Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 16.
Reverend J. William Jones, Ed.

[40] requested the corporal of the guard to wake them on visiting their rooms at night. To the exclamation of Sancho Panza, ‘Blessed be the man who invented sleep!’ the whole corps would have responded with a hearty ‘Amen!’

Soon all steps had ceased on stairs and stoops, and many a cadet lay stretched out on his narrow couch, his thoughts of the present or visions of the future quickly fading away in sleep, or taking the forms of reality in dreams. Suddenly he springs to his feet, listens for a moment, to assure himself that it is not a dream, seizes his arms and accoutrements and hurries from his room. It is the call to arms! In an instant the whole building is astir. From every room, on every stoop, down every stairs, and through the lofty archway, cadets, accoutred and armed, are rushing to the front of barracks (as the main building is commonly called).

Although but little attention had been paid to the threats of the Unionists against the would-be destroyers of their pole, a few cadets had been apprehensive of trouble as the day wore on. These, therefore, suspected the cause of the alarm from the first tap of the drum, and some of them loaded their muskets immediately on leaving their rooms. Other cadets blindly followed their example.

About thirty yards in rear of the archway, and flanked by the wings of barracks, stood the State arsenal, in which were stored many thousand stand of arms, mostly flintlock muskets of the Revolutionary model. (This building, together with the Institute buildings, was destroyed by General Hunter, in his unsuccessful expedition against Lynchburg in 1864, and was never rebuilt. On the contrary, the blackened walls and rubbish were removed and the ground leveled, so that of the old arsenal searcely a vestige remains today).

The guarding of this depository of arms was one of the duties of the corps of cadets. (In fact, this arsenal was the germ of the Virginia Military Institute). About the time of Lincoln's first inauguration, it had been rumored that an attempt would be made to capture the arsenal and remove the arms. Who the attacking parties were to be, rumor did not state. The report probably grew out of the apprehension of some excitable Secessionist, or the boast of some over-zealous Unionist. Of course many gave credence to the rumor, and throughout the whole corps there was a feeling of anxiety. At one time the long roll had been beaten in the small hours of the night. In a few minutes the battalion, accoutred and armed, was in line in front of barracks. It was a false alarm, the