DEATH OF GEN. MORGAN. 533 relation of single events, as the manner of Gen. Morgan's death has been variously questioned, the enemy claiming that he was killed in honourable combat. The General established his headquarters at the house of a Mrs. Williams, in the town of Greenville. His own brigade was sent on the road leading to Rodgersville, for the purpose of getting forage, and a detachment of Tennessee cavalry, six hundred strong, was ordered under Col. Brad ford, to encamp on the road leading to Bull's Gap, and to picket the road leading towards the enemy. The country between Greenville and the Gap is hilly, and wild, and very poor. Gen. Morgan's betrayal was at hand from a quarter he had least expected. He had no sooner retired to rest than a woman, the daughter-in-law of Mrs. Williams, mounted a horse, and, unnoticed, rode to the Federal commander, and informed him of the prize within his reach. Gillem immediately moved his command in the direction of Greenville; when about five miles from town he halted and sent a detachment through the woods, and succeeded in getting on the flank of Bradford's command, and driving him back from the road, leaving it open to Greenville. A detachment of four companies of the 13th Tennessee Cavalry was then sent forward to charge the town. They met with no resistance. The square on which Mrs. W.'s house was situated was surrounded immediately. The officers of Morgan's staff being aroused by the couriers, of whom there were three or four at the front gate, rushed out and were captured one by one. Gen. Morgan attempted to escape through the garden; finding exit in that direction cut off, he concealed himself among some grape vines. He had no weapon at all, Captain Rogers having one of his pistols, and one of his clerks the other. While the officers of his staff and couriers were together under guard within twenty yards of his concealment, he necessarily heard the questions asked them and the threats made against them. Seeing that there was no hope of successful concealment, he came out and surrendered to Capt. Wilcox, of the 13th Tennessee Cavalry, who had already both of Morgan's pistols in his possession. This captain sat on his horse and conversed with the General for some time, and then rode off. A few minutes after he left, a man named Andrew Campbell, belonging to the Federal cavalry referred to, rode up and presented his gun at Gen. Morgan The General said: "For God's sake don't shoot me-I am a prisoner." The gun was fired and the General fell. The muzzle of the gun, a Colt's army rifle, was within two feet of Gen. Morgan's breast when it was discharged; his clothing and his body were blackened with powder. His murderer then dismounted and threw the General's body across his horse, in front of the saddle, and rode about town shouting, "Here's your horse thief." When permission was given to some of Gen. Morgan's officers to take possession of the body, they found it lying in the road, about one mile from the place where he had been shot. It was so covered with mud that they could scarcely recognize it. The ball struck the centre of the breast, about three or four inches below its junction with the neck, and came out behind the hip bone. The brave commander met his death. as he met his foes a thousand times before; there was no shrinking-not a quiver of a nerve-though he saw murder in the brawny felon's eye. He fell, leaving to his countrymen a testimony of Kentucky chivalry-the record of a gallant, dashing life and a fearless death. EARLY'S INVASION OF MARYLAND. We left the situation in Virginia with Lee covering Richmond and Petersburg, and meditating a menace upon the Federal capital. No sooner was the defeat of Hunter known, than the rapidity of a new movement became imperative, and not a moment was lost in pushing Early's column towards Maryland. In spite of the prostrating heat, the troops made twenty miles a day, and the rumour of this determined advance came to the Federal authorities, at the time when Grant was supposed to be carrying everything before him. It was another illustration of Gen. Lee's wonderful enterprise, and showed this commander to be one of the most daring as well as the most skilful Generals of the age. That popular opinion which regarded Lee as a good slow, prudent commander without dash is one of the lowest and most imperfect estimates of his character. We see now that when Grant was hoping to suffocate him with numbers, he dared to detach a considerable portion of his army to threaten the capi tal of the enemy. He was left at Petersburg with only the corps of A. P. Hill, two divisions of Ewell's corps, and one division of Longstreet's. But