minds of the Southern people. It would become an inexhaustible fountain to furnish bitterness between the North and the South. It would separate the neutral mass of Southern citizens from the Federal Government, and render them powerless against the new Government over them. The gauntlet of hostilities was thrown down by the Confederate Government, and as quickly caught up by the Federal Government. Instantly four of the States above mentioned, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas, were precipitated out of the Federal Union, and joined the Confederacy. The Confederate Government then appealed to its citizens to bear witness to the truth of the original charges of hostile designs against them on the part of the Federal Administration-asserting that the convictions of the reality of these hostile designs had led to its own organization, and demanded their undivided and hearty support. This coup d'etat on the part of the Confederate Government was immediately followed by a system of rigid and arbitrary measures in the Confederate States, to repress and extinguish every indication of sympathy for the Federal Union. The most bitter denunciations were hurled against the Northern people, and contempt cast upon them as designing to accomplish a social and political equality between the mass of the white people and the negroes.

Notwithstanding all these efforts, the Confederate Government at the beginning of 1862 was still weak and insecure of the confidence and honest support of a portion of its citizens. The action of the Federal Government had been such as to cause to some extent this withholding of confidence. When it accepted hostilities with the South and became aware of the advantages it thereby lost for reaching the minds of the Southern people, it proclaimed in the most solemn manner, by a nearly unanimous vote of Congress, "that in this national emergency, Congress, banishing all feeling of mere passion or resentment, will recollect only its duty to the whole country; that this war is not prosecuted on our part in any spirit of oppression, nor for any purpose of conquest or subjugation, nor for the purpose of overthrowing or interfering with the rights or established institutions of those States, but to defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution and all laws made in pursuance thereof, and to preserve the Union, with all the dignity, equality, and rights of the several States, unimpaired; that as soon as these objects are accomplished the war ought to cease.' Its public action had thus far been generally consistent with this declaration, and the effect of it was to preserve the adhesion of the slaveholding States of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and a majority in Missouri to the Federal Union. At the same time it produced an unfavorable effect upon secession.

Other causes had operated against the success of the Confederate States which may be

briefly mentioned. The expectation that the manufacturing necessities of England and France would force them to a speedy recognition of the Confederacy and to an interference with the Federal blockade, had proved entirely groundless. The supply of cotton was as large in Liverpool at the beginning of 1862 as at the beginning of 1861, although the blockade of the Southern ports had then existed more than six months. No necessity for an interference existed, and no disposition voluntarily to interfere had been manifested anywhere. At the courts of Europe the Confederate embassadors were not noticed in their official character. The Governments of those nations, grown hoary during an existence of a thousand years, stood far aloof from the youthful aspirant. The Confederate people said: "They who have managed our public affairs have not, with any Government, any class, or any description of people, succeeded in securing one reliable friend; and so insupportable has the position of Commissioner to Europe become, that Mr. Yancey is impatient for his recall." The news of the capture of Messrs. Mason and Slidell brought gold down at Richmond from thirtyfive to fifteen per cent. premium. Confidence in the Confederate Government increased as the prospect of a war between the United States and England appeared. The release of these men was a bitter disappointment, and under the depression gold mounted rapidly again to an exorbitant premium. The ardent adherents of the Confederate Government, those most deeply involved in the cause, exclaimed against the North in their anger. "Wonderful people! wonderful press! wonderful Congress! wonderful Secretaries! wonderful Yankeedom! Certainly the world never saw your like before. Even Egypt, 'the basest of kingdoms,' is respectable when compared to you." The hope that the commercial enterprise of England would spring at once to the enjoyment of the high prices the blockade established, by sending forward cargoes of arms, munitions, medicines, and other stores most needed, was found likewise to be a delusion. The Governors of several of the States were obliged to issue appeals to the citizens to contribute their shot guns and fowling pieces to arm the Confederate troops. In Alabama an appropriation was made by the Legislature to manufacture pikes with which to arm the soldiers. It consisted of a keen twoedged steel head, like a large bowie-knife blade, nearly a foot and a half in length, with a sicklelike hook, very sharp, bending back from near the socket. This was intended for cutting the bridles of cavalrymen, or pulling them off their horses, or catching hold of an enemy when running away. The head was mounted on a shaft of tough wood about eight feet long. In the southwest Gen. Beauregard issued a proclamation, in which he appealed to the people to contribute brass and other metal to the Government to be moulded into cannon. Under this call the bells of churches and plantations

