The American Annual Cyclopaedia and Register of Important Events of the Year, 1861-1865, vols. 1-5. New York: Appleton & Co., 1868.

Confederate States in 1861, Part 1: Alabama through Georgia

THE

AMERICAN

ANNUAL CYCLOPAEDIA

AND

REGISTER OF IMPORTANT EVENTS

OF THE YEAR

1 8 6 1 – 1 8 6 5

EMBRACING POLITICAL, CIVIL, MILITARY, AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS; PUBLIC DOCUMENTS; BIOGRAPHY, STATISTICS, COMMERCE, FINANCE, LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AGRICULTURE AND MECHANICAL INDUSTRY.

VOLUME I.

Southern States - 1861

NEW YORK:

D. APPLETON & CO., 90, 92 & 94 GRAND STREET. 1870.

PREFACE.

In preparing a Cyclopaedia of what came to pass during the year 1861, the political and military events appeared to possess a greater importance than all that had been developed in the different branches of knowledge. The interest which they awakened soon became so strong and engrossing that the peaceful pursuits of industry were paralyzed, trade and commerce languished, the student of science forsook his quiet seclusion for the tented field, and the inventive genius turned to find more skilful weapons for conflict or terrible engines for destruction. The consequences involved in these events are regarded as destined to exert a permanent influence on mankind. Whether constitutional liberty can survive the violence of human passions; whether institutions organized to preserve and protect the rights of men, and which depend for their existence upon the will and pleasure of those whom they control, can withstand the shocks of military power, are questions in which the welfare of all is at issue. The conflict, therefore, in the United States, forms an important part of this volume. It embraces the political principles involved, with the arguments of their respective advocates and opponents; the movements of the leaders of secession, from their first acts to the close of the year, including the proceedings, step by step, in each of the Southern States until they had resolved themselves out of the Union, and their subsequent efforts ; the organization of the Confederate States; the principles upon which that organization was founded; the civil and commercial regulations of the Confederacy; the movements of its Government to fill its treasury, and organize and equip vast armies; the counteracting movements of the United States; the organization of its armies, with the details of the weapons for the infantry and artillery, and for the batteries of the ships and gunboats; together with all the original documents, from the Messages of the respective Presidents; the instructions of Cabinet officers; the Messages and proclamations of Governors; the important acts of the United States and Confederate Congresses; the acts and resolutions of State Legislatures; the proclamations and orders of commanding officers; the contributions of men and money from each State, North and South; the details of every battle and every skirmish involving a loss of life. So ample have been the resources from which its details have been prepared, comprising publications both North and South, that it is believed no important public measure of the Federal or Confederate Governments, or of any of the States, has been overlooked, or valuable document omitted. The efforts of the Confederacy to secure the cooperation of foreign powers, and of the United States to prevent it, are summarily presented in the letters and instructions of the respective diplomatic agents. In thus preparing in a narrative form this portion of the events of the year, although the effort has been made to observe strict accuracy and impartiality, some mistakes may have occurred, which ask for the forbearing consideration of the intelligent reader. The developments of science during the year present some interesting particulars. The assent of geologists to the Taconic system advocated by the late Prof. Emmons, after so many years of disbelief, is another instance of the triumph of investigation over preconceived errors. The introduction of the method of Solar analysis, which has as yet progressed hardly so far as to receive a name, although Spectrography meets with much approval, may justly be classed among the important events. The conclusions of science, as applied to agriculture, which were reached during the year 1861, will become to the farmer of great practical value. At the same time, they set aside many opinions and processes of labor which have not yielded fruitful results. They will be found fully explained in a very practical essay from the pen of Prof. J. J. Mapes. Geographical explorations were pursued with vigor in various quarters of the globe, and many travellers returned from their perilous journeys of a previous year. In all instances the information is highly interesting, and often valuable. Connected with mechanical industry there were many ingenious inventions during the year, especially relating to implements of war, some of which have been described, while others are reserved, to be accompanied with such illustrations as more ample time will allow. To mechanical industry, so important in this country, an extensive portion of the annual volume of this work will be devoted. The commerce of the whole world was interrupted during the year, and although sufficient time has not elapsed to gather the statistics of all its changes, yet the details of disaster to many branches have been made up in these pages. The stupendous resources of the United States, hitherto unconsciously possessed, not only in military and naval affairs, but especially in financial, have been brought to light by the present difficulties. The financial measures of the Government and of the States are explained with the most ample details. The number of distinguished men who closed their career in 1861 was not so large as in many other years. A tribute has been paid to their virtues and their services. Subsequent volumes of this work will be issued about the first of March in each year.

SOUTHERN STATES - CONFEDERATE - 1861

ALABAMA, one of the Southern States, is bounded on the north by Tennessee, east by Georgia, south by Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, and west by Mississippi. It is 330 miles in its extreme length from north to south, and 300 miles in its greatest breadth. The population of the State in 1860 was 960,296, of which 2,630 were free colored, and 435,132 were slaves. The Governor is elected for two years by the people. The Senate consists of thirty-three members elected for four years, and the House of Representatives of one hundred members elected for two years. The Legislature meets on the second Monday in November, biennially. (See New American Cyclopedia.)

The southern portion of the State was strongly in favor of secession from the United States. Early in December, 1860, State Commissioners were sent to the authorities and people of the other slaveholding States, to urge forward a movement in favor of secession, and a union of these States in a separate Confederacy. All represented that the purpose of Alabama was fixed to secede, even if no other State did. The announcement of the secession of South Carolina Was hailed with great joy in Mobile. One hundred guns were fired. Bells were rung. The streets were crowded by hundreds expressing their joy, and many impromptu speeches were made. A military parade ensued.

The first official movement in Alabama towards secession was the announcement by Governor Moore of his intention to order an election of Delegates to a State Convention. He advised the people to prepare for secession. This election was held on the 24th of December, 1860, and the Convention subsequently assembled on January 7th. At the election, the counties in North Alabama selected "cooperation " members. The members throughout the State were classed as immediate secessionists, and cooperationists. The cooperationists were divided into those who were for secession in cooperation with other cotton States, those who required the cooperation of a majority, and those who required the cooperation of nil the slave States. Montgomery County, which polled 2,719 votes on the Presidential election, now gave less than 1,200 votes. The inference drawn from this at the time was, that the county was largely in favor of conservative action. The vote reported from all but ten counties of the State was, for secession, 24,445; for cooperation, 83,685. Of the ten counties, some were for secession, others for cooperation.

The popular vote at the Presidential election in November was: Douglas, 13,051; Breckinridge, 48,831; Bell, 27,875. Bell was the candidate of the American and Union party, Douglas, of the non-intervention Democrats, and Breckinridge of the Southern States.

The Convention met at Montgomery on the 7th of January. All the counties of the State were represented. Wm. M. Brooks was chosen President.

A strong Union sentiment was soon found to exist in the Convention. On the day on which it assembled, the Representatives from the State in Washington met, and resolved to telegraph to the Convention, advising immediate secession, stating that in their opinion there was no prospect of a satisfactory adjustment. On the 9th the following resolutions were offered and referred to a committee of thirteen:

Resolved, That separate State action would be unwise and impolitic.

Resolved, That Alabama should invite the Southern States to hold a Convention as early as practicable, to consider and agree upon a statement of grievances and the manner of obtaining redress, whether in the Union or in independence out of it.

Mr. Baker, of Russell, offered a resolution requesting the Governor to furnish information of the number of arms, their character and description, and the number of military companies &c, in the State, which was adopted. Also the following was offered and discussed:

Resolved, by the people of Alabama, That all the powers of this State are hereby pledged to resist any attempt on the part of the Federal Government to coerce any seceding State.

After a lively discussion of some days, a brief preamble and resolution refusing to submit to the Republican Administration, were proposed in such a form as to command the unanimous vote of the Convention. It was in these words: Whereas the only bond of union between the several Page 10 States is the Constitution of the United States; and whereas that Constitution has been violated by a majority of the Northern States in their separate legislative action, denying to the people of the Southern States their constitutional rights; and whereas a sectional party, known as the Republican party, has, in a recent election, elected Abraham Lincoln for President and Hannibal Hamlin for Vice-President of these United States, upon the avowed principle that the Constitution of the United States does not recognize property in slaves, and that the Government should prevent its extension into the common territories of the United States, and that the power of the Government should be so exercised that slavery should in time be extinguished: Therefore be it

Resolved by the people of Alabama in Convention assembled, That the State of Alabama will not submit to the Administration of Lincoln and Hamlin, as President and Vice-President of the United States, upon the principles referred to in the foregoing preamble.

On the 10th, the ordinance of secession was reported, and on the 11th, it was adopted in secret session by a vote of ayes, 61; noes, 89. It was as follows:

An ordinance to dissolve the Union between the State of Alabama and other. States united under the compact styled "the Constitution of the United States of America."

Whereas the election of Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin to the offices of President and Vice-President of the United States of America, by a sectional party, avowedly hostile to the domestic institutions and to the peace and security of the people of the State of Alabama, preceded by many and dangerous infractions of the Constitution of the United States by many of the States and people of the Northern section, is a political wrong of so insulting and menacing a character as to justify the people of the State of Alabama in the adoption of prompt and decided measures for their future peace and security: Therefore,

Be it declared and ordained by the people of the Stale of Alabama in convention assembled, That the State of Alabama now withdraws, and is hereby withdrawn, from the Union known as" the United States of America," and henceforth ceases to be one of said United States, and is, and of right ought to be, a sovereign and independent State.

Sec. 2. Be it further declared and ordained by the people of the State of Alabama in convention assembled, That all the powers over the territory of said State, and over the people thereof, heretofore delegated to the Government of the United States of America be, and they are hereby, withdrawn from said Government, and are hereby resumed and vested in the people of the State of Alabama.

And as it is the desire and-purpose of the State of Alabama to meet the slaveholding States of the South who may approve such purpose, in order to frame a provisional as well as permanent government, upon the principles of the Constitution of the United States,

Be it resolved by the people of Alabama in convention assembled, That the people of the States of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Missouri, be, and are hereby, invited to meet the people of the State of Alabama, by their delegates, in convention, on the 4th day of February, A. D. 1861, at the city of Montgomery, in the State of Alabama, for the purpose of consulting with each other as to the most effectual mode of securing concerted and harmonious action in whatever measures may be deemed most desirable for our common peace and security.

