though unwilling to leave the Union, were also unwilling to take arms against their sister States.

What could they do now but cast in their lot with the South? On May 20, 1861, North Carolina, in a State convention called at Raleigh, decided to join the secession movement as the others had done. Hom Weldon N. Edwards was president of this assembly. Every political party was represented there; all were unanimous that no choice was now left.

The Confederacy numbered eleven States, with a population of nine millions, of which slaves formed one-third. The twenty-three States which remained loyal to the Union, and were resolved that the others should not leave it, numbered twenty-three millions, all free.

It was to be a war between brothers, horrible to think of, still more horrible to witness and endure. Neither side believed it would last long. Volunteers for the army enlisted at first for only three months. The North thought it was only a great riot led by a few hot-blooded Secessionists, who would soon be put down. The South believed the North would allow disunion to go on peaceably as soon as it was seen that the Southern people were in earnest.

In the limits of a short history like this we can hardly give even the outlines of the tremendous struggle that lasted four years.

It ended, as was foreseen from the first by all but the fiery and enthusiastic leaders of the extreme Southern party, in the total defeat of the Southern armies and the forcible reinstatement of the seceded States into

the old Union which they had tried to abandon and to break up.

The South trusted to the fervid valor of her gallant men to win the battles, and to the hope of turning her cotton into gold in Europe for the means of carrying the war on. It was thought that the great nations of Europe would sympathize with the South.

Battle after battle was won by us against overwhelming numbers. Of glory such as a bloody battlefield can give the South had enough. But in such a war as this a nation's strength is measured by the gold it can command.

The North had every advantage besides that of numbers. She had the treasury and all the power and resources of the government; she had the navy, the manufactories, the commerce, the wealth, and she had the sympathy of the civilized world.

Every Southern port and all our coasts were at once blockaded or shut up, and patroled by Northern vessels, so that no trade with Europe was possible. Southern ships, which were few, could run in and out only by stealth and at long intervals, and at last not at all.

Blockading the seaports of a country means strangulation for the trade of that country. The paper money issued by the Confederate Congress went steadily down. in value as the paper money in time of the Revolution had done, while of foreign gold there was none, and of foreign sympathy but little.

The Confederate government fixed its seat at Richmond, Va., and Robert E. Lee of Virginia, who had belonged to

the United States army, had refused the offer to command it in the war, and had come home to Virginia to be in her service, was made commander-in-chief of our army.

Twenty thousand volunteers were called for by Governor Ellis as soon as North Carolina adopted the ordinance of secession, and the call was answered with enthusiasm. The United States forts on our coast and all the property belonging to the Federal government in the State were seized. Richmond was the first object of attack by the Federals.

A regiment under Colonel D. H. Hill was sent off at once to Yorktown peninsula in Virginia, and in a skirmish at Big Bethel on June 10th, Henry Wyatt of Edgecombe county was the first Southern soldier killed in the great Civil War now commenced. From the outset North Carolina went forward cheerfully, steadily, nobly to do her utmost in the cause she had deliberately chosen to stand by.

In July the first great battle was fought at Manassas in the northern part of Virginia. It resulted in the defeat and rout of the Federal army. The South hailed this victory as if it was the end of the war, but it only served to sting the North to greater effort. Its Congress at once called for $500,000,000 and half a million volunteers, and got them.

There were three regiments from North Carolina in the battle, and Colonel Charles Fisher of Salisbury, among many other brave men, was killed.

In July, 1861, a fleet of Federal gunboats attacked and seized a small fort or sandwork at Cape Hatteras.

1862.

Early next year General Burnside, with a fleet of gunboats and fifteen thousand men, entered Albemarle Sound and took Roanoke Island, after a stubborn resistance by two North Carolina regiments intrenched there under Colonel Shaw. Two thousand of our men were taken prisoners in this action.

New Bern was the next point of attack in our State. Governor Branch had been put in command there with half a dozen regiments. Neither the commander nor the troops had ever been under fire, and, though they behaved with gallantry, on the 14th of March the fate of New Bern was settled by the rout and precipitate retreat of its defenders. Fort Macon fell next. Colonel White was compelled to surrender it in the last of April, it having been held by North Carolina only about a year. With New Bern fell Edenton, Plymouth, and all the towns on our seacoast except Wilmington.

Forty thousand North Carolinians were under arms, and only a handful of these were on duty in their own State. The events of the second year were favorable to the Southern cause, and Southern hopes ran high.

At Williamsburg, at Winchester, and at Seven Pines Southern valor rolled back again and again the tide of war, but, like the waves of the incoming ocean, the numbers and the strength of the Northern armies were again and again reinforced. The South was losing her best blood in vain. At the battle of Seven Pines, Colonel George Burgwyn Anderson, in command of the Fourth North Carolina, was killed, and of five hundred and twenty

men of the regiment, four hundred and sixty-two lay Idead or wounded.

1862. In June nearly all the North Carolina troops participated in a seven days' fight around Richmond which ended in the repulse of the Union army under General McClellan. Of ninety-two regiments engaged there under Generals Jackson, Longstreet, and D. H. Hill and A. P. Hill, forty-six belonged to North Carolina. Fully half the men engaged in that tremendous week of battle were from our noble and steadfast State.

But the cost of such renown was fearful. From the mountains of North Carolina to the seashore a loud lament went up. The desolation and mourning for our dead sons, though they had fallen in the service of the State and in the discharge of man's highest duty, were universal. Every town and village was in mourning. In remote farm-houses, in cabins on the hillsides, and in the mountain-glens sons, husbands, fathers were missing. They were lying mangled in Virginia hospitals or under Virginia sod.

Still, recruits were continually going to the front to fill up the vacancies. War is insatiable. Once started, it goes on crushing everything in its track.

Hospitals for our sick and wounded were established at our chief cities. Dr. Charles Johnson of Raleigh was the first surgeon-general of our State. We also established and supported a large hospital for our soldiers at Petersburg. The best physicians in North Carolina volunteered for this service, and many of our ladies were forward to give their aid and comfort.