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Deduct from these amounts the amount of the principal of the public debt redeemed, and the amount of issues in substitution therefor, and the actual cash operations of the Treasury were: receipts, $884,076,646.57; disbursements, $865,234,087.86; which leaves a cash balance in the Treasury of $18,842,558.71.

Of the receipts, there were derived from customs $102,316,152.99; from lands, $588,333.29; from direct taxes, $475,648.96; from internal revenue, $109,741,134.10; from miscellaneous sources. $47,511,448.10; and from loans applied to actual expenditures, including former balance, $623,443,929.13.

There were disbursed, for the civil service, $27,505,599.46; for pensions and Indians, $7,517,930.97; for the War Department, $690,791,842.97; for the Navy Department, $85,733,292.77; for interest of the public debt, $53,685,421.69—making an aggregate of $865,234,087.86, and leaving a balance in the Treasury of $18,842,558.71, as before stated.

The public debt on the 1st day of July, 1864, as appears by the books of the Treasury, amounted to $1,740,690,489.49.

The action of Congress relative to slaves and free colored persons since the commencement of the war may be thus summarily stated. Slaves used for military purposes by the enemy were declared to be free; an additional article of war dismissed from service all officers who should surrender escaped fugitives coming with in the lines of the armies; three thousand slaves in the District of Columbia were emancipated, and slaveholding forbidden: it was enacted that colored persons in the District should be tried for the same offences, in the same manner, and be subject to the same punishment as white persons, and that such persons should not be excluded as witnesses on account of color; and that colored schools should be provided, and the same rate of appropriation made to them as to schools for white children; and that there should be no exclusion from any railway car in the District on account of color; slavery was forever prohibited in all territory of the United States; a joint resolution was passed pledging the faith of the nation to aid non-seceding States to emancipate their slaves; all slaves of persons aiding the enemy, who should take refuge within the lines of the army, were declared free; it was enacted that no slave should be surrendered to any claimant until such person had made oath that he had not given aid and comfort to the rebellion; the President was authorized to receive into the military service persons of African descent, and such person, his mother, wife, and children, owing service to any person giving aid to the rebellion, were declared free; the mutual right of search was arranged within certain limits with Great Britain, in order to suppress the slave trade; the independence of Hayti and Liberia were recognized, and diplomatic relations with them authorized; colored persons, free or slave, to be enrolled and draft

ed the same as whites, the former to have the same pay as the latter, and the slave to be free; all fugitive slave acts were repealed; the coastwise slave trade was declared illegal; colored persons enabled to testify in all the courts of the United States; colored persons were authorized to carry the mails of the United States. Other measures were introduced but failed to pass.

The question of the proper disposition to be made of the vast number of persons of African descent who by the operation of the Emancipation proclamation, by the progress of the Union armies in various parts of the South, or the acts of Emancipation passed by the Constitutional Conventions of several of the States, became free, continued to excite the anxious attention of the Government and of the citizens of the United States. While some progress was made toward the solution of the difficulties, it cannot be said that any entirely satisfactory policy was adopted. Different sections required differences in detail in the management of freedmen. The number who had thus far obtained their freedom is not easily ascertained. In September, 1864, the Philadelphia "North American" published a carefully-prepared estimate for each State, making the aggregate amount 1,368,600. Mr. J. R. Gilmore (Edmund Kirke) had previously estimated the number at 1,555,225, while Jefferson Davis in the summer stated the number at 3,000,000, about threefourths of the whole number in the country. Since that time, Sherman's march through Georgia, South and North Carolina, resulted in setting at liberty hardly less than 200,000, and victories in other quarters materially added to the number elsewhere. Whatever may have been the case in 1863, it hardly admits of a doubt that, including those set free by the Emancipation acts in Maryland, Western Virginia, and Missouri, the whole number of freedmen in 1864 did not fall much, if at all, short of 3,000,000. Of these nearly 250,000 were in the army, either as soldiers or teamsters, and probably more than twice as many more women, children, or old men were employed as servants, cooks, washerwomen, etc., etc., in the various camps, military posts, hospitals, etc., throughout the country. Of the remainder a large number picked up a living, more or less precarious, in the larger cities and towns of the West and South. Very few of them came North, the severe climate being disliked by the negro. Not far from a million and perhaps more than that number were employed upon plantations leased or permitted by the General Government, or worked for wages for farmers and planters in Missouri, Maryland, or Western Virginia, or did themselves become lessees of plantations, or were gathered in Freedmen's Home Colonies if feeble, aged, or infirm, and there supported from the proceeds of the labor of those who were ablebodied.

