[Transcriber's notes]

[1862] indicate the following text covers this period, until the
next such appearance.

Here are the definitions of some unfamiliar (to me) terms.

abatis
  Barricade of trees with sharpened branches directed toward an enemy.

acclivities
  Upward slope.

carpet-baggers
  Politicians who move to a place for an opportunity to promote their
  career.

comity
  Courtesy; civility. Comity of nations: respect of one country for the
  laws and institutions of another. Law: courts of one jurisdiction give
  effect to the decisions of another.

Lethe of death
  River in Hades; drinking it caused forgetfulness.

mare clausum
  Navigable body of water under the jurisdiction of one nation and
  closed to all others. Latin: mare, sea + clausum, closed.

modus vivendi
  Manner of living; way of life. Temporary agreement between contending
  parties pending a final settlement.

Ney
  Michel Ney--Duke of Elchingen, 1769-1815, French revolutionary and
  Napoleonic military leader; marshal of France 1805-15.

parole
  A written promise by a prisoner of war, that if released he will not
  take up arms against his captors.

redintegration
  Restoration of a lost or injured part. Evocation of a state of mind
  by the recurrence of the elements making up the original experience.

scalawag
  A native white Southerner who collaborated with the occupying forces
  during Civil War Reconstruction for personal gain.

spiles
  Post used as a foundation; a pile. Wooden plug; bung. Spigot used in
  taking sap from a tree.

windrows
  Row of leaves or snow heaped up by the wind; row of cut hay or grain
  left to dry in a field before being bundled.

[End transcriber's notes]


]
Drawn by Will H. Low.
The World's Fair at Chicago.
Central Portion of MacMonnies Fountain--Effect of Electric Light.



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES



FROM THE EARLIEST DISCOVERY OF AMERICA TO THE PRESENT TIME

BY
E. BENJAMIN ANDREWS
CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA
FORMERLY PRESIDENT OF BROWN UNIVERSITY

With 650 Illustrations and Maps


VOLUME IV.

NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1912

COPYRIGHT, 1894 AND 1903, BY
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS





CONTENTS

PERIOD IV

CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION

(Continued)

1860--1868



CHAPTER V. THE STRUGGLE FOR THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY

Three Great Lines of Campaign.
Confederate Posts in Kentucky.
Surrender of Fort Henry.
Siege of Fort Donelson.
Capture.
Kentucky Cleared of Armed Confederates.
Pope Captures Island No. 10.
Gunboat Fight.
Memphis Ours.
Battle of Pittsburg
Landing.
Defeat and Victory.
Farragut and Butler to New Orleans.
Battle.
Victory.
The Crescent City Won.
On to Vicksburg.
Iuka.
Corinth.
Grant's Masterly Strategy.
Sherman's Movements.
McClernand's.
Gunboats pass Vicksburg.
Capture of Jackson, Miss.
Battle of Champion's Hill.
Siege of Vicksburg.
Famine within.
The Surrender.


CHAPTER VI. THE WAR IN THE CENTRE

Bragg Invades Kentucky.
Buell Saves Louisville.
Battle of Perryville.
Of Stone River.
Losses.
Chickamauga.
Thomas the "Rock of Chickamauga."
Grant to the Front.
Bragg's Movements.
Chattanooga.
The "Battle above the Clouds."
Capture of Missionary Ridge.
Bragg's Army Broken Up.
Grant Lieutenant-General.
Plan of Campaign for 1864-65.
Sherman's Army.
Skirmishes.
Kenesaw Mountain.
Johnston at Bay.
Hood in Command.
Assumes the Offensive.
Sherman in Atlanta.
Losses.
Hood to Alabama and Tennessee.
The March to the Sea.
Living on the Country.
Sherman at Savannah.
Hardee Evacuates.
A Christmas Gift.
The Blow to the Confederacy.
Thomas Crushes Hood.
Sherman Marches North.
Charleston Falls.
Columbia.
Johnston Routed at Bentonville.
Sherman Master of the Carolinas.
Johnston Surrenders.


CHAPTER VII. THE VIRGINIA CAMPAIGNS OF 1862--63

McClellan to Fortress Monroe.
Yorktown.
Williamsburg.
Fair Oaks.
Lee in Command.
McDowell Retained at Fredericksburg.
Lee Assumes the Offensive.
Gaines's Mill.
The Seven Days' Retreat.
Malvern Hill.
Union Army at Harrison's Landing.
Discouragement.
McClellan Leaves the Peninsula.
Pope's Advance on Richmond.
Retreat.
Jackson in his Rear.
Second Battle of Bull Run.
Pope Defeated.
Chantilly.
McClellan again Commander.
Lee in Maryland.
South Mountain.
Antietam.
Lee Escapes.
McClellan Removed and Burnside in Command.
Fredericksburg.
The Battle.
Hooker General-in-Chief.
Chancellorsville.
Flank Movement by Jackson.
Battle of May 3d.
Lee in Pennsylvania.
Convergence to Gettysburg.
First Day's Battle.
Second Day.
Third.
Pickett's Charge.
Failure.
Lee Escapes.
Significance of this Battle.


CHAPTER VIII. COLLAPSE OF THE CONFEDERACY

Grant Comes East.
Battle of the Wilderness.
Flanking.
Spottsylvania.
The "Bloody Angle."
Butler "Bottled Up" at Bermuda.
Grant at the North Anna.
At Cold Harbor.
Change of Base to the James.
Siege of Petersburg.
The Mine.
Washington in Peril.
Operations in Shenandoah Valley.
"Sheridan's Ride."
Further Work at Petersburg.
Distress at the South.
Lee's Problem.
Battle at Five Forks.
Blue-coats in Petersburg.
Davis and his Government Leave Richmond.
Union Army Enters.
Grant Pursues Lee.
The Surrender.
Assassination of President Lincoln.
Johnston Grounds Arms.
Capture of Jefferson Davis.


CHAPTER IX. THE WAR ON THE SEA

Classification of Naval Deeds.
Our Navy when the War Began.
Enlargement.
Blockading.
Difficulty and Success.
Alternate Tediousness and Excitement.
Blockade-running Tactics.
Expeditions to Aid the Blockade.
To Port Royal.
To Roanoke Island.
Confederate Navy.
The Merrimac.
Sinks the Cumberland, Burns the Congress.
Monitor and Merrimac.
An Era in Naval Architecture and Warfare.
Operations before Charleston.
The Atlanta.
The Albemarle.
Blown Up by Cushing.
Farragut in Mobile Harbor.
Fort Fisher Taken.
Southern Cruisers upon the High Seas.
Destructive.
The Sumter.
The Alabama.
Her Career.
Fights the Kearsarge.
Sinks.


CHAPTER X. FOREIGN RELATIONS. FINANCE. EMANCIPATION.

Views of the War Abroad.
England's Hostility.
Causes.
The Trent Affair.
Seward's Reasoning.
Great Britain's Breach of Neutrality.
Louis Napoleon's Hypocrisy.
Invasion of Mexico.
Maximilian.
War Expenditure.
How Met.
Duties.
Internal Revenue.
Loans.
Bonds.
Treasury Notes.
Treasurer's Report, July 1, 1865.
Errors of War Financiering.
Confederate Finances.
High Prices at South.
Problem of the Slave in Union Lines.
"Contraband of War."
Rendition by United States Officers.
Arguments for Emancipation.
Congressional Legislation.
Abolition in District of Columbia.
Negro Soldiers.
Preliminary Proclamation.
Final Effects.
Mr. Lincoln's Difficulties.
Republican Opposition.
Abolitionist.
Democratic.
Copperhead.
Yet he is Re-elected.


CHAPTER XI. RECONSTRUCTION

Delicacy of the Task.
Reasons.
The Main Constitutional Question.
Different Views.
The Other Questions.
Answer.
Periods of Reconstruction.
During War.
President Lincoln.
Johnson.
His Policy.
Carried Out.
Congress Rips up his Work.
Why.
South's Attitude just after War.
Toward Negroes.
XIVth Amendment.
Rejected by Southern States.
Iron Law of 1867.
Carried through.
Antagonism between President Johnson and Congress.
Attempt to Impeach Johnson.
Fails.



PERIOD V


THE CEMENTED UNION

1868-1888


CHAPTER I. POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE LAST TWO DECADES

Grant's First Election.
His Work During Reconstruction.
Its Difficulty.
Bayonet Rule in the South.
The Force Act.
Danger to State Independence.
"Liberal Republican" Movement.
The Greeley Campaign, 1872.
Grant again Elected.
Fresh Turmoil at the South.
Culminates in Louisiana.
Blood Shed.
The Kellogg Government Sustained in that State.
A Solid South.
The Election of 1876.
In Doubt.
The Returns.
The Electoral Commission of 1877.
Hayes Seated.
The Electoral Count Act, 1886.
Hayes's Administration.
End of the Bayonet Regime.
Garfield's Nomination.
And Election.
And Assassination.
The Guiteau Trial.
Civil Service Reform.
Under Grant.
Under Hayes.
Need of it.
Credit Mobilier Scandal.
The Pendleton Act Passed.
Its Nature and Operation.
Recovery of Power by the Democracy.
Election of Cleveland.
The Civil Service.
Presidential Succession Act of 1886.
Its Necessity.
And Provisions.


CHAPTER II. THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON.   237

A Shining Instance of Peaceful International Methods.
Earlier Negotiations.
"ALABAMA CLAIMS" Insisted on.
A Joint Commission.
Its Personnel.
A Treaty Drafted and Ratified.
Its Provisions.
Northwest Boundary Question.
Minor Claims.
The Alabama Claims.
Geneva Tribunal.
Personnel.
No Pay for Indirect Losses.
Importance of the Case.
The Three Rules of the Washington Treaty.
Position of Great Britain Relative to These.
Their Meaning.
An Advance in International Law.
The Other Cruisers.
The Award.
Charles Francis Adams.
The Money Paid.
Its History.


CHAPTER III. THE FISHERIES DISPUTE.

Fishery Clause of the Treaty of 1783.
Value of the Rights it Conveyed.
Effect of War of 1812.
Convention of 1818.
Its Fateful Provisions.
Troubles in Consequence.
The Reciprocity of 1854.
Repeal in 1865.
New Troubles.
Reciprocity by Treaty of Washington, from 1871.
Repealed in 1885.
Why
Friction in 1886.
Strict Enforcement by Canada of Convention of 1818.
Severities.
Their Animus.
Pleas of the United States Government.
Threat of Retaliation.
Commission to Draft New Treaty.
Indecisive Result.
Northwestern Fisheries Question Settled.


CHAPTER IV. THE SOUTH.

The Results of Congressional Reconstruction.
Restoration of White Rule.
Ku-Klux-Klan.
Improvement.
Loyalty at the South.
Prosperity.
Cotton.
Manufacturing.
Iron.
Marble.
Southern Cities.
Country Parts.
State of Florida.


CHAPTER V. THE WEST.

New States and Territories.
Alaska.
Its Resources.
Both Sides of the Rockies Filling Up.
Pacific Railways.
Colorado.
California.
Great American Desert.
Tabular View of the West's Growth.
Western Cities.
Minnesota.
St. Paul, Minneapolis, Duluth.
Duluth and Chicago.
Statistics of Immigration.


CHAPTER VI. THE EXPOSITION OF 1876.

Origin of the Plan.
Organization.
Financial Basis.
Conclusion to Make it a World Affair.
To be at Philadelphia.
Building.
Opening Exercises.
The Main Building.
Arrangement and Contents.
The American Exhibit.
Machinery Hall.
The Corliss Engine.
Agricultural Hall.
Memorial Hall.
The Art Exhibit.
Horticultural Hall.
Minor Arrangements and Structures.
The Fourth of July Celebration.
Original Copy of the Declaration of Independence Read.
Interest in the Philadelphia Exposition.


CHAPTER VII. ECONOMIC POLITICS

Reduction of National Debt.
Refunding.
Surplus.
Tariff.
Its History since the War.
Policy of the Political Parties.
Tariffs of 1890 and 1894.
Trusts.
The Dollar of the Fathers.
Resumption of Specie Payments.
The Promissory Greenback.
Fiat Greenback Theory.
And Party.
Great Strike of 1877.
Labor Movement and Labor Question.
Corporations.
Their Evil Influence.
Counter-organizations.
Growth of our Urban Population.


CHAPTER VIII. THE MARCH OF INDUSTRY.

Progress in Cotton Manufacturing.
In Woollen, Iron, and Other.
In Travel.
New Submarine Cables.
First Pacific Railway.
Others.
Consolidation of Railways.
Electric Lighting.
Brooklyn Bridge.
Elevated Railways and New Modes of Surface Traction.
Telephone.
Black Friday.
Chicago Fire.
Boston Fire.
Hard Times of 1873.
Material Betterment for Last Two Decades.


CHAPTER IX. END OF THE PERIOD.

Contrast of New Things with Old.
Postal Arrangements.
Art.
Extension of Suffrage.
Woman's Rights.
Higher Education for Women.
Socialism and State Socialism.
Widened Scope of Governmental Action.
Restriction of Immigration.
Catholics.
Their Attitude to Public Schools.
Peril to Family.
Mormonism.
Divorce.
Danger from a Secular Spirit.
New Sense of Nationality.
Benign Results.
Greely Expedition to Polar Regions.
Lesson of our National Success to Other Nations.
Our Nation's Duty in World Affairs.



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


THE WORLD'S FAIR AT CHICAGO. CENTRAL PORTION OF MACMONNIES
FOUNTAIN--EFFECT OF ELECTRIC LIGHT.

GENERAL JOHN POPE.

GENERAL WILLIAM T. SHERMAN.

THE BATTLE OF THE RAMS AT MEMPHIS, JUNE 6, 1862.

