Everywhere, now that Louisiana had seceded, secession badges – a pelican-shaped button within a field of ribbons – appeared. Symbol of Louisiana, the pelican, it was said, would tear at its own flesh rather than see its young starve.
Emmeline, for her part, sported the Bonnie Blue Flag on her bosom. With a blue field and a single white star, the Bonnie Blue Flag had gained popularity through a rousing song of the same name. ‘Oh, if only I were a man, so I could fight!’ Emmeline sighed in exasperation to Patrick on more than one occasion.
Stephen had left this visit to the Labiches prematurely to ride to see the swordmaker, Griswald. He was also to be fitted for a new, double-breasted, frock-coat … in Confederate grey.
‘War is inevitable,’ he had told them, prior to leaving. ‘Secession has come in too quickly for the North to ignore it.’
First it had been South Carolina, declaring by unanimous vote five days before Christmas 1860 that ‘the Union existing between South Carolina and other States is hereby dissolved’.
The state of Mississippi followed suit, ringing in the New Year by announcing secession on 9 January. Next day brought Florida, the following day Alabama, and Georgia on 19 January. Then it was Louisiana’s turn and on 1 February the Lone Star State of Texas left the Union.
That Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, Missouri and Kentucky did not join with the ‘secesh’ States until later, mattered little. By then, as Oxy put it, ‘The die was well and truly cast.’
At 4.30 a.m., on 12 April 1861, General Beauregard’s Confederates fired for thirty hours on the Federal Government munitions dump at Fort Sumter in the Bay of Charleston, South Carolina. Peppered it with ball and grape, until the Union garrison surrendered.
The war between the States had commenced.