powered to represent Major-General Fremont; and Colonel D. HI. Armstrong. Hon. J. Richard Barrett, and Colonel Robert M. Renick, or either of them, are hereby authorized and empowered to represent Major-General Price; and the parties so named are hereby authorized, whenever applied to for that purpose, to negotiate for the exchange of any and all persons who may hereafter be taken prisoners of war and released on parole; such exchanges to be made upon the plan heretofore approved and acted upon, to wit: grade for grade, or two officers of lower grade as an equivalent in rank for one of a higher grade, as shall be thought just and equitable. This done and agreed at Springfield, Missouri, this first day of November, 1861. By order of Major-General Fremont. J.H. EATON, A. A. A. G. Major-General Sterling Price. By HENRY W. WILLIAMS, D. ROBERT BARCLAY, Commissioners."

merely private expression of the same, shall hereafter be made within the limits of the State of Missouri, and all persons who may have been arrested, and are now held to answer upon such charges only, shall be forthwith released. But it is expressly declared that nothing in this proclamation shall be construed to bar or interfere with any of the usual and regular proceedings of the established courts and statutes and orders made and provided for such offences. 2. All peaceably-disposed citizens who may have been driven from their homes because of their political opinions, or who may have left them from fear of force and violence, are hereby advised and permitted to return, upon the faith of our positive assurances that while so returning they shall receive protection from both armies in the field, whenever it can be given. 3. All bodies of armed men, acting without the authority or recognition of the Major-General before named, and not legitimately connected with the armies in the field, are hereby ordered at once to disband. 4. Any violation of either of the foregoing articles shall subject the offender to the penalty of military law, accord-thinking its provisions impolitic under ing to the nature of the offence. In the circumstances of the war, immetestimony whercof, the aforesaid John diately after taking command of the Charles Fremont, at Springfield, Mo., on army, addressed, on the 7th, a letter the first day of November, A. D. 1861, to General Price, stating that he could and Major-General Sterling Price, at"in no manner recognize the agreement, day of November, or any of its provisions, whether implied A. D. 1861, have hereunto set their hands, or direct, and that he could neither and hereby mutually pledge their earnest issue, nor allow the joint Proclamation efforts to the enforcement of the above to be issued." In communicating this articles of agreement, according to their letter to Adjutant-General Thomas, Genfull tenor and effect, to the best of their eral Hunter gave the following as the ability. grounds of his repudiation of the conSecondly. Brigadier-General R. Cur-vention. "It would be, in my judgtis, or the officer in command at Benton ment, impolitic in the highest degree to barracks, is hereby authorized and em- have ratified General Fremont's nego

on this

The Proclamation was signed by General Price at Cassville on the 5th of November, but was not suffered, however, to be operative. General Hunter

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are contending, and a practical liberation, for use in other and more immediately important localities, of all their forces now kept employed in this portion of the State."

tiations, for the following, among many other, obvious reasons: The second stipulation, if acceded to, would render the enforcement of martial law in Missouri, or any part of it, impossible, and would give absolute liberty to the propagand- General Hunter, after remaining a few ists of treason throughout the length and days at Springfield, in accordance with breadth of the State. The third stipula- an order from the President, retreated tion, confining operations exclusively to in the direction of St. Louis. The army, 'armies in the field,' would practically formed in so short a time by the exerannul the Confiscation Act passed during tions of Fremont, and hurried forward the last session of Congress, and would with extraordinary effort, retraced its furnish perfect immunity to those dis- steps to the Missouri, and awaited the banded soldiers of Price's command who call of the new head of the Department, have now returned to their homes, but General Halleck, again to follow under with the intention, and under a pledge, less advantageous circumstances, at a of rejoining the rebel forces whenever less propitious period of the year, the called upon; and, lastly, because the still advancing, still retreating, ever refourth stipulation would blot out of ex-newed, ever dispersing rebel army of istence the loyal men of the Missouri Home Guard, who have not, it is alleged, been recognised by act of Congress, and who, it would be claimed, are therefore 'not legitimately connected with the armies in the field.' There are many more objections quite as powerful and obvious, which might be urged against ratifying this agreement-its address 'to all peaceably-disposed citizens of the State of Missouri,' fairly allowing the inference to be drawn, that citizens of the United States (the loyal and true men of Missouri) are not included in its benefits. In fact, the agreement would seem to me, if ratified, a concession of all the principles for which the rebel leaders

Price. When the Statement of Fremont, in reply to the charges of General Thomas' Report was published, in the ensuing March, it was received with favor and respect, and while the force of its explanations was freely admitted-for every ingenuous mind rejoices when a load of obloquy is removed from the fair fame of a man like Fremont—it was yet felt that the best vindication of his hurried military manœuvres, and the policy of his interrupted campaign, was the almost identical repetition of the movement in the recent entry of the Union troops into Springfield, and the pursuit, according to the original programme of the still fugitive Price into Arkansas.