FARRAGUT IN THE MAIN-RIGGING. (From the original by William Page).

GENERAL HENRY W. HALLECK.

GENERAL WILLIAM S. ROSECRANS.

GENERAL GEORGE H. THOMAS.

GENERAL JOSEPH HOOKER.

THE BATTLE OF LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN. (The "Battle above the Clouds ").

GENERAL JAMES B. McPHERSON.

GENERAL DAVID D. PORTER.

GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE.

GENERAL NATHANIEL P. BANKS.

GENERAL J. E. B. STUART'S RAID UPON POPE'S HEADQUARTERS.

AUGUST 22, 1862, WHEN POPE'S DESPATCH-BOOK FELL INTO THE HANDS OF THE
CONFEDERATES.

GENERAL THOMAS J. ("STONEWALL") JACKSON.

GENERAL EDWIN V. SUMNER.

GENERAL WINFIELD S. HANCOCK.

GENERAL AMBROSE E. BURNSIDE.

THE STONE WALL AT FREDERICKSBURG.

GENERAL OLIVER O. HOWARD.

GENERAL JOHN SEDGWICK.

GENERAL JAMES LONGSTREET.

GENERAL GEORGE G. MEADE.

DEATH OF GENERAL SEDGWICK AT SPOTTSYLVANIA, MAY 9, 1864.

GENERAL DAVID HUNTER.

GENERAL LEE SIGNING THE TERMS OF SURRENDER AT APPOMATTOX COURT-HOUSE.

GIDEON WELLES.

THE SINKING OF THE FRIGATE CUMBERLAND BY THE MERRIMAC IN HAMPTON ROADS,
MARCH 8, 1862.

JOHN ERICSSON.

SECTIONAL VIEW OF MONITOR THROUGH TURRET AND PILOT-HOUSE.

THE ORIGINAL MONITOR.

THE SINKING OF THE ALABAMA.

THE LANDING OF THE ALLIED TROOPS AT VERA CRUZ.

MAXIMILIAN WATCHING THE DEPARTURE OF THE LAST FRENCH TROOPS FROM THE
CITY OF MEXICO.

SALMON PORTLAND CHASE, SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY DURING THE CIVIL WAR.

FACSIMILE OF A PORTION OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S DRAFT OF THE PRELIMINARY
PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION, SEPTEMBER, 1862. (From the original in the
Library of the State of New York, Albany).

EDWIN M. STANTON.

ULYSSES S. GRANT.

SAMUEL J. TILDEN. (After a pastel by Sarony in the house at Gramercy Park).

JAMES A. GARFIELD.

JAMES G. BLAINE.

PRESIDENT GROVER CLEVELAND.

A FACSIMILE PUT IN EVIDENCE BEFORE THE CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE.

THE MOUTH OF THE MIAMI RIVER, FLORIDA.

THE SITE OF CHICAGO.

AN OHIO RIVER FLAT-BOAT.

AN IRRIGATED ORANGE GROVE AT RIVERSIDE, CALIFORNIA.

THE IRRIGATING RESERVOIR AT WALNUT GROVE, ARIZONA, SHOWING THE
ARTIFICIAL LAKE PARTLY FILLED.

AT THE CENTENNIAL EXPOSITION, PHILADELPHIA, 1876.

THE AMERICAN LINE STEAMSHIP ST. LOUIS, LAUNCHED FROM THE CRAMPS DOCKS,
NOVEMBER 12, 1894. (554  feet long, 11,000 tons, and 20,000 horse-power).

CORNELIUS VANDERBILT.

THE BIG LOOP ON THE GEORGETOWN BRANCH OF THE UNION PACIFIC, COLORADO.

CHARLES F. BRUSH.

MOSES G. FARMER.

THOMAS A. EDISON.

THE HOOSAC TUNNEL LIT BY GLOW LAMPS, AFTER THE PLAN OF THE MARR
CONSTRUCTION COMPANY.

EDISON'S PLATINUM LAMP ON CARBON SUPPORT, 1879.

EDISON'S PAPER CARBON LAMP.

EDISON'S FIRST INCANDESCENT PLATINUM LAMP.

THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE, LOOKING UP THE EAST RIVER.

THE MANHATTAN ELEVATED RAILWAY, NEW YORK.

UNDER SIDE OF A MODERN SWITCHBOARD, SHOWING 2,000 TELEGRAPH WIRES.

PROFESSOR BELL SENDING THE FIRST MESSAGE, BY LONG-DISTANCE TELEPHONE,
FROM NEW YORK TO CHICAGO.

THE NEW YORK GOLD ROOM ON "BLACK FRIDAY," SEPTEMBER 24,1869.

A SCENE DURING THE CHICAGO FIRE.

CATCHING THE MAIL POUCH FROM THE CRANE.

IGLOOS, OR ESQUIMAU HUTS.

A. W. GREELY.



LIST OF MAPS

THE CONFEDERATE LINE FROM COLUMBUS TO BOWLING GREEN.

FORT HENRY.

FORT DONELSON.

NEW MADRID AND ISLAND NUMBER TEN.

MEMPHIS TO IUKA, 1862.

OPERATIONS IN LOUISIANA. FEBRUARY TO JULY, 1863.

ATLANTA TO SAVANNAH.

THE BATTLE-FIELD OF NASHVILLE.

MAP OF NORTH CAROLINA.

JACKSON'S ATTACK ON HOWARD, MAY 1, 1863.

DIAGRAM OF THE ATTACK ON SICKLES AND SYKES.

THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY.

GENERAL EARLY'S MARYLAND CAMPAIGN.

GRANT'S PURSUIT OF LEE, APRIL, 1865.

MAP OF HAMPTON ROADS.



PERIOD IV.

CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION
(Continued)

1860-1868

CHAPTER V.

THE STRUGGLE FOR THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY

The North conducted the war upon three great lines of campaign: 1. The
Western campaigns, to clear the Mississippi River and thus divide the
Confederacy. 2. The campaigns in the centre, to reach the sea at Mobile,
Savannah, or Charleston, cutting the Confederacy a second time. 3. The
Eastern campaigns, to take Richmond, and capture or destroy the main
Confederate army, ending the Confederacy. This chapter deals with the
Western campaigns alone.

[1862]

The opening of 1862 found the Confederates in possession of a strong
line across the southern portion of Western Kentucky, stretching from
Bowling Green, near the centre of the State, to Columbus on the
Mississippi. The two gates of this line were Forts Henry and Donelson,
on the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, respectively, just over the
Tennessee border. If these forts could be taken the Confederates must
give up Kentucky.



The Confederate Line from Columbus to Bowling Green.



Fort Henry.


On February 6th, after a two hours' bombardment, Fort Henry surrendered
to General Grant, who had come up the river from Cairo with 17,000
troops, and with seven gunboats commanded by Commodore Foote. Most of
the garrison, about 3,000, had been sent off before the fleet opened
fire, General Tilghman foreseeing that he could not hold the fort. The
land forces arrived too late to cut off their retreat, and they escaped
safely to Fort Donelson, some dozen miles to the east.

Grant marched at once to invest Donelson, and sat down before it on the
12th with 15,000 men. The stronghold stood upon a bluff 100 feet high.
On the east it was protected by the Cumberland River; on the north and
south by two flooded creeks. Along a crest back of the fort a mile or
two ran a semicircular line of rifle-pits, with abatis in front. Nine
batteries were posted at various points along the line. Donelson was
garrisoned by 20,000 men under Generals Floyd, Pillow, and Buckner, who
quietly looked on while Grant's smaller army hemmed them in. On the 14th
the gunboats opened fire upon the water batteries between fort and
river. Commodore Foote steamed up boldly within 400 yards and pounded
the opposing works with his heavy guns.  He did little damage, however,
while the Confederate fire proved very effective against him. His
flag-ship, the Hartford, was struck fifty-nine times. A shot crashed
into the pilothouse, destroying the wheel and wounding Foote himself.
The boat became unmanageable and drifted down-stream. A shot cut the
tiller-ropes of the Louisville. The other boats were also considerably
damaged, and after an action of an hour and a half, the entire fleet
withdrew.



Fort Donelson.


But Grant's army had been re-enforced to 27,000. Three divisions, under
Smith, Wallace, and McClernand, stretched in a semicircle about Donelson
from north to south. On the night of the 14th the Confederate generals
held a consultation, and decided to try cutting their way out. Most of
the troops were withdrawn from the rifle-pits during the night, and
massed on the Union right. The weather had suddenly turned frosty, and
the Union men, without tents or camp-fires, many even without blankets,
shivered all night in the intense cold. Before dawn the attacking column
from inside, 10,000 strong, rushed through the woods and fell upon
McClernand's division, which formed the Union right. For hours the woods
rang with musketry and the southern yell. Slowly the Confederates drove
the Unionists before them and gained the road running south to
Charlotte, opening to themselves the way of escape.

This, however, they had not yet utilized, when, about one o'clock,
General Grant, who had been aboard the fleet consulting with Commodore
Foote, came upon the field. Learning that the foe had begun to fight
with full haversacks, he instantly divined that they were trying to make
their escape, and inferred that their forces had been mostly withdrawn
from opposite the Union left to make this attack against the right.
General Smith was therefore instantly ordered to fall upon the
Confederate right. As Grant had surmised, the intrenchments there were
easily carried. Meanwhile the demoralized soldiers of the Union right
and centre rallied, and drove the Confederates back to their
intrenchments. At daybreak Buckner sent to Grant for terms of
capitulation. "No terms except unconditional and immediate surrender can
be accepted: I propose to move immediately upon your works," was the
answer. The resolute words rang through the North, carrying big hope in
their remotest echo. Donelson surrendered. Floyd and Pillow had sneaked
away during the night, the former monopolizing the few boats to
transport his own brigade. Fifteen thousand troops remained and were
taken prisoners.



General John Pope.


The capture of Henry and Donelson necessitated the evacuation of Bowling
Green and Columbus. Kentucky was now clear of Confederates, and the
Mississippi open down to Island Number Ten. This island lay in a bend of
the river at the extreme northwestern corner of Tennessee. The great
stream here runs northwest for a dozen miles, then sharply turns to the
south again. New Madrid stands at this northern bend. It was protected
by Confederate fortifications and gunboats. Early in March, General
Halleck, now at the head of the Western Department, sent General Pope
against New Madrid with 20,000 men. The enemy fled to Island Number Ten,
leaving thirty-three guns, besides ammunition and many tents.

Island Number Ten was strongly fortified. Commodore Foote came down the
river with seventeen gunboats, and on March 16th began a bombardment
which was kept up for three weeks with little effect; but early in April
Pope got upon the Tennessee shore, in the undefended rear of the island,
and by intercepting its communication to the south, forced it to
surrender, April 8th. Seven thousand prisoners, one hundred heavy siege
guns, several thousand small arms, besides large stores of ammunition
and supplies, were thus secured, without the loss of a single Union
soldier. This exploit brought to Pope great fame.

Pope now descended the river to Fort Pillow, 100 miles below, which he
prepared to take. He was just then transferred by Halleck to another
field, and the reduction of Pillow left to the gunboats. Pillow was
abandoned June 4th. The Union flotilla, increased by four rams, now ran
down the river to Memphis, where, on June 6th, in the presence of
thousands of spectators upon the bluffs, it fought a battle with a
southern fleet. Seven of the Confederate boats were destroyed, and the
next day Memphis surrendered.

After the fall of Donelson the Confederates began concentrating their
forces at Corinth, in the northeast corner of Mississippi. Meanwhile the
Army of the Tennessee, under orders from Halleck, had moved up the
Tennessee River, and encamped, some 40,000 strong, at Pittsburg Landing
on the Tennessee River, 25 miles north of Corinth.  Here Grant, who had
been temporarily removed, took command again on March 17th. Buell, with
40,000 men, was on the march thither from Central Tennessee. The
Confederate generals at Corinth, Albert Sidney Johnston and Beauregard,
wisely determined to strike Grant before Buell arrived. There ensued the
greatest battle which had up to that time shaken the solid ground of
this continent.
[footnote: Indifferently called the battle of Shiloh or the battle of
Pittsburg Landing.]



New Madrid and Island Number Ten.


About six o'clock on the morning of April 6th the Confederates burst
through the thick woods upon the Union pickets and drove them in. It was
at least partially a surprise. Grant in person was nine miles down the
river. The Union officers hastily got their men into line, as the
attacking columns came sweeping in after the pickets. Three of the five
Union divisions were raw recruits, many of whom fled at the first fire.
Some colonels led their entire regiments off the field. Later in the day
Grant saw 4,000 or 5,000 of these runaways cowering under the shelter of
the bluffs.



General William T. Sherman.


But the bulk of the army made a stubborn resistance. General W. T.
Sherman, then comparatively unknown, inspired his division of raw troops
with his own intelligent courage. Their gallant and protracted fight
around the Shiloh log church made them the heroes of the day. But the
Confederates' onset was impetuous. Step by step they forced their
opponents back through the heavy woods, and by noon stood in possession
of the Union camps; Grant's army, badly shattered, being cooped up in a
narrow space along the edge of the river.

The tide now turned. About two o'clock, General Johnston was killed, and
the Confederate advance flagged. Between the two armies lay a deep
ravine. Grant planted some fifty guns upon the edge, and two of the
gunboats took positions where they could rake the ravine. By these
dispositions Beauregard's advance was stayed. Night fell, and
hostilities ceased.