Lee had rightly calculated that the diversion towards Washington, coupled with the panic it would occasion, would weaken Grant to a greater extent than himself, besides impressing him and the Northern public with the extent and activity of his resources, and obtaining an important moral effect. new It became necessary for Grant at once to find troops to meet the movement. For this purpose the Sixth Corps was taken from the armies operating against Richmond and sent up the Chesapeake Bay to man the fortifications around Washington, while orders were sent to hurry forward the forces of Gen. Hunter from the Ohio. To the Sixth Corps was added the Nineteenth, which was under orders to proceed from the Gulf Depart ment to the lines of Virginia, and which was already debarking in Hamp ton Roads. The garrisons of Baltimore and Washington were at this time made up of heavy artillery regiments, hundred-days' men, and detachments BATTLE OF MONOCACY BRIDGE. 535 from the invalid corps; and the rapidity of reinforcements was the important and critical concern. On the 3d July, Gen. Early approached Martinsburg, accompanied by a cavalry force under Ransom. Gen. Sigel, who was in command of the Federal forces there, retreated across the Potomac at Shephardstown; and Gen. Weber, commanding at Harper's Ferry, crossed the river, and occupied Hagerstown, moving a strong column towards Frederick City. Meanwhile Gen. "Lew." Wallace, a commander much akin in character to "Beast" Butler, and who had distinguished himself in Baltimore by a cowardly ferocity and an easy prowess in the arrest and persecution of citizens, pushed out from that city with Ricketts' division and his own command, and took a position at Monocacy Bridge. BATTLE OF MONOCACY BRIDGE. Gen. Early had pressed on, crossed the Potomac, and, advancing to Frederick City, found it evacuated by the Federal troops, and that the enemy had concentrated his forces at Monocacy Bridge, four miles distant. The Federals held the east bank of the river, which runs due north and south, and were drawn up along the railroad. Early, having crossed the river south of the bridge, sent forward Evans' brigade across an open field to develop the strength of the enemy. It moved steadily under a heavy fire of musketry until within fifty yards of the enemy's position, when another body of Federals emerged from the woods on its right, and took it in flank. The other forces of Early were rapidly moved to the critical point; a simultaneous charge was made; and the enemy broke in shameful confusion, leaving the railroad and national pike, and retreating in the direction of Gettysburg. His losses were more than a thousand killed and wounded, and seven hundred prisoners. From Monocacy Gen. Early moved on Washington, his cavalry advance reaching Rockville on the evening of the 10th July. He was now within sight of Washington, and the fire of the skirmishers was heard at the "White House," and in the department buildings of the capital. The enormous march, however, had diminished his army. The five hundred miles of incessant advance, at twenty miles a day, left him only eight thousand infantry, about forty field pieces and two thousand cavalry with which to assault the works around Washington. The most important of these works was Fort Stevens. On the 12th a severe skirmish, resulting from a reconnoissance, occurred in front of this fort; but Gen. Early declined to follow it up, and, by a decisive blow, attempt the capture of Washington. Reflecting that he was in the heart of the enemy's country, and not knowing what force defended the capital, he abandoned his design upon it, and in the night of the 12th commenced his retreat. There has been much question as to the extent of the danger to which Washington was at this time exposed, and as to the merit of Early's declination of attack. Northern writers declare that if Early had made a vigorous attack when he first came up, and not lost a day in a fruitless reconnoissance, it would have resulted in the capture of the city, so feebly was it then defended. Fortunately we have some distinct evidence on this point. Gen. Grant has testified that two divisions of the Sixth Corps, and the advance of the Nineteenth Corps had reached Washington before Early got there. Whether it would have been prudent for Early to match this force, while Hunter was hastening from the West to strike his rear, and cut him off from his only avenue of retreat across the Potomac, is a question for the military critic to decide. Gen. Early, having broke up his camp before Washington, retreated, and with little molestation recrossed the Potomac, and finally stood at bay on the Opequon