intended to ascertain the feasibility of an advance of General Lee's army upon Pittsburg, and a severe fight at Greenland gap, a narrow pass in Knobley mountains, Hardy county, where a little Union force of seventyfive men withstood three attacks of a Rebel force of fifteen hundred men, for more than two hours, and were only driven from their position by the Rebels firing the building (a church) in which they had stationed themselves. The Union loss was two killed, and four wounded; the Rebel loss in killed and wounded, was over eighty, including one colonel and several line officers, being more than the whole Union force. In the Department of the Gulf, Rear-Admiral Porter, early in May, completed the series of triumphs of the Union arms in Central Louisiana, already commenced by General Banks, by the capture of Alexandria, on the Red river, and the déstruction of its fortifications, and by the burning of stores belonging to the Rebel Government, of the value of about three hundred thousand dollars, on the Black river, by gunboats belonging to his squadron.

In the Department of the Ohio, on the 30th of April, General Carter, on moving his division, about five thousand troops, across the Cumberland river, at Monticello, Kentucky, encountered a considerable Rebel force, variously estimated at from two thousand to thirty-five hundred, under the command of Colonels Chenault, Morrison, and Pegram, with which his advance-guard skirmished briskly through the day, driving the Rebels two or three miles on the Albany road, and finally pursuing a portion of them some distance farther. The Rebels retreated toward Albany, and the Union troops returned to their camp at Monticello. The Union losses were very slight, one or two killed, and four or five wounded. The Rebel loss was nine killed, a considerable number wounded, and about twenty prisoners, including two officers.

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CHAPTER XLV.

THE SIEGE OF WASHINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA-ATTEMPTS TO RAISE IT-THE STEAMER ESCORT RUNS PAST THE BATTERIES WITH REINFORCEMENTS AND SUPPLIES-GENERAL FOSTER ESCAPES IN HER and prepaRES TO RAISE THE SIEGE—THE REBELS ABANDON IT-SIEGE OF SUFFOLK, VIRGINIA-LONGSTREET ABANDONS IT TO REINFORCE LEE-HOOKER'S MANAGE

MENT OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC-HIS PLANS FOR ATTACKING LEE-MOVEMENTS OF HIS TROOPS-RUSE BELOW FREDERICKSBURG-THE CONCENTRATION OF SIX CORPS IN THE VICINITY OF CHANCELLORSVILLE-THE COUNTERPLOT OF LEE-JACKSON'S ATTACK ON THE RIGHT WING-PANIC IN THE ELEVENTH CORPS-THEIR FLIGHT-THE ADVANCE OF THE REBELS CHECKED BY BERRY'S DIVISION-BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS-JACKSON MORTALLY WOUNDED-HOOKER RE-FORMS HIS LINES-BATTLE OF CHANCELLORSVILLE, ON SUNDAY MORNING HOOKER AGAIN CHANGES HIS LINES-MOVEMENTS OF SEDGWICK'S CORPSBATTLE OF MARYE'S HILL-BATTLE OF SALEM HEIGHTS—THE REBELS RECAPTURE FREDERICKSBURG-BATTLE OF BANKS' FORD-SEDGWICK'S CORPS CROSS THE FORD-GENERAL HOOKER CALLS A COUNCIL OF WAR-RECROSSES THE RAPPAHANNOCK AT UNITED STATES FORDREVIEW OF THE CAMPAIGN.

THE Department of North Carolina, and the adjacent region of Southeastern Virginia, were, during the month of April, the theatres of some severe fighting. Washington, North Carolina, on the Tar river, at the point where it debouches into the wide estuary known as Pamlico river, had been occupied by a Union garrison for nearly a year, greatly to the annoyance of the Rebels, who had made frequent attempts to recapture it, but without success. As they had no gunboats in the waters of North Carolina, they were obliged to confine themselves to attacks by land, and these the Union gunboats generally repulsed with heavy loss.