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CHAPTER XXXVIII.

MILITARY AND NAVAL ENGAGEMENTS AT SANTA ROSAS ISLAND AND THE PASSES OF THE MISSISSIPPI, SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER, 1861.

the Navy Yard. "An aide-de-camp from General Bragg entered as we were sitting at table, and invited me to attend him to the General's quarters. The road, as I found, was very long and very disagreeable, owing to the depth of the sand, into which the foot sank at every step up to the ankle. Passing the front of an extended row of the clean, airy, pretty villas inside the Navy Yard, we passed the gate on exhibiting our passes, and proceeded by the sea-beach, one side of which is lined with houses, a few yards from the surf. These houses are all occupied by troops, or are used as barrooms or magazines. At intervals a few guns have been placed along the beach,

AFTER the reinforcement, in April, of the little garrison with which Lieutenant Slemmer gallantly seized and held Fort Pickens, that important position, under the energetic command of Colonel Harvey Brown, for many months continued to attract the attention of the public, expectation being at one time excited by the prospect of the recovery of the abandoned ground on the mainland at Pensacola, at another by the danger to the fort itself from attack by the insurgents. A description of a visit to these scenes in April, by Mr. Russell, the correspondent of the London Times, affords us the unusual opportunity of an intelligent view of what was going on in both camps at the same time. Accompanied by sev-covered by sand-bags, parapets and tracral friends, he ran down in a small schooner from Mobile, was admitted, by the courtesy of the United States officers off Pensacola, to pass the blockade, and after a day spent with the Confederates among their defences on the mainland, had the privilege of a leisurely inspection of Fort Pickens and Santa Rosas Island. He found General Braxton Bragg in command of the Confederates. A native of a Southern State, this officer had been educated at West Point, and had served for many years with distinction in the United States army. He is thus introduced to us in the vivid and entertaining narrative of Mr. Russell, who, on landing, has been received with due hospitality by a mess of New Orleans officers established in the pleasant quarters about

verses. As we toiled along in the sand the aide hailed a cart, pressed it into the service, and we continued our journey less painfully. Suddenly a tall, straightbacked man in a blue frock-coat, with a star on the epaulette strap, a smart kepi, and trousers with gold stripe, and large brass spurs, rode past on a high-stepping, powerful charger, followed by an orderly.

There is General Bragg,' said his

aide. The General turned round, reined up, and I was presented as I sat in my state chariot. The commander of the Confederated States army at Pensacola is about forty-two years of age, of a spare and powerful frame; his face is dark, and marked with deep lines, his mouth large, and squarely set in determined jaws, and his eyes, sagacious, pen

GENERAL BRAXTON BRAGG.

603

etrating, and not by any means unkind- could only wonder at the difference ly, look out at you from beetle-brows made by the 'stand-point' from which which run straight across and spring into the question is reviewed. . . . Before I a thick tuft of black hair, which is thick- left General Bragg he was good enough est over the nose, where naturally it to say he would send down one of his usually leaves an intervening space. His aides-de-camp and horses early in the hair is dark, and he wears such regula- morning to give me a look at the works." tion whiskers as were the delight of our generals a few years ago. His manner is quick and frank, and his smile is very pleasing and agreeable. The General would not hear of my continuing my journey to his quarters in a cart, and his orderly brought up an ambulance, drawn by a smart pair of mules, in which I completed it satisfactorily. The end of the journey through the sandy plain was at hand, for in an enclosure of a high wall there stood a well-shaded mansion, amid trees of live-oak and sycamore, with sentries at the gate and horses held by orderlies under the portico. General Bragg received me at the top of the steps which lead to the verandah, and, after a few earnest and complimentary words, conducted me to his office, where he spoke of the contest in which he was to play so important a part in terms of unaffected earnestness. Why else had he left his estates? After the Mexican war he had retired from the United States artillery; but when his State was menaced he was obliged to defend her. He was satisfied the North meant nothing but subjugation. All he wanted was peace. Slavery was an institution for which he was not responsible; but his property was guaranteed to him by law, and it consisted of slaves. Why did the enemy take off slaves from Tortugas to work for them at Pickens? Because whites could not do their work. It was quite impossible to deny his earnestness, sincerity and zeal as he spoke, and one

