[133] The Act of 1795 only permitted the use of the militia until thirty days after the next session of Congress; this session being now summoned for July 4, the period of service extended only until August 3.

[134] When General Grant took command of the Eastern armies he said that the country should be cautioned against expecting too great success, because the loyal and rebel armies were made up of men of the same race, having about the same experience in war, and neither able justly to claim any great superiority over the other in endurance, courage, or discipline.  Chittenden, Recoll. 320.

[135] The third, fourth, and sixth.  Schouler, Mass. in the Civil War, i. 52.

[136] Schouler, Mass. in the Civil War, i. 72.

[137] Mayor Brown thinks that the estimate of these at 20,000 is too great.  Brown, Baltimore and Nineteenth April, 1861, p. 85.

[138] N. and H. iv. 98; Chittenden, 102; Lee’s biographer, Childe, says that “President Lincoln offered him the effective command of the Union Army,” and that Scott “conjured him ... not to quit the army.”  Childe, Lee, 30.

[139] Shortly before this time he had written to his son that it was “idle to talk of secession,” that it was “nothing but revolution” and “anarchy.”  N. and H. iv. 99.

[140] Childe, Lee, 32; Mr. Childe, p. 33, says that Lee’s resignation was accepted on the 20th (the very day on which his letter was dated!), so that he “ceased to be a member of the United States Army” before he took command of the state forces. Per contra, N. and H. iv. 101.

[141] Childe, Lee, 34.

[142] Greeley in his Amer.  Conflict, i. 349, says that the “open Secessionists were but a handful.”  This, however, is clearly an exaggerated statement.

CHAPTER IX

A REAL PRESIDENT, AND NOT A REAL BATTLE

The capture of Fort Sumter and the call for troops established one fact.  There was to be a war.  The period of speculation was over and the period of action had begun.  The transition meant much.  The talking men of the country had not appeared to advantage during the few months in which they had been busy chiefly in giving weak advice and in concocting prophecies.  They now retired before the men of affairs, who were to do better.  To the Anglo-Saxon temperament it was a relief to have done with waiting and to begin to do something.  Activity cleared the minds of men, and gave to each his appropriate duty.