And be it further resolved. That the president of this convention be, and is hereby, instructed to transmit forthwith a copy of the foregoing preamble, ordinance, and resolutions, to the Governors of the several States named in said resolutions.

Done by the people of the State of Alabama in convention assembled, at Montgomery, on this, the 11th day of January, A. D. 1861.

             WILLIAM M. BROOKS,

                        President of the Convention.

A majority and minority report were presented on the ordinance of secession. Trouble arose in the Convention, because a portion of the members desired that the ordinance should not take effect until the 4th of March. A number refused to sign it for this reason, and as late as the 17th of January, a despatch was sent to the Senators and Representatives of the State in Congress at Washington, to retain their seats until further advised.

A proposition was also made in the Convention to submit their action to the people, for ratification or rejection. This was refused, and an exciting scene ensued.

Nicholas Davis, of Huntsville, declared his belief that the people of North Alabama would never abide the action of that Convention, if denied the right of voting upon it. Mr. Yancey thereupon denounced the people of North Alabama as tories, traitors, and rebels, and said they ought to be coerced into a submission to the decree of the Convention. Mr. Davis replied that they might attempt coercion, but North Alabama would meet them upon the line and decide the issue at the point of the bayonet.

The ordinance was adopted about two o'clock in the afternoon. Subsequently in the afternoon, an immense mass meeting was held in front of the Capitol, and many cooperation delegates pledged their constituents to sustain secession. A flag which had been presented by the ladies of the city to the Convention, was then raised over the building, amid the ringing of bells and firing of cannon.

In Mobile the news was received at once, and the day became one of the wildest excitement. The people were at the highest point of enthusiasm until a late hour at night. To add to the excitement, news was received that the State of Florida had passed a secession ordinance.

Immediately on the receipt of the news, an immense crowd assembled at the "secession pole" at the foot of Government street, to witness the spreading of the Southern flag, and it was run up amid the shouts of the multitude and thunders of cannon. One hundred and one guns for Alabama and fifteen for Florida were fired, and after remarks from gentlemen, the crowd repaired to the Custom-House, walking in procession with a band of music at the head, playing the warlike notes of the "Southern Marseillaise."

Arrived at the Custom-House, alone star flag was waved from its walls amid enthusiastic shouts. The balcony of the Battle House, opposite, was thronged with ladies and gentlemen, and the street was crowded with excited citizens. Standing upon the steps of the Custom-House, brief and stirring addresses were  delivered by several speakers.

The military paraded the streets. The Cadets Page 11 were out in force, bearing a splendid flag which had been presented to them a day previous, and, with the Independent Rifles, marched to the public square, and fired salvos of artillery. The demonstration at night was designed to correspond to the importance attached by the people to the event celebrated. An eye-witness declares the display to have been of the most brilliant description. When night fell, the city emerged from darkness into a blaze of such glory as could only be achieved by the most recklessly extravagant consumption of tar and tallow. The broad boulevard of Government street was an avenue of light, bonfires of tar barrels being kindled at intervals of a square in distance along its length, and many houses were illuminated. Royal street shone with light, the great front of the buildings presenting a perfect illumination. Rockets blazed, crackers popped, and the people hurrahed and shouted as they never did before. The "Southern Cross was the most favored emblematic design in the illumination, and competed with the oft-repeated 'Lone Star' for admiration and applause from the multitude."

By previous concert with the Governors of Georgia and Louisiana, "all the positions in these three States which might be made to follow the fashion set by Fort Sumter" were seized. The arsenal at Mt. Vernon forty-five miles above Mobile, was seized at daylight on the morning of January 4th; Fort Morgan was taken on the same day, without opposition. Previously, however, and on the 9th of January, five companies of volunteers, at the request of the Governor of Florida, left Montgomery for Pensacola. They were sent to assist in capturing the forts and other property there belonging to the United States. In order to place the city of Mobile in a better state of defence, the Mayor issued a call to the people for a thousand laborers. These were at once supplied, and also money sufficient to meet all demands. The Common Council of the city passed an ordinance changing the names of various streets. The name of Maine street was changed to Palmetto street; Massachusetts was changed to Charleston street; New Hampshire was changed to Augusta street; Rhode Island was changed to Savannah street; Connecticut was changed to Louisiana street; New York was changed to Elmira street; Vermont was changed to Texas street; Pennsylvania was changed to Montgomery street.

The Union feeling in the northern part of the State continued very strong. Many delegates from that region refused at first to sign the ordinance of secession which passed the State Convention, unless the time for it to take effect was postponed to the 4th of March. Some of them withheld their signatures entirely. The sessions of the Convention were conducted wholly in secret, and only such measures were made known to the public as were of such a character as to prevent secrecy.

On the 29th, the Convention adopted a resolution instructing the deputies to the Southern Convention to insist upon the enactment of such laws as would forever prevent the reopening of the African slave trade; and, on the next day, they passed a supplemental ordinance authorizing the Governor to carry into effect the previous ordinance for the protection of the defences in the Gulf of Mexico; also, an ordinance adopting as the law of Alabama the laws of the United States relative to patents, and securing the right of invention to citizens of all the Slave States. It then adjourned till the 4th of March.

Thaddeus Sanford, collector of customs for the port of Mobile under the United States Government, was appointed to that office by the Convention, and directed to proceed, as heretofore, collecting duties, issuing clearances, Sec., only in the name and by the authority of the State of Alabama, instead of that of the United States.

Upon its adjournment, the President made an address, expressing the most decided views upon the permanency of the secession of the State. He said:

"We are free, and shall any of us cherish any idea of a reconstruction of the old Government, whereby Alabama will again link her rights, her fortunes, and her destiny, in a Union with the Northern States? If any one of you hold to such a fatal opinion, let me entreat you, as you value the blessings of equality and freedom, dismiss it at once. There is not, there cannot be, any security or peace for us in a reconstructed Government of the old material. I must believe that there is not a friend or advocate of reconstruction in this large body. The people of Alabama are now independent; sink or swim, live or die, they will continue free, sovereign, and independent. Dismiss the idea of a reconstruction of the old Union now and forever."

After the adjournment of the Convention,  Commissioner, Thomas J. Judge, was sent by the State authorities to negotiate with the Federal Government for the surrender of the forts, arsenals, and custom-houses, within the limits of the State. It appears that the President declined to receive him in any other character, than as a distinguished citizen of Alabama. In this capacity he declined to be received, and returned home. The negotiations were conducted through Mr. C. C. Clay, to whom the Commissioner writes on the 4th of February:

"I acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 2d instant, enclosing the correspondence between yourself and his Excellency James Buchanan, President of the United States, relating to my mission as Commissioner from the State of Alabama.

"The President declines to give me an audience in the only character in which I sought it, as Commissioner for the State of Alabama, and thereby refuses to receive any proposals from that State for a settlement relating to the public debt of the United States, contracted whilst Alabama was a member of that Confederacy, Page 12 and relating to the property in the possession of Alabama, which belonged to the United States of America before the withdrawal of Alabama from that Union.

"From this course of the President it is to be presumed that he has abandoned all claim, or resolved not to make any, in his official character, to that property in behalf of his Government; or that, repelling every offer of amicable and peaceable adjustment, he desires that it shall be retaken by the sword.

"But, no matter what motive has prompted his unexpected treatment of me, I should be wanting in proper reverence for my State, and proper appreciation of my present relations to her, to sue for peaceful negotiations, since the right of Alabama to send me, and my right to speak for her, have been denied. And if negotiation is to settle our difficulties touching those forts and arsenals, it must be proposed by the President to the Governor at her capital, whither I shall go and report the result of my mission.

"Whilst I regret this action of the President, it is gratifying to know that the State of Alabama, by her prompt efforts to do that justice in the premises which has been thwarted by him, will stand justified before the world. And that State having now been placed right upon the record, and, under the circumstances, nothing more remaining for me to attempt to accomplish as her Commissioner, my mission ceases with this letter."

The State Convention again assembled on the 4th of March, and took up for approval the Constitution adopted by the Confederate Congress. In all the seceding States it was adopted by the State Convention, without being subletted to the people to vote for or against it. The Convention of Alabama was the first to adopt it, and almost immediately after its promulgation. At the time it was under consideration in that body, the following resolutions were offered, relative to the right of the people to express an opinion on the subject:

" Resolved, 1. That the political power in all free Governments is inherent in the people, and that an attempt to infringe this great principle is dangerous in policy and directly subversive of civil liberty.

"2. That the right of every people to frame the system of government under which they are to live is a fundamental doctrine in all free Governments, and should not be questioned or impaired. "

3. That the acknowledgment of these established principles, the spirit and genius of American institutions, and the well-ascertained precedents of republican usage, imperatively demand that the ' Constitution of the Confederate States of America' shall be submitted to the people of this State for their ratification or rejection."

They were rejected, by being laid on the table. Ayes, 54; noes, 33.

The vote in the Convention on ratifying the Constitution, was taken on the 13th of March, and was as follows: ayes, 87; noes, 5.

The Convention also adopted an ordinance transferring to the Provisional Government the arms and munitions of war acquired from the United States, and also all authority over the forts and arsenals in the State. It also passed an ordinance substituting stocks of the Confederate States for those of the United States, to be held by the banks as a basis for their paper circulation, and allowing the issue of two dollars for one of capital. Foreigners and foreign corporations were forbidden to hold stocks belonging in the State. The Convention adjourned on the 20th of March. 

The Legislature of the State met, and was organized on the 15th of January. Its action was confined, as far as possible, to business arising from the action of the Convention. The Governor in his message, urged the necessity of placing the State at once upon the most efficient war footing. It very promptly and efficiently, with large majorities, aided the secession movement by all such act an answer  necessary. On the 19th of January, the House passed an act to provide against the invasion of the State by sea. It declared that pilots bringing vessels into Mobile should be liable to a fine and imprisonment in the penitentiary, and also authorized the commander of Fort Morgan to destroy the beacon and landmarks at his discretion, and contract for the construction of a telegraph line to Point Clear, in order to more speedily communicate with Fort Morgan.