On the 30th of March, there was a garrison of about two thousand Union troops there, and the commander of the department, Major-General Foster, was at this time in the place. A strong force of Rebels (two divisions) under the command of General D. H. Hill and General J. J. Pettigrew, appeared, early in the morning of that day, before the place, and drove in the Union pickets and skirmishers with considerable loss, but they were held at bay by the garrison; and the gunboat Commodore Hull opening upon them with shell, they were driven back to the hills surrounding the town, where they immediately commenced fortifying, with a view of besieging it. They also planted batteries with strong earthworks on Rodman's Point, opposite Washington, at Hill's Point, and at other promontories on the Pamlico river, near and below the town, with a view to prevent the gunboats from aiding in its defence. On the 4th of April, the garrison attempted to capture the battery on Rodman's Point, two hundred infantry, under the command of General Potter, embarking for that purpose on the gunboat Ceres, and intending to land at

a point above, and attack the battery in rear, while the gunboats assailed in front. The attempt was foiled, however, by the Ceres grounding while within range of the Rebel battery, before the troops were able to land. The enemy immediately opened fire upon her, killing and wounding five men, when the gunboat getting afloat retired. The same day, the Sylvan Shore, a Union transport, coming from Beaufort with troops for Washington, was fired at by the batteries on the Pamlico, and compelled to return to Beaufort. The next day, the Union gunboats Ceres and Commodore Hull attacked the Rebel batteries on Hill's Point, and bombarded them for two hours, but were unable to capture them. The Rebel force besieging the town was increased by constant reinforcements, and was drawing its lines closer and closer around the town. A force of eight thousand Union troops, under the command of General Spinola, sent from Newbern by way of the Neuse river, on the 5th of April, to reinforce General Foster and raise the siege, met a superior force of the enemy, and returned to Newbern, reaching that city on the 10th. Learning of their retreat, the Union commander at Newbern resolved to attempt sending reinforcements, ammunition, and supplies, by steamer up the Pamlico, and past the Rebel batteries. The captain of the transport steamer Escort volunteered to run the batteries with his steamer, which was very fast, and succeeded, though not without some damage to the steamer. He reached Washington on the 13th, and General Foster the next day went on board the steamer, and running past the batteries reached Newbern in safety, when he immediately commenced organizing an expedition for raising the siege. The Rebels finding that he had left the beleaguered city, and knowing that he would soon bring a force against them which they could not resist, prudently abandoned the siege on the night of the 15th.

On the Nansemond river, in the vicinity of Suffolk, Virginia, there was some sharp fighting during the month. On the 12th and 13th of April, there was considerable skirmishing, the Union force, under General Peck, being attacked by a considerable body of Rebels, under the command of Generals Longstreet and Anderson, who were beaten off by Peck's troops and the gunboats Mount Washington and West End. In the action of the 13th the Mount Washington was seriously damaged. On Tuesday, the 13th, the Rebels were reinforced, and one division assailed General Peck, while another engaged the Union batteries and gunboats on the water front. Both were repulsed with heavy loss, though the West End was crippled, and seven of her crew killed or wounded. The Union gunboats Commodore Barney and Stepping Stones participated in the fight; and after a few hours bombardment the Rebel batteries were silenced and the troops driven back. On Wednesday (15th) a Rebel battery of twenty pounder rifled guns was effectually silenced, and an attack on the Smith Briggs, an armed quartermasters' boat, repulsed. For the next two or

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three days, repeated attempts were made on the Union lines-General Hill having come from Washington, North Carolina, to reinforce Longstreet-but all were foiled. On the 13th the Rebel battery near the west branch of the Nansemond was stormed by General Getty, and the Union gunboats under command of Lieutenant Commander Lawson, and six guns and two hundred prisoners were captured. The enemy kept up skirmishing for several days longer, but with little success, and finally abandoned the struggle, having lost a large number of killed and wounded, four hundred prisoners, and six guns, during its progress. The Union loss was forty-four killed, two hundred and one wounded, and fourteen missing. As Suffolk possessed no advantage as a military post, and was not susceptible of a good defence, the garrison was soon after withdrawn within the new lines constructed around Norfolk.

