เ

modore Foote, and captured after a brief low putting it at fifty-two regiments,' and but spirited resistance. A powerful land finally at from 20,000 to 30,000 men.' But force under General M'Clernand was to this supposition is contradicted by the offihave co-operated in the attack, but, owing cial despatches of General Grant, and the to the bad state of the roads, did not arrive two armies may be reckoned at from 15,000 until the action was over. The garrison, to 20,000 each.

consisting of General Fitzmaurice, eight With forces so nearly equal, the unconofficers, and about fifty privates, were taken ditional capitulation of nearly the whole of prisoners; but the loss of the fort itself was the Confederate army seems singular; nor a far more serious disaster, throwing open is the singularity lessened by the escape of in great measure the important State of the two commanding Generals at the head Tennessee, and preluding yet further suc- of a solitary brigade. The whole history, cesses of the gunboat fleet. It was followed indeed, of the surrender, as related in the within a very few days by a yet more se- explanatory despatches of Generals Floyd rious disaster, the history of which is still and Pillow, is most remarkable. On the wrapped in a certain degree of mystery. reinvestment of the fort after the successful Forts Henry and Donnelson are com- sortie above mentioned, all idea of attemptmonly linked together as victims of the su- ing to maintain the position appears to have perior strength of the Federal gunboats on been immediately abandoned. A Council the river. With regard to the latter, how-of War was summoned. Their opinion was ever, this does not appear to have been the unanimous that the place was untenable, and case. It was, indeed, assailed by a combin- that further defence could only involve a ed expedition of land and naval forces; but futile waste of life. An immediate surrenthe river attack appears to have been com- der was decided on with almost equal unanpletely foiled, two of the gunboats being imity, General Pillow's proposal to fight put hors de combat, the whole flotilla very their way into the open country towards roughly handled, and Commodore Foote Nashville being at once abandoned on the himself compelled to retire to his head-quar- opposition of General Buckner. But, this ters at Cairo, on the junction of the Ohio point settled, General Floyd announced his and Missouri rivers. But though the fleet own personal determination never to surwas thus decidedly repulsed, the fort had been render. Admitting fully the necessity of completely invested on the land side by the step, and professing his readiness to hand the military force of the expedition under over the command to any of his junior offiGeneral Grant. These were attacked by the cers who might be less scrupulous upon the left division under General Floyd, and their point, he declared his resolution to cut his right wing completely routed and driven own way out at the head of his brigade, back upon their left. But at this point they rather than himself fall into the enemy's proved too powerful for General Buckner, hands. The second in command, General to whom the attack on the left wing had Pillow, was of the same mind with his chief, been entrusted, but who seems to have and at once 'passed' the command to Genbeen somewhat tardy in the execution of eral Buckner. This officer, who seems to his movements. The Confederate right was have taken from the first an especially dethus in its turn overpowered, and a lodge- spondent view of the situation, at once acment effected by the enemy within their cepted the responsibility, and his two seniors lines. On this success the Federal force having made good their escape, proceeded seems to have rallied, and shortly recover- to open negotiations with General Grant. ed the ground they had lost upon their right. The proposal of an armistice to arrange the The fort was now again completely invest- capitulation was met by a prompt refusal of ed, and, according to General Pillow, was any terms but those of immediate and uncommanded in every part by the enemy's guns. And here commences the mysterious portion of the story. The two armies appear to have been, in point of numbers, very nearly of equal strength; the inequal Such is the story of Fort Donnelson, as ity was, at all events, no greater than should told in the official despatches of General have been compensated by the intrenched Pillow and General Floyd. We cannot position of the weaker force. General Floyd wonder that, in laying these despatches bedoes, indeed, in his subsequent despatch, fore the Confederate Congress, Mr. Davis speak of large reinforcements having been should characterise the explanation they received by the enemy, whose number he afford as defective and unsatisfactory. It is finally places at 'eighty three regiments;' not impossible, however, that the conduct of the more moderate estimate of General Pil- the commanding General may have been in

conditional surrender, and to these General Buckner, whilst denouncing them in a somewhat petulant despatch as 'ungenerous and unchivalrous,' hastened to accede.

