"
To reach Washington by rail was impossible. The Seventh went by
boat to Annapolis. The same course was taken by a regiment of
Massachusetts mechanics, the Eighth. Landing at Annapolis, the
two regiments, dandies and laborers, fraternized at once in the
common bond of loyalty to the Union. A branch railway led from
Annapolis to the main line between Washington and Baltimore. The
rails had been torn up. The Massachusetts mechanics set to work
to relay them. The Governor of Maryland protested. He was
disregarded. The two regiments toiled together a long day and
through the night following, between Annapolis and the Washington
junction, bringing on their baggage and cannon over relaid
tracks. There, a train was found which the Seventh appropriated.
At noon, on the 25th of April, that advance guard of the Northern
hosts entered Washington, and Lincoln knew that he had armies
behind him.
CHAPTER VII. LINCOLN
The history of the North had virtually become, by April, 1861,
the history of Lincoln himself, and during the remaining four
years of the President's life it is difficult to separate his
personality from the trend of national history. Any attempt to
understand the achievements and the omissions of the Northern
people without undertaking an intelligent estimate of their
leader would be only to duplicate the story of "Hamlet" with
Hamlet left out.
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