ments, were Secessionists to a man, and did their
best to keep up the excitement. They tried to make the poor whites
believe that through the re-opening of the African slave-trade negroes
would be for sale, in a short time, at thirty dollars a head; and that
every laboring man would soon become a rich slave-owner and
cotton-planter. To the timid, they said there would be no coercion. To
the ambitious, they spoke of military glory, and the formation of a vast
slave empire, to include Mexico, Central America, and the West Indies.
The merchants were assured that Charleston would be a free port,
rivaling New York in its trade and opulence.

They painted the future in glowing colors, but the present looked dreary
enough. All business was at an end. The expenses of the State had become
enormous, and financial ruin was rapidly approaching. The heavy
property-owners began to fear they might have to bear the brunt of all
these military preparations in the way of forced loans.[6] For a time a
strong reaction set in against the Rhett faction, but intimidation and
threats prevented any open retrograde movement.

Among those who were reported to be most clamorous to have an immediate
attack made upon us, was a certain captain of the United States
Dragoons, named Lucius B. Northrup; afterward made Paymaster-general of
South Carolina, and subsequently, through the personal friendship of
Jeff. Davis, promoted to be Commissary-general of the rebel army. He had
resided for several years in Charleston on sick-leave, on full pay.
Before urging an assault he should have had the grace to resign his
commission, for his oath of office bound him to be a friend to his
comrades in the army, and not an enemy. I am tempted, in this
connection, to show how differently the rebel general Magruder acted,
under similar circumstances, when he was a captain and brevet colonel in
our service. He said to his officers, the evening before he rode over
the Long Bridge, at Washington, to join the Confederates, "If the
rebels come to-night, we'll give them hell; but to-morrow I shall send
in my resignation, and become a rebel myself."

Amidst all this turmoil, our little band of regulars kept their spirits
up, and determined to fight it out to the last against any force that
might be brought against them. The brick-layers, however, at work in
Fort Sumter were considerably frightened. They held a meeting, and
resolved to defend themselves, if attacked by the Ch