their guns at the retiring foe, and with huzzas repeated again and again and again, raised the glorious old banner of National integrity over all the bastions which had just been degraded by the flaunting flag of rebellion. It was a hard fought fight and a glorious victory. Every regiment and almost every man behaved heroically. The 51st New York performed deeds of valor, which will induce every man of the regiment to look back upon that day with pride, so long as he shall live.

Who can solve the enigma of humanity-that a scene so awful can contain the elements of joy. The spectacle inside the battery was dreadful. The ground was covered with bodies, in every revolting form of mutilation, some dead, some in convulsive agonies, some pale and despairing waiting for relief, and such relief as the surgeon's amputating knife alone could afford. Horses wounded and dead, dismounted guns, broken muskets, and garments and stores of every kind were trampled in mire which was red with blood. Gen. Burnside wisely deeming it important to avail himself of the panic which had seized the foe, did not tarry an hour to rejoice over his victory. Several brigades were at once on the move, some by the railroad track, and others by the country-road which ran near its side. It was manifest to the rebels that if they could not maintain themselves behind their strongest ramparts, which they had already abandoned, they could stand nowhere. Their army was thoroughly disorganized and their flight was precipitate and disorderly. Our troops marched rapidly on meeting no obstruction. Early in the afternoon the National troops reached the eastern banks of the Trent, directly opposite Newbern, which was on the western banks of the river. The rebels had fired the city. In seven different localities the flames were bursting forth, and dense volumes of smoke were rising to the clouds. The magnificent railroad bridge, across the Trent, 750 yards long, was also wrapped in one grand sheet of flame.

With a few steamers Gen. Foster rapidly ferried his troops across. A fortunate lull in the wind enabled the soldiers, with the aid of such of the inhabitants as remained, to extinguish the fires; else the whole city would have been reduced to ashes. The rebels had a very extensive camp, filled with all luxuries, which they precipitately abandoned. Five thousand victorious troops thus found themselves in a comparatively deserted city. Gen. Burnside very judiciously ordered every liquor cask in the camp and in the city to be staved; a strong provost guard was established, and before midnight the exhausted soldiers were all asleep, and the streets were as quiet as if gentle peace had ever reigned there undisturbed.

In the advance upon Newbern the fleet of gun-boats coöperated with great efficiency. The rebels had exerted their utmost ingenuity in filling the river with obstructions, and its shores were lined with batteries. Commodore Goldsborough had suddenly returned to Fortress Monroe, being recalled by the new peril which threatened our fleet there from the MerriCommodore Rowan took charge of the gun-boats, and, by his gallantry, proved that they could not have fallen into better hands. About six miles below the city there was a shoal or sand-bar, dividing the stream into two channels. In the right-hand channel the rebels had sunk twenty

mac.

four vessels, locked into one another, stem and stem. In the left-hand channel they had ingeniously fastened a large number of heavy stakes, or rather massive pieces of timber, sharpened with iron; and had also set as traps many destructive torpedoes. Before the fleet reached this obstruction it had two batteries to pass. The first was called Fort Dixie and mounted four guns. But scarcely had the gun-boats opened upon it with their terrible salvos of shot and shell, ere the rebels fled, "like chaff before the wind." Some men were sent on shore in yawls to take possession and raise the Stars and Stripes. A force of rebel cavalry were seen in the woods behind the forts. A few shells dispersed them. The fleet steamed slowly along, led by the flag-ship Delaware, till they came to another battery, mounting fifteen guns, called Fort Thompson. A few shots silenced the rebel guns, dispersed the garrison, and the flag of the Union rose proudly, amidst deafening cheers, over the ramparts. It was now night, and the fleet was anchored till morning, with boats out on picket duty.

