With the exception of two or three small forts, the Government of the seceding States took quiet possession of all fortresses and places of arms in their territory. This was easily done, because in most instances the officers in command, though holding Federal commissions, betrayed their masters. Major Anderson, however, was an exception. He held Fort Sumter, in Charleston Harbour, for the Federal Government. Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated as President on 4th of March, 1861. In his Message to Congress he said that the Government was determined to relieve Fort Sumter, and whilst denying the right of the South to secede, he asserted the right of the Federal Government to preserve the Union. On the 13th of April, 1861, Fort Sumter was attacked by the rebel, or Confederate forces, and on the 14th it surrendered. On the 15th Lincoln issued his first call for troops, and by this time only an insignificant section of the Democratic Party remained true to their principle that secession was a constitutional right, and that the Federal Government had no legal authority to coerce a State. Within a fortnight after the first shot was fired, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas joined the South. Small majorities, however, held Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri for the North. The capture of Fort Sumter stirred up a war feeling in the loyal States which astonished the Confederate leaders. So eagerly did the Northern men respond to Lincoln’s call that the Federal Government, ere the end of the year, had half a million of troops at its disposal. As, however, most of the officers of the regular army had gone over to the South, the Federal troops chiefly consisted of armed mobs of volunteers.