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FAILURE AT CHEAT MOUNTAIN.

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orders for a united movement upon the forces of the enemy, both at Elk Water and on Cheat Mountain. After great labour and the endurance of severe hardships on the mountain spurs, where the weather was very cold, Gen. Lee succeeded in getting below the enemy at Elk Water, placing other portions of his forces on the spurs of the mountain immediately east and west of the enemy, and marching another portion of his troops down the river close to the enemy. The forces were thus arranged in position for making an attack upon the enemy at Elk Water, and remained there for some hours, waiting the signal from Col. Rust's attack on Cheat Mountain.

That officer, with fifteen hundred troops, chiefly his Arkansas men, had turned the Cheat Summit Fort, and was now in its rear. But he saw at once that his former reconnoissance had been deceptive. The fortified post was literally unapproachable, by reason of thick abattis of felled trees, with branches and undergrowth densely interlaced, extending from the block-house nearly half a mile down the rugged sides of the mountain. Col. Rust gave no signal for the advance, awaited by the forces at Elk Water; he thought his enterprise hopeless, and withdrew his troops. Gen. Lee, informed of the miscarriage of this part of his plan, abandoned the whole of it, and retired his command without any results whatever.

The failure to dislodge the enemy from Cheat Mountain, and thus relieve Northwestern Virginia, was a disappointment to the Southern public, whose expectations had been greatly raised by vague rumours of Lee's strategy and plans. It was thought, too, that this distinguished commander might have realized some results of his well-matured plan, if, despite of the disconcert of Rust, he had risked an attack upon the enemy's position at Elk Water, which a portion of his forces had surrounded. But regrets were unavailing now; danger was imminent in another quarter. Learning by couriers of the union of Rosecrans and Cox, and of their advance upon Wise and Floyd, Gen. Lee decided at once to reinforce the Southern armies on the line of Lewisburg. He reached Gen. Floyd's camp at Meadow Bluff, on the 20th of September, and after conferring with him for two days, joined Gen. Wise at Sewell Mountain, on the 22d. The experienced eye of Lee saw at once that Wise's position was very strong, and capable of arresting a very heavy hostile force. He accordingly ordered forward his troops to the spot, and extended the defensive works already planned.

Meanwhile Gen. Rosecrans, with fifteen thousand men, advanced, and took possession of the top of Big Sewell Mountain, skirmishing with the forward troops of the Wise brigade. Gen. Lee daily expected an attack, and was prepared for it. His force was now quite equal to that of the enemy. He was within sight of him; each apparently awaiting an attack from the other. But the opportunity of a decisive battle in Western Vir

ginia was again to be lost. On the night of the 6th of October, Rosecrans' troops moved to the rear in the dark, and the next morning, when the Confederates looked out from their camp, the whole of the threatening host that had confronted them for twelve days before, was gone. Gen. Lee made no attempt to pursue them. It was said that the mud, the swollen streams, and the reduced condition of his artillery horses made pursuit impracticable.

But one incident of success was to occur in a campaign of so many disappointments. When Gen. Lee withdrew from the Cheat Mountain region, he left Gen. H. R. Jackson with twenty-five hundred men to hold his position on the Greenbrier River. On the 3d of October, the enemy, about four thousand strong, attacked Jackson's position. A severe artillery engagement occurred, in which Jackson could not bring more than five pieces in action to return the fire of the enemy's eight. Masses of infantry were then thrown forward on Jackson's right and front, marching up the wooded sides of a hill that rose from the river. The location of the hill was such that they could not fire effectively until they crossed the river; and as they attempted to form and deploy, in order to a charge, the 12th Georgia Regiment fired several rapid volleys of musketry into them, which instantly checked their advance. At the same time, Shumaker's guns were directed to the point in the woods in which they were known to be crowded, and completed their discomfiture by playing upon them with destructive effect. The regiments on the hill-side retreated rapidly, and soon the whole force of the enemy's infantry, artillery, and cavalry was moving in a confused mass to the rear. His loss in the engagement in killed and wounded was estimated at from two hundred and fifty to three hundred. The loss of the Confederates was officially reported as six killed and thirty-one wounded.

The approaching rigours of winter terminated the campaign in Western Virginia; or it may be said to have been virtually abandoned by the Richmond authorities. Gen. Lee, who had shed such little blood in the campaign, and obtained such indifferent reputation in mountain warfare, was appointed to take charge of the coast defences of South Carolina and Georgia. Gen. Wise was ordered to report to Richmond, and was subsequently assigned to important duty in North Carolina. Gen. Floyd

lingered in the mountains; had some desultory affairs with the enemy; subsequently retired to Southwestern Virginia; and from there was transferred by the Government to the now imposing theatre of war in Tennessee and Kentucky.

Thus ended the effort of the Confederate authorities to reclaim the larger portion of Western Virginia. We have put in a brief space its narrative of military events; for, after all, it was a mere series of local adventures, compared with other operations of the war.

CHAPTER X.

