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diff --git a/1864.txt b/1864.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2f4acc7 --- /dev/null +++ b/1864.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5540 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Hero Tales From American History, by +Henry Cabot Lodge, and Theodore Roosevelt + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Hero Tales From American History + +Author: Henry Cabot Lodge, and Theodore Roosevelt + +Posting Date: October 10, 2008 [EBook #1864] +Release Date: August, 1999 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HERO TALES FROM AMERICAN HISTORY *** + + + + +Produced by Dianne Bean + + + + + +HERO TALES FROM AMERICAN HISTORY + +By Henry Cabot Lodge And Theodore Roosevelt + + + Hence it is that the fathers of these men and ours also, and + they themselves likewise, being nurtured in all freedom and + well born, have shown before all men many and glorious deeds + in public and private, deeming it their duty to fight for + the cause of liberty and the Greeks, even against Greeks, + and against Barbarians for all the Greeks."--PLATO: + "Menexenus." + + +TO E. Y. R. + +To you we owe the suggestion of writing this book. Its purpose, as you +know better than any one else, is to tell in simple fashion the story of +some Americans who showed that they knew how to live and how to die; who +proved their truth by their endeavor; and who joined to the stern and +manly qualities which are essential to the well-being of a masterful +race the virtues of gentleness, of patriotism, and of lofty adherence to +an ideal. + +It is a good thing for all Americans, and it is an especially good thing +for young Americans, to remember the men who have given their lives in +war and peace to the service of their fellow-countrymen, and to keep in +mind the feats of daring and personal prowess done in time past by +some of the many champions of the nation in the various crises of her +history. Thrift, industry, obedience to law, and intellectual cultivation +are essential qualities in the makeup of any successful people; but no +people can be really great unless they possess also the heroic virtues +which are as needful in time of peace as in time of war, and as +important in civil as in military life. As a civilized people we desire +peace, but the only peace worth having is obtained by instant readiness +to fight when wronged--not by unwillingness or inability to fight at +all. Intelligent foresight in preparation and known capacity to stand +well in battle are the surest safeguards against war. America will cease +to be a great nation whenever her young men cease to possess energy, +daring, and endurance, as well as the wish and the power to fight the +nation's foes. No citizen of a free state should wrong any man; but it +is not enough merely to refrain from infringing on the rights of others; +he must also be able and willing to stand up for his own rights and +those of his country against all comers, and he must be ready at any +time to do his full share in resisting either malice domestic or foreign +levy. + +HENRY CABOT LODGE. THEODORE ROOSEVELT. + +WASHINGTON, April 19, 1895. + + + +CONTENTS + + GEORGE WASHINGTON--H. C. Lodge. + + DANIEL BOONE AND THE FOUNDING OF KENTUCKY--Theodore Roosevelt. + + GEORGE ROGERS CLARK AND THE CONQUEST OF THE NORTHWEST--Theodore + Roosevelt. + + THE BATTLE OF TRENTON--H. C. Lodge. + + BENNINGTON--H. C. Lodge. + + KING'S MOUNTAIN--Theodore Roosevelt. + + THE STORMING OF STONY POINT--Theodore Roosevelt. + + GOUVERNEUR MORRIS--H. C. Lodge. + + THE BURNING OF THE "PHILADELPHIA"--H. C. Lodge. + + THE CRUISE OF THE "WASP"--Theodore Roosevelt. + + THE "GENERAL ARMSTRONG" PRIVATEER--Theodore Roosevelt. + + THE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS--Theodore Roosevelt. + + JOHN QUINCY ADAMS AND THE RIGHT OF PETITION--H. C. Lodge. + + FRANCIS PARKMAN--H. C. Lodge. + + "REMEMBER THE ALAMO"--Theodore Roosevelt. + + HAMPTON ROADS--Theodore Roosevelt. + + THE FLAG-BEARER--Theodore Roosevelt. + + THE DEATH OF STONEWALL JACK--Theodore Roosevelt. + + THE CHARGE AT GETTYSBURG--Theodore Roosevelt. + + GENERAL GRANT AND THE VICKSBURG CAMPAIGN--H. C. Lodge. + + ROBERT GOULD SHAW--H. C. Lodge. + + CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL--H. C. Lodge. + + SHERIDAN AT CEDAR CREEK--H. C. Lodge. + + LIEUTENANT CUSHING AND THE RAM "ALBEMARLE"--Theodore Roosevelt. + + FARRAGUT AT MOBILE BAY--Theodore Roosevelt. + + ABRAHAM LINCOLN--H. C. Lodge. + + + + "Hor. I saw him once; he was a goodly king. + Ham. He was a man, take him for all in all + I shall not look upon his like again."--Hamlet + + + + +HERO TALES FROM AMERICAN HISTORY + + + + +WASHINGTON + +The brilliant historian of the English people [*] has written of +Washington, that "no nobler figure ever stood in the fore-front of a +nation's life." In any book which undertakes to tell, no matter how +slightly, the story of some of the heroic deeds of American history, +that noble figure must always stand in the fore-front. But to sketch the +life of Washington even in the barest outline is to write the history +of the events which made the United States independent and gave birth +to the American nation. Even to give alist of what he did, to name his +battles and recount his acts as president, would be beyond the limit and +the scope of this book. Yet it is always possible to recall the man and +to consider what he was and what he meant for us and for mankind He is +worthy the study and the remembrance of all men, and to Americans he is +at once a great glory of their past and an inspiration and an assurance +of their future. + + * John Richard Green. + + +To understand Washington at all we must first strip off all the myths +which have gathered about him. We must cast aside into the dust-heaps +all the wretched inventions of the cherry-tree variety, which were +fastened upon him nearly seventy years after his birth. We must look at +him as he looked at life and the facts about him, without any illusion +or deception, and no man in history can better stand such a scrutiny. + +Born of a distinguished family in the days when the American colonies +were still ruled by an aristocracy, Washington started with all that +good birth and tradition could give. Beyond this, however, he had +little. His family was poor, his mother was left early a widow, and he +was forced after a very limited education to go out into the world to +fight for himself He had strong within him the adventurous spirit of +his race. He became a surveyor, and in the pursuit of this profession +plunged into the wilderness, where he soon grew to be an expert hunter +and backwoodsman. Even as a boy the gravity of his character and +his mental and physical vigor commended him to those about him, and +responsibility and military command were put in his hands at an age when +most young men are just leaving college. As the times grew threatening +on the frontier, he was sent on a perilous mission to the Indians, in +which, after passing through many hardships and dangers, he achieved +success. When the troubles came with France it was by the soldiers under +his command that the first shots were fired in the war which was to +determine whether the North American continent should be French or +English. In his earliest expedition he was defeated by the enemy. Later +he was with Braddock, and it was he who tried, to rally the broken +English army on the stricken field near Fort Duquesne. On that day +of surprise and slaughter he displayed not only cool courage but the +reckless daring which was one of his chief characteristics. He so +exposed himself that bullets passed through his coat and hat, and the +Indians and the French who tried to bring him down thought he bore a +charmed life. He afterwards served with distinction all through the +French war, and when peace came he went back to the estate which he had +inherited from his brother, the most admired man in Virginia. + +At that time he married, and during the ensuing years he lived the life +of a Virginia planter, successful in his private affairs and serving the +public effectively but quietly as a member of the House of Burgesses. +When the troubles with the mother country began to thicken he was slow +to take extreme ground, but he never wavered in his belief that all +attempts to oppress the colonies should be resisted, and when he once +took up his position there was no shadow of turning. He was one of +Virginia's delegates to the first Continental Congress, and, although +he said but little, he was regarded by all the representatives from +the other colonies as the strongest man among them. There was something +about him even then which commanded the respect and the confidence of +every one who came in contact with him. + +It was from New England, far removed from his own State, that the demand +came for his appointment as commander-in-chief of the American army. +Silently he accepted the duty, and, leaving Philadelphia, took command +of the army at Cambridge. There is no need to trace him through the +events that followed. From the time when he drew his sword under the +famous elm tree, he was the embodiment of the American Revolution, and +without him that revolution would have failed almost at the start. How +he carried it to victory through defeat and trial and every possible +obstacle is known to all men. + +When it was all over he found himself facing a new situation. He was the +idol of the country and of his soldiers. The army was unpaid, and the +veteran troops, with arms in their hands, were eager to have him take +control of the disordered country as Cromwell had done in England +a little more than a century before. With the army at his back, and +supported by the great forces which, in every community, desire order +before everything else, and are ready to assent to any arrangement which +will bring peace and quiet, nothing would have been easier than for +Washington to have made himself the ruler of the new nation. But that +was not his conception of duty, and he not only refused to have anything +to do with such a movement himself, but he repressed, by his dominant +personal influence, all such intentions on the part of the army. On +the 23d of December, 1783, he met the Congress at Annapolis, and there +resigned his commission. What he then said is one of the two most +memorable speeches ever made in the United States, and is also memorable +for its meaning and spirit among all speeches ever made by men. He spoke +as follows: + +"Mr. President:--The great events on which my resignation depended having +at length taken place, I have now the honor of offering my sincere +congratulations to Congress, and of presenting myself before them, to +surrender into their hands the trust committed to me and to claim the +indulgence of retiring from the service of my country. + +Happy in the confirmation of our independence and sovereignity and +pleased with the opportunity afforded the United States of becoming +a respectable nation, I resign with satisfaction the appointment I +accepted with diffidence; a diffidence in my abilities to accomplish so +arduous a task, which, however, was superseded by a confidence in the +rectitude of our cause, the support of the supreme power of the Union, +and the patronage of Heaven. + +The successful termination of the war has verified the most sanguine +expectations, and my gratitude for the interposition of Providence and +the assistance I have received from my countrymen increases with every +review of the momentous contest. + +While I repeat my obligations to the Army in general, I should do +injustice to my own feelings not to acknowledge, in this place, the +peculiar services and distinguished merits of the Gentlemen who have +been attached to my person during the war. It was impossible that the +choice of confidential officers to compose my family should have been +more fortunate. Permit me, sir, to recommend in particular those +who have continued in service to the present moment as worthy of the +favorable notice and patronage of Congress. + +I consider it an indispensable duty to close this last solemn act of my +official life by commending the interests of our dearest country to the +protection of Almighty God, and those who have the superintendence of +them to His holy keeping. + +Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great +theatre of action, and, bidding an affectionate farewell to this +august body, under whose orders I have so long acted, I here offer my +commission and take my leave of all the employments of public life." + +The great master of English fiction, writing of this scene at Annapolis, +says: "Which was the most splendid spectacle ever witnessed--the opening +feast of Prince George in London, or the resignation of Washington? +Which is the noble character for after ages to admire--yon fribble +dancing in lace and spangles, or yonder hero who sheathes his sword +after a life of spotless honor, a purity unreproached, a courage +indomitable and a consummate victory?" + +Washington did not refuse the dictatorship, or, rather, the opportunity +to take control of the country, because he feared heavy responsibility, +but solely because, as a high-minded and patriotic man, he did not +believe in meeting the situation in that way. He was, moreover, entirely +devoid of personal ambition, and had no vulgar longing for personal +power. After resigning his commission he returned quietly to Mount +Vernon, but he did not hold himself aloof from public affairs. On the +contrary, he watched their course with the utmost anxiety. He saw the +feeble Confederation breaking to pieces, and he soon realized that that +form of government was an utter failure. In a time when no American +statesman except Hamilton had yet freed himself from the local feelings +of the colonial days, Washington was thoroughly national in all his +views. Out of the thirteen jarring colonies he meant that a nation +should come, and he saw--what no one else saw--the destiny of the +country to the westward. He wished a nation founded which should cross +the Alleghanies, and, holding the mouths of the Mississippi, take +possession of all that vast and then unknown region. For these reasons +he stood at the head of the national movement, and to him all men turned +who desired a better union and sought to bring order out of chaos. With +him Hamilton and Madison consulted in the preliminary stages which +were to lead to the formation of a new system. It was his vast personal +influence which made that movement a success, and when the convention +to form a constitution met at Philadelphia, he presided over its +deliberations, and it was his commanding will which, more than anything +else, brought a constitution through difficulties and conflicting +interests which more than once made any result seem well-nigh hopeless. +When the Constitution formed at Philadelphia had been ratified by the +States, all men turned to Washington to stand at the head of the new +government. As he had borne the burden of the Revolution, so he now +took up the task of bringing the government of the Constitution into +existence. For eight years he served as president. He came into +office with a paper constitution, the heir of a bankrupt, broken-down +confederation. He left the United States, when he went out of office, +an effective and vigorous government. When he was inaugurated, we +had nothing but the clauses of the Constitution as agreed to by the +Convention. When he laid down the presidency, we had an organized +government, an established revenue, a funded debt, a high credit, an +efficient system of banking, a strong judiciary, and an army. We had a +vigorous and well-defined foreign policy; we had recovered the western +posts, which, in the hands of the British, had fettered our march to the +west; and we had proved our power to maintain order at home, to repress +insurrection, to collect the national taxes, and to enforce the laws +made by Congress. Thus Washington had shown that rare combination of the +leader who could first destroy by revolution, and who, having led his +country through a great civil war, was then able to build up a new and +lasting fabric upon the ruins of a system which had been overthrown. +At the close of his official service he returned again to Mount Vernon, +and, after a few years of quiet retirement, died just as the century in +which he had played so great a part was closing. + +Washington stands among the greatest men of human history, and those in +the same rank with him are very few. Whether measured by what he did, or +what he was, or by the effect of his work upon the history of mankind, +in every aspect he is entitled to the place he holds among the greatest +of his race. Few men in all time have such a record of achievement. +Still fewer can show at the end of a career so crowded with high +deeds and memorable victories a life so free from spot, a character +so unselfish and so pure, a fame so void of doubtful points demanding +either defense or explanation. Eulogy of such a life is needless, but it +is always important to recall and to freshly remember just what manner +of man he was. In the first place he was physically a striking figure. +He was very tall, powerfully made, with a strong, handsome face. He +was remarkably muscular and powerful. As a boy he was a leader in all +outdoor sports. No one could fling the bar further than he, and no one +could ride more difficult horses. As a young man he became a woodsman +and hunter. Day after day he could tramp through the wilderness with his +gun and his surveyor's chain, and then sleep at night beneath the stars. +He feared no exposure or fatigue, and outdid the hardiest backwoodsman +in following a winter trail and swimming icy streams. This habit of +vigorous bodily exercise he carried through life. Whenever he was at +Mount Vernon he gave a large part of his time to fox-hunting, riding +after his hounds through the most difficult country. His physical power +and endurance counted for much in his success when he commanded his +army, and when the heavy anxieties of general and president weighed upon +his mind and heart. + +He was an educated, but not a learned man. He read well and remembered +what he read, but his life was, from the beginning, a life of action, +and the world of men was his school. He was not a military genius like +Hannibal, or Caesar, or Napoleon, of which the world has had only three +or four examples. But he was a great soldier of the type which the +English race has produced, like Marlborough and Cromwell, Wellington, +Grant, and Lee. He was patient under defeat, capable of large +combinations, a stubborn and often reckless fighter, a winner of +battles, but much more, a conclusive winner in a long war of varying +fortunes. He was, in addition, what very few great soldiers or +commanders have ever been, a great constitutional statesman, able to +lead a people along the paths of free government without undertaking +himself to play the part of the strong man, the usurper, or the savior +of society. + +He was a very silent man. Of no man of equal importance in the world's +history have we so few sayings of a personal kind. He was ready enough +to talk or to write about the public duties which he had in hand, but he +hardly ever talked of himself. Yet there can be no greater error than +to suppose Washington cold and unfeeling, because of his silence and +reserve. He was by nature a man of strong desires and stormy passions. +Now and again he would break out, even as late as the presidency, into +a gust of anger that would sweep everything before it. He was always +reckless of personal danger, and had a fierce fighting spirit which +nothing could check when it was once unchained. + +But as a rule these fiery impulses and strong passions were under the +absolute control of an iron will, and they never clouded his judgment or +warped his keen sense of justice. + +But if he was not of a cold nature, still less was he hard or unfeeling. +His pity always went out to the poor, the oppressed, or the unhappy, and +he was all that was kind and gentle to those immediately about him. + +We have to look carefully into his life to learn all these things, for +the world saw only a silent, reserved man, of courteous and serious +manner, who seemed to stand alone and apart, and who impressed every one +who came near him with a sense of awe and reverence. + +One quality he had which was, perhaps, more characteristic of the man +and his greatness than any other. This was his perfect veracity of mind. +He was, of course, the soul of truth and honor, but he was even more +than that. He never deceived himself He always looked facts squarely in +the face and dealt with them as such, dreaming no dreams, cherishing no +delusions, asking no impossibilities,--just to others as to himself, and +thus winning alike in war and in peace. + +He gave dignity as well as victory to his country and his cause. He was, +in truth, a "character for after ages to admire." + + + + +DANIEL BOONE AND THE FOUNDING OF KENTUCKY + + ... Boone lived hunting up to ninety; + And, what's still stranger, left behind a name + For which men vainly decimate the throng, + Not only famous, but of that GOOD fame, + Without which glory's but a tavern song,-- + Simple, serene, the antipodes of shame, + Which hate nor envy e'er could tinge with wrong; + + 'T is true he shrank from men, even of his nation; + When they built up unto his darling trees, + He moved some hundred miles off, for a station + Where there were fewer houses and more ease; + + * * * + + But where he met the individual man, + He showed himself as kind as mortal can. + + * * * + + The freeborn forest found and kept them free, + And fresh as is a torrent or a tree. + + And tall, and strong, and swift of foot were they, + Beyond the dwarfing city's pale abortions, + Because their thoughts had never been the prey + Of care or gain; the green woods were their portions + + * * * + + Simple they were, not savage; and their rifles, + Though very true, were yet not used for trifles. + + * * * + + Serene, not sullen, were the solitudes + Of this unsighing people of the woods. + --Byron. + + +Daniel Boone will always occupy a unique place in our history as the +archetype of the hunter and wilderness wanderer. He was a true pioneer, +and stood at the head of that class of Indian-fighters, game-hunters, +forest-fellers, and backwoods farmers who, generation after generation, +pushed westward the border of civilization from the Alleghanies to the +Pacific. As he himself said, he was "an instrument ordained of God to +settle the wilderness." Born in Pennsylvania, he drifted south into +western North Carolina, and settled on what was then the extreme +frontier. There he married, built a log cabin, and hunted, chopped +trees, and tilled the ground like any other frontiersman. The Alleghany +Mountains still marked a boundary beyond which the settlers dared not +go; for west of them lay immense reaches of frowning forest, uninhabited +save by bands of warlike Indians. Occasionally some venturesome hunter +or trapper penetrated this immense wilderness, and returned with strange +stories of what he had seen and done. + +In 1769 Boone, excited by these vague and wondrous tales, determined +himself to cross the mountains and find out what manner of land it was +that lay beyond. With a few chosen companions he set out, making his own +trail through the gloomy forest. After weeks of wandering, he at last +emerged into the beautiful and fertile country of Kentucky, for which, +in after years, the red men and the white strove with such obstinate +fury that it grew to be called "the dark and bloody ground." But when +Boone first saw it, it was a fair and smiling land of groves and glades +and running waters, where the open forest grew tall and beautiful, and +where innumerable herds of game grazed, roaming ceaselessly to and fro +along the trails they had trodden during countless generations. Kentucky +was not owned by any Indian tribe, and was visited only by wandering +war-parties and hunting-parties who came from among the savage nations +living north of the Ohio or south of the Tennessee. + +A roving war-party stumbled upon one of Boone's companions and killed +him, and the others then left Boone and journeyed home; but his +brother came out to join him, and the two spent the winter together. +Self-reliant, fearless, and the frowning defiles of Cumberland Gap, they +were attacked by Indians, and driven back--two of Boone's own sons being +slain. In 1775, however, he made another attempt; and this attempt was +successful. The Indians attacked the newcomers; but by this time the +parties of would-be settlers were sufficiently numerous to hold their +own. They beat back the Indians, and built rough little hamlets, +surrounded by log stockades, at Boonesborough and Harrodsburg; and the +permanent settlement of Kentucky had begun. + +The next few years were passed by Boone amid unending Indian conflicts. +He was a leader among the settlers, both in peace and in war. At one +time he represented them in the House of Burgesses of Virginia; at +another time he was a member of the first little Kentucky parliament +itself; and he became a colonel of the frontier militia. He tilled the +land, and he chopped the trees himself; he helped to build the cabins +and stockades with his own hands, wielding the longhandled, light-headed +frontier ax as skilfully as other frontiersmen. His main business was +that of surveyor, for his knowledge of the country, and his ability to +travel through it, in spite of the danger from Indians, created much +demand for his services among people who wished to lay off tracts of +wild land for their own future use. But whatever he did, and wherever he +went, he had to be sleeplessly on the lookout for his Indian foes. When +he and his fellows tilled the stump-dotted fields of corn, one or more +of the party were always on guard, with weapon at the ready, for fear of +lurking savages. When he went to the House of Burgesses he carried his +long rifle, and traversed roads not a mile of which was free from the +danger of Indian attack. The settlements in the early years depended +exclusively upon game for their meat, and Boone was the mightiest of all +the hunters, so that upon him devolved the task of keeping his people +supplied. He killed many buffaloes, and pickled the buffalo beef for +use in winter. He killed great numbers of black bear, and made bacon of +them, precisely as if they had been hogs. The common game were deer and +elk. At that time none of the hunters of Kentucky would waste a shot on +anything so small as a prairie-chicken or wild duck; but they sometimes +killed geese and swans when they came south in winter and lit on the +rivers. + +But whenever Boone went into the woods after game, he had perpetually to +keep watch lest he himself might be hunted in turn. He never lay in wait +at a game-lick, save with ears strained to hear the approach of some +crawling red foe. He never crept up to a turkey he heard calling, +without exercising the utmost care to see that it was not an Indian; +for one of the favorite devices of the Indians was to imitate the turkey +call, and thus allure within range some inexperienced hunter. + +Besides this warfare, which went on in the midst of his usual vocations, +Boone frequently took the field on set expeditions against the savages. +Once when he and a party of other men were making salt at a lick, they +were surprised and carried off by the Indians. The old hunter was a +prisoner with them for some months, but finally made his escape and came +home through the trackless woods as straight as the wild pigeon flies. +He was ever on the watch to ward off the Indian inroads, and to follow +the warparties, and try to rescue the prisoners. Once his own daughter, +and two other girls who were with her, were carried off by a band of +Indians. Boone raised some friends and followed the trail steadily for +two days and a night; then they came to where the Indians had killed a +buffalo calf and were camped around it. Firing from a little distance, +the whites shot two of the Indians, and, rushing in, rescued the girls. +On another occasion, when Boone had gone to visit a salt-lick with his +brother, the Indians ambushed them and shot the latter. Boone himself +escaped, but the Indians followed him for three miles by the aid of +a tracking dog, until Boone turned, shot the dog, and then eluded his +pursuers. In company with Simon Kenton and many other noted hunters and +wilderness warriors, he once and again took part in expeditions into the +Indian country, where they killed the braves and drove off the horses. +Twice bands of Indians, accompanied by French, Tory, and British +partizans from Detroit, bearing the flag of Great Britain, attacked +Boonesboroug. In each case Boone and his fellow-settlers beat them off +with loss. At the fatal battle of the Blue Licks, in which two hundred +of the best riflemen of Kentucky were beaten with terrible slaughter by +a great force of Indians from the lakes, Boone commanded the left wing. +Leading his men, rifle in hand, he pushed back and overthrew the force +against him; but meanwhile the Indians destroyed the right wing and +center, and got round in his rear, so that there was nothing left for +Boone's men except to flee with all possible speed. + +As Kentucky became settled, Boone grew restless and ill at ease. +He loved the wilderness; he loved the great forests and the great +prairie-like glades, and the life in the little lonely cabin, where from +the door he could see the deer come out into the clearing at nightfall. +The neighborhood of his own kind made him feel cramped and ill at ease. +So he moved ever westward with the frontier; and as Kentucky filled up +he crossed the Mississippi and settled on the borders of the prairie +country of Missouri, where the Spaniards, who ruled the territory, made +him an alcalde, or judge. He lived to a great age, and died out on the +border, a backwoods hunter to the last. + + + + +GEORGE ROGERS CLARK AND THE CONQUEST OF THE NORTHWEST + + Have the elder races halted? + Do they droop and end their lesson, wearied over there beyond the + seas? + We take up the task eternal, and the burden and the lesson, + Pioneers! O Pioneers! + All the past we leave behind, + We debouch upon a newer, mightier world, varied world; + + Fresh and strong the world we seize, world of labor and the + march, + Pioneers! O Pioneers! + We detachments steady throwing, + Down the edges, through the passes, up the mountains steep, + Conquering, holding, daring, venturing, as we go the unknown + ways, + Pioneers! O Pioneers! + + * * * * * * * + + The sachem blowing the smoke first towards the sun and then + towards the earth, + The drama of the scalp dance enacted with painted faces and + guttural exclamations, + The setting out of the war-party, the long and stealthy march, + The single file, the swinging hatchets, the surprise and + slaughter of enemies. + --Whitman. + + +In 1776, when independence was declared, the United States included only +the thirteen original States on the seaboard. With the exception of a +few hunters there were no white men west of the Alleghany Mountains, and +there was not even an American hunter in the great country out of which +we have since made the States of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, and +Wisconsin. All this region north of the Ohio River then formed apart +of the Province of Quebec. It was a wilderness of forests and prairies, +teeming with game, and inhabited by many warlike tribes of Indians. + +Here and there through it were dotted quaint little towns of French +Creoles, the most important being Detroit, Vincennes on the Wabash, and +Kaskaskia and Kahokia on the Illinois. These French villages were ruled +by British officers commanding small bodies of regular soldiers or Tory +rangers and Creole partizans. The towns were completely in the power +of the British government; none of the American States had actual +possession of a foot of property in the Northwestern Territory. + +The Northwest was acquired in the midst of the Revolution only by armed +conquest, and if it had not been so acquired, it would have remained a +part of the British Dominion of Canada. + +The man to whom this conquest was clue was a famous backwoods leader, +a mighty hunter, a noted Indian-fighter, George Rogers Clark. He was a +very strong man, with light hair and blue eyes. He was of good Virginian +family. Early in his youth, he embarked on the adventurous career of +a backwoods surveyor, exactly as Washington and so many other young +Virginians of spirit did at that period. He traveled out to Kentucky +soon after it was founded by Boone, and lived there for a year, either +at the stations or camping by him self in the woods, surveying, hunting, +and making war against the Indians like any other settler; but all the +time his mind was bent on vaster schemes than were dreamed of by the +men around him. He had his spies out in the Northwestern Territory, and +became convinced that with a small force of resolute backwoodsmen he +could conquer it for the United States. When he went back to Virginia, +Governor Patrick Henry entered heartily into Clark's schemes and gave +him authority to fit out a force for his purpose. + +In 1778, after encountering endless difficulties and delays, he finally +raised a hundred and fifty backwoods riflemen. In May they started down +the Ohio in flatboats to undertake the allotted task. They drifted and +rowed downstream to the Falls of the Ohio, where Clark founded a log +hamlet, which has since become the great city of Louisville. + +Here he halted for some days and was joined by fifty or sixty +volunteers; but a number of the men deserted, and when, after an eclipse +of the sun, Clark again pushed off to go down with the current, his +force was but about one hundred and sixty riflemen. All, however, were +men on whom he could depend--men well used to frontier warfare. They +were tall, stalwart backwoodsmen, clad in the hunting-shirt and leggings +that formed the national dress of their kind, and armed with the +distinctive weapon of the backwoods, the long-barreled, small-bore +rifle. + +Before reaching the Mississippi the little flotilla landed, and Clark +led his men northward against the Illinois towns. In one of them, +Kaskaskia, dwelt the British commander of the entire district up to +Detroit. The small garrison and the Creole militia taken together +outnumbered Clark's force, and they were in close alliance with the +Indians roundabout. Clark was anxious to take the town by surprise and +avoid bloodshed, as he believed he could win over the Creoles to the +American side. Marching cautiously by night and generally hiding by day, +he came to the outskirts of the little village on the evening of July 4, +and lay in the woods near by until after nightfall. + +Fortune favored him. That evening the officers of the garrison had +given a great ball to the mirth-loving Creoles, and almost the entire +population of the village had gathered in the fort, where the dance +was held. While the revelry was at its height, Clark and his tall +backwoodsmen, treading silently through the darkness, came into the +town, surprised the sentries, and surrounded the fort without causing +any alarm. + +All the British and French capable of bearing arms were gathered in the +fort to take part in or look on at the merrymaking. When his men were +posted Clark walked boldly forward through the open door, and, leaning +against the wall, looked at the dancers as they whirled around in the +light of the flaring torches. For some moments no one noticed him. +Then an Indian who had been lying with his chin on his hand, looking +carefully over the gaunt figure of the stranger, sprang to his feet, and +uttered the wild war-whoop. Immediately the dancing ceased and the men +ran to and fro in confusion; but Clark, stepping forward, bade them be +at their ease, but to remember that henceforth they danced under the +flag of the United States, and not under that of Great Britain. + +The surprise was complete, and no resistance was attempted. For +twenty-four hours the Creoles were in abject terror. Then Clark summoned +their chief men together and explained that he came as their ally, and +not as their foe, and that if they would join with him they should be +citizens of the American republic, and treated in all respects on +an equality with their comrades. The Creoles, caring little for the +British, and rather fickle of nature, accepted the proposition with joy, +and with the most enthusiastic loyalty toward Clark. Not only that, but +sending messengers to their kinsmen on the Wabash, they persuaded the +people of Vincennes likewise to cast off their allegiance to the British +king, and to hoist the American flag. + +So far, Clark had conquered with greater ease than he had dared to hope. +But when the news reached the British governor, Hamilton, at Detroit, +he at once prepared to reconquer the land. He had much greater forces at +his command than Clark had; and in the fall of that year he came down to +Vincennes by stream and portage, in a great fleet of canoes bearing five +hundred fighting men-British regulars, French partizans, and Indians. +The Vincennes Creoles refused to fight against the British, and the +American officer who had been sent thither by Clark had no alternative +but to surrender. + +If Hamilton had then pushed on and struck Clark in Illinois, having +more than treble Clark's force, he could hardly have failed to win the +victory; but the season was late and the journey so difficult that he +did not believe it could be taken. Accordingly