pected that he would drive the Confederates out of the State, while General Steele cut off their retreat in Arkansas. Price roamed through Missouri, even threatening St. Louis and Jefferson City, and finally moved up the Missouri River toward Kansas. General Curtis, who commanded there, gathered troops to fight him, and General Pleasonton, with Rosecrans's cavalry, followed the Confederates. Price then turned southward, but was overtaken in October and defeated at the Big Blue River and again at the Little Osage River. In the latter fight the Union troops captured eight guns and a thousand prisoners, among whom were Generals Marmaduke and Cabell. With the rest of his men Price continued his flight, leaving the roads strewn with broken wagons and other abandoned things, and escaped into western Arkansas. This was the last invasion of Missouri.

We left John Morgan safe in the Confederate lines, after his escape from prison in Ohio (page 375). He went to Richmond, where he was received as a hero, and was soon on duty again in Eastern Tennessee. For a time he helped Longstreet, who was still threatening Knoxville, but in the spring of 1864 Longstreet went back to Virginia, and soon afterward Morgan made another raid into Kentucky, which proved to be his last. He started with about twenty-five hundred poorly mounted men, but as he rode through the rich counties of that State he obtained fresh horses and moved so fast that he met but little resistance. He captured many wealthy towns, burned railway stations and tore up railway tracks, and plundered the whole country through which he passed. The Union General Burbridge pursued him with a strong force, surprised him at Mount Sterling, and badly defeated him at Cynthiana, taking from him more than a thousand horses. Morgan retreated with the remains of his force into Eastern Tennessee. Early in September he was at Greenville, and had given orders to move against a Union force under General Gillem, about sixteen miles away. On account of rain at midnight he countermanded the order, and went to bed in the house of a Mr. Williams, where he had made his headquarters. The Union troops, regardless of the storm, made an attack on his force, and surrounded the house about seven o'clock the next morning (Sept. 4). Morgan, surprised, ran out of the house with

1863.]

DEATH OF MORGAN.

427

out his coat, and took refuge in a vineyard behind the house. A soldier called to him to halt, when Morgan pointed his pistol at him, and the soldier shot him through the heart. This is the common account of Morgan's death, but it is proper to add that his friends say that he had surrendered and was actually a prisoner when a Union cavalryman rode up and killed him.

CHAPTER XXXV.

GRANT IN VIRGINIA.

THE CONFEDERACY IN 1863.-POVERTY AND PAPER MONEY.-CHRISTMAS IN RICHMOND,-TREATMENT OF UNION PRISONERS.-EXCHANGES.-NEGRO SOLDIERS.-PRISON CAMPS.—LIEBY PRISON.-BELLE ISLE.-EFFORTS TO FREE PRISONERS.-ULRIC DAHLGREN.-A MINE UNDER LIBBY.-GRANT MADE LIEUTENANT-GENERAL-HIS COMMISSION.-GRANT WITH THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC.-HIS PLAN.-THE RAPIDAN CROSSED.-BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS-LEE IN DANGER.-LONGSTREET WOUNDED.-FIRE IN THE WOODS.-THE MARCH TO SPOTSYLVANIA. SHARPSHOOTERS.-DEATH OF SEDGWICK.-BATTLE OF SPOTTSYLVANIA.-I PROPOSE TO FIGHT IT OUT ON THIS LINE.-HANCOCK AND STEWART.-DANGER of the CONFEDERATE ARMY.-TERRIBLE MUSKETRY FIRE,-GRANT AGAIN MARCHES SOUTHWARD.

E left the Army of the Potomac, under General Meade, and the Army of Northern Virginia, under General Lee, in winter quarters on the Rapidan at the close of 1863, the former on the northern, the latter on the southern bank of the river (page 371). The year had been a most unfortunate one for the Confederates. The previous winter had been somewhat cheered by the victory of Fredericksburg and the hope that foreign powers would interfere in their behalf and put an end to the war; but the winter of 1863 came almost without hope and without resources. It is true a few advantages had been gained, but they had been more than balanced by losses. Chancellorsville had been won at the cost of Jackson's life, and had been followed by Gettysburg and Vicksburg; and the gain of Chickamauga had been wiped out by the disgrace of Chattanooga. The Confederacy had been cut in twain on the line of the Mississippi, and little could be done to prevent the division of the eastern half.

