NAVAL ATTACK ON CHARLESTON. 367 midable works, to throw light across the stream and to illumine the ene my's vessels. The artillerists on shore had no difficulty in sighting their guns. The sheets of flame that poured from the sides of the vessels at each discharge, lit up nearly the whole stretch of river, placing each craft in strong relief against the black sky. The fleet soon lost its orderly line of battle. The Hartford was struck, but being a swift vessel, succeeded, with her consort, the Albatross, in running past the batteries. The Richmond, and the vessels following her, turned round; but as the Mississippi was executing this manœuvre, a shot tore off her rudder, and another went crushing through the machinery. She drifted aground on the right bank of the river. She was being rapidly torn to pieces by shot from the batteries, when her commander abandoned her. Lightened by the departure of the crew, and influenced by the current, she floated off, stern foremost, down the river, in a sheet of flame, exploding her magazine, and sinking near Providence Island. The enterprise against Port Hudson had proved a failure, and Gen. Banks, who was advancing from Baton Rouge to take part in the anticipated siege, was content to march back again. So far the Confederate strongholds on the Mississippi had bid defiance to the foe, and months of costly preparation for their reduction had been spent in vain. But after Sherman's repulse from Vicksburg some compensation was sought in an easier enterprise, and McClernand, who succeeded him in command, organized an expedition of two corps d'armée, and a fleet of three iron-clads, and several gunboats, against Arkansas Post, a village on the Arkansas River, about fifty miles from its mouth. The position had been fortified by the Confederates, and was held by Gen. Churchill with about thirty-three hundred effective men. On the 11th January, a combined attack was arranged between Gen. McClernand and Admiral Porter. Before the final assault was made, the garrison, finding themselves unable to reply to the fire of the gunboats, and overwhelmed by superiour numbers, hoisted a white flag, and surrendered. The importance of this capture by the enemy was, that he obtained a fortified. point guarding the navigation of the Arkansas River, and shutting out its commerce from the Mississippi. For some time the enemy had been making preparations for an attack on Charleston from the sea. There was an especial desire in the North to capture and punish this city, where the first movements of the war had commenced, and it was fondly hoped that on the anniversary of the first capture of Sumter there would be a change of flags, and the Federal ensign would again float from its walls. To accomplish this pleasant event, a large fleet, including many iron-clads built after the model of the Monitor, had been assembled at Port Royal, under command of Admiral Dupont, and about the first of April was ready for action at the mouth of Charleston Harbour. There were seven iron-clads of the Monitor pattern; other descriptions of iron-clads were exemplified in the Keokuk and Iron sides, the latter being an armour-plated frigate, with an armament of eighteen 10, 11, and 15-inch guns. It was to be a trial between new forces of tremendous power. The defences at Charleston had been materially strengthened by Gen. Beauregard, who had been assigned to the coast service; and it was thought scarcely possible that any floating thing could breast unharmed the concentrated storm of heavy metal from the guns of Sumter, Moultrie, and Battery Bee, the three principal works in the throat of the harbour. A test was at last to be obtained of a long-mooted question, and iron-clads, which were claimed to be the most impenetrable vessels ever constructed, were to come within point-blank range of the most numerous and powerful batteries that had ever been used in a single engagement. In the afternoon of the 7th April, the line of iron-clads, comprising seven Monitors, the Ironsides, and Keokuk, entered the channel, and passed Battery Bee, and along the front of Morris Island. No sound came from the batteries; not a man was seen on the decks of the iron-clads; the sea was smooth as glass, and thus calmly and majestically the whole line of vessels passed the outer batteries. At ten minutes after three, the fleet, having come within range, Fort Sumter opened its batteries, and, almost simultaneously, the white smoke could be seen puffing from the low sandhills of Morris and Sullivan's Islands indicating that the batteries there had become engaged. Five of the iron-clads forming in line of battle in front of Fort Sumter, maintained a very rapid return fire, occasionally hurling their fifteen-inch shot and shell against Fort Moultrie and minor batteries, but all directing their chief efforts against the east face of Fort Sumter. The firing became terrific. The Ironsides, from her position, engaged Fort Moultrie; Battery Bee mingled the hoarse thunder of its guns in the universal din, and the whole expanse of the harbour entrance, from Sullivan's Island to Cummings' Point, became enveloped in the smoke and constant flashes of the conflict. The iron-clads kept constantly shifting their position; but, whichever way they went, their ports always turned towards the battlements of Sumter, pouring forth their terrible projectiles against the walls of that famous stronghold. Presently the Keokuk pushed ahead of her companions, placed herself within less than nine hundred yards of the fort, and seemed to challenge it to combat. A circle of angry flashes radiated towards her from all sides; she had made herself the target of the most powerful guns the Confederates could command. In a few moments, she was disabled, and crept slowly out of fire. The remainder of the fleet, more or less severely injured, withdrew, and in thirty minutes from the time when the first gun opened, the action was over, and a victory obtained, which went far to impeach the once dreaded power of the iron-clads of the enemy. Admiral NAVAL ATTACK ON CHARLESTON. 