On the 5th of February, an act was passed appropriating $500,000 to aid the cause of Southern Independence.

After the formation of the Confederate Government the charge of precipitation was made against it in the border States. To this the official press of the State took occasion to reply. The answer was, that so far from being precipitate, the movement had been in contemplation for ten years. The ordinance of secession of Alabama declares that the election of Abraham Lincoln was such a wrong as to require the adoption of prompt and decided measures for their future pence and security. {See also Diplomatic Correspondence of Confederate States, and Letter of the Southern Commissioners to Lord Russell, p. 278.)

The reply to the charge of precipitation was in these words:

"Has it been a precipitate revolution? It has not. With coolness and deliberation the subject has been thought of for forty years; for ten years it has been the all-absorbing theme in political circles. From Maine to Mexico all the different phases and forms of the question have been presented to the people, until nothing else was thought of, nothing else spoken of, and nothing else taught in many of the political schools.

"Civil war, with its attendant disasters, may mar the happiness of the men of the present time; carnage and slaughter may convert our hitherto happy and beautiful homes into barren and dreary wastes for a time: they may become the rendezvous of a devastating enemy; but who would now forego all the enchantment of the present scene for the security and prosperity Page 13 of millions yet unborn? Beyond the gloomy prospect is to be seen an auspicious and an unclouded destiny of greatness for the ' Confederate States of America.'"

So reluctant were the minds of a portion of the people in the Gulf States to entertain the idea of a perpetual and absolute separation of the Union, that the views of a very respectable number turned now to reconstruction. The Commissioner from Alabama, in his address to the people of Baltimore, had put forth the statement that these political movements were designed to obtain better terms of Union. {See Baltimore.) It was only the authorities of the State and the principal public men, with a portion of the press, which had comprehended the dread reality in its full extent. Reconstruction was fatal to secession. Reconstruction would throw into political oblivion all the active leaders of secession. Reconstruction would bring over them again the power and sway of the North; absolute secession opened the only door of escape. Reconstruction would set at work again that silently-growing conviction in favor of greater personal liberty, which was spreading like leaven through the minds of the mass of the people. In Georgia every candidate for the Confederate Congress was required to give an assurance that he was not in favor of forming a Government having in view an immediate or ultimate union with the Northern States, before he could receive a vote at the polls. In Alabama the proposition was denounced in unscrupulous terms. The bitterness of those denouncing it is very fully manifested in the following paragraphs expressing their views: "Anyone who observes the indications of the day will readily conclude that some of those who, before the recent act of secession, only advocated 'cooperative action' to secure our rights, are now, since cooperation has been triumphantly secured, endeavoring to train the public mind in the direction of reconstruction. While this is an undeniable fact, it can be said that the leading members of the cooperation party in our own and the Conventions of adjacent States have signally vindicated their patriotism and their loyalty. No charge is made against them when it is said that an attempt is made to sell the South into worse than her former bondage, by a plan neatly phrased as 'reconstruction.' "And what does 'reconstruction' mean? Its advocates, no less than its opponents, perfectly comprehend that it is the concession of all the rights sought to bo maintained. It means, little as is said about it, the extinction of African slavery I It means negro equality— the surrender of the white man's right of domination. And most, if not all, the leaders who advocate it are aware of the ultimate effect to be produced. "Then why, it is asked by the simple-minded, should large property-holders, large slaveholders, favor and foster such a scheme? Why, the sharp property-holders who do not intend to adhere to the South, are desirous of patching up a compromise, so that a temporary respite from political troubles may enable them to convert their Southern property, and to go with the proceeds wherever inclination may lead them.

"The men of the South, rich and poor, who intend to remain within the South, in weal or woe, will not be deceived by this crafty plan to deliver the South into the hands of free negroism. They see that any thing short of a maintenance of our independence, absolutely, is a total surrender, 'to take effect' at such time as our Abolition masters may choose to designate. This is known to them and to the advocates of the Grecian Horse of Reconstruction, because no sane man, of ordinary intelligence, does or can believe that the Republican leaders could give any guarantees which would be respected by their people The hate between the two sections is perfect; and everybody knows the fact. Abolitionism, pinched in its belly, might seem to concede something; once fill that belly and give into its hands the Treasury and the army and navy, and the South becomes a San Domingo. Even supposing that the Abolition Government at Washington, after 'reconstruction,' should affect to-execute what it had promised, is there any Southern fool so utterly besotted as to suppose that that Government would not wink at and privately promote raids like that into Virginia?

All thoughts of reconstruction were soon given up, and in its place sanguine hopes were  encouraged of the future glory of the Confederacy.

At this time, previous to the surrender of Fort Sumter, a considerable Confederate force was, in a manner, besieging Fort Pickens at Pensacola, under the command of General Bragg. Meanwhile, the Federal fleet lay oil" at anchor. Supplies having been taken to the fleet by the sloop Isabella, Captain Jones, of Mobile, the vessel was seized and turned over to the military authorities, and the captain arrested. The charge was that he had attempted to convey supplies on his own private account, or that of his owners, to the United States vessels.

Captain Jones, in vindication of his rights, afterwards sued out a writ of habeas corpus, through his wife, and had a hearing before the Judge of the Circuit Court at Mobile.

His counsel contended that his arrest was illegal and unauthorized, raising the points whether a state of war existed, which alone could justify such an arrest; and whether Captain Jones had been arrested within a jurisdiction embracing Mobile; for if so, General Bragg and not the Court should adjudge the offence. he demanded the discharge of the prisoner.

Counsel against the prisoner held that the arrest was made under the regulations of the Confederate States; that a state of war existed by the acts of the Administration; and if the army regulations were decided not to prevail, Page 14 then the Court would he protecting the enemy. He thought the case a leading one, and therefore important.

The Court confessing that the anomalous state of political and inter-State affairs surrounded the question with embarrassment, D. C. Green, in order to release the Court from all responsibility, discharged the prisoner from custody. The counsel for the defence insisted upon the Court's passing judgment, but his demand was not acceded to, and Captain Jones was released.

The reputed owners of the sloop refused to receive her, intending to hold the captors responsible for all loss incurred.

Subsequently, in the month of June, after the relations of the North and South had changed, the Grand Jury of the District Court of the Confederate States found a true bill against three other persons, charging them with treason against the Confederate States, in having traitorously carried and delivered a cargo of fruit to the enemy's fleet off Pensacola. The Court, in its charge to the jury, stated the law to be, that furnishing provisions or important intelligence to the enemy was treasonable. The penalty for that offence, on conviction, was death.

The military operations consisted merely in enlisting and equipping soldiers, and sending them forward to the positions occupied by the Confederate forces in the other seceded States. No hostile soldier put his foot on the soil of Alabama during the year. This was entirely in consequence of her position. She is bounded by the other Confederate States except on the South, where her sea coast is small and less important than other points.

At the time of the secession of the State a small force was sent to nid the volunteers in Florida to capture and hold the Navy Yard and forts at Pensacola. On the 10th of April, President Davis made a requisition on the Governor for three thousand soldiers. On the 1st of May, the first battalion of the Third State Regiment left for Virginia; and on the loth more troops were sent to Pensacola. Indeed, the business of preparing for the war became the all-engrossing subject in the principal cities, but especially Mobile. One of the public citizens, in rather enthusiastic language, describes the alacrity of the people:

"The like, where it has been left to the free volition of the people without any extraneous appliances to stir enthusiasm, and without the slightest compulsion of Government, the world has never witnessed. We saw men coming, when the news had been scattered abroad that their company had received 'marching orders,' by ones, two, threes, to the place of rendezvous, on foot, on horseback, in mule wagons, and every way, without the slightest command or compulsion, save the commands of patriotism. They gather noiselessly at the electric summons of patriotism as the storms gather flown behind the horizon of a clear, still day, when mustering for a tornado, and their stillness to us is as portentous. Can a people moved by such stern, quiet impulses of patriotism be conquered? Never!"

Forts Morgan and Gaines were taken possession of by State troops under orders from the Governor, on the 4th of January, while the State continued a member of the Union. (See Forts.)

On the 19th of January, four days after Secretary Dix took charge of the Treasury Department of the United States, he sent the Chief Clerk of the First Comptroller's Office, W. H. Jones, to Mobile and New Orleans, to save, if possible, the two revenue cutters stationed at those places. At Mobile Mr. Jones could not find the captain (Morrison) of the cutter Lewis Cass, but he discovered in the cabin the following letter, which explains the surrender of the vessel to the Alabama authorities:

State of Alabama, Collector's Office.

J. J. Morrison:

Sir: In obedience to an ordinance recently adopted by a convention of the people of Alabama, I have to require you to surrender into my hands, for the use of the State, the revenue cutter Lewis Cass, now under your command, together with her armaments, properties, and provisions on board the same. I am instructed also to notify you that you have the option to continue in command of the said revenue cutter under authority of the State of Alabama, in the exercise of the same duties that you have hitherto rendered to the United States, and at the same compensation, reporting to this, office and to the Governor of the state. In surrendering the vessel to the State, you will furnish me with a detailed inventory of its armaments, provisions, and properties of every description. You will receive special instructions from this office in regard to the duties you will be required to perform. I await your immediate reply.

Your obedient servant.

                               T. SANFORD, Collector.

The number of troops furnished by the State to the Confederate army during the year has been estimated at eighteen regiments, besides a number of companies of infantry and artillery. These independent or separate companies were sent to Pensacola, Charleston, and elsewhere, with too much despatch to admit of their remaining until a full regiment was formed. The commerce of the State was paralyzed by the events of the year. The blockade was so effective that very few vessels were successful in entering or leaving the harbor of Mobile. The internal trade suffered from the same causes. The crops were as favorable ns in any former year, but having no market for cotton which could be reached, no return was received from its cultivation, and it became valueless during the continuance of the blockade.

