llen roar squarely over the doomed fort.

The deed was done!

Instantly came the answering cry of fierce, ungovernable wrath from the
millions of the North. The four remaining Southern States wheeled into
line, flung their battle flags into the sky, and the bloodiest war in
the history of the world had begun.

CHAPTER VI

THE PARTING OF THE WAYS

The wave of fiery enthusiasm for the Union which swept the North was
precisely what the clear eyes of the President had foreseen. A half
million men would have sprung to their arms if there had been any to
spring to. The whole country, North, South, East and West was utterly
unprepared for war. The regular army of the United States consisted of
only sixteen thousand men scattered over a vast territory.

The President called for seventy-five thousand volunteer militiamen for
three months' service to restore order in the Southern States. Even this
number was more than the War Department could equip before their terms
would expire and the President had no authority to call State troops for
a longer service.

On the day following the call, Massachusetts started three fully
equipped regiments to the front. The first reached Baltimore on the
19th. On their march through the streets to change cars for Washington,
they were attacked by a fierce mob and the first battle of the Civil War
was fought. The regiment lost four killed and thirty-six wounded and the
mob, twelve killed and a great number wounded. Grimed with blood and
dirt the troops reached Washington at five o'clock in the afternoon, the
first armed rescuers of the Capital. They were quartered in the
magnificent Senate Chamber on the Capitol Hill.

The President was immediately confronted by the gravest crisis. The
first blood had stained the soil of the only Slave State, which lay
between Washington and the loyal North. If Maryland should join the
Confederacy it would be impossible to hold the Capital. The city would
be surrounded and isolated in hostile territory.

From the first he had believed that the only conceivable way to save the
Union was to prevent the Border Slave States of Maryland, Kentucky and
Missouri from joining the South. For the moment it seemed that Maryland
was lost, and with it the Capital of the Nation. A storm of fury swept
through the city of Baltimore and the whole State over the killing of
her unarmed citizens by the "Abolition" troops from Massachusetts!

The Mayor of Baltimore