was among the killed. On Nov. 1 Gen. Scott, general-in-chief of the armies of the United States, retired from active service, and was succeeded by Gen. George B. McClellan. About this time the Union men of East Tennessee, who had been hitherto kept in subjection by the secession party, began to make various demonstrations of loyalty to the Union, and destroyed a number of bridges on the confederate lines of communication. On Nov. 6 the confederate states held an election for president and vicepresident under their permanent constitution. Davis was chosen president and Stephens vicepresident for the term of 6 years, and were inaugurated in the following February. On Nov. 8 Capt. Charles Wilkes, in command of the frigate San Jacinto, while searching for privateers in the West Indies, intercepted the British mail steamer Trent from Havana for Southampton, and on his own responsibility forcibly took from on board Messrs. Mason and Slidell, commissioners from the southern confederacy to England and France. The action was resented by the British government as an insult to their flag, and produced a great display of feeling against the United States; and a war with England seemed imminent, when the president decided to surrender the commissioners to the British minister, holding that although the commissioners were contraband of war, on the principles which the British government had formerly maintained and never openly renounced, yet on the principles of international law uniformly advocated by the United States, Capt. Wilkes had no right to seize their persons without taking the vessel on which they were found into port to be condemned by a prize court. On Dec. 20 Brig. Gen. Ord routed the confederates with heavy loss at Dranesville, on the road from Washington to Leesburg. By the end of the year the United States had enlisted about 640,000 men, without counting the 77,000 militia called out in April, who had been discharged at the end of their 3 months' service, nor the regular army, which it was estimated amounted at that time to 20,000. In July the army of the Confederate States had been officially returned as 210,000 strong, and President Davis had been authorized to accept 400,000 more volunteers. The contest had extended along the whole boundary line between the loyal and the seceding states, and both sides had been making vigorous preparations for a struggle for the possession of the Mississippi river. The federal troops had a base of operations at Cairo, Ill., where the Ohio and the Mississippi unite, and under orders of the war department were fitting out at that point a formidable fleet of gun and mortar boats. The whole river, from a spot a few miles below Cairo to its mouth, was in the possession of the confederates. The soil of Kentucky had hitherto been respected as neutral by both parties; but about Sept. 1 Bishop Polk of Louisiana, who had received a commission as major-general in the confederate army,

occupied Hickman and Columbus on the Mississippi, and began to fortify them. Gen. Grant, commander of the federal forces at Cairo, immediately took possession of Paducah, on the Ohio just below the mouth of the Tennessee. Within a few days Gen. Zollicoffer led a confederate force from Tennessee into S. E. Kentucky, where on Oct. 21 he was defeated at Camp Wild Cat by a small body of federals under Gen. Schoepf; and Gen. Buckner occupied Bowling Green, a place of great natural strength at the junction of the railroads from Memphis and Nashville to Louisville, about the centre of the S. part of the state. These positions formed part of a line of posts commencing at the Mississippi river and stretching through S. Kentucky and N. Tennessee to Cumberland Gap, an important pass in the Cumberland mountains near the spot where the W. boundary of Virginia touches the boundary between Tennessee and Kentucky. The principal military positions on this line were Columbus on the Mississippi, Fort Henry on the Tennessee, Fort Donelson on the Cumberland, Bowling Green, and Mill Spring in S. Kentucky. On Dec. 17 a Union victory was gained at Munfordsville on Green river, near the centre of Kentucky; and on Jan. 19, 1862, Gen. Thomas achieved a more decisive success at Mill Spring, or Somerset, where Zollicoffer's army, of which Gen. George B. Crittenden then held the chief command, was routed, and Zollicoffer himself was killed. On Jan. 20 Simon Cameron resigned the office of secretary of war, and Edwin M. Stanton of Pennsylvania was appointed in his place. On Feb. 6 Capt. Foote with a fleet of gunboats reduced Fort Henry, Gen. Tilghman with his staff and about 60 men becoming prisoners of war. On the 15th Bowling Green was evacuated, the forces retiring to Fort Donelson, which was assaulted by Gen. Grant and surrendered next day, Gen. Buckner and 16,000 men falling into his hands. The evacuation of Nashville, Tenn., followed as a necessary consequence on the 25th, and that of Columbus about March 1. The whole of Kentucky and a part of Tennessee were thus secured by the federal arms. The legislature and executive officers of Tennessee fled from Nashville to Memphis, and Senator Andrew Johnson was appointed by President Lincoln military governor of the state, with the rank of brigadiergeneral. An unexpectedly strong Union sentiment was at once discovered in the western as well as the eastern counties; the city council of Nashville requested the mayor to have the U. S. flag displayed on all the public buildings (April 14), and a number of the principal citizens issued a call (May 4) for a public meeting to take measures for the reëstablishment of the federal authority in Tennessee. While these events were taking place, another naval and military expedition was fitted out and placed under the command of Gen. Burnside. It sailed from Hampton roads, Jan. 12, entered Pamlico sound by way of Hatteras inlet,

