last the North definitely won, politically, with the elec- tion of Lincoln, the Southern States had become so estranged from their Northern sisters that they refused to live with them any longer, and that meant war.
Perhaps war was indispensable to show each side the great qualities of the other. For at the beginning each despised the other. The war would be brief enough, said the North, for the South was all bluff and bluster, but when it came to real fighting, would do nothing. The war would be brief enough, said the South, for what could clerks and lawyers and factory hands do against a people who lived on horseback, and were quick with their weapons ? So both sides talked in the early days of '61. After four years they were wiser.
At first the South was doubtless better prepared. More clearly than the North, she had seen trouble com- ing. Her leaders were men of fighting spirit, who took practical military measures at once. The common sol- diers, though all a little too ready to be officers, as Stuart said, were in fine training, accustomed to outdoor life, good riders, and much more used to arms than the aver- age Northerner. The heavy, unwieldy bulk of the North got into battle slowly ; it could not realize that a life- and-death struggle was at hand. Moreover, the North had to invade and attack, always the more difBcult part to play.
The great drama falls as naturally into acts as a Shakespearean tragedy. Act one : alarms, excursions,
�� �
