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388

SURRENDER OF THE GARRISON.

night, to avoid the fire of the enemy. It was a long and laborious task; and the guns were not all in position till the fore part of April. There were eleven batteries in all, number-. ing thirty-six guns; Parrott rifled pieces, Columbiads, mortars, etc., some of them weighing over one thousand seven hundred pounds, and throwing thirteen inch shells. The whole was under the direction of General Gillmore, who by the assistance of able engineers, accomplished his difficult task, most satisfactorily. But just as everything was ready, and Sherman was about to reap the fruit of his toil, he was superseded in his command by General Hunter.

On the ninth, Gillmore sent a summons to the garrison to surrender. Colonel Olmstead, commanding, replied that he was placed there to defend, not to surrender it, and so the next morning early, the first heavy gun sent its loud echoes far over the sea, and the bombardment commenced. The shot at first flew wild, but as the range became more accurate, the batteries settled down to their work in earnest, and soon small clouds of brown dust told where the heavy shot were smiting the brick walls of the fortification. With the aid of the glass, huge, ragged rents could be seen, showing that they were not knocking in vain for admittance.

The garrison replied, and all day long the heavy explo sions shook the desert island. Night brought a cessation of the conflict. The next morning, however, it was resumed, and continued all the forenoon, during which one man, a member of the Rhode Island Third artillery was killed; the only loss on our side from first to last. About two o'clock the rebel flag was pulled down. General Gillmore was at dinner at the time, from which he was aroused by the shouts of volunteer couriers, witnesses of the fight, who came to announce the glad tidings

Three hundred and sixty prisoners, with all the stores and armament of the fort, fell into our hands. This

BATTLE AT APACHE PASS.

389

was the first fortification of any importance, retaken by our troops, and was hailed as the beginning of the righteous work of repossessing the national strongholds which the rebels had seized at the outset. side had closed his lines, was series.

Macon, around which Burregarded as the next in the

In the mean time, cheering news was received from the department of New Mexico. Rumors, coming through rebel channels, had long been in circulation, that Colonel Canby, after his successful defense of fort Craig, had finally been compelled to surrender it with his entire force. But now the war department received a dispatch, stating that a portion of his command under Colonel Hough, had defeated the rebels at Apache Pass, killing several hundred and taking ninety-three prisoners, besides destroying sixty-four wagons, laden with provisions and ammunition. The Texans fought with their accustomed desperation, charging our batteries four times, but were repulsed with terrible slaughter. In an ordinary war, this battle would have been a great event, but in the more important movements near at hand, created but little excitement. Colonel Canby, in that remote region, cut off from reinforcements, true to the national flag, was exhibiting the qualities of a great commander, and showing that he was worthy to stand beside the heroes of the west. The loss of one hundred and fifty in this engagement, out of his small command, shows that he had fought a desperate battle. The enemy under Colonel Sibley, inventor of the famous Sibley tent, and formerly a United States officer, was utterly discomfited by this reverse, and he was unable to rally again his scattered, suffering troops.

While Burnside was making his preparations before fort Macon, he sent General Reno with a few hundred men and three boat howitzers, to Elizabeth city, to destroy some locks in the canal leading to Norfolk. Landing below the town,

390

EXPEDITION OF RENO.

on the nineteenth, he marched forward to the accomplishment of his object. About noon he was attacked by the rebels, composed of a Georgia regiment and a portion of Wise's Legion. After a sharp engagement, the enemy was totally routed with heavy loss. Ours was one hundred and ten killed and wounded.

In the evening, General Reno, hearing that the rebels had been heavily reinforced and were advancing to attack him, ordered a retreat. The jaded soldiers were roused from their bivouacs, and commenced their toilsome march back to their boats-making a forced march of forty miles in twentyfour hours. It was a night of great toil and suffering, and the force was in such a condition, that if it had been attacked it could scarcely have escaped total destruction. Fourteen of his wounded were left in the hands of the enemy who consequently claimed a victory.

CHAPTER XXX.

APRIL, 1862.

SIEGE OF FORT MACON-DIFFICULTIES ATTENDING IT-THE BOMBARDMENT-
ITS
YORKTOWN-ATTACK ON LEE'S MILLS-

SURRENDER-FIGHTING

--

- AT

BAYONET CHARGE OF THE ELEVENTH MASSACHUSETTS-HALLECK BEFORE CORINTH MITCHELL IN ALABAMA-CONGRESS-THE EMANCIPATIONISTSHUNTER'S PROCLAMATION DIGNIFIED COURSE OF THE PRESIDENT THE QUESTION OF SLAVERY IN CONGRESS THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY EMPOWERED TO BUILD, IRON CLAD VESSELS-REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON TREATMENT OF OUR DEAD AT BULL RUN-VIEWS OF FOREIGN COUNTRIES RESPECT ING US-NATIONAL DEBT AT THE END OF THE YEAR OF WAR.

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N the mean time, Burnside, with his accustomed energy, was pushing the siege of fort Macon, in order to shake himself clear of all embarrassments, and be able to perform the mission assigned him in the general campaign, the moment events at Richmond should reach the anticipated crisis.

The difficulties attending his operations against it, may be gathered from the following description of the manner in which his heavy siege guns had to be transported from Newbern to near Beaufort and Morehead, cities in the vicinity of the fort. "There being no locomotives on the road between the two places, all the siege materials must be carried by steamer, fifteen miles, to the head of Slocum's Creek, and then hauled one mile to Havelock Station. At the latter place they were placed on platform and baggage cars, and by the aid of mules, slowly hauled to Carolina city, which was the head-quarters of General Parke. Here there was a turn out and short track leading to a wharf on the edge of Bogue Sound, where the guns, mortars and ammunition were received on board flat boats and conveyed across the sound to

392

ATTACK ON FORT MACON.

Bogue's Beach, a distance of a mile and a half. When these heavy guns and other ponderous materiel were on board the flats, the labor of transporting them to the desired place of operations had just commenced. The sound is so shallow, for more than half the distance across, that it can easily be sounded by wading knee deep-a narrow channel, containing only some five or six feet at high water, intervening. Having reached the opposite shore at a point four miles due west from fort Macon, a wide marsh was to be crossed, in which the wheels of artillery carriages sunk to the hubs, and when this obstacle was crossed, a continuous line of sandy knolls was reached, extending to the fort. These sand hills were covered by a stunted growth of brush and briar, in which the wheels sunk to the axle, requiring a great force to move the massive loads."

But these difficulties were at length all overcome, and the guns one by one were placed in position. Our skirmishers in the mean time, crept under the sand hills near the fort and annoyed exceedingly the garrison, which in vain endeavored to ascertain what Burnside was about. A man slung in halyards was kept swinging in mid air to detect our movements. but the work steadily progressed to its completion.

On Wednesday, the twenty-third, Burnside arrived with two powerful floating batteries, and the fort was summoned to surrender. Colonel White was in command, and as if to give another, among the illustrations of the horrors of civil war, Quarter master Biggs, a former class mate of his, was sent with the demand. The most honorable terms were offered, and the commander, a noble, high-minded man, had the consulted his own feelings, would doubtless, in the hopelessness of his position, have pulled down his flag. But thinking it looked unsoldierlike to do so without a struggle, be declined. As soon as the flag returned, Burnside signaled the batteries to open fire. This was prevented, however, by

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