some degree influenced by the peculiarity of that important post and the subsequent adhis personal situation. General Floyd had vance of M'Clellan into the peninsula. In been the War Minister of Mr. Buchanan, and South Carolina General Burnside obtained it was against him that had been launched possession of James Island, in the harbour all the furious charges of treachery in the of Charleston, a position from which the distribution of the Federal stores of arms. capture of that place appeared inevitable. 'Thief' and 'traitor' were for him the mild- Pensacola was abandoned by the Confederate est epithets that Northern hatred could be- troops. Fernandina fell before the fleets of stow, and instant hanging the gentlest treat- the North. The whole eastern coast seemed ment it could propose. Should the ex- on the very point of subjugation. Minister be captured, it was not impossible that some such course might in the heat of passion be adopted.

In the South a yet heavier disaster befel the commercial capital of the Confederacy at New Orleans. Profiting by a sudden rise in the waters of the Mississippi, which swept away the obstructions at the mouth of that river, the Northern fleet, under Commodore Farragut, pushed past the batteries, and anchored in front of the defenceless town. Still the inhabitants were eager for resistance, but the threatened bombardment must in a few hours have laid the city in ashes, without affording the slightest chance of an ultimately successful defence. The attempt would have been madness, and the Confederate commander wisely withdrew his scanty force.

But whatever the true explanation of the story, its result was, beyond all question, most disastrous. Fort Donnelson is the key to the river Cumberland, on the banks of which, a few miles farther to the south, is situated Nashville, the capital of the great State of Tennessee. Besides that its political importance was far from small, this city and its immediate neighbourhood had been made the basis of military operations and the depot for immense quantities of ammunition and stores of every kind. With the fall of Fort Donnelson that of Nashville became inevitable. But so unexpected was the catastrophe, that scarcely the slightest provision had been made for retreat. The news came like a thunder-clap on the devoted city. Fortifications were hastily commenced, and as hastily abandoned. Specie and valuables of every kind were hurried off to Columbia, Chattanooga, and other places of temporary safety; the gunboats that had been rapidly advancing towards completion were destroyed; immense quantities of provisions shared the same fate, the remainder being distributed gratis among the poorer population; bridges were burned and broken down; public property removed; numbers Nor was the aspect of affairs on the Virof the inhabitants fled before the approach ginian frontier more encouraging. Along of the hated Yankees; and finally, the army the Shenandoah Valley the Federal armies itself retired by a weary and painful march were steadily advancing under General of some 300 miles of most difficult road to the village of Corinth, in Mississippi, where they again intrenched themselves-General Beauregard, with the Army of the Mississippi,' being on their left, with his headquarters at Jackson, not far to the westward of the river Tennessee.

The fall of New Orleans threw open the lower portion of the Mississippi. At its opposite extremity the descending flotilla of Commodore Foote had captured the fortifications of Island No. 10 on the Missouri, and was pushing on to effect a junction with the ascending fleet of Commodore Farragut. The little town of Vicksburg, with its hasty and imperfect fortifications, was now the only obstacle to such an union. Thus attacked on both sides, no hope was entertained of a successful defence, whilst its fall would give to the North entire command of this all-important channel of communication.

Banks. M'Clellan, after a brief advance by M'Dowell's former route of Fairfax and Manassas, suddenly retraced his steps, and commenced a fresh series of operations along the peninsula of Yorktown. Norfolk fell; the lines of Yorktown were abandoned; and, step by step, the vast army of M'Clellan, And if in the west Fortune seemed thus complete in every point of equipment and to have deserted the Confederate colours, she perfected in organisation by long months of frowned upon them no less darkly in the patient training, was pushing on towards the east. Here, too, the anaconda' was stretch- Confederate capital. For a time the powering out its coils, and as yet its grip appeared ful fleet by which it was supported was paraindeed deadly. The capture of the island lysed by the extraordinary successes of a of Roanoke, in North Carolina, followed solitary Confederate steamer. This vessel, almost immediately by that of Newbern on the Merrimac,' had been taken when the the mainland, threw a powerful force into Norfolk navy-yard was abandoned, and had the rear of the Confederate position at Nor. been hastily plated with layers of railwayfolk, and paved the way for the capture of iron. In the commencement of her new

career as the Virginia,' she encountered and fairly dispersed the whole Federal fleet destroying or seriously injuring several vessels, and engaging for several hours in a hand-to-hand fight with the iron plated 'Monitor,' which seems to have suffered severely in the encounter. But as the South-the duty of each citizen to render military ser ern armies fell back, she was necessarily destroyed; and the Federal forces were at length established within a few miles of Richmond, the fall of which was expected in the North from day to day.

