40 Eighteen Months in the Confederate Army. 



rights," a principle she had successfully contended for on the 

 first formation of the Union, and which had ever since con- 

 tinued the creed of the dominant political party. Her action 

 was not doubtful, and, foreseeing that all intercourse with the 

 outer world must soon close, I hurried North in April, 1861, 

 with the object of arranging some private business before all 

 communication was suspended. I was, however, only permitted 

 to proceed to Baltimore. On the night of April 20th the great 

 arsenal of Norfolk was evacuated, when nine ships of war were 

 destroyed to prevent them falling into Confederate hands. 

 This great Confederate success was achieved by the strategy of 

 a Virginian citizen soldier and the bravery of three companies 

 of Virginian volunteers. Troops from the South soon after- 

 wards came in force, and a few days placed Norfolk in such a 

 state of defence that the fears of the most timid were set at rest. 

 The action of the Federal Government had now only effectually 

 crushed out the last lingering attachment of Virginia to the 

 Union, and, having decided to join the Confederate Army, I 

 spent a few months at the University, Virginia, where a school 

 for drill had been established, and a course of lectures on the 

 science of war was delivered by a French ex-officer. A few 

 months after the battle of Bull Run I entered the Confederate 

 service as a private in a Norfolk company which had existed 

 long before the war, and had formed one of three companies 

 that had relieved the Federal Government of the Norfolk 

 arsenal. It offered also this inducement, that it was composed 

 almost exclusively of gentlemen. For some months we were 

 encamped in the neighbourhood of Norfolk, Virginia. By far 

 the most interesting event of my garrison life was the witness- 

 ing of the greatest naval engagement of the war between the 

 Confederate ram "Merrimack" and the first Federal "Monitor." 

 Shortly after this the term of enlistment of most of the Con- 

 federate army expired, and it had of necessity to be reorganised. I 

 had been then offered a captaincy of a company, but, shrinking 

 from the responsibility, I declined it for a first lieutenancy. I 

 found subsequently, however, that I enjoyed all the responsi- 



