THE ARMY WITHDRAWN FROM THE PENINSULA. 219

Campaign was a failure, and that the army would require reorganization. McClellan demanded fifty thousand fresh troops, for the capture of the rebel capital. In obedience to orders, he evacuated Harrison's Landing on the 16th and 17th of August, 1862. The stores, supplies, and ammunition, were all put on board the transports, and the army crossed the Chickahominy on a pontoon bridge, two thousand feet in length, formed by one hundred boats. While the transports and gunboats sailed down the James river to Fortress Monroe, the troops marched toward Williamsburg. Their destination was yet a secret, but they were at length consolidated with the troops under General Pope.

Thus ended the campaign in the Peninsula; one that was calculated, in the earlier stages, to fill the patriotic breast with reasonable hope that the stars and stripes would once more float over the cupolas and spires of Richmond, and recreant traitors meet their doom. This hope was blasted. Perseverance, energy, bravery, endurance, suffering, wounds, and the death of thousands of the most valiant men that ever drew the sword in a true cause, were all in vain. Hecatombs were yet to be offered, and much blood and treasure poured forth, before the goal was reached, and the insolent foe vanquished.

FRESH

CHAPTER XXII.

JULY, 1862.

ENERGY OF THE ADMINISTRATION-CALL FOR THRE: HUNDRED THOUSAND MEN BY DRAFT-GENERAL HALLECK COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE ARMY-GENERAL POPE'S OPERATIONS-MR. LINCOLN'S MESSAGE IN FAVOR OF EMANCIPATION-RECONNOISSANCE TO BEAVER DAM-BATTLE ON BAYOU CACHE, IN ARKANSAS-ACTION ON THE MISSISSIPPI WITH THE REBEL RAM ARKANSAS-FIGHT NEAR MEMPHIS, MISSISSIPPI-THE REBEL MORGAN IN KENTUCKY-ANOTHER ANTI-SLAVERY MESSAGE-EXPEDITIONS TO TRENTON AND POLLOCKSVILLE, FROM NEWBERN-COLONEL ELLET RENEWS THE ATTACK ON THE ARKANSAS-CREATION OF NEW GRADES IN THE NAVY OF THE UNITED STATES.

IT is recorded in fabulous history, that a certain gian, Antæus, having a combat, acquired renewed strength, every time he was thrown, by touching mother earth. Thus, in the great American conflict, when the hope of the nation suffered a temporary overthrow, she rose with unconquerable energy, and, disdaining defeat, hurled with amazing force new legions upon the rebellion, until, crushed beneath the superincumbent weight, the unwieldy monster staggered and fell. The disasters of the campaign in the Peninsula filled the nation with gloomy forebodings; but as the remains of that once magnificent army occupied positions assigned it around the Federal capital, new measures were on foot for reorganization. The administration put forth more strenuous efforts to increase the military strength of the nation, and to resume the offensive as early as possible. The governors of nearly all the loyal States had suggested the necessity of a new levy, and the President made a call for three hundred thousand men, for nine months, on the 4th of August, by draft. Preparations were made at once to obtain the required quota of each State.

General John Pope, on the 14th of July, took command of the consolidated army of Virginia, comprising the corps of Fremont and McDowell.

On the 11th of July, General H. W. Halleck was ordered to Washington, and appointed General-in-chief of the armies of the United States. The design of the admin

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istration was to increase the efficiency of the army, by placing the operations of the War Department chiefly under the superintendence of a military man, one who had made the art of war his especial study.

On the 14th of July, President Lincoln sent a message to Congress recommending the adoption of a bill for the abolition of slavery. The bill provided, that whenever the President should become satisfied that any State had abolished slavery throughout its limits, either immediately or gradually, it should be his duty, assisted by the Secretary of the Treasury, to prepare and deliver to such a State an amount of interest-bearing bonds of the United States equal in amount to the aggregate value of all the slaves which were reported to have existed in that State according to the census of 1860. The bill provided, further, that if the abolition of slavery in any State should be made immediately, the payment of the designated sum should also be immediate; if it were made gradually, the payment should be gradual; and if any State should restore slavery within its limits after its abolition therein, the bonds held by it against the United States should thereby become null and void.

After some discussion in the Senate, the Message was referred to the Committee on Finance. In the House, it was sent to the Committee on the Abolition of Slavery in the Border States. This act of the President, as shadowing forth the future action of the administration with respect to slavery, profoundly impressed the citizens of all the States, both the loyal and rebellious. It manifested the intention of Mr. Lincoln to eventually blot out forever an institution which was at once a disgrace to humanity, and one of the most powerful causes of the unjustifiable rebellion.

