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454 Virginia joins the South. [i86i favour of secession ; and the municipal authorities, by officially burning railroad bridges, refusing to allow further passage of Federal troops, calling out the local militia, and adopting hasty measures to arm the city, put Baltimore in an attitude of determined revolution. From Baltimore the frenzy spread to other towns, and for a week or two the Federal flag seemed to have disappeared from Maryland. But the revolutionary ardour soon subsided. Federal troops found a new route to the capital by way of Chesapeake Bay and Annapolis; a Massachusetts regiment occupied Baltimore and fortified Federal Hill, commanding the city; and the Unionist citizens took courage, and, being in a majority, manifested their strength and asserted their control. Under the President's order threatening the legislature with arrest, that body shaded off its proposed secession ordinance into a mild protest against Federal usurpation ; and the governor, recovering from his panic, proclaimed his firm allegiance to the government, and assisted heartily in the formation of Unionist regiments. Thereafter, the substantial moral and military strength of Maryland was given to the Unionist cause ; and the belligerent Secessionists of the State went south to enlist in Confederate regiments. The State of Virginia also underwent a series of stirring and dramatic events. Her strong traditional interest in the Union as the " Mother of Presidents" had in latter years been much dwarfed and weakened by her coarser material interest in slavery. The usual device of a State convention had been adopted, with a view to passing a secession ordi- nance; but, to the surprise of the plotters, the election returned a majority of what were believed by their constituents to be Union members. Their proceedings however showed them to be loyal only on conditions, and though for a time they shrank from the final plunge, they clamoured loudly for concessions to slavery. On the fall of Sumter their hesitation gave way, and on April 17 they secretly passed a secession ordinance, and in a few days entered into a military league with the Confederate States. Governor Letcher followed up his contumacious refusal to furnish troops in answer to Lincoln's call by sending immediate orders to his State militia to effect the capture of the government arsenal at Harper's Ferry and the Gosport Navy Yard at Norfolk. Such a step had been anticipated; and a ship of war was sent from Washington to bring away several United States vessels. The relief, however, came too late. By the treachery of certain officials of the Yard, the removal of a portion of the ships was rendered impossible; and Commodore Paulding endeavoured to carry out his alternative instructions on April 20 by firing a dry dock and other buildings and such of the ships as he could not bring away. The Harper's Ferry Armoury shared a similar fate. Lieutenant Jones, deeming his small company insufficient to hold the post, burned the establishment on April 18, and retreated toward Washington. In both cases, however, the destruction was very