of the mountain region. It was asserted in the Convention that the slave oligarchy eastward of the mountains, and in all the tide-water counties, wielded the political power of the State, and used it for the promotion of their great interest, in the levying of taxes, and in lightening their own burdens at the expense of the labor and thrift of the citizens of West Virginia. These considerations, and an innate love for the Union, produced such unanimity of sentiment that the labors of the secret emissaries of the conspirators and of the open service of recruiting officers were almost fruitless in Western Virginia. The Convention itself, was an unit in feeling and purpose; but it was too informal in its character to take decisive action upon the momentous question of a division of the State. So, after condemning the Ordinance of Secession, a resolution was adopted, calling a Provisional Convention, at the same place, on the 11th of June, unless the people should vote adversely to that Ordinance, at the appointed time.

The proceedings at Wheeling alarmed the conspirators. They expected an immediate revolt in that region; and Governor Letcher ordered Colonel Porterfield, who was in command of State troops at Grafton, to seize and carry away the arms at Wheeling belonging to the United States, and to use them in arming such men as might rally around his flag. He also told Porterfield that it was "advisable to cut off telegraphic communication between Wheeling and Washington, so that the disaffected at the former place could not communicate with their allies at headquarters." Letcher added: "If troops from Ohio or Pennsylvania shall be attempted to be passed on the railroads, do not hesitate to obstruct their passage by all means in your power, even to the destruction of the road and bridge."

As we have observed, the people in Eastern Virginia, under the pressure of the bayonet, ratified the Ordinance of Secession. The Provisional Con vention assembled at Wheeling on the appointed day, when about forty counties were represented. The meeting was held in the Custom-House, with Arthur Boreman president, and G. L. Cranmer secretary, A Bill of Rights, reported by J. S. Carlile, was adopted; all allegiance to the Southern Confederacy was denied; a resolution was passed declaring the determination of the inhabitants of Virginia never to submit to the Ordinance of