400 VIEWS OF EUROPE. slave holders, and regarding the ignorant whites as but little above slaves, naturally looked with indifference on the treatment which our private soldiers received. Hence, cruelty from the one and neglect from the other, were to be expected, and could safely be assumed without an investigating committee. During the winter, General Stone, commander at Ball's Bluff, had been suddenly arrested and confined in fort Warren. The senate at the close of this month passed a resolution, asking the President why he was not brought to trial. replied that the necessary absence of important witnesses prevented it, and thus the mysterious affair rested. He A year ago this month, the war commenced by the attack on fort Sumter. Twenty-eight more or less important battles, besides an almost endless number of skirmishes had occcured during its progress, and in twenty of the former, the Union arms were victorious. Never before had the world seen war carried on upon so vast a scale. The immobility of the north during almost the entire year, had excited the derision of Europe. Our quiet attitude was regarded as a confession of weakness, and a sure forerunner of defeat. They did not comprehend as we did, the gigantic task we had undertaken, and the amount of preparation necessary before we commenced. But when this was completed, and thə forces we had been so long gathering began to move, that derision gave place to amazement. The vastness of our complicated plan bewildered them, while they stood amazed at the power we showed ourselves able to put forth. England especially, thought that we were distressed, and hardly knew what to do ourselves. She now saw that we not only knew what to do, but how to do it. The vast dimensions of the war entailed enormous expenses, and the money needed to defray them, she declared could be no where obtained. The people would not give it, and foreign capital COST OF THE WAR. 401 ists would not lend it. But great as the expenditures were, the necessary money was obtained within our own limits. It is true we had run up a frightful debt, and sound statesmen feared the final effect of the issue of so much paper money as we were compelled to send forth, but the people said: "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." At the end of this year of war our national debt amounted to $491,448,384. A protracted war at this rate, would of course ruin the nation, but no one believed it would be of long continuance. CHAPTER XXXI. MAY, 1862. AN APPROACHING CRISIS-PUBLIC FEELING-THE TWO GREAT ARMIES MC CLELLAN READY TO COMMENCE THE BOMBARDMENT AT YORKTOWN-THE MARTIAL MUSIC-HEINTZELMAN UNCONQUERABLE BRIGADE-THE ARRIVES AT WEST POINT, AND ENGAGES THE ENEMY. THE HE month of May, the first of the new year of war, was believed to be pregnant with the fate of the Republic; for events seemed to be approaching a decisive termination. Halleck was drawing his lines closer and closer around Beauregard, at Corinth, and a battle was daily expected there that would settle the war in the west. McClellan's preparations were about complete before Yorktown, and any moment it might flash over the wires that the bombardment had commenced. The mighty armies that confronted each other at these points, constituted the main strength of the two sections in the field, and numbered in all nearly a million of men. A decided victory at both points would virtually end the war -a victory at but one would insure at least another year's war, while our overthrow at both would be irreparable. No wonder the nation held its breath in suspense; and fervent prayers went up that God would assist the right. The standing of these two armed hosts face to face, gathering their energies like two giants for the final struggle, PREPARATIONS FOR THE BOMBARDMENT. 403 was a sublime yet fearful spectacle. The imagination started back appalled at the vision of slaughtered heaps, and “garments rolled in blood," that rose in the future. There was one great difference, however, in their composition, that encouraged the hopes of the north. The south, to present numerically an equal force, had to resort to conscription. The north, on the other hand, had been compelled to shut up its recruiting stations, to prevent the overwhelming increase of the army, and hence had men ready and eager to fight. This dead lock of the opposing forces produced fitful complaints, and loud clamors from a few excitable individuals in and out of Congress; but the great intelligence of the mass of the people enabled them to understand and appreciate the true motives of delay, and the vital importance of running no needless hazard. The censorship of the press shut out from the public all knowledge of what was going on at Yorktown, but the great confidence in McClellan's sagacity and military ability, made it patient. Quietly, but unceasingly, he was bending all his energies to hasten forward the approaches, and on the third, he had fourteen powerful batteries constructed--all mounted but three-ninety-six heavy guns, some two hundred and one hundred-pounders, and thirteen-inch mortars, being in position within breaching distance of the walls, and all connected with parallels. Three redoubts were also finished. In a few more hours every thing would be in readiness, and then the earthquake shock would come. McClellan, who had had ample opportunity to see what effect such batteries would have on earthworks and fortifications in the siege of Sebastopol, knew that when he once opened his fire, the works before him would melt like wax. But an engineer equally skillful, had, unknown to him, 404 SCENE AT THE EVACUATION. surveyed his operations. Lee had been summoned to Yorktown, and his practiced eye saw that McClellan had been allowed to proceed with his work till the place was untenable. An evacuation, much to the surprise of the ignorant troops, and indignation of Huger, who was in command at Norfolk, was at once determined upon, and immediately commenced. EVACUATION OF YORKTOWN. On the third, the rebels kept up a continuous fire along their lines, shaking the Peninsula with their incessant cannonade, while the heavy shot and shell filled the air with their steady rush and shriek. Nor did it cease at night, and when darkness settled over the encampment, from the ramparts that stretched away from Yorktown there were constant gushes of flame, while the heavy thunder rolled far away in the gloom. A little after midnight it suddenly ceased, and an ominous silence rested over the works. Toward morning, flames were seen to rise from behind them. Heintzelman went up in a balloon with professor Lowe, to ascertain its cause, and found that the enemy had fired one of their storehouses. Gradually the day broke over the landscape below him, when he saw that the intrenchments were empty. The last of the rebel army had fled during the night. The news spread like lightning from division to division, and through the long line of encampments, when the regimental bands struck up one after another a joyous air till the vast plain echoed with the jubilant strains, and then the regiments themselves, in quick succession, sent up a shout that shook the field. In the midst of the general jubilee, officers were seen galloping to the heads of brigades and divisions, bearing the following order: "Commandants of regiments will prepare to march with two days' rations, with the utmost dispatch |