;>V ((U((U A DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Treasure ^om Digitized by tine Internet Archive in 2011 witii funding from Duke University Libraries http://www.arcliive.org/details/firstyearofwar01poll ^::^^<^i;^ Ung-er/F; THE rmST YEAR OF THE WAR. BY EDWARD A. POLLARD AinrHOB OF "black diauonds," stu. OOEEECTED AKD IMPROVED EDITION. 155562 RICHMOND: WEST & JOHNSTON, 145 MAIN STREET. 1862. I Entered according to act of Congress, in the jear 1862, By west & JOHNSTON, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Confederate States for the Eastern District of Virginia. OHAS. H.. WYNNE, PRrNTEB. pnn \A- PREPACE. • ^ ■ 5,, i\ l.'StL-t) It is scarcely necessary to state that the following pagee have been written without any thing like literary ambition. They have been composed by the author, with but little aid, within the short period of three months, and in the midst of exacting occupations in the editorial department of a daily newspaj^er. Tliese explanations are not made to disarm criticism. Their purpose is only to define the claim which the author's work makes at the bar of public criticism. He does not j^retcnd to have written a brilliant or elaborate book ; but he does claim to have composed, without seeking after literary ornaments, or' taxing his style with intellectual refinements, a compact, faith fill, and independent popular narrative of the events of the first year of the existing war. The author acknowledges some assistance from Mr. B. M. DkWitt, in the collection of materials. He has but little other of obligation to express, except to his publishers, Messrs. West & Johnston, of Richmond, to whom he would make a public acknowledgment for their generous encouragement, liberality, and enterprising endeavors, which have enabled him, under many inauspicious circumstances, to complete his work. JiicAmond, Virginia, July, 1862. PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. The author, in presenting to the public a second edition c f nis work, has taken occasion to correct some errors, to make material annotations, and to add a supplementary chapter, tracing the progress and develop- ments of the war from the concluding point of the first year of its his- tory to the period of publication. He desires to make his grateful acknowledgments for the favar with which his work has already been received by the public ; for numerous kind notices of the newspaper press, and for words of encouragement Bpoken by many whom he is proud to call his friends. The success with which his work has so far met, being unprecedented, he believes, in the literary enterprises of the South, has surprised and gratified the author. He protests, however, that, under any circumstances, he has but little literary vanity to be inflated ; that he composed his work in haste, with neither time nor purpose to polish his style, or to captivate the taste o readers, and that he is content to ascribe the success of his book to the fact that, though rudely written and imperfect in many particulars, it is, as he believes, honest, fair, independent, and outspoken. While such has been the general character of the reception given his book by the public, the author is sensible that some attacks have been made upon it from malicious and disappointed sources, and that the honest record which he has attempted of the truth of history, has been encountered by many unjust, ignorant, and contemptible criticisms, emanating mainly from favorites of the government and literary slatterns in the Departments. The author has made no attempt to conciliate either these creatures or their masters ; he is not in the habit of toady- ing to great men, and courting such public whores as " official" news- papers ; he is under no obligations to any man living to flatter him, to tell lies, or to abate any thing from the honest convictions of his mind. He proposed to write an independent history of some of the events of the existing war. He is willing for his work to be judged by the strict- est rule of truth ; he asks no favors for it, in point of accuracy ; he only protests against a rule of criticism, which exalts paid panegyric above honest truth, and reduces the level of the historian to that of the scrubs and scribblers who write poetry and pufis in newspaper corners. 2S PREFACE. The flatterer's idea of the history of the present war w:)uld no doubt be to plaster the government with praises ; to hide all the faults of the people of the South while gilding their virtues ; to make, for a consid- eration, " especial mention" of all the small trash in the armj' ; to coat his pufl"s thickly with fine writing and tremendous adjectives ; and to place over the whole painted and gilded mass of falsehood, the figure of Mr. Jeflferson Davis, as the second Daniel come to judgment. The au- thor has no ambition to gratify in these literary elegances. In the eyes of the historian the person of Mr. Jeflferson Davis is no more sacred than that of the meanest agent in human affairs. The au- thor has not been disposed to insult the dignity of office by coarse speeches ; he recognizes a certain propriety of style even in attacking the grossest public abuses ; but, while he has avoided indecency and heat oii language, and has, on the other hand, not attempted the elegance and elevation of the literary artist, he trusts that he has given his opin- ions of the government and public persons with the decent but fearless and uncompromising freedom of the conscientious historian. He is cer- tain that he has given these opinions without prejudice against the Ad- ministration in this war. The danger is, in such a contest as we are waging, that we will be too favorably and generously disposed towards the government, rather than prejudiced against it — that we will be blind to its faults, rather than eager and exacting in their exposure. The author is aware that the views expressed in this work of the autoc- racy of President Davis, and the extraordinary absorption in himself of all the offices of the government, have been resented with much temper by critics in some of the newspapers. He would ask these persons who are so anxious to vindicate the character of Mr. Davis in this respect, for a single instance in the history of the war, where the Cabinet has inter- posed any views of its own, addressed any counsel to the government, or been any thing more than a collection of dummies. In all our experience hitherto of republican government, we hear of views of the Cabinet and the counsel of this or that member. In this war these common observa- tions are lacking; the Cabinet is dumb or absolutely servile; we have never heard a syllable from it on a single question of national importance, and the voice of the President alone decides the conduct of the war, distributes the patronage of the government, and forces into practice the constitutional fiction of himself being the commander-in-chief of our armies. These facts are notorious in the streets of Richmond. The Cabinet of President Davis has really no constitutional existence The Cabinet has many objects to serve in our system of government. 1\ was designed as a check to Executive power ; it was intended to culi and collect the wisdom of the country in the management of pubHc af PREFACE. 3 fairs ; it shares tlie qualities of a popular system of representation with the conservatism and virtues of aristocracy ; it constitutes the highest and gravest council in our form of government. Certainly not one of these constitutional offices has been fulfilled by the Cabinet of President Davis, and history is forced to confess that the harmony of our govern- ment has been deranged by striking from it an important, valuable, and 'essential part. The author is sensible that another ignorant rule of criticism besides that of the professional political flatterer, has been unjustly applied to his work. He is informed that there are persons so childish and contempt- ibly ignorant as to have decried his work on the ground that it has ex- posed abuses in our administration, and faults in our people, which will be a gratification and comfort to the enemy. The objection is simply absurd and contemptible. Throwing out of consideration the interest of truth, it is surely much better, even on the narrow ground of expediency, to expose abuses, and to let the enemy have what pleasure and comfort he can from them, than to permit them, unnoticed and uncorrected, to sap the strength of our country, and publish their conclusion to the world in the ultimate ruin of our cause. There are ignoramuses in the Southern Confederacy who think it necessary in this war that all the books and newspapers in the country should publish every thing in the South in couleur de rose ; drunken patriots, cowards in epaulets, crippled toadies, and men living on the charity of JeflFerson Davis, trained to damn all newspapers and publications in the South for pointing out abuses in places of authority, for the sage reason that knowledge of these abuses will comfort the enemy and tickle the ears of the Yankees. These creatures would have a history written which would conceal all the shortcomings of our administration, and represent that our army wa9 perfect in discipline, and immaculate in morals ; that our people were feeding on milk and honey ; that our generalship was without fault, and that Jefferson Davis was the most perfect and admirable man since the days of Moses — all for the purpose of wearing a false mask to the enemy. They would betray our cause while hoodwinking the enemy ; they would make a virtue of falsehood ; they would destroy the independence of all published thought in the country. The author spits upon the criticisms of such creatures. So much the author has thought it necessary to say with reference to two classes of critics, who have attacked not only his book, but every form of free and independent thought in the country. Witli reference to the public, confident as the author is of the rectitude of their decision^ he is content to submit his work to their judgment, without importuning their favor. 4 PEEFACE. Finally, tlie author begs to make, without temper and in the fewest words, a plain and summary vindication of the character and objects of Lis work. Every candid mind must be sensible of the futility of attempting high order of historical composition in the treatment of recent aud in complete events ; but it does not follow that the contemporary annal, the popular narrative, and other inferior degrees of history, can have no value and interest, because they cannot compete in accuracy with the future retrospect of events. The vulgar notion of history is, that it is a record intended for posterity. The author contends that history has an oflSce to perform in the present, and that one of the greatest values of contemporary annals is to vindicate in good time to the world the fame and reputation of nations. "With this object constantly in view, the author has composed this work. He will accomplish his object and be rewarded with a complete satisfaction, if his unpretending book shall have the effect of promoting more extensive inquiries; enlightening the present; vindicating the principles of a great contest to the contemporary world ; and putting be- fore the living generation, in a convenient form of literature, and at an early and opportune time, the name and deeds of our people. Richmond, Sepkmbtr, IS^. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Delusive Ideas of the Union. — Administration of Jolin Adams. — The " Strict Con- ntnictionists." — The "State Rights" Men in the North. — The Missouri Eestriction.— General Jackson and the NuUilicntion Question. — Tlie Compromise Measures of 1850. — History of the Anti-Slavery Party. — The " Pinckney Kesolutions." — The Twenty- first Rule. — The Abolitionists in the Presidential Canvass of 1852. — The Kansas- Nebraska Bill. — The Rise and Growth of the Republican Party. — The Election or President Buchanan. — The Kansas Controversy. — "Lecompton" and " Anti-Lecomp- ton." — Results of the Kansas Controversy. — The John Brown Raid. — " Helper's Buok." — Demoralization of the Northern Democratic Party. — The Faction of Stephen A. Douglas. — The Alabama Resolutions. — The Political Platforms of 1860. — Election of Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States. — Analysis of the Vote. — Political Condition of the North.— Secession of South Carolina. — Events in Charleston Harbor. — Disagreements in Mr. Buchanan's Cabinet. — The Secession Movement in Progress. — Peace Measures in Congress. — The Crittenden Resolutions. — The Peace Congress. — Policy of the Border Slave States. — Organization of the Confederate States Govern- ment. — President Buchanan. — Incoming of the Administration of Abraham Lincoln. — Strength of the Revolution Page 11 CHAPTER H. Mr. Lincoln's Journey to Washington.— Ceremonies of the Inauguration.— The In- augural Speecli of President Lincoln. — The Spirit of the New Administration. — Its Fi- nancial Condition.— Embassy from the Southern Confederacy.— Perfidious Treatment of the Southern Commissioners. — Preparations for War. — The Military Bills of the Confederate Congress. — General Beauregard. — Fortifications of Charleston Harbor. — Naval Preparations of the Federal Government. — Attempted Reinforcement of Fort Sumter. — Perfidy of the Federal Government. — E.xcitement in Charleston. — Reduction of Fort Sumter by the Confederate Forces.- How the News was received in Wash- ington. — Lincoln's Calculation. — His Proclamation of War. — The "Reaction" in the North. — Displays of Rancor towards the South, — Northern Democrats. — Replies of Southern Governors to Lincoln's Requisition for Troops.- Spirit of the South. — Seces- sion of Virginia.— Maryland. — The Baltimore Riot. — Patriotic Example of Missouri.— Lincoln's Proclamation blockading the Southern Ports. — General Lee. — Tlie Federal.s evacuate Harper's Ferry, — Burning of the Navy Yard at Norfolk. — The Second Secessionary Movement. — Spirit of Patriotic Devotion in the South. — Supply ol Arms in the South. — The Federal Government and the State of Maryland. — The Pros- pect. Paoe 4] CONTENTS. CHAPTER in. Confidence if tlie North. — Characteristic Boasts. — " Crushing ont the Rebellion.''-^ Volunteering in the Northern Cities. — The New York "Invincibles." — Misrepresenta- tions of the Government at Washington. — Mr. Seward's Letter to the French Govern- ment. — Another Call for Federal Volunteer.s. —Opening Movements of the Campaign. — The Federal Occupation of Alexandria. — Death of Col. Ellsworth. — Fortress Mon- roe. — The Battle of Bethel. — Results of this Battle. — Gen. Joseph E. Johnston. — The Upper Potomac. — Evacuation and Destruction of Harper's Ferry. — The Move- ments in the Upper Portion of the Valley of Virginia. — Northwestern Virginia. — The Battle of Eich Mountain. — Carroek's Ford. — The Retreat of the Confederates. — General McClellan. — Meeting of the Federal Congress. — Mr. Lincoln's Message. — Kentucky. — Western Virginia. — Large Requisitions for Men and Money by the Fed- eral Government. — Its Financial Condition. — Financial Measures of the Southern Confederacy. — Contrast between the Ideas of the Rival Governments. — Conserva- tism of the Southern Revolution. — Despotic Excesses of the Government at Wash- ington Page 70 CHAPTER lY. The "Grand Army" of the North.— General McDowell.— The Affair of Bull Puu.— An Artillery Duel. — The Battle of Manassas. — " On to Richmond." — Scenery of the Battle-field. — Crises in the Battle. — Devoted Courage of the Confederates. — The Rout. — How the News was received in Washington. — How it was received in the South. — General Bee. — Colonel Bartow. — The Great Error. — General Johnston's Excuses for not advancing on Washington. — Incidknts of the Manassas Battle .Page 95 CHAPTER Y. Results of the Manassas Battle in the North. — General Scott. — McClellan, " the Young Napoleon." — Energy of the Federal Government. — The Bank Loan. — Events in the West. — The Missouki Campaign. — Governor Jackson's Proclamation. — Sterling Price. — The Affair of Booneville. — Organization of the Missouri forces. — The Battle OF Carthage. — General McCulloch. — The Battle of Oak Hill. — Death of General Lyon. — The Confederate Troops leave Missouri. — Operations in Northern Missouri. — General Harris. — General Price's march towards the Missouri. — The Affair at Dry- wood Creek. — The Battle of Lexington. — The Jayhawkers. — The Victory of " the Five Hundred." — General Price's Achievements. — His Retreat, and the necessity for it_ — Operations of General Jeff. Thompson in Southeastern Missouri. — The Affair of Fredericktown. — General Price's p.assage of the Osage River. — Secession of Missouri from the Federal Union. — Fremont superseded.— The Federal forces in Missouri de- moralized. — General Price at Springfield. — Review of his Campaign, — Sketch of General Price. — Coldness of the Government towards him Page 124 CHAPTER YL , The Campaign in Western Virginia.— General Wise's Command.— Political Influ- nces in Western Virginia.- The Affair of Scary Creek.— General Wise's Retreat to Lewisburg.— General Floyd's Brigade. — The Affair at Cross Lanes. — Movements on the Gauley.— The Affair of Carnitax Ferry.— Disagreement between Generals Floyd CONTENTS. 7 »nd "Wise. — The Tj'rees. — A Patriotic Woman. — Movements in Northwesteiii Vir- ginia. — General Lee. — The Enemy intrenched on Cheat Mountain. — General Rose- crans. — Failure of General Lee's Plan of Attack. — He removes to tlie Kanawlia Ke- gion. — The Opportunity of a Decisive Battle lost. — Retreat of Rosecrans. — General H. E. Jackson's Affair on the Greenbrier. — The Approach of Winter. — The Campaign in "Western Virginia abandoned. — The Aff'air on the Alleghany. — General Floyd at Cotton Hill. — llis masterly Retreat. — Review of the Campaign in "Western Virginia. — Some of its Incidents. — Its Failure and unfortunate Results. — Other Movements in Virginia. — The Potomac Line. — The Battle of Leksbcro. — Overweening Confidence of the South "^ Page 159 CHAPTER YIL The Position and Policy of Kentucky in the War. — Kentucky Chivalry. — Reminis- cences of the " Dark and Bloody Ground." — Protection of the Northwest by Ken tuoky, — How the Debt of Gratitude has been repaid. — A Glance at the Hartford Convention. — The Gubernatorial Canvass of 1859 in Kentucky. — Division of Parties. — Other Caufcs for the Disloyalty of Kentucky. — The "Pro-Slavery and Union" Resolu- tions. — The " State Guard." — General Buckner. — The Pretext of " Neutrality," and what it meant. — The Kentucky Refugees. — A Reign of Terror. — Judge Monroe in Nashville— General Breckinridge. — Occupation of Columbus by General Polk. — The Neutrality of Kentucky first broken by the North. — General Buckner at Bowling Green. — Camp " Dick Robinsou." — The " Home Guard." — The Occupation of Colum- bus by the Confederates explained. — Cumberland Gap. — General Zollicoff'er's Procla- mation.— The Affair of Barboursville. — "The Wild-Cat Stampede."— The Virginia and Kentucky Border. — The Atfair of Piketon. — Suff'ering of our Troops at Pound Gap. — The "Union Party" in East Tennessee. — Keelan, the Hero of Strawberry Plains. — The Situation on the Waters of the Ohio and Tennessee. — The Battle of Belmont. — Weakness of our Forces in Kentucky. — General Albert Sidney Johnston. — Inadequacy of his Forces at Bowling Green. — Neglect aud Indifference of the Con- federate Authorities. — A Crisis imminent. — Admission of Kentucky into the Southern Confederacy Page 1 83 CHAPTER Vm. Prospects of European Interference.— The selfish Calculations of England.— Effects of the Blockade on the South. — Arrest by Capt. Wilkes of the Southern Commission- ers. —The Indignation of England.— Surrender of the Commissioners by the Lincoln Government. — Mr. Seward's Letter. — Review of Affairs at the Close of the Ykab 1861. — Apathy and Improvidence of the Southern Government. — Superiority of the North on the Water. — The Hatteras Expedition. — The Port Royal Expedition. — The Sonthern Privateers.— Their Failure.— Errors of Southern Statesmanship.— "King Cotton."— Episodes of the War.— The Afl"air of Santa Rosa Island.— Tiie Aff'air ol Dranesville.— Political Measures of the South.— A weak aud halting Policy.- The Spirit of the War in the North.— Administration of the Civil Polity of the Soutliern Army. — The Quarter-master's Department.— Hygiene of the Camps.— Ravages of the Southern Army by Disease.— The Devotion of the Women of the South Page 206 CHAPTER IX. Prospecta of the Year 1862.— The Lines of the Potomac— General Jackson'.s Expo dition to Winchester. — The Battle of Mill SPEi>f03 in Kentuckt. — General Crit 8 CONTENTS. / tenden. — Death of General ZolUcoffer. — Sutferings of Crittenden's Army on the Retreat. — Comparative Unimportance of the Disaster. — The Battle of Koanokb Island. — Importance of the Island to the South. — Death of Captain Wise. — Causes of the Disaster to the South. — Investigation in Congress. — Censure of the Government.— Interviews of General Wise with Mr. Benjamin, the Secretary of War, — Mr. Benjamin censured by Congress, but retained in the Cabinet. — His Promotion by President Davis. — Condition of the Popular Sentiment Page 220 CHAPTER X. The Situation in Tennessee and Kentucky. — The affair at Woodsonville. — Death of Colonel Terry. — The Strength and Material of the Federal Force in Kentucky. — Con- dition of the Defences on the Tennessee and Cumberland Eivers. — The Confederate Congress and the Secretary of the Navy. — The Fall of Fort Henry. — Fort Donelson threatened. — The Army of General A. S. Johnston. — His Interview with General Beauregard. — Insensibility of the Confederate Government to the Exigency. — General Johnston's Plan of Action. — Battle of Fokt Donelson. — Carnage and Scenery of the Battle-field. — The Council of the Southern Commanders. — Agreement to surrender. —Escape of Generals Floyd and Pillow. — The Fall of Fort Donelson develops the Crisis in the West. — The Evacuation of Nashville. — The Panic. — Extraordinary Scenes. — Experience of the Enemy in Nashville. — The Adventures of Captain John Morgan. — General Johnston at Murfreesboro. — Organization of a New Line of Defence South of Nashville. — The Defence of Memphis and the Mississippi. — Island No. 10. — • Serious Character of the Disaster at Donelson. — Generals Floyd and Pillow " re- lieved from Command." — General*Johustou's Testimony in favor of these OiScers. — President Davis's Punctilio. — A sharp Contrast. — Negotiation for the Exchange of Prisoners. — A Lesson of Yankee Perfidy. — Mr. Benjamin's Kelease of Yankee Hostages Page 235 CHAPTER XI. Organization of the permanent Government of the South. — The Policy of England. — Declaration of Earl Eussell.— Onset of the Northern Forces. — President Davis's Message to Congress. — The Addition of New States and Territories to the Southern Confederacy. — Our Indian Allies. — The Financial Condition, North and South. — De- ceitful Prospects of Peace. — Effect of the Disasters to the South. — Action of Congress. — The Conscript Bill. — Provisions vs. Cotton. — Barbarous Warfare of the North. — The Anti-slavery Sentiment. — How it was unmasked in the War. — Em-ancipation Measures in the Federal Congress. — Spirit of the Southern People. — The Administration of Jef- ferson Davis. — His Cabinet.— The Defensive Policy. — The Naval' Engagement in Hampton Eoads. — Iron-clad Vessels. — What the Southern Government might have done. — The Narrative of General Pr4ce'8 Campaign resumed. — His Eetreat into Ar- kansas. — The Battle of Elk Horn. — Criticism of the Eesult. — Death of General Mc- Culloch. — The Battle of Valveede.— The Foothold of the Confederates in New Mexico. — Change of the Plan of Campaign in Virginia. —Abandonment of the Potomao Line by the Confederates.— The Battle oy K'eknstown.— Colonel Turner Ashby.— Appearance of McClellan's Army on the Peninsula.— Firmness of General Magruder. The New Situation of the War in Virginia. — Eecurrence of Disasters to the South on the Water.— The Capture of Newbern.— Fall of Fort Pulaski and Fort Macon.— Common Sense i;«. " West Point." Paob 259 CONTENTS. CHAPTER Xn. The Campaign in the Mississippi Valley.— Bombardment of Island No. 10.— Tha Bcenes, Incidents, and Results.— Fniits of the Northern Victory. — Movements of the Federals on the Tennessee River. — The Battle of Shiloh. — A " Lost Opporttinity." —Death of General Albert Sidney Johnston.— Comparison between the Battles of ShUoh and Manassas. — The Federal Expeditions into North Alabama. — Withdrawal of the Confederate Forces from the Trans-Mississippi District.- General Price and his Command.— The Fall of New Orleans.— The Flag Imbroglio.— Major-general Butler. — Causes of the Disaster.— Its Results and Consequences. — The Fate of the Valley of the Mississippi Pasb 291 CHAPTER Xm. CONCLUSION. Prospects of the War. — The Extremity of the South.— Lights and Shadows of the Campaign in Virginia. — Jackson's Campaign in the Valley. — The Policy of Concen- tration.— Sketch of the Battles around Richmond. — Effect of McClellan's Defeat upon the North. — President Davis's congratulatory Order. — The War as a great Money Job. — ^vte : Gen. Washington's Opinion of the Northern People. — Statement of the Northern Finances. — Yankee Venom. — Gen. Pope's Military Orders. — Summary of the War Legislation of the Northern Congress. — Retaliation on the part of the Con- federacy. — The Cartel. — Prospects of European Interference. — English Statesmanship. — Progress of the War in the West. — The Defence of Vicksburg. — Morgan's great Raid. — The Tennessee-Virginia Frontier. — A Glance at the Confederate Congress. — Mr. Foote and the Cabinet. — The Campaign in Virginia again. — Rapid Movements and famous March of the Southern Troops. — T%« signal Victory tf the Thirtieth of August on the Haint of Manassas. — Reflections on the War. — Some of its Character- istics. — A Review of its Military Results. — Three Moral Benefits of the War. — Fros- pects and Promises of the Future Pisi 822 THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. CHAPTER I. Delusive IJcas of the Union. — Administration of John Adams. — The "Strict Con Btnictionists." — The "State Rights" Men in the Nortli. — The Missonri Restriction. — General Jackson and the Nullification Question. — The Compromise Measures of 18.50. — History of the Anti-Slavery Party. — The "Pinckney Resolutions." — The Twenty- first Rule. — The Abolitionists in the Presidential Canvass of 1S52. — The Kansas- Ncbr.iska Bill.— The Rise and Growth of the Republican Party. — The Election of President Buchanan. — The Kansas Controversy. — " Lecompton" and " Anti-Lecomp- ton." — Results of the Kansas Controversy. — The John Brown Raid. — "Helper's Book." — Demoralization of the Northern Democratic Party. — The Faction of Stephen A. Douglas.— The Alabama Resolutions.— The Political Platforms of 1S60.— Election of Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States. — Analysis of the Vote. — Political Condition of the North. — Secession of South Carolina. — Events in Charleston Harbor — Disagreements in Mr. Buchanan's Cabinet. — The Secession ilovement in Progress — Peace Measures in Congress. — The Crittenden Resolutions. — The Peace Congress. — Policy of the Border Slave States. — Organization of the Confederate States Govern- ment. — President Buchanan. — Incoming of the Administration of Abraham Lincoln. — Strength of the Revolution. The American people of the present generation were born in the belief that the Union of the States was destined to be perpetual. A few minds rose superior to this natal delusion ; the early history of the Union itself was not without premoni- tions of decay and weakness ; and yet it may be said that the belief in its permanency was, in the early part of the present generation, a popular and obstinate delusion, that embraced the masses of the country. The foundations of this delusion had been deeply laid in the early history of the country, and had been sustained by a false, but ingenious prejudice. It was busily represented, especially by demagogues in the North, that the Union \vas the fruit of the Ilevolution of 1776, and had been purchased by the blood of our forefathers. No fallacy could have been more erroneous in fa?t, more insidious in its display, or more effective in ad 2 12 THE riKST TEAR OF THE WAR. dressing the papsions of the multitude. Tlie Kevohitlon achiev- ed our national independence, and the Union liad no connection with it other than consequence in point of time. It was founded, as any other civil institution, in the exigencies and necessities of a certain condition of society, and had no otlier claim to popular reverence and attachment than what might be found in its own virtues. But it was not only the captivating fallacy that the Union was hallowed by the blood of a revolution, and this false in- spiration of reverence for it, that gave the popular idea of its j)0wer and permanency. Its political character was misunder- stood by a large portion of the American people. The idea predominated in tlie Korth, and found toleration in the South, that the Eevolution of "76, instead of securing the independ- ence of thirteen States, had resulted in the establishment of a grand consolidated government to be under the absolute con- trol of a numerical majority. The doctrine was successfully inculcated ; it had some plausibility, and brought to its sup- port an array of revolutionary names; but it was, nevertheless, in direct opposition to the terms of the Constitution — the bond of the Union — which defined the rights of the States and the limited powers of the General Government. The first President from the I^orth, John Adams, asserted and essayed to put in practice the supremacy of the "Na- tional'' power over the States and the citizens thereof. lie was sustained in his attempted usurpations by all the New England States and by a powerful public sentiment in each of the Middle States. The "strict constructionists" of the Con- stitution were not slow in raising the standard of opposition against a pernicious error. With numbers and the most con- spicuous talents in the country they soon eifected the organi- zation of a party ; and, under the leadership of Jefi'erson and Madison, they rallied their forces and succeeded in overthrow- ing the Yankee Administration, but only after a tremendous struggle. From the inauguration of Mr. Jefferson, in 1801, the Federal Government continued uninterruptedly in Southern hands for the space of twenty-four years. A large proportion of the active politicians of the North pretended to give in their adhesion to the State Eights school of politics; but, like all the alliances THE FIEST TEAK OF THE WAR. 13 jf !N"orthern politicians with the South — selfish, cunning, ex- fravagant of professions, carefully avoiding trials of its fidelity unhealthy, founded on a sentiment of treachery to its own section, and educated in perfidy — it was a deceitful union, and could not withstand the test of a practical question. While acting with the South on empty or accidental issues, the "State Rights" men of the North were, for all practical purposes, the faithful allies of the open and avowed consolida- tionists on the question that most seriously divided the country — that of negro slavery. Their course on the admission o^ Missouri afforded early and conclusive evidence of the secrcv disposition of all parties in the jS^orth. With very few excep- tions, in and out of Congress, the North united in the original demand of the prohibition of slavery in the new State as the indispensable condition of the admission of Missouri into the Union ; although the people of Missouri, previous to their application to Congress, had decided to admit within its juris- diction the domestic institution of the Soutli. The result of the contest was equally unfavorable to the rights of the South and to the doctrine of the constitutional equality of the States in the Union. The only approach that the North was willing to make to this fundamental doctrine was to support a " com- promise," by which slavery was to be tolerated in one part of the Missouri Territory and to be forever excluded from the remaining portion. The issue of the controversy was not only important to the slave interest, but afforded a new develop- ment of the Northern political ideas of consolidation and the absolutism of numerical majorities. The North had acted on the Missouri matter as though the South had no rights guaran- teed in the bond of the Union, and as though the question at issue was one merely of numerical strength, where the defeated party had no alternative but submission. "The majority must govern" was the decantatum on the lips of every demagogue, and passed into a favorite phrase of Northern politics. The results of the acquiescence of the South in the wrong of the Missouri Restriction could not fail to strengthen the idea in the North of the security of the Union, and to embolden its people to the essay of new aggressions. Many of their poli- ticians did not hesitate to believe that the South was prepared to pledge herself to the perpetuity of the Union upon Northern 14 THE FIRST YEAli OF THE WAR. terms. Tlie fact was, that she had made a clear concession ol principle for the sake of the Union ; and the inference was plain and logical, that her devotion to it exceeded almo^ every other political trust, and that she would be likely to prefer any sacrifice rather than the irreverent one of the Union of the States. The events of succeeding years confirmed the Northern opinion that the Union was to be perpetuated as a consolidated government. It is not to be denied that the consolidationists derived much comfort from the course of President Jackson, in the controversy between the General Government and the State of South Carolina, that ensued during the second term of his administration. But they were hasty and unfair in the interpretation of the speeches of a choleric and immoderate politician. They seized upon a sentiment offered by the Presi- dent at the Jefi'erson anniversary dinner, in the second year of his first term — " The Federal TJnion^it must he 2~> re served^'' — to represent him as a '•'■ cocrcionwV in principle; and, indeed, they found reason to contend that their construction of these words was fully sustained in General Jackson's famous procla- mation and ofiicial course against Nullification. General Jackson subsequently explained away, in a great measure, the objectionable doctrines of his proclamation ; and his emphatic declaration that the Union could not be preserved by force was one of the practical testimonies of his wisdom that he left to posterity. But the immediate moral and political effects of his policy in relation to South Carolina were, upon the whole, decidedly unfavorable to the State Bights cause. His approval of the Force Bill gave to the consolidationists the benefit of his great name and influence at a most import- ant juncture. The names of "Jackson and the Union" be- came inseparable in the public estimation ; and the idea was strongly and vividly impressed uj^on the public mind, that the great Democrat was " a Union man" at all hazards and to the last extremity. The result of the contest between South Carolina and the General Government is well known. The Palmetto State came out of it with an enviable reputation for spirit and chivalry ; but the settlement of the question contributed to the previous popular impressions of the power and perm a- THK FIRST YKAK .0? THE WAB. 15 nency of tlie Union. The idea of the Union became ^vhat it continued to be for a quarter of a century thereafter — extra v-, agant and sentimental. The people were unwilling to stop to ahalyze an idea after it had once become the subject of cnthu- fiiasm ; and the mere name of the "Union," illustrating, as it did, the power of words over the passions of the multitude, remained for years a signal of the country's glory and of course the motto of ambitious politicians and the favorite theme of' demagogues. This unnatural tumor was not pecu- liar to any party or any portion of the country. It was deeply planted in the Northern mind, but prevailed also, to a consid- erable extent, in the South. Many of the Southern politicians came to the conclusion that they could best succeed in their designs as advocates and eulogists of what was paraphrased as " the glorious Union ;" and for a long time the popular voice of the South seemed to justify their conclusion. Tlie settlement of the sectional difficulties of 1850, which grew out of the admission of the territory acquired by the Mexican "War, was but a repetition of the " Compromise" of 1820, so far as it implied a surrender of the rights of the South and of the principle of constitutional equality. The appeals urged in behalf of the Union had the usual effect of reconciling the South to the sacrifice required of her, and embarrassed any thing like resistance on the part of her rep- resentatives in Congress to the " compromise measures" of 1850. South Carolina was the only one of the Southern States ready at this time to take the bold and adventurous initiative of Southern independence. In justice, however, to the other States of the South, it must be stated, that in agree- ing to what was called, in severe irony or in wretched igno- rance, the "Compromise" of 1850, they declared that it was the last concession they would make to the North ; that they took it as a " finality," and that they would resist any further aggression on their rights, even to the extremity of the ru])ture of the Union. This declaration of spirit was derided by the North. The anti-slavery sentiment became bolder with success. Stimu- lated by secret jealousies and qualified for success by the low and narrow cunning of fanaticism, it had grown up by in^lircc- tion, and aspired to the complete overthrow of the peculiar 16 THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. institution tliat bad distinguished the people of the Soiitli from those of the ISTorth, by a larger happiness, greater ease of life, and a superior tone of character. Hypocrisy, secretiveness, a rapid and unhealthy growth, and at last the unmasked spirit of defiance, were the incidents of the history of the anti- slavery sentiment in the North, from the beginning of its organization to the last and fatal strain of its insolence and power. Until a comparatively recent period, the ^Northern majority disavowed all purpose of abolishing or interfering in any way with the institution of slavery in any State, Territory, or District where it existed. On the contrary, they declared their readiness to give their "Southern brethren" the most satisfactory guaranties for the security of their slave property. They cloaked their designs under the disguise of the Eight of Petition and other concealments equally demagogical. From the organization of the government, petitions for the abolition of slavery, signed in every instance by but a few persons, and most of them women, had, at intervals, been sent into Con- gress ; but they were of such apparent insignificance that they failed to excite any serious apprehensions on the part of the South. In the year 1836, these petitions were multij^lied, and many were sent into both Houses of Congress from all parts of the North. An excitement began> On motion of Mr. H. L. Pinckney, of South Carolina, a resolution was adopted by the House of Representatives, to refer to a select commit- tee all anti-slavery memorials then before that body, or that might thereafter be sent in, with instructions to report against the prayers of the petitioners and the reasons for such con- clusion. On the 18th of May, 1836, the committee made a unanimous report, through Mr. Pinckney, its chairman, concluding with a series of resolutions, the last of which was as follows : " Resolved, That all petitions, memorials, resolutions, propositions, or papers relating, in any way, or to any extent whatever, to the subject of slavery, or the abolition of slavery, shall, without being either printed or referred, be laid upon the table, and that no further action whatever shall be had thereon." The resolutions were carried by a vote of 117 yeas to 68 nays. A majority of the Northern members voted against the THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 17 resolution, jiltli )ugh there was then scarcely an avowed Aboli- tionist anionf^ them. They professed to be in favor of pro- te<;ting the slaveholder in his right of property, and yet de- clared by their votes, as well as by their speeches, that the right of petition to rob him of his pro23erty was too sacred tc be called in question. The passage of the " Pinckney resolutions," as they were called, did not silence the anti-slavery agitat.on in the House. In the month of December, 1837, a remarkable scene was enacted in that body, during the proceedings on a motion of Mr. Slade, of Yermont, to refer two memorials praying the fc-^llLion of slavery in the District of Columbia to a select committee. Mr. Slade, in urging his motion, was violent in his denunciations of slavery, and he spoke for a considerable time amid constant interruptions and calls to order. At length, Mr. Rliett, of South Carolina, called upon the entire delega- tion from all the slaveholding States to retire from the hall, and to meet in the room of the Committee on the Disti-ict of Columbia. A large number of them did meet for consultatitm in the room designated. The meeting, however, resulted in nothing but an agreement upon the following resolution to be presented to the House : •' Resolved, That all petitions, memorials, and papers touching the abolition of Slavery, or the buying, selling, or transferring of slaves in any State, Dis trict, or Territory of the United States, be laid on the table without being debated, printed, read, or referred, and that no further action -whatever shaD be had thereon." This resolution was presented to the House by Mr. Patton, of Virginia, and was adopted by a vote of 122 to 74. In the month of January, 1840, the House of Kepresenta- tives, on motion of Mr. W. Cost Johnson, of Maryland, adopted what was known as the " Twenty-first Kule," "which prohibited the reception of all Abolition petitions, memorials, and resolutions. The Twenty-first Eule was rescinded in December, 1844, on motion of John Quincy Adams, by a vote of 108 to 80. Sev- eral efforts were afterwards made to restore it, but without success. The Northern people would not relinquish what they termed a " sacred right" — that of petitioning the government, 18 THE FIRST TEAK OF THE WAK. » through their representatives in Congress, to deprive the Southern people of their property. During the agitation in Congress upon the right of petition, there was, as before stated, but very few open and avowed Abolitionists in either House, and the declaration was repeat edly made by members that the party was contemptibly smal? in every free State in the Union. Mr. Pierce, of New Hamp- shire (afterward J President of the United States), declared, in 1837, in his place in Congress, that there were not two hun- dred Abolitionists in his State ; and Mr. "Webster, about the same time, represented their numbers in Massachusetts as quite insignificant. Mr. Calhoun, of South Carolina, with charac- teristic sagacity, replied to these representations, and predicted that " Mr. WelDster and all Northern statesmen would, in a few years, yield to the storm of Abolition fanaticism and be over- whelmed by it." The prophecy was not more remarkable than the searching analysis of Northern " conservatism" with which the great South Carolinian accompanied his prediction. He argued that such a consequence was inevitable from the way in which the professed "conservatives" of the North had in- TJted the aggressions of the Abolitionists, by courteously granting them the right of petition, which was indeed all they asked ; that the fanaticism of the North was a disease which required a remedy, and that palliatives Would not answer, as Mr. Webster and men like him would find to their cost. In the Thirtieth Congress, that assembled in December, IftlQ the "^Tofessed Abolitionists numbered about a dozen members. They held the balance of power between the Dem- ocratic and Whig parties in the House, and delayed its organ- ization for about a month. Both the Whig and Democratic parties then claimed to be conservative, and, of course, the opponents of the anti-slavery agitation. In the Presidential canvass of 1852, both Pierce and Scott were brought out by professed national parties, and were sup- ported in each section of the Union. John P. Hale, who ran upon what was called the " straight-out" Abolition ticket, did not receive the vote of a single State, and but 175,296 ol" the popular vote of the Union. The triumphant election ot Pierce, who was a favorite of the State Rights Democracy of the South, was hailed by the sanguine friends of the Union as THE FIKST TEAR OF THE WAR. 19 a fair indication of the purpose of the iNorth to abide, in good faith, hy the Compromise of 1850. Dut in tins they were de- ceived, as the sequel demonstrated. During the first session of the first Congress under IMr Pierce's administration, tlie hill introduced to establish a ten-i- torial government for Nebraska, led to an agitation in Con- gress and the country, the consequences of which extended to the last period of the existence of the Union. The Committee on Territories in the Senate, of which Mr. Douglas, of Illinois, was chairman, reported the bill, which made tuo territories — Nebraska and Kansas — instead of one, and which declared that the Missouri Compromise act was superseded by the Com- promise meas\3rcs of 1850, and had thus become inoperative. The phraseology of the clause repealing the Missouri Com|>ro- mise was drawn up by Mr. Douglas, and was not supposed at the time to be liable to misconstruction. It held, that the Missouri Compromise act, " being inconsistent with the prin ciples of non-intervention by Congress with slavery in the States and Territories, as recognized by the legislation of 1850, commonly called the Compromise Measures, is hereby declared inoperative and void ; it being the true intent and meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any Territory or State, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof per- fectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States." The clause here quoted, as drawn up by Mr. Doug- las, was incorporated into the Kansas-Kebraska bill in the Senate on the loth of February, 1854. The bill passed the House at the same session. The repeal of the Missouri Compromise caaised the deepest excitement throughout the North. The Abolitionists were wild with fury. Douglas was hung in effigy at different places, and was threatened with personal violence in case of his per- sistence in his non-intervention policy. The rapid develojv ment of a fanatical feeling in every free State startled many who had but recently indulged dreams of the perpetuity of the Constitutional Union. Abolitionism, in the guise of '''■ Repxih- licanism^'' swept almost q^qv^^ thing before it in the North and Northwest in the elections of 185-i and 1855. But few pro- fessed conservatives were returned to the Thirty -first Congress; 20 THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR not enough to prevent the election of iKTathaniel Banks, an ob- lectiSiiable Abolitionist of the Massachusetts school, to the Speakership of the House. The South had supported the repeal of the Missouri Com- proj^it^ ■■ ecause it restored her to her rightful position of equaiiLj in the Union. It is true, that her representatives in Congress were well aware that, under the operations of the new act, their constituents could exj)ect to obtain but little if any new accessions of slave teriitorj, while the JSTorth would necessarily, from the force of circumstances, secure a number of new States in the Northwest, then the present direction of our new settlements. But vicAved as an act of proscription against her, the Missouri Compromise was justly offensive to the South ; and its abrogation, in this respect, strongly recom- mended itself to her support. The ruling party of the ISTorth, calling themselves " Eepub- licans," had violently opposed the repeal of the act of 1820, in the same sentiment with which it was fiercely encountered by the Abolitionists. The two parties were practically identi- cal ; both shared the same sentiment of hostility to slavery ; and they differed only as to the degree of indirection by which their purposes might best be accomplished. Tlie election .of Mr. Buchanan to the Presidency, in 1856, raised, for a time, the spirits of many of the true friends of the Constitutional Unioji, But there was very little in an analysis of the vote to give hope or encouragement to the pa- triot. Fremont, who ran as the anti-slavery candidate, re- ceived l,341,81i2 votes of the people, and it is believed would have been elected by the electoral college, if the anti-Buchanan party in Pennsylvania had united upon him. The connection of events which we have sought to trace, brings us to the celebrated Kansas controversy, and at once to the threshold of the dissensions which demoralized the only conservative pa/ty in the country, and in less than four years culminated in the rupture of the Federal Union. A severe summary of the facts of this controversy introduces us to the contest of I860, in which the Pcpublican party, swollen with its triumphs in Kansas, and infecting the Democratic leaders in the North with the disposition to pander to the lusts of a THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 21 growing power, obtained tlie control of the government, and seized the sceptre of absolute authority. When Mr. Buchanan came into office, in March, 1857, ho flattered himself with the hope that his administration would settle the disputes that had so long agitated and distracted the country ; trusting that such a result might be accomplished by the speedy admission of Kansas into the Union, upon the principles which had governed in his election. Such, at least, were his declarations to his friends. But before the meeting of Congress, in December, he had abundant evidence that his favorite measure would be opposed by a number of Senators and Representatives who had actively supported him in his canvass ; among them the distinguished author of the Kansas Nebraska bill, Mr. Douglas. In the month of July, 1855, the Legislature of the Territory of Kansas had passed an act to take the sense of the people on the subject of forming a State government, preparatory to admission into the Union. The election took place, and a large majority of the people voted in favor of holding a con- vention for the purpose of adopting a Constitution. In pur- suance of this vote, the Territorial Legislature, on the 19th of February, 1857, passed a law to take a census of the people, for the purpose of making a registry of the voters, and to elect delegates to the Convention. Mr. Geary, then Governor of Kansas, vetoed the bill for calling the Convention, for the reason that it did not require the Constitution, when framed, to be submitted to a vote of the people for adoption or rejec- tion. The bill, however, was reconsidered in each House, and passed by a two-thirds' vote, and thus became a binding law in the Territory, despite the veto of the Governor. On the 20th of May, 1857, Mr. F. P. Stanton, Secretary and acting Governor of Kansas Territory, published his proc- lamation, commanding the proper officers to hold an election on the third Monday of June, 1857, as directed by the act re- ferred to. Tlie election was held on the day appointed, and the Con- vention assembled, according to law, on the first Monday of September, 1857. They proceeded to form a Constitution, and, having finished their work, adjourned on the 7th November 22 THE FJEST YEAS OF THE WAB. The entire Constitution was not submitted to tlie popular vote; but the Convention took care to submit to the vote of the people, for ratification or rejection, the clause respecting sla- very. The official vote resulted: For the Constitution, with Slavery, 6,226 ; for the Constitution, without Slavery, 509. The Abolitionists, or "Free State" men, as they called them- selves, did not generally vote in this or any other election held under the regular government of the Territory. They defied the authority of this government and tliat of the United States, and acted under the direction of Emigrant Aid Societies, or- ganized by the fanatical Abolitionists of the North, to colonize the new territory with voters. The proceedings of this evil and bastard population occasioned the greatest excitement, and speedily inaugurated an era of disorder and rebellion in this distant portion of the Federal territory. The Free State party assembled at Topeka, in September, 1855, and adopted what they called a " Constitution" for Kan- sas. This so-called Constitution was submitted to the people, and was ratified, of course, by a large majority of those who voted ; scarcely any but Abolitionists going to the polls. Un- der their Topeka Constitution, the Free State party elected a Governor and Legislature, and organized for the purpose of petitioning Congress for the admission of Kansas into the Union. The memorial of the Topeka insurgents was presented to the Thirty-fourth Congress. It met with a favorable re- sponse in the House of Representatives, a majority of that body being anti-slavery men of the ISTew England school ; but found but a poor reception in the Senate, where there was still a majority of conservative and law-abiding men. On tlie 2d of February, 1858, Mr. Buchanan, at the request of the President of the Lecompton Convention, transmitted to Congress an authentic copy of the Constitution framed by that body, with a view to the admission of Kansas into the Union. The message of the President took strong and urgent position for the admission of Kansas under this Constitution ; he de- fended the action of the Convention in not submitting the entire result of their labors to a vote of the people; he ex- plained that, when he instructed Governor Walker, in general terms, in favor of submitting the Constitution to the people, he had no other object in view beyond the all-absorbing topic THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 23 of slavery ; lie considered that, under the organic act, the Convention was bound to submit the all-important question of slavery to the people; he added, that it was never his opinion, however, that, independently of this act, the Convention would be bound to submit any portion of the Constitution to a popu- lar vote, in order to give it validity ; and he argued the fallacy and unreasonableness of such an opinion, by insisting that it was in opposition to the principle wliicli pervaded our institu- tions, and which was every day carried into practice, to the efl'ect that the people had the right to delegate to representa- tives, chosen by themselves, sovereign power to frame Consti- tutions, enact laws, and perform many other important acts, without the necessity of testing the validity of their work by popular approbation. The Topeka Constitution Mr. Buchanan denounced as the work of treason and insurrection. It is certain that Mr. Buclianan would have succeeded in effecting the admission of Kansas under the Lecompton Con- stitution, if he could have secured to the measure the support of all the Northern Democrats who had contributed to his election. These, however, had become disaflected ; they op- posed and assailed the measure of the Administration, acting under the lead of Mr. Douglas ; and the long-continued and bitter discussion which ensued, perfectly accomplished the divi- sion of the Democratic party into two great factions, mustered under the names of "Lecompton" and " Anti-Lecompton." Tlie latter faction founded their opposition to the Adminis- tration on the grounds, that tlie Lecompton Constitution was not the act of the people of Kansas, and did not express their will ; that only half of the counties of the Territory were rep- resented in the Convention that framed it, the other half being disfranchised, for no fault of their own, but from failure of the officers to register the voters, and entitle them to vote for delegates ; and tliat the mode of submitting the Constitution to the people for "ratification or rejection" was unfair, embar- rassing, and proscriptive. In re])ly, the friends of the Administration urged that twen- ty-one out of the thirty-four organized counties of Kansas were embraced in tlie apportionment of representation ; that, of the thirteen counties not embraced, nine had but a small population, fts shown by the fact that, in a succeeding election, to which 24 THE FIRST TEAK OF THE WAK. the Anti-Lecomptonites had referred as an indication of puhlic sentiment in Kansas, they polled but ninety votes in the aggre- gate; that, in the remaining four counties, the failure to register the voters, and the consequent loss of their representation, were due to the Abolitionists themselves, "vvho refused to recognize all legal authority in the Territory ; and that the submission of the Constitution, as provided by the Lecompton Convention, afforded a complete expression of the popular will, as the slavery question was the only one about which there was any controversy in Kansas. The bill for the admission of Kansas under the Lecompton Constitution, was passed by the Senate. In the House, an amendment, offered by Mr. Montgomery, of Pennsylvania, was adopted, to the effect that, as it was a disputed point whether the Constitution framed at Lecompton was fairly made, or ex- pressed the will of the people of Kansas, her admission into the Union as a State was declared to be upon the fundamental condition precedent, that the said constitutional instrument should first be submitted to a vote of the people of Kansas, and assented to by them, or by a majority of the voters, at an election to be held for the purpose of determining the question of the ratification or rejection of the instrument. The Senate insisted upon its bill ; the House adhered to its amendment ; and a committee of conference was appointed. The result of the conference was the report of a bill for the admission of Kansas, which became a law in June, 1S5S, and substantially secured nearly all that the North had claimed in the controversy. The bill, as passed, rejected the Land Ordinance contained in the Lecompton Constitution, and proposed a substitute. Kansas was to be admitted into the Union on an equal footing, in all respects, with the original States, but upon the funda- mental condition precedent, that the question of admission, along with that of the Land substitute, be submitted to a vote of the people; that, if a majority of the vote should be against the proposition tendered by Congress, it should ba concluded that Kansas did not desire admission under the Le- compton Constitution, with the condition attached to it ; and that, in such event, the people were authorized to form for themselves a Constitution and State government, and niight THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 25 elect delegates for tliat purpose, after a census taken to de- monstrate the fact, that the population of the Territory equal- led or exceeded the ratio of representation for a lYiember of the House of Representatives. Thus ended the six months' discussion of the Kansas question in ConOTess in 185S. The substitute to the Land Ordinance o was rejected by the voters of the Territory; and Kansas did not come into the Union until nearly three years afterwards — just as the Southern States were going out of it. She came in under an anti-slavery constitution, and Mr. Buchanan signed the bill of admission. The discussions of the Kansas question, as summed in the preceding pages, had materiallj'^ weakened the Union. Tlie spirit of those discussions, and the result itself of the contro- versy, fairly indicated that the South could hardly expect, under any circumstances, tlie addition of another Slave State to the Union. The Southern mind was awakened ; the senti- mental reverences of more than half a century were decried ; and men began to calculate the precise value of a Union which, by its mere name and the paraphrases of demagogues, had long governed their affections. Some of these calculations, as they appeared in the newspa- per presses of the times, were curious, and soon commenced to interest the Southern people. It was demonstrated to them that their section had been used to contribute the bulk of the revenues of the Government ; that tlie North derived forty to fifty millions of annual revenue from the South, through the operations of the tariff; and that the aggregate of the trade of tlie South in Nortliern markets was four hundred millions of dollars a year. It was calculated by a Northern writer, that the harvest of gain reaped by the North from the Union, from unequal taxations and the courses of trade as between the two sections, exceeded two hundred millions of dollars per year. These calculations of the commercial cost of the " glorious Union" to the South, only presented the question in a single aspect, however striking tliat was. There were other aspects no less important and no less painful, in which it was to be regarded. The swollen and insolent power of Abolitionism threatened to carry every thing before it ; it had already bro 26 THE FIKST YEAR OF THE "WAK. ken the vital principle of tht Constitution — that of the equal- ity of its parts; and to injuries already accomplished, it added the bitterest threats and the most insufferable insolence. While the anti-slavery power threatened never to relax its dbrts until, in the language of Mr. Seward, a senator from New York, the " irrepressible conflict" between slavery and freedom was accomplished, and the soil of the Carolinas dedi- cated to the institutions of New England, it affected the inso- lent impertinence of regarding the Union as a concession on the part of the North, and of taunting the South with the disgrace which her association in the Union inflicted upon the superior and more virtuous people of the Northern States. The excesses of this conceit are ridiculous, seen in the light of subsequent events. It was said that the South was an inferior part of the country ; that she was a spotted and degraded sec- tion ; that the national fame abroad was compromised by the association of the South in the Union ; and that a New Eng- land traveller in Europe blushed to confess himself an Ameri- can, because half of the nation of tha^t name were slavehold- ers. Many of the Abolitionists made a pretence of praying that the Union might be dissolved, that they might be cleai'ed, by the separation of North and South, of any implication in the crime of slavery. Even that portion of the party calling themselves "Republicans" affected that the Union stood in the way of the North. Mr. Banks, of Massachusetts, who had been elected Speaker of the House in the Thirty-first Con- gress, had declared that the designs of his party were not to be baffled, and was the author of the coarse jeer — ''''Let the Union slideP The New York Trihune- had complained that the South " could not be Idcked out of the Union." Mr. Seward, the great Republican leader, had spread the evangely of a nat- ural, essential, and irrepressible hostility between the two sec- tions ; and the North prepared to act on a suggestion, the only practical result of which could be to cleave the Union apart, and to inaugurate the horrors of civil war. The raid into Virginia of John Brown, a notorious Aboli tionist, whose occupations in Kansas had been those of a horse thief and assassin, and his murder of peaceful and unsuspeet ing citizens at Harper's Ferry in the month of October, 1859 was a practical illustration of the lessons of the Northern E.e TllK FIKST YEAR OF THE "WAR. 27 publicans, and of their inevitable and, in fact, logical conclu- sion in civil war. Professed conservatives in tlie North pre- dicted that this outrage would be productive of real good in their section, in opening the eyes of the people to what were well characterized as " Black Ecpublican" doctrines. This prediction was not verified by succeeding events. The North- ern elections of the next month showed no diminution in the Black Kepublican vote. The manifestations of sympathy for John Brown, who had expiated his crime on a gallows in Yii*- ginia, were unequivocal in all parts of the North, though com- paratively few openly j ustified the outrage. Bells were tolled in various towns of New England on the day of his execution, "with the knowledge of the local authorities, and in some in- stances, through their co-operation ; and not a few preachei'S from the pulpit alloted him an ajiotheosis, and consigned his example to emulation, as one not only of public virtue, but of particular service to God. The attachment of the South to the Union was steadily weakening in the historical succession of events. The nomi- nation in December, 1859, to the Speakership of the House of Bcprcsentatives of Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, who had made him- self especially odious to the South by publicly recommending, in connection with sixty-eight other Eepublican members, a fanatical document popularly known as " IleJpei^s Boolc^''" * The tone of this book was violent in the extreme. We add a few ex- tracts, which wiU enable the reader to form a correct opinion of the character And object of the work — " Slavery is a great moral, social, civil, and political evil, to be got rid of at the earliest practical period." — [Page 168.) " Three-quarters of a century hence, if the South retains slavery, which, arty had been an unhealthy product ; its very foundation was a princi- ple of untruth, and false to its own section, it could not be ex- pected to adhere to friends whom it had made from interest and Avho had fallen into adverse circumstances. It had united with the South for political power. In the depression of that power, and the rapid growth of the anti-slavery party in the agaia.it us. Of tliis tliey may take due notice, and govern themselves accord- ingly."— (P. 149.) " It is our honest conviction that all the pro-slavery slaveholders deserve at once to be reduced to a parallel Avith the basest criminals that lie lettered within the cells of our public iirisuna." — (P. 158.) " Shall we i)at the bloodhounds of slavery ? Shall we fee the curs of slavery? Shall we pay the wlielps of slavery? No, never." — (P. 329.) " Our purpose is as firmly fixed as the eternal x>illars of heaven ; we have determined to abolish slavery, and, so help us God! abolish it we will."— P.-187.) THE FIESr TEAE OF THE WAK. 29 North, it liad no hesitation in courting and conciliating the ruling element. This disposition was happily accommodated by the controversy which had taken place between Mr. Dong- las and the administration of Mr. Buchanan. The anti-slavery sentiment in the North was conciliated by the partisans of the Illinois demagogue, in adopting a new principle for the gov- ernment of the Territories, wliicli was to allow the peoi^le to determine the question of sLavery in their territorial capacity, without awaiting their organization as a State, and thus to risk the decision of the rights of the South on the verdict of a few settlers on the public domain. This pander to the anti- slavery sentiment of the North was concealed under the dem- agogical name of " popular sovereignty," and was imposed upon the minds of not a few of the Soutliern people by the artfulness of its appeals to the name of a principle, which had none of the substance of justice or equality. The conceal- ment, hoAvever, was but imperfectly availing. The doctrine of Mr. Douglas was early denounced by one of the most vigi- lant statesrnen of the South as " a short cut to all the ends of * Black Republicanism ;" and later in time, while the " Helper Book" controversy was agitating the country, and other ques- tions developing the union of all the anti-slavery elements for war upon the South, a senator from Georgia was found bold enough to denounce, in his place in Congress, the entire Dem- ocratic party of the North as unreliable and " rotten." The State Rights party of the South had co-operated with the Democracy of the North in the Presidential canvass ot 1856, upon the principles of the platform adopted by the Na- tional Democratic Convention, assembled in Cincinnati, in June of that year. They expressed a willingness to continue this co-operation in the election of 1S60, upon the principles of the Cincinnati platform ; but demanded, as a condition pre- cedent to this, that the question of the construction of this platform should be satisfactorily settled. To this end, the State Rights Democratic party in several of the Southern States defined the conditions upon which their delegates should hold seats in the National Convention, appointed to meet at Charleston on the 23d of April, 1860. The Democracy in Al- abama moved first. On the 11th of January, 1860, they met in convention at Montgomery, and adopted a series of resoln 80 THE FIEST TEAK OF THE WAK. tions, from which the following are extracted, as presenting 8 Bummary declaration of the rights of the Soutli, a recapitula- tion of the territorial question, and a definition of those issues on which the contest of ISGO was to be conducted : Resolved, by the Democracy of the State of Alabama in Convention asscm' bled, That holding all issues and principles npon which they have heretofore affiliated and acted with the National Democratic party to be inferior in dig- nity and importance to the great question of slavery, they content themselves with a general reaffirmance of the Cincinnati platform as to such issues, and also indorse said platform as to slavery, together with the following resolutions : ********* Resolved, That the Constitution of the United States, is a compact between Bovereign and co-equal States, united upon the basis of perfect equality of rights and privileges. Resolved, further. That the Territories of the United States are common property, in which the States have equal rights, and to which the citizens of any State may rightfully emigrate, with their slaves or other property recognized as such in any of the States of the Union, or by the Constitution of the United States. Resolved, furtlier. That the Congress of the United States has no power to abolish slavery in the Territories, or to prohibit its introduction into any of them. Resolved, further. That the Territorial Legislatures, created by the legisla- tion of Congress, have no power to abolish slavery, or to prohibit the intro- duction of the same, or to impair by unfriendly legislation the security and full enjoyment of the same within the Territories ; and such constitutional power certainly does not belong to the people of the Territories in any capa- city, before, in the exercise of a lawful authority, they form a Constitution, preparatory to admission as a State into the Union ; and their action in the exercise of such lawful authority certainly cannot operate or take effect before their actual admission as a State into the Union. Resolved, further, That the principles enunciated by Chief Justice Taney, in his opinion in the Dred Scott case, deny to the Territorial Legislature the power to destroy or impair, by any legislation whatever, the right of property in slaves, and maintain it to be the duty of the Federal Government, in all of its dei>artments, to protect the rights of the owner of such property in the Territories ; and the principles so declared are hereby asserted to be the rights of the South, and the South should ni^intain them. Resolved, further. That we hold all of the foregoing propositions to contain " cardinal principles" — true in themselves — and just and proper and neces- sary for the safety of all that is dear to ns ; and we do hereby instruct our delegates to the Charleston Convention to present them for the calm con- sideration and approval of that body — from whose justice and patriotism we anticipate their adoption. Resolved, further. That our delegates to the Charleston Convention are hereby expressly instructed to insist tliat SBid Convention shall adopt a plat THE FIKST YEAR OF THE WAK. 31 form of principles, recognizing distinctly tlie riglits of the Soutli as asserted in tlie foregoing resolutions ; and if the said National Convention shall refuse to adopt, in substance, the propositions embraced in the preceding resolutions, prior to nominating candidates, our delegates to said Convention are hereby positively instructed to withdraw therefrom. Under these resolutions the delegates from Alabama re- ceived their appointment to the Charleston Convention. The delegates from some of the other Cotton States were appointed under instructions equally binding. Anxious as were the Southern delegates to continue their connection with the Con- vention, and thus to maintain the nationality of tlic Demo- cratic party, they agreed to accept, as the substance of the Alabama platform, either of the two following reports which had been submitted to the Charleston Convention by the ma- jority of the Committee on Resolutions — this majority not only representing that of the States of the Union, but the only States at all likely to be carried by the Democratic party in the Presidential election : Besolved, That the platform at Cincinnati be reaffirmed with the following resolutions : Resolved, That the Democracy of the United States hold these cardinal principles on the subject of slavery in the Territories : First, that Congre&a has no power to abolish slavery in the Territories. Second, that the Territo- rial Legislature has no power to abolish slavery in any Territory, nor to prohibit the introduction of slaves therein, nor any power to exclude slavery therefrom, nor any power to destroy and impair the right of property in slaves by any legislation whatever. «*♦«»»*«* II. Resolved, That tlie platform adopted by the Democratic party at Cincinnati be affirmed, with the following explanatory resolutions : First. That the government of a Territory, organized by an act of Congress, is provisional and temporary ; and, during its existence, all citizens of the United States have an equal right to settle with their property in the Terri- tory, without their rights, either of person or property, being destroyed or im- paired by congressional or territorial legislation. Second. That it is the duty of the Federal Government, in all its depart- ments, to protect, when necessarj', the rights of persons and proj^erty in tha Territories and wherever else its constitutional authority extends. Third. That when the settlers in a Territory having an adequate popula- tion form a State Constitution, the right of sovereignty commences, and 32 rnj: rmsT yeak of the war. being consummated by admission into the Union, they stand on an eqirai footing -with the people of other States ; and the State thus organized, ought to be admitted into the Federal Union, whether its Constitution prohibits or recognizes the institution of slavery. ' Tke Convention refused to accept either of tlie foregoing resolutions, and adopted, by a vote of IGo to 138, the follow- ing as its platform on the slavery question : 1. Resolved, That we, the Democracy of the Union, in Convention assem bled, hereby declare our affirmance of the resolutions unanimously adopted and declared as a platform of principles by the Democratic Convehtion at Cincinnati, in the year 1850, believing that Democratic principles are un- changeable in their nature, when applied to the same subject-matters ; and we recommend as the only further resolutions the following : Inasmuch as differences of opinion exist in the Democratic party as to the nature and extent of the powers of a Territorial Legislature, and as to the powers and duties of Congress under the Constitution of the United States, over the institution of slavery within the Territories : 2. Bcsolved, That the Democratic party will abide by the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States on the questions of constitutional law. The substitution of these resolutions for those which were satisfactory to the South, occasioned the disruption of the Convention, after a session of more than three weeks, and its adjournment to Baltimore, on the 18th of June. The Cotton States, all, withdrew from the Convention ; but the Border Slave States remained in it, with the hope of effecting some uftimate settlement of the difficulty. The breach, however, widened. The reassembling of the Convention at Baltimore resulted in a final and embittered separation of the opposing delfegations. The majority exhibited a more uncompromising spirit than ever ; and Virginia and all the Border Slave States, with the exception of Missouri, withdrew from the Convention, and united with the representatives of the Cotton States, then assembled in Baltimore, in the nomination of candidates repre- senting the views of the South. Their nominees were John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky for President, and Joseph Lane of Oregon for Yice-President. The old Convention, or what remained of it, nominated Ste- phen A. Douglas of Illinois for President, and Benjamin Fitzpatrick of Alabama for Vice-President. The latter dcclin- THE FIKST YEAK OF THE WAK. 33 bag, Ilerscliel Y. Johnson of Georgia was substituted on the ticket. The Southern Democracy and the Sontliern peojile cf all j)arties, with but few exceptions, sustained the platform de- manded by the Southern delegates in the Convention, and jus- tified the course they had pursued. They recognized in the platform a legimate and fair assertion of Southern rights. In view, however, of the conservative professions and glozed speeches of a portion of the Northern Democracy, a respecta- ble number of Southern Democrats were induced to support their ticket. Mr. Douglas proclaimed his views to be in favor of non-intervention ; he avowed his continued and unalterable opposition to Black Republicanism ; his principles were })io- fessed to be " held subject to the decisions of the Supreme Court" — the distinction between judicial questions and politi- cal questions being purposely clouded ; and his friends, with an ingenious sophistry that had imposed upon the South for thirty years with success, insisted that the support of Stephen A. Douglas was a support of the party in the North which had stood by the Soutli amid persecution and defamation. In con- sequence of these and other protestations, tickets were got up for Mr. Douglas in most of the Southern States. The great majority, however, of the Democracy of the slave-holding States, except Missouri, sup])orted Breckinridge. A Convention of what is called the "Constitutional Union" party met in Baltimore on the 9th of May, ISGO, and nomi- nated for President and Vice-President, John Bell of Tonnes- sec and Edward Everett of Massachusetts. Their platform consisted of a vague and undefined enumeration of their polit- ical principles; as, "The Constitution of the Country, the Union of the States, and Enforcement of the Laws." The National Convention of the Black Republican party was held at Chicago, in the month of June. It adopted a plat- form declaring freedom to be the "' normal condition" of tho Territories ; but ingeniously complicating its position on the slavery question by a number of vague but plausible articles, euch as the maintenance of the principles of the Constitution, and especial attachment to the Union of the States. The Presidential ticket nominated by the Convention wag Abral am Lincoln of Illinois for President, and Ilaunibal 3 34 THE FIRST TEAK OF THE VTAH. Hamlin of Maine for Vice-President. Governed by tlie nar- row considerations of party expediency, the Convention had adopted as tlieir candidate for President a man of scanty po- litical record — a Western lawyer, with the characteristics oi that profession — acuteness, slang, and a large stock of jokes — and who had peculiar claims to vulgar and demagogical popu- larity, in the circumstances that he was once a captain of volunteers in one of the Indian wars, and, at some anterior pe- riod of his life, had been employed, as report differently said, in splitting rails, o-r in rowing a flat-boat. The great majority of the Southern Democracy supported the Breckinridge ticket ; it was the leading ticket in all the Slave States, except Missouri ; but in the North but a small and feeble minority of the Democratic party gave it their sup-' port. In several States, the friends of Douglas, of Breckin- ridge, and of Bell coalesced, to a certain extent, with a view to the defeat of Lincoln, but without success, except in New Jer- sey, where they partially succeeded. The result of the contest was, that Abraham Lincoln re- ceived the entire electoral vote of every free State, except New Jersey, and was, of course, elected President of the United States, according to the forms of the Constitution. The entire popular vote for Lincoln was 1,858,200 ; that for Douglas, giving him his share of the fusion vote, 1,276,780 ; that for Breckinridge, giving him his share of the fusion vote, 812,500 ; and that for Bell, including his proportion of the fu- sion vote, 735,504. The whole vote against Lincoln was thus 2,824,874, showing a clear aggregate majority against him of nearly a million of votes. During the canvass, the