officially and through the newspapers, and seemed to enjoy very much the more ludicrous parts-about the "bummers," and their devices to collect food and forage when the outside world supposed us to be starving; but at the same time he expressed a good deal of anxiety lest some accident might happen to the army in North Carolina during my absence. I explained to him that that army was snug and comfortable, in good camps, at Goldsboro; that it would require some days to collect forage and food for another march; and that General Schofield was fully competent to command it in my absence."

Both General Grant and General Sherman believed that the end of the war was at hand, but they thought that one more great battle would have to be fought. Mr. Lincoln was very anxious to avoid another battle, if possible. He said that enough blood had been shed, and he was in favor of giving Lee and Johnston the best of terms if they would agree to disband their armies and let their men go back to their homes. With their surrender he believed that all the other Confederates in the South and West would lay down their arms and the country would be once more at peace. "When I left him," says General Sherman, "I was more than ever impressed by his kindly nature, his deep and earnest sympathy with the afflictions of the whole people, resulting from the war, and by the march of hostile armies through the South; and that his earnest desire seemed to be to end the war speedily, without more bloodshed or devastation, and to restore all the men of both sections to their homes. . . . Of all the men I ever met, he seemed to possess more of the elements of greatness, combined with goodness, than any other."

General Sherman returned to Goldsboro (March 30) and at once set about making preparations to march again on the 10th of April, the day agreed on with General Grant. But before that time great events occurred which changed all his plans.

CHAPTER XL.

MOBILE.

STONEMAN'S RAID.-SALISBURY.-MOBILE.-WILSON'S RAID.-FIGHT WITH FORREST.-TAKING OF SELMA.COTTON BURNING.-SURRENDER OF MONTGOMERY.-CAPTURE OF COLUMBUS.IRON-CLAD RAMS.- MACON.-JOYFUL NEWS.- DEFENCES OF MOBILE.- CANBY'S PLAN.SPANISH FORT.-STORMING OF BLAKELY.-SURRENDER OF MOBILE.

BE

EFORE following further the armies of Grant and Sherman, let us see what has been doing meanwhile in the South and West. It will be remembered that after the defeat of General Hood's army at Nashville, General Schofield had been withdrawn, with the Twenty-third Corps, from Thomas's Army of the Cumberland and sent East to Sherman. Shortly afterward General Thomas was ordered to send the command of General A. J. Smith and some cavalry to General Canby, then in New Orleans, to aid in an attack on Mobile; and also a larger cavalry force, under General Stoneman, to make a raid into South Carolina toward Columbia, to destroy railroads and other public property, and thus aid General Sherman, who was then marching in that direction. But Stoneman was so long in getting ready that he was too late to help Sherman, who had moved rapidly; so he was ordered to march eastward and destroy the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad as far toward Lynchburg as possible. This was intended to cut off General Lee's retreat southward, in case he should withdraw from Petersburg and Richmond. Stoneman, who had made a raid in the same direction near the close of the previous year (1864), left Knoxville on the 20th of March, and going into Virginia destroyed the railroad nearly to Lynchburg. He then moved into North Carolina, defeated three thousand Confederates near Salisbury, capturing nearly half of them, with fourteen guns, and dispersing the rest, and took Salisbury. This had been a prison-camp, but all the prisoners had been removed. Vast quantities of provisions, clothing, medicines, and ammunition, several thousand bales of cotton, and many small-arms were burned, and the railways torn up in every direction. Stoneman returned to East Tennessee in

April, having destroyed in his raid an immense amount of property and captured about six thousand prisoners.

After the fall of Savannah, Charleston, and Wilmington, Mobile was the only important seaboard city left to the Confederates. Admiral Farragut's capture of the forts at the entrance of Mobile Bay (page 407) had closed the port against blockaderunners and commerce, but had not caused the fall of the city, which lies at the mouth of Mobile River, thirty miles above the forts. It was strongly fortified and had a garrison of about fifteen thousand men in command of General D. H. Maury, who was under the orders of General Dick Taylor, then in command of the Confederate Department of Alabama, Mississippi,

GEORGE STONEMAN.

and East Louisiana, with headquarters at Meridian in Mississippi.