The Freedmen's Aid Societies, Commissions, and Associations, of which there were eighteen

or twenty in the United States, were active and efficient in furnishing supplies, teachers, and religious instruction to the freedmen. They expended for these purposes during the three years ending January, 1865, nearly one million of dollars. Through their efforts a bill was introduced into Congress providing for the Establishment of a Freedman's Bureau in connection with the War Department which finally passed. The statements of the number of prisoners exchanged to the close of 1864 by each party in the war are quite conflicting, and in the absence of the official documents of either, which were withheld from publication, and which, perhaps, would not agree in details, it is difficult to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion. The report of the Commissary General of prisoners, which accompanied Secretary Stanton's report at the close of 1863, stated that 121,337 of the enemy as prisoners had been exchanged against 110,866 Union prisoners; and that 29,229 still remained in Federal prisons. On the other hand the statistics kept by the clerk of Libby prison, at Richmond, showed that from the 1st of January, 1864, to December 19th, 31,630 Federal prisoners had passed the doors of that prison. This number is independent of twenty thousand captured at Spottsylvania and elsewhere in Virginia, and sent directly South. The statistics of the same prison made the number of those who passed its doors and departed as prisoners of war since the commencement of hostilities at 225,000.

Of the points in dispute between the authorities on each side and which caused temporary suspensions of the exchange, the most serious related to the negro prisoners.

On

This dispute was thus founded on principles which each party held to be fundamental, and yet were directly opposite. If the Federal Government yielded its assent to this doctrine, it would be an abandonment of the proclamation of emancipation, a breach of faith toward those men it had made free and accepted as soldiers in its service, and a direct recognition of the principle of property in man. the other hand, if the Richmond authorities recognized the right of those fugitives from bondage to freedom, it would be an abandonment of the position for which they had been so long contending, and knock the corner-stone from under the whole fabric of slavery. The excess of prisoners finally became so large in the Federal hands, that the question upon which it was impossible to agree was temporarily waived. Another difficulty which existed early in the year, and at the close of the previous one, was a charge that the Federal Government departed from the original agreement. From the date of the cartel until July, 1863, the enemy had an excess of prisoners. The Federal authorities after that date declared the cartel had been violated by the release from parole of the Vicksburg prisoners, and refused to proceed. They then proposed to exchange officer for officer and man for man. This was

refused by the other side, on the ground that it was a departure from the cartel, and the exchange was suspended for some time on this ground. At length on August 10th, 1864, the Confederate Commissioner accepted these terms, "in view of the very large number of prisoners now held by each party and the suffering consequent upon their consequent confinement." The exchange, however, was not at the time resumed, as the question of slave soldiers was still under discussion.

This general suspension of an exchange and the rapid accumulation of prisoners became an additional cause of irritation to both parties. In the Federal hands there were between 60,000 and 70,000, and nearly as many in Confederate prisons. To the enemy there was an additional grievance arising from this detention. Their supply of men was limited; they needed every one for service in the field. In addition a large force was necessarily withdrawn from the field to guard the prisoners. Statements of great cruelty to Federal prisoners were now published and verified. Among them was the following appeal to the President, made by officers in confinement at Charleston:

CONFEDERATE STATES PRISON,
CHARLESTON, S. C., August —, 1864.

