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Adjournment to
Richmond.

After much secret legis- | people, and to the loss of speculators in real. lation looking to a consoli- estate. Could the disappointed ones have dation of its power, the cast the horoscope of the future, they might Confederate Congress adjourned (May 21st) have seen the Congress flying in terror from to meet at Richmond, Virginia, July 20th. Richmond, taking its peripatetic way back Montgomery for a brief season had sported again to the “balmy land” where yellow its Capital honors. It now subsided into its fever was expected to stand sentinel on the former obscurity-much to the chagrin of its ramparts and keep "the Yankees" at bay.

CHAPTER VIII.

MILITARY

DRESS.

ACTIVITY

DISAPPOINT

OF THE SOUTH. GOVERNOR PICKENS' AD. GOVERNOR MOORE's CALL то ARMS. MENT AND CHAGRIN AT THE DESERTION OF THEIR NORTHERN FRIENDS. DEFIANCE OF THE NORTH. NORTHERN SOLDIERS.

DEFAMATION OF

SHOCKING FALSEHOODS CONCERNING THE PRESIDENT. TROOPS MOVING INTO VIRGINIA FROM THE SOUTH. THE WOMEN OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES.

Military Organizations

tired" from the United States army afforded good men in plenty for the work at hand. Many, too, had seen service in Mexico, and on the Texan border. Commissions to competent men did not go begging. The Confederate service already embraced Beauregard, Bragg, McCullough, Ripley, Hardee, Huger, Magruder, Whiting, and others of equal capacity; and the rapidity with which they put their forces in the field, in an ef fective shape, reflected creditably upon their capacity. The direction of the revolution eventually was committed to the hands of the men whom the United States had nurtured; and the extraordinary obstinacy with which the Southern troops met the fortunes of reverse may be credited as much to their good discipline as to their asserted propensity for fighting.

MOVEMENTS in the Southern States during the latter part of April and in May, indicated great activity in military circles. Much excitement prevailed among the people. The call of Davis for thirty-two thousand five hundred troops, soon following the requisition for nineteen thousand five hundred men, absorbed most of the organized militia and independent companies. "Home Guards" organizations then became popular, into which great numbers of the well-to-do citizens of the South found their way. The enthusiasm of the people seemed to grow with the gathering danger of the hour; and if, in any of the seven "original" Seceded States, any persons entertaining Union sentiments still remained, they were thoroughly awed into silence by the implacable spirit which swept over that whole country like a simoon. The several States prépared to meet the requisitions of the Confederate authorities by creating reserves and a thorough organization of their separate military establishments. The large numbers of officers who had "re-regiments. The address issued to those

Governor Pickens'

Ardor.

Governor Pickens strained every nerve to place his State first among the defenders of their soil, in point of equipment, discipline, and effectiveness of her volunteer

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DEFIANCE AND

DEFAMATION OF THE NORTH.

137

Disappointment and
Chagrin.

called upon the last requisition embodied | to be as resistless as the
such inspiriting strains as the following:
"Hold yourselves in readiness to march at
the word to the tomb of Washington, and
swear that no Northern Goths and Vandals
shall ever desecrate its sacred precincts, and
that
you
will make of it an American Mecca,
to which the votaries of freedom and inde-
pendence from the South shall make pilgrim-
age through all time. Let the sons of Caro-
lina answer the calls from the sons of Colo-
nel Howard, who led the Maryland line in
triumph over the bloody battle-field of Cow-
pens. Let them know we will return that
blood with full interest, and let them feel
now as then that we are their brothers. I
shall endeavor not to expose our own State,
and shall only march you beyond our bor-
ders under a pressing emergency; but, where-
ever the Confederate flag floats, there, too, is
our country, now and forever."

mighty torrent of the river
that fed the city with its
life-blood. All the daily press of the Cres-
cent city mourned over the consolidated sen-
timent of the North, and, like their Gover-
nor, used hard words, which disguised nei-
ther their apprehensions nor their regret.
Thus the Picayune said:

Patriotism.

