(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English. Years of disagreement between the North and the South finally burst into civil war in April of eighteen sixty-one. Seven states in the South had withdrawn from the Union. Soldiers of the new Confederate States of America shelled the Union base at Fort Sumter, built on an island in Charleston Harbor in South Carolina. They captured Fort Sumter after two days. President Abraham Lincoln asked the states of the Union for seventy-five thousand soldiers to help end the southern rebellion. Northern states quickly sent forces to Washington. But border states -- those between the North and the South -- refused to send any. Some prepared to leave the Union and join the Confederacy. This week in our series, Steve Ember and Shirley Griffith describe the first days of the American Civil War.
The first state to secede after the start of the Civil War was Virginia. It was an important state because of its location. It was just across the Potomac River from Washington. Virginia's decision to secede cost the Union a military commander of great ability. He was Robert E. Lee. Lee was a Virginian and had served in the United States army for more than thirty years. Lincoln asked him to be head of the army when General Winfield Scott retired. Lee said he could not accept the job. He said he opposed secession and loved the Union. But, he said, he could not make war on his home state. Lee resigned from the army. He did not really want to fight at all. But soon after his resignation, he agreed to command the forces of Virginia. Virginia's forces moved quickly after the state seceded. A group of one thousand soldiers went to Harpers Ferry, Virginia, where the Union army had a gun factory and arsenal. It was the same town where abolitionist John Brown had tried to start a slave rebellion a few years before.
The United States force at Harpers Ferry was small. The soldiers could not defend the town against the Virginians, so they left. Before marching away, the soldiers set fire to the gun factory and arsenal. The fire did not destroy all the equipment at the gun factory. When the Virginians captured the town, they sent the equipment south, where it was used to make guns for Confederate soldiers. Virginia's forces also moved against the United States' biggest navy base, which was at Norfolk, Virginia. Once again, the Union force withdrew. Before leaving, it burned every building and sank every ship. President Lincoln was becoming increasingly worried about Virginia's military moves. He was afraid Confederate forces in Virginia might try to capture Washington in the first days of the war. After all, the Confederate secretary of war had declared that the Confederate flag would fly over the Capitol building before the first of May. Washington was not strongly defended. It did not have enough soldiers to stop any real attempt by Confederate forces to seize the city. It was extremely important to get more soldiers to Washington as quickly as possible.
Thousands of men were on their way to Washington. But they could not get there quickly. Troop trains had to pass through the state of Maryland to get to Washington from the North. Many people in the state supported the Confederacy. The governor, however, did not. He refused to call a meeting of the state legislature. He was afraid it might vote to secede. He wanted to keep Maryland neutral. The first troop train from the North passed through Baltimore, Maryland, without incident. The second train was not so lucky. A mob blocked the rail line and threw stones at the train. Shots were fired. Four soldiers and twelve civilians were killed. State and city officials met to discuss the trouble. They agreed that there would be even more violence in the future. So they ordered railroad bridges outside Baltimore destroyed. No more trains from the North could reach Washington that way. President Lincoln told the officials of the great need to get more soldiers to the capital. He agreed that they did not have to pass through Baltimore. But he wanted them to be able to land safely at Annapolis, a city on the Chesapeake Bay.
Landing at Annapolis would be easy. Getting to the capital would not. Supporters of the Confederacy had damaged trains, rail lines and bridges between the two cities. The first soldiers to land at Annapolis had to repair everything as they moved ahead. Still, with all these difficulties, ten-thousand troops made it to Washington in the first few weeks of the Civil War. The city and government were safe. President Lincoln worried about the presence of Confederate supporters in Maryland. He knew they would continue to be a threat to the movement of Union troops and supplies. Lincoln wanted to restrict the activities of the Confederate supporters. So he took an extremely unusual step for an American president. He put much of Maryland under military rule. He gave military officers the power to arrest civilians believed to be hostile to the Union. And he gave them the power to hold these suspects without trial. This order suspended two of the basic rights under the Constitution. One was the right to go free until officially charged. And the other was the right to a speedy trial.
The chief justice of the United States wrote a letter to President Lincoln. He said the Constitution did not give the president the power to suspend the rights of citizens. Lincoln disagreed. He felt the situation facing the Union permitted him to take such strong measures. If he had not acted, he believed, Maryland would have seceded. Maryland did not withdraw. But North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas did. There were now eleven states in the Confederacy. There could be two more. No one knew how long Kentucky and Missouri would remain in the Union. Both supported the southern rebels. President Lincoln treated Kentucky carefully. He did not want the state to secede. Nor did he want it to remain neutral. Kentucky reached from the mountains of Virginia to the Mississippi River. As a neutral state, Kentucky could block northern troops from much of the South. Lincoln wanted it firmly on the side of the Union. The president did not use force in Kentucky, as he had done in Maryland. Instead, he sent people to Kentucky to organize support for the Union. Newspapers were urged to publish pro-union statements. Home guard forces were formed. They received their weapons and supplies from Lincoln's administration.
