be so garrisoned that rebellion will never again raise her parricidal hand. The regaining of the bay of Pensacola by the National Government, cleared Florida of the last rebel force of any importance, within the State.

Early in March, an expedition had sailed from Port Royal, to take posLession of the eastern coast. The fleet consisted of the flag-ship Wabash, under Com. Dupont, and twenty-six gun-boats and transports. Hugging the coast of Georgia, they passed down the sound between Cumberland Island and the main-land, until they reached Amelia Island, just off the coast of Florida. Upon the northern extremity of this island, there is one of the finest harbors south of the Chesapeake, upon the shores of which bay there slumbers the antique little town of Old Fernandina. Just before reaching this place, the fleet picked up one of our ever faithful friends, a contraband, who informed them that the rebels had abandoned in haste the whole of the defenses of Fernandina, and were at that moment retreating from Amelia Island, with such munitions as they could carry away with them in their precipitate flight. Commander Drayton, in the Pawnee, with one or two gun-boats of light draft, was ordered to push through the sound, and save as much as possible of the public and private property from destruction. The remainder of the fleet pushed out to sea, and steamed for the island by its ocean approaches. The water in the sound was so shoal, that all the gun-boats except one grounded. Commander Drayton pushed on with three armed launches. They soon came to Fort Clinch, at the north end of Amelia Island, guarding the inlet to the sound. Its garrison of 1,500 men had deserted it the day before, having received a telegram announcing the approach of the fleet. A boat's crew was sent on shore, to raise over the ramparts the Stars and Stripes. As they approached Old Fernandina, some persons on the shore waved a white flag, while some lurking rebels, concealed in the bushes, fired a volley of rifle shots at them, wounding five and piercing the clothes of many others. A railroad train, loaded with rebels and their purloined store of national property, was seen, just starting from the town. Two locomotives were attached to the train. A railroad bridge connects the island with the main-land. The whole train effected its escape, and disappeared in the woods on the other side. A little steamer, however, which had attempted to escape, was captured. The fleet took possession of the harbor, and of the small town of St. Mary, in Georgia, nearly opposite.

Fort Clinch, the main defense of the harbor and the inlet, was a pentagonal structure, with detached towers and bastions, and detached scarps, loop-holed for musketry. Its armament consisted of twenty-seven guns, most of them thirty-two pounders, with a one hundred and twenty-eight pounder, and one rifled gun. The rebels carried off eighteen of the guns to Savannah, spiking the rest, and burning their gun-carriages. A few days after this, Jacksonville was also taken, and a few other minor points, without any struggle. And thus the nation of Florida, as it had no longer a recognized government of its own, became again a territory of the United States.

CHAPTER XVI.

PULASKI AND THE CONTRABANDS.

RECONNOISSANCE OF TYBEE ISLAND.-FORT PULASKI AND ITS BOMBARDMENT.-PREPARATIONS FOR ITS REDUCTION.-ITS BOMBARDMENT.-ITS SURRENDER.-FEELINGS OF THE BRITISH GovERNMENT. INCREASING IMPORTANCE OF THE SLAVERY QUESTION.-NATIONAL FREEDMAN'S ASSOCIATION.-ADDRESS OF GEN. MCCLELLAN.-FINANCIAL AND MILITARY REPORTS.

IN November, 1861, Gen. Sherman, at Port Royal, received orders to make a reconnoissance of Tybee Island, at the mouth of the Savannah River, as a preliminary to the reduction of Fort Pulaski, which commands the approaches to Savannah, Georgia. Savannah is one of the most beautiful of the Southern cities, containing a population of about 6,000 whites and 6,000 slaves. It is situated on a plateau, about forty feet above the level of the river, and seventeen miles from its mouth. Like many other of the cities of the South, it has an oriental air of repose, in strong contrast with the life and vigor of Northern cities. Tybee Island, at the mouth of the river, is a low, barren expanse of sand ridges, about eight miles long and six wide. At the northern extremity of the island there is a lighthouse, and a strong Martello tower, one of those massive circular structures of masonry, such as the English scattered so profusely along their coasts to guard against the threatened invasion by Napoleon. Three war vessels were despatched upon this enterprise. On the 25th of November they appeared off Tybee, and commenced throwing shot and shell upon the island, at those points where any foe might lurk. Awaking no response, they landed, and found all the works abandoned. At the base of the tower they found a strong battery, but the rebels had been inspired with such terror by the successful bombardment of Forts Walker and Beauregard, that they did not venture to make any stand behind the feebler intrenchments of Tybee. Indeed, Commodore Tatnall announced that after the successful firing at Hilton Head, nothing the rebels had erected could withstand the National fleet. An intense panic had pervaded the whole line of the Southern coast. Several thousand troops took possession of the island; the flag of the Union was raised, and deliberate preparations were made for the reduction of Pulaski. The old Spanish tower was repaired and mounted with an effective armament of 32 and 64-pounders, while breast works were thrown up surrounding it, a mile in circumference. Only two thousand troops were landed upon the island, and the amount of labor performed by them seems incredible. This National fort, Pulaski, was considered one of the most impregnable in the United States. It had

been reared at an expense of a million of dollars, and was amply provided with all the appliances which modern military science could suggest. Its walls, of very hard brick, were nine feet thick and forty feet high. Its armament consisted of one hundred and fifty of the most massive and effective guns known in warfare. The fort was situated upon a small island, called Cockspur, and perfectly commanded the approaches in every direction. The rebels felt that they had at least one fort, Pulaski, which was impregnable. A rebel officer, writing from Pulaski to one of the Southern papers, said: *

"The enemy have gained little by taking Tybee Island. We have plenty of ammunition and men, and we defy them to come in range of our guns. We will show them the difference between Port Royal and Fert Pulaski."

