CSA Gen. Smith sending his brigades into action at Fair Oaks Station.
Seven Pines Day1
A Firebell in the Night
"But this momentous question, like a firebell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror. I considered it at once as the knell of the Union. It is hushed, indeed, for the moment. But this is a reprieve only, not a final sentence. A geographical line, coinciding with a marked principle, moral and political, once conceived and held up to the angry passions of men, will never be obliterated; and every new irritation will mark it deeper and deeper. I can say, with conscious truth, that there is not a man on earth who would sacrifice more than I would to relieve us from this heavy reproach, in any practicable way." -Thomas Jefferson @ Monticello Apr. 22, 1820. Regarding the Missouri Compromise, 'State Rights' and the future sound of the war bells ringing.
A Firebell in the Night 