One-half of the country thought that this victory of a few untrained gunners would prevent further progress of the war; that the Federal Government, seeing how determined5 was the stand the South had taken—how ready she was to defend her principles—would recede6 and grant the concessions7 demanded. The other half felt that, however fair an augury8 for the future the great and bloodless victory might be—and it will be recollected9 that the only loss was the death of a few United States soldiers, in the salute10 Beauregard permitted them to give their flag—the real tug11 of the struggle was not yet commenced; that the whole power of a government, never yet overstrained, or even fully12 tested, would be hurled13 on the new confederation, to crush ere it could concentrate its strength.
The Confederate Government was on the side of this opinion; and now, for the first time, preparations for war began in earnest. Though the people of Montgomery still murmured, as they had done from the beginning, at the influx14 of corrupting15 social influences from Sodom on the Potomac, and still held the hordes16 of unintroduced strangers aloof17 from their firesides, they continued most strenuous18 exertions19 and made most selfless sacrifices to serve the beloved cause. Storehouses were freely offered for the public use; and merchants moved from their places of business, on shortest notice, to turn them over to the Government.
A great, red brick pile, originally built for warehouses20 and counting-rooms, had early been converted into public offices and popularly named the "Government House." Here the departments were all crowded together; and now, under the pressure of close necessity, the War office was organized into bureaux, at the heads of which were placed the most competent officers of the old service at the disposal of the Executive. Bureaux of Adjutant-General, Ordnance21, Engineers and Medicine were soon put in as perfect a state as the condition of the South allowed; and their respective chiefs were tireless in endeavor to collect the very best assistants and material, in their various branches, from every quarter.
Commissioners22 were sent to all the states that had not already joined the Confederacy, to urge them to speedy action; and the dispatches they sent back were so full of cheer, that day after day a salute of cannon23 from the street in front of the Government House announced to the roused Montgomerans that another ally had enlisted24 under the flag; or, that a fresh levy25 of troops, from some unexpected quarter, had been voted to the cause.
Officers, carefully selected from those who left the United States Army, or who had received military education elsewhere, were promptly26 sent to all points in the South, to urge and hasten the organization of troops; to forward those already raised to points where they might be most needed; and to establish recruiting stations and camps of instruction. The captured arsenals27 were put in working order, new ones were started, depots29 for clothes, ordnance and medicines were prepared; and from one boundary of the Confederacy to the other, the hum of preparation told that the leaders of the nation had at last awakened30 to its real demands.
The mass of the people—who, from the first, had been willing and anxious, but doubtful what to do—now sprang to their places; moneyed men made large and generous donations of cash; the banks offered loans of any amount, on most liberal terms; planters from every section made proffers31 of provisions and stock, in any quantities needed; and the managers of all the railroads in the South held a convention at Montgomery and proffered32 the use of their roads to the Government; volunteering to charge only half-rates, and to receive payment in the bonds of the Confederate States.
Especially did the women go heart and soul into the work; urging the laggards33, encouraging the zealous34, and laboring36 with sacrificial zeal35 upon rough uniforms for the most unprepared of the new troops.
The best blood of the South went cheerfully into the ranks, as the post of honor; and the new regiments37 endeavored to be perfectly38 impartial39 in selecting the best men for their officers, irrespective of any other claim. That they failed signally in their object was the fault, not of their intention, but of human nature in many cases—of circumstance in all.
At this time the plan of filling up the regular army was abandoned. Officers coming from the United States service were, by law, entitled to at least as high rank in it as they had there held; but volunteers were asked for and accepted by companies, or regiments, with the privilege of choosing their own leaders; and these regulars were only given commands where vacancies40, or the exigencies41 of the service, seemed to demand it imperatively42.
Every hour of the day could be heard the tap of the drum, as the new troops from depot28, or steamer, marched through the town to their camps in the suburbs; or as the better drilled volunteer companies passed through to Pensacola, where Brigadier-General Braxton Bragg already had a considerable force. And toward that point every eye was strained as the next great theater of action.
