MAJ.-GEN. DABNEY H. MAURY.

CHAPTER LXXVI.

Ancestral stock of Dabney H. Maury.-Services in the Mexican War.-Accepts the cause of the Southern Confederacy.-Various services in the Western armies.— His gallant defence of Mobile.-The Army of Mobile the last organized body of troops in the Confederacy.

DABNEY HERNDON MAURY is descended from the families of Fontaine and of Maury, who fled from France to Virginia, on the revocation of the edict of Nantes by Louis XIV.; from the Minor who came to Virginia, in the reign of Charles II., with a grant from that king; and from the Brooke, who came to Virginia, with grants from Queen Anne. The estate of Brooke Bank, on the Rappahannock, is still held by William Brooke, under the original grant. Dabney H. Maury was born in Fredericksburg, May 21, 1822. His father was an officer of high character and ability, who lost his life while serving under old Commodore David Porter in the West Indies, as flag-officer of his fleet; and his father's brother, Matthew Fontaine Maury, yet lives, known to fame as "Lieutenant Maury."

In 1846, he graduated at West Point, was assigned to the Mounted Rifles, proceeded to Mexico, and went into action for the first time at Vera Cruz. He was severely wounded at Cerro Gordo, was promoted for his gallantry there, and also received a pleasant and honourable testimony in the present of a sword from the citizens of Fredericksburg. He was subsequently variously employed as instructor at West Point and Carlisle Barracks, and gave to the military literature of the country a valuable treatise on a new system of tactics for mounted troops. In 1860 he was promoted to captain of the Adjutant-General's department, and ordered to Santa Fé, as Adjutant-General of New Mexico.

He resigned his commission on receiving the news of the secession of Virginia, and made his way with his family and servants through Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky, to Richmond, where he arrived on the 19th July, 1861. He was at once appointed Colonel of Cavalry by the Governor of Virginia, and subsequently Lieutenant-Colonel in the Provisional Army of the Confederate States, and assigned to duty as Adjutant-General of Johnston's army at Manassas. He was soon afterwards, at his own request, transferred to the Army of Fredericksburg.

In February, 1862, he was ordered to the Trans-Mississippi Department, as Chief of Staff to Gen. Van Dorn; and, having been complimented in the battle of Elk Horn, he was promoted Brigadier-General. He went to Corinth with the Army of the Trans-Mississippi, and from that time held various commands in the West. He commanded a division in the battle of Corinth, and did a splendid service after that action in engaging the Federal corps under Ord, at the Hatchie Bridge; and in the subsequent operations around Vicksburg, especially in the defeat of Sherman's and Porter's expedition into the Deer River country, he obtained additional distinction.

But the most memorable and brilliant service rendered by Gen. Maury was the defence of Mobile, in the last periods of the war-an event which adorned the declining fortunes of the Confederacy, and gave to its history the last example of glory. He had been transferred to East Tennessee, when he was ordered to exchange Departments with Gen. Buckner, and to proceed to Mobile, and take command of the Department of the Gulf. While exercising this command, Gen. Maury, at different times, repulsed the attack of Farragut's fleet against Fort Powell, the column of Davidson, from Baton Rouge, against Mobile, and the raid of Ashboth, from Pensacola, towards the Montgomery and Great Northern Railroad. Being temporarily in command of the Department embracing Mississippi, Alabama, East Louisiana, and West Florida, he authorized Forrest to make the expedition into Memphis which caused the retreat of the invading column of A. J. Smith, which had already penetrated into Mississippi as far as Oxford.

After Mobile had been several times threatened with attack,

an army under Canby, and a large fleet, commenced to move against it, in March, 1865. Canby's immediate force was over 45,000 troops, besides a fleet of about twenty war vessels. Gen. Maury's forces were less than 8,000 effectives, with four or five inefficient gunboats. The enemy having got in position, attacked the lines of Spanish Fort and Blakely, while he threatened Mobile itself. The effective force of the positions attacked numbered about 4,000 of all arms; the besiegers numbered more than 45,000, and the works were light field-works. The supply of Confederate ammunition was scant, and had to be very sparingly used. After two weeks of defence, not surpassed in courage and skill by any in the war, the position of Spanish Fort was abandoned to the enemy, and most of the garrison saved. Next day, Blakely was carried by assault. Gen. Maury then decided, in pursuance of his general instructions, to attempt no defence of the city, but to save his garrison. He occupied two days, April 10th and 11th, in removing his stores and destroying his armament, etc., and during the night of the 11th, he removed the troops from their positions in the city, except the rear-guard of 300 Louisiana infantry. On the 12th he marched out of Mobile, on the road to Meridian. The Army of Mobile reached Meridian about 4,500 strong, and was organized into a division under Gen. Maury, and prepared to march across the country into Carolina, to join Gen. Johnston. But this design was overruled by events which had occurred elsewhere.