Fortunately, 22,000 of Buell's men arrived during the night, and next
morning Grant ordered an advance. Beauregard made as desperate a
resistance as he could, seeing that his heavy losses the day before had
left him but 30,000 troops fit for duty. Buell's men showed the effects
of long training under that matchless disciplinarian, and fought
splendidly. The enemy were steadily pushed back, until more than all the
ground lost on the preceding day had been triumphantly regained, and the
battle of Pittsburg Landing, from being for the Union side a defeat
accomplished and a surrender threatened, was turned into a bright and
inspiring victory. Beauregard ordered a retreat, and, not being pursued,
regained his old position at Corinth. He had lost about 10,000 men. Our
loss was 12,000, including four regiments taken prisoners. The battle
was a severe check to both sides.



A.R. Ward        H.R. Hall, JR.
The Battle of the Rams at Memphis, June 6, 1862.


On February 2d the largest fleet that had ever sailed under the American
flag left Fortress Monroe for the mouth of the Mississippi, commanded by
Commodore Farragut. It consisted of 16 gunboats, 21 mortar-schooners,
six sloops of war, and five other vessels. Fifteen thousand land troops,
under General Butler, soon followed. Thirty miles below New Orleans
Forts Jackson and St. Philip, mounting 100 guns, frowned at each other
across the Mississippi. Farragut's fleet sailed up the river and the
mortar-schooners were moored to the banks within range of the forts.
Boughs were tied to the top-masts so that the enemy could not
distinguish them from the trees along the shore. April 18th the mortars
began shelling the forts. An incessant fire was kept up night and day,
for six days, till nearly 6,000 shells had been thrown.



Memphis to Iuka. 1862.


As the forts sustained little damage, Farragut decided to run the
batteries. A gunboat stole up by night and cut the boom of hulks chained
together, which crossed the river just below the forts. Some of the
boats were rubbed over with mud to make them invisible, and chain cables
hung over the sides to protect the engines. About half past two in the
night of April 23d the fleet moved up the river through the gap in the
boom. The enemy, on the alert, launched fire-rafts and lit bonfires to
lift the cover of night. Old Jackson and St. Philip poured a hot fire
into the fleet as vessel after vessel slowly steamed past, answering
with its most spiteful broadsides.

But the Union craft had more than the forts against them. Once past the
boom they were in the midst of a hostile fleet of fifteen vessels,
including a dangerous ironclad ram. A fierce water-fight followed. The
Union Varuna was sunk; the flag-ship Hartford set on fire by one of the
fire-rafts. The flames, however, were soon put out. Other vessels were
disabled. But every one of the Confederate ships was captured or
destroyed, and Jackson and St. Philip had to surrender. Farragut then
sailed up the river and took possession of New Orleans without
resistance. Butler at once occupied the city with his troops, and the
Stars and Stripes again waved ove

the war; then, grasping one another warmly by the hand, they parted, one
starting east, the other south, each to strike at the appointed time his
half of the ponderous death-blow.

Sherman pushed out from Chattanooga May 6, 1864, with 100,000 men and
254 cannon. His force comprised the Army of the Cumberland, 60,000,
under Thomas; the Army of the Tennessee, 25,000, under Schofield; and
the Army of the Ohio, 15,000, under McPherson. Johnston, who had
superseded Bragg, lay behind strong works at Dalton, a few miles
southeast, with 64,000 men, his base being Atlanta, 80 miles away.
Sherman's supplies all came over a single line of railroad from
Nashville, nearly 150 miles from Chattanooga as the road ran. Every
advantage but numbers was on Johnston's side.

Sherman calculated that the Army of the Cumberland could hold his
opponent at bay, while the two smaller armies crept around his flanks.
This plan was adhered to throughout, and with wonderful success. All
through May and the first of June a series of skilful flanking movements
compelled Johnston to fall back from one position to another, each
commander, like a tried boxer, constantly on the watch to catch his
opponent off guard. Heavy skirmishing day after day made the march
practically one long battle.

June 10th Johnston planted his army upon three elevations--Kenesaw,
Pine, and Lost Mountains--and stubbornly stood at bay. A pouring rain,
which turned the whole country into a quagmire and the streams into
formidable rivers, made the usual flank manoeuvre impracticable. Sherman
resolved to assault in front. June 27th a determined onset was made
along the whole line for two hours but failed, though the troops gained
positions close to the hostile works and intrenched. They lost 2,500;
the Confederates not more than a third of this number. The roads having
now improved, Sherman resorted to his old tactics, the Confederates
having to fall back across the Chattahoochee, and come to bay under the
very guns of Atlanta.

Just at the critical moment, when Sherman's army was slowly closing in
around Atlanta, General Johnston, so wary and cool, was superseded by
the young and fiery Hood, pledged to assume the offensive. On the 20th
Hood made a furious attack on Hooker's front, but was repulsed with
heavy losses. On the 22d he struck again, and harder. By a night march,
Hardee's corps at dawn fell upon the Union left flank and rear like a
thunderbolt out of a clear sky, rolling up the Army of the Tennessee in
great confusion. The brave and talented McPherson was killed early in
the action, Logan succeeding. "McPherson and revenge," he cried, as upon
his coal-black steed he careered from post to post of danger, inspiring
his men and restoring order. The veterans soon recovered from their
surprise. The Union lines were completely re-established, and by night
Hood's army was driven back into the city, having sacrificed probably
10,000 much-needed men, 2,500 of them killed.



Atlanta to Savannah.


Sherman now began to swing round to the south and southeast of Atlanta,
till at last he cut its communications with the Confederacy. Hood
evacuated the city and his opponent entered it, September 5th. The
northern troops, after their four months' incessant marching and
fighting, now got a little well-earned rest. Their total losses from
Chattanooga were 32,000. The Confederates had sacrificed about
35,000--the larger part under Hood.

The last of September Hood struck out boldly for Tennessee, menacing,
and, in fact, temporarily rupturing Sherman's long supply-line from
Nashville. Leaving one corps to hold Atlanta, Sherman raced back for 100
miles in pursuit. The railroad being well guarded, Hood could do no
serious damage, and finally turned west into Alabama. Sherman now
resolved on a march to the sea. Thomas, with three corps, was sent to
Tennessee to look out for Hood. The 62,000 troops remaining at Atlanta
were put into light marching trim, and the wagons filled with 20 days'
rations and 200 rounds of ammunition per man. All storehouses and other
property useful to the enemy were then destroyed, communications with
the North cut, and November 15th a splendid army of hardy veterans swung
off for the Atlantic or the Gulf, over 200 miles away. Their orders were
to live on the country, the rations being kept for emergencies; but no
dwellings were to be entered, and no houses or mills destroyed if the
army was unmolested. The dwelling-house prescription was, alas, too
often broken over. There was little resistance, Georgia having been
drained of its able-bodied whites. Negroes flocked, singly and by
families, to join "Massa Linkum's boys." The railroads were destroyed,
and the Carolinas thus cut off from the Gulf States.

Each regiment detailed a certain number of foragers. These, starting off
in the morning empty-handed and on foot, would return at night riding or
driving beasts laden with spoils. "Here would be a silver-mounted family
carriage drawn by a jackass and a cow, loaded inside and out with
everything the country produced, vegetable and animal, dead and alive.
There would be an ox-cart, similarly loaded, and drawn by a nondescript
tandem team equally incongruous. Perched upon the top would be a ragged
forager, rigged out in a fur hat of a fashion worn by dandies of a
century ago, or a dress-coat which had done service at stylish balls of
a former generation. The jibes and jeers, the fun and the practical
jokes, ran down the whole line as the cortege came in, and no masquerade
in carnival could compare with it for original humor and rollicking
enjoyment. ... The camps in the open pine-woods, the bonfires along the
railways, the occasional sham battles at night with blazing pine-knots
for weapons whirling in the darkness, all combined to leave upon the
minds of officers and men the impression of a vast holiday frolic."
[footnote: The March to the Sea, by Major-General J. D. Cox. Campaigns
of the Civil War. Scribners.]

At the start Sherman was uncertain just where he should strike the
coast. The blockade vessels were asked to be on the lookout for him from
Mobile to Charleston. By the middle of December the army lay before
Savannah. Hardee held the city with 16,000 men, but evacuated it
December 20, 1864, Sherman entering next day. He wrote to Lincoln, "I
beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah." The
capture of Fort McAllister a week before had opened the Ogeechee River,
and Sherman now established a new base of supplies on the sea-coast.

The North rang with praises of the Great March, which had pierced like a
knife the vitals of the Confederacy. Georgia, with her arsenals and
factories, had been the Confederacy's workshop. Twenty thousand bales of
cotton had been burned upon the march, besides a great amount of
military stores. The 320 miles of railroad destroyed had practically
isolated Virginia from the South and the West. And all this had been
done with the loss of less than 1,000 men.

[1865]

Meanwhile Thomas had dealt the Confederacy another staggering blow. The
adventurous Hood had advanced with his army of 44,000 to the very gates
of Nashville. The deliberate Thomas, spite of prickings from Grant,
waited till he felt prepared. Then he struck with a Titan's hand. The
first day's fight, December 15th, drove the Confederate line back two
miles. Hood formed again on hills running east and west, and hastily
fortified. All next day the battle raged. Late in the afternoon the
works on the Confederate left were carried by a gallant charge. Total
rout of Hood's brave army followed. It fled south, demoralized and
scattered, never to appear again as an organized force. In the two days'
battle, 4,500 prisoners and 53 guns were taken.



The Battle-Field of Nashville.


February 1, 1865, his troops all rested and equipped afresh, Sherman set
his face to the north. The days of frolic were over. Continuous rains
had made the Carolinas almost impassable. The march now begun was an
incessant struggle with mud, swamps, and swollen rivers. A pontoon and
trestle bridge three miles long was thrown across the Savannah, and
miles of corduroy road were built through continuous swamps. Charleston,
incessantly besieged since the war opened, where the United States had
wasted more powder and iron than at all other points together, fell
without a blow. Columbia was reached the middle of the month. It caught
fire--just how has never been settled--and the greater part of the city
was destroyed. Sherman's men helped to put out the flames, and left
behind provisions and a herd of five hundred cattle for the suffering
inhabitants.



Map of North Carolina.


The army pushed on toward North Carolina, destroying railroads as it
went. Johnston was athwart their path with 30,000 men. March 16th he
struck Sherman's army at Averysboro', N. C., and three days later at
Bentonville. In the latter battle he was completely routed, and re
treated during the night. Sherman swept on to Goldsboro', where
re-enforcements from the coast, under Schofield, increased his army to
90,000. He was undisputed master of the Carolinas. By this time the
Confederacy was hastening to its fall. April 11th the news of Lee's
surrender was hailed in Sherman's army with shouts of joy. A few days
later Johnston surrendered to the hero of Atlanta and of the March to
the Sea.



CHAPTER VII.

THE VIRGINIA CAMPAIGNS OF 1862-63

[1862]

The Army of the Potomac lay inactive all through the winter of 1861-62.
The country cried "Forward," but it was March before McClellan was ready
to stir. Then he sailed down Chesapeake Bay to attack Richmond from the
south, with Fortress Monroe as base. The splendidly disciplined and
equipped army, 120,000 strong, began embarking March 17th.

Fortress Monroe lies at the apex of a wedge-shaped peninsula formed by
the York and James Rivers, which converge as they flow toward the coast.
April 4th, McClellan started on his march up this peninsula. A line of
Confederate fortifications, twelve miles long, stretched across it, from
Yorktown to the James, defended by 10,000 men. Yorktown must be taken to
turn this line. A month was wasted in laborious siege preparations, for
early in May, just before an overwhelming cannonade was to begin, the
southern army evacuated the place and retreated toward Richmond.



General David D. Porter.


McClellan hurried after it. A desultory battle was fought all day on the
5th, near Williamsburg, the enemy withdrawing at night. McClellan now
moved slowly up the peninsula, the last of May finding his army within
ten miles of Richmond, encamped on both sides of the Chickahominy. By
this time nearly 70,000 troops had gathered for the defence of the
Confederate capital.


General Robert E. Lee.


May 31st, the Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston fell upon the part
of McClellan's army south of the river, at Fair Oaks, and in a bloody
battle drove it back a mile. McClellan sent re-enforcements across the
river, and the retreat was stayed. The lost ground was regained next
day, and the enemy driven into Richmond. Johnston having been wounded,
General Robert E. Lee was now placed in command of the Army of Virginia,
destined to lay it down only at the collapse of the Confederate
government.

McClellan waited three weeks for better weather. He also expected
McDowell's corps of 45,000, which had been kept near Fredericksburg to
defend Washington, but was under orders at the proper time to cooperate
with McClellan by moving against Richmond from the north. But Stonewall
Jackson came raiding down the Shenandoah Valley, hustling General Banks
before him. Washington was alarmed, and McDowell had to be retained.

Lee boldly took the offensive, and the "Seven Days' Fight" began. June
26th he attacked McClellan's extreme right under Porter, on the north
side of the Chickahominy.  He was repulsed, but Porter fell back farther
down the river to Gaines's Mill, there fought all the next day against
great odds, and was saved from total rout toward night only by the
arrival of re-enforcements.



General Nathaniel P. Banks.


Jackson's army from the north had joined Lee's left, and McClellan's
communication with York River was in danger. He decided to change his
base to the James, where he would have placed it at first but for his
expectation of McDowell and his desire to connect with him. Everything
not transportable, including millions of rations and hundreds of tons of
ammunition, had to be destroyed. Five thousand loaded wagons, 2,500 head
of cattle, and the reserve artillery were then set in motion toward the
James, protected by the army in flank and rear.

On discovering this movement Lee hastened to strike. A force was sent to
assail the retreating column in the rear; but the bridgeless
Chickahominy, guarded by artillery, held the pursuers at bay. Lee threw
other portions of his army against McClellan's right, at Savage's
Station on the 29th, at Frazier's Farm on the day following; but the
Union troops each time stood their ground till ready and then continued
their march.