ARKANSAS, in its location, is one of the Western States, but its productions are similar to those of the Southern States, It is bounded on the north by Missouri, on the east by the Mississippi River, which separates it from the States of Tennessee and Mississippi, on the south by Louisiana and Texas, and on the west by Texas and the Indian Territory. The Governor is elected by the people once in four years. The Senate consists of twenty-five members elected for five years, and the House consists of seventy-five members elected for two years. The Legislature meets on the first Monday in November. The population of the State in 1860 was 435,427, of whom 137 were , free colored, and 111,104 slaves. The views of the people of the State were strongly in favor of the Union, and no movement aiming at secession took place in the State until the 20th of December, when David Hubbard, a Commissioner from the State of Alabama, addressed the Legislature of Arkansas at Little Rock. He argued that Alabama would secede from the Union whether other States did or not.

The largest meeting ever held at Van Buren took place on the 5th of January. The resolutions adopted with great unanimity, opposed separate State action, and were in favor of cooperation. The election of Mr. Lincoln was regarded as not in itself a sufficient cause for a dissolution of the Union—reasonable time should be allowed to the non-slaveholding States to retrace their steps. A large majority of the people of all former party associations were considered, at this time, as in favor of making all honorable efforts to preserve the Union. The demonstrations to the contrary, thus far made, were looked upon as reflecting only a small fraction of the public sentiment.

On the 16th of January the Legislature unanimously passed a bill submitting the Convention question to the people on the 18th of February. If a majority were in favor of a Convention, the Governor should appoint the time for its election.

On the day appointed an election was held throughout the State, and the vote in favor of holding a Convention was 27,412; against it, 15,826. Majority for a Convention, 11,586. The vote of the State at the Presidential election in November was, for Douglas, 5,227; Breckinridge, 28,732; Bell, 20,094.

At the election of delegates to the Convention, the Union vote was 23,626; Secession, 17,927; Union majority, 5,699.

The Convention assembled on the 4th of March, and organized by the election of Union officers, by a majority of six. On the 6th, the inaugural of President Lincoln was received, and produced an unfavorable impression on the minds of the people. Secession was strongly urged upon the Convention, which had been regarded as containing forty members opposed to it, and thirty-five in favor of it.

Various resolutions were offered and referred to appropriate committees, looking to an endorsement, on the one hand, of the doctrine of secession, and the right and duty of Arkansas to secede, and on the other to a clear definition of the position Arkansas should take, stopping short of secession, with a view to the security of her rights in the Union.

A conditional ordinance of secession was debated, with a clause referring it back to the people for ratification or rejection. This was defeated by a vote of ayes, 35; noes, 39. The Convention was disposed to pass resolutions approving the propositions of Missouri and Virginia for a conference of the border slave States, and providing for sending five delegates to said Conference or Convention, and agreeing with Virginia to hold said Conference at Frankfort, Kentucky, on the 27th of May.

At Van Buren a salute of thirty-nine guns was fired in honor of the thirty-nine members of the Convention who voted against the secession ordinance. The same number of guns were fired at Fort Smith.

On the 17th, an ordinance was reported by a self-constituted committee composed of seven secessionists, and seven cooperationists, as a compromise measure between the two parties. It was adopted as reported, unanimously, in the Convention. It provided for an election to he held on the first Monday of August, at which the legal voters of the State were to cast their ballots for "secession," or for "cooperation." If on that day a majority of the votes were cast for secession, that fact was to be considered in the light of instructions to the Convention to pass an ordinance severing the connection of Arkansas with the Union. If, on the other hand, a majority of the votes of the State were  cast for cooperation, that fact would bo an instruction to the Convention immediately to take all necessary steps for cooperation with the border or unseceded slave States, to secure a satisfactory adjustment of all sectional controversies disturbing the country.

The next session of the Convention was to be held on the 17th of August; and to secure the return of all the votes of each county, each delegate was made a special returning officer of the Convention to bring the vote of his county to the Capitol.

Besides this ordinance submitting the proposition of "secession" or "cooperation " to the vote of the people, resolutions were  passed providing for the election of five delegates to the border slave State Convention, proposed by the States of Virginia and Missouri, to be held some time during the month of May. Thus the proceedings of that Convention would be before the people, amply canvassed and understood, when the vote of the State was cast on the first Monday of August.

The result of the labors of the Convention, although not exactly what either party desired, was regarded as probably more nearly satisfactory to the public than any other action which could have been taken by that body. Time was given for investigation and deliberation us to consequences. Page 23

Affairs remained quiet; the friends of the Union were hopeful; those who sympathized with the seceded States were sanguine that Arkansas would be one of them. The capture of Fort Sumter, and the subsequent events, roused Arkansas to take a stand either with the North or with the South. Together with the news of the fall of the fort, there came also the President's Proclamation and the requisition of the Secretary of War for a quota of troops from Arkansas. The reply of the Governor to this requisition, was dated the 22d of April. It proved him to be decided in his friendship to the secession movement. He wrote to the Secretary of War thus: "In answer to your requisition for troops from Arkansas, to subjugate the Southern States, I have to say that none will be furnished. The demand is only adding insult to injury. The people of this Commonwealth are freemen, not slaves, and will defend to the last extremity, their honor, lives, and property, against Northern mendacity and usurpation."

The President of the State Convention, entertaining similar views, immediately issued a call requiring it to reassemble on the 6th of May. The call was dated on the 20th of April.

On the 6th of May the State Convention met, and immediately took the necessary steps to prepare an ordinance to sever the relations existing between the State and the other States united with her under the Constitution of the United States. The ordinance was prepared and reported to the Convention at three o'clock in the afternoon, and was passed immediately, with only one dissenting vote. There were sixty-nine votes in the affirmative, and one in the negative. An eye-witness describes the passage of the ordinance as "a solemn scene." Every member seemed impressed with the importance of the vote he was giving. The hall of the House of Representatives was crowded almost to suffocation. The lobby, the gallery, and the floor of the chamber were full, and the vast crowd seemed excited to the highest pitch. A profound stillness prevailed all the time as vote after vote was taken and recorded, except occasionally, when some well-known Union member would rise and preface his vote with expressions of stirring patriotic Southern sentiments, the crowd would give token of its approbation; but the announcement of the adoption of the ordinance was the signal for one general acclamation that shook the building.

A weight seemed suddenly to have been lifted off the hearts of all present, and manifestations of the most intense satisfaction prevailed on all sides. Immediate steps were taken by the Convention to unite with the Confederate States. The ordinance was as follows:

Whereas, in addition to the well-founded causes of complaint set forth by this Convention, in resolutions adopted on the 11th March, A. D. 1861, against the sectional party now in power at Washington City, headed by Abraham Lincoln, be has, in the face of resolutions passed by this Convention, pledging the State of Arkansas to resist to the last extremity any attempt on the port of such power to coerce any State that seceded from the old Union, proclaimed to the world that war should be waged against such States until they should be compelled to submit to their rule, and large forces to accomplish this have by this same power been called out, ago are now being marshalled to carry out this inhuman design, and to longer submit to such rule or remain in the old Union ot the United States would be disgraceful and ruinous to the State of Arkansas;

Therefore, we, the people of the State of Arkansas, in Convention assembled, do hereby declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, thot the "ordinance and acceptance of compact," passed and approved by the General Assembly of the State of Arkansas, on the 18th day of October, A D. 18S6, whereby it was by said General Assembly ordained that, by virtue of the authority rested in said General Assembly, by the provisions of the ordinance adopted by the convention of delegates assembled at Little Rock, for the purpose of forming a constitution and system of government for said State, the propositions set forth in " an act supplementary to an act entitled an act for the admission of the State of Arkansas into the Union, and to provide for the due execution of the laws of the United States within the same, and for other purposes, were freely accepted, ratified and irrevocably confirmed articles of compact and union between the State of Arkansas and the United States," and all other laws and every other law and ordinance, whereby the State of Arkansas became a member of the Federal Union be, and the same are hereby in all respects and for every purpose herewith consistent repealed, abrogated, and fully set aside: and the union now subsisting between the State of Arkansas and the other States, under the name of the United States of America, is hereby forever dissolved.

And we do further hereby declare and ordain, that the State of Arkansas hereby resumes to herself all rights and powers heretofore delegated to the Government of the United States of America—that her citizens are absolved from all allegiance to said Government of the United States, and that she is in full possession and exercise of all the rights and sovereignty which appertain to a free and independent State.

We do further ordain and declare, that all rights acquired and vested under the Constitution of the United States of America, or of any act or acts of Congress, or treaty, or under any law of this State, and not incompatible with this ordinance, snail remain in full force and effect, in nowise altered or impaired, and have the same effect as if this ordinance had not been passed.

The Convention also passed a resolution authorizing the Governor to call out 60,000 men, if necessary. The State was divided into two grand divisions, eastern and western, and one brigadier-general from each appointed. General Bradley was elected to the command of the eastern, and General Pearce, late of the U. S. Army, to the western.

Among the other acts passed by the Convention, was an ordinance confiscating debts due persons residing in the non-slaveholding States of the United States, and also all the personal property belonging to such persons in Arkansas, on the 6th of May, 1861. All moneys collected for persons residing in any one of the non-slaveholding States of the United States were  likewise confiscated to the State. By the provisions of this ordinance, it was made the duty of persons owing such debts to report them under oath to the Auditor of Public Accounts within sixty days from the passage of the ordinance. Failing to do this, or making a false report, they were subject to a heavy pecuniary fine and Page 24 imprisonment in the penitentiary. Persons throughout the State were required to give information of delinquencies, and judges were required to give the matter specially in charge to grand juries at each term of the Circuit Court. The Governor was authorized to call out the military force, and two millions of dollars in bonds were ordered to be issued in sums of five dollars and upwards.

The first movement after the secession of the State, was to get possession of the property of the United States. The United States arsenal, located at Little Rock, became the first object for seizure. On the morning of February 5th, that city was thrown into high excitement by the unexpected arrival of a steamboat with a body of troops from Helena, with the avowed purpose of taking the arsenal. In a few hours another boat arrived with more troops, and on the next day others arrived, until a force of four hundred men was collected. The City Council was assembled, and on application to the Governor, it was informed that the troops were not there by his orders. The troops themselves were of a different opinion, and came there, as they thought, at his command; but whether so or not, they were there to take the arsenal, and they determined to accomplish that object before leaving. The Governor was then requested to assume the responsibility of the movement, and in the name of the State to demand the arsenal of the officer in command of it. It was believed that Captain Totten would surrender to the authorities of the State rather than have a collision, but would not to a body of men disavowed by the Governor and acting in violation of law, and that as the troops were determined on taking the arsenal at all hazards, there would of course be a collision, and probably much sacrifice of life. Consequently, the Governor consented to act, and immediately made a formal demand upon Captain Totten.

