_Fort Marion, Florida, seized by order of the Governor of Florida, 1861_ January Eighth Jackson's line, extending about half a mile from the river to the swamp, was defended by a water-filled ditch and by a parapet of varying height and thickness. The idea that it was built of cotton bales is an absurd fiction that brings back the inspiring picture in Peter Parley's old history of our childhood days.... PIERCE BUTLER "What stopped you?" General Pakenham asked of a regiment of Scotch Highlanders. To which their colonel replied: "Bullets, mon! bullets! Auld Julius Caesar himself wouldn't have charged those devils." _The "Hunting Shirt Men" of the South versus Wellington's Peninsular veterans in the Battle of New Orleans, 1815; General Pakenham, brother-in-law of the Duke of Wellington killed_ _James Longstreet born, 1821_ January Ninth Consider the lark! How he rises on wing, And mounts to the sky through ethereal air! He sings as he soars; 'tis his nature to sing, To warble his notes though no listener be near. I seek not for fortune, I sigh not for fame, I follow my Muse into forest or street; In sorrow, in gladness, I sing all the same, I sing because singing itself is so sweet. [These lines, typifying so much of the poetical expression of the old South, were written by former Surgeon H. M. Clarkson, C. S. A., who, on January 9, 1861, as a corporal of artillery, fired a single shot from Fort Moultrie to challenge the _Star of the West_ in its attempt to reinforce Fort Sumter. On the same occasion two other shots were fired by the State cadets stationed on Morris Island, driving the transport from the harbor. It is not improbable, therefore, that, as the challenger of the hostile steamer, the writer of these verses fired the first shot of the war between the States. Corporal Clarkson was in charge of gun No. 13.--EDITOR] _The United States transport "Star of the West" attempts to reinforce Fort Sumter, 1861_ _General John B. Gordon dies, 1904_ _Mississippi secedes, 1861_ January Tenth SECESSION: A SOUTHERN VIEW, 1861 A State, finding herself in the condition in which Mississippi has judged she is--in which her safety requires that she should provide for the maintenance of her rights out of the Union--surrenders all the benefits (and they are known to be many), deprives herself of the advantages (and they are known to be great), severs all the ties of affection (and they are close and enduring), which have bound her to the Union; and thus divesting herself of every benefit--taking upon herself every burden--she claims to be exempt from any power to execute the laws of the United States within her limits. JEFFERSON DAVIS (_Farewell Address in United States Senate_) SECESSION: FROM THE NORTHERN STANDPOINT, 1814