he disbanded the Indians +and sent some of his troops back to Detroit, announcing that when spring +came he would march against Clark in Illinois. + +If Clark in turn had awaited the blow he would have surely met defeat; +but he was a greater man than his antagonist, and he did what the other +deemed impossible. + +Finding that Hamilton had sent home some of his troops and dispersed +all his Indians, Clark realized that his chance was to strike before +Hamilton's soldiers assembled again in the spring. Accordingly he +gathered together the pick of his men, together with a few Creoles, one +hundred and seventy all told, and set out for Vincennes. At first the +journey was easy enough, for they passed across the snowy Illinois +prairies, broken by great reaches of lofty woods. They killed elk, +buffalo, and deer for food, there being no difficulty in getting all +they wanted to eat; and at night they built huge fires by which to +sleep, and feasted "like Indian war-dancers," as Clark said in his +report. + +But when, in the middle of February, they reached the drowned lands of +the Wabash, where the ice had just broken up and everything was flooded, +the difficulties seemed almost insuperable, and the march became painful +and laborious to a degree. All day long the troops waded in the icy +water, and at night they could with difficulty find some little hillock +on which to sleep. Only Clark's indomitable courage and cheerfulness +kept the party in heart and enabled them to persevere. However, +persevere they did, and at last, on February 23, they came in sight +of the town of Vincennes. They captured a Creole who was out shooting +ducks, and from him learned that their approach was utterly unsuspected, +and that there were many Indians in town. + +Clark was now in some doubt as to how to make his fight. The British +regulars dwelt in a small fort at one end of the town, where they had +two light guns; but Clark feared lest, if he made a sudden night attack, +the townspeople and Indians would from sheer fright turn against him. He +accordingly arranged, just before he himself marched in, to send in the +captured duck-hunter, conveying a warning to the Indians and the Creoles +that he was about to attack the town, but that his only quarrel was with +the British, and that if the other inhabitants would stay in their own +homes they would not be molested. Sending the duck-hunter ahead, Clark +took up his march and entered the town just after nightfall. The news +conveyed by the released hunter astounded the townspeople, and they +talked it over eagerly, and were in doubt what to do. The Indians, not +knowing how great might be the force that would assail the town, at once +took refuge in the neighboring woods, while the Creoles retired to their +own houses. The British knew nothing of what had happened until the +Americans had actually entered the streets of the little village. +Rushing forward, Clark's men soon penned the regulars within their +fort, where they kept them surrounded all night. The next day a party +of Indian warriors, who in the British interest had been ravaging the +settlements of Kentucky, arrived and entered the town, ignorant that +the Americans had captured it. Marching boldly forward to the fort, +they suddenly found it beleaguered, and before they could flee they were +seized by the backwoodsmen. In their belts they carried the scalps of +the slain settlers. The savages were taken redhanded, and the American +frontiersmen were in no mood to show mercy. All the Indians were +tomahawked in sight of the fort. + +For some time the British defended themselves well; but at length their +guns were disabled, all of the gunners being picked off by the backwoods +marksmen, and finally the garrison dared not so much as appear at a +port-hole, so deadly was the fire from the long rifles. Under such +circumstances Hamilton was forced to surrender. + +No attempt was afterward made to molest the Americans in the land they +had won, and upon the conclusion of peace the Northwest, which had been +conquered by Clark, became part of the United States. + + + + +THE BATTLE OF TRENTON + + And such they are--and such they will be found: + Not so Leonidas and Washington, + Their every battle-field is holy ground + Which breathes of nations saved, not worlds undone. + How sweetly on the ear such echoes sound! + While the mere victor's may appal or stun + The servile and the vain, such names will be + A watchword till the future shall be free. + --Byron. + + +In December, 1776, the American Revolution was at its lowest ebb. The +first burst of enthusiasm, which drove the British back from Concord +and met them hand to hand at Bunker Hill, which forced them to abandon +Boston and repulsed their attack at Charleston, had spent its force. The +undisciplined American forces called suddenly from the workshop and the +farm had given way, under the strain of a prolonged contest, and had +been greatly scattered, many of the soldiers returning to their homes. +The power of England, on the other hand, with her disciplined army and +abundant resources, had begun to tell. Washington, fighting stubbornly, +had been driven during the summer and autumn from Long Island up the +Hudson, and New York had passed into the hands of the British. Then +Forts Lee and Washington had been lost, and finally the Continental army +had retreated to New Jersey. On the second of December Washington was +at Princeton with some three thousand ragged soldiers, and had escaped +destruction only by the rapidity of his movements. By the middle of the +month General Howe felt that the American army, unable as he believed +either to fight or to withstand the winter, must soon dissolve, and, +posting strong detachments at various points, he took up his winter +quarters in New York. The British general had under his command in his +various divisions twenty-five thousand well-disciplined soldiers, and +the conclusion he had reached was not an unreasonable one; everything, +in fact, seemed to confirm his opinion. Thousands of the colonists were +coming in and accepting his amnesty. The American militia had left the +field, and no more would turn out, despite Washington's earnest appeals. +All that remained of the American Revolution was the little Continental +army and the man who led it. + +Yet even in this dark hour Washington did not despair. He sent in every +direction for troops. Nothing was forgotten. Nothing that he could do +was left undone. Unceasingly he urged action upon Congress, and at the +same time with indomitable fighting spirit he planned to attack the +British. It was a desperate undertaking in the face of such heavy odds, +for in all his divisions he had only some six thousand men, and even +these were scattered. The single hope was that by his own skill and +courage he could snatch victory from a situation where victory seemed +impossible. With the instinct of a great commander he saw that his only +chance was to fight the British detachments suddenly, unexpectedly, +and separately, and to do this not only required secrecy and perfect +judgment, but also the cool, unwavering courage of which, under such +circumstances, very few men have proved themselves capable. As Christmas +approached his plans were ready. He determined to fall upon the British +detachment of Hessians, under Colonel Rahl, at Trenton, and there strike +his first blow. To each division of his little army a part in the +attack was assigned with careful forethought. Nothing was overlooked and +nothing omitted, and then, for some reason good or bad, every one of +the division commanders failed to do his part. As the general plan was +arranged, Gates was to march from Bristol with two thousand men; Ewing +was to cross at Trenton; Putnam was to come up from Philadelphia; and +Griffin was to make a diversion against Donop. When the moment came, +Gates, who disapproved the plan, was on his way to Congress; Griffin +abandoned New Jersey and fled before Donop; Putnam did not attempt +to leave Philadelphia; and Ewing made no effort to cross at Trenton. +Cadwalader came down from Bristol, looked at the river and the +floating ice, and then gave it up as desperate. Nothing remained except +Washington himself with the main army, but he neither gave up, nor +hesitated, nor stopped on account of the ice, or the river, or the +perils which lay beyond. On Christmas Eve, when all the Christian +world was feasting and rejoicing, and while the British were enjoying +themselves in their comfortable quarters, Washington set out. With +twenty-four hundred men he crossed the Delaware through the floating ice, +his boats managed and rowed by the sturdy fishermen of Marblehead from +Glover's regiment. The crossing was successful, and he landed about nine +miles from Trenton. It was bitter cold, and the sleet and snow drove +sharply in the faces of the troops. Sullivan, marching by the river, +sent word that the arms of his soldiers were wet. "Tell your general," +was Washington's reply to the message, "to use the bayonet, for the +town must be taken." When they reached Trenton it was broad daylight. +Washington, at the front and on the right of the line, swept down the +Pennington road, and, as he drove back the Hessian pickets, he heard the +shout of Sullivan's men as, with Stark leading the van, they charged in +from the river. A company of jaegers and of light dragoons slipped away. +There was some fighting in the streets, but the attack was so strong and +well calculated that resistance was useless. Colonel Rahl, the British +commander, aroused from his revels, was killed as he rushed out to rally +his men, and in a few moments all was over. A thousand prisoners fell +into Washington's hands, and this important detachment of the enemy was +cut off and destroyed. + +The news of Trenton alarmed the British, and Lord Cornwallis with seven +thousand of the best troops started at once from New York in hot pursuit +of the American army. Washington, who had now rallied some five thousand +men, fell back, skirmishing heavily, behind the Assunpink, and when +Cornwallis reached the river he found the American army awaiting him on +the other side of the stream. Night was falling, and Cornwallis, feeling +sure of his prey, decided that he would not risk an assault until the +next morning. Many lessons had not yet taught him that it was a fatal +business to give even twelve hours to the great soldier opposed to him. +During the night Washington, leaving his fires burning and taking +a roundabout road which he had already reconnoitered, marched to +Princeton. There he struck another British detachment. A sharp fight +ensued, the British division was broken and defeated, losing some five +hundred men, and Washington withdrew after this second victory to the +highlands of New Jersey to rest and recruit. + +Frederick the Great is reported to have said that this was the most +brilliant campaign of the century. With a force very much smaller than +that of the enemy, Washington had succeeded in striking the British at +two places with superior forces at each point of contact. At Trenton he +had the benefit of a surprise, but the second time he was between two +hostile armies. He was ready to fight Cornwallis when the latter reached +the Assunpink, trusting to the strength of his position to make up for +his inferiority of numbers. But when Cornwallis gave him the delay of a +night, Washington, seeing the advantage offered by his enemy's mistake, +at once changed his whole plan, and, turning in his tracks, fell upon +the smaller of the two forces opposed to him, wrecking and defeating +it before the outgeneraled Cornwallis could get up with the main army. +Washington had thus shown the highest form of military skill, for +there is nothing that requires so much judgment and knowledge, so much +certainty of movement and quick decision, as to meet a superior enemy at +different points, force the fighting, and at each point to outnumber and +overwhelm him. + +But the military part of this great campaign was not all. Many great +soldiers have not been statesmen, and have failed to realize the +political necessities of the situation. Washington presented the rare +combination of a great soldier and a great statesman as well. He aimed +not only to win battles, but by his operations in the field to influence +the political situation and affect public opinion. The American +Revolution was going to pieces. Unless some decisive victory could be +won immediately, it would have come to an end in the winter of 1776-77. +This Washington knew, and it was this which nerved his arm. The results +justified his forethought. The victories of Trenton and Princeton +restored the failing spirits of the people, and, what was hardly +less important, produced a deep impression in Europe in favor of the +colonies. The country, which had lost heart, and become supine and +almost hostile, revived. The militia again took the field. Outlying +parties of the British were attacked and cut off, and recruits once more +began to come in to the Continental army. The Revolution was saved. That +the English colonies in North America would have broken away from the +mother country sooner or later cannot be doubted, but that particular +Revolution Of 1776 would have failed within a year, had it not been +for Washington. It is not, however, merely the fact that he was a great +soldier and statesman which we should remember. The most memorable thing +to us, and to all men, is the heroic spirit of the man, which rose in +those dreary December days to its greatest height, under conditions +so adverse that they had crushed the hope of every one else. Let it +be remembered, also, that it was not a spirit of desperation or of +ignorance, a reckless daring which did not count the cost. No one knew +better than Washington--no one, indeed, so well--the exact state of +affairs; for he, conspicuously among great men, always looked facts +fearlessly in the face, and never deceived himself. He was under no +illusions, and it was this high quality of mind as much as any other +which enabled him to win victories. + +How he really felt we know from what he wrote to Congress on December +20, when he said: "It may be thought that I am going a good deal out of +the line of my duty to adopt these measures or to advise thus freely. +A character to lose, an estate to forfeit, the inestimable blessing of +liberty at stake, and a life devoted, must be my excuse." These were the +thoughts in his mind when he was planning this masterly campaign. These +same thoughts, we may readily believe, were with him when his boat was +making its way through the ice of the Delaware on Christmas Eve. It was +a very solemn moment, and he was the only man in the darkness of that +night who fully understood what was at stake; but then, as always, he +was calm and serious, with a high courage which nothing could depress. + +The familiar picture of a later day depicts Washington crossing the +Delaware at the head of his soldiers. He is standing up in the boat, +looking forward in the teeth of the storm. It matters little whether the +work of the painter is in exact accordance with the real scene or not. +The daring courage, the high resolve, the stern look forward and onward, +which the artist strove to show in the great leader, are all vitally +true. For we may be sure that the man who led that well-planned but +desperate assault, surrounded by darker conditions than the storms of +nature which gathered about his boat, and carrying with him the fortunes +of his country, was at that moment one of the most heroic figures in +history. + + + + +BENNINGTON + + We are but warriors for the working-day; + Our gayness and our guilt are all besmirch'd + With rainy marching in the painful field; + There's not a piece of feather in our host + (Good argument, I hope, we shall not fly), + And time hath worn us into slovenry. + But, by the mass, our hearts are in the trim, + And my poor soldiers tell me, yet ere night + They'll be in fresher robes. + --Henry V. + + +The battle of Saratoga is included by Sir Edward Creasy among his +fifteen decisive battles which have, by their result, affected the +history of the world. It is true that the American Revolution was saved +by Washington in the remarkable Princeton and Trenton campaign, but +it is equally true that the surrender of Burgoyne at Saratoga, in the +following autumn, turned the scale decisively in favor of the colonists +by the impression which it made in Europe. It was the destruction of +Burgoyne's army which determined France to aid the Americans against +England. Hence came the French alliance, the French troops, and, what +was of far more importance, a French fleet by which Washington was +finally able to get control of the sea, and in this way cut off +Cornwallis at Yorktown and bring the Revolution to a successful close. +That which led, however, more directly than anything else to the final +surrender at Saratoga was the fight at Bennington, by which Burgoyne's +army was severely crippled and weakened, and by which also, the hardy +militia of the North eastern States were led to turn out in large +numbers and join the army of Gates. + +The English ministry had built great hopes upon Burgoyne's expedition, +and neither expense nor effort had been spared to make it successful. He +was amply furnished with money and supplies as well as with English and +German troops, the latter of whom were bought from their wretched little +princes by the payment of generous subsidies. With an admirably equipped +army of over seven thousand men, and accompanied by a large force of +Indian allies, Burgoyne had started in May, 1777, from Canada. His plan +was to make his way by the lakes to the head waters of the Hudson, and +thence southward along the river to New York, where he was to unite with +Sir William Howe and the main army; in this way cutting the colonies in +two, and separating New England from the rest of the country. + +At first all went well. The Americans were pushed back from their posts +on the lakes, and by the end of July Burgoyne was at the head waters of +the Hudson. He had already sent out a force, under St. Leger, to take +possession of the valley of the Mohawk--an expedition which finally +resulted in the defeat of the British by Herkimer, and the capture +of Fort Stanwix. To aid St. Leger by a diversion, and also to capture +certain magazines which were reported to be at Bennington, Burgoyne sent +another expedition to the eastward. This force consisted of about five +hundred and fifty white troops, chiefly Hessians, and one hundred and +fifty Indians, all under the command of Colonel Baum. They were within +four miles of Bennington on August 13, 1777, and encamped on a hill just +within the boundaries of the State of New York. The news of the advance +of Burgoyne had already roused the people of New York and New Hampshire, +and the legislature of the latter State had ordered General Stark with +a brigade of militia to stop the progress of the enemy on the western +frontier. Stark raised his standard at Charlestown on the Connecticut +River, and the militia poured into his camp. Disregarding Schuyler's +orders to join the main American army, which was falling back before +Burgoyne, Stark, as soon as he heard of the expedition against +Bennington, marched at once to meet Baum. He was within a mile of the +British camp on August 14, and vainly endeavored to draw Baum into +action. On the 15th it rained heavily, and the British forces occupied +the time in intrenching themselves strongly upon the hill which they +held. Baum meantime had already sent to Burgoyne for reinforcements, +and Burgoyne had detached Colonel Breymann with over six hundred regular +troops to go to Baum's assistance. On the 16th the weather cleared, and +Stark, who had been reinforced by militia from western Massachusetts, +determined to attack. + +Early in the day he sent men, under Nichols and Herrick, to get into the +rear of Baum's position. The German officer, ignorant of the country +and of the nature of the warfare in which he was engaged, noticed small +bodies of men in their shirtsleeves, and carrying guns without bayonets, +making their way to the rear of his intrenchments. With singular +stupidity he concluded that they were Tory inhabitants of the country +who were coming to his assistance, and made no attempt to stop them. In +this way Stark was enabled to mass about five hundred men in the rear +of the enemy's position. Distracting the attention of the British by a +feint, Stark also moved about two hundred men to the right, and having +thus brought his forces into position he ordered a general assault, +and the Americans proceeded to storm the British intrenchments on every +side. The fight was a very hot one, and lasted some two hours. The +Indians, at the beginning of the action, slipped away between the +American detachments, but the British and German regulars stubbornly +stood their ground. It is difficult to get at the exact numbers of the +American troops, but Stark seems to have had between fifteen hundred and +two thousand militia. He thus outnumbered his enemy nearly three to +one, but his men were merely country militia, farmers of the New England +States, very imperfectly disciplined, and armed only with muskets and +fowling-pieces, without bayonets or side-arms. On the other side Baum +had the most highly disciplined troops of England and Germany under +his command, well armed and equipped, and he was moreover strongly +intrenched with artillery well placed behind the breastworks. The +advantage in the fight should have been clearly with Baum and his +regulars, who merely had to hold an intrenched hill. + +It was not a battle in which either military strategy or a scientific +management of troops was displayed. All that Stark did was to place his +men so that they could attack the enemy's position on every side, and +then the Americans went at it, firing as they pressed on. The British +and Germans stood their ground stubbornly, while the New England farmers +rushed up to within eight yards of the cannon, and picked off the +men who manned the guns. Stark himself was in the midst of the fray, +fighting with his soldiers, and came out of the conflict so blackened +with powder and smoke that he could hardly be recognized. One desperate +assault succeeded another, while the firing on both sides was so +incessant as to make, in Stark's own words, a "continuous roar." At the +end of two hours the Americans finally swarmed over the intrenchments, +beating down the soldiers with their clubbed muskets. Baum ordered his +infantry with the bayonet and the dragoons with their sabers to force +their way through, but the Americans repulsed this final charge, and +Baum himself fell mortally wounded. All was then over, and the British +forces surrendered. + +It was only just in time, for Breymann, who had taken thirty hours to +march some twenty-four miles, came up just after Baum's men had laid +down their arms. It seemed for a moment as if all that had been gained +might be lost. The Americans, attacked by this fresh foe, wavered; but +Stark rallied his line, and putting in Warner, with one hundred and +fifty Vermont men who had just come on the field, stopped Breymann's +advance, and finally forced him to retreat with a loss of nearly one +half his men. The Americans lost in killed and wounded some seventy men, +and the Germans and British about twice as many, but the Americans took +about seven hundred prisoners, and completely wrecked the forces of Baum +and Breymann. + +The blow was a severe one, and Burgoyne's army never recovered from +it. Not only had he lost nearly a thousand of his best troops, besides +cannon, arms, and munitions of war, but the defeat affected the spirits +of his army and destroyed his hold over his Indian allies, who began +to desert in large numbers. Bennington, in fact, was one of the most +important fights of the Revolution, contributing as it did so largely to +the final surrender of Burgoyne's whole army at Saratoga, and the utter +ruin of the British invasion from the North. It is also interesting as +an extremely gallant bit of fighting. As has been said, there was no +strategy displayed, and there were no military operations of the higher +kind. There stood the enemy strongly intrenched on a hill, and Stark, +calling his undisciplined levies about him, went at them. He himself was +a man of the highest courage and a reckless fighter. It was Stark who +held the railfence at Bunker Hill, and who led the van when Sullivan's +division poured into Trenton from the river road. He was admirably +adapted for the precise work which was necessary at Bennington, and he +and his men fought well their hand-to-hand fight on that hot August day, +and carried the intrenchments filled with regular troops and defended by +artillery. It was a daring feat of arms, as well as a battle which had +an important effect upon the course of history and upon the fate of the +British empire in America. + + + + +KING'S MOUNTAIN + + Our fortress is the good greenwood, + Our tent the cypress tree; + We know the forest round us + As seamen know the sea. + We know its walls of thorny vines, + Its glades of reedy grass, + Its safe and silent islands + Within the dark morass. + --Bryant. + + +The close of the year 1780 was, in the Southern States, the darkest time +of the Revolutionary struggle. Cornwallis had just destroyed the army of +Gates at Camden, and his two formidable lieutenants, Tarlton the light +horseman, and Ferguson the skilled rifleman, had destroyed or scattered +all the smaller bands that had been fighting for the patriot cause. The +red dragoons rode hither and thither, and all through Georgia and +South Carolina none dared lift their heads to oppose them, while North +Carolina lay at the feet of Cornwallis, as he started through it with +his army to march into Virginia. There was no organized force against +him, and the cause of the patriots seemed hopeless. It was at this hour +that the wild backwoodsmen of the western border gathered to strike a +blow for liberty. + +When Cornwallis invaded North Carolina he sent Ferguson into the western +part of the State to crush out any of the patriot forces that might +still be lingering among the foot-hills. Ferguson was a very gallant and +able officer, and a man of much influence with the people wherever +he went, so that he was peculiarly fitted for this scrambling border +warfare. He had under him a battalion of regular troops and several +other battalions of Tory militia, in all eleven or twelve hundred men. +He shattered and drove the small bands of Whigs that were yet in arms, +and finally pushed to the foot of the mountain wall, till he could see +in his front the high ranges of the Great Smokies. Here he learned for +the first time that beyond the mountains there lay a few hamlets of +frontiersmen, whose homes were on what were then called the Western +Waters, that is, the waters which flowed into the Mississippi. To these +he sent word that if they did not prove loyal to the king, he would +cross their mountains, hang their leaders, and burn their villages. + +Beyond the, mountains, in the valleys of the Holston and Watauga, dwelt +men who were stout of heart and mighty in battle, and when they heard +the threats of Ferguson they burned with a sullen flame of anger. +Hitherto the foes against whom they had warred had been not the British, +but the Indian allies of the British, Creek, and Cherokee, and Shawnee. +Now that the army of the king had come to their thresholds, they turned +to meet it as fiercely as they had met his Indian allies. Among the +backwoodsmen of this region there were at that time three men of special +note: Sevier, who afterward became governor of Tennessee; Shelby, who +afterward became governor of Kentucky; and Campbell, the Virginian, who +died in the Revolutionary War. Sevier had given a great barbecue, where +oxen and deer were roasted whole, while horseraces were run, and the +backwoodsmen tried their skill as marksmen and wrestlers. In the midst +of the feasting Shelby appeared, hot with hard riding, to tell of the +approach of Ferguson and the British. Immediately the feasting was +stopped, and the feasters made ready for war. Sevier and Shelby sent +word to Campbell to rouse the men of his own district and come without +delay, and they sent messengers to and fro in their own neighborhood to +summon the settlers from their log huts on the stump-dotted clearings +and the hunters from their smoky cabins in the deep woods. + +The meeting-place was at the Sycamore Shoals. On the appointed day the +backwoodsmen gathered sixteen hundred strong, each man carrying a long +rifle, and mounted on a tough, shaggy horse. They were a wild and fierce +people, accustomed to the chase and to warfare with the Indians. Their +hunting-shirts of buckskin or homespun were girded in by bead-worked +belts, and the trappings of their horses were stained red and yellow. +At the gathering there was a black-frocked Presbyterian preacher, and +before they started he addressed the tall riflemen in words of burning +zeal, urging them to stand stoutly in the battle, and to smite with the +sword of the Lord and of Gideon. Then the army started, the backwoods +colonels riding in front. Two or three days later, word was brought to +Ferguson that the Back-water men had come over the mountains; that the +Indian-fighters of the frontier, leaving unguarded their homes on the +Western Waters, had crossed by wooded and precipitous defiles to the +help of the beaten men of the plains. Ferguson at once fell back, +sending out messengers for help. When he came to King's Mountain, +a wooded, hog-back hill on the border line between North and South +Carolina, he camped on its top, deeming that there he was safe, for he +supposed that before the backwoodsmen could come near enough to attack +him help would reach him. But the backwoods leaders felt as keenly as +he the need of haste, and choosing out nine hundred picked men, the best +warriors of their force, and the best mounted and armed, they made a +long forced march to assail Ferguson before help could come to him. All +night long they rode the dim forest trails and splashed across the fords +of the rushing rivers. All the next day, October 16, they rode, until in +mid-afternoon, just as a heavy shower cleared away, they came in sight +of King's Mountain. The little armies were about equal in numbers. +Ferguson's regulars were armed with the bayonet, and so were some of his +Tory militia, whereas the Americans had not a bayonet among them; but +they were picked men, confident in their skill as riflemen, and they +were so sure of victory that their aim was not only to defeat the +British but to capture their whole force. The backwoods colonels, +counseling together as they rode at the head of the column, decided to +surround the mountain and assail it on all sides. Accordingly the bands +of frontiersmen split one from the other, and soon circled the craggy +hill where Ferguson's forces were encamped. They left their horses in +the rear and immediately began the battle, swarming forward on foot, +their commanders leading the attack. + +The march had been so quick and the attack so sudden that Ferguson had +barely time to marshal his men before the assault was made. Most of +his militia he scattered around the top of the hill to fire down at the +Americans as they came up, while with his regulars and with a few picked +militia he charged with the bayonet in person, first down one side of +the mountain and then down the other. Sevier, Shelby, Campbell, and +the other colonels of the frontiersmen, led each his force of riflemen +straight toward the summit. Each body in turn when charged by the +regulars was forced to give way, for there were no bayonets wherewith to +meet the foe; but the backwoodsmen retreated only so long as the charge +lasted, and the minute that it stopped they stopped too, and came +back ever closer to the ridge and ever with a deadlier fire. Ferguson, +blowing a silver whistle as a signal to his men, led these charges, +sword in hand, on horseback. At last, just as he was once again rallying +his men, the riflemen of Sevier and Shelby crowned the top of the ridge. +The gallant British commander became a fair target for the backwoodsmen, +and as for the last time he led his men against them, seven bullets +entered his body and he fell dead. With his fall resistance ceased. +The regulars and Tories huddled together in a confused mass, while the +exultant Americans rushed forward. A flag of truce was hoisted, and all +the British who were not dead surrendered. + +The victory was complete, and the backwoodsmen at once started to return +to their log hamlets and rough, lonely farms. They could not stay, for +they dared not leave their homes at the mercy of the Indians. They had +rendered a great service; for Cornwallis, when he heard of the disaster +to his trusted lieutenant, abandoned his march northward, and retired to +South Carolina. When he again resumed the offensive, he found his path +barred by stubborn General Greene and his troops of the Continental +line. + + + + +THE STORMING OF STONY POINT + + In their ragged regimentals + Stood the old Continentals, + Yielding not, + When the grenadiers were lunging, + And like hail fell the plunging + Cannon-shot; + When the files + Of the isles + From the smoky night encampment bore the banner of the rampant + Unicorn, + And grummer, grummer, grummer, rolled the roll of the drummer, + Through the morn! + + Then with eyes to the front all, + And with guns horizontal, + Stood our sires; + And the balls whistled deadly, + And in streams flashing redly + Blazed the fires; + As the roar + On the shore + Swept the strong battle-breakers o'er the green-sodded acres + Of the plain; + And louder, louder, louder cracked the black gunpowder, + Cracked amain! + --Guy Humphrey McMaster. + + +One of the heroic figures of the Revolution was Anthony Wayne, +Major-General of the Continental line. With the exception of Washington, +and perhaps Greene, he was the best general the Americans developed in +the contest; and without exception he showed himself to be the hardest +fighter produced on either side. He belongs, as regards this latter +characteristic, with the men like Winfield Scott, Phil Kearney, Hancock, +and Forrest, who reveled in the danger and the actual shock of arms. +Indeed, his eager love of battle, and splendid disregard of peril, +have made many writers forget his really great qualities as a general. +Soldiers are always prompt to recognize the prime virtue of physical +courage, and Wayne's followers christened their daring commander "Mad +Anthony," in loving allusion to his reckless bravery. It is perfectly +true that Wayne had this courage, and that he was a born fighter; +otherwise, he never would have been a great commander. A man who lacks +the fondness for fighting, the eager desire to punish his adversary, +and the willingness to suffer punishment in return, may be a great +organizer, like McClellan, but can never become a great general or win +great victories. There are, however, plenty of men who, though they +possess these fine manly traits, yet lack the head to command an army; +but Wayne had not only the heart and the hand but the head likewise. +No man could dare as greatly as he did without incurring the risk of an +occasional check; but he was an able and bold tactician, a vigilant +and cautious leader, well fitted to bear the terrible burden of +responsibility which rests upon a commander-in-chief. + +Of course, at times he had some rather severe lessons. Quite early in +his career, just after the battle of the Brandywine, when he was set to +watch the enemy, he was surprised at night by the British general Grey, +a redoubtable fighter, who attacked him with the bayonet, killed a +number of his men, and forced him to fall back some distance from the +field of action. This mortifying experience had no effect whatever on +Wayne's courage or self-reliance, but it did give him a valuable lesson +in caution. He showed what he had learned by the skill with which, many +years later, he conducted the famous campaign in which he overthrew the +Northwestern Indians at the Fight of the Fallen Timbers. + +Wayne's favorite weapon was the bayonet, and, like Scott he taught his +troops, until they were able in the shock of hand-to-hand conflict to +overthrow the renowned British infantry, who have always justly prided +themselves on their prowess with cold steel. At the battle of Germantown +it was Wayne's troops who, falling on with the bayonet, drove the +Hessians and the British light infantry, and only retreated under orders +when the attack had failed elsewhere. At Monmouth it was Wayne and his +Continentals who first checked the British advance by repulsing the +bayonet charge of the guards and grenadiers. + +Washington, a true leader of men, was prompt to recognize in Wayne a +soldier to whom could be intrusted any especially difficult enterprise +which called for the exercise alike of intelligence and of cool daring. +In the summer of 1780 he was very anxious to capture the British fort at +Stony Point, which commanded the Hudson. It was impracticable to attack +it by regular siege while the British frigates lay in the river, and the +defenses ere so strong that open assault by daylight was equally out of +the question. Accordingly Washington suggested to Wayne that he try a +night attack. Wayne eagerly caught at the idea. It was exactly the kind +of enterprise in which he delighted. The fort was on a rocky promontory, +surrounded on three sides by water, and on the fourth by a neck of land, +which was for the most part mere morass. It was across this neck of +land