To the Governor's demand for the surrender of the arsenal, Captain Totten asked until three o'clock the next day to consider the matter, which was agreed to. At the time appointed, Captain Totten made known his readiness to evacuate the arsenal, and, after the details were finally agreed upon, it was arranged that, at twelve o'clock the next day, the arsenal should be delivered to the authorities of the State, which was done. About the same time, the public property at Fort Smith was seized in behalf of the State. (See Forts.)

On the 18th of May, Arkansas was admitted as one of the Confederate States, and her delegates took their seats in Congress. They were R. W. Johnson. A. Rust, A. W. Garland, "W. H. Watkins, and "W. F. Thomason.

The military operations within the limits of the State during the year were fruitless in results. A difficulty early occurred between the Governor and Legislature on one side, and the State Convention on the other. It was charged upon the latter body that they had overstepped their authority in an attempt to regulate the military affairs of the State by the appointment of a Military Board. The Governor, in his message to the Legislature at its session in November, said, that on the 10th of May, General McCulloch was put in command of the Indian Territory west of Arkansas, and had with him two regiments, one from Louisiana and one from Arkansas. Before he could prepare for any offensive operations, General Lyon, in pursuit of Jackson, approached near the south boundary line of Missouri, and the Military Board of Arkansas called out ten regiments for defensive purposes. On the 21st of June the Board despatched a messenger to Richmond, proposing to transfer the entire State force, with their arms, to the Confederate Government, making a condition precedent, however, that the arms were to be used for the protection of Arkansas. The Secretary of State was willing to receive the men and arms, but would make no promise as to their future disposition, and so the transfer was not then effected.

On the 4th of July the effort was again essayed, one of the members of the Board visiting General Hardee, then recently appointed to the command of the northern border of Arkansas, and an agreement was made whereby a vote should be taken among the Arkansas troops, and if a majority of each company consented to be transferred, those consenting were to bo turned over as a company; if, however, a majority declined, the company was to be disbanded altogether. One company of General Yell's division disbanded, and two or three hundred others, "from various motives, returned home." This was from the eastern division of the army.

The western division, under General Pearce, however, was not so easily transferred. After the battle of Springfield, the Military Board despatched an agent to General Pearce to turn over his troops to General Hardee. The agent proposed to submit the question of the transfer, out General Pearce became angry, and refused to allow it to be done, following this insubordinate conduct up by writing a most abusive letter to the Board. Not content with this, General Pearce separated his troops from McCulloch's command, and marched them back to Arkansas, where they were informally disbanded and sent home. Governor Rector says, that without General Pearce's command, "General McCulloch was left too weak for any thing but passive inaction."

As soon as General Pearce's return to Arkansas was known, the Military Board, fearing a disbandment, directed him to suspend all action in reference to the transfer, but the despatches were received too late, and only "in time to stay the waste of public property scattered in all directions."

His narrative showed that the Arkansas forces, claimed to be twenty-two thousand in number, were in a complete state of demoralization at that time.

Page 25 On the subject of the increase of the army, the Governor suggested the following method:— "It is probable that the troops now in the field will meet present emergencies, whilst it may be safely calculated that a much larger number will have to go into service before spring. I beg to recommend that the executive authorities be authorized to organize two 'class regiments,' one of Germans and their immediate descendants, and another of Irish and their descendants. . . . These people, though brave and patriotic, have been deterred from entering the army mainly because for them there was little chance for promotion If I should be mistaken, however, in the causes that have deterred them, and it is found to proceed from a lack of inclination, then authority ought to bo given to draft a regiment from each class. It is not a wise or just Government which, in a war like this, taxes native blood and energy alone, leaving the foreign-born at home, reaping the fruits of dear-bought victories."

The forces of the State in the field, at the time when the greatest number were in active service, were as follows :—

In Virginia, two regiments of infantry, one thousand strong each 2,000

Under Hardee, in regiments 6,000

Under McCulloch, in regiments 6,000

Seven new regiments just organized, and under marching orders 6,000

Independent companies and battalions of artillery and cavalry with Hardee and McCulloch, 1,500

Total Arkansas force 21,600

The entire vote of the State at the Presidential election in November, was 54,063; consequently over one-third of the amount of her vote was in the field. The number of twelvemonths men that entered the Confederate service from the State is stated at thirteen regiments. As late as October, all the pay which the troops had received was in Arkansas war bonds, and much murmuring existed among the soldiers, owing to the worthlessness of the bonds. Even as far back as June, some of the troops furnished by the State were very poorly equipped. Colonel Hindman, writing to the Military Board about June 10th, says:—"I telegraphed you that the men of my regiment were without blankets and shoes, and requested you to allow me to apply to their benefit the proceeds of the sugar now in store which I seized from the Cincinnati steamboats, and turned over to the civil authorities before Arkansas seceded.

The expenditures of the State for military purposes, previous to the 6th of November, amounted to $1,041,603. Thirty-seven thousand dollars of this sum were spent in the capture of the arsenal at Little Rock, and the post at Fort Smith, and the stores at Pine Bluff and Napoleon, before the State seceded. Apart from the regiments furnished to the Confederate army by the State, the stores and men supplied, at various times, to General Sterling Price, to enable him to maintain a foothold in Missouri, and thereby prevent the approach of the Federal forces into Arkansas, were the most important debts of her authorities and citizens.

The internal condition of the State was very far from being satisfactory to the authorities or to the people. On the 12th of June, several negroes were arrested in Monroe County, thirty miles west of Helena, upon a charge of attempted insurrection. Two men and one girl were hung. The plot was to murder the white male inhabitants, and to spare the women and children, if they did not resist.

The great cause of uneasiness, however, was the Union sentiment which was known to exist in the State. Of the fifty-four thousand votes polled at the Presidential election in November, 1860, over twenty thousand were given for the candidate whose platform was " the Constitution and the Union." In the State Convention, previous to April 15th, the secession party were not strong enough to pass an ordinance of separation, and were forced to compromise with the opposition. Even as late as December, 1861, within one week, a member of the Legislature of Arkansas, and forty other citizens of the State, came to Rolla, in Missouri, where thirty-five joined a regiment of Missouri troops. They represented that a surprising degree of loyalty to the Federal Government still existed in the northern part of the State.

The Governor, in his Message to the Legislature, at its session on the first Monday of November, alludes to the existence of " treason in the State," without stating any details. These were well known. On the 29th of October, twenty-seven persons were brought to Little Rock as members of a secret Union organization in Van Buren County. They were placed in jail to be brought to trial by the civil authority. At this time many others were also taken. It was publicly stated that they formed a regular organization, called a "Peace and Constitutional Society ;" that there were 700 members in Searcy, Van Buren, Newton, and Izard Counties, and 1,700 in the whole State; that they had a regular system of signs and passwords, and were furnished with supplies of •money. The Constitution made it obligatory upon every member to hazard his life in aid of another in distress, and the penalty of exposing any of the secrets of the organization was death. Those who were taken, were reported to have been well supplied with arms, and the others were supposed to be equally well equipped. The disaffection of the people in that section of the State was made known to the authorities by General Burgevin, and the names of citizens given.

On the 23d of November, it was determined that, after a campaign of sixty days in Kansas and Missouri, General McCulloch should fall back into Arkansas. Preparations were therefore made to accommodate five thousand army horses, and a number of mules, near Fort Smith Valley. A hundred thousand bushels of corn, Page 26 and three thousand seven hundred and fifty tons of hay, were procured for their forage. As this valley had been largely drawn upon during the summer and fall months of the year, it was feared that the encampment of such a large number of men and animals as composed McCulloch's force might distress the inhabitants. The campaign in Kansas was not carried out, and early in the spring General McCulloch was driven out by the Federal force.

FLORIDA, although one of the smallest States in population, yet in consequence of its location it is one of the most important to the Union. Situated south of Georgia and Alabama, it extends as a peninsula a distance of 385 miles; and is bounded on the east by the waters of the Atlantic, and on the south and west by the Gulf of Mexico and a small portion of Alabama. Between her shores and Cuba is the gulf channel, which is strictly the mouth of the gulf and the outlet for its commerce. Florida was purchased of Spain by the United States in 1820. Vast appropriations have been made by the United States, for the security of commerce, by erecting establishments which fringe her borders. Her series of light-houses embrace Cape Canaveral, Jupiter, Cape Florida, Carysfort, Sombrero, Sand Key, Key "West, Tortugas, and Loggerhead. Fort Taylor at Key "West and Fort Jefferson at Tortugas, an island west of Key West, the first nearly done and quite capable of defence and the second more than half complete, have each cost about a million and a quarter. At Key West are a naval coal depot and wharf, the marine hospital, army barracks, admiralty courts, and an extensive wrecking organization.

The population of the State, in 1860, was 77,778 whites, 908 free colored, and 61,753 slaves; total, 140,939. The ratio of increase during the preceding ten years was for whites 6,477; free colored, 258; slave, 5,709. The Governor is elected for four years. The Senate consists of nineteen members, elected for four years, and the House of forty members, elected annually. The term of the Governor, John Milton, expires in 1865. The public men of the State were enlisted in the secession at its earliest period. Her Senators in Congress assembled, in secret caucus, with those from other States to devise the plan of action. Prompt measures were also taken by the State authorities to secure success. At an early day a State Convention was called to meet on the 5th of January, to which delegates were at once elected. The Convention assembled at Tallahassee on the day appointed. It consisted of sixty-seven members, one-third of whom were regarded as in favor of cooperation. On the 7th, a resolution declaring the right and duty of Florida to secede was passed—ayes, 62; noes, 5.

