Chapter 7:
- In what sense Virginia seceded from the Union. -- a new interpretation of the war of the Confederates. -- influence of Virginia on the other Border States. -- replies of these States to Lincoln's requisition for troops. -- Secession of Tennessee, Arkansas, and North Carolina. -- seizure of Federal forts in North Carolina. -- movements in Virginia to secure the Gosport navy-yard and Harper's Ferry. -- their success. -- burning of Federal ships. -- attitude of Maryland. -- the Baltimore riot. -- Chase of Massachusetts soldiers. -- excitement in Baltimore. -- timid action of the Maryland Legislature. -- military despotism in Maryland. -- arrests in Baltimore. -- a reign of terrour. -- light estimation of the war in the North. -- why the Federal Government sought to belittle the contest. -- Lincoln's view of the war as a riot. -- Seward's letter to the European Governments. -- Early action of England and France with respect to the war. -- Mr. Gregory's letter to the London times. -- Northern conceit about the war. -- prophecies of Northern journals. -- a “three months war.” -- Ellsworth and Billy Wilson. -- martial rage in the North. -- imperfect appreciation of the crisis in the South. -- Early ideas of the war at Montgomery. -- secret history of the Confederate Constitution. -- Southern opinion of Yankee soldiers. -- what was thought of “King cotton.” -- absurd theories about European recognition. -- lost opportunities of the Confederate Government. -- blindness and littleness of mind North and South. -- reflection on public men in America. -- comparison of the resources of the Northern and Southern States. -- the census of 1860. -- material advantages of the North in the war. -- the question of subsistence. -- poverty of the South in the material and means of war. -- how the Confederacy was supplied with small arms. -- peculiar advantages of the South in the war. -- the military value of space. -- lessons of history. -- the success of the Southern Confederacy, a question only of resolution and endurance. -- only two possible causes of failure
It is to be remarked that Virginia did not secede in either the circumstances or sense in which the Cotton States had separated themselves from the Union. She had no delusive prospects of peace to comfort or sustain her in the decisive step she took. She did not secede in the sense in which separation from the Union was was the primary object of secession. On the contrary, her attachment to the Union had been proved by the most
