wealthiest planters preferred, so earnest was their patriotism, to serve as privates; but as yet they were merely the elements of a fine army, and nothing more.  Their equipment left as much to be desired as their training.  Arms were far scarcer than men.  The limited supply of rifles in the State arsenals was soon exhausted.  Flintlock muskets, converted to percussion action, were then supplied; but no inconsiderable numbers of fowling-pieces and shot-guns were to be seen amongst the infantry, while the cavalry, in default of sabres, carried rude lances fabricated by country blacksmiths.  Some of the troops wore uniform, the blue of the militia or the grey of the cadet; but many of the companies drilled and manoeuvred in plain clothes; and it was not till three months later, on the eve of the first great battle, that the whole of the infantry had received their bayonets and cartridge boxes.

An assemblage so motley could hardly be called an army; and the daring of the Government, who, with this levee en masse as their only bulwark against invasion, had defied a great power, seems at first sight strongly allied to folly.  But there was little cause for apprehension.  The Federal authorities were as yet powerless to enforce the policy of invasion on which the President had resolved.  The great bulk of the Northern troops were just as far from being soldiers as the Virginians, and the regular army was too small to be feared.

The people of the United States had long cherished the Utopian dream that war was impossible upon their favoured soil.  The militia was considered an archeological absurdity.  The regular troops, admirable as was their work upon the frontier, were far from being a source of national pride.  The uniform was held to be a badge of servitude.  The drunken loafer, bartering his vote for a dollar or a dram, looked down with the contempt of a sovereign citizen upon men who submitted to the indignity of discipline; and, in denouncing the expense of a standing army, unscrupulous politicians found a sure path to popular favour.  So, when secession became something more than a mere threat, the armed forces of the commonwealth had been reduced almost to extinction; and when the flag was fired upon, the nation found itself powerless to resent the insult.  The military establishment mustered no more than 16,000 officers and men.  There was no reserve, no transport, no organisation for war, and the troops were scattered in distant garrisons.  The navy consisted of six screw-frigates, only one of which was in commission, of five steam sloops, some twenty sailing ships, and a few gun-boats.  The majority of the vessels, although well armed, were out of date. 9000 officers and men were the extent of the personnel, and several useful craft, together with more than 1200 guns, were laid up in Norfolk dockyard, on the coast of Virginia, within a hundred miles of Richmond.*

(* Strength of the Federal Navy at different periods:—­
March 4, 1861:  42 ships in commission. 
December 1, 1861:  264 ships in commission. 
December 1, 1862:  427 ships in commission. 
December 1, 1863:  588 ships in commission. 
December 1, 1864:  671 ships in commission.)