"We never saw"...soon be fifteen: Daily Picayune, New Orleans, April 19, 1861, morning edition (first and second quote), afternoon edition (third quote).
"the very best...in the field": General Winfield Scott, quoted in The Wartime Papers of R. E. Lee, ed. Clifford Dowdey and Louis H. Manarin (Boston: Little, Brown, for the Virginia Civil War Commission, 1961), p. 3.
Lincoln had designated Blair: Robert E. Lee to Reverdy Johnson, February 25, 1868, in Wartime Papers of R. E. Lee, p. 4.
"I come to you...the Union army?": FPB, quoted in William Ernest Smith, The Francis Preston Blair Family in Politics, Vol. II (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1933), p. 17.
"as candidly and as courteously": Lee to Johnson, February 25, 1868, in Wartime Papers of R. E. Lee, p. 4.
"Mr. Blair...my native state?": R. E. Lee, quoted in National Intelligencer, Washington, D.C., August 9, 1866.
Lee called upon old General Scott: Lee to Johnson, February 25, 1868, in Wartime Papers of R. E. Lee, p. 4
he contacted Scott..."be dear to me": Lee to Scott, April 20, 1861, in ibid., pp. 89 (quotes p. 9).
"Now we are in...draw my sword": Lee to Anne Marshall, April 20, 1861, in ibid., pp. 910.
Lee was designated...Virginia state forces: Ibid., pp. 3, 4, 5.
Benjamin Hardin Helm: "Helm, Benjamin Hardin (18311863)," in Stewart Sifakis, Who Was Who in the Confederacy (New York: Facts on File, 1988), p. 125.
While conducting business..."liking of men": Helm, The True Story of Mary, p. 127.
"Southern-rights Democrat": Ibid., pp. 128, 183.
"Ben, here is...your honor bid": Daily Picayune, New Orleans, March 14, 1897 (quotes); AL to Simon Cameron, April 16, 1861, in CW, IV, p. 335.
Helm unable to sleep..."hour of his life": Daily Picayune, New Orleans, March 14, 1897.
a Commission in the Confederate Army: "Helm, Benjamin Hardin," in Sifakis, Who Was Who in the Confederacy, p. 125.
Seward argued...seize vessels: Ivan Musicant, Divided Waters: The Naval History of the Civil War (New York: HarperCollins, 1995), pp. 5152.
Welles countered...exiting ships: Niven, Gideon Welles, p. 356; Musicant, Divided Waters, p. 51.
The cabinet split down the middle: Niven, Gideon Welles, p. 356.
formal blockade proclamation: AL, "Proclamation of a Blockade," April 19, 1861, in CW, IV, pp. 33839.
Welles and the Navy Department: Robert V. Bruce, Lincoln and the Tools of War (Indianapolis and New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1956), pp. 6, 16; Musicant, Divided Waters, pp. 4143.
a wedding celebration: Grimsley, "Six Months in the White House," JISHS, p. 51; Bruce, Lincoln and the Tools of War, p. 9.
"would soon secede...Confederacy": Craig L. Symonds, "Buchanan, Franklin," in Encyclopedia of the American Civil War, ed. Heidler and Heidler, p. 303.
Buchanan resigned..."from this date": Bruce, Lincoln and the Tools of War, p. 16 (quote); "Buchanan, Franklin (18001874)," in Sifakis, Who Was Who in the Confederacy, p. 40.
the Norfolk Navy Yard: Musicant, Divided Waters, pp. 2829.
"extreme uneasiness...made by the first": Entry for April 18, 1861, Charles Francis Adams diary, reel 76.
"The scene...indescribably fearful": Sun, Baltimore, Md., April 20, 1861.
The enraged crowd...knives and revolvers: John G. Nicolay and John Hay, Abraham Lincoln: A History, Vol. IV (New York: Century Co., 1917), p. 115 (quote); Sun, Baltimore, Md., April 20, 1861.
"It"s a notable...the anniversary": Entry for April 19, 1861, Diary of George Templeton Strong, Vol. III, p. 126.
"make no point...around Baltimore": AL to Thomas H. Hicks and George W. Brown, April 20, 1861, in CW, IV, p. 340.
an angry committee of delegates: Entry for April 22, 1861, in Lincoln Day by Day, Vol. III, p. 37.
"I must have troops...that they must do": AL, "Reply to Baltimore Committee," April 22, 1861, in CW, IV, pp. 34142.
"the censorship"...bridges surrounding the city: Ben: Perley Poore, Perley"s Reminiscences of Sixty Years in the National Metropolis, Vol. II (Philadelphia, 1886; New York, AMS Press, 1971), pp. 7879.
"Literally...entire isolation": Villard, Memoirs of Henry Villard, Vol. I, p. 167.
Cameron slept in his office: Leech, Reveille in Washington, p. 61.
"Here we were...to defend it": JGN to TB, April 26, 1861, container 2, Nicolay Papers.
"No despatches...are prisoners": Entry for April 20, 1861, Diary of George Templeton Strong, Vol. III, p. 127.
"rebels are at...calm & conceal it": Hiram Barney to SPC, April 21, 1861, reel 15, Chase Papers.
to accompany Major Robert Anderson...with their relieved father: Janet Chase Hoyt, "A Woman"s Memories," NYTrib, April 5, 1891.
These "were terrible days of suspense"...let her join him: Entry for May 19, 1861, f.a.n.n.y Seward diary, Seward Papers.
"It is hard...life is in danger": FAS to WHS, April [27? 1861], reel 114, Seward Papers.
"a day of gloom and doubt": "24 April 1861, Wednesday," in Hay, Inside Lincoln"s White House, p. 11.
staring out the window..."Why don"t they come!": Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, Vol. IV, p. 152.
"I don"t believe...Northern realities": "24 April 1861, Wednesday," in Hay, Inside Lincoln"s White House, p. 11.
"to arrest...not be justifiable": AL to Winfield Scott, April 25, 1861, in CW, IV, p. 344.
"the first of the redeemed": "1 May 1861, Wednesday," in Hay, Inside Lincoln"s White House, p. 16.
If resistance along..."for the public safety": AL to Winfield Scott, April 27, 1861, in CW, IV, p. 347.
"arrest, and detain...to the public safety": AL, "Message to Congress in Special Session," July 4, 1861, in ibid., p. 429.
Seward later claimed..."further hesitation": Carpenter, "A Day with Governor Seward," Seward Papers.
Taney blasted Lincoln: Hon. Sherrill Halbert, "The Suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus by President Lincoln," American Journal of Legal History 2 (April 1958), pp. 97100.