Diary of Ethan Allen Hitchcock: February 3, 1861

I have been a greatly distressed observer of this movement, though I have made little note of it. The cotton States have passed “ordinances of secession.” Our hopes now rest upon the Northern line of slave States. If they remain in the Union, and no blood be shed, there is a slight hope that something may be done to heal the breach.

SOURCE: W. A. Croffut, Editor, Fifty Years in Camp and Field: Diary of Major-General Ethan Allen Hitchcock, U. S. A., p. 428