July 1st found the retreating host concentrated on Malvern Hill, a
plateau a mile and a half long and half as broad, with ravines toward
the advancing enemy. Here McClellan planted seventy cannon, rising tier
upon tier up the slope, seven heavy siege guns crowning the crest. The
position was impregnable, but Lee determined to attack. Shortly before
sunset his men advanced boldly to the charge, but were mowed down by the
terrible concentrated fire of the batteries. The hill swarmed with
infantry as well, sheltered by fences and ravines, while shells from the
gunboats in James River could reach every part of the Confederate line.
Yet not till nine in the evening did Lee let the useless carnage cease.
Badly demoralized as the opposing army was, McClellan at midnight
withdrew to Harrison's Landing, farther down the James.



General J. E. B. Stuart's Raid upon Pope's Headquarters, August 22, 1862,
when Pope's despatch book fell into the hands of the Confederates.


During the Seven Days' Retreat he had lost 15,000 men; the Confederates
somewhat more. Military authorities unite in pronouncing McClellan's
change of base "brilliantly executed;" but the campaign as a whole was a
failure, discouraging the country as much as Bull Run had done.
McClellan prepared and fully expected to move on Richmond again from
this new base, but early in August received orders to withdraw from the
Peninsula. By the middle of the month the dejected Army of the Potomac
was on its way north.

The last of June the Union forces in West Virginia, the Shenandoah
Valley, and in front of Washington were consolidated into one army, and
the same General Pope who had recently won laurels by the conquest of
Island Number Ten, put in command. His headquarters, he announced, were
to be in the saddle, and those who had criticised McClellan gave out
that the Union army's days of retreating were past. McClellan was called
from the Peninsula to strengthen this new movement.

Lee started north to crush Pope before McClellan should reach him. Pope
had but 50,000 men against Lee's 80,000, and fell back across the
Rappahannock. Lee sent Jackson on a far detour, via Thoroughfare Gap, to
get into his rear and cut his communications. Jackson moved rapidly
around to Manassas--one of the most brilliant exploits in all the
war--and destroyed Pope's immense supply depot there. On August 29th he
was attacked by Pope near the old battlefield of Bull Run. The first
day's fight was indecisive, but Confederate re-enforcements under
Longstreet arrived in time to join in the battle of the next. McClellan
was in no hurry to re-enforce his rival, but proposed "to leave Pope to
get out of his scrape as he might." Toward sunset in the battle of the
30th, Longstreet's column, doubling way around Jackson's right and
Pope's left, made a grand charge, taking Pope straight in the flank.
Porter's corps--the Fifth--part of McClellan's army, stood in the
"bloody angle" of cross-fire. His loss was dreadful--2,000 out of 9,000.
Pope was compelled to retire to Centreville. An engagement at Chantilly,
September 1st, forced a further retreat to Washington. Pope resigned,
and his army was merged in the Army of the Potomac, McClellan commanding
all.



General Thomas J. ("Stonewall") Jackson.


Lee now invaded Maryland with 60,000 men. Already the alarmed North
heard him knocking at its gates. Hastily re-organizing the army,
McClellan gave chase. Leaving a force to hold Turner's Gap in South
Mountain, Lee pushed on toward Pennsylvania. By the battle of South
Mountain, September 14th, Hooker got possession of the gap, and the
Union army poured through. Seeing that he must fight, Lee took up a
position on Antietam Creek, a few miles north of Harper's Ferry. Jackson
had just received the surrender of the latter place, with 11,000
prisoners, and now hurried to join Lee.

By the night of September 16th, the two armies were in battle array on
either side of the creek. To the rear of the Confederate left lay a
cultivated area encircled by woods, a cornfield in its centre. At dawn
on the 17th, Hooker opened the battle by a furious charge against the
Confederate left, and tumbled the enemy out of the woods, across the
cornfield, and into the thickets beyond, where he was fronted by
Confederate reserves. The carnage was terrific. Re-enforcements under
Mansfield were sent to Hooker, but driven back across the cornfield.
Mansfield was killed and Hooker borne from the field wounded, Sumner
coming up barely in time to prevent a rout. Once more the Confederates
were pushed through the cornfield into the woods. Here, crouching behind
natural breastworks--limestone ridges waist-high--the southern ranks
delivered so hot a fire as to repulse Sumner's men. Thus, all the
morning and into the afternoon the tide of battle surged back and forth
through the bloody cornfield, strewn with wounded and dead.



General Edwin V. Sumner.



General Winfield S. Hancock.


On the Confederate right no action took place till late in the day.
Burnside then attacked and gained some slight advantage. But
re-enforcements from Harper's Ferry came up and were put in against him,
forcing him back to the creek. During the next day McClellan feared to
risk a battle. Being re-enforced, he intended to attack on the following
morning; but Lee, who should have been crushed, having but 40,000 men to
McClellan's 87,000, slipped away in the night and got safely across the
Potomac. The Union loss was 12,400; that of the Confederates probably
about the same.

The general dissatisfaction with McClellan's slowness caused his removal
early in November, Burnside succeeding him. The new commander, who, as
the head of the army, was an amiable failure, proposed to move directly
against Richmond, but Lee flung himself in his path at Fredericksburg.

Fredericksburg lies on the south bank of the Rappahannock. Behind the
city is a gradually ascending plain, bounded by heights which bend
toward the river. Lee's army, 80,000 strong, lay in a semicircle along
these heights, its wings touching the river above and below the town.
Two rows of batteries, planted on the heights, swept the plain in front
and flank. A sunken road, sheltered by a stone wall, ran along the base
of the declivity. Burnside's army of 125,000 men occupied a range of
hills on the north side of the river.



General Ambrose E. Burnside.


Lee's position was very strong; but the country was impatient for
action, and Burnside too readily and without any definite plan gave the
order to attack. December 11th and 12th were spent in crossing the river
on pontoon bridges. The ominous 13th came. The first charge was made by
5,000 of Franklin's men against the Confederate right. The attacking
column broke through the lines and reached the heights; but it was not
supported, and Confederate reserves drove it back.

About noon an attack was made by Hancock's and French's corps against
the Confederate left. They advanced over the plain in two lines, one
behind the other. Suddenly the batteries in front, to left, to right,
poured upon them a murderous fire. Great gaps were mowed in their ranks.
Union batteries, replying from across the river, added horror to the
din, but helped little. Still the lines swept on. They grew thinner and
thinner, halted, broke, and fled.

Again they advanced, this time almost up to the stone wall. Behind it,
hidden from sight, lay gray ranks four deep. Suddenly that silent wall
burst into flame, and the advancing lines crumbled away more rapidly
than before. Three times more the gallant fellows came on, bayonets
fixed, to useless slaughter. That deadly wall could not be passed.



The Stone Wall at Fredericksburg.


[1863]

The two wings having failed, the Union centre, under Fighting Joe
Hooker, was ordered to try. He kept his batteries playing till sunset,
hoping to make a breach. Four thousand men were then ordered into the
jaws of death. Stripping off knapsacks and overcoats, and relying on the
bayonet alone, they charged on the double-quick and with a cheer. They
got within twenty yards of the stone wall. Again that sheet of flame! In
fifteen minutes it was all over, and they returned as rapidly as they
advanced, leaving nearly half their number dead and dying behind. During
the day Burnside had had 113,000 men either across the river or ready to
cross. Lee's force was 78,000.

Night put an end to the luckless carnage. Burnside's generals dissuaded
him from renewing the attack next day, and the army re-crossed the
river. They had lost 12,300 men; the Confederates 5,000. A writer to the
London Times from Lee's headquarters called this December 13th a day
"memorable to the historian of the Decline and Fall of the American
Republic."

Burnside resigned in January, and Hooker took the command, but he did
not assume the offensive till the last of April. Then, leaving three
corps under Sedgwick to deceive Lee by a demonstration in front, he
marched up-stream with the other four of his corps, crossed the
Rappahannock and the Rapidan, partially turned Lee's left, and took up a
position near Chancellorsville. It was a perfect plan, and thus far
triumphantly executed. But here Hooker waited, and the pause was fatal.
On the night of April 30th Lee perceived that Sedgwick's movement was
only a feint, and gathered all his forces, 62,000 strong, to fight at
Chancellorsville. He fortified himself so firmly that Hooker with
64,000, or, including Sedgwick's two corps and the cavalry, 113,000,
made not a single step of further advance.



General Oliver O. Howard.



General John Sedgwick.



R.D. Servoss, N.Y.
Jackson's Attack on Howard, May 1st, 1863.


Nor was this the worst. Hooker's right wing, under Howard, was weakly
posted. On the 2d of May Stonewall Jackson, who cherished the theory
that one man in an enemy's rear is worth ten in his front, making a
detour of fifteen miles, got upon Howard's right unobserved, and rolled
it up. The surprise was as complete as it was inexcusable. Arms were
stacked and the men getting supper. Suddenly some startled deer came
bounding into camp, gray-coats swarming from the woods hard behind.
Almost at the first charge the whole corps broke and flee! But the
victory cost the Confederates dear; Jackson was fatally wounded,
probably by his own men.

All the next day the Union army fought on the defensive. Hooker was
stunned in the course of it by a cannon-ball stroke upon the
house-pillar against which he was leaning, and the army was left without
a commanding mind. Sedgwick, who was to come up from below
Fredericksburg and take Lee in the rear, found it impossible to do this
in time, having to fight his way forward with great loss. When he drew
near, Lee was enough at leisure to attend to him. Forty thousand troops,
aching for the fray, were left idle while Lee was hammering away against
the portion of the Union line commanded by Sickles. Ammunition gave out,
and charge after charge had to be repulsed with the bayonet.

Sickles's brave men at last yielded. The Confederate attack of May 4th
was nearly all directed against Sedgwick, whose noble corps narrowly
escaped capture. That night the whole army fell back to nearly its old
position north of the Rappahannock. Except that at Fredericksburg it was
the most disgraceful fiasco on either side during the war. It cost
17,000 men, and accomplished less than nothing. The South was elated. It
proposed again to invade the North and this time dictate terms of peace.

Early in June Lee's jubilant army, strengthened to 100,000, with 15,000
cavalry and 280 guns, started on its second grand Northern Campaign. It
marched down the Shenandoah Valley, crossed the Potomac on the 25th, and
headed for Chambersburg, Penn. The Army of the Potomac marched parallel
with it, on the east side of the Blue Ridge, and crossed the Potomac a
day later. Hooker suddenly resigned, and Meade was put in command.



General James Longstreet.


Lee reached Chambersburg; his advance even pushed well on toward
Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania. At Chambersburg he waited
eagerly for those riots in northern cities by which the "copperheads"
had expected to aid his march. In vain. Meade was drawing near. "Pressed
by the finger of destiny, the Confederate army went down to Gettysburg,"
and here the advance of both hosts met on July 1st. After some sharp
fighting the Union van was driven back in confusion through Gettysburg,
with a loss of 10,000 men, half of them prisoners. The brave General
Reynolds, commanding the First Corps, lost his life in this action. The
residue fell back to Cemetery Hill, south of the town. Meade, fifteen
miles to the south, sent Hancock on to take command of the field, and
see what it was best to do. This able and trusty officer hurried to the
scene of action in an ambulance, studying maps as he went. He saw at a
glance the strength of Cemetery Ridge and resolved to retreat no
farther. The remaining corps were ordered up, and by noon of July 2d had
mostly taken their positions.

The Union army lay along an elevation some three miles in length,
resembling a fish-hook in shape. At the extreme southern end forming
the head of the shank rose "Round Top," four hundred feet in height.
Farther north was "Little Round Top," about three-fourths as high.
Cemetery Ridge formed the rest of the shank. The hook curved to the
east, with Culp's Hill for the barb. The Confederate army occupied
Seminary Ridge a mile to the west, its left wing, however, bending
around to the east through Gettysburg, the line being nearly parallel
with Meade's, but much longer. Each army numbered not far from 80,000.


General George G. Meade.


The battle of the second day began about three in the afternoon. Meade
had neglected to occupy Little Round Top, which was the key to the Union
line. Longstreet's men began climbing its rugged sides. Fortunately the
movement was seen in time, and Union troops, after a most desperate
conflict, seized and held the crest of the hill.

Along the Union left centre General Sickles's corps had taken a position
in advance of the rest of the line, upon a ridge branching off from
Cemetery Ridge at an acute angle. Here he was fiercely attacked and most
of his force finally driven back into the line of Cemetery Ridge. The
Union right had been greatly weakened to strengthen the centre. The
Confederates charged here also, and carried the outer intrenchments at
Culp's Hill. The Union losses during the afternoon were
10,000--three-fifths in Sickles's corps, which lost half its numbers.

The next morning was spent by Lee in preparing for a grand charge upon
the Union centre, that of yesterday upon the left having failed, and the
Confederates having this morning been driven from the ground gained the
night before on the right at Culp's Hill. The storm burst about one
o'clock. For two hours 120 guns on Seminary Ridge kept up a furious
cannonade, to which Meade replied with 80. About three the Union cannon
ceased firing. Lee mistakenly thought them silenced, and gave the word
to charge.

An attacking column 18,000 strong, made up of fresh troops, the flower
of Lee's men, and commanded by the impetuous Pickett, the Ney of the
southern army, emerges from the woods on Seminary Ridge, and, drawn up
in three lines, one behind the other, with a front of more than a mile,
moves silently down the slope and across the valley toward the selected
spot. Suddenly the Union batteries again open along the whole line.
Great furrows are ploughed in the advancing ranks. They press steadily
on, and climb the slope toward Meade's lines. Two regiments behind rude
intrenchments slightly in advance pour in such a murderous fire that the
column swerves a little toward its left, exposing its flank. General
Stannard and his lusty Vermonters make an irresistible charge upon this.
Windrows of Pickett's poor fellows are mowed down by the combined
artillery and musketry fire. A part of the column breaks and flees. A
part rushes on with desperate valor and reaches the low stone wall which
serves for a Union breastwork. A venomous hand-to-hand fight ensues.
Union re-enforcements swarm to the endangered point. The three
Confederate brigade commanders are all killed or fatally wounded, whole
regiments of their followers surrounded and taken prisoners. The rest
are tumbled back, and the broken remnants of that noble column flee in
wild confusion across the valley.