and attacked Roanoke island, which separates Pamlico from Albemarle sound, and which the confederates had strongly fortified. The attack was opened Feb. 7 by the gunboat fleet under Flag Officer Goldsborough; and while the bombardment was in progress the troops landed, stormed the intrenchments, and obliged 2,500 of the enemy to surrender. On the 8th the fleet passed up the sound to Elizabeth City, N. C., captured one and destroyed 4 of the 7 gunboats forming the confederate flotilla, and occupied several towns in North Carolina. On March 14 Gen. Burnside captured Newbern, N. C., after a severe battle, taking 200 prisoners and 64 guns, and immediately afterward marched a force by land thence to Beaufort, the best harbor in that state. The town made no resistance, but Fort Macon, which defends the entrance to it from the sea, held out until April 25. From Port Royal expeditions under Capt. Dupont proceeded to the principal seaports of Florida, all of which were occupied with little or no resistance, and operations were pushed forward for the capture of Savannah. Its principal defence, Fort Pulaski, on the Savannah river, was taken April 11, but the federal forces made no immediate movement toward the city itself. On Feb. 13 the right wing of the army of the Potomac, under Gen. Banks, crossed the river at Harper's Ferry and advanced to Charlestown. On March 6 Gen. McClellan began a movement toward Richmond, the enemy falling back as he advanced, and taking up a new line of defence along the Rappahannock. Centreville was occupied on the 11th, and Manassas immediately after. While McClellan's headquarters were still at Fairfax Court House, near Manassas, the rear of his army was quietly embarking at Alexandria for Fortress Monroe, but the movement was soon suspected and guarded against by the enemy. From Fortress Monroe he advanced upon Yorktown (April 4), which was well fortified, and held by a division under Gen. Magruder. The organization of the army was now changed. Gen. McClellan, having taken the field, was relieved from the command of the other military departments, and several new departments were created. Gen. Halleck was assigned to the department of the West; Gen. Hunter to the department of the South, comprising South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida; Gen. Butler to the department of the Gulf; Gen. Fremont to the mountain department in western Virginia and eastern Tennessee; Gen. Banks to the department of the Shenandoah; Gen. McDowell to the department of the Rappahannock; and Gen. McClellan to the department of the Potomac. The frigate Merrimac, which the confederates had equipped as an ironclad floating battery and ram, on March 8 at tacked the United States vessels in Hampton roads. The sailing vessels Congress and Cumberland opened their broadsides upon her without effect, the shot rattling upon her iron sides like hail. She first ran into the Cumber

