------- -—'- -    ~~":::_i-.~~.::''.                       i~      ~,ii:.4.:~? -'::?
-L —~:.                                                                      -     -     -




THE I3HISTORY
OF THE
CITIL WAR IN AMERICA;
COMPRISING A FULL AND IMPARTIAL ACCOUNT OF THE
ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF THE REBELLION,
OF TtE VARIOUS
NAVAL AND MILITARY ENGAGEMENTS,
03 TIltE
Heroic Deeds Performed by Armies and Individuals,
AND OF
TOUCHING SCENES IN THE FIELD, TItE CAMP, THE HOSPITAL, AND THE CABIN.
BY JOHN S. C. ABBOTT,
OVTITOR OF " LIFE OF NAPOLEON," " HISTORY OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION," "MONARCHIES OF CONTINENTAL FUROPE," &C.
ILLUSTRATED WITH 3MAPS, DIAGRAMIS, AND NUM[EROUS STEEL ENGRAVINGS OF
BATTLE SCENES,
FROM ORIGINAL DESIGNS BY DARLEY, AND OTHER EMINENET ARTISTS,
AND PORTRAITS OF DISTINGUISHED MEN.
VOL. I.;SO1:)D ON:LY  BY_   DISITRIB3UTI:1NG A fGE LNTS.lT
NEW YORK:
P UBLI SHED BY  HENRY BIL-L.
1864.




Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863. by
HENRY BILL, GUJRDON BILL, AND LEDYARD BILL.
ID the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the District of Connecticeu
ELECTROTYPED BY                                                PRINTED BY
SMITH &  MT cDol  D   AL,                                        0. A. ALVORD,
S2 & 84 BEEKMAN ST.                                          15 VANDEWATER ST.




PRiE FACE.
FROM the commencement of our Government there have been two
antagonistic principles contending for the mastery —Slavery and Freedom.
In the very heart of our democracy, the element of the most haughty
and intolerant aristocracy has been nurtured, by the institution of human
bondage. The most repulsive features of the old European feudalism have
thus been transplanted into our Republic. The slaveholders, accustomed
to despotic power over the wretched serfs, whom they have driven, by
the lash, to till their soil, have assumed a sort of baronial arrogance over
all men who do not own slaves, and have claimed to be the only gentlemen, and the legitimate rulers of this land. But freedom has outstripped
slavery in this race. And, consequently, the slaveholders, unreconciled
to the loss of supremacy, strive to destroy the temple of liberty, wishing to raise themselves into lords and potentates, over the ruin of their
country.
The conflict in which our nation is now involved, is simply a desperate
struggle, on the part of the slaveholders, to retain, by force -of arms, that
domination in the government of this Republic, which they had so long
held, and which, by the natural operation of the ballot-box, they were
slowly but surely losing. We have here, simply the repetition of that
great conflict, which, for ages, has agitated our globe-the conflict between
aristocratic usurpation and popular rights. The battle has assumed the
most momentous attitude, since it arrays, on either side, all the intellectual and material energies developed by the nineteenth century.
It is impossible for one to write the history of this strife and not incur
the censure of one or the other of these parties, so implacably arrayed
against each other. There are many in the NIorth, who are in cordial
sympathy with the slaveholding aristocracy, and who would gladly set




iv                           PREFACE.
their principles triumphant over this whole land. All such will denounce
these pages. The writer is by no means an indifferent spectator of this
conflict.  The fundamental article in his political, philanthropic and religions creed is the brotherhood of mnan.  The disposition on the part of
the rich to trample upon the poor, and of the strong to crush the weak,
is alike execrable in its origin and in all its manifestations.  This slaveholding rebellion against the rigghts of humanity, is the greatest crime of
earth. In recording its events, candor does not demand that one should
so ingeniously construct his narrative, as to male no distinction between
virtue and vice. The impartiality of history does not require that the
treason of Arnold and the patriotism  of Washington, should be alike
recorded, without commendation or censunre.
The writer has, however, endeavored, as a historian, to maintain the
most scrupulous honesty.  Not a sentence would he willingly allow to
escape his pen, distorted by untruthlfulness or exaggeration. He has a
story to tell of infamous crime, and of noble virtues. Hle wishes to tell
it so truthfully, with such candor, with such expressions of abhorrence of
foul treason, and such commendations of patriotic self-sacrifice, as will
afford him pleasure to reflect upon, not merely throug'h his brief remain —
ing earthly career, but through all the ages of his immortality.  He has
never allowed himself to consider the question whether a particular statement would please or displease this or that party. His only object has
been faithfully to pen such historic truth as is worthy of record.
The slaveholding rebels demanded that the Constitution of the United
States, with its respect for the inalienable rights of man, should be repudiated, and that a new  Constitution, with slavery as its corner stone,
should be adopted in its stead.  The South, overawed by a reign of
terror, has seemingly gone as one man, in this demand.  There are tewo
parties at the North.  The one party is in favor of yielding to this
demand. They say that thus the war might have been averted, and may
now be ended; that the South may thus be brought back, and the Union
cemented anew. The other party say that we should be false to God
and man, thus to sacrifice the righlts of humanity; and that the vengeance
of Heaven will justly fall upon us if we, at the dictation of slaveholders,
convert our free Republic into the great bulwark of slavery.  If free
Americans prove recreant, in this hour of trial, and for the sake of a




PREFACE.                               v
hollow and transient peace, bow their necks to the yoke of aristocratic
intolerance, and enthrone despotism in our land, there is an end, for ages
to come, of all hope of free institutions.
There are some who say that war is the greatest of calamities, and
that we had, therefore, better let the slaveholders have their own way,
either to take the control of the government, or to secede, and to establish
such boundaries as they may please.  This is the dotage of amiability.
There is not an intelligent man, Nortlh or South, who does not know that
separation is eternal wacr. Who shall fix the boundaries?  Who shall
have Washington. Who shall have Missouri, Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas, and the mouths of the [Mississippi?  Shall we
say to the slaveholders, that they may take what they please? AWe must
say this, or we must fight.
And suppose a division were made,. to which each party, exhausted
by the war, would, for the moment, reluctantly consent. HIow is it
possible that two hostile nations, with institutions inveterately antagonistic, should live in peace, side by side, with no natural barriers or boundaries-touching each other along a line of more than three thousand miles,
from the Atlantic to the Pacific.  There are vast navigable rivers, rising in
the one domain, and opening into the ocean through the other.  On the one
side there is freedom, with all its ennobling institutions sustained by free
speech,.a free pulpit and a free press-with universal education, and
labor honored, and ecuality of rights for rich and poor.  On the other
side there is slavery, with its debasing associate institutions of compulsory
ignorance, and slave marts, and overseers' lashes, with wide-spread ignorance-the pulpit, the press and speech, all being gagged by tIle moat
unrelenting despotism.  Slaves are escaping from the one realm pursued
by their masters with shotted guns and bloodhounds. In the other they
are received with Christian sympathy.  Their wounds are washed, their
fetters filed ofF; and their famished bodies fed, while baying bloodhounds
and human mnonsters still more ferocious, are driven back to their own
dark realm, gnashing their teeth with rage as they cry out, "'You are
stealing our property."  Is it possible that two such nations can live in
peace, without even a hill or rivulet to separate them?  There is not an
intelligent man in America who dreams of it.
The ringleaders of the rebellion never entertained the idea, foSr a sing l.




vi                          PREFACE.
moment, that secession was thus to leave two equal nations, side by side.
Secession was merely the mode through which the whole of the United
States, with perhaps the exception of New England, was to be transformed from a free republic into a great slaveholding oligarchy. New
England was to be left out, a power so feeble, that it could be chastised
whenever the slaveholders deemed that it merited chastisement. There
are but two alternatives before us. Peaceful separation is a dream, which
an amiable girl may cherish, but which no intelligent man, North or
South, deems to be a permanent possibility. Either slavely must be the
dominant power on this Continent or freedom. The rebels having failed
to carry their point at the ballot-box, have appealed to the sword.
A more delicate task than the writing of this HIistory can not well be
imagined. Nearly all the prominent actors are still living. Jealousy,
and probably, in many cases, impartial judgment will declare, that too
great merit has been ascribed to some, while not sufficient eminence has
been given to others. The most scrupulous conscientiousness will not protect from such errors.
In reference *to the descriptions of battles, the course of the writer
has been to omit those minute and complicated details, which even the
pen of a Thiers or a Napier can not make interesting to the general
reader, and to give the comprehensive plan which every intelligent man
can understand. A man need not be an architect, to entitle him to condemn the bungling plan of a building. One may pronounce a speech
as stupid and silly, though himself not an orator. One need not be a
graduate of West Point, to enable him to discern military incompetenec
and folly. Military men must not take refuge behind the shield, that
their actions are not amenable to the criticism of ordinary intelligence.
Military science is by no means that occult art which civilians can not
approach; on the contrary, it is preeminently the science of common
sense. An intelligent community will pronounce judgment,'and, in the
main, a correct judgment, upon the aL"'-ty or the incompetency of its
generals. Not for one moment is the sentiment to be tolerated, that if
a boy spends four years at a military school, he attains such an elevation,
that the most cultivated and intelligent men in the land, are incapable of
deciding whether he is a wise man or a fool.
In studying the plan and the execution of a battle, the writer has




PREFACE.                            vii
first carefully examined the official reports of the Union generals, and of
the rebel officers. Having thus obtained the general outline, he has then
looked, for the filling up of interesting incidents and heroic achieyements,
to the graphic descriptions of army correspondents. And here he must
render his tribute of commendation and gratitude to the reporters of the
leading journals. He is constrained to say, that not unfrequently the
newspaper report has been more correct, more truthful, than the official
bulletin. A man may be a good general, and yet may give a confused
report of the conflict. The talent for vivid description is rare, combining
as it necessarily does, great command of language, and that inborn delicacy and sensitiveness of soul, which enables one to select the salient
points of the action, and to omit the rest. The English language may be
searched in vain for more glowing descriptions, for more gorgeous word
painting, than may be found from the pens of some of the reporters to the
leading journals of our country.
The Hon. Edward Everett once inquired of the Dulke of Wellington,
respecting the battle of Waterloo. The Duke, with that'singular good
sense, which ever characterized him, replied, "By comparing and study-+
ing the various descriptions of the battle, by English, French and German
writers, a man of sense can acquire a better knowledge of it, at the present
day, than any one, even the commander-in-chief, could get, at the time,
from personal observation."
The fact that a man was present at a battle does not imply necessarily
that he knows much about it. The battle may rage over many square
miles. The individual combatant is perhaps confined to a very limited
space, buried in smoke, and all the energies of his soul so concentrated
upon the claims of each moment, that he has no opportunity for observation. lMany of the battles of this rebellion, spread through forests and
ravines, and over hills, leagues in extent. The battle often continued
several days, the army surging to and fro. The description of the scene,
in these pages, will be read by thousands who took part in the strife, and
who, perhaps, attach exaggerated importance to their own agency, or to
the operations in that particular part of the field on which they stood.
Consequently, the narrative must be exposed to the most severe, and often
to the most unjust, ordeal of criticism.
It is always pleasant to meet with approval, and always painful to




i vii                               PREFACE.
encounter denunciation.  That man has fallen very low who is regardless
of the good opinion of his fellow-men. But reproach can be easily borne
when the soul is sustained by the conviction of right. There never was
a clearer case of right and of wrong, than in the conflict now raging
throughout our land.  The question is to be settled, and by the arbitrament of the sword, whether aristocratic usurlpation, in its most low, vulgar
and groveling  form, that of the slaveholder wielding the plantation lash,
is to be established upon the ruins of our free Constitutidn -or whether
that glorious charter of human rights, destined to lift up all the downtrodden to dignity, culture and religion, shall make the United States
the pioneer nation in ushering in the dawn of millennial glory.*
The comprehensive maps which embellish these pages, were designed
by Mr. Ephraim  Wells, of New York, and engraved by MIessrs. Lossing &
Barritt.  The steel engravings were designed by Messrs. F. 0. C. Darley,
and Wmn. Mumberger, and engraved by Messrs. J. C. Buttre, J. C. McRae,
Geo. E. Perine, S. V. Hunt, W. G. Jackman and H. B. Hall.
JOHN S. C. ABBOTT.
NEW HAVEN, Co1NN., December, 1862.
* The following' extract from the Gincinnati Enquirer, very frankly states the concessions
which the'so-called P'eace Party were ready to make, to win back the slaveholders to the Union:
"If the Southern Confederates would lay down their arms and come back again into the old
Union, we should not haggle very closely about the terms. We are pretty good unconditional
Union men. We would be willing to repeal, for instance, all abolition personal liberty bills that
nullify the fugitive slave law. We would allow the South to take all their property, slaves
included, into the common territories of the Union, and hold it while the territorial condition
lasted. We would not molest a slaveholder traveling with his servants and temporarily sojourning
in a free State. We would repeal the law abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia, and we
would pass all necessary acts to prevent an interference by Northern fanatics with Southern
property of any description. All this we would give, if the rebels would lay down their arms and
come back again under the old flag, and be once more loyal members of the Union."




CONTENTS OF VOLUME I,
CHAPTER I.
CAUSE OF THE CONFLICT.
PAGE.Aristocrats of the Old World.-Causes of the French Revolution.-American Revolution.Speeches of Southern Senators.-Roman  Slavery.-Southern Demands.-Treatment of
Northerners in Alabama.-Of Free Negroes in Slave States.-The Southern Church.Speech of Douglas.-A. H. Stephens.-Principle of Representation, North and South.Declaration of Votes for President, 1861...........................................  15.
CHAPTER -II.
PR OGRESS  OF  THE  CONSPIRACY.
Treachery of Buchanan's Cabinet.-Peace Congress. —Plan of I-Ion. J. J. Crittenden.-Number of Southern Leaders.-Letter of Yulee. —Forts at Charleston.-Raising the U. S. Flag
at Sumter.-Steamer Star of the West.-Journey of Mr. Lincoln.-Plots for Mr. Lincoln's
Assassination.-Conspirators Foiled.-Speech of Jeff. Davis.-Organization of Southern
Confederacy.-Rebel Atrocities................................................... 42
CHAPTER III.
THE WAR COMMIIENCED.
Energy of the Conspirators.-Views of Secessionists and Unionists.-Testimony of Webster
and Clay.-Ignominious Conduct of the Traitors.-Inauguration of President Lincoln. —
Anecdote.-Fall of Sumter.-Uprising of the North.-Developments of Treason.-Response
to the Call for 75,000 Volunteers.-Noble Speech of Senator Douglas. —Union of all Parties.-Treachery of rebels in Virginia -Destruction of Gosport Navy Yard.............. 77
CHAPTER IV.
UPRISING  OF  THE  NORTH.
Riot in Baltimore.-The Annapolis Route opened.-March of the Seventh, New York.-Enthusiasm of the North.-Designs upon Washington.-Prof. Mitchel. —Extent of Treason.Anecdotes.-Attempts to burn Washington.-Energy of Gen. Butler. —Northern Troops.Jacob Thompson. —Patriotism of Gen. Scott.-Efficiency of the President, —Moral Poison.Noble Principles of the President.......................... 104




x                                   CONTENTS.
CHAPTER V.
THE ADVANCE INTO VIRGINIA.
PAGF
John Bell.-Breekinridge.-Warlike Preparations.-Taking of Alexandria.-Murder of Ellsworth.-Intellectual Character of the Northern Army.-Col. Mallory and Gen. Butler.Contrabands. —Southern Opinions and Conduct.-McClellan on Slavery.-Border States.Philippi.-Beauregard's Proclamation.-Bethel.-Winthrop.-Greble.-Balloon Telegraph.Vienna.-McClellan's Proclamation..........................................   130
CHAPTER VI.
WAR AND ITS HORRORS.
Foreign Reception of Southern Agents.-Speech of A. H. Stephens. —Th'e French Lady.-Call
of President Lincoln.-Rich Mountain.-Laurel Hill.-Incidents.-Fairfax C. H. —Falls
Church.-Traitors in the Service.-Space required for an Army in Motion. —Bull Run.Blackburn's Ford.-Plan of the Battle of Bull Run. —Charge of the Sixty-ninth.-Rednforcements of the Rebels.-Loss of the Battle.-Rout of the Army. —Abuse of the Wounded and
Dead........................................................................     157
CHAPTER VII.
HAMPTON,     CARNIFEX FERRY~ AND HATTERAS INLET.
Recapture of the S. J. Waring.-Rednforcements. —Burning of Hampton.-Decree of Jeff.
Davis.-Southern Despotism.-Valorous Exploit.-Carnifex Ferry.-Petty Skirmishes.Forts Hatteras and Clark. —Secret Expedition.-Bombardment of the Forts.-Surrender of
Com. Barron.-Capture of the Fanny by the Rebels.-Conflict at the Light House.......  188
CHAPTER VIII.
BALL S BLUFF AND HILTON HEAD.
Repose of the Army on the Potomac.-Uneasiness at the North.-Mistake of the Government.
-Perplexities of the Executive.-Battle of Ball's Bluff — Death of Col. Baker.-Skirmish at
Romney.-Secret Naval Expedition.-Capture of Forts at Hilton Head.-Incidents.-Mistaken Policy of the Unionists.-Rebel plans for the Subversion of the United States....... 211
CHAPTER IX.
THE  REBELLIONN IN  MISSOURI.
Claims of Slavery in Missouri. —Steps Preparatory to Secession in Missouri.-Heroism of Capt.
J. H. Stokes.-Military Preparations at St. Louis.-Efforts of Gen. Lyon.-Capture of Camp
Jackson,-Reign of Gen. Harney. —Overtures of Jackson and Price.-Proclamation of Jackson —Threatenuing State, of Affairs.-Movements of Lyon.-Battle of Booneville.-State of
the Country.-'-Jcroism of Sigel,-Battle of Carthage................................. 239




CONTENTS.                                        xi
CHAPTER X.
GEN. FREAMONT S CAMPAIGN IN MISSOURI.
PAGE
Recall of Fremont from Europe, and Appointment to the Command of the Western Department.-Threatening Aspect of Affairs in Missouri.-Gen. Pope in Northern Missouri.Serious Embarrassments Crowding upon Gen. Fremont.-Heroism of Gen. Lyon.-Valor of
SigeI. —Battle of Wilson's Creek.-Death of Lyon.-Tribute to the Hero of Wilson's Creek.Skirmishes. -Energy of Fremont.-Proclamation.-Modification by President Lincoln.... 258
CHAPTER XI.
G1EN. FREMONT S CAMPAIGN.-CONTINUED.
Far-reaching Plans of Gen. Fremont. —Troubles Multiplying.-His unceasing Labors. —Capture of Lexington.-Incidents.-Visit of the Secretary of War and Adjutant-General U. S. A.
-Zagonyi's Heroic Dash into Springfield. —Effect of the Government Order for the Removal of Fremont.-Fremont's Appeal to his Soldiers.-H-is Reception by the People of St.
Louis. —Resume of the Labors and Policy of Gen. Fremont.-Real Reason of his Removal.
-Views of the North respecting the Power of the North over Slavery.................. 280
CHAPTER XII.
THE TRENT AFFAIR.
Secession Plans for Securing Foreign Aid.-Privateers.-Treaty at Paris in 1856.-Issue of
Letters of Marque.-Short Success of Privateers.-The Savannah. —The Jeff. Davis -Retaliation of the Rebels. —Letter of the Emperor Alexander.-Attitude of other Monarchs of
Europe.-John M. Mason. —John Slidell.-Capt. Wilkes.-Seizure of the Rebel Commissioners. —Capt. Wilkes' Reasoning and Action in Case of the Trent.-Excitement Caused by
the Trent Affair in the United States and England.-Secretary Seward's Opinion......... 296
CHAPTER XIII.
-I OANOlKE AND- NEWBERN.
Fleet of Com. Goldsborough and Army of Gen. Burnside.-Sailing from Hampton Roads.Storm at Hatteras. —Perils of the Crew of the New York.-Effects of the Storm.-A Strike
for Freedom.-Position and Defenses of Roanoke.-Reconnoissance.-Contest commenced
by the Fleet.-Disembarkation of Troops.-March up the Island.-Charge of the Zouaves.Vigor of Generals Reno and Foster.-Roanoke Surrenders.-Incidents.-O. Jennings Wise.
-Elizabeth City. —Edenton.-Plymouth.-Charges upon Batteries near Newbern. —Arrival
at Newbern —Anecdote....................  314
CHAPTER XIV.
THE 1MERRIMAC AND THE MONITOR.
Building of the Galena.-Origin of the Monitor.-Difficulties to be Overcome.-Fears of its
Friends.-Its Successful Launch.-Full Description of the Monitor.-The Merrimac and her
First Aggression.-Heroism of the Officers and AMen upon the Cumberland.-Destruction of
the Congress.-Withdrawal of the Merrimac.-Terror at Fortress Monroe.-Arrival of the
Monitor.-Terrible Duel.-Sinking Condition of the Merrimac.-Appearance of the Monitor
after the Fight. —Speech of Mr. Bentinck.,................ o. 336




xii                                  CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XV.
FLORIDA.
PAGE
Coast of Florida. —Appeal of South Carolina. —Massive Fortifications of Pensacola Harbor.Assigned Reasons for Secession.-Seizure of Pensacola. -Lieut. Slemmer.-Traitors and
Heroes Contrasted.-Heroic Rednforcement of Fort Pickens.-Exhausting Labors of Lieut.
Slemmer and his Command.-Energy of Col. Brown.-Daring Adventure of Lieut. Shepley. Surprise of Wilson's Zouaves by a strong Rebel Force.-Its Results.-Critical Position
of Fort Pickens. —Engagement of Rebel Batteries.-Evacuation of Pensacola.-Reception of
our Soldiers.-Amelia Island. —Fernandina.........................................  353
CHAPTER XVI.
PULASKI AND THE CONTRABANDS.
Reconnoissance of Tybee Island. —Fort Pulaski and its Bombardment.-Preparations for its
Reduction.-Its Bombardment.-Its Surrender.-Feelings of the British Government.-Increasing Importance of the Slavery Question.-National Freedman's Association.-Address
of Gen. McClellan.-Financial and Military Reports.,          37'7
CHAPTER XVII.
CAMPAIGN OF THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI.
Right of Secession.-Its Accomplishment in Louisiana.-Blockading the Mississippi.-Steam
Ram  Manassas. -Naval Expedition.-Gen. B. F. Butler.-Ship Island.-Porter's Mortar
Flotilla.-Pilot Town.-Anecdot.e.-Formidable Preparations of the Rebels.-Attack of the
English in 1814 upon Ne.w Orleans.-Preparations on board the Union Fleet.-Topographical Survey.-Reconnoissance.-Yankee Ingenuity.-Force of the Union Fleet.-Thrilling
Incident.................3........................                              39a'
CHAPTER XVIII.
C APTUtRE OF NEW ORLEANS.
C(hallenge given to the United States Gun-boats by Fort Jackson.-Terrific Bombardment in
Reply.-Heroic Adventures.-The Fleet pass the Forts.-Fire-rafts.-Gallant Exploits.Surrender at Quarantine Station. —Chalmette Batteries.-Insane Policy of the People of
New Orleans.-Forts at Carrolton.-Surrender of New Orleans.-Demand for, and the Surrender of, Fort Jackson. —Recapitulation.-Landing of Butler's Troops.-Appearance of the
City.-Butler's Reign.-Changes in New Orleans.-Departure of the Fleet............... 4i  i
CHAPTER XIX.
BATTLES IN MiISSOURI AND THE CAPTURE OF FORT HENRY.
State of Affairs in Missouri.-Battle of Belmont.-Philosophy of Disaster.-Incidents on the
Field.-New Vigor of the Rebels.-Battle of Millford.-Mt. Zion.-Battle of Silver Creek.Energy of Gen. Halleck.-The Fortifications at Columbaus —Gen. Fremont's Plan.-Forts
Henry and Donelson. —Sketch of Admiral Foote.-The Expedition to Fort Henry.-Capture of the Fort.-Results of the Battle.-Expedition into Alabama....................   4 3S(3




CONTENTS.                                        xiii
CHAPTER XX
DONELSON,  NASH1VILLE  AND  COLUMBUS.
PAG E.
Rebel Preparations for the Defense at Fort Donelson.-Its Position.-Reception of the Gunboats at Eddyville.-Storming a Breastwork.-Arrival of the Carondelet.-Suffering of
Union Troops.-Admiral Foote.-Terrible Conflict. —Charge of Gen. Smith. —Hard Fighting
of the Troops of Gen. Wallace.-Incident.-Surrender of the Fort. -Nashville.-Anecdotes.-Value of the Gun boats. —Coiumbus. —Bishop Gen. Polk....................... 4 57
CHAPTER XXI.
GEN. MITCHEL S CAMPAIGN.
Cen. Mitchel Commissioned Brigadier-General.-Transparent Character of Gen. Mitchel.-Consequences of Rivalry between Officers. —Earnest Desire of Gen. Mitchel and his Command
to Take the Field.-Pride of the Men in the Third Division.-Secrecy and Energy of
Mitchel's Movements.-Policy of Gen. Mitchel.-Sudden Descent upon Huntsville.-Captures Effected by Gen. Mitchel and his Army. —Hon. Judge Lane.-Reply of Gen. Mitchel
to Madam Polk.-Command Assigned.-Death of Gen. Mitchel........................  481




PAGE.
BIG AND LITTLE BETHEL...             152
BULL RUN -AND ENVIRONS.....          169
_MAP OF WASHINGTON AND ENVIRONS.....      183
PAMLICO AND ALBEMARLE SOUNDS......  201
BALL'S BLUFF AND VICINITY.....      217
PORT ROYAL AND BEAUFORT..        -...  231
BATTLES IN MISSOURI....                          259
WILSON'S CREEK AND VICINITY.....  269
FORTRESS MONROE AND ITS ENVIRONS....      345
PENSACOLA BAY.                              359
FORT PULASKI AND ITS ENVIRONS.....      379
MAP OF THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI.....  402
POSITION OF FORTS JACKSON AND ST. PHILIP...      414
APPEARANCE OF FORT JACKSON AFTER THE ACTION..                     424
PLAN OF THE BATTLE OF BELMONT.....      441
WESTERN DEPARTMENT......          446
PLAN OF FORT DONELSON....      4641
MAP OF CUMBERLAND AND TENNESSEE RIVERS..  475
IAP OF GEN. 0. M. MITCHIEL'S CAMPAIGN..                    483




THE  CIVIL  WAR.
CHAPTER I.
CAUSE  OF  THE  CONFLICT.
ARISTOCRATS OF THE OLD WORLD.-CAUSES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.-AMERICAN REVOLUTION.-SPEECHES OF SOUTHERN SENATORS.-ROMAN SLAVEIRY.-SOUTHERN DEMANDS.-TREATMENT OF NORTHERNERS IN ALABAMA. —OF FREE NEGROES IN SLAVE STATES.-THE SOUTHERN
CHURCH.-SPEECH- OF DOUGLAS.-A. H. STEPHEINS.-PRINCIPLE OF REPRESENTATION, NORTH
AND SOUTH.-DECLARATION OF VOTES FOR PRESIDENTT 1861.
CIVIL war burst upon the United States, with almost the suddenness
of the meteor's glare. It was, however, but like the eruption of the volcano, whose pent-up fires had, for ages, been gathering strength for the
final explosion.  The whirlwind which our country has reaped, is but the
natural harvest of that seed which, for long years, we have been sowing.
All thinking men have been watching the cumulation of the menacing
cloud, and have foretold its bursting.  Mlany have hoped that the vials of
wrath would not be emptied in their day, and like the selfish courtiers
of Louis XV. have said, "After us the Deluge." [But the deluge has
come. Upon our heads it has fallen.
This fierce fight, which has arrayed more than a million of men in
arms, and whlich made our ship of state reel and stagger, as if smitten by
thunderbolts and dashing upon rocks, was but one, though a sublime act,
in the drama of that great conflict, between patrician arrogance and plebeian resistance,-between the claims of aristocratic privilege on the one
hand, and the demand for equal rights on the other, which for countless
ages has made our globe one vast battle-field. History is crowded with
scenes terrific, in this irrepressible conflict.  Two thousand years ago,
Cneus Pompey placed himself at the head of the aristocracy of' Rome.
Julius Csesar, espousing the cause of the people, unfirled the banner of
equal rights.  Striding through oceans of blood, which tossed their surges
over every portion of the habitable globe, Csesar overthrew the aristocratic
commonwealth, and reared, upon its ruins, the imperial republic.  It was
aristocracy, striving to keep its heel on the head of democracy, which
deluged the Roman empire in blood.  On the field of Pharsalia, the,<`an —
ner of aristocratic pride was trailed in the dust, and democracy, tlhough
exceedingly imperfect in its development, became the victor.   




1by                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
Two hundred years ago, the aristocracy of France, housed in baronial
-castles, mounted on war-horses, encased in helmet, cuirass, and buckler of
steel, with pampered men-at-arms ready to ride rough shod on every embassage of violence, trampled upon humanity, till humanity could endure
it no longer. Tilhe aristocracy so despised the people, whom they had
driven into mud hovels, whose wives and daughters were goaded to the
field, bareheaded and barefooted, to be yoked with the donkey in dragging
the plough, that they did not dream that these boors, whom their inhuinanity had brutalized, would dare even to look defiantly at the lordly
castle of rock, whose defenders strode proudly along the battlements, in
measureless contempt of the helpless peasantry below.
These poor boors had not individuality enough even to receive a name.
As a shepherd may call every sheep in his flock " Nannie," and as the
slave-driver calls each one of his wretched gang "boy," so every peasant
was called " Jack." But the pent-up vengeance of ages at last burst forth.
The Jacks rose, and, like maddened wolves,-rushed upon their foes. Every
demon power and passion, which can riot in the human soul, held high
carnival.  Inmbruted men, infuriated by ages of the most outrageous
wrongs, rose by millions, upon their oppressors, and wreaked upon them
every atrocity which fiend-like ingenuity could devise. France ran red
with blood.
But at length disciplined valor prevailed.  The steel-clad knights
trampled down their victims; and after one half of the peasants of France
had perished, the aristocrats resumed their sway, and the slavery of feudal
bondage was again riveted upon the people. This war of the Jacks, or
of the Jaequserie, as it is called in history, is one of the most instructive
events of the past; and yet it was all unheeded.
The nobles, regardless of this lesson, renewed their oppressions. Again
they commenced sowing the wind, firom  whilch they were to reap alrotheir,
and a more dreadful, harvest. The masses of the people were deprived
of every privilege but that of toiling ior their masters. That the lords
might live in castles, and be clothed in purple, and fare sumptuously, the
people were doomed to hovels, and rags, and black bread.
Every effort was made to keep the people ignorant, that they might
not know their wrongs, anrid poor, that they might not resent them. A
peasant was not allowed to bury a piece of dough in the ashes of his own
fireside,-he was compelled to take it to the bakery of his lord, and pay
exorbitant toll there, to have it baked. A peasant was not allowed to dip
a bowl of water from the oceami, and let it evaporate, that he might scrape
from the bottom the few particles of salt left there in the residuum. He
was bound to purchase every particle of salt, from his lord, at an enormous
price. No man, not nobly born, whatever might be his character or genius,
was deemed a fit companion for the lords. Louis XV., surrounded by
courtesans and debauchees, said:
"I can give money to Voltaire, Montesquieu, Fontinelle, but I can not
dine and smup with these people."
Every office of honor or emolument, in the church, the army, the state,
or the court, was conferred upon the privileged class only. Consequently




CAUSE  OF THE  CONFLICT.                         17
even christianity, administered, in its highest offices, only by the chilrdren
of the nobles, exulting in princely incomes, as bishops, archbishops and
cardinals, hiring poor priests, whom  they could starve orburn at any
moment, to do the drudgery of reading prayers, preaching sermons, and
burying the dead, became essentially an instrument to uphold oppression.
"Servants, obey your masters," was its unchanging and unintermitted
utterance. This religion was so manifestly not the religion of Jesus Christ,
that kings, lords, and ecclesiastics were all alike vigilant, not to allow the
people to read the Bible, lest they should find out what our Saviour really
taught. A peasant, detected with a Bible in his hand, was deemed as
guilty as if caught with the tools of a burglar, or the dies of a counterfeiter.
Christianity is the corner-stone of true democracy.  "All men are
brothers," is its fundamental doctrine.  Consequently nowhere, the world
over, will aristocratic intolerance allow democratic servitude to read the
Bible. It is a curious fact, illustrative of this universal truth, that even in
republican America, those who were in favor of the servitude of the
masses, and of a privileged aristocratic class, roused their utmost endeavors,
to prevent the preachers of Christianity from  teaching that doctrine of
man's brotherhood, which Christ so fervently and unceasingly has inculcated.  "You are preaching politics," was the cry which drove many a
minister of Jesus from his pulpit.
In the church of Notre Dame, in Paris, in the year 1789, the abbe
Fauchet preached to an audience crowding every nook and corner of that
immense cathedral.  The noble prelate, unintimidated by frowns, was the
bold enunciator of that equality of rights which Christianity inculcates.
Taking for his text the words of Paul, " Brethren, ye have been called
unto liberty," he said:
"(' The false interpreters of the divine oracles have wished, in the name
of I-Ieaven, to keep the people in subjection to their masters. They have
consecrated despotism.  They have rendered God an accomplice with
tyrants. These false teachers exult because it is written,' Render unto
Caesar the things that are Cesar's.' But that which is not Csesar's-is it
necessary to render unto him that? And Liberty does not belong to Cmesar.
It belongs to humn   nacture."
Notwithstanding the presence of the king and his frowning court, this
annunciation of the pure spirit of the gospel of Christ was received withs
a burst of applause, which shook the venerable pile to its foundations.
Yes, more! it caused the very throne of despotic power at the Tuileries to
tremble, and finally toppled it into ruins.  When the preacher left the
door of the church, the people, delighted to hear such sentiments in feudal
France, so long overridden by princes and priests, seized him, in the exuberance of their gratitude, and bore him to his home in a triumphal chair,
decorated with wreaths and garlands, and then the vast multitude, surging
through the streets, raised three cheers for Jesus Christ.  Jesus is indeed
the friend of the poor man and the helper of the oppressed.  Did the
masses but appreciate his sympathy for them, they would indeed feel that
he was their friend.




18                 CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
If a peasant, with wife and child toiling in the field, in the cultivation
of forty acres of land, raised crops to the value of $640, the king, the lord,
and the church, took six hundred dollars of this, and left for the peasant
and his ragged, emaciate family, but forty dollars. No allusion was allowed
to be made to such wrongs. King, noble, ecclesiastic, alike rose in vengeful remonstrance, exclaiming, "It is political preaching."  The old hypocrites! Thomas Jefferson, in the year 1785, wrote froIm Paris to }Mrs.
Trist of Philadelphia:
"Of twenty millions of people supposed to be in France, I am of
opinion that there are nineteen millions -more wretched, more accursed in
every circumstance of human existence, than the most conspicuously
wretched individual of the whole United States."
And yet the Christianity of that day was not allowed to make the
slightest reference to such outrages. It was this state of things which
inaugurated the French Revolution, the most terrific of all Time's tragedies. Twenty millions of people, trampled in the mire, rose ghastly and
frenzied, and the flames of feudal castles, and the shrieks of haughty
oppressors appalled the world. The story of this outburst of enslaved
humanity is the most instructive in the annals of nations. That struggle
wa;s the most memorable, in the long series of conflicts between aristocratic
asstumption and popular rights.
All aristocratic Europe then combined to crush the 2eople demanding
equality of privilege in the eye of the law, with their lords. The courts of
Russia, Prussia, Sweden, Austria, England, Spain,-'all the kings and
nobles of Europe rallied their armies. The people of France rose, with
all the energies of despair, in defense of equality of rights. Such combats
earth never saw before, probably never will see again. Two worlds, as it
were, came clashing together. All the combined aristocracy of Europe
were on the one side. All the masses of the people were il the other side.
It was because they believed, right or wrong, that the motto of equal
rights for all men, was beaming from the banners of the Empire, that they
marched so heroically to the victories of Marengo, Wagram and Austerlitz.
And in the final victories of the despots, aristocratic privilege again triumphed in Europe, and "Hope for a season bade the world farewell."
A similar though less sanguinary conflict had previously taken place
in England, between the united courtiers and Cavaliers under Charles I.,
and the. Puritans under Cromwell. It was the same irrepressible conflict.
The common people of England, slowly emerging from feudal servitude,
and gradually acquiring intelligence and property, grew restive under the
yoke which the lords had for ages imposed upon them. With prayer, and
fasting, and hymn, they drew the sword in defense of equal rights for all,
lnld met their foes at Marston M[oor and Naseby. Before the sturdy blows
of the Roundheads, the Cavaliers bit the dust. But aristocracy triumphed
as Charles II. returned to the throne. Our Puritan fathers were again
humiliated, and the foot of the oppressor was upon their heads.
Then it was,in this dark hour of apparently hopeless defeat, that our
fathers adopted the heroic resolve, to abandon homle and possessions, to
cross a stormy ocean of three thousand miles, to exile themselves to the




CAUSE OF THE CONFLICT.                      19
wilderness of a new world, and here, struggling against famine, a savage
foe and hardships of every kind, to found a republic where all men, in the
eye of tAe law should be equal. No privileged class was to be allowed.
Education was to be as widely diffused as possible. The poor and the rich
were to be alike eligible to all offices of honor and emolument. It was a
long stride which they had taken. And yet there still clung to them,
some of the prejudices of the old world of aristocratic usurpation, from
which they had emerged. The North British Review, in the spirit of that
execrable aristocracy which had so long dominated over Europe, condemning the equal rights for all, which Napoleon maintained in France, said:
" If the peasant, the grocer or the tailor, can scrape together a little
money, his son receives his training in the same school, as the son of the
proprietor whose land he cultivates, whose sugar and coffee he supplies,
and whose coat he makes. The boy, who ought to be a laborer, or a petty
tradesman, sits on the same bench and learns the same lesson, as the boy
who is destined for the bar, the tribune or the civil service of the state.
The grocer's son can not see why he should not become an advocate, a
journalist, a statesman, as well as the wealthy and noble born lad who was
often below him in the class, whom he occasionally thrashed, and often
helped over the thorny places of his daily task."
The aristocracy of England, when they found that a Republic was
established in this country, growing rapidly in wealth and power, made a
desperate endeavor to bring this partially emancipated people under subjection to their privileged class. They endeavored to tax us, without
allowing us to be represented in parliament-to place the appointment to
all important offices, in the hands of the king, who would send over the
sons of England's nobles to be our governors and our judges, and who
would fill all the posts of wealth, dignity and power with the children of
the lords.
Hlence the war of the Revolution. It was a continuation of the irrepressible conflict, between aristocratic usurpation and popular rights. We,
the people, conquered, and established our Government independent of all
the world. Proudly we announced to the nations of Europe, as the corner stone of our edifice, that "all men are born free and equal, and are
alike entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
Our Constitution in its spirit and legitimate utterance is doubtless the
noblest document, which ever emanated from the mind of man. It contains not one word hostile to liberty. Even now, with the light of threefourths of a century shed upon its practical workings, it requires not the
change of a paragraph to make it true to humanity.
But yet ingloriously, guiltily, under sore temptation, we consented to
use one phrase susceptible of a double meaning, " held to labor."  These
honest words, at the North mean a hired man, an apprentice. At the
South they mean a slave, feudal bondage. So small, apparently so insignificant, were those seeds sown in our Constitution which have resulted in'such a harvest of misery., A privileged class at the South, asstuned that
by these words the Constitution recognised domestic slavery, and the right
of property in man. With persistence never surpassed, the Slaveholders




20                -C IVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
of the South endeavored to strengthen and extend their arlistocratic iustPi
tution, which was dooming ever increasing millions to life-long servitude
and degradation. All wealth was rapidly being accumulated in the hands
of the privileged few, who owned their fellow men as property. The poor
whites, destitute of employment, unable to purchase negroes, and regarding labor, which was performed mostly by slaves, in their region, as degrading, were fast sinking into a state of almost bestial misery.
The sparse population which Slavery allowed, excluded churches,
schools and villages. Immense plantations of many thousand acres, tilled
sometimes by a thousand slaves, driven to their toil by a few overseers,
consigned the whole land to apparent solitude. The log hut of the overseer was surrounded by the miserable cabins of the negroes, and in the
workshops of the North all the rude implements of their toil were manufactured. The region of the Southern country generally presented an
aspect of desolation which Christendom could no where else parallel. The
Slaveholders, ever acting as one man, claimed the right of extending this
institution over all the fiee territories of the United States. Free labor
"and Slave labor can not exist together. The [New England farmer can
not work with his sons in fields surrounded by negro bands, where labor
is considered degrading, where his wife and daughters find no congenial
society, no education, none of the institutions of religion, none of the
appliances and resources of high civilization which freedom secures. The
admission of slavery to the Territories effectually excluded freemen from
them. The introduction to those vast reahns of a privileged class, who
were to live in luxury upon the unpaid labor of the masses rendered it
impossible that men cherishing the sentiment of republican equality should
settle there.
It was upon this point that the conflict, in its fierceness, commenced.
It was to avoid this very trouble of an aristocratic class, in the enjoyment
of exclusive privileges, that our fathers fled from Europe. Almost every
nation in Europe was represented in our land, by refugees from feudal
Europe, seeking liberty and equality of rights, on the free soil of the United
States. These men could not consent that they and their children should
be excluded from the Territories by the extension over them of the curse
of human bondage. They came to this new world, expressly to establish
and to maintain free institutions, where every honest man, the poor man's
son as well as the rich man's son, the son of the day laborer as well as the
son of the merchant prince, the boy born in the log hut as well as the boy
born in the mansions of splendor, should be entitled to equal rights in the
eye of the law.
All feudal privileges were here to be abolished. The bootblack was to
be as much entitled to his dime as the lawyer to his fee. The poor woman
who should wash a gentleman's linen, was to have her shillings of pay,
just as surely as that gentleman was to receive his thousands, when occupying the senatorial or presidential chair. The servant who groomed the
horses and polished the coach of his employer, was to claim his wages as
effectually through the laws, as that employer could claim his salary, when
occupied in the most responsible posts of the Government.




CAUSE OF THE CONFLICT.                         21
lHow just this democratic principle, over arching, as with a sunny sky,
all humanity! This was the contemplated corner-stone of our Republic.
This was the democracy, sacred, heaven-born, which Jesus Christ taught,
and over which our national banner, of the Stars and Stripes, was intended
to be unfurled. But Satan sent the serpent of aristocratic usurpation into
our Eden, to wilt its flowers and poison its fruit. The execrable spirit, in
the most malignant form it had ever developed, came over here, demanding that the rich should live in splendor at the expense of the poor. The
rich man's boots were to be polished, as in old baronial Europe, and the
poor boy who blacked them was to have no pay. The rich man's coach
was to roll luxuriously through the streets, and his linen to be washed, and
h.is -fields to be tilled, while the coachman, the laborer and the washerwoman, were to be defrauded of their wages.
The daughter of the rich man, with cultured mind and polished address
was to move through saloons of magnificence, robed in fabrics of almost
celestial texture, while the daughter of the poor man, dirty and ragged,
and almost naked, with one single garment scarce covering her person,
was to toil in the field from morning till night, and from youth till old age
and death, that her aristocratic sister, very p3robcably in blood relationshij)
h/er /hcaf-sister, the child of the sanz ffather, might thus cultivate her mind
and decorate her person.
It is impossible that two such antagonistic systems as democratic
equality and aristocratic privilege, should live in peace under the same
Government, or even side by side. Through all the ages they have kept
the world in commotion, and will until doomsday trump shall sound, unless the one or the other gain undisputed ascendency. When France
attempted to establish a Republican Empire upon the basis of equal rights
for every man who trod her soil, all aristocratic Europe rose in resistance, and millions were marshaled under arims to crush this heaven-born
fraternity.
There must be gradations of society. There must be diversities of
rank. There must be bootblacks, and coachmen, and day laborers. There
must be men to swing the sledge-hammer, as well as men to rule in the
senate. There must be men to split rails, as well as men to occupy the
presidential chair. True democracy demands only that the smith, and the
rail-splitter shall have fair wages for their work, with unobstructed opportunities to improve their condition if they can; that every man shall have
fair scope for industry and talent.
The antagonism between these two systems is deadly and universal.
The history of the world has proved that there can be no reconciliation
between them. From the foundation of our government they have been
in a constant battle, growing hotter and hotter every year, until culminating in this bloody rebellion.  They have kept Congress, both the Senate and the Iouse, in one incessant scene of warfare. And there can be
no peace in our land, until this aristocratic element is banished effectually
from our government. There is philosophic truth in the glowing verse of
Dr. Pierpont:




22                   CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
"This fratricidal war
Grows on the poisonous tree,
Which God and men abhor,
Accursed Slavery.
And God ordains that we
Shall eat this deadly fruit,
Till we dig up the tree,
And burn its every root"
The Hon. Mr. Iverson, of Georgia, speaking of the antagonism of these.
two systems, said, in the Senate of' the United States, on the 5th of De,
cember, 1860:
"Sir, disguise the fact as you will, there is an enmity between the
Northern and the Southern people, which is deep and enduring, and you
never can eradicate it-never. Look at the spectacle exhibited on this
floor. How is it?  There are the Northern Senators on that side; here
the Southern Senators on this side. How much social intercourse is there
between us? You sit upon your side, silent and gloomy. We sit upon
ours, with knit brows and portentous scowls. Here are two hostile bodies
on this floor; and it is but a type of the feeling which exists between the
two sections. We are enemies as mnuch as if we were hostile states. We
have not lived in peace. We are not now living in peace. It is not
expected that we shall ever live in peace."
I-Ion. Mr. Mason, of Virginia, said, in the continuation of the same
debate, " This is a war of sentiment and opinion, by one form of society
against another form of society."
The remarks of the I-Ion. Garret Davis, a Senator from Kentucky, are
instructive and to the point.  "The Cotton States, by their slave labor,
have become wealthy, and many of their planters have princely revenues
-from $50,000 to $100,000 a year. This wealth has begot pride, and
insolence, and ambition, and these points of the Southern character have
been displayed most insultingly in the halls of Congress. As a class, the
wealthy cotton growers are insolent, they are proud, they are domineering,
they are ambitious. They have monopolized the government in its honors,
for forty or fifty years, with few interruptions. When they saw the sceptre
about to depart from them, in the election of Lincoln, sooner than give up
office and the spoils of office, in their mad and wicked ambition they
determined to disrupt the old Confederation, and erect a new one wherein
they would have undisputed power.  Nine out of ten of the Northern
people were sound upon the subject. They were opposed to the extension
of Slavery, and I do not condemn them for that; but they were willing to
accord to the Slaveholders all their constitutional rights."
There is indeed one cause, and but one cause, for this animosity. It is
the antagonism between the system of aristocratic privilege and democratic equality.  One takes a very narrow view of this question, in regarding it as one which affects a particular race, the African alone.  It is as
broad as humanity.  This question of races is merely one of science, not
of morals.  Blumenbach endeavors to class the human family into five
different varieties: 1. The Caucasian or European. 2. The Tartar. 3. The
American Indian.  4. The ]Mfalay.  5. The Negro. But this division is




CAUSE OF THE CONFLICT.                       23
quite arbitrary. These divisions run into and blend with each other
inextricably.
The distinguished French physiologist, Bory de St. Vincent, divides
the race into fifteen varieties, and finds equal embarrassment in his
attempt at classification. Some other eminent physiologists make out
fifty divisions, but with no better success in drawing marked lines between
the classes. There are black men, and red men, and yellow men, and
tawny men, and white men-men of every shade of color between whiteness as of snow and jet black. The declaration of Scripture seems abundantly sustained by science, that God made of one blood all nations, that
Eve is our common mother-that all the varieties of mankind now existing are the result of climate, food, habits, and what we call accidental
occurrences.
Our ancestors fled frommfeudal Europe, to found in this new world a pure
democracy, where, under equal and'impartial law, every man, whether
Englishman, Scotchman, or Irishman; whether Norwegian, Spaniard,
Ethiopian, Chinaman, Arab, Tartar, or Indian, should be under the protection of impartial law, and should be entitled to all the money he could
earn, to all the comforts he could honestly accumulate, to all the education
and culture he could attain. These principles of freedom were for a long
time almost universally accepted. But gradually the small class of slaveholders at the South increased in wealth, numbers, and influence. Thev
became the leaders of a powerful party, who boldly announced, "We are
the foes of this equality of rights. We wish to see a privileged class, and
a defrauded class,-lords in their palaces, and serfs in their huts; the rich,
luxuriating in voluptuousness, without labor-the poor, toiling in degradation, and ignorance, and poverty, receiving none of the proceeds of
their toil."
On the banks of the Rhine stands the palace of Prince Metternich,
who may be considered as almost the incarnation of Austrian despotism.
The grounds extend, from the lawn to the river, in a series of terraces,
facing the sunny south, and blushing with vineyards. Half a century
ago, there was a very brilliant party, of noble and princely guests, entertained at the palace. After dinner, IiIetternich stood upon a balcony,
which opened from the saloon, looking out upon the magnificent panorama
of the Rhine. The vineyard was filled with laborers, men and women,
performing feudal service for their lord. The French Revolution was just
then beginning to make its voice heard in favor of equal rights for all
men. Metternich, assailing this doctrine, said, pointing to the toiling
serfs:
"Behold the true philosophy of society-gentlemen in the palace,
laborers in the field, with an impassable gulf between."
This is very attractive philosophy for the lord, treading velvet carpets,
beneath gilded ceilings, and drinking priceless wines. But it dooms such
farmers' boys, as Daniel Webster, and Andrew Jackson, and Abraham
Lincoln, to spend their lives digging in the ditch, when God has endowed
them with energies to guide the destinies of nations. And they will not
consent to this philosophy.




24                 CIVIL WA{R IN AMERICA.
I was once walking through the magnificent saloons of Versailles, the
most gorgeous of all earthly palaces, with an American lady by my side.
As we passed through the brilliant suite of apartments, three hundred in
number, with fresco, and gilding, and gorgeous paintings; —as we stepped
out upon the parterre, and drove through the graveled walks of the park,
originally spreading over thirty thousand acres, with groves, lawns, fountains, lakes, brooks, artificial crags, jets d'eaux, and a wilderness of statuary, my young lady friend said:
" Oh! I wish we had an aristocracy, and a king, and a court."
Silly girl! Had she lived in the days of Louis XV., when a nation
was robbed to minister to the voluptuousness of the aristocracy, she would
have been a poor peasant girl, barefooted and bareheaded, in linsey woolsey frock, toiling with the hoe in the field. I-Ier father was a poor farmer's
boy, who left the plow and went to the city, and there, through the
influence of the law of equal rights for all, acquired that wealth and position, which enabled his daughter, refined in manners and cultivated in
minld, to take the tour of Europe.
This question of a privileged class has nothing to do with color. The
slavery of the Bible, whatever its character, was not Negro slavery. The
slaves were, almost without exception, white men. The slavery, which it
it is said our Saviour did not condemn in the New Testament, was not
Negro slavery. The slaves of the Roman empire were almost universally
whites, prisoners of war. If the New Testament sanctions this slavery,
then would it be right to sell into bondage every Southern prisoner taken
in this war. MIany a Southern gentleman might find himself scouring
knives in a Northern kitchen, with some devout clergyman preaching to
him  affectionately the doctrine, "Slave, obey your master."  This was
Roman slavery.'Julius Coesar himself was at one time a captive and a
slave, and was compelled to purchase his freedom.
The slavery in this country is not Negro slavery. A large number of
the slaves, both men and women, can with difficulty be distinguished from
white persons. The process of amalgamation has, for a long time, been
going on so rapidly in the South, that, over large extents of country, the
great majority of the slaves have more Caucasian than Ethiopic blood in
their veins. Thousands of boys and girls, toiling in cotton-fields of the
South, are the sons and daughters of Southern gentlemen of high position.
Many a young lady has been the belle of the evening at Newport or Saratoga, whose hcalf-sister, the daughter of the same father, has earned her
laces and brocade, by toiling from dawn to eve in the Negro gang. Many
of the most beautiful women at the South are these unfortunate daughters
of aristocratic sires, in whose veins lingers but that slight trace of Ethiopic
blood, which gives a golden richness to the hue. There is nothing but
slavery which will so debauch the conscience, that a father will sell his own
daughter, as a " fancy girl," to the highest bidder.
The great question, which has culminated in this desperate war, has
been simply this: " Shall there be, in the United States, an aristocratic
class, maintained by the Constitution, who are to enjoy exclusive privileges,
living without labor upon the proceeds of the toil of others, while there is




CAUSE OF THE CONFLICT.                         25
a defrauded class of laborers, excluded from education; and doomed to
perpetual poverty?"
This is what the slaveholders have demanded. They said that the
Constitution favored freedom,-free speech, a fiee press, free labor, free
soil, and free men, and demanded that the Constitution should be changed,
to maintain the exclusive claims of an aristocratic class, and to strengthen
their hold upon their slaves. The one incessant cry has been, "Abjure
your democratic constitution, which favors equal rights for all men, and
give us, in its place, an aristocratic constitution, which will secure the
rights of a privileged class."  They insisted that the domestic slave trade
should be nurtured, and the foreign slave trade opened; saying, in the
coarse and vulgar language of one of the most earnest advocates of slavery,' The North can import jackasses from Malta; let the South then import
Niggers from Africa."  They demanded the right to extend slavery over
all the Territories of the United States, the right to hold their slaves in all
States of the Union temporarily; that speaking or writing against slavery
in any State in the Union should be a penal offense; that the North
should catch their fugitive slaves, and send them back to bondage; and
that the Administration of the General Government should be placed in
the hands of those only, whom the South could trust, as the pledged enemies of republican equality, and the friends of slavery."
The reply of the overwhelming majority of the people of the United
States was decisive.  "We will not,"' they said, " thus change the Constitution of our fathers. We will abide by it as it is."
" Then," replied the slaveholders, " we will dash this Union to pieces.
From its fragmlenlts we will construct another, whose corner-stone shall be
slavery."
On the 3d of January, 1861, the Honl. Mr. Baker, of Oregon, asked
the following qutestion of MIr. Benjamnin, of Louisiana, in the Senate of the
United States: "If we, a fiee people, really, in our hearts and consciences,
believing that freedom is better for every thing than slavery, do desire the
advance of free sentiments, and do endeavor to assist that, advance in a
constitutional, legal way; is that," I ask him, " ground of separation?"
"I say yes, decidedly," was MIr. Benjamlin's reply.
Volumes could not mnake the nature of the conflict mlore clear. The
slaveholders had resolved to change the character of our government, so
that the United States should be the great bulwark of slavery. The great
majority of the people resolved that the spirit of the government should
not thus be cllanged. The appeal was at first, of course, to the ballot box.
There the slaveholders were defeated. By a great majority it was decided,
in the election of President Lincoln, that the Constitution should remain
unmutilated, and that the government should be administered with scrupulous regard to all its constitutional compromises, in behalf of the interests of freedom.  "Slavery," said the HIon. Mr. Quitman, "requires for
its kind development a fostering government over it. It can scarcely
exist without such protection."
The lIon. Preston Brooks, of South Carolina, said, in a speech in
Charleston, at an ovation given in his honor, for his brutal assault upon




26                  CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
Senator Sumner: " I tell you, fellow-citizens, from the bottom of my heart,
that the only mode which I think available for meeting.it (the issue), is just
to tear the Constitution of the United States, trample it under foot, and
form a Southern Confederacy, every State of which shall be a slaveholding
State."
The declaration of Senator Wigfall, fioom Texas, in its plain Saxon
utterance, is equally explicit. In a speech in the United States Senate
he said:
" I am a plain, blunt-spoken man. I usually say precisely what I mean,
and I also mean precisely what I say. We say that man has a right to
property in man. We say that our slaves are our property. We say that
it is the duty of every government to protect its property everywhere.
For twenty years the slave trade was kept open by the Constitution; and
if that was not a clear recognition of the right to traffic in human flesh,
and buy and sell men and women, then I would like to know what would
be. If you wish to settle this matter, declare that slaves are property, and,
like all other property, entitled to be protected in every quarter of the
globe, on land and on sea.  Say that to us, and then the difficulty is
settled."
The Hon. Mr. HIunter, of Virginia, detailed, in the Senate of the United
States, quite minutely the changes in the Constitution with which alone the
Slaveholders would be satisfied. His demands were:
1. Congress shall have no power to abolish slavery in the States or the
District of Columbia, or the dockyards, forts, and arsenals of the United
States.
2. Congress shall not abolish, tax, or oblstruct the slave trade between
the States.
3. It shall be the duty of each of the States, to suppress combination
within its jurisdiction, for the armed invasion of any other State.
4. States shall be admitted with or without slavery, according to the
election of the people.
5. It shall be the duty of the States to restore fugitive slaves, or pay
the Value of the same.
6. Fugitives from justice shall be deemed those who have offended the
laws of a State within its jurisdiction, and shall have escaped therefrom.
7. Congress shall recognise and protect as property, what is held to be
such by the laws of any State, in tile Territories, dockyards, arsenals, fbrts,
and wherever the United States have exclusive jurisdiction.
It will be perceived that these changes convert the United States Govermnent into a great instrument for maintaining slavery. Its entire spirit
and mission are changed. Should a clergyman in Louisiana preach a sermon upon the brotherhood of man, and thus offend the slave code, and
should he escape from persecution there to the Free States, the United
States would be bound to pursue him, to seize him as a felon, and deliver
him up to the dungeon or the stake.
In order to secure the enforcement of these pro-slavery enactments, Mr.
Ilunter, speaking in behalf of the South, demanded, that the slavelholders
should have "guarantees of power," to enable them, though in the vast




CAUSE OF THE CONFLICT.                        27
minority, to bid defiance to the voice of the majority.  He therefore
demanded that there should always be two Presidents chosen, one by the
slaveholding South, and the other by the North, and that no act should be
valid, unless approved by both Presidents. The number of slaveholders ifi
the United States does not exceed three hundred thousand. The whole
population of the country is thirty millions. The whole white population
of the South is but about eight millions. Vast multitudes of these are
poor whites, who can neither read nor write, and are in beggarly poverty.
These ignorant creatures are almost entirely at the beck of the slaveholders.
Thus this amendment of the Constitution, was designed to give three hundred thousand slaveholders a veto upon all the acts of the General Government. In the firther carrying out of this plan, he demanded that the
United States Supreme Court should consist of ten members, five to be
chosen by the little handful of slaveholders, and the other half by the mnillions of freemen.
In the accomplishment of this end, one of the first movements was to
compel, by the reign of terror, every man at the South, to support the cause
of the slaveholders. Vigilance committees were organized, the mails were
searched, and a system of espionage introduced, such as no despotism on
earth ever before equaled. A gentleman from Hinds County, Mississippi,
wrote to the Editor of the New York Tribune, the 7th of February, 1861:
"' I have lived in this State twenty-five years. Yet if I should say, not
openly upon the house top, but at my own table, among my family and
friends congregated there, that I do not consider that the South has any
real grievances to complain of; and totally oppose the secession of this or
any other State from the Union, my property, my life even, would not be
safe an hour. It is very certain that those who\are in favor of secession
have no more than a bare majority in any of the S6uthern States. We, the
Union men of the South, call on you of the North not to desert us."
Innumerable cases like the following appear to be well authenticated:
A Connecticut man had resided in the vicinity of Eufaula, Alabama, for
mrany years. lie had acquired much real estate, and became the owner
of several slaves. IBeing a Northern man, he was regarded with jealousy,
and as the excitement of the secession fever ran high, and he found that
his life was in peril, to avert suspicion he joined a vigilance committee,
called the ",Minute Men."  As such he was compelled to assist in the
hanging of six men, five mechanics and one Christian minister, all from
the North.
The post office was carefully watched by the committee. A letter was
taken from it to his address, from a female friend in Connecticut. It contained a sentence, reminding him of his promise to free his negroes, abjure
slavery, and return to the free North. This doomed him, by Lynch law,
to death. A faithful negro woman overheard the conversation of the gang,
making arrangements for his execution. She hastened through the woods
at night to inform him of his peril. To be assured of the truth of her
story, he returned with the woman and found the sycamore tree on which
he was to be hung, with the rope already pendent from the bough. At a
short distance from the tree, partially veiled by the intervening woods,




28                 CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
there was a cottage, on the porch of which this gang of slaveholders were
smoking and drinking, ill preparation for their murderous foray.
The intended victim cautiously climbed the tree, cut the noose, and
then passing to the road fence, where the horses of the committee were
tied, chose the fleetest one of the number, and started in the straightest
line fir the North. At Macon, in Georgia, he sold his horse and took the
cars, and thus in safety reached his northern homen with nothing but the
hemupen noose remaining to him of all the possessions he had accumulated
during years of toil.
The persecution of the free colored men, at the South, by the slaveholders, was, if possible still more dreadful, for it was next to impossible
for them to escape. The writer of these pages was in December of 1860,
riding by night, in the cars from Washington to Philadelphia.  A very
intelligent gentlelman, fromn Delaware, entered the cars and took a seat'by
his side. The all engrossing subject of slavery and secession naturally
came up. The gentleman related the following incident. I give it as
nearly as possible in his own words:
"A  very painful event is this day transpiring in my own town in
Delaware. There were two gentlemen in business in MIaryland, owning
in partnership, besides other property, several slaves. After a time they
dissolved partnership, and one of the firm moved from Maryland to Delaware.  One of the slaves, a light mulatto, probably the son of one of the
partners, certainly the son of a white uman, in the division fell to the
2Maryland master.
"Charles, as the slave was called, was a very intelligent iman, exceedingly eflicient in the business of the fir,, and by his fidelity, uprightness,
and energy, secured to so high a degree the respect of his master, that,
that master, ever very indulgent, and not improbably his father, on his
dying bed gave Charles his freedom.  Charles bought him  a small farm.
lie becamle a prosperous man, built him a neat house, owned a horse, a
yoke of oxen, two or three cows, and fifty dollars worth of poultry. From
the produce of this little farm he carried supplies to the market in ]3altimore. I-Ie had a wife and four little children.  Charles was a Christian.
The voice of morning and evening prayer was ever heard in his dwelling.
On the Sabbath, in accordance with the usages of the Methodist persuasion, to which lie belonged, he was in the habit of preaching to the colored
people in his vicinity.
"One day a vigilance committee in Maryland, called upon Charles and
told him that he was too enlightened and thrifty a' ni gger,' to be allowed
to live in the State; that his intelligence and thrift made the slaves discontented. Charles, in dismay, asked if he had committed any crime, if
he had said or done anything which was wrong or to excite suspicion.
"'No,' was the reply,'but it is not safe for us to have in the midst of
our slaves a free nigger, as rich and intelligent as you. And you must
leave this State within a fortnight or -you will fare badly.'
"This unoffending Christian man, whose rights were thus horribly outraged, was in despair. What to do he did not know. Where to go lie did
not know. It was mid winter. IHis crops were in his barnl. Ilow to




CAUSE OF THE CONFLICT.                         29
dispose of his farm, his stock and his crops, at such short notice, lie did
not know. He consulted friends, they shook their heads and said,
"'Poor fellow, we are sorry for you, but we can not help you. Your
presence endangers the contentment of our slaves, and you must go.' In
this state of terror and perplexity Charles continued, till the day before
the one on which he was warned to leave, arrived.  The Vigilance Committee called again, and said, in tones of menace, which almost froze the
blood in the veins of the helpless manal,
"'Charles, if we find you here to-morrow morning, as sure as you are
a living man, we will hang you to the limb of that tree.'
"Charles, in his terror, abandoned everything, his house, his fields, his
crops, his cows, his oxen, his poultry, and taking his wife and his four little
children in his wagon, fled. IHis alarm  was so great that he frequently
looked behind him to see if his enemies were in pursuit. Not knowing
where else to go, he turned his steps into Delaware, that be nmight seek
protection of his former master, who had been in partnership with the
master who had given him  his freedom. It was twelve o'clock at night
when the poor fugitive, with his exhausted wife and children, reached the
house of the man in Delaware, from whom he had hoped for protection.
He rapped on the door. His former master rose, opened his eyes in utter
amazement and exclaimed,
"'For heavens' sake! Charles, what brought you here?' Charles in a
few words told his story.
"'But what did you come here for?' exclaimed the man.'You can
not stay here. The laws of Delaware will not allow free negroes to colne
into the State. If you stay here you must be arrested.'
"'ly God! my God!' gasped Charles, folding his hands in anguish
and the tears rolling down his cheeks,'What shall I do? They threaten
to hang me if I stay in Maryland. You tell me I can not stay here.
Where shall I go?'
"'Well,' replied the man,'it is a clear case that you can not remain here
in Delaware. You are liable at any moment to be arrested. But there is
no help for it now. You must stay here until morning.'
"Such was the state of the case," continued the gentleman, " when I
left homne this morning."  What has become of this unhappy man I do not
know. If the spirit of the slave code has been carried out, he and his wife
and his children have been sold as slaves, and are now dispersed over the
cotton fields of the South, toiling in hopeless bondage, never to meet, till.
they meet with their oppressors at God's tribunal. We thank thee, oh God,
that there is a day of final judgment, where these wrongs of life shall be
rectified.
It will be difficult for future generations to credit the barbarism into
which slavery degraded the human heart in the South. In several of the
Southern States, laws were enacted declaring that all the free colored people
who did not leave the State within a given time, should be sold into slavery.
And how are these poor creatures from Mississippi or Louisiana to escape
their awful doom, the most awful that can befall a mortal, —slavery for themselves and their offspring, forever? IHere is a little family, perhaps a Chris



30                  CIVIL WYAR IN  AMERICA.
tian family, with but a slight admixture of African blood in their veins.
They are poor, friendless, uninstructed.  They must run the gauntlet of
the Slave States, Alabama, Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia, where they
are every moment liable to be arrested as figitives, thrown into prison, and
after being kept there for a few months, and no one appearing to claim
them they are to be sold as slaves, the proceeds of the sale to be cast into
the public treasury. Can tyranny perpetrate a more atrocious crime? Arnd
what is the excuse for this outrage so unparalleled in the legislation of
Christendom2 It is simply that the enslaving of the free is necessary to
enable the slaveholders to keep in subjection those already in bondage. In
view of this execrable system of despotism, Thomas Jefferson says,
"WVhat an incomprehensible machine is man.! who can endure toil,
famine, stripes, imprisonment, and death itself in vindication of his own
liberty; and the next moment be deaf to all those motives whose power
supported him through his trial, and inflict on his fellow man a bondage,
one hour of which is fraught with more misery than ages of that which he
rose in rebellion to oppose."'
These hideous laws for reenslaving the free were by no means a dead
letter.  They worked an untold amount of agony. The following paraglraph from the New York Times, reveals their practical operation.
"Forty-three negroes, who have been expelled from Arkansas, under
the terms of the recent legislative enactment, which prescribes that, in the
event of their non-departure, they should be sold into slavery, arrived in
Cincinnati, Jan. 2, 1860, in a destitute condition.' They were met by a
committee appointed for the purpose, by the colored population of Cincinnati. It is reported that the:upward bound boats upon the Mississippi are
crowded with these fugitives, flying from their homes."
Slave State after Slave State was passing these laws. Two hundred
thousand free colored people were menaced with these woes. In the winter
of 1860, multitudes of these victims of worse than Oriental tyranny, were
breasting the storms of winter in the attempt to reach the North. 3Mothers
were flyingg in terror, leading by the hand, or carrying upon their backs,
their infant children. >Mfany, doubtless, perished by the way. The few
despairing survivors reached the North, penniless, friendless, with no employment but such as chance gave them-there to be taunted with the
reproach that the slave on the Southern plantation is " better off" than the
free laborer of the North.
Such is the institution which the slaveholders, through a bloody rebellion, have endeavored to perpetuate and extend. Such is the institution,
which the overwhelming majority of the inhabitants of the United States
have resolved shall not be incorporated into the Constitution of our country, to be extended over those vast Territories which are soon to be organized into States. This is the conflict, so simple in its issue that it may be
known and read of all men.
The slaveholders at the South have ever indignantly affirmed, that the
friends of freedom at the North halld no right to express any opinion adverse
to slavery. They have as:.urmed tlhat any expostulation, any argument was
impertinent, internmeddling.  And yet the question was meeting the North




CAUSE OF THE CONFLICT.                        31
at so many points, that it was utterly impossible to avoid its discussion.
They demanded the right to take their slaves into the Free States, whenever
they wished, for business or pleasure, to visit them, and to hold their slaves
i3l Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, for a temporary period, in defiance,of the laws of the Free States. The Free States can not obey such a connaand; without treachery to their own principles, and without degrading
themselves in their own eyes, arid in the eyes of all the civilized world.
The slaveholders demanded that when any of their slaves escaped, the
North should pursue the lib.erty-seeking man, and drag him back to eternal
bondage. The practical operation of this demand was soul-harrowing to
all the Christianity and sympathies of the North. Here is a fugitive slave,
rushing across the frontier. The baying bloodhounds are on his track, and
the shouts of men are hteard, closely following, with their guns shotted and
primed, hounding on the dogs. The man has committed no' crime. He
seeks only liberty. He is fleeing only from oppression, such oppression as
his pursuers would not endure for an hour. And yet the freemen of the
Nliorth, loathing the.in-famous deed in every fibre of their souls, are called
upon, in obedience to a cautiously worded phrase in the Constitution about
"persons held to service,"- to help catch the poor fugitive, and drag him back
to his chains.
Mlany a pang of anguish was felt in the city of Boston, and the whole
State felt guilty and degraded, when a poor figitive, enjoying the honored
name of Burns, the son of a S.outhern planter, a helpless, innocent, Christian man, whose only crime was that he loved liberty, was seized by the
whole military power of the city, that he might not be rescued by the irrepressible sympathies of the people, and was dragged back again to bondage.
Those who witnessed this spectacle will not forget it till their dying day.
As this innocent, outraged man, surrounded by a regiment in all the
panoply of war, was conveved down State-street to the steamer, by which
he was sent back again to the South, tears dropped from his eyes, moistening the soil which our fathers crimsoned with their blood, in support of the
democratic principle, that " all men are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit
of happiness."
Future ages will find it almost impossible to believe that any enlightened man could be found, in America, to defend a system inevitably involving such atrocities. And yet it is a marvelous fact, that slavery found no
more determined supporters than among the so-called Christian ministers
of the South; and the women surpassed the men inl the bitter and unre.
lenting spirit with which they clung to the institutiofi. Those facts which
harrowed the soul of the North, seem to excite not an emotion in the heart
of the slaveholding South. The writer visited recently one of the encampments in the army of Virginia. There he met a Christian woman, who
had escaped from bondage. The blood of the white man blushed in her
cheek, and though of dark Spanish complexion, she reminded me in form,
features, and strong common sense, of one of the noblest women I have
ever known. I tell her story, as.nearly as possible, in her own words.' The man who called ]himself my master, married a second wife,' and




32                 CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
soon after died. In the division of the estate, I and my eldest son fell to
the wife. ~M/y husband and four little children remained the property of
the chlildren of our master. The wife took me and my son from my husband and children, and firom Maryland, our home, to Virginia, where she
opened a tavern. I have never heard from, or seen, my husband and children since. Soon a slave trader came along, and she sold to him my son
for fifteen hundred dollars. He was taken down South, and I know not
what has become of him. When the soldiers camne from the North, I felt,
in my heart, that they were my friends. My mistress told me that they
were going to take all the slaves, and sell them in Cuba, to pay the expenses
of the war.  fanyly of the slaves believed this, and were frightened. I did
not believe it. I told my mistress, that she had torn me from my husbandt
and children, had sold my son, and that I supposed that she would sell me
whenever she wished to; and that I did not think that the Yankees could
treat me worse than that. After the battle of Bull Run, I escaped, in a
dark night, and felt my way along by the ruts, in the road to the lines of
the Northern army. H[ere I have been received kindly. And oh! I do
hope that when this war is ended I shall not be delivered back again to my
cruel mistress."
I can not shut from my memory the look of settled sadness with which
this story was told. Such are tile outrages to which slavery introduces a
Christian wife and mother. The ministers and the churches, at the South,
generally, said that this institution was divine, and that they were deter.
mined that it should be extended through all the Territories of the United
States. The voice of the North was almost equally unanimous in the
declaration, that the institution was a great wrong upon human nature,
and that, though the Constitution gave them no power to touch it in the
States where it existed, they had the right, and they would exercise it, to
shut it out from the Territories. No one can understand the sutbsequent
movements of the war, who has not in his mind a distinct idea of this the
nature of its origin.
The slaveholders also demanded, an addition to the rigl{t'of the general
extension of slavery, that the laws of the Free States should be so changed
as to enable them to hold their enslaved servants at the North temporarily,
while, at the same timne, they refused to allow a Northern gentleman even
to enter their States with a free hired colored servant. If a ship, sailing
from a Northern port, had, in its employ, a colored sailor or cook,-and
were that ship, in the way of business or by stress of weather, to put in
at a Southern port, the colored man was seized, and thrust into jail until
the ship was ready again to weigh anchor. It was feared that he might
communicate to his brethren in bondage, some light upon the rights of
man. So much annoyance was caused by these arrests and imprisonments
of the free citizens of the Northern States, that Massachusetts sent one of
her most distinguished citizens, the IHon. Mr. Hoar, as an embassador to
the State Government of South Carolina, to inquire, in a friendly spirit,
if anl evil of so umuch magnitude might not in some way be redressed.
The slaveholders resented even such a pacific movement as this, as an
unpardonable insult. A mob of gentlemen of property and standing,




CAtJSE OF THE CONFLICT.                         33
leading on the poor whites, surrounded his hotel with yellings and insult.
He was threatened with tar and feathers, and only saved himself from the
horrors of Lynch law, by a precipitate escape in disguise. Such is the spirit
of the slaveholding oligarchy, which, by means of a sanguinary revolution,
has endeavored to extend the dominion of its infamous and despotic code
over the whole United States.
The Southern church had become exceedingly degenerate through the
corrupting influence of this institution.  Like the church of Romne in the
darkest hour of the Papacy, the cllrch in the South had become the ally
of despotism, and the strong bulwark of oppression. There were many and
noble exceptions.  There were ministers and private Christians true to
Christ, who disregarded the spoiling of their goods, and held not their own
lives dear to them, that they might be faithful to the spirit of Jesus. But
a large number of the clergy were among the most envenomed of the foes
of liberty, and the most earnest advocates of the enslavement of their
fellow-men. They took the ground that slavery was a divine institution.
The Rev. Dr. Palmer, of New Orleans, one of the most distinguished of
the Presbyterian clergymen of the South, declared it to be the especial
mission of the Southern churches, " to preserve and transmit our existing
system of domestic servitude, with the right, unchallenged by man, to go
and root itself wherever Providence and nature may carry it."
The professedly Christian minister who uttered these sentiments, was
familiar with all the atrocities of slavery. The slave shambles, where men,
women and children were sold at auction, were ever open, almhnost beneath
the shadow of his church spire. Maidens, who had professed the name
of Christ, and whose market value depended upon their beauty, were sold
to the highest bidder within sound of his church choir. Families were sold
in the slave mnarket of New Orleans, parents and children, husbands and
wives separated just as mercilessly as if they were sheep or cows. And
yet the Christianity of the South had become so degenerate, through the
influence of slavery, that a Presbyterian minister, and sustained apparently
by his whole church, represents the institution as one of divine approval,
and one which it is the principal mission of the Southern church to maintain and extend.
In Virginia, a clergyman published a sermon, which he entitled, "The
Epidemic of the Nineteenth Century," thus stigmatizing the synmpatly felt
throughout the world in behalf of the enslaved.*  The writer of this sermon, without doubt expressing the opinions of the great majority of the
preachers of Christianity at the South, says:
"In HIis economy, God lays upon the master's shoulders that whichl
constitutes the great load and burden of every poor man. What is the
chief misery of poverty and labor, but the painful anxieties and struggles,
often almost hopeless, to make provision for a family; to furnish food,
clothing, a home, a physician in sickness, and support in old age. From
this galling burden of the poor, God frees the slave. With a heart so
relieved from care and bitter anxiety, he goes fbrth to his daily labor, day
* Rev. E. Boyden, Hopedale, Albemarle Co., Virginia.
3




80t4               CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
by day; and the master trudges on in life, by his side, carrying, so to speak,
that poor man's wife and children, as a load upon his back; and this,
together with his great and solemn responsibilities, make the master feel, as
he is often heard to say, that of the two he has the harder task."
Such was the view which the Southern clergy generally took, with some
noble exceptions, of this institution of debasement and servitude, which it
was the great object of the rebellion to uphold. The Northern clergy,
looking at the subject through the clear atmosphere of freedom, almost to
a man, t6ok a different view. They regarded the institution in the light
of the following facts:
In the State of Virginia,. and not many miles from the place where the
above sermon was preached, in the city of Norfolk, during the month of
June, 1852, Mrs. Margaret Douglass, a Christian lady of Southern birth and
education, opened, in her own house, a school for the gratuitous instruction
of the free colored children who were running neglected in the streets.
She did not venture to interfere with law and prejudice, by admitting any
of the children of slaves into her room. The colored people were overjoyed
at this opportunity of having their children taught, and soon her room was
so crowded that she received a small compensation for each pupil. This
effort of a Christian lady was deemed so dangerous, lest the mental illumination, thus created, might extend to the slave, that public meetings
of indignation were held, mobs were roused, the school was violently broken
up, the lady was dragged before the Circuit Court, and, after a protracted
trial, was found guilty of the crime of " Having unlawfully assembled
with diverse Negroes, for the purpose of instructing them to read and
write, against the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth of Virginia."
For this crime she was punished by a fine and by imprisonment among the
felons in a common jail, for one month. This penalty was mercilessly
inflicted upon her.
The election of President Lincoln established the political preponderance
of the North. Under the regular workings of the Constitution, the friends
of freedom had thus constitutionally the ability, and certainly the disposition, so to control the legislation of Congress, as to arrest the further extension of slavery. ]Hence the rebellion. Immediately after the organization
of the Confederate Government, the Hon. A. If. Stevens, of Georgia, VicePresident of the Confederacy, said, in a speech at Savannah, March, 1861:
" The prevailing ideas entertained by Jefferson, and most of the leading
statesmen, at the time of the formation of the old Constitution, were that
the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of nature:
that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally, and politically. Those
ideas were, however, fundamentally wrong. Our new government is founded
on exactly the opposite idea. Its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests
upon the great truth, that the Negro is not equal to the white man; that
slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural condition. Our
Confederacy is founded upon principles in strict conformity with these laws.
This stone, which was rejected by the first builders,'is become the chiefstone of the corner in our new edifice.' "
So different were the views entertained by the small band of slaveholders




CAUSE OF THE CONFLICT.                        35
at the South and the overwhelming majority of the American -people.
The slaveholders carried with them  resistlessly the masses of the poor
whites, who, in their extreme poverty and ignorance, took pride in contenlplating a class still below them. Where slavery exists the community is
by necessity divided into two classes, the free, and the enslaved. Thus it
happened that the poor whites, literally " eating dirt," were as hostile to
emancipation as were the slaveholders. In the popular language of such
men it was said, "If you free the slave, you make a nigger as good as a
white man."
Commodore Charles Stewart records the fbllowing conversation as having taken place between him and the lHon. John C. Calhoun, during tile
war of 1812. Mir. Calhoun was then an influential member of the House
of Representatives, from South Carolina. His remarks strikingly show his
sagacity, and the use to which the Southern slaveholders wished to appropriate Northern democracy.
"You in the South," said Commodore Stewart, "'are decidedly the aristocratic portion of this Union; you are-so in holding persons in perpetuity
in slavery; you are so in every domestic quality; so in eVery habit in your
lives,- living, and action; you neither work with your hands, heads, nor any
machinery, but live and have your being, not in accordance with the will
of your Creator, but by the sweat of slavery,-and yet you assume all the
attributes, professions, and advantages of democracy."
Mr. Calhoun replied, " I admit your conclusions in respect to us Southrons. That we are essentially aristocratic I can not deny. [ But we can
and do yield much to democracy. This is our sectional policy. We are
from necessity thrown upon and solemnly wedded to that party, however it
may occasionally clash with our feelings, for the conservation of our interests. It is through our affiliation with that party, in the middle and western States, that we hold power. But when we cease thus to control this
nation, through a disjointed democracy, or any material obstacle in that
party which shall tend to throw us out of that rule and control, we shall
then resort to the dissolhtion of the Union. The compromises of the Constitution, under the circumstances, were sufficient for our fathers; but,
under the altered condition of our country, from that period, leave to the
South no resource but dissolution; for no amendments to the Constitution
can be reached through a convention of the people, under their three-fourths rule."
This frank avowal of Mr. Calhoun has been the constant sentiment of
the South, from that day to this. They have ever assunied that the institution of slavery was one so sacred and important, that it needed the
fostering care of the Government. They were willing to remain in the
Union, so long as they could control its measures. But the moment the
power passed from their hands, they were determined upon dissolution.
By one of the compromises of the Constitution, which slavery had
exacted, and which, instead of being a compromise, was a bald concession,
the slaves of the South, though deemed there merely as property, were
allowed to be counted in the Congressional representation, five slaves being
equivalent to three white men. Thlus John Jacob Astor, with a property




36                 CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
of twenty millions at the North, had but one vote. But the Southern
planter had his property represented in Congress. The slaveholder, with
800 slaves valued at less than one million, was equal in his representation
in Congress to 480 free Northerners. He held in his own hand the votes
of these 480 men, who, in his own view, and so far as the rights of freemen
are concerned, were no more men than the horses and the oxen in Northern barns.
The North felt the humiliation of this arrangement, and yet were not
at all disposed to disturb it. They would abide by the Constitution. But
they were unalterably resolved that such an arrangement should not extend
any firther. The practical operation of this " compromise" was this. The
six slaveholding Gulf States, by the census of 1860, contained 2,311,260
free white citizens. The single Free State of Ohio contained 2,339,599 citizens. And yet Ohio could send but eighteen representatives to Congress,
while the slaveholders could send twenty-eight. In addition to all this, the
slaveholders of these States were represented by twelve Senators, while tle
free citizens of Ohio were represented but by two. And yet the energies
of fieedom so infinitely surpass those of slavery, that the free North was
perfectly willing to abide by these "compromises" of the Constitutico,
being fully conscious that, even with all these advantages in favor of slavery,
freedom would eventually win the day.
The slaveholders were equally conscious of the fact. They saw the tide
of free emigration rolling rapidly over the prairies of the West, and new
States carved out with almost miraculous rapidity. It was evident that,
under the natural workings of the Col ltitution, the votes of freemen would
soon entirely outnumber those of a privileged and aristocratic class, and
therefore they resolved to dissolve the Union, break up the Constitution,
and reconstruct the Government upon a basis which should continue the
power they had so long exercised, in their own hands.
By the same census of 1860, the total population of the Free States and
Territories was 21,816,952. The free white population of the eleven States
which soon raised the standard of rebellion, was 5~,81,630. This was the
trouble. Slavery had drifted into the minority. It was circumscribed and
prohibited expansion by the votes of freemen. Under these circumstances
the South would listen to no " compromise," which was not capitulation.
They demanded the reorganization of the Government, upon a basis which
would give slavery the preponderating power.
Neither was it possible to permit them  to depart.  Five millions
demanded that twenty-one millions should surrender to them the Capilal
at Washington, with all its historic associations and treasures.  They
demanded the mouths of the Mississippi, which the nation had purchased
at a vast expense, that the boundless regions of the North W7est, where
hundreds of millions must eventually dwell, might have free access to the
ocean. They demanded all the forts on the Southern Atlantic coast, and
in the Gulf of 3Mexico, forts essential to the protection of the ever increasing commerce of the North. They demanded permission, to drive, with
t!he energies of fire and sword, all loyal men out of the border States of
M:aryland, Kentucky, Missouri, and out of Western Virginia, that those




CAUSE OF THE CONFLICT.                        37
States might be forced to unite themselves with the Southern Confederacy.
They demanded that slavery should be considered an equal partner with
freedom, and that the Territories of the United States, and the Navy, and
the Treasury, should be divided equally between them. They demanded
a treaty, by which we should return every slave who should escape to our
free land. They avowed their intention of establishing free trade with
foreign nations, by which they could draw all importation to their ports,
flood the land with goods smuggled across a fiontier fifteen hundred miles
in length, and render it almost impossible to protect any domestic mlanufactures, or to collect by customs our national revenue.
Never before in the history of this world, were demands made so exorbitant and so insolent. The slaveholder, accustomed to plantation manners, and regarding himself as the representative of chivalry, ever assumed
on the floor of Congress the airs of a master, greatly to the disgust of all
well-bred men.
It was impossible to yield to either of his demands. More than twenty
millions of people could not, at the dictation of five millions, trample their
free Constitution in the dust, and accept, in its stead, one framed by the
slaveholder, based on the corner-stone of human bondage. Neither could
such a nation, without self-degradation, without meriting the scorn of the
world, surrender its Capital, half of its Territories, half of its navy, its
rmost important harbors and fortifications, the mouths of its most majestic
stream, which, with its tributaries, drains millions of square miles of free
soil, and surrender hundreds of thousands of loyal citizens in the border
States to pillage, violence, and exile. The demands of the slaveholders
rendered peace impossible, upon any other terms than the unconditional
capitulation of freedom to slavery.
Let us, for a moment, contemplate more fully this demand of the slaveholders, that the United States should recognize them as a foreign power,
and surrender to them the mouths of the Mississippi, that wonderful river,
which, with its numberless tributaries, makes the great central basin of our
continent the most attractive spot upon the globe. In 1763, the ancient
province, called Louisiana, was sold by France to Spain. Even then the
sparse population of our great North West were intensely excited in view
of the possibility of a foreign power being able to close the mouths of their
noble river, and thus cut them off from'all access to the sea.
Napoleon, with the wonderful foresight which marked his genius, seeking to establish colonies which would enable France to compete with her
rival, England, in commercial greatness, purchased the regal colony in the
year 1800.  Immediately the energies of the Napoleonic empire were
developed upon these shores.  This greatly increased the alarm of the
thousands of settlers who were rearing their cabins upon the banks of those
tributaries, whose only outlet was by the channel at New Orleans. The
power of Napoleon was such, that no force America could use would avail
-to wrest these provinces from his grasp. His political wisdom and energy
were such, that a vigorous empire would surely soon rise, spreading over
all those fertile plains, extending from the right of the Mississippi to the
ancient halls of the Montezumas. And thus the boundless North WVest




38                 CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
could only gain access to the commerce of the world, by bowing its flag
supplicatingly to a foreign power.
In this crisis, when the fate of America was trembling in the balance,
Providence interposed in our behalf:' England, jealous of the greatness to
which the arts of peace were elevating France, rudely broke the peace of
Amiens, and renewed the war to crush Napoleon.  England, with her
navy, omnipotent at sea, would have immediately seized upon this magnificent territory. To protect it from the grasp of England, and to aid in
building up a maritime power in the West, which might eventually prove
a check upon the British fleet, Napoleon opened negociations with Amnerica, for the sale of the whole;province of Louisiana, with boundaries then
quite indefinitely settled. Mr. Monroe was sent to France, to conduct the
negociation in association with Chancellor Livingston, then our resident
minister at the court of the Tuileries. The population of the United
States was then but 5,000,000. And yet eagerly we made the purchase
at $15,000,000, representing a burden upon the population equal to
$90,000,000, at the present day.
Thus we obtained, half a century ago, this majestic territory, equal in
size to one half of Europe. Many States and Territories have already
been carved from the acquisition. The tide of emigration is constantly
and rapidly pouring into those fertile plains, washed by the upper tribptaries of. the Mississippi and the Missouri, and already there is a population
there of 10,000,000. Before the close of this century, this population will
be doubled, probably trebled. The whole region between the Alleghanies
and the Rocky Mountains, that almost boundless valley, soon to teem with
hundreds of millions, finds its only outlet to the sea through the mouths
of the Mississippi, by the gates of New Orleans.
And yet the slaveholders of the comparatively insignificant State of
Louisiana, with a free white population of but 376,913, scarcely a third
of that of the City of New York alone, and 70,000 of whose adults can
neither read nor write, had the audacity to claim the right- to secede from
the Union, establish themselves as a foreign nation, and unfurl over the
forts at the mouths of the Mississippi a foreign banner; which the millions
dwelling in the great Mississippi basin could only pass by the consent of
her guns. The United States could, by no possibility, stoop to such dishonor. The I-Ion. Edward Everett, in the following words, has very forcibly
presented this question in its true light:
"Louisiana, a fragment of this colonial empire, detached from its main
portion, and first organized as a State,: undertakes to secede from the Union,
and thinks by so doing, she will be allowed, by the Government and people
of the United States, to revoke this imp6rial transfer, to disregard this
possession and occupation of sixty years, to repeal this law of nature and
of God; and she fondly believes, that tenl millions of the Free people of
the Union will -allow her and her seceding brethren to open and shut the
portals of this mighty region at their pleasure. They may do so, and the
swarming millions, which throng the course of these noble streams and
their tributaries, may consent to exchange the charter, which they hold
from the God of Heaven, for a bit of parchment signed at Montgomery or




CAUSE OF THE  CONFLICT.                       39
Richmond-but it will be when the Alleghanies and the Rocky iMountains,
which form the eastern and western walls of the imperial valley, shall
sink to the level of the sea, and the Mississippi and the Missouri flow back
to their fountains."
Senator Douglas presented the folly of this pretended right of secession in a very forcible light, and with logic which no honest mind can
resist.
"The President," said he, "has recommended thatwe should purchase
Cuba. According to this doctrine of the right of secession, we might pay
$300,000,000 for Cuba, and then, the next day, Cuba might secede, and
reannex herself to Spain 1" Volumes could not more conclusively show
the absurdity of such a notion.
The Presidential election drew nigh, when the question was to be
decided, whether the Government of the United States was to be administered upon the principle of rendering all possible support to the ipaintenance and extension of slavery, or whether the energies of the Government should lend all its constitutional support to foster freedom. There
were four candidates in the field. Mr. Lincoln, the republican candidate,
was openly pledged to resist the extension of slavery. In emphatic utterance, which exceedingly exasperated the slaveholders, he said:
" The central idea in our political system at the beginning was, and
until recently continued to be, the equality of men. In what I have done
I can not claim to have acted from any peculiar consideration for the colored people, as a separate and distinct class in the community, but from
the simple conviction, that all the individuals of that class are members
of the community, and, in virtue of their manhood, entitled to every
original right enjoyed by any other member. We feel, therefore, that all
legal distinctions between individuals of the same community, founded ill
any such circumstances as color, origin, and the like, are hostile to the
genius of our institutions, and incompatible with the true history of American liberty. Slavery and oppression must cease, or American liberty
must perish. True democracy makes no inquiry about the color of the
skin, or place of nativity, or any other similar circumstance of condition.
I regard, therefore, the exclusion of the colored people, as a body, front
the elective franchise, as incompatible with the true democratic principle."
While stating these as his political principles, he at the same time
avowed that Congress had no constitutional right to interfere with slavery
in those States where it existed, but that it was both the right and the duty
of Congress to prohibit slavery in all the United States Territories.
John C. Breckinridge was the candidate of the slaveholders, pledged
to administer the Government, in the most effectual way, to nurture and
to give increasing political power to the institution of slavery. There
were twvo other candidates, Stephen A. Douglas, and John Bell, who were
supported by those who wished to effect some compromise, and who were
ready, for the sake of avoiding civil war, to make very great concessions
to the South.
The Presidential election took place on the same day, the 6th of No



40                 CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
vemnber, 1860, throughout all the United States. The polls were closed at
sundown. The votes were counted by midnight; and in seven hours,
through the marvels of the Telegraph, the eventful result was flashed
through the whole breadth of the land, excepting California, embracing
points more than three thousand miles apart. The popular vote for
Electors stood, 1,857,610 for Lincoln; 1,365,976 for Douglas; 847,953
for Breckinridge, and 591,613 for Bell. This vote, according to the Constitution, gave seventeen States out of thirty-three for Lincoln; eleven for
Breckinridge; three for Bell; and one, Missouri, with three-sevenths of
New Jersey, for Douglas. "Though Mr. Douglas had so many votes
scattered throughout the United States, as in but one State he had a
majority, they availed him nothing.
The Electoral vote of each State, carefully sealed, is conveyed to
Washington, and there, in the Hall of the House of Representatives, the
members of the Senate being present, the votes are counted, and the result
announced. At 10 o'clock in the morning of the 15th of February, 1861,
Pennsylvania Avenue was thronged with crowds pressing towards the
Capitol. It was a season of great excitement, for the day after the election
it was perfectly known what the announcement would be; and the slaveholders, molding the passions of the masses of the South at their will, had
uttered many threats, that the announcement should not be made, and
that the Government should be broken up in a row. WVashington was a
slaveholding city, in the midst of a slaveholding region, and any number
of desperadoes could be summoned there, at a few hours' notice, fron.Maryland and Virginia.
James Buchanan, an intimidated old man, was then in the Presidential
chair, having been placed there as the candidate of the slaveholders, and
the nation could place but little reliance, in that crisis, upon his efficiency,
and reposed but little confidence in his patriotism. But, providentially,
General Winfield Scott, the veteran and universally revered head of the
American army, had drawn to the Capital the batteries which won the
field at Buena Vista. Their frowning guns, ready to sweep the streets,
overawed the conspirators. At 12 o'clock, Mr. Pennington, Speaker of
the House, called the HIouse to order, when the Chaplain, Rev. Thomas
Stockton, offered an impressive prayer, closing witlI the following words:
"Bless the outgoimlg Administration. May it close its labors in peace,
withodft further violence, and without any stain of blood. And we pray
for the incoming A'dministration; that thy blessing may rest onethe President elect, in his journey hitherward; that thy good Providence may be
around him day and night, guarding and guiding him at every step; and
we pray, that he may be peacefully and happily inaugurated, and afterwards, by pure, wise, and prudent counsels, that he may administer the
Government in such a manner, as that thy name may be glorified, and the
welfare of the people, in all their relations, be advanced, and that our
example of civil and religious liberty may be followed in all the world."
A message was then sent, informing the Senate that the House was
waiting to receive them, in order that, in joint body, the Electoral votes
m'igiht be opened and counted.. As the Senate entered the Hall of IRepre



CAUSE OF THE CONFLICT.                        41
sentatives, the House rose, and remained standing until the Senators took
their seats in a semi-circular range before the Speaker's desk. Vice-President Breckinridge, who was one of the candidates for the Presidency, and
who, by virtue of the office he held, presided over the Senate, took his seat
at the right of the Speaker. As soon as order was restored, Vice-President
Breckinridge rose, and said:
" We have assembled, pursuant to the Constitution, in order that the
electoral votes may be counted, and the result declared for President and
Vice-President, for the term commencing on the 4th of March, 1861; and it
is made my duty, under the Constitution, to open the certificates of election
in the presence of the two IIouses, and I now proceed to the performance
of that duty." HIe then took the package of each State, one after the other,
broke the seal, and handed it to the Tellers to be counted.
The scene then and there presented, was one which has never been
paralleled in the United States. The galleries were crowded with the
most distinguished personages in the land, who had been drawn, by the
momentous occasion, to the city. Some looked cheerfaul and hopefil; some,
with compressed lips, were pale and anxious; while many notorious conspirators were seen in groups, gloomy and threatening. There was deathly
silence as the result was announced, which was as follows: One hundred
and eighty votes were cast for Abraham Lincoln. Seventy-two for John C.
Breckinridge. Thirty-nine for John Bell. Twelve for Stephen A. Douglas.
This gave Abraham  JLincoln a majority of fifty-seven over all the other
candidates. Whereupon the Vice-President rising, said:
Abraham  Lincoln, of Illinois, having received a majority of the whole
number of Electoral votes, is duly elected President of the United States,
for the four years commencing on the 4th of Mlarch, 1861. And Hannibal
Hamlin, of Maine, having received a majority of the whole number of
Electoral votes, is duly elected Vice-President for the same term."
IHe then announced, that the business being completed, fobr which the
two Houses had assembled, the Senate would return to their own chamber.
The memlbers of the House rose, and remained standing until the Senators
had left the Hall. The five thousand spectators crowding the galleries
silently retired, and Abraham Lincoln stood forth before the world, the
constitutionally elected President of the United States.




CHAPTER II.
PRO IRESS  OF  TI E  CONSPI R AY.
TREACHERY OF BUCHANAN'S CABINET.-PEACE CONGLRESS.-PLAN OF HON. J. J. CRITTENDENE.NUMBER OF SOUTHERN LEADERS.-LETTER OF YULEE.-FORTS AT CHARLESTON.'RAISING THE
U. S. FLAG AT SUMTER.-STEAMER STAR OF THE WEST.-JOURNEY OF MR. LINCOLN.-PLOTS
FOR MR. LINCOLN'S ASSASSINATION. -CONSPIRATORS FOILED.-SPEECH OF JEFF. DAVIS.-ORGANIZATION OF SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY.-REBEL ATROCITIES.
ON tile 7th of November, 1860, it was known that Abraham Lincoln
was elected President of the United States. But he was not to enter upon
his office until the Fourth of March. In the mean time, the Executive
Government was virtually in the hands of the slaveholders, and they had
four months in which to mature their conspiracy. Never was time more
efficiently employed.  James Buchanan, the President of tile United
States, had been elected to his office, openly pledged to pursue the general
policy the slaveholders enjoined. He was enthralled by superior minds,
and dared not assert independence. I-e was thus the pliant tool in the
hands of the conspirators. In order to assist the slaveholders to retain for
slavery an equal voice with freedoml, in the Senate, he outraged all the
principles of true democracy, and caused Kansas to be deluged in blood,
that he might fobrce slavery upon that imperial domain.
The members of his Cabinet were unscrupulous and dictatorial men,
who held him with an iron grasp, from which he dared not attempt escape.
They watched him with an eagle eye, warning, cajoling, threatening, so
that he became merely the executive of their will. I-Iowell Cobb, a slaveholder from Georgia, was Secretary of the Treasury. When he entered
upon office the national Treasury was prosperous beyond example. It was
very important to the conspirators, that the new Government should find
an empty chest, that they might have no pecuniary means to put down
the rebellion. The deed was soon accomplished. The new Administration, when it came into power, found the Treasury exhausted, even to the
verge of bankruptcy. Upwards of six millions were stolen, and probably
appropriated to the work of the rebellion.  The Treasury being thus
impoverished, Mr. Cobb sent in his resignation, and immediately took
office under the conspirators.
Jacob Thompson, a slaveholder from Mlississippi, was Secretary of the
Interior. I-Ie exerted all his influence to prevent the reenforcement of the
fortresses. If reenforced, they could defend themselves from surprise and
capture by the rebels. The Star of the West was privately sent with




PROGRESS OF THE CONSPIRACY.                      43
supplies for the starving garrison in Fort Sumter. Mr. Thompson, cognizant of the fact, immediately telegraphed the armed conspirators in
Charleston, and the unarmed steamer was driven back by their batteries.
In a speech which he subsequently made to the rebels in Oxford, Miss., lie
boasted of this abominable act of treachery, in the following words:
"I sent a dispatch to Judge Longstreet, that the Star of the West was
coming with reenforcements. The troops were then put on their guard,
and when the Star of the West arrived, she received a warm welcome
from booming cannon, and soon beat a retreat."
We have here the unblushing avowal of a member of the Cabinet,
that he betrayed, to those who under arms were seeking to destroy his
country, information derived from his official position. In consequence,
that frail vessel was met by hostile batteries, the lives of two hundred and
fifty men, in the service of the Government, were imperiled, and the heroic
little garrison of seventy-five men in Fort Sumter were abandoned to their
fate. Secretary Thompson, having accomplished this feat, resigned his
office, and joined the rebels, where he was received with open arms.
The subsequently notorious John 13. Floyd, a slave master of Virginia,
was Secretary of War. It was the well matured plan of some of the conspirators, to assassinate President Lincoln on his journey to Washington
to be inaugurated. They designed, in the panic which would ensue, to
pour in troops from the adjacent Slave States of Maryland and Virginia,
and seize upon Washington, with all its treasures, that it might become
the capital of their new Confederacy. In the accomplishment of this plan,
it was important that the army of the United States, but a few thousand
in-number, should be so dispersed, that they could not be rallied for the
defense of the Government; and that the arsenals at the North should be
so despoiled, that the free citizens could find no weapons to grasp, by which
they might rush to the rescue. John B. Floyd, Secretary of War, did this
work effectually. The army was so scattered in remote fortresses in the
far West, as to leave all the forts in the slaveholding States defenseless.
Thus fortifications containing twelve hundred cannon, and which cost over
six millions of dollars, were seized and garrisonedby the rebels.
At the same time Secretary Floyd, by virtue of that power which his
office gave him, and in infamous violation of his oath, disarmed as far as
possible the Free States, by emptying their arsenals, and sending their
guns to the Slave States, where bands of rebels were already organized
and drilling, prepared to receive them. One hundred andl-fifteen thousand
arms, of the most approved pattern, were transferred fromn Springfield,
Mass., and from Watervliet, N. Y., to arsenals throughout the Slave States.
In addition to this, he sold to different Slave States, United States muskets,
worth $12 each, for $2.50. A vast amount of cannon, mor tar, balls, powder, and shells were also forwarded to the rebels. IHavino' accomplished
all this, Floyd sent in his resignation as Secretary of War, and, joining
the rebels, received the appointment of general in their army. Thus
General Scott, when the hour of trial came, and Washington wavs tllreatened with assault by a sudden rush from the slaveholding Sta.tt'e, found it
difficult to concentrate even a thousand troops for the defense of the




44                   CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
Capital. Washington was saved from capture only by the almost miraculous interposition of God.
Isaac Toucey, of Connecticut, a Northern man with Southern principles, was Secretary of the Navy. Our fleet then consisted of ninety
vessels of all classes, carrying about 2,415 guns; and was manned by a
complement of about 7,600 men, exclusive of officers and marines. It was
a matter of the utmost moment, at this critical hour, that this fleet should
be in our own waters to aid the Government.  It was a matter of the
utmost moment to the traitors, that this fleet should be dispersed, where it
could do them  no harm. It was accordingly dispersed. Five of these
vessels were sent to the East Indies, three to Brazil, seven to the Pacific
Ocean, three to the Mediterranean, seven to the coast of Africa, and so on,
leaving, of our whole squadron, but two vessels, carrying twenty-seven
guns and two hundred and eighty men, in Northern ports.*
On the 21st of February, 1861, a select committee of five, appointed
by thie I-ouse of Representatives, in a report upon the conduct of the
Secretary of the Navy, spoke as follows:
" From this statement it will appear, that the entire naval force available for the defense of the whole Atlantic coast, at the time of the appointment of this committee, consisted of the steamer Brooklyn, 25 guns, and
the store ship Relief, 2 guns; while the former was of too great draft to
permit her to enter Charleston harbor with safety, except at spring tides,
and the latter was under orders to the coast of Africa, with stores for the
African squadron. Thus the whole Atlantic sea board has been, to all
intents and purposes, without defense, during all the period of civil commnotion and lawless violence, to which the President (Buchanan) has called
Dur attention, as I'(f suchl vast and alarming _proportions, as to be beyond
Ais power' to check or control.'
"The Committee can not fail to call attention to this extraordinary
disposition of the entire naval force of the country, and especially in connection with the present no less extraordinary and critical juncture of
political affairs.  They can not call to mind any period in the past history
of the country, of such profound peace and internal repose, as would justify so entire an abandonment of the coast of the country to the chance
of fortune.  Certainly since the nation possessed a navy, it has never
before sent its entire available force into distant seas, and exposed the
immense interests at home, of which it is the special guardian, to the dangers from which, even in times of the utmost quiet, prudence and forecast
do always shelter them.
" To the Committee this disposition of the naval force, at this most
critical period, seems extraordinary.  The permitting of vessels to depart
for distant seas, after these unhappy difficulties had broken out at home;
the omission to put in repair and commission, ready for orders, a single
one of the twenty-eight ships dismantled and unfit for service, in our own
ports, and that, too, while $646,639.19 of the appropriation for repairs in
the navy, the present year, remained unexpended, were in the opinion of
your Committee, grave errors-without justification orf excuse."
* Report of Secretary of the Navy, July 4, 1861.




PROGRESS OF THE CONSPIRACY.                       45
Thus the Government was despoiled by its own imbecile or traitorous
officials. Enemies within, opened the door of the fortress for the entrance
of the beleaguering foe. The President, overawed and nerveless, was a
silent observer of the march of the conspirators. At last, however, he
summoned courage to say to Congress, in tones alike of weakness and
despair, that the rebellion had attained such " vast and alarming proportions, as to place the subject entirely above and beyond Executive control."
Nay more, instead of hurling the thunderbolts he might have wielded!
into the ranks of' the rebels, he acquiesced in their movements, and could
hardly be'forced to adopt any measure which did not meet with thei'
approval.
It is difficult to find in all the annals of the past, an example of executive power bowing the neck so meekly beneath the heel of traitorous
arrogance. I-s Cabinet was mostly filled with slaveholding conspirators,
who first endeavored to betray their country by the most insane measures,
and then disclosed to their confederate traitors all that transpired in the
Executive counsels. President ]Buchanan was anxious for peace. IIis
political sympathies were, however, with the conspirators, and bitterly
hostile to those who were the foes of human bondage. As the storm of
passion increased in violence, the only measure lhe could suggest wa's
unconditional surrender of the Government to the wishes of the slaveholders. This was called a compromise. The North, on its part, was to
surrender everything.  The South, on its part, would consent to accept
the surrender.
A so-called Peace Congress was convened in Washington, to try to
placate the slaveholders. John Tyler, formerly President of the United
States, a slaveholder from Virginia, took the chair; the doors were closed;
weeks were' passed in discussing the concessions which the North might
be induced to yield to slavery. The results, finally arrived at, were expressed in terms studiously ambiguous, that they might mean one thing in
the free North, and another thing in the slaveholding South. The Convention was in session twenty-one days. Twenty States only were represented, seven of which only were slaveholding States. The extreme South
were resolved upon breaking up the Government entirely, and establishing,
in its stead, a thorough slaveholding oligarchy, and they refused to take
any part in the Peace Convention, regarding with scorn any terms of compromise which should interfere with this plan. Most at the North were
fully conscious of this determined spirit of the slaveholders, and therefore
had no heart in this peace movement. The result, to which the conference
lnally came, was:
1. That Congress should never interfere with slavery in the District
of Columbia, over which, by the Constitution, Congress held exclusive
jurisdiction, without the consent of the slaveholding State of ]Maryland,
and the consent of the slaveholders in the District.
2. That Congress should not forbid slaveholders from bringing their
slaves to Washington, nor abolish slavery in any of the dockyards,
fortresses, or territories under the jurisdiction of the`United States, where
slavery then existed.




463                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
3. That Congress should not prohibit, and should so amend the Constitution, that the States should not prohibit, the transportation of slaves,
from and through any of the States and Territories, where slavery then
existed either by law or usage.
The " Concess8on " to be exacted from the South was, that they should.
consent to the suppression of the slave trade, which already for years had
been prohibited as piracy; and that the District of Columbia should not
be used as a slave market, for the sale of Southern bondmen, which also
had been forbidden on a previous compromise; and that slavery should be
prohibited in all the territory north of the parallel of 360 30' north latitude. Eleven States voted for these peace propositions languidly. Seven
States voted against them emphatically. Two States were divided in their
votes. The Convention adjourned the 27th of February, 1861, and the
Compromise soon died, and was never heard of more. It was, indeed,
adopted by Congress, to be recommended to the people, after a stormy
debate, by a vote of 133 yeas and 65 nays. But that was the end of it.
About the same time, on the 18th of December, the Hon.; John J.
Critteuden, a slaveholder from Kentucky, universally respected for his
patriotism, his ability, and his high moral worth, presented a series of
"Compromise Resolutions " in the Senate, which were long debated, and
which attracted the attention of the nation.
iIis bill proposed to prohibit slavery in the territory north of 36~ 30',
and to protect it south of that latitude; to admit new States, with or
without slavery, as their Constitutions should provide; to prohibit the
abolition, by Congress, of slavery in the States and in the District of Columbia, without the consent of Virginia and Maryland; to permit the
transportation of slaves in any of the States by land or water; to provide
for fugitive slaves when rescued; and to repeal all the Personal Liberty
Bill]s in the Northern States. In consideration of these concessions, the
South would so amend an obnoxious feature in the Fugitive Slave Law,
that the sheriffs should receive the same fee, whether the man arrested as
a slave should prove a slave or a freeman. By the law as it stood, the
sheriff seemed to be offered a bribe, though indeed a trivial one, to return
the man as a slave; for in that case he received ten dollars; but if he
pronounced him a freeman he received only five.
Mr. Crittenden was accustomed to slavery from his childhood, and
regarded the institution as merely one of the necessary inifelicities of fallen
humanity. But his ability, his manifest conscientiousness, his pure and
lofty character, had secured for him universal respect. No Southern man
had so much influence throughout the North. These propositions were long
and earnestly discussed, and were finally rejected by the Senate, by a vote
of 19 yeas to 20 nays. The difference between the two parties, whom
Mr. Crittenden attempted to reconcile, was radical, and could, by no possibility, be harmonized. One party claimed the recognition of slavery by
the Constitution of the United States, the support of an aristocratic and
privileged class, and the entire renunciation of the doctrine of democratic
equality of rights. The other party declared such doctrines to be unjust,
inhuman, and repugnant te all the principles of republican liberty.




PROGRESS OF THE CONSPIRACY.                      47
Many petitions were'sent in from the North, ufging the Senate to adopt,,anld recommend to the people, the Crittenden Compromise. In reply to
s uch a petition, from some citizens of Massachusetts, Henry Wilson, Sen-.Itor from Massachusetts, gave utterance to the following strain of indigltant eloquence, undoubtedly expressing the sentiments of the majority of
the people in the Free States:
"These men pray for the adoption of the amendments to the Constitution proposed by the Senator from Kentueky, to wit: The recognition
of slavery and its protection south of latitude 36~ 30', not only in
the existing territory, but in territory not yet conquered, purchased, or
stolen; the denial of any power in Congress to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia while it existed in Virginia, or to prohibit the transportation of slaves from one State to another, or to Territories recognizing
slavery; to pay the owner the full value of a fugitive slave when the
Marshal was prevented from arresting him by intimidation, and to take
from persons of African race the right of snuffrage, which they have possessed in Massachusetts since the Constitution, passed by the Revolutionary
fathers, was adopted in 1780, and to acquire territory in Africa or South
America, and send, at the expense of the Federal Treasury, such free
Negroes as the States may wish to have removed from their limits. For
the adoption of these honorable and humane provisions in the Constitution,
beyond the power Qf the people ever to change, the people of the Free
States would secure the immense concession of making the fee of the
Commissioner no greater for remanding a man to slavery than for discharging him as a freeman. Surely the prayer of men of Massachusetts
for such objects ought to be heeded by the Senate of the United States."
Upon the same subject, Charles Sumner, Senator from iMassachusetts,
expresses himself with equal explicitness.  His words are historically
important, as Mr. Sumner is a represenltative man, and expresses the views
of a large party. In an Address before the Young Men's Republican
Association of New York, November 27, 1861, he said:
" But looking at the concessions proposed, I have always found them
utterly unreasonable and indefensible. I should not expose them now, if
they did not constantly testify to the origin and mainspring of this rebellion. Slavery was always the single subject-matter, and nothing else.
Slavery was not only an integral part of every concession, but the single
integer. The single idea was to give some new security-in some formto slavery. That brilliant statesman, Mr. Canning, in one of those eloquent speeches which charm so much by the style, said, that he was'tired
of being a security-grinder,' but his experience was not comparable to
ours.'Security-grinding,' in the name of slavery, has been for years the
way in which we have encountered this conspiracy.
"The propositions at the last Congress began with the President's Message, which in itself was one long concession. You do not forget his
sympathetic portraiture of the disaffection throughout the Slave States, or
his testimony to the cause. Notoriously and shamefully his heart was with
the conspirators, and he knew intimately the main-spring of their conduct.
He proposed nothing short of a general surrender to slavery, and thus




48                 CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
did he proclaim slavery as the head and front —the very causa causansof the whole crime.
" You have not forgotten the Peace Conference-as it was delusively
styled-convened at Washington on the summons of Virginia, with John
Tyler in the chair, where New York, as well as Massachusetts, was reprepresented by some of her ablest and most honored citizens. The sessions
were with closed doors; but it is now known, that throughout the proceedings, lasting for weeks, nothing was discussed but slavery. And the
propositions finally adopted by the Convention were confined to slavery.
Forbearing all details, it will be enough to say, that they undertook to
give to slavery positive protection in the Constitution, with new sahction
and immunity —making it, notwithstanding the determination of our
fathers, national instead of sectioncl; and even more than this, making
it one of the essential and permanent parts of our republican system.
"B ut slavery is sometimes as deceptive as at other times it is bold; and
these propositions were still further offensive from their studied uncertainty, amounting to positive duplicity. At a moment when frankness
was needed above all things, we were treated to phrases pregnant with
doubts and controversies, and were gravely asked, in the name of slavery,
to embody them in the Constitution.
" There was another string of propositions much discussed during the
last winter, which bore the name of the venerable Senator from whom
they came-Mr. Crittenden, of Kentucky.  These also related to slavery,
and nothing else. They were more obnoxious even than those from the
Peace Conference. And yet there were petitioners from the North-and
even from Massachusetts-who prayed for this great surrender to slavery.
Considering the character of these propositions-that they sought to change
the Constitution in a manner revolting to the moral sense; to foist into
the Constitution the idea of property in man; to protect slavery in all
present territory south of 360 30', and to carry it into all territory here,
after acquired south of that line, and thus to make our beautiful Stars and
Stripes, in their southern march,. the ifag of slavery; considering that they
further soulght to give new constitutional securities to slavery in the
national Capital, and in other places within the exclusive Federal jurisdiction; that they sought to give new constitutional securities to the
transit of slaves from State to State, opening the way to a roll-call of
slaves at the foot of Bunker Htill or the gates of Faneuil Hall; and that
they also sought the disfranchisement of more than 10,000 of my fellowcitizens in Massachusetts, whose rights are fixed by the Constitution of that
Commonwealth, drawn by John Adams; considering these things, I felt
at the time, and I still feel, that the best apology of these petitioners was,
that they were ignorant of the true character of these propositions, and
that in signing the petition they knew not what they did. But even in
their ignorance they testified to slavery, while the propositions were the
familiar voice of slavery crying,' Give, give.'"
There were various other plans of compromise suggested, which it is
not necessary to advert to, as they excited but a momentary interest. It
was a noble saying of antiquity, that the best government is that, in which




PROGRESS OF THE CONSPIRACY.                      49
an injury to a single individual, no matter how humble, is resented as an
injury to the whole state. When Napoleon was in Egypt, information was
brought him one day, that robbers from the desert had murdered a poor
peasant, and carried off his flocks.
" Take three hundred horsemen and two hundred camels," said N'apoleon, to an officer of his staff, " and pursue these robbers until they are
captured, and the outrage is avenged."
"Was the boor your cousin 2" inquired a sheik, contemptuously, "that
you are in such a rage at his death 2"
"He was more," Napoleon replied. "He was one whose protection
Providence had intrusted to my care."
" Wonderful!" exclaimed the sheik. "' You speak like one inspired of
the Almighty."
When South Carolina consented to become one of the States of the
American Union, she demanded, as a condition to this assent, that the slave
trade should be continued. And now the slaveholders, with Mr. B3reckinridge as their candidate, demanded, as a condition of their continued loyalty,
constitutional protection for slavery, in all the Territories, whether at the
present time belonging to the iepublic, or to be acquired. To none of the
so-called cornpromises  suggested, did the extreme South consent. They
looked upon them all with contempt, deeming themselves abundantly able
to humiliate the Northern people, and to chastise them into the acceptance
of such terms as they desired.
Speaking of this rebellion and the plan to conciliate the rebels, by surrendering to slavery all the United States territory south of 360 30', a concession which the rebels would not accept, Blr. Lovejoy, in the House of
Representatives, uttered the memorable words:
" There never was a more causeless revolt since Lucifer led his cohorts
of apostate angels against the throne of God; but I never heard that the
Al-ighty proposed to compromise the matter, by allowing the rebels to
kindle the fires of hell south of the celestial meridian of thirty-six thirty."
lMr. Wigfall, Senator from Texas, exclaimed, in one of his characteristic
outbursts, "It is the merest balderdash-that is what it is-it is the most
unmitigated fudge for any one to get up here, and tell men who have sense
and who have brains, that there is any prospect of two-thirds of this Congress passing any propositions as an amendment to the Constitution, that
any man who is white, twenty-one years old, and whose hair is straight,
living south of:Mason and Dixon's line, will be content with."
One of the most marvelous revelations of history is the phenomenon,
that the most majestic of national movements may often be controlled by
very small minorities.:Brissot de WTarville saTys, that the French Revolution was carried by not more than twenty men. The whole number of
slaveholders in the South did not probably exceed three hundred thousand.
Not more than a hundred thousand of these possessed any large amount
of this species of property. And yet this petty oligarchy, entirely subordinate to a few leading minds, organized the most gigantic rebellion which
ever shook this globe. "The future historian," says the Hon. Charles
Sumner, ( will record, that the present rebellion, notwithstanding its pro4




50                 CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
tracted origin, the multitudes it has enlisted, and its extensive sweep, was
at last precipitated by fewer than twenty men; Mr. Everett says, by as few
as ten. It is certain that thus far it has been the triumph of a minoritybut of a minority inspired, combined, and aggrandized by slavery."
While Congress was discussing measures of compromise, the South was
marshaling- her hosts for battle. When the news of Lincoln's election
reached Charleston, S. C., tumultuous throngs in the streets received the
tidings with long continued cheering for a Southern Confederacy. In
Washington many of the people boldly assumed the secession cockade,
knowing that the insulted, humiliated Government of the United States,
in the hands of President Buchanan, was impotent to harm them. The
Palmetto flag was hoisted and saluted; "minute men " were organized.
All throughl the cotton and slaveholding States the excitement was intense,
the secessionists striving to overawe the friends of the Union, and preparing for the arbitrament of the sword, in the success of which arbitrament
they, in their ignorance and self-confidence, cherished not a doubt. They
had been accustomed to regard all men who labored as degraded, as on a
footing with their slaves. The Northerners they stigmatized as "greasy
mechanics," and " mudsills," any five of whom could be instantly put to
flight by one chivalrous Southron.
The following extract from the Mobile (Alabama) Advertiser is a truthful and unexaggerated exhibition of the feelings with which the slaveholders
of the South regarded the freemen of the North:
"They may raise plenty of men; men who prefer enlisting to starvation, scurvy fillows from the back scum of cities, whom Falstaff would not
have marched through Coventry with; but these recruits are not soldiers,
least of all the soldiers to meet the hot-blooded, thorough-bred, impetuous
men of the South. Trencher soldiers, who enlisted to war on their rations,
not on men, they are; such as marched through 13altimore, squalid,
wretched, ragged, and half-naked, as the newspapers of that city report
them. Fellows who do not know the breech of a musket from its muzzle,
and had rather filch a handkerchief than fight an enemy in manly combat.
White slaves, peddling wretches, small change knaves, and vagrants, the
dregs and offscouring of the populace: these are the levied'forces' whom
Lincoln suddenly arrays as candidates tor the honor of being slaughtered
by gentlemen-such as- Mobile sent to battle yesterday. Let them come
South, and we will put our negroes to the dirty work of killing them. But
they will not come South. Not a wretch of them will live -this side of the
border longer than it will take us to reach the ground, and drive them
over."
During the progress of tlhe war, Fernandina, Florida, was occupied by
the Federal troops. In the house which General Wright took possession
of, as his head-quarters, he found, among other papers, a letter addressed to
a traitorous Convention in Tallahassee, Fla., which had met to devise measures for the overthrow of the American Union. The letter was from the
Hon. D. L. Yulee, United States Senator from Florida, and who, in defiance
of his oath of fidelity to the American Union, with foulness of treason never
exceeded, was, with his confederates in Congress, availing hzimself of his




PROGRESS O:F THE CONSPIRACY.                     51
official power to betray and ruin his country. This extraordinary document
reads as follows:
"WASHINGTON, January 7, 1861,
"M]fY DEAR SIR:
"On the other side is a copy of resolutions adopted at a consultation
of Senators from the seceding States, in which Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, Mississippi, and Florida were present.- The idea
of the meeting was, that the States should go out at once, and provide for
the early organization of a Confederate government, not later than the
15th of February. This time is allowed to enable Louisiana and Texas to
participate. It seemed to be the opinion, if we left here, force, loan, and
volunteer bills might be passed, which would put Mr. Lincoln in immediate
condition for hostilities, whereas, by remaining in our places until the 4th
of March, it is thought we can keep Mr. Buchanan's hands tied, and disable
the Republicans from effecting any legislation which will strengthen the
hands of the incoming Administration. In haste, yours truly,
"D. L. YULEE."
There can be no doubt, that the plan of the slaveholders was not a
division of the country into two separate nationalities, but a change of government over the whole of it; a revolution, not a secession. Viewed in
that light, it was a cunning and well devised plot; and it came very near
succeeding. Viewed in any other light, the attempt was little short of
insanity. The leaders in the rebellion movement were well aware that the
Constitution could not be changed as they desired, by peaceable means.
That was certain. They therefore determined, to accomplish their end by
revolution. Perhaps no revolution was ever attempted with greater facilities, or with a better apparent chance of success.
The commissioner from AMississippi to Maryland, urging that State to
join the rebellion, stated, in a speech to the citizens of Baltimore, on the
19th of December, " Secession is not intended to break up the present
Government, but to perpetuate it. We do not propose to go out by way
of breaking up or destroying the Union, as our fathers gave it to us, but
we go out for the purpose of getting further guaranties and security for our
rights. Our plan is for the Southern States to withdraw from the Union
for the present, to allow amendments to the Constitution to be made, guaranteeing our just rights. This question of slavery must be settled, now or
never. The country has been agitated seriously by it, for the past twenty
or thirty years. It has been a festering sore upon the body politic; many
remedies have failed, and we must try amputation to bring it to a healthy
state."
The plan of operations, as since clearly developed, was this: The conspirators had the State organizations of the Slave States, ready at their
hand to use as their instruments. Some of these organizations could be
commanded at once, and thus could' easily be brought in whenever wanted.
But the real nature and extent of the design could not, at first, with safety
be openly acknowledged. They were known distinctly only to the leaders,
and were but vaguely intimated to the masses of the people. The fuilJ




52                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
exposition of the plan was to be deferred until a conflict should be brought
on, which should arouse the pride and passion of the Southern people-or,
as they termed it, " till the Southern heart should be fired."
The subject was consequently presented in different lights to different
sections. Parts were assigned to the advocates of slavery in these sections,
according to the circumstances of each case, and the condition of public
sentiment around them. In South Carolina and the Gulf States, there was
held up the idea of secession as a temporary measure, with a view to a
modification of the Constitution with stronger guaranties for slavery. Without the votes obtained on this theory, in the Gulf States, the cause of secession could not, probably, have been carried in any one of them.
In the Border States the people were to be urged to remain, for a time,
neutral. While the people of those States were thus held back from sustaining the United States Government, the leaders were to manage the
State Governments in such a manner as to throw their whole influence and
power in favor of the insurgents. In the Northern States the idea was to
be circulated among the partisans of their cause, and through them among
the masses of the people, who were supposed to be so averse to violence
and bloodshed, that they could easily be deterred from action, that the
South, if it chose, had a right to secede, and, at any rate, there was to be
no coercion exerted over them. Even if coercion were attempted, it was
said, it would be impossible to subdue the Southern people by force.
At the commencement of the struggle there were many journals, and
quite a large party at the North, who favored this view, and who were in
sympathy with the South, hoping that by the menace of a dissevered Union,
and the actual commencement of the disintegration, the North would be
persuaded to yield to the wishes of the slaveholders, and consent to the
reorganization of the Government upon the basis of slavery. The symnpathizers with slavery, at the Nlorthll, had no idea of the permanent dissolution
of the Union. And when they said, "' T-e South have a right to secede,"
it was simply an affirmation, not belief, to induce the North to assent to
the demands of the South, rather than have the Government overthrown.
While these ideas were diligently circulated, by certain presses and
public speakers, among the masses of the people at the North, the leaders
of the Pro-slavery party in the Free States took the ground, that, by the
secession of a State, the Government was actually dissolved. The Government, they said, is a partnership. When some of the partners withdraw,
the firm is broken up, and those who remain can form any new combinations which they please. They, consequently, began to speak of the lcate
United States. Ideas were industriously disseminated, both here and in
Europe, of new combinations which were proposed, when it afterward
appeared that no such plans were thought of. Maine was going to join the
British dominions. Now England was to form a separate Confederacy.
The MIa;yor of New York, one of the staunchest friends of the secessionists,
proposed that New York should become a free city, unconnected with any
State jurisdiction. California was to constitute a separate western empire.
By these and a thousand similar rumors, it was supposed that the public
mind of the North, and of the community at large, would be so confounded,




PROGRESS OF THE CONSPIRACY.                      53
and their strength so paralyzed, that the rebellion could be rushed forwaird
without encountering any serious resistance, until Washington and the
archives of the Government were in possession of the rebels, and their victorious columns were on the march to Cincinnati, to Philadelphia, and to
Boston. New York was to be secured through the seizure of the Brooklyn
Navy Yard, a danger which was, at one moment, imminent, and which was
very narrowly escaped.
With Washington thus subjugated, and the great Northern capitals
almost or quite under their control, they were to claim that the old &overmnent had been deposed, and a new one installed. They would then
demand recognition by the leading powers of Europe, as the government
of Louis Napoleon was recognized after his great coup2 d'etat.
That it was the wish of the leading rebels to establish a monarchy in
the South, and to elevate the prominent slaveholders into a class of nobles,
is proved beyond all question. Still they saw allhost insuperable difficulties
in the way. The rivalry between Toomzbs, Davis, Wigfall, Mason, Floyd,
etc., was such, that no one of these ftrmilies could be permitted to assume
regal state. Slidell, Benjamin, and Wigfall would promptly resent the idea
of bowing in homage to the I-Iouse of Toomnbs. There could be no hope,
therefore, for a throne, but in looking abroad for a prince, who would be
the nominal head, the decoration, while the real power would be in the
hands of a class of slaveholding nobles. fMr. Russell, in his sixth letter to
tihe London Times, writing from South Carolina, says:
"Nothing I could say, can be worth one fact which has forced itself
upon my mind, in reference to the sentiments whicl prevail among the
gentlemen of this State. I have been among them fobr several days. I have
visited their plantations, and have conversed with them  freely and filly.
From all quarters have come to my ears the echoes of the same voice; it
may be feigned, but there is no discord in the note, and it sounds in wonderful strength and monotony all over the country. Shades of George III.,
of North, of Johnson, of all wlio contended against the great rebellion
which tore these colonies from England, can you hear the chorus which
rings through the State of lMarion, Sunmter, and Pi'nckney, and not clap
your ghostly hands in triumph? That voice says,'If we could only get
one of the royal race of England to rule over us, we should be content.'
Let there be no misconception on this point. That sentiment, varied in a
hundred ways, has been repeated to me over and over again, The admiration for monarchical institutions, on the English model, for privileged classes,
and for a landed aristocracy and gentry, is undisguised and apparently
genuine. With the pride of having achieved their independence, is mingled in the South Carolinian's hearts, a strange regret at the result and
consequences, and many are they who'would go back to-morrow if we
could.'
"An intense affection for the British connection, a love for British habits and customs, a respect for British sentiment, law, authority, order, civilization, and literature, preeminently distinguish the inhabitants of this
State, who, glorying in their descent from ancient families on the three;siands, whose fortunes they still follow, and with whose members they




54.CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
maintain not unfrequently familiar relations, regard with an aversion, of
which it is impossible to give an idea to one who has not seen its manifestations, the people of New England and the population of the Northern
States, whom they regard as tainted beyond cure by the venom of'Puritanism.' Whatever may be the cause, this is the fact and the effect. It is
absolutely astounding to a stranger who aims at the preservation of a decent
neutrality, to mark the violence of these opinions.
"'If that confounded ship had sunk with those Pilgrim Fathers on
board,' says one,'we should never have been driven to these extremities!'' We could have got on with these fanatics, if they had been either
Christians or gentlemen,' says another;'for in the first case, they would
have acted with common charity, and in the second, they would have fought
when they insulted us; but there are neither Christians or gentlemen
among them!'
"'Anything on earth!' exclaims a third,' any form of government you
will, but'-and here is an appeal more terrible than the adjuration of all the
gods-' nothing on earth shall ever induce us, to submit to any union with
the brutal, bigoted blackguards of the New England States, who neither
comprehend nor regard the feelings of gentlemen! Man, woman, and child,
we'll die first.'
" Imagine these and a variety of similar sentiments uttered by courtly,
well-educated men, who set great store on the nice observance of the usages
of society, and who are only moved to extreme bitterness and anger when
they speak of the North, and you will fail to conceive the intensity of tho
dislike of the South Carolinians for the Free States. There are national
antipathies on our side of the Atlantic which are tolerably strong, and have
been unfortunately pertinacious and long-lived. The hatred of the Italian
for the Tedesco, of the Greek for the Turk, of the Turk for the Russ, is
warm and fierce enough to satisfy the prince of darkness, not to speak of a
few little pet aversions among allied powers and the atoms of composite
empire; but they are all mere indifference and: neutrality of feeling compared to the animosity evinced by the'gentry' of South Carolina for tho'rabble of the North.'"
There must always be an aristocracy. There will be always some wiser,
better, nobler than others. As such they will be recognized. TIhe noble
men of America, though untitled, and though enjoying no exclusive privileges, are none the less acknowledged and revered. Washington, M1arshall,
Clay, Jackson, Webster,-they are our princes of the blood. Republicanism has knighted them. They are ennobled by their works. Deeds performed, are the ensigns armorial upon their escutcheons, and no man questions their supremacy.  They are great; not in transmitted titles and
ribbons, and the musty records of a dead ancestry, but in their own heroic
achievements.
But it is impossible to respect an aristocracy founded on the most
sordid and vulgar claim earth has ever known-that of owning Negroes;an aristocracy which can sell the child from the, mother, and scourge the
back of the maiden, and wrench from the washer-woman her dollar, and
sell female virtue and loveliness at auction;-an aristocracy vhose only




PROGRESS OF THE  CONSPIRACY.                       55
appropriate crest is a trembling Negro couc/anlt, blood-hound'regacrdcnt,
gory lash rctrnpant.
The only nobility America can recognize, is the nobility of achievement'
and worth.  The arena here is to be thrown open to all, and the swift
runner, the strong wrestler, is to bear away the prize, be he rich- man's son
or poor man's son, high born or lowly born. It is this spirit only which
developes the whole latent talent of the nation. It is this principle which
has enabled the United States to make such giant strides, spreading such
marvelous thrift and energy over the Free North;-and it is the absence
of this spirit, which has spread such dilapidation and decay over the
enslaved South.
It was the design of the rebels to overthrow these free institutions, and
to introduce in their stead the reign of slavery. Capital was to own labor.
The industrial classes were to be slaves, kept in forced ignorance. The
privileged class were to live in indolence and luxury, maintained by the
toil of their unpaid serfs.
Such was the plan, for grandeur of conception unparalleled: in the history of revolutions. Nor less bold and audacious were the lmeasures adopted
for the execution of this plan.  For years the conspirators had manceuvred
to fill all the important posts in the GQverninent with their accomplices.
These men were all pledged to employ their powers, and exercise the trusts
confided to them, to place everything in preparation for the successfhl
striking of the final blow. Perhaps there. never was before, in the history
of the world, an instance in which - conspirators planning a rebellionh, had
the audacity and the cunning to place themselves first in the chief posts
of honor and of power in the government which they were wishing to
destroy.
The rebellion in Texas and the wresting of that province fi'om  Mexico,
the persistent efiorts to secure Cuba, by purchase or by blood, the repeated
and desperate fillibustering expeditions to Central America, and the unwearied endeavor to paralyze all Governmental opposition to the slave trade,
were but parts of this deep-laid plot for the establishment of a great slaveholding confederacy, which should crush out all popular liberty, and overshadow this whole continent with the resistless powers of despotism.
Nothing is more surprising than to see, when the crisis came, how
effectually at the South, all opposition was whipped down and scourged into
the ranks of rebellion.  The I-on. A. HI. Stephens, long a member of the
United States House of Representatives from  Georgia, and one of'he
most influential and able men in that State, addressed an immense assemblage of his constituents, in the Hall of the I-Iose of Representatives, at
Milledgeville, Ga., November 14, 1860. IIe. then said:
-   "The first question that presents itself is, Shall the people of the South
secede from the Union in consequence of the election of Mr. Lincoln to
the Presidency of the United States?! IMy countrymen, I tell you fiankly,
candidly, and earnestly, that I do not think that they ought. In my judgmnent the election of no man, constitutionally chosen to that high office, is
sufficient cause -for any State to separate from the Union. It ought to
stand by and aid still in maintaining the Constitution of the country.  To




CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
make a point of resistance to the Government, to withdraw from it, because
a man has been constitutionally elected, puts us in the wrong. We are
pledged to maintain the Constitution. Many of us have sworn to support
it. Can we, therefore, for the mere election of a man to the Presidency,
and that, too, in accordance with the prescribed forms of the Constitution,
malke a point of resistance to the Government, without becoming the
breakers of that sacred instrument ourselves 2
" But that this Government of our fathers, with all its defects, comes
nearer the objects of all good governments than any other on the face of
the earth, is my settled conviction. Contrast it now with any other on the
face of the earth. (England, said Mr. Toolmbs.) England, my friend says.
Well, that is the next best, I grant; but I think we have improved upon
England. Statesmen tried their apprentice hand on the government of
En]rgland, and then ours was made.  Ours sprung fiom that, avoiding many
of its defects, taking most of the good, and leaving out many of its errors,
and, firom the whole, constructing and building up this model republicthe best which the history of the world gives any account of. Where will
you go, following the sun in its circuit around our globe, to find a government that better protects the liberties of its people, and secures to them
the blessings we enjoy. I think that one of the evils that beset us, is a
surfeit of liberty, an exuberance of the priceless blessings for which we are
umgrateful.
" I look upon this country, with our Institutions, as the Eden of tllhe
world —the paradise of the Universe. It mzay be, that out of it we may
become greater and more prosperous; but I am candid and sincere in telling you that I fear, if we rashly evince passion, and, without sufficient
cause, shall take that step, that, instead of becoming greater or more peaceful, prosperous, and hlappy, instead of becoming gods, we will become
demons, and, at no distant day, commence cutting one another's throats."
This speech was received with reiterated bursts of applause. In less
than three months, on the 8th of February, this same A. H. Stephens
accepted the office of Vice-President of the Confederacy of Rebellion, and
traversed the slaveholding States, consecrating all his rare powers of eloquence to rouse the masses of the people to bloody war against the Government of the United States.  On the 21st of 3March, 1861, he made a
speech in Savannah, Ga., containing the following utterances:
" The lNrew Constitution has piut at rest forever all the agitating questiolls relating to our peculiar institutions,-African slavery, as it exists
among  s, —the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. This
was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution. Jefferson, in his forecast, had anticipated this as the' rock on which the Old
IUnion would split.' lie was right. ]What was conjecture with him is now
realized fact. But -whether he fully comprehended the great truth upon
whllich the rock s8ood and stands, may be doubted.  The prevailing idea
entertained by him, and most of the leading statesmen, at the time of the
formation of the Old Constitution, was, that the enslavement of the African
was in violation of the laws of nature; that it was wrong in principle,
socially, morally, and politically.




PROGRESS OF THE CONSPIRACY.                      57
"Those ideas were, however, fundamentally wrong. They rested upon
the assumption of the equality of races. This was an error. It was a
sandy foundation, and the idea of a government built upon it-when the'storm came, and the wind blew, it fell.' Our new government is founded
upon exactly the opposite ideas. Its foundations are laid, its corner-stone
rests upon the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man;
that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal
condition. This, our new government, is the first in the history of the world
based upon this great physical. philosophical, and moral truth. Our Confederacy is founded upon principles in strict conformity with these laws.
This stone, which was rejected by the first builders,'is become the chief
stone of the corner'in our new edifice.
" It is true, I believe, I state but the common sentiment when I declare
my earnest desire, that the Border States should join us. That they will
ultimately join us, be compelled to do it, is my confident belief. Our
growth, by accessions from other States, will depend greatly upon whether
we present to the world, as I trust we shall, a better government than that
to which they belong. If we do this, North Carolina, Tennessee, and
Arkansas can not hesitate long; neither can Virginia, IKentueky, and Missouri. They will necessarily gravitate to us by an imperious law. We
made ample provision in our Constitution for the admission of other States.
Looking to the distant future, and perhaps not very distant either, it is IlOt
beyond the range of possibility, and even probability, that all the great
States of the North West shall gravitate this way. Should they do so, our
doors are wide enough to receive them, but not until they are ready to
assimilate with us in principle.
"' The progress of disintegration in the Old Union may be expected to
go on with almost absolute certainty. We are now the nucleus of a growing power which, if we are true to ourselves, our destiny, and our high
mission, will become the controlling power upon this continent. WVisdom,
prudence, and patriotism have marked every step of our progress thus far.
This augurs well for the future, and it is a matter of sincere gratification to
me, that I am enabled to make the declaration of the men I met in the
Congress at Montgomery, an abler, wiser, and more conservative, deliberate,
determined, resolute, and patriotic body of men I never met in my life.
Their works speak for them. The Provisional Government speaks for them.
The Constitution of the Permanent Government will be a lasting monument
of their worth, merit, and statesmanship."
Such is one of the kaleidoscopic changes of this malignant conspiracy.
In accordance with these views, Senator I-ammond, of South Carolina,
had said but a short time before, "And what was then (1833) the state of
opinion in the South? Wa ashington had emancipated his slaves. Jefferson
had bitterly denounced the system, and had done all that he could to
destroy it. Our Clays, IRLarshalls, Crawfords, and many other prominent
Southern men, led off in the colonization scheme. The inevitable effect in
the South was, that she believed slavery to be an evil-weakness-disgraceful-nay a sin. She shrunk firom the discussion of it. She cowered under
every threat. She attempted to apologize, to excuse herself iunder the plea,




58                -:CIVIL WAlR IN AMERICA.
-which was true-that England had' forced it upon her; and in fear and
trembling she awaited a doom that she deemed inevitable.
"But a few bold spirits took the question up,-they compelled the
South to investigate it anew, and thoroughly,-and what is the resultS
Why, it would be difficult to find a Southern man, who feels the system to
be the lightest burden on his conscience; who does not, in fact, regard it
as an equal advantage to the master and the slave,-elevating both,-as
wealth, strength, and power, and as one of the main pillars and controlling
influences of modern civilization, and who is not now prepared to maintain
it at every hazard.?"
It was with these views distinctly avowed and earnestly enforced, that
the rebels undertook to break up the Government of the United States,
and reorganize upon the basis of slavery established in all its States and
Territories. At their leisure, and with long deliberation, they had arranged
everything to their mind, to paralyze the power which they would have to
encounter, when they were ready for the outbreak. And when- the crisis
came, and the great catastrophe burst suddenly upon us, the country, for a
moment, was stupefied by the magnitude and audacity of the assault, and
at the vast ramifications of the conspiracy.
As soon, however, as the Free North, all absorbed as it was in the
great pursuits of peaceful industry, had time to comprehend:the true state
of the case, the nation arose as one man to meet the emergency.: The plan
of intercepting the President elect, on his way to WTashington, or of otherwise preventing his inauguration, failed. The proposed attempt to seize
the Capital was prevented by the energy of the Government, in: providing
the means of defense. The Northern friends of the slave power found
themselves unable to carry any considerable portion of the Northern people
with them, in sustaining the rebellion. The officers of the navy and army,
who were prepared to betray their trusts, were dismissed. An immense
force was called into the field to meet the insurgents.  The plan of invading the Northern States had to be abandoned; and then the conspirators,
thus unexpectedly frustrated, fell back within their own States, relinqruishing, for a time at least, the idea of a revolution in the Government, and
assuming the plan-of a simple secession.
Now they affirmed, that all: they intended was a peaceful withdrawal
from a government which they did not like; all they wanted was to be
"let alone;" and the attempt of' the National Government to repossess
itself of territory, forts, and arsenals, bought and built with its- own money,
and which had been: traitorously and insultingly seized by. the rebels, was
complained of as "a ruthless invasion of the rights of an innocent and
unoffending people."
On the 7tlh'of January the " Dispatch"' of Richmond, Virginia, announced that Virginia was already prepared efficiently to arm 25,000
troops; and that she had at least sixty bronze and rifled field pieces
and howitzers. The editor added, " A contract has been made for 3,000
shells. and shrapnells, in addition to those purchased with the Parrot
guns. Five hundred barrels of D-upont powder have been purchased, and
stored- in magazines built for the purpose.  The model of a new Vir



PROGRESS OF THE CONSPIRACY.                     59
ginia musket is determined upon. Other warlike preparations are also in
progress."
Previous to this there had been the evacuation of Fort Moultrie, in
Charleston harbor, and the retreat of the garrison to Fort Sumter. We
must now recur to the opening of the war at Charleston. There were three
forts, belonging to the United States, erected for the defense of that harbor.
Fort Moultrie was on Sullivan's Island, so called, though it was hardly separated from the main land. The fort consisted of an enclosed water battery.
It mounted 54 guns, which commanded the water; the fort was but feebly
protected from attack on the land side.
In the middle of the bay, entirely surrounded by water, rose the massive
buttresses of Fort Sumter. It was deemed one of the most magnificent of
the fortifications of our coast, built in an octagonal form, constructed upon
the most approved principles of modern military science, richly supplied
with all the munitions of war, and mounting 140 guns, many of them
10-inch columbiads of very extensive range. t
There was still another small fort near the city, called Castle Pinkney,
built on the extremity of a narrow tongue of land. It mounted about
twenty guns, most. of them eighteen and twenty-four pounders.
The United States Government owned also an important arsenal in
Charleston, which Secretary Floyd had amply replenished with arms and
munitions of war. Seventy thousand stand of arms, this traitorous Secretary had deposited in this arsenal, and then, by an official dispatch, had
placed the arsenal in the hands of the rebel Governor of South Carolina, obr
safe keeping. It was thus taken possession of early in December. Major
Robert Anderson, with but two companies of artillery, was stationed in
Fort Moultrie, and was intrusted with the protection of all the forts. With
so small a band, in that exposed position, he could hardly protect himself
for an hour against the formidable force which Charleston could throw
upon hirm. As the menaces of war grew louder, and he witnessed the
preparations made for an attack, he, in the darkness of the night of December 25th, quietly abandoned Moultrie, taking the precaution first to spike
the guns, and burn the gun-carriages. The troops, who had received no
intimation of the movement, at midnight were embarked in row boats, and
transported to Sumter. The tumult in Charleston created by this unexpected movement, was only equaled by the joy it enkindled in the hearts
of all loyal people throughout the land. It seemed to touch every patriotic
heart as with an electric spark. The Boston Courier expressed the universal sentiment in the words:
" We must own that the news of the transaction in Charleston harbor
was learned by us yesterday with a prouder beating of the heart. We
could not but feel once more, that we had a country, a fact which has been,
to a certain degree, in suspense for some weeks past. What is given up fbr
the moment is of no consequence, provided this one point stand out clear,
that the United States means to maintain its position, where its rights
exist, and that its officers, civil and military, intend to discharge their duty.
The concentration of the disposable force in Charleston harbor, in a defensible post, is thus a bond of runion."




60                CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
President Buchanan contemplated this movement with characteristic
inefficiency, neither approving nor condenmning. But Secretary Floyd had
the unparalleled audacity to send a communication to the President, in
which he says, in earnest remonstrance against this movement, " One remedy is left, and that is to withdraw the garrison from the harbor of Charleston. I hope the President will allow me to make that order at once. This
order, in my judgment, can alone prevent bloodshed and civil war."
As the President refused to be aln accomplice in surrendering the forts
of the United States to the enemy, Mr. Floyd resigned his secretaryship.
There was nothing more he could do to assist the rebels, in that position,
and he hastened to draw his sword beneath their flag. He was received
with acclaim, and placed in high command.
Before the dawn of the morning, Iajor Anderson, and his little band
of about eighty soldiers, were safely within the walls of Sumter. Most of
the men who have developed heroism in this war have been men of piety
and of prayer. It was the sense of duty which inspired the heart of Major
Anderson. The imposing scene of raising the Stars and Stripes over Sumter is thus described by an eye-witness:
"' A short time before noon, [Major Anderson assembled the whole of his
little force, with the workmen employed on the fort; around the foot of the
flag-staff. The national ensign was attached to the cord, and Major Anderson, holding the ends of the lines in his hands, knelt reverently down.
The officers, soldiers and men clustered around, many of theim on their
knees, all deeply impressed with the solemnity of the scene. The chaplain
made an earnest prayer-such anl appeal for support, encouragement, and
mercy as one would make, who felt that'M an's extremity is Gocls opportunity.' As the earnest, solemn words of the speaker ceased, and the men
responded Amen, with a fervency that perhaps they had never before
experienced, Major Anderson drew the'Star-spangled B3anner' up to the
top of the staiT; the band broke out with the national air of''H ail Colunmbia,' and loud and exultant cheers, repeated again and again, were given
by officers, soldiers, and workmen. Ifi; said the narrator, "' South Carolina had at that moment attacked the fort, there would have been no
hesitation upon the part of any man within it about definding that flag."
The most vigorous efforts were immediately made by the rebels for the
capture of the fort, while President ]Buchanan, still intent upon compromise, would not consent to any corresponding preparations for its defense.
The conspirators took prompt possession of Forts Mi{oultrie and Pinkneky,
garrisoned them strongly, remoiunted the dismantled guns, and turned them
upon Sumter, erected batteries, mailed with railroad iron, upon every point
commanding the fort, filled the batteries with the heaviest guns used in
modern warfare, many of which were obtained from England, and constructed a very formidable floating battery, cased in iron, which at their
leisure they towed out, and anchored in the most eligible spot for assailing
the fort. All these operations Major Anderson was compelled to look upon,
day after day, without being permitted to fire a gun to disturb those thus
working for his certain destruction.
After very earnest entreaty on the part of the friends of the Union, who




PROGRESS OF THE CONSPIRACY.                     61
were gradually taking the places, in the Cabinet, of the traitors who resigned,
President Buchanan consented to send an unarmed steamer, the Star of the
West, with supplies and a reniforcement of 250 men, to the beleaguered fort.
But Jacob Tholmpson, of Mississippi, was still Secretary of the Interior,
and watching with an eagle eye that he might apprise the rebels of every
movement of the government. It was hoped that a merchant steamer,
sailing unannounced from lNew York, might glide into the harbor, and land
the men and supplies without provoking bloodshed. But Jacob Thompson
instantly telegraphed the fact to the rebels in Charleston. They had their
batteries all ready, the guns shotted, and the gunners at their post. Small
steamers were stationed far down the harbor, to announce the first appearance of the Star of the West.
It was about 7 o'clock in the morning of the 9th of January, when
the steamer approached the harbor. As they were moving rapidly along.in the channel, about half a mile from Miorris Island, a masked battery
suddenly opened fire upon them. The heavy shot fell thickly around the
ship. One just missed the pilot house. Another, with its unearthlly shriek,
passed between the smoke-stack and walking beam. Another'struck the
ship just abaft the fore rigging, leaving a deep scar, but not passing through.
Another narrowly escaped carrying away the rudder.
For about five minutes the ship was thus under fire. It was two miles
to Fort Sumter. It was necessary to pass within point blank range of all
the formidable guns of Fort  Ioultrie; and. at the same time an armed
schooner was in tow of a steamer from lFort Mouiltrie- to cut off their retreat.
The defenseless merchantman had not a single gun. Capture or destruction
was inevitable, if the ship continued on its course. After a moment of
intense suspense, the captain, fMcGowan, shouted' I-Ielm a-port!' In a
short curve the steamer turned on its track, and the Stars and Stripes, thus
humiliated, were driven from Charleston, South Carolina, the battery keeping up a constant fire. The indignation of the community was roused to
the highest pitch. But the nation was helpless. President ]Buch.lanan held
still the reins of government.
While the excitement was thus rapidly deepening and extending, the
4th of Mlarch drew nigh, when the President elect was to be inaugurated
in Washington. Rumors filled the air, that he was to be assassinated on
his passage through the Slave State of Mlaryland. Great anxiety was felt
fobr his safety, as the desperate character of a portion of the populace in
Baltimore, through which city he would naturally pass, was well known.
On the 11th of February he left his home in Springfield, Illinois, intending
to make a brief visit in the leading cities on his route. In the following
touching address he took leave of his fellow-citizens at the railroad depot:
" My friends! No one, not in my position, can appreciate the sadness
I feel at this parting. To this people I owe all that I am. HIere I have
lived more than a quarter of a century. Here my children were born, and
here one of them lies buried. I know not how soon I shall see you again.
A duty devolves upon me which is perhaps greater than that which has
devolved upon any other man since the days of Washington.  le never
would have succeeded, except for the aid of Divine Providence, upon which




62                 CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
he, at all times, relied. I feel that I can not succeed without the same
Divine aid which sustained him. In the same Almighty Being I place
my reliance for support, and I hope you, my friends, will all pray that I
may receive that Divine assistance, without which I can not succeed, but
with which, success is certain. Again I bid you all an affectionate farewell."
A few select friends, citizens and officers of the United States army,
accompanied him. Mlultitudes were gathered at every railroad station, in
the Free States, to greet him with shouts, and his progress was a constant
ovation. At Indianapolis his arrival was announced with the booming of
cannon, the ringing of bells, and all possible demonstrations of popular
rejoicing. The State Legislature, then in session, met him at the station,
and joined in the coretye, as he was conducted in a carriage drawn by four
white horses, to the hotel. From the balcony he addressed the crowd in
one of those happy speeches for which he has ever been so remarkable.
The same splendor of reception and popular enthusiasm met him at every
city on his route.
At Cincinnati the crowd was so great as to block up the passage of the
railroad train. The " Stars and Stripes" floated everywhere; and the city
had never before witnessed so imposing a cavalcade. From the balcony
of the Burnet House he addressed the vast crowd surging in the streets.
The Slave State of Kentucky was just across the river, and many Kentuckians, who had voted against him, were present. In a playfulf manner
he said to them:
" You, perhaps, want to know what we will do with you. I will tell
you, so far as I au authorized to speak for the opposition. We mean to
treat you, as nearly as possible, as Washington, Jefferson, and Madison
treated you. We mean to leave you alone, and in no way to interfere
with your institutions; to abide by all and every compromise of the Constitution. We mean to remember that you are as good as we; that there
is no difference between us other than the difference of circumstances. We
mean to recognize and bear in mind always, that you have as good hearts
in your bosoms as other people, or as we claim to have, and treat you
accordingly."
At Columbus, the capital of Ohio, the enthusiasm was equally conspicuous. - Here the President was informed by telegraph of the peaceful
counting of the electoral votes in Washington, and of the official announcement of his elevation to the chief magistracy. From  Columbus he proceded to Pittsburg, Penn., by the way of Steubenville. Notwithstanding
a severe storm, an immense crowd had: congregated in front of his hotel.
He addressed them in strains which elicited boundless applause. From
Pittsburg he turned his steps north to -Cleveland and Buffalo. At this
latter city he was received by ex-President Millard Fillmore, and the crowd
here was so great, and the pressure to get sight of the illustrious guest so
intense, that it was with much difficulty the police could clear the way to
the carriages. In the address here made he said:
"Your worthy Mayor has thought fit to express the hope that I shall be
able to relieve the country from the present, or I should- say the threatened,




PROGRESS OF THE CONSP-IRACY.                      63
dificuRlties. I am sure I bring a heart true to the work. For- the ability
to perform it, I trust in that Supreme Being who has never forsaken this
favored land. Without that assistance, I shall surely fail. With it, I can
not fail."
The President passed the Sabbath in Buffalo, and continued his journey
on Monday morning. All the populous towns on the Central Railroad vied
with each other, in the splendor of the reception which they attempte'd to
give to the distinguished traveler. At Albany, the capital of the majestic
State of New York, Mr. Lincoln was welcomed with greeting, befitting
the place and the occasion. The Mayor, in his cordial address, said:
"We trust that you will accept the welcome we offer, not simply as a
tribute of respect to the high office you are called to fill, but as a testimony of the good will of our citizens, without distinction of party, and as
an expression of their appreciation of your eminent personal worth, and
their confidence in your patriotism. We are aware that your previous
arrangements with the State authorities, and the brevity of your stay, will
compel us to forego the pleasure of extending to you, on the part of the
city, other and more befitting hospitalities. But we are happy to know
that his Excellency the Governor, and the Senators and Representatives in
the Legislature, are about to receive you as the guest of the Empire State,
and that, in so doing, they will represent the kind regards of the whole
people, as well as the citizens of the capital."
In response to an admirable address from Governor Morgan, Mr. Lincoln replied in terms which will find an echo in every honest heart. " I
thank you, and the people of the capital of the State of New YorL, for
this most hearty and magnificent welcome. If I am not at fault, the great
Empire State, at this time, contains a larger population than did the whole
of the United States of America, at the time they achieved their national
independence. I am notified, by your Governor, that this reception is
tendered by citizens without distinction of party. Because of this I accept
it more gladly. In this country, and in any country where freedom of
thought is tolerated, citizens attach themselves to political parties. It is
but an ordinary degree of charity to attribute this act to the supposition
that, in thus attaching themselves to various parties, each man, in his own
judgment, supposes he thereby best advances the interests of the whole
country. And when an election is past, it is altogether befitting a free
people that, until the next election, they should be one people.
" The reception you have extended to me to-day, is not given to mo
personally. It should not be so, but as the representative,:for the time
being, of the majority of the nation. If the election had fallen to any of
the more distinguished citizens, who received the support of the people, this
same honor should have greeted him that greets me this day, in testimony
of the unanimous devotion of the whole people to the Constitution, the Union,
and to the personal liberties of succeeding generations in this country."
In reply to an address from Senator Colvin, of the Legislative Committee, Mr. Lincoln said, " It is true that, while I hold myself, without mock
modesty, the humblest of all the individuals who have ever been elected
President of the United States, I yet have a more difficult taslk to perform




64                  CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
than any of them has ever encountered. You have here generously tendered me the support, the united support, of the great Empire State. For
this, in behalf of the nation, in behalf of the present and the future of the
nation, in behalf of the cause of civil liberty in all time to come, I most
gratefully thank you.
"' I do not propose now to enter upon any expressions of the particular
line of policy to be adopted, with referenee to the difficulties that stand
before us, in the opening of the incomring administration. When the time
comes, according to the custom of the Government, I shall speak, and speak
as well as I am able for the good of the present and the fi-ture of this
country-for the good of the North and of the South, for the good of one
aind of the other, and of all sections of it."
In this gratifying reception at Albany all parties seemed to be merged
in patriotic devotion to the country.  This unanimity was increased by the
mutterings loud and ominous, which were borne on every breeze froni the
conspiring slaveholders at the South.  To these menaces we shall soon have
occasion more particularly to refer. The reception in New York City was
one of the most mnagnificent dlemonstrations of enthusiasm the city had ever
witnessed. ~Nothing was omitted which could contribute to the splendor
of the scene. The crowd in Broadway was to be numbered by hundreds
of thousands. As the Presidential carriage passed along beneath triumphal
arches and streaming banners, the huzzas of the multitude were deafening.
Eloquently a reporter of one of the journals wrote:
" W;e but reflect the popular opinion when we say that the ovation was
one of the grandest ever witnessed.  Though the President-elect was evidently jaded, careworn, and oppressed with a weighty responsibility, he
was also firm, self-possessed, and appeared equal to the stupendous task
before him. I-Ie seemed to impress the people with this conviction as he
rode along, and a glimpse of his plain, straight-forwardcl, honest face, so full
of deep, earnest thought, of direct singleness of purpose, of thorough purity
of motive and patriotic impulse, so won upon the multitude, that they burst
into such spontaneous, irrepressible cheers, as gladdened the heart, and
moistened the eye, and made everybody forget the turbulence and anarchy
of secession, now raging in the land, in their implicit confidence in'the
incoming man."
At Philadelphia, Mir. Lincoln's reception was as enthusiastic as in New
York. He there attended upon the ceremony of raising the United States
flag over the Old Hall of Independence.  After appropriate ceremonies,
the President raised, hand over hand, the glorious banner to the summit of
the staff. On this occasion he uttered the following memorable and heart.
ful words:
"I have often inquired of myself what great principle or idea it was
that kept this Confederacy so long together. It was not the mere matter
of the separation of the Colonies from the mother land; but that se~ntiment
in the Declaration of Indejpendence which gave liberty, not aclone to the.people of this country, but I hope to tMe world, for all futZure timee. It
was that which gave promise, that, in due time, the weight wo-ld be lifted
firom the shoulders of all men. This was a sentiment embodied in the




PROGRESS OF THE  CONSPIRACY.                        65
Declaration of Independence.  Now, my friends, can this country be saved
on this basis? If it can, I shall consider myself one of the happiest men in
the world, if I can help save it. If it can not be saved on that principle,
it will be truly awful. But if this country can not be saved without giving
up that principle, I was about to say, I would rather be assassinated on this
spot than surrender it. lNow, in my view of the present aspect of affairs,
there need be no bloodshed or war. Thero is no necessity for it. I am not
in favor of such a course, and I may say in advance, that there will be no
bloodshed, unless it be forced upon the Government, and then it will be
compelled to act in self-defense.                          /'" MIky friends, this is wholly an unexpected speech. I did not expect to
be called lpon to say a word when I came here. I supposed that it was
merely to do something towards raising the flag. I may, therefore, have
said something indiscreet.  I have said nothing but -what I am ready to
live by, and, if it be the pleasure of Almighty God, to die by."'
Ill Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania, the same enthusiasm greeted
th8e President which had thus far accompanied him through every stage of
his journey.  Again the President uttered those conciliatory and peacetful
sentiments which constituted so essential a part of his generous nature.
He was conducted to the hotel in a barouche drawn by six white horses,
and accompanied by a very imposing military array.  In response to the
address of welcome, he said:
" I recur, for a moment, to the words uttered about the military support, which the General Government may expect from the Commonwealth
of Pennsyivania, in a proper emergency.  To guard against any possible
mistake, do I recur to this. It is not with any pleasure, that I contemplate
the possibility that a necessity may arise, in this country, for the use of the
military arm. While I am exceedingly gratified to see the manifestation
upon your streets of the military force here, and exceedingly gratified at
your promise here to use that force upon a proper emergency, I desire to
repeat, to preclude any possible misconstruction, that I do most sincerely
hope that we shall have no use for them; that it will never become their
duty to shed blood, and most especially never to shed fraternal blood. I
promise that, so far as I umay have wisdom to direct, if so painful a result
shall in an-y wise be brought about, it shall be throulgh no fault of mine."
To go from Iarrisburg to WVashington, it was necessary to pass through
the slaveholding State of Maryland, and through the City of' Baltimore,
where the spirit of secession had maniifested itself in its most envenomed
type. The loyal citizens of Baltimore were preparing to give the President a courteous reception.  The partisans of the slaveholders had formed
a conspiracy for his assassination.  The plan was discovered by the police.
It consisted in get-Iting;c up a riot, very easily accomplished in Baltimore, at
the depot, during which the unarmed and unprotected President was to be
stabbed or shot.  The detectives who ferreted out the plot, assumed to be
secessionists from  Louisiana.  The conspirators were to mlingle with the
crowd, pretending to be. fiiends of the President, when, at a given signal, a
great tm-numlt was to be raised, and some were to shoot at him with their
pistols, and others to tirow 1hanmd grrenades into his carriage. In the inevi



CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
table confusion the assassins expected to escape to a vessel waiting for them
in the harbor, which would convey them to Mobile, in Alabama, where
they would be safe from all harm. General Scott and Senator Seward
]l iad been apprised, by the police, of this danger, and immediately dispatched!Mr. Frederick W. Seward, a son of the Senator, to Philadelphia, to inform
Mr. Lincoln of his peril. After consultation with friends, it was deemed
advisable, in the then excited state of the country, when even a slight disturbance would plunge the country into all the horrors of civil war, that
Mr. Lincoln should frustrate the plans of the conspirators, by taking an
earlier express train, and passing through Baltimore incognito, as an ordinary traveler. The wisdom of this decision few now, upon reflection, will
dispute. }Mr. Lincoln received this information at Philadelphia, but, according to his plan, proceeded to Harrisburg.
After the public reception at Harrisburg, the President, with a few of
his confidential friends, retired to his private apartments, in the Jones
HIouse, at six o'clock in the evening. As he was known to be weary with
the toils of the day, he was exposed to no interruptions. As soon as it was
dark, he, in company with Col. Lamoli, unobserved, entered a hack, and
drove to the Pennsylvania railroad, where a special train was waiting for
him. The telegraph wires were in the mean time cut, so that the knowledge of his departure, if discovered or suspected, could not be sent abroad.
The train reached Philadelphia at 10~ o'clock that night. They drove
immediately across the city to the Baltimore and Washington depot. The
regular night train was just leaving at ~ past 11. The party took berths
in a sleeping car, and, without any change, passed directly through Baltimore to Washington, where they arrived safely, and all unexpected, at
2 past 6 o'clock in the morning. lMVr. Lincoln did not find it necessary to
assume any disguise, but journeyed in his ordinary traveling dress.
The Iton. BTr. Washburn of Illinois, who had been privately informed
of the arrangement, was at the station to receive the'President. They
drove directly to W5illard's hotel, where they were met by Senator Seward.
The active agents in this infamous plot were of course well known by the
detectives; but it was deemed, at that time, desirable to avoid everything
which could add to the excitement of the public mind, already so sorely
agitated. The President-elect thus silently entered Washington, Saturday
morning, February 23. The news of his arrival was immediately flashed
over the land, and the next day his- family entered the city by the special
train designed for the Presidential party. Mlr. Lincoln's friendly feelings
towards the South may be inferred from the following words he used, in a
speech in Peoria, Illinois:
"I think that I have no prejudice against the Southern people. They
are just what we would be in their situation. If slavery did not now exist
among them they would not introduce it. If it did now exist among us
we should not instantly give it up. This I believe of the masses, North
and South. Doubtless there are individuals, on both sides, who would not
hold slaves under any circumstances; and others who would gladly introduce slavery anew, if it were out of existence.  We know that some
Southern men do free their slaves, go north, and become tip top abolition



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PROGRESS OF THE CONSPIRACY.                      c7
ists; while some Northern men go south, and become most cruel slave
masters."
By this time it had become quite evident, that the secessionists wished
for no compromise. They felt strong, sure of success, and with unflinching
determination advanced in their measures to break up the Union, form  a
Confederacy of the Cotton States, on a thoroughly pro-slavery Constitution;
then draw in the Border States, which, without any doubt, would be eager
to follow them, and then, through their partisans in the Middle and North
Western States, draw those States in, and thus thoroughly reconstruct and
reunite the country, leaving New England out, in a cold corner, to be
attached to Canada, or, if independent, to be so weak as to be quite at the
disposal of the great pro-slavery republic, which, grasping Cuba and Mexico,
would overshadow the whole land. The plot of the secessionists to seize
defenseless Washington was so palpable, and manifestly so feasible, siurrounded as it was by slaveholding Virginia and Maryland, that even President Buchanan became alarmed. General Scott was there urging him to
decisive measures. During the first week in January, General Scott had
succeeded with some dclifficulty in collecting about three hundred troops in
the vicinity of Washington. President Buchanan was excessively averse
to any show of power, lest it might be regarded as a menace, by a foe
whom he dreaded, and who had gained almost entire dominion over his
mind.
Every fort in the Southern States, the traitorous Secretary of WVar had
left so defenseless, that his associate conspirators could seize them at any
moment they pleased. Fortress Monroe in Virginia, which had cost the
Government $2,400,000, and which mounted 371 guns, was garrisoned by
but eight companies of artillery. The forts in Charleston harbor, which
had cost $800,000, were protected by but eighty men, who were in Fort
Moultrie. The[Norfolk Navy Yard, where there was property of the United
States to the amount of many millions, was left so defenseless that a thousand armed men from any of the neighboring slaveholding cities, where
rebellion was rampant, could at any moment seize it. The Southern conspirators, in the Senate and in the House, so adroitly held the balance of
power, as to prevent any action of the Government to re6nforce these forts.
They represented such movements as insulting to the South, as a menace
which would inevitably and immediately plunge the country into bloodshed. They ridiculed the idea that the Southl contemplated the seizure of
these, forts, even at the very moment when they were making all their
arrangements for the perpetration of the treacherous act.
In this alarming state of affairs, a resolution was offered in the Senate,
by Mr. Clarke of New iHamphire, to inquire into the condition of the fbrts
in Charleston harbor. Jefferson Davis, of MIississippi, the Catiline of this
conspiracy, with audacity which Catiline never exceeded, rose in his seat,
on the 20th of December, 1860, and opposed this resolution in the following
language:
"I propose to show that it is improper that we should make this inquiry
-we know that it must inflame the public mind to agitate this question —
whatever the garrison may be, the fact is that the President has not the




68                  CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
power to increase it; that lie could not send a company there without the
fact; being known before the company arrived.  This would certainly precipitate action, and it would convey a threat; attended by preparation to
execute it, and naturally result in bringing about the very collision which
every rman who loves the peace of his country is now endeavoring to
avert.
" In every view of the case, it is in mly view, utterly improper that we
shoulc institute such an inquiry as this. Senators here this morning spolke
as if the garrison at Fort Moultrie were in hostile attitude to the City of
Charleston. If so the garrison should be removed. The site was given,
as the army is maintained, bfor defense. Who will or can reverse the
purpose?
" I trust there will be no collision. I trust that these troops are but to
perform  the ordinary, and so far as our country is involved, the peaceful
fimnction of holding that fort until transferred to other duty. But if there
be danger, permit me here to say, it is because there are troops in it, not
because the garrison is too weak. W~vho hears of any danger of the seizure
of forts where there is no garrison? There stand Forts Pulaski and Jack,
son, at the mouth of the Savannah river. Who hears of any apprehension
lest Georgia should seize thern? There are Castle Pinkney and Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor. Who hears of any danger of seizure there? The
whole danger rises from the presence of the United States troops."'
Thus spoke Mr. Davis, on the 20th of December. In six days from
this time, the little garrison in Fort MIoultrie, alarmed by the preparations
making in Charleston for their capture, evacuated the fort at night, and'took refuge in Fort Sumter.  The next morning the rebels in Charleston
robbed the arsenal, where the traitor Floyd had stored, for their use, ten'
years' ordinary supplies; and armed bands from the city, thus supplied
with stolen weapons and munitions of war, immediately seized Forts
Mloultrie and Pinkney, and commenced throwing up batteries for the bomrn
bardment of Sumter. And all this they called a peaceful operation, which
the United States had no right to resist. Nay more, they went so far as
clamorously to assert, that the action of the United States Governnment, in
moving a feeble garrison from one of its own forts, where it was menaced
with an assault which it could not resist, to another fbrt, where it would be
more secure, was an insult to the State of South Carolina, and a declaration
of war.
The rebels seized Forts MIoultrie and Pinkney on the 27th of Decem,
ber. On the 4th of January an unnarmed steamer, the Star of the West,
was sent by the United States Government from New York, with supplies
for the starving garrison in Fort Sumter, and with a reinforcement of 250
men. In consequence of this decision of the Cabinet Council, the traitor,
ous Secretary of the Interior, Jacob Thompson of Mississippi, as we have
before mentioned, telegraphed to the rebels this measure of the Cabinet,
then sent in his resignation, and hastened to join the rebellion. On the
9th, the steamer entered the harbor. The rebels had thrown up batteries,
and immediately opened fire upon it with heavy gu-ns.  The unarmed
steamer narrowly escaping destruction, having been struck by one shot, and




PROGRESS OF THE CONSPIRACY.                     69
valls falling like hailstones around her, put about, and returned to New
York, without communicating with the fort.
The rebels, animated by the imbecility of Mr. Buchanan's Administration, for the pure patriots there were bound hand and foot, by the agents of
the rebels who had the ascendency, plied all their energies in preparation
for the bombardment and capture of Fort Sumter. Mr. Buchanan moaned
in anguish, yet knew not what to do. When we come to the campaign in
South Carolina these scenes must be more minutely described. We can
now only say, that onl the 12th of April, when all the preparations were
consummated, ten thousand men from their iron-clad batteries opened a
terrific fire upon the seventy men in Fort Sumter, and after a long bomnbardment, compelled them to surrender the fort. And all this the rebels
affirmed, was a legitimate movement, which the United States Government
had no right to resist.
On the 20th of December, the very day on which lMr. Davis made his
speech against strengthening the garrisons in the United States forts in the
harbor of Charleston, a convention of a few score of slaveholders, in South
Carolina, assumed to break up the Government of the American Union,
and to demolish the United States as one of the nations of the earth, by
passing the following resolution:
" We the people of the State of South Carolina, in Convention asselmbled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, that
the Ordinance adopted by us in Convention, on the 23d of May, in the
year of our Lord 1788, whereby the Constitution of the United States of
America was ratified, and also all Acts and parts of Acts of the General
Assembly of this State, ratifying the Amendments of said Constitution,
are hereby repealed, and that the Union now subsisting between South
Carolina and other States, under the name of the United States of America,
is hereby dissolved."
So little did these men comprehend the difficulty of the enterprise in
which they were engaged, so confident were they that the United States
had no vitality left to resist, that one of the secessionists, Mr. Calhoun,
coolly remarked, "We have now pulled a temple down that has been built
three-quarters of a century. We must clear the rubbish away, to reconstruct another."
Throughout the Southern States the slaveholding secessionists brought
into requisition all the energies of a reign of terror to crush out any
opposition to their measures.  The Southern  Confederacy, a paper
published in Atlanta, Georgia, and which had fought gallantly for the
Union, but whose voice was soon silenced, ventured to say, on the 8th of
January:
"It is a notable fact; that wherever the'minute men,' as they are
called, have had an organization, those counties have voted, by large majorities, for immediate secession. Those that they could not.control by persuasion and coaxing, they dragooned and bullied, by threats, jeers, and
sneers. By this means thousands of good citizens were induced to vote
the immediate secession ticket through timidity.  To be candid, there
never has been so much lying and bullying practiced, in the same length




70                 CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
of time, since the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, as has been in the
recent campaign."
The Raleigh (North Carolina) Banner ventured to offer the following
remonstrance. But it was immediately silenced. It said,
" The big heart of the people is still in the Union, and we hope to see
it yet assert its supremacy. It is now subjugated temporarily to the will
of the politicians. Less than a hundred thoutsancd politicians are endeavoring to destroy the liberties and to Usurp the rights of more than thirty
millions of people. If the people permit it, they deserve the horrors of
the civil war which will ensue; they deserve the despotism under which
they will be brought, and the hard fate which will be their lot."
Forts Caswell and Johnson, in North Carolina, were seized by the
rebels, the 8th of January. On the 9th, a convention in Mississippi passed
an ordinance of secession. On the 11th, an armed band friom New Orleans
seized the United States Marine Hospital, two miles below the city, ejected
all the patients, and converted the building into barracks for the rebel
troops. The secessionists of Florida and Alabama also voted those States
out of the Union, on the 11th. Fort Barancas and the navy yard at Pensacola were also seized. The Mississippi was blockaded by the rebels at
Vicksburg, a battery being planted there which compelled every vessel to
heave to, to be searched, which passed up or down the river. On the 15th,
the rebels in Florida surprised and captured the United States Coast
Survey schooner Dana. On the 19th, a convention in Georgia, by a vote
of 288 to 89, voted that State out of the Union. Though Mississippi voted
herself out of the Union, on the 9th, Jefferson Davis retained his seat in
the Senate, representing that State, until the 21st, when he withdrew, to
place himself at the head of the rebels. On the 26th, the Louisiana Convention passed the act of secession. It was a packed convention, elected
through the influence of terror, and consequently the vote passed with but
seventeen voices opposed to one hundred and thirteen. The rather childish pageant was enacted of presenting each rebel with a gold pen, with
which to sign the act of rebellion. On the 31st, the rebels in New Orleans,
silencing, by the threats of Lynch law, every honest patriot who would
utter a word of remonstrance, seized the Custom House and the United
States Mint, containing Government funds to the amount of $511,000.
Everything thus seemed to go prosperously with the conspirators, and
they were loud in their declarations, that God was manifestly smiling upon
their enterprise. The Government was apparently powerless, and all over
the land the friends of this movement, by which the Constitution of our
country was to be changed from the advocacy of Freedom to be the great
bulwark of Slavery, were crying out, "No coercion!'" Any attempt to
regain, or to defend, United States property in the Southern States, was
denounced as "' coercion" and despotism.
On the 4th of February, forty-two:of the secessionists met in Montgomery, Alabama, representing the States of Alabama, Florida, Georgia,
Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and North Carolina. They proceeded immediately to organize a new nation, the Southern Confederacy,
to consist of the above mentioned seven States, and suce others as might




PROGRESS OF THE CONSPIRACY.                      71
subsequently be added. And then these forty-two men chose Jefferson
Davis, President, and Alexander H. Stephens, Vice-President of the Southern Confederacy. In all the Southern States there were large numbers
opposed to all these measures of revolt, and in some of the States there
were, undoubtedly, a decided majority; but the leading slavelfolders had
got the power entirely in their hands, and all opposition was overawed.
On the 18th, Jefferson Davis was inaugurated President at Montgomery.
The ample preparation the rebels had made for war was divulged in
the following words, incautiously uttered, immediately after the inauguration, by a member of the Military Committee:
" My colleague, however, greatly errs, when he states we are unprepared for war, and have no arms, and I aml unwilling to let the assertion
go undenied. Sir, we have arms, and in abundance, though no armories.
Every State has amply provided itself to meet any emergency that may
arise, and is daily purchasing and receiving cannon, mortars, shells, and
other engines of destruction, with which to overwhelm the dastard adversary. Organized armies now exist in all the States, commanded by officers
brave, accomplished, and experienced; and even should war occur iln
twenty days, I feel confident that they have both the valor and the arms
successfully to resist any force whatever. Let the issue come, I fear not
the result."
These rebels, accustomed to be obeyed, at that time really supposed
that the United States, as a body, would repudiate their old Constitution,
and adopt in its stead the new and slaveholding Constitution, formed by
half a dozen slaveholders-that they would eject President Lincoln contemptuously from office, and accept Jefferson Davis, and that the new
government would march, with floating banners, to take possession of
Washington, and that thus the revolution would be peacefully accomnplished. They had made such ample preparation for war, that they
thought that the freemen of the North would not venture to strike a blow
for liberty.
These forty-two delegates, without the slightest misgiving, undertook
to revolutionize a nation of thirty millions. They deemed themselves
umpires from whom there was no appeal. They framed a Constitution,
adopted articles of Confederation, chose a President and Vice-President,
confirmed Cabinet and Ministerial appointments, and set in operation all
the machinery of what they believed would prove a powerful and perpetual government.  History affords no parallel to such an audacious
usurpation. The _people had no voice in the organization of the government. And yet so sagaciously was the whole thing managed, that the
ignorant masses at the South were led as obediently as slaves on the plantations. Those who ventured to utter the slightest murmurs were instantly
silenced with the most inexorable cruelty. Fidelity to history compels us
to record the following well-authenticated facts, in illustration of the Reign
of Terror, by which all patriotism at the South was subjugated. It is
stated in the Richmond Whig, of March 16, 1861:
" It is a melancholy fact, that a larger amount of mloo' violence has
been developed in Virginia, since this secession nlovement began, than imi




72                 CIVIL  WAR  IN  AMERICA.
the whole previous life time of the State. There has been manifested an
intolerance of spirit never before known, and what is more, such intolerance is evidently on the increase, and bodes no good to law and order, and
to the peace and prosperity of the citizens of the State; and, if not checked
and repressed, and that without delay, it will lead to riot, revolution, and
fraternal bloodshed."
General Scott was burned in effigy by the students of Franklin College, Georgia.  Tilhe Montgomery (Alabama) Mail, of February 6, comneenting upon this indignity offered to one of the purest, noblest, and most
patriotic men in our land, whose name will descend to posterity by the
side of that of Washington, says:
"This is well, If any man deserves such infamy, it is the Lieutenant
General of the (Yankee) United States. And we have a proposition to
make, thereanent, to all the young men of the South, wherever scattered,
at school or college, and that is, that they burn this man in effigy, all
through the South, on the evening of the 4th of March next. General
Scott deserves this grand infamy. It is meet that his name should descend
to our posterity as a word of execration."'
An Englishmnan, by the name of Gardiner, took a farm on shares, near
Wilming-ton, North Carolina. All things were going on prosperously with
hil, and li he was just ready for his spring planting, when, in February, a
gang surrounded his house, arrested him, and threw him into prison as
a " dangerous" man —one not in favor of slavery. They then sent him,
his wife, and children, out of the State. Utterly penniless, he was landed
in Nrew York. All his little property and improvements passed into the
hands of the rebels.
Two Jerseymen were hung, near Charleston, without trial, on szuspieionz
of talking to slaves about liberty.. The captain of an English vessel was
tarred and feathered in Savannal, for allowing a colored stevedore, who!had been at work on board his vessel, to sit at the table with him.
Ir.. A. A. Smith, of new Orleans, was in Eufaula, Alabama. He
was arrested by the Vigilance Committee, under the charge of having said,
that "Bob Tooinbs was a traitor, and that the secessionists were thieves
naid robbers."  The result was, that he was taken, without any legal proceedings, to a grove, and hung. I-Iis horse and buggy, and his purse containing  $356, were the spoils which fell into the hands of the victors.
Mr. Jones, of Rock Island, whose narrative is well authenticated,
escaped from Louisiana under the following circumstances. Ile had been
at wolrk for three months, and eighty dollars were due him, when his employer charged him with being an abolitionist. lie was given five dollars,
and ordered to leave the State instantly.  The remainder of the narrative
is given in Iris own words.
" It would have been madness for me to have staid to collect the imoney
due ime. I had seen enough to know that ally man charged with being an
abolitionist was certain to be hung or thrown into the river by Lynch law,
and there were my employer's two brothers to swear, as they told me they
would, that I was an -abolitionist. Not very long before I left, a planter
had been robbed and murdered on the highway; and there came along en




PROGRESS OF THIE CONSPIRACY.                     73
the levee where we were working a crowd of about forty ruffians, all armed
to the teeth, and accompanied by about forty hounds, such as are used to
track runaway negroes. They searched our cabin, and inquired particularly after any'strangers.' Three hours after, they returned with a white
nuan whom they had seized.  lie was tied to the tail of a mule, by a
halter around his neck. I afterwards heard that they took him into the
timber, and half hung him to mlake him confess; and would have hung
him outright, but for a planter who persuaded them to wait until the next
day, when the real murderer was caught, and this man was released."
Mrs. Marty Crawford minutely details the murder of her husband in
Terrant County, Texas, on the 17th of July, 1860. Hie was accused of
being an abolitionist, and after being first shot down was then hung. The
unhappy man was at work in the field with his two little boys, when the
gang of assassins, under the name of a "Yigilance Comnmittee," seized
him, and dragged him into the woods. The boys, in their terror, ran home
to their mother. MIrst. Crawford immediately started in search of her husband. She had not proceeded far before she met some of the assassins,
who coolly informed her that her husband was hung. A man by the
name of Tuiner, a lawyer and owner of forty slaves, was the ringleader
of these murderers. M1rs. Crawford, in her touching narrative of this
event, says:'T They took me back to the place we had been living in. l]My grief,
my indignation, my misery, I have no words, no desire to describe. The
body was not brought to me until nighllt, and only then by the direction
of Captain Dagget, a son-in-law and partner of Turner (fbr whom Crawford had done much work), who had been a friend to amy husband, and
vas the only man of any influence who dared to befiriend me. He had
been away from home, and did not return until after the murder had been
done. lie denounced the act, and said they killed an innocent man.,
The local Newspaper-the Fort Worth Chief-thus chronicled the
tragedy:
"'MAN  IIUNG.-On the 17th inst. was found the body of a man by the
name of William H. Crawford, suspended to a pecan-tree about threequarters of a mile from town. A large number of persons visited the
body during the day. At a meeting of the citizens the same evening,
strong evidence was adduced proving him to have been an abolitionist.
The meeting endorsed the action of the party who hung him. Below we
give the verdict of the jury of inquest:
"'We, the jury, find that William I-I. Crawford, the deceased, came to
his death by being hung with a grass rope tied around his neck, and suspended from a pecan limb, by some person or persons to the jurors
unknown. That he was hung on the 17th day of July, 1860, between the
hours of 9 o'clock A. Mi. and 1 o'clock P. Ai. We could see no other marks
of violence on the person of the deceased.'"
This lawless but energetic association boasted that, in three months,
they had whipped and banished, or hung, over two hundred persons,
including three Methodist ministers, all of whom they stigmatized as abolition emissaries.




74:               CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
Mr. John Watt, a citizen of Michigan, was working near Vicksburg,
Miss., in January. He was accused of uttering " dangerous sentiments,"
and, without any formality of accusation or trial, was dragged into the
woods, and hung to the limb of a tree.
Mr. H. Turner, of New Hampshire, had, for several years, spent the
winter on the plantation of Woodworth and Son, near Charleston, South
Carolina. IHe ventured one day to say to a fellow-workman, that he was
in favor of Lincoln.  The Vigilance Committee soon called upon him,
and asked him if he said so. He did not deny it. He was immediately
arrested as an abolitionist, and taken to Charleston jail. A mob surrounded
the jail, with yellings demanding him. He was placed in a bare cell, and
for foburteen weeks was kept in close confinement in a dark and damp dungeon, with no food but a piece of black bread and a pint of bad water each
day. He was then taken to a steamer, amidst the howlings of the mob,
and being robbed of his wages due, $248, and a fine watch, was left to work
his passage to New York, where he arrived utterly destitute.
No American can write such narratives about his own countrymen without extreme reluctance. lBut these facts must be known, or one can not
understand how every voice of opposition was silenced at the South. The
apparent unanimity at the South, was simply the silence enforced by the
bludgeon, the lash, the halter, and the stake. Hume has remarked upon
the barbarizing influence of slavery in ancient Rome. Its influence has
been equally debasing in our own land. Its influence upon woman's character has been still more marked than upon the character of Then. That
there are noble men, and lovely and lovable women, at the South, all must
gladly affirm. The writer knows many such whose memory he must ever
cherish with affection. But this rebellion has proved beyond all dispute,
that such are the exceptions. It is the unanimous declaration of our army,
that the venom exhibited by the secession females of the South is amazing
and very general. Ladies, so called, would spit upon our soldiers in the
streets of Baltimore. One clergyman testifies, that a woman, a member
of his church, whom he had always considered a worthy member, said to
hinm, that "she would be perfectly willing to go to hell, it she could but
shoot a Yankee first."  Another lacdy said, to a gentleman who related it
to the writer, that she hoped yet "to sleep under a blanket, made of the
scalps of Northerners."'
But to this spirit there were many glorious exceptions,-men who suffered every conceivable indignity, and women who braved the fiercest
outrages of martyrdom, in love for their native land in all the beauty of
its united strength, and who detested those traitors who were willing to
deluge this land in blood.
We may close this revolting record with the following statement made
by the Cincinnati Gazette, of May 18th:
" Nearly every day some fresh arrivals of refugees from the violence
and ferocity of the new Dahomey bring to this city fresh and corroborative proofs of the condition of affairs in the rebel States. MIany of these
have come thence at the peril of their lives, and to avoid threatened
death, have taken a hurried journey surrounded by thick dangers from




PROGRESS OF THE  CONSPIRACY.                      75
the madmen who now fill the South with deeds of violence and bloodshed.
"The people in that section seem to have been given up to a madness
that is without parallel in the history of civilization-we had almost
written barbarism. They are cut off from the news of the North, purposely blinded by their leaders as to the movements and real power of the
Government, and in their local presses receive and swallow the most
outrageous falsehoods and misstatements.
"Yesterday, one William Silliman, a person of intelligence and reliability, reached this city, returning from a year's residence in Southern
Mississippi. He was one of a party who, in 1860, went from this city, and
engaged in the construction of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad.
" Mr. Silliman, for several months past, has lived in Cupola, Itawamba
County, one of the lower tier of counties, two hundred miles from New
Orleans, and one hundred and sixty miles from Mobile. He says a lmore
blood-thirsty community it would be difficult to conceive. Perfect terrorism prevails, and the wildest outrages are enacted openly by the rebels,
who visit with their violence all suspected of loyalty, or withholding full
adherence to the kingdom of Jefferson Davis.  Could the full history
of these outrages -be written, and that truthfully, many and most of its
features would be deemed incredible and monstrous, belonging to another
age, and certainly to another country than our own.
" The party who is suspected of hostility, or even light sympathy, with
the rebellion, is at once seized. He is fortunate if he is allowed to leave
in a given time, without flogging. He is still fortunate if only a flogging
is added to the order to depart. Many have been hung or shot on the
spot. Mr. Silliman details five instances of the latter as having occurred
among the amiable people of Itawamba County, within the past ten weeks,
of several of which he was the eye-witness, a mob wreaking their vengeance upon their victims under the approval of local authorities. These
five men were Northerners, at different times assailed by the rebels. Three
of them were strangers to all about them.
" On Saturday of last week a man was hung at Guntown, who refused
to join the rebel army, and also refused to leave. He was taken to a tree
in the outskirts of the village, and left hanging to a limb. He had a family in the place. Guntown is ten miles from Cupola. The same day, at
Saltillo, a man was hung under similar circumstances, and still another at
Vanona, where a traveler was seized in passing through the place. All
these towns are within twenty miles' circuit of Cupola, where Mr. Silliman
resided. He says that he can recall twelve instances of killing, whipping,
and other outrages, thus visited upon the victims of the rebels in that vicinity, within the past two months. Many have been waiting in the hope
that the storm would' blow over,' but have, one after the other, been forced
to submit, or seek safety in flight."
The Savannah (Georgia) Republican urged, soon after the commencement of hostilities, that all United States prisoners should be sold into
slavery. " I know," says the writer, " a rich planter who would gladly
take two hundred of the Yankees, on his plantation. One good black




76                 CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
driver to every forty Yankees, would ensure good order and lively work
among them.
Those unacquainted with the state of public opinion at the South, can
form but a faint conception of the arrogant assumptions of these slaveholders. On their remote plantations, surrounded only by-their colored
menials, not one of whom could testify in any court of justice, they ruled
with a despotic power which felt no restraint. They could torture, maim,
kill at pleasure. Thus they have formed a character of arrogance and of
ferocity, which must excite the amazement and the execration of the civilized world. The evidence upon this point can not be resisted by any
honest mind.




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A      ~~t
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CIHAPTER  III.
T  E  WAR  COMMENCE D.
ENERGY OF THE CONSPIRATORS.-VIEWS OF SECESSIONISTS AND UNIONISTS.-TESTIMONY O0
WEBSTER AND CLAY.-IGNOMINIOUS CONDUCT OF THE TRAITORS.-INAUGURA2ION OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN.-A-iNECDOTE.-FALL OF SUMTER.-UPRISING OF THE NORTH.-DEVELOPMENTS
OF TREASON.-RESPONSE TO THE CALL FOR 75,000 VOLUNTEERS.-NOB-No  SPEECHt OF SENATOR
DOUGLAS.-UNION OF ALL PARTIES.-TREACHERY OF REBELS IN VIRGINIA.-DESTRUCTION OF
GOSPORT NAVY YARD.
Ox the 22d of February, ibur days after tie inauguration of Jef'erson
Davis, in MIontgomery, the Collector of Customs, appointed by the rebel
governmnent in Charleston, S. C., issued the manifesto, that all vessels, fro m
any State out of the Confederacy, would be treated as foreign vessels, and
subject to the port dues and other charges established by the laws of the
Confederate States.  Thus, by a stroke of the pen, the immense commerce
of the Northern States was declared to be foreign commnerce, beneath the
guns of the forts which the United States had reared, at an expense of
millions of dollars.
As these outrages were progressing, the people of the Free States were
waiting quietly, but with intense latent emotion, for the inauguration of
President Lincoln.  Nothing could be hoped for while Mvr. Buchanan
remained in the presidential chair; and he was probably more i'mpatient
than any other man in the United States, for the hour to arrive which
wouldc release him from the burdens of an office, which were infinitely too
heavy for him  to bear.  He was apparently the unwilling servant of the
Secessionists, and could not escape from the toils, in which lie had become
involved.  But the Secessionists had no idea of allowing President Lincoln
to be inaugurated.  Though frustrated in their plan of securing his assassination, on his passage to the Capital, they were quite confident of their
ability to seize Washington, and make it the metropolis of their Confederacy.  One of the leading New York journals, under date of January 1,
said
"It is now well known, that military companies have been organized
and drilled, for months past, in MIaryland and Virginia, some of them
under tile eye of an officer of the regular armny, and that the distinct
object of their organization is, to aid in the seizure of TWashington City,
or the prevention, by force, of Lincoln's inauguration.  Some of'the less
prudent of their leaders boast, in private circles, that they have five thousand well armed and organized men, ready to strike the blow instantiy,
upon the concerted signal being given."




7S3                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
Very energetic secret societies were organized, all through the Southern
States? unuder the names of " Minute Men,"" Vigilance Committees," and
" Knights of the Golden Circle," pledged to sustain the Southern Confederacy, to extend the institution of slavery, and to watch over, and, if
necessary, to exterminate all suspected of disaffection. Great numbers of
men, who ventured to speak freely, were treated with every indignity, and
hlung. The Hon. Mr. Iverson, of Georgia, stated boastfully in the Senate
of the United States, " A Senator from Texas has told me that a great
many of those free debaters were hanging from the trees of that country."
Future generations will find it hard to believe that in a civilized community
such atrocities could be committed as were enacted by the advocates of
slavery at the South.
Very great ability was displayed by the leaders of this conspiracy. They
were men of thought, of wealth, and were long accustomed to the exercise
of power. They were few in numbers, and could thus act with almost the
energy of a single despotic mind. Robert Toombs, of Georgia, by his
talent in debate, his self-confidence, and his imperious, inexorable will,
held Cobb, Crawford, and Iverson, as the willing vassals of his baronial
spirit, and thus molded as he pleased the State of Georgia. ~When Mr.
Iverson, of Georgia, withdrew from the Senate, he uttered the following
arrogant menace:
" Georgia is one of six States, which, in less than sixty days, have dissolved their connection with the Federal Union, and declared their separate
independence. Steps are now in progress, to form a Confederacy of their
own, and, in a few weeks at furthest, a provisional government will be
formned, giving them ample powers for their own defense, with power to
enter into negotiations with other nations, to make war, to conclude peace,
to form treaties, and to do all other things which independent nations may
of right do. Provision will be made for admission of other states to the
new Union, and it is confidently believed that, within a few months, all
thle Southern States of the late Confederacy will be formed into a Union
iflr more homogeneous, and, therefore, far more stable lhan the one now
broken up.
" You may acquiesce in the revolution, and acknowledge the independence of a great Confederacy, or you may make -war on the seceding States,
and attempt to force them back. If you acknowledge our independence,
and treat us as one of the nations of the earth, you can have friendly relations and intercourse with us; you can have an equitable division of tho
public property and of the existing public debt of the United States. But
if you make war upon us, we will seize and hold all the public property in
our borders, and in our reach, and we will never pay one dollar of tile public
debt, for the law of nations will extinguish all public and private obligations
between the States.
" The first Federal gun that is fired upon the seceding States-the first
drop of blood of any of their people, shed by the Federal troops-will cancel
every public and private obligation of the South, which may be due either
to the Federal government or to the northern people. We care not in what
shape or form, or under what pretext you undertake coercion. We sihl




THE WAR COMMENCED.                          7J
eonsider ctl efforts to exercise authority over us, as acts of nwar, and shall
meet and resist them, accordingly. You may send armies to invade us by
land, or you may send ships to blockade our ports, and destroy our trade
and commerce with other nations. You may abolish our ports of entry,
and by an act of Congress, attempt to collect the Federal revenues by ships
of war. You may do all or any of these or similar acts. They will be acts
of war, and so understood and considered, and, in whatever shape you make
war, we will fight you."
The views of the Secessionists can not be better expressed than in the
above extracts. The following speech, delivered by the Hon. Mlr. Doolittle,
of Wisconsin, in the Senate of the United States, on the 27th of December,
contains in briefest compass the views of the Unionists. It is so imlllportant, that the true nature of the conflict should be rightly understood, that
we introduce this comprehensive statement, even at the risk of a slight
repetition.
" The Constitution of the United States speaks in language clear enough
that it is not in the power of one out of ten, or of one hundred, or of all
the citizens of a State, to annul an act of Congress, because the Constitution of the United States and an act in pursuance of it is a supreme law of
that State, and binding upon every citizen of that State, and every citizen
must act at his peril. Now if this doctrine is true, that a State by its own
imere motion can assemuble in convention a mass of its citizens, by resolutions dissolve its connection with the Federal Government, and put an end
to the supremacy of the Constitution and laws of the United States, several
other consequences must follow. If one State can secede from all the rest,
I suppose the Senator from Louisiana will not deny but that all the rest
can secede fiom one, and that of necessity gives to this Government the
power to expel a State. Your right of secession involves the right of expulsion.
"Let us go a little further, and see how this doctrine would apply in
time of war. We were engaged in a war with Great Britain in 1812, and
the New England States, it is said, were rather disaffected, and met in
Convention at Hartford. Now, if the doctrine of the gentleman is correct,
any of the New England States could have resolved itself out at its pleasure, and gone over to the enemy. Our fortresses in Boston harbor, which
we had manned, built, and filled with munitions and guns, they might have,withdrawn from and surrendered to the enemy, and turned our own guns
uipon us.
"This is the consequence of this doctrine. But, again, take it in time
of peace. Apply the doctrine to Pennsylvania, that she, by a simple resolution of her people, can withdraw from the United States. She could cut
off all the mail routes going across Pennsylvania, and we could net go from
Virginia to New York without going across a foreign country. So, too,
with Illinois; if this doctrine is correct, we of the North-West could be,
cut off entirely from the East; and especially if the Union is to be broken
up, we could not go to New York except by leave of Illinois; or without
going through the State of Kentucky; and you propose to make that a
foreignr jurisdiction.




80                  CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA
" Apply this doctrine further.  Hoiw is it with Florida, a little State of
the Gulf that has 76,686 white inhabitaLnts3 —-aimost as m1any as some ofthe
counties in thle State where I live? W'e purchased this peninsula, and
paid tor it, to get rid of the foreign jurisdiction over it-also to get possession of the key, and conimmand the entrance to the Gullf.  We paid
$35 000,000 to take the Seminoles off fonom it, and now these T6g68G people,
whoml the good people of the United States permitted to go there and settle
their territories —they had hardly population enough to be admitted as
a State, but we have admitted thenm to full fellowship —Florida now
attempts, by mere resolution of her people gathered together, to resolve
herself out of the Union, and take all those fobrtresses, which we have
spent thousands of dollars to mlake, with all our own guns, and turn them
against us?
"How is it with Louisiana?  The Government of the United States
upon wise national principles of great national policy, purchased fiom the
Emperor of France, or the First Consul, the Territory of Louisiana, at an
expense of $15,000,000. We purchased it to obtain possession of the great
valley of the Ml;ississippi, and above all thlings, to hold the mouth of that
river which controls all its commerce, and discharges it upon the high seas
of the world. Now, can it be contended here that because the people
whom the Federal Government has permitted to go in there, and occupy
its landls, and permitted to be introduced into the family of this reunion,
that she, in a moment of passion and excitement, by the mere resolution of
her cirtizens, can resolve herself outside of the confederacy, declare that sh1
is a foreign power, and take with her the control of the mouths of the /iississippi. I tell* you, Ir. President, and I tell the Senator from Louisiana,
that if any such doctrine had been understood when Louisiana was admitted, she would never have been admitted. I tell you, sir, if any such doc,
trine had been asserted, her people would never have been permitted to
take possession of the swamps of Louisiana.  They will not willingly consent that she should hold the mouths of the 5Mississippi, and thus control
the commerce that goes out into the Cu nl"'11ow has it been with Texas?  The Federal Gover nment admitted
Texas at a time when she had a sparse population, and there were many
debts against her treasury, and her credit tw.as impaired ancd broken.  WTe
took her, as one of the States into this Confideracy.  The result of her
annexation brouglit the Bexican war, which cost us 40,000 lives and nearly
$100,000,000.  ]N ow, when we hlave mnade Ler a good State, built fo'rtific:ations, paid her debts and raised her to a position of a State in this Confederacy, with'prospects as glorious, perhaps more  so than any other.5outhern S tate, is she now, in a single holr or moment of passion, to
-esolve heiself out of the  Ju-io  and become a foreign power?  Suppose
we had paid $200,000,000 for Cuba, and acquired her, with all her fortifications, she could now go out, and turn our own guns against us?  What
is all our great boasted nationality?  Is it a farce and a delusion?
"Gentlemen sometimes comnplai   t that thle Republican party are dis-:posed to do injustice to the citizens of, the oul2olth, and to their social int`itati-ons espacia.-y.  Ifunt wv-hat has beel. t:;itory of thLe (Governmlenlt




THE WAR COMMENCED.                           81
since it was formed under the Constitution 9  Wte have: acquired Florida,
Louisiana, Texas, and the Territory from Mexico. We have surrendered
a part of Maine, and given up our claim to a large part of Oregon. Florida
cost us $40,000,000. It has been given up to the social institutions of the
South. We purchased Louisiana Territory, and two-thirds of the good land
has been given up to the social institutions of the South. The annexation of
Texas, the war with Mexico, and the acquisition of all those territories from
Mexico, may be regarded as one transaction. Now I ask you, gentlenmen,
in all fairness and candor, to say whether we have not surrendered to your
social institutions, your full share, comparing the number of persons who
are employed in your system of labor, with the free white citizens of the
United States?  When you speak of injustice, it is without foundation.
You have had your full share, and more than your share, of the Territories
we have acquired from the beginning up to this hour.
" I am sick and tired of hearing gentlemen stand up here and complain
of the injustice done to this institution of the South. There is no foundation for it in our history-none whatever.     W * * What do we deny to you
that we do not deny to ourselves?  What single right have I in New
Mexico that you have not? You say this law excludes your social institution. So it excludes our banking institutions and our manufacturing corporations. Your social institution is a kind of close corporation, existing
under the laws of your States, not existing by the common law of the
country. We deny you no right which wTe do not deny ourselves. * * *
If we acquire Territory, you are asking too much when you ask'us to convert it to Slave Territory. It is impossible that we can hlave peace upon
any such doctrine as that. You must allow the Free Territories to remain
free. We will not interfere with your institution where it exists. Sir, that
is peace. I repeat, that non-interference by the General Government or by
the Free State men,, with Slavery in the States, and non-interference by the
General Government or by the slaveholders, against freedom in the Territories, is peace."
In the spirit of these remarks, the I-Ion. Daniel Webster had said, in one
of his latest speeches, made at Buffalo, May 22, 1851:
" If the South wish any concession from me, they won't get it —not a
hair's breadth of it. If they come to my house for it, they will not finld
it. I concede nothing * *    N o matter what may be said at the Syracuse
Convention, or any other assemblage of insane persons, I never would consent that there should be one foot of Slave Territory beyond what the olcl
Thirteen States had at the time of the formation of the Union. Never,
never! The man can't show his face to me, and prove that I ever departed
f-irom tlat doctrine. IIe would sneak away, or slink away, or hire a nercen+ary ijeep, that he might say, what a mercenary apostate from liberty
Daniiel Webster has become. He knows himself to be a hypocrite and
fialsifier. * * * All that I now say is, that, with the blessiiq of Gofd I-il'l
sot fnow or hereafter, before the country or the world, consent to be nu'mnbered among those who introduced new slave-power into the Vnion, I will)
do all in my power t vPrevent it."
Ienry Clay was ecqually explicit upon this point of admitting slaver.y intn(




('32               CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
the free territory of the United States. "So long," said he, " as God
allows the vital current to flow through my veins, I will never, ~never~,
NEVER, by word or thought, by mind or will, aid in admitting one rood of
free territory to the everlasting curse of human bondage."  And he was In:,
less emphatic in denouncing the insane doctrine of secession.  " If any one
state," said he, " or a portion of the people of any state, choose to place
themselves in military array against the government of the Union, I am
for trying the strength of the government. I am for ascertaining whether
we have a government or not; practical, efficient; capable of maintaining
its authority, and of lupholding the interests which belong to a government.
Nor am I to be alarmed or dissuaded from any such course by intimations
of the spilling of blood."
Upon the retirement of the traitor Floyd from the government to join
the rebels, Joseph Holt, one of the noblest sons of Kentucky, was entrusted
with the portfolio of the War Department. In cooperation with General
Scott, immediate measures were adopted to protect Washington from the
menaced capture by the Rebels. This unexpected vigor greatly alarmed
the Secessionists. 2More loudly than ever, the cry of " No coercion" rang
through the land. On the 18th of February, Mr. Holt addressed a letter
to the President, in reply to a resolution of the House, inquiring into the
state of the defenses in Washington. The following extracts from this
letter give a vivid description of the condition of affairs at that time:
" The scope of the question submitted by the House will be sufficiently
mnet by dealing with the facts as they exist, irrespective of the cause frorm
which they have proceeded. That revolution has been distinguished by a
boldness and completeness of success, rarely equaled in the history of civil
commotions. Its overthow of the Federal authority has not only been
sudden and widespread, but has been marked by excesses which have
alarmed all, and been sources of profound humiliation to a large portion
of the American people. Its history is a history of surprises, and treacheries, and ruthless spoliations.  The forts of the United States have been
captured and garrisoned, and hostile flags unfurled upon their ramparts.
Its arsenals have been seized, and the vast anmount of public armns they
contained appropriated to the use of the captors, while more than half a
million of dollars, found in the mint at New Orleans, have been unscrupulously applied to replenish the coffers of Louisiana.  Officers in command
of revenue cutters of the United States, have been prevailed on to violate
their trusts, and surrender the property inl their charge; and instead of
being branded for their crimes, they, and the vessels they betrayed, hlave
been cordially received into the service of the seceded States.' At what time the armed occupation of Washington City became a
part of the revolutionary programme is not certainly known; more than
six weeks ago, the impression had already extensively obtained, that a conspiracy for the accomplishment of this guilty purpose was in process of
formation, if not fully matured. The earnest endeavors made by men
known to be devoted to the revolution, to hurry Virginia and Maryland out
of the Union, were regarded as preparatory steps fir the subjugation of
WVashington. This plan was in entire harmony with the aim and spi!';




THE WAR COMMENCED.;.
of those seeking the subversion of the Government, since no more fatal
blow at its existence could be struck than the permanent and hostile possession of the seat of its power. It was in harmony, too, with the avowed
designs of the revolutionists, which looked to the formation of a confederacy of all the Slave States, and necessarily to the conquest of the capital
within their limits.
" In view of the violence and turbulent disorders already exhibited in
the South, the public mind could not reject such a scheme as at all imnprobable. That a belief in its existence was entertained by multitudes
there can be no doubt, and this belief I fully shared.  My conviction
rested not only on the facts already alluded to, but upon information,
some of which was of a most conclusive character, that reached the Govern:ment from many parts of the country, not merely expressing the prevalence of the opinion that such an organization had been formed, but also
often furnishing the plausible grounds on which the opinion was based.
Superadded to these proofs were the oft-repeated declarations of men in
high political positions here, and who were known to have intimate affiliations with the revolution, if, indeed, they did not hold its reins in their
hands, to the effect that lMr. Lincoln would not, or should not, be inaugurated at Washington.  Such declarations from such men could not
be treated as empty bluster. They were the solemn utterances of those
who well understood the import of their words, and who, in the exultation of their temporary victories gained over their country's flag in the
South, felt assured that events would soon give them the power to verify their predictions.  Simultaneously with these prophetic warnings, a
Southern journal of large circulation and influence, and which is published
near the City of Washington, advocated its seizure as a possible political
necessity.
" The nature and power of the testimony thus accumulated may be
best estimated by the effect produced upon the popular mind. Apprehensions for the safety of the capital were communicated from points near and
remote, by men unquestionably reliable and loyal. The resident population
became disquieted, and the repose of many families in the city was known
to be disturbed by painful anxieties. Members of Congress, too, men of
calm and comprehensive views, and of undoubted fidelity to their country,
frankly expressed their solicitude to the President and to this department,
and formally insisted that the defenses of the capital should be strengthened. With such warnings, it could not be forgotten that, had the early
admonitions which reached here in regard to the designs of lawless men
upon the forts of Charleston harbor, been acted on by sending forward
adequate reinforcements before the revolution began, the disastrous political
complications that ensued might not have occurred.
"Impressed by these circumstances and considerations, I earnestly besought you to allow the concentration at this city of a sufficient military
force, to preserve the public peace from all the dangers that seemed to
threaten it. An open manifestation on the part of the Administration of
a determination, as well as of the ability to maintain the laws, would, I was
convinced, prove the surest, as also the most pacific means of baffling and




84                 CIVIL WAVR IN  AM.ERICA.
dissolving any conspiracy that might have been organized. It was believed,
too, that the highest and most solemn responsibility resting upon a President withdrawing from the Government, was to secure to his successor.i
peaceful inauguration. So deeply, in my judgment, did this duty concern
the whole country and the fair fame of our institutions, that to guarantee
its faithful discharge, I was persuaded no preparation could be too determined or too complete. The presence of the troops alluded to in the resolution, is the result of the conclusion arrived at by yourself and Cabinet,
on the propositions submitted to you by this department.
"Already this display of life and loyalty on the part of your Admilistration, has produced the happiest effects.  Public confidence has been
restored, and the feverish apprehension which it was so mortifying to contemplate has been banished. Whatever may have been the machinations
of deluded, lawless men, the execution of their purposes has been suspended, if not altogether abandoned, in view of preparations which
announce more impressively than words, that this Administration is alike
able and resolved, to transfer in peace to the President-elect the authority
that, under the Constitution, belongs to him. To those, if such there be,
who desire the destruction of the Republic, the presence of these troops is
necessarily offensive; but those who sincerely love our institutions cannot
fail to rejoice that, by this timely precaution, they have possibly escaped
the deep dishonor which they must have suffered had the Capital, like the
forts and arsenals of the South, fallen into the hands of revolutionists, who
have found this great Government weak only because, in the exhaustless
beneficence of its spirit, it has refused to strike even in its own defense, lest
it should wound the aggressors.
"I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
"[JOSEPH IHOLT, Secretctry of War."
Northern men had so generally been engaged in lucrative employments
of industry, that comparatively few sought offices in the army or the navy,
where, in a period of profound peace, there was but little scope for enterprise, and where neither wealth nor fame was to be won. B3ut the sons of
Southern planters, with nothing opening before them but an indolent life,
were eager for these offices. The consequence was that now, in our hour
of trial, the large proportion of the officers, in both the army and navy,
were from the slaveholding States, and were eager to cooperate with their
friends in revolutionizing the government. One after another they resigned
their commissions, and entered the service of the Confederacy, where they
were nominally reinstated in the possession of the same rank and pay which
they had been enjoying. The resignation of men unblushingly avowing
their treasonable intent, was accepted by Secretary Toucey, and they were
honorably discharged.
One Breshwood, a Virginian, was in command of the United States
revenue cutter  ficLelland. He infamously surrendered his vessel to the
rebels at New Orleans. Capt. J. J. Morrison followed the same ignoble
example, by surrendering the revenue cutter Uass to the rebels at Mobile.
Gen. John A. Dix, one of America's untitled noblemen, just then appointed




THE WAR COMMIENCED.,~b
Secretary of the Treasury, sent a secret agent, Hemphil Jones, to endeavor
to rescue these vessels from their perfidious commanders. To this agent he
gave the spirited order, " to shoot down on the spot any man who attempted
to haul down the American Flag."
When great depravity is developed, great nobility of character also
becomes conspicuous.  Lieut. John N. M1affit was in command of the'
Crusader at Mobile. His steam gunboat was exposed to the fire of Fort
Morgan, which the Rebels had just seized. He was commanded to surrender his vessel to the "Alabama Navy."
" I may be overpowered," was his reply,' but in that event what will
be left of the Crusader will not be worth taking."
HIe rescued the vessel, which subsequently rendered signal service in the
Gulf. Capt. Porter was ordered by Lieut. J. H. Hamilton, of South Carolina, to surrender his ship to the Rebels. His reply, dated United States
Ship St. Marys, Panama Bay, Feb. 3, 1861, contains the following noble
sentiments:
" You, sir, have called upon your brother officers, not only to become
traitors to their country, but to betray their sacred trust, and deliver up the
ships under their command.  This infamous appeal would, in ordinary
times, be treated with the contempt it deserves. But I feel it a duty I
owe myself and brother officers, with whom I am  associated, to reply and
state, that all under my command are true and loyal to the'Stars and
Stripes,' and to the Constitution.  I My duty is plain before me.  The
constitutional government of the United States, htas entrusted me with
the command of this beautiful shlip, and before I will permit any other
flag than the'Stars and Stripes' to fly at her pleak, I will fire a pistol
in her magazine, and blow her up. This is my answer to your infamous
letter."
The week preceding the 4th of March, when Mr. Lincoln was to be
inaugurated, was one of intense solicitude and excitement.'The air was
filled with rumors of conspiracies, to prevent the inauguration by a bloody
tumult, and by seizing the Capital.  Washington was thronged with
strangers, many from the South, armed with bowie-knives and revolvers.
Apparently there would have been but little difficulty in a few thousand
men, at a concerted signal, making a rush which would sweep all opposition before them. Gen. Scott and Secretary Holt were in the meantime.
making quiet, but effectual preparations, to meet any emergency. An
imposing military escort was provided to conduct the President to the
Capitol, and back again, after the inauguration, to the White House.
The eventful morning dawned propitiously. At an early hour, Pennsylvania Avenue was thronged, the centre of attraction being Willard's
Hotel, where, thus far, the President ele6t had occupied apartments. The
procession began to form  about 9 o'clock.  It was very brilliant and
imposing. One very striking feature was a large triumphal car, the Constitution,'bearing thirty-fonr' very beautiful girls, robed in white, as representatives of the several States. It was thus manifest that the government
had no idea of recognizing the Union as dissolved. Mr. Buchanan and.
M{r. Lincoln sat, side by side, in the carriage. They ascended the steps of.




CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
the Capitol arm in arm. It was noticed that Mr. Buchanan looked pale,
sad, and nervous; he sighed audibly and frequently. Mr. Lincoln's face
was slightly flushed, and his lips compressed, with an expression of much
gravity and firmness.
The President elect took his stand upon the platform of the portico of
the Capitol.  The Supreme Court, the Senate, the House of Representatives, the Foreign Ministers, and a vast crowd of privileged persons, soon
occupied every seat. A countless throng filled the grounds below, a surging
mass of friends and foes. There were exasperated secessionists, watching
for a chance to strike a blow, and pure patriots ready to repel that blow,
at any hazard of life. Senator Baker of Oregon, introduced the President
to the people. Mr. Lincoln then, with strength of voice which arrested
every ear, delivered his inaugural address.  Speaking of secession, he said:
" Physically speaking we can not separate,-we can not remove our
respective sections from each other, nor build an impassable wall between
them. A husband and wife may be divorced, and go out of the presence
and beyond the reach of each other; but the different parts of our country
can not do this. They can not but remain face to face; and intercourse,
either amicable or hostile, must continue between them. Is it possible,
then, to make that intercourse more advantageous or more satisfactory
after separation than before? Can aliens make treaties easier than friends
can makle laws? Can treaties be more faithfully enforced between aliens,
than laws can among friends? Suppose you go to war; you can not fight
always, and when, after much loss on both sides, and no gain on either,
you cease fighting, the identical questions, as to terms of intercourse, are
again upon you."
In reference to the policy to be pursued he said, "To the extent of my
ability I shall take care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon
me, that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States.
Doing this I deem to be only a simple duty on my part. I shall perfectly
perform it, so far as is practicable, unless my rightful masters, the American people, shall withhold the requisition, or, in some authoritative manner, direct the contrary. I trust this will not be regarded as a menace,
but only as the declared purpose of the Union, that it will constitutionally
defend and maintain itself  In doing this there need be no bloodshed or
violence, and there shall be none, unless it is forced upon the national
authority.  The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and
possess the property and places belonging to the government, and collect
the duties and imposts; but beyond what may be necessary for these
objects, there will be no invasion,-no using of force against or among the
people anywhere.
Mr. Lincoln closed his noble inaugural with the following words, alike
firm and conciliatory: " In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen,
and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government
wrill not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the
aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the government; while I shall have the most solemn one to'preserve, protect, and
defend it.' I am loth to close. We are not enemies, but frienLdc.  Ve




THE WAR COOMM}ENCED.                       87
must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not
break our bonds.of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching
from every battle-field and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthlstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when
again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."
The oath of office was then administered by Chief Justice Taney; the
procession was again formed, and Mr. Lincoln was escorted to the White
House. Though President Lincoln used with the utmost sincerity the
language of conciliation, he was too well informed to believe that the South
could be conciliated. The following anecdote, which he once narrated with
great effect, proves that he well understood the deadly nature of the conflict.
"I once knew," he said, " a good sound churchman, whom we will call
Brown, who was in a committee to erect a bridge over a very dangerous
and rapid river. Architect after architect failed, and, at last, Brown said,
he had a fiiend named Jones, who had built several bridges, and could
build this.'Let us have him in,' said the committee. In came Jones.'Can you build this bridge, sir?''Yes,' replied Jones.'I could build a
bridge to the iniernal regions if necessary.' The sober committee were
horrified. But when Jones retired, Brown thought it but fair to defend
his friend.'I know Jones so well,' said he,'and he is so honest a man,
and so good an architect, that if he states, soberly and positively, that he
can build a bridge to HIades, why, I believe it. But I have my doubts
about the abutment on the infernal side."'"  So [Mr. Lincoln added, "When
politicians said they could harmonize the northern and southern wings of
tile democracy, why, I believed them. But I had my doubt about tile
abutment on the southern side."
The Charleston Courier, under date of February 12th, says, "The
South might after uniting under the new Confederacy, treat the disorganized and demoralized Northern States as insuryents, and deny them recognition. But if peaceful di-vision ensues, the South, after taking the Federal
Capital, and being recognized by all foreign powers, as the government cid
facto, can, if they see proper, recognize the Northern Confederacy, or Confederacies, and enter into treaty stipulations with them. Were this not
done it would be difficult for the Northern States to take a place among
nations, and their flag would not be respected or recognized."
The Mobile Advertiser, of about the same date, said, "The Spartans
were small in number, but each man a host. Their narrow territory was
peopled by two classes proper,-laborers and fighters. The laborers were
slaves, and the freemen fighters. The South could detach one-half of its
wholb male population to wage war, with as much ease as the North could
one-fifth; and in case of need the proportionate array of fighters which
vwe could marshal would astonish the world."
The result has proved this statement correct. The slaves furnished the
esupplies for the war. Though in heart with the North, they were compelled to work for the support of their masters who went to the field.
Every voice from the South indicated the undoubting confidence with whic!h
the conspirators were moving toward the accomplishment of their plans.
Effectual arrangements were now made for the bombardment and cap



JS CIVIL WAR I1ir9 AMERICA.
ture of Sumnter. Iron-clad batteries had been reared so numerous and sa
i'ornlidable, that no wooden frigate could pass them, and thus it became.impossible to send any assistance to the heroic little garrison there beleaguered. On the 12th of April, the rebels sent a demand to the starving
garrison to surrender. Major Anderson replied that " his sense of honor
and his obligations to the government would prevent his compliance;" but
at the same time he admitted that the garrison were nearly starved out,
and that, if no supplies reached them -before the 15th, they would then be
compelled to surrender.
At half past four o'clock on the morning of the.12th of April, the rebels
opened the fire upon a fsrt and the flag of the IUnited States, thus commencing, with tremendous energy, all the horrors of civil war. In that
frenzied and exultant hour, little did they imagine the misery and ruin they
were inviting upon their own heads. The government, in the' hands of the
traitors who dominated over the councils of President Buchanan, had succulmbed so ignobly to menaces of the conspirators, that they now looked
upon that government with contempt, and had no apprehension that it
would ever manifest sufficient lifb to chastise them for their treason.
The fire was almost simultaneously opened upon the fort, from Fort
Mfoultrie, the iron-clad floating battery in the harbor, anL fiom heavy batteries on Mount Pleasant and on Cummings Point. A small fleet, with
supplies, was seen outside the harbor, but it was certain destruction for the
ships to attenmpt to pass the fbrts and batteries, and they could, consequently, render no assistance in the conflict. For two hours the little galrrison, secure in their casemates, received tile bombardment without reply,
solid shot crashing down their walls, and shells exploding' everywhere
around them. After taking a comfortable breakfast, at half past six o'clock,
the command was divided into three reliefs, and the first relief; under Captain Doubleday and Lieutenant Snyder, of the Engineer corps, opened the
returning fire. The encircling batteries poured such a storin of shells upon
the parapet that no one could stand there, and the guns in the casemates
were mainly used. There is perhaps no work more exhausting than manning heavy guns. The garrison, enIeebled by months of siege, with but a
scanty supply of provisions, having eaten that nmorning their very last biscuit, were in a poor condition to contend against an army of ten thousand
men, stationed behind the strongest ramparts which modern science could
construct. Less than one hundred men were thus arrayed against ten
thousand.
M ajor Anderson, though aware that the fort must fall, yet resolved
upon a heroic resistance, while taking the utmost care of his men. A'sentinel was kept constantly upon the look-out, who cried out " shot" or " shell,"
at every shot the enemy made, and thus the men easily obtained sheltenr
It is difficult for one, not familiar with war, to imagine the power of the.
missiles which modern science has constructed.  Solid walls of brick wereC
crumabled down like powder. Cannons weighing thousands of pounds
were thrown from their carriages by the explosion of shells. Red hot shot:rad burs-ting shells soon set the wooden barracks of the soldiers on fire, anl
Hearlv the whole interior of the fort blazed like a furnace.  ior't 




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ER(4AVED EX2RESSLY'FOR A]3BB0TS QIf[I, WARJ!            —:-ii
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THE WAR COMMENCED.                           89
honsi, thisi terrific bombardment continued all day and all night, with but
occasional lulls, from the early dawn of Friday morning till near the close
of Saturday afternoon. The garrison in Sumter soon became so exhausted,
that they could make but a feeble response. An eye-witness thus describes
the scene within the fort,:
" The fire surrounded us on all sides. Fearful that the walls might
crack, and the shells pierce and prostrate them, we commenced taking the
powder out of the magazine before the fire had fully enveloped it. We
took 96 barrels of powder out, and threw them into the sea, leaving 200
barrels in it. Owing to a lack of cartridges, we kept five men inside the
magazine, sewing, as we wanted them, thus using up our shirts, sheets,
blankets, and all the available material in the fort. When we were finally
obliged to close the magazine, and our material for cartridges was exhausted,
we were left destitute of any means to continue the contest. We had eaten
our last biscuit thirty-six hours before. We caine very near being stifled
with the dense, livid smoke from the burning buildings. Many of the men
lay prostrate on the ground, with wet handkerchiefs over their mouths and
eyes, gasping for breath. It was a moment of imlinent peril. If an eddy
of wind had not ensued, we all, probably, should have been suffocated.
The crashing of the shot, the bursting of the shells, the falling of walls,
and the roar of the flames made a pandemonium of the fort. We nevertheless kept up a steady fire."
Such was the state of affairs, when, near the close of the day, a small
boat suddenly made its appearance at one of the elnbrasures, with a white
flag, and Major Wigfall, formerly a United States Senator fromn Texas, and
who had been one of the most fierce and conspicuous of the Secessionists,
was permitted to crawl through the embrasure. The fort was on fire, the
garrison utterly exhausted, and yet the tattered banner of Stars and Stripes
floated proudly and defiantly over the ruins. After some conference, and
the arrival of another deputation, it was agreed that the garrison should
surrender the fort, taking with thein, as they retired at their leisure and in
their own way, all their individual and company property, their side arms,
and the war-scathed flag, which they were to salute with a hundred guns,
before they hauled it down.
The battle now ceased. The fire was ere long extinguished, having
destroyed nearly everything combustible, and the wearied men had a night
of such rest as could be found in the midst of the ruins which surrounded
them. About half past 9 o'clock on Sunday morning, the evacuation commenced. The booming of cannon echoed over the bay, as the heroic and
indomitable band saluted the Flag sinking from its staff, and then, as with
the proud step of victors, the band playing " Yankee Doodle" and " Hail
Columbia," they marched out of the main gate, with the Stars and tihe
Stripes waving over them, and entered the transport Isabel, which conveyed
them to the United States Ship Baltic, in the offing, by which they were
carried in triumph to New York.
Fort Sumter was the Bunker IHill of this Civil War. In both cases, a
proud aristocracy were determined to subject this country to its sway. In
both cases, the defeat was a glorious victory. This little band of heroes




902                 CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
withstood the attack of an army, provided with the heaviest batteries
which Europe and America could afford. For thirty-six hours they continued the unequal conflict. And then, when they had not another cartridge to fire, and not another biscuit to divide, they evacuated the ruins,
the Stars and Stripes still waving over them, and they stepping proudly to
the air of "'Hail Columbia." The nation regarded it as a victory, and welcomned them as heroes. And the people of'the United States will never
cease to regard each member of the intrepid garrison of Fort Sumter with
admiration and holnage.
From the statistical report, given in the Charleston ~Mereury of Ifiay 3,
it appears that the Rebels threw into and upon tho fort, from:ourteen
batteries, 2361 solid shot, and 980 shells. Among the incidents of the
battle related by an eye-witness, one is that a ten-inch shell entered the
fort just above the magazine, cut its way through a block of granite, a foot
thick, as if it had been cheese, and then exploded, casting a fragment of
the shell, weighing twenty pounds, against the massive iron door of the
magazine with such force, that the door was so bent that it could not be
closed. Soon after this a red-hot shot passed quite through the outer wall
of the magazine, and penetrated the inner wall to the depth of four inches,
when it fell to the floor. All this time grains of powder, spilled by the
men, were lying loosely about, so that it is a wonder, almost approaching
to a miracle, that the magazine was not fired, and the fort and all its
defenders blown into the air.
It is a marvelous fact, but one now apparently well authenticated,
that during this long and terrific bombardment no one was killed on either
side. After the battle was over, by the accidental explosion of a gun in
saluting the national flag, one of the Federal soldiers was killed and several
wounded. But in the battle, no one was seriously hurt.  The Rebels had
been for months preparing for the conflict, and the balls from Sumter which
struck their batteries, cased, at a sharp angle, with railroad iron, glanced
off, in the express language of an eye-witness, like marbles thrown by the
hand of a child against the back of a tortoise. The men in Sumter were
so few in number, and in casemates behind walls sixty feet high, and froml
twelve to fifteen feet thick, that it is not so very incredible that they
should have escaped unharmed. Alnd yet when we reflect that fifty tons
weight of iron was thrown upon them with force which crumbled down
the most massive masonry, it does indeed seem surprising that'"nobody
was hurt."
Three times the fort was on fire, and twice the flames were extinguished,
by the whole garrison ceasing to fire, and passing along water.  To do this
it was necessary for the men to go outside the walls, and hand the buckets
in through the port-holes, all the time exposed to the incessant fire from
the batteries.  The third time the flames burst out, all their efforts to
extinguish them were baffled, and they burned until almost everything
combustible was consumed. The scene in Charleston, during this bombardment, must have been such as can not easily be imagined. From the
steeples, the house-tops, and Battery, the whole bay was s-read out before
the eye  and never before, perhaps, was there so perfect a panorama (A'




THE WAR COMMENCED.                           91
battle. One of the rebels, who was in Charleston at the time, thus describes the scene:
" At the gray of the morning on Friday, the roar of cannon broke upon
the ear. The expected sound was answered by thousands. The houses
were in a few minutes emptied of their excited occupants, and the living
stream potired through all the streets leading to the wharves and battery.
On reaching our beautiful promenade, we found it lined with ranks of eager
spectators, and all the wharves, commanding a view of the battle, were
crowded thickly with human forms. On no gala occasion have we ever
seen so large a number of ladies on our Battery as graced the breezy walk
on this eventful morning. There they stood, with palpitating hearts and
pallid faces, watching the white smoke as it rose in wreaths, upon the soft
twilight air, and breathing out fervent prayers for their gallant kinsiblk at
the guns."
The avowed object of the rebels, in their attack upon Sumter, was to
cross the Rubicon in the actual inauguration of civil war, and thus to " fire
the heart of the South."  It was supposed that the South, being thus committed, would be compelled, by pride, to continue the conflict, for southern
pride would scorn to entertain the thought of apology and submission.
This outrage upon our country's flag, this inauguration of civil war, which
was to cost more than a hundred thousand lives, to impoverish countless
ftmmilies, and to imperil our very national existence, was received through.
out the rebellious cities, with all the demonstrations of pride and joy.
Those who still loved their country did not dare to utter a remonstrating
word, for an iron tyranny crushed them.
But the uprising in the North was such as the world never witnessed
before. The slaveholders at the South had so long been threatening blood
and ruin, that the North had quite ceased to regard their menaces. There
was hardly a man to be found in all the North, who had any idea that the
Southern rebels would venture to commence civil war. The bombardment
of Sumter created universal amazement and indignation. As the news of
the insult to the national flag, of the battle, and of the capture of the fort
by the rebels, was flashed along the wires, excitement, perhaps unparalleled
in the history of the world, pervaded every city and hamlet, and almost
every heart. All party distinctions seemed to be forgotten. There were
henceforth but two parties in the land,-the rebels with their sympathizers,
and the friends of the Union.
On the next day, Monday, April 15, the President issued a call for
three months' service of 75,000 volunteers, and summoned an extra session
of Congress to meet on the 4th of July. The response of the loyal States
to this call for troops was prompt and cordial in the highest possible degree.
Never perhaps were a people found less prepared for war, than were the
people of the Northern States. Accustomed only to peace, and not anticipating any foe, many of the States had not even the form of a military
organization. All the energies of the people were consecrated to the arts
of industry, not to those of destruction. We had neither soldiers nor offic( ers. The men who had received military education at West Point, weary
of having absolutely nothing to do, but to wear away the irksome hours, in




92                 CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
some fort on the shore or in the wilderness, had generally engaged in other
pursuits. They had become civil engineers, railroad superintendents, instructors in scientific schools, and thus had become in reality merely civilians who had studied the science and theory of war, but with no practical
acquaintance with the duties of the field.
This was not our shame, butt our glory. We were men of peace and
industry, and of great prosperity.  We had not dreamed that traitors
would rise to plunge this happy land into anarchy, and to destroy this best
government,-best notwithstanding all its imperfections,-earth has ever
known. Floyd had emptied the arsenals, and placed the guns in the hands
of the rebels. Our little standing army, consisting of but 10,755 men, officers and privates all told, he had scattered at almost illimitable distances
over our vast frontier. lMr. Buchanan's Secretary of the Navy had equally
dispersed the fleet; in fact our neglected navy had fallen almost into decay.
And more than all this, the majority of the officers in the army and in the
navy were men of slave-holding connections, many. of whom openly avowed
their sympathy with rebellion, and they had become so lost to all sense of
honllr, that the betrayal to the enemy of the Flag which they had sworn
to protect — a deed which all the rest of the world called vnfcamous, they
deemed chivcalrous. Such was the condition of the North, when the war
cormmenced.
Mr. Lincoln, in organizing his cabinet, had gratified the whole country
)by showing but little reference to party. Aware of the peril impending
lie had selected the ablest men wherever found, whose patriotism and zeal
could not be doubted, to fill these important posts. William HI. Seward of
New York, was Secretary of State. Salmon P. Chase of Ohio, Secretary
of the Treasury.  Simon Cameron of Pennsylvania, Secretary of War.
Gideon Welles of Connecticut, Secretary of the Navy.:Montgomery Blair
of Maryland, Postmaster General. Edward Bates of M/issouri, Attorney
General. Caleb B. Smith of Indiana, Secretary of the Interior. These
were all patriots in whose ability and integrity the community in general,
reposed confidence. aMr. Cameron thus describes the condition of the War
Department, as he entered upon its duties:
" Upon my appointment to the position, I found the department destitute of all the means of defense; without gulls, and with little prospect of
purchasing the materiel of war. I found the nation without an army, and
I found scarcely a man throughout the whole War Department in whom I
could put my trust. The Adjutant General deserted. The Quartermlaster
General ran off. The Commissary General was on his death-bed. More
than half the clerks were disloyal. I remember that upon one occasion
General Scott came to me, apparently in great mental tribulation. Said
he,'I have spent the most miserable day in my life; a friend of my boyhood has just told me I am disgracing myself by staying here, and serving
this fragment of the government, in place of going to Virginia, and serving
under the banner of my native State; and I am pained to death.' But the
old hero was patriotic, loyal, and wise enough to say that his friend was
-wrong, and he was right in remaining where he was."
The conspirators, however, had been busy for years preparing for tih,




THE WAR COMMENCED.                            93
cooflict. In the rebel convention which met in South Carolina to consummate the conspiracy, Mr. Inglis said, "Most of us have had this subject
under consideration for the last twenty years."  Mr. Keitt said, "I have
Sbeen engaged in this movement ever since I entered political life."  Mr.
Rhett said, "It is nothing produced by Mr. Lincoln's election, or the nonexecution of the fugitive slave law. It is a matter which has been gather-;ilg head for thirty years."  In many of the States there was an efficient
Ilidlitary organization, and the troops were under active drill. Agents had
bueen despatched to England, to try to win sympathy there, and to enlist
tlhe cooperation of leading journals, by promises of free trade. Nothing
-which wealth or intrigue could accomplish, had been neglected by the
traitors, to prepare the way for their great purpose. The Richmond Enquirer, to encourage the friends of the conspiracy with the assurance that
all things were ripe for the outbreak, published the following notice, the
more memorable, as proclaimed by a sheet which was the recognized mouthpiece of Floyd:
"The facts we are about to state are official and indisputable.  Under
a single order of the late Secretary of War, the Hon. Mr. Floyd, made
during the last year, there were 115,000 improved muskets and rifles transferred from the Springfield armory, Mass., and Watervliet arsenal, N. Y., to
different arsenals at the South. The total number of improved arms, thus
supplied to five depositories in the South, by a single order of the late
Secretary of War, was 114,868," In addition to this, the Memphis Appeal
(Tenn.) stated, at the same time, that, by this action of Floyd, by the
seizure of fbrts and arsenals, and by purchase from abroad, the rebel states
had then, distributed at various convenient points, 707,000 stand of arms,
and 200,000 revolvers.
The response from the loyal States to the President's call for troops was
so enthusiastic, that far more men were ready to march than were called
for, and millions of dollars were immediately offered to replenish the
exhausted treasury.  Within fifteen days, it is estimated that 350,000
volunteers offered themselves in defense of our national flag. In all the
slaveholding States, even in those border States where the majority of the
population were in favor of the Union, the conspirators had contrived to
place their own friends in all the important offices. Missouri, Kentucky,
and Tennessee were undmcoubtedly, by the popular vote, in large majority for
the Union. But the Governors of these States assumed that the -United
States had no right to defend its own property and forts, or to protect its
own troops, within the limits of the slaveholding States, now that they
demanded the surrender of these forts and property, and the departure of'
these troops. C. M. Jackson, Governor of Missouri, in response to the
President's call, said:
"Your requisition, in my judgment, is illegal, unconstitutional, and
revolutionary in its objects, inhuman, and diabolical, and can not be comnplied with. Not one man will the State of Missouri furnish, to carry on
such an unholy crusade."
B. Magoffin, Governor of Kentucky, responded in the following laconic
note:




94                 CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
" Your dispatch is received. In answer, I say emphatically, that Kentucky will furnish no troops for the wicked purpose of subduing her sister
Southern States."
Similar responses came from several of the Governors of States still professedly in the Union. But the people in these States rushed by tens of
thousands to defend our common country, and overthrow the traitorous
rulers who wished to carry them off into rebellion.
The news of the capture of Sumter was received by the Rebel Congress
in Montgomery with the greatest exultation. An immense crowd serenaded
Jeff. Davis and his Secretary of War, Leroy P. Walker, at the Exchange
Hotel. Jeff: Davis was sick, probably sick at heart, in view of the woes
which the rebellion was bringing upon the land. He had thought that the
North would yield without a struggle.  IIe saw now that a civil war had
commenced of such magnitude, that it must deluge the land in blood, and
that the chances were that the rebellion would be crushed. lie was sick.
There was no tonic in the tidings to raise his head from his pillow. But
his Secretary, Mr. Walker, appeared upon the balcony, and, in an exultant
speech, said:
" No man can tell where the war, commenced this day, will end. But
I will prophecy that the flag which now flaunts the breeze here will float
over the dome of the old Capitol at Washington, before the 1st of May.
Let them try Southern chivalry, and test the extent of Southern resources,
and it may float eventually over Fanneil Hall itself."
The unanimity with which the whole North arose, in this crisis, all
party differences being merged in enthusiastic devotion to the Union, is one
of the most extraordinary events of history. Men who but a few days
before had been bitterly hostile, were at once seen standing side by side,
upon the same platform, in earnest cooperation to resist the audacious
rebellion. Senator Douglas, one of the candidates for the Presidency, at
this crisis, came forward with zeal and power which will forever entitle him
to the gratitude of his countrymen. The overwhelming majority of his
party followed their illustrious leader in the magnanimity of his patriotism.
On the 1st of Mlay, Senator Douglas reached Chicago, Illinois, on his return
from Washington. He was met at the depot, by an immense assemblage,
of citizens, who conducted him in a triumphal procession to the great
" Wigwam,"' where ten thousand persons, of all parties, were seated awaiting him. The Senator addressed them in the following strain, which
thrilled the heart of the nation, and which will give him ever-during and
grateful remembrance.
" I beg you to believe that I will not do you or myself the injustice to
think that this magnificent ovation is personal to myself. I rejoice to know
that it expresses your devotion to the Constitution, the Union and the flag
of our country. I will not conceal gratificationat the uncontrovertible test
this vast audience presents -that, what political differences or party questions may have divided us, yet you all had a conviction that, when the
country should be in danger, my loyalty could be relied on. That the
present danger is imminent, no man can conceal. If war must come-if
the bayonet must be used to maintain the Constitution-I say before God,




THE WAR COMMENCED.                         9.5
my conscience is clean. I have struggled long for a peaceful solution of
the difficulty.  I have not only tendered those States, what was theirs of
right, but I have gone to the very extreme of magnanimity.
"The return we receive is war, armies marched upon our Capital, obstructions and dangers to our navigation, letters of marque, to invite pirates
to prey upon our commerce, a concerted movement to blot out the United
States of America from the map of the globe. The question is, Are we to
maintain the country of our fathers, or allow it to be stricken down by
those who, when they can no longer govern, threaten to destroy?
"' What cause, what excuse do disunionists give us, for breaking lup the
best Government, on which thle sun of heaven ever shed its rays? They
are. dissatisfied with the result of the Presidential election. Did they never
get beaten before? Are we to resort to the sword when we get defeated
at the ballot box? I understand it that the voice of tile people expressed
in the mode appointed by the Constitution, must command the obedience
of every citizen. They assmne, on the election of a particular candidate,
that their rights are not safe in the Union. What evidence do they present
of this? I defy any man to show any act on which it is based. What
act has been omitted to be done? I appeal to these assembled thousands,
that so far as the constitutional rights of slaveholders are concerned, nothing
has been done, and nothing omitted, of which they can complain.
" There has never been a time from the day that Washington was inaugurated first President of these United States, when the rights of the
Southerin States stood firmer under the laws of the land than they do now;
there never was a time when they had not as good cause for disunion as
they have to-day. What good cause have they now that has not existed
under every Administration?
" If they say the Territorial question-now, for the first time, there is no
act of Congress prohibiting slavery anywhere. If it be the non-enforcement
of the laws, the only complaints that I have heard, have been of the too
vigorous and faithful fulfillment of the Fugitive Slave Law. Then what
reason have they?
" The Slavery question is a mere excuse. The election of Lincoln is a
mere pretext. The present secession movement is the result of an enormous conspiracy formed more than a year since, formed by leaders in the
Southern Confederacy more than twelve months ago.
" But this is no time for the detail of causes. The conspiracy is now
known. Armies have been raised, war is levied to accomplish it. There
are only two sides to the question. Every man must be for the United
States or against it. There can be no neutrals in this war; only zpakrotsor traitors.
" Thank God, Illinois is not divided on this question. I know they
expected to present a united South against a divided North. They hopecl
in the Northern States, party questions would bring civil war between
Democrats and Republicans, when the South would step in, with her
cohorts, aid one party to conquer the other, and then make easy prey of the
victors. Their scheme was carnage and'civil war in the North.
" There is but one way to defeat this. In Illinois it is being so defeated




96                 C IVIL WVr Al ) 1N A   E P I C A..
by closing up the ranks. War will thus be prevented on our own soil.
While there was a hope of peace, I was ready for any reasonable sacrifice
or compromise to maintain it. But when the question comes of war in the
cotton fields of the South, or the corn fields of Illinois, I say the farther
off the better.
"I have Said more than I intended to say. It is a sad task to discuss
questions so fearful as civil war; but sad as it is, bloody and disastrous as
I expect it will be, I express it as my conviction before God, that it is the
duty of every American citizen to rally around the flag of his country.
" I thank you again for this magnificent demonstration.  By it you
show you have laid aside party strife.  Illinois has a proud positionunited, firm, determined never to permit the Government to be destroyed."
Immediately after the fall of Sumter, on the 17th of April, and in
response to the President's call for 75,000 men, Jefferson Davis, the head
of a band of conspirators and rebels, who had not been recognized as a
nation by any government on the globe, issued a proclamation authorizing
privateers to be fitted out from all the ports of the South, to prey upon the
vast commerce of the United States. The merchant marine of the United
States, whitening the gulf; and spread over all seas, was utterly defenseless.
And now the government began to feel the treachery which had dismantled
and dispersed our fleet. We could send no convoys. We could blockade
no ports. We had not a single half dozen vessels of war, which we could
immediately call into service. Was ever a nation before so betrayed? And
the very men in whom we had confided, whom the people had placed in the
highest posts of office and of honor, had thus left us naked to our enemies.
Within a few weeks the  rebels boasted that they had seized ships to the
amount of several millions of dollars. Those which they could not conveniently carry into port, they plundered and burned at sea.
On the 19th of April, as a protection against this piratical proclama,
tion, and as the nation's reply, the President announced the blockade of all
the ports of the seceded States. And never before was a navy created with
such magical rapidity. In less than three motiths over three hmldred vessels of war, ploughing the waves beneath the Stars and Stripes, and the
heroic men who trod their decks, were eager to avenge any insult to that
flag, which never yet has been dishonored.
The Star of the West. an unarmed merchant steamer, which had
attempted unavailingly to convey supplies to Fort Sumter, was afterwards
sent to Indianola, Texas, with supplies of provisions for the United States
troops in garrison there. These troops had been stationed along the firontier, to protect the Texans from invasion by the savages. On the night of
April 17th, a band of eighty rebels from Galveston, under the command
of one Van Dorn, threw themselves, by stratagem, on board the ship, and
seized it without a struggle.  The crew were as little anticipating an
attack, as they would have been in the harbor of New York.  The ship
was taken to Galveston, and being plundered of all its provisions, was put
in commission as the Receiving Ship of the Confederate Navy, at New
Orleans.




THE WAR COMMENCED.                          97
In the steamer, when captured, there were three free colored men fiom
the North. They were taken to Miontgomery, Alabama, the capital of the
Confederacy, whose boasted corner-stone was slavery.  Here, under the
secession flag, they were sold at auction into endless slavery. Two of them,
it was said, were husbands and fathers, having wives and children in New
York. They are probably, while I write, if still living, toiling beneath the
overseer's lash on some barbaric plantation in Alabama, with no hope of
ever seeing wife or 6hild again. These men were in the employ of the
United States. They were sailing under the protection of its flag. Suchl
were the outrages with which the rebels inaugurated civil war, exclaiming
all the time, "No coercion; we only want to be let alone."
The rebels now prepared to make an immediate strike for the posses-,;ion of Washington, before the North could find time to gather its forces
tbr defense.
The Richmond Examliner, of April 23, says, " The capture of Washington' City is perfectly within the power of Virginia and Miaryland, if
Virginia will only make the effort by her constituted authorities; nor is
there a single moment to lose. The entire population pant for the onset.
There never was half the unanimity among the people before, nor a tithe
of the zeal upon any subject, that is now manifested to take Washington,
and drive from it every Black Republican who is a dweller there. From
the mountain tops and valleys to the shores of the sea, there is one wild
shout of fierce resolve to capture Washington City, at all and every hazard.
Our people can take it; they will take it; and Scott, the archtraitor, and
Lincoln, the beast, combined, cannot prevent it."
In reference to the plot for the capture of Washington, the following
facts are well authenticated. A conspiracy was formed by leading Virginians, with prominent Secessionists in Washington, and many traitors of
influence and wealth in Baltimore, to accomplish the infamous and cowardly
act in the following manner.  Virginia did not then pretend to be out
of the Union, and was fully represented in the I-louse and also in the
Senate.
The Virginians, at the head of between two and three thousand desperate
men, were to mal;e a i'ush upon Harper's Ferry, seize the arsenal there,
which contained twenty-five thousand stand of arms, and thus supply thellselves with an abundance of weapons and ammunition. They were theni
rapidly to descend the Potomac to 5Washington, and make a fierce onset in
the streets of the city. Traitors there, in strong bands and armed to the
teeth, were prepared to receive them. Incendiaries were appointed to fire
the city at several points. In the midst of the uproar and terror of this
sudden' assault the conspirators were to seize the most important govern-nent,buildings, and convert them into fortresses, where they could bid
defiance to any inmmediate attack from the bewildered Government, and
whence they could commnand the city.
In the meantime the conspirators in Baltimore were to cut off all conmrnummicatio-n with the North, by burning bridges, tearing up railways, and
by seizing the post-office and telegraph stations.  Should any troops
attem-pt'to descend fromn tihe North, for the rescue of the National Imetro,
71




98                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
polis, the mob was to be aroused to destroy them in the streets of Baltimore.
At the same time troops were to be ready, from the South, to rush to the
captured city, with infantry, artillery and cavalry, and to occupy all the
important military stations. The star-spangled banner was to be torn
from its proud position, and the secession banner was to be spread over the
dome of the Capitol. Virginia and M'Iaryland were thus to be dragged
into secession, and Washington was to be the capital of the Southern Confederacy.
The Government were made acquainted with this plot, just on the eve
of its execution. It did not seem possible to avert the menaced doom.
Washington was filled with rebels. No reliance could be placed upon the
militia. Perjured Southern traitors were occupying the most important
posts in the army, and the Government knew not whom to trust. Never,
perhaps, before, was a Government surrounded with more serious difficulties.
A gentleman of high position, and intimately connected with the movements of the Government, and who was in Washington at this time, has
given me the following account of some of the scenes which occurred there,
in this hour of peril:
" On the 18th of April, 1861, it was confidentially made known among
the loyal guests at WVillard's Hotel, that a party of some twently-five hundred men had arrived at or near Harper's Ferry, and that early on the
evening of that day, the United States arms, in the arsenal at the Ferry,
were to be seized, and the locomotives and cars of the [Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad Company were also to be taken, and an immediate descent to be
made upon Washington.
"' It was further stated that, on the near approach of said force, signals
were to be made to the rebel occupants of the city of Washington, who
were in much larger number than the loyal men. They were immediately
to rise, and every barn and many other buildings were to be set on fire, to
overwhelm the people with confusion and terror. The conspirators within
the city, well organized, were to unite with the invaders, and thus they
expected to obtain easy possession of the public property and of the
national Capital.
" A few trusty friends of the Government, visitors in Washington, immediately commenced vigorous but secret measures to assist the Administration in this fearful crisis. They hastened, by committees, to all the hotels,
and sou-ght out those known to be true to the Union, informed them of the
peril, and appointed a meeting that very eveni1ng, in the church in the rear
of Willard's Hotel, where they would not attract attention. Solemnly and
with intense emotion they administered the oath anew, of fidelity to the
national flag, to every one to whom they confided their secret, and then
gave to each the pass which would admit him to the church. This work
was speedily accomplished, for there was not a moment to be lost, and
soon about two hundred mren were assembled in the church.
"c After listening to a few words of eloquence, which yet burn in the
souls of some of the volunteers in that dark night of the nation's peril,
the company formed themselves into the noted,'CAssIus IMi. CLAY BATTALTON.' These noble men, many of whom were among the most distin



THE WAR COMMiENCED.-                      9
guished in wealth and position to be found in our land, were enrolled,
under efficient officers, into simall patrol parties, and marched all night
long, through the streets of the city, to guard against incendiaries, and to
prevent the assembling of the conspirators. They had orders to shoot down
promptly any who should resist their authority."
Another party of three hundred men were also appointed under Gen.
lane, to repair, unobserved, to the White HIouse, and bivouac in the East
Room, ready to give a warm reception to any parties who might make a
sudden attack upon the Presidential mansion. For three weeks, the East
Room was thus occupied. Gen. Scott, with his characteristic promptness,
took quiet and unobserved possession of the Capitol, behind whose massive
walls a few hundred men could.maintain a desperate defense. This mlagnificent building was immediately stored with pro-visions and military stores.
Thus a citadel was extemporized, into which the General could withdraw
the President and his Cabinet, with some chance of maintaining a siege,
until troops could fight their way down, for their rescue, from the North.
A band of very trusty men were selected to execute these movements, the
utmost care being taken to elude the vigilance of the spies and traitors who
swarmed on every side.
The whole city was in a state of commotion, for though but few were
aware of the definite plans of the conspirators, it was universally known
that for months, in 3Maryland and Virginia, military companies had been
organized and drilled, with the avowed object of a raid upon the Capital.
Some of these troops were under the guidance of an officer in the regular
army, still holding his commission, and receiving his pay. It was openly
boasted by the Rebels, that they had five thousand men ready to strike the
blow whenever the signal should be given.
The Government, with the very limited means in its possession, was
vigilant in guarding against surprise. The long bridge across the Potomac
was patrolled by a party of dragoons. A detachment of artillery was also
posted, at night, on the ~Wlashington side with guns to sweep the bridge.
Lieutenant Jones, of the United States Army, was in command at HI-arper's Ferry, with but forty-three men. Heroically he made his preparations
to blow -up the arsenal, should he find the enemy coming upon him in
overpowering numbers. At 10 o'clock at night, of the 19th of April, he
received positive information, that nearly 3000 State troops, dispatched by
Governor Letcher, of Virginia, would reach Harper's Ferry in two hours,
approaching from Winchester, and that 300 troops, from H-Iallstown, were
within 20 minutes' march of the arsenal.
The combustibles had been previously prepared, and the torch was at
once applied. In three minutes, all the buildings of the armory were in a
blaze. The arsenal at the Ferry was in the State of Virginia. MIany of
the citizens in that vicinity were in league with the conspirators. Lieut.
Jones, with his little band of forty men, retreated across the bridge into
Maryland, and tbence, by a march all night, reached a place of safety in
Carlisle, Penn. The Secessionists at the Ferry rushed to the arsenal, in
the vain attempt to extinguish the.flames. In their rage they then pursued
the heroic band, and firing upon them, succeeded in killing two of their




100                CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
nlmber. Before morning there were nearly 5000 Virginia troops holding
the important post.
While the traitorous Letcher was, as Governor of Virginia, executing
these plots, the State was still nominally in the Union. Letcher had not
even yet pretended to absolve himself from the oath of' allegiance to the
Constitution of the United States.
On the 17th of April, a Convention in Virginia, in secret conclave,
passed an ordinance of secession. It was, for a time, kept a profound secret
from the community, that measures might be adopted for seizing Fortress
Monroe, the Gosport Navy Yard at Norfolk, and the arsenal at Harper's
Ferry. The Virginia rebels immediately sent a private qzesseenzer to the
Confederate Government to inform them of their action.
The Norfolk Navy Yard was one of the most extensive and valuable
naval depots in the United States. Government property was accumulated
there to the amount of many millions of dollars. The spacious yard, threefourths of a mile long, and one quarter of a mile wide, was covered with
machine-shops, founderies, storehouses, and dwellings for the officers. There
were three large ship-houses and a magnificent dry-dock of granite. In
fact it was almost a city in itself of shops and magazines of every kind, and
an immense amount of naval and military stores were accumulated there.
This all, the land included, was the property of the United States.
But Mr. Floyd, a Virginian, had taken good, care that there should be
no troops there to deflend it; and Mllr. Buchanan's Secretary of the Navy
had been equally skillful in depriving it of all naval support. There was
then floating in the splendid harbor the new steam frigate MIerrimlac, which
had cost $1,200,000; the Pennsylvania, the largest line-of-battle ship in
the world; the Germantown, the Dolphin, and many other noble vessels
of war, partially dismantled. The whole property of the yard was estimated
at over 9,000,000 of dollars. Capt. MeCaulay was at that time in colmmnand of the yard. The secession feeling, in Norf61k and Portsmouth, was
general and bitter.  Every effort had been made by tL-e conspirators to
inflame the populace. Public meetings were held, in which distinguished
speakers urged the claims of what they called Southern Rights, and denounced the General Government. John Letcher, the Governor of Virlginia,
in his response to the President's appeal for troops, had said, " The imiliti::
of Virginia will not be furnished to the powers at Washington, for any sunel
use or purpose as they have in view. You have chosen to inaugurate civil
war, and, having done so, we will meet it in a spirit as determined, as the
Administration has exhibited towards the South."
On the night of the 16th of April, by order of this Governor Letcher,
a large number of boats, laden with stones, were sunk in the channel, so as
to render it impossible to tow out these large ships. Immediate arrangements were then made for seizing the yard. nMost of the sub-officers in
the yard were traitors from the South, and they baffled all the endeavors
of the loyal men to do anything for the protection of the property, and for
the honor of the flag of the United States.
As this yard was in the heart of one of the most fanatic of the slaveholding States, many of the workmen were easily won over to the side ('




THE WAR COMMENCED.                       lo0
rebellion. The military comlpanies of Portsmouth and Norfolk were called
out, some batteries were hastily constructed commanding the yard, and on
the morning of April' 18, the rebel General Taliaferro arrived at Norfolk to
take charge of the troops. All things being thus prepared, the rebel naval
officers resigned their commissions, and passed over to the service of the
Confiderates. We doubt whether the history of this world can show,
among civilized men, any acts of dishonor, so flagrant. The rebels seemed
to have lost all sense of the meaning of the word honor.
It was now manifest that the Yard could not be preserved, and that it
nust fall into the hands of the rebels, with its immense store of war materials, and its three thousand heavy cannon, unless it could. be destroyed.
Not a moment was to be lost. At T o'clock Saturday night, April 21, the
steamship Pawnee cast off from the dock at Fortress Monroe, with six
hundred trusty men on board, to aid in the destruction of the yard, and to
bring off the loyal men. It was a calm, moonlight night. The steamer
passed rapidly up the Elizabeth river, winding its way with some difficulty
through the sunken vessels which encumbered the channel. About 9 o'clock
it reached Gosport Navy Yard. Their arrival was anticipated, and they
were received with enthusiastic cheers. The crews of the Cumberland and
the Pennsylvania, several hundred in number, were especially hearty in
their acclaimn.  "They welcomed us," said one, "with a hurricane of
heartiness."
The traitors were quite surprised at this sudden appearance of the
Pawnee, and all the inhabitants of Norfolik and Portsmouth were speedily
aroused; the guilty, trembling with the apprehension that their cities were
to be bombarded, and the innocent, apprehensive that the insulted Government was about to punish the traitors for their crimes. For a few hours
the Pawnee could overawe all resistance. But in a couple of days, rebellious Virginia could send twenty thousand men, well armed, to consummnate her treason. It was therefore necessary to act without an hour's
delay. The Pawnee made fast to the dock, immediately landed the troops,
and seized all the gates of the yard that no foes could enter. The maglifieent Pennsylvania could not be towed out over the obstructions of the
channel, but it was thought that the Cumberland, of lighter draft, might
be saved.
Everything of value in the Pennsylvania and the other vessels, except
the heavy guns, was transferred to the Pawnee, and the Cumberland. Busy
hands, nearly two thousand in number, worked with intense activity all
night long. Everything which could not be removed, and which might
prove valuable to the Rebels, the ultmost efforts were made to destroy.
Shot and shell, revolvers, carbines, stands of arms, were thrown overboard.
It is estimated that there were nearly 3000 heavy guns in the yard, many
of themi columbiads and splendid Dahlgrens. These could only be spiked.
They sBubsequently manned the innumnerable batteries of the Rebels, and
opened their thunders upon the Stars and Stripes in the disaster at Manassas. This great reservoir became an inexhaustible source of supply to the
rebels, and enabled them to bring into the field, at the commencement of




102                 CIVIL WAR  IN AMERICA.
the conflict, an armament far superior to any with which the Government
could furnish its troops.
The work of destruction and preparations for the great conflagration
were prosecuted with unwearied energy, by the light of the moon, until it
sank beneath the horizon, about 12 o'clock. The barracks were then set
on fire, and the crackling flames, leaping into the sky, illumined the whole
scene with almost the glare of day. Four o'clock in the morning came.
The combustibles were all arranged, the trains laid, the matches prepared,
to set on fire ships, houses, shops-everything that would burn. Tho
Pawnee, taking the Cumberland in tow, and receiving on board the two
ships all the men from the yard, excepting a few to fire the trains, left its
moorings, ready to depart, and sent up a rocket. The scene which ensued
can not be better described than in the language of an eye-witness:
"The rocket sped high in the air, paused a second, and burst in shivers
of many colored lights. And as it did so, the well-set trains at the shiphouses, and on the decks of the fated vessels left behind, went off as if lit
simultaneously by the rocket.  One of the ship-houses contained the old
New York, a ship thirty years on the stocks, and yet unfinished. The
other was vacant; but both houses and the old New York burned like
tinder. The vessels fired were the Pennsylvania, the Merrimac, the Germantown, the Plymouth, the Raritan, the Columbia, the Dolphin. The
old Delaware and Columbus, worn-out anld dismantled seventy-fours, were
scuttled and sunk at the upper docks on Friday.
"I need not try to picture the scene of the grand. conflagration that
now burst, like the day of judgment, on the startled citizens of lNorfolk,
Portsmouth, and all the surrounding country. Any one who has seen a
ship burn, and knows how, like a fiery serpent, the flame leaps from pitchy
deck to smoking shrouds, and writhes to their very top, aroulicl the masts
that stand like martyrs doomed, can form somle idea of the wonderfill display that followed. It was not 30 minutes from the time the trains were
fired, till the conflagration roared like a hurricane, and the flames from
land and water, swayed and met, and mingled together, and darted high,
and fell and leaped up again, and by their very motion showed their sympathy with the crackling, crashing roar of destruction beneath.
"But in all this magnificent scene, the old ship Pennsylvania was the
centre-piece. She was a very giant in death as she had been in life. She
was a sea of flame, and when'the iron had entered her soul,' arid her
bowels were consuming, then did she spout forth, from every porthole of
every deck, torrents, and cataracts of fire, that to the mind of Milton
would have represented her a frigate of hell, pouring out unremitting
broadsides of infernal fire. Several of her guns were left loaded, but not
shotted, and as the fire reached them, they sent out on the startled and
morning air minute guns of fearful peal, that added greatly to the alarm
that the light of the conflagration had spread through the surrounding
country.  The Pennsylvania burned like a volcano for five hours and a half,
before her mainmast fell. - I stood watching the proud but perishing old
leviathan, as this emblem of her majesty was about to come down. At
precisely 9- o'clock, the tall tree that stood in her centre tottered, and fell,




THE WAR COMMENCED.                       103
and crushed deep into her burning sides, while a storm of sparks flooded
the sky."
The dispatch to the rebels at Richmond announcing the successful
sinking of stone vessels in the channel of Elizabeth River says, exultingly
" Thus have we secured for Virginia, three of the best ships in the Navy."
They were disappointed; the Pennsylvania was utterly destroyed. The
Cumberland escaped. The Merrimac burned to the water's edge, and sunk.
She was subsequently raised, and, coated with iron armor, plunged into the
Cumberland, and sunk her; and then, like Judas, appropriately committed
suicide. Notwithstanding the immense destruction of property by the
fire, still millions were left to strengthen the arm of the rebels.




CHAPTER IV.
P?R. ISING  OF  T HE  N O R T H.
RIOT IN BALTIMORE.-THE ANNAPOLIS ROUTE OPENED.-MARCH OF THE SEVENTH, NEW YORK.
-ENTHUSIASM OF THE NORTH.-DESIGNS UPON WASHINGTON.-PROF. MITCHELL.-EXTENT OF
TREASON.-ANECDOTES.-ATTEMPTS TO BURN WASHINGTON.-ENERGY OF GENERAL BUTLER.NORTHERN TROOPS.-JACOB THOMPSON.-PATRIOTISMI OF GENERAL SCOTT.-EFFICIENCY OF
THE PIRESIDENT.-MORAL POISON.-NOBLE PRINCIPLES OF THE PRESIDENT.
IN immediate response to the appleal of the President, four hundred
Pennsylvania volunteers, escorted by three hundred -United States troops,
wero the first who reached Washington.  They went from  Carlisle Barracks, and arrived in Washington at 10 o'clock in the night of the 18th,
and bivouacked in the Capitol.  On the same day, the Sixth Regiment of
Jlassachlsetts Volunteers left Boston for Washington.  They reached
Baltimore, forty miles from  the Capitol, on the 19th, and there met a
regiment firom Philadelphia.'Both of these bodies of citizen troops had
started so suddenly, that they were quite unprepai'ed for hostilities. The
2Massachusetts troops were partially armnedl, but the Pennsylvania men had
scarcely a musket.  They were expecting to be supplied with arms in
Wasshington.  The MIassachusetts regiment occupied eleven cars, and
reached Baltimore, through New York and Philadelphia, without accident.
But here, in the first slaveholding city they entered, they found a large
crowd assembled, with menacing looks and words, and hostile demonstrations of a very serious character began to be made.
It was necessary to pass directly through the city, a distance of two
and a half miles, in the cars, drawn by horses instead of engines, to the
WVashington station. In this way, nine out of eleven of the cars passed
in safety, though insults and curses pursued them all the way, and not a
few stones and brickbats were hurled at them.  The excitement rapidly
increased, and denser multitudes flooded the streets, until there was a
mass of tenll thousand men, not all indeed sympathizing with the rioters,
who surrounded and arrested the progress of the two last cars, which contained but one hundred men, and many of them unarmed.
A hideous scene of uproar and clamor ensued.  There was no police
power to stay the tumult. Heavy anchors and other obstructions were
thrown upon the track, and the rails torn up. A secession flag was waved
defiantly, and the most bitter curses of the Union were blended with
buzzas for the Confederacy. Thus far the soldiers had remained quietly
in the cars, making no reply, by word or look, to their insulting foes.




UPRISING  OF THE NORTH.                       105
Finding further progress by the cars impossible, the soldiers left their
seats, and formed into line on the sidewalk. Captain Follensbee then drew
them up in solid square, and endeavored, advancing with fixed bayonets,
to force his way through the crowded streets, in double quick time, to the
station.  The mob now fell upon them with the fury of tigers, fearful of
losing their prey. Never did Indian warwhoop rise more fierce than the
hootings and yellings of these savage men, as from housetops and wiildows, and behind corners, they assailed with stones, clubs, bricks, and
occasionally pistol shots, the almost defenseless band. The officers were
humanely reluctant to give the command to fire, since the streets were
filled with women and children, and loyal citizens, drawn to the spot by
curiosity, and the bullets would strike fiiends as well as foes.'The active
rioters probably numbered but a few hundredi'
At length a burly ruffian sprang upon a youthful soldier, wrested his
musket firom his hands, and discharged its contents into his bosom. The
column was thus staggering along, beaten down by this stormn  many mangled and bleeding, some so sorely wounded that they were borne in the
arms of their friends, wlien self-preservation rendered it necessary to fire.
It was indeed mistaken humanity which delayed so long. And still, when
the comnumand was given to fire, it was obeyed, not by deadly volleys, which
swept through and through the ranks of the lmob, but singly, here and
there one, selecting sonie audacious villain, and being very careful to hit
no one else. This course did not disperse the mob. Thus fighting, the
soldiers struggled along, pursued and pelted by their foes, until they
reached their companions at the WNashington station, and entered their
cars. lt is to be regretted, that then the soldiers did not teach timhe mob a
lesson never'to be forgotten. But it was an hour of terrible perplexity,
the scene was new, the soldiers were young men, fresh from their homes,
who recoiled from the necessity of taking human life; and it was deemed
infinitely important, by all the friends of the Union, to avoid every act of
exasperation, so far as possible. But history may be searched in vain for
another record of such forbearance. The spirit of conciliation but emlboldened crime.
Corporal Tyler, one of the soldiers of the Mlassachusetts Sixth, describing his personal experience in this mob, says, "I saw a man with three
stones under his arm, and one in his hand, pelting away at the troops,when I fired at him, and the manc cdro2p ed the bricks, and laid downr."
The Pennsylvania regiment were preparing to follow the 3Iassachusetts troops in eleven cars. They were without arms, and the mob, now
having tasted of blood almost with impunity, turned fiercely upon them.
Under these circumstances it was not deemed prudent to attempt to cross
the city, and these unarmed citizens, who were rushing to the rescue of
their national capital, at the call of their country, after very severe handling by the mob, succeeded in escaping, and were conveyed back to Philadelphia. The fact that these men were compelled to embark on such an
enterprise, unarmed, shows how effectually Floycld had robbed the Northern
arsenals.
The first young man who fell a victim to this rebellion, and sealed his




106                CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
patriotism with his blood, was Luther Crawford Ladd, a native of Alexandria, New HIampshire, but a resident of Lowell, Mass. He was but seventeen years of age, when, in view of the approaching peril, he joined the
City Guards, assigning as a reason for choosing that company, that he
thought they would be called into service first. I-Ie was so young that his
friends urged him not to go. But he replied, " I shall go for the Stars
and Stripes any way." Exchanging his tools of peaceful industry for the
musket, he started with a brave heart for the Capital. IIis companion in
death was A. O. Whitney. Several others were severely wounded. Seven
rioters were killed, and many wounded. The following telegraphic dispatch from Governor Andrew  of M/[assachusetts, to the Mayor of Baltimore, touched a chord which vibrated through the nation:
" I pray you cause the bodies of our soldiers dead in B]altimore to be
immediately packed in ice, and tenderly sent forward by Express to me.
All expenses will be paid by this commonwealth."
I-low much there is in a word fitly spoken.  Tendery  It moistened
ten thousand eyes. The remains of the honored dead were received with
every mark of respect along the route, and were consigned to their burial
with signal demonstrations of public grief.
As these heroic men, the BMassachusetts Sixth, but partially armed,
worn and weary, the advance guard of an army of six hundred thousand,
entered Pennsyl-vania Avenue, they were greeted by the patriots with the
most hearty joy. Though but few in number, for the regiment, starting
almost at an hour's notice, was by no means full, still they were determined men, ready to face any of the terrors of battle. And they brought
the first intelligence to beleaguered Washington, that the North was thoroughly aroused, and that troops, by tens of thousands, were already on
the march for the protection of the Stars and Stripes. An anecdote may
illustrate the character of some, at least, of the noble Sixth.
As they were passing through Trenton, New Jersey; a person residing
there asked one of the soldiers, if he had good whisky in his canteen to
stimulate his courage. The soldier drew a Bible from his pocket, and said,
" This is my stimulant;"-an answer worthy of a son of the Puritans, —a
stimulant which never fails in the hour of trial.
The promptness and energy displayed by Massachusetis, in this crisis,
excited the surprise and admiration of the whole country. There was no
dissent from the generous eulogy pronounced by the Albany (N. Y.) Evening Journal: " Massachusetts was the first to start a regiment for Washington. Massachusetts' blood was the first shed in the war; a J[assachusetts regiment was the first to reSnforce Fort Monroe; the first to open a
pathway from Annapolis to W5ashington; the first to reach the Capital,
and is the first to invade Virginia. God bless the Commonwealth of lMassachusetts."
The question has often been asked, how it happened that Miassaechusetts
was able, with such unprecedented celerity, to dispatch her troops to the
Capital. It was owing first, to the almost miraculous prescience of Governor Andrew, and secondly, to the inborn energy of Massachusetts men.
On the 16th of January, 1861, an order was issued, through the Adjutant



UPRISING  OF THE NORTH.                       10T
General, William  Schouler, to ascertain and enroll, with the greatest
accuracy, the number of officers and men in the volunteer militia, who
could respond instantly to any call which might be made upon them, by
the President of the United States. This order was very energetically
obeyed. All the men who, from age, physical defect, business, or family
causes, could not respond at once, were discharged, and their places filled
by others.
On the 3d of April, the Governor, aftRer conferring with prominent
members of the Ieegislature, and the highest military officers of the State,
induced the Legislature to pass a bill, appropriating twenty-five thousand
dollars for the purchase of overcoats, blankets, knapsacks, two hundred
thousand ball cartridges, etc., for two thousand troops.  The militia
soldiers had unifbrms of their own. They had also, in their armories,
three thousand rifle mulskets of the best pattern. All manner of ridicule
was for a time heaped upon this measure, but its wisdom soon became
manifest.
For three months, the militia were almost nightly drilled in their
armories. On the 15th of April, the first telegram came from WVashington
to Boston, calling for help. The citizen soldiers were all at their work, in
their offices, on their farms, in their workshops, their ship-yards, and at
their nets and barges, scattered over several counties.  Orders were
instantly dispatched to Lowell, Quincy, NI[ew Bedford, and:Lynn, for the
companies to repair to Boston.  The next morning, in a drenching rain,
three companies came in from Marblehead, and marched to their quarters
in Faneuil IIall, to the music of Yankee Doodle. Througlh all thle day
troops were arriving from all points of the compass. Captain Pratt, of the
Worcester company, received his order to join the Sixth Regiment, late in
the afternoon of the 16th. Early on the morning of the 17th, lie was in
Bostoni with his faill command. It was 9 o'clock in the evening of the
16th, when the Governor decided to add to the 6th Regiment the company
of Capt. Dike, of Stonehanl. A messenger was immediately dispatched
to Stoneham, with orders for Capt. Dike. HIe was called friom his bed, at
his house, at 2 o'clock in the morning. As he read the order lie said,
" Tell the Adjutant-General, that I shall be at the State House, with my
full company, by 11 o'clock to-day." I-Te was there at the appointed hour.
That afternoon the heroic Sixth left for Washington, via New York, Philadelphia, and Btaltimore.
Almost at the same hour, on the evening of the same day, the Third
and Fourth Regiments left for Fortress MB2onroe in Virginia; the one by
steamer from  Boston, the other by rail to Fall RIiver, and thence by
steamner. Two days after this, the Sixth Regiment was fighting its way
through Baltimore.  Capt. Dike was shot down, receiving a wound in the
leg, which crippled him for life. Thus, while one 2MIassachusetts regiment
was forcing its passage at the point of' the bayonet to Washington, two
others were on the sea, hastening to the protection of an important military post. The next day, General Butler left with the 8th Regiment, via
Philadelphia, and finding his path through Baltimore obstructed, sagaciously opened a route through Annapolis, as will hereafter be shown.




108                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
On the 19th of April, Colonel Sam. C. Lawrence was ordered to report
with his regiment, the Fifth, ready for service. The companies were mustered with hardly an hour's delay. At 4- ill the morning of the 20th,
Maajor Asa F. Cook was ordered to have his company of light artillery in
readiness to proceed to Washington. At 10 o'clock he reported his company prepared to march; and on the same day the regiment was on its way
towards the Capital.
It wAas onl Mlonday morning, Aprlil 15th, that the telegram came from
WVashington, calling for two Ml[assachusetts regiments, which was speedily
followedl by a call for two lmore. At 9 o'clock Sabbath morning, April 21st,
these ibur regiments were either in Washington, or in Fortress MIonroe, or
on their march, drawing near to the Capital.  Col. WTardrop, of the Third,
on the very clay of his arrival at Fortress Mlonroe, was put, with his command, as has been already sh:ovwnL, on board the United States steamer
Pawnee, to assist in the ha.zardons, yet brilliantly successful movement of
destroying the United States vessels and military stores, which the rebels
were just on the point of seizing, at the Gosport Navy Yard.
Nothingt in this war seems more providential than that there should
have been such a noble set of men in thle gubernatorial chairs of the Free
States. Sprague of Rhode Island, Buckingham of Connecticut, and all
the other governors of the New England States, the }iiddle States, and the
great West, advanced in solid phalanx, the vanguard, — the revered commanders-in-chiet —of tile multitudinous armny of the patriots.
Never was there a was waged upon this earth, which enlisted so much
of Christian sympathy and prayer, which was so imbued with the spirit of
Christ, as this war waged by the patriots of our land, to rescue the United
States from the anarchy which dissolution would render inevitable, and to
defend it fi'rol lapsing into barbarism by extending the institution of slavery over its wide domain. The following letter breathes the spirit then
cherished by almost every Christian mother, throughout our land. The
lady, of New York, who wrote it was absent fiom home, when the alarm
came that the rebels, in arms, were marching upon WVashington, and her
five sons all immediately volunteered for the war.
" My DEAR IH-USBANDn
" Your letter came to hand last evening. I must confess I was startled
by the news referring to our boys, and for the moment I felt as if a ball
had pierced my own heart. For the first time I was obliged to look things
full in the facee. But although I have always loved mlly children with a
love thlt none but a mllother can know, yet when I look upon the state of
ry country, I can not withhold them; anld il the name of their God, and
their mother's God, and their country's God, I bid them go. If I had ten
sons, instead of five, I would give them all, sooner than have our country
rent in frauments.  The Constitution must be sustained at any cost. We
have a part to act, and a duty to perform, and may God, our Fat her,
strengthen us, and nerve us to the task, and enable us to say, XWhatever
thou requirest, that will I cheerfhlly give and do! M[ay I-le bless and protect our dear children, and bring them home to us in safety   I hope yov




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UPRISING  OF THE NORTH.                        109
will provide them each with a Bible, and give them their mother's love
and blessing, and tell them  our prayers will accompany them, and ascend
on their behalf night and day.-"
On the 19th of April, the Seventh Regiment of New York City, a
regiment composed entirely of young men of wealth and high position,
under Col. Lefferts, left New York, to hasten to the rescue of the Capital.
1NTever did a band of men display more heroism or more true nobility and
grandeur of spirit, than was mnanifested by these citizen soldiers, as regardless of fatigue and clanger, they plunged into all the hardships and perils
of war. They have richly merited, as the emblazonry of their escutcheon,
the device " The Generous, Gallant, Glorious Seventh."  The terrible riot
in Baltimore, by which the Sixth )Massachusetts Regiment came so near
destruction, was known by both officers and men. A fearful conflict was
anticipated in forcing their way through Baltimore, against overpowering
numbers, assailing them with bullets, and hurling clown upon them paving
stones, from the windows and roofs of houses.
All New York seemed to crowd Broadway, as this, its favorite regiment,
with throbbing yet determined hearts, marched to the stern realities of war.
By rail they proceeded to Philadelphia.  Hiere they learned that the mob
from Baltimore had torn up the rails, and burned the bridges, so eff[ectually
that it was impossible to reach that city, about forty miles distant, but by
marching most of the way. They also learned that the whole city seemed
to be in a blaze of rebel raie, every patriot voice being silenced, by terror,
and that the city, thus in the hands of all " the lewd fellows of the baser
sort," wTas prepared to resist the march of the volunteers, with the utmost
desperation. Every house was converted into a fortress. Paving stones
were collected Lupon the roofs, and howitzers planted in second story windows to sweep the streets.
To attempt to fight their way, under those circumstances, through a
city of nearly 200,000 inhabitants, where traitors, by thousands, had long
been secretly arming and organizing for the conflict, was almost certain
destruction. And even should they succeed, and eventually fight their way
through, snch delay would be occasioned, thlat the rebels in Virginia, in
possession of all the railroads there, could po-ur thousands of troops into
Washington, before any defenders could reach the city.
The situation of' the regiment was emlbarrassing in the extreme.  All
communication witfh the Capital was cut off; for the rebels had seized the
post office and the the telegraph wires. Under these circumstances, the colonel
quietly, without letting his desigu be known, chartered a small steamer, to
descend the Delaware, enter the Chesapeake, and ascend the Potomac to
Tashington, should thliat plan be found feasible.  Should he find the
Potomac blockaded by the rebels, he could disem bark his troop, at some
convenient poimnt, and march to the Capital.
A few hours before the Seventh ]New York Regiment reached Philadelphia, the Eighth ]Mfassachusetts had arrived there from Boston. They,
of course, met the same difficulties the Seventh encountered.  General
Butler promptly seized a steamer, the lMaryland, and emabarked his troops;




110                CIVIL  WAR  IN  AMTERICA.
no one knew but himself for what point. The captain and officers of the
steamer were traitors, and would gladly have wrecked tile vessel, but for
the vigilant watch which was kept over them. As it was they ran the
steamer ashore, in entering the harbor at Annapolis, and thus gave the
rebels time to tear up the railroad, to destroy the locomotives and cars,
and to gather armed bands to shoot down the patriots on their march.
The spirit of these 3MIassachusetts troops may be seen in the letter of a
young man from Salem, one of their number, when they were expecting
to have to fight their way through Baltimore. Ite wrote from Phila.
delphia:
" We have got to push our way through Baltimore, in the morning, at
the point of the bayonet. But our boys are determined and in for it.
Our bayonet exercise has got to put the whole regiment through.  To tell
you the truth, our boys expect to be split to pieces. But we have all
made up our minds to die at our post. We have one great consolation
before us: the famous Seventh Regiment of New York will join us
to-night, and at three o'clock in the morning we expect to take up our
line of march. There is an unheard-of hot time before us. We are furnished with no ammunition as yet, and are to rely on our bayonets and
revolvers solely. Perhaps before you receive this, I may be lying on the
field with those recorded with the dead. But what is more glorious than
to die for one's country? I am in as good spirits as our dubious position
will admit; and I will die like a soldier, and like a true one if I must."
Thne young and eloquent writer, Fitz James O'Brien, who soon after
died sadly, though bravely, in the hospital, of a severe wound, so graphically describes some of these scenes, that, by using his words, we can
almost enable our readers to witness them. He was a member of the
Seventh Regiment, and accompanied it on this memorable march.
All along the track through New Jersey, shouting crowds, hoarse and
valorous, sent to the troops as they passed, their hopes and wishes. When
they stopped at the different stations, rough hands came in through the
windows, as if detached and isolated, until they were grasped by those
within; and then the subtle magnetic thrill told that there were bold
hearts beating at the end. This continued until night closed, and indeed
until after midnight.
Within the cars the sight was strange. A thousand young men, the
flower of the North, in whose welfare a million of fiiends and relatives
were interested, were rushing along to expected hostilities, with the same
smiling faces that they would wear going to a "German" party of Fifth
Ayenue. It was more like a festivity than a march.
April 20th, at 4.20 r. Mf., they left the Philadelphia dock, on board the
steamer Boston. The regiment was in entire ignorance of its destination.
The first evening, April 20th, passed delightfuilly. All were in excellent
spirits, and the caln, sweet evenings, that stole upon them as they approa9hed the South, diffused a soft and gentle influence over them. April
21st was Sunday; a glorious, cloudless day. The steamer had gone on all
night, and at 10 o'clock was in the vicinity of Chesapeake Bay. At 11
o'clock service was performed, and at 1 i. 3a. they were seven miles from




UPRISING  OF THE NORTH.                      ift
the coast. The day was calm and delicious, and they drank in with delight the serenity of the scene. A hazy tent of blue was hanging over
them. On one side the dim thread of shore hemmed in the sea. Flights
of loons and ducks skimmed along the ocean, rising lazily, and dashing the
waves as they flew against the wind, until they rose into the air, and wheeling, swept into calmer feeding grounds.
At 5 o'clock they-passed a light-ship, and hailed her, their object being
to discover whether any United States vessels were in the neighborhood, to
convoy them up the Potomac River. They had heard that the forts at
Alexandria were ready to open upon them, if they attempted to pass up, and
the steamer was of such a build that, had a shell or shot struck her, she would
certainly have been destroyed. It therefore behooved them to be cautious.
Although the feelings of the men were unanimous in wishing to force the
Potomac, wiser counsels, as it proved, were to prevail, and they kept on.
About this time, a curious phenomenon occurred. Some men in the
regiment, who had fine voices, and there were many such, had been singing, with all that delicious effiect that music at sea produces, several of the
finest psalms in the liturgy. The ocean softens and delicately repeats
sound, and those airs trembled along the almost unrippled surface of the
sea. WVhile they were singing, the moon swung clear into the air, and
round her white disk were seen three circles, clear and distinct, rel, white
and blue / The omen was caught by common instinct, and a thousand
cheers went up to that heaven that seemed, in its visible signs, to manifest
its approval of the cause in which they that witnessed it were engaged.
All this time the troops were entirely ignorant of their destination.
The officers kept all secret, and the conjectures of the men were vain. On
the morning of the 22d, they were in sight of Annapolis, and there found
the Eighth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers on board the MIaryland.
They were aground, owing, it was supposed, to the treachery of the captain, whom they put in irons and wanted to hang. During the greater
portion of that forenoon, the Boston was occupied in trying to get the
Maryland off the sandbar. The men on board the Maryland were without
water and without food; but they were well-conducted and uncomplaining, and behaved in all respects like heroes.
On the afternoon of the 22d, the Boston arrived at Annapolis. "Then,"
says the narrator of these scenes and incidents, " for the first time in his
life, your correspondent was put to the work of rolling flour barrels. He
was entrusted with the onerous duty of transporting stores from  the
steamer to the dock. Later still, he descended to the position of mess servant, when, in company with gentlemen well known in Broadway for
immaculate kids, he had the honor of attending on his company with
buckets of cooked meat and crackers. After this, I had the pleasing office
of performing three hours of guard duty on the dock, with a view to protect the baggage and stores. It was monotonous, being my first guard,
but not unpleasant. The moon rose calm and white. A long dock, next
to the one on which I was stationed, stretched away into the bay, resting
on its numerous piles, until it looked in the clear moonlight like a
centipede. All was still and calm, until, at certain periods, the guard




112                 CIVIL  WAR IN  AMERICA.
challenged persons attempting to pass. There was a holy influence in the
hour, and somehow the hot fever of anxiety, that had been over us for
days, seemed to pass away under the magnetic influence of night.  The'
regiment was quartered in buildings belonging to the Naval School.
The same evening, the 2Massachusetts men landed, fiagged, hungry,
thirsty, but indomitable. The two days that were spent at Annapolis were
welcome.  The men had not enjoyed a fair night's sleep since they left
New York; and even the hard quarters at Annapolis were a luxury, compared to the decks of the Boston.  At 9 o'clock in the evenilg, April 23d,
their repose was disturbed by rockets being thrown up in the bay.  The
men were scattered all over the ground; some in bed, others walking or
smoking, all more or less undressed.  The drummer beat the roll call to
arms.  From  the stroke of the drum until the time that every man, fully
equipped and in fighting order, was in the ranks, was exactly, by watch,
seven zinnutes.' The alarmn, hoever, proved to be filse, so that, a-fter an
unpremeditated trial of their readiness for action, the men were permitted
to retire to their various couches, formed by blankets spread on the floor,
and military overcoats to cover them.
A soldier of the New York regiment speaks of a difference betwTreer tie
]iassachusetts men an-d theirs.  "The Massachusetts men," lle 3says, " to
-whom all honor be given for the splendid manner in which they at Lerwards
acted, in a most trying situation, presented a singular moral coltra.st to the
members of the Seventh.  They were earnest, grave, determined.  Badly
equipped, haggard, unshorn, they yet had a manhood in their look that
hardship could not kill.  They were evidently thinking, all the time, of
the conflict into which they were about to enter.  Their gray, ca (..er eyes
seemed to be looking for the heights of Virginia.
"With us, it was somewhat different.  Our men were gar and careless,'confident of being, at any moment, capable of performing, and more
than performing, their duty. They looked battle in tlhe face with a smile,
and were ready to hob nob with an enemy, and kill him afterwards. The.
one was courage in the rough; the other was courage burnished. The steel
was the same in both, but in the last a little more polished."'
As has before been mentioned, the New York Seventh was composed
almost entirely of young gentlemen of fortune% connected wit]h the most
distinlished families in the city of NTew York.  Ttle ~,[assachusetts
Eiohth, whicel the Seventh met at Annapolis, consisted. ahnost exclusively
of energetic, enterprising young mechanics and l seamenh  f ol tle Torzshops cad ports of Essex conmity, a 1)noble band. of inte!ligelnt temperate,
ncl reliogiously-disposed young meni.  Gen. 3enj. F. Butler acqeeompanied
thle regiment, oer which Col. Timothy Munnroe  waas i.. enom'nt:,. It,r'id tTI*l,, as It"ely Avere contenp]l atingf a locomotive s hat;eredK by tlhe, rebiel: ten. Butler inquired if there were any machinists in the:mk  who ]..:1o w.how to repair a brokTen-down engine.  Half a dozen jmen1 i:mnunediately
stepped forward, and offlered their services.  One of these mnen, after lookillg a the enginxe very narrowl:y and examinin?'. the maklcers' mark, patted
the iron horse fondly, and said, " I think I ouglht to know Ihow to repair
this enginle, siice I bluilt it.":  In two hours, by the aid of such tools as




UPRISING OF THE NORTH.                      113
they found in the workshops of Annapolis, the engine was in running
order.
And thus it was through all the perplexities of these disastrous days.
The Massachusetts Eighth had mechanical skill, and power of endurance
in labor, which enabled them to meet any emergency. Carriages were
repaired, rails laid, bridges rebuilt, as by magic. The entire road from
Annapolis to the Junction was placed in the hands of men from the Cush,
ing Guard, of Newburyport. For two days the volunteers had nothing
to eat but poor pork and hard bread. Two young men, butchers, took a
tramp into the pastures, selected a fat ox, paid for him amply, and he was
speedily butchered in truly scientific style. The troops were soon feasting upon the finest cuts of sirloins and steaks. The exploits of the Eighth
Massachusetts in all the arts of utility rendered them quite famous.
The United States frigate Constitution was at Annapolis, in the service
of the Naval Academy there, as a school-ship. The rebels had resolved
to seize her. Though Maryland was, by an overwhelming majority, for
the Union, slavery being weak in that State, there was still a numerous
and very envenomed class of rebels, their leaders being men of property,
who wielded the energies of as ferocious a mob as has ever been seen.
The rebels hoped to drive the State into the rebellion, and had made
thorough arrangements for stealing the most venerated ship in our navy,
and delivering it to the Confederate Government. Treason in the cabinet
had left the ship almost defenceless. There were but twenty men on
board, officers included. The vessel was in a trap, as she was on the
other side of a bar, over which she could only be drawn by a steam-tug.
Menacing troops were daily drilling upon the shore. Mysterious signals were made. Plans were manifestly maturing for an assault. Fortunately the officers and crew were loyal. For four days and nights they
had stood at their quarters, with shotted guns. Affairs were in this condition when suddenly the steamer Maryland entered the harbor, with the
Eighth Massachusetts Regiment, under the charge of the prompt and
energetic Gen. Butler, ever ready for decisive action. HIe steamed up
alongside. The Constitution had four anchors and seven chains out. One
anchor was hove up for use. All the others were slipped. The Maryland
performed the friendly services of a tug. There were but nineteen feet on
the bar. By lightening and careening, the majestic ship was forced over.
The captain, pilot, and engineers of the Maryland, which had been seized
by Gen. Butler, were all secessionists, and refused to aid in the rescue of
the Constitution. Gen. Butler put them under a guard of determined
Massachusetts men, with revolvers, and by the influence of this moraT
sutasion they were induced to do the work of patriots.
The ship being thus rescued, Gen. Butler inquired if there were any
men in the ranks who knew how to navigate her. Fifty-four men immediately stepped forward, hardy seamen from Gloucester and other points
upon the coast. The majestic frigate was thus speedily manned with all
the necessary officers and crew, and sent in safety to New York.
On the morning of the 24th of April, the Seventh New York, accompanied by a portion of the Eighth Massachusetts, to. assist in removing
8




f14                CIVIL  WAR IN  AMERICA.
obstructions and repairing damages, set out on its march for Washington.
The Secessionists of Annapolis and its vicinity had uttered many threats
that the troops should never reach Washington alive. It was well known
that bands were armed to harass them on their march, and that ambuscades were to be placed in every defile, and well-mounted horsemen were
prepared to cut through their line at every cross-road.
There never, perhaps, has been exhibited a more beautiful manifestation of man's fraternity, than in the brotherly relations which sprang up
between the New York Seventh and the Massachusetts Eighth in these
hours of trials. It was peculiarly fitting, that, on this occasion, the falsehood should be demonstrated of that insolent assumption of the slaveholders that there can be no sympathy between labor and capital-that one
class of the community are destined by our common Father to degrading
toil, to be stigmatised as' greasy mechanics"7 and " mudsills," while anather class, in proud antagonism, as gentlemen and cavaliers are to live,
sustained by unpaid labor in idleness and luxury. As the Seventh Regiment left Annapolis on its perilous march, the Eighth passed a series of
resolutions, expressive of the most heartfelt affection.
" We deeply appreciate," say these grateful men, " the hearty welcome
extended to us on landing at Annapolis; especially are our thanks due to
the noble Seventh for the generous entertainment, so spontaneous, so bounteous, so heartily appreciative of our condition, furnished on the afternoon
of Saturday, April 24th, that no words can do it justice, or do justice to
our gratitude. In one other and very especial particular does their generosity and benevolence touch our hearts. We refer to the voluntary sub>scription raised among them, for the benefit of one of our officers accidentally wounded. The term so often used in connection with the volhmnteer
militia,'holiday soldiery,' has, in all the conduct of the regiment, to which
we are so much indebted, been triumphantly refuted. It will hereafter be
worthy of the highest fame,-fame that will now attach to the name of
the G(enerotu8, Gallant, Gl6orio's Seventh. Wherever the Seventh may go,
we would go. Where they lodge, we would lodge. If ever their colors
go down before the hosts of the enemy, the Eighth of Massachusetts will
be the first to avenge their fall, with the heart's blood of every man."
Some of the authorities in Annapolis, infected with rebel sympathies,
ventured to call upon General Butler, and remonstrate against the passage
of Massachusetts troops over Maryland soil. General Butler replied, in
voice and manner so instructive and persuasive, that the remonstrance was
never, to him, repeated:
"We came here, not as citizens of Massachusetts, but as citizens and
soldiers of the United States, with no intention to invade any State, but
to protect the Capital of our common country from invasion. We shall
give no cause of offense; but there must be no fugitive shots or stray bricks
on the way."
The secessionists in Maryland were quite overawed by the unexpected
exhibition of energy and power which the United States Government had
developed. A very gentlemanly, intelligent soldier was one day standing
by the side of a 32-pounder, at Annapolis, over which floated the Stars




UPRISING  OF THE  NORTH.                      115
and Stripes. Several Secessionists came up to him, and entering into conversation, one of them said,
" I would just like to'know now, what you all expect to do'"
The gentleman, who himself narrates the incident, says, "It was a
civil question,' and the answer was not difficult. But the thought came
across me, that, for the first time in my life, I was perfectly secure in
expressing, on Southern soil, and to Southern men, my exact sentiments.
So, with the gun for a seat, the flag for my protection, and slaveholders for
my audience, I replied,
"'We expect to enforce the laws of the United States, in all the States.
We intend, that persons living in Charleston, S. C., who desire to subscribe
for any Northern paper, may, with perfect safety, take such paper firom its
wrapper, and read it with impunity in the public rooms of your hotels.
And when vessels with colored sailors, having regular papers from the
United States Custom Houses, go to Southern ports, we intend, that those
sailors shall not be molested, in any manner whatever.'
"' Why,' exclaimed the astonished auditor,'you are an abolitionist.'
"' No, sir, not a bit of it,' was the reply.'But I am an American citizen, having certain rights, which have not, heretofore, been protected; but
which hereafter, thanks to your folly, will forever be secured. Why, only
a year ago, when I was at Wilmington, a colored man, who had bought
himself and a small schooner, was engaged in the coasting trade hereabouts, and happened to find himself in trouble, not far from this very
point. IHis vessel ran aground, and he was obliged to stay several days
in this place. He was put in jail, had no funds to pay some infernal fine
with, and would have been sold by the State into slavery, had not
several of us, who happened to hear of it, raised $800, and secured his
liberty.'
"'Why, you surprise me,' rejoined the qnLerist,' I never heard of that.'
"'No,' was the reply,'and you never would have heard of it under
your state of things. But now you will find that papers will print different matter from what they used to. And that, my friend, is one of the
things that we expect to do.")
The march from Annapolis to the Junction, like most of the other
scenes and incidents which we' have to describe, is brought very vividly
before our minds by the words in which eye-witnesses relate it. The dawn
found the camp in motion. Knapsacks, with blankets and coats strapped
upon them, were piled on the green. A brief and insufficient breakfast
was taken; the canteens were filled with vinegar and water; cartridges
were distributed to each man, and, after mustering and loading, the regiment started on its first march through a hostile country. General Scott
has stated, it is said, that the march they performed was one of the most
remarkable on record. The tracks had been torn up between Annapolis
and the Junction; and here it was that the wonderful qualities of the
Massachusetts Eighth Regiment came out.  Engineers were wanted.
Nineteen stepped out of the ranks. The rails were torn up. Practical
railroad makers, out of the regiment, laid them again. As the New York
troops marched along the track that the Massachusetts men had laid, the




116              CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
latter greeted them with ranks of hungry but smiling faces. One boy
said, with a laugh on his young lips, that he had not eaten anything for
thirty hours. There was not a haversack in the New York regiment that
was not emptied into the hands of these heroes, nor a flask that was not at
their disposal. They thus relieved the necessities of their comrades, to the
extent of their power.
The march lay through an arid, sandy, tobacco-growing country.
The sun poured down its rays like hot lava. The sixth and seventh companies were sent on for skirmishing duty, under the command of Captains
Blake and Nevers, the latter commanding as senior officer. A car, on
which was placed a howitzer, loaded with grape and canister, headed the
column, manned by the engineer and artillery corps, commanded by Lieut.
Bunting. This was the rallying point of the skirmishing party, on which,
in case of difficulty, they could fall back. In the centre of the column
came the cars laden with medical stores, and bearing the sick and wounded,
while the extreme rear was brought up with a second howitzer, loaded also
with grape and canister.
After marching about eight miles, during which several of the men
gave out from exhaustion, and one young gentleman was sun-struck and
sent back to New York, they halted, and after the brief rest of an hour,
again commenced their march,-a march which lasted until the next morning. The colonel decided to keep to the railroad in preference to the common road, inasmuch as he had obtained such secret information, as led him
to fear an ambuscade on the other route. Events justified his judgment.
There were cavalry troops posted in defiles to intercept him.  They
might not have succeeded in this; but they would have greatly harassed
the march. It would be very difficult to describe the scenes which were
presented to view when night came on. " I have dim recollections," says
one of the soldiers, "of deep cuts through which we passed, gloomy and
treacherous looking, with the moon shining full upon our muskets, while
the banks were wrapped in shade, and each moment expecting to see the
flash and hear the crack of the rifle of the Southern guerilla. The tree
frogs and lizards made mournful music as we passed. The soil on which
we traveled was soft and heavy. The sleepers lying at intervals across the
track made the march terribly fatiguing. On all sides dark, lonely pine
woods stretched away, and high over the hooting of owls or the plaintive
petition of the whippoorwill, rose the bare commands of' Halt!'' Forward
]March!' And when we came to any ticklish spot, the word would run
friom the head of the column along the line,' Holes,'' Bridge; pass the
word along.' Then afterwards, as the night wore on, the monotony of the
march became oppressive. Owing to our having to explore every inch of
the way, we did not make more than a mile or a mile and a half an hour.
Most of us had not slept for four nights, and as the night advanced our
march became almost a stagger. I myself fell asleep walking in the ranks.
Numbers, I find, followed my example. But never before was there shown
such indomitable pluck and perseverance as the Seventh showed in that
march of twenty miles. The country we marched through seemed to be
entirely deserted. Houses were empty. The people had retired into the




UPRISING  OF THE NORTH.                     117
interior, burying their money, and carrying their families with them.
They, it seems, were under the impression that we came to ravage and
pillage, and they fled as the Gauls must have fled, when Attila and his
Huns came down on them from the North."
The necessity for this forced march, as well as the unexpected descent
on Annapolis, which then rested on Colonel Leffert's judgment, has since
been sustained by events. Finding that the line along the Potomac was
closed, and the route to Washington, by Baltimore, equally impracticable,
he came to the conclusion, that Annapolis, commanding, as it did, the
route to the Capital, must of necessity be made the basis of military
operations. It was important to the Government to have a free channel
through which to transport troops, and this port presented the readiest
means."
The determination of the rebels in Baltimore, that the United States
troops should not march through 3Maryland, for the defense of the Capital,
may be seen in the following extract from a letter, from Baltimore, piblished in the New York Evening Post, of April 29th:
" Every shot gun, rifle, or boys' pop-gun for killing tom-tits, is brought
into use throughout the State; and the sentiment is universal, that no
more Northern troops shall cross the State, without fighting their way
every step; and every rock and tree on the roadside will cover a sharpshooter. This city alone has appropriated half a million of dollars, and a
million more has been given by private subscription. Winans is running
700 men, night and day, in his immense establishment, casting cannon,
shot and shells, putting up grape and canister, and preparing other munnitions of war. Everything is moving on a grand scale."
At the Junction, where the Annapolis branch meets the Baltimore and
Washington road, the Seventh took the cars, and arrived in Washington
about noon, April 2Sth. The heroic Massachusetts Sixth were already
there, encamped outside the Capitol. They were there alone, few in numLers, in the very heart of pro-slavery hostility to the Government, and
thousands of troops were marching upon them from the South, breathing
only the most deadly hate. As the New York Seventh stepped from the
cars, and, with unfurled banners and triumphant music, formed in military
array, a burst of huzzas rose from the lips of Massachusetts, and was
caught and echoed back by New York, with such heartiness of acclaim,
that the whole city was roused, and through all its streets there was an
inundation of the people flowing toward the station.
The Seventh, with their march enlivened by their magnificent band,
though looking worn and weary, yet with elastic step, passed along the
avenue to the White House, to pay their patriotic homage to the President.
The cheers and smiles of true hearts greeted them, while baffled Secession
slunk into bye-streets, and scowled, and swore. Never did a greater change
in one half hour pass over a city, than was effected by the coming of the
Seventh. Washington now began to breathe freely. The North was
thoroughly aroused. From all her green hills, thousands, in battle array,
were crowding down, for the defense of their country, their flag, and their
capital. General Butler and the Massachusetts Eighth had opened a door,




118                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
and held it open, for the passage of all these troops, and great confidence
was felt, that no power or fraud of the rebels would be able to close that
door again. Hope began to take the place of almost despair.
Baltimore was for the moment entirely in the hands of the rebels. It
was a great'humiliation to the North, to feel that the soldiers could not
fight their way through every obstruction. But the peril of the Capital
was so great, that it was deemed necessary, without an hour's delay, to
press forward troops for its protection. There was, however, the determination in every patriotic heart, that so soon as Washington was safe, the
United States Volunteers should march, by the direct route to their Capital,
straight through the streets of Baltimore, even were it necessary to lay
every building in ashes, and to traverse pavements deluged in blood. The
pride and indignation of both Government aind people was roused, that a
mob in the streets of a city should thus set at defiance the authority of the
United States.
With the heroic lMassachusetts Eighth holding Annapolis, the road,
and the Junction, but little fear was felt, that this route could again be
obstructed.  The next day, April 26th, the Seventh, Seventy-first, and
Twelfth New York Regiments passed over this road to Washington, and
announced the arrival at Annapolis of the Eighth, Sixty-Ninth, and Fifth
Regiments of New York.  And now the flow of Northern troops into
Washington was majestic and unceasing, and the doom of the rebels was
sealed.
General Butlter, with characteristic promptness, immediately took possession of heights which commanded Annapolis, and thus held the rebels
there in an iron clutch.
Under Providence we are doubtless primarily indebted to General
Butler for the safety of Washington. It was his sagacity which devised
the route through the "forgotten colony"' of Annapolis; and it was his
genius and braver.r which accomplished the plan. Providence placed in
his hands just the instruments he.needed for his bold enterprise-the Massachusetts Eighth and the New York Seventlh.  They will be forever
entitled to the nation's gratitude, for their heroism, their endurance, and
above all, that brotherly spirit, that heartfelt sympathy and cooperation,
with which they clasped hands, and marched shoulder to shoulder in these
hours of trial. But for the mechanical skill and hardy endurance of the
Eighth, and the perfect drill and ample equipments of the Seventh, the
midnight march from Annapolis could not have been successfully accomplished.
On the 2d of May, the Marine Flying Artillery of Rhode Island arrived
in WVashington, having a battery of six pieces. The energy manifested
by this gallant little State, under its young but noble governor, William
Sprague, attracted universal admiration. This battery was apparently perfect in every appointment of military art, that can give efficiency to this
most effective arm of modern warfare. One hundred and sixty well drilled
cannoniers accompanied the battery, leaving behind an equal number ready
to join them at the first signal. The Rhode Island regiment of infantry
met them  on parade in Pennsylvania Avenue, where they were highly




UPRISING  OF THE NORTH.                     119
complimented for the perfection of their outfit and their high military bearing. The artillery, at 5 o'clock, visited the President. He received them
in front of the White House, and was greeted with hearty cheers.
The New Orleans Picayune, of the same date, says, " A Southern victory at Washington would not only strike terror into the ranks of the North,
but would go far towards releasing the good and estimable people of the
North from a thralldom which has become as terrible as it is degrading.
We hope to have the pleasure, ere many days, of chronicling the glorious
achievement."
The Rhode Island regiment were quartered in the Interior Department
building. Governor Sprague, in fiLll uniform, accompanied them. Our
national banner was raised over the vast edifice, and cheered; while
Secession looked sullenly on, gnashing its teeth. The heroic little band
entered their quarters singing "' Our flag still waves."
But a few days after this, the Richmond Whig ventured upon the following announcement: "W e are not enough in the secret of our authorities, to specify the day on which Jeff. Davis will dine at the White House,
and Ben McCullough take his siesta in Gen. Sickles' gilded tent. We
should dislike to produlce any disappointment, by naming too soon or too
early a day; but it will save trouble if the gentlemen in Washington
will keep themselves in readiness to dislodge at a moment's notice. If they
are not smitten with more than judicial blindness, they do not need this
warning at our hands. They must know that the measure of their iniquities is full, and the patience of outraged freedom is exhausted. Among all
the brave men from the Rio Grande to the Potomac, and stretching over
into insulted, indignant, and infuriated Ml[aryland, there is but one word on
every lip,'VWAsmHNGTo N,' and one sentiment on every heart: vengeance
on the tyrants who pollute the Capital of the Republic."
The determination and expectation of capturing Washington seems to
have been adopted with entire unanimity by the rebels. We have already
recorded the boast of the rebel Secretary of War, at Montgomery, on the
12th of April, " The flag which now flaunts the breeze here, will float over
the dome of the Old Capitol at Washington before the 1st of ]May."  The
Vicksburg (Miss.) Whig, of April 20th, says, a" Major Ben McCullough has
organized a force of five thousand -men, to seize the Federal Capital the
instant the first blood is spilled."  The Raleigh (N. C.) Standard, of April
24th, says, "North Carolina will send her fll quota of troops to unite in
the attack on Washington City. Our city is alive with soldiers and officers,
many of the latter being here to tender their companies to the governor.
Washington will soon be too hot to hold Abraham Lincoln and his Government."  The Richmond Examiner, of the 23d, said, "' Fiom the mountain
tops and valleys to the shores of the sea, there is one wild shout of fierce
resolve to capture Washington City at all and every human hazard."  The
Milledgeville (Ga.) Recorder, of April 30th, said, " The Government of the
Confederate States must possess the City of Washington. It is folly to
think that it can be used any longer as the headquarters of the Lincoln
Government, as no access can be had to it except passing through Virginia
and Maryland. The District of Columbia can not remain under the juris



120               CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
diction of the United States Congress, without humiliating Southern pride
and defeating Southern rights.' The Montgomery (Ala.) correspondent
t ) the Charlestoil Courier wrote, April 30th, " The desire for taking Washington, I believe, increases every hour, and all things, to my thinking, seem
tending to this consummation. We are in lively hopes that, before three
months roll by, the Government, Congress, Departments, and all, will have
removed to the present Federal Capital."
Early in May, the Second Regiment of South Carolina left that State
for Richmond. Col. Kershaw, handing the colors to Sergeant Gordon, said,
" To your particular charge is committed this noble gift. Plant it wherever
honor calls. If opportunity offer, let it be the first to kiss the breeze of
heaven from the dome of the Capitol at Washington."
These citations render it certain, that the country was not too speedily
and intensely aroused for the protection of its Capital, and that the few
who were still urging peace and compromise, were uninformed respecting
the true nature of the peril with which our land was menaced.
Troops were now pouring in every day, by thousands, from the North,
the rail track from Annapolis to Washington being carefully guarded, and
placed in good running order. By ship from Boston, New York, and
Philadelphia, recruits and supplies were thrown into Fort MIecuenry, at
Baltimore, into the immense Fortress Mionroe, at the mouth of James River,
in Virginia, and into several of the forts on the Gulf of Mexico, so that
they were no longer in danger of being taken by surprise.
The Secessionists in Washington now began to lose all hope of aiding in
the capture of the city and in its surrender to the rebels. They consequently
made the most desperate efforts to burn it. The city was repeatedly set
on fire, but by unceasing vigilance it was saved. On the 3d of May, the
young and gallant Col. Elner E. Ellsworth, with his far-famed New York
Fire Zouaves; arrived in Washington. This regiment consisted of the firemen of New York, all armed with Sharp's rifles, and probably as energetic
and intrepid a band as ever marched to martial music. Their almost idolized colonel, with a peculiar tact for managing such men, trained them to
the highest proficiency in the Zouave drill. In selecting these men for his
command, he said, to a friend,
"I want the New York firemen, for there are no more effective men in
the country, and none with whom I can do so much. Our friends at Washington are sleeping on a volcano, and I want men who are ready at a
moment to plunge into the thickest of the fight."
The march of this regiment from New York excited general admiration, from their perfect equipments and the magnificent bearing of the men.
The Fire Department presented them with a stand of colors. As the president of that department placed the colors in the hands of Col. Ellsworth,
he saidl:'" Take them, place them in the midst of your gallant band, and wherever the fight is the thickest, and the ballets fly the fastest, let these banners be borne. And may you and your comrades, in the hour of trial and
battle, remember the proud motto emblazoned upon them,
"' The Star-spangled Banner in triumph shall wave.'




UPRISING  OF TIE NORTH.                     121
" Let this be your war-cry, as you rush to the onset. Wave this banner
In triumph only, and do you bring it back though it be tattered and torn
in the fight. When the fire bell rings in the night the citizen rests securely,
for he knows that the New York firemen are omnipotent to arrest the
progress of destruction. You are now called to exhibit your gallantry in
another field. You are called to:quench the flames of rebellion, and we
know that, whether in the- midst of burning cities, or in the tented field,
you will sustain your own high character, and these banners will ever wave
in triumph, even though it be in the midst of ruins."
Col. Ellsworth briefly replied, that, though his acquaintance with his
men had been brief, he thoroughly understood their feelings, and he was
sure that, as long as one of them lived, that flag would never be disgraced.
Mrs. John Jacob Astor and Major-General Dix also took part in these
imposing ceremonies. Five thousand firemen accompanied the regiment
in procession to the Baltic, which was lying at the foot of Canal Street.
A banner was borne upon which.were inscribed the words,
" If our country calls the rest are ready."
The regiment marched on board to the tune, " The Red, White and Blue,"
the soldiers and the attendant multitude joining sublimely in the chorus.
Hurried adieus were made. Mlothers, wives, and sisters took their last
embrace, sobbing bitterly. Even strong, stern men wept. The paddlewheels commenced their revolution, and the steamer soon disappeared
on its path to the sea. They went to Washington by the way of Annapolis.
General Butler, on the -5th of May, took possession of the Relay Hlouse,
on the railroad, nine miles from Baltimore. He planted eight howitzers on
the viaduct, and invested the entire neighborhood. On the 14th, with a
strong force, he advanced to Baltimore, and marched through the streets of
the city, with music and banners, thus practically saying to the rebels,
" Now attack us if you dare."  The patriots, who were in the majority,
were overjoyed in being thus rescued from the mob. The streets were
thronged with people who cheered at every step. Ladies, waving their
handkerchiefs, joined in the applause. The Federal forces then took possession of the heights about Baltimore, which commanded the city, and
treason no longer dared to raise its hideous front. On the evening of the
16th, General Butler, having performed these signal services, was serenaded at his hotel in Washington. In the brief speech he then made, he
said, in terms which met with a response in every patriotic heart,
"There is this difference between our Southren brethren and ourselves,
that, while we love our State with the true love of a son, we love the Union
and the Country with an equal devotion. We place no States' Rights
before, beyond, or above the Union. To us, our country is first, because it
is our country, and our State is next and second, because she is a part of
our country, and our State. Our oath of allegiance to our country, and
our oath of allegiance to our State, are interwreathed harmoniously, and
never come in conflict, or clash. He who does his duty to the Union, does




122                 CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
his duty to the State. And he who does his duty to the State, does his
duty to the Union, one and inseparable, now and forever.
" We will hold as a brother, him who stands by the Union. We will
hold as an enemy, him who will strike from its constellation a single star.
But I hear some one say,'"Shall we carry on this fratricidal war 2 Shall we slied our brothers',blood, and meet in arms our brothers of the South?'
"I would say,'As our fathers did not hesitate to strike the mother
country, in the defense of our rights, so we would not hesitate to meet the
brother as they did the mother.' If this unholy, this fratricidal, war is
forced upon us, I say,'Woe to them who have made the necessity.' Our
hands are clean, our hearts are pure; but the Union must be preserved,
at all hazards of money, and, if need be, of every life this side the Arctic
regions.
" If the 25,000 Northern soldiers here are cut off, in six weeks 50,000
will take your place. And if they die by fever, pestilence, or the sword,
a quarter of a million will take their place. He is mistaken -who supposes
we can be intimidated by threats, or cajoled by compromise.  The day of
compromises is past."
This glowing address was interrupted with repeated bursts of acclaim.
The alacrity with ivhich citizens of foreign birth entered into this war, for
the. defense of our national integrity, was one of the most remarkable
features of the times. There is hardly a country in Europe which was not
represented in the Union armies. And Germany and Ireland in particular
furnished soldiers by the thousand, often organizing full regiments, for the
defense of the land of their adoption. Kentucky and Maryland, though
border States in which the rebels had plied every power of misrepresentation, persuasion, and terror, to force them into the ranks of Secession,
came forward with large majorities in favor of the -Union. On the 4th
of May, fourteen companies of Kentuckians tendered their services to the
Secretary of War.
The seventy-five thousand troops first called for, was only summoning
men to rush for the protection of the endangered Capital. Their services
were required only for three months. It now became evident, that an
arduous and perhaps protracted war was before us. The rebels were acting
with demoniac energy, confiscating the property of all Union men; mobbing and hanging all who ventured to speak against the rebellion, or in
favor of the Government; compelling every man, capable of bearing arms,
to enter their ranks; issuing paper money to any amount they desired, and
punishing with revolting violence any who refused to receive it. A more
terrible despotism was never developed. Under these cicumstances, the
President, on the 4th of May, called for an increase of the regular army
and navy, and for 42,000 volunteers for three years' service. The patriotic
contributions from the North, in three weeks, amounted to $23,2T7,000.
At the South, dictatorial power was practically placed in the hands of Jefferson Davis, as it were by the unanimous assent of the rebels. The Richmond (Va.) Examiner, of May 8th, said:
"No power in executive hands can be too great, no discretion too




UPRISING  OF THE NORTH.                      123
absolute, at such moments as these.  WTe need a dictator. Let lawyers
talk when the world has time to hear them. Now let the sword do its
work. Usurpations of power by the chief, for the preservation of the people from robbers and murderers, will be reckoned as genius and patriotism
by all sensible men in the world now, and by every historian that will judge
the deed hereafter."
In accordance with these views, the Confederate Congress authorized
Jeff. Davis to raise such forces for the wair as he might deem expedient,
and it may be added, that he proceeded to the most atrocious acts of violence to compel enlistments.
The Vermont troops, " Green Mountain Boys," and the hardy sons of
New Haampshire and Maine, now began to make their appearance in the
streets of Washington. The First Regiment of Vermont, under Colonel
Phelps, consisting of ten companies of 77 men each, attracted much attention for their stalwart frames and broad shoulders. They were all higly
esteemed citizens, who, at the call of their country, had abandoned profitable business at home. As the cars were leaving Rutland, Vermont, one
of the privates, in response to the cheers of the people, said:
"' The Vermont Regiment, citizens in peace, soldiers in war, give you
the sentiment embodied in the charge of the Grecian matron to her son:
TWe will bring back our shields, or be brought back u2pon them.9
The waves of patriotic excitement spread across the wide continent,
even to the shores of the Pacific. At San Francisco, Cal., there was a
magnificent Union demonstration, on the 11th of Miay. All business was
suspended. The Stars and the Stripes waved everywhere. The city was
thronged. Three stands were erected for the speakers. Senators Latham
and McDougal, and Generals Sumner and Shields, addressed vast audiences.:But one voice was heard, and that was, " The Administration must be preserved in its endeavor to crush rebellion, and perpetuate the Union."
Every day brought tidings of new acts of atrocity by the rebels. Their
armies were gathering fast in Virginia, privateers were rapidly fitted out
to prey upon our comlmerce; all Northern property in the South was confiscated. On the 21st of May, Jeff. Davis approved the act of the Confederate Congress, prohibiting Southerners, owing money to Northern
merchants, from paying the same, and compelling them to pay it into the
treasury of the rebels.
Notwithstanding these apparent successes of the rebels, few Northern
men doubted, for a moment, the ability of the United States to crush the
rebellion. The whole seven revolted States had only a white population
of 2,656,481, less by more than a million and a half than the single State
of New York, which had 3,887,542. If all the Slave States were to make
common cause, they had only 8,907,894 whites, with 4,000,000 of slaves;
while the remaining free Union had 20,000,000 of homogeneous people, as
powerful in peace and war as the world has ever seen.
At the almost miraculous uprising of the North, after the assault of the
rebels upon Sumter, there was a great Union meeting at Union Square,
New York, on the 20th of May. Such a gathering, both as to the masses
assembled and the enthusiasm manifested, New York had never witnessed




124                CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
before. The most illustrious men of the State and of the nation there
spake in strains, which moved the hearts of patriotic men, all over our land,
like bugle notes. Prof. O. M. Mitchel, a graduate of West Point, was, at
that time, in charge of the observatory at Cincinnati, Ohio, intensely
absorbed in scientific pursuits, and was probably the most illustrious
astronomer in the land. The speech he made upon this occasion was so
soulful and thrilling, and Prof. Mitchel, subsequently as General Mitchel,
so signalized himself upon the field of battle, that his words are worthy of
permanent record. The nation will not forget him as one of her sons whom
she will love to honor.
" I know that I am a stranger among you. I have been in your State
but a little while; but I alm with you, heart, and soul, and mind, and
strength; and all that I have and am belongs to you and our common
country, and to nothing else. I have been announced to you as a citizen
of Kentucky. Once I was, because I was born there. I love my native
State, as you love your native State. I love my adopted State of Ohio, as
you love your adopted State, if such you have; but, my friends, I am not
a citizen now of any State. I owe allegiance to no State, and never did,
and God helping me I never will. I owe allegiance to the Government of
the United States. I did not abjure the love of my own State, or of my
adopted State, but over all that rose proudly, triumphant and predominant,
my love for our common country. And now, to-day, that common country
is assailed, and alas! alas! that I am compelled to say it, it is assailed, in
some sense, by my own countrymen.
" My father and my mother were from Old Virginia, and my brothers
and sisters from Old Kentucky. I love them all; I love them dearly. I
have my brothers and firiends down in the South now, united to me by the
fondest ties of love and affection. I would take them into my arms to-day
with all the love God has put into this heart; but if I found them in arms
I would be compelled to smite them down. You have found officers of the
army, who have been educated by the Government, who have drawn their
support from the Government for long years, who, when called upon by
their country to stand for the Constitution and the right, have basely, ignominiously, and traitorously, either resigned their commissions, or deserted
to traitors, rebels, and enemies.
" The rebels and the traitors in the South we must set aside. They are
not our friends. When they come to their senses we will receive them with
open arms; but till that time, while they are trailing our glorious banner
in the dust, when they scorn it, condemn it, curse it, and trample it under
foot, then I must smite. In God's name I will smite, and as long as I have
strength I will do it. I know these men. I know their courage; I have
been among them; I have been with them. They have courage; and do
not pretend to think that they have not. I tell you what it is; it is no
child's play you are entering upon. They will fight, and with a determination and a power which is irresistible. Make up your mind to it. Let
every man put his life in his hand, and say,'There is the altar of my
country; there I will sacrifice my life.' Lead me to the conflict. Place
me where I can do my duty. There I am, ready to go. I care not where




UPRISING  OF THE NORTH.                     125
it leads me. I am ready. God help me to do -my duty. I am ready to
fight in the ranks, or out of the ranks. Having been educated at West
Point, having been in the army seven years, having served as commander
of a volunteer company for ten years, and having served as an adjutarntgeneral, I feel I am ready for something. I only ask to be permitted to
act; and in God's name give me something to do."
In accordance with the spirit of this speech, which roused the audience
to the utmost pitch of enthusiasm, Prof. Mitchel soon assumed command,
and, as will be subsequently shown, performed deeds of heroism and of successful generalship unsurpassed during the progress of the war.
Throughout the South, among the leaders of the rebellion, there seems
to have been no love for our common country, and no recognition of its
authority. When General Quitman was governor of Mississippi, he was
seriously implicated in the piratic raid of Lopez upon the Island of Cuba,
and was in danger of arrest by the United States authorities. The I-Ion.
Jacob Thompson, whose treason has already been alluded to, when he was
a member of the Cabinet of Mr. Buchanan, as Secretary of the Interior,
wrote, on the 2d of September, 1850, in the following strain to General
Quitman:
"When the President of the United States commands me to do an act,
and the Executive of Mississippi commands me to do another thing, inconsistent with the first order, I obey the government of my State. To Mississippi I owe allegiance, and because she commands me I owe obedience
to the United States. But when she says I owe obedience no longer, right
or wrong, come weal or woe, I stand for my legitimate sovereign, and not
to obey her behests is, in my conscience, treason."
Such were the principles of the man who took the oath of allegiance to
the Government of the United States, assumed the important office of
Secretary of the Interior, and then availed himself of all the information
and power which his office gave him, to overthrow that Government which
he had sworn to uphold.
There were such appalling cases of treason daily arising, that no one
knew whom to trust. Even the loyalty of the noble General Scott was
suspected, very unjustly. In a speech which Senator Douglas made in
Ohio, about this time, he said:
" I have been asked whether there is any truth in the rumor that Gen.
Scott was about to retire from the American army. It is almost profanity
to ask that question. I saw him only last Saturday. He was at his desk,
pen in hand, writing his orders for the defense and safety of the American
Capital. Walking down the street, I met a distinguished gentleman, a
member of the Virginia Convention, whom I knew personally, and had a
few minutes' conversation with him. IHe told me, that he had just had an
interview with General Scott; that he was chairman of the committee
appointed by the Virginia Convention, to wait upon General Scott, and
tender him  the command of the forces of Tirginia in this struggle.
General Scott received him kindly, listened to him patiently, and said
to him:
"' I have serves my country, under the flag of the Union, for more




126                CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
than fifty years; and as long as God permits me to live, I will defend that
flag with my sword, even if my own native State assails it."' 
This remarkable statement shows not only the patriotism of Gen. Scott,
but the reasonableness of the anxiety which oppressed the public mind.
Such unparalleled examples of treachery had so appalled the community,
that no one was exempt from suspicion. And even our purest patriots had
bosom friends, near relatives, members of their own families, who were in
league with the rebels, and kept them informed of every movement.
The conspirators had sncceeded in so filling all the offices of the Government with their confederates, and throwing such obstacles in the way
of any vigorous action, that it seemed impossible that anything could be
done, under the ordinary forms of law, to thwart their deadly machinations.
There was no adequate organization for the public defense, and the rebels
were so entirely dead to all sense of honor, that men, while retaining the
most important stations in the Government, and hypocritically assuming to
be patriotic, regardless of the most solemn oaths, were doing everything in
their power to betray and ruin their country.
Under these unparalleled circumstances of embarrassment, the President, on the 20th of April, summoned the members of the Cabinet, whom
he had selected, and in whom, consequently, he could repose confidence, to
meet at the office of the Navy Department. There they unanimously
agreed to send an armed revenue cutter to protect the treasure ships
expected from California. The commandants of the Navy-Yards of Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, were each called upon to furnish five
steamships, for public defense, as soon as possible. Very efficient agents,
men of the highest distinction, were employed in making arrangements
for the transportation of troops and munitions of war. In reference to
these movements, which met the warm approval of the nation, the President subsequently said:
" The several departments of the Government, at that time, contained
so large a number of disloyal persons, that it would have been impossible
to provide safely, through official agents only, for the performance of the
duties thus confided to citizens favorably known for their ability, loyalty,
and patriotism. The several orders, issued upon these occurrences, were
transmitted by private messengers, who pursued a circuitous way to the
seaboard cities, inland across the States of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and the
Northern lakes.
"I believe that by these and other similar measures, taken in that crisis,
some of which were without any authority of law, the Government was
saved from overthrow. I am not aware that a dollar of the public funds,
thus confided without authority of law to unofficial persons, was either
lost or wasted, although apprehensions of such misdirections occurred to
me as objections to these extraordinary proceedings, and were necessarily
overruled."
The question will rise, with future generations,.how could it happen
that hostility so wide-spread and venomous, could spring up against a government so mild, efficient, and just, as that of the United States,-a
government which had filled the land with plenty, and, in less than one




UPRISING  OF THE NORTH.                        127
century, had raised up a nation second to no other upon the globe, in intelligence, wealth, and power. It requires some knowledge of the workings
of the human heart to comprehend the potency of that malignant influence
of slavery which infused its poison into our whole system. But the careful
student of history will see nothing in it that is strange. The spirit of aristocratic usurpation has been the same in all nations and in all times. It
has no existence in Heaven. It comes from beneath, and burns with all
the fierceness of infernal fire.
The South, seeing their aristocratic institution endangered by the gradual progress of intelligence and piety, roused itself to this desperate endeavor.  " Evil be thou my good," became their law.  " Wrong be thou
my right," became the fundamental principle of their ethics. " The laborer
is not worthy of his hire; you shall not give unto your servants that which
is just and equal; you shall not do unto others as ye would that others
should do unto you; you shall not break the yoke of bondage; you shall
not let the oppressed go free; the ignorant shall not be educated; husbands
shall not be entitled to their wives; parents shall not possess their own
children;" this became their religion: the expurgated satanic edition of
their Christianity.
Now this is moral poison of the most malignant kind. It is the corrosive sublimate of the soul. And yet the South determined to feed upon
it, and resolved that the North should eat it. Is it strange that convulsions ensued? It is amazing that in the nineteenth century there could be
such audacity in the human mind. M3r. Calhoun advocating these fiendborn principles, says:
" Slavery is the most safe and stable basis for free institutions in the
world."  Mr. McDuffie calls it " the corner-stone of the Republican edifice."  Senator I-Iammond, of South Carolina, declares that " its forms of
society are the best in the world."  Senator Brown, of Mississippi, boasts
" that it is a great moral, social, and political blessing."  Senator -Iunter,
of Virginia, has the effrontery to declare in the ears of men who know
what slavery is, that the "social system of the slaveholding states is the
normal condition of human society, beneficial to the non-slaveholder as it is
to the slaveholder, best for the happiness of both races,-the very key-stone
of the mighty arch, which, by its concentrated strength, is able to sustain
our social superstructure, consists in the black marble block of African
slavery. IKnock that out," he says, " and the mighty fabric, with all that
it upholds, topples and tumbles to its fall."  Senator Mason, of Virginia,
ventures to say that slavery is " ennobling to both master and slave;" subsequently, however, changing the phrase to " ennobling to the master and
elevating to the slave."  Mir. McDuffie, of South Carolina, very justly
remarks that "' slavery supersedes the necessity of an order of nobility."
Thus defiantly was this degrading institution, which John Wesley,
thoroughly acquainted with its workings in Georgia and the two Carolinas,
had declared to be the " sum of all villanies," and which Jefferson had denounced as the most atrocious outrage upon the laws of God and the rights
of man, forcing its way to undermine our free institutions, and to corrupt
our Christianity.  It is not possible that there should be greater antagon



128                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
ism than that between freedom  and slavery; —between the Christianity
which says, " Break every yoke," and the Christianity which says, "A Let the
strong put the yoke on the neck of the weak."  These were the antagonisms, relentless as death, which the great rebellion developed.
" A slave," says the civil code of Louisiana, " is one who is in the power
of a master to whom he belongs. The master may sell him, dispose of his
person, his industry, and his labor. He can do nothing, possess nothing,
nor acquire anything, but what must belong to his master."  " The cardinal principle of slavery," says Stroud's Law of Slavery, " that the slave is
not to be ranked among sentient beings, but among thins, —is an article
of property-a chattel personal, obtains, as undoubted law, in all of these
(slave) states."
The Hon. Charles Sumner, of Massachusetts, commenting upon these
statements, in his truly magnificent speech upon the " Barbarism of Slavery," delivered in the Senate of the United States, June 4th, 1860, says:
" Out of this definition, as from a solitary germ, which, in its pettiness,
might be crushed by the hand, towers our Upas tree and all its gigantic
poison. Study it, and you will comprehend the whole monstrous growth.
Look at its plain import and see the relations which it establishes. The
slave is held simply for the nse of his master, to whose behests his life, liberty, and happiness are devoted, and by whom he may be bartered, leased,
mortgaged, bequeathed, invoiced, shipped as cargo, stored as goods, sold
on execution, knocked off at public auction, and even staked at the gaming-table, on the hazard of a card or a die,-all according to law.
" Nor is there anything, within the limit of life, inflicted on a beast,
which may not be inflicted on a slave. lie may be marked lilke a hog,
branded like a mule, yoked like an ox, hobbled like a horse, driven like an
ass, sheared like a sheep, maimed like a cur, and constantly beaten like a
brute,-all according to law.
"And should life itself be taken, what is the remedy?  The law of
slavery, imitating that rule of evidence which, in barbarous days and bar,
barous countries, prevented a Christian from testifying against a M/ahome
dan, openly pronounces the incompetency of the whole African race,
whether bond or free, to testify in any case against a white man, and thus,
having already surrendered the slave to every possible outrage, crowns its
tyranny, by excluding the very testimony through which the bloody cruelty
of the slave-master might be exposed."
It is indeed refreshing, in contrast with these principles of oppression,
to read the healthy views of President Lincoln, upon the subject of liberty.
They were uttered in a speech which he made, when a candidate for the
Senate of the United States, in opposition to Judge Douglas:
" These communities (the thirteen colonies) by their representatives iml
old Independence Hall, said to the whole world of men:'We hold these
truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among
these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' This was their majestic interpretation of the economy of the Universe. This was their lofty,
and wise, and noble understanding of the justice of the Creator to His




UPRISING  OF THE NORTH.                     12
creatures. Yes, gentlemen, to all His creatures, to the whole great family
of man. In their enlightened belief, nothing stamped with the Divine
image and likeness was sent into the world to be trodden on, and degraded,
and imbruted by its fellows. They grasped not only the whole race of
men then living, but they reached forward and seized upon the farthest
posterity. They erected a beacon to guide their children and their children's children, and the countless myriads who should inhabit the earth in
other ages.
" Wise statesmen as they were, they knew the tendency of prosperity to
breed tyrants, and so they established these great self-evident truths, that,
when in the distant future some man, some faction, some interest, should
set up the doctrine that none but rich men, or none but white men, or none
but Anglo-Saxon white men, were entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit
of happiness, their posterity might look up again to the Declaration of Independence, and take courage to renew the battle which their fathers beganso that truth, and justice, and mercy, and all the humane and Christian
virtues, might not be extinguished from the land; so that no man would
hereafter dare to limit and circumscribe the great principles on which the
temple of liberty was being built.
"Now, my countrymen, if you have been taught doctrines conflicting
with the great landmarks of the Declaration of Independence; if you have
listened to siggestions which woul take away from its grandeur, and
mutilate the fair symmetry of its proportions; if you have been inclined to
believe that all men are not created equal in those inalienable rights enumerated by our chart of liberty, let me entreat you to come back. Return
to the fountain whose waters spring close by the blood of the Revolution.
Think nothing of me —take no thought for the political fate of any man
whomsoever-but come back to the truths that are in the Declaration of
Independence. - You may do anything with me you choose, if you will but
heed these sacred principles. You mlay not only defeat me for the Senate,
but you may take me and put me to death. While pretending no indifference to earthly honors, I do claim to be actuated in this contest by something higher than an anxiety for office. I charge you to drop every paltry
and insignificant thought for any man's success. It is notLing; I am
nothing; Judge Douglas is nothing. But do not destroy thact immortca
emblem of HEmcanity —the Declaration of Americn Indepvendene."
9




CHAPTER V.
THE  ADVANCE  INTO  VIR GINIA.
JOHN BELL. —3RECKINHIDGE.-WARLIKE PREPARATIONS.-TAKING OF ALEXANDRIA.-MURDER
OF ELLSWORTH.-INTELLECTUAL CHARACTER OF THE NORTHERN ARMY.-COL. MALLORY AND
GEN. BUTLER.-CONTRABANDS.-SOUTHERN OPINIONS AND CONDUCT.-MCCLELLAN ON SLAVERY.-BORDER STATES.-PHILIPPI.-BEAUREGARD'S PROCLAMATION.-BETrEL.-WINTHROP.GREBLE.- BALLOON TELEGItAPH.-VIENNA.-MCCLELLAN'S PROCLAMATION.
TIE Washington Star, of Mlay 7th, says, " The scheme of the oligarchy
was to have attacked this city some time between break of day of the 18th,
and daybreak of the 21st of April ultimo. They had been led to believe
that the Virginia ordinance of secession would have been pushed through
the Convention a few days before that was accomplished (on the 17th), and
that the troops of that State would hl1e been able to take Washington by
surprise, between the dates we have named above. John Bell was doubtless in the conspiracy, we apprehend, as his change of front took place just
in time to admit of his getting on what he foolishly supposed would be the
winning side. The resignation of the large number of army and navy
officers, between the 18th and 21st of April, in a body, was doubtless also
planned to embarrass the Government; just previous to the meditated attack
on the metropolis. The conspirators had no idea that the Government
would prove more prompt and efficient in their measures'of defense, than
they in theirs of attack."
On the 23d of April, John ]ell of Telmessee, one of the candidates for
the Presidency, openly avowed his union with the rebels. In a speech at
Nashville he said, " The time for action and unity of action in the South
has arrived. I am for standing by the South, defending the South, all the
South, against the unnecessary, aggressive, cruel, unjust, and wanton war
which is being forced upon us.  I He advocated a strong military league
of all the slaveholding States, and urged the immediate and effective organization of all their military strength.  "To arms, Tennesseeans, to arms I',
he cried.
John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, another slaveholding candidate for
the Presidency, remained in the Senate of the United States for several
months, assuming the air of loyalty, while doing everything in his power
to clog the wheels of government, and to facilitate the movements of his
outside fellow-conspirators. While Mir. Breckinridge was thus operating,
and all under the forms of law, Senator Douglas remarked to a distinguished Kentuckian at Indianapolis, "I know your man Breckinridge




THE ADVANCE INTO  VIRGINIA.                      131
better than you know him yourselves. Mark my words, sir, within a year
from this time, John C. Breckinridge will be a general in the rebel army."
In less than six months, Mr. IBreckinridge threw off all disguise, and
assumed military command under the banner of the rebels.
President Lincoln, with all his firmness and entireness of consecration
to the work which was before him, had an irresistible sense of the ludicrous,
which would occasionally manifest itself even in the most serious transactions. As the perils of war were rapidly accumulating, the Government
stationed some troops at Cairo, Illinoi8s  a very important point, at the
confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. A violent Secessionist, a
member of the Kentucky State Senate, had the effrontery to send to the
President a solemn protest against this movement. The very characteristic
reply was,' Your letter has been received and duly considered. In reply,
I can only say to you, a Senator of Kientzucky, that, had I known that
Cairo, Illinois, was in your Senatorial district, I would not have sent any
soldiers within a hundred miles of that point." *
Before the close of I[ay there were 20,000 troops in Washington, nearly
fifty vessels had commenced the blockade of the Southern ports, the Union
men in Maryland had rallied, and that State was strong for the Government; and in every one of the Northern States large masses of troops were
being drilled and supplied with arms. All the arsenals were at work, night
and day, turning out every weapon of warfare, and agents were dispatched
to Europe, to hasten forward supplies. Never was a community less prepared for immediate war.
Similar activity was manifest all over the South. For years their sagacious leaders had been storing up arms. For years they had been poisoning
the minds of the ignorant masses of the South, so as to inflame them with
hatred for the " Yankees," to whom they never condescended to allude but as
the "' damned Yankees." The South being almost exclusively agricultural,
and the slaves performing the work, nearly every man, capable of bearing
arms, could be called to the field. The spirit of conscription was inexorable,
ana every man was compelled to go. The negroes also, in large numbers,
were forced to peforim the menial service of the camp, and to relieve the
soldiers of the hard work of throwing up entrenchments. Thus, by the
1st of June, the rebels had a larger and better equipped army in the field,
than the Government then possessed. They also felt sure of the cooperation of England, and were very sanguine that they should secure that of
France also. They had no doubt of success. Their troops were concentrating at all important points, 15,00'0 of them being at Richmond, still
eager for a rush upon Washington.  The rebels had commenced their seat
of government at Montgomery, Alabama. The Montgo mery correspondent
of the New Orleans Delta wrote, in the middle of Mlay:
" It is reported here, that official information has been received, that
troops from the North are pouring continuously into the capital of the Old
Government, and it is thought that before we could possibly begin ourt
assault, Washington will be defended by 20,000 men, supplied with all the
* Speech of Senator Rousseau, in Kentucky Senate, May 21, 1861.