in vast numbers were given, and even brass andirons and the weights of clocks and windows were not withheld by some. Appeals were made to the people to rouse them to new exertions, which proclaimed the desperateness of their situation: "A thousand proofs exist that the Southern people are not sufficiently alive to the necessity of exertion in the struggle in which they are involved. Our very victories have brought injury upon the cause, by teaching us to despise the public adversary. The immense magnitude of his preparations for our subjugation has excited no apprehension and had little effect in rousing us to exertion." Again it was cautiously said: "It seems to be the popular impression, we see it in men's faces, when we do not hear it in their words, that the military affairs of the Confederacy are not very cheering." The Governor of Virginia issued a proclamation to the people, saying: "The exigencies of the times are not duly appreciated by many of our people. The dangers which environ us are too lightly estimated. We must see and feel their imuninence before we can be aroused to that action which is necessary to save us from alarming ills, and to avert evils which threaten our existence, our peace, and our organization as a Government." Complaints and charges of imbecility were now brought against the Confederate Government in terms like the following: "There has been a sad absence of enterprise, genius, and energy in the conduct of public affairs, such as gives nerve to the soldier's arm and kindles a flame in his heart." "We ask why the year has passed and we further than ever from recognition at home or abroad. We ask why we are fiftyfold worse off than when the war commenced?" "The want of faith in the Government is more and more clearly manifested every day." Apprehensions of the power of the United States oppressed the citizens of the Confederacy; they said: “A lull, a pause, a suspense exists, preceded by minor events which cause a feeling of apprehension more than of confidence in the future. We know that the enemy are in great power and meditate mischief, and we feel that ere long their blows, the heaviest of the war, must fall." "The dark hour of our trial will come whenever McClellan has succeeded in converting his Yankees into the involuntary machines known to the military science as regiments, brigades, and divisions. This is the end that he proposes to himself. This is the secret of his long delay. This is the work of his hands and his head at this moment." The flattering hope was also indulged that the finances of the United States would soon be exhausted, that the spirit of the people would soon be discouraged. These circumstances serve to show the weakness of the Government in the confidence of the people. On the other hand, public bodies, as if to produce an inspiriting and reviving effect, passed resolutions expressive of the greatest determination.

In the Legislature of Tennessee resolutions

were offered "that all propositions of the Congress of the (so called) United States to reconstruct a union which they have prostituted to the base purposes of annihilating the liberties, trampling upon the rights, destroying the lives, and plundering the people of the Confederate States, is but another form under which our enemies would subjugate the South and reduce us to the despotism of their degrading doctrines, &c., and that any such proposition should be met promptly and unhesitatingly with our indignant rejection."

The Legislature of Georgia passed resolutions at this time declaring that the separation "is, and ought to be final, and irrevocable," and that no proposition having for its object reconstruction would be entertained; and that Georgia pledged herself "to stand by her sister States of the Confederacy throughout the struggle."

Governor Letcher of Virginia, in his Message to the Legislature, said: "We have therefore separated from them, and now let it be understood that the separation 'is, and ought to be final and irrevocable,'—that Virginia will under no circumstances entertain any proposition from any quarter, which may have for its object a restoration or reconstruction of the late Union on any terms and conditions whatever." It should be remembered that the Legislatures which received or passed these resolutions, and the governor who expressed similar viewswere all elected while their constituents were citizens of the United States, and by their acts the secession of their respective States was accomplished.

