mander of the Confederate army in Virginia. But the greatest of all the men who came to the help of Virginia in her hour of need was Colonel Robert E. Lee, a son of Light Horse Harry Lee of Revolutionary fame. In resigning his commission in the United States army, he used the often-quoted expression, "Save in the defense of my native state, I never desire again to draw my sword." In speaking of his decision in a letter, written to his sister, he says, "With all my devotion to the Union and the feeling of loyalty and duty as an American citizen, I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives, my children, my home." When Colonel Lee reached Richmond, he was at once made commander of the Virginia forces. - · Military Ardor. — All through the part of Virginia east of the Alleghany Mountains the people gave themselves up to preparations for war. Everywhere military companies were organized and equipped. Drill masters soon became so much in demand that Major Thomas J. Jackson, a professor in the Virginia Military Institute, was ordered to bring a number of cadets to Richmond to assist in the work of drilling recruits at Camp Lee. Jackson never returned to his quiet professorial duties. He was appointed a colonel of volunteers by the governor of Virginia and soon after entered upon a career of fame second only to that of General Lee. Virginia Dismembered. Western Virginia was opposed to leaving the Union, and refused to be bound by the action War. In the early part of the Civil War he was commander of all the Confederate forces in Virginia. In the battle of Seven Pines he was severely wounded; and, when he reported for duty again, he was put in command of the military district of Tennessee. He continued to serve the Confederacy in the Southern campaigns till the close of the war. He is justly regarded as one of the ablest generals on the Confederate side. of the convention that passed the ordinance of secession. So the people of this section in a convention held on June 11, 1861, organized a government of their own; and at a later period this part of the Old Dominion was admitted by Congress into the Union as a separate state, though a strained interpretation1 had to be put upon the Constitution to bring this about. Thus the Virginia that took part in the War of Secession was in area about the same as the Virginia that helped to carry on the Revolution. QUESTIONS 1. Who was elected President by the Republican party in 1860? 2. Give the leading facts of his life, and state the policy of his party. 3. After his election, what did the cotton states decide to do? 4. What union did they form, and whom did they elect president? .5. Give the leading facts in the life of Jefferson Davis. 6. Why did Virginia earnestly desire peace, and what action did she take to bring it about? 7. For what purpose did the Confederate government send commissioners to Washington after Lincoln's inauguration? 8. What particular request did they make? Was it granted? 9. What notification was sent to Governor Pickens in regard to Fort Sumter? 10. How did the Confederate government accept this notification, and what happened? II. On what grounds did each section charge the other with beginning the war? 12. Why did Lincoln issue a call for seventy-five thousand troops? 13. Why did Virginia secede? 1 The government organized by the people of West Virginia had, when it was first formed, jurisdiction over only 282,000 of the 1,600,000 inhabitants of the state. But those who adhered to it claimed that it was the true and lawful government of Virginia; and their legislature authorized the formation of a new state. This action the Federal government accepted as representing the consent of Virginia to the division of her territory; and so West Virginia was admitted as a separate state. VIRG. HIST.-13 14. What is said of her heroic action in so doing? 15. Name the states that followed her example. 16. What is said of the return of Virginians? 17. What distinguished generals of the Federal army came to Virginia? 18. Give the leading facts in the life of Albert Sidney Johnston. 19. Of Joseph E. Johnston. 20. What did Robert E. Lee say on resigning his commission in the Federal army? 21. Describe the military ardor throughout Virginia. 22. When and why was the state of West Virginia formed? CHAPTER XXIV THE FIRST MOVEMENT AGAINST RICHMOND Events that will be Recorded. The military operations in the Civil War were on a very extensive scale. The struggle was prosecuted vigorously on both sides, not only in Virginia, but also in the South and West. In this short history, only a brief account of the leading military operations that took place in Virginia can be given. "On to Richmond!"-On May 21, the capital of the Southern Confederacy was moved from Montgomery, Alabama, to Richmond; and at once in the North the cry of "On to Richmond!" was raised. The formation of Federal armies for the invasion of Virginia went on at different points. One gathered at Washington under General Scott, with General McDowell in immediate command, a second at Chambersburg under General Patterson, a third in West Virginia under General McClellan, and a fourth at Fortress Monroe under General Butler. To capture Richmond and bring the war to a speedy end was the plan of the Federals. Preparations for Defense. The Confederates collected troops for the protection of Virginia, and able plans for defense were adopted. General Beauregard1 organized an 1 Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard (1818-1893) was born in Louisiana. He was the son of a wealthy cotton planter, and was of French extraction. He was lively in temperament, possessed courteous manners, and showed good breeding and education. He was so fortunate in his military operations that the Richmond Examiner gave him the title "Beauregard Felix." army at Manassas Junction to guard the direct approach from Washington to Richmond; General Joseph E. Johnston a second at Harper's Ferry to cover the Shenandoah valley; Generals Huger and Magruder a third to bar the route to Richmond by way of the peninsula between the James and the York rivers, while General Garnett was sent with troops to West Virginia to operate against the Federals in that part of the state. Opening of Hostilities in Virginia. — The first invasion of the state occurred on May 24, 1861, when Federal troops took possession of Alexandria, where there were a number of strong secessionists. For some days before the occupation, a Confederate flag flying from the top of a hotel had been plainly seen from the President's house in Washington. This, Colonel Ellsworth of the Fire Zouave Regiment, U. S. A., hastened to take down with his own hand. But as he descended from the top of the building, holding the flag, he was shot dead by the owner, Mr. Jackson, who was himself killed a moment later by Ellsworth's soldiers. This was the first bloodshed in Virginia, and the next took place in a skirmish at Big Bethel, near Fortress Monroe, on June 10, when fourteen hundred Confederates under General John B. Magruder defeated three thousand Federals, belonging to the army of General Butler. These events mark the opening of the great struggle that took place in Virginia. Battle of Manassas. But the first important battle of the war took place at Manassas, where an army of thirty thousand Federals under General McDowell, which had set out from Washington for Richmond, encountered the Confederate army under General Beauregard. As the left wing of the Federal army attempted to cross Bull Run, a little stream that flows along the plains of Manassas, a |