North had been distinctly warned by the conservative parties of the country, that the election of Lincoln by a strictly sectional vote would be taken as a decla- ration of war against the South. This position was assumed on the part of the South, not so much on account of the declaration of the anti-slavery principles in the Chicago plat- form, as from the notorious anhnus of the party supporting Lincoln. The Chicago Convention had attempted to conceal the worst designs of Abolitionism under professions of advan- cing the cause of freedom in strict accordance with the Consti- tution and the laws. The South, however, could not be igno THE FIRST YEAH OF THE WAR. 35 rant of tlie fact, or wanting in appreciation of it, that Lincoln had been supported hj the sympathizers of John Brown, the iudorsers of the " Helper Book," the founders of the Kansaa Emigrant Aid Societies, and their desperate abetters and agents, " Jim" Lane and others, and by the opponents of the Fugitive Slave law. It was known, in a word, that Lincoln owed his election to the worst enemies of the South, and that he would naturally and necessarily select his counsellors from among them, and consult their views in his administration of the government. Threats of resistance were proclaimed in the South. It is true that a few sanguine persons in that section, indulging nar- row and temporizing views of the crisis, derived no little comfort and confidence from the large preponderance of the popular vote in the Presidential contest in favor of the con- servative candidates ; and viewed it as an augury of the speedy overthrow of the first sectional administration. But those whose observations were larger and comprehended the progress of events, took quite a different view of the matter. They could find no consolation or encouragement from the face of the record. The anti-slavery party had organized in 1840, with about seven thousand voters ; and in 1860 had succeeded in electing the President of the United States. The conserva- tive party in the North had been thoroughly corrupted. They were beaten in every Northern State in 1860, with a single exception, by the avowed enemies of the South, who, but a few years ago had been powerless in their midst. The leaders of the Northern Democratic party had in 1856 and in 1860, openly taken the position that freedom would be more certainly secured in the Territories by the rule of non-intervention than by any other policy or expedient. This interpretation of their policy alone saved the Democratic party from entire annihila- tion. The overwhelming pressure of the anti-slavery senti- ment had prevented their acceding to the Southern platform in the Presidential canvass. Nothing in the present or in the fu- ture could be looked for from the so-called conservatives of the North ; and the South prepared to go out of a Union, which no longer afforded any guaranty for her rights or any perma- nent sense of security, and which had brought her under the domination of a growing fanaticism in the North, the senti- 36 TUE FIRST YEAR OF THE TTAR. ments of M^liicli, if carried into legislation, would destroy lier institutions, confiscate the property of her people, and even 'nvolve their lives. Tlie State of South Carolina acted promptly and vigorous- ly, with no delay for argument, and but little for prepara tion. Considering the argument as fully exhausted, she de- termined, by the exercise of her rights as a sovereign State, to separate herself from the Union. Her Legislature called a Convention immediately after the result of the Presidential election had been ascertained. The Convention met a few weeks thereafter, and on the 20th day of December, 1860, for- mally dissolved the connection of South Carolina with the Union, by an ordinance of Secession, which was passed by a unanimous vote. On the same day Major Anderson, who was in command of the Federal forces in Charleston harbor, evacuated Fort Moultrie, spiking the guns and burning the gun-carriages, and occupied Fort Sumter, with a view of strengthening his po- sition. On the 30th of December, John B. Floyd, Secretary of "War, resigned his office, because President Buchanan refused to order Major Anderson back to Fort Moultrie — Mr. Floyd alleging that he and the President had pledged the authorities of South Carolina that the existing military status of the United States in that State should not be changed during the expiring term of the Democratic administration. The withdrawal of South Carolina from the Union produced Bome sensation in the North, but the dominant party treated it lightly. Many of these jeered at it; their leaders derided the " right of secession ;'* and their newspapers prophesied that the "rebellion" in South Carolina would be reduced to the most ignominious extremity the moment the "paternal govern- ment" of the United States should resolve to have recourse from peaceful persuasions to the chastisement of " a spoilt child." The events, however, which rapidly succeeded the withdrawal of South Carolina, produced a deep impression upon all reflecting minds, and startled, to some extent, the masses of the ISTorth, who would have been much more alarmed but for their vain and long-continued assurance that the South had no means or resources for making a serious resistance to the Federal authority ; and that a rebellion which could at any THE FIRST TEAB OF THE VfAR. 37 time be cruslied on short notice, might be pleasantly humored or wisely tolerated to any extent short of the actual com- mencement of hostilities. On the 9th day of January, 1861, the State of Mississippi seceded from the Union. Alabama and Florida followed on the 11th day of the same month ; Georgia on the 20th ; Louisiana on the 26th; and Texas on the 1st of February. Thus, in less than three months after the announcement of Lincoln's election, all the Cotton States, with the exception of Alabama, had seceded from the Union, and had, besides, secured every Federal fart within their limits, except the forts in Charles- ton harbor, and Fort Pickens, below Pensacola, which were retained by United States troops. The United States Congress had, at the beginning of its ses- sion in December, ISOO, appointed committees in both houses to consider the state of the Union. Neither committee was able to agree upon any mode of settlement of the pending issue between the Korth and the South. The Republican members in both committees rejected propositions acknowledging the right of property in slaves, or recommending the division of the territories between the slaveholding and non-slaveholding States by a geographical line. In the Senate, the propositions, commonly known as Mr. Crittenden's, were voted against by every Bepuhlican senator ; and the House, on a vote of yeas and nays, refused to consider certain propositions, moved by Mr. Etheridge, which were even less favorable to the South than Mr. Crittenden's. A resolution, giving a pledge to sustain the President in the use of force against seceding States, was adopted in the House of Representatives by a large majority; and, in the Senate, every Republican voted to substitute for Mr. Crittenden's propositions, resolutions oflfered by Mr. Clarke, of New Hamp ■ shire, declaring that no new concessions, guaranties, or amend- ments to the Constitution were necessary; that the demands of the South were unreasonable, and that the remedy for the present dangers was simply to enforce the laws — in other words — coercion and war. On the 19th day of January, the Legislature of the State of Virginia had passed resolutions having in view a peaceful eett ement of the questions which threatened the Union, and 38 THE FIEST YEAK OF THE WAR. suggestiug tliat a National Peace Conference should be held in Washington on the 4th of February , This suggestion met with a favorable response from the Border Shive States and from professed conservatives in the North. The Conference met on the day designated, and Ex-President Tyler, of Virginia, waa called to preside over its deliberations. It remained in session several days, and adjourned without agreeing upon any satis- factory plan of adjustment. Most of the delegates from the Border Slave States indicated a willingness to accept the few and feeble guaranties contained in the resolutions offered, a short time before, in the Senate by Mr. Crittenden. These guaranties, paltry and ineffectual as they were, would not be conceded by the representatives of the Northern States. The Peace Conference finally adopted what was called the Franklin Substitute in lieu of the propo- sitions offered by Mr. Guthrie, of Kentucky — a settlement less favorable to the South than that proposed by Mr. Crittenden. It is useless to recount the details of these measures. Neither the Crittenden propositions, the Franklin Substitute, nor any plan that pretended to look for the guaranty of Southern rights, received a respectful notice from the Republican ma- jority in Congress. Shortly after its assemblage in January, the Virginia Legis- lature had called a Convention of the people to decide upon the course proper to be pursued by the State, with reference to her present relations to the Union and the future exigencies of her situation. The election was held on the 4th of February, and resulted in the choice of a majority of members opposed to unconditional secession. Subsequently, Tennessee and North Carolina decided against calling a Convention — the former by a large, the latter by a very small majority. These events greatly encouraged the enemies of the South, but without cause, as they really indicated nothing more than the purpose of the Border Slave States to await the results of the peace propositions, to which they had committed themselves. In the mean time, the seceding States were erecting the structure of a government on the foundation of a new Con- federation of States. A convention of delegates from the six seceding States assembled in Congress at Montgomery, Ala- bama, on the 4th of February, 1861, for the purpose of organ- TIIK FIRST YKAn OF THK WAK. 3? Lzing a provisional govcrmnciit. Tliis bod}^ adopted a Consti- tution for tlie Confederate States on the Stli of February. On the Dth of February, Congress proceeded to the election of a President and Vice-President, and unanimously agreed upon Jefferson Davis, of ]\rississippi, for President, and Alexander II. Stephens, of Georgia, for Vice-President. Mr. Davis "was inaugurated Provisional President on the 18th of February, and delivered an address, explaining the revolution as a change of the constituent parts, but not tlie system, of the government, and referring to the not unreasonable expectation that, with a Constitution diifering only from that of their fathers, in so far as it wns explanatory of their well-known intent, freed from sectional conflicts, the States from which they had recently parted might seek to unite their fortunes to those of the new Confederacy. President Buchanan had, in his message to Congress, de- nounced Secession as revolutionary, but had hesitated at the logical conclusion of the right of " coercion," on the j^art of the Federal Government, as not warranted by the text of the Constitution. Timid, secretive, cold, and with no other policy than that of selfish expediency, the remnant of his administra- tion was marked by embarrassment, double-dealing, and weak a and contemptible querulousness. He had not hesitated, under the pressure of Northern clamor, to refuse to .)rder Major Anderson back to Fort Moultrie, thus violating the pledge that he had given to the South Carolina authorities, that the military status of the United States in Charleston harbor should not be disturbed during his adnjinistration. He added to the infamy of this perfidy by a covert attempt to reinforce Fort Sumter, under the specious plea of provisioning a "starv- ing garrison ;" and when the Federal steamship, the Star of the West, which was sent on this mission, was, on the 9th of January, driven off Charleston harbor by the South Carolina batteries on Morris Island, he had the hardihood to afiect surprise and indignation at the reception given the Federal reinforcements, and to insist that the expedition had been ordered with the concurrence of his Cabinet, including Mr. Thompson, of Mississippi, then Secretary of tlie Interior, who repelled the slander, denounced the movement as underlianded, and as a breach not only of good faith towards South Carolina. 40 THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. but of personal confidence between the President and Ms ad risers, and left the Cabinet in disgust. On the incoming of the administration of Abraham Lincoln, on the 4th of March, the rival government of the South had perfected its organization ; the separation had been widened and envenomed by the ambidexterity and perlid}^ of President Buchanan; the Southern people, however, still hoped for a peaceful accomplishment of their independence, and deplored war between the two sections, as " a poHcy detrimental to the civilized world." The revolution in the mean time had rapidly gathered, not only in moral power, but in the means of war and the muniments of defence. Fort Moultrie and Castle Pinckney had been captured by the South Carolina troops ; Fort Pulaski, the defence of the Savannah, had been taken ; the arsenal at Mount Yernon, Alabama, with 20,000 stand of arms, had been seized by the Alabama troops ; Fort Morgan, in Mobile Bay, had been taken ; Forts Jackson, St. Philip, and Pike, near New Orleans, had been captured by the Louis- iana troops; the Pensacola Navy- Yard and Forts Barrancas and McRae had been taken, and the siege of Fort Pickens commenced ; the Baton Pouge Arsenal had been surrendered to the Louisiana troops ; the New Orleans Mint and Custom- House had been taken ; the Little Rock Arsenal had been seized by th Arkansas troops ; and, on the 16th of February, General Twiggs had transferred the public property in Texas to the State authorities. All of these events had been accom- plished without bloodshed. Abolitionism and Fanaticism had not yet lapped blood. But reflecting men saw that the peace was deceitful and temporizing ; that the temper of the North was impatient and dark ; and that, if all history was not a lie, the first incident of bloodshed would be the prelude to a war of monstrous proportions. THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 41 CHAPTER n. Mr. Lincoln's Journey to Wai^liinsfton. — Ceremonies of the Inauguration. — Tiie In- Bugnrnl Speecli of President Lincoln.— The Spirit of the New Adininistnition. — Its Fi- tiiint'iiil Condition. — Eiubiisjiy from the Soutliern Confederacy, — Perfidious Treatment of the Southern Commissioners.— Preparations for War. — The Military Bills of the Confederate Congress. — General Beauretrard. — Fortifications of Charleston Harbor. — Naval Preparations of the Federal Government. — Attempted Reinforcement of Fort Sumter. — I'crrtdy of the Federal Govermnent. — Excitement in Charleston. — Keduction of Fort Sumter by the Confederate Forces.- IIow the News was received in Wash- ington. — Lincoln's Calculation. — His Proclamation of War. — The "Reaction" in the North. — Displays of Rancor towards the South. — Northern Democrats. — Replies of Southern Governors to Lincoln's Requisition for Troops.— Spirit of the South. — Seces- sion of Virginia. — Maryland. — The Baltimore Riot. — Patriotic E.xainple of Missouri. — Lincoln's Proclnmation blockading the Southern Porta. — General Lee. — The Federals evacuate Harper's Ferry. — Burning of the Navy Yard at Norfolk. — The Second Seces- sionary Movement. — Spirit of Patriotic Devotion in the South. — Supply of Arms in tlitt South. — The Federal Government and the State of Maryland. — The Prospect. The circumstances of the advent of Mr. Lincoln to Wash- ington were not calculated to inspire confidence in his courage or wisdom, or in the results of his administration. His party had busily prophesied, and sought to inuoculate the North witli the conviction, that his assumption of the Presidential office would be the signal of the restoration of peace ; that by some mysterious ingenuity he would resolve the existing political complication, restore the Union, and inaugurate a season of unexampled peace, harmony, and prosperity. These weak and fulsome prophecies had a certain etiect. In tlie midst of anx- iety and embarrassment, in which no relief had yet been suggested, the inauguration of a new administration of the government was looked to by many persons in the North, out- side the Kcpublican party, with a vague sense of hope, which was animated by reports, quite as uncertain, of the vigor, decision, and individuality of the new President. For months since tlie announcement of his election, Mr. Lincoln's lips had been closed. He had been studiously silent; expectations were raised by what was thought to be an indication of a mysteri- ous wisdom ; and the North impatiently waited for the hour when the oracle's lips were to be opened. These vague expectations were almost ludicrously disaj> pointed. On leaving his home, in Springfield, Illinois, for i2 THE FIUST TEAE OF THE WAE. "WashiDgton, Mr. Lincoln had at last opened liis lips. In tlie speeches with which he entertained the crowd that at different points of the railroad watched his progress to the capital, he amused the whole country, even in the midst of a great public anxiety, with his ignorance, his vulgaritj', his flippant conceit,. and his Western phraseology. The North discovered that the new President, instead of having nursed a masterly wisdom in the retirement of his home at Springfield, and approaching the capital with dignity, had nothing better to offer to an agonized country than the ignorant conceits of a low Western politician, and the flimsy jests of a harlequin. His railroad speeches were characterized by a Southern paper as illustrating " the delightful combination of a "Western county lawyer with a Fankee bar-keeper." In his harangues to the crowds which intercepted him in his journey, at a time when the country was in revolutionary chaos, when commerce and trade were pros- trated, ar.d when starving women and idle men were among the Tery audiences that listened to him, he declared to them in his peculiar phraseology that " nobody was hurt^'' that " all would come oat riglit^'' and that there was '■'■nothing going wrong?"^ Nor was the rhetoric of the new President his only entertain- ment of the crowds that assembled to honor the progress of his journey to Washington. He amused them by the spectacle of kissing, on a public platform, a lady-admirer, who had sug- gested to him the cultivation of his whiskers ; he measured heights with every tall man he encountered in one of his public receptions, and declared that he was not to be " overtopped ;" and he made public exhibitions of his wife — " the little woman," he called her — whose chubby figure, motherly face, and fond- ness for finery and colors recommended her to a very limited and very vulgar portion of the society of her sex. These jests and indecencies of the demagogue who was to take control of what remained of the Government of the United States, belong to history. Whatever their disgrace, it was surpassed, however, by another display of character on the part of the coming statesman. While at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and intending to proceed from there to Baltimore, Mr. Lincoln was alarmed by a report, which was either silly or jocose, that a band of assassins were awaiting him in the latter city. Frightened beyond all considerations of dignity and decency, THE FinST YEAR OF THE WAR. 4.^ tlie new President of tlie United States left Ilarrislturg at niglit, on a different route than that through Baltimore ; and in a motley disguise, composed of a Scotch cap and military cloak, stole to the capital of his governmenr. The- distinguished fugitive had left his wife and family to pur.-ue the route on which it was threatened that the cars were to be thrown down a precipice by Secessionists, or, if that expedient failed, the work of assat^sination was to be accomplished in tlie streets of Baltimore. The city of Washington was taken by surprise by the irregular flight of the President to its shelter and protec- tion. The representatives of his own party there received liim with evident signs of disgust at the cowardice which had hur- ried his arrival in Washington ; but as an example of the early prostitution of the press of that parasitical city to the incom- ing administration that was to feed its venal lusts, the escapade of Mr. Lincoln was, with a shamelessness almost incredj,ble, exploited as an ingenious and brilliant feat, and entitled, in the newspaper extras that announced his arrival, as ''''another Fort Moultrie coup de maiu^'' — referring to the fraud by which the government had stolen a march by midnight to tlie supposed impregnable defences of Fort Sumter. But Mr. Lincoln's fears for his personal safety evidently did not subside with his attainment of the refuges of Washington. A story was published seriously in a New York paper, that at the moment of his inauguration he was to be shot on the Cap- itol steps, by an air-gun, in the hands of a Secessionist selected for this desperate and romantic task of assassination. The President, with nerves already shattered by his flight from flarrisburg, was easily put in a new condition of alarm. An armed guard was posted around Willard's hotel, where he had taken temporary quarters. Preparations were busily made to organize a military protection for the ceremony of the inaugu- ration. The city of Washington had already been invested with large military forces', under the immediate command ot General Scott, whose vanity and weak love of public sensations bad easily induced him to pretend alarm, and to make a mili- tary display, more on his own account than for the ridiculous and alisurd object of Mr. Lincoln's personal secui-ity. For weeks the usually quiet city had been fllled with Federal bayonets ; the bugle's reveille, the roll of drums, and the tramp 1:4: THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAK of armed guards startled, in every direction, the civilian ttf Washington, who had been accustomed to notliing more war- like than parades at the Nav}- Yard and rows in Congress; companies of Hying artillery daily paraded the streets and thundered over its pavements; and no form of ostentation was omitted by the senile and conceited general in command, to give the Federal metropolis the appearance of a conquered citv. The hour of the inauguration — the morning of the fourth of March — at length arrived. Mr. Lincoln was dressed in a suit of black for the occasion, and, at the instance of his friends, had submitted to the offices of a hair-dresser. He entered the barouche that was to convey him to the Capitol, with a nervous agitation and an awkwardness, that were plainly evident to the crowd. His person attracted the curiosity of the mob. Of unusual height, the effect of his hgure was almost ludicrous, from a swinging gait and the stoop of his shoulders ; a cadav- erous face, whose expression was that of a sort of funereal hu- mor; long, swinging arms, with the general hirsute appearance of the Western countryman, made up the principal features of '.he new President. The inauguration ceremony was attended by a most extraor- ii^nary military display, under the immediate direction of Gen- eral Scott ; who, to give it an appearance of propriety, and to increase its importance, affected the most uneasy alarms. Pre- vious to inauguration day, the vaults of the Capitol were ex- plored for evidences of a gunpowder plot to hurry Mr. Lincoln and his satellites into eternity. In the procession along Penn- sylvania Avenue, the President was hid from public view in a hollow square of cavalry, three or four deep. The tops of the houses along the route were occupied by soldiery watching for signs of tumult or a,ssa8sination. Artillery and infantry com- panies M'ere posted in diffoj-ent parts of the city ; officers were continually passing to and tro ; and as the procession ap- proached the Capitol, Gen. Scott, who \vas in constant commu- nication with all quarters of the city, was heard to exclaim, in a tone of relief, "every thing is going on peaceably; thank God Almighty for it." The expression of relief was simply ridiculous. The ceremony was disturbed by but a single inci- dent: as the procession neared the portico of the Capitol^ a THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAK. 4-5 drunken man, wlio liad climbed up one of the trees on tlie avenue, amused himself by striking with a staff the boughs of tlie tree and shouting to the crowd. The thought flashed upon the minds of the special police, that he might be the identical assassin with the air-gun ; he was instantly seized by a dozen of them, and hurried from the scene of the ceremony with a rapidity and decision that for a moment alarmed, and then amused, the crowd. Mr. Lincoln delivered his inaugural from the East portico of die Capitol, to an audience huddled within the lines of the District militia, and with a row of bayonets irlitterinic at his feet. The inaugural was intended to be ambiguous; it proposed to cozen the South by a cheap sentimentalism, and, at the same time, to gratify the party that had elevated Mr. Lincoln, by a sufficient expression of the designs of the new administration. These designs were sufficiently apparent. Mr. Lincoln pro- tested that he should take care that the laws of the United States were faithfully executed in all the States ; he declared that in doing this, there was no necessity for bloodshed or vio- lence, '■''imless it was forced upon the national authority." He promised that the power confided to him would be used to ^-^ hold, occupy, and possess the forts and places belonging to the government, "but," continued the ambidexterous speaker, " heyond what may he necessary for these objects, there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among any people anywhere." In the South, the inaugural was generally taken as a premo- nition of war. There were other manifestations of the spirit of the new administration. Yiolent Abolitionists and men whose hatred of the South was notorious and unrelenting, were placed in every department of the public service. William H. Seward was made Secretary of State ; Salmon P. Chase, Sec- retary of the Treasury; and Montgomery Blair, Postmaster- general. Anson Burlingame was sent as representative to Austria ; Cassius M. Clay, to Russia ; Carl Shurz, to Spain ; James E. Harvey, to Portugal ; Charles F. Adams, to Eng- land ; and Joshua R. Giddiugs, to Canada. In the Senate, which was convened in an extra session to confirm executive appointments and to transact other public business, Charlea Sumner was appointed Chairman of Foreign Relations ; Wil 46 THE FIEST YEAR OF THE WAR. liani P. Fessenden, of Finance ; and Henry Wilson, of Mili- tary Aflairs. A portion of tlie time of this extra session waa consinned in discussing the policy of the administration. Mr. Douo-las, who had represented the Northern Democracy in the Presidential contest, and still claimed to represent it, and who had already coi'jrted the new administration of his rival — had held Mr. Lincoln's hat at the inauguration ceremony, and en- acted the part of Mrs. Lincoln's cavalier at the inauguration ball — essayed to give to the President's inaugural a peace in- terpretation, and to soften what had been foreshadowed of his policy. The efforts of the demagogue were ill-timed and paltry. Senators from Delaware, Maryland, Yirginia, Ken- tucky, Arkansas, Missouri, and North Carolina, who still con- tinned in the councils of the government, remained long enough to witness the subversion of all the principles that had before contributed to the prosperity and stability of the American Government ; to learn, as far as possible, the course the gov- ernment would pursue towards the Confederate States ; and to return home to prepare their people for the policy of discord, eonilict, and civil war which had been inaugurated. The financial condition of the government at the time of Mr. Lincoln's accession was by no means desperate. There w^as a balance in the Treasury of six millions, applicable to current expenses ; the receipts from customs were estimated at eighty thousand dollars per day ; and it was thought that a loan would not be called for for some time, should there be a happy continuation of peace. The Confederate States government at Montgomery had shown nothing of a desperate or tumultuous spirit ; it had not watched events with recklessness as to their conclusion ; it was anxious for peace ; and it gave a rare evidence of the virtue and conservatism of a new government, which was historically the fruit of a revolution, by the most sedulous efforts to avoid all temptations to violence, and to resist the consequence of war. Soon after the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, it had de- puted an embassy of commissioners to Washington, authorized to negotiate for the removal of the Federal garrisons frouf Forts Pickens and Sumter, and to i:H"ovide for the settlement of all claims of public property arising out of the separation ol the States from the Union. Two of the commissioners, Martin THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 47 Crawford, of Georgia, and John Forsytlie, of Alabama, at- tended in Washington, and addressed a communication to Mr. Seward, whicli explained the functions of the embassy and its purjioses. Mr. Seward declined for the present to return an official answer to the commissioners, or to recognize in an official light their humane and amicable mission. His frovcrnment had re- solved on a policy of perfidy. The commissioners were amused from week to week with verbal assurances that the government was disposed to recognize them ; tliat to treat with them at tlie particuLar juncture might seriously embarrass the administra- tion of Mr. Lincoln; tliat they should be patient and confident; and that in the mean time the niilitary status of the United States in the South would not be disturbed. Judge Campbell, of the Supreme Court, had consented to be the intermediary of these verbal conferences. When the sequel of the perfidy of the administration was demonstrated, lie wrote two notes to Mr. Seward, distinctly charging him with overreaching and equivocation, to which Mr. Seward never attempted a defence or a reply. The dalliance with the commissioners was not the only de- ceitful indication of peace. It was given out and confidently reported in the newspapers, that Fort Sumter was to be evacu- ated by the Federal forces. The delusion was continued for weeks. The Black Republican party, of course, resented this reported policy of the government; but a number of their newspapers endeavored to compose the resentment by the arguments that the evacuation would be ordered solely on the ground of military necessity, as it would be impossible to rein- force the garrison without a very extensive demonstration of force, which the government was not then prepared to make ; that the purposes of the administration had not relaxed, and that the evacuation of Sumter was, as one of the organs of the administration expressed it, but " the ci-ouch of the tiger be- fore he leaped." It was true that the condition of the garrison of Fort Sumter had been a subject of Cabinet consultation ; but it was after- wards discovered that all that had been decided by the advisers of the President, among whom General Scott had been admit- ted, was that military reinforcement of the fort was, under the 48 THE FIKST YE.\E OF THE WAR. circumstances, impracticable. There never was an intention to evacuate it. The embarrassment of the government was, to avoid the difficulty of military reinforcements by some artifice that would equally well answer its purposes. That artifice continued for a considerable time to be the subject of secret and sedulous consultation. While a portion of the public were entertained in watching the surface of events, and were imposed upon by deceitful signs of peace, discerning men saw the inevitable consequence in .the significant preparations made on both sides for war. These preparations had gone on unremittingly since the inau- guration of the Lincoln government. The troojDS of the United States were called from the frontiers to the military centres ; the Mediterranean squadron and other naval forces were or- dered home ; and the city of Washington itself was converted into a school where there were daily and ostentatious instruc- tions of the soldier. On the other hand, the government at Montgomery was not idle. Three military bills had been passed by the Confederate Congress. The first authorized the raising of one hundred thousand volunteers when deemed necessary by the President; the second provided for the Provisional Army of the Confederate States, which was to be formed from the regular and volunteer forces of the diflferent States ; and the third provided for the organization of a Pegular Army, which was to be a permanent establishment. But among the strong- est indications of the probability of war, in the estimation of men calculated to judge of the matter, and among the most striking proofs, too, of devotion to the cause of the South, was the number of resignations from the Federal army and navy on the part of officers of Southern birth or association, and their prompt identification with the Confederate service. These resignations had commenced during the close of Mr. Buchan- an's administration. On the accession of Mr. Lincoln, Adjutant- general Cooper had immediately resigned ; and the distinguish- ed example was followed by an array of names, which had been not a little illustrious in the annals of the Federal service. While the South was entreating peace, and pursuing ita accomplishment by an amicable mission to Washington, a strong outside pressure was being exerted upon the adminis- tration of Mr. Lincoln to hurry it to the conclusion of war. THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. i9 He had been visited by a number of governors of the Xorth- crii States. Tliey offered him money and men ; but it was understood that nothing would be done in tlie way of calling out the State militia and opening special credits, until the Soutlieru revolutionists should be actually in aggression to the authority of the Fedei'al government. Another appeal was still more effectively urged. It was the argument of the par- tisan. The report of the intended evacuation of Fort Sumter, and the apparent vacillation of the administration, were pro- ducing disaffection in the Black Republican party. This party had shown a considerable loss of strength in the municipal elections in St. Louis, Cincinnati, and other parts of the West ; they had lost two congressmen in Connecticut and two in llhode Island. The low tariff, too, of the Southern Confederacy, brought into competition with the high protective tariff which the Black Republican majority in Congress had adopted, and which was popularly known as "the Morrill Tariff," was threatening serious disaster to the interests of New England and Pennsylvania, and was indicating the necessity of the repeal of a law which was considered as an indispensable party measure by the most of Mr. Lincoln's constituents. For weeks the Cabinet of Mr. Lincoln had been taxed to devise some artifice for the relief of Fort Sumter, short of open military reinforcements (decided to be impracticable), and which would have the effect of inaugurating the war by a safe indirection and under a plausible and convenient pretence. The device was at length hit upon. It was accomplished by the most flagrant perfidy. Mr. Seward had already given assurances to the Southern commissioners, through the inter- mediation of Judge Campbell, that the Federal troops would be removed from Fort Sumter. Referring to the draft of a letter which Judge Campl)ell had in his hand, and proposed to address to President Davis, at Montgomery, he said, " before that letter reaches its destination. Fort Sumter will have been evacuated." Some time elapsed, and there was reason to dis trust the promise. Colonel Lamon, an agent of the Washington government, was sent to Charleston, and was reported to be authorized to make arrangements with Governor Pickens, of South Carolina, for the withdrawal of the Federal troops from Foft Sumter. He returned without any accomplishment ol ^ \ 50 THE FIRST TEAR OF TFIE TTAE. his reported mission. Another confidential agent of Mr. Lin cohi, a Mr. Fox, was permitted to visit Fort Sumter, and was discoveied to have acted the part of a spy in canying concealed dispatches to Major Anderson, and collecting information with reference to a plan for tlie forcible reinforcement of the fort. On the Tth of April, Judge Campbell, uneasy as to the good faith of Mr. Seward's promise of the evacuation of Sumter, addressed him another note on the subject. To this the emphatic and laconic reply was: '■''Faith as to Sumter fully I'ejyt — vKiit and z^^^r^^t:y J 'r^Z>' THE FIRST TEAK OF THE WAR. 51 On taking command of the Confederate forces at Charleston, General Beauregard at once gave the benefit of his eminent skill as a military engineer, which merit had been recognized in him before, and had procured his elevation to the importan ' and critical command in front of Fort Sumter, to the con- struction of works for the reduction of the fort, and the de- fence of the entrances to the harbor. At the time of Major Anderson's removal to Sumter, the approaches to the harbor were only defended by the uninjured guns at Fort Moultrie, and three 24-pounder guns mounted en harbette on a hastily constructed and imperfect earthwork on Morris' Island. The injured guns were replaced, and all, amounting to thirty-eight in number, of various calibres, were protected by well-con- structed merlons; lines of batteries were constructed on the east and west on Sullivan's Island ; at Cummings' Point on Morris' Island, the nearest land to Fort Sumter, batteries of mortars and columbiads were erected, protected by an iron fortification of novel and formidable construction ; and another novelty in iron fortifications was perfected by the skilful and practical genius of the commander in a floating battery, con- structed of the peculiarly fibrous palmetto timber, sheathed, with plate iron, and embrasured for and mounting four guns of heavy calibre. Notwithstanding the extent and skill of the besiegers' works. Fort Sumter was declared, b}" a number of military critics, to be impregnable. It certainly had that appearance to the un- scientific eye. The fortification, a modern truncated pentag- onal fort, rose abruptly out of the water at the mouth of Charleston harbor, three and a half miles from the city. It was built on an artificial island, having for its base a sand and mud bank, which had been made secure by long and weary labors in firmly imbedding in it refuse blocks and chips from the granite quarries of the Northern States. The foundation alone had cost the government half a million of dollars, and liad occupied ten years in its coiistruction. At the time of Major Anderson's occupation of the fortification, it was so nearly completed as to admit the introduction of its armament. The walls were of solid brick and concrete masonry, sixty feet high and from eight to twelve feet in thickness, and pierced for three tiers of guns on the northern, eastern, and western 52 THE FIRST YEAK OF THE WAK. extmor sides, Tliey were built close to the edge of the water and without a bcrme. Tlie advantages of delay which the Lincoln government had btained by the pretence of the evacuation of Sumter, and tlie adroitness of Mr. Seward with the commissioners, had been profitably employed by it in naval and other preparations for its meditated blow on tlie Southern coasts. Unusual activity was perceptible in all the dock-yards, armories, and military depots throughout the North. The arsenals of Troy and Wa- tertown were constantly occupied, and the creaking of blocks, the clang of hammers, and the hum of midnight labor re- sounded through every manufactory of arms. Numerous large transports were em2:)loyed by the government for the con- veyance of soldiers and war material, and the signs of the times betokened that the administration was preparing for a long and bloody struggle. Within ten days from the first of April, over eleven thousand men were sent from Fort Hamil- ton and Governor's Island. The recruiting oflices in ISTew York were daily engaged in enrolling men for the Federal service On the 6th of April, the frigate Powdiatan was ready for sea, and, with her armament of ten heavy guns and four hundred men, prejoared as convoy to the transports Atlantic, Baltic, and Illinois. On the 8th, the Atlantic sailed with Barry's battery (four guns and ninety-one men), four hundred soldiers and a large store of supplies. The same morning the steam-cutter Harriet Lane, Captain J. Faunce, eight guns and one hundred men, sailed for Charleston harbor. Late at night, the trans- port Baltic, with twenty surf-boats, stores, and two hundred recruits from Governor's Island, and the transport Illinois, with five hundred cases of muskets, stores, three hundred sol- diers, and the steam-tug Freeborn, sailed from New York har- bor. On the whole, besides the Powhatan, eleven vessels were ordered to be got in readiness, with an aggregate force of 28-") guns and 2-iOO men. There was now not the slightest doubt that the first blow of the rival forqes would be struck at Sumter. The fleet dispatched to Charleston harbor con- sisted of thc'Sloop-of-war Pawnee, the sloop-of-war Powhatan, and the cutter Harriet Lane, with three steam transj)orts. No sooner was the hostile fleet of the Federal government safely on its way to the Southerr coasts, than the perfidy of THE FtKST YEAR OF THE WAR. 53 Abraham Lincoln and his advisers was openlj and shamelessly consummated. The mask was dropped. The Southern com missioners who had been so long cozened, were distinctly re Luffed ; and simultaneously with the appearance of the Fed- eral fleet in the offing of the Charleston harbor, an official message, on the 8th day of April, was conveyed to Governor Pickens, of South Carolina, by Lieutenant Talbot, an author- ized agent of the Lincoln government, announcing the deter- mination of that government to send provisions to Fort Sum- ter, " peaceably if they can, forcibly if they must." The mes- sage was telegraphed by General Beauregard to Montgomery, and the instructions of his government asked. lie was an- swered by a telegram from Mr. Walker, the Secretary of War, instructing him to demand the evacuation of the fort, and, if that was ruliiscd, to proceed to reduce it. The demand was made ; it was refused. Major Anderson replied that he re- gretted that his sense of honor and of his obligations to his government prevented his compliance with the demand. Nothing was left bat to accept the distinct challenge of the Lincoln government -to arms. The most intense excitement prevailed in Charleston. No sooner had the official message of Mr. Lincoln been received, than orders were issued to the entire military force of the city to proceed to their stations. Four regiments, of one thousand men each, were telegraphed for from the country. Ambu- lances for the wounded Avere prepared ; surgeons were ordered to their pctets, and every preparation made for a regular battle. Among the portentous signs, the community was thrown into a fever of excitement by the discharge of seven guns from the Capitol Square, the signal for the assembling of all the re- serves ten minutes afterwards. Hundreds of men left their beds, hurrying to and fro towards their respective locations. In the absence of sufficient armories, the corners of the streets, the public srpiares, and other convenient points formed places of meetinfi-. All nio-ht louir the roll of the drum and the steady traiyp of the military and the gallop of the cavalry, re- eounding through the city, betokened the progress of prepara- tion for the long-expected hostilities. Tlie Home Guard cor2:)3 of old gentlemen, who occupied the position of military ex- empts, rode through the city, arousing the soldiers and doing 64 Tire FIRST YICAR OF THE WAR. other duty required at the moment. Hundreds of the citizens were up all night. A terrible thunder-storm prevailed until a late hour, but in nowise intertered with the ardor of the Boldiers. On the 12th day of April, at half-past four o'clock in the morning, fire was opened upon Fort Sumter. The firing was deliberate, and was continued, without interruption, for twelve hours. The iron battery at Cumming's Point did the most effective service, perceptibly injuring the walls of the fortifica- tion, while the floating battery dismounted two of the parapet guns. The shell batteries were served ^vith skill and eflect, shells being thrown into the fort every twenty minutes. The fort had replied steadily during the day. About dark, its fire fell off, while ours was continued at intervals during the night. The contest had been watched during the day by excited and anxious citizens from every available point of observation in Charleston — the battery, the shipping in the harbor, and the steeples of churches — and, as night closed, the illuminations of the shells, as they coursed the air, added a strange sublimity to the scene to men who had never before witnessed the fiery splendors of a bombardment. The next morning, at seven o'clock, the fort resumed its fire, doing no damage of conse- quence. A short while thereafter, the fort was discovered to be on fire, and through the smoke and glare, its flag was dis- covered at half mast, as a signal of distress. The Federal fleet, which was off the bar, contrary to all expectations, re- mained quietly where it was ; they did not remove from their anchorage or fire a gun. In the mean time, the conflagration, which had seized upon the oflicers' quarters and barracks at the fort, continued ; it no longer responded to our fire, which was kept up with an anxious look-out for tokens of surrender ; its garrison, black and begrimed with smoke, were employed in efforts to extinguish the conflagration, and in some instances had to keep tli em selves lying upon their faces to avoid death from suffocation. During the height of the conflagration, a boat was dispatched by General Beauregard to Major Ander- son, with ofiers of assistance in extinguishing the fire. Beifore it could reach the fort, the long-expected flag of truce had been hoisted ; and the welcome event M^as instantly announced in every part of the city by the ringing of bells, the pealing THE FIRST YEAK OF THE WAK. 53 of cannon, the shouts of couriers dashing through the streets, and by every indication of general rejoicing. Major Ander-; Bon agreed to an unconditional surrender, as demanded of him : he received of liis enemy in return, the most distinguished marks of lenity and consideration : his sword was returned to him by General Beauregard ; himself and garrison allowed to take passage, at their convenience, for New York; and, on leaving the fort, he was permitted to salute his flag with fifty guns, the performance of which was attended with the melan- choly occurrence of mortal injuries to four of his men by tlie bursting of two cannon. There was no other life lost in the whole affair. Thus ended the bombardment of Sumter. It had continued ' during two days ; it was estimated that two thousand shots had been fired in all ; a frowning fortification had been reduced to a blackened mass of ruins ; and yet not a life had been lost, or a limb injured in the engagement. The news of the fall of Fort Sumter, when it was received in "Washington, did not disturb President Lincoln. He received it with remarkable calmness. The usual drawing-room enter- tainment at the White House was not intermitted on the even- ing of the day of the commencement of civil war. Tlie same evening the President turned to a Western Senator and asked, " Will your State sustain me with military power ?" He made no other comment on the news, which was agitating every part of the country to its foundation. The fact was that the President had long ago calculated the / result and the effect, on the country, of the hostile movements "^ which he had directed against the sovereignty of South Car- olina. He had procured the battle of Sumter ; he had no de- sire or hope to retain the fort : the circumstances of the battle and the non-participation of his fleet in it, were sufficient evi- dences, to every honest and reflecting mind, that it was not a contest for victory, and that " the sending provisions to a starving garrison" was an ingenious artifice to commence thu war that the Federal Government had fully resolved upon, under the specious but shallow appearance of that government being involved by the force of circumstances, rather than by its own volition, in the terrible consequence of civil war. On the 14th day of April, Mr. Lincoln published his proc 56 THE FIKST YEAR OF THE WAR. lamation of war. He acted to the last in a sinister L^pirit He had jiAst assured the commissioners from Virginia, who had been deputed to ascertain the purposes of his government, that lie would modify his inaugural only so far as to "perhaps cause the United States mails to be withdrawn" from the seceded States, The folloM'ing proclamation was the " modification'' of the inaugural : " Wliereas tlie laws of the United States- have been for some time past, and now are, opposed, and the execution thereof obstructed in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceeding, or by the powers vested in the Marshals by law — " Now,» therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, in virtue of the power in me vested by the Constitution and the laws, have thought fit to call forth, and hereby do call forth the militia of the several States of the Union, to the aggregate number of seventy-five thousand, in order to suppress said combinations, and to cause the laws to be duly executed. The details for this object will be immediately communicated to tlie State au- thorities through the War Department. " I appeal to all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate, and aid this effort to main- tain the honor, the integrity, and the existence of our National Union, and the perpetuity of popular government, and to redress wrongs already long enough endured. " I deem it proper to say that the first service assigned to the forces hereby called forth, will probably be to repossess the forts, places, and pro2:)erty which have been seized from the Union ; and in every event the utmost care will be observed, consistently with the objects aforesaid, to avoid any devastation and destruction of, or interference with property, or any disturbance of peaceful citizens in any part of the country. And I hereby command the persons com- posing the combinations aforesaid, to disperse and retire peaceably to their re- spective abodes within twenty days from this date. ********* "ABRAHAM LINCOLN." The trick of the government, to which we have referred, in its procurement of the battle of Sumter, is too dishonest and shallow to account for the immense reaction of sentiment in the North that ensued. That reaction is certainly to be attrib- uted to causes more intelligent and permanent than the weak fallacy that the Lincoln government was not responsible for the hostilities in Charleston harbor, and that the South itse f had dragged the government and peojjle of Abraham Lincoln unwillingly into the inauguration of war. The problem oi this reaction may be more justly soH^ed. Li fact, it involved THE riKST YEAR OF THE WAJS.. 67 no new fnct or pi-iiicijilc Tlie I^oi-thern people, including al' parties, secretly appreciated the value of the Union to then: selves ; thcj knew that they would be ruined b}' a permanent secession of the Southern States ; many of them liad souglit to bring the dissatisfied States back into the Union by tlie old resource of artful speeches and fine promises ; and finding, at Jast, that the South was in earnest, and was no longer to be seduced by cheap professions, tliey quickly and sharply deter- mined to coerce what tliey could not cozen. This is the whole explanation of the wonderful reaction. The- North discovered, by the fierj- deiioue7ncnf in Charleston harbor, that the South was in earnest, and itself became as instantly in earnest. The sudden display of Northern rancor was no reaction ; it was no new fact ; it revealed what was already historical, and had been concealed only for purposes of policy — the distinct and sharp antipathy betw^een the two sections, of which war or separation, at some time, was bound to be the logical conclu- sion. The crusade against the South involved all parties, and united every interest in the North by the common bond of at- tachment to tlie Union. That attachment had its own reasons. The idea of the restoration of the Union was conceived in no liistorical enthusiasm for restoring past glories; it was ani- mated by no patriotic desires contemplating the good of the whole countr}' ; the South was to be " whipped back into the Union," to gratify either the selfislmess of the North, or its worse lusts of revenge and fanaticism. The holiness of the crusade against tlie South was preached alike from the hustings and the pulpit. The Northern Democratic party, which had so long professed regard for the rights of the Southern States, and even sympathy M'ith the first movements of their secession, rivalled the Abolitionists in their expressions of fury and re- venge ; their leaders followed the tide of public opinion : Mr. Edward Everett, of IMassachusetts, who some months before had declared in a public speech that if the seceded States were " determined to separate, we had better part in peace," I ecame a rhetorical advocatQ of the war ; Daniel S. Dickinson, of New York, rivalled the Abolition leaders in his State in in- flaming the public mind ; aud in the city of Nev/ York, where but a few months before it had been said that the Southern 68 THE FmST YEAR OF TITE WAK. Confederacy would be able to recruit several regiments for its military service, demagogues in the ranks of the "National Democracy," such as John Cochrane, harangued the multi- tude, advising them to " crush the rebellion," and, if need be, to drown the whole So "urview of the Constitution or the act of 1795." The only Southern governor that signified any degree of submission to , the proclamation was the notorious Thomas Ilolladay Hicks, of Marjdand ; he gave verbal assurances to Mr. Lincoln that that State would supply her quota and give him military sup- port ; but, /at the same time, with an art and effrontery that only a demagogue could attain, he published a proclamation to the people of Maryland, assuring them of his neutrality,. and promising that an opportunity would be given them, in thg election of congressmen, to determine, of their own free wil\ whether they would sustain the old Union, or assist the South ern Confederacy. On the 17th day of April, the Yirginia Convention passed an ordinance of secession. It was an important era in the history of the times. It gave the eighth State to the Southern Confederacy. The position of Yirginia was a coujmanding one with the other Border States ; she started, by her act of secession, the second important movement of the revolution ; and she added to the moral influence of the event hy the fact, that she had not seceded on an issue of policy, but on on-e of distinct and practical constitutional right, and that too in the face of a war, which had become absolutely inevitable and was frowning upon her own borders. Yirginia had been chided for her delay in following the Cotton States out of the Union, and, on the other hand, when she did secede, she was charged by the ISTorthern politicians with being inconsistent and having kept bad faith in her rela- tions with the Federal government. Both complaints were equally' without foundation. The record of the State was singularly explicit and clear. THE FIRST YEAR OF THE AVAR. 61 T^ie Virginia Kesolutions of '98 and '99 had for sixty years constituted the text-book of the State Rights politicians of the South. Tlie doctrine of State sovereignty was therein vindi- cated and maintained, and the right and duty of States, suf- fering grievances from unjust and unconstitutional Federal legislation, to judge of the wrongs, as well as of " the mode and measure of redress," were made clear. The Yirginia plat- form, as thus laid down in the elder Adams' time, was adopted by the "Strict Constructionist" party of that day, and has been reasserted ever since. Mr. Jefferson, the founder of the Democratic party in this country, was elected upon this plat- form, and his State Eights successors all acknowledged its orthodoxy. Whenever there arose a conflict between Federal and State authority, the voice of Virginia was the first to be heard in behalf of State Rights. In 1832-33, when the Tariff and Nullification controversy arose, Virginia, though not agreeing with South Carolina as to the particular remedy to which she resorted, yet assured that gallant State of her sj-ra- pathy, and, at the same time, reasserted her old doctrines of State Rights. Her gallant and patriotic governor, John Floyd, the elder, declared that Federal troops should not pass the banks of the Potomac to coerce South Carolina into obedience to the tariff laws, unless over his dead body. Her Legislature was almost unanimously opposed to the coercion policy, and a majority of that body indicated their recognition of the right of a State to secede from the Union. The voice of Viririnia was potential in settling this controversy upon conditions to which the Palmetto State could agree with both honor and consistency. At every stage of the agitation of the slavery question in Congress and in the Northern States, Virginia declared her sentiments and her purposes in a manner not to be misunderstood by friend or foe. Again and again did she enter uj)on her legislative records, in ineffable characters, the declaration that she would resist 'the aggressive spirit of the Northern majority, even to the disruption of the ties that bound her to the Union. "With almost entire unanimity, Virginia had resolved in legislative council, in 1848, that she would not submit to the passage of the Wilmot proviso, or any kindred measure. From the date of the organization of the Anti-Slavery party, hei 62 TFIE FIRST TEAR OF THE M'AR. people, of all parties, had declared tliat tlie election of an Abolitionist to the Presidency would be a virtual declaration of war against the South on the part of the North, and that Virginia and every other Slave State ought to resist it as such. Tlie Legislature that assembled a few weeks after Lincoln'a election declared in effect, with only four dissenting voices, that the interests of Virginia were thoroughly identified with those of the other Southern States, and that any intimation, from any source, tliat her people were looking to any combi- nation in the last resort other than union M^ith them, was un- patriotic and treasonable. The sovereign Convention of Virginia, elected on the 4th of February, 1861, for a long time lingered in the hope that the breach that had taken place in the Union might be repaired by new constitutional guaranties. Nevertheless, that body, before it had yet determined to pass an ordinance of secession — while it was, in fact, hopeful that the Union would be saved through the returning sanity of the Northern people — adopted unanimously the following resolution : " The people of Virginia recognize the American principle, that government is founded in the consent of the governed, and the right of the people of the several States of this Union, for just cause, to withdraw from their associ- ation under the Federal government, with the people of the other States, and to erect new governments for their better security ; and they never will consent that the Federal power, which is, in part, their power, shall be exerted for the purpose of subjugating the people of such States to the Federal authority." The entire antecedents of Virginia were known to Mr. Lin- coln and his Cabinet. They knew that she was solemnly pledged, at whatever cost, to sej)arate from the Union in the very contingency they had brought about — namely, the at- tempt to subjugate her sister States of the South. They knew that the original " Union men," as well as the original Seces- sionists, were committed beyond the possibility of recantation to resistance to the death of any and every coei'cive measure of the Federal government. Nevertheless, Mr. Lincoln and his advisers had the temerity to make a call upon the State of Virginia to furnish her quota of seventy-five thousand men to subjugate the seceded States. They had but little right to be surprised at the course taken by the State, and still less to charge it with inconsistency or perfidy. THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR 63 It waa expected that Maryland might follow the lieroic course of Yirginia, and but two days after the secession of the latter State, there were indications in Maryland of a spii-it of emulation of the daring and adventurous deeds that had l)een enacted South of the Potomac. On the 19th of April the passage of Korthern volunteers, on their way to Washington, M'as intercepted and assailed by the citizens of Baltimore, and for more than two weeks the route througli that city was effect- ually closed to Mr. Lincoln's mercenaries. The Baltimore " riot," as it was called, was one of the most remarkable col- lisions of the times, A number of Massachusetts volunteers, passing through Baltimore in horse cars, found the track bar- ricaded near one of the docks by stones, sand, and old anchors thrown upon it, and were compelled to attempt the passage to the depot, at the other end of the city, on foot. They had not advanced fifteen paces after leaving the cars when the}^ found their passage blocked by a croAvd of excited citizens, who taunted them as mercenaries, and flouted a Southern flag at the head of their column. Stones were thrown by a portion of the crowd, when the troops presented arms and fired. The crowd was converted into an infuriated mob ; the fire was re- turned from a number of revolvers ; the soldiers were attacked with sticks, stones, and every conceivable weapon, and in more than one instance their muskets were actually wrung from their hands by desperate and unarmed men. Unable to with- stand the gathering crowd, and bewildered by their mode of attack, the troops pressed along the street confused and stag- gei-ing, breaking into a run whenever there was an opportunity to do so, and turning at intervals to fire upon the citizens who pursued them. As they reached the depot they found a crowd already collected there and gathering from every point in the city. The other troops of the Massachusetts regiment wlio had preceded them in the horse cars had been pursued by the people along the route, and the soldiers did not hesitate to stretch tliemselves at full length on the floors of the cars, to avoid the missiles thrown through the windows. Tlie scene that ensued at the depot was terrific. Taunts, clothed in the most fearful language, were hurled at the troops by the panting crowd who, almost breathless witli running, pressed up to the windows, presenting knives and revolvers, and cursing up in Gi THE riKST TEAK OF THE WAK. the faces of tlie soldiers. A M'ild cry was raised on the plat form, and a dense crowd rushed out, spreading itself along the railroad track, until for a mile it was black with the excited, rushing mass. The crowd, as they went, filled the track with obstructions ; the police who, throughout the whole affair, had contended for order with the most devoted courage, followed in full run removing the obstructions ; as far as the eye could reach the track was crowded with the pursuers and pursued, a struggling and shouting mass of human beings. In the midst of the excitement the train moved off; and as it passed from the depot a dozen muskets were fired by the soldiers into the people that lined the track, the volley killing an estimable citizen who had been drawn to the spot only as a spectator. The results of the riot were serious enough : two of tlie soldiers were shot ; several of the citizens had been killed, and more than twenty vai-iously wounded. The excitement in Baltimore continued for weeks ; the bridges on the railroad to the Susquehanna were destroyed ; the regular route of travel broken up, and some twenty or twenty-five thousand Northern volunteers, on their way to Washington, detained at Havre de Grace, a portion of them only managing to reach their destination by the way of Annap- olis. On the night of the day of the riot, a mass-meeting was held in Monument Square, and w^as addressed by urgent ap- peals for the secession of Maryland, and speeches of defiance to the Lincoln government. Governor Hicks, alarmed by the display of public sentiment, affected to yield to it. He ad- dressed the crowd in person, condemning the coercive policy of the government, and ending with the fervid declaration, " I will suffer my right arm to be torn from my body before I will raise it to strike a sister State." The same man, in less than a month thereafter, when Maryland had fallen within the grasp of the Federal government, did not hesij:ate to make a call upon the people for four regiments of volunteers to assist that government in its then fully declared policy of a war of inva- sion and fell destruction upon the South. In the city of St. Louis there were collisions between tho citizens and soldiery as well as in Baltimore; but in Missouri the indications of sympathy with the South did not subside or allow themselves to be choked by spectral fears of the " crucial THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 65 experiment of secession" — tliej grew and strengthened in the fuce of all the Federal power conld do. The riots in Maryland and Missouri were, however, only inci dents in the history of the period in which they occurred. That history is occupied with far more important and general events, indicating the increased and rapid preparations. North and South, for war ; the collection of resources, and the policy and spirit in which the gathering contest was to he conducted. Mr. Lincoln had, on the 19th of April, published his proc- lamation, declaring the ports of the Southern Confederacy in a state of blockade, and denouncing any molestation of Federal vessels on the high seas as piracy. The Provisional Congresa at Montgomery had formerly recognized the existence of wai with the North, and letters of marque had been issued by the Confederate authority. The theatre of the war on land wag indicated in Virginia. General Lee, who had resigned a com- mission as colonel of cavalry in the old United States army, was put in command of all the Confederate States forces in Virginia. That State was the particular object of the rancor of the government at "Washington, which proceeded to inaugurate hostilities on her territory by two acts of ruthless vandalism. On the 19th day of April the Federals evacuated Harper's Feriy, after an attempt to destroy the buildings and machine- shops there, which only partially' succeeded — the armory build- ings being destroyed, but a train to blow up the machine- shop failed, and a large quantity of valuable machinery was uninjured. On the succeeding day, preparations were made for the destruction of the Navy Yard at Norfolk, while Federal reinforcements were thrown into Fortress Monroe. The work of vandalism was not as fully completed as the enemy had de- signed, the dry-dock, which alone cost several millions of dol- lars, being but little damaged ; but the destruction of property was immense, and attended by a terrible conflagration, which at one time threatened the city of Norfolk. All the ships in the harbor, exce2:)ting the old frigate the [Jnited States, were set fire to and scuttled. They were the Pennsylvania, the Columbus and Delaware, the steam-frigate Merrimac (she was only partiall}' destroyed), the sloops Ger- mantown and Plymouth, the frigates Paritan and Columbia, 6(> THE FIRST TKAR OF THE WAR. and the brig Dolphin. The Gerraantown was lying at the wharf under a large pair of shears, which were thrown across her decks by cutting loose the guys. The ship was nearly cut in two and sunk at the wharf. About midnight an alarm was given that the Navy Yard was on fire. A sickly blaze, that Beemed neithei to diminish nor increase, continued fv several hours. Men were kept busy all night transferring every thing of value from the Pennsylvania and Navy Yard to the Pawnee and Cumberland, and both vessels were loaded to their lower ports. At length four o'clock came, and with it flood-tide. A rocket shot up from the Pawnee, and then, almost in an in- stant, the whole front of the Navy Yard seemed one vast sheet of flame. The next minute streaks of flame flashed along the rigging of tlic Pennsylvania and the other doomed ships, and soon they were conn)lotely wrapped in the devouring element. The har'.ior was now one blaze of light. The re- motest objects were distinctly visible. The surging flames leaped and roared with mad violence, making their hoarse wrath heard at the distance of several miles. The people of Hampton, even tho'^e who lived beyond, saw the red light, and thought all Norfv)lk was on fire. It was certainly a grand though terrible spectacle to witness. In the midst of the brilliance of the scene, the Pawnee with the Cumberland in tow, stole like a guilty thing through the harbor, fleeing from the destruction they had been sent to accomplish. The Lincoln government had reason to be exasperated to- wards Virginia. The second secessionary movement, com- menced by that State, added three other States to the Southern Confederacy. Tennessee seceded from the Union, the 6tli of May; on the 18th day of May, the State of Arkansas was formally admitted into the Southern Confederacy ; and on the 21st of the same month, the sovereign Convention of North Carolina, without delay, and by a unanimous vote, passed an ordinance of secession. The spirit of the rival governments gave indications to dis- cerning minds of a civil war of gigantic proportions, infinite consequences, and indefinite duration. In every portion of the South, the most patriotic devotion was exhibited. Transporta- tion companies freely tendered the use of their lines for trans- portation ajid supplies. Tlie presidents of the Southern rail THE FIRST YEAK OF THE WAK. 67 roads consented not only to reduce tlieir rates for mail ser- vice and conveyance for troops and munitions of war, but vol- untarily proffered to take tlieir compensation in bonds of the Confederacy, for the purpose of leaving all the resources oi the government at its disposal for the common defence. Un- der the act of the Provisional Congress authorizing a loan, pro- posals issued for the subscription of five millions of dollars were answered by the prompt subscription of more than eight millions by its own citizens ; and not a bid was made under par. Requisitions for troops were met with such alacrity that the number in every instance, tendering their services, ex- ceeded the demand. Under the bill for public defence, one hundred thousand volunteers wxre authorized to be accepted by the Confederate States government for a twelve months' term of service. The gravity of age and the zeal of youth ri- valled each other to be foremost in the public service ; every village bristled with bayonets ; large forces were put in the field at Charleston, Pensacola, Forts Morgan, Jackson, St. Philip, and Pulaski ; while formidable numbers from all parts of the Confederacy were gathered in Virginia, on what was now becoming the immediate theatre of the war. On the 20th day of Ma}^, the seat of government was removed from Mont- gomery, Alabama, to Richmond, Yirginia, and President Davis was welcomed in the latter city with a burst of genuine joy and enthusiasm, to which none of the military pageants of the Xorth could furnish a parallel. It had been supposed that the Southern people, poor in man- ufactures as they were, and in the haste of preparation for the mighty contest that was to ensue, would find themselves but illy provided with arms to contend with an enemy rich in the means and munitions of war. This disadvantage had been provided against by the timely act of one man. Mr. Floyd, of Yirginia, when Secretary of War under Mr. Buchanan's administration, had by a single order effected the transfer of 115,000 imjn-oved muskets and rifles from the Springfield ar- mory and Watervliet arsenal to different arsenals at the South. Adding to these the number of arms distributed by the Fed- eral government to the States in preceding years of our histor}^, and tliose purchased by the States and citizens, it was safely estimated that the South entered uj^on the war with one hun 68 THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAK. dred and fifty thousand small-arms of the most approved modern pattern and the best in the world. The government at Washington rapidly collected in that city a vast and motley army. Baltimore had been subdued ; the route through it was restored ; and such were the facilities of Northern transportation, that it was estimated that not less than four or five thousand volunteers were transported through the former Thermopylas of Baltimore in a single day. The first evidences of the despotic purposes of the Lincoln govern- ment were exhibited in Maryland, and the characteristics of the war that it had commenced on the South were first dis- played in the crushing weight of tyranny and oppression it laid upon a State which submitted before it was conquered. The Legislature of Maryland did nothing practical. It was unable to arm the State, and it made no attempt to improve the spirit of the people, or to make preparations for any future opportunity of action. It assented to the attitude of submis- sion indefinitely. It passed resolutions protesting against the military occupation of the State by the Federal government, and indicating sympath}^ with the South, but concluding with the declaration : " under existing circumstances, it is inexpe- dient to call a sovereign Convention of the State at this time, or take any measures for the immediate organization or arming of the militia." The government of Abraham Lincoln was not a government to spare submission or to be moved to magna- nimity by the helplessness of a supposed enemy. The submis- sion of Maryland was the signal for its persecution. By tlie middle of May, her territory was occupied by thirty tliousand Federal troops ; her quota of troops to the war was demanded at Washington, and was urged by a requisition of her obsequi ous governor ; the city of Baltimore was invested by General Butler of Massachusetts, houses and stores searched for con- cealed arms, and the liberties of the people violated, with eveiy possible iuklition of mortification and insult. In a few weeks the rapid and aggravated progression of acts of despotism on the part of the Lincoln government reached its height in Maryland. The authority of the mayor and po- lice board of the city of Baltimore was superseded, and their persons seized and imprisoned in a military fortress; the writ of habeas corpus was suspended by the single and uncoustitu- THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 69 tlonal autlioritj of the President; the housca oi suspected citizens were searched, and they themselves arrested by mill tarj force, in jurisdictions where the Federal courts were in uninterrupted operation ; blank warrants were issued for domi miliary visits; and the sanctity of private correspondence was violated by seizing the dispatches preserved for years in the telegraph offices of the North, and making them the subject of inquisition for the purpose of discovering and punishing as traitors men who had dared to reproach the Northern govern- ment for an unnatural war, or had not sympathized with its rancor and excesses. Such was the inauguration of " the strong government" of Abraham Lincoln in Maryland, and the repetition of its acts was threatened upon the " rebel" States of the South, with the addition that their cities were to be laid in ashes, tlieir soil sown with blood, the slaves freed and carried in battalions against their masters, and "the rebels" doomed, after tlieir subjection, to return home to find their wives and children in rags, and gaunt Famine sitting at their firesides. 70 THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. CHAPTER III. Confidence of ti;e North. — Cbaracteristic Boasts, — " Crushing: out the Rebellion." — Volunteering in the Northern Cities. — The New York " Invincibles," — Misrepresenta- tions of the Governnwint at Washington. — Mr. Seward's Letter to the French Govern- ment. — Another Call for Federal Volunteers. — Opening Movements of the Campaign. — The Federal Occupation of Alexandria. — Death of Col. Ellsworth. — Fortress Monroe. — The Battle of Bethel.— Results of this Battle. — Gen. Joseph E. Johnston. — The Upper Potomac. — Evacuation and Destruction of Harper's Ferry. — The Movements m the Upper Portion of the Valley of Virginia. — Northwestern Virginia. — The Battlb of Rich Mountain. — Carrock's Ford. — The Retreat of thfe Confederates. — General Mc- Clellan. — Meeting of the Federal Congress. — Mr. Lincoln's Message. — Kentucky. — Western Virginia. — Large Requisitions for Men and Money by the Federal Govern- ment. — Its Financial Condition. — Financial Measures of the Southern Confederacy. — Contrast between the Ideas of the Rival Governments. — Conservatism of the Southern Revolution. — Despotic E.vcesses of the Government at Washington. Nothing could exceed the boastful and unlimited expressions of confidence on the part of the Northern people, in the speedy •■' crushing out of the rebellion," and of contempt for the means and resources of the South to carry on any thing like a formid- able war. In the light of subsequent events, these expressions and vaunts give a grotesque illustration of the ideas with which the Northern people entered upon the war. The New York people derided the rebellion. The Trihiiiu declared that it was nothing " more or less than the natural recourse of all mean-spirited and defeated tyrannies to rule or ruin, making, of course, a wide distinction between the wilJ and power, for the hanging of traitors is sure to begin before one month is over." " The nations of Europe," it continued, ' may rest assured that Jeff. Davis & Co. will be swinging from the battlements at "Washington, at least, by the 4th of July. We spit upon a later and longer deferred justice." The New York Times gave its opinion in the following vigorous and confident spirit : " Let us make quick work. The ' rebellion,' as some people designate it, is an unborn tad- pole. Let us not fall into the delusion, noted by Hallam, of mistaking a 'local commotion' for a revolution. A strong active 'pull together' will do our work effectually in thirty days. We have onlv to send a column of 25,000 men across TIIK FIKST YKAIl OF THE -WAK. 71 the Potomac to IZielimond, and burn out the rats there ; anotlier cohimn of 25,000 to Cairo, seizing the cotton ports of the Mis- sissippi ; and retaining the remaining 25,000, inchided in Mr Lincohi's call for 75,000 men, at Washington, not because there is need for them there, but because we do not require theii services elsewhere." The Phihidelphia Press declared that "no man of sense could, for a moment, doubt that tliis much-ado-about-nothing would end in a month." Tlie Northern people were " simply invincible." "The rebels," it pi'ophesied, "a mere band of ragamufhns, will fly, like chaff before the wind, on our ap- proach." The West was as violent as the North or the East. In the States of Iowa and Wisconsin, among the infidel Dutch, no rein was drawn upon the wild fanaticism. In Illinois, too, there was a fever of morbid violence. The Chicago Tribune insisted on its demand that the West be allowed to fight the battle through, since she was probably tl>e most interested in the suppression of the rebellion and the free navigation of the Mississippi. "Let the East," demanded this valorous sheet, " get out of the way ; this is a war of the West. We can light the battle, and successfully, within two or three months at the furthest. Illinois can whip the South by herself. We insist on the matter being turned over to us." The Cincinnati Commercial^ in commenting upon the claims of the West, remarked that " the West ought to be made the vanguard of the war" — and proceeded: "We are akin, by trade and geography, with Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri, and in sentiment to the noble Union patriots who have a ma- jority of three to one in all these States. An Ohio army would be received with joy in Nashville, and welcomed in a speech of congratulation by Andrew Johnson. Crittenden and Frank Blair are keeping Kentucky and Missouri all right. The re- bellion will be crushed out before the assemblage of Congress — no doubt of it." Not a paper of influence in the North, at that time, had the remotest idea of the conflict; not a journalist who rose to the emergencies of the occasion — all was passion, rant, and bombast. In the Northern cities, going to the war for " tliree months," V2 THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. the term of the enlistment of volunteers, was looked upon almost as a holiday recreation. In New York and Philadel- phia, the recruiting offices were besieged by firemen, rowdies, and men fished from the purlieus of vice, and every sink of degradation. There appeared to be no serious realization of the war. If a man ventured the opinion that a hundred thousand Southern troops might be gathered in Yirginia, ho was laughed at, or answered with stories about the Adirondack sharpshooters and the New York " roughs." The newspapers declared that the most terrible and invincible army that ever enacted deeds of war might be gathered from the " roughs" of the Northern cities. Nothing could compete with their desperate courage, and nothing could withstand tlieir furious onslaught. A regiment of firemen and congenial spirits was raised in New York, and put under command of Colonel Ells- worth, of Chicago, a youth, who had some time ago exhibited through the country a company of young men drilled in the manual and exercises of the French Zouaves, who liad made himself a favorite with the ladies at the Astor House and Willard's Hotel, by his long hair, gymnastic grace, and red uniform, and who boasted of a great deal of political influence as the pet and ])^oiege of President Lincoln. To the standard of this young man, and also to that .of a notorious bully and marauder, by the name of Billy Wilson, flocked all the vagrant and unruly classes of the great and vicious metropolis of New York. The latter boasted, that when his regiment was moved oflP, it would be found that not a thief, highwayman, or pick- pocket would be left in the city. The people of New York and Washington were strangely enraptured with the spectacle of these terrible and ruthless crusaders, who were to strike terror to the hearts of the Southern people. Anecdotes of their rude and desperate disposition, their brutal speeches and their exploits of rowdyism, were told with glee and devoured with unnatural satisfaction. 