he determined to withdraw from the unequal conflict, securing such of the results of the victory of the day before as was then practicable.

As evidence of the condition of Beauregard's army, he had not been able to bring into the action of the second day more than twenty thousand men. In the first day's battle the Confederates engaged the divisions of Gen. Prentiss, Sherman, Hurlburt, McClernand and Smith, of 9,000 men each, or at least 45,000 men. This force was reinforced during the night by the divisions of Gens. Nelson, McCook, Crittenden, and Thomas, of Buell's army, some 25,000 strong, including all arms; also Gen. L. Wallace's division of Gen. Grant's army, making at least 33,000 fresh troops, which, added to the remnant of Gen. Grant's forces, amounting to 20,000, made an aggregate force of at least 53,000 men arrayed against the Confederates on the second day.

Against such an overwhelming force it was vain to contend. At 1 P. M. Gen. Beauregard ordered a retreat. Gen. Breckinridge was left with his command as a rear guard, to hold the ground the Confederates had occupied the night preceding the first battle, just in front of the intersection of the Pittsburg and Hamburg roads, about four miles from the former place, while the rest of the army passed in the rear, in excellent order. The fact that the enemy attempted no pursuit indicated his condition. He had been too sorely chastised to pursue; and Gen. Beauregard was left at leisure to retire to Corinth, in pursuance of his original design to make that the strategic point of his campaign.

The battle of Shiloh, properly extending through eighteen hours, was memorable for an extent of carnage up to this time unparalleled in the war. The Confederate loss, in the two days, in the killed outright, was 1,728, wounded 8,012, missing 957; making an aggregate of casualties 10,699. Of the loss of the enemy, Gen. Beauregard wrote: "Their casaalties cannot have fallen many short of twenty thousand in killed, wounded, prisoners, and missing."

Gen. Beauregard was unwilling to admit that the experience of the second day had eclipsed the brilliant victory which he so unfortunately left unfinished on the banks of the Tennessee. He declared that he had left the field on the second day "only after eight hours' successive battle with a superiour army of fresh troops, whom he had repulsed in every attack upon his lines, so repulsed and crippled, indeed, as to leave it unable to take the field for the campaign for which it was collected and equipped at such enormous expense, and with such profusion of all the appliances of war." On the other hand, the North inscribed Shiloh as its most bril liant victory. An order of the War Departinent at Washington required that at meridian of the Sunday following the battle, at the head of every regiment in the armies of the United States there should be offered by its chaplain a prayer, giving "thanks to the Lord of Hosts for the

DEATH OF GEN. A. S. JOHNSTON.

243

recent manifestation of His power in the overthrow of the rebels and traitors."

But whatever may be the correct estimation of the battle of Shiloh, there was one event of it which was a most serious loss to the Confederacy, and an occasion of popular sorrow in every part of it. This was the death of Gen. Albert Sydney Johnston, the man especially trusted with the Confederate fortunes in the West, esteemed by his Government as the military genius of his country, and so gifted by nature with dignity, and with power over men, that it was said he was born to command. This illustrious commander had already figured in many historical scenes, and up to the period of his death had led one of the most eventful and romantic military lives on the continent. He had served in the Black Hawk war. In the Texan war of independence, he entered her army as a private soldier Subsequently he was made senior brigadier-general of the Texan army and was appointed to succeed Gen. Felix Houston in the chief command. This led to a duel between them, in which Johnston was wounded. In 1838, he was chosen Secretary of War of the new Republic under President Lamar; and the following year he organized an expedition against the Cherokee Indians. He subsequently settled on a plantation in Texas, and for several years remained there, leading the quiet life of a planter.

When the Mexican war broke out, he, once more, in 1846, and at the request of Gen. Taylor, resumed his profession of arms, and sought the battle-field. He arrived in Mexico shortly after the battles of Resaca and Palo-Alto, and was elected colonel of the first Texas regiment. After that regiment was discharged, he was appointed aide and inspector-general to Gen. Butler; and in that capacity he was at the famous battle of Monterey, and, during the fight, his horse was three times shot under him.

