The first gun at Sumter quickened its pulsations.

When the President issued his call for seventy-five thousand men for three months, to put down insurrection, the North woke to action.

Everywhere the response was prompt, earnest, patriotic.

In the Northern cities the recruiting offices were densely thronged.

New York and Massachusetts were first to send their favorite regiments to the front, but they were not long in the advance.