132                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
enginery of war. The time for taking the old seat of government without
a desperate battle has evidently gone by; yet its doom is sealed. The
fixed and unalterable determination to capture this city is the prevailing
sentiment of our people, and satisfaction gleams from the eye of every soldier whose destination is Washington."
Gen. Scott detached 13,000 men to take possession of Alexandria, on
the Virginia side of the Potomac, seven miles below Washington.  This
was a staid, antique, rather dilapidated town of about ten thousand inhabitants, thoroughly imbued with the spirit of slavery and rebellion. A small
force of rebel troops were stationed ill and around the city. A gentle hint,
however, of what was to come, was given on the morning of the 14th of
3May, when a United States steamer quietly dropped anchor off the city;
swung around to bring her broadside to bear; and then, with rifled cannon
and mortars, which would throw shot and shell into every street, unmuzzled,
waited further movements.
It was 2 o'clock in the morning of' the 24th of May, when the expedition from Washington started secretly to take military possession of Alexandria. One half the troops crossed the Long )Bridge, and marched down
the right bank of the Potomac, to enter Alexandria by the rear, and to
cut off any rebel troops who might be lurling about the city. The other
half, including the Fire Zouaves under Col. Ellsworth, descended the river
in steamers, from the Washington Navy Yard. It was in the first gray of
the morning, when the steamers touched at the wharves. Of this division
Col. Ellsworth was in command. He was orie of the first to land. While
the regiment was forming in line, one company was sent, in post haste, to
seize the telegraph station; that no communication could be sent to Richmond of their landing. Another party hastened to tear up the railroad.
It was of such vital importance that the telegraph should be instantly
seized, that Col. Ellsworth himself accompanied that party, passing through
the streets on the fill run.
On their way they went by the Marshall House, a hotel kept by one
J. W. Jackson, over the roof of which a secession flag was flaunted.  "We
must have that flag," said Col. Ellsworth, with his natural impetuosity,
and, rushing in, he found a white man, in the front room, half dressed, and
a negro. "Who raised that flag?" inquired the colonel. "I do not
know," was the reply, "I am a boarder here."  Followed by two or three
he sprang up stairs to the roof of the house, seized the rebel banner, and
was descending with it in his hands, hardly a moment having been occupied in the movement, when the same half-dressed man, who had said that
he was a boarder, but who proved to be Jackson himself, a brutal desperado, jumped from a dark passage, and leveling a double-barreled gun at Col.
Ellsworth's breast, at a distance of not more than two yards, fired a couple
of slugs directly into his heart.
"I think my arm," says E. IH. House, correspondent of the Tribune,
"was resting on Ellsworth's shoulder at the moment. He was on the
second or third step from the, landing, and he dropped forward with that
heavy, horrible, headlong weight, which always comes of sudden death
inflicted in this manner. IHis assailant had turned like a flash to give the




THE- ADVAlNCE INTO  VIRGINIA.                   133
contents of the other barrel to Francis E. B3rownell, a private, but either he
could not command his aim, or the Zouave was too quick with him, for the
slugs went over his head, and passed through the panels and wainscot of
the door, which sheltered some sleeping lodgers. Simultaneously with his
second shot, and sounding like the echo of the first, Brownell's rifle was
heard, and the assassin staggered backward   i He was hit exactly in the
middle of the face, and the wound, as I afterwards saw it, was the most
frightful I ever witnessed. Of course Brownell did not know how fatal
his shot had been, and so, before the man dropped, lie thrust his sabre bayonet through and through the body, the force of the blow sending the. dead
man violently down the upper section of the second flight of stairs, at the
foot of which he lay with his face to the floor.
" The first thing to be done was to look to our dead friend and leader.
Eie had fallen on his face, and thle stream of blood which flowed from hMs
wound had literally flooded the way. The chaplain, Rev. E. W. Dodge,
turned him gently over, and I stooped and called his name aloud, at which
I thought then, he murmured inarticulately. I presume I was mistaken,
and I am not sure that he spoke a word after being struck. We lifted the
body with all the car} we could apply, and laid it upon a bed in a room
near by. The rebel flag, stained with his blood, and purified by this contact from the baseness of its former meaning, we laid about his feet.'It
was difficult at first to discover the precise locality of his wound, for all
parts of his coat were equally saturated with blood. By cautiously loosening his belt, and unbottoning his coat, we found where the shot had penetrated. None of us had any medical knowledge, but we saw that all hope
must be resigned."  While these sad scenes were transpiring another part
of the-company had seized the telegraph.
Col. Ellsworth was an extraordinary man. Every development of his
character indicates his nobility. He was, at the time of his death, but
twenty-four years of age. He had been a student in the law-office of
President Lincoln, and had won the'esteem and the ardent affection of our
chief magistrate. At Chicago he became captain of a military company,
and watching carefully the progress of the Crimean war, he became convinced that the Zouave organization and drill was the best for military
purposes. Sending to France for the necessary books he made himself
thoroughly acquainted with all the evolutions.  It may be doubted
whether such a military company as the Chicago Zouaves, under Capt.
Ellsworth, was ever before organized. Every member was sworn to total
abstinence from spirituous liquors, from tobacco, from gambling, and from
visiting any places of immorality. Profanity was made a ground of
prompt dismissal from the company. Politeness of address, chivalrous
courtesy of demeanor in private as well as public relations, were rigidly
exacted.
The severest athletic exercises were superadded to the French drill.
Thus he formed a company of a hundred men, the best drilled, the best
equipped, and the most efficient for action, ever seen in America, and
probably in the world. He also possessed that rare, Napoleonic faculty,
conferred upon but one in a million, of attaching every one to him who




134                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
was brought within the sphere of his frank, genial, loving nature. He was
born to command. His men were implicitly under his authority, and
loved to be so. Young as he was, it is hardly too much to say that the
nation loved Col. Ellsworth. With his Chicago Zouaves he had visited
New York, Boston, and other leading cities, and the report of the almost
miraculous evolutions of his well-drilled, immaculate, and gentlemanly
young men, had passed all over the land, and had incited the organization
of a similar corps in many places.
The evening before the expedition started, Col. Ellsworth addressed his
troops in the following characteristic words:
"Boys, yesterday I understood that a movement was to be made
against Alexandria. I went to see General Mansfield, and told him that
I would consider it as a personal affront, if he would not allow us to have
the right of the line, which is our due as the first volunteer regiment
sworn in for the war. All I can say is, prepare yourselves for a nice little
sail, and at the end of it a skirmish. Go to your tents, lie down, and take
your rest till 2 o'clock, when the boat will arrive, and we go forward to
victory or death. When we reach the place of destination, act as men.
Do nothing to shame the regiment. Show the enenqTy that you are men,
as well as soldiers, and that you will treat them with kindness until they
force you to use violence. I want to kill them with kindness. Go to your
tents, and do as I tell you."
He then retired to his own tent, and wrote two letters, one to the lady
to whom he was soon to be married,-the other to his parents, of whom
he was the only and almost the idolized child. His letter to his parents
was as follows:
"HEAD-QUARTERS FIRST ZOUAVE, CANP LINCOLN,
"'WASHINGTON, D. C., May 23, 1861. 3
"M[Y DEAR FATHER AND M!]OTHER,"The regiment is ordered to move across the river to-night. We have
no means of knowing what reception we are to meet with. I am inclined
to the opinion that our entrance to the city of Alexandria will be hotly
contested, as I am just informed that a large force has arrived there to-day.
Should this happen, my dear parents, it may be my lot to be injured in
some manner. Whatever may happen, cherish the consolation that I was
engaged' in the performance of a sacred duty; and to-night, thinking of
the probabilities of to-morrow, and the occurrences of the past, I am perfectly content to accept whatever my fortune may be; confident that He
who noteth even the fall of a sparrow, will have some purpose even in the
fate of one like me. My darling and ever loved parents, good bye. God
bless, protect, and care for you.                        ELMER."
The following tribute to his memory is as just as it is eloquent:'a Sprung from the ranks of the people, reflecting their impulses, sharing in their sympathies,-young, gallant, and generous,-lofty of spirit,
earnest of purpose, severely temperate, combining all that youth emulates,
that manhood loves, and that old age admires, Col. Ellsworth was alike the




THE  ADVANCE  INTO  VIRGINIA.                   135
idol of those who knew him, and foremost in the ranks of those to whom
the country looked as the exemplars of its youth, and the defenders of its
honor."'
The colonel was singularly a handsome man, and though an unusual.
pallor overspread his countenance, he was still beautiful in death. A detachment of troops soon arrived, and a guard was established around and
over the house. The townspeople began to gather, and it was judiciously
deemed important to conceal from the impetuous regiment of Zouaves the
murder of their leader, lest they should take signal vengeance. The regiment had already been stationed, in companies, in different portions of the
town, from whence, in case of alarm, they could easily be concentrated.
No one was permitted to enter or leave the Marshall House. About 7
o'clock, the troops, which had crossed the bridge, and marched down the
banks of the river, arrived, cutting off a company of cavalry, about thirty
in number, in the gayest holiday dress of war, And about five hundred
infantry. They were all sent as prisoners of war, or as rebels to be hung,
to Washington. The Government had not then decided in what capacity
to regard them.
The body of Col. Ellsworth, carefully veiled from sight, was then conveyed secretly on board the steamer, on a litter of muskets, and taken to
Washington, to the house of his friend, the President. The excitement
produced in Washington and throughout the whole country was very
intense. -His funeral obsequies were solemnized in Washington, with all
the demonstration of respect and grief, and as his remains were borne to
their last resting plates. i the interior of the State of New York, they were
received with frneral -processions, badges of mourning, requiems, and the
tolling of bells, in every city through which they passed.
At the same timle with the advance upon Alexandria, the Government
took possession of Arlington IIeights, opposite AW-ashington. For several
weeks the eyes of the patriots in the Capital were daily directed to those
heights, fearing to see them bristling with hostile batteries. From that
commanding position, shells could easily be thrown into the city. Immediately there was commenced a line of defenses upon the right bank of the
Potomac, which gradually extended up and down the river a distance of
thirty miles, and five or six miles in breadth, and which finally assumed a
magnitude of proportions which have rarely been equaled in the history of
war. Behind these redoubts, nearly a hundred thousand of the noblest
young men were soon entrenched, waiting for arms. They came from our
colleges, law and medical schools, theological seminaries, and from all the
ennobling employments of industrial life. Such an army was never before
gathered. Our most wealthy and distinguished men left the pulpit, the
bench, the bar, to aid in the defense of our imperiled land. President [Lincoln is reported to have said, that there was hardly a regiment in the army,
from which he could not select suitable men to compose his Cabinet.
The rebels boasted that they had four hundred thousand troops marching upon Washington. Their troops were rapidly arriving at their several
stations in the vicinity of Richmond. They affected great scorn for Northern men, whose abhorrence of dueling and street brawls they regarded as




1t36              CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
cowardice, and they boasted that "one Southerner would easily put five
Northerners to flight."
The rebels were strongly posted at tIarper's Ferry, Manassas, Richmond,
and Hampton. While the soldiers were employed in the daily drill, thousands of negroes were employed in performing all the menial service of the
camp, and in handling the spade, throwing up intrenchments.  Though
the colored population were all in heart warmly on the side of the Governmlent, and eager to bring their sinewy limbs into the service of the war,
state considerations, which future generations will find it rather difficult to
comprehend, induced most of the generals to reject the aid of the negroes,
and thus to compel them to work against us. Our young men were consequently exhausted, and multitudes sent to the hospital and to the grave,
from exposure to these labors to which they were entirely unaccustomed.
It must, however, be admitted that the question was one involving very
serious difficulties, as there was an influential party at the North, vehemently remonstrating against any employment of the slaves; and the
Border States:of Maryland, Missouri, and Kentucky, all exceedingly jealous of any interference with the slavery question, threatened to abandon
the Union, if the colored population were, in any way, received into the
Government service. Thus we presented the anomalous condition of a
nation struggling for its existence, not only rejecting the eagerly proffered
assistance of four millions of allies, but by this rejection compelling them
to consecrate all their efficient energies to the service of our foes. We thus
virtually added eight millions to the population of our enemies. One of
the leading French journals, not discerning the embarrassments in which
wve were involved,:has said, " Such a mode of conducting warfare excites the
contempt of every military man in Europe."
Napoleon I., writing to Josephine, from Germany, in reference to his'embarrassments, said, " The more one attains to greatness, the less can he
h1ave his own way. Such an one is dependent upon events and circumstances. All you beautiful women recognize no obstacles. What you wish
must be. DBut as for myself, I declare that I am the veriest slave among
men.  My master has no compassion; and that master is the nature of
things.'"
" I cain not do," said President Lincoln, " what I would, but only what'circumstances will admit of my accomplishing."
The Government had, by this time, accumulated 6,000 troops in Fortress
Monroe. This magnificent fortress was extended over an area of seventy
acres, and, with its rapidly increasing military population and naval marine,
had now- suddenly becomue one of the most populous and busy cities in Virginria. One morning the pickets brought in three slaves, belonging to Col.
Mallory of the rebel army. The slaves said that they were to be sold down
south, and had escaped, and sought protection of the Federal army. Virginia had seceded, renouncing all allegiance to the Constitution of the
UmUnited States. Col. Mallory was a traitor, in arms against the Govern-.ment, trampling the'Constitution beneath his feet, and wishing to sell his
slaves, tlhat be meight ~have money to carry on the war. And yet he had
the audacity to send a flag of' truce, demanding the surrender of these




'T. expes sly ~os A8:bo
lZ[AJ, GE1T, BENT, F, BUTTLER,








THE ADVANCE INTO  VIRGINIA.                     137
slaves, nnder the Fugitive Slave Law. Incredible as it may seem, many
of our generals had yielded to this claim, and sent back the poor fugitives
to their rebel masters, thus increasing their power to purchase powder and
shells for our destruction.
Col. Mallory had been a member of the same political party with Gen.
Butler, and had met him on friendly terms at the Charleston and Baltimore
Conventions. With the cool assumption characteristic of tile slaveholding
oligarchy, he came under the protection of the flag of truce, to Fortress
Monroe, demanding the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law. The ifollowing terse colloquy is reported to have taken place between them:
" Yon. hold, Col. Mallory, do you not," said Gen. Butler, " that negro
slaves are property; and that Virginia is no longer a part of the United
States.'
" I do, sir," was the reply.
" You are a lawyer, sir," Gen. Butler added, "and I ask you, if you
claim that the Fugitive Slave Act of the United States is binding in a
foreign nation?  *And if a foreign nation uses this kind of property to
destroy the lives and property of citizens of the United States, if that
species of propdrty ought not to be regarded as contraband?"
Even Col. Mallory had not the audacity to deny this common sense
statement, and he withdrew " speechless," but exasperated. This decision,
so apt and so unanswerable, was received throughout the whole country
with a general burst of acclaim. After this, during the whole progress of
the war, the fugitive slaves received the name of contrabcands. In ever
increasing numbers they were crowding our lines, eager to escape from
bondage. There were, however, none of our generals on the Potomac
who cordically welcomed them. Some received them reluctantly, and gave
them cold protection; while others sternly repelled them.
Two or three days after the escape of Col. Mallory's slaves, eight more
stout, able-bodied contrabands came into Fortress Monroe. Gen. Butler
said to Gen. Ashley, a member of Congress from Ohio, who was there at
thqtime, "I authorize you to see. who and what those colored men are,
and decide what is to be done with them. You had better examine them
separately, and take down in writing the material part of their answers."
Gen. Ashley records the results of his inquiries in the following words
in the Toledo (Ohio) Blade: "I went out to the fence where the slaves
were stalding, surrounded by about two hundred volunteers. I asked the
colored men a few questions, and was about to go into the house, to call
them in separately, when one of the slaves said,' Massa, what's you gwine
to do wid us'
"' I told him that I did not know, but that we would not hurt them.' Oh we knows dat,' quickly responded another,'we knows you's our
friends. What we want to know is whether you's gwine.to send us back.'
"I answered, that I had no authority over them, and no power to do
anything, but that my opinion was, that'it would be some time before
their masters would see them again.' I said this in a low conversational
tone of voice, without noticing that all the volunteers were eagerly listening. But no sooner had the words fallen from my lips, than a hundred




138                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
voices shouted, (good! good!' and some in laughter, and some in tears,
clapped their hands, and gave three rousing cheers, which brought out the
officers and the general, who supposed I had been making a speech to the
troops.
" If I had time, I would give, in their own words, the material portion
of the answers of the most intelligent slaves. There is one thing certain;
every slave in the United States understands this rebellion, its causes and
consequences, far better than I supposed. I asked one old man, a Methodist class leader, to tell me frankly, whether this matter was well understood by all the slaves. He said that it was, and that he had'prayed for
it many, many long years.' I asked the same man, how many more would
probably come into the fort. He replied,'A good many; and if we's not
sent back, you'll see'em'fore to-morrow night.' I asked why so; and he
said,'Dey'll understand if we's not sent back, dat we are'mong our friends;
for if the slaveholder sees us; we gets sent right back.' And sure enough,
the next day about forty or fifty more, of all ages, colors, and sexes, came
into camp."
To try the experiment of free labor, sixty-four of these contrcbands
were placed by Gen. Butler, under the superintendence of an intelligent
officer from Massachusetts, to work upon the fortifications at moderate
wages. The officer gave a very interesting account of the result in an
article in the Atlantic Monthly.
"The contrabands," he said, "worked well, and in no instance was it
found necessary for the superintendent to urge them. There was a public
opinion against idleness which answered for discipline. Some days they
worked with our soldiers, and it was found that they did more work, and
did the nicer parts, the facings and dressings, better. There was one
striking feature in the contrabands which must not be omitted. I did not
hear a profane or vulgar word spoken by them during my superintendence,
a remark which it will be difficult to make of any sixty-four white men,
taken any where in our army."
When this officer left them to return to MIassachusetts, his three
months' term of service having expired, he said, in his parting words, to
these children of bondage:
"' You are, every one of you, as much entitled to your freedom as I am
to mine; and I hope you will all now secure it."
"Believe you, massa," was the general response.'" Each one," he writes, "with his rough, gravelly hand grasped mine,
and with tearful eyes and broken utterance said,' God bless you, massa.
May we meet in heaven. My name is Jack Allen, don't forget me. Remember me, Kent Anderson;' and so on."
"No!" continues the writer, "I may forget the playfellows of my
my childhood-my college classmates-my professional associates-my
comrades-in-arms-but I will remember you, and your benedictions until
I cease to breathe; and may the kind Providence which forgets not the
sparrow, shelter and protect you."
And here let it again be noted that slavery in America is rapidly ceasing to be negro slavery. It is fast becoming the slavery of the laboring




THE ADVANCE INTO  VIRGINIA.                     139
class, irrespective of color. The same writer, from whom we have quoted
above, says:
" Opposite our quarters was a young slave woman, who had been three
times a mother. You could not discern in her three daughters, either in
color, feature, or texture of hair, the sligytest trace of African linecage.
They were as light-faced and fair-haired as the Saxon slaves, whom the
Roman pontiff, Gregory the Great, met in the market of Rome. If they
were to be brought to Boston they would mingle with our population, and
marry white men, who would never suspect that they were not pure Calucasians."
And yet these fair girls, in Christian America, were raised for the
market; and professedly Christian ministers were teaching that the institution, of which this was the inevitable result, was right; and wives and
mothers, all over the South, who understood this matter perfectly, were
even venomous against any one who spoke a word against such outrages;
and this bloody rebellion was organized solely to extend this institution
over all the states and territories of the American Union. Did this globe
ever witness such a phenomenon before!
All postal communication and all private expressage was now cut off
between the loyal and rebel states. All manner of stories were circulated
throughout the South to excite the ignorant slaves against the Ycankees.
But these efforts were utterly in vain. For years the slaves had heard
nothing from their masters' lips but curses of the Northern abolitionists.
They all knew that there was a country, at the North, where there were
no slaves, and where the people thought that slavery should be abolished.
They had heard it announced, in every possible form of vituperation, that
the abolitionists were going to elect Abraham Lincoln president, and then
abolish slavery. This lesson they had learned so thoroughly that it was
not possible, in a day, to convince the slaves that these Northerners were
their enemies.
These simple-minded people have very strong domestic attachments,
and attachments to the place of their birth and childhood. These are
almost the only joys life has for them. They almost never become emigrants, and nothing but the greatest cruelty, or the irrepressible longings
of some noble young man for freedom, could induce them to abandon
their homes. Their masters tried to work upon their fears, by telling
them that the Northerners were going to send them all off to Cuba, and
sell them to the Spaniards, to pay the expenses of the war. They were
also told that, to spite their masters, the Yankees were going to cut off
their hands.
The Mobile Register, of May 29, says, speaking of the entrance of the
United States troops into Virginia:
"' Servile insurrection is a part of their programme, but they expect no
great amount of practical good to result therefrom, consequently it is contended, that it would be a far better course of policy for the Abolitionists
to murder the slaves, and thus exterminate slavery. The slaves are to be
indiscriminately slaughtered, and when the last one is butchered, then, it
is thought, the institution will cease to exist."




140               CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
When-the announcement was made to the rebel Congress at Montgomery, that President Lincoln, after the fall of Sumter, had called for seventyfive thousand volunteers, it was received with shouts of derisive laughter.
The rebels were so sure of a powerful party in the North to aid them; so
sure of their ability to call three times as many troops into the field, as the
Nlorth could raise, and so confident of support from England, that the President's proclamation was laughed to scorn..
But the unexpected unanimity of the North, in defense of the Constitution, with its almost miraculous uprising, and the energy it was developing, began to open their eyes. And now for the first time they sawY that
they had drawn upon themselves a terrible war, the final result of which
was at least doubtful. When it was announced in Montgomery, that the
United States Government had taken possession of Alexandria, and was
pouring its troops across the Potomac, and throwing up its ramparts in
Virginia, there was not a smile to be seen on those pallid and anxious
faces. "No event since the initiation of this revolution," says the Montgomery correspondent of the New Orleans Delta, "has created a sensation
so profound and so sorrowful. As indicative of the future policy of the
Old Government, it at once becomes a question pregnant with great
importance."
The rigor of the blockade of the Southern ports was now continually
increasing, and it was evident that the rebels were very seriously embarrassed by the almost entire destruction of all their trade. The colored
people, finding that they were no~' repelled from Fortress Monroe, now
began to flock there in such numbers, that Gen. Butler, on the 27th of May,
wrote to Gen. Scott and the Secretary of War, for instructions.
"; The question;" he wrote, "in regard to slave property is becoming
one of very serious magnitude. The inhabitants of Virginia are using their
negroes in the batteries, and are preparing to send their women and children south. The escapes from them are very numerous, and a squad has
come in this morning, and my pickets are bringing in their women and
children. Of course, these can not be dealt with upon the theory on which
I designed to treat the services of able-bodied men and women who might
come within my lines, and of which I gave you a detailed account in my
last dispatch.'I ] am in the utmost doubt what to do with this species of property.
Up to this time I have had come within my lines men and women, with
their children,-entire families, each family belonging to the same owner.
I have therefore determined to employ, as I can do very profitably, the
able-bodied persons in the party, issuing proper food for the support of all,
and charging against their services the expense of care and sustenance of
the non-laborers, and keeping a strict and accurate account as well of the
services as of the expenditures. I know of no other manner in which to
dispose of this subject, and the questions connected therewith. As a matter of property to the insurgents, it will be of very great moment-the
number I now have amounting, as I am informed, to what in good times
would be of the value of $60,000.
"Twelve of the negroes have escaped from the erection of the rebel




THE  ADVANCE INTO  VIRGINIA.                     141
batteries on Sewall's Point, which fired upon my expedition as it passed by
out of range. As a means of offense, therefore, in the enemy's hands, these
negroes, when able-bodied, are of great importance. Without them, those
batteries could not have been erected, at least for many weeks. As a military question, it would seem to be a measure of necessity to deprive their
masters of their services."
Secretary Cameron, in his reply, said, "Your action in respect to the
negroes, who came within your lines, is approved. The question of their
final disposition will be reserved for future determination." There was no
general policy announced by the Government, except as decisions were
gradually made, the matter being generally left to the discretion of each
general in his own department.  The following case, well authenticated,
illustrates the course pursued by another of our generals:
On the banks of the Potomac, within sight of the Stars and Stripes
floating from the dome of our Capitol, a slave, yet a patriot, in wlhose veins
were commingled the blood of a Virginia gentleman and his colored bondwoman, escaped to our lines. I-Te informed us that his master was in
armed league with the rebels against our Government; that they had concealed a large quantity of guns and ammunition in a swamp, preparatory
for a sudden attack upon our forces. An armed band, guided by the fugitive, was sent to the swamp, and the arms were found and captured.
Soon after this, the master rode into the camp, and demanded his property in accordance with the provisions of the Fugitive Slave Law. Il-e
was delivered up. The master tied a rope about his neck, and trotted off,
dragging him upon the run eleven miles. Then, when the poor creature
was almost dying from exhaustion, he tied himi to a tree, that he might not
fall down, and whipped him, with the assistance of an overseer, three
hours, until he was dead. This was done as a warning to the slaves not to
attempt to escape to the Federal lines.
Repeated acts of this nature at length emboldened the Government,
notwithstanding remonstrances from the pro-slavery party, to decree first,
that slaves w7o hacd been employed, by their masters, in military operations
agsinst us, should not be returned,-and afterwards, that slaves of rebels
should not be returned. Still there was no clearly defined national policy;
some generals, like Fremont, cordially welcomed all the slaves into their
lines; some reluctantly admitted theim; some, like iHalleck, absolutely
prohibited their entrance into the camp.
The overwhelming majority of the people in Western Virginia, where
there are but few slaves, were in favor of the Union, and so voted. The
rebels endeavored to overawe the patriots by a reign of terror, and every
Union man was exposed to every species of insult and violence. The
patriots consequently armed, and a regiment of Virginians was soon collected in Wheeling for self-defense. Major-General McClellan, in command of that department, sent two Ohio regiments across the river on the
27th of May, for the protection of the patriotic Virginians. In the proclamation which he issued he said:
" Armed traitors have in vain endeavored to deter yona from expressing
your loyalty at the polls.  HIaving failed inl this infamous attempt to




142                 CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
deprive you of the exercise of your dearest rights, they now seek to
inaugurate a reign of terror, and thus to force you to yield to their
schemes, and submit to the yoke of the traitorous conspiracy, dignified by
the name of the Southern Confederacy."
After stating that the Government had abstained from any movement
of troops towards their region until after the election, that they might not
even appear to have exerted any influence against its freedom, and that
now, as the great mass of the people had, by their votes, notwithstanding
the most adverse circumstances, proved themselves true and loyal, the Government had listened to their cry for assistance, Gen. McClellan continued:
"I llave ordered troops to cross the river. They come as your friends and
brothers; as enemies only to armed rebels, who are preying upon you.
Your homes, your family, and your property are all safe under our protection.)' Ite then added,
"' Notwithstanding all that has been said, by the traitors, to induce you
to believe our advent among you will be signalized by an interference with
your slaves, understand one thing clearly: not only will we abstain from
all such interference, but we will, on the contrary, with an iron hand crush
any attempt at insurrection on their part."
This last sentence, in the severity of its utterance, fell painfully on the
ears of a large portion of the American people. Nothing can be conceived
more dreadful than a servile insurrection, excepting the doom of a race to
eternal slavery. Hardly a man could be found in all the United States,
who wished to incite insurrection. And yet there was something painful
in the idea that we, who would sooner die ten thousand deaths than allow
ourselves or our children to be enslaved, were so eager to proffer to the
oppressor our assistance in "crushing with an iron hand" the enslaved,
should they make any attempt to regain their freedom. The motive which
induced this utterance was doubtless a good one. The ignorant people at
the South (and the overwhelming majority of the people at the South are
inexpressibly ignorant), had been assured that it was the primal object of
the United States Government to excite the slaves to a bloody insurrection
-to fire the plantations-dash out the brains of their masters-and glut
their lust and vengeance upon the families of their victims. It was very
important that the South should be disabused of this infamous idea. Still
the Northern heart was in strong sympathy with the oppressed, and not
with the oppressors.  Our religion, our democratic principles were all on
the side of freedom. The slaveholders hated the free North; the slaves
loved it. The slaveholders cursed Northern freemen; the slaves prayed
for them. Wf. I-I. Russell, in his letter to the London Times, of Ml[ay 1st,
writes:
" I have been among them " [the planters of South Carolina] " for several days. I have visited their plantations. I have conversed with them
freely and fully. There is nothing in all the dark caves of human passion
so cruel and deadly, as the hatred the South Carolinians profess for the
Yankees.  That hatred has been swelling for years, till it is the very life
blood of the State."
These South Carolinians seldom condescended to speak of a Northerner




THE ADVANCE  INTO  VIRGINIA.                      143
without calling him a damned Yankee. The unsavory epithet was so
universal, that it had almost ceased to be regarded as a profane expression.
Southern gentlemen (so-called), at the dinner-table, in presence of ladies
from the North, w ould thus stigmatize all those who, residing in non-slaveholding States, were deemed hostile to the institution of slavery. The gentlem-anly bearing of Southern men was of a peculiar type, and the " plantation manners," which they often displayed, was exceedingly offensive to
all well-bred men.
The rebels were rapidly accumulating forces in a very strong position
at Manassas Junction, about twenty-five miles from Washington. Their
lines, indeed, extended from Harper's Ferry irregularly to Norfolk. Their
whole force in Virginia, it was estimated, consisted of 150,000, their principal encampments bedi g at M]anassas, Richmond, Petersburg, and Lynchburg. The Stales of Mi:ssouri and Kentucky voted, in ttheir packed _Legislatures, to remain neutrl in the great conflict.  This was manifestly
impossible.  The rebel leaders in those States, well knowing that the
majority of the people were on the side of the Union, hoped thus, by
adroit management, to drag those States into the Rebel Confederacy. But
the people rose in their majesty, anua I-he advocates of secession fled to the
rebel camps.
A very intelligent gentleman from Louisville, Kentucky, who took an
active part in proceedings in behalf of the U-nion there, has furnished the
following interesting statement of events.  A; at the time of the attack on
Sumter, I was residing in Lonisville, Ky. My buusiness relations were such
as brought me very reliable information from nearly all portions of the
extreme Southern States. It was not generally believed by the citizens
of Kentucky, that South Carolina would dare wantonly to attack the
Fi ederal fort.  As the news of the fall of Sumter was flashed over the
country, the North became as one man, with one purpose —to save the
Union. The Union sentiment of the South, though greatly in the minority, yet of no inconsiderable importance, was swept away by the great
wave of secession. The capture of the fort indicated that South Carolina
was stronger than the Government. And now that the deed was done,
and a provisional government established, Southern pride was aroused,
and Southern courage and ability were deemed at stake.
"K Ientucky was geographically half way between the two extremes.
Her sons and daughters had intermarried equally-with the North and the
South. Thus was she allied by ties of blood to both sections, and her
people revolted at the thought of warring upon either. Yet it seemed to
them, at this moment, that the country was really to:, be sundered; and
that she must array herself upon one side or the other. Her love of coumn
try,-of the Star-spangled Banner, under whose folds she had grown great,
she could not give up. Yet her interests were largely-Southern, her institutions especially so, and also her trade. Thus, all things considered, she
resolved, in the then sundered condition of the country, to maintain a
position of neutrality.
"The call for volunteers, by President Lincoln, met with an insulting
response from her governor, it is true. But Governor Mliagoffin's reply




14                 CIVIL WAR  IN  AMERICA.
was not that of the majority of the citizens of the State. HEe was known
to be in full sympathy with the rebellion. At an extra session of the
Legislature, at once convened by the governor, neutrality resolutions were
passed. During this period, the secret emissaries of the Confederacy were
establishing Lodges of the IEnightl  of the Golden CGrcle, till their ranks
were swollen to thousands. The real object of this secret organization was
to overthrow the Government; though the original design is said to have
been to conquer and annex Central America, for the expansion of their
slave system. A complete disclosure of the oaths and objects of the Iinights
was made in the columns of the Louisville Journal, which was doubtless a
faithfil expos6. The special design of this infamous society, in i-Kentucky,
was to carry the State over to the rebels.
" There were, at this time, thousands in KIentucky, and in all the
13order States, standing poised,'as it were, and whom  a slight pressure
might turn either way. Had the Federal Government demandced of Kentucky, at this time, her complement of soldiers, the State would undoubtedly have been lost to the Union. But this condition of things did not
last long. It was manifest to all, that the moment had arrived, when
the State must of necessity take its position, for or against the Union.
The Union men rallied, and the following plan was adopted to save the
State:
There were about thirty Union men of Louisville, who, at this juncture, convened at the business place of one of their number, to form them.
selves into a secret society; the condition for admission to which was simply taking an unconditional oath to support the Constitaution and the
Union of all the States. In the City of Louisville alone, -in less than three
weeks, they had on the rolls nearly three thousand members, from eighteen
years of age upwards. In less than six weeks from the commlencement of
this organization, more than fifty counties in the State had branches established in them. M/Ien came into this society by hundreds. At one time
more than fifty men were seen in the centre of the hall, holding the Stars
and Stripes in one hand, and with the other raised towards heaven, repeating, in unison, the prescribed oath. It was a solemn scene to witness, at
the hour of midnight, the young and the gray-haired thus gathered, to
swear eternal allegiance to the government their fathers established.
Reliable Union men were sent to Tennessee, to establish lodges there.
Hundreds, yes, thousands, joined ini that State. Tennessee had already
passed the ordinance of secession.  Still the society spread through the
State; and penetrated North Carolina, Georgia, [North Alabama, and
Louisiana. Emerson Etheridge, Andrew Johnson, and Parson IBrownlow
were among the first to become members in Tennessee. Mr. B3rownlow
recently stated, in a public lecture, that there were several thousand mnembers of this Union society in the City of New Orleans. The reason he
assigned for their not coming out for the Union was, that they feared a
repetition of the scenes in Jacksonville, Florida, where the Federal Government evacuated the place, and the rebels, returning in power, inflicted
terrible outrages upon the patriots. It is funquestionable that this organizatioin saved the State of Kentucky permanently to the Union. KIentucky had




THE ADVANCE  INTO  VIRGINIA.                    145'
soon nearly thirty regiments in the field, fighting valiantly beneath the
Stars and the Stripes.
The people of Tennessee were, by a large majority, patriots. But, by
political manceuvering, the rebels had secured a majority in the State Legislature. They issued a "IDeclaration of Independence" of the General
Government, a decree as ridiculous, in the estimation of the Government
of the United States, as if a county in England, or a department in France,
should utter such a manifesto. Indeed nothing can be conceived more
absurd, than this doctrine of secession. The State secedes from the Union,
the county from the State, the town from the county, the school district
from the town-till finally the individual throws himself upon his reserved
rights, and secedes from all law and authority.
The Legislature of Tennessee, apprehensive that the people would
frown down their endeavor thus to break up this Union, which was the
only source of their name and position among the nations of the earth,
immediately offered their soldiers to the Confederates, before the people
could have an opportunity to collect and act upon the question. This, of
course, instantly kindled, to the utmost fierceness, the flames of civil war
in that State. %We shall have occasion to refer to this more fully when we
come to the campaign in Tennessee. In Western Virginia, a convention
of Union men, the representatives of many counties, met and pronounced
the ordinance of secession, passed by the rebels in Eastern Virginia, null
and void. Such was the general aspect of affairs on the first of June.
In the Cotton States but one voice was heard: and that was the voice of
rebellion and defiance. The reign of terror silenced every other utterance. In the Free States, but one voice was heard, with here and there
an individcual exception.  All parties were there alike united and
earnest, in the resolve to perpetuate the Union. In the Border States,
there was anarchy, bloodshed, woe unutterable.  Their populations
were divided-families divided-fathers against sons-brothers against
brothers.
The armies of slavery from the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas, crowded up to the plains of Virginia, Kentucky, and
Missouri, that their own States might not be desolated by the sweep of
armies. From all the hills and valleys of the North, the bannered hosts
of freedom, by hundreds of thousands, marched down to these Border
States, to drive out the invaders, and to defend their friends, the Union
men there, still true to the Stars and the Stripes. The woes which consequently fell upon those Border States, can never be told. It is here and
there an isolated fact only, which history can collect and preserve. The
wild wail of the storm of misery passed away, as the howlings of the midnight tempest die, leaving its memorials in beggary, ashes, nmutilation,
orphanage, and blood.
John Letcher, the rebel Governor of Virginia, wrote to Andrew Sweeney, Mayor of Wheeling, under date of April 20th, " Take possession of
the Custom House, Post Office, all public buildings and public documents,
in the name of Virginia. Virginia has seceded."  Mayor Sweeney replied,
"I have taken possession of the Custom IHouse, Post Office, and all public
10




146                CIVIL  WAR IN  AMERICA.
buildings and public documents, in the name of Abraham  Lincoln, President of the United States, whose property they are."
This same John Letcher issued -a proclamation, by authority of the
Secession Convention, calling upon " all efficient and worthy Virginians
and residents of Virginia, in the army and navy of the United States,
to retire therefrom, and to enter the service of Virginia."  Lieutenant
W. 1K. MIayo, a Virginian, in the United States Navy, in a very keen
reply, said:
" John Letcher, I was slow to believe that any body of Virginians, met
in solemn convention, could have deliberately authorized you, the Governor, to invite all efficient and worthy Virginians, and residents of Virginia, in the army and navy of the United States, to betray their trust,
to turn their hand, their efficiency, and their worth, against the flag which
has given them all they have, and all they are worth.
" John Letcher, I am not a politician, though I am a Virginian by
birth. I am no Southerner, nor Northerner, nor Western man. I am a
citizen of the United States. May primary and only allegiance is due and
rendered to the United States.  The United States has cared for me for
many years; and its flag is endeared to me by too many associations to be
lightly abandoned and turned against, in this hour of its direst peril. If;
sir, I were to forsake the Stars and Stripes, in this dread hour, and join
your banner, what assurance would you have that I would not betray you?
Surely, not that of honor, not that of patriotism.
" John Letcher, Governor of Virginia, I scornfully reject the infamous
proposal. I decline to yield myself a disgraceful subordinate to Jeff. Davis,
and, unworthy and inefficient Virginian that I am, not all the wealth,
biped and laanded, —not all the honors which the Old Dominion can create,
will ever seduce me from a full and unreserved devotion to the Stars and
Stripes."
It is a great mistake to suppose that America alone was interested in
this conflict. The cause of humanity, the wide world over, was involved
in the question.  Shall the rich live at the expense of the poor? shall the
strong trample upon the weak? shall the wise imbrute the ignorant? shall
humanity be divided into two classes, masters with the lash and slaves with
the fetter? shall the doctrine of equality of rights be laughed to scorn, and
aristocratic haughtiness, with its heel, crush the head of human fraternity? —these were the questions which the freemen of America went forth
to settle.
The triumph of the slaveholders would have rolled back universal civilization towards barbarism. Every peasant ill Europe, every sable child
of Africa, every tawny inmate of the huts of India, every son and daughter
of industry the wide world over, was personally interested in the conflict.
There is not a mechanic, a farmer, a tradesman, in the whole United
States, whose social position would not, in the end, have been lowered by
the triumph of the slaveholders-by the inauguration of a class of aristocrats in our land, whose eminence should consist in the number of laborers
they could compel to work for them for nothing. The popular mind of
the North appreciated this more fully than did our regular army officers,




THE ADVANCE INTO  VIRGINIA.                     14t
many of whom had imbibed aristocratic prejudices, and more fully than
did our Government, for even after the rebellion, the aristocratic spirit of
the Border slaveholding States exerted a most disastrous influence over
the councils at Washington. It is not too much to say, and the popular
voice will sustain the declaration, that all through the conflict, the masses
of the community in the free North were in advance, decidedly in advance,
of both the Government and the army officers, in their advocacy of the
true principle of republicanism-equal righits for all men.
It was the universal sentiment of the community, that President Lincoin was right in heart, and there were some members of the Cabinet, and
a majority in Congress, who were the advocates of that brotherhood of
man, which Christianity enjoins, and which our Constitution recognizes;
and there were officers in the regular army who were the glorious expounders and exemplars of a pure republicanism. Prominent among these stood
Gen. Fremont, of South Carolina, and Gen. Hunter, of South Carolina,
and Gen. Phelps, of Vermont. 3M/any were offended when one of our
officers made the common-sense declaration,
" I am frank to say, that if I am to go to South Carolina, or to Louisiana, or any where else South, I want all the help I can get from the colored
man. I want him to dig the trenches, to do all the drudgery, to save my
men as much as possible from disease, and to fight, if he will fight. For
this we must give him his freedom. We are forced to do it. And, for
one, I will not allow my old notions on the subject of slavery to stand in
the way of success."
The moral grandeur which this foul rebellion created and developed,
among the lovers of freedom at the North, may almost reconcile one to its
fiend-like crime. Volumes might be written, crowded with incidents of
heroism never surpassed. Mothers girded their sons for the contest. Wives
sent the fathers of their babes to all the perils of the battle; and maidens
hurried or postponed their bridals, that their lovers might hasten to the field,
where shot and shell tear limb from limb, and cover the ground with the dead.
As the Union force entered Western Virginia, the rebels retreated
through Grafton, an important town on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad,
to Philippi, a small town on the Monongahela. Here they made a stand,
about 2,000 in number. Tile Union troops, marching upon them in a very
dark night, when a storm was raging, took them by surprise at 4 o'clock
in the morning. The enemy, alarmed by the fire of their pickets, had
just time to form in line of battle, when three small regiments of Indiana,
Ohio, and Virginia volunteers came rushing upon them. Firing but one
volley, the assailants at full run charged with the bayonet. The rebels,
discharging their pieces so wildly, that but two of their assailants were
killed, and about twenty wounded, broke and fled. Col. Kelly, in comn
mand of the First Virginia Regiment, fell, severely, but not mortally,
wounded by a pistol ball in the breast. In this short conflict, the Union
troops conducted themselves with the bravery of veterans. The routed
rebels fled to Leedsville, ten miles farther south, losing all their camp
equipage, and about 800 stand of arms.
The Southern leaders now began to call earnestly for slaves to be sent




148               CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
forward to aid their soldiers in throwing up entrenchments. Gen. Beauregard, who was in command of the rebels at Manassas, that he might still
more intensely rouse the South, issued a proclamation containing the folb
lowing sentiments:
"A reckless and unprincipled tyrant has invaded your soil. Abraham
Lincoln, regardless of all moral, legal, and constitutional restraints, has
thrown his abolition hosts among you, who are murdering and imprisoning
your citizens, confiscating and destroying your property, and committing
other acts of violence and outrage, too shocking and revolting to humanity,
to be enumerated. All rules of civilized warfare are to be abandoned, and
they proclaim by their acts, if not on their banners, that their war-cry is,'Beauty and Booty.' All that is dear to man-your honor and that of
your wives and daughters-your fortunes and your lives, are involved in
this momentous contest."
Early in June, Gen. Butler, at Fortress Monroe, learned that the rebels
were fortifying themselves at a point called Little Bethel, about twelve
miles from the fortress on the road to Yorktown, and that five miles
further on at a point called Big Bethel, where there was a church, they
were establishing themselves still more firmly. From these positions they
were continually issuing in marauding parties, harassing the Union men,
and impressing their negroes into their service. Gen. Butler prepared a
secret expedition to break up these encampments. To accomplish this, it
was necessary to ferry his troops across the river at Hampton, where the
rebels had burned the bridge. Ten flat-boats were prepared, each capable
of conveying 130 meh, besides 27 rowers. Men, from the Naval Brigade,
were thoroughly drilled in the management of these boats, and on the
night of the 9th the boats were sent into Hampton River, with carefully
muffled oars, and anchored on the hither side of the stream, where it was
about 100 yards wide, to be ready to ferry the troops across.
At Newport News, about eight miles from Fortress Monroe, at the
mouth of James River, there was an encampment of Union troops, a few
thousand in number. Brig. Gen. Pierce, who was in command there, was
ordered to take two regiments, and cooperate in the expedition. Col.
Duryea, in command of the troops from Fortress Monroe, crossed the river
at Hampton safely, about one o'clock in the morning, and marched silently
on toward Little Bethel. The expedition was well-planned. It was
mainly the work of Major Winthrop, and approved by Gen. Butler, and
but for an untoward accident, not strange with troops who had never
before been upon a battle-field, would have been eminently successful.
The march was to be so timed that the concentrated troops should make
an attack upon Little Bethel, just at the break of day. The result of this
could not be doubtful. They were then impetuously to follow upon the
heels of the routed rebels to Big Bethel, protected by the crowd of fugitives flying before them, from the fire of its batteries.
To guard against any mishap in the darkness, no regiment was to
make an attack without shouting first the watchword, and the troops were
also to wear a white badge upon the arm, that in daylight they might
easily recognize each other. For a time all these arrangements were car



THE ADVANCE INTO  VIRGINIA.                    149
tied out vigorously and very prosperously. At a certain point, a short
distance from Little Bethel, the regiment of Col. Bendix was stationed
with two field-pieces to guard and hold, at every hazard, a cross of the
road. The great body advanced silently upon Little Bethel. The day
was flow beginning to dawn. The New York Third Regiment just then
came cautiously moving along in the dim twilight and fog of the morning, on the road from Hampton. Gen. Pierce and Col. Townsend, and
their several staffs, rode in a body in advance of the troops.
These officers, by an optical illusion not very unusual, presented the
aspect of a large body of cavalry. It was known that there was no cavalry with the Union forces. Col. Bendix consequently thought that it was
a body of the enemy preparing to assail them in the rear, and immediately
opened upon them, with his guns, at the distance of a quarter of-a mile.
Fortunately, the road was a little below the level of the land on each side,
and was bordered by fences. Ten men were, however, wounded, and two
killed by the discharge. The regiment, thus unexpectedly assailed, fell
back, and Gen. Pierce immediately sent to Fortress Monroe for reenforcements. Col. Duryea also, who was advancing a mile or two in front of
the cross in the roads where he had stationed Col. Bendix, alarmed by the
firing in his rear, retraced his steps. Daylight soon revealed all. But the
rebels at Little Bethel heard the firing, took the alarm, and fled with the
tidings to the strong batteries at Big Bethel.
The Union columns now pressed vigorously forward, and speedily
destroyed the camp at Little Bethel, which they found vacated. They
then hurried rapidly on five miles farther to Big Bethel. Here they found
the enemy prepared to receive them, entrenched behind formidable batteries, at a point of their own choosing, and in full force. It probably
was not wise, under the circumstances, to order an assault. The Federal
troops were depressed by the untoward accident-they had failed entirely
in effecting a surprise; it was ten o'clock in the morning; the troops had
been up all night; had marched about twelve miles, half the distance in a
broiling sun. Still it was judged best to make the attempt, as it would
have been mortifying indeed to return without firing a gun, and success
was by no means hopeless.
For two hours the Union troops fought with bravery. which would
have done honor to veterans. Facing a storm of shot, from rifled cannon.
and masked batteries, they drove the enemy from their first intrenchments, when other masked batteries opened upon them, and it was deemed
rnecessary to retire. This they did in good order. The Zouaves manifested great courage and skill, in creeping up almost to the edge of the
ramparts, loading and firing while flat upon their faces, and picking off
many men from the enemy's guns. The officers are all represented as
having conducted themselves with the greatest coolness and intrepidity.
It is supposed that the enemy had about two thousand men, with from
fifteen to twenty guns in battery. The Union loss was about 40 killed
and wounded. The troops retired in perfect order to Hampton, where
Gen. Butler met them, and they were transported in flat-boats to Fortress
MJonroe. The failure of the expedition was a great disappointment, and




150               CIVIL WAR IN  AMEMICA.
its conduct was consequently far more severely censured than it merited.
The foe was so alarmed by the attack, and so apprehensive of its
renewal, that they abandoned their works, and retired the next day to
Yorktown.
Gen. Butler had given orders that no private property should be
destroyed, but ordered, in accordance with the invariable laws of war, that
any house on the way should be burned, from which the rebels should fire
upon the troops. Just as one of the regiments was drawing near Little;Bethel, a man came out of a large and handsome house, took deliberate
aim with his rifle at a body of Union troops, not far off, and fired. The
ball, with its shrill whistle, passed by one man's cheek, through the pants
of another, and into the leg of a third. Some slaves, who just then came
up, said, that the house belonged to their master, Adjutant Whiting, who
was in the rebel army, and who had fired the treacherous shot.
" I am ordered by General Butler," said Col. Duryea to Adjutant Stevens, " to burn every house whose occupant or owner fires upon our troops.
Burn it."
The sequel we give in the words of Adjutant Stevens, of the First
Vermont Regiment. " Col. Duryea leaped from his horse, and I upon the
steps, and by that time three Zouaves were with me. I ordered them to
try the door with the butts of their guns-down went the door, and in went
we. A well-packed traveling bag lay upon a mahogany table. I tore it
open with the hopes of finding a revolver, but did not. The first thing I
took out was a white linen coat: I laid it on the table, and Col. Duryea
put a lighted match to it. Other clothing was added to the pile, and soon
we had a rousing fire. Before leaving, I went into the large parlor in the
right wing of the house-it was perfectly splendid. A large room with a
tapestry carpet, a nice piano, a fine library of miscellaneous books, rich
sofas, elegant chairs, with superior needle-work wrought bottoms, what-nots
in the corners, loaded with articles of luxury, taste, and refinement, and
upon a mahogany center-table lay a Bible and a lady's portrait. The last
two articles I took, and have them now in my possession. I also took a
decanter of most excellent old brandy from the side-board, and left the
burning house. By this time the Zouave regiment had come up. I joined
thenm, and in a short time came up with our rear guard, and saw a sight,
the like of which I wish never to see again-viz.: nine of Col. Townsend's
Albany regiment stretched on the floor of a house, where they had just
been carried, and eight of them mortally wounded, by our own men. Oh!
the sight was dreadful. I cried like a boy, and so did many others. I
immediately thought of my decanter of brandy, took a tin cup from a soldier, and poured into it my brandy, and filled it (the cup) with water from
a canteen, and from one poor boy to another I passed and poured into their
pale and quivering lips the invigorating fluid, and with my hand wiped the
sweat-drops of death from their foreheads. Oh! how grateful the poor
fellows looked at me as they saw, by my uniform, that the usually stern
officer and commander had become to them the kind and tender-hearted
woman, by doing for them woman's holy.duty."
Mlajor Theodore Winthrop fell upon this field much lamented. He




THE ADVANCE INTO  VIRGINIA.                      151
was leading his men in a charge upon a redoubt. He leaped upon a log
shouting, " Come on, boys, one charge, and the day is ours."  A North
Carolina drummer boy, seeing so fair a mark, borrowed a gun, took deliberate aim, and buried a bullet in his bosom  Ile fell dead, "nearer to the
enemy's works than any other man."
Lieut. Greble also signalized himself in this battle, and sealed his devotion to his country with his life. Unlimbering his gun, he advanced
towards the foe, slowly firing, until le arrived within two hundred yards
of a masked battery. IIe had eleven men to work his gun. With them
he was left alone in the open road, the deadly fire from the rifled cannon
of the foe having scattered the rest. For two hours he thus bore the brunt
of battle. IIe was repeatedly urged to retire t6 a less exposed position,
but refused. His gun was so efficiently worked that he silenced all in tile
battery except one. The enemy made a sortie. "lNow, Charley," said
Lieut. Greble to Capt. B3artlett, "I have something to fire at. Just see
how I will make them  scamper."  I-e poured in one or two charges of
grape, and the enemy fled back in confision behind their intrenchments."
He was now left with but five men at his gun. Turning to Corporal
Peoples, he said, "All I can now do will be useless. Limber up the gun,
and take it away." At this moment a ball struck him upon the head, and
his body fell headless. The -same ball passed through' the body of another
man, and took off the leg of a third.  Gen. Butler, in his official report of
this adventure, says, " I think, in the unfortunate combination of circumnstances, and the result which we have experienced, we have gained more
than we have lost. Our troops have learned to have confidence in themselves under fire, the enemy have shown that they will not meet us in thq
open field, and outr officers have learned wherein their organization anrd
drill are inefficient."'
The following extract from the letter of a young citizen soldier as his
friends, gives a graphic view of the battle, and gives as clear aln idea a.
words can convey, of the feelings with whichl such a brave boy enters upon
scenes so dreadful.
" Before midnight, the regimental line was formed, and we filed silently
into the road, and took up our march under the light of the st ars. On we
went in silence, nothing heard but the tramp, tramp of our feet. It was
a beautiful night, clear as crystal —just the night for a march. As we
neared the enemy's line, we were saluted by a cannon bail, which came
flying over the road, and landed at our feet. Thus the battle opened. Our
field pieces were placed on the road, on a line with the enemny s battery.
It was discovered that it was too strong to be taken by infintry, -that the
only way to reduce it was by heavy cannon, which we had not. the battle
lasted between two and three hours. It was a novel thing to hea? the cannon balls crashing through the trees, and whizzing past, and the missing of
the rifle balls as they flew by.
" I don't know whether it was bravery or not, but I was never more
cool in my life. I hardly thought where I was; in fardt, I don't think I
had a realizing sense of the danger. The fire was very hot and rapid.
Every instant the balls were crashing and whistling around us. Yet all




152               CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
the boys in our group stood steady, ready to fire at every opportunity, and
conversing with each other and the colonel, as deliberately as if we had
been safe in camp. I know I had quite an argument with one of the fellows,
and we both thought nothing of our situation. At every boom of the cannon we would drop flat on our faces, and rise instantly, but they came so
fast after that, that many of us did not take the trouble. The lieutenant
had his head torn from his body, and occasionally some poor fellow would
drop nlpon the ground, writhing in agony. These scenes are the most
dreadful in battle. One brave boy, with his arm torn off, cried out to his
comrades to revenge him. Another, with his hand hanging only by the
skin, besought to have it taken off; as the pain was dreadful. It was when
I was seated in my tent,'and thought over what we had passed through,
that I first began to realize its fearful nature. It impressed me with a
feeling of awe and trembling. I know I shall never go into battle again
without maore sober and serious feeling.
" I look forward to another battle. The battery can be taken, and I
trust will be, but it will make a most bloody fight. Thank God, I believe
that there is not a coward in the regiment. No one knows when his turn
may come, and every one and his friends should be prepared for the worst.
If I should die, remember the holy cause in which I fell, and let your sorrow, if deep, be proud; and hope that the last acts of my life may go far
toward blotting out many of the past. But I am of hopeful heart, and
look forward, with joyful anticipations, to the time when I shall meet all
my friends once more."
I,,.,~7 -                  oL,,,o_~ I
point.  About the middle of JRY,  the rebels, finding their position at
ing all the provisions they could not take away, retired into the interior.
All the public property in the place was destroyed. They left little behind
them but ashes and desolation. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which
them but ashes and desolation. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which




s ge -— a:i~- ~:'.,             ~.'I'~~._
~::.:.- /L-   i,~








TIE ADVANCE INTO  VIRGINIA.                     153
rau along the left bank of the river, a distance of about twelve miles, from
Harper's Ferry to a place called Point of Rocks, the rebels had obstructed
by tearing up the rails, and throwing upon the track, by the force of powder, from a crag, an immense boulder, weighing about one hundred tons.
The road was speedily repaired by the patriots, the rock blown away, and
thus easy communication was reestablished with 13altimore.
On the 17th of June, a balloon ascension for military purposes took
place at Washington. The balloon was connected with the War Department by telegraph, and the following message was sent across the wires to
the President. It was the first message ever telegraphed from a balloon,
and was as follows:
BAl0OON ENTERPRISE, WASIIINGTON, June 17, 1861.
SIR: This point of observation commands an area of nearly fifty miles
in diameter. The city, with its girdle of encampments, presents a superb
scene. I take great pleasure in sending you this first dispatch ever telegraphed from an aerial station, and in acknowledging my indebtedness to
your encouragement, for the opportunity of demonstrating the availability
of the science of a6ronautics in the military service of the country."
"Yours respectfully,
"T. S. C. LOWE.
"To the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.'
At 9 o'clock, in the morning of June 4th, the Honorable Stephen A.
Douglas died.at Chicago, Ill. He was, in all respects, an extraordinary
man, one of the most memorable our country has produced. His death
was characteristic of his life. Mrs. Douglas, who sat at his side, aware
that the last moment was at hand, asked what message he wished to send
to his sons, Robert and Stephen, who were students at Georgetown.
"Tell them," said the dying statesman, with emphatic tone, "to obey the
laws, and sLpport the Constitution of the United States." A moment after,
he requested to be raised in his bed, that he might look once more out
upon the world he was about to leave forever. Then faintly articulating
the words " death, death, death," his spirit took its flight to the judgment
seat of Christ.
On the 20th of June, five thousand Northern troops passed through the
streets of Baltimore to the Potomac, without the slightest disturbance.
Cook's light artillery of Boston had previously performed some evolutions
in Baltimore street, which were very suggestive of danger to the roughs.
Starting at double quick down the street with their battery, they would
come to a cross street, deploy on either side, unlimber, load, and look
around eagerly for some foe to sweep down with grape and canister; and
all this would be done in less than two minutes. Such moral suasion was
found to be wonderfully potent over the Baltimore mob. The soldiers
would conclude their drill, by singing "' The Star-spangled Banner,"' amidst
the waving of handkerchiefs and cheers of the crowds of loyal people in
the streets, and on the balconies of the houses. By the close of the month,
one hundred thousand Union troops were upon the Potomac, and probably
at least an equal number of armed rebels. Our troops were necessarily




154               CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
much scattered to protect exposed points from raids of the rebels, and as
Jeff. Davis, at Richmond, could easily concentrate 75,000 men, for a sudden
attack utpon Washington, there was still much solicitude for the safety of
the Capital.
About fifteen miles from Alexandria, on the Leesburg railroad, there is
the little hamlet of Vienna. It was deemed important that the road to
Vienna should be kept open, and, on the 17th of June, Gen. Schenck took
the 1st Ohio Regiment, after dinner, and started in a train of cars, to
leave detachments of men to guard all the bridges and other points, where
the rebels might do mischief. They proceeded leisurely, pausing at intervals, detailing guards. Thus, mile by mile, the number of men in the
cars grew thinner until, as they approached the outskirts of Vienna, but
180 men were left. The road wound through a valley, with hills and
heavy thickets on each side, presenting the most attractive region imaginable for ambuscades. The train, consisting of one passenger car and four
open platform cars, was p8shled by the engine which was in the rear. The
train was rounding a gentle curve, within half a mile of Vienna, and the
men were laughing, quite unconscious of peril, when a masked battery of
two small field pieces, on an adjacent eminence, opened fire upon them.
The guns were entirely hidden, and the startling explosion was accompanied by the rush of balls which instantly killed five of their number,
and wounded many others. The men instantly leaped from the cars, and
formed in line of battle in a thicket, at the right of the track, just out of
the range of the battery.  Meanwhile shot and shell, in an incessant
storm, were poured upon the train. The connection of the locomotive
and the passenger car with the rest of the train, was severed by a cannon
ball, and the affrighted engineer dashed off at full speed.
The rebels now, 2,000 in number, composed of infantry, artillery, and
cavalry, changed the range of their guns, and poured their deadly charges
into the grove, where the situation of the little band seemed hopeless
But the Ohio men presented such an undaunted front, and so bravely returned the fire, that the rebels, who were South Carolinian, apprehensive
that the engines had merely gone back a few miles for reniforcements,
became irresolute, slackened their fire, and slowly retired.
Gen. Schenck and Col. McCook, taking with them the bodies of the
dead, and the wounded on litters and blankets, retired unmolested five
miles, where, about nine o'clock in the evening, they took refuge with a
detachment of their friends. The next day the bodies of the dead, the
martyrs of liberty, were buried in the shadows of the woodland in that
lonely ravine. M[ay the songs of freemen alone, in future generations, be
heard over their graves.
The rebels immediately deserted Vienna, and the 69th New York
regiment took possession of the place; while two Ohio regiments, encamped along the road, effectually protected it from  injury.  Gen.
Schenck, in his report of this mishap, which certainly was the result of
great imprudence, says: "I left camp with six hundred and sixty-eight
rank and file, and twenty-nine field and company officers, in pursuance of
Gen. McDowell's orders, to go upon this expedition."  Our inexperienced




THE ADVANCE  INTO  VIRGINIA.                    155
officers, as well as soldiers, suffered many of these rebuffs, before they fiully
appreciated the wary foe, with whom they had to deal.
On the 23d of June, Major-General 1MicClellan took command, in person, of the Union forces in Western Virginia, then amounting to about
15,000 men, and issued a proclamation to his troops containing the following noble sentiments:
"You are here to support the Government of your country, and to
protect the lives and liberties of your brethren, threatened by a rebellious
and traitorous foe. Bear in mind that you are in the country of friends,
not of enemies-that you are here to protect, not to destroy. IRemember
that I have pledged my word to the people of Western Virginia, that
their rigllts in person and property shall be respected. I ask every one
of you to make this good in the broadest sense.
" Carry into battle the conviction that you are right, and that God is
on our side. Your enemies have violated every moral law. Neither God
nor man can sustain them. They have, without cause, rebelled against a
wise and paternal government. They have seized upon public and private
property. They have outraged the persons of Northern men, merely because they came from the Nlorth, and of Southern Union men, merely because they loved the Union.
" You will pursue a different course. You will be honest, brave, and
merciful. You will respect the right of private opinion. You. will punish no man for opinion's sake. Show to the world that you differ from
our enemies in these points of honor, honesty, and respect for private
opinion, and that we inaugurate no reign of terror wherever we go."
Soon we encountered another disaster, trivial, it is true, in its bearings upon the war, but very sad in the needless sacrifice of one valuable
life, and the lmutilation of several men with dreadful wounds. About
thirty miles down the river from Washington there is, on the right sido
of the Potomac, a very important military position, commanding extensive reaches of the river, called Matthias Point. A small party of rebels
was encamped there, preparing to erect batteries.  The United States
steamer, reconnoitering the banks, discovered this movement, and, under
cover of its guns, sent about forty men on shore, who drove in the rebel
pickets, and commenced throwing up breastworks, which they intended to
mount with guns from the ship. After about four and a half hours' labor,
their sand intrenchments were completed at five o'clock in the evening.
Feeling secure under the protection of the ships' guns, they seemed to
have stationed no outside sentinels. PWhile they were at work, a slave
appeared lupon the shore, waving a piece of white cloth upon a pole. IeI[
was taken on board the Freeborn, and informed Capt. WVarcl, the commander, that the rebels were lurking in the underbrush nearby, one thousand in number.
Still no special precautions were adopted, it either being thought that
the testimony of a slave was not worth regarding, or that their guns
afforded ample protection. The men on shore were just entering their
boats, to return to the ship for thle heavy guns, when the rebels, skllking
through the dense underbrush, which entirely concealed them from view,




156'               CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
poured in upon them a volley from nearly a thousand muskets, which
was followed by a continuous and heavy fire. Not a rebel was to be seen.
With their usual prudence they kept at so discreet a distance, that not one
of the crew on shore was killed, though many were severely wounded.
Pelted by an incessant storm of bullets, while the Freeborn threw shells
into the forest, the men crowded into the boats and gained the ship, while
a few, left behind in the tumult, escaped by swimming. Lieut. Chaplin
swam to the steamer, carrying on his back a wounded comrade, who had
four balls shot into him. John Williams, coxswain of the third boat,
though a musket ball had pierced his leg, continued to wave the Stars and
Stripes, which, before they reached the ship, was pierced by nineteen bullets. -Ie was rewarded for his gallantry by promotion.
Capt. Ward stood upon the deck of his ship, directing the guns which
were throwing shells, almost at random, among the invisible rebels in the
forest. One of these men, a little nearer to the Freeborn than the main
body of the rebels, took deliberate aim, with a Sharpe's rifle, at a distance
of five or six hundred yards. The ball passed through the body of Capt.
Ward, and he fell instantly dead. These disasters gradually taught our
inexperienced leaders that recklessness is not bravery. We received, however, many very severe chastisements before we were willing, practically,
to admit that discretion is, at least, a very im portant part of valor. A man
was once heard to thank God in his prayer that he had none of" that
sneaking virtue called prudence."  But in military affairs, where a com-:mander holds the lives, perhaps, of thousands, in his hands, prudence is.
surely among the most exalted of all the virtues.




CHAPTER VI.
W A R  A ND  ITS  HO R ROR S.
FOREIGN RECEPTION OF SOUTIHERN AGENTS.-SPEECIH OF A. H. STEPtENS.-THE FRENCH 14rF,
-CALL OF PRES. LINCOLN.-RICH MOUNTAIN.-LAUREL HILL.-INCIDENTS.-FAIRFAX C. H.-.
FALLS CHURCH. —TRAITORS IN THE SERVICE.-SPACE REQUIRED FOR AN ARMY IN MOTION.BULL RUN.-BLACKBURN'S FORD.-PLAN OF THE BATTLE OF BULL RUN.-CHARGE Or THIA
SIXTY-NINTI-I.-RE-ERNFORCEMENTS OF THE REBELS.-LOSs OF TiHE BATTLE.-ROUT OF TIE
ARMY.-ABUSE OF THE WOUNDED AND DEAD.
THE rebels, immediately upon the commencement of their organization,
sent commissioners to Europe, to secure their recognition as an independent
government.  This act was characteristic of the judicial blindness which
apparently accompanied all their movements. It would seem that effrontery could go no farther, than for a group of men, in this nineteenth century,
to band together in a Confederacy, whose " corner-stone" they proclaimed
loudly and defiantly to the world, to be "Slavery." But that they should,
in addition, avow that it was also the object of their Confederacy to extend
the system of human bondage as far as possible, over all the States and
Territories of the American Union, and that they should then go to the
Queen and Parliament of Great Britain, to solicit aid in their execrable
enterprise, indicates audacity rarely exceeded. The darkness of slavery
appears to have blinded them  to the light of the age in which we live.
They declared that it was impossible for England, or any other European
power, to resist the bribery of their cotton bales; and were astounded to
find that their claims were not instantly recognized. The Charleston (S. C.)
Mtiercury, in the latter part of June, alluding to this subject, says:
" It is now several months since our commissioners were sent to Europe.
Thus far it seems they have got no farther than England.  Mr. Rost, ono
of them, has gone over to France.  But as he can have no authority to act
alone, we presume that he goes rather to ascertain the views of the Emperor
of the French, than to make a treaty.  We infer from Mr. Iost's departure from London to Paris, that nothing has been accomplished in England.
Indeed, from the order in Council forbidding Confederate privateers bringing their prizes into British ports, we are only surprised that any of the
commissioners should have remained in London a day, after this new order
was issued. Why our commissioners have lingered so long in England,
and have not gone directly to the greatest source of success, the govern.
ment of France, we are at a loss to determine."
But the " fanaticism," as the slaveholders called it, of the French, upon




158                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
the subject of slavery, was not a whit less unrelenting t1an that of the
English. From the French government the rebel commissioners could not
obtain one word of sympathy.  The very influential French journal,
L'Opizion Ncationale, commenting on their application, says, in its issue
of December 12th:
"They have the audacity, with all the facts before them, to pretend
that slavery is a divine institution. In fict, in this nineteenth century,
men are found so destitute of all moral sense, as to rebel, to revolutionize
the country, expose it to ruin and civil war, in the name of that social
leprosy called'slavery. Oh shame! These men, without heart, dare address an appeal to France to aid them, and render herself an accomplice
in their criminal projects. No! the France of'79,'30, and'48, can never
take under her protection traders in human flesh. She would rather entertain more worthy views, and follow the example of Russia, which is making
laudable efforts to abolish servitude."
The confidence which the rebels reposed in the omnipotence of cotton,
may be inferred from the following extracts from a speech made on
the  lth of July, in Augusta, Georgia, by their Vice-President, A. H.
Stephens:
"W'e grow supplies that the nations of the earth must have-that is
cotton. In England, perhaps not less than five millions of people depend
upon cotton, for their daily bread. In France, several hundred thousand,
if not millions. And when you come to take into consideration the amount
of capital, the number of sailors, and the amount of tonnage, employed in
this trade, you will'be still more surprised. If you take into account the
nunmbers in England, France, Germany, Holland, and Bremen engaged in
it, yon will find that it'will amount to not less than ten millions of money
capital engaged in it. This, therefore, is an element of great power, the
great motor of the commerce of the world. We grow it. There is no
part of the world that grows it as we do. We supply the markets of the
world. They n8ust have it.
" I meet many asking about the blocaclde. I can not, to-day, tell you
how the blockade is to be raised. But there is one thing certain-in some
otay or other it will be obliged to be raised, or there will be revolution in
Europe, —there will be starvation there. Our cotton is the element that
will do it. Steam is powerful; but steam is far short, in its power, to the
tremendous power of cotton. If you look out upon the ocean to-day, and
inquire into the secret agency of commerce, you will find that it is cotton
that drives it. It is this element of cotton, this great staple, which is the
tremendous lever by which we can work our destiny, under Providence."
TWe can hardly give a better illustration of the corruption into which
Christianity had fallen in the South, than by the statement that Leonidas
Polk, Bishop of Louisiana, assumed the position of major-general in the
rebel army. Hie had long been preaching a slaveholding gospel. And
now he placed revolvers in his belt, and girded a sword upon his side, that,
by bloody rebellion, he might rivet those chains which bound four millions
of his fellow-creatures in ignorance and slavery. " This is the first instance,"
says the Memphis (Tenn.) Appeal,'" in the country's history, of the appoint



WAR AND  ITS HORRORS.                       159
ment of a high church dignitary to a position of so much responsibility in
the military service; and will therefore, as a matter of course, evoke criticism among the old fogies of the red tape school."
The two armies on the Potomac were now gradually accumulating in
great masses, the rebels at Manassas Junction, and the Union troops at
Washington, and upon the southern banks of the river, opposite Washington. There was kept up an incessant, petty warfare of pickets and trivial
skirmishes, resulting in nothing. Upon the 4th of July, the special session
of Congress was convened, and though there were still not a few traitors
in, that body, the overwhelming majority sustained the measures of the
Government.
The rebels continued to display much cunning in their mode of conducting the waifare. Early in July, the passenger steamer St. Nicholas
left Baltimore for some port on the Chesapeake. Among other passengers,
there came on board a French lady in deep mourning, heavily veiled, and,
as she professed to be in feeble health, retired immediately to her state
room. There were also twenty-five mechanics, with the tools of their several trades, going down the bay in search of work. As soon as thle steamer
was fairly out of the harbor, the French lady emerged from her state-room,
a whiskered captain, armed to the teeth; and the mechanics, throwing
aside their tools, and drawing concealed weapons, rallied, a gang of pirates,
around their leader, whose name was Thomas. The helpless steamer was
at once captured. Near the mouth of the Potomac, they ran to a place
called'The Cone,' where they put all the passengers on shore, and, retaining the captain and crew as prisoners, took on board 150 of their armed
confederates. They then commenced what they called a "privateering"
cruise, and finding three large merchant brigs near the mouth of the Rappahannock River, they seized them all as prizes, took them into Fredericksburg, and delivered them over, steamer and all, to the rebel authorities.
A few days after this "brilliant exploit," as it was termed by the rebel
authorities, two Baltimore policemen went down Chesapeake Bay, sixty
miles to Fair Haven, to arrest a criminal. Returning with their prisoner,
they took passage on the steamer Mary Washington.  Here some one
informed them, that Thomas, with several of his crew was on board, in
the disguise of ordinary passengers, returning to Baltimore to make another
venture on some other steamer plying on the Maryland rivers. The police
officers, after having each one of the party carefully pointed out to them,
directed the commander of the boat, before proceeding to Baltimore, to
touch at Fort MicHenry, in the harbor, which fort had now become not
only a fortress overawing the rebels in the city, but also a prison for state
offenders. Thomas, learning this fact, became greatly alarmed, and entering the ladies' cabin, where the police officers, Lieut. Carmichael and Mr.
Horner, were conversing with some ladies, desired to know by what authority they had ordered the steamer to touch at Fort McHlenry.  " By
authority vested in me," was the reply, "by Col. Kenly, Provost Marshal
of Baltimore."
Thomas, immediately rallying his men around him, drew a revolver,
and threatened to seize and throw both the officers overboard. But they




160                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
had made ample preparation to meet this menace, and their friends gathered in such strength, that the " privateersmen," as they called themselves,
were overawed. As soon as the boat reached the fort, Gen. ]3anks, then in
command there, ordered out a company of infantry, who secured all of the
accused excepting Thomas. He was nowhere to be found. After a long
search, however, he was discovered, coiled up in the large drawer of a
bureau in the ladies' cabin, where he had been suffering martyrdom for an
hour and a half. HIe was too weak to make any resistance, and with the
rest of the prisoners was placed in confinement'
President Lincoln, in his message to Congress, said: " It is now recommended that you give the legal means for making this contest a short
and decisive one; that you place at the control of the Government for
the work at least 400,000 men, and 400,000,000 of dollars. That number
of men is about one-tenth of those, of proper ages, within the regions
where apparently all are willing to engage; and the sum is less than a
twenty-third part of the value owned by the men, who seem ready to
devote the whole." In response to this call, Congress promptly voted a
bill, authorizing the employment of 500,000 men, and an appropriation of
$500,000,000,-a hundred thousand more of men, and one hundred million
more of dollars than were asked for.
On the western slope of the Alleghanies, upon the upper waters of
the Kanawha, one of the tributaries of the Ohio, there is an elevation,
known by the name of "Rich Mountain," which, in consequence of a
defile passing through it, was deemed an important military post. The
Staunton and Weston turnpike here traverses a gap in the Laurel IIill
range. On the western slope of this mountain, the rebels, about 3,000
strong, were intrenched with heavy earthwork batteries. At 3 o'clock, on
the morning of the 11th of July, Gen. McClellan sent Gen. Rosecrans
with four regiments, the 8th, 10th, and 13th Indiana, and the 19th Ohio,
to make a detour of the mountain, and attack them by surprise from the
east. Gen. McClellan was prepared to attack them from the west as soon
as the firing commenced. Col. Lander accompanied the division of Gen.
Rosecrans through the pathless forest; a patriotic Union man of the
neighborhood, David L. Hart, acting as guide. Unfortunately a dragoon,
with dispatches, fell into the hands of the enemy, and thus informed, they
made careful preparation to repel the assault. Twenty-five hundred men
were stationed there, with three pieces of artillery, concealed by underbrush, yet commanding the pass. The clouds had gathered, the rain was
pouring in torrents, and the soldiers were toiling along, drenched to the
skin, through the wet bushes, when, suddenly, a deadly fire of artillery
and musketry opened upon them. The Union troops had no artillery, but
they immediately concealed themselves in the underbrush, and for some
time a very fierce battle, but not very fatal, raged between invisible foes.
At last the Indiana troops got upon the flank of the foe, and with a
tremendous cheer rushed upon them with fixed bayonets. The rebels,
panic-stricken, broke, and fled through the bushes, pursued by the victors.
The discomfiture was entire. Gen. MIcClellan, in his official report, says:
" The success of to-day is all that I could desire. We captured six brass




WAR AND 11  RORRORS.                        161
cannons, of which one is rifled; all the enemy's camp equipage and trans.
portation, even to his cups. The number of tents will probably reach two
hundred, and more than sixty wagons. Their killed and wounded will
amount to fillly one hundred and fifty, with one hundred prisoners, and
more coming in constantly."
Generals Rosecrans and Lander so effectually did up their work, that
Gen. MIcClellan, who had his guns mounted to command the enemy's
position, did not find it necessary to enter into action. By a rapid march
he took possession of Beverly, while Col. Pegram, in command of the
rebels, retreated, hotly pursued, to St. George. This victory proved very
decisive, as it broke up and scattered all the rebel forces in that vicinity.
Gen. hMcClellan reports: " I may say that we have driven out some ten
thousand troops strongly intrenched, with the loss of eleven killed and thirtyfive wounded. They were Eastern Virginians, Tennesseans, Georgians,
andcl, I think, Carolinians.  I trust that Gen. Cox has, by this time,
driven Wise out of the Kanawha Valley."
The pursuit was so well conducted that the next day Col. Pegram was
compelled to surrender with six hundred men unconditionally. Pegram
was a West Point cadet, educated beneath the Stars and Stripes, and at
the expense of that Government he was now fighting to destroy. One of
the professors of Hampden and Sidney College, with a company of students,
was in the captured arminy.
The rebel army in Western Virginia was mainly encamped at two
points, one, as we have mentioned, of about 4,000, at Rich Mountain under
Col. Pegram; the 6ther, of about 6,000, a few miles farther north at Laurel
Hill, near Philippi, under Gen. Garnett,who was in general command over
both forces. Upon learning of the defeat of Pegranm's force, Gen. Garnett
commenced a precipitate retreat. I-Ie plunged into the wild roads of tho
Alleghanies, hoping to escape to Rtichmond, and was rapidly descending
the narrow banks of the Cheat River, when the Union troops overtook the
fugitives. There was no difficulty in discovering their trail. The path
they traversed was strewed with the debris of a routed army; —tents, tent
poles, blankets, haversacks, muskets, and broken wagons lined the road,
and were trampled into the mire, which resembled a stagnant river of tar,
of from one to three feet deep.
Finding escape in vain, without a battle, Gen. Garnett looked anxiously
for a commaniding position. I-Ie came to a ford in the river, which was
approached over an extended meadow, smooth as a floor, and waving with
young corn. On the opposite side of the river, and commanding the ford,
there was almost a perpendicular bluff, eighty feet high, fringed with laurel,
presenting a perfect screen for his batteries and his men to lie in ambush.
Here he stationed his army. Several baggage wagons were left broken in
the stream, as a bait to lure the pursuers on, and as an indication that in
the eagerness of his retreat he had been compelled to abandon them, and
was now many miles on his way. Col. Steedman, of the 14th Ohio, first
approached the ford. They were received with a crash of artillery and
musketry, like thunder from a cloudless sky. Fortunately, the inexpe.
rienced rebel gunners, firing down from such a height, overshot their mark,
11




162                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
and but few were injured. The firing spurred on the army in the rear.
Not a man flinched or turned his back. Miilroy's 9th Indiana came rushinhg up with cheers, and formed on the left, as if it were parade day. For
some time the battle raged with no decisive results, the Union troops firing
ulpon their invisible foe, upon the hill concealed by the long and dense
thicket of laurel, until Col. Dumont, with the 7th Indiana, crept under the
bluff, down the river, and climbing the eminence formed for a charge on
the right flank of the foe. The rebels waited not for the approach of the
glittering steel, but turned and fled, four thousand pursued by six hundred.
Gen. Garnett made every effort to rally his men, but in vain. As he
turned on his heel, waving his sword, and shouting to his men to return,
Sergeant B3urlingame, not knowing his rank, took deliberate aim at him,
and fired. I-e instantly fell. Major Gordon rushed towards the fallen
fobe, and found him dead. Tenderly he closed his eyes, straightened his
limbs, and placed a guard over the body. Of all his army not one remained
iby the general, except a young, smooth-cheeked Georgian, evidently of
humble position, who was shot but a moment before his leader fell.
The action was now over.. The enemy abandoning everything, fled,
scattering through the woods. The Union troops came clambering over
the heights, and hungry, weary, drenched, and exhausted, were allowed a
few hours' repose after their victory. One who was present on the occasion thus describes the scene the bluff presented:
As he ascended the bluff on which the enemy had been posted, the first
object that caught his eye was a large, rifled iron cannon, which they had
left in their precipitate flight. The Star-spangled banner of one of the
regiments floated over it. Around was"a sickening sight. Along the
brink of that bluff lay ten bodies, stiffening in their own gore, in every
contortion which their death-anguish had produced. Others were gasping
in the last agonies, and still others were writhing with horrible, but not
mortal, wounds, surrounded by the soldiers whom they really believed to
be about to plunge the bayonets to their hearts. The scene afforded a
ghastly realization of the horrible nature of this fraternal struggle. All
these men were Americans-men who had once been proud to claim each
other as countrymen.
One poor fellow was shot through the bowels. The ground was soaked
with his blood. The stranger asked him if anything could be clone to
render him more comfortable; he only whispered,'I'm  so cold.' Ice
lingered for nearly an hour in terrible agony. Another young man, just
developing into vigorous manhood, had been shot through the head by a
large Mfinie ball. The skull was shockingly fractured. Hiis brains were
protruding from the bullet-hole, and lay spread on the grass by his head.
HIe was still living! The stranger knelt by him, and moistened his lips
with water from his canteen; and an officer who came up a moment afterwards poured a few drops of brandy from his pocket-flask into his mouth.
There was nothing more that they could do. A surgeon rapidly examined
the wound, saying, it were better for him if he were dead already. And
there the poor Georgian lay, gasping in the untold and unimaginable agonies
of that fearful death for more than an hour I




WAR AND  ITS HORRORS.                      163
Near him lay a Virginian, shot through the mouth, and already stiffening. He appeared to have been stooping when he was shot. The ball
struck the tip of the nose, cutting that off; cut his upper lip, knocking out
his teeth, passed through the head, and came out at the back of the neck.
The expression of his ghastly face was awful beyond description. And
near him lay another, with a ball through the right eye, which had passed
out through the back part of the head. The glassy eyes of the dead were
all open; some seemed still gasping, with open mouths; all were smeared
in their own blood, and cold and clammy with the dews of death upon
them.
The witness who describes this scene says, that on counting up he found.
that there were on the bluff ten corpses. Two more died before they could
be removed to the hospital. Three died during the night. Another was
dying when he left. All around the field lay men with wounds in the
leg or arm, or face, groaning with pain, and trembling lest the barbarous
foes they expected to find in the troops, should commence mangling and
torturing them at once. Words can hardly -express their astonishment
when the men gently removed them to a little knoll, laid them all together, and formed a circle of bayonets around them to keep off the curious crowd, till they could be removed to the hospitals and cared for by tie
surgeons.
There was a terrible moral in that group on the knoll; the dead, the
dying, the wounded, protected by the very men they had been fighting,
and who were as ready then as they had ever been to defend by their
strong arms every right these self-made enemies of theirs had ever enjoyed.
Every attention was shown the enemy's wounded by our surgeons. Limbs
were amputated, wounds were dressed, with the same care with which our
own brave volunteers were treated. The wound on the battle-field removes
all differences; in the hospital all are alike the objects of a common humanity that left none beyond its limits.
Among the enemy's wounded was a young _cfasackusetts boy, who
had received a wound in the leg. Iie had been visiting in the South, and
had been impressed into the rebel ranks. As soon as the battle began, he
broke from the rebel ranks and attempted to run down the hill, and cross
over to our side. Hiis own lieutenant saw him in the act, and shot him
with a revolver. The narrator of these incidents says, that to listen to the
tale which he heard by the side of the sad young sufferer, made his blood
boil more violently than ever before, to think, not of the poor deluded followers, but of the leaders who, for personal ambition and personal spite,
began this infernal rebellion.
The talk among the soldiers was long the retailing of facts and anecdotes about this battle. In one of the Indiana regiments was a Methodist
preacher. During the battle he was particularly conspicuous for the zeal
with which he kept up a constant fire. The 14th Ohio, in the thick of the
-fight, fired an average of eleven rounds to every man, but this parson managed to get in a great deal more than that average. I-e fired carefiully,
with perfect coolness, and always after a steady aim, and the men declared
that every time, as he took down his gun after firing, he added,'And may




164                     CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
the Lord have mercy on your soul.'  Evidently, they said, he thought the
body not worth praying for, after the aim he had so carefully taken.
The remains of General Garnett were prepared with all possible respect
for interment, and were then sent with his sword, his gold chronometer,
his field-glass and his pocket-book, with its contents, to his friends.  Several officers in the Union army against which he was fighting had been his
intimate friends.  Major Love, who with saddened spirit assisted in preparing his body for its burial, had been for four years his room mate at
West Point, and had c    cherished a warm  affection for him  until he turned a
traitor to his country, and raised his sword to cut down its flag. The poor,Georgia boy, who had proved so faithful in a bad cause, into which he had
been seduced, was buried on a knoll by the Union troops, with a graveboard at his head, containing the following inscription: "Name Unknown.
A brave fellow who shared his general's fate, and fell fighting by his side,
while his companions fled."
This defeat was, for the time, the annihilation of the rebel force in
Western Virginia.  The troops under Garnett were Eastern Virginians,
Georgians, Tennesseeans and Carolinians. In the battle and immediate
pursuit, two hundred were killed, a thousand taken prisoners, and the remnant scattered, no one knows where.  The work of clearing Western Virginia of the rebels Gen. McClellan had effectually accomplished.  Without
encountering a reverse, and with rapid strides of victory, he had swept the
foe before him, and a grateful country rewarded him  with affection, confidence, and accumulations of power.* In these conflicts Capt. Benham
greatly signalized himself by his energy, military sagacity and intrepidity.
The enthusiasm  at the North in behalf of the national cause, and the
multitude rallying under the banner of their country, continued unabated.
It may be doubted whether, since the crusades, such a popular uprising
was ever before witnessed, and it was not an uprising of ignorant masses,
but of highly intelligent men, rushing as privates into the ranks, ready to
sacrifice property and life in behalf of their country.  Within a few months
there were over six hundred thousand men arrayed beneath the Stars and
Stripes, ready to endure any of the hardships or to meet any of the perils of
battle.  And of all these there was not one in those ranks by compulsion.
All were svolunteers.  The State of Indiana, less than half a century ago,
* Gen. Geo. B. McClellan was born in Philadelphia in 1826, the son of an eminent physician.
He graduated at West Point, in 1842, with the first honors of the class. Immediately entering a
company of sappers and miners as second lieutenant, he entered upon the Mexican war, and displayed much efficiency in conducting the siege of Vera Cruz. IIe also distinguished himself at the
battles of Contreras and Cherubusco, and at Chapultepec rose to the rank of captain. As military
engineer he subsequently performed many valuable services, and was sent by the government of
the United States to the Crimea, as one of the commission of three to perfect themselves in the art
of war, as it should there be developed. His report, on his return, added much to his reputation.
Resigning his position in the army in the year 1859, he became Vice President and Engineer of the
Illinois Central Railroad, and subsequently became Superintendent of the Ohio and Mississippi
Railroad. He was thus employed when the civil war broke out. Ohio immediately made him
Major-General of the State forces. Pennsylvania offered him the same position. On the 14th of
May, 1861, the Federal Government appointed him Major-General in the U. S. A., and assigned
him the Department of Ohio. His brilliant campaign in Western Virginia brought him conspicuoutly before the nation.




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WAR AND ITS HORRORS.                               165
was but a wilderness where Indian tribes hunted their game.  And yet
this youthful State furnished twenty thousand infantry and twelve hundred cavalry, and uniformed, accoutred, and almost entirely armed them
with the best of rifles, at her own expense. Every other Northern State
was equally zealous.
Three months had now passed since the fall of Sumter.  The United
States Congress were in session at Washington.  The rebels had a large
army, no one knew how large, strongly fortified and abundantly supplied
with batteries at Manassas, and at other points in the vicinity, from whence
they could concentrate their troops at iMianassas, through which lay the
direct route to Richmond.
At the opening of Congress, July 4th, the Border States, Missouri, Kentucky,. Tennessee and Delaware, were all represented.  Money in abundance was speedily voted for carrying on the war.  Every armory was at
work, night and day.  Three hundred and ten thousand- soldiers were
already in the field, waiting the order of the Federal Government; sixtythree vessels, with 1,174 guns, were in commission, and twenty-three steam
gunboats were on the stocks, rapidly approaching completion.  Sixty regiments of Federal troops were encanmped near Washington.  The public
began to be impatient for active military operations.  Armies amounting,
it was supposed, to at least 300,000 on either side, were facing each other
at various points, though scattered thousands of miles apart, from  the remote prairies of Texas to the extreme northern peaks of the Alleghanies,
and yet there had been no decisive action-nothing but mere skirmishes.
The rebels were so confident in their strength at Manassas, that, on the
20th of July, they removed their Congress from Montgomery to Richmond.
The people and the press generally throughout the North began to call so
loudly for an advance upon Ricehmond, that Gen. Scott, though not feeling
fully prepared, with reluctance ordered a forward movement.
On the 16th of July, Gen. M/[cDowell, with 32,500 men, in four divisions, advanced from  the banks of the Potomac upon 2Manassas.*  These
divisions, in  unequal numbers, started from  Arlington  Heights, Long
Bridge and Alexandria.  Gen. Tyler's command consisted of 10,500 men,
being nearly one-third of the whole force. Traversing different roads, the
two smaller divisions met at the village of Fairfax Court House, about
twelve miles from Washington.  Gen. Tyler advanced by the Warrenton
turnpike two miles fiom. Fairfax Court I-Iouse.  The march commenced
mainly at daybreak, Wednesday morning, the 17th, though some of the
brigades advanced a short distance the night before.  The troops, all eager
for action, commenced the movement with the greatest alacrity, as joyfully
~ Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowell is a native of Ohio, and a graduate of West Point Military Academy, in the class of 1835, where he was assistant instructor for a few months. He was promoted
to a first lieutenancy in 1842. Hie accompanied Gen. Wool to IfMexico as aid-de-camp, and was
breveted captain for his gallant behavior at Buena Vista. In an article in L'Opinion Nationae,
attributed to the pen of Prince Napoleon, Gen. McDowell is said to be " forty-two years of age,
tall and large. His face is remarkably open and sympathetic, through its air of frankness and
kindness. He is one of the honestest, truest~ simplest men that you can meet. He neither drinks
wine, tea nor coffee, does not smoke, and has habits of sobriety and self-denial quite in keeping
with his Puritan principles."




166                 CIVIL  WAR  IN  AMERICA.
as if on a picnic excursion. It was a pleasant morning, and the scene presented one of the'most glittering pageants of war.  From ten to fifteen
thousand of the rebel troops were at Fairfax, but hearing through their
scouts of the approach of the Federal troops, they retired precipitately,
leaving every thing behind them.
At noon the first division of Union troops entered Fairfax, unopposed.
The bands played exultingly " The Star Spangled Banner," and the flag
of the United States was again unfurled over the rebel village, where trai-'
torous feet had trampled it in the mire. A few patriots, " faithful found
among the faithless," lingered in the village, and received their liberators
with inexpressible joy.  Some rebels, lurking at a safe distance in the
woods, threw a few rifle' shots into our ranks, wounding an officer and two
privates, but neither of them seriously. In the village a large amount of
tents, muskets, equipments, flour, bacon, and hospital stores, belonging to
the rebel army, were captured.  The flight was so precipitate, that even
the breakfast tables spread for the officers remained untouched.  The uniforms of the officers were left; in a vest pocket was found a gold watch,
and in another pocket ten dollars in a roll of dime pieces.
The troops were quite exhausted by their march under a broiling sun,
and though it was at first intended to press on five miles farther to Centreville, it was decided to halt, for a few hours at least, until the main body
of the army should come up. The right wing, under Gen. Tyler, of Connecticut, marched along the Georgetown turnpike. The left wing, under
Col. Heintzelman, U. S. A., proceeded in two divisions, one by the old
Braddock road, the other by the Little River turnpike.* The centre,
under Col. HIunter, U. S. A., advanced by the Leesburg road. The fourth
division, under General IRunyon, of New Jersey, constituted the reserve.
The three brigades under Gen. Tyler moved along rather an unfrequented
road.
The road being narrow and broken, and the nearness of the enemy rendering it necessary that the advance guard should proceed cautiously, the
march was necessarily slow. As the men composing the three first brigades
moved solidly and measuredly on, they presented a magnificent spectacle,
when gazed upon from one of the many elevations overlooking their path.
The seemingly endless forests of glittering bayonets, undulating with the
ascents and descents of the road; the dark mass of humanity rolling on
slowly, but irresistibly, like a black stream forcing its way through a narrow channel; the waviung banners; the inspiring strains of the numerous
bands; the shouts and songs of the men;-formed an animating and imposing scene, which was contemplated with amazement and terror by the
country people along the road.
The first brigade of this division, under Col. Keyes, arrived at Falls
Church just before sunset, and spreading over the adjoining fields, after
stationing strong pickets on all the roads leading towards the enemy, and
* Gen. Samuel P. Heintzelman was born in Pennsylvania, and graduated at West Point in
1822. He was in the Mexican army, and acquired reputation for gallantry there. During the
war with the rebels he rapidly rose in the estimation of his countrymen, being considered one of
the most sagacious and energetic of our military leaders.




WAR  AND  ITS  HORRORS.                     167
batteries to command the approaches, took a cold supper, and bivouacked.for the night. Col. Sherman's and Col. Richardson's brigades did not
reach the encampment until nine o'clock. The nearest picket of the enemy
was then about a mile from them, on the road to Fairfax Court House.
The next morning, at five o'clock, the whole army of the Potomac was in
motion, and, as we have mentioned, about noon reached Fairfax Court
House.  General Tyler's division, however, which was a little in the
advance, passed that village, and encamped about two miles beyond in
a hamlet called Germantown. They were compelled to cut their way
from Falls* Church through a constant series of obstructions, the rebels
having felled immense trees across the road, and placed every other obstacle in the way which ingenuity could devise. The foe were occasionally
seen in the distance, but they invariably retired as our forces advanced.
At one time, the scouts came rushing in, announcing a formidable rebel
battery commanding the road, but half a mile a head. The whole column,
reaching back for miles, was halted. The lines opened to the right and
the left, and through the passage thus made, there came thundering along
Capt. Ayers's battery of eight rifled guns, the horses on the full run. The
masses which opened before closed in behind them, and again the whole
army was on the move. A few shells were thrown into the breastwork,
but the rebels had fled. Our skirmishers took possession of the intrenchments, where they found all the usual appliances of a camp, abandoned,
the camp fires still burning.
Every day was revealing new evidence that traitors were still lurking
in the most important departments of the Government. The rebels seem
to have lost all consciousness of the meaning of the word honor. Their
partisans, while taking the oath of allegiance to the United States, and
affecting zeal in the service of the Union, were active and efficient agents
of the rebels, endeavoring to thwart every measure of national defense,
and keeping the enemy informed of every contemplated movement.
Gen. McDowell had emlnloyed some of the Topographical Engineers inl
preparing an accurate map of the eastern portion of the State, particularly
valuable from the fact that no good maps of the country had ever before
been made. A Ifew copies were prepared for the War Department, and
for the officers engaged in this movement. One of these maps was found at
Fairfax Court House, in the encampment of the Pazlmetto (S. C.) Guards.
It could only have come there by the treachery of somle person holding
responsible position in our Government.
The abandoned camps of the rebels were, of course, legitimate objects
of plunder. The soldiers loaded themselves with booty, of every description, and then some of them proceeded to sack several of the abandoned
houses of the rebels. Considerable damage was done before the officers
succeeded in arresting these disorders. Such irregularities are inseparable
from war. It is not possible to march an army of over 30,000 soldiers,
many of whom must be men of feeble moral sense, through a country,
without acts of depredation. In fact, the whole army seemed to enter
upon this summer's march, into Virginia, as if it were a grand excursion
frolic, with just enough of adventure about it to give it zest. They thought




168                 CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
not of danger, and were bold even to rashness. A stringent order from
Gen. McDowell promptly arrested the spirit of depredation which was
beginning to develop itself.
The evening of that day, mild and bright, was a saturnalia of jokes
and fun, where the troops were clustered, in all the power and splendor of
war, for miles around the headquarters of their chieftain, Gen. McDowell,
at Fairfax Court House. The troops bivouaced in the green fields and
under the open sky. The General and his staff, like the men, slept on the
ground, rolled in their blankets. At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, Gen.
McDowell was seen, eating his sumptuous dinner of. bread, cheese and a
slice of ham, on an overturned candle-box by the side of the road.
The march of all the divisions, as far as Fairfax Court Iouse, was
essentially the same. The day was fine, the country beautiful, the roads
good, leading through dense groves, over gentle slopes, and occasionally
ascending hills of considerable size. The sight was inspiring as the long
line of glittering bayonets extended far as the eye could reach, intermingled with cavalry and artillery, and the vast array of white-covered
baggage wagons. The men in loose, but regular march, with quick step,
advanced with alacrity and in the finest spirits. On either side, skirmishers were spread out, through the groves and the cornfields, to guard against
the possibility of surprise.
Few persons are aware of the vast length of road occupied by an
army in motion.  Two'hundred thousand soldiers, with their baggage
trains, cavalry and artillery, will occupy, filling to its utmost capacity, one
hundred miles of any ordinary road. Distribute such an army into four
divisions, traversing different roads, and each separate column would
occupy twenty-five miles. 5We entered upon our march to Manassas with
32,500 men in four divisions.  Consequently, each column, had they been
equally divided, would have consisted of a solid mass of troops nearly five
miles in length. It is difficult to imagine the scene of confusion which
arises whllen the hour of panic or defeat ensues. Regiments are hurled
upon each other, while shot and shell plough the ranks; cavalry trample
down the infantry, bridges break, mines explode, and artillery and baggage wagons dash along pell-mell in a wild scene of ruin and terror which
no imagination can conceive.
On the morning of the 18th, the different columns commenced their
march from the vicinity of Fairfax, toward Centreville, a small village
about five and a half miles distant, on the main road to Manassas Junction.
At the Junction the great Washington railroad branches off; the left.
track leading to Richmond, while the right, threading the mountains, penetrates the valley of the Shenadcloah. From Centreville to the Junction, it
was about six miles. Half way between the two, there was a -wild mountain stream, at tinies a foaming torrent, and again almost dry, which had
cut a deep channel or gorge, with almost perpendicular sides, through the
red sand stone. The banks of this ravine were densely fringed with forest
and underbrush, while the country beyond was hilly, broken, wooded, and
with narrow paths, through which an army could with difficulty struggle.
Upon the right bank of this stream, called Bull Run, concealed by bushes




WAR AND  ITS HORRORS.                        169
and on commanding heights, the rebels had constructed their masked batteries and thrown up their intrenchments, in positions which nature had
made so strong that artificial earthworks were hardly needed. Here they
awaited the approach of the Federal troops. Their reserves were but a
short distance behind them at Manassas.... __ _MILES,       %a
o           3            6a!'Ien
SUDLEY'SFD,
MAP OF BULL BUN AND ENVIRONS.
GROVEMON                   ~4~X,
-,'
PONS.
From  Centreville, there were three roads leading to the Run. One
was the direct road to the Junction, crossing the stream at a place called
Blackburn's Ford. The great turnpike to Warrenton ran straight to the
west, and crossed the stream about two miles farther up its bed, at what
YA] ~ ~ ~.5=         ~ Ii~K:
ANASSS JUN
FrmCnreilthr   ee he  oas  ain   ote  u.   n
wa  h   iec  odt th   ucincrsigtestea.a   paecle
Blakbrns or.   hegret urpie o   arentn  anstaihttoth
wetan  cosedte tran aou   womies frteru  is ed a wa




170                 CIVILWAR IN AMERICA.
was called Stone Bridge. Bearing nearly south there was still another
country road, which met the turbulent river at an unimportant crossing
near Union Mills. Along the line of the Runm, a distance of eight or ten
miles, the rebels were strongly fortified.
On Thursday morning, the 18th, the army moved cautiously to Centreville. Gen. Tyler pushed on one of his brigades, under Col. Richardson,
reconnoitering as far as ]Blackburn's Ford. Rebel troops were seen moving in large masses on the plateau beyond.  Col. Richardson had two
twenty.pound rifled guns. To announce his presence and try the temper
of the rebels, he threw a few balls among them, which caused a very rapid
dispersion of infantry and cavalry, when suddenly the tables were turned
against him, by the opening fire, in rapid discharge, of a rebel masked
battery, near the Ford, whose position could only be judged of by the
smoke of its guns. Col. Richardson immediately ordered up a battery of
six pounders, and the fire of the rebels was soon silenced.
Encouraged by this success, with, perhaps, more spirit than caution,
Col. Richardson drew up his brigade on the banks of the stream, and commenced a fusillade of the rebel army, on the opposite plateau. But the
rebels promptly crowded the bushes which fringed the stream, and poured
in upon him such a deadly volley, that a portion of his troops were thrown
into confusion and flight. Ile consequently retired with the remainder in
perfect order, and the fugitives were rallied under cover of the woods in
the rear. After the infantry had been thus withdrawn, the twenty pounders took another position, with Ayers's battery of six pieces, and continued
their fire upon the enemy for an hour, from three till four o'clock, firing
415 shots, the rebels returning gun for gun. At night, the troops fell back
to Centreville, having lost, in this reconnoissance, 19 killed, 38 wounded,
and 26 missing. Wilson's brigade was stationed here to hold this important position. After the battle of Sunday, this force, from this position, in
connection with Davis' brigade and two batteries, repulsed the enemy in
his attempt to attack the retreating army in the rear at Centreville,
and thus exerted incalculable influence in arresting the disasters of that
sad day.
Gen. Beauregard's report of this trivial affair is decidedly ludicrous.
Speaking of the final duel between the two batteries, he says, " Our guns,
fired with no other aim  than the smoke and flash of their adversaries'
pieces, renewed and urged the conflict with such signal vigor and effect,
that gradually the fire of the enemy slackened, the intervals between their
discharges grew longer and longer, finally to cease; and we fired a last
gun at a baffled, flying foe, whose heavy masses, in the distance, were
plainly seen to break and scatter in wild confusion and utter rout, strewing the ground with cast-away guns, hats, blankets, and knapsacks, as our
parting shells were thrown among them. In their retreat one of their
pieces was abandoned, but, from the nature of the ground, it was not sent
for that night, and, under cover of darkness, the enemy recovered it."
Rev. Mr. Mines, chaplain, who was taken prisoner Monday morning,
and who was conveyed to Blaclburn's Ford, states that he saw there the
fresh graves of from 300 to 500 men. And B3eauregard, in his official




WAR  AND  ITS IHORRORS.                     171
report, says that one regiment was so cut up that day that it had to be
replaced by another.
Gen. Beauregard has indulged in such extraordinary poetic license in
this narrative, that we know not how much credence to give to his statement, that " our casualties were fifteen killed and fifty-three wounded,
several of whom have since died."
Gen. Tyler's main object in this movement, was to determine what
force and *vhat batteries the enemy had at that point. This he ascertained
perfectly, and he could not have ascertained it in any other way. Upon
the information thus gained the army was guided in its subsequent advance.
Two of the Ellsworth Fire Zouaves having probably scented the battle
from afar, contrived to lose their regiment at Fairfax, and, while pretending to be very eagerly searching for it, plunged into this fight, " on their
own hook," with all imaginable gusto. They were both fleet and tireless
as deer. Whenever a rebel soldier appeared any where near them, in this
straggling, skulking fight, they hunted him down like hounds and killed
him, regardless of the numbers by whom he was surrounded. One of them
actually penetrated a small battery in a ravine, bayoneted one of the gunners, and escaped unharmed. At last they got separated in the confusion
of the battle, and one of them walked up the hill by the side of our retiring
column, moaning bitterly over his lost companion. " I didn't want," he
said, " to have that fellow shot. That fellow has run in the Fire Departmeit with me three years."  An eye-witness writes, " It was very touching to see the tender grief of this rough and reckless fireman; and it was
even more so, to witness the wild and overwhelming  [elight with which
he met his companion at Centreville, as uninjured as himself, and filled
with an anxiety as great as his own."
The regiments engaged in this short but bold and vigorous conflict,
were the New York 12th, one MIaine, two Michigan, one Massachusetts,
anld twvo Wisconsin regiments. The MIichigan,  Maine and Wisconsin regiments maintained their position under a galling fire, with fortitude which
would have done honor to veterans. It is the testimony of all present,
that the generals displayed courage worthy of themselves and their cause.
Col. Richardson rode through the storm of shot unconcerned. Gen. Tyleand his staff braved all the peril to which any soldier was exposed. With
such inexperienced troops, it was needftul that our officers should set the
example of courage.
There were quite a number of civilians, men of note, upon a hill overlooking the battle-field. A shell from one of the rebel batteries passed
between the heads of Dr. Pullston, of Pennsylvania, and Mr. McCormick,
of the New York Evening Post, just grazing the shoulder of the latter
gentleman. The shell struck a building in their rear and exploded. At
the same moment, a flurry of 1Mini6 bullets came whistling through the
group, wounding half a dozen, but none severely. The civilians seemed
to think this amusement they had not bargained for, and, regardless
of all military proprieties, with undeniable "discretion," sought a safer
position.
The next day, Friday, the 19th, was passed in reconnoitering, in select



172                CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
ing points of attack, in posting troops under the screen of forests or hills,
for a distance of about eight or ten miles, along the eastern bank of the
chasm of Bull Run. That treachery which marked the whole progress of
this, the foulest rebellion earth has ever known, still kept the foe informed
of every movement the Union troops made. There were men occupying
important posts in the government and in the army, who were the secret
agents of the rebels, and who regarded treason and perfidy as chivalry and
honor. The foe had accumulated all his strength among the hills upon the
opposite side of this ravine; his masses occupying the ground back to
Manassas. Thus, as the front regiments became exhausted, they could
retire, and fresh ones be moved forward to occupy their places.
Large divisions of the army were all day long moving about Centreville. It was, apparently, a scene of inextricable confusion. It was, however, a chaos which Gen. MIcDowell, arranging and guiding every movement, was evolving into order and efficiency. During the day the two
heroic Zouaves, who had, the funim of the battle being over, contrived to find
their camp, walked down to overlook the vast military array on the field
of Centreville. They happened to pass by Gen. Tyler's brigade. They
attracted universal attention. The regiments turned out spontaneously to
greet them; and the clapping of hands fell upon their ears almost like the
crackling fire of musketry. The fire-boys seemed bewildered and oppressed
by the unexpected demonstration, and endeavored in vain to appear unconscious that it had any reference to them. After a while they became quite
timid, and with bowed heads appeared to implore a cessation of the applause. 3Bit there was no mercy for them, and the greeting grew more
and more intense, until they were well out of sight.
By the thorough exploration of the ground on Friday, the plan of the
battle was formed, and certainly with great military sagacity. Still, the
result could not but be doubtful. Nearly all of the troops whom Gen.
lMcDowell led were fresh from their peaceful firesides, young men who had
never heard the whir of a hostile bullet, to whom all the dreadful scenes
of a battle-field were entirely new; who had patriotically rushed to Washington, three moiths volunteers, for the protection of the Capital, until an
army could be organized for the war. With all of them their term of service expired in a few days; with several regiments it expired on the morning of the battle. These men were to be led against a foe, they knew not
how strong, who had spent months in rearing batteries, and in fortifying
themselves, in forests, on the sides of ravines, and on commanding eminences. The Union soldiers, groping through unknown paths, exposed
continually to ambuscades, never knowing but that they were marching
directly upon masses of intrenched troops, outnumbering them ten to one,
were to present their bare bosoms to these bristling batteries. Napoleon
would have deemed this stern service fbr his Old Guard. It would have
been stern service for troops who had been the heroes of a hundred battles.
The Northern soldiers understood all this. They were reading and think!ing men.
We need not have been ignorant of the position and strength of the
enemy. There were hundreds and thousands of colored men, some of




WAR AND ITS HORRORS.                       173
them as white as many of our soldiers, scattered all over that region, who
were praying for our coming, and eager to join our ranks. They had been
forced to throw up intrenchmnents for their hated masters. They were
familiar with every by-path, and swamp, and torrent. They knew the
position of every battery, and the number of guns. They were more efficient and intelligent than the masses of the degraded whites, whom slave,
holding tyranny had driven into the ranks.  These men, our natural
allies, would have come to our camp in troops, had they been assured of
welcome. They would have revealed to us all the strength and the weakness of the enemy, would have guided us through safe defiles, would have
thrown up our intrenchments, and borne our heavy burdens, that our sons
and brothers, unused to exhausting toil, might be more fresh for the fight.
But we would not receive them. Orders were often issued prohibiting
them from entering the Union lines. Frequently, when they had escaped
to us, they were delivered back to their masters, and tortured by them,
even to death, as a warning to their brethren not to espouse the cause of
tile " Stars and Stripes."
Thus rejecting the only sources of information within our. reach, we
were compelled to move blindly, and to send our loved ones like sheep to
the slaughter. And whose fault was this a It was not the fault of Gen.
Scott, or Gen. McDowell, or President Lincoln. They were but the agents
of the people, and could carry out no measures but those in which the
people would sustain them. We had so long been accustomed to bow
subserviently to slavery, and were so fearful of alienating the border slave.
]holding States and driving them off into the rebellion, that at that time,
the Government could not have been sustained in welcoming, in any way,
the aid of the colored population. A clamor of remonstrance would have
burst from all parts of the land. The _people of the United States were
the guilty ones, notwithstanding there were millions who deplored the
folly. Upo.n the nation, consequently, fell the penalty. WVe needed, like
the Egyptians of old, to be plagued with national disasters, and the death
of our first born, before we could come to any honest recognition of man's
brotherhood. Let not future generations cast the blame of this folly upon
our Government. Our rulers could not tfhe do otherwise.than they did:
Under God's discipline and teaching, we have made such marvelous progress since that day, that we can now hardly conceive of the blindness
which then obscured the public vision.
- WXe have mentioned that there were three main roads branching from
Centreville to the ravine: the south, the middle, and the north. Each of
these roads is about five miles in length, touching the stream at points
about three or four miles from each other. The plan of the battle, in its
main features was, for divisions of the army, about five thousand strong,
to march by each of these roads, and make a vigorous attack upon the
foe; all intended, at first, as mere feints to distract their attention, and to
bewild6r them in reference to the real point to be assailed. In the mean
time, Generals Hunter and Heintzelman, with two divisions, amounting
to about 12,000 men, advancing by the road ta the Stone Bridge, were
secretly to turn to the right, ascend the etreamn about two' miles through




174               CIVIL WAR -IN  AMERICA..
the forest, and behind the hills, and crossing the IRun at a point called
Sudley Ford, to descend the right bank of the stream, and fall impetuously
upon the flank and rear of the foe, already bewildered by the triple attack.
As soon as this assailing column appeared in the vicinity of the Stone
]Bridge, the most northern of the three crossings, Glen. Tyler's division,
battling there, was to rush over the Run and join the Union troops.
Then, as in accordance with the plan of the battle, it was hoped that the
foe would break and fly, the other divisions would be prepared to co6perate, as circumstances might render advisable.
Col. M{iles, with a reserve, remained at Centreville. Should any disaster baffle the efforts of the assailing column, and they be compelled to
retire, they could fall back upon this reserve, while the three divisions, at
the main crossings, could retard, if not entirely arrest, the advance of the
enemy. No man familiar with military movements can study this plan,
and not pronounce it to be admirable. In military matters, as in almost
all others, we judge, often very unjustly, by success. Though the battle
proved unfortunate, this plan of Gen. McDowell, will always give him the
position in reflective minds, of an accomplished soldier.
The assailing column, being destitute of that good and safe guidance
which the slaves could have afforded them, could not worm its way through
the forest and the ravines in the darkness of the night. It was intended,
therefore, that it should diverge from the turnpike into the woods with
the earliest dawn of the morning. But, by that delay which is almost
inevitable in great movements, they did not commence their march from
the traveled road until six o'clock in the morning; and they encountered
so many obstructions that they did not reach Sudley Ford until half past
nine, three or four hours later than they intended.
It was a cloudless Sabbath morning, and a July sun poured down its
blazing heat upon the heads of the soldiers. At soon as they reached the
Ford, to their surprise, they found the enemy posted there, waiting to
receive them; while, in the distance, the heads of many columns were
visible, on the rapid march, to present the most formidable resistance. It
appears, that by some treachery, the source of which has not yet been discovered, no sooner was the plan of battle formed than it was communicated
to the rebels. Gen. Beauregard, consequently, merely left enough men at
the crossings below, to keep the assailing columns in check, while with
nearly his whole available force he prepared to hurl himself upon the
12,000 troops of I-unter and Heintzelman. The advantage he had over
Gen. McDowell was immense. Hte and all his men, were perfectly familiar with the ground; he had time to choose his position; he. knew
precisely the number of Union soldiers he was to encounter, and could
bring, from his accumulated forces, any reenforcements he might deem
necessary.
Gen. MIcDowell's troops were exhausted by a long march; were in a
strange country, hilly, broken, and densely wooded; were to march bare-breasted to meet troops in positions and with masked batteries; and of
whose numbers they could form no intelligent estimate. The column had
just crossed the Ford, and entered upon an open plateau beyond, when the




WAR  AND  ITS HORRORS.                     175
leading brigade, under Gen. Burnside, encountered a vigorous fire of
artillery and infantry, from an almost invisible foe. Almost at the same
moment, the battle commenced in earnest along the whole line, from eight
to ten miles in length, and from one to two in breadth. Volumes might
be filled with its details; with the movements of its minor divisions, with
its acts of heroism, with the surgings to and fro, the charges, the surprises,
the retreats before overpowering numbers, the rush of reenforcements and
the renewed onslaught. Such a battle-field is inexplicably complex in its
movements, yet from all its complexity there is eventually evolved victory
or defeat; results often depending upon apparent accidents or chances,
which no human foresight could have anticipated.
Let us, for a moment, leave the assailing column under H-eintzelman
and Hunter, upon whose movements the issues of the day were to depend,
and pass down the chasm to the Stone Bridge, where Gen. Tyler, with a
32-pound rifle Parrot gun, and Ayres's and Carlisle's batteries was making
the very hills tremble with his tremendous charges, throwing his shot and
shell into ravines and.wooded eminences two miles distant, striving to
drive the rebels from their lurking places into daylight. For half an hour
he could awaken no response, and knew not where to look for the treacherous foe. At last, a scout on the right, captured a slave, who was venturing, with great fear, into our lines. Trembling with fear that our
troops might deliver him back again to his master, yet anxious to communicate the infinitely important information in his possession he was led
to headquarters. Poor fellow! well he might tremble, for, if the next day
his master were to come and claim him as a fugitive, many of our generals
would deliver him up, to be flayed alive by rebel vengeance, for giving us
that knowledge which had saved, perhaps, hundreds of our friends from
mutilation and death.
This intelligent and loyal Virginian, with probably far more American
than African blood in his veins, informed Gen. Tyler that the rebels were
concealed in the woods on the right, and that on a distant hill, which he
pointed out, they had a battery, upon which he had been compelled to
work three days, and which commanded the road our troops were about to
traverse. Generals Tyler and Schenck soon saw the assailing column of
Union troops, which had crossed at Sudley Ford, far above them, driving
the foe down towards the'point where they were stationed. They immediately put their troops in motion, crossing the Run half a mile above
Stone bridge, and cautiously entering the impenetrable thickets which surrounded them, suddenly they heard a voice exclaim, "-Now, you Yankee
devils, we have got you where we want to!" Immediately, a battery at
point-blank range opened upon them  a deadly volley. Still, the line
wavered not; but pressed heroically on, driving the rebels before them,
and carrying efficient aid to B1urnside's division, at that time sorely
pressed.
Leaving them to fight hour after hour, with heroism never before
equaled by raw troops, and rarely surpassed by regulars, let us pass down
the river two and four miles farther, and we find the same continuous roar
of battle. A portion of Miles' division, which had been detached to aid




176                   CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
Richardson in holding Blackburn's Ford, was here, by a vigorous attack
of artillery and musketry, endeavoring to occupy the attention of the foe,
These lower divisions did not attempt any advance.  They mainly employed themselves in shelling the enemy, and assailing them with musketry whenever within their reach.  Such was the general aspect of this
extended field of battle at eleven o'clock in the morning.  Let us now
ascend the river, to the extreme right of the army, where Heintzelman and
Hunter crossed at Sudley Ford, and where the real battle was to be fought.
Gen. McDowell took his position a little in the rear of the Stone Bridge,
where he could most easily be in communication with all parts of the field.
For a time, every movement was very prosperous.  HIeight after height
the rebels abandoned, unable to face the merciless storm  of cannon balls
and the impetuous charges of the patriots.. The rebels were driven from
all their batteries and fastnesses, two miles down the stream, and across
the great Warrenton road, which passed the Run at Stone Bridge.  HIeintzelman's division had effectedl a junction with Tyler's,.'so that now they
were, flushed with success, driving the foe over the hills south of this road.
The enemy fought persistently, contesting every inch.  For months they
had been at work, aided by any number of slaves, in fortifying their positions.  The Union troops marched boldly to these intrenchments, compelling the rebels to retreat over a space nearly three miles in length.
The charges of the 69th New York, Irish regiment, 1,600 strong, under
Col. Corcoranu  are said to have been terrific.  The gallant Colonel, placing
himself at their head, shouted, "Come on, boys!  You have got your
chance at last!"  With cheers and at double quick, they dashed forward,
throwing away knapsacks and coats, and every thing which could retard
tile impetuosity of their onset, but grasping their guns with a tenacity
which even death's agonies could hardly relax.
A very brilliant effort was made by Gen. Tyler's division to carry one
of the batteries by a charge.  By order of the General, a Maine regiment
advanced to within one hundred yards of one of the batteries, belching an
incessant storm of canister and grape.  The firing now became so severe
that, though the assailants threw  themselves upon the ground, Keyes, in
command, declares that they would have been annihilated in five minutes.
They fell back under the brow of the hill, and made a flank movement,
with the intention of turning the battery.  They were just upon the point
of attaining their object, when the order for retreat came. As this battery
was deemed the enemy's commanding position, it is not improbable that,
had the order been delayed fifteen minutes, we should have had a victory
to rejoice over, instead of a defeat to deplore.
* Michael Corcoran was born in Sligo county, Ireland, Sept. 21, 1827. Hie descended from a
highly honorable family. Having received a very thorough English education, at nineteen years
of age he entered the constabulary force, and remained in it three years. In 1849, he emigrated
to America, and became proprietor of HIibernian Hall, in New York. In this business he continued
until the year 1861. He commenced his military career as private in Company I, of the 69th Regiment, New York State Militia. Rising through the grades of firet lieutenant and captain, on the
25th of August, 1859, he was chosen colonel. On the breaking out of the rebellion, his regiment
was one of the first to reach Washington. At the battle of Bull Run, this regiment greatly distinguished itself, but Col. Corcoran was taken prisoner. He remained in cruel captivity until August,
1862, when he was exchanged, and drew his sword again in defense of American nationality.




'WAR AND ITS HORRORS.                      177
It was now noon, the blazing noon of a July day. The storm of battle
was raging in its most extended and utmost fury, and all the energies
of the combatants were roused to the highest pitch. Missiles of destruction were falling every where, over a space covering probably twenty
square miles. Shells from the rebel batteries even penetrated the streets
of Centreville, and shot from our heavy Parrott guns must have plunged
into the intrenchments at Manassas. The roar of the cannonade was so
deafening, that it entirely drowned the rattle of musketry, and its unintermitted thunder peal was heard even in Alexandria and Washington.
Our troops had been up all night, had undergone a long march, were
faint and exhausted. But as they- pressed on, driving the foe before them,
new batteries, manned by fresh troops, were continually opening. From
lanassas, recruits were unintermittedly sent up,'to strengthen the wavering lines of the foe. The 69th New York took and lost a commanding
position, it is said, eight times in succession. At length, utterly exhausted,
and driven back by overpowering numbers, they threw the~mselves, pantinlg and fainting, upon the ground, when the 3d Connecticut came rushing
through the smoke of the conflict, swept up the hill like a whirlwind, unfurled the " Stars and Stripes" over the captured guns, and gave three
cheers, which blended exultingly with the roar of the battle. It was
remarkable, that as our troops advanced, the vanquished masses of the
enemy were continually increasing in number, not merely from being
driven in upon themselves, but from reinforcements from Manassas.
Never was a battle fought more bravely. Every regiment merited its
country's pride and gratitude. 13urnside there developed that heroism
which has given his name national renown. And the gallant young Governor and chieftain, Sprague, of Rhode Island, carved a device uipon his
escutcheon, which will prove him to be one of Nature's noblemen through
all coming time. The writer is not unfamiliar with the wars of Europe,
with the campaigns of Napoleon and Wellington, and Marlborough, and
Prince Eugene, and Julius Caesar, and he hazards nothing in the assertion,
an assertion which few competent military men will deny, that the battle
at Bull Run was sagaciously planned and magnificently fought. The disaster which ensued was one of those calamities to which all armies are
exposed. It was simply another Waterloo.
Three o'clock in the afternoon came, and the victory was apparently
ours.' Notwithstanding all the advantages which the enemy enjoyed in
position and superior numbers, the Union troops had driven them, in a
clean sweep, about two miles, had gained complete possession of the Warrenton road, from the Stone bridge westward, and had removed the obstructions, to enable Schenck's brigade, and Ayres's and Carlisle's battery,
to join them. Wilcox's and IHoward's brigades were on the right, fighting
like veterans, supported by the brigades of Porter and Franklin, with the
cavalry under Palmer. Sherman's brigade was in the centre, upon the
road. Keyes' brigade, of Tyler's division, was fiercely assailing the batteries on the left, near Stone Bridge. The batteries of Ricket and Griffin
were on a hill side, the target for a tempest of shot from the batteries of
the foe.
12




t17%.          CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
Up to this time, all the men appeared cool and fearless-in the midst of
the storm of lead and iron which fell around.them. Col. Cameron had
been borne from the field in an ambulance, mortally wounded.: The rear
of the field seemed filled with those who- were being carried on litters, or
were hobbling along to the hospitals.  Gen. McDowell and all his generals were in the midst of the fighlt, sharing the perils of the young and
inexperienced troops, who needed the encouragement which the utter disregard of shot and shell by their officers presented. Our. troops were quite
exhausted.. They had beeni-fighting, without a moment's intermission,
from half-past ten in the morning, under a blazing sun, and choked with
the dust and the smoke of the battle. They had been up most of the
night, and had encountered a fatiguing march. To relieve themselves
from encumbrance in the arduousness of the conflict, they had laid aside
their knapsacks, and consequently could not refresh themselves even with
a hurried lunch. 
Still, at this moment, the victory seemed to be decisively with the
Union troops. "When I entered the field at two o'clock," says a correspondent of the Charleston (S. G.) Mercury, one of the most decided of the
rebel journals,', the fortunes of the day were dark. The remnnants of the
regiments, so badly injured or wounded and worn, as they staggered out,
gave gloomy pictures of the scene, and as, up to this time, after four hours
of almost unprecedented valor and exertion, no point had been gained, the
event was doubtful-hope seemed almost gone."
As on the battle-field of Waterloo, Wellington was looking anxiously
for the coming of Blucher with a reenfbrcement of 65,000 Prussians, and
Napoleon was watching for the arrival of Marshal Grouchy, who had been
detached to pursue Blucher and absorb his energies; so, in this great and
hard-fought battle at Bull Run, the rebels were looking hourly for Gen.
Johnston's army of the Shenandoah, and the patriots were looking with
equal eagerness, for the arrival of Patterson who, with 30,000 men, about
forty miles distant, had been entrusted with the duty of assailing Johnston,
and preventing his junction with the rebel troops. Johnston was the
Blucher, and Patterson the Grouchy of this our miniature Waterloo.
Gen. J. E. Johnston, who had assumed command of the rebel army,
immediately upon his arrival, in his official report makes the following
statement:
"About 2 o'clock an officer of Gen. Beauregard's Adjutant-General's
Office, galloped from Manassas to report to me that a United States army
had reached the line of'lManassas Gap railroad, was marching towards us,
and then but three or four miles on our left flank."
As at Waterloo it Was Blucher, not Grouchy, who came, so here it
turned out that it was a division of Johnston's and not Patterson's army
who were coming down upon the field. The rebel reinforcements pressed
down with great impetuosity upon our wearied troops. Still the Unionists
for a short time resisted these overpowering numbers with great valor,
until overpowered,, and threatened with assault upon both flanks, it was
found necessary to retreat. A portion of Johnston's army had reached
the field on Friday. The division which at this time arrived was that of




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WAR AND ITS HORRORS.                        179
Kirby Smith. It was in itself four thousand strong, and was accompanied
by other reenforcements.
The panic, as it is called, into which the Union troops were thrown,
was by no means a senseless fright. The Federal army was composed
generally of remarkably intelligent men, many of them as capable as their
officers of forming an opinion for themselves. The scene, as described by
many eye witnesses, must have been appalling. In a lull of the battle,
there suddenly appeared, far away upon the right, a dense body; of fresh
men, marching down upon the field. The black, massive column, as it
debouched from among the hills, lengthened out regiment after regiment,
till ten thousand men appeared in a new line of battle. And still the flood
rolled on until it formed three sides of a hollow square, enclosing our
exhausted troops with 30,000 combatants, many of them quite fresh. A
mass of cavalry occupied the centre, and the whole came moving on in all
the pomp and terribleness of war.
" Our awe-struck legions," says one who witnessed the scene, "could
not take their eyes from the majestic pageant, and, though experiencing a
new necessity, were frozen at the silght. We at once comprehended we
were beaten. In vain did our startled faculties dart alertly hither and
thither f'or some hope. In vain did our thoughts turn quickly upon Patterson. It would not do. Johnston was there before us, with his cool,
fresh thousands, and our Waterloo was lost."
Slowly, sadly, and in perfect order they comrnenced the inevitable
retreat, protected by Burnside's gallant brigade, and Gov. Sprague's Rhode
Islanders, when a body of regulars, still maintaining the fight, got out of
ammunition, and sent their caissons back with the horses thundering along,
at full gallop, for a fresh supply. These ponderous carriages were driven
recklessly and with almost unearthly clamor down the road, scattering the
ranks of the regiments in every direction. The inexperienced troops, witnessing these carriages thus rushing to the rear, interpreted it as the
frantic flight of the regulars. Their ranks were broken by the reckless
driving; remediless disorder ensued; officers and men were intermingled;
the teamsters in the vicinity caught the fright, and lashed their horses for
escape. A scene of horror ensued which can hardly be exaggerated. At
the bridge the passage was choked by overturned caissons and ambulances,
while the shells of the rebels, from  many batteries, were falling and
exploding in the midst of the frantic throng. Sauve qui pett, —" Save
himself who can," then became apparently the watchword for one and all.
It is manifest that if Gen. McDowell could have commenced the battle
at six o'clock, as he intended, instead of half-past ten, or if Gen. Patterson
had appeared on the field with his division, or had even kept Johnston
occupied, the victory would have been decisively with the Union troops.
An officer in the rebel army wrote to the Richmond Dispatch, July
29th: " There is no earthly doubt that our army was overcome several
times between twelve and three, and that the bulletins, sent by the enemy,
are in the main correct. But, alas!'the best laid plans of men and mice
aft gang aglee,' and, in this instance, verily there was a great slip between
the cup and the lip."




180               CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA?
The rout which ensued was terrible, though it has been greatly misrepresented. The whole force which marched upon Manassas, and which
was scattered along the ravine of Bull Run for a distance of fiom eight
to ten miles, including the strong body held in reserve at Centreville,
amounted, according to the army rolls, to, just 32,500 men. Of these,
about 13,000 were engaged in the stern conflict at the Stone Bridge. Not
one half of these, not more than five thousand men, were thrown into confusion. In their sudden panic all organization was lost. Officers were
separated from their men, and these broken regiments became but a
tumultuous mass ruslling from destruction. Thus the whole road, for a
distance of three miles, presented but the most frightful spectacle of a dense,
struggling multitude of fugitives, artillery, infantry, cavalry and baggage
wagons, all blended in inextricable confusion. A more awful scene than
such a rout exhibits earth never beholds. No imagination can picture it.
This tumultuous column, three miles in length, recovered from its
frenzy at Centreville. ]But as all the regiments were broken up, officers
and men all scattered, nothing remained but for the flood to roll on the
great highway to Washington. But there were 25,000 men who had no
share whatever in the panic or the flight, and who returned to their quarters on the Potomac, in as good order as they marched to iManassas. But
the flight of the five thousand, as described by many eye witnesses, presented a scene which must have been sublime and appalling. It is not
strange that those who gazed upon it, and participated in it, should have
imagined that the whole army was destroyed. The rush was like that of
a mountain torrent, detached from its bed. For nearly three miles the
road was choked, and the fields on either side crowded with the d6bris.
Btoken regiments, bleeding men, wounded horses frenzied in agony, army
wagons, caissons, heavy guns, cavalry, were all flying so wildly that no
individual energy or courage could by any possibility stop the flood. The
cool and the brave were swept along by that impulse with which terror
goaded the multitude, and which no power but that of God could check.
Many riderless horses, in their death agony, plunged through the mass
striking down and trampling the fugitives.  The exhausted.,and the
wounded, by the roadside, seeking the protection of a tree or a rock,
appealed piteously, but in vain to their comrades to help them.
No man seemed to think of his neighbor. The artillery horses, goaded
to their utmost speed, dragged the heavy guns thundering along, overpowing and crushing every thing in their way. An artilleryman was running
between the fore and after wheels of his gun carriage, where he had got
entangled in the flight. HIe could not extricate himself, for the drivers
were spurring their horses to the top of their speed. I-Ie was hanging on
with both hands, vainly striving to leap upon the gun. A more agonizing
expression was never stamped upon a human face. His strength was failing. Ife could not cling much longer. As they were descending a steep
hill, the carriage bounded from some irregularity of the road, when he lost
his hold and fell. The ponderous wheel passed over him, crushing flesh
and bones, and leaving hardly the semblance of humanity in the mangled
mass behind. Borodino hardly exceeded the scene in its confusion and




WAR AND  ITS HORRORS.                        181
timult. The rout did not cease until Centreville was reached. It was only
checked by the sight of Miles' reserve, there marshaled in order on the hill.
During this rout a gentleman in citizen's dress, who had thrown off his
coat and seized a musket, was seen trying desperately to rally the soldiers
at the point of the bayonet. It was the Hon. Mr. Washburne, from Illinois. Another member of Congress, the Hon. Mir. Kellogg, was bravely,
but unavailingly, trying to aid him  in this effort. At Germantown,
Lieut. Brisbane, a truly chivalrous young officer, formed a line of artillerists across the road, and effectually arrested further disorder.
The question is often -asked, Why did not the foe pursue. This question is satisfactorily answered in their own words. Gen. J. E. Johnston
says, in his official report, " The apparent firmness of the United States
troops at Centreville, who had not been engaged, checked our pursuit;
the strong forces occupying the works near Georgetown, Arlington, and
Alexandria; the certainty, too, that Gen. Patterson, if needed, would
reach Washington, with his army of thirty thousand men, sooner than we
could; and the inadequate means of the army in ammunition, provisions
and transportation;-prevented any serious thoughts of advancing against
the Capital. It is certain that tile fresh' troops within'the works were, in
number, quite sufficient for their defense."
The Federal loss in this disaster consisted of 4T1 killed, 1011 wounded,
and about 1,000 prisoners, many of whom were wounded. 0 We also lost
25 cannon, 17 of them  rifled, 2,00 muskets, 8,000 knapsacks and blankets, 13 wagon loads of provisions, and a large quantity of ammunition.
The rebels, in whose statements but very little reliance can be placed,
declare their loss in killed and wounded to be 1,599.
The large loss of knapsacks, &c., was owing to the fact that many of
our troops, before going into the fight, divested themselves of these encumbrances. They were deliberately taken off and piled in heaps, ready to be
resumed when the conflict was over. In the retreat, but few of the regiments left by the same route over which -they -ad $dvanced, and thus
these articles were abandoned, to be gathered up by-the rebels at their
leisure.  Several of the teamsters, who had passed beyond Centreville, had
unhitched their teams to rest and feed. VWhen the panic arose, they leaped
upon their horses and galloped: from the field. Thus, thirteen wagon loads
of provisions were left, and also wagons containing three thousand bushels
of oats. The boasting of the rebels was marvelous. They claimed to have
taken 22,000 stand of arms, 20,000 haversacks and blankets, and -" an
amount of provision sifficient to:feed 50,000 men tir a year."'
Volumes might be filled with'incidents gleaned from this battle-field.
Just in the path of the artillery of our victorious columns, as they swept
across the great Warrenton turnpike, there was the dwelling of a widow,
Mrs. Judith I-Ienry, an estimable Christian lady. She was confined to her
bed *ith sickness which did not allow of her removal. There she lay, all
helpless,: just between the contending armies, as the storm of war raged
around her dwelling, bullets piercing it, and shot and shells crashiag
through the walls and the roof. Three times her own body was piem ced
by bullets or fragments of shells. Iter bed was drenched with blood.




182                OIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
She lived just long enough after the battle to say, to those who came to
look upon her mangled franme, that through all the thunder and the tunmult
of this tempest of human passion, her soul was at peace —a peace which
mutilation and death, approaching in their most terrific forms, could not
disturb. Seldom has there been witnessed a more signal triumph of
Christian faith. She sweetly fell asleep in Jesus.
Most of the army retired from the field in good order. It was necessary to return to Washington and Alexandria, as the term of service of a
large proportion of the troops, who were but. three months' men, had expired. They were to be immediately paid off and dismissed, while others
were to take their place. Gen. Keyes' brigade, which was composed of
the lst, 2d and 3d Connecticut regiments, and the 2d Mlaine regiment,
were in the hottest of the fight. This brigade retired, compact and firm,
in the rear of the fugitives, and arrived at Centreville about 9 o'clock in
the evening. Here they prepared to make their stand for the night, the
Connecticut troops occupying the quarters they had left in the morning,
and the Maine troops taking position on a neighboring hill. The battleworn, exhausted, but yet intrepid soldiers, had hardly established their
camp, when they received orders to continue their march to WVashington.
On the arrival of Tyler's division at Centreville, in the midst of a scene
of astounding confusion, a council of war was called. It was held at a rail
fence by the road-side, the inundation of'ruin still rolling by. It was the
unanimous opinion that it was not best to intrench at Centreville, but to
return to the positions occupied before the movement.  Gen. McDowell
was utterly prostrated by fatigue, sleeplessness and anxiety. I-Ie said to
Gen. Tyler, "Can you hold the enemy in check, and give me fifteen
minutes to decide."
" Yes," was the reply, "fifteen minutes or half an hour; just as long
as you please."
The words were hardly uttered ere Gen. M~cDowell's head dropped
upon his bosom, aVd he was soundly asleep. Gen. Tyler, immediately
ordering his division into line, to show a firm front, drew his watch from
his pocket, and stood with it in his hand. W, hat a scene for the painter!
The gloom of the approaching night, the firm ranks holding the enemy at
bay, the. ceaseless current of fugitives, exhausted, rolling languidly by; the
heroic chieftain asleep, surrounded by the officers of his staff. History
affords but one parallel, and that marvelously similar. It was the few
moments' sleep of Napoleon at midnight, surrounded by his generals, after
the disaster at Leipsic., For nearly half an hour the enemy was held in
check. Gen. McDowell was then again aroused. For a moment he looked
around bewildered, and then recovering himself after this briefest refreshment, ordered a retreat, in accordance with the judgment of the council
of war. This was effected in perfect order, the three Connecticut regiments leaving the field without the loss of a musket.
Tyler was by this decision ordered to return to Falls Church, Schenck
to his camp in Tyler's rear on the railroad, Sherman to Fort Corcoran,
lHe'ntzelman to Alexandria, Richardson to the Chain Bridge, and the regulars, with ]Burnside's brigade, to Washington. By some misunderstanding,




WAR  AND  ITS  HIORRORS.                          183
or change of orders, Schenck's brigade passed over the Potomac into Washington, and Richardson's brigade halted at Arlington Heights.  In this
state of things, Keyes' brigade, which had halted at Falls Church, being
unsupported by Schenck, Gen. Tyler ordered Gen. Keyes to strike the tents
of his own and Schenclk's brigade, and to remove them, with all the camp
equipage, &c., to Fort Corcorav or to Alexandria.
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It was now near midnight. The Connecticuqt troops immediately took
up their line of march, and weary as they were, and though a drenching
storm was raging, they cheerfully relinquished the direct turnpike route,
and took the roundabout way through Vienna and Falls Church, that they
might save the property which had been left there.
Passing through Vienna, they reached Falls Church about six o'clock
Monday }forning.  Transportation-master Hodge had  gone direct to
Washington for teams. HIe returned with them in the afternoon. They
were immediately loaded with the stores which had accumulated there,
and at eight o'clock in the evening they again commenced their march of




184                Ol1IL WAR IN  AMERICA.
about three miles to the camp of Gen. Schenck's brigade, where they
remained for the night. The next morning, Tuesday, they sent in 194
wagons and two long trains of cars on the railroad, heavily laden with
military stores, which, but for these efforts, would all have been lost. The
amount thus saved was valued at 200,000 dollars; and also the standing
camps of two brigades. Great credit is due Transportation-master I-Iodge,
for his energy in accdmplishing this feat.
There were many regiments who ennobled themselves in this conflict,
and in the cool courage with which they covered the retreat of those
troops who had been disorganized; but who were thrown into no more disorder than were the veteran troops of Napoleon at Waterloo. No battlefield ever exhibited nobler specimens of individual heroism. Capt. Putnam was knocked down by a shot in the shoulder. "Our captain is
killed," one cried out. " No, he is not killed, boys," shouted the captain,
springing to his feet.'Forward for God and liberty."  Lieut. Welch
stood unmoved amidst a storm of shot. As his companions retired he said,
" So help me God, I will never run. I will die here." And thus he
stood until the rebels were within twenty feet of him, when he was shot
down and trampled beneath their feet. A young man by the name of
Casey, of the ist Minnesota, refused to retire with his regiment, but stood
alone, rapidly loading and firing as he breasted the on-coming surges of
the war. Lieut. Periam, to save the heroic young man from destruction,
rush3d forward with drawn sword and threatened to cut him down if he
did not immediately retreat. "Cut away," said young Casey, "I had
rather be killed by you than by the rebels," and he stood and fired again
and again, before he could be persuaded, by the voice of affection, slowly
to retire.
The New York p1st fought, as it were, a duel with the Alabama 1st,
and drove them at the point of the bayonet from the field. Col. Meagher,
the Irish orator, was conspicuous amidst the'stormiest scenes of that day
of blood, waving his green banner along the lines of the hottest fire.
A corporal of the M3/ichigan 4th, who was wounded in the leg, became
separated fiom his regiment, and, as night came on, wandered bewildered
through the woods. In the morning he espied a rebel picket, and, conscious that escape was hopeless in his exhausted and wounded condition,
he walked deliberately up and surrendered himself to the sentry. To his
surprise, the rebel soldier received him with great kindness, giving him
food and drink, and pointed him to a negro cabin, where he might lie
down in perfect safety and refresh himself with sleep, and then go on his
way securely. IHe added:
" I am a Union man, but I preferred to volunteer to fight, rather than
to be impressed. I hoped also thus to save my property, and I must trust
to luck for the future. If we meet again in battle I will try not to shoot
you; and do you be careful not to hit me."
]Dr. J. C. Nott, a rebel. eye-witness, and who is pronounced  by the
editor of a Mobile journal to be eminently trustworthy, has published in
that journal an account of the battie, as lhe viewed it. He writes:
"I saawv ur reinforcements pouring in with the rapidity and eagerness




WAR AND ITS HORRORS.                        185
of a fox chase, and was satisfied that they would drive everything before
them. No one Call imagine such a grand, glorious picture as these patriots
presented, rushing to the field through the masses of wounded bodies
which strewed the roadside as they passed along. I could see a regiment
of infantry coming in a trot, with their bright muskets glittering in the
sun; then would come a battery of artillery, each gun-carriage crowded
with men, and drawn by four horses in full gallop. Next came troops of
cavalry, dashing with the speed of M/[urat; after these followed, with
almost equal speed, wagons loaded with ammunition, etc., screaming all
the while,' push ahead, boys,'  pitch into the d-d Yankees,''drive them
into the Potomac.' T/8s kcept k p from Cbout mid-day'ntil dark, and I
felt as if the Alps themselves could not withstand such a rush."
Immediately after the battle the country was filled with the most painful rumors of the treatment by the rebels of the Union soldiers who fell
into their hands as prisoners or as wounded, and also of the indignities
perpetrated upon the bodies of the dead. These reports became so widely
circulated, and were so awful in their character, that a joint committee of
the Senate and the I-ouse of the United States Congress, was appointed to
" collect the evidence with regard to the barbarous treatment, by the
rebels, at Manassas, of the remains of officers and soldiers of the United
States, killed in battle there."  After careful investigation, the Report
was drawn up by the Honorable B. F. Wade, of Ohio.
Dr. J. M. Homiston, surgeon of the New York 14th, testified that he
and his companions were thrust into an old building, with nothing but the
bare floor to sleep upon, and were left twenty-four hours without either
water or food. The Union surgeons who had remained upon the ground
to assist the wounded, and had thus allowed themselves to be taken prisoners, were not permitted to perform surgical operations upon their friends,
but these helpless sufferers were placed in the hands of ignorant pretenders
to experiment upon. Some of these self-styled doctors had no knowledge
of their profession, were intentionally cruel to those whom they called
"d-d Yankees," and hacked off legs and arms in the most frightful manner. Corporal Prescott was a wounded Union soldier, a young:nan of
accomplished character and liberal education. Dr. Homiston begged the
privilege of amputating his limb, but was brutally refused. I-Ie, however,
saw the sufferer under the hands of -his tormentors. lie testifies,
" The assistants were pulling on the flesh at each side, trying to get
flap enough to cover the bone. They had'sawed off the bone without
leaving any of the flesh to form the flaps to cover it, and, with all the force
they could use, they could not get flap enough to cover the bone. They
were then obliged to saw off about an inch more of the bone, and even
then, wvhen they came to put in the stitches, they could not approximate
the edges within less than an inch and a half of each other. Of course, as
soon as there was any swelling, the stitches tore out, and the bone stuck
through again."  Another operation was soon performed, but the unhappy
young man, under such treatment, sank away and died.
A large number of the wounded Union soldiers were thuddled into a
room, and left uncared for on the bare floor. " They were lying on the




186                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
floor," testifies Dr. Elomiston, "as thickly as they could be laid."  Tortured with that thirst which ever accompanies gunshot wounds, they were
refused water. The prisoners caught a few precious drops from the rain
which was falling from the eaves. Through the night no light was in the
room. No one could move without danger of treading upon the wounded.
Several were found dead the next morning. " The young surgeons, who
seemed to delight in hacking and butchering these brave defenders of our
country's flag, were not permitted to perform any operations upon the rebel
wounded.".The battle took place on Sunday. Many of the Union soldiers were left upon the open field, through a drenching storm, and then
through the blaze of a July sun, until Wednesday morning.  "When
brought in, their wounds were completely alive with the larvae deposited
there by the flies."
One of the rebel surgeons was overheard to say, " that he wished he
could take out the hearts of the d-d Yankees as easily as he could cut
off their legs."  Many of the wounded, while lying helpless in their blood,
were shot and bayoneted by the rebels. Louis Francis, of the [New York
14th, testifies,
" I was attacked by two rebel soldiers, and wounded in the right knee
with the bayonet. As I lay on the sod they kept bayoneting me, until I
received fourteen wounds. I lay on the ground until 10 o'clock next day.
I was then removed in a wagon to a building; my wounds examined and
partially dressed. On the Saturday following we were carried to.Ianassas, and from there to the general hospital at Richmond. My leg having
partially mortified, I consented that it should be amputated, which operation was performed by a young man. I insisted that they should allow
Dr. Swalm to be present, for I wanted one Union man there if I died
under the operation. The stitches and the band slipped from neglect, and
the bone protruded; and about two weeks after another operation was
performed, at which time another piece of the thigh bone was sawed off
Six weeks after the amputation, and before it healed, I was removed to
the tobacco factory."
Two operations were subsequently performed on Francis-one at Fortress {on'roe, and one at Brooklyn, New York-after his release from captivity.
These are revolting disclosures to make respecting our own countrymen, but the interests of humanity demand that such outrages should not
be covered up. The question painfully arises, Whence the origin of this
fiend-like spirit? Nothing corresponding to it can be found in the North
or the West. It is only in the slaveholding South that the heart of man
becomes thus brutal; and there can be no other conceivable cause than the
barbarizing influence of slavery.
The treatment of the dead was still more savage than that of the
wounded and the prisoners. Many of the dead were buried with their
faces downward as a token of ignominy, were stripped of all their clothing,
and portions of the bodies were boiled to obtain their bones as relies.
The bones of the legs were taken for drumsticks; ear-rings and fingerrings were carved out of "Yankee bones" to send as souvenirs to the




WAR AND ITS HORRORS.                                      18T
female rebels, who were no less ferocious and bloodthirsty than the males;
and skulls were mounted for goblets and punch bowls. This is not civilization; it is barbarism.  These are not random  stories, but facts carefully
collected by the Congressional Committee.  The following are among the
closing words of this report:
"Every step of this monstrois treason  has been  marked by violence
and crime. No transgression has been too great, no wrong too startling,
for its leaders.  They disregarded the sanctity of the oaths they had taken
to support the Constitution; they repudiated all their obligations to the
people of the free States; they deceived  and  betrayed  their own fellowcitizens, and  crowded their armies with  forced levies; they drove from
their midst all who would not yield to  their despotism, or filled their
prisons with men who would not enlist under their flag.  They have now
crowned the rebellion  by the perpetration  of deeds scarcely known even
to savage warfare.  The investigations of your Committee have established
this fact beyond controversy.  The witnesses called  before us were men
of undoubted veracity and character.  Some of them  occupy high  positions in the army, and others high positions in  civil life.  Differing in
political sentiments, their evidence presents a reimarkable concurrence of
opinion and of judgment.   Our fellow  countrymen, heretofore sufficiently
impressed  by the generosity  and forbearance of the government of the
United States, and by the barbarous character of the crusade against it,
-\ill be shocked by the statements of these unimpeached and imimpeachable witnesses; and foreign nations must, with  one accord, however they
have hesitated heretofore, consign to lasting odinum  the authors of crimes,
which, in all their details, exceed the worst excesses of the sepoys of India."
NoTEA.-rig. Gen. Vmn. S. Rosecrans (page 160, et seq.) was born in Ohio, Dec. 6, 1819. IIis
parents were fiom Wyoming Valley, having emigrated in early life to Ohio. His paternal ancestors
were from Amsterdam, Holland.  His mother was M;iiss Hopkins, a descendant of an earnest
revolutionary soldier. Close application to study fitted young Rosecrans for entrance, at eighteen,
to the Academy at West Point, where lie graduated with very high honors, in 1842, and at once
was assigned a position at Fortress Monroe.  After assisting at West Point, in instruction, for
three or four years, he was detailed to several important posts in the army, until 1853, when ill
health compelled him to resign his commission. The services of so valuable an officer were too
highly prized to be relinquished at once, and he was granted leave of absence. IIls resignation
was reluctantly accepted in 185i. He then remained in Cincinnati, devoting himself to mercantile
pursuits, until called to arms by the present fratricidal war.
Gen. McClellan, on being called into service, at once selected General Rosecrans as one of his
Aids.  Subsequently, Gov. Dennison appointed him colonel of 23d Regiment, Ohio Volunteers.
Soon after a brigadier-generalship was conferred upon him by President Lincoln. Gen. Rosecrans
succeeded Gen. McClellan in command of the forces in Westernl Virginia. H-is untiring energy,
his ability to command, his gentlemanly courtesy, and his unflinching firmness in danger, have
rendered him deservedly a favorite both with the men he commands, and with the nation at large.




CHAPTER VII.
HAMPTONT, CARNI.FEX FERRY, AND HATTERAS INLET.
RECAPTURE OF THE S. J. WARING.-RE-ENFORCEMENTS.-BURNING OF HAMPTON.-DECREE OF
JEFF. DAVIS.-SOUTHERN DESPOTISM.-VALOROUS EXPLOIT.-CARNIFEX FERRY.-PETTY SKIRMISHES. - FORTS [ATTERAS AND CLARK. —SECRET -EXPEDITION. — BOMBARDMENT OF THE
FORTS.-SURRENDER OF COm. BARRON.-CAPTURE OF THE FANNY BY THE REBELS.-CONFLICT
AT THE LIGHT HOUSE.
THE rebel privateers were now active, plundering and destroying.
The schooner S. J. Waring was captured by the rebel steamer, Jeff. Davis,
and a prize crew put on board to take her into a rebel port. The steward, Williamn'Tillman, a heroic young man, in whose veins some drops of
Ethiopic blood mingled with the Caucasian current, by the unassisted
energies of his own arm, recovered the vessel, killing three of the rebels,
and compelling the other two to assist him in working the schooner to its
home in the North. Thus the recaptured prize, valued at many thousand
dollars, was conveyed in safety from off the port of Charleston, to the
~harbor of New York.
The many infirmities of the venerable and revered Gen. Scott, now
nearly eighty years of age, rendered it necessary, in his own view, that in
the terrible conflict into which it was manifest that the nation was plunged,
the active command of the army should be surrendered to a younger and
more vigorous arm than his own. Major-General MlcClellan, the officer to
whom we have before alluded, who had acquired some celebrity by his
Report of the Crimean War, who had signalized himself on the field of
Mexico, and who had just conducted a brilliant campaign in Western
Virginia, was summoned to Washington to takle command of the army of
the Potomac. The eyes of the whole community were directed to this
young general; and Gen. Burnside, at a public meeting in New York,
paid the following beautiful tribute to his worth, which tribute inspired all
hearts with confidence in the new commander.
"I have known Gen. 3M/cClellan most intimately, as students together,
as soldiers in the field, as private citizens. For years we have lived in the
same family, and I know him as well as I know any human being on the
face of the earth. And I know that no more honest, conscientious man
exists, than Gen. McClellan. I know that no feeling of ambition, beyond
that of the good and the success of our cause, ever enters his breast. All
that he does, is with a single eye, a single view to the success of this
Government, and the breaking down of this rebellion.  I know that




HAMPTON, CARNIFEX FERRY, AND HATTERAS INLET. 189
nothing under the sun, will ever induce that man to swerve from what he
knows to be his duty. He is an honest, Christian-like and conscientious
man; and now let me add one thing, that he has the soundest head, and
the clearest military perception, of any man in the United States."
Even while our armies were on the retreat from Bull Run, orders were
telegraphed from Washington, throughout the country, for large re6nforcements. It is said that under the impulse which that disaster created,
sixty thousand enlisted in two d1ays. Gen. McDowell returned to his
quarters at Arlington Heights, and the regiments rapidly resumed their
old positions. The term of service of the gallant Massachusetts Sixth, who
had enlisted for three months only, had now expired.  Under the exigence
Gen. Butler requested them to remain for ten days longer, and, as one
man, they acceded to his request. The army of the Potomac was speedily
increased by the addition of one hundred thousand men.
The rebels were greatly animated by the result of the conflict at Bull
Run. Multitudes crowded their ranks, many-were gathered by the energies of the most merciless conscription. Their batteries began to frown
all along the Potomac. For some reason, which has never been satisfactorily explained, the rebels were permitted to rear these formidable ramparts upon the bluffs of the river, almost unassailed. Our ascending and
descending ships were compelled to run the gauntlet of these hostile batteries, until finally they became so numerous and formidable, that the
passage of the river was effectually closed. For many months a nation,
of twenty millions of people, were humiliated by the consciousness that;
their capital was beleaguered, and held in state of siege by a handful of
rebels.
A few miles out from Fortress Monroe, on the road to Yorktown, was
the village of Hampton, one of the oldest and most attractive villages of
Virginia, containing about five hundred houses, many of them quite ele.
gant. It was situated on the west side of a creek or arm of the sea, called
Hampton river. Most of the rebels had retired from the place in consequence of its dangerous proximity to Fortress Monroe.  Indeed, Gen.
Butler had, at one time, occupied it with a small force, but he had withdrawn his troops, and stationed themn on his own side of the river, which
was crossed by a bridge, lest they should be cut off, by the formidable
rebel force encamped a few miles distant at Yorktown.
At midnight of the 7th of August, the rebel General Magruder, with
about 6,000 men, approached HIampton and set it on fire, in all quarters.
His avowed object was to prevent the Union troops from occupying the
buildings during the winter. Dwellings and shops were fired, without
any warning, and many of the inhabitants, with great difficulty escaped
from the flames. It was a new scene, for our once happy and peaceful
country, in this horrid drama of civil war. The Union troops, though
few in number, had a short but brisk conflict with the foe, and th]uLS prevented them from crossing the river, and making an attack upon the
Federal lines, though they could do nothing to save the village.
The dwellings were all of wood and burned like tinder, and the leaping, crackling flames, fanned by the high wind, in a few hours laid all in




190                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
ashes. Thus wantonly were the homes of nearly three thousand people
destroyed. As a military measure it was entirely uncalled for, as Fortress
Monroe, within its vast enclosure of seventy acres, presented all the accommodation the Union troops in that vicinity could require. The destruction.
was generally attributed to the potency of whiskcey, that most mischievous
of all powers. Never did fiends enter upon war with more ferocity, than
these slaveholding rebels, fighting for the perpetuation and extension of
ignorance and slavery. The terrified inhabitants of Hampton, who had
not already left the place, many of whom were Unionists, as the torches
were applied, fled in all directions.  Some were seized and forced into the
ranks of the rebel army.
M~ir. Scofield, a Union man, originally from the North, with much difficulty effected his escape with his two motherless children, having, by this
cruel conflagration, lost his home, his business, his earthly all. As he was
fleeing for his life, he fell in with five little children, the family of a poox
man, who were sitting on the river's brink, shivering in their night clothes,
their despairing mother trying to console them; their father lost, they
knew not where. It was but little after midnight when the torches were
applied, and the region was illumined with the conflagration, as with the
blaze of noon-day.
The rebels manifested in every way how terribly they were in earnest,
while the United States Government continued disposed to treat them
with great leniency, still hoping for conciliation. The course pursued, at
this time, by the Border States, was very embarrassing; for, while they
arrayed themselves on the side of the Government, they were ever threatening to pass over and join the rebels, unless their mild policy of war was
pursued. Thus while the rebels struck the heaviest blows in their power,
with all the frantic energies of, desperation, the Government defended
itself; as a father would ward off the assaults of an insane child. The
rebels.ompelled every man capable of bearing arms, to enter their ranks;
they rallied the slaves by thousands, to work in their intrenchments;
would allow no one, under penalty of stripes and death, to speak for the
Union, and introduced a general reign of terror, unexceeded by that in
France under Danton and Robespierre. All the property of those who
did not side with the rebels was confiscated, and a general decree of ba-mishment was issued against them.
"We can not," said the New Orleans Delta, "afford to tolerate enemies in our midst, because, forsooth, they may have the discretion to keep
silent, and to bear no arms in their hands.  The man of Massachusetts, or
the man of Kentucky, living and perhaps thriving in our midst, has no
business, at this time, to be among us, if he allow a reasonable suspicion
to exist that he is not also cordially with us."
The decree of Jeff. Davis, issued on the 14th of August, ordering this
banishment, says, " I do hereby warn and require every male citizen of
the United States, of the age of fourteen and upwards, now within the
Confederate States, and adhering to the Government of the United States,
to depart from the Confederate States within forty days from the date of
this proclamation."




HAMPTON, CARNIFEX FERRY, AND HATTERAS INLET..91
For many months, there were large numbers of Union people at the
North, who had no suitable appreciation of the desperate nature of the
conflict. With the lingerings of kindly sympathies for their Southern
brethren, instead of regarding them as infuriate and desperate rebels, who
were to be struck down by the swiftest and the hardest blows, they were
disposed to treat them as alienated friends, who could be won back by
remonstrance and conciliation. Their programme for the war, was first a
show of power, then blank cartridges, and then, but not until every thing
else had failed, shot and shell.  a
Thus our army on the Potomac, of two hundred thousand men, for
seven months remained in their encampments, without striking an earnest
blow. Another fact, which operated fearfully against our military efficiency, was the strong pro-slavery sympathies of many of our leading generals, which rendered them reluctant to avail themselves, in any degree
whatever, of the services of colored men. These two mistakes cost us
millions of money, and tens of thousands of valuable lives. Our soldiers
had to fight with the spade in one hand, and the rifle in the other. This
double toil, all unnecessary, filled the hospitals and the distant grave-yards
of the army, with the noblest sons of our land. In view of this mode -of
conducting the warfare, so sparing of the blood, and of what was called the
property, of our enemies, so reckless of the lives of our own troops,. a Union
man at the South, wrote frantically to the North,
"When, in God's nanVe, will you awake at the North? It seems to us
here that you are all asleep. You are contending with an armed maniac,
and yet you measure your strength, as if you had only to manage a halfgrown boy."
And one of the most influential of the Parisian journals remarked,
"The refusal of the American Government, when struggling for existence,
to avail itself of the proffered aid of four millions of allies, thus compelling
those four millions to give their strength to the support of rebellion, excites
the contempt of every military man in Europe."
Bitter experience at length taught the country, that it was folly to
attempt to wage war in that spirit-that we must either fight with all our
energies, or submit to the domination of the slaveholders.
By the middle of August, the batteries of the rebels commanded a large
part of the Potomac, and, notwithstanding urgent reports were made to the
Government, that unless they were dislodged, the navigation of the river
would soon be completely closed, for some unexplained reason, no efforts
were made for their demolition. On the afternoon of the 16th of August,
two United States steamers, the Resolute and Reliance, were making a
reconnoissance in the vicinity of Matthias Point. They saw a boat filled
with barrels on the shore, probably placed there as a bait. A boat from
the Resolute, with six men, was sent to the beach. The moment the boat
touched the sand, a volley of musket balls, from the rebels in ambush, was
opened upon them. Three men were instantly killed, literally riddled
with balls, and a fourth severely wounded. The steamer immediately
threw canister and shrapnel into the thicket where' the treacherous foe
were lurking, and they were put to flight. The survivors succeeded in




192                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
taking the boat back to the ship, with their dead comrades lying outstretched in the bottom, and almost floating in their own blood. One of
them, John James Fuller, of Brooklyn, was pierced by ten balls; another
by seven.
The New Orleans Delta, of August 20th, contains an article which
strikingly shows how impossible it was for the great Western -States, to
accede to the slaveholders' demand of secession, and to allow the mouths
of the Mississippi, through which was their main channel to the commerce
of the world, to be held by a foreign gnd hostile power. Denouncing the
Kentuckians for their loyalty, it says,
"We will not pay the'blue grass' country of Kentucky for its'loyalty
to Lincoln, by opening our markets to its hemp fabrics. Let it lay in the
bed it has chosen, until it awakes to a sense of its duty as well as of its
interest. It is the clear duty of our government now to declare Kentucky
under blockade. If, in the existing state of affairs, a sea separated us
from that State, it would behoove us to close the ports of a people, who
seek for themselves profit by impoverishing us, and enriching our fies.
Kentucky and the West must be made to feel this war, and feel it until
they cry, ypeccavi, I have sinned."
The right of secession being admitted, the whole commerce of the
West, now with a population of 10,000,000, soon to increase to 100,000,000,
would be, as this menace shows, at the mercy of a foreign power, who
could at any time shut them up, like an imprisoned child, until they
should cry peccavi,. Peace, in this country, uponrthe basis of secession, is
a manifest impossibility. With union we can have peace, with secession
nothing but continued war.
The banishment of the loyal people from the Southern States often
caused inconceivable suffering. The family of Mr. Drew, originally from
Maine, was residing in Southern Arkansas, near the village of Fairview.
The family consisted of husband, wife and three children, and were living
in competence from the proceeds of a farm and a lumber yard. From the
commencement of the troubles, Arkansas was in a lawless condition.
TUnion men were shot and hung wherever found. Within three weeks
eight men, including two Methodist preachers, were shot, for their loyalty
to the United States Government. Mr., Drew was threatened with death,
and was in such peril, that he fled by night, intending to make his way as
best he could towards the North, directing his wife to settle up his affairs
and follow him, with whatever she could save from the wreck of their
little fortune.
Immediately upon Mr. Drew's escape, the rebels seized his lumberyard and all the available property, taking even the cow, the bread, the
meal, the molasses, and the bacon, leaving not one mouthful of food for
the mother and her children. They then ordered her to leave the State
immediately. She collected the few remaining effects of clothing, &c., in
four boxes, and hired a conveyance to take her partly on the way towards
the free States. But the heartless rebels took from her one of her boxes,
saying that three trunks were enough for a woman to travel with.
After many hardships, insults and dangers, she reached Cincinnati,




HAMPTON, CARNIFEX FERRY, AND  HATTERAS INLET. 193
Ohio, where she found sympathy and aid. She commenced her journey
with twenty dollars, and escaped from the dark realms of slavery with but
two dollars in her pocket, and her children barefooted and in rags. The
benevolent public in Ohio, whom slavery had not brutalized, supplied her
immediate wants, and provided her with means to reach her friends in
Maine. Whether her husband succeeded in effecting his escape; we have
llot been informed. The editor of the Cleveland  -Ierald, commenting
upon this fact, which fell under his personal observation, says,;" No one
could look on the poor little group of exiles, so shamefully treated by their
former neighbors, without cursing the heartless wretches, who thus waged
a merciless war upon hel.pless women and children."  This is but one of
innumerable cases which might be recorded. Volumes could be filled
with the narrative of similar outrages.
A proclamation containing the following sentiments was posted in the
streets of TMemphis, Tennessee.  " Our safety requires that those who do
not wish to abandon their allegiance to Lincoln's Government, whio are in
favor of negro equality, and the degradation of the white race, should leave
this city as soon as possible. These men must be compelled to leave here.
Let the proprietors of business houses, machine, carpenter and cabinet
shops, foundries, printing offices, paint and tailors' shops, hotels and boarding houses, report immediately the names of all those, who they know can
not be trusted as friends of the South.  Our gallant sons, who are anxious
to march wherever the service of the South requires them, wish to carry
with them the consoling thought, that they have not left behind them the
lurking enemy, who, while lingering around their homes and firesides,
would incite our negroes to insurrection, and bring the worst calamities on
our wives, our mothers, and our daughters."
This proclamation was issued the day before the vote was to be taken,
which was to decide whether the State should secede or not. Those who
were opposed to secession, were thus pronounced enemies of the white race,
friends of a servile insurrection, and of all the horrors with Nwhich imagination can picture such a scene. Rebels watched at the polls, and examined
every man's vote. Such was the liberty of suffrage which rebellion allowed.
The question is ever arising, Whence the origin of this spirit, so determined and so envenomed Z This malignity is found nowhere, save in the
slaveholding States. All the free States, without an exception, are living
together in perfect harmony. There is but one answer to this cquestion. It
arises from the antagonism between freedom and slavery. Dr. Smyth, a
prominent rebel of South Carolina, in a.pamphlet upon this subject, says,
"What is the difficulty, and what the remedy?t is found inv the
atheistic, red republican doctrine of the Declaration f In depedence!
Until thia-t is tra2mpled znfcer foot, there can, be no peace."
Early in September; an armed band of Secessionists in. FloridaY, calling
themselves the. coast quard, skirted the southern shore of that. peninsula in
a vessel, destroying the light-houses, and thus exposing the commerce of
the world, to the most fatal disasters on that perilous coast. WVhen we consider what a vast amount of English commerce penetrated those seas, the
13




194                CIVIL WAR  IN  AMERICA.
forbearance of England, in not uttering one word of remonstrance against
this barbarity, is worthy of especial notice. It is the more remarkable
when contrasted with the remonstrances uttered against blockading, with
the temporary obstruction of sunken ships, any of the harbors of the rebels.
In Charleston, S. C., the Vigilance Committee issued the following
decree. "'Resolved, that in future, any resident of Charleston and its
vicinity, who shall go to any of the 1Northern States, unless with previous
knowledge and consent of the Committee, shall not be permitted to return
to our community, under pain of such disabilities or punishment as the law
may decree."
Such was the rigorous nature of this new despotism, a despotism never
exceeded in severity within the limits of Christendom.  There was a small
but quite uninfluential and despised peace party at the North. The men
composing it were those who were originally in favor of altering the Constitution in accordance with the views of the slaveholders. They were in
cordial sympathy with the rebels, but, like them, did not design to have
our country dismembered, but, under the threat of dissolution, to have it
reorganized, with slavery its chief corner-stone, and with the whole power
of the Government in the hands of the slaveholders of the South, united
with what was called the democraticpcarty of the North. This peace party
was a very feeble and despised element of power, for all the most influential members of the old democratic party, and nearly all its rank and file,
joined heartily in the war for the Constitution and the Union.
These "' conservatists," who had been in favor of conciliating the slaveholders, by yielding entirely to their demands, after the fall of Sumter and
the universal uprising which that occasioned, no longer ventured to plead
for unconditional surrender to the rebels. Their original plan was, to force
upon the whole of the United States the Constitution the rebels had drawn
np, with Jeff. Davis as President.  That there was a party at the North in
favor of this, before the fall of Sumter, is a matter beyond all controversy.
The [New York HIIerald, in an article, March 20th, 1861, says,
" There is no point of difference between the Constitution of 1789 and
thait framed by the Congress at Montgomery, in which the provision8s of,
the latter are not ac improvementz tpo  the former.  It is especially necessary that the conservative masses of this metropolis should take the lead in
indorsing this Constitution, whichl the Confederate States of the South
lave adopted, and of signifying their willingness to acquiesce in the sarme.
The Southern Confederacy has a mighty destiny before it, and the only
way the Northern States can share it, and be saved from ruin, is by adopting the new Constitution."
Immediately after the fall of Sumter all such voices were hushed. The
uprising was so general and enthusiastic, that it was manifest to all, that
the North could, by no possibility, be induced to surrender its free institntions, and accept the new government of the slaveholders. Many who had
before been blinded, found their eyes now open to the real designs of the
rebels, and abandoning them entirely, became earnest advocates for the
Unllion. But others, under the title of the peacepcarty, kept up a senseless
clamor about the war, urging peace, without troubling themselves to state




HAMPTON, CARNIFEX FERRY, AND HATTERAS INLET. 195
upon what terms peace was possible. When the question was asked,' Shall we give up Washington to the rebels? shall we abandon to their
invasion those Border States which they demand, but which have voted to
continue with us? shall we surrender to the rebels the mouths- of the Mississippi, and all those forts in the Gulf, reared to protect the vast commerce
of the United States? " no answer could be obtained. Their conduct was
that of unreasoning, disappointed, and petulant children, seeking only to
find fault and to create difficulty.
The slaveholders were now convinced that they had undertaken more
than they could accomplish. They commenced their enterprise with no
real expectation of war. They had supposed, that with the abundant military preparation they had made, and with the strong disposition of the
North to the arts of peace, which they interpreted to signify cowardice,
the North would yield to menace, defiance and bluster, without a struggle.
They now began to comprehend their mistake; and, exasperated and
chagrined, reckless of consequences, earnestly demanded secession,\and a
separate government. Still, even in this hour, they knew that secession
would be a fatality to them, unless it embraced on their side Washington,
and all the Border slaveholding States, and the mouths of the Mississippi,
and all the magnificent domain extending west and south firom it to the
Pacific and the Isthmus.
Still they did not dare, a little handfill of about three hundred thousand slaveholders, openly to make this demand of a nation of 30,000,000,
lest it should excite the disgust and scorn of the world. They covered up
their audacious designs by the equivocal phrase, " The Southern people
simply wish to withdraw from the Union, and govern themselves."  This
seemed very reasonable to men in England and France, who did not know
what "withdrawing from the Union" meant. The peace party merited
the contempt it excited, both in the North and the South. The Memphis
Avalanche, of Sept. 5, gave utterance to the universal feeling it excited in
the South:
"The peace party of the North," says the Avalanche, " is turning out
to be an arrant humbug. It is mightily opposed to war, and intensely
desirous of peace, and yet unites with Lincoln, in his unconstitutional and
infernal scheme of compelling the South, by brute force, to yield up the
right of self-government, and submit to the rule of a vile abolitionist
despotism, headed by such a creature as Abe Lincoln. and the banditti
that surround him.
" They may hold their conventions, whine about peace, and pass their
canting resolutions until doomsday, but will never effect a peace on their
terms. They may lick the feet of the tyrant if it suits them, but the
South will continue to fight him, and against the Government of which
he is the dictator, and against the people whom he governs, until she
gets'rid of them forever. If they would restore peace, let them advocate
the unconditional cessation of this unrighteous war, and unconditional
acknowledgement of the right of the Southern people to gbvern themselves. That is the only solution of the difficulty."
The two hostile armies of the Potomac were now facing each others




196               CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
strongly intrenched, with a space of from five to fifteen miles between
them, where scouts and pickets were continually meeting, and petty skirmishes frequently arose. The heroic exploit of Capt. Win. E. Strong, of
the 1st Wisconsin regiment, in one of these adventures, merits special
notice. He was a young man, twenty-two years of age, of singular
athletic vigor, who had laid aside his books, as a student in Beloit College,
and entered the volunteer army. H-le was, early in September, out oil
picket duty, three miles in front of the National lines. Being mounted,
and in advance of his men, he was suddenly surrounded and taken prisoner
by the rebels. The incident cannot be better related than in his own
modest words.
"As I was passing through a thicket, I was surrounded by six rebel
soldiers, four infantry and two cavalry. The footmen were poorly dressed
and badly armed, having old, rusty, altered muskets. The cavalry were
well mounted, and well armed. Seeing I was caught, I thought it best to
surrender at once. So I said,' Gentlemen, you have me.' I was asked
various questions as to who I was, where I was going, to what regiment I
belonged, etc., all. of which I refused to answer. One of the footmen said,' Let us hang the d-d Yankee scoundrel,' and pointed to a convenient
limb. Another said,'No, let us take him to the camp and hang him
there.' One of the cavalry, who seemed to be the leader, said,'We will
take him to camp.'' They then marched me thr6ugh an open place, two footmen in front,
two in the rear, and a cavalry man on each side of me. I was armed with
two revolvers and my sword. After going some twenty rods, the sergeant,
who was on my right, noticing my pistols, commanded me to halt and give
them up, together with my sword. I said,'Certainly, gentlemen,' and
immediately halted. As I stopped, they all filed past me, and, of course,
were in front.
" We were, at this time, in an open part of the woods; but about sixty
yards to the rear, was a thicket of undergrowth. Thus everything was in'my favor. I was quick of foot and a passable shot. Yet the design of
escape was not formed, until I brought my pistol pouches to the front part
of my body, and my hands touched the stocks. The grasping my pistols
suggested my cocking them as I drew them out. This I did, and the
moment I got command of them, I shot down the two footmen nearest me,
about six feet off, one with each hand. I immediately turned and ran
toward the thicket in the rear. The confusion of my captors was apparently so great, that I had nearly reached covet before shots were fired at
me. One ball passed through my left cheek, passing out of my mouth.
Another one, a musket ball, went through my canteen.
"Immediately upon this volley, the two cavalry separated, one to my
my right, and the other to my left, to cut off my retreat, the remaining
two footmen charging directly towards me.. I turned, when the horsemen
got up, and fired three or four shots; but the balls flew wild. I still ran
on, got over a small knoll, and had nearly regained one of our pickets,
when I was headed off by both the mounted men.
"The sergeant called to me to halt and surrender. I gave no reply




-HAMPTON, CARNIFEX FERRY, AND HATTERAS INLET. 197'
but fired at him and ran in the opposite direction. He pursued me and
overtook me, and just as his horse's head was abreast of me I turned,
took good aim and pulled the trigger; but the cap snapped. At this time
his carbine was unslung, and he was holding it with both hands on the
left side of his horse. He fired, at my breast, without raising the piece
to his shoulder, and the shot passed from the right side of my coat, through
it and my shirt to the left, just grazing the skin.  The piece was so near
as to burn the cloth about the size of one's hand. I was, however, uninjured, at this time, save the shot through my cheek. I then fired at him
again, and brought him to the ground, hanging by his foot in the left stirrup, and his horse galloping toward his camp. - I saw no more of the horseman on my left, nor of the two footmen, but running on, soon camle to our
own pickets, uninjured, save the shot throtigh my cheek, but otherwise
much exhausted from my exertions."
On the 9th of September, there was an immense mass meeting in and
around Faneuil Hall in Boston, which was addressed by the most distinguished men of all parties. The following resolution will show the spirit
which was animating nearly the whole North.
"RIesolvecl, That in the noble words of Joseph Holt, of IKentucky,'What we now need is a patriotism, which, obliterating all party lines, and
entombing all party issues, says to the President of the United States,
HIere are our lives and our estates, use them fireely, use them boldly, but
use them successfully; for looking upon the graves of our fathers, and upon
the cradles of our children, we hlave sworn that, though all things else
should perish, this country and this Union shall stand."'
On the 10th of September, Gen. 1c1Clellan visited the Army of the
Potomac, and was introduced to the troops by President Lincoln, as their
Coinmander-in-chief.   I-lie was received with great enthusiasm. Inl reply
to the remark of a soldier, " General, we are anxious to wipe out B3ull
Run; we hope you will allow us to do it soon;" the prompt response
was, "Very soon, if the enemy does not run."  In the following terse
speech, the young general announced his plans for the future.
"Soldiers! we have had our last retreat. We have seen our last
defeat. You stand by me, and I will stand by youl and henceforth victory will crown our efforts."
On the afternoon of the 10th, there was a brief but spirited conflict, in
Western Virginia, at a place called Carnifex Ferry, on the banks of the
Gauley, one of the tributaries of the IKanawha.  The notorious Floyd was
there with an army of 5,000 rebels, strongly intrenched, with sixteen fieldpieces.  Generals Rosecrans and Benhamn, -with about 4,000 men, all from
Ohio, made a very resolute attack upon the intrenched foe, and the Federal troops fought with the most commendable bravery till night set in.
They slept upon their arms, resolved to renew the conflict and take the
ramparts by storm, with the earliest light of the morrow.
The dawn of the morning revealed the deserted ramparts of the foe.
During the night Floyd had fled, destroying the trestle bridge across the
Gauley, and all the flats upon the shore. The Union troops immediately
took possession of the camp of the rebels, finding there a large quan.tity of




198                    CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
baggage and military stores, which the rebels had been unable to remove.
The personal baggage of Floyd and of most of his officers fell into the
hands of the victors.  The Federal loss amounted to fifteen killed and
seventy wounded. The loss of the rebels is not known. They fought
behind their intrenchments, and their statement is, that they suffered the
loss of but one killed and ten wounded.  We hardly know how to reconcile it with chivalry, that after so bloodless a conflict, behind intrenchments so strong that but one man was killed in a four hours' battle, they
should have retired so precipitately in the night, before inferior numbers.
The writer is constrained to say liat no reliance whatever can be placed
in the representations of the rebels, as to the numbers they led into action,
or the losses they encountered.
It is worthy of notice, that the first intelligence Gen. Rosecrans received of the retreat of the rebels, was brought to the camp just about
daylight by one of those ever faithful friends of the Union cause, a "' contraband," fiom whom so many of our generals were unwilling to receive
intelligence or aid.  As the whites were overawed by the reign of terror,
and the colored population were denied protection within our lines, we
were precluded from gaining any information respecting the position and
strength of the foe.  The demands of the Border States.rendered this most
disastrous principle of action, in the eyes of many, necessary.'Y
For some months the war, along the banks of the Potomac, ass-umed a
petty character, which was not particularly honorable to our arms.  The
rozut of five thousand men at B1ull Run was very erroneously regarded by
the country as the utter demoralization of the army of the Potomac, and
it was deemed essential that months should be devoted to recruiting and
reorganizing that army, before it'could again, with any propriety, talke
the field.  But the-morning after the battle there was of that very army
forty thousand men, unterrified and unbroken in their ranks.  The consequence of this false impression was a long period of comparative inaction,
while, under the universally  acknowledged  military  science of Gen.
McClellan, a magnificent army was being formed, an engine of tremendous
power.
On the 11th of September, two thousand  len were sent across Chain
Bridge, about seven miles into Virginia, on a military reconnoissance.
The expedition was very scientifically conducted.  Four square miles were
thoroughly explored.  The enemy, who opened fire upon our troops with
shell, were driven back by Griffin's battery, which was admirably worked.
Col. Stevens, of the New York Highlanders, conducted this expedition,
and returned to the left bank of the Potomac, with the loss of but two
killed and three wounded.
* Secretary Seward, in his official despatches to Mr. Adams, our embassador at London, wrote
in Aug., 1862: "Every where the American general receives his most useful and reliable informr7ation
from the negro, who hails his coming as the harbinger of freedom." It will be difficult to make
European generals believe that, under the circumstances, many of our officers absolutely excluded
these men, because they had been slaves, from coming into our lines with information vital to our
cause. In consequence of this we were surprised at Pittsburg landing and mourning was sent;
to thousands of homes. The enemy, also, thus escaped from Corinth and from Manassas, without
the loss of a gun or a man, in the presence of Union armies vastly superior in numbers.




