In the early light of the morning the attacking fleet moved steadily up the main ship channel, when Fort Morgan opened upon them, and was replied to by a gun from the Brooklyn. A moment later, and the Yankee iron-clad Tecumseh, struck by a torpedo, disappeared instantaneously beneath the waves, carrying with her her commander, T. A. M. Craven, and nearly all her crew. The Yankee flag-ship Hartford now took the lead, and had scarcely passed the fort, when the Confederate ram Tennessee dashed out at her. The three Confederate gunboats, the Morgan, the Gaines, and the Selma, were ahead. After a desperate struggle between the fleets, the Gaines retired to Fort Morgan in a sinking condition; the Selma, cut off, surrendered; and the Morgan escaped to Fort Morgan.

Having passed the forts and dispersed the gunboats, Farragut ordered most of the vessels to anchor, when about nine o'clock he perceived the Confederate ram Tennessee standing up for the Hartford. He immediately ordered all the Yankee monitors, and such of his wooden ships as were adapted for the purpose, to attack the ram, not only with their guns, but bows on at full speed. And then began one of the most remarkable naval conflicts of the war. A single vessel was beset by a whole fleet. She was struck three times, and as the Hartford, the third vessel which struck her, rasped along her side, the Yankee poured a whole broadside of nine-inch solid shot within ten feet of her casement. The Chickasaw was pounding away at her stern; the Hartford and three others of the fleet were again heaving down upon her, determined upon her destruction; her smoke-stack had been shot away, her steering chains were gone, and she lay at the mercy of the enemy. It was not until resistance was hopeless that Admiral Buchanan, himself wounded on the Tennessee, surrendered the vessel, and ordered the white flag to be hoisted just as she was about being struck by the vessels converging upon her, and when she was already disabled, and her crew almost in a smothering condition.

Such was the naval fight in Mobile Bay, which the Yankees ranked among their most brilliant victories; exalting Farragut above Nelson; apostrophizing their hero after the modern New York fashion of big dinners, and having hired poets to recite to him in public "masterly ballads." The Confederates

had a very different and very plain estimation of the affair. Their loss in killed and wounded had been only twenty-two. That of the enemy was near three hundred, not including the one hundred and twenty-three who went down in the Tecumseh. The Richmond Examiner gave a list of the twentyeight Yankee vessels engaged, having two hundred and twelve guns, with the four Confederates having twenty-two guns. It said: "It was a most unequal contest in which our gallant little navy was engaged; and we lost the battle, but our ensign went down in a blaze of glory."

But although our little fleet in the bay of Mobile had been destroyed or dispersed, the forts were still held, and the Yankee success was incomplete. The fall of these, however, was to follow unexpectedly to the South, and not without some circumstances of humiliation.

On the 6th of August, one of the Yankee iron-clads commenced shelling Fort Gaines. This was a powerful work; it was provisioned for six months, and had a garrison of 600 men. Colonel Anderson, in command, communicated with the enemy's fleet by flag of truce, without the sanction of General Page, who was in command at Fort Morgan. General Page inquired by signals what his purpose was, but received no answer. His attention was attracted by signal-guns. General Page repeatedly telegraphed, "Hold on to your fort." The same night he visited Fort Gaines, and found Anderson on board the Yankee fleet, arranging terms of capitulation. He left peremptory orders for Anderson, on his return, not to surrender the fort, and relieved him of his command. Fort Morgan signalled the next morning, but no answer was received, except the hoisting of the Yankee flag over the ramparts of Fort Gaines.

From this time onward, movements of the enemy were in progress for capturing Fort Morgan; and on the 22d of August, at day-dawn, a bombardment was opened from the shore batteries, the monitors and ships inside, and the vessels outside the bay. At 6 A. M. of the 23d, a white flag was displayed by the Confederates, and at 2 o'clock P. M. the fort was surrendered.

Fort Powell had been already attacked on the night of the 5th, and blown up, the guns falling into the enemy's hands.

The capture of Forts Powell, Gaines, and Morgan, and the destruction of the Confederate fleet, gave the Yankees possession of the bay, and closed the port to all ingress or egress of blockade-runners. The city of Mobile was still in possession of the Confederates, and months were to elapse before the enemy were to make any demonstration upon it, and then only with the co-operation of a land force. The Yankee success, so far, although the occasion of a brief blaze of excitement in the North, was not of any great importance; and it had been dearly purchased.

THE GEORGIA CAMPAIGN.

We return to more important events-those of the Georgia campaign-which indeed were to put a new aspect on the war; to annihilate the peace party in the North; to give a new hope and impetus to the enemy; and to date the serious and rapid decline of the fortunes of the Confederacy.