Note: From A to K is just one mile.
R.D. Servos N.Y.
Diagram of the Attack on Sickles and Sykes.


The Confederate loss on this eventful day was 16,000, the Union loss not
one-fifth as great. General Hancock, whose command bore the brunt of the
charge, was severely wounded. Meade should have pressed his advantage,
but did not, an

On March 8, 1862, the Union fleet, consisting of the Cumberland,
Congress, Minnesota, and some smaller craft, rode lazily at anchor in
Hampton Roads. About noon a curious looking structure was seen coming
down Elizabeth River. It was the Merrimac. She steered straight for the
Cumberland. The latter poured in a broadside from her heavy ten-inch
guns, but the balls glanced off the ram's sloping iron sides like peas.
The Merrimac's iron beak crashed into the Cumberland's side, making a
great hole. In a few minutes the old warsloop, working her guns to the
water's edge, went down in fifty-four feet of water, 120 sick and
wounded sinking with her.



The Sinking of the Frigate Cumberland by the Merrimac in Hampton Roads,
March 8, 1862.


The Congress had meanwhile been run aground. The Merrimac fired hot
shot, setting her afire. Nearly half the crew being killed or wounded,
she surrendered, her magazine exploding and blowing her up at midnight.
The Minnesota, hastening up with two other vessels from Fortress Monroe
to aid her sisters, had run aground. Being of heavy draught, the
Merrimac could not get near enough to do her much damage, and at
nightfall steamed back to her landing. As the telegraph that night
flashed over the land the news of the Merrimac's victory, dismay filled
the North, exultation the South. What was to stay the career of the
invulnerable monster? Could it not destroy the whole United States navy
of wooden ships?

Next morning the Merrimac reappeared to complete her work of
destruction. As she drew near the stranded Minnesota, a strange little
craft moved out from the side of the big frigate and headed straight for
the iron-clad. It was Ericsson's Monitor, which had arrived from New
York at midnight. The Confederate characterization of it as a "cheese-box
on a raft" is still the best description of its appearance. Its
lower hull, 122 feet long and 34 wide, was protected by a raft-like
overhanging upper hull, 172 feet long and 41 wide. Midway upon her low
deck, which rose only a foot above the water, stood a revolving turret
21 feet in diameter and nine in height. It was made of iron eight inches
thick, and bore two eleven-inch guns throwing each a 180-pound ball.
Near the bow rose the pilot-house, made of iron logs nine inches by
twelve in thickness. The side armor of the hull was five inches thick,
and the deck was covered with heavy iron plates.



John Ericsson.



Sectional View of Monitor through Turret and Pilot House.

[1863]

For three hours the iron-clads fought. The Merrimac's shot glanced
harmlessly off the round turret, while her attempts to run the Monitor
down failed. Meanwhile the big guns in the Monitor's turret, firing
every seven minutes, were pounding the ram's sides with terrible blows.
The Merrimac's armor was at points crushed in several inches, but
nowhere pierced, About noon the fight stopped, as if by mutual consent.
It was a drawn battle, but the career of the Merrimac had ended. Upon
McClellan's advance, in May, she was blown up. The Monitor received no
serious injury in this action, but the next December she foundered in a
storm off Cape Hatteras.

The invention of the Monitor revolutionized naval warfare, and set
European nations to building the ponderous iron-clad navies of the
present day. The United States Government soon contracted for twenty
single-turret monitors, and four double-turreted ones with fifteen-inch
guns.

The Confederates now went to building iron-clads on the model of the
Merrimac. On the morning of January 31, 1863, the iron-clads Palmetto
State and Chicora steamed out of Charleston Harbor, in a dense fog, and
attacked the blockading fleet of wooden vessels. After ramming one ship
and sending a shot through the boiler of another, they put back to port.

In April, Admiral Dupont tried to seize Charleston Harbor with his fleet
of seven monitors and two iron-clads. In a two hours' action the
monitors were seriously injured by the heavy guns of the forts, and the
fleet withdrew. In August, land batteries reduced Fort Sumter almost to
ruins, and in the following month Fort Wagner was abandoned. June 17th,
the iron-clad Atlanta, armed with a torpedo at the end of a spar, ran
down from Savannah to engage with two monitors guarding the mouth of the
river. She got aground, rendering the torpedo useless. The fifteen-inch
guns of the monitors pierced her armor, and in a few minutes she
surrendered.

[1884]

The Albemarle proved a more dangerous foe. The last of April, 1864, it
descended Roanoke River, smashed the gunboats at the mouth, and
compelled the surrender of the forts and the town of Plymouth. A few
days later it attacked a fleet of gunboats below the mouth of the river.
After a severe tussle, inflicting and receiving considerable damage, it
steamed back to Plymouth. Here it lay at the wharf till October, when it
was sunk by Lieutenant Cushing, already famous for daring exploits under
the very noses of the enemy. On the night of October 27th, young Cushing
approached the ironclad in a steam launch with a torpedo at the end of a
spar projecting from the bow. Jumping his boat over the log boom
surrounding the ram, in the thick of musketry fire from deck and shore,
Cushing calmly worked the strings by which the intricate torpedo was
fired. It exploded under the vessel's overhang, and she soon sunk. At
the moment of the explosion a cannonball crashed through the launch.
Cushing plunged into the river and swam to shore through a shower of
bullets. After crawling through the swamps next day, be found a skiff
and paddled off to the fleet. Of the launch's crew of fourteen, only one
other escaped.



The Original Monitor.


The stronghold of the Confederacy on the Gulf was Mobile. Two strong
forts, mounting twenty-seven and forty-seven guns, guarded the channel
below the city, which was further defended by spiles and torpedoes. In
the harbor, August 5, 1864, lay the iron-clad ram, Tennessee, and three
gunboats, commanded by Admiral Buchanan, formerly captain of the
Merrimac. Farragut determined to force a passage. Before six o'clock in
the morning his fleet of four monitors and fourteen wooden ships, the
latter lashed together two and two, got under way, Farragut taking his
station in the main rigging of the Hartford. The action opened about
seven. One of the monitors struck a torpedo and sunk. The Brooklyn,
which was leading, turned back to go around what seemed to be a nest of
torpedoes. The whole line was in danger of being huddled together under
the fire of the forts. Farragut boldly took the lead, and the fleet
followed. The torpedo cases could be heard rapping against the ships'
bottoms, but none exploded.

The forts being safely passed, the Confederate gunboats advanced to the
attack. One of these was captured, the other two escaped. The powerful
iron-clad Tennessee now moved down upon the Union fleet. It was 209 feet
long, with armor from five to six inches thick. Farragut ordered his
wooden vessels to run her down. Three succeeded in ramming her squarely.
She reeled under the tremendous blows, and her gunners could not keep
their feet. A monitor sent a fifteen-inch ball through her stern. Her
smoke-stack and steering-chains were shot away, and several port
shutters jammed. About ten A.M., after an action of an hour and a
quarter, the ram hoisted the white flag. The forts surrendered in a few
days.

January 15, 1865, Fort Fisher, a strong work near Wilmington, N. C,
mounting seventy-five guns, was captured by a joint land and naval
expedition under General Terry and Admiral Porter. This was the last
great engagement along the coast.

The story of the war upon the high seas is quickly told. Swift and
powerful cruisers were built in English ship-yards, with the connivance
of the British Government, whence they sailed to prey upon our commerce.
The Florida, Georgia, Shenandoah, Chameleon, and Tallahassee, were some
of the most famous in the list of Confederate cruisers. During 1861,
fifty-eight prizes were taken by them. American merchant vessels were
driven from the sea. The Shenandoah alone destroyed over $6,000,000
worth in vessels and cargoes.

[1862]

The two most celebrated of these sea-rovers were the Sumter and the
Alabama, both commanded by Captain Semmes, formerly of the United States
Navy. The Sumter was a screw steamer of 600 tons, a good sailer and
sea-boat. She was bought by the Confederate Government and armed with a
few heavy guns. On June 30, 1861, she ran the blockade at Charleston,
and began scouring the seas. All through the fall she prowled about the
Atlantic, taking seventeen prizes, most of which were burned. Many
United States cruisers were sent after her, but she eluded or escaped
them all. Early in 1862 the Sumter entered the port of Gibraltar. Here
she was blockaded by two Union gunboats, and Semmes finally sold her to
take command of the Alabama.

The Alabama was built expressly for the Confederacy at Laird's
ship-yard, Liverpool, and although her character was perfectly well
known, the British Government permitted her to go to sea. She was taken
to one of the Azores Islands, where she received her armament and her
captain. The officers were Confederates, the crew British. She began her
destructive career in August, 1862. By the last of October she had taken
twenty-seven prizes. In January she sunk the gunboat Hatteras, one of
the blockading fleet off Galveston, Tex. After cruising in all seas, the
Alabama, in 1864, returned to the European coast, having captured
sixty-five vessels and destroyed property worth between $6,000,000 and
$7,000,000.

[1864]

On June 11th, Semmes put into the harbor of Cherbourg, on the coast of
France. Captain Winslow, commanding the United States steamer Kearsarge,
cruising in the neighborhood, heard of the famous rover's arrival, and
took his station outside the harbor. About ten o'clock on the morning of
June 19, 1864, the Alabama was seen coming out of port, attended by a
French man-of-war and an English steam yacht. Captain Winslow
immediately cleared the decks for action. It was a clear, bright day,
with a smooth sea. The fight took place about seven miles from shore.
The two ships were pretty equally matched, each being of about 1,000
tons burden. The Kearsarge had the heavier smooth-bore guns, but the
Alabama carried a 100-pound Blakely rifle. The Kearsarge was protected
amidships by chain cables.

The Alabama opened the engagement. The Kearsarge replied with a cool and
accurate fire. The action soon grew spirited. Solid shot ricochetted
over the smooth water. Shells crashed against the sides or exploded on
deck. The two ships sailed round and round a common centre, keeping
about half a mile apart. In less than an hour the Alabama was terribly
shattered and began to sink. She tried to escape, but water put out her
engine fires. Semmes hoisted the white flag. In a few minutes the
Alabama went down, her bow rising high in the air. Boats from the
Kearsarge rescued some of the crew. The English yacht picked up others,
Semmes among them, thus running off with Winslow's prisoners. The
Kearsarge had received little damage.


[Illustration]
The Sinking of the Alabama.


The sinking of the Alabama ended the career of the Confederate cruisers.
American commerce had been nearly driven from the ocean, and, moreover,
the days of peace on land and sea alike were near at hand.



CHAPTER X.

FOREIGN RELATIONS--FINANCES--EMANCIPATION

[1861]

A civil war of vast proportions in the world's greatest republic
naturally aroused deep interest among the monarchies of Europe. Russia
evinced warm friendliness to the United States. The rest of the world,
save England and France, showed us no ill-will.

England, with unfriendly haste, admitted the belligerent rights of the
Confederacy before Mr. Adams, our minister, could reach the British
court. The North was surprised and shocked that liberty-loving,
conservative England should so far side with "rebellious slave-holders."
It would seem that, besides sympathy with the aristocratic structure of
southern society, national envy helped to put England into this false
position. Commercial interests had greater weight. Four millions of
people in England depended upon cotton manufactures for support.
Three-fourths of the cotton they had used came from our southern ports,
which the blockade closed. Moreover, the Confederacy declared for free
trade, while the North adopted a high war tariff which drove many
English goods out of American markets. The London Times complained that
nearly $4,000,000 worth of English cutlery alone had been made worthless
by our tariff.

An incident early in the war heightened the ill-will between the two
countries. On a dark night in October, 1861, Messrs. Mason and Slidell,
Confederate commissioners to England and France, ran the blockade at
Charleston, and soon after took passage at Havana on the English mail
steamer Trent. November 8th, 250 miles out from Havana, the United
States sloop of war San Jacinto, Captain Wilkes, compelled the Trent, by
a shot across her bows, to heave to, and took off the commissioners.

All England was hot with resentment. Troops were shipped to Canada, and
other war preparations begun. A special messenger was hurried to
Washington, demanding an apology and the release of the prisoners.
Wilkes's action, though without authority in international law, was
warmly approved by the people. The House of Representatives tendered him
a vote of thanks. But the Government disavowed the seizure and gave up
the commissioners. Mr. Seward, Secretary of State, in a dignified reply
to England, insisted that the seizure was fully justified by England's
own practice of searching neutral vessels on the high seas; but that, as
the United States had always condemned this practice, the prisoners
would be released, especially as Captain Wilkes should have brought the
Trent before a prize court instead of deciding the validity of the prize
himself. The action of the Government, though unpopular at the time, was
undoubtedly as prudent as it was just. We could not afford to provoke
war with England.



The Landing of the Allied Troops at Vera Cruz.


Our real grievance against Great Britain was that the Queen's
proclamation of neutrality was not obeyed. Confederate cruisers were
built in English yards, whence they publicly and boastfully sailed to
prey upon our then vast merchant marine. Crews as well as ships were
English. The British ministry were perfectly aware of their destination,
but used all manner of artifices to avoid interfering.

Our most vicious enemy abroad was Napoleon III., so profuse yet so
hypocritical in his professions of good-will. He, too, hastened to
accord belligerent rights to the Confederacy. Had England not been too
wary to join him, the two nations would certainly have recognized the
South's independence. Napoleon was on the point of doing this alone.
Seven war-vessels were, with his sanction, built for the Confederates at
Bordeaux and Nantes, though he was too wily to allow them to sail when
he became aware that their destination was fully known to our minister.

