On April 12, 1861, General Beauregard, learning that a fleet was forcing
its way into Charlestown harbor to join Major Anderson at Sumter, opened
fire upon the fort. The North charged the war was thus inaugurated by
the South. The South believed its action was necessary for self-defence.
However that might be, it was the onset of battle--of the greatest Civil
War the world has ever known. President Lincoln and President Davis both
called for troops. Mass meetings were held in every part of the country
North and South. The roll of the drum and the shrill fife of the march
were heard in every direction. Muster rolls were drawn up, drills were
in progress in hall and on the green. Every youth rush to take up arms.
After the great Confederate victory at Bull Run, some one wrote:

"They have met at last--as storm--clouds
Meet in heaven;
And the Northmen back and bleeding
Have been driven.
And their thunders have been stilled,
And their leaders, crushed or killed,
And their ranks, with terror thrilled,
Rent and riven."


They had indeed met. And they met and met again. Throughout the length
and breadth of the prolific country where cotton was king, the honest
achievements of a hundred years were ground into dust by the engines
of destruction.

The North came on as invaders; the South stood firm as defenders; and
in all the histories of the struggle this fact should be pre-eminent.