hurried up large bodies of troops from Arkansas and Texas. On the 17th of June Lyon encountered Governor Jackson with a Confederate force at Booneville, and gained a decided advantage. On the 5th of July the Unionists, led by Colonel Franz Sigel, were again successful in a severe engagement with the governor at Carthage. On the 10th of August the hardest battle thus far fought in the West occurred at Wilson's Creek, a short distance south of Springfield. General Lyon made a daring but rash attack on a much superior force of Confederates under command of Generals McCullough and Price. The Federals at first gained the field against heavy odds, but General Lyon was killed, and his men retreated under direction of Sigel. General Price now Missouri Liberty Lexington Booneville d Osage L.Scott Carthage Springfield Wilson's Cr. PeaRidge Arkansas Little Rock in Missis sissippi изольной St.Louis སྙུ,1,, Cairo Columbus Cumb Girardeau I Belmont K Et.Donelson NTUC t.Henry pressed northward across the State to Lexington, on the Missouri River. This place was defended by a force of Federals two thousand six hundred strong, commanded by Colonel Mulligan. A stubborn defence was made by the garrison, but Mulligan was soon obliged to capitulate. Price then turned southward, and on the 16th of October Lexington was retaken by the Federals. General John C. Fremont, who had been appointed to the command of the Union forces in Missouri, followed the Confederates as far as Springfield, and was on the eve of making an attack, when he was superseded by General Hunter. The latter, after retreating to St. Louis, was in turn superseded by General Halleck on the 18th of November. It was now Price's turn to fall back toward Arkansas. The only remaining movement of importance was at Belmont, on the Mississippi. The Confederate general Polk, acting under orders of his government, had, notwithstanding that State's neutrality, entered Kentucky with an army, and had captured the town of Columbus. Batteries planted here commanded the Mississippi. The Confederates gathered in force at Belmont, on the opposite bank. In order to dislodge them Colonel Ulysses S. Grant, with a brigade of three thousand Illinois troops, was sent by way of Cairo into Missouri. On the 7th of November he made a vigor ous and successful attack on the Confederate camp; but General Polk sent reinforcements across the river, the guns of Columbus were brought to bear on the Union position, and Grant was obliged to retreat. The rout at Bull Run had the effect to quicken the energies of the North, and troops were rapidly hurried to Washington. The aged General Scott, unable to bear the burden resting upon him, retired from active duty, and General McClellan was called from West Virginia to take command of the Army of the Potomac. By the middle of October his forces had increased to a hundred and fifty thousand men. On the 21st of that month a brigade, numbering nearly two thousand, was thrown across the Potomac at Ball's Bluff. Without proper support or means of retreat, the Federals were attacked by a strong force of Confederates under General Evans, driven to the river, their leader, Colonel Baker, killed, and the whole force routed with terrible loss. Fully eight hundred of Baker's men were killed, wounded or taken prisoners. During the summer of 1861 the Federal government sent to sea several important naval expeditions. One of these, commanded by Commodore Stringham and General Butler, proceeded to the North Carolina coast, and on the 29th of August captured the forts at Hatteras Inlet. On the 7th of November a second armament, under command of Commodore Dupont and General Thomas W. Sherman, entered the harbor of Port Royal, and captured Forts Walker and Beauregard. Hilton Head, a point most advantageous for military operations against Charleston and Savannah, thus fell into the power of the Federals. Around the whole coast the blockade became so rigorous that commerce and communication between the Confederate States and foreign nations were almost wholly cut off. In this juncture of affairs a difficulty arose which brought the United States and Great Britain to the very verge of war. The Confederate government had appointed James M. Mason and John Slidell, formerly senators of the United States, to go abroad as ambassadors from the Confederate States to France and England. The envoys went on board a blockade runner, and escaping from Charleston Harbor, reached Havana in safety. At that port they took passage on the British mail steamer Trent, and sailed for Europe. On the 8th of November the vessel was overtaken by the United States frigate San Jacinto, commanded by Captain Wilkes. The Trent was hailed and boarded; the two ambassadors and their secretaries were seized, transferred to the San Jacinto, carried to Boston, and imprisoned. The Trent proceeded on her way to England; the story of the insult to the British flag was told, and the whole kingdom burst out in a blaze of wrath. At first the people of the United States loudly applauded Captain Wilkes, and the government was disposed to defend his action. Had such a course been taken, war would have been inevitable. The country was saved from the peril by the adroit and far-reaching diplomacy of William H. Seward, the secretary of state. When Great Britain demanded reparation for the insult and the immediate liberation of the prisoners, he replied in a mild, cautious and very able paper. It was conceded that the seizure of Mason and Slidell was not justifiable according to the law of nations. A suitable apology was made for the wrong done, the Confederate ambassadors were liberated, put on board a vessel and sent to their destination. This action of the secretary was both just and politic. The peril of war went by, and Great Britain was committed to a policy in regard to the rights of neutral flags which she had hitherto