From these minor skirmishes and battles, which, though possessing local interest, were in no sense material to the final issue of the war, we now turn our attention to the army of the Potomac, where preparations were making for another of those great battles, which it was hoped might prove decisive.

From the time when General Hooker took command of that army, his energies had been directed to increasing its efficiency in discipline, in mobility, and in esprit-du-corps. Incompetent and disaffected officers had been dismissed; the army train, that incubus which had always paralyzed its movements, had been cut down to two wagons for each regiment; pack mules had been substituted for wagons, whenever they could be with advantage; the health of the men had been carefully provided for, and their comfort, as far as was consistent with that hardening and toughening which is necessary to make first rate soldiers, had been cared for. The cavalry had been greatly improved, and was now a more efficient arm of the service; and, in every respect, the army was in more perfect condition than it had ever previously been.

It was not the purpose of a commander, whose successful and skilfully managed attacks upon the enemy, when in a subordinate command, had won him the sobriquet of "fighting Joe Hooker," to bring his army up to this splendid condition, without hurling them upon the foe, as soon as a favorable opportunity presented itself; and if, as was hardly to be expected, the opportunity did not come of itself, he held it to be the duty of a general to make one.

The topography of the country on both banks of the Rappahannock and Rapidan had been carefully studied, and the fords, the slopes of the hills, the banks of the rivers, the railroads, plank-roads, and turnpikes traced, in the hope of discovering some point where a blow could be successfully struck, and the adroit and able Rebel general outwitted.

At length General Hooker seemed to have found what he sought, and busied himself in perfecting the details of a plan which as yet he did not

communicate even to his most trusted corps commanders, giving them only their orders, from day to day, for each day's movements. A large cavalry force under General Stoneman, with General Averill and General Kilpatrick as subordinates, was sent off upon a secret expedition; and on the 26th of April orders were issued that the different corps should be prepared to break up camp the following day, with eight days cooked rations.

On the morning of the 27th of April, the several army corps were put in motion, but the purpose of the commander was still impenetrably veiled. Three corps, the first (Major-General Reynolds), the third (MajorGeneral Sickles), and the sixth (Major-General Sedgwick), were moved, Monday evening, to a point near the bank of the Rappahannock, two miles below Fredericksburg-the same place where General Franklin had crossed before the battle of Fredericksburg-and were covered from the enemy's view by the curtain of hills which fringe the Rappahannock in that part of its course. At the same time, the fifth corps (Major-General Meade's), and the twelfth (Major-General Slocum's), were despatched, by different roads, up the north bank of the Rappahannock, and took up positions in the neighborhood of Banks' and United States fords, which are respectively eight and eleven miles above Fredericksburg. The eleventh corps (Major-General Howard's) had gone in the same direction, on the night of the 26th. The second (Major-General Couch's) remained in camp during the day.

At dawn on Tuesday, April 28, the boats had been unloaded from pontoon trains, and under cover of a heavy fog, Russell's brigade of Brookes' division, sixth (Sedgwick's) army corps, pushed rapidly over the river, took possession of the Rebel rifle-pits on the Fredericksburg side, in which were about four hundred Rebel sharpshooters, took a few prisoners, and assisted in laying the bridges, over which, in the course of the morning, the whole of Brookes' division passed. The remaining divisions of that corps did not cross that day. The third corps (Major General Sickles') had been ordered back to camp, and sent up the river. The first corps (Major General Reynolds') attempted to cross about a mile and a-half below Sedgwick's, but were annoyed by the Rebel sharpshooters to such an extent that they could not effect a crossing till after ten o'clock, when the batteries opened upon the rifle-pits from the Falmouth side, and kept the sharpshooters in check till a reinforcement could cross in boats. and drive them out. One hundred and fifty Rebels were captured by this movement. The bridges were then laid, and General Wadsworth's di vision crossed. The remaining divisions of both Reynolds' and Sedg wick's corps, together with the artillery and cavalry, were marched and countermarched around the hills, near the banks of the Rappahannock, in such a way as to give the impression that the force crossed there was not less than a hundred thousand men. This had the desired effect. The