great surprise and disappointment to the Southern conspirators and their followers; and when Stephen A. Douglas, who had been the Democratic candidate opposed to Lincoln, came out in a speech supporting him and his Administration, thousands of wavering ones in the North were won over to the Union cause. Douglas showed his loyalty to the Union in a most noble and unselfish manner. He was present at Lincoln's inauguration and showed his personal friendship by holding his hat for him when he made his speech. He immediately called on Lincoln and offered to do anything he could to assist. Lincoln told him he thought the best thing he could do would be to go to Illinois and hold his friends and followers to the cause of the Union.

Douglas accordingly went West, and on April 25th made a great speech to the members of the Illinois State Legislature. In the tumult and great excitement of the time, this speech was like a trumpet call to arms.

He stood in the same place where Lincoln had stood in opposing him. The veins of his neck and forehead were swollen with passion, and the perspiration ran down his face in streams. His voice was frequently broken with emotion, and the amazing force that he threw into the words,

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When hostile armies are marching under new and odious banners against the Government of our

country, the shortest way to peace is the most stupendous and unanimous preparation for war," seemed to shake the whole building. "That speech hushed the breath of treason in every corner of the State," says Mr. Herndon, Lincoln's partner, who was present at the time. Douglas died shortly afterward in Chicago, where a fine monument was erected to his memory.

Lincoln as President-He opposed General Scott's Plan of the Battle of Bull Run-His Sad Face

During these days of preparation everything depended upon President Lincoln. He was at work early and late, and bore the awful burden of the great duties of his office with much patience.

He was always to be seen by the people at his office, and denied nobody who called. The rich and poor were treated alike by him; and his honesty, no less than his simplicity of manner, won the sympathy and confidence of the people. In a few weeks an army of thirty thousand men was gathered, and under General McDowell's command, on July 21st, the battle of Bull Run in Virginia was fought, the Union troops being defeated, and in panic and disorder rushing back to Washington. The battle had been planned by General Scott contrary to Lincoln's judgment, who had pointed out the enemy's strong point, and

advised a different plan of attack. The terrible slaughter of men, and horrible suffering of the wounded, deeply affected the President, and from this time on, during the awful bloody battles of the great civil war, his

knew. There were days when I could scarcely look on it without crying."

The day after the terrible defeat at Bull Run the President issued a proclamation calling for five hundred thousand troops.

The organization and drilling of this vast body of men took many weeks and months. And few battles of importance occurred until the next year, 1862, though General U. S. Grant, with a small army, in September, 1861, entered the State of Kentucky at Paducah.

As it is not the purpose of this book to give a history of the great civil war, and yet, as it is nec

essary to know something of that dreadful struggle in order to understand Lincoln's great services to his country in carrying it forward to a successful issue and restoring the Union, it has been thought best to collect the principal facts and place them before the reader in the order of their occurrence. (See Appendix.)

CHAPTER XII

The sleeping sentinel and the President.

IN September, 1861, during the early part of the war, William Scott, a young Green Mountain (Vermont) boy, accustomed to going to bed early all his life, to sleep long and soundly, and entirely unused to military duties, was a member of Company K in the Third Vermont Regiment. The regiment was stationed at Chain Bridge, only a few miles from Washington; a most important position, upon which the safety of the Capital depended.

One day Scott volunteered to do picket duty for a sick comrade, and thus passed the whole night marching forward and backward on guard. The next day he was himself detailed on picket duty and undertook the performance of it.

It being the second night he had stood guard, he found it necessary to make a great effort to keep awake; and from hour to hour he struggled against the feeling of sleepiness that came over him. Finally, his tired body could no longer keep on, and he was found in the morning sound asleep