369 Dupont, "convinced of the utter impracticability of taking the city of Charleston with the force under his command," retired to Port Royal, leaving the stranded, riddled wreck of the iron-clad Keokuk as evidence of his defeat. All his vessels had sustained serious injury. The Confederates, with but two death casualties, had driven off an iron-clad fleet, obtained a complete triumph, and destroyed the prestige of the description of vessel named after the Monitor, the first of its class. 24 CHAPTER XXII. 66 MILITARY SITUATION IN THE EARLY MONTHS OF 1863.-EARLY RESUMPTION OF THE CAMPAIGN THE military situation in the spring months of 1863 may be described by a few general lines drawn through the country, and bounding the main theatres of the war. In Virginia either army was in view of the other from the heights overlooking the town of Fredericksburg, whilst the country between the Rappahannock and the Potomac was at various times visited by detachments of Stuart's daring cavalry. The army of Tennessee was tied to no special line of operations; it was embarrassed by no important point, such as Richmond requiring to be defended; it had thus greatly the advantage over the army of Virginia; and yet we have seen, and shall continue to see, that it was far inferiour in activity and enter prise to the latter, and that, while Gen. Lee was overthrowing every army that came against him, Bragg was idle, or constantly yielding up territory to a conquering foe. From March till June, in 1863, Gen. Bragg's forces remained idly stretching from Shelbyville to the right, while the Federals, MILITARY SITUATION IN THE SPRING OF 1863. 371 holding a line from Franklin to Woodbury, again and again, afforded opportunities of attack on detached masses which the dull Confederate commander never used. West of the Alleghany Mountains the war had travelled steadily southward to Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas. In Mississippi we held the line of the Tallahatchie and the town of Vicksburg, while Grant threatened the northern portion of the State, and McClernand menaced Vicksburg. West of the Mississippi the war had been pushed to the banks of the Arkansas River, the Federals held Van Buren, and Hindman's weak and shifting tactics opposed an uncertain front to further advance of the enemy in this distant territory. The great campaign of 1863 was to open in Virginia. There were especial reasons at Washington for an early resumption of the campaign. The Democratic party was gaining strength, in the absence of any grand success in the war; and the term of service of many of the Federal soldiers in Virginia was so near expiration that it was thought advisable to try again the issue of battle at a period somewhat earlier in the year than the date of former operations against Richmond. A change of commanders, which had come to be the usual preliminary of the resumption of Federal campaigns, was not omitted.* Gen. Joe Hooker was raised from the * Mr. Headley, a Northern authour, in his interesting work, “The Campaigns of Sherman and Grant," makes the following very just commentary on the Northern mania for a “change of commanders." Referring to the achievements of these two popular heroes of the war, he says: "It is not to be supposed that they were the only two great generals the war had produced, or the only ones who were able to bring it to a successful issue. It is an errour to imagine, as many do, that the Government kept casting about for men fit to do the work these men did, and, after long searching, at length found them. Several were displaced, who would have, doubtless, succeeded in bringing us ultimate victory, had they been allowed a fair trial. The errour was in supposing that men, capable of controlling such vast armies, and carrying on a war of such magnitude and covering almost a continent in its scope, were to be found ready-made. They were not to leap forth, like Minerva from the head of Jupiter, completely panoplied and ready for the service to which they were determined. A war of such magnitude, and covering the territories that ours did, would have staggered the genius of Napoleon, or the skill of Wellington, even at the close of their long experience and training. To expect, therefore, that officers, who had never led ten thousand men to battle, were suddenly to become capable of wielding half a million, was absurd. Both the army and the leaders, as well as the nation, had to grow by experience to the vastness of the undertaking. A mighty military genius, capable at once of comprehending and controlling the condition of things, would have upset the government in six months. Trammelled, confined, and baffled by 'ignorance and unbelief,' it would have taken matters into its own hand. Besides, such prodigies do not appear every century. We were children in such a complicated and widesweeping struggle; and, like children, were compelled to learn to walk by many a stumble. Greene, next to Washington, was the greatest general our revolutionary war produced; yet, in almost his first essay, he lost Fort Washington, with its four thousand men, and seriously crippled his great leader. But Washington had the sagacity to discern his military ability beneath his failure, and still gave him his confidence. To a thinking man, that was evidently the only way for us to get a competent general-one capable of planning and carrying out a great campaign. Here was our vital errour. The Government kept throwing dice for able commanders. It is true that experience will not make a great man out of a naturally weak one; but it is equally true that without it, a man of great natural military capacity will not be equal to vast responsibilities and |