On the 26th of February, a resolution was offered in the Confederate Congress, then in session at Richmond, by a Senator from Kentucky, and referred, which declared "that the people of the Confederate States will to the last extremity maintain and defend their right to self-government, and the government established by them, and to this end will pledge their last man and their last dollar for the vigorous prosecution of the war, until their independence is acknowledged; and also that they will submit to any sacrifice and endure any trial, however severe, and firmly relying on the justice of their cause, and humbly trusting in the providence of God, will maintain their position before the world and high heaven while they have a voice to raise or an arm to defend."

On the next day it was observed in Richmond that the walls in different parts of the city were scrawled over with inflammatory and treasonable mottoes." The circumstances were thus described: "They attracted but little attention at first, as the chalked letters were supposed to be the amusement of some idlers. On further examination, however, it was found that these mottoes were displayed all over the city with a system and consistency that showed that there were purpose and organization in this appeal to the multitude. The follow

ing are some of the mottoes; they were written in large and singularly well-formed letters, at different points in the city, extending even to the suburbs on Church Hill, and show a literary merit that could hardly be ascribed to blackguards, and is seldom found in mere rowdy scrawls on the street corners:

"Nationals, to the rescue!

"Nationals, arise and gird on your strength!" "Unionists, it is time to assert your rights!" "Too many stars on the flag!"

"The Scorpion of Secession-it has stung itself!"

"The South-the land of the white man!" "The Northern advance-it is the tread of the freeman," &c.

It was declared to be the work of traitors, and demands were made for the appointment of a vigilance committee as required "by the most conservative and precious interests of society." At the same date one of the daily prints of the city, made the following statement: "Our Tennessee exchanges give us gloomy prospects for the future in that part of the Confederacy. Several leading journals intimate plainly that there is really a threatening state of idolatrous love of many of these people for the old Union."

A letter from the interior of Tennessee, published at this time in the city of Memphis, stated thus: "The condition of the interior counties is not improved by the lapse of time. The people apprehend an immediate advance of the Northmen, and traitors to the South evince their joy in every village and neighborhood. The Unionists are making demonstrations in many of the northern counties, and even at Memphis there were exhibitions of joy at the arrival of the news from Beech Grove.

"In the remote counties many have been shot at night in their own houses, who adhered to the fortunes of the South."

On the part of those who had been the principal actors in accomplishing the secession of the Confederate States, the same determined purpose was still manifested. This is illustrated by the following address to the people of Georgia by their representatives in the Provisional Congress, which was issued on the 31st of January:

FELLOW CITIZENS: In a few days the Provisional Government of the Confederate States will live only in history. With it we shall deliver up the trust we have endeavored to use for your benefit, to those more directly selected by yourselves. The public record of our acts is familiar to you, and requires no further explanation at our hands. Of those matters which policy has required to be secret, it would be improper now to speak. This address, therefore, will have no personal reference. We are well assured that there exists no necessity for us to arouse your patriotism, nor to inspire your confidence. We rejoice with you in the unanimity of our State, in its resolution and its hopes. And we are proud with you that Georgia has been "illustrated," and we doubt not will be illustrated again by her sons in our holy struggle. The first campaign is over; each party rests in place, while the winter's snow declares an armistice from on high. The

results in the field are familiar to you, and we will not

recount them. To some important facts we call your attention:

First.-The moderation of our own Government, and the fanatical madness of our enemies, have dispersed all differences of opinion among our people, and united them forever in the war of independence. In a few border States a waning opposition is giving way before the stern logic of daily developing facts. The world's history does not give a parallel instance of a revolution based upon such unanimity among the people.

Second.-Our enemy has exhibited an energy, a perseverance, and an amount of resources which we had hardly expected, and a disregard of constitution and laws which we can hardly credit. The result of both, however, is that power, which is the characteristic element of despotism, and renders it as formi dable to its enemies as it is destructive to its subjects.

