1861 LINCOLN'S INAUGURAL visional Vice-President of the new Confederacy. Davis was inaugurated February 18, and at once named the members of his Cabinet. The Convention then drew up and submitted to the several States a Constitution, modeled after the Constitution of the United States, but with such changes as made the new instrument what the extreme State Rights school had always held the old instrument to be. Tariffs for protection were expressly declared to be unconstitutional. The Con vention then constituted itself a Provisional Congress for the new Government, and as such passed various laws. Among them was a law forbidding the importation of slaves. This, it was presumed, was intended to force into the Confederacy Virginia and other border States, which would be deprived of the only market for their surplus slaves. Commissioners were sent to Washington to arrange all questions relating to property and debts, and to secure recognition for the Confederacy, while another commission was sent abroad to secure recognition from the great Powers of Europe. The calmly firm tone of Lincoln's speeches on his way to Washington characterized his inaugural address. "I declare," he said, "that I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with slavery where it exists. The Union of these States is perpetual. It is safe to assert that no government probably ever had a provision in its organic law for its own termination. The power conveyed to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the Government, and to collect the duties and imposts." The next day Lincoln announced his Cabinet. William H. Seward of New York was Secretary of State. There were strong men in the Cabinet, but their antecedents did not augur harmony. The two questions with which Lincoln had first to deal were the demand of the Confederate States for recognition FALL OF FORT SUMTER 1861 through their Commissioners and the relief of Fort Sumter. On the first question he took at once a decided stand. The Commissioners were informed that they could not be received in any other capacity than as private citizens of the Republic. On the question of the relief of Sumter Lincoln did not act at once. He felt his way cautiously, and the result of his caution and shrewdness was to throw upon the Southerners the onus of beginning hostilities. On April 11 Governor Pickens of South Carolina, acting under instructions from the Confederate President, demanded the surrender of the fort. Major Anderson again declined, and early the next morning the bombardment began. The flag was shot down, Anderson surrendered, and the garrison marched out with the honors of war. The news of the fall of Fort Sumter came to the North like a bugle call to arms. From that moment the spirit of the North began to rise, and Lincoln promptly issued a proclamation calling for 75,000 men to enter army service for three months, and summoning Congress to meet in extraordinary session on the Fourth of July. He declared the object of the call to be "to repossess the forts and places and property of the United States which had been unlawfully seized." The country's response was immediate and enthusiastic. Democrats and Republicans vied in making ready for the conflict now at last clearly inevitable. The Confederate Provisional Congress had already taken steps to organize an army. Southern officers in the regular army resigned in large numbers, and tendered their services to their several States or to the Confederate Government. To Robert E. Lee, Scott's favorite, was unofficially offered the command of the Union army. He declined, gave up his commission, offered his sword to his native State, and was put in command of all the Virginia forces. The Governors of the various States exerted themselves with the utmost energy to help 1861 FIRST BLOODSHED OF THE WAR their respective governments. These were afterward styled "War Governors." On April 17 the Virginia Convention, which, only a few weeks before, had shown a great majority against secession, adopted an ordinance and submitted it to popular vote. But before the popular vote was taken the State was thoroughly committed to the Confederate movement, and the Confederate Congress at Montgomery adjourned to meet at Richmond, the capital of Virginia, in July. However, the western counties of Virginia were against secession. They were organized into a separate State, later recognized by the Union as the State of West Virginia. Arkansas seceded on May 6. The next day Tennessee practically joined the Confederacy, although in that State a strong Unionist minority maintained the forms of State Government throughout the war. Carolina passed an ordinance on May 20. In Kentucky there was a strong attempt at secession, and the State was afterward represented in the Confederate Congress, but can not properly