On the 24th of February, after some sharp, but ineffectual, correspondence between Kilpatrick and Wheeler, in regard to the murder of the Union prisoners and foragers, Sherman wrote to General Wade Hampton:

"GENERAL-It is officially reported to me that our foraging parties are murdered, after being captured, and labelled, 'Death to all Foragers.' One instance is that of a lieutenant and seven men near Chester, and another of twenty, near a ravine eighty rods from the main road, and three miles from Easterville. I have ordered a similar number of prisoners in our hands to be disposed of in like manner. I hold about one thousand prisoners captured in various ways, and can stand it as long as you, but I hardly think these murders are committed with your knowledge, and would suggest that you give notice to your people at large that every life taken by them simply results in the death of one of your confederates.

"Of course, you cannot question my right to forage in an enemy's country. It is a war right, as old as history. The manner of exercising it varies with circumstances, and if the country will supply my requisitions, I will forbid all foraging; but I find no civil authorities who can respond to calls for forage or provisions, and therefore must collect directly of the people.

"I have no doubt this is the occasion of much misbehavior on the part of our men, but I cannot permit an enemy to judge or punish with wholesale murder. Personally, I regret the bitter feelings engendered by this war, but they were to be expected, and I simply allege that those who struck the first blow, and made war inevitable, ought not, in fairness, to reproach us for the natural consequences. I merely assert our war-right to forage, and my resolve to protect my foragers to the extent of life for life.

"I am, with respect, your obedient servant."

To this General Hampton replied at great length, and with acrimony, denying his knowledge of any such murders, and

instead of investigating the circumstances, declaring his fixed intention of executing two federal prisoners, preferably commissioned officers, for every one put to death by Sherman. As a beginning, he stated that he should hold fifty-six Union prisoners as hostages for the safety of the twenty-eight Confederates ordered to be executed by Sherman.

"The army," Sherman wrote to the lieutenant-general, "is in splendid health, condition, and spirit, although we have had foul weather, and roads that would have stopped travel to almost any other body of men I ever heard of. Our march was substantially what I designed. . . . . I could leave here to-morrow, but want to clean my columns of the vast crowd of refugees and negroes that encumber me. I hope you have not been uneasy about us, and that the fruits of this march will be appreciated."

....

CHAPTER XXVIII.

CO-OPERATIVE MOVEMENTS IN NORTH CAROLINA.

As soon as Sherman had reached Savannah, reported the condition of his army, developed his plans, and received the assent of General Grant to his proposal to march through the Carolinas, instead of moving by water directly to the support of the armies before Richmond, as had been originally intended and ordered, the lieutenant-general proceeded to put in motion the parallel combination necessary to insure the success of the campaign.

Sherman's objective being Goldsboro', the first step to be taken obviously was to secure possession of Wilmington, and the control of the Cape Fear River, so that supplies might, if needful, be sent up that stream, and likewise in order that no formidable and strongly fortified garrison might be left to menace the flank and rear of the moving column.

In anticipation of the occasion for such an operation, and desiring to secure control of the mouth of the Cape Fear River, at a time when attention was less strongly directed in that quarter than would be the case when the execution of his plans should be more fully developed, General Grant had, in December, sent a large force from the Army of the James, under Major-General Godfrey Weitzel, and the Navy Department had dispatched a powerful fleet, under Rear-Admiral David D. Porter, to co-operate in the reduction, first of Fort Fisher and its adjacent works on Federal Point, and afterwards of Wilmington.

Major-General Benjamin F. Butler, the commander of the

Army of the James, accompanied the land forces, and assumed control of their movements. After numerous delays and misunderstandings, the navy opened a furious bombardment on the afternoon of the 24th of December, 1864, and kept it up until nightfall, and all Christmas-day, at the rate of about one shot in every two seconds. During the afternoon of the 25th, under cover of this fire, a portion of the troops landed and made a reconnoissance of the Confederate works; but a storm coming up, General Butler, after consulting with General Weitzel, and ascertaining that the opinion of that officer coincided with his own, ordered the troops already landed to re-embark, and, on the 27th, withdrew his command on the transport fleet and returned to the James River. Admiral Porter, however, decided to remain and continue the naval operations as opportunity might offer.

General Grant immediately selected Major-General Alfred Howe Terry to command the expedition, and directed him to renew the attempt without delay, while the enemy were evidently counting on its abandonment. The choice was an excellent one. General Terry was a young, brave, and accomplished officer, who had entered the army in the earliest period of the war as colonel of the Tenth Regiment of Connecticut Volunteers; and by active service, zeal, fidelity, and gallantry, had, step by step, won his promotion to his present position, for which, by study and careful attention to duty, he had taken pains to qualify himself. The troops placed under his orders for the present movement, including those which had taken part in the previous failure, consisted of a division of thirty-three hundred picked men from Ord's twenty-fourth army corps, under Brigadier-General Adelbert Ames; a division of like strength from Weitzel's twenty-fifth corps, under Brigadier-General Charles J. Paine; a brigade fourteen hundred strong, also from Ord's corps, commanded by Colonel J. C. Abbott, of the Seventh New Hampshire; and two detached batteries of light artillery.

The expedition sailed from Hampton Roads on the 6th of January, 1865, but, owing to a severe storm, followed by con

tinuous unfavorable weather, did not reach its destination off Federal Point and begin the disembarkation until the morning of the 13th. By three o'clock that afternoon, however, through a heavy surf, eight thousand men, with three days' rations in their haversacks and forty rounds of ball cartridges. in their boxes, had been landed on the beach above the fort, under cover of the admirable disposition and effective fire of Admiral Porter's fleet, and every thing was in readiness for an attack. After some time lost in endeavoring to find a suitable point for the establishment, across the peninsula whereon Fort Fisher is situated, of a line of defence against reinforcements seeking to aid the garrison from the direction of Wilmington, by two o'clock on the 14th, Paine, with his own division and two brigades of Ames' division, reached a favorable position for that purpose, and by eight o'clock had thrown up a secure line of intrenchments. During the day the enemy's works were thoroughly reconnoitred, and General Terry determined on his plan of attack for the morrow. Into this Admiral Porter

entered heartily.

Accordingly, at eight o'clock on the morning of the 15th of January, all the fleet, except one division left to support the line of defence across the neck, went into action, and opened a powerful and accurate fire upon the fort. Withdrawing the two brigades of Ames' division, and leaving Paine to hold this defensive line with his own division and Abbott's brigade, at twenty-five minutes past three o'clock in the afternoon Terry gave the order for Ames to move to the assault of the western front. Simultaneously, by a concerted signal, the direction of the fire of the navy was changed, and Curtis' brigade of Ames' division sprang to the assault, while a battalion of marines and seamen, under Commander Breese of the navy, rushed forward to storm the northeast bastion. The naval assault was soon repulsed with heavy loss, but, aided by a well-directed and effective flank fire of the fleet, continued against the fort up to six o'clock P. M., Ames, afterwards re-enforced by Abbott's brigade and the Twenty-seventh United States Colored regiment, of Paine's division, succeeded in effecting an entrance