Lincoln hoped that, in time, these efforts would win Kentucky's support for his war effort. In Missouri, the governor tried hard to take the state out of the Union. He called a convention to decide the question. A majority of the delegates refused to vote for secession. The governor organized state soldiers. The Lincoln administration organized home guard forces. The two sides clashed several times. Some civilians were killed. The United States army finally seized government buildings in the state capital. They forced state officials, including the governor, to flee. Missouri would remain in the Union. The capital of the Confederate states of America was located far south in Montgomery, Alabama. Within the first few weeks of the Civil War, the Confederate Congress voted to move the capital farther north to Richmond, Virginia. They believed Virginia would be an important battlefield in the war. They were right. Two days before Confederate President Jefferson Davis left for Richmond, Union troops invaded Virginia. They left Washington, crossed the Potomac River, and seized the towns of Arlington and Alexandria. No shots were fired. Confederate forces withdrew as Union troops moved forward. Within a month, thousands more Union soldiers were in Virginia. They were to prepare for a major battle at a place called Manassas Junction, or Bull Run. That will be our story next week.
重点解析
1.set fire 纵火；点火
They lit a torch and set fire to the chapel's thatch.
他们点着一支火把，放火烧了小教堂的茅草屋顶。
2.be worried about 担心；为…而担心
It's not the rebels you should be worried about.
您该担心的不是叛乱分子。
3.in time 经过一段时间以后；早晚
In time he became more confident and relaxed.
过了一段时间，他变得更加自信、更为放松。
4.refuse to 不肯；拒绝
I refuse to act that way when my kids fight.
我的孩子们打起架来时，我不会那样做。
参考译文
欢迎收听VOA慢速英语之建国史话节目。南北双方多年的分歧终于导致在1861年4月爆发内战，南方的七个州已经退出联邦。新建立的美利坚联盟国的士兵，炮击了位于南卡罗来纳州查尔斯顿港的萨姆特堡的联邦基地。两天后他们占领了萨姆特堡。总统亚伯拉罕·林肯要求美国各州派遣7万5千名士兵帮助平定南方叛乱。北方各州迅速向华盛顿派兵，但是位于南北之间边境上的各州拒绝派遣士兵。某些州准备脱离联邦，加入美利坚联盟国。在本周的系列节目中，史蒂夫·恩伯和雪莉·格里菲斯将讲述美国内战爆发后的第一天。
