his old brother-officer, the future Confederate General Bragg,
persuaded him that the Union was really at an end, to all intents
and purposes, and when he found no orders, no support, and not
even any guidance from the Government at Washington, he
surrendered with the honors of war and left by boat for St. Louis
in Missouri.

There was then in Louisiana another Union officer; but made of
sterner stuff. This was Colonel W. T. Sherman, Superintendent of
the State Seminary of Learning and Military Academy at
Alexandria, up the Red River. He was much respected by all the
state authorities, and was carefully watching over the two young
sons of another future Confederate leader, General Beauregard.
William Tecumseh Sherman had retired from the Army without seeing
any war service, unlike Haskins, who was a one-armed veteran of
the Mexican campaign. But Sherman was determined to stand by the
Union, come what might. Yet he was equally determined to wind up
the affairs of the State Academy so as to hand them over in
perfect order. A few days after the seizure of the Arsenal, and
before the formal secession of the State, he wrote to the
Governor:

"Sir: As I occupy a quasi-military position under the laws of the
State, I deem it proper to acquaint you that I accepted such
position when Louisiana was a State of the Union, and when the
motto of this seminary was inserted in marble over the main door:
"By the liberality of the General Government of the United
States. The Union--esto perpetua." Recent events foreshadow a
great change, and it becomes all men to choose .... I beg you to
take immediate steps to relieve me as superintendent, the moment