Drumbeat of the nation Author:Charles Carleton Coffin Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: army as a traitor. The people of New Orleans gave him an ovation, but his name has gone down to history covered with infamy. From the time of Judas men have desp... more »ised a traitor. Florida seceded January 12th. It had been purchased from Spain by the money of all the States, and the forts at the entrance of Pensacola Bay had been built by the United States. The State of Florida had no claim to them. Men sent by the governor demanded the surrender of the forts. There were three — Fort McRea and Fort Barrancas on the mainland at the entrance to the harbor, and Fort Pickens on Santa Rosa Island, guarding the eastern side. Young Lieutenant Slemmer, in command, knew that he would be powerless against the troops which would soon appear, but he was loyal to the flag which he had sworn to support. He was quick to act. He drove spikes into the vent-holes of the cannon in the forts on the main-land, jumped into a boat with his men, rowed across the bay, threw himself into Fort Pickens, and determined to keep the Stars and Stripes flying above that fortress of stone. He held it until the middle of April, when reinforcements arrived. It was the one place on the Atlantic shore south of the Chesapeake where the flag of the Union, through all the years of the war, waved in grandeur and glory. February loth was a great day in Montgomery, Alabama. A crowd surged through the streets. Delegates from the seceding States were there, sitting in convention, organizing a Confederacy, and electing Jefferson Davis president and Alexander H. Stephens vice - president. Mr. Davis was at his home in Mississippi. There was great enthusiasm at all the railroad stations on his route to Montgomery. He made twenty-five speeches, one from the balcony of the Exchange Hotel in Montgomery. It was ten o'clock in th...« less