1^ Washington, people were de- lighted by anecdotes that Ellsworth's Zouaves made a practice of knocking their oflicers down ; that their usual address to the sentinels was, "Say, fellow, I am agoin' to leave this ranch ;' that on rainy days they seized umbrellas from citizens on tli streets, and knocked them in the gutter if they remonstrated ; that, " in the most entire good humor," they levied contribu- THE FIllST YEAR OF THE "WAR. 73 tionE of boots, shoes, liquors, and cigars on tradesmen ; and tliat the "gallant little colonel," who controlled these nnrnlv spirits, habitually wore a bowic knife two feet long. Tlie^-o freaks and eccentricities were not only excusable, they weiu admirable: the untamed courage of the New York firemen and roM'dies, said the people, were to be so useful and con* spicuous in the war ; and the prophecy was, that these men, 60 troublesome and belligerent towards quiet citizens who came in contact with them, would be the first to win honorable laurels on the field of combat. "Billy Wilson's" regiment was held up for a long time in New York as an inimitable scarecrow to the South. The regiment was displayed on every occasion ; it was frequently marched up Broadway to pay visits to the principal hotels. On one of these occasions, it was related that Billy Wilson marched the companies into the hall and spacious bar-room of the hotel, and issued the order "Attention." Attention was paid, and the bystanders preserved silence. " Kneel down," shouted the colonel. The men dropped upon their knees. "You do solemnly swear to cut off the head of every d d Secessionist you meet during the war." " We swear," was the universal response. "The gallant souls," said a New York paper, " then returned in good order to their quarters." The newspaper extracts and incidents given above aftbrd no little illustration of the spirit in which the North entered upon the war, and, in this connection, belong to the faithful history of the times. That spirit was not only trivial and utterly beneath the dignity of the contest upon which the North was to enter ; it betrayed a fierceness and venom, the monstrous developments of M'hich were reserved for a period later in the progress of events. What was partly ignorance and partly affectation on the j'art of the Northern press and people, in their light estima- tion of the war, was wholly affectation on the part of the in- telligent and better informed authorities at Washington. The government liad a particular object in essaying to represent the Southern revolution as nothing more than a local mutiny. The necessity was plain for balking any thing like a European recognition of the Southern Confederacy, and Mr. Seward was prompt to raidc tlie rebellion as a local and disorganized insur- 74 THE FIRST tEAU OF THE WAR. rectlon, amounting to nothing more than a passing and inci- dental " change" in the history of tlie Union. At the time that all the resources of the government were put out to en- counter the gathering armies of the South, already within a few miles of the capital, Mr. Seward, in a letter of instrucfiona to Mr. Dayton, the recently appointed minister to France, dated the 4th of Ma}', urged him to assure that government of the fact that an idea of a permanent disruption of the Union was absurd ; that the continuance of the Union was certain, and that too as an object of ^'■affection!'''' He wrote: " The thought of a dissolution of this Union, peaceably or by force, has never entered into the mind of any candid states- man here, and it is high time that it be dismissed by the statesmen in Europe." The government at Washington evidently showed, by its preparations, that it was secretly conscious of the rcBources and determined purposes of the revolution. Another procla- mation for still further increasing his military forces had been made by Mr. Lincoln on the third of May. lie called for forty- odd thousand additional volunteers to enlist for the war, and eighteen thousand seamen, besides increasing the regular army by the addition of ten regiments. It is curious that these im- mense preparations should have attracted such little notice from the Northern public. The people and soldiers appeared to be alike hilarious and confident in the prospect of a " short, sharp, and decisive" war, that was to restore the Union, open the doors of the treasury, give promotion and fame to those desirous of gain in those particulars, and afford new opportu- nities to adventurers of all classes. The first and opening movements of the Northern campaign were decided to be a forward movement from the Potomac along the Orange and Alexandria and Central roads towards Richmond, while another invading army might be thrown into the ^ alley of Virginia from Pennsylvania and Maryland. The first step of the invasion of Virginia was the occupa- tion of Alexandria, which was accomplished on the 2J:th of May, by throwing some eight thousand Federal trooj)s across the Potomac, the Virginia forces evacuating the town, and fall- ing back to the Manassas Junction, where General Bonham, of South Carolina, was in command of the Confederate forces TIIK FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 75 Tlie invasion was accomplislied under cover of the niglit, and xvitli such secrecy and dispatch, that a number of Virginia cavalry ti'oops were found, unconscious of danger, at their (juavters, and were taken prisoners. The Federal occupation of the town was attended by a dra matic incident, the lieroisni and chivalry of which gave a remarkable lesson to the invader of the spirit that was to oppose his progress on the soil of Virginia. In the gray of the morning. Col. Ellsworth, who, with liis Fire Zouaves, had entered the town, observed a Confederate flag floating from the top of an hotel called the Marshall House, and attended by a squad of his men, determined to secure it as his prize. He found his way into the hotel, ascended the stairs, and climbed, by a ladder, to the top of the house, where he secured the obnoxious ensign. As he was descending from the trap door, with the flag on his arm, he was confronted by Mr. Jackson, the proprietor of the hotel, who, aroused from his bed by the unusual noise, half dressed and in his shirt-sleeves, with a double-barrel gun in his hands, faced Ellsworth and his four companions with a quiet and settled determination. " Thio ig my trophy," said the Federal -coramaiider, pointing to thefla'-r. " And you are mine," responded the Virginian, as, with a quick aim he discharged his gun full into the breast of Colonel Ellsworth, and the next instant sank by his side a breathlesa corpse, from a bullet, sped through the brain, and a bayonet- thrust at the hands of one of the soldiers. The slayer of Colonel Ellsworth was branded, in the Korth, as an " assassin." The justice of history does not permit such a term to be applied to a man who defended his country's flag and the integrity of his home with his life, distinctly and fear- lessly offered up to such objects of honor: it gives him tho name which the Southern people hastened to bestow upon the memory of the heroic Jackson — that of " martyr." The char- acter of this man is said to have been full oif traits of rude, native chivalry. ITe was captain of an artillery company in his town. He was known to his neighbors as a person who united a dauntless and unyielding courage with the most gen- erous impulses. A week before his death a " Union" man from Washington had been seized in the streets of Alexandria, and a crowd threatened to shoot or hang him, when Jackson 76 THE FIRST YEAK OF THE WAK. went to his rescue, tlireateiied to kill any man who would molest him, and saved him from the veng-eance of the mob. A day before the Federal occupation of the town, in a convei- Bation in which some such movement was conjectured, h 3 neio-libors remonstrated with him about the dan<;er of makinu liis house a sign for the enemy's attack, by the flag which floated over it. He replied that he would sacrifice his life in keeping the flag flying — and by daybreak the next day the oath was fulfilled. He laid down his life, not in the excite- ment of passion, but coolly and deliberately, upon a principle, and as an example in defending the sacred rights of his home and the flag of his country. Tliis noble act of heroism did not fail to move the hearts of the generous people of the South ; a monument was proposed to the memory of the only hero of Alexandria ; the dramatic story, and the patriotic example of *' the martyr Jackson," were not lost sight of in the stormy excitements of the war that swept out of the mind so many uicidents of its early history ; and in most of the cities of the South practical evidences of regard were given in large, vol- •mtary subscriptions to his bereaved family. The Federal forces were not met in Alexandria with any oi .hose demonstrations of " Union" sentiment which they had been induced, by the misrepresentations of the Northern press, to expect would hail the vanguard of their invasion of the South. The shouts and yells of the invaders fell upon tlie ears of a sullen people, who shut themselves up in their houses, as much to avoid the grating exultations of their enemies as con- tact with the rowdyism and riot that had taken possession of the streets. On coming into the town, the Kew York troops, particularly the Fire Zouaves, ran all over the city with their usual cry of "Hi," "Hi." Citizens closed their doors, and as tlie news of the tragedy at the Marshall House spread over the town, it assumed an aspect like that of the Sabbath. About the wharves and warehouses, wdiere hitherto the life and excitement of the town had been concentrated, the silence was absolutely oppressive; and the only people to be seen were numbers of negroes, who stood about the wharves and on the street corners with frightened faces, talking in low tones to each other. With Alexandiia and Fortress Monroe in its possession, th« TIIK FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 77 Federal Governmert held tlic most important passages into Virginia. General McDowell was charged with the command of the division of the forces thrown across the Potomac. Gen- eral Butler was placed in command at Fortress Monroe. Tlie town of Hampton was occupied by the Federal trooi)s, and Newport News, at the mouth of the James River, invested by them. At Sewell's Point, some eight or ten miles distant on the other side, the Confederates had erected a powerful battery, which had proved its efficiency and strength by resisting an attaak made upon it on the 19th of May, and continued for two days, by the Fedci al steamer Monticello, aided by the Minnesota. The first serious contest of the war was to occur in the low country of Virginia. On the 10th of June the battle of Bethel was fonght. THE BATTLE OF BETHEL. The Confederates, to the number of about eighteen hundred, und -.: Colonel J. Bankhead Magruder, were intrenched at Great Bethel church, which was about nine miles on the road leading south from Hampton. A Federal force exceeding four thousand men, under General Pierce — a Massachusetts officer who was never afterwards heard of in the war — was moved towards Bethel in two separate bodies, a portion landing on the extreme side of the creek, some distance below, while the rest proceeded across the creek. The landing of the latter was eifected without opposition, and presently the Federal troops, who had marched up from below, closed in on the Confederates almost simultaneously M-ith those attacking their front. The attack was received by a battery of the Richmond Howitzers, under command of Major Randolph ; the action being commenced by a shot from the Parrott gun in our main battery aimed by himself. One of the guns of the battery being spiked by the breaking of a priming wire in the vent, the infantry supports were withdrawn, and the work was occu- pied for a moment by the enemy. Captain Bridges, of the 1st North Carolina regiment, was ordered to retake it. The charge of the North Carolina infantry, on this occasion, was the most brilliant incident of the day. They advanced calmly 78 THE FIKgr TEAR f)F THE WAK. and coolly in the face of a sheet of artillery fire, and when witliin sixty yards of the enemy dashed on at the double ipick. The Federals fell back in dismay. The enemy continued to fire briskly, but wildly, with his ar- tillery. At no time, during the artillery engagement, could the Confederates see the bodies of the men in the column ot attack, and their tire was directed by the bayonets of the en- emy. The position of the enemy was obscured by the shade of the woods on their right and two small houses on their left. The fire of the Confederates was returned by a battery near the head of the enemy's column, but concealed by the woods and the houses so effectually that tlie Confederates only ascer- tained its position by the flash of the pieces. The earthworks were struck several times by the shots of the Federals. They fired upon us with shot, shell, spherical case, canister, and grape, from six and twelve pounders, at a distance of six hundred yards. The only injury received from their artillery was the loss of a mule. The fire on our part was deliberate, and was suspended whenever masses of the enemy were not within range. From 9 o'clock a. m. until 1:30 p. m. but ninety-eight shot were fired by as, every one of them with deliberation. After some intermission of the assault in front, a heavy col- umn, apparently a reinforcement or a reserve, made its appear- ance on the Hampton road and pressed forward towards tho bridge, carrying the United States flag at its head. This col- umn was under command of Major Winthrop, aid to General Butler. Those in advance had put on the distinctive badge of the Confederates — a white band around the cap. They cried out repeatedly, " don't fire." Having crossed the creek, they began to cheer most lustily, thinking that our work was open at the gorge, aud that they might get in by a sudden rush. The North Carolina infantry, however, dispelled this illusion. Their firing was as cool as that of veterans ; the only difficulty being the anxiety of the riflemen to pick off the foe, the men repeatedly calling to their officers, " May I fire? I think I can bring him." As the enemy fell back in disorder and his final rout com- menced, the bullet of a North Carolina rifleman pierced the breast of the brave Federal officer Major Winthrop, who had TBE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 7& made himself a conspicuous mark by his gallantry on the field. " He was," says Colonel Hill, of the North Carolina regiment, in his official repoi't of the action, " the only one of the enemy who exhibited even an approximation to courage during the whole day." The fact was, that he had fallen in circumstances of great gallantry. He was shot while standing on a log, waving his sword and vainly attempting to rally his men to the charge. His enemy did honor to his memory ; and the Southern people, who had been unable to appreciate the cour- age of Ellsworth, and turned with disgust from his apotheosis in the Korth, did not fail to pay the tribute due a truly brave man to the gallant Winthrop, who, having simply died on the battle-field, without the sensational circumstances of a private brawl or a bully's adventure, was soon forgotten in the North. During the fight at the angle of our works, a small wooden house in front was thought to give protection to the enemy Four privates in the North Carolina regiment volunteered to advance beyond our lines and set it on fire. One of them, a youth named Henry L. Wj-att, advanced ahead of his compan- ions, and, as he passed between the two fires, he fell pierced by a musket-ball in the forehead, within thirty yards of the liouse. This was our only loss in killed during the entire en- gagement. The results of the battle of Bethel were generally magnified in the South. It is true that a Confederate force of some eighteen hundred men, in a contest of several hours with an enemy more than twice their numbers, had repulsed them ; that the entire loss of the former was only one man killed and feeven wounded, while that of the enemy, by their own ac knowledgment, was thirty killed and more than one hundred wounded. The fact, however, was, that our troops had fought under the impenetrable cover of their batteries, the only in stance of exposure being that of the North Carolina infantry, who, by their charge on the redoubt taken b}' the enemy early in the action, contributed, most of all, to the success and glory /jf the day. The battle had been the result of scarcely any thing more than a reconnoissance ; it was by no means to bo ranked as a decisive engagement, and yet it was certainly a Kcrious and well-timed check to the foe. In one respect, however, the i-esult was not magnified, and 80 THE FIRST YKAR OF THE WAK. that was in its contribution of confidence and ardor to tlie South. Thus regarded, it was an important event, and its eflects of the happiest kind. The victory was achieved at a time when the public mind was distressed and anxious on ac- count of the constant backward movements of our forces iii Virginia, and the oft-recurring story of "surprise'' and con- sequent disaster to our troops in the neighborhood of the en emy's lines. The surrender of Alexandria, the surprise and dispersion of a camp at Philippi by a body of Federal troops,* * The disaster at Philippi was inconsiderable ; but it was the subject of some recrimination at the time, and Colonel I'orterfield, the Confederate cona- mander, was subjected to a court-martial, which, iii the main, exonerated him, and complimented him for his courage. Colonel Porterfield had been ordered to Grafton about the middle of May, 1861, with written instructions from (ieneral Lee to call for volunteers from that part of the State, and receive them into the service, to the number of five thousand ; and to co-operate with the agents of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad ; and with verbal orders to try to conciliate the people of that section, and to do nothing to oflfeud them. Finding, soon after his arrival, that the country was in a state of revolution, and that there was a large and increasing Federal force at Camp Denison, in (Jhio, opposite Parkersburg, and another in the vicinity of Wheeling, Colonel Porterfield wrote to the commanding general, that unless a strong force was sent very soon. Northwestern Virginia would be overrun. Upon directing the captains of organized volunteer comi^anies to proceed with their companies to Grafton, they replied that not more than twenty in companies numbering sixty were Avilling to take up arms on the side of the State ; that the others declared, if they were compelled to fight, it would be in defence of the Union. Colonel Porterfield succeeded in a wt-ik in getting together three newly-organized companies. This force was increased by the arrival of several other companies, two of which were unarmed cavalry com- i:)anies — amounting in all to about 500 infantry and 150 cavalry. These troops had been at Grafton but a few days, when, or about the 25th of May, Colonel Porterfield was reliably informed of the force of the enemy and with- drew his command to Philippi. Orders were given for the destruction of the Cheat bridge, but were not executed. The enemy's force at Grafton was about eight thousand men. On the 3d of June, through the failure of the guard or infantry pickets to give the alarm, the command at Philippi waa surprised by about five thousand infantry and a battery of artillery, and dis- persed in great confusion, but with inconsiderable loss of life, through the woods. The command had no equipments and very little ammunition. Such was the inauguration of the improvident and unfortunate campaign in West- ern Virginia. General Garnett siicceeded Colonel Porterfield in the command in North- western Virginia, with a much larger force (about six thousand men), but jne obviously inadequate, considering the extent of the district it was ex pected to defend, the hostile cliaracter of the country, and the invading forcef «f the enemy. THE FIRST YEAR OF THK WAR. 81 and the apparently uncertain movements of our forces on the Upper Potomac, had nnpleasantly exercised the popular mind^ and had given rise to many rash and ignorant doubts with re- spect to the opening events of the war. The battle of Betlicl was the first to turn the hateful current of retreat, and sent the first gleam of sunlight througli the sombre shadows that had hung over public opinion in the South. It is certain that the movements on the Upper Potomac were greatly misunderstood at the time, especially with regard to the evacuation of Harper's Ferry. General Joseph E. John- ston, who had been a quarterma'^ter-general in the old United States service, and had resigned to take part in the defence of liis native State, Virginia, had assumed command at Harper's Ferry, on the '23d of May. On the 27th of the same month, General Beauregard had relinquished his command at Charles- ton, being assigned to duty at Corinth, Mississippi ; but, the order being recalled, he was put in command at Manassas, our forces being divided into what was known as the armies of the Potomac and of the Shenandoah. At the time General Jolm- ston took command at Harper's Ferry, the forces at that point consisted of nine regiments and two battalions of infantry, with four companies of artillery — a force which was certainly not sufficient, when we consider that it was expected to hold both sides of the Potomac, and take the field against an inva- ding army. After a complete reconnoissance of the place and environs, General Johnston decided that it was untenable, but determined to hold it until the great objects of the govern- ment required its abandonment. The demonstrations of the Federal forces in the direction of the Yalley of Virginia were certainly thwarted by the timely falling back of our army from Harper's Ferry to Winchester. General Patterson's approach was expected by the great route into the Valley from Pennsylvania and Maryland, leading through Winchester, and it was an object of the utmost im- portance to prevent any junction between his forces and those of General McClellan, who was already making his way into the upper portions of the Valley. On the morning of the 13th of June, information was received from Winchester that Rom- ney was octmpied by two thousand Federal troops, supposed to be the vanguard of MeClellan's army. A detachment was 32 thp: first year op the war. dispatched by railway to check the advance of the enemy ; and on tlie morning of the 15th, the Confederate army left Harper's Feny for Winchester, The next morning, after the orders were issued for the evac- uation of Harper's Ferry, brought one of those wild, fearful •cenes which make the desolation that grows out of war. The splendid railroad bridge across the Potomac — one of the most Bupei'b structures of its kind on the continent — was set on fire at its northern end,^ while about four hundred feet at its south- ern extremity was blown up, to prevent the flames from reach- ing other works which it was necessary to save. Many of the vast buildings were consigned to the flames. Some of them wei-e not only large, but very lofty, and crowned with tall tow- ers and spires, and w^e may be able to fancy the sublimity of the scene, when more than a dozen of these huge fabrics, crowded into a small space, were blazing at once. So great was the heat and smoke, that many of the troops were forced out of the town, and the necessary labors of the removal were performed with the greatest difticulty. On the morning of the day after the evacuation of Harper's Ferry, intelligence w^as received that General Patterson's army had crossed the Potomac at Williamsport ; also that the Fed- eral force at Eomney had fallen back. The Confederate army was ordered to gain the Martinsburg turnpike by a flank movement to Bunker's Hill, in order to place itself between Winchester and the expected advance of Patterson. On hearing of this, the enemy crossed the river precipitately. Kesuming his first direction and plan. General Johnston pro- ceeded to Winchester. There his army was in position to op- pose either McClellan from the West, or Patterson from the North-east, and to form a junction with General Beauregard when necessary. Intelligence from Maryland indicating another movement by Patterson, Colonel Jackson with his brigade was sent to the neighborhood of Martinsburg to support Colonel Stuart, who had been placed in observation on the line of the Potomac with his cavalry. On the 2d of July, General Patterson again crossed the Potomac. Colonel Jackson, pursuant to instruc- tions, again fell back before him ; but, in retiring, gave him a severe lesson. With a battalion of the Fifth Virginia Regi- THE FIKST TEAR OF THE -WAR. 83 ment and Pendleton's Batteiy of Field Artillery, lie engaged the enemy's advance. Skilfully taking a position where the Bmallness of his force was concealed, he engaged them for a considerable time, inflicted a heavy loss, and retired when about to be outflanked, scarcely losing a man, but bringing ofl? forty -five prisoners. Upon this intelligence, the force at Winchester, strengthened by the arrival of Gteneral Bee and Colonel Elzey and the Ninth Georgia regiment, were ordered forward to the support of Jackson, who, it was supposed, was closely followed by Gen- eral Patterson. Taking up a position within six miles from Martinsburg, which town the enemy had invested. General Johnston waited for him four days, hoping to be attacked by an adversary double his number. Convinced at length that the enemy would not approach him, General Johnston returned to Winchester, much to the disaj^pointment of his troops, who, sullen and discontented, withdrew in the ftice of the enemy. On the loth of July, Colonel Stuart, who, with his cavalry, remained near the enemy, reported the advance of General Pat- terson from Martinsbui-g. He halted, however, at Bunker's Hill, nine miles from AVinchestcr, where he remained on the 16th. On the 17th, he moved his left to Smithfield. This movement created the impression that an attack was intended on the south of the Confederate lines ; but, with a clear and quick intelligence. General Johnston had penetrated the de- signs of the enemy, which were to hold him in check, while " the Grand Army" under McDowell was to bear down upon General Beauregard at Manassas. In the mean time, General McClellan's army had moved southwcstward from Grafton, In the progress of the history of the war, we shall meet with frequent repetitions of the lesson of how the improvident spirit of the South, in placing small forces in isolated localities, was taken advantage of by the quick strategic movements and the overwhelming numbers of the North. The first of the series of these characteristic disasters was now to befall the South. S4: THE FIRST YEAK OF THE WAK. THE BATTLE OF KICK MOUNTAIN. The main column of Federal troops under General McClellan was estimated to be twenty thousand strong ; his movements were now directed towards Beverley, with the object of getting to the rear of General Garnett, who had been appointed to the command of the Confederate forces in NortliM-estern Virginia, and was occupying a strong position at Rich Mountain, in Randolph county. The strength of General Garnett's command was less than five thousand infantry, with ten pieces of artillery, and four companies of cavalry. The disposition of these forces was in the immediate vicinity of Rich Mountain. Col. Pegram occu- pied the mountain with a force of about sixteen hundred men and some pieces of artillery. On the slopes of Laurel Hill, General Garnett was intrenched with a force of three thousand infantry, six pieces of artillery and three companies of cavalry. On the 5th of July, the enemy took a position at Bealington, in front of Laurel Ilill, ar.d a day or two afterwards a large force appeared in front of Rich Mountain. On the morning of the 11th instant. General Garnett re- ceived a note from Colonel Pegram at Rich Mountain, stating that his pickets had that morning taken a prisoner, who stated that there were in front of Rich Mountain nine regiments of seven thousand men and a number of pieces of artillery ; that General McClellan had arrived in camp the evening before, and had given orders for an attack the next day ; that General Rosecrans had started a night before with a division of the army three thousand strong, by a convenient route, to take him in the rear, while McClellan was to attack in front ; that he had moved a piece of artillery and three hundred men to the point b}^ which General Rosecrans was expected, and that he had requested Colonel Scott, with his regiment, to occupy a position on the path by which the enemy must come. As soon as General Garnett received this note, he sent a written order to Colonel Scott to move to the point indicated by Colonel Pegram, and to defend it at all hazards. The attack on Colonel Pegram was met with the most gal- lant resistance. The fight lasted nearly three hours. The enemy i THE FIEST TEAK OF THE WAR. 85 aflvaiiccd by a pathless route through the woods, the whole division moving in perfect silence through the brush, laurel, and rocks, while the rain poured down upon them in torrents. The expectation however of surprising the little force on the mountain was disappointed. As the enemy advanced, our artil- lery, posted on the top of the mountain, opened upon them, but with little effect, as their lines were concealed by the trees and brushwood. The earth of the mountain seemed to tremble under the thunders of the cannon. The tops of immense trees were cut off by our fire, which was aimed too high ; the crash of the falling timber mingled with tlie roar of the cannon, and as our artillery again and again belched forth its missives of destruction, it seemed as if the forest was riven by living streams of lightning. While the cannonading progressed, an incessant fire of musketry was kept up in the woods, wliere the sharpshooters, wet to the skin in the rain, kept the advancing lines of the enemy at bay. For more than two hours the little arifiy of Colonel Pegram maintained its ground. Its situation, however, was hopeless. Finding himself with three thousand of the enemy in his rear and five thousand in front. Colonel Peijram endeavored to escape witli his command, after a small loss in the action. One part of the command, under Major Tyler, succeeded in escaping; the other, about five hundred in. number, were compelled to surrender, when it was found that General Garnett had evacuated Laurel Hill. Among tlie pris- oners taken by the enemy was Colonel Pegram himself. Thrown from his horse, mIhcIi was wounded and had become unman- ageable, he refused to surrender his sword to his captors, and a messenger had to ride six miles to find an officer to receive it from the hands of the ill-starred commander. AVhen Gen. Garnett heard of the result of the engagement at Pich Mountain, he determined to evacuate Laurel Ilill as soon as night set in and retire to Huttonsville by the way ot Beverley. This design was baffled, as Col. Scott with his regi- ment had retreated beyond Beverley towards Iluttonsrille, without having blocked the road between Pich Mountain and Beverley.* General Garnett was compelled by this untoward * It is proper to state, that there was some controversy as to the precise orders given to Colonel Scott. That officer published a card in the newspapers 86 THE FIKST YEAR OF THE AVAK. circumstance, and by the mistaken exec\ition of another ordei by which the road was blocked from Beverley towards Laurel Hill, instead of that between the former place and Rich Moun tain, to retreat by a mountain road into Hardy county. The retreat was conducted in good order, amid distresses and trials of the most extraordinary description. The road was barely wide enough for a single wagon. In the morning, the army arrived at a camp on the Little Cheat, and after resting on the grass in the rain a few hours, took up their dreary line of march through the forest. On the morning of the second day of the retreat, soon after leaving the camp on the branch of the Cheat River, the pursuing enemy fell upon the rear of the distressed little army, and skirmishing continued during the day. Four companies of the Georgia regiment were cut off. At one of the fords, a sharp conflict ensued, in which the enemy were held at ba}"" fur a considerable time. This action, known as that of Carrock's Ford, more than retrieved the disasters of the defeat. It was a deep ford, rendered deeper than usual by the rains, and here some of the (vaffons became stalled in the river and had to be abandoned. The enemy were now close upon the rear, \vhich consisted of the 23d Yirginia regiment, and the artillery ; and as soon as the command had crossed. Colonel Taliaferro commanding the 23d was ordered to occupy the high bank on the right of the ford with his regiment and artillery. On the riglit, this posi- tion was protected by a fence; on the left, only by low bushes; but the hill commanded the ford and the approach to it by the road, and was admirably selected for a defence. In a few minutes, the skirmishers of the enemy were seen running along the opposite bank, which was low and skirted by a few trees, and were at first taken for the Georgians, who were known to have been cut off, but our men were soon undeceived, and with a simultaneous cheer for " Jeff. Davis" by the whole command, they opened upon the enemy. The enemy replied with a heavy fire from their infantry and artillery. A large force was brought to the attack, but the at the time, reHeving himself from censure and showing that he occupied on ihe day of the battle the position to which he was peremptorily ordered by General Garnett at the instance of Colonel Pegram, THE FIKST TEAK • THE WAE. 87 ccntinued and well-directed fire of the Confederates kept them from crossing the river, and twice the enemy was driven back Bome distance from the ford. Thej again, however, came up with a heavy force and renewed the fight. The fire of their artillery was entirely ineffective, although their shot and shell were thrown very rapidly, but they all flew over the heads of tlie Confederate troops, without any damage except bringing the limbs of the trees down upon them. After continuing the fight until nearly every cartridge had been expended, and until the artillery had been withdrawn by General Garnett's orders, and as no part of his command was within sight or supporting distance, as far as could be discov- ered, or, as was afterwards ascertained, within four miles of the ford. Col. Taliaferro, after having sustained a loss of about thirty killed and wounded, ordered the regiment to retire • — the officers and men manifesting decided reluctance at being withdrawn. The loss to the enemy in this gallant little afifair must have been quite considerable, as they had, from th'eir own account, three regiments engaged. The people in the neighborhood re- ported a heavy loss, which they stated the enemy endeavored to conceal by transporting the dead and wounded to Bealington in covered wagons, permitting no one to approach them. At the second ford, about half-past one o'clock in the day, Gen. Garnett was killed by almost the last fire of the enemy. On reaching at this ford the opposite bank of the stream, Gen. Garnett desired one company from the 23d Virginia regiment to be formed behind some high drift M-ood. lie stated that he would in person take charge of them, and did so — the company being the Richmond Sharpshooters, Capt. Tompkins. In a few minutes, Capt. Tompkins and all his men, but ten, came up to the regiment, stating that Gen. Garnett only wanted ten men. Tlie inference was palpable — he had taken an extreme near position to the enemy. Very soon the firing commenced in the rear where Gen. Garnett was, and immediately the horse of the general came galloping past without a rider. He fell just as he gave the order to the skirmishers to retire, and one of them was killed by his side. At the second ford, where Gen. Garnett was killed, tlio enemy abandoned the pursuit, and the command under Col, 88 TRK FIRST ^WaE OF THE "WAK. Ramsey reached Monterey and formed a junction with Gen, Jackson. The actual reverses of the retreat consisted of some thirty- odd killed and wounded, a number missing, many of whom afterwards reached the command, and the loss of its baggage a portion of which was used in blocking the road against the enemy's artillery. The conflict and the retreat, the hunger and fatigue of the men, many of whom dropped from the ranks from sheer exhaustion, were unequalled by any thing that had yet occurred in the war. Its success appeared as extraordinary as its hardships and privations. Surrounded by an army of twenty thousand men, without supplies, in a strange country, and in the midst of continuous and drenching rains, it was a wonder that the little army of three thousand men should have escaped annihilation. The command had marched sixty hours, resting only five hours, and had endured a march through the forest without food for men or horses. Gen. McClellan announced to the government at Washing- ton a signal victory. He summed up the results of the battle on the mountain and his pursuit of the retreating army as two hundred killed and wounded, a thousand taken prisoners, the baggage of the entire command captured, and seven guns taken. " Our success," he wrote to "Washington, " is complete, and Secession is killed in this country." The affair of Rich Mountain was certainly a serious disaster ; it involved the surrender of an important portion of ISTorth- western Virginia; but with respect to the courage and dis- cipline of our troops, it had exhibited all that could be desired, and the successful retreat was one of the most remarkable in history. It is certain that the unskilful disposition of our troops, as well as their inadequate numbers, had contributed to the success of the enemy, and doubts are admissible whether more advantage might not have been taken of the position at Carrock's Ford, with proper supports, considering its extra- ordinary advantages of defence, and how long it had been held against the forces of the pursuing enemy by a single regiment. A feeling of deep sympathy, however, was felt for the unfor- tunate commander, whose courage, patriotic ardor, and gener- ous, because unnecessary, exposure of his person to the bullets TJIE FIRST YEAE OF THE WAR. 89 of tlie enemy, coumiended his inemory to the hearts of his countrymen. "Wliatever niiglit have been the depression of the public mind of tlie South by the Kicli IMountain disaster, it was more tiian recovered by news from other quarters. The same day that tlie unfavorable intelligence from Rich Mountain reached the government at Richmond, the telegraph brought, by a devious route, the news of the battle of Carthage in Missouri. The blow given to the enemy at this distant point, was the first of the brilliant exploits which afterwards made the Missouri campaign one of the most brilliant episodes of the war. It had gone fai" to retrieve the fortunes of an empire that was here- after to be added to the Southern Confederac}', and assure the promise that had been made in the proclamation of the gallant Gen. Price of that State — "a million of such people as the citizens of Missouri were never yet subjugated, and, if at- tempted, let no apprehension be felt for the result." But of this hereafter. On the anniversary of the Fourth of July, the Federal Con- gress met at "Washington. Galusha A. Grow, a Pennsylvania Al)olit' onist, and an uncompromising advocate of the war, was elected Speaker of the House. The meeting of this Congress affords a suitable period for a statement of the posture of po- litical affairs, and of the spirit which animated the North, with respect to existing hostilities. In his message, Mr. Lincoln denounced the idea of any of the States preserving an armed neutrality in the war, having particular i-eicrence to the continued efforts of Governor Ma- goffin, of Kentucky, to maintain a condition of neutrality on the part of that State. Mr. Lincohi declared that if armed neutrality Mere permitted on the part of any of the States, it would soon ripen into disunion ; that it would build impass- able walls along the line of separation ; and it would tie the hands of the Unionists, while it would free those of the Insur- rectionists, by taking all the trouble from Secession, except that which might be expected from the external blockade. Neutrality, he said, gave to malcontents disunion without its risks, and was not to be tolerated, since it recognized no fidelity to the Constitution or obligation to the Union. Kentucky was not uni-easonably accounted a part of the i-'l THE FIRST TEAR OF TIJE WAR. Northern government. But with an outrage of the plainest doctrines of the government, and a j)ractical denial not only of every thing like the rights of States, but even of their territo- rial integrity, the jSIortlivvestern portion of "Virginia, which had rebelled against its State government, was taken into the membership of the Federal Union as itself a State, wdtli the absurd and childish addition of giving to the rebellious counties the name of " Virginia." A Convention of the disaffected Northwestern counties of Virginia had been held at Wlieeling, on the 13th day of May, and after a session of three days, de- cided to call another Convention, to meet on the 11th of June, subsequent to the vote of the State on the Ordinance of Seces- sion. The Convention reorganized the counties as a member of the Federal Union : F. W. Pierpont was elected governor ; and W. T. Willie and. the notorious John S. Carlile, both of whom had already signalized their treason to their State by their course in the Convention at Richmond, were sent as representatives of "Virginia" to the United States Senate, in which absurd capacity they were readily received. The message of the President gave indications of a deter- mined and increased prosecution of hostilities. It called for an army of four hundred thousand men, and a loan of four hundred millions of dollars. This call was a curious comment tary upon the spirit and resources of the people, who it had been thought in the North would be crushed out by the three months' levies before the Federal Congress met in July to de- cide upon what disposition should be made of the conquered States. The statements of Mr. Lincoln's fiscal secretary \vere alarm- ing enough; they showed a state of the treasury unable even to meet the ordinary expenditures of the government, and its resources were now to be taxed to the last point of ingenuity to make for the next fiscal year the necessary provision of four nundred and eighty millions of dollars, out of an actual revenue the first quarter of which had not exceeded five millions. The ordinary expenditures of the Federal government for the fiscal year ending June 30th, 1862, were estimated at eighty millioni of dollars ; the extraordinary expenditures, on the basis of in- creased military operations, at four hundred millions. To meet tliese large demands of the civil and war service. Secretary I THE FIKST YKAK OF THE WAR. 91 Chase confessed to a receipt of but five millions per quartei from the "Morrill" tariff, showing that at this rate of the receipt of customs, the income of the government would l:e twenty millions per year against nearly five hundred million of prospective outlay. ' It was proposed in this financial exigency to levy specific duties of about thirty-three per cent, on coffee, tea, sugar, mo- lasses, and syi-up, which might yield twenty millions a year; it was hoped by some modification of the Morrill tariff, with re- spect to other articles, to increase its productiveness from twenty to thirty-seven millions ; the revenue from the sale of public lands was estimated at three millions ; and it was timidly proposed that a tax should be levied upon real property of one-third or one-fifth of one per cent., to produce twenty millions additional. Thus by means of — The Tariff, $37,000,000 Tea, Sugar, and Coffee, 20,000,000 Public Lands 3,000,000 Direct Taxes, 20,000,000 Producing a total of $80,000,000 Tlie Northern government proposed to eke out the means o. meeting its ordinary expenses, leaving the monstrous balance of ibnr hundred millions of dollars to be raised by a sale of bonds. The financial complications of the government of Mr. Lincoln were in striking contrast with the abundant and easy means which the Southern Confederacy had, at least so fiir, been able to carry on the war. The latter had been reduced to a paper currency, but it had for the basis of its currency the great staple of cotton,* which in the shape of a produce loan waf practically pledged to the redemption of the public debt. * The whole cotton crop of America, in 18G0, was 4,675,770 bales ■ and of this, 3,097,727 bales were exported, and 978,043 bales used at home. England alone took 2,582.000 bales, which amounted to about four-fifths of her entire consumiition. The cotton-fields of the Southern States embrace an area ot 500,000 square miles, and the capital invested in the cultivation of the plant amounts to $900,000,000. Seventy years ago, the exports of our cotton were only 420 bales — not one-tenth of the amount furnished by several countries to England. Now, the South furnishes five-sevenths of the surplus cotton pioduct of the entire world 7 y-2 THE FIKST YEAK OF THE WAB. Pn s} ccts were entertained of a speedy raising of the blockade, the disappointment of which, at a Liter day, drove the Con- federacy to other expedients of revenue, in a war tux, &c. ; but, t the time of the comparison of the financial condition of the two governments, the Confederate currency was accounted quite as good as gold, as the cotton and tobacco once in the market would aiford the Southern government the instant means to discharge every cent of its indebtfMness. Tlie Federal Congress commenced its work in a spirit that essentially tended to revolutionize the political system and ideas of the North itself. It not only voted to Mr. Lincoln the men and supplies he asked for, but the first days of its session were signalized by a resolution to gag all propositions looking to- wards i3eace, or any thing else than a prosecution of the war ; by another, to approve the acts done by the President without constitutional authority, including his suspension of the habeas corjpus ; and by the introduction of a bill to confiscate the prop- erty of " rebels." The pages of history do not aiford a commensurate instance of the wide opposition in the social and political directions of two nations who had so long lived in political union and inter- course as the North and the South. While the latter vv'as daily becoming more conservative and more attached to existing in- stitutions,* the North was as rapidly growing discontented, * A type of tlie conservatism of tlie Southern revolution — its attachment to the past — was vividly displayed in the adoption of its national ensign, a blue union with a circle of stars, and longitudinal bars, red, white, and red, in place of " the stripes" of the flag of the old government. The present Confederate flag was balloted for in the Provisional Congress, and was selected by a ma- jority of votes out of four different models. At the time of the early session of Congress at Montgomery, the popular sentiment was almost unanimous, and very urgent, that the main features of the old Federal Constitution should bo copied into the new government, and that to follow out and give expression to this idea, the flag should be as close a copy as possible of the Federal ensign. A resolution was introduced in the Provisional Congress to the effect that tlie flag should be as little different as possible from that of the Federal govern- ment; which resolution was vigorously opposed by Mr. Miles, of Soiith Caro- lina, who was tlien chairman of the Flag Committee. The design recommended by Mr. Miles, but voted down, has since been adopted as the battle flag of Generals Johnston and Beauregard. It is a bhie saltier (or Maltese cross), with inner rows of stars, on a red field — the emblem of the saltier {saltere, to ,eap) being appropriately that of progress and power. The two other com- peting designs, from which our present flag was selected, were, one, an almost J THR FIKST TEAK OF THE WAK. 93 restless, radical, and revolutionary. The people of the North had passed the stage of pure Democracy, and inaugurated mili- tary despotism. They, in effect, had changed their form of government, while vainly attempting to preserve their territo- rial ascendency. They charged the South with attempting revolution, when it was only fighting for independence; while they, themselves, actually perjietrated revolution rather than forego the advantages of a partial and iniquitous Union. The South, in the midst of a war of independence — a war waged not to destroy, hut to preserve existing institutions — was recurring to the past, and proposing to revive conservative ideas rather than to run into new and rash experiments. The war had already developed one great moral fact in the North of paramount interest. It was the entire willingness of/ the people to surrender their constitutional liberties to any government that would gratify their political passions. This peculiarity of the condition uf Northern society, was more significant of its disintegration and revolutionary destiny than all the other circumstances and consequences of the wai combined, in loss of trade, prostration of commerce, and poverty and hunger of the people. It was the corruption of the public virtue. The love of constitutional liberty was degraded to po- litical hatreds. "While these were gratified, the Northern peo^^le were willing to surrender their liberties to their panderers at Washington. "Without protest, without opposition, in silent submission, or even in expressions stimulating and encouraging the despot who stript them of their rights, to still further ex- cesses, they had seen every vestige of constitutional liberty swept away, while they imagined that their greed of resentment towards the South was to be satisfied to its fill. They had seen the liberties of the people strangled, even in States remaining in the Union. They had seen the writ of habeas corjjus denied, not only by the minions of Abraham Lincoln in Maryland, but by the commanding officers of Forts Hamilton and Lafayette. They had seen, not only the rights of free speech, but the sanctity even of private correspondence, violated by the seizure exact reproduction of the Federal stars and stripes, the only variation being that of a blue stripe, and the other a simple blue circle or rim, on a red field. The consideration that determined the selection of the present flag was its ■imilarity to that of the old governmeut. 94 THE FIEST YEAK OF THE WAR. of dispatclies in their own telegraph offices. They had seen the law of tlie drum-head not only estahlished in Baltimore, but measures to subvert their own municipal liberties inaugurated by a sj'stem of military pclice for the whole Federal Union. They had suffered without protestation these monstrons viola- tions of the Constitution nnder which they professed to live. They had not only suficred, but had indorsed them. They had not only done this, but they had applauded in this government of Abraham Lincoln violations of honor, morality, and truth, more infamous than excesses of authority. THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 95 CHAPTER rV. Tho "Grand Amy'- ot the North.— General McDowell.— The Affair of Bull Run.— An Artillery Duel. — The Battle of Manassas. — " On to Riclimontl." — Scenery of tiia Battle-field. — Crises in the Battle. — Devoted Courage of tlie Confederates. — The Rout. — How the News was received in Wasliington. — How it was received in the South.— General Bee. — Colonel Bartow. — The Great Error. — General Johnston's Excuses for not advancing on Washington. — Incidents of the Manassas Battle. The montli of July found confronting the lines of the Poto- mac two of the hirgest armies that this continent had ever seen. Tlie confidence of tlie North in the numhers, spirit, and appointments of its " Grand Army" was insolent in the ex- treme. It was tlionght to he hut an easy nndertaking for it to march to Pichmond, and plant the Stars and Strijjes in Capitol Square. An advance was nrged not only by the popular clamor of " On to Pichmond," but by the pressure of extreme parties in Congress ; and wlien it was full}'' resolved npon, the exhilaration was extreme, and the prospect of the occupation of Pichmond in ten days was entertained with every variety of public joy. Nothing had been left nndone to complete tlie preparations of the Norther u army. In numbers it was immense ; it was provided with the best artillery in the world ; it comprised, besides its immense force of volunteers, all the regulars east of the Pocky Mountaius, to the number of about ten tliousand, collected since February, in the city of Washington, from Jef- ferson Barracks, from St. Louis, and from Fortress Monroe. Making all allowances for mistakes, we are Avarranted in say- ing that the Northern army consisted of at least fifty-five regiments of volunteers, eight companies of regular infiintry, four of marines, nine of regular cavalry, and twelve batteries, foi ty-nine guns. This army was placed at the command of one who was acknowledged to be the greatest and most scientific general in the North — Genc'-al McDowell. This officer had a reputation in the army of being a stoic philosopher — a reputa- tion sought after by a certain number of West Point pupils. General Beauregard was fully informed of the movements oi 96 THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. McDowell. The vaunting and audacious declaration of the enemy's purpose to force his position, and press on to Rich- mond, was met by firm and busy preparations for the crisis. It was no mean crisis. It was to involve the first important shock of arms between two peoples who, from long, seasons of peace and prosperity, had brought to the struggle more than ordinar}'" resources and splendors of M-ar. The decisive battle was preceded by the important affair of Bull Run, a brief sketch of which, as a precih'sor to the events of tlie 21st of July, furnishes an intelligent introduction to the designs of the enemy, and alike to the complicated plan and glorious issue of the great battle that, through the sultry heats of a whole day, wrestled over tlie plains of Manassas. Bull Run constitutes the northern boundary of that county which it divides from Fairfax ; and on its memorable banks, about three miles to the northwest of tbe junction of the Manassas Gap with the Orange and Alexandria railroad, was fought the gallant action of the ISth of July. It is a smaL stream, running in this locality, nearly from west to east, to its confluence with the Occoquan River, about twelve miles from the Potomac, and draining a considerable scope of coun- try, from its source in Bull Run Mountain to witliin a short distance of the Potomac at Occoquan. Roads traverse and intersect the surrounding country in almost every direction. The banks of the stream arc rocky and steep, but abound in long-used fords. At Mitchell's Ford, the stream is about equidistant between Centreville and Manassas, some six miles apart. Anticipating the determination of the enemy to advance on Manassas, General Beauregard had withdrawn liis advanced brigades within the lines of Bull Run. On the morning of the 17th of July our troops rested on Bull Run, from Union Mill's Ford to the Stone Bridge, a distance of about eight miles. The next morning the enemy assumed a threatening attitude. Appearing in heavy force in front of the position of General Bonham's brigade, which i:eld the approaches to Mitchell's Ford, the enemy, about the meridian, opened fir with several 20-i3ounder rifle guns from a hill over one and half miles from Bull Run. At first, the firing of the enemy was at random; but, by half-past 12 p. m., lie had obtained THE FIRST YKAR OF THK WAR. 97 the range of our position, and poured into the brigade a shower of shot, but without injur}' to us in men, horses, or guns. Our fire was reserved, and our troops inipaticntlj awaited the o[> portnne m<»ment. In a few moments, a light battery was pushed forward by tlie enemy, whereupon Kemper's battery, which was attached to Bonham's brigade, and occupied a ridge on the left of the Centreville road, threw only six solid shot, with the remark- able effect of driving back both the battery and its supporting force. The unexpected display of skill and accuracy in our artillery held the advancing column of the enemy in check, while Kemper's pieces and support were withdrawn across Mitchcirs Ford, to a point previously'' designated, and which commanded the direct approaches to the ford. In the moan time, the enemy was advancing in strong col- umns of infantry, with artillery and cavahy, on Blackburn's Ford, which was covered hy General Longstreet's brigade. The Confederate pickets fell back, silently, across the ford before the advancing foe. The entire southern bank of the stream, for the whole front of Longstreet's biigade, was cov- ered at tlie water's edge by an extended line of skirmishers, laking advantage of the steep slopes on the nortliern bank of the stream, the enemy approached under shelter, in heavy force, within less than one hundred yards of our skirmishers; Bef ire advancing his infantry, the enemy maintained a fire of rifle artillery for lialf an hour; then he pushed forward a column of over three thousand infantry to the assault, with such a weight of numbers as to be repelled with difficulty by the comparatively small force of not more than twelve hun- di-ed bayonets, with which Brigadier-general Longstreet met liim with characteristic vigor and intrepidity. The repulse of this charge of the enemy was, as an exhibition of the devoted courage of our troops, the most brilliant incident of the day. Not one yard of intrenchment or one rifle-pit protected the men at Blackburn's Ford, who, with rare exceptions, were, on that day, the first time under fire, and M-ho, taking and main- taining every position ordered, exceeded in cool, self-possessed, and determined courage the best-trained veterans. Twice tho enemy was foiled and driven back by our skirmishers and Longstreet's reserve companies. As he returned to the contest 98 TnE FIKST YEAR OF THE WAR. with increased numbers, General Longstreet had been rfcin foi'ced from Early's brigade witli two regiments of infantry and two pieces of artillery. Unable to eflect a passage of the stream, the enemy kept np a scattering fire for some time. The fire of musketry was soon silenced, and the affair became one of artiller3^ The enemy was superior in tl. e character aa well as in the number of his weapons, provided with improved munitions and every artillery ap2:)liance, and, at the same time, occupying the commanding position. The results of the remarkable artillery duel that ensued were fitting precursors to the achievements of the twenty-first of July in this unex- pectedly brilliant arm of our service. In the onset, our fire was directed against the enemy's infantry, whose bayonets, gleaming above the tree-tops, alone indicated their presence and force. This drew the attention of a battery placed on a iiigh, commanding ridge, and the duel commenced in earnest. For a time, the aim of the adversary was inaccurate, but this was quickly corrected, and shot fell and shells burst thick and fast in the very midst of our battery. From the position of our pieces and the nature of the ground, their aim could only be directed by the smoke of the enemy's artillery ; how skil- fully and with Avhat execution this was done can only be real- ized by an eye-witness. For a few moments, the guns of the enemy were silenced, but were soon reopened. By direction of General Longstreet, his battery was then advanced, by hand, out of the range now ascertained by the enemy, and a shower of spherical case, shell, and round-shot flew over the heads of our gunners. From this new position our guns fired as before, with no other aim than the smoke and flash of their adversa- ries' pieces, and renewed and urged the conflict with such sig- nal vigor and effect, that gradually the fire of the enemy slack- ened, the intervals between their discharges grew longer and longer, finally to cease ; and ^ve fired a last gun at a baffled flying foe, whose heavy masses in the distance were plainly Been to break and scatter in wild confusion and utter rout, strewing the ground with cast-away guns, hats, blankets, and knapsacks, as our paiting shell was thrown among them. Thus ended the brilliant action of Bull Run. The guns en- gaged in the singular artillery conflict on our side Avere three six-pounder rifle pieces and four ordinary six-pounders, all of THE FIRST YEAli OF THE WAE. ^\) Walton's battery — the Wasliiiigton Artillery of IS'ew Orleans. Our casualties were unimportant — fifteen killed and fifty-tliree wounded. The loss of the enemy can only be conjectured ; it was nnquestionably heavy. In the cursory examination, M'hich ^vas made by details from Longstreet's and Early's brigades, on the ISth of July, of that portion of the field immediately contested and near Blackburn's Ford, some sixty-four corpses were found and buried, and at least twenty prisoners were also picked up, besides one hundred and seventy-five stands of arms and a large quantity of accoutrements and blankets. The effect of the day's conflict was to satisfy the enemy that he could not force a passage across Bull Kun in the face of our troops, and led him into the flank movement of the 21st of July and the battle of Manassas. THE BATTLE OF MANASSAS. General Scott having matured his plan of battle, ordered General McDowell to advance on Manassas on Sunday, the 21st of July— three days after the repulse at Bull Run. The movement was generally known in Washington ; Congress had adjourned for the purpose of aS'ording its members an oppor- tunity to attend the battle-field, and as the crowds of camp followers and spectators, consisting of politicians, fashionable women, idlers, sensation-hunters, editors, &c., hurried in car- riages, omnibuses, gigs, and every conceivable style of vehicle across the Potomac in the direction of the army, the constant and unfailing jest was, that they were going on a visit to Rich- mond. The idea of the defeat of the Grand Army, which, in show, splendid boast, and dramatic accessaries, exceeded any thing that had ever been seen in America, seems never to have crossed the minds of the politicians who went prepared with carriage-loads of champagne for festal celebration of the vic- tory that was to be won, or of the fair dames who were equip- ped )vith opera-glasses to entertain themselves with the novel scenes of a battle and the inevitable rout of " rebels." The indecencies of this exhibition of morbid curiosity and exultant hate are simply unparalleled in the history of civilized na- tions. Mr Russell, correspondent of the London TbncSy an eye-witness of the scene, describes the concourse of carriagea loo 1ii£ FIEST YEAR OF THE WAE. and gnyij-dresstd spectators in the rear of the army on the morning of the buttle of Manassas as like a holiday exhibition on a race-course. The scene was an extraordinary one. It had a beauty and grandeur, apart from the revolting spectacle of the indecent and bedizened rabble that watched from a hill in the rear of the army the dim outlines of the battle and enjoyed the nerv- ous emotions of the thunders of its artillery. The gay uniform? of the Korthern soldiers, their streaming flags and glistening bayonets, added strange charms to the jirimeval forests of Yiro:inia. No theatre of battle could have been more mao-nifi- cent in its addresses to the eye. The plains, broken by a wooded and intricate country, were bounded as far as the eye could reach to the west by the azure combs of the Bhie Ridge. The quiet Sabbath morning opened upon the scene enlivened by moving masses of men ; the red lights of the morning, how- ever, had scarcely broken upon that scene, with its landscapes, its forests, and its garniture, before it was obscured in the clouds of battle. For long intervals nothing of tlie conflict was presented, to those viewing it at a distance, but wide and torn curtains of smoke and dust and the endless beat of the artiller}". Orders had been issued by McDowell for the Grand Army to be in motion by two o'clock on the morning of the twenty- first, and en route for their difi'erent j^ositions in time to reach them and be in position by the break of day. It was also or- dered that they should have fonr days' rations cooked and stored away in their haversacks — evidently for the purpose of gaining Manassas and holding it, until their supplies should reach them by the railroad from Alexandria. Thus stood the arrangements of the Northern forces on the evening preceding the battle of the twenty-first. It is a remarkable circumstance of the battle of Manassas, that it was fought on our side without any other plan than to suit the contingencies arising out of the development of the enemy's designs, as it occurred in the progress of the action. Several plans of battle had been proposed by General Beaure- gard, but had been defeated by the force of circumstances. He had been unwilling to receive the enemy on the defensive line of Bull Run, and had determined on attacking him al THE FIEBT YEAR OF THE WAR. 101 Centreville. In the mean time, General Johnston liad Leen ordered to form a jnnction of his army corps with that of Gen- eral Beauregard, slionld the movement, in his judgment, be advisable, llie best service which the army of the Shenan- doah could render was to prevent the defeat of that of the Potomac. To be able to do tlii?, it was necessary for General Johnston to defeat General Patterson or to elude him. The latter course was the most speedy and certain, and was, there- fore, adopted. Evading tlie enem}^ by the disposition of the advance guard under Colonel Stuart, our army moved through Ashby's Gap to Piedmont, a station of the Manassas Gap rail- road. Hence, the infantry were to be transported by the rail- way, wliile tlie cavalry and artillery were ordered to continue their march. General Johnston reached Manassas about noon on the twentieth, preceded by the 7th and Sth Georgia regi- ments and by Jackson's brigade, consisting of the 2d, 4th, otli 2Tth and 33d Yirginia regiments. He was accompanied by General Bee, with the 4th Alabama, the 2d and two compa- nies of the 11th Mississippi. The president of the railroad had assured him that the remaining troops should arrive during the day. General Johnston, being the senior in rank, necessarily assumed command of all the forces of the Confederate States then concentrating at Manassas. He, however, approved the plans of General Beauregard, and generously directed their execution under his command. It was determined that the two forces should be united within the lines of Bull liun, and thence advance to the attack of the enemy, before Patterson's junction with McDowell, which was daily expected. The plan of battle was again disconcerted. In consequence of the untoward detention on the railroad of some five thousand of General Johnston's forces that had been expected to reach Manassas prior to the battle, it became necessary, on the morning of the twenty-first, before daylight, to modify the plan accepted, to suit the contingency of an immediate attack on our lines by the main force of the enemy, then plainly at hand. It thus happened that a battle ensued, dift'erent in place and circumstance from any previous plan on our side. Our eil'ective force of all arms, ready for action on the field on the eventful morning, was less than thirty thousand men 102 THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. Our troops were divided into ciglit brigades, occupying tli^ defensive line of Bull Run. Brigadier-general Ewell's -svaa posted at the Union Mill's Ford ; Brigadier-general D. R. Jones' at McLean's Ford ; Brigadier-general Longstreet's at Blackbnrn's Ford; Brigadier general Bonham's at Mitc-liell's Ford ; Colonel Cocke's at Ball's Ford, some three miles above, and Colonel Evans, with a regiment and battalion, formed the extreme left at the Stone Bridge. The brigades of Brigadier- general Holmes and Colonel Early were in reserve in rear of the right. In his entire ignorance of the enemy's plan of attack, Gen- eral Beauregard was compelled to keep his army posted along the stream for some eight or ten miles, while his wily adver- sary developed his purpose to him. The subsequent officia^ reports of McDowell and his officers show that that com- mander had abandoned his former purpose of marching on Manassas by the lower routes from Washington and Alexan- dria, and had resolved upon turning the left flank of the Confederates. The fifth division of his Grand Army, composed of at least four brigades, under command of General Miles, was to re- main at Centreville, in reserve, and to make a false attack on Blackburn's and Mitchell's Fords, and thereby deceive Gen- eral Beauregard as to its intention. The first division, com- posed of at least three brigades, commanded by General Tyler, was to take position at the Stone Bridge, and feign an attack upon that point. The third division, composed of at least three brigades, commanded by Ileintzelman, was to proceed as quietly as possible to the Red House Ford, and there remain, until the troops guarding that ford should be cleared away. The second division, composed of three or four brigades, com- manded by Hunter, was to march, unobserved by the Confed- erate troops, to Sudley, and there cross over the run and move down the stream to the Red House Ford, and clear away any troops that might be guarding that point, M-here he was to be joined by the third or Heintzelman's division. Together, these two divisions were to charge upon, and drive away any troops that might be stationed at the Stone Bridge, when Tyler's division was to cross over and join them, and tkjs produce a junction of throe formidable divisions of t\\9 THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 103 Grand Army across the run, for offensive operations against the forces of Genera. Beauregard, which the enemy expected to find scattered along the run for seven or eight miles — the bulk of them being at and below Mitchell's Ford, and so situ- ated as to render a concerted movement by them utterly im- practicable. Soon after sunrise, the enemy appeared in force in front of Coloiel Evans' position at the Stone Bridge, and opened a light ) annonade. The monstrous inequality of the two forces at tins point "was not developed. Colonel Evans only ob- served in his immediate front the advance portion of General Schenck's brigade of General Tyler's division and two other heavy brigades. This division of the enemy's forces numbered nine thousand men and thirteen pieces of artillery — Carlisle's and Ayres' batteries — that is, nine hundred men and two six- pounders confronted by nine thousand men and thirteen pieces of artillery, mostly rifled, A movement was instantly determined upon by General Beauregard to relieve his left flank, by a rapid, determined attack with his right wing and centre on the enemy's flank and rear at Centreville, with precautions against the advance of his reserves from the direction of Washington. In the quarter of the Stone Bridge, the two armies stood for more than an hour engaged in slight skirmishing, while the main body of the enemy was marching his devious way throutjli the " Bic: Forest," to cross Bull Run some two miles above our left, to take our forces in flank and rear. This movement was fortunately discovered in time for us to check its progress, and ultimately to form a new line of battle nearly at right anijles with the defensive line of Bull Run. On discoverino: that the enemv had crossed the stream above him, Colonel Evans moved to his left with eleven com- panies and two field-pieces to oppose his advanee, and dis- posed his little force under cover of the wood, near the inter- section of the Warrenton turapike and the Sudlcy road. Here he was attacked by the enemy in immensely si pcrior numbers. The enemy beginning his detour from the turnpike, at a point nearly half-way between Stone Bridge and Centreville, had pursued a tortuous, narrow track of a rarely used I'oad^ 104 THE FIIiST TEAR OF THE WAR. throiigli a dense wood, the greatei part of liis way until neai the Sudley road. A division under Colonel Hunter, of tbe Federal regular army, of two strong brigades, was in the ad- vance, followed immediately by another division, under Colo- nel Heintzelman of three brigades, and seven companies of regular cavalry, and twenty-four pieces of artillery — eighteen of which were rifled guns. This column, as it crossed Bui. Eun, numbered over sixteen thousand men, of all arms, by their own accounts. Burnside's brigade — which here, as at Fairfax Court-house, led the advance — at about 9.45 a. m., debouched from a wood in sight of Evans' position, some five hundred yards distant from Wheat's Louisiana battalion. He immediately threw forward his skirmishers in force, and they became engaged with Wheat's command. The Federalists at once advanced, as they report officially, the 2d Rhode Island regiment volun- teers, with its vaunted battery of six thirteen-pounder rifle e;uns. Sloan's companies of the 4th South Carolina were then brought into action, having been pushed forward through the woods. The enemy, soon galled and staggered by the fire, and pressed by the determined valor with which Wheat han- dled his battalion, until he was desperately wounded, hast- ened up three other regiments of the brigade and two Dahl- gren howitzers, making in all quite three thousand five hun- dred bayonets and eight pieces of artillery, opposed to less than eight hundred men and two six-pounder guns. Despite the odds, this intrepid command, of but eleven weak companies, maintained its front to the enemy for quite an hour, and until General Bee came to their aid with his command. General B^e moving towards the enemy, guided by the firing, had selected the position near the now famous " Henry House," and formed his troops upon it. They were the Tth and Sth Georgia under Colonel Bartow, the 4th Alabama, 2d Mississippi, and two companies of the 11th Mississippi regi ments, with Imboden's battery. Being compelled, however to sustain Colonel Evans, he crossed the valley, and formed on the right and somewhat in advance of his position. Hen the joint force, little exceeding five regiments, with six field pieces, held the ground against about fi.fteen thousand Fcderaj THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 105 troops. A fierce and destructive conflict now ensued — the fira was withering on both sides, wliilc tlie enemy swept our short, tliin lines with their numerous artillerj*, which, according to their ofhcial reports, at this time consisted of at least ten rifle gU7is and four howitzers. For an hour did these stout-hearted mtn, of the blended commands of Bee, Evans, and Bartow, breast an unintermitting battle-storm, animated surely by something more than the ordinary courage of even the bravest men under fire. Two Federal brigades of Ileintzelman's division were now brought into action, led by Rickett's superb light battery of six ten-pounder rifle guns, which, posted on an eminence to the right of the Sudley road, opened fire on Imboden's battery. At this time, confronting the enemy, we had still but Evans' eleven companies and two guns — Bee's and Bartow's four regiments, the two companies 11th Mississippi under Lieuten- ant-colonel Liddell, and the six pieces under Imboden and Richardson. The enemy had two divisions of four strong brigades, including seventeen companies of regular infantry, cavalry, and artillery, four companies of marines, and twenty pieces of artillery. Against this odds, scarcely credible, our advance position was still for a while maintained, and the enemy's ranks constantly broken and shattered under the scorching fire of our men ; but fresh regiments of the Fed- erals came upon the field, Sherman's and Keyes' brigades ot Tyler's division, as is stated in their reports, numbering over six thousand bayonets, vchich had found a jjassage across the Run, about eight hundred yards above the Stone Bridge, threatened our right. Heavy losses had now been sustained on our side, both in numbers and in the personal worth of the slain. The 8th Georgia regiment had suffered heavily, being exposed, as it took and maintained its position, to a fire from the enemy, already posted within a hundred yards of their front and right, sheltered by fences and other cover. The 4th Alabama also suffered severely from the deadly fire of the thousands of muskets which the}'- so dauntlessly confronted under the im- mediate leadership of the chivalrous Bee himself. Now, however, with the surging mass of over fourteen thousand Federal infantry pressing on their front and under 106 THE FIRST TEAK OF THE WAR. the incessant fire of at least twenty ])ieces of artillery, witb the fresh brigades of Sherman and Keyes approaching — the latter already in musket range — our lines gave back, but under orders from General Bee. As our shattered battalions retired, the slaughter was de- plorable. They fell back in the direction of the Hobinson House, under the fires of Heintzelman's division on one side, Keyes' and Sherman's brigades of Tjder's division on the other, and Hunter's division in their rear, and w^ere compelled to engage the enemy at several points on their retreat, losing both officers and men, in order to keep them from closing in around them. Under the inexorable stress of the enemy's fire the retreat continued. The enemy seemed to be inspired with the idea that he had won the field ; the news of a victory was carried to the rear, and, in less than an hour thereafter, the telegraph had flashed the intelligence through all the cities hi the North, that the Federal troops were completing their victory, and premature exultations ran from mouth to mouth m Washington. If the enemy had observed the circumstances and character of this falling back of a portion of our lines, it would have been enough to have driven him in consternation from the field, "With the terrible desperation that had sustained them BO long in the face of fivefold odds and the most frightful losses, our troops fell back sullenly ; at every step of their re- treat staying, by their hard skirmishing, the flanking columns of the enemy. The retreat was finally arrested just in rear of the Robinson House by the energy and resolution of General Bee, assisted by the support of the Hampton Legion, and the timely arrival of Jackson's brigade of five regiments. A moment before. General Bee had been well-nigh overwhelmed by superior numbers. He approached General Jackson with the pathetic exclama- tion, " General, they are beating us back ;" to which the latter promptly replied, " Sir, we'll give them the bayonet." General Bee immediately rallied his over-tasked troops with the words, "There is Jackson standing like a stone wall. Let us determine to die here, and we will conquer." In the mean time, the crisis of tlie battle and the full devel- opment of the enemy's designs had been perceived by oui THE FIRST TKAK OF THE WAE. 107' generals. They were vet four miles away from the immediate field of action, having p.aced themselves on a commanding hill in rear of General Bonham's left, to observe the move- ments of the enemy. There could be no mistake now of the enemy's intentions, from the violent firing on the left and the immense clouds of dust raised by the march of a large body of troops from his centre. With the keenest impatience, General Beauregard awaited the execution of his orders ol the morning, which were intended to relieve his left flank by an attack on the enemy's flank and rear at Centreville. As the continuous roll of musketry and the sustained din of the artillery announced the serious outburst of the battle on our left flank, he anxiously, but confidently, awaited similar sounds of conflict from our front at Centreville. When it was too late for the effective execution of the contemplated movement, he was informed, to his profound disappointment, that his orders for an advance had miscarried. No time was to be lost. It became immediately necessary to depend on new combinations, and to meet the enemy on the field upon which he had chosen to give us battle. It was plain that nothing but the most rapid combinations and the most heroic and devoted coui'age on the part of our troops could retrieve the field, which, according to all military conditions, appeared to be positively lost. About noon, the scene of the battle was unutterably sub- lime. Not until then could one of the present generation, who had never witnessed a grand battle, have imagined such a spectacle. The hill occupied in the morning by Generals Beauregard, Johnston, and Bonham, and their staft's, placed the Mdiole scene before one — a grand, moving diorama. When the firing was at its height, the roar of artillery reached the hill like that of protracted thunder. For one long mile the whole valley was a boiling crater of dust and smoke. Occa- sionally the yells of our men, in the few instances in which the enemy fell back, rose al)ove the roar of artillery. In the dis- tan3e rose the Blue Ridge, to form the dark background of a most magnificent picture. The condition of the battle-field was now, at the least, dee- f»;^, perate. Our left flank was overpowered, and it became neces- sary to bring immediately up to their siipport the reserves not JSv 108 THE FIKST YEAR OF THE WAK. already in motion. Holmes' two regiments and battery ol artillery, under Captain Lindsey "Walker, of six guns, and Early's brigade, were immediately ordered up to support ou left flank. Two regiments from Bonliam's brigade, with Kem pcr's four six-pounders, were also called for, and Generals Ewell, Jones (D. R.), Longstreet, and Bonham were directed to make a demonstration to their several fronts to retain and engross the enemy's reserves, and any forces on their flank, and at and around Centreville. Dasliing on at headlong gallop. General Johnston and Gen- eral Beauregard reached the field of action not a moment too soon. They were instantly occupied with the reorganization of the heroic troops, whose previous stand in stubborn and patriotic valor has nothing to exceed it in the records of his- tory. It was now that General Johnston impressively and gallantly charged to the front, with the colors of the 4th Alabama regiment by his side. The presence of the two generals with the troops under fire, and their example, had the' happiest eflfect. Order was soon restored. In a brief and rapid conference, General Beauregard was assigned to the command of the left, which, as the younger officer, he claimed while General Johnston returned to that of the whole field. The battle was now re-established. The aspect of afiairs was critical and desperate in the extreme. Confronting the enemy at this time. General Beauregard's forces numbered, at most, not more than six thousand five hundred infantry and artillerists, with but thirteen pieces ol artillery, and two companies of Stuart's cavalry. The enemy's force now bearing hotly and confidently down on our position — regiment after regiment of the best-equipped men that ever took the field — according to their own oflicial history of the day, was formed of Colonels Hunter's and Heintzelman's divisions. Colonels Sherman's and Keyes' bri- gades of Tyler's division, and of the formidable batteries of Rickctts, Griffin, and Arnold regulars, and 2d Rhode Island, and two Dahlgren howitzers — a force of over twenty thou- sand infantry, seven companies of regular cavalry, and twent}"^ four pieces of improved artillery. At tlie same time, peril- ous, heavy reserves of infantry and artillery hung in the .distance, around the. Stone Bridge, Mitchell's, Blackburn's, and TEE FIEsT TEAR OF THE WAB. 109 Union Mill's Fords, visibly ready to fall upon us at any mo* nient. Fully conscious of tlie portentous disparity of force, General Beauregard, as he posted the lines for the encounter, spoke words of encouragement to the men to inspire their confidence and determined spirit of rcsietance. He urged them to the resolution of victory or death on the field. The men responded with loud and eager cheers, and the commander felt reassured of the unconquerable spirit of his army. In the mean time, the enemy had seized upon the plateau on M'hich Robinson's and the Henry houses* are situated — the position first occupied in the morning by General Bee, before advancing to the support of Evans — Ricketts' battery of six rifle guns, the pride of the Federalists, the object of their un- stinted expenditure in outfit, and the equally powerful regular light battery of Griffin, were brought forward and placed in immediate action, after having, conjointly with the battories already mentioned, played from former positions with destruc- tive effect upon our forward battalions. About two o'clock in the afternoon, General Beauregard gave the order for the right of his line, except his reserves, to advance to recover the plateau. It was done with uncommon resolution and vigor, and at the same time Jackson's brigade pierced the enemy's centre with the determination of veterans and the spirit of men who fight for a sacred cause ; but it suf- fered seriously. "With equal spirit the other parts of the line made the onset, and the Federal lines were broken and swept back at all points from the open ground of the plateau. Ral- lying soon, however, as they were strongly reinforced by fresh regiments, the Federals returned, and, by the weight of num- bers, pressed our lines back, recovered their ground and guns, and renewed the oflfensive. By this time, between half-past 2 and 3 o'clock, p. m., our reinforcements pushed forward, and directed by General John- ston to the required quarter, were at hand just as General Beauregard had ordered forward to a second effort, for the recovery of the disputed plateau, the whole line, including his * These houses were small wooden buildings, occupied at the time the one by the Widow Henry and the other by the free negro Robinson. 