"
The staid old Philadelphia _Press_ declared:
"No man of sense can for a moment doubt that all this
much-ado-about-nothing will end in a month. The Northern people are
invincible. The rebels are a band of ragamuffins who will fly like chaff
before the wind on our approach."
The West vied with the East in boastful clamor.
The Chicago _Tribune_ shouted from the top of its columns:
"We insist that the West be allowed the honor of settling this little
trouble by herself since she is most interested in its suppression to
insure the free navigation of the Mississippi River. Let the East stand
aside. This is our war. We can end it successfully in two months.
Illinois can whip the whole South by herself. We insist on the affair
being turned over to us."
With prospects of a short war and cheaply earned glory the rage for
volunteering was resistless. The war for three months was to be a
holiday excursion and every man would return a hero crowned with
garlands of flowers, the center of admiring thousands. The blacksmiths
of Brooklyn were busy making handcuffs for one of her crack regiments.
Each volunteer had sworn to lead at least one captive rebel in chains
through the crowded streets in the great parade on their return.
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