He knew that troops
had started from the North. Why did they not arrive? They might
not be able to go through Baltimore, but they could certainly go
around it. The distance was not great. What if twenty miles of
railroad had been destroyed, were the soldiers unable to march?
Always calm and self-controlled, he gave no sign in the presence
of others of the anxiety that weighed so heavily upon him. Very
likely the visitors who saw him during those days thought that he
hardly realized the plight of the city; yet an inmate of the
White House, passing through the President's office when the
day's work was done and he imagined himself alone, saw him pause
in his absorbed walk up and down the floor, and gaze long out of
the window in the direction from which the troops were expected
to appear. Then, unconscious of any hearer, and as if the words
were wrung from him by anguish, he exclaimed, "Why don't they
come, why don't they come
The New York Seventh Regiment was the first to "come." By a
roundabout route it reached Washington on the morning of April
25, and, weary and travel-worn, but with banners flying and music
playing, marched up Pennsylvania Avenue to the big white
Executive Mansion, bringing cheer to the President and renewed
courage to those timid citizens whose fright during this time had
almost paralyzed the life of the town.
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