On the 12th May, 1865, Gen. Maury and the Army of Mobile were paroled prisoners of war, under the terms of the surrender made by Gens. Taylor and Canby. The Army of Mobile was the only organized body of troops on that day in the Confederacy, and bore on their serried bayonets the last hope of the South.

MAJ.-GEN. JOHN B. MAGRUDER.

CHAPTER LXXVII.

Brilliant service of Magruder's batteries in the Mexican War.-Interesting incident at Contreras. He makes the tour of Europe.-Offers his sword to Virginia — Battle of Bethel.-Important and critical services on the Peninsula.-How he deceived McClellan, and defied his "grand army."-Another desperate situation in front of Richmond.-Transferred to Texas.-Recapture of Galveston.-Affair of Sabine Pass.-Address to the people of Texas.-The enemy compared to "the ravenous cat."-Gen. Magruder resists a surrender.-His exile in Mexico.-The tribute of a companion-in-arms to his accomplishments and virtues.

JOHN BANKHEAD MAGRUDER was born at Port Royal, in the county of Caroline, Virginia, in 1808. He graduated at West Point in the class of 1830, and his earliest campaign was against the Indians in Florida, where he served under Gen. Scott and his uncle, Gen. James Bankhead. In the Mexican war his services were historical and brilliant, and he was remarkable there for the splendid performance of his light artillery—an arm the value of which he illustrated in no less than nine battles. The stormy music of his battery was heard in the very first combat at Palo Alto, and its vibrations scarcely ceased until they shook the buildings in the Grand Plaza of the capital! It was in the rapid and effective management of field-pieces, and the combinations with which they were applied to accomplish immediate and important results, that his genius shone and his brilliant courage was most strikingly manifested.

The severest test of the valour and efficiency of this comparatively new arm occurred at Contreras, where Capt. Magruder was ordered to entertain the powerful concentration of the enemy's batteries under Gen. Valencia, while the brigades of Riley and Persifer F. Smith were painfully and slowly gaining his rear. His battery held its ground desperately; it was crippled

by the heavy and murderous fire of Valencia; his horses lay around the guns in pools of gore; but he did not withdraw his broken and suffering ranks until the columns of infantry had succeeded in flanking the enemy. One of his guns was com manded on this day by Lieutenant Thomas Jonathan Jackson, afterwards the world-renowned "Stonewall."

Singular and startling are the vicissitudes of war! When Capt. Magruder had lost half his officers and men in the terrible exposure for three hours at Contreras, and was looking about him for such assistance as he could get in his extremest need, he saw, at a little distance, a young gentleman in the uniform of the United States army, apparently not engaged in the battle. Riding up to him without a moment's delay, Capt. Magruder proposed to the youthful stranger that he should take charge of one of the pieces disabled by the loss of its officer. The invitation was unhesitatingly accepted, and the volunteer lieutenant served the piece with the utmost self-possession, and with telling effect, until the end of the fight. When his name was asked for, that it might be properly mentioned in the official report, he gave it as George B. McClellan! There, upon that Mexican battle-field, under the blazing fire of the enemy, did these two men meet for the first time, fifteen years later to be confronted as deadly enemies on the already historic intrenchments of Yorktown, Virginia, in a war between the sundered sections of the Union! Did the "forlorn hope" of the memorable day of Contreras, its common glory, ever come to the memory of these leaders of hostile armies when each watched the camps of the other and plotted his destruction; and what must have been its lessons, what its inspirations, in this strange confront and emulation of arms!

Magruder came out of the Mexican War a Lieutenant-Colonel by brevet. Soon after its close, he went abroad, and spent some time in England and on the Continent, everywhere perfecting his acquaintance with the art of war in the arsenals and camps of the different nations of Europe, and everywhere received in the most polished circles of society. This foreign tour he repeated, just before the political difficulties of the United States ripened into secession, under a commission from the War Department to prepare a report on the light artillery practice of European estab