To the President of the United States:

The condition of the enlisted men belonging to the Union armies, now prisoners to the Confederate rebel forces, is such that it becomes our duty, and the duty of every commisioned officer, to make known the facts in the case to the Government of the United States, and to use every honorable effort to secure a general exchange of prisoners, thereby relieving thousands of our comrades from the horrors now surrounding them.

For some time past there has been a concentration of prisoners from all parts of the rebel territory to the State of Georgia-the commissioned officers being confined at Macon, and the enlisted men at Anunder General Sherman have compelled the removal dersonville. Recent movements of the Union armies of prisoners to other points, and it is now understood that they will be removed to Savannah, Georgia, Columbia and Charleston, South Carolina. But no change of this kind holds out any prospect of relief to our poor men. Indeed, as the focalities selected are far more unhealthy, there must be an increase rather than a diminution of suffering. Colonel Hill, Provost Marshal General, Confederate States Army, at Atlanta, stated to one of the undersigned that there and by all accounts from the United States soldiers were thirty-five thousand prisoners at Andersonville, who have been confined there, the number is not overstated by him. These thirty-five thousand are confined in a field of some thirty acres, enclosed by a board fence, heavily guarded. About one-third have various kinds of indifferent shelter; but upward of thirty thousand are wholly without shelter, or even shade of any kind, and are exposed to the storms and rains, which are of almost daily occur rence; the cold dews of the night, and the more terrible effects of the sun striking with almost tropical fierceness upon their unprotected heads. This mass of men jostle and crowd each other up and down the limits of their enclosure, in storm or sun, and others lie down upon the pitiless earth at night, with no other covering than the clothing upon their backs, few of them having even a blanket.

Upon entering the prison every man is deliberately stripped of money and other property, and as no clothing or blankets are ever supplied to their prison

ers by the rebel authorities the condition of the apparel of the soldiers, just from an active campaign, can be easily imagined. Thousands are without pants or coats, and hundreds without even a pair of drawers to cover their nakedness.

To these men, as indeed to all prisoners, there is issued three-quarters of a pound of bread or meal, and one-eighth of a pound of meat per day. This is the entire ration, and upon it the prisoner must live or die. The meal is often unsifted and sour, and the meat such as in the North is consigned to the soapmaker. Such are the rations upon which Union soldiers are fed by the rebel authorities, and by which they are barely holding on to life. But to starvation and exposure, to sun and storm, add the sickness which prevails to a most alarming and terrible extent. On an average one hundred die daily. It is impossible that any Union soldier should know all the facts pertaining to this terrible mortality, as they are not paraded by the rebel authorities. Such statements as the following, made by -, speaks eloquent testimony. Said he :-"Of twelve of us who were captured, six died; four are in the hospital, and I never expect to see them again. There are but two of us left." In 1862, at Montgomery, Alabama, under far more favorable circumstances, the prisoners being protected by sheds, from one hundred and fifty to two hundred were sick from diarrhoea and chills, out of seven hundred. The same percentage would give seven thousand sick at Andersonville. It needs no comment, no efforts at word painting, to make such a picture stand out boldly in most horrible colors.

Nor is this all. Among the ill-fated of the many who have suffered amputation in consequence of injuries received before capture, sent from rebel hospitals before their wounds were healed, there are eloquent witnesses of the barbarities of which they are victims. If to these facts are added this, that nothing more demoralizes soldiers and develops the evil passions of man than starvation, the terrible condition of Union prisoners at Andersonville can be readily imagined. They are fast losing hope, and becoming utterly reckless of life. Numbers, crazed by their sufferings, wander about in a state of idiocy; others deliberately cross the "dead line," and are remorselessly shot down.