Third.-An immense army has been organized for unthinking stolidity of regulars. With the exclusive our destruction, which is being disciplined to the possession of the seas, our enemy is enabled to throw upon the shores of every State the nucleus of an army, And the threat is made, and doubtless the attempt grasp by a simultaneous movement along our entire will follow in early spring to crush us with a giant's borders.

Fourth.-With whatever alacrity our people may rush to arms, and with whatever energy our Govern ment may use its resources, we cannot expect to cope with our enemy either in numbers, equipments or munitions of war. To provide against these odds we must look to desperate courage, unflinching daring, and universal self-sacrifice.

least a remote one, and should not be relied on. If it Fifth. The prospect of foreign intervention is at comes, let it be only auxiliary to our own preparations for freedom. To our God and ourselves alone we should look.

These are stern facts, perhaps some of them are unpalatable. But we are deceived in you if you you. The only question for us and for you is, as a nation and individually, What have we to do? We answer:

would have us to conceal them in order to deceive

bearing to one another, frowning upon all factions opposition and censorious criticisms, and giving a trustful and generous confidence to those selected as our leaders in the camp and the council chamber.

First.-As a nation we should be united, for

Second. We should exert every nerve and strain financial and military healthfulness, and by rapid every muscle of the body politic to maintain our aggressive action, make our enemies feel, at their own firesides, the horrors of a war brought on by themselves.

individual duty. The most important matter for you, however, is your What can you do?

The foot of the oppressor is on the soil of Georgia. He comes with lust in his eye, poverty in his purse, and hell in his heart. He comes a robber and a mur derer. How shall you meet him? With the sword, st the threshold! With death for him or for yourself! But more than this-let every woman have a torch, every child a firebrand let the loved homes of our youth be made ashes, and the fields of our heritage be made desolate. Let blackness and ruin mark your de parting steps, if depart you must, and let a desert more terrrible than Sabara welcome the Vandals. Let every city be levelled by the flame, and every village be lost in ashes. Let your faithful slaves share your fortune and your crust. Trust wife and children to the sure refuge and protection of God-preferring even for these loved ones the charnel house as a home than loathsome vassalage to a nation already sunk below the contempt of the civilized world. This may be your terrible choice, and determine at once and with out dissent, as honor and patriotism and duty to God require.

FELLOW CITIZENS: Lull not yourselves into a fatal security. But prepare for every contingency. This

is our only hope for a sure and honorable peace. If our enemy was to-day convinced that the feast herein indicated would welcome him in every quarter of this confederacy, we know his base character well enough to feel assured he would never come. Let, then, the smoke of your homes, fired by women's hands, tell the approaching foe that over sword and bayonet they will rush only to fire and ruin. We have faith in God, and faith in you. He is blind to every indication of Providence who has not seen an Almighty hand controlling the events of the past year. The wind, the wave, the cloud, the mist, the sunshine, and the storm have all ministered to our necessities, and frequently succored us in our distress. We deem it unnecessary to recount the numerous instances which have called forth our gratitude. We would join you in thanksgiving and praise. 'If God be for us, who can be against us?"

Nor would we condemn your confident look to our armies, when they can meet with a foe not too greatly their superior in numbers. The year past tells a story of heroism and success, of which our nation will never be ashamed. These considerations, however, should only stimulate us to greater deeds and nobler efforts. An occasional reverse we must expect-such as has depressed us within the last few days. This is only,

temporary.

