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

[399] of war; and they held that post, to the great hurt of the National cause, until early in May the following year, when they fled at the approach of troops under Major-General John E. Wool.

By obtaining possession of Harper's Ferry and the Gosport Navy Yard, the most important preliminary movements for the seizure of Washington City were successfully accomplished within a week after the evacuation of Sumter. The practical annexation of a greater part of Virginia to the Southern Confederacy within eight days after these movements, and the assembling of troops upon its soil from the more Southern States, gave increased value to those acquisitions. Fire had materially lessened their immediate value, yet they were vitally important. It now only remained for the Marylanders to follow the bad example of the Virginians, to make the seizure of the National Capital an apparently easy achievement.

Map of Norfolk and vicinity.

Let us consider the events at that Capital and its vicinity at this critical period in its history.

Notwithstanding the protestations of the leading conspirators everywhere, before the attack on Fort Sumter, that they had no aggressive designs against the Republic; notwithstanding the Legislature of Virginia had, on the day when the Peace Convention assembled at Washington and the Convention of conspirators began at Montgomery,

February 4, 1861.

endeavored to lull the National Government into a sense of security most fatal to its life, by resolving that there were “no just grounds for believing that citizens of Virginia meditate an attack on or seizure of the Federal property, or invasion of the District of Columbia, and that all preparations to resist the same are unnecessary, so far as this State is concerned,” it was too well known that leading and powerful politicians in Maryland and Virginia were secretly preparing to seize the Capital, when a proper opportunity should offer, to allow the Government to relax its vigilance or its preparations for the defense of its seat, for a moment. And yet, when the crisis came — when the secession of Virginia was proclaimed, and the movements against Harper's Ferry and Gosport were begun — the foes of the Union developed such amazing proportions, vitality, and strength, that the Government was in imminent peril. The public offices were swarming with disloyal men, and the Capital held thousands