eral Sherman, then at Memphis, in an effort to capture Vicksburg. The movement promised to be successful, but on the 20th of December General Van Dorn succeeded in cutting Grant's line of supplies at Holly Springs, and obliged him to retreat. On the same day General Sherman, with a powerful armament, dropped down the river from Memphis.

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BATTLE OF MURFREESBOROUGH, DEC. 31ST, 1862.

Proceeding as far as the Yazoo, he effected a landing, and on the 29th of the month made an unsuccessful attack on the Confederates at Chickasaw Bayou. The assault was exceedingly disastrous to the Federals, who lost in killed, wounded and prisoners more than three thousand men. The enterprise was at once abandoned, and the defeated army returned to the fleet of gunboats in the Mississippi.

The closing conflict of this year's operations, in the West was the great battle of Murfreesborough. After his successful defence of Corinth General Rosecrans was transferred to the command of the Army of the Cumberland. Late in the fall he made his headquarters at Nashville, and there collected a powerful army. Meanwhile, General Bragg, on his retirement from Kentucky, had thrown his forces into Murfreesborough. Thus the two generals found themselves face to face, and but thirty miles apart. Late in December Rosecrans moved forward to attack his antagonist, and on the evening of the 30th came upon the Confederates strongly posted on Stone's River, a short distance north-west of Murfreesborough. During the night preparations were made on both sides for the impending battle. The plan of attack adopted by the Federal commander contemplated the massing of his forces on the left in such numbers as to crush the Confederate right wing under Breckinridge before assistance could be brought from the west side of the river. Bragg's plan of battle was the exact counterpart of that adopted by Rosecrans. Before daylight the Confederates were heavily massed under Hardee on the left; and in the early morning the battle began by a furious and unexpected

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charge on McCook who commanded the right wing of the Federals. McCook's outery for help was at first unheeded by Rosecrans, who did not realize the real nature of the Confederate onset. After a terrible struggle which lasted until noonday the Union right was shattered to fragments and driven from the field. The brunt of the battle now fell upon General Thomas, who commanded the Federal right center; and he, too, after desperate fighting, was obliged to fall back to a new position. Here, however, he rallied his forces and held his ground until General Rosecrans reädjusted his whole line of battle. While this work was going on, the Confederates were barely prevented from a complete and overwhelming triumph by the almost unparalleled heroism of the division. of General William B. Hazen. With only thirteen hundred men he stayed the oncoming tide of victorious assailants until the Federal lines were completely restored. At nightfall more than seven thousand Union soldiers were missing from the ranks.

Mc.Cooke

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BATTLE OF MURFREESBOROUGH, JAN. 2D, 1863.

But General Rosecrans, though defeated, was by no means disposed to abandon the contest. During the night after the battle, a council of war was held and complete preparations were made for renewing the struggle on the morrow. On New Year's morning General Bragg found his antagonist strongly posted, with shortened lines, and manifest disposition for battle. The Confederate commander grew cautious; and the day was spent in indecisive skirmishing and artillery firing at long range. Early on the morning of the 2d, the conflict broke out afresh on the east side of Stone's River, and for some hours there was terrific cannonading in that quarter. At three o'clock in the afternoon the Confederates were massed against the Union left, and the Nationals were driven across the river by the shock. But at this juncture the Federal artillery, advantageously posted on the hills west of the stream, opened a murderous fire on the assailing columns. At the same time, the discomfited Federals, rallying to the charge, turned upon their pursuers and in one tremendous onset drove them from the field with the slaughter of thousands. General Bragg had lost the prize. During the night he withdrew his broken and exhausted columns through

Murfreesborough and retreated in the direction of Tullahoma. The Union loss in the two battles was a thousand five hundred and thirtythree killed, seven thousand two hundred and forty-five wounded, and nearly three thousand prisoners; that of the Confederates amounted in killed, wounded, and prisoners to between ten and eleven thousand men.

