THE

GREAT REBELLION;

A HISTORY OF THE

Civil War in the United States.

BY J. T. HEADLEY,

AUTHOR OF "NAPOLEON AND HIS MARSHALS," แ WASHINGTON AND HIS GENERALS,"

HURLBUT, WILLIAMS & COMPANY.

E. B. & R. C. TREAT, CHICAGO, ILL.

SOLD BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY.

1863.

PUBLISHER'S NOTICE.

THE unexampled success that has attended our Agents in canvasssing for the "GREAT REBELLION," and the rapidity with which orders have accumulated since issuing our Prospectus, furnish the most gratifying evidence of the high estimation in which Mr. Headley is held by the public as an Author; and the impatient desire every where manifested to receive the work, has led us to issue the first volume at as early a day as practicable, consistently with a due regard to its correctness.

Volume I. contains a History of the origin of the War, and its progress during a period of nearly eighteen months, up to the last of June, 1862.

The numerous fine steel Engravings in the volume, have been produced at great expense and add very much to its interest and value. Great pains has been taken to procure accurate likenesses for the Portraits; while the spirited views illustrative of important events of the war, are from original drawings executed expressly for this work by Darley and other eminent artists.

Volume II. completing the History, and containing valuable statistics, will be prepared as fast as the receipt of authentic material by the Author will permit, and be issued within six months after the close of the war, or sooner if practicable and deemed expedient.

As the History of this great struggle advances towards its final consummation, it will increase in importance and interest. The seven days' battles before Richmond, the great battle of Antietam, and others already fought, and the thrilling events constantly transpiring throughout the Union, will furnish an ample field for the peculiar genius of our Author.

In the character of its Engravings we hope to make the second volume superior even to the first. Among other Illustrations it will contain Portraits of the prominent Fighting Generals both Union and Confederate. HURLBUT, WILLIAMS & Co., PUBLISHERS.

HARTFORD, CONN., Nov. 1st, 1862.

PREFACE.

THE earth has been cursed with civil wars from the earliest times in which we have records of the race. Though characterized by more or less ferocity, and assuming various shapes, they all may be divided into two general classes. Those that occur under a despotic form of government, spring from oppression which the people, no longer able to bear, venture all the terrible hazard of a revolution to throw off. Those that take place under a democratic form of government, are brought about by a few ambitious men, who seek by faction to obtain power. Those of the former class possess dignity and grandeur, from the fact that they are based on the great doctrine of human rights. Man asserting his inherent, God-given rights on the battle field against overwhelming odds, is a sublime spectacle.

The latter are based on falsehoods, and kept alive by deception. Such were the civil wars of the early republics.

In the time of Cromwell, both religious and civil liberty were the grand prizes of the struggle; and whether we look at Hampden, calmly suffering for the sake of liberty, or at Cromwell's Ironsides, sweeping like a thunder cloud to battle, with the fearful war cry "RELIGION" on their lips, our deep