110 THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAE, reserve, which, at this crisis of the battle, the commander felt called upon to lead in person. This attack was general, and was shared in by every regiment then in the field, including the 6th (Fisher's) North Carolina regiment, which had just come lip. The whole open ground was again swept clear oi the enemy, and the plateau around the Henry and Eobinson houses remained finally in our possession, with the greater part of the Bicketts and Griffin batteries. This part of the day was rich with deeds of individual coolness and dauntless conduct, as well as well-directed, embodied resolution and bravery, but fraught with the loss to the service of the coun- try of lives of inestimable preciousness at this juncture. The brave Bee was mortally wounded at the head of the 4th Ala- bama and some Mississippians, in the open field near the Henry house ; and, a few yards distant, Colonel Bartow had fallen, shot through the heart. He was grasping the standard of his regiment as he was shot, and calling the remnants of his command to rally and follow him. He spoke after receiv- ing his mortal wound, and his words were memorable. To the few of his brave men who gathered around him he said, " Tliey have killed me, but never give up the field." The last com- mand was gallantly obeyed, and his men silenced the battery of wliich he died in the charge. Colonel Fisher had also been killed. He had fallen at the head of the torn and thinned ranks of his regiment. The conflict had been awfully terrific. The enemy had been driven back on our right entirely across the turnpike, and beyond Toung's Branch on our left. At this moment, the desired reinforcements arrived. Withers' ISth regiment of Cocke's brigade had come up in time to follow the charge. Kershaw's 2d and Cash's 8th South Carolina regiments ar- rived soon after Withers', and were assigned an advantageous position. A more important accession, however, to our forces was at hand. A courier had galloped from Manassas to report that a Federal army had reached the line of the Manassas Gap railroad, was marching towards us, and was then about three or four miles from our left flank. Instead, however, of the enemy, it was the long-expected reinforcements. Genera Kirby Smith, with some seventeen hundred infantry of El zey's brigade of the Army of the Shenandoah and Beckham'? THK FIRSl TEAK OF THE WAR. HI battery, had reachea Manassas, by railroad, at noon. His forces were instantly marched across the fields to the scene of action. The flying enemy had been rallied under cover of a strong Federal brigade, posted on a plateau near the intersection of the turnpike and the Sudley-Brentsville road, and was now making demonstrations to outflank and drive back our left, and thus separate us from Manassas. General Smith was in- structed by General Johnston to attack the right flank of the enemy, now exposed to us. Before the movement was com- pleted, he fell severely wounded. Colonel Elzey, at once tak- ing command, proceeded to execute it with promptness and vigor, while General Beauregard rapidly seized the opportu- nity, and threw forward his whole line. About 3.30 r. m., the enemy, driven back on their left and centre, and brushed from the woods bordering the Sudley road, soutli and west from the Henry house, had formed a line of battle of truly formidable proportions, of crescent outline, reaching, on their left, from the vicinit}^ of Pittsylvania (the old Carter mansion), by Matthew's and in rear of Dogan's, across the turnpike near to Chinn's house. The woods and fields were filled with their masses of infantry and their care- fully preserved cavalry. It was a truly magniticent, though redoubtable spectacle, as they threw forward in fine style, on the broad gentle slopes of the ridge occupied by their main lines, a cloud of skirmishers, preparatory for another attack. Colonel Early, who, by some mischance, did not receive orders until 2 o'clock, which had been sent him at noon, came on the ground immediately after Elzey, with Kemper's 7th Virginia, Hay's 7th Louit^iana, and Barksdale's 13th Missis- sippi regiments. Tl)is brigade, by the personal direction of General Johnston, was marched by the Holkham house, across the fields to the left, entirely around the woods through which Elzey had passed, and under a severe fire, into a position in line of battle near Chinn's house, outflanking the enemy's right. The enemy was making his last attempt to retrieve the day. He had re-formed to renew the battle, again extending his right with a still wider sweep to turn our left. Colonel Early was ordered to throw himself directly upon the right flank ol 112 THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. the enemy, supported by Colouel Stuart's cavalry and Beclv ham's battery. As Early formed his line, and Beclvliam'u pieces played upon the right of the enemy, Elze_y's brigade, Gibbons' 10th Yirginia, Lieut.-colonel Stuart's 1st Maryland, and Yaughan's 3d Tennessee regiments, and Cash's 8th and Kershaw's 2d South Carolina, Withers' ISth and Preston's 28th Yirginia, advanced in an irregular line, almost simultaneously. The charge made by General Beauregard in front, was sus- tained by the resolute attack of Early on the right flank and rear. The combined attack was too much for the enemy. He was forced over the narrow plateau made by the intersection of the two roads already mentioned. He was driven into the fields, where his masses commenced to scatter in all available directions towards Bull E.un. He had lost all the artillery which he had advanced to the last scene of the conflict; he had no more fresh troops to rally on, and there were no combi- nations to avail him to make another stand. The day was ours. Erom the long-contested hill from which the enemy had been driven back, his retreating masses might be seen to break over the fields stretching beyond, as the panic gathered in their rear. The rout had become general and confused ; the fields were covered with black swarms of flying soldiers, while cheers and yells taken up along our lines, for the distance of miles, rung in the eai-s of the panic-stricken fugitives. THE BOUT. Early's brigade, meanwhile, joined by the 19th Yirginia regiment, of Cocke's brigade, pursued the now panic-stricken fugitive enemy. Stuart, with his cavalry, and Beckham had also taken up the pursuit along the road by which the enemy had come upon the field that morning ; but, soon cumbered by prisoners who thronged the way, the former was unable to at- tack the mass of the fast-fleeing, frantic Federals, The want of a cavalry force of suflicient numbers made an efiicient pur- suit a military impossibility. But the pressure of close and general j)ursuit Avas not neces Siry to disorganize the flight of the enemy. Capt. Kempei pursued the retreating masses to within range of Cub Eun Bridge. Upon the bridge, a shot took effect upon the horses THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 113 3f a team that was crossing. The wagon was overturned di- rectly in the centre of the bridge, and the passage was com- pletelv obstructed. The Confederates continued to play their artillery upon the train carriages and artillery wagons, and these were reduced to ruins. Cannons and caissons, ambu- lances and train-wagons, and hundreds of soldiers rushed down the hill into a common heap, struggling and scrambling to cross the stream and get away from their pursuers. The retreat, the panic, the heedless, headlong confusion was soon beyond a hope. Officers with leaves and eagles on their shoulder-straps, majors and colonels who had deserted their comrades, passed, galloping as if for dear life. Not a iield-offi- cer seemed to have remembered his dnty, Tlie flying teams and wagons confused and dismembered every corps. For three miles, hosts of the Federal troops — all detached from their regiments, all mingled in one disorderly rout — were flee- ing along the road. Arm}' wagons, sutler's teams, and private carriages choked the passage, tumbling against each other amid :?louds of dust, and sickening sights and sounds. Hacks con- raining unlucky spectatoivs of the late affray were smashed like glass, and the occupants were lost sight of in the dehris. Horses, flying wildly from the battle-field, many of them in death agony, galloped at random forward, joining in the stam- pede. Those on foot who could catch them rode them bareback, as much to save themselves from being run over as to make quick time. Wounded men lying along the banks — the few either left on the field or not taken to the captured hospitals — appealed, with raised hands, to those who rode horses, begging to be lifted behind ; but few regarded such petitions. Then, the artillery, such as was saved, came thundering along, smashing and over- powering every thing. The regular cavalry joined in the melee, adding to its terrors, for they rode down footmen M-ith- out mercy. One of the great guns was overturned and lay amid the ruins of a caisson. Sights of wild and terrible agony met the eye everywhere. An eye-witness of the scene de scribes the despairing efforts of an artilleryman, who was run- ning between the ponderous fore and after wheels of his gun- carriage, hanging on with both hands and vainly striving to jump ujion the ordnance. The drivers were sj^urring the 114 THE FIEST TEAR OF THE WAK. Iiorses; he could not cling miicli longer, and a naore agonized expression never fixed the features of a drowning man. The carriage bounded from the roughness of a steep hill leading to a creek ; he lost his hold, fell, and in an instant the great wheels had crushed the life out of him. Tlie retreat did not slacken in the least until Centreville was reached. Tliere, the sight of the reserve — Miles's brigade — formed in order on the hill, seemed somewhat to reassure the van. The rally was soon overcome by a few sharp discharges of artillei-y, the Confederates having a gun taken from the en- emy in ])osition. The teams and foot-soldiers pushed on, passing their own camp and heading swiftly for the distant Potomac. The men literally screamed with rage and fright when their way was blocked up. At every shot, a convulsion, as it were, seized upon the morbid mass of bones, sinews, wood, and iron, and thrilled through it, giving new energy and action to its des])crate eiforts to get free from itself. The cry of " cf.valry" arose. Mounted men still rode faster, shouting out, " cavalry is coming." For miles the roar of the flight might be heard. Kcgro servants on led-horses dashed frantically past, men in nniforni swarmed by on mules, chargers, and even draught horses, which had been cut out of carts and wagons, and went on with harness clinging to their heels as frightened as their ridere. " We're wdiipped," " we're wdiipped," was the univer- sal cry. The buggies and light wagons tried to pierce the rear of the mass of carts, which were now solidified and moving on like a glacier ; while further ahead the number of mounted men increased, and the volume of fugitives became denser. For ten miles, the road over which the Grand Army had so ately passed southward, gay with unstained banners, and flushed with surety of strength, was covered with the frag- •ncnts of its retreating forces, shattered and panic-stricken in a single day. It is impossible to conceive of a more deplorable spectacle than was presented in Washington as the remnants of the army came straggling in. During Sunday evening, it had been sup- posed in the streets of the Federal city that its army had won ft decisive and brilliant victory. The elation was extreme. At each echo of the peals of the cannon, men were seen on the street leaping up and exclaiming — " There goes another hun- THE FIKST TEAK OF THE WAR. 115 dred of the d d rebels." The next morning the news of defeat was brought bj the tide of the panic-stricken fugitives. One of the boats from Alexandria came near being sunk by the rush of the panic-stricken soldiers upon its decks. Their panic ^ did not stop with their arrival in Washington. They rushed to the depot to continue their flight from Washington. The govern- ment was compelled to put it under a strong guard to keep ofl the fugitives who struggled to get on the Northern trains. Others fled wildly into the country. Not a few escaped across the Susquehanna in this manner, compelling the negroes they met to exchange their clothes with them for their uniforms. For four or five days, the wild and terror-stricken excitement prevailed. Many of the fugitives, with garments nearly torn from them, and covered with the blood of their wounds, thronged the streets with mutinous demonstrations. Others, exhausted with fatigue and hunger, fear and dismay upon their countenances, with torn clothing, covered with dust and blood, were to be seen in all quarters of the city, lying upon the pave- ments, cellar-doors, or any other spot that ofiered them a place for the repose which nature demanded. Many of them had nothing of the appearance of soldiers left except their be smeared and tattered uniforms. They did not pretend to ob serve any order, nor did their oflicers seem to exercise the leaet authority over them. Some recounted to horror-stricken au- diences the bloody prowess of the Confederate troops. The city of Washington was for days in trembling expectation of the ad- vance of the Confederate army, flushed with victory and intent upon planting its flag upon the summits of the Northern capital. We had, indeed, won a splendid victor}^, to judge from its fruits within the limits of the battle-field. The events of the battle of Manassas were glorious for our people, and were thought to be of crushing efl^ect upon the 77iorale of our hitherto confident and overweening adversary. Our loss was consider- able. The killed outright numbered 369 ; the wounded, 1,483 making an aggregate of 1,852. The actual loss of the enemy will never be known ; it may now only be conjectured. Their abandoned dead, as they were buried by our people where they fell, unfortunately were not enumerated, but many parts of the field were thick with their corpses, as but few battle-fields have f.ver been. The official reports of the enemy are expressly si- 116 THK FIKST YEAK OF THE WAR. lent on tliis point, but still afford iis data for an approximate estimate. Left almost in the dark, in respect to the losses of Hunter's and Ileintzclnian's divisions — first, longest, and most hotly engaged — we are informed that Sherman's brigade — Tyler's divisiqn — snfi'ered in killed, wounded, and missing, 609 ; that is about 18 per cent, of the brigade. A regiment of Franklin's brigade — Gorman's — lost 21 per cent. Griffin's (battery) loss was 30 per cent. ; and that of Keyes' brigade, which was so handled by its commander, as to be exposed to only occasional volleys from our troops, was at least 10 per cent. To these facts add the repeated references in the reports of the more reticent commanders, to the " murderous" fire to which they were habitually exposed — the "pistol range" vol- leys, and galling musketry, of ^yhich they speak, as scourging their ranks, and we are warranted in placing the entire loss of the Federalists at over 4,500 in killed, wounded, and prisoners, 28 pieces of artillery, about 5,000 muskets, and nearly 500,000 cartridges ; a garrison flag and 10 colors were captured on thr field or in the pursuit. Besides these, we captured 64 artillery horses, with their harness, 26 wagons, and much camp equipage, clothing, and other property, abandoned in their flight. The news of our great victory was received by the people of the South without indecent exultations. The feeling was one of deep and' quiet congratulation, singularly characteristic of the Southern people. A superficial observer would have judged Richmond, the Confederate capital, spiritless under ihe news. There were no bells rung, no bonfires kindled, no exul- tations of a mob, and none of that parade with which the ISTorth had exploited their pettiest successes in the opening of the war. But there was what superficial observation might not have apprehended and could not have appreciated — a deep, serious, thrilling enthusiasm, which swept thousands of hearts, which was too soknin for wild huzzas, and too thoughtful to be uttered in the eloquence of ordinary words. The tremulous tones of deep emotion, the silent grasp of the hand, the faces of men catching the deep and burning enthusiasm of unuttered feelings from each other, composed an eloquence to which words would have been a mockery. Shouts would have marred the solem- nity of the general joy. The manner of the reception of the news in liichmond was characteristic of the conservative and THE FIEST TEAR OF THE "WAE. 117 poised spirit of onr government and people. Tlie onlj national recognition of the victory was the passage of resolutions in the Provisional Congress, acknowledging the interposition and mercies of Providence in the affairs of the Confederacy, and recommending thanksgiving services in all the churches of the South on tlie ensuing Sabbath. The victory had been won by the blood of many of our best and bravest, and tlie public sorrow over the dead was called npon to pay particular tributes to many of our officers who had fallen in circumstances of particular gallantry. Among others, Gen. Bee, to whose soldierly distinction and lieroic ser- vices on the field justice was never fully done, until tliey were especially pointed out i^i the official reports, both of General Johnston and General P>eauregar/i, had fallen upon tlie field. The deceased general Avas a graduate of AVest Point. During the Mexican war, he had served with marked distinction, win- ning two brevets before the close of the war ; the last that of captain, for gallant and meritorious conduct in the storming of Chapultepec. His achievements since that time in wars among the Indians were such as to attract towards him the attention of his State ; and in his dying hand, on the field in wliich he fell, he gras]:»ed the sword which South Carolina had taken pride in presenting him. Colonel Francis S. Bartow, of Georgia, Avho had fallen in the same charge in which the gallant South Carolinian had received his death-wound, was chairman of the Military Com- mittee of the Provisional Congress, and that body paid a pub- lic tribute of more than usual solemnity and eloquence to his memory.* * An eloquent tribute was paid to the memory of Colonel Bartow in Con- gress by Mr. Mason, of Virginia, in which some interesting recitals were given of Colonel Bartow's short, but brilliant experiences of the camp. The following extract is indicative of a spirit of confidence, which was peculiarly characteristic of the officers and men alike of our army : " While in camp, and before the advance of Patterson's column into Vir- ginia, but while it yet hovered on the border in Maryland, watched closely by Johnston's army, I said, casually, to Colonel Bartow, ' The time is ap- proaching when your duties will call you to meet Congress at Richmond, and I look to the pleasure of travelling there with you.' He replied, ' I don't think I can go ; my duties will detain me here.' I told him that if a battle was fought between the two armies, it certainly was not then imminent, and I thought his ser^-ice in Congress, and especially as chairman of the Miiitarj 118 THE FIEST YEAR OF THE WAK. The results of the victory of Manassas were, on tlie first days of its full announcement, received in the South as indica- tive of a speedy termination of the war. The advance of our army on Washington was impatiently expected. ^A few days passed, and it became known to the almost indignant disap- pointment of the people, that our army had no thoughts of an advance upon the Northern capital, and was content to remain where it was, occuj)ying the defensive line of Bull liun. Much has been said and written in excuse of the palpable and great error, the perniciousness of which no one doubted after its effects were realized, of the failure of the Confederate army to take advantage of its victory, and press on to Wash- ington, where for days there was nothing to oppose them but Committee, would be even more valuable to the country in Congress, than in the field. After a pause, and with a beaming eye, he said : ' No, sir ; I shall never leave this army, until the battle' is fought and won.' And, afterwards, while the two armies lay in front of each other, the enemy at Martinsburg, and Johnston with his command at Bunker Hill, only seven miles apart — the enemy we knew numbered some twenty-two thousand men, while on our side we could not present against them half that number, and the battle hourly expected. His head-quarters under a tree in an orchard, and his shelter and shade from a burning sun the branches of that tree, and his table a camp chest — I joined him at dinner. Little is, of course, known of the views and purposes of a general in command, but it was generally understood that Johnston was then, to give the enemy battle, should he invite it. In conver- sation on the chances of the fight, I said to Bartow, ' of the spirit and courage of the troops I have no doubt, but the odds against you are immense.' His prompt reply was, ' they can never whip us. We shall not count the odds. We may be exterminated, but never conquered. I shall go into that fight with a determination never to leave the field alive, but in victory, and I know that the same spirit animates my whole command. How, then, can they whip us?' " Am I here to tell you how gallantly and truthfully he made that vow good on the bloody plain at Manassas, and how nobly the troops under his com- mand there redeemed the pledge made for them ? The ' battle was fought and won,' as he vowed at Bunker Hill, and he sealed in death his first promise in the field of war. Will you call tliis courage — bravery ? No, no. Bartow never thought of the perils of the fight. Bravery, as it is termed, rnay be notliing more than nervous insensibility. With him the incentives to the battle-field were of a far different type. The stern and lofty purpose to free his country from the invader ; the calm judgment of reason, paramount on its throne, overruling all other sensations ; resolution and will combined to the deed, the consequence to take care of itself. There is the column of true majesty in man. Such was Bartow, and such will impartial history record Slim He won immortality in Fame, even at the threshold of her temple.'' THE riRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 119 an utterly demoralized army, intent upon a continuance of their flight at the approacli of our forces. In his official re- port, General Johnston insists that "no serious thoughts " were ever entertained of advancing against the capital, as it was considered certain that the fresh troops within the works were, in number, quite sufficient for their defence; and that if not, General Patterson's army would certainly reinforce them soon enough. This excuse takes no account of the utterly demor- alized conditi()n of the Northern forces at Washington ; and the further explanations of the inadequate means of our army in annuunition, provisions, and transportation are only satis- factory excuses, why the toil of pursuit was not undertaken immediately after the battle, and do not answer with complete satisfaction the inquiry M'hy an advance movement was not made witliin the time when means for it might have been fur- nislied, and the enemy was still cowed, dispirited, and trembling for his safety in the refuges of Washington. The fact is, that our army had shown no capacity to under- stand the extent of their fortunes, or to use the unparalleled opportunities they had so bravely won. They had achieved a victory not less brilliant than that of Jena, and not more profit- able than that of Alma. Instead of entering the gates of Sebastopol from the last-named field, the victors preferred to wait and reorganize, and found, instead of a glorious and un- resisting prey, a ten months' siege. The lesson of a lost opportunity in the victory of Manassas had to be repeated to the South with additions of misfortune. For months the world was to witness our largest army in the field oonfronting in idleness and the demoralizations of a sta- tionary camp an enemy already routed within twenty miles of his capital; giving him the opportunity not only to repair the shattered columns of his Grand Army, but to call nearly half a million of new men into the field ; to fit out four extensive armadas ; to fall upon a defenceless line of sea-coast ; to open a new theatre of war in the West and on the Mississippi, and to cover the frontiers of half a' continent with his armies and iiavies. 120 THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAJS. INCIDENTS OF THE BATTLE. A friend, Captain McFarland, wlio did service in the battle of Manassas as a private in Captain Powell's Virginia cavalry, has furnished us with a diary of some thrilling incidents of the action. We use a few of them in Captain McFarland's words : " At 8 A. M. we proceeded to take position as picket guard and videttes in a little clump of timber, about three quarters of a mile, directly in front of the Confederate earth-works at Mitchell's Ford. The picket consisted of twelve infantry and three cavalry. Having secured our horses, we lay down in the edge of the timber, and Avith our long-range rifles commenced to pick off such of the enemy as were sufficiently presumptuous to show themselves clear of the heavy timber which crowned the distant hill. In a short time, the enemy, being very much annoyed by our sharp shooting, ran out from the woods, both in our front and on the left, two rifle pieces, and threw their conical shells full into our covert. The pickets, however, were not dislodged. But two of our horses became frantic from the whistling and explosion of the shells, and we found it necessary to remove them. Just at this moment, a detachment of the enemy's cavalry came dashing down the road, but halted before they came ^\ithin range of the muskets of the infantry. The enemy then com- menced a heavy firing with artillery on our earth-works at the ford, and we retired beyond Bull Riin. In the mean time, the thunder of battle was heard on our left, and from the heights above the stream could be seen the smoke from the scene of the con- flict, which, as it shifted position, showed the varying tide of conflict. Occa- sionally, a small white cloud of smoke made its appearance above the horizon, indicating the premature explosion of a bomb-shell ; while, at painfully regu- lar intervals, the dull, heavy report of the enemy's thirty-two pounder told us that its position remained unassailed. In the mean time, the infantry in the trenches at Mitchell's Ford were impatiently awaiting the vainly looked-for advance upon our breastworks. The enemy threw their shells continuously into this locality, biit during the whole day killed only three men, and these were standing \ip contrary to orders. This position was commanded by the brave Brigadier-general M. L. Bonham, of South Carolina. About 11 o'clock, the cavalry were ordered to ride to the main field of action, in the vicinity of the Stone Bridge. We set off at a dashing gallop, throwing down fences and leaping ditches, in our eagerness to participate in ihe then raging conflict. In crossing an open field, I was, with Lieutenant Timberlake, riding at the head of a detachment, consisting of Captain Wick- ham's light-horse troop, and Captain E. B. Powell's company of Fairfax cav- alry, when a shell was thrown at the head of the column from a rifle piece stationed at the distance of not less than two miles, and as, hurrying onward we leaned down upon our horses, the hurtling missile passed a few inchi a above us, burying itself harmlessly in the soft earth on our left. On arriving near the scene of action, we took position below the Lewis bouse, under cover of an abruptly rising liill. Here we remained stationary TriE First year of the wak. 121 for about an hotir. The enemy in the mean time, knowing onr position, en- deavored to dislodge us with their shells, which for some time came hissing over our heads, and exploded hannlessly in our rear. Finally, however, they lowered their guns sufhcisntly to cause their shot to touch the crest of the hill, and ricochet into our very midst, killing one man, besides wounding sev- eral, and maiming a number of horses. But we still retained our position amid tlui noise of battle, which now became terrific. From the distance came the roar of the enemy's artillery, while near by our field-pieces were incessantly vomiting their showers of grape and hurling their small shell into the very teeth of the foe. At intervals, as regiments came face to face, the unmistakable rattle of the musketry told that the small- firms of our brave boys were doing deadly work. At times, we could hear wild yells and cheers which rose above the din, as our infantry rushed on to the charge. Then followed an ominous silence, and I could imagine the fierce but quiet work of steel to steel, until another cheer brought me knowledge of the baffled enemy. Meanwhile, our reinforcements were pouring by, and pressing with enthuel- astic cheers to the battle-field. On the other hand, many of our wounded were borne past us to the rear. One poor fellow was shot through the left cheek ; as he came past me, he smiled, and muttered with difficulty, " Boys, they've spoilt my beauty." He could say no more, but an expression of acute pain flitted across his face, and shaking his clenched fist in the direction of the foe, he passed on. Another came by, shot in the breast. His clothing had been stripped froin over his ghastly wound, aud at every breath, the warm life- V)lood gushed from his bosom. I rode u]i to him, as, leaning on two compan- ions, he stopped for a moment to rest. " M_y poor fellow," said I, " I am sorry to see you thus." " Yes ! yes," was his reply, " they've done for me now, but my fatlier's there yet ! our army's there yet ! our cause is there yet !" and. raising himself from the arms of his companions, his pale face lighting up like a sunbeam, he cried with an enthusiasm I shall never forget, "and Liberty's there yet !" But this spasmodic exertion was too much for him, a purple flood poured from his Avound, and he swooned away. I was enthusiastic before, but I felt then as if I could liave ridden singly and alone upon a regiment, regard- less of all but my country's cause. Just then, the noble Beauregard came dashing by with his staflf, and the cry was raised, that part of Sherman's battery had been taken. Cheer after cheer went up from our squadrons. It was taken up and borne along the whole battle-field, until the triumphant shout seemed one grand cry of victory. At this auspicious moment, our infantry who had been supporting the batteries were ordered to rise and charge the enemy with the bayonet. With terrific yells, they rushed upon the Federal legions with an impetuosity which could not be withstood, and terror-stricken, they broke and fled like deer from the ;ry of wolves. Our men followed hard upon them, shouting, and driving their bayonets iip to the hilt in the backs of such of the enemy as by ill luck chanced to be hindmost in the flight. At this moment, one of Gen. Beauregard's aids rode rapidly up and spoke to Col. Badford, commander of our regiment of Virginia cavalry, who imme- diately turned to us and shouted, " Men, now is our time !" It was the hap- piest moment of my life. Taking a rapid gallop, We crossed Bull Run about thros-quarters of a mile below the Stone Bridge, fl,nd made for the rear of the 122 THE FIRST YKAK OF THE WAR. now flying enemy. On we dashed, with the speed of the wind, our horses wild with excitement, leaping fences, ditches, and fallen trees, nntil we came opposite to the house of Mrs. Spindle, which was used by the enemy as a hos pital, and in front of which was a small cleared space, the fence which inclosed it running next the timber. Leaping this fence, we debouched from the wooda with a demoniacal yell, and found ourselves on the flank of the enemy. The remnant of Sherman's battery was passing at the time, and thus we threw ourselves between the main body of the enemy and Sherman's battery, which, supported by four regiments of infantry, covered the re- treat of the Federal army. Our regiment had divided in the charge, and our detachment now consisted of Capt. Wickham's cavalry, Capt. E. B. Powell's troop of Fairfax cavalry, the Radford Eangers, Capt. Radford, the whole led by Col. Radford. Our onslaught was terrific. With our rifles and shot-guns, we killed forty- nine of the enemy the first discharge, then drawing our sabres, we dashed upon them, cutting them down indiscriminately. With several others, I rode up to the door of the hospital in which a num- ber of terrified Yankees had crowded for safety, and as they came out, we shot them down with our pistols. Happening at this moment to turn round, I saw a Yankee soldier in the act of discharging his musket at the group stationed around the door. Just as he fired, I wheeled my horse, and endeavored to ride him down, but he rolled over a fence which crossed the yard. This, I forced my horse to leap, and drawing my revolver, I shouted to him to stop ; as he turned, I aimed to fire into his face, but my horse being restive, the ball intended for his brain, only passed through his arm, which he held over his head, and thence through his cap. I was about to finish him with another shot (for I had vowed to spare no prisoners that day), when I chanced tc look into his face. He was a beardless boy, evidently not more than seventeen years old. I could not find it in my heart to kill him, for he plead piteously ; so seizing him by the collar, and putting my horse at the speed, leaping the fence, I dragged him to our rear-guard. Just at this moment, I saw that the enemy had unlimbered two field-pieces, and were preparing to open upon us. Capt. Radford was near me, and I pointed to the cannon. He dashed the spurs into his horse, and shouted, " Charge the battery." But only twenty of our men were near, the rest having charged the rear of the main body of the flying Federals. Besides this, the cannon were supported by several regiments of infantry. We saw our situa- tion at a glance, and determined to retreat to the enemy's flank. We were very close to the battery, and as I wheeled my horse, I fired a shot from my revolver at the man who was aiming the piece. He reeled, grasped at the wheel, and fell. I had thrown myself entirely on the left side of my horse, my foot hanging iipon the croup of the saddle, and the grape consequently passed over me. Capt. Radford was in advance of me, his horse very unruly, plunging furiously. As I rode up, he uttered a cry, and put his hand to his side. At this instant, we came to a fence, and my horse cleared it with a bound. I turned to look for Capt. Radford, but he was not visible. A grape-shot had entered just above the hip, and tearing through his bowels, passed out of his left side. He fell from his steed, which leaped the fence and ran off. The captain was found afterwards by some of Col. Munford's cavalry. He lived till sunset, and died in great agony. By this discharge i TTTK FIRST TEAlt OF THE WAR. 123 were killed, besides Capt. R., a lieutena it, t^vo non-commissioned officers, and five privates. Having gained tlie flank of the enemy, I dismounted and fired for some time with my ritic into the passing columns. Suddenly I found myself entirely alone, and remounting, I rode back until I found Col. Munford's column drawn up in the woods. Not being able to find my own company, I returned to the pursuit. Kemper's battery had dashed upon the horror-stricken foe, and opened on their rear, which was covered ny the remainder of Slierman's battery, includ- ing the thirty-two pound rifle-gun, known as " Long Tom." The liavoc pro- duced was terrible. Drivers were shot from their horses, torn to pieces by the shells and shot. Cannon were dismounted, wheels smashed, lioreea maimed, and the road strewn with the dead. This completed the rout, and the passage of Cub Run was blocked by wagons and caissons being driven Into the fords above and below the bridge, and upon the bridge itself. The route taken by the flying enemy was blocked with dead. I saAv Yan- kees stone-dead, without a wound. They had evidently died from exhaustion or sheer fright. Along the route we found the carriage of Governor Sprague of Rhode Island, and in it his overcoat, with several baskets of champagne. The necks of the bottles were snapi)ed in a trice, and we drank to our victory. But our delight and pride can scarcely be imagined, when we found "Long Tom," whose whistling sliells had been falling continually among us from early dawn. It was hauled back to Bull Run amid the shouts of our men, and particularly Kemper's artillery boys, who acted so well their part in causing the Federals to abandon it. ** ***-*** Tije following morning, in the dark drizzling rain, I rode over the field of battle. It was a sorrowful and terrible spectacle to behold, without the stirring excitements of battle to relieve the horrors of the ghastly heaps of dead that strewed the field. At a distance, some por- tions of the field presented the appearance of flower-gardens, from the guy colors of the uniforms, turbans, &c., of the dead Zouaves. The faces of many of the (lead men were already hideously swollen, blotched, and blackene«i, from the eSccts of the warm, wet atmosphere of the night. In a little clump of second-growth pines, a number of wounded had crawled for shelter. Many of our men were busy doing them offices of kindness and humanity. There was one New York Zouave who appeared to be dying ; his jaws were working, and he seemed to be in great agony. I poured some wu ter down his throat, which revived him. Fixing his eyes upon me, with a look of fierce hatred, he muttered, " You d d rebel, if I liad a musket I would blow out your infernal soul." Another pale youth was lying in the wet undergrowth, shivering in the rain, and in the cold of approaching death. He was looking wistfully towards a large, warm blanket spread across my saddle, and said in his halting, shivering breath, "I'm so cold." I spread the blanket over him, and left him to that end of his wretchedness which cou d aot be far distant. 9 124 THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAK. CHAPTEK V. Kesiilfs of the Manassas Battle in the North. — General Seott. — McClellan, " the Vonng Niipoleon." — Energy of the Federal Government. — The Bank Loan. — Eventa in the West. — The Missouri Campaign. — Governor Jackson's Proclamation. — Sterling Price. — Tiie Affair of Booneville. — Organization of the Missouri forces. — The Battle OF Carthagb. — General McCulioch. — The Battle of Oak JIill. — Death of General Lyon. — The Confederate Troops leave Missouri. — Operations in Northern Mi.>*souri. — • General Harris. — General Price's march towarils the Missouri. — The Affair at Dry- wood Creek.— The Battle of Lexington. — The Jayhawkers. — The Victory of " the Five Hundred." — General Price's Achievements. — His Retreat and the necessity for it.— Operations of General Jeff. Thompson in Southeastern Missouri. — The Affair of Frederiektown. — General Price's passage of the Osage River. — Secession of Missouri from the Federal Union. — -Fremont superseded. — The Federal forces in Missouri de- moralized. — General Price at Springfield. — Review of his Campaign. — Sketch o» Geneual Price. — Coldness of the Government towards him. The Northern mind demanded a distinguished victim for its humiliating defeat at Manassas. The people and government of the North had alike flattered themselves with the expecta- tion of possessing Richmond by midsummer ; tlieir forces were said to be invincible, and their ears wei'e not open to any re- port or suggestion of a possible disaster. On the night of the 21st of July, the inhabitants of the Northern cities had slept upon the assurances of victory. It would be idle to attempt a description of their disappointment and consternation on the succeeding day. The Northern newspapers were forced to the acknowledg- ment of a disaster at once humiliating and terrible. They as- signed various causes for it. Among these were the non-arri- val of General Patterson and the incompetence of their general officers. The favorite explanation of the disaster was, how- ever, the premature advance of the army under General Scott's direction ; although the fact was, that the advance movement had been undertaken from the pressure of popular clamor in the North. The clamor was now for new commanders. It came from the army and the people indiscriminately. The commander- in-chief. General Scott, was said to be impaired in his faculties by age, and it was urged that he should be made to yield tht THE FIRST YEAR OF TUE WAR. 125 command to a younger and more efficient spirit. The railing accusations against General Scott were made by Nortliorn journals that had, before the issue of Manassas, declared him to be the " Greatest Captain of the Age," and Avithout a rival among modern military chieftains. It was thought no allevia- tion of the matter that he was not advised, as his friends repre- sented, of the strength of " the rebels." It was his business to have known it, and to have calculated the result. General Scott cringed at the lash of popular indignation with a humiliation painful to behold. lie was not great in misfortune. In a scene with President Lincoln, the incidents of which were related in the Federal House of Representatives by General Richardson, of Illinois, he declared that he had acted " the coward," in yielding to popular clamor for an ad- vance movement, and sought in this wretched and infamous confession the mercy of demagogues who insulted his fallen fortunes. The call for a " younger general" to take command of the Federal forces was promptly responded to by the appointment of General G. B. McClellan to the command of the Army of the Potomac. The understanding on both sides of the line was, that General Scott was virtually superseded by the Fed- eral government, so ftir as the responsibility of active service was concerned, though he retained his nominal position and pay as lieutenant-general and commander-in-chief of the Army of the United States. The unfortunate commander experienced the deep humiliation and disgrace of being adjudged incompe- tent by the North, whose cause he had unnaturally espoused, and whose armies he had sent into the field as invaders of the laud of his birth. The retribution was righteous. No penal- ties of fortune were too severe for a general who had led or directed an army to trample upon the graves of his sires and to despoil the homes of his kindred and country. General McClellan had been lifted into an immense popu- larity by his successes in Northwestern Virginia, in the affair of Rich Mountain and the pursuit of General Garnett, which Northern exaggeration had transformed into great victories. For weeks he had been the object of a " sensation." His name was displayed in New York, on placards, on banners, and in newspaper headings, with the phrase, " McClellan — two victo- 126 THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. rie& in one day." The newspapers gave him the title of "the Young Napoleon," and in the Sontli the title was derisively perpetuated. lie was only thirty -five years of age — small in stature, with black hair and moustaches, and a remarkablo military precision of manner. He was a pupil of West Point, and had been one of the American Military Commission to the Crimea. When appointed major-general of volunteers by Governor Dennison, of Ohio, he had resigned from the army, and was superintendent of the Ohio and Mississippi railroad, a dilapidated concern. There is no reason to suppose that the man who was appointed to the responsible and onerous com- mand of the Army of the Potomac was any thing more than the creature of a feeble popular applause. A leading Southern newspaper had declared, on the an- nouncement of the complete and brilliant victory at Manassas, " the independence of the Confederacy is secured." There could not have been a greater mistake. The active and elastic spirit of the North was soon at work to repair its fortunes ; and time and oj)portunity were given it by the South, not only to recover lost resources, but to invent new. The government at Washington displayed an energy which, perhaps, is the most lemarkable phenomenon in the whole history of tlie war: it multiplied its armies ; it reassured the confidence of the peo- ple ; it recovered itself from financial straits which were al- most thought to be hopeless, and while the politicians of the South were declaring that the Federal treasury was bankrupt, it negotiated a loan of one hundred and fifty millions of dollars from the banks of New York, Philadelphia, and Boston, at a rate but a fraction above that of legal interest in the State of New York. While the North was thus recovering its resources on the frontiers of Virginia and preparing for an extension of the campaign, events were transpiring in the West which were giving extraordinary lessons of example and encouragement to the Southern States bordering on the Atlantic and Gulf. These events were taking place in Missouri. The campaign in that State was one of the most brilliant episodes of the war one of the most remai'kable in history, and one of the most fruitful in the lessons of the almost miraculous achievements of a people stirred by the ent-liusiasm of revolution. To • THE FIRST YEAE OF THE WAR. 127 the direction of these events we must now divert our narra- tive. XHE MISSOURI CAMPAIGN. Tlie riots in St. Lonis, to whicli reference has ah-eady been made, were the inauijnratini; scenes of the revohition in Mis- souri. The Federal government liad commenced its pro- gramme of subjugation with a high hand. On the lOtli of May, a brigade of Misi:oiiri militia, encamped under the law of the State for organizing and drilling the militia, at Camp Jackson, on the western outskirts of St. Louis, had been forced to surrender unconditionally on the demand of Captain (after- wards General) Lyon of the Federal Army, Id the riots excited by the Dutch soldiery in St, Louis, numbers of citizens had been murdered in cold blood ; a reign of terror was established ; and the most severe measures were taken by the Federal authority to keep in subjection the excitement and rage of the people. St. Louis was environed by a line of military posts; all the arms and ammunition in the city were seized, and the houses of citizens searched foi concealed muni- tions of war. The idea of any successful resistance of Mis- Bouri to the Federal power was derided. " Let her stir," said the Lincolnites, " and the lion's paw will crush out her paltry existence." The several weeks that elapsed bet\teen the fall of Fort Sumter and the early part of June were occupied by the Seces- sionists in ]\[issouri with efforts to gain time by negotiation and with preparations for tine contest. At length, finding further delay impossible, Governor Jackson issued liis procla- mation, calling for fifty thousand volunteers. At the time of issuing this proclamation, on the 13th of June, 1861, the gov- ernor was advised of the purpose of the Federal authorities to send an effective force from St. Louis to Jefferson City, the 3apital of the State, He determined, therefore, to move at once with the State records to Booneville, situated on the south bank of the Missouri, eighty miles above Jeffei-son City. Be- fore his departure from the latter place, he had conferred upon Sterling Price the position of major-general of the army of Mis- eouri, and had also appointed nine brigadier-generals. These \ 128 THE FIEST TEAR OF THK WAR. were Generals Parsons, M. L. Clark, John B. Clark, Slack,^ Harris, Stein, Rains, MeBride, and Jeff. Thompson. There was at the time of the issuance of this proclamation no military organization of any description in the State. Per haps, there had not been a militia muster in Missouri for twelve or fifteen years, there being no law to require it. The State was without arms or ammunition. Such was her condition, when, with a noble and desperate gallantry that might have put to blush forever the stale and common excuse of " help- lessness" for a cringing submission to tyranny, the State of Missouri determined alone and unaided to confront and resist the whole power of the North, and to fight it to the issue of liberty or death. Orders were issued by General Price, at Jefferson City, to the several brigadiers just appointed, to organize their forces as rapidly as possible, and send them forward to Booneville and Lexington. On the 20th June, General Lyon and Colonel F, P. Blair, with seven thousand Federal troops, well drilled and well armed, came up the river by vessels, and debarked about five miles below Booneville. To oppose them there the Missourians had but about eight hundred men, armed with ordinary rifles and shot-guns, without a piece of artillery, and with but little ammunition. Lyon's command had eight pieces of cannon and the best improved small-arms. The Missourians were com- manded by Colonel ]f[arniaduke, a graduate of West Point. Under the impression that the, forces against him were incon- siderable, he determined to give them battle ; but, upon ascer- taining their actual strength, after he had formed his line, he told his men they could not reasonably hope to defend the position, and ordered them to retreat. This order they refused to obey. They declared that they would not leave the ground without exchanging shots with the enemy. The men remained on the field, commanded by their captains and by Lieutenant- colonel Horace Brand. A fight ensued of an hour and a half or more ; the result of which was the killing and wounding of upwards of one hundred of the enemy, and a loss of three Ilissourians killed and twenty-five or thirty wounded, several of whom afterwards died. "The barefoot rebel militia," as they w^ere sneeringly denjuiinated,, exhibited a stubbornness oo m THK FIKST YKAR OF THE WAR. 129 .he field of their first fight wliicli greatly surprised their enemy, and, overpowered by his numbers, they retreated in safety, il not in, order. Governor Jackson and General Price arrived at Boonevillp. from Jefiferson City, on the 18th June. Immediately after Ins arrival, General Price was taken down with a violent sickness, which threatened a serious termination. On the 19th, he was placed on board a boat for Lexington, one of the points at which he had ordered troops to be congregated. This accounts for liis absence from the battle of Booneville. A portion of the Missouri militia engaged in the action, from two hundred and fifty to three hundred in number, took up their line of march for the southwestern jwrtion of the State, under the direction of Governor Jackson, accompanied by the heads of the State Dejiartment and by General J. B. Clark and General Parsons. They marched some twenty-five miles after the fight of the morning, in the direction of a plaee called Cole Cam]>, to which point it happened that General Lyon and Colonel Blair had sent from seven hundred to one thousand of their "Home Guard," with a view of intercept- ing the retreat of Jackson. Ascertaining this fact, Governor Jackson halted his forces for the night within twelve or fifteen miles of Camp Cole. Luckily, an expedition for their relief had been speedily organized south of Cole Camp, and was at that very moment ready to remove all obstructions in the way of their journey. This expedition, consisting of about three hundred and fifty men, was commanded by Colonel O'Kane, and was gotten up, in a few hours, in the neighborhood south of the enemy's camp. The so-called " Home Guards," con- sisting almost exclusively of Germans, were under the command of Colonel Cook, a brother of the notorious B. F. Cook, who was executed at Charlestown, Virginia, in 1859, as an accom- plice of John Brown, in the Harper's Ferry raid. Colonel O'Kane approached the camp of the Federals after the hour of midnight. They had no pickets out, except in the direction of Jackson's forces, and he consequently succeeded in comjtletely surprising them. They were encamped in two large barns, and were asleep when the attack was made upon them at day- break. In an instant, they were aroused, routed, and nearly Annihilated ; two hundred and six of them being killed, a still 130 THE FIKST YKAR OF THE WAR. larger immljer wounded, and upwards of one hundred talvcn prisoners. Colonel Cook and the smaller portion of his com- mand made their escape. The Missourians lust four men killed and fifteen or twenty wounded. They captured three hundred and sixty-two muskets; thus partially supplying themselves with hayonets, the weapons for which they said they had a particular use in the war against their invaders. Of this suc- cess of the Missouri "rebels" there was never any account published, even in the newspapers of St. Louis. Having been reinforced by Col. O'Kane, Governor Jackson proceeded with his reinforcements to Warsaw, on the Osage river in Benton county, pursued by Col. Totten of the Federal army, with fourteen hundred men, well armed and having sev- eral pieces of artillery. Upon the receipt of erroneous infor- mation as to the strength of Jackson's forces, derived from a German who escaped the destruction of Camp Cole, and per haps, also, from the indications of public sentiment in the country through wdiich he marched, Col. Totten abandoned the pursuit and returned to the army under Gen. Lyon, at Booneville. Jackson's forces rested at Warsaw for two days, after which they proceeded to Montevallo, in Vernon county, where they halted and remained for six days, expecting to form a junction at that point with another column of their forces that had been congregated at Lexington, and ordered by Gen. Price to the southwestern portion of the State. That column was under the command of Brigadier-generals Rains and Slack, and consisted of some twenty-five hundred men. Col. Prince, of the Federal army, having collected a force of four or five thousand men from Kansas, with a view of cu.tting them oflf. Gen. Price ordered a retreat to some jjoint in the neighborhood of Montevallo. Gen. Price, still very feeble from his recent severe attack of sickness, started with one hun- dred men to join his forces. His object was to draw his army away from the base-line of the enemy, the Missouri river, and to gain time for the organization of his army. The column from Lexington marched forward, without blankets or clothing of any kind, without wagons, without tents, and, indeed, Avith- out any thing usually reckoned among the comforts of an army. They had to rely for subsistence on the country through which they passed — a friendly country it is true, but they had but THE rdtST TEAR OF THE "WAR. 131 little time to partake of hospitalities on their inarch, being closely pursued by the enemy. On the night of the 3d of J ulj, the column from Lexington formed a junction with Jackson's forces in Cedar county. That night, under orders from Governor Jackson, all the men belonging to the districts of brigadier-generals then present, reported respectively to their appropriate brigadier-generals for the purpose of being organized into companies, battalions, regiments, brigades, and divisions. The result was, that about two thousand reported to I3rig.-gen. Ilains, six hundred to Brig.-gen. Slack, and about five hundred each to Brigadier- generals J. B. Clark and Parsons; making an entire force of about three thousand six hundred men. Some five or six hun- dred of the number were, however, entirely unarmed ; and the common rifie and the shot-gun constituted the weapons of the armed men, with the exception of the comparatively few who carried the muskets taken in the fight at Cole Camp. The army was organized by 12 o'clock, the 4th of Jul}-, and in one hour thereafter, it took up the line of march for the southwest. Before leaving, Governor Jackson received intelligence that he was pursued by Gen. Lyon, coming down from a northeast- erly direction, and by Lane and Sturgis from the northwest, their supposed object being to form a junction in his rear, with a force sufliciently large to crush him. He marched his com- mand a distance of twenty-three miles by nme o'clock on the evening of the 4th, at which hour he stoj)i)ed for the night. Be- fore the next morning, he received authentic intelligence that a column of men, three thousand in number, had been sent out from St. Louis on the southwestern branch of the Pacific rail- road for Rolla, under the command of Gen. Sigel, and that they had arrived at the town of Carthage, immediately in his front, thus threatening him with battle in the course of a few hours. Such was the situation of the undisciplined, badly-armed Mis- souri State troops, on the morning of the 5th of July ; a large Federal force in their rear, pressing upon them, while Sigel in front intercepted their passage. But they were cheerful and buoyant in spirit, notwithstanding the perilous position in which they were placed. They resumed their mai-cli at two o'clock on the morning of the 5th, and proceeded, without halting, a dis- tance of ten miles. At 10 o'clock a. m., they approached a 133 THE FIKST YEAK OF THE WAR. creek within a mile and a half of the enemy, whose forces were in line of battle under Sigel, in the open prairie, upon the brow of a hill, and in three detachments, numbering nearly three thousand men. THE BATTLE OF CAETHAGE. The Missourians arrived on their first important battle-field with a spirit undiminished by the toil of their march and their sufferings. The men were suffering terribly for water, but could find none, the enemy being between them and the creek. The line of battle was formed with about twelve hundred men as infantry, commanded by Brigadier-generals J. B. Clark, Par- sons, and Slack, and the remainder acting as cavalry under Brig- adier-general Rains, the whole under the command of Govern- or Jackson. The infimtry were formed, and placed in line of battle six hundred yards from the enemy, on the brow of the hill fronting his line. The cavalry de|)loyed to the right and left, with a view of charging and attacking the enemy on his right and left wing, while the infantry were to advance from the front. Sigel had eight pieces of cannon. The Missourians had a few old pieces, but nothing to charge them with. While their cavahy were deploying to the right and left, Sigel's bat- teries opened u]|^n their line with grape, canister, shell, and round-shot. The cannon of the Missourians replied as best they could. They M^ere loaded with trace-chains, bits of ii-on, rocks, &c. It was difficult to get their cavalry up to the posi- tion agreed upon as the one from which a general charge should be commenced upon the foe. Sigel would turn his batteries upon them whenever they came in striking distance, causing a stampede among the horses, and subjecting the troops to a gallino; fire. This continued to be the case for an hour and thirty-five minutes. Owing to the difficulty of bringing the horses into position, the brigadier-generals ordered the infantry to charge the enemy, the cavahy to come up at the same time in supporting distance. They advanced in double-quick, with a shout, when the enemy retreated across Bear Creek, a wide and deep stream, and then destroyed the bridge over which they crossed. Sigel's forces retreated along the bank of the creek a distance of a mile or a mile and a half, and formed THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 133 behind a skirt of timber. Tlie Missourians had to cross an open Held, exposed to a raking fire, before they could reach the corner of the woods, beyond which the enemy had formed. A number of the caraby dismounted and acted with the infantry, thus bringing into active use nearly all the small-arms brought upon the field. Tliey rushed to the skirt of timber, and opened vigorously upon the eneni}' across the stream, wlio returned the fire with great spirit. For the space of an hour, the fire on each side was incessant and fierce. The Missourians threw a quantity of dead timber into the stream, and comuK/iCcd crossing over in large numbers, when the enemy again ;.ban- doned iiis position and started in the direction of Ca) ^'aage, eight miles distant. A running fight was kept up all t!.o way to Carthage, Sigel and his forces being closely pursued hy the men whom they had expected to capture without a fight. At Carthage, the enemy again made a stand, forming an ambus- cade behind houses, wood-piles, and fences. After a severe en- gagement there of some forty minutes, he retreated under cover of night in the direction of Holla. He was pursued some three or four miles, till near nine o'clock, when the Missourians were called back and ordered to collect their wounded. They camped at Carthage that night (July 5), on the same ground that Sigel had occupied two nights before. The little a^niy had done a brilliant day's work. They had fought an ene. iy from 10 A. M. to 9 p. M., killing and wounding a considerable number of his men, and driving him twelve miles on the roaie of his retreat. They afterwards ascertained that he continued to march all night, and did not halt till eleven o'clock the next day, nearly thirty miles from Carthage. The casualties of the day cannot be given with accuracy. The Missourians lost be- tween foity and fifty killed, and from one hundred and twen- ty-five to one hundred and fifty wounded. The loss of the en- emy was estimated at from one hundred and fifty to two hun- dred killed, and from three hundred to four hundred wounded — his killed and wounded being scattered over a space of upwards of ten miles. The Missourians captured several hundred mus- kets, nhich were given to their unarmed soldiers. The victory of Caithage had an inspiriting effect upon the Missourians, and taught the enemy a lesson of humility which he did not soon forget. It awakened the Federal commanders in Missouri to 134 THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. a sense of the magnitude of the work before them. When Sigel first got sight of the forces drawn up against him, he assured his men that tliere would be no serious conflict. He said they were coming into line like a worm fence, and that a few grape, canister, and shell thrown into their midst, would throw them into confusion, and put them to flight. This ac- complished, he would charge them with his cavalry and take them prisoners, one and all. But after carefully observing their movements for a time, in the heat of the action, he changed his tone. " Great God," he exclaimed, " was the like ever seen ! Raw recruits, unacquainted with war, standing their ground like veterans, hurling defiance at every discharge oi the batteries against them, and cheering their own batteries whenever discharged. Such material, properly worked up, would constitute the best troops in the world." Such was the testimony of Gen. Sigel, who bears the reputation of one of. the most skilful and accomplished oflicers in the Federal ser- vice. The next day, July 6th, General Price arrived at Carthage, accompanied by Brigadier-general McCulloch of the Confed- ei-ate army, and Major-general Pierce of the Arkansas State forces, with a force of nearly two thousand men. These im- portant arrivals were hailed with joy by the Missourians in camp. They were happy to see their beloved general so far restored to health as to be able to take command ; and the presence of the gallant Generals McCulloch and Pierce with an eftective force gave them an assurance, not to be mistaken, of the friendly feeling and intention of the Confederate govern- ment towards the State of Missouri. On the 7th, the forces at Carthage, under their respective commands, took up the line of march for Cowskin Prairie, in McDonald county, near the Indian nation. It turned out that Lyon, Sturgis, Sweeny, and Sigel, instead of pursuing their foe, determined to form a junction at Springfield. The forces of Price and McCulloch remained at Cowskin Prairie for sev- eral days, organizing for the work before them. General Price received considerable reinforcements ; making the whole nu- merical strength of his command about ten thousand. More than one half of the number, ht^wever, were entirely unarmed. Price, McCulloch, and Pierce decided to march upon Spring- THE FIRST TEAE OF THE WAR. 133 field, and attack the enemy where he had taken his position in force. To that end, their forces were concentrated at Cassville in Barry connty, according to orders, and from that point they proceeded in the direction of Springfield, ninety miles distant, General McCnlloch leading the advance. Upon his arrival at Crane Creek, General McCnlloch was informed by his pickets that the Federals had left Springfield, and were advancing npon him in large force, their advanced gnard being then encamped within seven miles of him. For several days there was considerable skirmishing between the pickets of the two armies in that locality. Tn conseqncnce of information of the immense snpcriority of the enemy's force, General McCnlloch, after consnltation with the general officers, determined to make a retrograde movement. lie regarded the unarmed men as incumbrances, and thonglit tlie unorganized and undisciplined condition of both wings of the army sug- gested the wisdom of avoiding battle with the discij)lined enemy upon his own ground, aiid in greatly superior num- bers. General Price, however, entertained a difl:erent opinion of the strength of the enemy. TTe favored an immediate ad- vance. This policy being sustained by his officers, (General Price requested McCulloch to loan a number of arms from his command for the use of such of the Missouri soldiers as Avere unarmed, believing that, with the force at his command, he could whip the enemy. General ^[cCullocli declined to com- ply with the request, being governed, no doubt, by the same reasons which had induced him to decline the responsibility of ordering an advance of the whole command. On the evening of the day upon which this consultation occurred. General McCulloch received a general order from General Polk, commander of the Southwestern division of the Confederate army, to advance upon the enemy in Missouri. lie immediately held another consnltation with the officers of the two divisions, exhibited the order he had received, and offered to march at once upon Springfield, upon condition that he should have the chief command of the army. General Price replied, that he was not figliting for distinction, l)ut for the defence of the liberties of his countrymeu, and that it mattered but little what position he occupied. He said that be 136 THE FIRST YEAE OF THE WAE. was ready to surrender not only the command, but his life as a sacrifice to the cause. He accordingly did not hesitate, with a magnanimity of which history presents but few examples in military leaders, to turn over the command to General McCul- loch, and to take a subordinate position in a contest in which, from the first, he was assured of victory. On taking command. General McCulloch issued a general order, that all the unarmed men should remain in camp, and all those furnished with arms should get their guns in condition for service, provide themselves with fifty rounds of ammunition', and get in readiness to take up the line of march by twelve o'clock at night. The army was divided into three columns : the first commanded by General McCulloch, the second by General Pierce, and the third by General Price. They took up the line of march at the hour named, leaving the baggage train behind, and proceeded in the direction of Springfield. The troops were in fine condition and in excellent spirits, ex- pecting to find t^ie enemy posted about eight miles from their camp, on the Springfield road, where the natural defences are very strong, being a series of eminences on either side of the road. They arrived at that locality about sun'rise, carefully approached it, and ascertained that the enemy had retired the previous afternoon. They followed in pursuit that day a dis- tance of twenty -two miles, regardless of dust and heat-; twelve miles of the distance without a drop of water — the troops hav- ing no canteens. The weary army encamped on the night of the 8th at Big Spring, one mile and a half from Wilson's Creek, and ten miles and a half south of Springfield. Their baggage trains having been left behind, and their beef cattle also, the troops had not eaten any thing for twenty-four hours, and had been supplied with only half rations for ten days previous. In this exigency, they satisfied the cravings of hunger by eating green corn, without a particle of salt or a mouthful of meat. The wardrobe of the soldiers on that night was thus humorously described by one of the number: " We had not a blanket, not a tent, nor any clothes, except the few we had on our backs, and four-fifths of us were barefooted. Billy Barlow's dress at a circus would be decent in comparison with that of almost any one, from the major-general down to the humblest private." THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 137 On the next* day, the army moved to AYilson's Creelr, and there took up camp, that they miglit be convenient to several large fields from which they could supply themselves with green corn, which, for two days, constituted their only repast. Orders were issued by General McCulloch to the troops to get ready to take up the line of march to Springfield by nine o'clock p. M., with a view of attacking the enemy at four dif- ferent points at daybreak the next morning. His effective force, as stated by himself, was five thousand three hundred infantry, fifteen pieces of artillery, and six thousand horsemen, armed with flint-lock muskets, rifles, and shot-guns. After receiving the order to march, the troops satisfied theii hunger, prepared their guns and ammunition, and got up a dance before every camp-fire. When nine o'clock came, in consequence of the threatening appearance of the weather, and the want of cartridge-boxes to protect the ammunition of the men, the order to march was countermanded, the commanding general hoping to be able to move early the next morning. The dance before the camp-fires was resumed and kept up until a late hour. THE BATTLE OF OAK HILL. The next morning, the lOtli of August, before sunrise, the troops were attacked by the enemy, who had succeeded in gaining the position he desired. General Lyon attacked them on their left, and General Sigel on their right and in their rear. From each of these points batteries opened u])on them. General McCulloch's command was soon ready. The Mis- sourians, under Brigadier generals Slack, Clark, McBride, Parsons, and Rains, were nearest the position taken by Gen- eral Lyon with his main force. General Price ordered them to move their artillery and infantry rapidly forward. Advancing a few hundred yards, he came u]>on the main body of the enemy on the left, commanded b^ General Lyon in person The infantry an'i artillery, which General Price had ordered to follow him, came up to the number of upwards of two thou- sand, and opened upon the. enemy a brisk and well-directed fire. Woodrufl^'s battery opened to that of the enemy under Captain Totten, and a constant cannonading was kept up be* 138 THK FIEST TEAP. OF THE WAE. tween these batteries during the action. Ilebert's regiment of Louisiana vohmteers and Mcintosh's regiment of Arkansas mounted riflemen were ordered to the front, and, after passing the battery, turned to the left, and soon engaged the enemy witli the regiments deployed. Colonel IMcIntosh dismounted his regiment, and the two marched up abreast to the fence around a large corn-field, where they met the left of the enemy already posted. A terrible conflict of small-arms took place here. Despite the g.alling fire poured upon these two regiments, they leaped over the fence, and, gallantly led by their colonels, drove the enemy before them back upon the main body. During this time, the Missourians, under General Price, were nobly sustaining themselves in the centre, and were hotly engaged on the sides of the height upon which the enemy was posted. Some distance on the right. General Sigel had opened his battery upon Churchiirs and Green's regiments, and had gradually made his way to the Springfield road, upon each sidb of which the Confederates were en camped, and had established their battery in a strong position. General McCuUoch at once took tM-o companies of the Louisi- ana regiment which were nearest to him at the time, and marched them rapidly from the front and right to the rear, with orders to Colonel McLitosh to bring up the remainder. When they arrived near the enemy's battery, they found that Reid's battery had opened upon it, and that it was already in confusion. Advantage was taken of this, and soon the Louisianians gallantly charged upon the guns and swept the cannoneers away. Five guns were here taken, and Sigel's forces completely routed. They commenced a rapid retreat with a single gun, pursued by some companies of the Texas regiment and a portion of Colonel Major's Missouri regiment of cavalry. In the pursuit, many of the enemy were killed and his last gun captured. Having cleared their riglit and rear, it became necessary for the Confederate forces to direct all their attention to the centi-e, where General Lyon was pressing upon the Missourians with all his strength. To this point, Mcintosh's regiment under Lieutenant-colonel Embry, and Churchill's regiment on foot, Gratiot's regiment, and McTlae's battalion, were sent to their aid. A terrible fire of musketry was now kept up along the whole line of the hill THE FmST TEAR OF THE WAR. 1^0 opon wliicli the enemy was posted. Masses of infant ly fell back and again rushed forward. The summit of the liill was covered witli thedead and the wounded. Both sides were fight ing with desperation for the field. Carroll's and Green's regi- ments, led gallantly by Captain Bradfute, cliarged T<»tten's battery ; but the whole strength of the enemy were immedi- ately in tlie rear, and a deadly fire was opened npon them. At this critical moment, when the fortunes of the day seemed to be at the turning point, two regiments of General Pierce's brigade weie ordered to march from their position, as reserves, to 8U])port the centre, llcid's battery was also ordei'cd to move forward, and the Louisiana regiment was again culled into action on the left of it. The battle then became general, and probably, says