mouth of the Savannah River. The fortifications were found to be deserted, and formal possession was taken of the island. Reconnoissances in other directions demonstrated the Ashepo, the Coosaw, and other rivers to be clear of the enemy. On the capture of the islands the white population retired inland, after destroying much cotton, and did not return in numbers. About ten thousand blacks, being nearly a third of the slaves, came within the Federal lines, and were employed in the culture of the soil and in the requisite labor of the ships and forts.

A formidable plan to make the blockade more efficient was put in execution in November. Its purpose was to seal up the channels in the Southern harbors by sinking vessels loaded with stone. The first attempt of this kind was on the North Carolina coast, where the numerous inlets to Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds gave great facilities for evading the blockading vessels. A number of small-sized vessels were purchased in Baltimore and sunk in Ocracoke Inlet. Two other fleets were then prepared, one for each of the harbors of Savannah and Charleston. The first consisted of twenty-five vessels, and the latter of twenty. They were mostly old whalers, no longer seaworthy, and of from three hundred to five hundred tons burden. They were bought for about ten dollars per ton, chiefly in the ports of New London and New Bedford, the forty-five ships costing about two hundred thousand dollars. They were stripped of copper and other fittings and loaded with picked stones, as deep as possible. The Charleston fleet sailed November 20th, with sealed orders, and on the 17th of December the first fleet was sunk across the principal entrance to the harbor. They were placed in three or four rows across the channel in a checkered order. The second fleet was sunk in Maffet's Channel, Charleston Harbor.

The usual effect of sunken vessels upon the channel of a harbor is to gradually destroy it, by causing an accumulation of the alluvium which the rivers bear down, and of the sands which the tides carry back. This operation was denounced by the English as a crime against humanity at large, by destroying one of the world's harbors. But Mr. Seward replied, that the United States Government, upon the return of peace, held itself bound to restore the harbor. The operation, owing to the shifting character of the channels off Charleston, and the prevalence of westerly winds at certain periods, which carry all obstructions out to sea, does not seem to have been very effective, and vessels continued to run the blockade in and out of Charleston.

Another expedition was projected to occupy Ship Island, on the coast of Mississippi, shortly after the return of General Butler from Hatteras Inlet in September. The island, which is sixty miles from New Orleans, is about seven miles in length, and one-eighth to threequarters of a mile wide. It is mostly It is mostly a bank of clear white sand, without trees or shrubs, but good water can be obtained by sinking a barrel anywhere on its surface. This, with Horn, Petit Bois, and Dauphine Islands, forms the southern barrier of Mississippi Sound, which, with a width of ten to twelve miles, extends from Mobile Bay to Lake Borgne, in Louisiana, forming an interior communication be

tween Mobile and New Orleans. On the mainland, opposite Ship Island, are the towns of Biloxi, Mississippi City, and Pascagoula. On the west end of the island are a fort and a light-house. The fort was built by the United States in 1859, and was burned by the Confederates in June, 1861. The United States steamer Massachusetts found the island unoccupied at the end of June. On the 8th of July, the same steamer found a considerable force there, which had thrown up intrenchments, and had mounted several guns. An attempt to dislodge them failed, and they retained possession until September 16th, when, apprehending the approach of a large force, they abandoned the island, taking most of their guns. In the mean time they had rebuilt the fort and named it Fort Twiggs. The Massachusetts landed a force September 17th, which continued to hold it. They received re-enforcements, and strengthened the place, mounting several Dahlgren nineinch shell guns and rifled cannon. On the 19th of October, Commodore Hollins, commander of the Confederate steamer Florida, challenged the Massachusetts, and, after a combat of forty-five minutes, the rebel ship drew off in a sinking condition, with four of her crew killed. The Massachusetts was hit by a one-hundred-pound shot, doing much injury to the hull, but she had only one man wounded. On the 21st of November, the gunboat New London arrived in the sound, and in the course of a fortnight captured five Confederate vessels.

General Butler was authorized to enlist troops for this expedition in New England, and in doing so he came in collision with the Governor of Massachusetts, who objected to the raising of troops independent of his authority in the State, and to the appointment of field officers by General Butler. A sharp controversy sprang up on the subject, and the expedition was long delayed. Finally the first instalment, a part of the Middlesex brigade, consisting of the Massachusetts Twentysixth and Connecticut Ninth volunteers, with Captain Manning's battery of artillery, numbering in all one thousand nine hundred and eight men, arrived off Fortress Monroe, Virginia, on board the steam transport Constitution, on the 26th of November. In compliance with previous orders and commands, General J. W. Phelps relieved Colonel Jones, of the Massachusetts Twenty-sixth, in command, and the ship stood out to sea on the afternoon of the 27th.