denied and which the United States had always contended for. So ended the first year of the civil war. REA-SC WILLIAM H. SEWARD. CHAPTER LXIV. CAMPAIGNS OF '62. HE Federal forces now numbered about four hundred and fifty thousand men. Of these nearly two hundred thousand, under command of General McClellan, were encamped in the vicinity of Washington. Another army, commanded by General Buell, was stationed at Louisville, Kentucky, and it was in this department that the first military movements of the year were made. On the 9th of January Colonel Humphrey Marshall, commanding a force of Confederates on Big Sandy River, in Eastern Kentucky, was attacked and defeated by a body of Unionists, led by Colonel Garfield. Ten days later another and more important battle was fought at Mill Spring, in the same section of the State. The Confederates were commanded by Generals Crittenden and Zollicoffer, and the Federals by General George H. Thomas. After a hot engagement, in which both sides lost heavily, the Confederates suffered a defeat which was rendered more severe by the loss of Zollicoffer, who fell in the battle. The next operations were on the Tennessee and the Cumberland. The former river was commanded at the southern border of Kentucky by Fort Henry, and the latter by the more important Fort Donelson, ten miles south of the Tennessee line. At the beginning of the year the capture of both these places was planned by General Halleck. Early in February Commodore Foote was sent up the Tennessee with a flotilla of gunboats, and at the same time General Grant was ordered to move forward and co-operate in an attack on Fort Henry. Before the land-forces were well into position the flotilla compelled the evacuation of the fort, the Confederates escaping to Donelson. Eighty-three prisoners and a large amount of stores were captured. The Federal gunboats now dropped down the Tennessee, took on supplies at Cairo, and then ascended the Cumberland. Grant pressed on from Fort Henry, and as soon as the flotilla arrived began the siege of Fort Donelson. The defences were strong, and well manned by more than ten thousand Confederates, under General Buckner. Grant's entire force numbered nearly thirty thousand. On the 14th of February the gunboats were driven back with considerable loss, Commodore Foote being among the wounded. On the next day the garrison, hoping to break through Grant's lines, made a sally, but met a severe repulse. On the 16th Buckner was obliged to surrender. His army of ten thousand men became prisoners of war, and all the magazines, stores and guns of the fort fell into the hands of the Federals. It was the first decided victory which had been won by the national arms. The immediate result of the capture was the evacuation of Kentucky and the capital of Tennessee by the Confederates. After his success at Fort Donelson General Grant ascended the Tennessee as far as Pittsburg Landing. In the beginning of April a camp was established at Shiloh Church, a short distance from the river; and here, on the morning of the 6th, the Union army was suddenly attacked by the Confederates, led by Generals Albert S. Johnston and Beauregard. The onset was at first successful. All day long the battle raged with tremendous slaughter on both sides. The Federals were forced back to the river, and but for the protection of the gunboats would have been driven to destruction. Night fell on the scene with the conflict undecided; but in this desperate crisis General Buell arrived from Nashville with strong reinforcements. On the following morning General Grant assumed the offensive. General Johnston had been killed in the battle, and Beauregard, on whom the command devolved, was obliged to retreat to Corinth. The losses in killed, wounded and missing in this dreadful conflict were more than ten thousand on each side. There had never before been such a harvest of death in the New World. Events of importance were also taking place on the Mississippi. When the Confederates evacuated Columbus, Kentucky, they proceeded to Island Number Ten, a few miles below, and built strong fortifications commanding the river. On the western shore was the town of New Madrid, which was held by a Confederate force from Missouri. Against this place General Pope advanced with a body of Western troops, while Commodore Foote descended the Mississippi with his flotilla to attack the forts on the island. Pope was entirely successful in his movement, and gained possession of New Madrid. The land-forces then co-operated with the gunboats, and for twenty-three days Island Number Ten was vigorously bombarded. On the 7th of April, when the Confederates could hold out no longer, they attempted to escape; but Pope had cut off retreat, and the entire garrison, numbering about five thousand, was captured. The Mississippi was thus opened as far down as Memphis, and that city was taken by the fleet of Commodore Davis on the 6th of the following June. In the beginning of the year General Curtis had pushed forward through Missouri, entered Arkansas and taken position at Pea Ridge, among the mountains in the north-western angle of the State. Here he was attacked on the 6th of March by an army of more than twenty thousand Confederates and Indians, under command of Generals McCulloch, McIntosh and Pike. After a hard-fought battle, which lasted for two days, the Federals were victorious. McCulloch and McIntosh were both killed and their men obliged to retreat toward Texas; but the Union losses were most severe, and the battle was barren of results. On the next day after the conflict at Pea Ridge an event occurred at Fortress Monroe which came near changing the character of naval warfare. Captain John Ericsson of New York had invented and built a peculiar war-vessel with a single round tower of iron exposed above the water-line. Meanwhile, the Confederates had raised the United States |