I busied myself, and when the gun of Sumpter came on
that sad day of April, I was ready with a company of volunteers who had
known some months of drill, at least, and who had been good enough to
elect me for their captain. Most of my men came from the mountains of
Western Virginia, where geography made loyalty, and loyalty later made a
State. I heard, remotely, that Colonel Meriwether would not join the
Confederacy. Some men of Western Virginia and Eastern Kentucky remained
with the older flag. Both the Sheratons, the old Colonel and his son
Harry, were of course for the South, and early in January they both left
home for Richmond. On the other hand, again, our friend Captain
Stevenson stood for the Federal government; and so I heard, also
indirectly, did young Belknap of the Ninth Dragoons, Regulars, a gallant
boy who swiftly reached distinction, and died a gallant man's death at
Shiloh later on.

My mother, all for peace, was gray and silent over these hurrying
events. She wept when she saw me in uniform and belt. "See," she said,
"we freed our slaves long ago. We thought as the North thinks. This war
is not for the Society of Friends." But she saw my father's blood in me
again, and sighed. "Go, then," she said.

All over the country, North and South, came the same sighed consent of
the women, "Go, then." And so we went out to kill each other, we who
should all have been brothers. None of us would listen. The armies
formed, facing each other on Virginia soil. Soon in our trampled fields,
and broken herds, and ruined crops, in our desolated homes and hearts,
we, brothers in America, learned the significance of war.

They crossed our little valley, passing through Alexandria, coming from
Harper's Ferry, these raw ninety-day men of McDowell and Patterson, who
thought to end the Confederacy that spring. Northern politics drove them
into battle before they had learned arms. By midsummer all the world
knew that they would presently encounter, somewhere near Manassas, to
the south and west, the forces of Beauregard and Johnston, then lying
within practical touch of each other by rail.

My men, most of them young fellows used to horse and arms, were brigaded
as infantry with one of the four divisions of McDowell's men, who
converged along different lines toward Fairfax. For nearly a week we lay
near the front of the advance, moving on in snail-like fashion, which
ill-suited most of us Virginians, who saw no virtue in postp