freedmen were all ready to work, and that their eagerness to learn letters was insatiable.

On the 14th of March, Gen. McClellan, who had secured to a wonderful degree the confidence and affection of his soldiers, issued a very spirited address to the army of the Potomac, announcing his reasons for retaining them so long unemployed. The battle of Bull Run was fought in July, 1861. It was now March, 1862. During all this time the army of the Potomac, numbering not less than 250,000 men, had been kept inactive, save their daily drills behind their intrenchments. From their ramparts the flags of the rebels, in inferior numbers, could be seen. Washington was in a state of siege, and not a transport could ascend the river without running the gauntlet of the rebel batteries. The popular but very unsatisfactory reason which had been assigned for this long slumber was, that Virginia mud forbade the army to advance. In the following brief and spirited address, Gen. McClellan announced his reasons for thus holding the army in repose. The uneasiness of the country, daily growing more intense in view of this long slumber of eight months, rendered it necessary that some explanation should break the silence.

"Soldiers of the Army of the Potomac: For a long time I have kept you inactive, but not without a purpose. You were to be disciplined, armed and instructed. The formidable artillery you now have, had to be created. Other armies were to move and accomplish certain results. I have held you back that you might give the death-blow to the rebellion that has distracted our once happy country. The patience you have shown, and your confidence in your general are worth a dozen victories. These preliminary results are now accomplished. I feel that the patient labors of many months have produced their fruit. The army of the Potomac is now a real army, magnificent in material, admirable in discipline and instruction, excellently equipped and armed: your commanders are all that I could wish. The moment for action has arrived, and I know that I can trust in you to save our country. As I ride through your ranks I see, in your faces, the sure presage of victory. I feel that you will do whatever I ask of you. The period of inaction has passed. I will bring you now face to face with the rebels, and only pray that God may defend the right."

On the 2d of December Congress met. The President, in his message, said that he did not deem the slavery question of "vital military importance," and accordingly left it "to the more deliberate action of the Legislature." In speaking of the war, he said that he "had in every case thought it proper to keep the integrity of the Union prominent as the primary object of the contest." The Secretary of the Treasury estimated that the public debt, which, on the 1st of July, 1861, was $91,000,000, would, on the 1st of July, 1862, amount to $517,000,000. It was estimated that the current receipts for the year would amount to $329,500,000, and the expenditure $543,000,000, leaving $200,000,000 to be provided for by loans. The Secretary of War reported that the army consisted of 660,971 men. In four months from the rebel assault upon Sumter, this number of volunteers had been raised. Such a prompt uprising of a great

nation, history has seldom recorded. Of this force, 59,398 were cavalry, 24,688 artillery, 8,397 riflemen and sharp-shooters, and 107 engineers. The increase of the navy was still more astonishing. Notwithstanding the impatience of the public led to continual murmurs, it must be the verdict of history, that on the whole, wonderful energy and wisdom marked the acts of the Navy Department. On the 4th of March, when the new administration assumed power, there were but twelve National vessels in service on the coast, all counted. On the 1st of December there were two hundred and sixty-four war vessels afloat, bearing 2,557 guns, and 22,000 sailors. Of these one hundred and thirty-six had been purchased and one hundred and twenty-eight had been built. Nearly half this fleet were steamers, including three iron-clads, and twenty-three first-class gun-boats. The blockading squadron was divided into three departments. One, under Louis M. Goldsborough, guarded the shores of Virginia and North Carolina. Another, under Samuel F. Dupont, took South Carolina, Georgia and Florida to the Cape, a distance including innumerable inlets of more than a thousand miles. The third, under Wm. W. McKean, took the whole width of the Gulf, from the Capes of Florida to the Rio Grande. Calmly, quietly, resolutely, heedless of murmuring storms, Secretary Welles pressed on his way, accomplishing results such as never had been accomplished before. And the navy, true to its pristine renown, achieved triumphs which never had been and never can be exceeded. The eagerness of our countrymen for action was so intense, that even with these achievements, they were dissatisfied. But the sober second thoughts of all will be that the Navy Department, from Gideon Welles, the Secretary of the Navy, to the humblest cabin boy, crowned themselves with honor imperishable.*