On the 10th the ordinance of secession was passed by a vote of 62 ayes to 7 noes. The following is the ordinance:

Whereas, All hope of preserving the Union upon terms consistent with the safety and honor of the slaveholding States, has been fully dissipated by the recent indications of the strength of the anti-slavery sentiment of the free States; therefore,

Be it enacted by the people of Florida, in convention assembled, That it is undoubtedly the right of the several States of the Union, at such time and for such cause as in the opinion of the people of such States, acting in their sovereign capacity, may be just and proper, to withdraw from the Union, and, in the opinion of this Convention, the existing causes are such as to compel Florida to proceed to exercise this right.

We, the people of the State of Florida, in Convention assembled, do solemnly ordain, publish, and declare that the State of Florida hereby withdraws herself from the Confederacy of States existing under the name of the United States of America, and from the existing Government of the said States; and that all political connection between her and the Government of said States ought to be, and the same is hereby totally annulled, and said Union of States dissolved; and the State of Florida is hereby declared a sovereign and independent nation; and that all ordinances heretofore adopted, in so far as they create or recognize said Union, are rescinded; and all laws, or parts of laws, in force in this State, in so far as they recognize or assent to said Union, be and they are hereby repealed.

The Convention, at a subsequent date, was addressed by the Commissioner from South Carolina, L. W. Spratt. In his address he admits that, if the Southern people had been left to consult their own interests in the matter, apart from the complications superinduced by the action of South Carolina, they would never have felt it their duty to initiate the movement in which, for reasons partly long conceived and partly fortuitous, she had now, as she thinks, succeeded in involving them.

The other acts of the Convention completed the work commenced by the ordinance of secession. Delegates were appointed to the Confederate Congress, with instructions to cooperate with those from other States in the formation of a Government independent of the United States. A session of the Legislature was held at the same time, in order to pass such measures as would give strength to the executive officers in their new position. An act authorizing the issue of $500,000 dollars in treasury notes and another staying the issue of executions upon the judgments in cases of civil contract were passed. Another act, to define treason, was adopted, which declared that, "on the event of any actual collision between the troops of the late Federal Union and those in the employ of the State of Florida, it should be the duty of the Governor of the State to make public proclamation of the fact, and thereafter the act of holding office under the Federal Government should be declared treason, and the person convicted should suffer death." This act was approved by the Governor on the 14th of February. On the next day the Legislature adjourned.

The forts and arsenals of the United States and the U. S. schooner Dana were seized, under instructions from the Governor, at the same time those in Alabama were occupied by the troops of that State. At the most important forts, as Pickens, Jefferson, and Taylor, there were such garrisons as were able to defend them. The investment of the former was immediately made by the troops from Florida, with reinforcements from Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. The navy yard and forts on the mainland at Pensacola were thus occupied, but Pickens defied all the efforts of the besiegers. The entire force furnished from the State to the service of the Confederate Government has been estimated at 10,000 men. Those in the service for twelve months and longer were much less in number.

GEORGIA, one of the original thirteen States, is bounded north by Tennessee and North Carolina, east by South Carolina and the Atlantic Ocean, south by Florida, and west by Florida and Alabama. It is about three hundred miles in length from north to south, and two hundred and fifty-six miles at its greatest breadth, with an area of 58,000 square miles. The population in 1860 was 591,038 whites, 3,459 free colored, and 462,232 slaves. Total 1,057,329. The ratio of increase for the previous ten years had been 13.43 per cent, whites, 18.01 per cent, free colored, and 21.10 per cent slaves. The Legislature meets biennially. The Senate consists of 47 members, and the House of 130 members. Both Houses are elected for each session. The term of the Governor of the State, Joseph E. Brown, expires in November, 1863. (See New American Cyclopedia.)

The session of the Legislature commenced in November, and its attention was early attracted to the movement to secede from the United States. Various propositions were offered and discussed, and on the 7th of December the following preamble and resolutions were  adopted in the Assembly; yeas 101, nays 27:

The grievances now affecting the Southern States must be effectively resisted.

The interests and destiny of the slave-holding States of this Union are and must remain common.

The secession of one from the Union must, more or less, involve or affect all; therefore

Resolved by the General Assembly of Georgia, That in the judgment of this General Assembly, any State in this Union has the sovereign right to secede from the Union, whenever she deems it necessary and proper for her safety, honor, or happiness; and that when a State exercises this right of secession, the Federal Government has no right to coerce or make war upon her because of the exercise of such right to secede; and should any Southern State secede from the American Union, and the Federal Government make war upon her therefor, Georgia will give to the seceding Southern State the aid, encouragement, and assistance of her entire people. And should the State of Georgia secede from the Union by the action of the Convention of her people on the 16th of January next, she asks the like sympathy and assistance from her Southern sisters which she hereby offers to them.

This resolution was subsequently, under the indications of the strength of the popular feeling against separate State secession, rescinded by a vote of yeas 50, nays 47.

The Senate had previously indefinitely postponed all the resolutions on this subject which had been pending in that body, for the reason that a large majority of its members were indisposed to interfere with a matter upon which they had called a Convention of the People to act.

Subsequently, on the 14th of December, a meeting of all the members of the Legislature was held, at which resolutions were adopted, repudiating the idea that either of the slaveholding States would, under any circumstances, prove untrue to its own interests, and the interests of the sister States, and the success of the common cause. They also repudiated as delusive, the policy of secession first and cooperation afterwards. Interest, safety, and success, and ordinary respect to the sister slaveholding States required consultation with as many as would consult before secession; and then, if secession be deemed advisable, cooperation in secession, and cooperation after secession. 'Whatever mode or manner of redress was adopted, the first step to its successful accomplishment was to unite the counsels of those who were  equally aggrieved, and who were simultaneously demanding redress. In hasty, ill-advised, separate State secession, nothing could be seen but divisions among the people, confusion among the slaveholding States, strife around their firesides, and ultimate defeat to every movement for the effective redress of grievances. In the consultation and cooperation of the slaveholding States would be found the maintenance of their rights and equality, the preservation of the laws, the peace of families, the security of property, the harmony of the people, the peaceful division of the public property, if division must ensue, and the success of whatever plan of redress might be agreed on and adopted. In selecting delegates to the approaching State Convention, the people were urged to be careful that they did not cast their votes for those who were in favor of immediate secession of Georgia alone; and to avoid doubt on that subject, it was suggested that the people should require every candidate to take a "distinct position against immediate State secession, at least until a proper effort of cooperation had failed."

An address to the people of the States of Page 338 South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, and of such other slaveholding States as might hold conventions earlier than the assembling of the Georgia State Convention, was adopted at this meeting. It was signed by fifty-two members of the Legislature. The State Convention of South Carolina refused to receive it. Its principal points were the following:

"In behalf of the people of Georgia, whom we represent, this meeting, composed of members of the General Assembly, do most respectfully but earnestly ask the people of our sister States, above named, to appoint delegates to such a General Convention of Southern States, or of as many as will convene; and that until such General Convention shall assemble and deliberate, no final separate State action shall be taken on the question of our longer continuance as members of the present Confederacy of our States.

"We urge this request, deeply feeling its importance to all, and to our great common cause.

"We have but one interest; we are separate independent sovereignties—but in welfare, feeling, and destiny, we are one individual people.

"The action of one State must affect all the Southern States. The separation of one from all must greatly involve hot only the feelings, but the interests of all. No slaveholding State can live for itself; we must live with and for each other. God has not mingled more indistinguishably the drops of water in our rivers, than that Ho has linked indissolubly the destinies of our people and their children forever.

"In climate, soil, productions, and systems of labor, we are as identical with each other as we are separate from the balance of the world.

"Let us consult together, then. Let us so act that all may agree.

"Our people must be united. Our common interest must be preserved. Our common movement must be successful. Common dangers must be avoided. Our equality, our honor shall be preserved. All these can devise a cooperation. Not for our enemies, but for ourselves, our safety, our children, our peace, our necessities, we beseech you so to order your action, as that consultation and cooperation shall not be defeated.

"Nearly all our sister Southern States are, even at this writing, moving to this end. We believe all—most certainly a very large majority—will unite in such a Convention. The incurable embarrassments and dangers can thereby be avoided, and incalculable good ensured.

"We know wo cannot be mistaken as to success, when we appeal to the noble chivalry of the Southern people not to take a final step, which must inevitably and irretrievably, in its very nature, involve all, without at least offering to consult with as many as will consult; and, above all, such action will not be taken against the urgent request of those who beg that consultation, and who are now moving to secure it."

Numerous public meetings were at this time held in many counties of. the State, at which resolutions were adopted expressing apprehensions of the consequences of the "election of Lincoln and Hamlin," but manifesting a disinclination to proceed to acts of immediate secession, until other measures had been tried. They were dignified and conservative in language, and clearly indicated that hostility to the Union was neither deep-seated nor bitter.

The election for delegates to the State Convention took place on the 4th of January. The vote on that occasion was thus spoken of soon after:

"We know as well as any one living that the whole movement for secession, and the formation of a new Government, so far at least aa Georgia is concerned, proceeded on only n quasi consent of the people, and was pushed through, under circumstances of great excitement and frenzy, by a fictitious majority. With all the appliances brought to bear, with all the fierce rushing, maddening events of the hour, the election of the 4th of January showed a falling off in the popular vote of 25,000 or 30,000, and on the night of that election the cooperationists had a majority, notwithstanding the falling off, of nearly 3,000, and an absolute majority of elected delegates of 29. But, upon assembling, by coaxing, bullying, and all other arts, the majority was changed."

This convention assembled at Milledgeville on the 16th of January. General W. Crawford was elected President. Commissioners Orr, from South Carolina, and Shorter, from Alabama, were invited to seats in that body. On the 18th, a resolution declaring it to be the right and duty of Georgia to secede, and appointing a committee to draft an ordinance of secession, was offered and put to vote. On n division, the vote was—ayes, 165; noes, 130. The ordinance was as follows:

An ordinance to dissolve the union between the State of Georgia and other States united with her under the compact of Government entitled the Constitution of the United States:

We, the people of the State of Georgia, in Convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, that the ordinance adopted by the people of Georgia in Convention in the year 17SS, whereby the Constitution of the United States was assented to, ratified, and adopted, and also all acts and parts of acts of the General Assembly ratifying and adopting the amendments to the said Constitution, arc hereby repealed, rescinded, and abrogated; and wo do further declare and ordain, that the Union now subsisting between the State of Georgia and other States, under the name of the United States of America, is hereby dissolved j and that the State of Georgia is in full possession and exercise of all those rights of sovereignty which belong and appertain to a free and independent State.