that any attacking column had to move. The garrison was six hundred +strong. To deliver the assault Wayne took nine hundred men. The +American army was camped about fourteen miles from Stony Point. One July +afternoon Wayne started, and led his troops in single file along the +narrow rocky roads, reaching the hills on the mainland near the fort +after nightfall. He divided his force into two columns, to advance one +along each side of the neck, detaching two companies of North Carolina +troops to move in between the two columns and make a false attack. +The rest of the force consisted of New Englanders, Pennsylvanians, +and Virginians. Each attacking column was divided into three parts, a +forlorn hope of twenty men leading, which was followed by an advance +guard of one hundred and twenty, and then by the main body. At the time +commanding officers still carried spontoons, and other old-time weapons, +and Wayne, who himself led the right column, directed its movements +spear in hand. It was nearly midnight when the Americans began to press +along the causeways toward the fort. Before they were near the walls +they were discovered, and the British opened a heavy fire of great guns +and musketry, to which the Carolinians, who were advancing between the +two columns, responded in their turn, according to orders; but the men +in the columns were forbidden to fire. Wayne had warned them that their +work must be done with the bayonet, and their muskets were not even +loaded. Moreover, so strict was the discipline that no one was allowed +to leave the ranks, and when one of the men did so an officer promptly +ran him through the body. + +No sooner had the British opened fire than the charging columns broke +into a run, and in a moment the forlorn hopes plunged into the abattis +of fallen timber which the British had constructed just without the +walls. On the left, the forlorn hope was very roughly handled, no less +than seventeen of the twenty men being either killed or wounded, but as +the columns came up both burst through the down timber and swarmed up +the long, sloping embankments of the fort. The British fought well, +cheering loudly as their volley's rang, but the Americans would not be +denied, and pushed silently on to end the contest with the bayonet. A +bullet struck Wayne in the head. He fell, but struggled to his feet and +forward, two of his officers supporting him. A rumor went among the +men that he was dead, but it only impelled them to charge home, more +fiercely than ever. + +With a rush the troops swept to the top of the wall. A fierce but +short fight followed in the intense darkness, which was lit only by the +flashes from the British muskets. The Americans did not fire, trusting +solely to the bayonet. The two columns had kept almost equal pace, and +they swept into the fort from opposite sides at the same moment. The +three men who first got over the walls were all wounded, but one of +them hauled down the British flag. The Americans had the advantage +which always comes from delivering an attack that is thrust home. Their +muskets were unloaded and they could not hesitate; so, running boldly +into close quarters, they fought hand to hand with their foes and +speedily overthrew them. For a moment the bayonets flashed and played; +then the British lines broke as their assailants thronged against them, +and the struggle was over. The Americans had lost a hundred in killed +and wounded. Of the British sixty-three had been slain and very many +wounded, every one of the dead or disabled having suffered from the +bayonet. A curious coincidence was that the number of the dead happened +to be exactly equal to the number of Wayne's men who had been killed in +the night attack by the English general, Grey. + +There was great rejoicing among the Americans over the successful issue +of the attack. Wayne speedily recovered from his wound, and in the joy +of his victory it weighed but slightly. He had performed a most notable +feat. No night attack of the kind was ever delivered with greater +boldness, skill, and success. When the Revolutionary War broke out the +American armies were composed merely of armed yeomen, stalwart men, +of good courage, and fairly proficient in the use of their weapons, but +entirely without the training which alone could enable them to withstand +the attack of the British regulars in the open, or to deliver an attack +themselves. Washington's victory at Trenton was the first encounter +which showed that the Americans were to be feared when they took the +offensive. With the exception of the battle of Trenton, and perhaps of +Greene's fight at Eutaw Springs, Wayne's feat was the most successful +illustration of daring and victorious attack by an American army that +occurred during the war; and, unlike Greene, who was only able to fight +a drawn battle, Wayne's triumph was complete. At Monmouth he had shown, +as he afterward showed against Cornwallis, that his troops could meet +the renowned British regulars on even terms in the open. At Stony Point +he showed that he could lead them to a triumphant assault with the +bayonet against regulars who held a fortified place of strength. No +American commander has ever displayed greater energy and daring, a +more resolute courage, or readier resource, than the chief of the +hard-fighting Revolutionary generals, Mad Anthony Wayne. + + + + +GOUVERNEUR MORRIS + +GOUVERNEUR MORRIS. PARIS. AUGUST 10, 1792. + + Justum et tenacem propositi virum + Non civium ardor prava jubentium, + Non vultus instantis tyranni + Mente quatit solida, neque Auster + Dux inquieti turbidus Hadriae, + Nec fulminantis magna manus Jovis: + Si fractus illabatur orbis, + Impavidum ferient ruinae. + --Hor., Lib. III. Carm. III. + + +The 10th of August, 1792, was one of the most memorable days of the +French Revolution. It was the day on which the French monarchy received +its death-blow, and was accompanied by fighting and bloodshed which +filled Paris with terror. In the morning before daybreak the tocsin had +sounded, and not long after the mob of Paris, headed by the Marseillais, +"Six hundred men not afraid to die," who had been summoned there by +Barbaroux, were marching upon the Tuileries. The king, or rather the +queen, had at last determined to make a stand and to defend the throne. +The Swiss Guards were there at the palace, well posted to protect the +inner court; and there, too, were the National Guards, who were expected +to uphold the government and guard the king. The tide of people poured +on through the streets, gathering strength as they went the Marseillais, +the armed bands, the Sections, and a vast floating mob. The crowd drew +nearer and nearer, but the squadrons of the National Guards, who were to +check the advance, did not stir. It is not apparent, indeed, that they +made any resistance, and the king and his family at eight o'clock lost +heart and deserted the Tuileries, to take refuge with the National +Convention. The multitude then passed into the court of the Carrousel, +unchecked by the National Guards, and were face to face with the Swiss. +Deserted by their king, the Swiss knew not how to act, but still stood +their ground. There was some parleying, and at last the Marseillais +fired a cannon. Then the Swiss fired. They were disciplined troops, +and their fire was effective. There was a heavy slaughter and the +mob recoiled, leaving their cannon, which the Swiss seized. The +Revolutionists, however, returned to the charge, and the fight raged on +both sides, the Swiss holding their ground firmly. + +Suddenly, from the legislative hall, came an order from the king to +the Swiss to cease firing. It was their death warrant. Paralyzed by +the order, they knew not what to do. The mob poured in, and most of the +gallant Swiss were slaughtered where they stood. Others escaped from the +Tuileries only to meet their death in the street. The palace was sacked +and the raging mob was in possession of the city. No man's life was +safe, least of all those who were known to be friends of the king, who +were nobles, or who had any connection with the court. Some of these +people whose lives were thus in peril at the hands of the bloodstained +and furious mob had been the allies of the United States, and had fought +under Washington in the war for American independence. In their anguish +and distress their thoughts recurred to the country which they had +served in its hour of trial, three thousand miles away. They sought the +legation of the United States and turned to the American minister for +protection. + +Such an exercise of humanity at that moment was not a duty that any man +craved. In those terrible days in Paris, the representatives of foreign +governments were hardly safer than any one else. Many of the ambassadors +and ministers had already left the country, and others were even then +abandoning their posts, which it seemed impossible to hold at such a +time. But the American minister stood his ground. Gouverneur Morris +was not a man to shrink from what he knew to be his duty. He had been +a leading patriot in our revolution; he had served in the Continental +Congress, and with Robert Morris in the difficult work of the Treasury, +when all our resources seemed to be at their lowest ebb. In 1788 he had +gone abroad on private business, and had been much in Paris, where +he had witnessed the beginning of the French Revolution and had been +consulted by men on both sides. In 1790, by Washington's direction, he +had gone to London and had consulted the ministry there as to whether +they would receive an American minister. Thence he had returned to +Paris, and at the beginning Of 1792 Washington appointed him minister of +the United States to France. + +As an American, Morris's sympathies had run strongly in favor of the +movement to relieve France from the despotism under which she was +sinking, and to give her a better and more liberal government. But, +as the Revolution progressed, he became outraged and disgusted by +the methods employed. He felt a profound contempt for both sides. The +inability of those who were conducting the Revolution to carry out +intelligent plans or maintain order, and the feebleness of the king and +his advisers, were alike odious to the man with American conceptions +of ordered liberty. He was especially revolted by the bloodshed and +cruelty, constantly gathering in strength, which were displayed by +the revolutionists, and he had gone to the very verge of diplomatic +propriety in advising the ministers of the king in regard to the +policies to be pursued, and, as he foresaw what was coming, in urging +the king himself to leave France. All his efforts and all his advice, +like those of other intelligent men who kept their heads during the +whirl of the Revolution, were alike vain. + +On August 10 the gathering storm broke with full force, and the populace +rose in arms to sweep away the tottering throne. Then it was that these +people, fleeing for their lives, came to the representative of the +country for which many of them had fought, and on both public and +private grounds besought the protection of the American minister. Let me +tell what happened in the words of an eye-witness, an American gentleman +who was in Paris at that time, and who published the following account +of his experiences: + +On the ever memorable 10th of August, after viewing the destruction of +the Royal Swiss Guards and the dispersion of the Paris militia by a band +of foreign and native incendiaries, the writer thought it his duty +to visit the Minister, who had not been out of his hotel since the +insurrection began, and, as was to be expected, would be anxious to +learn what was passing without doors. He was surrounded by the old Count +d'Estaing, and about a dozen other persons of distinction, of different +sexes, who had, from their connection with the United States, been his +most intimate acquaintances at Paris, and who had taken refuge with +him for protection from the bloodhounds which, in the forms of men and +women, were prowling in the streets at the time. All was silence here, +except that silence was occasionally interrupted by the crying of +the women and children. As I retired, the Minister took me aside, and +observed: "I have no doubt, sir, but there are persons on the watch who +would find fault with my conduct as Minister in receiving and protecting +these people, but I call on you to witness the declaration which I now +make, and that is that they were not invited to my house, but came of +their own accord. Whether my house will be a protection to them or to +me, God only knows, but I will not turn them out of it, let what will +happen to me," to which he added, "you see, sir, they are all persons to +whom our country is more or less indebted, and it would be inhuman to +force them into the hands of the assassins, had they no such claim +upon me." + +Nothing can be added to this simple account, and no American can read +it or repeat the words of Mr. Morris without feeling even now, a hundred +years after the event, a glow of pride that such words were uttered at +such a time by the man who represented the United States. + +After August 10, when matters in Paris became still worse, Mr. Morris +still stayed at his post. Let me give, in his own words, what he did and +his reasons for it: + +The different ambassadors and ministers are all taking their flight, +and if I stay I shall be alone. I mean, however, to stay, unless +circumstances should command me away, because, in the admitted case that +my letters of credence are to the monarchy, and not to the Republic of +France, it becomes a matter of indifference whether I remain in this +country or go to England during the time which may be needful to obtain +your orders, or to produce a settlement of affairs here. Going hence, +however, would look like taking part against the late Revolution, and I +am not only unauthorized in this respect, but I am bound to suppose that +if the great majority of the nation adhere to the new form, the United +States will approve thereof; because, in the first place, we have no +right to prescribe to this country the government they shall adopt, +and next, because the basis of our own Constitution is the indefeasible +right of the people to establish it. + +Among those who are leaving Paris is the Venetian ambassador. He was +furnished with passports from the Office of Foreign Affairs, but he +was, nevertheless, stopped at the barrier, was conducted to the Hotel +de Ville, was there questioned for hours, and his carriages examined and +searched. This violation of the rights of ambassadors could not fail, as +you may suppose, to make an impression. It has been broadly hinted to me +that the honor of my country and my own require that I should go away. +But I am of a different opinion, and rather think that those who give +such hints are somewhat influenced by fear. It is true that the position +is not without danger, but I presume that when the President did me the +honor of naming me to this embassy, it was not for my personal pleasure +or safety, but to promote the interests of my country. These, therefore, +I shall continue to pursue to the best of my judgment, and as to +consequences, they are in the hand of God. + +He remained there until his successor arrived. When all others fled, he +was faithful, and such conduct should never be forgotten. Mr. Morris +not only risked his life, but he took a heavy responsibility, and laid +himself open to severe attack for having protected defenseless people +against the assaults of the mob. But his courageous humanity is +something which should ever be remembered, and ought always to be +characteristic of the men who represent the United States in foreign +countries. When we recall the French Revolution, it is cheering to think +of that fearless figure of the American minister, standing firm and calm +in the midst of those awful scenes, with sacked palaces, slaughtered +soldiers, and a bloodstained mob about him, regardless of danger to +himself, determined to do his duty to his country, and to those to whom +his country was indebted. + + + + +THE BURNING OF THE "PHILADELPHIA" + + And say besides, that in Aleppo once, + Where a malignant and a turban'd Turk + Beat a Venetian and traduced the state, + I took by the throat the circumcised dog + And smote him, thus. + --Othello. + + +It is difficult to conceive that there ever was a time when the United +States paid a money tribute to anybody. It is even more difficult to +imagine the United States paying blackmail to a set of small piratical +tribes on the coast of Africa. Yet this is precisely what we once did +with the Barbary powers, as they were called the States of Morocco, +Tunis, Tripoli, and Algiers, lying along the northern coast of Africa. +The only excuse to be made for such action was that we merely followed +the example of Christendom. The civilized people of the world were then +in the habit of paying sums of money to these miserable pirates, +in order to secure immunity for their merchant vessels in the +Mediterranean. For this purpose Congress appropriated money, and +treaties were made by the President and ratified by the Senate. On one +occasion, at least, Congress actually revoked the authorization of some +new ships for the navy, and appropriated more money than was required +to build the men-of-war in order to buy off the Barbary powers. The fund +for this disgraceful purpose was known as the "Mediterranean fund," and +was intrusted to the Secretary of State to be disbursed by him in his +discretion. After we had our brush with France, however, in 1798, and +after Truxtun's brilliant victory over the French frigate L'Insurgente +in the following year, it occurred to our government that perhaps +there was a more direct as well as a more manly way of dealing with the +Barbary pirates than by feebly paying them tribute, and in 1801 a small +squadron, under Commodore Dale, proceeded to the Mediterranean. + +At the same time events occurred which showed strikingly the absurdity +as well as the weakness of this policy of paying blackmail to pirates. +The Bashaw of Tripoli, complaining that we had given more money to +some of the Algerian ministers than we had to him, and also that we had +presented Algiers with a frigate, declared war upon us, and cut down the +flag-staff in front of the residence of the American consul. At the same +time, and for the same reason, Morocco and Tunis began to grumble at the +treatment which they had received. The fact was that, with nations as +with individuals, when the payment of blackmail is once begun there is +no end to it. The appearance, however, of our little squadron in the +Mediterranean showed at once the superiority of a policy of force over +one of cowardly submission. Morocco and Tunis immediately stopped their +grumbling and came to terms with the United States, and this left us +free to deal with Tripoli. + +Commodore Dale had sailed before the declaration of war by Tripoli was +known, and he was therefore hampered by his orders, which permitted +him only to protect our commerce, and which forbade actual hostilities. +Nevertheless, even under these limited orders, the Enterprise, of +twelve guns, commanded by Lieutenant Sterrett, fought an action with the +Tripolitan ship Tripoli, of fourteen guns. The engagement lasted three +hours, when the Tripoli struck, having lost her mizzenmast, and with +twenty of her crew killed and thirty wounded. Sterrett, having no orders +to make captures, threw all the guns and ammunition of the Tripoli +overboard, cut away her remaining masts, and left her with only one spar +and a single sail to drift back to Tripoli, as a hint to the Bashaw of +the new American policy. + +In 1803 the command of our fleet in the Mediterranean was taken by +Commodore Preble, who had just succeeded in forcing satisfaction +from Morocco for an attack made upon our merchantmen by a vessel from +Tangier. He also proclaimed a blockade of Tripoli and was preparing +to enforce it when the news reached him that the frigate Philadelphia, +forty-four guns, commanded by Captain Bainbridge, and one of the best +ships in our navy, had gone upon a reef in the harbor of Tripoli, while +pursuing a vessel there, and had been surrounded and captured, with all +her crew, by the Tripolitan gunboats, when she was entirely helpless +either to fight or sail. This was a very serious blow to our navy and to +our operations against Tripoli. It not only weakened our forces, but it +was also a great help to the enemy. The Tripolitans got the Philadelphia +off the rocks, towed her into the harbor, and anchored her close under +the guns of their forts. They also replaced her batteries, and prepared +to make her ready for sea, where she would have been a most formidable +danger to our shipping. + +Under these circumstances Stephen Decatur, a young lieutenant in command +of the Enterprise, offered to Commodore Preble to go into the harbor and +destroy the Philadelphia. Some delay ensued, as our squadron was driven +by severe gales from the Tripolitan coast; but at last, in January, +1804, Preble gave orders to Decatur to undertake the work for which +he had volunteered. A small vessel known as a ketch had been recently +captured from the Tripolitans by Decatur, and this prize was now named +the Intrepid, and assigned to him for the work he had in hand. He took +seventy men from his own ship, the Enterprise, and put them on the +Intrepid, and then, accompanied by Lieutenant Stewart in the Siren, who +was to support him, he set sail for Tripoli. He and his crew were very +much cramped as well as badly fed on the little vessel which had been +given to them, but they succeeded, nevertheless, in reaching Tripoli in +safety, accompanied by the Siren. + +For nearly a week they were unable to approach the harbor, owing to +severe gales which threatened the loss of their vessel; but on February +16 the weather moderated and Decatur determined to go in. It is well to +recall, briefly, the extreme peril of the attack which he was about to +make. The Philadelphia, with forty guns mounted, double-shotted, and +ready for firing, and manned by a full complement of men, was moored +within half a gunshot of the Bashaw's castle, the mole and crown +batteries, and within range of ten other batteries, mounting, +altogether, one hundred and fifteen guns. Some Tripolitan cruisers, two +galleys, and nineteen gunboats also lay between the Philadelphia and the +shore. Into the midst of this powerful armament Decatur had to go with +his little vessel of sixty tons, carrying four small guns and having a +crew of seventy-five men. + +The Americans, however, were entirely undismayed by the odds against +them, and at seven o'clock Decatur went into the harbor between the +reef and shoal which formed its mouth. He steered on steadily toward the +Philadelphia, the breeze getting constantly lighter, and by half-past +nine was within two hundred yards of the frigate. As they approached +Decatur stood at the helm with the pilot, only two or three men showing +on deck and the rest of the crew lying hidden under the bulwarks. In +this way he drifted to within nearly twenty yards of the Philadelphia. +The suspicions of the Tripolitans, however, were not aroused, and when +they hailed the Intrepid, the pilot answered that they had lost their +anchors in a gale, and asked that they might run a warp to the frigate +and ride by her. While the talk went on the Intrepid's boat shoved off +with the rope, and pulling to the fore-chains of the Philadelphia, made +the line fast. A few of the crew then began to haul on the lines, and +thus the Intrepid was drawn gradually toward the frigate. + +The suspicions of the Tripolitans were now at last awakened. They raised +the cry of "Americanos!" and ordered off the Intrepid, but it was too +late. As the vessels came in contact, Decatur sprang up the main chains +of the Philadelphia, calling out the order to board. He was rapidly +followed by his officers and men, and as they swarmed over the rails and +came upon the deck, the Tripolitan crew gathered, panic-stricken, in a +confused mass on the forecastle. Decatur waited a moment until his men +were behind him, and then, placing himself at their head, drew his sword +and rushed upon the Tripolitans. There was a very short struggle, and +the Tripolitans, crowded together, terrified and surprised, were cut +down or driven overboard. In five minutes the ship was cleared of the +enemy. + +Decatur would have liked to have taken the Philadelphia out of the +harbor, but that was impossible. He therefore gave orders to burn the +ship, and his men, who had been thoroughly instructed in what they were +to do, dispersed into all parts of the frigate with the combustibles +which had been prepared, and in a few minutes, so well and quickly was +the work done, the flames broke out in all parts of the Philadelphia. As +soon as this was effected the order was given to return to the Intrepid. +Without confusion the men obeyed. It was a moment of great danger, for +fire was breaking out on all sides, and the Intrepid herself, filled +as she was with powder and combustibles, was in great peril of sudden +destruction. The rapidity of Decatur's movements, however, saved +everything. The cables were cut, the sweeps got out, and the Intrepid +drew rapidly away from the burning frigate. It was a magnificent +sight as the flames burst out over the Philadephia and ran rapidly and +fiercely up the masts and rigging. As her guns became heated they were +discharged, one battery pouring its shots into the town. Finally the +cables parted, and then the Philadelphia, a mass of flames, drifted +across the harbor, and blew up. Meantime the batteries of the shipping +and the castle had been turned upon the Intrepid, but although the +shot struck all around her, she escaped successfully with only one shot +through her mainsail, and, joining the Siren, bore away. + +This successful attack was carried through by the cool courage of +Decatur and the admirable discipline of his men. The hazard was very +great, the odds were very heavy, and everything depended on the nerve +with which the attack was made and the completeness of the surprise. +Nothing miscarried, and no success could have been more complete. +Nelson, at that time in the Mediterranean, and the best judge of a naval +exploit as well as the greatest naval commander who has ever lived, +pronounced it "the most bold and daring act of the age." We meet no +single feat exactly like it in our own naval history, brilliant as that +has been, until we come to Cushing's destruction of the Albemarle in +the war of the rebellion. In the years that have elapsed, and among the +great events that have occurred since that time, Decatur's burning of +the Philadephia has been well-nigh forgotten; but it is one of those +feats of arms which illustrate the high courage of American seamen, and +which ought always to be remembered. + + + + +THE CRUISE OF THE "WASP" + + A crash as when some swollen cloud + Cracks o'er the tangled trees! + With side to side, and spar to spar, + Whose smoking decks are these? + I know St. George's blood-red cross, + Thou mistress of the seas, + But what is she whose streaming bars + Roll out before the breeze? + + Ah, well her iron ribs are knit, + Whose thunders strive to quell + The bellowing throats, the blazing lips, + That pealed the Armada's knell! + The mist was cleared,--a wreath of stars + Rose o'er the crimsoned swell, + And, wavering from its haughty peak, + The cross of England fell! + --Holmes. + + +In the war of 1812 the little American navy, including only a dozen +frigates and sloops of war, won a series of victories against the +English, the hitherto undoubted masters of the sea, that attracted an +attention altogether out of proportion to the force of the combatants +or the actual damage done. For one hundred and fifty years the English +ships of war had failed to find fit rivals in those of any other +European power, although they had been matched against each in turn; and +when the unknown navy of the new nation growing up across the Atlantic +did what no European navy had ever been able to do, not only the English +and Americans, but the people of Continental Europe as well, regarded +the feat as important out of all proportion to the material aspects of +the case. The Americans first proved that the English could be beaten +at their own game on the sea. They did what the huge fleets of France, +Spain, and Holland had failed to do, and the great modern writers +on naval warfare in Continental Europe--men like Jurien de la +Graviere--have paid the same attention to these contests of frigates and +sloops that they give to whole fleet actions of other wars. + +Among the famous ships of the Americans in this war were two named the +Wasp. The first was an eighteen-gun ship-sloop, which at the very +outset of the war captured a British brig-sloop of twenty guns, after +an engagement in which the British fought with great gallantry, but were +knocked to Pieces, while the Americans escaped comparatively unscathed. +Immediately afterward a British seventy-four captured the victor. In +memory of her the Americans gave the same name to one of the new sloops +they were building. These sloops were stoutly made, speedy vessels which +in strength and swiftness compared favorably with any ships of their +class in any other navy of the day, for the American shipwrights were +already as famous as the American gunners and seamen. The new Wasp, like +her sister ships, carried twenty-two guns and a crew of one hundred +and seventy men, and was ship-rigged. Twenty of her guns were 32-pound +carronades, while for bow-chasers she had two "long Toms." It was in +the year 1814 that the Wasp sailed from the United States to prey on the +navy and commerce of Great Britain. Her commander was a gallant South +Carolinian named Captain Johnson Blakeley. Her crew were nearly all +native Americans, and were an exceptionally fine set of men. Instead of +staying near the American coasts or of sailing the high seas, the Wasp +at once headed boldly for the English Channel, to carry the war to the +very doors of the enemy. + +At that time the English fleets had destroyed the navies of every other +power of Europe, and had obtained such complete supremacy over the +French that the French fleets were kept in port. Off these ports lay the +great squadrons of the English ships of the line, never, in gale or +in calm, relaxing their watch upon the rival war-ships of the French +emperor. So close was the blockade of the French ports, and so hopeless +were the French of making headway in battle with their antagonists, +that not only the great French three-deckers and two-deckers, but their +frigates and sloops as well, lay harmless in their harbors, and the +English ships patroled the seas unchecked in every direction. A few +French privateers still slipped out now and then, and the far bolder and +more formidable American privateersmen drove hither and thither across +the ocean in their swift schooners and brigantines, and harried the +English commerce without mercy. + +The Wasp proceeded at once to cruise in the English Channel and off +the coasts of England, France, and Spain. Here the water was traversed +continually by English fleets and squadrons and single ships of war, +which were sometimes covoying detachments of troops for Wellington's +Peninsular army, sometimes guarding fleets of merchant vessels bound +homeward, and sometimes merely cruising for foes. It was this spot, +right in the teeth of the British naval power, that the Wasp chose for +her cruising ground. Hither and thither she sailed through the narrow +seas, capturing and destroying the merchantmen, and by the seamanship +of her crew and the skill and vigilance of her commander, escaping the +pursuit of frigate and ship of the line. Before she had been long on the +ground, one June morning, while in chase of a couple of merchant ships, +she spied a sloop of war, the British brig Reindeer, of eighteen guns +and a hundred and twenty men. The Reindeer was a weaker ship than the +Wasp, her guns were lighter, and her men fewer; but her commander, +Captain Manners, was one of the most gallant men in the splendid British +navy, and he promptly took up the gage of battle which the Wasp threw +down. + +The day was calm and nearly still; only a light wind stirred across the +sea. At one o'clock the Wasp's drum beat to quarters, and the sailors +and marines gathered at their appointed posts. The drum of the Reindeer +responded to the challenge, and with her sails reduced to fighting trim, +her guns run out, and every man ready, she came down upon the Yankee +ship. On her forecastle she had rigged a light carronade, and coming up +from behind, she five times discharged this pointblank into the American +sloop; then in the light air the latter luffed round, firing her guns +as they bore, and the two ships engaged yard-arm to yard-arm. The guns +leaped and thundered as the grimy gunners hurled them out to fire and +back again to load, working like demons. For a few minutes the cannonade +was tremendous, and the men in the tops could hardly see the decks for +the wreck of flying splinters. Then the vessels ground together, and +through the open ports the rival gunners hewed, hacked, and thrust at +one another, while the black smoke curled up from between the hulls. The +English were suffering terribly. Captain Manners himself was wounded, +and realizing that he was doomed to defeat unless by some desperate +effort he could avert it, he gave the signal to board. At the call the +boarders gathered, naked to the waist, black with powder and spattered +with blood, cutlas and pistol in hand. But the Americans were ready. +Their marines were drawn up on deck, the pikemen stood behind the +bulwarks, and the officers watched, cool and alert, every movement of +the foe. Then the British sea-dogs tumbled aboard, only to perish by +shot or steel. The combatants slashed and stabbed with savage fury, and +the assailants were driven back. Manners sprang to their head to lead +them again himself, when a ball fired by one of the sailors in the +American tops crashed through his skull, and he fell, sword in hand, +with his face to the foe, dying as honorable a death as ever a brave man +died in fighting against odds for the flag of his country. As he fell +the American officers passed the word to board. With wild cheers the +fighting sailormen sprang forward, sweeping the wreck of the British +force before them, and in a minute the Reindeer was in their possession. +All of her officers, and nearly two thirds of the crew, were killed or +wounded; but they had proved themselves as skilful as they were brave, +and twenty-six of the Americans had been killed or wounded. + +The Wasp set fire to her prize, and after retiring to a French port to +refit, came out again to cruise. For some time she met no antagonist +of her own size with which to wage war, and she had to exercise the +sharpest vigilance to escape capture. Late one September afternoon, when +she could see ships of war all around her, she selected one which was +isolated from the others, and decided to run alongside her and try to +sink her after nightfall. Accordingly she set her sails in pursuit, and +drew steadily toward her antagonist, a big eighteen-gun brig, the Avon, +a ship more powerful than the Reindeer. The Avon kept signaling to two +other British war vessels which were in sight--one an eighteen-gun brig +and the other a twenty-gun ship; they were so close that the Wasp +was afraid they would interfere before the combat could be ended. +Nevertheless, Blakeley persevered, and made his attack with equal skill +and daring. It was after dark when he ran alongside his opponent, +and they began forthwith to exchange furious broadsides. As the ships +plunged and wallowed in the seas, the Americans could see the clusters +of topmen in the rigging of their opponent, but they knew nothing of +the vessel's name or of her force, save only so far as they felt it. The +firing was fast and furious, but the British shot with bad aim, while +the skilled American gunners hulled their opponent at almost every +discharge. In a very few minutes the Avon was in a sinking condition, +and she struck her flag and cried for quarter, having lost forty or +fifty men, while but three of the Americans had fallen. Before the Wasp +could take possession of her opponent, however, the two war vessels +to which the Avon had been signaling came up. One of them fired at the +Wasp, and as the latter could not fight two new foes, she ran off easily +before the wind. Neither of her new antagonists followed her, devoting +themselves to picking up the crew of the sinking Avon. + + It would be hard to find a braver feat more skilfully performed +than this; for Captain Blakeley, with hostile foes all round him, had +closed with and sunk one antagonist not greatly his inferior in force, +suffering hardly any loss himself, while two of her friends were coming +to her help. + +Both before and after this the Wasp cruised hither and thither making +prizes. Once she came across a convoy of ships bearing arms and +munitions to Wellington's army, under the care of a great two-decker. +Hovering about, the swift sloop evaded the two-decker's movements, and +actually cut out and captured one of the transports she was guarding, +making her escape unharmed. Then she sailed for the high seas. She made +several other prizes, and on October 9 spoke a Swedish brig. + +This was the last that was ever heard of the gallant Wasp. She never +again appeared, and no trace of any of those aboard her was ever found. +Whether she was wrecked on some desert coast, whether she foundered +in some furious