obtained imparted to the fabrication and employment of rifled ordnance and conical projectiles was strikingly illustrated during the subsequent operations of the Federals in Charleston harbor and at other points.

Nor was this lesson heeded only on this side of the Atlantic. The nations of Europe, appreciating its value, have remodeled their permanent fortifications, and have consigned to oblivion, both on shore and at sea, those old-fashioned smooth-bore guns the thunders of which had so long , been regarded as most potent in deciding the fortunes of battle. We do not transcend the teachings of history when we affirm that this bombardment of Fort Pulaski, which culminated so disastrously to Confederate hopes, was largely instrumental in revolutionizing former theories with regard to the practicability of breaching admirably constructed brick scarp, and in introducing at home and abroad, on land and afloat, heavy rifle guns which are now the embodiment of martial power and precision.

Charles C.Iones. It.

AUGUSTA, Georgia.

MARCH OF THE NEW YORK SEVENTH REGIMENT

THE GREAT UPRISING IN NEW YORK CITY, 1861

"Civil War has begun."

These four expressive words staring from the morning newspapers as the day dawned on Saturday, April 13, 1861, burned into the New York soul like molten iron. A terrible fight had been twenty-four hours in progress at Fort Sumter. The news with its as yet barren details spread through the city with the rapidity of thought. Whatever the public expectation concerning approaching hostilities between the Northern and Southern states, the reality was stunning, overwhelming. During the early morning hours of that black Saturday it was as if a pall had fallen over the whole Island of Manhattan.

This exciting announcement came later. The flames bursting forth about eight o'clock that eventful morning, raged with great fury, until at noon every building in the stronghold was burning. At five minutes before one o'clock in the afternoon Major Anderson surrendered to the enemy and the guns ceased their roaring. But the strange echoes awakened by the Sumter guns were heard in every part of the continent for many troubled days. The blazing fort in Charleston harbor seemed to fill New York with its lurid light, and the atmosphere grew thick and heavy as with the smoke of battle. Trade stopped in its channels; men with pale distressed faces stood in groups on the street corners, or swelled the dense crowd that besieged Printing House Square to seize and devour the hourly bulletins as they appeared. Information that the American flag had given place to the Palmetto of South Carolina, touched unused and forgotten chords in the human heart. The chagrin and indignation that prevailed can neither be described nor imagined. A great and irrepressible love for the national flag leaped swiftly into life. It was at once displayed upon every flag-staff in the city, it crowned the roofs of dwellings, churches and factories, it fluttered from windows and public conveyances, it floated from the shipping, and men, women and children hastened to adorn their breasts with bits of red, white and blue ribbon. Swift-footed news-boys darted hither and thither with their piles of extras-on the cars, stages, steps of the cabs, everywhere these ubiquitous messengers were to be seen. The excitement grew more intense with every fresh piece of intelligence. Among commercial men at the Corn Exchange, at the Merchants' Exchange in Wall Street, in eating saloons, at hotels, and with the agitated throng on the streets nothing was talked of but Charleston, Fort Sumter and the war. At the Custom House men seemed actually paralyzed. Among the common people a panic was at one time created by the suggestion that New York would be next attacked. All through the evening and late into the night the club-rooms and other places of public resort were packed with excited multitudes; and under the street lamps, in front of the theaters, in the vestibules and on the steps of hotels and dwellings, extras were read and the one theme discussed. The fever had risen rather than abated on Sunday, April 14. People walked the streets, they conversed in loud then in hushed tones, they flocked to the churches where clergymen preached, not peace, but the sword. It was a Sabbath never to be forgotten. In Brooklyn a dense mass of humanity crowded every inch of space in Mr. Beecher's church, who spoke at great length and with wonderful eloquence and power on the error which would be committed if the government did not take measures to sustain itself. He said: "There is no fact suscep

tible of proof in history, if it be not true that this Federal Government was created for the purpose of justice and liberty. Right before us, brethren, rolls the sea, red indeed, for there is blood in it, and the word of God is, go on."

