States to leave the Union.
South Carolina accordingly seceded, on the 20th of December, 1860; and
by the 1st of February, 1861, she had been followed by Mississippi,
Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. The struggle thus
approached. Military movements began at many points, like those
distant flashes of lightning and vague mutterings which herald the
tempest. Early in February Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, was
elected President of the Confederate States, at Montgomery. On the
13th of April Fort Sumter surrendered to General Beauregard, and
on the next day, April 14, 1861, President Lincoln issued his
proclamation declaring the Gulf States in rebellion, and calling upon
the States which had not seceded for seventy-five thousand men to
enforce the Federal authority.

Tip to this time the older State of Virginia had persistently resisted
secession. Her refusal to array herself against the General Government
had been based upon an unconquerable repugnance, it seemed, for the
dissolution of that Union which she had so long loved; from real
attachment to the flag which she had done so much to make honorable,
and from a natural indisposition to rush headlong into a conflict
whose whole fury would burst upon and desolate her own soil. The
proclamation of President Lincoln, however, decided her course. The
convention had obdurately refused, week after week, to pass the
ordinance of secession. Now the naked question was, whether Virginia
should fight with or against her sisters of the Gulf States. She was
directed to furnish her quota of the seventy-five thousand troops
called for by President Lincoln, and must decide at once. On the 17th
of April, 1861, accordingly, an ordinance of secession passed the
Virginia Convention, and that Commonwealth cast her fortunes for weal
or woe with the Southern Confederacy.

Such is a brief and rapid summary of the important public events which
had preceded, or immediately followed, Lee's return to Washington in
March, 1861. A grave, and to him a very solemn, question demanded
instant decision. Which side should he espouse--the side of the United
States or that of the South? To choose either caused him acute pain.
The attachment of the soldier to his flag is greater than the civilian
can realize, and Lee had before him the brightest military prospects.
The brief record which we have presented of his military career in
Mexico conveys a very inadequate idea of the position which h