EMBRACING POLITICAL, CIVIL, MILITARY, AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS; PUBLIC DOCU- AE 5 A7 169703 v.3 1863 GIFT ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, by D. APPLETON & COMPANY, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District PREFACE. IN presenting to the public another volume of the ANNUAL CYCLOPÆDIA, containing the record of the most turbulent year which the country has witnessed, the publishers trust that it will be found truthful and impartial. No efforts have been spared to secure its completeness and accuracy, and to preserve it free from every mark of partisanship. The year 1863 was a remarkable one. Principles adopted in the previous years had gone into effect, and now manifested their results. Many new and important questions thus came up, and were discussed in Congress, by the press, and before civil tribunals. In Europe, also, similar developments were manifested, and although the conflict of arms was not so extensive or violent as in this country, the agitation of men's minds was no less deep and earnest. In these pages the effort has been made to present the facts of this seething condition, so that the reader may see what steps have been taken in public and social affairs, and how far forward they lead toward any amelioration of mankind. Among the numerous questions discussed were those relating to confiscation, emancipation, indemnity official and pecuniary, the relations of the insurrectionary States to the Union, personal liberty, martial law, prize, the liability of Great Britain for damages done by the Alabama, the reconstruction of the map of Europe, and the reorganization of Germany. A detailed statement of the vast military and naval operations in this country is given, which presents the movements of the armies day by day, and step by step, with the objects of those movements, and their consequences; also the efforts of the Government to improve the condition of the freedmen who came within their control, and to organize the able-bodied as soldiers; also the plans and arrangements of its immense hospitals for the sick and wounded. The military operations are illustrated with complete topographical maps of the country. The details of the internal affairs of the country embrace the organization of the armies, North and South; the number and condition of the troops; the important measures and debates in Congress; the acts of State Legislatures, |