ing our liberties to be more precious than all other earthly possessions, is to combine and apply every available element of power for their defence and preservation.

On the subject of the exchange of prisoners, I greatly regret to be unable to give you satisfactory information. The Government of the United States, while persisting in failure to execute the terms of the cartel, make occasional deliveries of prisoners, and then suspend action without apparent cause. I confess my inability to comprehend their policy or purpose. The prisoners held by us, in spite of human care, are perishing from the inevitable effects of imprisonment and the home-sickness produced by the hopelessness of release from confinement. The spectacle of their suffering augments our longing desire to relieve from similar trials our own brave men, who have spent so many weary months in a cruel and useless imprisonment, endured with heroic constancy. The delivery, after a suspension of some weeks, has just been resumed by the enemy; but as they give no assurance of intent to carry out the cartel, an interruption of the exchange may recur at any moment.

vast resources, the circulation, if restricted to its present volume, would be easily manageable, and by gradual absorption in payment of public dues would give place to the precious metals, the only basis of a currency adapted to commerce with foreign countries. In our present circumstances I know of no mode of providing for the public wants which would entail sacrifices so great as a fresh issue of Treasury notes, and I trust that you will concur in the propriety of absolutely forbidding any increase of those now in circulation.

Officers have been appointed and despatched to the trans-Mississippi States, and the necessary measures taken for the execution of the laws, enacted to obviate delays in administering the treasury and other executive departments in those States; but sufficient time has not elapsed to ascertain the results.

In relation to the most important of all subjects at the present time-the efficiency of our armies in the field-it is gratifying to assure you that the discipline and instruction of the troops have kept pace with the improvement in material and equipment. We have reason to congratu

The report of the Secretary of the Treasury states facts justifying the conclusion that the law passed at the last session for the purpose of withdrawing from circulation the large excess of Treasury notes heretofore issued, has had the desired effect, and that by the first of July the amount in circulation will have been reduced to a sum not exceeding two hundred and thirty million dollars. It is believed to be of primary importance that no further issue of notes should take place, and that the use of the credit of the government should be restricted to the two other modes provided by Congress, namely, the sale of bonds and the issue of certificates bearing interest, for the price of supplies purchased within our limits. The law, as it now stands, authorizes the issue by the Treasury of new notes to the extent of two thirds of the amount received under its provisions. The estimate of the amount funded under this law is shown to be three hundred million dollars, and if two thirds of this sum be reissued, we shall have an addition of two hundred million dollars to our circulation, believed to already ample for the business of the country. The addition of this large sum to the volume of the currency would be attended by disastrous effects, and would produce the speedy recurrence of the evils from which the funding law has rescued the country. If our arms are crowned with the success which we have so much reason to hope, we may well expect that this war cannot be prolonged beyond the current year, and nothing would so much retard the beneficent influence of peace on all the interests of our country, as the existence of a great mass of currency not redeemable in coin. With our

this subject, and on the increased administrative energy in the different bureaux of the War Department, and may not unreasonably indulge anticipations of commensurate success in the ensuing campaign.

The organization of reserves is in progress, and it is hoped they will be valuable in affording local protection without requiring details and detachments from active forces.

Among the recommendations contained in the report of the Secretary of War, your attention is specially invited to those on which legislation is suggested on the following subjects, namely:

The tenure of office of the general officers in the provisional army, and a proper discrimination in the compensation of the different grades.

The provision required in aid of invalid officers who have resigned in consequence of wounds or sickness contracted while in the service.

The amendment of the law which deprives officers in the field of the privilege of purchasing rations, and thus adds to their embarrassment, instead of conferring the benefit intended.

The organization of the general staff of the army, in relation to which a special message will shortly be addressed to you, containing the reasons which compelled me to withhold my approval of a bill passed by your predecessors at too late a period of the session to allow time for returning it for their reconsideration.

The necessity for an increase in the allowance now made for the transportation of officers travelling under orders.

The mode of providing officers for the execution of the conscript laws.

The means of securing greater despatch and more regular administration of justice in examining and disposing of the records of cases reported from the courts-martial and military courts in the army.

THE STORMING OF LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN. BY CAPT. THOS. H. ELLIOTT.

The uncertain mists were thickening as the 'proach of day was quickening;

The angel of the dawn had put out the stars of night; A sombre mantle wrapped about the beetling cliffs of Lookout,

Which frowned in threat'ning majesty from its heaven-soaring height.

Awakened a day of great portending-soldiers pray ing a victorious ending

Should show the world the prowess and the force in Federal might.

Many a suppliant, prayerful bending, to Him patriot hopes was sending,

That Lookout should be ours before the day sank into night.

