nds of the Union were
not free from apprehension on the point. This, however, was soon settled
definitely, and on the right side. South of the line noble little Delaware
led off right from the first. Maryland was made to seem against the Union.
Our soldiers were assaulted, bridges were burned, and railroads torn up
within her limits, and we were many days at one time without the ability
to bring a single regiment over her soil to the capital. Now her bridges
and railroads are repaired and open to the government; she already gives
seven regiments to the cause of the Union, and none to the enemy; and
her people, at a regular election, have sustained the Union by a larger
majority and a larger aggregate vote than they ever before gave to any
candidate or any question. Kentucky, too, for some time in doubt, is now
decidedly and, I think, unchangeably ranged on the side of the Union.
Missouri is comparatively quiet, and, I believe, can, not again be overrun
by the insurrectionists. These three States of Maryland, Kentucky, and
Missouri, neither of which would promise a single soldier at first, have
now an aggregate of not less than forty thousand in the field for the
Union, while of their citizens certainly not more than a third of that
number, and they of doubtful whereabouts and doubtful existence, are in
arms against us. After a somewhat bloody struggle of months, winter closes
on the Union people of western Virginia, leaving them masters of their own
country.

An insurgent force of about fifteen hundred, for months dominating
the narrow peninsular region constituting the counties of Accomac and
Northampton, and known as Eastern Shore of Virginia, together with some
contiguous parts of Maryland, have laid down their arms, and the people
there have renewed their allegiance to and accepted the protection of the
old flag. This leaves no armed insurrectionist north of the Potomac or
east of the Chesapeake.

Also we have obtained a footing at each of the isolated points on the
southern coast of Hatteras, Port Royal, Tybee Island (near Savannah),
and Ship Island; and we likewise have some general accounts of popular
movements in behalf of the Union in North Carolina and Tennessee.

These things demonstrate that the cause of the Union is advancing steadily
and certainly southward.

Since your last adjournment Lieutenant-General Scott has retired from the
head of the army. During his long life the nation has not been unmindful