Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1.

[430] salvation of the Capital was arranged between them. No communication could be made to the Government, as we have observed. The General-in-chief could not speak to a single regiment outside of the District of Columbia; and General Wool was compelled, in order to act in conformity to the demands of the crisis and desires of the loyal people, to assume great responsibilities. He did so, saying :--“I shall probably be the only victim; but, under the circumstances, I am prepared to make the sacrifice, if thereby the Capital may be saved.” Day and night he labored with the tireless energy of a strong man of forty years, until the work was accomplished. Ships were chartered, supplies were furnished, and troops were forwarded to Washington with extraordinary dispatch, by way of Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River. The transports were convoyed by armed steamers to shield them from pirates; and one of them — the Quaker City--was ordered to Hampton Roads, to prevent the insurgents transporting heavy guns from the Gosport Navy Yard with which to attack Fortress Monroe, the military key to Virginia. To that immensely important military work, Wool sent gun-carriages, ammunition, and provisions, that it might be held, and command the chief waters of Virginia. A dozen State Governors applied to him, as the superior military officer that could be reached, for advice and for munitions of war, and he assisted in arming no less than nine States.¹ In reply to Governor Yates, of Illinois, asking for five thousand muskets and a complement of ammunition, he directed him to send a judicious officer, with four or five companies, to take possession of the Arsenal at St. Louis, which he believed to be in danger of seizure by the secessionists of Missouri. He also telegraphed to Frank P. Blair, of St. Louis (afterward a major-general in the National Army), to assist in the matter. By judicious management, twenty-one thousand stand of small arms, two field-pieces, and one hundred and ten thousand rounds of ammunition were transferred from St. Louis to Illinois. Wool also ordered heavy cannon, carriages, et coetera, to Cairo, Illinois, which speedily became a place of great interest, in a military point of view. He authorized the Governors of New Hampshire and Massachusetts to put the coast defenses within the borders of their respective States in good order, and approved of other measures proposed for the defense of the seaport towns supposed to be in danger from the pirate vessels of the “Confederacy,” then known to be afloat. He also took the responsibility of sending forward to Washington Colonel Ellsworth's Zouave Regiment, composed principally of New York firemen, who were restrained, for the moment, by official State authority.²