HAMPTON, CARNIFEX FERRY, AND HATTERAS INLET. 199
Almost every day there was some trivial skirmish on the land or on the
water, but neither party seemed disposed to offer any decisive conflict.
Thus, during the whole autumn and winter, the hostile armies on the
Potomac, numbering, in the aggregate, certainly not less than four hundred thousand men, remained looking at and threatening each other, but
neither venturing to strike a blow. Though the Potomac was pretty
effectually blockaded by the rebels, still the Union vessels occasionally, in
the fog, would run the blockade. The flag of the rebels floated, most of
this time, within sight of the Capitol in Washington; and on the upper
Potomac, the contending forces, encamped on the opposite heights, amused
themselves in occasionally shooting at each other with rifles and rifled
cannon, across the stream. This period of apparent inaction, probably
unparalleled in the history of war, continuing for seven months, excited
great disquietude with a portion of the people of the Northern States.
But the want of activity was generally tolerated, on the plea, 1, that the
army needed organization, drill, and better weapons of war; 2, that the
mud was so deep that the army could not efficiently move; and, 3, that
military strategy required that the army on the Potomac should remain
in repose, tUntil certain movements, essential to the general campaign,
should be prosecuted at the South and the West.
Shortly after the fall of Fort Sumter, the schooner Lydia Francis was
wrecked on the inhospitable coast of IHatteras, and her captain, Daniel
Campbell, sought refuge among the people of the Inlet. When he suggested leaving for his distant home in the Pine Tree State, he was informed
that the necessities of war demanded that he should be detained a prisoner.
At the end of three months he was released by the civil authorities, and,
going immediately to Fortress Monroe, his report to Fla  Ocfficer Stringham proved that he had made good use of his time.
He stated that the rebels had erected two batteries on the point north
of the Hatteras Inlet, one mounting ten, and the other five guns. The
earthworks were of sand, twenty-five feet thick at the top, turfed over,
and each containing a bomb-proof, the larger one capable of protecting
four hundred men, and the other three hundred. Fort Hatteras covered
two acres of ground. The other, Fort Clark, was considerably smaller.
These guns were thirty-two pounders, one of them appairently rifled.  The
rebels boasted that, by these forts, they had secured the key of Albemarlo
Sound.
Upon receiving this information, the War Departmrent ordered Flag
Officer Stringham to prepare an expedition for the destruction of these
forts. The destination of the expedition was, however, carefiflly concealed
from the public, that the enemy might be taken by surprise.
After much delay, and great difficulty, the Flag-officer obtained an
order from the War Department for a land force under Gen. Butler, to
accompany the fleet.  Accordingly there were assembled in H1-ampton
RIoads, August 25, 1861, the linnesota, Wabash, Pawnee, Monticello and
Harriet Lane, war steamers; George Peabody and Adelaide, transports:
and the tug Fanny.
The Minnesota was the Flag-ship, and Gen. Butler joined Flag-offiee




200                CIVIL  WAR  IN  AMERICA.
Stringham as commnander-in-chief of the land forces. The troops were in
fine spirits, the weather clear, and at precisely two o'clock, the very hour
appointed three days before, the whole squadron was under way. Flags
were flying, bands playing, and hearts beating rapidly on shore, in anxiety
for the loved ones borne to distant danger; perhaps never to return.  On
ship-board the pulse beat rapidly at the excitement of going out to fight
and conquer, or else to die in the struggle for the Union and enforcement
of the laws. Yet no one but the officers kijew the destination of the fleet.
The men were eager for the fray, Each night anxious faces looked
westward hoping to see, in thle brilliance of the setting' simn the land to
which they were bound. Where are we going  What are we to do?
were questions in every mouth.  "Southward ho!" ivas the invariable
reply. But where in all the South, New Orleans, Norfolk, or Charleston?
At last they began to steer in the direction of Hatteras Inlet, and the
battle-ground was surmised.  Owing to some mismanagement the vessels
of the squadron did not keep near each other, and as a few ships only first
rounded the Cape, fears were entertained that the expedition might prove
a failure from the separation of the fleet.
The little Fanny ran hither and thither, now behind, now shooting far
ahead, under the command of the brave, yet venturesome Lieut. Crosby.
She rolled about like a tub, for she was merely a canal-boat, and at one
time the crew were obliged to lash the boiler to the deck to keep it in
position.
At two o'clock, P. Do., August 27, the M6[innesota and Wabash, splendid
frigates, which had purposely remained in the rear of the fleet, arrived off
HIatteras, where the remainder of the squadron Ivere anchored.  The MIonticello was sent to make a reconnoisance, and having selected a place for
landing, the vessels withdrew to the offing, and the men rested for the
nfight.
Breakfast was -served at four, A. m.,5 and.impatiently the men waited
the order to disembark.  The weather promised fair, %but Hatteras is proverbially tieacherous.  The Fanny with Gen. Butler and staff on board,
steamed from vessel to vessel conveying orders. One vessel moved here,
and another there, but seemingly with no purpose. Impatient mutterings
were heard on every side, but at last, at forty-five minutes past six, the
order to disembark was signaled from the Mfinnesota, and borne to every
vessel by the busy Fanny; and Wednesday, August 28, seemed destined
to be the day of the first battle on the North Carolina coast.
The deck of the Adelaide was covered with troops impatient to land,
and all the surf-boats, barges and life-boats, which were decidedly too few,
were put in requisition.  The first shot was fired by the Wabash, as she
gallantly rou-nded to the place assigned her, and the Cnumberland, Minnesota and Harriet Lane coming up, the assault became general. Under
cover of this terrific fire from the fleet the disembarkation began.
Then the treacherous character of Hatteras coast was shown, for the
wind rising, the waves beat high upon the beach, white with the foam of
an angry sea. But few of the boats succeeded in landing their passengers
wet with the surf, and chilled by the wind. The life-boats were swamped,




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202                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
surf-boats stove in, and the barges with one hundred and fifty men on
board were tossed about on the restless waves, utterly unable to reach
shore. At last, by means of ropes and chains, the barges were made fast
to the Harriet Lane and the men rescued from their perilous position.
As soon as it was ascertained that no more men could be landed, Col.
Max Weber assumed command of the troops on shore. They were all
drawn up in line on the beach and their force found to comprise three
hundred and nineteen men, all told, with two rifled cannon.  Ten regulars,
with a squad of Col. Jardine's Zouaves, were sent out as pickets, and
Iieut.-Col. Weiss with twenty men, was sent on a reconnoisance towards
Fort Clark. After proceeding half a mile they found a brass field-piece,
a six-pounder, spiked with a common screw, and a horse fully caparisoned,
which Col. Weiss took possession of. Lieut. Wiegel was then'sent back
to order an advance which was effected, the sailors dragging their heavy
g.uns through the sand three miles.
Meantime a terrific cannonading was kept up by tihe fleet, each vessel
being so placed as to deliver a broadside at every fire. Having obtained
tlccurate range, the volleys from the fleet became incessant, every shot and
shell reaching their mark, crashing the walls, or exploding within the forts
with destructive power. It was indeed an appalling storm which had
suddenly burst upon the rebels, descending upon them like the fabled bolts
of Jove. The rebels ibught with great determination, but, bewildered by
the uproar of battle so new to them all, and the vessels presenting, at the
distance of one or two miles, but a small target, most of their shot fell
harmlessly upon the water.
The scene on board the flag-ship, was novel and thrilling. The tllunder of the conflict drowned all other moises. The grandeur and the terror
of war were there, without its carnage and misery. No groans of the
wounded or dying were heard; no blood stained the decks. Enveloped in
volcanic billows of smoke, and straining every nerve, there was just
enough of peril to rouse all to a delirium of enthusiasm. The foul treason
which had so disgraced the Southern officers of the Army, found but few
imitators in the Navy. Almost every man there was true to his flag.
IIere a stalwart Kentuckian and an impetuous Carolinian worked side by
side, with the sons of MIaine and Mllassachusetts. In the bow of the ship,
half a dozen contrabands worked a gun with such skill and energy, as to
prove that warlike chivalry can inflame Ethiopic. as wvell as Caucasian
blood.
These contrabands had been instructed by the rebels in the batteries at
Yorktown, and had escaped and joined our forces at Fortress Monroe.
Gen. Butler accepted them.  Somle of our other generals would have
driven them out of our lines, or with alacrity would have surrendered
them to our enemies, their former masters.  This is the first instance, so
far as we can learn, in this war, that the negro and the white man stood
side by side fighting for the North.  The incident deserves especial notice,
as introducing a new era. It is the testimony of an eye-witness, that the
negroes fought energetically and bravely,-none more so. They evidently
felt that they were thus working out the deliverance of their race.




HAMPTON, CARNIFEX FERRY, AND HATTERAS INLET. 203
At twenty rilnutes past one, at noon, the effect of the cannonading
upon the smaller fort was evident. The flag had been shot away twice,
but was each time quickly replaced.  The rebel commander ordered the
smaller fort to be abandoned, and all the men to be collected in Fort
Hatteras. As a ruse of war, to stop the firing, and thus to secure the safe
retreat of the rebels from Fort Clark, the flags of both forts were hauled
down. It was hoped that with both garrisons in one fort, they might
maintain themselves until renfobrcements could be sent to them  from
Newbern.  The whole region was so enveloped in smoke that all these
movements were not distinctly seen. Still there was a manifest lull in
the battle. The flight of the rebels from Fort Clark was, however, seen
by some of the sqcuadron, and as the cry passed from ship to ship, " they
are running," cheer after cheer resounded over the waves.
As soon as the flag was struck, and Fort Clark evacuated, our troops,
who had landed, took possession of the silenced battery. But, by some
misunderstanding of Gen. Butler's signal to cease firing, one of the ships
continued to pour volleys of shot and shell into the midst of onr own troops.
Lieutefiants WViegel and  Durivage boldly mounted the battery, and,
amidst the shower of deadly missiles, planted the Stars and Stripes, thus
announcing the capture of the fort.
It was deemed necessary to communicate with the men on shore.
Though the surf was breaking so high that apparently no boat could land,
_M~ir. Fiske, aid-de-camp of Gen. Butler, succeeded, with great difficulty and
peril, in effecting a landing. He proceeded to Fort Clark, which was
three-quarters of a mile distant from Fort Hatteras, and possessed himself
of all the books and papers which the rebels had left there. Strapping
these on his backl he swam through the breakers to a boat which was
awaiting hilm, and thus carried to Gen. Butler acenurate information of the
works, plans, and numbers of the rebels.
In the mean time, as soon as it was seen that the flags from both forts
were hauled down, the firing ceased, as it was supposed that the forts had
surrendered.  The gentlemen on board the fleet were walking about, rubbing their hands and congratulating themselves upon their bloodless victory, when the Monticello, which was ordered to enter the Inlet and
proceed to Fort Hatteras, having arrived within six hundred yards of the
battery, was suddenly and treacherously assailed with a broadside from its
guns. The bombardment was instantly renewed from all the ships which
could be brought to bear. For a short time the Monticello was in great
peril, several shot piercing her hull and rending her upper works. She
succeeded, however, in extricating herself from her awkward position, and,
for two hours, all the ships kept up an incessant cannonade. Still, it was
evident that the rebels had generally sought shelter in their bomb-proof
casemates, as they very feebly returned the fire.
Nig-ht came on, with darlkness, clouds and threatening storm. The
order to "' cease firing" was given, and while three of the ships ventured
to remain near the shore, to protect with their guns their comrades on the
beach, the larger vessels retired to an anehorage in the offing. It was a
night of great anxiety.  The main fort was not taken; retnforcementr~




204                CIVIL WVAR IN  AMERICA.
might soon arrive; the men on shore, in the presence of a vastly outnumbering foe, were in the greatest peril, and the weather indicated one of
those fierce Cape Hatteras storms, which would render it impossible to
resume the bombardment on the morrow.
As soon as the conflict ceased, Col. fIax Weber, in command of the
Union troops who had taken possession of Fort Clark, deeming that fort
unsafe, as it was quite commanded by Fort Hatteras, and they might easily
be surrounded in the night, and cut off from any retreat, withdrew to the
beach, where he was under. the shelter of the guns of the 1Monticello, the
Pawnee, and the I-Iarriet Lane. Fortunately, they came across a flock of
sheep, and shooting such as they wanted, they cooked steaks by holding
them on the points of their sabres and bayonets over a fire. HIunger gave
their food a relish, and after a hearty supper, they laid down in hollows
scooped out of the sand, and in their drenched clothes, and with the sky
alone for their tent curtain, slept soundly.
Inside of Fort Hatteras, the rebels were huddled together near their
guns, expecting every hour the arrival of reinforcemenlts, and anticipating
with anxiety the renewal of the strife on the morrow. Side by side lay
the planter, lord of a hundred slaves, and owner of vast acres, and the
poor white, who held his cottage only by sufferance. During the night
Commodore Barron arrived from Newbern, and was requested to assume
the comnmand at Fort HIatteras.
Coommodore Barron had once been'an honorable and a loyal man, for
twenty-seven years in the service of the United States. I-le had been
Lighly honored by his country, which had confided in his patriotism, and
had conferred upon him the highest naval distinction. But he was now a
traitor and a rebel. By his orders the light upon Cape Itatteras, the most
perilous point upon our coast, was extinguished.  Only six months bebfore
lie was in command of the Wabash, against whose flag he was now prepared to turn the guns, which treason had wrested from the United States.
On assumning the command of the rebel fort, Commodore Barren carefully examined the position, with the eye of a skillful officer. I-Ie knew
full well the power of the fleet which invested the fort, and the heroism
of his former comrades who manned it. It was manifest to his experienced glance, that there was nlo hope of holding the fort against the
superior Federal.force, unless renfobrcements could be promptly obtained.
A regiment from Newbern was expected in a steamer about midnight, and
he made his arrangements, immediately upon its arrival, to make a sortie
and attack the Union forces, which he supposed were in Fort Clark. But
the regiment did not arrive in season to make this attempt.
The weather became so boisterous during the night, that the vessels
left near the shore were compelled, for safety, to move out to sear and the
little band upon the beach were left to protect themselves as they could.
They, however, passed the night undisturbed. At the earliest dawn of the
morning, all were astir upon the land and the sea. The safety of the little
party on the shore was evident, from the fact that with the earliest daylight, they were observed moving from the beach again to take possession
of Fort Clark. The rebels had apparently become convinced that they




HAMPTON, CARNIFEX FERRY, AND HATTERAS INLET. 20O
could not hold their position, as a large steamer, the Winslow, was seen,
crowded with soldiers, moving away from the fort, but stopping at a safe
distance, where they could overlook the scene.
Orders were signaled from Flag Officer Stringllam to the two small.
steamers to anchor near the beach, to protect the further disembarkation
of troops, as the morning, quite unexpectedly, hlad dawned calm and failr.
The Wabash and Susquehanna came to anchor nearly opposite Fort
I:atteras.  The Susquehanna opened fire, and the Harriet Lane, Cu-mberland and Wabash soon joining her, the roar of cannon became deafening.
The fort appeared deserted; not a man was to be seen; no flag was flying,
and for some time there was no reply to the guns of the fleet. At about
ten o'clock, however, the guns of the fort opened fire on the Cumberland,
and seemed to devote all their attention to her. But the shot fell short,
not one striking her, and the fleet continued pouring broadside after broadside into the doomed fortress. Some rebel schooners in the Sound, which
had been watching the battle, now crowded all sail, and sped towards
Newbern, and the Winslow, with another Confederate steamer which had
approached with reenforcements during the night, abandoned the attempt
to land tlem, and steamed from the scene of action, across the Sound, to
the main land.
The air was thick with smoke, and the men in the ships panted under
the heat of an August sun, as they toiled at the heavy guns. But there
was no lagging; with cheers they worked. A sponger dropped his sponge
overboard, and ere his officer could utter a WTord of remonstrance, the man
jumpled after it, and in a moment the sponge hung in its place, and the
tar stood dripping before his officer, touching his hat, and reporting,
"Just come aboard, sir.'
HIqur after hour the fire was- continrued with nuintermitted fury. The
tremendous shells bursting with thunder roar, and spreading inconceivable
destruction, fell within the fort, often at the rate of twenty or thirty a
minute. It was evident that the garrison could not hold out much longer
against so deadly a bombardment. The rebel soldiers, to whom this scene
was as novel as it was awful, thoulgh they had manifested great bravery,
were panic-stricken by this incessant storm of t]he most dreadful missiles
of destruction. At length three shells fell simultaneously upon the ventilator of the room adjoining the magazine, one passing plump through,.setting it on fire, and volumes of smoke began to burst fortth. Should one
spark reach the magazine, the whole fort, with all its contents, would be
l)lown instantly into the air. The rebels were at this time crowded for protection in the bomb-proof, nine hundred men being huddled in a space
suitable only for four hundred. Observing the fire so near the magazine,
the rebels rushed panic-stricken from the fort.
The tents, shanties, everything in the inclosure of the fort were
destroyed by the explosion of the shells, and every foot of ground was
literally ploughed up.  Under these circumstances Commodore Barron
very wisely ordered a white flag to be raised, and as soon as it was
observed on board the fleet, the signal was given to cease firing.
Cheer after cheer rose from the victors. There was a general shakling




206                CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
of hands, and interchange of congratulations upon the signal conquest.
The whole army was exuberant with joy.  Commodore Stringham  is
undoubtedly entitled to the most distinguished honor of this victory. It
was certainly achieved by the ships over which he held command. In his
report he says, " I may very appropriately apprise the Department, and
congratulate myself, that I have no accident to record to a single officer or
man of the navy, army or marines."  This wonderful fact is to be mainly
attributed to the wretched powder which the rebels used. Though their
guns were good, their shot seldom reached our ships; and after the action
had been fairly commenced, the rebels were driven from their guns to the
casemates.
Fort Hatteras was an octagonal structure, mounting ten guns, thirtytwo-pounders, en a6crbette, and a gun throwing an eight-inch shell. The
fort was very strong in its massive walls and scientific arrangement, and
was considered almost impregnable. It was nearly surrounded by water,
and approachable only through a morass. Fort Clark mounted five thirtytwo-pounders, so arranged as to secure a cross fire upon the bar at the
entrance of the Inlet.
It was the original intention of the Government to destroy both forts;
but Gen. Butler and Corn. Stringham deemed them of sufficient importance to be preserved and garrisoned. Gen. Butler, in his official report,
says: "'I am  emboldened to ask permission, if the Department shall
determine to occupy the point as a permanent post, that its name may be
changed, by general order, from Fort [Ilatteras to Fort Stringham.
Immediately upon the raising of the white flag on Fort Hatteras, a
party of thirty men, under Lieut. WTiegel, advanced from Fort Clark, and
came upon and destroyed a Confederate camp which had probably been
occupied the night before, by the rebels who left on the Winslow. When
near to the fort, they met a Confederate officer bearing a white flag, who
demanded Geon. Butler's terms of surrender. By order of Lieut. ]Wiegel
he was immediately sent on board the Minnesota to confer with Gen. B13utler there.
Gen. Butler, in the mean time, had entered the Fanny and proceeded
to take possession of the fort. At first Coin. Barron demanded the honors
of war for his garrison; that is, that the officers and men should be allowed
to -retire, the officers taking with them their side arms. This Gen. Butler
refused, demanding unconditional surrender. Com. Barron retired to consult with his brother officers, and Gen. Butler waited the reply with the
greatest anxiety, for he felt himself in a dangerous and trying position.
The Harriet Lane, in attempting to approach the beach, had grounded
among the breakers, and it seemed impossible to save her. The Adelaide
was on a bar, and her decks were covered with soldiers. Both vessels
were within range of the fort, and the fleet was out of reach. Gen. Butler
was thus left with only the little Fanny to enforce his terms. Fortunately
the garrison did not perceive the perilous position of the two vessels, and
after a short consultation, Com. Barron signified his acceptance of the
terms, and as the capitulation must be made to both army and navy, he
was taken with two other leading rebel officers on board the Fanny to




HAMPTON, CARNIFEX FERRY, AND HATTERAS INLET. 207
proceed to the flag-ship.  The Fanny, with her two passengers, Com.
3Barron still wearing the United States naval uniform, passed directly
under the guns of the Wabash, upon whose decks he had so recently stood,
its honored commander, and against which he had just been directing his
batteries. iMelancholy must have been his thoughts, as he recognized the
loyal countenances of many of his former comrades, looking down sadly
upon him, in this his hour of humiliation. And as he stepped upon the
deck of the Minnesota, to make surrender of himself and his fellow rebels,
as prisoners of war to that Government to which he once had sworn allegiance, whose flag lie had sustained for many years, but which he now had
been endeavoring to trail in the dust, he must have experienced emotions
of anguish not easily conceived.
The articles of capitulation were quickly drawn up, and Corn. Barron
and all the soldiers under his command were surrendered, prisoners of war.
The whole of the Union army, not including the sailors of the fleet, were
now landed. They amounted to about eight hundred men. With Gen.
Butler at their head, and the Stars and Stripes floating proudly in the
breeze, they marched into the fort. The national banner was speedily run
to the top of the flag-staff; the salute was fired from the captured rebel
guns; cheers burst again and again from the lips of the victors, and the
inspiring strains of HIail Columbia and Yankee Doodle, were wafted over
the waves.
The Carolinians, six hundred and ninety-two in number, after being
inspected, stacked their arms, and, with bowed heads and saddened hearts,
were conveyed on board the Adelaide. They were a sorry-looking set of
men, ununiformed, with vacant countenances, apparently, in their weak
intelligence, incapable of comprehending the cause for which they were
shedding their blood.
Night again came on, and the vessels retired to anchorage in the offing.
Nothing remained to be done by the victors, but to make themselves comfortable in the forts. The importance of this conquest could hardly be
over estimated.
IHatteras Inlet was indeed the'key to Albemarle Sound.  Vessels
drawing fifteen feet of water could pass through its channel, to a harbor
capacious and safe in all weathers. From this, as a naval and -military
station, gunboats of light draft, could assail the whole coast of Virginia
and North Carolina, from Norfolk to Cape Lookout; penetrating through
many streams, a vast extent of inland country, and commanding the
important towns of Washington, Newbern and Beaufort. The position was
deemed second in importance only to Fortress Monroe. As a refuge from
wintry storms on our coast, it was invaluable to our conmmerce. " By holding it," said Gen. Butler, " IIatteras light may again send forth its cheering ray to the storm-beaten mariner, of which the worse than Vandalism
of the rebels deprives him."
This victory was attended with the following results. Six hundred and
nineteen prisoners were taken; two forts, in good condition; thirty guns,
throwing thirty-two pound shot; one ten-inch columbiad; three brass sixpounders; one thousand stand of arms; twenty-five rounds of cartridges,




208                CIVIL  WAR IN  AMERICA.
for heavy guns; a large quantity of shot and shell; one brig, with a cargo
of fifty bales of cotton;two schooners, with assorted cargoes; and an immense amount of provisions.
On Thursday morning, August 27th, the prisoners were removed from
the Adelaide to the flag-ship Minnesota. Nearly all the men were lean.
pallid and sickly-the general appearance of the poor and uneducated of
the North Carolinians, who spend their lives gathering turpentine, beneath
the vast pine forests of their State. The prisoners were taken to Fort
Lafayette and Governor's Island, in the harbor of New York, there to
remain until exchanged, or until the close of the war.
Gen. Butler immediately embarked on board the Adelaide, to report
the victory at Washington. The two forts, well garrisoned, and with the
Stars and Stripes waving over them, were left under the charge of Col.
]Max Weber and Col. Hawkins. A few ships were also left as a coast
guard. The monotony of life at the Cape was enlivened by occasional
chases after schooners and other Confederate vessels, which, not knowing
that the forts had changed masters, ventured to approach the Inlet.
The Indiana troops, who were left at IHatteras, were quite well pleased
with their quarters. Game and fresh fish were abundant, and the people
of the Inlet were found to be full of strong Union feeling, and they welcomed the United States troops with the utmost cordiality. The Harriet
Lane, which was grounded at the. time of the surrender, was at one time
given up for lost, and all her armament was taken off.  Thus lightened,
at high tide she floated, and was saved.
IRe6nforcements were received early in September, and the 20th Indiana regiment, under Col. B3rown, left Fort I-Iatteras, and marching up the
narrow tongue of land about thirty miles, selected a favorable spot for
encampment, midway between Fort Hatteras and the head of the Island.
I-ere they threw up intrenchments, reaching across the island, about a
mile wide, from the sea to the sound. They thus formed for themselves a
stronghold, which they deemed impregnable against any assaults the enemy
could bring against them. The people dwelling upon this long, slender
sand bar, were deplorably ignorant of all that was going on in the world.
Many of them lhad never been to the main shore, about twenty miles distant, across the sound. They, however, hailed the arrival of the Indianians with joy, for they had suffered much under the iron rule of the
rebels.
On the first of October, the Fanny, which played so conspicuous a part
in the capture of Hatteras, was sent to the Island, though, very improvidently, almost unarmed and without convoy, to convey ammunition and
clothing to the Indianians, who were in great need of both. She had entered the Inlet, and was steamitig up the Sound, when she was pursued by
two rebel steamers from the main land. The captain, seeing that resistance would be useless, ran the Fanny on shore, and, with a part of the
crew, escaped. The rebels captured the abandoned steamer, with all the
stores on board, and about thirty of the crew. The next day the armed
steamers Ceres and Putnam were sent ulp the Sound, and landed supplies
for the suffering troops. They saw, however, nothing of the enemy.




HAMIP:TON, CARNIFEX FERRY, AND HATTERAS INLET. 209
About daylight, on the morning of the fourth, the lookouts of Col.
Brown's regiment reported six rebel steamers, with several schooners and
flat-boats in tow, steering directly for their encampment. Col. Brown had
but eight hundred men; he was over thirty miles from the forts; the island
was not more than a mile wide. The rebels had four thousand men to
land. They could land half in front to assail the Indianians, and then run
along the shore a dozen miles, and land two thousand more to cut off the'retreat. They could then, with the guns of their steamers, mow down the
helpless Union troops at their pleasure. Never was a regiment in a more
perilous and apparently hopeless condition.
A courier was instantly despatched to inform Col. I-Iawkins, at the
forts, of their peril, and tha3 Col. Brown would retreat to the light-house
on the Cape, and there endeavor to make a stand. Without a moment's
delay, they commenced their retreat. The rebels landed fifteen hundred
men three miles above them. This required, with Their inexperience,
more time than they had anticipated. They then passed rapidly down
the coast some miles, and commenced landing more troops, having no
doubt that the Indianians were thus completely bagged. Butt Col. Brown
had moved with such wonderful celerity, as to frustrate their plan. At
nine o'clock in the evening, he successfully reached the light-house, his
soldiers not having eaten any thing since morning, ani still not having a
mouthful with which to refresh themselves, after their painful march
through the sand. In the mean time, the courier had reached the forts,
and the two steam frigates, Susquehanna and Monticello, were dispatched
on the ocean side of the island for their relief. Col. Hawkins also started,
with six companies of his Zouaves, on the double quick, to reenforce the
retreating troops.
The Susquehanna rapidly proceeded to the light-house cove, and anchored there, within gun-shot of the light. Tile ship under Capt. Lardner
arrived in the night, and when the day brolke, food was sent to the starving troops on shore. Remaining there for their protection, he ordered the
Monticello to proceed closely along the shore, to search out the enemy.
The frigate had proceeded but a short distance when the rebels were seen,
within half gunl-shot, full of confidence and exultation, crowding down for
the destruction of their victims. Never were songs of triumph more suddenly turned into the wailings of despair.
The M3onticello instantly opened upon them with the most deadly fire
of shells, which fell plump into their crowded ranks, and exploded with
the most awful destruction. The rebels, in the utmost terror, turned and
fled. But there was no place of safety. The storm fell upon them like
the bolts of an avenging God. The steamer slowly moved along the coast,
emitting an incessant burst of lightning and of thundcler, every volley
strewilng  the sand with the dying and the dead. Shells were thrown entirely across the land, and fell into the midst of the revel fleet, driving
them back from the shore, so that the soldiers could not reembark. rNo
protection, no shelter, could any where be found. Two hundred and
eighteen shells, every one doing efficient service, were thus thrown upon
them. The terror-stricken fugitives, scattered as widely as possible over
14




210                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
the sands, and hundreds were seen to wade out into the sound, up to their
necks, and when they heard the shriek of an approaching shell, would
duck their heads under the water, and thus remain as long as they could
hold their breath. Thus the firing was continued until night set in. In
the darkness, the rebels re6lbalrked, and in the morning no traces of their
presence could be discovered. The amount of their loss has never been
ascertained. As we have before mentioned, not the slightest reliance can
be placed in the statements of the rebels. IHere were nearly four thousand men, without any shelter, exposed for five hours to the fire of a
frigate at half gun-shot range. And yet the Xorfolk Day Book, in its
report of the conflict, says, " The Federal steamer Monticello took up a
position about half a mile from the shore, and opened fire on them by
broadsides, with 11-inch shell, and continued to shell them for five hours,
without injury to any one, except a slight bruise on one man's leg, who
fell down in endeavoring to dodge a ball, which rolled over his leg, and a
slight scratch on another's face, from the explosion of a shell."
A correspondent on board the Monticello writes, "We slaughtered
them like sheep, sinking their boats as they attempted to get on board
their vessels on the Sound side, blowing them to pieces as they waded out
into the water. They threw away their arms, and ran wildly up and
down the beacll."
In the midst of the bombardment, the crew of the Monticello saw two
men on the beach, making signals to them. They sent a boat ashore,
under the cover of the guns. The men plunged into the surf to swim out
to their friends. One, Charles White, unfortunately, was drowned. The
other, Warren O. IIaver, was saved. They were'both Indianians, who
had been captured, with another young man of the name of Bennet, by
the rebels. They remained in the encampment, to destroy what they
could, a little too long, and were seized. They were treated with the
grossest insults, and with their hands tied behind them, and without being
allowed any food, were left, not very strongly guarded, for the night.
Bennet, at the time of the capture, in the endeavor to escape, was shot
dead. Near the morning I-aver succeeded in getting his hands clear, and
then secretly unbound White. With a small revolver which he had
secreted, he shot the guard, and they both plunged ilito a bog, where
there was a very dense growth of rushes. The pursuit of the enemy was
interrupted by the opening bombardment of the Monticello. As the
rebels in their terror fled, the two young men ran to the beach and hailed
their comrades. It seems, indeed, a sad fate for poor White, thus to perish
in the surf, after so heroic an escape from the foe.
The rebels with their fleet of steamers and their land force of four
thousand men, had planned to cut off the 20th Indiana regiment, and then
to march for the capture of Fort I-tatteras. The providential presence of
two frigates at Hatteras thwarted their designs. Again and again during
this conflict, our navy has proved our salvation. The rebels bleeding, exhausted, humiliated, retired to the main land, and thle Stars and Stripes continued to float over the Hatteras forts, proclaiming that they still remained
in the possession of their lawful owners, the United States of America.




CHAPTER VIII.
BALL'S BLUFF AND  HILTON  HEAD.
REPOSE OF THE AR{IY ON THE POTOMAC.-UNEASINESS AT THE NORTH. -MISTAKE OF THE GOVERNMENT.-PERPLEXITIES OF THE EXECUTIVE.-BATTLE OF BALL'S BLUFF.-'DEATH OF COL,
BAKER.-SKIRMISH AT ROMNEY.-SECRET NAVAL EXPEDITION.-CAPTURE OF FORTS AT HILTON HEAD.-INCIDENTS.-MISTAKEIN POLICY OF THE UNIONISTS.-REBEL PLANS FOR THE
SUBVERSION OF THE UNITED STATES.
THE army of the Potomac soon assumed the most formidable proportions in numbers and in all the materiel of war. Still for nearly nine
months it was held in repose, organizing and drilling, without any forward movement. The disaster at Bull Run had been generally, but very
erroneously, attributed to the advance of the army before it was in condition for action. And this advance was attributed to the clamor of the
people, goading our generals to movements for which they were unprepared. The impatient public were not disposed to expose themselves to
the repetition of this charge, and for a long time, remained silent, yet
waiting anxiously for the inert masses to be led beyond their ramparts.
But as month after month rolled on, and more than two hundred thousand
troops stood unemployed in their trenches, at an expense, as it was estimated, of more than a million of dollars a day, with the flag of the enemy
flaunted within view of their bastions, with Washington besieged, while
insult and defiance were borne to the patriots from every southern breeze,
the public again became too impatient to withhold their murmurs. Though
they were assured that this repose was strategic, and that civilians were
incompetent to form an opinion upon military matters, the daily telegram,
month after month, "All quiet upon the IPotomac," became at last unendurable.
There were, however, during this long period of inaction, the reasons
for which have never yet been satisfactorily explained, many individual
acts of heroism displayed, in the bold adventures and skirmishes to which
chivalrous spirits were invited, all along the lines of the armies. [Many of
these incidents, though having but little bearing upon the great issues of
the war, are invested with much romantic interest. The army skilfully
reorganized and invigorated by the genius of its new commander, preeiminent in this department of military science, attained a magnitude hitherto
quite unprecedented in this New World, and rarely equaled beyond the
Atlantic.  Great confidence was reposed in the young general, for though
he was unknown to the community, the voice of the army officers wam




212                CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
almost unanimously, and very warmly, in his favor. Major Roland, at a
public festival in New Hampshire, said, that during a recent visit to
Russia, Gen. Todtleben, the renowned Engineer of the Crimean war, had
remarked that there were two great soldiers in the United States; one
was Gen. Scott, well known to fame by his warlike deeds; the other was
Gen. McClellan, known through his military writings. Gen. Todtleben
predicted for him a brilliant career. Such testimony inspired the community with great confidence, or rather greatly relieved the anxiety, with
which the inexplicable repose of the army of the Potomac was regarded.
But this petty warfare did, by no means, satisfy the public mind.
Washington was besieged-the nation dishonored and insulted in the eyes
of Christendom; two hundred thousand patriot troops were leaning listlessly'upon their muskets, behind their intrenchments. There was almost
an universalBfeeling throughout the North, that the crisis demanded a far
more vigorous prosecution of hostilities. Though many, sympathizing
with the Government in its embarrassments, restrained their impatience
and kept silence, others could not refrain from urging importunately that
the nation should strike with all its strength. They felt that the Union
must go to ruin if the rebels, who had roused maniacal energies for the
fight, were to be met with a spirit so mild and tardy.
The people were ready to contribute any number of men, andc any
amount of mloney which might be asked for. Volunteers crowded to the
camps in such numbers, that they could not be accepted. Drafting was
entirely unnecessary; and yet the community, without a murmur, would
have submitted to a draft of fifteen hundred thousand mien, one half to take
the field, and the rest to be held as a reserve. All they asked was, that
this miserable rebellion of a few thousand slaveholders, compelling four
millions of slaves, and half as many " poor whites," more degraded than the
slaves, to follow in their train, should be speedily and effectually put down.
Many of our generals were far from being hostile to slavery, and had
cherished the feeling that the country should have yielded to the demands
of the slaveholders. Violently they denounced those, in the North, who
had opposed such concession. This state of mind weakened their energies
in the prosecution of the war. Blow after blow was struck by the rebels
with the most envenomed hate. There was but little of that vigor in the
blows returned. Never before did a government so unwillingly come to
the conviction that there was no alternative, but regular, old-fashioned,
death-dealing, bloody, dreadful war. At first but seventy-five thousand men
were called for. After the disaster at Bull Run, it began to be realized
that a much larger force would be required. And yet, just at the time
when the rebels had passed a law of conscription, forcing into their army
every manlbetween seventeen and thirty-five, the United States Government declared that they had soldiers enough, and stopped recruiting. It
soon became evident that wherever we met upon the battle-field, the rebels
ofltnumbered us two to one. Thus the war languished, and twenty millions
of people allowed themselves to be humiliated and held at bay by five
millions.
Another mistake was made. Not sufficient confidence was reposed in




BALL'S -BLUFF AND HILTON  HEAD.                   213
the intelligence, patriotism and spirit of self-sacrifice of the masses of the
people. In the dwellings of energetic industry, throughout the free North,
are found strong-minded, reflective men, who read the journals, who are
acquainted with what is going on in the world, who form independent
opinions, who sit in legislative, senatorial and gubernatorial chairs. It is
not necessary to withhold bad news from such men. They are the State.
They can appreciate its wants. They are able and willing to answer all
its claims. It is often necessary to keep back information, which might
aid the enemy. The people understand that as well as the rulers.' But
the people need not be told that defeats are victories; that military folly
is strategy; that no man, who has not a military title, has a right to pronlounce judgment upon the ordinary comlmon-sense movements of war;
that it is good generalship to hold an army exceeding 200,000 men, for
seven months, doing nothing, while the Capital is besieged, and raw rebels,
inferior to them in number, are flaunting the flag of defiance in their faces.
Perfect frankness a republican people demand of mheir rulers. These
rulers are men of their own choice. The people will "' coin their blood for
drachms," in support of measures of whose wisdom they are satisfied.
But they must be convinced that measures are wise, before they can be
willing to lavish treasure and blood in their support. They must be
frankly told of disasters, and not treated as children from whom disasters
are to be concealed. Tlde impression became universal throughout the
country, that the crisis demanded a far more vigorous prosecution of hostilities. The nation had a militia of 4,000,000. Of these 500,000 could
be called immediately into the field; 500,000 more could be organized and
drilled as a reserve. And this would leave 3,000,000 from which to fill up
all gaps. And there were 4,000,000 of slaves, eager to abandon the slaveholders, and with heart and hand to serve the patriots in every way in
which their services could be rendered available. Such was our power, if
we were only willing to exert it. The rebellion could have been trampled
out, as a strong man tramples a reptile beneath his feet, if the Government had only so willed. The armies of the North and West, could have
swept over Richmond, as the swollen Mississippi floods a sandbar, if the
Government had only been roused to open the flood gates. With the control of the sea, and with foundries in full blast, arms could have been purchased and manufactured to meet every want. We could have had three
soldiers to one. of the rebels upon every field of battle; and thus have
ended the conflict speedily and almost without bloodshed.
But we were a slumbering giant. For a long time we persisted in
compelling our young men to use the spade instead of the musket. We
wished to overawe by the show of power rather than by the exercise of
power. We were very anxious not to exasperate our foes by wounding
their pride, or impoverishing them, or striking them any blows, which
they would keenly feel. And above all, in the commencement of the conflict, was there the desire, with a strong party in the nation, to convince
the rebels that the Government had no disposition to strike the fetters
from the limbs of the bondmen. It was this spirit which robbed us of the
sympathies of the lovers of freedom, the world over; which made the hearts




214                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
of Christians sink within them, almost in despair; and which filled our
hospitals with thousand-fold more of the victims of war than the bloodiest
battle-fields could have furnished.
It would offend the rebels to employ slaves in the trenches, and therefore they were ordered out of our lines. And our young men, unacclustomed to such toil, were forced to dig knee-deep in the mud, after toilsome marches and sleepless watchings, while all around them were lusty
negroes, lolling upon the grass, whose masters had run away from them,
and who were almost irrepressibly eager, even for the most moderate
wages, to handle the spade. And strange as it may seem-as part and
parcel of this same insane absurdity-those who urged that our sons and
brothers should be spared this toil, and that negroes should be employed
in their stead, were stigmatized as fcnatics, who loved the negro better
than the white man. This crime, dooming our young men needlessly to
the most exhausting toil, consigned thousands to the grave. Those who
insisted upon this. policy were more cruel than the rebels themselves.
Thousands of fathers and mothers will read this page with tearful eye and
anguish-stricken heart and say, " It was this inhuman policy, which has
robbed us of our noble boy."  Those very men, who, amidst the luxuries
of home, could not groom their horse or black their boots, but must have
a servant to do this service for them, would not allow our soldiers, periling
life fOr country, to have any such aid.
" Your musket," said an inspecting officer to a soldier, "does not look
quite so bright as it ought."  "I know it," replied the young soldier.  " 1
know it, Colonel, but I have got a spade out there behind my tent that is
as bright as a mirror."
It was very slowly and reluctantly that the Government advanced
towards the position, that the war was to be conducted on war principles.
It was impossible for those of our generals who were in sympathy with
slavery, who felt that the rebels were more than half right, and who
wished to conduct the war in such a way that the North would be induced
to make such concessions to the South, as the South would accept-it was
impossible that such generals, like the rebels who were thoroughly in earnest, should strike blows with all their possible strength. And hence it
was, that for weary months we have the record of the measures and movements of a government but half aroused; contending forbearingly and
timidly against a foe, as furious and envenomed as ever rushed to a field of
battle. Never. before did a people press forward with such enthusiasm to
the banner of freedom; but in the earlier periods of the conflict their
enthusiasm met with but a feeble response on the part of most of their
leaders.
John C. Breckinridge, the radical pro-slavery candidate for the Presidency, who had retained his situation in the Senate of the United States
until this time, that he might, as far as possible, obstruct every measure of
the Administration to quell the rebellion, now resigned his senatorial
chair, and went directly to his own place, in the rebel army. In his manifesto, dated October 8, he says: 
"I exchange, with proud satisfaction, a term of six years in the United




BALL'S BLUFF AND HILTON HEAD.                           215
States Senate, for the musket of the soldier. The United States no longer
exist.  The Union is dissolved."
Such were the influences against which the patriotic portion of the
Government had to struggle. The rebels, in disguise, like the frogs of
Egypt, were every where-in Congress, in the army, in the navy, in
saloons of fashion, in editorial chairs, and in the pulpit.  The process of
expurgation was slow, difficult and toilsome.
On the eastern banks of the upper Potomac, upon the Maryland shore,
the white tents of the patriot troops were spread out for leagues. Lower
down, opposite Washington, friom  the heights of Arlington to Port To,
bacco, these soldiers of freedom were intrenched in as majestic a series of
ramparts as armies ever reared.  The rebels had been slowly and sullenly
pressed back, by the crowding of this tremendous mass of men,to their
lair at Manassas.  Thus, almost without a conflict, the whole field, covered
by our troops in their retreat from Bull Run, was regained.
On the 21st of October, there occurred one of the most inexplicable
events of the war, an event which aroused universal astonishment and
indignation.  About thirty miles above Washington'is the town of Lees.
burg, containing two thousand inhabitants.  It is situated on an elevated
plateau, a few miles west of the Potomac.  The rebels were in force at
Leesburg, and at other points along the western banks of the river.  The
Union troops were in scattered encampments, along the eastern or Maryland shore.  Thus they had been for three months, in apparent inaction,
except occasionally relieving the monotony of camp life by shooting at
each other, across the river, with rifles or rifled cannon.
Occasionally the journals announced that a shell had been successfuily
pitched into an encampment of the enemy, or that a round shot from the
Virginia shore had plunged through the tents of the Union troops, suggesting a change of position.  Sharpshooters, by way of variety, tried their
skill upon each other across the stream, and great was the boasting, on
either side, if some horseman, dimly discerned on the opposite bank, were
struck from  his saddle~ by a Minie ball, or some footman measured his
length upon the grass, or crept limping up the hill.
There was no way of crossing the river, nearly half a mile wide, but by
two ferries, one called Conrad's, a little above Leesburg, and the other
called Edward's, five miles below.  Between the two, at this point, the
river is divided by a long, narrow reach of land, called HIarrison's Island.
It seemed necessary that the right wing of the army on the upper Potomac, (Banks' division, as it was then called,) should advance in unison
with the centre.  Gen. M cClellan sent Gen. McCall on a reconnoissance
in force, as far as Drainesville, a few miles south of Leesburg.*  Gen. C.
P. Stone was in command of a portion of Banks' division, on the eastern
shore of the Potomac, nearly opposite Leesburg.  IIe, at the same time,
* Geo. Archibald McCall, Brigadier-General, a native of Pennsylvania, graduated at West Point
in 1822, and obtained distinction for skill and gallantry in Florida and Mexico. In 1850 he attained the rank of colonel. Weary of the monotony of a soldier's life, he became a railway engi-.neer, and continued in that employment till called to the field by the rebellion. After the disaster
at Bull Run, in forty-eight hours his energy raised, in Pennsylvania, 11,000 fresh troops.




216'               CIVIL WAR I1N AMERICA.
received an order to keep a sharp look-out upon the enemy, at Leesburg,
and to make a demonstration in favor of Gen. McCall, should he deem it
necessary. Col. Devins was in command at HIarrison's Island. I-Ie was
ordered to send a few troops across the river to ~iconnoitre, and to hold
the remainder in readiness, to be pushed over at a moment's nbtice.
Col. Edward D. Baker, who, it is said, had received that morning his
commission as Major-General, and which was afterward found, soaked
with blood, in his cap, was encamped a few miles in the rear of Conrad's
Ferry, with a California battalion of 680 men, Baxter's Fire Zouaves, 900,
Owen's Penpsylvania Regimnent, 700, Morehead's Pennsylvania Regiment,
500, and the Harris Cavalry, 140, making in all 2,920. Gen. IMcCall conducted his reconnoissance successfully, and returned to his camp on 2Monday morning, the 20th. Gen. Stone, not apprised of his return to canip,
was still grouping his forces at Conrad's Ferry, and at Edward's Ferry,
where he held his headquarters. The small force which had crossed at
Harrison's Island, advanced to within a mile of Leesburg, where, in the
dusk of the evening, they thought they discerned a camp of thirty tents.
They were deceived,'however, by openings through the trees, which they
mistook for white tents. With this report, they returned to the river.
This statement apparently encouraged Gen. Stone to believe, that the
rebels had either vacated Leesburg, or that they held it with so small a
force that it could be taken by a dashing assault.
This is the only reasonable explanation of a movement which astounded
the nation, and which led to one of the most deplorable results of the war.
Col. Devins was ordered immediately to cross from Harrison's Island, and
to advance, under cover of the night, attack and destroy the camp of thirty
tents, and then fall back to the Bluff; over the landing-place, opposite the
Island. Col. Baker was roused from his sleep in his tent, at two o'clock,
Monday morning, by order from Col. Stone to have his California battalion
at the Ferry at sunrise, and to prepare the remainder of his brigade to follow, after an early breakfast. I-Ie had received no previous intirimation of
any movement. Gallant soldier as he was, he wat ready to- obey orders,
wherever they might lead. I-e sprang from his couch, and in two hours
the Californians were on the march, he being at their head. In two hours
more, at six o'clock, the remainder of the brigade followed, under the
guidance of Lieut. Col. WAistar.
When Col. Baker reached the shore, just at the break of day, Col.
Devins was still ferrying his four companies across, though he had been
busy in the operation since two o'clock. When they had all crossed, leaving
one hundred men to guard the landing, he advanced with the rest in quest of
the designated camp. Thle prowling foe were probably watching all these
movements, rejoicing to see the Union troops marching thus blindly into
an ambuscade, from which there could be no escape. It was about nine
o'clock in the morning before Gen. Baker's brigade were all at the Ferry,
and orders there reached him to cross the river should he hear any firing.
As he sat upon his horse, and looked upon the swift and turbid current,
spanned by no bridge, and without any pontoons or boats, except two
wretched scows, into each of which, with difficulty, thirty men could be




BALL'S BLUFF AND  HILTON  HEAD.                   217
crowded, with a smile he turned to Col. Wistar, and said, "' What are we
to cross in?"  The question manifestly admitted of no reply.
He put spurs to his horse, and galloped down to Edward's Ferry, to
confer with Gen. Stone, who was only three miles distant. Immediately
he returned, accompanied by his son, informing him, on their gallop back,
that his orders were to cross, with his force, and take the command. The
transportation was at once commenced, There were two scows. It required both to embark a company. The flood was so rapid that the average trip required three-qanrtcrs of an hour. Impatient of this tedious proIMAP OF'lALL'5 BLUFF AND VICINITY.
~.-                              T ROOP
canal. This was brought into -ervice. About eleven o'clock, rapid firing.
/was heaid on the YVAirginia shore.MSS
sons, and was ferried aross, leavin.g orders for the remaining troops to
narrow island, three miles. long, dividing the streaml. The first channel,
from the Miaryland shore to the island, was about one-eighth of a mile




218                CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
wide. There were two scows here. The second channel, on the Virginia
shore, was but 175 yards in width. Here there was but a single scow,
instead of the three now plying upon the Maryland shore. Capt. Ritman
was put in charge of forwarding the men from the Island to the Virginia
side, with the utmost possible haste. It was a dreadful alternative. Every
man sent across was plunged into the jaws of death, since, in case of disaster, there was no possibility of retreat. Yet, by refusing to send them,
the heroic soldiers on the other side must be abandoned to their iate.
Having thus adopted every precaution in his power, Col. Baker passed
to the Virginia shore, climbed the steep clayey bank, nearly one hundred
feet high, already mired by the trampling of horses and men, and up which
it was next to impossible to drag artillery, and taking two companies, proceeded to the spot where the firing announced that the battle was in progress. He soon' found Col. Devins, with a few companies of the Massachusetts 15th and 20th regiments, on an open plain of about six acres, with
the woods sweeping around it in the fbrm of a crescent. The sheets of
flame, followed by savage yells, which were incessantly emitted friom the
forest, showed at once that the Union troops were vastly outnumubered by
the rebels, who were lurking like Indians behind the trees. The patriots
had been drawn into an ambusl, and their doom was sealed.
Retreat upon the foaming river, where there were no boats, was not to
be thought of. For a brave man, nothing remained but a glorious sacrifice, as at Thermopylhe. Col. Baker, the ardent Christian, the imagnanimous man, the eloquent senator, the gallant soldier, was equal to the crisis.
And he had heroes to stand by his side, men as brave as any whose heroic
deeds have ever embellished the page of Greek or Roman story. The
Union troops, about 1,900 in number, rapidly arrived upon the field. Six
thousand encircled them in the forest. The line' of battle was formed
under a storm of bullets, the Massachusetts men on the right; Col. Coggswell, with the Tammany troops, took the centre; the Californians were
on the left.
There was no alternative but an inglorious surrender, or to sell their
lives as dearly as possible. It so ha/ppened, that though there were thousands of troops idle in the immediate vicinity, and large Union forces at
the ferries above and below, no troops were sent to protect the flanks of
the feeble invading column. The stream in their rear, with but one miserable scow with whichl to cross, swollen by recent rains, swept through the
gorge like a mill-race. The unearthly yells of the foe, rushing on like
wolves hungry for their prey, now rose above all the other uproar of the
battle.
A distance of about 200 yards separated the combatants. The rebel
sharpshooters were posted in the branches of the trees, picking off our
men at every point. It was one of those occasions in which it was necessary that the officers should conspicuously show the men that they evaded
no danger. As Colonels Baker and Wistar moved together through the
hottest of the fire, a rifle ball whizzed between them. Almost immediately
there came another, which struck the ground at their feet. "' That fellow
means us," said Col. Baker, looking towards the tree whence the shot




BALL'S FLUFF AND  HILTON  HEAD.                   219
seemed to come. Then turning to some of the troops near by, he said:
" Boys, do yot see that fellow up there? Now try if some of you can't
get him."  He then quietly changed his position.
The men were ordered to lie down after delivering their volley and
while reloading. But Col. Baker stood erect, with one hand in his breast,
apparently as calm as if in the chamber of the Senate. " Yoit don't lie
down," said one of the soldiers, who was crouching in obedience to orders.
"No, my son," was the reply; " and when you are a United States Senator, you will not lie down either."
When the battle had thus raged for some time, about 3 o'clock several
regiments of the rebels formed secretly in column behind the screen of
woods, and, with unearthly yells, came dashing from the forest upon the
Californians upon our left. It was a fearful charge even for veterans to
encounter. The Union men stood like a rock, retained their fire till every
bullet would tell, and then with one murderous discharge covered the
ground with the dead. As the smoke cleared away, the rebels in precipitate flight were disappearing in the woods. Three times three, with
heartiest good will, burst from the lips of these heroes. Again and again
these charges were made by three against one, and as invariably they
were repelled.
A small piece of artillery, a 12-pounder, -was at length brought up
from the river. 13ut such a deadly fire of rifles was opened upon it, that
nearly every man at the gun was either killed or wounded. Col. Baker
seeing the disaster, rushed himself to the gun. Colonels Wistar, Coggswell, Lee, Adjutant Harvey, and Lord Temple Vane, who was serving
under the title of Captain Stewart, followed, and with the help of Lieutenants B3ramhall and French, both of whom were woimded, the gun was
loaded and fired half a dozen times.
Animated by this example a number of privates sprang to the gun, and
these officers returned to their commands, Lieut-Col. Wistar, with his cheek
torn by a bullet. The gun was now fired with renewed rapidity and efficiency. The whole encircling forest seemed a volcano emitting thunderings and death. Col. Baker appeared to wear a charmed life. Capt.
Beirel, whose men were lying upon the ground, seeing Col. Baker exposed
to such a storm of shot that nothing but a miracle could apparently preserve him, exclaimed earnestly, "Colonel, why won't you come out of the
fire, and stand behind my men."
"Capt. Beirel," was the decisive yet not unkind reply, "Do you
attend to your company. I will look out for myself"
They were all at that moment enveloped in a cloud of smoke. The
battle was raging with such fierceness and confusion that friends and foes
had become more or less intermingled. Julst theni a mounted rebel officer'
appeared, emerging from the sulphurous cloud, and either supposing that
the troops he was approaching were rebels, or endeavoring to deceive
them by assuming that he was a patriot officer, thus hoping to'draw them
into a trap, he beckoned them to follow him. The quick eye of the Massachusetts men discovered the bold imposture; a volley of bullets fell upon
him, and horse and rider were plunged together into the dust. Lieut-Col.




220                 CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA,
Wistar, at that moment appeared, his arm shattered and dangling helpless
at his side.
"What, WVistar, hit again?" enquired Col. Baker.
" Yes, Colonel," answered this heroic officer; " and I wish you would
put my sword in the scabbard for me, for I don't want those hounds to get
possession of it."
The Colonel sheathed the weapon for his friend, and directing him to
retire to the rear and cross the river, continned to guide his ihdomitable
band in the unequal and desperate conflict. The rebels conscious of their
overwhelming superiority in numbers, were exasperated at the extraordinary energy of the defense, as the Urlion troops, inspired by their
Colonel, with a courage truly sublime, were contiunually hurling themselves into the midst of their foes, seeking a hand-to-hand fight, regardless
of numbers.  Gradually the swarming foe contracted their circle of flame
and death, till the field presented a maelstrom  of convulsive struggles,
of gushing blood, of whirling eddies of assault, such as has rarely been witnessed in any arena of human strife.
Let it not be imagined that this picture is overdrawn. It is not so.
These Union troops were reading, thinking, intelligent men. Multitudes
of them were abundantly capable of leading a regiment. They comprehenclded their situation, as filly as did their silver-haired, adored and glorious leader. They knew that their only hope of safety, was through that
path into which the energies of despair alone could guide them.  The
smoke had become so dense that but little could be seen-the roar of battle so deafening that nothing could be heard.  Col. Baker, who had
thoroughly drilled his men to the bayonet exercise, formed them in line to
make a final charge upon the serried ranks of the foe, thus to conquer or
to die.
Just at that moment a tall, burly, red-haired rebel advanced suddenly
from the smoke, within five feet of Col. Baker.  The Colonel was a man
of majestic mien, noble in person as in mind and heart, one who would
attract notice among a thousand. Instantly the rebel presented a selfcocking revolver, and as rapidly as he could crook his finger, discharged
eight bullets into the body of the patriot leader. At the same moment a
musket-ball came whizzing through the smoke, and striking Col. Baker
behind the left ear, passed through his brain; and also, at the same
instaxt, a large slug, from another direction, tore away half of the muscles
of his right arm, and "opened a hole into his side large enough to thrust
in the handle of a sword."'
The heroic man, one whom  earth could not afford to lose, fell dead.
Momentary consternation thrilled all surrounding hearts.  Capt. Beirel
sprang forward, and placing his pistol at the head of the ruffian, laid him
brainless by the side of the heroic warrior, and eloquent senator, who had
thus fallen, one of the noblest of freedom's martyrs.  Many of the rebels
rushed on, and a savage hiand-to-hand fight took place, over the bodies of
the dead.  Though almost overwhelmed by numbers, the Californians
drove back their assailants, and rescued the remains of their leader.
Raising the corpse on their shoulders, regardless of a shower of bullets,




BALL'S BLUFF AND  HILTON  HEAD.                    221
they conveyed it back, and delivered it to Major Young, who had it transported safely to the river.
The California battalion, so called because they were California emigrants, though most of them were native Pennsylvanians, rushed forward
again into the thickest of the fight, with spirit which ennobled their
courage with the consecration of martyrdom. Bramlhall, though wounded,
still clung to his gun. A Massachusetts ensign-bearer, with one leg shattered, still held the banner, in front of his comrades, leaning upon the staff.
At this period of the battle, the rebels had lost two to the patriots one.
But such a conflict could not long continue. The courage was equal on
both sides. No desperation on the part of the Unionists, could compensate
for the inequality in numbers. Gradually, contesting every inch, and the
ranks every moment dwindling, the patriots were compelled to retire, the
foe swarming in a semicircle around them. At length they were-forced
back to the fatal bluff. There was, as we have said, but one scow there to
take them across the swollen, turbid torrent.
" The rushing river behind,
And the furious foe before;
Who could have ever divined
That these were the perils of war?"
All the afternoon this one boat had been busy, bearing loads of the
wounded to the island. It was now filled with the wounded to its utmost
capacity, and had just been shoved frorn the shore, when the rebels, with
hideous yells, rushed upon the bluff, where our disordered troops were
crowded, pouring in upon them a decimating fire, and shouting for them
to surrender. The reply was like that of the Old Guard of Napoleon,
" The Guard dies-it never surrenders!'
Bramhall's gun they had brought back with them. It could yot be
saved. They spiked it and tumbled it over the cliff into the river. The
unearthly yells of the foe, rushing on like wolves, now rose above all the
other uproar of the battle. Nothing remained apparently but surrender,
or merciless slanghter. Capt. Coggswell ordered the men to throw their
guns into the river, and escape as they could. The scene of carnage and
dismay which ensued can never be told. Hundreds plunged together into
the stream, and swimming towards the overloaded scow, which would hold
but thirty persons, swamped it, and the struggling mass sank together
beneath the fierce current.  Some stood boldly upon the bluff, loading and
firing until they were shot down. "Fewer of the Massachusetts officers
would have been killed," said the rebels, "if they had not been too proud
to surrender." Some strong swimmers, throwing off most of their clothing,
effected a passage to the island; some attempted to escape on boards and
logs, a shower of balls incessantly falling upon them, wounding and killing
large numbers; some wandered wearily along the shore, and were taken
prisoners.  Cols. Coggswell and Lee were both taken. Capt. Beirel swam
the stream, throwing away, in mid current, his sword, which so impeded
him, that he could not save both it and his life.
In this disaster, so deplorable, so incomprehensible in its strategy, in




222                 CIVIL-WAR IN  AMERICA.
killed, captured and wounded, we lost 930. The rebels acknowledged a
loss of 300. The heart-rending tidings pierced every patriotic heart, and
it is not too much to say, that the country was clothed in mourning.  Blut
Leesburg, that night, was illuminated. Many of the Union troops, scattered along the shore for miles, concealed themselves in the bushes, and
swam the stream in the night, some with their muskets on their backs.
A party of eighty ran up the river, beneath the banks and the bushes, and
finding a small sunken skiff; which would hold five men, by the aid of a
negro, were all conveyed. across in safety.
This' humble, yet patriotic mail, notwithstanding all the wrongs he had
received from our Governmuent, yet toiled through the whole night, ferrying these exhausted soldiers secretly across the stream in his leaky skiff.
And yet there were those in the free ]North who averred, that ill the morning he should have been surrendered back to his master, to be scourged,
perhaps, out of his life, for thus saving firom captivity or death our sons
and brothers. The writer can not withhold the utterance of the abhorrence and indignation with which he regards such dishonor. Such a spirit
merits the severest denunciation which the historic pen can inflict. It was
only after many chastenings from the hand of God, that our civil and military powers efficiently recognized the brotherhood of man.
The remains of Col. Baker were deposited in the Congressional burying-ground, with the most heartfelt demonstrations of public and private
grief. There was a long and angry controversy, respecting who was to
blame for this terrible disaster. The fault certainly was not with Col.
Baker. Like a true soldier, he obeyed orders. For a time it was considered treason. It was doubtless a blzznder, resulting from military carelessness or incapacity somewhere.
Abott a week after this, the two hostile forces, in the vicinity of Edward's Ferry, with the impassable river, half a mile wide, between them,
amused themselves in an artillery duel, with rifled cannon, from nine in
the morning until two in the afternoon. WVhat damage was done by the
shot and shell thrown into the rebel camp, has never been ascertained.
In the Union camp, several tents were struck, two men were killed, and
three wounded. This was probably very good artillery practice, but it
could hardly be called war. The result was, that we moved our tents a
little further back from the shore. The rebels also did the same.
The course which England pursued during this conflict, and the spirit
she manifested, as developed in the " Times," and other English journals,
a spirit of sympathy for the rebels, and hatred of the patriots, excited in
the American heart a feeling of loathing and execration, which the obliterating hand of a century can hardly wipe out. The scorn, the abuse, the
insults, which, week after week, were lavished upon those who were shedding their blood for their free institutions and the great interests of humanity, inspired almost every American with an intensity of hatred of the
English name, which thousands will certainly carry with them  to the
grave. England encouraged this rebellion; England will suffer, in God's
wise providence, more from it yet, than America. England has now not
a friend in the United States, from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf: But




BALL'S BLUFF AND HILTON  HEAD.                   223
there were noble individual exceptions in England, men whose sympathies
were on the side of humanity in this great struggle.
Should the Duke of Argyle visit our land, we should forget that he was
an Englishman, and remember only, that in the hour of our anguish, he
uttered noble words of sympathy and of cheer. Our homes would be open
to welcome him; our hearts would throb to greet him. We shall never
forget, that when this direful rebellion was desolating our homes with
death, and smiting our hearts with woe, he, breasting the torrent of his
nation's abuse, said, at a banquet at Invernay, in Scotland,
" No more tremendous issues, were ever submitted to the dread arbitrament of war, than those which are now submitted to it upon the American
continent. W5e ought to admit, in fairness to the Americans, that there
are some things worth fighting for; and that national existence is one of
them."
On the 25th of October, the bereaved and saddened remnant of the
15th Massachusetts regiment, under Col. Devens, held their first parade
after the battle of Ball's Bluff. The heroism of this regiment and of their
colonel deserves especial notice. These Massachusetts men, deployed as
skirmishers upon the brow of the bluff, held the thronging rebels in check
fi-or some time. Many of them absolutely refused to go below the bluff,
but fought till they were shot down. It was manifest that all further resistance was unavailing, but these men would not consider even the question
of surrender. Col. Devens said, in his report, that under the circumstances.he would have surrendered to aforeivgnfoe, but that'to traitors and rebels,
surrender was impossible. The Colonel himself swam the river by aid of
three of his soldiers.  Upon the island he found thirty. of his men, and
formed them in line of battle. Gradually, during the night, others joined
them who had escaped. These were the heroic men, but the shadow of
the regiment which, but a few weeks before, left Massachusetts, who now
were assembled for their first parade after that disastrous day. Col. Devens
thus addressed them, in strains which would have given a Roman immortality:
"Soldiers of Massachusetts, men of Worcester county, with these fearful gaps in your lines, with the recollection of the terrible struggle of Monday fresh upon your thoughts, with the knowledge of the bereaved and
soul-stricken ones at home, weeping for those whom  they will see no more
upon earth,-with that hospital before your eyes, filled with wounded and
maimed comrades,-I ask you now, whether you are ready again to meet
the traitorous foe, who are endeavoring to subvert our Government, and
who are crushing under the iron heel of despotism the liberties of a part
of our country. Would you go next week? Would you go to-morrow?
Would you go this moment? "  One hearty YES! burst from every lip.
It had been ascertained, by a naval reconnoisance, from our little
squadron in the Chesapeake, that a nmmber of rebel vessels were undergoing repairs at Chincoteague Inlet, about two miles inland, on the Virginia shore. On the night of the 25th of October; Lieut. Alfred Hopkins,
took three boats and twenty-five men from the United States gun-boat
Louisiana, and entered the inlet to destroy them. The night was. dark




224                OIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
and with muffled oars they crept cautiously along, within sound of the
voices of the rebel sentries on the shore. Safely and undiscovered they
reached the rebel fleet. The channel was so intricate and well-guarded
that it was deemed impossible to bring any of the vessels out. With
matches and combustibles prepared, they rushed on board and almost
instantly the heavens were illumined with the blaze of the conflagration.
The enemy were taken so by surprise, and were thrown into such consternation, that they offered no resistance. Not even a shot was fired. The
leaping flames announced to those on board the gun-boat, the complete
success of the expedition; and, at day-light, the brave adventurers returned
to their ship, not having lost a man.
On the 26th, there was an engagement at Romney, on the South
branch of the Potomac. About five hundred rebels had intrenched themselves there. Gen. Kelley, in command of seven hundred Union troops,
commenced a march to strike them by surprise. His route of twenty-five
miles, led through Frankfort and Springfield. When within half a mile
of Springfield they were greeted with the roar of a twvelve-pounder, and
a shell came shrieking through their ranks, severely wounding two men.
This was their first notification of the presence of the enemy. The fire
from this rebel outpost was returned with so much vigor, that the enemy
abandoned their commanding position, and retreated through the mountain pass, and across the South branch, to a cemetery near the westerly
end of the town of Romney. IHere they had protective earth-works, with
a rifled twelve-pounder and a mountain howitzer, which commanded the
approach of the Union troops for more than a mile. The battle was
recommenced with great vigor, the fire of the enemy being returned with
one twelve-pounder and two six-pounders, both smooth bores. The rebels,
perfectly acquainted with the ground, and having obtained accurate range,
for half an hour kept up a very energetic discharge of shell and canister,
by which, though but one man was instantly killed thirty were wounded.
It will never cease to be a wonder how, in war, under the most deadly
fire, so many escape destruction. In this case many of the shots passed
just over the heads of the troops, leaving evidence of their fearful power in
the forest behind.
The untried volunteers met this ordeal like veterans; and when shells
were shrieking over their heads and canister shot falling like hail stones
upon their ranks, not a man was seen to flinch. For half an hour the
troops were exposed to this severe trial when the welcome command was
given to charge. The cavalry dashed across the stream by a ford, led by
Captains Keys and McGhee. The infantry rushed over a bridge, in the
face of the guns which the foe supposed would perfectly command the
passage. The charge was so impetuous that the rebels commenced a precipitate retreat, abandoning everythiing, and rushing in wildest rout
towards Winchester. Tihey lost their two guns, thirty baggage wagonstwice as many as the Union army lost at Bull Ru'un-  ith all their camp
equipage, many horses and several hundred stand of arms. The enemy
lost eight killed and fifteen wounded. Most of the rebel cavalry escaped,
as they had fleet and fresh horses. The infantry scattered in the woods




BALL'S BLUFF AND HILTON HEAD.                                 225
and over the mountains so that they could not be pursued.  The Union
troops marched triumphantly into Ro rnney.
On the 1st of November, Gen. Winfield Scott, in the 76th year of his
age, the veteran soldier, the revered man, encompassed by infirmities, at
his own earnest request, was permitted to retire from active service.*  The
youthful, vigorous Major-General Geo. B. Mi!cClellan, then in the 36th
year of his age, was appointed his successor as Commander-in-chief of the
armies of the United States.  Seldom  before has so heavy a burden been
placed upon any shoulders.  The retirement of Gen. Scott was attended
with the most conspicuous marks of public veneration and affection. The
President and his whole cabinet called upon the retiring soldier, with
affecting expressions of the nation's sympathies in his infirmities, and its
sense of the value of those public services which it had received from  his
hands, during his long and brilliant carder.
The accession of Gen. McClellan to this all-important post was received, throughout the country, with one united voice of acclaim.  It was
understood that he was recommended by Gen. Scott, and that he had the
full confidence of our most sagacious military men.
A  small body of Union troops, under General Rosecrans, were encamped on the east side of New River, in Virginia, near Gauley Bridge.
The rebels crept up cautiously, planted their batteries on a hill upon the
opposite side of the river, and practised target firing all day long,  They
hurt nobody, and hit nothing, except a flat-boat in the river.  The 11th
Ohio withdrew  their tents a few rods, to be safe from  any chance shot.
Towards evening a national battery of rifled guns was brought u.p, and
after a few volleys, the rebel batteries retired, probably unharmed.  Thus
terminated that frolic of war.
About the same time, the 13th Indiana regiment, under Col. Sullivan,
and a portion of Ohio cavalry, under Capt. Robinson, entered upon an
exploring tour, among the mountains of Western Virginia, of nine days'
duration.  They penetrated a very rough country, in a march of one hundred and eighty miles, had a skirmish with the rebels, in which they killed.a few and took thirteen prisoners, and returned to their camp at Huttonsville, without the loss of a single man, and with but one private slightly
wounded.
While such remained the state of affairs in Virginia, the attention of
the community was directed to great activity in the naval department, irn
preparation for another maritime expedition on a magnificent scale.  The
* Winfield Scott was born near Petersburg, Va., June 13, 1786. His parents, who were in
humble life, emigrants from Scotland, died when he was 17 years of age. Inl the year 1806, he
was admitted to the bar as a lawyer. The threatening attitude of England roused his indignation and summoned him to the army, and in the war which ensued he greatly signalized himself
at Queenstown, Fort George, Chippewa and Niagara. He rose rapidly through the grades of
military distinction, and was breveted Major-General the 14th of July, 1814. He finished the
Black Hawk TWar, and attained the height of his military reputation in the campaign of IMexico.
Being a Virginian by birth and having married a Virginian lady, much, but needless solicitude was,
felt for a time, as to his loyalty. Judge Robinson, an old friend and classmate, came to Washington to offer him a position in the rebel army. His response was decided. He was at one tirme a
prominent candidate for the Presidency, and is now venerated and beloved by all the loyal
millions of his countrymen.
15




226               GCIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
destination of the fleet was kept a profound secret. The rebels, unaware
upon what point the blow might fall, along a coast fifteen hundred miles
in length, were greatly alarmed. Brig. Gen. T. W. Sherman was placed
in command of the expedition. In the instructions which he received
from the War Department, he was directed to avail himself " of the services of any persons, whether fugitives from labor or not, who may offer
themselves to the National Government," and he was authorized to employ such persons in any capacity which he might deem most beneficial to
the service. The command was to sail to its destination under convoy of
a naval squadron, commanded by Commander Dupont. The fleet consisted of eighteen men-of-war and thirty-eight transports. The transports
were ordered to move in three columns, ini the rear of their armed protectors. The sailing vessels were to be towed by the steamers. Surf boats
were provided, sufficient to land three or four thousand men at once. Six
hundred sailors were selected to manage the boats. The fleet rendezvoused
at Hampton Roads, under the guns of Fortress Monroe.
On Tuesday, Oct. 29th, the squadron put to sea, none but the coinmanding officers knowing whither it was bound. When three days out,
and off Cape Hatteras, they encountered a terrific gale, which so utterly.
dispersed the fleet, that on Saturday morning, from the deck of ilthe
Wabash, but one sail only wats in sight. The next day the gale abated,
and the ships began to reappear. As they came together, they had many
disasters to report. The man-of-war Isaac Smith, to escape from foundering, was compelled to throw overboard a valuable battery. The transport
Peerless, in a sinking condition, succeeded in placing her people on board
the Mohican. The steamer Governor went down, after the Sabine had,
by heroic exertions, saved all on board. On Monday morning, Nov. 4th,
at eight o'clock, the Wabash, with twenty-five vessels in company, cast
anchor off Port Royal, a magnificent harbor, opening to a curious labyrinth of ocean creeks, on the South Carolina coast, about fifty miles south
of Charleston. Many other vessels of the fleet were then heaving in sight.
The rebels had removed from all the shores of their capacious coast,
every light-house, buoy or guide, which could aid the mariner. A fleet
little steamer, the Vixen, soon sounded out and buoyed the harbor.
Before dark all the steamers, which did not draw more than eighteen feet
of water, were securely anchored in the roadstead of Port Royal. A few
rebel steamers, under Commodore Tatnall, appearing in sight, the gunboats opened upon them, and chased them under the guns of some batteries which guarded the entrance of the harbor. The mouth of the harbor,
called Broad River, was about two and a half miles wide. Upon the
south shore, which was named Hilton Head, there was a formidable battery of twenty-three guns. On the north shore, which was called Bay
Point, there were two batteries, one mounting fifteen, and the other four
guns.
The outside bar was two miles wide, and in crossing it at high tide the
keel of the majestic Wabash would come within a foot or two of the bottom. The passage of this noble frigate over the bar was watched with
intense anxiety, and when the feat was successfully accomplished, cheers




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BALL'S BLUFF AND  HJ-ILTON- HEAD.                   227
Ourst from the lips of the whole crowded  fleet. The other large ships immediately followed, and at once prepared for action. But a rising gale,
and other unavoidable causes of detention, rendered it necessary to delay
the assault upon the forts until the next day. It was, however, judged
best to send out a reconnoissance of a few gun-boats, to draw the fire of
the batteries, that their situation and strength might, be ascertained.
Early Tuesday morning, the gun-boat Mercury ran along the sand -
beach skirting Hilton Head, One or two other armed vessels were also
cautiously creeping along the. suspicious shores. It was a beautiful morn~ ing, and the serene sky, the mirrored bay, and the soft, luxuriant outline
of the land, presented an aspect of rare loveliness. For an hour the sail
seemed tc be but a delightful pleasure excursion. But about half-past
seven the batteries on Hilton IHead and on Bay Point opened upon the
adventurous explorers, and for two hours there was a fierce conflict, the
only object of which was, on the part of the Union ships, to ascertain the
position of the rebel batteries, and the number and weight of their guns...A small fleet of rebel gun-boats also emerged fromn the labyrinth of creelks,
and took part in: the skirmish. Commodore Tatnall, now a rebel officer,
but who had grown gray in honorable service, beneath the Stars and
Stripes, led this fleet against the flag which he should have defended with
his life. The object of the reconnoissance having been attained, a signal
from the flag-ship recalled the gun-boats.
The rebels, seeing the vessels retire, thought they were defeated, though?,
in reality, they had received not the slightest harm. The petty little fleet,
of rebel gnul-boats followed them, when two or three of the Union vessels:
turned and hurled upon them  such volleys of shot and shell, that they
wheeled about and scampered back into the, creeks with celerity, which
excited a general burst of laughter. These. steamlers burned pitch pine,
instead of anthracite coal, and their dense black smoke was visible for,
many miles in the distance, over the low and level islands. Thus Tuesday passed.
On Wednesday, for some unexplained reason, no attack was.ordered,
and though doubtless vigorous preparations were being smade for the great
battle, the day seemed to be passed in inaction.  It:is said that the Wabash stuck upon a shoal, and that one of the ships, blown, off by the storm,
and which had on board some- heavy siege guns, had not arrived.  Themorning of Thursday dawned serene and clear, and as mild as the mostbalmy day in June. The groves, on the shore, were vocal with the -songs
of birds, and innumerable butterflies were, flitting about through the rig-:
ging of the ships. The scene presented as- the sun rose from the wave,
was one of the most charming which can be imagined.,The placid bay,,
the luxuriant shores, the distant ocean, the frowning forts, the majestic
frigates and war steamers scowling defiance uponn the foe they were just
on the point of attacking, and:the fleet of defenseless transports anchored
at a safe distance, upon whose decks and rigging an army of fifteen
thousand men were clustered, waiting; for the opening of one of the sublimest tragedies of war —all this. presented a panorama of life and  beauty,
such as few eyes. have beheld..




228                 CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
A rumor had passed through the fleet that it was the design of the
rebels, as soon as the war ships were thoroughly engaged with the forts, tQ
make a plunge, with their gun-boats, upon the defenseless transports, and,
with merciless havoc, to burn and destroy. To guard against this a sloop
of war was detached for their protection. The plan of the battle was
admirable in its simplicity and efficiency. The ships, forming in line,
steamed in a circle very slowly, each one, as it entered the mouth of the
river, about two and a half miles wide, delivering incessant broadsides
uponi Fort Beauregard, and the Battery on Bay Point, and as it turned
and came out upon the other shore, pouring the same deadly volleys into
Fort Walker upon Hilton Head. This circle, or rather ellipse, was about
two and a half miles in its longest diameter, and three-quarters of a mile
in its shortest. There were fifteen ships composing this circle, mounting
in all 145 heavy guns.
It was a beautiful sight as this fleet gracefully swept into line, so silent,
so peaceful, soon to burst into the loudest thunders, and the most desolating storm of war. This wicked rebellion has often arrayed brother
against brother, and father against son. In this case, as we have mentioned, brother was arrayed against brother. This great conflict between
freedom and slavery often constrained the patriot to meet as foes members
of his own household.
At 10 o'clock the action commenced, the first three shots being fired
from the rebel fort upon the flag-ship, which led the advance. The tremendous response of the Wabash consisted of two entire broadsides from
her two batteries of twenty-six guns each, and from her pivot gun. The
friigate steamed along as slowly as possible, only fast enough to give her
steerage way. These immense guns were loaded and fired each one every
minute. Fifty-three guns a minute, for twenty minutes, was the incessant'
peal from that one ship alone. But the other ships following on, came
gradually into range and opened their fire. The ships ran within six hundred yards of the batteries, and threw their massive balls and shells with a
force which would make them efficient at a distance of two and a half miles.
Many of the enemy's guns were large columbiads, throwing one hundred and thirty pound shot. In less than twenty minutes, three of these
massive cannon were dismounted. IBy the plan of attack seven or eight
vessels were able to play upon the hostile batteries at the same time, each
commencing, as soon as it arrived within three-fourths of a mile of the
forts, and continuing until three-fourths of a mile beyond. The fleet of
Commodore Josiah Tatnall had already been treated so roughly by the
few gun-boats which conducted the reconnoisance, and was so appalled by
the tremendous fire of the whole naval armament, that it ran away trembling into the distant inlets. When the whole Union fleet was in operation, fifty of the most terrible projectiles, round shot and shells, fell into
and upon each of the forts, as the ships passed, every nzinu-te. As each
ship held the fort for twenty minutes within its range, every time the
line came round, which was at very short intervals, 400 of these fiery projectiles fell upon the doomed rebels, like the bolts of divine wrath upon
Sodom and Gomorrah. The grandeur of the scene cannot be imagined.




BALL'S BLUFF AND HILTON  HEAD.                   229
The bombs rose from the ships in a majestic sweep through the air, and
then fell directly into the fort, exploding with a roar equal to the loudest
artillery.
Such a storm no masonry could resist, no mortal courage could long
endure. The explosion of one of these shells in the midst of a group ofmen is awful beyond description. The fragments are hurled in all directions, tearing perhaps a score of human bodies to fragments, and hurling
the remains, mingled with earth and guns and splintered trees, through
the air. When a round shot, a 32-pounder, strikes a man but little of him
remains. Even the concussion of the air, when such a shot passes near,
knocks one down. It was supposed that the enemy had strong reenfbrcements in the woods, behind the forts, and many shells were thrown to dislodge them. As these shells, in their explosion, throw their fragments with
great force, a quarter of a mile, it may be imagined what havoc must have
been produced, when a shower of them descending like hail-stones, fell
into an encampment. Many were killed by this shelling of the forest, and
all were dispersed who had sought refuge there.
After a short time, while the main body of the fleet continued to move
in its fiery circle, four of the gun-boats were sent to a position where they
could rake Fort Walker by an enfilading fire. Especial honor should be
conferred upon Capt. Percival Drayton, in command of the Pocahontas.
A loyal officer, true to his country, and obedient to command, he took his
position to sweep Fort Walker with his guns, though his brother was in
command of that iortification.
The rebels, when the battle commenced, were so confident in the
strength of their forts, and the power of their armament, that they had not
a doubt of a speedy victory, and of the annihilation of the fleet which had
blindly ventured within the reach of their guns. A slaveholder said to
one of his slaves, " The forts at Hilton tHead are impregnable; they cannot be taken. I tell you that God Almighty could not take those forts at
Hilton HIead."' Yes, MIassa," replied the slave, shaking his head incredulously; "but suppose the Yankees were to come with God Almighty!"
When the whole circle of ships had passed the range of the batteries
for the first tilne, and had.received apparently no injury from the tremendous fire which had been concentrated upon each one as it glided slowly
along, the rebels were amazed, and could hardly believe their senses. The
second time the deadly fire was rained down upon the forts, dismantling
guns, ploughing up the very foundations of the bastions, and burying mangled bodies of the dead beneath the ruins. The principal attention of the
fleet was directed to Fort Walker. And now the storm fell so terrific, so
deadly, that though its defenders had manifested bravery of the highest
order, they could stand it no longer. WVhen a panic in an army commences, reason is gone. The perfect confidence with which the rebels had
commenced the fight was suddenly changed to utter consternation. The
bolts of death fell upon them so mercilessly and incessantly, that in mortal
terror, simultaneously they dropped their arms and fled, leaving everything behind them-their coats which they had thrown off, their watches,
their money, costly swords-all the treasures of the camp.




230                CIVIL FWAR IN  AMERICA.
The flightt of the garrison was seen by the thousands who crowded, the
transports, and a shont:of delight arose, even louder than the voices of the
artillery. Capt. Rogers, from the Wabash, was sent with a flag of truce
to the shore, to ascertain if the flight were real or a feint. The fort was
found entirely deserted, not a living being in it. The Stars and Stripes
were immediately run up upon the ramparts, thus announcing to the
whole fleet that the insulted Government, in its majesty, had again planted
its foot upon the soil of rebellious South Carolina. The firing ceased;
cheers of almost frantic joy burst again and again from thousands of lips;
the bands on the various ships pealed forth, over the still waters, the
inspiring strains of Yankee Doodle and the Star Spangled Banner. The
action had lasted just five hours.
Measures were immediately adopted for landing the soldiers. The
Connecticut 7th, in twenty-seven large boats, were pulled to the beach, in
beautiful military precision, and- almost at the same instant 1,046 men
sprang upon the shore, in mnartial array, their arms glittering in the afternoon sun. The remainder of the brigade, under Col. Wright, soon followed. Pickets were thrown out in all directions, a double guard set, and
every-precaution adopted against surprise. But the terror-stricken rebels
had fled, with no thought but to escape from the terrible bombardment.
Their tents, outside the fort, were filled with luxuries. One of the soldiers
found $1,000 in gold and silver. For miles, the road along which the
rebels escaped was strewed with knapsacks, blankets and muskets. In the
forts and batteries there were about 1,800 men. The guns were found to
be mostly 130-pound columbiads, of admirable finish, and the forts were
on the most approved plan of military engineering. The whole land force
of the expedition was soon transferred to the shore, and the fortifications,
on both sides of the river, were seized and garrisoned by the victors. An
act of treachery, such as characterized this rebellion from its commenceinent to its close, was here discovered. The Sec.ession flag at Bay Point,
which fort the rebels left quite deliberately when they obund that Fort
Walker was taken, was fixed as a snare, so that, when the Union troops
should attempt to draw it down, it would explode a percussion cap, which
would fire the magazine. By some accident, thy train of powder had been
broken. And, though the cap exploded and fired the train, the interrupted
communication with the magazine saved hundreds from destruction.
Nearly all the rebels escaped. Twenty-five only: were taken prisoners,
who were sick in the hospitals. Fifty large cannon, three hundred 3muskets, the entire camp equipage of three regiments, and an immense quantity of ammunition, fell, with the forts, into the hands of the victors. The
Union loss was but eight killed and twenty-five wounded. The loss of the
rebels was 120 killed and 100 wounded. Capt. Steedman, of the Bienville, who buried the dead, was a noble South Carolinian, who had remained true to his flag, when so many of the inhabitants of his native
State had infamously apostatized.
The majestic Wabash had been, during the fight, a conspicuous target
for the rebel guns. She was struck twenty-five times. But the skill of
her officers did not allow her to be raked, and though the ship was severely




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232                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
wounded, she received no fatal blow. The Bienville was struck five times
receiving, however, no serious injury. The Penguin was struck upon her
steam chest and disabled. Indeed, all the ships were more or less wounded.
The rebels had probably no idea that the wooden ships would venture up
to the very muzzles of their guns, and their pieces were accordingly sighted
for a range of one or two miles. Thus most of the shot passed through the
rigging. And when the terrific bombardment coummenced, and shells were
rained down upon the fbrts at the rate of fifty a minute, the confusion was
too great to admit of careful aim. The ships were also kept continually in
motion. Probably there never was am engagement of such magnitude,
where a fleet, was exposed to so heavy a fire, with so slight loss. Tho disappointment of the rebels must have been excruciating, for they had not
indulged in a doubt that they should sink the whole fleet in twenty
minutes. Letters found in the camp expressed regret that it would be
necessary to sin/c all the ships, when the rebels were so muclch in need of a
navy. When we reflect that the immense columbiads of the rebels were
in such a position, that fifty could be brought to bear lupon each ship, it
does seem stranlge that any one of the fleet could have escaped destruction.
Among the incidents of the battle, it is narrated that a 130-pound shot,
after ricochetting four times, bounded directly over the Bienville, about
ten feet above the deck, and plunged into the Augusta. 5William1in -I. Steel,
a boy fourteen years of age, served at one of the guns, handing powder
with composure which excited astonishment, never flinching or dodging a
shot. And when two men fell dead, torn and mangled at the gun, he
steppes4 carefully over the bodies, and continued in the discharge of' his
duty as serenely as if nothing had happened. Thomas Jackson, coxswain
of the Wabash, had his leg torn ofi; so that it hung only by a small portion
of the muscle and skin. Deliberately he took out his belt-knife, and endeavored to cut the limb ofF. The knife was so dull that, thougit he
sawed manfully, lihe could not sever the limb. IIe was taken below, and
died in two hours, saying that he was happy to suffer for the " dear old
flag.''
From our whole fleet, 3,500 shot and shell were thrown into and upon
the forts. It has been carefully estimated that the average value of each
shot delivered at the fort was eight dollars. The whole cost of tile five
hours' filght was about $28,000, and the whole money cost to the Government of the enterprise could not have been less than five millions of
dollars.
As soon as the troops were established upon shore, a reconnoissance
was sent up Broad River, to the pretty town of B3eaufort, about ten miles
fi'om the harbor, at the mouth of the river called Port Royal. This was
an antique little town, Southern in all its aspects of ill-directed expenditure and comifortlessness. The masters from  all that region had fled,
driving, as far as possible, all their slaves before them, and shooting those
who refused to obey. Still, many escaped, and came down to the banks
of the river, with bundles in their hands, waiting for the long-expected
deliverance. A few hours after the battle at Port Royal, eighty fugitive
slaves came together into the camp. They said, " the rest aro coming."




BALL'S BLUFF AND  HILTON HEAD.                    233
They declared that they had long been waiting for the arrival of the
Yanke.es.
"Bress de Lord, massa," said one of these simple men, "we'se prayed
and prayed de good Lord to send der Yankees, an' we knowed you'se
a coinin'.
"'  ow did you know that? " was the inquiry.  "You can not read the
papers! "
"No, massa, we can't read; but we can listen. Massa and missus used
sometimes to read loud, and then we used to listen so," pulling his ear
and bending down, as if listening at a key-hole. "I'se listened, an' Jim, an'
we put de bits togedder, an' we knowed you'se a comin', bress de Lord!"
The religious element was strongly developed in these children of
bondage. It seems as though God, who deals in compensations, had
rewarded them in some degree. spiritually, for their temporal deprivations.
They held prayer-meetings in the camp every night, and the soldiers, the
majority of whom were the children of Northern Sabbath schools, attended
these meetings with deep interest and reverence. The slaveholders had
so invariably prefixed the epithet of dcamned to the Northerners, whenever
they spoke of them, that the slaves in their simplicity, deemed it their
appropriate title. At one of the religious meetings one of these Ethiopic
"Israelites indeed," exclaimed, in his fervent prayer, " O God, we thank
Thee that Thou hast sent these kind soldiers to be the friends of the poor
slaves. Like Jesus, they have comen with good tidings of great joy. O
God, wilt Thou bless these dlamnied Yct6kees!"
Evidences of the inhuman treatment of the slaves were painfully abundant. Deep scars, evidently from burns, were seen upon the backs of
several.  They said their master, Mir. Joseph Cruel, as a punishment,
dropped melted sealing wax, in a blaze on their backs. It was indeed an
instructive comment upon the spirit of Christianity, to hear these outraged
men plead with God to have mercy upon the masters, from whomn they
had escaped. Though there was no indication whatever of any attachment, there was the entire absence of any vindictive spirit. This is the
universal testimony.
The landing of our army at Hilton, Head converted those hitherto
silent waters into one of the -most busy spots upon the globe. Vast
intrenchments were thrown up, fifteen hundred soldiers being employed
upon these works, for, some time, day and night. An immense wharf was
constructed, stores of all sorts landed, store-houses built; and dwellinghouses reared. Much of this work might have been done by the negroes,
but most of the officers of the army were strangely averse to employing
them, or even to receiving tllem within their lines. It was seldom that
they were cordially welcomed.. Many seemed to prefer to wear out the
lives of'our soldiers by toil, and to imperil the very existence of our
Government, rather than accept the aid of colored men to labor in the
trenches, or to man a gun. It will be difficult for posterity to believe or
to comprehend this puerile and absurd prejudice. A Border State member of Congress, exclaimed indignantly in debate, to one who was urging
the employment of colored men,




234                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.' Would you fight by the side of a negro a?"
" Let me ask you a question," was the reply. " If in the hour of battle, the wheel of your gun, drawn by mules, was clogged in the mire,
would you put your shoulder to the wheel, and aid the mules to draw
it out?"
" Yes," was the prompt reply; " I had much rather work with a mnule
than with a negro."
This strange delusion protracted the war and added immensely to its
woes. The rebels more wise, employed every agency they could bring to
bear. They had thousands of slaves to aid them in all their hard work.
Indeed, it was the labor of the slaves alone, which furnished them with
the means of carrying on the war. We wore out our sons in the trenches,
or exposed their bare bosoms to the bullets of the foe, because we were not
willing that men of African descent, should render that aid which they
were so eager and able to fihrnish. I.arge quantities of Sea Island cotton
were burnt by the rebels to prevent the valuable commodity from falling
into the hands of the Union men. The coast, the night after the bomnba'ordment, was lighted up, for miles, with the flames of the cotton consumed
on the distant plantations. Notwithstanding their cold reception by many
of the officers, the " contrabands " continued to flock in, and in the course
of a few days there were more than a thousand of these true- Union
men silently soliciting the protection of the American flag, and eager
to consecrate their robust arms to its defense.  The free white population of South Carolina was 301,271; the colored slave population,
402,541. All the colored population were patriots. Thus we had in that
one State more than 100,000 majority in favor of the Union. And yet
month after month, rather than accept the aid of these 400,000 patriots,
we buried our sons, sacrificed to needless toil, beneath the sands of I-ilton Head; allowed the foe to retain Charleston, to baffle our blockading
squadron, and thus to secure those supplies, which, on many a bloody
field, swept mutilation and death through our ranlks. This very district
of Beaufbrt, where our forces were for months held at bay, contained
32,000 slaves and only 5,000 whites. And yet, with this force at our
command, we allowed ourselves to be ever outnumbered by the foe,
and for months hardly dared to adventure from behind our intrenchments.
The news of the capture of the forts produced intense excitement in all
that region, and it can hardly be doubted that, in the consternation, both
Charleston and Savannah would easily have fallen into our hands. From
both these cities there was a general flight back into the country. But the
energies of our soldiers were expended in digging, instead of advancing,
and thus the opportunity was lost. It is, however, important to state,
that we did not know at the time how defenseless those cities Aere; and
the prejudices of a large portion of the community were so strong that it
would not perhaps have been safe then for any general to employ the
colored people in standing guard over store-houses, or even in throwing up
entrenchments. Fifteen thousand men were landed at Port Royal, about
the 7th of November. Before the close of the month, from hard work and




BALL'S BLUFF AND  HILT-ON  HEAD.                  235
exposure, five thousand of these were on the sick list. The English, in
India, have been more wise. With the aid of the Hihndoo, they have been
able to conduct campaigns successfully in the hottest months; and the
European regiments, in the hour of battle, have never been reluctant to
have Sepoy regiments come to their aid. And so with the French in
Algiers. Colored regiments were among the most efficient of their troops.
All the information we gained, at HIilton -Ilead, respecting the movement of the enemy, was obtained through the slaves. The testimony is
almost nncontradicted, that whenever employed they worked with zeal
and efficiency. Interesting incidents were daily occurring, which moved
the sympathies of the humane. A man escaped from Savannah. As he
came into camp, a group of rejoicing " contrabands" gathered around him,
with their warm welcome. Suddenly he sprang into the arms of a bright
mulatto woman, who rushed forward to meet him. She was his wife, who
had been sold from him, in the slave shambles of the nominally Christian
city of Savannah, and they had not seen each other, or heard from each
other, for eight long years. Their little boy also, Frank, was with his
mother, and thus, with sobbings, and shoutings, and clapping of hands, the
little family was again reunited. Another case is worthy of record. A
man named Judy bad escaped from bondage with his children. The master seized the wife and carried her two days' journey towards the mountains. In the night she succeeded in stealing away from her captors, and
after swimming a branch of the New Riiver, reached, by a toilsome tramp,
the creek which divides the main -lnd from Pinckney Island. This creek
she also swain, and crossing the Island, came to Skull Creek, which separated it from Hilton Head. The current was deep and rapid and a quarter
of a mile in width. But undaunted she swain across, and trudging through
the sand after this long and perilous journey, rejoined her husband and
children. As Judy hugged her passionately in his joy, he exclaimed, " I
told'em so; I told'em you'd'scape and cum."  This woman surely was
a heroine tlough Ethiopic blood coursed through her veins.
One of the deacons of the church at IHilton H-Iead, heard that his wife,
who had been sold from him fourteen years ago, and of whom he had
heard nothing all that time, had escaped from her task-masters, and was,at Ieaufort. HIe hastened. to meet her. In the streets of that deserted
village, which war had swept of the barbarism of slavery, they clasped
each other again, in their free arms. A father met a young man twentyone years of age. It was his son, who had been torn from him when but
six years old. These were reunions which opened the deepest fountains
of feeling in the human heart.
And yet, notwithstanding all these facts, there were those in the North
who were bitterly opposed to any measures which tended towards emancipation. Many officers in the army threatened to throw up their commissions, if the institution of slavery were interfered with. Men who would
sooner see all mankind annihilated, than be slaves themselves, threatened
to: abandon their country's flag, if, by any national action, the chains of
the bondmen were loosened. Like Pharaoh we would not let God's children go, till driven to it by unendurable plagues. But when the wail of




'236                  CIVIL  WAR IN  AMERICA.
our first born drowned all the roar of battle, then reluctantly the nation
began to consent to recognize the rights of humanity.
With the island of Port Royal as the base of operations, cautious expeditions were gradually pushed out in every direction. Our ever faithful
friends, the colored people, often brought to headquarters information of
vital importance, which aided the Union troops to ward off danger, or to
strike heavy blows with safety. At one time they informed us that the
x'ebels were blocking Coosaw river with stockades. A gun-boat was sent
which dispersed them.  A scouting party of rebels ventured upon tile
island. The negroes discovered them and brought the report. The rebels
were driven back with the loss of six prisoners and two wounded. A
planter on one of the remote islands was seated at his dinner-table when
he was startled by the cannonade of an approaching gun-boat shelling the
suspicious thickets. I-Ie sprang from his table, leaving everything behind
him, and ordered his numerous slaves to get ready the flat-boat, to transport all across the creek to the main land. The slaves, without lifting a
hand to injure the planter, or his property, just took the boats, and with
shouts of joy advanced to meet those whom they recognized instinctively
n —s their fricnds.
The contrabands increased so rapidly in numbers, that four buildings,
each 250 feet long by 30 wide, were erected for them. The friends of the
colored race in the North were very active in seeking to promote their
welfare, though there were not wanting journals in the free States which
assailed all these Chlristian endeavors with ridicule. A large school-room
was prepared, and these untutored men and women, who, by the laws of a
nominally Christian State, had been forbidden to learn to read, with the
most touching interest flocked to the school. One day, four negroes came
from distant Florida in an open boat. To reach the coast, they were compelled to cross, for several miles, an almost impassable swamp.
At this period of the war, the general voice of the North called for
Emancipation, as the cheapest, the least bloody, and by far the most efficient means, of bringing the war to a close. Nothing is more certain than
that, with the aid of the 400,000 true Union population of South Carolina,
the hardy working class, every vestige of Secessionism might have been
swept from the State in three months. Ain earnest proclamation and a
warm welcome would have spread the tidings, fi'om plantation to plantation, like electric fire. The energies of the whole State would have been
paralyzed, as the slavellolders would have been compelled to remain at
home to watch their negroes. In a fortnight, 50,000 lusty arms would
have been in the patriot camp, to throw up intrenchments, to do all heavy
work, to man the guns behind the ramparts. The TTnion whites in the
State would have thus been emboldened to act, and other States would
have been overawed. These, at all events, were the views of those who,
weary of the carnage and misery of war, preferred to terminate them by
the emanc~iatiom of the slave, rather than by the impoverishment of their
fortunes and the blood- of their children.
The plaui of the rebels had now become generally known. In speeches
aid documents innumerable, the slaveholders had declared that slavery




BALL'S BLUFF AND HILTON HEAD.                             237
was the true condition of society-gentlemen in the parlor, laborers in the
cabin; that republicanism required that an aristocratic class should hold
the wealth and the power, and that the industrial class, whatever their
complexion, should be deprived of all civil and political rights.  It was
their avowed object to demolish our free institutions, that they might reconstruct them  upon this corner-stone of slavery.  Thus the whole Union
was to present the aspect of two classes-aristocrats living without labor,
and wzorkizngmwen robbed of all the fruits of their toil.  All laborers, Irish,
German, Yankees, were stigmatized as " mudsills," as "greasy mechanics,"
who should not be permitted to learn to read or write, or to enjoy any
political privileges.  The warfare of the slaveholders was against freedovmn
in every form, except for gentlemen; against free schools, a free press, a
free pulpit.*
It was their boast that, having thus reconstructed the Union, upon the
basis of the system  of despotic and pagan Rome, they would then commlence a career of conquest, until these two continents were brought under
subjection to their sway.  M3/exico and Central America were thus to be
overrun; then Cuba; then island after island of the West Indies; then
South America.  Such was the insane plan of these slaveholders.  Never
did a more Satanic plot rise in mortal minds. To many it seemed that the
simplest way to demolish it all, was, as a military necessity, to abolish
slavery in the United States.  This, in an hour, would break the arm  of
the rebellion.
The simple assent of the North to the secession of the slaveholders,
vwould secure all the atrocious results which the rebels desired.  It would
leave them in possession of three-fourths of the national territory, for they'
demanded every slave State, including the Capital at Washington.  It
would surrender to them  the whole territory lying south of the line, running from the north-west angle of Missouri to the Pacific.  It would leave
in their hands the whole Gulf coast, and all of the Atlantic coast except
the line from the Delaware to the Penobscot.  By a low tariff, the slaveholders would secure the commerce of the world, flood the North with
smuggled goods, and drive  Northern manufactures from  the  market.
Under these adverse circumstances, the great agricultural States of the
North-West, one after another, would find it for their interest to join the
Southern Confederacy; Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey would
follow.;New England alon.a would be left out, powerless; to be insulted
and domineered over by this g`igantic despotism, which would spread its
gloom over all the interests of humanity.
History may be searched in vain for any other conspiracy so utterly
selfish and oppressive, and in all its principles so enormous in its wickedness.  This merciless despotism, trampling the rights of millions in the
* In December, 1860, the Hon. J. H. t:ammond, once Governor and Senator of South Carolina, wrote in a private letter, " You see what I have often told you, that Slavery is stronger than
the Union. I don't think that there is the least chance of reconstructing the Confederation on the
former bases. We will have no other Union than one in which the slave power shall be largely
and permanently predominant. We can be secure in no other." This is the man who, owning,
it is said, 18,000 acres of land and 400 slaves, calls the freo laborers of the North, " mudsills."




238                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
dust, corrupting Christianity, and dethroning a God of justice, might, perhaps, for a time, develop energies equaled only by those of demons from
the bottomless pit. But all the powers of the Godhead would be arrayed
against it, and, like Babylon and Sodom, it would finally be blighted by
God's wrath. The conscience of the North said, " We can not be partners in this great wickedness." The scourge which fell upon the South
was terrific. Yet again and again had the North occasion to feel that
God's frown was upon them also. The hearts of tens of thousands were
saddened by the reflection, that the nation, as represented by its Government, moved so slowly in the only path of right and of safety. Still, it
was evident to faith, that God was guiding the destinies of this great
people, and Christians and enlightened patriots, with submission and hopefulness, could only continue to pray, to labor, and to wait.




CHAPTER IX.
THE REBELLION  IN  MISSOURI.
CLAIMS OF SLAVERY IN MISSOURI.-STEPS PREPARATORY TO SECESSION IN MISSOURI.- HEROISM
OF CAPT. J. H. STOKES. —MILITARY PREPARATIONS AT ST. LOUIS.-EFFORTS OF GEN. LYON.CAPTURE OF CAMP JACKSON. - REIGN OF GEN. HARNEY. - OVERTURES OF JACKSON AND
PRICE. —PROCLAMATION OF JACKSON.-THREATENING STATE OF AFFAIRS.-MOVEMENTS OF'
LYON.-BATTLE OF BOONEVILLE.-STATE OF THE COUNTRY. —HEROISM OF SIGEL.-BATTLE
OF CARTHAGE.
IT is a singular circumstance, if indeed it may not be called providential, that, at the breaking out of the rebellion, the line: which separated the
loyal fiolm the disloyal States, was so notably geographical.. The governors of the Northern Border States were not only of undoubted loyalty, but
men who had never sympathized with the previous movement of Southern
politicians, in behalf of slavery.  Elected on a platform of opposition to
pro-slavery propagandism, they did not need the shock of open rebellion
to enlist their heartiest efforts on the side of liberty and national life.
The executive, on the other hand, of the Southern Border States, with the
exception of Gov. IIicks, of Maryland, wNere, from the beginning, warmly
enlisted in the effort to break asunder the Union.  Their sympathies and
political affiliations were all on the side of the rebellion, Under,cover of
professions of a desire for peace, for neutrality, for State rights, they plotted and labored to carry their respective States into the Southern Confederacy, without regard to the wishes or interests of the people.  The
history of affairs. in Missouri, affords one of the most striking illustrations
of the dishonest and treacherous methods, which were taken by those in
power to drag the people of their States into a course. of action, which was
as antagonistic to their desires, as it was hostile to their interests and subversive of their rights.
In the autumn of 1860, the gubernatorial chair of Missouri was filled
by Claiborne F. Jackson.  An unscrupulous member of the pro-slavery
party, he at once entered into the treasonable plans of his associates.  It
was indeed evident to every unprejudiced mind, that all the interests of
]Missouri demanded the perpetuity of the Union.  The dismemberment of
the country, would have turned the trade of the West from the- Mississippi
River into Eastern channels, andwould have abandoned. St.Louis, now one
of the great commercial centres of the West,.imerely to her own local trade.
The State would also. thus have been separated from the great North-west,
with which, by nature, her interests and destiny are evidently linked.




240                CIVIL  WAR  IN  AMERIOA.
The claims of slavery could not aflord even an apparent reason for
secession in her case. Missouri suffered all the evil effects, and secured
none of the fancied benefits, of the slave system. Neither her climate nor
her products called for negro labor. I-er slaves were not in sufficient
numbers to be efficient producers-many entire counties possessing less
than a hundred,-but were enough materially to mar her prosperity. HIer
genial clime, and majestic streams, and fertile lands, invited emigration.
But because of slavery, dishonoring labor, and thwarting education, and
obstructing the progress of religion, the tide of emigration recoiled and
rolled back from her eastern border into Illinois, or turned northward to
the less attractive State of Iowa, or overleaping the slavery-infested State,
flowed on into the remoter West. In case, too, of separation, Missouri
could not long have kept the few slaves then in the State. Bounded on
three sides by free States, which would ever have afforded an asylum to
the fugitive, and from two of which she was separated by no natural
boundary of mnountain or river, the prospect of freedom, so near and so
accessible, would have proved too tempting to her slave population to have
been resisted.
The great majority of the population of the State, influenced by such
considerations, were earnestly loyal, though there was a powerful and an
exceedingly active minority, who were prepared to unite their fortunes
with the South.  "I have been from the beginning," said Gov. Jackson,
in a letter to David Walker, "in favor of prompt action on the part of
the Southern States; but the majority of the people have differed with
me."
No sooner was the result of the Presidential campaign known, than the
work of preparing to take Missouri out of the Union commenced. In
January, 1861, the Legislature passed an act calling a convention, and
providing for the election of delegates. Thus they apparently intended to
submit the course of the State to the choice of the people. But this was
far from being their real design. They had other plans in reserve, should
they be beaten at the polls. They determined to accomplish by violence,
what it might not be possible to accomplish by appeals to passion and
prejudice. The event showed their sagacity. The convention proved
itself largely and strongly loyal. The rebel leaders, however, did not wait
to know the popular choice. They purposed at once to put the State on a
war footing. With a view to this, they commenced the organization of
Xvoluntary ibrces of Secessionists. The troops, thus raised, they proposed to
place under the almost unlimited control of the Governor, and to pay the
expenses out of the State treasury-a plan subsequently put into execution.
In addition to this, they made their arrangements to seize the arsenals,
and other public property of the United States, if possible, before President Lincoln s/hould be, inaugurated.  Lest this course should be resisted
by a popular uprising, secret military organizations were formed, pledged,
at the first tap of the drum, to draw the sword and exterminate every
Unionist who did not yield to this usurped power of the State authorities.
In these movements the Governor was intensely active. HIe entered into




THE  REBELLION  IN  MISSOURI.                     241
correspondence with the leaders of the rebellion in the seceded States.
He pledged Missouri to secession. He sought the cooperation of the
Sout hern States, to aid in forcing Missouri into the rebellion. All these
operations were conducted with the utmost secresy. The avowed principle of the Secession party was State neutrality.  To treason to the Union,
they added treachery to the people; duplicity and falsehood.
In his public addresses, Gov. Jackson said that Missouri had no war to
prosecute. In his private correspondence, he declared that he only wanted
time to arm the State, in order to accomplish its secession from the Union;
and that the State ought to have seceded before. In public, lie justified
arming the State, as necessary to protect her people from aggressions from
any assailants.  At the same time, he privately invited the army of the
Southern Confederacy to enter Missouri, and commenced the execution of
those plans which were afterwards consummated, by welcoming within her
borders an army from the South of 20,000 rebel soldiers. In public, Gov."
Jackson urged the people to avoid all excitement and disorder. In priyate, he connived at plans tending to the repetition in St. Louis of the
oscenes of St. Bartholomew's day, by the massacre of all citizens who did
not acquiesce in his schemes for the overthrow of the national authority.
Such was the state of affairs in Missouri at the time of the inauguration of President Lincoln.  The rebels soon struck their first determined
blow, which was intended to "fire the South," and to bid the General
Government defiance, by attacking and reducing ]Tort Sumter. The nation
was thus at length roused, and- the President issued his proclamation for
75,000 troops, to protect Washington from threatened assault.  Gov. Jackson had declared that Missouri would be "faithless to her honor, and
recreant to her duty, were she to hesitate a moment in making the most
ample preparations fbr the protection of her people against all assailants."
And yet this same man, who had sworn allegiance to the Constitution of
the United States, insolently and traitorously denounced the President's
call for troops to protect the-nation's life, as " illegal, unconstitutional,
revolutionary, inhuman and diabolical."
H-e immediately called an extra session of the Legislature for the purpose of taking measures to organize and equip the militia, to raise money,
and put the State, in all respects upon a war footinlg.  The Secessionists,
however, did not await the action of tile Legislatture. More rapidly than
ever they pressed the work of organizing military companies.  On the
20th of April, they seized and plundered the United States arsenal at
Liberty, near the Kansas border.  They laid plans for the seizure of the
arsenal at St. Louis-a far richer prize-containing a large quantity of
army stores. The rebels watched the arsenal, day and night, to prevent
any of its contents from being removed by the United States authorities.
The bold and sagacious action of a single individual, saved the arsenal
from capture, and thus probably saved the State to the Union.
On the I24th of April, Capt. James II. Stokes, of the regular army,
received through the hands of Gov. Yates, of Illinois, a requisition, from
the Secretary of War, at Washington, for ten thousand muskets from the
United States arsenal at St. Louis. Proceeding to the city, for the pur16




242                 CIVIL WAR  IN  AMERICA.
pose of removing the arms, he found the arsenal surrounded by an almost.
impenetrable mob. The undertakirg was apparently hopeless. The rebels
would not willingly allow a gun to be. removed, and there was no United
Stats force in the vicinity able to cope with them. To wait fbr help was
also fatal, for Gov. Jackson had rendezvoused at Jefferson City, but a few
hours distant, by river or by rail, tvwo thousand armed men, whom he
ordered to St. Louis, inmmnediately upon hearing of Capt. Stokes' arriial.
Thus delay was inevitable defeat.  By an ingenious stratagem  Capt.
Stokes accomplished that, which by force he could not have accomplisbed.
He boxed up five hundred old flint lock muskets, which had been sent
to the arsenal to be altered, and, at night, with affected secresy, carted
them to a steamer, as if to send them up the river. The spies ibllowed
them, and roused the mob, whlo took thle bait.  They seized the boxes, and
carried them  off withl great exultation.  Still a few spies remained to
vatch the arsenal. By an adroit movwement they were suclddenly seized
and placecd in the gardl-house, cut off -fromn all communication with their
confederates.  Then commenced, in earnest, the night's work. It was
resolved, not merely to fill up the requisition, but to send off for safe keep-.
ing the entire contents of the arsenal. By 2 o'clock in the morning,
20,000 muskets, 5,000 carbines, 500 revolvers, 110,000 cartridges, besides
cannon and miscellaneous accoutrements had been moved to a steamer,
which, by previous:appoinftment, had come to the arsenal landing.  Only'00 muskets to arin the patriotic St. Louis volunteers, were left behind.
"When the whole was on board," says thel Chicago Tribune, from
whose graphic report this-statement is taken, " the order was given, by the
captain of the steamer, to cast off. Judge of the consternation, when it
was, fbund that she would not move. The arms had been piled, in great
quantities, around the -engines, to protect themr against the battery on the
levee, and the great weight had fastened the bows of the boat firmly on a
rock wvlhich was tearing a hole through the bottom  at every turn of the
wheels. A man of less nerve than CaptL Stokes, would have gone crazy.
He called the arsenal men on board, and colnmenced moving the boxes to
the stern. Fortunately, when about two hundred boxes had been shifted,
the boat fell away fron the shore and floated into deep water.
"'Which way?' said Capt. Mitchell, of the steamer.
"'Straight to Alton, in the regular challnnel,' replied Capt. Stokes.
W"' What, if we.are attacked?'  asked Capt. Miitchell.
"' Then we will fight,' replied Capt. Stokes.
"" What, if we are overpowered 2' said Capt. Mitchtiell.
"'Run her to the deepest part of the river and sink her,' replied Capt.
Stokes.
"' I'll do it,' was the heroic answer of Capt. Mitchell; and away they
went, past the secession battery, past the entire St. Louis levee, and on to
Alton, Illinois, where they arrived at 5 o'clock in the morning. As soon
as the boat touched the landing, Capt. Stokes, apprehensive that he might
be pursued by the Secessionists, who had several companies of armed men,
ready to move at a moment's notice, and steamboats in abundance at their
comumand, ran to the market-house and rang the fire-bell. The citizens




THE  REBELLION  IN  MISSOURI.                         243
were aroused, and flocked pell-mell to the river, men, women, children, in
all. sorts of habilimnents.  Capt. Stokes informed them, the patriots of Illinois, of the posture of affairs, and of the importance of transporting
instantly the heavy freight, up the steep banks of the river to the cars.
Never was there a more beautiful illustration of the maxim that'many
hands make light work.' The whole population, young and old, males
and females rich and poor, with the noblest enthusiasm  toiled together,
and in two hours the whole cargo was deposited in the cars, and the train
moved off triumphantly for Springfield, amidst cheers such as have rarely
beeni heard upon the banks of the Mississippi, or of any other stream."
This movement enraged the Secessionists, but'did not check them  ill
their traitorous schemes. Defeated in their first design, they resolved to get
possession of St. Louis in another way.  The Governor had already called
an extra session of the Legislatnre.  It met on the 2d of Mlay, and pro-.
ceeded to pass what is known as the 3filitary Bill.  This enactment provided that all members of the militia, should take an oath of obedience to
the Staqte authorities, irrespective of any obligation to the United States.
It closed the public schools of Missouri, and appropriated the school fund
to military purposes.  It placed the whole militia of the State at the disposal of the Governor, a notorious Secessionist.
Under pretense of forming a camp of instruction, Jackson commenced
gathering a large military force in the suburbs of St. Louis.  These troops
were supplied with umuskets, and ceven with heavy cannon, by the Southern
Confederacy.   These arms, with other munitions of war, were sent up the
river to St. Louis, in boxes labeled marble.  Over the tents secession flags
were flying, and the two main avenues of the encampment were named
Davis  and:Beacreaycrd.  The badges of rebellion were worn by many of
the soldiers.  Jefferson Davis was enthusiastically cheered  Abraham Lincoln as loudly groaned.  The entire camp was under the command of Gem.
D. M. Frost, a well-known Secessionist.
St. Louis commands the northern portal of the Mississippi.  It was
regarded by the rebel leaders as next in strategic importance to Charleston
and Pensacola.  The possession of the city gave them control of the State.
It seemed hardly doubtful that they would attain their object, for, with
the State government at their control, the militia subject to their will, and
the keys of the treasury in their hands, it was not easy to see what power
could arise to thwart their designs. All the forces of the National Government were at that time dcemanded to protect Washington, nearly a thousand miles distant.  Nowhere, during the war, excepting, perhaps, in East
Tennessee, did loyal men contend against more formidable difficulties.
Nowhere did loyal courage and devotion shine more brightly, or accomplish more glorious results.  For the preservation of St. Louis from  the
rebels, the nation is largely indebted to the courage, energy, far-sightedness
and patriotism of Captain, afterward General, Nathaniel Lyonm.*
* Nathaniel. Lvon was born July 19, 1819, in Ashford, Conn. In 183g7, Mr. Lyon, then in his
eighteenth year, entered West Point, where he graduated in due time, the eleventh in his class.
Appointed second lieutenant in the infantry, he served in the Seminole war, on the Mexican frontier, and in the Mexican ca.mpaign, where he was promoted to a captaincy. When peace was de



244                  CIVIL  WAR  IN  AMERICA.
President Lincoln having issued his proclamation for volunteers, called
upon Missouri for its quota of four regiments.  In consequence of the Governor's refusal to comply with the requisition, the loyal men of Missouri
were left helpless, unorganized, unarmed.  Capt. Lyon and Hon. F. B.
Blair, a member of Congress from  the St. Louis district, undertook the
labor of fulfilling the duty of the recreant Governor.  In the autumn previous, the republicans in Missouri, as elsewhere, had organized themselves
into societies or clubs for electioneering purposes, called IYicze Awakes.
Lyon and Blair, making use of this organization as a nucleus, commenced
the formation of voluntary loyal military companies of Home Guards.
Within three weeks. from  the date of the President's proclamation, they
tendered to him  four complete regiments of three months' men.  Other
companies of IIome Guards were also organized, both in St. Louis and
throughout the State.  They were furnished with arms by Capt. I0on.
Camp Jackson, so nlamed from the rebel governor, was situated in a
grove just in the outskirts of the city.  It was made quite attractive with
music and military pageants, and became a place of fashionable resort,
especially for the ladies. [No one, therefore, noted particularly the presence,
on the 9th of May, of a stout lady in a carriage, unattended by any one
but her coachman.  She examined with femninine curiosity the approaches
to the camp, and all its defenses.  She listened with interest to the conversation of the soldiers, observed their secession flags and badges, scrutinized the character of their arms, and calculated the number of the men.
Underneath her dress she carried a variety of side arms, such as ladies do
not often handle; and if the sentry had spoken to her, and she had deigned
to reply, he might perhaps have detected in her voice an unfeminine tone,
which might have led to the discovery, under the fair disguise, of the per.
son of Capt. L.jon himself.  His personal reconnoissance of the camp satis,
fled him as to the designs in its formation, and he determined to crush the
viper treason, before its fangs became strong enough to strike.
The next morning, the United States arsenal, and the various rendez
vous of the Home Guards, were scenes of unusual activity.  These hloyal
bands had received orders to assemble at their posts, ready to march in
battle array.  By noon: a force was thus gathered, -variously estimated from
five to seven thousand men.  "What is the meaning of all this? " the citizens inquired of each other.  No one could tell.  The soldiers themselves
were no wiser than others.  Capt. Lyon kept his own counsel.  Gen. Itarney, however, it was known, was daily expected to arrive in the city, and
it was the prevailing supposition that the Home Guards had been ordered
out to give him honorable reception.  About two o'clock, the entire force
being assembled, they were ordered into line.
Fully armed, accompanied by twenty pieces of artillery, with the Stars
and Stripes floating over them, and the band playing our national airs,
dlared, he was ordered to California, where he was engaged for several years in border warfare with
the Indians. He was in Kansas and Nebraska during the political troubles there, and exerted an
active influence in the cause of freedom. At the time of the rebellion, he was a supporter of President Lincoln, and as captain of infantry in the regular service, was stationed at the arsenal in SL
Louis.




THE REBELLTON IN MISSOURI.                                       246.his patriot column  marchdd  rapidly  up  Market street towards  Camp
Jackson. The rumor of their movements ran through the city like fire
over dry prairie grass. The whole community was in a flame of excitement.  Men ran for rifles, shot-guns, pistols, whatever they could lay their
hands on, and, thus armed, hastened to the camp.  Children, attracted by
the martial spectacle, crowded by thousands around this army, to them, soi
imposing, with its music and banners. W.  omen, with babes in their arms,
made haste to follow.  The streets were filled with carriages, buggies, men
on  horseback, all going  in  the  same  direction.   The  horse-cars were
crowded, the sidewalks overflowed with the strange, excited procession.
The army of spectators outnumbered greatly that of the troops.  Among
them  were many desperate men, whose souls were inflamed, and whose
hearts were imbruted, by the moral poison of the love of slavery.  They
were eager for a fight with the hated Union soldiers, whom  they invariably
denounced as abolitionists.  The elements of a terrible riot were all there.
Paying  no  attention  to  the  eager mlultitude which filled  the streets,
Capt. Lyon  kept steadily and rapidly on his course.  Before lie reached
Calmp Jackson, he received from  Gen. Frost a letter, demanding an explanation  of his movements.  I-le deigned no  reply-none  other, at least,
than that which his actions afforded.*
I*  can not forbear adding a copy of this letter, from Gen. Frost to Gen. Lyon, together with
a copy of a confidential letter of a previous date, from the same personage to Gov. Jackson. A
comparison of the two affords a striking illustration of that falsehood and duplicity, which has
throughout characterized the leaders of this rebellion.
CAMP JACKSON, Miss., olay 10, 1561.
CAPT. N. LYON —SIR: I am constantly in receipt of information that you contemplate an attack
upon my camp, while I understand that you are impressed with the idea that an attack upon the
arsenal and United States troops, is intended on the part of the militia of Missouri. *  *  I
would be glad to know from you personally, whether there is any truth in the statements that are
constantly poured into my ears. So far as regards any hostility being intended towards the United
States, or its property or representatives, by any portion of my command, or, as far as I can learn,
and I think I am fully informed, of any other part of the State forces, I can say positively that the
idea has never been entertained. *  *
I trust that, after this explicit statement, we may be able, by fully understanding each other,
to keep far fom. our borders the misfortunes which so unhappily afflict our common country.
I am, Sir, &c.,               3RIG. GEiN. D. L. FRosT.
Letter from Gen. Frost to Gov. Jackson, dated April 15, 1861. In this letter, after alluding
to the call of the President for volunteers, as inaugurating civil war, and the importance with
which St. Louis must be regarded in a military point of view, and the necessity of thwarting the
plans of the General Government, he recommends,
"1. To call the Legislature together at once, for the purpose of placing the State in a condition
to enable you to suppress insurrection or repel invasion.
"2. To send an agent to the Governor of Louisiana, or further if necessary, to ascertain if
mortars or siege guns could be obtained from Baton Rouge or other points.
"3. To send an agent to Liberty to see what is there, and to put the people of that vicinity
on their guard; to prevent its being garrisoned, as several United States troops will be at Fort
Leavenworth from Kearney, in ten or fifteen days from this time.
"4. Publish a proclamation to the people of the State, warning them that the President has
acted illegally in calling out troops, thus arrogating to himself the war-making power; that he has
illegally ordered the lasue of the public arms, to the number of 5,000, to societies of the State, who
have declared their intention to resist the constituted authorities, whenever these authorities may
adopt a course distasteful to them; and that they are therefore, by no means bound to give him
aid or comfort in his attempts to subjugate, by force of arms, a people who are still free; but on
the contrary, that they should prepare themselves to maintain all their rights, as citizens of MissouriL




246                    CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
Camp Jackson being reached, Gen. Lyon surrounded it and planted his
artillery upon points which effectually commanded the position. Picket
guards were  established who, with  fixed bayonets, and  muskets halfcocked, allowed no one to pass.  The rebels were caged.  Never was there
a more excited crowd, than that gazing with amazement and awe, upon.
those transactions as they were gradually developed.  All the various eminences, spreading around, were densely covered with the multitude of
men, women and children.  Then Gen. Lyon transmitted to Gen. Frost
the following demand:
HI-IEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES TROOPS, l
ST. Louis, May 10, 1861.
GLEN. D. M. FROST, Commanding Canmn  JaYCk8SOn:
"SIR-Your command is regarded as evidently hostile toward the Government of the United States.
"It is, for the most part, made up of those Secessionists who have openly
avowed their hostility to the General Government, and have been plotting
the seizure of its property and the overthrow of its authority.  You are
openly in communication with the so-called Southern Confederacy, which
is now at war with the United States, and you are receiving at your camp
from the said Confederacy, and under its flag, large supplies of the material of war, most of which is known to be the property of the United
States.  These extraordinary preparations plainly indicate none other than
the well-known purpose of the Governor of this State, under whose orders
you are acting, and whose purpose, recently communicated to the Legislature, has just been responded to by that body in the most unparalleled
legislation, having in direct view  hostilities to the General Government,
and cooperation with its enemies.
"In view  of these considerations, and of your failure to disperse in
obedience to the proclamation of the President, and of the eminent necessities of State policy and welfire, and,the obligations imposed upon me by
instructions from Washington, it is my duty to demand, and I do hereby
demand, of you an immediate surrender of your command, with no other
conditions than that all persons surrendering under this demand shall be
humanely and kindly treated.  Believing myself prepared to enforce this
demand, one half hour's time, before doing so, will be allowed for your
compliance therewith.  Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
"N. LYON,
"C'apvtain 2d llfantry, Commnanding Troop8s."
"5. Authorize or order the commanding officer of the present military district, to form a military camp of instruction, at or near the city of St. Louis, to muster military companies into the
service of the State, to erect batteries, and to do all things necessary and proper to be done, to
maintain the peace, dignity and sovereignty of the State."
Our narrative has shown how minutely these suggestions were followed out by Gov. Jackson.
The Legislature was summoned; the military bill passed; heavy ordnance was procured, some
from the rebels, while other portions were stolen from the United States arsenals; the Secessionists
at Liberty, having been " put upon their guard," by the Governor's agent, rifled the arsenal there;
the proclamation was issued denouncing, in the most envenomed words of treason, the President's
call for volunteers to defend the capital; and the rebel camp was formed. All this was done, in
accordance with Gen. Frost's suggestiop —and all to prevent the United States Government from
protecting its property, and from maintaining its authority, and thus eventually to cgain possession
of St. Louis for the secession caes.




THE REBELLION  IN  MISSOURI.                     247
Gen. Frost was exceedingly surprised at the unclivalric course of his
captor.  He expected the same policy would have marked the Federal
action in' Missouri which characterized it at Fort Sumter, and afterward
at Manassas. He thought he would have been allowed to plant batteries,
organize an armny, and gather arms and ammunition, unmolested.  ioe
was grieved-he was indignant-but he szurrendered. The entire force in
camp was taken captive. The prisoners were then told that they could
have their release by taking an oath to support the Constitution of the
United States, and not to take up arms against the Federal Governlment.
If any doubt as to the character of the camp had existed before, it was
removed by the fact, that only eight or ten consented to take the oath.
The rest, about eight hundred in number, many being absent on leave in
the city, preferred to remain prisoners, rather than declare themselves
loyal. Their shallow excuse, that to take such an oath would admit that
they had been in rebellion, deceived no one. It was self-evidently false.
Does the President declare himself to have been a traitor, prior to his
inauguration, by swearing to support the Constitution and the laws?
Two hours or more passed in meceiving the surrender of the prisoners
and preparing to take up the line of march to the arsenal again. The sun
was near its setting when the order to move was given.  The line was
form-ned withll a front and rear guard, the prisoners betwee]l, and on each
flank a single file of soldiers.
The troops had hardly commenced the movement, when an event
occurred which the heroic Lyon was well prepared to meet. Long, loud
and deep had been the curses muttered by many in the crowd, upon the
Union forces. An antipathy to the Germans, who composed a large proportion of the Home Guards, increased the bitterness with which the
defeated rebels regarded the loyal soldiery. The crowd pressed thick and
close upon the rear of the troops. The nmutterings of the rising storm
every moment grew louder and more omlinous. A few stones were thrown;
a few pistol shots were heard; then suddenly a volley of rifles-then
another —then another.  Then, mingled with the sharp ring of the rifle,
rose tile shrieks of women and children as they rushed fiantically fiom the
scene, the crowd scattering in all directions. Solme were struck with
chance bullets as they ran. It is saidl there wcere twenty-five in all, killed
and wounded.
Who was responsible for this tragic occurrence? This is a question
which will probably not be answered to the satisfaction of all, until the
present excited actors have passed from the stage. Still the general voice
of the community will harmonize in the verdict. For a whole hour the
soldiers had received patiently and without retaliation a storil of vituperation and abuse, from the muob. Emboldened by this impunity the miscreants commenced throwing stones, and, at length pistol shots were fired
and two of the soldiers fell. Forbearance then became a crime, and the
fire was returned. It was subsequently proved beyond dispute, that there
were secret armed organizations, in St. Louis, pledged to nlassacre the
loyal- citizens if they should ever attempt to interfere with the consummnation of treason, by the State authorities.




2i48                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
Five minutes more of non-resistance, and St. Louis might have been
the scene of the most terrible riot this country has ever witnessed.  There
are times when prompt and terrible measures are full of mercy. We do
not know who gave the order to fire-but whoever assunmed that responsibility, performed a heroic deed, and is ennobled by it. The most inhuman thing authority can do, is to tolerate a mob. It is sad, indeedl, that
women and children should have been struck by the bullets. But if quiet
citizens will allow their curiosity to bring them within the range of battle, they must accept the perils of their position. He, who by his presence identifies himself with a threatening mob, cannot complain if the
bullet fail to distinguish him from the armed bully, by whose side lihe
stands.
The mob was thus speedily dispersed and no farther violence was offe-red
to the troops.  The prisoners were quietly removed to the arsenal. But
through all the hours of the night, excitement, tumult and threats held
possession of tlie city. The theatres and all other places of amusement
were closed, as crowds of armed men, surged through the streets, crowding
the drinking saloons, and all other places, where crime and anger love to
congregate.  The offices of the loyal press were placed under guard, from
fear of the mob; a gun shop was broken open and a few arms stolen by
the excited multitude. A general riot was feared; but even mobs have
some method it3 their madness, and they had seen enough of Capt. Lyon,
to know the metal of the man with whom they had to deal. They accordingly expended their fury in harmless groans for the Union, and cheers fbr
rebeldom.  The morning sun, as it rose cloudless over the city, beheld no
signs of the night's tumult, save that restless, uneasy look, which cities,
like individuals, wear, when they have passed a fevered and troubled night.
Four days after, Capt. Lyon was elected Bri~gadier-General of the Mfissouri
Volunteers, and received a commission from the President.
The daty following the capture of Camp Jackson, Gen. Harney arrived
in St. Louis. As Capt. Lyon's superior, he at once assumed command of
the Department of the West. That position lie retained not quite three
weeks.  The acts which signalized his administration were few and are
easily stated. IHe first issued a half-apologetic proclamation, expressing
his regrets for the past, stating that lie would nse military force only as a
last resort, and imploring the people to maintain peace and order.  The
Secessionists responded to this attempt at conciliation, by fiercely attacking the next day, in the streets, a company of Home Guards, which had
just been enlisted. On the same day Gen. Frost and his oflicers were discharged on their parole, and his soJdiers on their taking the oath of allegiance.  Three days after, Gen. Harney issued another proclamation,
warning the citizens against "the common dangers which threaten us,"
declaring the lmilitary bill to be an " indirect secession ordinance, in manifest conflict with the Constitution of the United States," but at the same
time gently apologizing for it as " the result, no doubt, of the temporary
excitement which now pervades the public mind."  Ile urged his fellowcitizens to consider their true interests, as well as their relation to the
General Government, and closed with the declaration that he should,




THE  REBELLION  IN  MISSOURI.                     249
ef necessary, exert his authority to maintain the supreme law  of the
land.
These proclamations opened the way for negotiations, and the secession
leaders eagerly embraced the opportunity. A bargain was struck between
Gen. Price, commander of the State militia, and Gem. HIarfiey, on the part
of the United States. The former pledged the power of the State to mzaiztair peace. The latter agreed, in that case, to make 1no further military
movements. Thus the watchman agreed to go to sleep, if the wolves
would watch the fold. MIeanwhile, mob violence was prevailing extensively throughout the State.  The worl of recruiting soldiers for the seces-'
sion cause went on vigorously and unblushingly. Loyal citizens were
mobbed and driven from their homes in great number, and no protection
was extended towards them. The administration at WVashington, sharpereyed than its representative at St. Louis, was not pleased with these " conciliatory" measures.  On the 27th of lMlay, Gen. IHarney received peremuptory orders from WTashington, to put a stop, by force, to all movements
against the Government, however disguised under pretended State authority.  Four days'after this, Gen. IHarney was recalled, and on the first of
June, Gen. Lyon was left once more in command of the post.
But one hope was now left to the Secessionists. It was to renew wvith
Gen. Lyon a bargain silmilar to that which had been made with Gen. I-arney. For that purpose, an interview was solicited with him. It was
granted.  On the l1th of June, Gov. Jackson and Gen. Price met Gen.
Lyon and Ilon. F. B. B lair, Jr., at St. Louis.  Gov. Jackson proposed
termls of agreemlent.  On his part, he offered to disband the State Guards,
disarm all companies ordered out by the State, allow no arms or munitions
of war to be brouglht within its borders, and pledged himself to attempt
no organization of the militia under the  lilitary bill. IIe also engaged
to protect all citizens in their rights, to repress all insurrection, and to
repel all attempts at invasion.
I-How, without arms or soldiers, lie could accomplish what, with an
organized militia, lie had thus far failed to do, he did not state.  I-e demanded that Gei. Lyon, on his part, should disband the Home Guards,
and agree not to occupy with Federal troops any localities now unoccupied by them. In short, he asked General Lyon to surrender the protection of loyal citizens, and the preservation of national authority, into his
hands, for which trust lie proposed to become qualified by depriving himself of all power to protect the one, or maintain the other. He proposed
to secure peace in the State by the novel method of disarming and disBamnding all the military forces, both State and national, and thus renderilig it imlpossible to repress disorder, or repel or punish violence.
The proposition was nlot accepted.  Gen. Lyon declared, on the contrary, that the Federal Government possessed the right to move its troops
throughout the State, and station them wherever it mlight be necessary,
either to protect loyal subjects or repel invasion; and he would make no
other pledge than this, that he would maintain that right at all hazards,
would protect all loyal citizens, and fight all disloyal ones whom he should
meet in arms. Thus ended the last attempt at compromise in Mlissouri.




250                 CIVIL WAR  IN  AMERICA.
After an interview of four hours, Gov. Jackson and Gen. Price returned
to the capital of the State, Jefferson City. All attempts at disguise were
now useless.  Gen. Lyon could neither be bullied by a mob, nor seduced
by specious promises, into allowing, under.any pretext whatever, the Secessionists to arm, organize and prepare for war, unmolested.  The flimsy
disguise under which the Governor had hitherto sought to veil his movements was thrown off, and open war was proclaimed.
It was, as we have mentioned, on the 11th of June, that Gov. Jackson
proposed his compromise to Gen. Lyon.  The very next day, tile 12th, he'issued from Jefferson City a procla#iation to the people of the State of
Missouri. In this proclamation he depicted, with that singular imnaginative power with which all Southern proclamations in this war have
abounded, the outrages which the Federal troops had committed, and the
greater ones they were going to commit. He affirmed his great anxiety
for peace, narrated the terms of compromise which he had proposed, and
Genl  Lyon's rejection of theml; declared that the Federal Governnment
was determined to inaugurate civil war, occupy the State by its military,
overthrow the State government, subvert the liberties of the people, and
subjugate them to a military despotism. lie closed this manifesto by calling out fifty thousand of the State mlitia, for the purpose of driving from
the State those loyal citizens lwho had organized into bands of Ht ome
Guards for their own protection; but whom, in the somewhat bigrh-flown
diction of ]his proclamation, he designated as " the invaders who have
dared to desecrate the soil which your labors have made fruitfil, and
which is consecrated by your lhomes."
These invaders, to whom  the Governor alluded, consisted of I-Home
Guards, of loyal Missourians, organized throughout the State, -of a small
Union camp at Bird's Point, opposite Cairo,-and of the Union forces at
St. Louis, composed largely of MBissouri volunteers.
MBattels now assumed a threatening aspect.  The State of Missouri, on
the south-east, borders on Kentucky and Tennessee. Fromn this direction
rebel troops could be easily introduced to the State, adcl Gov. Jackson
speedily availed himself of these iaecilities.  13en MeCulloch, a man whose
lawless life as a Texan ranger had made him  notorious throughout the
country, had already invaded the State -firom  the southern or'Arkansas
border, at the very time the Governor was pledging himself to repel all
invaders, fiom -whatever quarter. With a nucleus of eight hundrecl such
vagabonds as he could easily collect upon the frontier, he was marching
upon Springfield, his obrces constantly increasing by accessions fiomn Milissouri Secessionists. In the west, Gov. Jackson and Gen. Price were
making movements to raise a large army, in which they would surely be
soon successful, if unmolested.  In St. Louis an organized mob was ready
to rise, the moment a possibility of success appeared.
To meet these accumulating dangers, Gen. Lyon had the Home Guard
organization, purely voluntary, and proving itself of little avail except for
self-protection, —four regiments of M/[issouri volunteers, a few regulars, and
some raw, undisciplined, undrilled recruits, from the neighboring States.
He, however, left the rebels no time to organize armies, throw up;nl




THE REBELLION  IN  MISSOURI.                       251
trenchments, and build masked batteries. He immediately dispatched
twelve hundred men in the direction of Springfield.  The south-west
branch of the Pacific Railroad took them as iar as Rolla.  They had then
a march of a little less thanL one hundred and fifty mils to their ultimate
destination.  Leaving a small force in St. Louis, lie started in person, with
four steamboats and about twenty-five hundred troops, up the BMissouri
River.  On the 12th, Gov. Jackson's proclamation was issued.  On the
14th, having destroyed the telegraph and the railroad bridge in his real,the latter a useless piece of vandalism,, since Lyoll plursued him on boats,he left Jefferson City for Booneville, a town forty mliles further rup the
river.  Within txwenty-four hours after Gov. Jackson left, Gen. Lyon was
in possession of Jefferson City, the capital of the State, where lhe was
warmly welcomed by the citizens.  I-e did not wait here, however.
Learning the probable destination of the Governor, lie immediately macde
arrangements to pursue him.  On the lith of June, leaving Col. Boernstein in command at Jefferson City, with three companies for its protection, lie commlenced the further ascent of the Mfissouri River, with three
steamboats, and a force of little, if any, over two thousand men.
They left Jefferson City at two o'clock inl the afternoon in their steamers, laid by over night to avoid surprise, at the little town of Providence,
and in the early morning were pushing their way cautiously up the streaml
agcain. About eight miles below Boomneville, a large island divides the
channel of the river.  Opposite the upper end of this island, the south
bank of the river rises into a higl blluff. Below this bluff, and opposite
the lower part of the island, the hills recede, leaving what is called river
bottom land, a smooth meadow, nearly,a mtile and a half in width.  The
road leading to Booneville runs parallel to the river, through this bottom.
land.  On the bluff which frowns upon the river near the upper end of the
island, and which commiands the stream, as well as the road passing over
the meadow, the rebels had planted a battery.  Gen. Lyon learning these
facts, promptly formed his plan of action.' Leaving two compaies,in charge of the steanmers, he landed the
remainder of his force below the.island, and throwing forward scouts,
conmmenced the march up the river road. A little over a mile and a half
brought them to the edge of tle blufi; and to the enemy's piclets.. This
bluff rises gradually from the bottom, in a series' of undulating swells.  On
one of these the rebels were posted. A lane runs from the road to the
river at this point, and a brick house stood at the juncture of the road and
the lane. The enemy not only coimmlanded the ascent of the bluff from
the front, but also occupied this lane, and the brick house upon the right,
and a grove situated upon tile left. They had chosen their own position,
and had chosen it well.  They commanded the front and both sides of the
road.  Their force of over four thousand men, outnumbered the Union
troops two.to one. B3ut their clonlmander, Gen. Price, unfortunately for
his reputation, was announced as too sick to command in person. Ile had
retired from the field, and, it is said, had gone home.  Gov. Jackson, who
had never manifested any military ardor, save in his fiery proclamations,
was discreetly in the rear.




252                 CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
Gen. Lyon placed himself at the head of his little band, and advanced
firmly upon the intrenched rebels. His soldiers,  many of whom were
Germans, who had seen service in the Old World, were inspired with that
ardor which enlightened patriotism  ever enkindles.  The battle was
opened with much vigor, by volleys of artillery and musketry from the
three positions, the bluff; the brick house, and the grove occupied by the
rebels.  The Union troops were speedily formed in line of battle, and
Tottenl's efficient artillery brought into play. With careftil aim and accurately adjusted fuse, two shells were thrown directly into the brick house,
exploding at precisely the right moment. Even veterans could not stand
this, and the young rebels fled instantly, as from an earthqualke.
A well directed fire of bullets, cannon balls and shells, was then poured
into the grove. For a time the rebels withstood the storlm bravely, returning the terrible fire with much energy. But at length their lines began to
waver, and they all retreated to the batteries on the summnit of flle bluff.
There they formed again, in the attempt to malke their final stand. But
they were instantly assailed by an impetuous and resistless charge, which
Lyon led in person.  Though in tlhis fierce encounter Lyon was thrown
from his affrilghted horse, he still led the assault, until the enemln  again
broke and fled in utter rout.  Thus, in twenty minutes from tlme firing of
the first shot, the whole body of the rebels was in full retreat. A few of
thelrmmade another feeble attempt at resistance at their camp, but they
speedily dispersed, and the victors had,, undisputed possession of the field.
Their camp, with its ammnnition and supplies, all fell into the hands of
Gen. Lyon. Even the cannon placed near the shore to destroy the steamers, were taken before they had fired a shot.
The Union troops, advancing triumphantly beneath the Stars and the
Stripes, and to the music of the Star-spangled Banner, entered the town
of Booneville, which was rejoicingly surrendered to him by its patriotic
citizens. As the troops.entered the streets, the stores were opened and
decorated, ladies waved their handkerchiefs, with great festive pomp the
national banner was conspicuously unfirled, and cheer after cheer was
given for Lyon, and Blair, and Lincoln. In a few hours order was restored, and peace resumed its sway, where treason and mob.rule had, for
some time, relentlessly reigned.
The Union loss was but two killed and nine wounded.  The loss of the
rebels has never been ascertained.  It is generally estimated at from
twenty to fifty killed and fifty wounded.  The utter demoralization of the
rebels, and the confusion into which they were plunged, may be inferred
from the following fact. After the battle, Rev. W. A. Pill, chaplain of
the First Mlissouri regiment, with four soldiers, two of whom  only were
mounted, in searching for the wounded, came suddenly upon,a body of
twenty-four rebel cavalry, armed with revolvers, seeking safety in flight.
H-e conmanded them to halt, and demanded their surrender.  They coinplied, gave up their arms, and, guarded by five men, were marched off
prisoners of war.
On leaving St. Louis, Gen. Lyon had issued a proclamnation.in which
he stated that he had received complaints from loyal men, in various parts




THIE  REBELLION  IN  MISSOURI.                    253
of the State, wvlo were suffering from violence at the hands of tle Secessinists. I-Ie declared it to be his purpose, in accordance with instructions
received from Wmashington, to maintain the authority of the General Government at every hazard; and to protect all loyal mnle  in their rights as
citizens -of the United States. Fromn Booneville he issued another proclamation.  Finding most of his prisoners to be young men, who had been
induced to enlist by the grossest misrepresentations, he liberated them
upon their oath that they would not again engage in hostilities against the
United States. I-is words were, "out of comlpassion for these misguided
youths, and to correct the impressions created by unscrupulous calurnniators, I have liberated them upon the condition that they will not serve in
the impending hostilities against the United States Government. - He,
however, declared that such clemency could not be repeated. Learning
that the rebels had circulated the most atrocious rumors respecting the
design of the General Government to trample upon all State rights, he
announced that he should scrupulously avoid all interierence with the business, rights and property of law-abiding citizens. I-e declared, however,
that the legitimate paramount authority of the United States Government,
should be maintained with such force as he could command.  Those who
had been misled by false representations, and would now return to their
holnes, were assured that they should not be molested.  This was the
proper remedy to be applied to the disease-inflexib~ firmness in crushing
out the rebellion with clemlency for the deluded and the penitent.
Ml]eanwhile, Gen. Price and Gov. Jackson had disappearedl.  The
former did not even wait to see the issue of the contest.  The latter with
five hundred men, out of the four thousand, fled South) to unite time remnant of his scattered forces with those which lMcCulloch was gathering on
the Arkansas border. hIis ranks were swelled by large additions upon the
march. The previous hlistory of KIansas had revealed the existence, in the
western counties of Missouri, of a large number of that class of men known
as border ruffians-idlers, vagabonds, marauders, always ready for a fight,
never ready for any other kind of activity.  These all flocked to Jackson's
standard. Four years before, though countenanced, and in some measure
aided, by tLhe National Government, then almost exclusively under the
control of the slaveholders, they had been effectually chastised by the FreeState men in Kansas. Now an opportunity for revenge on the "Abolitionists" offered itself.  They eagerly embraced it.  AIany young men
also, of restless energies, catching the fever of secesstionism, or misled by
lying misrepresentations, enrolled themselves in the ranks.
The numbers though not the efficiency of the army thus collected, were
not a little increased by impressment. At Warsaw it was joined by a considerable force of Secessionists, who the day before had surprised a camp
of IHome Guards, killing and wounding twenty, and taking thirty prisoners. Thus, gathering his forces as he marched, the traitorous Governor
h~astened southward to join tlle rebels there. The motley crew which lihe
thus collected could hardly be called an army. They were wholly without uniforms. Not a few were scarcely more than half-clad.  Some had
rifles, some shot-guns, some pistols, some no arms. They were nearly as




254                 CIVI.L WAR  IN  AMERICA.
destitute of organization as a horde of savages.  They were, however,
recklessly brave men, at home in nothing so much as in predatory warfare.  Possessing neither subsistence nor transportation, they lived on
the country through which they passed. Neither friend nor fobe, escaped
their depredations.  For miles on each side of their track, the country was
scoured, and horses, hogs, cattle, poultry were borrowed firom friends or
exacted fiom enemies.
The second day after the battle, Gen. Lyon despatched Capt. Totten
with a thousand mien to pursue Gov. Jackson, but it was a vain pursuit;
the wary Governor was too fleet-footed to be overtaken.  Mieanwhile,
near the western border of the State, another rebel leader, Gen. Rains, had
gathered the nucleus of a secession army. I-e had, unlbrtunately, been
able to do so unmolested. About this time he started wvith the f'orces
under his coulmand southward, to join Jackson, and with him to effect, if
possible, a junction with McCulloch in Arkansas.  Mlajor Sturgis, of the
United States regular army, with two regiments of Kansas Volunteers, four
companies of cavalry, and six pieces of artillergy, followed in pursuit. Gen.
Rains, by the destruction of the bridge over the Osage at Papinsville,
checked the United States forces, which were rapidly gaining on him.
The high water compelled ]Major Sturgis to go into camp, until it should
subside sufficiently to enable him to ford or bridge the river. While Capt.
Totten pursued the flying Jackson, and BMajor Sturgis followed hard after
Gen. Rains, Gen. Lyon remained in Booneville. Ile was not, however,
idle. An army wans to be organized.  Thousands of men, in various parts
of the State, were applying for protection.  nMob law ruled in all the
western counties. Whom the mob disliked, they hung or exiled. Applications poured ill npon Lyon for authority to organize for self-protection
as I-Iome Guards.  These were always accompanied by requests for arms.
Every such request had to be carefully scrutinized, and in spite of the
utmost care not a few of the Federal arms found their way into rebel
ancls. In less than a fortnight, Gen. Lyon had gathered almost a new
armny, composed partly, it is true, of volunteers from Iowa. By the first
of July, he had taken up his line of march for the South, joining Mlajor
Sturgis at the Osage river. IIis purpose was to form a junction with the
forces which he had already despatched to Springfield, offer the rebels
battle there, and if they refused it, to drive them  out of the State into
Arkansas. But before he could reach Springfield, important events had
taken place which demand our attention.  Leaving Gen. Lyon, then, for
the present at Booneville, we must turn our eyes south to the operations
of the various forces which were there being gathered.
While these events had been transpiring on the M:issouri River, Col.
Sigel, of whom we shall learn more by-and-by, had been pushing south for
Springfield. With a small force, he reached that place on the 23d of June.
Withl his accustomed energy, he pressed ilmmediately foirward, due west,
arriving on the 28th at the town of Sarcoxie, half-way between Springfield
and the western border. IHis object was to cut off Jackson's retreat, and
prevent his escape to the south.  ile then learned the condition of the
forces ywhich he had to meet. In Arkansas, on the south, a force of over




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THE REBELLION  IN  MISSOURI.                    255
five thousand men, under Ben. McCulloch, had been gathered from Tennessee, Kentucky and Arkansas. They were supplied with arms by the
Confederacy, by way of the White River. Gen. Price, with a force of
State Guards, variously estimated at from nine to twelve hundred men,
was encamped about fifteen miles south-west of Sigel, at Neosho, in Missouri. Jackson was about forty miles north-west of Sarcoxie, and Gen.
Rains was a day's march further north. The combined forces of' these
three rebel leaders in Missouri were about five thousand men. Col. Sigel
was thus placed between two armies. On the south of him were between
six and seven thousand men. On the north were over five thousand. To
oppose them, he possessed but a little, if any, over twelve hundred men.
And though additional forces were on their march to Springfield, the exigency of the case did not permit him to await their arrival. To allow a
junction of Jackson and Rains on the north, withl Price and MIc(ulloch
on the south, was to ensure his own destruction.
IHis plans wele quickly laid, Napoleonic in their sagacity and the vigor
of their execution. Ite determined to attack the rebel forces separately,
before they could form a junction. The risk of a battle was great, but the
risk of delay was greater. On the morning of the 29th of June, he took
up the line of march for Neosho, determined first to give battle to Gen.
Price, and then, turning north, to meet Jackson and Rains. As he neared
Neosho, reports came in that a part of' the Arkansas forces had joined
Price, swelling his army to thirty-five hunclred. The issue of a contest
between such unequally balanced forces seemed doubtful. But the odds
were not sufficient for the chivalry. The consciousness that they were in
rebellion, utterly without excuse, made even brave men cowards. Price
retreated without firing a gun, and Sigel marched beneath the banner of
the Stars and Stripes into Neosho, unopposed.; To pursue the flying host,
leaving an army of five thousand men in his rear, was out of the question.
lie, therefore, turned his attention northward. Leaving a smnall detachment to protect the Union citizens of Neosho, and sending out one or two
other detachments to guard certain roads, and act as scouts, he advanced,
with a force now reduced to nine hundred and fifty men, with two batteries of four field-pieces each, to find the enemy. On the fifth'of July he
came upon them. They were strongly posted on an elevation, about nine
miles north of Carthage. Their force, which was over five thousand, was
chiefly cavalry, but with some infantry, and several field pieces.
Col. Sigel immediately prepared for an attack. A hazardous proceeding, truly, to attack an enemy in his own position, and outnumbering the
Union forces five to one. It was a case' in which prudence demanded
apparently the most reckless daring. Col. Sigel was the man for the hour.
In the wars of Europe he had acquired the reputation of being the most
accomplished artillerist in Germany, and on this day he heroically sustained his reputation. The rebels were found, carefully posted on an elevation rising gradually from the Dry Fork Creek. HIis centre was composed of infantry, cavalry, and two field-pieces. Two regiments of cavalry
formed his wings, with interspersed artillery.
Col. Sigel, advancing within effective range, opened a very vigorous




256                 CIVIL  WAR IN  AMERICA.
and deadly fire upon the centre Qf the foe, from seven pieces of artillery,
which his skill had admirably manned. It was half-past ten o'clock in the
morning when the battle commenced.  The enemy responded promptly,
but very soon it was perceived that his fire began to slacken, and in about
an hour his central battery was silenced. The enemy's line was manifestly
wavering, and it could be perceived, that it was only by the most strenuous efforts of the officers, that the rebel infantry were held together.  Col.
Sigel now ordered a steady advance, under the rapid fire of his guns,
resolved, by this resistless, solid charge of infantry and artillery, to take
the height. As his line moved up/the hill, the enemy's centre broke.
[But, unfortunately, just at that moment, the ammunition of one of tile
batteries gave out; and the enemy's cavalry, which constituted the two
wings, nearly a thousand in each, and scarcely inferior as horsemen to the
famed Mamelukes of ]Murad Bey, with yells and gleaming swords, came
swooping around his flanks, like a thunder tempest, to seize the baggage
train, three miles in the rear.  To advance under these circunmstances was
certain ruin.  The heroic little band of patriots, numbering in all but 950
men, were now almost girdled by their 4,000 opponents. With great
reluctance, Col. Sigel ordered his troops to fall back to the baggage train.
As coolly as if on a parade ground, they accomplished the movement,
assailed all the way by the foe, crowding upon them. The train was on
the other side of Dry Fork Creek. With the quick glance of the acconmplished general, Col. Sigel selected his position, and so stationed his forces
on the banks, that f6r two hours he held the enemy at bay, inflicting upon
him the heaviest losses.
In the meantime, the enemy's cavalry, though thus baffled, succeeded
in getting into Col. Sigel's rear, with the purpose of cutting off his retreat,
and capturing all his force. They stationed themselves on the banks of a
small creek, which the Union troops must pass.  Col. Sigel ordered his
artillery, accompanied by a portion of his infantry, to divide, and move to
the right and left, as if to pass around the rebel horsemen. Deceived by
this mancenvre, the cavalry left the road, and advanced to meet the Union
forces on either side. Suddenly the artillery wheeled around, and, from
both sides, poured a terrific volley of grape and canister upon the foe.
At the same imoment, the infantry charged at double-quick step, and so
impetuously, that the rout of the opposing cavalry was immediate and
complete. Hardly a show of resistance was made. Eighty-one horses,
sixty-five double shot-guns, and many revolvers; fell into the hands of the
victors. Fifty prisoners were taken.
The road to Carthage was thus opened, and Sigel reached that town
without further fighting. HIere the road to Sarcoxie, which passes to the
north and east of Carthage, enters a dense wood. To gain this was Col.
Sigel's object, since there the rebel cavalry being rallied ranew, could not
follow him.  The enemy, aware of his design, had taken a strong position
to prevent his fulrther advance. And the Union forces, wearied with a
march of twenty-two miles the day before, and one of eighteen upon that
day, famishing for want of food, and fatigued with two battles already,
were, after a short rest, compelled to prepare for a third. For over two




THE  REBELLION  IN  MISSOURI.                    257
hours, the unequal contest raged. At length, as darkness gathered over
the field, the rebels gave way, and Col. Sigel's heroic little band won their
third victory. It was now half-past eight o'clock in the evening. But
the labors of the day were not yet over. The enemy was too near, and in
too overwhelming numbers, to make the woods a safe resting-place. After
a brief respite, the word to march was given, and not till the Sabbath sun
dawned upon them, did they reach Sarcoxie, and gain an opportunity for
much-needed rest and refreshment.
Thus ended the battle of Carthage-the first hard-fought battle in the
West. The Union loss, as officially given, was thirteen killed, and thirtyone wounded. The rebel loss, as ascertained from prisoners, is variously
estimated at from three hundred and fifty to over seven hundred men.
This great disproportion was due partly to the superiority of the Union
artillery, but more to the splendid generalship of Sigel. In twenty-four
hours, after a march of twenty-two miles the day previous, his little band,
scarcely equal in number to one full regiment, marched over thirty miles,
fought three distinct engagements, besides continual skirmishings-each
time met the enemy in overwhelming numbers, and on ground of the
enemy's choosing, and each time put them to flight with heavy loss. The
iet that lack of ammunition, and the necessity of keeping open communication with Springfield, made an eventual retreat necessary, in no sense
detracts from the well-earned laurels of so glorious a victory.
Col. Sigel, in his modest report of the battle, says:
1" It affords me intense pleasure to he able to say injustice to the officers and men under rmy command, that they fought with the greatest skill
and bravery. Althoulgh attacked by an overwhelmingly disproportionate.force, they conducted themselves like veterans, without a man swerving
from his place. Major Bakoff and Adjutants Albert and Heinrichs were
of great service to me in this battle."
Of others he makes honorable mention, particularly Lieut.-Col. Hassendenbel, Col. Wolff, Captains Essig, Stephany, Golmer, Densler, Stark and
Messner.
17




CHAPTER X.
GEN. FREMONT'S  CAMPAIGN  IN  MISSOURI.
RECALL OF FREMONT FROM EUROPE, AND APPOINTMENT TO THE COMMAND OF THE WESTERN'
DEPARTMENT.-THREATENING ASPECT OF AFFAIRS IN MISSOURI.-GEN. POPE IN NORTHERN
iMISSOURI.-SERIOUS EMBARKRASSMENTS CROWDING UPON GEN. FREIMONT. —HEROISM OF GEN.
LYON.-VALOR OF GEN. SIGEL.-BATTLE OF WILSON'S CREEK.-DEATH OF LYON.-TREIBUTE
TO THE HIERo OF WILSON'S CREEI.-SKIRMIISIIES.-ENERGY OF FREMONT.-PROCLAMATION.MODIFICATION BY PRESIDENT LINCOLN.
EvERY  glorious era in the world's history, bright with courage, honor
and patriotism, is, alas! marred with some exhibition of envy, jealousy
and the spirit of detraction, which causes one to blush for human nature.
To every lover of his country and of his race, there is, in the history of the
American Revolftion, that which is sadder than the picture of Valley
Forge and the retreat across the Jerseys.  These scenes are brilliant with
heroic endurance. and lofty patriotism.  But not one redeeming quality
relieves the dark history of Arnold's treason, or the intrigues and malicious
aspersions of rivals against General Washington.  To such an unwelcome
page we turn, in the history of this rebellion, as we commence the recital
of the campaign in Missouri, under Major-General Fremont.*
At the time of the breaking out of the rebellion, John C. Fremont,
then a colonel in the United States army, but retired from service, was,
with his family; in Europe.  He was born in Savannah, Georgia, on the
21st of January, 1S13.  His father, a French gentleman, died the.year of
his birth, and his mother, with a limited income, took her son to Charleston, South Carolina., where he was reared.  The studious boy educated
himself, and at the age of fifteen entered the Junior Class in Charleston
College, where he distinguished himself by his mathematical proficiency.
In 1833, he commenced active life, as teacher of mathematics, on board
the United States sloop-of-war Natchez, bound to South America.  For
two years he held this position, and on his return received the degrees
of Bachelor and Master of Arts firom his alma mnater.
Abandoning a sea life as uncongenial, he engaged in railroad engineering, and, assisted in surveying the route from Charleston to Cincinnati.
In the years 1838-39, he explored the vast wilderness between Missouri
and the British line, and, while thus engaged, was appointed by President
* The reader will excuse us for burdening this chapter with notes. But Gen. Fremont's campaign in Missouri has been involved in so much misunderstanding,. and has been the subject of so
much misrepresentation and dispute, that it seems important to give official authority for all important statements.




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260                   CIVIL  WAR  IN  AMERICA.
Van Buren second lieutenant in the Corps of Topographical Engineers.
The next year he made a geographical survey of the territory between the
head waters of the Missouri and the Pacific, searching out the south-west
pass through the Rocky Mountains.  In 1845, he explored the mountain
regions of Oregon, California, and the Sierra Nevada.  The renowned
IKit Carson was one of his companions in this perilous adventure, diMring
whilch he was at times compelled to feed his horses on the bark of trees,
and his men on the flesh of the horses.  In 1846, he was made colonel of a
regiment of mounted riflemen, and commanded a battalion in the Mexican
war, firom July to November, 1847, when, in consequence of some disagreement with Gen. Kiearney, he resigned.  In 1848, he set out on a fourth
journey to the IRocky Mountains.  In 1849, he was appointed one of the
United States Commissioners, to run the line between the United States
and Mexico.  lie relinquished this post, however, on being chosen United
States Senatorfiom California. In 1856, he was the candidate of the republican party for President of the United States, and camne near being chosen,
receiving one hundred and fourteen electoral votes.  Had he been elected,
instead of Buchanan, our country would probably have been saved all
the horrors of this civil war.  The rebels were not then prepared for the
outbreak.  It was the imbecility of Buchanan which exposed the country,
defenseless, to the daggers of treason.
Gen. Fremont had traveled extensively in Europe, and had been a close
observer of all scientific, political and military'movements.  He has received several medals from  scientific societies of Europe,-one froom  the
hands of IHumboldt, by direction fi'om the King of Prussia, for proficiency
in the sciences.  At the age of forty, Gen. Fremont was probably more
widely known throughout the world, than any man not of royal birth.
As we have mentioned, Gen. Fremont, then Colonel, was in Paris, at
the time the rebels commenced their assault upon that flag which he had
borne ovqr the brow of the IRocky Mountains, and had unfurled triumphantly on the shores of the Pacific.*  He was at a public breakfast,
given in his honor, at the Hotel du Louvre, by one hundred and fifty
Americans in Paris, one-third of whom were ladies, when he announced
that, by the rebellion, he was called back to America, and that he was
ready to give his best services to his country.  Knowing how utterly unprepared the Government was for war, he immediately, through his own
resources, purchased a large quantity of arms, and taking them with him,
arrived in New York on the 28th day of June, 1861.  On the 9th of July,
he received from Washington a commission as major-general, with the following order:
* " Gen. Fremont had, with twenty-five men, crossed the great mountain deserts of America,
amid untold hardships, yet with signal success, and had, with this force, recruited by a few American residents in California, while still unaware of the existing war with Mexico, hoisted the Bear
Flag, for the Stars and Stripes, thus giving to his country, as a province, California, the land
whose rivers ran over glistening sands of gold. As a soldier, it was his good fortune to win to his
country a province whose untold wealth repaid the cost incurred by Taylor and Scott, in conquering territory to be afterward surrendered. As a man of science, he had received the praises of
Humboldt, and, as a popular hero, the applause of the people."-Fremont and AfcClellan, their
Political and Military Careers, by Van Buren Denslow.




GEN. FREMONT'S CAMPAIGN IN MISSOURI.   261
"The State of Illinois, and the States and Territories west of the Mis.sissippi, and on this side of the Rocky lMountains, including New Mexico,
will, in future, constitute a separate command, to be known as the Western
Department, under the command of Major-General Fremont, of the United
States army, headquarters at St. Louis.'
The appointment of Gen. Fremont to that post was enthusiastically
received by the whole country.  The Eastern  States had  confidence in
him, not only as one true to the integrity of the Union, but also as true to
those principles of liberty underlying our Constitution, which declare all
men " alike entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The
West had confidence in him  as a man of the people, of sincere and earnest
nature, and of great executive ability.  The whole previous history of
Gen. Fremont had  satisfied the people that he clearly understood the
nature of the conflict that was now to be fought in America, the last great
battle between aristocratic usurpation and popular rights.  In these views
he was undoubtedly in advance of many, possessing power in the cabinet
and the army.  But the progress of affairs eventually compelled nearly
all reflective men to take the position which, from  the beginning, he occupied.*
The position of Gen;m  Fremont, as he assumed the command of this
vast Western Department, was far more difficult than that of any other
officer in the army.  His command embraced Illinois on the east, and all
the States and Territories west of the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains.
It was not only expected of him that he should free this territory from
rebel control,-but he was to raise and organize, and equip and drill and
lead the army, with which this purpose was to be accomplished.  I-e was
also expected with his victorious columns to pierce and divide the Southern
Confederacy of rebels, by descending the Mississippi River from  the Lakes
to the Gulf.  No plan for the campaign was afforded him; no special instructions were given.  The accomplishment of the object desired, was
entrusted wholly to his hands.
Up to this time, the' Government at Washington had paid but little
attention to the necessities of the far West.  They could not.  The danger
which threatened  the Capital was such as did not admit of a divided
attention.  What Gen. Lyon had so nobly done, lie had  accomplished
almost wholly on his own responsibility.  IIe had organized and equipped
his little band himself.  The appointment of Gen. Fremlont to the com* Brig. Gen. Busteed, of New York, who has been one of the most prominenit members of the
democratic party, said eloquently, at a great war meeting in New York, Aug. 27, 1862, "I claim
the right and embrace this occasion to say, that it is my deliberate conviction that the cause of this
rebellion is slavery, and that the cause and the effect must perish, or survive in force together. For
one, I sincerely believe that, if slavery lives, the republic dies. And I deny that this Government
struck at and attempted to be destroyed by the slave power, should do any thing to preserve
slavery as stock in trade for a future rebellion. The Constitution tolerates it, does not favor the
peculiar institution of rebeldom. The slave oligarchists have appealed from the Constitution to the
rifle-from the senate chamber to the battle-field. They have taken the sword; they shall perish
by the sword. God has decreed that their sin shall perish with them. There is a great fight on
hand between democracy and aristocracy,-between the privileges of the few and the rights of the
multitude,-between caste and republican equality, —and he is the genuine democrat who loves
liberty more than slavery. The democracy which will not endure this test is spurious."




