HIGHLY IMPORTANT NEWS: Rapid Concentration of Troops at the National Capital; EXCITING REPORTS FROM BALTIMORE; Troops Coming Forward from All Points (4/22/1861)

A gentleman who left Washington at half past four o'clock on Saturday morning, informs us that the general belief in that city in the best informed circles, was that JEFFERSON DAVIS was on his way North--at the head of a considerable force, which he was augmenting on the way. As all communication by telegraph with the South has been cut off, it was impossible to procure any positive information on this subject; but it was considered beyond dispute that he was en route for the Capital and not very far from it at the present time.

Our informant states that the railroad bridge at Canton, two or three miles out of Baltimore, on the road to Washington, was burning as he came through, and that the telegraph wires were also destroyed at that place. Baltimore, he states, seemed to be in a perfect whirlwind of excitement. Thousands of people thronged the streets, who appeared to have lost all control of themselves, and were more like fiends than human beings. At that time the military and police had not, apparently, established any authority over the city. At 1 o'clock our informant left Baltimore by a propeller through the Elkton Canal. He met two barges, which seemed to be filled with troops, though not many were visible, as they were all housed. The captains of the barges, on being hailed, denied that they had troops on board, but the gentlemen on the propeller were confident from what they heard that there were not less than 1,700, and that they were of the Pennsylvania Volunteers.

The road from Philadelphia to Baltimore is completely interrupted, no trains passing over it at all.

Free Republic University, Department of History presents U.S. History, 1855-1860: Seminar and Discussion Forum
The American Civil War, as seen through news reports of the time and later historical accounts

First session: November 21, 2015. Last date to add: Sometime in the future.
Reading: Self-assigned. Recommendations made and welcomed.

Posting history, in reverse order

https://www.freerepublic.com/tag/by:homerjsimpson/index?tab=articles

To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by reply or freepmail.

Link to previous New York Times thread

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3952501/posts

Highly Important News: Rapid Concentration of Troops at the National Capital – 2
Fort Monroe and Norfolk Harbor – 2
Latest from Baltimore and Washington – 2-3
Highly Important from Philadelphia – 3
Important News from Maryland – 3
Exciting News from Baltimore – 3
The Shelling of Baltimore Partially Concerned – 3
The Latest from Harper’s Ferry – 3
The Seizure of the Star of the West – 3
The “Seventh” at Annapolis – 3
A Letter from the Seventh – 3
The Position of Senator Breckinridge – 3
Old Massachusetts: What She Contributes to the Cause – 3-4
A Massachusetts Regiment Holding the Road from Annapolis to Washington – 4
Massachusetts Men in Fort Monroe – 4
Massachusetts Men in Baltimore – 4
Meeting of Californians: A California Regiment to be Formed – 4
Movements of Maj.-Gen. Wool– 5
Military Alliance between Western Cities – 5
The Arkansas State Convention – 5
Police Operations in Philadelphia – 5
Moving of the Masses: The Grand Rally for the Defence of the Union – 5
Local Military Movements – 5-6
Mortality of New-York-Quarterly Summary – 6-7
Political Intelligence: The Post-Office at Pensacola – 7
From Fort Pickens – 7
Miscellaneous Items: Jeff. Davis’ Proclamation – 7
Our First-Class Steam Frigates – 7
Editorial: Latest of the Rebellion – 7-8
Editorial: No More Partisanship – 8
Editorial: Argument for the Hour – 8-9
Editorial: Work at Home – 9-10
Editorial: The Opening of the War – 10
Editorial: Work for the Ladies – 10
Editorial: Southern Chivalry – 10
Steamer on Fire – 10

"Editorial: Argument for the Hour – 8-9"

"...If the levies of South Carolina and other other seceding States count up the untold myriads they are represented to do -- if every one of these sons of chivalry is, as we are told, a fellow of such terrific aspect and iron pluck as to make a regiment of Northerners quail and flee before him -- and if every soul of them will perish in the last ditch rather than submit to the Constitution and the laws -- if cash flows into the Montgomery Treasury as freely as water, and if the most approved weapons of war are everywhere plentier even than heroes to wield them -- if the negro slavery, for the universal propagation of whose name and glory these serried hosts do battle, is the highest embodiment of all moral, philosophical, scientific and Christian verities, and if those whom they denounce as "long-hated foes," are the poor, sniveling, dastardly, and altogether and in every way contemptible poltroons which they represent them to be, then the conflict of arms can neither last long nor can its issue be for a moment doubtful.
"The chivalry have not, it is true, exhibited in any very remarkable degree, the God-like attributes and powers which they superciliously claim that they only of all mankind possess, in any of the warlike achievements of the campaign thus far -- certainly not in what they call the "unparalleled victories" of South Carolina, in the cowardly assault on the Star of the West, or in the brutal and cowardly bombardment of the three-score half-starved soldiers in Charleston bay.
Neither has it been common with conquering peoples of the world to boast quite so bombastically of their unapproachable prowess as these Bombadils** do.
Your invincible Macedonian -- your iron-sinewed Roman -- your Hun, Hungarian or Highlander, spends but little of his breath in bombast; his spirit is in his sword rather than in his epiglottis, and the annals of the field rather than of fustian** attest his qualities.

But still it is folly to underrate the real strength of even these bragging fellows.
Though in their vanity they magnify their greatness to the point of the ridiculous, the peaceable man must not regard it altogether with the contempt which bluster is apt to breed.
The Southern heart is now thoroughly fired by ambition, by passion, by whisky, and by what they call victory.
The aristocracy and the demagogues, on the one hand, are inflamed by the uncontrollable lust of power; they have visions of conquered peoples on their North, and to their South, dreams of territorial aggrandizement, of countless hosts of slaves and of a continent subject to their arms and tributary to their wealth.
The poorer whites, and the numerous desperadoes who congregate in the Gulf States, on the other hand, have been stimulated to sedition by promises of the reopening of the African Slave-trade, when negroes could be bought at ten dollars a head, and everyman should have a horde of them -- while latterly there was been held out to recruits the glittering prospects of plunder in Northern cities, and even now they talk hopefully of the sack of Cincinnati, New York and Boston.
The leaders have told them that a triumph over the debauched North would be easy, and that they could then revel in an endless carnival of lust and booty..."

While our editors here mock alleged Southern braggadocio, they may in time learn respect for the courage & tenacity of Confederate soldiers, along with the canniness of their leaders.

And we might notice that while claiming only the highest of motives for our own side, we name only the basest motives for our opponents -- a rhetorical feature Lost Causers will reverse with gusto ever after.

** the references here to "Bombadils" & "fustian" brought to mind our own jeffersondem's attraction to... ah... quixotic words.
In what publications today might you find them?

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