We have no fears of the result-the final issue. You and we may have to sacrifice our lives and fortunes in the holy cause; but our honor will be saved untarnished, and our children's children will rise to call us "blessed." HOWELL COBB, R. TOOMBS,

M. J. CRAWFORD, THOMAS R. R. COBB.

Such was the public sentiment in the Confederate States at the beginning of 1862. In a military aspect their position appeared extremely favorable. Their extreme line of defence had been unassailed, and was believed to be impregnable. The intrenchments at Manassas, the fortifications on the Cumberland, and at Bowling Green and Columbus were regarded as too strong to be taken by any Federal force. In the contests of the previous year, the Confederate soldiers claimed that victory had constantly fallen to their cause, and in personal prowess they had no fears of their foe. There were, however, other causes more hidden that threw a cloud over these cheering prospects. The United States were known to be preparing to exert their utmost strength, and it could be clearly seen that a fearful struggle was at hand. Arms and munitions of war could not be had in sufficient abundance. The commerce of the Confederate States was annihilated, and a most stringent blockade endangered every venture. The luxuries of life were consumed, and even the necessary articles were becoming scarce. The credit of the Government was declining, and its obligations vastly depreciated. At such a time the Federal troops began their march of invasion, and the strong Confederate positions in Kentucky were captured or evacuated. (See ARMY OPERATIONS.)

Amid such circumstances the Provisional Government ceased to exist, and the Permanent Government was inaugurated. This ceremony took place at Richmond, the seat of Government, on the 22d day of February. At half past 7 o'clock on the morning of that day the two Houses of

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Congress assembled, having organized on the 18th, and appointed committees to wait upon the President and Vice-President elect, by whom they were escorted to the Hall of the House of Delegates of Virginia. At half past twelve the assemblage moved by the eastern door of the capitol in grand procession, formed similar to those in Washington on such occasions, to the statue of Washington on the public square. At the statue of Washington the President elect, the Vice-President elect, the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the officiating clergyman, Confederate Judges, Governors of States, Judges of the Supreme Courts of States, the Chief Marshal and his aids, and six of the Committee of Arrangements, took positions on the platform. Prayer was then offered by Bishop Johns. The delivery of the inaugural address by Jefferson Davis then followed (see PUBLIC DOCUMENTS), and the oath of office was administered by Judge J. D. Halyburton.

In this address President Davis asserted that the Confederate Government was established to maintain their "ancient institutions;" "to preserve in spirit as well as in form a system of government we believed to be peculiarly fitted for our condition." For proofs of the sincerity of this purpose he says: "We may point to the Constitution of the Confederacy and the laws enacted under it, as well as to the fact that through all the necessities of an unequal struggle there has been no act on our part to impair personal liberty, or the freedom of speech, of thought, or of the press." He then points to the acts taking place in the United States under the Federal Administration as flagrant violations of private rights, and asserts that if any Union feeling has thus far existed it must now expire as hopeless. "Whatever of hope some may have entertained that a returning sense of justice would remove the danger with which our rights were threatened, and render it possible to preserve the Union and the Constitution, must have been dispelled by the malignity and barbarity of the Northern States in the prosecution of the existing war. The confidence of the most hopeful among us must have been destroyed by the disregard they have recently exhibited for all the time-honored bulwarks of civil and religious liberty-bastiles filled with prisoners, arrested without civil process or indictment duly found; the writ of habeas corpus suspended by executive mandate, &c." (See ANNUAL CYCLOPEDIA, 1861, Habeas Corpus.)

It was by such appeals as this that he sought to convince men of Union sentiments of the futility of all hopes for a restoration of the Union, unless at the sacrifice of their rights, their honor, and their independence. Unfortunately the facts alleged by him as existing under the Federal Government, were undeniable, and within the limits of the Confederacy they furnished powerful arguments with which to urge the justice of its organization, and the necessity of yield

ing to it a most hearty support. The influence of such views upon the minds of the people must have been very favorable to the cause of the Confederacy, for they are advanced by President Davis on every opportunity.

