"
When the Committee handed this document to Jefferson Davis, he faced
them with a look of resolution:
"Richmond will not be abandoned, gentlemen, until McClellan marches over
the dead bodies of our army. Not for one moment have I considered the
idea of surrendering the Capital--"
"Good!"
"Thank God!"
"Hurrah for the President!"
The Committee grasped his hand, convinced that no base surrender of
their Capital would be tolerated by their leader.
"Rest assured, gentlemen," he continued earnestly, "if blood must be
shed, it shall be here. No soil of the Confederacy could drink it more
acceptably and none hold it more gratefully. We shall stake all on this
one glorious hour for our Republic. Life, death, and wounds are nothing
if we shall be saved from the fate of a captured Capital and a
humiliated Confederacy--"
The Government and the city had need of grim resolution. The Federal
fleet moved up into range and opened fire on the batteries at Drury's
Bluff. The little Confederate gunboat _Patrick Henry_ which had won fame
in the first engagement of the _Merrimac_ steamed down into line and
joined her fire with the fort.
General Lee had planted light batteries on the banks of the river to
sweep the decks of the fleet with grape and cannister.
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