All day long the churches were open, and crowds of ladies, from town and country, assembled in them and sewed on the tough, ungainly pants and jackets; while their negro maids, collected on the porches, or under the trees, worked as steadily44 as their mistresses, many a ringing guffaw45 and not unmusical song rising above them.
Great numbers of the interested and the curious visited the camps, carrying substantial tokens of sympathy for the cause and its defenders46 in the shape of hams, loaves and sometimes bottles. Nor was such testimony47 often irrelevant48; for as yet the quartermaster and commissary—those much-erring and more-cursed adjuncts to all armies—were not fully aware of what they were to do, or how to do it, even with the means therefor provided. But the South was at last awake! And again the popular voice averred49 that it was not Congress, or Cabinet; that the President alone was the motive50 power; that his strong hand had grasped the chaos51 and reduced it to something like order. Rapidly one needful and pointed52 law after another emanated53 from Congress; and what had been a confused mass of weak resolves assumed shape as clear and legible statutes54. It was generally said that Mr. Davis had reduced Congress to a pliable55 texture56 that his iron fingers could twist at will into any form they pleased. Newspaper correspondents wrote strange stories of the length to which that dignified57 body allowed him to carry his prerogative58. They declared that frequently, the framing of a bill not suiting him, it was simply returned by his private secretary, with verbal instructions as to emendations and corrections, which were obediently carried out.
Some even went to the length of asserting that, before any bill of importance was framed, a rough draft was sent down from the President's office and simply put into form and voted a law by the ductile59 legislators.
However much of this one may allow for exaggeration of "our correspondent," it is certain that Mr. Davis was the heart and brains of the government; and his popularity with the people was, at this time, unbounded. They were perfectly content to think that the government was in the hollow of his hand; and pronounced any of his measures good before they were tried. His energy, too, was untiring; and it was wonderful to look on the frail60 body and believe that it endured the terrible physical and mental strain he imposed upon it.
At this time the President and his family, having left their temporary quarters at the hotel, were living at a plain mansion61 provided for them, but a few steps from the Government House. In the latter building were the executive office and the Cabinet room, connected by an always open door; and in one or the other of these Mr. Davis spent some fifteen hours out of every twenty-four. Here he received the thousands of visitors whom curiosity, or business, brought; consulted with his secretaries, revised bills, or framed new projects for strengthening the defenses of the open and wide frontier. It was said that he managed the War Department, in all its various details, in addition to other manifold labors62; finding time not only to give it a general supervision63, but to go into all the minuti? of the working of its bureaux, the choice of all its officers, or agents, and the very disbursement64 of its appropriations65.
His habits were as simple as laborious66. He rose early, worked at home until breakfast, then to a long and wearing day at the Government House. Often, long after midnight, the red glow from his office lamp, shining over the mock-orange hedge in front of his dwelling67, told of unremitting strain. Thus early in the drama, Mr. Benjamin had become one of its leading actors; having more real weight and influence with Mr. Davis than any, or all, of his other advisers68. The President did not believe there was "safety in a multitude of counsellors;" and he certainly chose the subtlest, if not the safest, head of the half-dozen to aid him. With Mr. Mallory, too, he seemed on very friendly and confidential69 terms. These two he met as friends and advisers; but beside them, the Cabinet—as such—had scarcely a practical existence. Mr. Davis very naturally considered that the War Department had become the government, and he managed it accordingly. The secretaries were, of course, useful to arrange matters formally in their respective branches; but they had scarcely higher duties left them than those of their clerks; while Congress remained a formal body to pass bills and ratify70 acts, the inspiration for which it derived71 from the clearest and coolest brain in the South.
The crisis had called in plain terms that it was time for the leading spirit of the revolution to take its management; and he had risen to the occasion and faced the responsibilities, before which the chosen of the new nation had hitherto cowered72.
And naturally, under the iron hand, things began to work more smoothly73 than they had under the King-Log reign74 of a few weeks previous; and the country felt the change from the Potomac to the Gulf75. True, politicians still grumbled76, but less loudly; for even they found something to do, where everybody began to be busy. The great crowd that at first collected had thinned greatly, from assignments to duty in divers77 quarters; and that portion of it left in Montgomery began to settle into a regular routine.
