Page:Abraham Lincoln -- his life.djvu/39

 War! The nation was to know the horrors of armed conflict.

The tramp of armed thousands was heard over the land. Rioting and treachery were rife. The Sixth Massachusetts regiment was mobbed while passing through Baltimore and a large number killed. Troops rushed to Washington.

Thirty thousand men were gathered under the command of General McDowell and on July 21st the battle of Bull Run was fought. It was a terrible defeat for the Union forces. During the eventful years that followed—years when the very life of the nation was threatened, when defeat was followed by defeat and the North was in a state of varying mutiny and in fear of invasion, through all these stern times Lincoln was calm and self-possessed.