ditional support. Forts McRae and Barrancas, together with the navy-yard and arsenal, having been seized by the Confederates, there seemed imminent danger of their getting possession also of Fort Pickens, but they were thwarted in their design by Lieutenant Slemmer, the United States commander. This young officer being on the alert, no sooner discovered their purpose, than he concentrated his little garrison of eighty men within the fort, and kept the enemy at bay until the 12th of April, when the first successful attempt was made to reinforce him. This was effected by the United States man-of-war Brooklyn, and is thus described by one* who shared in the enterprise :

"On Friday, April 12th," says he, "our captain received orders to prepare for landing the troops (Company A, First Artillery) which we brought from Fort Monroe. After sunset, all the boats were hoisted out and dropped astern. Volunteers were called for to man them, and every man in the ship volunteered. After selecting the crews, they were armed to the teeth for covering the landing of the troops. As the enemy threatened to prevent the landing, having stationed coast-guards along shore for that purpose, it was necessary to send a considerable force; so the Sabine and St. Louis' boats were sent to assist our men. After the moon had set, all deck lights were extinguished, to prevent the enemy discovering our movements. Strange to say, the light-house on shore, whose powerful light would

*Correspondent "HARPERS' WEEKLY."

make the position of our ships visible, was put out about the same time. Between ten and eleven o'clock the ship got under way, creeping slowly toward the shore and sounding all the way, anchoring in seven fathoms of water, which indicated close proximity to the shore. The boats were then got alongside, and the men disembarked. At this time the ship's deck presented an interesting and lively spectacle, though all was done very quietly, reflecting great credit upon the officers in command. After all was ready, Lieutenant Albert N. Smith, who had command of the boat expedition, shoved off, and the other boats followed in line. He intended landing on the beach near the ship and marching to the fort, a distance of about three miles; but finding the surf too heavy, he determined to pull into the harbor and land in front of Pickens. He was successful; the doors of the fort were opened, and the troops entered. In the mean while the Wyandotte carried all the Sabine's marines and put them on the Brooklyn, which, together with the Brooklyn's marines, were to go also. The boats made a second trip, being successful in getting the marines into the fort; but day broke before the boats got out of the harbor, making the sleepy sentinels on McRea and Barrancas rub their eyes in astonishment, not daring to molest the returning party."

This landing of marines was, however, but a temporary provision. The regular reinforcements soon arrived and took their place. The transport steamer Atlantic was the first to arrive, with four

hundred and fifty men, sixty-nine horses, and large supplies of food and muniApril tions. She sailed from New York 16. on the 7th of April, and having stopped on her way at Key West to take on board additional men and supplies, arrived on the evening of the 16th off the island of Santa Rosa, and anchored four miles from the shore, close to the frigate Sabine. The Sabine, 50 guns, was the flag-ship under Captain Adams, the commander of the squadron, which was composed in addition of the steam-corvette Brooklyn, 14 guns, the corvette St. Louis, 22 guns, the Water-Witch, Crusader, the Wyandotte and Mohawk, each 10 guns, for some time stationed off Pensacola. Immediately after the arrival of the Atlantic, the operation of landing her reinforcements began. Taking in tow the small boats of the fleet, some twenty in number, and the night having closed in and all lights being put out, the steamer stood in toward the shore and anchored within a mile of Fort Pickens. The guns of Fort McRae and of the water batteries, in command of the rebels, were in direct range, and signal rockets were firing from Fort Pickens, indicating the expectation of an attack. The first boat from the Atlantic pushed off at half-past nine o'clock, containing Colonel Brown, the commander, who was to supersede the intrepid subaltern, Lieutenant Slemmer. The other boats containing the troops soon followed, and before midnight the most of the officers and troops had reached the fort in safety. On the next morning, at an

161

early hour, the rest of the men April were landed, with the exception of 17. the artillerists of Barry's Flying Artillery. To land these with their horses, the Atlantic weighed anchor and moved to a point three and a half miles distant from Fort Pickens, but within half a mile of the beach of the island of Santa Rosa. The troublesome work of landing the horses did not commence before noon, and continuing all night, was not completed until next morning.