Through the forest, bared and blackened, with steadi

ness ne'er slackened,

Wound like a lithesome river a column known as Geary's braves;

Marched they forth to take the mountain, though the

soil should drain life's fountain

But deadly volleys and "White Stars" a cordon round them wove.

Deadly trial of the dastard's flight, with the sweeping whirlwind's might,

Toward the Star of Bethlehem, Geary turned the mountain curve;

sea's tumultuous waves.

host they bore them,

The daring Second and Third brigades, and the gal

lant First in reserve.

the ambitious eagle's eyrie, were borne the strifetorn flags of Geary,

As like angry storm-spirits, his boys fought far above the clouds;

Their courage was their ægis as they carved for hist'ry brightest pages;

In their path of glory many "blue-coats," more of "gray-coats"-martial shrouds.

Grenades, grape, and screaming shell, with noise like

strife of fiends in hell,

Unheeded came from the Titan rocks into this Ghe

ber's bloody glen;

"Sweep every rebel from it," from base to Lookout summit,

of the sun. VOL. VIII.-POETRY 1

Was the fiat of the bold Hooker, and the duty of his men.

the "last ditch," torn and shattered, massed the rebel hordes so scattered,

And the clash of arms and crash of battle raged

anew

Assault upon assault was given, while the crags and heavens seemed riven,

Surged they forward-surged they backward, and recoiled that rebel crew.

The shades of night crept on apace, came erring shots through gloomy space,

As in the fogs of Erebus, died this most glorious day;

ing

The myriad fires beaming, 'mid planet torches gleamWith fitful glare, revealed the battle horrors in ghastly array.

From the blasted souls there moaning comes a wail and sufferers' groaning,

And Death in hideous forms dead hopes grim revealed.

'Twas a night of watch and waiting, with no vigilance abating,

While the chill wind sang hosannas and a requiem o'er the bloody field.

At early dawn the mount was ours, one of heaven's choicest dowers,

As the Stars and Stripes and "White Star" were planted on the crest.

Two thousand foes were taken from the ranks we had so shaken;

Seven colors, and their cannon, and many spoils given to our behest.

Lay the laurel on their cold brows, honored martyrs to their Union vows,

The brave soldiers whose lives on their country's shrine were given;

Bow the head and drop the tear, as you plant banners

One grasp of the rifle, one glimpse of the fray,
And chattel and bondman have vanished for aye!
Stern men they will find us who venture to feel
The shock of our cannon, the thrust of our steel.
The bright Flag above us, exultant we hail;
Beneath it what rapture the ramparts to scale!
Or, true to our leader, o'er mountain, through hollow
Its stars never setting, with fleet foot to follow,
Till, shrill for the battle, the bugle-notes blow,
And proudly we plant it in face of the foe.

And then, when the conflict is done, in the gleam
Of the camp-fire at midnight, how gayly we dream;
That lifts him from loathing, that shields him from
shame;

The slave is the citizen-coveted name

His cottage unravished; and, blithesome as he,
His wife by the hearthstone-his babe on her knee.

The cotton grows fair by the sea, as of old;
The cane yields its sugar; the orange its gold;
Light rustle the corn-leaves; the rice-fields are green;
And, free as the white man, he smiles at the scene;
The drum beats-we start from our slumbers and pray
That the dream of the night find an answering day.
To God be the glory! They call us! we come!
How welcome the watchword, the hurry, the hum!
Our hearts are aflame as our good swords we bare-
"For Freedom! for Freedom!" soft echoes the air;

The bugle rings cheerly; our banners float high;
O comrades, all forward! we'll triumph or die!

ROSECRANS.

'Twas something to be a chieftain when
The Chaldee hero fought,
For 'twas the battle-step of progress then,
When manhood's work was wrought.

And at the Pass, and Salamis, still higher
Waved the glorious crest,

When hero-warriors burned with patriot fire,
And won a country's rest.

And something 'twas, when Hamilcar's great son
Was hero under oath-

But in that contest 'twas not Rome that won,
For manhood conquered both.

And when across the Medial gulf we look For radiant fields of glory,

The Cross and the imperial kingdoms took The honors of the story.

But still the march of progress onward beat
Toward the glorious goal,

Where despot hosts and Freedom's legions meet
To try the world's control.

Then Liberty's flag was given to the strife,
Where nature's self is grand,

With rivers, lakes, with mountains and with life,
And billions, too, of land.

Triumphant, then, the banner of the free,

Over that curse and blightAs chieftain then, thrice glorious was he Who battled for the right.

THE SWAMP ANGEL.

