His creditors accepted twenty-five cents on the dollar, and preferred to have him manage his affairs rather than "place all in the hands of a trustee or trustees;" but in order to make this payment and also the amount then due upon the stock he had subscribed to in the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company and in the Atlantic Telegraph Company, he placed a mortgage upon everything he owned, including the portraits of his father and mother. His assets then were: House and furniture, 123 East Twenty-first Street (heavily mortgaged). Pew in the Madison Square Presbyterian Church. Stock in the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company. Stock in the Atlantic Telegraph Company. And against these a large amount of indebtedness. On the 20th of December South Carolina seceded, and on the 26th of the same month Major Anderson abandoned Fort Moultrie, and moved his small garrison into Fort Sumter, and the first notes of the coming war were sounded; to quote from Dr. William H. Russell's book on _The Atlantic Telegraph_: "The great civil war in America stimulated capitalists to renew the attempt; the public mind became alive to the importance of the project, and to the increased facilities which promised a successful issue. Mr. Field, who compassed land and sea incessantly, pressed his friends on both sides of the Atlantic for aid, and agitated the question in London and New York." CHAPTER IX THE CIVIL WAR (1861-1862) December, 1860, had ended in financial disaster: it was the third time in less than twenty years that Mr. Field had seen his business swept from him, and yet he was of so buoyant a disposition that immediately we find him back at his office and very soon at work for the advancement of his great enterprise. On June 10th he wrote to Mr. Saward: "I never had more confidence in the ultimate success of the Atlantic Telegraph Company than I have to-day." And Mr. Saward wrote to him on July 5th: "Vast improvements in everything relating to the structure of telegraph cables are constantly being made, and inquiry upon the subject is very active. We are becoming much more hopeful of a good time for the Atlantic company. "Two very favorable events for telegraphy have taken place this week. First, Glass, Elliott & Co. have laid without any check or hitch, in a very perfect condition, a cable for the French government between Toulon and the island of Corsica; and, second, the same firm have completed in precisely the same state of efficiency two-thirds of a line between Malta and Alexandria for the use of the English government; as the remainder is all shallow water, the event is certain."