In behalf of these men we most earnestly appeal to the President of the United States. Few of them have been captured except in the front of battle, in the deadly encounter, and only when overpowered by numbers. They constitute as gallant a portion of our armies as carry our banners anywhere. If released, they would soon return to again do vigorous battle for our cause. We are told that the only obstacle in the way of exchange is the status of enlisted negroes captured from our armies, the United States claiming that the cartel covers all who serve under its flag, and the Confederate States refusing to consider the colored soldiers heretofore slaves as prison

ers of war.

We beg leave to suggest some facts bearing upon the question of exchange, which we would urge upon your consideration. Is it not consistent with the national honor, without waiving the claim that the negro soldiers shall be treated as prisoners of war,

to effect an exchange of the white soldiers? The two classes are treated differently by the enemy. The whites are confined in such prisons as Libby and Andersonville, starved and treated with a barbarism unknown to civilized nations. The blacks, on the contrary, are seldom imprisoned. They are distributed among the citizens, or employed on government works. Under these circumstances they receive enough to eat, and are worked no harder than they have been accustomed to be. They are neither starved nor killed off by the pestilence in the dungeons of Richmond and Charleston. It is true they are again made slaves, but their slavery is freedom and happiness compared with the cruel existence imposed upon our gallant men. They are not bereft of hope, as are the white soldiers, dying by piecemeal. Their chances of escape are tenfold greater than those of the white soldiers, and their condition, in all its lights, is tolerable in comparison with that of the prisoners of war now languishing in the dens and pens of secession.

While, therefore, believing the claims of our Government, in matters of exchange, to be just, we are profoundly impressed with the conviction that the circumstances of the two classes of soldiers are so widely different that the Government can honorably consent to an exchange, waiving for a time the established principle justly claimed to be applicable in the case. Let thirty-five thousand suffering, starving, and dying enlisted men aid this appeal. By prompt and decided action in their behalf thirty-five thousand heroes will be made happy. For the eighteen hundred commissioned officers now prisoners we urge nothing. Although desirous of returning to our duty, we can bear imprisonment with more fortitude if the enlisted men, whose sufferings we know to be intolerable, were restored to liberty and life.

The exposure to artillery fire of officers who were prisoners was resorted to on two or three occasions as acts of retaliation, but it quickly led to explanations, and no injuries were the result. Arrangements were made by each party, on the approach of winter, to furnish their soldiers with blankets and other absolute necessities. Articles for Federal prisoners were sent to City Point from the North, and distributed as directed by agents of the rebels to prisoners in their hands. At the same time a thousand bales of cotton were shipped from Mobile to New York and sold. With the money thus obtained, blankets and other necessaries were provided for the rebel prisoners in Federal prisons. A contribution was also made up in England, and sent over for Confederate prisoners; but permission to deliver it was refused.

In November an exchange was resumed beginning first with the invalids and the sick, and carried forward very rapidly, on the basis of man for man, and officer for officer.

CHAPTER XLIX.

Progress of Military Operations-General Thomas' position in Tennessee-General Hood's position in Tennessee-Movement of the Enemy on the James River-Another Battle at Hatcher's Run-March of Gen. Sherman from Savannah-Capture of Columbia, S. C.-Evacuation of Charleston-Advance to Fayetteville-Transfer of Gen. Schofield to North Carolina-Capture of Wilmington-Advance of Gen. Sherman to Cheraw-Battle at Averysboro-Battle at Bentonville-Arrival at Goldsboro-Results of Sherman's March.

THE severe weather of the winter months caused no cessation in army operations. Maj.Gen. Thomas, after pursuing the retreating forces of Gen. Hood from Tennessee, collected his troops at Eastport. Thence a considerable body of his men, consisting of the 23d corps under Gen. Schofield, were moved by railroad to the Atlantic coast and landed on the North Carolina shore. Another small portion was sent to Gen. Sherman at Savannah. To Gen. Thomas was now assigned the defence of that extended portion of the country from Atlanta north and westward, which belonged to the department under Gen. Sherman, when he commenced his march upon Savannah. The large garrisons which had been required at Memphis and other places on the Mississippi River, also in Tennessee and Kentucky, had been set free by his new position, and were able to join his forces. At the same time, the army of Gen. Hood had been fatally reduced. The situation of Eastport, on the Tennessee River, near the junction of the lines of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama, placed the northern portion of the two latter States at the mercy of Gen. Thomas.

