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CHARLESTON DESOLATE.

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single fact is all the testimony any just mind needs, to prove whose views were correct. Dahlgren saw plainly that Du Pont was right, and was too good an officer to risk his vessels where certain defeat awaited him.

Though Charleston was not taken, it was almost as desolate as Edom. A Southern paper thus described its condition: "Here and there, a pedestrian moves hurriedly along, and the rattle of a cart or a dray is alone heard for a whole square. The blinds are closed; vases of rare exotics droop and wither on the lonely window-sill, because there is no tender hand to twine or nourish them. The walk glistens with fragments of glass, rattled thither by the concussion of exploding shells; here, a cornice is knocked off; there, is a small round hole through the side of a building; beyond, a house in ruins, and, at remote intervals, the earth is torn where a shell exploded, and looks like the work of a giant in search of some hidden treasure; and little tufts of bright green grass are springing up along the pave, once vocal with the myriad tongues of busy trade."

What a picture this is, of the proud "cradle of secession!" Its destruction was never very important, in a military view; but, as the hot-bed of treason-the spot where the national flag was first fired upon, and compelled to come down at the bidding of traitors—its overthrow was an object of intense desire to the North; and yet, what fate could be worse than the one she actually suffered! Behold Charleston, rocking to the shouts of the excited multitude, and echoing to the joyful peal of bells, because the brave Anderson is compelled to haul down his flag! And behold that same city now, as drawn by the pen of one of her own people-desolate, dreary and mournful!--and who will say that she has not drank to the dregs the fearful cup she so madly mixed for herself?

CHAPTER XVIII.

JULY-AUGUST, 1863.

EVENTS AT THE WEST DURING THE SUMMER-GRANT AT VICKSBURG—RAID
OF PHILLIPS-ROSECRANS AT
MURFREESBORO'-ADVANCE ON СНАТТА-

NOOGA MORGAN'S RAID THROUGH OHIO THE PURSUIT ATTEMPTS TO
CROSS INTO VIRGINIA-BATTLE OF BUFFINGTON'S ISLAND-ROUT OF THE
BAND-CURIOUS ASPECT OF THE BATTLE-FIELD-QUANTRELL IN MISSOURI-
RAID INTO KANSAS-MASSACRE AT LAWRENCE-THE PURSUIT-THE FLIGHT-
HIS ESCAPE.

BUT

UT while comparative quiet reigned around the Army of the Potomac, after the battle of Gettysburg, and but minor expeditions broke the monotony along the seaboard, and the tedious bombardment of Fort Sumter went on, events of great interest were transpiring in the West, some of which were to give direction to all future operations there, and eventually pierce the very heart of the Confederacy. After Grant had captured Vicksburg, and then turned and driven Johnston out of Jackson, he took up his head-quarters at the former place, and devoted himself to the business of his Department, while the army lay quiet in order to recover its strength for future operations. A successful raid was made into Central Mississippi, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Phillips, in which sixty-five locomotives and five hundred cars were destroyed, and the communications of the rebels sadly broken up. Besides this, little was done by Grant's army.

But, up at Murfreesboro', the Army of the Camberland was in motion. Much complaint had been made against. Rosecrans, its Commander, because he lay inactive while such important evout, were taking place around Vicksburg;

MORGAN'S RAID.

227

but he determined, when he advanced, to take no backward step. Bragg was in his front, with a powerful army, and Chattanooga was a strongly fortified place, and he knew that no easy task was before him.

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When his preparations were complete, he put his army motion, and, crossing the Cumberland Mountains by four different routes, pressed forward towards Chattanooga. But while he was thus pushing his victorious columns south, two events occurred, far back of him, which, though having no real effect on his campaign, or the war, produced the most intense excitement throughout the North. These were, Morgan's raid through Ohio, and the massacre at Lawrence.