Major John J. Key was asked why the rebel army was not pursued after the battle of Antietam. It is now well known, that had the rebels then been followed up, their whole army could have been easily captured or destroyed, and thus the war would have been virtually ended. He replied: "That is not the game. The object is, that neither army shall get much advantage of the other; that both shall be kept in the field till they are exhausted, when we will make a compromise and save slavery.” For avowing this principle, upon which many of his superiors in office acted, Major Key was very properly dismissed from service. It is in this sentiment that our readers will find the key to many of the mysteries in this most lethargic warfare. Where this spirit did not prevail, there were fightings and victories; where it did prevail, our sons and brothers perished by thousands amidst the miasma of marshes, under the toil of the trenches, and in the gloom of the hospital. It should be remarked that Major Key was an earnest Union man; that he had never been heard to utter a sentiment that could be called disloyal. He wished only to save slavery, with the Union, and deemed its preservation sufficiently important to warrant the sacrifice of armies of patriots.

CHAPTER XVII.

CAMPAIGN OF THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI.

RIGHT OF SECESSION.-ITS ACCOMPLISHMENT IN LOUISIANA.-BLOCKADING THE MISSISSIPPI.— STEAM RAM MANASSAS.-NAVAL EXPEDITION. GEN. B. F. BUTLER.-SHIP ISLAND.-PORTER'S MORTAR FLOTILLA.-PILOT TOWN.-ANECDOTE.-FORMIDABLE PREPARATIONS OF THE REBELS.ATTACK OF THE ENGLISH IN 1814 UPON NEW ORLEANS.-PREPARATIONS ON BOARD THE UNION FLEET.-TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEY.-RECONNOISSANCE.-YANKEE INGENUITY.-FORCE OF THE

UNION FLEET.-THRILLING INCIDENT.

THE slaveholders' doctrine of secession, which was got up merely to serve a temporary purpose, is the most insane idea ever cherished outside of a mad-house. That there is a natural right of revolution, no one denies. But that there is a right, under the law, for the state to secede from the nation, involving the right of the county to secede from the state, and the town from the county, and the individual from the town, is a sentiment too absurd for respectful consideration. Nothing but the audacity which slavery engenders would embolden a man to utter it. When England consents to the secession of the county of Kent, taking with it the mouth of the Thames, and France assents to the secession of the province of Lamanche, taking with it the fortresses of Cherbourg, to be ceded at pleasure to England or Russia, then may American statesmen begin to consider the question, whether 376,913 free whites, scattered over the sugar and cotton plantations of Louisiana, may secede from the United States, take with them the mouths of a river which open to an internal navigation of more than 50,000 miles, along majestic streams where hundreds of millions are soon to dwell. According to this doctrine, Fortress Monroe belongs to Virginia, the immense National works at Newport to the little State of Rhode Island, which she can take possession of at any time and cede to England with herself as a naval depot. The vast fortifications at Key West and the Tortugas, reared at an enormous National expense, to protect our limitless commerce in the Gulf, belong to the petty State of Florida, with not 80,000 white inhabitants, and whose naval marine consists of scarcely a dozen fishing smacks. Cherbourg, in France, the wonder of the world, upon this theory, belongs not to the Empire, but to Lamanche; England's great naval depot, at Portsmouth, belongs not to the kingdom, but to the county of Hants. What reply would England make, should that county revolt, and remonstrating against "subjugation," say that all that she wanted was to be "let alone.”

The United States purchased Louisiana for $15,000,000; expended countless millions in clearing out the river, constructing forts, light-houses, and all the conveniences for the extensive commerce of the millions soon to throng the most magnificent valley upon this globe. They surveyed the land, and sold it to settlers for a merely nominal price. Three hundred and seventy-seven thousand white people, in the course of half a century, were scattered along the banks of its great central stream, and upon the rich soil which fringed its swamps. They were prosperous in the culture of cotton, and especially of sugar. They were left unrestricted, to form and execute all their local laws. To aid these planters, a tariff was enacted, protecting sugar, that they might compete more successfully with the West Indies. According to the census of 1860, 70,000 of these free whites could neither read nor write.

Under these circumstances, less than one-half of these people decide that they will secede from the United States, take possession of the National forts, arsenals, custom-houses, and mint, and raise the banner of a foreign power over the forts, after having plunged the dishonored Stars and Stripes into the ditch. To these pretenders, thirty millions of Americans to be three hundred millions within the lives of some now bornare to lower their flag, whenever their ships enter the Mississippi River, the great thoroughfare to the commerce of this new world. The man who deems that such a doctrine deserves regard, is a fit candidate for a madhouse.