gale, or what befell her none ever knew. All that is +certain is that she perished, and that all on board her met death in +some one of the myriad forms in which it must always be faced by those +who go down to the sea in ships; and when she sank there sank one of the +most gallant ships of the American navy, with as brave a captain and +crew as ever sailed from any port of the New World. + + + + +THE "GENERAL ARMSTRONG" PRIVATEER + + We have fought such a fight for a day and a night + As may never be fought again! + We have won great glory, my men! + And a day less or more + At sea or ashore, + We die--does it matter when? + --Tennyson. + + +In the revolution, and again in the war of 1812, the seas were covered +by swift-sailing American privateers, which preyed on the British +trade. The hardy seamen of the New England coast, and of New York, +Philadelphia, and Baltimore, turned readily from their adventurous +careers in the whalers that followed the giants of the ocean in every +sea and every clime, and from trading voyages to the uttermost parts +of the earth, to go into the business of privateering, which was more +remunerative, and not so very much more dangerous, than their ordinary +pursuits. By the end of the war of 1812, in particular, the American +privateers had won for themselves a formidable position on the ocean. +The schooners, brigs, and brigantines in which the privateersmen sailed +were beautifully modeled, and were among the fastest craft afloat. They +were usually armed with one heavy gun, the "long Tom," as it was called, +arranged on a pivot forward or amidships, and with a few lighter pieces +of cannon. They carried strong crews of well-armed men, and their +commanders were veteran seamen, used to brave every danger from the +elements or from man. So boldly did they prey on the British commerce, +that they infested even the Irish Sea and the British Channel, and +increased many times the rate of insurance on vessels passing across +those waters. They also often did battle with the regular men-of-war of +the British, being favorite objects for attack by cutting-out parties +from the British frigates and ships of the line, and also frequently +encountering in fight the smaller sloops-of-war. Usually, in these +contests, the privateersmen were worsted, for they had not the training +which is obtained only in a regular service, and they were in no way to +be compared to the little fleet of regular vessels which in this same +war so gloriously upheld the honor of the American flag. Nevertheless, +here and there a privateer commanded by an exceptionally brave and able +captain, and manned by an unusually well-trained crew, performed some +feat of arms which deserves to rank with anything ever performed by the +regular navy. Such a feat was the defense of the brig General Armstrong, +in the Portuguese port of Fayal, of the Azores, against an overwhelming +British force. + +The General Armstrong hailed from New York, and her captain was named +Reid. She had a crew of ninety men, and was armed with one heavy 32 +pounder and six lighter guns. In December, 1814, she was lying in Fayal, +a neutral port, when four British war-vessels, a ship of the line, a +frigate and two brigs, hove into sight, and anchored off the mouth of +the harbor. The port was neutral, but Portugal was friendly to England, +and Reid knew well that the British would pay no respect to the +neutrality laws if they thought that at the cost of their violation they +could destroy the privateer. He immediately made every preparation to +resist an attack, The privateer was anchored close to the shore. The +boarding-nettings were got ready, and were stretched to booms thrust +outward from the brig's side, so as to check the boarders as they tried +to climb over the bulwarks. The guns were loaded and cast loose, and the +men went to quarters armed with muskets, boarding-pikes, and cutlases. + +On their side the British made ready to carry the privateer by boarding. +The shoals rendered it impossible for the heavy ships to approach, +and the lack of wind and the baffling currents also interfered for the +moment with the movements of the sloops-of-war. Accordingly recourse was +had to a cutting-out party, always a favorite device with the British +seamen of that age, who were accustomed to carry French frigates by +boarding, and to capture in their boats the heavy privateers and armed +merchantmen, as well as the lighter war-vessels of France and Spain. + +The British first attempted to get possession of the brig by surprise, +sending out but four boats. These worked down near to the brig, under +pretense of sounding, trying to get close enough to make a rush and +board her. The privateersmen were on their guard, and warned the boats +off, and after the warning had been repeated once or twice unheeded, +they fired into them, killing and wounding several men. Upon this the +boats promptly returned to the ships. + +This first check greatly irritated the British captains, and they +decided to repeat the experiment that night with a force which would +render resistance vain. Accordingly, after it became dark, a dozen +boats were sent from the liner and the frigate, manned by four hundred +stalwart British seamen, and commanded by the captain of one of the +brigs of war. Through the night they rowed straight toward the little +privateer lying dark and motionless in the gloom. As before, the +privateersmen were ready for their foe, and when they came within range +opened fire upon them, first with the long gun and then with the lighter +cannon; but the British rowed on with steady strokes, for they were +seamen accustomed to victory over every European foe, and danger had no +terrors for them. With fierce hurrahs they dashed through the shot-riven +smoke and grappled the brig; and the boarders rose, cutlas in hand, +ready to spring over the bulwarks. A terrible struggle followed. The +British hacked at the boarding-nets and strove to force their way +through to the decks of the privateer, while the Americans stabbed +the assailants with their long pikes and slashed at them with their +cutlases. The darkness was lit by the flashes of flame from the muskets +and the cannon, and the air was rent by the oaths and shouts of the +combatants, the heavy trampling on the decks, the groans of the wounded, +the din of weapon meeting weapon, and all the savage tumult of +a hand-to-hand fight. At the bow the British burst through the +boarding-netting, and forced their way to the deck, killing or wounding +all three of the lieutenants of the privateer; but when this had +happened the boats had elsewhere been beaten back, and Reid, rallying +his grim sea-dogs, led them forward with a rush, and the boarding party +were all killed or tumbled into the sea. This put an end to the fight. +In some of the boats none but killed and wounded men were left. The +others drew slowly off, like crippled wild-fowl, and disappeared in the +darkness toward the British squadron. Half of the attacking force had +been killed or wounded, while of the Americans but nine had fallen. + +The British commodore and all his officers were maddened with anger and +shame over the repulse, and were bent upon destroying the privateer +at all costs. Next day, after much exertion, one of the war-brigs was +warped into position to attack the American, but she first took her +station at long range, so that her carronades were not as effective as +the pivot gun of the privateer; and so well was the latter handled, that +the British brig was repeatedly hulled, and finally was actually driven +off. A second attempt was made, however, and this time the sloop-of-war +got so close that she could use her heavy carronades, which put the +privateer completely at her mercy. Then Captain Reid abandoned his brig +and sank her, first carrying ashore the guns, and marched inland with +his men. They were not further molested; and, if they had lost their +brig, they had at least made their foes pay dear for her destruction, +for the British had lost twice as many men as there were in the whole +hard-fighting crew of the American privateer. + + + + +THE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS + + The heavy fog of morning + Still hid the plain from sight, + When came a thread of scarlet + Marked faintly in the white. + We fired a single cannon, + And as its thunders rolled, + The mist before us lifted + In many a heavy fold. + The mist before us lifted, + And in their bravery fine + Came rushing to their ruin + The fearless British line. + --Thomas Dunn English. + + +When, in 1814, Napoleon was overthrown and forced to retire to Elba, the +British troops that had followed Wellington into southern France +were left free for use against the Americans. A great expedition was +organized to attack and capture New Orleans, and at its head was placed +General Pakenham, the brilliant commander of the column that delivered +the fatal blow at Salamanca. In December a fleet of British war-ships +and transports, carrying thousands of victorious veterans from the +Peninsula, and manned by sailors who had grown old in a quarter of a +century's triumphant ocean warfare, anchored off the broad lagoons of +the Mississippi delta. The few American gunboats were carried after a +desperate hand-to-hand struggle, the troops were landed, and on December +23 the advance-guard of two thousand men reached the banks of the +Mississippi, but ten miles below New Orleans, and there camped for the +night. It seemed as if nothing could save the Creole City from foes who +had shown, in the storming of many a Spanish walled town, that they were +as ruthless in victory as they were terrible in battle. There were +no forts to protect the place, and the militia were ill armed and ill +trained. But the hour found the man. On the afternoon of the very day +when the British reached the banks of the river the vanguard of Andrew +Jackson's Tennesseeans marched into New Orleans. Clad in hunting-shirts +of buckskin or homespun, wearing wolfskin and coonskin caps, and +carrying their long rifles on their shoulders, the wild soldiery of the +backwoods tramped into the little French town. They were tall men, with +sinewy frames and piercing eyes. Under "Old Hickory's" lead they had +won the bloody battle of the Horseshoe Bend against the Creeks; they +had driven the Spaniards from Pensacola; and now they were eager to pit +themselves against the most renowned troops of all Europe. + +Jackson acted with his usual fiery, hasty decision. It was absolutely +necessary to get time in which to throw up some kind of breastworks or +defenses for the city, and he at once resolved on a night attack against +the British. As for the British, they had no thought of being molested. +They did not dream of an assault from inferior numbers of undisciplined +and ill-armed militia, who did not possess so much as bayonets to their +guns. They kindled fires along the levees, ate their supper, and then, +as the evening fell, noticed a big schooner drop down the river in +ghostly silence and bring up opposite to them. The soldiers flocked to +the shore, challenging the stranger, and finally fired one or two shots +at her. Then suddenly a rough voice was heard, "Now give it to them, +for the honor of America!" and a shower of shell and grape fell on +the British, driving them off the levee. The stranger was an American +man-of-war schooner. The British brought up artillery to drive her off, +but before they succeeded Jackson's land troops burst upon them, and +a fierce, indecisive struggle followed. In the night all order was +speedily lost, and the two sides fought singly or in groups in the +utmost confusion. Finally a fog came up and the combatants separated. +Jackson drew off four or five miles and camped. + +The British had been so roughly handled that they were unable to advance +for three or four days, until the entire army came up. When they did +advance, it was only to find that Jackson had made good use of the time +he had gained by his daring assault. He had thrown up breastworks of +mud and logs from the swamp to the river. At first the British tried to +batter down these breastworks with their cannon, for they had many more +guns than the Americans. A terrible artillery duel followed. For an +hour or two the result seemed in doubt; but the American gunners showed +themselves to be far more skilful than their antagonists, and gradually +getting the upper hand, they finally silenced every piece of British +artillery. The Americans had used cotton bales in the embrasures, and +the British hogsheads of sugar; but neither worked well, for the cotton +caught fire and the sugar hogsheads were ripped and splintered by the +roundshot, so that both were abandoned. By the use of red-hot shot the +British succeeded in setting on fire the American schooner which had +caused them such annoyance on the evening of the night attack; but she +had served her purpose, and her destruction caused little anxiety to +Jackson. + +Having failed in his effort to batter down the American breastworks, +and the British artillery having been fairly worsted by the American, +Pakenham decided to try open assault. He had ten thousand regular +troops, while Jackson had under him but little over five thousand men, +who were trained only as he had himself trained them in his Indian +campaigns. Not a fourth of them carried bayonets. Both Pakenham and the +troops under him were fresh from victories won over the most renowned +marshals of Napoleon, andover soldiers that had proved themselves on a +hundred stricken fields the masters of all others in Continental Europe. +At Toulouse they had driven Marshal Soult from a position infinitely +stronger than that held by Jackson, and yet Soult had under him a +veteran army. At Badajoz, Ciudad Rodrigo, and San Sebastian they +had carried by open assault fortified towns whose strength made +the intrenchments of the Americans seem like the mud walls built by +children, though these towns were held by the best soldiers of France. +With such troops to follow him, and with such victories behind him in +the past, it did not seem possible to Pakenham that the assault of the +terrible British infantry could be successfully met by rough backwoods +riflemen fighting under a general as wild and untrained as themselves. + +He decreed that the assault should take place on the morning of the +eighth. Throughout the previous night the American officers were on +the alert, for they could hear the rumbling of artillery in the British +camp, the muffled tread of the battalions as they were marched to their +points in the line, and all the smothered din of the preparation for +assault. Long before dawn the riflemen were awake and drawn up behind +the mud walls, where they lolled at ease, or, leaning on their long +rifles, peered out through the fog toward the camp of their foes. At +last the sun rose and the fog lifted, showing the scarlet array of the +splendid British infantry. As soon as the air was clear Pakenham gave +the word, and the heavy columns of redcoated grenadiers and kilted +Highlanders moved steadily forward. From the American breastworks +the great guns opened, but not a rifle cracked. Three fourths of the +distance were covered, and the eager soldiers broke into a run; then +sheets of flame burst from the breastworks in their front as the wild +riflemen of the backwoods rose and fired, line upon line. Under the +sweeping hail the head of the British advance was shattered, and the +whole column stopped. Then it surged forward again, almost to the foot +of the breastworks; but not a man lived to reach them, and in a moment +more the troops broke and ran back. Mad with shame and rage, Pakenham +rode among them to rally and lead them forward, and the officers sprang +around him, smiting the fugitives with their swords and cheering on the +men who stood. For a moment the troops halted, and again came forward +to the charge; but again they were met by a hail of bullets from the +backwoods rifles. One shot struck Pakenham himself. He reeled and fell +from the saddle, and was carried off the field. The second and third +in command fell also, and then all attempts at further advance were +abandoned, and the British troops ran back to their lines. Another +assault had meanwhile been made by a column close to the river, the +charging soldiers rushing to the top of the breastworks; but they were +all killed or driven back. A body of troops had also been sent across +the river, where they routed a small detachment of Kentucky militia; but +they were, of course, recalled when the main assault failed. + +At last the men who had conquered the conquerors of Europe had +themselves met defeat. Andrew Jackson and his rough riflemen had +worsted, in fair fight, a far larger force of the best of Wellington's +veterans, and had accomplished what no French marshal and no French +troops had been able to accomplish throughout the long war in the +Spanish peninsula. For a week the sullen British lay in their lines; +then, abandoning their heavy artillery, they marched back to the ships +and sailed for Europe. + + + + +JOHN QUINCY ADAMS AND THE RIGHT OF PETITION + + He rests with the immortals; his journey has been long: + For him no wail of sorrow, but a paean full and strong! + So well and bravely has he done the work be found to do, + To justice, freedom, duty, God, and man forever true. + --Whittier. + + +The lot of ex-Presidents of the United States, as a rule, has been +a life of extreme retirement, but to this rule there is one marked +exception. When John Quincy Adams left the White House in March, 1829, +it must have seemed as if public life could hold nothing more for him. +He had had everything apparently that an American statesman could hope +for. He had been Minister to Holland and Prussia, to Russia and England. +He had been a Senator of the United States, Secretary of State for +eight years, and finally President. Yet, notwithstanding all this, the +greatest part of his career, and his noblest service to his country, +were still before him when he gave up the Presidency. + +In the following year (1830) he was told that he might be elected to +the House of Representatives, and the gentleman who made the proposition +ventured to say that he thought an ex-President, by taking such a +position, "instead of degrading the individual would elevate the +representative character." Mr. Adams replied that he had "in that +respect no scruples whatever. No person can be degraded by serving +the people as Representative in Congress, nor, in my opinion, would an +ex-President of the United States be degraded by serving as a selectman +of his town if elected thereto by the people." A few weeks later he was +chosen to the House, and the district continued to send him every two +years from that time until his death. He did much excellent work in the +House, and was conspicuous in more than one memorable scene; but here +it is possible to touch on only a single point, where he came forward +as the champion of a great principle, and fought a battle for the right +which will always be remembered among the great deeds of American public +men. + +Soon after Mr. Adams took his seat in Congress, the movement for the +abolition of slavery was begun by a few obscure agitators. It did not at +first attract much attention, but as it went on it gradually exasperated +the overbearing temper of the Southern slaveholders. One fruit of this +agitation was the appearance of petitions for the abolition of slavery +in the House of Representatives. A few were presented by Mr. Adams +without attracting much notice; but as the petitions multiplied, the +Southern representatives became aroused. They assailed Mr. Adams for +presenting them, and finally passed what was known as the gag rule, +which prevented the reception of these petitions by the House. Against +this rule Mr. Adams protested, in the midst of the loud shouts of +the Southerners, as a violation of his constitutional rights. But +the tyranny of slavery at that time was so complete that the rule was +adopted and enforced, and the slaveholders, undertook in this way +to suppress free speech in the House, just as they also undertook to +prevent the transmission through the mails of any writings adverse to +slavery. With the wisdom of a statesman and a man of affairs, Mr. Adams +addressed himself to the one practical point of the contest. He did not +enter upon a discussion of slavery or of its abolition, but turned his +whole force toward the vindication of the right of petition. On every +petition day he would offer, in constantly increasing numbers, petitions +which came to him from all parts of the country for the abolition of +slavery, in this way driving the Southern representatives almost to +madness, despite their rule which prevented the reception of such +documents when offered. Their hatred of Mr. Adams is something difficult +to conceive, and they were burning to break him down, and, if possible, +drive him from the House. On February 6, 1837, after presenting the +usual petitions, Mr. Adams offered one upon which he said he should like +the judgment of the Speaker as to its propriety, inasmuch as it was a +petition from slaves. In a moment the House was in a tumult, and +loud cries of "Expel him!" "Expel him!" rose in all directions. One +resolution after another was offered looking toward his expulsion or +censure, and it was not until February 9, three days later, that he was +able to take the floor in his own defense. His speech was a masterpiece +of argument, invective, and sarcasm. He showed, among other things, that +he had not offered the petition, but had only asked the opinion of the +Speaker upon it, and that the petition itself prayed that slavery should +not be abolished. When he closed his speech, which was quite as savage +as any made against him, and infinitely abler, no one desired to reply, +and the idea of censuring him was dropped. + +The greatest struggle, however, came five years later, when, on January +21, 1842, Mr. Adams presented the petition of certain citizens of +Haverhill, Massachusetts, praying for the dissolution of the Union +on account of slavery. His enemies felt that now, at last, he had +delivered himself into their hands. Again arose the cry for his +expulsion, and again vituperation was poured out upon him, and +resolutions to expel him freely introduced. When he got the floor to +speak in his own defense, he faced an excited House, almost unanimously +hostile to him, and possessing, as he well knew, both the will and the +power to drive him from its walls. But there was no wavering in Mr. +Adams. "If they say they will try me," he said, "they must try me. If +they say they will punish me, they must punish me. But if they say that +in peace and mercy they will spare me expulsion, I disdain and cast away +their mercy, and I ask if they will come to such a trial and expel me. I +defy them. I have constituents to go to, and they will have something +to say if this House expels me, nor will it be long before the gentlemen +will see me here again." The fight went on for nearly a fortnight, +and on February 7 the whole subject was finally laid on the table. The +sturdy, dogged fighter, single-handed and alone, had beaten all the +forces of the South and of slavery. No more memorable fight has ever +been made by one man in a parliamentary body, and after this decisive +struggle the tide began to turn. Every year Mr. Adams renewed his motion +to strike out the gag rule, and forced it to a vote. Gradually the +majority against it dwindled, until at last, on December 3, 1844, his +motion prevailed. Freedom of speech had been vindicated in the American +House of Representatives, the right of petition had been won, and the +first great blow against the slave power had been struck. + +Four years later Mr. Adams fell, stricken with paralysis, at his place +in the House, and a few hours afterward, with the words, "This is +the last of earth; I am content," upon his lips, he sank into +unconsciousness and died. It was a fit end to a great public career. His +fight for the right of petition is one to be studied and remembered, and +Mr. Adams made it practically alone. The slaveholders of the South and +the representatives of the North were alike against him. Against him, +too, as his biographer, Mr. Morse, says, was the class in Boston to +which he naturally belonged by birth and education. He had to +encounter the bitter resistance in his own set of the "conscienceless +respectability of wealth," but the great body of the New England people +were with him, as were the voters of his own district. He was an old +man, with the physical infirmities of age. His eyes were weak and +streaming; his hands were trembling; his voice cracked in moments of +excitement; yet in that age of oratory, in the days of Webster and Clay, +he was known as the "old man eloquent." It was what he said, more than +the way he said it, which told. His vigorous mind never worked more +surely and clearly than when he stood alone in the midst of an angry +House, the target of their hatred and abuse. His arguments were strong, +and his large knowledge and wide experience supplied him with every +weapon for defense and attack. Beneath the lash of his invective and his +sarcasm the hottest of the slaveholders cowered away. He set his back +against a great principle. He never retreated an inch, he never yielded, +he never conciliated, he was always an assailant, and no man and no +body of men had the power to turn him. He had his dark hours, he felt +bitterly the isolation of his position, but he never swerved. He had +good right to set down in his diary, when the gag rule was repealed, +"Blessed, forever blessed, be the name of God." + + + + +FRANCIS PARKMAN + +(1822-1893) + + He told the red man's story; far and wide + He searched the unwritten annals of his race; + He sat a listener at the Sachem's side, + He tracked the hunter through his wild-wood chase. + + High o'er his head the soaring eagle screamed; + The wolfs long howl rang nightly; through the vale + Tramped the lone bear; the panther's eyeballs gleamed; + The bison's gallop thundered on the gale. + + Soon o'er the horizon rose the cloud of strife, + Two proud, strong nations battling for the prize: + Which swarming host should mould a nation's life; + Which royal banner flout the western skies. + + Long raged the conflict; on the crimson sod + Native and alien joined their hosts in vain; + The lilies withered where the lion trod, + Till Peace lay panting on the ravaged plain. + + A nobler task was theirs who strove to win + The blood-stained heathen to the Christian fold; + To free from Satan's clutch the slaves of sin; + These labors, too, with loving grace he told. + + Halting with feeble step, or bending o'er + The sweet-breathed roses which he loved so well, + While through long years his burdening cross he bore, + From those firm lips no coward accents fell. + + A brave bright memory! His the stainless shield + No shame defaces and no envy mars! + When our far future's record is unsealed, + His name will shine among its morning stars. + --Holmes. + + +The stories in this volume deal, for the most part, with single actions, +generally with deeds of war and feats of arms. In this one I desire +to give if possible the impression, for it can be no more than +an impression, of a life which in its conflicts and its victories +manifested throughout heroic qualities. Such qualities can be shown in +many ways, and the field of battle is only one of the fields of human +endeavor where heroism can be displayed. + +Francis Parkman was born in Boston on September 16, 1822. He came of +a well-known family, and was of a good Puritan stock. He was rather a +delicate boy, with an extremely active mind and of a highly sensitive, +nervous organization. Into everything that attracted him he threw +himself with feverish energy. His first passion, when he was only about +twelve years old, was for chemistry, and his eager boyish experiments in +this direction were undoubtedly injurious to his health. The interest in +chemistry was succeeded by a passion for the woods and the wilderness, +and out of this came the longing to write the history of the men of the +wilderness, and of the great struggle between France and England for the +control of the North American continent. All through his college career +this desire was with him, and while in secret he was reading widely to +prepare himself for his task, he also spent a great deal of time in the +forests and on the mountains. To quote his own words, he was "fond of +hardships, and he was vain of enduring them, cherishing a sovereign +scorn for every physical weakness or defect; but deceived, moreover, by +the rapid development of frame and sinew, which flattered him into the +belief that discipline sufficiently unsparing would harden him into an +athlete, he slighted the precautions of a more reasonable woodcraft, +tired old foresters with long marches, stopped neither for heat nor for +rain, and slept on the earth without blankets." The result was that his +intense energy carried him beyond his strength, and while his muscles +strengthened and hardened, his sensitive nervous organization began to +give way. It was not merely because he led an active outdoor life. He +himself protests against any such conclusion, and says that "if any pale +student glued to his desk here seek an apology for a way of life whose +natural fruit is that pallid and emasculate scholarship, of which New +England has had too many examples, it will be far better that this +sketch had not been written. For the student there is, in its season, no +better place than the saddle, and no better companion than the rifle or +the oar." + +The evil that was done was due to Parkman's highly irritable organism, +which spurred him to excess in everything he undertook. The first +special sign of the mischief he was doing to himself and his health +appeared in a weakness of sight. It was essential to his plan of +historical work to study not only books and records but Indian life from +the inside. Therefore, having graduated from college and the law-school, +he felt that the time had come for this investigation, which would +enable him to gather material for his history and at the same time +to rest his eyes. He went to the Rocky Mountains, and after great +hardships, living in the saddle, as he said, with weakness and pain, he +joined a band of Ogallalla Indians. With them he remained despite his +physical suffering, and from them he learned, as he could not have +learned in any other way, what Indian life really was. + +The immediate result of the journey was his first book, instinct with +the freshness and wildness of the mountains and the prairies, and called +by him "The Oregon Trail." Unfortunately, the book was not the only +outcome. The illness incurred during his journey from fatigue and +exposure was followed by other disorders. The light of the sun became +insupportable, and his nervous system was entirely deranged. His +sight was now so impaired that he was almost blind, and could neither +read nor write. It was a terrible prospect for a brilliant and ambitious +man, but Parkman faced it unflinchingly. He devised a frame by which +he could write with closed eyes, and books and manuscripts were read to +him. In this way he began the history of "The Conspiracy of Pontiac," +and for the first half-year the rate of composition covered about six +lines a day. His courage was rewarded by an improvement in his health, +and a little more quiet in nerves and brain. In two and a half years he +managed to complete the book. He then entered upon his great subject of +"France in the New World." The material was mostly in manuscript, and +had to be examined, gathered, and selected in Europe and in Canada. +He could not read, he could write only a very little and that with +difficulty, and yet he pressed on. He slowly collected his material and +digested and arranged it, using the eyes of others to do that which he +could not do himself, and always on the verge of a complete breakdown +of mind and body. In 1851 he had an effusion of water on the left knee, +which stopped his outdoor exercise, on which he had always largely +depended. All the irritability of the system then centered in the head, +resulting in intense pain and in a restless and devouring activity +of thought. He himself says: "The whirl, the confusion, and strange, +undefined tortures attending this condition are only to be conceived +by one who has felt them." The resources of surgery and medicine were +exhausted in vain. The trouble in the head and eyes constantly recurred. +In 1858 there came a period when for four years he was incapable of the +slightest mental application, and the attacks varied in duration from +four hours to as many months. When the pressure was lightened a little +he went back to his work. When work was impossible, he turned to +horticulture, grew roses, and wrote a book about the cultivation of +those flowers which is a standard authority. + +As he grew older the attacks moderated, although they never departed. +Sleeplessness pursued him always, the slightest excitement would deprive +him of the power of exertion, his sight was always sensitive, and at +times he was bordering on blindness. In this hard-pressed way he fought +the battle of life. He says himself that his books took four times as +long to prepare and write as if he had been strong and able to use his +faculties. That this should have been the case is little wonder, for +those books came into being with failing sight and shattered nerves, +with sleeplessness and pain, and the menace of insanity ever hanging +over the brave man who, nevertheless, carried them through to an end. + +Yet the result of those fifty years, even in amount, is a noble one, and +would have been great achievement for a man who had never known a sick +day. In quality, and subject, and method of narration, they leave little +to be desired. There, in Parkman's volumes, is told vividly, strongly, +and truthfully, the history of the great struggle between France and +England for the mastery of the North American continent, one of the +most important events of modern times. This is not the place to give +any critical estimate of Mr. Parkman's work. It is enough to say that it +stands in the front rank. It is a great contribution to history, and +a still greater gift to the literature of this country. All Americans +certainly should read the volumes in which Parkman has told that +wonderful story of hardship and adventure, of fighting and of +statesmanship, which gave this great continent to the English race and +the English speech. But better than the literature or the history is +the heroic spirit of the man, which triumphed over pain and all other +physical obstacles, and brought a work of such value to his country +and his time into existence. There is a great lesson as well as a lofty +example in such a career, and in the service which such a man rendered +by his life and work to literature and to his country. On the tomb of +the conqueror of Quebec it is written: "Here lies Wolfe victorious." +The same epitaph might with entire justice be carved above the grave of +Wolfe's historian. + + + + +"REMEMBER THE ALAMO" + + The muffled drum's sad roll has beat + The soldier's last tattoo; + No more on life's parade shall meet + That brave and fallen few. + On fame's eternal camping-ground + Their silent tents are spread, + And glory guards with solemn round + The bivouac of the dead. + + * * * + + The neighing troop, the flashing blade, + The bugle's stirring blast, + The charge, the dreadful cannonade, + The din and shout are past; + Nor war's wild note, nor glory's peal + Shall thrill with fierce delight + Those breasts that never more may feel + The rapture of the fight. + --Theodore O'Hara. + + +"Thermopylae had its messengers of death, but the Alamo had none." These +were the words with which a United States senator referred to one of +the most resolute and effective fights ever waged by brave men against +overwhelming odds in the face of certain death. + +Soon after the close of the second war with Great Britain, parties of +American settlers began to press forward into the rich, sparsely settled +territory of Texas, then a portion of Mexico. At first these immigrants +were well received, but the Mexicans speedily grew jealous of them, and +oppressed them in various ways. In consequence, when the settlers +felt themselves strong enough, they revolted against Mexican rule, and +declared Texas to be an independent republic. Immediately Santa Anna, +the Dictator of Mexico, gathered a large army, and invaded Texas. The +slender forces of the settlers were unable to meet his hosts. They were +pressed back by the Mexicans, and dreadful atrocities were committed +by Santa Anna and his lieutenants. In the United States there was great +enthusiasm for the struggling Texans, and many bold backwoodsmen and +Indian-fighters swarmed to their help. Among them the two most famous +were Sam Houston and David Crockett. Houston was the younger man, and +had already led an extraordinary and varied career. When a mere lad he +had run away from home and joined the Cherokees, living among them for +some years; then he returned home. He had fought under Andrew Jackson in +his campaigns against the Creeks, and had been severely wounded at the +battle of the Horse-shoe Bend. He had risen to the highest political +honors in his State, becoming governor of Tennessee; and then suddenly, +in a fit of moody longing for the life of the wilderness, he gave up his +governorship, left the State, and crossed the Mississippi, going to join +his old comrades, the Cherokees, in their new home