THE war had now grown to enormous proportions. The Confederate States were draining every resource of men and means. The superior energies of the North were greatly taxed. On the day after the battle of Malvern Hill, President Lincoln issued a call for three hundred thousand troops. During Pope's retreat from the Rappahannock he sent forth another call for three hundred thousand, and to that was added a draft of three hundred thousand more. Most of these demands were promptly met, and it became evident that in resources the Federal government was vastly superior to the Confederacy.

2. On the 1st day of January, 1863, the President issued the Emancipation Proclamation. The war had been begun with no well-defined intention to free the slaves of the South. But during the progress of the war the sentiment of abolition had grown with great rapidity; and when at last it became a military necessity to strike a blow at the labor-system of the South, the step was taken with but little opposition. Thus, after an existence of two hundred and forty-four years, African slavery in the United States was swept away.

3. Early in January General Sherman dispatched an expedition to capture Arkansas Post, on the Arkansas River. The Union forces reached their destination on the 10th of the month, fought a battle with the Confederates and gained a victory. On the next day the post was surrendered with nearly five thousand prisoners.

4. Soon afterwards the Union forces were concentrated for the capture of Vicksburg. Three months were spent by General Grant in beating about the bayous around Vicksburg, in the hope of getting a position in the rear of the town. A canal was cut across a bend in the river with a view to opening a passage for the gunboats. But a flood washed the works away. Then another canal was begun, only to be abandoned. Finally, it was determined to run the fleet past the Vicksburg batteries. On the night of the 16th of April the boats dropped down the river. All of a sudden the guns of the enemy burst forth with shot and shell, pelting the passing steamers; but they went by with little damage.

5. General Grant now marched his land-forces down the Mississippi and formed a junction with the squadron. On the 1st day of May he defeated the Confederates at Port Gibson. The evacuation of Grand Gulf followed immediately. The Union army now swept around to the rear of Vicksburg. On the 12th of May a Confederate force was defeated at Raymond. On the 14th of the month a decisive battle was fought near Jackson; the Confederates were beaten, and the city captured. General Pemberton, sallying forth with his forces from Vicksburg, was defeated by Grant on the 16th at Champion Hills, and again on the 17th at Black River Bridge. Pemberton then retired within the defences of Vicksburg.

6. The city was now besieged. On the 19th of May Grant made an assault, but was repulsed with terrible losses. Three days afterwards the attempt was renewed with a still greater destruction of life. But the siege was pressed with ever-increasing severity. Admiral Porter bombarded the town incessantly. Reinforcements swelled the Union ranks. Pemberton held out until the 4th of July, and was then driven to surrender. The defenders of Vicksburg, numbering thirty thousand, became prisoners of war. Thousands of small arms, hundreds of cannon, and vast quantities of ammunition and stores were the fruits of the great victory.

7. Meanwhile, General Banks had been conducting a campaign on the Lower Mississippi. From Baton Rouge he advanced into Louisiana, and gained a victory over the Confederates at Bayou Teche. He then moved northward and besieged Port Hudson, the last fort held by the Confederates on the Mississippi. The garrison made a brave defence; and it was not until the 8th of July that the commandant, with his force of six thousand men, was obliged to capitulate.

8. In the latter part of June Rosecrans succeeded in crowding General Bragg out of Tennessee. The Union general followed and took post at Chattanooga, on the left bank of the Tennessee. During the summer Bragg was reinforced by the corps of Johnston and Longstreet.

9. On the 19th of September he turned upon the Federals at Chickamauga Creek, in the northwest angle of Georgia. A hard battle was fought, but night came with the victory undecided. On the following morning the fight was renewed. Bragg cut through the Union battle line and drove the right wing into a rout. General Thomas, with desperate firmness, held the left until nightfall, and then withdrew into Chattanooga. The Union loss amounted to nearly nineteen thousand, and that of the Confederates was even greater.

10. General Bragg pressed forward to besiege Chattanooga. But General Hooker arrived with two corps from the Army of the Potomac, opened the Tennessee River, and brought relief. At the same time General Grant assumed the direction of affairs at Chattanooga. General Sherman arrived with his division, and offensive operations were at once renewed. On the 24th of November Lookout Mountain, overlooking the town and river, was stormed by the division of General Hooker. On the following day, Missionary Ridge was also carried, and Bragg's army fell back in full retreat toward Ringgold.

11. On the 1st of September General Burnside arrived with his command at Knoxville. After the battle of Chickamauga General Longstreet was sent into East Tennessee, where he arrived and began the siege of Knoxville. On the 29th of November the Confederates attempted to carry the town by storm, but were repulsed with heavy losses. General Sherman soon marched to the relief of Burnside; and Longstreet retreated into Virginia.

12. Early in 1863 the Confederates resumed activity in Arkansas and southern Missouri. On the 8th of January they attacked Springfield, but were repulsed. Several other attempts were made with similar results. On the 13th of August Lawrence, Kansas, was sacked, and a hundred and forty persons killed, by a band of desperate fellows, led by a chieftain called Quantrell. On the 10th of September the Federal general Steele captured Little Rock, Arkansas.

13. In the summer of this year General John Morgan made a great raid through Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio. He crossed the Ohio at Brandenburg, and began his march to the north. At Corydon and other points he was resisted by the home guards and pursued by General Hobson. Morgan crossed into Ohio, made a circuit north of Cincinnati, and attempted to recross the river. But the raiders were driven back. The Confederate leader pressed on until he came near New Lisbon, where he was captured by the brigade of General Shackelford. After a four months' imprisonment Morgan escaped and made his way to Richmond.

14. On the 1st of January General Magruder captured Galveston, Texas. By this means the Confederates secured a port of entry in the Southwest. On the 7th of April Admiral Du Pont, with a fleet of iron-clads, attempted to capture Charleston, but was driven back. In June the city was besieged by a strong land-force, under General Q. A. Gillmore, assisted by Admiral Dahlgren's fleet. After the bombardment had continued for some time, General Gillmore, on the 18th of July, attempted to carry Fort Wagner by assault, but was repulsed with severe loss. The siege progressed until the 6th of September, when the Confederates evacuated the fort and retired to Charleston. Gillmore now brought his guns to bear on the wharves and buildings in the lower part of the city. But Charleston still held out; and the only gain of the Federals was the establishment of a complete blockade.

15. After his repulse at Fredericksburg, General Burnside was superseded by General Joseph Hooker, who, in the latter part of April, crossed the Rappahannock and reached Chancellorsville. Here, on the morning of the 2d of May, he was attacked by the Army of Northern Virginia, led by Lee and Jackson. The latter general, at the head of twenty-five thousand men, outflanked the Union army, burst upon the right wing, and swept everything to destruction. But it was the last of Stonewall Jackson's battles. As night came on the Confederate leader received a volley from his own lines, and fell to rise no more.

16. On the 3d the battle was renewed. General Sedgwick was defeated and driven across the Rappahannock. The main army was crowded between Chancellorsville and the river, where it remained until the 5th, when General Hooker succeeded in withdrawing his forces to the northern bank. The Union losses amounted in killed, wounded, and prisoners to about seventeen thousand; that of the Confederates was less by five thousand.

17. Next followed the cavalry raid of General Stoneman. On the 29th of April he crossed the Rappahannock with ten thousand men, tore up the Virginia Central Railroad, cut General Lee's communications, swept around within a few miles of Richmond, and then recrossed the Rappahannock in safety.

18. General Lee now determined to carry the war into the North. In the first week of June he crossed the Potomac, and captured Hagerstown. On the 22d he entered Chambersburg, and then pressed on through Carlisle to within a few miles of Harrisburg. The militia of Pennsylvania was called out, and volunteers came pouring in from other States. General Hooker pushed forward to strike his antagonist. General Lee rapidly concentrated his forces near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. On the eve of battle the command of the Union army was transferred to General George G. Meade, who took up a position on the hills around Gettysburg. Here the two armies, each numbering about eighty thousand men, were brought face to face.

19. On the 1st of July the struggle began, and for three days the conflict raged. The battle reached its climax on the 3d, when a Confederate column, three miles long, headed by the Virginians under General Pickett, made a final charge on the Union center. But the onset was in vain, and the men who made it were mowed down with terrible slaughter. The victory remained with the National army, and Lee was obliged to turn back to the Potomac. The entire Confederate loss was nearly thirty thousand; that of the Federals twenty-three thousand one hundred and eighty-six. General Lee withdrew his forces into Virginia, and the Union army resumed its position on the Potomac.

20. The administration of President Lincoln was beset with many difficulties. The last calls for volunteers had not been fully met. The anti-war party of the North denounced the measures of the government. On the 3d of March the Conscription Act was passed by Congress, and the President ordered a draft of three hundred thousand men. The measure was bitterly opposed, and in many places the draft-officers were resisted. On the 13th of July, in the city of New York, a mob rose in arms, demolished buildings, burned the colored orphan asylum, and killed about a hundred people. For three days the authorities were set at defiance; but a force of regulars and volunteers gathered at the scene, and the riot was suppressed.

21. Only about fifty thousand men were obtained by the draft. But volunteering was quickened by the measure, and the employment of substitutes soon filled the ranks. In October the President issued another call for three hundred thousand men. By these measures the columns of the Union army were made more powerful than ever. In the armies of the South, on the other hand, there were already symptoms of exhaustion. On the 20th of June in this year West Virginia was separated from the Old Dominion and admitted as the thirty-fifth State of the Union.