“This labor ought to be that of love, and the undersigned trusts and believes it will be so.  Anyhow, it must be done.

“The willing shall be properly credited; the unwilling promptly visited.  The principle adopted is, Citizens for the labor, soldiers for the battle.

“Third.  The ferry-boats will cease plying the river after four o’clock, A.M., until further orders.

“Martial law is hereby proclaimed in the three cities; but until they can be relieved by the military, the injunctions of this proclamation will be executed by the police.

  “LEWIS WALLACE,
  “Maj.-Gen’r’l Commanding.”

Could anything be bolder and more to the purpose?  It placed Cincinnati under martial law.  It totally suspended business, and sent every citizen, without distinction, to the ranks or into the trenches.  “Citizens for labor, soldiers for battle,” was the principle underlying the whole plan,—­a motto by which he reached every able-bodied man in the metropolis, and united the energies of forty thousand people,—­a motto original with himself, and for which he should have the credit.

Imagine the astonishment that seized the city, when, in the morning, this bold proclamation was read,—­a city unused to the din of war and its impediments.  As yet there was no word of an advance of the enemy in the direction of Cincinnati.  It was a question whether they would come or not.  Thousands did not believe in the impending danger; yet the proclamation was obeyed to the letter, and this, too, when there was not a regiment to enforce it.  The secret is easy of comprehension:  it was the universal confidence reposed in the man who issued the order; and he was equally confident, not only in his own judgment, but in the people with whom he had to deal.

“If the enemy should not come after all this fuss,” said one of the General’s friends, “you will be ruined.”

“Very well,” he replied; “but they will come.  And if they do not, it will be because this same fuss has caused them to think better of it.”

The ten days ensuing will be forever memorable in the annals of the city of Cincinnati.  The cheerful alacrity with which the people rose en masse to swell the ranks and crowd into the trenches was a sight worth seeing, and being seen could not readily be forgotten.

Here were the representatives of all nations and classes.  The sturdy German, the lithe and gay-hearted Irishman, went shoulder to shoulder in defence of their adopted country.  The man of money, the man of law, the merchant, the artist, and the artisan swelled the lines hastening to the scene of action, armed either with musket, pick, or spade.  Added to these was seen Dickson’s long and dusky brigade of colored men, cheerfully wending their way to labor on the fortifications, evidently holding it their especial right to put whatever impediments they could in the northward path of those whom they considered their own peculiar foe.