262                       CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
mand of the Western Department, was almost the first systema tic attempt
to provide for the West.
Meanwhile the rebels had not been idle, and the Western border was
in very serious danger. It seemed almost impossible to prevent the rebels
from  more than  regaining  all that had been wrested  from  them.  Gen.
Lyon had effected a junction with Major Sturgis, and arrived  in  Springfield, but too late to participate in the battle of Carthage, and to prevent
Jackson  and MIcCulloch from  joining their forces.  His men were badly
clothed, poorly fed and imperfectly supplied with tents. They had, as yet,
received no payment whatever for their services. In the excitement of
the threatened dangers at Washington, it was not probable they would for
some time  be provided  for, or even  thought of.  Many of them  were
Homue Guards, whom it was impossible to keep together any longer than
they were inclined to remain.  Still more were three months men whose
term   of service had nearly expired.  Lyon's entire force did  not exceed
seven thousand.  In thirty days it would not exceed thirty-five hundred.
It was threatened  by the joint forces of lIcCulloch, Price and  Jackson,
though the latter had himself gone to Montgomery, the Confederate capital.  The rebel troops were rapidly increasing, both  by  reinforcements
from  the Confederacy, and by  volunteers from  Missouri.  They bid fair
soon to amount to twenty-five or thirty thousand men.*   Gen. Lyon had
telegraphed the most urgent requests for rernforcements, before Fremont
assumed command, but neither McClellan nor Scott thought it possible to
spare the men for that purpose. The only reply his demands had received
was an order directing a part of the few regular troops he had to be sent
to Washington.t
* J. M. Schofield, Acting Adjutant-General at Springfield, to Col. Harding, Adjutant-General
Missouri Volunteers, at St. Louis, July 15th, 1861.
t SPRINGFIELD, Mo., J'zy T1', 1861.
COI. HAtRDING, ST. LOUIS ARSENAL, Mo.:
SIR-I enclose you a copy of a letter to Col. Townsend, Assistant Adjutant-General, Washington, D. C., on the subject of an order from Gen. Scott, which calls for five companies of' the 2d
Infantry to be withdrawn from the West and sent to Washington. A previous order withdraws
the mounted troops, as I am informed, and were it not that some of them were en route to this
place they would be in Washington now. This order, carried out, would not now leave at Fort
Leavenworth a single company. I have companies B and E, 2d Infantry, now under orders for
Washington, and if all these troops leave me I can do nothling, and must retire, in the absence of
other troops to supply their places. In fact, I am badly enough off at the best, and must utterly
fail if my regulars all- go. At Washington, troops from all the Northern, Middle and Eastern
States are available for the support of the army in Virginia, and more are understood to be already
there than are wanted, and it seems strange that so many troops must go on from the West, and
strip us of the means of defense; but if it is the intention to give up the West, let it be so. I can
only be the victim of imbecility or malice. Scott will cripple us if he can. Cannot you stir up
this matter and secure us relief?
Yours truly,                 N. LYON, Commanding.
Avemorandum by CoL. PHELPS, from GEN. LYON to GEN. FREMONT, July 27.
"See Gen. Fremont about troops and stores for this place. Our men have not been paid, and
are rather dispirited; they are badly off for clothing, and. the want of shoes unfits them for marching. Some staff officers are badly needed, and the interests of the Government suffer for the need
of them. The time of the three months volunteers is nearly out, and on returning home, as most
of them are disposed to do, my command will be reduced too low for effective operations. Troops




GEN. FREMONT'S  CAMPiAIGN  IN  MISSOURI.                        268
In the south-east of Missouri, dangers still more serious threatened.
Cairo and [Bird's Point were held by Gen. Prentiss with eight regiments.
They were, however, in a disorganized condition.  Six of them  were three
months then whose term  of service had nearly expired..   Though a large
proportion of the men subsequently reenlisted for the war, these regiments
could not then be depended on, for permanent or effective service; while,
before they could be used at all, an entire reorganization was necessary.
Cape Girardeau, between St. Louis and ]Bird's Point, was held by Col.
Marsh, who, however, had not a single battery with which to defend it.t
Col. Bland, with a force of but 850 men, held Ironton, less than seventyfive miles from St. Louis, with which place it is connected by railroad.
The rebels, elated with the victory which they had just achieved at
Bu-ll's  unl, were organizing in large force to enter the south-eastern border
of Missouri and overwhelm  the Unionists at a single blow.  Gen. Pillow
was gathering a force of fifteen to twenty thousand men at New Madrid,
well armed and drilled, which he was daily increasing by re6nforcement.
i, om  below.  On the first of August scouts reported him  nearly twelve
thousand strong, well supplied with cavalry, having a hundred pieces of
artillery, and expecting hourly the arrival of renforceienlts amounting to
nine  thousand more.:  Gen. IHardee with five thousand rebel troops, tawo
thousand of whom were cavalry, was advancing on Ironton.~  - JefT. Thomrnpson was gathering at Bloomfield another force of rebel Missourians.  The
rebels entertained no doubt of their speedy success.  Col. Jeff. Thdmpson
wrote, on the 16th of July, to a secession friend in St. Louis, that the
Unionists would be driven north of the Missouri river in thirty days.  I-e
issued a proclamation inviting rebels to join his standard,' and declaring
that he had plenty of arms and ammnnition.
Thomas C. lReynolds, Lient. Gov. of the State, issued a proclamation
fiom  New Madrid, on the 31st of July, assuring the rebels in that State,
of the earnest and efficient support of the Southern Confederacy,  and confidently asserting that'the sun which shone in its full mid-day splendor
at  Ianassas, is about to rise upon Missouri."   Gen. Pillow was also equallly
sanguine and positive in his wide-spread declarations of the success which
was immediately to attend the rebel cause.  I-le declared, moreover, that,no quarter would be given to the Union forces.  These were not empty
and groundless boasts.  The overwhelming numbers of the Secessionists
were such as to justify their highest expectations.  In St. Louis itself, the
secession feeling was exceedingly strong.  IMany of the wealthy and influmust at once be forwarded to supply their place. The safety of the State is hazarded. Orders
from Gen. Scott strip the entire West of regular troops, and increase the chances of sacrificing it."
See also despatch of iMcClellan to Chester Harding, of July 20th, quoted in Colfax's speech of
AtMrch 7, 1862.
These clespatches are not inserted for the purpose of casting any blame upon the Government..
But if Gen. )cott felt himself justified in depleting Lyon's little force to strengthen other more
important positions, is Gen. Fremont to be blamed that he did not divert, from posts which he'
deemed essential to the defense of the State, troops to supply the deficiency?
* His entire force was 6,350. Gen. B. N. Prentiss to Gen. Fremont, July 28, 1862,
f Ibid.
I C. C. Marsh's despatch to Gen. Fremont, dated Cairo, Aug. 1, 1861.
~ Gen. Fremont to President' Lincoln, Julyr 30, 1861.




264                  CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
ential citizens of the place, were in sympathy with the rebels.  A large
number of loyal men, Germans and others, were absent in Lyon's little
army. The city was ripe for an insurrection whenever a favorable opportunity might occur.*  And Gen. Fremont had no more force in the city
than was absolutely necessary for its protection, and the guarding of the
arsenal.t
In the North and North-west, too, matters assumed every day a more
threatening aspect.  In every county north of the Missouri river, as,
indeed, almost everywhere throughout the whole State, the rebels were
organized either in open guerilla bands, or in secret military associations.
They burned the property of loyal citizens, and shot, hung or exiled them;
destroyed railroad bridges, tore up the tracks, fired into passing trains and
steamboats, seized and rifled the mails, and even threatened the Iowa border.  Finding no apparent power in the United States Government to
interfere and punish their growing disorders, they waxed constantly bolder.
Such was the condition of affairs when, on the 25th day of July, 1861,
Gen. Fremont arrived in St. Louis.  The disaster at Bull's Run had just
taken place. The capital was threatened. The whole country was in a
state of wildest excitement.  All the thoughts of the people, all the energies of the Government, were concentrated upon the Potomac.
To accomplish the herculean task thus entrusted to him, Gen. Fremont
possessed a small army, in numbers far inferior to those of the enemy,
scattered over a large State, nearly three hundred miles square.  His
troops were poorly clad, wretchedly armed, coarsely fed, and wholly
unpaid.  He had the entire work to accomplish of organizing an armya staff to select, divisions to form, men to gather, arm, equip and drill.
All this he had to do while an enemy, twenty thousand strong, was preparing to march through an open and almost undefended country upon
St. Louis, and another rebel army equally large threatened Lyon's little
force of 7000 men at Springfield.  The well-earned fiulme and great popularity of Gen. Fremont, rallied many beneath his banner, not only from
M.issouri, but also from Iowa and Illinois.  But he had no arms fobr them.
In preparation for this condition of affairs, he had, with great difficulty,
while in New York, procured arms and accoutrements for twenty-three
thousand men.  But almost immediately after he left for Missouri, the
imagined peril of the capital at Washington, induced the Government to
seize these arms and send them to Virginia! It was indeed a sea of difficulties into which Gen. Fremont was thus plunged; and most men of
even extraordinary energies would have thrown up such a commission in
despair.  He had no means, furnished by the Government, to equip a
single new regiment.  The arsenal at St. Louis, no longer contained a
sabre or a gun.  There were no other military supplies accessible in the
West; and more than all the munitions of war which the East could
* This has been denied; but the fact that elections, subsequent to this period, in the Chamber
of Commerce and the Mercantile Library Association, were carried by the Secessionists by considerable majorities, in spite of the most earnest efforts of the Union members, seems sufficiently to
demonstrate the fact.
- Gen. Pope to Gen. Fremont, July 18, 1861. CoGel. Harding to Gen. Fremont, July 21, 1861.




GEN. FREMONT'S CAMPAIGN IN MISSOURI.    265
afford, were demanded for the capital, now beleaguered by rebellion. He
had no means with which to procure others.  The arsenal at St. Louis
had been depleted of its contents before his arrival.
Yielding to the urgent requests of Brig.-Gen. Pope, and his AdjutantGeneral, Col. Harding,"  he had a week before his arrival, despatched the
former officer with three regiments, from Alton, to restore order in the
northern part of the State.  Gen. Pope proceeded at once With that vigor
of action which has always characterized him.  Assuming that the citizens
could put a stop to the depredations of guerilla bands, if they chose to do
so, he distributed his forces in such a way as would enable him to punish violence and enforce his orders; and then he directed all illegal assemblages
to be broken up, and no arrests to be made bfor mere opinion's sake;
divided the line of the Hannibal and St. Joseph railroad into districts and
sub-districts, and appointed, from  the citizens, without respect to political
opinions, superintendents and  assistant superintendents, whom  he held
responsible for every injury to the road. The plan proved entirely successful.  With but little bloodshed he accomplished his purpose, the protection
of the railroad, and the restoration of order and peace along its line. By
the wisdom  of his plan, he both saved the citizens the burden of an extensive military surveillance, and his men the hardships which would have
been necessarily involved in the attempt to guard so extensive a territory
by pursuing and punishing himself every marauder.
Some persons who seem unable to understand that a soldier is serving
any purpose unless he is figlhting a battle, blamed Gen. Fremont for leaving four or five regiments apparently inactive in North Missouri, while
re6nforcements were so urgently called for in the South.  ]But to have
recalled them  would have destroyed Gen. Pope's sole authority, undone
his whole work, given the North to the rebels, ensured the destruction of
the Northern railroads and the extinction, by death or exile, of all loyal
Missourians in that region, and would have endangered the safety of the
whole State, including St. Louis itself.t
The safety and repose of the North being thus provided for, Gen. Fremont turned his attention to the south and south-eastern border of the
State.  HIe sent, at once, upon his arrival at St. Iouis, two urgent telegrams to Washington representing his condition.  The dangers, howxever,
which environedl the capital, immediately after the disaster of Bull's Run,
demanded the undivided attention of the authorities there. The only
* Brig.-Gen. Pope to Mlaj.-Gen. Fremont, Chicago, July 11, 1861.
f Col. Blair (Speech of May 7th, 1862) charged Gen. Fremont with culpable remissness in this
respect, assuming, if he does not directly assert, that these troops were idle and might have been
sent to Gen. Lyon's assistance, and quotes Col. Palmer, of the 14th Illinois, as saying, "If it be
asked what all these troops were doing, the answer is, eating their rations and holding the railroads." And yet, surely both he and Col. Palmer must be aware, that prior to the battle of Wilson's Creek, there were four or five pitched battles in North Missouri between Federal troops or
Home Guards, and secession guerillas-that in spite of Gen. Pope's forces, the railroad trains were
4red into from ambuscade on more than one occasion, that, before his presence there, acts of violence were almost numberless, that nothing but the presence of his forces held the guerillas in
restraint, and that the departure of the Federal troops would have been the signal for a general
uprising, and perhaps the organization of a formidable rebel army on the North to cooperate with
those already in active movement on the South.




266                   CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
reply which he received was one fiom  Montgomery Blair, PostmasterGeneral, containing the following paragraph:
WASHINGTON, July 26, 1861.
DEAR GENERAL: —I have two telegrams from you, but find it impossiole to get any attention to Missouri or Western matters from the authorities here. Ypu will have to do the best you can, and take all needful
responsibility, to defend  and protect the people over whom   you  are
specially set.
X       @-       *        -x-      X        A       *        *
Yours truly, and in haste,                M. BLAIR.
Thus thrown entirely upon his own responsibility, and left to his own
resources, he began to prepare, as best he could, for the emergencies which
surrounded him.  H-e at once ordered the erection of extensive earthworks
about St. Louis. The dangers which threatened were two-ifold, from the
enemy without, and the Secessionists within; and were so imminent as to
admit of no delay.  I-e, therefore, directed the works to be carried on by
night, as well as. by day.  The details of the contract, and the price to be
paid, he left to be fixed by Gen. MciKinstry, his quartermaster.*
He called in two regiments from Gen. Pope, and sent them  South, to
strengthen Col. Bland, at Ironton.  Meanwhile, urgent demands poured
in upon him  from  every quarter for reenforcements.  Gen. Lyon  sent
courier after courier, begging for additional troops.  Prentiss advised him
of the constant increase of Gen. Pillow's forces at New Madrid.  Every
day brought news, more definite and decisive, of a threatened attack upon
Cairo, Bird's Point, Cape Girardeau, and, probably, St. Louis itself;, by an
overwhehneling force.  A rebel army, also, of twelve thousand, was reported
as gathering at Warsaw, to descend the Osage to the Missouri River, and
thence to St. ILouis.t  lFroam  Ironton, Cape Girardean, Cairo and Bird's
Point, Springfield and Jefferson City, caime simultaneous demands for
re6nforcements without delay.
To comply with these imploring  aills, Gen. Fremont had neither a soldier nor a gun.  Men, indeed, soon came flocking to his standard.  But
nearly all of thllem were without arnus, accoutrements, clothing, camp equipage, or transportation.  Regiment after regiment was detained for weeks
in the city, before these indispensable wants could be supplied.  The arsenal, as we; have stated, was exhausted, and all arms and accoutrements had
to be brought from the East.;  There were Home Guards, too, and three
months men, just on the point of disbanding.  They were valuable men,
~ Perhaps the most serious charge brought against Gen. Fremont, is for extravagance in the
erection of these earthworks. This is not a defense of Fremont, yet it is proper to say, that, in
directing their-construction, he simply carried on a work already commenced by Gen. Lyon, and
now imperatively demanded by the advance of an army with which it was impossible for him to
cope, without the aid of formidable fortifications; and that, in respect to the price paid, which has
generally been regarded as extravagant, it was fixed, not by Gen. Fremont, but by Gen. XicKinstry,
an officer not of Fremont's selection, but detailedfrom the Quartermaster's depcertment for duty at St.
Louis by President Buchanan's administration, and continued at that post by President Lincoln.
t Col. Stevenson to Gen. Fremont, Jefferson City, Mo., July 27, 1861.
Col. C. Harding, quoted by Hon. Schuyler Colfax, in his speech of March 7, 1862.




GEN. FREMO:NT'S CAMPAIGN IN  MISSOURI.                 267
for they had seen active service. They were willing to reinlist. [But they
were laboring men, dependent for support upon their daily toil. The
United States Government had given them no pay, and it was uncertain
how soon they would find time even to think of them. Their families
were in absolute destitution. If they could be paid, and the just debt of
the Government to its soldiers be met, the men could be retained, but not
otherwise. The necessities of the country imperatively demanded their
services. What could Gen. Fremont do? Telegraph to Washington for
instructions.   He had already telegraphed, and received the reply that he
must act on, JfiS own reponsibility. He acted accordingly.
There were three hundred thousand dollars of the United States funds
in the Sub-Treasury at St. Louis. He ordered the Treasurer to pay him
one hundred thousand dollars, and prepared to enforce the order by military power, if necessary. He at the same time sent a note to the President at Washington, informing him of the fact, and of the necessity for
the action. The President made no reply. Nor has he, to the present
day, publicly expressed himself in respect to Gen. Fremont's movement in
this matter.
Gen. Fremont, with the funds thus obtained, secured the rebnlistment
of a small force. He also purchased a quantity of arms. It is said that
he paid extravagant prices for them. It is not improbable. In his exigency, he was at the mercy of those who had arms to sell. I-e at the same
time telegraphed to Gov. Morton, of Indiana, for aid. Gov. Morton replied that he had five regiments ready, but they had been ordered East.
Geir. Fremont then telegraphed to Washington to obtain those regiments
for his service. He treceived no answer till the 6th of August. They were
then placed under his command, but too late to save Lyon.
Meanwhile, Gen. Fremont prepared fbr a demonstration on the rebels,
who were threatening Cairo and Bird's Point. Iis weakness he carefully
concealed from both friend and foe. With a force of less than thirty-eight
hundred men, and eight steamers, he started down the river for Cairo, distant about one hundred and fifty miles. The expedition was conducted
with as much display as possible. Both by the country and by the enemy
his force was greatly exaggerated. It was commonly reported that he wa.s
at the head of ten or twelve thousand men. The country impatiently
asked why a part of this splendid army wras not sent to reenforce Lyon.
But the rebels, deceived also by the display, were held in check by Gen.
Fremont's expedition. Thus, by the assumption of being in possession of
a force far greater than was at his command, he prevented the rebels from
making an attack upon Cairo, which, in all probability, they mighit then
successfully have done. Cairo being thus adroitly re6nforced, Gen. Fremont returned to St. Louis.
Still, the threatened dangers Were far from  wholly averted. Jeff.
Thompson was still advancing with his rebel bands on Cape Girardean.
Every day brought appeals from Col. Marsh for aid. If Cape Girardeau
fell into the hands of the foe, they could easily, froml that vantage ground,
cross the river and ravage the frontiers of Illinois. GCen. Fremont had not
men enough to re6nforce both Lyon in the southb, and lIarsh and Prentiss




268                      CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
on the eastern border.  lie was compelled to hazard either the one or the
other.  And he had the magnanimity to conceal his weakness and danger
from  the country, and patiently to bear the unmeasnred reproach, which,
in the universal ignorance of his position, fell upon him.*'
On  the first of August, Lyoni  moved  his little  army forward  from
Springfield, in pursuit of the enemy.  On the 3d, he encountered them  in
* The battle of Wilson's Creek was fought on the 10th of August. The following telegrams,
a few among those received by Fremont during the ten days preceding that engagement, afford,
without comment, a graphic picture of his position, and the urgency of the demands made upon
him:
JEFFERSON CITY, JZly 27, 1861.
To MAJ. GEN. FREMONT:
*      *      *       *      *      *       *      *      *       *      *
I am advised of a gathering of a large force at Warsaw, estimated at ten thousand; also, an encampment, eight miles from Glasgow, of two thousand. With an additional regiment, so as to
leave a garrison force of five hundred men at Booneville, I will be able to disperse/both forces. If
they are promptly met, they can be easily dispersed with the force indienated.
JOHN B. STEVENSON, Col. Commandinzg, Misso0uri River.
CAIRO, July 28, 1861.
To MAJ. GEN. FREMONT:
Rebels from Tennessee are concentrating at New Madrid, Missouri, with the avowed intention
of assaulting Bird's Point. They may intend going to Cape Girardeau. Col. Marsh has no battery.
I have none to spare.
*      *      *       *      *      *       *      *       *      *      *
B. M. PRENTISS, Brig. Gen.
August 1, 1861.
To MAJ. GEN. FREMONT:
The following information, just received, is, I believe, reliable. Gen. Pillow was at New Madrid
on the morning of the 31st, with eleven thousand troops, well armed and well drilled. *  *  *  -X
Nine thousand more moving to rednforce. He has promised Gov. Jackson to place twenty thousand
men in Missouri at once.
C. C. MARSH, Col. Commanding at Cape Girardeau.
August 4, 1861.
To MAJ. GEN. FREMONT:
Information received last night of a large force at Bloomfield, reported from eight to ten thousand; at Garrison's Mills, on Picket road, five hundred; at String's Mills, on Castor River, five
hundred. *  *  *  *  On 1st and 2d August they had orders to cook four rations of bread.
C. C. MARSH, Col., &c.
CAPFE GIRARDEAU, Aug. 4, 1861.
To MAJ. GEN. FFREMONT:
Thompson is advancing within sixteen miles of me. Am fortifying the hill in rear of Mills.
Send me reinforcements and ammunition.  Express waiting for reply.
C. C. MARSH, Col., &C.
CAIRo, Aug. 5, 1861.
To MIAJ. GEN. FREMONT:
The following despatch was just received: "Cape Girardeau, Aug. 4, 11 P. M. Enemy advancing within sixteen miles of me. Help me if you can. Signed C. C. Marsh, Col., &c."
B. M. PRENTISS, Brig. Gen.
August 6, 1861.
To CHESTER HARDING:
*  *  *  *  Marsh has called for help again. Enemy five thousand and over. Citizens have
left Cape Girardeau,         *                              B      PR *Bri  Gen




GEN. FREMONT'S CAMPAIGN  IN  MISSOURI.                 269
force in a valley called Dug Springs. After a little skirmishing,' however,
the enemy retired, without giving battle. The next day he proceeded as
far as Curran, twenty-six miles south of Springfield. Here, learning that
the enemy were in force west of him, and fearing lest his communication
with Springfield should be cut off, he determined, having first consulted
with his officers, to return again to Springfield, which he did accordingly.
The rebels followed him, and encamping at Wilson's Creek, about ten
miles south of Springfield, scoured the country with their cavalry, gathering supplies by foraging, and preparing themselves to make an attack with
overpowering numbers.
Gen. Lyon, however, did not wait to be attacked. On the 9th day of
August, he determined to surprise the foe in their camp, if possible, and.A_ P OF  _IT,_OS CEEK AND VICINITY.
/ PMD   VREBELCAMP
C-OL.SIGEL
S        Kr




270                     CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
alry, of which the enemy possessed great numbers.  HIe was a hundred
and fifty miles friom any railroad.  If, with such'an army, he attempted to
retreat, it is probable his entire force would have speedily been disorganized and utterly destroyed. Nor could he remain on the defensive at
Springfield, as his army would surely soon be surrounded and captured.
His only hope lay in a bold and brave stroke.  Ile made it.  It cost him
his life, but it saved his army.
To understand the nature of that stroke, a word of topographical explanation is necessary.  From  the village of Springfield, there is one road
leading to  Fayetteville, Arkansas, running in a south-westerly direction.
Another road, pursuing  a course nearly due west, conducts to Mount
Vernon.
About ten miles from  Springfield, by either of these roads, you reach
Wilson's Creek, a tributary of White River.  Along the banks of this
creek there is a cross road, which connects the Fayetteville and the Mount
Vernon roads.  The valley of this creek  is about twenty rod~ in width,
bounded by gently sloping hills, which are covered with scrub oak a few
feet high, except where the land is in cultivation.  Upon this cross road,
about three miles in length, equally accessible from  Springfield by either
of the roads we have mentioned, the rebel camp was situated.
Concealed by the shades of evening, on the 9th of August, Gen. Lyon,
with floating banners, but silent bands, emerged from the streets of Springfield, to attack, by surprise, if possible, the foe, outnumbering him  nearly
three to one.  His force was divided; one part, under his own command,
moved along the Mountl Vernon road, to attack the enemy in front, while
the other part, under the intrepid Col. Sigel,* with six pieces of artillery,
two companies of cavalry, and several regiments of infantry, took the Fayetteville road, with instructions to attack the rebels in the rear.  Precautions were taken to render the surprise as complete as possible, and it was
hoped that the rebels, distracted by the presence of. an enemy thus unexpectedly assailing them  on both sides, and taken by surprise, might be
effectually put to flight.  It is proper to add that the time of service of
the Fifth Regiment of Missouri volunteers had expired; that Col. Sigel
had gone to them, company by company, and, by his personal influence,
had induced them  to reenlist for eight days; that this reenlistment expired
on the 9th, the day before the battle; that many of the officers had gone
home; and that a considerable part of Sigel's force was composed of raw
recruits.
* Gen. Franz Sigel was born in Baden, Germany, in 1821. He received a regular military education at Carlsrulhe. In 1847, he was promoted to chief adjutant, and acquired the reputation of being
the most accomplished artillerist in Germany. Espousing the cause of the patriots in 1848, he led
80,000 men against an equal number of royalists, and routed them, capturing all their ordnance.
His skill and heroism had placed him in chief command of the patriot forces. At the close of the
war, he came to America, and settling in Missouri, was soon elected to a professorship in the college of St. Louis. At the opening of the rebellion here, Sigel, true to his republican principle,
rallied his countrymen to the support of our free institutions. He soon attained the highest position, in the affection and confidence of the community. His brilliant career, as he led his heroic
countrymen through many a bloody fight, beneath the banner of his adopted country. will conAitute some of the most attractive pages in our subsequent history.




GEN. FREMIONT'S CAMPAIGN IN MISSOURI.                 271
The morning of the 10th of August was just beginning to dawn, when
Col. Sigel cautiously arrived within a mile of the rebel camp. So quietly
did he advance, that sole forty of the rebels going from their camp to get
water and provisions, were taken prisoners without being able to give
their comrades any warning of their danger. Silently the Union troops
ascended the hills, which bordered the creek, and there beheld spread out
before them, the tents of the foe. The rebels were at their breakfast.
Col. Sigel, bringing his artillery into position, with a well-directed shot
into the midst of their encampment, gave the rebels the first intimation of
his presence. They were thrown into utter disorder by the suddenness of
the surprise, and retreated in confusion down the valley. The infantry
pursued and quickly formed in the camp so lately occupied by the rebels.
The enelny, however, recovering from  the first panic, were almost as
quickly formed in line of battle, and Col. Sigel found his little force
opposed by one, three thousand strong. The artillery now moved down
into the valley, to cooperate with the infantry, and, after a short fight, the
enemy retired in some confusion.
Meanwhile, tlhe sound of heavy firing from the other end of the valley
was distinctly heard, and it was evident that Lyon was there, engaging
the enemy in force. In order to aid Lyon, Col. Sigel pressed forward his
columns up the valley, selecting a position to cut off any attempted retreat
of the enemy. IIe had already succeeded in taking over one hundred
prisoners, when, by a natural but unfortunate mistake, his well-laid plans
were overturned, and he was compelled to retreat. The firing in the
north-west had ceased. HIe presumed that Lyon had been successful, and
that his troops were in pursuit of the enemy. This was confirmed by the
appearance to the east of him, of large bodies of rebels, apparently retreating to the south. Of course there could be no communication between
him and Lyon, as the rebel force was directly between them. At this
juncture, word was brought to Col. Sigel, that Lyon's forces were advancing triumphantly up the road. His troops were told not to fire upon
them, and with exultant hearts they waved their flags to those whom they
supposed to be their victorious comrades. Suddenly from the advancing
troops there burst upon Sigel's little band, a point-blank destructive fire,
which covered the ground with the dying and the dead: At the same
moment, from  the adjoining hills, where they hadcl supposed that Lyon's
victorious troops were pursuing the enemy, there came plunging down upon
them shot and shell from a rebel battery. The Unionists were thrown
into utter confusion; for they still believed that the volleys, which swept
their ranks, came from their friends. The gloom of the morning, and the
absence of all uniform, prevented the prompt detection of the error. The
cry ran, from mouth to mouth, "Our friends are firing upon us."  The
soldiers could not be dissuaded from this belief, until many had fallen.
Nearly all the artillery horses were shot down at their guns, and death was
sweeping the ranks. Mlost of these young patriots had recently come from
their peaceful home3, and had never before heard the spiteful whistle of a
hostile bullet. It is not strange that a panic should have ensued. Under
these cirmunstances, it might have been expected in the best drilled army.




272                CIVIL  WAR IN  AMERICA.
Five cannon were abandoned, in the disorderly retreat. The foe,
exultant and with hideous yells, came rushing on. Col. Sigel himself, in
his efforts to arrest the rout, narrowly escaped capture. With anguish he
afterwards summed up, that, out of his heroic little band he had lost, in
dead, wounded and missing, eight hundred and ninety-two. Some popular
complaints have been uttered against Col. Sigel, for not having afterwards,
with the remnant of his forces, formed a junction with Gen. Lyon. But
this was not possible. There were but two roads, by which he could gain
access to Lyon's position, at the other end of the valley. One was the long,
circuitous route of twenty miles, by the way of Springfield.  The other
was the valley road, then in the full possession of the exultant rebel army.
There was, therefore, nothing fobr Col. Sigel to do, but to withdraw his
shattered and bleeding ranks as safely as possible from the field.
Gen. Lyon, meanwhile, having -left Springfield at about the same time
with Col. Sigel, arrived, at one o'clock in the morning, in view of the enemy's camp fires. HIere his column lay, on its arms, till daylight, when it
moved forward. The enemy had pickets thrown out at this point, and
their surprise was, therefore, less complete than it had been in the rear.
By the time Lyon reached the northern end of the camp he found the
enemy prepared to receive him. Iie succeeded, however, after a brief
struggle, in gaining a commanding eminence at the north of the valley in
which the camp was situated. Capt. Plummer, with four companies of
infantry, protected his left flank. The battle was now commenced by a
fire of shot and shell from Capt. Totten's battery, and soon became general.
In vain did the rebel host endeavor to drive Lyon from his well-chosen
position. On the right, on the left, and in front they assailed him, in
charge succeeding charge, but in vain. HIis qtlick eye detected every
movement and successfully met and defeated it. The overwhelming number of the rebels enabled thenm to replace, after each repulse, their defeated
forces with fresh regiments, while Lyon's little band found no time for
rest, no respite from the battle.  The rebel host surged, wave after wave
upon his heroic lines, as billows of the sea dash upon the coast. And as
the rocks upon that coast beat back the flood, so did these heroic soldiers
of freedom, with courage which would have ennobled veterans, and with
patriotism which has won a nation's homage and love, hurl back the tireless surges 6f rebellion, which threatened to engulf them.  It will be
enough for any of these patriots to say, " I was at the battle of Wilson's
Creek," to secure the warmest grasp of every patriot's hand.
Wherever the missiles of death flew thickest, and the peril of the battle
was most imminent, there was Gen. Lyon surely to be found. His young
troops needed this encouragement on the part of their adored leader, and
it inspired them. with bravery, which nothing else could have conferred.
Htis horse had been shot under him; three times he had been wounded,
and though faint from the loss of blood, he refused to retire even to have
his wounds dressed.; in vain did his officers beseech him to avoid so much
exposure. It was one of those eventful hours, which Gen. Lyon fully comprehended, in which there was no hope but in despair.
Again and again had the enemy been repulsed, only to return again




GEN. FREMONT'S CAMPAIGN  IN  MISSOURI.                       273
and again, with fresh troops, to the charge.  Colonels Mitchell, Deitzler
and Andrews were all severely wounded.  All the men were exhausted
with the long and unintermitted battle, and it seemed as though one puff
of war's fierce tempest would now  sweep away the thin and tremulous
line.  Just then the rebels again formed in a fresh and solid column for
the charge. With firm and rapid tread, and raising unearthly yells, they
swept up the slope. Gen. Lyon called for the troops, standing nearest
him, to form  -for an opposing charge.  Undaunted, and ready for the battle as ever, they inquired, " Who will be our leader?"' "Come on, brave
men," shouted Gen. Lyon, "I will lead you."  In a moment he was at
their head.  At the next moment they were on the full run.; at the next
a deadly storm of bullets swept their ranks, staggering but not checking
them in their impetuous advance-on-on they rushed for God and Liberty; and in another moment, the foe were dispersed like dust by the
gale.  The victory was entire; this division of the rebels could rally no
more; the army was saved; but l;yo~n wcas dead /  Two bullets had pierced
his bosom.  As lie fell, one of his officers sprang to his side, and inquired
anxiously, "Are you hurt?"  "Not much," was his faint reply.  They
were his last words.  I-e fell asleep to wake no more.  O! hateful pro-.
slavery rebellion! such are the victims immolated upon thy polluted
shrine.  Indignation is blended with the tears we shed, over such sacrifices
which we have been compelled to offer to the demon of slavery.  A nation
mourned the loss of Lyon, the true Christian knight, without fear and
without reproach. -His remains now repose in the peaceful graveyard of
his native village.*
The death of Gen. Lyon was, for a time, carefully concealed from the
troops. Even Major Sturgis, the next in command, did not know of it for
half an hour.  Thus gloriously died one who needs no other eulogy than
the record of his life-as surely none other can be more eloquent.  Never
grasping power, or seeking office, he yet never feared to assume any responsibilities, which the exigencies of the hour demanded.  Energetic action
and heroic deeds secured his title to true nobility.  His policy was always
to punish traitors, not to attempt to pacify them  by imbecility of action
and apologetic words.  While many in the State and in the arimy, )were
yet uncertain what secession signified or designed, lie manifested an appreciation of its nature and its inevitable results, which proved him  a true
statesman.  And the boldness and skill with which he dealt with this
demoniac power, placed him  in the foremost ranks of our generals.  IHe
sought to crush treason in AMissouri, in the egg, before it was hatchled andi
grown strong.  He failed only because others, his superiors in position
and power, with a feebler comprehension of the enemy to be destroyed,
failed to supply him with the means.  If to accomplish great results, in an
incredibly short time, apparently without any adequate resources, save
* "Funeral honors have attended Gen. Lyon, from the battle-field where he fell, across onehalf a continent, taken up from State to State, from city to city, from village to village, and been carried forward, for near two thousand miles amid the tearful eyes, the bowed heads and the deepest
expressions of personal sorrow of hundreds of thousands of grateful people. Such honors were
never before, perhaps, paid to so young a general."-2fw York Tribune.
18




2T74                  CIVIL  WAR  IN  AMERICA.
those of his own creation constitute greatness, then no general, since the
opening of the war, has shown himself the superior of Gen. Lyon.  Military genius must be put to the same test with all other genius.  That high
intelligence, which soars above all professional technicalities and all the
routine of the schools, will declare him  to be the greatest captain who, at
the least expense of blood and treasure, accomplishes the greatest results.*
After the death of Gen. Lyon, Major Sturgis assumed command.  His
forces were wearied with long fighting.  They had had no water since
the evening before and could obtain none nearer than Springfield.  An
army twenty thousand strongt was yet before them.  Though they had
gained one great victory another battle was still impending. The results
of Sigel's attack ancl his whereabouts were utterly unknown.  The two
wings of the Union army had been separated by a distance of three miles.
At this juncture a heavy column advanced from the hill where Col. Sigel's
guns had already been heard.  Their dress resembled that of his men, and
they bore the American flag.  MIajor Sturgis, unaware of the deception
which had dispersed Sigel's brigade, allowed them to approach unmolested.
Suddenly the rebel colors were displayed, a battery from an adjoining hill
was opened upon the Union troops, and the fiercest and most bloody
encounter of the day commenced.  Fortunately, however, Major Sturgis'
men, better drilled than Col. Sigel's, sustained the unexpected attack with
perfect firmness.  Not a sign of wavering was maniifested.  Muzzle to
muzzle, almost hand to hand, was the unequal contest waged with this
flew force.  It seemed, at times, as though the heroic little band would be
utterly swept away.  Suddenly, by an ingenious manceuvre, the reserve
was brought upon the enemy's flank, and in a few moments the whole
rebel army was routed and in fuill retreat.  Major Sturgis had, however,
no force sufficient to follow up his victory. After a brief repose he withdrew his exhausted men in good order, arriving at Springfield at five
o'clock that evening.  The discomfited but still outnumbering  foe attempted no molestation.
Thus ended the battle of Wilson's Creek.  In its resdlts it may be
surely counted as a victory, for it secured the safety of the army which
thus only could be attained. The enemy was thwarted entirely in his
plans, and his baggage-train was fired and destroyed.  The foe, admonished by the terrific blows they had received, did not venture to interfere
with the retirement of the Unionists.  Unassailed they withdrew to Rolla,
taking with them  their military stores and $250,000 in specie from  the
* In respect to the question, Who is responsible for the failure to rednforce Gen. Lyon, it is
proper to say, that Gen. Lyon himself never cast any blame upon Gen. Fremont. In a letter written the eve before the battle, he, with much feeling, throws the responsibility upon Gen. Scott,
calling all the troops he could get from Missouri, to strengthen the army of the Potomac. The
Adjutant-General of Missouri Volunteers, who was familiar with all the facts in the case, declares
that Gen. Fremont made every effort in his power, to reunforce Lyon, but that he absolutely could
not do it.-Statement of Col. Hcarding, A. A. G., quoted in speech of on. S. Colfax, ifarch 7, 1862.
Calpt. Kelton, A. A. G., to Hfajp. Farrar, Sept. 21, 1861.
1 In his official report Major Sturgis says over twenty thousand. But when the previous loss
of the enemy is deducted it seems hardly probable that more than that number of efficient men
woere left.




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GEN. FREMONT'S CAMPAIGN  IN  MISSOURI.                 275
Springfield bank. It is doubtless the decision of military judgment that
the plan of attack at two points, three miles distant from each other, by
tbrces so divided that no communication was possible between them, was
ill-judged. It is, however, probable that, but for the natural mistake, into
which Col. Sigel's forces were led, the speedy rout of the whole rebel
army would have been secured. And it is even now doubtful whether an
attack, conducted in any other way, under the circumstances, by so small
a force upon one so much larger, and in its own chosen position, could
have been equally successftil.
Still, the Inews-of the battle of Wilson's Creek filled the rebels of Ml~issouri with exultation. They had.met, and successfully resisted the Governmental forces, and had compelled them to retreat fiomn Springfield. The
mutterings of an approaching storm were heard again in St. Louis. On
the 14th of August, the city was declared under martial law, and Gen.
llcKinstry was appointed Provost Marshal. The arrest of two or three
prominent Secessionists, the suppression of two rebel papers, and a quiet
note of warning to a third, had the effect to prevent any outbreak, and
render St. Louis orderly and safe.
In TNorth Missouri, meanwhile, disorders still continued in some
measure, il spite of the very stringent regulations of Gen. Pope. On the
5th of August, quite a severe, but irregular, engagement had taken place,
at Athens, on the Mlississippi River, between twelve hundred Secessionists
and four hundred Iome Guards. So near the border was this engagement, that the Iowa military, forming on the eastern bank of the river,
rendered the Home Guards good service, by aid of their Mini6 rifles.
The rebels were put to flight.
In the South-east, also, the rebels continued to maintain a threatening
attitude. Almost every day brought information of some marauding band
needing attention, or of some brief but fierce contest. On the 16th of
August, a company of four hundred rebels was surprised and put to flight,
and their camp equipage taken. On the 19th, a band of twelve hundred,
at Charlestown, were attacked and dispersed by three hundred Union
troops. Seventeen prisoners and fifteen horses were captured. On the
21st, at Commerce, forty miles from Cairo, a battery, planted by the rebels,
was taken by some Union troops sent -fiom Cape Girardeau. In every
such encounter, the patriots were successfuil.
While these exciting military events were transpiring, important civil
changes were also taking place. A State Convention of A4issourians, devoted to our national integrity, met, the latter part of July, at Jefferson
City. They declared the offices of Governor, Lieutenant-Governor,'and
Secretary of State, vacated, by the treason and flight of their occupants,
and proceeded to fill their places with men true to the Union. The lion..Hamilton R. Gamble was elected Governor, and he immediately issued a
proclamation, calling for forty-two thousand troops, to aid the Federal
Government in expelling the forces of rebellion from the State.
Meanwhile, Gen. Fremont continued his preparations in organizing an
expedition to descend the Mississippi River, and sweep from its banks the
traitors with which they were infested. The erection of fortifications for




276                     CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
the protection of St. Louis-the construction of gun-boats, built upon his
own suggestion, and the organization of his army, were pushed vigorously
forward, under his own immediate supervision.  He infused the utmost
life and energy into every department.  It is said that he allowed himself
only four or five hours for sleep, out of the twenty-four.
One of the unexpected difficulties which Gen. Fremont had to encounter, was the refusal of Gov. Gamble to commission officers for the service,
appointed by Gen. Fremont.*   The difficulty being  represented  to the
Government at Washington, Gen. Fremont received  a telegram  fiom
President Lincoln, promising to commission the officers whom  Fremont
should appoint.t
On the 19th of August, the Confederate Congress voted to receive Missouri into the Southern Confederacy, upon condition that she should ratify
the Confederate Constitution, not by the people, but by the rebel Governor
and his coadjutors, whom  the people had already, by a large majority, repudiated.  Sustained thus by the sanction of the Congress of rebels, disorders continued to increase, rather than diminish.  The breaking up of one
party of marauders, was at once followed by the organization of others.
The State government had no militia, and was almost wholly powerless.
Nothing but the most stringent measures could afford any hope of peace.
On the 31st day of August, Gen. Fremont issued.the following important
proclamation:
" HEADQUARTERS OF THE WESTERN DEPARTMENT, }
"ST. LOUIS, Aug. 31, 1861.
C" Circumstances, in my judgment of sufficient urgency, render it necessary that the Commanding General of this Department should assume the
administrative powers of the State. Its disorganized condition, the helplessness of the civil authority, the total insecurity of life, and the devastation of property by bands of murderers and marauders, who infest nearly
every county in the State, and avail themselves of the public misfortunes
and the vicinity of a hostile force, to gratify private and neighborhood vengeance, and who find an enemy wherever they find plunder,-finally de* Gov. Gamble, while in favor of the Union, was perhaps still more devoted to the interests of
slavery. Guarding the despotic institution with a watchful eye, he could not sympathize with
Gen. Fremont, who not only considered slavery as the cause of all our troubles, but who, from all
the dictates of his humanity, policy and religion, was the advocate of equal rights for all men.
f The following is the correspondence:
ST. LouIs, Aug. 19, 1861.
To RHo. M. BLAIR, Washington, D. C.
It is necessary, in order to facilitate the organization here, that Maj. Gen. Fremont have power
to commission officers, as Gov. Gamble has neglected to accede to a request to do it, much to the
detriment of the public service. If the President telegraphs that he will appoint the officers Gen,
Fremont commissions, it will remove a great stumbling-block from our path.
FRANK P. BLAIR, JR.
In answer to this, Mr. M. Blair telegraphed that if Gov. Gamble would not commission officers,
the President would. But some mistake rendering the despatch incomprehensible, the President
repeated it himself, as follows:
-WAsHINGTON, D. 0, Aug. 21, 1861.'To (Cor. BLAIR:. repeat, I will commission the officers of Missouri volunteers.
A. LnTCOLN.




GEN. FREMONT'S  CAMPAIGN  IN  MISSOURI.                    277
mand the severest measures to repress the daily increasing crimes and outrages, which are driving off the inhabitants and ruining the State. In this
condition, the public safety and the success of our arms requires unity of'
purpose, without let or hindrance, to the prompt administration of affairs.' In order, therefbre, to suppr.ess disorders, to maintain as far as now
practicable -the public peace, and to give security and protection to the
persons and property of loyal citizens, I do hereby extend, and declare
established, martial law throughout the State of Missouri. The lines of
the armiy of occupation in this State, are for the present declared to extend
fi'om Leavenworth, by way of the posts of Jefferson City, Rolla, and Ironton, to Cape Girardeau, on the Mississippi River.*' All persons who shall be taken with arms in their hands within these
lines shall be tried by court-martial, and if found guilty, will be shot. The
property, real an'd personal, of all persons in the State of Missouri who
shall take up arms against the United States, and who shall be directly
proven to have taken active part with their enemies ill the field, is declared
to be confiscated to the public use; and their slaves, if any they have, are
hereby declared free men.
"All persons who shall be proven to have destroyed, after the publication of this order, railroad tracks, bridges or telegraphs, shall suffer the
extreme penalty of this law.
"All persons engaged in treasonable correspondence, in giving or procuring aid to the enemies of the United States, in fomenting tumult, in
disturbing the public tranquillity, by creating and circulating false reports
or incendiary documents, are in their own interest warned that they are
exposing themselves to sudden and severe punishment.
"'All persons who have been led away fromn their allegiance are required to return to their homes forthwith; any such absence without sufficient cause will be held to be presumptive evidence against them.
"' The object of this declaration is to place in the hands of' the military
authorities the power to give instantaneous effect to existing laws, and to
supply such deficiencies as the conditions of war demand. But it is not
intended to suspend the ordinary tribunals of the country, where the law
will be administered by the civil officers in the usual manner, and with
their customary authority, while the same can be peaceably exercised.
" The Commanding General will labor vigilantly fir tile public welfare, and in his efforts for their safety, hopes to obtain not only the acquiescence, but the active support of the loyal people of the country.
"J. C. FRIEMONT, fVajor-General Commanding."
In issuing this proclamation, Gen. Fremont was ten months in advance
of the nation's representatives.  IIHe realized that the country was involved
in real war.  He realized that the rebels were in earnest.  He realized
that all attempts at pacification by timidity, and concessions to traitors
were unavailing, and would but add fuel to tihe flame. He realized that
the only way to stop rebellion was to chastise rebels with the rod of justice.
* This proclamation was not a berutum fullmen. The territory thus bounded was in the military
occupation, and under the control, of Gen. Fremont.




278                CIVIL  WAR IN  AMERICA.
Ten months later the Government at Washington began to see what Fremont then saw. In July, 1862, Congress incorporated, in a confiscation
bill, the substantial principles of Gen. Fremont's proclamation.  The
world has, however, never suffered men to teach it with impunity. An
outcry from all pro-slavery partisans, in all parts of the country, went up
against the man who had first dared to proclaim liberty to the slaves of
rebels. The Border States, supported by some conservative coadjutors in
the North, demanded his removal. Fair means were not alone used for
this end. The most strenuous efforts were secretly made to undermine
him in the confidence of the Administration, and by bitter public attacks
through the press to rob him of the confidence of the people. The most
heinous charges were heaped upon him, both in private, before the Government, and in public before the country at large.  Political rivals
assisted in the work of partisan antagonists. And bitter enemies made
common cause in their attacks upon one whose position, while he was
defending his country from her enemies in the field, should have secured
for him the cooperation of all who. wished to see the integrity of their
country maintained. But Fremont had friends as warm as his enemies
were bitter. They rallied to his support. The masses of the people were
his enthusiastic admirers. The journals were filled with discussions concerning his habits and all the details of his administrative career.
Gen. Fremont paid no attention to either the secret designs of the
politicians, or the public calunpnies of the press. I-le continued to devote
all his energies to the task of overpowering and punishing the enemies of
his country. President Lincoln wrote requesting him to modify his proclamation.  He replied requesting the President himself to make such
modification.
" If" said he,'" your better judgment decides that I was wrong in the
article respecting the liberation of slaves, I have to ask that you will
openly direct me to make the correction. The implied censure will be
received as a soldier always should receive the reprimand of his chief. If
I were to retract of my own accord it would imply that I myself thought
it wrong, and that I had acted without the reflection which the gravity of
the point demanded. But I did not. I acted with full deliberation, and
with the certain conviction that it was a measure right and necessary, and
I think so still."
The President accordingly issued an order modifying that of Gen. Fremont. The effect of this modification, which the still controlling influence
of slavery constrained the President to make, was to confine the confiscation and liberation of slaves to such as had been actually employed by the
rebels in military service. If they worked the guns, they were to be free.
If they only raised the cotton which enabled the rebels to buy the guns,
they were not to be free. Gen. Fremont submitted to the modification.
But this did not suit those who were even more anxious to protect slavery
from harm, than to strike the rebellion heavy blows. The Cabinet at
Washington,; greatly embarrassed by these pro-slavery demands, which
were continually pressing upon them from the Border States, could furnish Gen. Fremont with but very little sympathy or support, and were




GEN. FREMONT'S CAMPAIGN IN MISSOURI.    279
finally forced to the humiliation of withdrawing the officer who, as this
narrative proves, had developed, during his brief campaign, the highest
qualities of the statesman and the general.*
* The following is a copy of one of the deeds of Manumission, given by Gen. Fremont, and
which the Government forbade him any longer to issue.  "L Deed of Mfanumission.-Whereas,
T. L. S., of the city and county of St. Louis, Mo., has been taking active part with the enemies of
the United States in the present insurrectionary movement against the Government of the United
States, Now, therefore, I, John Charles Fremont, Major-General, commanding the Western Department of the army of the United States, by authority of law, and the power vested in me, as
such Commanding General, declare Frank Lewis, heretofore'held to service' or labor, by said
T. L. S. to be Free, and forever discharged from the bonds of servitude; giving him full right and
authority to have, use and control his own labor or service as to him may seem proper, without
any accountability whatever to said T. L. S., or any one to claim by, through or under him. And
this Deed of Manumission, shall be respected and treated, by all persons and in all courts of justice,
as the full and complete evidence of the freedom of said Frank Lewis.
"In testimony whereof this act is dene at St. Louis, Mo., this 1st day of September, 1861, as is
evidenced by the departmental Seal hereto affixed by my order.
(Signed)            "JOHN C. FREMONT."




CIHAPTERI XI.
GEN. FREMONT'S CAMPAIGN.- CONTINUED.
FAR-REACIIING PLANS OF GEN.:FREONT.-TROUBLES MULTIPLYING.-HIS UNCEASING LABORS.CAPTURE OF LEXINGTON.-INCIDENTS.-VISIT' OF: THE SECRETARY OF WAR AND ADJUTANTGENERAL U. S. A.-ZAGONYI'S  HEROIC DASH INTO SPRINGFIELD.-EFFECT OF THE GOVERNMENT ORDER FOR THE REMOVAL OF FREMONT.-FREMONT'S APPEAL TO HIS SOLDIERS.-H-IS
RECEPTION BY THE PEOPLE OF ST. LOUIS.-RESUMEs OF THE LABORS AND POLICY OF GEN.
FREMONT.-REAL REASON OF HIS REMOVAL.-VIEWS OF THE NORTH RESPECTING THE POWER
OF THE NORTH OVER SLAVERY.
ON the Sth of September, Gen. Fremont sent a private note to President Lincoln communicating his plan for the commencement of the Mississippi River Campaign. He had already taken possession of Fort Holt and
Paducah, Kentucky, by which movement he was enabled to command the
Tennessee river, and thus to prepare the way for the movement clown that
river, which was successfuliy accomplished, at a much later period by his
successor. He proposed also to occupy Smithland, at the mouth of the
Cumberland river, and Hopkinsville, a town connected by railroad with
Henderson, on the Ohio river, and twenty or twenty-five miles north-east
of Fort Donelson; at the same time sending Gen. Nelson with a force of
five thousand men to occupy [Bowling Green, in Southern Kentucky, and
Gen. Grant to occupy New Madrid and the western shore of the MlIississippi river epposite Cairo. He then proposed a combined attack on Columnbus and ITi kman, and an advance from Bowling Green and Hopkinsville
on Nashvile, with which point they are connected by railroad.  These
suggestions, subsequently proved to be so sagacious, were not, howeYer,
adopted.'Ihe rebels were permitted to occupy Bowling Green, fortify the
Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, and take possession of New Madrid.
Months afterwards Gen. Fremont's plan was followed to the letter, and
the samne results which, had he been then sustained, could have been
accomplished without a battle, unless possibly one at Columbus, were
accomplished only after a long delay, and at the expense of millions of
treasure and many sanguinary' conflicts.  The bombardment of Fort
Henry, the terrible battle of Fort Donelson, the bloody engagement at
New Madrid, and the tedious siege of Island Number Ten, were among
the results of this rejection of Gen. Fremont's strategic plane.  To all this
we must also add the long unmolested occupation of Bowling Green by
the rebel army, a source of terror to all Kentucky, of real danger to Louisville, and a rallying point for all Secessionists in the State.*
* "It is known that Gen. Fremont, on the 8th of September, sent to Washington, by a special




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GEN. FIREMONT'S  CAMPAIGN  IN  MISSOURI.                     281
While Gen. Fremont was thus preparing the way for a successful descent of the lS'ississippi River, and was, meanwhile, laboring to maintain
order in Missouri, and to prevent the rebels from advancing in Kentucky,
Gen. Price, with his armny of rebels, reorganized and recruited, was marching northward, toward the Missouri River.  What point he intended'to
attack it was impossible to know, but it was believed that his purpose was
to regain possession of Jefferson City, the capital of the State, and reestablish'Gov. Jackson there.  IHe had now  reached the upper Osage,
with a force of aboitt fifteen thousand men, which was being constantly
increased by recruits.  The entire Missouri River hlad to be protected
from his approach, and Gen. Fremont, in addition to his other labors, was
busily engaged in organizing a force at Jefferson City and Rolla, to march
to Springfield, and thus either compel Price's retreat, or surround him and
destroy his force.  Want of transportation, arms and money, impeded
Gen. Fremont at every step, while the evident lack of cordial support, and
thorough confidence, on the part of the National Government, sensibly
weakened his credit, and added to his elnbarrassments.
At this critical position of affairs, lie was visited by a Committee sent
from Washington, to minvestigate his Department.  Their visit, as a sign of
growing suspicion on the part of the administration, was widely bruited
throughout the country.  Difficulties in his own camp also harassed him.
For causes which have never been'explained, I-Ion. Frank P. Blair, Jr.,
then acting Colonel of Missouri volunteers, who had been one of Gen. Fremont's warmest friends, became his bitterest enemy.  lIe was arrested by
order of Gen. Fremont for insubordination, and was promptly discharged,
by orders from Washington, without any investigation as to the causes of
his arrest.  Col. Blair retaliated by filing charges against tFremnont, which,
lowever, were never pushed to a trial.
On the 9th of September, Gen. Fremont received intelligence that the
rebels were on the eve of a general forward movement in Kentucky.
They were at Columbus, in large force, and were preparing to advance on
Paducah and Cairo.  He immediately forwarded reinforcements to Gen.
Grant, at the former point. On the 12th, he learned that Price was threatening Lexington, one hundred and fifteen miles west of Jefferson City.  I-Ie
immediately telegraphed to Col. Jeff. C. Davis, who was in command at
the latter point, to despatch reenforcements to Lexington, to which point
Col. IVMulligan, with twenty-seven hundred men, had already been sent.
A  considerable force, however, threatened Booneville, and Col. Davis,
under the belief that the latter was the point really threatened, held the
reinforcemlents back for that place.*  On the 14th, Gen. Price appeared
before Lexington, and invested it with his whole army, not less now than
twenty-five thousand strong.
A  busy and sad day was that for Gen. Fremnont.  On that day, six
messenger, lest, if sent by mail or telegraphed, it might become known to the country, and ultimately to the rebels, the entire plan of that now famous campaign, by our army and gun-boats, by
the way of the Mississippi, Tennessee, Cumberland and White rivers, which his ultimate successor
Halleck adopted, and which Halleck's subordinates carried out in its detaila"- Van Burea Denslow.
* Col. Davis to Maj. Gen. Fremont, Sept. 13, 1861.




282                 CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
days before the fall of Lexington, Hon. Schuyler Colfax, United States
representative from Indiana, arrived at St. Louis. Lieut. Gov. Hall met
him on his arrival, and informed him of the condition of affairs. " Fremont," said he, "has twenty thousand men in St. Louis. He ought at
once to send out a column to intercept and capture Price's army."  Mr.
Cblfax went immediately to Gen. Fremont's headquarters.  He was a personal friend. He urged that reinforcements be sent, to cut Price off without delay,
" Mr. Colfax," replied Fremont, "I will tell you confidentially how
many men we have in St. Louis, though I would not have it published on
the streets for my life. The opinion in the city is that we have twenty
thousand men here, and this gives us strength. If it were known here
what is the actual number, our enemies would be promptly informed. But
L',will show you how many there are."
HI-e rang the bell, and his secretary brought in the muster rolls of the
morning. There were in the city, and for a circuit of seven miles around,
less than eight thousand men, flIone Guards and acl.*  Th~ere were but
two full regiments.  The remainder of the force was made up of fragmentary and undisciplined regiments of two hundred and fifty, follr hundred,
and six hundred men. Mir. Colfax was astounded.
"It is a beggarly array of an army," exclaimed he, "even for the defense of the city. Yet-can't you spare some of these men? 9
Fremont made no reply; but, with tears in his eyes, he handed the
inquirer the two following telegrams, that day received from Washington.
They speak for themselves.
WAZSHINGTON, Sept. 14, 1861.
To M~AJ. GEN. FREMONT:
On consultation with the President and head of Department, it was
determined to call upon you for five thousand well armed infantry, to be
sent here without a moment's delay. Give tllem three days' cooked rations. This draft from your forces to be replaced by you, by draft from
the States of Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, &c. How many men have you under
arms in your district? Please answer fully and immediately.
SIMON CAMERON, Secretary of iJCar.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 14, 1861.
To MAJ. GEN. FEEMONT:
Detach five thousand infantry from  your department, to come here
without delay, and report the number of troops that will be left with you.
The President dictates.                          WINFIELD SCOTT.
"Telegraph," said Mr. Colfax, " that you have not the men to sendthat Missouri will be lost if these troops are taken away."
"No," replied Fremont, "that would be insubordination, with which
I have already been unjustly charged. The Capital must be again in
* The official return to the War Department, of this date, shows, in the city of St. Louis, including Home Guards, 6,890.




GEN. FREMONT'S CAMPAIGN IN MISSOURI.    283
danger, and must be saved, even  if Missouri fall, and  I sacrifice myself." *
In truth, he had not the men. His oficial returnt to the War Department, of this date, shows his entire force to have been (55,693) fifty-five
thousand six hundred and ninety-three. Of these, over twenty thousand
were at Cairo and in Kentucky, where their presence was imperatively
needed, to protect Paducah, Cairo, and the Illinois border, from  a threatened advance by the rebels. Of the remainder, a large proportion were
Home Guards, and many were raw recruits, undrilled, unarmed, unorganized. They were scattered over a large territory, protecting important
railroad lines, and maintaining order where it could only be maintained,
by the presence of an  efficient military  force.  And now, from  his few
and scattered bands, threatened with assault by an advance in Kentucky,
and by a rebel foe twenty-five thousand strong in the West, he was rcquired to send, without delay, not merely five thousand unorganized and
unarmed men, to be armed and equipped from  the arsenals in the East,
but five thousand well armed men, their rations cooked, and themselves
ready for service.4
Gen. Fremont, however, put forth every energy to accomplish what
the exigency of the case demanded. IHe telegraphed to Washington that
he was preparing to obey the orders received.  He telegraphed to Gen.
Grant to send forward two regiments from  Paducah.  He commenced at
once the work of organizing the other three.  Ile telegraphed to the Governors of Ohio and Indiana for reenforcements, and received in reply that
all the Ohio troops were ordered to Western Virginia, and all those of'
Indiana, to swell the army reposing upon the Potomac.  I-e ordered the
only two full regiments he had in the city of St. Louis, to proceed to Jefferson City, and telegraphed to Col. Davis a peremptory order, to send
forward two regiments up the river to Lexington.  IIe sent dispatch after
dispatch to that officer, to hasten his movements.  He telegraphed to Gen.
Sturgis, then at Mexico, in North 3Missouri, to proceed to Lexington with
his entire force, and assume command of the place.  I-e telegraphed to
Washington his situation, and urgently requested leave to retain the three
regiments not yet sent East.
* Speech of Hon. Schuyler Colfax, March 7, 1862.
f Official return to War Department, dated Sept. 14, 1861, and quoted by Hon. Frank P. Blair,
in Speech of Hon. Schuyler Colfax, supra.: We can not refrain from quoting here the indignant utterance of an able writer, who could
not but express too strongly that which he so strongly felt. " There is one occasion upon which
the nation may wish, for Fremont's sake, that he had acted differently. McClellan sat in his office
at Washington, in command of 70,000 men, a surfeit of troops, such as no general, on this continent, had ever led into an engagement. There was no attack to be made or met, but-he telegraphs to Fremont, to send him five of his best regiments immediately. The dispatch finds Fremont about to send these very troops to the relief of the imperiled Mulligan. True, Sturgis and
others have been ordered to his relief, but he would make assurance doubly sure. Fremont protests. The administration reiterates the order, more and more peremptorily. FREMONT OUGHT TO
HAVE DISOBEYED TIlE ORDER. But he obeyed, sending the troops eastward, leaving but three
thousand to defend St. Louis, and Mulligan was sacrificed. Yet this is the man who is charged
with being naturally insubordinate."-Fremont and McClellan, by Van Buuren Denslow. Gen. Fre,
mont surely did right in obeying the above order, cruel, as under the circumstances, that order
seemed.




284                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
On the 18th, he received the desired permission. It came, however,
too late to be of any avail in reinforcing Lexington. On the 16th, he
received a telegram from Gen. Pope, that, by the 18th, two regiments of
infantry, four pieces of artillery, and one hundred and fifty cavalry, would
arrive at Lexington; and by the day following, further reenfobrcements;
making a total of four thousand men. On the 18th, supposing Sturgis to
have arrived at Lexington, he telegraphed to him, at that point, to codperate with Col. Davis in a combined attack upon the enemy-so strong was
his assurance that the Union forces were sufficient, not only to defend Lexington, but to assume the offensive. He telegraphed to Gen. Lane, of
IKansas,: to cooperate with and under Sturgis. IHe telegraphed to Col.
Davis, to unite with Gens. Sturgis and Lane. Every day carried message
after message over the wires. And if his commands had been carried out,
or if Gen. Pope's promised reenforcements had come up, Lexington would
not have fallen. But, for sonie unexplained reason, those reenforcements
failed to arrive. Gen. Sturgis came to the north bank of the Missouri
River, a few miles below Lexington, which is on the opposite bank, and
learning that the ferry-boats had been destroyed, so that he could not
cross, retired, without even showing himself to the enemy. Col. Davis
stopped with his troops, on their -way up the river, at a point where a
rebel battery had been erected. HIere he landed, for the purpose of storming it, in the darkness of the night. The troops, by accident, fired into
each other, and were thrown into disorder. By this untoward event, they
were so delayed, that they failed to reach Lexington in season."*  While
the country was wondering why Gen. Fi'emont did not put himself at the
head of his troops in St. Louis to intercept Price, he had no troops there.
At the time le was charged with doing nothing, he was straining every
nerve to accomplish what, in truth, he had not sufficient means to accomplish. And, two days before Lexington fell, he had every reason to believe that, through the herculean efforts he had made, the Union troops
were there in sufficient force, to justify an aggressive movement against
the foe.
While Gen. Fremont was thus putting forth every energy to meet the
demands mnade upon him, Gen. Price with his entire army had made his
appearance before Lexington. It was occupied by Col. Mulligan with two
thousand six hundred and forty men. Of these five hundred were Hornme
Guards, and five hundred were cavalry, having only sabres and side arms,
and, therefore, quite uinfit for service in a siege. With this feeble band
Col. Mulligan was to encounter an army of the most fierce and desperate
men who could be gathered from the frontiers of civilization, amLounting,
as was admitted by the rebels, to twenty-five thousand, and estimated by
others at ten thousand more.
On the 12th, Price invested the city. For a few days the fighting was
confined to skirmishing on the outposts, as the dense lines of the beleaguering army selected and seized their positions. Early in the mnorning of the
18th, the rebels commenced a vigorous assault, from every available quar* Speech of Hon. Schuyler Colfax, March 7, 1862.




GEN. FREiMONT,'S  CAMPAIGN  IN  MISSOURI.                      285
toe.  The patriots stood as firm  as the hills they trod, and through a long
day of ceaseless and exhausting battle, beat off the foe with heavy loss.
On the 19th the fight was again renewed, and there was another day of
tumult, blood and woe, with no marked  success on either side.  But
heroically the little band of patriots stiuggled.against the swarming foe,
assailing them  at every point, and sure of the final victory.  All access to
the river, was, during the day, cut off by the rebels, and the Union camlp
vwas thus deprived of water.  Provisions also began to fail.  Some reinforcemnents, hastening to MIulligan's aid, were intercepted and driven back.
The river boats had been burned by the rebels, and retreat was, therefore,
impossible.
At 8 o'clock in the evening of this sad day, when the hearts of the
boldest nmust have been sinking in despair, the rebel chieftain sent in a
summons to surrender.  Col. [Mulligan nobly replied, "Come and take
Ts.")  At 10 o'clock another flag of truce penetrated the patriot lines bearing another summons accompanied with the threat that if the demand
were not complied with, every man in the garrison should be bayoneted
who survived the attack.  Though the repulse of the foe seemed hardly
possible, the flag was sent back with the stern, heroic resolve to fight to
the bitter end.  Such developments of moral grandeur mnake one proud of
his race.  These men were worthy of the cause for which they were ready
to die.
A few hours of troubled repose were interrupted, at midnight, by the
opening of a fierce cannonade.  The rebels were so numerous that they
could furnish relief parties, and thus continue the conflict night and day.
The moment a few streaks of gray light appeared in the east, announcing
the approaching dawn of morning, column after column, of desperate men,
yelling like fiends, were hurled upon the slender lines, where but twentyseven hundred martyr patriots stood in battle array.  As the fie calne
rushing, roaring on, tell to one, the IIome Guard, utterly exhausted with
sleeplessness, thirst and toil, wavered, broke, and were swept away by the
surge.'In vain did Col. Mulligan endeavor to rally them.  Despairingly
they declared they had no strength to stand any longer.  It was true.
Their officers were nearly all slain; they had not a cartridge left; they
had not a drop of water in their canteens, and nothing remained but to
say to the rebels, fighting for the destruction of their country and its supporters, "I-ere are our bare bosoms; plunge in your swords." *
At 3 o'clock Lexington was surrendered.  The officers were held as
prisoners of war.  The privates were discharged on taking an oath not to
serve against the Confederate States.  Terrible as had been the scene
through which this little band of patriots had passed, many of the men,
were, to the very last, entirely unreconciled to the thought of surrender,
* After the surrender Gen. Price detailed an officer to collect the ammunition. The officer
called on the adjutant to produce it. The adjutant called up a dozen men, one after another, and
exhibiting the empty cartridge boxes, said to the astonished rebel, "I believe, sir, we gave you all
the ammunition we had, before we stopped fighting. Had there been any more, upon my word
you should have had it, sir. But I will inquire, and if, by accident, there is a cartridge left, I will
let you know." The rebel officer turned away, reflecting upon the glorious victory of having captured men who had fired their last shot.-Chicago Post.




286                 CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
and begged to be permitted in the death struggles of the most desperate
sally, "' to finish the thing."  Some of the cavalry shot their horses, that
they might not fall into the possession of the rebels.
The capture of Lexington was the only decided victory.which the rebels
thus far had achieved in Missouri. An army of twenty-five thousand men,
with seven brigadier-generals, among them, Price, Rains and HIardee, succeeded, after eight days of close investiture, and three'of hard fighting, in
capturing a force of less than twenty-seven hundred men, five hundred of
whom were irregulars, and five hundred imperfectly armed cavalry. This
success they did not achieve until the provisions, water and ammunition
of the Union forces had given out. Such a contest is unequaled in the
annals of war. Let the rebels have all the credit of such a victory! It
gave them five pieces of artillery, a considerable amount of arms, possession
of the State seal and public records, about nine hundred thousand dollars
in specie in the bank, and some prisoners. Otherwise their victory was
as barren of results, as of glory. The position was untenable. No attempt
was made to hold it. Indeed, if Gen. Fremont had possessed transportation, he might probably rhave cut off Price's retreat, and succeeded in capturing nearly his whole army.
On the 20th day of Septemrner Lexington fell into the hands of the
rebels. On the 28th Gen. Fremont went into camp at Jefferson City, and
gave his personal attention to the work of organizing a force to drive
Price out of the State. An incident in camp life, illustrative of his character, is narrated by one of his officers. Twice in one night the long roll of
the drum  sounded the alarm.  The staff officers sprang from their beds
and rushed to report to their General.  On each occasion they found him
at the door of his tent waiting-the first officer ready. The alarms proved
false.
In a little over a week, in spite of lack of transportation or means to
procure it, and in spite of public discredit cast upon him, he was prepared
to move. On the 30th of September, Price evacuated Lexington and commenced a retreat to the south. He left a rebel guard there in charge of
some Union prisoners.  On the 15th of October, {Major ~luhite, commlanding a squadron of cavalry, called Prairie Scouts, with two and twenty
men, made a forced march of nearly sixty miles, surprised Lexington, dispersed the rebels, captured sixty or seventy prisoners, took two steam
ferry boats and some other less valuable articles, rescued. the Union prisoners left there, and with a rebel captured flag returned by another route
to Warsaw, traveling with neither provisions nor transportation, and joining Fremont's forces south of the Osage. As characteristic of the energy
of the men whom Gen. Fremont gathered about him, it is worth narrating,
that Major White's horses being unshod, he procured some old iron, called
for blacksmiths from the ranks, took possession of two unoccupied blacksmith's shops, and in five days made the shoes and shod all his horses.
At another time the cartridges being spoiled by rain, they procured powder and lead, and turning a carpenter's shop into a cartridge factory, made
three thousand cartridges. Such men could march, if necessary, without
waiting for army wagons and regular equipments.




GEN. FREMONT'S CAMPAIGN  IN MISSOURI.                 287
On the 8th of October Gen. Fremont commenced his pursuit. His
men were imperfectly equipped. I-le possessed very insufficient transportation. But his soldiers were full of enthusiasm for him. And by aid of
that enthusiasm he accomplished what scientific military men pronounced
to be impossible. He was not merely in pursuit of Price. It was his
plan, though not yet disclosed even to his second in command, not only to
drive Price into Arkansas, or force him to battle in the State, but also to
take possession of Little Pock, turn the position of the enemy on the lMississippi river, cut off all the rebel supplies from Arkansas, and be ready to
cooperate with the descent of the gun-boats when two months later they,should be completed. Thus his pursuit of Gen. Price was part of a wellformed plan for the opening of the ]Mississippi river.
On the 13th of October, while he was encamped at Tipton, he was
visited by ~Mr. Cameron, from Washington, Secretary of WVar, accompanied by Adj.-Gen. Thomas. They had come upon a second visit of inspection. They informed Gen. Fremont of no charges against himn, asked him
for no explanations. Gen. Thomas, however, conversed freely with his
subordinates upon the general conluct of the war. The intended visit of
these high officials, and its purpose had been publicly made known to the
country. The enemy were not ignorant of it. Charges had already been
preferred against Gen. Fremont of a serious character. It was confidently
asserted that he was to be removed, even that he was to be court-mlartialed.
It was evident that the country was being prepared for a change in commnand. The Secretary and his aid returned to Washington. The former
issued an order directing the fortifications in process of erection about
St. Louis to be stopped. The latter presented a report of the results of
their visit to the West. At a time when the journals of the lNorth were
forbidden to give any information concerning the condition of the army
of the Potomac, this official report of the condition of Fremont's army was
given to the newspapers and carried by them  all over the land. Full
details of every disadvantage under which Gen. Fremnont labored were
thus communicated to the enemy. Gen. Fremont's exact force was published, thirty-eight thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine men; it was
averred that his arnis were useless, and that in one regiment only twenty
out of a hundred mluskets would go off-that the men lacked necessary
equipments-that Gen. Hunter, Fremont's second in command, had no
confidence in him-that the army possessed no sufficient transportation,
and that it was impossible for it to make the contemplated march. No
efforts, however, were made to furnish the care-worn, but indomitable,
General with more troops, or better arms or more effective means of movement. Gen. Fremont, as usual, answered the allegation that his proposed
movements were impracticable by proceeding, with his accustomed energy,
to complete them. Sigel, the indefatigable Sigel, his chosen general, led
his advance. He marched with no other transportation than that which
he could obtain from the farmers' wagons and ox-teams pressed temporarily
into service. Whatever Gen. Fremuont needed he took.  Where the owner
was unquestionably loyal he paid for it. Otherwise he gave a receipt,
stating that it sho uld be paid for, in case the owner continued loyal.




288                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
On the 18th of October, Gen. Fremolt reached Warsaw on the Osage
river. The stream broad, deep and swollen with heavy rains, could not be
forded. There were neither boats nor lumber to be obtained. But in five
days a bridge was constructed from the native forest, over which the army
passed.
On the 25th the army was inspirited by the news that Jef-f. Thompson's
guerilla band, four thousand strong, had been utterly routed at Fredericktown, M[o. Three columns -under Colonels Plummer, Marsh and Carlin,
had been ordered, by Gen. Grant, in command at Cairo, to intercept and
capture Thompson at that point. A messenger from Col. Plummer, advancing from the south to meet Col. Carlin advancing on the north, fell
into Jeff. Thompson's hands. ILearning thus of the projected attack, lie
evacuated Fredericktown and commenced a retreat in a southerly direction, successfully avoiding Col. Plummer. Leaving information that he
had retreated, he formed an ambuscade about a mile from the town, and
awaited the Union forces. By intelligence received from a negro woman,
they escaped the trap, which was set for them. The position of the enemy
being thus discovered, the Union troops assailed them with such imlpetuosity that, after a short, but severe contest, they were utterly routed, and
were driven in disordered flight, having encountered heavy loss, more than
ten miles.
Gen. Fremont was now near Springfield. The enemy was not far distant. A rebel garrison of three or four hundred were said to be in Springfield. On the 25th, Major Zagonyi, commandant of Gen. Fremont's bodyguard, was directed to ride forward, with a force of about three hundred,
to make a reconnoissance, and, if practicable, capture or disperse the
rebels, and take possession of the village. 3/Major Zagonyi was a I-Iungarian officer, drawn to the Western service by the fame of Fremont. HoI
had himself recruited the Body-guard which he commanded. It consisted
of three companies of carefully picked men, armed with light sabres and
revolvers. The first company also carried carbines. One hundred and
sixty of this guard, with one hundred and forty of Major WVhite's prairie
scouts, already spoken of, constituted his force. As he advanced, lihe
learned that the rebel guard had been reUnforced, and that over two thousand men were ready to receive him. They had also been warned of his
approach, and surprise was impossible. Prudence would have dictated
that he return for reinfbrcements.
But Fremont's body-guard had been a subject of much ridicule and
abuse. 1Ie determined to make good its reputation for valor, at least.
Perhaps, by attacking the enemy in the rear, he might still secure the
benefit of a surprise. This advantage he would gain, if possible. A detour
of twelve miles around Springfield brought them to the rebels' position,
but upon their south flank. They were strongly posted, just west of the
village, on the top of a hill, which sloped toward the east. Immediately
in their rear was a thick wood, impenetrable by cavalry. Before they
came within sight of the enemy, Zagonyi halted/his men. Drawing them
up in line, he addressed them in the following brief and nervous words:
" Fellow soldiers, this is your first battle. For our three hundred, the




GEN. FRE.MONT'S CAMPAIGN IN  MISSOURI.                289
enemy are two thousand. If any of you are sick, or tired by the long
march, or if any think the number is too great, now is the -time to turn
back."
He paused: no one was sick or tired. "We must not retreat," he
continued.  " OuL.honor, and the honor of our Generial, and of our country, tell us to go on. I will lead you. We have been called holiday soldiers for the pavements of St. Louis. To-day we will show that we are
soldiers for the battle.  Your watchword shall be,'Frezont acnd the
Union!/' Draw sabre! -By the right flank,-quick trot, —march!"
With that shout —" Fremont and the Union" —upon their lips, their
horses pressed into a quick gallop, they turn the corner which brings them
in sight of the foe. There is no surprise. In line of battle, protected iv
the rear by a wood Which no cavalry can enter, the rebels stand, forewarned, ready to receive the charge. There is no time to delay-none to
draw back. In a moment they have reached the foot of the hill. The
rebel fire sweeps over their heads. The Prairie Scouts, by a inisunderstanding of orders, become separated from their companions, and fail to
join them again. Up the steep hill the hundred and sixty men press
upon the two thousand of their foe. Seven guard horses fell upon a space
not more than twenty feet square. But nothing can check their wild enthusiasm. They break through the rebel line. They drive the infantry
back into the woods. They scatter the hostile cavalry on this side, and on
that. They pursue the flying rebels down the hill again, and through the
streets of the village.
It seems incredible, yet it is sober history-not romance; in less than
three minutes, that body-guard of a hundred and sixty men had utterly
routed and scattered an enemy, twenty-two hundred strong. Planting
the Union flag upon the court-house, they retire as night set in, that
they may not be surprised in the darkness by new rebel forces. Their
loss was sixteen killed and twenty-eight wounded, out of the whole three
hundred.
This has been pronounced an unnecessary sacrifice. The charge, it is
said, was ill-judged. But the bravery surely merits ths highest commendation, and the success sanctifies the judgment of Zagonyi, which directed
the assault. Moreover, we needed the example of this chivalrous dash and
daring, to wake up some of our too cautious generals, and to inspire that
enthusiasm and that confidence of success, which are essential to great
accomplishments. For let it not be forgotten that this was an expedition,
which, in its ultimate results, was designed to sweep the Miississippi to the
Gulf.
The ladies of Springfield, thus redeemed from rebel marauders, requested permission to present to their heroic deliverer a Union flag. Will
it be believed? When this body-guard returned to St. Louis, by peremptory orders from Washington, it was disbanded; the officers retired from
service, and the men were denied rations and forage. It was deemed inexpedient that a corps should exist, so enthusiastically devoted to their chivalrdus leader. In the order which came for their disbanding, they were.
conidemned for "words spoken at Springfield," condemned for that war-cry,
19




290                   CIVIL  WAR  IN  AMERICA.
which inspired to as glorious a charge as was ever made on battle-field,' Fremont and the Union."
Zagonyi, in his official report of the battle, says,." Their war-cry,'Fremont and the Union,' broke forth like thunder.  Half of my cpmmand charged upon the infantry, and the remainder upon the cavalry,
breaking their line at every point.  The infantry retired into the thick
wood, where it was impossible to follow them.  The cavalry fled in all
directions through the town.  I rallied and charged through the streets,
in all directions, about twenty times, returning at last to the court-house,
where I raised the flag of one of my companies, liberated the prisoners,
and united my men, who now  amounted to seventy, the rest being scattered or lost.
"From  the beginning to the end, the body-guard behaved with the
utmost coolness. I have seen battles and cavalry charges before; but I
never imagined that a body of men could endure and accomplish so much,
in the face of such a fearful disadvantage.  At the cry of'Fremont and
Union,' which was raised at every charge, they. dashed forward repeatedly,
in perfect order, and with resistless energy.  Many of my officers, noncommissioned officers and privates, had three, or even four, horses killed
under them.  Many performed acts of heroism; not one but did his whole
duty." *
On the 29th of October, Gen. Fremont, who always marched with his
advance, established his headquarters at Springfield.  So imperfectly had
he been supplied with transportation, that many of his men carried their
tents on their backs.  The day following, Gen. Asboth's division and Gen.
Lane's brigade came up.  The latter was composed of Kansas border men,
and two hundred negroes, armed and mounted.  Gen. Fremont thought a
negro was quite good enough to shoot a rebel.  An arrangement was at
this time partly consummated between Fremont and Price, for the exchange of prisoners, the release of all persons proscribed for mere opinion's
sake, the abandonment of guerilla warfare, and the confining of the military struggle to the armies in the field.
Gen. Price was now  at Neosho, in the south-western corner of the
State.  It was quite evident that he must either give the Union men
battle, or abandon the State. Only a part of his forces could he possibly
induce to follow him beyond the frontiers.  Many of his Missouri recruits
enlisted for Missouri alone, and had been induced to enlist only by false
representations. Nor could the result of a battle be doubtful. The spirit
which actuated Fremont's body-guard, was the spirit of the entire army.
At this juncture of affairs, on the eve apparently of battle, (for the news
had already come that Price was advancing from Neosho,) while Gen. Fre* Major Zagonyi was born at Szatmar, Hungary, in 1826. Espousing the patriot cause during
the Hungarian Revolution, he enlisted under Bem, in Transylvania. His gallantry soon raised
him to the rank of Captain of Hussars. At the disastrous close of the war, he followed Bem into
Turkey. About the year 1852, he emigrated to this country, and took up his residence at Hoboken, New Jersey. Upon the breaking out of the rebellion, he earnestly espoused the cause of tho
National Government, and received a commission from Gen. Fremont. in whose service he engaged
with all the enthusiasm of ancient chivalry.




GEN. FREMONT'S CAMPAIGN  IN  MISSOURI.                  291
lmont was in the immediate presence of the foe, there came, on the second
day of November, an order, superseding him, and directing him to transfer the command to Gen. Hunter. The latter was still far in the rear.
His division was the last of all to enter Springfield. Incessant and venomous as had been the attacks upon Gen. Fremnont, the country was taken by
surprise. The army was even less prepared for it. As soon as the intelligence spread through the camps, the wildest excitement everywhere prevailed. Officers and men organized themselves into indignation meetiigs.
Large numbers of officers declared their determination to resign. Whole
companies threw down their arms. Gen. Fremont consecrated all his personal influence, entreating the men to remain, like true patriots, at their
posts. He sent immediately to Gen. Hunter the intelligence of his appointment, and, without delay, issued the following beautiful and effective
appeal to the army:
HEADQUARTERS, WESTERN DEPARTMENT,
SPRINGFIELD, MO., Nov. 2, 1861.
SOI,DERS OF THE M/ISSISSTPPI ARMY: Agreeably to orders this day received, I take leave of you. Although our army has been of sudden
growth, we have grown up together, and I have become familiar with the
brave and generous spirit which you bring to the defense of your country,
and which makes me anticipate for you a brilliant career.  Continue as
you have begun, and give to my successor the same cordial and enthusiastic support, with which you have encouraged me. Ermulate the splendid
example which you have already before you, and let me remain, as I am,
proud of the noble army which I had thus far labored to bring together.
Soldiers! I regret to leave you. Most sincerely I thank you for the regard
and confidence you have invariably shown to me. I deeply regret that I
shall not have the honor to lead you to the victory which you are just
about to win; but I shall claim to share with you in the joy of every
triumph, and trust always to be fraternally remembered by my companions
in arms.              (Signed)                 J. C. FREMONT,
iJcajor-Genzera l U. S. A.
Gen. Hunter was so far in the rear, that although Gen. Fremont had
sent three couriers after him, he had not, the next day, Nov. 3d, arrived.
It became evident, that if Gen. Fremont left before Gen. Hunter's arrival,
the discipline of the army would be endangered. Nor was this all..News
now came that the enemy, availing, themselves of the disturbed condition
of the Union forces, were concentrating, and marching toward Springfield.
Price's advance guard were reported by scouts to have arrived, the night
before, at Wilson's Creek, but ten miles distant. The remainder of -his
force was but a little in the rear.  McCulloch was reported at Dug
Springs.  The rebels were apparently moving, to concentrate at Wilson's
Creek. Their combined force was estimated at forty thousand men.*
The news of their advance was brought in, both by scouts and by great
numbers of Union citizens, who came, fleeing before the rebel army, to
Springfield;, for protection. In the evening, one hundred and ten officers,
* Acting Maj. Gen. Asboth's (4th Div.) official report to Maj. Gen. Fremont, Nov. 3, 1862.




292                CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
including every brigadier-general in the army, visited Gen. Fremont, in a
body.  They presented him  a written address, full of sympathy and
respect, and earnestly urged him to lead them against the enemy. Gen.
Fremont replied to the 3oddress, that if Gen. Hunter did not arrive before
morning, he would comply with their request. At eight o'clock in the
evening, he accordingly issued the order of battle. The enemy occupied
the same ground as that which they had occupied in the battle of Wilson's
Creek. Gen. Lyon's plan of attack was to be substantially followed. The
rebels were to be surrounded. Gens. Sigel and Lane were to assail them
in the rear, Gen. Asboth from the east, Gens. McIKinstry and Pope in
front. The attack was to be simultaneous. Every camp was astir with
the inspiriting news. Every soldier was full of enthusiasm.
But at midnight Gen. HIunter arrived. Gen. Fremont informed him
of the condition of affairs, advised him of his plalns, and surrendered the
command into his hands. The order for battle was forthwith countermanded, and orders were issued to the army to prepare to turn their backs
upon the foe, and retrace their march to St. Louis. The next morning,
Gen. Fremont, with his staff, left the camp. As he passed along the lines,
the soldiers crowded around him in a tumultuous throng, to seize his
hands and receive a parting greeting. The crowd was so dense, that it
was with difficulty the General made his way through it. Never was an
officer more adored by his troops than was Fremont. Ile arrived in St.
Louis on the 8th of November. The loyal citizens flocked to meet him.
A long procession escorted him from the station. At night, a magnificent
torch-light procession marched through the city to his headquarters. A
triumphant general, clothed with the splendors of victory, could scarcely
have received a more magnificent ovation than did Gen. Fremont, dishonored by the Government which he had so faithfully served. It is said
by the St. Louis papers to have been one of the largest assemblages ever
gathered in that city. Resolutions of confidence were passed, and an
address of the warmest sympathy was presented to him. This voluntary
and unexpected display of popular confidence and affection, in the city
best acquainted with his military administration, completely overpowered
Gen. Fremont. He could scarcely reply. His speech contained no word
of bitterness against his traducers, no strictures upon the Government.
And from that day to this, he has spoken but once in his own defense, lest
he should be the means of distracting the country, and embarrassing the
administration, surrounded by greater difficulties than any administration
ever encountered before.
Slowly and sadly, the army, under the command of Gen. Hunter, prepared to retrace its steps. Accompanied by a mournful procession of exiles,
who had fondly trusted to Fremont's expedition to render their homes
henceforth safe, it marched back, and South Missouri was left to be overrun and pillaged by the rebels once mofe.
Months after, another army, under Gen. Curtis, pursuing the same
plan which Gen. Fremont had formed, marched over the same ground, to
obtain possession of Little Rock, and the control of the State of Arkansas.
But it was now mid-winter; the troops toiled through mud and storm.




GEN. FREMONT'S  CAMPAIGN  IN  MISSOURI.                 2933
They met the foe at Pea Ridge, under the disadvantage of fearful odds,
and fought that terrible battle, which vindicated Gen. Fremont's policy
and strategy.
Why was Gen. Fremont removed?  Not until the secret political history of the rebellion, which unmasks hearts and exhibits motives, shall be
written, can this question be fully answered. No ground for his removal
has ever been officially made known. It has, indeed, been charged that
extravagance marked the financial management of his department. Very
likely. Wherever there is carrion, the vultures flock. Wherever there is
an opportunity for public plunder, corrupt men greedily gather.  They
abounded in Washington, in New York, in St. Louis. But it has never
been shown that there was any greater extravagance or corruption in St.
Louis, than existed in every branch of the Government.  No definite
charge has ever beell made, that Gen. Fremont himself participated in any
schemes for defit auding the country, or ever reaped any advantage therefrom; while it is certain that the finances of his department were mainly
tunder the control of a man whom he did not appoint, and could not
remove. Gen. }M[eKinstry, moreover, deserves applause, not censure, for
hiis energetic and sagacious administration of affairs.
It has also been averred that he was incompetent. And the specifications against hlil are the death of Gemi. Lyon and the fall of Lexington.
IIow far he wastresponsible bfor these two disasters, the only ones which
ever occurred undegr his command, the reader can now judge for himself
But it is worth while to note what, in the short space of three months,
this incompetant man had accomplished.                     e
At the time of taking command he found the State of Missouri seething
in every county with rebellion, and overrun with guerillas; he found it
threatened with two large armies entering its borders firom different quarters; he found the United States forces. scattered, discouraged and many
of them on the point of disbanding; he found the entire department disorganized and himself in the midst of a rebellious city, without cooperation
from  the General Government, without arms or equipments, without
money and with but imperfectly sustained credit. He had to redeem the
State from rebellion, protect the border of Illinois against a rebel advance
through Kentucky, and make preparations for the descent of the Mississippi river. lie carried on his operations in spite of public detractions,
private machinations, and a constantly increasing and unconcealed distrust
on the part of the National Government.
At a time when the Baltimore and Ohio railroad was repeatedly
destroyed, and the Potomac river blockaded, he guarded over one thousand miles of river and railroad comm-unication in a rebellious territory
and without the aid of a navy, not once allowing a single railroad in the
State of Missouri to pass from under his control. At a time when Western Virginia and'East Tennessee were overrun with guerillas he had
restored comparative order throughout nearly the whole State of Mlissouril
and confined the contest to one between armies in the field. By a mere
show of strength which lie did not actually possess, lie successfully defended the south-eastern border from an army of twenty thousand. men,




294                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
and by taking possession of well-selected points in Kentucky, effectually
guarded the southern border of Illinois from  threatened attack. He
formed an ingenious plan for piercing the centre of. the Southern Confederacy by means of the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers; the subsequent successful accomplishment of which, though at a terrible expense of
life which Fremont's earlier energy would have saved, afforded the country
its first real encouragement, and gave the loyal arms their greatest success.
And in addition to all this, at a time when no other Division General had
left his intrenchments, he had organized an army of nearly forty thousand
men, put himself at its head, and marched through an enemy's country
over three hundred miles, in pursuit of a retreating foe, bridging a deep
and broad river on his march, and pursuing his course in spite of obstacles, which the Adjutant-General of the United States had declared to be
insurnmourntable. If to all these successes he did not add that of a glorious
victory upon the field, it is only because, on the eve of a decisive battle,
the result of which no one can doubt, the Government yielded to the persuasions of his enemies, and removed him from command.
No! Gen. Fremont's removal was owing neither to financial nor military mismanagement on his part. Two causes conspired to produce itpolitical jealousies and pro-slavery partisanship. Gen. Fremont had been
a popular presidential candidate. The West admired the man, the East
his principles. A successful military career would make him a dangerous
rival in the future. lie was constantly rising in popular esteem. Men
who loved office more than country, sought to be rid of him. They feared
not that 4ie would be defeated, but that he would be victorious. And
they set in motion every possible political machination to secure his overthrow.
They were assisted in their effort by a powerful pro-slavery faction,
whose good-will it was thought good statesmanship to conciliate. Gen.
Fremont loved freedom for the human race, as well as for himself: No
fugitive slave was ever refused admittance within his lines. None was
ever returned to the tender mercies of rebel masters. With energy and
vigor he entered upon the work of his campaign, as though that policy
was the truest and the best, wlhich should most speedily crush the rebellion.
Those who thought that the utmost care must be taken, in making war
upon slave-holding rebels, not to hurt slavery, were shocked that Gen.
Fremont struck his country's enemy, in his most vulnerable part. BorderState men demanded a different policy, and ]3order States were to be
satisfied at every hazard. Those, too, who imagined that the rebellion
was a'mere temporary excitement which would spend itself soon by its
own want of enduring energy, thought Gen. Fremont formed plans on too
large,a scale, and prepared for movements of unnecessary magnitude.
Months have sinced passed away. Every plan which lie formed has since
been successfully carried out. The military calmpaign which he planned,
and as he planned it, has been executed by his successor. The gun-boats
which were built under his direction, if not indeed planned by hIis inventive genius, have given us our most glorious victories. While the Government which removed him, because his action was too energetic and his




GEN. FREMONT'S CAMPAIGN  IN  MISSOURI.
principles too radical, adopts, ten months after, those principles as its own,
and at the time of this writing, encourages a people yet to hope, under
serious reverses, for ultimate success, by the promise to inaugurate, at last,
that vigorous war policy, the adoption of which by Gen. Fremont in the
Fall of 1861 resulted in his removal from command.
The supposed necessity of uniting all parties, led the Government, at
the commencement of the rebellion, to place the command of the armies
in the hands of men of known pro-slavery proclivities. It could hardly be
expected that such men would vigorously press the war. They were committed to the idea that the war was needless, and that the North ought to
have assented to the requirements of the slaveholders, and to have adopted
those changes in the Constitution which slavery demanded. Many of our
leading military officers manifested far more hostility to the spirit of emancipation, than to the spirit of slavery, and were less reluctant to sItstain,
than to abolish the institution. lBut we were fighting the great battle of
freedom against slavery. No general can be expected to be victorious
who has not faith in his cause.'The great generals of the past, Csesar,
Napoleon, Cromwell, Washington, were profoundly earnest in the great
principles for which they had drawn their swords. They had no sympathy
with the antagonistic principles of their foes. The rebels were ferociously
in earnest. But we sent against them many men, as leaders of our armies,
who open y affirmed that the rebels were half right. Such men fought
merely from a sense of military etiquette, and from no profound conviction
of the justice of the national cause. Of several of them, it is reported that
they long hesitated which side to choose. In so fierce a conflict between
freedom and slavery, no man was fit to be in command of the armies of
freedom, whose head and whose heart were in sympathy with slavery.
Thes6 influences for montlhs paralyzed our energies. Generals intensely
pro-slavery, and with wives openly and avowedly Secessionists, were hardly
in the right moral position, to meet Jackson, and Lee, and Beauregard.
That we had such, none will deny. Ience our arms were, at times, sadly
dishonored.
It is true that the North did not take up arms for the overthrow of
slavery. Over slavery in the slaveholding States, it admitted that neitheI
the General Government nor the free States had a right to exert any control. The South took up arms to overthrow the Constitution, to carry
slavery into all the States and Territories, and to confer upon the slaveholders new guarantees of power, and the efficient support of the National
Government. Those who urged the emancipation of the slaves, urged it,
not as the end and object of the war, but as the cheapest, the most bloodless,
and, in fact, the only eicient means of bringing the war to a close. Much
as the North abhorred slavery-criminal as they deemed it in the sight of
God, in this terrible conflict they were constrained to regard emancipation
merely as a potent instrumnzent of war, with which to save the blood of their
sons, an2 to rescue the Union from destruction.




CHAPTER XII.
THE  TRENT  AFFAIR.
SECESSION PLANS FOR SECURING FOREIGN AID.-PRIVATEERS.-TREATY AT PARIS IN 1856.ISSUE OF LETTERS OF MARQUE.-SHORT SUCCESS OF PRIVATEERS. —THi SAVANNAIH.-THE
JEFF. DAVIS.-RETALIATION OF THE REBELS.-LETTER OF THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER.-ATTITUDE OF OTHER MONARCHS OF EUROPE.-JOHN M. MASON.-JOHN SLIDELL.-CAPT. WILKES.SEIZURE OF THE REBEL COMMISSIONERS.-CAPT. WILKES' REASONING AND ACTION IN CASE
OF THE TRENT.-EXCITEMENT CAUSED BY THE TRENT AFFAIR IN THE UNITED STATES AND
ENGLAND.-SECRETARY SEWARD'S OPINION.
THE- same acts of violence at the Sonth, which closed the door to any
peaceful and lawful settlement of the questions at issue, between the slave
States and the free States, threw wide open the broad road which invited
foreign nations to embroil themselves in the conflict.  It was doubtless
one of the objects of the Secessionists, in refusing a constitutional solution,
and raising arms against the Government, that war might create motives,
and give opportunity, for aid from  abroad, which could not otherwise be
had. So long as the struggle was a political debate, the interests'of slavery
never could invite sympathy.  [But to break the peace of the world, was
to compel the attention of other nations, and bring into play causes which
might at last subserve those interests, and which could not make themn
more hopeless of prevailing than they were under peaceful discussion.
Every thing favored this design.:The manufactures and the commerce,
alike, of England and France, would stand opposed to any efforts which
the Government would make to regulate the exportation of the Southern
staples.  The blockade of rebellious seaports would stop the wheels which
gave employment to millions of Europeans. Governments which draw
their revenues from commerce, can not stand idle while commerce is suppressed, even in the name of liberty.  Governments which dread the discontent of their own common people, can not suffer those people to spend
a year of idleness, even though the' future of a foreign continent depended
on the event. Once fairly at war, the Confederacy, claiming the position
of a belligerent, and offering a free trade to European commerce, could
invite alliance from those nations whose intervention the North would
most dread.  The original cause of the struggle would be forgotten, in the
new  conditions to which war would give rise.  The scene would be
changed, in the eyes of Europeans, from a political debate, which every
American loves, and few foreigners appreciate or much care for, into a
war, which would bring both parties irresistibly before their notice.
Immediate motives of interest would countervail sympathy throughout




THE TRENT AFFAIR.                                  297
the civilized world. The voice of commerce would silence the voice of
humanity. Thus shrewdly was it -argued throughout the South.*'
The settled position of the United States upon questions of the relative
rights of neutrals and belligerents, contributed, it so happened, to favor
this policy.  Peace and the rights of peaceful commerce, have been the
constant care of our Government, in the periods of European war which
have occurred during its national existence. It could not, when placed
before other nations in the attitude of a belligerent, reverse its policy, and
assert against such. nations those belligerent claims, which, for three-quarters of a century, it had strenuously resisted.
~ These considerations, which entered largely into the motives for war,
also moulded the policy of the Secessionists throughout, and  made it
apparent, from the outset, that while the chief trial of force would be upon
land, foreigrn relations and -maritime questions would require the utmost
delicacy and skill, to avert conflicts at sea, and a foreign intervention,more to be deprecated than many reverses at home.
From  these sources arose some of the most engrossing questions, and
some of the most exciting incidents of the war.
In respect to a navy, the conspirators commenced their contest without
fearing much from  the Government, for, by the precautions of traitors,
the national navy, as we have before shown, had been so scattered into
distant parts of the globe, that there were but three vessels- of war at the
immediate service of the administration, when the necessity for their use
became apparent.
The Confederates, during the progress of the conflict, had two vessels
of war upon the ocean, which have excited much attention and solicitude;
the Smnter and the Nashville.  The former was a propeller, of about five
hundred tons burden, which escaped the blockade at New Orleans, early
in the summer of 1861.  After about nine months of active service, in the
course of which she ingeniously eluded our cruisers, and captured eighteen
American merchant' vessels, seven of which she burnt at sea, she was
finally  abandoned  at Gibraltar.  The Nashville, formerly a  merchant
steamer, running between New York and Southern ports, was converted
into a vessel of war by the rebels, and in October, 1861, escaped from
Charleston, and, after burning a merchant vessel at sea, and carrying the
crew in irons to Liverpool, encountered an American vessel of war, but
under the shelter of the Englislh coast.  Since thee, the Nashville has been
* Soon after the breaking out of the rebellion, early in June, 1861, Mr. William H. Hurlbut,
one of the editors of the New York Times, had an interview with several of the leading"men in the
rebellion, at Richmond. He reports of tMr. Toombs, Secretary of State for the Confederacy, " Ho
professed the profoundest indifference to the sentiment of the civilized world on the subject of
slavery and its extension-avowed hlis intimate conviction that the policy of England and Franceo
must depend absolutely on the interests of the cotton-trade, and would consequently be controlled
by the Confederate States. France, in particular, he felt assured, must be drawn into such a practical alliance with the Confederacy, as would afford her the means of overtaking and outstripping
England in the race of industry; and he had no doubt that France would rapidly recognize the importance of conceding to the new republic, an unlimited extension toward the tropics. With Europe
thus comfortably secured, the Southern Secretary was quite at his ease in regard to the pending war
with the North."




298                 CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
for much of the time imprisoned, either in foreign ports by the watch of a
national vessel of war, detailed for the purpose, or in a Southern port by
the general blockade.
The practice of privateering is founded upon a barbarous doctrine,
which, though it has been abandoned in warfare upon land, is still the
general rule of warfare upon the sea. The time was, when war was a
license to any citizen or combination of citizens, to prey upon the private
property of citizens of the enemy; but by the customary law of civilized
nations, this is no longer justified with respect to private property upon
land. But such property, if embarlked upon the sea, is still deemed lawful
prize. From this grew the practice of enlisting private vessels in cooperation with the navy, such vessels being authorized, by the government
employing them, to capture the enemy's property upon the sea, for their
own benefit. Privateering thus is distinguished from piracy, only by the
circumstance that it is the authorized act of individuals in cooperation
with their government, in the prosecution of a war. The interests of commerce, so much prejudiced by sucfl a rule, have at last secured among
European nations an important modification. The first Napoleon made
strenuous efforts to confine war, upon the sea, as upon land, to belligerents;
but England, then mistress of the seas; pertinaciously refused. In 1856
the nations of Great Britain, France, Aust-ia, Prussia, Russia, S-ardinia
and Turkey, at. the Congress of Paris, agreed that the enemy's goods,
except contraband of war, should not be liable to capture when carried in
neutral vessels, and that neutral goods, except contraband of war, should
not be liable to capture, though carried by an enemy's vessel.  13y the
same compact these nations agreed that privateering was abolished; and
they invited to these modifications of existing international law the adherence of other nations.
The United States, who  eave steadily contemplated peace rather than
war, and have provided for selftdefense, but not for invasion, were' unwilling to relinquish a resort to the cooperation of' privateers, which would
eke out, in time of war, that small navy which a settled policy of peace permits, except with the adoption of the manifestly righteous rule that private
property should be wholly respected'at sea as on land. So long as the
devastation of private property is lawful, it matters little whether it is
committed by a great na'vy, or by a small navy aided by privateers.  Our
Government, therefore, urged again, as it had done before, the adoption
of the rule that all private property, not contraband of war, should be
respected wheresoever found, and offered to accede to the abolition of privateering upon the adoption of this principle. Their views, however,
were rejected. In April, 1861, immediately after the President called for
a force of militia to defend and retake the Federal property, arm. Davis
issued a proclamation inviting private vessels to embark in privateering,
under letters of marque and reprisal, which he announced that the Confedermacy would issue. I3y the authority of the Confederate Congress, a
bounty of twenty dollars was offered for each person on board any armed
vessel of the IUnited States, burned or sunk by a privateer, as well as a
bounty for prisoners taken into port. Subsequently the rebel Congress




THE  TRENT  AFFAIR.                        299
declared its adherence to the rules -adopted by the Congress of Paris,
except that one which relates to privateering.
No sooner was the war commenced than our Government; anticipating
the depredations of' Southern privateers, offered to the European Governments their adherence to all the rules adopted in the Congress at Paris of
1856, including that abolishing' privateering; but the proposal was declined
unless accepted on the understanding that it should not apply to the present conflict; a qualification which, of course, defeated the offer.
The United States, however, adopted for itself the rules which it had
thus offered to adhere to, and instead of resorting to privateers, created a
new navy, far more formidable than any force which it had ever before
wielded at sea; and the few schooners and brigs, which under commissions
from Jefferson Davis, stole out of Southern harbors, eluding by shallow and
unfrequented inlets, the cruisers of that navy, found brief success in their
privateering cruises. The close of the year brought Southern legalized
buccaneering substantially to an end.
The capture of some of these privateers and the trial of the men thus
taken, in the Federal courts, gave rise to very interesting discussions.
The first privateer which ventured out was- the first to be captured.
On the 3d of June, 1861, the American brig Joseph, bound from. Philadelphia to Cardenas with a cargo of sugar, fell in, off Charleston, with a
pilot-boat, which, at such a distance froln the harbor, was deemed a suspicious vessel., The merchantman changed her course, hoping to avoid an
encounter. The stranger pursued her and gained constantly. She proved
to be a schooner of about fifty tons; and though she displayed the Amlerican flag, this scarcely allayed the fears of the master of the brig, after he
discerned upon the deck of his pursuer, which proved to be the XSvanna/h,
a large carronade mounted on a swivel platform, amidships.  The crew of
this vessel, numbering about twenty men, had been collected for the purpose from the wharves of Charleston, but entered upon the expedition
without any shipping articles, and regarding it apparently as an excursion
of a few days, in which profit might be combined with pleasurable excitement. Her career was short. She left Charleston on Sunday afternoon.
AMonday.morning she overhauled the Joseph and demanded that a boat be
sent on board with her papers.  With this demand the captain of the
Joseph complied. As he caine on board, the privateer hoisted the Confederate flag, and told him that he was a prisoner and his vessel a prize to
the Confederate States. The imerchantman had no, other means of resistance than an old musket, and without remonstrance surrendered, and a
prize crew took possession of the vessel and carried her into Charleston.
The Savannah stood off in search of another prize.
About three o'clock in the afternoon of the same day, a sail was descried,
which, with the aid of opera-glasses from the mast-head, the privateers took
for another merchant vessel, and prepared to attack her. On approaching
she was found to be the Perry, a United States vessel of war, and the chase
was quickly reversed. Soon after dark the privateer being overhauled, was
ordered to heave to, and resistance being in vain, he surrendered as quietly
as his victim had done a few hours before. The captain of the privateer and




300                   CIVIL  WAR IN  AMERICA.
his twelve remaining confederates were sent to New York for, trial, and their
arrival there, and the proceedings had in their case, excited an intense
interest. They were indicted for piracy, and one of their number turned
state's evidence. The trial occupied eight days, but the testimony in the
case was brief and simple; the discussions of counsel filling most of that
time. Those discussions ably reviewed the position of the contending parties. For the prisoners it was urged, not only that the posture of the Confederates was justifiable, but even conceding that it were wrong, these
men, who were simple and ignorant, were excusable in falling in with the
general course of the people of their region. It ewas insisted that the Confederacy, however lawless the court might deem its origin, was an existing
and powerful government, which, since it could compel the obedience of
individuals, could also sanction their action; and that the signature of
Jefferson Davis upon the commission which the privateer bore, was a protection to them against any other fate than that of prisoners of war. On
the other hand it was urged, that acts which by the law of the land were
piracy, did not gain a sanction by claiming an authority from treason;
that that, which was traitorous in eight men, was so in eight thousand, and
this though eight millions consented; that the audacity, the vigor, and
the alarming extent of the insurrection, so long as it continued to be but
an insurrection, without recognized and established success, did not make it
a lawful authority which could turn acts of piracy into legitimate warfare.
The court declared that they could not recognize as a lawful power,
any political community which had not be.en recognized by the other
departments of the Government, but loosely left the broad qnuestion of
whether theeprisoners were guilty of piracy or not, to the jury, who upon
that question were unable to agree, and the prisoners were remanded for a
second trial.
The other important trials were those of William Smith and his cormpanions, who were members of the crew of the privateer Jeff. Davis. The
Jeff. Davis was a brig which was fitted out in the harbor of Charleston in
the molth of June, 1861, and cruised upon the Atlantic coast for some
time, capturing and burning a number of American vessels, until in the
middle of August she was wrecked near St. Augustine, Florida.  She
sailed' under the French flag.  On the 6th of July she captured the
schooner Enchantress, bound from Boston to Cuba. The privateers deemed
as the chief item of their prize, next after the vessel, the colored' cook,
who, they said, would bring a thousand dollars in Charleston; and they
accordingly sent him back in the Enchantress to be sold there with the
cargo. The rest of the crew were taken as prisoners upon the Jeff. Davis.
William Smith, the boatswain of the Jeff. Davis, with several other privateer's men, went on board the En.chant.ress to carry her in; and in the
course of a singularly slow voyage they were alarmed by encountering an
American vessel of war-, the Albatross. The colored cook, though he was
a captive, was performing his usual duties, and while he was going to and
fro between the galley and the cabin with his dishes, saw the captain of
the prize crew, with a spy-glass, observing the approaching steamer. He
made errands in his work, that he might continue on deck. He was told




THE TRENT AFFAIR.                        30i
to conceal himself in the forecastle, but instead of that went into his galley,
where he watched with intense interest the approach of deliverance. lie
saw the steamer hoist the American flag, and he saw one of the prize crew
hoist the same colors in response. He heard the prize crew agreeing
among themselves to personate the master and crew of the Enchantress,
who were now prisoners upon the Jef. Davis. HIe heard the man-of-war
hail the schooner, and the reply from her deck that she was the Lhchantress "' bound to Cuba."  As soon as that was said, he ran from the galley
and jumped overboard toward the American vessel of war, shouting,
" She is a captured vessel of the privateer Jeff. Davis, and they are taking
her into Charleston."  A boat from the United States vessel picked up the
heroic man and then boarded the schooner, took the crew prisoners, and
carried them into Philadelphia for trial.
Upon the trial much the same questions were discussed as in the case
of the Saevannah, and it was further urged in behalf of the prisoners that
by the laws of Georgia, from whence Smith came, every man capable was
compelled to enter the service of the Confederate States, on land or on the
sea. Under a more explicit charge from the court, the prisoners in this
case were convicted of piracy, with the exception of one of the crew, Eben
Lane, against whom  the Government produced no evidence, it being
alleged that he, having charge of the helm of the Encchantress, as one of
the prize crew, steered the vessel south in the day time, but north by
night, when he was not observed; thereby keeping her longer upon the
ocean and conducing to her re-capture.
When the news of the conviction of Smith reached Richmond, the
rebels took immediate measures of retaliation, by the infliction upon officers of the Federal army whom they had taken as prisoners of war, of a
mode of imprisonment similar to that inflicted upon felons, accompanied
by threats that the execution of sentence upon the privateers' men would
be the signal for the execution of these officers. In pursuance of this pur.
pose a general of the Confederate army, acting under specific instructions
from the Confederate Secretary of War, entered the military prisons in
Richmond and compelled Mr. Ely, a member of Congress, who was among
the prisoners, to draw by lot from the names of six Federal colonels there
confined, one, who was to be confined in a cell appropriated to convicted
felons, to answer for the safety of the convict Smith, and also to draw from
the officers next in rank to the remaining five colonels, eight more to be
with him imprisoned in a similar manner, to answer for the safety of the
thirteen prisoners taken on the Savannah, who were then awaiting their
trial at New York. The first lot fell upon Col. Michael Corcoran of the
69th N. Y. State Militia. He was handcuffed and chained to the floor in
a solitary cell in South Carolina. The other offiAcers thus drawn were
Col. Lee, 20th Mass. Vol.; Col. Coggswell, 42d N. Y. Zonaves; Col.
Woodruff, 2d Kentucky; Col. Wilcox, 1st Mich.; Col. Wood, 14th N. Y.
State Militia; Maj. Potter, 38th N. Y. Vol.; Lieut.-Col. Neff, 2d Ken.
Vol.; lMaj. Revere, Mass. Vol.; Lieut.-Col. Bowman, Penn.; Maj. Vodges,
U. S. 1st Artillery; Capt. Rockwood; Capt. Bowman, 15th Mass., and
Capt. Keffer, 1st Cal. These officers were also imprisoned.




302                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
Such threats, thus vigorously carried into, effect, renewed the discussion
at the North, as to whether the privateers ought to be treated as felons.
It was forcibly urged, that whatever technical distinctions might be based
upon the letter of the law, a seaman who had enlisted as a privateer had
not, in fact, been guilty of any greater offense than a landsman who enlisted in the Confederate army, and that, if' our Government expected to
succeed in maintaining their policy of forbearance, in dealing with those
who had been led into the rebellion, the same treatment must be applied
to both classes of prisoners, and either class must be exchanged for prisoners taken by the Confederates. Upon these, and similar considerations,
the privateersmen were subsequently ordered to be treated'as prisoners of
war, and were finally included in the general exchange of prisoners, by
which their hostages were released.
Although a few months of vigorous ship-building created a navy that
sufficed to close the chapter of privateering, the difficulty and delicacy of'
sustaining our peaceful relations abroad, increased steadily with the progress of the war.
The Emperor of Russia, in a course contrasting with the attitude of
other European nations, as strongly as does the condition and promise of
his realm contrast withl theirs, expressed to our Government the profound
regrets which he felt at the aspect of our conflict. " For more than eighty
years," said his prime minister, by his command, " the American Union
owes its independence, its towering rise and its progress, to the concord of
its members, consecrated under the auspices of its illustrious founder, by
institutions which have been able to reconcile the Union with liberty.
This Union has been faithful. It has exhibited to the world the spectacle
of a prosperity without example in the annals of history. It would be
deplorable that, after so conclusive an experience, the United States should
be hurried into a breach of the solemn compact which, up to this time, has
made their power. In- spite of the diversity of their constitutions, and of
their interests, and perhaps even because of their diversity, Providence
seems to urge them to draw closer the traditional bond, which is the basis
of the very condition of their political existence. In any event, the sacrifices which they might impose upon themselves to maintain it, are beyond'
comparison with those which dissolution would bring after it. United,
they perfect themselves; isolated, they are paralyzed."  *  *  *  *",
"This Union is not simply in our eyes an element essential to the universal political equilibrium: it constitutes, besides, a nation to which our
august master and all Russia have, pledged the most friendly interests,for the two countries, placed at the extremities of the two worlds, both in
the ascending period of their development, appear called to a natural community of interests, and,of sympathies, of which they have already given
mutual proofs to each other."
With such words as these did he attest a lively solicitude, in the
presence of the dangers which menaced the Union, and his sincere desire
for the maintenance of that great work, so laboriously raised, and which
appeared so rich in its future. And the Russian ambassador, through
whom this communication was addressed, was requested to express these




TIHE TRENT AFFAIR.                       303
sentiments, as well to the members of the General Government, as to the
influential persons whom he might neet, giving them the assurance that,
in every event, the American nation might count upon the most cordial
sympathy on the part of the Emperor, during the important crisis through
which it was passing.
In other friendly nations of Europe, to whom, on the breaking out of
the insurrection, the American people looked for, at least, the moral support of allies, they found cool neutrals. When they looked again for sympathy, they found indifference, and no good wishes; and, still later, when
they could hope for nothing more than indifference and neutrality, even
this hope seemed insecure, and it became obvious that, in fact, they owed
even, immunity from molestation during their trouble, to the hearty and
unanimous agreement of the North in resisting the insurrection, and in
devoting every thing to this paramount object; and to the quiet but
decided announcement of the administration, to European Governments,
that whoso made friends with rebels made enemies of is, in a cause to
which the whole resources of the nation were consecrated.
That the English nation, of all others most closely connected with ourselves by every tie both of interest and of sentiment, should have looked upon
our troubles, with more cdmplacency than any other nation, was a startling
surprise to the American People. Besides the motives of commercial interest, upon which the Secessionists counted, other causes, which though deeper,
are as obvious as the contrast between popular rights and hereditary privileges, combined to raise antipathy, especially in England, to the National
cause. Jealousy and distrust, which find no expression while their object
enjoys prosperity, quickly become an ill-disguised or open enmity, when
adversity befalls it.
The successful exercise of political power by the common people at
large, and the efficient and economical conduct of government upon a system that denies the privileges which nobles and monarchs claim, and
repudiates the burdens they impose, have long been an argument against
the existence of aristocratic institutions in England, which English reformers have freely used and which the opponents of reform have found difficult to answer. Much of the obloquy and prejudice with which America
has been viewed by England is doubtless due to this cause. When those
who believe in the rights of the common people have urged an extension
of the suffrage there, and the adoption of the ballot, and have pointed to
the successful operation of the ballot and general suffrage in America, the
only reply to be made has been, The United States are but an experiment,
and it can be but a short time before the defects of their system will prove
fatal. To support this reply, the evils incidental to the operation of the
ballot were depicted in strong colors, and the accidents of the system were
magnified, to represent its essential features.
When those who desired to alleviate the burdens of taxation which are
rendered'necessary by enormous military and naval establishments, have
resorted to the example of the United States, to demonstrate that a free
nation may be secure, without spending its best energies in a constant
preparatidn for war, and taxing its people to maintain standing armies,




304               CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
the answer has been, America is but an experiment, and is only safe in
such a policy by reason of her isolated position and her broad and thinly
peopled territory; but when internal dissension or a formidable foreign
war comes upon her, such a government will be utterly helpless.
When those who believe in the equal destiny of every portion of the
race, have sought to induce the Government of England to take some care
for the thorough education of the masses of the people, and have pointed
to the common school system of America, urging that it is alike the privilege and duty of a government to' pursue such a method, which affords to
the poorest and humblest child the opportunity of obtaining. equal intelligence and learning with the most wealthy, and that the experience of
America ought to suffice to show that such a system is sound economy,
and that the welfare of the nation largely depended upon the intelligence
of the masses of the people; those who believe that the masses were made
to be governed, and that a superior intelligence is the duty, and the privilege of a few, but is a dangerous source of discontent and ambition among
the common people, whose lot it is to submit, could make no other reply,
than that America was but an experiment, and the time might be anticipated when a country whose common' people assumed to regulate their
own affairs would fall into disorder, and the people would be compelled to
return to the custody and tutelage of aristocracies and hereditary power.
For many years the continued success of the democratic government
and the growing prosperity of the people, have' postponed the fulfillment
of these evil predictions, and given new strength to arguments which a
reform party of increasing vigor and boldness have drawn from our example. Thus gradually the fundamental ideas of democratic polity, have
shaped and animated the policy and sentiment of a small but respectable
and influential school of English statesmen. When the scheme of the
Secessionists was declared, the final answer to these troublesome reformers
was deemed near at hand; and it is no wonder that men whose power was
in the course of slow but sure diminution and restriction, in part from the
influence of our example, and who had constantly predicted that insuperable evils were inevitable, under a deeliocratic system, and must yet appear
in America, were ready to accept an ordinance of secession as the dismemberment of the nation. It is no wonder that the stability of their own
political influence, the desire for unirnterrupted commerce, and a repugnance to the bloody spectacle of war, should all unite in making them
impatient to see the dissolution successful.
It was only by the most distinct assurance, on the part of our Govern-,ment, that the United States, if represented at all at foreign courts, would
be represented solely and alone by the Federal Government; and that an
attempt to cultivate diplomatic relations with the Confederates, would be
the signal for the immediate suspense of such relations with us,-that the
early recognition of the Confederates, by one or more of the European
powers, seems to have been prevented. The British Government promptly
declared themselves neutral in respect to this contest, by a proclamation
which treated the insurgents and the Government as belligerents, and
warned all subjects of the realm against aiding either of the parties.




THE TRENT AFFAIR.                         305
Early in June, 1861, the Emperor of France, by proclamation, declared
his resolution " to maintain a strict neutrality in the struggle between the
Government of the Union, and tht States which propose to form a separate confederation;" and he forbade vessels of war or privateers, of either
party, to stay in French ports, or Frenchmen to engage in the service of
either belligerent.
Even before the schemes of the Secessionists had been disclosed at the
North, they had sent agents to Europe, to prepare the way there for their
intended movement; and very soon after the leaders of secession had.
established themselves at Montgomery, three commissioners were officially
sent abroad, for the avowed purpose of securing the cooperation of European Governments. The character of their instructions was not made
known at home. Many months passed away, and they acconmplisheti
nothing. In October, 1861, by direction of the Confederate Congress, a
new effort was made to establish diplomatic relations abroad. For this
purpose, there were selected by Mir. Davis two men, who had long been
conspicuous in the councils of the nation, as well as in the Southern States
where they resided, for their devotion to the cause of slavery, and its
propagation throughout this continent. James M. Mason, of Virginia,
was for many years a senator of the United States, whose chief part in the
great drama which culminated in the present war, was to strengthen
slavery against the North; and, by every possible means, to weaken and
insult the national love of liberty. He was the author of the Fugitive Slave
Bill, and a prime mover in the effort to find a political origin for John
Brown's chivalric vagary, in some supposititious combination of anti-slavery
men at the North. Before his State had acceded to the Confederacy, he
publicly avowed in Virginia, that it was necessary for every citizen of that
State to unite in voting for the ordinance of secession, and declared that
those who could not in conscience do so, must refrain from voting and
leave the State. And when the Secessionists of Maryland sent recruits to
swell the armies that were marching against the Government, lie was
selected, in the name of Virginia, to welcome them to the Old Dominion.
Ability, audacity, arrogance, and long experience in the councils of' statesmen, combined to give him a bad eminence among the propagandists of
slavery.
The other was John Slidell, of Louisiana, who had perhaps been
equally conspicuous and active in years past, in behalf of slavery, thoughll
in a different way. To him, more than to any other one mnan, are to be
attributed the disgraceful attempts to enlarge the area of slavery, and
invoke in its behalf a lawless and military spirit, by those inroads upon
other American soil than our own, which have- been known as filibustering.
These. men were selected by Mr. Davis as representatives of the Confederate cause, and he accredited them  respectively to the courts of
England and France.
About the last of October, 1861, it was rumored at the North, that
these gentlemen, with their secretaries, had sailed from Charleston in the
steamer Theodora, had evaded the blockading squadron, and were on their'
20




306                     CIVIL WAR. IN AMERICA.
W-ay to Cuba.  Their successfutil departure was the cause of great satisfaction to the Confederate Government, who anticipated the most important
results from this mission.
The capture of these emissaries, while on board a British steamer, by
the vigilance and zeal of an officer of our navy, without instructions on
the part of our Government, produced at once exultation and solicitude
throughout the North, and gave rise to a discussion of international law,
whose results may prove to be of no mean importance to the commerce of
the world.
The circumstances of the capture were as follows.  The San Jacinto,
a first-class steam  sloop, mounting fifteen guns, which had been attached
to the United States squadron on the coast of Africa, left that squadron in
August for the Atlantic coast, where, under the command of Capt. Charles
Wilkes, she was to serve, in searching for Confederate privateers.@
In cruising among the West India islands for this purpose, Capt. Wilkes
learned at Cienfilegos that the steamer Theodora had run the blockade at
Charleston, and arrived at HIavana, after landing at Cardenas the Confederate  commlissioners, lMessrs. Mlason  and  Slidell, with  their secretaries,
MIessrs. Eustis and 3[McFarland, with the families of MAr. Slidell and Mr.
Eustis; and that the party would proceed overland to Havana.  As soon
as Capt. Wilkes heard  this, he hastily took  sufficient coal for a short
cruise, left Cienfhegos on the 26th of October, and arrived at Havana on
the 28th; but there he learned that the Theodora had already departed,
on her return to Charleston.
The  Confederate  commissioners, at Havana, did  not conceal their
character or intended movements.  They were received with marks of distinction by Southern residents there, and were afforded an opportunity of
meeting the Captain-General of the Island, and the British consul.  Capt.
WVilkes ascertained that the whole party would depart in the English
steamer Trent, for St. Thomas, there to take the West Indian mail-steamer
for England.  There he determined if possible to intercept them..The
Trent was a merchant steamer, having  a regular route between Vera
Cruz, Havana and St. Thomas; carrying the English mail by contract
with the Government.  The agent of the vessel was the son of the British
consul at Havana.   Capt. Wilkes was aware that the question of capturing the emissaries involved important considerations of public law, and
he carefully examined such works on that subject as his cabin contained,
* Com. Charles Wilkes was born in the State of NTew York, 1805, and at thirteen years of age
entered the naval service. Endowed with superior natural powers, anrd with a taste for scientific
research, he rapidly rose in public note, and was intrusted, in 1838, with the'command of the
celebrated naval expedition, fitted out by the United States Government, to explore the Southern
and Pacific Oceans. This memorable expedition occupied four years, and its results were published
in five octavo volumes, entitled, "A Narrative of the United States' Exploring Expedition." He
has also published several other works, on geographical research, which have made his name generally known. For forty-three years he has been engaged in the United States service. He was
returning from the coast of Africa, with directions to look out for pirates, or vessels running the
blockade, when he fell in with the British mail steamer Trent, as is recorded in this chapter. Comilodore Wilkes is said strongly to resemble, in person, Admiral'Nelson, as he certainly resembles
im ill calm anll quiet energy. His seizure of the rebel commissioners will ever entitle him to the
titudo of' all Americans.




THE  TRENT  AFFAIR.                        307
as to the right of search, the privilege of ambassadors, and the power to
seize dispatches. HFe was led to the conclusion that since the Governinents of Great Britain, France and Spain had proclaimed the Confederate
States to be considered as belligerents, and since the ports of Great Britain,
France, Spain and Holland, in the West Indies, were open to their vessels,
vlhich were admitted to all the courtesies and protection that vessels of
the United States received, those nations were to be deemed neutrals, and
had brought themselves within the international law of search, and under
its responsibilities. He, therefore, felt no hesitation in boarding and
sealrching any of their vessels for contraband of war. The question -then
arose whether. he had the right to capture the persons of these commissioners.  There was no doubt, according to his books, that he might
capture vessels with written dispatches; but these gentlemen were not
dispatches in the literal sense, and as they did not seem to conme under
that designation, nowhere could lie find a case in point. It being hard,
however,  to say upon general principles why writgen dispatches should be
contraband, and yet lie dispatches go i-'ee; and these emissaries neither
having a passport from  the adverse belligerents, nor having yet been
received by the neutrals to whom they assumned to be accredited, he aptly
characterized them as the embodiment of di8pattces. IHe regarded them
as but escaped conspirators, plotting and contriving to overthrow the Government of the United States, and therefore not to be considered as having
any claim to the immunities which the law of nations attaches to the public character of lawful ambassadors.  Determining, therefore, to seize
them if he could, Capt. Wilkes, in great haste, took in coal and provisions
and left Havana on the afternoon of the third of November, to take up a
suitable position upon the anticipated route of the Trent, and there await
her arrival.  The officers of the San Jacinto entered with zeal into the pur-.
pose of their commander. On the bourth of November, in the morning, a
steamer being in sight from the mast-head, orders were given to beat to
quarters; all were in hopes that the emmissaries of treason were now
within reach. In a few minutes the vessel was ready for the emergency;
but their hopes were disappointed, as the steamer proved to be a British
gunuboat.  It happened that on the next day the San Jacinto sustained a
collision with a French brig, which induced Capt. Wilkes, after lassisting
in the repairs of the brig, to return towards Havana, for the purpose of
towing the brig thither. From thence he went over to Key West, hoping
to find another Government vessel to'mid him in intercepting the Trent.
The anticipated course of the Trent would be through the Bahama clhannels, and there being two passages, he desired another vessel to cruise in
the New Bahama chainnel, while the San Jacinto should guard the old;
thus rendering escape impossible. Not finding a vessel at Key West, he
resolved to undertake the enterprise alone, relying upon the vigilance of
his officers and crew. I-e accordingly proceeded the next morn? ig to the
Aorth side of the Island of Cuba, and touclings at Sagua La Grande, telegraphed to the Anlerican Consul General at Havana to ascertain the time
(,f thie departure of the British mail steamer. Being unable to ascertain
it, he proceeded thence to the eastward, some ninety miles, into the old




308                CIVIL WAR  IN  AMERICA.
Bahama channel, which route the Trent was supposed most likely to take.
ffere this channel contracts to a width of fifteen miles. At a point about
two hundred and fifty miles fromn Havana, in sight of the light-house of
Terra del Grande, on a point of the Island of Cuba, from which they were
distant nine or ten miles, the San Jacinto, with all her battery loaded, and
the bulwarks around the pivot-gun on the forecastle removed, lay off and
on, during the night of the seventh of November, ready to meet the object
of her search.
The Trent left the port of Havana on the morning of the seventh, and
pursuing her usual way, discerned at about half-past eleven on the eighth, a
large steamship ahead; on a nearer approach found that she was hove to,
evidently in waiting. The Trent, approaching, hoisted her English colors,
in answer to which, when the vessels were within a mile of each other,
the San Jacinto hoisted the American colors, and beat all hands to quarters. WVaiting ten minutes, the Trent showing no signs of stopping, the
San Jacinto fired a gun across the bows of the Trent. The Trent was
now sufficiently near for those on board to see that all the ports of her
adversary were open, the guns run out, and the crew at their stations; but
she still disregarded the request to stop, until a shell from the great swivel
gun on the forecastle hissed by her bows ahd burst in the water some hundred feet beyond. This brought her to; not, however, until she was
within hailing distance, when the captain asked what was wanted, in
reply to which he was informed that a boat would be sent on board.
Capt. Wilkes charged Lieut. Fairfax, the executive officer of the San
Jacinto, with the delicate duty of the search. He delivered to him written instructions, which directed that he should demand the papers of the
steamer, her clearance, and her passenger and crew lists; that he should!
take the emissaries and their secretaries prisoners, with their baggage and
all dispatches, and seize the ship as a prize, if they were found on board,
In reference to the probability that some members of the commissioners'
families might be with them, he directed that to such, a passage to the
United States, with every attention and comfort which could be provided,
should be tendered. Force was not to be used in executing these instructions, unless the fault of the prisoners should render it necessary; the
boarding party were charged to conduct themselves with all the kindness,
in the execution of this delicate duty, which becomes the character of the
naval service of the United States.
Lient. Fairfax, accompanied by two officers, repaired to the Trent in
an armed cutter. IHe went on board the vessel alone, not desiring to display any force unless its use should be necessary. Being shown to the
quarter-deck, he met the Captain, who refused to comply with his demand
to show the passenger list. Lieut. Fairfax then stated that he was informed
that Messrs. Mason and Slidell, and their companions, had taken passage
in the Trent, and that his object was to ascertain whether they were on
board. Hearing their names mentioned, the commissioners and their
secretaries came forward, and the object of the visit was made known to
them also. It being noised abroad among the passengers and officers of
the ship, a crowd gathered, and amid great confusion, the commissionexr




THE TRENT AFFAIR.                         30u
protested against the arrest. The noise of the dispute brought up to the
deck one of the officers of the San Jacinto, who had waited in the boat.
The boat's crew were ordered up, and found Lieut. Fairfax on the deck,
surrounded by ladies and gentlemen. The commissioners refused to yield,
except on compulsion, and Lieut. Fairfax sent a messenger to the San
Jacinto, reporting the presence of the gentlemen sought for, and asked for
a fhrther force. Another cutter, which had before been in readiness, soon
came. The arrival of a file of marines created a new excitement; the passengers shouted and threatened; but a row of bayonets, and the laying
hands upon the four prisoners, were sufficient to prevent any resistance.
Mr. Miason being led to the gang-waty, got into the boat. Mr. Slidell made
nmore effort to evade his capture, and took refuge in.his state-room, which
was surrounded by a crowd of' excited passengers. The marines marched
into the cabin, iMr. Slidell jumped through the window of his state-room,
and submitted to be carried to the bulwarks, and lifted over the ship's side
by three officers.  The two secretaries walked into the boat.
Upon the San Jacinto, Capt. Wilkes received his prisoners at the gangway, and conducted them to his own cabin, which he placed at their disposal; their baggage, and some additional stores procured for their use
from the Trent, having been brought on board, the San Jacinto, at halfpast three, hoisted her boats, and stood away for the Atlantic coast, leaving
the Trent to pursue her course.
It had been Capt. Wilkes's first intention to seize the Trent herself, if
the rebel emissaries were fbund on board, and send her to an American
port, where the illegality of her engaging in transporting the representatives of the Confederates might be adjudicated; the vessel and cargo condemned as a prize, according to the law of nations. Conceiving, however,
that as he was in the possession of the prisoners and their effects, he had
accomplished every object to be attained, except a distribution of the prize
money, which would be awarded upon a condemnation of the vessel, if she
had been seized also,-in consideration that his force was small, and a large
number of innocent passengers would be put to serious inconvenience and
loss by the interruption of their voyage, he determined to forego claiming
the prize; so he left the Trent to pursue her way. IIe proceeded himself
immediately to the vicinity of Charleston, where he hoped to take part in
the expedition against Port Royal. He arrived there, however, too late
to cooperate in the capture of that place, and thence sailed for New York,
touching at Hampton Roads. Without, landing the prisoners, the San
Jacinto was ordered from New York to Boston harbor, where they were
incarcerated in Fort Warren.
The news of this affair created the most intense excitement throughout
the whole country. With congratulations at the defeat of the embassy,
were mingled doubts as to the legality of the capture, and everywhere the
principles of international law applicable to the case were discussed, in
conversation, in public meetings, and in the press. The question of law
was doubtful, but the triumph was undeniable. Capt. Wilkes and his
lieutenant were received everywhere with acclamations, which their
modest bearing showed they little expected. The Captain received the




310                CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
congratulations of thle Secretary of the Navy, which were only qualified
by his expressly withholding any opinion upon the course taken in omnitting to capture the vessel; and a banquet was given to him and his officers
at Boston, at which the Governor and Chief Justice of the State, and the
Miayor and leading men of the city, united in his honor. At Washington,
the I-Eouse of Representatives passed resolutions requesting the President
to order the commissioners into close confinement, in return for similar
treatment imposed upon the colonels of volunteer regiments, who had
been captured by the Confederate forces in the battle of Bull Run.
Mieanwhile, however, the discussion went on; the country awaiting in
great solicitude the reception of the news in England. At the South, the
disappointment of the voyage of the commissioners was lost sight of, in
the hope that this affair imight prove the cause of war between England
and the United States; and a notorious sympathizer with the Confederates, who held a seat in the National Congress, offered and urged but
without success, resolutions declaring it to be the duty of the President to
approve and adopt the act of Capt. Wilkes.
The British mail agent, who on board the Trent had protested, in the
name of the Queen, against the search and capture, immediately wrote to
the Lords of the Admiralty, and on his arrival in England was summoned
to the Foreign Office, and the law officers of the crown were called on fbr
their opinion. The news of the capture elicited the expression of much
indignation, particularly in Liverpool, and in some of the leading English
papers.
The turbulence of democratic communities has been a favorite bug-bear
with the possessors of aristocratic power. It was freely asserted, and perhaps generally believed, in England, that the Americans, embittered by
their disappointment at the want of sympathy which the Elnglish Government had shown, had sought this as an occasion for giving ain intentional
affront; that the administration had entered upo: this course for the salke
of popularity; and that, from fear of popular insubordination, they would
not dare to retrace their steps, and surrender the emissaries. The mob, it
was said, always ruled in America; and now the mob was organized in
five hundred regiments; with arms, they were encamped about Washington; and the administration must do as their soldiers bid them.
It is a keen mortification, which an American citizen feels, when such
opinions are announced to him as the opinions concerning his country,
prevalent in the community wh'ich, next after that country, he- most
regards. But this mortification is soon forgotten in a deeper regret, when
he contemplates the disbelief in the capacities of human nature, from which
alone such opinions could spring. We feel a temporary chagrin that such
imputations should be cast upon us, but deeper and more permanent is the
disappointment, of knowing that those who wield the power in such an
empihe as Great Britain, should be so unwilling to believe that the common people would consent to sacrifice feeling, to the performance of what
might be calmly deemed right, in the administration of their affairs; that
the irresistible tendencies of the age toward democracy, which De Tocqueville so clearly foretold, and which every philosophical observer, since his




THE TRENT AFFAIR.                        311
day, has recognized, should be the subject of so much repugnance, hostility
and disbelief; that the destiny which the Creator has provided for even
the common people, should be so resolutely repudiated. The event proved
how far the moderation and sagacity of the nation transcended the expectations of such spectators. The general mind awaited in suspense the opinion of the administration, ready to accept and abide by the result of their
investigation of precedents, and consideration of general principles, whatever application of them might be made to the question in hand.
Such, however, was inot the estimate which the Government of Great
Britain formed of our attitude. They regarded the act of Capt. Wilkes as
an affront, which, whether intended or not, our Government would be
compelled by popular clamor to maintain; and, though they made a
formal demanid, through their Minister at Washington, that the prisoners
be given up to them, and a suitable apology be made; yet, befbre making
this demand, they instituted the most vigorous preparations for immulediato
war. Troops, almmnitions and men of war were instantly ordered to the
American coasct, and the demand which the Government made for rendition of the prisoners was accompanied by secret instructions to their
ambassador to leave Washington in a week, unless the demiand were
complied with. Ship-owners were advised to instruct the captains of outward-bound ships to signalize any English vessels, that war with America
was probable.  The Government by proclamations forbade the export
from the United Kingdom, to the United States, of gunpowder, saltpetre
and other munitions of war, large quantities of which had there been purchased by agents of our Government, and which were awaiting transportation.
The leading presses of London declared that England was interested to
proclaim'war. The ministerial organ declared that war was for her advantage, since she might then adjust the boundaries of her colonies at her
own will, open the Southern ports, and teach a lesson to the United States.
The first steamers which hurriedly sailed from England, loaded with troops
for Canada, left the docks with the band playing " I wish I was in Dixie's
Land," amid cheers of an enthusiastic multitude on shore.
It was on the 17th or 18th of November that the capture of ifessrs.
Mason and Slidell was reported to the Government at Washington. As
early as the 3ld of December the President determined to surrender the
prisoners to Great Britain; but thought it better before announcing his
determination, to await the demand which he expected Great Britain
would make. That demand made no allusion to the principles of international law which were deemed to have been violated. Indeed, the delicacy of the question was much enhanced by the fact that principles and
precedents alike were against the English, in making the demand, and
equally against America if she should refuse it. For twenty years, from
the organization of our Government, until the pretension became so offensive as to form a chief cause of the war declared by this country in 1812,
the English Government insisted upon the right to search any neutral
vessel and to take from it summarily, and upon the determination of the
British lieutenant making the search, any person deemed to be a British




812                  CIVIL  WAR  IN  AMERICA.
subject and liable to impressment in the royal navy. In more than six
thousand cases, men claiming to be Americans had been taken from
American vessels on this ground, in precisely the same way that the rebel
emissaries had been taken from  the British mail steamer; and the war,
which abated the exercise of this power, did not suffice to silence the pretension of right to its exercise. Although the language of English jurists,
and of American authorities founded thereon, sustains the doctrine that an
ambassador may be captured and the vessel that carries him may be condemned, yet the early and constant predilections of Americans for neutral
rights, had led our administrations in a long course of diplomatic negotiation, to urge the adoption of a more liberal rule, which should exempt
fiom such seizure persons of every description, officers and soldiers in the
military service of the enemy alone excepted; and by provisions in our
treaties with every nation which would accede to such a rule, the United
States had done all in their power to introduce this modification of what
may be deemed the general law of nations.* Great Britain, however, had
never acceded to this rule.
The English demand was received and answered about Christmas.
In reply to it the Secretary of State explained that Captain Wilkes
acted, ini making the capture, upon his own suggestions of duty, and that
the Administration had given instructions neither to him nor to anybody
else, to seize the commissioners.  Inasmuch, however, as during this
insurrection Great Britain had declared herself to be a neutral, and the
prisoners were emissaries presumed to bear dispatches, our Government
deemed them and their dispatches to be by the general law of nations contraband, and justified Captain Wilkes in stopping the Trent and searching
her, both in the act and in the manner of the act.  Our Government,
however, conceded that the ccptture of the emissaries was not effected in
the umanner recognized by the law of nations.
Contraband property, the Secretary reasoned, is not to be declared so
by the mere fiat of the captor.  By the law of nations he must bring his
prize into a port and give to the captive the benefit of a judicial trial;
where the facts giving the right to capture must be established, before the
captor can enjoy its fruits.  It is true that the courts have no process
adapted to try the right to seize prisoners.  But, in such case, there ought,
if practicable, to be, at least, the same safeguards as in a case where only
property is at stake.  These can be secured by requiring the captor to
institute a trial, in respect of the vessel, on the ground that by carryi~ng
the prisoners she was  /u;ilty; and if the vessel be regularly forfeited in
this way, a legal certainty that the prisoners were contraband, is clearly,
though circuitously, attained.  The Government, therefore, ought not to
detain these prisoners, if, under the circumstances, it would have been
practicable to bring the Trent back as a prize, so as to have her case judi* The history of the American doctrine on this subject is well told by Mr. Sumner of Massachusetts, in his speech on Maritime Rights, delivered in the Senate on the 9th of January, 1862.
The treaties into which the United States have procured the incorporation of this doctrine are
there enumerated, and the broadest doctrines of the liberties of neutral commerce vindicated with
a masterly hand.




THE TRENT AFFAIR.                         313
cially determined. Since it was not wholly on the ground of impracticability, but in part to avoid what lie deemed an unnecessary inconvenience
to innocent passengers, that the captor omitted this step, our Government
were led frankly to concede that, though approving his motive and ratifyingl his act, they still could not consistently detain the prisoners, since
without the presence of the Trent on which to found a suit, there was no
legal process by which to give the question of the legality of the capture a
trial.  Our Government as well as the captain were satisfied of the legality
of the seizure, but there ought to be more than a conviction on the part
of those interested in the act; there ought to be an adjudication, in a trial,
where the defense could be represented; and this was now out of the
question.
The Secretary closed his clear and frank discussion of the case with
reverting to the fkct that these principles of neutral rights; had always
1been strongly asserted by ourselves, and that we cheerfilly should adopt
them, even against our own impulse, and not seek for English precedents for a less liberal course, but rather accept, from the present generation of England, this practical disavowal of' belligerent claims which previous generations, with peculiar interests and passions, had insisted on.
In accordance with these views the ]British Government were informed
that the prisoners would be given up to them, and accordingly a short
time afterwards they were transferred, in an American tug-boat, fiom Fort
Warren to a British vessel, which came for the purpose to Provincetown,
and at last they reached England, where, however, they were not officially
received. Their arrival elicited no marks of popular approval, but not a
few contemptuous comments from the very organs of popular opinion
which had most warmly appealed for their rescue.
The result of the discussion was accepted by the [British Government,
but they refused to accede to the grounds on which the surrender was
accorded. Hence, though it can hardly be said that the discussion resulted in finally adding anything to the recognized principles of international law, yet it afforded, perhaps, the most signal proof our nation has
ever given of her attachment to the interests of peace, and her favor
towards the principles which neutral nations may claim against the pretensions of nations who are waging war; and it gives new courage to a
hope for the coming of the time when Peace shall be the acknowledged
mistress of the seas-a time auspicious of her ultimate, universal sway.




CHAPTER XIII.
ROANOKE AND NEWBERN.
FLEET OF COM. GOLDSBOROUGH AND ARMY OF GEN. BURNSIDE.-SAILING FROM HAMPTON
ROADS.-STORMV AT HATTERAS.-PERILS OF THE CREW OF THE NEW YORK.-EFFECTS OF THE
STORM.-A STRIKE FOR FREEDOM.-POSITION AND DEFENSES OF ROANOKE.-RECONNOISSANCE.CONTEST COMMENCED BY THE FLEET.  DISEMBARKATION OF  TROOPS.-M MARCH  UP THlE
ISLAND.-CHARGE OF THE ZOUAVES.-VIGOR OF GENERALS RENO AND FOSTER.-ROANOIrKE
SURRENDERS.-INCIDENTS.-O. JENNINGS WISE.-ELIZABETH CITY.-EDENTON.-PLYMOUTHE.CHIARGE,S UPON BATTERIES NEAR NEWBERN.- ARRIVAL AT NEWBERN.-ANECDOTE.
ON the 11th of January, 1862, a strange and heterogeneous assemblage
of vessels filled Hampton  Roads.  Gen. 3Burnside had been ordered to fit
ont an  expedition  to  proceed  against a certain  point on the  Southern
coast-but where that point was it was reserved for time and events to
announce.  Accordingly, by dint of unwearied  exertion, Gen. Burnside
hlad collected this mass of one hundred and twenty-five water-craft.  Utterly regardless  of the appearance of his fleet, and with  a single eye to
utility, he drew upon all the resources of the steam  merchant service from
the Kennebec to the Chesapeake.*
There were ferry-boats changed into  gun-boats; old lake-boats into
transports; and not a few river boats appeared, with extemporized portholes, throngh which friowned a cannon's mouth.  One queer craft, from
the Kennebec, was particularly noticeable, and was the subject of nlany
jokes from  the seamen.  This boat, thle " Union," was a stern-wheeled vessel, floating very light upon the water, and  apparently suffering from  old
age and ill usage.  This "'wheelbarrow"'  made the trip, from  the Ken* Ambrose Everett Burnside, of Scottish ancestry, was born at Liberty, Indiana, May, 1824.
At eighteen years of age he entered West Point, and graduated, with distinction, in the Artillery, in
1847. He immediately entered upon the Mexican camlpaign, as 2d lieutenant. He was placed in
such a position, guarding the trains, that he had no opportunity to signalize himself here. He was
afterwards engaged on the frontier in the wild ad(iventures of Indian warfare. Subsequently he
commenced a mianufactory of fire-arms at Bristol, R. I. At length he became Treasurer of the Illinois Centrll Railroad, anld took up his residence in New York. I-Ie was in this situation at the
opening of the rebellion, when Gov. Sprague, knowing well his merits, invited himn to take command of a regiment. In half an hour after receiving the dispatch he was on his way to Rhode
Island, ald four days after passed through New York at the head of the Rhode Island Volunteers,
for the defense of Washington.  IIe was at the battle of Bull Run, where he displayed extraordinary energy, courage and military ability, acting as IBrigadier-General in Hunter's division. I-Ie is
an intimate acquaintance and very warm friend of Gen. McClellan. It hlas been said of him, " He
is, ill personal appearance, one of the finest looking men to be seen in the service. His countenance is an exponent of his character. Frank, brave, guileless and open-hearted, he is distinguished for every manly quality and every soldierly characteristic."




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ROANOKE AND NEWBERN.                                315
nebec to the Capes, a regular. sea voyage, in remarkably quick time, and
her after career was worthy of her name.
The land forces, under the command of Gen. Burnside~ amounted to
sixteen thousand men, with an ample supply of field-pieces and batteries,
and all the materiel of war.  The troops were divided into three brigades,
under the command of Generals Foster, Reno and Parke, all experienced
and able officers of the regular army.*
Corn. Louis M. Goldsborough, a veteran of fifty years' service in the
United States Navy, was appointed to the command of the fleet, to cooperate with Gen. Burnside.  The Commodore had spent eighteen years at
sea, in command of different vessels, and his skill as a seaman, and his
marked ability as an officer, rendered him  the fittest person to aid in this
great naval enterprise.  About six o'clock in the evening of a bright, mild
winter's day, unusual activity was observed in the fleet, and tUig-boats
were flying rapidly in all directions, coliveyinlo orders to every vessel to
get up its steam, and to be ready to obey the signal at midnight to put t,)
sea.  There were many last things to be done, and many loiterers to be
hunted up, but witll untiring energy all hands were employed, some taking
in water, some receiving fresh supplies of food, some makling their frail
transports more secure to meet the storms of ocean.  Just at midnight
signal lights gleamed in the sky, thrown up from  the Flag-ship; and
almost instantly every paddle-wheel was revolving, and the whole majestic
squadron was in motion.
The wind was fair, the sky cloudless, and a brilliant moon looked down
upon the animating scene.  That there was hard work to be done, every
man knew; but when and where they were to be led to battle, was a
question whilch  but three or four of the highest officers on board the fleet
could answer-and they were silent.  At noon, the next day, the fleet was
entirely out of sight of land, steaming rapidly down the Southern coast.
The next day a dense fog enveloped them, and the fleet became somewhat
scattered, but still they all pressed on, in the same general direction.  At
three o'clock in the afternoon of January 12, the leading ships caught
sight of the Capes of Hatteras, where the national flagt was floating, and it
soon became evident that the squadron was to enter the inlet, and operate
somewhere on the coast of North Carolina, through Pamlico and Albemarle sounds.  Before the sun of that beautiful day went down, seventyfive vessels, constituting a magnificent panorama, were collected off Hatteras.  Thousands of men were clustered like bees upon the decks and the
rigging, gazing upon the gorgeous sunset, the long line of the shore, and
the billows rolling in from  the wide Atlantie, which, with thunder roar,
threw the spray mast-head high, as they dashed upon breakers and beach.
* J. G. Parke was born in Pennsylvania in 1827. He graduated at West Point in'1849, the
second in his class, as brevet second lieutenant in the Topographical Engineers. Engaged in professional duties he crossed the Continent three times to the Pacific, surveying routes for the contemplated railroad. He was also employed as Engineer Secretary to the Light-House Board, and
Secretary to the Board of River and Harbor Improvements. After subsequently serving in New
Mexico and California, he was appointed Chief Astronomer and Surveyor on the NTorti-west Boundary Commission. The rebellion found hire thus actively engaged in the service of his country.
He espoused the National cause with all his heart, and became one of our efficient officers.




316                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
By the next, morning, the 13th, most of the fleet had arrived, and they
were all signaled to enter the inlet. For some time the indications of one
of those terrific storms for which Cape Hatteras has a world-wide renown,
had been anxiously watched. Clouds were gathering; the sea growing
black, and billows of ever-increasing grandeur were chasing each other
with their foaming crests-the war plumes of these battalions of the seas.
The water on the bar of the inlet is very shallow, and the sands on the
bottom are ever shifting by the action of winds and currents. Thus where
twelve feet of water are found to-day but ten may be found to-morrow.
To cross this bar safely, with such a fleet, was a ~ery difficult and dangerous operation, even in the most propitious weather. But now three hundred vessels, many of them exceedingly frail, and all crowded with soldiers,
were tossing on the swelling seas; and a tempest was manifestly gathering
its energies to smite them. The Picket, carrying Gen. Burnside, entered
the inlet first, and passed through in safety. The Cossack followed, and
immediately after, several others pursuing the same path, were within the
sound. The transport ship New York now made the attempt. She struck
the bar. A mighty billow came, lifted her up like a cork, plunged her
forward a few feet, and burying her keel into the sand, left her as immovable as a rock. The transport was loaded with horses. The waves made a
clean sweep over her, and the horses all perished, some drowned as they
stood, and large numbers hurled ilito the sea and tossed while living and
dead at the sport of the waves. The first mate and a part of the crew
infamously took the long-boat and escaped, leaving their comrades to their
fate.
It was a cold, wintry day. The breakers, as they struck the ship,
resistlessly swept the deck. The seamen lashed themselves to the rigging,
and there they remained, without food, without sleep, drenched to the
skin, for forty hours, until the storm abated. No help could reach them.
Every endeavor was made to send them aid,-two heroic men, Col. Allen
and Dr. Wellar, perishing in the attempt,-but all in vain. At length,
after the storm  had nearly exhausted itself; a steam-tug succeeded in
reaching the wreck, and the sufferers, half dead, were rescued. The
second engineer was the last to leave the ship. IHe remained lashed to the
mast until every other man had left. Then climbing to the top-mast, he
cut down the flag, and winding it around his body, bore it in triumph
away. " I was determined," said he, "either to die beneath the folds of
the Stars and Stripes, or to bear theam safely to the land."
The gale continued with almost unabated fury until Monday morning.
About seventy of the vessels succeeded in getting within the inlet. All
the rest were outside, seeking safety as they best might, in riding out the
storm. The fierceness of the gale was such, that the vessels within the
inlet were very much exposed. They were huddled together in a space
suitable for not more than twenty. Dashed against each other by the
waves, none escaped injury, and some were almost fatally shattered. The
Zouave also grounded upon the bar, and was a total loss, with all her
valuable cargo. The wrecks of two schooners were also added to the disfigurement of the involved and narrow channel. Thus the first few days




ROANOKE AND  NEWBERN.                        317
at Hatteras Inlet were gloomy indeed. But a calm always succeeds a
storm. " This, too, passeth away,"' is written  upon all things earthly.
The wind lulled and died; the clouds disappeared; the ocean became
glassy as a mirror; all the remaining ships passed the inlet; damages
were repaired, and again the squadron was in readiness to prosecutE its
enterprise, wherever it chose, over those extended waters known by the
name of Painlico and Albemarle Sounds.
It was first necessary to cross what is called B]uckhead Shoal, an exs
panse of quicksand which has long been the terror of navigators. It is
about a mile wide, with a tortuous channel leading through it, varying
with the ever-shifting quicksands of the bottom. With immense difficulty,
the fleet was carried through. Many of the ships grounded, but were
towed off by the ever active, never weary little Kennebec " Wheelbarrow,s"
which could go anywhere, and which the sailors averred would float in a
heavy dew. There is an ocean current here, which, at times, is exceedingly swift. While passing the shoal, a brisk breeze sprang up, which,
acting in concert with the flood, swept a gun-boat from its moorings, and
dashing it against a schooner, demolished its smoke-stack and one wheel.
The two vessels, locked in an affectionate embrace, whirled around, and
went waltzing down the stream together, until they reached the hospital
ship, which they grasped with united hands, and all three danced sidling
along, until they were brought up by a portion of the shoal, which said to
them emphatically, " thus far, and no further."
Two weeks elapsed, after the arrival of the first vessels at HI-atteras,
before the whole fleet had obtained an anchorage in Pamnlico Sound.
They had scarcely reached their place of safety, before another gale arose,
As the squadron were all riding at anchor, during this second fierce blow,
a queer-looking sail-boat was seen approaching them, laboring, and almosl
foundering in the heavy sea. The boat caine confidingly under the lee of
one of the ships, and four colored men, five wokinen  and ten children,
climbed up over her sides. They had made a bold stroke for freedom.
In a crazy boat, scarcely large enough to hold half their number, and a
tattered sail, they had ventured out upon the stormy sea, sure, as they
expressed it. that "' they would come cross de Yankees somewhere."  The
poor creatures, seeling only the ownership of themselves, were thoroughly
drenched and much exhausted. No words can express the satisfaction
they' manifested, when, received kindly by Commodore Goldsborough,
they were warmed and fed, and greeted with that which, to the weary
heart, is more prized than all things else, words of sympathy.
The announcement of the final departure, from Hampton Roads, of
the Burnside expedition, filled the hearts of the rebels along the sea-coast
with the greatest anxiety. It was manifest that a withering blow was to
be struck. But where it would fall no one could tell. It was, therefore,
necessary for them to fortify every vulnerable point, and their attention
and energies were thus distracted. All doubt was now dispelled. But
still the question rose, To what point in these spacious sounds are the
prows of the fleet to be turned? These inland seas, separated from the
ocean by a long, narrow bar, wash hundreds of Iiles of the North Carolina




318                CIVIL  WAR IN  AMERICA.
coast, pe.netrating Virginia almost to Norfolk, and receivintg the floods of
the magnificent rivers, the Chowan, the Roanoke, the Pamulico, and the
lNense.
As you pass up Pamlico SouLnd to the nortl, through the strait which
leads into Albemarle Sound, in the very heart of the strait you find Roanoke Island, about twelve miles long and three broad.  The strait, on either
side of the island, is but from one to two miles in width, and the channel
through, narrow and tortuous, is comumanded by batteries placed upon this
islaud. This strait is the only door to Albemarle Sound, and the rebels
appreciated the importance of seeing that that door was thoroughly closed.
The island is admirably adapted for both offensive and defensive operations, having eminences where batteries could occupy commanding positions, and low and sandy expanses, cut u1p with lagoons and Imarshes. The
most consunnmate engineering skill had been exereised in constructing its
defenses; for these very engineers, now with traitorous hand assailing the
National Government, had been instructed, at the ex.pense of that Government, in the highest principles of their art.  The strong1est fortifications of
the rebels were reared near the centre of the island, about iour -mliles from
Ashley's Harbor, on a narrow neck of lhand, connecting the upper and
lower parts of the island.  On the righlt and left were morasses, deemed
impassable, extending from  the fortifications to the water. The only
approach to the works was by a long, narrow causeway, composed of logs
laid side by side on the bog. This causeway was raked, through its whole
extent, by these heavy guns. On Parks' Point, there was a spacious bfort,
octagonal in form, covering five acres. This fort was strongly constructed,
and armed with ten guns, and two rifled cannon. At a little distance
from this, there was another baLttery, also commanding the causeway. At
Thiers' Point, on the north end of the island, there was still a third fort,
upon which great labor, by hundreds of slaves, had been expended, to render it impregnable.  The main channel, through which the fleet would be
compelled to pass, was also commanded by all these forts, being distant
from theri not more than half a mile. Three of these guns were 100pounders, rifled.  This channel was so o'bstructed with strong, sharppointed s;icks, and sunken hulks, as to render the passage apparently
impossible; while any parties who should attempt to remove these obstructions were exposed to the fire from the forts. Beyond the obstructions there were eight rebel gun-boats, ready for action, to cooperate with
the forts in assailing the niational fleet. Each of these boats carried two'
heavy guns, one of them a 32-pounder, rifled. Two thousand three hundred men manned the batteries on the island. At Nag's Head, on the
outer beach, five thousand. Such were the bformidable preparations which
nhe rebels had made for defense.
The impatience of the community was such, that great fault was found
with Gen. Burnside for the delay of a fortnight, after entering the inlet at
Hattera.s,.beibre commencing vigorous operations. Few, however, knew
the ardlious toils in which hle was en~gaged. At eight o'clock, on the
morninprl of F'eb. 5, the signal was given for the whole fleet to get under
way. Cornl. Goldsborough had his well-disciplined little navy inmmediately




ROA NOKE AND) NEWBERN.                          319
in motion.  The transports, rather more slowly, and with less military precision, followed.  Still the whole scquadron, as they gallantly moved forvward to the death-struggle before theml, presented a very ilnposing specta( e. The Philadelphia, the flag-ship, led the naval squadron.  The nimble
little Picket, with Gen. Biurnside on board, pranced over the waves, in
friont of the transports.  It was a clear, sunny morning, and the wind
blew invigoratingly from the land.  The whole fleet, consisting now of
about one hundred vessels, moved.in three colnunis, the sail-viessels being
in tow of the steamers. It was a distance of fifty uliles fromn ]iHatteras to
the lower end of Roanoke Island, and, in consequence of the heavy tows,
the fleet could move only at the rate of about five miles an hour.
About five o'clock in the afternoon of a short February day, the
leading ships came in view of the low outline of the island, ten miles
before them.  Signals were illnediately given for the whllole squadron to
assemble and cast anchor, in the form of a semi-circle, around the flag-ship.
The sheltered sound was noxw smooth as a imill —pond; lights were seen
gleamling from  the white cottages on the shore; brilliant lanterns were
suspended from the rigging of the vessels; and the cormnanders, in swiftlyrowed gigs, moving through the silent yet splendid and imposing scene,
exlalnged visits, and prepared for the deadly strife of the morrow.
Thursday  morning, the 6th, dawned luridly. Hea;vy clouds gathered
in the sky, and another Hatteras storm seemed brewing. Through the
haze and thle drizzling rain, hmnudreds of glasses wezre directed to Rloanoke
island. It seem-led for some time doubtful whether thee fog and the rain
would not render a postponement of the action necessary.  But at ten
o'cloek, the anxiously looked-for signal, "Prepare for Acton,"' was run
up to the ma~st-hlead of' the flag-ship; and instantly, all through the squadronl, there was a general beating to quarters.  The men had long been
looking for this hour, and it was hailed with enthusiasm. Tlie whole fleet,
under the Control of steam, guided by signals, moved with the precision,
and more than the rapidity, of troops upon the shore.  Two of the ships,
the Ceres and Putnam, were sent to the entrance of the Croatan Strait, to
make a reconnoissance. This strait is on the western side of the island:
and is the main passagen to Albemarle Sound. In the meaenthine, the fleet
advanced to within three miles of the south end of t-he island whlere they
again cast anchor, as a Hatteras storm was in active Pmovement, and a
dense fog was settling down over land and sea. Groping -through the fog,
two rebel steamers came prowling down the sound, and, after a hurried
look at the national fleet, ran back again. The entire expeditionl, swept
again by wind and drenching rain, anchored for the night.
All await-ed anxiously the light of another morning.  The day opened
darkly; heavy clouds hlig in the sky, and nothing could be seen, through
the fog, at the distance of two miles. But gradually the wind veered to the
south-west, streaks of blue sky became visible, and by nine o'clock there
were such indications of a pleasant day that the fleet was again signaled
to.e.et under way; and Nelson's famous order was run to the mast-head
of the f-lagr-ship: " Ameriea expects every nman to do his duty."  This was
responded to with a thunder-peal of cheers which rose friom all the ships.




320                CIVIL  WAR IN  AMERICA.
The fleet now entered Croatan Strait, which is about one mile wide.  The
ships as they advanced, in file, through the contracted channel, stretched
out about eight miles in length. They soon came in sight of the fortifications. The whole upper half of the island seemed to be lined with heavy
batteries. The first which they approached was about midway of the
island, at a spot called Park's Point. Opposite this battery, was the first
line of piles and sunken vessels, filling the channel. The rebel gun-boats
were behind this barricade, where, if disabled in the fight, they could not
be pursued. A portion of the fleet immlediately engaged these gun-boats,
firing across the barrier, while others opened their broadsides upon Park
Point battery. The gun-boats were soon driven away, and then the whole
fire of the fleet was concentrated upon the battery. The rebel troops, for
some reason, did not vigorously respond. The appearance was that our
storm of shot fell so heavily upon them that they preferred the shelter of
the casemates, to the exposure of standing by the guns. The officers of
the fleet, with their glasses, could see the shells falling with terrible
destructiveness in and around the batteries. lIany of the ships approached
as near the shore as the depth of water would permit, pouring in, with
wonderful rapidity and precision, their devastating fire.
While this bombardment by the war ships and gun-boats was going on,
the transports were landing, near the southern end of the island, the army
which was to cooperate with the fleet. A boat, with a reconnoitering
party, had first been sent towards the shore. They were fired upon by the
rebels, concealed in the forest. The Delaware instantly pitched a few
dozens of nine-inch shrapnell shells into the woods. ANo mortals could
stand this, and the rebels fled, like sheep before the hound, and the disernmbarkation continued unmolested.  Two thousand rebels, with rifles amid
three he-avy guns had stationed themselves at this point to prevent the
landing. The shrapnells of the Delaware were so destructive, that, in
their flight, the rebels abandoned their cannon and even threw away many
of their muskets, that they might run more swiftly. Though Gen. Burnside was well provided with launches, the water was so shoal that the
boats could not approach within four hundred yards of the shore. The
men had to wade, often with the water to the waist, and sinking a foot
deep in the soft mud of the bottom. This was very exhausting, as every
man had to carry his musket and his heavy knapsack, and the water was
icy cold.
It was just three o'clock in the afternoon when the United States flag
was raised at Ashley's Harbor. The cannonade was still raging at the
battery. It continued unabated all day, and as the night was clear and
the range -was perfect, it did not cease with the going down of the sun.
Nothing can be imagined more sublime than a bombardment by night.
The glare of the guns, so passionate and spiteful in expression; the roar
of the explosions; the shriek of the shells, as if demons were howling
through the air; the explosion of the shells with meteoric brilliance and
thunder peal; the volumes of smoke rising into the darkened sky-all
these, blended with the gloom of night, present a scene, which once witnessed, can never be forgotten. About one hour after dark the fleet drew




ROANOKE AND NEWBERN.                                  321
off, and was silent and motionless for the remainder of the night.  The
land  forces had indeed a cheerless prospect before them.  Thoroughly
drenched  and chilled by the cold wintry waves, they were compelled to
bivouac on the shelterless shore, without tents, exposed to a cold north
wind, and a heavy rain.  Their discomfort, through the night, was extreme.  Still they were in good spirits.  A  landing in force had been
effected with the loss of but four men killed and eight wounded. The
fleet had been severely handled, by the heavy shot of the batteries and the
rebel gun-boats.  Round shot al-d shell passed through several of the
National ships, killing  and wo anding  a few  of their crews.  Still no
damage was done to interfere with the efficient action of the fleet, and all
on the island and in the ships waited impatiently, cheered with hope, for
the opening of another day.
The morning of Saturday, the 8th, came.  It was still cold and dismal.  With the early light the fleet opened fire upon the battery, which
the rebels still held.  About nine o'clock a large reenfore ament was conveyed to the upper part of the island, by the rebel gun-boats, which the
National fiorce could do nothing to prevent-as the formidable obstructions
sunk in the channel, prevented their passing.  But while the bombardment was prosecuted with the utmost vigor, Lieutenant Jeffers was sent at
one o'clock with eighllt gun-boats, to attempt the removal of the obstructions that the fleet might pass through into Albemarle Sound.  Three batteries opened fire upon them.  Heroically they prosecuted their work,
broke through the barricade, and one after another eight gun-boats passed
through the gap, and anchored above in the Sound.  In the mean time
the land forces were early aroused fiom  their comfortless bivouac, and, ill
the twiliglt dawning started, under Gen. Reno, for a march of three miles[
up the island, to attack the enemy in their central stronghold.  There
were few  paths on the island; and they waded through inorasses and
struggled through the dense undergrowth, picking up, all along their path,
the guns which the rebels, in their flight the day before, had thrown away.
After a tedious march of two hours they came in sight of the enelmy,
strongly  intrenched behind ramparts through whose embrasures, heavy
guns were fiowning.  This battery seemed perfectly to command the narrow causeway by which there was the only path to the redoubt.  Gen.
Foster's brigade, composed of the 23d and 25th Massachusetts, and the
10th Connecticut, under the young and heroic Col. Russell, immediately
commenced the assault, with musketry and a few field-pieces.  Gen. Reno,
and his brigade, groped through the swamp, knee-deep in mud, tearing
their way through bushes and brambles, to attain a more favorable position of attack upon the enemy's left.*  Both men and officers co6perated
* Jesse L. Reno was born in Virginia in 1826. He entered West Point in 1842, and graduated
the eighth in his class. In July, 1846, he was appointed brevet 2d lieutenant in the Ordnance
Department. In March, 1847, he received his full commission. In the Mexican War Lieut. Reno
signalized himself at the stern conflicts at Cerro Gordo and Chapultepec, and, for this gallantry, he
was breveted captain. A severe wound rendered it necessary for him to retire for a season from
service. In 1849, he was appointed Assistant Professor of Mathematics at West Point. After that,
for several years, until 1860, he was efficiently employed in coast surveying, building military
roads, and finally as chief ordnance officer in the Utah Expedition. The rebellion recalled him to
21




322                   CIVIL  WAR  IN  AMERICA.
heartily and heroically in this work. While they were thus employed,
Gen. Burnside was on the beach, pushing forward as rapidly as possible,
the disembarkation of the troops, and sending up reinforcements to aid the
men in their attack upon the central fort.
Gen. Foster was unwearied in his exertions, leading his men, inlspiriting them by his courageous example, and skillfully selecting the points in
the redoubt most available for attack.  The gallant Col. Russell, according to the testimony of his men, who loved him  as rarely has a military
officer been loved, seemed unconscious cG' danger and incapable of the emotion of fear. As lie was cheering on his n en a bullet pierced his heart, and,
without a word or a groan, he dropped dead.  The advance of the assailants was slow, but firin and steady.  At length the ammunition was
expended, and it became necessary either to retire, or to strive to take the
battery by an impetuous and desperate charge.  Major IKimball, of the
itawvkins' Zouaves, just then came up and offered to lead the charge.
"' You are the very llan," said Gen. Foster, "and this is the very moment.
Zouaves! storm  the battery."  In an instant they were in motion, sweeping like a gale across the narrow causeway, shouting their war-cry, Zou,
Zou, ZotG, from a thousand lips, with a roar which rose above the clamor
of the battle.  The onset was so sudden, unexpected, impetuous, that the
rebels in a panic, staggered for a moment in bewilderment, and then
started and fled.  They did not even stop to assist their wounded or to
spike their guns.  As they rushed in one direction, the Zouaves, with
shoutings- came clambering over the ramparts and through the embrasures
into the vacated fort.  Gen. Foster. with his brigade, followed the path of
the- Zouaves. *
Gen. Reno moved in one direction to cut off the retreat of the rebels,
while Gen. Foster pushedaon at double-quick following their tracks.  The
road, along which the rebels fled, was strewed with everything of which
they could disencumber themselves.  For nearly six miles the hot pursuit
was kept up, the'National troops crowding the very heels of the foe, and
allowing them no time to rally.  Col. Hawkins, pursuing a little different
route, came upon a two-gun battery, which he found deserted.  Pressing
on lie overtook a body of two hundred rebels, who surrendered without a
struggle. Gen. Reno, in a vigorous march to cut off the retreat of the foe,
came across a body of eight hundred rebels, under Col. Jordan, who also
were compelled to an unconditional surrender.  The tide of victory was setting thus strongly in favor of the National troops, when Gen. Foster saw a
flag of truce approaching him, borne by Col. Pool, fromn the North Carolina volunteers, asking on what terms he would accept their capitulation.
Washington, where he was commissioned as Brigadier-General of Volunteers, under Gen. Burn,
side, and, in this capacity, he accompanied him on-the expedition to Roanoke.
* John G. Foster, of New Hampshire, was one of the heroes of Fort Sumter. He graduated
at West Point in 1842, the fourth in his class. The next year he was breveted 1st lieutenant,'" for
gallant and meritorious conduct in the battles of Contreras and Cherubusco." At the storming of
El Molino del Rey, he fell, severely wounded. For his gallantry here he was breveted captain.
In 1854, he was appointed Assistant Professor of Engineering at West Point. While here he was
advanced to a 1st lieutenantcy. -The heroism ho displayed at Fort - Sumter secured his appointment as Brigadier-General of Volunteers.




