The indignation of the Union men and the intolerance of the Secessionists were obviously increased by the election of the 8th of June and its announced result. The first declared the vote was fraudulent; the second exulted, that by it the State became a member of the Southern Confederacy. The railroads were busy much of the time, as they had been for a short time before, in the transportation of troops from the Southwest through East Tennessee to Virginia. This transit of soldiers was witnessed by people loyal to the Union with feelings of strong dissatisfaction, which sometimes grew into great animosity and wrath. Once a mass-meeting of Unionists was in progress at Strawberry Plains, Jefferson County, during the excitement over the election, when a regiment from the South passed by on the railway. A conflict with fire-arms between members of the two hostile parties took place, but no life was lost. The incident tended to exasperate the public temper. It was exceptional, however. Generally the people repressed their grief and pain at such scenes--enough, at least, to avoid all violent demonstrations towards their adversaries. They vented them to one another, sometimes with bated breath. The United States flag had been lifted up and displayed from liberty poles without a rival, at the beginning of the dissensions. Then it had for months contested supremacy in the air with the flag of the Southern Confederacy. At length the United States flags were taken down under compulsion, except in a few instances, where, being private property, their removal was prevented for a time by the boldness and firmness of the owners. News of the first battle of Manassas in July, 1861, was hailed with gushing delight by the friends of the Confederacy. In the town they were not so strong numerically as in actual ascendency, and tidings of that victory encouraged the manifestation of their special sympathies in the war more freely and defiantly. In the overflow of their elation of spirits, various means of noisily celebrating the recent triumph were adopted. Even the bells of churches, innocent as they were of all connection with bloody fields of conflict between brethren, were joyfully rung. Zealous citizens, who never before had shown any particular interest in the musical instruments whose business it is to call Christian people to the house of prayer, were active in making them contribute their voices to the general Jubilee.[22] Words of bitterness and wrath against “the Yankees,” and against Union men under several opprobrious names, were more freely used. Alienations of close kinsmen and ruptures of friendly relations, were widened and deepened. Other swords there are besides those of steel, wielded in civil wars. Quite as sharp and effective are they in wounding feelings and cutting through social ties, as are metallic blades in severing limbs and piercing bodies.