Far-reaching political schemes were at the bottom of Napoleon's wish for
a dismembered Union. He was plotting to restore European influence in
America by setting up an empire on the ruins of the Mexican republic,
and he knew that the United States would never allow this while her
power was unbroken. In the latter part of 1861 a French army invaded
Mexico. The feeble government was overthrown after a year or two of
fighting. In 1863 an empire was established, and Napoleon offered the
throne to the Austrian archduke Maximilian. Meanwhile, the protests of
the United States were disregarded. But when our hands were freed by the
collapse of the Confederacy, Napoleon changed his tone. The French
troops were withdrawn early in 1867, and Maximilian was left to his
fate. The unhappy prince, betrayed by his own general, fell into the
hands of the old Mexican Government, now in the ascendant, and was tried
by court-martial and shot. It should be remembered, however, that
France's unfriendly attitude all through the Rebellion was maintained by
her unscrupulous emperor and did not reflect the wish of the French
people.

The expenses of the war were colossal. From beginning to close they
averaged $2,000,000 a day, sometimes running up to $3,500,000. The
expenditure for the fiscal year ending July 1, 1865, was nearly
$2,000,000,000. Of this the War Department required, in round numbers,
$1,000, 000,000; the navy department, $123,000,000. These figures reveal
the vast scale upon which the war was waged by land and sea. The
national debt rose with frightful rapidity. It was $64,000,000 in 1860,
$1,100,000,000 in 1863, $2,800,000,000 (the highest point reached) in
1865. State and local war debts would swell the amount to more than
$4,000,000,000.

The position of Secretary of the Treasury during the war was anything
but a bed of roses. The ordinary national income was hardly a drop in
the bucket compared with the enormous and constantly increasing
expenses. The total receipts for the year ending July 1, 1860, were only
$81,000,000. How should the vast sums needed to carryon the war be
raised? Resort was had to two sources of revenue--taxation and loans.

A considerable revenue was already derived from customs imposed upon
imported goods. In 1861, and again in 1863, tariffs were raised
enormously, professedly to increase the revenue. These high rates in a
measure defeated their own purpose, altogether stopping the importation
of not a few articles.

The war compelled the Government to resort to internal taxation--always
unpopular and now unknown in the United States for nearly half a
century. Taxes were laid upon almost everything--upon trades, incomes,
legacies, manufactures. The words of Sydney Smith will apply to our
internal taxes during the war:

"Taxes on the ermine which decorates the judge, and the rope which hangs
the criminal; on the poor man's salt and the rich man's spice; on the
brass nails of the coffin and the ribands of the bride." The tax on many
finished products ranged from eight to fifteen per cent.; on some it
rose to twenty per cent.



Maximilian Watching the Departure of the
Last French Troops from the City of Mexico.

[1864]

But these taxes, severe as they were, could furnish only a small part of
the necessary income. The Government must borrow. In the first year of
the war the banks loaned the United States $150,000,000 at 7.3 per cent.
interest. Many other loans were secured as the war went on--one for
$500,000,000, another for $900,000,000. As security the Government
issued bonds, bearing various rates of interest and payable after a
certain number of years. Treasury notes were also issued and made legal
tender for all debts public and private. As the Government paid its own
debts with them, they were in the nature of a forced loan. Of those
which bore no interest (commonly known as greenbacks) $433,000,000 were
issued from first to last. Also, when property was seized for the use of
the army, the owners were given certificates of indebtedness which
entitled the holders to payment at the United States Treasury.

The proportion of revenue derived from each of the above sources is
illustrated by the report of the treasurer of the United States for the
year ending July 1, 1865. Customs yielded $85,000,000, internal revenue
$209,000,000, loans $1,470,000,000.

Finance legislation during the war was more patriotic than wise, due
partly to necessary haste, largely to ignorance. The internal taxes bore
very unequally upon different classes. The tariff was ill-adjusted to
the internal taxes, letting in at low rates some classes of goods whose
home production was heavily taxed, thus discriminating in favor of the
foreigner. Millions of debt and half the other economic evil of the war
might have been saved by doing more to keep the paper dollar on a par
with gold. Thus the banks should not have been compelled to pay in gold
the loan of 1861. It forced them to suspend specie payment altogether,
December 31st of that year--those of New York City first, followed by
others everywhere, and by the United States itself. Gold had been at a
nominal premium all through 1861, but the first recorded sale at an
advance was on January 13, 1862. It would have been better, also, to
resort earlier to heavy loans, even at high rates, instead of flooding
the country with greenbacks. The national banks, which were created on
purpose to help the sale of government bonds, should have been forced to
purchase new bonds instead of supplying themselves with bonds already
issued, their purchase of which did the Government no good whatever.
Neglect in these regards caused the paper dollar to fall in value. In
July, 1864, it was worth only thirty-five cents in gold.

The finances of the Confederacy went steadily from bad to worse. The
blockade cut off its revenue from import duties. Its poor credit forbade
large loans. The government had to rely mainly upon paper money. This
soon became almost worthless. In December, 1861, it took $120 in paper
money to buy $100 in gold; in 1863 it took $1,900; in 1864, $5,000.
Nearly $1,000,000,000 in paper money was issued in all. The Confederate
debt at the close of the war was $2,000,000,000. Under the combined
influence of depreciated currency and scarcity of goods, prices became
ludicrously high. As early as 1862 flour was $40 a barrel and salt $1 a
pound. Before the war was over, a pound of sugar brought $75, a spool of
thread $20. Toward the end of the war a Confederate soldier, just paid
off, went into a store to buy a pair of boots. The price was $200. He
handed the store-keeper a $500 bill. "I can't change this," "Oh, never
mind," replied the paper millionaire. "I never let a little matter like
$300 interfere with a trade." Of course when the Confederacy collapsed
all this paper money became absolutely worthless.



Salmon Portland Chase,
Secretary of the Treasury during the Civil War.


Mr. Lincoln and the Republican Party resorted to arms not intending the
slightest alteration in the constitutional status of slavery. But the
presence of Union armies on slave soil led to new and puzzling
questions. What should be done with slaves escaping to the Union lines?
Generals Buell and Hooker authorized slave-holders to search their camps
for runaway slaves. Halleck gave orders to drive them out of his lines.
Butler, alleging that since slaves helped "the rebels" by constructing
fortifications they were contraband of war, refused to return those
fleeing into his camp. Congress moved up to this position in August,
1861, declaring that slaves used for hostile purposes should be
confiscated. But when Fremont and Hunter issued orders freeing slaves in
their military districts, President Lincoln felt obliged to countermand
them, fearing the effect upon slave States that were still loyal.

As the war went on the conviction grew that peace would never be safe or
permanent if slavery remained, and that the suppression of the Rebellion
was postponed, jeopardized, and made costlier by every hour of slavery's
life. Slaves raised crops, did camp work, and built fortifications,
releasing so many more whites for service in hostile ranks, instead of
doing all this, and fighting, even, for the Union.

It is interesting to trace the growth of emancipation sentiment during
1862 as it is reflected in congressional legislation.  In March army
officers were forbidden to return fugitive slaves. In April slavery was
abolished in the District of Columbia, with compensation to owners. At
the same time Congress adopted a pet scheme of Mr. Lincoln's, offering
compensation to any State that would free its slaves. None accepted.
There were about 3,000 slaves in the District. Upon the day of their
emancipation they assembled in churches and gave thanks to God. In June
slavery in the Territories--that bone of contention through so many
years--was forever prohibited. In July an act was passed freeing rebels'
slaves coming under the Government's protection, and authorizing the use
of negro soldiers.

[1863]

Already President Lincoln was meditating universal emancipation.
September 22d the friends of liberty were made glad by a preliminary
proclamation, announcing the President's intention to free the slaves on
January 1, 1863, should rebellion then continue to exist. It is said
that Mr. Lincoln would have given this notice earlier but for the gloomy
state of military affairs. The day comes. The proclamation goes forth
that all persons held as slaves in the rebellious sections "are and
henceforth shall be free." The blot which had so long stained our
national banner was wiped away. The Constitution of course does not
expressly authorize such an act by the President, but Mr. Lincoln
defended it as a "necessary war measure," "warranted by the Constitution
upon military necessity."

This bold, epoch-making deed, the death-warrant of slavery here and
throughout the world, evoked serious hostility even at the North. The
elections in the fall of 1862 and the spring of 1863 showed serious
losses for the administration party. Emancipation, too, doubtless added
rancor and verve for a time to southern belligerency. But the fresh
union, spirit, and strength it soon brought to the northern cause were
tenfold compensation. Besides, it vastly exalted our struggle in the
moral estimate of Christendom, and lessened danger of foreign
intervention.

The War President trod at no time a path of flowers. Strong and general
as was Union sentiment at the North, extremely diverse feelings and
views prevailed touching the methods and spirit which should govern the
conduct of the war. Certain timid, discouraged, or disappointed
Republicans, seeing the appalling loss of blood and treasure as the war
went on, and the Confederacy's unexpected tenacity of life, demanded
peace on the easiest terms inclusive of intact Union. Secretaries Seward
and Chase were for a time in this temper. The doctrinaire abolitionists
bitterly assailed President and Congress for not making, from the
outset, the extirpation of slavery the main aim of hostilities. Even the
great emancipation pacified them but little.

The Democrats proper entered a far more sensible, in fact a not wholly
groundless, complaint exactly the contrary. They charged that the
Administration, in hopes to exhibit the Democracy as a peace party
(which from 1862 it more and more became), was making the overthrow of
slavery its main aim, waging war for the negro instead of for the Union.
They complained also that not only in anti-slavery measures but in other
things as well, notably in suspending habeas corpus, the Administration
was grievously infringing the Constitution.

Yet a fourth class, a democratic rump of southern sympathizers,
popularly called "copperheads," wishing peace at any price, did their
best to encourage the Rebellion .. They denounced the war as cruel,
needless, and a failure. They opposed the draft for troops, and were
partly responsible for the draft riots in 1863. Many of them were in
league with southern leaders, and held membership in treasonable
associations. Some were privy to, if not participants in, devilish plots
to spread fire and pestilence in northern camps and cities, Partly
through influence of the more moderate, several efforts to negotiate
peace were made, fortunately every one in vain.

[1864]

But despite the attacks of enemies and the importunities of weak or
short-sighted friends, President Lincoln steadily held on his course.
The masses of the people rallied to his support, and in the presidential
election of 1864 he was re-elected by an overwhelming majority,
receiving 212 electoral votes against 21 for General McClellan, the
democratic candidate.



CHAPTER XI.

RECONSTRUCTION

Though arms were grounded, there remained the new task, longer and more
perplexing, if not more difficult, than the first, of restoring the
South to its normal position in the Union. It was, from the nature of
the case, a delicate one. The proud and sensitive South smarted under
defeat and was not yet cured of the illusions which had led her to
secede. Salve and not salt needed to be rubbed in to her wounds. The
North stood ready to forgive the past, but insisted, in the name of its
desolate homes and slaughtered President, that the South must be
restored on such conditions that the past could never be repeated. The
difficulty was heightened by the lack of either constitutional provision
or historical precedent. Not strange, therefore, that the actors in this
new drama of reconstruction played their parts awkwardly and with many
mistakes.



Facsimile of a portion of President Lincoln's draft of the
Preliminary Proclamation of Emancipation, September. 1862
From the original in the Library of the State of New York, Albany.

[1865]

A most interesting constitutional problem had to be faced at the outset:
What effect had secession had upon the States guilty of it; was it or
was it not an act of state suicide? This question was warmly debated in
Congress and out. Although ridiculed in some quarters as a mere
metaphysical quibble, it lay at the bottom of men's political thinking
on reconstruction, and their views of the proper answer to it powerfully
influenced their action.

All loyal Democrats and most Republicans answered it in the negative.
Secession, they said, being an invalid act, had no effect whatever; the
rebellious tracts were still States of the Union in spite of themselves.
But the two parties reasoned their way to this conclusion by different
roads. The Democrats deduced the view from the State's intrinsic
sovereignty, the Republicans from the national Constitution as

instituted competitive examinations to test the merits of candidates for
office in the departments at Washington. President Grant reported that
the new methods "had given persons of superior capacity to the service'"
But Congress, always niggardly in its appropriations for the work of the
commission, after 1875 cut them off altogether, and the rules were
suspended.

Under President Hayes civil service reform made considerable progress in
an  irregular way. Secretary Schurz enforced competitive examinations in
the Interior department. They were also applied by Mr. James to the New
York Post-office, and, as the result, one-third more work was done with
less cost. Similar good results followed the enforcement of the "merit
system" in the New York custom-house after 1879. President Hayes also
strongly condemned political assessments upon office-holders, but with
small practical effect.

[1874]

The alarming increase of corruption in political circles generally,
after the war, helped to create popular sentiment for reform. Corrupt
"rings" sprang up in every city. The "whiskey ring," composed of
distillers and government employees, assumed national proportions in
1874, cheating the Government out of a large part of its revenue from
spirits. Liberal appropriations for building a navy were squandered.

During the campaign of 1872, the Democrats charged several prominent
Congressmen with having taken bribes, in 1867-68, to vote for
legislation desired by the Union Pacific Railroad. At the request of the
accused, an examination was had by a House committee. The committee's
report in 1873 recommended the expulsion of Representatives Oakes Ames
and James Brooks. Mr. Ames was accused of selling to Congressmen at
reduced rates, with intent to influence their votes, shares of stock in
the "Credit Mobilier," a corporation for the construction of the Union
Pacific Railroad. Mr. Brooks, who was a government director in the
railroad, was charged with receiving such shares. The House did not
expel the two members, but severely condemned them. Shadows of varying
density fell upon many prominent politicians and darkened their
subsequent careers.