When we last left off the story of this campaign, Johnston was holding Atlanta, and busied in strengthening its defences.* His position in Atlanta was not less secure than that of Lee in Petersburg; and judging prospective by past events, it was impossible to doubt that he would have held Sherman as well as Lee held Grant. He could at least have done that; and if he succeeded in destroying his land communications-very much more easy to reach than that of Grant over water-he might have forced the enemy into disastrous retreat on Ten

nessee.

At midsummer, therefore, the two campaigns, for which the enemy had surrendered the Trans-Mississippi and North Carolina, were both failures. That military success which would

* In an official report, General Johnston said: "The proofs that I intended to hold Atlanta are, the fact that under my orders the work of strengthening its defences was going on vigorously, the communication on the subject made by me to General Hood, and the fact that my family was in the town. That the public workshops were removed, and no large supplies deposited in the town, as alleged by General Bragg, were measures of common prudence, and no more indicated the intention to abandon the place than the sending the wagons of an army to the rear, on a day of battle, proves a foregone determination to abandon the field."

alone bring him money, and by which alone could the Lincoln government retain power, was not forthcoming, or even dimly visible in the future. Had the campaign of Georgia pursued its parallel with that of Virginia, McClellan or some other man capable of negotiation would have been elected, and perhaps an honorable peace could have been attained. If no peace, at least the invasion would have lost its venom with its hopethe enemy would be a bankrupt, his army impotent, and his people indisposed to further exactions.

These bright prospects were changed in a day. President Davis, moved not so much by popular clamor as by a persistent personal dislike of Johnston, who resented his catechising interference with his campaign, took occasion to remove from the command of what had become the most important army in the Confederacy a first-rate military man, who had never lost a battle or a regiment in his whole career; who was executing the masterpiece of his professional life with a perfection of design and detail which delighted his own troops and filled his adversary with involuntary admiration; who had done the wonderful thing of conducting an army in retreat over threo hundred miles of intricate country, absolutely without any loss in material or prisoners. Johnston was removed, and Lieutenant-General Hood put in command of the army-President Davis declaring that if the people wanted "a fighting general" they should have such in this man, who was brave, headstrong, incompetent; who had the heart of a lion, but, unfortunately, with it a head of wood.

THE BATTLES OF ATLANTA. THE FALL OF THE GATE CITY."

The effective force which General Johnston transferred to General Hood was about forty-one thousand infantry and artillery, and ten thousand cavalry. It constituted one of the largest armies the Confederacy had ever put in a single field, and was only a little less numerous than that with which General Lee had fought the campaign of the Rapidan.

On the 20th of July, Hood attacked the enemy's right on Peach-tree Creek, near the Chattahoochee, gaining some temporary advantage, and capturing colors and prisoners.

It was one of the most reckless, massive, and headlong charges of the war. A little past three in the evening, and with the celerity of lightning, the bulk of Hood's army massed in enormous columns against Newton's division, came on without skirmishing, and with yells whose volume exceeded any battle-shout that had yet been heard. It was the aim of Hood to take advantage of a gap between Newton's division and another division of Palmer's corps, to strike the enemy at a vital point, and to destroy his forces on the right. The charge was gallantly led by Walker's and Bates' divisions of Hardee's corps. The column poured down an open but rocky series of fields towards Newton's left, evidently aiming at his bridges. At this point, however, the enemy succeeded, with admirable quickness, in massing their artillery, and pouring a terrible fire upon the Confederates. The Yankee gunners worked with frantic energy; the Confederate columns slackened pace, and began to waver and lose their careful arrangement; and in less than half an hour the attack was drawn off in good order, but having plainly and unquestionably failed to accomplish its object.

On the 22d of July, Hood's army shifted its position, forming on Peach-tree Creek, and Stewart's and Cheatham's corps formed line of battle around the city. Hardee's corps made a night march, and attacked the enemy's extreme left at one o'clock on the 22d, and drove him from his works, capturing sixteen pieces of artillery and five stands of colors. Cheatham attacked the enemy at four o'clock in the afternoon with a portion of his command, and drove the enemy, capturing six pieces of artillery. During the engagement we captured about two thousand prisoners.

After the battle of the 22d, Sherman's army was transferred from its position on the east side of Atlanta to the extreme right of Hood's army, on the west side, threatening the Macon road. He slowly and gradually drew his lines about Atlanta, feeling for the railroads which supplied Hood's army and made Atlanta a place of importance.

It remained to break the Macon road. For this purpose Stoneman was sent with five thousand cavalry, and McCook with four thousand men, to meet on the railroad near Lovejoy's and to tear it up, and also to attack and drive Wheeler. Stone