land, which she sank after a short but terrible fire; and then attacked the Congress, which in the course of half an hour was run ashore and compelled to strike her flag, after which she was burned. The steam frigate Minnesota got aground early in the action, and could not come within range. During the night, which put a stop to the work of destruction, Capt. Ericsson's new iron-clad battery Monitor arrived from New York, and the next morning engaged the Merrimac as she was about opening an attack upon the Minnesota. The battle lasted 5 hours, the two vessels several times touching each other, and firing without apparent effect. The Merrimac was finally compelled to retire, after receiving considerable injury from a shot which entered one of her ports. The only damage on board the Monitor was caused by a shot which struck the pilot house and wounded the commander, Lieut. Worden, by driving particles of cement into his eyes. The vessel herself was struck over 20 times, but was entirely uninjured. With the exception of an attack upon some small unarmed merchant vessels, the confederate fleet at Norfolk, which comprised be side the Merrimac the iron-clad steamers Jamestown and Yorktown, made no further movements. In the West the military operations had lost nothing of their importance. A deci sive victory was gained by the national forces under Gen. Curtis at Pea Ridge, Ark., March 6, 7, and 8, over the armies of Van Dorn, Price, and McCulloch, which had just been driven out of Missouri. After the evacuation of Columbus and Nashville the confederates took up two strong positions: one at New Madrid, Mo., on the Mississippi, and at Island No. Ten in the river a few miles above that town; and the other at Corinth, in the N. E. corner of Mississippi, near the Tennessee river. New Madrid was taken by Gen. Pope, March 14, and Island No. Ten was attacked by the gunboat fleet of Flag Officer Foote on the 16th. The defences here proved unexpectedly strong. The gunboats were all above the island, and conse quently, in the swift current of the Mississippi, could not attack the batteries in the only way they were fitted to attack at short range, namely, with "head on." Gen. Pope at New Madrid was unable to cooperate in a land attack, because the inundated condition of the country prevented his marching his army above the island to the neighborhood of the fleet; and at New Madrid he had no means of crossing the river to the Kentucky shore, where a confederate force was posted. The difficulty was overcome by cutting a canal 12 miles long through the neck of land formed by a bend in the river opposite the island, thus enabling sev eral transports from Foote's fleet to reach New Madrid. Two of the gunboats ran past the batteries in the night, and the crossing having been effected under their protection, the island surrendered on the night of April 7-8, with about 6,000 prisoners, 124 guns, and a great quantity of stores. The main body of the

western army under Gen. Grant meanwhile pushed forward toward the confederate position at Corinth. On the 6th their advance guard was attacked at Shiloh, near Pittsburg Landing, on the Tennessee, a few miles from Corinth, by A. S. Johnston and Beauregard. The battle raged from 2 o'clock in the morning until the approach of night, with varying success, but with disadvantage on the whole to the federal troops, who were driven back to the river, where the gunboats enabled them to make a stand. Gen. Johnston was among the killed. During the night both sides were reenforced, and the battle was renewed at 7 the next morning. After a contest of 8 hours the confederate forces broke under a charge of 6 regiments led by Gen. Grant in person, and retreated toward Corinth, closely pursued by the cavalry. At Corinth they had erected works of a quite formidable character, and here they remained for nearly two months, the national army, which had been largely increased and was now commanded by Gen. Halleck, slowly advancing toward their position. Gen. O. M. Mitchel in the mean time, with a small body of federal troops, seized Huntsville on the main line of the Memphis and Charleston railroad in northern Alabama, capturing 200 prisoners, 15 locomotives, and a large number of cars, and in the course of two or three days had occupied 100 miles of the same road, thus cutting off all direct communication between the S. Atlantic states and the West. The entrance of the national troops into Alabama was hailed with joy by numbers of the inhabitants. On May 30 it was discovered that Corinth had been evacuated, every thing of value being removed or destroyed. Gen. Pope was sent in pursuit; but the main body of the enemy, consisting of nearly all the available troops in the whole confederacy with the exception of the army concentrated about Richmond, made good its retreat, and appears to have been broken up into several detached bodies, of which we have not yet (Sept. 1) any certain information. The contest in the West was now confined to the Mississippi, where after the fall of Island No. Ten the confederates had made a stand at Fort Wright, about 50 m. above Memphis. Fire was opened upon this work by the gunboats and mortar vessels, April 18, but without much effect. On May 8 the federal flotilla, commanded by Capt. C. H. Davis (Flag Officer Foote having been disabled by a wound), was attacked here by 8 confederate gunboats, 4 of which were provided with rams. After a sharp conflict of an hour the confederates were driven off, losing 3 of their boats blown up and sunk. On the 31st it was discovered that the fort had been abandoned. The vessels then dropped down to Memphis, where the whole confederate fleet, consisting of 8 gunboats and steam rams, was awaiting its arrival. The federal flotilla had meanwhile been reënforced by 8 or 10 steam rams fitted out under authority from the war department by Col. Charles Ellet. The