General McCulloch, in his official roj)ort, "no two oi:)posing forces ever fought with greater despei-ation; inch by inch the enemy gave way, and were driven from tlieir position. Totten's battery fell back — Missourians, Arkansans, Louisianians, and Tcxans pushed forward — the incessant roll of musketry was deafening, and the balls fell tliick as hail- stones ; but still our gallant Southerners pushed onward, and, with one wild yell, broke upon the enemy, pushing them back, and strewing the ground with their dead. Nothing could Avith- Btand the impetuosity of our final charge. The enemy fled, and could not again be rallied." Thus ended the battle of Oak Hill, or of Wilson's Creek, as Gen. Sigel called it in his official report to the Federal author- ities. It lasted about six hours. The force of the enemy was stated at from nine to ten thousand, and consisted for the most part of well-disciplined, well-armed troops, a large portion ot them belonging to the old United States army. Tliey were not prepared for the signal defeat which tliey suffered. Tlieir loss was supposed to be about two thousand in killed, wounded, and prisoners. They also lost six pieces of artillery, soveial hun- dred stand of small-arms, and several of tlieir standards. Ma- jor-general Lyon, their chief-in-command, was killed, and many of their officers were wounded — some ot them high in rank. Gen. McCulloch, in his official report, stated the entire loss on the part of his command at two hundred and sixty-five killed, eight hundred wounded, and thirty missing. Of these, the Missourians, according to Gen. Price's report, lost one huu- 10 140 ' THE FIRST YEAK OF THE WAK dred and fifty-six killed, and five hundred and seventeen wounded. The victory was won hy the determined valor of each divi sion of the army. The ^roops from Texas, Arkansas, and Loui siana bore themselves with a gallantrj^ characteristic of thei. respective States. The. Missouri troops were mostly undisci- plined, but they had fought with the most desperate valor, never failing to advance when ordered. Kepeatedly, during the action, they retired from their position, and then returned to it with increased energy and enthusiasm — a feat rarely per- formed by undisciplined troops. The efficiency of the double- barrel shot-gun and the walnut-stock rifle, was abundantly demonstrated — these being the only arms used by the Mis- souriuns i^i this fight, with the exception of the four hundred muskets captured from the enemy on the two occasions already named. Gen. Lyon, at the head of his regulars, was killed in an at- tempt to turn the wing mainly dei'ended by the arms of the Missourians. He received two small rifle-balls or buckshot in the heart, the one just above the left nipple, the other imniedi ately below it. He had been previously wounded in the leg His surgeon came in for his body, under a flag of truce, after the close of the battle, and Gen. Price sent it in his own wagon. But the enemy, in his flight, left the body unshrouded in Spring- field. The next morning, August 11th, Lieut. -coL Gusravus Elgin and Col. R. H. Mercer, two of the members of Brigadier- general Clark's stafif, caused the body to be properly pre])ared for burial. He was temporarily iutei'red at Springfield, in a metallic coffin procured by Mrs. Phelps, wife of John S. Phelps, a former member of the Federal Congress from that district, and ]iow an ofiicer in the Lincoln arm3\ A few days after- wards, the body was disinterred and sent to St. Louis, to await the order of his relatives in Connecticut. The death of Gen. Lyon was a serious loss to the Federals in Missouri. He was an able and dangerous man — a man of the times, who appreciated the force of audacity and quick decision in a revolutionary war. To military education and talents, he united a rare energy and promptitude. No doubts or scruples unsettled his mind. A Connecticut Yankee, without a trace of chiva.b'ic feeling or personal sensibility — one of those whc THE FIRST YEAR OP THE WAR. 141 enbmit to insult with indifforence, yet are brave on the Geld — he was this exception to the politics o** the late regular army of the United States, that he was an unmitigated, undisguised, and fanatical Abolitionist. Shortly after the battle of Oak Hill, the Confederate army returned to the frontier of Arkansas, Generals McCulloch and Price having failed to agree upon the plan of campaign in Missouri. In northern Missouri, the bold and active demonstrations of Gen. Harris had made an important diversion of the enemy in favor of Gen. Price. These demonstrations had been so suc- cessfully made, that they diverted eight thousand men from the sui>port of Gen. Lyon, and held them Jiorth of the river until after the battle of Oak Hill, thus making an important contribution to the glorious issue of that contest. The history of the war presents no instance of a more heroic determination of a people to accomj^lish their freedom, than that exhibted by the people of northern Missouri. Occupying that portion of the State immediately contiguous to the Federal States of Kansas, Iowa, and Illinois, penetrated by two lines oi railroads, intersecting at right angles, dividing the country north and south, east and west — which lines of railroads were seized and occupied by the enemy, even before the commence- ment of hostilities ; washed on every side by large, navigable rivers in possession of the enemy; exposed at every point to the inroads of almost countless Federal hosts, the brave people of northern ^lissouri, without preparation or organization, did not hesitate to meet the alternative of war, in the face of a foe confident in his numbers and resources. On the 21st June, 1861, a special messenger from Governor lackson overtook, at Paris, Monroe county, Thomas A. Harris, who was then en route as a private soldier to the rendezvous at Booneville. The messenger was the bearer of a commission by which Thomas A. Harris was constituted Bri miles, in twenty-eight hours, he united his command with Gen. Price in time to par- THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 14:3 ticipateiii the memorable battle of Lexington. To follow Gen. Price's command, to that battle-field we must now turn. Late iu August, Gen. Price, abandoned by the Confederate forces, took up his line of march for the Missouri river, with an armed force of about four thousand five hundred men, and seven pieces of cannon. lie continued to receive reinforce- ments from the north side of the Missouri river. Hearing that the notorious trio of Abolition bandits, Jim Lane, Montgomery, and Jenison, were at Fort Scott, with a ma- rauding force of sevei'al thousand, and not desiring them to get into his rear, he detoured to the left from his course to the Missouri river, marching directly to Fort Scott for the purpose of driving them up the river. On the 7th of September, he met with Lane about fifteen miles east oi Fort Scott, at a stream called Drywood, where an engagement ensued which lasted for an hour and a half, resulting in the complete rout of the enemy. Gen. Price then sent on a detachment to Fort Scott, and found that the enemy had evacuated the place. He continued his march in the direction of Lexington, where there was a Federal army strongly intrenched, under the command of Col. Mulligan. Gen. Fremont, who had been appointed by the Federal gov- ernment to take command in the Missouri department, had in- augurated the campaign with a brutality towards his enemy a selfish splendor in his camp, and a despotism and corruption more characteristic of an Eastern satrap than an American commander in the nineteenth century. He had published a proclamation absolutely confiscating the estates and slave property of " rebels," which measure of brutality was vastly pleasing to the Abolitionists of the North, who recognized the extinction of negro slaver}' in the South as the essential object of the war, but was not entirely agreeable to the government at Washington, which was not quite ready to declare the extrem- ity to which it proposed to prosecute the war. On the 10th of September, just as General Price was about to encamp with his forces for the day, he learned that a de- tachment of Federal troops were marching from Lexington to Warrensburg to seize the funds of the bank in that place, and to arrest and plunder the citizens of Jolmson county, in ac- cordance with General Fremont's proclamation and instruc 144 THE FIKSr YKAR OF THK WAR. tioiis. Although his men were greatly fatigued bj several days' continuous and rapid inarching, General Price deter- mined to press forward, so as to surprise the enemy, if pos- sible, at Warrensburg. After resting a few hours, he resumed his march at sunset, and continued it without intermission till two o'clock in the morning, when it became evident that the infantry, very few of whom had eaten any thing for twenty- four hours, could march no further. He then halted them, and went forward with the greater portion of his mounted men, till he came, about daybreak, within view of Warrensburg, where he ascertained that the enemy had hastily fled about midnight, burning the bridges behind him. A heavy rain commenced about tlie same -time. This circumstance, coupled with the fact that his men had been fasting for more than twenty-four hours, constrained General Price to abandon the pursuit of the enemy that day. His infantry and artillery having come up, he encamped at Warrensburg, where the citizens vied with each other in feeding his almost famished soldiers. A violent storm delayed the march next , morning till the hour of ten o'clock. General Price then pushed rapidly for- ward, still hoping to overtake the enemy. Finding it impos- sible to do this with his infantry, he again ordered a detach- ment of mounted men to move forward, and placing himself at their head, continued the pursuit to within two and a half miles of Lexington, where he halted for the night, having learned that the enemy's forces had all gone within the city. THE BATTLE OF LEXINGTON. About daybreak the next morning, a sharp skiripJsh took place between the Missouri pickets and the enemy's outposts. A general action was threatened, but General Price, being un- willing to risk an engagement when a short delay would make Buccess, in his estimation, perfectly certain, fell back two or three miles, and awaited the arrival^f his infantry and cavalry. These having come up, he advanced upon the town, driving in the Federal pickets, until he came within a short distance of the city. Here the enemy's forces attempted to make a stand, but they were speedily driven from every position, and com THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 145 pelled to take shelter within their intrenchments. The enemy haviii<^ strongly fortified the college building, the Missourians tools tlieir position within easy range of it, and opened a brisk fire from Bledsoe's and Parsons' batteries. Finding, after snnset, tliat his ammunition, the most of which liad been left behind in the march from Spiinglield, was nearly exhausted, and tliat his men, most of whom had not eaten any thing in thirty-six hours, required rest and food, General Price with- drew tt) the Fair Ground, and encamped there. His ammuni- tion wagons liaving been at last brought uj), and large rein- forcements having come in, he again moved into town on tlie 18th, and commenced the final attack upon the enemy's works. Brigadier-general Rains' division, occupied a strong position on the east and northeast of the fortifications, from which position an effective cannonading was kept up on the enemy by Bledsoe's battery, ajid another battery commanded by Capt. Churchill Clark, of St. Louis. General Parsons took his posi- tion southwest of the works. Skirmishers and sharp shooters were sent forward from both of these divisions to harass and fatigue the enemy, and cut thoni off from water on tlie north, east, and south of the college, and did great service in the ac- complishment of the purposes for which they were detached. Colonel Congreve Jackson's division, and a part of General Stein's, were posted near General Rains and General Pai'sons as a reserve. Shortly after entering the city on the 18th, Colonel Rives, who commanded the fourth division in the absence of General Slack, led his regiment and Colonel Hughes' along the river bank to a point immediately beneath and west of the fortifica- tions, General McBride's command and a portion of General Harris's having been ordered to reinforce him. Colonel Rives, in order to cut off the enemj-'s means of escape, proceeded down the bank of the river to capture a steamboat whicli was lying immediately under their guns. Just at this moment, a heavy fire was opened upon him from a large dwelling-house, known as Anderson's house, on the summit of the bluff, which the enemy was occupying as a hospital, and from which a white flftg was flying. Several companies of General Harris's com- mand and the soldiers of the fourth division, who had won much distinction in previous battles, immediately rushed upoD 146 THE FIRST YEAR OF THE "WAE. and took the place. The important position thus secured was witiiin one hundred and twenty-live yards of the enemy's in- trcnclimcnts. A company from Cok)nel Hughes' regimen then took possession of the boats, one of which M'as freighted with valuable stores. General McBride's and General Harris's divisions meanwhile stormed and occupied the bluft's immedi- ately north of Anderson's house. The position of these heights enabled the assailants to harass the enemy so greatlj^, that^ resolving to regain them, he made upon the house a successful assault, and one, said General Price, which would have been honorable to him had it not been accompanied by an act of savage barbarity, the cold-blooded and cowardly murder of three defenceless men who had laid down their arms, and sur- rendered themselves as prisoners. The position thus retaken by the enemy was soon regained by the brave men who had been driven from it, and was thenceforward held by them to the very end of the contest. The heights on the left of Anderson's house were fortified hj our troops with such means as were at their command. On :he morning of the 20th, General Price caused a number of hemp bales to be transported to the river heights, where mov- Ablc breastworks were speedily constructed out of them The demonstrations of the artillery, and particularly the continued advance of the hempen breastworks, attracted the attention and excited the alarm of the enemy, who made many daring attempts to drive back the assailants. They were, however, repulsed in every instance by the unflinching courage and ^xed determination of men lighting for their homes. The kimpen breastworks, said General Price, were as efficient as the cotton bales at New Orleans. In these severe encounters, McBride's and Slack's divisions, and Colonel Martin Green and his command, and Colonel Boyd and Major Winston and their commands, were warmly commended for their gallant conduct. About two o'clock in the afternoon of the 20tli, and after fifty-two hours of continuous fighting, a white flag was dis- played by the enemy on that part of his works nearest to Coh Green's pc«it' )n, and shortly afterwards another was displayed opposite to Colonel Rives' position. General Price immedi ately ordered a cessation of all firing, and sent forward his TfiE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 147 itaff officers to nscnrtain the object of tlie fla^^ and to open •legotiations with the enemy, if ^uch should he liis desire. It was agreed tliat the P'ederal forces should lay down their arm and suriender themselves prisoners of war. The entire loss of the Missourians in tiiis series of battles was b'jt twenty-five killed and seventy two wounded. The encf./yV, loss was considerably larger, but cannot be stated here v.ith accuracy. The visible fruits of the victory to the Misroiirians were great: about three thousand five hundreC prisoners — among whom were Cols. Mulligan, Marshall, Pea- body, White, Grover, Major Van Horn, and one hundred and eigliteen other commissioned officers; five pieces of artillery and two mortars; oVer tliree thousand stand of infantry arms, a large number of sabres, about seven hundred and fifty horses, man}^ sets of cavalry ec]uij)ments, wagons, teams, some ammu- nition, more than $100,000 worth of commissary stores, and a large amount of other property. In addition to all tliis. General P:;:'e obtained the restoration of the great seal of the State, of the public records, and about $900,000 of which the bank at Lexington had been robbed, in accordance with Fremont's in- structions. General Price caused the money to be returned a* once to the bank. In his official report of the battle of Lexington, Genera. Price paid a high compliment to the command that had achieved such rich and substantial fruits of victory. "This victory," he wrote, " has demonstrated tlie fitness of our citizen soldiery for the tedious operations of a siege, as well as for a dashing charge. They lay for fifty-two hours in the open air, without tents or covering, regardless of the sun and rain, and in the very presence of a Avatchful and desperate foe, manfully repelling every assault and patientlj'- awaiting my orders to storm the fortifications. No general ever commanded a braver o better army. It is composed of the best blood and bravest men of Missouri." During the siege, quite a number of citizens came in from the neighboring country, and fought, as they expressed it, "on their own hooks." A participator in the battle tells an anecdote of an old man, about sixty years of age, who came up daily from his farm, with his walnut-stock rifle and a basket of pro- visions, and went to work just as if he Avere engaged in hauling 148 THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. rails or some otliei* necessary labor of his farm. He took liia position beliind a large sti^iip upon the descent of the hill on M'hicli the fortification was constructed, where he lired with deadly aim during each day of the siege. When the surrender was made, and the forces under Colonel Mulligan stacked their arms. General Price ordered that ihey were not to he insulted by word or act, assigning as the reason therefor, that they had fought like brave men, and were enti- tled to be treated as such. When Colonel Mulligan surren- dered his sword, General Price asked him for the scabbard. Mulligan replied that he had thrown it away. The general, upon receiving his sword, returned it to hitn, saying, he dis- liked to see a man of his valor without a sword. Mulligan re- fused to be paroled, upon the ground that his government did not acknowledge the Missourians as belligerents. While await- ing his exchange, Colonel Mulligan and his wife became the guests of General Price, the general surrendering to them his carriage, and treating them with the most civil and obliging hospitality. The captive colonel and his lady were treated by all the officers and soldiers of the Missouri army with a courtesy and kindness which they seemed to appreciate. After the first day's conflict at Lexington, while General Price was encamped at the Fair Grounds near the city, await- ing reinforcements and preparing the renewal of the attack, an episode occurred at some distance from the city, in which the Missourians again had the satisfaction of inflicting a terrible chastisement upon the bandits of the Lane and Montgomery organization. Gen. Price was informed that four thousand men under Lane and Montgomery were advancing from the direction of St. Joseph, on the north s'de of the Missouri river, and Gen. Stur- gfs, with fifteen hundred cavalry, was also advancing from the Hannibal and St. Joseph railroad, for the purpose of relieving the forces under Mulligan. About twenty-five hundred Mis- sourians, under the immediate command of Col. Saunders, were, at the same time, hurrying to the aid of Gen. Price, from the same dii-ection with the Lane and Montgomery Jayhawk- ers; and having reached the run at Blue Mills, tliirtj'- miles above Lexington, on the 17th September, crossed over their force, except some five hundred men, in a ferry-boat. While THE FIRST TEAK OF THE WAR. 149 the remainder were waiting to cross over, the Jayhawkera attacked tlie five liundred Missourians on the north bank of the river. The battle raged furiously for one hour on the river bottom, which was heavily timbered and in many places covered with water. The Missourians were armed with only shot-guns and rifles, and taken by surprise : no time -was given them to call back any portion of their force on the south side of the river ; but they were from the counties contiguous to Kansas, accustomed in the border wars since 185-1 to almost monthly fights Avitli the Kansas " Jayhawkers," under Lane, and were fired witli the most intense hatred of him and of them. Gen. D. R. Atchison, former President of the United States Senate, and well known as one of the boldest leaders of the State Eights party in Missouri, had been sent from Lexington by Gen. Price to meet our troops under Col. Saunders, and hasten them on to his army. He was with the five hundred, on the north side of the river, when they were attacked, and by his presence and examjJe cheered them in the conflict. Charging the "Jayhawkers," with shouts of almost savage ferocity, and fighting with reckless valor, the Missourians drove the enemy back a distance of ten miles, the conflict be- coming a hand-to-hand fight, between detached parties on both sides. At length, unable to support the fearful fire of the Missourians at the short distance of forty yards, the enemy broke into open flight. The loss of the Jayhawkers was very considerable. Their official report admitted one hundred and fifty killed and some two hundred wounded. The entire loss of the Missourians was five killed and twenty wounded. The intelligence of this brilliant victory of "the five hundred," was received with shouts of exultation by Price's army at Lexington, On the second day after the battle of Blue Mills, Col. Saun- tlol. Taylor, were ordered by General Price t ' fall back upon the a2:)proach of the enemy; but in leaving the town they encountered Fremont's body-guard, three times THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 153 tlieir own number, armed witli Colt's rifles nnd c »mmanded by Col. Zafi:;onji. A conflict ensued, in wliicli fifty of the ';nemy were killed, and twenty-five captured, including a major. Tlie loss of the Missourians was one killed and three wounded. At Pineville, General Price made preparations to receive Fremont, determined not to abandon Missouri vithuut a battle. His troops were enthusiastic and confident of success, notwitli- standing the fearful superiority of numbers against them. They Avere in dail}' expectation of being led by their com- mander into the greatest battle of the war, wlien they received the unexpected intelligence that Fremont had been superseded as commander of the Federal forces. This event had the cff'ect of demoralizing the Federal forces to such an extent, that their numbers would have availed them nothinc; in a fiirht with their determined foe. The Dutch, who were greatly attached to Fremont, broke out into oj^en mutiny, and the acting ofli- cers in command saw that a retreat from SpringfiJJ Avas not only a wise precaution, but an actual necessity. They accord- ingly left that town in the direction of Rolla, and were pur- sued by Gen. Price to Oceola. From Occola, Gen. Price fell back to Springfield, to forage his army and obtain sujiplies; and here, for the present, we must leave the historj-of his cam- paign. We have now traced that history to a period about the first of December. From the 20tli of June to the 1st of December, General Price's anny marched over 800 miles, averaging ten thousand men during the time. "What they accomplished, the reader will decide for himself, upon the imperfect sketch here given. They fought five battles, and at least thirty skirmishes, in some of which from fifty to hundreds M'ere killed on one side or the other. iS'ot a week elapsed between engagements of some sort. They started without a dollar, without a wagon or team, with- out a cartridge, without a bayonet-gun. On the first of Sep- tember, they had about eight thousand bayonet-guns, fifty pieces of cannon, four hundred tents, and many other articles needtal in an army ; for nearly all of which they were indebted ' to their own strong arms in battle and to the] rodignlity of the enemy in providing more than he could take care of in his campaign. Notwithstanding the great exposure to which the Missouri 154 TRE FIRST TEAK OF THE WAR. troops were suhjected, not fifty died of disease during tlieir six months' campaign, and bnt few were on tlie sink list at the close of it. The explanation is, that the troops were all the time in motion, and thus escaped the camp fever and other diseases that prove so fatal to armies standing all the time in a de- fensive position. SKETCH OF GENERAL PRICE. The man who had condncted one of the most wonderful campaigns of the war — Sterling Price — was a native of Vir- ginia, lie was born about the year 1810 in Prince Edward county, a county whieli had given birth to two other military notabilities — General John Coffee, the "right-hand man" of General Jackson in his British and Indian campaigns, and General Joseph E. Johnston, already distinguished as one of the heroes of the present war. Sterling Price emigrated to Missouri, and settled^ in Charlton county, in the interior of that State, in the year 1830, pursu- ing the quiet avocations of a farmer. In the year 1844, Mr. Price was nominated by his party as a candidate for Congress, and was elected by a decided majority. lie took his seat in December, 1845 ; but having failed to receive the party nomination in the following spring, he resigned his seat and returned home. His course in this respect was dictated by that conscientious integrity and high sense of honor which have ever distinguished him in all the relations of life. He argued that his defeat was caused either by dissatisfaction with his course on the part of his constitu- ents, or else by undue influences which had been brought to bear upon the people by ambitious aspirants for the seat, who could labor to a great advantage in their work in supplanting an opponent who was attending to his duties at a distance from them. If the former was the case, he was unwilling to mis- represent his constituents, who, he believed, had the right to instruct him as to the course he should pursue; if the latter, his self-respect would not allow him to serve a people who had rejected him without cause, while he was doing all in his power to advance their interests. At the time of Mi. Price's retirement from Congress, hostili- THK FIRST YEAR OK THK WAR, 155 ties had broken out between tlie United States and Mexico, and volunteers from all parts of the Sontli Avere flocking to the defence of their country's flag. Mr. Jefl'erson Davis, of Mis- sissippi, bred a soldier, who, like Mr. Price, was serving his first term in Congress, resigned his seat about the same time, and was soon marcliing at the head of a Mississippi regiment to the field, from which he was destined to return loaded with many honors. So, too, did a brave Missouri regiment call to its head her own son, wlio had just defied his civil robes to enter a new and untried field of duty and honor. The regi- ment to which Col. Price was attached was detailed for duty in what is now the Torritorj'- of New Mexico. It was by his own arms that that province was subdued, though not with- out several brilliant engagements, in which he displayed the same gallantry that has so distinguished him in the present contest. Soon after the close of the Mexican war, a violent political excitement broke out in Missouri. The slavery agitation had '•eceived a powerful impetus by the introduction into Con- gress of tlic AVilmot Proviso and other sectional measures, whose avowed object was to exclude the South from any portion of the territory which had been acquired princij)ally by the blood of Southern soldiers. The pei>ple of the South became justly alarmed at the spread of Abolitionism at the Xorth, and no people were more jealous of any encroachment upon the rights of the South than the citizens of Missouri, a majority of whose leading statesmen were as sound on the slavery' question as those of Virginia or South Carolina. In order to cause Col. Benton, who had become obnoxious to a large portion of the Democratic party by his course on the Texas question, the Wilniot Proviso, and other measures of public policy, to resign his seat, and for the purpose of casting the weight of the State against the surging waves of Abolitionism, a series of resolu- tions, commonly known as the " Jackson resolutions," waa introduced into the Senate at the session of 1848-0, by Clai- borne F. Jackson, the present governor of Missouri, which passed both houses of the General Assembly. These resolu- tions were substantially the same as those introduced tlie year before, by Mr. Calhoun, into the Senate of the United States, From the Legislature Col. Benton appealed to the people, and u 166 THE riKST TEAK OF THE WAE. made a vigorous canvass against the Jackson resolutions through out the whole State, marked by extraordinary ahilit}^ and bit terness towards their antlior and principal supporters. The sixth resolution, whicli pledged Missouri to " co-operate wit her sister States in any measures they might adopt," to defend their rights against the encroacliments of the Xortli, was the object of his special denunciation and his most determined opposition. Pie denounced it as the essence of nullification, and ransacked the vocabulary of billingsgate for coarse and vulgar epithets to apply to its author and advocates. But his herculean efforts to procure the repeal of the resolutions proved abortive. Colonel Benton was defeated for the Senate the next year by a combination of Democrats and State-Rights Whigs ; and the Jackson resolutions remain on the statute book unrepealed to this day. Their author is governor of the -State ; their principal supporters are fighting to drive myrmi- dons of Abolitionism from the soil of Missouri ; and how nobly the State has redeemed her pledge to " co-operate with her Bister States," the glorious deeds of her hardy sons, who have fought her battles almost single-handed, M'ho have struggled on through neglect and hardship and suffering without ever dreaming of defeat, afford the most incontestible evidence. In the canvass of 1852, the Anti-Benton Democrats put for- ward Gen. Sterling Price as their choice for the office of gov- ernor, and the Bentonites supported Gen. Thomas L. Price, at that time lieutenant-governor, and now a member of Lincoln's Congress and a brigadier-general in Lincoln's army. The Anti-Bentonites triumj^hed, and the nomination fell on Gen. Sterling Price, wdio, receiving the vote of the whole Demo- cratic party, was elected by a large majority over an eloquent and popular whig. Colonel Winston, a grandson of Patrick Henry. The administration of Gov. Price Avas distinguished for an earnest devotion to the material interests of Missouri. At the expiration of his term of office, he received a large vote in the Democratic caucus for the nomination for United States sena- tor, but the choice fell on Mr. James Green. In the Presidential election of ISGO, in common M'ith Major Jackson, who was the Democratic candidate for governor, and .Dumber of other leading men of his party, £x-Governoi THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR, 157 Price supported Mr. Douglas for the Presidency, on the ground that he was the regular nominee of tlic Democratic party. lie moreover considei'ed Mr. Douglas true to the in- Btitutions of the South, and believed him to be the only one of the candidates who could prevent the election of the Black Republican candidate. The influence of these men canied Missouri for Douglas. Upon the election of Abraham Lincoln, the Border States were unwilling to rush into dissolution until every ho)>e of a peaceful settlement of the question had vanished. This was the position of Missouri, to whose Convention iu)t a shujh' Se- cessionist was elected. Governor Price was elected from his district as a Union man, without opposition, and, on the assem- bling of the Convention, was chosen its President. The Con- vention had not been in session man}' weclops, were not merely excused, but were the recipients of overflowing sympathy, and accounted by a charitable stretch of imagination " sister States" of the Southern Confederacy, an odium, cruelly unjust, was inflicted upon western Virginia, despite of the fact that this region was enthralled by Federal troops, and, indeed, had never given such evidences of sympa- thy with the Lincoln government as had been manifested both by Maryland and Kentucky in their State elections, their contri- butions of troops, and other acts of deference to the authorities at Washington, It is a fact, that even now, " Governor" Pierpont, the creature of Lincoln, cannot get one-third of the votes in a sin- gle county in western Virginia. It is a fact, that the Northern journals admit that in a large portion of tliis country, it is unsafe for Federal troops to show themselves unless in large bodies 178 THE FIKST YEAR OF THE WAE. The unfortunate results of the campaign in western Yirginia abandoned to the enemy a country of more capacity and gran- deur than, perhaps, any other of equal limits on this continent; remarkable for the immensity of its forests, the extent of its mineral resources, and the vastness of its water-power, and possessing untold wealth yet awaiting the coal-digger, the salt dealer, and the manufacturer. While the events referred to in the foregoing pages were transpiring in western Yirginia, an inauspicious quiet, for months after the battle of Manassas, was maintained on the lines of the Potomac. A long, lingering Indian summer, with roads more hard and skies more beautiful than Yirginia had seen for many a year, invited the enemy to advance. He steadily refused the invitation to a general action ; the advance of our lines was tolerated to Munson's Hill, within a few miles of Alexandria, and opportunities were sought in vain by the Confederates, in heavy skirmishing, to engage the lines of the two armies. The gorgeous pageant on the Potomac, which, by the close of the year, had cost the ISTorthern people three hun- dred millions of dollars, did not move. The " Young Napo- leon" was twitted as a dastard in the Southern newspapers. They professed to discover in his unwillingness to fight the near achievement of their independence, when, however the fact was, the inactivity of the Federal forces on the northern frontier of Yirginia only implied that immense preparations were going on in other directions, while the Southern people were complacently entertained with the parades, reviews, and pompous idleness of an army, the common soldiery of which wore white gloves on particular occasions of holiday display. THE BATTLE OF LEESBURG. The quiet, however, on the lines of the Potomac was broken by an episode in the month of October, which, without being important in its military results, added lustre to our arms. The incident referred to was the memorable action of Lees- burg, in which a small portion of the Potomac army drove an enemy four times their number from the soil of Yirginia, kill- ing and taking prisoners a greater number than the whole Confederate force engaged. I TETE FIKST YEAR OF THE WAR. 179 Gen. Stone having been persuaded that no important force .)f the Confederates remained along the Upper Potomac, and m obedience to orders from head-quarters, commenced his pas- sage of the river on Sunday, the 20th of October, at Harrisoifa Island, a point of transit about six miles above Edwards' Ferrj, and nearly an equal distance from Leesburg. A force of five companies of Massachusetts troops, commanded by Col. Devins, effected a crossing at the ferry named above, and, a few hours thereafter, Col. Baker, who took command of all the Federal forces on the Virginia side, having been ordered by Stone to push the Confederates from Leesburg and hold the place, crossed the river at Conrad's Ferry, a little south ot Harrison's Island. The brigade of Gen. Evans (one of the heroic and conspicuous actors in the bloody drama of Manassas), which had occupied Leesburg, consisted of four regiments, viz. : the Sth Virginia, the 13th, the 17th, and the 18th Mississippi. Having a position on Goose Creek, they awaited the approach of the overwhelm- ing numbers of the enemy, the force which he had thrown across the river being between seven and eight thousand strong. The enemy had efi'ected a crossing both at Edwards' Ferry, and Ball's Bluff, and preparations were made to meet him in both positions. Lieut.-col. Jenifer, wnth four of the Mississippi companies, confronted the immediate approach of the enemy in the direction of Leesburg ; Col. Hunton, with his regiment, the Sth Virginia, was afterwards ordered to his support, and, about noon, both commands were united, and became hotly engaged with the enemy in their strong position in the woods. Watching carefully the action. Gen. Evans saw the enemy were constantly being reinforced, and at half-past two o'clock p. M., ordered Col. Burt to march his regiment, the 18th Mis- sissippi, and attack the left flank of the enemy, while Colonels Hunton and Jenifer attacked him in front. On arrivinc: at his position, Col. Burt was received with a tremendous fire from the enemy, concealed in a ravine, and was compelled to divide his regiment to stop the flank movement of the enemy. At this time, about three o'clock, finding the enemy were in large force, Gen. Evans ordered Col. Featherston, with his regiment, the I7tli Mississippi, to repair, at double quick, to the support of Col. Burt, -where he arrived in twenty minutes, x80 THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAE. and the action became general along the whole line of the Confederates, and was hot and brisk for more than two hours. The Confederates engaged in the action numbered less than eighteen hundred men ; the 13th Mississippi, with six pieces o£ artillery, being held in reserve. The troops engaged on our side fought with almost savage desperation. The firing was irregular. Our troops gave a yell and volley ; then loaded and fired at will for a few minutes ; then gave another yell and volley. For two hours, the enemy was steadily driven near the banks of the Potomac. The Federal commander, Col. Baker, had fallen at the head of his column, and his body was with difficulty recovered by his command. As the enemy continued to fall back. Gen. Evans ordered his entire force to charge and drive him into the river. The rout of the enemy near the blufi's of the river was ap- palling. The crossing of the river had gone on until seven thousand five hundred men, according to the report of Gen. Stone, were thrown across it. Some of these nevei^ saw the field of battle. They had to climb the mud of the blufi', drag- ging their dismounted arms after them, before they conld reach the field, expecting to find there a scene of victory. The difii- cult ascent led them to a horrible Golgotha. The forces that had been engaged in front were already in retreat; behind them rolled the river, deep and broad, which many of them were never to repass ; before them glared the foe. The spectacle was that of a whole army retreating, tum- bling, rolling, leaping down the steep heights — the enemy fol- lowing them, killing and taking prisoners. Col. Devins, of the 15th Massachusetts regiment, left his command, and swam the river on horseback. The one boat in the channel between the Virginia shore and the island was speedily filled with the fugitives. A thousand men thronged the banks. Muskets, coats, and every thing were thrown aside, and all were des- perately trying to escape. Hundreds plunged into the rapid current, and the shrieks of the drowning added to the horror of sounds and sights. The Confederates kept up their fire from the clifi" above. All was terror, confusion, and dismay One of the Federal ofiicers, at the head of some companies, charged up the hill. A moment later, and the same ofiicer, perceiving the hopelessness of the situation, waved a white THE riKST YEAR OF THE VTAJi. 181 handkerchief and surrendered the main "body of his regiment Other portions of the column surrendered, but the Confed erates kept up their fire upon those who tried to cross, and many, not drowned in the river, were shot in the act ot swimming. The last act of the tragedy was tlie most sickening and a]> palling of them all. A flat-boat, on returning to the island, was laden with the mangled, the weary, and the dying. The quick and the dead were huddled together in one struggling, mangled mass, aiid all went down together in that doleful river, never again to rise. The Northern newspapers, with characteristic and persistent falsehood, pretended tliat the Leesburg aflfair was nothing — a mere reconnoissance, in which the Federals accomplished their oV)ject — a skirmish, in which they severely punished the " rebels" — an affair of outposts, in which they lost a few men, nothing like so many as the " rebels," etc. But the truth at last came out, stark and horrible. The defeat of Leesburg was named in the Federal Congress as " most humiliating," " a groat national calamity,'' and as another laurel added to the cliajilet of the " rebellion." The Federal soldiers wlio had suffered most severely in this action were from New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. They had given an exhibition of cowardice, quite equal, in degree at least, to its display at Manassas. There were no instances among them of desperate stubbornness, of calm front, of heroic courage. Tlicre was but one tint of glory to gild the bloody picture, and that was in the circumstance of the fall of their gallant commander. Col. Baker, who had been shot several times tlirough the body, and, at last, throucfh the head, in his desperate and conspicuous effort to rally his broken forces. Col. Baker was United States senator from Oregon. He had served with distinction in the Mexican war ; was since a member of Congress from Missouri ; emigrated to California, where he long held a leading position at the bar, and, being disappointed in an election to Congress from that State, re- moved to Oregon, where he was returned United States se la- ter to \yashingt(m. In the opening of the war, he raised what was cabled a " California" regiment, recruited in New York 182 THE FIRST YEAK OF THE WAR. I 1 and New Jerse}^, ai\d at the last session of the Federal Con gross had distinguished himself by his extreme views of the subjugation of the South, and its reduction to a " territorial" condition. He was a man of many accomplishments, of more - than ordinary gifts of eloquence, and, outside of his political ^ associations, was respected for his bravery, chivalry, and ad- dress. Our loss in the action of Leesburg, out of a force of 1,709 men, was 153 in killed and wounded. The loss of the enemy was 1,300 killed, wounded, and drowned; 710 prisoners cap- tured, among them twenty-two commissioned officers ; besides 1,500 stand of arms and three pieces of cannon taken. This brilliant victory was achieved on our side by the musket alone, over an enemy who never ventured to emerge from the cover, or to expose himself to an artillery fire. The battle of Leesburg was followed by no important conse- quences on the Potomac. It was a brilliant and dramatic incident ; it adorned our arms ; and it showed a valor, a dem- onstration of which, on a grander scale and in larger num- bers, might easily have r(;-enacted on a new field the scenes of Manassas. But, like the Manassas victory, that of Leesburg bore no fruits but those of a confidence on the part of the South, which was pernici' us, because it was overweening and inactive, and a contempt for its enemy, which was injurious, in proportion as it exceeded the limits of truth and justice, and reflected the self-conceits of fortune. THE FIKST YEAR OF THE WAH. 183 CHAPTER yn. Tlie Position and Policy of Kentucky in the War. — Kentucky Cbivalry. — Keminiw- cences of the "Dark and Bloody Ground." — Protection of the Northwest by Ken- tucky. — How the Debt of Gratitude ha.s been repaid.— A Glance at the Hartford Convention. — Tiie Gubernatorial Canvass of 1859 in Kentucky. — Division of Parties. Other Causes for the Disloyalty of Kentucky. — The " Pro-Slavery and Union" Kesolu- tions. — The " State Guard.'' — General Buckncr. — The Pretext of " Ncutralitv " and what it meant. — The Kentucky Refugees. — A Reign ol Terror. — Judfje Monroe in Nashville. — General Breckinridge. — Occupation of Columbus by General Polk. The Neutrality of Kentucky first broken by the North.— General Buckner at Bowling Green. — Camp " Dick Robinson." — The " Home Guard." — The Occupation of Colum- bus by the Confederates explained. — Cumberland Gap. — General ZollicofTer's Procla- mation.— The Afl'air of Barboursville. — '• The Wild-Cat Stampede." — The Virginia and Kentucky Border. — The Affair of Piketon. — Sutfering of our Troops at Pound Gap.— The "Union Party" in East Tennessee.— Keelan, the Hero of Strawberry Plains. — The Situation on the Waters of the Ohio and Tennessee. — The Battle or Belmont. — Weakness of our Forces in Kentucky. — General Albert Sidney Johnston. Inadequacy of his Forces at Bowling Green. — Neglect and Indifference of the Con- federate Authorities. — A Crisis imminent. — Admission of Kentucky into the Southern Confederacy. If, a few montlis back, any one had predicted that in an armed contest between the North and the South, the State ol Kentucky would be found acting with the former, and abetting and assisting a war upon States united with her by community of institutions, of interests, and of blood, he would, most prob- ably, in any Southern company in which such a speech was adventured, have been hooted at as a fool, or chastised as a slanderer. The name of Kentucky had been synotiymous with the highest types of Southern chivalry ; her historical record was adorned by the knightly deeds, the hardy adventures, the romantic courage of her sons ; and Virginia had seen the State which she had peopled with the flower of her youth grow up, not only to the full measure of filial virtue, but with the orna- ment, it was thought, of even a prouder and bolder spirit than flowed in the blood of the Old Dominion. "War discovers truths in the condition of society which would never otherwise have been known. It often shows a spirit of devotion where it has been least expected ; it decides the claims 184 THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAE. of superior patriotism and superior courage often in favor of communities wliicli have laid less claim to these qualities than otliers; and it not infrequently exposes disloyalty, rottenness, or apathy on the part of those who had formerly superior reputa- tion for attachment to the cause which they are found to de- sert or to assail. It is not to be supposed for a moment, that wdiile the posi- tioL of Kentucky, like that of Maryland, was one of reproach, it is to mar the credit due to that portion of tlie people of each, who, in the face of instant difficulties, and at the expense of extraordinary sacrifices, repudiated the decision of their States to remain under the Federal government, and expatriated themselves, that they might espouse the cause of liberty in the South. The honor due such irien is in fact increased by the consideration that their States remained in the Union, and compelled them to fly their homes, that they might testify tlieir devotion to the South and her cause of independence. Still, the justice of history must be maintained. The demonstra- tions of sympathy with the South on the part of the States re- ferred to — Maryland and Kentucky — considered either in pro- portion to what was ofiered the Lincoln government by these States, or with respect to the numbers of their population, were sparing and exceptional ; and although these demonstrations on the part of Kentucky, from the great and brilliant names associated with them, were perhaps even more honorable and more useful than the examples of Southern spirit ofli'ered by Maryland, it is unquestionably, though painfully true, that the great body of the people of Kentucky were the active allies of Lincoln, and the unnatural enemies of those united to them by lineage, blood, and common institutions. A brief review of some of the most remarkable circum- stances in the history of Kentucky is not inappropriate to the subject of the existing war. Kentucky has been denominated " the Dark and Bloody Ground" of the savage aborigines. It never was the habita- tion of any nation or tribe of Indians ; but from the period of the earliest aboriginal traditions to the appearance of the whit man on its soil, Kentucky was the field of deadly conflict be- tween the Northern and Southern warriors of the forest. When, shortly after the secession of the American colonies TOE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 185 from tlie British empire, this contested Laud was penetrated by the bold adventurous wliite men of Carolina and Virginia, who constituted the third party for dominion, its title of the " Dark and Bloody Ground" was appropriately continued. And when, after the declaration of American independence, Great Brit ain, with a view to the subjugation of the United States, form- ed an alliance with the Indian savages, and assigned to them the conduct of the war upon all our western frontier, the ter- ritory of Kentucky became still more empliatically the Dark and Bloody Ground. Nor did the final treaty of peace be- tween Great Britain and the United States bring peace to Kentucky. The government of Great Britain failed to fulfil its obligations to surrender the western posts from which their sav'agc allies had been supplied with the munitions of war, but still held them, and still supplied the Indians with arms and ammunition, inciting them to their murderous depredations upon the western border. This hostile condition continued in Kentucky until the cele- brated treaty of Jay, and the final victory over the savage en- emy achieved by General "Wayne, and the consequent treaty of peace which he concluded with them in 1795. By thia treaty of peace, the temple of Janus was closed in Kentucky for the first time in all her history and tradition. The battles in these wars with the savage enemy were not all in Kentucky, nor were they for the defence of the territory of her people only, but chiefly for the defence of the inhabit- ants of Ohio, who were unable to protect themselves against their barbarous foes. IIow this debt has been ]vA\d by the de- Bcendants of these Ohio people, the ravages of the existing war sufliciently demonstrate. Peace was continued in Kentucky for al)OUt twenty years. There were commotions and grand enterprises which we cannot even mention here. But they were all terminated by the pur- chase of Louisiana by Mr. Jefi*erson in 1803. The ratification of the treaty by which this vast southern ami western do- minion was acquired at the price of fifteen millions of dollars, was opposed b}^ the Northern politicians, whose descendants now seek to subjugate the people of the South, at the cost ot a thousand millions of dollars, and of a monstrous, unnatural, and terrible expenditure of blood. 186 THE FEKST YEAR OF THE WAR. . In the war of 1812 with Great Britain, the surrenaer of Hull having exj)osed the Michigan Territory and all the north- ern border of Ohio to the invasion of the British and the savages, who were now again the allies of that government, Kentucky sent forth her volunteers for the defence of her as- sailed Northern neighbors ; and when so many of her gallant sons were sacrificed upon the bloody plains of Raisin, the Leg- islature of Kentucky requested the governor of the State to take the field, and at the head of his volunteer army to go forth and drive back the enemy. The request was promptly complied with. It was the army of Kentucky that expelled the savages from all Ohio and Michigan, and pursuing them into Canada, achieved over them and the British upon the Thames a victory more important than had been yet won upon land in that war, thus giving peace and security to Ohio and all the northwestern territory, whose people were confessedly powerless for their own defence. It is these people, protected by the arms and early chivalry of Kentucky, who have now made her soil the Dark and Bloody Ground of an iniquitous civil war, waged not only upon a people bearing the common name of American citizens, but upon the eternal and sacred principles of liberty itself. In these references to the early history of Kentucky we must be brief. In indicating, however, the lessons of rebuke they give to the North with respect to the existing war, we must not omit to mention that in the war of 1812, in which Kentucky covered herself with such well-deserved and lasting glory, the New England States stood with the enemy, and the body of their politicians had resolved upon negotiation with Great Britain for a separate peace, and had, in fact, appointed a Convention to be assembled at Hartford, to carry into efiect what would have been virtually a secession from the United States, and the assumption of neutrality between the belliger- ents, if not an alliance with the public enemy. These facts are not fully recorded in history, but they might be well col- lected from the public documents and journals of the day. In- deed, they are well known to men yet living in our land. The schemes of the New England traitors were defeated only by the battle of Orleans, and the consequent treaty of peace. Upon the happening of these events, the conspirators abandoned their THE FIRST TEAR OP TUE WAR. 187 Convention j^ro/^?*, and denied that tliey had ever contemplated anv thing revolutionary or treasonable. Tlie whole matter was Buffered to pass into oblivion. The conspirators were treated by the government and people of the United States as AVilliam the Third treated those around his throne who, within his knowledge, had conspired against him, and had actually served the public enemy of England. It was known in each case that the conspirators were controlled by their selfish interests, and that the best mode of managing them, was to cause them to see that it was to their interest to be faithful to their government. It needs no comment to indicate with Avhat grace the vehement denunciation of the secession of the Southern States from a Union which had been prostituted alike to the selfishness ot politicians and the passion of fanatics, comes from a people who had been not only domestic rebels, but allies to the foreign enemy in the war of 1812. In tracing the political connections of Kentucky in the pres^ ent war, it will be suflicient for our purposes to start at the election of its governor in 1859. Down to that i)eriod the body of the partisans now upholding the Lincoln government had been an emancipation party in the State, This party had lately sufl:ered much in popularity. In the election of 1859, they determined to consult popularity, and took open pro-slavery ground. The State Rights c^andidate (Magoffin) was elected. By their adroit movement, however, the Anti-State Rights party had made some advance in the confidence of the people, which availed them in the more important contests that fol- lowed. In the Presidential election of 1860 they supj)orted Mr. Bell, and thus succeeded in their object of gaining the as- cendency in the councils of the State. Emancipationists were urged to support Mr. Bell, upon the ground that from his ante- cedents and present position they had more to expect from him tlian from his principal competitor in the race in Kentucky, while the people at large were persuaded to support Mr. Bell as the candidate of the friends of " the Union, the Constitution, and the Laws." The Anti-State Rights party (at least they may be known for the present by this convenient denomination), succeeded in carrying the State by a large plurality. They commenced at an early day to combat the movements of secession in the 13 18S THE FIRST TEAE OF THE WAE. South. Popular assemblies and conventions were called to pledge themselves to the support of the Union in every con- tingency. The party,' as represented in these assemblies, ^nited all the friends of Mr. Bell, and the great body of those of Mr Douglas and of Mr. Guthrie. By this combination an organi- zation was effected which was able to control and direct public opinion in the subsequent progress of events. It is certainly defective logic, or, at best, an inadequate ex- planation, which attributes the subserviency of a large portion of the people of Kentucky to the views of the Lincoln govern- ment to the perfidy of a party or the adroitness of its manage- ment. However powerful may be the machinery of party, it certainly has not the power of belying public sentiment for any considerable length of time. The persistent adhesion of a large portion of the Kentucky people to the Northern cause must be attributed to permanent causes ; and among these were, first, an essential unsoundness on the slavery question, under the influences of the peculiar philosophy of Henry Clay, Mdio, like every great man, left an impress upon his State which it remained for future even more than contemporary generations to attest ; and, second, the mercenary consider- ations of a trade with both North and South, to which the State of Kentucky was thought to be especially convenient. These suggestions may at least assist to the understanding of tliat development of policy in Kentucky which we are about to relate. On the meeting of tlie Legislature of Kentucky, after the election of Lincoln, the party in the interest of the North suc- ceeded in obtaining the passage by that body of a singular set of resolutions, which, by a curious compost of ideas, were called " pro-slavery and Union" resolutions. They denounced secession, without respect to any cause which might justify the measure, deprecated any war between the North and the South, and avowed the determination of Kentucky to occupy in such an event a position of perfect neutrality. At its regular session in 1859-60, the Legislature had or- ganized an active body of volunteer militia, denominated the State Guard, and General Buckner had been appointed its highest officer. This army, as it might be called, was found to consist of the finest officers and best young men in the State THE FIRST TEAK OF THE -WAR. 189 It was necessarily, by the provisions of the Constitution, under the command of the governor ; but as Governor Magoffin -was supposed to be a Southern Rights man, and the fact appearing that nearly all of the State Guard were favorable to the same cause, and that they could not be made the soldiers of the despotic government of the North, he was in effect deprived of their command, and measures were taken for forcing out of their hands the public arms with which they had been fur- nished, and for the organization of a new corps, to be com- manded by the officers and partisans of Abraham Lincoln. In the mean time, as if to make their professed determination of neutrality effective, the Legislature proceeded to arm with muskets their " Home Guards," as their new army was called. AVith this programme before the people, the Legislature took a recess, probably to await the progress of events, when the mask of neutrality might be thrown off, and their real purposes might safely be announced to the people. Gov. Magoffin's refusal to furnish troops to answer the requisition of the Federal government (to which reference has already been made in another part of this work), appeared at the time to meet with the approval of the entire people of Ken- tucky. Tlie enemies of the South acquiesced in the decision of the governor only until the period arrived when the farce of neutrality might be conveniently broken, and the next step ventured, which would be union with the North. With the pretence of neutrality, and the seductive promises of a trade with l)(^th belligerents, which would enrich Kentucky and fill her cities with gold, a considerable portion of the people were Jield blinded or willingly entertained, while the purposes of the Lincoln government with respect to their State were being steadily fulfilled. Tn the election of members of the Congress called by Lin- coln to meet in special session on the 4tli of July, 1861, men of Northern principles were elected from every district in Kentucky save one ; and in the same condition of the public mind, the members of the Legislature were elected in August, the result being the return of a large majority of members os- tensibly for the purpose of maintaining the ground of neu- trality, but with what real designs was soon discovered. The election of the Lincoln rulers having been thus accomplished 190 THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAE. the measures all the time contemplated and intended were easily put in course of execution. In a short time every Stato Rights newspaper was suspended ; every public man standiny; in defence of the South was threatened with arrest and prose- cution ; and the raising of a volunteer corps for the defence of the South was totally suppressed. Immediately after the declaration of war by the Lincoln government, a number of young men in Kentucky, actuated by impulses of patriotism, and attesting the spirit of the an- cient chivalry of their State, had commenced raising volunteer companies in the State for the Confederate service. Tliey passed South in detachments of every number. This emigra- tion was at first tolerated by the Unionists, if not actually de- sired by them, for the purpose of diminishing the opposition in the State to their sinister designs. By the removal of its mem- bers, and by the acts of the Legislature already mentioned, the admirable army of the " State Guard of Kentucky" was to- tally disorganized, and the command of it virtually taken from Governor MagoiSn and General Buckner, and placed in the hands of the political partisans of the Lincoln government. General Buckner could not long occupy such a position, and therefore, as soon as practicable, he resigned his ofiice, re- nounced the Lincoln government, and placed himself under the Confederate flag. The value of his accession to the South- ern cause was justly appreciated, and he was speedily ap- pointed a brigadier -general in the provisional army of the Con- federacy. The encouragement to emigration was not long continued by the party in power in Kentucky. It was determined by the Lincoln government to make examples of the small party re- maining in Kentucky who sympathized with the South, and to arrest at once every public and influential man in the State known to be hostile to the North, or to the despotic purposes of the government at "Washington. Ex-Governor Morehead was at a dead hour of the night arrested in his own house, a few miles from Louisville, in the presence of his afflicted family, by the Lincoln police, and hurried through the city and over the river, and out of his State and district, in violation of all law ; and the benefit of the writ of habeas corpus was prac- tically denied him in a mode which, at any period in the last THE FIRST TEAB OF THE WAR. 191 two bundled years, would have aroused all England into com. motion. The high-handed act, it might have been supposed, would have aroused Kentucky also to a flame of indignation at any other period since it became the habitation of white men. The people, however, seemed to be insensible, and the outrage was allowed to pass with no public demonstration of its disap- proval. Encouraged by its experience of the popular subser- viency in Kentucky to its behests, it was in convenient time determined by the Lincoln government to arrest or drive off from the State every prominent opponent of its despotic au- thority. It was determined at Louisville that John C. Breck- enridge, late Vice-President of the United States, Col. G. "W. Johnson, a prominent citizen, T. B. Monroe, Jr., Secretary of State, William Preston, late Minister to Spain, Tliomas B. Monroe, Sr., for about thirty years District Judge of the United States, Col. Humphrey Marshall, ex-member of Con- gress, and a distinguished officer in the Mexican war, Capt. John Morgan (since "the Marion" of Kentucky), and a num- ber of other distinguished citizens in different parts of the State, should be arrested at the same hour, and consigned to prison, or driven from their homes by the threats of such a fate. It is supposed that some of the Lincoln men, and per- haps some officers of the government, preferred the latter alternative, especially in respect to some of the individuals named. However this may be, it happened that all of them escaped, some in one direction, and some in another. Tlie venerable Judge Monroe, on his arrival at Bowling Green, whence he was on his next day's journey to pass out of his State and his district, executed in duplicate, and left to be transmitted by different modes of convej-ance, his resif'-nation of the office of Judge of the United States for Kentucky ; and in conformity to the general expectation at the time, he placed upon historic record the declaration of his expatriation of him- self from the dominion of the despotic government of Lincoln, and adopted himself a citizen of the Southern Confederacy. The proceedings occurred in the Confederate Court of Nash- ville on the 3d of October. The scene of the renunciation of allegiance to the government that would have enslaved him, by this venerable jurist, who had been driven from a long-cher- ifihed hom-e, and was now on his way to the State of Virginia 192 THE FIEST YEAR OF THE WAE. wliose honored soil held the sacred ashes of a dozen genera tious of his ancestors, was one of peculiar augustness and in terest. The picture of the scene alone was sufBcient to illus- trate and adorn the progress of a great, revolution. It was that of a venerable patriot, a man of one of the greatest his- torical names on the continent, just escaped from the minions of the despot, who had driven him from a State in which he had lived, the light of the law, irreproachable as a man, be- loved by his companions, honored by his profession, and vener- able in years, voluntarily and proudly abjuring an allegiance which no longer returned to him the rights of a citizen, but w^ould have made him an obsequious slave ; and with all the dignity of one thus honored and respected, and conscious of his rectitude, appearing in the presence of a Confederate court of justice, and with the pure eloquence of truth, offering the remaining years of his life to the service of the new govern- ment, which had arisen as the successor of the old Union, as it was in its purer and brighter days. Mr. Breckenridge reached Nashville by a very circuitous route, a few days after his departure from Lexington, and after a brief sojourn in the former place, proceeded to Bowling Green, and there entered into a compact with a number of his old constituents wdio had taken refuge in the camp of General Buckner, that they would take up their arms in defence of the rights and liberties of their country, and never lay them down till the invader was driven from the soil of Kentucky. Shortly afterwards, he received the appointment of brigadier-general in the army of the Confederate States, and was assigned to the command of a brigade of his fellow-citizens of Kentucky. Col. Humphrey Marshall received, at the same time, the appoint- ment of brigadier-general, and was assigned to the district of southeastern Kentucky and southwestern Yirginia. Colonel Johnson was subsequently chosen Provisional Governor of Kentucky by the friends of the Confederate government in that State. To reconcile the people of Kentucky to the Lincoln govern- ment, its partisans had told them at the outset that they had the right to insist upon the strict observance of neutrality. As events progressed, they ascribed the violation of Kentucky's neutrality to the acts of the Southern government, in the face THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 193 of facts about which there can be no dispute. The facts ai-e that the Federal forces were preparing to take possession of Cohinibus and Paducah, regarding them as important positions; and because Gen. Polk anticipated them and got prior posses- sion of Cohimbus, they charged the Confederates with the re- sponsibility of the first invasion of Kentucky. The Federal.^ had commissioned Gen. Rouseau, at Louisville, to raise a bri- gade for the invasion of the South, but while the recruits were enlisted in Louisville, the camp was kept at Jefferson vi lie, on the Indiana side of the river, until the Lincoln commander be came satisfied that the temper of the people of Louisville would tolerate a parade of Northern soldiers on their streets. Then, and not till then, were the Korthern soldiers boldly marched across the State in the direction of Nashville. Gen. Buckner took possession of the railroad, and stationed himself at Bowl- ing Green, in Southern Kentucky, about thirty miles from the Tennessee line. The partisans of Lincoln, still determined to blind the people by all sorts of false representations, estaldished a camp called " Dick liobinson,"' near Lexington, and there made up an army comprised of recruits from Ohio, vagabonds from Kentucky, and Andrew-Johnson men from Tennessee They insisted that no invasion was contemplated, that theii forces were merely a " Home Guard" organization of a purelv defensive character. They did not hesitate, however, to rob the arsenals of the United States of their muskets, bayonets, and cannon, and place them at the disposal of such infamous leaders as George D. Prentice, Tom Ward, and Garrett Davis With these arms, " Dick Robinson's" camp was replenished, and at this memorable spot of the congregation of the most villanous characters, an army was raised in Kentucky for tho invasion of the South. The causes which led to the occupation of Kentucky by the Confederate States were plain and abundant. Finding that their own territory was about to be invaded through Kentucky, and that many of the people of that State, after being deceived into a mistaken security, were unarmed, and in danger of be- ing subjugated by the Federal forces, the Confederate arniiea were marched into that State to repel the enemy, and prevent their occupation of certain strategic points which would have given them great advantages in the contest — a step whicli was 194 THE FIKST YEAR OF THE WAR. justified, not only by the necessities of self-defence on tlie part of the Confederate States, but also by a desire to aid the peo- /)le of Kentucky. It was never intended by the Confederate ^i;overnment to conquer or coerce the people of that State ; but, v-u the contrary, it was declared by our generals that they would withdraw their troops if the Federal government would do likewise. Proclamation was also made of the desire to re- spect the neutrality of Kentucky, and the intention to abide by the wishes of her people, as soon as they were free to express their opinions. Upon the occupation of Columbus by the Confederates, in the early part of September, the Legislature of Kentucky adopted resolutions calling upon them, through Governor Magofiin, to retire. General Polk, who was in command of the Confederates at Columbus, had already published a proc- lamation, clearly explaining his position. lie declared in this proclamation, that the Federal government having disregarded the neutrality of Kentucky, by establishing camps and depots of armies, and by organizing military companies within their territory, and by constructing a military Avork on the Missouri shore, immediately opposite and commanding Columbus, evi- dently intended to cover the landing of troops for the seizure of that town, it had become a military necessity, involving the defence of the territory of the Confederate States, that the Con- federate forces should occupy Columbus in advance. The act of Gen. Polk found the most abundant justification in the liistory of the concessions granted to the Federal govern- ment by Kentucky ever since the war began. Since the elec- tion of Lincoln, she had allowed the seizure in her ports (Pa- ducah) of property of citizens of the Confederate States. She had, by her members in the Congress of the United States, voted supplies of men and money to carry on the war against the Confederate States. She had allowed the Federal govern- ment to cut timber from her forests for the purpose of building armed boats for the invasion of the Southern States. She was permitting to be enlisted in her territory troops, not only from her own citizens, but from the citizens of other States, for th purpose of being armed and used in ofi'ensive warfare against the Confederate States. At camp " Dick Pobinson," in the county of Garrard, it was said that there were already tec THE FIKST YEAR OF THE WAR. 195 thousand troops, in which men from Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois were mustered with Kentuckians into the service of the United States, and armed by the government for the avowed purpose of giving aid to the disaffected in one of the Confederate States, and of carrying out the designs of that gov- ernment for their subjugation. "When Gen. Polk took posses- sion of Columbus, he found that the enemy, in formidable numbers, were in position on the opposite bank of the river, with tlieir cannon turned upon Columbus, that many of the citizens had fled in terror, and that not a word of assurance of safety or protection had been addressed to them. In reply to the demand made through Governor Magoffin for the withdrawal of the Confederate troops from Kentucky, Gen. Polk offered to comply on condition that the State would agree that the troops of tlie Federal government be withdrawn simultaneously, with a guaranty (which he would give recip- rocally for the Confederate government) that the Federal troops should not be allowed to enter, or occupy any part of Kentucky in the future. This proposition for a simultaneous withdrawal of forces, was derided by the partisans of Lincoln in Kentucky and elsewhere. Gen. Polk had taken possession of Columbus on the 4th of September. The Federals were then occupying Paducah, at the mouth of the Tennessee river. The town of Cairo, at the mouth of the Ohio, had been previously occupied by a strono Federal force. New Madrid, on the Missouri side of the Mis- sissippi, was occupied by Southern troops under tlie command of Gen. Jeff. Thompson. Early in the summer, it was known that the Federals were threatening the invasion of East Tennessee by way of Cumber- land Gap. To counteract their designs, the Confederate govern- ment sent Brigadier-general Zollicoffer, with a force of several thousand men, by way of Knoxville, East Tennessee, to the point threatened. On the 1-ith September, Gen. Zollicoffer telegraphed Governor Magoffin, of Kentucky, as follows : '' The safety of Tennessee requiring, I occupy the mountain passes at Cumberland, and the three long mountains in Kentucky. For weeks, I have known that the Federal commander at Iloskins' Cross Koads was threatening the invasion of East Tennessee, and ruthlessly urging our people to destroy our own road and 196 TDK FIi;ST YEAR OF THE WAR bridges. I postponed this precautionary movement until Ihe despotic government at Washington, refusing to recognize the neutrality of Kentucky, has established formidable camps in the centre and other parts of the State, with the view, first to subjugate your gallant State, and then ourselves. Tennessee feels, and has ever felt, towards Kentucky as a twin-sister ; their people are as one people in kindred, sympathy, valor, and patriotism. We have felt, and still feel, a religious respect for Kentucky's neutrality. We will respect it* as long as our safety will permit. If the Federal force will now withdraw from their menacing position, the force under my command shall immedi- ately be withdrawn." At the -same time Gen. Zollicoffer issued an order setting forth that he came to defend the soil of a sister Southern State against an invading foe, and that no citizen of Kentucky was to be molested in person or property, whatever his political opinions, unless found in arms against the Confederate govern- ment, or giving aid and comfort to the enemy by his counsels. On the 19th September, a portion of Gen. Zollicoffer's com- mand advanced to Barboursville, in Kentucky, and dispersed a camp of some fifteen hundred Federals, without any serious struggle. He continued to advance cautiously in the direction of Somerset, driving the 6nemy before him. A large Federal force, chiefly from Ohio and Indiana, was sent forward to meet him. This expedition was speedily brought to a disgraceful and ruinous conclusion. Before getting near enough to Zolli- coffer to confront him. Gen. SchoepfiJ", the commander of the Yankee expedition, was induced to believe that Gen. Hardee was advancing from Bowling Green on his flank. What was known as the " Wild Cat Stampede" ensued. The retreat of the panic-stricken soldiers, which for miles was performed at the double-quick, rivalled the agile performances at Bull Kun. For many miles the route of the retreat was covered with broken wagons, knapsacks, dead horses, and men who had sunk by the wayside from exhaustion. The flight of the Federals was continued for two days, although there was no enemy near them. Such was the result of the first expedition sent to capture Zollicoffer and to invade the South by way of Cumber- land Gap. Another design of the Federals was to invade southwestern THE FIEST TEAR OF THE \rAE. 197 Virginia from eastern Kentucky, by way of Prestonsburg and Pound Gaj), with the view of seizing upon the salt-works and lead-mines in this portion of Virginia, and of cutting off rail- road communication between Richmond and Memphis. To thwart this design, there was raised in the neighborhood of Prestonsburg a force little exceeding a thousand men, who were placed under the command of Col. "Williams. To capture the " rebels" at Prestonsburg, a considerable force was sent after them under the command of Gen. Nelson, of Kentucky. This somewhat notorious officer reported to the Lincoln gov- ernment that his exjx;dition had been brilliantly successful ; his command, according to his account, having fallen upon the "rebels" at Piketon, captured upwards of a thousand of them, killed five hundred, or more, wounded a great number, and scattered the few remaining ones like chaff before the wind. This announcement caused intense joy in Cincinnati, and, in- deed, throughout the Xorth ; but the rejoicings were cut sud- denly short by the authentic account of the affair at Piketon, which occurred on the Sth of November, and in which the Confederates lost ten killed and fifteen wounded, while tliev ambushed a considerable body of Nelson's men on the river cliff, near that place, and killed and wounded hundreds of them. Owing to the superior force of the Federals, however. Col. Williams' little command fell back to Pound Gap. He had not more than 1,010 men, including sick, teamsters, and men on extra duty. He described the little army that had held in check an apparently overwhelming force of the enem}-, as an " unorganized, half-armed, and barefooted squad." He wrote to Richmond : " "We want good rifles, clothes, great- coats, knapsacks, haversacks, and canteens ; indeed, every thing almost except a willingness to fight. Many of our men are barefooted, and I have seen the blood in their tracks as they marched." There had long been unpleasant indications on the Tennessee border of disloyalty to the South. In what was called East Tennessee tliea-e was reported to be a strong " Union" party. This section was inhabited by an ignorant and uncouth pop- ulation squatted among the hills. The Union faction in East Tennessee was the product of the joint influences of three men, differing widely in tastes, habits of thought, and political 198 THE rmsT teae of the wae. opinion, but concuiTing in a blind and bigoted devotion to tlie old Federal government. These men were Andrew Johnson, William G. Brownlow, and T. .A. R. Kelson. The first of these was a man who recommended himself to the ignorant mountain people of Tennessee by the coarseness and vulgarity of his manners ; but beneath his boorish aspect he had a. strong native intellect, was an untiring political schemer, and for more than twenty years had exercised a commanding control over the rude mountaineers of Tennessee, who for an equal length of time had held the balance of power between the old Whig and Democratic parties in that State, voting first with one and then with the other political organization. Brownlow, " the parson," the haranguer of mobs in churches and at the hust- ings, and who, by his hatred of Andrew Johnson, had once made himself an ultra pro-slavery oracle of the Methodist Church, found Unionism so strong an element of popular par- tisan strength in East Tennessee, that he was forced to co- operate with his old enemy. The sincerest and most respecta- ble of the trio was ISTelson, an accomplished orator, a poet and dreamer besides, having no likeness to the people among whom he resided but in his apparel, and passing most of his time in the secluded occupations of a scholar, in which vocation he was both profound and classical. There could be no stranger com- bination of talent and character than in these three men, who had been brought together by a single sympathy in opposition to the cause of the South. The Union party in Tennessee was for a long time occult ; its very existence was for a considerable period a matter of dispute among Southern politicians ; but it only awaited the operations of the enemy in Kentucky to assist and further their designs by a sudden insurrection among themselves. Their demonstrations were, however, premature. Early in November there was a conspiracy formed on the part of the Unionists for burning all the bridges on the East Tennessee and Yirginia and Georgia and Tennessee railroads. The designs of the conspirators were consummated in part by the destruction of two or three bridges in East Tennessee, and of one in Georgia The bridge across the Holston, at Strawberry Plains, on the East Tennessee and Yirginia road, was saved by the heroic and self-sacrilicing act of an humble individual, named Edward THE FIE8T TEAR OF THE WAE. 199 Keelan, at that time the sole guard at the place. He fought the bridge-burning party — more than a dozen in number — ■ with such desperation and success, that they were forced to re- tire without accomplishing their object. One of the party was killed, and several badly wounded. Keelan was wounded in a number of places. Upon the arrival of friends, a few minutes after the occurrence, he exclaimed to them, " They have killed me, but I have saved the bridge." Luckily the wounds did not prove mortal, and the hero of Strawberry Plains still lives. The Federal expedition to Pound Gap was of the same char- acter with all the other invasions from the northwestern ter- ritory in this contest. The troops were from Ohio and other northwestern States, the occupiers of the lands bountifully granted by Virginia to the Federal government, and by that government liberally distributed among the ancestors of the people attempting the invasion of Virginia and the South. This territory had been won by a Virginia army, composed ot volunteers from this State and from the district of Kentucky, then a part of the Old Dominion. The bold and successful enterprise of George Rogers Clark in the conquest of all that western territory, constitutes one of the most romantic and brilliant chapters of the history of the Revolution. AYe turn from the operations on the Kentucky and Virginia border, which were in effect abandoned by the enemy, to the more active theatre of the war in Kentucky, in the neiglibor- hood of the waters of the Ohio and Tennessee. It was to these waters that the enemy in fact transferred his plans of invasion of the South through Kentucky and Tennessee, by means of amphibious expeditions, composed of gunboats and land forces. Further on in the course of events we shall find the front of the war on the banks of the Tennessee instead of those of the Po- tomac, and we shall see that a war which the Southern people supposed lingered on the Potomac, was suddenly transferred, and opened with brilliant and imposing scenes on the Western waters. But it is not proper to anticipate with any comment the progress of events. Gen. Polk had been completing his works for the defence oi Columbus. "While thus engaged, he was assailed on the 7th November by the enemy in strong force from Cairo. 