The cause of the South not only meant the defense of their homes from
foreign invasion; it became a holy crusade for the reestablishment of
Constitutional freedom.
Virginia immediately seceded from the Union by the vote of the same men
who had refused to secede but a few weeks before. The old flag fell from
its staff on her Capitol and the new symbol of Southern unity was
unfurled in its place. As if by magic the new flag fluttered from every
hill, housetop and window, while crowds surged through the streets
shouting and waving it aloft. Cannon boomed its advent and cheering
thousands saluted it.
A great torchlight parade illumined the streets on April 19. In this
procession walked the men who a week ago had marched through Franklin
Street waving the old flag of the Union and shouting themselves hoarse
in their determination to uphold it. They had signed the ordinance of
secession with streaming eyes, but they signed it with firm hands, and
sent their sons to the muster fields next day.
Augusta County, a Whig and Union center, and Rockingham, an equally
strong Democratic Union county, each contributed fifteen hundred
soldiers to the new cause. Women not only began to prepare the equipment
for their men, but many of them began to arm and practice themselves.
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