BUTLER AT NEW ORLEANS.

457

distributed the confederate stores he found there, for the Ilief 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 officers 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 he was determined they should feel that the "way of transgressors 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.

458

GENERAL ASPECT OF AFFAIRS.

Our situation at the close of this month was full of promise. Butler was at New Orleans-Curtis was once more on the march, pushing his way to Little Rock, the capital of Arkansas-Halleck was at Corinth-Davis, though still at Fort Wright, evidently saw his way to Memphis-while Mitchell, in Alabama, advanced from victory to victory, holding a vast territory in subjection, and with but little loss of life taking possession of important points. Pensacola was ours, Mobile was threatened, while Hunter was feeling his way towards Charleston. The government had adopted vigorous measures to redeem the ground lost by Banks, and but little solicitude was felt for the national cause in any direction except before Richmond. Great confidence was reposed in McClellan, but it was universally believed that the original plan of the peninsula campaign had been abandoned, and the country feared that the government had left him to perform a task for which he had not sufficient means. It was felt that the annihilation of the rebel army there would practically end the rebellion, while a defeat to our army would prolong the war indefinitely, and possibly bring about complications that might entirely change the character of the struggle. The French minister at Washington had visited Richmond on an unknown mission, causing many anxious surmises, which the advance of the French army towards Mexico, with the evident intention of conquering that country, did not tend to allay. The reports from England showed an uneasy state of things there, and it seemed of the most vital importance that our career of unbroken success, since the spring opened, should not be arrested by a disaster in front of the rebel capital. A mystery hung round the government at Washington in respect to the army of McClellan, that greatly disturbed the public feeling, which a thousand vague rumors increased. Congress, which seemed destitute of statesmen of large expansive views concerning the subject of slavery,

REDUCING THE ARMY.

459

occupied itself in harangues about individual and isolated cases, instead of treating it as a national question.

There was scarcely a commander in the field that was not in turn denounced by members either for sending back fugitives, or forbidding them to enter the lines. If a general took proper precautions to prevent pillage, it was stigmatized as a protection of rebel property. Even McClellan was accused of protecting the "White House" as it was called, while our sick and wounded suffered for shelter and water, and the Secretary of War was called upon to put a stop to it. In reply to a letter of inquiry from the latter respecting the charge, he denied it emphatically, and for once, provoked from his studied silence, denounced those who circulated and gave credence to such reports, as enemies of their country.

But nothing showed so strikingly the incapacity of Congress, and its inability to comprehend the true position and wants of the country as the proposal of its leading members to reduce the army. But more astounding than all, the Secretary of War had actually issued an order stopping enlist ments of volunteers, and this month witnessed the anomalous, extraordinary spectacle of disbanded regiments and closed recruiting stations. The two great rebel armies were still in the field, while the confederate government had completed its conscription, which embraced all able bodied men between eighteen and thirty-five, and thus more than doubled its military force. We, in the mean time, were losing by sickness, wounds and death, more than ten thousand men a month, and the great decisive battles were yet to be fought. It would seem that our victories west had deluded the government into the belief that the war was actually over, or that some strange hallucination had seized it. The Secretary of War saw the rebel army doubling—ours rapidly diminishing, while the great struggle was yet to take place, and despite all bade the people who were rushing to the field, lay down their

arms and go home. There is no occasion to go any farther, to account for the disasters that followed-the two acts, one taking away a military head from the army, and substituting in its place the department at Washington-the other, reducing the army in presence of the enemy, while he was doubling his own-are quite sufficient without seeking other causes for it. They cost and will cost us millions of treasure and tens of thousands of lives.

From these and many other reasons, it was felt that a defeat before Richmond would be most calamitous, while a decisive victory there would dispose of all difficulties, and give us a clear field for the future. The public, therefore, made up its mind that McClellan should give us one. It would not entertain the idea of probable defeat, listen to no excuses, not even contemplate facts. It was of vital importance to the country that Richmond should fall, and therefore fall it must.

The people, however, soon learned, that the immutable laws of Providence can not be arrested by clamor, but march on, apparently heedless of consequences to men or nations, to their legitimate results.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

JUNE, 1862.

MOVEMENTS AT THE WEST-EVACUATION OF MEMPHIS-NAVAL ACTION BEFORE IT-EXPEDITION UP THE WHITE RIVER-EXPLOSION ON BOARD THE MOUND CITY-FORT AT SAINT CHARLES CAPTURED BY COLONEL FITCH-BUTLER AT NEW ORLEANS-PIERRE SOULE SENT NORTH UNDER ARREST-CHATTANOOGA TAKEN-BUELL SUPPOSED TO BE ADVANCING TO THE RELIEF OF EAST TENNESSEE-GRATIFICATION OF THE PEOPLE-SUFFERINGS OF THE UNIONISTS BROWNLOW-KEEPS

THERE-PARSON

THE OLD FLAG FLYING-HEROISM

OF HIS DAUGHTER-RELIEVED AND COMES NORTH-HIS STORY OF THE BARBARITIES OF THE REBELS-HIS RECEPTION IN THE NORTHERN CITIES-MOR

GAN SEIZES CUMBERLAND GAP.

A

FTER the evacuation of Corinth the rebels fell back to different positions, at none of which were they attacked by our army, and a long period of inaction in the field followed, broken only by the dashes of Mitchell in Alabama.

Our flotilla on the Mississippi, however, continued to advance down the river, and there seemed every prospect of its soon forming a junction with that of Farragut. Forts Wright and Pillow were successively evacuated, and it slowly proceeded towards Memphis, and on the sixth came in sight of the city, with its spires and cupolas glittering in the morning sun. All was quiet and tranquil, and the occupation of the place promised to be as bloodless as that of the forts above. But as the fleet proceeded towards the lower end of the town, the rebel flotilla was discovered lying close to the Arkansas shore.

NAVAL ACTION BEFORE MEMPHIS.

Our boats had drifted down stern foremost, and now Davis signalled to have the engines reversed, and to proceed