along the waters +of the Arkansas. Here he dressed, lived, fought, hunted, and drank +precisely like any Indian, becoming one of the chiefs. + +David Crockett was born soon after the Revolutionary War. He, too, had +taken part under Jackson in the campaigns against the Creeks, and had +afterward become a man of mark in Tennessee, and gone to Congress as a +Whig; but he had quarreled with Jackson, and been beaten for Congress, +and in his disgust he left the State and decided to join the Texans. He +was the most famous rifle-shot in all the United States, and the most +successful hunter, so that his skill was a proverb all along the border. + +David Crockett journeyed south, by boat and horse, making his way +steadily toward the distant plains where the Texans were waging their +life-and-death fight. Texas was a wild place in those days, and the old +hunter had more than one hairbreadth escape from Indians, desperadoes, +and savage beasts, ere he got to the neighborhood of San Antonio, and +joined another adventurer, a bee-hunter, bent on the same errand as +himself. The two had been in ignorance of exactly what the situation in +Texas was; but they soon found that the Mexican army was marching toward +San Antonio, whither they were going. Near the town was an old Spanish +fort, the Alamo, in which the hundred and fifty American defenders of +the place had gathered. Santa Anna had four thousand troops with +him. The Alamo was a mere shell, utterly unable to withstand either a +bombardment or a regular assault. It was evident, therefore, that those +within it would be in the utmost jeopardy if the place were seriously +assaulted, but old Crockett and his companion never wavered. They were +fearless and resolute, and masters of woodcraft, and they managed to +slip through the Mexican lines and join the defenders within the walls. +The bravest, the hardiest, the most reckless men of the border were +there; among them were Colonel Travis, the commander of the fort, and +Bowie, the inventor of the famous bowie-knife. They were a wild and +ill-disciplined band, little used to restraint or control, but they were +men of iron courage and great bodily powers, skilled in the use of their +weapons, and ready to meet with stern and uncomplaining indifference +whatever doom fate might have in store for them. + +Soon Santa Anna approached with his army, took possession of the town, +and besieged the fort. The defenders knew there was scarcely a chance +of rescue, and that it was hopeless to expect that one hundred and +fifty men, behind defenses so weak, could beat off four thousand trained +soldiers, well armed and provided with heavy artillery; but they had no +idea of flinching, and made a desperate defense. The days went by, and +no help came, while Santa Anna got ready his lines, and began a furious +cannonade. His gunners were unskilled, however, and he had to serve the +guns from a distance; for when they were pushed nearer, the American +riflemen crept forward under cover, and picked off the artillerymen. +Old Crockett thus killed five men at one gun. But, by degrees, the +bombardment told. The walls of the Alamo were battered and riddled; and +when they had been breached so as to afford no obstacle to the rush of +his soldiers, Santa Anna commanded that they be stormed. + +The storm took place on March 6, 1836. The Mexican troops came on well +and steadily, breaking through the outer defenses at every point, +for the lines were too long to be manned by the few Americans. The +frontiersmen then retreated to the inner building, and a desperate +hand-to-hand conflict followed, the Mexicans thronging in, shooting +the Americans with their muskets, and thrusting at them with lance and +bayonet, while the Americans, after firing their long rifles, clubbed +them, and fought desperately, one against many; and they also used their +bowie-knives and revolvers with deadly effect. The fight reeled to and +fro between the shattered walls, each American the center of a group of +foes; but, for all their strength and their wild fighting courage, the +defenders were too few, and the struggle could have but one end. One by +one the tall riflemen succumbed, after repeated thrusts with bayonet and +lance, until but three or four were left. Colonel Travis, the commander, +was among them; and so was Bowie, who was sick and weak from a wasting +disease, but who rallied all his strength to die fighting, and who, in +the final struggle, slew several Mexicans with his revolver, and with +his big knife of the kind to which he had given his name. Then these +fell too, and the last man stood at bay. It was old Davy Crockett. +Wounded in a dozen places, he faced his foes with his back to the wall, +ringed around by the bodies of the men he had slain. So desperate was +the fight he waged, that the Mexicans who thronged round about him +were beaten back for the moment, and no one dared to run in upon him. +Accordingly, while the lancers held him where he was, for, weakened +by wounds and loss of blood, he could not break through them, the +musketeers loaded their carbines and shot him down. Santa Anna declined +to give him mercy. Some say that when Crockett fell from his wounds, he +was taken alive, and was then shot by Santa Anna's order; but his fate +cannot be told with certainty, for not a single American was left alive. +At any rate, after Crockett fell the fight was over. Every one of the +hardy men who had held the Alamo lay still in death. Yet they died well +avenged, for four times their number fell at their hands in the battle. + +Santa Anna had but a short while in which to exult over his bloody and +hard-won victory. Already a rider from the rolling Texas plains, going +north through the Indian Territory, had told Houston that the Texans +were up and were striving for their liberty. At once in Houston's mind +there kindled a longing to return to the men of his race at the time of +their need. Mounting his horse, he rode south by night and day, and was +hailed by the Texans as a heaven-sent leader. He took command of their +forces, eleven hundred stark riflemen, and at the battle of San Jacinto, +he and his men charged the Mexican hosts with the cry of "Remember the +Alamo." Almost immediately, the Mexicans were overthrown with terrible +slaughter; Santa Anna himself was captured, and the freedom of Texas was +won at a blow. + + + + +HAMPTON ROADS + + Then far away to the south uprose + A little feather of snow-white smoke, + And we knew that the iron ship of our foes + Was steadily steering its course + To try the force + Of our ribs of oak. + + Down upon us heavily runs, + Silent and sullen, the floating fort; + Then comes a puff of smoke from her guns, + And leaps the terrible death, With fiery breath, + From her open port. + + * * * + + Ho! brave hearts, that went down in the seas! + Ye are at peace in the troubled stream; + Ho! brave land! with hearts like these, + Thy flag, that is rent in twain, + Shall be one again, + And without a seam! + --Longfellow + + +The naval battles of the Civil War possess an immense importance, +because they mark the line of cleavage between naval warfare under the +old, and naval warfare under the new, conditions. The ships with +which Hull and Decatur and McDonough won glory in the war of 1812 were +essentially like those with which Drake and Hawkins and Frobisher had +harried the Spanish armadas two centuries and a half earlier. They were +wooden sailing-vessels, carrying many guns mounted in broadside, like +those of De Ruyter and Tromp, of Blake and Nelson. Throughout +this period all the great admirals, all the famous single-ship +fighters,--whose skill reached its highest expression in our own +navy during the war of 1812,--commanded craft built and armed in a +substantially similar manner, and fought with the same weapons and under +much the same conditions. But in the Civil War weapons and methods +were introduced which caused a revolution greater even than that which +divided the sailing-ship from the galley. The use of steam, the casing of +ships in iron armor, and the employment of the torpedo, the ram, and the +gun of high power, produced such radically new types that the old +ships of the line became at one stroke as antiquated as the galleys of +Hamilcar or Alcibiades. Some of these new engines of destruction were +invented, and all were for the first time tried in actual combat, during +our own Civil War. The first occasion on which any of the new methods +were thoroughly tested was attended by incidents which made it one of +the most striking of naval battles. + + +In Chesapeake Bay, near Hampton Roads, the United States had collected +a fleet of wooden ships; some of them old-style sailing-vessels, others +steamers. The Confederates were known to be building a great iron-clad +ram, and the wooden vessels were eagerly watching for her appearance +when she should come out of Gosport Harbor. Her powers and capacity +were utterly unknown. She was made out of the former United States +steam-frigate Merrimac, cut down so as to make her fore and aft decks +nearly flat, and not much above the water, while the guns were mounted +in a covered central battery, with sloping flanks. Her sides, deck, +and battery were coated with iron, and she was armed with formidable +rifle-guns, and, most important of all, with a steel ram thrust out +under water forward from her bow. She was commanded by a gallant and +efficient officer, Captain Buchanan. + +It was March 8, 1862, when the ram at last made her appearance within +sight of the Union fleet. The day was calm and very clear, so that the +throngs of spectators on shore could see every feature of the battle. +With the great ram came three light gunboats, all of which took part in +the action, harassing the vessels which she assailed; but they were +not factors of importance in the fight. On the Union side the vessels +nearest were the sailing-ships Cumberland and Congress, and the +steam-frigate Minnesota. The Congress and Cumberland were anchored not +far from each other; the Minnesota got aground, and was some distance +off. Owing to the currents and shoals and the lack of wind, no other +vessel was able to get up in time to take a part in the fight. + +As soon as the ram appeared, out of the harbor, she turned and steamed +toward the Congress and the Cumberland, the black smoke rising from her +funnels, and the great ripples running from each side of her iron prow +as she drove steadily through the still waters. On board of the Congress +and Cumberland there was eager anticipation, but not a particle of fear. +The officers in command, Captain Smith and Lieutenant Morris, were two +of the most gallant men in a service where gallantry has always been +too common to need special comment. The crews were composed of veterans, +well trained, self-confident, and proud beyond measure of the flag whose +honor they upheld. The guns were run out, and the men stood at quarters, +while the officers eagerly conned the approaching ironclad. The Congress +was the first to open fire; and, as her volleys flew, the men on the +Cumberland were astounded to see the cannon-shot bound off the sloping +sides of the ram as hailstones bound from a windowpane. The ram +answered, and her rifle-shells tore the sides of the Congress; but for +her first victim she aimed at the Cumberland, and, firing her bow +guns, came straight as an arrow at the little sloop-of-war, which lay +broadside to her. + +It was an absolutely hopeless struggle. The Cumberland was a +sailing-ship, at anchor, with wooden sides, and a battery of light guns. +Against the formidable steam ironclad, with her heavy rifles and steel +ram, she was as powerless as if she had been a rowboat; and from the +moment the men saw the cannon-shot bound from the ram's sides they knew +they were doomed. But none of them flinched. Once and again they fired +their guns full against the approaching ram, and in response received a +few shells from the great bow-rifles of the latter. Then, forging +ahead, the Merrimac struck her antagonist with her steel prow, and the +sloop-of-war reeled and shuddered, and through the great rent in her +side the black water rushed. She foundered in a few minutes; but her +crew fought her to the last, cheering as they ran out the guns, and +sending shot after shot against the ram as the latter backed off after +delivering her blow. The rush of the water soon swamped the lower decks, +but the men above continued to serve their guns until the upper deck +also was awash, and the vessel had not ten seconds of life left. Then, +with her flags flying, her men cheering, and her guns firing, the +Cumberland sank. It was shallow where she settled down, so that her +masts remained above the water. The glorious flag for which the brave +men aboard her had died flew proudly in the wind all that day, while the +fight went on, and throughout the night; and next morning it was still +streaming over the beautiful bay, to mark the resting-place of as +gallant a vessel as ever sailed or fought on the high seas. + +After the Cumberland sank, the ram turned her attention to the Congress. +Finding it difficult to get to her in the shoal water, she began to +knock her to pieces with her great rifle-guns. The unequal fight between +the ironclad and the wooden ship lasted for perhaps half an hour. By +that time the commander of the Congress had been killed, and her +decks looked like a slaughterhouse. She was utterly unable to make +any impression on her foe, and finally she took fire and blew up. The +Minnesota was the third victim marked for destruction, and the Merrimac +began the attack upon her at once; but it was getting very late, and as +the water was shoal and she could not get close, the rain finally +drew back to her anchorage, to wait until next day before renewing and +completing her work of destruction. + +All that night there was the wildest exultation among the Confederates, +while the gloom and panic of the Union men cannot be described. It +was evident that the United States ships-of-war were as helpless as +cockle-shells against their iron-clad foe, and there was no question +but that she could destroy the whole fleet with ease and with absolute +impunity. This meant not only the breaking of the blockade; but the +sweeping away at one blow of the North's naval supremacy, which was +indispensable to the success of the war for the Union. It is small +wonder that during that night the wisest and bravest should have almost +despaired. + +But in the hour of the nation's greatest need a champion suddenly +appeared, in time to play the last scene in this great drama of sea +warfare. The North, too, had been trying its hand at building ironclads. +The most successful of them was the little Monitor, a flat-decked, low, +turreted, ironclad, armed with a couple of heavy guns. She was the first +experiment of her kind, and her absolutely flat surface, nearly level +with the water, her revolving turret, and her utter unlikeness to any +pre-existing naval type, had made her an object of mirth among most +practical seamen; but her inventor, Ericsson, was not disheartened in +the least by the jeers. Under the command of a gallant naval officer, +Captain Worden, she was sent South from New York, and though she almost +foundered in a gale she managed to weather it, and reached the scene +of the battle at Hampton Roads at the moment when her presence was +all-important. + +Early the following morning the Merrimac, now under Captain Jones (for +Buchanan had been wounded), again steamed forth to take up the work she +had so well begun and to destroy the Union fleet. She steered straight +for the Minnesota; but when she was almost there, to her astonishment +a strange-looking little craft advanced from the side of the big +wooden frigate and boldly barred the Merrimac's path. For a moment the +Confederates could hardly believe their eyes. The Monitor was tiny, +compared to their ship, for she was not one fifth the size, and her +queer appearance made them look at their new foe with contempt; but the +first shock of battle did away with this feeling. The Merrimac turned on +her foe her rifleguns, intending to blow her out of the water, but +the shot glanced from the thick iron turret of the Monitor. Then the +Monitors guns opened fire, and as the great balls struck the sides of +the ram her plates started and her timbers gave. Had the Monitor been +such a vessel as those of her type produced later in the war, the ram +would have been sunk then and there; but as it was her shot were not +quite heavy enough to pierce the iron walls. Around and around the two +strange combatants hovered, their guns bellowing without cessation, +while the men on the frigates and on shore watched the result with +breathless interest. Neither the Merrimac nor the Monitor could dispose +of its antagonist. The ram's guns could not damage the turret, and the +Monitor was able dexterously to avoid the stroke of the formidable +prow. On the other hand, the shot of the Monitor could not penetrate the +Merrimac's tough sides. Accordingly, fierce though the struggle was, and +much though there was that hinged on it, it was not bloody in character. +The Merrimac could neither destroy nor evade the Monitor. She could not +sink her when she tried to, and when she abandoned her and turned to +attack one of the other wooden vessels, the little turreted ship was +thrown across her path, so that the fight had to be renewed. Both sides +grew thoroughly exhausted, and finally the battle ceased by mutual +consent. + +Nothing more could be done. The ram was badly damaged, and there was +no help for her save to put back to the port whence she had come. Twice +afterward she came out, but neither time did she come near enough to the +Monitor to attack her, and the latter could not move off where she would +cease to protect the wooden vessels. The ram was ultimately blown up by +the Confederates on the advance of the Union army. + +Tactically, the fight was a drawn battle--neither ship being able to +damage the other, and both ships, being fought to a standstill; but +the moral and material effects were wholly in favor of the Monitor. Her +victory was hailed with exultant joy throughout the whole Union, and +exercised a correspondingly depressing effect in the Confederacy; while +every naval man throughout the world, who possessed eyes to see, saw +that the fight in Hampton Roads had inaugurated a new era in ocean +warfare, and that the Monitor and Merrimac, which had waged so gallant +and so terrible a battle, were the first ships of the new era, and that +as such their names would be forever famous. + + + + +THE FLAG-BEARER + + Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; + He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are + stored; + He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword; + His truth is marching on. + + I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps; + They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps; + I can read his righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps; + His day is marching on. + + He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never beat retreat; + He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment seat; + Oh! be swift, my soul, to answer him! be jubilant, my feet! + Our God is marching on. + --Julia Ward Howe. + + +In no war since the close of the great Napoleonic struggles has the +fighting been so obstinate and bloody as in the Civil War. Much has +been said in song and story of the resolute courage of the Guards +at Inkerman, of the charge of the Light Brigade, and of the terrible +fighting and loss of the German armies at Mars La Tour and Gravelotte. +The praise bestowed, upon the British and Germans for their valor, and +for the loss that proved their valor, was well deserved; but there were +over one hundred and twenty regiments, Union and Confederate, each of +which, in some one battle of the Civil War, suffered a greater loss than +any English regiment at Inkerman or at any other battle in the Crimea, +a greater loss than was suffered by any German regiment at Gravelotte or +at any other battle of the Franco-Prussian war. No European regiment in +any recent struggle has suffered such losses as at Gettysburg befell the +1st Minnesota, when 82 per cent. of the officers and men were killed and +wounded; or the 141st Pennsylvania, which lost 76 per cent.; or the 26th +North Carolina, which lost 72 per cent.; such as at the second battle +of Manassas befell the 101st New York, which lost 74 per cent., and +the 21st Georgia, which lost 76 per cent. At Cold Harbor the 25th +Massachusetts lost 70 per cent., and the 10th Tennessee at Chickamauga +68 per cent.; while at Shiloh the 9th Illinois lost 63 per cent., and +the 6th Mississippi 70 per cent.; and at Antietam the 1st Texas lost +82 percent. The loss of the Light Brigade in killed and wounded in its +famous charge at Balaklava was but 37 per cent. + +These figures show the terrible punishment endured by these +regiments, chosen at random from the head of the list which shows the +slaughter-roll of the Civil War. Yet the shattered remnants of each +regiment preserved their organization, and many of the severest losses +were incurred in the hour of triumph, and not of disaster. Thus, the 1st +Minnesota, at Gettysburg, suffered its appalling loss while charging a +greatly superior force, which it drove before it; and the little huddle +of wounded and unwounded men who survived their victorious charge +actually kept both the flag they had captured and the ground from which +they had driven their foes. + +A number of the Continental regiments under Washington, Greene, and +Wayne did valiant fighting and endured heavy punishment. Several of the +regiments raised on the northern frontier in 1814 showed, under Brown +and Scott, that they were able to meet the best troops of Britain on +equal terms in the open, and even to overmatch them in fair fight with +the bayonet. The regiments which, in the Mexican war, under the lead of +Taylor, captured Monterey, and beat back Santa Anna at Buena Vista, or +which, with Scott as commander, stormed Molino Del Rey and Chapultepec, +proved their ability to bear terrible loss, to wrest victory from +overwhelming numbers, and to carry by open assault positions of +formidable strength held by a veteran army. But in none of these three +wars was the fighting so resolute and bloody as in the Civil War. + +Countless deeds of heroism were performed by Northerner and by +Southerner, by officer and by private, in every year of the great +struggle. The immense majority of these deeds went unrecorded, and +were known to few beyond the immediate participants. Of those that were +noticed it would be impossible even to make a dry catalogue in ten such +volumes as this. All that can be done is to choose out two or three acts +of heroism, not as exceptions, but as examples of hundreds of others. +The times of war are iron times, and bring out all that is best as well +as all that is basest in the human heart. In a full recital of the civil +war, as of every other great conflict, there would stand out in naked +relief feats of wonderful daring and self-devotion, and, mixed among +them, deeds of cowardice, of treachery, of barbarous brutality. Sadder +still, such a recital would show strange contrasts in the careers of +individual men, men who at one time acted well and nobly, and at another +time ill and basely. The ugly truths must not be blinked, and the +lessons they teach should be set forth by every historian, and learned +by every statesman and soldier; but, for our good fortune, the lessons +best worth learning in the nation's past are lessons of heroism. + +From immemorial time the armies of every warlike people have set the +highest value upon the standards they bore to battle. To guard one's own +flag against capture is the pride, to capture the flag of one's enemy +the ambition, of every valiant soldier. In consequence, in every war +between peoples of good military record, feats of daring performed +by color-bearers are honorably common. The Civil War was full of such +incidents. Out of very many two or three may be mentioned as noteworthy. + +One occurred at Fredericksburg on the day when half the brigades +of Meagher and Caldwell lay on the bloody slope leading up to the +Confederate entrenchments. Among the assaulting regiments was the 5th +New Hampshire, and it lost one hundred and eighty-six out of three +hundred men who made the charge. The survivors fell sullenly back behind +a fence, within easy range of the Confederate rifle-pits. Just before +reaching it the last of the color guard was shot, and the flag fell +in the open. A Captain Perry instantly ran out to rescue it, and as he +reached it was shot through the heart; another, Captain Murray, made +the same attempt and was also killed; and so was a third, Moore. Several +private soldiers met a like fate. They were all killed close to the +flag, and their dead bodies fell across one another. Taking advantage of +this breastwork, Lieutenant Nettleton crawled from behind the fence to +the colors, seized them, and bore back the blood-won trophy. + +Another took place at Gaines' Mill, where Gregg's 1st South Carolina +formed part of the attacking force. The resistance was desperate, and +the fury of the assault unsurpassed. At one point it fell to the lot of +this regiment to bear the brunt of carrying a certain strong position. +Moving forward at a run, the South Carolinians were swept by a fierce +and searching fire. Young James Taylor, a lad of sixteen, was carrying +the flag, and was killed after being shot down three times, twice rising +and struggling onward with the colors. The third time he fell the flag +was seized by George Cotchet, and when he, in turn, fell, by Shubrick +Hayne. Hayne was also struck down almost immediately, and the fourth +lad, for none of them were over twenty years old, grasped the colors, +and fell mortally wounded across the body of his friend. The fifth, +Gadsden Holmes, was pierced with no less than seven balls. The sixth +man, Dominick Spellman, more fortunate, but not less brave, bore the +flag throughout the rest of the battle. + +Yet another occurred at Antietam. The 7th Maine, then under the command +of Major T. W. Hyde, was one of the hundreds of regiments that on many +hard-fought fields established a reputation for dash and unyielding +endurance. Toward the early part of the day at Antietam it merely took +its share in the charging and long-range firing, together with the New +York and Vermont regiments which were its immediate neighbors in the +line. The fighting was very heavy. In one of the charges, the Maine men +passed over what had been a Confederate regiment. The gray-clad soldiers +were lying, both ranks, privates and officers, as they fell, for so many +had been killed or disabled that it seemed as if the whole regiment was +prone in death. + +Much of the time the Maine men lay on the battle-field, hugging the +ground, under a heavy artillery fire, but beyond the reach of ordinary +musketry. One of the privates, named Knox, was a wonderful shot, and had +received permission to use his own special rifle, a weapon accurately +sighted for very long range. While the regiment thus lay under the storm +of shot and shell, he asked leave to go to the front; and for an hour +afterward his companions heard his rifle crack every few minutes. Major +Hyde finally, from curiosity, crept forward to see what he was doing, +and found that he had driven every man away from one section of a +Confederate battery, tumbling over gunner after gunner as they came +forward to fire. One of his victims was a general officer, whose horse +he killed. At the end of an hour or so, a piece of shell took off the +breech of his pet rifle, and he returned disconsolate; but after a few +minutes he gathered three rifles that were left by wounded men, and went +back again to his work. + +At five o'clock in the afternoon the regiment was suddenly called upon +to undertake a hopeless charge, owing to the blunder of the brigade +commander, who was a gallant veteran of the Mexican war, but who was +also given to drink. Opposite the Union lines at this point were some +haystacks, near a group of farm buildings. They were right in the center +of the Confederate position, and sharpshooters stationed among them were +picking off the Union gunners. The brigadier, thinking that they were +held by but a few skirmishers, rode to where the 7th Maine was lying +on the ground, and said: "Major Hyde, take your regiment and drive the +enemy from those trees and buildings." Hyde saluted, and said that he +had seen a large force of rebels go in among the buildings, probably two +brigades in all. The brigadier answered, "Are you afraid to go, sir?" +and repeated the order emphatically. "Give the order, so the regiment +can hear it, and we are ready, sir," said Hyde. This was done, and +"Attention" brought every man to his feet. With the regiment were two +young boys who carried the marking guidons, and Hyde ordered these to +the rear. They pretended to go, but as soon as the regiment charged came +along with it. One of them lost his arm, and the other was killed on the +field. The colors were carried by the color corporal, Harry Campbell. + +Hyde gave the orders to left face and forward and the Maine men marched +out in front of a Vermont regiment which lay beside them; then, facing +to the front, they crossed a sunken road, which was so filled with dead +and wounded Confederates that Hyde's horse had to step on them to get +over. + +Once across, they stopped for a moment in the trampled corn to +straighten the line, and then charged toward the right of the barns. +On they went at the double-quick, fifteen skirmishers ahead under +Lieutenant Butler, Major Hyde on the right on his Virginia thoroughbred, +and Adjutant Haskell to the left on a big white horse. The latter was +shot down at once, as was his horse, and Hyde rode round in front of the +regiment just in time to see a long line of men in gray rise from behind +the stone wall of the Hagerstown pike, which was to their right, and +pour in a volley; but it mostly went too high. He then ordered his men +to left oblique. + +Just as they were abreast a hill to the right of the barns, Hyde, being +some twenty feet ahead, looked over its top and saw several regiments of +Confederates, jammed close together and waiting at the ready; so he gave +the order left flank, and, still at the double quick, took his column +past the barns and buildings toward an orchard on the hither side, +hoping that he could get them back before they were cut off, for they +were faced by ten times their number. By going through the orchard he +expected to be able to take advantage of a hollow, and partially escape +the destructive flank fire on his return. + +To hope to keep the barns from which they had driven the sharpshooters +was vain, for the single Maine regiment found itself opposed to portions +of no less than four Confederate brigades, at least a dozen regiments +all told. When the men got to the orchard fence, Sergeant Benson +wrenched apart the tall pickets to let through Hyde's horse. While he +was doing this, a shot struck his haversack, and the men all laughed at +the sight of the flying hardtack. + +Going into the orchard there was a rise of ground, and the Confederates +fired several volleys at the Maine men, and then charged them. Hyde's +horse was twice wounded, but was still able to go on. + +No sooner were the men in blue beyond the fence than they got into +line and met the Confederates, as they came crowding behind, with +a slaughtering fire, and then charged, driving them back. The color +corporal was still carrying the colors, though one of his arms had been +broken; but when half way through the orchard, Hyde heard him call out +as he fell, and turned back to save the colors, if possible. + +The apple-trees were short and thick, and he could not see much, and the +Confederates speedily got between him and his men. Immediately, with the +cry of "Rally, boys, to save the Major," back surged the regiment, and +a volley at arm's length again destroyed all the foremost of their +pursuers; so they rescued both their commander and the flag, which was +carried off by Corporal Ring. + +Hyde then formed the regiment on the colors, sixty-eight men all told, +out of two hundred and forty who had begun the charge, and they slowly +marched back toward their place in the Union line, while the New Yorkers +and Vermonters rose from the ground cheering and waving their hats. +Next day, when the Confederates had retired a little from the field, +the color corporal, Campbell, was found in the orchard, dead, propped up +against a tree, with his half-smoked pipe beside him. + + + + +THE DEATH OF STONEWALL JACKSON + + Like a servant of the Lord, with his bible and his sword, + Our general rode along us, to form us for the fight. + --Macaulay. + + +The Civil War has left, as all wars of brother against brother must +leave, terrible and heartrending memories; but there remains as an +offset the glory which has accrued to the nation by the countless deeds +of heroism performed by both sides in the struggle. The captains and the +armies that, after long years of dreary campaigning and bloody, stubborn +fighting, brought the war to a close, have left us more than a reunited +realm. North and South, all Americans, now have a common fund of +glorious memories. We are the richer for each grim campaign, for each +hard-fought battle. We are the richer for valor displayed alike by +those who fought so valiantly for the right, and by those who, no less +valiantly, fought for what they deemed the right. We have in us nobler +capacities for what is great and good because of the infinite woe and +suffering, and because of the splendid ultimate triumph. We hold that it +was vital to the welfare, not only of our people on this continent, but +of the whole human race, that the Union should be preserved and slavery +abolished; that one flag should fly from the Great Lakes to the Rio +Grande; that we should all be free in fact as well as in name, and that +the United States should stand as one nation--the greatest nation on the +earth. But we recognize gladly that, South as well as North, when the +fight was once on, the leaders of the armies, and the soldiers whom they +led, displayed the same qualities of daring and steadfast courage, of +disinterested loyalty and enthusiasm, and of high devotion to an ideal. + +The greatest general of the South was Lee, and his greatest lieutenant +was Jackson. Both were Virginians, and both were strongly opposed to +disunion. Lee went so far as to deny the right of secession, while +Jackson insisted that the South ought to try to get its rights inside +the Union, and not outside. But when Virginia joined the Southern +Confederacy, and the war had actually begun, both men cast their lot +with the South. + +It is often said that the Civil War was in one sense a repetition of +the old struggle between the Puritan and the Cavalier; but Puritan and +Cavalier types were common to the two armies. In dash and light-hearted +daring, Custer and Kearney stood as conspicuous as Stuart and Morgan; +and, on the other hand, no Northern general approached the Roundhead +type--the type of the stern, religious warriors who fought under +Cromwell--so closely as Stonewall Jackson. He was a man of intense +religious conviction, who carried into every thought and deed of his +daily life the precepts of the faith he cherished. He was a tender and +loving husband and father, kindhearted and gentle to all with whom he +was brought in contact; yet in the times that tried men's souls, he +proved not only a commander of genius, but a fighter of iron will and +temper, who joyed in the battle, and always showed at his best when +the danger was greatest. The vein of fanaticism that ran through his +character helped to render him a terrible opponent. He knew no such word +as falter, and when he had once put his hand to a piece of work, he did +it thoroughly and with all his heart. It was quite in keeping with his +character that this gentle, high-minded, and religious man should, early +in the contest, have proposed to hoist the black flag, neither take nor +give quarter, and make the war one of extermination. No such policy was +practical in the nineteenth century and in the American Republic; but it +would have seemed quite natural and proper to Jackson's ancestors, the +grim Scotch-Irish, who defended Londonderry against the forces of the +Stuart king, or to their forefathers, the Covenanters of Scotland, and +the Puritans who in England rejoiced at the beheading of King Charles I. + +In the first battle in which Jackson took part, the confused struggle at +Bull Run, he gained his name of Stonewall from the firmness with which +he kept his men to their work and repulsed the attack of the Union +troops. From that time until his death, less than two years afterward, +his career was one of brilliant and almost uninterrupted success; +whether serving with an independent command in the Valley, or acting +under Lee as his right arm in the pitched battles with McClellan, Pope, +and Burnside. Few generals as great as Lee have ever had as great a +lieutenant as Jackson. He was a master of strategy and tactics, fearless +of responsibility, able to instil into his men his own intense ardor +in battle, and so quick in his movements, so ready to march as well as +fight, that his troops were known to the rest of the army as the "foot +cavalry." + +In the spring of 1863 Hooker had command of the Army of the Potomac. +Like McClellan, he was able to perfect the discipline of his forces +and to organize them, and as