内战开始后，第一个脱离联邦的州是弗吉尼亚州。由于其所处位置，弗吉尼亚州是非常重要的一个州，它位于华盛顿的波托马克河对面。弗吉尼亚决定脱离联邦，使联邦失去了一位有能力的军事指挥官，他就是罗伯特·E·李。李是维吉尼亚人，在美国军队服役超过三十年。当温菲尔德·斯科特将军退役时，林肯要求他担任陆军司令。李说自己不能接受这份工作，他说他反对分裂，热爱联邦。但是，他表示不能在自己的家乡开战。李从军队退役后，根本不想再参加战争。但是，在他退役后不久，他同意指挥维吉尼亚州的军队。弗吉尼亚州脱离联邦后，其军队迅速行动。一千名士兵前往弗吉尼亚州的哈普斯渡口，联盟军队在那里拥有一个兵工厂和军火库。就在几年前，废奴主义者约翰·布朗曾试图在这个镇发动奴隶叛乱。
美国在哈普斯渡口部署的部队规模很小，士兵们无法保卫城市，使其免受维吉尼亚人的攻击。所以他们从此地撤离。在行军之前，士兵们放火点燃了兵工厂和军火库。这场大火并未摧毁兵工厂内的所有设备。当维吉尼亚人占领了城镇后，他们把装备送至南方，在那为联盟国士兵制造枪支。维吉尼亚州的军队也向美国最大的海军基地发起了进攻，该基地位于维吉尼亚州的诺福克。联邦的军队又一次撤退了。在撤离之前，烧毁了所有建筑物，击沉了所有船只。总统林肯越来越担忧弗吉尼亚州的军事行动，他担心维吉尼亚州的联盟国部队可能会在战争开始的最初几天试图攻占华盛顿。毕竟，联盟国的作战部长宣布，南部联盟的旗帜将在5月1日前飘扬于国会大厦上空。华盛顿未能得到强有力的防守，没有足够的士兵来阻止联盟国部队攻占该城的企图，尽快把更多的士兵调至华盛顿至关重要。
成千上万的士兵都在前往华盛顿的路上，但是却他们无法很快到达。军队的火车必须经过马里兰州才能从北方到达华盛顿，该州的许多人支持联盟国。然而，州长却没有这样做，他拒绝召开州议会会议。他担心议会将投票脱离联邦，他想让马里兰州保持中立。第一列运送部队的火车从北方驶来，顺利穿过马里兰州的巴尔的摩。但第二列火车就没有那么幸运了。一群暴徒堵住了铁路，向火车扔石头，还开枪射击。4名士兵和12名平民丧生。州和市政府官员开会讨论了这一问题，他们一致认为将来会发生更多的暴力事件。所以，他们下令摧毁巴尔的摩城外的铁路桥梁，从北方来的火车再也不能到达华盛顿了。总统林肯告诉官员们，需要更多的士兵前往首都。他同意，士兵们不必经过巴尔的摩。但是，他希望他们能安全抵达切萨皮克湾的安纳波利斯。
登陆安纳波利斯并不难，但到达首都却并非易事。联盟国的支持者毁掉了两个城市间的火车、铁路和桥梁。在安纳波利斯登陆的第一批士兵，前进时必须修整一切。尽管存在这些困难，一万名士兵还是在内战的最初几周到达了华盛顿，该市和政府都安全了。总统林肯担心联盟国支持者会待在马里兰州，他知道，他们将继续对联邦军队和物资的移动构成威胁。林肯想限制联盟国支持者的活动。因此，他作为美国总统采取了不同寻常的一步。他把马里兰州大部分地区置于军事管制之下，赋予军官权利，让他们能够逮捕据信对联盟怀有敌意的平民，还让他们有权不经审判就能拘捕这些嫌疑犯。这项命令中止了宪法规定的两项基本人权，其中一个是在正式起诉之前行动自由的权利，另一个是迅速审判的权利。
美国首席大法官给总统林肯写了一封信。他说，宪法没有赋予总统中止公民权利的权力。林肯不同意他的说法，他认为联邦面临的形势允许他采取如此强硬的措施。他相信，如果他不采取行动，马里兰州就会脱离联邦。邦，但是北卡罗莱纳州、田纳西州和阿肯色州退出了联邦。联盟国现在拥有十一个州，可能还会再有两个州加入。没人知道肯塔基州和密苏里州能在联邦中呆多久，他们都支持南方叛军。总统林肯谨慎处理肯塔基州的问题，不希望该州脱离联邦，他也不想让它保持中立。肯塔基州从弗吉尼亚州的山脉延伸到密西西比河。作为一个中立的州，肯塔基州可以阻止北方军队进入南方的大部分地区。林肯希望它坚定地站在联邦一边。总统在肯塔基州并没有像在马里兰州那样动用武力。相反，他派人到肯塔基州，帮助联邦获取支持。他敦促报纸发表支持联邦的声明。还成立了自卫队，他们从林肯的政府那里获得武器和补给。
林肯希望，随着时间的推移，这些努力将赢得肯塔基州对他为战争所做的各种努力的支持。在密苏里州，州长努力使该州脱离联邦。他召开了一个会议来对决定该问题，大多数代表拒绝投票赞成分裂国家。州长组织了州政府士兵，林肯政府组织了家乡自卫队。双方发生了几次冲突，有一些平民被杀。最终，美国军队占领了该州首府的政府大楼。他们强迫包括州长在内的州政府官员逃离。密苏里州将继续留在联邦。美利坚联盟国的首府位于阿拉巴马州南部的蒙哥马利市。在内战的最初几周内，联盟国投票决定将首都向北迁往更远的弗吉尼亚州里士满。他们认为，弗吉尼亚州将是战争中的一个重要战场。在这一问题上，他们是对的。在联盟国总统杰斐逊·戴维斯前往里士满的两天前，联邦军队入侵弗吉尼亚州。他们离开华盛顿，跨过波托马克河，占领了阿灵顿和亚历山大的城镇。双方并未向彼此开枪，联邦军向前推进时，南方联盟国军队撤退了。在一个月内，有数千名联邦士兵进驻弗吉尼亚州。他们准备在一个叫马纳萨斯会合点（也称布尔朗）的地方进行一场重要的战斗。这将是我们下周要讲述的故事。
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