The aged Gen. Winfield Scott was in command of the army in 1860, and appreciating that trouble would come either from continued acquiescence in the aggressions of the South or from a show of force, he advised the President to quietly enroll the loyal people of the District of Columbia for the guardianship of the capital. For this duty he called in Charles P. Stone, a graduate of West Point and a veteran of the Mexican war, who was made Inspector-General of the District of Columbia, with the rank of colonel.
Colonel Stone took measures to ascertain the sentiments of the existing independent military companies. With admirable diplomacy he disarmed such of them as were found to be disloyal. Some of them he found to be in excellent condition of drill and equipment, by connivance of the Secretary of War, John B. Floyd, and they were well aware that it was their destiny to help defend the South against the "coercion" of the Yankees. Opposition from the War Department to Colonel Stone's measures ceased with Floyd's resignation, and under the new Secretary of War, Joseph Holt (afterward Lincoln's Attorney-General), he was able to enroll in a few weeks thirty-three companies of infantry volunteers and two troops of cavalry, under trustworthy leaders. These were recruited from neighborhoods, from among artisans, and from fire companies. All this was done with the discretion required by the strained condition of public feeling, which was such that, as General Scott said to Colonel Stone, "a dog-fight might cause the gutters of the capital to run with blood." As the time for Lincoln's inauguration approached, it became safe to move more openly; and by the 4th of March a company of sappers and miners and a battery had been brought down from West Point, while thirty new companies had been added to the volunteer force of the District.
[Illustration: WASH-DAY IN CAMP--GUARDING THE SUPPLY TRAIN.]
{ 21} [Illustration: LAST MOMENTS OF JOHN BROWN.
John Brown of Ossawatomie, spake on his dying day: "I will not have to shrive my soul a priest in slavery's pay, But let some poor slave-mother, whom I have striven to free, With her children, from the gallows stair, put up a prayer for me!"
John Brown of Ossawatomie, they led him out to die: And lo! a poor slave-mother, with her little child, pressed nigh; Then the bold blue eye grew tender, and the old harsh face grew mild, As he stooped between the crowding ranks, and kissed the negro's child!