The steamer Powhatan, Commander David D. Porter, had in the mean April time arrived, and in two days 17. after was followed by the transport steamer Illinois, which had been April detained by long-continued severe 19. weather. The reinforcements brought by the Illinois consisted of three hundred men and a number of horses, besides five hundred muskets and a large quantity of munitions of war and provisions. The troops were landed in safety during the next morning, but three days passed before the horses, forage, the ordnance, provisions, and general stores were conveyed to the shore. Four of the horses on board the Illinois had perished during the stormy passage, one was drowned alongside the ship, another had his neck broken while landing through the surf, and a third died from exhaustion. During the debarkation, the steamers Powhatan and Brooklyn took such a position that they could at the same time. shield the transports under the cover of their guns, and prevent the enemy on the mainland from attempting to invade

persistency of secession, and presuming on its weakness, they fondly believed that with a single effort of the Federal might, rebellion could be suppressed, and the flag raised once more over a united land.

Though the expression of opinion by the press was toned somewhat by its various shades of partisanship, there was hardly a journal which ventured to dispute the necessity of war. They indulged, it is true, in mutual recriminations, charging each other with having caused an event which they all now acknowledged to be inevitable. One journal, which had before so warmly and perseveringly advocated the cause of secession as to bring upon itself the anger of a Northern mob, now declared: "In a conflict of this sort, there can be but two parties-a Northern and a Southern party; for all other parties will cease to exist. The political principles, organizations, and issues which have divided our country and our people, in various shapes and forms, since the treaty of our independence with England, will all be very soon overwhelmed in the sweeping changes of a civil war. It would be folly now to argue what might, could, would, or should have been done by Southern fire-eaters and Northern disorganizers in 1854, 1860, or by Mr. Buchanan, or by Mr. Lincoln, or by the late session of Congress. Civil war is upon us, and the questions which now supersede all others are: What are the consequences now before us? Where is this war to end, and how, and when? What is our duty under this warlike

163

condition of things? and what are the movements and the conditions necessary to change this state of war to a state of peace?"

An ultra Republican journal, after giving vent to a tirade against "our journals lately parading the pranks of the secessionists with scarcely disguised exultation," declares, "Democrat as well as Republican, Conservative, and Radical, instinctively feel that the guns fired at Sumter were aimed at the heart of the American Republic. Not even in the lowest groggery of our city [New York] would it be safe to propose cheers for Beauregard and Governor Pickens. The Tories of the Revolution were relatively ten times as numerous here as are the open sympathizers with the Palmetto rebels. It is hard to lose Sumter; it is a consolation to know that in losing it we have gained a united people. Henceforth, the loyal States are a unit in uncompromising hostility to treason, wherever plotted, however justified. Fort Sumter is temporarily lost, but the country is saved. Live the Republic!"

The proclamation of the President, giving an authoritative sanction to the national sentiment, served still more to arouse the spirit of union.

PROCLAMATION OF THE PRESIDENT. "Whereas the laws of the United States have been for some time past, and now are, opposed, and the execution thereof obstructed in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, by combinations too powerful to be sup

pressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the powers vested in the marshals by law; now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, in virtue of the power in me vested by the Constitution and the laws, have thought fit to call forth, and hereby do call forth, the militia of the several States of the Union to the aggregate number of 75,000, in order to suppress said combinations, and to cause the laws to be duly executed.

“The details for this object will be immediately communicated to the State authorities through the War Department. I appeal to all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate, and aid this effort to maintain the honor, the integrity, and existence of our national Union, and the perpetuity of popular government, and to redress wrongs already long enough endured. I deem it proper to say that the first service assigned to the forces hereby called forth will probably be to repossess the forts, places, and property which have been seized from the Union; and in every event the utmost care will be observed, consistently with the objects aforesaid, to avoid any devastation, any destruction of or interference with property, or any disturbance of peaceful citizens in any part of the country; and I hereby command the persons composing the combinations aforesaid to disperse, and retire peaceably to their respective abodes within twenty days from

this date.

"Deeming that the present condition of public affairs presents an extraordinary

occasion, I do hereby, in virtue of the power in me vested by the Constitution, convene both Houses of Congress. The senators and representatives are therefore summoned to assemble at their respective chambers at twelve o'clock, noon, on Thursday, the fourth day of July next, then and there to consider and determine such measures as, in their wisdom, the public safety and interest may seem to demand.

"In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

"Done at the city of Washington, this fifteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-fifth. "ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

66 the President. By

"WM. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State." Throughout the North the effect of this proclamation was to excite the people to an intense enthusiasm. The population of the large cities became suddenly so absorbed in the excitement of the hour, that all the ordinary transactions of business were suspended. Flags floated from every public building, church steeple, and private house. Such was the demand for bunting, that the ordinary supply was soon exhausted, and the ardent gathered every chancecolored rag or ribbon that fell in their way, to fashion into the "stars and stripes" of their patriotic desire. Union devices and badges were sold at the corners of every street, and flaunted upon each patriotic waistcoat and boddice.