There was a cry of scarcity everywhere. Most of the ablebodied men were in the army, but few being left to manufacture the necessaries of life. The strict blockade of the ports had nearly stopped all trade with foreign lands, so that the stores had little to sell; and many shopkeepers who had goods kept them back in hope of getting yet higher prices. Paper money was plenty, but it took twenty-eight Confederate dollars to buy one gold dollar's worth. The rich had become poor, and the poor had become paupers.

Society was completely overturned,

1864.]

CHRISTMAS IN RICHMOND.

429

so that the man who labored with his hands was better off than the most scholarly professional man; for the former could earn enough to buy bread and clothes, while the latter often went hungry and ragged. The only really happy ones were the colored people, who seldom let anything worry them.

Christmas in Richmond that year came cold and raw, with cutting winds and skies as threatening as the fortunes of the Confederacy. There was little to make people joyful, for want showed itself at every board, and many a chair was empty. Even an ordinary Christmas dinner for a dozen persons cost $200 to $300. Flour was worth $125 to $150 a barrel, and sugar $5 to $10 a pound, according to its quality. Turkeys, which the year before had been worth $10 to $12 apiece, were very scarce, and cost $40 to $50 apiece. Apples were $80 a barrel; beans, $28 a bushel; cheese, $7 a pound; butter, $5.50 a pound; and coffee, $11.50 a pound. A boiled ham was a luxury, and roast beef was only for the rich. Many were grateful for a little bacon and corn-bread, and delicate women went to church that day faint with hunger who had never known the feeling before.

During the early part of 1864 there were no military movements in Virginia excepting some cavalry raids undertaken for the purpose of releasing the Union prisoners in Richmond, whose condition had excited much pity in the North. In the beginning of the war, the United States, not recognizing the Confederate States as a government, with the right to make war, had treated prisoners as felons. The shooting of a Union soldier was called a murder, and the capture of a United States vessel was called piracy. It will be remembered that the crew of the Savannah were thrown into prison as pirates, and it was even proposed to hang them as such (page 141). But the battle of Bull Run threw many prisoners into the hands of the Confederates, and their threats of hanging some of them in retaliation forced the United States to treat them as prisoners of war. For a long time the government, determined not to do anything which would seem to recognize the right of the Confederates to carry on war, refused to exchange any prisoners; but in the summer of 1862 an arrangement was made by which Confederate prisoners were exchanged for Union prisoners of equal rank, man for man. Under this agreement many thou

sand captives on both sides were released and returned to their homes.

Exchanges went on, with some interruptions, until the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation and the enrolling of negro soldiers in the Union army. The Confederate authorities then refused to exchange colored soldiers, and ordered that every white officer captured in command of black soldiers should be put to death, and that every black soldier taken in arms should be given up to the authorities of the State where captured to be dealt with according to law-that is, to be enslaved again. On this President Lincoln issued another proclamation declaring that "for every soldier of the United States killed in violation of the laws of war, a rebel soldier shall be executed; and for every one enslaved by the enemy or sold into slavery, a rebel soldier shall be placed at hard labor on the

public works." This action of the United States government prevented the threatened execution of prisoners, but the Confederates still refused to exchange the black soldiers taken by them. This put an end to the exchange of all prisoners, for the United States would not permit any difference to be made in the treatment of its soldiers, whether black or white. After this all prisoners were kept by each side, and so it happened that tens of thousands of poor captives pined in prison-camps, and that great numbers died from disease, bad food, and illtreatment.

Prison-camps were built by both parties for the detention of prisoners. There was a very large one near Chicago, called Camp Douglas, to which most of the Confederates captured at Fort Donelson and Shiloh were sent. bus, Ohio, was named Camp Chase. strong fence sixteen feet high, the