SHADOWS OF COMING TROUBLES 125 



granted it would be. I have no idea of any disturbance, 

 or any attempt even at a plot. Of course, you will see 

 the Inaugural as soon, if not sooner than I shall, for, 

 having the telegraph, Mr. Lincoln may literally speak 

 his polyglot through tongues of fire. Officers of the 

 Army and Navy — should war come between the sec- 

 tions — will have a hard time; and, indeed, who will not? 

 No military man can permit himself to accept service 

 with a mental reservation. All who are foes of his flag, 

 and whom his country considers enemies of hers, are 

 enemies of his; therefore, if we have a war between the 

 sections, every man who continues in 'Uncle Sam's' 

 service, is, in good faith, bound to fight his own, if his 

 own be on the other side. The line of duty, therefore, 

 is to me clear — each one to follow his own state, if his 

 own state goes to war; if not, he may remain to help on 

 the work of reunion. If there be no war between the 

 sections, we must hoist the flag of re-annexation, to 

 carry the elections of '64 upon that issue, bring back 

 the seceding states, and be happier and greater and more 

 glorious than ever. As soon as the smoke clears away, 

 you will see that the old party lines have been rubbed 

 out. . . . Virginia is not at all ready to go out of this 

 Union; and she is not going out for anything that is 

 likely to occur short of coercion — such is my opinion". 



But the broken fragments of the Union were not to be 

 reunited in any such peaceful fashion, and Maury was 

 soon to be forced to follow his native state into the 

 bloody conflict. The overt act precipitating the war 

 was the firing on Fort Sumter, April 12, 1861. Maury 

 thought that the Star of the West with recruits for 

 the garrison of the fort should not have been sent, for 

 it was but an invitation to South Carolina to an overt 



