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Seeing, by the light of their own fire, that he was fast going to the bottom, they again hailed him, demanding his surrender. Again he refused, and coolly taking off his coat and shoes, he told the men to save themselves as they best could, and sprang into the river, and struck out for the middle of the stream. He then swam with the current, and when a half a mile below the ram, came upon Acting-Master's-mate Woodman, very much exhausted, and nobly tried to get him ashore but was unable to do so, and had to see him sink by his side, when he again turned for the shore. He had barely strength to reach it, but not enough to crawl up the bank, and so lay until near daylight, when he crept into a swamp close to the fort.

After he had rested awhile, he arose and traveled for several hours through the swamp, until he came to its termination, when he plunged into another, and, at length, reached a creek, in which he found a skiff belonging to the picket of the enemy. Capturing this, he pulled out into the stream, and by eleven o'clock, was once more safe among his friends. A more daring, gallant deed is scarcely to be found in the records of our glorious navy.

Secretary Welles sent him a complimentary letter, and the country rung with his praises. He had done his work well, for this much-dreaded ram, blown up by the torpedo, sunk at her moorings. Only one, besides himself, escaped, of all this gallant crew-he rest being killed, captured, or

drowned.

During this month, also, an event occured on our Northern frontier, which caused the most intense excitement throughout the country. The Canadian Provinces from the commencement of the war, had been the resort of rebel refugees, who were constantly organizing plots against the Federal Government. One was set on foot the year before, to release twenty-five hundred rebel prisoners on Johnson's

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Island, in Lake Erie, who, with rebels in Canada, were to burn Buffalo and other Lake cities, but it was discovered in time, and hence abandoned. So also in September, of this year, John Y. Beall, a rebel officer, captured and destroyed two steamboats on the lakes.

On the 19th of this month, forty armed men, headed by one Young, suddenly rode into the village of St. Albans, Vermont, fifteen miles from the Canadian frontier, and robbing the Bank of two hundred thousand dollars, escaped in safety. They fired upon the panic-stricken inhabitants, mortally wounding one.

They were afterward seized and tried in Canada, but were all finally discharged. The Bank recovered a part of its money, but no concessions were made to our Government for this violation of its territory, which caused it to adopt measures that interrupted, for a time, the usual communica tions between the Provinces and the States.

The seizure of the rebel privateer, Florida, the 7th of this month, in the Bay of San Salvador, by Capt. Collins, caused a good deal of excitement, and brought a protest from the Brazilian Government against such invasions of her territory. It was a high-handed outrage, and our Government promptly made satisfactory reparation for it.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, 1864,

OPERATIONS WEST DURING THE AUTUMN-IN ARKANSAS, KANSAS, AND MISSOURI-PRICE, STEELE, AND ROSECRANS-CAPTURE OF ATHENS BY FORREST HIS FARTHER OPERATIONS-GENERAL BURBRIDGE SENT TO DESTROY THE SALT-WORKS AT SALTVILLE, VIRGINIA-SHERMAN AT ATLANTA-DAVIS IN GEORGIA-HOOD AGAIN TAKES THE FIELD-FALLS ON SHERMAN'S COMMUNICATIONS-GALLANT DEFENSE BY CORSE, OF ALLATOONA-PURSUIT OF HOOD-THOMAS AT NASHVILLE-SHERMAN PREPARES FOR HIS GEORGIA CAMPAIGN-ROME BURNED-DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY-BURNING OF AT

LANTA.

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LTHOUGH during the Spring, Summer, and Autumn of 1864, the two great campaigns of Sherman and Grant occupied almost the undivided attention of the country, still, as we have seen, in Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, and the Carolinas, hostilities were kept up, though they apparently had no direct bearing on the final result.

Those minor events of the East we have already traced till nearly the close of Autumn. The military operations outside of Sherman's army, during the months of September and October, West, are thus summed up by Grant:

"About the last of August, it being reported that the rebel General Price, with a force of about ten thousand men, had reached Jacksonport, on his way to invade Missouri, General A. J. Smith's command, then en route from Memphis to join Sherman, was ordered to Missouri. A cavalry force was also, at the same time, sent from Memphis, under command of Colonel Winslow. This made General Rosecrans' forces superior to those of Price, and no doubt

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was entertained he would be able to check Price and drive him back, while the forces of General Steele, in Arkansas, would cut off his retreat. On the 26th day of September, Price attacked Pilot Knob and forced the garrison to retreat, and thence moved north to the Missouri River, and continued up that river toward Kansas. General Curtis, commanding the Department of Kansas, immediately collected such forces as he could to repel the invasion of Kansas, while General Rosecrans' cavalry was operating in his rear.

"The enemy was brought to battle on the Big Blue and defeated, with the loss of nearly all his artillery and trains, and a large number of prisoners. He made a precipitate retreat to Northern Arkansas. The impunity with which Price was enabled to roam over the State of Missouri, for a long time, and the incalculable mischief done by him, shows to how little purpose a superior force may be used. There is no reason why General Rosecrans should not have concentrated his forces, and beaten and driven Price before the latter reached Pilot Knob.

"September 20th, the enemy's cavalry, under Forrest, crossed the Tennessee, near Waterloo, Alabama, and on the 23rd attacked the garrison at Athens, consisting of six hundred men, which capitulated on the 24th. Soon after the surrender, two regiments of reinforcements arrived, and after a severe fight were compelled to surrender. Forrest destroyed the railroad westward, captured the garrison at Sulphur Branch trestle, skirmished with the garrison at Pulaski on the 27th, and on the same day cut the Nashville and Chattanooga railroad, near Tullahoma and Dechard. the morning of the 30th, one column of Forrest's command, under Buford, appeared before Huntsville and summoned the surrender of the garrison. Receiving an answer in the negative, he remained in the vicinity of the place until

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next morning, when he again summoned its surrender and received the same reply as on the night before. He withdrew in the direction of Athens, which place had been regarrisoned, and attacked it on the afternoon of the 1st of October, but without success. On the morning of the 2nd,

he renewed his attack, but was handsomely repulsed.

"Another column under Forrest, appeared before Columbia, on the morning of the 1st, but did not make an attack. On the morning of the 3rd, he moved toward Mount Pleas ant. While these operations were going on, every exertion was made by General Thomas to destroy the forces under Forrest, before he could recross the Tennessee, but he was unable to prevent his escape to Corinth, Mississippi.

"In September, an expedition, under General Burbridge, was sent to destroy the salt-works at Saltville, Virginia. He met the enemy on the 2nd of October, about three miles and a half from Saltville, and drove him into his strongly intrenched position around the salt-works, from which he was unable to dislodge him. During the night he withdrew his command and returned to Kentucky."

The interest, however, in these various expeditions and movements was more local than general. East, as has been stated, with the failure at Hatcher's Run, in October, closed, for the Autumn, all movements of importance with the Army of the Potomac. It was evidently at a dead-lock with the enemy.

It was not so, however, with the other great army encamped at Atlanta. The fall of this place which threatened to bisect again the Southern Confederacy, caused the most intense feeling South, and Davis hastened from his Capital to Georgia to still the clamors of the disaffected, and raise the courage of the desponding. He made violent speeches, in which he seemed to lose both his reason and temper, using language that can hardly be accounted for, except on

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