Civil War—­Uprising of the Nation—­The President’s First Call for Troops—­Response of the Loyal North—­The Riots in Baltimore—­Loyalty of Stephen A. Douglas—­Douglas’s Death—­Blockade of Southern Ports—­Additional War Measures—­Lincoln Defines the Policy of the Government—­His Conciliatory Course—­His Desire to Save Kentucky—­The President’s First Message to Congress—­Gathering of Troops in Washington—­Reviews and Parades—­Disaster at Bull Run—­The President Visits the Army—­Good Advice to an Angry Officer—­A Peculiar Cabinet Meeting—­Dark Days for Lincoln—­A “Black Mood” in the White House—­Lincoln’s Unfaltering Courage—­Relief in Story-telling—­A Pretty Good Land Title—­“Measuring up” with Charles Sumner—­General Scott “Unable as a Politician”—­A Good Drawing-plaster—­The New York Millionaires who Wanted a Gunboat—­A Good Bridge-builder—­A Sick Lot of Office-seekers.

The Confederate attack upon Fort Sumter—­a United States fort situated at the mouth of Charleston Harbor, South Carolina—­April 12, 1861, was the signal that civil war had actually begun.  Lincoln had thus far maintained a conciliatory policy toward the States in rebellion, hoping to the last that good sense and reason prevailing over rash and violent impulses would induce them to resume their allegiance to the Government.  Their resort to arms and capture of forts and property of the United States decided the course of the administration; and on the 15th of April—­forty-two days after his accession to the Presidency—­Lincoln issued a proclamation asking for the immediate enlistment of 75,000 volunteers,[C] and summoning Congress to convene in an extra session on the 4th of July.  The call was sent forth in the following form: 

     PROCLAMATION.

     By the President of the United States.

WHEREAS, the laws of the United States have been for some time past and now are opposed and the execution thereof obstructed in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the powers vested in the marshals by law; now, therefore, I, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States, in virtue of the power in me vested by the Constitution and the laws, have thought fit to call forth, and hereby do call forth, the militia of the several States of the Union, to the aggregate number of seventy-five thousand, in order to suppress said combinations and to cause the laws to be duly executed.

The details of this object will be immediately communicated to the State authorities through the War Department.  I appeal to all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate, and aid this effort to maintain the honor, the integrity and existence of our National Union, and the perpetuity of popular government, and to redress wrongs already long enough endured.  I deem it proper to say that the first service assigned to the forces