Secession, but to maintain the rights of the Commonwealth in the Union; and all citizens who had taken up arms against the National Government were exhorted to lay them down and return to their allegiance. An Ordinance was reported and adopted vacating all the offices in the State held by State officers acting in hostility to the General Government, and also providing for a Provisional government and the election of officers for a period of six months; also requiring all officers of the State, counties and towns, to take an oath of allegiance to the National Government. This movement, which formally deposed Governor Letcher and all State officers in rebellion against the National Government, but not a secession from the State, was purely revolutionary. The Convention adopted a declaration of independence of the old government of Virginia, which was signed by fifty-six members; and on the 19th a Provisional government was organized by the choice of Francis H. Pierrepont, Provisional governor of the State; Daniel Polsley, lieutenant-governor, and an Executive Council of five members. On the following day (June 20, 1861) the necessity of ultimate separation from Eastern Virginia was favored by resolution adopted by unanimous vote. Mr. Pierrepont was a bold and energetic man. He at once notified the President of the United States that an insurrection in Virginia was too formidable to be suppressed by local power, and called for aid from the National Government to suppress it. He organized the militia, and borrowed money for the public service on the pledge of his own private fortune. He upheld the "restored government" against the extraordinary efforts of the conspirators at Richmond to crush the new organization and enslave the loyal people. A Legislature was chosen, and at its session, begun at Wheeling on the Ist of July, John S. Carlile and Waitman G. Willie were chosen to represent the restored Commonwealth in the National Congress. Finally a convention of delegates, held in November, 1861, adopted a new State constitution, in which Slavery was prohibited; and on 3d of May following, the people who voted upon it, ratified it. The Legislature, at a called session, approved of a division of the State, and the establishment of a new Commonwealth. All the legal requirements having been complied with, the western counties, by Act of Congress, organized under a constitution, were admitted into the Union under the title of the State of West Virginia, on the 20th of June, 1863; and Arthur J. Boreman was chosen governor of the new Commonwealth. At midsummer, Old Virginia presented the curious political spectacle, of Letcher, at Richmond, claiming authority over the whole State; Pierrepont, at Alexandria, claiming authority over the whole old State excepting West Virginia, CHAP. IX. POSITION OF THE KENTUCKIANS. 1495 and Boreman, at Wheeling, the chief executive of the new Commonwealth, as legal governor. The Unionists of Western Virginia needed help from the beginning; for the regiment that gathered around Colonel Kelley at Wheeling, though full eleven hundred strong, were too few to withstand the Confederate forces sent against them. Already General George B. McClellan, who had been called to the command of the Ohio troops, was assigned to the head of the Department of the Ohio, which included Western Virginia. With Ohio and Indiana troops he crossed the Ohio River. These, with Kelly's Virginians, moved on Grafton and drove Porterfield and his Confederates to Philippi, closely pursued by his foes. After a sharp engagement at the latter place, on the 2d of June, the Confederates were dispersed, and, for awhile, matters were quiet in that region. Kelley was severely wounded in the battle at Philippi. That was the first conflict on land after the President's call for troops. While events in Western Virginia were assuming the character of open warfare between armed forces, others of great importance were occurring westward of the Alleghany Mountains; for, so early as the beginning of June, civil war had begun wherever the system of slavery prevailed. Political leaders in the "Border States "-slave-labor States bordering on freelabor States-took a position which finally brought great distress upon the inhabitants of those Commonwealths. A large class of these leaders professed to be friends of the Union, but conditionally. They would be its friends so long as the National Government did not interfere with slavery, nor "attempt to bring back the seceded States;" in other words, they were friends of the Republic so long as its Government did not raise a finger for the salvation of its life. When the President's call for troops to suppress the rebellion appeared, the Louisville Journal, the organ of the professed Unionists of Kentucky, hastened to say: "We are struck with mingled amazement and indignation. The policy announced in the proclamation deserves the unqualified condemnation of every American citizen. It is unworthy, not merely of a statesman, but of a man. It is a policy utterly hair-brained and ruinous. If Mr. Lincoln contemplated this policy in his inaugural address, he is a guilty dissembler; if he conceived it under the excitement aroused by the seizure of Fort Sumter, he is a guilty Hotspur. In either case, he is miserably unfit for the exalted position in which the enemies of the country have placed him. Let the people instantly take him and his administration into their own hands, if they would rescue the land from bloodshed, and the Union from sudden and irretrievable destruction." And at a large "Union meeting" at Louisville, over which James Guthrie and other leading men in the State held control, it was resolved that " Kentucky reserved to herself the right to choose her own position; and that, while her natural sympathies are with those who have a common. interest in the protection of Slavery, she still acknowledges her loyalty and fealty to the Government of the United States, which she will cheerfully render until that Government becomes aggressive, tyrannical, and regardless of our rights in slave property." They declared that the States were peers of the National Government; and gave the world to understand that the latter should not be allowed to "use sanguinary or coercive" measures to "bring back the seceded States." The "Kentucky State Guard," which the governor had organized for the benefit of the Secessionists, were commended by this Union meeting as "the bulwark of the safety of the Commonwealth,” and its members were enjoined to remember that they were "pledged equally" to fidelity to the United States and Kentucky. The "Guard" was placed under the command of Captain Simon B. Buckner of the National army, who was then evidently in the secret service of the Confederacy, for he used his position effectively in seducing large numbers of the members of the "Guard" from their allegiance to the old flag, and sending them as recruits to the Confederate armies. It was not long before he led a large portion of them into the camp of the enemy, and he became a Confederate major-general. Then the Louisville Journal, that had so savagely condemned the President, more savagely assailed Buckner with curses, saying: "Away with your pledges and assurances-with your protestations, apologies and proclamations-at once and altogether! Away, parricide! Away, and do penance forever!