200 THE FIRST YEAH OF THE WAE. THE BATTLE OF BELMONT. Before daybreak on the morning of the 7th of November, Gen. Polk was informed that the enemy, who were under the command of Gen. Grant, had made their appearance in the river with gunboats and transports, and were landing a con- siderable force on the Missouri shore, five or six miles above Belmont, a small village. Gen. Pillow, whose division was nearest the point immediatelj'' threatened, was ordered to cross the river and to move immediately with four of his regiments to the relief of Col. Tappan, who was encamped at Belmont. Onr little army had barely got in position, when the skir- mishers were driven in, and the shock took place between the opposing forces. The enemy were numerous enough to have surrounded the little Confederate force with trij^le lines. Sev eral attempts were made by the enemy's infantry to flank the right and left wings of the Confederates ; but the attempt on the right was defeated by the deadly fire and firm attitude of that wing, composed of the regiments of Colonels Pussell and Tappan, the 13th Arkansas and the 9th Tennessee, commanded by Col. Eussell, as brigade commander. The attempt to turn the left wing was defeated by the destructive fire of Beltz- hoover's battery and Col. Wright's regiment, aided by a line of fellod timber extending obliquely from the left into the bot- tom. The two wings of the line stood firm and unbroken for several hours, but the centre, being in the open field, and greatly exposed, once or twice faltered. About this time, Col. Beltzhoover reported to Gen. Pillow that his ammunition was exhausted : Col. Bell had previously reported his regiment out of ammunition, and Col. Wright that one battalion of his regiment had exhausted its ammunition. The enemy's force being unchecked, and now emerging into the edge of the field. Gen. Pillow ordered the line to use the bayonet. The charge was made by the whole line, and the enemy driven back into the woods. But his line was not broken, and he kept up a deadly fire, and being supported by Ids large reserve, the Confederate line was forced back to its original position, while that of the enemy advanced. The charge was repeated the Second and third time, forcing the rilE FIEST TEAK OF THE WAR. 201 enemy's line heavily against his reserve, but with like result. Finding it impossible longer to maintain his position without reinforcements and ammunition, Gen. Pillow ordered the whole line to fall back to the river-bank. Li this movement his lino was more or less broken and his corps mingled together, so that when they reached the river-bank they had the appear ance of a mass of men rather than an organized corps. The field was to all appearances lost. Reinforcements, how- ever, had been sent for, and at the critical time when our forces were being driven to the river, a regiment, the 2d Ten- nessee, commanded by Col. Walker, which had crossed the river, onme to their support. The opportunity was seized by Gen. Pillow to engage afresh, with this timely addition to his force, the advance of the enemy, while he made a rapid move- ment np the river-bank, with the design of crossing through the fallen timber, turning the eneray'^ position and attacking him in the rear. As Gen. Pillow advanced the main body of his original force in broken order up the river, to a point Avhere he could cross through the fallen timber to make the flank movement, he was joined by two other regiments ordered by Gen. Polk to his support. These fi-esh troops M-ere placed under command of Col. ]\rarks, of the 11th Louisiana. He was directed to lead the advance in double-quick time through the woods, and to the enemy's rear, and to attack him with vigor. Col. Rus- sell, with his brigade, was ordered to support the movement. It was with great reluctance that Gen. Polk lessened the force assigned to the immediate defence of Columbus, as an at- tack in his rear was every moment apprehended. It was ob- vious, however, from the yielding of our columns to the heavy ]u-essure of the masses of the enemy's infantry, and the Herce assaults of their heavy battery, that further reinforcements were necessary to save the field. Gen. Cheatham was ordered to move across the river in advance of his brigade, to rally and take command of the portions of the regiments within sight on the shore, and to support the flank movement ordered through Col. Marks. About this time the enemy had fired our tents, and advan- cing his battery near the river-bank, opened a heavy fire on the steamers which were transporting our troops, in some instances 202 TILE FIRST YEAR OF THE Vi KB.. driving shot through two of them at tlie same time. Captain Smith's Mississippi battery was ordered to move to the river- bank, oj)posite 1 he field of conflict, and to open upon the ene- my's position. Che joint fire of this battery and the heavy guns of the fort was for a few moments terrific. The enemy's battery was silenced, and it could be seen that they were taking up their line of march for their boats. The Federals, however, had scarcely put themselves in mo- tion, when they encountered Col. Marks first, and afterwards Gen. Cheatham, on their flank. The conjuncture was decisive. The enemy finding himself between two fires, that of Smith's artillery in front, and of Col. Marks' and Russell's column in the rear, after a feeble resistance, broke and fled in disor- der. Satisfled that the attack on Columbus for some reason had failed. Gen. Polk had crossed the river, and ordered the victo- rious commands to press the enemy to their boats. The order was obeyed with alacrity. The pursuit was continued until our troops reached the point where the enemy had made hie surgical head-quarters, and deijository of stores, of ammunition, baggage, &c. Here our troops found a yard full of knapsacks, arms, ammunition, blankets, overcoats, mess-chests, horses, Magons, and dead and wounded men, with surgeons engaged in the duties of their profession. The enemy's route of retreat was strewn likewise with many of these articles, and abun- dantly with blood, dead, and wounded men. " The sight along the line of the retreat," says an observer on the field, " was awful. The dead and wounded were at every tree. Some crawded into the creeks to get water, and died there." On coming in sight of the enemy's gunboats and transports, our troops, as they arrived, wei'c ordered to move as rapidly aa possible through the cornfields to the bank of the river. The bank was thus lined for a considerable distance by our troops, who were ordered, as the boats passed up the river, to give the enemy their fire. The fire was hot and destructive. On the boats all was dismay. Under the fire from the bank, the Fed- erals rushed to the opposite side of the boats, and had to be forced back by the bayonet to prevent capsizing. Many ot the soldiers were driven overboard by the rush of those behind them, Thev did not take time to unloose the cables, but cut fUE FIRST TEAK OF THE WAR. 203 all loose, and were compelled to run tlirongli tlie fire of sharp- shooters lining the bank for more than a mile. The day which at one time had been so inanspicious to oni arms, closed upon a signal triumph. In his official report of the battle, Gen. Pillow declared, that no further evidence? were needed to assure the fact, that " the small Spartan army'' which withstood the constant fire of three times their number for nearly four hours (a large portion of them being without ammunition), had acted with extraordinary gallantry, than the length and character of the conflict, the great inequality of numbers, and the complete results that crowned the day. That our loss should be severe in such a conflict might be expected. Tlie list of our killed, wounded, and missing num- bered 632. The loss of the enemy was stated in the official reports of our generals to have been more than trel)lo our?;. Of this, we had the most abundant evidence in the incidents of the field, in his flight, and his helpless condition, when as- sailed in his crowded transports with the fire of thousands of deadly rifles. The victory of Belmont was esteemed as one of the most brilliant triumphs of the war.* In his congratulatory order. Gen. Albert Sydney Johnston, who had been appointed to * The government at Washington, with a characteristic falsehood, stubborn to every other consideration but that of sustaining the spirits of its people, claimed the affair at Belmont as a victory to Northern arms. It is curious, and to some degree amusing, to notice the manner of this misrepresentation, and the gloze and insinuation by which it was effected in the Northern otDcial reports of the battle. Gen. Grant, in his official rejwrt, declared that he had driven the Confederates to the river, burnt their camps, ^an of peace. His face is large, tabular find Teutonic ; his eyes a kind of indistinct gray, not without expression, but of that deep welling kind that only reveal the emotion without indicating ita character." THE rmST TEAR OF THE WAR. 217 It is not witliln tlie design of our work to canvass the logical value of these arguments ; but it is to recognize as a fact the natural and almost niiiversal impression made upon the popular nnnd of the South, that it could not be good generalship vrliich left the enemy at perfect leisure to mature all his preparations for aggression ; and that it could not be a glorious systemfcof warfare, which never ventured an aggressive movement, and which decimated its armies by inaction. In the administration of the civil polity of tlie Southern army, as distingnislied from its command, there were abuses and defects which were constant subjects of newspaper com- ment. In the Quarter-master's department, however, the results ac- complished by the energy of its directors were little less than surprising, and received the marked commendation of a com- mittee of the Provisional Congress, appointed to inquire into the civil polity of the arm}'. Tliat the immense army now in the service of the Confederate States, suddenly collected, men and officers generally inexperienced in camp life and military duty, should be clothed, armed, and moved with the facility of a permanent organization, was not to be expected ; and yet, with but few exceptions, this result was accomplished. Major Alfred M. Barbour, of Virginia, was appointed Cliicf Quar- ter-master of the army of the Potomac, our principal coi'jys d'armee in the field ; and his remarkable resources of judgment, his vast energy, and his untiring devotion to his extensive du- ties in the field, contributed most important results in the emer- gencies of the many sudden and rapid movements of our forces in Virginia, in the remarkable campaign in that State of the spring of 1862. Such contributions to the public service are not to be depreciated by the side of more visible, and, in the popular mind, more brilliant achievements of tlie war. The labors of the Quarter-master's dej'xirtment penetrate the entire military establishment, breathe life into the army, nurture its growth, and give it strength and efficiency in the field ; vigi- lant, prepared, and present, it moves unnoticed amid the stir- ring events of the field, and obscured by the dust and smoke of the combat, it remains unobserved even while collecting the fruits of victory. The most distressing abuses were visible in the ill-regulated 218 THE FIKST YKAB OF TUE WAE. hygiene of our camps. The ravages of disease among the army in Yirginia were terrible ; the accounts of its 3xtent were suppressed in the newspapers of the day, and there is no doubt that thousands of our brave troops disappeared from notice without a record of their end, in the "nameless graves that yet mark the camping grounds on the lines of the Potomac, and among the wild mountains of V^irginia. Our camps were scourged with fever, pneumonia, and diar rhoea. The armies on the Potomac and in western Yirginia suffered greatly — those troops in Cheat Mountain and in the vicinity of the Kanawha Yalley most intensely. The wet and changeable climate, the difficulty of transportation, exposure to cold and rain without tents, the necessary consequence of the frequent forward and retrograde movements, as well as the want of suitable food for either sick or well men, produced most of the sickness, and greatly aggravated it after its acces- sion. The regulations, requiring reports from the regiments as to the number of sick, their diseases, and the wants of the medi cal station, were, but in few instances, complied with. The result of this neglect was, that upon a change of position in the army, it was the unhappy consequence that the number of sick greatly exceeded that indicated by the reports. They were hurried to the rear, where the accommodations, both as to food, shelter, and medical attendance, being all insufficient, there was great suffering and great mortality. The suffering of our army evoked, on the part of the South- ern people, demonstrations of patriotic devotion and generosity, such, perhaps, as the world had never seen. The patriotism of our citizens at home was manifested in unremitting efforts to supply the w^ants and relieve the sufferings of the soldiers, sick and well. The supply of money, clothing, and hospital stores, from this voluntary and generous source, is estimated in millions of dollars.* It was the most cheering indication * The following contributions (estimated in money) were listed at tlie Pass- port Office, in Kiclimond, during the last three months of the year 1861. The list comprises almost exclusively the donations made to the army of the Po- tomac. Of the voluntary supplies sent to the army in Missouri, Arkansas, and Kentucky, there is no account whatever ; but, as the same patriotic devo- tion animated our people everywhere, there is no reason to doubt that an equal THE FLRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 219 01 the spirit of our people in the cause of independence. The women of the country, with the tenderness and generosity of their sex, not only loaded railroad cars with all those applian- ces for the comfort of the sick which their patriotic ingenuity could devise, but also came to the rescue in clothing those who were well and bearing arms in the field. They made large pe- cuniary contributions, took charge of the hospitals established by the States, and, as matrons of those institutions, carried cleanliness and comfort to the gallant soldier, far from home and kindred. A committee of the Provisional Congress placed on record the thanks of tlie country to the women of the South, for their works of patriotism and public charity, and declared that the government owed them " a public acknowledgment of their faithfulness in the glorious work of eiTecting our inde pendence." amount of clothing, stores, &c., had been sent to those troops. With this cal- culation, the whole amount of contributions for the last quarter of the yeai 18G1 could not have fallen short of three millions of dollars : North Carolina, $335,417 Alabama, 317,600 Mississippi, '. 272,670 Georgia, 244,885 South Carolina, 137,206 Texas, 87,800 Louisiana, 61,950 Virginia, 48,070 Tennessee, 17,000 Florida, 2,350 Arkansas, 950 $1,515,898 II 220 THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAK. CHAPTER IX. Prospects of the Year 1862. — The Lines of the Potomac. — General Jackson's Expe- iitioii to Winchester. — The Battle of Mill Springs in Kentucky. — General Crit- tenden. — Death of General Zollicoffer. — Sutferings of Crittenden's Army on the Retreat. — Comparative Unimportance of the Disaster. — The Battle of Eoanoke Island. — Importance of the Island to the South. — Death of Captain Wise. — Causes of the Disaster to the South. — Investigation in Congress. — Censure of the Government. — Interviews of General Wise with Mr, Benjamin, the Secretary of War. — Mr. Benjamin censured by Congress, but retained in the Cabinet. — His Promotion by President Davis. — Condition of the Popular Sentiment. The year 1862 was to bring in a train of disasters to tlie South. Taking a brief glance at the lines of the Potomac, we shall thereafter have to iind the chief interest of the war in other directions — in the West and on the seacoast. In December last, Gen. Thomas P. Jackson was sent from Gen. Johnston's line to Winchester with a force at his disposal of some ten thousand men. Had the same force been placed at the command of Gen. Jackson in early autumn, with the view to an expedition to Wheeling, by way of the Winchester and Parkersburg road, the good effects would, in all proba- bility, have shown themselves in the expulsion of the Federals from northwestern Virginia. On the 1st of January, 1862, Gen. Jackson marched with his command from Winchester to Bath, in Morgan county, and from the latter place to Romney, where there had been a large Federal force for many weeks, and from which point they had committed extensive depredations on the surrounding country. Gen. Jackson drove the enemy from Ronmey and the neighboring country without much fighting. His troops, however, endured the severest hardships in the expedition. Their suflterings were terrible in what was the severest poi'tion of the winter. They were compelled at one time to struggle through an almost blinding storm of snow and sleet, and to [bivouac at night in the forests, Avithout tents or camp equi- page. Many of the troops were frozen on the march, and died from exposure and exhaustion. THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 221 The heroic commander, whose courage had been so bril- liantly illustrated at Manassas, gave new proofs of his iron will in this expedition and the subsequent events of his cam- paign in the upper portion of the valley of Virginia. Ko one would have supposed that a man, who, at the opening of the war, had been a professor in a State military institute — that at Lexington, Yirginia — could have shown such active deter- mination and grim energy in the field. But Gen. Jackson had been brought up in a severer school of practical experience than West Point, where he had graduated twenty years before ; he had served in the memorable campaign from Vera Cruz to Mexico ; and an iron will and stern courage, which he had from nature, made him peculiarly fitted to command.* But wo must wait for a subsequent period to refer again to Gen. Jackson's operations in the Valley, or to other portions of the campaign in Virginia. * At file sicgo of Vera Cruz, Jackson commanded a battery, and attracted attention by the coolness and judgment with which he worked his guns, and was promoted first lieutenant. For his conduct at Cerro Gordo, he was brevet- ted captain. He was in all Scott's battles to the city of Mexico, and behaved so well that he was brevetted major for his services. To his merits as a com- mander he added the virtues of an active, humble, consistent Christian, restraining profanity in his camp, welcoming army colporteurs, distributing tracts, and anxious to have every regiment in his army supplied with a chap- lain, lie was vulgarly sneered at as a fatalist ; his habits of soliloquy were derided as superstitious conversations with a iamiliar spirit ; but the confi- dence he had in his destiny was the unfailing mark of genius, and adorned the Christian faith, which made him believe that he had a distinct mission of duty in which he should be spared for the ends of Providence. Of the habits of hia life the following description is given by one who knew him : " He is as calm in the midst of a hurricane of bullets as he was in the pew of his church at Lexington, when he was professor of the Institute. He appears to be a man of almost superhuman endurance. Neither heat nor cold makes the slightest impression upon him. He cares nothing for good quarters and dainty fare. Wrapped in his blanket, he throws himself down on the ground anywhere, and sleeps as soundly as though he were in a palace. He lives as the soldiers live, and endures all the fatigue and all the suffering that they endure. His vigilance is something marvellous. He never seems to sleep, and lets nothing pass without his personal scrutiny. He can neither be caught napping, nor whipped when he is wide awake. The rapidity of his marches is something portentous. He is heard of by the enemy at one point, and, before they can make up their minds to follow him, he is off at another. His men have little baggage, and he moves, as nearly as he can, withoiit incumbrance. He keeps eo constantly in motion, that he never has a sick list, and no need of hospitals.' 222 THE FIKST TEAK OF THE WAR. THE BATTLE OF MILL SPKINGS IN KENTUCKY. In a previous chapter, we noticed the expedition of Gen, ZoUicofler in Kentucky, and gave an account of the rout of the forces sent against him. The next expedition of the enemy against him was successful beyond their expectations. Since the affair referred to. Gen. Zollicoffer had moved with a portion of his command to Mill Springs, on the southern bank of the Cumberland river, and soon after advanced across to Camp Beech Grove, on the opposite bank, fortifying this camp with earthworks. At Beech Grove, he placed five regi- ments of infantry, twelve pieces of artillery, and several hun- dred cavalry, and at Mill Springs he had two regiments of infantry and several hundred cavalry. About the first of January, Major-general Crittenden arrived and took the com- mand, having been advanced, by President Davis, from a captaincy in the Federal army to a major-generalship in the Confederate army. Our position at Beech Grove had but few advantages. From the face of the country in front there was a very bad range for artillery, and it could not be of very material benefit against an attacking infantry force ; and, considering the extent of the front line and the number of works to be defended, there was within the camp an insufiicient force. At the same time, for several weeks, bare existence in the camps was very precarious, from want of provisions and forage. Regiments frequently subsisted on one-third rations, and this very frequently ot bread alone. Wayne county, which was alone productive in this region of Kentucky, had been exhausted, and the neigh- boring counties of Tennessee could furnish nothing for the support of the army. Only corn could be obtained for the horses and mules, and this in such small quantities that often cavalry companies were sent out on unshod horses which had eaten nothing for two days. The condition of the roads and the poverty of the intervening section rendered it impossible to transport from Knoxville, a distance of one hundred and thirty miles. The enemy from Columbia commanded the Cumberland river, and only one boat was enabled to come up with supplies from Nashville. With the channel of communication closed j the position became untenable without attack. THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 223 In these straits, when the entire army at Mill Springs had been reduced to a single ration of beef per day, and a half ra tion of corn, the latter eaten as parched corn, and not issued as meal, news reached Gen. Crittenden of an advance move- ment of the enemy, both from Columbia and from Somerset. On the iTth of January it was ascertained that a large Fed- eral force, under Gen. Tliomas, was moving on the road from Columbia, and, on the evening of that day, was camped about ten miles from Beecli Grove. It was also ascertained that other reinforcements were moving from the direction of Colum- bia, under command of Gen. Schocpff, and that the junction of these two forces was intended for an attack on Camp Beech Grove. Under these circumstances. Gen. Crittenden determined to attack Gen. Thomas's force in his camp. The decision, which was sanctioned by a council of war, was a most adventurous one. It was proposed, with an effective force of four thousand men, to attack an enemy in his intrenchments, at least ten thousand strong ; it is true, however, that a defence of our in- trenchments was imj^racticable, and that to have awaited the enemy there, would only have given him time to have effected a junction of his forces. This consideration, however, gives but an imperfect vindication of the impetuous adventure determined upon by Gen. Crittenden. The fact was, that the avenues of retreat were open to our little army, and could only have been cut off by the enemy's crossing above and below Mill Springs. In perfect silence, at midnight, the march began. The bri- gade of Gen. Zollicoffcr moved in front. In the gray dawn, about six o'clock, two miles from their camp, the pickets of the enemy fired upon our advanced cavalry. The morning of the 19th was dark and rainy — a fit day for a sabbath battle. The loth Mississippi regiment, in line of battle, was steadily ad- vanced, under the constant fire of the enemy. The charge of Gen. Zollicoffer's brigftSe, in which this gallant regiment earned the most conspicuous distinction of the day, soon became im- petuous. The Mississippi troops fought with a devotion never excelled by the soldiers of any battle-field ; nearly half of tlie regiment (it numbered only 440) fell in the action ; at times they fought with the enemy at ten or twelve paces, and, in one of their sweeping and exultant charges, for fifty yards, daslied 224 THE FIRST TEAK OF THE WAR. over the dead bodies of Yankees. Tl.e enemy was steadily driven back before the charge of Gen. Zollicofier's command. Ah'eady he was ascending the last hill to its crest, where the heaviest firing told the battle raged. He sent for rein- forcements, and the brigade of Gen. Carrol was ordered np. In another moment, it was announced thht Gen. Zollicoffer was killed. He had fallen on the crest of the hill, the stronghold of the enemy, which he had almost driven them from, and which once gained, the day was ours. Gen. Zollicoffer fell very near the camp of the enemy. He was with Col. Battle's Tennessee regiment, this and the Missis- sippi regiment being the chief participants in the action, and in the ranks of which were his own home friends, born and brought up around him at Kashville. In front, and concealed in the woods, was a regiment of Kentucky renegades, com manded by Col. Fry. By some mistake, probably that of the Kentuckians for a regiment of his own command. Gen. Zolli coffer got very near them. Col. Fry was at the right of his regiment. Gen. Zollicoffer was within a few feet of the colonel. A gum coat concealed his uniform. The two parties mistook each other for friends, and discovered their mutual mistake almost at the same instant. One of General Zollicofter's aids shot at Colonel Fry, but only wounded his horse. The next moment the Federal colonel fired at Zollicoffer, and the gen- eral, raising his hand to his breast, fell, pierced by several balls. At the announcement of the death of Gen. Zollicofler, a sudden gloom pervaded the field and depressed the Tennessee troops, who had been devotedl}'^ attached to him. Gen. Crit- tenden essayed all that personal example could do to retrieve the sinking fortunes of the day. He, in person, rode up to the front of the fight, in the very midst of the fire of the enemy. To gain the disputed hill, the fight was still continued. Charge after charge was driven back by the heavy forces of the enemy. After a conflict of three and a half hours, our troops com- menced to give way. The pursuit was checked by several stands made by the little army, and the intrenchments at Camp Beech Grove were reached in the afternoon, with a loss on our side of about three hundred killed and wounded, and probably fifty prisoners. The advance of the enemy arrived late in the evening before THE FIKar TKAK OF THE WAK. 225 the Confederate intrenchments, and fired upon them with shot and shell. Kight closing in, put a stop to further demonstra- tions. Our men, tired and worn out as they were, stood be- hind the breastworks until midnight, when orders came for them to retreat quietly across the river. A steamer, with three barges attached, commenced the work of transportation. Can- non, baggage wagons, and hort^es were abandoned ; every thing was k>st save what our men had on their backs, and yet the whole night was consumed in getting the army over the river, which was very high at the time. The line of retreat was taken up towards Monticello, Gen. Crittenden having determined to strike for the Cumberland at the highest point where boats could land with safety, in order to be in open communication with Nashville. The retreat was one of great distress. Many of the troops had become demoralized, and, without order, dispersed through the mountain by-ways in the direction of Monticello. "We reached Monticello," writes an officer of one of the regiments in the retreat, " at night, and then we were threatened with starvation — an enemy lar more formidable than the one we left beyond tlie river. Since Saturday night, we had but an hour of slOep, and scared}' a morsel of food. For a whole week, we have been marching under a bare subsistence, and I have at length approached that point in a soldier's career when a hand ful of parched corn may be considered a first-class dinner. "We marclied the first few days through a barren region, where sup- plies could not be obtained. I have more than once seen the men kill a porker with their guns, cut and quarter it, and broil it on the coals, and then eat it without bread or salt. The suffering of the men from the want of the necessaries of life, of clothing, and of repose, has been most intense, and a more melancholy spectacle than this solemn, hungry, and weary procession, could scarcely be imagined." The enemy invested the abandoned camp of the Confederates on the morning following the day of the battle. Gen. Schoepff's brigade had crossed the river pi'cparatory to the attack which Gen. Thomas had intended to make on the intrenchments on Monday. Early in the morning, the steamer used by the Con- federates in effecting their retreat was discovered lying in the river, and was burnt by the shells of the enemy. They con 226 THE FIRST YEAK OP THE WAR. gratulated themselves that they had cut off the last hope of the escape of " the rebels." Long columns of troops filed away, and the artillery commenced to play on the intrenchments, in doubt for a moment whether their guns were replied to or not, when word came that the intrenchments were abandoned. As the enemy marched into the camp there was hardly a cheer. They had hoped to capture every man of the Confederates, and w^ere bitterly disappointed. They secured, however, a rich spoil of victory — every thing in fiict that made our poor soldiers an army. The property captured was of considerable value. It consisted of eight six-pounders and two Parrott-guns, with caissons filled with ammunition, about 100 four-horse wagons, and upwards of 1,200 horses and mules, several boxes of arms which had never been opened, and from 500 to 1,000 muskets. The death of Gen. Zollicoffer was deeply lamented by his countrymen. It is doubtful whether the death of any man of the present generation ever produced such conspicuous grief among Tennesseeans. He was a man made of stern stuff, and possessed in a remarkable degree the confidence of his army and of the Tennessee people. lie was devoted to the interests of the South, and, during a long 'career in Congress, was one of the few members of the Whig party who voted uniformly with Southern men on all questions involving her honor and welfare. Made a brigadier-general, he was assigned to the de- partment of East Tennessee at an early period of the war, and had exhibited rare address and genuine courage and militai-y tal- ents in the administration of his responsible command. It was a melancholy mode which his army chose of testifying their ap- preciation of his ability as a commander, in giving up all for lost when he was shot down ; but it certainly afforded a marked testimony of their confidence in his generalship. The body of General Zollicofter fell into the hands of the en emy. His remains were treated by them with unusual respect. One of their officers, who had known him in "Washington- asked to be permitted to see the corpse. A pistol-shot had struck him in the breast, a little above the heart. His face bore no expression such as is usually found u]3on those who fallln battle — no malice, no reckless hate, not even a shadow of physical pain. It was calm, placid, noble. " Poor fellow," \vrote the officer who visited with resoect his remains jus,t after THE FIKST YEAR OF THE WAK. 22 1 the battle, "I have never looked on a countenance so marked with sadness. A deep dejection had settled on it. ' The low cares of the mouth' were distinct in the droop at its corners, and the thin cheeks showed the wasting w]\ich comes through disappointment and trouble." The reverse sustained by our arms in Southern Kentucky involved no important military consequences ; and the govern- ment at Richniond found cause of congratulation in tlie cir- cumstance that, if a -defeat must needs have happened to it at this time, it could not have come upon itatapoint of less com- parative consequence than the battle-ground near Somerset, Kentucky. It was a hundred miles from the line of railroad connecting us with the great West ; it was a still greater dis- tance from Cumberland Gap, the nearest point of the Virginia line ; and there intervened, on tlie road to Knoxville, rivers and mountain passes which an invading army could only traverse slowly and with great caution. But a disaster to our arms was shortly to ensue, of the im- portance and gravity of which there could be no doubt, and with respect to which the government could find neither con- solations nor excuses. While we have seen how matters stood on the Potomac in the opening of the year 1862, and what ominous indications had taken place in tlie West, we must now remove the attention of the reader to the sea-coast, where, along the low and melancholy scenery of the sea-border of North Carolina, one of the most extraordinary dramas of the war was to be enacted. TH^ BATTLE OF ROANOKE ISLAND. On the 21st of December, that part of I^orth Carolina cast of the Chowan river, together with the counties of Washington and Tyrrell, was, at the request of the proper authorities of North Carolina, separated from the remainder, and constituted into a military district, under Brigadier-general II. A. Wise, and attached to the command of Major-general Huger, com- manding the department of Norfolk. Immediately upon the secession of the State of North Caro- lina from the government of the United States, and the adop- tion of the Constitution of the Confederate States of America, 228 THE FIRST YEAH OF THE tVAE, the authorities of that State commenced the construction oi fortifications at Hatteras and Oregon Inlets, and other points upon her coast, which were not comjjleted when tlie Stato transferred lier forts, arsenals, army, navy, and coast defence to the Confederate government. Shortly thereafter the attack was made upon Forts Hatteras and Clark, and they were taken, and the fortifications at Oregon Inlet were abandoned, and the armament, stores, and ammunition were removed to Eoanoke Island. The enemy immediately appeared in force in Pamlico Sound, the waters of which are connected with Al- bemarle and Currituck sounds by means of the two smaller sounds of Croatah and Koanoke. The island of Roanoke be- ing situated between these two latter sounds, commanding the channels of each, became, upon the fall of Hatteras and the abandonment of Oregon Inlet, only second in importance to Fortress Monroe. The island then became the key which un- locked all northeastern North Carolina to the enemy, and ex- posed Portsmouth and Norfolk to a rear approach of the most imminent danger. Such was the importance of Roanoke Island. It was threat ened by one of the most formidable naval armaments yet fittec out by the North, put under the command of Gen. Burnside, of Rhode Island. It might have been placed in a state of de- fence against any reasonable force, with the expenditure oi money and labor supposed to be within the means of the gov- ernment. Ample time and the fullest forewarnings were given to the government for the construction of defences, since, for a full month, Gen. Wise had represented to the government, with the most obvious and emphatic demonstrations, that the defences of the island were wholly inadequale for its protection from an attack either by land or watei*. The military defences of Roanoke Island and its adjacent waters on the 8th of February, the day of its surrender, con- sisted of three sand forts, a battery of two 32-pounders, and a redoubt thrown across the road in the centre of the island, about seventy or eighty feet long, on the right of which was a swamp, on the left a marsh. In addition to these defences on the sliore and on tlie island, there was a barrier of piles, extending from the east side of Fulker Shoals, towards the island. Its oltjeet was to cojnpel vessels passing on the west of the island THE FIRST YEAR OP THE WAR. 229 to approach within reach of the shore batteries ; but up to the Sth of February, tliere was a span of 1 ,700 yards open opposite to Fort Bartow, the most southern of tbe defences, on the west side of the island. The entire milita?:y force stationed upon the island prior to, and at the time of, tlie late engagement, consisted of the Sth regiment of JSTorth Carolina State troops, under the command of Col. ir. M. Shaw ; the 31st regiment of North Carolina volunteers, under the command of Col. J. Y. Jordan ; and three companies of tlie 17th North Carolina troops, undei* the con: mand of Major G. H. Hill. After manning the several forts. on the 7th of February, there were but one thousand and twenty-four men left, and two hundred of them were upon the tfick list. On the evening of the 7th of February, Brig.-gen. "Wise sent from Nagg's Head, under the command of Lieut.- col. Anderson, a reinf trcemont, numbering some four hundred and fifty men. The whole force was under the command of Brig.-gen. "Wise, who, upon the 7th and Sth of February, was at Nagg's Head, four miles distant from the island, confined to a sick-bed, and entirely disabled from participating in the action in person. Tlie immediate command, therefore, devolved upon Col. H. M. Shaw, the senior officer present. On the morning of the 7th of February, the enemy's fleet proceeded steadily towards Fort Bartow. In the sound be- tween Roanoke Island and the mainland, upon the Tyrrell side. Commodore Lynch, with his squadron of seven vessels, had taken position, and at eleven o'clock the enemy's fleet, consisting of about thirty gunboats and schooners, advanced in ten divisions, the rear one having the schooners and trans- ports in tow. Tlie advance and attacking division again sub- divided, one assailing the squadron and the other firing upon the fort with nine-inch, ten-inch, and eleven-inch shell, spheri- cal case, a few round-shot, and every variety of rifled projec- tiles. The fort replied with but four guns (which were all that could be brought to bear), and after striking the foremost vessels several times, the fleet fell back, so as to mask one of tlie gnns of the fort, leaving but three to reply to the fire of the whole fleet. The bombardment was continued throughout the day, and the enemy retired at dark. The squadron, under the command of Commodore Lynch, sustained their position 230 THE FIRST TKAK OF THE WAK. most gallantly, and only retired after exhausting all their am munition, and having lost the steamer Curlew and the Fojest disabled. In the mean time, the enemy had found a point of landing out of the reach of our field-pieces, and defended by a swamp from the advance of our infantry. The enemy having effected a landing here, oar whole force took position at the redoubt or breastwork, and placed in battery their field-pieces with necesr' sary artillerymen, under the respective commands of Captain Schemerhorn, and Lieutenants Kinney and Seldon. Two com- panies of the Eighth and two of the Thirty-first were placed at the redoubt to support the artillery. Three companies of the "Wise Legion, deployed to the right and left as skirmishers. The remainder of the infantry were in position, three hundred yards in the rear of the redoubt, as a reserve. The enemy landed some fifteen thousand men, with artillery, and, at 7 o'clock, a. m., of the ""' h, opened fire upon the redoubt, which was replied to imni-j.; lately with great spirit, and the action soon became general, and was continued without intei'- mission for more than five hours, when the enemy succeeded in dej)loying a large force on either side of our line, flanking each wing. The order was then given by Col. Shaw t/> spike the guns in the battery, and to retreat to the northern end of the island. The guns were spiked, and the whole force fell back to the camps. During the engagement at the redoubt, the enemy's fleet at- tempted to advance to Croatau Sound, which brought on a desultory engagement between Fort Bartow and the fleet, which continued up to half-after 12 o'clock, when the com- manding oflicer was informed that the land defences had been forced, and the position of the fort turned ; he thereupon order- ed the guns to be disabled and the ammunition destroyed, which was done, and the fort abandoned. The same thing was done at the other forts, and the forces from all the forts were marched in good order to the camp. The enemy took posses- sion of the redoubts and forts immediately, and proceeded in pursuit, with great caution, towards the northern end of the sland in force, deploying so as to surround our forces at the «amp. Co.. Shaw had arrived with his whole force at his camp in THE FIKST YKAE OF THE WAR. 231 time to have saved his whole cominand, if transports had been furnished. But there were none. His situation was one of extreme exigency. He found himself surrounded hj a greatly superior force upon the open island ; he had no field-works to protect him ; he had lost his only three field-pieces at the re- doubt ; and he had either to make an idle display of courage in fighting the foe at such immense disadvantage, which would have involved the sacrifice of his command, or to capitulate and surrender as prisoners of war. He determined upon the latter alternative. The loss on our side was, killed, 23 ; wounded, 58 ; missing, 62. Our mortality list, however, was no indication of the spirit and vigor of our little army, as in its position it had but little oppoi'tunity of contest without a useless sacrifice of human life on their side. Among the killed was Captain O. Jennings Wise, of the Richmond Blues, son of General Wise, a young man of brilliant promise, refined chivalry, and a courage to which the softness of his manners and modesty of his behavior added the virtue of knightly heroism. His body, pierced by M'ounds, fell into the hands of the enemy, in whose camp, at- tended by every mark of rcs]>ect, he expired. The disaster at Koanoke Island was a sharp mortification to the public. But for the unfortunate general, who was compelled to hear on a sick-bed — perhaps to witness from the M-indows of a sick-cham- ber — the destruction of his army and the death of his son, there was not a word of blame. In a message to Congress, President Davis referred to the result of the battle at Roanoke Island as " deeply humiliating ;'' a committee of Congress, appointed to investigate the afl^air, resented the attempt to attribute a disaster, for which the gov- ernment itself was notoriously responsible, to want of S})irit in our troops ; declared that, on the contrary, the battle of Roanoke Island was " one of the most gallant and brilliant actions of the war ;" and concluded that whatever of blame and responsibility was justly attributable to any one for the defeat, should attach to Gen, Huger, in whose military department the island was, and to the Secretary of War, Judah P. Benjamin, whose posi- tive refusal to put the island in a state of defence secured its fall. There was, in fact, but little room for the go rernmcnt tc throw reflection upon the conduct of the troops- In the lau 232 THE FIRST TKAE OF THE WAK. guage of their commanding general, " botli officers and men fought firmly, coolly, efficiently, and as long as humanity would allow." The connection of the War Department with the Tloanoke Island affair, which was Avith difficulty dragged to light in Congress, is decidedly one of the most curious portions of the his':ory of the war. Gen. Wise had pressed upon the govern- ment the importance of Eoanoke Island* for the defence of Norfolk. He assumed the command of the post upon the 7th of January. In making a reconnoissance of the island and its defenc L'oast busied theniselves to turn to profit the lesson the Virginia had given theui, Denmark voted a million of rix dollars for the construction of iron-plated vessels, while Sweden sent ita Crown Prince to assist at the trial trip of the French frigate La Couronne, the largest iron war-steamer afloat. Italy had already some very fine iron vessels-of-war, and her citizens were hard at work on others. Austria was ofticially informed of the revolution in warfare at sea on the very day that an imperial commission reported her huge land fortresses as defi- ant of every known means of assault ; and the Prussians, people and- government, regarded the engagement in Hampton Poads as one of " the most important events of the day." The Confederate States government might have learned some instructive lessons from the victory achieved by the Yirginia. Instead of one such vessel, we might have had ten, had the Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Mallory, possessed the ability and zeal essential to his responsible position. The cost was not a matter of the slightest consideration. A vessel built at an ex- pense of half a million was cheap enough, when in her first essay she had destroyed thrice her value of the enemy's prop- erty. The State of North Carolina and the Confederacy had spent at least a million of dollars already in futile attempts to defend the eastern coast of that State. If that sum had been expended in building iron-clad vessels suitable to the waters on the Carolina coast, all of our disasters in that direction might have been prevented, except, perhaps, the one at Hat- teras, and our ports on that portion of our coast kept open, at least partially, if not entirely. In no possibly better manner could ten or twenty millions of dollars have been exj)ended than by augmenting the power of our infant navy. "While the Yirginia was achieving her memorable victory in Hampton Poads, a battle had commenced in the extreme northwest portion of the State of Arkansas, which had but one parallel as to its duration, and probably few as to its desperate character, since the opening of the_ war. It will be recollected that, in a previous chapter, we left Gen. Price about the close of the year 1S61 occupying Spring- field, Missouri, for the purpose of being within reach of sup- pli'^, and protecting that portion of the State from domestic THE rmST TEAK OF THE WAR. 275 depredations and Federal invasion. About the latter part of January, it became evident that the enemy were concentrating in force at Rolla, and shortly thereafter they occupied Leba- non. Believing that this movement could be for no other pur- jiose than to attack him, and knowing that his command was inadequate for such successful resistance as the interests of the army and the cause demanded, General Price appealed to the commanders of tlie Confederate troops in Arkansas to come to his assistance. He held his position to the very last moment. On the 12tli of February, his pickets were driven in, and re- ported the enemy advancing upon him in force. Gen. Price commenced retreating at once. He reached Cassville with loss unworthy of mention in any respect. Here the enemy in his rear commenced a series of attacks, running through four days. Kctrcating and fighting all the way to the Cross Hollows, in Arkansas, the command of Gen. Price, under the most ex- hausting, fatigue, all that time, with but little rest for either man or horse, and no sleep, sustained themselves, and came through, repulsing the enemy upon every occasion, with great determination and gallantry. Gen. Yan Dorn had recently been appointed to the command of the Confederate forces in the Trans-Mississippi district. A happy accord existed between him and Gen. Price, and. a pri- vate correspondence that had ensued between these two mili- tary chieftains, on the occasion of Gen. Van Dorn's appoint- ment by President Davis to take command in Arkansas and Missouri, not only showed a spirit of mutual appreciation and compliment highly honorable to both, but developed a s^'ngu- lar similarity of views (considering that the letter of each was written without knowledge of that of the other) with reference to the conduct of the war. Learning that Gen. Price had rapidly fallen back from Springfield before a superior force of the enemy, and was en- deavoring to form a junction with the division of Gen. Mc- Culloch at Boston Mountain, Gen, Yan Dorn, who was thei. at Pocahontas, Arkansas, resolved to go in person to take com- mand of the combined forces of Price and McCulloch. He reached their head-quarters on the 3d of March. 276 THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAK. THE BATTLE OF ELK HOKN. The enemy, under tlie command of Gens. Curtis and Sigel had halted on Sugar Creek, fifty -five miles distant, where, with a force variously estimated at from seventeen to twenty-four thousand, he was awaiting still further reinforcements before he would advance. Gen. Yan Dorn resolved to make the at- tack at once. He sent for Gen. Albert Pike to join him with his command of Indian warriors, and, on the morning of the 4th of March, moved with the divisions of Price and McCul- loch, by way of Fayetteville and Bentonville, to attack the en- emy's camp on Sugar Creek. The whole force under his com mand was about sixteen thousand men. At Bentonville, General Sigel's division, seven thousand strong, narrowly escaped a surprise and fell back, our advance skirmishing with the rear-guard to Sugar Creek, about seven miles beyond. On the morning of the Yth of March, Gen. Yan Dorn made disposition for attack. Befoi-e eleven o'clock, the action had become general. The attack was made from the north and west, the enemy being completely surrounded. About two o'clock. Gen. Yan Dorn sent a dispatch to Gen. McCulloch, who was attacking the enemy's left, proposing to him to hold his position, while Price's left advance might be thrown for- ward over the whole hue, and easily end the battle. Before the dispatch was penned, Gen. McCulloch had fallen, and the victorious advance of his division upon the strong position of the enemy's front was checked by the fall of himself and Gen. Mcintosh, also, in the heat of the battle and in the full tide of success. It appears that two musket-balls, by killing the gal- lant McCulloch and Mcintosh, had prevented us from gaining a great victory. Notwithstanding the confusion that succeeded this untimely occurrence, Gen. Yan Dorn pressed forward with the attack, sustained by the resistless charges of the Missouri division. At nightfall, the enemy had been driven back from the field of battle, and the Confederates held his intrenchments and the greater j)art of his commissary stores, on which our half-famished men fed. Our troops slept upon their arms nearly a mile beyond the point where the enemy had made his THE FIKST I'EAK OF THE WAK. 277 last stand, and Gen. Yan Dorn's head-quarters for the night were at the Elk Horn tavern — from which locality the battle- field derived its name. "We had taken during the day seven cannon and about two hundred prisoners. On the morning of the 8th, the enemy, having taken a strong position during the night, reopened the fight. The action soon became general, and continued until about half- past nine o'clock, by which time Gen. Yan Dorn had com- pleted his arrangements to withdraw his forces. Finding that his right wing was much disorganized, and that the batteries were, one after another, retiring from the field, with every shot expended, Gen. Yan Dorn had determined to withdraw his forces in the direction of their supplies. This was accomplish- ed with almost perfect success. The ambulances, crowded with the wounded, were sent in advance ; a portion of McCul loch's division was placed in position to follow, while Gen. Yan Dorn disposed of his remaining force as best to deceive the enemy as to his intention, and to hold him in check while exe cuting it. An attempt was made by the enemy to follow the retreating column. It was effectually checked, however, and, about 2 p. M., the Confederates encamped about six miles from the field of battle, all of the artillery and baggage joining the army in safety. They brought away from the field of battle 300 prisoners, four cannon, and three baggage wagons. Our loss in killed and wounded was stated by Gen. Yan Dorn to be about six hundred, as nearly as could be ascertain- ed, while that of the enemy was conjectured to be more than seven hundred killed and at least an equal number wounded. Gen. Curtis, in his official report, gives no statement of his loss, but simply remarks that it was heavy. The entire engagement had extended over the space of three days, the 6th, 7th, and 8th of March. The gallantry of our soldiers had been unrival- led. More than half of our troops were raw levies, armed with shot-guns and country rifles. The enemy were armed with superior guns of the latest patents, such as revolving rifles, sabre bayonets, rifled cannon, mounted howitzers, &c. Our army had forced them by inches from one position to another, and, although compelled to fall back at last, were able to make their determination good never to permit the enemy to advance South. 278 THE FIKST YEAK OF THE WAK. The Indian regiments, under Gen. Pike, had not come up m time to take any important part in the battle. Some of the red -men behaved well, and a portion of them assisted in taking a battery ; but they were difficult to manage in the deafening roar of artillery, to which they were unaccustomed, and were naturally amazed at the sight of guns that ran on wheels. They knew what to do with the rifle ; they were accustomed to sounds of battle as loud as their own war-whoop ; and the amazement of these simple children of the forest may be imag- ined at the sight of such roaring, deafening, crashing monsters as twelve-pounders running around on wheels. Gen. Yan Dorn, in his official report of the battle, does not mention that any assistance was derived from the Indians — an ally that had, perhaps, cost us much more trouble, expense, and annoyance, than their services in modern warfare could, under any circum- stances, be worth. In the action, the Missouri troops, from the noble veteran, who had led them so long, down to the meanest private, be- haved with a courage, the fire and devotion of which never, for a moment, slackened. The personal testimony of Gen. Yan Dorn to their noble conduct, was a just and magnanimous trib- ute. He wrote to the government at Richmond : " During the whole of this engagement, I was with the Missourians under Price, and I have never seen better fighters than these Mis- souri troops, or more gallant leaders than Gen. Price and his officers. From the first to the last shot, they continually rushed on, and never yielded an inch they had won ; and when at last they received orders to fall back, they retired steadily and witli cheers. Gen. Price received a severe wound in the action, but would neither retire from the field nor cease to ex- pose Ins life to danger." Nor is this all the testimony to the heroism of Gen. Price on the famous battle-fields of Elk Horn. Some incidents are re- lated to us by an officer of his conduct in the retreat, that show aspects of heroism more engaging than even those of reckless bravery. In the progress of the retreat, writes an officer, every few hundred yards we would overtake some wounded soldier. As soon as he would see the old general, he would cry out, " General, I am wounded !" Instantly some vehicle was ordered to stop, and the poor soldier's wants cared for THE FIRST YRAE OF THE WAR, 279 Again and again it occurred, until our conveyances -were covered with tlie wounded. Another one cried out, ' General, .1 am wounded !' The general's head dropped upon his breast, and his eyes, bedimmed with tears, were thrown up, and he looked in front, but could seen no place to put his poor soldier. Ke discovered something on wheels in front, and commanded : ' Halt ! and put this wounded soldier up ; by G — d, I will save my wounded, if I lose the whole army !' This explains why the old man's poor soldiers love him so well." Although, in the battle of Elk Horn, our forces had been compelled to retire, and the affair was proclaimed in all parts of the North as a splendid victory of their arms, there is no doubt, in the light of history, that the substantial fruits of vic- tory were with the Confederates. The enemy had set out on a march of invasion, with the avowed determination to subju- gate Arkansas, and capture Fort Smith. But after the shock of the encounter at Elk Horn, he was forced to fall back into Missouri, leaving several hundred prisoners in our hands, and more than two thousand killed and wounded on the field. The total abandonment of their enterprise of subjugation in Ar- kansas is the most conclusive evidence in the world, that the Federals were worsted by Gen. Yan Dorn, and that this brave and honorable commander had achieved for his country no in- considerable success. The fall of Gen. Ben McCulloch was esteemed as a national calamity, and, in his official report of the battle, Gen. Yan Dorn declared that no success could repair the loss of the gal- lant dead, who had fallen on the well-fought field. Gen. Mc- Culloch's name was already historical at the time of the break- ing out of the revolution. Twenty-six years ago he served in the battle of San Jacinto, afterwards passed his time on the Texan frontier, in a succession of hardships and dangers such as few men have seen, and subsequently, in the Mexican war on the bloody field of Buena Yista, received the public and offi- cial thanks of Gen. Taylor for his heroic conduct and services. McCulloch, as a soldier, was remarkable for his singular ca- pacities for partisan warfare, and, in connection with Walker, Hays, and Chevallic, had originated and rendered renowned the name of "Texas Ranker." These darins: adventurers did much in achieving the independence of the Texan republic, 280 THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. and in defending its borders from the ruthless and enterprising Camanclie. In the war of the United States with Mexico, they rendered invaluable service as daring scouts, and inaugurated the best and most eflfective cavalry service that has ever been known in the world. The moment Lincoln's election became known, McCulloch identified himself as an unconditional secessionist, and repaired to Texas to take part in any movement that might grow out of the presence of over 3000 United States troops in that State. He was unanimously selected by the Committee of Public Safety to raise the men necessary to compel the surrender of San Antonio, with its arsenal and the neighboring forts, four or five in number. Within four days, he had travelled one hundred and fifty miles, and stood before San Antonio with eight hundred armed men, his old comrades and neighbors. His mission succeeded. Texas looked to him with confidence as one of her strong pillars in case of war. She sent him abroad to procure arms ; but, before he had fully succeeded. President Davis appointed him brigadier-general, and assigned him to the command of the Indian Territory. He was killed in the brush on a slight elevation by one of the sharp-shooters of the enemy. He was not in uniform, but his dress attracted attention. He wore a dress of black velvet, patent-leather high-top boots, and he had on a light-colored, broad-brimmed Texan hat. The soldier who killed him, a private in an Illinois regiment, went up and robbed his body of a gold watch. Gen. Mcintosh, who had been very much distinguished all through the operations in Arkansas, had fallen on the battle- field, about the same time that McCulloch had been killed. During the advance from Boston Mountain, he had been placed in command of the cavalry brigade, and in charge of the pickets. He was alert, daring, and devoted to his duty. His kindness of disposition, with his reckless bravery, had attached the troops strongly to him, so that, after McCulloch fell, had he remained to lead them, all would have been well with the right wing; but, after leading a brilliant charge of cavahy, and carrying the enemy's battery, he rushed into the thickest of the fight again at the head of his old regiment, and was shot through the heart. THE FIEST YEAE OF THE WAR. 281 A noble boy from Missouri, Cliurchill Clarke, commanded a battery of artillery, and, during the fierce artillery action of the Ttli and Stli, was conspicuous for the daring and skill which he exhibited. He fell at the very close of the action. While there was, in Richmond, great anxiety to construe aright the imperfect and uncertain intelligence which had ar- rived there, by devious ways, from Arkansas, news reached the Southern capital of a brilliant and undoubted victory still further to the West, in the distant territory of New Mexico. This victory had been achieved weeks before the slow intelli- gence of it reached Richmond. Although it had taken place on a remote theatre, and was but little connected with the general fortunes of the war, the victory of Yalverde had a good eiYect upon the spirits of the Southern people, which had been so long depressed and darkened by a baleful train of disasters. TUE BATTLE OF VALVEKDE. The Confederates marched from Mesilla, in Arizona, upon Fort Craig, about 175 miles distant, and there fought the battle and won the victory of Valvcrde, on the 21st of March. Gen. Sibley, with his command, numbering, rank and file, two thousand three hundred men, left Fort Thorn, eighty miles below Fort Craig, about the 12th of February. On arriving in the vicinity of Fort Craig, he learned from some prisoners, captured near the post, that Gen. Canby was in command of the Federal forces in the fort; that he had twelve hundred regular troops, two hundred American volunteers, and five thousand Mexicans, making his entire force near six thousand four hundred men. Notwithstanding this superior force, he boldly advanced, and, on the 19th, crossed the river near Fort Craig, and, making a detour of some miles, arrived on the morning of the 21st March at Yalverde, on the east bank of the Rio Grande, three miles above the fort, where a large body of the enemy were stationed to receive him. It seems that all the enemy's forces, with the exception of their artillery and re- serve, were upon the same side of the river to which our troops wore advancing. A portion of Col. Baylors regiment, under command of Major Pyon, numbering 250 men, were the first 282 THE FIRST YKAR OV THE WAR. to engage the enemy. Alone and unsupported for one liour they held their position amid a hail of grape, canister, and round-shot. At that time they were reinforced, and the battle became general. The enemy then made an attack upon our right wing, and were repulsed. A general movement was then made npon our line with more success, a portion of our left wing being compelled to fall back and take a new position. This was about 2 o'clock. The enemy now supposed they had gained the day, and ordered their battery across the river, which was done, and the battery planted upon the bank. As soon as the battery opened General Sibley knew it had crossed, and immediately ordered a general charge, which was per- formed only as Texans can do it. Starting at a distance of eight hundred yards, with their Camanche war-whoop, they re- served their fire until within thirty yards of the battery, when they poured a deadly fire, with double-barrelled shot-guns and pistols, immediately into the horror-stricken ranks of their foes. They sprung into the river, and in crossing, numbers were killed. Captain Teel's battery now coming up, closed this sanguinary contest with shell and grape, as they fled down the opposite side of the river to the fort. The battle lasted nine hours. It afi'orded one of the most remarkable instances of valor in the war — the taking of a field-battery with shot-guns and pistols. Our loss was thirty-eight killed, and one hundred and twenty wounded ; that of the enemy, as given by them- selves, was three hundred killed, four or five hundred wounded, and two thousand missing. The enemy suffered the most while retreating across the river, where the slaughter was for some moments terrible. After the victory of Yalverde, the small force of Texans not being in any condition to assault Fort Craig, pressed on to Al- iMKpu-rque, about ninety miles north of the battle-field. This city, tlie second in size and importance in the territory, having a p(i|)iilation of seven or eight thousand, the Federals had evacuated. The victorious Confederates still pressed towards Santa Fe, the capital city of the great central plateau of inte- rior America, which the Federals had also evacuated, and fallen back on Fort Union, about sixty miles northeast of Santa Fe, and one of the strongest fortifications in America. Thus the Texans had marched about three hundred miles THE riEST YEAU OF TUE WAK. 2 S3 from Mesilla, defeated the Federals and desti'oyed their army in a pitched battle, ejected them from their two chief cities, and driven them out of the territory to their outpost on its eastern limite. The result of the battle of Valverde was encouraging, and the prospect was indulged that Kew Mexico was already con- quered, an,d .that the Confederate States held the Southern overland route to California. Eeferring to the progress of the campaign in Virginia, we shall find its plans and locality widely changed, the line of the Potomac abandoned, and the long and persistent struggle of the Federals for the possession of Richmond transferred to a new but not unexpected theatre of operations. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston had determined to change his line on the Potomac, as the idea of all oficnsive operations on it had been abandoned, and it had become necessary, in his opin- ion, that the main body of the Confederate forces in Virginia should be in supporting distance and })osition with the army of the Peninsula; and in the event of either being driven back, that they might combine for final resistance before Richmond. The discretion of falling back from the old line of the Poto- mac was confided by President Davis entirely to the discretion of Gen. Johnston, who enjoyed a rare exemption from official pragmatism at Richmond, and was in many things very much at liberty to pursue the counsels of his own military wisdom. For the space of three weeks before the army left its intrench- ments at Manassas, preparations were being made for falling back to the line of the Rappaliannock, by the quiet and gradual removal of the vast accumulations of army stores ; and with such consummate address was this managed, that our own troops had no idea of what was intended until the march was taken up. The first intimation the enemy had of the evacua- tion of Manassas was the smoke of the soldiers' huts that had b3en tired by our army. That the strategic plans of the enemy were completely foiled by the movement of Gen. Johnston, was quite evident in the tone of disappointment and vexation in which the 2>orthern newspapers referred to the evacuation of Manassas, which, unless there had been some disconcert of their own strategy by 8uch an event, they would have been likely to regard as a con- 19 284 THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. Biderable advantage on tbcir side in letting tliem further into the territory of Yirginia. THE BATTLE OF KERNSTOWN. AYliile our forces deserted tlie old line of the Potomac, it was determined not to leave tlie Valley of Virginia undefended, and the command of Gen. Jackson was left in the neighborhood of Winchester, to operate to the best advantage. Near the town of Winchester occurred, on the 23d of March, what was known as the battle of Kernstown. The Federals were attacked by oiir forces under Gen. Jackson, the engage- ment having been brought on by the gallant Col. Ashby, who had becTi fighting the enemy wherever he had shown himself in the Valley. The Confederate forces amounted to six thousand men, with Capt. McLaughlin's battery of artillery and Colonel Abhby's cavalry. All the troops engaged were from Virginia, except a few companies from Maryland. It was thought that there M'ould be but a very small force at the point of attack, but the enemy proved to be nearly eighteen thousand strong with a considerable number of field-pieces. They occupied a rising ground, and a very advantageous position. Gen. Banks had concluded that there was no enemy in front except Ashby 's force of cavalry ; that Gen. Jackson would not venture to separate himself so far from the main body of the Confederate army as to oflPer him battle, and mider these im- pressions he had left for Washington. On Sunday morning, Gen. Shields, who had been left in command of the Federals, satisfied that a considerable force was before him, concentrated his whole force, and prepared to give battle. The action com- menced about four o'clock in the evening, and terminated when night closed upon the scene of conflict. Our men fought with desperation until dark, when the firing on both sides ceased. During the night, Gen. Jackson decided to fall back to Cedar creek, and prepare there to make successful opposition with his small force, should the enemy advance. The enemy was left in possession of the field of battle, two guns and four caissons, and about three hundred prisoners. Our loss was about one hundred killed, and probably twice that number wounded. The loss of the enemy was certainly more than THE FIEST YEAR OF THE WAR. 285 double. At one period of the fight onr men had got posses- sion of a stone wall, which formed the boundary of two fields, and dropping on their knees, had fired deadly volleys into the advancing lines of tlie enemy. Tlie Confederates carried off the greater portion of the wounded up the Valley. Tlieir re- treat was conducted in perfect order; and even Gen. Shields, in his accounts of the afl'air, which were very much exagger- ated, of course, for the purposes of popular sensation in the North, testified of the Confederates, that "such was their gal- lantry and high state of discipline, that at no time during the battle or pursuit did they give way to panic." Tlie enemy had but little reason to boast of the battle of Kernstown. In fact, the afl'air was without general significa- tion. It was an attack by the Confederates, undertaken on false information, gallantly executed, and, although unsuccess- ful, was not disastrous. The Northern troops had made no ad- vance in the Valley ; from the ]\fanassas line they had actually retired ; nor had they any considerable body of troops this side of Centreville. Whether they would ever attempt to execute their original plan, of a march through Piedmont to Richmond, was now more than problematical. The greater portion of our dead left on the field of battle were buried under the direction of the mayor of Winchester. Some fifty citizens collected the dead, dug a great pit on the battle-field, and gently laid the poor fellows in their last rest- ing-place. It was a sad sight, and sadder still to see women looking carefully at every corpse to try to identify the bodies of their friends. Scarcely a family in the county but had a relative there. But their sufi"ering did not mollify the noble Southern women of Winchester. Every feeling, testified a Federal officer who witnessed the sad and harrowing^ scenes of the battle-field, seemed to have been extinguished in their in- tense hatred of " the Yankees." " They would say, * You may bring the whole force of the North here*, but you can never conquer us, — we will shed our last drop of blood,' " &c. Col. Ashby covered the retreat of the army, and by his tire- Icfjs energy, made himself, as on many other occasions, the terror of the Yankees. The daring feats and heroic exploits of this brave officer were universal themes of admiration in the 8outh, and were rehearsed by the people of the Valley, whc 2S6 THE FIRST TKAE OF TFIE WAH. idolized him, with infinite gratification and delight. A few months before, when Winchester had been evacuated, under orders from the War Department, he had been unwilling to leave the town, and had lingered behind, watching the ap- proach of the haughty and unprincipled foe into this ancient town of the Yallej. He waited until the Federal columns had filled the streets, and, within two hundred yards of them, cheered for the Southern Confederacy, and then dashed off at full speed for the V^alley turnpike. He reached it only to find his way intercepted by two of the enemy's pickets. Nothing daunted, he drew his pistol and shot down one of the pickets, and, seizing the other, dragged him ofi" a prisoner, and brought him safely to the Confederate lines. It was adventures like these, as well as extraordinary gallantry in the field, that made the name of the brave Yirginia cavalier conspicuous throughout the South, and a tower of strength with those for whose homes and firesides he had been struggling. The personal appearance of Col. Ashby was not striking. He was of small stature. He wore a long black beai'd, and had dark, glittering eyes. It was not generally known that the man who performed such deeds of desperate valor and en- terprise, and who was generally pictured to the imagination as a fierce, stalwart, and relentless adventurer, was as remarkable for his piety and devoutness as for his military achievements. His manners were a combination, not unusual in the truly re- fined spirit, of gentleness with the most enthusiastic courage. It was said of him, that when he gave his most daring com- mands, he would gently draw his sabre, wave it around his head, and then his clear, sounding voice would ring out the simple but thrilling words, " Follow me." In such a spirit we recognize the fine mixture of elements that the world calls heroism. The Northern forces pursued neither the retreat of Johnston from Manassas, nor that of Jackson from Winchester. On the contrary, they withdrew the forces first advanced, and blo'cked the road between Strasburg and Winchester. It was known, however, about this time, that the camps at Washington had been rapidly diminished, and that McClellan had totally disap- peared from the scene. At the same time an unusual confi- dence was expressed in the Northern journals that Richmond THE FIRST YEAU OF THE WAR. 287 would now fall almost immediately into the hands of their generals. Then followed the daily announcements of fleets of transports arriving in Hampton Roads, and the vast extension of the long line of tents at Newport News. These were evi dent indications of the intention of the enemy to abandon for the present other projects for the capture of Richmond, so as to make his great eft'ort on the Peninsula formed by the York and James rivers. General Magruder, the hero of Bethel, and a command ei who was capable of much greater achievements, was left to con- front the growing forces on the Peninsula, which daily men- aced him, with an army of seventy-five hundred men, while the great bulk of the Confederate forces were still in motion in the neighborhood of the Rappahannock and the Rapidan, and he had no assurance of reinfoi'cements. The force of the enemy was ten times his own ; they had commenced a daily cannon- ading upon his lines ; and a council of general officers was con vened, to consult whether the little army of seven thousand five hundred men should maintain its position in the face of ten- fold odds, or retire before the enemy. The opinion of the council was unanimous for the latter alternative, with the ex- ception of one ofiicer, who declared that every man should die in the intrenchments before the little army should fall baclc "By G — , it shall be so !" was the sudden exclamation of Gen, Magruder, in sympatliy with the gallant suggestion. The res- olution demonstrated a remarkable heroism and spirit. Our little force was adroitly extended over a distance of several miles, reaching from Mulberry Island to Gloucester Point, a regiment being posted here and there, in every gap plainly open to observation, and on other portions of the line tlie men being posted at long intervals, to give the appearance of num- bers to the enem}'. Had the weakness of Gen. Magruder at this time been known to the enemy, he might have suflered tlie consequences of his devoted and self-sacrificing courage ;, but as it was, he held his lines on the Peninsula until they were reinforced by the most considerable portion of Gen. Johnston's forces, and made the situation of a contest upon which the at- tention of the public was unanimously fixed as the most de- cisive of the war. It is not our purpose at this time to follow up the develop 2SS THE FDRST YEAK OF THE WAK ments of the situation on the Peninsula. We must, for the preoent, leave afiairs there in the crisis to Avhich we have brought them, while we refer to a serious recurrence of dis- asters about this time on our sea-coast and rivere, where again the lesson was repeated to us of the superiority of the enemy on the water, 2iot by any mysterious virtue of gunboats, but solely on account, as we shall show, of inefficiency and improv- idence in our government. On the 4th of March, the town of Newbern, in Korth Caro- lina, was taken by the Federals, under command of General Burnside, after a feeble resistance. The day before, the Fed- erals had landed about ten thousand troops fifteen miles below Newbern, and at the same time had ascended the river with a fleet of gunboats, which, as they advanced, shelled the woods in every direction. The next morning the fighting was com- menced at early dawn, and continued until half-past ten o'clock, when our forces, being almost completely surrounded, were compelled to retreat. All the forts on the river were aban- doned. Fort Thompson was the most formidable of these. It was four miles from Newberu, and mounted thirteen heavy guns, two of them rifled o2-pounders. The guns at Fort Ellis, three miles from Kewbern, were dismounted and thrown down the embankment. Fort Lane, mounting eight guns, two miles from Newbern, was blown up. In the first attack upon our lines, at 7 o'clock, the enemy had been repulsed three times successively by our infantry, wdth the assistance of Fort Thomp- son ; but having flanked our forces on the right, which caused a panic among the militia, he had changed the fortunes of the day. The railroad bridge across I^Teuse river was not burnt until after all our troops had crossed, except those whose escape had been effectually cut off by the enemy. The Fed- erals achieved a complete victory after a contest of very short duration, having taken about five hundred prisoners, over fifty pieces of cannon, and large quantities of arms and ammunition. The easy defeat of the Confederate forces at Newbei*n, the surrender of our fortifications, on which thousands of dollars had recently been expended, and the abandonment not only oi our heavy guns, but of some of our field-guns also, was a sub »ect of keen mortification to the South. The fact was known that our force at Newbern was very inadequate — not more than THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR, 289 file thousand — a part of whom were militia, and had been left, despite of appeals to the governnient for reinforcements, to en- counter whatever force Gen. Biirnside should choose to bring against them. Gen. Branch, who was in command of the Con- iWlerate forces, and who disphvyed courage and judgment, was compelled to fight at l^ewbern. To have given it up without a struggle, after all that had been done there, would have brouglit him into discredit with the government, the people, and the troops. As it was, the enemy had gained an important position within easy reach of the Wilmington and Weldon road. But few persons remained in the town. Seven trains left for Goldsboro', all crowded to overflowing by fugitive soldiers and panic-stricken people. A shell from the enemy's gunboats fell within twenty -five feet of the lust train as it moved ofl:' Women and children were overtaken by the trains many miles from ]S'ew])ern, some in vehicles of various kinds, and many on foot. The panic and disorganization extended for miles, and yet there was a nobih'ty in the determination of the i)o})nlation <)f Newborn to fly anywhere rather than court security in their homes by submission to tlie enemy. The toM'u of Newl)ern originally contained twelve hundred people ; when occupied by the enemy, it contained one hundred people, male and female, of the old population. On the 12tli day of April one year ago, the guns and mor- tars of tlie South Carolina batteries opened upon the then hos- tile walls of Fort Sumter. Strangely enough, the first anni- versary of the event was signalized by the startling and un- comfortable announcement that Fort Pulaski, the principal defence of the city of Savannah, had surrendered to the Yan- kees, after a brief bombardment. The news was all the more unpleasant, from the fact that the day before the public had been informed by telegraph that the enemy's batteries had been " silenced.'