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THE CONGRESS IN WASHINGTON.-NEW DEVELOPMENT OF NORTHERN POLICY.-LINCOLN'S
POLITICAL DISCOVERY.-HIS REMARKABLE MEASURES OF WAR.-AN ERA OF DESPOTISM.
-VIOLENT ACTS OF CONGRESS.-THE SEED OF ABOLITION.-SUSPENSION OF THE HABEAS
CORPUS.-CURIOUS APOLOGY FOR IT.-MILITARY ARRESTS.-A
-A "CONFIDENTIAL DOCU-
MENT FROM M'OLELLAN.-CURIOUS DISPOSITION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLE TO SUR-
RENDER THEIR LIBERTIES.-CONSERVATISM OF THE CONFEDERATE CAUSE.-LINCOLN'S
VIEW OF STATE NEUTRALITY IN THE WAR.—APPLICATION OF IT TO KENTUCKY.-
THE ELECTIONS IN KENTUCKY.-THE CONFEDERATES ANTICIPATE THE FEDERAL OCCU-
PATION OF KENTUCKY.—ZOLLICOFFER'S COMMAND.-POLK'S COMMAND.-JUSTIFICATION
OF THE CONFEDERATE OCCUPATION.-CLAIMS AND DESIGNS OF THE FEDERALS IN KEN-
TUCKY.—POLK'S OCCUPATION OF COLUMBUS.-HIS PROFFER OF WITHDRAWAL.—ARRESTS
IN KENTUCKY.-DESPOTIC AND BRUTAL LEGISLATION.-DISTINGUISHED REFUGEES.-BRECK-
INRIDGE'S ADDRESS.—EARLY MILITARY MOVEMENTS IN KENTUCKY.-ZOLLICOFFER'S OPERA-
TIONS.-BUCKNER'S OCCUPATION OF BOWLING GREEN.—THE BATTLE OF BELMONT.—MOVE-
MENT OF U. S. GRANT.-GEN. PILLOW'S COMMAND ENGAGED AT DISADVANTAGE. THE
CONFEDERATES DRIVEN BACK.-TIMELY REINFORCEMENTS.-SUDDEN CONVERSION OF A
DEFEAT INTO A VICTORY.-RETREAT OF GRANT.-HIS OFFICIAL MISREPRESENTATION OF
THE DAY.-PROSPECT OF THE WAR IN THE WEST.

THE new Federal Congress, pursuant to the summons of President Lincoln, met in Washington on the 4th of July. The event was the occasion of a new development of the Northern policy, and a remarkable enlargement of the operations of the war.

In his message, Mr. Lincoln announced a great political discovery. It was that all former statesmen of America had lived, and written, and labored under a great delusion; that the States, instead of having created the Union, were its creatures; that they obtained their sovereignty and independence from it, and never possessed either until the Convention of 1787. This singular doctrine of consolidation was the natural preface to a series of measures to strengthen the Government, to enlarge the Executive power, and and to conduct the war with new decision, and on a most unexpected scale of magnitude.

President Lincoln had already instituted certain remarkable measures of war. He had published his proclamation declaring the ports of the

Southern Confederacy in a state of blockade, and denouncing any molestation of Federal vessels on the high seas as piracy, having reference to let ters of marque issued by the Confederate authority. He had prohibited all commercial intercourse with the States composing the new confederation. And although he insisted on referring to the belligerent powers in the flippant and unimportant words of "persons engaged in disorderly proceedings," he had found it advisable, as early as the 3d of May, in addition to his first requisition for seventy-five thousand men to operate against these disorderly persons, to call for forty-odd thousand additional volunteers to enlist for the war, and eighteen thousand seamen, besides increasing the regular army by the addition of ten regiments. He now wrote to Congress: "It is recommended that you give the legal means for making this contest a short and a decisive one; that you place at the control of the Government, for the work, at least four hundred thousand men, and four hundred millions of dollars." The recommendation was a singular commentary on the prospect that had been held out of subduing the Confederate power by three months' levies, before the Congress should meet in the month of July to determine the disposition of the conquered States and the fate of the leaders. But Congress was generous; and, in excess of Mr. Lincoln's demand, voted him five hundred thousand men, to serve for a period not exceeding three years.

But the interest of the first Congress, under Mr. Lincoln's administration, is not confined to its military legislation. It is a period from whick we may trace a spirit that essentially tended to revolutionize the political system and ideas of the North itself, and to erect on the ruins of the Constitution a despotic authority, whose consequences ran all through the

war.

The first sessions of this Congress were signalized by a resolution refusing to consider any propositions but those looking to a continued and vigorous prosecution of the war, and confining all business to the military and naval operations of the Government; by a general approval of the acts done by the President without constitutional authority, including his suspension of the habeas corpus; and by the initiation of a barbarous policy of confiscation in a bill declaring free whatever slaves were employed in the service of "the rebellion," thus evidently containing the seed of that thick crop of Abolition legislation which was to ensue.

Mr. Lincoln had suspended the writ of habeas corpus, without the constitutional concurrence of Congress, and under a claim of authority to arrest without process of law all persons "dangerous to the public safety." This remarkable usurpation was tolerated by the country. Indeed, it obtained many ingenious defences in Northern newspapers. It was declared that the privilege of habeas corpus was really in the interest of no one but quasi criminals; and that what had been esteemed for centuries as the

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