ROANOKE  AND  NEWBERN.                       323
"Unconditional surrender," was the reply. "How much time can we
have for consideration," was then asked. " Only time for you to report to
your superior officer."  Gen. Foster waited what seemed a sufficient time,
and then commenced again his onward march, when the flag returned with
the surrender. This surrender included all the batteries, all the defenses,
all the troops upon the island. Over two thousand rebels laid down their
arms. Many of the rebels had arrived that same morning upon the island,
from Norfolk, and all were plunged into consternation by their sudden
and hopeless discomfiture. - Before five o'clock the Stars and Stripes were
floating over Park Point battery and all the other batteries of the foe.
The fleet had pushed through the barricade, and the whole island and all
those vast internal waters connected with Pamlico:and Albemarle Sounds
were in. possession of the National troops.
The rebel steamers, sharing in the dismay, after setting lire to one of
their number, the Curlew, which had been hopelessly crippled, fled up the
sound. Night had now again come on, and the darkness was illumined
by the blaze of the burning steamer, and also of a battery and barracks,
which the retreating rebels had fired. Thousands on the distant shores
watched the leaping flames, appalling proof to them that rebellion had
been chastised. And when, at length, the magazine exploded, filling the
air with volcanic thunders and fire, followed by silence and midnight
gloom, to many minds it must have seemed symbolic of the doom of this
direful and most guilty rebellion.
A victory had been won, second to none since the national forces took
the field. It was a victory to thrill every loyal heart, throughout tile land,
with joy. As the sun went down on that Saturday evening, Feb. 8, it
closed a week:of glorious work for God and humanity. Even with a spyglass, from the central bastions of Roanoke, no rebel flag could be seen.
The national banner floated everywhere. Nothing now remained to be
done but to pursue the rebel steamers to their lurking-places, and to reestablish the national authority in all the important towns, washed by the
two Sounds and their tributary rivers. Six. forts, 2,500 prisoners, 42 heavy
guns, with a large quantity of smaller arms and munitions of war, fell into
the hands of the victors. The Union loss consisted of 40 killed and 200
wounded. Among the killed was Col.. Russell, of the Connecticut 10th, a
gallant officer, a genial, generous man, a fearless soldier, a warm-hearted
Christian. I-e died universally lamented.
After the battle, our troops took possession of the hospital of the rebels.
It was -well supplied, but presented an appalling scene of sickness, suffering
and death. One young man had been struck on the back of the head by
three bullets, which, glancing around the skull, entered the jaws and
passed out through the cheek, mangling and crushing in awful wounds
more dreadful than death, and yet not fatal. His sufferings were terrible,
his aspect loathsome, and. cculd not be otherwise while he lived. IHe entered the battle, declaring that he had- set it, as his stent, to kill eight
Yankees. Near by was another, gasping, struggling, groaning, in the
agonies of death, all alone, with no one having time to attend to him.
He was a young man of wealth, and amiability, and loving friends, from




324                 CIVIL WAR  IN  AMERICA.
Goldsboro, -N. C.; a professed disciple of Jesus, leaving a young wife acnd
a babe to mourn his loss. On the next cot at his left was a burly, brutal
sinner, painfully wounded, maddened to frenzy, cursing his Mltaker, the
day of his birth, his friends, his foes, heaven and hell. His awful blasphemies blended with the moans and stifled prayers of the dying Christian
at his side.-x
The long lines of couches were filled with the victims of this insane rebellion. An exceedingly gentlemanly and intelligent looking young man,
whose countenance betokened a high state of moral culture, was on a
couch near the door, not mortally wounded. With gratitude he accepted
the kind attentions and proffered hand of one whom he had just met in
deadly battle. He was a Tennesseean, and had come to Roanoke, in comnpany with eight hundred men, the day before, with the rebel, 0. Jennings
Wise, son of the notorious Governor Wise, of Virginia, a young man who
inherited all his father's malignity.  li-e fought bravely behind the ramparts, until nearly all the gunners were stricken down at his side, and his
own clothing had been pierced by five bullets. I-Ie admitted that the
courage of our troops, advancing boldly to within five hundred yards of
their blazing batteries, elicited their wonder and admiration.  It was to
them entirely a new, and hitherto undeveloped, exhibition of the Yankee
character. Just before the close of the engagement, a M[inie ball pierced
his leg, grazing the bone. Faint from loss of blood, the ground covered
with the dying and the dead, and such a storm of shot sweeping through
their embrasures, frPon the rapid and well aimed volleys of our troops, that
no mortal could stand at the guns, he and Capt. Wise, with fifteen privates,
attempted to escape, in two small boats, from the island to the shore.
Capt. Wise was also wounded. They had pushed off upon the water about
one hundred yards, when a' company of Zouaves suddenly emerged from
the woods, and poured into the retreating boats a deadly fire. Several
were killed. A bullet struck the chest of Capt. Wise, and passed through
his rigllt lung. I-e was a desperate man, and one of the most envenomed
of the rebels. Escape in the boats was hopeless, and they were immediately turned back again toward the shore, and the men surrendered themselves prisoners of war. Wise was dying in the bottom  of the boats
drenched in blood. With his last breath, he exclaimed, " I will fight the
Union as long as I live."
His intelligent companion, of whom we have spoken, as lying wounded
on the cot of the hospital, a genial, generous man, who had been carried
away by the flood of secession, which swept like a surge over the Southern
States, alluded freely to the state of affairs, and in terms of kindness. HIe
was a brave and an honest man. I-e spoke of the Southern army as sadly
demoralized by intemperance, gambling, and all the vices of the camp.'" Our army," said lie, "' lacks that element of unity and efficiency, which
I observe among your Northern troops. Our men are complaining, proud,
restive under restraint.  They have never been accustomed to brook con* For these incidents, I am indebted to the Rev. Jacob Eaton, who, with true Christian hero-in and a martyr spirit, enlisted as a private in this holy tear. He was a member of the Connecticut 8th.




ROANOKE AND NEWBERN.                           325
trol. They are willing to govern, but not to be governed."  I-He fralnkly
admitted the superiority of the:Northern troops, in all that constitutes a
Tloble and efficient army. He was at Richllond at the time of the battle
of Bull Run, and described the loss in the rebel ranks as appalling.
Thousands of their best and bravest men were slain. The dead were piled
upon each other. From a select company of wealthy Georgians, numbering one hundred and twenty, only ten returned firom that bloody field
unhurt.  One captain, who was in the thickest of the fight, informed him,
that on one square acre, where the famous NJew York 69th made their
desperate charge, he counted five hundred of their own dead. In Rich-!nond, almost every one seemed in mourning.
A bitter feud arose, after the battle, between Davis and Beauregard,
as to their fi-ture movements. Beauregard wished to rush upon WXashington, and seize the Capital, and lay it in ashes if they could not hold it.
Davis was more cautious.  He was better acquainted with Northern
character and Northern troops, and feared to assail the intrenchments of
the Potomac. I-Ie was apprehensive that the United States Government
might suddenly bring strong reenforcements into the field, and that his
troops might be outflanked. Davis was right.  Out of the 32,500 T1who
marched upon MIanassas from  the Potomac, 25,000 returned to their
intrenchlnents, with ranks unbroken. I-lad the rebels advanced upon
Washington, but few would have lived to march back again. The troops
at Alexandria, in columns which had not yet wavered, would have conme
up upon them on one flank, Patterson's army would have assailed them
on the other, and, with a broad river before them,.. their doom would have
been sealed. Beauregard was so angry that his plans were not adopted,
that, for four months, he refused to make any official report of the battle,
and when he finally made a report, he suppressed the most important facts,
that he might favor his own well-known -views. The friend to whoml 1
am indebted for the above information, says,
"My last hour in the hospital had expired.  I took the sufferer>.: hand
in my own, and said,' My friend, do you not really think tinat we shall
ultimately subdue your army, and bring back the disloyal States?' I-Ie
replied cautiously, and in a somewhat despondent tone,' I think, if men,
money arnd discipline will do it, you may eventually succeed.' His heart,
his sympathies were evidently with the South; but he was neither bigoted
nor dishonest. IHte gave me his name in full, Win. L. Johnson, Carrol
County, West Tennessee..As I left him, we shook hands warmly. I-e
requlested me to write to him, if I survived the war. H-Ie was to be released on parole of honor."  Should this page ever meet his eye, let it
remind him that the Christian stranger, who addressed him in words of
sympathy and solace in the hospital at Roanoke, is but a representative of
mnillions at the North.
So many prisoners were taken, that it was not convenient to provide
f;er them  all, and they were dismissed on parole. 1But the rebels had
brought one or two hundred slaves upon the island, to worklupon the
intrenhm1.ents. By a recent law of Congress, all slave~s, who had been
thus employed, were declared to be free. Tlhese bondil, were called




326                CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
together, and informed that they might remain on the island, as freemen,
under the protection of the army, or return with their mnasters to the maian
land. To the astonishment of all, nearly every man, with some half dozen
exceptions, chose to return to slavery! This was so remarkable, so contrary to previous experience, that, after a pause of bewilderment, the question was asked, "What does this mean?"  One honest, earnest looking
man, stepped forward, and taking off his hat, said, "We'se wives and
chillern in slavery. We can't leave them. Bress de Lord de day of jubilee is come. We'se alle o be free now. We must go back, and get our
wives and chillern."
This incident needs no comment. The heart which is not moved by
its pathos, can not be touched by words. The wary masters had taken
bonds of the slaves for their safe return, by conveying to Roanoke Island
mainly those who left loved ones behind. The affectionate natures of these
defrauded children of our common father, led them to plunge back again
into the horrors of slavery, that they might rescue these their hearts'
treasures.
The next day was the Sabbath. The exigencies of war seemed to
require that the routed and demoralized foe should be vigorously pursued,
before he had time to make a new stand, and collect his forces for another
defense, which umight cost many lives. Fourteen vessels were accordingly
dispatchedl, under Capt. S. Rowan, to pursue the retreating rebel gun-boats
up Albemarle Sound. They had fled directly north, about thirty-five miles,
to Elizabeth City, at the head of Pasquotank River. This antique little
city of 2,000 inhabitants was connected with Portsmouth and Norfolk, in
Virginia, where the rebels were in great strength, by the Dismal Swamp
Canal. Just as the Sabbath sun was going down, the national squadron,
amply strong for the purpose it had in view, anchored at the mouth of the
river, fifteen miles below the city. The rebel gun-boats were entrapped.
There was no escape for them, and their doom was sealed. It was a beautiful night, and the cloudless moon illumined the whole expanse of ocean,
earth and sky, almost with the brilliance of day. The squadron kept a
vigilant watch through the night, but there was no alarm.
The inhabitants of the city, with no means of making any successful
resistance, awaited the dawn with intense anxiety. They had not dreamed
that the national forces could pass the fortifications of Roanoke, and were
thus utterly unprepared for the disaster bursting upon them. The rebel
gun-boats anchored near the city, making arrangements for such resistance
as they still could hope to present. At day-light the squadron was again
in motion, and when they arrived within five miles of the city, they found
the gun-boats, seven in number, drawn up in line of battle. About -a
fourth of a mile in front of the rebel fleet, there was a point of land jutting
out some distance into the river, and upon this a fort was constructed,
mounting four guns. Directly opposite this fort, on the other side of the
river, there was a sort of floating battery, mounting two rifled cannon.
Through this narrow passage, but half a mile in width, the fleet must pass,
to reach the rebel gun-boats. The men immediately prepared for action,
inspired by Capt. Rowan's command to engage the enemy at close quar



ROANOKE  AND;NEWBERN.                        327
ters. The vessels were all ordered to advance under full head of stecam.
The flag-ship Delaware led the van, and paying no regard to fort or battery, plunged through the gauntlet of their shot, followed by the whole
fleet, and before the rebel crew could recover from their consternation, the
national troops, with shouts, and sabre blows and bayonet plunges, were
upon their decks. It was a short, but a bloody conflict. It lasted but
fifteen minutes.  Nearly every rebel was killed or captured, with the
exception of a very few, who set fire to their vessels, and escaped to the
shore in their boats. The Union loss, in this truly heroic action, was but
two killed and twelve wounded. The crew who had escaped, in their
insane fright, set fire to Elizabeth City, and the antique little village was
almost -entirely consumed, consigning many innocent families to hopelessness and want.
About fifty miles west of Elizabeth, near the mouth of the Chowan,
is the little town of Edenton, containing about 1,600 inhabitants. The
rebels had concentrated quite a force here. A small squadron of four or
five vessels, on the 11th, sailed from Elizabeth to pay them a visit. The
rebels did not remain to receive them. The inhabitants raised the white
flag. Capt. Murray, in command, came, not to destroy, but to protect.
The authorities of the town avowed Union sentiments, and stated that tlh
inhabitants of Chowan County, almost unanimously, were in favor of the
Union, and that they would gladly support the United States Government,
if they could be protected from rebel violence. Great love was manifested
for the old flag. Groups of men actually wept with emotion, as they
gathered again beneath its protecting folds.
Lieut. Marvin Wait, of the signal corps of the Burnside expedition, narrates the following incident, illustrative of that "idolatry for the old
Union,"  as Jefferson Davis calls it, which yet existed in North Carolina.
" One day I went to the main land, from Roanoke Island, with the first
lieutenant of the ship, in the gig. HIaving landed, we went to a fisherman's hut. As we entered, we saw an old man on a humble bed, with an
elderly woman, his wife, watching by his side. The old man was pale,
feeble, and near his end. As we approached his bed, a son, who was
standing beside him, called upon his father to'look up and see the gentlemen.' The dying Iman slightly raised his head, and recognizing the
uniform  of United States officers, faintly, yet earnestly said,' God Alrnighty help your catuse.' lie was apparently a simple minded, honest old
fisherman, who remembered and clung to the Stars and the Stripes."
The indications were various and multiplied, that there was a strong1
Union sentiment pervading all that portion of the State: The minds of
the people on the sea-board were more liberalized, as they had more intercourse, throucgh the influence of' commerce, with the outside world. Th&e
rebel Government appears to have been fully aware of this fact. A letteJfrom Jeff. Davis was found here, urging " the importance of suppressingthe Union sentiment, existing among the people on the Sounds, without a
moment's delay; a growing danger, springing up in different portions of
the Confederacy, which will soon, if not put down, give us more trouble,
than the Northern foe."




328'CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
The poor slaves flocked to the steamers by hundreds, imploring to be
taken to " de norf."  This was, of course, impossible. Their sadness was
indescribable when they found all their hopes blasted, and that the longprayed-for hour of deliverance had really not yet come. The mlasters had
generally, by enlistment or conscription, been gathered into the rebel
army, and these poor people, thus abandoned, were virtually for the moment
Iree. They gathered in such numbers upon the wharf; and lingered so
sadly there, that at last Capt. uiulrray, with seeming cruelty, but perhaps
writh real kindness, threatened them, that if they did not immediately go
back to their homes, he would turn his' great guns " upon them. In the
greatest consternation, they dispersed.  The community were in great
alarm, lest the poor creatures, goaded to desperation, should proceed to
acts of violence. But Capt. Murray assured them, that in case of a servile
insurrection, he would, with all the national power at his disposal, crush
out the insurrection.
From Edenton the fleet proceeded south, across Albemarle Sound,
about twenty miles, to Plymouth, near the mouth of Roanoke River.
This is another of those little sepulchral villages, which we find scattered
over the South, containing a court-house, a jail, a grocery, an apology for
a church, and less than a thousand inhabitants-an unletteredl degenerate
race. The national force met with no resistance here, and a small party
was sent up the broad estuary of, the Chowan River, on a reconnoissance.
They had not proceeded far before they found the enemy in force, who
opened upon them friom their batteries. ~ After exchanging a few shots, the
gun-boats retired. The effect of these Union victories was extremely depressing upon the rebel sympathizers throughout the State, and great fears were
entertained by the rebel Government, lest North Carolina should abandon
their cause. A draft of North Carolinians was accordingly immediately
ordered, avowedly for the defense of -the State. The draft was sweeping
and merciless, graspi-ng every able-bodied man. Old and yourg, sound
and unsound, rebel and Unionist, with very little discrimination, were
driven to the rebel camp. Hundreds of Union men hurried to the national
gun-boats, wherever they could be found, seeking protection. They stated
that many young men, who had beenl drafted from loyal families, had
secreted themselves in the swamps, with which that region abounds, their
parents only, who fed them, knowing their hiding-place. The rebels were
much alarmed lest the gun-boats should force their way through the great
Dismal Swamp Canal, to Norfolk. They, therefore, immediately cornmenced filling up the canal with all kinds of obstructions.. This canal
connects Currituck Sound, by tie way of the North River, with Norfolk.
Gen. Burnside, not being disposed to devote any more time to these
trivial excursions, again assembled his fleet, for another enterprise of still
greater magnitude. Stationing garrisons at important points, by the 12th
of March he had collected again a very formidable fleet and army at Hatteras. In a brief and stirring address to his soldiers, lie invoked their aid
in an enterprise which, though not revealed to them, lie assured them w-as
one of signal importance. The rebels kept thean.eylves informed, as they
could easily do, of all the movements of our boats; but they were very




ROANOKE  AND  NEWBERN.                         329
uncertain as to the spot where the next blows were to fill. The general
impression was, that while MiClellan was to march upon Richmond, Gen.
13urnside was to make a diversion by an attack upon Norfolk, in the rear.
On the evening of lailldi 129 he ordered all to be in readiness to start, at
the appointed signal, that night.  In his order, he said:
"'The General commanding, takes pleasure in announcing that the army
of the Potomac, under Gen. McClellan, is now advancing upon Richmond,
and was, at the latest dates, occupying Centreville, the enemy having
evacuated all the advanced fortifications before lManassas and those on the
Potomac. lie kagain calls upon his command, for an important movement
which will greatly cdemoralize the enemy, and contribute much to the success of our brothers of the Potomac army."
The fleet was soon in motion; but instead of steaming north it sailed
south-west, directly down Pamnlico Sound, and entering the majestic mouth
of the Neuse River, about fifty miles fromn Hatteras, anchored upon the
western banks of that river within a few miles of [Newbern. This is one
of the finest towns in the State, containing about five thousand inhabitants
and situated at the confluence of the Neuse and the Trent.  The city
is important as a military post, since it is connected by railroad with
Goldsboro and Raleigh on the west, and Beaufort on the south.  Tihe
rebels appreciated its importance, and had devoted so much time to its
defense and had constructed fortifications of such strength, that they
desired nothing more than that the National troops should be lured within
the range of their batteries.  Thousands of slaves had, for a long timne
been employed upon the fortifications which were of the most approved
pattern. 2 line of water batteries swept the river, connected with extensive field fortifications to prevent parties, who might land, from advancing
by the shore. The lower fort was six miles down the river, and then there
was a continued chain of forts and bastioned batteries extending back to
the city. Near the city there was a skillfully constructed fort, with capacious bomb-proof, and mounting thirteen heavy guns, so airanged, on
pivots, as not only to command the water, but also -to rake the only land
approaches on that side. The whole expanse, in fact, before the city, for
several miles was filled with forts, earthworks, ditclles, rifle pits and all the
other appliances of offensive and defensive war.
On the nmorning of the 13th, orders were given to land the troops at a
point called Slocum's Creek, sixteen miles below Newbern. The barges
proceeded, in regular battle array, regiment by reginment, towards the shore,
every mnan ready to repel an assault, and the gun-boats, in the mean time,
shelling every spot in the vicinity where a foe might lurk.  The men
wading through the water, held their muskets and ammunition under their
arms, to keep them  dry. The barges grounded, in the shoal water, sixty
yards from the shore. It was truly a picturesque scene1 resembling a frolic
rather than the dread realities of war, to see five thousand men, with jokes
and laughter and cheers, often up to their waists in water, and sometimes
stumnl)ling over sonme obstruction, all eager to see who would be the first to
land.  The ground was marshy; it had rained violently -lthrough the night;
the path led through a fringe of forest, draped in -tle ftuiereal weeds of




330                CIVIL  WAR  IN  AMERICA.
Spanish moss. The wheels of the guns sank in the mire and were dragged
along with nmuch difficulty. A cold MlIarch wind swept over the drenched
and shivering ranks, and notwithstanding all the endeavors to keep up
good cheer, the hours were dark and dreary.  luclh of this suffering might
have been, and should have been avoided. One of the vessels contained a
floating bridge, to secure the landing of the soldiers dry shod. But the
eagerness to get to the shore, very unwisely caused this precaution to be
neglected or forgotten.
For a couple of hours the troops marched along the low and marshy
banks of the river, filling the road in a dense line two and a half miles in
length, and meeting with no signs of the foe, until about noon, when they
came upon some cavalry barracks, which had been so suddenly deserted,
that both officers and men had left their breakfasts cooked, yet untouched.
All the conveniences of camp life were strewn about, and one pony was
found left tied. In a compact mass they still pressed on, officers in the
rear urging forward the loiterers. The Massachusetts 24th led the march.
The Connecticut 11tlh brought up the rear. They had advanced but a
short distance farther, when they came upon a line of breast-work and batteries, directly facing them, and a mile in length. Instantly the column
halted and prepared for battle. It seemed that those works must be carried by storm; and that could not be done but by the sacrifice of many
lives. A small party was cautiously sent forward to reconnoitre. They
soon returned with the joyful news that the works were deserted. These
earth-works were massive in their strength, and probably had employed
thousands of slaves for many weeks. A deep moat extended along the
whole front, while an abattis of felled trees protected the flanks. The
rebels, in this war, never rejected the ordinary principles of common sense,
but ever made use of the services of the colored man, as of all other potencies, wherever they could render that service available. Fortunately for
the National troops, the rebels had not yet mounted their guns, and without a conflict the United States flag floated over these ramparts.
After a few moments' delay the troops again pressed forward, having
still a marcl of eight miles before them, and batteries to storm on the way,
they knew not how many. Weary and foot-sore the weak and exhausted
began now to drop from the ranks. The officers, with stern commands,
urged them forward. The chaplains whispered words of encouragement
to their drooping hearts.  Still the way-side, for the remainder of the
march, was strewed with those who, from sheer inability, could move no
farther. To add to the discomfort a drizzling rain began to fall, keeping
the men thoroughly drenched to the skin. The mud was often knee-deep.
Many had lost their shoes in the mire, and their feet were torn and bleeding. Like the clouds of the approaching night, a dark spirit of despondency was settling down over the minds of the men, when a horseman from
Newbern was arrested, Who communicated the cheering news that Manassas was evacuated, and that McClellan was doubtless pursuing the retreating foe before him, down through Fredericksburg to Richmond. These
tidings came like rays of sunshine, and the welkin rang with the cheers
which rose from the lips of the men. Unfortunately our army at Manassas




ROANOKE, AND NEWBERN.                        3].
knew not where the rebels had fled. White men in Virginia would not
tell us. Colored men were not permitted to tell us. Consequently our
troops, by forced marches, had to rush back again to Washington, for fear
that the rebels should get there before them, by a back route. Thus, while
the rebels were running south, we were running north. The writer was in
Washington at that time, and saw our troops on their march to M~[anassas,
and, with cheeks tingling with shamle, saw them on their hasty return.
This policy protracted the war for months, and cost us fifty thousand lives
and fifty millions of money. The samne poolicy subsequently reigned at
Corinth, where a rebel army marched quietly away, from a National force
vastly superior, without the loss of a baggage-wagon, a gun, or a man.
The Administration, in "the times of this ignorance," which God did not
"wink at," felt constrained to adopt that policy, since the leading men in
the Border States, and many in the North, threatened to abandon the
National cause unless that policy were pursued.
The tidings, however, that our magnificent army of the Potomac,
250,000 strong, were on the triumphant march for Richmond, electrified
the weary troops; and when the order was again given " Forward," with
new alacrity they resumed their march. At six o'clock in the gloomy
twilight of a rainy day, the scouts reported that a line of rebel fortifications
was but a mile ahllead. It was too late to attempt an attack that night,
and the welcome order was given to halt. It was a wet and miserable
night, and the troops, weary, muddy, utterly comfortless, threw themselves
down on either side of the road, with no tents, no protection, but the pine
forest, and thousands were soon fast asleep. Others, however, more vigor.
ous, cut up the resinous fuel of the pitch-pine, and soon innumerable fires,
with crackle and roar, illumined the forest, and the scene assumed an
aspect of picturesque sublimity and beauty.
At seven o'clock the next morning the men had all taken their breakfasts and were again in motion. They were now marching by the side of
the railroad track, which connects Newbern with Beaufort.  The gunboats were advancing slowly along the shore, keeping pace with the army.
Gen. Reno, with the 21st 5M[assachusetts, led the van. Upon turning a
curve in the road, they came in sight of a train of cars, which had just
come down from Newbern, with renfobrcements for the rebels. In front
of the locomotive, there was a platform car, with a large rifled cannon in
position to rake the road. The Massachusetts men rushed forward at the
double-quick, at the same time pouring in such a volley of bullets upon
the foe, that they abandoned everything and ran for the intrenchments.
The troops were immediately deployed in line of battle through the woods,
and impetuously commenced an attack upon the formidable ramparts.
The first cannon-shot from the rebel battery passed through the body of
Lieut.-Col. Henry Merritt, of the Massachusetts 23d, and he fell instantly
dead. The 10th Connecticut, under Gen. Foster, a very gallant body of
nen, occupied the extreme left, and, under the most discouraging circumstances of position, maintained the renown they had acquired at Roanoke.
The whole line extended more than a mile. For an hour the battle raged
in an unintermitted storm of bullets and cannon-balls from both sides, with




332                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
no apparent advantage to either. Many, however, struck by the balls, fell
wounded or dead.
Among the dead fell Adjutant IFrazer A. Stearns, son of President
Stearns, of Amherst College, in M[assachusetts. This young man was a
true Christian knight, with unsullied escutcheon.  An earnest, manly
Christian, by his heroic character he had won the respect, and by his,genial, generous nature, the love, of all his comrades. I-e fell a martyr to
thle noblest cause for which a man ever died. A bullet passed through his
breast, and, as his body fell to the earth his spirit ascended to Heaven.
The enemy were behind intrenchments, which the negroes had thrown
up. The National troops had to storm these ramparts with nothing but
their bare breasts to present to the foe. Behind the redoubts the rebels
had large numbers of strong, vigorous negroes to do the hard work, to
bring balls and shells, to work and load the heavy guns, the gunners'only
sighting and firing them; while our young men, unaccustomed to laborious
toil, had to drag with their own blistered hands, the guns through the ruts,
and wear out their energies in those exhausting toils which the colored
men were able and anxious to perform.
As the National troops gradually drew nearer the breast-work, the fire
Df the rebels became more galling. Lieut.-Col. Clark, of the Massachusetts
21st, ordered a charge, and, at the head of four companies, rushed, at full
run, through one of the embrasures. The rebels, astonished at such audacity, fled from the gun. The colors were waved over the conquest, when,
just as the heroic little band were preparing to sweep down the enemy's
line, and take the next gun, two rebel regiments came charging upon
them, and they were compelled to retire. Capt. J. D. Frazer, wounded in
the right arm, dropped his sword. I-Ie seized it with his left hand and
endeavored to escape. But, stumbling in the ditch, he was taken prisoner.
A few moments after the Rhode Island 4th made a successful charge at
the same spot, and Capt. Frazer was rescued, he taking with him the three
rebels who had been placed over him as a guard.
This charge by Col. Rodman leading the 4th Rhode Island regiment,
was one of the most heroic deeds of the day. They were in front of a battery of five guns; while there was another battery close by its side of. nine
guns, protected by rifle pits. At the double-quick they ran upon the
muzzles of these five guns, pouring in a volley of bullets as they ran,
rushed through the parapet, and instantly, with the precision of veterans,
forming in line of battle, with a bristling array of bayonets bore down
upon the other guns, thus capturing both batteries with two flags. The
8th and 11th Connecticut and the 5thl Rhode Island, followed closely in
their tracks, to support them. The enemy fled precipitately, and the Stars
and Stripes floated proudly over this small portion of the enemy's extended
line. A grand charge was now made upon the enemy's left, aided by the
troops,who were already established within the ramparts.  The enemy
could stand it no longer, and in great confusion they fled. With exultations and shoutings which none can appreciate but those who have passed
throughl such terrible scenes-perhaps the most ecstatic joy of fallen humanity-the National troops clambered over the ramparts, discharged




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ROANOKE AND  NEWBERN.                        333
their guns at the retiring foe, and with huzzas repeated again and again
and again, raised the glorious old banner of National integrity over all the
bastions which had just been degraded by the flaunting flag of rebellion.
It was a hard fought fight and a glorious victory. Every regiment and
almost every man behaved heroically.  The 51st New York performed
deeds of valor, which will induce every man of the regiment to look back
upon that day with pride, so long as he shall live.
Who can solve the enigma of humanity-that a scene so awful can contain the elements of joy. The spectacle inside the battery was dreadful.
The ground was covered with bodies, in every revolting form'of mutilation, some dead, some in convulsive agonies, some pale and despairing
waiting for relief; and such relief as the surgeon's amputating knife alone
could afford. Horses wounded and dead, dismounted guns, broken muskets, and garments and stores of every kind were trampled in mire which
was red with blood. Gen. Burnside wisely deeming it important to avail
himself of the panic which had seized the foe, did not tarry an hour to
rejoice over his victory. Several brigades were at once on the move, some
by the railroad track, and others by the country-road which ran near its
side. It was manifest to the rebels that if they could not maintain themselves behind their strongest ramparts, which they had already abandoned,
they could stand nowhere. Their army was thoroughly disorganized and
their flight was precipitate and disorderly. Our troops marched rapidly
on meeting no obstruction. Early in the afternoon the National troops
reached the eastern banks of the Trent, directly opposite Newbern, which
was on the western banks of the river. The rebels had fired the city. In
seven different localities the flames were bursting forth, and dense volumes
of smoke were rising to the clouds. The magnificent railroad bridge,
across the Trent, 750 yards long, was also wrapped in one grand sheet of
flame.
With a few steamers Gen. Foster rapidly ferried his troops across. A
fortunate lull in the wind enabled the soldiers, with the aid of such of the
inhabitants as remained, to extinguish the fires; else the whole city would
have been reduced to %shes. The rebels had a very extensive camp, filled
with all luxuries, which they precipitately abandoned.  Five thousand
victorious troops thus found themselves in a comparatively deserted city.
Gen. Burnside very judiciously ordered every liquor cask in the camp and
in the city to be staved; a strong provost guard was established, and
before midnight the exhausted soldiers were all asleep, and the streets
were as quiet as if gentle peace had ever reigned there undisturbed.
In the advance upon Newbern the fleet of gun-boats cooperated with
great efficiency. The rebels had exerted their utmost ingenuity in filling
the river with obstructions, and its shores were lined with batteries. Commodore Goldsborough had suddenly returned to Fortress Monroe, being
recalled by the new peril which threatened our fleet there from the XJerrimac.  Commodore Rowan took pharge of the gun-boats, and, by his gallantry, proved that they could not have fallen into better hands. About
six miles below the city there was a shoal or sand-bar, dividing the stream
into two channels. In the right-hand channel the rebels had sunk twenty



334                 CIVIL WAIR IN  AMERICOA.
four vessels, locked into one another, stem  and stem. In the left-hand
channel they had ingeniously fastened a large number of heavy stakes, or
rather massive pieces of timber, sharpened with iron; and had also set as
traps many destructive torpedoes. Before the fleet reached this obstruction
it had two batteries to pass. The first was called Fort Dixie and mounted
four guns. But scarcely had the gun-boats opened upon it with their terrible salvos of shot and shell, ere the rebels fled, "like chaff before the
wind."  Some men were sent on shore in yawls to take possession and
raise the Stars and Stripes. A force of rebel cavalry were seen in the
woods behind the forts. A few shells dispersed them. The fleet steamed
slowly along, led by the flag-ship Delaware, till they came to another battery, mounting fifteen guns, called Fort Thompson. A few shots silenced
the rebel guns, dispersed the garrison, and the flag of the Union rose
proudly, amidst deafening cheers, over the ramparts. It was now night,
and the fleet was anchored till morning, with boats out on picket duty.
The next morning, Saturday, the 14th, everything was enveloped in an
impenetrable fog. It, however, soon lifted, and the gun-boats were again
in movement.  They approached the formidable obstructions, which were
also protected by Fort Brown, which mounted two powerful columbiads,
trained to bear directly upon any vessel which might be impaled upon the
beams. This fort was much stronger than either of the others, and v-as
also bomb-proof. Commander Rowan ordered all the boats to follow his
lead, and succeeded in passing through the obstructions uninjured. By
singular good fortune or skill in gunnery, a shot, fiom  one of the gunboats, entered the embrasure of the fort, struck one of the columbiads
directly upon the muzzle, hurling it from its carriage, and spreading such
consternation around, that the rebels fled at the double-quick. The fort
was instantly seized, the Stars and Stripes raised, and the whole fleet
worked through the obstructions, two only of the boats being slightly
injured. All the torpedoes were left harmless in the bottom of the river.
Still there was another battery to be encountered, Fort Ellis, mounting
nine guns. The garrisons of all the other captured forts had rallied here
for a desperate resistance. For a time the fight raged quite fiercely. At
length a shell, from one of the gun-boats, went directly through, into the
magazine, exploding it with a terrific report and awful carnage. As the
smoke cleared away, none of the rebels, but the dying and dead, were left
behind. There was still another battery to be passed, Fort Lane, which,
well handled, might have caused the National-fleet great annoyance. But
the terrified rebels abandoned it without firing a shot. A large number
of scows, filled with combustibles, had been collected as fire-rafts. The
rebels, in their haste, applied the torch, but the boats were not pushed out
into the stream, and they burned harmlessly by the shore. The fleet now
cast anchor before the city, just as the troops were entering it. It is a
singular fact that the navy did not lose a single man in running the gauntlet of all these forts and taking possession. of them.
There is a peculiar air of antiquity and decay pervading all these silent,
unenterprising Southern towns. The northern soldiers, accustomed to the
vigorous and tasteful towns and villages of the North, were surprised in




ROANOKE AND  NEWBERN.                         335
viewing the quiet streets, and the unpainted, slatternly houses, covered
with mosses and lichens. All accouilts agree in testifying to the heroic
courage, to the apparent unconcern with which our young troops faced all
the perils of the day. As one specimen an eye-witness says, " I was standing.on the road, in conversation with Lieut. Fearing, of Gen. Burnside's
staff, when a 32-pound shot flew between his horse's legs, barely escaping
his belly by an inch or two. Beyond giving a look to see if the animal
was safe, Lieut. Fearing showed no consciousness that anything unusual
had happened, and went on with the conversation."
In this victory the National forces captured six forts, thirty-four heavy
guns, six steamboats, and public property to the amount of two millions
of dollars.  Our loss was but 80 killed and 290 wounded. The rebel loss
about the samle.  The National sharpshooters kept up such a merciless
and accurate fire, that the rebel infantry dared not expose themselves in
taking aim. They simply, after loading behind the ramparts, raised their
guns over their heads and fired, almost at random, thus throwing many of
their bullets away. The capture of Newbern placed B3eaufort, N. C., and
Fort Macon at the mercy of the Government.  They might present a short
resistance, but their final reduction was sure. The colored population
were rejoiced beyond measure at the triumph of the North. As the Jews,
in the days of our Saviour, were all looking for the promised Messiah, so
the slaves universally throughout the South, regarded the advent of the
Northern armies as the harbinger of their deliverance.: No language can
express the satisfaction with which they received the National troops, and
the eagerness they manifested to serve them.
They could hardly believe the evidence of their senses, and could not
possibly restrain their delight, when they saw their affrighted masters running before our troops. They had never before dreamed that there could
be any earthly power superior to that which their dreaded masters wielded.
A  slaveholder, breathless with terror, spurred his horse to his utmost
speed, by his own door, not venturing to stop. Just then a shell, with its
terrific, unearthly shriek, rushed through the air, over his head. A poor
slave, a man of unfeigned piety and fervent prayer, in uncontrollable emotions of joy, ran into his humble cabin, shouting, "Wife; he is running;
he is running, and tihe wrath of God is after him."   -
The next day was the Sabbath. By order of Gen. Burnside, all-the
churches were open, the bells were rung as usual, the chaplains of the
army officiated, and as a general rule both officers and men "remembered
the Sabbath day to keep it holy."




CH:APTER XIV.
THE MERRIMAC AND THE MONITOR.
BUILDING OF THE GALENA.-ORIGIN OF THE MONITOR.-DIFFICULTIES TO BE3 OVERCOME.-FEARS
OF ITS FRIENDS.-ITS SUCCESSFUL LAUNCH.-FULL DRESOkPTION OF THE MONITOR.-THE MERRIlAC AND HER FIRST AGGRESSION.-HEROISM OF THE OFFICERS AND MEN UPON THE CUMBERLAND.-DESTRUCTION OF THE CONGRESS.-WITHDRAWAL OF THE MERRIMAC.-TERROR AT
FORTRESS MONROE. —ARRIVAL OF THE MONITOR.-TERRIBLE DUEL.-SINKING CONDITION OF
THE MERRIMAC.-APPEAlRANCE OF T]HE MONITOR AFTER THE FIGHT. —PEECHt OF MR. BENTINCK.
As soon as the rebellion assumed such magnitude, that a serious national war was threatened, C. S. Bushnell, Esq., a capitalist of New Haven,
Conn., turned his attention to the navy.  Some early experience in nautical life particularly invited his thoughts to that branch of our national
arm.  He conceived the opinion, that in iron-clad vessels there lay an
undeveloped problem, which it was the mission of America to solve. He
therefore caused to be drawn, by several eminent engineers, various plans
of such iron-mailed craft, one only of which met with his approval.  This
plan was subsequently developed into the gun-boat " Galena."
Many eminent mechanics insisted that the proposed weight of iron on
the Galena,  was such as to submerge her so deep, that, with her heavy
armament, she would inevitably sink.  In  order to satisfy himself fully
upon this point, and make assurance doubly sure, Mr. Bushnell concluded
to submit his plans to Capt. John Ericsson, whom  he regarded as one of
the ablest engineers in America, that he might obtain his opinion as to her
buoyancy.  Capt. Ericsson pronounced the calculations correct, and stated
that he believed she would prove a very serviceable vessel, though not perfectly shot-proof.  He then asked Mr. ]Bushnell if he wished to undertake
an absolutely invulnerable battery, and receiving an affirmative answer,
Capt. Ericsson took from  a shelf a box, about 18 inches by 14, which he
said contained the result of the labors of tiwenty years of his life.*
* John Ericsson was born in Sweden, in 1803. His father was proprietor of an iron mine, and
thus his son had an early opportunity to cultivate his taste in ffiechanics. The genius he indicated
interested Count Platen, a friend of King Bernadotte, and he secured fbr young Ericsson, in 1814,
a cadetship in the corps of engineers. After six months' study, when but twelve years of age. he
was placed in command of six hundred men on the great ship canal. At seventeen, he entered the
army as ensign, and was soon promoted to a lieutenancy, and was sent to survey the northern part
of Sweden. While busy with this survey, he invented a machine for engraving. In 1826, Ericsson
went to London, where he invented a locomotive engine. which would run fifty miles an hour. In
1833, he constructed a vessel with screw.4propellers, instead of paddle-wheels. England did not
give Ericsson a very warm reception, and, in 1839, at the solicitation of Com. Stockton, he came
to New York. Our Government employed him to introduce his propeller into the Princeton. Two




THE'MERRIMAC  AND  THE  MONITOR.                         337
He explained the plan to Mr. Bushnell, who soon appreciated its value,
and tried to induce Capt. Ericsson to proceed with him  to Washington,
offering to assist in piloting the invention through the mazes of governmental boards and bureaus.  This the inventor declined doing, stating
that he had already been sufficiently badgered and insulted by officials in
Washington, and that he should go there no more.
Capt. Ericsson was the first to apply the screw propeller to a war
steamer, and nearly fifteen years before had thus equipped the Princeton.
But he had been so annoyed by ignorant and supercilious government
agents, and had found it so impossible to obtain the remuneration promised
him, unless he would bribe some one to engineer his claims thmrough committees and boards, that he had left Washington in disgust, resolved that its
dust should never cleave to his feet again.
Capt. Ericsson stated that he had exhibited his plans to scarcely any
one, save that, in 1854, he sent duplicates to the Emperor Louis Napoleon.
He offered to allow Mr. Bushnell to take the plans, and do what lie pleased
with them. A bargain for the equitable distribution of labor and proceeds was soon agreed upon, and the same night, Mr. Bushnell was on his
way to Washington, keeping a close eye upon the small box by his side,
which possessed a value which even lie then could faintly have imagined.
On arriving in Washington, 1M1r. Bushnell met two acquaintances,'Messrs. John A. Griswold and John F. Winslow, both capitalists of Troy,
N. Y., to whom  he unfolded his plans, and at length they concluded to
unite their money, influence and energy, with him, in pushing the matter
through the governmental boards.  They first called upon President Lin.
coln, and explained the plans to him.  With the keen sagacity for which
the President is noted, he glanced his eye over the papers, and listened to
the explanations, and remarked that they struck hlim  very favorably,
although he did not pretend to have much knowledge of such matters.
He, however, accompanied tlhe gentlemen to the  Naval Board, and expressed his interest in the plan.
But now came the tug of war.  The gentlemen explained the diagrams
with all minuteness, showing their superiority to every thing of the kind
yet invented; but the Board were incredulous.  Some were disposed to
listen to the proposals, while others did not disguise the profound contempt
with which they regarded the whole affair.  One distingnished gentleman,
who happened to be present, remarked,
" It resembles nothing in the heavens above, or the earth beneath, or
in the waters under the earth.  You can take it home and worship it,
without violating any commandment."
Not discouraged at their ill success, they thought, if they could get MIr.
years were devoted to this work. In 1842, he received from the New York Iechanics' Institute
a gold medal, for the best steam fire-engine; and, in 1861, was rewarded with prizes at the great
Industrial Exhibition, for a salt-water condenser to supply fresh water to steamers. His other inventions, including the caloric engine, are too numerous to mention. His last and greatest work
is the Monitor. Capt. Ericsson is of large and symmetrical form, with a countenance indicative of
genius. Itis manners, though courteous, are slightly brusque, and all who meet with him are impressed with the conviction that he is an extraordinary man.
22




338               CIVIL  WAR IN  AMERICA.
Ericsson before the Committee, with the enthusiasm which he, as inventor,
could throw into his explanations, and with his greater familiarity with
the details, something might be accomplished. The night train found  ir.
Bushnell a passenger to New York.
But the trouble arose how to induce Capt. Ericsson to consent to visit
Washington. He had almost taken a vow that he would not again ask
any thing from Government. Mr. Bushnell, however, was so sanguine
that the merits of the invention could not fail to secure the approval of
intelligent men, if they could but be induced to examine the plans, that he
assured Capt. Ericsson he would guarantee the offer to build would be
accepted; that the Board merely desired further explanations, which only
he was able to give, and therefore he must go before them, and explain his
diagrams, for no one else could properly do it. Another night ride brought
Mr. Bushnell and his reluctant friend to Washington. They went immediately to the [Naval Board, which was then in session, and negotiations
were again opened. This interview was successful, and all were convinced
that possibiy there was some merit in the invention. The Board immediately sent to I-Ion. Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy, that they were
ready to report favorably, if Capt. Ericsson would guarctntee the good
qualities and invulnerability that he claimed for his battery. This was
agreed to, and Messrs. Bushnell & Co. were ordered to proceed at once to
its construction, and the contract would be forwarded in a few days. The
next train saw them en route for New York, and the following day active
business was commenced at the Continental Works, under the direction of
Thos. F. Rowland & Co.
In a few days the.contract came on, and so stringent were its terams,
compelling the contractors to take all risks, to guarantee every thing, and
withholding payment until actual service should prove the battery capable
of accomplishing all that was promised, that sonme of the gentlemen were
alarmed, and felt a little disinclined to embark in an enterprise, wlhich,
under such conditions, might involve them in ruin. To their credit, however, all remained, and now share the rewards of wealth and honor, which
the triumphant success of the battery has secured. Capt. Ericsson, with
his own hands, prepared all the working plans, the labor of which can be
imagined, w\hen it is remembered that there are between thirty and forty
patentable inventions applied on the battery. Work was pressed with the
greatest vigor, night and day.
In one hundred and one days from the signing of the contract, the
" Ionitor " was launched. Very many doubted her success. Some eminent engineers predicted that she could not carry the weight of iron which
was placed upon her, and that, in sliding from the ways, in launching, she
would make one grand plunge and disappear forever. So general was this
opinion, that but few would venture to be launched in her, and even the
builders, though satisfied that their calculations were correct, were so
influenced by popular prejudice, that they provided a steam-tug to rescue
the passengers, if she went down.
Gloriously this first impregnable battery glided into the river, beneath
the banner she was to uphold so nobly, and whose strength she was so




THE MERRIMAC AND  THE  MONITOR.                      339
greatly to augment. A graceful dip but baptized its bow beneath the
wave, dedicating it to liberty. It rose steady and firm, fulfilling, in its
buoyancy, Capt. Ericsson's predictions almost to a hair's breadth.  There
she sat, new born and unknown, but destined to be the "Monitor" of
nations, the wonder of the age, the humiliation of all existing navies,
whose wooden walls she could laugh to scorn. There she sat, an invention
that will descend side by side with the steamboat, whose daughter she is,
and the telegraph her kinsman.  This fabric, which had been scorned and
jeered at, as a monstrosity, while being built, became the saviour of our
navy, possibly of our nation. Those whose genius conceived her, and
whose energy constructed her, are entitled to deathless gratitude.  The
" Monitor"  has placed America, as a naval power, at least, on a par with
any nation upon this globe.
The Monitor is so novel in structure, that a minute description will be
necessary, to convey an accurate idea of her character.  She has two hulls.
The lower one is of iron, five-eighths of an inch thick. It is flat-bottomed,
six feet six inches in depth. It is sharp at both ends, the cut-water retreating at an angle of about thirty degrees.  The sides, instead of having the
ordinary bulge, incline at an angle of about fifty-one degrees.  This hull
is one hundred and twenty-ibur feet long, and thirty-four feet broad at the
top.
IResting on this is the upper hull, flat-bottomed, and bot'h longer and
wider than the lower hull, so that it projects over in every direction, like
the guards of a steamboat. It is one hundred and seventy-four feet long,
forty-one feet four inches wide, and five feet deep. These sides constitute
the armor of the vessel. In the first place is an inner guard of iron, half
an inch thick. To this is fastened a wall of white oak, placed endways,
and thirty inches thick. To this is bolted six plates of iron, each one inch
thick, thus making a solid wall of thirty-six and a half inches of wood and
iron.
This hull is fastened upon the lower hull, so that the latter is entirely
submerged, and the upper one sinks down three feet into the water. Thus,
but two feet of hull are exposed to a shot. The under hull is so guarded
by the projecting upper hull, that a ball, to strike it, would have to pass
through twenty-five feet of water.  The upper hull is also pointed at both
ends, and will serve the purpose of a ram.  The deck comes flush with the
top of the hull, and is made bomb-proof. INTo railing or bulwark rises
above the deck. The projecting ends serve as a protection to the propeller,
rudder and anchor, which can not be struck.  Neither the anchor or chain
is ever exposed. The anchor is peculiar, being very short, but heavy. It
is hoisted into a place fitted for it, outside of the lower hull, but within
the imlpenetrable shield of the upper one.
On the deck are but two structures rising above the surface, the pilothouse and turret.  The pilot-house is forward, made of plates of iron, the
whole about ten inches in thickness, and shot-proof. Small slits and holes
are cut through, to enable the pilot to see his course. The turret, which
is apparently the main feature of the battery, is a round cylinder, twenty
feet in interior diameter, and nine feet high. It is built entirely of iron




340                 CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
plates, one inch in thickness, eight of them securely bolted together, one
over another. Within this is a lining of one-inch iron, acting as a damper,
to deaden the effects of a concussion, when struck by a ball. Thus there
is a shield of nine inches of iron. The turret rests on a bed-plate, or ring,
of composition, which is fastened to the deck. To help support the weight,
which is about a hundred tons, a vertical shaft, ten inches in diameter, is
attached, and fastened to the bulk-head. The top is made shot-proof by
huge iron beams, and perforated to allow of ventilation. It has two circum
lar port-holes, both on one side of the turret, three feet above the deck,
and just large enough for the muzzle of the gun to be run out.
The turret is made to revolve, being turned by a special engine. The
operator within, by a rod connected with the engine, is enabled to turn it
at pleasure. It can be made to revolve at the rate of sixty revolutions a
minute, and can be regulated to stop within half a degree of a given point.
When the guns are drawn in to load, the port-hole is stopped by a huge
iron pendulum, which falls to its place, and makes that part as secure as
any, and can be quickly hoisted to one side. The arnmament consists of
two eleven-inch Dahlgren guns. Various improvements in the gun-carriage enable the gunner to secure almost perfect aim.
The engine is not of great power, as the vessel was designed as a battery, and not for swift sailing. It being almost entirely under water, the
ventilation is secured by blowers, drawing the air in forward, and discharging it aft. A separate engine moves the blowers, and fans the fires.
There is no chimney, so the draft must be entirely artificial. The smoke
passes out of gratings in the deck.  Many suppose the Monitor to be
merely an iron-clad vessel, with a turret; but there are, in fact, between
thirty and forty patentable inventions upon her, and the turret is by no
means the most important one. Very properly, what these inventions are,
is not proclaimed to the public.
It may be of interest to know, that for her construction, Capt. Ericsson,
himself, prepared nearly three thousand plans, large and small. Her cost
was but $175,000.
From the commencement of the rebellion, the rebels, conscious of their
weakness as a maritime power, devoted much attention to the structure of
iron-clad rams and batteries.  Upon the burning and evacuation of the
Norfolk lNavy Yard, the steam frigate.Merrimac was scuttled and sunk,
by order of Commodore Macaulay. This was one of the most magnificent
ships in the American navy, being rated as a forty-gun frigate, of 4,000
tons burden.  She was built in Charlestown, Mass., in 1856, and was considered one of the finest specimens of naval architecture then afloat. She
was 281 feet long, 52 feet broad, and drew 23 feet of water. Her engines
were of 800 horse power, driving a two-bladed propeller, fourteen feet in
diameter, and so adjusted as to be raised from the water when the vessel
was driven by wind alone. Her armament consisted of twenty-four nineinch shell guns, fourteen eight-inch, and two 100-pound pivot guns.
This magnificent structure was raised by the rebels and cut down,
leaving only the hull, which was exceedingly massive and solid. Over
this they constructed a sloping shield of railroad iron, firmly plated to



THE  MERRIMAC AND  THE  MONITOR.                     341
gether, and extending two feet under the water.  Its appearance was
much like the slanting roof of a house, set upon a ship's hull, like ail
extinguisher, —the ends of the vessel, fore and aft, projecting a few feet
beyond this roof. The gun-deck was completely inclosed by this shield,
and nothing appeared above it but a short smnoke-stack and two flag-stafis.
The we;lht of iron was so immense that the ship nearly broke her back in
launching; but the fracture was repaired. The fact that such a formidable mailed battery was in preparation, was well known at the North, and
her speedy appearance was daily predicted by the press.
About noon of Saturday, the 8th of March, 1862, this monster was
seen comining around Craney Island, from Noroblk, accompanied by two
other war vessels, the Jamestown and Yorktown, both formerly passenger
steamers, running between New York and Richmond, and subsequently
altered into rebel war steamers. These were followed by quite a little fleet
of armed tugs and war craft.  The monster Merrimac, with her imposing
retinue in train, headed for Newport News, where there was a. national
garrison, guarded by the sailing frigates, the Cumn-berland, of 1,'726 tons,
and the Congress, of 1,867 tons burden.  Both of these fine frigates were
at anchor, within half a mile of the shore battery. The crew of the Congress had recently been discharged, and three companies of the naval
brigade were manning her temporarily, until she could be relieved by the
St. Lawrence, which was also then at anchor in the RIoads. As both the
Congoess and the Cumberland were merely sailing vessels, they were Lunch
at the mercy of their steam opponents.
The:Merrimac steamed majestically along, as if conscious of resistless
strength, and, as she passed the Congress, discharged a single broadside
into the doomed ship, and then, leaving her to the attention of the Jamestown and the Yorktown, made directly for the Cumberland. When the
Merrimac was within a hundred yards of the two frigates, they both discharged their tremendous broadsides against her armor. The mailed monster quivered a moment under the fearful concussion, but every ball glanced
from her sloping shield, like the wooden arrows of the Indian from the hide
of the crocodile. IHer ports were all closed. Not deigning to pay any attention to the fierce but harmless assault of the two frigates, she rushed
straight forward upon her prey. The formidable national battery at Newport News opened, with all its massive guns, at point-blank range, and
these solid shot and shells also glanced harmlessly away. On rushed the
silent MFerrimnac, with not a soul on board to be seen, true as an arrow,
and with all the power of her irresistible weight, plunged headlong, with
a fearful crash, into the side of the helpless frigate. The iron prow of the
assailant struck the Cumberland amidships, crushing in her side with a
mortal gash. Then, reversing her engine, and not even annoyed by the
cannon balls rattling against her impervious mail, she retraced her steps a
few rods for another butt. As she drew back, she turned her broadside to
the wounded victim, and hurled into her bosom a merciless volley of shot
and shells. It was a terrible discharge from hundred-pound Armstrong
gnls, every shot of which, at that distance, would have pierced the armor
of the Warrior, of England, or the La Gloire, of France. The ponderous




342                  CIVIL WAR  IN  AMERICA.
missiles tore through the crowded ship, hurling her massive guns about
her decks, and scattering mutilated bodies in all directions. Again gathering headway, she crowded on all steam, and made,another plunge at the
Cumberland. She struck directly upon the former wound, and crushed in
the whole massive oaken side of the ship, as if it had been but a latticework of laths.  Timbers as strong as nature and art could maIk- them,
were snapped and crushed like dry twigs.
But the Cumberland, though overcome, though helpless as a babe in a
giant's arms, was not vanquished.  Bravely her heroic crew, under the
command of Lieut. Geo. M. Mlorris, fought as against fate itself. No gun
was silent that could speak.  With courage and coolness unprecedented,
they took the most careful aim, attempting to penetrate the port-holes, the
only vulnerable point of their terrible adversary. The smoke stack of the
AMerrimac was riddled with their shot; the flag-staff shot away, and her
anchor bent as if it had been moulded from  lead; but the iron-cased battery scarcely showed a scratch.  The crew of the Cumberland seemed
inspired with a supernatural desperation.  When all hope was gone, they
still with one voice vowed that they would never surrender the Cumbnerland to the rebels, and heroically their guns reiterated the vow, as the
ship settled deeper and deeper in the engulfing wave.  From  lip to lip
the cry passed along the decks, " The ship is sinking."  Yet not a man
left his gun; not a white flag was waved; no hand moved to draw down
our National banner, before the detested rebel flag, terrible as was the
power which rebellion now developed.  Not a man turned his eye towards
the life-boats for escape.  One sentiment glowed in every heart, "honor
the flag."  One sentiment burst from the lips of all, even from- those who
were strewed in mutilation over the decks-their life-blood fast ebbingand that utterance was, "We will never surrender!"  HIeroic men!
greater in defeat than you could possibly have been in victory.
Rapidly the ship settled in the waves.  The water began to swash over
the upper deck, and still every unsubmerged gun was hurling defiance at
the foe. The ship careened upon one side. The last gunner, knee-deep
in water, pulled the trigger of the last gun, and the dying words of the
Cumberland were uttered.  There was a whirl, a plunge, a boiling cauldron of air-bursting billows, and the majestic frigate, with all her dead and
all her wounded, sank like lead. A few feet of her topmasts rose above
the wave, and there the Stars and Stripes still floated, victorious in death.*
The surface of the water was now covered with fragments of the wreck,
and with hundreds of *men swimming towards the shore, while from  all
directions boats were pushing out for their rescue. About one hundred of
the dead and the wounded went down with the ship. While this multitude of men were struggling in the water, the steam propeller " Whillden,"
* The names of the officers who manifested themselves, and inspired their men, with such
heroism, should be perpetuated in history. The following is the list: Lieutenant George M. Morris i Lieutenant and Executive Officer, HI. V. Davenport; Lieutenant, T. O. Selfriade; Surgeon,
S. Jackson; Assistant Surgeon, W. W..Leavitt; Paymaster, C. Burt; Chaplain, J. Lenhart; First
Lieutenant of Marines, C. FHayward; Boatswain, E. B. Beal; Gunner, G. Mack; Carpenter, W. 1M.
Leaighton; Sailmaker, D. Bruce.




THE  MERRIMAC  AND  THE  MONITOR.                    340
then lying under the guns of Newport News, not half a mile off, under
Capt. Winm. Riggins, instantly put off, in the face of the resistless enemy,
and rescued a large number who would otherwise have been drowned.
Probably her humane errand saved her from the destruction to which she
wvas exposed, since the moment after she had picked up the last man, a
shot from  the [Merrimac passed through her boiler, thus emllphatically
ordering her away.
The f/lerrimac having thus, in forty-five minutes, finished the Cumberland, turned her attention to the Congress. This vessel, being but partially manned, spread sail and endeavored to escape. Indeed, had she
been doubly manned her destruction was sure. She could present no
resistance to the power ready to crush her. In the attempt to escape she
unfortunately grounded, and thus became still more helpless. The rebel
gun-boats, the Jamestown and Yorktown, were hovering about, discharging their shot at their majestic foe with but little effect, since the tremendous broadsides of the frigate compelled these unworthy assailants to keep
at a respectful distance. But the BMerrimac was now approaching, and
her plucky allies bustled along, under her protection.  The mailed monster, despising the guns of the Congress, deliberately chose her position, at
the distance of about a hundred yards, and discharged broadside after
broadside, of her hulndred-pound shot and shell, raking the ship from
stemn to stern. At the same time the Jamestown boldly rushed up, upon
one quarter, and the Yorktown and others of the rebel fleet upon the other,
and poured in their destructive fire of shells and red-hot shot, upon the
crippled frigate. The carnage was awful. The decks were in an instant
covered with dismounted guns and mangled limbs and gory blood.  She
was set on fire in three separate places. The fresh breeze fanned the flames,
which timbers and planks dry as tinder fed. The fiery billows burst forth
as from a volcano. The wounded could not escape, and were exposed to
the horrible doomn of being slowly burned alive. This sight could not be
endured by the surviving officers and crew. With tears and anguish the
flag was drawn down. A rebel tug-boat was sent to take off the prisoners
from the flaming wreck.  Some sharpshooters, from the shore, kept up a
fire upon the rebel fleet.  The M/errimac, in revenge, poured another
deadly broadside into the burning, sinking Congress, killing and wounding scores of her men, who were struggling to escape the flames. It was
an inhuman act. The surrender of the Congress, was not the termination
of the battle, was not the surrender of all the fleets and batteries, was not
a truce even. This slaughter of defenseless men, with the white flag flying at the peak of their ship, and an officer waving a white handkerchief
from  the deck, was murder. The officers of the Congress were taken
prisoners by the rebels, while the crew were permitted to escape to the
shore in their boats. The Congress burned, hour after hour, a seething
cauldron of flame, illumining the whole scene, with a lurid glare, until at
midnight the fire reached her magazine, and with an explosion, loud as a
thousand thunders, the ship was thrown into the air, and the myriad of
fiery fragments fell upon the sea, and as the flames were quenched beneath
the waves, darkness " that could be felt," shrouded the dismal scene.




344                      CIVIL  WAIt IN   AME RICA.
The Xerrimac, however, leaving the Congress to her fate, but a mass
of fire, turned without delay to attack the two other splendid frigates, the
St. Lawrence "Ind the Minnesota.  Strange to say, they were both aground.,
There may be some excuse, not yet divulged, to  account for the  lunprepared condition of our fleet, at Hampton  Roads, when it had been known
fbr months that the Merrimac was preparing  for the assault.  But like
nmany other mysteries of this war, we know  not where to look for the solution.  The AMin nesota and St. Lawrence were both helpless, waiting to be
consumed by the devouring mnonster.  Flushed with victory, and reckless
of danger, the Mierrimac, in supposed invulnerability, at very short range,
received a full broadside from  the heavy guns of the Minnesota.  Probably
some shots entered her portholes, and her machinery received some damage.
It is said that one of her guns was struck by a solid shot, and two feet of
the muzzle knocked off.  There were a few moments of apparent hesita.tion.  Night was rapidly approaching; the two National steamers were
in such a position that they could not escape before morn ing; and the allconquering M5errimac, with her rebel banner exultantly floating, returned
to her safe anchorage, behind  Craney Island, that she might get ready to
continue her operations the next day.?`
As the sun went down, that night, over HI-ampton Roads,  every IUnion
heart in the fleet and in the fortress throbbed with despair.  There was no
gleam  of hope.  The M}errimac was impervious to balls, and conld go
where she pleased.  In  the  morning  it would be easy work for her to
destroy our whole fleet.  She could then shell Newport lNews and Fortres'c
Monroe  at her leisure, setting  everything  combustible  in  flames, and
driving every man fiom  the guns.  As the news of the terrible disaster
was flashed over the country, by the telegraph  wires, all faces wore an
expression  of consternation.   The writer was in WVashington  at the time.
Congress was in  session.  The  panic  cannot be described.  There was
absolutely nothing to prevent the M~errimac from  ascending the Potomac,
and laying the capital in ashes, providing there was depth of water to float
A k month before this terrible onslaught of the Merrimac, Mr. Charles Ellet, civil engineer,
published a pamphlet, entitled "i Military Incapacity," a copy of which was placed in the hands of
every member of the United States Government, at Washington.  In this pamphlet he says, "It
is not generally known that the rebels have now five steam rams, nearly ready for use. Of these
five, two are on the lower Mississippi, two are at Mobile, and one at Norfolk. The last of the five,
the one at Norfolk, is doubtless the most formidable, being the United States steam fiigate Merrimac, which has been so strenghened that, in the opinion of the rebels, it may be used as a aram
But we have not yet a single vessel at sea, nor, so far as I know, in course of construction, able to
ope at all with a well built ram. If the Merrimac is permitted to escape from Elizabeth River,
she will be almost certain to commit great depredations on our armed and unarmed vessels in
Hampton Roads; and may even be expected to pass out under the guns of Fortress Monroe, and
prey upon our commerce ill Chesapeake Bay. Indeed, if the alterations have been skillfully made,
and she succeeds in getting to sea, she will not only be a terrible scourge to our commerce, but
may prove also to be a most dangerous visitor to our blockading squadrons off the harbors of the
Southern coasts. I have endeavored to call the attention of the Navy Department and the country so often to thils subject, during the last seven years, that I almost hesitate to allude to it again.
And I would not do so here, but that I think the danger, from these tremendous engines, is very
imminent but clot at all appreciated.'Experience, derived from accidental collisions, shows that a
vessel struck in the waist, by a steam ram, at sea, will go down almost instantaneously, and
illnvolve, as has often happened, all on board."




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346                CIVIL WAlR IN AMERICA.
the steamer, and no one knew whether there were this depth or not, for no
one knew the draft of the Merrimac. Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York,
Boston and Portland were in a state of terror. The Merrimac could
laugh at forts.
The experiment of an hour had wrought an entire change in naval
architecture and in defensive fortifications throughout the world. Wooden
frigates had almost ceased to be of any value. The blow which sunk the
Cumberland, demolished also the fleets of England and France. All navies
went down with that frigate into the abyss together. It is not too much
to say, that such a night of anxiety, of terror, of bewildermnent, as followed
the triumphant return of the iMierrimac to her anchorage behind Craney
Island, this world has seldom witnessed before. Through unpardonable
carelessness somewhere, the Minnesota and the St. Lawrence were both
aground. The Roanoke also was in the same condition, and had for six
months lain helpless in those waters with a broken shaft.
About ten o'clock in the evening the agitated, sleepless garrison at
Fortress Monroe, perceived two small steamers, coming in from the sea,
and approaching Old Point Comfobrt. As the steamers drew near, they.observed that they had a singular looking small raft in tow, upon the centre of which there was a small round tower or cupola, but a few feet high.
The raft proved to be the new Ericsson battery, the Monitor, in tow of the
gun-boats, the Sachem and Currituck. She had left New York on Thursday, the 6th, in company with these steamers.  It was now Saturday
evening, the 8th.  The first part of the voyage the weather was pleasant
and all things went smoothly. On Friday the wind rose, with a heavy
sea, and the waves made a clear breach over the deck, which was but two
feet above the level of the water. This, however, did not appear in the
least to retard the progress of the Monitor, as she cut her way through tle
waves as easily as she rode over them. But owing to the imperfect caulking of a part of the deck she leaked badly, wetting the berth deck and
engine room. The vessel was ventilated and the furnace draft gained by
means of blowers. But unfortunately the blower strap broke, and stopped
the supply draft for the furnace. The engine room was soon filled with
coal gas, and iMr. Stimers, engineer-in-chief, Mr. Newton, senior engineer,
and six others narrowly escaped suffocation. This defect was afterwards
remedied. The battery, on the whole, proved to be an admirable sea-boat,
the sea harmlessly washing over her, instead of lifting her on its crest.
An eye-witness, from Fortress MIonroe, thus touchingly describes the
scenes which transpired, and the emotions which were excited, on that
eventful Saturday night:
" That morrow! How anxiously we waited for it! how much we
feared its results! II ow anxious our Saturday eve of preparation! At
sundown there was nothing to dispute the empire of the seas with the
Merrimac, and had a land attack been made by Magruder then, God only
knows what our fate would have been. The St. Lawrence and the Minnesota aground and helpless, the Roanoke with a broken shaft, —these were
our defenses by sea; while on land we were doing all possible to resist a
night invasion;-but who could hope that would have much efficiency?




THE MECtRIMAC AND  THE  MONITOR.                   347
Oh! what a night that was; that night I never can forget. There was no
fear during its long hours-danger, I find, does not bring that,-but there
was a longing for some interposition of God and waiting upon H-im, fiom
whom we felt our help must come, in earnest, fervent prayer, while not
neglecting all the means of martial defense He had placed in our hands.
Fugitives from [Newport News kept arriving; ladies and children had
walked the long ten miles from Newport News, feeling that their presence
only embarrassed their brave husbands. Sailors from the Congress and
Cumberland came, one of them with his ship's flag bound about his waist,
as he had swum with it ashore, determined the enemy should never trail
it in dishonor as a trophy. Dusky fugitives, the contrabands, came,
mournfully fleeing from a fate worse than death-slavery. These entered
my cabin, hungry and weary, or passed it in long, sad procession.. The
heavens were aflame with the burning Congress. The hotel was crowded
with fugitives, and private hospitality was taxed to the utmost. But there
were no soldiers canong the, ying host; all in our camps at Newport News
and Camp Ilamilton were at the post of duty, undismayed, and ready to
do all and dare all for their country. The sailors came only to seek
another chance at the enemy, since the bold Cumberland had gone down
in the deep waters, and the Congress had gone upward, as if a chariot of
fire, to convey the manly souls, whose bodies had perished in that conflict,
upward to heaven. I had lost several friends there; yet not lost, for they
are saved who do their duty to their country and their God, as these had
done. We did not pray in vain.
"'The heavy night hung dark the hills and waters o'er,'
but the night was not half so heavy as our hearts, nor so dark as our prospects. All at once a speck of light gleamed on the distant wave; it
moved; it came nearer and nearer, and at ten o'clock at night, the lfionitor cppeared.' WVhen the tale of bricks is doubled, Moses comes.' I never
more firmly believed in special providences than at that hour. Even skeptics for the moment were converted, and said,' God has sent her!' But
how insignificant she looked; she was but a speck on the dark blue sea at
night, almost a laughable object by day. The enemy call her a' cheesebox on a raft,' and the comparison is a good one. Could she meet the
Merrimac? The morrow must determine, for under God, the Monitor is
our only hope."
On arriving at Fortress Monroe, Lieut. J. L. Worden, who had previously rendered himself illustrious, through the heroic adventures in
which, traversing the land of the rebels, he had conveyed dispatches for
the ie6nnforcement of Fort Pickens, in Florida, reported to the Roanoke
for orders. Hie was directed to lay aside of the MIinnesota, to guard her
in case of a night attack. A great sense of relief was experienced, in this
opportune, providential arrival of the Monitor. IIe who believes that not
a sparrow falls without our Father's notice, will recognize in this event the
hand of God. The Government had not ordered, or even, as yet, purchased the Monitor. A private individual, and he a foreigner, had devised




348                CIVIL  W-AR IN  AMKERICA.
the plan, and private enterprise had constructed the ship,-the lNaval
Board merely permitting the experiment to be tried. Throughout the
country generally, but little was known of the Monitor. Those who had
heard of her were by no means confident of her success. Still, with her
presence, there was, at least, a chance of the life of our fleet. Without
her, there was no chance at all. There was but little sleep at Fortress
Monroe that night. The Monitor was new and untried.  She was insignificant in size, compared with the Merrimac.. She mounted but two
gunns while her adversary carried ten. Her chance of success, over such
fearful odds, appeared small. The night, however, passed away without
an alarm.
The next morning was the Sabbath, Mi[arch 9th, and the sun rose with
unusual brilliance in the serene and cloudless sky. Never did a more
lovely morning dawn over those peaceful waters. Anxious eyes gazed in
the direction of Sewall's Point, where three rebel vessels were at anchor.
One of theni was Supposed to be the Merrimac, though the distance was
too great to determine with accuracy. A movement was made about nine
o'clolk, which indicated that they were preparing for another engagement.
Instantly all was life on board the Monitor, and in fifteen minutes she was
in perfect fighting  trim. The iron hatches were closed, the deadlight
covers put on, and every obstruction removed from the main deck, so as
to present a smooth-surfiace, only twenty-four inches above the water, unbroken, save by the'turret; and pilot-house. Every man was sent to his
post. Lieut. Worden and several of his officers stood upon the top of the
turret, earnestly watching every movement of the vessels in the distance.
Soon it was manifest that the Mlerrimac was on her way, presenting the
aspect ofa subirerged house, with the roof only out of the water. The
terrible battery was accompanied, as before, by, her consorts, the Jamestown and the Yorktown, and by quite a fleet of tug-boats, crowded with
gentlemen and ladies fiom Norfolk, eager to enjoy the pleasure of seeing
the national fleet demolished, and Fortress Monroe bombarded and taken.
Nothing but the little round tub, nine feet high, and,twenty feet in dianmeter, supported by a flioat scar cely above the level of the water, stood in the
way of the destruction of every thing at Fortress MIonroe, which the most
powerful guIns could reach,-the raising of the blockade, and the shelling,
perhaps, of..-Washington, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. It was
David meeting Goliath.  Thousands were to witness the battle, who could
not lift afilhger to aid in its results. Men prayed then, who never prayed
before.
The officers of the Monitor. immediately repaired to their several stations.  Lieut. Green took command of the gunners.  Chief Engineer
Stimers took charge of the revolving turret, to control its movements.
The Merrimac, entirely unconscious of the new antagonist she had to
encounter, came leisurely along, and opened fire upon the Minnesota,
which was still aground. The MlVinnesota replied with a broadside, which
might as well have been discharged against the rock of Gibraltar.  The
destruction of. the frigate was to be manifestly but sport for the MVierrimac.
Just then, the Monitor'.hove in sight, resembling, as the rebels truly said,




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THE  MERRIMAC AND  TIE MONITOR.                    349
a small raft, with a " Yankee cheese-box" upon it. The idea at first did
not enter their minds, that the insignificant little craft, whatever it might
be, would venture to face their guns. But the Monitor steamed boldly
onawiard toward its formidable antagonist, and, when at the distance of
about half a mile, Lieut. Worden, who had taken his position in the pilothouse, gave the order to fire. The gun was aimed, the huge iron pendulaum swung aside, the men sprang to the gun-ropes, a momentary creaking
)of pulleys was heard, then a thundering report, and a solid ball, weighing
a hLiundred and seventy pounds, was hurled against the mailed side of the
AJerorimac. The Monitor had uttered her maiden speech, and it was a
cU!allen:ge which no antagonist could venture to disregard.
The lMerrimac paused in utter astonishment, being scarcely able to
discern her distant and diminutive adversary.  But the gauntlet thus
thrown, the scornful rebel was compelled to accept.  She then turned
upon the ]Monitor, to demolish a foe unworthy of her notice, but whose
audacity had provoked her ire. Drawing near the little floating turret, at
the range of but a fiw yards, she poured in one of her terrible broadsides,
sure that after such a discharge, the Monitor might be sought for in vain.
But as the smoke lifted behold the turret unharmed. As well fire at a
phantom. Astounded and enraged at the failure, the Merrimac now ran,
"head on, full tilt " upon the Monitor, to ride over her, and sink her to
the bottom of the bay. "lReserve your fire,' said Iieut. Worden to the
gunners, " aim deliberately, and do not lose a shot."  It was now Greek
meeting Greek; iron against iron. HIundred pound shot rattled against
the mailed and impenetrable sides of the combatants, in this tremendous
duel, and glanced off like hail. Never before had ships met, carrying such
heavy guns. From both vessels the firing was executed with great rapidity, and with equal skill. The little Mltonitor was superior in speed to the
Merrimac, and steamed around her mammoth antagonist, almost as a
hornet would attack a bull. The turret turned with perfect ease, so that
in whatever direction the battery was heading, the two guns were always
pointing at the foe.  Lieut. Worden, in the pilot-house, had a good
lookout through the iron gratings, and gave the directions, through
speaking tubes, to Lieut. Gireen, who commanded the gunners in the
tower.
At one time, when the vessels were almost tonching each other, Lieut.
Green trained his gun on the 3Merrimac's water line. The shot struc'k,
exactly where it was aimed, and apparently penetrated the ship. " Splendid, sir! splendid, sir!' exclaimed Lieut. Worden, through his tiubes.
c" You made the iron fly. You cannot do better, but fire as rapidly as you
can."  A shot from the Merrimac, weighing 100 pounds, striking the turret fair and square, would produce a concussion which occasionally knocked
the men down, butt causing no other injury.  The Mferrimac, in her
attempt to run down the Monitor, failed entirely. She struck her antagonist fairly andcl at ill speed, causing, however, but a slight jar. By the collision the prow of the Merrimac was broken, and her mail cut through by
the sharp edge of the Monitor, causing a bad leak. In the desperation of
the fight the ships closed, actually touching sides, hurling shot and shell at




350                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
each other with demoniac energy. But these cast-iron missiles glanced or
crumbled to powder. The rebel Yorktown at one time attempted to interfere.  A  single 170-pound shot, from the M[onitor, passed through the
traitor, and sent hin home to have his wounds bandaged. The contest
was, for a time, so hot, the muzzles of the hostile guns almost touching
each other, that both ships were enveloped in a cloud of smoke, which no
eye could penetrate. Flash and thunder-roar burst forth incessantly from
the tumultuous maelstrom  of darkness, and solid balls, weighing 170
pounds, glancing from the armor, ricochetted over the water, in all directions, for one and two miles. Such bolts were never hurled from the
fabled hands of Jupiter Olympus.
Thus this duel raged with unintermitted fury for four long hours. The
Milonitor, at but a few yards' distance, steamed around her foe, planting a
ball here, and a ball there, eagerly searching to find some vital spot. She
tried her rudder, her sides, her screw, just above the water line, just below
the water line. In some of these efforts she was successful, and at length
three gaping holes were visible, and the Merrimac was evidently sinking.
D1e rebel was wzhipped; and firing his last gun, turned to run away.
Unfortunately, just at that moment, as Lieut. Worden was looking out, at
the iron grating of the pilot-house, a hundred-pound shot struck pointblank upon the grating, just before his eyes. The concussion knocked him
prostrate, and for the moment, senseless. I-e was also entirely blinded
by the minute fragments of iron and powder driven into his eyes, inflicting
an injury. from  which he can never wholly recover.  This occasioned
momentary confusion, until the command was assumed by Lieut. Green.
The Merrimac, which had entered the conflict with a spirit so proud and
defiant, was now limping on the retreat thoroughly whipped and humiliated. As so much depended upon the single Monitor, it was not deemed
wise to expose her to any risks not actually necessary.  She had, therefore, received orders to act strictly on the defensive, and by no means to
leave the immediate vicinity of the fleet. She, however, pursued her disabled foe a short distance, throwing into her a few parting military benedictions, and then left her to seek refuge in her rebel anchorage. As
Lieut. WTorden,  after a time, revived from  the stunning blow he had
received, his first question was, " Have I saved the Minnesota?"  "yes,?"
was the reply, "and whipped the Merrimac."  "Then," he rejoined, " I
care not what becomes of me."
It was a glorious victory. Thousands and tens of thousands on the
shore, from Fortress Monroe, Newport News and all the rebel batteries,
were watching the conflict. No tongue can tell the joy which thrilled the
hearts of the National troops at the result.  Cheer after cheer rose from
the fleet and from the fortress, and rolled like reverberating thunder along
the shores, and over the bay. The shattered Merrimac was soon met by
two rebel steam-tugs, who took her in their arms, and bore her fainting
and dying to Norfolk.  Her injuries were vital. After the efforts of
months to repair themn, she did not venture to leave her hospital, again to
face her foe, until, as we shall hereafter have occasion to describe, in the
excess of chagrin and despair, she committed suicide.
Tile Mllonlitor was entirely uninjiured.  She was struck twenty-two




THE  MERRIMAC  AND'THE  MONITOR.                  351
times on all parts of her. The indentations were so slight that a fresh
coat of paint almost rendered them invisible, with the exception of the
pilot-house, where a ball striking, bent and cracked a huge iron beam,
nine inches by twelve, pressing it inward one and a half inches. Where
the prow of the Merrimac came in contact with the side of the Monitor,
an insignificant dent on the outside was the only mark of the encounter.
No official report of the losses on board the Merrimac was ever published.
The Norfolk Day Book stated that nine were killed and eleven wounded.
Others of the rebel papers denied that there was any loss of life. The
Minnesota was subsequently got off the shoal, having received no material
damage.
Before the Monitor sailed, Capt. Ericsson told the officers particularly
to instruct the men not to be frightened at the terrible concussions of the
enemy's balls against the outside of the turret. It might stun, but it would
not hurt them. The concussion of shot, weighing 100 pounds, moving at
the rate of a third of a mile a second, and striking a hollow, iron-cased
chamber, within a foot of a man's head, can hardly be imagined. Castiron shot, striking fairly the iron mail, will crumble almost to powder.
The Monitor carried out fifty wrougyht-iron shot. But orders were issued
that they should not be used. They were exactly fitted to the bore of the
guns, and it was feared that, by their expansion at the moment of being
fired, they might burst the guns. Others were subsequently made, a little
smaller, whichll would allow of expansion. The Monitor drew but ten feet
water, and could consequently go almost anywhere.
One is not a little perplexed to know what comment to make upon this
whole affair.  The providential arrival of the )Monitor, just at that hour,
saved the national cause from a disaster which one shudders to contemplate. And yet it had been known for months, that the l{errimac was in
progress. Three weeks before she appeared, it is stated that Gen. Wool,
at Fortress 3Monroe, sent word both to the War and Navy Departments,
that she would soon come out, giving an accurate description, which he
had obtained from a trustworthy source, of her build and armament, and
stating that there was nothing at IHampton Roads which could present any
resistance. The Government, in consequence of this want of preparation,
lost two of our finest frigates, including property to the amount of two or
three millions of dollars, and about two hundred valuable lives. And, but
for the private enterprise which devised and pushed forward the Monitor,
national disasters might have ensued which can hardly be exaggerated.
The night succeeding the battle, there was another scene of horror.
At midnight, the thousands at Fortress Monroe were awakened by fearful
cries from the water of " Fire! fire! 0 God save us!"  They rushed to
the shore. At a little distance, the national gun-boat Whitehall was all
in flames. There were no boats near the camp. There seemed to be no
hope for the crew, but to be burned or drowned. It was a terrible sight,
as the whole scene was illumined as with the light of day by the fire.
The balls firom shotted guns of the burning steamer were flying in all
directions, endangering those who looked on. One shell struck the hospital, causing fearful terror,-as the inmates supposed that the dreaded
Merrimac had returned, and was shelling the forts. The conflagration




352                CIVIL WAR IN  AMEIRICA.
was caused by a red-hot shot, which the ~Merrimac, during the day, had
thrown through the Whitehall, and which had left between the timbers a
smouldering spark. Four only of the poor seamen perished in the flames,
or water. The rest, by God's interposing kindness, succeeded in reaching
the shore. Thus ended this eventful confli;ct-a battle never to be fobrgotten, and which inaugurates a new era in naval warfare.
Immediately after this conflict, Mr. Bentinek said, in the ]British Parliamlent, " Coast fortresses are henceforth rendered perfectly useless, by
the invention of invulnerable war-ships."  The massive fortresses, which
now frown along the coasts of all civilized nations, and which have been
reared at the expense of millions of money, are doubtless destined to stand,
in the future, like the crumbling castles of feudal Europe, as the monuments of an age, in military science, gone by. Plate a stationary land
battery as thickly as you please, and mount upon it guns of whatev-er calibre, to throw balls to any distance, and still a ship can get out of range,
while the battery is loading with its second charge. And a squadron of
such Monitors, selecting their positions, and bringing a hundred guns to
bear upon a particular point, can batter that fortress down. Whatever
ordnance can be mounted upon the land, will also float upon the sea.
And a moveable battery must always have a vast advantage over one
that is stationary.  Already guns are cast which will throw balls weighing
nearly five hundred pounds. And a Monitor is said to be now in contemplation, which will carry heavier ordnance than this, the turret to be covered with a plating of twenty-four inches of solid iron.
It is a clear case, that the nations of the eatrth have got to arm themselves anew, and at an enormous expense, unless they can consent to live
in peace. The nmail-clad Warrior cost England five millions of dollars.
If England is to maintain her vaunted naval supremacy, she must build
ships stronger now than the Warrior, and must have at least four hundred
of them. Is England prepared for this expense of two thousand millions
of dollars? France can build La Gloires, and America Monitors, as fast
as England caon rear her mail-clads. Vigorous competition in this line
would exhaust the finances of all these governments.  nzglaicnd's naval
s;pVremaeyo is gone forever. As a military force, exclusive of the naval
arm, she is already but a fifth or sixth-rate power.  Such is the position
in whiclh the lionitor has placed Great Britain. It is a kind Providence
which has thus disarmed this most arrogant and quarrelsome of the
nations. England will speak more meekly when another "Trent affair"
shall arise. The United States Government is now building between
twenty and thirty MCIonitors, some of them at an expense of over a million
of dollars. It is safe to say, that when these lines shall be read, the
United States, in naval strength, will be second to no other nation upon
the globe.
In view of this new state of things, it is not impossible, that the great
maritime powers may enter into a compromise, engaging to employ these
mailed floating batteries-these resistless engines of destruction-for the
defense of their harbors only; not for aggressive ocean warfare.  God
grant that all swords may soon be beaten to ploughshares, and that the
nations of the earth may learn war no more.




CH APTElR XV.
F L OR I DA.
COAST OF FLORIDA.-APPEAL OF SOUTH CAROLINA.-MASSIVE FORTIFICATIONS OF PENSACOLIA
HARBOR.-ASSIGNED REASONS FOR S~ECESSION.-SE IZURE OF PENSACOLA.-LIEUT. SLEMMER.TRAITORS AND HIEROES CONTRASTED.-H]E.ROIC RE-ENFORCEMENT OF FORT PICKENS.-EX1HAUSTING LABORS OF LIEUT. SLEMMER AND HIS COMIIAND. —ENERGY OF COL. BnRON.DARING ADVENTURE OF LIEUT. SHEPLEY.-SURPRISE OF WILSON'S ZOUAVES BY A STRONG
REBEL FORCE. —ITS PRESULTS.-CRITICAL POSITION OF FORT PICKENS.-ENGAGEMENT OF REBEL
BATTERIES.-E]VACUATION OF PENSACOLA,-REECrEPTION OF OUR SOLDIEERS. —AMELIA ISLA:ND.FERNANDINA.
THE State Convention of Florida, called by the slaveholders to vote
that State out of the Union, met at Tallahassee, Jan. 3, 1861. There was
but little diversity of sentiment among the delegates of that cotton growing community.  They represented a population, according to the census
of 1860, of 78,686 whites.  There were also 61,753 slaves. Few doubted
that Florida would be among the first to follow South Carolina in renouncing the authority of the National Government.  The peninsula was purchased of Spain, by the United States, at the expense of several millions
of dollars.  A large portion of tlhe territory consisted of a region of pine
forests, dismal swamps and sandy plains, of little value for agriculture or
commerce.  There were, however, a few fine harbors on the coast, and some
positiolns of great importance for the construction of forts to protect our
rapidly growing commerce in the gulf:  The Soutll demanded the purchase
of Florida, to promote the interests of slavery, by adding another Slave
State to be represented in Congress.  There was a small but1 heroic tribe
of Seminole Indians occupying the everglades of this marshy, uninviting
realm.  Occasionally slaves, fronl the surrounding regions, would rul
away, and take shelter anmong these Indians, whlo ever received them
kindly.  The slaveholders demanded that these Indians should be driven
from the lands where their fathers, for countless ages, had lived and died.
The Government was nunder the control of tihe slaveholders, and of course
obeyed their comnmands.  Wtar was waged  against these unoffending
natives.  They fought Iheroically for their homes.  Thirty-five millions oft
dollars  were expcended by the National Government, in expelling these
Indians, and transporting them beyond the lfississippi.  It was now necessary to erec-t frts fior the protection of our National commerce.  The
whole region was surveyedl commanding positions selected, and magnificent fortresses reared, at a cost to the National treasury of over six millions
23




354                   CIVIL  WAR  IN  AMERICA.
of dollars. Thus the National Government had expended upon Florida
nearly fifty millions of dollars.
And now the few white inhabitants of this State, amounting in all to
less than 80,000, scattered over its vast solitudes, assumed the right of
voting that Florida no konger belonged to the United States, but that, with
all its millions of acres of unsold lands, all its harbors, and all its forts, it
belonged to the few people who had chanceci to settle in it, with the right
to cede it back to' Spain, or to sell it to England or France, or even to
surrender it to a Congress of Confederate rebels.  Was there ever before
such a claim heard outside of a mad-house?
The business of the widely scattered population of Florida, most of
them living a semi-civilized life, in log-houses, surrounded by their negroes,
without churches or schools, was raising cotton and sugar. They were
generally an exceedingly unintelligent people, led by a few  ambitious
demagogues, and consequently in sentiment radically pro-slavery.  So far
as the population of Florida was concerned, they had received nothing
but favors from  the Government, for which favors they had made, and
could make, no return.  It was essential to the nationality of the United
States, that a promontory so important, jutting down almost to the West
India Islands, should not be in the possession of any foreign power; and,
therefore, the National Government secured it, at the above-mentioned
vast expense, and would have done so, had Florida been but one solid
rock, or an expanse of desert and verdureless sand. These people, fostered
and pampered, were among the first to cry out against the tyranny of the
National Government;-a tyranny which consisted simply in requiring
that Florida, like all the other States, should respect the Constitution of
the United States, as interpreted by the Supreme Court.  The Government did not lift a finger to control a local interest in Florida.  The State
was left entirely untrammeled and unmeddled with, to manage its own
State. concerns.  The Government did not ask for the change of a "jot or
a tittle" in the Constitution. It asked for no modification whatever, in
that admirably adjusted balance of State rights, and National sovereignty,
which in less than a century had placed America among the leading
nations on the globe.  It simply said to the Floridians, manage your own
local concerns precisely as you please, subject only to the Constitution of
the United States.  Does any one ask, HI-ow could such a people revolt?
The answer, as we have before shown, is plain.  They loved slavery better than the Union. And it was manifest to the leaders, that by the continuance of the Union, and the natural and legitimate operation of the
Constitution of the United States, slavery must die.*
* The Governor of Florida, in his Message to the Legislature, Nov. 26, says: "I most decidedly
declare that the proper action is secession from our faithless, perjured confederates. But some:Southern men object to secession until some overt act of unconstitutional power shall have been
committed by the General Government; that we ought not to secede, until the President and
Congress unite in passing an act unequivocally hostile to our institutions, and fraught with immediate danger to our rights of property. But why wait for this overt act of the General Government?" Here, then, is the admission, 1. That secession is to save'slavery; 2. That the General
Government has in no way interfered with State rights; and 3. It is denounced as faithless and
pe'u'rcd, with the confession that it had committed no " act of unconstitutional power 




FLORIDA.                           355
The address of South Carolina to the slaveholding States, urging their
united secession, contains avowals, upon this point, worthy of historic
record. This address was adopted by the South Carolina Convention,
Dec. 24, 1860. The following are its prominent utterances:
" Responsibility follows power. If the people of the North have the
power, by Congress,'to promote the general welfare of the United States,'
by any means they deem expedient, why should they not assail and overthrow the institution of slavery in the South? They are responsible for
its continuance or existence, in proportion to their power. The Union of
the Constitution was a Union of slaveholding States. It rests on slavery,
by prescribing a representation in Congress for three-fifths of our slaves.
There is nothing in the proceedings of the Convention which framed the
Constitution, to show that the Southern States would have formed any
other Union; and still less that they would have formed a Union with
more powerful non-slaveholding States, having a majority in both branches
of the legislature of the Government. They were guilty of no such folly.
Time and the progress of things have totally altered the relations between
the Northern and Southern States, since the Union was first established.
In spite of all disclaimers and professions, there can be but one end to the
submission, by the South, to the rule of a sectional anti-slavery Government at Washington; and that end, directly or indirectly, must be the
emancipation of the slaves of the South. The people of the non-slaveholding States are not, and can not be, safe associates of the slaveholding
South, under a common Government. South Carolina, acting in her sovereign capacity, now tlinks proper to secede from the Union. Citizens of
the slaveholding States of the United States! circumstances beyond our
control have placed us in the van of the great controversy, between the
Northern and Southern States. Providence has cast our lot together, by
extending over us an identity of pursuits, interests and institutions. South
Carolina desires no destiny separate from yours. To be one of a great
slaveholding Confederacy, stretching its arms over a territory larger than
any power in Europe possesses, with a population four times greater than
that of the whole United States when they achieved their independence of
the British empire, with productions which make our existence more important to the world than that of any other people inhabiting it, with common institutions to defend, and common dangers to encounter, we ask your
sympathy and confederation. We ask you to join us in forming a Confederacy of slaveholding States."
As was natural, the rebels turned their first attention to Pensacola.
This was the largest and finest harbor on the Gulf of Mexico, and as such
had been selected as the naval depot of the Gulf fleet. The Government
had established here a navy yard, with all its costly appliances, a marine
hospital, an arsenal, and a very valuable floating dry dock. The little
hamlet of Pensacola was thus lifted into importance, and the town soon
rontained nearly 3,000 inhabitants, many of whom were employed upon
governmental works. Opposite the town is the long, low, sandy island of
Santa Rosa, which protects the harbor fromn the Gulf. At the western
extremity of this island, commanding the entrance to the harbor, the




356                  CIVIL WAR  IN  AMERICA.
National Government had nearly completed a large bastioned fort, of the
first class, called Fort Pickens. It was built of brick and of New York
granite, with walls forty-five feet high, and twelve feet thick. It was
embrasured for two tiers of guns, beneath bomb-proof casemates, and also
it was armed with one tier e  bacr6ette. These guns radiated to every
point in the horizon, with flank and enfilading fire. This national fort,
still not quite finislhed, lhad been more than thirty years in process of construction, and had cost nearly a million of dollars. Its armament consisted
of two hundred antd ten guns, and a war garrison of 1,260 soldiers.
Directly opposite Fort Pickens, on the main land, also commanding
the harbor, is Fort ]McRae.  This. was a bastioned fort, with brick walls,
twelve feet in thickness. It was. embrasured for two casemated tiers of
guns, with one tier en barrette. Its armament consisted of one hundred
and fifty of the heaviest guns, requiring a garrison of 650 men.  Just
below this fort, on the shore, there was reared, as its ally, a water battery
of eight guns.
North of the harbor, and directly fronting its entrance, frowned int
massive strength Fort Barancans.  It retains the name and occupies the
site of an old Spanish] fort. It is very strong and heavy in its structure,
mounting fLOrty-nine guns of most formidable power, well bastioned, and
requiring a garrison of 250 men. The fort was in perfect condition, with
guns all in order, and a well appointed magazine. The fort was also supported in the rear by a strong redoubt, mounting 26 guns, and costing
over one, hundred thousand dollars.
Upon the- assembling of the Florida Convention, resolutions were
immediately offered, declaring the right of the State to secede from the
National Government, and calling upon the people inmmediately to prepare for this act. To. instigate the people to prompt action, which would
commit them  to- the rebellion, that busy disseminator of treason, the
Charleston (S. C.) Mercury, earnestly appealed to them  to seize, wit-hout
delay, and while there was an opportunity to do so, all the national forts,
and other property within their reach. As the imhumense fortresses off the
coast, at Key West and at the Tortugas, could only be reached by water,
the rebels were aurged immediately to take possession of Pensacola, and all
its governmental works. It was argued that Georgia and Alabama had
set the Floridians an example, and, that, by seizing the forts while helpless,
they could save themselves fit;ure trouble, and palsy the arm of the Government in Washington.  The infamous cabinet of rebels, under President
Buchanan, had carefully stored these forts with materials to carry on the
warfare of treason, and left them in such a situation that they could be
taken with scarcely any trouble.
In the appeal by the Charleston Mercury, it was truly stated that tlhe
forts at Pensacola commanded the trade of the Gulf; that if those forts
remained in the hands of the National Government, that Government
could blockade all those waters.  But should Florida seize those stations,
as could at that moment be easily done, then, in case of war, to use the
very words of the Charleston Mercllry, " the commerce of the North, in
the Gulf, will fall an easy prey to our bold privateers, and California gold




FLORIDA.                                      357
will pay all such little expenses on our part." The people of Florida were
thus openly urged to treason and rebellion by the prospect of the plunder
of northern ships.
The ordinance of secession was adopted, by a vote of 62 to  7, on the
11th of January, with little delay or opposition.  The convention in their
ordinanle declared, as the cause of their act, that " all hope of preserving
the Union, upon terms consistent with the' sal-ety and honor of the slaveholding  States, had been finally dissipated, by the recent indications of the
strength  of ihe anti-slavery sentimuent of the fr6e States."   When, for
thirty years, during which time the slaveholders had controlled the Government, might not any one of the free States have broken the sacred
compact of Union, with a similar but ten-fold stronger plea? *
The State of Florida was, by this instrument, declared to be a sovereign
and independent nation-a nation of 80,000 white men, about one-tenth
as large as the city of New  York.  This sovereign and independent nation,
claiming  all the property  of the United  States Government within  its
limits, was, of course, according to the newly invented doctrine of secessionisnm, at liberty to become an ally of England, France or Spain-to
become a colony or an integral part of either of those powers.  All the
forts could be passed over to England, for instance, and Pensacola become
a depot for the English fleet.  The idea of a nation of 80,000 persons, for'in Florida slaves are not persons but tfhi'zq, was a farce too ridiculous to
be long contemplated.  In less than a month the delegates of this nation
were in the Montgomlery Convention, offering all the United States forts
a(td other property within their grasp to the rebels, and seeking incorporation with the great confederacy of traitors which was threatening to capture Washington and to extend slavery over this whole continent.  There
wvas but little love for the Union in Florida.  The citizens generally gave
their hearty approbation to the action of their delegates.  The National
banner was dragged down from every flag-staff with insult. The State
flag, or the flag of the rebel Confederacy, everywhere took its place.  lili
tary companies were rapidly raised and organized, and vigorous preparations were made for war.  The same enthusiasm, disorder, violence and
* Gov. Call, of Florida, admits that the National Government had not then committed any
trespass upon the rights of the South. In his earnest appeal to the free States to settle the difficulty
by adopting slavery as a national insfitution, and thus relieving the slaveholding States'of any fear
that slavery might hereafter lose -the fostering care of the Government, he says, in his opening
paragraph:
"A great nation has been dismembered. The bonds of the American Union, the work of Washington, of Franklin, of Madison, and other great sages and statesmen, of a glorious age, have been
rent and snapped like cobwebs; and the greatest fabric of human government, without comnlaint
of wrong or injustice, has been destroyed.'
"There is," he adds, "one disturbing, one dangerous cause-the angry controversy arising on
the institution of African slavery; and unless this controversy can be amicably adjusted, there
must be a perpetual end of the Union, an everlasting separation of the North from the South."
He then argues that the only remedy is the adoption of slavery into the Constitution as a
national institution. His words are, slavery "should be considered, as it is, an institution interwoven.and inseparably connected with our social and political system, as a domestic institution of
the States, and a national institution created by the American people, and protected by the Constitution of' the United States,"-Letter of Gov. Call, of Florida, to J S. Littell, of Pennsylvania,
ieb. 12, 1861.




358                CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
terrorism which prevailed in all the other rebellious States were reenacted
here. Many of the United States officers who were in command of the
different military stations in the State were Southern men, thoroughly
imbued with the pro-slavery heresy, and regarding perjury and treason to
the National Government as chivalrous devotion to their own State.
These men had not sufficient grasp of mind to contemplate the idea of
-Tzationality. They had no country, no flag. As the rustic deems the
hamlet he has never left to be the world, so these men regarded the State,
large or small, in which they chanced to be born, as their country, their
nation. Some, however, were of nobler mould. They revered the flag
which had made our nation great throughout the globe, and refused to
sacrifice their own honor or their country's interests, in any compromise
with treason. Though powerless to arrest the progress of rebellion, the)y
still "faithful stood amodng the faithless."
The rebels in Florida eagerly followed the counsel of their confederates,
and prepared to seize the United States forts and other National property
within their limits. Through the combined treachery and imbecility of
the administration at Washington under President Buchanan, notwithstanding the disunion sentiments and intentions at the South had long
been known, these forts had not garrisons sufficient to maintain the dignity
of the Government even in time of peace. rThe conspirators, having full
control of the Government, had also placed much of this United States'
property in the hands of men pledged to surrender it on demand to the
rebels.
The conspirators in Florida first endeavored to secure the National
fortifications and property in Pensacola. A detachment of armed men
from Florida and Alabama, one hundred in number, on the 12th of Ja-nuary suddenly appeared before the gate of the United States navy, yard,
and demanded instant possession. The commandant, Com. Armstrong,
avowing that he had no adequate means of defense, which was unquestionably true, instead of immortalizing himself by a heroic resistance as long
as possible, ingloriously surrendered, without striking a blow.
The United States officers were then liberated on their parole, and
were allowed to remain in their quarters. The yard contained ordnance
stores valued at 156,000 dollars. The rebels immediately seized the Forts
Barancas and MicRae, and, casting the Stars and Stripes into the ditch,
raised their unknown flag over the ramparts. The conquest was effected
without any difficulty. Lieut. Slemmer, a brave and truly loyal man,
foreseeing what was to come, and conscious that with the foree at his disposal, it would be utterly in vain for him to attempt to' hold the forts
against the rebel troops which could be brought to take them, had evacuated them a few days before. Imitating the shrewd action of Major
Anderson at Fort Sumter, lie secretly assembled his whole force of about
eighty men, conveyed them across the bay to Fort Pickens, on Santa Rosa
Island, where he could more easily defend himself against overwhelming
numbers. Fort Pickens was the most important fortress upon Pensacola
Bay. It mounted over two hundred heavy guns, and was provided with a
double tier of casemates. The heroic little band of patriots sought refuge




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360                 CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
here. The fort, as we have mentioned, was in quite an unfinished state.
But few of its guns were mounted, most of its majestic armament being
strewed around. The United States sloop of war, Wyandotte, chanced to
be in the bay, and her marines aided Lieut. Slemmer in preparing the fort
to repel assault. The rebels lost no time in demanding its surrender.
Lieut. Slemrnner replied, "I have orders from the Government to defend
this fort, and I shall do so to the last extremity."
From this tort Lieut. Slemmer and his brave associates witnessed with
unavailing indignation the surrender of the navy yard to the rebels, and
the capture, by them, of the forts he had so judiciously evacuated. Working night and day, he had soon so arranged his defenses that the rebels
feared to attack him. Several of the loyal men from the navy yard also
succeeded in joining him. When Commodore Armstrong was about to
surrender his trust, and lower, at the demand of the rebels, the flag, beneath which his hair had grown gray, it is said that his daughter besought
him, with tears, not to be guilty of dishonor which would forever tarnish
his memory. But he, with many Southern sympathies and shrinking
from the shedding of blood, was not willing to take the responsibility of
defending his flag, when assailed by a stronger force than he could efiectually resist. Some of his subordinate officers were in league with the conspirators, traitors within the camp seeking its betrayal. It is reported that
Commodore Armstrong, in refusing the request of his heroic daughter,
weakly said, "I had rather lose my own life than be the cause of the
destruction of the lives of others."'
Lieut. RIenshaw, a United States officer in traitorous union with the
rebels, ordered an aged soldier to haul down the United States banner.
That man, William Conway, honored be his name, refused to obey. There
the hero stood, ready to be pierced by the sword or shot down by the
revolver, rather than dishonor that flag which for a lie-time had waved
proudly over him. Vice respects virtue. The traitor officer did not dare
to shoot the patriot soldier. Another man was ordered to drag down the
flag, who obeyed. The rebel RIenshaw mladly thrust his sword through its
sacred folds. The indignant daughter of the commodore, unable longer to
endure these scenes, seized the flag, with her scissors cut from it the union,
aind turning in scorn fromn the traitors, said, "1 I will ere long replace it
unsullied."  The conduct of William  Conway, on this occasion, was publicly commended by the Navy Department.
Before the war was opened by the attack upon Sumter, the situation
of the littlegarrison in Fort Pickens was exceedingly critical.  As a military station, Pickens was far more important to the National Government than Sumter. And even President Buchanan cooperated with Gen.
Scott in the endeavor to secure this position by reinforcem ents, while the
question of abandoning Sumter to the rebels was, by Buchanan's cabinet,
undecided. Accordingly, while the whole attention of the country, the
rebels included, was fixed upon the heroic band of men, besieged in the
Charleston fort, and while watchin g for the movements of the Government
to relieve them, either by supplies or additional troops, or by orders for
their withdrawal, reenforcements and supplies were got ready for Fort




FLORIDA.                                 361
Pickens.  All eyes were on the alert, and the fitting out of the Broollyn,
with these troops and provisions, could not be concealed. It was, however, almost universally supposed that the Brooklyn was intended for Fort
Sumter.  The rebels in South Carolina had made ample preparations to
meet her, and the whole nation, in a foverish state of anxiety, was awaiting
the result.
Jeff. Davis, as President of the rebel Confederacy, was fully awake to
the importance of Fort Pickens to his cause.  It commanded the bay and
fine harbor of Pensacola.  He resolved to seize it before it could be reenforced.  Two thousand insurgent troops from  Florida, Alabama and Mississippi, were already investing it.  They were seen from the battlements
of Pickens, in swarms, behind the ramparts of Forts MIctae and Barancas.
Aided by countless slaves, they were throwing up earthworks, and erecting iron-cased batteries all along the shore, at every point from which a
shot could be hurled at the fort.  New hordes of rebels from the interior
were arriving every day. Their flags were so numerous, that they fluttered like butterflies in the air.  This insurgent force was under the command of vMajor Chase, a traitor from the United States army.  I-e boasted
loudly that he would soon have possession of the National fort, and pass it
over to the rebels.  An uninterrupted line of rebel batteries, two and a
half miles in circuits swept around the fort. It was their intention, at
first, laving two or three thousand against eighty, to carry the fort by
storm, after a severe bombardment from  all their batteries.  But as the
indications were  very decisive that Lieut. Slemmrrer would give them  a
bloody reception, they took the ignoble precaution, characteristic of those
who knlew not the meaning of the word chivalry, to bribe some of the. employees in the fort to disable soime of the most formidable guns, by secretly
spiking them  or withdrawing the charge.  This could be secretly done,
with but little risk, in a fort so large, and so feebly garrisoned.  The
assailants could then, in a night attack, rush upon the fort at that point.
They succeeded in finding three men, who, by large bribes in money, and
promises of preferment in the rebel army, engaged to do this.  But Lieut.
Slelnmer, ever vigilant, detected the traitors, and put them in irons.*~
In the meantime, while the forces of the rebels were almost hourly
increasing, and  batteries, formidable in number and magnitude, were
rising all around him, Lieut. Slemmner, with his heroic garrison, worked
night and day in nmounting his guns, and in strengthening every weak
point.  The unfinished fort was  but poorly prepared for bombardment,
even if it were thoroughly manned.  The enemy could easily land, in any
force, upon Santa Rosa Island, and assail the fort in the rear, where the
defenses were very feeble.  Successful resistance, under these circumstances, seemed impossible.  Still the garrison determined, with one voice,
* On the 27th of April, a rebel writer from Pensacola, addressing the New Orleans Delta, gives
a detailed account of the insurgent army assembled there. The total number, on that day, was
6,708. It soon increased to eight and tell thousand. Of these troops, the writer says, "I do not
believe that a better and more efficient body of fighting men could be assembled in any part of the
world. They compose the very best class of our Southern people, ardent, earnest and resolute
young men. They can never be conquered, or even defeated."




362                   CIVIL  WAR IN  AMERICA.
to maintain it to the last possible extremity. The Buchanan admicnistration, wishing to conciliate the rebels, did not allow Lieut. Slemmner to
annoy his Souzt/ern breth/ren, who were iearing batteries to bombard him.
IIe was ordered to act strictly on the defensive. The rebels had full control of the inner harbor, and were, with singular generosity, allowed free
access to the sea. The Wyandotte, a United States sloop-of-war, and a
revenue cutter, were lying useless and helpless, under the protection of the
guns of the fort. Such was the humiliating state of affairs at Pensacola,
during the last weeks of the administration of President Buchanan.  The
encampment of the rebels gradually swept around the bay, in lines ten
miles in extent. Still, the garrison in Fort Pickens were prohibited by
the Buchanan administration from firing a gun, or from interfering in any
way with the free commerce of the port, by which the rebels supplied
themselves abundantly with arms and all military supplies. But not one
of the National ships was permitted by the rebels to enter the harbor.
Early in April, the Brooklyn sailed, and passing directly by Clharleston, anchored in the roadstead, outside Fort Pickens, about four miles
from the shore. A secret agent, Lieut. Worden, afterwards in command
of the lMfonitor, had been sent across the country, with dispatches to Lieut.
Slemnler, announcing the renlforcement and supplies, and authorizing
him  to receive them, if possible, without provoking a battle. A dark
night was selected, the 12th of April. The steamer in the distant offing
weirghed anchor, and approached as near the fort as it was safe to do. The
recruits and supplies were to be sent to the shore in small boats, where
they would be entirely exposed to the guns of the rebel batteries-and so
exposed, that if vigorously fired upon, their destruction would be certain.
Consequently, the utmost silence and secresy were observedl. The boats
were lowered, filled with men, every light was extinguished, and over the
dark sea, with muffled oars, guided by a light in the fort, they rowed for
the shore, nearly a mile distant. It was eleven o'clock at night when the
boats left the ship, under, the command of Lieut. A. N. Smith. They
almost immediately disappeared in the darkness. The surf broke so heavy
on the outer beach, that the boats had to'be rowed into the harbor, to land
the men in front of Fort Pickens, directly in range of the rebel forts. W~ith
breathless solicitude, the crowd on the Brooklyn's deck awaited the result.
-They feared every moment to see lights thrown up fiom the rebel forts,
illumining the whole bay, and to hear the booming of their batteries, pouring a storm of shell upon  their helpless comrades. Silently the launches
were rowed almost directly under the guns of McRae and Barancas, but
undetected by the, foe. The landing was safely effected, to the indescribable joy of the beleaguered garrison, and the launches returned to the
Brooklyn. Eighty-six men and one hundred and fifteen marines were
thus thrown into the fort.
The next week, on the 16th, the steamer Atlantic arrived in Pensacola
Bay, having on board four hundred troops, with horses, ammunition, and
other stores, which were quietly landed on Santa Rosa Island, two or three
miles from the fort, and transported with much labor over the sandy beach.
On the 20th, the Illinois arrived, with a similar freight, including two coun



FLORIDA.                           363
panies of artillery. The Atlantic brought out also Col. IIarvey Brovw7n,
who had been in charge of Fort Hamilton, in New York harbor, but who
was ordered to assume the command of the Military Department of Florida, embracing also the islands of the southern coast of the Peninsula.
The incessant labors of Lieut. Slemmer and his original command, in getting ready for the enemy, from whom they daily expected an attack, had
so seriously affected their health, that, after four months of valuable service, they were relieved fromn duty, and ordered North for rest. The garrison of Fort Pickens now numbered over one thousand men, which, with
the cooperation of the fleet, and its own massive strength, relieved apprehensions of its speedy capture. Yet a large force and a skillful general
were besieging it. They were confident of success. They multiplied their
batteries, extended their lines, and almost daily received accessions of
troops, many of them exultant from the capture of Sumter. The eyes of
the nation were now directed to this point, as the scene for the next display of rebel audacity and defiance.  With equal diligence, both forces
prepared for the hour of trial. With no little anxiety did Col. Brown
hasten to complete the works, before the bombardment should commence.
For some unaccountable reason, the rebel general delayed his attack.
Week after week, through the spring and summer, the troops were kept
faeing each other, in the monotonous occupation of raising batteries,
mounting guns, strengthening and protecting weak fortifications by walls
of sand-bags —the only materials which the barren region afforded,-or
spending the hot, oppressive days in the inactivity of cmlnp life, without
any participation in the exciting scenes in which their countrymen were
elsewhere engaged, and into which the firing of a single gun would precipitate themselves. As the orders fiom Government in the spring, to act
only on the defensive, had not been changed, Col. Brown, though now feeling secure in his position, and deeming himself able to reduce the rebel
works, was not permitted to gratify the impatient wishes of his men, by
attacking the beleaguering enemy. He could, without apparent difficulty,
have caused them great annoyance, could have added vastly to their expenses, and could have weakened their position, and many of their batteries he could have demolished utterly.
It was about a mile and a third across the harbor to Fort McRae, on
the western, and to Fort Barancas, on the northern shore. The fort had
been originally built to guard against foreign foes, who could only approach
from the sea, for no one dreamed of traitors at home. But now our foes
were on the land side, assailing the weakest point of the fortress. Barancas, which was in their possession, occupied a higher position, so that its
guns menaced Pickens with a plunging fire. To guard against this, a
complete transformation of the batteries of Fort Pickens had been found
to be necessary. Sand-bag traverses, an additional glacis, bomb-proof casemates, and raised walls, had been constructed, with most exhausting labor,
to remedy this defect. The counterscarp and glacis on the land side were
broad, and lined with a temporary abatis of stakes and trees, constructed
by Lieut. Slemmer, to impede the approach of the enemy, and thus hold
them under the fire of grape and musketry from the garrison. The para



364                 CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
pet on every side was now lined with guns, most of them thirty-two and
iorty-two pounders. There was also a sprinkling of rifled guns, colunmbiads, and heavy mortars.
The parade ground was filled with deep, cone-shaped holes, to receive
falling shells, where they would do little injury by exploding. It was
cleared of all combustible matter, which might lead to the repetition of
the sad experiences from fire at Sumter. Every thing in the fort was
arranged under the highest teachings of military science, and was ready
for immediate service.
It was discovered that Gen. Bragg was intending to effect a landing on
the eastern extremity of the island, out of reach of our guns. With eight
thousand men, lie could assail the one thousand in the fort. By regular
approaches, and an assault by storm, aided by his numerous batteries, he
professed to cherish the utmost confidence in success. To thwart this
plan, and give more eifective range to his mortars and smaller guns, Col.
Brown erected a sand-bag battery of ten-inch mortars, outside of the fort,
on the south shore, and another at a distance of five hundred yards, for his
eight-inch howitzers. The encampment of the 6th Regiment New York
State Volunteers, Wilson's Zouaves, who arrived as an additional re6nforcement, June 24th, was three-fourths of a mile further to the east.
This regiment, raised principally from the rudest and the roughest of the
population of New York city, and known by the soubriquet of " Uncle
Samn's Pet Lambs,") was an object of special aversion and fear to the rebels.
In the unenviable reputation of these men, the rebels could find some
grounds for believing the falsehoods of their leaders, in respect to the
character Sand objects of the National forces.
The rituation of our soldiers, during the long summer months, on that
verdu-'ve(ss, unsheltered, sultry island, was very uncomfortable.  The
fatiguing labors of preparing for a bombardment were completed. The
weather was oppressively hot. The barren island of Santa Rosa, with its
brackish waters, its swarms of hostile insects and reptiles of all kinds, presented as inhospitable a residence as could well be imagined. In addition
to all this, a besieging army of eight thousand men, in near and plain
sight, with encircling batteries, were preparing to overwhelm them with
fire and blood.
At length, an opportunity occurred for an adventure, which promised
to break the monotony of inactivity and suspense. Several National vessels of war were now stationed in the offing. The rebels knew too well
the assistance which the guns of this fleet would render to Fort Piclkens,
in case of an engagement. Their proximity would also make any attempt
to land upon the island very dangerous. To prevent their entrance into
the harbor, the rebels commenced the work of sinking vessels and other
obstructions in the channel. The dry dock, lying in Warrenton Navy
Yard, had, early in the summer, been removed and sunk in the harbor for
this purpose. But, during the last of August, they concluded to pump out
the water, and float the spacious dock down opposite to Fort MeIRae, where
the channel, being very narrow, would be thus effectually barred against
the passage of any of the national ships.




FLORIDA.                             3645
On the 31st of August, Col. Brown ascertained the enemy's design,
from the frequent passage of boats from the shore to the dock, and quickly
formed a plan to frustrate it. A boat's crew of picked men, under a trusty
officer, Lieut. Shipley, were ordered to be in readiness for an expedition
the next night. They were to approach the dock cautiously, land upon it,
overpower the guard, thoroughly set fire to it, and retreat as speedily as
possible to the fort. It was probable that this act would lead to a general
engagement.  The commander of Fort Pickens was resolved, if the rebels
should fire on the retreating boat, to commence a bombardment of the
navy yard and adjoining batteries. It was hardly possible that they
would allow this boat's crew to burn the dock, unmolested. The next
day, Sunday, was consequently employed in preparing for the conflict.
iortars were furnished with bombs; furnaces for heating shot filled with
fuel; officers detailed to their respective guns; and tents and baggage in
the camps outside prepared for instant removal, should they be in danger
from the shore batteries. Night came, but cloudless and brilliant.  The
opposite shore was plainly visible, and discovery was almost certain. Lest
the adventure should fail, it was deferred till another night, when they
hoped to be favored by darkness.  The next day, Sept. 2d, was thick and
stormy, and the shadow of a black night, with moaning winds and weeping
clouds, settled over the bay. A little after nine o'clock in the evening,
Lieut. Shipley left the beach in a boat, with eleven men. -Noiselessly
approaching the dock, now floating at anchor in the bay, they were unm
challenged, and springing upon it, found the usual guard removed. The
prepared combustibles were speedily arranged; three loaded columbiad
shells were placed in the boilers; the men were ordered back into the
boat; and, when all was ready, the match was applied by Lieut. Shipley.
Rowing in utmost haste from the dock, they had scarcely reached a distance of twenty yards, when the flames burst out, and directly the explosion of the bombs broke, with startling crash, on the midnight air, and
rolled in thunder tones over the quiet harbor, to the hostile forces, with
by no means the same gratifying effect. Thousands of fragments fell in a
shower around the retiring boat, but injured none of the authors of this
ruin. WXith the first gleam of the ascending flames, the " long roll" was
sounded at the navy yard; soldiers rushed from their tents; artillerists
manned their gnms, and for a few minutes, universal confusion ensued, in
the belief that they were attacked. But though the cause of the alarm
was soon ascertained, not a gun was fired on the retreating boat, and it
safely returned to the fort.  The brilliant spectacle of the burning structure continued all night, the whole harbor being illumnined by the volumes
of flame rolling up to the sky. Blackened and smoking timbers floating
ou the water, were all that remained in the morn ing, of a work which cost
thfe United States a million and a half of dollars.
Retaliation from the rebels was expected immediately, but:it was still
delayed.  The soldier's life, behind walls and in camp, after a fe;w days of
expectation, returned to its former monotonous course. Another month
passed slowly away, when the national troops, in their turn, were sur.
prised, and with far more serious results.




366                CIVIL  WAR IN  AMERICA.
On the night of October 8th, a secret expedition of the rebels set out
for Santa Rosa-Island, to break up the encampment of Wilson's Zouaves.
The fobrce consisted of fifteen hundred men, comprising companies of
Georgia, Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi regimlents, selected for this
special service. They were transported by two steamers, a barge, and five
or six launches, and were under the command of Gen. Anderson. Information received from deserters from the island, two days previous, induced
them to land on the inside shore, four miles from Fort:4ckens, and cross
over to the other shore, upon which ~Wilson's camp was situated. The
island here is about three-fourths of a mile wide. A short distance below
their place of landing, in the direction of the fort, it narrows to less than
two hundred yards; then it widens again to about five-eighths of a mile at
the camp of the Zouaves, which was only a mile fiom the fort. The beach
on both sides is hard and sandy. A succession of three or four sand-ridges
run along the Gulf shore, parallel to the coast. On the harbor side, the
ground is low and swampy, interspersed with hillocks of sand, and a few
bushes and trees.
The number of Zouaves in camp was much reduced by a detachment
of several companies, sent to the Tortugas, and other neighboring stations.
Col. Wilson and Lieut. Col. Creighton, however, were on the island, with
five companies, numbering three hundred and sixty men.  Of these,
according to his report, at the time of attack, fifty were sick, forty-seven
detailed for service in Fort Pickens, and seventy on guard along the coast,
so that he had only one hundred and sixty to rally against the enemy.
About 9 P. ar., five hundred rebels were landed at Deer Point, three
miles fiom the camp. To these were added, in the course of two or three
hours, another body of a thousand men, all of whom remained in the vicinity, concealed by the dark and lowering night, till about two o'clock in the
morning. After the debarkation, the force was divided into three columns,
one marching   down the south shore, another down the harbor beach, and
a third taking the centre. Five men were sent forward of the divisions to
challenge the Zouave sentinels, and silence them, if possible, before they
could give any alarm. The design of the enemy was to effect a complete
surprise of the Zouaves, and getting between them and the fort, to cut off'
their retreat. Having captured or slain them in their advanced position,
they could easily seize the two batteries which were in their rear, and
carry off or spike the guns, and then, perhaps, take Pickens by surprise.
With great caution the columns of the enemy marched towards the
camp of the unsuspecting and sleeping Zouaves. The night was very dark;
a man's form could not be distinguished at a distance of twenty yards.
Two miles from the camp they encountered one of the Union pickets, who
fired and killed two of the rebels. The picket was also immediately shot,
as was also the sergeant of the guard. The other pickets began to fall
back upon the main guard, who gave the alarm at the camp, obstinately
contesting the ground in their retreat. The Zouaves, aroused by the skirmishing of their pickets, were by this time drawn up in line by their
colonel, and were awaiting the attack. Col. Wilson had sent one company
to the right and another to the left to prevent his little force from being




FLORIDA.                           367
flanked by the enemy. In the darkness and confusion, a company of the
rebels crept along by the shore and entered the camp of the Zouaves,
almost without a shot. Suddenly the little band of sixty mnen drawn up
under their colonel, received a heavy musket-fire upon their front, from
their rear and upon their right wing, and the rebels, in large numbers,
were seen running along one of the ridges, to cut off their retreat to the
fort. The Zouaves fought bravely for a while, but overpowered, were
obliged to retire to the first ridge, where they halted and again fronted
the foe. The vastly superior force of the enemy was now revealed to them
by the light of their own tents, which, having been first rifled of their contents, were in a blaze. The Zouaves, though thus out-numbered, fought
desperately for a while, using their rifles with deadly effect, at short range.
At length, becoming disorganized, they resorted to bush fighting. The
company under Wilson, unable to withstand the overwhelming fbrce of
the rebels, were withdrawn in good order along the beach to the first
battery, where they halted.
In the meantime the alarm had reached Fort Pickens. Volleys of
musketry were heard at the fort at half-past three, in the direction of the
camp. Colonel Brown ordered the long roll to be beaten, and Major
Yodges was despatched with a company of regulars to the aid of Col. Wilson; and MaiJjor Arnold was ordered to man the guns on the ramparts.
In half an hour the firing grew heavier, and [Major Arnold was sent out
with two mole companies to support the first detachment, and with orders
to Wilson to advance on the enemy, whose force was unknown. Major
Yodges with his regulars had proceeded nearly a mile, when, in the gloom
of the night, he was suddenly surrounded by a large body of the rebels.
lIe was in front, and being immediately recognized, was forced to surrender. His command now devolved on Capt. HIildt, who, aided by Lieut.
Seely, extricated his men, eighty in number, froum their entanglement, and
rallying them, with great gallantry, opened a heavy fire upon the enemy,
whose lines had become very much broken by the confusion incident to a
midnight attack. At this time the rebel general caused the signal to be
sounded for his men to turn and march back. Ite erroneously supposed
that he was now in the rear of the Zouaves, having cut off their retreat,
and that he could drive them before him, to utter destruction. But as it
grew lighter, our troops advanced in better order against the rebels, who
were now getting into terrible confision. Major Arnold came up with his
two companies to support the sturdy band of regulars, that, under Capt.
IHildt, was driving a large force of the enemy, pouring in upon them a merciless fire. Two companies of Zouaves, animated by the reeinforcement,
formed anew under Major Tower, and joined in the pursuit. Col. Wilson
with a portion of his men came up later. The rebels were now effectually
routed and in full retreat to regain their boats.
Their confidence had given place to terror. All organization seemed
to be broken up, and they fought no longer for victory, but only for
escape. The regulars, in solid, unbroken phalanx, pursued them, pouring
into their ranks volleys of death, while the fiery Zouaves, mainly broken
into detached squads and dispersed as stragglers, too impatient to wait for




368               CCIVIL  WAR IN  AMERICA.
reorganization, ran along the flanks of the foe, skulking like Indiana
behind every bush and mound, and with deadly aim compelling every
bullet to fulfill its mission. One of the rebel soldiers thus describes their
disastrous retreat.
" Amid this excitement and conflagration the wildest disorder reigned.
Companies were disorganized, and no such thing as a regiment was known.
Our men retired in great confusion, and the line was a tumultuous mass,
moving without orders and almost without object. WVe expected every
moment to be shelled by Pickens and the fleet, which could have swept
the island and not left a man. Unfortunately for us, they had sent out
several companies to intercept our boats and cut off our retreat. These
lay behind the sarnd hills and embankments and fired upon our disorganized
masses. Several attempts were made to rally into line, but without effect.
The island is alternate marshes, ravines and hills, with occasional long
sandy plains. Whenever we met these squads, we had to carry the place
by storm, yet their advantage was too manifest.  They could hide behind
sand hills, completely protecting themselves from our bullets, and shoot
into our disorganized body for several minutes before we could come upon
them. Several times we met these hostile squads and mistook them for
friends, occasioning us heavy loss."
Our victorious companies of regulars and Zonaves were now pressing
hard upon the confused bodies of the rebels, following regularly down both
shores. As they retreated they turned to the right shore, where they
encountered Lieut. Seely's body of regulars. Running to the left, they
were bravely charged by the Zouaves. Unable in their rout and demoralization to resist the compact bodies of disciplined soldiery, their only salvation lay in reaching their boats as speedily as possible.  Towards their
landing-place they rushed in headlong confusion, as the National troops,
with volley succeeding volley, crowded closely upon them. Another rebel
steamer had arrived loaded with reenforcements, but beholding the utter
rout of their comrades, they did not venture to land. The rebels rushed
into their boats.  T7ey were fast in the mud, and could be extricated only
by the aid of the steamers. And now, during that terrible delay, a dreadfi.1 carnage ensued. The Union troops in pursuit came up, one company
after another, and poured their deadly volleys upon the steamers and
launches. Concealed behind mounds and embankments, the Zouave rifles
hurled their death shots among the defenseless rebels, who could neither
find shelter for themselves nor opportunity to return the fire with any
effect upon their victorious foes. The scene at this period of the contest is
described as peculiarly awful-the cries of agony and the moans of the
dying breaking forth through the pauses of the battle; the shouts of the
victors and curses of the defeated, the voice of command and the sharp
ring of the muskets immediately following, all rendered the scene horrible and heart-sickening.  The steamer Times, crowded with troops, got
aground while moving off, and five companies of the Union troops, who
thad now arrived on the ground, fired for half an hour at the hundreds of
the humiliated and infiLriated foe ma-sed upon its decks. The killed and
wounded il. the boats and in thes:e steamers must have been nunbered by




FLORIDA.                             369
scores and hundreds. At length the unfortunate rebels were towed out of
reach of thle Federal bullets, and the firing ceased, with exultant cheers
from the victors.  One of the flat-boats was so riddled with balls that it
sunk before it had been towed halfway to the navy yard. A large number of dead bodies were fobund, the morning after the battle, floating on the
water, and nineteen were found slain on the battle-field. The rebels carried away in their boats many of their killed and wounded, and about
twenty of our men as prisoners, among whom were Major Vodges and a
Federal captain and lieutenant. They themselves lost five officers and
twenty-two privates as prisoners. From their terrible exposure to the fire
of the Union troops on shore, and from the accounts next day, brought by
a flag of truce firom Gen. Bragg demanding the bodies of their slain, it was
estimated that over three hundred must have fallen in this ill-fated expedition.  Our total loss was sixty-seven, of whom  fourteen were killed,
twenty-nine wounded, and twenty-four missing.
Most of our men fought with the greatest bravery, and many officera
distinguished themselves for coolness and intrepidity in this blind encounter
with an overpowering hostile force, so signally repulsed by three hundred
and sixty-five troops. If the rebels purposed only to destroy the camp of
the Zouaves, against whom in their battle-cries they manifested the greatest
hatred, they were successful.  They carried off many trophies of their
adventure.  The Zouaves lost all their tents, baggage and ready money;
but the enemy received a fearful retribution from  the fierce firemensoldiers and their brave comrades, the United States regulars. It was
evidently the design of the rebels to attack the batteries and disable the
guns, for spikes were found in the pockets of several of the killed who
were left on the island. They, however, did not come within five hundred
yards of either of these batteries, or in sight of the fort.
In the desperate rout of the Confederates, their whole force could have
been easily captured or slain, had not the officer commanding the steamer
McClellan, who was ordered by Col. Brown, when the alarm was first
given, to take a position opposite the landing-place of the enemy, been
directed also to ask assistance of the Potomac, lying farther out in the
bay. The Captain of this fiigate requested the McClellan to tow his vessel within range of the enemy. This caused so much delay, that the hostile steamers and boats were gone, and the engagement over, before these
vessels reached the scene of battle.  The MIcClellan alone could have
driven away the steamers, destroyed the boats, and thus prevented the
reimbarkation of the retreating enemy.  Caution in the movements of
our forces, have so often been disastrous to our cause, in the history of
this war, that it has almost ceased to be commlendable.
With barefaced falsehood, and equally characteristic Bombast, Southern
papers claimed a victory, after such an ignominiotus repulse. But while
exulting over the alleged cowardice and defeat of the Zouaves, the destruction of their camp, and fabulous trophies of the battle, they admitted
a heavy loss, and the death of several valuable officers. Even General
Anderson, of fillibuster notoriety, commanding the rebel forces, was
wounded in both arms, but escaped capture.  One of the rebel combat24




370                CIVIJL WAR IN  AMERICA.
ants, in i. letter to the Atlanta (Ga.) Intelligencer, speaks thus of the battle: "J sIcrcely know whether we acthieved a vuictory, or sfftered a defeat.
We did the duty which we went to perform, and did it well; yet we shot
down our friends in numbers. Indeed, I think as many of our men were
shot by friends as by foes. Night skirmishing is a dangerous business,
especially in an unkuown country, as was the island of Santa Rosa. The
enemy appear boastfil that we did not assault the fort, after we had driven
their men in, and gone almost under its guns.  We acccoeompl'saed all, and
the great mn9sfortune is, nmore thanz wue intendzced."
The attack upon the Federal outposts on Santa Rosa Island aroused
the indignation of the defenders of Fort Pickens, who, though in this
instance signally successful in repelling the enemy, saw themselves daily
exposed to such assaults from the Confederate troops, whose numbers and
advantages were constantly increasing. For nine months the rebel General had now besieged the fort, leisurely drawing his cordon of batteries
around it, armed with the heaviest and most effective rifled guns, and preparing for Pickens the fate of Sumter, whenever he should be ready to
strike the blow. The fort had been carefully made ready for the final contest, and two additional batteries had been erected outside, for the destruction of the navy yard. But the force allowed by Government ibr the
protection of this important station, was insufficient. This was probably
not their fault. From every part of our widely extended country, there
was now a call for men and arms. With a powerful enemy hemming him
in on all sides but the sea, and regarding the fort as already theirs, the
position of the commanding officer and his men was a trying one. By the
middle of November, the Federal force amounted to thirteen hundred;
that of the rebels, to eight thousand. Extending from the navy yard to
Fort fllcRae, a distance of four miles, they had fourteen separate batteries,
each containing from one to four guns, many of them columbiads and seacoast mortars, besides Forts McRae and Barancas, all within about equal
range of' Fort Pickens. The recent insult of the Federal flag, in the rebel
raid upon the island, and the increasing danger of his position, finally impelled Col. Brown to attempt to batter down some of the enemy's fortifications, and destroy the navy yard works and buildings, which were of
valuable service to the Confederate army.
Accordingly, Flag-officer MclKean, of the navy, was invited to cooperate with the Niagara, Richmond and Montgomery, of the blockading
squadron, in the bombardment, which was to commence November 22d,
1861. To cut off renfobrcements from Pensacola, that might easily be
sent to the enemy, it was determined to wait until the regular daily steamers should come down to the navy yard, where they should be disabled or
prevented from escape by our guns. At half-past nine in the morning,
the steamers arrived, and were soon fastened to their wharf.  A  few
minutes after, a puff of white smoke, and a loud report from Fort Pickens,
announced the beginning of the bombardment. At this signal, the Niagara
and Richmond moved -up cautiously in the shallow water, as near as possible to M[cRwae, to draw the fire of that fort and the two batteries in front
of it, from each of which the parapet guns of Pickens were exposed to a




FLORIDA.                           371
dangerous enfilading fire. The national batteries, Lincoln, Cameron, and
Totten, which were constructed near Fort Pickens, were directed to open
fire upon the fortifications adjacent to the navy yard, and Battery Scott
was to assail McRae. The fire of Pickens was to be concentrated now
upon one point, and now upon another. In half an hour, the Confederate
gulls replied, and the bombardment became general. Salvos of artillery
shook earth and water with terrific thunder. The discharges from Fort
Piclkens were incessant. The frigates also maintained a spirited fire on
the lower batteries, though the depth of water would not allow sufficient
proximity to give full power to their broadsides. The fire concentrated on
McRae was terribly effective: the storm of shot and shell unendurable.
By noon, all but one of its guns were silenced. Its flag-staff was shot
away, and the fort enveloped in smoke, from a burning building in its
rear. At sunset, the fort and its adjoining battery entirely ceased their
fire. During the afternoon, another battery near the navy yard was also
silenced, and the rebel steamer, TTines, at the yard, riddled with shot.
The fire of the rebels upon Fort Pickens was excellent. They worked
their guns with much coolness and skill, but they did little damage to our
ships. Scores of shells fell ill and around the fort, many bursting directly
over it, but the sand-bag traverses, and other precautions, saved the works
from any serious injury, and made our loss very small. Early in the afternoon, a masked battery from the shore opened upon the shipping, one of
the shots hitting the Richmond, by which one man was killed at his gun,.
and seven slightly wounded. The rifled ordnance of the rebels gave them
advantage over the frigates, which were impeded by the shallowness of
the water. The bombardment was witnessed by hundreds of people at
Pensacola, who were crowded on the house-tops, public buildings, and
along the shore, listening to the roar of artillery, and eagerly watching
through glasses the progress of the engagement.
As the gloom of night rolled over the scene of conflict, the Federal
guns discontinued their fire, and the ships steamed out to a place of safety.
Our men everywhere had behaved with great gallantry and spirit during
the day, and the execution of their shots was evidenced in the diminished
fire of the enemy. None of the guns in the fort were disabled, and the
weary garrison, wonderfully preserved from death and wounds, went to
rest, with confident expectations of renewing their exciting labors on the
morrow, with still more decisive success.
The night was improved by the rebels, in raising higher their embankments, and erecting masked batteries near the beach. A little after ten
o'clock in the morning, Fort Pickens reopened the contest, and was
answered by forty or fifty guns of the enemy. The morning, was cold and
rainy. The wind had changed to the north-east, and the depth of water,
blown from the bay by the wind, was so diminished that the ships could
not approach so near as on the previous day. The Niagara attempted to
work her way up against a strong wind, but the water was dangerously
shoal, and while the rebel batteries were far out of the range of her own
smooth bores, the shells of a rifled gun, of immense size, newly mounted
by the Confederates, threatened'her with destruction. She was therefore




372                CIVIL -WAR IN  AMERICA.
withdrawn after a few hours, and the battle left to the forts and batteries.
The fire of Fort Pickens, on this day, was more deliberate than on the day
preceding, and its effects more visible. Fort McIRae, which had suffered
so much the previous day, was still silent, its shattered walls not being
strong enough to bear the discharges of its own guns; but the shore batteries and Fort Barancas kept up a vigorous and well-directed fire. At
3 P. M., some of the houses in Warrington, in the rear of the rebel fortifications, were set on fire by our shells and red-hot shot. The conflagration
spread to the church, and thence along the street, till nearly the whole village was in flames. About the same time, buildings in Woolcott, a village
adjoining the navy yard on the north and east, were seen to be burning.
From  this conflagration, the flames extended to several wooden structures
in the yard. Most of the buildings here, however, being of brick, and
with slated roofs, were more injured by the quantities of shot, and of shells
filled with sand, for breaching the walls, than from the conflagration.
The scene at night was magnificent.  Shells in countless numbers filled.
the air, and yet each one could be followed, in the meteoric splendor of its
graceful curve, from the time it left the gun till it exploded in a deafening
roar.  The whole bay was illumined by the conflagration with more than
noon-day brilliance.  The glow of the flame arrested the eyes of the crew
of the steamer Mfercedita, over forty miles distant, at sea.
The firing was continued on both sides far into the night. At length
the deafening reports of artillery, the whistling of shot, the screech and
crash of bursting shells gradually ceased; though the occasional roar of
the mortars was heard till after midnight. The harbor was brilliantly
lighted up till morning by the burning villages and detached buildings on
shore, but besides this, little had been accomplished by this day's bombardment. The Federal force was not large enough to fbllow it up by a night
attack upon the enemy's works, and as it was not in their power otherwise
to drive them  from  their position, it was decided not to continue the
engagement longer. The loss on both sides was very slight. In Fort
Pickens one private was killed, six wounded.  The only casualty on the
ships was that on the Richmond mentioned above. Gen. Bragg reported
his loss five killed and seven wounded. The only injury sustained by Fort
Pickens from the fire of the rebels, though that fire was very accurate, was
the dismounting of one gun, by a shot that shattered its carriage.  The
IRichmond was quite seriously damaged by a shell which penetrated her
side at the water line. The Niagara, though more exposed, escaped with
trifling injury.
Sunday, the 24th, succeeded-a day of quietness that was in strange
contrast with the noise and confusion of battle with which the week had
closed. The enemy waited in vain fbr the renewal of the strife, still maintaining their position with confidence and exultation.  Though the walls
of their forts were battered and in some places broken, several of their
batteries silenced, and many neighboring buildings consumed, yet it was
evident that those two days of bombardment had produced trifling results
when compared with the mighty energies employed.  Still the rebels
could not but be disheartened by the result.  They were the besieging




FLORIDA.                           373
party-superior in every respect of position and numbers. The Federals
had attacked them in self-defense. The rebels had opened on them their
whole force of artillery, which they had been nine months preparing, for
the utter destruction of the beleaguered fort. Yet, after twenty consecutive
hours of steady and accurate firing, the solid walls that confronted them
showed no signs of weakness, and but one gun had been temporarily disabled. Those walls had proved almost a perfect shelter to their determined
garrison, before whose fire many of the walls of the rebels had crumbled,
and many of their guns had been rendered useless. That our troops still
held possession at all of Pickens was to the Confederates a virtual defeat;
how much more when their own fortifications were much weakened by the
Federal guns, whose defenses were unimpaired?
It is not strange, then, that after a winter of inactivity, disheartened
by theirreverses, demoralized by their sufferings, by lack of discipline and
the consciousness of the falsity of their position in hopelessly besieging a
fort tenfold stronger than their own severely tested works, the next event
we have to record of the rebel forces, is the evacuation of Pensacola?
We must now anticipate events of great importance which had taken
place in other parts of the widely extended field of conflict. The 7th of
May had arrived. New Orleans had been restored to the National Government by the energies of that brilliant naval campaign which we shall
record in subsequent chapters. The fortifications at New Orleans, upon
which the rebels had exhausted all their means of defense, had fallen
before the terrible power of Porter's mortar fleet and Farragut's gun-boats.
On the morning of the 7th of May, the rebels at Pensacola were thrown
into a great state of excitement and consternation, by the appearance off
the bar of several steamers belonging to Corn. Porter's mortar flotilla. It
was evident that the fleet was either concentrating there for an attack
upon Mobile, or that the resistless bolts they wielded were soon to fall
upon IMcRae and Barancas. The forts which had already been so shattered by the fire of Fort Pickens could not stand the renewal of that fire
aided by the flotilla which had caused the rebel flag to descend from Fort
Jackson and Fort St. Philip. The siege of Fort Pickens had now been
maintained, at an immense outlay of labor and expense, for fifteen months,
and had thus far proved an entire failure. The fort had withstood the
utmost fury of their bombardment unharmed. It was now stronger than
ever, and could receive any amount of supplies and renbforcements by sea.
The rebel troops thus uselessly detained there were very much needed in
other parts of the field. For some time the evacuation of the forts had
doubtless been contemplated. Indeed, the iegqe had virtually been abandoned two months before, in March, when Gen. Bragg left, with most of
the rebel force, for another command in the WVest. Since that time the
rebel forts and batteries at Pensacola were garrisoned by but three thousand troops, five hundred of whom were old soldiers, and the remainder
three months volunteers.
Gen. Arnold was now in command at Pickens, having been promoted
to that important post for meritorious services the preceding year. He
had been restrained from attacking the forts, from the fact that lie had




374                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
not suitable means of transportation to convey his troops across the bay to
take possession of them. And again, he was not very unwilling that three
thousand rebel troops should be detained behind those impotent ramparts.
They might cause much trouble elsewhere, but could do no harm there.
The recent triumphs of our naval squadron had spread the terror of its
arm all along the Southern coast. No fort or city or any navigable harbor, not even Charleston, with its Sumter, could now be considered safe.
The rebel government had recently adopted the policy of reducing its lines
of defense, and massing its forces. Thus influenced, they decided to
evacuate their military stations manifestly untenable in eastern and western Florida. Commodore Dupont, sailing down the coast from Port Royal,
had found all the eastern forts evacuated, and had raised over them the
National banner.
The rebels having decided to abandon all their works at Pensacola,
resolved to destroy everything which they could not carry away. At
eleven o'clock at night, of the 9th of May, the National troops on Santa
Rosa Island, perceived indications of some unusual movements on the
opposite shores. The alarm was instantly given, when signal lights were
seen ascending from Fort M3cRae, which were immediately answered along
the line of forts to Pensacola, and the work of destruction began. HIundreds of rebels were seen running in all directions applying torches to the
combustible materials which had previously been arranged; and  almost
instantly a wide-reaching conflagration lighted up the midnight sky. The
flames burst forth, along the winding coast, a distance of nearly ten miles,
from Fort McRae to Pensacola. The Marine IHospital buildings at the
navy yard, store-houses, forts, barracks, dwelling-houses, shipping-all
were enveloped in sheets of fire. To add to the sublimity of the scene, all
the batteries upon Santa Rosa opened their guns upon the retreating foe.
It was hoped that thus the retreat of the rebels might be precipitated, and
the progress of their incendiarism arrested. The vandals, however, had
well matured their plans for the destruction of all the property they had
so infamously wrested from the United States Government.  For five
hours bomb-shells fell like hail-stones around the flaming fortifications, and
the designs of the rebels were, in a measure, frustrated. Some of their
work of ruin they were compelled to leave unfinished. They had failed
in their attempt to fire their camp, and it fell into the hands of the National
troops, almost unharmed, with all its tents and equipments. The lighthouse and Fort Barancas were also but little injured. They had filled
the custom-house with combustibles and had attempted to set them on fire,
but the shells which were dropping so fast, drove them away before they
had accomplished their plan, and the building was saved. The marine
barracks, the foundry, the machine shops and the granite dock in the navy
yard, were saved for the National Government. But McRae and scores
of other buildings were a mass of smoking ruins when the morning light
broke'upon the scene of desolation.
The rebels having withdrawn, General Arnold dispatched his aid, Capt.
R. Jackson, across the bay, in a blockading schooner, to Pensacola, with
an order for the surrender of the city. A crowd of citizens surrounded




F LORI D A.                        375
him at the landing, many, with undisguised joy, welcoming him as the
representative of their old Government. The citizens were called upon to
aid in extinguishing the burning wharves, and other public property, to
which call they willingly responded.
It so chanced that Com. Porter was cruising along the Gulf coast that
night, in the splendid steamer, the ZHarivet -lane. Seeing the light of the
conflagration, he iimmediately turned his prow in that direction, and in the
early morning was at Pensacola, to find the rebel forts evacuated or in
ruins, and Warrington, a large part of the navy yard, and portions of
Pensacola, in ashes. Is arrival was very opportune, as Gen. Arnold had
not otherwise the means of transporting his troops across the bay, to take
possession of the abandoned works. The tHarriet Lane performed this
needful duty, and on that eventful day, the Stars and Stripes again floated
over all. the national property in the harbor of Pensacola; the flag of
treason no longer disgracing any portion of Florida.
Our troops found the streets of Pensacola silent and deserted, and every
thing going to decay. Rebellion had ruined its trade, and blasted its
prosperity. There was one portion of the population who received the
National troops, with joy which could not be repressed. The whole
colored population were half delirious with delight. They were eager to
assist our soldiers in every possible way. Even the frowns and menaces
of rebel masters could not restrain them. The negroes, fond of music,
always sing when happy. Some untutored Milton' among their number
had improvised a jubilant song, ending in the refrain, welcoming the longexpected Yankees, their looked-for Messiah,'  Dey have come at last,
Dey have come at last."
The melody of this song greeted the ears of our soldiers everywhere; and
the negroes engaged with a will in any WOrk to which they were invited,
cheering themselves in labors ever so arduous with this anthem of their
deliverance. They had faith in God. We pray thee, oh, God! that they
may not be disappointed.
Every fort in the Southern States can easily, economically alnd effectually, be garrisoned by colored troops. They ought to be thus garrisoned. The men are there, among their friends, acclimatedl and eager for
the work. They can afford to serve for small wages, and, under educated
officers from our military schools, are abundantly capable of performling
all the service which can be required of theim. Just emerging from the
debasement of slavery, the highly honorable service of the soldier would
be to them most valuable tuition. Our Northern young men, with energy
and education, are too valuable to be cooped up in forts, and to spend their
days shouldering a musket. They are needed to extend the beauty and
thrift of Northern villages all over our majestic land. How long would
England retain India, if she scorned to employ a native soldier l Every
consideration of common sense combines to urge the garrisoning of our
Southern forts with colored men, from  that region.  And let them




376                 CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
be so garrisoned that rebellion will never again raise her parricidal
hand. The regaining of the bay of Pensacola by the National Government,
cleared Florida of the last rebel force of an. importance, within the State.
Early in March, an expedition had sailed from Port Royal, to take possession of the eastern coast. The fleet consisted of the flag-ship Wabash,
under Corn. Dupont, and twenty-six gun-boats and transports.  Hugging
the coast of Georgia, they passed down the sound between Cumberland
Island and the main-land, until they reached Amelia Island, just off the
coast of Florida. Upon the northern extremity of this island, there is one
of the finest harbors south of the Chesapeake, upon the shores of which
bay there slumbers the antique little town of Old Fernandina. Just before
reaching this place, the fleet picked up one'of our ever faithful friends, a
contraband, who informred them that the rebels had abandoned in haste
the whole of the defenses of Fernandina, and were at that moment retreating from Amelia Island, with such mlrunitions as they could carry away
with themn in their precipitate flight.  Commander Drayton, in the
Pawnee, with one or two gun-boats of light draft, was ordered to push
through the sound, and save as m1uch as possible of the public and private
property from  destruction. The remainder of the fleet pushed out to sea,
and steamed for the island by its ocearn approaches.  The water in the
sound was so shoal, that all the gun-boats except one grounded.  Commander Drayton pushed on with three armed launches.  They soon came
to Fort Clinch, at the north end of Amelia Island, guarding the inlet to
the sound. Its garrison of 1,500 mlen had deserted it trhe day bei'ore, having received a telegram  announcing the approach of the fleet. A boat's
crew was sent on shore, to raise over the ramparts the Stars and Stripes.
As they approached Old Fernandina, some persons on the shore waved a
white flag, while some lurking rebels, concealed in the bushes, fired a volley of rifle shots at them, wrounding five and piercing the clothes of' many
others. A railroad train, loaded with rebels and their purloinecl store of
national property, was seen, just starting firor the town. Two locomotives
were attached to the train. A railroad bridge connects the lisland with the
main-land. The whole train efibeted its escape, and disappeared in the
woods on the other side. A little steamer, however, whichl had attempted
to escape, was captured.  The fleet took possession of the harbor, and of
the small townr of St. Miary, in Georgia, nearly opposite.
Fort Clinch, the mailn defense of the harbor and the inlet, was a pentagonal structure, with detached towers and bastions, and detached scarps,
loop-holed for muskletry. Its armament consisted of twenty-seven guns,
most of them thirty-two pounders, with a one hundred and twenty-eiglht
pounder, and one rifled gun. The rebels carried off eighteen of the guns
to Savannah, spiking thie rest, and burning their gun-carriages. A few
days after this, Jacksonville was also taken, and a few other minor points,
without any struggle. And thus the nation of Florida, as it had no longer
a recognized government of its own, became again a territory of the
United States.




CHAPTER XVI.
PULASKI AND  THE  CONTRABANDS.
RECONNOISSANCE OF TYBEE ISLAND.-FORT PULASKI AND ITS'BOMBARDMENT.-PREPARATIONS
FOR ITS REDUCTION.-ITS BOMBARDMENT.-ITS SURRENDER.-FEELINGS OF THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT.-INCREASING IMPORTANCE OF THE SLAVERY QUESTION.-NATIONAL FREEDMAN'S
ASSOCIATION.-ADDRESS OF GEN. MCCLELLAN.-FINANCIAL AND MILITARY REPORTS.
IN Novemnber, 1861, Gen. Shermaan, at Port Royal, received orders to
make a reconnoissance of Tybee Island, at the mouth of the Savannah
River, as a preliminary to the reduction of Fort Pulaski, which comnmands
the approaches to Savannah, Georgia.  Savannah is one of the most beautiful of the Southern cities, containing a population of about 6,000 whites
and 6,000 slaves.  It is situated on a plateau;, about forty feet above the
level of the river, and seventeen miles from its mouth. Like many other
of the cities of the South, it has an oriental air of repose, in strong contrast
with the life and vigor of Northern cities.  Tybee Island, at the mouth of
the river, is a low, barren expanse of sand ridges, about eight miles long
and six wide. At the northern extremity of the island there is a lighthouse, and a strong [Martello tower, one of those massive circular structures
of masonry, such as the English scattered so profusely along their coasts to
guard against the threatened invasion by Napoleon.  Three war vessels
were despatched upon this enterprise.  On the 25th of November they
appeared off Tybee, and commenced throwing shot and shell upon the
island, at those points where any foe might lurk.  Awaking no response,
they landed, and found all the works abandoned. At the base of the
tower they found a strong battery, but the rebels had been inspired with
such terror by the successful bombardment of Forts Walker and B3eauregard, that they did not venture to make any stand behind the feebler
intrenchments of Tybee.  Indeed, Conlmodore Tatnall announced that
after the successful firing at Hilton I-ead, nothing the rebels had erected
could withstand the National fleet. An intense panic had pervaded the
whole line of the Southern coast.  Several thousand troops took possession
of the island; the flag of the Union was raised, and deliberate preparations
were made for the reduction of Pulaski.  The old Spanish tower was
repaired and mounted with aIn effective armament of 32 and 64-pounders,
while breastworks were thrown up surrounding it, a mile in circumference.
Only two thousand troops were landed upon the island, and the amount
of labor perfbrmed by them seems incredible.  This National fort, Pulaski,
was considered one of the most impregnable in the United States. It had




378                     CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
been reared at an expense of a million of dollars, and was amply provided
with all the appliances which modern military science could suggest.  Its
walls, of very hard brick, were nine feet thick  and forty feet high.  Its
armament consisted of one hundred and fifty of the most massive and
effective guns known in warfare.   The fort was situated  upon a small
island, called Cockspur, and perfectly commanded the approaches in every
direction.  The rebels felt that they had at least one fort, Pulaski, which
was impregnable.  A  rebel officer, writing  from  Pulaski to  one of the
Southern papers, said: 
"The enemy have gained little by taking  Tybee Island.  We have
plenty of ammunition and men, and we defy them  to come in range of our
guns.  We will show them  the difference between Port Royal and Fort
Pulaski.'
Still the  inhabitants of Savannah  were terribly  alarmed, for the
National troops had established themselves within seventeen miles of their
streets.  All the families who could leave fled, carrying with them their
slaves, as the most valuable portion of their property.  Early in December, Gen. Gilmore, having made a careful reconnoissance of that part of
the island where batteries could be planted which would reach Pulaski,
reported that in his judgment the fort could be reduced by mortars and
rifled guns established on the north-west end of Tybee Island.  ITe recommended that eleven mortar batteries should be erected, so that a shell
should be thrown every minute into the fort.  I-Ie would also have as
many rifled guns as mortars, throwing their shot still more rapidly.  All
necessary arrangements being made, the works were commenced onl the
20th of February, under the superintendence of Gen. Gilmore, who deservedly acquired great credit for the engineering skill and administrative
ability with which he conducted them  to a triumphant conclusion.  The
eleven batteries were constructed with a parapet eight feet high, and a
bomb-proof traverse between every two guns.  The nmortars, which were
sunk in the ground, fired over the parapets; the guns through emnbrasures.
The batteries were twenty-five yards apart, and connected by trenches
afforlding safe communication between them.  Several of the batteries had
also a bomb-proof surgery, supplied with all requisites for surgical operations.  Each battery had also a well of water.  In addition to these a boat
was also brought around, with a battery mounted upon it and stationed
near a bend, in Lazaretto  Creek, which placed it within very effective
* As our troops landed in Georgia an address was issued to the people of that State, signed by
IHowell Cobb, R. Toombs, M. J. Crawford, Thomas R. R. Cobb. The following extract gives an
interesting view of the state of mind of those rebels.
"The foot of the oppressor is on the soil of Georgia. He comes with lust in his eye, poverty
in his purse and hell in his heart. He comes a robber and a murderer. How shall you meet him?
With the sword at the threshold  With death for him or for yourselfI But more than this; let
every woman have a torch, every child a firebrand; let the loved homes of youth be made ashes,
and the fields of our heritage be made desolate. Let blackness and ruin mark your departing
steps, if depart you must, and let a desert more terrible than Sahara welcome the Vandals. Let
every city be leveled by the flames, and every village lost in ashes. Trust wife and children to
the sure refuige and protection of God, preferring even for these loved ones the charnel house as
a home than loathsome vassalage to a nation already sunk below the contempt of the civilized
world."




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380                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
range of the fort. The construction of these batteries involved immense
labor, in which the negroes were exempted fiom taking any share. There
was no wharf at Tybee. A heavy surf dashed upon the shore. The ponderous guns were pitched overboard at high tide from floats upon the
beach, and when the tide went down were mounted on sling carts, and
dragged by white hands over the sands to their destination. Beneath a
blazing sun the young men of the North, all unaccustomed to such labor,
were driven to these toils, when thousands of hearty, healthy, robust
negroes were loitering about, not knowing what to do with themselves,
but longing to seize the ropes and drag the guns with shouts of jubilee.
iHundreds of our noblest young men, glorious, patriotic boys, from the
refined homes of the North, fainted and sickened and died in the hospitals,
from this unpardonable foblly.
It was a distance of two and a half miles from'the landing to the batteries. It required three hundred men to move a thirteen-inch mortar,
weighing 17,000 pounds, loaded on a sling cart. They frequently got
mired, and the labor was enormous in extricating them. Twenty-two of
the guns were served, during the bombardment, by men who had performed these fatiguing labors. All the instruction in gunnery they couldl
receive was such as they gained, at odd times, when they could be spared
fromn other duties.
There were political complications mingling with the strife, which
faithful history must not ignore. There was a party at the North, active
and unscrupulous, who were anxious to preserve slavery. They desired,
abo1ve all things, to save slavery from harm, as the only means of keeping
the whole South united, as a sectional party. They could then, though in
the great minority at the North, unite their votes with the slaveholding
South, and thus secure, as they had done for years, the control of the Government, with all its enormous patronage. These men were not Secessionists. They were all in faior of the Union. They thought that the Union
ought to have been maintained, in the first place, by yielding to the
demands of the South, and adopting slavery as the corner-stone of the
Constitution. They accused the friends of freedom in the North with
being the guilty cause of the rebellion, by not acceding to these demandas.
They now wished to end the war by so exhausting the North, that it would
earnestly invite the South back on its own terms; and by inflicting just
enough trouble upon the South, to induce them to wish to return.  0Unfortunately for the honor of our arms, many of the most promlinent generals
belonged to this party, and conducted the war at first uponi these principles. Conciliation and compromise was the motto emblazoned upon their
banners. Those officers who cherished different views, and pushed the
war with all vigor, such men as Fremont and Sigel, and tIunter and
Phelps, and others who might be mentioned, were denounced and thwarted
in all ways. IHence few victories were obtained in those portions of the
field, where enormous Union armies were marshaled, and held in repose
in the presence of inferior fobes.
But the great mass of the Northern people, of both the old parties,
democrat and republican, rose above these low and groveling thoughts.




PULASKI AND  THE CONTRABANDS.                      38I
They wished to see the Union restored upon principles which would prevent the ormnation of sectional parties, that we might be henceforth a
homogeneous people, with harmonious institutions of freedom extending
over the whole land. Slavery had kept the nation in a constant broil,
from the days of the Revolution. Slavery had culminated in this hideous
rebellion, which, in eighteen months, had cost the country, North and
South, two hundred thousand lives, and an expenditure of two thousand
millions of dollars, beside incidental expenses in the ravages of armies, the
prostration of business, and time profitlessly employed, amounting to
countless millions more. The loss to the nation was estimated, by an
ingenious calculation, to amount to ten thousand millions of dollars.
Slavery, continued, would inevitably bear the same fruit.  Slavery
strengthened the arm of rebellion, and palsied the energies of fieedom.
It dug trenches, fed rebel armies, and supported at home the families of
traitors who were in the field; and therefore, every true patriot in the
land, rising above the mercenary considerations of party, desired intensely
that slavery might perish. God had opened the door, almost miraculously,
for its overthrow. Every intelligent man admitted, that if the abolition
of slavery was essential to the salvation of the nation, the constituted
authorities were bound, as a military necessity, to pronounce its abolition.
All constitutional restraints of the civil power were swept away, by the
inexorable law of military necessity. Such were the views of political
patriotism. With the Christian community, still higher views prevailed.
They accepted the doctrine of the fraternity of man, as taught by our
Saviour. They wept over the wrongs inflicted upon their colored brother.
They deemed slavery a heinous sill in the sight of God, and believed
that it was always politic to do right, and had no hope that God would
bless a hypocritical nation, pretending to love liberty, and yet consigning
four millions of its innocent poor to debasement, ignorance, and unpaid
toil. In every disaster, as in Egypt's plagues, they heard the voice of
God, saying, " Let my people go."
At the commencement of the conflict, the slaveholders were also in
favor of Union. Permanent separation, as we have mentioned, was not
their original plan. They hoped that the threat of secession would bring
the North to terms. Failing in that, they tried secession itself, hoping
thus to secure the adoption of their wishes,-then to reconstruct the Union
on the basis of slavery. But as the conflict continued, becoming exasperated, they vehemently affirmed that they would not, upon any terms
whatever, live in union with the freemen of the North. In this last
resolve, and this only, their Northern allies were compelled to abandon
them. Still they hoped to coax them back, by the most aboundcng protestations of submission. They were willing to lie low at. the oot of the
slaveholder, if he would but aid them in getting office.
Thus it was that for weary months the armies of freedom struggled
unavailingly, often led by generals who hated freedom and lovedR1 slavery.
The hearts of many patriots were faint. In every corps of the arnmy there
were officers who nobly espoused the cause of universal liberty, but in the
early months of the war they were so trammeled by their superiors, that




382                     CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
they could accomplish but little.  And thus it was that here, on Tybee
Island, where, from the vicinity, any amount of acclimated laborers might
have been found, our Northern young men had all the exhausting drudgery
to perform.  The spirit of pro-slavery forbade the employment of the
hands of slaves, lest the slaveholders should be provoked, and the institution endangered.
Through toil, and suffering, and death, the work of rearing the batteries on Tybee was pushed with great efficiency.  Seven of the, batteries
were constructed entirely by our volunteer soldiers, who did all the digging and shoveling in constructing the works, and the road leading to
them, and who performed all the labor of transporting and mounting the
guns.  The batteries being  completed, three or four days were spent,
previous to opening the bombardment, in drilling the men in  artillery
practice.  The men who did nearly all this heavy work, were the 7th
Regiment Connecticut Volunteers, and the 46th Regiment of New York
Volunteers, with three companies of Rhode Island Artillery, and  five
companies of the 8th M/aine Regiment.  The 8th  Michigan  and 76th
Pennsylvania Regiments eventually joined them.  As most of the batteries were in full view of Pulaski, though between one and two miles distaut, all the work had to be done upon them  during the night.  One mile
of the road leading toward them, led through a very soft and wet marsh.
This was crossed on fascines, thrown upon the ground, composed of small
poles, eighteen feet long, and bound strongly together with withes, in bundles about nine inches in diameter.  Many thousands of these were constructed.  Over this road, all the mammoth guns and mortars had to be
trundled, and all the immense weight of shot and shells.  Twenty-two
thlousaud pounds of powder, twenty thousand 10 and 13-inch shells, and
thirty thousand solid shot, were stored in these magazines.
3By the 10th of April everything was ready.   The magazines were
supplied with powder, and vast conical heaps of shot and shell were piled
up around the guns.  At twenty minutes before eight A. Ar., a puff of smoke
wreathed up over the central battery, followed by a sullen boom, and a
shell with its shrill scream  rose high in the air.  Its fuse was not well
timed, and it soon burst, with a roar like an answering echo to the gun,
which reverberated over the bay.  It was the first intimation the foe had
of the location of the batteries.  Almost instantly a puff was seen from Fort
Pulaski, then the deep and distant boom  came rolling over the wave, and
a solid eliot of thirty-two pounds weight buried itself in the sand.  The
* On the morning of the 10th, before opening the fire, Gen. Hunter sent to Pulaski, with a flag
of truce, the following demand for its surrender, addressed to the commanding officer: " Sir, I
hereby demand of you the surrender and restoration of Fort Pulaski to the authority and possession
of the United States. This demand is made with a view to save the effusion of blood, which must
follow the bombardment and assault, now in readiness to be opened. The number, calibre, and
completeness of the batteries surrounding you, leave no doubt of what must be the result, in case
of your refusal. And as the defense, however obstinate, must eventually succumb to the assailing
force at my disposal, it is hoped that you may see fit to avert the useless waste of life," &c.
To this, Col. Chas. H. Olmstead, in command, replied, " Sir, I have to acknowledge the receipt
of your communication of this date, demanding the unconditional surrender of Fort Pulaski. In
reply, I can only say that I am here to defend the fort, not to surrender it," &c.