The vote on its adoption was—ayes, 208; noes, 89.

On the night after its passage, great demonstrations Page 339 of joy were made at the Capital, including the firing of cannon, torch-light processions, sky-rockets, music, speeches, &c. In Augusta there was an illumination with fireworks, ringing of bells, and firing of cannon.

A substitute was introduced for the ordinance of secession, but was lost. It was also moved to postpone the operation of the ordinance to March 3d. This motion failed. Subsequently a preamble and resolution were adopted, the object of which was to remove the unfavorable impression created by the large vote given in opposition to the ordinance of secession. The preamble was in these words:

Whereas, as a lack of unanimity in this Convention on the passage of the ordinance of secession indicates a difference of opinion amongst the members of the Convention, not so much as to the right which Georgia claims or the wrongs of which she complains, as to a remedy and its application before a resort to other means for redress; and whereas, it is desirable to give expression to that intention which really exists among all the members of the Convention to sustain the State in the course of action which she has pronounced to be proper for the occasion; therefore, &c.

The resolution required every member to sign the ordinance. This was adopted unanimously.

Before the Convention proceeded to sign the ordinance, a resolution was offered, proposing to submit it to a vote of the people, through the proclamation of the Governor, and that the question should be "secession" or "no secession" at the ballot-box. If a majority of votes were for secession, then the ordinance was to take effect, and not otherwise. The resolution was rejected by a large majority. The ordinance was then signed by all present. The response to the resolutions of the New York Legislature was made by the passage of the following resolution:

Be it unanimously resolved by the people of Georgia, in Convention assembled, as a response to the resolutions of New York, that we highly approve of the patriotic and energetic conduct of our Governor in taking possession of Fort Pulaski by the Georgia troops, and request him to hold possession until the relations between Georgia and the Federal Government shall be determined by this Convention; and that a copy of this resolution is hereby ordered to be transmitted to the Governor of New York.

The resolution was unanimously adopted.

Resolutions were adopted on the 22d, declaring that Georgia would demand her share of the public property; another, pledging the State to pay the carriers for the transportation of the mails. An ordinance was passed, providing for the execution of the sentences of the Federal Courts, and for the execution of processes issued by the same courts, and to preserve indictments. Another to continue in force all the Federal laws in reference to the African slave trade was, after an amendment declaring it not to be piracy, but substituting imprisonment in the penitentiary, unanimously adopted. An ordinance was also reported relating to the inter-State slave trade; also another revoking the Federal jurisdiction over all lands ceded by the State, and authorizing the payment for fortifications, arsenals, and also for all improvements and stores.

On the 25th, a report was offered, that no State should be admitted into a Southern Confederacy unless it be a slaveholding State, and any State thus admitted subsequently abolishing slavery should be expelled from the Union.

When it was proposed that Commissioners be sent to slaveholding States, objection was made against including Delaware.

Subsequently, on the 28th, an ordinance continuing the existing revenue laws was lost; and the ordinance, substantially that of the South Carolina Convention, was adopted after a long and animated debate. The vote was yeas 130, nays 116.

Representatives to the Montgomery Congress were appointed on the 24th. Before voting, an assurance was given to the Convention, that none of the candidates were in favor of forming a Government having in view an immediate or ultimate union with the Northern States. No such idea could be entertained. All were for the establishment of a Southern Confederacy on the basis of the old Constitution, and never, under any circumstances, to connect themselves with the Northern States.

Notwithstanding this unanimity in the Convention, there was a great reaction in some parts of the State, and the flag of the United States was kept flying without regard to the ordinance of the Convention. This was done also in North Alabama, and in portions of Mississippi and Louisiana. Fears were expressed by former members of Congress from Georgia, that the reaction might be greatly increased on the popular mind in the Gulf .States, if a compromise was effected satisfactory to the Border States.

Two regiments were ordered by the Convention to be organized as the army for the Republic of Georgia, over which a number of officers were appointed by the Governor, chiefly those who had resigned from the army of the United States.

On the 7th of March, the Convention reassembled at Savannah, after a brief adjournment. A resolution to take an oath to support the Provisional Constitution was offered and rejected.

Mr. Robertson, of Macon, wished to wait till the permanent Constitution was adopted, and Mr. Fouche saw no necessity for swearing at all; he was opposed to it in the abstract. Besides, this was a convention of the sovereign people, and above all Constitutions. A resolution that the people of Georgia, in Convention, heartily approve of the election of Messrs. Davis and Stephens to the Presidency and Vice-Presidency, was adopted.

On the 12th, the Convention transferred the forts, arms, arsenals, and munitions of war to the Confederate States. An ordinance was also passed, appropriating half a million of dollars to support the Government, and authorizing the Page 340 Governor to issue seven per cent, bonds for that amount.

On the 16th of March, the Constitution of the Confederate States was taken up, and adopted by the unanimous passage of the following ordinance:

Be it ordained by the people of Georgia, in Contention assembled, and it is hereby ordained by authority of the same, That the Constitution adopted by the Congress at Montgomery, in the State of Alabama, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, for the '"permanent Federal Government" of the Confederate States of America, be and the same is hereby adopted and ratified by the State of Georgia, "acting in its sovereign and independent character."

Thus Georgia was the second State to adopt the Constitution without any reference of the question to the people. By such action the principle of popular government is destroyed.

If the State Conventions which were called for another purpose can assume that they are the people, that they have the unlimited power of the people and can do whatsoever they list, and if, under such an assumption of power, they can appoint delegates to a General Convention without consulting the people, and can fix upon them a new Government without their consent, then a principle which has always been considered fundamental in the country and "prized above all price," is gone.

Seven of the ten members from Georgia in the Congress wore also members of the State Convention. The State Convention adjourned on the 23d of March. A State Constitution was adopted, to be submitted to the people for ratification or rejection in July.

This new Constitution, although differing wholly from the old, made but few essential changes in the organic law of the State. The most important of these alterations were the linking together in one Senatorial district of three contiguous counties, without regard to size or population, for the purpose of reducing the number of Senators to forty-four; requiring the assent of two-fifths of the members present to have the yeas and nays entered on the journal, instead of two members, as under the old instrument. All elections by the people were to be by ballot, but all elections by the General Assembly should be vita voce. Under the new system, Judges of the Supreme and Inferior Courts were to be appointed by the Governor, and confirmed by two-thirds of the Senate, instead of being elected by the people and Legislature, as heretofore. Another clause provided that the Governor should have been a citizen of the Confederate States twelve years.

The official vote on the Constitution was, for ratification, 11,497; against ratification, 10,037. Majority for ratification, 860.

After the proclamation of President Lincoln was issued, great excitement prevailed, especially in Savannah, and military preparations were  commenced with great vigor. On the secession of Virginia, a salute of eight guns was fired. A full armament of one hundred and fifty guns was sent to Fort Pulaski. Fort Jackson, on the Savannah River, below the city, was put in a complete state of defence. An exterior line of fortification to protect the mouth of the river was also commenced, chiefly on Tybee Island.

On the 26th day of April, the Governor issued his proclamation, forbidding the payment of debts to Northern creditors, as follows:

Whereas, by the oppressive and wicked conduct of the Government and people of that part of the late United States, known as the anti-Slavery States, war actually exists between them and the people of the Southern States; and whereas, the President of the United States has issued his proclamation, declaring his determination to blockade the ports of the Southern States, and is now collecting Federal troops upon Southern soil for the purpose of subjugating and enslaving us; and whereas, property belonging to the citizens of the State of Georgia, whenever found within the anti-slavery States is seized and forcibly token from its owners; and whereas, all contracts made with the enemy during the existence of hostilities are, by the law of nations, illegal and void, and all remedies for the enforcement of contracts in our courts between citizens of this State and citizens of the States making war upon us, which were made prior to the commencement of hostilities, are suspended till the termination of the war; and whereas, in the language of the law of nations, "the purchase of bills on the enemy's country, or the remission and deposit of funds there, is a dangerous and illegal act, because it may be cherishing the resources and relieving the wants of the enemy, and the remission of funds in money, or bills to subjects of the enemy t is unlawful;" and whereas, sound policy as well as international law absolutely forbids that any citizen of this State shall, under any pretext whatever, assist the enemy by remitting, paying, or furnishing any money or other thing of value during the continuance of hostilities, to the Government or people of the States which have waged and arc maintaining a most unnatural and wicked war against us; and whereas, justice requires that all sums due from citizens of this State to individuals in such hostile States, who do not uphold and sustain the savage and cruel warfare inaugurated by their Government, should be promptly paid so soon as hostilities have ceased, and the independence of the Confederate States is recognized by the Government of the United States:

Therefore, in view of these considerations, I, Joseph E. Brown, Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the army and navy of the State of Georgia, do issue this, my proclamation, commanding and enjoining upon each citizen or inhabitant of this State, that he abstain absolutely from all violations of the law above recited, and that he do not, under any pretext whatever, remit, transfer, or pay to the Government of the United States, or any one of the States composing said Government, which is known as a Free Soil State, including, among others, the States of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Ohio; or to any citizen or inhabitant of any each State, any money, bills, drafts, or other things of value, either in payment of any debt due, or hereafter to become due, or for or on account of, any other cause whatever, until the termination of hostilities.