Governor Moore, in call

Governor Moore's ing for his quota of five thousand troops under the last requisition, gave vent to his patriotism

in this characteristic manner:

"We are unwilling to believe the telegraphic reports of the total apostacy of the majority of the citizens of the city of New York, who have ever professed to be the friends of the South, and the opponents of Black Republicanism, as their vote in the late Presidential contest exhibited. We know that there are good men and true there, who are willing to stand by the South to the last. We have been informed by a gentleman lately from that city, that all the telegraphic reports from thence in relation to this apostacy of New York citizens are enormously exaggerated; if it be not so, the change is certainly extraordinary. What has become of the Union procession of the bone and sinew of New York City, which turned out seven miles in length, in opposition to the Wide-Awakes? We shall wait for confirmation before we are willing to believe in the

apostacy of New York City."

"The Government at Washington, maddened by last. Had the press of the South, knowing Willing to deceive and be deceived to the defeat and the successful maintenance by our patriotic people of their rights and liberties against its the truth, confessed it freely, the people thus mercenaries in the harbor of Charleston, and the de- fully informed would have hesitated long termination of the Southern people forever to sever before incurring the responsibilities of an asthemselves from the Northern Government, has now sault on the Federal Union; but, like the thrown off the mask, and, sustained by the people miserable wretch who has tasted the fumes of the non-Slaveholding States, is actively engaged of the hasheesh, the Southern leaders prein levying war, by land and sea, to subvert your ferred not to be told of their danger. Realiberties, destroy your rights, and to shed your son could do little with such perverted men blood on your own soil. If you have the manhood-deaf to the past, dumb to the present, and to resist, rise, then, pride of Louisiana, in your blind to the future. might, in defense of your dearest rights, and drive back this insolent, barbaric force. Like your brave ancestry, resolve to conquer or perish in the effort; and the flag of usurpation will never fly over Southern soil. Rally, then, to the proclamation which I now make on the requisition of the Confederate Government."

In the now popular strain of defiance and defamation

Defiance and Defamation of the North.

did Mr. Stephens appeal to
the masses, in his Atlanta speech, April 30th.
He said, among other things:

"What is to take place before the end, I know This language showed the undercurrent not. A threatening war is upon us, made by those of disappointment and anger which set in who have no regard for right! We fight for our Like a flood when it became known that the homes, our fathers and mothers, our wives, brothers, North was a unit on the question of sustain-sisters, sons and daughters, and neighbors! They

ing the policy of the National Executive. A Mississippi crevasse could not have caused more consternation in New Orleans than the crevasse of the loyal States which bade fair

for money! The hirelings and mercenaries of the North are all hand to hand against you.

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Deflance and Defamation of the North.

thousand men can never conquer us.

We have now Maryland and Virginia, and all the Border States with us. We have ten millions of people with us, heart and hand, to defend us to the death. We can call out a million of people, if need be; and when they are cut down, we can call out another, and

still another, until the last man of the South finds a

the cities-the degraded, beastly offsecuring of all quarters of the world, who will serve for pay, and run away as soon as they can when danger threatens." Hundreds of similar notices were set afloat, until the great majority of Southern people were led to believe in their truth. The effect of such shock

bloody grave, rather than submit to their foul dic-ing falsehoods, upon the minds of the men tation. But a triumphant victory and independence, of the North, who had answered their counwith an unparalleled career of glory, prosperity, try's call, was only to aggravate a rapidlyand progress, awaits us in the future. God is on our growing detestation of their enemy. side, and who shall be against us? None but his omnipotent hand can defeat us in this struggle."

He also added, to strengthen his point of exciting disgust of the "Vandals" in the minds of the Southern people, the following interesting incidents connected with the occupation of Washington by "Lincoln's hirelings":

"Lincoln has occupied Georgetown Heights. He has from fifteen to twenty thousand soldiers stationed in and about Washington. Troops are quartered in the Capitol, who are defacing its walls and ornaments with grease and filth, like a set of Vandal

hordes. The new Senate Chamber has been converted into a kitchen and quarters-cooking and

sleeping apparatus having actually been erected and placed in that elegant apartment. The Patent Office is converted into soldiers' barracks, and is ruined with their filth. The Post-office Department is made a storehouse for barrels of flour and bacon. All the Departments are appropriated to base uses, and despoiled of their beauty by those treacherous, destructive enemies of our country. Their filthy spoliations of the public buildings and works of art at the Capital, and their preparations to destroy them, are strong evidence to my mind that they do not intend to hold or defend the place, but to abandon it after having despoiled and laid it in ruins. Let them destroy it-savage-like-if they will. We will rebuild it. We will make the structures more

glorious. Phoenix-like, new and more substantial structures will rise from its ashes. Planted anew, under the auspices of our superior institutions, it will live and flourish throughout all ages."