The act of secession was consummated in the following way. The Governor convened an extra session of the legislature. They voted to call a Convention of the representatives of the people, to be held at Baton Rouge, Jan. 23, 1861. The New Orleans Picayune, of Dec. 23, said, in reference to this Convention: "No plan of conciliation, short of a final settlement of the slavery agitation, by amendments to the Constitution, can, we think, be satisfactory." At the meeting of the Convention, exGovernor Morton, an avowed Secessionist, was chosen chairman, by vote of 81 to 41. A committee of fifteen was nominated by the chair to report an ordinance of secession. The report was accepted, by a vote of 113 to 17. It was also voted that the ordinance should go into immediate effect, without waiting for the ratification of the people, it being assumed that the people would ratify it. When, two months after this Convention had declared, "that Louisiana hereby resumes the rights and powers heretofore delegated to the Government of the United States of America, and its citizens are absolved from allegiance to the said Government, and she is in full possession of all the rights and sovereignty that appertain to a free and independent State," the ordinance was submitted to the people, the vote stood, for secession, 20,448; against it, 17,296. The most intelligent men in the State have declared, that beyond all question, this act of treason would, even then, have been repudiated by the people, had not, in many places, as in New Orleans, the polls been seized by armed mobs, and thousands of peaceable citizens been deprived of their right of voting. As it was, less than 21,000 men assumed to wrest from the control of the United States, the mouths of the Mississippi.

Even before the meeting of the Convention, on the 11th of January, some armed men from New Orleans had taken possession of the United States Marine Hospital, two miles below the city, and with inhumanity thus early precursory of their barbarous treatment of all loyal men, had ordered the patients, 216 in number, to be expelled, helpless and homeless, to give room to troops about to war against a flag, from allegiance to which they did not then claim any exemption.

Immediately after the act of secession, these men seized the United States mint and sub-treasury, containing $511,000 in specie, the two splendid forts, St. Philip and Jackson, at the main mouths of the Missis sippi; Fort Pike, at the entrance of Lake Ponchartrain; Fort Macomb, at Chef Menteur; and the works at Ship Island. Upon these several fortifications, the Government of the United States had expended more than seven millions of dollars.

The secession of Louisiana occasioned no surprise to the country. She was the last of the Gulf States to follow the delusion and folly of South Carolina, whose ordinance of secession, passed Dec. 20, had been received, in New Orleans, by the firing of a hundred guns, the stirring notes of the Marsellaise, speeches inciting to rebellion, the ringing of bells, and all the other usual demonstrations of public rejoicing. The now dominant secession party in Louisiana commenced their rule, by crushing out all opposition to their sway. The wavering were borne along resistlessly by the current, and all the truly loyal were silenced by the terrors of mob law, or banished from the State. There was abundant evidence that a strong under-current of Union feeling still existed in many hearts, which occasionally manifested itself in opposition to the tide of rebellion, which was flooding the State. This would sometimes break out, to the exasperation of the ruling party, and for a time withstand them.

On the 22d of February, which was celebrated as a national festival, in honor of the birth-day of Washington, a gentleman in New Orleans, accompanied by loyal friends, proceeded down Charles street, bearing our National banner, with the device emblazoned upon it of two clasped hands, and beneath, the motto, "United we stand, divided we fall." Enraged at this, a large body of Secessionists assembled before St. Charles's Hotel, and proceeded to the levee, with the purpose of taking down the flag. But it was not left unguarded. Some hundreds of determined men, well armed, surrounded the flag-staff, whose purpose to keep the flag flying, on that anniversary, at least, was not to be trifled with. The banner waved undisturbed till night, when it was voluntarily lowered.

On the occasion of the illumination of the city in honor of secession, the "Stars and Stripes" were cheered by the passing crowd at the St. Charles, when waved from the darkened windows of the patriotic wife of a northern sea-captain, who refused every entreaty of the proprietors to permit her apartments to be illumined in honor of treason.

The State of Louisiana, having thus seceded and assumed its position as an independent power among the nations of earth, was of course at liberty, according to its new-found doctrine, to enter into an alliance with England, France, Spain or Mexico, or to become a colony of either of those