long with
the news they read. The Southern press never did deal fairly with its
readers. All dispatches favorable to the secessionists and their cause
were published, as a matter of course; but those that were not favorable
were either suppressed entirely, or distorted out of all semblance to
the truth. They began this course in the early days of the Confederacy
and kept it up to the end, one of their generals forging a telegraph
dispatch, in which he announced that he had won a great battle, during
which he killed and captured twenty thousand Federals, and destroyed
four of Porter's gunboats.

For three months the flag that floated over the academy held its place.
Persevering and daring attempts were made to steal it at night, but they
were every one frustrated by the vigilance and courage of the boys who
had not yet lost all love for it, and for the memory of those whose
deeds it commemorated. When the colonel announced that he would take
charge of the bunting at night the Union boys thought it would be in
safe hands; but it turned out afterward that they were mistaken.

The tension of brain and nerve to which the students were subjected
during the next few weeks was something to wonder at, and every day
added to their suspense and anxiety. South Carolina sent commissioners
to other States, urging them to join her in the secession movement, and
one of them shouted to the citizens of Georgia: "Buy arms, and throw the
bloody spear into the den of the assassins and incendiaries, and God
defend the right!" But Stephens said in reply: "I tell you frankly that
the election of a man constitutionally chosen president is not
sufficient cause for any State to separate from the Union." And yet in a
very few weeks this same Alexander H. Stephens was vice-president of the
Confederacy. Mississippi went out of the Union first, and others
followed, until there were seven of them to organize a new government
under a new flag. Then it was that the first open attempt was made to
haul the old banner down from the academy flag-staff; but it was
promptly met, and although Rodney Gray and his followers had been
reinforced by nearly all the students belonging to the seceded States,
the Union boys were strong enough to drive them down stairs, through the
hall, and out of the building. They tried to be as good-natured as they
could about it, but there were a few fights that took place before the
peaceable ones could interfere, and the result