a division commander he was better +than McClellan, but he failed even more signally when given a great +independent command. He had under him 120,000 men when, toward the +end of April, he prepared to attack Lee's army, which was but half as +strong. + +The Union army lay opposite Fredericksburg, looking at the fortified +heights where they had received so bloody a repulse at the beginning of +the winter. Hooker decided to distract the attention of the Confederates +by letting a small portion of his force, under General Sedgwick, attack +Fredericksburg, while he himself took the bulk of the army across the +river to the right hand so as to crush Lee by an assault on his flank. +All went well at the beginning, and on the first of May Hooker found +himself at Chancellorsville, face-to-face with the bulk of Lee's +forces; and Sedgwick, crossing the river and charging with the utmost +determination, had driven out of Fredericksburg the Confederate division +of Early; but when Hooker found himself in front of Lee he hesitated, +faltered instead of pushing on, and allowed the consummate general to +whom he was opposed to take the initiative. + +Lee fully realized his danger, and saw that his only chance was, first +to beat back Hooker, and then to turn and overwhelm Sedgwick, who was in +his rear. He consulted with Jackson, and Jackson begged to be allowed +to make one of his favorite flank attacks upon the Union army; attacks +which could have been successfully delivered only by a skilled and +resolute general, and by troops equally able to march and to fight. Lee +consented, and Jackson at once made off. The country was thickly covered +with a forest of rather small growth, for it was a wild region, in which +there was still plenty of game. Shielded by the forest, Jackson marched +his gray columns rapidly to the left along the narrow country roads +until he was square on the flank of the Union right wing, which was held +by the Eleventh Corps, under Howard. The Union scouts got track of the +movement and reported it at headquarters, but the Union generals thought +the Confederates were retreating; and when finally the scouts brought +word to Howard that he was menaced by a flank attack he paid no heed to +the information, and actually let his whole corps be surprised in broad +daylight. Yet all the while the battle was going on elsewhere, and +Berdan's sharpshooters had surrounded and captured a Georgia regiment, +from which information was received showing definitely that Jackson was +not retreating, and must be preparing to strike a heavy blow. + +The Eleventh Corps had not the slightest idea that it was about to be +assailed. The men were not even in line. Many of them had stacked their +muskets and were lounging about, some playing cards, others cooking +supper, intermingled with the pack-mules and beef cattle. While they +were thus utterly unprepared Jackson's gray-clad veterans pushed +straight through the forest and rushed fiercely to the attack. The first +notice the troops of the Eleventh Corps received did not come from the +pickets, but from the deer, rabbits and foxes which, fleeing from their +coverts at the approach of the Confederates, suddenly came running over +and into the Union lines. In another minute the frightened pickets came +tumbling back, and right behind them came the long files of charging, +yelling Confederates; With one fierce rush Jackson's men swept over +the Union lines, and at a blow the Eleventh Corps became a horde of +panicstruck fugitives. Some of the regiments resisted for a few moments, +and then they too were carried away in the flight. + +For a while it seemed as if the whole army would be swept off; but +Hooker and his subordinates exerted every effort to restore order. It +was imperative to gain time so that the untouched portions of the army +could form across the line of the Confederate advance. + +Keenan's regiment of Pennsylvania cavalry, but four hundred sabers +strong, was accordingly sent full against the front of the ten thousand +victorious Confederates. + +Keenan himself fell, pierced by bayonets, and the charge was repulsed +at once; but a few priceless moments had been saved, and Pleasanton had +been given time to post twenty-two guns, loaded with double canister, +where they would bear upon the enemy. + +The Confederates advanced in a dense mass, yelling and cheering, and the +discharge of the guns fairly blew them back across the work's they had +just taken. Again they charged, and again were driven back; and when the +battle once more began the Union reinforcements had arrived. + +It was about this time that Jackson himself was mortally wounded. He had +been leading and urging on the advance of his men, cheering them with +voice and gesture, his pale face flushed with joy and excitement, +while from time to time as he sat on his horse he took off his hat and, +looking upward, thanked heaven for the victory it had vouchsafed him. +As darkness drew near he was in the front, where friend and foe were +mingled in almost inextricable confusion. He and his staff were fired +at, at close range, by the Union troops, and, as they turned, were fired +at again, through a mistake, by the Confederates behind them. Jackson +fell, struck in several places. He was put in a litter and carried back; +but he never lost consciousness, and when one of his generals complained +of the terrible effect of the Union cannonade he answered: + +"You must hold your ground." + +For several days he lingered, hearing how Lee beat Hooker, in detail, +and forced him back across the river. Then the old Puritan died. At the +end his mind wandered, and he thought he was again commanding in battle, +and his last words were. + +"Let us cross over the river and rest in the shade." + +Thus perished Stonewall Jackson, one of the ablest of soldiers and one +of the most upright of men, in the last of his many triumphs. + + + + +THE CHARGE AT GETTYSBURG + + For the Lord + On the whirlwind is abroad; + In the earthquake he has spoken; + He has smitten with his thunder + The iron walls asunder, + And the gates of brass are broken! + --Whittier + + With bray of the trumpet, + And roll of the drum, + And keen ring of bugle + The cavalry come: + Sharp clank the steel scabbards, + The bridle-chains ring, + And foam from red nostrils + The wild chargers fling! + + Tramp, tramp o'er the greensward + That quivers below, + Scarce held by the curb bit + The fierce horses go! + And the grim-visaged colonel, + With ear-rending shout, + Peals forth to the squadrons + The order, "Trot Out"! + --Francis A. Durivage. + + +The battle of Chancellorsville marked the zenith of Confederate good +fortune. Immediately afterward, in June, 1863, Lee led the victorious +army of Northern Virginia into Pennsylvania. The South was now the +invader, not the invaded, and its heart beat proudly with hopes of +success; but these hopes went down in bloody wreck on July 4, when word +was sent to the world that the high valor of Virginia had failed at last +on the field of Gettysburg, and that in the far West Vicksburg had been +taken by the army of the "silent soldier." + +At Gettysburg Lee had under him some seventy thousand men, and his +opponent, Meade, about ninety thousand. Both armies were composed mainly +of seasoned veterans, trained to the highest point by campaign after +campaign and battle after battle; and there was nothing to choose +between them as to the fighting power of the rank and file. The Union +army was the larger, yet most of the time it stood on the defensive; +for the difference between the generals, Lee and Meade, was greater +than could be bridged by twenty thousand men. For three days the battle +raged. No other battle of recent time has been so obstinate and so +bloody. The victorious Union army lost a greater percentage in killed +and wounded than the allied armies of England, Germany, and the +Netherlands lost at Waterloo. Four of its seven corps suffered each a +greater relative loss than befell the world-renowned British infantry +on the day that saw the doom of the French emperor. The defeated +Confederates at Gettysburg lost, relatively, as many men as the defeated +French at Waterloo; but whereas the French army became a mere rabble, +Lee withdrew his formidable soldiery with their courage unbroken, and +their fighting power only diminished by their actual losses in the +field. + +The decisive moment of the battle, and perhaps of the whole war, was +in the afternoon of the third day, when Lee sent forward his choicest +troops in a last effort to break the middle of the Union line. The +center of the attacking force was Pickett's division, the flower of the +Virginia infantry; but many other brigades took part in the assault, and +the column, all told, numbered over fifteen thousand men. At the same +time, the Confederates attacked the Union left to create a diversion. +The attack was preceded by a terrific cannonade, Lee gathering one +hundred and fifteen guns, and opening a fire on the center of the Union +line. In response, Hunt, the Union chief of artillery, and Tyler, of +the artillery reserves, gathered eighty guns on the crest of the gently +sloping hill, where attack was threatened. For two hours, from one till +three, the cannonade lasted, and the batteries on both sides suffered +severely. In both the Union and Confederate lines caissons were blown up +by the fire, riderless horses dashed hither and thither, the dead lay in +heaps, and throngs of wounded streamed to the rear. Every man lay down +and sought what cover he could. It was evident that the Confederate +cannonade was but a prelude to a great infantry attack, and at three +o'clock Hunt ordered the fire to stop, that the guns might cool, to be +ready for the coming assault. The Confederates thought that they had +silenced the hostile artillery, and for a few minutes their firing +continued; then, suddenly, it ceased, and there was a lull. + +The men on the Union side who were not at the point directly menaced +peered anxiously across the space between the lines to watch the next +move, while the men in the divisions which it was certain were about +to be assaulted, lay hugging the ground and gripping their muskets, +excited, but confident and resolute. They saw the smoke clouds rise +slowly from the opposite crest, where the Confederate army lay, and the +sunlight glinted again on the long line of brass and iron guns which had +been hidden from view during the cannonade. In another moment, out of +the lifting smoke there appeared, beautiful and terrible, the picked +thousands of the Southern army coming on to the assault. They advanced +in three lines, each over a mile long, and in perfect order. Pickett's +Virginians held the center, with on their left the North Carolinians +of Pender and Pettigrew, and on their right the Alabama regiments of +Wilcox; and there were also Georgian and Tennessee regiments in the +attacking force. Pickett's division, however, was the only one able to +press its charge home. After leaving the woods where they started, the +Confederates had nearly a mile and a half to go in their charge. As the +Virginians moved, they bent slightly to the left, so as to leave a gap +between them and the Alabamians on the right. + +The Confederate lines came on magnificently. As they crossed the +Emmetsburg Pike the eighty guns on the Union crest, now cool and in good +shape, opened upon them, first with shot and then with shell. Great gaps +were made every second in the ranks, but the gray-clad soldiers closed +up to the center, and the color-bearers leaped to the front, shaking +and waving the flags. The Union infantry reserved their fire until the +Confederates were within easy range, when the musketry crashed out with +a roar, and the big guns began to fire grape and canister. On came the +Confederates, the men falling by hundreds, the colors fluttering in +front like a little forest; for as fast as a color-bearer was shot +some one else seized the flag from his hand before it fell. The North +Carolinians were more exposed to the fire than any other portion of +the attacking force, and they were broken before they reached the line. +There was a gap between the Virginians and the Alabama troops, and this +was taken advantage of by Stannard's Vermont brigade and a demi-brigade +under Gates, of the 20th New York, who were thrust forward into it. +Stannard changed front with his regiments and fell on Pickett's forces +in flank, and Gates continued the attack. When thus struck in the flank, +the Virginians could not defend themselves, and they crowded off toward +the center to avoid the pressure. Many of them were killed or captured; +many were driven back; but two of the brigades, headed by General +Armistead, forced their way forward to the stone wall on the crest, +where the Pennsylvania regiments were posted under Gibbon and Webb. + +The Union guns fired to the last moment, until of the two batteries +immediately in front of the charging Virginians every officer but one +had been struck. One of the mortally wounded officers was young Cushing, +a brother of the hero of the Albemarle fight. He was almost cut in two, +but holding his body together with one hand, with the other he fired his +last gun, and fell dead, just as Armistead, pressing forward at the head +of his men, leaped the wall, waving his hat on his sword. Immediately +afterward the battle-flags of the foremost Confederate regiments crowned +the crest; but their strength was spent. The Union troops moved forward +with the bayonet, and the remnant of Pickett's division, attacked on all +sides, either surrendered or retreated down the hill again. Armistead +fell, dying, by the body of the dead Cushing. Both Gibbon and Webb +were wounded. Of Pickett's command two thirds were killed, wounded or +captured, and every brigade commander and every field officer, save one, +fell. The Virginians tried to rally, but were broken and driven again +by Gates, while Stannard repeated, at the expense of the Alabamians, the +movement he had made against the Virginians, and, reversing his front, +attacked them in flank. Their lines were torn by the batteries in front, +and they fell back before the Vermonter's attack, and Stannard reaped a +rich harvest of prisoners and of battle-flags. + +The charge was over. It was the greatest charge in any battle of +modern times, and it had failed. It would be impossible to surpass +the gallantry of those that made it, or the gallantry of those that +withstood it. Had there been in command of the Union army a general +like Grant, it would have been followed by a counter-charge, and in all +probability the war would have been shortened by nearly two years; but +no countercharge was made. + +As the afternoon waned, a fierce cavalry fight took place on the Union +right. Stuart, the famous Confederate cavalry commander, had moved +forward to turn the Union right, but he was met by Gregg's cavalry, and +there followed a contest, at close quarters, with "the white arm." It +closed with a desperate melee, in which the Confederates, charged under +Generals Wade Hampton and Fitz Lee, were met in mid career by the Union +generals Custer and McIntosh. All four fought, saber in hand, at the +head of their troopers, and every man on each side was put into the +struggle. Custer, his yellow hair flowing, his face aflame with the +eager joy of battle, was in the thick of the fight, rising in his +stirrups as he called to his famous Michigan swordsmen: "Come on, you +Wolverines, come on!" All that the Union infantry, watching eagerly +from their lines, could see, was a vast dust-cloud where flakes of +light shimmered as the sun shone upon the swinging sabers. At last the +Confederate horsemen were beaten back, and they did not come forward +again or seek to renew the combat; for Pickett's charge had failed, and +there was no longer hope of Confederate victory. + +When night fell, the Union flags waved in triumph on the field of +Gettysburg; but over thirty thousand men lay dead or wounded, strewn +through wood and meadow, on field and hill, where the three days' fight +had surged. + + + + +GENERAL GRANT AND THE VICKSBURG CAMPAIGN + + What flag is this you carry + Along the sea and shore? + The same our grandsires lifted up-- + The same our fathers bore. + In many a battle's tempest + It shed the crimson rain-- + What God has woven in his loom + Let no man rend in twain. + To Canaan, to Canaan, + The Lord has led us forth, + To plant upon the rebel towers + The banners of the North. + --Holmes. + + +On January 29, 1863, General Grant took command of the army intended +to operate against Vicksburg, the last place held by the rebels on the +Mississippi, and the only point at which they could cross the river and +keep up communication with their armies and territory in the southwest. +It was the first high ground below Memphis, was very strongly fortified, +and was held by a large army under General Pemberton. The complete +possession of the Mississippi was absolutely essential to the National +Government, because the control of that great river would cut the +Confederacy in two, and do more, probably, than anything else, to make +the overthrow of the Rebellion both speedy and certain. + +The natural way to invest and capture so strong a place, defended and +fortified as Vicksburg was, would have been, if the axioms of the art +of war had been adhered to, by a system of gradual approaches. A strong +base should have been established at Memphis, and then the army and the +fleet moved gradually forward, building storehouses and taking strong +positions as they went. To do this, however, it first would have been +necessary to withdraw the army from the positions it then held not far +above Vicksburg, on the western bank of the river. But such a movement, +at that time, would not have been understood by the country, and would +have had a discouraging effect on the public mind, which it was +most essential to avoid. The elections of 1862 had gone against the +government, and there was great discouragement throughout the North. +Voluntary enlistments had fallen off, a draft had been ordered, and the +peace party was apparently gaining rapidly in strength. General Grant, +looking at this grave political situation with the eye of a statesman, +decided, as a soldier, that under no circumstances would he withdraw the +army, but that, whatever happened, he would "press forward to a decisive +victory." In this determination he never faltered, but drove straight +at his object until, five months later, the great Mississippi stronghold +fell before him. + +Efforts were made through the winter to reach Vicksburg from the north +by cutting canals, and by attempts to get in through the bayous and +tributary streams of the great river. All these expedients failed, +however, one after another, as Grant, from the beginning, had feared +that they would. He, therefore, took another and widely different line, +and determined to cross the river from the western to the eastern bank +below Vicksburg, to the south. With the aid of the fleet, which ran the +batteries successfully, he moved his army down the west bank until he +reached a point beyond the possibility of attack, while a diversion +by Sherman at Haines' Bluff, above Vicksburg, kept Pemberton in his +fortifications. On April 26, Grant began to move his men over the river +and landed them at Bruinsburg. "When this was effected," he writes, "I +felt a degree of relief scarcely ever equaled since. Vicksburg was not +yet taken, it is true, nor were its defenders demoralized by any of our +previous movements. I was now in the enemy's country, with a vast river +and the stronghold of Vicksburg between me and my base of supplies, but +I was on dry ground, on the same side of the river with the enemy." + +The situation was this: The enemy had about sixty thousand men at +Vicksburg, Haines' Bluff, and at Jackson, Mississippi, about fifty +miles east of Vicksburg. Grant, when he started, had about thirty-three +thousand men. It was absolutely necessary for success that Grant, with +inferior numbers, should succeed in destroying the smaller forces to +the eastward, and thus prevent their union with Pemberton and the +main army at Vicksburg. His plan, in brief; was to fight and defeat a +superior enemy separately and in detail. He lost no time in putting his +plan into action, and pressing forward quickly, met a detachment of the +enemy at Port Gibson and defeated them. Thence he marched to Grand Gulf, +on the Mississippi, which he took, and which he had planned to make a +base of supply. When he reached Grand Gulf, however, he found that he +would be obliged to wait a month, in order to obtain the reinforcements +which he expected from General Banks at Port Hudson. He, therefore, gave +up the idea of making Grand Gulf a base, and Sherman having now joined +him with his corps, Grant struck at once into the interior. He took +nothing with him except ammunition, and his army was in the lightest +marching order. This enabled him to move with great rapidity, but +deprived him of his wagon trains, and of all munitions of war except +cartridges. Everything, however, in this campaign, depended on +quickness, and Grant's decision, as well as all his movements, marked +the genius of the great soldier, which consists very largely in knowing +just when to abandon the accepted military axioms. + +Pressing forward, Grant met the enemy, numbering between seven and eight +thousand, at Raymond, and readily defeated them. He then marched on +toward Jackson, fighting another action at Clinton, and at Jackson he +struck General Joseph Johnston, who had arrived at that point to take +command of all the rebel forces. Johnston had with him, at the moment, +about eleven thousand men, and stood his ground. There was a sharp +fight, but Grant easily defeated the enemy, and took possession of the +town. This was an important point, for Jackson was the capital of +the State of Mississippi, and was a base of military supplies. Grant +destroyed the factories and the munitions of war which were gathered +there, and also came into possession of the line of railroad which ran +from Jackson to Vicksburg. While he was thus engaged, an intercepted +message revealed to him the fact that Pemberton, in accordance with +Johnston's orders, had come out of Vicksburg with twenty-five thousand +men, and was moving eastward against him. Pemberton, however, instead +of holding a straight line against Grant, turned at first to the south, +with the view of breaking the latter's line of communication. This was +not a success, for, as Grant says, with grim humor, "I had no line of +communication to break"; and, moreover, it delayed Pemberton when delay +was of value to Grant in finishing Johnston. After this useless turn to +the southward Pemberton resumed his march to the east, as he should have +done in the beginning, in accordance with Johnston's orders; but Grant +was now more than ready. He did not wait the coming of Pemberton. +Leaving Jackson as soon as he heard of the enemy's advance from +Vicksburg, he marched rapidly westward and struck Pemberton at Champion +Hills. The forces were at this time very nearly matched, and the +severest battle of the campaign ensued, lasting four hours. Grant, +however, defeated Pemberton completely, and came very near capturing +his entire force. With a broken army, Pemberton fell back on Vicksburg. +Grant pursued without a moment's delay, and came up with the rear guard +at Big Black River. A sharp engagement followed, and the Confederates +were again defeated. Grant then crossed the Big Black and the next day +was before Vicksburg, with his enemy inside the works. + +When Grant crossed the Mississippi at Bruinsburg and struck into the +interior, he, of course, passed out of communication with Washington, +and he did not hear from there again until May 11, when, just as his +troops were engaging in the battle of Black River Bridge, an officer +appeared from Port Hudson with an order from General Halleck to return +to Grand Gulf and thence cooperate with Banks against Port Hudson. +Grant replied that the order came too late. "The bearer of the despatch +insisted that I ought to obey the order, and was giving arguments to +support the position, when I heard a great cheering to the right of our +line, and looking in that direction, saw Lawler, in his shirt-sleeves, +leading a charge on the enemy. I immediately mounted my horse and rode +in the direction of the charge, and saw no more of the officer who had +delivered the message; I think not even to this day." When Grant reached +Vicksburg, there was no further talk of recalling him to Grand Gulf or +Port Hudson. The authorities at Washington then saw plainly enough what +had been done in the interior of Mississippi, far from the reach of +telegraphs or mail. + +As soon as the National troops reached Vicksburg an assault was +attempted, but the place was too strong, and the attack was repulsed, +with heavy loss. Grant then settled down to a siege, and Lincoln and +Halleck now sent him ample reinforcements. He no longer needed to ask +for them. His campaign had explained itself, and in a short time he +had seventy thousand men under his command. His lines were soon made so +strong that it was impossible for the defenders of Vicksburg to break +through them, and although Johnston had gathered troops again to the +eastward, an assault from that quarter on the National army, now so +largely reinforced, was practically out of the question. Tighter and +tighter Grant drew his lines about the city, where, every day, the +suffering became more intense. It is not necessary to give the details +of the siege. On July 4, 1863, Vicksburg surrendered, the Mississippi +was in control of the National forces from its source to its mouth, and +the Confederacy was rent in twain. On the same day Lee was beaten at +Gettysburg, and these two great victories really crushed the Rebellion, +although much hard fighting remained to be done before the end was +reached. + +Grant's campaign against Vicksburg deserves to be compared with that of +Napoleon which resulted in the fall of Ulm. It was the most brilliant +single campaign of the war. With an inferior force, and abandoning +his lines of communication, moving with a marvelous rapidity through a +difficult country, Grant struck the superior forces of the enemy on the +line from Jackson to Vicksburg. He crushed Johnston before Pemberton +could get to him, and he flung Pemberton back into Vicksburg before +Johnston could rally from the defeat which had been inflicted. With an +inferior force, Grant was superior at every point of contest, and he won +every fight. Measured by the skill displayed and the result achieved, +there is no campaign in our history which better deserves study and +admiration. + + + + +ROBERT GOULD SHAW + + Brave, good, and true, + I see him stand before me now, + And read again on that young brow, + Where every hope was new, + HOW SWEET WERE LIFE! Yet, by the mouth firm-set, + And look made up for Duty's utmost debt, + I could divine he knew + That death within the sulphurous hostile lines, + In the mere wreck of nobly-pitched designs, + Plucks hearts-ease, and not rue. + + Right in the van, + On the red ramparts slippery swell, + With heart that beat a charge, he fell, + Foeward, as fits a man; + But the high soul burns on to light men's feet + Where death for noble ends makes dying sweet; + His life her crescent's span + Orbs full with share in their undarkening days + Who ever climbed the battailous steeps of praise + Since valor's praise began. + + We bide our chance, + Unhappy, and make terms with Fate + A little more to let us wait; + He leads for aye the advance, + Hope's forlorn-hopes that plant the desperate good + For nobler Earths and days of manlier mood; + Our wall of circumstance + Cleared at a bound, he flashes o'er the fight, + A saintly shape of fame, to cheer the right + And steel each wavering glance. + + I write of one, + While with dim eyes I think of three; + Who weeps not others fair and brave as he? + Ah, when the fight is won, + Dear Land, whom triflers now make bold to scorn + (Thee from whose forehead Earth awaits her morn), + How nobler shall the sun + Flame in thy sky, how braver breathe thy air, + That thou bred'st children who for thee could dare + And die as thine have done. + --Lowell. + + +Robert Gould Shaw was born in Boston on October 10, 1837, the son of +Francis and Sarah Sturgis Shaw. When he was about nine years old, his +parents moved to Staten Island, and he was educated there, and at school +in the neighborhood of New York, until he went to Europe in 1853, where +he remained traveling and studying for the next three years. He entered +Harvard College in 1856, and left at the end of his third year, in order +to accept an advantageous business offer in New York. + +Even as a boy he took much interest in politics, and especially in the +question of slavery. He voted for Lincoln in 1860, and at that time +enlisted as a private in the New York 7th Regiment, feeling that there +was likelihood of trouble, and that there would be a demand for soldiers +to defend the country. His foresight was justified only too soon, and on +April 19, 1861, he marched with his regiment to Washington. The call for +the 7th Regiment was only for thirty days, and at the expiration of that +service he applied for and obtained a commission as second lieutenant in +the 2d Massachusetts, and left with that regiment for Virginia in July, +1861. He threw himself eagerly into his new duties, and soon gained +a good position in the regiment. At Cedar Mountain he was an aid on +General Gordon's staff, and was greatly exposed in the performance of +his duties during the action. He was also with his regiment at Antietam, +and was in the midst of the heavy fighting of that great battle. + +Early in 1863, the Government determined to form negro regiments, and +Governor Andrew offered Shaw, who had now risen to the rank of captain, +the colonelcy of one to be raised in Massachusetts, the first black +regiment recruited under State authority. It was a great compliment to +receive this offer, but Shaw hesitated as to his capacity for such a +responsible post. He first wrote a letter declining, on the ground that +he did not feel that he had ability enough for the undertaking, and then +changed his mind, and telegraphed Governor Andrew that he would accept. +It is not easy to realize it now, but his action then in accepting this +command required high moral courage, of a kind quite different from that +which he had displayed already on the field of battle. The prejudice +against the blacks was still strong even in the North. There was a great +deal of feeling among certain classes against enlisting black regiments +at all, and the officers who undertook to recruit and lead negroes were. +exposed to much attack and criticism. Shaw felt, however, that this very +opposition made it all the more incumbent on him to undertake the duty. +He wrote on February 8: + +After I have undertaken this work, I shall feel that what I have to do +is to prove that the negro can be made a good soldier... . I am inclined +to think that the undertaking will not meet with so much opposition as +was at first supposed. All sensible men in the army, of all parties, +after a little thought, say that it is the best thing that can be done, +and surely those at home who are not brave or patriotic enough to enlist +should not ridicule or throw obstacles in the way of men who are going +to fight for them. There is a great prejudice against it, but now that +it has become a government matter, that will probably wear away. At +any rate I sha'n't be frightened out of it by its unpopularity. I feel +convinced I shall never regret having taken this step, as far as I +myself am concerned; for while I was undecided, I felt ashamed of myself +as if I were cowardly. + + +Colonel Shaw went at once to Boston, after accepting his new duty, and +began the work of raising and drilling the 54th Regiment. He met with +great success, for he and his officers labored heart and soul, and the +regiment repaid their efforts. On March 30, he wrote: "The mustering +officer who was here to-day is a Virginian, and has always thought it +was a great joke to try to make soldiers of 'niggers,' but he tells me +now that he has never mustered in so fine a set of men, though about +twenty thousand had passed through his hands since September." On May +28, Colonel Shaw left Boston, and his march through the city was a +triumph. The appearance of his regiment made a profound impression, and +was one of the events of the war which those who saw it never forgot. + +The regiment was ordered to South Carolina, and when they were off Cape +Hatteras, Colonel Shaw wrote: + +The more I think of the passage of the 54th through Boston, the more +wonderful it seems to me just remember our own doubts and fears, and +other people's sneering and pitying remarks when we began last winter, +and then look at the perfect triumph of last Thursday. We have gone +quietly along, forming the first regiment, and at last left Boston +amidst greater enthusiasm than has been seen since the first three +months' troops left for the war. Truly, I ought to be thankful for +all my happiness and my success in life so far; and if the raising of +colored troops prove such a benefit to the country and to the blacks as +many people think it will, I shall thank God a thousand times that I was +led to take my share in it. + + +He had, indeed, taken his share in striking one of the most fatal blows +to the barbarism of slavery which had yet been struck. The formation of +the black regiments did more for the emancipation of the negro and the +recognition of his rights, than almost anything else. It was impossible, +after that, to say that men who fought and gave their lives for the +Union and for their own freedom were not entitled to be free. The +acceptance of the command of a black regiment by such men as Shaw and +his fellow-officers was the great act which made all this possible. + +After reaching South Carolina, Colonel Shaw was with his regiment at +Port Royal and on the islands of that coast for rather more than a +month, and on July 18 he was offered the post of honor in an assault +upon Fort Wagner, which was ordered for that night. He had proved that +the negroes could be made into a good regiment, and now the second great +opportunity had come, to prove their fighting quality. He wanted to +demonstrate that his men could fight side by side with white soldiers, +and show to somebody beside their officers what stuff they were made of. +He, therefore, accepted the dangerous duty with gladness. Late in the +day the troops were marched across Folly and Morris islands and formed +in line of battle within six hundred yards of Fort Wagner. At half-past +seven the order for the charge was given, and the regiment advanced. +When they were within a hundred yards of the fort, the rebel fire opened +with such effect that the first battalion hesitated and wavered. Colonel +Shaw sprang to the front, and waving his sword, shouted: "Forward, +54th!" With another cheer, the men rushed through the ditch, and gained +a parapet on the right. Colonel Shaw was one of the first to scale the +walls. As he stood erect, a noble figure, ordering his men forward and +shouting to them to press on, he was shot dead and fell into the fort. +After his fall, the assault was repulsed. + +General Haywood, commanding the rebel forces, said to a Union prisoner: +"I knew Colonel Shaw before the war, and then esteemed him. Had he been +in command of white troops, I should have given him an honorable burial. +As it is, I shall bury him in the common trench, with the negroes that +fell with him." He little knew that he was giving the dead soldier the +most honorable burial that man could have devised, for the savage words +told unmistakably that Robert Shaw's work had not been in vain. The +order to bury him with his "niggers," which ran through the North and +remained fixed in our history, showed, in a flash of light, the hideous +barbarism of a system which made such things and such feelings possible. +It also showed that slavery was wounded to the death, and that the +brutal phrase was the angry snarl of a dying tiger. Such words rank with +the action of Charles Stuart, when he had the bones of Oliver Cromwell +and Robert Blake torn from their graves and flung on dunghills or fixed +on Temple Bar. + +Robert Shaw fell in battle at the head of his men, giving his life to +his country, as did many another gallant man during those four years of +conflict. But he did something more than this. He faced prejudice and +hostility in the North, and confronted the blind and savage rage of the +South, in order to demonstrate to the world that the human beings who +were held in bondage could vindicate their right to freedom by fighting +and dying for it. He helped mightily in the great task of destroying +human slavery, and in uplifting an oppressed and down-trodden race. He +brought to this work the qualities which were particularly essential for +his success. He had all that birth and wealth, breeding, education, and +tradition could give. He offered up, in full measure, all those things +which make life most worth living. He was handsome and beloved. He had a +serene and beautiful nature, and was at once brave and simple. Above +all things, he was fitted for the task which he performed and for the +sacrifice which he made. The call of the country and of the time came +to him, and he was ready. He has been singled out for remembrance from +among many others of equal sacrifice, and a monument is rising to his +memory in Boston, because it was his peculiar fortune to live and die +for a great principle of humanity, and to stand forth as an ideal and +beautiful figure in a struggle where the onward march of civilization +was at stake. He lived in those few and crowded years a heroic life, and +he met a heroic death. When he fell, sword in hand, on the parapet of +Wagner, leading his black troops in a desperate assault, we can only say +of him as Bunyan said of "Valiant for Truth": "And then he passed over, +and all the trumpets sounded for him on the other side." + + + + +CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL + + Wut's wurds to them whose faith an' truth + On war's red techstone rang true metal, + Who ventered life an' love an, youth + For the gret prize o' death in battle? + + To him who, deadly hurt, agen + Flashed on afore the charge's thunder, + Tippin' with fire the bolt of men + Thet rived the rebel line asunder? + --Lowell. + + +Charles Russell Lowell was born in Boston, January 2, 1835. He was the +eldest son of Charles Russell and Anna Cabot (Jackson) Lowell, and the +nephew of James Russell Lowell. He bore the name, distinguished in many +branches, of a family which was of the best New England stock. Educated +in the Boston public schools, he entered Harvard College in 1850. +Although one of the youngest members of his class, he went rapidly to +the front, and graduated not only the first scholar of his year, but +the foremost man of his class. He was, however, much more than a fine +scholar, for even then he showed unusual intellectual qualities. He read +widely and loved letters. He was a student of philosophy and religion, a +thinker, and, best of all, a man of ideals--"the glory of youth," as +he called them in his valedictory oration. But he was something still +better and finer than a mere idealist; he was a man of action, eager to +put his ideals into practice and bring them to the test of daily life. +With his mind full of plans for raising the condition of workingmen +while he made his own career, he entered the iron mills of the Ames +Company, at Chicopee. Here he remained as a workingman for six months, +and then received an important post in the Trenton Iron Works of New +Jersey. There his health broke down. Consumption threatened him, and all +his bright hopes and ambitions were overcast and checked. He was obliged +to leave his business and go to Europe, where he traveled for two years, +fighting the dread disease that was upon him. In 1858 he returned, and +took a position on a Western railroad. Although the work was new to +him, he manifested the same capacity that he had always shown, and more +especially his power over other men and his ability in organization. In +two years his health was reestablished, and in 1860 he took charge of +the Mount Savage Iron Works, at Cumberland, Maryland. He was there +when news came of the attack made by the mob upon the 6th Massachusetts +Regiment, in Baltimore. Two days later he had made his way to +Washington, one of the first comers from the North, and at once applied +for a commission in the regular army. While he was waiting, he employed +himself in looking after the Massachusetts troops, and also, it is +understood, as a scout for the Government, dangerous work which suited +his bold and adventurous nature. + +In May he received his commission as captain in the United States +cavalry. Employed at first in recruiting and then in drill, he gave +himself up to the study of tactics and the science of war. The career +above all others to which he was suited had come to him. The field, at +last, lay open before him, where all his great qualities of mind and +heart, his high courage, his power of leadership and of organization, and +his intellectual powers could find full play. He moved rapidly forward, +just as he had already done in college and in business. His regiment, +in 1862, was under Stoneman in the Peninsula, and was engaged in many +actions, where Lowell's cool bravery made him constantly conspicuous. +At the close of the campaign he was brevetted major, for distinguished +services at Williamsburg and Slatersville. + +In July, Lowell was detailed for duty as an aid to General McClellan. +At Malvern Hill and South Mountain his gallantry and efficiency were +strongly shown, but it was at Antietam that he distinguished himself +most. Sent with orders to General Sedgwick's division, he found it +retreating in confusion, under a hot fire. He did not stop to think +of orders, but rode rapidly from point to point of the line, rallying +company after company by the mere force and power of his word and look, +checking the rout, while the storm of bullets swept all round him. His +horse was shot under him, a ball passed through his coat, another +broke his sword-hilt, but he came off unscathed, and his service was +recognized by his being sent to Washington with the captured flags of +the enemy. + +The following winter he was ordered to Boston, to recruit a regiment +of cavalry, of which he was appointed colonel. While the recruiting was +going on, a serious mutiny broke out, but the man who, like Cromwell's +soldiers, "rejoiced greatly" in the day of battle was entirely capable +of meeting this different trial. He shot the ringleader dead, and by +the force of his own strong will quelled the outbreak completely and at +once. + +In May, he went to Virginia with his regiment, where he was engaged in +resisting and following Mosby, and the following summer he was opposed +to General Early in the neighborhood of Washington. On July 14, when +on a reconnoissance his advance guard was surprised, and he met them +retreating in wild confusion, with the enemy at their heels. Riding into +the midst of the fugitives, Lowell shouted, "Dismount!" The sharp word +of command, the presence of the man himself, and the magic of discipline +prevailed. The men sprang down, drew up in line, received the enemy, +with a heavy fire, and as the assailants wavered, Lowell advanced at +once, and saved the day. + +In July, he was put in command of the "Provisional Brigade," and joined +the army of the Shenandoah, of which in August General Sheridan took +command. He was so struck with Lowell's work during the next month that +in September he put him in command of the "Reserved Brigade," a very +fine body of cavalry and artillery. In the fierce and continuous +fighting that ensued Lowell was everywhere conspicuous, and in thirteen +weeks he had as many horses shot under him. But he now had scope to +show more than the dashing gallantry which distinguished him always and +everywhere. His genuine military ability, which surely would have +led him to the front rank of soldiers had his life been spared, his +knowledge, vigilance, and nerve all now became apparent. One brilliant +action succeeded another, but the end was drawing near. It came at +last on the famous day of Cedar Creek, when Sheridan rode down from +Winchester and saved the battle. Lowell had advanced early in the +morning on the right, and his attack prevented the disaster on that wing +which fell upon the surprised army. He then moved to cover the retreat, +and around to the extreme left, where he held his position near +Middletown against repeated assaults. Early in the day his last horse +was shot under him, and a little later, in a charge at one o'clock, he +was struck in the right breast by a spent ball, which embedded itself +in the muscles of the chest. Voice and strength left him. "It is only +my poor lung," he announced, as they urged him to go to the rear; "you +would not have me leave the field without having shed blood." As a +matter of fact, the "poor" lung had collapsed, and there was an internal +hemorrhage. He lay thus, under a rude shelter, for an hour and a half, +and then came the order to advance along the whole line, the victorious +advance of Sheridan and the rallied army. Lowell was helped to his +saddle. "I feel well now," he whispered, and, giving his orders through +one of his staff, had his brigade ready first. Leading the great charge, +he dashed forward, and, just when the fight was hottest, a sudden cry +went up: "The colonel is hit!" He fell from the saddle, struck in the +neck by a ball which severed the spine, and was borne by his officers to +a house in the village, where, clear in mind and calm in spirit, he died +a few hours afterward. + +"I do not think there was a quality," said General Sheridan, "which +I could have added to Lowell. He was the perfection of a man and a +soldier." On October 19, the very day on which he fell, his commission +was signed to be a brigadier-general. + +This was a noble life and a noble death, worthy of much thought and +admiration from all men. Yet this is not all. It is well for us to see +how such a man looked upon what he was doing, and what it meant to him. +Lowell was one of the silent heroes so much commended by Carlyle. He +never wrote of himself or his own exploits. As some one well said, he +had "the impersonality of genius." But in a few remarkable passages +in his private letters, we can see how the meaning of life and of that +great time unrolled itself before his inner eyes. In June, 1861, he +wrote: + +I cannot say I take any great pleasure in the contemplation of the +future. I fancy you feel much as I do about the profitableness of a +soldier's life, and would not think of trying it, were it not for a +muddled and twisted idea that somehow or other this fight was going to +be one in which decent men ought to engage for the sake of humanity,--I +use the word in its ordinary sense. It seems to me that within a year +the slavery question will again take a prominent place, and that many +cases will arise in which we may get fearfully in the wrong if we put +our cause wholly in the hands of fighting men and foreign legions. + +In June, 1863, he wrote: + +I wonder whether my theories about self-culture, etc., would ever have +been modified so much, whether I should ever have seen what a necessary +failure they lead to, had it not been for this war. Now I feel every +day, more and more, that a man has no right to himself at all; that, +indeed, he can do nothing useful unless he recognizes this clearly. Here +again, on July 3, is a sentence which it is well to take to heart, and +for all men to remember when their ears are deafened with the cry that +war, no matter what the cause, is the worst thing possible, because it +interferes with comfort, trade, and money-making: "Wars are bad," Lowell +writes, "but there are many things far worse. Anything immediately +comfortable in our affairs I don't see; but comfortable times are not +the ones t hat make a nation great." On July 24, he says: + +Many nations fail, that one may become great; ours will fail, unless we +gird up our loins and do humble and honest days' work, without trying +to do the thing by the job, or to get a great nation made by a patent +process. It is not safe to say that we shall not have victories till we +are ready for them. We shall have victories, and whether or no we are +ready for them depends upon ourselves; if we are not ready, we shall +fail,--voila tout. If you ask, what if we do fail? I have nothing to +say; I shouldn't cry over a nation or two, more or less, gone under. + +Finally, on September 10, a little more than a month before his death, +he wrote to a disabled officer: + +I hope that you are going to live like a plain republican, mindful of +the beauty and of the duty of simplicity. Nothing fancy now, sir, if you +please; it's disreputable to spend money when the government is so +hard up, and when there are so many poor officers. I hope that you have +outgrown all foolish ambitions, and are now content to become a "useful +citizen." Don't grow rich; if you once begin, you will find it much +more difficult to be a useful citizen. Don't seek office, but don't +"disremember" that the "useful citizen" always holds his time, his +trouble, his money, and his life ready at the hint of his country. The +useful citizen is a mighty, unpretending hero; but we are not going to +have any country very long, unless such heroism is developed. There, +what a stale sermon I'm preaching. But, being a soldier, it does seem to +me that I should like nothing so well as being a useful citizen. Well, +trying to be one, I mean. I shall stay in the service, of course, till +the war is over, or till I'm disabled; but then I look forward to a +pleasanter career. + +I believe I have lost all my ambitions. I don't think I would turn my +hand to be a distinguished chemist or a famous mathematician. All I now +care about is to be a useful citizen, with money enough to buy bread +and firewood, and to teach my children to ride on horseback, and look +strangers in the face, especially Southern strangers. + +There are profound and lofty lessons of patriotism and conduct in these +passages, and a very noble philosophy of life and duty both as a man +and as a citizen of a great republic. They throw a flood of light on +the great underlying forces which enabled the American people to save +themselves in that time of storm and stress. They are the utterances of +a very young man, not thirty years old when he died in battle, but much +beyond thirty in head and heart, tried and taught as he had been in a +great war. What precisely such young men thought they were fighting for +is put strikingly by Lowell's younger brother James, who was killed at +Glendale, July 4, 1862. In 1861, James Lowell wrote to his classmates, +who had given him a sword: + +Those who died for the cause, not of the Constitution and the laws,--a +superficial cause, the rebels have now the same,--but of civilization +and law, and the self-restrained freedom which is their result. As the +Greeks at Marathon and Salamis, Charles Martel and the Franks at Tours, +and the Germans at the Danube, saved Europe from Asiatic barbarism, so +we, at places to be famous in future times, shall have saved America +from a similar tide of barbarism; and we may hope to be purified and +strengthened ourselves by the struggle. + +This is a remarkable passage and a deep thought. Coming from a young +fellow of twenty-four, it is amazing. But the fiery trial of the times +taught fiercely and fast, and James Lowell, just out of college, could +see in the red light around him that not merely the freedom of a race +and the saving of a nation were at stake, but that behind all this +was the forward movement of civilization, brought once again to the +arbitrament of the sword. Slavery was barbarous and barbarizing. It +had dragged down the civilization of the South to a level from which it +would take generations to rise up again. Was this barbarous force now +to prevail in the United States in the nineteenth century? Was it to +destroy a great nation, and fetter human progress in the New World? That +was the great question back of, beyond and above all. Should this force +of barbarism sweep conquering over the land, wrecking an empire in its +onward march, or should it be flung back as Miltiades flung back Asia +at Marathon, and Charles Martel stayed the coming of Islam at Tours? The +brilliant career, the shining courage, best seen always where the dead +were lying thickest, the heroic death of Charles Lowell, are good for +us all to know and to remember. Yet this imperfect story of his life +has not been placed here for these things alone. Many thousand others, +officers and soldiers alike, in the great Civil War gave their lives as +freely as he, and brought to the service of their country the best that +was in them. He was a fine example of many who, like him, offered up +all they had for their country. But Lowell was also something more +than this. He was a high type of a class, and a proof of certain very +important things, and this is a point worthy of much consideration. + +The name of John Hampden stands out in the history of the +English-speaking people, admired and unquestioned. He was neither a +great statesman, nor a great soldier; he was not a brilliant orator, nor +a famous writer. He fell bravely in an unimportant skirmish at Chalgrove +Field, fighting for freedom and what he believed to be right. Yet he +fills a great place in the past, both for what he did and what he +was, and the reason for this is of high importance. John Hampden was +a gentleman, with all the advantages that the accidents of birth could +give. He was rich, educated, well born, of high traditions. English +civilization of that day could produce nothing better. The memorable +fact is that, when the time came for the test, he did not fail. He was +a type of what was best among the English people, and when the call +sounded, he was ready. He was brave, honest, high-minded, and he +gave all, even his life, to his country. In the hour of need, the +representative of what was best and most fortunate in England was put to +the touch, and proved to be current gold. All men knew what that meant, +and Hampden's memory is one of the glories of the English-speaking +people. + +Charles Lowell has the same meaning for us when rightly understood. He +had all that birth, breeding, education, and tradition could give. The +resources of our American life and civilization could produce nothing +better. How would he and such men as he stand the great ordeal when it +came? If wealth, education, and breeding were to result in a class +who could only carp and criticize, accumulate money, give way to +self-indulgence, and cherish low foreign ideals, then would it have +appeared that there was a radical unsoundness in our society, refinement +would have been proved to be weakness, and the highest education would +have been shown to be a curse, rather than a blessing. But Charles +Lowell, and hundreds of others like him, in greater or less degree, all +over the land, met the great test and emerged triumphant. The Harvard +men may be taken as fairly representing the colleges and universities of +America. Harvard had, in 1860, 4157 living graduates, and 823 students, +presumably over eighteen years old. Probably 3000 of her students and +graduates were of military age, and not physically disqualified for +military service. Of this number, 1230 entered the Union army or navy. +One hundred and fifty-six died in service, and 67 were killed in action. +Many did not go who might have gone, unquestionably, but the record is a +noble one. Nearly one man of every two Harvard men came forward to serve +his country when war was at our gates, and this proportion holds true, +no doubt, of the other universities of the North. It is well for the +country, well for learning, well for our civilization, that such a +record was made at such a time. Charles Lowell, and those like him, +showed, once for all, that the men to whom fortune had been kindest were +capable of the noblest patriotism, and shrank from no sacrifices. They +taught the lesson which can never be heard too often--that the man to +whom the accidents of birth and fortune have given most is the man who +owes most to his country. If patriotism should exist anywhere, it should +be strongest with such men as these, and their service should be ever +ready. How nobly Charles Lowell in this spirit answered the great +question, his life and death, alike victorious, show to all men. + + + + +SHERIDAN AT CEDAR CREEK + + Inspired repulsed battalions to engage, + And taught the doubtful battle where to rage. + --Addison. + + +General Sheridan took command of the Army of the Shenandoah in August, +1864. His coming was the signal for aggressive fighting, and for a +series of brilliant victories over the rebel army. He defeated Early +at Winchester and again at Fisher's Hill, while General Torbert whipped +Rosser in a subsequent action, where the rout of the rebels was so +complete that the fight was known as the "Woodstock races." Sheridan's +plan after this was to terminate his campaign north of Staunton, and, +returning thence, to desolate the Valley, so as to make it untenable +for the Confederates, as well as useless as a granary or storehouse, and +then move the bulk of his army through Washington, and unite them +with General Grant in front of Petersburg. Grant, however, and the +authorities at Washington, were in favor of Sheridan's driving Early +into Eastern Virginia, and following up that line, which Sheri dan +himself believed to be a false move. This important matter was in debate +until October 16, when Sheridan, having left the main body of his army +at Cedar Creek under General Wright, determined to go to Washington, and +discuss the question personally with General Halleck and the Secretary +of War. He reached Washington on the morning of the 17th about eight +o'clock, left there at twelve; and got back to Martinsburg the same +night about dark. At Martinsburg he spent the night, and the next day, +with his escort, rode to Winchester, reaching that point between three +and four o'clock in the afternoon of the 18th. He there heard that all +was quiet at Cedar Creek and along the front, and went to bed, expecting +to reach his headquarters and join the army the next day. + +About six o'clock, on the morning of the 19th, it was reported to him +that artillery firing could be heard in the direction of Cedar Creek, +but as the sound was stated to be irregular and fitful, he thought it +only a skirmish. He, nevertheless, arose at once, and had just finished +dressing when another officer came in, and reported that the firing was +still going on in the same direction, but that it did not sound like +a general battle. Still Sheridan was uneasy, and, after breakfasting, +mounted his horse between eight and nine o'clock, and rode slowly +through Winchester. When he reached the edge of the town he halted a +moment, and then heard the firing of artillery in an unceasing roar. +He now felt confident that a general battle was in progress, and, as he +rode forward, he was convinced, from the rapid increase of the sound, +that his army was failing back. After he had crossed Mill Creek, just +outside Winchester, and made the crest of the rise beyond the stream, +there burst upon his view the spectacle of a panic-stricken army. +Hundreds of slightly wounded men, with hundreds more unhurt, but +demoralized, together with baggage wagons and trains, were all pressing +to the rear, in hopeless confusion. + +There was no doubt now that a disaster had occurred at the front. A +fugitive told Sheridan that the army was broken and in full retreat, +and that all was lost. Sheridan at once sent word to Colonel Edwards, +commanding a brigade at Winchester, to stretch his troops across the +valley, and stop all fugitives. His first idea was to make a stand +there, but, as he rode along, a different plan flashed into his mind. He +believed that his troops had great confidence in him, and he determined +to try to restore their broken ranks, and, instead of merely holding the +ground at Winchester, to rally his army, and lead them forward again to +Cedar Creek. He had hardly made up his mind to this course, when news +was brought to him that his headquarters at Cedar Creek were captured, +and the troops dispersed. He started at once, with about twenty men as +an escort, and rode rapidly to the front. As he passed along, the unhurt +men, who thickly lined the road, recognized him, and, as they did so, +threw up their hats, shouldered their muskets, and followed him as fast +as they could on foot. His officers rode out on either side to tell the +stragglers that the general had returned, and, as the news spread the +retreating men in every direction rallied, and turned their faces toward +the battle-field they had left. + +In his memoirs, Sheridan says, in speaking of his ride through the +retreating troops: "I said nothing, except to remark, as I rode among +them 'If I had been with you this morning, this disaster would not have +happened. We must face the other way. We will go back and recover our +camp.'" Thus he galloped on over the twenty miles, with the men rallying +behind him, and following him in ever increasing numbers. As he went by, +the panic of retreat was replaced by the ardor of battle. Sheridan had +not overestimate the power of enthusiasm or his own ability to rouse it +to fighting pitch. He pressed steadily on to the front, until at last he +came up to Getty's division of the 6th Corps, which, with the cavalry, +were the only troops who held their line and were resisting the enemy. +Getty's division was about a mile north of Middletown on some slightly +rising ground, and were skirmishing with the enemy's pickets. Jumping a +rail fence, Sheridan rode to the crest of the hill, and, as he took +off his hat, the men rose up from behind the barricades with cheers of +recognition. + +It is impossible to follow in detail Sheridan's actions from that +moment, but he first brought up the 19th Corps and the two divisions of +Wright to the front. He then communicated with Colonel Lowell, who was +fighting near Middletown with his men dismounted, and asked him if he +could hold on where he was, to which Lowell replied in the affirmative. +All this and many similar quickly-given orders consumed a great deal of +time, but still the men were getting into line, and at last, seeing that +the enemy were about to renew the attack, Sheridan rode along the line +so that the men could all see him. He was received with the wildest +enthusiasm as he rode by, and the spirit of the army was restored. The +rebel attack was made shortly after noon, and was repulsed by General +Emory. + +This done, Sheridan again set to work to getting his line completely +restored, while General Merritt charged and drove off an exposed battery +of the Confederates. By halfpast three Sheridan was ready to attack. +The fugitives of the morning, whom he had rallied as he rode from +Winchester, were again in their places, and the different divisions were +all disposed in their proper positions. With the order to advance, +the whole line pressed forward. The Confederates at first resisted +stubbornly, and then began to retreat. On they went past Cedar Creek, +and there, where the pike made a sharp turn to the west toward Fisher's +Hill, Merritt and Custer fell on the flank of the retreating columns, +and the rebel army fell back, routed and broken, up the Valley. The day +had begun in route and defeat; it ended in a great victory for the Union +army. + +How near we had been to a terrible disaster can be realized by recalling +what had happened before the general galloped down from Winchester. + +In Sheridan's absence, Early, soon after dawn, had made an unexpected +attack on our army at Cedar Creek. Surprised by the assault, the +national troops had given way in all directions, and a panic had set in. +Getty's division with Lowell's cavalry held on at Middletown, but, +with this exception, the rout was complete. When Sheridan rode out of +Winchester, he met an already beaten army. His first thought was the +natural one to make a stand at Winchester and rally his troops about him +there. His second thought was the inspiration of the great commander. He +believed his men would rally as soon as they saw him. He believed that +enthusiasm was one of the great weapons of war, and that this was the +moment of all others when it might be used with decisive advantage. With +this thought in his mind he abandoned the idea of forming his men at +Winchester, and rode bareheaded through the fugitives, swinging his hat, +straight for the front, and calling on his men as he passed to follow +him. As the soldiers saw him, they turned and rushed after him. He had +not calculated in vain upon the power of personal enthusiasm, but, at +the same time, he did not rely upon any wild rush to save the day. The +moment he reached the field of battle, he set to work with the coolness +of a great soldier to make all the dispositions, first, to repel the +enemy, and then to deliver an attack which could not be resisted. One +division after another was rapidly brought into line and placed +in position, the thin ranks filling fast with the soldiers who had +recovered from their panic, and followed Sheridan and the black horse +all the way down from Winchester. He had been already two hours on the +field when, at noon, he rode along the line, again formed for battle. +Most of the officers and men then thought he had just come, while in +reality it was his own rapid work which had put them in the line along +which he was riding. + +Once on the field of battle, the rush and hurry of the desperate ride +from Winchester came to an end. First the line was reformed, then the +enemy's assault was repulsed, and it was made impossible for them to +again take the offensive. But Sheridan, undazzled by his brilliant +success up to this point, did not mar his work by overhaste. Two hours +more passed before he was ready, and then, when all was prepared, with +his ranks established and his army ranged in position, he moved his +whole line forward, and won one of the most brilliant battles of the +war, having, by his personal power over his troops, and his genius in +action, snatched a victory from a day which began in surprise, disaster, +and defeat. + + + + +LIEUTENANT CUSHING AND THE RAM "ALBEMARLE" + + God give us peace! Not such as lulls to sleep, + But sword on thigh, and brow with purpose knit! + And let our Ship of State to harbor sweep, + Her ports all up, her battle-lanterns lit, + And her leashed thunders gathering for their leap! + --Lowell. + + +The great Civil War was remarkable in many ways, but in no way more +remarkable than for the extraordinary mixture of inventive mechanical +genius and of resolute daring shown by the combatants. After the first +year, when the contestants had settled down to real fighting, and +the preliminary mob work was over, the battles were marked by their +extraordinary obstinacy and heavy loss. In no European conflict since +the close of the Napoleonic wars has the fighting been anything like +as obstinate and as bloody as was the fighting in our own Civil War. +In addition to this fierce and dogged courage, this splendid fighting +capacity, the contest also brought out the skilled inventive power of +engineer and mechanician in a way that few other contests have ever +done. + +This was especially true of the navy. The fighting under and against +Farragut and his fellow-admirals revolutionized naval warfare. The +Civil War marks the break between the old style and the new. Terrible +encounters took place when the terrible new engines of war were brought +into action for the first time; and one of these encounters has given +an example which, for heroic daring combined with cool intelligence, is +unsurpassed in all time. + +The Confederates showed the same skill and energy in building their +great ironclad rams as the men of the Union did in building the monitors +which were so often pitted against them. Both sides, but especially +the Confederates, also used stationary torpedoes, and, on a number of +occasions, torpedo-boats likewise. These torpedo-boats were sometimes +built to go under the water. One such, after repeated failures, was +employed by the Confederates, with equal gallantry and success, in +sinking a Union sloop of war off Charleston harbor, the torpedo-boat +itself going down to the bottom with its victim, all on board being +drowned. The other type of torpedo-boat was simply a swift, ordinary +steam-launch, operated above water. + +It was this last type of boat which Lieutenant W. B. Cushing brought +down to Albemarle Sound to use against the great Confederate ram +Albemarle. The ram had been built for the purpose of destroying the +Union blockading forces. Steaming down river, she had twice attacked the +Federal gunboats, and in each case had sunk or disabled one or more of +them, with little injury to herself. She had retired up the river again +to lie at her wharf and refit. The gunboats had suffered so severely as +to make it a certainty that when she came out again, thoroughly fitted +to renew the attack, the wooden vessels would be destroyed; and while +she was in existence, the Union vessels could not reduce the forts and +coast towns. Just at this time Cushing came down from the North with +his swift little torpedo-boat, an open launch, with a spar-rigged out +in front, the torpedo being placed at the end. The crew of the launch +consisted of fifteen men, Cushing being in command. He not only guided +his craft, but himself handled the torpedo by means of two small ropes, +one of which put it in place, while the other exploded it. The action +of the torpedo was complicated, and it could not have been operated in +a time of tremendous excitement save by a man of the utmost nerve +and self-command; but Cushing had both. He possessed precisely that +combination of reckless courage, presence of mind, and high mental +capacity necessary to the man who leads a forlorn hope under peculiarly +difficult circumstances. + +On the night of October 27, 1864, Cushing slipped away from the +blockading fleet, and steamed up river toward the wharf, a dozen miles +distant, where the great ram lay. The Confederates were watchful to +guard against surprise, for they feared lest their foes should try to +destroy the ram before she got a chance to come down and attack them +again in the Sound. She lay under the guns of a fort, with a regiment +of troops ready at a moment's notice to turn out and defend her. Her own +guns were kept always clear for action, and she was protected by a +great boom of logs thrown out roundabout; of which last defense the +Northerners knew nothing. + +Cushing went up-stream with the utmost caution, and by good luck passed, +unnoticed, a Confederate lookout below the ram. + +About midnight he made his assault. Steaming quietly on through the +black water, and feeling his way cautiously toward where he knew the +town to be, he finally made out the loom of the Albemarle through the +night, and at once drove at her. He was almost upon her before he was +discovered; then the crew and the soldiers on the wharf opened fire, +and, at the same moment, he was brought-to by the boom, the existence +of which he had not known. The rifle balls were singing round him as +he stood erect, guiding his launch, and he heard the bustle of the men +aboard the ram, and the noise of the great guns as they were got ready. +Backing off, he again went all steam ahead, and actually surged over the +slippery logs of the boom. Meanwhile, on the Albemarle the sailors were +running to quarters, and the soldiers were swarming down to aid in her +defense; and the droning bullets came always thicker through the dark +night. Cushing still stood upright in his little craft, guiding and +controlling her by voice and signal, while in his hands he kept the +ropes which led to the torpedo. As the boat slid forward over the boom, +he brought the torpedo full against the somber side of the huge ram, and +instantly exploded it, almost at the same time that the pivot-gun of the +ram, loaded with grape, was fired point-blank at him not ten yards off. + +At once the ram settled, the launch sinking at the same moment, while +Cushing and his men swam for their lives. Most of them sank or were +captured, but Cushing reached mid-stream. Hearing something splashing in +the darkness, he swam toward it, and found that it was one of his crew. +He went to his rescue, and they kept together for some time, but the +sailor's strength gave out, and he finally sank. In the pitch darkness +Cushing could form no idea where he was; and when, chilled through, and +too exhausted to rise to his feet, he finally reached shore, shortly +before dawn, he found that he had swum back and landed but a few +hundred feet below the sunken ram. All that day he remained within easy +musket-shot of where his foes were swarming about the fort and the great +drowned ironclad. He hardly dared move, and until the afternoon he lay +without food, and without protection from the heat or venomous insects. +Then he managed to slip unobserved into the dense swamp, and began to +make his way to the fleet. Toward evening he came out on a small stream, +near a camp of Confederate soldiers. They had moored to the bank a +skiff, and, with equal stealth and daring, he managed to steal this and +to paddle down-stream. Hour after hour he paddled on through the fading +light, and then through the darkness. At last, utterly worn out, he +found the squadron, and was picked up. At once the ships weighed; and +they speedily captured every coast town and fort, for their dreaded +enemy was no longer in the way. The fame of Cushing's deed went all over +the North, and his name will stand forever among the brightest on the +honor-roll of the American navy. + + + + +FARRAGUT AT MOBILE BAY + + Ha, old ship, do they thrill, + The brave two hundred scars + You got in the river wars? + That were leeched with clamorous skill + (Surgery savage and hard), + At the Brooklyn Navy Yard. + + * * * * + + How the guns, as with cheer and shout, + Our tackle-men hurled them out, + Brought up in the waterways... + As we fired, at the flash + 'T was lightning and black eclipse + With a bellowing sound and crash. + + * * * * + + The Dahlgrens are dumb, + Dumb are the mortars; + Never more shall the drum + Beat to colors and quarters-- + The great guns are silent. + --Henry Howard Brownell + + +During the Civil War our navy produced, as it has always produced +in every war, scores of capable officers, of brilliant single-ship +commanders, of men whose daring courage made them fit leaders in any +hazardous enterprise. In this respect the Union seamen in the Civil War +merely lived up to the traditions of their service. In a service with +such glorious memories it was a difficult thing to establish a new +record in feats of personal courage or warlike address. Biddle, in the +Revolutionary War, fighting his little frigate against a ship of the +line until