It would be interesting to show to what an extent Secession orators and presses proceeded in defamation of the character, courage, and strength of the Free State people. The Raleigh Banner, in urging the attack on Washington, said: "The army of the South will be composed of the best material that ever yet made up an army; while that of Lincoln will be gathered from the sewers of

Atrocious Aspersions of the President.

The aspersions of course reached the President. The opinion was assiduously disseminated that Mr. Lincoln was a drunkard and a lascivious man, degrading, in his daily conduct, his high office. Thus the Richmond Whig, (April 20th,) had “reliable information" that "Old Abe had been beastly intoxicated for the previous thirty-six consecu tive hours, and that eighty border ruffians from Kansas, under command of Lane, occupied the East Room, to guard his Majesty's slumbers." This, coming from a paper which had held out for the Union to a late day, only marked the depth of degradation to which the press of the South was reduced in order to satisfy the demands of the secession spirit. The New Orleans Delta (April 29th) repeated the wretched fabrication in this strain: "A gentleman arrived here this morning, who, with several others, was arrested, while passing through Washington, for being Southerners, and were taken into the presence of the august Baboon. He declares that Lin coln was so drunk that he could hardly maintain his seat in the chair. It was notorious in Washington that he had been in a state of intoxication for more than thirty-six hours. The man is nearly scared to death; and few people, in that city, are in a better condition." That these scandalous inventions passed uncontradicted by those who well knew their infamous falsity, is only one of a thousand evidences of the designed deception practiced by the leaders to work the heart of the Southern masses up to a point of frenzy against the Northern people and President.

The movement of troops northward commenced by April 20th-Richmond being the rendezvous. April 23d the Montgomery (Ala.)

Movement of Troops North.

THE WOMEN OF THE SOUTH.

139

Express stated that fifty-four | were represented as being very enthusiastic hundred men were already for the war. This display or review was in the field and ready to preparatory to the march, North, of Louisiamarch, and announced that two regiments na's quota. The ladies of the city had prehad started for Virginia. viously held a meeting (April 23d) to organize a relief association for providing the volunteers with clothing.

The First South Carolina regiment of volunteers, Colonel Maxcy Gregg, started "for the seat of war on the Potomac," April 23d. The Charleston Courier said: "The call made upon South Carolina has been promptly responded to. Governor Pickens has been perfectly overwhelmed with offers of brigades, battalions, regiments, and companies, all desirous of being accepted as volunteers for Virginia. The reverence felt for her soil by South Carolinians, is only equalled by the spirit and enthusiasm of the people to be the first to defend her, and, if necessary, with the best blood of the State." This sounded large; but, considering that the State, according to the census of 1860, contained only fifty-seven thousand white male adults, it was certain that the "overwhelming" offers would not greatly exceed the entire male population. Yet, this same journal--to illustrate the irresponsible character of Southern journalism -in a previous article assumed that the State had (in April) ten thousand men under arms at Charleston, and twelve thousand in other portions of the State, and had, besides, fiftyeight thousand enrolled and organized troops -in all eighty thousand effective men, or twenty-three thousand more than the entire male adult population of the State! Such assumptions were made in the interests of “the cause,” and were among the instrumentalities used to inspire the people with confidence in regard to their own resources and abilities to overcome opposition,

The New Orleans papers of April 30th gave glowing accounts of the grand military display of the day previous. Between three and four thousand troops, of all arms of the service, participated. The people of the city

The Women of the South.

And here we may say that the female portion of Southern communities was quite as devoted to the war as the most ardent Secessionist could desire. It, ere long, became their pride and boast to say-“my husband," or "my son" or "my brother is in the Confederate army." The making of lint and bandages, the manufacture of clothing, the gathering of funds for the support of the families of volunteers, became their chief occupation. If men faltered in their hope or faith, they had only to hear the not always sweetly worded invective of their maids and matrons against the "ruthless invaders," the "hirelings of old Lincoln," the “barbarians of the New England mills," to re-inspire their wavering ardor in the cause of secession.