On Jan. 16th, 1865, Gen. Croxton, with a division of the 16th corps and the 1st division of cavalry, reconnoitred from Eastport toward Corinth, passing through Iuka and Brownsville. It appeared that a small force of Gen. Hood's army held Corinth, while the main body was at Tupelo. Thirty-five of the enemy were captured at the depot, and a hotel at Corinth burned. Deserters, averaging from thirty to fifty daily, were coming within Gen. Thomas's lines, from Hood's army. Subsequently a part of Gen. Hood's forces were marched by land eastward across the State of Georgia, to assist in opposing Gen. Sherman. This movement left Gen. Thomas free in the latter part of February to cooperate with Gen. Canby against Mobile, and Southern Alabama, and Mississippi. Thus far the quiet of the Army of the Potomac, since its operations last described, had been undisturbed, except by those incidents usual to hostile armies when near each other. No important movement had been attempted. Under the call for troops in December, 1864, large numbers were going forward to fill its ranks. The withdrawal of a portion of the fleet and of the forces of the Army of the James for the second attack on Wilmington, tempted the enemy at Richmond to make a demonstration for the purpose of breaking the pontoon bridges over the James, and cutting the communication

between the Federal forces on the two banks. If successful, it was undoubtedly the purpose to follow it up by an attack on the forces on the north bank. A fleet, consisting of the Virginia, Fredericksburg, and Richmond, ironclads carrying four guns each, and the wooden vessels Drewry, Nansemond, and Hampton, with two guns each, the Buford, one gun, the steamer Torpedo, and three torpedo boats, left Richmond on Jan. 23d. About midnight, the fleet passed Fort Brady, and began to pass the obstructions. A fire was now opened by the fort, to which the enemy replied, dismounting a hundred pounder in the fort, and escaping beyond its range. The chain in front of the obstructions beyond the lower end of the Dutch Gap Canal was cut, and the Fredericksburg passed through. But the Richmond, Virginia, and Drewry, in attempting to follow, grounded. The Drewry could not be got off, and was abandoned as daylight appeared, and was blown up subsequently by a shell from the battery on shore. The report of the affair by the enemy is as follows:

The flagship of the expedition was the Virginia, commanded by Lieutenant Dunnington. The Richmond was commanded by Lieutenant Bell, who was First Lieutenant on the Alabama at the time of her commanded by Lieutenant Sheppard. The latter fight with the Kearsarge. The Fredericksburg was vessel, being of light draught, passed clean through the obstruction, but the others found a lower tier of obstructions deeply submerged, and which had not been moved by the freshet; the depth of water over them being impassable by vessels of their draught. The Virginia received a shot in the centre by a three hundred pounder Parrott shell, fired from a Yankee Monitor, being struck when trying to get off sunken obstructions in the river. The shot displaced

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a few of her bolts, and killed five of her crew. other damage was done, but it was found that her engines were fouled, not in consequence of the shot, and that she was not in fighting order; in the mean time the fire of our vessels had completely silenced the Yankee shore batteries, and a number of shots were exchanged with the monitor, with what effect is not known. In consequence of the condition of the Virginia's engine, it was decided, on a consultation of the officers of the flotilla, to withdraw all vessels, which was done without further casualty. It great extent on account of the enemy's picket fire, had been impossible to survey the channel to any and the submerged obstructions of the river were found to be more effectual than they were supposed to be.

This was followed by shelling between the hostile batteries on the river throughout the day, and during the night the fleet returned to Richmond.

