13. At first the government of the United States was disposed to defend Captain Wilkes's action. Had such a course been taken, war would have been try was saved from the peril by the diplomacy state. of William H. Seward, WILLIAM H. SEWARD. ated, put on board a vessel, and sent to their destination. So ended the first year of the civil war. RECAPITULATION. Advance of the Union army.-Fight at Bethel Church.-Morris and McClellan move forward in West Virginia.-Engagements at Philippi, Rich Mountain, Carrick's Ford, Carnifex Ferry, Cheat Mountain and Romney.-The Confeder ates concentrate at Manassas.-The national forces advance.-The battle and the rout.-The Confederate government at Richmond.-Notice of Davis.Affairs in Missouri.-Confederates capture Liberty.--Form Camp Jackson.Lyon defends St. Louis.-Battles of Carthage and Springfield.-Price captures Lexington.-Fremont pursues him.-And is superseded.-Grant captures Belmont.-McClellan is made commander-in-chief.-The disaster at Ball's Bluff. Hatteras Inlet and Port Royal secured by the Federals.-Capture of Mason and Slidell. They are released by Mr. Seward. THE CHAPTER LXII. CAMPAIGNS OF '62. HE Federal forces now numbered about four hundred and fifty thousand men. Of these nearly two hundred thousand, under General McClellan, were encamped near Washington. Another army, commanded by General Buell, was stationed at Louisville, Kentucky. On the 9th of January, Colonel Humphrey Marshall, commanding a force of Confederates on Big Sandy River, was defeated by a body of Unionists, led by Colonel Garfield. Ten days later, an important battle was fought at Mill Spring, Kentucky. The Confederates, under Generals Crittenden and Zollicoffer, were severely defeated by the forces of General George H. Thomas. Zollicoffer was killed in the battle. 2. At the beginning of the year, the capture of Forts Henry and Donelson, on the Tennessee and the Cumberland, was planned by General Halleck. Commodore Foote was sent up the Tennessee with a fleet of gunboats, and General Grant was ordered to move forward against Fort Henry. Before the land-forces reached that place, the flotilla compelled the evacuation of the fort, the Confederates escaping to Donelson. 3. The Federal gunboats now dropped down the Tennessee and then ascended the Cumberland. Grant pressed on from Fort Henry, and began the siege of Fort Donelson. The defences were manned by ten thousand Confederates, under General Buckner Grant's force numbered nearly thirty thousand. On the 16th of February, Buckner was obliged to surrender. His army became prisoners of war, and all the magazines, stores and guns of the fort fell into the hands of the Federals. 4. General Grant now ascended the Tennessee to Pittsburg Landing. A camp was established at Shiloh Church, near the river; and here, on the 6th of April, the Union army was attacked by the Confederates, led by Generals Albert S. Johnston and Beauregard. All day long the battle raged with great slaughter on both sides. Night fell on the scene with the conflict undecided; but in the crisis General Buell arrived with strong reinforcements. In the morning General Grant assumed the offensive. General Johnston had been killed, and Beauregard was obliged to retreat to Corinth. The losses in killed, wounded and missing were more than ten thousand on each side. 5. After the Confederates evacuated Columbus, Kentucky, they fortified Island Number Ten in the Mississippi, opposite New Madrid. Against this place General Pope advanced with a body of Western troops, while Commodore Foote descended the Mississippi with his gunboats. Pope captured New Madrid; and for twenty-three days Island Number Ten was besieged. On the 7th of April, the Confederates attempted to escape; but Pope had cut off the retreat, and the garrison, numbering five thousand, was captured. On the 6th of June, the city of Memphis was taken by the fleet of Commodore Davis. 6. Early in the year, General Curtis pushed forward into Arkansas and took position at Pea Ridge, among the Mountains. Here he was attacked on the 6th of March by twenty thousand Confederates and Indians, under Generals McCulloch, McIntosh, and Pike. A hard-fought battle ensued, lasting for two days. The Federals were victorious; McCulloch and McIntosh were killed, and their men obliged to retreat toward Texas. 7. After the destruction of the navy yard at Norfolk, the Confederates had raised the frigate Merrimac, one of the sunken ships, and plated the sides with iron. The vessel was then sent to attack the Union fleet at Fortress Monroe. Reaching that place on the 8th of March, the Merrimac began the work of destruction; and two valuable vessels, the Cumberland and the Congress, were sent to the bottom. During the night, however, a strange ship, called the Monitor, invented by Captain John Ericsson, arrived from New York; and on the following morning, the two iron-clad monsters turned their enginery upon each other. After fighting for five hours, the Merrimac was obliged to retire badly damaged to Norfolk. 