The Richmond Inquirer of April 27th gave the number of Confederate troops at that point as three thousand and twenty-two. By May 1st the number was increased to sixty-two hundred, and by the middle of the month the force was so large that the permanent line of defense facing the Potomac, was discussed. Norfolk and Harper's Ferry were made secure, Yorktown was occupied; batteries were located on the Potomac, and sufficient troops were posted in the vicinity of Arlington Heights to excite much uneasiness-a feeling only relieved by General Scott's first grand stroke (May 24th), the occupation of the Potomac from Alexandria up to Georgetown, the seizure of the Loudon and Hampshire railway terminus, with cars, locomotive, &c., and of the terminus of the Orange and Manassas Gap railroad.

CHAPTER IX.

MILITARY

MOVEMENTS IN THE NORTH.

ENORMOUS

CONTRIBU

TIONS OF FUNDS BY LEGISLATURES, CITIES, &C. GOVERNOR CURTIN'S MESSAGE. THE PRESIDENT'S PROCLAMATION

FOR

THE

THREE YEARS' TROOPS. THE BLOCKADE ENFORCED. MILITARY DEPARTMENTS CREATED. SCOTT'S PLAN OF PROCEEDING. THE CAIRO CAMP. MOVEMENT OF TROOPS. DOINGS OF BUTLER IN MARYLAND.

The States' Rendezvous.

THE Free States' Governors, without exception, answered the President's call for troops by calling together their respective Legislatures, and by taking such other steps as would hasten the dispatch of the complement first called for. The several rendezvous designated by the War Department, were as follows: New York, N. Y. City, Albany, Elmira; Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Harrisburg; New Jersey, Trenton; Delaware, Wilmington; Missouri, St. Louis; Illinois, Chicago, Cairo; Indiana, Indianapolis; Ohio, Columbus, Cleveland; Michigan, Detroit; Wisconsin, Milwaukee; Iowa, Keokuk; Minnesota, St. Paul; Maine, Portland; New Hampshire, Portsmouth; Vermont, Burlington; Massachusetts, Springfield; Rhode Island, Providence; Connecticut, New Haven. At these points arrangements were made for quartering the quotas, and for dispatching regiments to the seat of danger, as rapidly as they were organized.

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assembled April 22d, and, on the 25th, voted one million dollars to arm and equip its volunteers. The Legislature of Indiana voted five hundred thousand dollars, April 29th. The New Jersey Legislature met April 30th, and the Governor recommended two million dollars for war purposes. May 3d, the Connecticut Legislature appropriated two millions for the public defense.

Enormous Free Contributions.

4,000 Detroit Mich. 5,000 Dunkirk, N. Y.. 5,000 Dover, N. H..

50.000

These contributions of Legislatures, cities, and towns, amounted, May 7th, to over twenty-three millions of dollars. The record is so honorable that we repeat such as were reported up to the date named: Albany, N. Y...... $46,000 | Cam. & Am. R.R. Co. $10,000 Auburn, N. Y....... Abington, Mass... Amesbury, Mass... Acton, Mass... Boston, Mass.. Brooklyn, N. Y.. Bridgeport, Ct... Burlington, Vt..... Bath, Me.. Batavia, N. Y.. Buffalo, N. Y.... Burlington, N. J.......... Bordentown, N. J.. Bradford, Vt. Bridgeton, N. J.... Bedford, Mass... Bennington, Vt... Barre, Mass... Braintree, Mass... Bedford, N. Y..

2,000 Hudson, N. Y.

20.000

10.000

186,000

5,000 Damariscotta, Me.. Elizabeth, N. J.....

3,000

11.000

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4.000

Brunswick, Me.... Binghamton, N. Y.

Hamilton Ohio. 1,000 Hoboken, N. J.. 1,000 Hornellsville, N. Y. 10,000 Hartford, Conn..... Connecticut, State..2,000,000 Harrisburg, Pa............... Cincinnati.. 280,000 Illinois, State.. Charlestown, Mass.. 10,000 Indiana, State... Chicage, Ill.. 20,000 Iowa, State... Circleville, Ohio.... 2,000 Ithaca, N. Y. Clinton, Ill... 5,000 Indianapolis, Ind. Cohasset, Mass. 1,000 Ipswich, Mass... Clinton, N. Y.. 1,000 Jersey City, N. J... Concord, Mass... 4,000 Janesville, Wis.. Concord, N. H. Canandaigua, N. Y. Canton, Mass....... Cass County, Ind...

1.000

2.000

1.000

64.000

5.000 .2.000.000 ..1.000.000 100.000 10.000

5.000

4,000

32.000

6.000

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2,000

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