be regarded as one of the Confederate States. In Missouri the situation was similar. In Maryland and Delaware the attempt at secession clearly failed. North Meanwhile, the permanent Constitution had been ratified by the several Confederate States, regular elections had been held, and Davis and Stephens had entered upon the offices of President and Vice-President respectively for the term of six years. On April 19, the anniversary of the battle of Lexington, a Massachusetts regiment, passing through Baltimore on its way to Washington, was attacked by a mob, and the blood thus shed is commonly regarded as the first bloodshed of the great War of the Rebellion. Harper's Ferry Arsenal in Virginia was seized by the Confederates. Davis invited application for letters of marque and reprisal in order that privateers might be fitted out to prey upon the commerce of the United States. President Lincoln proclaimed a block BATTLE OF BIG BETHEL 1861 ade of the ports of the seceding States. Early in May he issued his second call for 65,000 volunteers for three years, and the regular army and navy were increased. Foreign Governments were informed that the Union would be maintained by the force of arms. Great Britain and other Powers, by issuing proclamations of neutrality, recognized the Confederates as belligerents. On May 24 the Federal troops advanced from Washington and occupied Arlington Heights. and Alexandria, in Virginia. In organizing an army, Davis's military training and his experience as Secretary of War under the old Government gave him a great advantage. Thoroughly familiar with the personnel of the old army, he at once called to high places of command Robert E. Lee, P. T. Beauregard, Joseph and Albert S. Johnston, and others. whose exceptional abilities he had learned to appreciate. There were no trained soldiers equal to these in ability among the early generals called to lead the Union armies. Winfield Scott, the head of the army, now at the age of seventy-five, could no longer be expected to show the needful alertness and energy. His right-hand men, Major-General Robert Patterson of Pennsylvania and General Irwin McDowell of Ohio, were very inefficient commanders, as the first conflicts of the war quickly proved. Yet the North was already clamoring for an advance on the South. Soon after Congress assembled, it approved the President's call for 140,000 men and $4,000,000. The earliest engagement was fought on June 10 at Big Bethel, near Hampton, in Virginia, where General Peirce with some 3,500 Federals was badly beaten by Magruder with 1,800 Confederates fighting behind breastworks. Theodore Winthrop, the New England author, fell in this fight. The first really important move against the Confederacy was made on two lines. Patterson moved up the Shenandoah Valley, which was defended by Joseph E. Johnston, and McDowell advanced to Manassas Junction, where 1861 FIRST BATTLE OF BULL RUN he was confronted by General Beauregard. It was essential to Scott's plan that Beauregard and Johnston should not effect a junction. General Patterson occupied Bunker on July 14 with 22,000 men, and General Johnston was nine miles away with 12,000. General McDowell on July 16 began his advance on Manassas Junction with 28,000 men and 49 guns. On the following day Patterson retreated to Charleston, West Virginia. General Johnston eluded him in the Shenandoah Valley, hastened eastward with 9,000 men, and joined Beauregard. On July 18 McDowell had reached Bull Run, midway between Centerville and Manassas Junction, where important railroads met. On the line of the stream both sides prepared for battle. Bull Run, as Sherman afterward declared, was "one of the best planned battles of the war, and one of the worst fought; both armies were fairly defeated, and whichever stood fast, the other would have to run." McDowell, in a flank attack, crushed the Confederate left and carried all before him, until, mounting the crest of a hill, the Federals, flushed and disordered, encountered the brigade of Thomas J. Jackson. "Look at Jackson's brigade; it stands there like a stone wall," cried General Bee, who was trying to rally his own troops. Jackson, thus christened with his famous nickname, checked the Federal advance. An assault by Johnston on the Union right and rear simultaneously with Beauregard's rallying charge decided the day. McDowell's soldiers had been fighting for three hours. The Union line broke in a panic; only a disorganized mob recrossed the Potomac. This battle, by its moral effect, strengthened immensely the Confederate cause at home and abroad, but it did much also for the Union cause. There was no more talk at Washington about a "ninety day limit" to the war. On July 22, George B. McClellan, who had won victories at Rich Mountain and Carrick's Ford in West Virginia, was called to |