Still the inhabitants of Savannah were terribly alarmed, for the National troops had established themselves within seventeen miles of their streets. All the families who could leave fled, carrying with them their slaves, as the most valuable portion of their property. Early in December, Gen. Gilmore, having made a careful reconnoissance of that part of the island where batteries could be planted which would reach Pulaski, reported that in his judgment the fort could be reduced by mortars and rifled guns established on the north-west end of Tybee Island. He recommended that eleven mortar batteries should be erected, so that a shell should be thrown every minute into the fort. He would also have as many rifled guns as mortars, throwing their shot still more rapidly. All necessary arrangements being made, the works were commenced on the 20th of February, under the superintendence of Gen. Gilmore, who deservedly acquired great credit for the engineering skill and administrative ability with which he conducted them to a triumphant conclusion. The eleven batteries were constructed with a parapet eight feet high, and a bomb-proof traverse between every two guns. The mortars, which were sunk in the ground, fired over the parapets; the guns through embrasures. The batteries were twenty-five yards apart, and connected by trenches affording safe communication between them: Several of the batteries had also a bomb-proof surgery, supplied with all requisites for surgical operations. Each battery had also a well of water. In addition to these a boat was also brought around, with a battery mounted upon it and stationed near a bend, in Lazaretto Creek, which placed it within very effective

* As our troops landed in Georgia an address was issued to the people of that State, signed by Howell Cobb, R. Toombs, M. J. Crawford, Thomas R. R. Cobb. The following extract gives an interesting view of the state of mind of those rebels.

"The foot of the oppressor is on the soil of Georgia. He comes with lust in his eye, poverty in his purse and hell in his heart. He comes a robber and a murderer. How shall you meet him? With the sword at the threshold! With death for him or for yourself! But more than this; let every woman have a torch, every child a firebrand; let the loved homes of youth be made ashes, and the fields of our heritage be made desolate. Let blackness and ruin mark your departing steps, if depart you must, and let a desert more terrible than Sahara welcome the Vandals. Let every city be leveled by the flames, and every village lost in ashes. Trust wife and children to the sure refuge and protection of God, preferring even for these loved ones the charnel house as a home than loathsome vassalage to a nation already sunk below the contempt of the civilized world."

range of the fort. The construction of these batteries involved immense labor, in which the negroes were exempted from taking any share. There was no wharf at Tybee. A heavy surf dashed upon the shore. The ponderous guns were pitched overboard at high tide from floats upon the beach, and when the tide went down were mounted on sling carts, and dragged by white hands over the sands to their destination. Beneath a blazing sun the young men of the North, all unaccustomed to such labor, were driven to these toils, when thousands of hearty, healthy, robust negroes were loitering about, not knowing what to do with themselves, but longing to seize the ropes and drag the guns with shouts of jubilee. Hundreds of our noblest young men, glorious, patriotic boys, from the refined homes of the North, fainted and sickened and died in the hospitals, from this unpardonable folly.

It was a distance of two and a half miles from the landing to the batteries. It required three hundred men to move a thirteen-inch mortar, weighing 17,000 pounds, loaded on a sling cart. They frequently got mired, and the labor was enormous in extricating them. Twenty-two of the guns were served, during the bombardment, by men who had performed these fatiguing labors. All the instruction in gunnery they could receive was such as they gained, at odd times, when they could be spared from other duties.

There were political complications mingling with the strife, which faithful history must not ignore. There was a party at the North, active and unscrupulous, who were anxious to preserve slavery. They desired, above all things, to save slavery from harm, as the only means of keeping the whole South united, as a sectional party. They could then, though in the great minority at the North, unite their votes with the slaveholding South, and thus secure, as they had done for years, the control of the Government, with all its enormous patronage. These men were not Secessionists. They were all in favor of the Union. They thought that the Union ought to have been maintained, in the first place, by yielding to the demands of the South, and adopting slavery as the corner-stone of the Constitution. They accused the friends of freedom in the North with being the guilty cause of the rebellion, by not acceding to these demands. They now wished to end the war by so exhausting the North, that it would earnestly invite the South back on its own terms; and by inflicting just enough trouble upon the South, to induce them to wish to return. Unfortunately for the honor of our arms, many of the most prominent generals belonged to this party, and conducted the war at first upon these principles. Conciliation and compromise was the motto emblazoned upon their banners. Those officers who cherished different views, and pushed the war with all vigor, such men as Fremont and Sigel, and Hunter and Phelps, and others who might be mentioned, were denounced and thwarted in all ways. Hence few victories were obtained in those portions of the field, where enormous Union armies were marshaled, and held in repose in the presence of inferior foes.

But the great mass of the Northern people, of both the old parties, democrat and republican, rose above these low and groveling thoughts.