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over the boats and now shooting in swift contortions upward as the heavy broadsides rent it asunder. Soon, a heavy explosion, louder than the roar of artillery, made the banks tremble. A rebel A rebel gun boat had been blown up, leaving only fragments of shattered timber where she had floated. Captain Davis, on the flag-ship Benton, coolly directed all the movements of his flotilla, and the answering signals showed that the captains were fighting their ships as composedly as they would execute a maneuver.

At length, the shattered, disabled rebel fleet gave up the contest, and retired under the guns of the fort. Davis had showed that he was worthy to stand in the place of the gallant Foote. Our loss was slight, though it was afterward discovered that the Cincinnati had received serious injury.

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Only the day before, Beauregard had made an equally unsuccessful attempt on the land forces that environed him. Farmington, which Pope had captured on the third, and which the enemy retook two or three days after, was again eccupied by him on the eighth, while the cavalry pushed on to within three miles of Corinth. The next day the enemy advanced against him in force under General Bragg.

FIGHT AT FARMINGTON.

The action commenced at ten, with artillery, and continued till noon, when it ceased. General Paine, who was in command of our forces, discovering that the rebels were ma neuvering to get in rear of him, and cut him off from the main army, determined to withdraw. A swamp was in his rear, across which only a single road led, over which he must carry his entire command. In the mean time, the rebels had moved their artillery so as to deliver a cross fire on this, while their extended wings were sweeping down on either flank. To leave nothing behind, and gain time to get

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A CAVALRY CHARGE.

his columns across this single, narrow causeway, Paine ordered the Second Iowa cavalry to charge the enemy's guns. It was a desperate order, but Colonel Hatch, to whom it was delivered, cared little for that. Four hundred were to charge in the face of ten thousand; but his only anxiety was lest his men should refuse to follow him. But the brave Iowans were ready to a man. Filing up a ravine as far as they could, to avoid the shot and shell that swept the field, they boldly ascended the slope, face to face with the battery. Quickly forming, they responded to the pealing bugle with loud shouts, and with sabers flashing above their heads, dashed full on the guns. The skirmishers in front went down like bending grain, before their fierce gallop; but the moment the field was cleared of these, the artillery opened on them with canister and shrapnel. Before the destructive fire, that line of horsemen would have disappeared like mist in the hurricane, had not the guns, in the astonishment caused by this sudden apparition, been too much depressed. The fiery loads tore up the ground in front of them, cutting down a hundred horses, but did not stop the remainder. Seeing the clattering tempest full upon them, the affrighted. unners quickly limbered up their pieces. The object of the charge being thus accomplished, which was to silence the battery while the columns could swiftly pass where its cross-fire swept, Hatch ordered the bugle to sound a recall. But the excited troopers never heard it, or if they did, heeded it not, and dashing on the gunners, sabred them at their pieces. They then fell back to the swamp, and the column safely effected its retreat to the farther side.

Pope was not reinforced so as to enable him to hold his ground, because Halleck did not wish to bring on a general engagement at that time, nor on that ground. Refusing to take any great risk, where a cautious advance made success certain, he pushed his army forward, step by step, forcing

CORINTH EVACUATED.

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Beauregard to remain idle behind his intrenchments, or give battle with all the odds against him. But if a position was needed he took it. Thus "Russell's House," being occu pied by the enemy, he ordered Sherman to take it, which he did, though suffering considerable loss.

