of Mr. Buchanan's presidency in frantic attempts to keep the power or to render abortive the victory of their adversaries. At this moment, the cord which bound the constitutional question to that of slavery became more and more apparent. After having

wrested from the North in the name of the Union the most numerous and the most shameful sacrifices, the Missouri compromise, the compromise of 1850, the fugitive slave law, and the Nebraska bill, the statesmen of the South prepared to quit the Union the very first day the political balance ceased to incline on their side. The republicans had, however, added nothing to their programme; they had only announced the intention of limiting the power of slavery in the territories. That sufficed for the South: the arsenals were emptied in all the free States, the ships of the federal fleet dispersed all over the universe, and had it not been for the honesty of Mr. Holt, one of Buchanan's secretaries of state, and that of General Scott, it is doubtful if Mr. Lincoln's first inauguration could have taken place at Washington. The rebellion was prepared at leisure: it was not the unanimous revolt of a people against a tyrannical government, it was the premeditated attempt of an aristocracy of slaveholders determined to leave the republic rather than lose its direction, the coup d'état of a minority against the majority, against the laws and against the constitution, the orders for secession were voted in such regular form and with a rapidity that sufficiently indicated that the leaders were resolved to stifle the protestations of honest and peaceable citizens: they were

promulgated by conventions, and were not submitted to the direct ratification of the people of each State. The first feeling in the North was surprise. She could not believe in the rupture of the Union. She had never considered the threats of separation of the fire eaters in a serious light. The new administration endeavoured to bring back the rebels; again she muttered the word compromise, but the day when Fort Sumter fell under rebel cannon, conciliation was impossible, and war became the first duty of the Government.

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CHAPTER II.

THREE YEARS OF THE WAR.

THE 12th of April 1861, the first cannon was fired against Fort Sumter. Major Anderson, who commanded the Federal troops at Charleston when South Carolina separated from the Confederation, had reinforced Fort Sumter from the garrison of Fort Moultrie, another fortification of the harbour. This precaution was looked upon by the rebels as an act of hostility. They went so far as to ask President Buchanan to abandon Fort Sumter. He was not so shameless as to obey this injunction, and recalling a remnant of honour and courage, he even announced that he would send reinforcements to Fort Sumter. Jefferson Davis considered this reply a declaration of war, and sent General Beauregard, but yesterday an officer in the regular army, to direct the operations of a siege against the fort of Charleston. The 11th of April Beauregard asks Anderson to yield: he refuses. Some Federal vessels are seen at sea; the senseless anger of the rebels is at its height, and the first shells fall on the fortress. What would not a prophetic eye have seen behind their track of flame and their impious smoke! What blood, ruins, fields of carnage, a whole world

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overturned, proud Charleston herself given over to the flames, pillaged by her meanest inhabitants; the starspangled banner raised at the end of four years on the ruins of Fort Sumter, in presence of Garrison, the old abolitionist, and during the applause of negro regiments. Beauregard saw nothing of this, neither did. Anderson, who, after a resistance of thirty-six hours, and with his ammunition exhausted, yielded with all the honours of war. There was, however, not a man killed on one side or the other-a singular début for a war which was to cause rivers of blood to flow.

The emotion that spread over the Northern States at the news of the taking of Sumter can be more easily imagined than described. By their anger, and by their sorrow, the American people felt they were a people, and not an arithmetical total. The same vibration stirred as one soul all these millions of souls. Before the President called out 75,000 of the militia, every one was hastening to get under arms. Country people, hearing the news, started at once to be enrolled in the next town, without even saying good-bye to their wives or children. You recognised the sons of the farmers who ran to Bunker Hill in the last century. These spasms do not last in nations more than in individuals. The slow and painful effort of the will must succeed the flash of passion. It is necessary that the regimental level should pass heavily over martial ardour. Once in the ranks, the soldier is no longer anything but an infinitesimal fraction.

While regiments are being raised in the North, the South is raising hers also. Virginia, Arkansas, North

Carolina, Tennnessee, hesitating until that moment, follow the impulse. Kentucky, between the hammer and the anvil, vainly proclaims her neutrality. Missouri is divided. Maryland fires on the Massachusetts soldiers in the streets of Baltimore, who are hastening to Washington with Butler. Earth is thrown up round the capital, and on Arlington heights; and the smiling hill sides of the Potomac are laid bare by the axe.

The war begins in Virginia. M'Clellan is spoken of for the first time, clearing the rebels out of the high valleys of Western Virginia. The star of 'Little Napoleon' rises. The Press has put the war trumpet to its lips; a battle is called for, a great battle. Who talks of organising the army; of teaching the drill and manœuvres to the soldiers; of forming brigades, divisions, corps, reserves, a military administration? What need is there of these old things, good enough for Europe? On to Richmond! Everything will fall back before the flood of the volunteers! M'Dowell follows rather than directs this flood. On the 21st of July 1861, he meets Beauregard on the banks of a torrent called Bull Run. He has a few regiments of regulars; all his other soldiers are recruits who have never smelt powder. The Confederates are drawn up on the southern bank of the stream. Behind, they extend to the railway, that serves for their communications. M'Dowell makes a false attack on the right, to divert attention, while a division is to turn their left flank. The Federal recruits cross the valley; fight bravely, and drive the enemy's left back to great pine

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