The tour of the works next day affords us an interesting glimpse of the enemy's camp. "I do not think," writes Mr. Russell, "that any number of words can give a good idea of a long line of detached batteries. I went through them all, and I certainly found stronger reasons than ever for distrusting the extraordinary statements which appear in the American journals in reference to military matters, particularly on their own side of the question. Instead of hundreds of guns, there are only ten. They are mostly of small calibre, and the gun-carriages are old or unsound, or new and rudely made. There are only five heavy' guns in all the works; but the mortar batteries, three in number, of which one is unfinished, will prove very damaging, although they will only contain nine or ten mortars. The batteries are all sand-bag and earthworks, with the exception of Fort Barrancas. They are made after all sorts of ways, and are of very different degrees of efficiency. In some the magazines will come to speedy destruction; in others they are well made. Some are of the finest white sand, and will blind the gunners or be blown away with shells; others are cramped and hardly traversed; others, again, are very spacious and well constructed. The embrasures are usually made of sandbags, covered with raw hides to save the cotton-bags from the effect of the fire of their own guns. I was amused to observe that most of these works had gal

leries in the rear, generally in connection Fort Barrancas is an old fort-I believe with the magazine passages, which the constructors called 'rat-holes,' and which are intended as shelter to the men at the guns in case of shells falling inside the battery. They may prove to have a very different result, and are certainly not so desirable, in a military point of view, as good traverses. A rush for the 'rat-hole' will not be very dignified or improving to the morale every time a bomb hurtles over them; and assuredly the damage to the magazines will be enormous if the fire from Pickens is accurate and well-sustained. Several of the batteries were not finished, and the men who ought to have been working were lying under the shade of trees, sleeping or smoking-long-limbed, longbearded fellows in flannel shirts and slouched hats, uniformless in all, save bright, well-kept arms and resolute purpose. We went along slowly, from one battery to the other. I visited nine altogether, not including Fort Barrancas, and there are three others, among which is Fort McRae. Perhaps there may be fifty guns of all sorts in position for about three miles, along a line extending 135 degrees round Fort Pickens, the average distance being about one and one-third miles. The mortar batteries are well placed among brushwood, quite out of view of the fort, at distances varying from 2,500 to 2,800 yards, and the mortars are generally of calibres corresponding nearly with our 10-inch pieces. Several of the gun-batteries are put on the level of the beach; others have more command, and one is particularly wellplaced, close to the White Lighthouse, on a high plateau which dominates the sandy strip that runs out to Fort McRae. Of the latter I have already spoken.

of Spanish construction, with a very meagre trace-a plain curtain-face toward the sea, protected by a dry ditch and an outwork, in which, however, there are no guns. There is a drawbridge in the rear of the work, which is a simple parallelogram, showing twelve guns mounted en barbette on the sea-face. The walls are of brick, and the guns are protected by thick merlons of sand-bags. The sole advantage of the fort is in its position; it almost looks down into the casemates of Pickens opposite at its weakest point, and it has a fair command of the sea entrance, but the guns are weak, and there are only three pieces mounted which can do much mischief. While I was looking round, there was an entertaining dispute going on between two men, whom I believe to have been officers, as to the work to be done, and I heard the inferior intimate pretty broadly his conviction that his chief did not know his own business in reference to some orders he was conveying. The amount of ammunition which I saw did not appear to me to be at all sufficient for one day's moderate firing, and many of the shot were roughly cast and had deep flanges from the moulds in their sides, and very destructive to the guns. as well as to accuracy. In the rear of these batteries, among the pine woods and in deep brush, are three irregular camps, which, to the best of my belief, could not contain more than 2,700 men. There are probably 3,000 in and about the batteries, the Navy Yard and the suburbs, and there are also, I am informed, 1500 at Pensacola ; but I doubt exceedingly that there are as many as 8,000 men, all told, of effective strength under the command of General Bragg.