Three days after the inauguration, a Message on the State of Affairs was sent to Congress by President Davis, in which he says: "Since my Message at the last session of the Provisional Congress, events have demonstrated that the Government had attempted more than it had power successfully to achieve. Hence in the effort to protect by our arms the whole territory of the Confederate States, seaboard and inland, we have been so exposed as recently to encounter serious disasters." To withstand these diasters, and to secure its successful existence, the only hope of the Confederate Government now was founded upon its own efforts and the mistakes of its adversary. Its efforts soon became of the most vigorous nature. The system of voluntary enlistments had furnished all the soldiers required during the first months of the war. These, however, had volunteered for short terms, under the expectation that there would be an early peace. To supply their places, as the term of enlistment expired, the Provisional Congress, in January, passed an act providing for receiving individual volunteers as they might offer their services without requiring a whole company to be formed and organized before they could be mustered in. It provided subsistence, transportation, and pay from the day of enlistment. Additional inducements were held out to those who might raise companies, battalions, or regiments. About the 1st of February a call upon the States for troops was made by President Davis, which he expected would be answered in full by the close of March. On the 25th of February the number of Confederate troops in the field was four hundred regiments of infantry, with a proportionate force of cavalry and artillery. The true position of the military at this time is found in these remarks of President Davis, made at the same date: "I deem it proper to advert to the fact that the process of furloughs and reënlistments in progress for the last month had so far disorganized and weakened our forces as to impair our activity for sucessful defence; but I heartily congratulate you that this evil, which I had foreseen and was powerless to prevent, may now be said to be substantially at an end, and that we shall not again during the war be exposed to seeing our strength diminished by this frightful cause of disaster-short enlistments."

The Confederate army of 1861 was composed chiefly of men enlisted for twelve months. These enlistments commenced immediately upon the secession of the States to which the troops belonged. The expiration of their terms of service therefore took place during the first

ducements to volunteers, and the President called upon the respective States to fill up their quotas of men to serve during the war. The number which had been demanded from each State was such as to make the proportion of troops in the field from each nearly equal. The minimum number for companies when mustered in as such was sixty-four privates and twelve officers. The call upon Mississippi was for seven regiments; on Alabama for twelve regiments; on Georgia for twelve thousand men ; on North Carolina for five additional regiments. If the quota was not made up by volunteers, drafting was threatened by the Govnors of the States.

These men, with those in service for the war and volunteers for twelve months who were expected to reënlist, were intended to form the armies of 1862. By the 1st of April the Government expected the whole body of new levies and reënlisted men to be ready in the ranks. The Federal Government, however, had brought its troops into camp during the latter part of 1861, and immediately commenced to organize and drill them, and prepare the immense materials necessary for an active campaign. It was thus at least four months in advance of the Confederate Government. The army of Gen. McClellan before Washington, hanging like an ominous cloud near the horizon, created much uneasiness at Richmond, but so long as the Confederate army remained at Manassas, no vigorous and active measures for future military operations were made. Amid this position of affairs, the Federal movements were ordered to be commenced on the 22d of February. Forts Henry and Donelson were captured, Bowling Green and Columbus evacuated, and Nashville surrendered. The entire Confederate line of defence in the West was swept away, and a march by the Federal troops into the heart of the Southwestern States was threatened. Consternation seized the Southern people. The Government was aroused to action, and the President sent the following cautious Message to Congress:

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the Confederate States:

The operation of the various laws now in force for The frequent changes and amendments which have been raising armies has exhibited the necessity for reform. made have rendered the system so complicated as to make it often quite difficult to determine what the law really is, and to what extent prior amendments are modified by more recent legislation.

There is also embarrassment from conflict between State and Confederate legislation. I am happy to as sure you of the entire harmony of purpose and cordiality of feeling which has continued to exist between myself and the executives of the several States; and it forces in the field is to be attributed. is to this cause that our success in keeping adequate

These reasons would suffice for inviting your earnest attention to the necessity of some simple and general system for exercising the power of raising armies, which is vested in Congress by the Constitution.

tion. The vast preparations made by the enemy for a But there is another and more important consideracombined assault at numerous points on our frontier