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OF THE

CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA:

COMPRISING A FULL AND IMPARTIAL ACCOUNT OF THE

ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF THE REBELLION,

OF THE VARIOUS

NAVAL AND MILITARY ENGAGEMENTS,

OF THE

Heroic Deeds Performed by Armies and Individuals,

AND OF

TOUCHING SCENES IN THE FIELD, THE CAMP, THE HOSPITAL, AND THE CABIN.

BY JOHN S. C. ABBOTT,

AUTHOR OF LIFE OF NAPOLEON," "HISTORY OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION," "MONARCHIES OF CONTINENTAL FUROPE," &c.

ILLUSTRATED WITH MAPS, DIAGRAMS, AND NUMEROUS STEEL ENGRAVINGS OF
BATTLE SCENES

FROM ORIGINAL DESIGNS BY DARLEY, AND OTHER EMINENT ARTISTS,

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BILL,

PUBLISHED BY LED YARD
INDIANAPOLIS, IND.: CLARKE & CO.

1863.

E468
A 13

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1862, by

HENRY BILL, GURDON BILL, AND LEDYARD BILL,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the District of Connecticut,

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PREFACE.

FROM the commencement of our Government there have been two antagonistic principles contending for the mastery-Slavery and Freedom. In the very heart of our democracy, the element of the most haughty and intolerant aristocracy has been nurtured, by the institution of huinan bondage. The most repulsive features of the old European feudalism has thus been transplanted into our Republic. The slaveholders, accustomed to despotic power over the wretched serfs, whom they have driven, by the lash, to till their soil, have assumed a sort of baronial arrogance over all men who do not own slaves, and have claimed to be the only gentlemen, and the legitimate rulers of this land. But freedom has outstripped slavery in this race. And, consequently, the slaveholders, unreconciled to the loss of supremacy, strive to destroy the temple of liberty, wishing to raise themselves into lords and potentates, over the ruin of their country.

The conflict in which our nation is now involved, is simply a desperate struggle, on the part of the slaveholders, to retain, by force of arms, that domination in the government of this Republic, which they had so long held, and which, by the natural operation of the ballot-box, they were slowly but surely losing. We have here, simply the repetition of that great conflict, which, for ages, has agitated our globe-the conflict between aristocratic usurpation and popular rights. The battle has assumed the most momentous attitude, since it arrays, on either side, all the intellectual and material energies developed by the nineteenth century.

It is impossible for one to write the history of this strife and not incur the censure of one or the other of these parties, so implacably arrayed against each other. There are many in the North, who are in cordial sympathy with the slaveholding aristocracy, and who would gladly see

their principles triumphant over this whole land. All such will denounce these pages. The writer is by no means an indifferent spectator of this conflict. The fundamental article in his political, philanthropic and religious creed is the brotherhood of man. The disposition on the part of the rich to trample upon the poor, and of the strong to crush the weak, is alike execrable in its origin and in all its manifestations. This slaveholding rebellion against the rights of humanity, is the greatest crime of earth. In recording its events, candor does not demand that one should. so ingeniously construct his narrative, as to make no distinction between virtue and vice. The impartiality of history does not require that the treason of Arnold and the patriotism of Washington, should be alike recorded, without commendation or censure.

The writer has, however, endeavored, as a historian, to maintain the most scrupulous honesty. Not a sentence would he willingly allow to escape his pen, distorted by untruthfulness or exaggeration. He has a story to tell of infamous crime, and of noble virtues. He wishes to tell it so truthfully, with such candor, with such expressions of abhorrence of foul treason, and such commendations of patriotic self-sacrifice, as will afford him pleasure to reflect upon, not merely through his brief remaining earthly career, but through all the ages of his immortality. He has never allowed himself to consider the question whether a particular statement would please or displease this or that party. His only object has been faithfully to pen such historic truth as is worthy of record.

The slaveholding rebels demanded that the Constitution of the United States, with its respect for the inalienable rights of man, should be repudiated, and that a new Constitution, with slavery as its corner stone, should be adopted in its stead. The South, overawed by a reign of terror, has seemingly gone as one man, in this demand. There are two parties at the North. The one party is in favor of yielding to this demand. They say that thus the war might have been averted, and may now be ended; that the South may thus be brought back, and the Union cemented anew. The other party say that we should be false to God and man, thus to sacrifice the rights of humanity; and that the vengeance of Heaven will justly fall upon us if we, at the dictation of slaveholders, convert our free Republic into the great bulwark of slavery. If free Americans prove recreant, in this hour of trial, and for the sake of a

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