-be shriven or slain-away! You have less palliation than Attila-less boldness, magnanimity and nobleness than Cariolanus. You are the Benedict Arnold of the day! you are the Catiline of Kentucky! Go, thou miscreant!" And when in February, 1862, Buckner and some of the "State Guard" were captured at Fort Donelson, and he was sent to Fort Warren, Boston, many of those who were deceived by the pretence that the "Guard" were the "bulwark of the Commonwealth," demanded his delivery to the authorities of Kentucky, to be tried for treason against the State. That was after the Legislature of that State had refused to favor the scheme of the disloyal governor, and Kentucky was feeling the effects of its peculiar "neutrality," a sort of Unionism that caused Missouri and Kentucky to become battle-fields, and to suffer untold miseries. Their soil was trodden and ravaged by contending armies, which had no respect for what was known as "Kentucky neutrality," for, in the hands of the Secessionists it was only an adroit scheme to mislead and confuse the people, a large majority of whom were sincerely attached to the Union. CHAP. IX. EVENTS IN MISSOURI. 1497 Although the slaves were not more than one-tenth of the population of Missouri and the best interests of the State were allied to free-labor, the Slave power, wielded by the most active politicians, had such potential influence that it controlled the destiny of that State. By these the election of Claiborne T. Jackson, governor of Missouri, was effected, and he was now one of the most active of the Secessionists. His political friends formed a plan for placing the militia of the State under his absolute control for the benefit of the Confederacy. The chief leader in this scheme was D. M. Frost, of New York, a graduate of West Point, who was commissioned a brigadier and placed at the head of that militia. Frost resolved to seize the Arsenal at St. Louis, and hold possession of that chief city of the Mississippi Valley; and for this purpose he formed a camp near the town with the pretext of disciplining the men under his command. At that time the military post at St. Louis was in charge of Captain Nathaniel M. Lyon, who was vigilant and brave; and when he was satisfied of Frost's treacherous designs, he marched out with a large number of volunteers, surrounded the insurgent camp, and made the leader and his followers prisoners. It was now late in May, and the Secessionists in Missouri took open issue with the National Government. The latter, satisfied that it was the design of the Confederates to hold military possession of that State and of Kentucky, fortified Cairo, Illinois, at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. It was made impregnable, and became of immense importance to the Union cause; for there some of the land and naval expeditions which performed signal service in the valley of the Mississippi were fitted out. General W. S. Harney, a conservative in feeling, was at the head of the Department of the West, with his quarters at St. Louis. He returned to his post, after a brief absence, when the excitement was at its height. Wishing to preserve peace, he made a compact with the insurgent leaders not to employ the military arm so long as they should preserve public order. The loyal people were alarmed, for they would not trust the promises of the Secessionists. Happily for the Union cause, the National Government did not sanction the compact. Appreciating the great services of Lyon, he was commissioned a brigadier, and at the close of May he succeeded Harney with the title of Commander of the Department of Missouri. Early in June, General Lyon, Colonel Blair and others, held a conference with Governor Jackson and General Price, on the subject of pacification. Jackson demanded the disbanding of the Home Guard, composed of loyal Missourians, and the withdrawal of National troops from the State. Lyon peremptorily refused, when Jackson and Price returned to Jefferson City, the State capital. The Legislature had placed the purse and sword of Missouri in the hands of the governor; and on the 12th of June (1861) he issued a proclamation calling into active service fifty thousand of the militia, and raised the standard of revolt, with General Sterling Price as military leader. At the same time he ordered his son to destroy two important railway bridges, and cut the telegraph wires between St. Louis and the State capital. Then began those movements of troops within the borders of Missouri which continued almost incessantly during the entire period of the war, with the most disastrous results to the peace and prosperity of the State. At the same time the disloyal governor of Tennessee (Isham G. Harris) had placed that State in military relations to the Confederacy, similar to that of Virginia, and was working in concert with Jackson. General Gideon J. Pillow, an indifferent leader, was placed in chief command of the troops of both States, and with these he made an unsuccessful effort to seize Cairo. He was soon superseded by Leonidas Polk, a graduate of West Point, and then Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Louisiana, who had been commissioned a major-general, and became an earnest leader of Confederate armies in the West. Civil War had now begun in earnest; and in all parts of the Union, North and South, hosts of armed men were marshaling for the dreadful struggle that ensued. The Confederate government, in order to be nearer the National capital, their coveted object, had resolved to leave Montgomery and make their headquarters at Richmond; while their forces, designed for the capture of Washington, were gathering in large numbers, under General Beauregard, at Manassas, about thirty miles from that city. The president of the Confederacy (Jefferson Davis) left Montgomery for Virginia, on Sunday the 26th of May, with the intention, it was said, of taking command of the Confederate troops there, in person. He was accompanied by his favorite aid, General Wigfall of Fort Sumter fame, and by Robert Toombs, his secretary of state. His journey was a continual ovation. At every railway station, men, women, and children greeted him with enthusiasm. A reporter of the Richmond Enquirer was sent to chronicle the events of the journey, whose admiration of the "presidential party" was very pronounced. He spoke of the "flute-like voice" of Davis, and of the excessive modesty of Wigfall and Toombs. "In vain he [Wigfall] would seek some remote part of the cars," said the chronicler; "the crowd hunted him up, and the welkin rang with rejoicings as he addressed them in his emphatic and fervent style of oratory." Of Toombs, he said: "He, too, sought to avoid the call, but the echo would ring with the name of Toombs! Toombs!' and the sturdy Georgia statesman had to respond." On the southern verge of |