Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 12.djvu/236

222 It may now be seen that at the close of the first year of Mr. Davis' administration the Confederacy, which had begun its career with seven States, had gained the almost untrammeled accession of the great States of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, and the earnest support of a large part of Kentucky and Missouri. Civil government under constitutional provisions was established and operating throughout these States without hindrance, except in localities where the Federal forces had obtained lodgment. Armies had been raised to the computed number of 315,000 volunteers, whose equipment had been the chief difficult)", and even that obstacle had been met by an energetic use of resources which enabled the government to withstand the first assault of coercion. A navy had been created, and a system of privateering instituted which produced considerable derangement of the United States commerce. Manufactories for all kinds of military supplies were erected in many sections, and home agricultural productions were sufficient for the needs of the people and the armies. The South has never made a better exhibit of the energy and ingenuity of its people and the resources of its land than in this exposition of 1861. It now began, in February, 1862, the second year of the struggle for independence, with still the odds against it of four to one in population and greater disadvantages in general means.

The Federal lines covering the land borders of the Confederacy, extending from the mouth of the Chesapeake and passing by the amply protected capital, ran through Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri and on to the mouth of the Rio Grande. At Fortress Monroe, under Butler and Wool, were 15,000 men; on the southern Potomac, Hooker's division of 10,000; immediately in charge of Washington, 160,000 men under Me-