CHAPTER XI 

 His Part in the Civil War: In Virginia 



Maury resigned from the naval service and left the 

 National Observatory on April 20, 1861. He declared 

 that he worked as hard and as faithfully for Uncle Sam 

 up to three o'clock of that day as he had ever done, and 

 at that hour turned over all the public property and 

 records of the office to Lieutenant Whiting, the officer 

 who was next in authority. He left the Observatory 

 with the deepest regret. ''Its associations", he wrote, 

 "the treasures there, which, with your help and that 

 of thousands of other friendly hands, had been collected 

 from the sea, were precious to me and as I turned my 

 back upon the place a tear furrowed my cheek, for I 

 could not but recollect that such things were". 



From Richmond, on April 26th, he wrote to Secretary 

 of the Navy, Gideon Welles, who had requested to know 

 his reasons for his resignation, the following reply: "I 

 am not aware of any law or rule that requires an 

 officer tendering resignation to give reasons therefor. 

 In this case, however, I have no objections to state them. 

 They are these: our once glorious Union is gone; the 

 state through which and for which I confessed allegiance 

 to the Federal government has no longer any lot or part 

 in it. Neither have I. I desire to go with my own 

 people and with them to share the fortunes of our own 

 state together. Such are the reasons for tendering my 

 resignation, and I hope the President will consider them 

 satisfactory". Maury afterwards stated in detail the 

 reasons for his resignation in his "A Vindication of 



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