she blew up with all on board, after inflicting severe loss +on her huge adversary; Decatur, heading the rush of the boarders in the +night attack when they swept the wild Moorish pirates from the decks of +their anchored prize; Lawrence, dying with the words on his lips, +"Don't give up the ship"; and Perry, triumphantly steering his bloody +sloop-of-war to victory with the same words blazoned on his banner--men +like these, and like their fellows, who won glory in desperate conflicts +with the regular warships and heavy privateers of England and France, or +with the corsairs of the Barbary States, left behind a reputation which +was hardly to be dimmed, though it might be emulated, by later feats of +mere daring. + +But vital though daring is, indispensable though desperate personal +prowess and readiness to take chances are to the make-up of a fighting +navy, other qualities are needed in addition to fit a man for a place +among the great sea-captains of all time. It was the good fortune of the +navy in the Civil War to produce one admiral of renown, one peer of all +the mighty men who have ever waged war on the ocean. Farragut was not +only the greatest admiral since Nelson, but, with the sole exception +of Nelson, he was as great an admiral as ever sailed the broad or the +narrow seas. + +David Glasgow Farragut was born in Tennessee. He was appointed to the +navy while living in Louisiana, but when the war came he remained +loyal to the Union flag. This puts him in the category of those men +who deserved best of their country in the Civil War; the men who were +Southern by birth, but who stood loyally by the Union; the men like +General Thomas of Virginia, and like Farragut's own flag-captain at the +battle of Mobile Bay, Drayton of South Carolina. It was an easy thing in +the North to support the Union, and it was a double disgrace to be, like +Vallandigham and the Copperheads, against it; and in the South there +were a great multitude of men, as honorable as they were brave, who, +from the best of motives, went with their States when they seceded, or +even advocated secession. But the highest and loftiest patriots, those +who deserved best of the whole country, we re the men from the South who +possessed such heroic courage, and such lofty fealty to the high ideal +of the Union, that they stood by the flag when their fellows deserted +it, and unswervingly followed a career devoted to the cause of the whole +nation and of the whole people. Among all those who fought in this, the +greatest struggle for righteousness which the present century has seen, +these men stand preeminent; and among them Farragut stands first. It +was his good fortune that by his life he offered an example, not only +of patriotism, but of supreme skill and daring in his profession. He +belongs to that class of commanders who possess in the highest +degree the qualities of courage and daring, of readiness to assume +responsibility, and of willingness to run great risks; the qualities +without which no commander, however cautious and able, can ever become +really great. He possessed also the unwearied capacity for taking +thought in advance, which enabled him to prepare for victory before the +day of battle came; and he added to this an inexhaustible fertility of +resource and presence of mind under no matter what strain. + +His whole career should be taught every American schoolboy, for when +that schoolboy becomes a voter he should have learned the lesson that +the United States, while it ought not to become an overgrown military +power, should always have a first-class navy, formidable from the number +of its ships, and formidable still more from the excellence of the +individual ships and the high character of the officers and men. +Farragut saw the war of 1812, in which, though our few frigates and +sloops fought some glorious actions, our coasts were blockaded and +insulted, and the Capitol at Washington burned, because our statesmen +and our people had been too short-sighted to build a big fighting navy; +and Farragut was able to perform his great feats on the Gulf coast +because, when the Civil War broke out, we had a navy which, though too +small in point of numbers, was composed of ships as good as any afloat. + +Another lesson to be learned by a study of his career is that no man +in a profession so highly technical as that of the navy can win a great +success unless he has been brought up in and specially trained for that +profession, and has devoted his life to the work. This fact was made +plainly evident in the desperate hurly-burly of the night battle with +the Confederate flotilla below New Orleans--the incidents of this +hurly-burly being, perhaps, best described by the officer who, in +his report of his own share in it, remarked that "all sorts of things +happened." Of the Confederate rams there were two, commanded by trained +officers formerly in the United States navy, Lieutenants Kennon and +Warley. Both of these men handled their little vessels with remarkable +courage, skill, and success, fighting them to the last, and inflicting +serious and heavy damage upon the Union fleet. The other vessels of the +flotilla were commanded by men who had not been in the regular navy, who +were merely Mississippi River captains, and the like. These men were, +doubtless, naturally as brave as any of the regular officers; but, with +one or two exceptions, they failed ignobly in the time of trial, and +showed a fairly startling contrast with the regular naval officers +beside or against whom they fought. This is a fact which may well be +pondered by the ignorant or unpatriotic people who believe that the +United States does not need a navy, or that it can improvise one, and +improvise officers to handle it, whenever the moment of need arises. + +When a boy, Farragut had sailed as a midshipman on the Essex in her +famous cruise to the South Pacific, and lived through the murderous +fight in which, after losing three fifths of her crew, she was captured +by two British vessels. Step by step he rose in his profession, but +never had an opportunity of distinguishing himself until, when he was +sixty years old, the Civil War broke out. He was then made flag officer +of the Gulf squadron; and the first success which the Union forces met +with in the southwest was scored by him, when one night he burst the +iron chains which the Confederates had stretched across the +Mississippi, and, stemming the swollen flood with his splendidly-handled +steam-frigates, swept past the forts, sank the rams and gunboats that +sought to bar his path, and captured the city of New Orleans. After +further exciting service on the Mississippi, service in which he +turned a new chapter in the history of naval warfare by showing the +possibilities of heavy seagoing vessels when used on great rivers, +he again went back to the Gulf, and, in the last year of the war, +was allotted the task of attempting the capture of Mobile, the only +important port still left open to the Confederates. + +In August, 1864, Farragut was lying with his fleet off Mobile Bay. For +months he had been eating out his heart while undergoing the wearing +strain of the blockade; sympathizing, too, with every detail of the +doubtful struggle on land. "I get right sick, every now and then, at +the bad news," he once wrote home; and then again, "The victory of the +Kearsarge over the Alabama raised me up; I would sooner have fought that +fight than any ever fought on the ocean." As for himself, all he wished +was a chance to fight, for he had the fighting temperament, and he knew +that, in the long run, an enemy can only be beaten by being out-fought, +as well as out-manoeuvered. He possessed a splendid self-confidence, +and scornfully threw aside any idea that he would be defeated, while he +utterly refused to be daunted by the rumors of the formidable nature of +the defenses against which he was to act. "I mean to be whipped or to +whip my enemy, and not to be scared to death," he remarked in speaking +of these rumors. + +The Confederates who held Mobile used all their skill in preparing for +defense, and all their courage in making that defense good. The mouth +of the bay was protected by two fine forts, heavily armed, Morgan +and Gaines. The winding channels were filled with torpedoes, and, in +addition, there was a flotilla consisting of three gunboats, and, above +all, a big ironclad ram, the Tennessee, one of the most formidable +vessels then afloat. She was not fast, but she carried six high-power +rifled guns, and her armor was very powerful, while, being of light +draft, she could take a position where Farragut's deep-sea ships could +not get at her. Farragut made his attack with four monitors,--two of +them, the Tecumseh and Manhattan, of large size, carrying 15-inch guns, +and the other two, the Winnebago and Chickasaw, smaller and lighter, +with 11-inch guns,--and the wooden vessels, fourteen in number. Seven +of these were big sloops-of-war, of the general type of Farragut's own +flagship, the Hartford. She was a screw steamer, but was a full-rigged +ship likewise, with twenty-two 9-inch shell guns, arranged in broadside, +and carrying a crew of three hundred men. The other seven were light +gunboats. When Farragut prepared for the assault, he arranged to make +the attack with his wooden ships in double column. The seven most +powerful were formed on the right, in line ahead, to engage Fort Morgan, +the heaviest of the two forts, which had to be passed close inshore to +the right. The light vessels were lashed each to the left of one of the +heavier ones. By this arrangement each pair of ships was given a double +chance to escape, if rendered helpless by a shot in the boiler or other +vital part of the machinery. The heaviest ships led in the fighting +column, the first place being taken by the Brooklyn and her gunboat +consort, while the second position was held by Farragut himself in +the Hartford, with the little Metacomet lashed alongside. He waited to +deliver the attack until the tide and the wind should be favorable, +and made all his preparations with the utmost care and thoughtfulness. +Preeminently a man who could inspire affection in others, both the +officers and men of the fleet regarded him with fervent loyalty and +absolute trust. + +The attack was made early on the morning of August 5. Soon after +midnight the weather became hot and calm, and at three the Admiral +learned that a light breeze had sprung up from the quarter he wished, +and he at once announced, "Then we will go in this morning." At daybreak +he was at breakfast when the word was brought that the ships were all +lashed in couples. Turning quietly to his captain, he said, "Well, +Drayton, we might as well get under way;" and at half-past six the +monitors stood down to their stations, while the column of wooden ships +was formed, all with the United States flag hoisted, not only at the +peak, but also at every masthead. The four monitors, trusting in their +iron sides, steamed in between the wooden ships and the fort. Every man +in every craft was thrilling with the fierce excitement of battle; but +in the minds of most there lurked a vague feeling of unrest over one +danger. For their foes who fought in sight, for the forts, the gunboats, +and, the great ironclad ram, they cared nothing; but all, save the very +boldest, were at times awed, and rendered uneasy by the fear of the +hidden and the unknown. Danger which is great and real, but which +is shrouded in mystery, is always very awful; and the ocean veterans +dreaded the torpedoes--the mines of death--which lay, they knew not +where, thickly scattered through the channels along which they were to +thread their way. + +The tall ships were in fighting trim, with spars housed, and canvas +furled. The decks were strewn with sawdust; every man was in his place; +the guns were ready, and except for the song of the sounding-lead there +was silence in the ships as they moved forward through the glorious +morning. It was seven o'clock when the battle began, as the Tecumseh, +the leading monitor, fired two shots at the fort. In a few minutes Fort +Morgan was ablaze with the flash of her guns, and the leading wooden +vessels were sending back broadside after broadside. Farragut stood in +the port main-rigging, and as the smoke increased he gradually climbed +higher, until he was close by the maintop, where the pilot was stationed +for the sake of clearer vision. The captain, fearing lest by one of +the accidents of battle the great admiral should lose his footing, sent +aloft a man with a lasher, and had a turn or two taken around his body +in the shrouds, so that he might not fall if wounded; for the shots +were flying thick. + +At first the ships used only their bow guns, and the Confederate ram, +with her great steel rifles, and her three consorts, taking station +where they could rake the advancing fleet, caused much loss. In twenty +minutes after the opening of the fight the ships of the van were fairly +abreast of the fort, their guns leaping and thundering; and under the +weight of their terrific fire that of the fort visibly slackened. All +was now uproar and slaughter, the smoke drifting off in clouds. The +decks were reddened and ghastly with blood, and the wreck of flying +splinters drove across them at each discharge. The monitor Tecumseh +alone was silent. After firing the first two shots, her commander, +Captain Craven, had loaded his two big guns with steel shot, and, thus +prepared, reserved himself for the Confederate ironclad, which he had +set his heart upon taking or destroying single-handed. The two columns +of monitors and the wooden ships lashed in pairs were now approaching +the narrowest part of the channel, where the torpedoes lay thickest; and +the guns of the vessels fairly overbore and quelled the fire from the +fort. All was well, provided only the two columns could push straight on +without hesitation; but just at this moment a terrible calamity befell +the leader of the monitors. The Tecumseh, standing straight for the +Tennessee, was within two hundred yards of her foe, when a torpedo +suddenly exploded beneath her. The monitor was about five hundred yards +from the Hartford, and from the maintop Farragut, looking at her, saw +her reel violently from side to side, lurch heavily over, and go down +headforemost, her screw revolving wildly in the air as she disappeared. +Captain Craven, one of the gentlest and bravest of men, was in the +pilot-house with the pilot at the time. As she sank, both rushed to +the narrow door, but there was time for only one to get out. Craven was +ahead, but drew to one side, saying, "After you, pilot." As the pilot +leaped through, the water rushed in, and Craven and all his crew, save +two men, settled to the bottom in their iron coffin. + +None of the monitors were awed or daunted by the fate of their consort, +but drew steadily onward. In the bigger monitors the captains, like the +crews, had remained within the iron walls; but on the two light crafts +the commanders had found themselves so harassed by their cramped +quarters, that they both stayed outside on the deck. As these two +steamed steadily ahead, the men on the flagship saw Captain Stevens, +of the Winnebago, pacing calmly, from turret to turret, on his unwieldy +iron craft, under the full fire of the fort. The captain of the +Chickasaw, Perkins, was the youngest commander in the fleet, and as he +passed the Hartford, he stood on top of the turret, waving his hat and +dancing about in wildest excitement and delight. + +But, for a moment, the nerve of the commander of the Brooklyn failed +him. The awful fate of the Tecumseh and the sight of a number of objects +in the channel ahead, which seemed to be torpedoes, caused him to +hesitate. He stopped his ship, and then backed water, making sternway to +the Hartford, so as to stop her also. It was the crisis of the fight +and the crisis of Farragut's career. The column was halted in a narrow +channel, right under the fire of the forts. A few moments' delay and +confusion, and the golden chance would have been past, and the only +question remaining would have been as to the magnitude of the disaster. +Ahead lay terrible danger, but ahead lay also triumph. It might be that +the first ship to go through would be sacrificed to the torpedoes; it +might be that others would be sacrificed; but go through the fleet must. +Farragut signaled to the Brooklyn to go ahead, but she still hesitated. +Immediately, the admiral himself resolved to take the lead. Backing hard +he got clear of the Brooklyn, twisted his ship's prow short round, and +then, going ahead fast, he dashed close under the Brooklyn's stern, +straight at the line of buoys in the channel. As he thus went by the +Brooklyn, a warning cry came from her that there were torpedoes ahead. +"Damn the torpedoes!" shouted the admiral; "go ahead, full speed;" and +the Hartford and her consort steamed forward. As they passed between the +buoys, the cases of the torpedoes were heard knocking against the +bottom of the ship; but for some reason they failed to explode, and the +Hartford went safely through the gates of Mobile Bay, passing the forts. +Farragut's last and hardest battle was virtually won. After a delay +which allowed the flagship to lead nearly a mile, the Brooklyn got her +head round, and came in, closely followed by all the other ships. The +Tennessee strove to interfere with the wooden craft as they went in, but +they passed, exchanging shots, and one of them striving to ram her, but +inflicting only a glancing blow. The ship on the fighting side of the +rear couple had been completely disabled by a shot through her boiler. + +As Farragut got into the bay he gave orders to slip the gunboats, which +were lashed to each of the Union ships of war, against the Confederate +gunboats, one of which he had already disabled by his fire, so that she +was run ashore and burnt. Jouett, the captain of the Metacomet, had +been eagerly waiting this order, and had his men already standing at the +hawsers, hatchet in hand. When the signal for the gunboats to chase +was hoisted, the order to Jouett was given by word of mouth, and as his +hearty "Aye, aye, sir," came in answer, the hatchets fell, the hawsers +parted, and the Metacomet leaped forward in pursuit. A thick rainsquall +came up, and rendered it impossible for the rear gunboats to know +whither the Confederate flotilla had fled. When it cleared away, the +watchers on the fleet saw that one of the two which were uninjured had +slipped off to Fort Morgan, while the other, the Selma, was under the +guns of the Metacomet, and was promptly carried by the latter. + +Meanwhile the ships anchored in the bay, about four miles from Fort +Morgan, and the crews were piped to breakfast; but almost as soon as it +was begun, the lookouts reported that the great Confederate ironclad was +steaming down, to do battle, single-handed, with the Union fleet. She +was commanded by Buchanan, a very gallant and able officer, who had been +on the Merrimac, and who trusted implicitly in his invulnerable sides, +his heavy rifle guns, and his formidable iron beak. As the ram came on, +with splendid courage, the ships got under way, while Farragut sent +word to the monitors to attack the Tennessee at once. The fleet surgeon, +Palmer, delivered these orders. In his diary he writes: + +"I came to the Chickasaw; happy as my friend Perkins habitually is, I +thought he would turn a somerset with joy, when I told him, 'The admiral +wants you to go at once and fight the Tennessee.'" + +At the same time, the admiral directed the wooden vessels to charge the +ram, bow on, at full speed, as well as to attack her with their guns. +The monitors were very slow, and the wooden vessels began the attack. +The first to reach the hostile ironclad was the Monongahela, which +struck her square amidships; and five minutes later the Lackawanna, +going at full speed, delivered another heavy blow. Both the Union +vessels fired such guns as would bear as they swung round, but the shots +glanced harmlessly from the armor, and the blows of the ship produced +no serious injury to the ram, although their own stems were crushed in +several feet above and below the water line. The Hartford then struck +the Tennessee, which met her bows on. The two antagonists scraped by, +their port sides touching. As they rasped past, the Hartford's guns were +discharged against the ram, their muzzles only half a dozen feet distant +from her iron-clad sides; but the shot made no impression. While the +three ships were circling to repeat the charge, the Lackawanna ran +square into the flagship, cutting the vessel down to within two feet of +the water. For a moment the ship's company thought the vessel sinking, +and almost as one man they cried: "Save the admiral! get the admiral on +board the Lackawanna." But Farragut, leaping actively into the chains, +saw that the ship was in no present danger, and ordered her again to be +headed for the Tennessee. Meanwhile, the monitors had come up, and the +battle raged between them and the great ram, Like the rest of the Union +fleet, they carried smooth-bores, and their shot could not break through +her iron plates; but by sustained and continuous hammering, her frame +could be jarred and her timbers displaced. Two of the monitors had been +more or less disabled already, but the third, the Chickasaw, was in +fine trim, and Perkins got her into position under the stern of the +Tennessee, just after the latter was struck by the Hartford; and there +he stuck to the end, never over fifty yards distant, and keeping up a +steady rapping of 11-inch shot upon the iron walls, which they could +not penetrate, but which they racked and shattered. The Chickasaw +fired fifty-two times at her antagonist, shooting away the exposed +rudder-chains and the smokestack, while the commander of the ram, +Buchanan, was wounded by an iron splinter which broke his leg. Under the +hammering, the Tennessee became helpless. She could not be steered, and +was unable to bring a gun to bear, while many of the shutters of the +ports were jammed. For twenty minutes she had not fired a shot. The +wooden vessels were again bearing down to ram her; and she hoisted the +white flag. + +Thus ended the battle of Mobile Bay, Farragut's crowning victory. Less +than three hours elapsed from the time that Fort Morgan fired its first +gun to the moment when the Tennessee hauled down her flag. Three hundred +and thirty-five men had been killed or wounded in the fleet, and one +vessel, the Tecumseh, had gone down; but the Confederate flotilla +was destroyed, the bay had been entered, and the forts around it were +helpless to do anything further. One by one they surrendered, and the +port of Mobile was thus sealed against blockade runners, so that the +last source of communication between the Confederacy and the outside +world was destroyed. Farragut had added to the annals of the Union the +page which tells of the greatest sea-fight in our history. + + + + +LINCOLN + + O captain. My captain. Our fearful trip is done; + The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won; + The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, + While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring: + But O heart! Heart! Heart! + Leave you not the little spot, + Where on the deck my captain lies, + Fallen cold and dead. + + O captain. My captain. Rise up and hear the bells; + Rise up--for you the flag is flung--for you the bugle trills; + For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths--for you the shores + a-crowding; + For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning; + O captain. Dear father. + This arm I push beneath you; + It is some dream that on the deck, + You've fallen cold and dead. + + My captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still; + My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor win: + But the ship, the ship is anchor'd safe, its voyage closed and + done; + From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won: + Exult O shores, and ring, O bells. + But I with silent tread, + Walk the spot the captain lies, + Fallen cold and dead. + --Walt Whitman. + + +As Washington stands to the Revolution and the establishment of the +government, so Lincoln stands as the hero of the mightier struggle +by which our Union was saved. He was born in 1809, ten years after +Washington, his work done had been laid to rest at Mount Vernon. No +great man ever came from beginnings which seemed to promise so little. +Lincoln's family, for more than one generation, had been sinking, +instead of rising, in the social scale. His father was one of those +men who were found on the frontier in the early days of the western +movement, always changing from one place to another, and dropping a +little lower at each remove. Abraham Lincoln was born into a family +who were not only poor, but shiftless, and his early days were days +of ignorance, and poverty, and hard work. Out of such inauspicious +surroundings, he slowly and painfully lifted himself. He gave himself +an education, he took part in an Indian war, he worked in the fields, +he kept a country store, he read and studied, and, at last, he became +a lawyer. Then he entered into the rough politics of the newly-settled +State. He grew to be a leader in his county, and went to the +legislature. The road was very rough, the struggle was very hard and +very bitter, but the movement was always upward. + +At last he was elected to Congress, and served one term in Washington +as a Whig with credit, but without distinction. Then he went back to his +law and his politics in Illinois. He had, at last, made his position. +All that was now needed was an opportunity, and that came to him in the +great anti-slavery struggle. + +Lincoln was not an early Abolitionist. His training had been that of a +regular party man, and as a member of a great political organization, +but he was a lover of freedom and justice. Slavery, in its essence, was +hateful to him, and when the conflict between slavery and freedom was +fairly joined, his path was clear before him. He took up the antislavery +cause in his own State and made himself its champion against Douglas, +the great leader of the Northern Democrats. He stumped Illinois in +opposition to Douglas, as a candidate for the Senate, debating the +question which divided the country in every part of the State. He +was beaten at the election, but, by the power and brilliancy of his +speeches, his own reputation was made. Fighting the anti-slavery battle +within constitutional lines, concentrating his whole force against the +single point of the extension of slavery to the Territories, he had +made it clear that a new leader had arisen in the cause of freedom. From +Illinois his reputation spread to the East, and soon after his great +debate he delivered a speech in New York which attracted wide attention. +At the Republican convention of 1856, his name was one of those proposed +for vice-president. + +When 1860 came, he was a candidate for the first place on the national +ticket. The leading candidate was William H. Seward, of New York, the +most conspicuous man of the country on the Republican side, but the +convention, after a sharp struggle, selected Lincoln, and then the great +political battle came at the polls. The Republicans were victorious, +and, as soon as the result of the voting was known, the South set +to work to dissolve the Union. In February Lincoln made his way to +Washington, at the end coming secretly from Harrisburg to escape a +threatened attempt at assassination, and on March 4, 1861 assumed the +presidency. + +No public man, no great popular leader, ever faced a more terrible +situation. The Union was breaking, the Southern States were seceding, +treason was rampant in Washington, and the Government was bankrupt. The +country knew that Lincoln was a man of great capacity in debate, devoted +to the cause of antislavery and to the maintenance of the Union. But +what his ability was to deal with the awful conditions by which he was +surrounded, no one knew. To follow him through the four years of civil +war which ensued is, of course, impossible here. Suffice it to say that +no greater, no more difficult, task has ever been faced by any man +in modern times, and no one ever met a fierce trial and conflict more +successfully. + +Lincoln put to the front the question of the Union, and let the question +of slavery drop, at first, into the background. He used every exertion +to hold the border States by moderate measures, and, in this way, +prevented the spread of the rebellion. For this moderation, the +antislavery extremists in the North assailed him, but nothing shows more +his far-sighted wisdom and strength of purpose than his action at this +time. By his policy at the beginning of his administration, he held +the border States, and united the people of the North in defense of the +Union. + +As the war went on, he went on, too. He had never faltered in his +feelings about slavery. He knew, better than any one, that the +successful dissolution of the Union by the slave power meant, not +only the destruction of an empire, but the victory of the forces of +barbarism. But he also saw, what very few others at the moment could +see, that, if he was to win, he must carry his people with him, step +by step. So when he had rallied them to the defense of the Union, and +checked the spread of secession in the border States, in the autumn of +1862 he announced that he would issue a proclamation freeing the slaves. +The extremists had doubted him in the beginning, the conservative and +the timid doubted him now, but when the Emancipation Proclamation was +issued, on January 1, 1863, it was found that the people were with him +in that, as they had been with him when he staked everything upon the +maintenance of the Union. The war went on to victory, and in 1864 +the people showed at the polls that they were with the President, and +reelected him by overwhelming majorities. Victories in the field went +hand in hand with success at the ballot-box, and, in the spring of 1865, +all was over. On April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered at Appomattox, and five +days later, on April 14, a miserable assassin crept into the box at the +theater where the President was listening to a play, and shot him. The +blow to the country was terrible beyond words, for then men saw, in one +bright flash, how great a man had fallen. + +Lincoln died a martyr to the cause to which he had given his life, and +both life and death were heroic. The qualities which enabled him to +do his great work are very clear now to all men. His courage and his +wisdom, his keen perception and his almost prophetic foresight, enabled +him to deal with all the problems of that distracted time as they +arose around him. But he had some qualities, apart from those of the +intellect, which were of equal importance to his people and to the work +he had to do. His character, at once strong and gentle, gave confidence +to every one, and dignity to his cause. He had an infinite patience, +and a humor that enabled him to turn aside many difficulties which could +have been met in no other way. But most important of all was the fact +that he personified a great sentiment, which ennobled and uplifted his +people, and made them capable of the patriotism which fought the war +and saved the Union. He carried his people with him, because he knew +instinctively, how they felt and what they wanted. He embodied, in +his own person, all their highest ideals, and he never erred in his +judgment. + +He is not only a great and commanding figure among the great statesmen +and leaders of history, but he personifies, also, all the sadness and +the pathos of the war, as well as its triumphs and its glories. No words +that any one can use about Lincoln can, however, do him such justice as +his own, and I will close this volume with two of Lincoln's speeches, +which show what the war and all the great deeds of that time meant to +him, and through which shines, the great soul of the man himself. On +November 19, 1863, he spoke as follows at the dedication of the National +cemetery on the battle-field of Gettysburg: + +Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this +continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the +proposition that all men are created equal. + +Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or +any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on +a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of +that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives +that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we +should do this. + +But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate--we cannot consecrate--we +cannot hallow--this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who +struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or +detract. The world will little note or long remember what we say here, +but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, +rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who have +fought here, have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to +be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from the +honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they +gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that +these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, +shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by +the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. + + +On March 4, 1865, when he was inaugurated the second time, he made the +following address: + +Fellow-Countrymen: At this second appearing to take the oath of +presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended address +than there was at the first. Then a statement, somewhat in detail, of +a course to be pursued, seemed proper. Now, at the expiration of four +years, during which public declarations have been constantly called +forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs +the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is +new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else +chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself; and it is, +I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope +for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured. + +On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were +anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it--all sought +to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this +place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent +agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war--seeking to +dissolve the Union, and divide effects, by negotiation. Both parties +deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let it +perish. And the war came. + +One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed +generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. +These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew +that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen, +perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the +insurgents would rend the Union, even by war; while the government +claimed no right to do more than to restrict the Territorial enlargement +of it. Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration +which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the +conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should +cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental +and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and +each invokes his aid against the other. It may seem strange that any man +should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from +the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not, that we be not +judged. The prayers of both could not be answered that of neither has +been answered fully. + +The Almighty has his own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of +offenses, for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man +by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery +is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs +come, but which, having continued through his appointed time, he now +wills to remove, and that he gives to both North and South this terrible +war, as the woe due to those by whom the offenses come, shall we discern +therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers +in a living God always ascribe to him? Fondly do we hope-fervently do +we pray--that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if +God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondman's +two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until +every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn +with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must +be said, "The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." + +With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the +right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish +the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who +shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan-to do all +which may achieve and cherish a just, a lasting, peace among ourselves +and with all nations. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Hero Tales From American History, by +Henry Cabot Lodge, and Theodore Roosevelt + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HERO TALES FROM AMERICAN HISTORY *** + +***** This file should be named 1864.txt or 1864.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/6/1864/ + +Produced by Dianne Bean + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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