SURRENDER OF FORT SUMTER.

287

Charleston was about seven thousand. The government immediately made arrangements to send the needed supplies. As soon as Jefferson Davis heard of it, General Beauregard,' in command of

the Confederate army at Charleston, was ordered to demand the surrender of the fort. Major Anderson declined to surrender, and at daybreak, April 12, 1861, the Confederates fired the first gun at the fort. It was answered by one from Sumter. War had begun. For thirty-four hours nineteen batteries rained shot and shell against the fort, which continued to fire back. Notwithstanding this tremendous cannonade, no one was killed on either side. But Major Anderson, finding that his ammunition was nearly ex

1 Beauregard (Boh'rěh-gard).

2 Batteries: a battery is a wall of earth or other fortification having a number of cannon mounted on it. A battery may also consist of cannon mounted on wheels and drawn by horses.

hausted, and having nothing but pork left to eat, decided to give up the fort. On Sunday (April 14), he, with his garrison, left the fort,

five thousand volunteers for three months' service for few then supposed that the war, if there was really to be a war, would last longer than that. In response to the President's call the whole North seemed to rise. Men of all parties forgot their political quarrels, and hastened to the defence of the capital. Within thirty-six hours several companies from Pennsylvania had reached Washington. They were speedily followed by the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment- the first full regiment to march. They had to fight their way through a mob at Baltimore. There, on April 19, 1861, the day on which the Revolutionary battles of Lexington and Concord were fought, the first Union soldiers gave their lives for the preservation of the nation.2

Many of the volunteers were lads under twenty, and some of them had never left home before. There were affecting and also amusing scenes when the "boys in blue "3 started for Washington.

1 Just four years, to a day, from that date, Major Anderson (then General Anderson) hoisted the same flag over the ruins of Fort Sumter.

2 On April 18, 1861, the Confederates seized the United States arsenal at Harper's Ferry, and on the 20th the Navy Yard at Norfolk. In both cases, however, the officer in command succeeded in burning a large part of the property before it fell into the hands of the Confederates.

8 The Union soldiers wore blue uniform; the Confederates, gray.

SECESSION OF FOUR MORE STATES.

289

Anxious mothers took tearful leave of sons, whom they feared they should never see again. One good New England woman, as she bade her boy good-by at the railroad station, thrust the wellworn family umbrella into his hand as her parting gift. Her ideas of war were not quite as clear as General Scott's; but she was sure of one thing: if her "John" must go to battle, she wanted to feel that he could fight comfortably under shelter in wet weather. On the Southern side there were the same anxious leave-takings; for it should be borne in mind that while the people of the North were eager to offer their lives for the defence of the Union, the people of the South were just as eager to give theirs to repel what they considered invasion.

320. Secession of Four more States; General Butler's "Contrabands." President Lincoln's call for troops made it necessary for the remaining slave states to decide at once whether they would remain in the Union or go out. Eastern Virginia1 joined the Confederacy; the western part of the state refused to secede, and later became a separate state under the name of West Virginia. The Confederate capital was soon removed to Richmond. Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina followed the example of Virginia; but Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri did not secede. By the middle of June the Confederacy consisted of eleven states; no more were added.

General Butler of Massachusetts held command of Fortress Monroe in Eastern Virginia. It was the only Union stronghold in the state, and was of the very highest importance. A number

of slaves came to the General and begged him to set them free. He had no authority to give them their liberty. On the other hand, he was certain that if he returned them to their masters they would use them in carrying on the war against the Union. Finally,

1 The secession of Eastern Virginia immensely increased the military difficulties with which the North had to contend. Had Virginia remained in the Union (as she seemed at one time likely to do), the war would probably have been of short duration.

General Butler got out of the difficulty by saying, These negroes are contraband of war; then putting spades in the hands of the "contrabands," as they were henceforth called, he set them to work to strengthen the fort. General Butler's action was the first decided blow struck at the existence of slavery after the commencement of the war.

321. Condition of the North and of the South with Respect to the War. In regard to the terrible struggle now about to begin between the North and the South, each of the combatants had certain advantages over the other. First, the North had more than twice as many men to draw on as the South. Next, although unprepared for war, the North had iron-mills, ship-yards, foundries, machine-shops, and factories of all kinds. For this reason it could make everything its soldiers would need, from a blanket to a battery. Finally it had the command of the sea and so with its war-vessels it could shut up the Southern ports and cut them off from help from abroad. The South had the advantage (1) of being prepared for the war by having got possession of large quantities of arms and ammunition (though it had small means of making any more); (2) with the exception of General Scott and a few others who stood by the Union, it had a majority of the bestknown officers in the regular army,— such men as Robert E. Lee of Virginia3 and General Beauregard; (3) it could send all of its

1 Contraband of war: here meaning, forfeited by the customs or laws of war. General Butler's idea was that the laws of war forbade his returning anything or any property to the Confederates, or to those who sympathized with them, which they could use in carrying on the contest.

2 The total population of the United States in 1860 was in round numbers, 32,000,000. The Union states had about 23,000,000; the eleven seceded states about 9,000,000, of which nearly 3,500,000 were slaves.

3 General Lee was born in Virginia, 1807; died 1870. He was a graduate of West Point, and served with distinction in the Mexican War (see Paragraph 291). When Virginia seceded, Lee, who was then a lieutenant-colonel in the United States army, said, "I recognize no necessity for this state of things," yet he felt it his duty to go with his state. He said, "With all my devotion to the Union ... I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives, my children, my home." He was made commander-in-chief of the Virginia state forces. In 1862,

NUMBER AND POSITION OF THE TWO ARMIES. 291

fighting men to the front while it kept several millions of slaves at work raising food to support them; (4) the South had the great advantage of being able to fight on the defensive, on its own soil, and so needed fewer soldiers.

322. The Number and Position of the Two Armies.— President Lincoln's first call for troops was quickly followed by others, and the South likewise strengthened its side. By the summer of 1861 the Union forces probably numbered about 180,000, and those of the Confederates, 150,000. The former were under the direction of the veteran General Scott,1 and the latter under General Beauregard. The Union army was mainly in Eastern Virginia. It extended along the east bank of the Potomac from Harper's Ferry to the mouth of the river and thence southward to Fortress Monroe. The Confederate army held the country south of it, with Richmond as its fortified centre.

In Missouri and West Virginia there was a contest which ended in the national troops, under Generals Lyon, Frémont, and

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he received - subject to the orders of Jefferson Davis the entire command of "the armies of the Confederacy." His management of the war showed that he was a man of great military ability, and of entire devotion to what he understood to be his duty.

1 See Paragraph 291.

2 General Joseph E. Johnston ranked above General Beauregard, and after the battle of Bull Run (July 21, 1861), in which he took a leading part, he held command of the Confederate army of Virginia until he was wounded at the battle of Seven Pines, May 31, 1862, when General Lee took the command.

3 General Frémont was born at Savannah in 1813. Under the authority of the government he began the exploration of the Rocky Mountains and of an overland route to the Pacific in 1842-1844. In 1845 he set out on another exploring expedition to the Pacific coast. After the outbreak of the Mexican War he, with the assistance of American settlers in California, freed that territory from the authority of Mexico, and in the summer of 1846 he was appointed governor of the territory. By treaty with Mexico in 1847 Frémont secured California to the United States. In 1856 he was nominated to the Presidency (as the anti-slavery candidate) by the Republican party. From 1878 to 1881 he was governor of Arizona. In the summer of 1861 Frémont issued a proclamation emancipating the slaves of all persons in Missouri who were in arms against the Union; but President Lincoln refused to approve it.