The ladies of the executive mansion held occasional receptions, after the Washington custom, at which were collected the most brilliant, the most gallant78 and most honored of the South. But the citizens still held aloof from general connection with the alien crowd. They could not get rid of their idea that Sodom had come to be imposed on them; and to their prejudiced nostrils79 there was an odor of sulphur in everything that savored80 of Washington society. And yet, while they grumbled—these older people of Montgomery—they wrought81, heart and soul for the cause; yielded their warerooms for government use, contributed freely in money and stores, let their wives and daughters work on the soldiers' clothing like seamstresses, and put their first-born into the ranks, musket82 on shoulder.
Early on the morning of the 18th of April, a salute of seven guns rang out from the street before the public building. The telegraph had brought the most welcome news that, on the evening before, Virginia had passed the ordinance83 of secession.
Wild was the rejoicing at the southern Capital that day!
The Old Dominion84 had long and sedately85 debated the question; had carefully considered the principles involved and canvassed86 the pros87 and cons43, heedless alike of jeers88 from without and hot-headed counsels within her borders.
She had trembled long in the balance so tenderly adjusted, that the straining eyes of the South could form no notion how it would lean; but now she turned deliberately89 and poured the vast wealth of her influence, of her mineral stores and her stalwart and chivalric90 sons into the lap of the Confederacy.
The victory of the week before paled before this; and men looked at each other with a hope in their eyes that spoke91 more than the braying92 of a thousand bands.
And the triumph was a double one; for great as was the accession to the South in boundary, in men and means, greater far was the blow to the union, when its eldest93 and most honored daughter divorced herself from the parent hearth94 and told the world, that looked on with deep suspense95, that the cause of her sisters must in future be her own!
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1
culminated
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| v.达到极点( culminate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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patriotic
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| adj.爱国的，有爱国心的 | |
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persuasion
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| n.劝说；说服；持有某种信仰的宗派 | |
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beverage
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| n.(水，酒等之外的)饮料 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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recede
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| vi.退(去)，渐渐远去；向后倾斜，缩进 | |
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concessions
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| n.（尤指由政府或雇主给予的）特许权( concession的名词复数 )；承认；减价；（在某地的）特许经营权 | |
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augury
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| n.预言，征兆，占卦 | |
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recollected
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| adj.冷静的；镇定的；被回忆起的；沉思默想的v.记起，想起( recollect的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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salute
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| vi.行礼，致意，问候，放礼炮；vt.向…致意，迎接，赞扬；n.招呼，敬礼，礼炮 | |
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tug
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| v.用力拖(或拉)；苦干；n.拖；苦干；拖船 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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hurled
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| v.猛投，用力掷( hurl的过去式和过去分词 )；大声叫骂 | |
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influx
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| n.流入，注入 | |
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corrupting
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| （使）败坏( corrupt的现在分词 )； （使）腐化； 引起（计算机文件等的）错误； 破坏 | |
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hordes
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| n.移动着的一大群( horde的名词复数 )；部落 | |
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aloof
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| adj.远离的；冷淡的，漠不关心的 | |
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strenuous
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| adj.奋发的，使劲的；紧张的；热烈的，狂热的 | |
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exertions
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| n.努力( exertion的名词复数 )；费力；（能力、权力等的）运用；行使 | |
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warehouses
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| 仓库，货栈( warehouse的名词复数 ) | |
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ordnance
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| n.大炮，军械 | |
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commissioners
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| n.专员( commissioner的名词复数 )；长官；委员；政府部门的长官 | |
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cannon
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| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
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enlisted
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| adj.应募入伍的v.（使）入伍， （使）参军( enlist的过去式和过去分词 )；获得（帮助或支持） | |
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levy
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| n.征收税或其他款项，征收额 | |
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promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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arsenals
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| n.兵工厂，军火库( arsenal的名词复数 )；任何事物的集成 | |
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depot
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| n.仓库，储藏处；公共汽车站；火车站 | |
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depots
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| 仓库( depot的名词复数 )； 火车站； 车库； 军需库 | |
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awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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proffers
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| v.提供，贡献，提出( proffer的第三人称单数 ) | |
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proffered
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| v.提供，贡献，提出( proffer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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laggards
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| n.落后者( laggard的名词复数 ) | |
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zealous
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| adj.狂热的，热心的 | |
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zeal
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| n.热心，热情，热忱 | |
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laboring
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| n.劳动，操劳v.努力争取(for)( labor的现在分词 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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regiments
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| （军队的）团( regiment的名词复数 )； 大量的人或物 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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impartial
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| adj.(in,to)公正的，无偏见的 | |
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vacancies
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| n.空房间( vacancy的名词复数 )；空虚；空白；空缺 | |
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exigencies