'The vast preparations made by the enemy,' says President Davis, in the remarkable message in which that measure was introduced, have animated the people with a spirit of resistance, so general, so resolute, and so self sacrificing, that it requires to be regulated rather than to be stimulated. The right of the State to demand and

vice need only to be stated to be admitted. It is not, however, wise or judicious policy to place in active service that portion of the force of a people which experience has shown to be necessary as a reserve. Youths under the age of eighteen years require further instruction. Men of matured experience are needed for maintaining order and good government at home, and supervising preparations for rendering efficient the armies in the field.

'These two classes constitute the proper reserve

One solitary ray of success had alone shed its light upon this dark season of defeat and disaster. Undaunted by the long and painful retreat from Nashville, the united armies of Johnstone and Beauregard for home defence, ready to be called out in case turned once more upon the advancing ene my, and at Pittsburg Landing inflicted on while the emergency exists. of any emergency, and to be kept in the field only But in order to him a decided and serious defeat. But this maintain this reserve intact, it is necessary that, gleam of success was as brief as it was bril-in a great war like that in which we are now liant. The beaten army of Grant fell back engaged, all persons of intermediate ages, not upon its gunboats, and the fire of their legally exempt for good cause, shall pay their heavy guns checked the pursuit. The next debt of military service to the country, that the morning saw the arrival of General Buell burden should not fall exclusively on the most with powerful reinforcements, and, after ardent and patriotic.' another day of fierce and undecided strug- Defeat thus met, must, sooner or later, gle, the outnumbered Confederates were turn to victory; and the change was now again compelled to retire to their entrench-near at hand. The tide of Federal success

ments.

Reculer pour

had reached its height. For a while it waThe crisis did, indeed, seem imminent. vered at the flood, then, turning, recoiled Looking on from a distance, it was for the with a steadiness and rapidity surpassing moment difficult even for those best ac- that of its transient rise. Once more the quainted with the resources of the South to superior character of Southern strategy be maintain their faith in the result. But the came strikingly apparent. South herself remained firm under reverses mieux sauter had been for months the Conthat might well have daunted a less spirited federate motto. And now the spring was and determined race. Beyond the actual made. It struck at the same fatal weakground on which the victors stood, the suc- ness, of an extended line of operations, cesses of the Federal arms had not gained which had proved so disastrous to the North for the invader one foot of Southern soil. in the opening campaign. In removing the Nashville, Norfolk, New Orleans, and other main body of his army to the eastern excaptured cities submitted in sullen silence tremity of the peninsula, M'Clellan had in to their conquerors; but no oppression, no great measure exposed the Northern capibrutality could wring from them one sign tal. The Southern leaders at once seized on of acquiescence in the hated Northern rule. the advantage. With lightning rapidity a In the districts yet unassailed, the mere rumour of an approaching foe ensured the prompt destruction of cotton, and cane, and every article by which the invader might profit. Measures for arming and organising the entire population were pushed on with swift but steady energy. The general enthusiasm increased rather than cooled un der the pressure of defeat. The very conscription adopted subsequently at Washington, in despair of any other means of obtaining further supplies of recruits, assumed at Richmond the form of a measure for systematising and controlling a too-exuberant zeal :

corps d'armée, under the now famous 'Stonewall' Jackson, was hurled against the advancing army of Banks, and drove it headlong from the Valley of the Shenandoah. Alarmed for the safety of Washington, the Northern President hurriedly recalled M'Dowell to its defence, and at the critical moment of his attack M Clellan was deprived of the support on which he had relied. The rest followed of course. The memorable 'raid' of General Stewart, which first aroused the world to a sense of the insecurity of the Federal position, preluded the inevitable result. Dashing round the entire circuit of the enemy's lines, the