And I hereby invite each citizen or inhabitant of this State, who is indebted to said Government, or either of said States, or any citizen, or inhabitants thereof, to pay the amount of such indebtedness, whenever due, into the treasury of Georgia, in any funds bankable in Augusta or Savannah, or to deposit the same, subject to the order of the Treasurer of this State, in any one of the solvent banks of either of said cities, or in any legally authorized agency of either of said banks; and upon the making of any such deposit at the Treasury, Page 341
or upon presentation of any such certificate of deposit, the Treasurer of this State is hereby directed and required to deliver to such person a certificate, specifying the sum so deposited, which I hereby declare the faith and credit of this State will be pledged to repay to such depositor, in funds bankable in Augusta and Savannah, with seven per cent, interest from the date of the deposit, so soon as hostilities shall have ceased, and it shall again be lawful for debtors to pay the same to creditors in the hostile States above mentioned. This will not only afford to such of our citizens as owe money to Northern creditors, which international law and public policy forbid them at present to pay, a safe investment, and the highest security for its return to them at the end of the war, but it will enable them in the mean time to perform a patriotic duty and to assist the State, and through her the Confederate States, in raising the funds necessary to the successful defence of our homes, our firesides, and our altars.

And I do further command and strictly enjoin upon ell and every chartered bank in this State, which may be in possession of any note, bill, draft, or other paper binding any citizen of this State to pay money to any one of the said hostile States, or any inhabitant or corporation thereof, or belonging to any such State or person, to abstain from protesting any such draft, bill, note, or other paper, provided the person liable on such bill, draft, note, or other paper, will exhibit to such bank or any of its agencies, having such paper in possession, certificate showing that he has deposited the amount due on such paper, in the Treasury of this State, or in any ono of the banks above mentioned, to the credit of the Treasurer, or will at the time such paper becomes due, make such deposit. I further command and require all Notaries Public in this State, to abstain absolutely from the performance of any official act for the protest of any paper of the character above mentioned, under Buch circumstances as are hereinbefore specified.

"Given under my hand and the great seal of the State, at the Capitol, in Milledgeville, this twenty-sixth day of April, in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and sixty-one, and of the independence of the Confederate States of America, the first.

JOSEPH E. BROWN.

E. P. Watkins, Secretary of State.

The agents for the cotton loan were  active in their endeavors to obtain subscriptions. In other parts of the State, besides Savannah, very liberal subscriptions were  made. The demand for arms, however, was, even at this early period, becoming urgent, and most extensive schemes were set on foot to undertake their manufacture. The reasons offered to induce capitalists to embark in these enterprises were : that their country was almost destitute of means to construct arms, their supplies from foreign countries had been cut off, their present stores must soon be exhausted; their enemies had all the means at hand for constructing the most destructive weapons.

The people were urged by the Governor to ship no more cotton while the blockade continued. This scarcity of cotton, it was believed, would operate upon the manufacturing industry of the world with such severity as to excite movements in behalf of the Confederate States. The view of the Governor was thus expressed: "It is said our enemies exempt cotton from blockade. "Why? Because they cannot do without it. I appeal to our planters, therefore, to refuse to ship a bag while the blockade lasts. This will soon remove the blockade from our ports, and the increase in price will amply reward you for the loss you may sustain while keeping your cotton on hand. I trust our people will hold public meetings, and petition the Government at Montgomery to lay an absolute embargo upon cotton, permitting not one bag to pass out of the Confederate States while the blockade is maintained. I appeal to our capitalists to go to work vigorously and prepare to manufacture such articles as we most need. I also appeal to our planters to redouble their energies for the production of all supplies of provision necessary to support our people at homo and our armies in the field. The prospect is most flattering for an abundant wheat harvest. Let each planter, as soon as his wheat is cat, break and plant a few more acres of his best wheat land in early kind of corn. Finally, I appeal to all, ladies and gentlemen, to practise strict economy, dispense with every unnecessary luxury, and devote all to our country till the battle is won, and our independence acknowledged by the civilized nations of the earth."

The exhaustion of the supply of arms was becoming so certain that the Governor again addressed the people on the subject. lie stated that all the arms in the arsenal at Augusta, at the date of the act for its transfer to the Confederate States, were  turned over to the Secretary of War, and ordered by him out of the State to arm troops of other States on the border of the Confederacy. All those arms which were  taken from the arsenal previous to its transfer, were placed in the hands of the State troops at that time in service. Over seventeen thousand troops had been fully armed, accoutered and equipped by the State at the end of July, including full supplies of tents, knapsacks, haversacks, blankets, cartridge boxes, cap pouches, camp kettles, canteens, &c, at a cost of nearly $300,000, over and above the cost of the guns and the expense of feeding and rendezvousing twenty regiments. About five thousand independent troops also had gone from the State, a part of whom had taken State arms. The supply that remained was only sufficient for two or three new regiments, and was then required. It was estimated that there were  40,000 good country rifles and 25,000 good double-barrelled shot-guns. From this source a temporary supply was expected.

The change in the financial condition of the State, arising from the stagnation of commerce and the disappearance of specie, caused great embarrassment among the people. This was accompanied with an advance on many necessary articles. So oppressive was this change upon the citizens, that the attention of the Legislature was called to it by the Governor, who recommended that such measures should be adopted as would put an end to the unjust and unpatriotic speculations in these prime necessaries of life. He said: "There should be enacted a law, authorizing the Governor, or any military officer under his command, by his direction, to seize and appropriate any provisions or other supplies necessary for our army Page 342 in the hands of speculators or traders, and to pay them or tender to pay them reasonable and just compensation therefor, to be fixed by competent valuing agents. Such a measure would not only secure the Government against extortion, but it would also accomplish a general public benefit in the regulation of prices. The price fixed as the market value of the articles needed by the State, which are also the principal articles needed by the community, would very soon become the general market price in the State, as the authorities could, on information, seize supplies for the State in the hands of such persons as refused to sell at reasonable prices, and thus bring down those above to medium rates." Bacon, which cost, before the war commenced, ten cents per pound, was then selling for thirty cents. Country jeans had advanced from fifty cents per yard to one dollar twenty-five and one dollar fifty cents. An act was accordingly passed by the Legislature which allowed the owner to sell salt, wheat, flour, bacon, lard, cotton, osnaburgs, kerseys, leather, shoes, at an advance of sixty per cent, over the price in the month of April previous, but all speculative prices were forbidden.

The military quota of the State was ordered by the Confederate Government to the border States. The danger of invasion was at no time prior to the latter part of the year considered so imminent as to require a large force in the field, ready for defence. In September, about three thousand troops were stationed on the seaboard to defend the city of Savannah, and about one hundred and ten miles of sea-coast. The Governor frequently made offers to the Secretary of War to increase this force by calling out the militia, but no requisition was ever made by the latter. Finally the Governor, apprehending danger, called out a considerable force as a part of his duty, and proceeded to organize them. No assistance had thus far been received from the Confederate Government in the defence of the coast, and the Governor recommended to the State Legislature to undertake this duty. He said: "My own opinion is, that it is not now the time to count the cost, but that we should call out as many troops as may be necessary to repel the invader, should he appear either upon the sea-coast or upon the borders of Tennessee. "Whether it may take ten thousand or twenty thousand men, or whether it may cost five or ten millions of dollars, I ask, in the name of the people, that their representatives place at my command the men and money necessary to accomplish this object."

The expedition to Port Royal (tee Expeditions) sailed from Fortress Monroe so late in the year, that it served only to threaten the coast of Georgia for some time. A. considerable force, as a coast guard, was collected, and some troops were also sent to aid in the defence of Charleston. A number of little steam-boats were equipped under Captain Tattnal, once an officer of the United States Navy. They were, however, unable to oppose the overwhelming force sent by the Federal Government.

The vote for President in 1860 was: Douglas, 11,590; Breckinridge, 51,889; Bell, 42,886. No votes were cast for Mr. Lincoln.

TYBEE ISLAND. Tybee Island is in Tybee Bay, on the south side of the entrance to Savannah River, in Georgia. The Savannah River is the dividing line between the States of South Carolina and Georgia. This island is southward of the bar, and about twenty miles southwest of Port Royal. It is one of the chain of sea islands which stretch all along the coast of Georgia and the adjoining States. The island is small, not as large as Port Royal Island. Cockspur Island lies immediately to the north of it, on which is situated Fort Pulaski—a very strong work, that defends the entrance to the Savannah River, and the defensive outpost of the city of Savannah itself. Tybee Island has been notable chiefly with mariners on account of its light-house, (Tybee Light,) one of the most prominent on the Southern coast. It was a fixed light, 108 feet above the sea, on the northeast end of the island, and in clear weather it might be seen at the distance of sixteen miles. This beacon was extinguished by the Georgians shortly after they had seceded from the Union. Tybee is long, narrow, and somewhat marshy, in the coast county of Chatham, and in climate and scenery is very much like Port Royal and the other Carolina sea islands. A small amount of sea island cotton is raised upon it, and its inhabitants are few. It has a beautiful creek to the west of it, where a ship of any burden may lie at anchor in perfect safety.

On the 26th of November, General Sherman, from the Port Royal expedition, determined to make a reconnoissance of the island, and landed with a small party. They discovered, on the point of land reaching out beyond the lighthouse, a fortification which had apparently been deserted, for about eight days. It was a mere redan with flanking curtains, and had been mounted with not more than four or five guns. These had been moved. Behind it was a martello tower, with embrasures, altogether unfit for use. The light-house was deserted, and no trace of occupation discovered anywhere in its vicinity. The island is about two miles wide by five long, and its nearest point is distant only about a mile from Fort Pulaski. The lighthouse and battery are on the opposite corner from the fort. General Sherman, with an escort of marines, having examined the lower and deserted battery, approached the point of the island nearest to the fort, and was honored Page 696 with a shell or two from Fort Pulaski, which came quite near them. Lieutenant Magner, however, was allowed to examine another small work situated so as to cover the whole line of the beach between its two angles. He found no guns left, but that the position was admirable for defensive purposes. The enemy had evidently been aware of its importance; as once in possession of Federal forces, it would be very easy to throw shells into Fort Pulaski. The remains of a hutted encampment large enough for a hundred men were to be seen from this place, but they bore no trace of having been recently occupied. There was no flag on. the island, and it had evidently been completely abandoned. The fact that Federal vessels could come under the lee of the island and anchor in sight of Fort Pulaski, (only fifteen miles from Savannah,) and that shells could be thrown into the fort without difficulty, made its possession, at any cost, a matter of importance to the Federal force.


Source: The American Annual Cyclopaedia and Register of Important Events of the Year, 1861-1865, vols. 1-5. New York: Appleton & Co., 1868.