State after State was joining it, and energy and confidence prevailed throughout all its borders.

The situation grew every day more embarrassing and more critical.

Without waiting for the action of Congress, Mr.
Lincoln had called for forty-two thousand additional volunteers, and added eleven new regiments, numbering some twenty-two thousand men, to the regular army.

A blockade of the Southern ports had been ordered on the 19th of April, and eighteen thousand men had been added to the navy.
No battle of magnitude or decisive character had been fought when Congress assembled; but there had been activity on the skirmish line of the gathering and advances forces and, at many points, blood collision.

In Baltimore, on the historic 19th of April, the mob had endeavored to stop the march of Massachusetts troops hurrying to the protection of the National Capital.