[1883]

The tragic fate of President Garfield, following these and other
revelations of political corruption, brought public sentiment on civil
service reform to a head. A bill prepared by the Civil Service Reform
League, and introduced by Senator Pendleton, of Ohio, passed Congress in
January, 1883, and on the 16th received the signature of the President.



James G. Blaine.


It authorized the President, with the consent of the Senate, to appoint
three civil service commissioners, who were to institute competitive
examinations open to all persons desiring to enter the government
employ.  It provided that the clerks in the departments at Washington,
and in every customs district or post-office where fifty or more were
employed, should be arranged in classes, and that in the future only
persons who had passed the examinations should be appointed to service
in these offices or promoted from a lower class to a higher, preference
being given according to rank in the examinations. Candidates were to
serve six months' probation at practical work before receiving a final
appointment. The bill struck a heavy blow at political assessments, by
declaring that no official should be removed for refusing to contribute
to political funds. Congressmen or government officials convicted of
soliciting or receiving political assessments from government employees
became liable to a five thousand dollar fine, or three years'
imprisonment, or both. Persons in the government service were forbidden
to use their official authority or influence to coerce the political
action of anyone, or to interfere with elections.

[1873-1884]

Dorman B. Eaton, Leroy B. Thoman, and John M. Gregory were appointed
commissioners by President Arthur. By the end of the year the new system
was fairly in operation. Besides the departments at Washington, it
applied to eleven customs districts and twenty-three post-offices where
fifty or more officials were employed. The law could be thoroughly
tested only when a new party came into power; that time was near at
hand.

The deepest and most significant political movement of the last twenty
years has been the gradual recovery of power by the Democracy. For some
years after the Rebellion, this party's war record was a millstone
around its neck. The financial distress in 1873 and the corruption
prevalent in political circles weakened the party in power, while the
Democracy, putting slavery and reconstruction behind its back, turned to
new issues, and raised the cry of "economy" and "reform."

The state elections of 1874 witnessed a "tidal wave" of democratic
victories. Out of 292 members of the House in 1875, 198 were democratic.
Two-thirds of the Senators were still republican. Even by republican
reckoning, the democratic presidential ticket in 1876 received a popular
majority of 157,000 and lacked but one electoral vote. In 1879 both
houses of Congress were democratic, by small majorities, for the first
time since 1856. The tide ebbed in 1880, the Democrats losing control of
the House, and suffering a decisive defeat in the presidential election;
but with 1884 the fortune of the Democracy reached high-water mark.

In this year James G. Blaine, of Maine, and John A. Logan, of Illinois,
received the republican nomination for President and Vice-President. A
number of Independent Republicans, including the most earnest advocates
of civil service reform, were strongly opposed to Mr. Blaine, alleging
him to be personally corrupt and the representative of corrupt political
methods. They met in conference, denounced the nominations, and later
indorsed the democratic nominees--Grover Cleveland, governor of New
York, and Thomas A. Hendricks, of Indiana. George W. Curtis, Carl
Schurz, and other prominent Republicans took part in the movement.
Several influential Independent Republican papers, including the New
York Times, Boston Herald, and Springfield Republican, joined the bolt.

The campaign was bitterly personal, attacks upon the characters of the
candidates taking the place of a discussion of principles. Mr. Cleveland
was elected, receiving 219 electoral votes against 182 for Mr. Blaine.
He carried every southern State, besides New York, Connecticut, Indiana,
Delaware, Maryland, and New Jersey. The total popular vote was over
10,000,000--the largest ever cast. Cleveland had 4,911,000, a plurality
of 62,000 over Blaine. The Democrats regained control of the House in
1883, and held it by a considerable majority to the end of Mr.
Cleveland's first term. In the Senate, until the election of 1892, the
Republicans continued to have a small majority.



Grover Cleveland.
From a photograph copyrighted by C. M. Bell, Washington, D. C.


Upon the accession of the new administration to power, the country
waited with deep interest to see its effect upon the civil service. Mr.
Cleveland had pledged himself to a rigid enforcement of the new law, and
encouraged all to believe that with him impartial civil service would
not be confined to the few offices thus protected. After the first few
months of Cleveland's administration, one fact was apparent: for the
first time since the days of Jackson a change of the party in power had
not been followed by a clean sweep among the holders of offices. But, as
the subsequent record painfully shows, office-holders' pressure proved
too strong for Mr. Cleveland's resolution.

There were then about 120,000 government employees. Of these, not far
from 14,000 were covered by the Pendleton law. All the other minor
places were held at the pleasure of superior officers. These latter
officers numbered about 58,000. In August, 1887, from 45,000 to 48,000
of them had been changed, implying change in the offices dependent upon
them.  There were some 55,000 postmasters, 2,400 of whom were appointed
by the President for a term of four years, the rest by the
postmaster-general at pleasure. At the date named, from 37,000 to 47,000
changes had been made in this department. These changes, of course, were
not all removals, as many vacancies occur by expiration of terms, death
of incumbents, and other causes.

[1886]

An important statute regarding the presidential succession, introduced
by Senator Hoar, passed Congress in January, 1886. By previous statutes,
in case of the removal, death, resignation, or disability of the
President and Vice-President, the presidency passed in order to the
temporary President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House. The
latter two might be of the opposite party from the President's, so that
by the succession of either the will of the people as expressed in the
presidential election would manifestly be defeated. Moreover, in case of
a President's death and the accession of the Vice-President, the latter,
too, might die, and thus both the presidency and the vice-presidency
become vacant in the interim between two Congresses, when there is
neither President of the Senate nor Speaker of the House. Thus President
Garfield died September 19, 1881, and the XLVlllth Congress did not
convene to choose a Speaker until the next December. The Senate had
adjourned without electing a presiding officer. Had President Arthur
died at any moment during the intervening period--and it is said that he
was for a time in imminent danger of death--the distracting contingency
just spoken of would have been upon the country.

According to the new law, in case of a vacancy in both presidency and
vice-presidency, the presidency devolves upon the members of the
cabinet in the historical order of the establishment of their
departments, beginning with the Secretary of State. Should he die, be
impeached, or disabled, the Secretary of the Treasury would become
President, to be followed in like crisis by the Secretary of War, he by
the Attorney-General, he by the Postmaster-General, he by the Secretary
of the Navy, he by the Secretary of the Interior, and he by the
Secretary of Agriculture.

We have still no legal or official criterion of a President's
disability. We do not know whether, during Garfield's illness, for
instance--apparently a clear case of disability--it was proper for his
cabinet to perform his presidential duties, or whether Arthur should not
have assumed these. Barring this chance for conflict, it is not easy to
think of an emergency in which the chief magistracy can now fall vacant,
or the appropriate incumbent thereof be in doubt.



CHAPTER II.

THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON

[1871]

The year 1871 was marked by the conclusion of an important treaty
between England and the United States. Besides settling certain
questions which threatened the friendly relations of the two countries,
the treaty enunciated important principles of international law, and
afforded the world a shining instance of peaceful arbitration as a
substitute for the horrors of war.

Ever since 1863 the United States had been seeking satisfaction from
Great Britain for the depredations committed by the Alabama and other
Confederate cruisers sailing from English ports. Negotiations were
broken off in 1865 and again in 1868. The next year Reverdy Johnson,
American Minister to England, negotiated a treaty, but it was rejected
by the Senate.  In January, 1871, the British Government proposed a
joint commission for the settlement of questions connected with the
Canadian fisheries. Mr. Fish, our Secretary of State, replied that the
settlement of the "Alabama Claims" would be "essential to the
restoration of cordial and amicable relations between the two
governments." England consented to submit this question also to the
commission, and on February 27th five high commissioners from each
country met at Washington. The British delegation included cabinet
officers, the minister to the United States, and an Oxford professor of
international law. The American commissioners were of equally high
station, the Secretary of State, an associate justice of the Supreme
Court, and our minister to England being of their number.

On May 8th the commission completed a treaty which was speedily ratified
by both governments. It provided for arbitration upon the "Alabama
Claims," upon other claims by citizens of either country for damages
during the Rebellion, upon the fisheries, and upon the northwest
boundary of the United States. Provisions were also made by it for the
common use of the lakes, rivers, and canals along the Canadian border,
and for the transit of merchandise free of duty, under certain
conditions, across either country to and from certain ports.

The fisheries part of the treaty is discussed in the next chapter. The
question of the northwest boundary was referred to the decision of the
German emperor, William I. The treaty of 1846 had left it doubtful
whether the boundary line through the channel between Vancouver Island
and the main-land should be so run as to include the island of San Juan,
with its group, in the United States or in Canada. The emperor's
decision, given in 1872, was in favor of the United States.

Three commissioners--one appointed by each government and a third
appointed jointly--met in Washington, September 26, 1871, to pass
judgment upon the war claims other than the "Alabama Claims." The
American claims of this class, amounting to less than $1,000,000, were
all rejected on the ground that the British Government was not proved
responsible for the damages incurred. British subjects put in claims for
$96,000,000. The commission allowed less than $2,000,000, which the
United States Government promptly paid into the British treasury.

But far the most important and interesting part of the treaty was the
provision for the settlement of the "Alabama Claims." England's
unfriendly attitude during the war and her subsequent refusal to submit
the "claims" to arbitration, had stirred up much hard feeling throughout
the United States. The graceful expression, in the preamble to the
treaty, of England's regret for the ravages of the cruisers was
therefore very gratifying. More material satisfaction was to follow. The
treaty provided that the claims should be submitted to a tribunal of
five persons--one appointed by each government and one each by the
Emperor of Brazil, the President of Switzerland, and the King of Italy.

The tribunal met at Geneva, Switzerland, December 15, 1871. Charles
Francis Adams, our minister to England during the war, was the United
States member, and Lord Chief Justice Cockburn the English. Baron
Itajuba, the Brazilian minister plenipotentiary to France, Count
Sclopis, an Italian minister of State, and M. Jaques Staempfli, of
Switzerland, comprised the rest of the tribunal. Each side was
represented by counsel, Caleb Cushing, William M. Evarts, and Morrison
R. Waite appearing for the United States. An agent presented the printed
case of each government.

[1872]

The American claims included direct and indirect losses--direct, by the
destruction of vessels with their cargoes and by national expenditure in
chasing the Confederate cruisers; indirect, by the loss of a large part
of the United States ocean carrying trade, by increased marine insurance
rates, and by the prolongation of the war with proportionally increased
expense. Great Britain vehemently objected to the indirect claims coming
before the tribunal, and at one time seemed about to withdraw. Upon
reassembling in June, 1872, the tribunal decided that the indirect
claims were not admissible, and the case went forward. Counsel having
presented their respective arguments, the tribunal took up the case of
each cruiser separately. During the consideration of damages it sat with
closed doors, only the arbitrators being present. On September 14th,
after thirty-two conferences, the tribunal gave its decision.

The Geneva case is of two-fold interest, first, for its decision of the
facts involved, and the consequent award; second, for its enunciation of
important principles of international law.

The Treaty of Washington laid down three rules for the guidance of the
tribunal. They are such important contributions to international law
that they must be quoted in full.

"A neutral government is bound,

"First: To use due diligence to prevent the fitting out, arming or
equipping, within its jurisdiction, of any vessel which it has
reasonable ground to believe is intended to cruise or to carry on war
against a power with which it is at peace, and also to use like
diligence to prevent the departure from its jurisdiction of any vessel
intended to cruise or carry on war as above, such vessel having been
specially adapted, in whole or in part, within such jurisdiction, to
warlike use.

"Secondly: Not to permit or suffer either belligerent to make use of its
ports or waters as the base of naval operations against the other, or
for the purpose of the renewal or augmentation of military supplies or
arms, or the recruitment of men.

"Thirdly: To exercise due diligence in its own ports and waters, and as
to all persons within its jurisdiction, to prevent any violation of the
foregoing obligations and duties."

Great Britain denied, in the text of the treaty, that these rules were a
true statement of the principles of international law in force during
the Rebellion, but consented that the "Alabama Claims" should be decided
in accordance with them. Both countries also agreed to abide by them in
future and to invite other maritime powers to do the same.

Questions being raised by the counsel as to the interpretation of
certain terms and the scope of certain provisions in the three rules,
the tribunal found it necessary to make the following preliminary
decisions:

1. The meaning of "due diligence." The tribunal took the ground that
what constitutes "due diligence" varies with the circumstances of the
case. The greater the probable damage to either belligerent, the greater
must be the care taken by the neutral government to prevent the escape
of cruisers from its ports.

2. Should a neutral detain an escaped cruiser when it re-enters the
neutral's jurisdiction, the cruiser having in the meantime been
regularly commissioned by its government? The arbitrators decided that
the neutral had a right to detain such a cruiser, in spite of its
commission, but was under no positive obligation to do so.

3. Does a neutral's responsibility end with the enforcement of its local
laws to prevent the escape of cruisers, even if those laws are
inadequate? Decision was given that the case must be determined by
international law and not by national legislation. If a country's
regulations for carrying out its acknowledged international duties are
ineffective, they ought to be changed.

These decisions in international law, coming from so exalted a source,
were of world-wide significance. The verdict on the facts in the case
had, however, more immediate interest for the two contestants.

The American case claimed damages for losses inflicted by fourteen
cruisers and four tenders. The award allowed for only the Alabama with
her tender, the Florida with her three tenders, and the Shenandoah
during a part of her career. With regard to the Alabama the culpability
of the British Government was so clearly shown that even the English
arbitrator voted in favor of the American claim. The Florida was
permitted to escape from Liverpool although Mr. Adams, the United States
minister, repeatedly called the attention of the authorities to her
notorious warlike character. The vessel was, furthermore, libelled at
Nassau, a British colonial port, but the British officials allowed her
to take in supplies and put to sea. The Shenandoah set sail from
Liverpool with the connivance of the Government, received her armament
at the Madeira Islands, and after a destructive career was welcomed at
the British port of Melbourne, repaired in a government slip, and
furnished with supplies and recruits. The award held Great Britain
responsible only for her career after leaving Melbourne.