* It seems that they were not silent until our flag was struck. The surrender was unconditional, and tho garrison, consisting of more than three hundred men, four of whom had been wounded, and none killed, were made prisoners of war. Another Confederate disaster on the coast shortly ensued, in the suj-render of Fort Macon. This fort, on the JS^Oi th Carolina coast, was "surrendered on the 25th of April, after a bombard- 290 THE FIEST TEAK OF THE WAE. ment from the enemy's land batteries of less than twelve hours It commanded the entrance to Beaufort harbor, and was said to be the most formidable fortification on the North Carolina coast. For these painful and almost humiliating disasters on our coast and rivers, a ready but very silly excuse was always at hand. A most pernicious and false idea appeared to havo taken possession of the public mind with reference to the essen- tial superiority of the enemy on water. A very obvious reflec- tion of common sense dissipates the idea of any essential advan- tage which the enemy had over us on the water. The failures in our defences had been most unjustly attributed to the bug- bear of gunboats, when they ought to have been ascribed to n» more unavoidable causes than our own improvidence and neg lect. The suggestion of common sense is, that if it was possible to make a vessel ball-proof, it was certainly much easier to make a fortification ball-proof. The excuse had been persist- ently made for our lack of naval defences, that it was difiicult to supply the necessary machinery, and almost impossible, with the limited means at our disposal, to construct steam-engines. But these excuses about lack of machinery and steam-engines did not apply to our land defences. jN^o machinery was neces- sary ; no engine was necessary ; and no consultation of curved lines of naval architecture was required to make a land fortifi- cation ball-proof. The iron plate that was fitted on the side of a gunboat had only to be placed on a dead surface, to make the land fortification a match in invulnerability to the iron- plated man-of-war. Tliis was common sense. Unfortunately, however, it was a common sense which the scientists of West Point had been unable to appreciate. While the public mind had been busy in ascribing so many of our late disasters to some essential and mysterious virtue in iron-plated boats, it seemed never to have occurred to it that it was much easier to construct iron-plated batteries on land than the iron-plated sides of a ship, besides giving the structure the power of loco- motion, and that our defeats on the water, instead of being charged to "gunboats," or to "the dispensations of Provi- dence," had been but the natural results of human neglect and human stupidity. THE FIKST YEAR OF THE WAS,. 291 \ CHAPTER Xn. The Campaign in the Mississippi Valley. — Bombardment of Island No. 10. — The Scenes, Incidents, and Results. — Frnits of the Northern Victory. — Movements of the Federals on the Tennessee River. — The Battle of Shiloh. — A "Los^ Opportunity." — Death of General Albert Sidney Johnston. — Comparison between the Battles of Shiloh and Mauas.sas. — The Federal Expeditions into North Alabama. — Withdrawal of the Confederate Forces from the Trans-Mississippi District. — General Price and liis Command. — The Fall of Nkw Okleans.— The Fla^ Imbroglio. — Major-general Butler. — Causes of the Disaster. — lis Results and Conseciuences. — Tiie Fate of the Valley of the .Mississippi. The last period of our narrative of events in Tennessee, left Gen. Johnston making a southward movement towards the left bank of the Tennessee river, for the objects of the defence of Memphis and the Mississippi river, and indicated the important position of Island No. 10, forty -five miles below Columbus, as still in possession of the Confederates. This important position in the Mississippi river was defended by Genej-al Beauregard with extraordinary vigor and success against the fleet of the enemy's gunboats, under the command of Flag-officer Foote. The works were erected with the highest engineering skill, were of great strength, and, with their natural advantages, were thought to be impregnable. The bombardment of Madrid Bend and Island No. 10 com- menced on the 15tli of March, and continued constantly night and day. On the 17th a general attack, with five gunboats and four mortar-boats, was made, which lasted nine hours. The attack was unsuccessful. On the first of April, General Beauregard telegraphed to the War Department at Richmond that the bombardment had contmued for fifteen days, in which time the enemy had thrown three thousand shells, expending about one hundred thousand pounds of powder, with the result on our side of one man killed and none seriously wounded. The gratifying statement was also made in General Beauregard's dispatches that our batteries were entirely intact. We had disabled one of the enemy's gunboats and another was reported to be sunk, and the results of the bombardment so far as it had 292 'JIIE FIRST YEAE OF THE WAR, coutiiuiod, afforded room for congratulation that tlie fantasy ol the invincible powder of Yankee gunboats would at last be dis- pelled, and that the miserable history of the surrender of all our forts to this power was destined to wind up in a decisive and brilliant Confederate triumph on the waters of the Mississippi. The daily bulletin from Island No. 10, for many da^^s, repre- sented that the enemy, after an incessant bombardment of many hours, had inflicted uo injury. Tlie people of the South were constantly assured that the place was impregnable, and that tlie enemy never could pass it. The bombardment had been one of unparalleled length in the war. Every day the mortars continued to boom, and still the cannon of the island replied with dull, sullen roar, wasting shot and temper alike. The very birds became accustomed to the artificial thunder, and alighted upon the branches of trees overhanging the mortars in the sulphurous smoke. The scenes of this long bombardment are described as affording some of the most magnificent spectacles — the tongues of flame leaping from the mouths of the mortars amid a crash like a thousand thunders, and then the columns of smoke rolling up in beauti- ful fleecy spirals, developing into rings of exquisite proj^ortions, It is only necessary for one to realize the sublime poetry of war, as illustrated in the remarkable scenes at Island Ko. 10, to imagine a dozen of these monsters thundering at once, the air filled with smoke clouds, the gunboats belching out destruc- tion and completely hidden from sight in whirls of smoke, the shells screaming through the air w^ith an unearthly sound, and the distant guns of the enemy sending their solid shot above and around the island, dashing the water up in glistening col- umns and jets of spray. "While the people of the South were induced to anticipate a decisive and final repulse of the enemy on the waters of the Mississippi, the news reached them through E"orthern channels that the captnre of Islantl ISTo. 10 had been effected on the Sth of April, and that not only had the position been weakly sur- rendered, but that we had saved none of our cannon or muni tions, had lost our boats, and had left about six hundred pris- oners on the island in the hands of the enemy. The evacuation of the island, which was effected in the great- est precipitation — our sick being abandoned, there being nc THE FIRST YEAK OF TUE WAK. 293 concert of action whatever between the Confederates upon the island and those occupying the sliore, the latter fleeing, leaving the former to their fate — had taken place but two days after Gen. Beauregard had left command of the post for important operations to check the movements of the enemy on the Ten- nessee river, which were developing a design to cut off his communication in west Tennessee with- the eastern and southern States. Gen. Makall had been appointed to take command of the post. He assumed it on the 5th of April, in a flaming or- der, in which he announced to the soldiers : " Let me tell you who I am. I am a general made by Beauregard — a general Bclcctcd l)y Gens. Beauregard and Bragg." In the mean time, the enemy was busy, and his operations were suflcred to es- cape the vigilance of the Confederate com nauder. The Fed- erals had cut a canal across the peninsula at New Madrid, through which the steamers and several barges were taken. The undertaking was an herculean one. The canal was twelve miles long, through lieavy timber, which had to be sawed off by hand four feet under water. One of the enemy's gunboats had succeeded in passing the 1 bland in a heavy fog. On the night of the 5th of April, the enemy, with a gunboat engaged Hacker's battery. While at- tention was engaged with this boat, a second gunboat slipped down tniperceived, except by the men at one of the batteries, who fired two shots at her without effect. The situation was now serious ; the enemy had possession of the river beh \t the island. On the night of April 6, Gen. Makall moved the in- fantry and Stewart's battery to the Tennessee shore, to pro- tect the landing from anticipated attacks. The artillerists remained on the island. The enemy having effected a landing above and below the island in large force, its surrender might be considered as a military necessity. But there could be no excuse for the wretched management and infamous scenes that attended the evacuation. All our guns, seventy in number, varying in calibre from 32 to 100 pounders, rifled, were aban- doned, together with our magazines, which were well supplied with powder, large quantities of shot, shell, and other muni- tions of war. The transports and boats were scuttled. Noth- ing seems to have been done properly. The guns were spiked with rat-tail files, but so imperfectly that several of them 294 THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. were rendered serviceable to the enemy in a very sliort tima The floating battery, formerly the Pelican Dock at E"ew Or- leans, of sixteen heavy guns, after being scuttled, was cut loose. At daylight it was found lodged a short distance above Point Pleasant, and taken possession of by the enemy. Four steamers afloat fell into the hands of the enemy, with all the stores on board. The unhappy men on the island were abandoned to their fate, the Confederates on the mainland having fled with pre- cipitation. On one of the hospital boats were a hundred poor wretches, half dead with disease and neglect. On the shore were crowds of our men wandering around among the profu- sion of ammunition and stores. A few of them effected their escape through the most remarkable dangers and adventures. Some trusted themselves to hastily constructed rafts, with which to float down the Mississippi, hoping to attract the at- tention and aid of the people living on the shore. Others gained the upper banks of the river, where, for several days and nights, they wandered, lost in the extensive cane-brakes, without food, and in severe toil. Some two or three hundred of the stragglers, principally from the forces on the mainland, succeeded in making their way to Bell's Station, on the Ohio railroad, and reached Memphis. The disaster was considerable enough in the loss of Island No. 10 ; but the circumstances attending it, and the conse- quences in the loss of men, cannon, ammunition, supplies, and every thing appertaining to an army, all of which might pos- sibly have been avoided, increased the regrets of the South, and swelled the triumph of her enemies. Our total loss in prisoners, including those taken on the mainland as well as those abandoned on the island, was probably not less than two thousand. The Federal Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Welles, had reason to declare, that " the triumph was not the less appreciated, because it was protracted, and finally bloodless." No single battle-field had yet afforded to the North such visible fruits of victory as had been gathered at Island No. 10. THE FIRST TEAB OF THE -WAK. 295 THE BATTLE OF SHILOH. In tho mean time, the movements of the enemj on the Ten- nessee river were preparing the situation for one of the grand- est battles that had yet been fought in any quarter of the war, or had yet ilhistrated the exasperation and valor of the con- testants. Gen. Beauregard had determined to foil the apparent designs of the enemy to cut off his communication with the south and east, by concentrating all his available forces at and around Corinth. Tliis town is situated at the junction of the Memphis and Charleston and the Mobile and Ohio railroads, about ninety-two miles east of Memphis. Gen. Johnston had taken up a line of march from Murfrees- boro, to form a junction of his forces with those of General Beauregard. By the 1st of April, these finited forces were concentrated along the Mobile and Ohio railroad from Bethel to Corinth, and on the Memphis and Charleston railroad from Corinth to luka. The army of the Mississippi had received other important accessions. It was increased by several regi- ments from Louisiana, two divisions of Gen. Polk's command from Columbus, and a fine corps of troops from Mobile and Pensacola. In mimbers, in discipline, in the galaxy of the distinguished names of its commanders, and in every article of merit and display, the Confederate army in the vicinity of Corinth was one of the most magnificent ever assembled by the South on a single battle-field. The enemy under Gen. Grant, on the west bank of the Ten- nessee, had obtained a position at Pittsburg and in the direc- tion of Savannah. An advance was contemplated by him, as soon as he could be reinforced by the army under Gen. Buell, then known to be advancing for that purpose by rapid marches from Nashville by the way of Columbus. To prevent thi# demonstration, it was determined by Gen. Beauregard to press the issue without delay. By a rapid and vigorous attack ou Gen. Grant, it was expected he would be beaten back into his transports and the river, or captured in time to enable the Confederates to profit by the victory, and remove to the rear all the stores and munitions that would fall into their hands, in such an event, before the arrival of Gen. Buell's army on 296 THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. tlie scene. It was never contemplated, however, to retain the position tlms gained and abandon Corinth, the strategic point of the campaign. It appears to have been Gen. Beauregard's plan to have at- tacked the enemy in their encampments on Saturday, the 5th. He, therefore, began the movement on Thursday, but the roads were heavy, and the men could not be got into position before Saturday. Had the attack been made on that day, the first day's lighting must have ended the conflict, for the enemy could have had no hope of aid from Buell. As it was, one day was lost, and the enemy were constantly inspirited by the almost momentary expectation of the arrival of Gen. Bnell. In tlie mean time, courier after courier was sent by Gen. Grant for Buell to hasten on. The Confederate forces did not reach the intersection of the roads from Pittsbitfg and Hamburg, in the immediate vicinity of the enemy, until late on Saturday afternoon. Their march had been tedious and wearisome. The roads were narrow and traversed a densely wooded country, and a severe rain-storm had rendered them almost impassable, and had drenched our troops in biv^ouac. The morning of the 6th of April (Sunday) was to usher in the bloody scenes of a memorable battle. One camp of the enemy was near Shiloh church — a rude log chapel ; and an- other stretched away in the direction of the road leading from Pittsburg Landing on the river to Corinth. The scene of the encampment was a very beautiful and magnificent one, there being but little undergrowth, and the thin ranks of the- tall forest-trees afibrding open views, while the interlacing of their topmost boughs made a picturesque and agreeable canopy. In a military point of view, the battle-field might be described as a broken country, presenting opportunities for a great variety of manoeuvres and independent operations by comparatively Bmall bodies of men. On the Saturday evening preceding the Sunday fight at Shiloh, there had been considerable skirmishing on our lines. Early Sunday morning, before sunrise. Gen. Hardee, in froit of the enemy's camp, made an advance upon it. The enemy was taken completely by surprise, not expecting to be attacked, under any circumstances, by our inferior force. Many of the THE FTRST TEAK OF THE "WAK. 297 men were undressed and in night attire, and the liot brcal^faste prepared by tlie messes were left untouched for the entertain- ment of our men. A line of battle was hastily formed bv the enemy, and, in the rtiean time, our forces were advancing in every direction. Tlie plan of the battle on our side was to form three parallel lines — the front, centre, and rear — each line having its centre and two flanks. The rear constituted the re- serve, and the artillery was distributed between the first and second lines. The front was commanded by Gen. Hardee, the centre by Gen. Bragg, and the roar by Gen. Polk — Johnston and Beauregard being with the hitler. From daylight until a little after six o'clock, the fighting was principally between the pickets and skirmishers, but, at the latter hour, a portion of our main body appearing in sight, fire opened with artillery, and for an hour or more one heard nothitig but the incessant uproar of the heavy guns. Our men, though many of them were nnaccnstomed to the iron liail, re- ceived the ousct coolly, awaiting the orders to rise from their ]-ccumbent position and advance. In due time these came, and thenceforward through the day, brave and disciplined as were the Federal troops, nothing seemed capable of resisting the desperate valor of the Confedrates. The enemy fell like chaff before the wind. Broken in ranks, they rallied behind trees and in the underbrush* only to be again repulsed and driven back. The scenery of the battle-field was awfully sublime. Far up in the air shells burst into flame like shattered stars, and passed away in little clouds of white vapor, while others filled the ftir with a shrill scream, and burst far in the rear. All along the line the faint smoke of the musketry rose lightly, while, from the mouths of the cannon, sudden gusts of intense white smoke burst up all around. Every second ot time liad its especial tone. Bullets ahredded the air, and whistled swiftly by, • or struck into trees, fences, wagons, or with their peculiar "chuck" into men. Every second of time had its especial tone, and the forest, among whose branches rose the wreathing smoke, was packed with dead. The irresistible attack of our troops was compared by Gen. Beauregard, in his oflicial report of the battle, to "an Alpine avalanche." The enemy were driven back bv a series of dar- 298 THE FIRST YEAR OF TSE WAE. ing, desperate, and successful charges, tlie various Confederate regiments and brigades rolling rapidly forward to the sound of enthusiastic cheers. In all of these, both general and field officers displayed a bravery that amounted to sheer recklessness, frequently leading the men into the very teeth of the opposing fire. It was these inspiring examples of personal valor which made our troops invincible. At half-past two. Gen. Johnston, the commander-in-chief of the Confederates, fell. He was leading a charge upon the third camp of the enemy. The fatal wound was inflicted by a musket-ball on the calf of his right leg, and was considered by him as only a flesh wound. Soon after receiving it, he gave an order to Governor Harris, who was acting as volunteer aid to him, who, on his return to Gen. Johnston, in a difi'erent part of the field, found him exhausted from loss of blood, and reel- ing in his saddle. Riding up to him, Governor Harris asked : " Are you hurt ?" To which the now dying hero answered : " Yes, and I fear mortally ;" and then stretching out both arms to his companion, fell from his horse, and soon after expired. No other wounds were discovered upon his person. Prudently the information of Gen. Johnston's fall was kept from the army. But the day Avas already secured. Amid the roar of artillery and the cheers of the victorious army, the commander-in-chief quietly breathed his last. Our forces were Buccessfully pushing the enemy back upon the Tennessee river. It was after six o'clock in the evening when his last position was carried. The remnant of his army had been driven in utter disorder to the immediate vicinity of Pittsburg, under the shelter of the heavy guns of his iron -clad gunboats, and the Confederates remained undisputed masters of his well-selected, admirably provided cantonments, after over twelve hours of obstinate conflict with his forces, who had been beaten from them and the contiguous covert, but only by a sustained onset of all the men we could bring into action. The substantial fruits of our victory were immense. "We were in possession of all the enemy's encampments between Owl and Lick rivers, nearly all of his field artillery, about thirty flags, colors, and standards, over three thousand pris- oners, including a division commander (General Prentiss) and several brigade commanders, thousands of small-arms, an im THE FIR^T YEAn OF THE ^VAK. 299 inense supply of subsistence, forage, and munitions of w.ir, and a large amount of means of transportation, l^ever, perhaps, was an army so well pi'ovitled as that of tlie enemy, and never, perhaps, was one so completely stripped on a single battle-field. On taking possession of the enem^-'s encampments, there were found therein tlie cojnplete muster-rolls of the expedition up the river. It appeared that we had engaged the divif^ions of Gens. Prentiss, Sherman, Ilurlbut, McClernand, and Smith, of 9,000 men each, or at least 45,000 men. Our entire force in the engagement could not have exceeded 38,000 men. The ■flower of the Federal troops were engaged, being principally Western men, from the States of Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Iowa. There were also quite a number of ^Itssourian? opposed to us, who are said to have fought with great spirit, opposite Gen. Gladden 's brigade, on the extreme right. Tliese men were accustomed to lives of hardihood and adventure. The captured Federal general, Prentiss, did not he>itate to testify to General Beauregard, "You have whipped our best troops to-day." The enemy's artillery on the field, according to Gen. Pren- tiss' statement, numbered in all one hundred and eight pieces, or eighteen batteries of six pieces each. Their small-arms were of every description : Mini^ rifles. Enfield rifles, IMaynard rifles, Colt's six-shooters, common muskets, &c., all of the best quality and workmanship. The Federal equipments left nothing to be desired. Their clothing was of the best quality and abundant, and the same may be said of their supplies. An abundance of excellent cofi'ec was found in their tents — beef, pork, butter, cheese, navy biscuit, and sugar. The famous expedition to the plains of Manassas was not better fitted out or supplied. On Sunday night, Gen. Beauregard established his head- quarters at the little church of Shiloh, and our troops were directed to sleep on their arms in the enemy's encampment. The hours, however, that should have been devoted to the i-efreshment of nature were spent by many of the troops in a disgraceful hun^ after the spoils. The possession of the rich camp of the enemy seemed to have demoralized whole regi- ments. All through the night and early the next morning tlie hunt after the spoils was continued. CoAvardly citizens 20 300 THE riEST YEAR OF TSE WAK. and rapacious soldiers ^ere engaged alike in the wretclied work. They might be seen everywhere, plundering the tenti out of which the enemy had been driven, and loading them selves down with the spoils. The omission of discipline, whicl permitted these scenes, is not pardonable even in the license and indulgences M'hich generally attend the victory of an army. The spoils of a victorious army should be carefully gathered up and preserved for the nse of the army itself. They are the just possession of the conqueror, are frequently of great value, and should not be lost or carried off, where they can be of use. But, more than this, nothing could be more likely to demoral- ize troops than the indiscriminate pillnge of an enemy's camp. It creates disorganization in the army ; it so far stands in the ■way of a vigorous pursuit of the enemy ; it demoralizes the spoiler himself, and lets him down at one step from an honor- able soldier to a plundering brigand. It is no wonder that the troops which confronted the enemy next morning in the vicinity of Pittsburg Landing betrayed, how^ever bravely they fought in comparison with the enemy, a diminution of spirit and visible gigns of demoralization. Sunday night found both armies in a critical situation. Gen. Beauregard hoped, from news received by a special dispatch, that delays had been encountered by Gen. Buell in his march from Columbia, and that his main force, therefore, could not reach the field of battle in time to save Gen. Grant's shattered fugitive forces from capture or destruction on the following day. The situation of Gen. Grant was that of the most ex- treme anxiety to himself The enemy had supposed that the last act of the traged}^ would have been completed on Saturday evening. The reserve line of the Federals was entirely gone. Their whole army was crowded into a circuit of half to two- thirds of a mile around the landing. They had been falling back all day. The next repulse would have put them into the river, and there w^ere not transports enough to cross a single division before the Confederates would be upon them. As the lull in the firing of the Confederates took place, and the angry rattle of musketry died upon the ears of the fugitive Federals, they supposed that the pursuing army w'as prepai'ing for thu grand final rush that was to crown the day's success. But Gen. Beauregard had been satisfied to pursue the enemy to the THE FIRST YEAR OF THK WAR. 301 river, and to leave him under tlie cover of his gunboats, with- out an attempt to penetrate it. When it was understood tliat pursuit was called off, Gen. Grant could ill conceal his exulta- tion. Ilis anxiety Avas suddenly composed, and, in a tone of confidence, he exclaimed to tlie group of officers around him, " to-morrow they will be exhausted, and then we will go at them with fresh troops."* He was right. Looking across the Tennessee, he could see a body of cavahy awaiting transportation over. They were said to be Buell's advance; yet they had been there an hour or two alone. Suddenly there was a rustle among the gazers. They saw the gleaming of the gun-barrels, and they caught, amid the leaves and undergrowth down the opposite side of the river, glimpses of the steady, swinging tramp of trained sol- diers. A division of Buell's army was there, and was hailed with tremendous cheers b}^ the men on the opposite bank of the river. The enemy was reinforced on ]\Ionday morning by more troops than Gen. Beauregard could have counted upon. The divisions of Gens. Nelson, McCook, Crittenden, and Thomas, of Buell'8 army, had crossed the river, some 25,000 strong ; also. Gen. L, Wallace's division of Gren. Grant's army had been moved up the river — making at least 33,000 fi-esli troops. Vigorous preparations were made by Gen. Beauregard to resist the as- sault, which w^as deemed almost certain on Monday. A hot fire of musketry opened about six o'clock in »the morning from the enemy's quarter upon his advanced lines, and assured him of the junction of his forces. The battle soon raged with fury, the enemy being flushed by his reinforcements, and confident in his largely superior numbers. * The evidence of a " lost opportunity" in the battle of Shiloh abundantly appeared in the statements of the Northern commanders. Gen. Prentiss ia reported to have made the following statement : " Gen. Beauregard," he said, " asked me if we had any works at the river, to which I replied, ' you must consider us poor soldiers, general, if you suppose we would have neglected so plain a duty 1' The truth is, however, we had no works at all. Gen. Beaure- gard stopped the pursuit at a quarter to six ; had he used the hour still left him, he could have captured the last man on this side of the river, for BueD did not cross till Sunday night." According to Buell'a report, our shot were falling among the fugitivei crouching under the river-bank when our troops were called off. 302 THE riEST YEATJ 07 THE WAR. On the right and centre, the enemy were repulsed in everj attempt he made with his heavy cohimns in that quarter of the "field ; on the left, however, and nearest to the point of arrival " of his reinforcements, he drove forward line after line of hia fresh troops, which were met with resolution and courage. Again and again our troops were brought to the charge, inva- riably to win the position at issue, invariably to drive back their foe. But hour by hour, thus opposed to an enemy constantly reinforced, the ranks of the Confederates were perceptibly thinned under the unceasing withering fire of the enemy. By I noon, eighteen hours of hard fighting had sensibly exhausted a large ilumber ; Gen, Beauregard's last reserves had necessarily been disposed of, and the enemy was evidently receiving fresh reinforcements after each repulse ; accordingly, about 1 p. m., he determined to withdraw from so unequal a conflict, securing such of the results of the victory of the day before as was then practicable. The retreat was executed with uncommon steadiness, and the enemy made no attempt to follow. Gen. Breckinridge had been posted with his command so as to cover the with- drawal of the rest of the army. Gen. Beauregard had ap- proached him and told him, that it might be necessary for him to sacrifice himself; for said he, " This retreat must not he a, rout ! You must hold the enemy back, if it requires the loss of your last man!" "Tour orders shall be executed to the letter," said the chivalrous Breckinridge ; and gathering his command, fatigued and jaded and decimated by the toils and terrors of a two days' battle, he and they prepared to devote themselves, if necessary, for the safety of the army. There, weary and hungry, they stood guard and vigil. The enemy, Borely chastised, did not indeed come as expected ; but Breck- inridge and his heroes deserve none the less praise. ISTever did troops leave a battle-field in better order. Even the stragglers fell into the ranks, and marched off with those vvho had stood more steadily by their colors. The fact that the enemy attempted no pursuit indicates their condition. They had gained nothing ; we had lost nothing. The Confederates left the field only after eight hours of incessant battle with a tiuperior army of fresh troops, whom they had repulsed in every attack on their lines, — so repulsed and crippled, indeed, as to THE FlKSl' YEAR OF THE \VAE. 303 leave it unable to take the field for the campaign for which it was collected and eqiiipped at such enormous expense, and with Buch profusion of all the appliances of war. The action of Monday had not eclipsed the glorious victory of the preCeding day. Sunday had left the Confederate army masters of the battle-field, their adversary beaten, and a signal victory achieved after an obstinate conflict of twelve hours. The result of the engagement was most honorable to the South, and was recognized as one of the most conspicuous triumphs to its arms. The exultations, however, of victory in the public mind were perceptibly tempered by the sad intelli- gence of the death of Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston. The deceased commander had led, perhaps, one of the most eventful military lives on this continent, lie was graduated at the West Point Academy in 1820, as lieutenant in the Sixth Infantry, and after serving in the Black Hawk war left the army, and in 1836 emigrated to Texas, arriving there shortly after the battle of San Jacinto. He entered the Texan army as a private soldier, and was soon promoted to succeed Gen. Felix Houston in the chief command — an event which led to a duel between them, in wliich Johnston was wounded. Having held the oflice of senior brigadier-general until 1838, he was appointed Secretary of War, and in 1839 organized an expedi- tion against the Cherokees, who were totally routed in an en- gagement on the jSTeches. In 1840, he retired from office, and settled upon a plantation in Brazoria county. He was an ardent advocate for the annexation of Texas to the United States. In 1846, at the request of Gen. Taylor, he took the field against Mexico, as commander of the volunteer Texan rifle regiment, in which capacity he served six months. Subsequently, he was acting inspector-general to Gen. Butler, and for his services at the siege of Monterey received the thanks of his commander. In October, 1849, he was appointed paymaster by President Taylor, with the rank of mjijor, and, upon the passage of the act of Congress authorizing the raising of additional regiments in the army, he was appointed colonel of the Second Cavalry. In the latter part of 1857, he received the command of the United States forces sent to coerce the Mormons into obedience to the Federal authority, and conducted the expedition in safety to Great Salt Lake City in the opening of the succeeding 304 THE FIUST YEAE OF THE WAR. year. Since then lie commanded the military district of TJtali, He resigned the Federal service as soon as the intelligence oi the opening of the war reached him, and, travelling from Califdt-nia by the overland route, reached !New Orleans in August last. Proceeding to Richmond, he was appointed, on his arrival there, general, to take command of the Department of the Mississippi. It is known that Gen, Johnston was the subject of most un- just and hasty public censure in connection with his late retreat from Bowling Green and fall of Fort Donelson. He is said, but a few days before the battle in which he fell, to have expressed the determination to discharge his duties and responsibilities to his country, according to the best convictions of his mind, and a resolution to redeem his losses at no distant day. According to the official report, he fell in the thickest of the fight. Keen regrets were felt by the friends of Gen. Johnston on learning the circumstances of the manner of his death, as these circumstances appeared to leave but little doubt that his life might have been saved by surgical attention to his wound. His only wound was from a musket-ball that severed an incon- siderable artery in the thigh. He was probably unconscious oi the wound, and never realized it until, from the loss of blood, he fell fainting and dying from his horse. Gen. Johnston was in the natural vigor of manhood, about, sixty years of age. He was about six feet in height, strongly and powerfully formed, with a grave, dignified, and command- ing presence. His features were strongly marked, showing the Scottish lineage, and denoted great resolution and composure of character. His complexion, naturally fair, was, from ex- posure, a deep brown. His manner was courteous, but rather grave and silent. He had many devoted friends, but they had been won and secured rather by the native dignity and nobility of his character, than by his power of addi'ess. Besides the conspicuous loss of the commander-in-chief, others had fallen whose high qualities were likely to be missed in the momentous campaign impending. Gen. Gladden, of South Carolina, had fallen, after having been conspicuous to his whole corps and the army for courage and capacity. Dis- tinguished in Mexico, on the bloody fields of Contreras and THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 305 Cliiirnbiisco, he received honorable wounds. Having become a citizen of Louisiana, and selected to command a noble bri ij^ade, he again accumulated honor upon his native State, illus trated its martial fame, served lier, no less than Louisiana, witli his life, and sealed the great cause with his best blood. George M. Johnston, Provisional Governor of Kentucky, had gone into the action with the Kentucky troops. Having his horse shot under him on Sunday, he entered the ranks of a Kentucky company, commanded by Capt. Monroe, son of the venerable Judge Monroe. At night, while occupying the same tent with the captain, it occurred to him that he had iiut taken the oath which entitled him to be enrolled in that company. He, therefore, desired the oath to be administered, which was done with due solemnity ; " and now," said the new recruit, *' I will take a night's rest and be ready for a good day's lighting." Faithfally he kept his pledge, and fell mortally wounded in the thickest of the iiii-ht. Li makiiij; official men- tion of his death. Gen. Beauregard declared that '' not Ken- tucky alone, but the whole Confederacy had sustained a great loss in the death of this brave, upright, and able man." Ho was one of a family of heroes, the nephew of the dauntless chief in the battle of the Thames, and the man who, during a long public and private career, had been ever regarded one ol the noblest of Keutuck}' clievaliers, true and worthy governor of all that was left of Kentucky, The fearless deportment of the Confederate commanders in the action was remarkable, as they repeatedly led their com- mands personally to the onset upon their powerful adversary. Gen. Bragg had two horses shot under him. Gen. Breckin- ridge was twice struck by spent balls. Major-genei'al Hardee had his coat rent by balls and his hoi'se disabled, but escaped with a slight wound. Gen. Cheatham received a ball in the ehoulder, and Gen. Bushrod Johnson one in the side. Gen. Bowen was wounded in the neck. Col. Adams, of the First Louisiana regulars, succeeded Gen. Gladden in the command of the right wing, and was soon after shot, the ball striking him just above the eye and coming out behind the ear. Col. Kitt AYilliams, of Memphis, and Col. Blythe, of Mississippi, foi-nierly consul to Havana, were killed. The casualties of the battle of Shiloh were terrible. In car 506 THE FIRST YEAK OF THE WAK. iiage, llie engagement niiglit liave compared with some of the most celehrated in the world. Our loss, in the two days, in hilled outright, was 1,728; wmmded, 8,012; missing, 959 — making an aggregate of casualties of 10,699. The loss of the eneni}' in killed, wounded, and prisoners, unquestionably could not have been less than 15,000. The sufiering among the large numbers of our wounded M^as extreme. They continued to come in from the field slowly, but it was a long and agonizing ride that the poor fellows had to endure, over twenty-two or twenty-three miles of the roughest and ruttiest road in the Southern Confederacy. The weather was horrible, and a cold northeast storm pelted merci- lessly dovrn upon them. As they were cari'ied, groaning, from the vehicle to the floor of the hospital, or laid in the depot, it was sad to see the suffering depicted upon their pinched and pallid features. Some of them had lain on the ground, in the mud, for two nights, and w^ere wet to the skin and shivering with chills. In view of the immense carnage of the battle of Shiloh, it was popularly esteemed the great battle of the war, and was declared by the Southern new^spapers to take preference over the celebrated action of Manassas. Indeed, the rank which the Manassas battle held in the history of the war, was disputed by newspaper critics on every occasion when some other action presented a larger list of casualities or more prolonged scenes of conflict. But these circumstances, by themselves, certainly aftbi'd no standard for measuring the importance and grandeur of battles. It is true that the action of Shiloh was a brilliant Confederate success. But in dramatic situation, in complete- ness of victory, in interesting details, and in the grand histori- cal tragedy of the enemy's rout, no battle has yet been fought in the war equal to that of Manassas, and, so far, it must hold its place in the history of the first year of the war as its grand battle, despite the etiforts of interested critics to outrank its grandeur by that of other achievements, and to do violence to the justice of history. There M-as one very remarkable circumstance in the battle oi Manassas, which alone must give it an interest distinguished from that of any other engagement of the war. It was that, in the army which achieved that victory, there was rep THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 307 , resented, by troops, every State then in tlie Southern Con- federacy. At Shiloh, the troops engaged were principally Tennessee- ans, Mississippians, Alabamians, Louisianians, Floridians, Tex^ ans, Arkansians, and Kentnckians. There was also a battery of Georgians in the field. The behavior of tliese troops had given us additional reason for the pride so justly felt in South- ern arms and Southern prowess. Each and all of them fought so bravely that no distinction can be made between corps from different States. Battles are won, by each soldier feeling that the day depends upon his own individual efforts, and, on the field of Shiloh, this spirit was displayed, unless in rare instances of cowardice, or the more numerous exceptions of demoraliza- tion by the pillage which had unfortunately been permitted of the enemy's camp. The misrepresentations of the Korth, with reference to the issue of the war, found a crowning example of falsehood and effrontery in the official declaration made at TVashington of the acti6n of Shiloh as a brilliant and glorious Federal vic- tory. The Lincoln government had not hesitated to keep up the spirits of the people of the Korth by the most audacious and flaming falsehoods, which would have disgraced even the war bulletins of the Chinese, and which have always been found to be, in nations using this expedient in war, evidences not only of imperfect civilization, but of natural cowardice. The order of the War Department at Washington, signalizing its impostured victory at Shiloh, was as disgusting in profanity as it was brazen in falsehood. It declared that at rieridian of Sunday next after the receipt of this order, at the head of every regiment in the armies of the United States, there should be offered by its chaplain a prayer, giving " thanks to the Lord of Hosts for the recent manifestation of His power in the over- throw of the rebels and traitors." One of the Federal generals who was incidentally complimented in this order — H. W. Hal- leck — for his " success" in the Missouri campaign, had written a voluminous letter to the Washington Cabinet recommending \.\x& policy of representing every battle in the progress of tlie war as a Federal victory. A government, which Mr. Seward had declared, in his letter to the British premier on the occa- Bion of his cringing surrender to that power of the Southern 308 THK FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. commissioners, represented " a civilized and linmane nation, a Christian people," had been persuaded to stoop to a policy Nvliich even the spirit and honor of brigands might have scorned, and which is never recognized but as a weapon of the vilest and most cowardly of humanity. Gen. Beauregard retired to Corinth, in pursuance of his original design to make that the strategic point of his cam- paign. The Federals had sent several expeditions into North 41abama, and liad succeeded in occupying Huntsville and De- catur ; but tlie design of these expeditions did not appear to extend further than an attempt to cripple our resources by cut- ting off the Memphis and Charleston railroad, which runs through these toAvns. In the mean time, it was decided by the government at Rich- mond to remove our forces from the Trans-Mississippi district, and to unite the armies of Yan Dorn and Price with such force as Gen. Beauregard already had at Corinth. The order for leaving the limits of their States was responded to by the Mis- souri and Arkansas troops with ready and patriotic spirit. These brave men gave an example of gallantry and devotion, in leaving their homes and soil in the possession of the enei.-'y, to fight for other parts of the Confederacy, which was made especially conspicuous from the contrast afforded by the troops of some other States which had made unusually large preten- sions to patriotism and gallantry, regiments of which had openly mutinied at being ordered beyond the limits of their State, or had marched off with evident discontent, although no enemy held their territory, or was left in possession of tlieir homes and the treasures they contained. The noble " State Guard" of Missouri had a better apprecia- tion of the duties of patriotis'm than many of their fellow- citizens of the Confederacy, whose contracted and boastful spirit had made them louder in professions of chivalry and de- votion. They followed their beloved commander without a murmur- across the waters of the Mississippi, turning their backs upon their homes, for which they had fought with a gallantry and devotion unequalled by any other struggle of the war. They felt that while they were :^-hting for the fortunes of the Confederacy, they were also contending for the ultimato restoration of Missouri, and that they would serve their State THE FIRST YEAK OF THE WAR. 309 most effectuallj by following promptly and cbcerfully Gens Yaii Dorn and Price to Tennessee. Their leader had been made a major-general in the Confederate service ; the tardy act of promotion having been at last done from motives ol policy, after all efforts had been made in vain to wring it from the obtuse official sense of justice. His influence was used to lead the troops of Missouri to new and distant fields of ser- vice, and his noble, patriotic appeals could not but be effectual to men who loved him, who had suffered with him, and were almost as his children.* * The annexed address of Gen. Price to the troops, who followed him across the Mississippi into the Confederate camp, will strike the reader as an ad- mirable appeal. Comprehensive in its terms, Napoleonic in spirit, and glow ing with patriotic fire, it challenges cominirison with some of the military orders of the most celebrated commanders in history. Headquarters, Missotjri State Guard, Dcs Arc, Arkansas, April 3, 1863. Soldiers of the State Guard : 1 command you no longer. I have this day resigned the commission which your patient endurance, your devoted patriotism, and your dauntless bravery have made so honorable. I liave done this that I may the better serve you, our State, and our country — that I may the sooner lead you back to the' fertile prairies, the rich woodlands and majestic streams of our beloved Missouri, that I may the more certainly restore you to your once happy homes, and to the loved ones there. Five thousand of those who have fought side by side with us under the grizzly bears of Missouri, have followed me into the Confederate camp. They appeal to you, as I do, by all the tender memories of the past, not to leave us now, but to go with us wherever the path of duty may lead, till we shall have conquered a peace, and won our independence by brilliant deeds upon new fields of battle. Soldiers of the State Guard ! veterans of sis pitched battles and nearly twenty skirmishes ! conquerors in them all I your country, with its " ruined hearths and slirines," calls upon you to rally once more in her defence, and rescue her forever from the terrible thraldom which threatens her. I know that she will not call in vain. The insolent and barbarous hordes which have dared to invade our soU, and to desecrate our homes, have just met with a signal overthrow beyond the Mississippi. Now is the time to end this un- happy war. If every man will but do his duty, his own roof will shelter him in peace from the storms of the coming winter. Let not history record that the men who bore with patience the privations of Cowskin Prairie, who endured uncomplainingly the burning lieats of a Missouri summer, and the frosts a»d snows of a Missouri winter ; that the meu who met the enemy at Carthage, at Oak Hills, at Fort Scott, at Lexing ion, and in numberless lesser battle-fields in Missouri, and met them but tc 310 THE riEST YEAK OF THE WAE. It was generally considered in the Soutli that the vivjtory of its arms at Shiloh fully compensated the loss of Island No. 10, and that the Mississippi river below Fort Pillow, with its rich nnd productive valley, might be accounted safe, with the great army at Corinth covering Memphis, and holding the enemy in check on the land. But a great disaster was to occur where it was least expected, and where it involved the most immense consequences — a disaster which was to astound the South, which was to shake the confidence of the world in the fortunes of the Confederacy, and which was to lead, by unavoidable steps, to the abandonment to the enemy of the great Valley of the Mis sissippi. THE FALL OF NEW OELEANS. When it was known in Richmond that the Federal fleet, which had so long threatened New Orleans, had at last com- menced an attack on the Mississippi river forts, Jackson and St. Philip, no uneasiness was felt for the result. The enemy's fleet, which was to be engaged in this demonstration, was of fomiidable size. It consisted of forty-six sail, carrying two hundred and eighty-six guns and twenty-one mortars ; the whole under the command of Flag-oflicer Farragut, a renegade Tennesseean. But it was declared, with the most emphatic confidence, that New Orleans was impregnable; the forts, Jackson and St. Philip, were considered but as the outer line of defences ; vast sums of money had been expended to line the shores of the river with batteries ; the city itself was occupied by what was popularly supposed to be a large and disciplined Confederate force under Gen. Lovell, and in its harbor was a fleet consisting of twelve gunboats, one iron-clad steamer, and the famous ram Manassas. The authorities at Richmond did not hesitate to express the most unlimited confidence in the safety of New Orleans, and conquer them ; tliat tlie men wlio fouglit so bravely and so well at Elk Horn • that the unpaid soldiery of Missouri were, after so many victories, and after so much suffering, unequal to the great task of achieving the independf nc« ■){ their magnificent State. Soldiers ! I go but to mark a pathway to our homes. Follow me ! STERLING PRICE. THE FTRSl- TEAR OF THE WAE. 311 refused even to entertain the probability of the enemy's pene- trating the outer line of defence, constituted by the river forts, which were about sixty miles below the city. General Duncan, Avho was said to be the best artillerist in the Confederate ser- vice, was in command of the forts. On the 23d of April he had telegraphed the most encouraging account of their condi- tion. The bombardment had then been continued for a week witli extraordinary vigor. Nearly 25,000 thirteen-inch shell had been thrown by the enemy's mortar-boats, many thousands having fallen within the fort. But, in spite of this unremitting bombardment, the works were not at all damaged ; only three guns had been dismounted, and the garrison had suffered only to the extent of five killed and ten wounded. The public were inspired with confidence of a favorable result. The citizens of New Orleans, never doubting the im- pregnability of the defences of their city, were occupied as usual with the avocations of business and trade. The morning succeeding tlie date of the encouraging telegram of General Duncan was to witness scenes of the most extraordinary con- sternation, and to usher in the appalling intelligence of the enemy's approach to the city. At half-past three o'clock, on the morning of the 24th of April, the Federal fieet steamed up the river and opened on our gunboats and both the forts, Jackson and St. Philip. The fire was vigorously returned by our side, and in a very short time became perfectly furious, the enemy's fleet and our whole force being engaged. In about one hour several of the enemy's vessels passed the forts — the first one in the advance having our ?i ig/d sigfial Hying, which protected her from the fire ot our boats, until she ran up close and opened the fire herself. The citizens of New Orleans were awakened from their dream of security to hear the tolling of the alarm bells annonncing the approach of the foe. It was about 9 o'clock, on the morn- ing of the Sith, that the intelligence was received. The whole city was at once thrown into intense commotion ; every one "ushed into the streets — to the public places — tq head-quarters —to the Cit}' Hall — inquiring the meaning of the agitation which prevailed, the extent of the danger, and its proximity. It was soon announced, on authority, that the enemy's vessels had succeeded in passing the forts and were then on their wav 812 THE FIRST YEAK OF THE "WAR. to the citj. The nnmber was not known, but was afterwards ascertained to amount to five heavy sloops-of-war and seven or eight gunboats. The attempt of the enemy had been audacious, but was aided by various contingencies. The deferices of the Mississippi consisted of the two forts ah-eady mentioned — Jackson and St. Philip — the former situated on the left bank, and the latter on the right bank of the river. About three-quarters of a mile below, the river had been obstructed by means of a raft con- sisting of a line of eleven dismasted schooners, extending from bank to bank, strongly moored, and connected together with six heavy chains. Unfortunately, a violent storm had rent a large chasm in the raft, which could not be closed in time. It appears, too, that on the night of the attack, the river had not been lighted by fire-rafts, although General Lovell had several times requested that it should be done. Moreover, the person in charge of the signals neglected to throw up rockets on the approach of the fleet, and, by a strange coincidence, the enemy's signals, on that night, were identically the same as those used by our gunboats. The consequence was, that the advance of the enemy's vessels was not discovered until they were abreast of the forts. The conflict between the Federal fleet and our fleet and forts, was of a desperate character. The forts opened fire from all their guns that could be brought to bear ; but it was too late to produce much impression. The ships passed on, the Hart- ford, Commodore Farragut's flag-ship in the van, delivering broadsides of grape, shrapnell, and round-shot at the forts on either side. On arriving at this point they encountered the Confederate fleet, consisting of seventeen vessels in all, only about eight of which were armed. The Confederate gunboats carried, some of them, two guns, and others only one. Never- theless, they fought with desperation against the enemy's over- whelming force, until they were all driven on shore and scuttled or burned by their commanders. The Manassas was not injured by the enemy's fire. She was run ashore and then sunk. The Louisiana, the great iron-clad vessel, built to com pete with the success latel}^ won by the famous Virginia, was not in good M^orking order. She could not manoeuvre, and only her three bow-guns could be used, although her full com TnE FIRST YEAR OF TtTE AVAR. 813 plement consisted of eighteen. She emerged from the action totally nninjm-ed. The broadsides of the Pensacola, delivered three times, within a distance of ten yards, failed to loosen a single fastening, or to penetrate a single plate. The forts likewise, remained intact ; but the garrisons lost 52, in killed and wonnded. Commander Mcintosh was des]3erately wonnded. lie and Commander Mitchell both stood on the deck of the Louisiana during the whole engagement. Gen. Lovell arrived just in time to see the Federal fleet pass* ing Fort St. Philip, and to witness the desperate but ineffectual attempt of the Confederate gunboats to check its progi-ess up the river. Just at this moment, the Iroon, one of the enemy's vessels started in pursuit of the Doubloon, Gen. Lovell's boat, and was rapidly overhauling her, when the Governor Moore darted upon the Iroon, and ran into her three times. Tlie Federal vessel managed to escape from this assault, and was again chasing the Doubloon, when the Quitman atfacked her, ran into her amidships, and sank her. Thus General Lovell narrowly escaped capture. In the mean time. Captain Kennon, commanding the gunboat Governor Moore, sped down the river into the midst of the enemy's fleet, darting hither and thither, attacking first one and then another of his monstrous antagonists, until he had fired away his last round of ammu- nition, lie then drove his vessel ashore, and applied the torch to her with his own hand. In this way the forts were eluded, the Coi^ederate naval forces destroyed, and the great city of Xew Oneans placed at the mercy of the Federal squadron. At 2 o'clock, p. M., on the 24:th, General Lovell arrived at the city, having driven and ridden almost the whole way up along the levee. He was immediately called on by the mayor and many other citizens, and in reply to the inquiries of these gentlemen, stated that the intelligence already received was correct ; that the enemy's fleet had passed the forts in force, and tliat the city was indefensible and untenable. The hasty withdrawal of Gen. Lovell's army from the city drew upon him severe public censure ; but the applications of this cencure were made in ignorance of the facts, and the evi- dence which afterwards transpired showed that the evacuation had been made at the urgent instance of the civil authorities themselves of Ilew Orleans, who had entreated the Confederate 314: l-HE FIHST TEAR OF THE V^Xll. commauder to retire from their midst, in order to save the city from the risk of bombardment. Gen. Lovell expressed a readi- ness and willingness to remain with all the troops under hia command. But it was the undivided expression of public opinion that tire army had better retire and save the city from destruction ; and, accordingly, the general ordered his troops to rendezvous at Camp Moore, about seventy miles above New Orleans, on the Jackson railroad. A demand was made by Farragut for the surrender of the command, which Gen. Lovell positively refused, but told the officer who bore the message, that if any Federal troops were landed he would attack them. Two days after he retired, it was said that the city had changed its purpose, and preferred a bombardment to occu^^ation by the enemy. General Lovell promptly ordered a train and proceeded to New Orleans, and immediately had an interview with Mayor Monroe, offering, if such was the desire of the authorities and people, to i-eturn with his command and hold the city as long as a man and shot were left. Tliis offer not being accepted, it was decided that the safety of the large number of unprotected women and children should be looked to, and that the fleet would be permitted to take possession. The raw and poorly armed infantry could by this time have done nothing against the fleet. The impression which prevailed, that General Lovell had a large army under his command, was singularly erroneous. His army had been stripped to reinforce that at Corinth, and, since the 1st of March, he had sent ten full regiments to Gen. Beauregard, besides many companies of cavalry and artillery. The morning report on the day of the evacuation of New Or- leans showed his force to be , about tweoity-eigJit Tixmdred inen, two-thirds of whom were the volunteer and military companies which had recently been put in camp. Notwithstanding, however, these facts, the circumstances in which Gen. Lovell agreed to evacuate the city under the persuasion of the civil authorities, appeared by no means to be in that desperate extremity that would have justified the step hi military judgment; and it was thought by a considerable portion of the public, not without apparent reason, that the evacuation, at the time it was undertaken, was ill-advised. THE FIKST TEAR OF TITE WAR. 815 hasty, and tlie result of panic or selfish clamors in the com- munity. The evacuation was begun on the 24th of April. At this time the river forts had not fallen ; but two of the enemy's gunboats actually threatened the city ; and the works at Chal- uiette — five 32-pounders on one side of the river, and nine on the other — were still intact. But it is known that there were reasons other than tliose which were api^arent to the public, which decided Gen. Lovell to evacuate the city, and which were kept carefully to himself for obvious reasons. Gen. Lovell was fully aware that a single frigate anchored at Kenner's plantation, ten miles above the city, where the swamp and the river approached witliin less than a mile of each other, and througli which narrow neck the railroad passes, would have effectually obstructed an exit of troops or stores from the city by land. This was doubtless the real or most powerful reason for the evacuation of the city.* On the morning of the next day, the Federal ships appeared ofl:' the Chalmette batteries, which exchanged a few shots with them, but witliout effect. Passing the lower batteries, the ships came up the river under full headway, the Hartford leading, then the Brooklj'n, the Richmond, the Pensacola, and six gun- boats. On and on they came, until they had extended their line a distance of about five miles, taking positions at intervals of about 900 yards apart. The scene on the water and in the city was alike extraordinary. The Confederate troops were still busy in the work of evacuation, and the streets "were thronged with carts, drays, vehicles of all description^, laden with the multifarious articles constituting the 2:)araphernalia and imple- ments of warfare. Oflicers on horseback were galloj)ing hither and thither, receiving and executing orders. The streets were * The water at Kenner's was so liigli that a ship's guns could have had a clear sweep from the river to the swamp, and there would have been no neces- sity of any bombardment ; the people and the army of New Orleans would have been cut off and starved into a surrender in a short time. The failure of the enemy to occupy Kenner's, for which it is impossible to account, enabled Gen. Lovell to bring out of the city nearly all the portable government property necessary for war purposes, as well as a large part of the State proijerty. 21 316 The first tear of the •wae. crowded witli persons rushing abont with parcels of sugar buckets of molasses, and packages of provisions plundered from the public stores. Others were busying themselves witl patriotic zeal to destroy property of value to the enemy, an huge loads of cotton went rumbling along on the way to the levee. JSTo sooner had the Federal fleet turned the point and come within sight of the city, than the work of destruction of prop- erty commenced. Vast columns of smoke ascended to the sky, darkening the face of heaven, and obscuring the noon-day sun; for five miles along the levee fierce flames darted through the lurid atmosphere, their baleful glare struggling in rivalry with the sunlight ; great ships and steamers, wrapped in fire, floated down the river, threatening the Federal vessels with destruc- tion by their fiery contact. In front of the various presses, and at other points along the levee, the cotton had been piled up and submitted to the torch. It was burned by order of the governor of Louisiana and of the military commander of the Confederate States. Fifteen thousand bales were con- sumed, the value of which would have been about a million and a half of dollars. The tobacco stored in the city, being al held by foreign residents on foreign account, was not destroyed. The specie of the banks, to the amount of twelve or fifteen mil- lions, was removed from the city and placed in a secure place ; so were nearly all the stores and movable property of the Confederate States. But other materials were embraced in the awful conflagration. About a dozen large river steamboats, twelve or fifteen ships, some of them laden with cotton, a great floating battery, several unfinished gunboats, the immense ram, the Mississippi, and the docks on the other side of the river, were all embraced in the fiery sacrifice. The Mississippi was an iron-clad frigate, a superior vessel of her class, and accounted to be by far the most important naval structure the Confederate government had yet undertaken. On evacuating the city, Gen. Lovell had left it under the ex- clusive jurisdiction of Mayor Monroe. That officer, although he had appealed to Gen. Lovell to evacuate the city, so as to avoid such exasperation or conflict as might put the city in peril of bombardment, was not willing to surrender it to the enemy ; but was content, after due protestations of patriotic TEE FIRST YEAH OF THE WAR. 317 fervor, that the enemy should perform, without interruption, the ceremony of surrender for liimself in taking down the flags flying over all the public buildings of the city A correspond- ence ensued between the mayor and the flag-officer of the enemy's fleet. The correspondence was certainly of very un- necessary length on the j^art of the mayor, and was travestied in the Northern newspapers as a controversy between '■'• Far- rago and FarraguiP But the sentiments of the mayor, al- though tedious and full of vain repetitions, were just and honorable. He declared, with explanations that were not necessary to be given to the enemy, and at a length that showed rather too much the vanity of literary style, that the citizens of Kew Orleans yielded to pliysical force alone, and tliat they maintained their allegiance to the government of the Confederate States. On the morning of the 26th of April, a force landed from the sloop-of-war Pensacola, lying opposite Esplanade-street and hoisted a United States flag upon the mint. It had not remained there long before some young men, belonging to the Pinckney battalion, mounted to the dome of the mint, tore it down and dragged it through the streets. Whether Flag-officer Farragut was exasperated or not by this circumstance, is not known ; but he seemed to have determined to spare no mortification to the city, which its civil officers had already assured him was unprepared to resist him, and to hesi- tate at no misrepresent£ttion in order to vilify its citizens. In one of his letters to the mayor, he had sought to publish the fact to the world, that helpless men, women, and children had been fired upon by the citizens of New Orleans " for giving expression to their pleasure at witnessing the old flag ;" when the fact was, that the cheering on the levee referred to had been, in defiance of the enemy, for " the Southern Confederacy," and the only firing in the crowd was that of incautious and exasperated citizens at the Federal fleet. The State flag of Louisiana still floated from the City Hall. It was an emblem of nothing more than State sovereignty, and yet it too was required to be lowered at the unreasonable and harsh demand of the invader. A memorial, praying the com- mon council to protect at least the emblem of State sovereign- ty from insult, was signed by a large number of the noble 818 THE riEST TEAK OF THE TTAR. ( ■women of 'New Orleans, including many of the wealthiest^ fairest, and highest in social position in the city. The reply of the council was feeble and embarrassed. They passed a resolution declaring that " no resistance would be made to the forces of the United States ;" approving, at the same time, the "sentiments" expressed by the mayor, and reqnesting him "to act in the spirit manifested by them." On the 28th of April, Flag-officer Farragut addressed his ultimatum to the mayor, complaining of the continued display of the flag of Louisiana on the City Hall, and concluding with a threat of bombardment of the city by notifying him to re- move the women and children from its limits within forty-eight hours. The mayor replied with new spirit, that the satisfac- tion which was asked at the hands of a vanqnished people, that they should lower with their own hands their State flag, and perform an act against which their natures rebelled, would not, under any circumstances, be given ; that there was no possible exit from the city for its immense population of the women and children, and that if the enemy chose to murder them on a question of etiquette, he might do his pleasure. In the delay of the enemy's actual occupation of the city while the correspondence referred to between the mayor and the enemy was in progress, the confidence of the people of Kew Orleans had, in a measure, been rallied. Thei'e were yet some glimmers of ho]3e. They thought that, with the forts still holding out, and the enemy's transjjorts unable to get up the river, the city might be saved. The fleet had no forces with which to occupy it, and there was no access for an army except by way of the lakes. They had determined to cut the levee below should Gen Butler, in command of the land forces, attempt an approach from Lake Borgne, and above the city, should he make the effort from Lake Pontchartrain. In the last resort, they were determined to man the lines around the city, armed with such weapons as they could procure, and fight the Federal land forces whenever they might make their appearance. These hopes were suddenly dispelled by the unexpected news of the fall of Forts Jackson and St. Philip. Fort Jackson had been very little damaged in the bombardment. It yielded because of a mutiny of three or four hundred of the garrison TITE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 819 wlio refused to obey the commands of its brave officer, Gen. Duncan. He had no alternative but to give up the place. At the first signs of the mutinous disposition, he threatened to turn his guns on his own men, but found a large number of them spiked. He surrendered, in fact, to his own garrison. The post could, probabl}', have been held, if the men had stood to their guns. He stated this in an address on the levee to the people, and, while stating it, cried like a child. The news of the surrender of the river forts effected a sud- den change in the views of Flag-officer Farragut. He was evidently anxious lest Gen. Butler, to whose transports a wny had now been opened to the city, should arrive before he could consummate the objects of his expedition. He had already involved himself in a maze of incongruities and contradictions. Fiist, he demanded peremptorily that the flag should be taken down ; then he insisted that it should be removed before 12 m. on Saturday, the 28th ; on Monday, he repeated the demand, under a threat of bombardment, giving forty-eight hours for the removal of the women and children. On Tuesday morn- ing, he reiterated his peremptory demand, but, within an hour, he agreed to waive every thing he had claimed, and reluctantly consented to send his own forces to take down the flag. About noon, a Federal force, consisting of about two hun- dred armed nuirinos and a number of sailors, dragging two brass howitzers, appeared in front of the City Hall, and tlie officer in command, mounting to the dome of the building, re- moved the flag of the State in sight of an immense crowd of the citizens of New Orleans. No interruption was oflered to the small parry of the Federals, and the idle utterances of curiosity were quelled by the sadness and solemnity of the occasion. Profound silence pervaded the immense crowd. Not even a whisper was heard. The very air was oppressive with stillness. The marines stood sratue-like within the square, their bayonets glistening in the sunbeams, and their faces stolid with indiftereiice. Among the vast mnltitude of citizens, the wet 2heeks of women and the compressed lips and darkened brows of men betrayed their consciousness of the great humiliation M liieh had overtaken them. But among them all there was not one spirit to emulate the devotion of the martyr-hero of Vir- ginia, who, alone and unaided, on the steps of the Marshal] 320 THE FlKSi TEAR OF THE WAE. House, in Alexandria, liad avenged with his life the first insnll ever offered by the enemy to the flag of his country. Thus was the surrender of the city of Kew Orleans complet- ed. Gen. Butler took possession on the 1st of May, and in augurated an administration, the despotism and insolence oi which might have been expected from one of his vile personal character and infamous antecedents. He was a man who had all the proverbially mean instincts of the Massachusetts Yan- kee ; he had been a disreputable jury lawyer at home ; as a member of the old Democratic party, he had been loud in his professions of devotion to the South ; but his glorification in this particular had been dampened in the Charleston Conven- tion, where he pocketed an insult from a Southern delegate, and turned pale at the threat of personal chastisement. The war gave him an opportunity of achieving one of those easy repu- tations in the North which were made by brazen boastfulness, coarse abuse of the South, and aptitude in lying. We shall have future occasion to refer to tlie brutal and indecent des- potism of this vulgar tyrant of New Orleans, who, in inviting his soldiers to treat as prostitutes every lady in the street who dared to show disjileasure at their presence, surpassed the atrocities of Haynau, and rivalled the most barbarous and fiendish rule of vengeance ever sought to be wreaked upon a conquered people. If any thing were wanting to make the soldiers of the South devote anew whatever they had of life, and labor, and blood to the cause of the safety and honor of their country, it was the infamous swagger of Butler in New Orleans, his autocratic rule, his arrest of the best citizens, his almost daily robberies, and his " ingenious" war upon the help- lessness of men and the virtue of women. The narrative of the fall of New Orleans furnishes its own comment. Never was there a more miserable story, where accident, improvidencej treachery, vacillation, and embarrass- ment of purpose, eacli, perhaps, not of great importance in it- self, combined under an evil star to produce the astounding result of the fall, after an engagement, the casualties of which might be counted by hundreds, of a city which was the commer- cial capital of the South, which contained a poj)ulation of one hundred and seventy thousand souls, and which was the largest exj)orting city in the world. THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAK. 331 The extent of the disaster is not to be disguised. It was a heavy blow to the Confederacy. It annihilated us in Louisi- ana; separated us *from Texas and Arkansas; diminished our resources and supplies by the loss of one of the greatest grain and cattle countries within the limits of the Confederacy ; gave to the enemy the Mississippi river, with all its means of navi- gation, for a base of operations; and finally led, by plain and irresistible conclusion, to our virtual abandonment of the great and fruitful Valley of the Mississippi. — It did all this, and yet it was verv far from deciding the fate of the war. 322 THE FIRST TEAE OF THE WAB. CHAPTER Xni. CONCLUSION. Prospects of the War, — The Extremity of the South. — Lights and Shadows of the Campaign in Virginia. — Jackson's Campaign in the Valley. — The Policy of Concen- tration.— Sketch of the Battles around Kichmond.— Effect of McClellan's Defeat npon the Nortli. — President Davis's congratulatory Order. — The War as a great Money Job. — Note: Gen. Washington's Opinion of the Northern People. — Statement of tho Northern Finances. — Yankee Venom. — Gen. Pope's Military Orders. — Summary of the War Legislation of the Northern Congress. — Ectaliation on the part of the Con- federacy. — The Cartel. — Prospects of European Interference. — English Statesmanship. — Progress of the War in the West. — The Defence of Vicksburg. — Morgan's great Paid. — The Tennessee-Virginia Frontier.