After the Mexican war, he obtained the appointment of paymaster of the regular army, with the rank of major. When the army was increased by four new regiments, Jefferson Davis, then Secretary of War, gave him command of the Second Cavalry, with his headquarters at San Antonio, Texas. In the latter part of 1857, he was appointed by President Buchanan to the command of the Utah expedition, sent to quell the Mormons. In the spring of 1858, he crossed the plains, and arrived at Salt Lake City, where, in consequence of his services, he was brevetted brigadier-general, and full commander of the military district of Utah. He was subsequently sent to California, and assumed command of the Department of the Pacific. There the commencement of the war found him; and on learning of the secession of his adopted State, Texas, he resigned his position in the United States army, and at once prepared to remove South, to espouse the cause of the Confederacy.

The Federal authorities had to intercept his passage by sea.

taken measures to arrest him, or, at least, But he eluded their vigilance by taking

the overland route. With three or four companions, increased afterwards to one hundred, on mules, he proceeded by way of Arizona, passed through Texas, and arrived at New Orleans in safety. This was in August, 1861, and, immediately proceeding to Richmond, he was assigned to the com mand of the Department of the Mississippi.

In the early part of the western campaign, Gen. Johnston had fallen under the censure of the newspapers. It has been said that this censure preyed upon his mind; but if it did, he thought very nobly of it, for in a private letter, dated after the retreat from Bowling Green, and the fall of Fort Donelson, he wrote: "The test of merit, in my profession, with the people, is success. It is a hard rule, but I think it right." But a few days before the battle in which he fell, he expressed a resolution to redeem his losses at no distant day.

No more beautiful tribute could have been paid to the memory of the departed hero, than that made by Jefferson Davis himself; and no more choice and touching language ever came from the polished pen of the Confederate President, than on this occasion. He announced the death in a special message to Congress. He said: "Without doing injustice to the living, it may safely be said that our loss is irreparable. Among the shining hosts of the great and good who now cluster around the banner of our country, there exists no purer spirit, no more heroic soul, than that of the illustrious man whose death I join you in lamenting. In his death he has illustrated the character for which, through life, he was conspicuousthat of singleness of purpose and devotion to duty with his whole energies. Bent on obtaining the victory which he deemed essential to his country's cause, he rode on to the accomplishment of his object, forgetful of self, while his very life-blood was fast ebbing away. His last breath cheered his comrades on to victory. The last sound he heard was their shout of victory. His last thought was his country, and long and deeply will his country mourn his loss."

The remains were carried to New Orleans. They were laid in state in the mayor's parlour, and the public admitted. The evidences of the public sorrow were most touching. Flowers, the testimonies of tender affection, encircled his coffin simply, but beautifully. And, attended by all the marks of unaffected grief, with gentle hands and weeping eyes moving softly around him, the great commander, with his sheathed sword still by his side, was borne to his final and eternal rest.

CHAPTER XV.