8. On the 8th of February, a Federal squadron, commanded by General Ambrose E. Burnside and Commodore Goldsborough, attacked the Confederate fortifications on Roanoke Island. The garrison, nearly three thousand strong, were taken prisoners. Burnside next proceeded against Newbern, and on the 14th of March, captured the city. Proceeding southward, he reached the harbor of Beaufort, and on the 25th of April, took possession of the town. 9. On the 11th of the same month, Fort Pulaski, at the mouth of the Savannah, surrendered to General Gillmore. Early in April, a powerful squadron, under General Butler and Admiral Farragut, ascended the Mississippi and attacked Forts Jackson and St. Philip, thirty miles above the gulf. From the 18th to the 24th, the fight continued without cessation. At the end of that time Admiral Farragut succeeded in running past the batteries. On the next day, he reached New Orleans and captured the city. General Butler became commandant, and the fortifications were manned with fifteen thousand Federal soldiers. Three days afterwards, Forts Jackson and St. Philip surrendered to Admiral Porter. 10. The Confederates now invaded Kentucky, in two strong divisions, the one led by General Kirby Smith and the other by General Bragg. On the 30th of August, Smith's army reached Richmond, and routed the Federals stationed there, with heavy losses. Lexington was taken, and then Frankfort; and Cincinnati was saved from capture only by the exertions of General Wallace. Meanwhile, the army of General Bragg advanced from Chattanooga, and, on the 17th of September, captured a Federal division of four thousand five hundred men at Mumfordsville. The Confederate general pressed on toward Louisville, and would have taken the city but for the arrival of General Buell. Buell's army was increased to a hundred thousand men. In October he again took the field, and on the 8th of the month, overtook General Bragg at Perryville. Here a severe but indecisive battle was fought; and the Confederates, laden with spoils, continued their retreat into East Tennessee. 11. On the 19th of September, a hard battle was fought at Iuka between a Federal army, under Generals Rosecrans and Grant, and a Confederate force, under General Price. The latter was defeated, losing, in addition to his killed and wounded, nearly a thousand prisoners. Rosecrans now took post at Corinth with twenty thousand men ; while Grant, with the remainder of the Federal forces, proceeded to Jackson, Tennessee. Generals Van Dorn and Price turned about to recapture Corinth. There, on the 3d of October, another severe battle ensued, which ended, after two days' fighting, in the repulse of the Confederates. 12. General Grant next moved forward to coöperate with General Sherman in an effort to capture Vicksburg. On the 20th of December General Van Dorn cut Grant's line of supplies at Holly Springs, and obliged him to retreat. On the same day, General Sherman dropped down the river from Memphis to the Yazoo. On the 29th of the month, he 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. 13. General Rosecrans was now transferred to the command of the Army of the Cumberland, with headquarters at Nashville. General Bragg, on his retirement from Kentucky, had thrown his forces into Murfreesborough. Rosecrans moved forward, and on the 30th of December, came upon the Confederates on Stone's River, a short distance north-west of Murfreesborough. On the following morning a furious battle ensued, continuing until nightfall. The Union army was brought to the verge of ruin. But during the night Rosecrans rallied his forces, and at daybreak was ready to renew the conflict. On that day there was a lull. On the morning of the 2d of January, Bragg's army again rushed to the onset, gained some successes at first, was then checked, and finally driven back with heavy losses. Bragg withdrew his shattered columns, and filed off toward Chattanooga. 14. In Virginia the first scenes of the year were enacted in the Shenandoah Valley. General Banks was sent forward with a strong division, and in the last of March, occupied the town of Harrisonburg. To counteract this movement, Stonewall Jackson was sent with twenty thousand men to pass the Blue Ridge and cut off Banks's retreat. At Front Royal, the Confederates fell upon the Federals, routed them, and captured their guns and stores. Banks |