Confederate commander marked the weak of Virginia brought the Southern armies points of his defence, and traced out the into Maryland. attack that was to follow. Burning with the energy so long repressed, animated by the presence of their own President within their ranks, and fighting upon the very threshold of their capital, the Confederate army at length advanced upon the foe. Step by step the invader was driven backwards over the ground that had been won with such slow and painful effort. The right wing of the Federal army, on which fell the main brunt of the engagement, was doubled back, and compelled to seek refuge in rear of the scarcely less shattered left. Seven days of desperate fighting saw the remains of that once splendid army forced back on the support of its gunboats more than twenty miles from the position from which for so many weeks it had threatened the Confederate capital. The second invasion of Virginia ended in a defeat perhaps even more disastrous than that which had so speedily terminated the first.

In the excitement occasioned by this unexpected step, its significance was not unnaturally overrated. It is now very generally understood that the Southern Generals were well aware of the inadequacy of their force for an attack on either Baltimore or Washington, or even for the maintenance of a permanent footing in the State. The true object of the movement was in fact to cover the assault on Harper's Ferry, and in this it was entirely successful. This important station again fell into the enemy's hands, and its enormous stores of every kind were a prize well worthy the bold stroke by which they had been secured. Meanwhile a panic seized upon the capital. Pope, whose boastful professions had come to so lame and sudden a conclusion, was ignominiously dismissed to a distant command against the Indian tribes of the North-West. All hopes again centred on M'Clellan, and for awhile it seemed as though his name, always beThe action of the great drama now hur-loved by the soldiery, might yet retrieve ried on with breathless rapidity. To the the fortunes of the day. His return, almost inexhaustible resources of the Union indeed, restored some semblance of discithe annihilation of one great army was but pline to the disorganised mob that alone a signal for the assembly of another. remained of the once magnificent armies of Scarcely was M'Clellan driven from the Virginia and the Potomac. With a promptfield, ere Pope with another gigantic force ness strongly contrasting with his customwas marching upon Richmond from the ary deliberation of movement, he led the north. But once more the advantage of re-inspirited troops once more to the attack, operating upon an interior line compensated and four days of desperate fighting, culmithe inferior numbers of the threatened force. nating on the 17th September in the now Leaving M'Clellan to withdraw at his lei- famous battle of Antietam Creek, led to a sure the dispirited remnants of his army, result which was claimed as a victory by the Confederate leaders hurried to meet the either side. The real advantage, however, new invader. The first collision took place rested with the South. Immensely inferior on the banks of the Rapidan, where, at the in numbers, but strong in a position chosen battle of Cedar Mountain, the army of Gen- with all his usual consummate skill, General eral Pope was brought to a stand. A brief Lee had withstood the Northern attack until interval ensued, during which the Federal his object was achieved and his retreat General retired to Acquia Creek, on the bank secured. The South may indeed lay claim of the Potomac, to effect a junction with the to even higher honours than those of sucforce with which M'Clellan was hurrying cessful resistance. Preserving through from the peninsula to his support. But the greater part of the fight their attitude of time had been yet more effectually employ- defence, its close saw them assuming the ed by his indefatigable foe. Pushing past position of assailants. The Federal army, the Federal right, Jackson fell unexpectedly dispirited by the obstinate resistance it had on their rear, capturing General Pope's encountered, and broken by the fire from head-quarters, with all his papers and per- the impregnable heights, was already giving sonal baggage, and compelling him to face way when the approach of darkness saved round and fight another desperate battle to it from a decisive defeat. But, though still restore his interrupted communications with maintaining its ground, and even able wich the capital. The field of Bull Run again became the scene of Federal defeat. The united armies of the North were rolled back across the Potomac. The victorious Confederates rapidly followed up their advan tage; and the collapse of the third invasion L-12

VOL. CXIII.

some show of plausibility to lay claim to a victory, the army of General M'Clellan was effectually disabled from any further movement, and the Confederates withdrew leisurely and without opposition to the other side of the Potomac.

