Military movements began at many points, like those distant flashes of lightning and vague mutterings which herald the tempest.

Early in February Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, was elected President of the Confederate States, at Montgomery.

On the 13th of April Fort Sumter surrendered to General Beauregard, and on the next day, April 14, 1861, President Lincoln issued his proclamation declaring the Gulf States in rebellion, and calling upon the States which had not seceded for seventy-five thousand men to enforce the Federal authority.
Tip to this time the older State of Virginia had persistently resisted secession.

Her refusal to array herself against the General Government had been based upon an unconquerable repugnance, it seemed, for the dissolution of that Union which she had so long loved; from real attachment to the flag which she had done so much to make honorable, and from a natural indisposition to rush headlong into a conflict whose whole fury would burst upon and desolate her own soil.

The proclamation of President Lincoln, however, decided her course.