On Monday, April 15, the President's call for 75,000 troops to retake and hold the forts and protect the property of the government, was met with immediate and decisive action. From every walk in life men stepped forward and offered their lives. Up to the time of this sublime outburst of public sentiment party heats and dissensions had nowhere raged with more virulence than in the City of New York. The newspapers were in a deadly war with each other on matters of opinion. The right and propriety of secession had been openly advocated. Indeed, there had been more or less discussion in political circles concerning the "true policy" of New York City in case of the disruption of the Union, which would be (as stated in a preceding article in this number of the Magazine) "to detach itself from either section and become a Free City,' occupying a somewhat similar relation to the states of the sundered Union, that such cities as Hamburg held so long to Prussia and the other German states." It was well known that the Southern leaders depended largely for strength at this juncture upon the influence of the Herald and other prominent New York papers. Thus the public eye turned toward them with questioning suspicion. The crowd in Printing House Square on Monday, despite a severe rain storm, was much larger and vastly more threatening than on Saturday. The police tried to preserve order, but the absence of the national flag from certain newspaper buildings created such a storm of popular resentment that a serious riot was imminent. Early in the afternoon the New York Sun displayed a neat flag over its bulletin, which was received with shouts and shouts and shouts of applause. The proprietor of the Herald had been waited upon in the morning by a committee of gentlemen, who assured him that if he did not display the Stars and Stripes there was danger that his "establishment" would be leveled with the pavement. As the day wore on the mob increased about the Herald building (then at the corner of Nassau and Fulton Streets) and grew more and more angry, and threatened more loudly and forcibly. It so happened that the Herald people had no flag in the building, neither had they any guns or weapons of defense. It was inconvenient to procure either in the alarming emergency. Yet something must be done. Wisdom was certainly the better part of valor. Finally a messenger was dispatched through the roof to procure the emblem of salvation. About half-past four o'clock in the afternoon an ensign was slowly dropped from an upper window, occasioning screams of delight and

satisfaction from the mob below, who having nothing further to demand, very soon dispersed, to the relief of all concerned.

On Wednesday morning, the 17th, the New York Times published the following editorial :

"SUDDEN CONVERSION. -The Union revival of the last few days has produced some very sudden and very remarkable conversions among our newspaper neighbors. The old Harlequin of the Herald is among them. He was brought to a realizing sense of his losing condition by a deputation from the street below, who expressed the opinion that his personal comfort would be promoted by his hoisting the American flag. He seemed to feel the force of the suggestion, but didn't happen to have such an article in his establishment. He had heard of it but had never sailed under it. One was procured, however, after some delay, and for lack of a flag-staff hung out of the window. Yesterday the Herald was devoted mainly to proving that it had always frowned upon Secession, and that if its advice had been taken the Southern rebels would have been crushed out long ago. The joke was pretty broad, but nobody laughed. The fact is the old Harlequin is about 'played out.' People are beginning to take too serious views of public affairs to render his incitements to rebellion amusing."

Meanwhile, the New York Seventh Regiment, or National Guard, the pride of the city, representing in its very composition the foremost families of wealth and influence, boldly declared itself for the flag and the Union. A meeting was held on Tuesday, the 16th, at which forty officers were present, and the following resolution unanimously adopted:

Resolved, That the Colonel be requested to notify the Major-General that this Regiment responds to the call of the country as made by the President through the Governor of the State, and that the regiment is ready to march forthwith.

The magnetic influence of such prompt action upon the other militia regiments was immediately apparent. The tidings that the New York Seventh would march in the van to the relief and defense of Washington, went with the speed of a whirlwind from mouth to mouth, from city to city, and over the electric wires to the remotest confines of the State and country-trailing the fire of enthusiasm all along its course. At a late hour on Wednesday evening, the 17th, the following orders from the governor reached the regiment, and were hailed with the wildest delight :

HEADQUARTERS STATE OF New York, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE, ALBANY, April 17, 1861. GENERAL ORDERS, No. 43.

In pursuance of a requisition from the President of the United States, Major-General Sandford is hereby directed to detail one regiment of 800, or two regiments amounting to the same number, for immediate service, to be reported forthwith to the President of the United States, and to serve until relieved by other regiments, or by a regiment or regiments of the Volunteer Militia, to be organized under an act of the Legislature of this State, passed April 16, 1861.

By order of the Commander-in-Chief,

J. MEREDITH READ, JR.,

Adjutant-General.