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They arrived at Ship Island December 3d. Having completed the landing of his troops, and before his commanding officer, General Butler, arrived, Phelps issued an address to the people of the Southwest, containing the following passages:

"We believe that every State that has been admitted as a slave State into the Union since the adoption of the Constitution, has been admitted in direct violation of that Constitution.

"The Church, by being endowed with political power, with its convents, its schools,

John W. Phelps was born in Vermont, in 1813, graduated at West Point in 1836, as second lieutenant of artillery, and became first lieutenant in 1838. He commanded his company in Mexi co with distinction at the battles of Contreras and Churubusco, was made captain in 1850, and resigned in 1859. When the war broke out he was made colonel of the First Vermont volunteers,

and soon after brigadier-general of volunteers. He took part in the Ship Island expedition, and in the expedition against New Orleans, in the spring of 1862, but having become involved in a dispute with General Butler, with regard to the disposition to be made of the negroes who sought the protection of the United States flag, he resigned his commission July 31, 1862.

its immense landed wealth, its associations, secret and open, became the ruling power of the State, and thus occasioned a war of more strife and bloodshed, probably, than any other war which has desolated the earth.

Slavery is still less susceptible of political character than was the Church. It is as fit at this moment for the lumber-room of the past as were, in 1793, the landed wealth, the exclusive privilege, &c., of the Catholic Church in France.

"It behooves us to consider, as a self-governing people, bred and reared and practised in the habits of self-government, whether we cannot, whether we ought not, revolutionize slavery out of existence, without the necessity of a conflict of arms like that of the French Revolution."

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tance, the hope of the poor man everywhere; that it is especially the right of five "That it (free labor) is the right, the capital the inheri millions of our fellow-countrymen in the Slave States, as well as of the four millions of Africans there, and all our efforts, therefore, however small or great, whether directed against the interference of Governments from abroad, or against rebellious combinations at home, shall be for free labor."

This document was not circulated on the mainland to any considerable extent, and was promptly disavowed by General Butler, then in Massachusetts.

While these expeditions were in progress another was organized, with as much secrecy as possible in respect to its destination, under General Burnside.* The preparations commenced early in September, and about eleven thousand troops concentrated at Annapolis in October, for drill and preparation. tendant upon combined expeditions caused such delays, that General The great difficulties necessarily atBurnside was not ready for sea until January 12th, when the combined land and naval forces sailed from Fortress Monroe in one hundred and twenty vessels The destination was kept secret until the expedition appeared off Hatteras. Roanoke Island, which, lying between Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds, It was then announced to be and separated by Croatan Sound from the mainland, completely commands the navigation of the inland seas of North Carolina. Scarcely had the fleet departed, when it was overtaken by one of those violent storms common to the coast at that season, and suffered much damage. The steamer New York, with a quantity of arms and stores, was lost. The Pocahontas went ashore and was lost, with seventy-five

Ambrose E. Burnside was born in Indiana, May 23d, 1824; graduated at West Point in 1847; served in the Mexican war with credit, and afterwards on the Mexican frontier, where he was quartermaster of the boundary commission. In 1851 he travelled twelve hundred miles through the Indian country in seventeen days. He was subsequently stationed at Newport, but resigned his commission in 1853, to engage in the mannfacture of a breech-loading rifle of his own invention. He then entered the service of the Illinois Central Railroad. Governor Sprague, on the outbreak of the war, made him colonel of a Rhode Island regiment, and he served as acting brigadier at Bull Run; On the 6th of August he was made brigadier-general of volunteers. A few months later, he took charge of the expedition to Roanoke Island, and after the occupation of that place, captured Newbern, Fort Macon, and other important points in North Carolina. After the disaster on the Peninsula in 1862, he was ordered North with the greater part of his army, and commanded the left wing at

the battle of Antietam. Soon afterwards he was placed in command of one of the three grand divisions of the Army of the Potomac; and, on November 7th, he succeeded General McClellan in command of the whole Army of the Potomac; fought the unsuccessful battle before Fredericksburg, December 13th, and was relieved of his command January 26th, 1863. On March 26th, he was appointed to command the Department of Ohio, and in the fall conducted the campaign in Eastern Tennessee, capturing Cumberland Gap, Knoxville, and other places. In November, he successfully held Knoxville against Longstreet's besieging army, and on December 14th was relieved by General Foster. In command of the Ninth Corps he participated in the campaign of 1864 against Richmond, but having been censured for the failure of the assault, after the explosion of the mine in front of Petersburg, he was relieved towards the close of the year by General Parke, and in May, 1865, resigned his commission.