The next morning, Saturday, the 14th, everything was enveloped in an impenetrable fog. It, however, soon lifted, and the gun-boats were again in movement. They approached the formidable obstructions, which were also protected by Fort Brown, which mounted two powerful columbiads, trained to bear directly upon any vessel which might be impaled upon the beams. This fort was much stronger than either of the others, and was also bomb-proof. Commander Rowan ordered all the boats to follow his lead, and succeeded in passing through the obstructions uninjured. By singular good fortune or skill in gunnery, a shot, from one of the gunboats, entered the embrasure of the fort, struck one of the columbiads directly upon the muzzle, hurling it from its carriage, and spreading such consternation around, that the rebels fled at the double-quick. The fort was instantly seized, the Stars and Stripes raised, and the whole fleet worked through the obstructions, two only of the boats being slightly injured. All the torpedoes were left harmless in the bottom of the river.

Still there was another battery to be encountered, Fort Ellis, mounting nine guns. The garrisons of all the other captured forts had rallied here for a desperate resistance. For a time the fight raged quite fiercely. At length a shell, from one of the gun-boats, went directly through, into the magazine, exploding it with a terrific report and awful carnage. As the smoke cleared away, none of the rebels, but the dying and dead, were left behind. There was still another battery to be passed, Fort Lane, which, well handled, might have caused the National fleet great annoyance. But the terrified rebels abandoned it without firing a shot. A large number of scows, filled with combustibles, had been collected as fire-rafts. The rebels, in their haste, applied the torch, but the boats were not pushed out into the stream, and they burned harmlessly by the shore. The fleet now cast anchor before the city, just as the troops were entering it. It is a singular fact that the navy did not lose a single man in running the gauntlet of all these forts and taking possession of them.

There is a peculiar air of antiquity and decay pervading all these silent, unenterprising Southern towns. The northern soldiers, accustomed to the vigorous and tasteful towns and villages of the North, were surprised in

viewing the quiet streets, and the unpainted, slatternly houses, covered with mosses and lichens. All accounts agree in testifying to the heroic courage, to the apparent unconcern with which our young troops faced all the perils of the day. As one specimen an eye-witness says, "I was standing on the road, in conversation with Lieut. Fearing, of Gen. Burnside's staff, when a 32-pound shot flew between his horse's legs, barely escaping his belly by an inch or two. Beyond giving Beyond giving a look to see if the animal was safe, Lieut. Fearing showed no consciousness that anything unusual had happened, and went on with the conversation."

In this victory the National forces captured six forts, thirty-four heavy guns, six steamboats, and public property to the amount of two millions of dollars. Our loss was but 80 killed and 290 wounded. The rebel loss

about the same. The National sharpshooters kept up such a merciless and accurate fire, that the rebel infantry dared not expose themselves in taking aim. They simply, after loading behind the ramparts, raised their guns over their heads and fired, almost at random, thus throwing many of their bullets away. The capture of Newbern placed Beaufort, N. C., and Fort Macon at the mercy of the Government. They might present a short resistance, but their final reduction was sure. The colored population were rejoiced beyond measure at the triumph of the North. As the Jews, in the day's of our Saviour, were all looking for the promised Messiah, so the slaves universally throughout the South, regarded the advent of the Northern armies as the harbinger of their deliverance. No language can express the satisfaction with which they received the National troops, and the eagerness they manifested to serve them.

They could hardly believe the evidence of their senses, and could not possibly restrain their delight, when they saw their affrighted masters running before our troops. They had never before dreamed that there could be any earthly power superior to that which their dreaded masters wielded. A slaveholder, breathless with terror, spurred his horse to his utmost speed, by his own door, not venturing to stop. Just then a shell, with its terrific, unearthly shriek, rushed through the air, over his head. A poor slave, a man of unfeigned piety and fervent prayer, in uncontrollable emotions of joy, ran into his humble cabin, shouting, "Wife; he is running ; he is running, and the wrath of God is after him."

The next day was the Sabbath. By order of Gen. Burnside, all the churches were open, the bells were rung as usual, the chaplains of the army officiated, and as a general rule both officers and men "remembered the Sabbath day to keep it holy."