The Presidential policy on this vexed question being thus clearly defined, Mr. Lincoln desired the representatives of the border States in Congress to induce their constituents, as far as was in their power, to adopt the emancipation policy which the message set forth.

The representatives from Kentucky, Missouri, and Maryland, replied that they did not see the necessity for abolishing slavery in the States which they represented, and that it was at least questionable whether its abolition in the rebel States by Felera power would be of any assistance

222

RECONNOISSANCE TO BEAVER DAM.

in bringing about a successful issue to the Union cause. The reply of the minority of the representatives, admitted that the "lever power of the rebellion was slavery;" they were willing to save the Union by all the means in their power, and as the Confederates gave up slavery to destroy the Union, "they could ask their people to consider the question of emancipation to save the Union."

On the 22d of July, the Secretary of War, acting under the direction of the President, published an order that the military commanders in the States of Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas, should employ as many persons of African descent in said States as could be advantageously used for military and naval purposes, and that they should be reasonably compensated for their labor; that accounts should be kept showing from whom such slaves shall have been taken, and the value of their labor, "as a basis on which compensation can be made in proper cases."

These measures were, at a later date, followed by others, which sounded the death knell to slavery, "preaching deliverance to the captive, and the opening of the prison doors" to the sable sons of Africa. Thus He, "in whom is hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge," was solving difficulties that baffled the wisdom of statesmen, senators, and philanthropists, and was making the great nation indeed "the land of the free."

General Pope still held his head-quarters at Washington. He initiated a rigid course with secessionists, and prohibited his soldiers from guarding the property of rebel sympathizers. The transportation of the army was greatly reduced, and the troops were to find subsistence from the country through which they marched.

On the 19th of July the first movement took place. General Pope had sent General King with a small body of cavalry from Warrenton to make a reconnoissance in the direction of Gordonsville. Leaving Fredericksburg on the evening of the 19th, and marching all night, the Virginia Central railroad was struck at Beaver Dam, thirty-five miles from Richmond. At this point the railroad and telegraph were destroyed for several miles by the raiders. The dêpôt, containing one hundred barrels of flour, and a considerable quantity of ammunition, was fir 1. Ascertaining that the

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223

enemy, under "Stonewall" Jackson, at Gordonsville, con sisted of a large portion of the rebel army, the raiders returned to Warrenton, after a march of eighty miles in thirty hours. The strength and operations of the rebels were further disclosed by other reconnoitering parties sent out at different times by General Pope.

Leaving the hostile armies to concentrate, and prepare for the great engagements in which they were soon to contend for the supremacy, we proceed to describe some of the events which occurred in other portions of the stage, on which the melancholy drama of rebellion was enacted. The plan of the campaign in the West, rendered it necessary for General Curtis to march from Batesville to Helena, in Arkansas. This march was begun May 24th, 1862, and was much annoyed by the enemy. On the 7th of July, an engagement took place at Bayou Cache, at a point where the enemy had blocked up the way with felled timber. Colonel Hovey, with three hundred and fifty men, was sent to clear the road and reconnoitre. An action took place between a detachment of his command and a superior rebel force, in which the Union troops were finally routed. At that critical moment, Colonel Hovey went to the support of the Union forces, and Major Wood soon followed. The action was then varied by the use of artillery, infantry, and cavalry, which resulted in the defeat of the enemy. The rebel loss was one hundred and ten killed, and two hundred and fifty wounded; and the Federals, ten killed, and fiftyseven wounded. The Confederates aimed too high; the Union troops took more accurate aim; hence the result.

On the 14th of July, there was a brisk action on the Mississipppi, near Vicksburg, between the powerful rebel ram Arkansas, and a part of the Union fleet anchored near that city. The ram was one hundred and eighty feet long, and sixty in breadth. She was propelled, below the water line, by engines of nine hundred horse-power. Her bow and stern were sharp, her sides plated with railroad iron, and a terrible prow of cast-iron enabled her to perforate the sides of an enemy. She had six heavy guns, and was commanded by Captain J. N. Brown, a man of great daring and skill in naval combats. As the ram lay in the Yazoo river, not far from where it joins the Mississippi, Commodore Farragut sent Captai Flet up the Yazoo, with two Union