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| n.急切需要 | |
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imperatively
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| adv.命令式地 | |
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cons
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| n.欺骗，骗局( con的名词复数 )v.诈骗，哄骗( con的第三人称单数 ) | |
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steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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guffaw
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| n.哄笑；突然的大笑 | |
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defenders
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| n.防御者( defender的名词复数 )；守卫者；保护者；辩护者 | |
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testimony
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| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
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irrelevant
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| adj.不恰当的，无关系的，不相干的 | |
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averred
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| v.断言( aver的过去式和过去分词 )；证实；证明…属实；作为事实提出 | |
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motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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chaos
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| n.混乱，无秩序 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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emanated
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| v.从…处传出，传出( emanate的过去式和过去分词 )；产生，表现，显示 | |
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statutes
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| 成文法( statute的名词复数 )； 法令； 法规； 章程 | |
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pliable
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| adj.易受影响的；易弯的；柔顺的，易驾驭的 | |
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texture
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| n.(织物)质地；(材料)构造；结构；肌理 | |
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dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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prerogative
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| n.特权 | |
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ductile
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| adj.易延展的，柔软的 | |
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frail
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| adj.身体虚弱的；易损坏的 | |
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mansion
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| n.大厦，大楼；宅第 | |
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labors
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| v.努力争取(for)( labor的第三人称单数 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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supervision
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| n.监督，管理 | |
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disbursement
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| n.支付，付款 | |
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appropriations
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| n.挪用（appropriation的复数形式） | |
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laborious
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| adj.吃力的，努力的，不流畅 | |
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dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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advisers
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| 顾问，劝告者( adviser的名词复数 )； （指导大学新生学科问题等的）指导教授 | |
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confidential
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| adj.秘（机）密的，表示信任的，担任机密工作的 | |
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ratify
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| v.批准，认可，追认 | |
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derived
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| vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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cowered
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| v.畏缩，抖缩( cower的过去式 ) | |
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smoothly
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| adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地 | |
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reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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gulf
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| n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂 | |
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grumbled
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| 抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 发牢骚； 咕哝； 发哼声 | |
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divers
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| adj.不同的；种种的 | |
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gallant
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| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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nostrils
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| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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savored
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| v.意味，带有…的性质( savor的过去式和过去分词 )；给…加调味品；使有风味；品尝 | |
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wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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musket
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| n.滑膛枪 | |
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83
ordinance
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| n.法令；条令；条例 | |
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84
dominion
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| n.统治，管辖，支配权；领土，版图 | |
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85
sedately
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| adv.镇静地，安详地 | |
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86
canvassed
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| v.（在政治方面）游说( canvass的过去式和过去分词 )；调查（如选举前选民的）意见；为讨论而提出（意见等）；详细检查 | |
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87
pros
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| abbr.prosecuting 起诉；prosecutor 起诉人；professionals 自由职业者；proscenium （舞台）前部n.赞成的意见( pro的名词复数 )；赞成的理由；抵偿物；交换物 | |
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88
jeers
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| n.操纵帆桁下部（使其上下的）索具；嘲讽( jeer的名词复数 )v.嘲笑( jeer的第三人称单数 ) | |
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89
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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90
chivalric
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| 有武士气概的，有武士风范的 | |
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91
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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92
braying
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| v.发出驴叫似的声音( bray的现在分词 )；发嘟嘟声；粗声粗气地讲话（或大笑）；猛击 | |
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93
eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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94
hearth
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| n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面 | |
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95
suspense
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| n.（对可能发生的事）紧张感，担心，挂虑 | |
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