PULASKI AND  THE CONTRABANDS.                     383
battle was now opened from every battery on the shore, and friom every gun
in Pulaski which could be brought to bear upon the assailants. All the
day long, without one moment's intermission, the roar of the bombardment
continued. From the shipping off Tybee and from many points on the
island the contest was watched. At length a cloud of yellow dust seemed
to rise from a portion of the walls of Pulaski. All glasses were instantly
turned to the point, and a large dent was seen where a rifled shot had
struck the brick-work. With accurate aim and rapid firing, shot followed
shot in the same direction. In the course of an hour a large number of
similar fractures were seen. At eleven o'clock a simultaneous cheer burst
from the gun-boats, for a lucky shot struck the flag-staff and the rebel
banner fell. The firing from the Fort was, however, continued uninterrupted, showing that as yet they had no thought of surrender, and the flag
was soon again floating. And now every shot from the rifled guns seemed
to tell, and a breach was manifestly in progress. Dense volumes of smoke
began to arise from beyond the fort, showing that some buildings in their
rear had been set on fire.
The generals in command, Gen. H-unter, Gen. Benham, Gen. Gilmore,
and Coin. Rodgers, of the WVabash, with their staff officers, took their
stations between two of the batteries, Lincoln and Burnside, where they
were shelter'ed by a sand ridge. From this point of observation, about a
mile and a half distant from Pulaski, they watched with a powerful telescope the progress of the bombardment. The enemy had caught sight of
themll, and trained one of their barbette guns upon the spot. At frequent
intervals a shell camne whizzing through the air, over their heads. They
could, however, see the flash and the puff of smoke, and hear its screech
in season to seek shelter behind their sandy parapet.  Some of the veterans, however, deemed it inconsistent with soldierly dignity to attempt
to dodge such missiles. The shells generally went shrieking over their
heads. fair onward into the swamp, where, sinking into the black ooze,
they exploded with great commotion. The morning was clear and cold..A firesh north-easterly wind whitened the bay, and dashed the surf from
the broad Atlantic on the low and sandy shores. The fort stood out in the
bright sunlight, with all its angles distinctly defined, a perfect target for
the thirty-six gunlls playing upon it. By noon forty-one scars were counted
on the south face, and several of the embrasures were much enlarged by
the heavy pounding. With the night the fire ceased. No one had been
hurt in the batteries, and though the fort was somewhat scarred, its real
powers of resistance did not seem to be at all abated.
WVith the earliest dawn of Friday morning the bombardment was
resumed on both sides with the greatest vigor. The effect of the previous
fire now began to be apparent. In many places the walls had been so
weakened that shot and shell pierced. The fire was mainly concentrated
upon one spot, and soon a large breach was effected, through which solid
balls and conical shells were plunged directly into the fort. About nine
o'clock, a private, in battery McClellan, was struck by a solid shot, and
died within an hour. This was the first and only casualty during the
bombardment. Every shot from the batteries now seemed to tell. The




384                  CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
breach upon which the whole fire was concentrated grew hourly larger,
and large masses of brick fell into the ditch.  Thus animated the cannoneers plied more vigorously their work, when the officers, with their glasses,
observed something rise from the north angle of the fort, and seized by the
wind out streamed the white flag of surrender.  The rebel banner fell, and
every gun on Pulaski was silent.
It was two o'clock in the afternoon of April 11.  The gunners sprang
upon the parapets and cheer upon cheer burst from their lips, as enthusiastic as were ever uttered upon field of battle.  They were expecting to
storm the fort; to rush in, at a fearful loss of life, at the breach which they
were effecting.  And they had now captured one of the strongest forts in
the world, while at the distance of a mile and a half from it, with the loss
of but a single man.  Two boats were immediately dispatched to the fort,
containing twenty-four commissioned officers.  It was with no little difficulty that it was reached, for the wind had been blowing nearly a gale for
twenty-four hours, and the broad mouth of the river was very rough.  The
party was met, at the fort, by Col. Olrmstead, a Northern man, who was
in command, and after a short conference with Gen. Gilmore, its inmmediate and unconditional surrender was assented to.  The flag of the United
States was again run up, upon that staff from which treason had struck it
down. The guns were all stacked in the area, and the captured rebels were
sent to their quarters.  The 7th Connecticut Volunteers were ordered to
garrison the fort, an lhonor which they richly merited for the conspicuous
part they had taken in its capture.  The regimental colors of the 8th
Maine, and of the volunteer engineers, were also raised over the fort in
recognition of their eminent services.
The rebel officers delivered their swords to Major I-Halpine.  Each officer, as lie surrendered his weapon, seemed called upon to make a short
speech, some of them singularly bombastic and ridiculous.  Col. Olmnstead,
an earnest, misguided man of deep religious feelings, had the manners of a
gentleman, and secured, by the propriety of his demeanor, the respect of
his captors.  The officers were allowed the limits of the island, on parole.
Three hundred and eighty-three prisoners, forty thousand pounds of powder with proportionate shot and shell, three hundred barrels of beef and
pork, twenty-eight thousand pounds of hard bread, with rice, sugar and
coffee in abundance, were found in the magazines and store-houses.
But notwithstanding this abundant supply of the munitions of war, the
surrender was a necessity.  The shot, piercing the breach, raked the interior of the fort, and struck directly upon the main magazine.  An explosion was imminent, which would blow the fort and its cldefnde-rs into the
air.  Though not one of the garrison l had been killed and but tnr ec
wounded, the sumrrender was a necessity.  The interior of thle ifrt presented an aspect of utter ruin. Eleven guns were disabled, the parapet
and traverses were shattered, and the area ploughed up in all directions.
Bricks, splinters and rubbish wiere scattered around, and many of the casemates in ruins, thle guns buried out of sight under. the c760ris.  Over a
thousand shells had exploded within the fort. It was nearly eleven o'clock
at night when the National volluteers, groping their way in through the




PULASKI AND  THE  CONTRABANDS.                          3a5
intricate channel by the light of a clouded moon, reached the wharf.  Some
of the rebel soldiers were loitering about, seeming very sad, many of' them
declaring that they had been forced into the rebellion.  The officers, however, were resolute and defiant in their treason.  Upon carefully examining the effects of the bombardment, it was ascertained that by far the
most effective weapon which had been used, was the Janmes' gun, throwing
24, 32 and 42-pound shot.""
Subsequent reports from Savannah showed that the capture of Pulaski
excited the utmost consternation there.  Notwithstanding the rebels had
filled the channel of the river with sunken hulks and every other obstruction they could devise, the inhabitants were almost insane with terror.
The fall of the foirtress upon which they had reposed such implicit reliance
was an event so sudden and unlooked for, that they expected immediately
to see the fleet before their doors.  The rail-cars were crowded with flying
families, and with property of all kinds, seeking safety in the far interior.
It is a fact worthy of notice that the Stars and Stripes rose over Pulaski
on the anniversary of the day on which treason compelled that banner to
be furled on Fort Sumter.  Just twelve months to a day, from  the time
when the rebels took possession of Sumter, Fort Pulaski capitulated to the
National force.  In this aftbir the rebels had been entirely out-generaled.
Six weeks before the bombardment, a back channel had been discovered,
by which Pulaski could be isolated from  Savannah.  The important passage was immediately seized by a naval force, and also several other adjacent islands, with their water surroundings.  Batteries were at once reared,
secretly, which commanded these creeks and the Savannah River above
the fort.  These operations were conducted so adroitly under cover of the
night, that one morning the garrison woke up to find themselves, much to
their surprise and consternation, thus unenviably situated, and also the
ibrt invested.
There were about a dozen negroes talen in thle fort, who had been
employed there as waiters.  Under the hunmane regime of Gen. Hunter,.
they were all declared free.  One quite intelligent man, forty-seven years
of age, said that for thirty years he had hired his time, paying his master
twelve dollars a month, and his wife paid eight dollars a month.  Thus.
this poor black man and wifb had supported themselves and family thirty
years, paying a man, who called himself their master, two hundred and
forty dollars a year-amounting in all to $7,200.  And this case is but oneI
of thousands.  Could he have laid up.that money for himself, with the
interest, he would then have been worth the pretty sumn  of fifteen -or
twenty thousand dollars. There is something inexpressibly vulgar and.
despicable, in a man who calls himself a gentleman, going to a poor black
washerwoman, who has been toiling all the month at the wash-tub, and.
robbing her of eight dollars of her wages, and doing this month after
* A good anecdote is told of one of the Connecticut troops. While talking with a rebel soldier, the latter said, tauntingly, "At least, with all our faults, we have never made wooden nutmegs." The Yankee boy quietly replied, with a very demure look, but with a slight twinkling of
the eye, "We do not mLae them of wood any longer," and pointing to one of the enormous balls
which had breached the fort, "we make them of iron nIow."
25




,386               CIVIL  WAR  IN  AMERICA.
month and year after year. Nothing but slavery canl sink a man so low.
That such men should utter the word chivaly /!!
As the achievements of the MI}errimac aind the Ml:onitor proved that
wooden ships are no longer of much service in war, so the successful bombardment of Pulaski must introduce important modifications into the
theory and practice of land defenses. It is now clear that the old walls of
masonry, cannot withstand the massive shells and rifled shot of modern
warfare. In the bombardment of a day and a half; the massive walls of
Pulaski were crumbled, by the improved conical projectiles fired from
ranges varying fiom 1,643 to 3,476 yards, the nearest range being almost
a mile and the farthest over two miles. An iron facing, at least, for all
brick walls, is henceforth indispensable.
Though it was not then deemed advisable to send a force to attack
Savannah, the recapture of Pulaski was an event of much moment. It
placed the chief city of the Southern Atlantic sea-board under the control
of the National Government, so that it could be taken whenever a move
should be made in that direction. It efectually blockaded that important
port, while it relieved the large blockading squadron which had been
detained there. VAnd it was another and a very impressive evidence, of the
determination and power of the Government to repossess itself of all that
National property, which had been seized by rebellion.
It was well understood by all parties that the British Government were
eager to espouse the cause of the South, that the Union might be broken
up, and thus republican institutions be thrown into hopeless disgrace.
The Richmond Examiner, of January 1, with ample means, through its
agents, of knowing the sentiments of the Cabinet of St. James, deploring
that the United States had so managed the Trent affair as to escape war
with England, said: " It is certain that the British wanted war; that they
were confident of getting it; and that they will be bitterly disappointed
at the unsatisfactory result."  To be prepared for such an addition to our
difficulties, which might at any moment arise, a circular was issued to the
governors of all the States, bordering on the ocean or lakes, to put their
coast and lake defenses into effective condition. NTearly six millions of
dollars were appropriated, in this our hour of need, to strengthen these
fortresses against the menaces of England.  The treat-mllenlt received from
England was not what the country had expected. The disposition of the
United States, both Governmnent and people, towards the mother country,
was signally manifested in the greeting extended to the Prince of Wales,
spontaneous, sincere, and influenced by no commninglings with considerations of policy. It camle from the heart.  The return we have received
will never be forgotten. And wlhen P North and South shall again be
united, under free institutions, slavery swept away forever, England may
look in vain to find a friend in man, woman or child on this continent,
from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf
There are thousands now who, without any combination, instinctively and
from an irrepressible sense of indignation, refuse to pulrchase any article
whatever of English manmfactr'L-re. HIad not England encouraged the slaveholding rebels, before they rose in rebellion, that En!:land's fleet and army




PULASKI AND  THE  CONTRABANDS.                    387
would intervene in their favor, the traitors never would have ventured to
unfurl their flag. Had not England encouraged them, after the bloody
strif'e was opened, with her moral support, cheering on the rebels, promising them  aid, assisting them in every covert way, and denouncing and
insulting the National Government, the rebellion, in its earliest stages,
would have been quelled, and our beloved land would have been saved
this deluge of blood and woe. England! the wrongs you have inflicted
upon America are too deep to be forgiven. AWe are glad that the ocean
rolls between us. We pray Almighty God to grant us henceforth peace
forever with all nations. We have had enough of war. Our souls loathe
it. But rest assured, that the state of public sentiment in America is now
such, that should you again desire war, you can have it. You have
incurred the contempt of the South as well as the indignation of the
North. A war with you now would do more to unite the North and
South in fraternal bonds, than anything else which can well be imagined.
You umiight haIve made us your friends. And the friendship of America is
not to be despised. It is now too late.
Along the Potomiac all continued quiet. In the intrenchmnents there,
an army of 250;000 men were gathered, and such an army was probably
never before raised. It consisted of the very best portion of the population of the Northern States-the noblest and most intelligent young men,
from all the varied walks of life. This army, for some strategic reason,
was held iln repose, while vigorous blows were being struck, by direction
of tlie colmmanltder-in-chief, elsewhere. Gen. Burnside, in his official report of the military operations at Roanoke, ascribed the movement to the
directing mind of Gen. MIcClellan. His report contains the following passage:
" I beg to say, to the General Commanding, that I have endeavored to
carry out the very minute instructions given me by him, before leaving
Annapolis, and thus far events have been singularly coincident with his
anticipations. I only hope that we may, in future, be able to carry out in
detail the remaining plans of the campaign. The only thing I have to
regret, is the delay caused by the elements."
Every day the slavery question was assuming increasing importance.
It could not be ignored. Wherever our army appeared, the slaves would
flock toward it, notwithstanding the cold welcome they so often received
from many of the army officers. Gens. Hunlter and Sherman, at Port
Royal, were friendly toward these children of oppression. And though
the policy of the Government, controlled by the Border State influence,
and the pro-slavery spirit of many of the commanding generals, would not
permit them to act out their views fully, still they could not conceal their
sympathy in the wrongs of their colored brethren. A correspondent to
the New York HIerald, writing friom Hilton Head, under date of Nov. 14,
says:
"' Contraband slaves still flock into the camps, and at once find profitable employment and plenty to eat from Uncle Sam's representatives. It
is highly amusing to see these poor creatures, after their day's work, give
expressions of their exuberant spirits at the change in their condition, from




388                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
that of the animal to that of the human being. At night, groups of them
gather together; they dance, sing, and otherwise enjoy theimselves, and
seem grateful to our troops, for their unexpected delivery fiom the hands
of their tyrant masters."
One morning, a boat, crowded with forty-five of these fugitives, came
down the Rappahannoock to Fortress Monroe. The next mlorning, forty
more came. It would hardly do to sink their boat with a rifled gun.
They landed, imploring protection. They had a pitiable story to tell.
Some were husbands and fathers. Their masters were about to sell them
down South, lest they should escape, tearing them away from wife and
children. In their terror, the poor creatures had escaped by night, and
fled to the National banner for refuge. There were few hearts so hard as
to wish to drive these stricken ones back to stripes and chains. And so it
was everywhere. We had but to say the word, and the intelligence flew,
with telegraphic rapidity, from plantation to plantation, and thousands
were on the road, looking  out for the Stars and the Stripes. Early in
December, 1861, two thousand daily rations were served out to the contrabands at Fortress MHonroe. They were all eager for work, and yet seldom
were they offered any other reward for their labors than food and shelter.
They occupied a long, rough, board building, and worked in loading and
unloading vessels, and in constructing a railroad from the light-house to
the point. This work was done by contraband labor alone, and saved the
Governme-nt hundreds of thousands of dollars. An account was kept with
them, and they were frequently told that all they earned was to be paid to
their masters.
It is difficult to describe the position which these men occupied. The
progress of the public mind was so rapid, that the description of the state
of things one week, would be totally false the next. There was no national
policy. Every general did as seemed right in his own eyes. One would
would drive, with contumely, every colored man from his lines; another
was eager to surrender him back to his master; another would receive and
shelter, but not employ them; another would cautiously set them at work.
Still the flood all set in one direction, toward freedom. The general who
issued a fierce pro-slavery proclamation to-day, would be ashamed of it
to-morrow. The United States officer who vehemently affirmed yesterday
that he would break his sword and renounce his commission, if the perpetuity of slavery were endangered by the war, would to-day receive in
silence and submission a presidential decree of emnancipation. The first
of January, 1862, found all the hardest manual labor, at Fortress Monroe,
performed by the strong and willing hands of the contrabands. At that
time, the garrison, with its outposts and fleet, embraced the wants of at
least 30,000 souls.
One night, four contrabands in a boat escaped from the North Carolina
shore, to one of our blockading ships. They were received with the warmest welcome. One was a" first-rate carpenter, another the best pilot in the
Sound; the two others were experienced stevedores. It was a valuable
accession. The carpenter was immediately put upon the list of applicants
for a partnership in the navy. With the seamen, as a class, there was no




PULASKI AND  THE  CONTRABANDS.                    389
prejudice against these men. Travel enlarges the mind, and breaks down
the prejudices of nationality. Seamen whose minds had been expanded
with commerce with the world, who had seen East Indians and Pacific
Islanders, Chinaimen, Arabs, Spaniards, and Norwegians, regarded a man
as a man. They cheerfully mlessed with their colored ship-mates, and
shared with them all toils and rewards.
At Newbern, a slave girl, eighteen years of age, escaped to the camp.
She was so white, that none would have suspected that any Ethiopic blood
was in her veins. She was healthy, ruddy, and beautiful, with finely
chiseled features, and a perfect form. Her master came after her, and, in
accordance, with the policy then prevailingi she was surrendered to him.
The noble-hearted soldiers of the Union army were exasperated. They
had not learned to be insensible to such outrages, in the Sabbath-schools
of the North. The master, apprehensive that she might escape again, put
her up at auction, to send her down South. She was a beautiful girl, and
as such, sold for fifteen hundred dollars, though her market value at the
time would have been hardly half that, merely as a servant. An aged
colored woman, a -mother in that Israel of bondage, commenting upon this
transaction, said, prophetically, " God has borne with this slavery, very
patiently, a great while, but I-e ain't a-going to stand it mulch longer.'
Poor creatures often came into the camps in great anguish, having left
their wives and children behind. They had learned that they were to be
sold "down South," beyond the reach of liberty. Once there, there was
no hope of escape, no hope of ever hearing fronm wife or child again. If
they could escape to the lines of the rNational army, there was still a hope
thlat they mlight be reunited with their families. Through perils and sufferings which can not be described, they fled. Some who attempted to
escape were shot; some were caught, and whipped to death, as a warning
to others. The sympathies of our soldiers were strongly excited by these
outrages, and abhorrence of slavery was rapidly extended and intensified
througlhout the army. An officer, writing from Newbern, says, " In Virginia and [North Carolina, for the past year, I have had opportunities of
observing large numbers of the contrabands; and my respect for the black
race has been greatly increased thereby. As a staff officer, I have frequently had occasion to obtain information of various kinds, relating to
roads, navigation, position and defenses of the enemy, and I have invariably found that obtained from the negroes to be most trustworthy. The
slaves who come into our camp here are, to every appearance, far more
intelligent than the poor whites."  In the operations of the army, the contrabarnds have been of inestiimable value. They have obtained important
information when white mnen could not. They have acted as spies when
white men could not be hired to risk their necks.
On one occasion, it was necessary to send a steamer from Beaufort,
N. C., directly under the guns of Fort Macon, into Bogue Sound. The
channel was narrow and intricate, and it would be necessary to thread it
in the gloom of the darkest night. Should the steamer ground, she. would
inevitably be lost, and all on board be taken captives. No white pilot
could be found to undertake the perilous adventure, though three hundred




390                 CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
dollars was offered to any white man who would take the steamer by the
iort. A colored man, who had escaped from a rabid Secessionist, a slave
who had long been a skillful pilot in those waters, took the boat through.
Had he been taken, he would have been punished with tortures more
dreadful than death. Yet all this risk he ran, hoping to achieve his freedom. He was successful. It was rendering an incalculable service to the
United States.'We blush to record that the slave received not a dollar for
]tis service, and that if his master had the next day come to the camp, and
sworn that he was in favor of the Union, the slave would, under many of
our generals, have been delivered up to him.
There were, at this time, in Beaufort district, S. C., 16,000 slaves, whose
masters had fled so precipitately that they could not compel their reluctant
slaves to follow them. Every where the colored people were reported as
hurrying in droves to our lines. They crowded in small boats around the
ships, they swarmed upon the decks. Whenever one of our gun-boats,
upon a reconnoissance, fired a heavy gun, ere long they saw the slaves,
from all directions, attracted by the sound, running across the fields to
secure their freedom.
About the middle of INovemuber, IMaj. Gen. Henry W. HIalleck was
appointed to the command of the Mililitary Department of the West, in thle
place of Gen. Fremont. This change was peculiarly acceptable to the
Border State men, and all who were in sympathy with their views. It
was generally understood that Gen. Halleck was as hostile to emancipation, as Gen. Fremont had been in favor of such measures. The ability
of Gen. Halleck was universally recognized. lie was a man of very fine
personal appearance, forty-two years of age. In 1839, he graduated at
West Point, the third in his class. IHe had attained a high reputation as
a man of intellectual ability. A course of lectures upon;" Military Science
and Art," which he delivered before the Lowell Institute at Boston, subsequently published in a neat volume, gave him position among men of letters. Iemoving to California, lie became one of the most conspicuous men
in that rising State, taking an active part in the formation of its free constitution. With a high reputation for sagacity, energy, patriotism, and
integrity, he assumed this responsible command. We shall have occasion
hereafter, in detail, to speak of the manner in which he conducted the
Western campaign.  The rebels found, to their cost, that they were in the
hands of one who could strike heavy blows.
The State of M1aine, true to her motto, Di)rigo, was the first State in
the Union to pass a resolution in favor of confiscating, liberating, and
arming the slaves of rebels, if it should become a military necessity.  This
important vote passed the Senate on the 8th of February, by a vote of 24
against 4. About the same time, Gen. Halleck issued an order, which
acquired great notoriety, as being antagonistic to the views of a large portion of the Northern people. This order contained the following emphatic
announcement:
"It does not belong to the military to decide upon the relation
of master and slave.  Such questions must be settled by the civil
courts. No fugitive slaves will, therefore, be admitted within our




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PULASKI AND  THE  CONTRABANDS.                    391
lines or camps, except when specially ordered by the general commanding."
The general sentiment of the North was decidedly adverse to this
order, as it deprived our soldiers of the aid of strong and willing hands,
and excluded those from whom alone we could obtain, in many cases,
valuable information respecting the movements of' the enemy. Still the
order met with the cordial approval of the Border States, and of all those
who feared that slavery might get harm from the progress of the war.
When, subsequently, the whole rebel army at Corinth escaped the outnumbering troops of Gen. Halleck, without the loss of a gun, a wagon, or
a man, and our generals, who were facing them, were all left as much
bewildered as if the rebels had vanished into air, no one knowing where
they had gone, or where they would strile thle next blow,-it was said,
that had not our faithful allies, the colored mlen, been excluded from our
lines, we should have been thoroughly inf'ormed of all their movements.
The fidelity and sagacity of these contrabands in communicating intelligence, is quite too firmly established to be questioned.
To meet the vast expenses now accruing, the President was authorized
by Congress to issue a Nlational currency of notes, of the denomination of
five dollars and upward, to the amount of one hundred and fifty millions
of dollars, and also to effect a loan of $500,000,000. Measures were also
adopted for a direct tax, and other means of raising a revenue, to pay thq
interest on this susm.
Early in November, the City Council of Philadelphia presented Gen.
McClellan with a sword, in testimony of their confidence in his ability.
and their admiration of his conduct of the war. In a beautiful response,
he said,
"' I ask you to give my warmest and deep thanks to the honorable body
you represent, for this entirely unmerited compliment. I could thank you
better if I thought I deserved it, but I do not feel that I do. Nothing that
I have yet accomplished would warrant this high compliment. It is for
the future to determine, whetler I shall realize the expectations and hopes
that have been centred in me. The war can not last long. It may be
desperate. I ask, in the future, forbearance, patience, and confidence. I
again thank you, and ask you to convey to the Council my most sincere
thanks for the sword. Say to them that it will be my ambition to deserve
it hereafter. I know I do not now."
The contrabands at Beaufort County, S. C., were a remarkably simple,
confiding, docile people, in the most childish state of ignorance, as a body,
imaginable. Their condition created great sympathy at the North. A
society was organized for their benefit, called the "' National Freedman's
Relief Association.":  Under the auspices of this society, early in  Iarch,
1862, sixty persons were sent to aid in their material, intellectual, and
spiritual elevation. Fifteen of this party were ladies, and some from families of the highest rank. There were farmers, mechanics of several kinds,
teachers, several physicians, and one or two clergymen. It was a noble
enterprise, and one upon which God smiled. The success which attended
these labors was wonderful. The testimony is uncontradicted, that the




392                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
freedmen were all ready to work, and that their eagerness to learn letters
was insatiable.
On the 14th of IM[arch, Gen. McClellan, who had secured to a wonderful degree the confidence and affection of his soldiers, issued a very spirited
address to the army of thle Potomac, announcing his reasons for retaining
them so long unemployed. The battle of Bull PRun was fought in July,
1861. It was now nMarch, 1862. During all this timhe the army of the
Potomac, numbering not less than 250,000 men, had been kept, inactive,
save their daily drills behind their intrenchments. From their ramparts
the flags of the rebels, in inferior numbers, could be seen. Washington
was in a state of siege, and not a transport could ascend the river without
running the gauntlet of the rebel batteries. The popular but very unsatisfactory reason which had been assigned ibr this long slumber was, that
Fiprg'~incia rcd forbade the army to advance. In the follhwi-wig brief and
spirited address, Gen. MIcClellan announced his reasons ibr thus holding
the army in repose. The uneasiness of the country, daily growing more
intense in view of this long slumber of eiglht months, rendered it necessary
that some explanation should break the silence.
Soldiers of the Army of the Potomac: For a long time I have kept
you inactive, but not without a purpose. You were to be disciplined,
armed and instructed. The firmidable artillery you now have, had to be
created. Other armies were to move and accomplish certain results. I
have held you back that you nmight give the death-blow to the rebellion
that has distracted our once happy country.  The patience you have
shown, and your confidence in your general are worth a dozen victories.
These preliminary results are now accomplished. I feel that the patient
labors of many months have produced their fruit. The army of the Potomac is now a real army, magnificent in material, admirable in cliscipline
and instruction, excellently equipped and armed: your commanders are
all that I could wish. The moment for action has arrived, and I know
that I can trust in you to save our country. As I ride through your
ranks I see, in your faces, the sure presage of victory. I feel that you will
do whatever I ask of you. The period of inaction has passed. I will
bring you now face to face with the rebels, and only pray that God may
defend the right."
On the 2d of December Congress met. The President, in his message,
said that he did not deem the slavery question of "vital military importance,' and accordingly left it "' to the more deliberate action of the Legislature."  In speaking of the~ war, he said that he' "had in every case
thought it proper to keep the integrity of the Union prominent as the primary object of the contest."  The Secretary of the Treasury estimated
that the public debt, which, on the 1st of Julvy, 1861, was $91,000,000,
would, on the 1st of July, 1862, amount to $517,000,000. It was estimated that the current receipts for the year would amount to $329,500,000,
and the expenditure $543,000,000, leaving $200,000,000 to be provided for
by loans.  The Secretary of War reported that the army consisted of
660,971 men. In four months from the rebel assault upon Sunlter, this
number of volunteers had been raised. Such a prompt uprisingh of a great




PULASKI AND THE CONTRABANDS.                                     393
nation, history has seldom recorded. Of this force, 59,398 were cavalry,
24,688 artillery, 8,397  riflemen  and  sharp-shooters, and  107 engineers.
The increase of the navy was still more astonishing.  Notwithstanding the
impatience of the public led to continual mmulmrss it must be the verdict
of history, that on the whole, wonderful energy and wisdom  marked the
acts of the Navy  Department.  On  the 4th  of MIarch, when  the new
administration assumled power, there were but twelve ]National vessels in
service on the coast, all counted.  On the 1st of December there were two
hundred and sixty-four war vessels afloat, bearing 2,557 guns, and 22,000
sailors.  Of these onie hundred and thirty-six had been purchased and one
hundred  and  tswenty-eiglt had been built.  Nearly half this fleet were
steamers, including three iron-clads, and twenty-three first-class gun-boats.
The blockading squadron was divided into three departments.  One, under
Louis MI[. Goldsborough, guarded the shores of Virginia and North Carolina.  Another, under Samuel F. Dupont, took  South Carolina, Georgia
and Florida to the Cape, a distance including innunmerable inlets of more
than a thousand  miles.  The third, under Win. WV. AcIcean, took  the
whole width of the Gulf; from  tlhe Capes of Florida to the Rio Grande.
Calmly, quietly, resolutely, heedless of mnurmuring  stormns, Secretary
Welles pressed on his way, accomplishing results such as never had been
accomplished before.  And the navy, true to its pristine renown, achieved
triumphs which never had been and never can be exceeded.  The eagerness of our countrymen for action was so intense, that even with these
achievements, they were dissatisfied..  ut the sober second thouwghts of all
will be that the -Nary Department, fromn  Gideon WVelles, the Secretary of
the Navy, to the humblest cabin boy, crowned themselves with honor
imperishlable.*
* Major John J. Key was asked why the rebel army was not pursued after the battle of
Antietam.  It is now well known, that had the rebels then been followed up, their whole army
could have been easily captured or destroyed, and thus the war would have been virtually ended.
He replied: " That is not the game.  The object is, that nzeither army shall get much advantage of the
other; thai both shall be klept in the field till tr/ey are exhausted, wzhen we will smake a comnpromise and
save slavery."  For avowing this principle, upon which many of his superiors in office acted, Major
Key was very properly dismissed from service. It is in this sentiment that our readers will find the
key to many of the mysteries in this most lethargic warfare. Where this spirit did not prevail,
there were figltings and victories; where it did prevail, our sons and brothers perished by thousands amidst the miasma of marshes, under the toil of the trenches, and in the gloom of the hospital. It should be remarked that Major Key was an earnest Union man; that he had never been
heard to utter a sentiment that could be called disloyal. He wished only to save slavery, with the
Union, and deemed its preservation sufficiently important to warrant the sacrifice of armies of
patriots.




CHAPTER XVII.
CAMPAIGN  OF THE  LOWER  MISSISSIPPI.
RIGEHT OF SECESSION.-ITS ACCOMPLISHMENT IN LOUISIANA.-BLOCKADING THE MiSSISSISSIPPI.STEAM RAM MwANASSAS.-NAVAL EXPEDITION.-GEN. B. F. BUTLER.-SHIP ISLANWD.-PORTER'S
MORTAR FLOTILLA.-PILOT TOWN.-ANECDOTE.-FORMIDABLE PREPARATIONS OF THE REBELS.ATTACK OF THE ENGLISH fIN 1814 UPON NEW ORLEANS.-PREPARATIONS ON BOARD THE UNION
FLEET.-TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEY.-RECONNOISSANCRE. —YAIKEE INGENUITY.-FORCE OF THE
UNION FLEET.-THRILLING INCIDENT.
THE slaveholders' doctrine of secession, which was got up me-ely to
serve a temporary purpose, is the most insane idea ever cherished outside
of a mad-house.  That there is a natural right of revolution, no one denies.
But that there is a right, under the law, for the state to secede from the
nation, involving the riglht of the county to secede from the state, and the
town from  the county, and the individual from  the town, is a sentiment
too absurd fbr respectfil consideration,.  Nothing but the audacity which
slavery engenders would emboldle  a mnan to utter it.  WheIn England consents to the secessio:n of the county of Kent, taking with it the Rmouth of
the Thames, andcl France assents to the secession of the province of Lamanche, taking with it the fobrtresses of Cherbourg, to be ceded at pleasure
to England or Russia, then mnay American statesmen begin to consider
the question, whether 376,913 firee whites, scattered over the sugar and
cotton plantations of Louisiana, may secede from the LUnited States, take
with them the mouths of a river which open to an internal navigation of
more than 50,000 miles, along' majestic strealms where hundreds of millions
are soon to dwell.  According to this doctrine,  Fortress MIonroe belongs
to Virginia, the immense National works at Newport to the little State of
Rhode Island, which she can take possession of at any timne and cede to
England with herself as a na.val depot.  The vast fobrtifications at Key
West and the Toru.gas, reared at an enormous National expense, to protect our limitless commeree in the Gulf, belong to the petty State of
Florida, with not 80,000 wilite inhllabitants, and whose naval marine consists of scarcely a dozen fishing smacks.  Cherbourg, in France, thle wonder of the world, upon this theory, belongs not to the Empire, but to Lamanche; England's great naval depot, at Portsmouth, belongs not to the
kingdom, but to the county of Hants.  What reply would England make,
should that county revolt, and remonstrating, against " subjugation," say
that all that she wanted was to be "' let alone.'"




CAMPAIGN  OF THE  LOWER  MISSISSIPPI.                   395
The United States purchased Louisiana for $15,000,000; expended
countless millions in clearing out the river, constructing forts, light-houses,
and all the conveniences for the extensive commerce of the millions soon
to throng the most magnificent valley upon this globe. They surveyed
the land, and sold it to settlers for a merely nominal price. Three hundred and seventy-seven thousand white people, in the course of half a century, were scattered along the banks of its great central stream, and upon
the rich soil which fringed its swamps. They were prosperous in the culture of cotton, and especially of sugar. They were left unrestricted, to
form and execute all their local laws. To aid these planters, a tariff was
enacted, protecting sugar, that they might compete more successfully with
the West Indies. According to the census of 1860, 70,000 of these free
whites could neither read nor write.
Under these circumstances, less than one-half of these people decide
that they will secede from  the United States, take possession of the
National forts, arsenals, custom-houses, and mint, and raise the banner of
a foreign power over the forts, after having plunged the dishonored Stars
and Stripes into the ditch.  To these pretenders, thirty millions of Americans-to be three hundred millions within the lives of some now bornare to lower their flag, whenever their ships enter the 2Mississippi River,
the great thoroughfare to the commerce of this new world.  The man who
deems that such a doctrine deserves regard, is a fit candidate for a madhlouse.
The act of secession was consummated in the following way.  The
Governor convened an extra session of the legislature.  They voted to call
a Convention of the representatives of the people, to be held at Baton
Rouge, Jan. 23, 1861. The New Orleans Picayune, of Dec. 23, said, in
reference to this Convention: A" No plan of conciliation, short of a final
settlement of the slavery agitation, by amendments to the Constitution,
can, we think, be satisfactory."  At the meeting of the Convention, exGovernor Morton, an avowed Secessionist, was chosen chairman, by vote
of 81 to 41. A committee of fifteen was nominated by the chair to report
an ordinance of secession.  The report was accepted, by a vote of 113 to
17. It was also voted that tile ordinance should go into immediate effect,
without waiting for the ratification of the people, it being assumed that
the people would ratifl it. When, two months after this Convention had
declared, "that Louisiana hereby resumes the rights and powers heretofore delegated to the Government of the United States of America, and
its citizens are absolved fromn allegiance to the said Government, and she
is in frull possession of all the rights and sovereignty that appertain to a
free and independent State," the ordinance was submitted to the people,
the vote stood, for secession, 20,448; against it, 17,296.  The most intelligent men in the State h]ave declared, that beyond all question, this act of
treason would, even then, have been repudiated by the people, had not, in
many places, as in New Orleans, the polls been seized by armed mobs, and
thousands of peaceable citizens been deprived of their right of voting. As
it was, less than 21,000 men assumed to wrest from the control of the
United States, the mouths of the Ml ississippi.




396                 CIVIL  WAR  IN  AMERICA.
Even before the meeting of the Convention, on the 11th of January,
some armed men fiom New Orleans had taken possession of the United
States Marine Hospital, two miles below the city, and with inhumanity
thus early precursory of their barbarous treatment of all loyal men, had
ordered the patients, 216 in number, to be expelled, helpless and homeless,
to give room to troops about to war against a flag, from allegiance to
which they did not then claim any exemption.
Immediately after the act of secession, these men seized the United
States mint and sub-treasury, containing $511,000 in specie, the two
splendid forts, St. Philip and Jackson, at the main mouths of the Mississippi; Fort Pike, at the entrance of Lake Ponchartrain; Fort Maconmb,
at Chef MiAenteur; and the works at Ship Island. Upon these several fortifications, the Government of the United States had expended more than
seven millions of dollars.
The secession of Louisiana occasioned no surprise to the country. She
was the last of' the Gulf States to follow the delusion and folly of South
Carolina, whose ordinance of secession, passed Dec. 20, had been received,
in:New Orleans, by tlhe firing of a hundred guns, the stirring notes of thlle
AMarsellaise, speeches inciting to rebellion, the ringing of bells, and all the
other usual demonstrations of public rejoicing.  The now dominant secession party in Louisiana commenced their rule, by crushing out all opposition to their sway. The wavering were borne along resistlessly by the
current, and all tlhe truly loyal. were silenced by the terrors of mob law,
or banished froml the State.  There was abundant evidence that a strong
under-current of Union feeling still existed in many hearts, which occasionally manifested itself in opposition to the tide of rebellion, which was
flooding the State.  This would sometimes break out, to the exasperation
of the ruling party, aind for a time withstand thmelu.
On the 22d of February, which was celebrated as a national festival, in
honor of the birth-day of Washington, a gentleman in New Orleans, accompanied by loyal friends, proceeded down Charles street, bearing our ONational
banner, with the device emblazoned upon it of two clasped hands, and
beneath, the motto, "U nited we stand, divided we fall."  Enraged at this,
a large body of Secessionists assembled bebore St. Charles's H-Iotel, and
proceeded to the levee, with the purpose of taling down the flag. But it
was not left unguarded.  Some hundreds of determined men, well armed,
surrounded the flag-staff, whose purpose to keep the flag flying, onl th.t
anniversary, at least, was not to be trifled with.  The banner waved undisturbed till night, when it was voluntarily lowered.
On the occasion of the illumination of the city in honor of secessions,
the " Stars and Stripes" were cheered by the passing crowd at the St.
Charles, when waved fiom the darkened windows of the patriotic wife of
a northern sea-captain, who refused every entreaty of the proprietors to
permit her apartments to be illumlined in honor of treason.
The State of Louisiana, having thus seceded and assumed its position
as an independent power among the nations of earth, was of course at
liberty, according to its new-found doctrine, to enter into an alliance with
England, France, Spain or Mexico, or to become a colony of either of those




CAMPAIGN  OF THE  LOWER  MISSISSIPPI.                  397
powers. She preferred, however, to enter into a Confederacy with the
other rebellious States, and making application to the rebel Congress at
Montgomery, was cordially received. And then, with hymns of praise
and players of thanksgiving, the State was handed over to Jefferson Davis,
with the United States forts and the United States arsenals, and over 500,000
dollars of the United States specie, stolen from the United States mint;
and then the rebels expressed surprise that the United States could not
recognize the propriety of all these proceedings.
A whole people cannot be turned, at once, into hostility to a liberal
and lenient government, under which they have had prosperity and happiness. In the rapid spread of this mania of rebellion, no voice whatever
was allowed to speak in favor of Union-no reply was permitted to be
made to the grossest misrepresentations, since loyalty to the old Government was then regarded as treason to the new. The hands of patriots
were fettered, and their mouths were gagged, but the hearts of many still
throbbed with pulsations of loyalty.
The arming of the State, and - the raising and equipment of regimnents
to answer the call of the Congress at Montgomery, commenced with great
vigor, immediately after the passage of the ordinance of secession. At
first volunteers to uphold the new government were numerous and enthusiastic. The masses of the poor whites at the South, groaning beneath the
burden of poverty and no encouragement for labor, were induced to favor
the revolution by alluring promises of relief and of the plunder of the
wealthy Northern cities.  Many of the higher classes joined the army
from the earnest desire to establish a pro-slavery confederacy where their
institution would have unembarrassed scope.  They also affected great
contempt for the cowardly Yankees, assuming that one Southerner could
put five of them to flight.  For a few weeks there was apparently great
enthusiasm throtughout the State. M/en and money were freely offered to
the cause. Subscriptions for the defense of the State, for the equipment of
troops and the support of their families, were made in all the cities an(
parishes.
WVar soon became almost the sole business of this once great commer,
ci al city. The streets were filled with companies drilling for service, the
public squares were converted into military camps, and most of the public
bl)ildings into arsenals or barracls. Foundries and machine shops became
manufactories of arms. Stea.mers and tug-boats were hauled up into the
docks, to be converted into iron-clad gun-boats, to defend the river and the
coast. Privateers were fitted out, under letters of marque from Jefferson
Davis, to strike a blow at the commerce of the United States, and to aid
in'resi8tin'   the wanton and wicked agqressions of the Federat Government."  Plans for the constructionr of Forts Philip and Jackson, which,
when seized, were in an unfinished state, were taken from the customhouse, and hundreds of laborers set to work to complete the fortifications
and render them impregnable. It was believed that these defenses, at the
mouth of the river, would exclude the United States authorities from
entering by the way of the gulf; and Lonisiana was to cooperate with the
other States, bordering on the  tississippi, in erecting the long cordon of




398                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
forts and batteries, on the bluffs, which commanded the upper waters, and
which would enable them to bid defiance to all the power of the great
North-west, and to shut up their teeming mlillions in their inland prairies.
It is true that they promised that if these North-western States would be
obedient and docile, they might be permitted to selnd their steamers down
past their forts.  Few men would be willing to place the key of their
house in the hands of a robber, even if the robber should assure them that
if they conducted so as to please him, he would let them in at any hour of
the day or of the night.
Louisiana was so distant from the seat of war during the year 1861,
that few of her troops were needed at home, and many thousands were
sent to the rebel armies in the Eastern and Border States. These troops,
with the exception of a few of the city regiments, were neither well
equipped nor disciplined; but their ardor was stimulated and their anticipations of success rendered sanguine, by the violent denunciations of the
press and the fierce harangues of demagogues.  Confident of their ability
to seize W'iashington, to drive out the Federal Government, and to establi-sh the rebel power in our National capital, they joined the rebel hordes
from all the Gulf States, crowding on to the Potomac. For a few months
secession prospered in Louisiana, and the sacrifices it demanded were slight.
It required some little time for the Government, betrayed and robbed as
it had been, to reach forth its arm to a point so distant. But when, in the
rapidly accumulating exigencies of the rebel Government more troops were
called for, volunteers could no longer be found. Then the reign of impressment and terror was inaugurated.  This had previously been practised
upon all suspected of Northern birth and sympathies, and many hundreds
had been compelled to join tile rebels to evade that suspicion which exposed
them to the loss of property and of life.
Law was soon despised, license granted to crime, and general anarchy
commenced its sway.  The New Orleans papers, lamenting the disorders
which prevailed, declared that no man's person or life was safe. Any suspicion of attachment to the Government of the United States exposed one
to unmeasured obloquy and abuse.
On ]MIay 28th, 1861, five weeks after President Lincoln's proclamation
was issued, the Brooklyn arrived off Pass l'Outre, and commenced the
blockade of the Mississippi.  She was succeeded by the Riehumond, Huntsville, Water Witch, the sloops-of-war Preble and Vincennes, and the storeship Nightingale.  These vessels remained during the summer at the
different passes of the lMississippi, and pretty effectually interrupted its
navigation. Several rich prizes of steamers, and other vessels, freighted
with supplies fbr the Confederate Government, and for the commerce of
New Orleans, were here captured.  The occasional escape of a vessel,
securing immense profits, incited others to run the risk of the confiscation
of ships and cargoes. Tile effects of the blockade on New Orleans, annihilating her foreign trade, and cutting off her supplies, roused the citizens
to a desperate attempt to effect the dlestruction of the fleet, and the
removal of the embargo.
During the summer, beside building several gpun-boats, a formidable




CAMPAIGN  OF THE  LOWER  MISSISSIPPI.                    399
seeam ram had been constructed fobr this purpose at A]lgiers, opposite the
city of New Orleans.  This vessel, afterward named the Manassas, took a
conspicuous part in the two naval engagements on the lower Mississippi,
and was of peculiar construction.  Her foundation was the Enoch Train,
a strong tow-boat, built at Boston.  The upper portion was covered with
r ailroad iron, so strongly riveted as to be protection against any ordinary
cannonade.  The huIll rose only two and a quarter feet above the water
level, and the bow was built of oak planks, nine feet long, braced all
around by timbers, six feet thick1, made perfectly tight and solid, and
shielded with iron plates, two inches in thickness.  The prow was a forinidable mass of iron, in the form of a knob, and beneath this a steam
borer or augur, intended to pierce the vessel against which she should
make a dash.  This vessel was intended mainly as a ram.  HIer armament
consisted only of one sixty-four pounder Dahlgren gun.
Sanguine of the success of this engine of destruction, aided by the ironclad gun-boats which were to accompany her, the rebels secretly prepared
for their long-threatened attack on the blockading fleet.  The fleet, at this
time, October, 1861, were all stationed at the head of the Passes, protecting the men who were erecting batteries at the point where the river conmmences its delta, diverging into its five mouths.  One efficient fort here
would close the navigation of the stream.  Three days before the assault,
the rebel steamer Ivy had cautiou-sly descended the river from  New
Orleans, to make a reconnoissance, and, as soon as discovered by our fleet,
had seampered back to the protection of the guns of Forts Jackson and
St. Philip.
In the earliest dawn of the morning of the 12th, the rebel fleet, consisting of the Manassas, and five large gun-boats, accompanied by several
fire-rafts, were suddenly discerned, emerging from the gloom, and heading
for the Union ships. Under full head of steam, and aided by the rapid
current of tile river, they were scarcely seen, ere their blows were felt.
The ram }anassas, with her iron horn jutting from her solid head of iron
and of oak, made a deacdly plunge, with all the force in her power, into
the Richlniond.  The shock was terrific, and a hole was punched through
the oaken timbers of the Richmnond, as if they had been of paste-board.
The M3anassas also seemed stunned by the blow, and drifting around by
the force of the stream, floated away, when the Portsmouth, in point-blank
range, poured in -upon her a whole broadside of cannon balls. Miost of
tihis storm of ironi hail -fell upon the ramts coat of mail, as harmless as
" peas upon a taurtle's back."  Some few of the shot, however, damaged
the machinery of the boat, so that she became partially unmanageable.
The fire-ships now, charged with the moost inflammable combustibles,
x —reathed in eddying flames, were drifting irapidly down upon the fleet,
while the rebel gun-boats, with their rifled cannon, beyond the reach of
the smooth-bore guns of the Union frigates, opened a vigorous fire.  The
ships, as speedily as possible, raised their anchors, or sprung their cables,
to escape from the torrent of fire descending upon them.  In their hasty
retreat, several of them grounded, in attempting to cross the bar of the
river.  Arhile tius comparativelyl helpless, tile reb.el stea:mers, selecting




400                 CIVIL WAR  IN  AMERICA.
advantageous positions, assailed them with a fierce cannonade. The battle
continued fobr two or three hours, but at such a prudent distance, that but
little damage was done on either side. At length the Richmond, having
temporarily repaired the wound inflicted upon her side, steamed up the
river, and with her'heavier guns drove off the gun-boats of the bfoe. The
frce-rafts burned to the water's edge, or floated harmlessly down toward
the Gulf  It is a remarkable fact, that but one shot of the enemy's guns
took effect upon our ships. A single shell entered the stern of the Richmond, but did not explode. Not a life was lost, not a man was wounded,
in the Federal fleet.
The next morning, the ships were towed off the bar by the steamship
M{cClellan, which, on the morning of the attack, had arrived from Fort
Pickens, with a supply of rifled guns for the fleet. The damage caused by
the assault was quite insignificant, and the enterprise, so far as raising the
blockade was concerned, proved a total failure. Yet Commnodore Hlollins,
who commanded the rebel fleet, carried back to New Orleans the most
glowing account of his victory, declaring, to use his peculiar phrase, that
he had "pepperedcl themn well."  The exultant city was illumined, on the
receipt of the intelligence.  But scarcely had the candles burnt down to
their sockets, ere the fleet was algain in its commanding position, and the
loc2rade, whicll had not for one moment -been disturbed, as effectual as
ever.
It is somewhat remarkable that this so-called " brilliant, success " of the
rebel fleet, did not encourage other attempts from New Orleans, to remove
the obstructions to their commnerce.  Now and then, in the darkness of
the night, or through a dense fog, a rebel vessel would creep along some
of the innumerable bayous of this great river and escape; but the many
captures of our cruisers testified to their vigilance, and the grass grew
rankly upon the solitary levees at New Orleans. Thus matters remained
wi1th no other incilents worthy of note, until the heroic achievemrents of
our fleet in the spring of 1862, in running the gauntlet of the terrifc lire
of the rebel forts, demolishing their gun-boats, and capturing the city.
Though we anticipate a little some other events, it may be well to continne
this chapter to the reconquest of Tew Orleans by the United States Goveminenlt.
The attention of the country during the fall and winter of 1861-2 was
fixed upon the vigorous prosecution of the war in the West, and the Eastern coast. In the West there were many signal victories which animated
the public mind, with the hope of a speedy termination of the conflict.
But in accordance with the declared purpose of the National Goverunment,
to repossess itself of all its forts and public buildings which had been seized
by the rebels, and to reeSstablish its dishonored authority, preparations
were made for an immense naval expedition, to recapture the forts at the
mouth of the Mississippi, and unfurl again the United States flag over the
custom-house at New Orleans. While this fleet was to ascend the Mississippi, another equally formidable3 was to descend the stream from Cairo,
and demolish all the batterieis which rebellion had reared 1pon its banks.
Both of these, expeditions were, of necessity, essentially naval, thougbh" each




CAMPAIGN  OF  THE  LOWER  MISSISSIPPI.                        401,
was to be accompanied with a formidable land force.  Mvajor-General
B3. F. Butler, who had already developed so much wisdom  and energy in
every duty intrusted to him, was placed in command of the land force,
which was to ascend the river to New Orleans.  His subsequent administration proved that a better man for the arduous post could not have been
selected.*
The name of Gen. Butler, as connected with the expedition inspired
general confidence and enthusiasm.  Hie was commissioned by the President to raise a volunteer force in New  England for this special service.  He visited the different States and, by glowing addresses to the
people, soon raised a sufficient force, which, early in January, was sent to
Ship Island, on the coast near [New Orleans, which was selected as the
general rendezvous both for the fleet and the land forces.  This island is a
narrow strip of land, a mere sand-bar, eight or nine miles long, and front
half a mile to a mile in width, and about ten miles distant from the -nearest
point on the main land.  It was also within a few hours' steaming of the
mouth of the Mississippi and of Lake Ponchartrain.  A  more desolate
abode can hardly be imagined, than this low, smooth, continuous' plain of
glistening white sand. At its eastern extremity the monotony was a little
relieved by a forlorn forest of scrub oaks and dwarfed pines. The geo,
graphical position of the island gives it considerable importance as a naval
station, and it was early occupied by the rebels. They had erected a fort,
at the western extremity, mounting sixteen guns.
The National Government sent the steamer Massachusetts, with a small.
body of marines, who drove off the rebels, took possession of the island,
manned and strengthened the fort, and rekindled the fires of the lighthouse, which the rebels had extinguished.  Early in December, two regiments, the 9th Connecticut and 26th M'assachusetts, under command of
Brig.-Gen. J. W. Phelps, reached the island.  Soon six or eight thousand
troops were encamped here, and the little island, with its fleet and its
transports and its movings to and fro, presented the aspect of a populous
and busy town.  Gen. Phelps, one of the ablest and bravest of soldiers
and most conscientious of men, issued a proclamation to the inhabitants
of Louisiana, which was almost universally considered an unfortunate
document. ~Much depends upon the art of "putting things."  And the
principles contained in that paper, were not "put" in a way to convince
or to influence, but tended rather to exasperate, and to place in the hands
of the rebels new and efficient weapons.  But the slight discord which the
words occasioned were soon lost in the tremendous din of battle.
M/iajor-General Butler reached Ship Island on the 21st of ].arch, and
assumed comnmand of the troops, who now  looked for a speedy release
* Benjamin F. Butler was born in Deerfield, N. H., 1818, and graduated at Waterville College, Maine. Having studied law, he opened an office at Lowell, Mass., and soon became disting'uished as an advocate. In criminal practice he was especially shrewd and successful. He
became an earnest melmber of the old Democratic party, vehemently eloquent and influential. In
the presidential contest of 1860, he was a very active supporter of Breckinridge. Upon the opening of the rebellion he, being one of tho Brigadier-Generals of the Massachusetts Militia, offered his
services to the Government and espoused the cause of the Constitution, with all the intensity
of his nature. His subsequent career will be portrayed in these pages.
26




402                CIVIL  WAR  IN  AMERICA.
from their long inactivity, and their confined and uncomfortable quarters
in this dreary spot, where the monotony of their daily drills was only
relieved by the occasional arrival of a National ship, perhaps with a prize,
or the sight of a rebel steamer hovering along the distant coast. During
the three succeeding weeks, several brief engagements occurred between
the armed National steamers, New London and Jackson, which were stationed for the protection of the harbor of the island, and rebel steamers,
which occasionally appeared, but invariably retreated after exchanging a
few shots, without venturing upon any decisive action.
FWn
MAP OP T      3E LOWER MISSISSIPPI.
Some of the regiments also had opportunities to meet the enemy, and
est their own discipline and endurance of fire. An expedition of the 9th
Connecticut, and a Massachusetts bttery, to disperse a rebel regiment at
Biloxi, on the opposite main-land, and one of the 12th Maine against two




CAMPAIGN  OF THE  LOWER  MISSISSIPPI.                    403
batteries, guarding the bridges of the Jackson and Opelousas Railroad, up
Pass Manchac, on Lake Ponchartrain, resulted each in the discomfiture of
the enemy, and the capture of four heavy thirty-two pound guns.
While these events were inspiring new activity, and eagerness for more
earnest work, in the troops, the mortar flotilla of Commander D. D. Porter,
which had been fitting out during the winter, arrived at Ship Island, from
its first rendezvous at KIey West. Its destination had been kept a profound tecret, and had excited much speculation at the North, but the landing of Commodore Dupont's fleet at Hilton I-lead made it quite certain,
that this one was designed for service on the Gulf coast. It was composed
of twenty mortar vessels, eight well-armed steamers, which acted as towboats to the schooners, and one store-ship, and was amply provided with
heavy mortars, shells, and ammunition.  The officers and seamen numbered about two thousand rmen.
Delaying but a few days at the Island, on the 15th of April, the fleet
were again ordered to sail. A few hours brought it to the Mississippi,
which the schooners, towed by their steamers, entered by the South-west
Pass. Ilere had gathered the blockading squadron, which had been
increased by the arrival of several frigates and gun-boats from the East.
The command of the whole-fleet now devolved on Commodore D. C. Farragut, of the flag-ship I-Iartford.  The first vessels that passed the bar took
possession of Pilot Town, which, in the prosperous days of Louisiana, had
been a favorite summer resort and watering-place for the wealthy citizens
of New Orleans.  The little village was quite deserted, and its spacious
hotel was at once occupied by the surgeons, and converted into a hospital.
After reaching the head of the Passes, the mortar flotilla was directed
down the river again, and anchored four miles from  the Gulf; opposite
Pilot Town; while the Hartford and ]Brooklyn, with some of the gunboats, remained several miles above, near the head of the Passes, to guard
against surprise.
The rebels were anxiously on the alert.  The success of the naval expeditions on the Atlantic coast, during the winter, had alarmed the cities on'the Gulf; and the intelligence that another great expedition was fitting
out, led New Orleans and Mobile especially to tremble.  Ship Island was
equally available for an attack upon either of these cities. New Orleans
was the great commercial emporium of the South, a wealthy and powerftiul
city of nearly 200,000 inhabitants.  Preparations to ward off the blow of
the National arm had been made here, commensurate with the wealth of
the city, and the immense interests which the whole rebel government
deemed to be involved in its retention.  New Orleans, in wealth, commerce, and position, was decidedly the most important of any over which
the flag of rebellion had been unfurled.  In no place had the emissaries
of treason been more ferocious, mercilessly silencing every utterance of
loyalty.*
* The following incident, as illustrative of the state of rebel society in New Orleans at this
title, may be relied upon. At one of the leading hotels of the city, a party were sitting at the
breakfast-table, before Louisiana had seceded. The question was asked, " Is there any news this
morning? " A Southerner, one of the most wealthy men in the city, a burly man, accustomed to




404                      CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
The fall of New  Orleans would  be, to  the rebels in  the city, and
throughout their whole Confederacy, so great a loss, and so great a humiliation, that all contrivances of ingenuity, and all the strength of military
art, had been adopted to render the defenses impregnable.  And they felt
that they had made such ample provision to repel any attack, that they
could laugh all the efforts of the National Government to scorn.  " Come
on, come on," was their boast, " come as soon as you please, and in such
numbers as you please.  We are ready for you."
About sixty miles below New  Orleans, on either side of a sharp bend
of the M/ississippi, stand Fort Jackson  and Fort St. Philip.  These two
majestic forts, reared upon the most approved principles of modern military science, and armed with the heaviest ordnance,'hold the command
of the entrance upon the most extraordinary range of internal navigation
known upon this globe.  The National Government, fully aware of the
importance of this point, had expended vast sums of money upon these
forts, that they might bid defiance to  any foe.  The rebels had  seized
them, plunged the " Stars and  Stripes" into the ditch, and raised, their
own flag of treason.  And now the National Government was constrained
to advance to those very bastions it had reared, and to face those guns it
had bored and mounted, that it might regain its own.  The current of the
MIississippi is at this point very swift, the channel narrow, and the navigation, even for powerful steamers, difficult.
Fort Jackson, on the west bank of the stream, as we behold it awaiting
the attack of the United States squadron, is a regular pentagonal, bastioned
fortification, with solid brick walls, having two fronts bearing upon the
river, and three upon the land.  Along the latter are built a glacis and
covered way, protected by a wet ditch, six feet deep, and 150 feet wide.
A  similar ditch guards the main work on the river side.  On the two
river fronts are sixteen casemated guns, and at either flank twenty-four
pound howitzers, to defend the ditches.  Within  the fort is a one-story
brick  citadel, its walls five. feet thick, and  pierced  with  two  tiers of
loop-holes for musketry.   The  entrance  to  the  whole  work  is  by  a
despotic sway among his negroes, replied coolly, "Nothing, except that some of our boys went
down the river last night, and took possession of one of the United States forts'." A Northern
lady who was present, a lady by birth, by education, and by position, hesitatingly inquired, not
provokingly, but as a question for information, " Is it not treason to seize a national fort? " Thlis
Southern rebel burst out upon her with the most intemperate, profane, and vulgar abuse, denouncing her as a d-d Yankee and abolitionist, and declaring that if she were a man, he would wring
her nose for her, and that, as soon as her husband came in, he would hold him accountable, and
wring his nose. No one dared to interfere, for such men carried bowie-knives and revolvers; and
there was no power of law to punish one for shooting a person accused of abolitionism.
The lady was in a state of indescribable terror. She expected, every moment, to see her husband come in, to be first grossly insulted, and then to be shot or stabbed before her eyes. With a
face pallid as death, and a voice trembling almost beyond control, she looked up to him, and said,
"Will you accept the apology of a lady, when I assure you that I intended no offense. I merely
wished to ask a question for information."  "Yes," was the reply, "I will accept the apology of a
lady; but you are no lady-you are a cursed abolitionist, and I will wring your husband's nose for
him when I meet him," and so on, until the lady left the table. The gentleman and lady found it
expedient to leave New Orlegns. This was the way in which the rebels made the South a unit.
The reluctance to rush into hotel brawls, with dagger and piuoJ, slaveholding chivalry brands as
cowardice.




CAMPAIGN  OF THE  LOWER  MISSISSIPPI.                  405
wooden bridge on the west side, connected with a draw-bridge ten feet
wide.
Fort St. Philip is commanded by Fort Jackson, from which it is distant about three-fourths of a mile. It lies a little above on the opposite
bank, and is much inferior in strength. It consists of a main work and
two attached batteries bearing each up and down the river.. The principal
work is very irregular, having seventeen faces. A wet ditch surrounds it
six feet deep, and from twenty to thirty feet wide. At the foot of the
glacis is a wider one of over a hundred feet, and outside of this still another
made in the construction of the levee.
The armament of these two fortifications is composed of ten 13 and
10-inch mortars, three 42-pound rifled cannon, fourteen 10 and 8-inch
columbiads and a hundred and fifty-three 32 and 24-pounders. One hundred and eighty pieces of ordnance of immense size, fromn these thoroughly
protected battlements, are to hurl destruction upon our. advancing fleet,
should it attempt to pass up the narrow channel between them.
But formidable as they are, these are not the only obstacles to be
encountered. For only a few minutes would our steamers be exposed to
that terrible fire, should their machinery escape injury. To keep them
long enough within range to ensure their destruction, and sink our vessels
under the very walls of the forts, an iron cable is stretched across the river,
supported by seven old hulks anchored in the stream. The several sections of this chain, which is not continuous, are secured to the moorings of
these vessels, and buoyed up between them by several rafts. This barrier is
strictly guarded by the crew of a formidable gun-boat anchored above it.
Besides this, other chains and obstructions are prepared to entangle and
delay our approaching fleet.
Above this boom and the forts, lies a second line of battle, consisting
of a fleet of eighteen iron-mailed gun-boats, steam rams and floating battoeries, which shall quite arinihilate our ships disabled by the bombardment
of the forts. A lot of fire-rafts and scows filled with combustibles will
meanwhile float down the current or be pushed by the rebel steamers
against the wooden sides of our squadron. In this flotilla of the enemy is
the ram Manassas and the impervious iron-clad battery Louisiana, arliied
with sixteen heavy guns and a crew of two hundred men. These alone
are deemed sufficient to sink our poorly protected wooden frigates. The
rebel crew, on these gun-boats, number one thousand and eighty, and they
carry thirty-nine rifled 11-inch guns. These boats will offer most desperate resistance to our fleet, rather than suffer it to pass up to the certain
capture of the great city they are sent to defend. But with an aggregate
of two hundred and nineteen guns in the forts and shore batteries, most of
them  holding superior advantages of position on shore, aided by fire-rafts
and innumerable hidden obstructions in the river, the rebels entertain no
doubt of the issue of the contest. Secure behind their intrenchments, the
fifteen hundred men garrisoning the forts await with cheerful confidence
the attack. Inspiriting memories stimulate them to a desperate defense.
They are to fight on historic ground. They are standing where fifty years
before, two or three thousand gallant men of the South and West success



406                 CIVIL  WAR IN  AMERICA.
fully withstood the invading forces of England, and delivered New Orleans
from apparently inevitable capture.
On the morning of a brilliant, tropical winter's day, in November, 1814,
the waters of Nigril Bay, on the coast of Jamaica, were covered with a
fleet of armed vessels. Many of them were frigates of the largest size, carrying from sixty to eighty guns-frigates which had done service in some
of the bloodiest fights recorded in the annals of the British navy. It was
indeed a splendid pageant as this fleet was reviewed, consisting of forty of
these majestic frigates, with brigs and transports filled with British soldiers
perfectly equipped, and under the command of distinguished officers, just
ready to move for the mouth of the Mississippi and for the capture of New
Orleans. Another fleet from Bordeaux was to swell this number to fifty
ships, bearing in all a thousand gans, and an effective force of nearly
twenty thousand troops-an imposing array to be sent against an almost
defenseless city, and which was supposed to be in entire ignorance of the
doom which was impending over it. Who could doubt the result of such
an expedition! But "thrice is he armed who hath his quarrel just."  The
men who advanced to the protection of New Orleans then were patriots,
not traitors.
Three thousand undisciplined and poorly armed soldiers, under the
leadership of Gen. Jackson, were stationed for the defense of the city. A
few hurried preparations had been made to repel the foe, which, in their
feebleness, were in striking contrast with the immense fortifications and
armaments now at the disposal of the rebels. Near the mouth of the river
there was then an old fort, which had been pronounced by Gen. Jackson,
untenable and useless.  Farther up the stream, where the navigation
became difficult for sailing vessels, was the original but imperfect structure
of Fort Philip, with a few light guns, poorly mounted and defended. In
the river opposite the city there was moored the Carolina, a schooner
carrying a single gun, and the Louisiana, with eight guns of an inferior
size. On Lake Borgne there were six large gun-boats, with an armament
in the aggregate of twenty-three guns and one hundred and eighty-two
men. A slight fortification defended the entrance into Lake Pontehartrain, should the British cutters approach the city in that direction. The
result of that expedition with only these trifling obstacles to its success, is
well known, and this success gave strong assurance to the rebels that they
would surely be able to maintain themselves in positions so impregnable.
The English captured the six gun-boats, after a severe fight, and effected
the landing of their troops. After a brief campaign of ten days, they were
routed humiliatingly by Gen. Jackson, and driven to their boats. A subsequent attempt to reduce the feeble ramparts of Fort St. Philip, after a
bombardment of nearly a week, was also repulsed, and the ill-fated squadron.was compelled to retire. Such was the issue of the conflict in 1814.
In the present case everything which wealth and modern military
science could furnish were brought into action to render the ascent of the
river impossible. Some British and French naval officers who visited the
fortifications declared that they could not be either reduced or passed, by
wooden ships, and that the attempt would be madness. AXhighly intelli



CAMPAIGN  OF THE  LOWER  MISSISSIPPI.                  407
gent Union gentlemen in New Orleans wrote that unless there was " miraculous interposition," no fleet could pass up the river to New Orleans through
and over the obstructions which rebel ingenuity and power had created.
Commodore Farragut, in command of the National fleet, replied to the
discouraging representations of the officers of the British and French men
of war lying in the river, " You may be right. But I was sent here to
make the attempt. I came here to reduce or pass the forts and to take
New Orleans, and I shall try it un."
We left the mortar fleet at its anchorage opposite Pilot Town, at the
mouth of the South-west Pass. There it remained three weeks awaiting
the arrival of the gun-boats, and the frigates Pensacola and Mlississippi,
which had been detained by the necessary removal from them  of their
guns and coal, before they could be sufficiently lightened to cross the bar.
The rest of the squadron were about seventeen miles up the river, at the
head of the three leading passes. The IIartford (flag-ship of Commodore
Farragut), and the Brooklyn, were stationed in advance, on the same spot
where the blockading fleet had been attacked by the gun-boats and the
iron ram Manassas, under Commodore Hollins, a few months before.
Meantime, great activity was maniftst on board the mortar fleet, in
preparing for action. The top-masts were stripped of their sails and lowered; the loose and standing rigging frapped to the masts; the spars, forebooms, and gaffs unshipped, and secured to the outside of the vessels, to
avert the danger from  splinters, which, in naval actions, is often greater
than from the shots themselves. From  the main deck every thing was
removed, which could obstruct the easy handling of the tremendous mortars; and the men were drilled to promptness and accuracy in their use.
All the officers of the squadron were equally on the alert, to prepare their
ships for the most fearful ordeal through which a fleet was ever called to
pass. To protect the wooden sides and the machinery of the larger steam
vessels from the enemy's fire, an armor of the heavy chain cables was
devised. These massive links of tough wrought iron were bolted securely
to the sides, hanging down in festoons, so that no spot should be exposed.
Over the machinery of the Mlississippi a stout roof was erected, over which
were plated rows of iron cable, fore and aft, while the ends of the shaft
were protected by four bales of bagging, outside of each wheel. On the
decks of many of the vessels sand bags were piled, to prevent a raking fire.
The bows of others were clad in mail, ingeniously contrived. Strong rope
netting was suspended over the decks, to catch the spars and splinters
which might otherwise fall upon the crew. Small anchors and grapplinghooks, at yard-arms and jibboom-ends, were in readiness to seize the gunboats of the foe, and to hug them to a close encounter.
Besides their complement of twenty-six guns, which the sloops-of-war
carried, their fore and main tops were armed with howitzers, protected by
sand-bags, or iron-plated shields. Every thing which would be unserviceable during an engagement was removed to the shore, and left ati Pilot
Town. "Thus denuded," says an eye-witness, " of their top-masts, and
other light hamper, they have an air of strength and massiveness which is
simply terrible."




408                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
It was for Yankee ingenuity to make up, as far as possible, for the absence of those heavy iron plates, whiclh subsequently rendered so harmless the
concussion of shot and shell upon the sides of the Monitor. Mud became
a substitute for iron. We clothe our soldiers in red, to present a brilliant
target for the rifle of the foe. The banks of the Mississippi, near the
mouths of the stream, for many leagues, present but a limitless expanse of
mud. The stream itself is so turbid, that at a short distance it can scarcely
be distinguished in color from the mud-banks through which it flows.
From this mud a paint was made, with which the ships were thoroughly
daubed, so that, at the distance of a mile, they could with difficulty be distinguished from the river, or the slimy banks.
But it must not be supposed that these operations, so diligently prosecuted for a month, were either unnoticed or undisturbed by the enemy.
Every day some reconnoissance on the part of the rebel gun-boats, or of
our own, firnished exciting incidents to the fleet, and kept the men always
on the alert. The mortar fleet at length moved up the river, and took a
position in advance of the other ships, at the head of the Passes. About
five miles above this position, there was a bend in the river, which marked
the dividing line between these unwearied and vigilant river pickets-the
iron-clad gun-boats.  -Iere, at night, were ever stationed five or six of oar
steamers, to guard against surprise. They fell back a little by day. But
our steamers sometimes passed above it, in pursuit of the enemy, who
always by his, greatest speed avoided an engagement.
Through the forethought of Commander Porter, the expedition had
been furnished with a coast survey steam6r, the Sachem, by which, under
Capt. F. W. Gerdes and Mr. J. G. Oltmanns, his topographical assistant,
very important observations were made, preparatory to the bombardment.
By a series of triangulations, the distance from the forts to all important
points was ascertained, and the positions of the mortar boats determined.
These surveys were attended with great danger, from exposure to the fire
of the rebels, concealed in the rushes and almost impenetrable thickets of
the banks, near the forts. But the party fearlessly performed their work
in an open boat, and when fired upon from the shore, drove off the enemy
by the well-directed fire of their own rifles. On one occasion, a party of
about two hundred rebels, raised from the " roughs and readys" of New
Orleans, and belonging to the garrison of Fort Jackson, made an excursion
down the river, for the purpose of firing from the wooded banks upon our
unsuspecting boats; but having been discerned, they were so terribly
frightened by the shells of one of our gun-boats, that they hastily retreated,
and refusing to return to duty in the forts, marched on toward the city.
To determine the range of his mortars, and to draw the fire of the
enemy, so as to ascertain the position of his guns, and their weight of
metal, a successful reconnoissance was made on the 15th of April, by Commander Porter, with three of his schooners. Some of our shells fell into
the fbrts, and drove the rebels from their barbette guns to the casemates;
but none of their shot had effect upon our vessels. After a trial of half an
hour, the schooners were ordered to withdraw out of range.
The trying delays, incident to so great an undertaking, were now




CAMPAIGN  OF THE  LOWER  MISSISSIPPI.                  409
nearly ended. The innumerable details and provisions for the attack had
been arranged, and the three thousand impatient seamen were soon to
enter the long-expected contest. On the 17th of April, the squadron was
ordered to advance, and to anchor within half a mile of the point from
which the bombardment was to take place. Early on the morning of the
18th, the vessels took their final position for the attack. Here let us
hastily review the condition of the fleet.
From the forts, extending down the west bank of the river, for eight
miles there is a dense line of woods, fifty yards wide, fringing the stream,
and reaching back to the swamp. At the bend of the river, the rebels had
cut an opening through this forest, that they might obtain a better range
for the guns of Fort Jackson, upon our advancing ships. The river is here
about half a mile wide. A vast, unexplored swamp, lies beyond these
woods. The eastern bank is low, marshy ground, unrelieved by trees, or
any other prominent objects. The forts were plainly visible from the
mast-heads of the vessels, over the tops of the trees, behind which their
hulls were concealed and sheltered from the rebel guns. To confuse the
vision, and still more to protect the mortar boats, their masts and rigging
had been decorated and entwined with the leafy branches of trees, as if for
the festivities of some gala day, or as the barbaric warriors of olden time
went into battle, their brows crowned with wreaths of laurel.
Six of these gun-boats, which were stationed near the eastern shore, to
shell Fort St. Philip, were protected by another device. The men collected the reeds and other vegetation of the marshes, and sheathed the
hulls of their vessels with a shaggy covering, so resembling the growth
upon the shlore, as to render their position uncertain to the distant enemy,
as they were thus blended with the ever rank and waving reeds and rushes.
Moored to the stumps of the trees, on the western bank of the river, were
the remaining fourteen mortar boats,-the first about three-quarters of a
mile from Fort Jackson, and the rest in direct line astern, with bowsprits
and taifrails touching each other.
The HIartford, Pensacola, Richmond, Brooklyn and Mississippi were
in the rear of the mortars, just out of range of the forts, with steam up,
maintaining their relative positions, against the current and surrounded by
the gun-boats, some of which were to take an active part in the bombardment. The tremendous mortar-boats were, however, expected to do the
principal work in reducing the forts so that the other ships could pass and
destroy the rebel gun-boats) and then ascend and nnfirl the National banner over New Orleans.
The force thus arrayed against the rebel fortifications was certainly
very formidable, though the rebels in their fancied Gibraltar, bade them
scornful defiance. The five sloops of war, which constituted one of the
efficient arms of assault, carried a hundred and ftor guns of large calibre.
The four first-class gun-boats, the Iroquois, Dacotah, Varuna and Oneida
were iron-clad, and very heavily armed, with from six to twelve guns.
Eight others, of the second class, carried each one 11-inch pivot gun, two
24-pounder howitzers, and one 20-pounder Parrot. Each of the twenty
mortar-boats bore a htuge 13-inch mortar, requiring at every discharge over




410                CIVIL  WAR IN  AMERICA.
twenty pounds of powder. Attached to these are the steamers Harriet
Lane, Westfield, Clifton and Miami, besides several transports and storeships and coal vessels, farther down the river. Such was the force which the
National Government had sent to open the navigation of the Mississippi
once more to the world, and to rescue New Orleans from the rebels who
had seized it. A land force, under Gen. Butler, of eighteen thousand men,
was waiting to cooperate with the fleet in holding the property of the
National Government after it should have been regained. The brave
seamen, who had been for months impatiently anticipating the contest,
were roused to a generous enthusiam and rivalry, by recent accounts of
glorious victories to the National arms in the Atlantic States and on the
Western rivers. They were eager to strike another blow at the monstrous
rebellion, and were confident that the speedy capture of New Orleans
would fall like the knell of death upon the disheartened Confederacy, and
would be a memorial, through all coming time, of their gallantry and
patriotism.
On the evening of the 15th, an incident occurred, which inspired the
men with still more intense zeal for the truly chivalrous enterprise, to which
the dawn of the morning was to usher them. In the morning, an immense
fire-raft piled with cords of blazing pine, had been sent down the swift current of the stream, upon our fleet. For a time the ships were in great
peril, and it seemed impossible that all of them could escape the fiery flood.
Fortunately, however, the raft grounded, and burned to the water's edge,
inflicting no harm. The incident induced Commander Porter to issue an
order, that every small boat of the mortar fleet should be in readiness,
upon the appearance of another fire-raft, to push out from the several vessels and tow the raft either ashore, or to some part of the channel where it
could drift harmlessly down the stream.
One hundred and fifty boats were accordingly thus put in readiness,
with picked crews, and supplied with grapnel ropes, buckets and axes. At
sun-down, Commander Porter, with his usual vigilance, reviewed this little
fleet of row-boats. After the review they returned to their several vessels,
and night came on-a night moonless and of pitchy darkness. Suddenly
the gleam of a fire was seen far in the distance. The alarm was instantly
given by throwing up signal-lights from the ships, which, with their brilliant
flame and varied colors, produced a beautiful effect upon the dark stream
and the sombre foliage of the banks. As these gleaming meteors speedily
burned out, the darkness of the night was rendered more intense by the
contrast. Rapidly the flames of the fire-raft increased in volume and drew
nearer, borne upon the swift current of the stream. Instantly one hundred and fifty boats were on the move, ascending to meet the floating
furnace. The whole surrounding region, for miles, was now illumined by
tile gorgeous conflagration, while a dense black column of smoke arose,
from the resinous wood, and blended with the clouds, which, by the reflection, seemed to be on fire. Two or three of the gun-boats also got under
way, and steamed boldly towards the crackling, roaring, devouring thing
of terror.  One of these, the Westfield, Capt. Renshaw, under full head of
steam, dashed furiously against the raft, crashing the timbers and filling the




CAMPAIGN  OF THE LOWER  MISSISSIPPI.                  411
sky with sparks from the tremendous blow; and then, from her hose-pipes,
poured floods of water upon the blazing mass. The small boats were soon
along side, advancing helter-skelter, wherever they could approach and
grapple their formidable and insensible enemy.
The scene was now beautiful and sublime beyond description. The
immediate arena of the conflict was brilliant as day, yet surrounded, at a
short distance, with impenetrable blackness and gloom. Some mount the
raft and plunge the flaming timbers into the river; some with axes
endeavor to cut it into harmless fragments; some dash water upon it from
their buckets; some grapple it and seek to drag it towards the banks. It
is indeed a phantom scene, lurid and unearthly in its brilliance, its confusion and its surrounding gloom. But, finally, the object is accomplished.
The raft, flaming, smouldering, broken, is drawn out of the range of the
anchored vessels, and towed to the shore, where it is slowly consumled.
As the boats return they are greeted by cheers, and soon again silence and
darkness resume their reign. The sentinel, pacing the deck, in vain
endeavors to penetrate the gloom, and no sound is heard but the cry of
the tree-toad in the forest, and the plash of the turbid stream.
When Bonaparte thought of ceding Louisiana to the United States, to
add to their territory, he pronounced the following words, which condense
the policy of France for the preceding thirty years: " To free nations from
the commercial tyranny of England we must counterbalance her by a
maritime power which may become one day her rival-this power is the
United States. The English aspire to the possession of all the riches of
the world. I will be useful to the whole universe if I can prevent her from
controlling America, as she controls Asia." After the cession in 1803,
Bonaparte again said: " This accession of territory establishes forever the
power of the United States, and I have just given to England a maritimrne
rival which sooner or later will lower her pride."




C HIAPTE R XVIII.
CAPTURE  OF NEW  ORLEANS.
CHALLENGE GIVEN TO THE UNITED STATES GUN-BOATS BY FORT JACKSON.-TERRIFIC BOMBARDMENT IN REPLY. —HEROIC ADVENTURES.-THE FLEET PASS THE FORTS.-FIRE-RAFTS.-GALLANT EXPLOITS.-SURRENDER'AT QUARANTINE STATION.-CHALMETTE BATTERIES.-INSANE
POLICY OF THE PEOPLE OF NEW ORLEANS.-FORTS AT CARROLTON.-SURRENDER OF NEW
ORLEANS.-DEMAND FOR, AND THE SURRENDER OF, FORT JACKSON.-RECAPITULATION.-LANDING OF BUTLER'S TROOPS.-APPEARANCE OF THE CITY.-BUTLER'S REIGGN.-CHANGES IN NEW
ORLEANS.-DEPARTURE OF THE FLEET.
EARLY in the morning. of the 16th of April, 1862, all on board the mortar fleet and gun-boats were ready for action, and were impatiently awaiting the order tc open fire. Concealed behind the hoary forests of the
Mississippi swamps, these tremendous engines of destruction reposed for a
time, as if gathering strength to deal forth, with all their might, their herculean blows. At nine o'clock in the morning, Fort Ja6kson threw down
the gauntlet of defiance, in the form of a shell, pitched from  one of her
guns, the distance of a mile, into the midst of the flotilla. The gun-boat
Owasco, which was a little in advance of the mortar boats, instantly, in
behalf of the fleet, accepted the challenge by a return shot. Immediately
the mortars commenced their terrific roar.  The fleet had so obtained the
range of the forts, that they could throw up their enormous shells, over the
bend of the rivers and its fringe of forest, and drop them, with almost
unerring precision, within the ramparts of the foe. It was quite impossible for the enemy to determine the precise position of their invisible assailants.  They could take. no direct aim, and could only throw their shot to
the spot from whence the appalling roar' of the battle, and the volcanic
storm of destruction, seemed to emerge. The thunder of these mortars, in
continuous reverberation, was distinctly heard, day and night, during the
long bombardment, in New Orleans, seventy-two miles distant.  It is difficult to conceive what must have been the emotions of the rebels in the
city, as they listened, day after day, for more than a week, to the ominous
mnutterings of this tempest, threatening soon to visit them with the vengeance of an insulted and outraged government.
The mortar fleet, consisting of twenty boats, was arranged in three
divisions, each of which fired for two hours in succession, and then stopped
for a short time, to cool. Thus a continuous bombardment was kept up.
Each mortar was fired once in five minutes, so that it averaged a shell
every minute; and sometimes three or four shells, with their unearthly
screech, were sweeping in majestic curves through the air, at the same
time. The shells weighed two hundred and fifteen pounds. About twenty




CAPTURE  OF NEW  ORLEANS.                       413
pounds of powder were used at each charge.  The explosion, of course,
was deafening in its peal. Though every precaution was adopted, by filling the ears with cotton, and placing the men at a distance when the gun
was discharged, the hearing of not a few of the gunners was seriously impaired during the bombardment. The mortars were, of course, at an acute
angle, to throw the shells high into the air.  Some faint idea may be
formed of the tremendous force of the recoil, from the. fact, that at each
discharge, the whole massive gun-boat was driven down into the water six
or eight inches. The concussion was so severe, that all the light railing
and wood work were shattered, and even the solid timbers strained and
loosened, and windows were broken at the Balize, thirty miles distant.
The shells, as they left the mortars, rose, with a shriek which pierced
through the thunder of the explosion, high in the air, describing an immense arc of a mile and a half; and descended, either bursting just over
the fort, or crashing its walls, or sinking into the ground twenty feet, and
then exploding, heaving up the soil with earthquake power. Not one shell
in twenty failed to burst, and they were equally sure in the water or under
the ground. Many fell into the moat, and in their explosion threw the
water, in a vast column, high above the fort, causing the very foundations
of the massive fabric to reel. Sometimes the shells burst just over the
ramparts, hurling down their fragments, like a shower of canister and
grape, cutting down the men at their guns, and driving them to the bombproofs for protection.
The first day of the bombardment passed away, during which the fleet
threw more than two thousand shells into the fort. The gun-boats also
took an active part. The'Iroquois, Owasco, Kennebec, Wissahicon, Cayuga
and S ciota, were very efficient, and their guns were admirably manned.
The Iroquois, in particular, won the admiration of the whole fleet by her
steady fire, while apparently a special target for the rebels. The garrisons
in the forts fought with the most determined bravery. Driven repeatedly
from their guns by the terrible storm  of shells, they as often resolutely
resumed their posts. The citadel was soon set on fire, and utterly demolished.
The solid walls of the fort were cracked and shattered, the ramparts blown
into the air, the levee cut by the exploding shells, so that the water of the
river flowed in upon the forts, even flooding their casemnates. [But still the
effective strength of the fortifications was not materially weakened.
It is impossible to record the details even of a single day of this bombardment. For six days and nights the storm continued, in one incessant
and-devastating tempest of battle. The heroic endurance displayed by the
sturdy crews of the mortar-boats, is deserving of all praise. The unintermitted firing was terribly exhausting. WVhen relieved fiom their toil, the
men instantly dropped doewn upon the decks, and fell soundly asleep, in
the midst of an uproar well-nigh sufficient to have waked the dead. In
the darkness of the night, the glare of the discharging guns, the colnmans
of black, sulphurous smoke, the deafening roar, the shells shrieking, flashing with meteoric swiftness through the sky, with brilliance which caused
the stars to pale,-made the scene inexpressibly sublime.  Occasionally,
fire-rafts drifted down the stream, in irmnense billows and flashing tongues




414                 CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
of flame, lighting up, at midnight, the grand pageant, with an awful splendor, which the imagination of Milton alone could portray.
After the first day's bombardment, the six vessels which had been stationed on the east side of the river, to assail Fort St. Philip, were withij:
was concentrated upon Fort Jackson. It was afterwards ascertained that
4,,




CAPTURE  OF NEW  ORLEANS.                      416
in part, for the slight loss sustained by the fleet. The boats on the western
shore, moored near the banks, and under the trees, were not discernible;
and most of the shot and shell passed over them, and fell into the river
beyond. About nine o'clock of the second morning, a shell fell upon the
Carleton, and plunged crashing through her deck, magazine and bottom.
She soon went down; but as she was sinking, she fired a farewell shot at the
foe. At the close of the week's bombardment, but one man had been killed
and six wounded, on board the fleet. If modern ingenuity has devised the
most formidable instruments of destruction, that same ingenuity has been
no less available in creating shields to protect from harm. One man invents
an Armstrong gun; another creates a mailed ship which repels its balls, as
the tiled roof sheds the hail. Men within casemates laugh at rifled guns.
At the close of the week this terrible bombardment had failed to
reduce the forts. Indeed, their fire had not been perceptibly diminished.
It was manifest that the resolute garrison could, in this way, be subdued
only at great expense of time and material. To force a passage by the
forts, at all hazards, seemed to be necessary, and there were willing hearts
and hands, throughout the whole fleet, eager to attempt the desperate
enterprise.,Accordingly, on the evening of the 23d, the order was signaled
by Commodore Farragut to all the frigates and gun-boats, to be in readiness for action at two o'clock the next morning. While the bombardment
had been in progress, the requisite preparations had been made for this
truly chivalric adventure of running the forts. At midnight of the 21st,
while a tremendous fire was kept up to attract the attention of the foe, two
of the gun-boats, the Pinola, Lieut.-Com. Crosby, and the Itasca, Lieut.Com. Caldwell, cautiously ascended the river to the boom, and there,
within the range of guns which, in a few minutes, could have annihilated
them, succeeded in breaking the chain between two of the eight hulks so
as to afford a narrow space for the passage of the ships. An attempt was
also made at the same time to enlarge the gap by blowing up one of the
hulks by petards. But they were so embarrassed by the darkness, the
confusion, the fire to which they were exposed, and the strength of the
current, that they did not succeed in igniting the petards with the galvanic
battery. Capt. Henry HI. Bell was intrusted with this perilous and allimportant enterprise. The night preceding the attack, Lieut.-Com. Crosby
was sent up again to make an examination, and if he found the passage
clear to signal to that effect. Another daring boat's crew was also sent
from the Itasca on the night of the 22d, who rowed, with muffled oars, to
within a few hundred feet of the fort, sounding the channel, and searching
out obstructions. They were not discovered by the rebels, though large
groups of them..were seen upon the shore, around immense fires which
they had kindled to watch for such expeditions.
At five minutes before two o'clock on the morning of the 24th, the signal was made for the whole fleet of ships and gun-boats to get under weigh.
The signal was simply two ordinary red lights, so as not to attract the
attention of the enemy. While the mortar-boats remained in their position to rain down upon the main fort all their energies of destruction, the
whole remaining squadron, under Commodore Farragutt, commenced its




416                CIVIL WAR  IN  AMERICA.
perilous movement. The fleet advanced in two columns. The first column
consisted of the three magnificent ships in the van, the Hartford, the
Brooklyn and the Richmond, followed by the gun-boats Sciota, Iroquois,
Kennebec, Pinola, Itasca and Winona. The second column was led by
the Pensacola and Mississippi, followed by the gun-boats Cayuga, Oneida,
Varuna, JKatahdin, Kinneo and Wissahicon.  They all made for the
clasm in the barrier of hulks and chains, keeping up an incessant fire
upon the forts, and, as one after another they passed through, the vessels of
the first division ranged themselves to assail Fort St. Philip, and the second
Fort Jackson, while all alike were prepared to attack and repel the rebel
rains and gun-boats, as occasion might require. It may be safely said that
Isuch a naval conflict was never witnessed on this earth before.
The enemy were on the alert, and the beacon-fires soon blazed so
brightly as to expose every movement of the fleet; and the whole stormy
scene was illumined with a lurid glare, which added vastly to its sublimity
and its almost fiend-like horror. The Cayuga was the first which passed
the chain-boom, under a terrible fire from both of the forts, which struck
her repeatedly from stem to stern. The rest of the squcadron rapidly followed. They were now directly abreast of the forts, exposed to the direct
action of their guns, while the river above was crowded with the fire-rafts,
rams and gun-boats of the foe. They all came plunging down together
upon the heroic fleet. First came an immense fire-raft, pushed by the
ram Mianassas, directly upon the flag-ship Hartford. In endeavoring to
avoid it the ship was crowded ashore, and the flaming raft was pushed down
upon its side. In a moment the majestic ship seemed enveloped in flames
half-way up to her tops. Fortunately the ship was backed off from the
shoal, and by immense exertions of the fire department, the ilames were
extinguished.
The thunder of over three hundred guns from the forts, the rebel gunboats and the National fleet, joined with the distant boomingsof the muortars, filled the air with a continuous roar, louder than heaven's heaviest
thunders.  Red-hot shot and bursting shell were falling with frightfull
execution on ship and battlement.  The whole scene was soon so enveloped
in the sulphurous smoke of the battle, that friends could with difficulty be
distinguished from foes, and often the flash of opposing guns alone guided
the fire. The rebels fought with that desperation which was to be expected
of Americans, even when engaged in an infamous cause. While the
National ships were yet under the fire of the flots, they were assailed by
the monster rams and floating batteries which the foe held in reserve.
These enormous rains, aided by the swift current, and under full headway
of steam, dashed with their iron prows upon our ships, discharging, at,
close range, their heavy gunlls as reckless as if no harm  could touch them.
It is impossible to recount the exploits of the gallant men who fought
beneath the Stars and Stripes, in these hours of deadly encounter. Every
ship in the fleet signalized itself by heroism which could not be surpassed.'We cannot record the deeds of all; let us allude to a few as specimens of
the rest.
The United States steamship Brooklyn, in the darkness, and while




CAPTURE  OF NEW  ORLEANS.                      417
exposed to the hottest fire, became entangled in the barricading hulks and
chains. In attempting to extricate the ship her bow grazed the shore.
She, however, worked her way through, when the ram  ]Manassas came
rushing upon her from the gloom. At the distance of ten feet the ram
discharged her shot, which pierced the ship, and then, with a crash, struck
her side, butting in the starboard gangway. The chain armor saved the
ship from destruction, and the ram slid off and disappeared in the darkness. Fort Jackson, in the liftings of the smoke, ca-ught a glimpse of
the majestic ship, and, opened upon her a raking fire. Just then a large
rWbel steamer came rushing up on the port broadside. When at the distance of but sixty yards, the Brooklyn poured into the audacious stranger
one single volley of shell and red-hot shot, and the fragments of the
steamer, in a mass of crackling flame, drifted down the stream.
The Brooklyn, still groping its way along, lighted by the flames of an
approaching fire-raft, and yet enveloped in its resinous smoke, soon found
itself abreast of St. Philip, almost touching the shore. The ship chanced
to be in such a position that she could bring almost every gun to bear.
Tarrying for a moment, she poured into the fort such a storm of grape
and canister, as completely to silence the work. The men stationed in the
tops of the frigate said that, by the light of their bursting shrapnels, they
could see the garrison " running like sheep for more comfortable quarters."
The Brooklyn then rushed into the nest of rebel gunl-boats, fighting them
indiscriminately, with her broadsides striking the most terrific blows, and
continuing the contest, in connection with the:. other vessels, for an hnlr
and a half; until the rebel fleet was adnnihilated. After the action was
over, Comnmodore Farragut took the hand of Capt. Craven, of the Brooklyn, in both of his, and said,
" You and your noble ship have been the salvation of my squadron.
You were in a complete blaze of fire; so much so, that I supposed your
ship was burning -up. I never saw such rapid and precise firing. It never
was surpassed, and probably never was equaled.",
There were above the chain eighteen rebel  gun-boats, including the
ram  Manassas, and the battery Louisiana, which carried twenty guns.
The Cayuga, Lieut. Commanding, N. B. I-Iarrison, being on the lead.
found itself in the midst of them, without any supporting ships, and at the
same moment was assailed by three gun-boats, one on each quarter.  Capt.
Bailey, of the Colorado, which could not be got over the bar of the river,
was in temporary command of the Cayuga. The assailants all attempted
to board, one on the starboard bow, the other astern, and the third on the
starboard beam. With an eleven-inch Dahlgren, at the distance of thirty
yards, one of these boats was speedily set on fire, and the crew ran it
ashore, where it soon presented but a mass of flame. While engaged
fiercely with the other tWo, the Varuna and Oneida came to the aid of the:
Cayuga, and one of the rebel boats surrendered, and the other was burned.
The gM/ississippi encountered the ram Manassas, rushing upon her at
full speed. The noble old frigate, undaunted, instead of evading the blow,
turned to meet her antagonist, and with all steam on, made a plunge at
the menacing mlonster. Just as the blow was to come, which would
27




418                CIVIL  WAR IN  AMERICA.
decide whose head was to be broken open, the Manassas, taking counsel
of discretion, dodged. But as she glided by, a point-blank broadside,
from the immense armament of the Mississippi, swept off her smoke-stack,
crashed through her iron sides, and set her on fire. The crew took to the
shore, and the redoubtable ram  drifted, a total wreck, down the stream.
The nondescript monster presented a cnrions spectacle, as she floated
along, the flames bursting through the broken chinks of her mail, her
shot fractures, and her port-holes. Commodore Porter wishing to save
her as a curiosity, sent some boats to pass a hawser around the ram, and
secure it to the shore. Scarcely was this done when the monster uttered,
as it were, an expiring groan, as the water rushed in, driving the air and
the belching flames through her bow-port, and then, " like a huge animal,
she gave a plunge, and disappeared under the water."
The achievements of the Varuna, under Capt. Boggs, were among the
crowning glories of this eventful day. It has been well said, he " fought a
battle, fully equal in desperate hardihood and resolute bravery, to the
famous sea fight of John Pa-ul Jones, which nothing human could surpass."
The Varuna was one of the swiftest boats of the fleet. As she steamed
through the barrier, and passed by the fire of the forts, she found herself
apparently alone, at the head of the fleet, in the midst of a swarm of rebel
steamers. Plunging into the midst of them, the Varuna gave each, in
succession, a full broadside, as she passed. The first rebel gun-boat which
received her fire was crowded with troops. A shot struck her boiler,
causing a fearful explosion, and she drifted helplessly ashore. Three
others, in their turn, were disabled, set on fire, and driven ashore, where
they burned until their magazines exploded, scattering the blazing fiagments in all directions. The rebel steamer Morgan, with iron-clad bow,
came now dashing upon the Varuna, hoping to butt in her side. The
lM[organ poured in a raking fire, which killed four and wounded nine of
the VYaruna's crew. As the rebel came on the second time, to strike the
steamer on the starboard side, Capt. Boggs plunged three eight-inch shells
into her, abaft her armor, and also several shots front a rifled gun. This
effectually crippled the Morgan, and the shattered boat drifted down the
current, glad thus to escape.
4  At the same moment, another iron-clad rebel steamer, with a sharp
prow projected nnder the water, struck the Varuna, with all her accumulated force, upon the port gangway, cracking the timbers and inflicting
almost irreparable damage. The Varuna poured in upon her a broadside;
but the shot glanced harmless from her coat of mail. The enemy backed
for another blow, and struck again upon the same spot, crushing in the
steamer's side. The Varuna pushed vigorously ahead. This, together
with the concussion, drew the bows of the rebel steamer around, exposing
her stern, not protected by armor. Quick as thought, five eight-inch shells
penetrated her vitals, and another rebel monster, gasping and dying, floated
down the stream. The Varuna is now sinking. No alternative remains
but to run her ashore. Still she keeps up an incessant fire upon the foe.
As she touches the shore with her bow, and slowly sinks, the crew have
time to load for one more broadside. The last shot is fired as the water




CAPTURE  OF NEW  ORLEANS.                       419
floods the decks, aild rises over the gun-trucks. Boats from the Oneida
come to the rescue. The crew jump on board them with cheers, and the
Varuna, with her brave dead, goes down "victorious in death, her flag
still flying, covered with glory," having singly taken or destroyed six of
the enemy's vessels.
As the morning dawned over this scene of destruction, the fire of the
forts and shipping gradually diminished, the smoke was dispelled by the
rising breeze, the wrecks of the rebel gun-boats were strewed along the
shore, eleven of them having been utterly destroyed, and the National fleet
was riding proudly above their forts, with their banners gleaming gloriously against the morning sky. Three of the National gun-boats, the Kennebec, the Winona, and the Itasca, had been disabled in the action, and
had drifted back below the forts. The rest were on the move for New
Orleans, whose fate was now decided.
At five o'clock in the morning, Commander Porter was signaled to
cease the fire of his mortars, and Capt. Boggs, who had so gloriously lost
his command, was sent, by a circuitous route through the bayous, with
instructions to Commander Porter to demand the surrender of the forts,
which, with three steamers and the floating battery Louisiana, the enemy
still held. As the forts, by the passage of the fleet, were cut off from all
communication with lNew Orleans and from all sources of supply, their
condition was quite hopeless, and their surrender was only a question as to
time. A dispatch was also sent to Gen. Butler, informing him that the
way was clear for him to land his forces through the quarantine bayou, in
accordance with previous arrangements, and that gun-boats would be left
there for his protection. The loss of the National force, in this fierce
engagement, was wonderfully small, but thirty being killed and one hundred and ten wounded. Most of the ships also escaped serious injury, and
one only, the Varu-na, was lost.
Seven miles above the forts lies the quarantine station. Two hundred
rebels who, in a panic had fled from Fort Jackson, were encamped here.
There was no escape for them, and they piled up their arms and surrendered. To this anchorage the victorious fleet repaired, where they buried
their dead, and tenderly provided for the wounded. Speedily again the
fleet formed itself in order to ascend the river. In the morning of the 25th,
the Cayuga still leading and considerably ahead of the line, approached
the Chalmette batteries, three miles below the city.  The rebels immediately opened a cross-fire upon the gun-boat, to which the Cayuga
responded vigorously with her two guns. Soon the flag-ship ranged alongside, and hurling upon the enemy her tremendous broadsides, in a few
moments silenced their fire. There was no farther obstacle to be encountered, and about noon the whole fleet was moored opposite New Orleans,
the Stars and Stripes flying from every mast-head, and the music of our
national airs floating over the rebellious city. The humiliation of the foe,
who had ever arrogated to themselves boundless superiority over the North,
must have been extreme.*
* The less intelligent people are, the more they are disposed to regard themselves as the elite
of the earth. The Chinese, in their "Celestial Empire," look compassionately upon all outside bar



420                     CIVIL WAR IN AM[ERICA.
The rebels in New Orleans had not cherished a doubt that the Nationa)
ships would  be  annihilated  by the vast armament they had collected
in their forts and gun-boats.  And now, that the squadron was actually
before the city, with the power to lay it, at any moment, in ashes, the
panic, mortification  and rage were such as to amount to insanitjr.  Even
before the arrival of the fleet, when the astounding news came that the
forts were passed, and that the victorious squadron was approaching, the
mob was roused to such desperation of fury, that even by the proc(lamation
of martial law the city was with diffiiclty saved from  destruction.  The
levee, once one of the most busy scenes of prosperous commerce in the
United States, now presented an awful scene of desolation.  As far as the
eye could extend, along this broad and spacious mart, nothing was to be
seen but crackling flame or smouldering ruin.  The rebels, to prevent, as
they said, the property from  falling into the hands of the National Governmlent, applied the torch.  Ships, steamers, cotton, coal, sugar, piers, storehouses-all were in a common blaze.  It is estimated that property to the
amlount of eight or ten millions was consumed in a few hours.  The river
seemed covered with floating masses of flame, as vessels of every kind,
often richly freighted, were fired and then cut adrift.
There was a rebel force of several thousand men stationed in New
Orleans, under Gen. Lovell.  For months they had been quartered in the
city, filling the public squares witlh their show of strength.  But now their
presence only endangered the place, as they could offer no effectual resistance.  They were accordingly withdrawn beyond the city limits, and were,
soon after, removed by railroad and steamers to a point of comparative
safety a hundred miles distant.  Thus was rebellion in New  Orleans punished, and the helpless city anxiously awaited the next movement of the
Government it had so grievously offended.
There were two iron rams of formidable power, which the rebels were
building and which were nearly finished.  But they destroyed them  both
as our fleet was approaching.  Eight miles above the city, at Carrolton,
there were twro forts, mounting thirty-five guns.  A  detachment was sent
to take possession of them.  They found the forts abandoned, the guns
spiked, and the gun-carriages in flames.  There was also found here an
immense chain extending across the river to prevent the descent of Coin.
barians. The gentlemen of England and France are, in their eyes, savages. The Esquimaux
think there are no palaces like ice-huts, and no viands like train oil. One of the most influential
of the Southern journals indulges in the following strain. "The whole experience of the war is in
attestation of the truth, long since discovered by impartial observers, that the master-race of this
continent is found in the Southern States. Of a better stock originally, and habituated to manlier
pursuits, they have ruled, in affairs of state, by force of the stronger will and larger wisdom that
pertain to and distinguish superior races of men. This natural dominancy of the Southern people
had much to do in bringing on the war. The inferior race, grown strong in numbers and ambitious
fiom prosperity, have revolted, and now seek to destroy those whose superiority was a constant
source of envy and self-reproach. There is no fiercer malevolence than that of caste, and it is this
which has so long stirred the Yankee bile. Always, in the presence of the Southern gentleman,
he has felt a strong and painfully repressed impulse to take off his hat. This conscious inferiority
has galled the jealous and malignant creature until he has broken out in servile insurrection. It
is the old and never-ending strife between patrician and proletarian, between gentle and vile." How
strong the resemblance between these utterances and those of the Chinese and the Esquimaux.




CAPTURE  OF NEW  ORLEANS.                     421
Foote's flotilla, which was then striking blows on the upper waters of the
}iMississippi that resounded along the whole length of the stream. This
chain was three-quarters of a mile long, composed of ninety-six links about
thirty feet in length. Each of these links consisted of three immense logs
four feet thick, thirty feet long, and strongly frapped and clamped together
by chains half an inch in diameter, and in three or four layers. These
herculean links of iron, buoyed up by the mass of wood, were hooked
together in the strongest possible manner, while a two-inch chain ran along
the centre, lengthwise, the whole extent of the iron-plated raft.
A demand was immediately made by Commodore Farragut for the
mnqcualified surrender of the city, demanding that every rebel flag should
disappear, and that the emblem of the sovereignty of the United States
should be hoisted over the city hall, mint and custom house, and that
"6 particularly no person should be molested in person or property, for professing sentiments of loyalty towards that Government."
When the fleet first arrived, some of the loyal people of the city could
not refrain from manifesting their satisfaction by cheers. The infuriated
rebels, accustomed to lawlessness, shot them down. Commodore Farragut
assured them, very distinctly, that a new reign had commenced. " I shall
speedily and severely," said he, "punish any person or persons who shall
commit such outrages as were witnered yesterday, armed men firing upon
helpless women and children for giving expression to their pleasure in witnessing the old flag."
On the 26th, the city was formally surrendered, and a detachment of
United States troops landed, and raised the Stars and Stripes over the
public buildings. The whole city presented an aspect of the wildest
excitement. Crowds of rebels followed the marines, hooting, and yelling,
yet fearing to offer any personal violence, as the whole city lay exposed to
the shells of the fleet. The intense hatred which actuated the rebellious
portion of the people against the ]National banner, sought every possible
expression, restrained only from those acts of violence which would draw
upon them immediate destruction. Those who had remained faithful, in
heart, to the United States, could not yet, in safety, declare their loyalty,
even though a powerful squadron, which had come to vindicate the
offended majesty of the Government, held possession of the city. Only by
fear of the terrible retribution which would visit any open outrage, were
the populace prevented from attacking and destroying the small body of
National marines who had entered their streets. When the boat of Capt.
Bailey, who was intrusted with the command of this party, landed at the
crowded levee, it was surrounded by a turbulent band of citizens of all
classes, men, women and children, who, by jeers and insults of the grossest
kind, vented their mingled mortification and rage against the Government
to which, from every motive of gratitude and respect, they owed loyalty
of heart and life.
Commodore Farragut managed this responsible affair with consummate
wisdom, blending conciliation with firmness.  Though the treasonable acts
of the rebels merited the severest punishment, yet the dignity of the Government was perhaps best maintained by the exhibition of a calm and




422                CIVIL WAR  IN AMERICA.
unirritated power. It was wise, perhaps, that conciliation should first be
tried. But never, throughout this rebellion, has conciliation accomplished
anything more than to embolden the rebels to new insolence, and more
unpardonable acts of violence. For several days, all communication with
the land, even under flags of truce, was attended with great risk of life.
It soon became necessary to show the rebels that the National Government
was not to be trifled with. The rebels, though, in the language of Mayor
Monroe, "so sensitive to all that could in the least affect their dignity and
self-respect," were eventually made to feel, that however forbearing our
soldiers might be under per8sonal insu8t, they would not allow their
National flag to be dishonored before their eyes. A party of the rebels,
exasperated at the sight of that glorious banner, waving over the mint,
with presumption as insane as it was malicious, hauled down the colors, ill
broad daylight, and were trampling them in the mire, when a round of
grape from the Pensacola quickly scattered the rabble, killing one and
wounding others, and thus effectually putting an end to such exhibitions
of treason. For a few days, Commodore Farragut held possession of the
city through the noble fleet which was moored in the stream. We must
now leave the city, and return clown the river to the mortar-boats, where
movements were in progress to complete the victory, by taking possession
of the forts.
A few hours after the passage of the forts by the fleet, Commander
Porter, who remained with tLe mortar-boats below, sent in to Fort Jackson a demand for their unconditional surrender.  The answer returned
was, " The demand is inadmissible."  Preparations were accordingly
made for renewing the bombardment, in co6peration with an attack by
the land forces. Gen. Butler, whose transports were anchored in Chandeleur Bay, then landed his troops near the Quarantine, on the narrow strip
of land upon which Fort St. Philip is built. Six of the mortar-boats were
sent to the back of Fort Jackson, to block up the bayous and cut off all
supplies. Fort Livingston, at the head of Barataria Bay, hauled down its
flag and surrendered at their approach. The forts on Lake Ponchartrain
were also evacuated by their terrified garrisons, without waiting for any
hostile demonstrations against them. Telegraphic communication was no
longer possible, to the beleaguered garrisons of Forts Jackson and Philip.
Their supplies would soon be gone; their defenses were crippled; another
bombardment would utterly demolish them; above, below, on every side,
were the National forces. To hold out longer, presented no hope of relief.
Commander Porter, having matured all his arrangements, pitched a
few more shells into Fort Jackson, as an intimation of what was to come.
" There was no response," he records; " the fight had all been taken out,
of them."  The demand for the surrender was renewed, with the offer to
the:garrison that they might retire with their side-arms, under parole not
to serve against the United States until regularly exchanged, if they would
faithfully surrender, undamca7ged, the forts, guns, muskets, provisions, and
all munitions of war, the vessels under the guns of the forts, and all other
public property. A very civil answer was returned, declining to surrender until so instructed by the authorities at New Orleans. But the comn




CAPTURE  OF NEW  ORLEANS.                      423
mon soldiers in the fort appreciated the utter hopelessness of their condi.
tion, and there were such unequivocal indications of an approaching
mutiny, that the next day, the 28th, a flag of truce, from Fort Jackson,
came on board the Harriet Lane, proposing to surrender on the terms suggested. Commander Porter immediately proceeded in his ship, accompa-nied with the Westfield, Winona and KIennebec, as a retinue, to the vicinity of the fort, and sent for the rebel leaders, Gen. Duncan, and Lieut
Col. Higgins, and such other persons as they might see fit to take with
them, to come on board. They were all soon assembled in the cabin of
the Harriet Lane, and the articles of capitulation were drawn up and
signed. The officers of the forts, however, did not include the vessels in
the capitulation, declaring, with a good deal of pique, that they had
nothing to do with the naval officers, and were in no way responsible for
their acts. There was evidently much angry feeling between the two
branches of the service. The soldierly bearing and heroic defense of these
fortifications, and the high honor displayed by the rebel army officers, in
every measure of the capitulation, stand out in striking contrast with an
act of treachery on the part of some of their naval commanders.
-While engaged in the capitulation, an officer came below, and informed
Commander Porter that the rebel battery Louisiana hlad been set on fire
by two rebel steamers, and was drifting down upon them. The Louisiana
was a magnificent iron, steam floating battery; of four thousand tons,
mounting sixteen heavy guns, and perfectly shot-proof. Flags of truce
were flying upon the forts, and upon the American ships. "' Seeing the
Louisiana," says Commander Porter, "lying so quiet, with colors down,
and the two steamers under our guns, I never dreamed for a moment that
they had not surrendered. I could not make any movement without violating the honor of the United States, and interrupting the capitulation
which was being drawn up."  The battery had been fired so quietly, that
no one suspected it until it was in a blaze. The intrepid Porter, simply
remarking that the act was by no means creditable to its agents, proceeded,
unmoved, with the conference. Soon another officer came down, reporting that the ship, all in flames, was drifting rapidly upon them. Turning
to the rebel officers, the Commander inquired if the battery had powder
and loaded guns on board. 1' We presume so," was the reply, " but we
know nothing about naval matters here."  At this moment the heated
guns commenced exploding, throwing shot and shell indiscriminately
among friends and foes. Orders were issued to keep the vessel clear from
the burning battery, and business was resumed, Commander Porter coolly
remarking, " If you don't mind the effect of the explosion, which is soon
to come, we can stand it."
Providentially the flaming mass drifted toward Fort St. Philip, and
when just abreast of it, the fire touched the magazine, and there was a
terrific explosion, which was heard for miles up and down the river, and
which shook every ship as with earthquake power. When the smoke
cleared away, nothing was to be seen. The battery, broken into iron
fragments, had gone down into the almost fathomless depths of the Mississippi. IHad the Louisiana blown up in the midst of our vessels, as the per



t24                 CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA..fidious rebel naval commander designed, probably every one would have
been destroyed.  One of the falling fragments killed a man in Fort St.
Philip, and an immense beam fell close to the tent of the rebel coniander, McIntosh, who was lying with one arm  blown off; another
broken, his knee-cap shot away, and a leg fractured.
The authors of this infamous act, of whom J. K1.  Mitchell, a former
United States officer, was chief, attempted to escape. But they were all
caught, and by order of Flag-Officer Farragut, were sent to the North as
prisoners of war, who had forfeited all right to the privilege of parole.
The forts were now, once again, in possession of their rightfiul owners, and
the National flag floated proudly from  their ramparts.  The honor of
reducing these forts is equally due to Commander Porter and Flag-Officer
1-__                   _ _
Smz-; ==JMA (.F
f>-/ _~                               -  -. —-    \
ti  i___                    o oo            30 _, _ _t __                CU__=                  /
C.Dr
_ _ __ _   _ —-. ——,     _  __  -__    _-_
______=___       - t   ~v' -_ ____
APPEARANCE OF FORT JACKSON AFTER THE ACTION.
Farragut. But for their energetic cooperation the result could not have
been attained. They have both secured the lasting gratitude of every loyal
American. The accompanying plan of the appearance of the fort, after
the bombardment was taken by very accurate survey, by J. S. Harris, under




CAPTURE  OF NEW  ORLEANS.                       425
the direction of F. I-. Gerdes, U. S. C. E. It shows where every shot and
shell struck, the portion burnt, and the extent of the inundation by the blowing away of the levee by shells. It is estimated that three thousand shells
fell into the ditch.  Those portions of the ramparts thickly dotted, indicate
the spaces destroyed by our fire which the rebels repaired with sand-bags.
An examination into the condition of Fort Jackson and the testimony
of some of the garrison gave most convincing proof of the terrible efficiency
of the mortar fleet. When the bombardment commenced, this fort was in
perfect order. Its garrison was under the strictest discipline, and every
device of ingenuity was exhausted to add strength to the ramparts, and to
protect the lives of their defenders.  But the massive shells of the mortars
shook so powerfully the casemated walls, that they threatened to crumble
down on those who sought shelter beneath them. The outer works were
cracked from top to bottom, admitting the light in many places; the drawbridges were destroyed; the citadel and platforms for tents were entirely
consumed by fire; the levee was cut by the shells, and the water rushed
through, flooding the casemates and passages, and overflowin-g the ditches.
Four guns were dismantled and eleven seriously damaged.  Over three
thousand shells fell into the ditches; a thousand exploded above the fort;
another thousand were counted on the sloping ground of the fort and the
levee. It was stated, by one of the garrison, that many of the shells, bursting in the ditches, had more effect oin the walls above them than those falling on the slopes.  On the first night of the bombardment, when the
citadel was burning, the magazine was in great danger, and was only saved
by a profuse supply of wet blankets.  One bomb broke into the secret
passage leading out of the fort; another leaped into an officers' mess-room,
and rolled on the floor when they were dining. In terror they all clustered
in a corner, waiting for the explosion which would certainly blow them all
to fragments. Fortunately the fuse went out and they were safe. All the
buildings within the fort were ruined, either consumed by the fire or
demolished by the shot. Though the volleys from the fleet while passing
the forts were very destructive, their fire was mainly directed to the rebel
fleet, and was not long continued upon the forts. The service rendered by
the mortars in this long bombardment was, therefore, very important, both
in supporting the fleet in their difficult passage, and in previously weakening the fortifications which assailed them. Without the least detraction
from Flag-Officer Farragut and his fleet for their spirited advance through
that gate-way of death, into the very midst of a hostile force numerically
stronger than his own, justice demands a full measure of praise, in the
capture of the city, for him whose strong' arm and tremendous blows had
so battered and broken its iron gates.
Let us now briefly sum up the results of this siege of one week, so brilliantly terminated by its final naval attack.  The enemy lost six fortsJackson, St. Philip and Chalmette on the river, Livingston on the gulf,
and Pike and Morgan on Lake Ponchartrain, besides two large earthworks above the city. Twelve hundred prisoners were taken. Eighteen
gun-boats, including three iron rams and one or two floating batteries with
booms, torpedoes and other obstructions which had been prepared at enor



426                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
mous labor and expense, were taken or destroyed. Over forty vessels,
lying at the levee, were set on fire by the rebels. Seven river steamers,
which escaped the flames, were captured. The new ram Mississippi, on
which five hundred men had been kept at work for seven months, and
upon which two millions of dollars had been expended, was blown up by
the rebels, to save it from falling into the hands of the Government. In
three weeks this steamer would have been completed, and doubtless would
have been able to sweep the river of our wooden vessels. It was indeed a
kind Providence which saved us from that disaster.
The loss of life sustained by the rebels has never been ascertained. It
must have been very great. In the forts, in consequence of the protection
which the casemates afforded, but fourteen were killed and about two hundred wounded. Illn the gun-boats the loss must have been much more
severe. Eleven of them were either burned or sunk. The ship's company
of the rebel gun-boat IMorgan, consisted of ninety-five, and all of them
perished but fifteen.  The lississippi River was now again opened to
navigation from the Gulf to Neiv Orleans, and the capture of the remaining forts and batteries upon its upper waters rendered comparatively easy.
It was expected that soon Commodore Foote would descend the river with
his victorious squadron, and meet the ascending gun-boats of Flag-Officer
Farragut. Thus would this majestic National stream be rescued from the
rebels of Louisiana and restored to its rightful owners, the United States
of America.
The capture of New Orleans was an undisputed victory to the lNZational
arms, which no soplhism, no ingenious logic, no audacious falsehood, could
turn into a Confederate triumph. The importance of this city, comimanding the vast inland trade of the MSississippi, the centre of the cotton and
sugar trade of America, the ]key to an immense territory, and therefore, of
great strategic value,-had given to the rebel government, while holding*
this port, a large claim upon the recognition of the European powers.
The failure to retain it, with such superior advantages of defense, was a
blow more damaging to their reputation abroad, than the decisive defeat
of a large army in battle. Though regarding, with its usual sagaciousness
and one-sided neutrality, the fall of New Orleans improbable, the London
Times had declared, that such an. event would be " putting the tourniquet
on the main artery of the Confederacy."
It must be acknowledged that the North were surprised at the apparent
extinction of Union feeling, in almost the entire population of New Orleans,
under these eighteen months of Confederate rule. The reign of secession
had first been established there by a base minority, through fraud and violence. The terrors of an armed mob drove peaceable citizens from the
polls. Any opposition to the madness of the hour would have been followed by assault, imprisonment, confiscation of property, exile or death.
Despotic authority, inaugurated with the noisy demonstrations and braggart enthusiasm of a few, soon enforced outward obedience from all, and
by misrepresentations, unlimited falsehoods of " Federal reverses,' and of
the success of the Confederate cause? at home and abroad, first induced
many of the disaffected to acquiescence, and finally to hearty support.




CAPTURE  OF NEW  ORLEANS.                     427
While driven, for their loyalty, from their homes, some made their way,
with the greatest difficulty, to Northern States, there were many who,
unable to bear this test, still secretly maintained their allegiance, while
outwardly submissive to the rebel government.
On the 1st of IM3ay, the first detachment of Gen. Butler's troops disembarked from the transports, which had conveyed them from Ship Island,
to take possession of the city. So large and excited was the crowd on the
pier, which greeted the " invaders" with the coarsest invectives, and mingled expressions of disgust and helpless rage, that it was necessary to force
them back at the point of the bayonet. The National troops proved themselves worthy representatives of those institutions, which they were seeking
again to implant in this community, from which rebellion had banished
them. A platoon of National soldiers was formed across the pier, a
column of troops followed behind. As they thus advanced, the crowd
moved or opened before them up the levee, and as the martial body
passed, closed in behind. The curiosity to get a sight of the " Yankees,"
seemed to be universal and insatiable. The soldiers paid no regard to the
unsavory epithets with which they were assailed, and smiled as complacently upon the mob, calling them " hirelings," " Northern cut-throats,"
C" nigger stealers," and the like, as if those words were the fondest terms
of endearment.
" The regimental colors, bright and beautifill, every stripe a bond of
union, every star a star of hope for the future of the republic, were borne
aloft through the throng, and the band heading the column, the regiment
filed away, to the tune of Yankee Doodle, across the levee, past the
deserted warehouses, and up Canal street to the Custom HIounse."  This
was one of those United State3 buildings, upon which the National Government had already expended one or two millions of dollars, and which
President Lincoln informed the traitors he intended to "'hold and possess.)"
The troops spent the night in this their spacious and magnificent paternal home. Gen. Butler established his headquarters at the St. Charles
Hotel, which he forced the proprietors to open for his accommodation.
The different regiments, most of them from Mlaine and Connectinut, were
soon stationed in the public buildings, squares and suburbs, which, but a
few days before, the six thousand city soldiers of Gen. Lovell,'" invincible
in peace) invisible in war," had occupied. Gen. Butler, with a singular
combination of sagacity and energy, immediately commenced the reestablishment of order, and of a firm government, in the distracted city. Miartial law was pro6laimed. New Orleans was, at this time, in a deplorable
condition. Its foreigin trade had long been suspended by the blockade in
the Gulf. The shipping was lying inactive, in the stream. The levee,
once lined with river steamers, that poured an incessant tide of passengers
and merchandise into the city, was now silent and deserted.
Merchants had been left without business, laborers without work, and
thousands of families without bread. They were only kept from starva~
tion by public charity. The blockade of the upper Mississippi had cut off
supplies, and provisions had risen to such enormous prices, that they were




428                 CIVIL  WAR IN  AMERICA.
difficult of attainment, even by those of reputed wealth. Many a proud
family drank of the cup of humiliation.
The workmen in the shipyards on rebel vessels had been well paid, but
in Confederate scrip, which, by the course of the city banks, who stopped
their own circulation, and paid deposits with this scrip, had become the
principal currency.  This money had so depreciated that it was refused in
exchange for merchandise at the stores, and the prevailing distress increased. When the railroads were seized by the National forces, the only
remaining avenues by which supplies for so large a population could be
transported, were closed, and actual want, in a few days, was imminent.
The infatuated mob, which had set fire to the immense quantities of sugar,
tobacco and cotton, stored upon the levee, had destroyed the only means
left for their support; and now, in sullen hatred, but pressed by urgent
need, they were forced to importune of their victors some speedy relief
The administration of the government of such a city, under such circumstances, so as to restrain violence, restore order, and turn intense
hatrecd, fostered by rebellion and defeat, to willing submission and loyalty,
was about as difficult a task as any one ever undertook. It fell to a man
of eminent ability, shrewdness and patriotism, and in all respects admirably adapted for the post. Gen. Butler entered upon his work with a just
appreciation of its nature. A proud people, humiliated by defeat, must
be forced to outward respect and obedience to their conquerors, and reconciled to the Government they had renounced, by the return of that commnercial prosperity to which they had been accustomed.  The commanding
general, a thorough lawyer, and an intrepid soldier, was well prepared for
all the complications which his unavoidable duties, and the efforts of
designing men, would throw about his position.  Of high standing in the
legal profession in New England, his successful practice had made him
perfectly familiar with technicalities and perplexing points of law, quick
in reading character, prompt, bold and unyielding, in dealing with men.
His political career, and identification with the Democratic party, as President of their Baltimore Convention, in 1860, had made him well known
in the South, and freed him from the imputation of radical abolitionism.
When the rebellion broke out, he was among the first of his party to take
a manly position in support of the Government, and to offer his services to
uphold the Constitution and the Union. His successful command of the
troops, in the expedition to Hatteras Inlet, brought him into favor as a
general, who had struck the first decisive blow against the rebellion in the
Eastern States.
The first official act of the iMvilitary Governor in New Orleans was to
issue a proclamation declaring the purposes of the occupation of the city,
and the rules and regulations by which the laws of the United States would
be enforced. All persons in arms against the United States were required
to surrender their arms, equipments and munitions of war.  The European
legion, organized for the protection of life and property in the city, having,
assumed a neutral position, were permitted to retain their organization
and service under Gen. Butler's authority.  The proclamation promised
protection of person and property to all who would renew their oaths of




CAPTURE  OF NEW  ORLEANS.                     429
allegiance to the National Government; while those retaining allegiance
to the Confederate States should be treated as rebels. The inhabitants'were enjoined to pursue their usual avocations. The established municipal
regulations were continued in force. Circulation of Confederate bonds
and scrip, or trade in the same, except for a few days, was forbidden.
Censorship was established over the press, that no articles should be published tending to disturb the public peace. Sufficient force was kept in
the city to preserve order and maintain the laws, and all good citizens
were invited to aid in this. Municipal authority in respect to the police
of the city and its environs was suspended, and all the requirements of
martial law were imposed. While it was desired by the United States
authorities to exercise this government mildly, the announcement was
emphatically made that the Government would be firmly and vigorously
administered as the occasion might require.
This proclamation, sent for publication to all the newspaper offices in
the city, was refilsed by all. A guard, despatched to the True Delta
office, took possession of types and press, and Northern printers, who, like
the engineers and mechanics, for any emergency during this war, were
easily found in the National army, were ordered to set up the document,
which was prominently published in its next edition.
Thus the weight of Gen. Butler's authority was early laid on the press,
where it was eminently proper that it should first be felt. The press of
New Orleans had long, through its marked ability, exerted a powerful
influence throughout the South. The decided stand taken by most of the
city papers in favor of secession, from the very first public agitation of the
question, and their persistent misrepresentations of the National Government, added greatly to the magnitude and continuance of the rebellion.
Two dailies, the Crescent and the Bee, were in a short time suppressed for
obnoxious articles, or as the property of persons in the rebel service. The
Delta also was seized, and its publication afterwards conducted under the
direction of the United States authorities. It cannot be denied that the
New Orleans papers, during the first week of military occupation, influenced the people to abstain from vain resistance to armed forces, and to
pursue such a course as would bring relief to the growing distress. At
the same timne, they declared that their own and the people's acquiescence
" was not with the slightest sacrifice of honest conviction as to the authority
of the United States, against which they protested; and it was not of their
will and consent, but by coercion and subjugation that they submitted."
But while they counseled sLubm-ission, they endeavored to counteract all
the influences that might work on the minds of the people in favor of the
National Government.
By order of Maj.-Gen. Butler, Capt. J. HI. French was appointed, from
his staff, Provost Marshal, and Acting Brig.-Gen. Geo. F. Shepley, lENilitary Commandant, of New Orleans. The administration of this conquered
city, which tried in vain to conceal its " humiliation," was vigorous, sometimes necessarily severe, but on the whole eminently wise and beneficent.
Prompt measures were taken for the relief of the destitute inhabitants. A.
quantity of beef and sugar, captured by the troops, the property of the




430                CIVIL  WAR  IN  AMERICA.
Confederate rebels, was immediately distributed, and with supplies from
other sourcees nearly two thousand families were for several weeks sustained at the free market. We cannot follow the numerous orders and
acts of this successful administration of Gen. Butler. His energy, boldness
and summary dealings with the assuming dignitaries in the city are humorously set forth in an article in the "New  York World " on "Secesh
Taming," from which we cannot forbear to extract the following paragraphs:
"War, like nearly every other sort of human experience, has its comical side. Old Ben Butler's management of New Orleans is " as good as a
play."  While nothing could be more earnest and effective, there is yet a
spice of humor in it, a certain apt felicitousness in turning the tables, that
must make even its victims smile while they wince.
" It will be remembered that it was the NTew Orleanaise who gave the
General his soubreiqet of' Picayune Butler'-that being the well-known
-Lppellative of the colored barber in the basement of the St. Charles. The
fourpence ha'penny epithet of course implied how very cheap they held
the commander at Ship Island. The Yankee General fetched  jp9 at the
St. Charles.'Twas empty and barred.'Where was the landlord? Off.
The house must be opened. Impossible. It shall be forced.'Well, here
are the keys. So the first thing was to show he could keep a hotel. Next
he sends word to the mayor that he must see him  at his parlor. Back
comes word that his honor does business at the city hall. Straight goes a
peremptory message by an orderly, and Mayor Monroe and a whole bevy
of dignitaries make their appearance, hats in hand. The hotel-keeper is
induced to draw it mild, and arranges that the civil government of the
city shall remain in their hands on the condition that all the police and
sanitary duties shall be faithfilly performed. For a little while matters
go on smoothly.  But it soon became apparent that the streets were
neglected, as if on purpose to invite Yellow Jack to come and make short
work of the  "Hessians."  A sharp word goes from the St. Charles to the
city hall to start the hoes, and, at a jump, the hoes were started. But it
went against the grain. The aldermen could not sleep o' nights. Yellow
Jack out of the question, they thought they would try Ia belle Frcance.  So
they passed a resolution tendering the officers of the French frigate Catinet
the freedom and hospitalities of the city. Up comes word fi'om the St.
Charles that this sort of thing don't answer-that I the freedom of a captured city by the captives would merit letters patent for its novelty, were
there not doubts of its usefulness as an invention, and that the tender of
hospitalities by a government to which police duties and sanitary regulations only are intrusted is simply an invitation to the calaboose or the
hospital.' The women bridle up. They are not content with leaving our
quiet soldiers to themselves, but must needs insult and abuse them. The
General determines that this unfeminine practice, so provocative of ill
blood, shall stop. He proclaims that all women guilty of it shall be treated
as disorderly women. Thereupon Mayor MIonroe steps again upon the
scene, and as' chief magistrate of this city, chargeable with its peace and
dignity,' protests against an order'so extraordinary and astonishing.' The




CAPTURE OF NEW ORLEANS.                                 431
immn-ediate reply is that'John T. Monroe, late Mayor of the city of New
O(rleans, is relieved from  all responsibility for the peace of the city, and
committed to Fort Jackson until further orders.'  Straightway the mayor
hurries down to the St. Charles, and makes a written retraction, to wit:'This communication having been sent under a mistake of fact, and being
improper in language, I desire to apologize for the same, and to withdraw
it.'  The retraction is accepted, and the mayor retires; but on the next
day, having been taken to task by his clique, he again presents himself,
with several -backers, to get a modification of the order about the women,
or to take back his apology.  HIe receives a reply that a modification is
impossible, and with it an argument from the good-natured General showing its propriety and necessity.  The mayor bows, convinced, and leaves.
Two days afterwards again he comes down with his friends and insists
upon having back the apology.  The General hands it back, and, at the
same moment, gives an order committing the whole set to Fort Jackson,
and there they now ruminate."
The famous order concerning the "women  of New  Orleans," who
should insult the soldiers, and thus endanger the peace of the city, by provoking a riot, has been strangely and unpardonably misrepresented.  The
officers and soldiers were hourly exposed to indignities, on the part of
many of the secession females, such as human nature could hardly endure.
There was daily increasing danger of an outbreak, which would result in
bloodshed.  Gen. Butler issued an order that women, who in the public
streets insulted his soldiers, should be treated like street-walkers, whose
manners they imitate; that is, that they should be taken to the calaboose
and locked up, with other disorderly persons.  Had he arrested them  as
state criminals and placed a guard over their dwellings, they would have
gloried in their martyrdom.  The only remedy for a vice, so low and vulgar, was to treat the offenders, like the degraded women they resembledthat is, to send them to the house of correction.  It is precisely the punishment which, according to the municipal regulations of the city of London,
framed by the Parliament of Great Britain, is visited upon women who, in
the streets of that metropolis, are guilty of the same ofifense.*
Gen. Butler, in a subsequent letter to a friend, speaking of this order,
says:
"We were two thousand five hundred men in a city seven miles long
by two to four wide, of a hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants, all hostile, bitter, defiant, explosive, standing literally on a magazine; a spark
* In Chapter 47, of British Statutes 2 and 3 Victoria, for improving the police in and near the
metropolis, we read: " Every person who shall use any threatening, abusive or insulting behavior,
with intent to provoke a breach of the peace; every common prostitute or night walker, it shall be
lawful for any corstable, belonging to the Metropolitan Police District, to take into custody without warq'asst."
By Section 39, of the same statute, it is enacted, that every person so arrested, shall be forthwith
delivered into the custody of the constable, in charge of the nearest station-house, and there detained
until brought before a magistrate. Thus, any person, though called a lady, guilty of such abusive
or insulting behavior, was to be locked up in the station-house, or calaboose, the same as the pros.
titute. This was precisely the order which Gen. Butler issued. It was an important part of the
measure that women guilty of such crimes, should receive a degrading punishment.




432               CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
only needed for destruction. The devil had entered the hearts of the
women of this town (you know seven of them chose Mary M[agdalen for a
residence), to stir up strife in every way possible. Every opprobrious epithet, every insulting gesture, was made by these bejewelled, becrinolined,
and laced creatures, calling themselves ladies, toward my soldiers and officers, from the windows of houses and in the streets. HIow long do you
suppose outr flesh and blood could have stood this without retort? That
would lead to disturbances and riot, from which we must clear the streets
with artillery-and then a howl that we had murdered these fine women.
I had arrested the men who had hurrahed for Beauregard. Could I arrest
the women? -No. WThat was to be done? No order could be made save
one, that would execute itself  With anxious, careful thought I hit upon
this:'Women who insult my soldiers are to be regarded and treated as
common women plying their vocation.'
" Pray, how do you treat a common woman plying her vocation in the
streets 2 You pass her by unheeded. She cannot insult you. As a gentlenan, you can and will take no notice of her. If she speaks, her words
are not opprobrious. It is only when she becomes a continuous and positive nuisance that you call a watchman and give her in charge to him.9
This order perfectly accolmplished, even without a single arrest, the
end it was intended to secure. There was an immediate cessation of all
these annoyances; and New Orleans became at once as peaceful and
orderly a city as was anywhere to be found. Persons dwelling in regions
which slavery has not debased, can hardly imagine the malice and ferocity
manifested by the rebel vixens of iNew Orleans.
" The order of Gen. Butler," says the Albany Journal, "in relation to
the women who insult the Union soldiers, has been sharply criticised. A
gentleman just returned fiom that city, where he has resided ever since
the war broke out, says we can have no conception of the indignities our
brave fellows are compelled to suffer at the hands of these fiends in petticoats. All sense of shame and decency appears to have departed out of
them. They rival the most degraded street-walkers, not only in ribaldry,
but in obscenity. Women who have been regarded as the pattern of refinement and good breeding, indulge in language towards our officers and
men which no decent journalist would dare to put into print. Presuming
upon the privileges of the sex, they not only assail them with the tongue,
but with -more material weapons. Buckets of slops are emptied upon them
as they pass; decayed oranges and rotten eggs are hurled at them; and
every insult a depraved fancy can invent, is offered to the hated Federals.
-" The forbearance of our troops," this gentleman says, is wonderful.
"They endure the jibes and persecutions of these unsexed wretches with a
philosophy that nothing can overthrow. But the nuisance was fast becolming intolerable. The offenders were presuming upon the chivalry of troops
to commit physical assaults. Something like the order of Gen. Buatler
became imperative. If women, pretending to be decent, imitated the coznduct of'women of the town,2 it was proper that something like the same
punishment should be meted out to them."
Upon this point the testimony from all parts of the South is invariable




CAPTURE  OF NEW  ORLEANS.                      433
in its revolting utterance. The Louisville Journal, Kentucky, which. will
not be suspected of exaggeration, speaking upon this point, says: " Thousands have read with astonishment the account which historians give of
the conduct of women in Paris during the Reign of Terror.  The women
are said to have been fiercer and more bloodthirsty than even the fiercest
and most bloodthirsty of the mlen. The she devils had more of the spirit
of hell than the he devils. They were loudest in their clamuors for blood,
blood, blood. Many of our people have supposed that the accounts given
of these things mnust surely be fictions or exaggerations. They have felt
themselves unable to conceive that woman's nature could become a thing
so utterly revolting. But if they will look and listen in this region, at the
present time, they will find that they have no further reason for incredulity
or skepticism. The bitter and ferocious spirit of thousands of rebel women
in 1Kentucky, Tennessee and other States, is scarcely, if at all, surpassed
by the female monsters that shrieked and howled for victims in the French
Revolution."
The Philadelphia Press contains a statement which it publishes upon
authority thoroughly reliable. A wounded Union soldier, faint and bleeding, fell out from the ranks retreating througnh Winchester, Virginia, and
sank down upon the steps of one of the houses. I-Ie had not been sitting
there long when a woman canme but and asked him if he were not able to
walk. Hle replied that he was not. Seeing a revolver in his belt, she
asked himn to let her look at it. Suspecting nothing, he handed it to her.
She deliberately presented it to his head, and ordered him immediately to
leave the steps. I-Ie did so; and had hobbled along a distance of but a
few feet, when she fired the pistol, piercing his side with the bullet. He
fell on the street and instantly expired. The woman threw down the
revolver and coolly walked back into the house. Moral philosophy will
ponder these phenomena. They are astounding, inexplicable. The fiendlilie spirit manifested by the female rebels is one of the most appalling
developments of this great pro-slavery rebellion. There is but one common testimony upon this point, from officers, soldiers, surgeons and chaplains. Never has there been a nmore impressive illustration of the sentiment
that'" there is no wickedness like the wickedness of a woman."  One of
the Union soldiers, who had been imprisoned at the South, and who had
suffered everything from the insults and the venom of these fem ale rebels,
said, in the bitterness of his soul, that ever since this experience, he felt
that he had especial cause of gratitude to God that " the Devil was not a
woi nn.'"
By a proclamation of President Lincoln the blockade of several of the
United States ports now reclaimed by the National troops, was raised on
June 1st, and after twelve months' exclusion from the outer world, the
port of New Orleans was again opened to commerce. Already had a
glorious change been wrought in the condition of the city during its occupation by our troops. "The Union soldiers were met," said the New
Orleans Delta of June 1st, "as the citizens of Rome might have met the
Huns. One short month has elapsed. The streets are filled with smiling
faces, business attracts with open doors, thuns have left, property is secure,
28




434                 CIVIL  WAR  IN  A~MERICA.
and Abrahlamn Lincoln, by the grace of God and the electoral vote of the
people, President of the United States of America, might walk unarmed
and unaccompanied, at any time, through these streets in full security, and
to the joy and delight of numbers who have heretofore been accustomed to
link his name with curses and execrations."  Slowly and gradually, at
first, this change appeared.  The terror of a twelvemonth could not be cast
off in a day. But as one by one the citizens gathered courage to come
forward and speak out their sentiments, the stream gathered strength and
fullness, till, within the period of four weeks, the numbers who wish to
bring themselves within the segis of the National flag, became quite equal
to the ability of the authorities to receive their declarations of allegiance.
The first instance of the infliction of the death penalty for treason in
insulting the American flag, occurred in the hanging  of WTm. ~Mumford,
the leader of a mob which had torn down the flag on thle minit, shortly
after the surrender of the city. Six soldiers were also shot for breaking
their parole, given at Fort Jackson, by fborming themselves into a comnpany
for the rebel army. Bands of desperadoes, which had long infested the
city, were broken up; murderers and rowdies, the terror of good citizens,
during years of misrule, were arrested, and villains of every description
made to feel that law and order could no longer be despised. These vigorous acts, united with a conciliatory course towards the repentant, and
accompanied by a considerable restoration of trade, had a happy efibet in
strengthening the Union among a majority of the population.
The glorious dawn of reconstruction had begun, where the night of
secession had long hung heavy and hopeless.
The occupation of New  Orleans by  /IMaj.-Gen. Butler released the
greater part of the naval force from further duty there. Accordingly, on
May 2, by orders of Commodore Farragut, part of his squadron began to
ascend the Mississippi. lie followed in a few days, leaving the Pensacola
and one or two gun-boats opposite New Orleans to support the army, in
case of an insurrection or an attack by rebel troops.
The ilmposing fleet, sailing along the strearm fringed with rich plantations of sugar and cotton, was met with varied manifestations of curiosity,
pleasure and fear, by the people who were gathered on the levees, or elustered in their verandahs to watch the brilliant pageant as it passed. There
were few expressions of hostility.  Secession flags were seldom seen. The
ladies often saluted the fleet with the waving of  handkerchlief, and, in some
instances, the Stars and Stripes, which had been carefully secreted, were
displayed. No resistance was offered below Baton Rouge; but the cotton
floatinlg on the river and burning on the banks, showed the insane determuination of many marauding bands to compel the planters to destroy their
property, and thus to bring distress and ruin upon themselves and their
families. Baton Rouge, the capital of Louisiana, one hundred and twenty
miles above New Orleans, surrendered to the fleet and was garrisoned by
several hundred Federal soldiers. The squadron then proceeded on its
way to Vicksburg, meeting nowhere any serious resistance.  The rumored
strongholds and batteries that lined the ]Mississippi, between ]New Orleans
and Vicksburg, "which the navies of the world could not reduce and




CAPTURE  OF NEW  ORLEANS.                       435
armies might assault in vain," were found to be mostly of fabulous existence-or, in the face of our advancing ships, were suddenly dismantled by
their rebel garrisons and deserted.
At length the squadron reached Vicksburg, four hundred miles fi'omn
the mouth of the Mississippi. This city was strongly defended by heavy
batteries and a large rebel fbrce under IMaj.-Gen. Yan. Dorn.  The enemy,
in his almost impregnable position, tauntingly refused to surrender.  To
reduce the fortifications, most of the mortar fleet, which had returned from
a reconnoisance in Mobile ]Bay, were ordered up from New Orleans. But
the rebels, with their extensive batteries upon bluffs, which could with
difficulty be reached from the bed of the river, successfully withstood the
shells and the fire of the squadron, though a large part of the city was
burnt during the bombardment. It became manifest that a stronger force
would be required to sweep these formidable intrenchmlents from the cliff
The upper flotilla, now under Commodore C. HI. Davis (Commodore Foote,
after most heroic achievements, having retired for a season severely
wounded), was slowly fighting its way down the river. The "wild and
wondrous" adventures of this Western flotilla, until the two squadrons
met beneath the cliffs of Vicksbfirg, and the varying fortunes of the protracted siege of that place, must be left for some future chapter.




CHAPTER XIX.
BATTLES IN MISSOURI AND THE CAPTURE OF FORT HENRY.
STATE OF AFFAIRS'IN MISSOURI.-BATTLE OF BELMONT.-PHILOSOPHY OF DISASTER.-INCIDENTS
ON THE FIELD.-NEW VIGOR OF THE REBELS.-BATTLE OF MILLFORD.-MiT. ZION. —BATTLE
OF SILVER CREEIK.-ENERGY OF GEN. HALLECK.-THE FORTIFICATIONS AT COLUMBUS.-GEN.
FREMONT'S PLAN. —FORTS HENRY AND DONIELSON.-SIKETCH OF ADMIRAL FOOTE.-TIIE EXPEDITION TO FORT HENRY.-CAPTURE OF THE FORT.-RESULTS OF TIHE BATTLE.-EXPEDITION
INTO ALABAMA.
~WE must now turn our attention from  the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, a
thousand miles into the interior, where the war was raging on the prairies
and over the waters of the far West.  On the 7th of November, 1861, the
very day when the cannon of the National fleet were so gallantly dellolishing the rebel fortresses at Port lRoyal, the thunders of another conflict
were reverberating over the waves of the majestic iVfississippi, more than a
thousand miles above New  Orleans, and more than a thousand miles
below the Falls of St. Anthony.  On the 2d day of November, \MajorGeneral Fremont was superseded in command of the army of the West.
Five days from that time, on the 7th, the battle of Belmont was fought, a
battle equally remrarkable for the heroism of the soldiers, officers and men,
and for the inexplicable strategic and tactical movements, by which our
troops were led into a trap fromn which the most desperate courage alone
extricated them.
The National troops were in very considerable force at Cairo, a low
and marshy point of land formed by the confluence of the Mississippi and
the Ohio Rivers.  The rebels were in great force, and so thoroughly
intrenched as to deem themselves impregnable, about fifteen miles below,
upon the bluflf of Columbus, on the eastern or Kentucky side of the Mississippi. Upon the opposite, or western bank of the river, in Missouri, there
was the insignificant little village of Bellnont.  The Missouri; shore is here
low, marshy and covered with woods; while the Kentucky shore rises
into a bluff from  one hundred to one hundred and seventy-five feet in
height.  Here, behind the solid ramparts at Columbus, Gen. Polk had his
headquarters, surrounded by 20,000 soldiers.  Gen. U. S. Grant was then
in commnand of the National forces at Cairo. A force of Union troops had
already been dispatched, under Col. Oglesby, to attack Jeff. Thompson,
encamped on St. Francis River, and to prevent him from forming a junction with Price. Information was received by Gen. Grant, that the rebels




BATTLES IN  MISSOURI.                       437
at Columbus had been sending a large force across the river to Belmont,
with the intention of cutting off Col. Oglesby, by superior numbers, and
then, having formed a junction with Jeff. Thompson, to march in their
united strength to assail Gen. Fremont, who was then on the eve of a battle with Price.
Gen. Frenont, when he left St. Louis on his campaign to attack Price,
had sent orders to Cairo, that the rebels at Columbus should be narrowly
watched, and, on no account, be permitted to reenforce Price. Though
Gen. Fremont was now superseded, his army, under Gen. Hunter, was
still in south-western Missouri, and it remained equally important that
Price and Thompson should not form a junction. To prevent this,'Gen.
Grant resolved to break up the rebel encampment at Belmont, and thus
threaten Columbus. At the same time an expedition was to menace
Columbus upon the east, marching from Padueah, which was about twenty
miles east of Columbus, situated on the Kentucky banks of the Ohio, at
its confluence with the Tennessee River. Generals Grant and MIeClernand
took charge of the expedition from Cairo.
On the evening of November 6, Gen. Smith marched from Paducah,
with a small Union force, being directed to threaten Columbus, but not to
approach nearer than within twelve or fifteen miles of its ramparts. A
small force was also sent from Cairo, across the river to the IKentucky
shore to act in cooperation with the troops from Paducah. The object of
these varied movements was to distract the attention of the enemy, to lead
him to suppose that Columbus was to be vigorously assailed, and to prevent him from sending any reenforcements to the rebels in B'issouri. On
the same evening a force of three thousand men embarked at Cairo, in
four' transports and two gun-boats, to sail down the river about twelve
miles, and then landing, three miles above Belmont, to march lupon the
foe and attack them by surprise.. All this was to be done under the veil
of night. Tihe night, however, proved so intensely dark, with clouds and
fog, that the little fleet could not grope its way along. It was eight o'clock
in the morning when the troops reached the point of their debarkation,
three miles above Columbus, and out of the range of the guns of their batteries. The debarkation effected, the two gun-boats dropped down the
river a couple of miles, and engaged the rebel batteries on the Columbus
side. The Union troops advanced as rapidly as possible along the Missouri shore, fighting their way, to attack the rebel camp at Belmont. The
camp was situated on a slight emience, which rose a little back of the
river, from the low lands which fringed its banks. The rebels, from their
hill-top, had witnessed the debarkation of the troops, and thus were not
only prepared to receive them, but a reinforcement of four regiments was
immediately sent across to their aid from Columbus.
A lmarclh of a mile and a half brought the National troops within range
of the enemy's guns. The rebel camp was not protected by any earthworks of much moment, but in lien thereof, some twenty acres of timber
had been felled immediately in front of their camp. Conceaded behind
this very formidable abatis, through and over which it was almost impossible for our troops to force their way, the rebels fought with desperation,




438                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA
hurling a storln of bullets into the bosoms of the patriots who were struggling throu]gh the entangling branches. At the same time a battery,
planted advantageously upon the eminence, threw round shot and shell,
thick and fast, into their ranks. To add to their embarrassment and peril,
the deep boom of the heaviest ordnance was ever and anon heard on the
Colunmbus shore, and enormous bombs, terrible in their destructiveness,
came shrieking into their midst, dealing death and destruction far and
wide around.
All were exposed alike to the perils of the battle. Gen. Grant's horse
was shot under him. Gen. McQClernand was struck by a bullet, which
flattened against the pistol in his holster, and glanced harmless away.
Firmly, heroically the patriots forced their march along, from stump to
stump, almost inch by inch, triumphing over every obstacle, and paying
no heed to the storm of war beating against their bosoms, and covering
the ground with their dead. At length, after a desperate struggle of two
hours) they succeeded in crossing the abatis, and the clear space around
the camp was gained. The command was then given for a charge, and it
was made with resistless impetuosity by the right, the left and the centre.
The scene, at this moment, was sublime and terrible. There were seven
or eight thousand men in the camp. Three thousand were, in a semicircle, rushing upon theim with a battle-cry which rose above the roar of
artillery and the incessant volleys of musketry. Soon all these thousands
were mingled in inextricable conftusion, grappling hand to hand in the
death-struggle. Such a conflict could not last long. There rose suddenly
a shout, louder, longer, more continuous than had been heard before, and
which swept for miles above the thunder of war's tempest. No one could
mistake it. It was not the frenzied cry of onset, but the exultant peal of
victory. The rebel flag was in the dust, and the Stars and Stripes waved
proudly, announcing that the field was redeemed from the degradation of
rebellion. The 27th Illinois and the 7th Iowa were the first who gained the
camping-ground of the enemy; but they were almost instantly followed
by their equally eager comrades.
The position thus gained was completely commanded by the batteries
at Columbus. It was not, therefore, possible to hold the place, neither had
there been any intention to do so. Gen. Grant had not been able to bring
with him any baggage-wagons, and, consequently, could not remove the
camp equipage which he had captured. - It was manifest that the massive
guns at Columbus would immediately open fire upon the National troops,
as soon as it should be seen that they were in possession of the camp.
Orders were therefore given for its immediate destruction. As the rebel
troops were retreating in great disorder, the torch was applied, and the
flames, leaping from tent to tent, soon wrapped the whole eminence in a
sheet of fire. This lurid beacon brought the guns of Columbus to bear;
but fortunately their range was a little too high, and shot and shell flew
just over the eminence, to bury themselves harmlessly in the forest
beyond.
Thus far, the expedition had been a complete success. The rebel
camp, with nearly all its contents, had been destroyed. The rebel force,




BATTLES  IN  MISSOURI.                        439
defeated and demoralized, had been put to rout with great loss.  V While
the National troops were exulting over their victory, an&d were seizing
some pieces of artillery, and such other articles as could be rescued from
tile burnllig camp, the startling intelligence was brought, by a scouting
party, that tile rebels had landed in large numnbers from  Columbus, between the camp and the transports; that the routed troops had rallied
under thlleir protection, and that thus the retreat of the victors was cut off,
by superior numbers. There was now nothing to do, but ignominiously
to surrender, or to cut their way through the hostile ranks. But it does
not appear that the idea of surrender entered a single mind.  The heroic
little band first regaled the rebels at Columbus with the music of the Star
Spangled Danner, which, in response to their traitorous guns, was borne
across thle river to their ears, and then, after raising three hearty cheers
for the Union, the command was given to retire to their boats.  Though
seven regilments had crossed from Columbus, and were strongly posted' in
the woods, through which the troops must of necessity pass, to regain their
transports, thle victors exhausted as they were, commenced the march with
the utmost confidence and alacrity.  The whole force through which three
thousand NIational troops were to cut their way, consisted of thirteen regi-'
ments of' infantry, and two squadrons of cavalry.  Gen. Pillow himself
had crossed over to take the command.  It was the middle of the afternoon.  Thell patriots were exhausted by incessant marching and fighting,
frLom  about nine o'clock in the morning until that hour.  Mlost of the
rebels were fiesh in the field. But it is indeed true that "thrice  is lie
armed whllo hath his quarrel just."  The Union troops advanced, and over
their heads floated tile honored banner of National integrity, liberty,
humranity.  The rebels marched beneath tile flag of treason, bearing the
hatefufl Nwords, " Secession and Slavery."'
The necessity of again meeting the foe, instead of discouraging, seemed
to anihnate the patriots.  They were quickly formed into line of battle,
and wit;ll resolute tread, again advanced to breast the rebel bullets.  A
deadly fire was opened upon them by enemies in ambush, shooting like
Indians froln behind the trees.  The patriots had four six-pounder field
guns, and two twelve-pounder howitzers. A very active and effective fire
was opened by the artillery upon the foe, which tllrew them  into great
disorder.  There was then a shout and a rush, and the whole line advanced, plunging into the woods, and encountering a heavy fire on their
right and left, as well as on their front.  The leaden hail fell upon them
so mercilessly, as to occasion momentary disorder; but it was only umomentary.
Tllree times during the march, according to the rebel account, the
patriots were charged by the rebels, with Gen. Pillow in person at their
head.*  Each time they were repulsed, as the on-moving steamer repels
the surge. Witn resistless steps, the National troops pressed on, driving
all opposition before them, until, just before sundown, they reached their
transports. As soon as they approached the river's banks, the gun-boats
* Memphis Appeal, Nov. 12.




440                 CIVIL WAR  IN  AMERICA.
opened fire upon the foe. Their terrible missiles, thrown with great rapidity and accurate aim, produced fearful havoc in the rebel ranks. Under
the protection of this fire, the embarkation was safely effected. One regiment, however, the 27th Illinois, in the tumult of the battle, had got lost.
It was nowhere to be seen, and no sound could be heard indicating its
position. It was unsafe to wait for the possible arrival of this regiment,
as the rebels were eager in the pursuit, assailing the patriots firom behind
every rock or tree, where they could make a stand, and from every emninence where their artillery could be planted.  The sad probability was,
that in the retreat, the regiment had been cut off, and that tihey all were
captives.  The boats now cominenced the ascent of the river, against the
strong current.  For half an hour the rebels, by thousands, ran along the
bank, watching for an opportunity to get a shot, with artillery or musketry, at the boats, while the gun-boats directed upon therm a very destruetive fire of shells, and the sharpshooters in the transports threw their bullet:s with unerring aim.
For a tfew miles, this running fire was continued, and then the speed
of the boats, and approaching darkness, compelled the rebels to relinquish
the pursuit.  Slowly and sadly the fleet made its way up the river, all the
exultation of victory being lost in the reflection, that a whole regiment of
their comrades were left as prisoners in the hands of an implacable foe.
It added to the bitterness of their grief, that this regiment, under the command of its gallant leader, Col. Buford, had proved itself one of the most
heroic in the battle. When they had ascended the river about five miles,
thie fleet was signaled from the Missouri shore. There was the lost regimient, safe and sound. What a greeting! The shout whielh burst from
their lips was swept down the stream, and echoed over the despondent
ramparts of Columbus.  The regiment had got early separated from its
companions in the intricacies of the forest, and enveloped in the smoke of
the battle, and by a circuitous route, had reached the river's banks.
Warned of the position of the rebels by their incessant fire, they had successfully evaded them. And now, all received on board, they ascended
the river, triumphant and rejoicing. The rebels confessed to a loss of six
hundred killed, wounded and missing. The National troops also took
from them. twenty horses, one mule, one six-pounder brass gun, and one
twelve-poundcer brass'howitzer.  The Union loss also was heavy, amounting in all to 607.
Thus ended the battle of Belmont. Both parties claimed it as a victory, but perhaps neither justly.  The men on both sides fought with
extraordinary bravery, considering that most of them had never seen a
battle before. The object of the expedition was indeed successfully accolmplished. The rebel camp at Belmont was broken up. The camp equipage
was all taken and destroyed. If it had been the intention of the rebels to
send a reinforcement to the West, that plan was d.`eated. But this was
accomplished at a serious loss. The capture of the entire Federal force
was put at imminent hazard. Nothing but the determined valor of the
troops, who, after a protracted and desperate battle, crowned with victory,
only made good their retreat by a still more desperate conflict, cutting




BATTLES IN MISSOURI.                                    441
their way through a foe three or four times their number,-prevented  so
serious a disaster. It is difficult to imagine why the rebels were permitted
to cross the broad and rapid M1ississippi, in force, without opposition, our
gun-boats being present. As no attempt at explanation has been made, it
F. I E LLDAF I E   L   D
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PLAN OF THE BATTLE 0OF BELMOlNT.
A, A, Col. Buford's regiment. B, B, Col. Fouike's regiment. C, C, 7th Iowa regiment. D, D, Col. Logan's
regimen. E, 2d Illinois regiment. 
is equally difficult to cnevhw te e              could have obtained, unmolested
and unnoticed, a position between, the National troops and their transports.
It would seem that there must have been some very criminal want of vigilance. Or if, in truth, this movement of the foe could not have been pre/           \~L/~fr 7> \ 
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ais equall difcl  ocnev    o   h   o   ol aeotieumlse
an  unoicd  apoito  btwenth    atonl rop  a4  hertrnsors
It would seem  that there must have  een some very criminal want of vigi
lance.  Or if, in tiruhthsmvmnoftefecudotaebenp



442                CIVIL WAR  IN  AMERICA.
vented, it is incomprehensible why a-n expedition should have been planned
of but three thousand men, exposed to such perils, in the face of an enemy
thoroughly armed, well intrenched, and twenty thousand strong.
HIistory often seems to repeat itself. In the course of this conflict, the
thoughtful observer has not unfrequently been reminded of the striking
remnark of Macaulay, in reference to the conduct of the civil war in
England, of 1642.  "It is a remarkable circumstance," he says, " that the
officers lwho had studied tactics in what were considered the best schools,
under Vere in the Netherlands, and under Gustavus Adolphus in Germany, displayed falr less skill than those commanders who had been bred
to peaceful emiployments, and iwMho never saw even a skirmish until the
civil war broke out. An unlearned person might hence be inclined to
suspect that the military art is no very profound mystery; that its principles are the principles of plain good sense, and that a quick eye, a cool
head, and a stout leart, will do more to make a general, than all the diagrams of Jonlini.  This, however, is certain, that Hampden showed himself a far better officer than Essex, and Cromwell than Leslie."'
Another remark which MIacaulay mlakes, in tile same connection, many
will deem not inappropriate to our own times. It is the only explanation
satisfactory to thinking men, for those long periods of inaction to which
our eager, chafing troops were constrained.' The military errors of
Essex,"' says Atacaulay, "  ere probably, in some degree, produced by
political timidity. I-le was honestly, but not warmtly, attached to the
cause of the Parliament; and next to a great defeat, he dreaded a great
victory. Ilampden, on tle other hand, was for vigorous and decisive
measures. I-Ie had shown that he knew, better than any other public man
of Iris time, how to value and how to practice moderation. But he knew
that the essence of war is violence, and that moderation in war is imbecility."
The next morning a flag of truce was sent to Belmont, for permission
to succor the wounded and to bury thle dead.  The battle had swayed over
a region of many miles, through marshes and forests. As the detachment,
in search of the dead and wounded, were straggling along, they heard, in
the distance, the voice of some one singing the Star Spangled Banner. It
was certainly a friend, and they hastened to the spot. Tlere they found,
lying at the foot of a tree, one of their comrades, whose legs had both been
dreadfully lacerated by a cannon ball.  His heroic spirit and his patriotic
song saved his life. It was the song which alone revealed him. But for
this, lle-would have been passed by, and must soon have perished in the
solitudes of the forest.
Another incident occurred, illustrative of the character of this unnatural rebellion. Capt. Brooks, of the 27th Illinois, while searching for the
wounded, stumbled over the dead body of a rebel. iThe accident induced
him to look at the corpse, as otherwise lie would not have done. It was
the body of a rebel surgeon. A glance at the features, unmutilated, undistorted, showed him that it was his own brother. Capt. Brooks had previously known that his brother was somewhere in the rebel army, but he
was not aware that he was in this engagement, or in this vicinity. Ile




BATTLES IN  MISSOURI.                        443
buried him writh a brother's tender care, and sadly placed at his head a
slab, weeping that lie could not inscribe upon it, that he died nobly contending for liberty, humanity, and his country's flag.
Col. Wrigllt, of Tennessee, and Col. Fouke, of Illinois, had been associate members of Congress, and intimate friends.  The war separated
them, the one becoming a rebel, the other remaining a patriot.  As they
took leave of each other at Washington, Col. Fouke had but little idea
that the slaveholders would proceed to such extremities, as to plunge our
happy nation into the horrors of civil war. Half playfully, as lie shook
hands with his friiend in parting, he said, " Col. Wright, I expect the next
time we meet vwill be on the battle-field, anld I want to ask one t:avor of
you; if. you get me or any of my men, I want you to use us well. If I
get you or any of your men, I will do the same."  They met on the bloody
feld of BDelmont.  The first rebel prisoners taken, sixty in all, were taken
by Col. Fouke, from the regiment of Col. Wright. It is said.also that Col.
Wright was mortally wounded.-"
The reader will remember that, at the time of Gen. Fremont's removal,
Gen. 1-unter was appointed in his place. This arrangement was temporary only.  II. WYT. Ilalleck, of whom we have previously spoken, had been
summoned fi'om  California, and reached WTasllington a short time after
Gen. Fremont's arrival at that place. Ile was commissioned major-general, and on the 5th of November, was appointed to the comlmand of the
Western Department, the boundaries of which1 were somewhat inmodified,
so as to include parts of KIentucky and Tennessee.  The more remote
WVest, including  Kansas, was placed under the command of ] Major-Genereal
Rtunter.  Gen. ialleck's responsibilities were mainly the same as those
which had been assigned to Gen. Fremont. I-e was expected to preserve
order in MAissouri, to exclude the rebel armies firom the invasion of that
State, and to make arrangements for the descent of the Mlississippi by a
strong military expedition.  The,wonderful energy and foresight of his
predecessor, in this department, had placed in his hands many of the
instrumentalities for tile accomplishment of these purposes.  H1e found
an army already organized, equipped and supplied.  The gun-boats, which
proved of such effectual service afterwards, were nearly completed. The
plan of a campaign had already been marked out by Gen. IFremont, so
manifestly wise, that Gen. HIalleck adopted it with but very slight alterations.
It will be remembered that Gen. Hunter, upon assuming the command
of Gen. Fremont's army, immediately retreated or withdrew the troops
from  Springfield to St. Louis.  South-western BMissouri, by this unfortunate movement, was thus once again abandoned to the rebels. Gen.
Price, emboldened by the absence of any foe, swept over the region, with
his hungry and devastating hordes, inflicting all manner of outrages upon
the loyal inhabitants. He advanced, unresisted, as far as the south bank
of the Osage, where he encamped.  He had recently received the appointment, fiom the rebel Government, of major-general in their army, and was
* Rebellion Record, vol. iii., p. 292.




444                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
waiting for the confirmation of the appointment, before engaging in active
movements. As these rebel hordes, composed of the most desperate vagabonds to be found on the frontiers of civilization, ravaged the rural districts they traversed; thle patriots, in dismay, with their wives and children,
abandoning home and property, fled before them. These reihgees, in a
state of dreadful suffering, many of them utterly destitute, and almost
famishing, crowded the streets of St. Louis.
The storms of winter now began to sweep those bleak Western prairies.
Gen. Sigel went into winter quarters at Rolla.  Gen. Pope was assigned
to the command of central Mlissouri. Gen. Prentiss took charge of that
part of the State which lies north of the MIissouri River. Guerrilla warfare, of the most desolating character, immediately sprung up in various
sections; rebel encampments were formed, and rebel recruiting was again
boldly commenced. A combination of guerrillas, with the unscrupulous
violence of highwaymen, took possession of the Missouri Railroad, burning
the bridges, tearing up the rails, and demolishing engines and cars. Petty
skirmishles, yet fierce and bloody, were incessantly taking place between
small detachments of the National troops, and these robber plunderers and
destroyers. These conflicts seldom rose to the dignity of a battle. A few
of them attracted for a moment National attention. The conflicts at Millford, IMount Zion, and Silver Creek, are perhaps deserving of a passing
notice.
About the middle of December, Gen. Pope, then at Sedalia, learned
that the rebels had assembled in considerable force, represented to be from
four to six thousand, at M[illford, an insignificant hamlet, a little north of
Warrensburg. They were preparing for a march to the Osage, to ree6nforce Gen. Price. On the 15th, Gen. Pope accompanied a detachment of
four thousand men, under the subordinate command of Col. J. C. Davis
and ]MPajor Marshall, to cut them oft: A toilsome march of fifty miles,
through prairie mud and freezing storms, brought the patriots to the
encampment of the rebels. I-Iere they found a broad and impassable
stream flowing between them and the foe they wished to reach. The
patriot force consisted of infantry, artillery and cavalry. A single narrow
bridge spanned the stream. On the march, they had encountered many
detached scouting parties of the rebels, and had dispersed them, taking
many prisoners, and much of the plunder which the rebels had wrested
from  loyal citizens. The rebels, forewarned, had made very effective
preparations to defend the passage of the bridge. But if the patriots
could not cross to the rebel encampment, neither could the rebels escape
in that direction, now that the National troops were at the other end of
the bridge. Col. J. C. Davis, of the Indiana volunteers, with selected
troops, took a detour to turn the enemy's right and rear, and thus to inter
cept his retreat to the north-east. The engagement which ensued was
short and decisive. Lient. Gordon led a gallant charge across the bridge,
and drove the rebels precipitately from their well chosen position. A
white flag was now waved by the rebels, and one of their numuber, coming
forward, inquired of Col. Davis if thirty minutes could be allowed them
fobr consuitation. "' The night is closinlg in," Col. Davis replied, "' and that




BATTLES IN  MISSOURI.                      445
is too long." The young rebel, Col. Alexander, then inquired, f" Can I be
allowed to go to headquarters, and bring back the answer of Col. Robinson, the commander of the corps."  Permission being granted, he returned
in five minutes, saying, " We are obliged to surrender as prisoners of war."
This was a mere flurry of battle, lasting but forty minutes. Still, as much
bravery was developed as upon any field of blood. The rebels were so
protected that they lost but one man in killed. On the [National side, but
one was killed and eight wounded.
The enterprise proved eminently successful, having been wisely planned
and well executed. In the coldest winter weather, regardless of mud, this
little army imarched, in a campaign of six days, over a hundred miles.
They took sixteen hundred prisoners, a thousand horses, sevent;T wagons, a
thousand muskets, a large amount of powder, lead, and subsistence stores.
All along their route, they heard harrowing accounts of the ferocity of the
rebels. One who accompanied the expedition writes, " This slavery insurrection has completely turned the heads, as well as the hearts, of the traitors in M/isso-uri. Neither the ties of religion, humanity, patriotism, nor
neighborhood, have kept their wonted hold.  This lunacy has taken
a very strange and a very cruel shape.  The Union men are being
hunted out by these lawless dare-devils, like wild beasts or noxious reptiles." As the troops were returning, one of the imost keen of December's blasts was sweeping over the prairies. MAany of the cavalry suffered
from frozen feet and ears. They reentered Sedalia through a driving
snow-storIm.
The battle of Mlt. Zion, in North Missouri, was more hotly contested,
though the number of troops engaged was much less. This was, indeed,
one of the sharpest battles of the war. It was ascertained that the rebels,
about seven hundred strong, had established a camp, where they were
gathering recruits, at Mlt. Zion Church, in Boone County. With three
hundred cavalry and one hundred and fifty of Col. 13irge's sharp-shooters,
Gen. Prentiss made a move to disperse them. At two o'clock in the morning of the 28th, these troops having rendezvoused at Sturgeon, commenced
their march of eighteen miles to attack the foe. The main conflict took
place in a forest, where for two hours the battle raged with implacable
fury. At length the rebels broke and fled, leaving behind themi one hundred and twenty-five killed and woundled. The Union men pursued them
for a mile beyond the church, and then gave up the chase. The rebels fled
in all directions in wild dispersion, having lost, besides their dead and
wounded, twenty-seven prisoners, one hundred and five guns, with a large
number of horses, blankets, powder-hborns and s7ot-bcgs. The National
troops returned to Sturgeon that same night, where they arrived at nine
o'elock, having lost but six killed and fifteen wounded.
The battle of Silver Creek was fought on the 8thll of January, 1862.
Scouts had brought in the intelligence to the camp of Major Torrence,
near Fayette, that one Col. Poindexter was recruiting a rebel band, at an
encampment near the head-quarters of Silver Creek; that he had already
eight hundred men enlisted, and that adventurers, from all directions, were
daily crowding to his quarters. They were a desperate gang of undisci



446                 CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
plined and poorly armed men. Early in the morning of the 8th, Major
Torrence took a cavalry force of five hundred men and started for Silver
Creek. When within four miles of the camp, lie halted and made disposition of his troops for the battle.  The plan was well devised, combining
prudence with the most decisive energy. Deadly volleys of musketry
were to be f'ollowed on all sides with a desperate charge.  Veterans might
perhaps have repelled such a charge. Raw troops, degraded by robbery
and rebellion, and fighting against their country's flag, could not do it.
For a fbew moments the rebels, protected, in a strong position, by ravines,
and forest trees, and dense underbrush, fought with considerable bravery,
but as the patriots, with volleys of musketry and loud cheers came rushing
on, they were thrown into utter confusion and fled.  So great was the
eagerness of the  Nationals to be the first in the rebel camp, that three companies claimed that lonor.  The rout of the foe was complete.  The torch
was applied, and in an hour, tents, wagons, and all the equipage of the
camp and the garrison were smiouldering ruins.  The Union loss was but
twenty-five in killed and wounded. The rebel loss was estimated fromn
eighty to a hundred.
While thus, under the efficient action of Generals Prentiss and Pope,
Missouri was being scoured and, as far as possible, cleared of rebels, Gen.
Halleck, with equal energy, was curbing the spirit of rebellion in St. Louis.
3y the salutary stringency of his measures, le succeeded in making treason
very uncomfortable in that city. I-e assessed, for the benefit of the starving fugitives of south-western Missouri, the property of well-known Secessionists, and resolutely sold the property of such as refused to pay the
assessment. A  civil suit having been commenced, in one instance, to
replevy the property seized for sale, he arrested both thle party and his
attorney, and expelled the former fron the lines of the department.  I-e
issued an order that any attempt, by the civil authorities, to interfere with
the execution of martial law, would be punished as a military offense. Ile
directed that all carriages bearing the secession flag, should be seized and
confiscated; that all persons displaying such flag should be arrested, and
that all women insulting Union soldiers, or detected in carrying on correspondence with prisonerls of war, should be imprisoned.
A violent party election having taken place in the Bfercantile Library
Association, and in the Chamber of Commerce, in lwhich the Secessionists
were triumphant, lie required the officers, thus elected, of bothl of those
bodies, to take the oath of allegiance. And later, all officers of the University of 2Missouri, all presidents and directors of railroad companies;- all
contractors and all civil employees in the United States service, were
required also to take such oath; and' all clergynmen, teachers, professors,
and officers of private institutions for education or benevolence were earnestly recommended to do the same.  lie made marauding and bridgeburning dangerous. IHundreds of lawless men had availed themselves of
the disordered condition of affairs, to engage in deeds of rapine and violence.  Organized into plundering parties, udcer the flag of the rebels,
they scoured the country, destroying bridges, despoiling farms, burning
barns and houses, and often adding murder to robbery and arsoil. When




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M6ISSOURI CABvPAIGNS.




448               CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
captured they claimed to belong to the rebel, or as they called it, the Confederate army, and demanded to be treated, not like robbers and murderers as they were, but as prisoners of war.
General Halleck refused to recognize this claim. While he treated all
rebels captured in what was now in some degree assented to as legitimate
war, he ordered that all marauders and guerrillas should be accounted
criminals, and punished accordingly. -Meanwhile, with tireless energy, he
carried on the work of reorganizing the army, and maturing his preparations for the descent of the Mississippi River.
About. twenty miles below Cairo, is situated, on the Kentucky shore
of the river, the city of Columbus. It is, or was, a town of about a thousand inhabitants, but possessed the name and organization of a city. Just
north of it are high bluffs, known as the Iron Banks. They are firom one
hundred to a hundred and seventy-five feet high. As early as on the 4th
of September, this place, to which we have before alluded, had been seized,
by Gen. Leonidas Polk, with a large rebel force. The position, very
strong in itself, was made vastly more so by massive fortifications.  River
batteries were planted at the water's edge. HIeavy guns surmounted the
summit of the bluff. Nature and art combined had rendered the place
well nigh impregnable. The rebels termed it the Gibraltar of the West.
The term was not misapplied. Columbus, thus fortified, the rebels held
with extreme tenacity. It was regarded by them as the key to the Mississippi River, and was unquestionably the strongest point for defense upon
that river. Even as far south as New Orleans, the rebels regarded Columnbus as their protection against the deseent of hostile flotillas. Columbus
afforded, also, an admirable base for aggressive operations.
In September, Gen. Fremont had proposed to the National Government a plan for the capture of this position. This plan, to which we have
before alluded, was, in brief, to occupy the Missouri shore below Columbus,
to gain its rear by the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, and having thus
surrounded it, and cut off all its supplies, to compel evacuation or surrender. That plan was not at the time adopted. The peril of Washington, and the claimls of the Armny of the Potomac absorbed nearly all the
energies of the Government. Perhaps the Government had then neither
the men nor the means for such an operation. But, however that may be,
the result proved the military sagacity and foresight of Gen. Fremont; for,
before September had passed away, the rebels had taken possession of New
Miadrid, on the Mlissouri shore, a little below Columbus, and had thrown
up around the commanding position the most formidable intrenchments,
frowning with ponderous artillery. They bad also selected strong positions on the Tennessee and Cumnberland Rivers, where they had reared
capacious forts, from which they could not be driven but with great loss
of life. Thus, when Gen. Halleck was ready to move, the plan which, at
an earlier day, could have been accomplished with but little if any bloodshed, could now be accomplished only by the most desperate and sanguinary fighting.
During the months of November, December, and January, no serious
advance was undertaken, but the work of creating a fleet of gun-boats wa



BATTLES IN  MISSOURI.                      449
pushed with great vigor. Frequent reconnoissanees toward. Columbus
were, however, made; several by gun-boats, and one, in force, by land.
Nor were the rebels, on their part, inactive. They threatened both Cairo
and Paducah. Rumors of intended attacks on those points were rife. The
Federal pickets, in the neighborhood of Cairo, were frequently shot. On
the 13th of January the rebels advanced, in force, from Columbus towards
Cairo, in a fleet of gun-boats, either for the purpose of attack or of reconnoissance. They were met by the National gun-boats Essex and St. Louis,
from Cairo, and after a short engagement, were driven back, much crippled, to the protection of the batteries of Columbus. Thus three months
were passed in skirmishes, reconnoissance and preparation.
The point between the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, and touching them both, which the rebels had chosen for their fortresses, was about
ninety miles from the mouths of these streams where they enter the Ohio
River, and just south of the Kentucky border, in the State of Tennessee.
At this point the rivers, in their northerly flow, approach within twelve
miles of each other. Here the rebels had erected two formidable fortressesFort Henry, on the east side of the Tennessee River, and Fort Donelson,
on the west side of the Cumberland River. These two forts were connected
by a military road, constructed for the purpose, so that re6nforcements
could easily be thrown from one into the other. Fort [Ienry was built at
a bend in the river, and commanded the approach from the north for two
miles. It was on low land, about at a level of high-water mark. A hill,
on the opposite side of the river, commanding the fort, was also fortified
with a redoubt. Fort Henry consisted of a formidable and extensive systern of earthworks. It was protected from land attack by two creeks, a
pond, and an extensive abatis of felled trees. The fort proper contained
about five acres, with its front face twenty-five feet above the water.
A mile and a quarter below the fort is Panther Island, heavily wooded.
The main channel was on the east side of the island. That on the west
side was impassable except when the water was high in times of flood.
The rebel engineer had arranged the angles and faces to command the main
channel on the east side, and had obstructed the west passage with torpedoes. The intrenched camp embraced an inclosure of thirty acres. In
this well-constructed fortress the rebels had stationed a force of seven thousand men, under Gen. Tilghman. The fort, which was of a class known
as a full-bastioned earthwork, mounted seventeen heavy guns, including
one ten-inch columbiad, throwing a hundred-and-eight-pound solid shot,
one breech-loading rifled gun, carrying a sixty-pound elongated shot, twelve
thirty-two pounders, one rifled twenty-four pounder, and two twelvepounder siege guns. Nearly all the guns were pivoted, so as to be turned
in any direction. The fort was also surrounded by a deep moat. There
were three lines of defense to be overcome before the fort could be entered
on the land side. One single line of rifle pits extended a mile and a half.
The rebels, regarding this as one of their most important points, had resolved
that it should not be taken, and had tasked all their energies to render it
impregnable.
On the 3d of February, 1862, a combined naval and land- expedition
29




450                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
started from  Cairo for the purpose of attacking and reducing this fort.
The land forces were -ncder the command of Gen. Grant. The naval armament consisted of seven gun-boats, under Commodore, now Rear-Admiral,
A. H. Foote.
This distinguished naval officer was born in New Haven, Conn., September 12, 1806. His father was a prominent man both in the State and
the nation. From earliest childhood young Foote developed the unusual
combination of great amiability with corresponding fearlessness and
energy.  "The boy was father of the man."  A  kinder heart never
throbbed; and a braver spirit never moved amidst the perils of battle. In
1822 he entered the navy as a midshipman, and in 1830 received a
lieutenant's commission, and immediately devoted himself; with untiring
energy, to the welfare of the men under his command. An earnest
temperance man, and a consistent Christian,-with' unflinching moral
courage, a superior intellect, and an abundance of that admirable quality
which Locke calls " good round about common sense," his influence was
ever salutary in, the extreme. A cruise in the Mediterranean, and a tour
around the world, enriched his mind, and secured the lasting gratitude of
Christians, from the noble defense he extended to our calumniated missionaries on the Pacific islands.
In 1849 he was intrusted with the command of the brig Perry, to join
the American squadron on the African coast. True to his temperance
principles, he took only water in his casks, but there was fatherly care for
the men in his heart. For two years, while on that coast, lie did not lose
a man. Several slavers were captured, and at some points the execrable
trade entirely destroyed. A more efficient officer was never on that coast.
On his return he published a work upon the subject of Africa and the
American Flag, which added much to his character as a thinker, a philanthropist and an officer. In a cruise off China, in 1856, Admiral Foote
avenged a gross insult to our flag, by attacking a Chinese fort, imanned by
five thousand men, with a heroic band of his own seamen, but three hundred in number, and with but twenty-two pieces of artillery. The pirates
were thoroughly ichastised. This truly chivalrous adventure excited the
admiration of the French and English naval officers on the coast, and gave
Admiral Foote a reputation fobr gallantry second to that of no other man in
the American navy.
Soon after the breaking out of the slaveholders' rebellion, Admiral
Foote was transferred to the command of the squadron which was to be
created on the western rivers. His achievements here were herculean. So
severe were his toils and his embarrassments, in constructing and equipping
a fleet on those distant waters, where all the facilities for his operations
were wanting, that he has been heard to say, that the actual struggle of
the final conflict seemed but play compared with the preliminary toil in
preparing for that conflict.
Ten regiments of infantry, with three days' rations in their haversacks,
together with artillery and cavalry, were embarked, at Cairo, in transports,
to cooperate with the gun-boats in the reduction of the fort. Though it
was known throughout the country that such an expedition was in progress,




1, per-.








