Battle of Murfreesborough, December 31st, 1862 Battle of Murfreesborough, January 2d, 1863 Scene of Campaign in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, 1862 The Battle of Antietam, September 17, 1862 The Proposed Routes from Washington to Richmond, 1862 Vicksburg and Vicinity, 1863 . Battle of Chickamauga, September 19, 20, 1863 Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, November 23-25, 1863 Admiral Farragut Operations in Virginia, 1864 and 1865 Petersburg, Richmond, Appomattox, 1865 531 535 539 View in the Main Exhibition Building Interior View of Machinery Hall Interior View of the United States Government Building Interior View of Agricultural Hall. 593 595 597 607 613 616 INTRODUCTION. 1. THE history of every nation is divided into periods. For a while the genius of a people will be turned to some particular pursuit. Men will devote themselves to certain things and labor to accomplish certain results. Then the spirit of the age will change, and historical facts will assume a different character. Thus arises what is called A PERIOD IN HISTORY. In studying the history of the United States it is of the first importance to understand the periods into which it is divided. 2. First of all, there was a time when the New World was under the dominion of the aborigines. From ocean to ocean the copper-colored children of the woods ruled with undisputed sway. By bow and arrow, by flint and hatchet, the Red man supported his rude civilization and waited for the coming of the pale-faced races. 3. After the discovery of America, the people of Europe were hundreds of years in making themselves acquainted with the shape and character of the New World. During that time explorers and adventurers went everywhere and settled nowhere. To make new discoveries was the universal passion; but nobody cared to plant a colony. As long as this spirit prevailed, historical events bore a common character, being produced by common causes. Hence arose the second period in our history-the Period of Voyage and Discovery. 4. As soon as the adventurers had satisfied themselves with tracing sea-coasts, ascending rivers and scaling mountains, they began to form permanent settlements. And each settlement was a new State in the wilderness. Every voyager now became ambitious to plant a colony. Kings and queens grew anxious to confer their names on the towns and commonwealths of the New World. Thus arose a third period-the Period of Colonial History. (xxxvii) 5. Then the colonies grew strong and multiplied. There were thirteen little sea-shore republics. The people began to consult about their privileges and to talk of the rights of freemen. Oppression on the part of the mother-country was met with resistance, and tyranny with defiance. There was a revolt against the king; and the patriots of the different colonies fought side by side, and won their freedom. Then they built them a Union, strong and great. This is the Period of Revolution and Confederation. 6. Then the United States of America entered upon their career as a nation. Three times tried by war and many times vexed with civil dissensions, the Union of our fathers still remains for us and for posterity. Such is the Period of Nationality. 7. Collecting these results, we find five distinctly marked periods in the history of our country: First. THE ABORIGINAL PERIOD; from remote antiquity to the coming of the White men. Second. THE PERIOD OF VOYAGE AND DISCOVERY; A. D. 986-1607. Third. THE COLONIAL PERIOD; A. D. 1607-1775. Fourth. THE PERIOD OF REVOLUTION AND CONFEDERATION; A. D. 1775-1789. Fifth. THE NATIONAL PERIOD; A. D. 1789-1877. In this order the History of the United States will be presented in the following pages. HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. PART I. ABORIGINAL AMERICA. THE CHAPTER I. THE RED MEN-ORIGIN, DISTRIBUTION, CHARACTER. HE primitive inhabitants of the New World were the Red men called INDIANS. The name Indian was conferred upon them from their real or fancied resemblance to the people of India. But without any such similarity the name would have been the same; for Columbus and his followers, believing that they had only rediscovered the Indies, would of course call the inhabitants Indians. The supposed similarity between the two races, if limited to mere personal appearance, had some foundation in fact; but in manners, customs, institutions, and character, no two peoples could be more dissimilar than the American aborigines and the sleepy inhabitants of China and Japan. The origin of the North American Indians is involved in complete obscurity. That they are one of the older races of mankind can not be doubted. But at what date or by what route they came to the Western continent is an unsolved problem. Many theories have been proposed to account for the Red man's presence in the New World, but most of them have been vague and unsatisfactory. The notion that the Indians are the descendants of the Israelites is absurd. That half civilized tribes, wandering from beyond the Euphrates, should reach North America, surpasses human credulity. That Europeans or Africans, at some remote period, crossed the Atlantic by voyaging from island to island, seems altogether improbable. That the Kamtchatkans, coming by way of Behring's Strait, reached the frozen North-west and became the progenitors of the Red men, has no evidence other than conjecture to support it. Until further research shall throw additional light on the history and migrations of the primitive races of mankind, the origin of the Indians will remain shrouded in mystery. It is not unlikely that a more thorough knowledge of the North American languages may furnish a clue to the early history of the tribes that spoke them. The Indians belong to the Ganowanian, or Bow-and-Arrow family of men. Some races cultivate the soil; others have herds and flocks; others build cities and ships. To the Red man of the Western continent the chase was every thing. Without the chase he pined and languished and died. To smite with swift arrow the deer and the bear was the sole delight and profit of the primitive Americans. Such a race could live only in a country of woods and wild animals. The illimitable hunting-grounds-forest, and hill, and river-were the Indian's earthly paradise, and the type of his home hereafter. The American aborigines belonged to several distinct families or nations. Above the sixtieth parallel of latitude the whole continent from Labrador to Alaska was inhabited by THE ESQUIMAUX. The name means the eaters of raw meat. They lived in snow huts, or in hovels, partly or wholly underground. Sometimes their houses were more artistically constructed out of the bones of whales and walruses. Their manner of life was that of fishermen and hunters. They clad themselves in winter with the skins of seals, and in summer with those of reindeers. Inured to cold and exposure, they made long journeys in sledges drawn by dogs, or risked their lives in open boats fighting with whales and polar bears among the terrors of the icebergs. By eating abundantly of oils and fat meats they kept the fires of life a-burning, even amid the rigors and desolations of the Arctic winter. Lying south of the Esquimaux, embracing the greater part of Canada and nearly all that portion of the United States east of the Mississippi and north of the thirty-seventh parallel of latitude, spread the great family of THE ALGONQUINS. It appears that their original seat was on the Ottawa River. At the beginning of the seventeenth century the Algonquins numbered fully a quarter of a million. The tribes of this great family were nomadic in their habits, roaming from one hunting-ground and river to another, according to the exigencies of fishing and the chase. Agriculture was but little esteemed. They were divided into many subordinate tribes, each having its local name, dialect, and traditions. When the first European settlements were planted the Algonquin race was already declining in numbers |