to protect the Shenandoah Valley. The results of the expedition fell below public expectation at the South, where again had been indulged the fond imagination of the capture of Washington. But the movement was, on the whole, a success; Early brought off fire thousand horses and twenty-five hundred beef cattle; and the primary object of the march had been accomplished when he retreated and posted himself in the Shenandoah Valley-a standing threat to repeat the enterprise upon Washington -for we shall see that it was no longer a mere detached column that opposed him, but an army of forty or fifty thousand men. To that extent Gen. Grant had been weakened, and the heavy weight upon Gen. Lee's shoulders lightened. THE MINE FIASCO AT PETERSBURG. While Early was detached from Lee's lines, Gen. Grant made what may be described as his last attempt to take Petersburg by a coup de main. There were three parts of the enterprise: an assault on the Federal position on Burnside's front; the explosion of a mine under an angle of the Confederate works, to open the way to the attack; and a feint of Opera tions on the north side of the James, to deceive Lee into sending away a portion of his troops. In June a plan had been suggested by one of Burnside's officers to excavate a tunnel under an angle of the Confederate works that was covered by a six-gun battery. On the 25th July the work was completed. Its length was about five hundred feet, and at the end of the tunnel the mine was formed, running parallel with and directly under the fort that was to THE MINE EXPLOSION OF PETERSBURG. 537 be destroyed. On the 27th, the enormous quantity of 12,000 lbs. of pow der was placed in the mine, fuses were constructed and connected with the magazine, and everything was in readiness for the grand explosion. The mine was exploded between four and five o'clock in the morning of the 30th July. An immense mass of dull, red earth was thrown two hundred feet in the air; human forms, gun-carriages, and small arms were mingled in what appeared to be a bank of clouds blazing with lightning; a great shock smote the ear, and the ground trembled as if by an appalling convulsion of nature. Instantly, before the rumble of the explosion had died away, every piece of siege artillery on the enemy's line, and all the field artillery that could be brought into position opened as with the grand chorus of death. With such an infernal display to strike terrour into the Confederates and to demoralize men suddenly awakened from sleep, the Ninth Corps, fifteen thousand strong, marched out to attack, and complete what was thought to be an easy and certain victory. But Lee's soldiers were not men who could be fought after the Chinese fashion of assailing the ears with terrible sounds. They were quickly prepared to meet the enemy. The assaulting column, on reaching the scene of explosion, found that there had been opened here a huge crater, one hundred and fifty feet .ong, sixty feet wide, and from twenty-five to thirty deep. It did not advance beyond it; instead of rushing forward and crowning the crest, the assailants made the most shameful exhibition of timidity; they huddled into the crater, they sought shelter there, and no commands or persuasions could move them further. A division of negro troops was thrown into the crater-this maw of death; and for two hours the mingled mass of white and black troops, utterly demoralized, unable to pluck up courage to make a determined charge upon the crest, swayed to and fro in the hollow of the exploded earthworks, while the Confederates were rapidly bringing up their artillery on the right and left of the crater to destroy the enemy before he could extricate himself from the disgraceful coil. Once a feeble charge, in which the black troops were put in advance was made towards the crest. It was encountered by Mahone's brigade. His men were ordered not to fire until they could see the whites of the negroes' eyes. At the first volley delivered at this distance, the blacks broke; they were panic-stricken and past control; they rushed through the troops in the crater back to the original lines, while into this slaughterpen the Confederates now poured an incessant storm of bombs and shells. Retreat across the open space in rear of it was to run the gauntlet of death. The ground all around was dotted with the fallen; while the sides and bottom of the crater were literally lined with dead, the bodies lying in every conceivable position. Some had evidently been killed with the butts of muskets, as their crushed skulls and badly smashed faces too plainly indicated; while the greater portion were shot, great pools of blood having |