182

The American War.-Fort Sumter to Fredericksburg.

April,

Another act of this sanguinary drama was | Months have passed, but the Army of the now fast drawing to a close. Paralysed by Potomac has given no signs of returning the losses of Antietam and Sharpsburg, life. M'Clellan might perhaps revive it, M'Clellan was no longer able to prosecute but it is certain that the President will not his advance. But delay was ruin. The reappoint him. Once, indeed, it has been political exigencies of the Republican party galvanised into a semblance of vitality, but demanded a forward movement. Popular the spasmodic movement ceased as soon as clamour was backed by imperative orders it began. Disease, desertion, demoralisation from Washington. Both were alike unavail- of every kind, have continued to thin its ing to urge the cautious Northern com- ranks, until it is now being finally broken mander upon what he plainly saw to be cer- up and conveyed in detached fragments to tain destruction; the fickle breath of popu- distant scenes of action. larity changed its tone; and the General With the battle of Fredericksburg ends. who had so lately been hailed as the saviour one marked phase of the war. The months of the Republic was once more disgraced, that witnessed the three last Virginian camand a less cautious or less scrupulous officer paigns had been fruitful also elewhere of entrusted with the transient honours of his success for the Confederate arms. In South command. Carolina, General Burnside had been disGeneral Burnside assumed the leadership loged from the position in James Island, of the Northern forces pledged to immediate the possession of which had excited such advance. Into the abstract merits of his buoyant hopes; and Charleston was now plans it is needless now to enter. It does fortified more strongly than before. At not, indeed, seem probable that the line of New Orleans the North still held her attack by Fredericksburg and the north, ground; but at Port Hudson fortifications already so often rejected as impracticable had arisen which barred the upward proand so lately marked by a disastrous re-gress of the fleet, when the rising waters of pulse, could in any case have been success- the Mississippi would have again set them fully followed with an army so dispirited free to move. Vicksburg still held out, and and demoralised by losses and defeats. But with powerful reinforcements and carefullysuch chances as might have been afforded by strengthened defences seemed able to bid surprise and rapidity of movement were al- defiance to the utmost force that could be together dissipated by the neglect of the brought against her. In the Western States War Department. For weeks the invading the varying fortunes of the war had inclined army lay idly before Fredericksburg on the for the most part to the Southern side, and opposite bank of the Rappahannock, and Nashville itself had been more than once during that time General Lee had ample on the eve of recapture. At almost every opportunity for strengthening his works, point of the vast beleaguering line the recoil and concentrating his forces to oppose their was beginning to be strongly felt, and no advance. At length the long-expected pon- substantial advantage had been gained in toons arrived, and, after shelling for some any quarter to balance the long list of dehours the deserted and defenceless town, General Burnside threw his army across the The action now pauses for awhile. The river, and commenced a general attack upon final collapse of the Virginian invasion has the heights by which it was commanded removed the interest of the war elsewhere, from the rear. The battle was one of the and it now centres at Vicksburg and Charlesmost bloody, and, at the same time, one of ton, and on the two great armies of Jackson the most disastrous of the war. The Con- and Rosecranz, which are still facing each federate Generals, indeed, barely one-third other in Tennessee; the Federals apparentof whose forces were engaged, seem to have ly losing ground. It had hitherto seemed been unaware how severely the enemy had possible that even yet some unlooked-for been handled, and forbore to push their ad- success in either of these quarters might revantage. Viewed by the light of after-vive the dying embers of the war; but it knowledge it seems probable that, had they done so, the Army of the Potomac would have been utterly destroyed. But its salvation proved in fact of little moment. Availing themselves of the friendly cover of a tremendous storm, the remnants of the beaten army crept back silently in the darkness of night to the shelter of their batteries across the stream, and the fourth and last attack on Richmond was at an end.

feats.

now seems pretty clear that the operations against Vicksburg have been quite unsuccessful, and that the troops intended for the siege of Charleston are almost in a state of mutiny. A change is coming rapidly over the position of affairs. The curtain has fallen on another act, and we hear for a time only a distant rumbling of prepara tions behind the scenes. When next it rises, it will most probably be on an entirely new