THE MILITARY SITUATION OF THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI.-THE FALL OF NEW ORLEANS.-A LANG TRAIN OF SECRET HISTORY OF THE CONFEDERATE ADMINISTRATION.-SENSE OF SECURITY IN NEW ORLEANS.-STRANGE ERROUR OF THE RICHMOND AUTHORITIES.-GEN. LOVELL'S CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE WAR DEPARTMENT.-STARTLING DISCLOSURES.-NAVAL STRUCTURES FOR THE DEFEnce of new ORLEANS.-SECRETARY MALLORY'S STATEMENT TO THE CONFEDERATE CONGRESS.-TESTIMONY OF GOV. MOORE, OF LOUISIANA.—HIS INTERPO SITION WITH THE SHIP-BUILDERS. THE IRON-CLADS MISSISSIPPI AND LOUISIANA.-CONDI⚫ TION OF THE DEFENCES OF NEW ORLEANS IN APRIL, 1862.-THE RIVER OBSTRUCTED BY A RAFT.—FARRAGUT'S FLEET AT THE MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI.—FESTIVITY IN NEW ORLEANS.-BOMBARDMENT OF FORTS JACKSON AND ST. PHILIP.-PASSAGE OF THE FORTS BY THE ENEMY'S VESSELS.-the confederate gunbOATS ALL DESTROYED.-CONFUSION AND PANIC IN NEW ORLEANS.-GREAT CONFLAGRATION IN THE CITY.-A SCENE OF TERRIBLE GRANDEUR.-LOVELL'S EVACUATION OF NEW ORLEANS.-DISORDER IN NEW ORLEANS. -FARRAGUT'S CORRESPONDENCE WITH MAYOR MONROE.-WHY THE MAYOR PROTRACTED THE CORRESPONDENCE.-A NEW HOPE OF DEFENCE.-SURRENDER OF FORTS JACKSON AND ST. PHILIP.—GEN. DUNCAN'S SPEECH ON THE LEVEE.-FARRAGUT'S ULTIMATUM.-HOISTING OF THE STARS AND STRIPES OVER NEW ORLEANS.-WHAT THE FALL OF NEW ORLEANS INVOLVED. NOTE: GEN. LOVELL'S REASONS FOR EVACUATING NEW ORLEANS.-RULE OF BUTLER IN THE CONQUERED CITY.-CHARACTER AND PERSON OF THE TYRANT OF NEW ORLEANS."—"THE WOMAN-ORDER."—ARREST OF MAYOR MONROE AND OF VARIOUS CITIZENS.-BUTLER ON FEMALE SECESSIONISTS.-HIS OPINION OF SHE-ADDERS."-CONFISCATIONS, FINES, AND PLUNDER.—BUTLER'S DECOY FOR ASSASSINS.—THE HANGING OF MUMFORD. HIS SPEECH ON THE GALLOWS.-GENERAL EXPERIENCE IN THE CONFEDERACY OF THE ENEMY'S ATROCITY.-NEW CODES AND METHODS OF WAR.-PROGRESS OF FEDERAL CRUELTY.

THE Confederate public had been disposed to find some consolation for the disaster at Island No. 10 in the brilliant, though unfruitful story of Shiloh. It was considered, too, that the river below Fort Pillow was safe; and that while the army at Corinth covered Memphis, and held the enemy in check on land, the rich and productive valley of the Lower Mississippi was yet secure to the Confederacy.

But in the midst of these pleasing calculations and comparative re-assurance, a great disaster was to occur where it was least expected, which was

to astound the people of the South, to involve the practical loss of another mass of rich territory, and to alarm the hopes of men in all parts of the world for the success of the Confederates. This unexpected event was the fall of New Orleans.

With respect to this disaster, we have to develop a long train of the secret history of the Confederate Administration-a history replete with evidences of mismanagement and shiftlessness that will be almost incredible to the world accustomed to read of the administration of governments in time of war, and to expect, at least, an average of intelligence in the conduct of public affairs.

THE FALL OF NEW ORLEANS.

New Orleans had been so long threatened with attack, that popular opinion in the Confederacy was disposed to take it as impregnable. For months the Federal fleet cruised about the Gulf with evident indecision, until people in New Orleans began to smile, and say: "They would think twice before attempting a rehearsal of the scenes of 1812." It was declared, on the authority of newspapers, that the city was inpregnable; the forts, Jackson and St. Philip, sixty or seventy miles below the city, were considered but as the outer line of defences; the shores of the river were lined with batteries; and in the harbour were reported to be twelve gunboats, and certain iron-clad naval structures which, it was asserted, were superiour to the famous "Virginia," and would deal with a Federal fleet as hawks might with a flock of pigeons.

But penetrating this popular conceit and confidence, and going to official records for proofs, we shall discover that the facts were that New Orleans was in a shamefully defenceless condition; that the Richmond authorities had persisted in the strange errour that the attack on the city was to come from above; that they had consequently stripped it almost en tirely of troops, and neglected the armament of its interiour line of defence; and that the naval structures, which the authorities had declared would be fully able to protect the city under any circumstances, were, by the most wretched and culpable mismanagement, neglected, delayed, and finally found in a condition in which they were not of the slightest avail.

Gen. Mansfield Lovell assumed command of the defences of New Orleans late in October, 1861. The city at that time had been "drained of arms, ammunition, medical stores, clothing and supplies, which had been sent to other points," and the defences were in a thoroughly incomplete condition. The troops raised in Louisiana had been principally sent to Virginia and Pensacola, and those that remained were necessarily inade quate to the end desired, and required organization.