In the latter part of June, Morgan, with a brigade, lay along the banks of the Cumberland River, evidently meditating some serious movement. A Union force was dispatched to the locality to watch him, and had several skirmishes with portions of his troops. But, on the 3d of July, it was found that he had crossed the river, the day before, at Burkesville. Captain Carter had a brush with his advance, in which he was severely wounded, and his command compelled to fall back. Reinforcements were immediately sent him, which arrived just before midnight in the vicinity of Columbia, then in possession of the enemy. An attack was at once ordered, but Morgan's force being much stronger than it had been reported, the Union troops were compelled to retreat to Jamestown, from which point Colonel Wolford dispatched a courier to Somerset, to General Carter commanding the United States troops there, stating that Morgan had crossed the Cumberland, and advanced north to Columbia. A proper force was immediately sent in pursuit, and all through the moon-lit night of the 4th of July, the excited pursuers pressed gaily forward, and reached the north bank of Green River about daylight Sunday morning. Taking a hurried breakfast, they pushed on all day, and that evening,

228

MORGAN CROSSES THE OHIO.

just before dusk, were joined by the Second Tennessee mounted infantry.

Morgan, in the meantime, in his bold march, had captured Lebanon, though not until after a sharp fight, in which his brother Tom was killed. In revenge for his death, some. twenty houses were burned, and the post office robbed. The Union troops captured here-numbering in all about three hundred-Morgan compelled to run on foot, in front of his mounted men, for twelve miles, to Springfield. A sergeant giving out, he was knocked on the head with the butt end of a musket, and his brains trampled out by the passing horsemen. At Springfield, the prisoners were robbed, and then paroled.

On the night of the 6th, the pursuing force was joined, at Bardstown, by General Hobson, with Shackleford's brigade, composed of the Third, Eighth, Ninth and Twelfth Kentucky cavalry, with two pieces of artillery. Hobson at once assumed command, and, pushing on to Shepherdsville, found that Morgan at that point had captured the mail train on the Louisville and Nashville railroad, and about twenty soldiers who were passengers in the cars. The horses here giving out, Hobson halted for a day, but at daylight, on the morning of the 8th, was again in motion, and followed the track of the rebel chieftain for thirty miles, by the letters which his band had taken from the mail-bags, and, after reading, had torn and scattered along the road. Morgan, in the meantime, had entered Elizabethtown, and, helping himself to what he wanted, struck for Brandenburg, and, by a sudden, skillful movement, captured the steamboats Alice Dean and J. T. McCoombs, by which he took his whole force across the Ohio River. Among all the bold and extraordinary movements of the war, none had been bolder or half so desperate as this. Right through the thickly settled State of Ohio, this fearless

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PROGRESS OF THE RAID.

229

rider proposed to take his lawless band, and, after working incalculable evil, recross the Ohio, and rejoin the rebel army in. Virginia or south of the Tennessee River.

As Hobson approached the Ohio, he saw the Alice Dean, wrapped in flame and smoke, burning on the opposite shore, and the rear guard of Morgan's force rapidly disappearing in the distance.

At Brandenburg, the Leavenworth home-guards showed fight, but were overpowered, and forty-five taken prisoners. The stores and houses were plundered and the raiders cumbered themselves with useless goods, which they soon had to throw away.

Morgan was now in the Free States, and his march henceforward assumed an importance which at once attracted the attention of the whole country.

Hobson was across the river on the morning of the 10th, and at once commenced a sharp pursuit. Morgan's path now began to be beset with ever-increasing difficulties; for a powerful force was pressing on his rear, while in front the country was rushing to arms.

At Corydon, the home-guards made a short stand, losing some fifteen in killed and wounded, and two hundred prisoners, which Morgan paroled.

Stealing all the horses he could find, and levying taxes where he did not destroy, he pushed on to Blue River, and, burning the bridge behind him, swept through Paris. Reaching Vernon, where a force of twelve hundred militia was assembled, he demanded the surrender of the place. "Come and take it," was Colonel Lowe's response. Morgan surrounded the town, but, contenting himself with burning some bridges, he moved around it to Versailles, where he robbed the County Treasurer of all his money, about five thousand dollars-saying, in grim jocoseness, that he was sorry the County was so very poor. Sacking the town, he

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