But, as testing the new birth, lurked there within

Full of a masked deceit

False to all truth, in league with every sin

A most villainous cheat.

Insolent and proud, he drew the red blade,

To turn aback the world

On the track of the ages of progress she'd made, With the old banner furled.

"Then round the old flag let's rally again"Rang through the whole land,

"Though billions were lost and millions were slain, The great cause it shall stand."

A continent and more-there's freedom to loseThe present requires it

The great Future demands and freemen must choose As the ages invoke it.

Lo! thousands sprang forth from valley and plain,
And our ROSECRANS was there

The chief in the strife, and now we proclaim
His deeds also are there.

Hail! then, the great chief whose victories tell
What the hero has done-

Let's march to his step, and all rebels compel
To acknowledge that ONE,

From E Pluribus Unum proclaimed long ago,
Is the sole rendering patriots care know.

TO THE ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND.
Devoted band! baptized anew in blood,
Standing again as ye before have stood

To bay the waves of Treason's maddened flood,
A wall, as that of adamantine stone,
Or hills of granite in your own loved North,
Were never aught alike in strength and worth!-
The nation whose torn heart hath sent you forth,
The nation for whose life ye pledged your own,
Looks proudly on you, and although the while,
With o'erfull heart and tearful eye, can smile,
And say, while counting o'er each blood-stained file:
0 Army of the Cumberland !-well done!

The nation knew you! when ye stood the shield
Before your comrade braves, whose doom was sealed
'Mid all the horrors of red Shiloh's field;
Hopeless till you their saviours came, and burst
As an avenging fate upon the foe,

It marked you well, and treason felt the blow;
And watching breathlessly it saw you go

To dare and do what only heroes durst

In that death-storm on Murfreesboro's plains,

When Treason's blood ran cold through all her veins,
And in the nation's heart, while swelled the strains
Of Victory, you gained your place the first.

Again, brave souls, most glorious when most tried,
'Twas yours that surging sea of fire to ride,
That round you licked and beat on every side,
All mad and foaming with the hate of hell;
We heard the roarings of that billowy host,
And saw it smite, and you upon it tossed-
Oh! it was agony! and all seemed lost!
Never! The story, how shall tongue e'er tell
How gloriously ye saved in that dread fray,
The cause of Freedom, standing there at bay!
Look up the sky grows brighter day by day:
O Army of the Cumberland, 'tis well!

E. H.

"The large Parrott gun used in bombarding Charleston from the marshes of James Island is called the Swamp Angel."-Soldier's Letter.

Down in the land of rebel Dixie,
Near to the hot-bed of treason,
Five miles away from Charleston,
Amid the sands of James Island,
Swept by the tides of the ocean,
Is the Swamp Angel.

Can parrot,
With plumage as black as a raven,
And scream unlike her tropical sisters'-
A hundred-pounder, with terrible voice!—
Be called bird or angel?

She's for Freedom,
And Uncle Sam ! synonymous terms;
An angel of vengeance and not of mercy,
Come to execute wrath upon the city
Whence sprang secession.

At night this angel raiseth her voice,
And her cry is "woe," and not "rejoice."
She sendeth far her meteor shell,
And it soareth up as if to dwell

With the twinkling stars in the fadeless blue;
There poiseth itself for the mighty blow,
Then downward shoots like a bolt from God:
Crushes the dwelling and crimsons the sod!
Fire leaps out from its iron heart,
Rives the defences of treason apart,
Till ruin spreads her sulphur pall
O'er shattered tower and crumbling wall;
And fearful crowds from the city fly,
Seeing the day of her doom is nigh!

O ye who herd with traitors!—say,
Is this the dawn of that promised day
Your poets sung and your prophets told?
Is this age of iron your age of gold?
For this did ye rouse the Southern hate,
To rend the Union strong and great?
And build on the low Palmetto's shore
An empire proud for evermore-
And shut in the face of the North your door!

Hear ye in the Angel the Northern call, Thundered on Sumter's broken wall, Echoed in Charleston's silent street, Shouted in Treason's proud retreat:

"Freemen must share with you the land! Choose olive leaf-or blazing brand; Choose peaceful Commerce' flag of stars, Or rifled guns and monitors!

"By you were words of treason spoken, By you the nation's peace was broken; The first gun fired whose startling jar Sent through the land the shock of war!

Hear truth by Gospel trumpet blown-
Shall ye not reap as ye have sown?
Thistles for thistles, tares for tares,
The whirlwind's breath-a rain of snares!

"The avenging Angel rides the blastYou fired the first gun-we'll fire the last!" T. N. J.