On the night of Jan. 31st, marching orders

were issued to the entire army at Petersburg, consisting of the 2d, 5th, 6th, and 9th corps. This was preparatory to another movement by the left, the plan of which was to throw a strong flanking column far beyond the right of the enemy's works, along Hatcher's Run, so that it might pass behind them and take them in reverse, and then, if possible, turn north and march upon the Southside Railroad. Meanwhile the rest of the army would form a connection between this corps on the left flank and press the enemy gradually back as far as possible toward the railroad. During the day and night following the issue of the orders, the usual preparations for a forward movement went on; troops and baggage were moved to the proper places, hospitals were cleared, the sick sent to City Point, and four days' rations distributed to the troops. Meanwhile a heavy fire was opened upon the enemy's lines at different points, to conceal the preparations on foot. This was kept up during portions of some nights in which the cars were kept incessantly running to mass troops and supplies on the right. The preparations for the movement were not completed until Sunday morning, the 5th. Gregg's division of cavalry had been ordered to move at 3 o'clock in the morning. The 5th corps, under General Warren, was to march at five, and the 2d corps under Gen. Humphreys, at six o'clock. The flanking column consisted of the 5th corps with Gregg's cavalry. The cavalry column moved down the Jerusalem plank road, and reached Reams' station soon after daybreak. The 5th corps moved along the Halifax road at 5 o'clock, with Gen. Ayres's division in advance, Gen. Griffin's next, and Gen. Crawford's in the rear. On the Vaughan road were the 2d and 3d divisions of the 2d corps, under Gen. Humphreys, who were expected to move directly upon the works at Hatcher's Run, while the 5th corps advanced around the right.

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From Reams' station the cavalry advanced in the direction of Dinwiddie Court House, and encountered at Rowanty Creek, a tributary of the Nottoway, a portion of Hampton's cavalry, dismounted and sheltered by breastworks on the opposite bank, but commanding the bridge. After a short skirmish the bridge and the works were carried with a loss of about twenty men, and the capture of twenty-two prisoners. In a few hours two bridges were built for the troops and trains to cross. Meanwhile a portion of the cavalry advanced to Dinwiddie Court House, and captured some empty wagons, a mail, &c. Scouting parties also advanced up the Boydton road, and captured a few wagons. At night the force returned to Rowanty Creek, where Gen. Gregg bivouacked.

Meanwhile Gen. Humphreys, with the 2d and 3d divisions of the 2d corps continued his advance up the Vaughan road, encountering and driving in the enemy's pickets, and reaching the Run. The intrenchments of the enemy on the opposite bank were not very strongly manned, but the obstructions in the stream were such that the cavalry were driven back in an attempt to cross. The brigade of Gen. De Trobriand was then drawn up in line of battle, and the 99th Pennsylvania sent across in skirmish order, who carried the works at once with a small loss, and secured the fording of the stream. The enemy's small force were now driven back rapidly to the woods, and the brigade took a position on a hill beyond the ford, and throwing up intrenchments rendered itself secure. Previously, however, the 2d division, under Gen. Smyth, when within half a mile of the Run, turned off to the right on a path leading northeasterly toward Armstrong's mill and pond. After advancing three-fourths of a mile, the enemy were found in a strong position. Their pickets were driven in after a sharp encounter, and a line was formed connecting the left of the division with the right of the 3d,

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which Gen. Mott commanded. Temporary earthworks were thrown up and preparations made to resist an attack. Some skirmishing ensued between the pickets until 2 o'clock P. M., when a heavy artillery fire commenced, and an attack from the Under enemy was apparent. cover of the artillery fire the enemy pressed through the difficult swamp, and rushed upon the rifle-pits, which now partly covered the right of Gen. Smyth's division. He was received with such a sharp fire as forced him to fall back to the woods. A second and third attempt was made to carry tho works, and turn the flank of Gen. Smyth, but each was repulsed. At dusk the fighting was over, and the lines re

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