try
in a state of absorbing excitement, and Congress saw around it on
every side the indications of a sanguinary struggle to come. Even
after the firing on Sumter, anxious and thoughtful men had not
given up all hope of an adjustment. The very shock of arms in the
harbor of Charleston, it was believed by many, might upon sober
second thought induce Southern men to pause and consider and
negotiate before taking the fatal plunge. Such expectations were
vain. The South felt that their victory was pre-ordained. Jefferson
Davis answered Mr. Lincoln's call for seventy-five thousand men by
a proclamation ordering the enlistment of one hundred thousand.
The Confederacy was growing in strength daily. State after State
was joining it, and energy and confidence prevailed throughout all
its borders. The situation grew every day more embarrassing and
more critical. Without waiting for the action of Congress, Mr.
Lincoln had called for forty-two thousand additional volunteers,
and added eleven new regiments, numbering some twenty-two thousand
men, to the regular army. A blockade of the Southern ports had
been ordered on the 19th of April, and eighteen thousand men had
been added to the navy.

No battle of magnitude or decisive character had been fought when
Congress assembled; but there had been activity on the skirmish
line of the gathering and advances forces and, at many points,
blood collision. In Baltimore, on the historic 19th of April, the
mob had endeavored to stop the march of Massachusetts troops hurrying
to the protection of the National Capital. In Missouri General
Nathaniel Lyon had put to flight the disloyal governor, and
established the supremacy of National authority. In Western Virginia
General McClellan had met with success in some minor engagements,
and on the upper Potomac the forces under General Robert Patterson
had gained some advantages. A reverse of no very serious character
had been experienced at Big Bethel, near Hampton Roads, by the
troops under General Benjamin F. Butler. General Robert C. Schenck,
in command of a small force, had met with a repulse a few miles
from Washington, near Vienna in the State of Virginia. These
incidents were not in themselves of special importance, but they
indicated an aggressive energy on the part of the Confederates,
and foreshadowed the desperate character which the contest was
destined to assume. Congress found itself legislating in a fortified
city, wi