great crops "to the cause of independence," as the chairman termed the military defense of the Confederate States. Congress afterward legalized the destruction of cotton whenever it was about to fall in the hands of the enemy," and this destruction for the general welfare created, of course, a claim on the Confederate government for the value of the destroyed product ; but whether the claim would be met or remain forever unpaid did not prevent the ready sacrifice of the great staples by fire, as the Federal armies advanced into the Confederate territory.
The pressure of the Federal armies in all directions began to be so serious that the necessity arose for making use of the labor of negroes on fortifications. General Magruder had called the attention of the authorities at Richmond to this important means of constructing the needed defenses with sufficient rapidity to make them available, and after deliberation the measure was adopted authorizing the impressment of slaves for the purpose and providing for compensation to their owners.
Martial law was declared February 27th by President Davis over Norfolk and Portsmouth, and some months later over Richmond.
The reverses occurring during the early spring in the West produced disappointment at Richmond. Fort Donelson had fallen, the Confederate defenses were threatened in all Western points, and a general alarm was felt that the Confederacy would be split in halves by the resolute advances made from the Ohio river, and along the Mississippi. The governors of Tennessee and Georgia were aroused to special activity, the latter on account of the invasion threatening the seaboard, and the other by the invasion of his State.
The Confederates were cheered in the midst of the reverses they were suffering at many points by the renowned achievements of the naval gunboat, the "Virginia," in its victory at Hampton Roads over five Federal
