erate waters, never saw Confederate land, and used the Confederate flag only when in the act of making a prize.

In 1863, the Shenandoah, under the name of the Sea Other Anglo-Con- King, was built at Glasgow. The Confeder federate cruisers. ates bought her in September, 1864. She went out to Madeira to receive her arms, stores, and crew, and thence sailed to Australia and the North Pacific. She burnt 25 ships and bonded 4, continuing the destruction long after the war was over. The captain, at length finding that the Confederacy was overthrown, returned to England, and surrendered his ship to the British government.

Another of these Anglo-Confederate cruisers, the Stonewall, was built in a port of France for the Danish government, and sold to the Confederates; she was eventually surrendered to the Spaniards at Havana, and by them given up to the United States.

The American government demands reparation for these wrongs.

The international relations of Great Britain and the United States were thus, by the affair of these Confederate cruisers, brought into a most perilous condition. While the Alabama was yet occupied in her destructive career, the American minister, Mr. Adams, was directed "to solicit redress for the national and private injuries already thus sus tained, as well as a more effective preventive of any repetition of such lawless and injurious proceedings in her majesty's ports hereafter." Under this form of urbanitythis courteous solicitation of a twofold redress for the national and the private injury-was presented to the consideration of the British administration one of the most momentous questions which has ever occupied the atten tion of that country.

SECTION XVII.

OPERATIONS PRELIMINARY TO, OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE FINAL CAMPAIGNS.

CHAPTER LXXIV.

THE MERIDIAN EXPEDITION. SALLY OF THE CONFEDERATES. THE FORT PILLOW MASSACRE.

An expedition for the destruction of the railroad system centering at Meridian was undertaken by General Sherman.

Though a powerful cavalry force which was to have co-operated with him failed to do so, he was completely successful. Many fugitive slaves accompanied the returning expedition.

Forrest, with the Confederate cavalry, made a sally, and captured Fort Pillow; der circumstances of great atrocity, the garrison was massacred in cold blood. Results of the Meridian expedition.

'un

THERE were three important strategic points demanding the attention of the national commanders in points at the South- the Southwest. They were: (1), Meridian ; (2), Mobile; (3), Shreveport.

The three objective

(1.) As respects Meridian. With the fall of Vicksburg and Port Hudson the Confederate government lost control of the Mississippi River; it still, however, possessed means of rapid communication north and south along the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, east and west along the Southern Mississippi. The point of intersection of these two railroads is at Meridian.

(2.) As respects Mobile. With the exception of Wilmington in North Carolina, Mobile was the only port open to the Confederacy, and, notwithstanding the stringency of the blockade, blockade-runners occasionally made their way into that harbor with very valuable cargoes.

(3.) As respects Shreveport. Immense supplies for the

205 use of the Confederate armies had been derived from the Red River country and from Texas. Though these had been very seriously diminished by the loss of the naviga tion of the Mississippi, communication still continued to be stealthily carried on with the trans-Mississippi states Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas. Shreveport is the most important strategic point of that region.

Hence it was necessary that the railroads centering at Meridian should be destroyed; that the forts at the en trance of the harbor of Mobile should be captured, and that place closed to surreptitious commerce. It was desirable that Shreveport should be occupied.

I shall therefore devote three chapters of this section to a narrative of the movements undertaken for the accomplishment of these objects. In a fourth chapter-for this is the most convenient place to dispose of those subjects— I shall add a brief statement of some minor military af fairs, thus clearing the way for an unobstructed view of the great and decisive campaigns.

dition.

The Meridian expedition, on the description of which we The Meridian expe- now enter, is essentially connected with Sherman's campaigns in the Atlantic States, to which it was the prelude. Its bearing on those campaigns is shown by the fact that it greatly aided Thomas in obtaining his victory at Nashville. The breaking up of the Meridian roads compelled Hood to linger long at Florence, waiting to obtain supplies for his men. Until the railroads were repaired, these could reach him only by wag oning. The delay thus arising gave an opportunity to prepare the army at Nashville, and, when Hood did advance, to deliver against him à decisive blow.

Its military consequences.

By the destruction of Meridian and its railroads, not only were the interior communications of the Confederacy seriously damaged, but it became possible to strip with

impunity the garrisoned places on the Mississippi, and to make 15,000 national troops available elsewhere.

After the capture of Vicksburg it was intended to carry the Meridian expedition into execution, but the intense heat of the season, the drought, and the condition of the men, caused it for the time to be deferred. In September it was necessary for Sherman's forces to march to the relief of Chattanooga, and subsequently to that of Knoxville. These objects accomplished, the original intention was resumed.

It shows the effect

Proclamation.

No one can peruse a narrative of the Meridian expedi tion and of the collateral Confederate moveof the Emancipation ments without perceiving that an important epoch of the war had been reached. The mil itary object of the expedition was sufficiently great, but something even more important was obviously taking place spontaneously. The social system of the South was breaking up. Crowds of slaves, escaping to freedom, accompanied the returning marches. The Emancipation Proclamation was proving itself to be something more than an idle threat.

This crowding of fugitive slaves to the national columns was often a source of much embarrassment to the commanding officers. Humanity required that these unfortu nates should be provided for and protected. On many occasions this could be done only with difficulty, and much unavoidable suffering ensued.

For the national government to enlist able-bodied Africans as soldiers was eminently proper, but it is to be recorded, to the discredit of some of the Free States, that they made attempts to obtain among these fugitives recruits for the purpose of filling up the quotas for which they were liable, desiring to keep at home in their factories their skilled operatives. Their agents in this shameful business met with the indignant rebukes of the soldiers and officers of the armies they were haunting, and eventually the scheme had to be abandoned.