CAPTURE OF FORT HENRY.                       451
none but the officers knew its destination. It was generally supposed that
it was to operate against Columbus. The embarkation of such a force,
with horses, wagons, baggage and equipments is an immense labor. But
all being in readiness, the fleet, extending several miles, steamed ulp the
Ohio about forty miles, to Paducah, at the mouth of the Tennessee. They
arrived at this point Monday night. Before the dawn of the morning the
whole squadron was again in motion, ploughing its way up the turbid
Tennessee. When Admiral Foote had decided to strike a blow he was not
in the habit of waiting to give warning. Early in the forenoon of the 4th
of February, the fleet arrived at its destination, cand was moored to the east
bank of the river, about nine miles below F6rt IHenry. Immediately three
gun-boats were dispatched on a reconnoissance towards the fort, shelling
the wooded banks as they advanced, to ascertain if there were any concealed batteries. They were also ordered to approach near enough to the
fort to throw a few shells into it, thus to draw its fire, that its weight of
metal and range of guns might be ascertained. Very efficiently the gunboats performed their duty. From the fort a thirty-two pound shot passed
through the Essex, without inflicting any material damage. Having thus
ascertained the nearest distance within which it would be safe to disembark,
the squadron again moved forward, and moored within four miles of the
fort. The troops immediately landed and encamped for the night. The
next day was employed in making preparations for the attack. Two of the
gun-boats went up the river, and cautiously fished up several infernal
machines which rebel ingenuity had sunk in the stream. They were made
of boiler iron, about five feet long, each containing about sixty pounds of
powder.  Nigllt again came. It was clear and bright. The patriots,
unfatigued and animated with hope, built huge fires around their camps.
The flames blazing along the ridges, flashing through the trees, and illumining the whole horizon, presented a rare spectacle of beauty, and
created an impression in the fort that the force about to assail them was
far greater than was really the case. During the night a tremendous
thunder-storm arose, with vivid flashes of lightning and torrents of rain.
This proved a serious embarrassment the next day, as the march of the
troops was much retarded by the soaking of the soft, clayey soil.
The plan of the attack was as follows. Gen. C. F. Smith, with two
brigades, was to cross the river to the western shore, and take possession
of the ]leights, which we have betbre spoken of as commanding the fort.
Gen. MeClernand, on the eastern shore, was to march by a circuitous
route, with his division, and gain the rear of the rebels, so as to cut off
their retreat to Fort Donelson, and to prevent them from receiving reenforcements from that fortress. The gun-boats were to attack the fort from
the river. It was hoped that thus the capture of the entire rebel garrison
would be effected. But that intolerable slowness, which has lost the Union
forces many a deserved victory, and which has plucked from their hands
the fruits of others, which true heroism had gained, prevented the successful consummation of this plan. Admiral Foote, aware of the condition of
the roads, was desirous that the land force should start an hour in advance
of the gun-boats. Gen. Grant thought this unnecessary, and ordered Geym




452                CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
McClernand to move when the gun-boats started, stating that he was confident that his troops could reach their positions in time. The Admiral
remonstrated, saying, pleasantly, "I shall take the fort before your forces
get there.'  The event proved him right. The troops were soon wallowing through a mortar-bed of mire, and were disastrously long on their way,
and thus six thousand rebels escaped from the trap in which otherwise
they would have been caught.
At half-past ten o'clock Thursday morning, February 6th, the signal
was given to get under way. The instructions the Admiral gave were brief
and plain. The three iron clads were to keep in a line with him, advancing steadily, bows on, just as he did. The three not clad, were to follow
at a suitable distance in the rear, and to throw their shells over those in
advance. "It is particularly necessary," said the Admiral, " that all should
keep cool. Do not attempt rapid firing, but takle deliberate aim. Rapid
firing wastes ammunition, heats the guns, throws away shot in their wild
range, and encourages the enemy with a fire which proves to be ineffectual."
The water in the river was high, so that the gun-boats were enabled to
ascend the shallow western channel, thus avoiding the long range shot,
from the rifled guns, which swept the main channel. Slowly, firmly the
fleet advanced, with their bows towards the fort. It was a mile and a
quarter from the head of the island to the fort. As soon as the boats came
into position, the four iron-clads being abreast, at half-past twelve o'clock
the flag-ship Cincinnati threw an eight-inch shell into the fort: The fire
was now vigorously opened, and as vigorously returned by the foe. The
gunners obeyed the judicious commands which had been given them —
fired deliberately, with accurate aim, and, as a consequence, almost every
shot was faithful to its mission..  The three boats in the rear also elevated
their guns, and, with deliberate action, dropped almost every shell upon
the spot desired. The earth-works afforded the garrison but slight protection; and almost immediately there was visible commotion in the rebel
camp. Still the enemy fought manfully, but most of their shot fell upon
the iron armor of the gun-boats as harmless as rain-drops. The target also,
at which their fire was aimed,  was so small, being merely the bows of the
boats, and those boats continually moving, that but few comparatively of
the shots struck. The calm, yet impetuous Admiral, pressed steadily
onward, keeping up an incessant fire, swerving neither to the right nor the
left, till it seemed that he intended to plunge his ships directly against the
muzzles of the guns of his foe. Every shot told with terrible effect. One
eighty-pound shell killed or wounded every person serving at one of the
rebel guns. Sand-bags and gabions were knocked about in all directions,
covering the cannon with the ctbris, and smothering the cannoneers. One
of the rifled guns of the rebels burst, spreading widely around mutilation
and death. Thus for nearly an hour the battle raged, when a 24-pound
shot pierced a weak spot in the plated Essex and penetrated the starboard
boiler. The steam filled the boat, dreadfully scalding many of the crew,
and the Essex utterly disabled, drifted down with the stream, till she was
taken by a tug and towed to the encampment. This, for a moment,
revived the waning courage of the rebels, and reanimated their fire. But




CAPTURE  OF FORT HENRY.                      453
still the heroic fleet pressed on, straight on, unfaltering with its deliberate,
unerring, incessant cannonade.  They were now within three hundred
yards of the ramparts. Every shot was effective, mowing down tlhe men,
tearing through the embankments, crushing the gun-carriages and hurling
down the guns. One hour and twelve minutes had now passed. Seven of
the rebel guns were disabled, leaving but four which could be brought to
bear upon the fleet. The storm of destruction and death was falling more
fiercely than ever, and the rebels could stand it no longer. As by a simultaneous instinct they abandoned everything at a moment, and fled, a terrorstricken rabble. They had, a few moments before, raised the white flag,
but, enveloped in the smoke of the battle, it was not perceived, and the
terrific bolts of National vengeance continued to fall upon the humiliated
heads of the traitors. But as soon as it was perceived that the fire of the
fort had ceased, every gun was silent, and instantaneous stillness, more
impressive than can be imagined, followed the prolonged roar of the
battle.
A boat was immediately sent on shore, and the Stars and Stripes, with
huzzas which came not from the lips alone, but from gushing hearts, was
run up over those ramparts where the flag of treason had waved. Nearly
all of the garrison had escaped. But sixty-three prisoners were taken in
the fort, a large proportion of whom were officers of rank. Why these did
not escape is not satisfactorily explained. The rather incredible story
is told, that Gen. Tilghman had posted a guard at the gate of the
fort, with orders to shoot down any one who should attempt to retreat.
When the general, with his officers and the few men who were left,
attempted to make their escape, the sentinels, who were Union in sentiment, and had been impressed into the rebel service, threatened to shoot
them down.
Capt. Phelps, of the Conostega, landed with the party in the boats, and
was met by Gen. Tilghman, who surrendered the fort and the camp. Gen.
Tilghman, who commanded the district, and Capt. Taylor, who was chief
of artillery and commander of the fort, were both graduates of West Point.
Indeed, all the ablest of the generals who raised their parricidal hands
against their country, were West Point graduates. It is a question worthy
of future investigation, why an institution, so noble in its character and its
aim, should be so fruitful in breeding traitors. One would suppose that if
there were any spot in America where enthusiasm for the Stars and the
Stripes would be inspired, it would be at our renowned Military Academy
at West Point. And yet it was West Point which nurtured the vipers
which struck their country with most envenomed fangs. Davis, Beauregard, Lee, Stuart, Jackson, and a countless host of others were West Point
graduates. The question why this is so, is one worthy of National consideration.
Gen. Tilghman was taken in a gig and rowed to the Admiral's ship.
ie was a stout man, of gentlemanly manners, and was deemed an able
officer. As he stood a captive, before the representative of the avenging
Government, he inquired what terms would be granted. " Unconditional
surrender," was Admiral Foote's reply.




454                     CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
" Well, sir," said the rebel prisoner, " if I must surrender, it gives me
pleasure to surrender to so brave an officer as you."
"( You do perfectly right to surrender," Admiral Foote replied; " but
I should not have surrendered to you on any condition."
" Why so? " inquired Gen. Tilghman; " I do liot understand you."
"' IBecause," the Admiral answered, "' I was fully determined to capture
the fort, or go to the bottom."
Had more of this spirit been manifested in the early months of the war,
the conflict would not have been so protracted.  As we have mentioned,
the rebel army in the intrenched camp, nearly seven thousand strong, all
escaped.  When the gun-boats opened their fire, the troops, toiling through
the mud, and obstructed by swollen streams, were not more than half way
to their appointed stations, in the rear of the foe.  As they heard the roar
of the bombardment, loud huzzas burst from their lips, and they struggled
along with redoubled energy.  ]But it was all in vain.  The foe escaped,
and Admiral Foote filfilled his promise that he would take the fort before
Gen. Grant's troops could arrive.
The credit of this capture belongs to Admiral Foote, and no honorable
man will wish to deprive him  of his well earned laurels.  His energies,
struggling against almost incredible difficulties, were mainly instrumental
in organizing the expedition.  When informed that the rebels had from
ten to twenty thousand in the fortress, he remarked, " I am sorry for it;
because, if they stand their ground, the slaughter must be terrible.  For I
shall take the fort, or my vessels will go to the bottom."   The morning
succeeding the night after tile battle, a gentleman said to him,
"You are getting nervous.  I fear that you did not sleep well last
night."
The Admiral replied, "I never slept better in my life than  night
before last, and I never prayed more fervently than on yesterday morning.
But I could not sleep last night, for thinking of those poor fellows on the
Essex."
Every man in the country, and every soldier in the army, has more
confidence in an officer of sincere and manly piety, than in any amount of
bull-dog ferocity, in an officer who is insulting both God and man with
the foulness of his oaths.*   The  Cincinnati, the  flag-ship, was struck
thirty-one times, most of the shot leaving only honorable scars upon the
iron plating.  One gun was struck on the muzzle, breaking and splitting
the piece so as to render it entirely useless. A hundred and eighty pound
* The expedition left Cairo on Monday. It is said that the Sabbath before Admiral Foote,whom we call Admiral by anticipation, since he had not then received his promotion to the RearAdmiralty,-attended, as usual, the Presbyterian church. The minister, for some unexplained
cause, did not make his appearance, and the congregation grew impatient. Commodore Foote
ascended the pulpit, read a portion of Scripture, offered a fervent prayer, and then, in a brief
address, from the appropriate text,'Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe
also in me," urged his fellow-soldiers, by fidelity in duty and trust in the Redeemer, to prepare to
meet their God. This moral courage is of ethereal mould. Many of our ablest generals manifested
it sublimely, through all, the vicissitudes of this infamous rebellion. But we had other officers who
ought to have been expelled from the army, for their blasphemy, calling down the vengeance of
heaven upon our cause.




CAPTURE OF FORT  HENRY.                       455
shot struck the pilot-house, but a few inches from the head of the Admiral,
with a concussion which shook the vessel from stem to stern. The upper
works were thoroughly swept with the destructive missiles. The crash of
the balls through the timbers was terrible. Several were wounded, though
but one man was killed. His head was carried away by a cannon ball.
The rebels had eleven guns which could be brought to bear upon the
boats. As the boats attacked, bows on, they had but eleven guns which
could be used against the fort.
About an hour after the surrender of the fort, Gen. Grant arrived, with
an advance guard. It is very evident that, had Admiral Foote's energy
controlled the land, as well as the naval force, not a rebel would hlave
escaped. Only one of the boats, the Benton, was wholly plated. The
other three were plated only at the bows. The Essex was.plated least of
all. A portion of the land force was sent in pursuit -of the fleet-footed
rebels, who were on the rapid march across the land to Fort Donelson
As the troops took possession of the fort, they found, all about the guns
spots of clotted gore, and fragments of human flesh, showing that many
lives must have been lost. Only four dead bodies were found. It is
believed that many were carried off; in one of the rebel boats which left
just before the surrender.'The capture of Fort I-Ienry opened, to the Union forces, Tennessee
River, and, in conjunction with the capture of Fort Donelson, immediately succeeding, gave them an unobstructed entrance into the State of
Tennessee, possession of Nashville, its capital, and resulted in the necessary evacuation of Columbus. The capture, however, is chiefly memorable, as the first engagement, in the world's history, in which iron-clad- boats
were subjected to a practical and severe ordeal. The battle between the
Mferrimac and the kMonitor, which we have already described, didc not take
place until a month later. The capture of Fort HIenry converted a longheld favorite idea into a practical reality.
Twenty-five miles above Fort HIenry, a railroad, connecting Bowling
Green with Memphis and Columbus, crosses the Tennessee River. Admiral Foote directed three of the gun-boats, under command of Capt. Phelps,
to proceed up the river as far as possible, destroying this bridge upon their
way, thus breaking the rebel connection between the east and the west,
and capturing all the enemy's boats which might be found in the river.
The expedition, promptly followed up, was eminently successful.  The
boats ascended the river nearly two hundred miles, boldly penetrating as
far as Florence, Alabama. They captured three steamboats, one unfinished gun-boat, besides a large quantity of military. stores. The rebels
themselves destroyed six boats, to prevent their falling into the hands of
the patriots. The most gratifying result of the expedition, however, was
the undoubted evidence of loyalty, which greeted the passing fleet. As
the swift steamers ploughed the waters of the river, with the Stars and
the Stripes floating at their peaks, men, women and children, crowded to
the banks to hail the sight, once more, of that glorious National banner,
and to welcome the gun-boats as their deliverers from the disastrous rule
of rebellion. Twenty-five men, on the way, volunteered as recruits for the




456                      CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
National army, and were cordially received.* Capt. Phelps conducted
this expedition with consummate ability, proving that a better man could
not have been selected for the responsible service. For his gallantry, he
received the especial thanks of the Secretary of the Navy.
* Capt. Phelps, in his official report, says, " We have met the most gratifying proofs of loyalty
everywhere, across Tennessee, and in the portions of Mississippi and Alabama which we visited.
Most affecting instances greeted us hourly. Men, women and children, gathered in crowds,
shouted their welcome, and hailed their National flag with an enthusiasm there was no mistaking.
It was genuine and heart-felt. They braved everything to go to the river bank, where a sight of
their flag might once more be enjoyed; and they have experienced, as they related, every possible
form of persecution. Tears flowed freely down the cheeks of the men, as well as of the women.
There were, it is true, whole communities, who, on our approach, fled to the woods; but these
were where there was less of the loyal element, and where the fleeing steamers, in advance, had
spread tales of our coming with fire-brands, burning, destroying, ravishing, plundering."




CHAPTER XX.
DONELSON, NASHVILLE AND COLUMBUS.
REBEL PREPARATIONS FOR THE DEFENSE AT FORT DONELSON.-ITS POSITION.-RECEPTION OF
THE GUNBOATS AT EDDYVILLE.-STORMING A BREASTWORK.-ARRIVAL OF THE CARONDELET.SUFFERING OF UNION TROOPS.-ADMIRAL FOOTE.-TERRIBLE CONFLICT.-CHARGE OF GEN.
SMITH. —HARD FIGHTING OF THE TROOPS OF GEN. WALLACE.-INCIDENT.-SURRENDER  OF
THE FORT.-NASHVILLE.-ANECDOTES.-VALUE OF THE GUNBOATS.-COLUMBUS.-BISHOP GEN.
POLK.
THE capture of Fort Henry, with all its stores, was as depressing to the
rebels as it was animating to the patriots.* The energies of the Federal
government were now directed towards Fort Donelson on the Cumberland
River. The rebels were also roused to the most intense exertions, to avoid
the humiliation  of another defeat, in the loss of that important fortress.
There are three great avenues by which access can be obtained, from  the
free States of the north into the south-western States-the Mississippi, the
Tennessee and the  Cumuberland Rivers.  These avenues the rebels had
barred by the three gigantic barriers, Columbus, Fort Henry and  Fort
Donelson.  Columbus was deemed well nigh impregnable.  Fort Henry
had been battered down, and the passage was fairly opened.  Gen. Halleck
now hastened to turn his battering rams against Fort Donelson, while the
rebels roused all their energies to add to its strength.
On the fall of Fort Henry the seven thousand rebel troops encamped
there rushed across to Fort Donelson, adding much strength to the already
powerful garrison gathered at that point. Gen. Buclkner had been in command of that post.  Gen. Pillow, from  Columbus, had already been ordered
to strengthen him.  Six days after the fall of Fort Henry, Gen. Floyd was
also ordered, with heavy reenforcements, to proceed immediately to Donelson.  Guns, ammunition, and all the needful nateriel of war were sent in
abundance from  Nashville.  The rebels made their preparations for a long
- Much has been said about the origin of the proposition to take possession of the Cumberland
and Tennessee Rivers. There can be no question that Gen. Fremont first urged it upon the department at Washington, and at a time when the rivers could have been'seized without sacrifice of
life. But he was relieved of his command, and his plans totally disregarded. Commodore Foote,
as soon as he reached the West, with the quick eye of military genius, saw that which Gen. Fremont had not failed to see. But the rebels had already reared their forts. On the 28th of January,
1862, he, from Cairo, telegraphed Gen. Halleck, at St. Louis, as follows:-'" Gen. Grant and myself
are of opinion that Fort Henry and Tennessee River can be carried with four iron-clad gun-boats
and troops, and be permanently occupied. Have we your authority to move for that purpose when
ready?" Very strangely Gen. Halleck returned no reply to Commodore Foote, but subsequently
ordered Gen. Grant to proceed up the Tennessee River with hi, troops, under convoy of the armed
flotilla, and attack Fort Henry, directing Gen. Grant to show to Commodore Foote his orders to
this effect.-See Speech of Hon. James W. Grimes, U. S. Senate, March 13, 1862.




458                    CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
and a desperate struggle.  On Thursday, the 13th of February, there were
assembled within the ramparts not less than 20,000 troops, mostly gathered
from Tennessee and Mississippi.  They were commanded by Gens. Floyd,
Pillow, Buckner, and  Bushrod  R. Johnson.  The former was first in
commland.*'
The defenses of Fort Donelson were far imore formidable than those of
Fort Henry.  The general course of the Cumberland River here is almost
directly north. Just below the little town of Dover, the river sweeps to
the west, around a commanding eminence, for a distance of a few hundred
yards, and then pursues its natural course again, almost due north.  Upon
this eminence, protected by this bend of the river, and commanding the
stream towards the north as far as shot can be thrown, the rebels reared
their capacious and massive fort.  The engineers, who constructed it with
great ability, had acquired their skill at the United States' Military Academy at West Point. The traitor generals who turned the guns, from its
ramparts, against the Stars and Stripes, had acquired their military education beneath that banner, and at the expense of the government it symbolizes.  At the river's edge there were two water batteries, one of nine and
the other of three guns, all heavy pieces of ordnance, being thirty-two or
sixty-four pounders.  These guns were protected by breastworks which no
shot could penetrate.  Back of the batteries the hill rises, quite steep, to an
elevation of a hundred feet, where it spreads off, in a broad plateau of more
than a hundred acres.  In the rear of the fort, and west and south of the
bluff, there is a succession of hills, cut up by ravines and densely wooded.
Thus, by nature, the rear of the fort was made difficult of attack and easy
of defense.  But still the rear was hot left to the defenses which nature
had so abundantly reared.  A  circular rifle pit was dug, inclosing on the
land side the whole eminence on which the fort was reared, extending from
the river's bank, on the north, to a bluff which rose near the water, on the
south.  Behind the rifle pits there was planted a series of strong batteries,
so situated as to command every possible approach.  Behind the batteries
there was arranged an impervious abatis of felled trees, with sharpened
branches, at every point where the precipitous nature of the hill itself'was
not deemed ample defense against assault.  The intrenchments thus thrown
up were several miles in extent.  Upon every commanding position a battery frowned with its independent line of defenses.  Thus it will be seen
that Fort Donelson was a cluster of forts, surrounding a vast central fortress.  The battle of Fort Donelson was thus, of necessity, a series of bat* John Buchanan Floyd is a son of that Gov. Floyd, of Virginia, who, in 1837, was so earnest
for nullifying the laws of the United States. He was well educated, and taking a group of slaves,
emigrated to Arkansas as a planter. After a time he returned to Virginia, and plunged into the
arena of politics. He was the ardent advocate of every measure which tended to the extension
and perpetuation of slavery. He was chosen Governor of Virginia, and afterwards acted as Secretary of War under President Buchanan. Here his conduct was as infamous as language call
record. While sworn to defend the honor of his country, and a member of the Cabinet, he exerted
all the influence his position gave him, to bind his country, hand and foot, and pass it over a helpless victim to traitors. A deed of blacker hue history does not record. Having thus done every
thing in his p-ower to betray his country, he resigned his position in the Cabinet and joined the
armies of the rebels.




DONELSON, NASHVILLE AND COLUMBUS.                                459
ties.  The fort was, in fact, captured by battles fought at a distance of a
mile and a half from its central guns.
On the 12th of February Gen. Grant, who had received renlforcements
fiiom  Gen. Halleck, took up his line of march from  Fort Henry across to
Fort Donelson.  His troops, nearly twenty thousand  in  number, were
formed in two divisions, one under Gen. McClernand,* the other under
Gen. C. F. Smith.  Gen. Lew. Wallace was left with a small force in command at Fort Henry.  It would seem that there was some want of maturity in the plans, even at this late hour, —a want of appreciation of the
value of moments in military affairs.  Tuesday night the steamer Mlinnehaha brought the 57th Illinois regiment to Fort Henry, and was immediately sent back, down the river, to turn Ickcf all transports proceeding
with troops to Fort Henry.  They were all to return to Paducab, at the
mouth of the river, and then, under convoy of the gun-boats, and in their
rear, to proceed to the Cumberland RIiver, and ascend that stream  about
ninety miles to Fort Donelson.  It was a late hour to make such a change.
This was Tuesday night.  They were directed to be at the designated spot
on the Cumberland River, near Fort Donelson, and to disembark their
troops, Wednesday afternoon; then and there to be ready to act in cooperation with the column firom Fort Henry.  As was to have been expected,
from the embarrassments and delays inevitable in so great an expedition,
these transports did not reach their destination until two days later, Friday
night the 14th,-a delay which caused the sacrifice of many lives.
It was but twelve miles across from Fort I-Ienry to Donelson; and Gen.
Grant's division, at noon, was in the rear of the rebel batteries.t  But the
force he had expected to cooperate with him  that afternoon, in an attack
upon the fort, was more than a hundred miles distant, not having yet left
Paducah.  The lMinnehalha had met eight or ten transports, loaded with
troops, upon the Tennessee, had stopped them  and turned them  back to
Paducah.  There it was found that only a portion of the fleet had arrived.
During the day the stragglers came in, and it was not until ten o'clock,
Wednesday night, that the fleet reached Smithland, at the mouth of the
Cumblerland River.  The scene here witnessed was exceedingly beautiful.
The night was as mild, serene and brilliant, with its full-orbed mloon, as ever
shed its effulgence upon Eden.  The gorgeous pageant of the fleet, with
the furnace-likle glow of its fires, with the long and graceful banners of
black smoke floating far into the rear, and with the gleam  of the moon
* John A. McClernand, Brigadier-General, is a graduate of West Point. Withdrawing from
military life, he entered upon the duties of a civilian; and, upon the breaking out of the rebellion,
represented the Sixth Congressional District of Illinois. With earnest patriotism he surrendered
his seat for a command in the army. I-te is now about forty-four years of age.
f Ulysses S. Grant is a native of Illinois and a graduate of West Point. He served in the
Mexican War, where he acquired distinction both for heroism and ability. At the taking of the
city of Mexico he was Second Lieutenant and Acting Quartermaster-General. His conduct on that
occasion was reported as " distinguished fobr gallantry." At the close of the war he retired to a
civilian's life, and entered into mercantile business at Galena. Upon the breaking out of the
rebellion he rushed at once to the banner beneath which he had so heroically fought, and, by his
own energies, raised a regiment of infantry in Illinois. In September of that year he was appointed
Brigadier-General by Congress, and took command of south-east Missouri, establishing his headquarters at Cairo.




460               CIVIL  WAR IN  AMERICA.
upon plumes and sword hilts and polished armor, while the ear was charmed
with joyous and exultant strains from martial bands, banished all ideas of
the miseries of war; and one could hardly dispel the illusion that it was a
fairy-like scene of peace and friendship.
It was midnight before the fleet again got under way. The spring
floods were now rushing down the swollen banks of the river, and the
heavily laden steamers toiled slowly against the swift current. Thursday
morning, at nine o'clock, they reached Eddyville, but forty miles from the
mouth of the river, with still fifty miles before them before they could
reach Donelson. They were now in the heart of Kentucky. IBut their
greeting at this little inland town was apparently as cordial as the most
glowing patriotism could give. As the fleet glided up to the banks of the
town, the Stars and Stripes floating from every peak, and with the bands
playing Yankee Doodle, the whole population, men, women and children,
crowded the shore with the most exuberant demonstrations of delight.
Without a moment's delay the fleet pressed on, and it was near midnight of
Thursday before they reached the landing-place, a few miles below the fort.
But the clouds had now gathered in the sky; a freezing wintry gale was
sweeping down from the north, with a blinding storm of snow and sleet.
Under such circumstances ten thousand men, from fourteen transport
steamers, with all their artillery and ammunition were to be landed.
While they are effecting their landing upon the frozen and snow-whitened
ground, let us turn back to Gen. Grant's column which had crossed from
Fort Henry.
This division included about 20,000 men, with seventeen batteries of
artillery and from twelve to fifteen hundred horsemen. The morning
they left was serene and sunny. Their path was along two dry and solid
roads, and four hours of a pleasant excursion, brought them within two
miles of the outworks of the hostile fortress. Here, after carefully examining the ground, to make sure that there were no masked batteries or
secession traps to annoy them, they brought their forces into position,
extending them up and down in a semi-circular line inclosing the fort.
This operation brought them into constant contact with the rebel pickets,
and there were a few sharp skirmishes. The whole of the afternoon was
spent in this operation. They, as yet, knew nothing of the nature of the
works which they were to attack. The enemy's defenses were buried in
heavy timber and thick underbrush. Now and then a few shells, thrown
from a Union gun into some suspicious spot, would awaken a response,
revealing a battery, which had eluded the most scrutinizing glance of the
eye or the telescope. But as night came on, the National troops were
established in their positions, the tips of the crescent which their martial
line formed, touching the river above, and nearly touching it below the
uncounted cluster of rebel batteries. Gen. McClernand's division constituted the right wing, and lay on the west and south of the fortifications.
Gen. Smith's division occupied the left wing, menacing the foe on the
north and west. As yet, there was no centre. This was to be occupied
by the troops which were expected in the transports. The two wings
touched each other, and at that central point directly west of the fort,




DONELSON, NASHVILLE  AND  COLUffBUS.                   46]
Gen. Grant established his headquarters.  The work of getting into position was slow, tedious and perilous. But as the shades of night fell upon
the scene, the two armies, as by rhutual consent, lay down to rest. The
night, as we have mentioned, was exceedingly beautiful.  The air was as
bland as that of an August evening. The moon rose clear and full in an
unclouded sky; and as the wearied hosts slept, no sound was to be heard
but the chirp of the insect and the pensive cry of the night bird. Neither
party ventured to kindle any camp-fires, lest the flame should afford a
mark to hostile batteries. No spectator could have imagined that in those
silent woods, beneath that placid moon, there slept forty thousand men,
waiting for a bloody three days' struggle. So nature sleeps on the eve of
her terrible battle-fields.  Thus silently the elements prepare for the tempest, the tornado and the earthquake.
The brilliance of the night was followed by the dawn of a beautiful
morning. But the National troops looked in vain for any signal of the
arrival of gun-boats and transports. It was Thursday morning, and the
boats had but just entered the mouth of the Cumberland River. 1No concerted attack was therefore possible. And the force already assembled was
by no means sufficient to carry a fortress so strong. The morning was spent
in skirmishing and reconnoissance. Sharp-shooters, scattered through the
woods and hiding behind the trees, opened an accurate and extremely
harassing fire upon the rebel batteries. HIere they would watch for rebels
as hunters watch for game, and woe to the head which peered, even for a
moment, above the breast-works. 3Meanwhile the artillery played back
and forth, across the ravines, from the opposing hills, rather to ascertain
each other's position, and the range of the guns, than from the hope of
accomplishing any other important purpose. The soldiers called this play
of the cannon "exchanging valentines."  The dense woods everywhere
seemed to be alive with the ring of rifles and the echoes of the booming
cannon.
About ten o'clock a National force of five regiments of infantry, with
three or four batteries of artillery, made a solid advance towards a ridge
which the rebels occupied, about three hundred yards outside of their most
remote ramparts. A sharp engagement ensued, for an hour. The rebels
gradually were driven back, and took refuge behind their earth-works.
Our troops took possession of the ridge, or rather series of ridges, which,
being covered with timber, and slightly higher than the nearest defenses
of the rebels, presented an admirable position for our sharp-shooters.
Birge's celebrated riflemen, from this point, performed effectual service.
With a heavy rifle throwing a conical ball, they would strike their mark,
at a distance of half a mile, with almost unerring aim.
In the continued prosecution of this desultory and preliminary warfare,
while impatiently awaiting the arrival of the transports and gun-boats, the
experiment was tried of storming one of the outer breast-works. Three
Illinois regiments, the 49th, 17th and 48th, under the command of Col.
Morrison, started on the double-quick, down one declivity to rush up
another, breasting the fire of the foe, and to sweep, like a flood over his
intrenchments. A shower of balls swept their ranks, but still they pressed




462                 CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
impetuously on. In perfect line of battle, with skirmishers in front, the
majestic sweep of the living flood, in the bright sun-light, and down the
green slope, with the cry of onset bursting from every lip, was both beautiful and sublime. Down the hill, over a rising swell, into the ravine, and
up the eminence, two hundred feet high, upon the summit of which the
redoubitt was situated, the patriots rushed, regardless of the storm of shot
the rebels hurled against them. Thus far their movement ]lad been conducted with all the precision which could have been displayed upon the
parade ground. They had now advanced nearly to the foot of the works.
IHere they encountered an impervious abatis of stumps and felled trees with
intertwining branches and sharpened points. After struggling here most
manfully for a time, and finding it impossible, in the face of a murderous
fire of grape and canister, to scale the barrier, their colonel also having
been struck by a ball which pllunged him froml his horse, and no one
appearing to assume the command, they filed off to the left in good order,
and obliquely gained the shelter of the Jwoods belown. It was a very heroic
charge, though unavailing, and cost many valuable lives. The dead, however, did not sleep unavenged. The redoubt was crowded with rebel
troops to repel the assault. The moment our retiring column was out of
range, Capt. Taylor, with the Chicago battery, poured a flood of shell and
shrapnell, with remarkable rapidity and accuracy of fire, into the dense
ranks of the foe.
While this scene was transpiring, the 20th Indiana regiment, belonging
to Gen. Smith's division, on the left, chanced to fall into an exposed position. The ever vigilant enemy perceived it, and instantly made an impetuous sortie upon them from one of their intrenchments.  The Indianians, who through this whole war evinced bravery unsurpassed by that of
any other troops, in ancient or modern times, stood their ground like a
rock) though taken at a disadvantage, and by superior numbers, until
other regiments came to their aid, and drove the assailants back to their
hiding-places.
Thus the hours of the day, tumultuous and sanguinary, passed along,
while great uneasiness was felt respecting the delay of the gun-boat fleet.
Early in the afternoon, the first of the gun-boats, the Carondelet, under
Lieut. Walke, arrived, several hours in advance of the transports. It
immediately steamed up toward the fort, and engaged the river batteries
for the purpose of reconnoissance. The heavy boom of its first gun gave
great joy, and cheer upon cheer rose fi'om  the troops encircling the
beleaguered fort. Shut out as they were from the view of the river by
forest and bluff, they imagined the whole fleet had arrived. The Carondelet heroically advanced and attacked the rebel batteries, drawing upon
her their concentrated fire. Her iron bows threw off most of the shot.
One, however, a vast mass of iron, weighing one hundred and twenty-eight
pounds, entered a port-hole, wounded eight men, and with a fearful crash
buried itself in the breast-work of coal-bags, piled up to protect the boilers.
Most of the time, the Carondelet, shielded behind a promontory from the
heavy columbiads of the fort, hurled shell after shell into the water batteries of the rebels, causing great devastation.  One hundred and two of




DONELSON, NASHVILLE  AND  COLUMBUS.                  463
these unwelcome messengers the Carondelet dropped within the ramparts
of the foe.
Thus passed Thursday. The day had been wonderfully warm, bright
and beautiful, far more like May or June, than like amid February. A
genial breeze from the south swept over the plumes and banners of the
embattled hosts, alike invigorating all with buoyancy of spirits and sanguine hopes. But as night came on, a great change suddenly took place
in the weather. The wind suddenly veered to the north, blowing fierce
and chill. -Heavy clouds darkened the sky, and as the gloom of night
enveloped the scene, the rain began to fall upon the surging branches,
where the wind commenced to moan its dirges, as if in anticipation of the
funereal scenes of the morrow.  The troops were but poorly prepared for
such a change. They had no tents. 3f/any of them, deceived by the
warmth of the day before, and expecting every moment to meet the
enemy, had cast aside their overcoats and blankets. It was not safe to
build a fire, as it would very surely attract the bullet of the sharpshooter,
or draw down upon them fiorn the innumerable adjacent batteries a shower
of shells. As the night advanced, and all were drenched, and almost perishing, the rain changed to snow. It was a night of suffering never to be
forgotten. Ever and anon a shell came shrieking through the air, fired
almost at random from the rebel batteries, at such points as they thought
might be occupied by the Union troops. The pickets of the rebels were
out in great force, keeping up a constant firing upon the National
pickets.
As we have before mentioned, about midnight the fleet arrived. At
the earliest possible hour, the work of disembarking the troops and stores
commenced. By noon, all were landed, and the troops, ten thousand in
number, by a circuitous route through the woods, in rear of' the fort, were
on the march to join their comrades from Fort I-enry. They were designed for a third division, and to form the centre of the besieging force.
This movement, and the exhaustion of the troops, from the awful suffering
of their bivouac, through the freezing, stormy night, prevented any assault
by the land forces during the day. The morning had dawned cold and
cheerless, and though the storm was over, the clouds still hung gloomily
in the sky, two inches of snow covered the ground, and a wintry wind
from the north swept the dreary expanse. The march from the landing
to the centre of the National line was fatiguing and dismal. The ground
was slightly fiozen, but the wheels broke through, and the march was an
excessively toilsome tramp through mud, mingled with ice and snow. It
was nearly dark before these troops reached their position, thus completing
the National lines by the formation of its centre. The wind, all the day,
was exceedingly fierce and keen,-the inhabitants of the region declaring
that so severe a day had seldom been experienced in their latitude before.
The field-works of the enemy, in apparently impregnable strength,
were spread along in front of the Union lines, nearly six miles in extent.
The task of reducing them seemed indeed appalling. And still the soldiers, pinched with hunger and benumbed with cold, uttered not a murmur or a word of discouragement.  "We came here," said Col. Oglesby.




464                       CIVIL WAkR IN AMERICA.
" to take that fort, and we will takee it." To this sentiment every man
seemed to respond.
About two o'clock in the afternoon, Fort Donelson threw a few shells
at tile transports, but the missiles dropped into the river, half a mile short
of their destination. Admiral Foote, with his accustomed promptness, hal
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got his little fleet ready, to test the valor' and the power of the rebel garri,
sons.  At three  o'clock,  the  gun-boats were  within  range  of the fort.
* I am indebted to 0. M. Wilson, Esq., of Indianapolis, Indiana, for a very accurately drawn
plan of the field of battle at Donelson, taken upon the spot, which has been of essential service.
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plan of he fieldof battl at Doneson, takn upon te spot, hich hasbeen of ssentialservice




DONELSON, NASHVILLE  AND  COLUMBUS.                  465
They p ushed forward, as at Fort Henry, seven in number, the four iron-clads
in advance, and the three wooden boats in the rear. The cannonade
iimediately commenced when the boats were within a mile and a half of
the battery, both from the boats and from the entire line of the rebel batteries, in a continuous roar, as though it were but one volume of reverberating thunder. Piercing through this almost cleafening peal could be distinctly heard the shrill scream  of the shells, rushing minadly through the
air, on their terrible mnission. The boats pressed boldly on, until within
one hundred and fifty yards of the water batteries.* Thus, for an hour
and a half, the battle raged. Gradually the fire from the fort began to
slacken, as one gun after another was silenced. At length, but three
remained to reply to the boats. The rebels were beginning to escape from
their water batteries below the fort, and it seemed impossible that Donelson could hold out fifteen minutes longer. The shot and shell from fifteen
heavy rifled guns plunged through the parapets, and ploughed up the
ground around and beneath the cannoneers. At this moment occurred
one of those casualties which often determine the issue of battles. A
chance shot disabled the steering apparatus of the Louisville, at the same
moment dashing the wheel into fiagments. The pilot ran to the aft tiller,
and had but just reached it, when a shot struck the rudder, carrying it
utterly away. The helpless boat whirled around at the mercy of the
flooded stream, and floated down upon the current. A shot also struck,
and shattered into fragments, the wheel of the flag-ship, St. Louis. The
special attention of the batteries was directed to this boat, as the one on
which the Admiral was stationed. Thus, almost in an instant, two of the
iron-clads were disabled, and were drifting, uncontrollable, down the
stream. The two remaining iron-clads were also seriously damaged. The
rebels, who were fleeing from their batteries, seeing this, again returned,
and vigorously renewed their fire. They had now, from the fort and the
batteries, twenty guns to bear upon the fleet. There were but twelve
boat-guns to return the fire. The St. Louis had received fifty-nine shots.
All the other boats had been struck nearly half as many times. Fifty-four
had been killed and wounded in the attack. The fleet was thus compelled, upon the very eve of victory, to abandon the contest.
The battle of Fort Henry was fought on the 6th of February. Two
of the gun-boats had been sent the next day over a hundred miles up the
river to Florence, Alabama, to destroy all the gun-boats of the foe, and
they did not return to Fort I-Ienry until the 10th, when the war-battered
fleet was rendezvoused at Cairo, a hundred miles below the captured fort,
for repairs. On the 11th the fleet was again on the move to attack the
massive batteries of Donelson. This Napoleonic energy is alike creditable
to Gen. Halleck, who issued the command, and to the indefatigable Admiral Foote, who executed it. Still, the Admiral, who was well aware of the
formidable nature of the rebel batteries at Donelson, earnestly desired the
delay of a few days to complete the mortar-boats, then nearly ready, with
which he believed that the rebels could be shelled out of their works with
but little loss of life on our side. In this view he was undoubtedly cor* See Gen. Gid. J. Pillow's official report.




466                   CIVIL  WAR  IN  AMERICA.
rect.  But Gen. Halleck believed an immediate attack to be a military
necessity.  Every day's delay might add thousands to the garrison, and add
greatly to the number and the strength of the already massive works.
Under these circumstances the energy of Gen. Halleck, merits high commendation.  We have suffered so much during this war from loiterings and
weary preparations, that even a little rashness has become highly refreshing.
The Admiral himself in this short, sharp conflict at Donelson had also
received a serious and painful wound.  As the ship was passing a point
where it was exposed to a terrific fire, he went into the wheel-house to
sustain and encourage the pilot. Placing his hand kindly upon his shoulder,
he said, "[Be calm and firm; everything depends upon coolness now."  Just
at that moment a ball struck the iron-plated wheel-house, penetrated the
armor, and crushed the pilot into mangled death.  The massive ball split
in two, and one of the fragments struck the foot of the Admiral, inflicting
a wound exceedingly painful, and which doomed him to crutches for many
months.  I-Ie instantly seized the wheel, crimsoned with the blood of the
pilot.  But the gear was all deranged.  Regardless of his crushed foot, he
sprang below, to another steering apparatus, which had been provided to
meet any emergency like this.  But the second shot to which we have
referred disabled that also, and the boat became unmanageable.*  Thus
closed Friday the 14th, the third day of the investment.
Another cold and dismal night ensued.  The ground was still covered
with ice and snow, and the freezing blast still swept over the unsheltered
host.  The lines of the army were somewhat withldrkLwn from their close
vicinity to the rebel batteries, that the troops, in their bleak bivouac, might
be cheered by camp fires.  Strong pickets were established in front of the
lines.  There was no assault during the night.  Its silence was only disturbed by the occasional boom of a cannon from the batteries of the rebels,
and the frequent ring of rifles from the antagonistic patrols.  The morning
of Saturday the 15th opened cold and lowering.  Nature seemed to be in
sympathy with the dismal scenes of blood and misery which the day was
to inaugurate.  While the condition of the National army was exceedingly
distressing, that of the rebels had become extremely critical.  They were
now entirely surrounded. Not a single door was open to them for the
receipt of re6nforcements or supplies, save that up the river, and that
avenue the National troops could cut off at any time by planting batteries
on the shore, which they would soon colmmand.  During the night the
rebel officers held a consultation and decided upon a sortie.  For this purpose, under the veil of darkness and the storm, they massed nearly their
entire force upon the southern or left wing of their fortifications.  They
also quietly moved several of their batteries to this position.  It was their
* Although wounded himself, and his gun-boats crippled, yet with the glory of the gallant
combat on his brow, he indulged in no repmlings for his personal misfortunes or laudation of his
successes; but like a true Christian hero he thought only of his men. In a letter, written the morning after the battle, to a friend, he said, "While I hope ever to rely on Him who controls all things,
and to say from the heart, Not unto us, but unto thee, 0 Lord, belongs the glory, yet I feel sadly at the
result of our attack on Fort Donelson. To see the brave officers and men, who say they will go
wherever I lead them, fall by my side, makes me feel sad to lead them to almost certain death.". —
Speech of Hon. J. J. W. Grimes, U. S. Senate, March 13, 1862.




DONELSON, NASHVILLE  AND  COLUMBUS.                  467
plan to cut through the National line at this point. The line thus broken
and thrown into disorder, would be compelled to make a sudden change of
position. In the confusion of this change they were to be attacked in both
front and flank, and driven back to their transports. The rebels hoped
thus to cut their way through, and effect a safe retreat to the South. It
was a well-conceived plan, and had the sortie been attempted twenty-four
hours earlier, it could not but have been successful. As we have mentioned, the National army inclosed the fortifications of the rebels in the
form of a crescent. The extreme left touched the river at the point where
the transports landed on the north. The extreme right nearly reached the
river on the south. Gen. MeClernand was in command of the right wing,
Gen. Smith of the left wing, and Gen. Lewis Wallace of the centre.
At daybreak, Saturday morning, the rebels made the attack with all
the impetuosity and desperation which their situation demanded. The
vehement movement had not been anticipated by the National officers.
Gen. Grant had left his headquarters to consult the wounded Commodore
Foote, at the landing, respecting a renewal of the attack by the gun-boats.
With that superior generalship which has thus far enabled the rebel
generals, with inferior forces, almost invariably to outnumber the National
troops wherever they have met on the field of battle, more than one half of
the whole rebel garrison was hurled upon a single point of one of the divisions of the Union troops. Our troops, as usual, were outnumbered. A
single brigade was assailed by twelve thousand men, roused to their utmost
energies by despair. The rebels advanced in three columns. Three or
four rebel regiments attacked each regiment of the brigade. The troops,
mostly from Indiana, ibught with bravery never surpassed by veterans.
Even the foe was constrained to do homage to their valor. Notwithstanding the vastly superior force of the enemy, and though unsupported by
adequate artillery, twice the National troops drove their assailants back
almost into their intrencllments. At last, having nearly exhausted their
ammunition, and pressed by numbers three or four to one, the patriots
slowly retired, contesting every inch of ground, when, with a rush and a
cheer, the brigade of Gen. Wallace came from the centre to their aid. This
brigade was comlposed of five Illinois regiments and one from Indiana.*
For five hours the blood-red tide of battle surged to and fro. For a
long time one brigade of Ge. MecClernand's division, nunder Colonel
Oglesby, had to meet the whlole force of the battle alone. Gen. MleClernand sent to Gen. Wallace for reinforcements. But Gen. Wallace had
received his instructions. They were to guard the centre, and thus prevent
the enemy from making a sortie and escaping to the West. Gen. Wallace,
however, forwarded the request to headquarters. Gen. Grant was not
there. A courier was despatched, with all speed, to find him at the landing. Before an answer could be received, the request from Gen. MeClernand was renewed with terrible urgency. HIe was overpowered; his flank
was turned; his whole division would inevitably soon be cut to pieces, and
thus the safety of the entire army be endangered. Gen. Wallace waited
* "The enemy did not retreat, but fell back contesting every inch of ground."-Gen. Pillow's
Official Report.




468                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
no longer for instructions. IHe took the responsibility, and sent forward
reenforcements at once. Gen. Wallace was standing upon a hill, listening
to the roar of the battle on his right, when a crowd of fugitives came rushing up the hill, who had fired their last cartridge. At the same moment a
mounted officer came galloping along, shouting, "We are all cut to
pieces."  It was in this crisis that Gen. Wallace delayed no longer. The
reinforcements on their march to help their exhausted comrades, met many
fugitives firom the scene of the disaster. One regiment only of new
recruits fled in disorder. Still, even with this reinforcement, the National
troops were greatly outnumbered by the rebels. It was a dismal day.
Three inches of snow now lay upon the ground, and a bitter storm of sleet
swept into the faces of the combatants.
It is impossible to give any systematized account of a scene in which
there was and could be no system. The regiments were not for an hour
stationary. Now the thundering fiery billow rolled up a hill, now down a
ravine. There was no plan, except to fight the foe wherever he could be
found, and the foe was everywhere. Men stationed themselves behind
trees, stumps, rocks-whatever shelter could be found-and, with rapid
aim, fired at the foe. The rebels were also continually receiving reenforcements. Nearly the whole of Gen. Wallace's division was called into
action ere the advance of the rebels was checked. The fighting was
equally intrepid and desperate on both sides. From daylight until nearly
noon, over the broken ground, everywhere densely covered with forest, the
unyielding combatants struggled in the death conflict. The ground was
now covered with the dying and the dead, for the cruel battle had been,
on both sides, exceedingly sanguinary. Every thicket concealed a corpse;
every ravine was, full of the dead; the groans of the wounded, all along the
hillsides, mingled with the incessant roar of the cannon and the ring of the
musket. The trees of the forest, pruned and shattered by the balls, still
show how severe was the strife. The battle ground extended over a space
two miles in length. The rebels pierced the Union lines, captured two
hundred and fifty prisoners and several field-pieces. The National line was
broken. A door of retreat was, partially at least, opened for the rebel
army; and so sure were the foe that they had obtained a decisive victory,
that Gen. Pillow sent the following dispatch to Nashville, " On the honor
of a soldier the day is ours."
Such was the condition of affairs when, about noon, Gen. Grant
returned to his headquarters. The enemy had forced upon us the necessity of immediate and decisive action. In most military operations the
assailing party has a great advantage; for they can mass their whole force
against the weak point of the foe. This advantage, thus far, our generals,
for some inexplicable reason, have often left to the rebels. In long lines
of defenses we have quietly waited their attack. This energetic movement of the rebels had now inflicted upon us a disaster which, unless immediately retrieved, would insure the discomfiture of our whole army. Gen.
Grant promptly ordered a general assault all along the line. Gen. Wallace was assigned the duty of recovering the lost ground on the right.
Gen. Smith was directed to charge the rebels' works upon the left.




DONELSON, NASHVILLE  AND  COLUMBUS.                 469
Gen. Smith made instant and vigorous arrangements to carry the enemy's works before him by storm. For that purpose he selected three regiments, the 2d and 7th Iowa, and the 52d Indiana. The arrangements
were promptly completed, and at three o'clock his strong column was in
motion. Gen. Smith led the charge on horseback. It was a sublime sight
as this mass of troops in unbroken line emerged from the woods, and commenced its firm, resolute, silent tramp up the steep hbill, in the face of the
battery of the foe. A portion. of Gen. Smritl's division had been deflected
to the right, to distract the attention of the foe by a fierce assault. Though
the thunder of battle now filled the air, the charging column uttered not
a cheer, and fired not a gun, but noiselessly, as though it were a phantom
army, pressed forward in the enterprise which every man was determined
3hould be accomplished. A shower of grape and canister ploughed their
ranks, but closing up, onward was their march, until they arrived within
a few feet of the battery, when pouring in upon the foe a murderous
volley of bullets, they rushed, with fixed bayonets and huzzas which rent
the skies, upon the ramparts. Flesh and blood could not withstand the
charge. The rebels fled like deer over the hills; the breast-works were
carried and cleared, and with a shout, which rang all along the lines of the
battle, the Stars and Stripes were raised over the intrenchments, proclaiming that again the National banner was decisively triumphant.  Capt.
Stone's battery, which had been hurling destruction into the rebel ranks,
instantly advanced to the position acquired; and the point was effectually
secured against any force the rebels could bring for its recapture. Thus
gloriously, on the left, the day was gained.
In the meantime, Gen. Wallace was advancing to wrest back, on the
right, the position which the rebels had seized in the morning. The field
of this conflict was about two and a half miles to the right, or south of that
which we have just described as the theatre of Gen. Smith's heroism. At
the moment his column was commencing its movement, the animating
intelligence was brought that Gen. Smith was inside of the enemy's
intrenchments. The ringing cheer, which burst from the lips of the men,
evinced the ardor with which this joyful news inspired them. The 8th
iMissouri and the 11th Indiana, both of which had been practised in the
Zouave drill, were placed in front. The headlong charge they were ordered
to make, was supported by several regiments of Cols. Thayer and Craft's
brigades.
The hill up which they were to charge was precipitous and rough, and
in places covered with dense underbrush. Now the bloody scenes of the
morning were renewed, the National troops being, in their turn, the
attacking party.  The rebel troops contested the ground obstinately,
gallantly. The contending parties were so commingled that, in many
instances, the assailants and the assailed sought the shelter of' the same
tree. The Zouave regiments, throwing themselves flat upon the ground
as they loaded, and when the enemy's fire slackened, rising and pushing
forward, with deadly volleys, pressed resistlessly up the hill. At length
the top was gained. The rebels, driven from their position, commenced
a sullen retreat, yet sternly resisting. They were pressed, however, so




470                dIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
fiercely, that soon their retreat became a precipitate flight. As the evening dusk, of the dark and stormy day, spread over the hills, the National
troops had regained all the ground they had lost in the morning, and the
rebels were driven back within their intrenchments. Thus terminated the
fourth day's battle.
Night came chill and dismal. The icy ravines were filled with the
wounded and-the dying. Scenes of anguish and of death, painful enough
to have harrowed the heart of a fiend, transpired, in darkness and solitude,
on the snow-clad ground beneath the gloom, which no eye but God witnessed, and which the pen of the avenging angel only can record. There
are some crimes too great for humanity to forgive. This infamous slaveholding rebellion stands most prominent among them. There is no atonemlent which its guilty leaders can make for the woes they have inflicted
upon millions. There was little sleep in either camp that night.,The National troops were elated with their success. On their left
wing the Stars and Stripes were floating over the fortifications of the foe.
On the right the rebels had been routed with great slaughter, and had
been driven back, weakened and humiliated, behind the shelter of their
ramparts. The Union troops, though weary, were yet so anilmated by
their victory, that they clamored to be led forward inmmediately to the
final charge. Gen. Grant, however, after a day of such terrible fatigue,
wisely postponed the assault till the morning. The wounded, scattered
over the wide field of conflict, demanded immediate attention. Many
died during the night. Some lingered in untold agonies for a day and a
night before they were found.
The rebel troops had too much to think of to indulge in sleep. Their
situation was desperate. The light of the morning was sure to inaugurate
an assault, from superior numbers, flushed with victory, and already in
possession of important points within their lines. A council of war was
convened by the rebel officers. It was manifestly impossible fbr them to
defend their position. Gen. Buckner, in command upon their right, said
that he could not maintain his ground for half an hour against Gen. Smith,
assailing him from the position he had gained. Gen. Floyd, whose complication with the traitors when he was a member of the United States
cabinet, had given him unenviable notoriety, was exceedingly reluctant to
be taken. Conscious that he was in the moral position of Benedict Arnold,
he said, "You know my past relations with the Federal Government. It
would not do for me to be captured." Gen. Pillow expressed similar
unwillingness. "I had a right," said Floyd, in his official report, "to
decide that I would not survive a surrender there." Pillow was equally
heroic. "I would not," he said, in his report, "surrender the command
nor myself a prisonDer."
The main question to be decided was, whether it would still be possible, with the bayonet and the sword, to force their way through the
National lines. "It would cost," said Buckner, "my command, threequarters of its present number, to cut its way through, and it is wrong to
sacrifice three-quarters of a command to save one quarter. No one has a
right to cause such a sacrifice."  Floyd was first in command, Pillow




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DONELSON, NASHVILLE AND COLUMBUS.                               471
second, Buckner third.* Floyd resigned to Pillow, and Pillow to Buckner, and the two former immediately prepared, in the darkness of the
night, to steal from  the fortress.t  These chivalcrous men, with a few
chosen troops, availed themselves of a rebel steamboat and escaped up theriver, leaving their comrades, Generals Buckner and Johnson, with the
bulk of the rebel army, to fall, prisoners of war, into the hands of the
National troops.  Gen. Buckner refused to follow this disgraceful example
of his superiors, in deserting his comrades in this the hour of their calamity.
The rebel chieftain, Jeff. Davis, as soon as lie was informed of the action
of Floyd and Pillow, indignantly deprived them  of their command.
The Federal troops, not at all aware of the utter demoralization and
dismay reigning within  the rebel intrenchments, lay upon  their arms
through the night, confidently expecting to renew the assault in the morning.  In these conflicts, the American soldiers, both patriot and rebel,
exhibited a tenacity of purpose, a hardihood of endurance, and an unflinching bravery, never snrpassed by the cohorts of Alexander, the legions of
Csesar, or the battalions of Napoleon.  Never did veterans fight more
heroically than the unsheltered patriots did this day.  They clung to every
position until forced firom  it by overpowering numbers.  In many individual cases, men refused to retreat, declaring that they would die before
they would turn their backs to a rebel.  And there they stood until shot
down, or until the surges of the on-coming charge rolled around them  and
over them, swallowing them  up.  Several regiments were quite cut to
pieces, while others were so reduced, that not a single company, respectable as to numbers, remained.  One Iowa company went with eighty men
into the battle, and came out with but six.  The officers proudly set the
example of reckless defiance of peril.  The mortality among them  was terrible.  The rebels used, with each cartridge, one bullet and three buckshot.  I- ardly a man escaped without some harm.  The number of patriots killed, or severely wounded, amounted to six hundred.
One iincident of the battle will give an idea of the spirit which animated the patriot troops.  A private in the 9th Illinois regiment was shot
through the arm.  I-Ie went back a short distance to the hospital, had the
wound dressed, and returned to his place.  Soon a bullet struck his thigh,
and prostrated him, passing through the fleshy part.  His comrades offered
to take him  to the hospital.  " No," said lie, " I think I can get along
alone."  With his musket for a crutch, and with the air around him full
of the whistling of bullets, he hobbled to find the surgeon.  After his
wound was dressed, and he had received some refreshment, lie said, " I
*   The following statement respecting Gen. Buckner shows the reputation he enjoys in his own
section. "Gen. Buckner, at Rochester, on Green River, Ky., forcibly took a fine yoke of oxen
and other property, from the Rev. Mr. Wiggins, a wortlly clergyman, and paid him with a threo
hundred dollar check, on the Southern Bank at Russelville, when he hadn't funds to the amount
of a dollar. To say nothing of the epauletted rascal's forcible seizure of the property, his giving a
check upon a bank in which he had no money deposited, was a penitentiary offense'under our
laws. We hope tho officers of justice, in that section, will do their duty. We are well aware that
if Buckner shall be put to hard work in Frankfort, in the service of the State, his friend, the Governor, will let him loose. But he should be sent there any how." —ouisville Journal, Oct. 12, 1861.
f Official Reports of Generals Floyd and Pillow.




472                   CIVIL  WAR  IN  AMERICA.
feel pretty well; I think I will go and join my comrades again."  HIe was
soon actively engaged as a skirmisher. As he was stooping to take aim, a
shot entered his neck and passed lengthwise through his body, while, at
the same instant, four or five other balls struck his head, and he fell lifeless. The name of such a hero should have been preserved.
To the astonislhment of the whole National army, the dawn of the
morning discovered a white flag floating over the intrenchments of the
rebels.  Soon a flag of truce emerged from  their lines, bearing a request
to Gen. Grant for a cessation of hostilities until noon, that negotiations
might be entered into for a capitulation.  Gen. Grant very wisely refused
to assent to this, and demanded an unconditional surrender.  " I propose,"
said the patriot General, " to move immediately upon your works." *  The
rebels had no time to lose.  In a few moments the National troops would
have been on the march, and their works would have been carried by
storm.  With this only alternative before him, the rebel commander was
compelled to surrender, which he did in the following ludicrous terms:
" The distribution of the forces under my command, incident to an unexpected change of commanders, compels me, notwithstanding the brilliant
success of the Confederate arms yesterday, to accept thze zunenerouzs arnd
unch/ivalCous term8s wh7ich you propose."
In a few moments the Stars and Stripes, the emblem of our still glori:
ous nationality, were waving over the parapet of Fort Donelson, and the
whole region, including the little adjacent town of Dover, was purified
from the taint of rebellion.  Floyd and Pillow had taken with them, up
the river, a few thousand men, in a rebel transport.  Our troops, as they
joyfully, with exultant music, and war's most imposing pageant, marched
into..the fort, were amazed in beholding the Gibraltar-like strength of the
works they had captured.  Nearly fifteen thousand rebels stood before
them, humiliated, as prisoners of war.  One hundred and forty-six guns
were capturedl, many of them  of largest calibre; others composed batteLies of light artillery.  Nearly fifteen thousand stand of small arms also
fell into their ha nds.t  The amount of military stores taken, in this extended fortress, was immense.  The rebels state their loss in killed and
wounded to have been 1,238.
But the treasures captured within the fort were by no means the most
important firuit of the victory.  The rebel line of defense was broken.
The Cumberland River was opened, and thus there was affirded an unobstructed entrance into the State of Tennessee, where a ferocious and
unscrupulous rebel minority had, by the energies of mob terror, overawed
the Union party. The important city of Nashville, the capital of Tennessee, containing nearly 15,000 inhabitants, is situated on the south side
* In a brief comment upon this, the Hon. Edwvin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, nobly said,
"We may well rejoice at the recent victories, for they teach us that battles are to be won now, and
by us, in the same and only mannDer that they were ever won by any people, or in any age, since
the days of'Joshna, by boldly pursuing and striking the foe. What, by the blessing of Providence,
I conceive to be the true organization of victory and military combination, to end this war, was
declared, in a few words, by Gen. Grant to Gen. Buckner:' Ipropose to move immediately on your
wor ks.' 
t Rebellion Record, vol. iv., p. 175.




DONELSON, NASHVILLE  AND  COLUMBUS.                      473
of the Cumberland River, about 120 miles above its mouth. The capitulation of the fort took place early on Sabbath morning, Feb. 16. The citizens of Nashville received the news by telegraph, as they were on their
way to church.  The whole city was thrown into a state of the most
intense excitement.  Soldier and civilian alike shared in the panic which
seized all. Every moment they expected to see the terrible gun-boats
approaching their city. There was absolutely nothing to prevent them.
Before night, hundreds of the population, gathering such of their property
as was easily transportable, had fled from the city.  The military authorities, however, seized almost every vehicle for the use of the hospitals.
Two gun-boats, which were in the process of construction, they burned.*
The next day, Monday, Gen. Johnston, at the head of a rebel army, in
rapid retreat from  Bowling Green, arrived in Nashville, informed the
Governor that lie should make no attempt to defend the city, and continued his precipitate march to the South.  The Governor fled across the
country to Memphis, taking with him the State records.  The legislature,
in panic-stricken adjournment, followed him in his flight.  All the minor
fortifications along the river, no longer available, were abandoned. There
was a large accumulation of public stores at Nashville.  No attempt was
made to remove them.  The populace seized all they wanted, and the
torch was applied to the rest.  The heads of several hundred barrels of
whisky were knocked in, and the contents mingled with the waters of the
river-the only sensible action the people performed in their crazy fright.
Two magnificent bridges, which crossed the Cumberland River, were destroyed-a piece of wanton, useless vandalism, which would have disgraced
the Goths upon the Tiber.  Their united cost was not less than fTour hundred thousand dollars.  One of these structures, called the Wire Bridge,
cost $150,000.  The stock was mostly owned by the orphan daughters of
Gen. Zollicoffer, and was their main reliance.
Drunken soldiers roamed through the streets, pillaging, destroying,
and in some instances murdering. The whole city, during the days of
this strange fienzy, was given over to the mob, uncontrolled and an  uncontrollable.  In their fright, the inhabitants inflicted upon themselves, and
suffered from  their military defenders, an amount of injury, which no
army in Christendom would have inflicted upon the captured city of its
enemy.
Admiral Foote, though severely wounded, yet with his energetic,
indomitable spirit, was very anxious to move immediately upon Nashville.
Perhaps because his last telegram to Gen. IHalleck had elicited no answer,
he telegraphed Gen. Cullum, chief of Gen. Halleck's staff, then at Cairo,
as follows:
"Gen. Grant and myself consider this a good time to move on Nashville.  Six mortar-boats and two iron-clad steamers, can precede the troops
* The appalling suddenness of the change, to the people of Nashville, may be inferred from the
fact that the morning papers contained, in rejoicing capitals, the following announcement from
Donelson:
GLORIOUS AND COMPLETE VICTORY I ENEMY RETREATING. OUR BOYS, FOLLOWING, AND
PEPPERING TH-EIR REAR. " ON THE HONOR OF A SOLDIER, THE DAY IS OURS."




474                   CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
and shell the forts.  We were about moving for this purpose, when Gen.
Grant, to my astonishment, received a telegram  friom  Gen. Halleck,'not
to let the gun-boats go higher than Clarksville;' —no telegram sent me.
The Cumberland is in a good stage of water; and Gen. Grant and I
believe that we can take Nashville.  Please ask Gen. Halleck if we shall
do it.  We will talk per telegraph, Capt. Phelps representing me in the
office, as I am still on crutches."
Gen. Htalleck did not consent. There was probably some good military
reason for this, fobr no one has questioned Gen. I-alleck's ability or loyalty.
But as he has never announced what that reason was, and as no one has
been able, as yet, to guess a reason in the slightest degree plausible, we
may lay this event aside, with the many other inscrutable mysteries which
this rebellion has evolved.  I-Had Admiral Foote and General Grant been
gratified in their wishes, Nashville would have capitulated several days
sooner than it did.  Thus an immense amount of rebel stores would have
been captured, which were destroyed or removed before the army reached
there.  The value of this property, which would thus have been saved to
the Union, has been estimated at $2,000,000.  A part of the rebel Gen.
Johnston's army would also have been inevitably intercepted.
The little village of Clarksville, to which we have alluded, is situated
on the bank of the Cumberland River, about twenty-five miles abov3 Donelson.  It is a place of no importance, save that the Ohio and MIemphis
Railroad crosses the river there, by a very magnificent bridge.  On the
19th, Admiral Foote left Donelson with two boats, and the next day took
possession of Clarksville, without opposition. The Union flag was hoisted
over the little fort, and a proclamation issued, demanding the surrender of
all public military stores, and assuring all peaceably disposed persons that
they should be protected in their persons, their property, and their homes.
But here, as elsewhere, the routed rebels exhibited an insane spirit of destruction.  Against the most earnest remonstrances of the citizens, they
set fire to the costly railroad bridge, and it was utterly destroyed.
Sunday morning, February 23, just one week after the capture of
Donelson, a small advance of Gen. Buell's coliumn, marching from  the
vicinity of Bowling Green, took possession of Edgefield, a small town opposite Nashville.  Here they remained quiet and unmolested until the next
day, when Gen. Buell arrived, with the rest of his column.*  I-e was
immediately waited upon by the mayor. and a conmmittee from Nashville,
and with a tedium of delay, not explained, the hour of eleven o'clock the
next day was fixed upon for all to meet in a formal interview, and talk
over the matter of a surrender of the city.  The interview  was held
according to appointment, and passed off very pleasantly.  The mayor,
* Don Carlos Buell, a native of Ohio, was born about 1821. Hle entered WVest Point in 1837,
and was brevetted second lieutenant in June, 1846; was made first lieutenant in June, 1846. For
gallantry at Monterey, in the Mexican war, he was brevetted captain in September, 1846. For
meritorious conduct at Contreras and Cherubusco he was brevetted major in August, 1841. In
January, 1848, he was commissioned assistant adjutant-general, and held this position at the breaking out of the slaveholders' rebellion. In May, 1861, he was promoted to a lieutenant-colonelcy,
in the Adjutant-General's Department, and during the same month was created brigadier-general
of volunteers by Congress.




DONELSON, NASHVILLE  AND  COLUMBUS.                    475
with singular good humor, made the inevitable surrender, and published a
proclamation to the inhabitants, giving them "every assurance of safety
and protection both in their persons and property." It was, doubtless, a
source of much relief to the people to know that Gen. Buell would guard
their slave property with the utmost vigilance. In reference to the sacredA-~t IROQ   MBMLES
OAP ON:NMI IAAND
IRO
offier; 1we can leae our homes, and   en. Buell w  il protect our slave
property  even more vigilantly than we could do it ourselves.
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F.  II  
VYIAY IESORO
Pur~-o~' ~ SAVANNA




476                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
During the week which had passed, the rebels had been enabled to
remove all the public property which had not been destroyed. The guns
they had thrown into the river. The troops had, of course, all escaped.
There was but little openly avowed Union sentiment to be found in Nashville, though a few secretly declared that they had ever been in favor of
the Union, though they had not dared to utter such a sentiment, lest they
should be hung by the mob. On the 23d, Admiral Foote was permitted to
ascend the river with his gun-boats, convoying the transports which carried
a division of the army under Gen. Nelson. Gen. Grant also accompanied
the expedition. All were charmed with the surpassing loveliness of the
river banlks. The bluffs which fringed the stream on either side, were
broken into the most picturesque forms. Now they rose in conical peaks,
luxuriantly wooded, two or three hundred feet. Again, they swept back
from the river in an irregular crescent, embracing a meadow of almost
Eden-like richness, verdure and beauty, where the cottage of some favored
farmer nestled in quietude, with flowers and orchards and fields of grain
embellishing the scene. The air of that sunny clime was delicious in its
balmy fragrance; and birds of brilliant beauty and sweetest song twittered
among the boughs already green with the bursting buds of spring. The
fleet reached Nashville just in time to enter the city with Gen. Buell's
army. Perhaps Gen. Halleck thought it best that as the fleet had captured Fort Henry without the army, the army, without the fleet, should
have the privilege of taking Nashville. If this were the thought, it was
paying a heavy price for the privilege, in losing over two millions of governmental stores. If this were not the reason, it is still more difficult to
account for the prohibition, which stopped the gunl-boats at Clarksville, for
a week, when every moment was so precious.
Here, as in every other revolted city, the female rebels, relying upon
the immunities of their sex, insulted the National officers in every possible
way. They made up faces at them, spit upon them, threw slops at them
from the windows, and in all those varieties of expedients which envenomed
female ingenuity could devise, lavished indignities upon theim. Gen. Butler, at New Orleans, with characteristic promptness, had tamed down
these furies into lamb-like docility by his very sagacious order, to send all
such characters to the calaboose, as disorderly womzen. Even, Gen. Buell,
notwithstanding his strong sympathies with Southern institutions, could
not endure the wanton indignities which he had to bear from this source,
as well as his subalterns.
It is stated that one day, as Gen. Buell was riding on horseback through
the streets of Nashville, an aristocratic lady, living in a large, elegant mansion, stepped out upon the piazza, and waving a rebel flag defiantly before
him, shouted, "Hurrah for Jeff. Davis and the Southern Confederacy."
The General reined in his horse, turned toward the lady, lifted his hat
with all the courtesy and suavity for which he is remarkable, and surveying the palatial residence, with an admiring eye, from cupola to basement,
remarked, " An excellent house for a hospital."  In less than two hours
every room was filled with sick and wounded soldiers. The lady was very
politely requested to take good care of her numerous guests.




DONELSON, NASHVILLE  AND  COLUMBUS.                     477
A couple of National officers in Baltimore adopted a course, under
similar provocation, which operated very happily. They were quietly walking the pavement, when they were met by a woman, elegantly dressed,
who grossly insulted them, as she passed. They turned and followed her,
at a little distance, and unnoticed, to her residence. It was a mansion of
such dimensions as to indicate opulence in the proprietor. Ringing at
the door, they inquired for the master of the house. As he entered, a
pompous, self-important man, one of the officers rose and said to him, very
blandly,
" We are sorry to intrude upon you, sir. But we have been grossly
insulted by a female member of your family. As we cannot submit to
insults unavenged, and as we cannot avenge ourselves upon a woman, we
are under the necessity of holding you responsible. Iere is my card.
Will you do me the favor to select a fiiend, who, with my fiiend, will
make arrangements for our meeting. You, of course, have the choice of
weapons; swords, pistols, rifles, or whatever you please."
The proud man was terror-stricken. I-le went out to see his wifle..She
was equally terrified. After a time they both came in together, and the
feminine rebel made a very humble apology.  She was afterwards a
marked woman, and her demeanor was so wonderfully improved by the
incident, that she was never known to cast even a disrespectful look upon a
National officer again.
Nashville was the residence of James K. Polk, formerly President of
the United States, and one of the very few who have acquired wealth
while in the presidential chair. His honored widow resided in a beautiful
mansion, embellished with tasteful surroundings-the grounds richly deco.
rated with cedars and magnolias. In one corner, beneath a costly tomb,
slumbered the remains of him who was once the chief of this great Republie. Gen. Grant and his staff called to pay their respects to the widow,
whose position demanded this attention. They were received with all that
elegant politeness which had formerly graced the White House. But their
reception was polite only, not patriotic.  The polished coldness of the
interview, indicated but too plainly in what direction the sympathies of
the widow flowed. She expressed the hope that the tomb of her husband
would protect her household from insult, and her property from pillage;
further than this, she expected nothing and desired nothing from  the
United States. And yet these United States had raised her husband to
rank and honor, and had conferred upon her that ample fortune which
cheered her declining days.
In the capture of Donelson, the fleet, though finally disabled, lent very
efficient aid.  Still the army is entitled to the highest praise for this wonderful achievement.  But for such heroism, on the part of the patriotic
troops, as has seldom been witnessed on the field of battle, these massive
works, behind which were stationed eighteen thousand determined men,
never could have been taken.*
~ The lHon. J. W. Grimes, in his speech in the United States' Senate, March 13, 1862, introduces a letter from an intelligent gentleman in the West, containing the following words: " When
Fort Henry surrendered, the gate was opened by which rebellion will be utterly and finally cruns'.d.




478                   CIVIL WAR  IN  AMERICA.
The battles of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson were but a part of the
siege of Columbus.  These posts were, in fact, outworks of that great Mississippi fortress, which outworks being talen, the fortress itself became
untenable.  This was manifest to every mind, of any military sagacity.
Commodore Foote, of course, perceived it, and was anxious to move immnediately upon Columbus.  I-1e was exceedingly unwilling, by delay, to give
the rebels opportunity to escape, with all their resources of war, frorn that
stronghlold.  IHe expressed his most confident assurance that, with his gunand mortar-boats, he could shell them into a speedy surrender.  Bu3t again,
for reasons which are not divulged, and which no ordinary sagacity can
divine, he was compelled to give way to the counsels of military comnmanders.:
On the 27th all the gun-boats and mortar-boats on the Cumberland
River, were ordered to rendezvous immediately at Cairo.  At two o'clock
in the morning of Tuesday, March 4, Admiral Foote t6ok a fleet of six
gun-boats and four mortar-boats, with four thousand men in transports,
and, in the gloom of the undawned morning, steamed down the river for a
reconnoissance, in force, of Columbus, which the rebels called the Gibraltar of America.  Two hours down the rapid current brought themn to Lucas
Bend, three miles above Columbus.  It was now broad day, the morning
was clear and cold, and the bluffs of Columbus stood out, clearly defined,
against the morning sky.  As soon as all the boats had arrived, preparations were made for a desperate action.  The guns were loaded, and the
gunners stationed at their posts.  MSagazine stewards, shell boys, powder
boys, all were ready  for their appropriate work.  Every article was
removed which could interfere with eflicient action.
The four mortar-boats were towed to the right bank of the Miissouri,
and made fast to some trees near Belmont Point, from which spot they could
throw their terrific shells into the fort. Everything was now ready for the
attack.  Just then a farmer was seen upon the Missouri shore.  lie was
hailed, and he said that the rebels had left Columbus, carrying all their
arms and munitions with them, and laying  the town in ashes.  This was
startling and humiliating intelligence, and it could hardly be believed that
it was true.  The fleet drifted slowly down the stream  for half an hour,
when, by the aid of a very powerful glass, a large and very singular-looking
flag was seen floating over the ramparts.  It had manifestly'too many
stripes for the rebel flag, and it was hardly conceivable that the banner of
the Union could as yet be raised there. Under these circumstances of perplexity Admiral Foote refrained from  throwing any shells into the works,
but sent a couple of tugs to land a detachment of the 27th Illinois, under
In a few days Commodore Foote will open the Mississippi, provided he is not hampered by the
Government. lHe has done a great work for his country-a work which, I am sorry to say, has not
been properly appreciated. I see it stated in the papers, that the gun-boats did but little service at
Donelson. This is a monstrous mistake. They silenced nearly all the enemy's guns; and had not
the wheels of one boat, and the tiller ropes of another, been shot away, in fifteen minutes more the
batteries would hav'e been flanked, and the entire'rebel army exposed to the broadsides of the fleet.
He would have mowed them down like grass. As it was he made the work of the army, in the
fight of Saturday, much easier than it otherwise would have been."
* See Speech of Hon. James W. Grimes, to which we have referred.




DONELSON, NASHVILLE AND COLUMBUS.                              479
Col. Beaufort, in the vicinity of the upper batteries, cautiously to explore
the ground, under the protection of the gun-boats.  As the tugs descended
the river, and approached the designated spot for landing, the strange banner was clearly revealed as our National flag, rudely improvised fro'm strips
of calico.
Never before, writes an eye-witness, was a hill of such magnitude
clambered so rapidly as was the great bluff of Columbus to-day by the Illinois volunteers.  The rebels had all fled.  Not a man, gun, wagon, or
ration scarcely, was left behind.  In less than five minutes from  the time
the men landed, they were all in the  bort, and a beautiful silk flag was
unfurled.  Thle scene around them  wras one of utter desoJl-:!ion.  As the
rebels had held the whole colnmand of the river below, they could move at
their pleasure.  As all Union men hlad been mercilessly driven ftom  the
rebel lines, and as no colored men, by Gen. TIalleck's irrational order, were
permitted to enter our lines, our troops, though in great force at Cairo, but
twenty miles distant, could receive no information whatever respecting the
movements of the foe.  Thus was our heroic army exposed to the disgrace
of having the rebels escape them, without any loss.  The foe must have
smiled complacently over his achievement.  Soon after the same feat, on a
still more humiliating scale, was performed at M/Ianassas, and again at
Corinth.  Posterity will hardly credit such statements.
The rebels at Columbus, having made all needful preparations, commenced their leisurely evacuation on the preceding Thursday.  IHaving.
taken away everything which they wished to remove, and tumbled the
heavy guns down over the blufir; into the river, they applied, on Friday,
the torch to everything that could be burned.  The conflagration raged,
with great fury, until Sunday.  On MIonday afternoon, Col. -llogg, with
two hundred and fifty men of the Illinois cavalry, from Palducah, probably
judging from  the smoke and other appearanqs, that the place was being
evacuated, cautiously approached.  3Meeting with nothing but silence and
solitude, they entered, in amazement, the deserted intrenchments at five
o'clock in the afternoon, and hastily constructed and reared the rude banner, which the earliest light of the next morning revealed to the eyes of
our descending fleet.
At the time of the evacuation, nineteen thousand troops were in the
place, under command of Bishop General Polk.*  They departed by railroad and by twenty transports.  They tore up the railroad behind them
for six miles, burning all the bridges.  Their destination was Island No.
10, thirty miles below, and New Madrid, forty miles distant.  Our troops
* Leonidas Polk was born in North Carolina about the year 1805. He was educated at the
expense of the United States at the Military Academy at West Point, where he took the oath of
allegiance to the National flag, which oath he afterwards so outrageously dishonored. He entered
West Point in 1823, and graduated in the artillery in 1827. In six months after graduation, he
resigned his commission, and studying for the church, entered the Episcopal ministry, being
ordained in 1831. In 1838, he was appointed " Missionary Bishop " of Arkansas and the Indian
Territory. In 1841, he was elected to the Episcopal See of Louisiana. Being an earnest proslavery man, he was in warm sympathy with the rebels, and upon the breaking out of the rebellion, he resigned his bishopric, and accepted from Jeff. Davis a commission in the rebel army, as
Vajor-General. Thus far, he has acquired no distinction.




480                 CIVIL WAIR IN  AMERICA.
in possession, immediately signaled the fleet. They rapidly descended the
river, and the whole force rushed eagerly into the works, deep chagrin
being blended with their rejoicing.  The fortifications extended from the
Iron Bluffs above, so called, to the Chalk Bluffs below, a distance of four
miles. Every prominent bluff around the place was fortified. A massive
iron chain, which they had extended across the Mississippi, was left.
Many torpedoes were scattered along the shore. The bluff upon which
this fort was reared, projecting slightly into the river, faces the north, comnmanding the stream for four miles. There were three tiers of batteries;
the first about fifteen feet above the water, the second, perhaps, fifty feet
above this, and the third on the top of the ]hill. The fortifications were
equally strong on every side. The quarters for the troops were clay
cabins, six feet square, and sunk three feet into the earth.  There were
enough of these to accommodate thirty thousand men. There were two
subterranean magazines, admirably constructed so as to be accessible from
all parts of the fortifications.  The fort was. supplied with water from the
river, by means of a force pump, driven by a steam engine. The little
town of Columbus, in the vicinity, was, until war's desolation nearly
blotted it out, a hamlet of about a thousand inhabitants, deriving its only
importance from the fact that it was the terminus of the Mobile and Ohio
IRailroad.
Thus fell, without the firing of a gun, the Gibraltar of the West.
With Donelson and Henry in possession of the National troops, it was
manifest that Columbus, however impregnable in itself, could not be maintained. Our troops could now, unobstructed, march across the country,
seize the railroads, and plant their batteries on the Mississippi, below
C(olumbus. Thus the rebels would have been cut off from  all' their supplies, and starved into surrender. Their only refuge was in precipitate
flight. Mifere fighting often gains victories. It requires accomplished generalship to avail oneself of the results of victory. Thus far, the National
cause has not had much in this line to boast of. Our generals were all
inexperienced. Perhaps the future will present more brilliant results.
The capture of Forts Ienry and Donelson were glorious achievements.
But impartial history is constrained to say, that with such soldiers and
such victories, Coesar, Napoleon or Wellington, would have made the
traitorous heart of all rebeldom to quake.




CHAPTER  XXI.
GENERAL MITCHEL'S CAMPAIGN.
GEN. MITCHEL COMMISSIONED  BRIGADIER-GENERAL. -TRANSPARENT CHARACTER OF GEN.
MITCHEL. - CONSEQUENCES OF RIVALRY BETWEEN OFFICERS. - EARNEST DESIRE OF GEN.
MITCHEL AND HIS COMMAND TO TAKE THE FIELD. —PRIDE OF THE MEN IN THE THIRD
DIVISION.-SECRESY AND ENERGY OF MITCHEL'S MOVEMENTS.-POLICY OF GEN. MITCHEL.-r
SUDDEN DESCENT UPON HUNTSVILLE. — CAPTURES EFFECTED BY GEN. MITCHEL AND HIS
ARMY. —HON. JUDGE LANE.-REPLY OF GEN. MITCHEL TO MADiAME POLK.-COMMAND
ASSIGNED.-DEATH OF GEN. MITCHEL.
THE brilliant campaign of General Ormsby MI. Mitchel * through Tennessee, into Alabama, constitutes an epic of the war, which must ever excite
admiration.  His movement was almost as sudden and luminous, as the
paths of the meteors, which lie had so often followed through the skies.
On the 28th of September, 1861, he was appointed Brigadier-General, and
was assigned a command in the army of the West, under Gen. Buell, near
Louisville, iKentucky.  Here he became a great favorite with his troops,
who, well-informed as to his astronomical and scientific reputation, gave
him  the pet name of " Old Stars."  IIe reached Cincinnati just at the time
that it was manifest to all, that Kentucky must throw  off her neutrality,
and espouse the one side or the other.  It became a matter of the utmost
moment, that that important State should be saved to the Union; and yet
for a time, it was very nncertain to which side the State would gravitate.
Gen. Mitchel was just the man for the place, and the hour.  HIe put forth
all his extraordinary energies in the organization of troops, and in dispatching them  across the river into Kentucky.
The attention of the Government was attracted by the sagacity he
manifested, and the promptness with which his plans were executed.  IHe
had soon quite a force collected on the Kentucky shore, and solicited per~ General O. M. Mitchel was born in Union County, Kentucky, Aug. 28, 1810. At twelve
years of age, with a good common-school education, he entered a store, as a clerk, in Miami, Ohio.
He soon, however, received a cadet's warrant, and in June, 1825, reached West Point, with a
knapsack on his back, and twenty-five cents in his pocket. He graduated with distinction in 1829,
and was employed Assistant Professor of Mathematics two years. As there was nothing in the
army then to interest him, he studied law, and opened an office in Cincinnati. His scientific taste
and attainments, drew him from the uncongenial pursuits of the law, to the chair of mathematics
philosophy and astronomy, in the college at Cincinnati. HIis ability and sleepless energy, rapidly
acquired for him distinction, and he was invited to give lectures upon Astronomy in most of the
leading cities of the Union. The lectures were attended by crowded audiences, and were received
with great enthusiasm. Mainly through his influence an Astronomical Observatory was established
at Cincinnati. In 1859, he was appointed director of the Dudley Observatory, at Albany. Upon
the breaking out of the rebellion, with all his constitutional enthusiasm, he espoused the cause of
his country.
31




482                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
mission to lead them to the field. The Secretary of War, without any
intimation of his design, suddenly made his appearance in the camp of
Gen. Mitchel, to see for himself, what such activity purported.  Gen.
Mlitchel, after showing the Secretary all that had been done, with that
frankness and transparency of character, which made him a most attractive
man, looked up, and said:
"M 1r. Secretary, I should not have been able to raise these troops, and
prepare them for the field, by saying,'Go, boys.' But I have used the
language,' Come, and I will lead you.' Now, I desire to keep my promise
to my troops. And I solicit permission to march at the head of these
troops upon Cumberland Gap, and push through, if possible, to Knoxville,
and liberate East Tennessee."
It was eminently a wise plan, and could undoubtedly have been executed at that time. The Secretary of War approved, and gave him the
command he solicited, and authorized him to march for Cumberland Gap.
It was a national calamity that this expedition was not carried out. Those
petty jealousies, which disgrace human nature, interposed obstacles, which
the President of the United States, ever anxious to harmonize discordant
elements, allowed to have too much weight. The fact that a general in
one department, was ordered to do duty within the limits of the department of another, gave such offense to the generals there located, that President Lincoln thought it to be his duty to recall Gen. Mitchel. lie was
accordingly ordered back to his headquarters near Cincinnati, and the
rebels in East Tennessee were left undisturbed.
The Department of the Cumnberland was, soon after this, united with
that of the Ohio, and Gen. Buell was placed in command. Gen. Mitchel
was appointed his second in command, and was sent to Louisville to report
for duty. He then had a camp of instruction placed under his charge.
Never did any man consecrate his energies to any work more zealously
than did Gen. Mlitchel labor to bring up his division to the most thorough
military drill; to create in his men an esparit du corps similar to that which
fired the hearts of the Old Guard of Napoleon; to organize this corps as a
solid, compact mass, which he could hold in his hand, and could move by
his will, and which he could hurl as a solid body, in case of necessity,
against the enemy. In this effort he was eminently successful. In the
whole army elsewhere there could not be found a mnore concentrated or
united band. The minor military organizations were lost sight of in the
general, and, as it were, national pride, of being a member of the Trhird
DiviSion. If you asked any private where he belonged, he would not
answer you that he belonged to such a company, or such a regiment, or
such a brigade, but uniformly and proudly his response would be, " I belong
to the Third Division."
It required comparatively but a short time to attain these results.
That point of discipline beyond which soldiers cannot go, except in active
service, may be soon reached. It requires but a few weeks to make them
familiar with all the drill of the parade-ground. After that, nmonths
behind the intrenchments, only demoralize. It is in the field where the
thunder of battle is heard, and where peril is encountered, that recruits




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484               CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
become veterans. In six week]s, Gen. Mitchel had accomplished everything which could be achieved in the way of organization and drill. His
division was now thoroughly armed, equipped and drilled, for action.
Nothing more could be done outside the battle-field. Gen. }Mitchel then
went to Gen. Buell, and said:
" General, we must now either be permitted to go into the field and
meet the foe, or we must degenerate and go backwards. It is utterly
impossible for me to carry my division any farther in my drill of discipline.
The men have learned everything they can learn, and from this moment
we must commence to decline, unless we are sent into actual service."
After long consultation in Louisville, Gen. Buell decided upon a grand
expedition in the direction of Bowling Green, where the rebels were in
great force. Gen. Grant, as we have before mentioned, was in possession
of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, and the Tennessee and the Cumberland
Rivers were open to our gun-boats. Gen. Grant moved cautiously upon
Nashville, as we have also described, followed by the flotilla, and Gen.
Mitchel was sent east to the Green River, in the advance on the way to
Bowling Green. Upon crossing the river, he threw out his scouts, ascertained the exact condition of the enemy at Bowling Green, and begged
earnestly tbr permission to advance upon that place. There had been so
much of blind and blundering movement in the war, that Gen. Buell very
properly urged his moving forward with the utmost caution. IHIe did
advance with caution; providing carefully for every contingency, and yet
pressing forward so rapidly, that the very first intelligence the enemy had
of his approach, was from the bursting of a shell in the midst of a railroad
depot, where regiments of the rebels were congregated.  Gen. Mitchel,
with his heroic, devoted, and thoroughly disciplined band, had succeeded
in cutting off all intelligence of his movements, simply by their rapidity.
He had sent out his scouts so adroitly in advance, that they seized every
solitary one of the enemy's pickets, and no man succeeded in crossing the
river to carry the news of his advance to Bowling Green. A cannon
planted upon an eminence, sent the first emphatic warning to the rebels in
the form of a shell. The enemy were, however, preparing to evacuate,
alarmed by the movement of the army and the gun-boats up the Cumberland. They had destroyed all the bridges across Green River, and with
trains of cars loaded with supplies, were preparing to escape through
Nashville.  The sudden fire from Gen. Miitchel's batteries scattered the
foe in such consternation, that they had not even time to fire the trains;
and the engines, the cars, and their abundant freight were thus saved.
That very night, a rope ferry was constructed across the river, which, by
the early dawn, had conveyed over enough of the cavalry and infantry to
take possession of the town, the enemy flying before them.
Gen. Mitchel was very anxious to take advantage of the utter demoralization of the rebel army, and to push after them as rapidly as possible. But it was not prudent to do this until boats were constructed, and
ferries established, to keep his communications thoroughly open. As the
troops were busily engaged in this work, Gen. Mitchel was surprised to
see Gen. Buell enter his camp. The commanding general was apparently




GENERAL MITCHEL'S  CAMPAIGN.                     485
somewhat alarmed at the impetuosity with which his subordinate was conducting the war. It was not until after a long discussion that Gen. Mitchel
was permitted to advance somewhat after his own fashion, though very considerably trammeled. With the very locomotives and cars taken at Bowling Green, this little army entered Nashville. From this place they were
ordered to advance upon  Murfreesboro. Eagerly he made the movement,
and then was placed on one of the lines of advance toward Shelbyville, in
the direction of Huntsville. Though it was a measure of immense military importance to cut the line of railroad at Huntsville, along which immense rentforcemnents of men and supplies, and munitions of war, were
conveyed from the West to the rebel armies in the East, it was not deemed
possible that Gen. PMitchel, with the small force at his command, could
accomplish such a feat. After careful examination, however, Gen. Mitchel
satisfied himself; that it was at least within the limits of possibility, that
this enterprise might be accomplished. Promptly he embarked in the
undertaking.
For this purpose, it became necessary to remove his depot from Nashville directly south, nearly seventy miles nearer to Huntsville. The rebels
had destroyed all the bridges on their retreat, and it was needfufl for Gen.
Mitchel to rebuild themn. In ten days he repaired the demolished railroad, and had constriucted more than fifteen hundred feet of heavy railroad
bridges. Thus he was enabled to send supplies by rail to within fifty-five
miles of IILntsville. As soon as the first train of cars, with its supplies,
arrived at Shelbyville, the terminus of the railroad, Gen. Mitchel, pushed
his troops, in a very rapid march, twenty miles across the country, from
the Dullek River to Fayetteville, on the Elk. And here again, the impetuous, yet wary general, succeeded in concealing his movements fromn the
enemy. The troops left Shelbyville just about the time that Gens. Grant
and B3uell were fighting the desperate battle of Shiloh, and Gen. 3Mitchel
heard the gloomy intelligence that the patriot troops had been defeated
there. Still undismayed, he resolved to press forward.
I-Ie was in the midst of a population, who through the debasing influences of slavery, were not more than half civilized. The following incident shows the kind of people with whom he had to deal. A rebel offie-r,
wvith a flatg of truce, conveying Union prisoners, had come through the
patriot lines to Shelbyville. Here he was taken seriously sick, and remained for some weeks, attended by a lieutenant, and treated with every
kindness. Finally he recovered his health, and Gen. MIitchel gave him
an escort to conduct him safely to the camp of his rebel confederates in
Corinth. Upon their arrival at Fayetteville, the barbaric people there
were found so much excited by the rumored defeat of the patriots at
Corinth, that the flag of truce was no longer a protection to the Union soldiers, who were conducting the rebel officer to his lines. The officer himself wrote a letter to Gen. Mitchel, expressing his deep mortification, in
finding that the people paid no respect to the flag of truce. He and the
lieutenant actually sat up all night, watching, with arms in their hands,
to protect the escort fromn murder. A burly rebel stepped up to the commanding officer-, and seized him by the beard, saying,




486               CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
" You d-d infernal Yankee-what are you doing here?"
Such was the character of the people Gen. Mitchel was compelled to
meet.
One important element of Gen. Mitchel's power was found in the fact,
that his whole soul was engaged in the work. It is reported of one of our
leading generals, that he said, at the opening of the war, that he did not
know which side was right, or which was wrong. It is reported of many
others, that they long hesitated which side to join. The energies of Gen.
Mitchel were not palsied by any such semi-treason as this. He says, impressively,
" In my treatment of the people, I adopted a very simple policy at the
outset. I had studied the great platform of the rebellion to the best of
my ability, and made up my mind that no cause existed for the South
raising its hand against the United States-not the slightest; —that it
was a rebellion, a downright piece of treason, all the way through; and
that every individual in that country, who was either in arms, or who
aided and abetted those in arms, was my personal enemy, and that I would
never break bread, or eat salt, with any enemy of my country, no matter
who he might be. And I have never done it, up to this day. In the next
place, I determined I would show them I was honest, and had an object
in view; and, while I would treat them with the most perfect justice, I
determined to make every individual feel that there was a terrible pressure
of war upon him, which would finally destroy him and grind hlim into
powder, if he did not give up his rebellion."
The question of slavery caused Gen. Mitchel very considerable embarrassment. The negroes very naturally flocked into our camps, if we would
give them any protection. Gen. Mitchel had received an order that no
protection was to be extended to slaves within his lines. But he remonstrated and argued against this insane policy. In a communication to the
writer, Gen. IMlitchel says,
"After a long consultation upon the subject with my commanding officer, I told him I was willing to make a compromise, as things then stood;
that I would drive both the master and the slave out of my camp, and
that neither the one nor the other should enter it. And that was the policy
I adopted throughout my campaign, but I desire you to understand, that
while this was my general policy, I felt it to be my duty to use the negro
man wherever he could be of the slightest service to the Government of
the United States. To this end, I organized these negroes into watchful
guards, throughout the entire frontier of the territory of my command.
They watched the Tennessee River, from Chattanooga entirely down to
Tuscumbia and Florence; and to every negro who gave me information
of the movements of the enemy, who acted as guide to me, or who piloted
my troops correctly through that unknown country, I promised the protection of the Government of the United States, and that they never should
be returned to their masters. I found them extremely useful. I found
them perfectly reliable, so far as their intention was concerned; not always
accurate in detail, but always meaning to be perfectly truthful."
Gen. Mitchel remained in Fayetteville only long enough to bring up




GENERAL MITCHLEL'S CAMPAIGN.                     487
his brigades, in such a manner that he could move them in force on Huntsville. On the evening of the 10th of August, his advance was within
eleven miles of that place, waiting fobr the early dawn, to make a dash
upon the town. The troops had made a fobrced march through the day,
surpassing everything they had done before, and when the evening came,
they found, exhausted as they were, a stream of water waist deep, some
forty or fifty yards wide. It was necessary to pass the stream that night.
There were no means of getting boats, no possibility of throwing across
bridges, and there was no time for a moment's delay. Gen. Mlitchel rode
along his lines, and said,
" gMy boys, there is but one chance for us. Will you plunge in with
me?.'
There was not a moment's hesitation. Every man plunged in; on they
went, the whole division waist deep, with a shout, across t.he water. Wet
as they were, they lay that night on their arms. At two o'clock the next
mnorning, Gen. Mitchel himself waked them in their respective camps,
noiselessly, without the sound of gun or drumhead. As they quietly passed
his bivouac, he spoke to theln in the darkness of the night, regiment by
regiment,
" Now, boys, perfect silence; not a word to be uttered. Move straight
forward, and let not the enemy know that you are advancing, by any
sound whatever."
On they moved, with such hushed voice and softened tread, that they
actually passed through a small straggling town, within five miles of
HuI-Intsville, and the inhabitants knew nothing of it. In the morning, they
awoke without any knowledge that during the night an army had passed
by their doors.
The first gray of the dawn was appearing in the east, when the army
came in siyght of Huntsville. Every mian in this intelligent corps knew
perfectly well, that success depended upon activity and energy. Should
they accomplish their bold design of seizing Huntsville, the enemy's allinpcrtant line of railway could be destroyed, thus almost fatally cutting
off all communication between the West and the East. Their magnificent
machine-shops could be demolished, and the depot, filled with munitions
of war, could be destroyed. Gen. Mitchel was by no means confident
that he should be able to hold Huntsville.  IIe knew that the enemy was
in great force, west of him at Corinthll, and east of him at Chattanooga, and
that they were moving troops in vast numbers along that line of railroad
through H:[untsville. That very night of the attack, there came into the
camp a negro maan, who was led to the General's headqcuarters, which headquarters consisted of a camp-fire and two rails.'" Well," said Gen. Mitchel, "what have you to say. "
"M]l~assa, they are going to eat you up, down there in Iluntsville.
They've got five thousand troops down there, sir."
"I-ow do you know that a "
"I heard my /Massa say so at the supper-table to-night. I have just
come out of Huntsville, and I am certain of it. I heard the trains come
in, and the locomotives whistle, and there were five of them; and they




488                CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
had a thousand men on every train, and there were a good many soldiers
there before, and they are going to destroy you, sir."
This intelligence came apparently very direct. But Gen. Mitchel knew
perfectly well that the enemy was sending great bodies of troops on to
Corinth.  Under these circnmstances, he mnade his nmovemlents in the
morning, fully aware that this great force of the enemy might be ill HIuntsville. Still, he had so formed his plans, that even should lie find them
there, he was prepared for the struggle, and did not feel specially anxious
respecting the issue. The cavalry, the infantry, and the artillery, were.all
in position, with souls roused to enthusiasm, to strike a sudden, stern, positive, destructive blow. In the gloom of the morning, while the unsuspecting enemy were asleep, le sent out one body of troops on his right, with
crowbars and picks, to tear up the railroad track. Another body was sent
to the left, armed in like manner, to perform the same work, thus to prevent the locomotives from passing in either direction. Another party lie
dispatched to the depot, to prevent its being set on fire. Other detachments were dispatched to seize the telegraph office, and all the other important positions of the city. Fortunately, no troops were at Huntsville, and the
unsuspecting city slumbered, defenseless. In the earliest morning twilight,
Gen. M}itchel marched upon the town. The moment the alarm was given,
the locomotives, with screams of terror, endeavored to escape. But their
paths were cut off. The unarmed citizens, of course, attempted no defense.
Sixteen locomotives were captured, and one hundred cars. Instantly uponl
arriving in the town, Gen. Mlitchel sent his superintendent of the railway,
to ascertain precisely the amount of rolling stock on hand. In an hour lie
reported, and Gen. ~Mitchel found lie had as much as lie needed to send his
troops in each direction. IHe immediately organized two expeditions, one
to Decatur on the west, the other toward Chattanooga on the east, to
destroy the two railroad bridges at Decatur and Bridgeport.
Gen. Mitchel took command of one of the expeditions himself, and
placed the other under the command of Col. Turchin. They were both
entirely successful.  Col. Turchin took the bridge at Decatur.  Gen.
Mlitchel went first to Stevenson, the intersection of the line of railway to
Nashville, and having secured all he intended there, pushed on to Bridgeport, and burned the bridge across the Tennessee River at that place.
Thus he had the enemy cut off from the possibility of attacking him on
the right hand or the left. Immediately returning, he reached Humntsville
on Saturday. Sunday morning he took a car and ran down to Decatur.
Finding the enemy fleeing rapidly before him, burning the bridges as he
passed, Gen. MIitchel pushed on after him, until he reached Tuscunmbia,
on the Tennessee, opposite Florence. Here he opened a line of commnunication with the imain body of the army under Gens. Buell and Grant. He
dlated his dispatches from Tuscumbia, directing them to Gen. Buell, and
reporting what he had done. HIis line then extended from Bridgeport on
the east, entirely down to Florence and Tuscumbia on the west, a distance
of one hundred and fifty miles. They had captured a whole line of railway, with all the rolling stock, and all the machine shops, and the depots.
In two days from the time le entered H-untsville, he had a time table,




GENERAL MITCIIEL'S  CAMPAIGN.                      489
actually printed and published, with the whole track'carefully guarded,
and keeping the machine shops and rolling stock in perfect order. In
addition to that, he took three old locomotives and converted them  into
magnificent new ones.
The grand object now was to hold this new coulitry and to repair the
lines of the railway from Decatur to Nashville, and from  Stevenson to
Nashville, all which points were held by our troops. This was a difficult
and laborious undertaking, but it was accomplished with sufficient rapidity
to enable Gen. MTitchel to supply his troops with all the provisions and
munitions of war they needed, excepting forage for the horses. This he
obtained in the following manner.
-Ie first obtained the names of all the rabid Secessionists in all that
country. Ile got tlhem accurately and without difficulty, fromn the ULTnion
men in that region, who had been tried like gold in the furnace. Ile
found many solid, substantial, enduring men, who had stood through the
most terrific persecution, faithfnl among the faithless.  One man, the Hlon.
Judge Lane, was appointed judge by President Lincoln after his election.
Boldly le accepted the perilous appointment, telling his countrymen that
lie intended to perform  the duties of his office at every hazard. When
threatened by the mob, he replied, that lie was ready to die, if necessary,
for his country, but that le should remain loyal until his last breath. He
then, that his actions might correspond with his words, took the flag of
the United States to the top of his house, nailed it to a little spire that
surmounted the roof, and said that any man who dared to tear that flag
down should first pass over his dead body.  That flag Gen. MA.itchel found
flying wlen hle entered I-Huntsville.  Such was the spirit which ennobled
some of the Union men of Tennessee.
Gen. Miitehel, through reliable friends, classified the community into
three lists. The first, contained the names of those who from the beginning were warm  Secessionists; the second, embraced those who endured
for a time faithful to the old flag, until overpowered by the terrors which
treasoii wielded, they were compelled to surrender themselves, to float
along on the current of rebellion.  The third included those who held out
to the last, true to their country through every menace and through every
sacrifice.
Gen. Mitchel then sent an order to all the avowed traitors to send him
a list of everything they had, all the fodder, all the corn, all the forage, all
the supplies of every kind-all their horses and all their mules. Ile told
them  that if they did not give an accurate list, if upon searching and
sounding their premises, he fiund they had deceived him, he would punish
them with the utmost severity. As a matter of course, they gave a correct
list.  I-Ie then ordered them to hold everything subject to his order. If
they parted with anything without his leave, he held them  personally
responsible.  They might use for themselves, and for the slaves on their
plantations whatever they wanted, but not a particle was to go off the
plantation without Gen. Mitchel's permission.*
* All the facts contained in this chapter, the writer received from the lips of Gen. Mitchel but
a few weeks before his death.




490                 CIVIL WAR  IN  AMERICA.
He then ordered the quartermaster to go out to these places and get
supplies, giving receipts for everything he took. He divided these installments in such a way, as to take first a tithe of the property of each, and
then. another tenth, and then another, as needed. As this was done, and
these rebels Ccame, with their receipts from the quartermaster, specifying
the amounts which had been taken, Gen. Mitchel paid them for every
article, at the fair market price, he himself fixing that price. Thus they
found that he was just, and that he did not wantonly deprive them of their
property. In this manner he obtained nearly all his supplies for his army
on the ground, avoiding the expense and inconvenience of distant trans,
portation, while at the same time he was using up those provisions whicl
might otherwise have gone to the rebel army.
As to the payment for these supplies, Gen. M~itchel raised every dollar
in the country lie had penetrated.  I-le captured, in one place, on his
march, five hundred bales of cotton which the rebels had piled up into a
fort to conlmand an important bridge. The enemy destroyed the bridge
on their retreat, and Gen. MIitchel found himself in front of a deep stream
three hundred feet wide, and with no means of crossing.  The mode he
adopted is worthy of record as illustrative of his energy and fertility of
invention.
He took these cotton bales, and placed them on the water, buoyant as
they were, end to end. Rails were run underneath the ropes, which were
pried open by means of a crowbar, and thus he securely bound sixty-six
bales together in pairs. These were placed about ten feet apart, fastened
occasionally by guy ropes. Planks were then placed reaching from the
first cotton-bale pontoon to the second, and so on until he had a perfect
bridge from  shore to shore. Thus, in a few hours, three thousand men
and two pieces of artillery were passed over for the successful attack upon
Bridg.eeport. An eye-witniess of this operation, writes:'"Gen. Mitchel 1as
more energy, more ingenuity, more mechanical genius, more resources and
a more mobile division than any general, of his standing, in the volunteer
force of the United States."
This cotton was again taken up, and conveyed by the cars to Huntsville, where it was sold for nearly $30,000, which went directly into the
treasury of the United States, through the army chest. Gen. Mitchel also
received for the transportation of this cotton, on the railway, then, by conquest, belonging to the United States, and for transportation by the army
wagons, over $10,000 mnome. Thus he had a sum of nearly $40,000. With
this money, thus legitimately obtained firom the rebels, he paid the enemy
for the supplies he seized for his army. It was in this manner that he
sagasciously made war support war, and held the rebels submissive as
children under his vigorous sway.
One step arther he went. HEe was very anxious to detach every individual he could from the enemy.  -Ie reasoned in this way. There is no
possibility of ever breaking down this rebellion, unless it is by detaching
individuals.  Many of them said,
"We can do nothing at all, because we must depend upon our rulers and
governors to negotiate a peace, and bring this war to a close in some way.;'




GENERAL MITCHEL'S CAMPAIGN.                                    491
Gen. Mitchel replied, " Gentlemen, this is utterly impossible.  It can
never be ended in that way.  There was a time, before this war broke out,
when your government sent their representatives to Washington; but they
could not be received, and can not be received now.  The thing can not be
done.  You, the people, must rise, and say-to your rulers,' The war shall
not go on any longer; we refise to suplport your army.'  Do that, and
the war must cease, and the old flag will again wave over the country." *
Gen. Mitchel did not enforce the oath of allegiance upon the people,
except in one instance.  A  man who had been in the rebel army deserted,
and came within the Union lines, expressing the desire to return, unmnolested, to his home.  "No, sir," said Gen. Mlitchel,  "never-until you
take the oath of allegiance to the United States, to nullify the oath you
took to the Confederate government."
iIad Gen. Mitchel then required the people, in a body, to take the oath
of allegiance to the United States, they would either have refused, or would
have regarded the oath as given through compulsion, and as not of the
slightest value.  He, therefore, moved more gently and cautiously.  The
guerrillas, in  robber bands, were  attacking  him   on  every  side.  Geln.
Mvitchel said to the people,
"I wish you to denounce this guerrilla warfare, by singing a pledge
not to engage in it yourselves, and, if you see other persons engaged in it,
that you will stop it if you can; and if you can not stop it, that you will
give intelligence of: the fact that we are to be attacked, so that we can
defend our troops from this kind of murder."
To those who signed this pledge, Gen. Mitchel gave certain advantages,
allowing them  to pass and repass without hindrance.  But to those who
refused, he granted no privileges.  They were carefully watched, and no
freedom  of movement was allowed them.  This plan operated admirably,
and soon the whole country were ready to sign this pledge.  For the government of the region occupied by his army, three courts were established
and held in perpetual session.  One was a court-martini for the trial of
military offenses.  Another was a court of examination for the trial of
persons brought in as prisoners, and the third a military court for the trial
of criminal offenses. This just and vigorous regime was just what the
* The following incident is worthy of mention, as characteristic of Gen. Mitchel. When passing through Nashville, he, with a number of other distinguished officers, called upon AMrs. Polk,
the widow of President James K. Polk. The lady made no attempt to conceal hier strong sympathies with the rebellion, and singling out Gen. litchel, said to him,
"General, I trust this war will speedily terminate by the acknowledgment of Southern independence."
The remark caused a lull in the conversation, and all eyes were turned to Gen. Mitchel, awaiting his response. For a moment he stood in silence, his lips firmly compressed, and then, in tones
of deepest earnestness and solemnity, replied,
" Miadam, the man whose name you bear was once President of the United States. He was
an honest man, and a true patriot. -Ie administered the laws of this Government with equal justice to all.  We know of no independence of one section of our country which does not belong to all
others; and, judging by the past, if the mute lips of the honored dead who lies so near us could
speak, they would express the hope that this war might never cease, if that cessation were purchased by the dissolution of the Union of States over which he once presided."
The effect of this remark, uttered in a calm, yet firm and dignified tone, was electrical.




492                CIVIL WAR IN  AMERICA.
exigencies of the case demanded, and the rebels were held under firm control. But those who were in sympathy with the rebels, and who were
ever remonstrating against striking lard blows, and were pleading for conciliation, clamored loudly against Gen. Mitchel, as they had clamored
against Gen. Fremont. The' cry against him  became so loud, and the
charges so envenomed, that, at his own recquest, on the 2d of July, he
received an order from the Secretary of War to repair to Washington
without dn hour's delay. The Secretary of War was warmly in sympathy
with Gen. Mitchel, and earnestly espoused his method of fighting the
rebels.
When Gen. ~Mitchel arrived in?iTashington, Gem. Halleck, who was
then General-in-chief, was on a visit to the James River. While he was
thus absent, the President and Secretary Stanton had an interview with
Gen. Mitchel, and both of them being in cordial sympathy with him in his
measures, they suggested to him that he should take charge of a secret
expedition then in contemplation. IHe was requested to examine the
whole matter, and report, as soon as lie could nake up his mind, whether
lie were willing or not to undertake it. WVith his accustomed promptness,
he reported the next morning that he approved of the plan, and was ready
to undertake its execution.
The President, however, replied, that since he had intrusted the entire
command of the army to Gen. Halleck, it seemed to him, on reflection,
that lihe ought not to send off an expedition without first consulting that
distinguished officer, and placing the whole matter before him. Gen.
Halleck returned to Washington. The matter was laid before him. For
very good reasons, undoubtedly, he decided that it was not prudent at that
time to undertake the expedition. Thus the matter dropped, and Gen.
Mitchel was left for several weeks in idleness, impatiently waiting an
opportunity to devote his tireless energies to his country. To the masses
of the people, it seemed strange, utterly incomprehensible, why, when we
were so sadly in want of able officers, one who had attracted the admiration of the whole country by his brilliant exploits, combining the most
chivalric daring with the most painstaking prudence, should be laid aside.
It was another mystery, to be filed with that of Gen. Fremont.
Many murmurs were heard. From all parts of the country the cry
arose, "Where is General IMSitchel?"  Early in September, he was suddenly summoned from New York to Washington, and was sent to Port
Royal, in command of the small body of troops stationed there. By his
fiiends, this was rather regarded as exile, than as an appointment which
gave scope for his military genius. His activity, however, put everything
in motion, and the highest expectations were formed of the achievements
he would inaugurate,  when suddenly he was taken sick with a malignant
fever, and, after a short illness, died. His death was universally regarded
as a national calamity.
As we now bring this first volume to a close, the war is still raging
with undiminished fury, yet with many indications that the guilty rebel.
lion will soon be crushed out. It has not been possible to preserve chronological order in the recital of the incidents of the war, thus far, since




GENERAL MITCHEL'S CAMPAIGN.                     493
each campaign, in the magnitude of its movements, and the extent of
country over which it has rolled the billows of war, stands almost dissevered from all the rest.
The wild and wondrous adventures on the Potomac, the James, and
the Rappahannock; the deadly strife at Antietam; the conflicts in Texas
and Arkansas, and that fierce storm of war in Mississippi, which has given
to Corinth, Shiloh, and Pittsburg Landing, world-wide renown; the descent
of the Mississippi by flotilla more formidable than ever before drifted on
inland stream, and the measures, legislative and executive, which the strife
gradually evolved upon the subject of the emancipation of four millions of
slaves;-all these events, and such others as may yet be developed, must
be reserved for another volume,








INDEX TO VOLUME I.
ABATIS of felled trees, rebel camp at Belmont protected by, 437; constructed by Lieut. Slemmer
at Fort Pickens, 363.
ADDRESS of Gen. Fremont's officers urging him to lead the army against the enemy without waiting for Gen. Hunter, 292.
ADMINISTRATION, hampered by the Border States, 331.
ADVENTURE of Col. Duryea, 150; heroic, of Lieut. A. N. Smith, 362; perilous, commenced by the
squadron under Com. Farragut, 415.
ADVICE, judicious and important, by Admiral Foote, 452.
AGENTS, necessity for employing private, 126; sent to Europe by the Southern Confederacy, 305.
ALEXANDRIA, Gen. Scott takes possession,f 132.
AMBUSH, Union troops fired upon, by;be.; in, 439.
AMERICA, position of, as a naval power, 339.
ANARCHY. state of, in Western Missouri, 254;, prevalence of the spirit of; in New Orleans, 398.
ANECDOTE of a Port Royal contraband, 143; of slaves, 232, 233; of an Adjutant in Gen. Mulligal's army, 285; of a Connecticut Volunteer, 385; of' a Baltimore lady, 417; of Gen.
McDowell, 168.
APPEAL, beautifil. and touching, of Gen. Fremont to his soldiers, 291.
APPOINTTIENT of officers by Gen. Butler, for the control of New Orleans, 429.
ARGUMaENTS, plausible, of the  Southern Confederacy, to obtain the intervention of foreign
powers, 296; in favor of, and against, the crew of the privateer Savannah, 300; on behalf of
aristocratic institutions, answered, 303.
ARISTOCRACY, false claims of Southern slaveholders to be the, 21; shall there be feudal, in this
country, 24.
ARMSTRONG, Gen., weak avowal of, 358; heroic conduct and plea of the daughter of; 360.
ARMIY OF THIE POTOMAC, inactivity of; subject of complaint, 215; continued repose, 392.
ARMY OF THE WEST, condition of, on the arrival of Gen. Fremont at St. Louis, 26-1.
ARMuY OF TIIE REBELS, surrounded at Fort Donelson, 466.
ARNOLD, Gen., prohibited from attacking rebel forts at Pensacola, 373; surrender of Pensacola
ordered by, 374.
ARRIVAL of Gen. Butler hailed with enthusiasm by the troops on Ship Island, 402.
ASELEY'S I ARBOR, rebel fort at, 318.
ATHENS, severe engagement at, 275.
ATLANTA (GA.) INTELLIG;ENCER, views of a correspondent in, 370.
ATLANTIC, STEAMER, arrival in Pensacola Bay of the, 362.
ATTACK upon Fort Henry, plan of, 451.
ATTEMPT of the rebels to cut through the National lines, in the fight at Fort Donelson, 466.
BAIAnMA CHANNEL, two passages through, for vessels going to Europe, 307.
BAKER, GEN. EDWArD D., 216; indomitable bravery of, 218; assassination of, 220.
BALL'S BLUFF, disasters at, 221; map of, 217.
BANNERS of the two contending armies, 439.
BARtNCAS AND MORAe, forts, seizure of, 358.
BARBARITY, unpardonable, of the commander of the Merrimac, 34-3.
BARRON, Com., rebel commander at Fort Hatteras, 204.
BATON ROUGE, capital of Louisiana, surrender of, 434.
BATTERY, ERICSSON, tempestuous voyage of, from New York to Fortress Monroe, 346; Louisi:.nae,
perfidious act of J. K. Mitchel in firing, 424.




496                                     INDEX.
BATTLE at Hilton Head, plan of, 228.
BAY POINT, vile plot at, frustrated, 230.
BEAUFORT, reconnoisance sent to, 232.
BEAUREGARD, Gen., reply of, to Gen. Hindman, 498.
BELMONT, inexplicable movements at the battle of, 436; victory at, 439.
BELL, John, of Tennessee, honest avowal of, 130.
BENTINCK, Mr., speech of, in the British Parliament, 352.
BIG BETHEL, battle of; 149; map of, 152.
B1LOXI, successful attack upon, 402.
BLACKBURN'S FORD, Beauregard's report of the battle at, 110; testimony to the bravery of Union
troops at, 171.
BLAIR, Montgomery, telegram to Gen. Fremont from, 266; Col. F. B., retaliatory measures of,
towards Gen. Fremont, 281.
BLAND, Col., and his little force at Ironton, 263.
BLOCKADE, rigor of; in Southern harbors, 140; effect of, upon England and France, 296; commencement of, upon the Mississippi River, 398; no second attempt to raise the, from the
mouth of the Mississippi, 400; raised at certain ports by Proclamation of Pres. Lincoln, 433.
BOGGS, Capt., of the gun-boat Varuna, deserved tribute to, 418.
BOLDNESS of the Ericsson battery, Monitor, 349.
BOZIBARDAENT of Fort Pulaski, 382; effect of the first day's, upon Fort Jackson, 413; of rebel
batteries on Roanoke Island, 320.
BONAPARTE, NAPOLEON, memorable sentiments and words of, 411.
BOONEVILLE, Missouri, attack and capture of, 252.
BORDER STATES, outrageous demands of the, 278.
BRAVERY, wonderful, of the National troops, 467.
BREASTWORK at Fort Donelson, heroic storming of, by Illinois regiments. 461.
BRPkECKINRIDGE, John C., intrigues of; 130; resignation of seat in United States Congress, 214.
BRIG JOSEPH, capture of, by a confederate privateer, 299.
BRIDGES, rapid construction of, by the command of Gen. Mitchlelt 485.
BROOIKLYN, U. S. steamer, supposed destination of supplies on board, 361; prodigious labors and
fighting of, 417.
BROWN, Col. Harvey, appointment of, to the military department of Florida, 363'; resolute plans
of, 365; decision to attack the rebel land forces at Pensacola, 370.
BUCKNER, Gen., rebel, reputation of, 4711; ludicrous terms of the surrender of, 472.
BUELL, Gen. D. C., sketch of, 474; slavery sentiments of; 475; anecdote of, 476; assigned to the
command of the Ohio and Cumberland Department, 481.
BULL RUN, map of the vicinity of, 169; roads to, 169; plan of the battle of, 174; conflict
at, 176, 117; retreat from, 180; rebels encouraged by the disaster at, 189.
BURNSIDE, Ges., sketch of; 314; address of; to his soldiers, 328; report of, 387.
BUSHNELL, C. S., indefatigable energy of, 338; earnest pleadings with Capt. Ericsson, 338.
BUSTEED, Gen., eloquent speech of, at New York, 261.
BUTLER, Gen. B. F., sketch of, 401; reply to the authorities of Annapolis, 114; unconditional
surrender of Forts Hatteras and Clark, demanded by, 205; command of a large land force for
New Orleans assigned to, 401; peculiar adaptation for the post.assigned, 428; opinions of;
expressed in a letter, 431; efficiency of the order of, respecting the women of New
Orleans, 432.
CABINET, members of B1uchanan's, character of, 42.
CAIRO, position of, as a rendezvous for Western National troops, 436.
CALHOUN, John C., pernicious opinions of, 35.
CALIFORNIA, Union demonstration in, 123.
CALL, Governor of Florida, frank admission of; 357; avowed opinions of, 314.
CAPTURE of New Orleans, victory obtained by, undisputed, 426.
CARNIFEX FERRY, conflict at, 197.
CARROLTON, abandonment of the fort at, 420.
CARONDELET, joy of the troops at Fort Donelson on the arrival of, 462.
CARTHAGE, battle of, 256.
CASUALTIES at the battle of Pensacola, 372.
CAUTION, disasters to our army often caused by too great, 369.
CAVALRY, rebel, cowardice of a small force of, 252.




INDEX.                                        49
CAYUGA, fierce fighting of the gun-boat, at New Orleans, 417.
CHALLENGE, the Monitor utters its note of, 349.
CHALMETTE batteries, fire of; effectually silenced, 419.
CHARACTER of most of the white inhabitants of Florida, 354.
CHARGE, impetuous, of the National troops at Belmont, 438.
CHIARLESTON, S. C., Mercury, radical opinion of, 178; rousing words of, 356.
CHARLESTOWN, Missouri, skirmish at, 275.
CHASE, Major, rebel, idle threat of, 361.
CIHRONOLOGICAL order, reason for not adhering to, 493.
CLAIM of the Floridians, utterly preposterous, 354.
CLARK, Lieut.-Col., daring exploit of, near Newbern, 332.
CLASSIFICATION of all inhabitants in Alabama, by Gen. Mitchel, 489.
CLAY, Henry, opinion of, 82.
CLERGYMEN, OPinions of Southern, 33.
CLINCHI, Fort, Florida, deserted by the garrison, 376.
COLFAX, Hon. Schuyler, visit of, at St. Louis, 282.
COLLECTOR of customs at Charleston, S. C., manifesto of, 77.
CoLuniBUS, Ky., rebels at, in large force, 281; position and population of, 443; fortifications at, 480.
C, OMMANDER PORTER, coolness and intrepidity of, 423.
COMMERCE, a rebel battery taken by Unionists at, 275.
COIIaiSSIONERS, rebel, reception of, in England, 158.
COMMiON SCHOOL system in U. S. contended against in England, 30l4.
COM_ ROMrISE, slaveholders', terms of, 45; Congressional discussion of, 43.
CONCESSIONS of the North, demanded by the slaveholders, 46.
CONCILIATION, folly of any attempt at, 422.
CONFEDERACY, Southern, object of; 157; position claimed by, 296; recognition of, how frustrated, 304.
CONFEDERATE CONGRESS, vote of, to receive Missouri, August 19, 1861, 276; cruisers, operations
of; 297; commissioners, reception of, at Havana, 306; commissioners captured, 309; scrip,
depreciation of, increasing distress in Now Orleans, 428.
CONFERENCE between Col. Mallory and Gen. Butler, 137.
CONFISCATION BILL passed, 278.
CONFLICT, irrepressible, 18.
CONGRESS, U. S., special session of, 159; representation of Border States in, 165; report of rebel
barbarities made by a committee of both houses of, 185; reassembling of in December,
1861, 392.
CONGRESS, U. S. steamer, destroyed by the Merrimac, 243.
CONSEt VATISTS, plans of, otherwise called peace party, 194.
CONSPIRATORS in Florida, first endeavor of; 359.
CONSTITUTION, American, spirit of, 19; Mr. Seward's interpretation of, concerning slavery.
CONTRABANDS, testimony in the Atlantic Monthly respecting, 138; reply of Secretary Cameron
regarding, 141; value of intelligence received from, 198; general character and ability
of, 388.
CONVENTTION in South Carolina, 69.
CONVERSATION between Col. Mallory and Gen. Butler, 137.
CORINTH, cause of the escape of the rebel army from, 391.
CORRESPONDENCE of Gov. Letcher and Mayor Sweeny, 145.
COTTON, proceeds of; sold by Gen. Mitchel for expenses, 490.
COUNTRY, solicitude of; respecting the termination of the Trent affair, 310.
CRAVEN, Capt., commander of the Brooklyn, testimony of Corn. Farragut to the heroism of, 417.
CRITTENDEN, Hon. J. J., resolutions of, presented in U. S. Senate, 46.
CROATAN STRAIT, Union Fleet enters, 320.
UUMI3ERLAND, U. S. frigate, assaulted and sunk by the Merrimac, 341.
DANGERS, threatened, at Washington, 40.
DAVIS, I-Ton. Garret, earnest and truthful remarks of; 22; Hon. Jefferson, audacity of; 67.
DEATH, penalty of, inflicted for desperate offenders, 434.
DECLARATION of leading presses in London, 311.
DEEDS of Manumission, given by Gen. Fremont, copy of, 279.
DECATUR, expedition to, under Gen. Kirchen, 488.
32




498                                     INDEX.
DEER POINT, landing of the rebels at, and complete surprise of Wilson's Zouaves, 366.
DEFENSES of New Orleans, security of the inhabitants in, 404.
DEMOCRACY, Christianity the corner-stone of, 17.
DESCRIPTION and location of Fort Jackson, 404.
DEVINS, Col., address to his soldiers by, 223.
DISCONTENT in the Army of the West, 262.
DONELSON, Fort, energies of the Western army directed against, 457:. natural and scientific
defenses of, 458; rebels strengthened by troops from Fort Henry, 457; disposition of Union
forces around, 459; plan of, 464.
DOOLITTLE, I-Ion. IMr, noble speech of, 79.
DOUGLAS, lon. Stephen A., dying message to his children, 153.
DUG SPRINGS, skirmish at, 269.
EDENTON, incidents at, 327.
EDDYVILLE, patriotic reception of the fleet by the people of, 460.
EDGEFIELD, capture of, 474.
EDWARD'S FERRY, artillery duel at, 222.
EFFECT, telling, of the fire of Admiral Foote's gun-boats at Fort Henry, 452.
EIGHTII REGIMENT Mass. Vols., resolutions of, 114.
ELIZABETH CITY, burning of, 327.
ELLET, Charles, warning voice of, 344.
ELLIS, Fort, fight at, 334.
ELLSTWORTH, COL. E. E., regiment of Zouaves under, 120; assassination of, 132; tribute to the
character of, 133, 135; anecdote of two of the Zouaves, 171.
EMANCIPATION, probable effect of, 230; why the North urges, 295.
EMAPEROR OF RUSSIA, letter of, 302.
ENEMIY, flight of, at Beaufort, 332.
ENNdIANTRESS, the prize of the privateer Jeff Davis, 300; recaptured by the heroism of the colored
cook of, 301.
ENGINEERS, various predictions of, respecting the Monitor, 338.
ENERGY, wonderful, of Lieut. Slemmer and his little garrison at Fort Pickens, 361; untiring, of
Gen. Mitchel, 482.
ENGLAND, rebel commissioners sent to, 157; effect of the spirit of, 222; preparations for war by
the government of, 311; reception of Mason and Slidell in, 313'; policy of, compared with
that of the United States, 375; estimation of, by future generations, 386; laws of, respecting
insolent women, 431; causes of the coldness towards the TJnited States, 303.
ENTERPRISE, daring, undertaken by the Pinola and Itasca, 415.
ERICSSON, Capt. John. sketch of early life of, 33'; industry and energy of, 33S.
EXPEDIENT adopted by Gen. Mitchel to secure forage, 489.
EXPEDITION, NAVAL, secretly fitted out for Port Royal, 226; second, destined against New Orleans, 400; laud, from Cairo, under Gens. Grant and McClernand, 437.
EXPLOSION of shells, effect of, in the bombardment of Fort Jackson, 413.
EVERIETT, I-on. Edward, speech of; 38.
FAIRFAX (Virginia), Union troops enter, 166; (Lieut.), boards the Trent, and captures Mason and
Slidell, 308.
FALLS CnUrcR, exhausting march of Union troops to, 166.
FANNY, capture of, by the rebels, 208.
FARRAGUT, Com., commands the whole fleet in the Gulf, 403; undaunted reply of, to foreign officers, 407; demands the surrender of New Orleans, 421.
FERNANDINA, abandonment of, by the rebels, 376.
FERRY constructed by Gen. Mitchel, 484.
FIRE-RAFT on the Mississippi, 410; pushed down upon the flag-ship Hartford, 416.
F LAG presented to the body-guard of Fremont by ladies of Springfield, Missouri, 289.
FLAG-SHIP Philadelphia, squadron forms around the, 319.
FLEET, perils of the, off Hatteras, 226; injury to, at Hilton Head, 232; position of the blockading,
399; vessels, armament and men, attached to mortar, in the Gulf, 403; position of the vessels
of, in the Mississippi River, 407; accuracy of range obtained by the Union, 412; delay of
the, 459.
FLORENCE, Ala., advance of the gun-boats up the Tennessee, as far as, 453.




INDEX.                                         499
FLORIDA, State Convention called at, 353; message of the Governor of, 354; cost to the National
Government, 354; declares itself an independent nation, 357; first efforts of the conspirators
in, 358; flag of treason withdrawn by Union troops from the whole of, 375.
FLOYD, John B., arms and army of the U. S. scattered by, 43; sale of arms and ammunition to
rebels by, 43; sketch of, 458; meanness of, 470.
FOOTE, Rear-Admiral, retirement of, caused by wounds, 435; sketch of, 450; manly, heroic, and
Christian character of, 454; wounded at Fort Donelson, 466.
FORCES at or near Washington, in July, 1861, 165; landed on Roanoke Island, 320; under Gen.
Grant fobr the reduction of Fort Henry, 450.
FORT BARANCAS, slight injury to, 374.
FORT CLARK, surrender of, 203.
FORT HATTERAS, treachery of rebels at, 203.
FORT JAcKSON., formidable naval force arrayed against, 409; mortar-boats challenged by, 412;
preparations f)r a renewed attack upon, 422; appearance of, after the action, 424.
FORT MCRAE, description and position of; 356.
FORT PICKENS, strength and importance of, 356; anxiety of the nation respecting, 363; indignation roused of the defenders of, 370; in danger from Forts McRae and Barancas, 363; heroic
decision of the garrison at, 361; importance of, 360.
FORT WALKER, confidence of the rebels in the strength of, 229; condition and appointments
of, 230.
FORTS, defenseless condition of, caused by the treachery of the Government, 67.
FOSTER, Gen. John G., heroism and sketch of, 322.
FouKE, Col., remark of, to Col. Wright, 443.
FREMONT, Gen. Johll C., birth and early life of; 258; recalled from Europe, 260: active energy of,
260; appointment, 261; difficulties in the position of, 261; perplexities and toils of; 267;
magnanimity of, 268; embarrassments of; 281; indomitable energy and consummate skill of,
284; grand, though undisclosed, plans of; 287; order for superseding, 291; reception of, at
St. Louis, 292; cause of the removal of, 293.
FRosr, Gen. D. M., letters of, to Gen. Lyon, 245; surrenders to Gen. Lyon, 247.
GALENA, gun-boat, origin of, 336.
GAMBLE, Gov., of Missouri, prepossessions of, 276.
GARRISON at Fort Pickens, heroic decision of, 361.
GENERALS, sympathy with slavery of many of the Union, 212; commanding, at the bombardment
of Fort Pulaski, 383.
GERDES, Capt. F. W., important services of, 408.
GIBRALTAR of the West, Columbus regarded as, 448.
GERMIANS, bitterness of the rebels toward, 247; GERMAN soldiers under Gen. Lyon, 252.
GOLDSBaOROUGs, Com., sketch of, 315; recall of, to Fortress Monroe, 333.
GOVERNOR, Military, of New Orleans, first official act of, 428.
GOVERNMENT, U. S., embarrassments of, 136; traitors in all departments of, 167; unwise measures
of, 234; offer of; respecting I;rivate property, 298; loss of, at Hampton Roads, 351.
GRANT, Gen. U. S., the command of the National forces at Cairo assigned to, 436; inexcusable
delay of tile troops of; and the consequences, 454; sketch of, 459; division of, crossing from
Fort Henry to Fort Donelson, 460.
GRIi.ES, -Ion. J. W., extract fiom a speech of, 477.
GuN-BoATS, first planned by Gen. lFremont, 294; efficiency of, in the capture of Newbern, 333;
dispersion of a marauding band from New Orleans, by the, 408; decorations of those selected
to shell Fort St. Philip, 409; names of those, especially engaged in the action at Fort Jackson, 413; fate of rebel, on the Mississippi River, 419; rapid construction of a fleet of, 448;
reconnoissancenear Fort Henry by, 451; utility of, at the siege of Donelson, 478.
GT -s, terrible effect of Union, observable in Fort Henry, 455.
NERS, hearing of, sometimes injured by explosions on the mortar-boats, 413.
U,.  RILLA bands, consternation in Missouri by the lawlessness of, 444.
HALLECK, H. W., appointment of, Maj.-Gen., 390; Gen. Hunter superseded by, 443; commendable energy of, 465; irrational order of, 479.
HITAMMOND, Senator, S. C., statement of, in regard to former Southern views on Slavery, 57.
lIAVt'TON, burning of, 189.
ITAlPTrON ROADS, embarkation of troops from, 200; unprepared condition of the Unioil Beet at, 344.




500                                    INDEX.
HARNEY, Gen., recall of, 249.
HARRISON'S ISLAND, scene at, 216.
HATTERAS, Cape, storm off, 202; treacherous weather of, 315.
HAWKINS, Col., capture of rebels by, 322.
HEINTZELMAN, Col., U. S. A., sketch of, 166.
HELD TO LABOR, different meanings of, 19.
HENRY, Fort, position, plan and strength oi; 449; expedition to, concealedl for some time, 451;
unconditionally surrendered, 453.
HENRY, Mrs., touching anecdote of, 181.
HEROISM, anecdotes of individual, 184; of patriots under Gen. MAulligan, 285.
HILDT, Capt., skill and gallantry of, 367.
HIILTON HEAD, cost to the Government of the capture of, 232; battery upon, 226; picturesque
scene at the bay, 227.
ROAR, Hon. Mr., treatment of, in Charleston, S. C., 32.
ROLLINS, Com., rebel, result of the expedition of, 400.
HOLT, Joseph, HIon., prompt measures and letter of, 82.
HOPKINS, Lieut. A., naval exploit of, 223.
HOTEL, St. Charles, incident at, 396.
HUNTER, Hon. Mr., of Virginia, demands of, 27.
HUNTER, Gen., arrival at Springfield, and effect of his policy, 292.
HUNTSVILLE, surprise of the people at, 488.
IGNORANCE, inexcusable, of Northern officers respecting the rebels, 173.
ILLINOIS, U. S. steamer, arrival at Fort Pickens, 364.
ILLINOIS 27TH REGIMENT, loss of the gallant, after the battle of Belmont, 440.
INCIDENTS, thrilling, 316; of heroism, 360; connected with the battle of Belmont, 442; in
Mitchel's campaign, 485; in Baltimore, 477.
INAUGURAL ADDRESS of President Lincoln, closing words of, 86.
INGENUITY, specimens of Yankee, 408; of GeL. Mitchel, 490.
INSURRECTION, effects of, in Missouri, 445.
INTELLIGENCE, startling, carried to Gen. Grant, 439.
INTERVIEW of Gen. Mitchel with President Lincoln and Secretary Stanton, 492.
IRON-CLADS, duel between the Merrimac and Monitor, 349; advantages of; 352.
IVERSON, Hon. Mr.. extract of speech of; 22;, statement of; 78.
JAcrsoON, C. F., Governor of Missouri, 239; duplicity and energy of, 241; weak offer of, 249;
character of the troops of, 253.
JACKSON, Andrew, Gen., army of, at New Orleans in 1814, 406.
JACQUERIE, war of the, 16.
JEFFERS, Lieut., heroic efforts of, 321.
JEFFERSON, Thomas, letter of, 18.
JEFFERSON CITY, State Convention at, 275.
JEFF DAVIS, fate of the privateer, 300.
KEY, John J., dismission of, from the service of the U. S., 393.
KENTUCKY Unionists offer their services for the War, 123.
KNIGHTS of the Golden Circle, 78.
LABOR, sympathy between capital and, 114; immense, performed by the soldiers at Fort Pickens,
under Lieut. Slemmer, 364.
LABORERS, the rights of, 20; need of, in every part of the Union, 504.
LANDING effected on Roanoke Island, 321.
LANE, Hon. Judge, true and heroic spirit of, 489.
LAW and principle of Southern aristocrats, 127.
LAUNCH of the iron-clad battery Monitor, 338.
LEESBURG, rebel troops in force at, 215.
LETTER of Secretary Camrneron, 141; fiom a gentleman in Kentucky, extracts from, 143-4; of
Jefferson Davis, 327.
LEVEE, at New Orleans, National banner raised on, 396; silent and deserted, 420.




INDEX.                                       501
LEXINGTON, Missouri, threatened by rebel forces, 281; occupation of, by Col. Mulligan, 284; fight
and surrender of, 285; glorious rebel victory at, 286.
LINCOLN, A., muttering at the South because of the election of, as President of U. S., 50; journey
of, to Washington, 62; quaint reply of, 131.
LIVINGSTON, Corn., and his brave crew, of the Cumberland, 342.
LONDON PRESSES on the Trent affair, 311.
Loss, reasons for the small, sustained by the Union fleet, at, the bombardment of Fort Jackson, 415.
Louis XV., weak saying of, 16.
LOUISIANA, purchase of, 37; population of, 395; civil code of, 395.
LOUISIANA, ironclad battery, description of, 405; treachery of the rebels in firing the, 423.
LOUISVILLE JOURNAL, testimony of, respecting female rebels, 433.
LOUISVILLE AN-D ST. LOUIS, disabling of the gun-boats, crippled our forces at Fort Henry, 465.
LOYALTY, evidences of, in Northern Alabama, 456.
LOYALISTS, banishment of, and inhumanity towards, in the Southern States, 192.
LYON, Nathaniel, Gen., reconnoissance of Camp Jackson, Missouri by, 244; energetic measures
of; 245; labors in Western Missouri, 254; labors of, 262; heroic resolve of, 269; movements
of; 272; heroism, death and character of, 273.
MACAULAY, striking remarks of Hon. T. B., 442.
MAINE, resolution passed by the State of, 390.
MANASSAS, steam-ram, built at New Orleans, 399; sinking of 418.
MAN(EUVRE of Col. Sigel at Carthage, 256; adroit, of Gen. Fremont, 267.
MARSH, Col., feeble force of, at Ironton, 263.
MASON, James M., sketch of, 305.
MATIIAS POINT, disaster at, 155; reconnoissance at, 191.
MAYO, Lieut., spirited letter of, 146.
MCCLELLAN, Gen., proclamations of; 141, 142, 155; confidence reposed in, 212; accession of, to
the position of commander-in-chief, 225; cheering news from the army of; 330; beautiful
reply to the Philadelphia city council, 391; spirited address of, 392.
MCCLERNAND, Gen. John A., sketch of, 459.
McDOWELL, Gen. Irvin, anecdote of, 182.
McRAE, Fort, channel blocked by the rebels, 364; guns of; silenced, 371.
MEASURES, vigorous, of Gen. Fremont, 276; adopted by the U. S. in place of privateering, 299;
of retaliation adopted by C. S. A., 301; for relieving the starving inhabitants of New Orleans, 430.
MEN, loyal, cruel treatment of, 396.
MERRIMAC, origin and plan of, 340; retreat of, after her duel, 350.
METTERNICH, aristocratic views of; 23.
MILLFORD, rebel force at, heroically attacked, and compelled to surrender, 444.
MIND improved by foreign travel, 389.
MINT, seizure of U. S., at New Orleans, by rebels, 70.
MISSOURI, plans of the legislature of, 240; avowed principles of, 241; military bill of, 243; threatened, 250; Fremont's campaign in, 258; weakness of, 276.
MISSISSIPPI RIVER, various obstructions placed in the lower part of, 405; fleet of Com. Farragut
commences the ascent of, 434; map of, 402.
MISSISSIPPI, U. S. frigate, assaults the rebel steam-ram Manassas, 417.
MITCREL, O. M., Gen., thrilling speech of, 124; sent to Bowling Green, 484; why the clamor
against, 492; orders of, 489; reply to Madam Polk by, 491.
MONITOR, origin of the iron-clad, 337; structure of, 339; cost to the U. S. Government of, 340,
want of confidence felt in, 348; injuries to, 351.
MONTGOMERY, Ala., meeting of Secessionists at, 70.
MONTICELLO, efficiency of the frigate, 209.
MORTAR FLOTILLA, arrival of, at Ship Island, 403; number of vessels, and arrangement o0 412.
MOULTRIE, Fort, evacuation of, 59
MULLIGAN, Col., at Lexington,: 281.
MURPHY, Col. J. McLeod, excellent sanitary regulations of, 409.
MT. ZION, sharp engagement at, 445.
MURFREESBOIRO, advance upon, by Gen. Mitchel, 485.
NASHVILLE, steamer, confederate privateer, 2971.




502                                    INDEX.
NATIONAL consideration, a question worthy of, 453; Freedman's Relief Association, society formed
at the North, called, 391; currency, Pres. Lincoln authorized to issue, 391; gun-boats, fate,of, at New Orleans, 419; loss at Newbern, 335; peril of the ships, from rebel fire-rafts and
gun-boats, 399.
NAVAL architecture, sudden change in, 346; armament, for the reduction of Fort Henry, 450;
Board, incredulity of, respecting the success of the Monitor, 337; power, rapid increase of, in
the United States, 393.
NAVY, patriotism of the, 202.
NEGRO woman, Union forces saved by a, 288; pilot, faithfulness and daring of a, 390.
NEGROES, character of information received from, 236; under Gen. Lane, 290; services of, on the
ramparts of Newbern, 332; Northern army, how regarded by, 335; joyful welcome to the
Northern troops by the, 375; efficient labors of, 385; conversation of Gen. Mitchel with, 487;
treatment of, by Gen. Mitchel, 486; testimony respecting, of Sec. Seward, 198.
NEUSE RIVER, march of Union soldiers along the bank of, 329.
NEWBERN, N. C., defenses of, 329; rebels fire the city of, 333; auction sale at, 389.
NEW ORLEANS, P'icayune, remarks of, 119; Delta, bitterness of the, 192; fall of, 373; papers, testimony of, regarding misrule in, 398; wealth, commerce, and position of, 403; defenses of,
404, 405; rage and mortification of the rebels in, 420; importance in the commercial world,
426; newspaper offices of, refuse to publish the proclamation of Gen. Butler-the consequences, 429,
NEW YORK, mass meeting in Union Square, 123; gallant charges of the 69th, Col. Corcoran, 176.
NIGRIL BAY, scene on the waters of, in 1814.
NIGHT BOMBARDMENT, splendor of a, 320.
NOBILITY recognized by Americans, 55.
NORTH, activity at the, 131; military power of, 213; what would have been the effect of assenting
to secession by the people of the, 237; political parties at, 380; principles of, regarding the
restoration of the Union, 381.
NORTHERN, Border States, loyal governors of, 239; LADY, chivalrous treatment of, by a wealthy
Southron, 404; soldiers, useless toil of, 380.
NoTICE of the arrival of Mitchel's column at Bowling Green, 484.
OATH of allegiance not enforced by Gen. Mitchel, 491.
OBSTRUCTIONS thrown across the Mississippi River, to prevent the passage of the Union fleet, 421.
OFFICERS of the Union army, unwillingness of many, to receive assistance or information from
slaves, 173; U S. regular, many disloyal to the flag, 358; opinion of British and French, of
the fortifications at New Orleans, 400.
OGLESBY, Col.; heroic sentiment of, 463.
OLMSTEAD, Col., character of, 384; reply of, worthy of the land of his birth, 382.
ORDER, reasons for the, disbanding Zagonyi'si band, 289; Butler's, concerning the women of New
Orleans, 431.
ORDNANCE stores at Pensacola, value of, 358.
OwAsco, gun-boat, challenge given by Fort Jackson, accepted by the, 412.
PADUCAH, Gen. Smith leaves, to threaten Columbus, 437.
PANIC, cause of, among Union troops at Bull Run, 179.
PARK'S POINT battery, 318.
PASQUOTANK RIVER, sharp engagement at, 327.
PATRIOTISM of Miss Armstrong, 360.
PATRIOTS, firmness and heroic endurance of, at Columbus, 438.
PEACE Convention, 45.
PEGRAM, Col., surrender of, 161.
PENSACOnIA, the naval depot for the Gulf fleet, 355; bombardment of, 370; conflagration and
evacuation of, 374; Union feeling in, 375; bay and harbor defended by Fort Pickens, 361;
navy-yard at, seized by the rebels, 358; U. S. steamer, lessons taught by the grape-shot of, 422.
PEOPLE, ability of Northern, not appreciated, 213; confidence of Western, in Gen. Fremont, 261;
Mitchel's advice to, respecting guerrillas, 491.
PERIL of Union soldiers in their attack on Belmont, 438.
PERRY, United States vessel of war, 299.
PETARDS, attempt to blow up sunken hulks near New Orleans by, 415.
PHELPS, Capt., conduct of the expedition by, 456.




INDEX.                                         503
PHItLIPPI, skirmish at, 147.
PiCEKENS, Fort, importance and condition of, 358.
PILL, W. A., Rev., chaplain 1st Regiment Missouri Volunteers, exploit of, 252.
PILLOW, Gen., Union troops charged by rebels led by, 439; official report by, of the battle of
Donelson, 468; dispatch of, 468.
PILOT TOWN, hotel at, converted into a hospital, 403.
PIRACY, prisoners convicted of, 301.
PLAN, hazardous, resolved upon by Com. Farragut, 415; of rebels, revealed to Gen. Grant, 437;
sagacious, of Gen. Fremont frustrated, 280; of the rebels at Pensacola, interrupted, by shells
from Fort Pickens, 374; of Fremont to capture Columbus, 448; of Fort Donelson, 464.
PLYMIOUTH, the Union fleet touches at, on Roanoke River, 328.
PO:ICY, consequences of the inhuman, of our Government, 214; war, of the army of the Potomac,
331; unfortunate, of Gen. Hunter, and its consequences, 443.
POLK, Gen. Bishop, headquarters of, 436; sketch of, 479.
POPE, Genm., success of the vigorous measures of, 265.3
POPULATION, whole, of Free States and Territories, 36; of the whites of the eleven seceding
States, 36; of Florida, 353; of New Orleans, 403.
PORTER, Corn., consternation caused by the flotilla of, arriving at Pensacola, 373; valuable assistance rendered to the garrison at Pickens by, 375; precautionary measures of; 410; interview
between the rebel officers of New Orleans and, 423.
POSITION of Forts Jackson and St. Philip, map of, 414.
POTOMAC, movement of the army from the banks of the, 165; character and numbers of the army
of, 387.
POWER, secret, of Gen. Mitchel with his command, 486.
PRENTISS, Gen., force of; at Cairo and Bird's Point, 263.
PREPARATIONS, energetic, for action, on the vessels of the fleet of Corn. Farragut, 407.
PRESIDENT of the U. S., Candidates for, 39; endeavors to assassinate the elected, 65; increase of
the army called for by the, 122; message of. 160; determination of; respecting Messrs. Mason
and Slidell, 311.
PRICE, Gen., rebel, advance of, on Missouri, 281; concentration of the forces of; near Springfield,
Missouri, 291.
PRINCIPLES on which Messrs. Mason and Slidell were released, 313.
PRISONERS OF WAR, terms of the exchange of, 290; Gen. Ialleck refuses to treat guerrillas and
marauding parties as, 448.
PRIVATEERING, foundation of, and how distinguished from piracy, 298.
PRIVATEER, Savannah, fate of, 300.
PROCLAMATION, reception of the President's. at Montgomery after the fall of Sumter, 140; of Gen.
McClellan in Virginia, 141; outrageous, of G-en. Beauregard at Manassas, 148; scandalous,
posted in Memphis, Tennessee, 193; apologetic, of Gen. Harney at St. Louis, 248; of Gov.
Jackson, at Jefferson City, Missouri, 250; of Gen. Lyon, at Booneville, 253; of Lieut.-Gov.
Reynolds, at New Madrid, 263; of Gen. Fremont, at St. Louis, 276; spirited, soul-thrilling,
of Zagonyi, 288; of letters of marque by Jeff Davis, 298; of the Emperor of France, 305; of
martial law by Gen. Butler, at New Orleans, 427; terms of Gen. Butler's, 429.
PROMPT and decided action of Admiral Foote, 465.
PROVIDENCE, special interposition  f' an overruling, 347.
PUBLIC OPINION, rapid progress of the change in, respecting the employment of colored men in the
Army, 388.
PULASKI, Fort, great strength of, 378; Gen. Hunter demands the surrender of, 382; surrender
of; 384; secret investment of, by Northern troops, 385.
QUARREL between Davis and Beauregard, after the battle of Bull Run, 325.
QUARANTINE station near Fort Jackson, two hundred rebels captured at, 419.
REASONS why the National Government need Florida, 354; for the want of proper supplies in the
forts at Florida., 358; incomprehensible, for setting aside Gen. Mitchel, 492.
REBEL, batteries around Fort Pickens, 361; camp near Springfield, position of, 270; force in Missouri increased, 262; government, decision of, 374; general mistake of, at Pensacola, 367;
retreat cut off, 368; troo2ps, villainous deception practised by,, at Wilson's Creek, 271; officer,
mortification of, 485.
REBELS, expectations of, 71; mistaken treatment of, by the North, 213; ludicrous flight of the




INDEX.
gun-boats of, near Hilton Head, 227; object of the, in instituting the war, 237; rout of, at
Booneville, 252; elation and force of; at south-eastern Missouri, 263; outrages of, in Missouri, 264; surprise in the Merrimac at the gauntlet thrown down by the Monitor, 349;
thorough discomfiture of; at Santa Rosa, 368; loss of, 369; causes of discouragement to, 373;
address of, to the people of Georgia, 378; encouragement afforded by England to, 387; lawlessness of, crushed by Com. Farragut, 421; loss of life at capture of New  Orleans unknown, 426.
RECEPTION of Capt. Wilkes and Lieut. Fairfax, 309.
RECOIL and concussion on the gun-boats, effect of, 413.
RECONNOISSANCE'of Gen. McCall at Drainesville, 216; on the Mississippi, by the rebel steamer
Joy, 399.
RE-ENFORCEMENTS demanded of Gen. Fremont, 3656; arrival of rebels at Santa Rosa, 368.
REIGN OF TERROR, illustrations of, 72
RELAY HOUSE, Gen. Butler takes possession of, 121.
RE2MARKS of Gen. Mitchel, 482.
REMOVAL, causes for the, of Gen. Fremont, 294.
RENO, Gen. J. L., impetuous rush of Massachusetts soldiers under, 331; sketch of, 321.
RENSHAW, Lieut., order of the traitorous, 360.
REPRESENTATION, principles of, heretofore, at the South and in the North, 33.
REPRESENTATIVES' HAI;L in Washington, 40, 41.
REPORT of the battle of Carthage, 257; of the Secretary of the Navy, 44.
REPLY, heroic, of Lieut. Worden, after his wound, 350; of Gen. Fremont to Pres. Lincoln, 278.
REPUBLIC, plan of the American, 19.
REVIEW, opinions of the North British, 19.
REVOLUTION, French, cause of, 18; American, cause of, 19.
RHODE ISLAND regiment in Washington, 119.
RICHARDSON, Col., reconnaoissance of, 170.
RICHMOND Whig, announcement of, 119; Dispatch, report of, 179.
RICH MOUNTAIN, skirmish at, 160.
RICHMOND, U. S. steamer, accident upon the, 371; attack of the ram Manassas upon, 399.
RIGHT OF SEARCH, insisted upon by England, 311.
ROAD, length of, required by an army in motion, 168.
ROANOKE ISLAND, position of, 318.
RODMAN, Col., charge by 4th R. I. Vols., under, 332.
ROME, aristocracy of, 15.
ROMNEY, engagement at, 224.
ROSEcRANS, W. S., Gen., notice of, 187.
ROUTINE, daily, in a well-regulated camp, 499.
ROWAN, Com., gallantry of, 334.
RUIN of Fort Jackson, and incidents of its destruction, 425.
RUSSELL, Col., death of, of the 10th Conn. Vols., 322.
RUSSELL, W. II., views of, regarding the hatred of the Southern aristocrats toward the North, 53;
extract of a letter of, 17.
SABBATH, observance of, by Northern troops at Newbern, after its capture, 335.
SAHCEM, the coast survey steamer, very essential service performed by, 408.
SANTA ROSA ISLAND, position and appearance of, 355; expedition planned by the rebels against
the fortification on, 366.
SAVANNAH, privateer, short career of, 299; city of, population and position of, 377; alarm of the
people of, 3]8; effect of the news of the surrender of Fort Pulaski in, 385.
SAYING of Louis XV., 15; contemptible feeling evinced in, 16.
SCENE, sublimity of the night, during the bombardment of Fort Jackson, 413; beautiful and fairylike, 460; harrowing, on the battle-field, 470.
SCOTT, LIEUT. GEN. WINFIELD, well-arranged precautions for the defense of the Capital by, 40;
energetic measures of, 67; touching evidence of the fidelity to his country of, 125; resignation of the cares of office tendered by, 225.
SEAMEN received on board the blockading squadron, 388.
SECESSION, the object of, and plans for, 51; ordinance of, adopted in Florida, 357; supreme folly
of the doctrine of, 394; first popularity of the doctrines in Louisiana, 398; summary of the
principles, 498.




INDEX.                                         505
SECESSIONISTS, plans of, in Baltimore, frustrated, 66; intentions of, respecting Washington, 77;
threats of, in Annapolis, 114; disappointment of the plans of, in Virginia, 130; one of the
concealed objects of; 296.
SECRET societies, pledged to the Southern Confederacy, 78; instructions, from the British Government to their ambassador, 311.
SEIZURE of the forts, mint, and custom-house, at New Orleans, with the sub-treasury of the United
States, by the Secession mob, 396; of railroads in Alabama by Gen. Mitchel, 488.
SEMINOLE INDIANS, cost to the U. S. of' exterminating, 353.
SENTIMENTS of Southern politicians, 127.
SEVENTII REGIMENT OF N. Y., beautiful tribute to, by the Mlass. Eighth, 114.
SEWARD, SEC., reasoning of; regarding the Trent affair, 312.
SEWALL'S POINT, movements in the direction of, 348.
SHELLS, weight of, and of powder, used at each discharge of guns, in the bombardment of Fort
Jackson, 413.
SHERMAN,' Gen., instructions by the War Department to, 226.
SIIP ISLAND, the appearance and importance of; 401.
SHIPLEY, Lieut., daring adventure of, 365.
SI:EGE of Fort Pickens, virtual abandonment of, 373.
SIGEL, Col. Franz, vigorous plans of; 255; heroic charge at Carthage led by, 256; sketch of, and
influence of; 270; successful surprise of the rebels at Wilson's Creek by, 271; unjust murmurs against, 272.
SILENT MARCHI toward Huntsville, by Gen. Mitchel's command, 487.
SKIRMISHES between rebel and Union forces, in the Western Department, 449.
SLAVE, outrageous abuse of, by one calling himself a Virginia gentleman, 141.
SLAVERY, its effects upon the white laboring population, 20; what it was when the Bible was
given to man, 24; what Roman, was, 24; what American, is fast becoming, 24; no power to
control, in loyal States possessed by the Constitution, 32; sentiments of Wesley acnd Jefferson
concerning, 127; views of President Lincoln concerning, 128; the purchase of Florida promotive of the interests of, 353; rebel soldiers assisted by, 381; the question of, growing
increasingly important, 387; Gen. Mitchel much embarrassed by, 486.
SLAVEHOLDERS, inflexible determination of, 25; the outrageous demands of, as expressed by Hon.
Air. Hunter, of Virginia, 26; requisitions of, upon twenty-one millions of freemen, 36, opinion
of, expressed by W. H. Russell, in London Times, 142; the original design of, 381.
SLEMMER, Lieut., heroic reply of, to the Confederates ill Florida, 358; brave and shrewd conduct
of, 358; the health, and that of the men of his command, injured by their unwearied efforts at
Fort Pickens, 363.
SLIDELL, JOHN, the accredited agent of the Confederate States to the court of France, his disgraceful efforts in behalf of slavery, 305.
SLOCUM'S CREEK, troops landed at, near Newbcrn, 329.
SMIITH, Gen., brilliant charge of, at the storming of Fort Donelson, 469.
SOcIETY must have its gradations, 21.
SOLDIER, testimony of a rebel, 368.
SOLDIERS, exposure of Union, 172; coolness under fire, 335; faithfulness to duty of Union, 347;
uncomfortable residence of Northern, at Ship Island, 364; prodigious labors of the volunteer,
on Tybee Island, 382; sympathy of Northern, often interested for the slave, 389.
SORTIE upon the 20th Indiana reginent, 462; determined upon by the rebels, 466.
SOUTHERN journal, silly conceit and malevolence of a, 420; soldiers, inspiration of historic memories cheer on, 4.05; towns, antique appearance of, 334.
SOUTEI CAROLINA, reception of the news of the secession of, in New Orleans, 396; sayings of a
rebel in, 193; vigilance committee of, 194; address to the convention of, 355.
SOUTH, energy of the, 131; mean-spiritedness of the Northern allies of the, 381.
SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY, officers of, chosen, 71.
SPEECII, extract of, of Hon. Mr. Iverson, of Georgia, 22; of Abraham Lincoln, on the equality of man,
39; of Hon. Charles Sumner, of Massachusetts, 47; of Hon. A. H. Stephens, of Georgia, 55;
contrasted with one, 56; of Hon. Charles Sumner, in the U. S. Senate, 128; of Hon. A. HI.
Stephens, in Augusta, Ga., 158.
STAFF-OFFICER. testimony of, writing from Newbern, 389.
STAR OF THE WEST, steamer, insult offered by Charlestonians to, 61.
STATE RIGHTS, Southern views of, illustrated by the acts of the nation of Arkansas, 498.
STATE, the Secretary of, clear and frank expressions regarding the principles of neutral rights by, 313.




506                                     INDEX.
STEARNS, F. A., Adj., tribute to the memory of, 332.
STEPHENS, Hon, A. AH., views of the African race as held by, 34.
STOCKTON, Rev. Mr., memorable prayer of, 40.
STOKES, Capt. J. H., heroic stratagem of, 242.
STONE BRIDGE, perplexities at, in which Union troops were involved, 175.
ST. Louis, strategic importance of, 243; mob quelled at, by the heroic Lyon, 248; strong secession feeling in, 263; feeble defenses of, 266; martial law  proclaimed in, 275; energetic
measures of Gen. Halleck for controlling insubordination in, 446.
STREAMS, unbridged, no obstacle to Gen. Mitchel, 487.
STRINGHA{M, Flag-officer, order issued by the War Department to, 199.
STRONG, Capt. W.. E., heroic adventure of, 196.
ST. PHILIP, Fort, position and description of, 405.
SUDLEY'S FORD, Confederate forces ready to receive the Union soldiers on their arrival at, 174;
principal battle to be fought at, 176.
SUFFERING of people in New Orleans fbr food, 428; night of, experienced by the troops encamped
before Fort Donelson, 463.
SUMMARY of the events of a week, 425.
SUMTER, Fort, impressive scene on raising the U. S. flag in, 60; anniversary of the fall of; celebrated by the surrender of Pulaski, 385.
SUPPLIES, cautious landing of men and, from the war steamer Brooklyn, upon Fort Pickens, 362.
SURRENDER, terms of, at Roanoke, 323; of Forts Jackson and St. Philip, demanded by Capt.
Boggs, instructed by Com. Porter, 419.
TELEGRAMS, received by Gen. Fremont, 268; received from Washington demanding forces of Gen.
Fremont, 282.
TENNESSEE, large part of the people of, loyal, 145.
TERROR of the North Carolinians, caused by the successes of Gen. Burnside, 328.
TERRORISM  extended over Florida, 358; reign of, in Louisiana, 397; very considerable in New
Orleans, 426.
THOMPSON, Jacob, Secretary of Interior, under Buchanan, 42; treasonable utterances of, in a letter
to Gen. Quitman, 125.
THIERS' POINT, fort built with much labor and expense at, 318.
THIRD DIVISION, pride of Mitchel's soldiers as belonging to, 483.
TILLSMAN, William, heroic recapture of the S. J. Waring by, 188.
TIIME required for drilling a regiment, 484.
TIMES, terrible slaughter of rebel troops on board the steamer, 368.
TIGHLAIAN, rebel Gen., conversation between Admiral Foote and, 454.
TOIL, exhausting nature of the, upon the mortar-boats, 413.
TooiIBS, Robert, Hon., character of; 78; opinion of, respecting the recognition of the Southern
Confederacy abroad, 297.
TORRENCE, Major, well-devised and bravely-executed plans of, 446.
TOWER, Major, assists Capt. Hildt to drive the rebels from Santa Rosa Island into their boats, 367.
TRANSPORTATION, want of means of, at Ball's Bluff, 218; Fremont's method of obtaining it, when
unsupplied, 287.
TREACHERY, rebels informed of Gen. McDowell's plans, by some one in the Union camp guilty
of, 174; all departments of government infected with, 175.
TREASURY, report of the Secretary of the, 392.
TREINT, Capt. Wilkes. of the American steam sloop-of-war San Jacinto, overtakes the English
passenger ship, 396.
TROOPS, Connecticut, energetic conduct of, at the battle of Bull Run, 183; weariness of all the, at
Newborn, 331; most prominent in the battle of Newbern, 331, 332; rebel character of, in
New Orleans, 361; confusion of, at Pensacola, 368; reception of' Gen. Butler's, 427; Northern,
forbearance of, under insults and privations, 432; of Gen. McClernand and Gen. Smith taking
position before Donelson, 460.
TUSCUIIBIA, enemy pursued to, 485.
TYLER'S DIVISION, obstacles in the way of, 167.
TYBEE ISLAND, situation of, 377; batteries erected by Union troops at, 378; volunteers who endured suffering, toil and death, so nobly at, 382.
UNION army, loss of, in the battles of Roanoke, 323; at the battle of Carthage, 287; fleet arrTives




INDEX.                                       507
opposite New Orleans, 419; men, sympathies of, 191; troops take possession of Ship Island,
401; parties at the 1North, 499; sentiments, expression of, silenced, 67, 70;. sentiment, indication of, in North Carolina, 327; troops, peril of, on Hatteras Island, 209; in St. Louis, 282.
UNITED STATES, policy of; 298; cost of Louisiana to the, 395.
VALOR of the 51st Regiment N. Y. Volunteers at Newbern, 333.
VANDALISm at Nashville, 473.
VARUNA, wonderful exploits of the gun-boat, 418.
VER1MONT troops, heroic sentiments of; 123.
VESSELS, assemblage of, in Hampton Roads, 341.
VICTORY, third, won by the heroic Sigel and his patriot band, 257; effect of the, won by the
Monitor, 350; falsely claimed by the rebels at Santa Rosa Island, 369; obtained by forces
under Gen. Mitchel, 488.
VIENNA, disaster at, 154.
VICKSBURG, arrival of the mortar fleet, and position of the city of, 435.
VIRGINIA (Western), action of; respecting secession, 145.
VODGES, Major, overpowered, and surrenders, 367; carried off by the rebels, 369.
VOLUNTEER, readiness of Northern people to, 212; reward of; earned in the capture of Fort
Pulaski, 384.
VOTE of the people of Louisiana regarding secession, 395.
W.ABASH, U. S. frigate, response of; 228.
WALLACE, Gen., opportune arrival of troops under, 467; heroic struggles of, 468.
WVANT of equipment for soldiers, 266.
WAR, incidents of the, 162; preparations in Virginia for, 58; active preparations for, in New
Orleans, 397; report of the Secretary of, 393; sloops of, armaments of the, 407; changes in
fortifications needed, to compete with modern instruments of, 386.
WARREN, Fort, the prison-house of Messrs. Mason and Slidell, 309.
WARRENTON set on fire by shells from Fort Pickens, 372.
WARSAw, rapid bridging of the, 288.
WASHINGTON, D. C., rebel expectation of entering, 119.
WATCHWORD of Zagonyi's troops, 289.
WEBSTER, extract from a speech of, 81.
WEST, Gen., warning voice of, disregarded, 351.
WESTFIELD, daring exploit of the crew of the gun-boat, 411.
WHILLDEN, the crew of the sinking Cumberland rescued by the, 243.
WHITEHALL, fire discovered on bo-ird the, 35 t.
WHITE, Maj., success and energy of, 286.
WHITE inhabitants of' Louisiana, ignorance of, 395.
WILKES, Capt. Charles, commander of the San Jacinto, 306; reasoning of,, 307; clemency of;
towards the Trent and her passengers, 309; act of, how regarded in England, 311.
WILSON, Hon. Henyv, speech of, 47.
WILSON'S CREEK, map of, 269; battle of, 272; the results of the battle of, 274.
WISTAR, Col., bravery of, 221.
WINCHESTER, Va., fiend-like brutality of a woman in, 432.
WINTHROP, Col., bravery and death of, 151.
WORDEN, Lieut., serious accident to, in the engagement Of the Monitor and Merrimac, 350; fearlessness and tact displayed by, in conveying dispatches overland to Fort Pickens, 362..
WOMEN, extreme hatred of the North evinced by Southern, 74; in New Orleans, guilty of degrading and outrageous conduct, 432.
YANKEES, affected contempt of, 397; falsehoods concerning, 139.
YORKTOWN, admonition from the Monitor received by the, 350.
YULEE, Hon. D. L., letter of, 51.
ZAGONYI, Gen., body-guard of Gen. Fremont commanded by, 288; tremendous charge of, at Springfield, Missouri, 289; report of the battle of Springfield by, 290.
ZouAVEIS, ELLSWORTH'S, presentation of colors to, 120; character of the men composing, 120.
Wdlson's, various causes combine to weaken, 366; position and character of; 364; bravery of;
367; at first disorganized, afterwards reSnforced, 367; heavy loss in the engagement at Santa
Rosa Island, 369.