In Virginia the campaigns of 1862 were even more grand and destructive than those in the West. The first stirring scenes of the year were enacted in the Shenandoah Valley. Desiring to occupy this important district, the Federal government sent forward a strong division under General Banks, who pressed his way southward, and in the last days of March occupied the town of Harrisonburg. In order to counteract this movement, the gallant Stonewall Jackson was sent with a force of twenty thousand men to pass the Blue Ridge and cut off Banks's retreat. At Front Royal, on the Shenandoah, just before the gap in the Mountains, the Confederates fell upon a body of Federals, routed them, captured their guns and all the military stores in the town. Banks succeeded, however, in passing with his main division to Strasburg. There he learned of the disaster at Front Royal, and immediately began his retreat down the valley. Jackson pursued him hotly, and it was only by the utmost exertions that the Federals gained the northern bank of the Potomac.

The Confederate leader, though completely victorious, now found himself in great peril. For General Fremont, at the head of a strong force of fresh troops, had been sent into the valley to intercept the retreat of the Confederates. It was now Jackson's time to save his army. With the utmost celerity he sped up the valley, and succeeded in reaching Cross Keys before Fremont could attack him. Even then the battle was so little decisive that Jackson pressed on to Port Republic, attacked the division of General Shields, defeated it, and then retired from the scene of his brilliant campaign to join in the defense of Richmond.

On the 10th of March the grand army of the Potomac, numbering nearly two hundred thousand men, under command of General McClellan, set out from the camps about Washington to capture the Confederate capital. The advance proceeded as far as Manassas Junction, the Confederates falling back and forming a new line of defences on the Rappahannock. At this stage of the campaign McClellan, changing his plan, embarked a hundred and twenty thousand of his men for Fortress Monroe, intending from that point to march up the peninsula between the James and the York. By the 4th of April the

transfer of troops was completed, and the Union army left Fortress Monroe for Yorktown. This place was garrisoned by ten thousand Confederates under General Magruder; and yet with so small a force McClellan's advance was delayed for a whole month. When at last, on the 4th of May, Yorktown was taken by siege, the Federal army pressed forward to Williamsburg, where the Confederates made a stand, but were defeated with severe losses. Four days afterward, in an engagement at West Point, at the confluence of the Mattapony and Pamunkey, the Confederates were again overpowered and driven back. The way to Rich

mond was now open as far as the Chickahominy, ten miles north of the city. The Union army

reached that stream without further resistance, and crossed at Bottom's Bridge.

Meanwhile, General Wool, the commandant of Fortress Monroe, had not been idle. On the 10th of May he led an expedition against Norfolk and captured the town; for the Confederate garrison had been withdrawn to aid in the defence of Richmond. On the next day the celebrated iron-clad Virginia was blown up to save her from capture by the Federals. The James River was thus opened for the ingress of national transports laden with supplies for the Army of the Potomac. That army, now advanced toward Richmond, and when but seven miles from the city was attacked on the 31st of May by the Confederates at a place called Fair Oaks or Seven Pines. Here for a part of two days the battle raged with great fury. At last the Confederates were driven back; but McClellan's victory was by no means decisive. The Confederate loss was largest, amounting to nearly eight thousand in killed and wounded; that of the Federals was more than five thousand. Among the severely wounded was General Joseph E. Johnston, the commander-in-chief of the Confederates. Two days after the battle his place was filled by the appointment of General Robert E. Lee, a man of military genius,

who, until its final downfall, remained the chief stay of the Confed

eracy.

In the lull that followed the battle of Fair Oaks, McClellan formed the design of changing his base of supplies from the White House, on the Pamunkey, to some suitable point on the James. The

movement was one

of the utmost hazard, and before it was fairly begun General Lee, on the 25th of June, swooped down on the right wing of the Union army at Oak Grove, and a hard-fought battle ensued without decisive results. On the next day another dreadful engagement occurred at Mechanicsville, and this time the Federals won the field. But on the following morning Lee renewed the

struggle at Gaines's Mill, and came out victorious. On the 28th there was but little fighting. On the 29th McClellan's retreating army was twice attacked-in the morning at Savage's Station and in the afternoon in the White Oak Swamp-but the divisions defending the rearguard kept the Confederates at bay. On the 30th was fought the desperate but indecisive battle of Glendale or Frazier's Farm. On that night the Federal army reached Malvern Hill, on the north bank of the James, twelve miles below Richmond. Although this position was protected by the Federal gunboats in the river, General Lee determined to carry the place by storm. Accordingly, on the morning of the 1st of July the whole Confederate army rushed forward to the assault. All day long the furious struggle for the possession of the high grounds continued. Not until nine o'clock at night did Lee's shattered columns fall back exhausted. For seven days the terrific roar