General Canby's army for the capture of Mobile consisted of about fortyfive thousand men, five thousand of whom were cavalry under General Grierson. The land forces were to be aided by the West Gulf Squadron, then under command of RearAdmiral Thatcher. To give still further aid in the movement against Mobile, General Grant had ordered General Thomas to send a strong cavalry expedition into Alabama, to destroy the resources of the country and prevent supplies and men from being sent to Mobile. General James H. Wilson, who had been selected to command this expedition, set out from Chickasaw Landing, on the Tennessee River, on the 22d of March, with about thirteen thousand men. All his men were mounted, excepting fifteen hundred, who acted as a guard to the baggage-train of two hundred and fifty wagons. Besides these there were fiftysix mule-wagons, laden with a pontoon train for crossing rivers. Each trooper carried five days' rations for himself, twenty-four pounds of grain for his horse, a pair of extra horseshoes, and

1865.]

WILSON'S RAID.

509

one hundred rounds of ammunition. Nearly all were armed. with the Spencer carbine, a rifle which will fire seven shots without reloading.

Wilson moved in a general southerly direction towards Selma, an important town on the Alabama River. At Elyton he sent a brigade of his force, under General Croxton, to Tuscaloosa, with orders to destroy the public stores, foundries, factories, and bridges there, and to rejoin him at Selma. There were many skirmishes with Confederate cavalry on the route, but the enemy was generally routed, and Wilson went on, destroying iron-works, rolling-mills, collieries, and all other property which could be turned to hostile uses. When near Plantersville he had a fight with General Forrest, who, with about five thousand men, held a strong position. After a brief battle Forrest was routed, with the loss of three guns and several hundred prisoners, and pursued twenty-four miles. In the morning of the 2d of April Wilson came in sight of Selma, which was strongly fortified and held by about seven thousand men. General Dick Taylor, who was there, ordered Forrest to defend the place, and then left on the cars. After a sharp fight the works were taken at dusk by assault, and Selma fell into the hands of the Unionists, with thirty-two cannons and nearly three thousand prisoners. Forrest, with the rest of his men, fled eastward, after setting on fire twenty-five thousand bales of cotton. General Wilson found and burned ten thousand more, as well as all the foundries, arsenals, machine-shops, and other Confederate property in and around the city.

On the 10th of April General Wilson crossed the Alabama River by a bridge he had built, and marched on Montgomery, the capital of Alabama and the first capital of the Confederacy. The Confederates did not await his coming, but left after setting fire to nearly ninety thousand bales of cotton, and the city was surrendered by the authorities without a blow (April 12). The flag of the Union was unfurled over the State House (see page 46) where, four years before, the first Confederate flag had been hoisted after its adoption by the Confederate Congress. From Montgomery Wilson crossed the Chattahoochee River into Georgia, and captured Columbus after a sharp fight with the Confederates. A vast amount of property

was destroyed there, including one hundred and fifteen thousand bales of cotton, many locomotives and cars, and arsenals, mills, foundries, and machine-shops. A new iron-clad ram, named the Jackson, was burned, and the Confederates burned another one, called the Chattahoochee, that was building a few miles down the river. On the 20th of April Wilson arrived at Macon, Georgia, which was surrendered to him without resistance. There he received the glad news of the surrender of the army of General Lee, and of the probable end of the war, and ceased further hostile acts. He was joined at Macon (April 31) by General Croxton, who, it will be remembered, had been sent to Tuscaloosa to destroy the Confederate property at that place, with orders to rejoin the main body at Selma. Croxton had marched more than six hundred miles in thirty days without hearing of Wilson, and had destroyed much property with little loss to himself.

Wilson lost about seven hundred men in his great raid, during which he captured nearly seven thousand prisoners and two hundred and eighty-eight pieces of artillery. Besides the immense damage which he inflicted on the Confederates. in the destruction of supplies and war material, he also did them much injury by obliging them to keep many men in the country through which he passed, who would otherwise have gone to aid in the defence of Mobile against General Canby.

According to General Joseph E. Johnston, Mobile was the best fortified city in the Confederacy. It was surrounded by three lines of earthworks, defended by fifty-eight forts, and having ditches thirty feet wide and twenty feet deep, through which the tide-water flowed. Besides these land defences there were also strong water-batteries on the shores of the bay and several floating batteries, and the channels of the harbor were obstructed with rows of piles and torpedoes. The strongest of the fortifications, Spanish Fort, was on a bluff on the east side of the bay. It was so called because it occupied the site of a fort built by the Spaniards when they held Mobile; but the Confederate fort was very much larger than the old one, extending along the bluff nearly two miles. It was held by General Randal L. Gibson with about twenty-five hundred men.