— A Glance at the Confederate Congress. — Mr. Foote and the Cabinet. — The Campaign in Virginia again. — Kapid Movements and famous March of the Soutliern Troops. — Tlie signal Victory of the Thirtieth oj August on the Plains of Majiaisas. — Eeflections on the War. — Some of its Character- istics. — A Eeview of its Military Kesults. — Three Moral Benefits of the War. — Pros- pects and Promises of the Future. "We have chosen the memorable epoch of the fall of New Or- leans, properly dated from the occupation of the enemy on the 1st of May, 1862, as an appropriate period for the conclusion of our historical narrative of the events of the first year of the war. Hereafter, in the future continuation of the narrative, which we promise to ourselves, we shall have to direct the at- tention of the reader to the important movements, the sorrow- ful disasters, and the splendid achievements, that more than compensated the inflictions of misfortune, in the famous summer campaign in Yirginia. In these we shall find full confirmation of the judgment which we have declared, that the fall of N"ew Orleans, and the consequent loss of the Mississippi Valley, did not decide the fate of the war; and, indeed, we shall see that the abandonment of our plan of frontier defence made the m' ay for the superior and more fortunate policy of the concentration of our forces in the interior. The fall of New Orleans and consequent loss of our command of the Mississippi river from New Orleans to Memphis, with all its immense advantages of transportation and supply ; the re- treat of Gen. Johnston's forces from Yorktown : the evacuatioii THE FIRST YEAK OF THE WAR. 323 of ITorfollv, with its splendid navj'-yard — an event acccmplisli- ed by a mere hrutxim. fuhnen^ and without a hlow ; the stupid and unnecessary destruction of the Virginia, " tlie iron diadem of the South ; " * the perilous condition of Charleston, Savan- * The destruction of the Virginia was a sharp and unexpected blow to the confidence nf the people of the Soutli in their government. How far the government was implicated in this foolish and desperate act, was never openly acknowledged or exacfly ascertained ; but, despite the pains of official concealment, there are certain well-attested facts which indicate that in the destruction of this great war-sliip, the authorities at Richmond were not guiltless. These facts properly belong to the history of one of the most unhappy events that had occurred since the commenccnient of tlie war. The Virginia was destroyed under the immediate orders of her commander. Commodore Tatnall, a little before five o'clock on the morning of the 11th of May, in the vicinity of Craney Island. During the morning of the same day a prominent politician in the streets of Richmond was observed to be very much dojc^cted ; he remarked that it was an evil day for the Confederacy. On being questioned by his intimate friends, he declared to them tliat the government had determined upon, or assented to, the destruction of the Vir- ginia, and that he had learned this from the highest sources of authority in the ca])ita1. At this tin\e the news of the explosion of the Virginia could not have possibly reached Richmond ; there was no telegraphic communication between the scene of her destruction and the city, and the evidence appears to be com- ])lete, that the government had at least a prevision of the destruction of this vessel, or had assented to the general policy of the act, trusting, perhaps, to acquit itself of the responsibility for it on the unworthy plea that it had given no express orders in the matter. Again, it is well known that for at least a week prior to the destruction of the Virginia, the evacuation of Norfolk had been determined upon ; that dur- ing the time the removal of stores was daily progressing; and that Mr. Mallory, the Secretary of the Navy, had within this period, himself, visited Norfolk to look after the public interests. The evacuation of this port clearly im^olved the question, what disposition was to be made of the Virginia. If the government made no decision of a question, which for a week stared it in the face, it certainly was ver.y strangely neglectful of the public interest. If Mr. Mallory visited Norfolk when the evacuation was going on, and never thought of the Virginia, or, thinking of her, kejit dumb, never even giving so much as an officinl nod as to what disiiosition should be made of her, he must have been even more stu]iid than the people who laughed at him in Rich- mond, or the members of Congress who nicknamed without mercy, thought bim to be. It is also not a little singular that when a court of inquiry had found that the destruction of the Virginia was unnecessary and imjiroper, Mr. Mallory should have waived the calling of a court-martial, forgotten what was due to the public interest on such a finding as that made by the preliminary court, and expressed himself satisfied to let the matter rest. The fact is indisputable, that the court-martial was called at the demand of Commodore Tatnall him self. It resulted in his acquittal. 324: THE PIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. nail, and Mobile, and the menace of Ricliniond by one of tlip largest armies of the world, awakened the people of the South to a full ajipreciation of the crisis of the war, and placed their cause in an extremity which nothing could have retrieved but the undiminished and devoted spirit of their brave soldiers in the field. We shall have, however, to mingle with this story of disas- ters, the triumphs, not indeed of the government, but of brave and adventurous spirits in the field. We shall tell how it was that the retreat from Yorktown, although undertaken without any settled plan as to the line of defence upon which it was to be.4'eorganized, led to the successful battle of Williamsburg; we shall recount the events of the glorious battle of Seven Pines, the sound of whose guns was heard by the people of Eichmond, and was followed by the speedy messages of a splendid victory ; and we shall tell how it was that, while the news of the destruction of the Yirginia was still the bitterest reminiscence of the people of the South, and while Secretary Mallory was making a drivelling show of alacrity to meet the enemy by advertising for." timber" to construct new naval defences, a powerful flotilla of Yankee gunboats was repulsed by a battery of four guns on the banks of James river, and the scale of war turned by even such a small incident as the action of Drury's Bluff. In this connection, too, we shall have to record the evidences of the heroic spirit that challenged the approaching enemy ; the noble resolution of the citizens of Eichmond to see their beautiful city consigned to the horrors of a bombardment, rather than to the hands of the enemy ; and the brave resolution of the Yirginia Legislature, which put the Confederate authorities to sli'ame, and infused the hearts of the peo])le with a new and lively spirit of courage and devotion.* * " Resolved hy the Oeneral Assembly : That the General Assembly hereby- express its desire that the capital of the State be defended to the last ex- tremity, if such defence is in accordance with the vieAvs of the President of the Confederate States ; and that the President be assured that whatever destruc- tion or loss of property of the State or individ^ials shall thereby result, will be cheerfully submitted to." — Resolution Va. Legislature, May 14. " Some one said to me the other day, that the duty of surrendering the city would devolve either upon the President, the Mayor, or myself. I said to him. THE I'TRST YEAR OF THE "WAR. 325 But we shall have occasion to tell of even more brilliant triumphs of Southern spirit, and to explain how, for some time at least, the safety of Richmond was trusted not so much to the fortunes of the forces that immediately protected it, as to the splendid diversion of the heroic Jackson in the»Yalley OJ Virginia. We shall see how this brave general, whom the government had determined to recall to Gen. Johnston's lines, rejected the suggestions of the surrender of the Valley, and his personal ease, and adventured upon a campaign, the most successful and brilliant in the "ivar. We shall trace with particular interest the events of this glorious expedition, and we shall find reason to ascribe its results to the zeal, heroism, and genius of its com- mander alone. We shall recount the splendid victory over Banks, the recovery of Winchester, the capture of four thou- sand prisoners, the anniliilation of the invading army of the Valley, and the heroic deeds which threw the splendor of sun- light over the long lines of the Confederate host. The reader will have occasion to compare the campaign of General Jack- son in the Valley of Virginia, with some of the most famous in modern history. We shall show that, in this brief, but bril- liant campaign, a gallant Southern army fought four battles and a number of skirmishes ; killed and wounded a considera- ble number of the enemy, took several thousand prisoners, secured millions of dollars of stores, destroyed many millions of dollars' worth for the enemy, and chased the Federal army, commanded by General Banks, out of Virginia and across the Potomac ; and that all these events were accomplished within the period of three weeks, and with a loss scarcely exceeding one hundred in killed and wounded. In this story of disaster, mingled with triumph, we shall be if tlae demand is made upon me, -svitli the alternative to surrender or be ulielled, I shall reply, Bombakd and be Damned." — Speech of Gov. Letcher. May 16. " I say now, and will abide by it, when the citizens of Richmond demand oi me to surrender the capital of Vii-ginia and of the Confederacy to the enemy, they must find some otlier man to fill my place. I will resign the mayoralty And when that other man elected in my stead shall deliver up the city, I hope I have physical courage and strength enough left to shoulder a musket and go nto the ranks." — Speech of Mayor Mayo, May 16. 326 THE FIRST YBAR OF THE WAR. disappointed if we do not discover the substantial prospect ol brighter fortunes and final triumph for the South. Indeed, the fact will be shown to be, that events, although mixed and uncertain to the views taken of them at the time of their occurrence, were preparing the way for a great victory and a sudden illumination of the fortunes of the South. The disasters on the Mississippi frontier and in other direc- tions had constrained the government to adopt the policy of concentrating its forces in the interior of Yirginia. Tlie ob- ject of all war is to reach a decisive point of the campaign, and this object was realized by a policy which it is true the government had not adopted at the instance of reason, but which had been imposed upon it by the force of disaster. There were childish complaints that certain districts and points >on tlie frontier had been abandoned by the Confederates for the purpose of a concentration of troops in Virginia. These complaints were alike selfish and senseless, and, in some cases, nothing more than the utterance of a demagogical, short- sighted, and selfish spirit, which would have preferred the apparent security of its own particular State or section to the fortunes of the whole Confederacy. Tlie fact was, that there was cause of intelligent congratulation even in those districts from which the Confederate troops had been withdrawn to make a decisive battle, that we had at last reached a crisis, tlie decision of which might reverse all our past misfortunes_ and achieve results in which every State of the Confederacy would liave a share. On the Richmond lines, two of the greatest and most splen- did armies that had ever been arrayed on a single field con- fronted each other; every accession that could be procured from the most distant quarters to their numbers, and every tiling that could be drawn from the resources of the respective countries of each, had been made to contribute to the strength and splendor of the opposing hosts. Since the commencement of the war, the K^orth had taxed its resources for the capture of Richmond ; nothing was omit- ted for the accomplishment of this event; the way had to be opened to the capital by tedious and elaborate operations on the frontier of Virginia: this accomplished, the city of Rich- Jhond was surrounded by an army whose numbers was all that THE FIKST YEAR OF THE WAR. 827 could be desired ; composed of picked forces ; having every advantage that science and art could bestow in fortilieations and every apj)liance of war; assisted by gunboat flotillas in two rivers, and endowed with every thing that could assure success. The Northern journals were unreserved in the statement that the commands of Fremont, Banks, and McDowell, had been consolidated into one army, under Major-general Pope, with a view of bringing all the Federal forces in Virginia, to co-operate with McClellan on the Kichmoud lines. A portion of this army must have reached McClellan, probably at an early stage of the engagements in the vicinity of Richmond. Tliere is little doubt but that, in the memorable contest for the safety of Richmond, we engaged an army whose superiority in numbers to us was largely increased by timely reinforce- ments, and with regard to the operations of which the North- ern government had omitted no conditions of success. Of this contest, unparalleled in its duration ; rich in dra- matic incident and display ; remarkable for a series of battles, any one of which might rank witli the most celebrated in his- tory ; and distinguished by an obstinacy, on the part of the sullen and insolent enemy, that was broken only by the most tremendous exertions ever made by Southern troops, we shall have to treat in a future continuation of this work, with the utmost care as to the authenticity of our narrative, and with matured views as to the merits and importance of what is now supposed to be a great and decisive event. For the present, merely for the purpose of extending the general record of events in this chapter to the present stand- point of intelligent reflection on the future of the war, we must content the reader with a very brief and summary sketch of the battles around Richmond. Such a sketch is necessarily imperfect, written amid the confusion of current events, and is limited to the design of acquainting the reader with the gen- eral situation at tliis writing, without venturing, to a gi'eat de* gi-ee, upon statements of particular facts. 328 THE FIEST YEAR OF THE WAR. SKETCH OF THE BATTLES AROUND RICHMOND. Upon taking command of the Confederate army in the field, after Gen. Johnston had been wounded in the battle of Seven Pines, Gen Lee did not hesitate to adopt the spirit of that commander, which had already been displayed in attacking the enemy, and which indicated the determination on his part that the operations before Richmond should not degenerate into a siege. The course of the Chickahominy around Richmond affords an idea of the enemy's position at the commencement of the action. This stream meanders through the tide-water district of Virginia — its course approaching that of the arc of a circle in the neighborhood of Richmond — until it reaches the lower end of Charles City county, where it abruptly turns to the south and empties into the James. A portion of the enemy's forces had crossed to the south side of the Chickahominy, and were fortified on the Williamsburg road. On the north bank of the stream the enemy was strongly posted for many miles ; the heights on that side of the stream having been fortified with great energy and skill from Meadow Bridge, on a line nearly due north from the city, to a point below Bottom's Bridge, which is due east. This line of the enemy extended for about twenty miles. Reviewing the situation of the two armies at the commence- ment of the action, the advantage was entirely our own. McClel- lan had divided his army on the two sides of the Chickahomi- ny, and operating apparently with the design of half circum- vallating Richmond, had spread out his forces to an extent that impaired the faculty of concentration, and had made a weak and dangerous extension of his lines. On Thursday, the 26th of June, at three o'clock, Major- general Jackson — fresh from the exploits of his magnificent campaign in the Yalley — took up his line of march from Ash- land, and proceeded down the country between the Chicka- hominy and Pamunkey rivers. The enemy collected on tli north bank of the Chickahominy, at the point where it is cross- ed by the Brooke turnpike, were driven off, and Brigadier- general Branch, crossing the stream, directed his movements , THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAK. 329 for a junction with tlie column of Gen. A. P. Hill, which had crossed at Meadow Bridge. General Jackson having borne away from the Chickahominj, so as to gain ground towards the Painunkej, marched to the left of Mechanicsville, while Gen. Hill, keeping well to the Chickahominy, approaclied that village and engaged the enemy there. With about fourteen thousand men (Gen. Branch did not ar- rive till nightfall), Gen. Hill engaged the forces of the enemy until night put an end to the contest. While he did not suc- ceed, in that limited time, in routing the enemy, his forces etubbornly maintained the pos?ession of Mechanicsville and the ground taken by them on the other side of the Chicka hominy. Driven from the immediate locality of Mechanics- ville, the enemy retreated during the night down the river to Powhite swamp, and night closed the operations of Thursday. The road having been cleared at Mechanicsville, Gen. Long- street's corps (Carmee., consisting of his veteran division of the Old Guard of the Army of the Potomac, and Gen. D. H. Ilill's division, debouched from the woods on the south side of the Chickahominy, and crossed that river. Friday morning the general advance upon the enemy began ; Gen. A. P. Hill ii\ the centre, and bearing towards Coal Harbor, while Gen. Longstrect and Gen. D. H. Hill came down the Chickahominy to New Bridge. Gen. Jackson still maintained liis position in advance, far to the left, and gradually converging to the Chicka- hominy again. The position of the enemy was now a singular one. One portion of his army was on the south side of the Chickahominy, fronting Eichmond, and confronted by Gen. Magruder. The other portion, on the north side, had fallen back to a new line of defences, where McClellan proposed to make a decisive battle. As soon as Jackson's arrival at Coal Harbor was announced. Gen. Lee and Gen. Longstreet, accompanied by their respective staffs, rode by Gaines's Mill, and halted at New Coal Harbor, where they joined General A. P. Hill. Soon the welcome sound of Jackson's guns announced that he was at work. The action was now to become general for the first time on the Richnond lines; and a collision of numbers was about to take place equal to any that had yet occurred in the histoiy of the war. 330 THE riKST tear of the wak. From four o'clock until eight Xho battle raged with a display of the utmost d-\ring and intrepidity on the part of the Con- federate arm3^ The enemy's lines were finally broken, and hi3 strong positions all carried, and night covered the retreat oi McClcUan's broken and routed columns to the south side of the Chickahominy. The assault on the enemy's works near Gaines's Mills is a memorable part of the engagement of Friday, and the display of fortitude, as w^ell as quick and dashing gallantry of our troops on that occasion, takes its place by the side of the most glorious exploits of the war. Gen. A. P. Hill had made the first assault upon the lines of the enemy's intrenchments near Gaines's Mills. A fierce struggle had ensued between his division and the garrison of the line of defence. Repeated charges were made by ECill's troops, but tlie formidable charac- ter of the works, and murderous volley's of grape and canister from the artillery covering them, kept our troops in check. It was past four o'clock when Pickett's brigade, from Longstreet's division, came to Hill's suj^port. Pickett's regiments fought with the most determined valor. At last Whiting's division, composed of the " Old Third" and Texan brigades, advanced at a " double quick," charged the batteries, and drove the enemy from his strong line of defence. The works carried by these noble troops would have been invincible to the bayonet had they been garrisoned by men less dastardly than the Yankees. To keep the track of the battle, which had swept around Eichinond, w^e must have reference to some of the principal points of locality in the enemy's lines. It will be recollected that it was on Thursday evening when the attack was com- menced upon the enemy near Meadow Bridge. This locality is about six miles distant from the city, on a line almost due north. This 'position was the enemy's extreme right. His lines extended from here across the Chickahominy, near the Powhite Creek, two or three miles above the crossing of the York Piver railroad. From Meadow Bridge to this railroad, the distance along the Chickahominy on the north side is about ten miles. The different stages between the points indicated, along which the enemy were driven, are Mechanicsville, about a mile north of the Chickahominy; further on, Beaver Dam Creek, emptying into the Chickahominy; then the New Bridge THE riKST TKAE OF THK WAR. 331 • road, on ^vllicll Coal Harbor is located ; and then Powhite Creek, where the enemy had made his last stand, and been re- pulsed from tlie field. The York Ttiver railroad runs in an easterly direction, inter- secting tlie Chickahominy about ten miles from the city. South of the railroad is the Williamsburg road, connecting with the Nine Mile road at Seven Pines. The former road connects with the New Bridge road, which turns off and crosses the Chickahominy. From Seven Pines, where the Nine Mile road joins the upper one, the road is known as the old Williamsburg road, and crosses tlie Chickahominy at Bottom's Bridge. With the bearing of these localities in his mind, the reader will readily understand how it was that the enemy was driven from liis original strongholds on the north side of the Chicka- hominy, and how, at the time of Friday's battle, he had been compelled to surrender the possession of the Fredericksburg and Central laih'oads, and had been pressed to a position where ho was cut off from the principal avenues of supply and escape. Tlie disposition of our forces was such as to cut off all commu- nication between McClellan's army and the White House, on the Pamunkey river; he had been driven completely from his northern line of defences ; and it was supposed that he would be unable to extricate himself from his position without a vic- tory or a ca})itulation. In front of him being the Chickahominy, which he had crossed — in his rear, were the divisions of Generals Longstreet, Magrr.der, and Huger, and, in the situation as it existed Saturday night, all hopes of his escape were thought to be impossible. On Sunday morning, it appears that our pickets, on the Nine Mile road, having engaged some small detachments of the enemy, and driven them beyond their fortifications, found them deserted. In a short while, it became known to our generals that McClellan, having massed his entire force on this side of the Chickahominy, was retreating towards James river. The intrenchments which the enemy had deserted, were found to be formidable and elaborate. That immediately across the railroad, at the six-mile post, which had been supposed to be light eai-;h-work, designed to sweep the railroad, turned out to be an immense embrasured fortification, extending for hun- dreds of vards on either side of the track. Within this work 22 832 THE FIKST TEAE.OF THE WAR. were found great quantities of fixed ammunition, which liad apparently been prepared for removal, and then deserted. All the cannon, as at other intrenchments, had been carried off. A dense clond of smoke Avas seen issuing from the woods two miles in ad van •'e of the battery, and half a mile to the right of the railroad. The smoke was found to proceed from a perfect mountain of the enemy's commissary stores, consisting of sugar, coffee, and bacon, prepared meats, vegetables, &c., which he had Hred. The fields and woods around this spot were covered . with every description of clothing and camp equipage. IN'o indication was wanting that the enemy had left this encamp- ment in haste and disorder. The enemy had been imperfectly watched at a conjuncture the most critical in the contest, and through some omission of our guard — the facts of which have as yet been but imperfectly developed — McClellan had succeeded in massing his entire force, and taking np a line of retreat, by which he hoped to reach the cover of his gunboats on the James. But the most unfortunate circumstance to us was, that since the enemy had escaped from us in his fortified camp, his j-etreat was favored by a country, the characteristics of which are unbroken forests and wide swamps, where it was impossible to pursue him with rapidity, and extremely difficult to reconnoitre his position so as to bring him to decisive battle. On Sunday morning, the divisions of Generals Hill and Longstreet crossed the Chickahominy, and were, during the whole of the day, moving in the hunt for the enemy. The dis- position which was made of our forces brought General Long- street on the enemy's front, immediately supported by General Hill's' division consisting of six brigades. The forces com- manded by General Longstreet were his old division, consisting of six brigades. Tlie position of the enemy was about five miles northeast of Darbytown, on the New Market road. The immediate scene of the battle was a plain of sedge pines, in the cover of which the enemy's forces were skilfully disposed — the locality being known as Frazier's farm. In advancing upon the enemy, batteries of sixteen heavy guns were opened upon the advance columns of Gen. Hill. Our troops, pressing heroically forward, had no sooner got within musket range than the enemy, form THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 333 mg several lines of battle, poured upon them from his heavy masses a devouring fire of musketry. The conflict became terrible, the air being filled with missiles of death, every mo- ment having its peculiar sound of terror, and every spot its eight of ghastly destruction and horror. It is impossible that in any of the series of engagements which had taken place within the past few days, and had tracked the lines of Rich- mond with fire and destruction, there could have been more desperate fighting on the part of our troops. Never was a more glorious victory plucked from more desperate and threatening circumstances While exposed to tlie douljle fire of the enemy's batteries and his musketry, we were unable to contend with hirn witli artillery. But although thus unmatched, our brave troops pressed on with unquailing vigor and a resistless courage, driving the enemy before them. This was accomplished without artillery, there being but one battery in Gen. Hill's command on the spot, and that belonged to Longstreet's division, and could not be got into position. Thus the figlit continued with an ardor and devo- tion that few battle-fields have ever illustrated. Step by step the enemy were driven back, his guns taken, and the ground lie abandoned strewn with his dead. By half-past eight o'clock we had taken all his cannon, and, continuing to advance, had driven him a mile and a half from his ground of battle. Our forces were still advancing upon the retreating lines of the enemy. It was now about half-past nine o'clock, and very dark. Suddenly, as if it had burst from the heavens, a sheet of fire enveloped the front of our advance. The enemy had made another stand to receive ns, and, from the black masses of his forces, it was evident that he had been heavily reinforced, and that another whole corj?s (Varmee had been brought up to contest the fortunes of the night. Line after line of battle was formed. It was evident that his heaviest columns were now being thrown against our small command, and it might have been supposed that he would only be satisfied with its annihi- lation. The loss here on our side was terrible. The situation being evidently' hopeless for any further pur- suit of the fugitive enemy, who had now brought up such over- whelming forces, our troops retired slowly. At this moment, seeing their adversary retire, the most vocif- erous cheers arose along the whole Yankee line. They were ooi THE FIKST TEAR OF THE WAR. t tak:Dix. indefensible ; that the army would pass right tlirougli tlie city ; that any attempt to defend it Avitli the means at his command would result in disaster to the army and the destruction of the city ; that the first and highest duty of the governor was to the public trusts in his hands, and he thought, to dis- charge them properly, he should at once remove the archives and public rec- ords to some safer place, and call the Legislature together elsewhere than a Nashville. Governor Harris did all this quietly, energetically, and patriotic- ally. Just as soon as he had deposited these papers, he returned to Nashville The confusion at Nashville did not reach its height until a humane attemp was made to distribute among the poor a portion of the public stores which could not be removed. The lowest passions seemed to have been aroused in a large mass of men and women, and the city appeared as if it was in the hands of a mob. The military authority, however (Gen. Floyd having been put in command by Gen. Johnston), asserted its supremacy, and comparative order was restored. During these excitements it became publicly known, for the first time, that Governor Harris was out of the city, but few really knowing that he had quietly gone away in the discharge of a public duty. His absence was wholly misunderstood, and, of course, misrepresented. There is no doubt but that, in the course of these misrepresentations in the newspapers, injustice was done to a man who illustrated his devotion to the South by distinguished courage on the battle-field, and who, from the moment that he first rebiiifed the Washington government in his famous defiance to Lincoln's call for troops, down to recent periods in the history of the revolution, had given the most constant and honorable proofs of his attachment to the liberties and fortunes of the South, \ CONSTITUTION" OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. We, the people of the Confederate States, each State acting in its sovereign and independent character, in order to form a per- manent federal government, establish justice, insure domestic tran- quillity, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our pos- terity — invoking the fiivoi' and guidance of Almighty God — do ordain and establish this Constitution for the Confederate States of America. i ARTICLE I. Section 1. All legislative powers herein delegated shall be vested in a Con- gress of the Confederate States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Rei^resentatives. Section 2. 1. The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several States; and the electors in each State shall be citizens of the Confederate States, and have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numer- ous branch of tlie State Legislature; but no person of foreign birth, not a citizen of the Confederate States, shall be allowed to vote for any officer, civil or political, State or Federal. ^ 2. No person shall be a Representative who shall not have ; attained the age of twenty-five years, and be a citizen of the Con- federate States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen, 24 3Q4: CONSTITUTION OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES. 3. Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be ".nclnded within this Confedei'acy, according to their respective ni.mbers, Avhieh shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all slaves. The actual enumeration shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the Confederate States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct. The number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every fifty thousand ; but each State shall have at least one Representative ; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of South Carolina shall be entitled to choose six ; the State of Georgia ten ; the State of Ala- bama nine ; the State of Florida two ; the State of Mississippi seven ; the State of Louisiana six ; and the State of Texas six. 4. When vacancies happen in the representation from any State, the Executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies* 5. The Plouse of Representatives shall choose their Speaker and other officers ; and shall have the sole power of impeachment ; except that any judicial or other federal officer resident and acting solely within the limits of any State, may be impeached by a vote of two- thirds of both branches of the Legislature thereof Section 3. 1. The Senate of the Confederate States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen for six years by the Legis- lature thereof, at the regular session next immediately preceding the commencement of the term of service ; and each Senator shall have one vote. 2. Immediately after they shall be assembled, in consequence of the first election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three classes. The seats of the Senators of the first class shall be vacated at the expiration of the second year ; of the second class, at the expiration of the fourth year, and of the third class, at the expiration of the sixth year ; so that one-third may be chosen every second year ; and if vacancies happen, by resignation or otherwise, during the recess of the Legislature of any State, the Executive thereof may make temporory appointments until the next meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such vacancies. 3. ISTo person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained the age of thirty years, and be a citizen of the Confederate States; and CSONSTI'rUTION OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES. 365 who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of the State for which he shall be chosen, 4. The Vice-president of the Confederate States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no vote unless they be equally divided. 5. The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a Presi- dent pro tempore, in the absence of the Vice-president, or when he shall exercise the office of President of the Confederate States. 6. The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. When sitting for that purpose they shall be on oath or affirmation. When the President of the Confederate States is tried, the Chief- justice shall preside; and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of the members present. 1. Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the Confederate States ; but the party convicted shall, nevertheless, be liable and subject to in- dictment, trial, judgment, and punishment, according to law. Section 4. 1. The times, places, and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legis- lature thereof, subject to the provisions of this Constitution ; but the Congiess may, at any time, by law, make or alter such regulations, except as to the times and places of choosing Senators. 2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year; and such meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall, by law, appoint a dift'erent day. Section 5, 1. Each House sliall be the judge of the elections, returns, and qualifications of its own members, and a majority of each shall con- stitute a quorum to do business ; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authoiized to compel the attendance of absent members, in such manner and under such penalties as each House may provide. 2. Ea«h House may determine the rules of its proceedings, pun- ish its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds of the whole number, expel a member. 3. Each House shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and, from time to time, publish the same, excepting such parts as may in ita judgment require secrecy, and the ayes and nays of the members of oGG CONSTITUTION OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES. / either House, on any question, slinll, at the desire of one-fifth of those present, be entered on the journah 4. Neither House, during the session of Congress, shall, without tlie consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting. Seciion 6. 1. The Senators and Representatives shall receive a compensation for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the Treasury of the Confederate States. They shall, in all cases except treason and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same ; and for any speech or debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other place. 2. No Senator or Representative shall, during the time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authoiity of the Confederate States, which shall have been created, or the emoluments whereof shall have been increased during such time ; and no person holding any office under the Confederate States shall be a member of either House during his continuance in oflice. But Congress may, by law, grant to the principal officer in each of the Executive Departments a seat upon the floor of either House, with the privilege of discussing any measure appertaining to his depart- ment. Section 7. 1. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives ; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments as on other bills. 2. Every bill which shall have passed both Houses, shall, before it becomes a law, be presented to the President of the Confederate States ; if he approve, he shall sign it ; but if not, he shall return it with his objections to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the objections at large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If, after such reconsideration, two-thirds of that House shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be recon- sidered, and if approved by two-thirds of that House, it shall become a law. But in all such cases, the votes of both Houses shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the names i>f the persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the journal of each House respectively. If any bill shall not be returned by the President within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been pre- CONSTITUTION OF THE CONFFDERAI^E STATES. 807 sented to liim, the same shall bo a law in like manner as if he had pigned it, vmless the Congress, by their adjournment, prevent its return ; in which case it shall not be a law. The President may approve any appropriation and disapprove any other appropriation in the same bill. In such case he shall, in signing the bill, designate the appropriations disajjproved ; and shall return a copy of such appropriations, with his objections, to the House in which the bill shall have originated ; and the same proceedings shall then be had as in case of other bills disapproved by the President, 3. Every order, resolution, or vote, to which the concurrence of both Houses may be necessary (except on questions of adjournuietu) shall be presented to the President of the Confedeiate States ; and •before the same shall take effect shall be approved by him ; or being disapproved by him, may be repassed by two-thirds of both Houses, according to the rules and limitations prescribed in case of a bill. Section 8. The Congress shall have power — 1. To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, for revenue necessary to pay the debts, provide for the common defence, and carry on the Government of the Confederate States; but no bounties shall be granted from the Treasury ; nor shall any duties or taxes on importations from foreign nations be laid to promote or foster any brancli of industry ; and all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the Confederate States. 2. To borrow money on the credit of the Confederate States. 3. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several StattiS, and with the Indian tribes; but neither this, nor any other clause contained in the Constitution, shall be construed to delegate the power to Congress to appropriate money for any inter- nal improvement intended to facilitate commerce ; except lor the puri)ose of furnishing lights, beacons, and buoys, and other aids to navigation upon tlie coasts, and the improvement of harbors, ami the removing of ubstructions in river navigation, in all which cases such duties shall be laid on the navigation facilitated thereby as may be necessary to pay the costs and expenses thereof, 4. To establish uniform laws of naturalization, and uniform laws on tlie subject of bankru])tcies throughout the Confederate States, but no law of Congress shall discharge any debt contracted before ihe passage of the same. 5. To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and tix the standard of weights and measures. 3£S OONSTITrTION OF THE CONFEDEKATE STATES. 6. To provide for the punislimeiit of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the Confederate States. v. To establish post-offices and post-routes ; but the expenses of the Post-office Department, after the first day of March, in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and sixty-three, shall be j^aid out of Its own revenues. 8. To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by secur- ing, for limited times, to authors and inventors, the exclusive right to their rf"w>ective writings and discoveries. ' T<5 constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court. -0. To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offences against the law of nations. 11. To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water. 12. To raise and support armies; but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years. 13. To provide and maintain a navy. 14. To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces. 15. To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Confederate States, suppress insurrections, and I'epel.invasions. 16. To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the mili- tia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the Confederate States, reserving to the States respectively the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the mililia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress. 17. To exercise exclusive legislation, in all cases whatsoever, over such district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of one or more States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the Government of the Confederate States; and to exercise like .authority over all jjlaces purchased by the consent of the legis- lature of the State in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dock-yards, and other needful buildings; and 18. To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for car- rying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested, by this Constitution, in the Government of the Confederat* States, or in any department or officer thereof. Section. 9 1. The importation of negroes of the African race, from any foreign country, other than the slaveholding States or Territories oi CONSTITUTION OF TOE CONFEDERATE STATES. 369 the United States of America, is hereby forbidden, and Congress is required to pass such laws as sliall effectually prevent the same. 2. Conf^ress shall also have power to prohibit the introduction oi slaves from any State not a member of, or Territory not belonging to, this Confederacy. 3. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be sus- pended, unless when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it. 4. No bill of attainder, or ex i)0st facto law, or law denyiny m- impairing the right of property in negro slaves, shall be pafe^^ivi. 5. No cai)italion or other direct tax sliall be laid, unless in pro- portion' to the census or enumeration hereinbefore directed to be >ken. 6. No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any State, except by a vote of two-thirds of both Houses. 7. No preference shall be given, by any regulation of commerce or revenue, to the ports of one State over those of another. 8. No money shall be drawn from the Treasury but in con- sequence of appropriations made by law ; and a regular statement and account of the receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published from time to time. 9. Congress shall appropriate no money from the treasury except by a vote of two-thirds of both Houses, taken by yeas and nays, unless it be asked and estimated for by some one of the heads of departments, and submitted to Congress by the President ; or for the purpose of paying its own expenses and contingencies ; or for the payment of claims against the Confederate States, the justice of which shall have been judicially declared by a tribunal for the investigation of claims against the government, which it is hereby made the duty of Congress to establish. 10. All bills appropriating money shall specify in federal currency the exact amount of each appropriation, and the purposes for which it is made ; and Congress shall grant no extra compensation to any public contractor, officer, agent, or servant, after such contract shall have been made or such service rendered. 11. No title of nobility shall be granted by the Confederate States ; and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state. 12. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the 370 CONSTITUTION OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES. freedom of speech or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the Government for a redress of grievances. 13. A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arras shall not be infringed. 14. No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner ; nor in time of war, but in a manner prescribed by law. 15. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated ; and no warrant shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the person or things to be seized. IG. No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service, in time of war, or public danger ; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or hmb ; nor be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself; nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation. 17. In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation ; to be confronted with the witnesses against him ; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor ; and to have the assistance of counsel for his defenqe. •18. In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, tlie right of trial by jury shall be pre- served ; and no fact so tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the Confederacy than according to the rules of the common law. 19. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines im- posed, nor cruel or unusual punishments inflicted. 20. Every law, or resolution having the force of law, shall relate to but one subject, and that shall be expressed in the title. constitution of the confederate states. 371 Sectiox 10. 1. No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation grant letters of marque and reprisal ; coin money ; make any thing but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts ; pass any bill of attainder, or ex post facto law, or law impairing the obliga- tion of contracts; or grant any title of nobility. 2. No State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any im- posts or duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executirg its inspection laws ; and the net produce of all duties and imposts laid by any State on imports or exports, shall be for the use of the Treasury of the Confederate States.; and all such laws shall be subject to the revision and control of Congress. 3. No State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any duty of tonnage, except on sea-going vessels, for the iniprovenient of its rivers and haibors navigated by the said vessels ; but such duties shall not conflict with any treaties of the Confederate States with foreign nations; and any surplus of revenue thus derived, shall, after making such improvement, be paid into the common treasury ; nor shall any State keep troops or ships of war in time of peace, enter into any agreement or compact with another State, or with a foreign power, or engage in war, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay. But when any river divides or flows through two or more States, they may enter into compacts with each other to improve the navigation thereof. ARTICLE II. Section 1. 1. Tlie Executive j/ower shall be vested in a President of the Confederate States of America. He and the Vice-president shall hold their offices for the term of six years ; but the President shall not be re-eligible. The President and Vice-president shall be elected as follows: 2. Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in Congress; but no Senator or Representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit under tlie Confederate States, shall be appointed an elector. 3. The electors shall meet in their respective States and vote by ballot for President and Vice-president, one of whom, at least, shaU 372 CONSTITUTION OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES. not be an inhabitant of the same State with themselves ; they shalj name in their ballots the person voted for as Piesident, and in dis tinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-president, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-president, and of the number of votes for each ; which list they shall sign, and certify, and transmit, sealed, to the Government of the Confederate States, directed to the Pre- sident of the Senate, The Piesident of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted ; the person having the greatest number of votes for President shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors ap- pointed ; and if no pei'son have such majoiity, then, from the per- sons having the highest numbers, not exceeding three, on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But, in choosing the President, tlie votes shall be taken by States, the representation from each State having one vote ; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members fi-om two-thirds of the States, and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President, whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-president shall act as Presi- dent, as in case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President. 4. The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-presi- dent shall be the Vice-president, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed ; and if no person have a majority, then, from the two higliest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-president ; a quorum for the purpose shall con- sist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary for a choice. 6. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of Presi- dent shall be eligible to that of Vice-president of the Confederate States. 6. The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors, and the day on which they shall give their votes ; which day shall be the same throngliout the Confederate States. 7. No person except a natural born citizen of the Confederate States, or a citizen thereof at the time of the adoption of this Con- stitution, or a citizen thereof born in the United States pi'ior to the 20th December, 1860, shall be eligible to the office of President; CONSTITUTION OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES. 373 neither iiliall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resi- dent within the limits of the Confederate States, as they may exist at the time of his election. 8. In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death, resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and dutiea of the said office, the same shall devolve on the Vice-president; and ^ the Congress may, by law, provide for the case of the removal, death, resignation, or inability, both of the President and Vice-pre- sident, declaring what officer shall then act as President, and such officer shall act accordingly until the disability be removed, or a President shall be elected. 9. The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services a compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the period for which he shall have been elected; and he shall not receive within that period any other emolument from the Confederate States, or any of them. 10. Before he enters on the execution of the duties of his office, he shall take the following oath or affirmation : "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the Confederate States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution thereof." Section 2. 1. The President shall be commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the Confederate States, and of the militia of the several States, when called into the actual service of the Confederate States; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the Executive Departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respecting offices ; and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offences against the Con- federate States, except in cases of impeachment. 2. He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur ; and he shall nominate, and, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other publio ministers, and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the Confederate States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law ; but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such Inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the hsads of departments. 374 CONSTITUTION OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES. 3. The i)rincipal officer in each of the Executive Departments, and all persons connected with the diplomatic service, may be removed from office at the pleasure of the President. All other civil officers of the Executive Department may be removed at any time by the President, or other appointing power, when their ser- / vices are unnecessary, or for dishonesty, incapacity, inefficiency, misconduct, or neglect of duty; and when so removed, the re- moval shall be reported to the Senate, together with the r.easons therefor. " ' ■ 4. The President shall have power to fill all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions wdiich sliall expire at the end of their next session ; but no person rejected by the Senate shall be reajjpointed to the same office during their ensuing recess. Section 3. The President shall, from time to time, give to the Congress in- formation of the state of the Confederacy, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and er pedient; he may, on extraordinary occasions, convene booh Ilousei, or either of them ; and, in case of disagreement between them, with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think projDer ; he shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers ; he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers of the Confederate States. Section 4. The President, Vice-president, and all civil officers of the Con- federate States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and mis- demeanors. ARTICLE III. Section 1. The judicial power of the Confederate States shall be vested in one Superior Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The judges, both of the Supreme and inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good behavior, and shall, at stated times, receive for their services a com pensation, which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office. constitution of the confedera.te states. 37o . Section 2. 1. The judicial power shall extend to all cases arising under this Constitution, the laws of the Confederate States, and treaties made or which shall be made under their authority ; to all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls ; to all cases of ad- mirality and maritime jurisdiction ; to controversies to which the Confederate States shall be a party ; to controversies between two or morp States; between a State and citizens of another State, •where the State is plaintiff; between citizens claiming lands under grants of different Slates, and between a State or the citizens there- of, and for-cign States, citizens, or subjects; but no State shall be sued by a citizen or subject of any foreign State. 2. In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls, and those in which a State shall be a party, the Su])reme Court shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions and under such regulations as the Congress shall make. 3. The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury, and such trial shall be held in the State where the.said crimes shall have been committed ; but when not committed within any State, the trial shall be at such place or places as the Congress may by law have directed. Section 3. 1. Treason against the Confederate States shall consist only ia levying war against them, (ft- in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testiuTOuy of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court. 2. The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture, except during the life of the person attainted. ARTICLE IV. Section 1. Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the public acts, recoids, and judicial proceedings of every other State. And the Congiess may, by general laws, prescribe the manner in which such acts, records, and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof. 376 constitution of the cokfedeeate states. Section 2. 1. The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens of the several States, and simll have the right of transit and sojourn in any State of this confederacy, with their slaves and other property ; and the right of property in said slaves shall not be thereby impaired. 2. A person cliarged in any State with treason, felony, or other crime against the laws of such State, who shall flee from justice, and be found in another State, shall, on demand of the Executive authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up to be removed to the State having jurisdiction of the crime, 3. No slave or other person held to service or labor in any State or Territory of the Confederate States,, under the laws thereof, escaping or unlawfully carried into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor ; but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such slave belongs, or to whom such service or labor may be due. Section 3. 1. Other States may be admitted into this Confederacy by a vote of two-thirds of the whole House of Representatives, and two-thirds of the Senate, the Senate voting by States ; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other State ; nor any State be formed by the junction of two or more States, or parts of States, without the consent of the Legislatures of the States con- cerned as well as of the Congress. 2. The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations concerning the property of the Con- federate States, including the lands thereof 3. The Confederate States may acquire new territory ; and Con- gress shall have power to legislate and provide governments for the inhabitants of all territory belonging to the Confederate States, lying without the limits of the several States, and may permit them, at s^uch times, and in such manner as it may by law provide, to form States to be admitted into the Confederacy. In all such terri- tory, the institution of negro slavery, as it now exists in the Con- federate States, shall be i-ecognized and protected by Congress and by the territorial government ; and the inhabitants of the several Confederate States and Territories shall have the right to take to such territory any slaves lawfully held by them in any of the States or Territoi-ies of the Confederate States. COXSTITUTION OF TIIIC COXFKDICIiATE STATES. 377 4. The Confederate States shall guarantee to every State that now is or hereaiter may become a member of this Confederacy, a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion ; and on application of the Legislature (or of the Executive when the Legislature is not iu session,) against domestic violence. ARTICLE V. Section 1. Upon the demand of any three States, legally assembled in their several Conventions, the Congrei?s shall summon a Convention of all the States, to take into colisideration such amendments to the Con- stitution as the said States shall concur in suggesting at the time when the said demand is made ; and should any of the proposed amendments to the Constitution be agreed on by the said Conven- tion — voting by States— and the same V>e ratified by the Legislatures of two-thirds of the several States, or by Conventions in two-thirds thereof — as the one or the other mode of ratification may be pro- posed by the general Convention — they shall thenceforward form a part of this Constitution. But no State shall, without its consent be deprived of its equal representation in the Senate. ARTICLE YI. Section 1. 1. The Government established by this Constitution is the suc- cessor of the Provisional Government of the Confederate States of America, and all the laws passed by the latter shall continue in forc*» until the same shall be repealed or modified ; and all the offices, appointed by the same shall remain in office until their successors are appointevl and qualified, or the offices abolished. 2. All debts contracted and engagements entered into before the adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the Con- federate States under this Constitution as under the Provisional -Government. 3. This Constitution, and the laws of the Confederate States made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or which shall be made under the authority of the Confederate States, shall be the supreme law of the land, and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any thing in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstandinar. 378 CONSTITUTION OF Till; CONFKDEEATE STATES. 4. The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of tlie several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the Confederate States and of the several States, shall be bound, by oath or affirmation, to support this Con- stitution ; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualifica- tion to any office of public trust under the Confederate States. 5. The enumeration, in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people of the several States. 6. The powers not delegated to the Confederate States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to tie States respectively, or to the people thereof. ARTICLE VII. Section 1. 1. The ratification of the Conventions of five States shall be suf- ficient for the establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the same. When five States shall have ratified this Constitution in the man. ner before specified, the Congress, under the provisional Constitu- tion, shall prescribe the time for holding the election of President and Vice-president, and for the meeting of the electoral college, and for counting the votes and inaugurating the President. They shall also prescribe the time for holding the first election of members of Congress under this Constitution, and the time for assembling the same. Until the assembling of such Congress, the Congi-ess under the provisional Constitution shall continue to exercise the legislative powers granted them; not extending beyond the time limited by the Constitution of the Provisional Government. Adopted unanimously, Marcli 11, 1861, At Montgomeet. Alabama. CHRONOLOGY OF THE WAR. I860. Apr. 23. — Democratic Convention met at Charleston, Sorth Caro- lina, and after an ineffectual effort to unite on a can- didate, adjourned to meet in Baltimore. May 9. — Constitutional Union Convention at Baltimore nominated John Bell, of Tennessee, for President, and Edward Everett, of Massachusetts, for Vice President. " 19. — The Republican Convention at Chicago nominated, for President, Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, and for Vice President, Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine. ; Junell. — The Southern delegates, withdrawing from the Baltimore Convention, nominate John C. Breckenridge, of Ken- tucky, for President, and Joseph Lane, of Oregon, for Vice President. " 18. — The adjourned Convention at Baltimore nominated, for President, Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois, and for Vice President, Benjamin Fitzpatrick, of Alabama. The latter declining the nomination, Herschel V. Johnson, of Georgia, was selected as the candidate. ITbv, 6. — ^The Abraham Lincoln ticket obtains the highest number of votes, although the majority of the popular vote is against it. " 10. — The Legislature of South Carolina calls a convention. Dec. 20. — South Carolina in Convention passes an ordinance of Se- cession. Major Anderson retires to Fort Sumter. " 27-30.— Custom House, Post Office, and IT. S. Arsenal at Charleston seized by State authorities. 1861. Jan. 2. — Fort Macon seized by the State authorities of iJorth CaroUna. 25 380 CHKONOLOGY OF THE WAE. Jan. 3. — Fort Pulaski seized by the Georgia State authorities, " 4. — Fort Morgan and Mobile Arsenal seized by Alabama. " 9. — Mississippi seceded from the Union. " 11. — Alabama and Florida seceded from the United States. " 12. — Fort Barrancas and Navy Yard, Pensacola, seized by Florida. " 19. — The Legislature of Virginia advises a National Peace Convention. " 20. — Georgia seceded from the Union. " 26. — Louisiana seceded. Feb. 1. — Texas seceded. " 4. — Convention of six seceding States met at Montgomery ; Howell Cobb, Pres., J. F. Hooper, Sec. " 5. — National Peace Conference met at Washington, John Tyler, President, J. C. Wright, Secretary. " 8. — Constitution adopted for the Confederate States by the Convention at Montgomery. " 9. — Confederate Congress elect Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, President, and Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, I Vice President. ; " 13. — Election of Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlia ' formally declared in the Senate by John C. Brecken- : ridge. " 18. — Jefferson Davis inaugurated. Mar. 4. — ^Texas secedes from the Union. " 6. — Fort Brown, Texas, taken by State troops. Aprill. — Confederate Post Office begins operations. " 4. — Abraham Lincoln inaugurated President at Washinofton. *' 11. — Formal demand for the evacuation of Fort Sumter made to Major Anderson by Gen, Beauregard. " 12. — Fort Sumter bombarded by the Confederate forces. " 13. — Capitulation of Fort Sumter. " 15. — President Lincoln issues a proclamatiorj calling for V5,000 men to suppress insurrection, and calling an extra ses- sion of Congress. *' 17. — Virginia, by an ordinance passed in secret session, secedes from the Union. " 19. — Arsenal at Harper's Ferry abandoned and fired by the U. S. troops on the approach of Virginia troops. " 1 9. — The Sixth Massachusetts regiment attacked in the streets of Baltimore while on its way to Washington. " 20. — President Lincoln declares the blockade of the Ports ol Apr .20. (( 21.- (C 21.- (( (C 24.- 25. 25. 27.- " 27.- Mciy 4." " 4.- CHKONOLOGT OF THE WAR. 381 South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. -Railroad bridges in Maryland destroyed by the author- ities. -Destruction of the Navy Yard at Gosport, Va., and of vessels there, by U. S. naval officers. -General Robert E. Lee ap]>ointed commander of the mili- tary and naval forces of Virginia. -Cairo, Illinois, occupied by U. S. troops. -450 United States troops captured at Sal urea by Van Dorn. -Fort Smith, Arkansas, seized by the State troops. -All officers in the U. S. Service required to take the oath of allegiance. -Blockade extended to Virginia and North Carolina. -President Lincoln calls for Volunteers for army and navy. -George B. McClellan ajipointed to command Department of Ohio. " 6. — Tennessee seceded from the Union. Arkansas seceded from the Union. Virginia admitted into the Southern Confederacy. " 7. — Military league formed between Tennessee and the Con- federate States. " 10. — General Lee invested with control of the Confederate forces. Camp Jackson, St. Louis, seized by Capt. Nathaniel Lyon, U. S. A. " 11.— Riot at St. Louis. Blockade of Charleston begun by the Niagara. " 15. — The Ocean Engle, of Rockland, Maine, captured by the Calhoun, Privateer. " 18. — Arkansas admitted into the Southern Confederacy. " 19. — Attack on the Confederate battery at Sewell's Point, Va., by the Freeborn and Star. " 20. — Seat of Government of the Confederate States transferred from Montgomery to Richmond. " 21. — The North Carolina convention passes an ordinance of secession. General Harney and General Price, commanding the Mis- souri State troops, enter into a treaty. " 23. — General Joseph E. Johnston takes command at Harper's Ferry. 382 CHKOKOLOGY OF THE 'WAli. Jl/ay 24.- -Alexandria, Ya., occupied by 8000 Federal troops; Col Elsworth, of the N. Y. Fire Zouaves, killed by Jackson, ^ of the Marshall House. | " 27. — Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowell takes command of the TJ. S/ forces in Virginia. General Butler declares slaves contraband. " 30. — Grafton, Va., occupied by Col. Kelley. • " 31. — Action off Acquia Creek. June 1. — Second attack on Acquia Creek batteries by the Potomac Flotilla. " 3. — Stephen A. Douglas died at Chicago. Colonel Porterfield, C. S. A., surprised at Philippi by Col. Kelley, 1st. Va. Volunteers, and Col. Lander. " 5. — Harriet Lane attacks Confederate batteries at Big Point. " 10. — General Pierce with 4000 men defeated at Bethel, Va., by Col. J. Bankhead Magruder. " 11. — President Davis, through the Maryland Legislature, de- clares himself willing that hostilities shall cease. Colonel Lew. "Wallace, of Indiana, surprises Confederate troops at Romney. " 16. — General Patteison, of Pennsylvania, crosses into Vir- ginia. " IV. — Western Virginia declared independent by a Convention at Wheeling. Skirmish at Vienna, Va. Skirmish at Edward's Ferry. Second collision between troops and people in St. Louis. Battle of Booneville, Mo., between Gen. Lyon and the Confederate troops under Col. Marmaduke. " 19. — Colonel O'Kane defeats Home Guard at Cole Camp, Mo., killing 206. " 20. — Frank H. Piei'pont elected Governor of Western Vir- ginia. " 24. — Attack on Matthias Point battery by TJ. S. steamer Pawnee. " 29. — The Sumter privateer escapes from New Orleans. Steamer St. Nicholas seized by Col. Thomas. July 1. — Fight at Buckhannon, Va. " 2. — General Patteison crosses the Potomac a second time, but is severely hawled by Jackson. Western Virginia Legislature oi'ganize. " 4. — Extra session of U. S. Congress. CUEONOLOGT OF THE WAR. 383 July 5.— Battlo of Carthage, Mo., between Col. Sigel and Governor Jackson. « 10.— Col. Pegram, C. S. A., defeated at Laurel Hill, Ya. « 11. — Col. Pegram again defeated at Rich Mountain. « 12. — Col. Pegram surrenders. Skirmish at Barboursville, Va. « 13._General Garnett, C. S. A., defeated and killed at Carrock'a Ford. « 15._General Patterson at Banker Hill. « 17.— Captain Patton repulses U. S. forces at Scarrey Creek, Ya., taking many officers. « 18.— Battle of Blackburn's Ford, Ya., between General Tyler, U. S. Army, and General Longstreet, C. S. A. « 20. — Confederate Congress at Richmond. " oi_ Battle of Bull Run or Manassas; General McDowell totally defeated by Generals Beauregard and Jolmston; Confederate loss, 369 killed, 1483 wounded; U. S. loss, 479 killed, 1011 wounded, 1500 prisoners. « 22. General G. B. McClellan put in command of U. S. forces in Yirginia. « 24. Fort Fillmore, New Mexico, surrendered by Major Lynde, XJ. S. A., to the Confederate troops. tc 25. R. M. T. Hunter made Secretary of State of the Coh federate States. « 31_ II, R. Gamble elected Provisional Governor of Missouri. Axig. 2.— Battle of Dug Spring, Mo. War Bill passes U. S. Congress. 4c 3.— Skirmish at Mesilla, N. M. " 7. — Hampton, Ya., destroyed. '.<■ 10.— Battle of Oak Hill, or Wilson's Creek; General Lyon de- feated and killed. « 16.— Gen. Jefferson Thompson checks Federals at Frederick- town, Mo. President Lincoln proclaims non-intercourse with Southern States. « 19. — Fight at Charlestown, Mo. « 20. Western Yirginia State Convention erects State oi Kanawha. ".20.— General Floyd defeats Col. Tyler at Cross Lanes, Ya. " 29.— Forts Hatteras and Clark, N. C, commanded by Com. Barron, C. S. N., N. C, taken by Com. Stringham and Gen. Butler. 384 CHRONOLOG"^ OF THE WAR. Sejyt. 2. — Action nfiar Fort Scott, between Gen. Rains and Colonel Montgomery. " 4. — Naval engagement off Hickman. General Polk, C. S. A., occupies Columbus, Ky. Martin Green drives Col. Williams out of Shelbina. " 7. — Gen. Price, C. S, A., defeats J. 11. Lane at Drywood. " 10. — Battle at Carnifax Ferry, between Gen. Floyd and Gen. Rosencrans. " 11. — U. S. troops defeated at Tony's Creek, by Col. J. L. Davis. " 12.— Battle of Cheat Mountain, Va. " 14. — Cumberland Gap seized by Gen. Zollicoffer, C. S. A. " 17. — Gen. D. K, Atcliison defeats Lane and Montgomery at Blue Mills, Mo. " 19. — Federal troops at Barbourville, Ky., dispersed by Zolli- coffer. " 20. — Col. Mulligan surrenders Lexington, Mo., after three days' fight. Confederate loss, 25 killed, 72 wounded. U. S. loss, 3500 prisoners. " 25. — Col. J. W. Davis defeated at Chapmansville, Va., by Col. Pratt. " 27. — General Price retreats from Lexington. Missouri Legislature at Neosho passed an ordinance o*' secession, and elect delegates to the Congress of the Southern Confederacy. Oct. 1. — Propeller Fanny taken by Confederates at Chicamaco- mico, N. C. " 3. — Battle of Green Briar, Va. ; Federal forces repulsed by Gen. H. R. Jackson, of Georgia. " 4. — Col. Bartow attacks 20th Indiana near Hattcras. " 8. — Wilson's Camp, Santa Rosa Island, attacked by Con- federates from Pensacola. U. S. loss, 13 killed, 21 wounded. " 12. — Blockading fleet in S. W. pass mouth of the Mississijjpi attacked by Confederate rams. " 16.— Battle of Ironton, Mo. " 21. — Col. Baker defeated and killed in the battle of Leesburg, or Balls Bluff, by General Evans. Confederate loss, 153 killed ; U. S. loss, immense. Jefferson Thompson defeated, and Col. Lowe killed at Fredericktown, Mo. " 20. Colonel Taylor attacked at Springfield, Mo., by ColoneJ Zagonyi, with Fremont's Body Guard. CHRONOLOGY OF THE WAR. 385 Oct. 31. Close of the trial of the Savannah privateers for piracy at New York. Jury do not agree. Agreement entered into between Missouri and the Con- federate Slates. ) Kov. 1. — General Scott resigns. \ " 2. — Missouri Legislature at Neosho ratifies agreement. General Fremont, superseded in command of the Depart- ment of Missouri, turns over forces to General Hunter. « 7. — Forts Walker and Beauregard, Port Royal, S. C, bom- barded and taken by U. S. fleet under Commodore Dupont. " 7. — Geneial Grant attacks" Col. Tappan's Confederate camp at Belmont, Mo., but is driven to his boats with loss by Gen. Pillow and Gen. Cheatham, from Columbus. Con- federate loss, 632. " 8. — Col. Williams driven from Piketon, Ky., by Gen. Nelson, U. S. A., retires to Pound Gap. -Guyandotte taken by Col. Jenkins' cavalry. -Secession convention meets at Russellville, Ky. -Secession ordinance passed by Kentucky convention, and George W. Johnson chosen Governor. -Mason and Slidell taken from the English mail steamer Trent. -Col. Edward Johnson, C. S. A., attacked in Camp Alle- ghany by General Milioy. Confederate loss, 20 killed, 96 wounded. U. S. loss, 21 killed, 107 wounded. -Battle of Woodsonville, Ky. Federal forces defeated by Brig.-gen. Ilindman. U. S. loss 50 killed. -Confederate camp near Martinsburg surprised by General Pope. -General Stuart with 2500 men defeated at Dranesville by Gen. McCall. Confederate loss 200 killed and wounded. 1863. Jan. 1. — Battle on Port Royal Island. Fort Pickens opens fire. " 2. — Messrs. Mason and Slidell released. " 4. — Gen. Jackson attacks and defeats the 5th Connecticut near Bath, Va. " 10.— Battle of Middle Creek, Ky., between Humphrey Marshall and Col. Garfield. (( 9. C( 18. (( 20. Bee. . 8. (( 13. (( 17. (( 18. (( 22, 386 CHKONOLOGY OF THE WAB. Jan. 19. — Battle of Mill Springs, or Somerset, Ky. Major-general George B. Crittenden, C. S. A., defeated by Generals Thomas and Schoepf. Gen. Zollicoffer killed. , Con- federate loss 300 killed and wounded, 50 prisoners, 100 wagons, 1200 horses, 500 to 1000 muskets, and boxes ot arms. " 26. — Burnside's expedition enters Hatteras Inlet. Feh. 4. — Fort Henry, Tenn., attacked by Flag Officer Foote with seven gunboats, and sui-rendered by Gen. Lloyd Tilgh- man. " 8. — Battle of Roanoke Island. Confederate forces under Col. Shaw defeated and taken by Gen. Burnside. Confeder- ate loss, 23 killed, 68 wounded, 62 missing, 2527 prison- ers. U. S. loss, 50 killed, 222 wounded. " 11. — Elizabeth City taken by Commodore Rowan. " 12. — General Price retreats from Springfield. Fort Donelson invested by Gen. U. S. Grant, U. S. A. " 13-14.— Attack on the Fort. " 15. — Outer work carried by Grant. " 16. — Surrender of Fort Donelson, by Gen. S. B. Buckner; Floyd and Pillow escaping. Confederate loss, 231 killed, 1007 wounded, 13,829 prisoners; U. S. loss, 446 killed, 1735 wounded, 150 prisoners. " 18. — First regular Congress of the Confederate States con- vened. " 19. — The vote for President counted by Confederate Congress. Jefferson Davis and Alexander H. Stevens elected for six years by unanimous vote of 109. " 21.— Col. Canby, U. S. A., defeated by Gen. Sibley at Val- verde, near Fort Craig, N. M. Confederate loss, *38 killed, 120 wounded; Federal loss, 300 killed, 400 or 500 wounded, 2000 missing. " 22. — Inauguration of Jefferson Davis. " 23. — Gen. Nelson, U. S. A., enters Nashville. Mar. 3. — Columbus evacuated by the Confederate forces. " 4. — Andrew Jollnson appointed by Pres. Lincoln pz'ovisional Governor of Tennessee. " 6-8.— Battle of Elk Horn or Pea Ridge, Ark., between the U. S. forces under Gen. Samuel R. Curtis, and the Con- federate troops, under Gen. Earl Van Dorn. Confederate .loss, 600 killed and wounded; U. S. loss, 700 killed. Gen. Ben McCulloch, C. S. A., mortally wounded. CHRONOLOGT OF THE WAK. 887 Mar. 7. — St. Mary's, Fernandina, and Foit Clinch, Florida, taken by U. S. naval forces. « 8. — The Confederate iron clad ram Virginia, formed out of the U. S. steamer Merrimac, sinks the Cumberland, sloop of war, in Hampton Roads, and compels the U. S. frigate Congress to surrender. She then engaged the U. S. Bteara frigate Minnesota, and gunboats Dragon and Whitehall, disabling the Dragon, and setting the White- hall on lire. Loss, on the Cumberland, 100 killed. 50 wounded ; Congress, 94 killed, 29 wounded ; Minnesota, 6 killed, 25 wounded ; Dragon, 4 wounded ; Whitehall, 1 killed. Total, 201 killed, 108 wounded. " 9. — Battle between the Virginia and Ericsson's battery Moni- tor, in which the Virginia was damaged, and was towed off. Confederate loss in the two days, 7 killed, 17 Avounded. " 10. — Manassas Junction evacuated by the Confederate forces. General Sibley, C. S. A., takes Santa Fe, N. M. " 11. — Confederate troops evacuate Winchester. St. Augustine, Florida, taken by Com. Dupont. " 12. — Brig.-gen. Campbell, C. S. A., defeated and captured at Lebanon, Mo. " 13. — Confederate troops evacuate New Madrid, Mo. " 14. — Battle of Newborne, N. C. The confederate forces under L. O. B. Branch defeated and driven out by Gen. Burn- side. Confederate loss, 64 killed, 101 wounded, 413 prisoners or missing; U. S., 91 killed, 4G6 wounded. " 16. — Attack begun on Island No. 10 in the Mississippi river. Severe skirmish at Salem, Ark. Gen. Garfield attacks the Confederate forces at Pound Gap, in the Cumberland Mountains. " 22. — Skirmish at Winchester, Va. " 23. — Battle of Kernstown, or Winchester Heights. Gen. Jack- son, C. S. A., defeated by General Shields. U. S. loss, 103 killed, 440 wounded, 24 missing; Confederate loss, 270 killed. " 26. — Quantrill attacks Warrensburg, Mo. " 28. — Colonel Slough defeats Confederate forces at Apache Canon, N. M. " 31. — Col. N. B. Buford disperses Confederate force at Union City, Tenn. Apr. 5. — U. S. Troops, under McClellan, attack Yorktown, Va. 388 CHRONOLOGY OF THE WAR. Apr. 6. — Gen. Beauregard defeats TJ. S. Grant at Shiloh, or Pitts- burgh Landing, Tenn., capturing 2500 prisoners. Gen. A. S. Johnston, C. S. A., killed. " 7. — Gen. Beauregard defeated by Grant and Buell. Gen. W H. L. Wallace, U. S. A., killed. Confederate loss on the two days' fight, 1728 killed, 8012 wounded, 959 missing ; U. S. loss, 1614 killed, 7721 wounded, 3963 missing. " 8. Surrender of Island Xo. 10 by the Confederate forces to Com. Foote and Gen. Pope. " 10-12. — Fort Pulaski, Ga., bombarded and taken by General Hunter, with loss of 1 man. " 11.— Iluntsville, Ala., taken by Gen. O. M. Mitchell, U. S. A. " 14. — Fort Wright attacked by Com. Foote. " 16. — Engagement on Warwick river, near Yorktown, Va. " 18. — Com. Farragut attacks Forts Jackson and St. Philip. " 19.— Battle of Camden, N. C. " 22.— Action at Lee's Mill's, Va. " 24. — Fing Officer Farragut j)asses the forts, and appears before New Orleans. " 24. — Fo5-t Macon, N. C, bombarded and taken by Gen. Burn- side. " 26. Part of the Confederate works at Yorktown carried by 1st Massachusetts. Battle at Neosho, Mo. " 28. New Orleans and Forts St. Philip and Jackson surrender. " 29.— Gen. O. M. Mitchell defeats Gen. E. Kirby Smith at Bridgeport, Ala. May 3. — Confederates evacuate Yorktown. " 5. — Battle of Williamsburg, Va. " 7. — Battle of West Point, Va., between Gen. FrankHn, U. S. A., and Gen. Lee, C. S. A. " 9. — Battle of Farmington, Miss. 4< 10. — General Wool, U. S. A., takes Norfolk. Naval action above Fort Wright, on the Mississippi. " 12. — Natchez surrendered. " 17. — U. S. gunboats repulsed at Fort Darling, Drury's Bluff, on James River, Va. " 22-23. — Engagement on the Chickahominy. " 22-. — Col. Kenly defeated at Front Royal, by Gen. Ewell. " 23. — Col. Crook repulses Gen. Heath at Lewisburg, Va. " 25. — Gen. Banks retreats from Winchester to Williamsport, Md. CHRONOLOGY OF THE WAR. 3S9 3fay 29. — Battle of Hanover Court House. Confederate forces defeated by Gen. Fitz Jolm Porter, " 31. — Battle of Cbickahominy, or Fair Oaks. Gen. Casey and Couch driven from their camps by Gen. Johnston, C. S. A., and U. S. forces saved by arrival of Gen. Sumner. June 1. — Confederate forces driven back. U. S. loss in two days, 890 killed, 3627 wounded, and 1217 missing. " 4. — General Benham repulsed in an attack on Confederate works on James Island. " 5. — Fort Wright evacuated by Confederate forces. " 6. — Confederate naval force entirely defeated and destroyed before Memphis, by Flag Officer Davis and Col. EUet. " 7. — \yilliam B. Muraford hung in New Orleans. " 8. — General Fremont defeats Jackson at Cross Keys. Gea Ashby, C. S. A., killed. " 13.— Fort St. Charles, White River, taken by U. S. land and naval forces. The U. S. steamer Mound City blew up. " 14. — Stuart's raid on the Pamunky. " 25. — Battle of Oak Grove, Va. Gen. Hooker commanding U. S. forces. Armies of Fremont, Banks, and McDowell united under Gen. Pope. " 26. — Battle of Mechanicsville, Va. " 27. — Battle of Gaines Mill; Fitz John Porter defeated and driven across the Cbickahominy. " 29. — Battles of Peach Orchard and Savage's Station. " 31.— Battle of White Oak Swamp, or Glendale. July 1. — Battle of Malvern Hills. y ffititiiitijn ■Mm mM »M/>H. :llilliii :^-H %s-