n power." In the same proclamation he invited persons
to take service in private armed vessels on the high seas, tendering
to such persons as would accept them commissions or letters of
_marque_ and reprisal.

At this time a military spirit had been aroused throughout the
seceded States, and a large number of well-equipped Southern troops
were already in the field, chiefly at Charleston and Pensacola--in
all (including about 16,000 on their way to Virginia) about 35,000.
The field, staff, and general officers in charge of these troops
were mainly graduates of West Point or other military schools; even
the captains of companies were many of them educated in the
institutions referred to. It is not to be denied that a higher
military spirit existed in the South than in the North prior to
the war. The young men from plantations were more generally
unemployed at active labor, and hence had more time to cultivate
a martial spirit than the hard-working young men of the North.

The summons to arms found the North unprepared so far as previous
spirit and training were concerned; yet it did not hesitate, and
troops were, within two days, organized and on their way from
several of the States to the defense of Washington. The 6th
Massachusetts was fired upon by a riotous mob in the streets of
Baltimore on April 19th. On every side war levies and preparations
for war went forward. The farm, the shop, the office, the counting-
room, the professions, the schools and colleges, the skilled and
the unskilled in all kinds of occupation, gave up of their best to
fill the patriotic ranks. The wealthy, the well-to-do, and the
poor were found in the same companies and regiments, on a common
footing as soldiers, and often men theretofore moving in the highest
social circles were contentedly commanded by those of the humblest
social civil life.

The companies were, as a general rule, commanded by men of no
previous military training, though wherever a military organization
existed it was made a nucleus for a volunteer company. Often
indifferent men, with a little skill in drilling soldiers, and with
no other known qualifications, were sought out and eagerly commissioned
by governors of States as field officers, a colonelcy often being
given to such persons. A volunteer regiment was considered fortunate
if it had among its field officers a lieutenant from the regular
army, or even a person from civil life who had gained some little