The American case further claimed damages for national expense in
chasing the cruisers, and for the prospective earnings of the lost
merchantmen, but these claims, along with those explicitly denounced as
indirect, were rejected.

The tribunal awarded $15,500,000 damages in gold for the vessels and
cargoes destroyed by the three cruisers and their tenders. Of this sum,
about $2,000,000 was interest at six per cent. The only dissenting voice
was that of the British member, who submitted a long and able, but
somewhat spiteful, minority report.

The award naturally gave great satisfaction in the United States. The
money compensation was in itself a source of considerable gratulation;
but the fact that stiff-backed England had by a clearly impartial
tribunal of the highest character been declared in the wrong was not the
least pleasurable side of the result. American citizens should never
forget the services, in this delicate and difficult matter, of Mr.
Adams. By his great knowledge of law, his careful gathering of evidence,
and his brave, sturdy and incessant, though apparently useless,
remonstrances with the British authorities while the cruisers were
building and their depredations going on, he established a case which
could not be gainsaid. Hardly had he opened his portfolio at Geneva when
the learned arbitrators saw that his suit must be allowed.

England promptly handed over to the United States the price of her
sympathy with rebellion and slavery. The course of Congress in dealing
with the award was not very creditable. For four years the money lay in
the treasury vaults, piling up interest at five per cent. until it
amounted to $20,000,000. A Court of Alabama Claims was then convened,
where private claimants might press their suits. Insurance companies
which could show that their losses on vessels destroyed by the cruisers
exceeded the premiums received, were entitled to be paid the difference,
with interest at four per cent.



CHAPTER III.

THE FISHERIES DISPUTE

[1783 ]

Our glance at the Treaty of Washington introduces us to an international
complication which has been transmitted from the very birthday of the
nation, and is, alas, still unsettled, spite of the earnest efforts to
this end made since 1885. Article 3 of the treaty of 1783 was as
follows: "It is agreed that the people of the United States shall
continue to enjoy unmolested the right to take fish of every kind on the
Grand Bank and on all the other banks of Newfoundland; also in the Gulf
of St. Lawrence and at all other places in the sea where the inhabitants
of both countries used at any time heretofore to fish; and also that the
inhabitants of the United States shall have liberty to take fish of
every kind on such part of the coast of Newfoundland as British
fishermen shall use [but not to dry or cure the same on that island];
and also on the coasts, bays, and creeks of all other of his Britannic
Majesty's dominions in America, and that the American fishermen shall
have liberty to dry and cure fish in any of the unsettled bays, harbors,
and creeks of Nova Scotia, Magdalen Islands, and Labrador, so long as
the same shall remain unsettled; but so soon as the same, or either of
them, shall be settled, it shall not be lawful for the said fishermen to
dry or cure fish at such settlement without a previous agreement for
that purpose with the inhabitants, proprietors, or possessors of the
ground."

This provision conveyed to fishermen from the United States two valuable
privileges--that of fishing in British waters, namely, within three
miles of the British coast, and that of drying and curing fish, wherever
caught, upon certain convenient parts of the British coast. They had,
of course, like the men of all nations, apart from any treaty
stipulation, the right to fish outside the three mile limit, but this
would avail them nothing, under the then mode of conducting the
industry, unless they could freely make harbor in case of storm, and
also land to cure their catch before lading it for the homeward cruise.
What worth these rights had will be clear if we remember that fishing
had always been one of New England's foremost trades, and that the
waters off Newfoundland and Nova Scotia had from, and probably before,
Columbus's time been known as the richest fishing grounds of the globe.

[1812]

The commissioners at Ghent, who drew up the treaty ending the War of
1812, wrangled long over the question whether or not the war had
nullified the just cited Article 3 of 1783. Unable to agree, they signed
their treaty without deciding the question, leaving this for the future
to settle as it might. Great Britain held that our former rights had
lapsed by the war, and excluded our fishing vessels from the bays,
harbors, and creeks named above. Several of our vessels were arrested on
charge of trespass. The utmost tension still existed, in spite of the
peace, especially as in the United States the view prevailed that our
rights by the old treaty had outlived the war, notwithstanding the
silence of the Ghent document.

[1818 ]

At length, in 1818, a new treaty was entered into upon the question,
signed October 20th, ratified by England November 2d, and by the United
States January 28, 1819. This instrument ignored our contention that
Article 3 of the treaty of 1783 was of perpetual obligation, and
restricted our right to fish in shore to the southern shores of the
Magdalen Islands, the west and southwest coasts of Newfoundland from the
Rameau Islands round to Quirpon Island, and the Labrador coast from
Mount Joly northward. Only here could our fishermen fish within the
three mile limit, and they could dry and cure only on the named parts of
Labrador and Newfoundland, Magdalen Islands being now excluded from this
use. Even on Labrador and Newfoundland the privilege of drying and
curing was to be cut off by settlement, except as agreement should be
made beforehand with the inhabitants.

But the fateful clause of this treaty was the following: "And the United
States hereby renounce forever any liberty heretofore enjoyed or claimed
by the inhabitants thereof, to take, dry, or cure fish on or within
three marine miles of any of the coasts, bays, creeks, or harbors of his
Britannic Majesty's dominions in America not included within the
above-mentioned limits: Provided, however, that the American fishermen
shall be admitted to enter such bays or harbors for the purpose of
shelter and of repairing damages therein, of purchasing wood, and of
obtaining water, and for no other purposes whatever. But they shall be
under such restrictions as may be necessary to prevent their taking,
drying, or curing fish therein, or in any other manner whatever abusing
the privileges hereby reserved to them."

[1854-1870]

Troubles were soon as abundant as ever. The Canadians applied the word
"bay" to all indentations of their coast, affecting entirely to exclude
our fishermen from great bodies of water like Fundy, Chaleurs, and
Miramichi, however far parts of these might be from shore. This was the
famous "headland theory" for defining national waters. They also denied
our right to navigate the Gut of Canso, which separates Cape Breton
Island from Nova Scotia, thus forcing far out of their nearest course
our ships bound for the permitted inshore fisheries. United States
fishermen on their part persisted in exploiting the great bays, landed
upon the Magdalen Islands, pushed through the Gut, and were none too
careful at any point to find or heed the three mile line.

June 5, 1854, was signed a treaty of reciprocity between the United
States and the British provinces, under which all the coasts of British
North America were opened to our fishing vessels, in return for similar
liberty to those of the provinces in all United States waters north of
Cape May, latitude 36 degrees, the salmon and shad fisheries of each
country being, however, reserved to itself. This arrangement was to
continue ten years at least, and then to be terminable on a year's
notice by either of the high contracting parties. Such notice having
been given by the United States one year before, reciprocity in fishing
privilege came to an end March 7, 1865. This, of course, renewed the wry
and perplexing rules of the 1818 convention, with all the naturally
consequent strife. The worst evils were, indeed, put off for a time, by
a continuance to our vessels of the right to fish in provincial water on
the payment of a small license fee. This favor was taken away in 1870,
for the alleged reason that American captains failed to procure
licenses, and in the course of this year many of our ships were seized
and confiscated. New sternness had been imparted to the provincial
policy by the Canadian Act of Confederation, valid from July I, 1867,
which joined Ontario and Quebec with Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, thus
inspiring our neighbors to the north with a new sense of their strength
and importance.

[1871-1886]

Now came the Treaty of Washington, 1871. Its Article 18 revived Article
1 of the 1854 Reciprocity Treaty, except that Canadians could now go so
far south as the 39th parallel, and that two years' notice must precede
abrogation. Article 21 ordained between the two countries free trade in
fish-oil and in all salt-water fish. Both sides assumed that mere
reciprocity would advantage the United States the more, so that by
Article 22 a commission was provided for to award Canada a proper
balance in money. By bungling diplomacy on our part the real power in
this commission was swayed by M. Maurice Delfosse, Belgian minister at
Washington, a gentleman certain to favor Great Britain at our expense.
As a consequence, we were forced to pay for reciprocity to the round
note of $5,500,000. The money was a trifle; but its exorbitant amount
had the unhappy effect of prejudicing our people against the new
arrangement. The result was that at the earliest possible moment, viz.

1890, 4,298 white people had homes in Alaska, besides 1,823 mixed,
23,531 Indians, and 2,288 Mongolians, a total population of 32,052.

The Alaska Commercial Company paid the United States $55,000 yearly for
its monopoly of the Alaska seal-fur trade. The product of this business
was about $2,500,000 each year. An official report made to our
Government stated that in the year 1880, $2,181,832 worth of Alaska furs
found sale in London alone. Coal had been discovered in various places.
So had beautiful white marble. Gold-bearing ledges were numerous, and
the only one of these yet broached, that on Douglas Island, had
certainly yielded well. The mill connected with it, working only the
equivalent of two-thirds time, turned out during its first twelve months
a little over $750,000 worth of gold bullion. For the year 1889,
according to imperfect returns, the product from this remote patch of
our national domain was as follows: Seal fisheries, $314,925, a falling
off of over 80 per cent. in nine years; other fisheries, $1,059,365, an
increase of about 100 per cent. for the same period; 43,762 troy ounces
of gold and 9,219 troy ounces of silver. In 1890 there were ten
manufacturing establishments, whose product amounted to $58,440.

After 1860 there was a steady filling up of the Pacific coast, and an
equally continual extension of population to the west on the east side
of the Rockies. All Iowa was in cultivation, and all Minnesota but the
extreme northwest corner. In fifteen years the rate of interest went
down in Iowa from ten to seven or eight per cent., in Michigan from ten
to six or seven per cent. Chicago, from being only a borrower of money,
grew to be an immense lender for enterprises in the West. Settlement in
Kansas, Nebraska, and Texas rolled westward with strength and rapidity.
Some of the finest new towns in these States were well toward their far
western border.



An Ohio River Flat-Boat.


The construction of the five great Pacific railway lines, the Northern,
the Union, the Santa Fe, the Southern, and the Great Northern, with
their various branches, brought into valuable employ infinite reaches of
fertile land previously as good as desert. Texas made most remarkable
advance both in square miles occupied and in density of population,
brought about by great extension of railway mileage, and of cattle,
sheep, and wheat culture. Large patches of the Dakotas, Montana, and
Idaho filled with settlers. Colorado became a giant in production, the
rush of population thither in consequence of very extensive and rich
mineral discoveries having been a stampede almost like that of 1849-50
to California. Every hill was black with miners. The growth of New
Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada, considering their natural wealth, was slow,
owing in part to Indian hostilities. New Mexico fell from rank 37 in
1870 to rank 43 in 1890. Tucson, Ariz., according to the best figures,
fell between 1880 and 1887, from 10,000 to 7,500 inhabitants. In
material things Utah prospered greatly under the thrift, economy, and
hard work of the Mormons. Here mining and speculation were less rigidly
pressed, and more energy devoted to agricultural pursuits.


An Irrigated Orange Grove at Riverside, California.


In California, a smaller proportion than formerly of all industry was
now applied to mining, a larger to agriculture and cattle-raising.
Southern California became the competitor of Florida as a winter
residence. Oregon and Washington vied with Minnesota for the world-medal
in wheat culture. Over the infinite pasture lands at both feet of the
Rocky Mountains roamed herds of bullocks destined to feed distant cities
in America and in Europe. It was foreseen that many of these lands would
in the course of time be ploughed, and by the aid of irrigation turned
into corn-fields, wheat-fields, and market-gardens, a process which in
New Mexico had already gone far. Even the tract inclosed by the
parallels 31 and 45 degrees and the meridians 100 and 120 degrees, which
long seemed destined for perpetual sterility, spite of the many
enterprises conceived, and the others, like the scheme of the Colorado
River Irrigation Company, initiated for redeeming it, grew valuable when
it was believed that the National Government would undertake to irrigate
there. Crops in that region grew bountifully under irrigation, and
permanent water-supplies could easily be created. Natural woodland
existed there only near the few streams, and of the scanty trees which
grew scarcely a single variety of hard wood was found; but the state and
national afforestation of vast tracts bade fair to change this. The
region comprised in the States and Territories named was not only the
richest precious-metal field in America, but one of the very richest on
the globe.

The picture we have presented is too glowing for the year 1893-94,
during which great depression afflicted the whole West; but this was
only temporary. Recovery was indicated by the success of the
Trans-Mississippi Exposition at Omaha, in 1898. There were 2,600,000
admissions. The total cash receipts were $1,761,364, and the
stockholders in the enterprise were paid dollar for dollar.

The city of San Francisco had 500 inhabitants in 1840, 34,776 in 1850,
56,802 in 1860, 149,473 in 1870, 233,959 in 1880, 298,997 in 1890. This
progress may be taken as in some sense an index to that of the West as a
whole, far more so than the apparently spasmodic increase in some of
California's smaller centres. Los Angeles mounted from a population of
5,728 in 1870, and of 11,183 in 1880, to one of 50,395 in 1890. Oakland
had but 10,500 in 1870. Ten years later the figure was 34,555; and in
1890 it was 48,682. Stockton leaped from 10,287 in 1880 to 14,424 in
1890. In 1858 Denver was uninhabited. In 1870 it numbered 4,759 souls;
in 1880, 35,629; in 1890, 106,713. Portland, Oregon, had in 1890, 46,000
inhabitants; in 1900, 90,000. In the decade 1880-90 Wyoming grew from
20,789 to 60,705.

The growth and prosperity of this great western section of our country
become apparent from an inspection of the following table, compiled from
authentic sources: