EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS.

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every one enslaved by the enemy or sold into slavery, a rebel soldier shall be placed at hard labor on the public works, and continued at such labor until the other shall be released and receive the treatment due to a prisoner of

war.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN."

The employment of blacks as soldiers, many of whom were escaped slaves, exasperated the South, and the Confederate Government refused to regard them as prisoners of war. This, of course, 'necessitated action on the part of our Government; for there can be no plainer duty than that of every Government to protect its soldiers. This clear, explicit, just order, placed the matter on a right foundation; and had the Secretary of War been content to adopt it as the rule of his action, the colored soldiers would have been protected, and tens of thousands of brave men spared a horrible death. But, wishing to improve on it by a theory of his own, he broke up the cartel agreed on-which was working humanely-and filled Southern prisons with innocent victims. After a year of horrors, he was compelled to come back to the principle of this simple order, but all too late for an army of sufferers. This is but one of numerous instances which show how vastly superior the President with his upright nature, freedom from passion, strong common sense, and clear appreciation of right-was, to the acutest lawyers and most accomplished diplomatists of the land. His practical mind seemed to seize by intuition the right course; and had he from the outset been followed, instead of pushed, we should have been saved many blunders and misfortunes.

Although this order disappeared from sight, in the long, learned discussion that followed, on the question of exchange, it reappeared at last, to vindicate the sagacity of its author. The discussion of the Confiscation Act, and other legislative enactments having reference to the status of the slave and freedman, and the mode of carrying on the war, kept the North, during the Summer, in a state of turmoil, and.

218

STATE OF PUBLIC FEELING.

furnished the Democratic party with the materials with which to organize an opposition, that they hoped might, in the coming year, overthrow the Administration, and institute a new order of things. McClellan-whose removal from the army was believed to be owing to his hostility to this kind. of legislation, and to the President's Proclamation of Emancipation was regarded as the man on whom these opposi tion elements would rally in the approaching struggle.

The heavy tax on incomes, necessary to meet the frightful expenses of the Government-swelled by the direct tax on property, to raise the enormous local bounties for volunteers also caused great excitement. The public debt, in June, amounted, in round numbers, to ten hundred and ninety-eight millions of dollars-which practically, so far as the burden on the people was concerned, was swelled to an indefinite amount by local and State taxation. What the pressure of this mighty indebtedness would be, before the war could close, at the present rate of progress, men trembled to contemplate. The inability of Congress to grapple with this subject-the madness with which it persisted in spending the time, so pregnant with the fate of the country, in empty harangues or fierce partisan warfare-disgusted and discouraged all thoughtful men of both parties. It resolved that the war should go on, and yet seemed equally resolved that politics should keep pace with it-in fact, control it. All things considered, it was the darkest Summer of the war, notwithstanding the victories of Vicksburg and Gettysburg.

CHAPTER XVII.

AUGUST, 1863.

CAVALRY ACTION OF GREGG-FOSTER'S EXPEDITION UP THE JAMES RIVER-. FIGHT BETWEEN BUFORD AND STUART-AVERILL'S OPERATIONS IN VIRGINIAGILLMORE'S SIEGE OF WAGNER AND SUMTER-HERCULEAN LABOR—“THE SWAMP ANGEL"-BOMBARDMENT OF SUMTER OVER THE TOP OF WAGNERGREEK FIRE THROWN INTO CHARLESTON-REMONSTRANCE OF BEAUREGARDACTION OF THE FLEET-DEATH OF RODGERS-FRENCH OPINION OF THE SIEGE STEADY APPROACHES TOWARDS WAGNER-ITS EVACUATION-EVACU→ ATION OF FORT GREGG-MORRIS ISLAND OURS-BOMBARDMENT OF SUMTER REFUSAL OF DAHLGREN TO ATTEMPT TO PASS IT-VINDICATION OF DU PONT—. DESOLATION OF CHARLESTON-RETRIBUTION.

was

HOUGH the Summer campaign of the Army of the Potomac was ended, minor engagements, in Virginia, occasionally took place, and the guerrilla General Mosby caused a great deal of trouble. His conduct called forth a stringent order from Halleck.

In August, General Foster made an expedition up the James River, with four gunboats, and when about seven. miles from Fort Darling, encountered a rebel battery, and at the same time, the Commodore Barney ran upon a torpedo, which exploded under her bows, lifting them ten feet out of water, and washing overboard fifteen of her crew. Foster was aboard at the time, but escaped injury.

On the Rappahannock, Buford had a sharp fight with Stuart's cavalry, reinforced by infantry, and, after an obstinate fight, drove him back, though with a loss to himself of a hundred and forty men, sixteen of whom were killed. In the latter part of the month, General Averill returned from an expedition through several counties in the interior of Virginia, in which he burned some saltpetre works, and

destroyed a quantity of arms and stores. He fought a superior force of the enemy, at White Sulphur Springs, and then retreated, with a loss of about a hundred men.

In the meantime, General Gillmore had pressed steadily towards Fort Sumter. After the failure of the assault on Fort Wagner, he sat down before it, in regular siege; but, while making his slow approaches towards it, he carried out the extraordinary plan of bombarding Fort Sumter over its top. There was between Morris and James Islands a marsh, covered with sea-weed, flags and rushes, which Beauregard had regarded as wholly untenable—as it was a mere bed of soft mud, in which a man would go down over his head— and so left it out, in completing the fortifications for the defense of Charleston. Yet Gillmore resolved to drive piles into this mortar-bed, and mount on them six twohundred-pound Parrott guns, and one monster three-hundredpounder. The timber for these piles had to be brought from Folly Island, a distance of ten miles, in rafts. To accomplish all this, without the enemy's knowledge, the work had all to be done in the night-time. The rafts were floated to their places, through the darkness, and before daylight covered with grass and sea-weed, that entirely disguised them, so that the enemy was kept in total ignorance of the work being done right under their eyes. In the night-time, also, the piles were driven into the mud. For two weeks, this strange work went on, without arousing the suspicion of the enemy. Ten thousand bags filled with sand, were carried two miles by the soldiers, to protect the guns. The monster gun broke down several trucks, before it was got into position, but by incredible labor it was finally mounted, and the "Swamp Angel," as it was called, was ready to open its fire. By the 16th of August, thirty-seven guns were in position on the artificial foundation laid in this mud-hole, within two miles and a half of Sumter,

A FIERCE BOMBARDMENT.

221

and but little over four from the city of Charleston. One can imagine the consternation of the enemy when these tremendous batteries were unmasked. It was a new creation-a volcanic island risen out of the sea.

On the 17th, they opened their fire on Sumter. In the meantime, Dahlgren, with the Ironsides and Monitor fleet, moved up opposite Fort Wagner, and engaged it, to keep it from concentrating its fire on this new position and distracting the gunners in their lombardment of Sumter. The fleet behaved gallantly; but almost at the outset, Captain George W. Rodgers, of the Catskill, who had boldly carried his vessel to within three hundred yards of Wagner, was killed, and the vessel, with a flag of distress flying, retired out of the fight. All day long, the terrific bombardment of Sumter was maintained. An immense wall of sand-bags

had been built up on the outside and inside of the fort, fifteen feet thick-making the whole mass thirty-five feet thick. The sand-bags had first to be beaten down, before the wall itself could be reached; yet, so fierce was the fire, and so heavy the metal thrown, that on the second day the naked walls were exposed, and the work of demolition went on with greater rapidity. The barbette guns were soon dismounted, some of them toppling over into the sea. Day after day, the bombardment was kept up, till, at the end of the seventh day, Sumter was a heap of ruins. The rubbish, however, falling over some of the casemates, made them more invulnerable than ever, and a small garrison there still kept the rebel flag flying.

Gillmore now sent a flag of truce to Beauregard, demanding the surrender of Charleston, and threatening, in case of refusal, to shell the city. The demand and threat both seemed so preposterous, that Beauregard dismissed the officer without a reply. Gillmore then turned the "Swamp Angel" on the city, and shells were thrown into its very heart. The