At length, having completed all his preparations, he, on the twenty-eighth, advanced three reconnoitering columns along his whole line, to feel the enemy and unmask his batteries, which were concealed by the woods. A sharp contest followed, in which the rebels were driven back at every point. The next day, Sherman established a powerful battery within a thousand yards of the works, and the day fol lowing it was expected that the mighty army would move forward to the attack. Instead of this, however, Pope, about ten o'clock, opened on the enemy with his artillery, and a heavy cannonading was kept up all day. That night, our advanced lines heard the incessant rumbling of rail road cars, and the shriek of the steam whistles, showing that some important movement was going on in the rebel army. At daylight, several loud explosions were heard. Immediately skir mishers were thrown out, and a general advance ordered. But no opposition was offered, and Pope entered a deserted place. Troops, stores, guns, ammunition, all were gone, and none knew whither. As the news spread from regiment to regiment, and brigade to brigade, shouts rent the air, the bands struck up triumphant strains, till from limit to limit of the extended lines, from wood, and field, and slope, the atmosphere was alive with jubilant echoes. The Stars and Stripes were planted on the works where so long had floated defiantly the rebel flag, and the stern front of battle changed into a scene of the wildest excitement. The mayor came out to surrender the town, and the place, which it was believed would be entered only over heaps of the slain, was ours without a struggle. The position was a strong one,

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A CAVALRY EXPLOIT.

and it could not be conjectured why it was so tamely abandoned, unless the rebel army was so demoralized that Beauregard could not trust it in a pitched battle. The evacuation had been going on for days, and so secretly was it done, that not a hint of it reached our lines, or if it did, came in so unreliable a shape, that it was not credited.

The place presented a desolate appearance, for most of the inhabitants had left with the rebel army, and all the stores were closed as on the Sabbath day.

The next day, the battle of Fair Oaks took place. Thus, while the vast army on the Mississippi was reveling in the abandonment of victory, that on the Chickahominy was struggling for its life.

One of the most brilliant exploits of this long siege was performed by Colonel Elliott, who, on the Wednesday previous to the capture, started with a large body of cavalry to destroy a bridge on the Mobile and Ohio rail road. Taking a circuitous route along cross roads, and through an unknown country, he pushed rapidly forward among the astonished inhabitants, and reaching his point of destination, accomplished the work assigned him.

Cutting himself off from the main army-relying alone on his own sagacity, and the bravery of his followers, Elliott swept through the enemy's country with a celerity that made his coming and going appear like a vision, rather than a terrible reality. The history of the expedition from first to last, reads like a romance. It took the enemy by surprise, and seriously damaged his plan of retreat.

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op, with his usual energy, pushed on in the direction the main army was reported to have taken, and soon came upon straggling regiments and took several prisoners.

While these events were passing, up the Mississippi, Butler was endeavoring to bring order out of confusion in New Orleans. The people were threatened with famine, and he

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BUTLER AT NEW ORLEANS.

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distributed the confederate stores he found there, for the relief of the poor. He appointed a Provost Marshal, and while offering every inducement to the citizens to return to their loyalty, ruled the disaffected with an iron hand. Suppressing some of the newspapers, he appropriated the Delta to his own use, and appointed an editor from the army. Order followed order in quick succession, and the proud and sullen inhabitants soon found that open hostility would bring swift vengeance. While he would use his whole military power to preserve order and procure food, he would also use it to punish treason. The circulation of confederate scrip was forbidden-the stores were ordered to be opened, and banks made to resume their business. Ladies, relying on the impunity of their sex, daily insulted soldiers and off cers in the streets, and he issued an order declaring that those, who did it in future, should be treated as women of the town, plying their vocation; and though it was met with howls of rage and threats of assassination, he would not retract it. A reward was offered for his head, and when the order reached Europe, the most bitter denunciations were hurled against him and the government, for retaining him in command. Butler, however, was not to be swerved from his course, and a man who had torn down and trampled on the national flag, was hung; and all soon found that be was determined they should feel that the "way of trans gressors is hard." Under his rule, things quickly began to assume a better aspect; and the President, in the middle of the month, having by proclamation opened the ports of Beaufort, Port Royal, and New Orleans, it was expected that peaceful commerce would soon effect what the bayonet had begun.

In the mean time, the fleet was not idle, but cleared the banks of the Mississippi up to Vicksburg, and it was expected that the river would soon be opened its entire length.

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