fight took place June 6, and resulted after an hour and a half, owing in good part to the operations of the ram fleet, in the capture or destruction of 7 of the rebel boats, one escaping by superior speed. Memphis immediately surrendered. On the lower Mississippi a still more important success had been gained by the federal navy. As long ago as November Ship island, near the mouth of the river, had been occupied and made a rendezvous for a military force under Gen. B. F. Butler, designed for the occupation of New Orleans. On April 16 a fleet of 45 vessels, carrying 280 guns and 21 mortars, and commanded by Flag Officer Farragut, the mortar boats being under the special command of Capt. David D. Porter, moved up the river to attack Forts Jackson and St. Philip, on opposite sides of the stream about 75 m. below the city. Both these works were of great strength, and between them a chain had been thrown across the river. The bombardment began on the 18th and lasted 6 days, when Flag Officer Farragut, having broken the chain, ran past the forts with 14 steamers and gunboats, destroyed a squadron of the enemy's rams and gunboats, silenced the batteries above the forts, and occupied New Orleans without further opposition on the 25th; Gen. Mansfield Lovell, in command of the confederate land troops, evacuating it on his arrival, and destroying all the cotton, sugar, and other valuable stores. Forts Jackson and St. Philip surrendered to Capt. Porter on the 28th. Gen. Butler now moved up with his army, took formal possession of New Orleans, and placed it under martial law. Farragut's fleet passed up the river, captured Baton Rouge, and afterward proceeded to Vicksburg, the only remaining stronghold of the confederates on the Mississippi. Here he passed the powerful batteries on shore, joined Flag Officer Davis's flotilla from Memphis, and a bombardment was opened upon the city, and continued till Aug. 1, when it was suspended to await the cooperation of land forces. On the peninsula between the York and James rivers McClellan had commenced the siege of Yorktown April 5, and the confederate army had gradually concentrated at Richmond. Gen. McDowell had moved upon Fredericsburg April 18, and Gen. Banks about the same time moved up the valley of the Shenandoah. On May 4 the confederate troops evacuated Yorktown and Gloucester Point, leaving 71 guns in their works, and retreated toward Richmond, McClellan pursuing them. They were overtaken the next day at Williamsburg, where a sharp action occurred; and on the 7th Gen. Franklin, who had been sent from Washington to reenforce McClellan, landed at West Point on the York river, and defeated a force under Gens. Whiting and G. W. Smith. On the 10th Norfolk was occupied without resistance by a detachment from Fortress Monroe under Gen. Wool, and the iron-plated vessel Merrimac was blown up to prevent it from falling into his hands. The Monitor and several other

1

vessels, including two new and formidable iron-clad gunboats, were sent up the James river to operate against Richmond, but met with obstructions near Fort Darling, a few miles below the city, and were driven back with loss (May 15). The Monitor, though repeatedly struck, was uninjured, but could not elevate her guns enough to produce any impression on the fort, which was situated on a high bluff. Another check was experienced in the valley of the Shenandoah, where Gen. Banks, after peneetrating 100 miles and driving the enemy beyond Harrisonburg, was ordered to send most of his troops to McDowell. While thus weakened, having barely 5,000 men left, he was attacked by 20,000 confederate troops under Gen. J. T. Jackson, and his advance, consisting of 900 men under Col. Kenley, was cut off at Front Royal, May 23. By a prompt retreat Banks saved the rest of his army and nearly all his baggage, retiring into Maryland, closely pursued by Jackson as far as the Potomac. This event caused the greatest alarm in Washington, it being at first supposed that the whole army from Richmond was about to cross into Maryland. The governors of Pennsylvania, New York, and the New England states were telegraphed to send on more troops, and several militia regiments immediately set out for Baltimore and the Potomac. Jackson however retreated as rapidly as he had advanced. Fremont, by forced marches across the mountains, endeavored to intercept him, but succeeded only in overtaking his rear guard and forcing a battle at Cross Keys, near Harrisonburg, June 8, in which Jackson was worsted. Another engagement took place the next day at Port Republic, on the Shenandoah, where Jackson attacked the advance of Gen. Shields's corps, and forced it to fall back upon the main body, when he was in turn repulsed. Gen. McClellan meanwhile slowly followed the confederate army up the Yorktown peninsula, until on May 20 he reached the Chickahominy, a small tributary of the James river, flowing through a swampy tract at a distance of from 6 to 15 m. from Richmond. Here a delay was caused by the necessity of constructing bridges and roads. Continual skirmishing occurred, and on the 27th a sharp engagement was fought at Hanover Court House, 16 m. N. of Richmond, where Gen. Fitz John Porter succeeded in cutting off communication with Richmond over the Fredericsburg railroad. Portions of the army had meanwhile crossed the Chickahominy, and by the end of the month the extreme advance was at Fair Oaks, 5 miles from Richmond; the extreme left was on or near James river; and the right extended to the White House, on the Pamunkey, one of the head streams of the York. It was here that the army had its depot of supplies. On the 31st the confederates, taking advantage of a flood in the Chickahominy, attacked the advance under Gen. Casey at Fair Oaks, and drove them back to the river with the loss of their guns and baggage. There

they were supported by the divisions of Heint zelman and Kearny, and enabled to maintain the contest till reenforcements were brought across by Sumner, when the confederates were repulsed and the ground that had been lost was recovered. The attack was renewed the next day, but the federal troops were everywhere victorious. Their loss was officially reported as 5,739 killed, wounded, and missing. The confederates were led by Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, who was wounded on the first day. No other battle of importance occurred until June 26, by which time 3 army corps had crossed the Chickahominy. The confederates had been heavily reënforced, and McClellan, convinced of the impossibility of defending his extended lines with the force at his disposal, resolved to transfer his base of operations to the James river. The supplies were accordingly shipped at the White House, and the army prepared to move by the left flank. On the evening of the 26th the enemy under Jackson fell with overwhelming force upon McClellan's right wing at Beaver Dam, and, though driven back late at night, renewed the attack in heavier numbers the next morning. The federals under Fitz Jobn Porter fell back to Gaines's hill, where a bloody contest was maintained until night, the main body of the army being at the same time engaged along its entire line. That night and the next day the whole army and its train were moving toward the James, Franklin with the 6th army corps being left to cover the retreat. Every step of the march was obstinately disputed. The passage of the White Oak swamp especially, June 30, was attended with great slaughter, being accomplished only after a battle which lasted all day. On July 1 the army reached the James river, and there they were again attacked at Malvern hills, but defeated their assailants more completely than in any previous engagement of the 6 days' fight. That night they marched to Harrison's Landing, a position of greater strength some distance below, and about 17 m. from Richmond, where they remained until Aug. 14, protected by a large fleet of gunboats. The federal loss during these 6 days was reported as 1,565 killed, 7,701 wounded, and 5,958 missing; total 15,224. The corps of Fremont, Banks, and McDowell were consolidated, June 26, into the "army of Virginia," and placed under the command of Major-Gen. Pope. In con sequence of this appointment Gen. Fremont asked leave to retire from active service, and was replaced by Gen. Sigel. On July 1 the president called for 300,000 more volunteers to serve during the war. On the 11th Major Gen. Halleck was appointed to the command of all the land forces of the United States as general-in-chief, Gen. Grant succeeding him in command of the army of the Mississippi. On June 16, Gen. Hunter, with all the available forces at Port Royal, made an unsuccessful demonstration upon James island near Charleston, where the enemy were intrenched at a place

called Secessionville. The federal troops, commanded by Gen. Benham, were repulsed after a fight of 5 hours, with a loss estimated at 700. On the 18th Gen. Morgan, of the U. S. volunteers, seized Cumberland Gap, the main gate of communication between Kentucky and eastern Tennessee. On the 11th the army under Gen. Curtis arrived safely at Helena, Ark., where it remained till about Aug. 12, when it moved upon Little Rock. Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee were now overrun by guerilla bands, who inflicted great damage upon the Union inhabitants. Toward the latter part of July, the provisional governor of Missouri ordered a draft of the whole militia of the state to resist them. Murfreesborough, Tenn., was captured on July 13 by a force composed chiefly of guerillas. On the 15th the confederate iron-clad ram Arkansas engaged a part of Flag Officer Davis's flotilla near the mouth of the Yazoo river, injured several of the vessels, and ran through the rest of the fleet to Vicksburg. On Aug. 4 she left Vicksburg to take part in a confederate attack on Baton Rouge, and on the 6th she was attacked near that place by the U. S. gunboat Essex, Commander W. D. Porter, and after an action of about 20 minutes she took fire and was blown up. At the same time the attack of the confederate land forces, some 10,000 strong, led by John C. Breckinridge, was repelled after a spirited action by the federal army, about 4,500 strong, under Brig. Gen. Thomas Williams, who fell in the action. The losses on both sides were heavy. On Aug. 9 a hotly contested battle was fought at Cedar Mountain, 8 m. S. of Culpepper Court House, Va., between a corps of Gen. Pope's army commanded by Gen. Banks, and a confederate army which had made a rapid advance from Richmond under command of Gen. Jackson. The attack of the confederates was unsuccessful, notwithstanding their superiority of numbers, and on the following day they retired in the direction of Richmond. The federal loss in this battle was about 1,500 killed, wounded, and prisoners. The first important measure of Gen. Halleck, in assuming the chief command of the federal armies, was to order the army of the Potomac to retreat from its position at Harrison's landing to Yorktown and Fortress Monroe, with a view to its transfer to the Rappahannock and its direct cooperation with the army of Virginia under Gen. Pope. This difficult and perilous movement was begun on Aug. 14, Gen. Fitz John Porter's corps leading the march and arriving at Newport News, its place of embarkation, on the 18th, without being disturbed by the enemy; the other corps accomplished the movement with equal success. Meanwhile, on Aug. 4, an order was issued by the president calling for an additional force of 300,000 men to serve for 9 months, to be raised by drafting. This order, instead of checking the popular enthusiasm, gave it an astonishing stimulus, under which the work of filling up the number of the 300,000 volunteers required

Bills

by the order of July 1 was prosecuted with remarkable energy; the western states especially declared themselves ready to raise more than their quotas, and now (Sept. 1) the whole levy of 300,000 is fully armed, equipped, and the greater part of these new forces are already in the field. A large portion of them have been sent to serve in the department of Ohio, created Aug. 19, comprising the states of Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky, and including Cumberland Gap and the region about it in Tennessee, under the command of Maj. Gen. H. G. Wright.-The extra session of congress which began July 4, 1861, closed on Aug. 6. Its chief acts were for the providing of ways and means to carry on the war, and for this the duties on certain imports were increased, and a loan of $250,000,000 was authorized, together with an issue of $50,000,000 in treasury notes. The first regular session began Dec. 2, 1861, and ended July 17, 1862. Mr. Breckinridge, the late vice-president, who had appeared as a senator at the extra session, was expelled for treason in having openly embraced the confederate cause, as were also two members of the house of representatives. were speedily passed for the construction of gunboats on the Mississippi, and of 20 iron-clad vessels of war. By the acts of this session the secretary of the treasury was authorized to issue $150,000,000 more treasury notes, to negotiate $500,000,000 of 6 per cent. bonds, to receive temporary deposits to the extent of $100,000,000 at the rate of 4 per cent., and to issue to all creditors of the government certificates of indebtedness. A tax law levying a duty of 3 per cent. on the products of all kinds of labor and the net profits of every description of business was passed, as was also a tariff adding about 5 per cent. to previously established duties. Slavery was abolished in the district of Columbia, and prohibited in all the territories of the United States, present or to come. On the recommendation of President Lincoln, a resolution was passed offering to any state which will abolish slavery an indemnity sufficient to remunerate the slaveholders. The army was ordered to receive within its lines all fugitive slaves, and not to surrender them to their owners; and the president was authorized to employ the slaves in the military or naval service at his discretion, the slaves of all open rebels being declared free. An act confiscating all the property of rebels and emancipating their slaves completes the list of important anti-slavery measures effected by this congress. The supreme court was reorganized by apportioning the judicial circuits according to population, thus giving to the free states 6 of the 9 judges. A homestead act and a Pacific railroad act were also passed by this congress, which has perhaps encountered more serious responsibility, and undertaken and carried through a series of legislative measures of more consequence to the country, than any other congress since the foundation of the gov. ernment.